Where Time Winds Blow

Mythago Wood this ain't be under no illusion of that. I found that title so so, and was just a tad cynical when I settled down to read this outing from Robert Holdstock. What I got was a stunning sci-fi novel, the world of which is realised in beautiful and eerie detail. Set on Kamelios which was formerly named VanderZande's World, this is a planet of a yellow /orange atmosphere because it is thick with choking pollen grains from the indigenous plant life. To walk outside the human colonists have to wear masks with filters or undergo pretty radical surgery and become 'manchanged'. These are the other human beings inhabiting the world but have decided to fully integrate with it, farming the land etc but have undergone dramatic and even grotesque physical changes to allow them to breathe the atmosphere without masks. Kamelios has its share of animal life from the tiny Skarl which build impressive coral like structures on the land, to a dangerous predator called a Gulgaroth which will quite happily kill a human being. Strange fire storms called Fiersigs can arrive unexpectedly and have the unsettling ability of being able to enter human minds and radically change patterns of behaviour, inducing a terrible fear and desperation in individuals so affected. However, the most striking features of Kamelios are the strange and terrible Time Winds and lesser winds known as Time Squalls. Get caught in one of these and you will quite literally get taken for a ride. To where no one knows because no one who has ever been taken by a Time Wind, has returned to tell the tale. On other times they are lethal in that they will take part of a person, if that unfortunate should get caught on the edge and leave a few body parts behind. Haunting the background is a figure known as the Phantom Of The Valley, who is usually seen at long distance and never allows itself to be approached. Tantalisingly this could be a survivor from a Time Wind..... What the winds do tend to leave behind are items from what appear to be from different times in the planet's history, and this can include some pretty intricate and valuable alien hardware. This attracts prospectors from all over the universe to see if they can make their fortune in this dangerous environment. They live in a mobile city called Metal City and venture out across the countryside, usually in teams looking for exotic hardware left behind by the Time Winds. One such team is led by Lena Tanoway who is romantically involved with a member of her team - Leo Faulcon. The other member of this team is a young lad called Kris Dojaan who has come to Kamelios to try to find his older brother, who has been taken by a Time Wind. They are all in turn responsible to their commander - Gulio Ensavlion, a man obsessed by the possibilty that the Time Winds are controlled by intelligent creatures. In his mission to establish this, Ensavlion is totally single minded in this, and ruthlessly exploits Kris Dojaan's desire to find his brothe