The Wine of Violence

by James K. Morrow

SIGNED by the AUTHOR on the Title page. Signature only A First edition, First printing. Book is in Near Fine condition. Boards are clean, not bumped. Fore edges have a tiny bit of shelf wear. Interior is clean and legible. Not remaindered. Dust Jacket is in Near Fine condition. Not chipped or crinkled. Not price clipped. Dust Jacket is covered by Mylar Brodart. Thanks and Enjoy. All-Ways well packaged, All-Ways fast service.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, Fantasy, Satire, Speculative Fiction

299 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1981

About the author

Born in 1947, James Kenneth Morrow has been writing fiction ever since he, as a seven-year-old living in the Philadelphia suburbs, dictated “The Story of the Dog Family” to his mother, who dutifully typed it up and bound the pages with yarn. This three-page, six-chapter fantasy is still in the author’s private archives. Upon reaching adulthood, Jim produced nine novels of speculative fiction, including the critically acclaimed Godhead Trilogy. He has won the World Fantasy Award (for Only Begotten Daughter and Towing Jehovah), the Nebula Award (for “Bible Stories for Adults, No. 17: The Deluge” and the novella City of Truth), and the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award (for the novella Shambling Towards Hiroshima). A fulltime fiction writer, Jim makes his home in State College, Pennsylvania, with his wife, his son, an enigmatic sheepdog, and a loopy beagle. He is hard at work on a novel about Darwinism and its discontents.

Reviews

[Bandit · Rating 4 out of 5]

My second read by Morrow and just as good. In fact, dangerously close to great. If not for some minor drag, it would have been. Conceptually ingenious, this book is an exploration of the violence as an entity that may or may not be innate and inherent. Sorry, that's much too vague. How about...it's a book that makes you think about how integral aptitude for violence is to the concept of essential humanness. Which makes this the best sort of story, the one that deals with serious topics while thoroughly entertaining with fictional settings. And so when a group of Nearthlings (New Earth residents, lazy abbreviations) crash land onto a planet whose inhabitants are pacifistic to a fault, there is a culture/mentality clash of epic proportions, told with Morrow's terrific humor. Mind you, this isn't merely a philosophical exercise, this is a genuinely fun book with action, love story, awesome world building...just imagine a genuinely nonviolent society, how would they process their anger, how would they deal with their emotions...Morrow's world has some very clever methods for this. The moat of hate alone is priceless. And there are cannibals. Point is you don't need do any serious thinking while reading this book, it can be just purely entertaining, but for me the fact that you can do both was the best part. It's not merely thought provoking, it has a staying power, because the subject is timeless, so it has the sort of Brave New World or 1984 quality, though objectively neither as serious nor as horrifying. And to think this was Morrow's debut, that good right out of the gate, wow. Great book, strongly recommended.

[Mir · Rating 3 out of 5]

The meditations on the nature of violence were interesting; the plot and characters somewhat less so. Kudos for a fairly complexly developed made-up religion, which doesn't seem too common in science fiction.

[Matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

The wine of violence is a reification of the metaphor of hate, literally liquified. What would a truly nonviolent society look like? A human society incapable of using violence, and how would such a thing be possible. Through a little sci-fi magic, Morrow gives us the tools to construct such a society, complete with its religion, Zolmec, its philosophy, sports, politics and even its ersatz Christmas holiday. He paints a pretty picture of a civilization not unlike the Toltecs, but also asks the question, Are we truly human if we give up part of ourselves, albeit an unappealing part? Morrow is always thought provoking, and it was interesting to read his first novel and see him laying the foundations for the investigations to follow.

[Kevin Phyland · Rating 3 out of 5]

When a survey ship from Nearth, on its way home, finds the almost-mythic planet Luta, where a sister ship of Nearth’s founding generation ship the Eden Three, ended up. They find a planet inhabited by two types of divergent humanity: an animalistic cannibal barbarian race known only as the Brain Eaters, and a completely pacifist evolved human breed. Over many generations the pacifists had built a walled city to protect them from the Brain Eaters, surrounded by a moat of strange liquid. Two Nearth survivors, Francis Lostwax and Burne Newman, are skeptical of a totally violence-free society but it seemed to work. However, Francis finds, by covert observation, that the Luddite pacifists utilize at least one machine - one which exorcises all their violent impulses through astoundingly violent dream theatre - and produces the deadly fluid in the moat. Francis falls in love with a pacifist woman Tez and acting under the strange idea that people are not fully human without the capacity for hate and violence, seeks to convert Tez by chemical means… James Morrow’s first novel is readable and calls itself a fable - by which I presume he means you can’t change human nature and we reap what we sow. Not bad by any means.

[Simon Mcleish · Rating 3 out of 5]

If the protagonist of a novel is named Francis Lostwax, then it's pretty clear that it is meant to be funny. And in places this SF novel (Morrow's debut) is. But the humour is patchy, and the writing is uneven. I additionally found the violence motif in this culture clash story to be tiresome and distasteful. From other reviews on Goodreads, it seems that he went on to better things, so I shall try some of the later stories...

[Connor Shrader · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF @40%. Nooo thank you!

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Fine Debut Novel from One of Speculative Fiction's Greatest Living Satirists

Admittedly "The Wine of Violence" isn't James Morrow's best work, but even it, as a debut novel, illustrates much of the major themes present in his literary career, with an interest in exploring - and ridiculing - faith and in championing reason. "The Wine of Violence" reminds me a lot of some bizarre Philip K. Dick, with Kurt Vonnegut - before he renounced his ties to science fiction - and Harlan Ellison thrown in. It's a compelling saga in which two stranded human travelers stumble upon a society totally devoted to peace while co-existing uneasily with an almost subhuman tribe of cannibalistic savages; both societies the descendants of survivors of a long-lost Earth colony ship. Anyone who has been a fan of Morrow's work will find much to celebrate in his debut novel, while others may find themselves intrigued by the fascinating, often complex, protagonists as well as the settings, including a dark river in which those from the peaceful society have poured in all of their anger and hate. Morrow excels especially here as a superb satirist of ideas, anticipating much of his recent brilliant satire, especially in novels as stylistically different as "The Madonna and The Starship" and his latest, "Galapagos Regained".

[EmBe · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5
Bei der Durchsicht meiner Bücher auf GR entdeckt, dass ein paar Bücher von einen meiner
"Lieblings". Autoren nicht dabei sind! Es gab eine Zeit, in der ich alles, was von dem Autor erschienen ist, gekauft und gelesen habe.
Quezalia, einem von Menschen bewohnten Planeten hat man eine Methode entdeckt, der Aggressionen Herr zu werden: Man man wandelt sie in einem wissenschaftlich-magischen Verfahren in die Substanz Nox, den "Wein des Frevels" um.
Die Handlung setzt ein, als ein Raumschiff von der Nerde landet, und ein Besatzungsmitglied zurück bleibt- aus Liebe und Faszination für die gewaltlose Gesellschaft.
Burnes, der Raumfahrer wird hineingezogen in die Konflikte der Gesellschaft, denn die friedlichen Bewohner werden immer wieder von den Neurovoren angegriffen. Burnes stellte sich zur Vefügung, die Verteidiger anzuführen. Er lässt sie Nox trinken. Das verändert die Gesellschaft und auch Burnes Leben auf tragische Weise.
Ich war gefesselt von diesem Roman, dem der Klappentext Parallelen zu "Lobgesang auf Leibowitz" und "Schöne Neue Welt" nachsagt. Bezüge gibt es durchaus. Die beschriebene Gesellschaft ist das verfremdete Aztkenreich, allerdings ohne die gewalttätigen Traditionen dieser Kultur. Das fand ich auch sehr interessant.

[Peg Tittle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not my favorite Morrow (that would be Towing Jehovah), but, as always, there are a few choice bits ...

“On Earth, where his remotest forebears lived, a person could be indisputably responsible for the deaths of thousands and still go down in the history books as some sort of great hero. … Why, he wanted to know, were the names of Samson, Napoleon, Joan of Arc, Ulysses S. Grant, and Julius Caesar not obscenities, spoken after dark in whispers of revulsion and shame?” p17-80

“The miners … expected retirement benefits from their Rationalist employer, John Donaldson. Mr. Donaldson went home, did the arithmetic, and called out the police because it was cheaper.

“The strikers, who had enthusiasm, attacked the police, who had yeastguns. The enthusiasm made martyrs; the guns, holes.” p109-110

[Tani · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am very wary of older scifi, especially when it's written by a male author. However, this was actually pretty good! James Morrow writes with a really wry sense of humor that I definitely enjoyed. He clearly has a finely tuned sense of the absurd. His characters do terrible things, but the narrative doesn't endorse them, which I appreciated. I do feel like the philosophy behind the story could have used some more elaboration, as it all becomes a bit boiled down and simplistic, but overall, I thought this was actually really solid.

[Edward Champion · Rating 3 out of 5]

Morrow's first novel doesn't have the honed satirical voice of the books he'd write later, but it does feature some genuinely amusing thought experiments in the form of a pacifist society, asking such uncomfortable questions on how this affects everything from sex to being a carnivore. This gels a little better than Morrow's sloppier novels, but it's still not quite on the level of the best parts of the Godhead trilogy.

[Boweavil · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although not nearly as good as his latest work, this first novel by James Morrow shows the path he carves for himself. Unlike a great deal of other sci fi, Morrow is deeply concerned with ethics and spirituality. Interesting characters and fine language decorate a difficult story of violence and misunderstanding.

[Joshua · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love Morrow's later work. This was a worthy first novel, but the story left something to be desired in character development and emotional depth. The plot was fun and engaging, and at times horrifying.

[Kathei · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really like science fiction books but this one just did not do it for me.

[Adam Meek · Rating 4 out of 5]

An extremely disturbing fable.

[Brian Bohmueller · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a James Morrow fan it was a satisfying read if only to taste the roots of his craft.

The sci-fi/psychological/religious themes were intriguing. The world building has its Vonnegut/LeGuin flairs. Overall, the novel had its tangles but was an enjoyable story of violence its conscious implementer, the human.

[Carol · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jam packed with thought-provoking, neat ideas. A group of scientists crashes on a planet with monstrous cannibals and a weird totally non-violent society, both of whom are descended from a previously crashed colony ship. It really explores the idea of can man be truly non-violent, as well as who is more a monster a normal man or the cannibalistic killers? A good smart read. Not a comfortable one, but worth it.

[Alexburchee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Original, tge science fiction a vehicle for considerations on morality

Not as entertaining as Towing Jehovah etc, but still a well written and entertaining yarn. As usual with Morrow, there's an element of religion and morality. At times sad, the tone is light and amused.

[Erik Graff · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a decent satirical science fiction novel.

[Michèle · Rating 4 out of 5]

this story was my first intact with the work of James Morrow, satirical and witty SF, and I fell in love with the style, the story.

A innovative social reflexion on violence and conditioning.

[Patrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

James Morrow's first novel. I enjoyed it -- moments of humour alternated with moments of sheer horror.

[Howard]

7

[Mari · Rating 2 out of 5]

1.5/5

[Jeff Youngstrom]

My review from August 2, 1997

[Bellerofonte Chimeras · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little masterpiece, i totally loved it, and was impressed that i wrote a little concept ep about it.

[Charlie dugan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting twists