I just finished reading Hiero’s Journey by Sterling E. Lanier (1973). The tale is set in the distant future, thousands of years after nuclear and biological warfare nearly destroyed humanity.

It’s an adventure story of travel, discovery, and conflict and is well-told. Some of the character interactions, especially around gender, I found annoying and trite. However, the imaginative world is compelling, the plot engaging, and some of the characters endearing (especially Gorm, a telepathic and very intelligent bear). Lanier successfully creates an exceedingly vibrant and strange world. The geography, societies, flora, and fauna are all rooted in the contemporary age but, because of time, cataclysm, and mutation, everything is different, some things very much so.

“Let’s not die before our time. Who knows what may happen?”