Ascension

Parric #2

by Charles L. Grant

Dorrin Parric is dead, and his son Orion has sworn to avenge him. But first he must run a gauntlet of human assassins, blood crazed androids and aging, paranoid dictators. Petty tyrants rule the few straggling settlements, where mankind holds out against the darkness. Time and again Parric eludes the strange traps set for him by the forces of decay. But his luck is running out. At the end of the road is Philayork, a bewildering metropolis wracked by fear and evil. Whatever had killed Orion Parric's father was also waiting for him in the ruins of earth's last great city.

Genres: Science Fiction

220 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1977

About the author

Charles Lewis Grant was a novelist and short story writer specializing in what he called "dark fantasy" and "quiet horror." He also wrote under the pseudonyms of Geoffrey Marsh, Lionel Fenn, Simon Lake, Felicia Andrews, and Deborah Lewis.

Grant won a World Fantasy Award for his novella collection Nightmare Seasons, a Nebula Award in 1976 for his short story "A Crowd of Shadows", and another Nebula Award in 1978 for his novella "A Glow of Candles, a Unicorn's Eye," the latter telling of an actor's dilemma in a post-literate future. Grant also edited the award winning Shadows anthology, running eleven volumes from 1978-1991. Contributors include Stephen King, Ramsey Campbell, R.A. Lafferty, Avram Davidson, and Steve Rasnic and Melanie Tem. Grant was a former Executive Secretary and Eastern Regional Director of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America and president of the Horror Writers Association.

Reviews

[Tomislav · Rating 2 out of 5]

Charles L. Grant (1942-2006) was an American horror and fantasy writer – but Ascension was one of his few science fictional novels. In future-post-apocalyptic America, Orion Parric is an obsessed and violent young man in a violent world. On a quest to seek revenge for the death of his father, he inadvertently saves the life of the daughter of the petty tyrant of a settlement where his father had passed through. She turns out to be a shrewd manipulator with an agenda of her own. Orion trusts no one from his past, and no one from his present, but must find an ally somewhere. It won't be her.

I found his final “brilliant” insight that cracks the code of the abandoned food machines to be childishly simple. Overall, the world-building does not hold up, and this novel is primarily about the body count - approximately two killings per chapter – and Parric’s tough guy attitude.