Priam's Lens

by Jack L. Chalker

WORLDS OF NO RETURN

Humans had finally gone to the stars, as the dreamers had always hoped; celestial stretches of the galaxy became the playgrounds of a new spacefaring race. But now these worlds were being taken over by Titans, creatures with unimaginable, godlike powers, supremely indifferent to humanity's survival.

There was one chance to stop them. Helena, one of the Titan-dominated planets, concealed an untapped, hundred-year-old weapon--Priam's Lens. Getting to Helena would not be difficult, but activating the lens was another matter. No one had ever returned from a Titan encounter. They simply disappeared--status unknown.

Now a small ragtag crew made up of scientists, warriors, a priest, and a stowaway--naval officer Gene Harker--were ready to pit themselves against the greatest power in the universe. With the help of a mad space pirate, they descended upon the deadly planet. They will succeed--or die trying . . .

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, Space Opera

422 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published May 1, 1999

About the author

Besides being a science fiction author, Jack Laurence Chalker was a Baltimore City Schools history teacher in Maryland for a time, a member of the Washington Science Fiction Association, and was involved in the founding of the Baltimore Science Fiction Society. Some of his books said that he was born in Norfolk, Virginia although he later claimed that was a mistake.

He attended all but one of the World Science Fiction Conventions from 1965 until 2004. He published an amateur SF journal, Mirage, from 1960 to 1971 (a Hugo nominee in 1963 for Best Fanzine).

Chalker was married in 1978 and had two sons.

His stated hobbies included esoteric audio, travel, and working on science-fiction convention committees. He had a great interest in ferryboats, and, at his wife's suggestion, their marriage was performed on the Roaring Bull Ferry.

Chalker's awards included the Daedalus Award (1983), The Gold Medal of the West Coast Review of Books (1984), Skylark Award (1985), Hamilton-Brackett Memorial Award (1979), as well as others of varying prestige. He was a nominee for the John W. Campbell Award twice and for the Hugo Award twice. He was posthumously awarded the Phoenix Award by the Southern Fandom Confederation on April 9, 2005.

On September 18, 2003, during Hurricane Isabel, Chalker passed out and was rushed to the hospital with a diagnosis of a heart attack. He was later released, but was severely weakened. On December 6, 2004, he was again rushed to hospital with breathing problems and disorientation, and was diagnosed with congestive heart failure and a collapsed lung. Chalker was hospitalized in critical condition, then upgraded to stable on December 9, though he didn't regain consciousness until December 15. After several more weeks in deteriorating condition and in a persistent vegetative state, with several transfers to different hospitals, he died on February 11, 2005 of kidney failure and sepsis in Bon Secours of Baltimore, Maryland.

Chalker is perhaps best known for his Well World series of novels, the first of which is Midnight at the Well of Souls (Well World, #1).

Reviews

[Phil · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very melancholy read from Chalker here, and one that lacks his almost trademark body-switching and so forth. Priam's Lens has the bones of a great story, but the lackadaisical pacing, the constant musings on what makes for a good life, and the lackluster denouement just about put this into meh territory.

Humanity has found the stars and colonized many worlds, all linked via artificial wormholes by the Confederacy. Out of nowhere, however the Titans emerged and started taking over human space in waves. It was not that the Titans were hellbent on genocide, but rather, treated humanity like cockroaches. Nothing humanity possessed could even touch the Titans and their 'energy ships'; they somehow just sucked all the energy out of all devices and civilizations fell one by one. Now, decades after their first arrival, humanity keeps retreating further and further toward the edge of the galactic spiral. Maybe, however, a 'doomsday' weapon almost completed could turn the tide...

Chalker sets this up as a quest novel-- the search for Priam's Lens-- an introduces a wide ranging cast of characters to flesh it out. Our main protagonist, Gene, is a navy guy, stationed at some hell hole world when a number of interesting characters start arriving; mathematicians, high science types, even an anthropologist. It quickly becomes apparent that this ragtag group is going in to Titan space to find something. Meanwhile, we spend lots of time with a band/tribe of survivors on the conquered planet of Helena, who live in fear of the Titan 'demons' while they pursue a hunter/gatherer lifestyle. You know somehow the two groups will meet, but man does Chalker take his time here, developing tribal life in almost excruciating detail. So, what could have been an exciting, or at least fun, adventure quest devolved into an anthropological study of sorts, and the group of scientists and adventurers did not even get moving until about halfway into the book.

I love Chalker's work, but this is not his best outing by a long shot. It was written toward his twilight and the existential musings overpowered the story by a longshot, even while being fairly mundane. Jeez. 2.5 melancholy stars, rounding up 'cause this is Chalker!

[astaliegurec · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm highly disappointed with Jack L. Chalker's "Priam's Lens." It doesn't read like the Chalker I know. The most prevalent problem with it is that there's just too much talking. It goes on and on. Heck, the story doesn't really begin until around 250 pages into the book. Coupled with that is the fact that fully half of the book follows a tribe of survivors of the evil aliens and is not interesting at all (in characters or in story). But, the biggest problem is that the book is just filled with inconsistencies and contradictions. Things will be described as being one way, only to be described as being totally different in the next chapter. It's not much fun reading a book where even the author couldn't keep his own story straight. So, I'm sorry to say that I'm rating this book at a Pretty Bad 2 stars out of 5. Don't bother.

[Johnny · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book that I am reading is Priam’s Lens, by Jack L Chalker. Published by Del Ray Books in 1999, New York. Set in the distant future where humans have become advanced enough to undertake interstellar travel. Consisting of 422 pages, and 22 chapters. This story is quite a bit difficult to read but it portrays a strong message.

Humans were the apex predators, scourging and researching worlds. The universe was their oyster. However, humanity’s reign did not last long as the godlike beings known as “Titans” came into their existence. They were beings of a higher purpose that had technology that completely rendered the humans useless. Priam’s Lens tells two different stories of two different perspectives. The first protagonist is a space naval officer named Gene Harker who has to set out on an expedition to recover a weapon that could help humanity against the fight of the unwavering Titans. The second protagonist is a young boy named Littlefeet who lives in one of the few colonies on a Titan conquered planet and we are given his perspective on their primitive lifestyle. Eventually their story would intertwine with one another where they would free the planet Helena of the Titan’s reign. They encountered many obstacles in their journey such as the harsh conditions of space travel and the most prevailing problem to humanity, time.

In Priam’s Lens, the overlying theme is that humanity’s struggle will end up prevailing.
The story starts out with Gene Harker at the lowest point in his life. He was merely a scapegoat for the navy. No one had any expectations for him and he had to prove himself worthy by saving Helena, the once human planet that has now been conquered by Titans. We are later introduced to Littlefeet, a young boy that has to hunt to survive. He is a scout for his colony and has to endure the harsh conditions of the new terraformed Titan planet. They later discover that there is a weapon on Helena that can help rid the Titans off the planet, So Harker had to make a hard choice by abandoning his post by collaborating with a crazy space pirate to save the planet. Many lives were sacrificed on this expedition and they had to struggle through sweat, blood and space radiation. They were forced to undergo trials of survival to save the fate of humanity.

In my opinion, the book’s pacing was quite slow near the beginning and eventually sped up near the middle. I really enjoyed the scientific aspects and theories that were involved in Priam’s Lens. The sacrifices that each crew member and survivor on the colony had to make were really tear jerking. The best aspect of the book that I most enjoyed was the two different perspectives of the saviours(Gene Harker) and the survivors(Littlefeet). This book taught us that by struggling through hardships and strife, you can achieve your goal.

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wasn’t a bad book. I would not want to live like Littlefeet and Spotty. The time different with the space travel is crazy, it makes sense just crazy when you think about it. I was a little confused with the last chapter. It was basically an epilogue which is fine just wish it was titled that. When I started reading the last chapter I was on the 2nd or 3rd page and had to go back to the start to skim over to see if I missed who I was reading about. I’m happy that little feet survived. Wish they could have figured out what the flowers were about or just why the Titian’s are the way they are.

[Shelli Ingle · Rating 2 out of 5]

Last time I had read his book is "The Web of Chozen" and it was couple years ago where I was in my 20s (before I realized that Science Fiction wasn't my genre),but I had listened it on Audiobook and the narrator's voice was terrible.

So I decided to picked up Priam's Lens. I became confused when I begun reading it. It was supposed to be about aliens has conquered the universe and winds up slaved the human races after they had lost the war to them,but the story shifted to a ship in the orbit then there is this tribe wanted to f**k each others. This book is a mess.

[Facedeer · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book has an interesting premise. Hyper-advanced aliens have invaded human-colonized space and are taking over human colonies one by one. They're unstoppable, they have some method of simply "turning off" human technology so that it doesn't work near them, and they're inscrutable - they cannot be communicated with and once they've conquered a human colony it's unclear exactly what they *do* with it. Seems like they just suppress human technology and grow giant "flowers".

Anyway, humanity's being steadily pushed back and are helpless to stop it, but our heroes discover that a scientist had been on the verge of developing a weapon that might work against the aliens right before his planet got conquered. So the adventure involves a daring mission to an "occupied" world to recover the secret from the ruins.

I really don't remember much about the details, though. We discover some odd things have been happening on the planet, and to the surviving humans still living there, but they weren't odd enough in my opinion. There was also a major flaw in the story's structure where we spend a whole chapter setting up how awesome human power-armor is even though it will play absolutely no role in the story and everyone already knows this at the time (human technology simply shuts down when anywhere near the aliens). Perhaps this was meant to show how people relied on their tech and enhance the struggle they'd face without it or something like that, but it just felt like a waste.

Overall, this story didn't focus on enough of Chalker's strengths and let too many of his weaknesses show through.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

The mysterious Titans are taking over system after system and nothing that the human confederacy throws at them seems to bother them. Helena is a conquered planet with a small number of humans surviving in very primitive conditions. But it also contains another secret, Priam's Lens, a super-powerful weapon that may change things for the better. A team of soldiers and scientists are sent to recover it, and run afoul of some of the nasty surprise that Helena holds.


One such trick is a nanite rain that eats artificial materials that leaves them buck naked and weaponless. At the same time the rain is conditioning their mind to fear fire, enclosed spaces and to not come in from the rain. In the end they do fire of the Lens which fries the Titans.


The ending does have some good points about what is important for a happy life. An excellent read.

[Benjamin Plume · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unique, and very good. Not Chalker's best, though.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bog standard Chalker.

[Dale Jarvis · Rating 1 out of 5]

An excellent example of how to write anti-climax. Some interesting ideas, but not particularly well executed.

[Lorrie · Rating 5 out of 5]

this was a very good sci fi story

[Randy · Rating 4 out of 5]

one of the later Well World tales. Not as good.