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Helliconia
The Helliconia trilogy is a series of science fiction books by British writer Brian W. Aldiss, set on the Earth-like planet Helliconia. It is an epic chronicling the rise and fall of a civilisation over thousands of years as the planet progresses through its incredibly long seasons, which last for centuries.
On Helliconia, there are two main intelligent species humans and Phagors. The humans are similar to Earth humans, although they evolved independently. The Phagors are white-furred humanoid beings, roughly the size of humans but with horned features resembling the mythical minotaur. They are intelligent, with their own language and culture, but their civilisation has never advanced beyond a hunter-gatherer level. Since the evolution of humans on the planet, the two species have been in constant conflict, with the phagors dominant during the great winter and the humans dominant during the great summer. Orbiting around the planet is a massive space station of Earth humans, the Avernus, and many probes and other monitoring devices, sending information about Helliconia to Earth.
The trilogy consists of the books Helliconia Spring (published in 1982), Helliconia Summer (1983), and Helliconia Winter (1985).
As the books of the trilogy take place centuries apart and lack a central protagonist—instead giving time to many members in a cast of characters, such as the lineage of Yuli the Priest (Helliconia Spring) or the royal household of Borlien (Helliconia Summer) -- the true substance of the series is, in one sense, the planet itself and its science, especially in the light of James Lovelock's Gaia Hypothesis. Aldiss obtained help from many Oxford academics learned in many fields of study -- astronomy, geology, climatology, geobiology, microbiology, religion, society, etc. -- to draw connections that would show numerous ways in which various aspects of civilisation intersect and interact.
Helliconia experiences a very long year, called the "great year", equivalent to approximately 2,500 Earth years, and global temperatures vary greatly over this period. The books (which are set thousands of years in the future) each cover a different portion of one such "great year". A space station from Earth, the Avernus, is orbiting Helliconia and closely observing the planet, including the activities of its intelligent inhabitants. The temptation to interfere in Helliconian affairs is a recurring dilemma for the inhabitants of Avernus.
Helliconia is populated by two main races, humans and phagors, constantly competing for dominance of the planet. Helliconian humans are not the same species as Earth humans, having evolved entirely independently, but are remarkably similar in appearance, intellect, behaviour, and culture.
A major theme of the trilogy is the fragility of human civilisation in the context of environmental changes, and the ability of humanity to preserve and recreate civilisation. Nature frequently interrupts events occurring during the plot, and phenomena related to the changing of the seasons of the Great Year provide a deus ex machina plot device in the climax of each of the three books (the exploding trees toward the end of Spring that allow the heroes to escape a phagor attack, the migrating fish-lizards and sea monsters attempting to mate toward the end of Summer that allow the heroes in both cases to fend off invading armies, and the marauding phagors toward the end of Winter that allow the hero to escape from his captors).
Since the present day, the humans of Earth have been through an era of space exploration. This has been rather disappointing, as faster than light travel was proven impossible, and few planets have been found bearing life beyond the microbial stage (though a minor sub-plot in Winter involves some space explorers finding a planet that contains little but the remains of a ruined civilization, an incident that leads them to posit there have existed several planets with many advanced civilizations, all ultimately having destroyed themselves via nuclear warfare). The one opportune success was the discovery of Helliconia, a planet presently full of adequately developed life. A space station, the Avernus, was dispatched to monitor but not interfere with Helliconia, providing the Earth with scientific data and the entertainment of an epic reality show aired planet-wide on a network of "eductainment".
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Helliconia
The Helliconia trilogy is a series of science fiction books by British writer Brian W. Aldiss, set on the Earth-like planet Helliconia. It is an epic chronicling the rise and fall of a civilisation over thousands of years as the planet progresses through its incredibly long seasons, which last for centuries.
On Helliconia, there are two main intelligent species humans and Phagors. The humans are similar to Earth humans, although they evolved independently. The Phagors are white-furred humanoid beings, roughly the size of humans but with horned features resembling the mythical minotaur. They are intelligent, with their own language and culture, but their civilisation has never advanced beyond a hunter-gatherer level. Since the evolution of humans on the planet, the two species have been in constant conflict, with the phagors dominant during the great winter and the humans dominant during the great summer. Orbiting around the planet is a massive space station of Earth humans, the Avernus, and many probes and other monitoring devices, sending information about Helliconia to Earth.
The trilogy consists of the books Helliconia Spring (published in 1982), Helliconia Summer (1983), and Helliconia Winter (1985).
As the books of the trilogy take place centuries apart and lack a central protagonist—instead giving time to many members in a cast of characters, such as the lineage of Yuli the Priest (Helliconia Spring) or the royal household of Borlien (Helliconia Summer) -- the true substance of the series is, in one sense, the planet itself and its science, especially in the light of James Lovelock's Gaia Hypothesis. Aldiss obtained help from many Oxford academics learned in many fields of study -- astronomy, geology, climatology, geobiology, microbiology, religion, society, etc. -- to draw connections that would show numerous ways in which various aspects of civilisation intersect and interact.
Helliconia experiences a very long year, called the "great year", equivalent to approximately 2,500 Earth years, and global temperatures vary greatly over this period. The books (which are set thousands of years in the future) each cover a different portion of one such "great year". A space station from Earth, the Avernus, is orbiting Helliconia and closely observing the planet, including the activities of its intelligent inhabitants. The temptation to interfere in Helliconian affairs is a recurring dilemma for the inhabitants of Avernus.
Helliconia is populated by two main races, humans and phagors, constantly competing for dominance of the planet. Helliconian humans are not the same species as Earth humans, having evolved entirely independently, but are remarkably similar in appearance, intellect, behaviour, and culture.
A major theme of the trilogy is the fragility of human civilisation in the context of environmental changes, and the ability of humanity to preserve and recreate civilisation. Nature frequently interrupts events occurring during the plot, and phenomena related to the changing of the seasons of the Great Year provide a deus ex machina plot device in the climax of each of the three books (the exploding trees toward the end of Spring that allow the heroes to escape a phagor attack, the migrating fish-lizards and sea monsters attempting to mate toward the end of Summer that allow the heroes in both cases to fend off invading armies, and the marauding phagors toward the end of Winter that allow the hero to escape from his captors).
Since the present day, the humans of Earth have been through an era of space exploration. This has been rather disappointing, as faster than light travel was proven impossible, and few planets have been found bearing life beyond the microbial stage (though a minor sub-plot in Winter involves some space explorers finding a planet that contains little but the remains of a ruined civilization, an incident that leads them to posit there have existed several planets with many advanced civilizations, all ultimately having destroyed themselves via nuclear warfare). The one opportune success was the discovery of Helliconia, a planet presently full of adequately developed life. A space station, the Avernus, was dispatched to monitor but not interfere with Helliconia, providing the Earth with scientific data and the entertainment of an epic reality show aired planet-wide on a network of "eductainment".