The World and Thorinn (Book Review)

Damon Knight’s tale of a teenager forced on a journey downward through a well into underground worlds that are both dangerous and exotic makes for an entertaining read. Blending science fiction and fantasy with boy scout level survivalism, it gradually unfolds a story much bigger than Thorinn’s personal adventures.

UPDATE: The World and Thorinn is available again in ebook or paperback on demand from ReAnimus Press!

The Story

The central star of The World and Thorinn is named Thorinn. Or is the world itself the main character? An argument could be made for either so I will settle on them being costars like the title implies.

Thorinn, which means “flea,” is young human living on the surface of his world in a giant basin with a huge cylindrical formation that reaches to the top of the sky. Having been raised by an adoptive father, the lame orphan hops around on his one good leg – hence his name. Life is quiet and pastoral until one day when the well runs dry.

Even sacrificing the best horse in the herd fails to appease the angry god they worship named Snorri. So like Joseph, his brothers want to sacrifice something him and a reluctant father agrees despite being under oath to protect him. So the boy is lowered into the well under false pretenses and sealed there. But not before his father puts a geas, or magical compulsion, to “go down” on a suspicious Thorinn.

Equipped with a lightbox, the boy soon finds the crack that drained the well and is abled to crawl through it into a tunnel. The command to “go down” drives him onward and downward into worlds underground. Worlds filled with strange semi-human creatures and mysterious mechanical “engines” that make his life most difficult.

Thorinn’s skills at survival, from hunting to fire making, are tested at all turns. One aspect of older science fiction that I enjoy is how often practical outdoors skills are employed in the stories. In fact, it is a central theme that Thorinn uses his brain far more than his strength to get by day to day during his long journey. While uneducated and from a primitive culture, his brain is first rate and inventive. Consequently, each predicament leads to an interesting solution along the way and I found myself wanting Thorinn to get into trouble again just to see how he’d get out of it.

He needs those wiles because the farther down he goes, the worse things get for the intrepid and driven adventurer. But at the end of the journey, Thorinn discovers the great secret of the world and his own past. He also finds he has to make a choice of gigantic consequences for not just him, but the world.

The World and Thorinn doesn’t have many characters in it with speaking roles. Most of the time, we only have Thorinn and sometimes a talking box for dialogue. Everything is from the boy’s point of view and make no mistake, his youth shows in how he handles things. Maturity has yet to take hold in the stubborn teen and only the beginnings of any kind of wisdom are present by the end.

Part of the fun for the reader are the prologues that begin most chapters for they contain a great deal of hints at the nature of the planet this takes place on… err, in. Like Dune, the past history quotes add richness if not depth to the setting. Unlike the other book, they are also integral to understanding the ending of the novel.

Much of it reads like something from Norse mythology and I feel like I’ll spoil it too much if details are given. Suffice it to say that it isn’t just the names that come from the tales of the Vikings. It is amazing that I missed that when I was younger, given my fondness for all things Norse.

Knight’s novel is great fun and I’d recommend it for older boys and teens. Older people can find much to enjoy, as I understood a lot I did not thirty years ago.

Thoughts

Many years ago I joined the Science Fiction Book Club and one of the books that was a monthly selection was The World and Thorinn. It was a perfect for me at the time since I was around the age of the main character and living in the countryside. It simply resonated with my younger self.  Somehow my copy slipped through my fingers over the years along with so many other things.

The copyright for this book is 1980 which would be around when I first read it, but the story dates to 1968 when parts of it were serialized in Galaxy magazine. So even in 1980, it seemed like a throwback to an earlier era for good reason. I’d classify this as being much like Heinlein’s juvenile novels.

For some odd reason, I began thinking back to it earlier this year and wondered if it was still in print. The title eluded me but I did remember the author’s name, Damon Knight.  Thanks to the Web, finding which book it had been was fast and easy. Finding a copy of the book wasn’t. When eBay failed to turn a copy up, I went to Amazon and managed to find a used one for a reasonable price.

 

Talk about a trip into the past. The well worn dust cover art was familiar and the 10 cent price sticker on it indicates it was in a rummage sale at some point. It would not surprise me if something like that is what happened to my original copy. Inside the pages toward the back, a SFBC bookplate was found with the glue long since expired. Traces of the glue could be found where it had been attached at the front of the book.  Somebody had cared about the book back when it was first put out.

Glad to have it back in my collection. It is always nice to find something you liked younger to be even better than you remembered.