A Far Sunset

A Far Sunset  
Author(s) Edmund Cooper
Country England
Language English
Genre(s) Science fiction novel
Publisher Hodder & Stoughton
Publication date 1968
Pages 189 pp
ISBN ISBN 0-340-04364-4, paperback
OCLC Number 463957

A Far Sunset is a science fiction novel by Edmund Cooper, published by Hodder & Stoughton in July 1967.

Plot summary

The starship Gloria mundi, built and manned by the United States of Europe, lands on the planet Altair Five in the year 2032. Most of the crew mysteriously disappears soon after touchdown, leaving only the psychiatrist Paul Marlow, the book's protagonist. The planet is inhabited by primeval humanoids.

A central theme in the novel is the clash between Marlowe's rational worldview and the natives' superstitious and often brutal culture. Paul Marlow (pronounced Poul Mer Lo by the Bayani tribe he lives amongst) gains a leading position in the primitive society. He uses that power to educate the alien race, enabling them to make inventions that improves their society, such as the wheel, the ball-bearing and the axle.

Paul Marlow also demystifies the Bayanis' religion, by discovering its factual origin — thereby uncovering that the humans of Altair Five share their ancestry with humans of Earth and other worlds in the Milky Way.

While Marlow adapts to the simplicity and naivety of the Bayani lifestyle, he starts seeing the complex and advanced culture of the Earth as absurd. When after two Bayani years he is contacted by a starship come to his rescue, he considers staying on Altair Five.

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