Reviews
“Nebula- and Hugo Award–nominated Schoen spins an emotional, richly imagined tale in this novella. In the far future, the Fant, an outcast race of anthropomorphic “uplifted” elephants, are at the mercy of a powerful alliance of hundreds of worlds and races that would destroy them and their home planet, Barsk, in order to wrest control of the drug koph, which allows its users, known as Speakers, to speak to the dead. Jorl ben Tral (a member of the Fant and a Speaker himself) is compelled to discover why his best friend, Arlo, committed suicide, while Pizlo, Arlo’s six-year-old son, hears whispers that lead him to take his own fateful journey. Meanwhile, a young uplifted otter named Lirlowil is forced to put her own talents as a Speaker to the ultimate test. Schoen’s vivid writing makes the Fant and the other species intensely relatable, elevating familiar themes of predetermination, prophecy, and the power of memory. Even as the Fant face genocide, their bravery and spirit makes this a hopeful and very human tale in a posthuman world.”
—Publishers Weekly (10/12/2015)
“In the future, humans have vanished; what remains are the anthropomorphic animals from the former Earth, who have spread throughout the universe bringing with them their own cultures and prejudices. The exiled Fants (elephants) on Barsk are even more separated than the other animal species. Their only contact is through the trade of koph, a special plant that gives certain creatures the ability to speak with the dead. It is this plant that is at the heart of the conflict that will test the resolve of two Fants as they uncover a shameful truth that the most powerful in the universe will do anything to keep secret. VERDICT Readers who like their sf to extensively delve into philosophical subjects will love this book. Schoen's quiet read muses on a variety of subjects, including memory, history, and sacrifice. The characters and world are so well drawn that it doesn't take long to understand the universe the author has crafted. There is plenty of crossover appeal in terms of ages and genres.”
—Laura Hiatt-Smith, Library Journal (11/15/2015)
“I’m sure you’ll agree when we say that this standalone novel from Lawrence M. Schoen sounds absolutely stunning. The initial reviews, in fact, are overwhelmingly positive. Schoen’s previous works, most notable among them the Tales of the Amazing Conroy series, are not well-known (yet) but definitely worth checking out, as well as his award-nominated novellas. We predict that his books will be getting a lot more attention in the upcoming month, as this book has all the makings of a breakout novel: spectacular world building, emotionally poignant narrative, compelling action, and fantastic character development.”
—NerdMuch.com (11/16/2015)
“December's Must-Read Speculative Fiction Books—Barsk: The Elephants' Graveyard by Lawrence M. Schoen
WHAT IT'S ABOUT: In the far, far future, after humanity is gone and forgotten, genetically engineered ("uplifted") elephants develop a drug that allows them to interact with the recently deceased, around which a struggle for power emerges.
WHY YOU MIGHT LIKE IT: Because of everything evoked by the book's tag line: The Sixth Sense meets Planet of the Apes.”
—John DeNardo, Kirkus (12/2/2015)
“Lawrence M. Schoen’s Barsk (TOR, $25.99) is set 62,000 years into a human-less future, where anthropomorphic animals rule the galaxy. There is no record of human existence, and while the different species get along relatively well, the Fant, an elephant-like hybrid, are completely shunned and exiled to live on a rainy planet called Barsk. While labeled less intelligent and “dirty,” the Fant nonetheless are the only species to produce a drug that allows clairvoyants known as Speakers to commune with the dead. When the planet is threatened with invasion and annihilation by the galaxy Senate, Jorl, a Fant Speaker, must race to save it by communing with ancient beings who hold even darker truths. Suspenseful and emotionally engaging, “Barsk” brings readers into a fascinating speculative world.”
—Nancy Hightower, The Washington Post (12/22/2015)
"Wonderful world-building, strong characters, and a well-crafted plot with a hard SF core make this one of the best books of 2015. There aren’t many writers who remind me of Ursula Le Guin at her best, but Schoen does.
I love the way this book begins, with a single Fant – an anthropomorphized elephant – named Rusul setting out on the final journey almost every Fant makes, sailing to an uncharted island where their kind go to die. But as Rusul makes his peace with death, with his life and its passing, the unimaginable happens.
Thousands of years from now, the galaxy is widely populated, but not by homo sapiens. How exactly humanoid-animal species came about is only one of the mysteries of the story, revealed in good time and to great dramatic effect. The future children of the galaxy have Aesop Fable-like characteristics based on their species of origin, but their interests and loves and passions are universal, or at least essentially human. For example, prejudice is still a binding and blinding emotion.
The planet Barsk is a marginal, low-tech world. For 800 years, the Fants have lived on Barsk, isolated and protected by the Compact that keeps all other Alliance species off their planet, in exchange for materials their world provides. Jorl, a historian and Speaker, has actually spent time off-world on Galactic Patrol. But now he is home again, doing his work, and being a sort of godfather to Pizlo, a genetically anomalous young Fant and the son of Jorl’s deceased friend. Being a Speaker means Jorl can, under certain restrictions, commune with the dead – a very handy ability for a historian. Jorl is obsessed with the prophesies of the first Speaker, the legendary Margda, who established the rules of Speaking. Certain portents are indicating that a time of crisis is at hand, and that he, Jorl, has a part to play in how, or whether, his people survive. What Joel cannot even guess is that Pizlo is also implicated.
Other species produce Speakers as well; and much more rarely, telepaths are born. Rarest of all is the Speaker-telepath. Since knowledge is power, and foreknowledge is power to the n-th degree, it is hardly surprising that someone with a lust for absolute power has been collecting telepaths to get a read of the future. Unfortunately for Barsk, all the assembled precogs agree that a product native to the planet will lead to a singular breakthrough, the kind that remakes entire civilizations. Even more unfortunately, the one who controls the precogs has just found a Speaker-Telepath who can extract from any mind, living or dead, whatever he wants to know.
This novel is richly nuanced, with ironies that curdle your stomach, humorous touches that delight, and revelations that astound. At its heart, I think, is nestled the parable of the rejected stone. To paraphrase Walt Kelley, “We have made the Alien, and he is us.”
—Chris Wozney, The Nameless Zine (2/15/2016)
In a distant future in which mankind no longer exists, intelligent, technology-enabled animals fill the universe. In this world lives the Fant species, big-eared creators of the drug koph, which enables users to contact dead loved ones. Other races want control of the drug and will violate traditional Fant isolation to get it, unless a pariah and a historian can stop them. The book’s heart-wrenching reflections on memory, sacrifice, and friendship express the deepest human motivations and longings. Christians may connect with this Nebula Award–nominated novel’s big questions about prophecy’s role in human lives and the link between the mind and the soul.
—John Ottinger III, "World Magazine" (4/2/2016)
Finally, you get to read 'Barsk: The Elephants' Graveyard', by Lawrence Schoen.
I got to read it early this year, and I loved it. I wanted to tell you about it, but I was told in no uncertain terms that I needed to wait, because you would not be able to have it until the very endmost days of the year, and we would all be happier (you, me, Lawrence, and the publisher) if I held off.
This is science fiction that gets the aliens right. With no human POV characters, our only eyes into the story are alien ones, and Lawrence does this so well I felt like I was a wrinkled, hairless historian with a prehensile snout and oversized ears.
I say "aliens," but that term will get quibbled over. Barsk is a wet, cloudy world settled by the Fant, creatures who, as the full title of the story suggests, bear a non-coincidental resemblance to Earth's elephants. The setting is, technically, an anthropomorphic one, but saying "oh, it's an anthro story" does the book an enormous disservice. Barsk is to anthropomorphic, "furry" fiction as Heinlein's Starship Troopers is to Lucas's stormtroopers.
The story is part detective story, part adventure, and part "idea" story whose central conceits do a delightful job of blurring that line between sufficiently advanced technology and magic. It hits familiar notes in ways that tell me "this is like other books I love," and then delivers new notes in ways that remind me why I like reading stuff that is actually new.
I've raved over Lawrence's "Amazing Conroy" stories before. As delightful as those were, Barsk: The Elephant's Graveyard is better, and for all the right reasons
