And Strange at Ecbatan the Trees

by Michael Bishop

Stated First Edition. A fine copy in a fine dust jacket.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction

154 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1976

About the author

Michael Lawson Bishop was an award-winning American writer. Over four decades & thirty books, he created a body of work that stands among the most admired in modern sf & fantasy literature.

Bishop received a bachelor's from the Univ. of Georgia in 1967, going on to complete a master's in English. He taught English at the US Air Force Academy Preparatory School in Colorado Springs from 1968-72 & then at the Univ. of Georgia. He also taught a course in science fiction at the US Air Force Academy in 1971. He left teaching in 1974 to become a full-time writer.

Bishop won the Nebula in 1981 for The Quickening (Best Novelette) & in 1982 for No Enemy But Time (Best Novel). He's also received four Locus Awards & his work has been nominated for numerous Hugos. He & British author Ian Watson collaborated on a novel set in the universe of one of Bishop’s earlier works. He's also written two mystery novels with Paul Di Filippo, under the joint pseudonym Philip Lawson. His work has been translated into over a dozen languages.

Bishop has published more than 125 pieces of short fiction which have been gathered in seven collections. His stories have appeared in Playboy, Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, the Missouri Review, the Indiana Review, the Chattahoochee Review, the Georgia Review, Omni & Interzone.

In addition to fiction, Bishop has published poetry gathered in two collections & won the 1979 Rhysling Award for his poem For the Lady of a Physicist. He's also had essays & reviews published in the NY Times, the Washington Post, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer, Omni Magazine & the NY Review of Science Fiction. A collection of his nonfiction, A Reverie for Mister Ray, was issued in 2005 by PS Publishing. He's written introductions to books by Philip K. Dick, Theodore Sturgeon, James Tiptree, Jr., Pamela Sargent, Gardner Dozois, Lucius Shepard, Mary Shelley, Andy Duncan, Paul Di Filippo, Bruce Holland Rogers & Rhys Hughes. He's edited six anthologies, including the Locus Award-winning Light Years & Dark & A Cross of Centuries: 25 Imaginative Tales about the Christ, published by Thunder’s Mouth Press shortly before the company closed.

In recent years, Bishop has returned to teaching & is writer-in-residence at LaGrange College located near his home in Pine Mountain, GA. He & his wife, Jeri, have a daughter & two grandchildren. His son, Christopher James Bishop, was one of the victims of the Virginia Tech massacre on 4/16/07.

Reviews

[mark monday · Rating 5 out of 5]

Colonists of another world have been genetically modified by neo-humans into two groups: one is the now emotionless working class; the other are their basically benevolent rulers, who have retained some of their emotions. The bodies of the dead are reanimated to perform in stage productions that secretly attempt to revive the emotions of the worker class. There is war on the horizon, due to the aggressions of sexy neighboring barbarians. Something in the oceans of this world called "the sloak" may rise and obliterate everyone. Above it all are the shattered moons, one fragment which may be the spying eye of the neo-humans, carefully watching the activities of their creations below.

Obviously there is an excess of weirdness in this short novel, but it all somehow works. Bishop's prose is elegant and literary; there is poetry in his descriptions of sky and earth, and in the musings of his young protagonist. I was particularly moved by the scenes of the working class watching their dead act out emotions on stage that they couldn't feel while alive. Melancholy suffuses this very humanistic tale exploring the importance of agency. I really appreciated how seriously the author presents the taking of life, even in war or self-defense. This is a perfectly accomplished and completely original story.

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beneath the Shattered Moons was originally published in hardback with the (more memorable for me) title And Strange at Ectaban the Trees. It's a (very) far-future science fiction story that I'd categorize more as science fantasy. It's a bleak and depressing work about the inhabitants of an island who have survived two undetailed cataclysmic events preparing for a third. It's very well and elegantly written, but I was glad it's (relatively) short. Recommended for fans of Jack Vance and Tanith Lee.

[Ralph Blackburn · Rating 5 out of 5]

And Strange at Ecbatan The Trees by Michael Bishop- This is a baroque space opera set on a distant world that has been seeded with two competing engineered races, manipulated by a third race that might be human. One race is subservient and emotionless in their daily work and in their life in general, while the other race rules with a benevolent hand, directing without becoming involved with the working class. Rumors of the caretakers watching from orbiting vessels freely circulate, and these people are well aware of Earth and it's history. The prose is very poetic and the whole setting carries a medieval flavoring. There is some action involving lasers, but for the most part there is little real tech in this world where horses are common means of transportation and very little mechanized embellishments. A very stylized story follows a young man, who's first-person account tells this strange and bewildering drama.
This was Michael Bishop's second book(1976)- later re-published as Beneath The Shattered Moons. I think, for what it is, it is very well done, and something you don't find too often. A gem of a book.

[Carl Barlow · Rating 2 out of 5]

The setting is tens of thousands of years hence, and a similar large number of light years away, but -aside from remotely animated corpses and laser canons, it may as well have been contemporary and very much on Earth. The references are contemporary, the characters are unremarkably human and act in contemporary fashions (even the emotionally retarded ones), the depicted society -supposedly engineered as some great experiment- could have been cut and pasted from almost any point in history since humanity began farming.

The plot, however, IS actually remarkable for its unexpected turns, but not in a particularly good way. A northern people -Vikings in all but name- launch an invasion on southern pastoral types who have little hope of real defence given as most have been emotionally repressed in order to keep them calm and unencumbered by desires towards personal expression (labelled a Bad Thing for not entirely clear reasons). Only one man, regarded as a societal misfit because he retains his full suite of emotions and also practices a bizarre art -the animation of corpses mentioned above- is thought to be able to help. Using ancient technology 'microchips' he builds some laser guns, goes sailing, has his apprentice sink a handful of enemy ships in order to win the war... then a big thing is made of a head shaving, the apprentice becomes a substitute son, and both return to animating corpses. The end.

Only the quality of the writing comes close to being a saving grace for this short novel (intimate, rich), it's just a pity that the subject is all over the place, gives only lip-service to genre, and, ultimately, seems to say nothing... remarkable.

[Banjomike · Rating 1 out of 5]

I hated it.

[Joachim Boaz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Full review: https://sciencefictionruminations.com...

"Michael Bishop’s And Strange at Ecbatan the Trees (variant title: Beneath the Shattered Moons) (1976) is a melancholic and allegorically inclined parable about a coming cataclysm that threatens a programmed and hierarchically rigid society (accomplished via genetic modification). Bishop’s voice is an intensely humanistic once, futuristic technology is present but not a central concern…. The simple but [...]"

[George · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this in The Color of Neanderthal Eyes / And Strange at Ecbatan the Trees, but would rather cover it separately.

As others have noted, a melancholy story. I found it entirely worth the time.

[Ben Klingman · Rating 1 out of 5]

Very weird book that I found hard to follow. Haven't read much Science Fiction but I can say this book really needs a glossary or appendix of terms. I sort of understood the plot and the character motives, but was quite lost along the way and didn't finish it. Might be from my lack of Sci-Fi reading experience, but this one wasn't for me.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Michel Bishop seems to have fallen out of the discourse of late, but he produced a body of work that elevated the idea of what science fiction can do. This one is a relatively short novel that shows he facility with language, world-building, and the peculiarities of a SFnal view in matters of morality. Recommended.

[Stephen Rowland · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very somber and poetic for a science fiction novel. This is the first I've read by Bishop, and I'm impressed.

[Connor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thematically a bit obvious (war, caste systems, emotional repression are all bad), but it’s also very short and the writing is good.

[Charon · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this in my pile of unread books and it seems I will be the first one on goodreads to read this one ... or more likely the first one to bother adding it.

It's from 1976 and claims to be a translation from English, however, there is no English edition listed here.

ETA: Yeah, first one to write something about this book and I can't be bothered either. The idea would have worked for a short story but for a book it's just not enough. Also, this is not about trees at all. Stupid title. Not that I wanted it to be about trees, but, you know ...

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bishop's work consistently surprises me. He manages to take less than 200 pages of SF novel and weave in multiple themes very organically. On top of that, I've now read two different SF stories about drama. Who would have thought?

[Jim Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very original SF story. Bishop is able to create complex characters and a complete world in a very short amount of time. Set in the distant future, it's basically a story about the role of the artist in a society. Highly recommended.

[Bryn Hammond · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5