In memoriam: Sterling E. Lanier
I’m just finishing a review of Jack Dann’s The Man Who Melted, out in a reissue from Pyr. Writing the review has had me thinking about genre fiction I’d like to see come back into print.
If I could bring a title back into print, it would be two by Sterling E. Lanier Hiero’s Journey (1974) and The Unforsaken Hiero (1985). (Ok, that’s technically two titles, but the books are short, and it’s the same series . . . .) These post-apocalyptic works, set in a North America ravaged by nuclear weapons, portray a warrior-priest’s struggle to incorporate science, religion, and new mental powers in the fight to maintain civilization. Lanier handles the psychology of this character, and his telepathic bonds with animals of varying levels of sentience, masterfully.
Growing up, I read borrowed copies of these books dozens of times, and when I found some battered copies at a laundromat-cum-used-books store in Atlanta almost 10 years ago, I was giddy for weeks.
Lanier died on June 28th. Beyond his own fiction, his sculptures of the Tolkien characters ensure his legacy for fans of science fiction and fantasy. I was sorry to learn of his death. (I’m also weirdly irritated that he doesn’t have a Wikipedia entry--the true measure of reputation these days . . . . Cryptomundo has an interesting take on his life, though.)
Update: HTML glitches fixed.
