Sos the Rope

Battle Circle #1

by Piers Anthony

They were the first who dared to enter the badlands: Sol, man of many weapons, Sola his wife, and Sos, who loved them both.

The kill-spirits of the blast were retreating, taking with them the evil which the old books had called 'radiation'. But still the badlands held their secrets - terrible secrets laying in wait for those who dared to return. And yet there was no other way, for Sos was pledged to follow Sol—and Sol had been chosen to build a dream—the same dream which had been built so many times, eons before...

Genres: Fantasy, Science Fiction, Fiction, Post Apocalyptic, Science Fiction Fantasy, Speculative Fiction, Ebooks

172 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1968

About the author

Though he spent the first four years of his life in England, Piers never returned to live in his country of birth after moving to Spain and immigrated to America at age six. After graduating with a B.A. from Goddard College, he married one of his fellow students and and spent fifteen years in an assortment of professions before he began writing fiction full-time.

Piers is a self-proclaimed environmentalist and lives on a tree farm in Florida with his wife. They have two grown daughters.

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sos the Rope was serialized in the July-through-September 1968 issues of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, which was edited by Edward Ferman. The first installment was the cover story with a nice Jack Gaughan painting, and Pyramid released the book in paperback (with a less striking Gaughan painting) later that year. The book is an interesting sf/fantasy blend, set in a post-apocalyptic society where all disagreements and debates are settled by martial arts in arena fights, the battle circle. (The Alexander Courage soundtrack from the original Star Trek is the perfect music to read it by.) There's little development or inclusion of female characters beyond the obvious, but it's a good adventure of its time. The last line is particularly evocative (SPOILER ALERT, stop here, SPOILERS!): "Sos faced the men of his empire, thousands strong. They thought him master now- but was he the hero, or the villain?" Whoa...

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sos joins up with Sol of all weapons and helps him build an empire. But what will happen when Sos challenges Sol in the Battle Circle for his woman and the child she carries?

Planet Stories has dug up an odd story in this offering, Sos the Rope. Fantasy with a post-apocalyptic vibe has long been a favorite sub-genre of mine and this is one of the better ones.

After the Blast, the earth is populated by nomadic warriors and the crazies, men and women who study the ancient ways. Matters among the nomads are settled in the battle circle. Sos, called Sol at the beginning, loses his name and weapon to Sol. The main conflict of the book is Sos struggling with his friendship with Sol and his affair with Sol's wife, Sola. And of course there's a fair bit of gore but that's to be expected when there are trials by combat every day or so.

The book really takes an odd turn when Sos goes to the Mountain. That's when the book went from a 4 to a 3 for me. I didn't buy Sos's love for Sosa and didn't really care for what happened after that.

Sos the Rope is a good quick read and not like all the other fantasy novels out there. It's pretty original and definitely worth a few hours of your time.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first in one of the strangest trilogies I've ever read. I don't know why I like it so much & it probably doesn't deserve 4 stars, but there is a quirky charm to it.

Set in an odd, post apocalyptic world, fighting duels in a circle is the road to dominance in the society. What lengths a man will go to for victory & what the costs are is the basic theme.

When originally published, the second book, 'Var the Stick' (people are named for their weapons, which are codified.) was the only book I could find for years. It hinted at this book, but I couldn't find it for years. Finally, the trilogy was re-issued in a single volume & shortly after that I found a copy of both the first & third volumes - FINALLY! Anyway, this search may have colored my enjoyment of this trilogy - the anticipation was fierce.

[Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

In "Sos the Rope," Piers Anthony mixes together the martial arts; arena combat; a far-future society of illiterates and nomads; bio-engineering; and cybernetics. His story is about a man who fights in these arenas, and wants to be the best fighter on his planet.

I was sold at the first whiff of hand-to-hand combat. Anthony shows good talent for describing the action in the arena, employing just enough detail so that the fights can be followed and the pacing is quick and exciting. Describing combat in prose is not an easy feat, either: too much description, and the prose gets bogged down and the pacing comes to a stop; gloss over the action, and the protagonist gets by too easily, deflating any tension or suspense. Here, Anthony gets it right and conveys both the sweat and the strategy that every fight demands. He also introduces some neat characters, including a giant of a guy who wanders the land and shows up without warning and takes loads of punishment before trouncing his opponents, and then disappearing again.

"Sos" was published in 1968, and it shows its age in the gender roles that Anthony assigns. The men are manly and solely concerned with fighting and gaining status; the women are basically chattel. To get what they want--which is, basically, to be partnered with the manliest man--women employ manipulation and prey upon each man's doubts and anxieties. In Sos's case, these faults are glaring, and he spends the majority of the book trying to satisfy his own sense of self-worth and win the woman that he really wants. Anthony depicts his self-centered mania well, and as the story matures, Sos makes some questionable choices that in turn make it harder to stay on his side. His lot, in the end, is a tragic one, and Anthony achieves some surprising depth, given the material.

"Sos" was a fun read: brisk, action-packed, thoughtful in some parts, and silly in others. As someone who had enjoyed Steve Perry's "Matador" series (most of all the original trilogy), Sean Russell's "Initiate Brother," and Yoshikawa's "Musashi" series, I dug the arena combat and the different weapon styles that Anthony put into play. Were it not for my subscription to Planet Stories, I probably would not have known about this book, let alone looked past its ridiculous cover and its odd title. Makes me wonder what other fun, little reads are out there.

[Quintin Zimmermann · Rating 3 out of 5]

Absolutely loved these Battle Circle books as a kid. Took me many years to track them down as an adult, but clearly they don't stand the test of time for a more mature, discerning reader.

Some books are better left alone to fond memories.

[Printable Tire · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was going to write a review for the Battle Circle collection I've been reading in toto but Var the Stick is starting to suck and I wanted to give this one a fair shake.

Sos the Rope takes place in a post apocalyptic world where everyone takes Rock, Paper Scissors really seriously. Reading it is like reading the minutes of a Tactical Role Playing campaign. There's even "save points" called hostels where characters can rest and equip themselves.

But at some point its simple (one could argue simplistic) style and narrative enter Dragon Ball Z territory as characters power up and become more and more invincible, super saiyan versions of themselves, complete with white albino hair. At this point the book becomes akin to really macho mythic poetry, like Gilgamesh or something. No, I'm not stoned.

It's also pretty sexist and homoerotic and blah blah blah but not nearly as creepy or dumb as it looks like Var the Stick is turning out to be. I could't put it down!

[Christopher · Rating 3 out of 5]

Post-apocalyptic 60's pulp. Fallout meets Bloodsport.

Can you really call yourself a Gen X SF/Fantasy fan if you don't have a special love/hate relationship with Piers Anthony? Anthony's ubiquity in SF and fantasy realms during the 80s meant that his entertaining stories, if juvenile and often cringeworthy approach to sex, meant that as a pre-teen/teen male, his books were AMAZING. As an adult looking back on them? Well....yeah.

That being said, his "Battle Circle" trilogy, of which "Sos the Rope" is the first volume holds up quite well. In an America after "The Blast," nomad tribes roam the barren landscape resting and feeding at modern hostels maintained and supplied by "the crazies." Disputes are handled in the titular battle circle where a man's identity is his name + his weapon of choice. Female identity is entirely derivative of the man's. So if Sos takes a wife, she becomes Sosa. Relationships are similarly transactional. All needs done is a man gives/takes back a golden bracelet. So you have a lot of single night "marriages" (it's the 60s, roll with it).

Anyway, Sos meets Sol, a sword wielder. Sol is on a quest to build an empire from the disparate tribes and Sos has some level of book learning and ideas on how to make it happen. Sol is a master of all weapons, and they join forces with a young woman wanting a husband, so she becomes Sola.

What follows is a fun, quick story as Sol expands his tribe while Sos trains them. Eventually, they have a falling out of sorts, and Sos is forced to "go to the mountain" as a death sentence of sorts. Of course, that doesn't 6 we get a fun little twist and some backstory into the crazies and the world post-Blast.

While the vestiges of 60's era free-love and male dominated views of gender roles are quite obvious, the overall story is nice pulpy fun. The "battle circle" culture is intriguing, and Anthony does a good job establishing it and keeping it consistent. This isn't a deep book, but it is an enjoyable one.

[Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

I make it a habit not to be ashamed of the stuff I read. For me, the ultimate goal is the story, which is why I can still appreciate authors like Dan Brown, Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, or Steve Alten. So I’m not embarrassed to say that I re-read a Piers Anthony book. When I was younger, I devoured his books, but now, as an adult, I find him to be a little too juvenile for my tastes. But I also turned forty this year, and I expect that the nostalgia kicked in and inspired me to pick up Sos the Rope when I saw it on sale at a local store.

There’s a lengthy appreciation of this book as a foreword to the story by Robert Vardeman, and the author puts the book into perspective on its place in the history of science fiction. At the time of its publication in 1968, the old wave of science fiction — where burly adventurers went out and did manly things in the setting of the future — was slowly transitioning over to the new wave of science fiction, where the adventurers were more flawed and prone to introspection and examination. He mentions that Sos the Rope is a merging of those two waves, and it helped to have that in mind when I went to re-read the novel. I had been in high school the first time I read the book, and not only did I not have a clue where the book fell in the history of science fiction, but I also didn’t realize that Piers Anthony didn’t write his women characters to be very independent.

I can read other classic science fiction novels from the 1950s and earlier and overlook the role the women play in those books, but I think I was expecting something different from a book originally published in 1968. There are two primary female characters in the story, and while they’re strong women who aren’t afraid to speak their mind, they’re still just there to take care of the men. Shoot, in the world of the novel, the women are nameless until they enter into a relationship with a man, and then they take on a variation of his name. If they end their relationship, the woman goes back to being nameless until she finds another man.

The novel is still compelling and interesting, and I think that owes much to the way that Anthony creates his characters. The story is essentially driven by Sos’ sense of honor and his position after losing his own name in battle. He’s in love with a woman who belongs to the man who took his name, but the conditions of him losing the battle disallow him from taking up any of the standard weapons of the realm, and his lowly position prevents him from being able to fight for the woman he loves. Ultimately, he is banished from the society and sent to the mountain, which he climbs with the intent of dying on his journey, but he later returns, enhanced and nearly invulnerable, to break apart the empire that he helped create with the man who took his name. So the nameless issue with the women characters sort of comes full circle, and now I wonder if Anthony was attempting to make some commentary on the women’s lib movement through that whole development. But when you look at Anthony’s entire spectrum of work, you find that he never really develops his women characters outside of how they affect his male protagonists, even though they wind up being strong characters otherwise.

Despite all that, I’m still interested in reading the rest of the series. I remember bits and pieces of the overall story, but I don’t remember the specifics of how the primary conflict between the primitives and the “crazies” works out. I guess I could look online to get a summary of the details, but part of me wants to see if the themes improve over the next two novels.

[Alan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sounds like a nice dark ages/knighthood where everything is settled in the battle circle- until it mentions the TV that no one watches or the shavers no one uses and the plastic armor. Great world

[Christian Meier · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reread the book after more than 30 years, and I'm in a strange place.

Like the best of old loves, you immediately recognise it and wallow in nostalgia. But the book just oozes archaic. Not just the story, the language, no, Anthony itself. It's a story about tough men by a guy that reveres tough men and machoism so much. Because apart from all the barely present ado about civilisiation undoing itself and a small clique of technologically superior people providing for the tribal he-men (always men) and their willing women, that's what this book is about: alpha males hitting each other.

I loved revisiting the book, and I loved realising how far fantasy literature has come since. And that has to count for something.

[Ricky Foos]

Future of the human race where they are kept from forming large groups (e.g. armies) to deflect the dangers presented by said groups. SOS is forced to learn a new weapon (the rope) after being defeated in the weapon he initially was proficient in. He befriends a leader type who endangers the current civilization and must choose his loyalties.

[Ahimsa · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's old-fashioned and isn't exactly a model of gender relations, but I really enjoy the world-building. Equally I like the distant third person removed POV without having to go into triple the length necessary. Imagine the 1000 page tome you'd get if you gave Sanderson this outline.

[Josh · Rating 4 out of 5]

great book, like a modern day western of sorts

[Stephen White · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very Edgar Rice Burroughs influenced, but still original enough. Sort of a proto-polyamorous relationship, also.

[Freightliner · Rating 5 out of 5]

extremely sexist and problematic but fun as hell to read

[David Sarkies · Rating 2 out of 5]

A Guy that Fights with a Rope
5 March 2012

This appears to be one of Anthony's earlier books set in a post-apocalyptic world where society has reverted to pre-historic hunter gatherers. The book itself is about a warrior whose primary weapon is a rope and combat is dealt with in what is called a battle circle. It has been a long time since I actually read this book, but I remember when I did it was a rather short book with a not too interesting plot.

Let us have a look at a bit of context here though. The year is 1968 (the Summer of Love), the civil rights movement and the sexual revolution is in full swing. The world of the baby boomers is changing a lot, moving away from the more conservative fifties and entering into a more liberal society. However there are a lot of elements of society that are resisting this movement, thus setting the scene for a cultural battle that is to continue right down to the present day. We are also in the middle of the Vietnam War, Robert Kennedy has been assassinated (as well as Martin Luther King et al), Nixon is on his way to become president, and the moon mission is on its way to completion.

Granted, much of what I have written about probably has little to do with the story itself, but it is a time of change within the Anglo-American world, and while I doubt Anthony is writing explicitly on how the change resolves itself into the future, we can consider that this period of change was going to have a long lasting effect. In Sos' world though this change has effectively sent the world back into the stone age. That does not necessarily mean that civilisation is completely destroyed and humanity reverts to barbarity. The battle circle indicates that there is still some form of law and tradition and that anarchy is not the rule of the land.

I guess many of the older generations at this time were very concerned about the direction society was heading. In a way Anthony could be considered one of them. He was born in 1934, which at the time of the writing of this novel would make him 34 years old. He is not a baby boomer, but neither is he old enough to have been able to fight in World War II. In a way he is in that gap between the older generation who fought in the war (and were proud of it) and the younger generation who rejects war as a means of foreign policy.

I might leave it there, and consider the post-apocalyptic novel as a form of literature when I look at the next two novels in the series.

[Joe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hi - I haven't written a review for awhile; I have two books I am reading for which I know I need to write not just a good review but a thoughtful review, and thinking about these has taken up an inordinate amount of time. The two books are each excellent and deserve to have something of quality. So in the meantime I thought I would try this. It will limber up the writing juices.

My older brother had a subscription to "Fantasy and Science Fiction" (pulp) magazine way back in the sixties, that I think had been bestowed as a Christmas present by some unsuspecting cousin or uncle. This is where I first heard of all the greats. Azimov, etc) The magazine usually published short stories but included a one-per-issue novella or excerpt. "Sos the Rope" was one such excerpt.

It's a post apocalyptic world popluated by wandering nomadic males who establish dominance via a culture of ritualistic fighting, and while there is a standard list of six possible weapons, every now and again a custom weapon is assigned - usualy when the warrior does not fit the mold. Sos, the hero, is one such guy, and he becomes an expert with a length of rope. We follow his exploits, meet his friends, and learn about his world. There are forbidden zones evidently radioactive since the nuclear war, and an odd system of food distribution and society.

This was a fine fantasy world for an adolescent male who was not sure of how he fitted into the world, as I recall. At one point, Sos adopts a pet bird; and I recall that I cried when the bird died along a difficult part of the quest.

It was not til years later that I read more of the entire trilogy from which this was excerpted. There was a point where the fantastic elements overwhelmed to core strangth of the excerpt ( a society built on a chain of briedges between islands in the Aleutians) which detracted from the more sparesely constructed, less fully fleshed out, parts of the story. But overall, this engaged me at the time and I recommend it for teen readers especially.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

This very early Piers Anthony novel (and the first of a trilogy) is planted firmly on the sci-fi end of his work, albeit as a tale of a future dystopia. Thus, "Sos the Rope" avoids the supernatural trappings which, for me as a reader, are generally the bane of what I consider Anthony's weaker work. I enjoy Piers Anthony immensely as a sci-fi author, considerably less so as a writer of fantasy.

"Sos" is a concise, tightly-paced, action-filled novel which held my interest from beginning to end. This is the kind of lean, sparing story which is hard to put down but is also relatively lightweight, making it a quick read devoid of much challenge. (That's not always a bad thing. I tend to deliberately alternate my reading between heavier work and "fluff," and in this regard, Anthony's best work is worthy "fluff.")

Obviously, in a novel of such brevity, the reader cannot expect too much by way of character development. But this is not necessarily a flaw; "Sos" is action-oriented (although not utterly thoughtless) and Anthony maintains an engaging pace throughout. If there is any flaw evident, it is to be found within the genre itself. Although "Sos" steers clear of wizardry, it is rooted in the sword-bearing ethos which is often the conjoined twin of wizardry. Thus, the I'm-a-big-strong-man-who-must-validate-my-dubious-sense-of-honor-by-fighting-with-my-big-strong-body philosophy (such as it stands), and its concomitant obligatory misogyny, are a weaknesses woven into the basic premise of "Sos." But if the reader can accept those as the price of doing business, this book is not entirely without its charms.

[Daniel R. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sos the Rope is a science fantasy novel, originally published in 1968. Essentially, it is a post apocalyptic tale wherein a group of nomadic warriors duke it out in a Battle Circle, fighting for honor, name, tribal affiliation, and nookie. Beyond these warrior types, there is a group called The Crazies, who are dedicated to preserving the pre-Blast world tech and helping out their brother man.

Enter the man called Sos, who is a warrior with a Crazy education. He aligns with Sol to found an empire (uniting a bunch of tribes), but soon falls for Sol's woman (she is nameless until Sol weds her/gives her a name and becomes Sola). Sos spends much of the novel failing to win her, and so ventures across the world to try and deal with his pains. He encounters unstoppable warrirors, Crazy folks, and along the way he uncovers a secret that will lead him to dismantle everything he and Sol put together.

I found Sos to be a so-so story set in an intriguing world. I wanted to know more about the setting/history than I did about the kooky societies. I suppose I would have been more in favor of a straight adventure/investigation novel than this brawny tale.

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've known about Piers Anthony for years, but his books never seemed to appeal to me. This book became known to me because Planet Stories reprinted it and I was instantly interested. I then discovered that it is part of a trilogy and had to run the other two books down too. I cannot articulate exactly what made this such an engrossing read for me, but it has become a new favorite. I get the whole post-apocalyptic world and all but T.V.'s with programming that no one watches? And why do the Crazies supply the nomads with food and shelter? Maybe everything will become clear in the next few books. Anyways it's a story of love and loss and striving for your goals and desires to finally realize that what you essential wanted was found elsewear and you walked away from it. Great book.

[Mathew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Again if you like a good 'end of the world' story this is a pretty good example. Set several hundred or maybe thousand years after a nuclear war (sorry I read it a long time ago) the land is slowly starting to recover. Sos The Rope and his leader camp out in the half mutated landscape in order to find and train an army. From what I can remember, most people fight for a living and they do it in a circle drawn on the ground. Mostly they live a primitive existence, but there are some beings (robots) which they can visit who have knowledge of machinery etc. Hmm, this is definitely one I need to re-read! I think there were two other books, one at least being Var The Stick.

[Tony Hinde · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of my favourite Piers Anthony series. I've read it several times. Set in a far distant post-apocalyptic world, I'd rate the world-building pretty high... points removed for blatantly ripping off H.G. Wells "The Time Machine."

The series does dwindle a little towards the end, eventually becoming almost a stream-of-consciousness narration of a journey through wonderland. I don't care. It's still good.

[Drunken_orangetree · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first read this book when I was in junior high. Post-apocalyptic setting. Mixes together the world of The Time Machine with Conan machismo, a love triangle, and a would-be emperor perhaps modeled on Alexander the Great.

The action scenes are sometimes implausible and the sexual politics dubious, but I still find the book entertaining.

[Tim Robichaux · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book, years ago, and just recently picked it up for a quick re-read. It's quite short, and was easy to run through in an evening, and still enjoyable. It was amazing to me, however, how much I added to the story in my mind over the years.

[William Neil · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this about 20 years ago, still remember it fondly!

[Shawn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Young adult 10-15

[Sonja Trbojevic · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book, and the other 2 in the trilogy, in the early 70's, and loved them all!

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've read only 10 books by Piers Anthony. These three are my favorite.

[Little Timmy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting SiFi story. After the last war people now decide issues in the battle circle. Recommended

[Justin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Warrior who ends up building an empire, finding the illuminati, and subsequently having to decommission his empire.