"Phoenix without Ashes" by Edward Bryant (1945-2017) & Harlan Ellison (1934-2018)

 

Publisher: Fawcett

Copyright: 1975

ISBN: None listed

Some readers may remember a short-lived television program in the early 70s called "The Starlost". Many people including Mr. Ellison would truly like to forget this program ever existed, as Mr. Ellison's original ideas, and concept for the TV program and story were essentially stolen, and completely corrupted by Hollywood and the television industry.

The first chapter of this book is written by Mr . Ellison and outlines the story of what happened, and how the TV program was made, up until the time that he got so disgusted with it that he left the show, and forced the network to remove his name from the series and replace it with the pseudonym Cordwainer Bird. He was soon to be followed by Ben Bova who was the science advisor to the series.

The remainder of this book is written by Mr. Bryant is the actual novelization form of Mr. Ellison's outline prior to various unscrupulous agents, managers, and others who got hold of it.

The story itself revolves around a time in the distant future (2785), after the earth has been destroyed and the inhabitants from selected places have been placed aboard an ark in controlled biospheres that mimic their cultures and lifestyles, and set on course for Alpha Centauri. Devon is a young man who lives in a very strict society (seeming patterned after the Amish), but who questions the authority of the elders and his cast out. Further violations of their extremely strict doctrine forces him to flee, and while a posse pursues him he stumbles across a hatch that leads into the actual Ark itself. He discovers that the crew is dead, and the ship is on a collision course with a star which it will hit in approximately five years.

I can remember watching "The Starlost" when I was young, and at the time I thought it was fairly well done but in my own defence this was before I started reading a whole bunch of science fiction and other types of writing as well. Now I can see how the story arc has been corrupted and this reinforces my previously expounded upon thoughts that Hollywood should never be allowed to get hold of a writer's work. Mind you considering that we are now facing another Batman movie, another Spiderman, and who knows how many other remakes we likely don't have to worry too much about this as the whole movie industry seems to be geared toward mediocrity.

If you remember the TV show this book is well worth the read to see what was intended, mind you if you do remember the show then this book only covers the first episode.

Worth reading, but hard to find.