The Realms of Tartarus

They built it on a platform that covered the polluted surface of the old world, turned men's eyes away from the unsolved problems of the bad old days, and brought their shining new cities up into the perpetual sunlight.

But down there, in the lamplit "sky" of the old surface, life had persisted. Men existed, and semi-men, and things that never were men... and nobody in the sunlight above knew of them until disturbing dreams began to intrude and visions bothered a few sensitive minds.

One man investigated. One man went down to that forgotten basement of the Earth and thereby uncovered the grave of the world that was and let its transformed phantoms glimpse the light above.

Cover art by Ron Walotsky

Published in 1977 by DAW.
ISBN:0-87997-309-9

Now it is Tartarus, shut off from the face of heaven by a huge platform which completely envelopes the world. Living in a technological utopia, the inhabitants of the platform have long forgotten that other men still live in the grim underworld that they forsook.

But one man descends to the Tartarean depths. He discovers that under the accelerated evolutionary conditions of this hothouse underworld a whole new ecology of grossly mutated life-foms has emerged. Now the True Men share their environment with rat-men, cat-men and gigantic waterworms...

Cover art by Patrick Woodruff

Published by Quartet in 1976.
ISBN:0 704 31194 1

Translated into French as:
Les Royaumes de Tartare.

Cast of Characters:
Carl, Joth, Ryan and Julea Magner. Chemec, Camlak, Porcel, Ermold, Nita, Sada, Old Man Yami, Huldi, Rafael Heres, Abram Revelent, Thorold Warnet, Enzo Ulicon, Jervis Burnstone, Yvon Emerich, Eliot Rypeck, Randal Harkander Iorga, Joel Dayling, Sisyr, Gregor Zuzara, Vicente Soron, Javan Sobol, Joachim Casirati, Alwyn Ballow, Luel Dascon, Germont.

The 1st part:
The Face of Heaven.

Translated into German as:
Die Erde Über uns.

Translated into Japanese.

Imagine a world, where to escape its own pollution, the populace has built a platform encompassing the entire surface, like an astounding eggshell. This is the Earth of The Realms of Tartarus, set at a time soon after it's completion.

While the people the platform have been busy, so has evolution below. With their primary energy source cut, most plants have died off; leaving Earth to domination by fungi and those creatures adaptable enough to consume them.

This is a considerably more complex book than the Hooded Swan series, concerning three separate communities and the internal conflicts of each.

The platform-livers are the beneficiaries of The Euchronian Millennium headed by a body known as the Hegemon, which oversees the plan.

Below, people - of whatever species - live in small closed settlements and of these, just two are described with brutal clarity: Stalhelm and Walgo live in an atmosphere of simmering hostility, which neither has the resources to pursue.

Carl Magner's family is unusual among those of the Euchronian Millennium, in that it has been touched by tragedy and this may be why Carl is now tormented by dreams of the world below. These dreams lead him to write a book: The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, and he becomes a centre of attention, which in turn leads the Hegemon to plan an expedition into the twilight world beneath...

Don't be put off by the contrived nature of the world in this book, Brian is far too intelligent to be sucked into simplistic dystopian clichés; while life below is hard, it isn't an unremitting Hell and the Euchronian society, though prosperous, is no utopia.

Realms isn't an easy read - parts of it are like an essay - but it is jam-packed with ideas and exciting speculations. It is a book which will provoke you and make you think. Whether intentional or not, the allegorical comparison between the worlds of Realms and the first and third worlds of our own time are inescapeable.

This is a deliberate attempt by Brian to move upmarket, to challenge his readers and his own writing skills.

Translated into German as:
Die Vergessene Hölle unter uns.

Translated into Japanese.

This book starts with Camlak waking after the attack by the Ahrima. He finds Stalhelm destroyed and sets off on the road to see what has become of those who fled before the onslaught.

Joth, Nita and Huldi have crossed The Swithering Waste and turn toward Shairn in the hope of finding other survivors.

On the roof of the world, various political machinations and posturings occur and we are introduced to Sisyr, who gets to endure the first of several visitations from Euchronian citizens, each following their own agenda. At this point the alien is coming across as one of those annoying aliens, whom we are told cannot be understood, because they're alien and that's that.

Randal Harkander leads Euchronia's first expedition into the underworld; becoming frustrated by his team's thorough and methodical approach, which doesn't measure up to his romantic ideals.

We do get to see quite a lot of the underworld and Ron Walotsky's cover is a fair representation, though no picture could possibly get across exactly how filthy and harsh the environment actually is.

Like many middle volumes of trilogies, A Vision of Hell is unsatisfying in itself. Characters wander around aimlessly, like badly choreographed dancers. There is a lot of discussion, which doesn't seem relevant on the face of it; but this is all preparation for the final volume and is brought to a climactic conclusion, which carries you - whether you planned it or not - into A Glimpse of Infinity.

Translated into German as:
Zurück ins Licht.

Translated into Japanese.

The momentum built up at the end of A Vision of Hell carries you into this novel at a rate of knots and we find that the nature of Camlak's disappearance has completely unmanned Raphael Heres. The hegemon had planned to co-opt Carl Magner's agenda, but in his panic, he declares an all-out war of obliteration against the people of the underworld. Viruses are engineered and armoured cars are sent out to spread them, but The Children of the Voice and the life system of the underworld give Euchronia a couple of really nasty surprises.

The character of Sisyr develops very nicely and through a neat change of perspective transforms into a much more sympathetic character. There's no trite assumption that, because Sisyr's an alien, it is therefore incomprehensible. Instead Sisyr has its own motivations.

One very interesting theme is the game of Hoh, which turns out to be a development of John Conway's Game of Life. David Brin, in his novel Glory Season gives quite a detailed treatment of Life, but it's clear here that Brian not only got there 15 years earlier, but also extended the idea to permit players to change the characteristics of the pieces (page 330 in the DAW edition) to allow for evolution. Also, whereas Brin's game is purely a zero-sum conflict, Brian's can be played as a nonzero-sum game.

Hoh is used here not only to illustrate certain personal and philosophical aspects of the characters; but also to shed light on the ending, which is not neat and tidy. Indeed, were Brian to have tied up all the lose ends, then the point of the novel would have been undermined.

In summary, The Realms of Tartarus does have a great deal to recommend it: it's jam-packed with speculations and illustrations of scientific insight. It isn't one of Brian's easiest reads, but it's definitely one of his best.