Scan barcode
A review by mschlat
The Heads of Cerberus by Francis Stevens
4.0
This is a reprint of a tale originally serialized in a pulp magazine back in 1919 and published now as part of the Modern Library's Torchbearers imprint (honoring "women who wrote on their own terms, with boldness, creativity, and a spirit of resistance"). Not only is it a very early science fiction/fantasy novel written by a female author, but it's apparently one of the first works to explore parallel worlds (in this case, with a dystopian twist).
A note on reading early genre works: like many other stories of the time, there is a huge emphasis on exposition. It's not enough to just have the outré element, but you need to justify its origin and workings fully. (Not like these days where - poof! - we have a time machine.) Sometimes, that perceived necessity became a virtue (see most of the Sherlock Holmes canon, where the exposition is much of the story); other times, the need to explicate weighs down the narrative.
Stevens here walks a fine line between too much and too little. The engine that gets everything going is an artifact called (ta-dah!) the Head of Cerberus, which is filled with a fine grey dust. When the dust makes contact with a human being, they are transported to a strange fantasy realm which then transports them to an alternate world. (It's much like the setup in C.S. Lewis's [b:The Magician's Nephew|65605|The Magician's Nephew (Chronicles of Narnia, #6)|C.S. Lewis|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1308814770l/65605._SY75_.jpg|1031537].) Stevens spends a bunch of writing on the dust, its origins, and its power (not so interesting) and leaves the fantasy realm almost completely unexplained (ooh! mystery!).
We follow a trio: an older brother (big, strong, and Irish), his little sister (attractive - of course - and spirited), and the brother's best friend (smart, but down on his luck, and - of course - falling for the sister). Nobody is terribly nuanced, but they're all likeable enough and all have parts in moving the plot forward. After making contact with the dust, they are captured in a Philadelphia of 2118, which strongly resembles their Philadelphia of 1918, except that the social and political hierarchy has become horribly authoritarian. (Most people have no name, just a number, and nothing more than a basic practical education.) Our trio does what you might expect in such circumstances, but the epilogue takes a strange philosophical twist.
Overall, it was a fun read. Stevens relied too much on coincidence (several people get involved in the tale through botched burglaries!), but I really liked her description of the ruling class, where Superlatives (people called Strongest, Cleverest, Loveliest, etc... rule). I was thinking at the end that she was setting up a series about the dust and our trio, but from what I can tell, she never followed up on it. Recommended if you like early science fiction and fantasy writing.
A note on reading early genre works: like many other stories of the time, there is a huge emphasis on exposition. It's not enough to just have the outré element, but you need to justify its origin and workings fully. (Not like these days where - poof! - we have a time machine.) Sometimes, that perceived necessity became a virtue (see most of the Sherlock Holmes canon, where the exposition is much of the story); other times, the need to explicate weighs down the narrative.
Stevens here walks a fine line between too much and too little. The engine that gets everything going is an artifact called (ta-dah!) the Head of Cerberus, which is filled with a fine grey dust. When the dust makes contact with a human being, they are transported to a strange fantasy realm which then transports them to an alternate world. (It's much like the setup in C.S. Lewis's [b:The Magician's Nephew|65605|The Magician's Nephew (Chronicles of Narnia, #6)|C.S. Lewis|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1308814770l/65605._SY75_.jpg|1031537].) Stevens spends a bunch of writing on the dust, its origins, and its power (not so interesting) and leaves the fantasy realm almost completely unexplained (ooh! mystery!).
We follow a trio: an older brother (big, strong, and Irish), his little sister (attractive - of course - and spirited), and the brother's best friend (smart, but down on his luck, and - of course - falling for the sister). Nobody is terribly nuanced, but they're all likeable enough and all have parts in moving the plot forward. After making contact with the dust, they are captured in a Philadelphia of 2118, which strongly resembles their Philadelphia of 1918, except that the social and political hierarchy has become horribly authoritarian. (Most people have no name, just a number, and nothing more than a basic practical education.) Our trio does what you might expect in such circumstances, but the epilogue takes a strange philosophical twist.
Overall, it was a fun read. Stevens relied too much on coincidence (several people get involved in the tale through botched burglaries!), but I really liked her description of the ruling class, where Superlatives (people called Strongest, Cleverest, Loveliest, etc... rule). I was thinking at the end that she was setting up a series about the dust and our trio, but from what I can tell, she never followed up on it. Recommended if you like early science fiction and fantasy writing.