Way-farer

Really a 3.5 stars out of 5.

This is an odd one. It was first published in 1981. There are elements of Foundation, in that someone with foresight sets things up in the beginning. It feels like a mystery, because clues are followed throughout to the conclusions at the end. It is sci-fi, since they travels in space ships to this planet, and it feels like a martial arts fantasy for most of the book. It feels like a Zen treatise or a book of Eastern philosophy, because there is a lot of discussion of mindfulness and The Way.

It starts off leaning hard into the trope of “Student looks for Master. Master humiliates student. Wax on. Wax off. Student demands lessons. Student gets lessons. Student doesn't like lessons. Student learns, and continues travels.” That was probably the least interesting part of the book because it was so trite, but before and after that, Jerome's travels are interesting. The mystery really kicks in and you aren't sure where it is going to go. Jerome meets interesting people, particularly Chaka and the merchant, and situations where he has to use his wits. The ending was somewhat predictable, and the book is short. It naturally leads to the next book, and perhaps today all four books would have been released as one.

The chapters are pretty short, so the book propels you forward pretty quickly. The prose was direct, having a few really nice spots. My favorite paragraph in the whole book was the beginning of chapter VII:

“Once again the days followed the sun over the horizon like identical beads on a string. There was no sense in counting them, no logic to keeping track. To number each would have been to differentiate it from all others, to name this the Day the Tree Lizards Sang, and that the Day They Didn't, one the Day that Brought Rain, another the Day the Sun Shone. But it was useless, for even the differences repeated themselves, and even the similarities changed. It was a rhythm that needed nothing to complete or complement it.”

Some may find the amount of philosophy off-putting in comparison to the action, a lot of which happens off-screen. I enjoyed it. I'm not going to pick up the sequel immediately, but I do plan to pick it up relatively soon.

A solid book.