The Saga of Lost Earths

This science fiction novel is part of Emil Petaja's well-regarded Otava series, which is based on The Kalevala, the ancient Finnish epic poem. In each of the books that make up the series - "Saga of Lost Earth's" (1966), "Star Mill" (1966), "The Stolen Sun" (1967), and "Tramontane" (1967) - an Earth descendant of one of the four main heroes of the epic is reborn into his avatar's role in order to re-enact his adventures on Otava, the planet of origin of the Kalevala pantheon. (Ace Books originally published each of the four novels. A fifth book in the cycle, "Return to Otava" (1970), remains unpublished.) "Saga of Lost Earths" is a story of beings from the stars and beyond the stars, and of powers that came to Earth long ago and shaped humanity. It is also the story of one Carl Lempi, who had the nerve to talk back to the machine. That marked him for investigation in the computer-run future of World-Fed. Lempi's defiance, as it turns out, was one of many breakdowns that were undermining the world's civilization. But fate - and the plans of a hidden race of star-descended men - had a special place for Lempi. His rebellion was the start of a quest, a journey back through dimensions of time and space to the source of the world's trouble - an antagonist hinted at in the oldest legends of mankind. Lempi was to hold Earth's hope in his hands. Emil Petaja's Otava series brought him readers from around the world, while his mythological approach to science fiction has been discussed on websites and in scholarly papers devoted to the Finnish epic. "Saga of Lost Earths" is a brief, enjoyable novel. It, along with the other out-of-print books in the series, should be reissued in a complete omnibus edition.