Stirling Lanier’s novel “The Journey of Hiero” has long been a classic of scientific fantasy. It is fantasy, not fiction. A strikingly organic combination of the chivalrous atmosphere of the Middle Ages and modern technology, well-reasoned disseminations of information from the fields of chemistry, physics, neuropsychology only add color to this already amazing work. Having become a bestseller and a novel that forever inscribed its author in the list of the best American science fiction writers, “The Journey of Iero” became the forerunner of the appearance of many cult works, not only in the field of literature, but also in the field of painting, music, and cinema.
Despite the revolutionary stylistic radicalism for its time, the novel received high reviews from recognized pen masters such as Frank Herbert, Ray Bradbury and Isaac Asimov.
The very philosophy of medieval asceticism and monotony in the world of modern technology is already intriguing and attracts the attention of the reader, not to mention the merits of the artistic style used by the author.
Reader's reviews of the book “Journey of Hiero” more than once proved the demand for such literature in the circles of thinking people.
Writer
Sterling Lanier is a figure who has always stood apart in the literary community of the United States. Despite the fact that Lanier was a science fiction writer who was considered a special elite creative caste at that time, he always kept his distance from art as such, rarely giving interviews and practically not participating in any literary events.
In addition to writing, Sterling devoted a great deal of time to self-development, sports, and sculpture, in which he excelled a lot. Sometimes he returned to his first work - editing and proofreading scientific and journalistic articles.
Biography
Having written The Journey of Hiero, Lanier was born December 18, 1927 in the city of New York in the family of a worker and a maid. The family of the future writer was rather poor, and he was forced to work a lot in various shops and eateries, trying to help parents pay for their education. At the age of eighteen, Sterling moved to Maryland, to distant relatives, thanks to whom he could become a Harvard scholarship holder. Teachers immediately notice a gifted student, and Lanier gets a job at the department, taking the post of editor. At Harvard, Lanier spent a lot of time studying cultural studies, philosophy, history and anthropology, paying particular attention to the history of the Middle Ages. The experience gained will be useful to him later in writing the famous book “The Journey of Iero”.
early years
In 1951, Sterling graduated with honors from Harvard University and got a job at the National Museum, taking the position of historian-researcher. The scientific work completely and completely absorbs the future writer, and Lagnier has been working in the same place for about ten years, periodically refusing offers received from various universities in the world.
All this time, Sterling has been working tirelessly on a still unnamed novel, which in the future will be called the Journey of Iero. The writer also creates a large number of stories, short stories and small cultural essays on medieval Europe.
In 1961, Lanier decided to publish one of his works in the famous Asimov's Science Fiction magazine. A short story with a couple of pages attracts readers with its originality and dissimilarity to other works, from which the issues of this magazine were usually composed.
Doe and Dune
In the mid-sixties, having left the museum, Lanier was in search of work for some time, until he finally got a job as an editor in one of the small publishing houses called Chilton Books. It was there that in 1965 Frank Herbert, who was still unknown to anyone, turned to him and proposed for publication the novel Dune. The office's management rejected the work of the young writer, but Lanier stood up for him, having vouched for a literary opus. At the beginning of 1966, Dune was published, but book sales left much to be desired, and the angry director dismissed Lanier from the post of editor.
Writing a book
Frustrated in the office system itself, Sterling Lagnier locked himself at home and began to sort his archives of a decade ago, in which there were a large number of conceptual sketches devoted to the author’s universe, which contained elements of both modern technology and the attributes of the Middle Ages.
Gradually, from the fragmented fragments, the very idea of ​​the book “Journey of Iero” began to emerge - the journey of a wanderer in a dangerous world full of difficulties, hardships and deprivations.
Of course, then Lanier did not even guess what his future work would be and what impact it would have on the literature of the fantastic genre in general.
"Journey of Iero"
Sterling Lanier's post-apocalyptic novel tells of the consequences of a monstrous nuclear disaster. The world, irreparably damaged by such a massive cataclysm, is on the verge of destruction, tormented by mutants, monsters and various monsters sent by the Unclean. The goal of saving the world and protecting it from the hordes of the Unclean is set by the warriors of the Abbey of Kanda, who have great knowledge and experience, but all their attempts are unsuccessful, since an unknown weapon is required against the forces of evil, which Iero Destin is sent to search for. Destin is a telepath warrior with phenomenal abilities to see the future and excellent combat skills.
The book tells about his adventures, adventures and constant moral choices, which he is forced to make, performing a difficult assignment from his spiritual mentor.
He is forced to constantly engage in battle with various evil spirits, often showing not only firmness of spirit, but also the necessary cruelty, thanks to which innocent people and good Christians remain alive.
People rarely give shelter to a wanderer, and this is where his ministry is manifest, selfless and modest. Jero is not proud of his work.
In part, it is precisely the use of such topics by the author in his work that can explain such a large number of positive reviews on the book “Journey of Iero”. Due to the straightforwardness of his character, Sterling Lanier managed to create a morally clean world in which there is no “middle side” or subconscious “double peace” of heroes. In the universe of the novel there are only two sides - light and dark, so the plot of the book itself is already a moral conflict of the author’s world.
Criticism
The new work, which had just emerged from the pen of a young science fiction writer, was immediately put up for discussion by the most venerable literary critics in the field of science fiction. Most left positive reviews on “The Journey of Hiero,” because, despite some shortcomings of the work, the author not only created a new genre, but also secured it with a worthy dilogy, equal in volume to Herbert's first three books on the world of Dune.
Such famous science fiction writers as Isaac Asimov and Ray Bradbury respected the work of the young author, noting that the work of Lanier carries all the features characteristic of a new type of literature, and is, in fact, a link between the literature of the past and the fantastic worlds of the future.
Reviews
Reader feedback on the book “Journey of Iero” was mostly positive. People who liked the novel noted an interesting concept, a carefully crafted world of the author’s universe, interesting plot moves, and most importantly, characters with incredibly detailed characters.
Readers who were dissatisfied with the work wrote that the novel was too long, the language of the narration was rather dry, similar to medieval knightly chronicles.
However, their opinion is not so important right now, because “The Journey of Iero” not only passed the test of time, but also became a classic of foreign fiction.