A Funeral for the Eyes of Fire

A Funeral for the Eyes of Fire, Michael Bishop's first novel, concerns itself with a pair of brothers, the Balduins, who seek to negotiate the transplant of the Ouemartsee, a small nonconformist society on the planet Trope, to another nearby planet, Glaparca, in order to assist its residents in taming an unliveable region there. The brothers embark on this mission essentially out of boredom, as at this point in the future, human society has become hivelike, with every need provided for but with no means of achieving distinction from humanity's mass. It isn't until the novel's end that the question of the Ouemartsee's relocation is resolved and the various parties' motives are revealed or confirmed; the bulk of the narrative serves to 1) provide a fascinating look at the Ouemartsee, the Glaparcans, and the majority culture of Trope, and 2) set in motion an event (the proposed relocation) that allows these three cultures and their philosophies (as well as that of the human negotiators) to interact in a variety of ways. This is very much a novel of manners, albeit set far in the future on a distant planet. In writing a novel that focuses so heavily on sociology, diplomacy, religion, and morality--rather than a straightforward conflict narrative--Bishop takes a substantial risk. His cultures must stand on their own, with the only potential for sudden dynamic change coming in the form of the mostly-impotent humans. Fortunately, Bishop succeeds; the Tropemen/Ouemartsee schism is logical and original (when it could have easily been derivative of some aspect of human history); the Glaparcans have a startlingly unique mythology; and the cultural practices of all three serve to demonstrate how alien they are, rather than familiarizing them by making them analogous to human cultures. Needless to say, you would never know this was a first novel, and I highly recommend it to the thinking reader. Some notes: --This was published in 1975; it was republished in 1980 as Eyes of Fire, rewritten (I have no idea how extensively) to bring it in line with a continuity established in some of Bishop's later novels. I have not read that version, and this review refers solely to the original book. --[Spoiler alert] These old science fiction novels are something else; I realize that in 1975 science fiction was still making the transition to actual "literature" in the eyes of many, and a lot of the books being published were still forced to compete for attention in bus station and drug store paperback racks, but attempts to appear sensational can backfire. Plastered across the top of the front cover, above a simultaneously arresting and disturbing portrait of a Tropeman, is the blurb "Their eyes were crystals that could see into the future!" Intriguing? Yes. A huge spoiler? Also, yes. That's something that is meant to be uncovered as the societies of Trope are gradually exposed. It's no reflection on Bishop, naturally; just a humorous example of the way publis