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Dahlgren's World #2
Heart of Red Iron
St. Martin's Press, 1989. This is the pre-publication uncorrected proof. In paper wraps.
- GenresScience Fiction
235 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1989
About the author
Phyllis Gotlieb
57 books25 followersPhyllis Fay Gotlieb, née Bloom, BA, MA was a Canadian science fiction novelist and poet.
The Sunburst Award is named for her first novel, Sunburst. Three years before Sunburst was published, Gotlieb published the pamphlet Who Knows One, a collection of poems. Gotlieb won the Aurora Award for Best Novel in 1982 for her novel A Judgement of Dragons.
She was married to Calvin Gotlieb, a computer science professor, and lived in Toronto, Ontario.
The Sunburst Award is named for her first novel, Sunburst. Three years before Sunburst was published, Gotlieb published the pamphlet Who Knows One, a collection of poems. Gotlieb won the Aurora Award for Best Novel in 1982 for her novel A Judgement of Dragons.
She was married to Calvin Gotlieb, a computer science professor, and lived in Toronto, Ontario.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
May 16, 2023
I discovered Canadian Sci-Fi author Phyllis Gotlieb in the early 2000's. Over the course of her life, she wrote 12 novels, including the Starcats trilogy, the Dahlgren duology and the Flesh and Gold trilogy, plus standalones. Since that time I've enjoyed the Starcats very much and O Master Caliban, the first of Dahlgren, plus Sunburst. Gotlieb has a unique Sci-Fi vision and I love how she tells a story. I only recently discovered that O Master Caliban had a sequel, Heart of Red Iron.
It's been over 10 years since I read O Master Caliban so it took me a bit to get into the characters and the flow of the story but once I did, I enjoyed it very much. Sven Dahlgren returns to planet Barrazin V with his wife, Ardagh, his robot 'clone' Mod Sven, a group of scientists led by Sir Frederick Havergal (married to Sven's mother), two groups of colonists for other alien worlds, the Meshar and the Yefni, plus other scientists and technical staff.
Sven was born (created more correctly) by his father on Barrazin V many years before. Sven is human but also has 4 arms. He and Ardagh escaped Barrazin V when the Erds (sentient robots) went berserk and killed the humans trying to colonize the planet. Now Sven returns as part of a scientific group to see if the planet is suitable for colonization by the Meshar and Yefni. Sir Frederic also has ulterior motives for coming to the planet.
Besides these people, there are other aspects to this rich story. A group of crystalloids, led by Prima, have crash landed on the planet and are stuck in a lava field. They are only able to communicate with a brain-damaged girl. Besides them are a rogue group of Erds, seeking to join humanity.
It's a complex plot with neat characters, an uninviting planet and lots of action. The story focuses on many of the characters. The more the story develops, the more tension there is. I enjoyed how the plot built and the characters grew. It was a fascinating Sci-Fi story and a very satisfactory ending to a duology. I highly recommend. (4.0 stars)
It's been over 10 years since I read O Master Caliban so it took me a bit to get into the characters and the flow of the story but once I did, I enjoyed it very much. Sven Dahlgren returns to planet Barrazin V with his wife, Ardagh, his robot 'clone' Mod Sven, a group of scientists led by Sir Frederick Havergal (married to Sven's mother), two groups of colonists for other alien worlds, the Meshar and the Yefni, plus other scientists and technical staff.
Sven was born (created more correctly) by his father on Barrazin V many years before. Sven is human but also has 4 arms. He and Ardagh escaped Barrazin V when the Erds (sentient robots) went berserk and killed the humans trying to colonize the planet. Now Sven returns as part of a scientific group to see if the planet is suitable for colonization by the Meshar and Yefni. Sir Frederic also has ulterior motives for coming to the planet.
Besides these people, there are other aspects to this rich story. A group of crystalloids, led by Prima, have crash landed on the planet and are stuck in a lava field. They are only able to communicate with a brain-damaged girl. Besides them are a rogue group of Erds, seeking to join humanity.
It's a complex plot with neat characters, an uninviting planet and lots of action. The story focuses on many of the characters. The more the story develops, the more tension there is. I enjoyed how the plot built and the characters grew. It was a fascinating Sci-Fi story and a very satisfactory ending to a duology. I highly recommend. (4.0 stars)
March 15, 2026
Heart of Red Iron (1989) by Phyllis Gotlieb is the sequel to O Master Caliban! (1976). Although the pair is often called the Dahlgren Duology after key characters, I prefer Erg Duology, since the sentient robots now endemic to Barrazan V are central to both novels. After all, Gotlieb’s Ungrukh Trilogy and Lyhhrt Trilogy are both named for the peoples most essential to their stories.
One of the most intriguing aspects of Gotlieb’s GalFed universe is her insistence that all sentient species—no matter how apparently alien—are fundamentally human. Humanity, in her vision, is universal. Perhaps she’s right, and even alien machine intelligences will prove to be variations on the human theme. The Ergs of both novels embody this idea. I’ve spent much of my science fiction reading life searching for the meaning of alien intelligence. Gotlieb suggests that intelligence may be inherently human. It’s a refreshing, optimistic idea.
In Heart of Red Iron, the Ergs seek GalFed recognition for their emerging robot civilization. Mod Dahlgren, the Erg who resembles a human and plays a major role in both books, is described as “so proud of his humanity” (p. 68). This suggests the events of the Erg Duology occur slightly before those of the Lyhhrt Trilogy, where the android Spartakos appears—surely a descendant of the Ergs or of Mod Dahlgren himself.
Gotlieb renders the Ergs as wonderfully human. In O Master Caliban! they already showed glimmers of this, from Mod Dahlgren to the unforgettable erg-Queen, a perfect Wicked Witch figure. She reintroduces herself in Heart of Red Iron with: “I AM MORE POWERFUL THAN ANYONE YOU HAVE EVER KNOWN” (p. 198). Sapphire, one of the current Erg leaders, proclaims: “WHEN ALL POSSIBILITIES HAVE BEEN EXHAUSTED WHATEVER REMAINS MUST BE THE CASE. THAT IS MY CONTRIBUTION TO SYMBOLIC LOGIC. I CALL IT 10011011101001101’S AXIOM” (p. 188). Gotlieb even gives us Ergs performing a good cop/bad cop routine. Much of this is delightfully funny, especially through Mod Dahlgren’s Jeeves-like, unintentionally comic perspective.
In this novel we also meet the Meshar—“cousins” to the Shar of the short story “Sunday’s Child” and the novel Birthstones—a hominid people of demonic appearance but (somewhat) gentle temperament. The worm-like Yefni appear as well. Both species come from worlds so harsh that Barrazan V, with its storms, instability, and chaos feels balmy by comparison. Gotlieb seems to suggest a principle here: bring people to suit the environment rather than reshaping the environment to suit the people. Attempts to tame Barrazan V for Solthrees or Kylkladi, say, failed in O Master Caliban!; the Meshar and Yefni thrive because the planet suits them just as it is.
We encounter other alien species too, including the Crystalloids—an expansion of Gotlieb’s imaginative repertoire, as with the Qumedni.
Gotlieb’s affection for her creations is unmistakable. It shines through with the Ungrukh, the Lyhhrt, the Khagodi, and so on—and now here again with the Meshar, the Yefni, the Crystalloids, and the Ergs. The latter are striving for recognition as a sentient, civilized people: Ergdom.
In O Master Caliban! Gotlieb sends her little band of travelers down an actual yellow brick road, a charming nod to The Wizard of Oz. She brings the same playful spirit to Heart of Red Iron. The novel may lack the unity of its predecessor—there is simply so much happening—but her blend of love and gentle mockery remains unmistakable. All peoples are human: loving, fallible, clever, absurd. Yet each species retains its own idiosyncratic character. Perhaps few other writers manage this balance so well. These books would not be out of place with The Wind in the Willows or even Alice in Wonderland.
A poet before she was a novelist, Gotlieb writes fiction with a poet’s ear. Her playful punctuation and syntax lend strangeness and texture to her alien cultures. As Dunsany wrote in The Chronicles of Rodriguez, poetry is “theoretical magic,” and Gotlieb’s writing sometimes does feel like a kind of magic.
Phyllis Gotlieb's books can be challenging—at least until one is acclimatized to her style. On the other hand, a casual reader might pick up Finnegans Wake, find it incomprehensible, and abandon it. With Joyce's work, however, critics and academics struggled to make sense of it, and it became included in literature courses. Gotlieb is far less daunting than Joyce, though she never achieved popular or academic recognition. Indeed, despite her foundational role in Canadian science fiction, Gotlieb is almost unknown today. Unfamiliar with how to read or view her work, a new reader may even give up halfway through one of her masterpieces—as I once did with Flesh and Gold. I loved Heart of Red Iron, and I highly recommend the science fiction of Phyllis Gotlieb.
One of the most intriguing aspects of Gotlieb’s GalFed universe is her insistence that all sentient species—no matter how apparently alien—are fundamentally human. Humanity, in her vision, is universal. Perhaps she’s right, and even alien machine intelligences will prove to be variations on the human theme. The Ergs of both novels embody this idea. I’ve spent much of my science fiction reading life searching for the meaning of alien intelligence. Gotlieb suggests that intelligence may be inherently human. It’s a refreshing, optimistic idea.
In Heart of Red Iron, the Ergs seek GalFed recognition for their emerging robot civilization. Mod Dahlgren, the Erg who resembles a human and plays a major role in both books, is described as “so proud of his humanity” (p. 68). This suggests the events of the Erg Duology occur slightly before those of the Lyhhrt Trilogy, where the android Spartakos appears—surely a descendant of the Ergs or of Mod Dahlgren himself.
Gotlieb renders the Ergs as wonderfully human. In O Master Caliban! they already showed glimmers of this, from Mod Dahlgren to the unforgettable erg-Queen, a perfect Wicked Witch figure. She reintroduces herself in Heart of Red Iron with: “I AM MORE POWERFUL THAN ANYONE YOU HAVE EVER KNOWN” (p. 198). Sapphire, one of the current Erg leaders, proclaims: “WHEN ALL POSSIBILITIES HAVE BEEN EXHAUSTED WHATEVER REMAINS MUST BE THE CASE. THAT IS MY CONTRIBUTION TO SYMBOLIC LOGIC. I CALL IT 10011011101001101’S AXIOM” (p. 188). Gotlieb even gives us Ergs performing a good cop/bad cop routine. Much of this is delightfully funny, especially through Mod Dahlgren’s Jeeves-like, unintentionally comic perspective.
In this novel we also meet the Meshar—“cousins” to the Shar of the short story “Sunday’s Child” and the novel Birthstones—a hominid people of demonic appearance but (somewhat) gentle temperament. The worm-like Yefni appear as well. Both species come from worlds so harsh that Barrazan V, with its storms, instability, and chaos feels balmy by comparison. Gotlieb seems to suggest a principle here: bring people to suit the environment rather than reshaping the environment to suit the people. Attempts to tame Barrazan V for Solthrees or Kylkladi, say, failed in O Master Caliban!; the Meshar and Yefni thrive because the planet suits them just as it is.
We encounter other alien species too, including the Crystalloids—an expansion of Gotlieb’s imaginative repertoire, as with the Qumedni.
Gotlieb’s affection for her creations is unmistakable. It shines through with the Ungrukh, the Lyhhrt, the Khagodi, and so on—and now here again with the Meshar, the Yefni, the Crystalloids, and the Ergs. The latter are striving for recognition as a sentient, civilized people: Ergdom.
In O Master Caliban! Gotlieb sends her little band of travelers down an actual yellow brick road, a charming nod to The Wizard of Oz. She brings the same playful spirit to Heart of Red Iron. The novel may lack the unity of its predecessor—there is simply so much happening—but her blend of love and gentle mockery remains unmistakable. All peoples are human: loving, fallible, clever, absurd. Yet each species retains its own idiosyncratic character. Perhaps few other writers manage this balance so well. These books would not be out of place with The Wind in the Willows or even Alice in Wonderland.
A poet before she was a novelist, Gotlieb writes fiction with a poet’s ear. Her playful punctuation and syntax lend strangeness and texture to her alien cultures. As Dunsany wrote in The Chronicles of Rodriguez, poetry is “theoretical magic,” and Gotlieb’s writing sometimes does feel like a kind of magic.
Phyllis Gotlieb's books can be challenging—at least until one is acclimatized to her style. On the other hand, a casual reader might pick up Finnegans Wake, find it incomprehensible, and abandon it. With Joyce's work, however, critics and academics struggled to make sense of it, and it became included in literature courses. Gotlieb is far less daunting than Joyce, though she never achieved popular or academic recognition. Indeed, despite her foundational role in Canadian science fiction, Gotlieb is almost unknown today. Unfamiliar with how to read or view her work, a new reader may even give up halfway through one of her masterpieces—as I once did with Flesh and Gold. I loved Heart of Red Iron, and I highly recommend the science fiction of Phyllis Gotlieb.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 24, 2015
The sequel to O Master Caliban! lacks that book's focus. Characters and themes recur, but it's somewhat diffuse; the elements don't really seem to coalesce. It's as if Gotlieb just had too many irons in the fire and couldn't tie them all together in the space available. It's still good, of course, written with Gotlieb's trademark poetic flair and refreshing mix of tartness and optimism, but I wouldn;'t suggest it as a good entry point for Gotlieb.
December 21, 2017
A decent SF read but most notable that it was written by a pioneer of Canadian SF.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews