The World and Thorinn

An exciting science fiction and fantasy tale. For the first fifty pages or so, I thought this a story for adolescent boys. That may be, but after those fifty pages, it picked up wonderfully and became hard to put down. And yet I didn't want to finish it either. A conundrum. Knight shows real imagination and quite cleverly bases the book (written in 1980) on biospheres, long before the one in Arizona became newsworthy. Some of the very detailed descriptions were hard to follow, but I managed most of them. And Thorinn carrying the balloon and basket did stretch the believable (and how did he recross the river?), but all in all a terrific yarn. Make a great movie, with fantastic visuals. I was so surprised that this book turned out to be good. First sci-fi book I've read in decades.

This is a great book. If you like Orphans of the Sky or even that old game Metamorphosis Alpha you may very well like the world Thorinn inhabits. He discovers and uncovers the true nature of his world. This book has great development and wonderful writing.

I'll say right off my favorite author is Robert A. Heinlein - especially his earlier novels and juveniles - so I compare anything else I read to his work; this fascinating tale by Damon Knight certainly measures up. Young Thorinn is cast into a well as a sacrifice to appease an angry "god" by his simple-minded stepfather. But Thorinn doesn't perish there. Digging his way out into a cavern beneath the well, Thorinn explores the "underworld" in his almost fairytale-like quest to return to the surface. He finds numerous caverns, some populated by creatures both friendly and treacherous. Thorinn must survive by his own ingenuity, resourcefulness, and courage, and the reader gradually learns with him the true nature of the fascinating "world" Knight so deftly reveals.

I'll say right off my favorite author is Robert A. Heinlein - especially his earlier novels and juveniles - so I compare anything else I read to his work; this fascinating tale by Damon Knight certainly measures up. Young Thorinn is cast into a well as a sacrifice to appease an angry "god" by his simple-minded stepfather. But Thorinn doesn't perish there. Digging his way out into a cavern beneath the well, Thorinn explores the "underworld" in his almost fairytale-like quest to return to the surface. He finds numerous caverns, some populated by creatures both friendly and treacherous. Thorinn must survive by his own ingenuity, resourcefulness, and courage, and the reader gradually learns with him the true nature of the fascinating "world" Knight so deftly reveals.