With a slight word of warning from Joachim on the juvenility of Vault
of the Ages, I forged ahead on my sixteenth Poul Anderson book knowing the
above objective truth with my own subjective truth: Poul Anderson has his hits (Tau
Zero [1970] and Three Worlds to Conquer [1964]) more often than he
has his misses (Day of Their Return [1974] and Orbit Unlimited
[1961]). Sadly, the familiar theme of The High Crusade, minus the
aliens, comes across as shallow entertainment with a flowery epimyth or a
conclusion. It’s not a dud, but doesn’t hearken to Poul’s own science fiction traditions
of wonderment and/or zany originality.
Rear cover synopsis:
“20th Century, Mystery Century!
Once upon a time (which hasn’t happened yet) the fierce Lann army
thundered down from the North to conquer the peace-loving Dalesmen. The ‘Doom’
had destroyed nearly all concepts of civilization 500 years earlier. Defying
charges of witchcraft, Carl of Dalesmen entered the forbidden city and the
vault which held secrets of the long-ago twentieth century.”
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With the winters being colder and longer than in recent memory, the
northern clan of Lann has dispatched an army to the south in order to find new
land to settle and cultivate, but not before killing and pillaging. Their
reputation as a ruthless clan has reached further inland has become known as
the fiercest, largest army. Lann’s King Raymon’s own son Lenard is the captain
of the thousand-man platoon; both the leaders and the led are driven by the
need to make a settlement further to south to ensure their clan’s survival. In
their way is peaceful town of Dalesmen.
Democratically governed by Chief Ralph, the village has survived
through the decades with the assistance of the town’s “Doctor,” Donn. As with
every village, the Doctor bears holy symbols, beats drums, and chants spells
against witchcraft (130). One law of the Dalesmen tribe, and many tribes like
them, is to not enter the City, where the scaffold remains of an ancient city
still stand amid the rubble of concrete, steel, and glass. Though inhabited by
a industrious yet cowardly band of so-called witches, the town is off-limits,
especially so for the Time Vault within the city proper.
Chief Ralph’s son Carl treks through the forest and happens upon a
country home where two boys, Tom and Owl, decide to tag along to enter the
city, their mission to find reinforcement against the Lann horde. Their horses
packed, they travel towards the City only to be chased by the Lann band, but
they find solace in the City where they are greeted by the City’s own Chief
Ronwy. Permission is eventually granted for them to enter the Time Vault, where
books and machines abound. To prove to his own clan that the City holds power
enough for them to defeat the Lann clan, Carl takes a hand-crank flashlight to
impress everyone.
Denounced by Doctor Donn, the trio are ever eager to prove themselves
potent in the eyes of the village and, most importantly, in the prying eyes of
the Lann. Though the magic white light emanating from the contraption may have
scared the army once, further technology must be attained so that they may
conquer the horde of heathens at their threshold. Captured by the Lann
eventually, the trio of Carl, Tom, and Owl defuse their situation craftily and
return once again to their village where another challenge is thrown at them:
the death penalty for trespassing on the ground of the City and overstepping
the boundary of the Time Vault and the demons which lurk within.
Yet another timely escape brandished by the young whippersnappers of
Dalesmen sees them charge back into the City once and for all to gain control
of the technology within the Time Vault, whether the City inhabitants or the
Lann can stop them.
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Joachim is right when he states the juvenility of this novel. The gallivanting
between their village, through the enemy’s encampment, to the derelict perches
of the City’s skyscrapers is repetitive. The Vault holds such wonder to the
trio of boys, but it also holds wonder in the reader. However, don’t expect to
be immersed in the ancient wonders of the Vault’s bounty because only a handful
of pages pertain to the Vault’s treasures.
You should familiarize yourself with some of the science lingo before
dipping your toes into this science fiction novel:
Smiting sabers, lancing pikes, gleaming shields, fringed buckskin
breeches, sledging hammers, silver-studded boots… stop me when this begins to
sound more like science fiction than fantasy or historical fiction… thudding
hooves, drawn bows, quivers of arrows, moccasined feet, fur-lined tunics,
saddle blankets, catapults… I could go on… hamstringing swords, creaking
wagons, fur-trimmed boots, etc.
It’s not really that bad but it does drag on.
I wasn’t sympathetic with anyone in this novel, be they a person or a
tribe: the morally high-grounded post-apocalyptic tribe (before post-apocalyptic
was “cool”) of Dalesmen pitted against the advancing threat of an impoverished
clan from the Lann. Perhaps the Lann came at the encroachment the wrong way,
with force, rather than diplomatically, but I didn’t feel sorry for the
villages left in their wake or those who had yet to feel the brunt of the great
Lann warrior clan.
The greedy territorial advance of the Lann army is synonymous to the technological
lust of the Dalesmen youth. Where the Lann simply wanted land to live and
thrive on, the Dalesmen youth look to the non-solution of technology to solve
their problem of invasion. In the Time Vault itself, there were more than mere
inventions of gunpowder and electricity, but there must have also been the
inventions of the mind, something which they felt they could easily bypass. This
reliance on knowing of technology rather than the knowledge of
technology casts a dim view on the young bandits, be it for the greater
cause or less. Even when they discuss to share the treasures within, they
mention the material good rather than the good of knowledge.
Even Doctor Donn says, “There is no evil in the vault. There is only
evil in the hearts of men. Knowledge, all knowledge, is good” (187). If this
were true in the context of the story, then why would the Dalesmen tribe offer
to share the Vault’s technology with competing clans when the exchange of
ethics, morality, or religion could better change the “hearts of men” than a
schooner could? Presuming the Vault is full of not only the world’s most
important technologies, but also full of the virtues of the world’s most gifted
thinkers, I would think the first thing to share would be the goodness of
words, not the goodness of the material wealth.
This will be one of the few Anderson
novels that will be taken back to the second-hand bookstore. It’s a pity that
even the cover isn’t noteworthy. I’ll remind myself in the future to steer
clear of Poul Anderson’s historically themed novels if they don’t include
absurdity like The High Crusade. Now I’m only left with Psycho-technic
League (1981) on my shelves… an ominous sign that I either need for
Anderson, or none at all. Considering his wealth of material, there must be tastier
morsels out there.
See, I didn't rate it much higher ;) I still thought it was a fun read though...
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