Burn by James Patrick Kelly

Burn Reviews

• 
  Bradley

  I was perfectly willing to suspend judgment on this book... and I did, refusing to look up any reviews until long after I was thinking about what I read.
  
  I wanted to like this a lot more than I did. I don't mind pastoral-type SF all that much, but it has to be rich in the internal life and lots of great ideas being bandied about. The fact this was a reaction to Walden, a perfect Luddite if there ever was one, was also fine by me. I had problems with the guy, too, but not all the way. I like nature, I like technology. I do not want to simplify my life so much that I lose out on the necessities. At all. James Patrick Kelly basically makes the same argument in this novella.
  
  Firefighting on this regressive world. If only there hadn't been such restrictions, more could have been saved.
  
  I don't think there's any kind of counter-argument. Not realistically. Or at least, not in this century.
  
  So what do we have to fall back on within the story? Characterization, a little worldbuilding, a kinda meandering live-your-life-tale that fits more in FAVOR of Walden than the counterargument, and then the big action and the reveals after the fire.
  
  Of course, that's where I'm most interested. The many worlds and post-near-singularity galactic civilization. You know, uploaded minds. That kind of thing.
  
  As a mirror to all that happened on the planet before, it kinda hammers a nail in the coffin.
  
  There are some open-ended questions that make me squirm, too, regarding his wife, but that kinda detracts from the rest of the novella rather than adding a new dimension. I did kinda like the MC before that. A memory wipe is a total PKD issue and it might have been better explored in much greater detail throughout the tale or left out of the end entirely. It just raises way too many questions and concerns regarding all these Walden people.
  
  Such as the idea that they might all be in a zoo.
  
  Maybe that's the point. I WANTED to like this more, but the ideas are kinda all over the place and I'd like to come away from this story chewing on a single good idea rather than a number of unsatisfyingly explored ones.
  
  
• 
  Bryan

  Engrossing, but not challenging. Interesting, but not intriguing. Charmingly weird, but not wondrously strange. There's nothing wrong with this little book (it will draw you in to its very believable world), but there's nothing exemplary that will leave you stunned.
  
  Does it have to be awe-inspiring to be worth the time it takes to read? Not necessarily. I particularly enjoyed all the forest-fire-fighting descriptions. (But then, I have prior experience in fighting forest fires, having spent the four or five summers in northern Alberta doing just that.)
  
  There are many questions left unanswered, and the ending is largely unsatisfying. I did care about the characters (even the goofy "High Gregory"), and enjoyed the setting, but really thought that the author was going for something big. Instead, we may or may not have had the seed of a change in the mind of one character. And no idea if that will be "lucky" for him, or not.
  
  This is only my 4th audiobook ever, and I have to admit that some of my enjoyment was diminished by the muffled audio quality. However, for this review, I have strived to report only on the story, and not on the medium.
  
  It's short, so it's worth your time, but it's not begging to be reread any time soon.
• 
  Yev

  Spur is a firefighter who awakens traumatized from nearly being burned alive by a suicide firebomber terrorist who until moments earlier had been his colleague, best friend, and brother-in-law. His marriage had already been troubled and he knows that divorce is now inevitable. He's a resident of the Transcendental State, as in the early 19th century movement, which has a consensual cultural quarantine covenant for all its new settlers. This is made possible by that fact that the entirety of the planet is owned by a single man, Jack Winter. He bought it in a fire sale, as the original colonizers who can trace their lineage back to the early generation ships, had ruined the environment. The solution for that is to make the whole planet a forest. While Spur is recuperating in a hospital that's mostly exempt from the quarantine he takes the opportunity to randomly call Upsiders, the term for anyone off-planet. There's at least a thousand inhabited worlds, so the choices are nearly endless. One of the calls actually goes through and then life isn't so simple any longer.
  
  This novella has the interesting circumstances of both having won the 2007 Nebula award and being relatively badly rated, 3.41 as of this writing, on Goodreads. I fully understand how that's possible. I don't think it's so much that this is a polarizing work as it is that enjoying it requires a specific perspective and certain tolerances. It also helps that I've generally enjoyed Kelly's short fiction. This is a pastoral SF that as the author explains in the postword that allowed him to both carry out his grudge against David Thoreau and to write about the research he had been doing on wildfire fighting. As a result, almost all the science fiction technology and concepts are only mentioned and little else due to the ban on technology to promote a life of simplicity. Everything really is simply background for the accidental chain of events the protagonist sets in motion. There's not really any plot and the characters when they have any development is questionable because their motivations are mostly implied. Almost nothing is explained, which is intentional, so the reader will have to speculate as to why anything is happening. I find that to be a rather hit-or-miss approach, but for me it was a hit this time. This would've been better as a novel, but that wasn't what Kelly was contracted to write.
  
  I had quite a bit of fun reading this despite its many shortcomings and it reminded me once again that I want to read more Pastoral SF. Any form of it really would be fine, regardless whether it's for or against it. The problem is as always finding an author who can write it in a way that I enjoy. I was pleasantly surprised by this as it turned out to be different than I thought it'd be and because of its relatively low rating. I wonder if it had a more favorable reception from its general readership at the time of its release.
• 
  Mike

  James Patrick Kelly is an excellent craftsman of the short story, but this novella introduced too much while resolving too little. I found the behaviour of the protagonist's wife inexplicable, and it was unclear what anyone wanted or was trying to achieve - nor did anyone seem to achieve much.
  
  It seems to have been primarily intended as a (excuse the pun) burn on Thoreau, but there was no real substantive critique of the utopia built on Thoreau's ideas, and not much exploration of its ideology, despite plenty of opportunity. Missing the chance to be a novel of ideas, it also failed to have much of a plot or explore character in any depth, and I was left wondering what the point of it was.
• 
  Noah M.

  I read this because I thoroughly enjoyed one of James Patrick Kelly's short stories in a Nebula Awards anthology. This book didn't quite live up to that promise. Whereas the story was bombastic with its futurisms, this is subdued and gentle.
  
  I was generally unimpressed until about thirty pages before the end (it's only 170 pages). At that point, a forest fire kicks up and his world suddenly becomes a lot more interesting. There's very little at stake up to that point, and while the world he draws is interesting there just wasn't enough for me.
  
  The forest fire was quite something though. I had never really read anything dealing with that particular breed of disaster, so it was interesting to see it explored in a good bit of detail. This might be the best science fiction firefighting novel since Fahrenheit 451, though Burn is about more literal firefighting.
  
  So I wouldn't exactly recommend it. But I'd definitely read more by James Patrick Kelly. Oh, the book is also available on his website under the creative commons license, so you don't even have to pay money to read it.
• 
  Michael Burnam-Fink

  Burn is a tense novella that manages to stay one step ahead of the fireline of literary collapse, right through the end. Prosper "Spur" Gregory Leung is a firefighter in the Transcendental State of Walden, a planet that has rejected most technology in favor of a historical human lifestyle and the virtue of simplicity. Walden is locked in a guerrilla struggle with the puk puks, the previous inhabitants of the planet who still want automation. The battlefield are the immense planetary forests, genetically altered fast spreading trees the Waldenites are using to strangle the puk puks, and the arson fires the puk puks use to fight back.
  
  Spur starts the novel recovering in a hospital from severe burns and the psychological trauma of letting his wife's brother and his best friend Vic die as a puk puk traitor. Random calls connect him with The Gregory of L'ung, a galactic child with the power to make luck, among other arcane skills. Now Spur has to go home and confront a mass of curdled small village politics while playing chaperone to an interstellar potentate.
  
  I really enjoyed the tense small-town interactions of people who have known each other from birth, and the way Spur parries their keen Yankee questioning. The final bit, with a sudden fire threatening the town, is suitably dense with firefighting jargon. I don't think Burn quite properly engaged with the central conceit of technology changing the way people live, or rather Kelly couldn't mesh his ambitions with the words on the page, but what would have sunk a novel is brushed past in the shorter form.
• 
  Nigel

  Listened to an audio version of this. What a great piece of work, a nuanced, thoughtful tale in conversation with Thoreau about his ideas and attitudes in a setting where they seem utterly out of place if not superfluous, and yet they represent something deep and important to the human psyche.
  
  On a planet being remade as a preserve of humanity and a replica of some version of pre-industrial Earth, whose settlers are in conflict with earlier settlers - the ones that destroyed the original eco-system of the plabet but now object to it being forested by setting the forests on fire, often in fiery acts of sucicde. While recovering in a high-tech hospital after surviving such and conflagration, our hero, bored randomly contacts people on the commuication system, bringing to his planet and his home village an unusual but extremely important personage who threatens to upset everything.
  
  Kelly has a facility for making ordinary scenes of conversation and interaction utterly fascinating, no matter how apparently banal, such that we come to admire and like the settlers, even in the face of the highly engineered nature of their archaic existence, their self-selected ignorance of the rest of the universe and, ultimately, their tragedy. At the end of the day, they choose this, and give their consent for it to go on. Really, really excellent sci fi.
• 
  Tyson Adams

  On the Upside, no one will take your calls.
  
  Prosper Gregory "Spur" Leung wakes up in a hospital. All he can remember is the fire and his skin burning. After the docbot patches him up he makes a few calls and heads home to his farm on the utopia of Walden - a planet being gradually terraformed to forest, orchards, and farms. Those few calls make the homecoming... interesting.
  
  Every time I put this book down I made the same comment, 'I don't know what this book is about.' Even now that I've finished I'm still at a loss as to what the point of it all was. In the background, there are some ideas. In the foreground there is a naive protagonist you could use to explore those ideas, but I'm not sure the ground overlapped at any point.
  
  That isn't to say that this book isn't well paced, exciting, and entertaining; it is. There are some interesting themes as well, like environmentalism and competing interests. I breezed through and enjoyed reading the book, but can't help but feel that the story was missing something.
  
  I received an advanced review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
• 
  Michael Frasca

  Big story: Thoreau-ish colonizers struggle for control of the ecosystem of a small planet with the workers left behind by corporate wealth extractors. Yes, it's the Tree Folk vs. the We Were Here First Folk; the former planting trees and the latter torching them. A group of zany, wonky, and cute off-world kids try to subtly broker a peace between the two.
  
  Real story: a firefighter tries to deal with his PTSD and reconcile with his troubled wife.
  
  A lot of interesting ideas are left on the table and left me wanting more. I felt that this is more of a novel than novella.
• 
  Tony Miller

  3.5 stars
  This novella wasn't at all a bad read, I did enjoy it, but it desperately wanted to be a full novel (or perhaps even the start of a series). From beginning to end, there were new details about the universe being introduced constantly that often didn't contribute much to the plot. If this were part of a larger series, it would make sense, but instead it left me kind of disappointed at the ending.
• 
  Robbie

  This rounds down to three stars. If this were any longer, it would probably lose a star. That said, I felt it needed a little more fleshing out, so that's a bit of a catch 22. It's a decent little read and it does give one a lot to think about, but it's hard to really feel one way or another about anything since there's not enough world building to let me empathize with the motivations behind the two conflicting cultures.
• 
  Kavita Favelle

  Characterisation and interactions between communities is at the heart of this short book, far more than the typical science fiction tropes of technology, but the story is a good one, with lots of tension and a fast-paced and exciting ending.
• 
  Eric

  The worldbuilding here was amazing to me, especially considering the size of this book. Great story on both the micro level with Spur and his village and the macro level with the universe as a whole. Reader gets enough information to infer a whole lot more than what is actually told. Good stuff.
• 
  Jon

  It’s an interesting blend of inspirations, Walden and the Dalai Lama and Backdraft and suicide bombers. Comes together nicely.
• 
  J. Kessel

  I love this complex, sad story. It's really about a marriage coming apart, against a strikingly realized sf background in a far future human-colonized galaxy.
• 
  John Wiswell

  Burn covers a lot of weirdness in a very short period. Until the end I couldn’t discern if it was meant to be a drama or comedy – if we’re lucky, Kelly intended it as a hybrid. We have Planet Walden, inspired by the philosophies of Henry Thoreau, which instead of amounting to a culture of transcendental individualists instead consists of luddites fighting the pyromaniac natives. Our main character suffers harsh burns and, while loitering in hospital, accidentally dials a foreign child ruler “High Gregory” via a hilariously inept translator-phone and winds up winning military assistance for “punches.”
  
  None of the outlandish elements amount to much. Our eccentric super-child High Gregory gets about as much attention as the main character’s estranged wife, and neither of them does anything drastic. It’s almost a novella of vignettes, reflections on ideas or this fictive existence. Every chapter is prefaced by a quote from historical non-fiction and the themes of Zionistic struggle, post-traumatic issues and intercultural mess exist throughout, yet never grip as though this is even a pulp conflict story.
  
  Eventually Burn dedicates itself to an almost unbecoming seriousness. The main character is inextricably emotionally linked to his backwater culture, and this is a little tragic, and the goofiness of off-worlders tames down. We realize the lives lost in the battle before the opening aren't going to resolve, that the marriage won't be fought for, and we won't witness the new contingent creating any major stir on Walden. It turns the novella into a thematic cul-de-sac, not going all the way on condemning Thoreau but going far enough along for the objections to be obvious, inviting you to mull over the tenets it’s pillorying rather than to follow mounting complications from all the neat set-building. Instead, Burn is the little tract that could, garnished with unusual characters and SciFi inventions along the way.
• 
  Michele (Mikecas)

  Da:
  
  
  http://www.webalice.it/michele.castel...
  
  Un racconto lungo (o romanzo breve?) di un autore a me sconosciuto, perche' ha scritto sostanzialmente solo racconti, ed i racconti sono di difficile reperibilita' in Italia. Inoltre, a parte pochissime eccezioni, li gradisco anche molto poco.
  Questo non e' una di quelle eccezioni, nonostante sia indubbiamente scritto bene, si legga scorrevolmente e abbia dei momenti di "partecipazione" emotiva non trascurabili. Ma, a differenza di quanto dice la presentazione, e' proprio la "materia di riflessione" che mi sembra mancare o, a dire meglio, ad essere evanescente, non troppo meditata, con aspetti fondamentali spesso appena accennati, ed in fin dei conti anche ben poco condivisibile.
  Non si capisce da "cosa" stiano fuggendo i coloni di Walden, che tipo di sviluppo sociale cerchino di sfuggire, e anche l'ideologia fondamentale dello Stato Trascendente sembra ben poca cosa, una specie di "ritorno alla natura" e di rifiuto dello sviluppo di cui si ignorano le ragioni ma si sa che si accettano le modifiche genetiche alla vegetazione che permette di imporre al pianeta un ecosistema innaturale.
  Sicuramente il contrasto tra il clima del pianeta e il nuovo ecosistema e' una invenzione che da' spazio ad una storia accettabile, che Kelly sfrutta molto bene, ma e' il "contrasto" culturale con il resto dell'universo umano che rimane del tutto oscuro ed incomprensibile.
  Tutto sommato un racconto anche godibile, se non fosse che, al solito, e' venduto al prezzo di un volume almeno doppio e rilegato, ma alla fine l'unica "materia di riflessione" che sono riuscito a trovare e' stata questa: chissa' cosa voleva dire Kelly con questo racconto.
• 
  Matthew

  This is an interesting take on the Sci-FI story of clashing cultures. Our main character, Spur is a resident of what a appears to be an agricultural society with the technology standards similar to our own of the 20th century, though they appear to practice more of an "Amish" life style, living in simplicity. The main story revolves around an "upsider" or someone from space who comes to this world, due to the inadvertent actions of Spur and we see the story play out from there. However, this is not the clash of cultures between the upsider and spur as you might initially expect. Instead what we see play out is almost an observance of the battle at hand between two cultures on the world. It is an interesting twist on the idea and for the most part works out.
  
  The payoff in the story is unfortunately fairly predictable with the "villain" being exactly who you expect it to be. The reasoning for this person's actions are never fully explained though and I was left feeling a little empty on that part. I would have liked to learn more about the "pukpuk's" and their casue for the ensuing fight.
  
  
• 
  Fantasy Literature

  James Patrick Kelly’s Burn (2005) was a finalist for the Hugo Award and won the Nebula Award for Best Novella in 2007. As Kelly explains in the afterword, the story was inspired by his dislike of Henry Thoreau’s Walden which depicts a pastoral utopian society where simplicity is valued and technology is shunned.
  
  In Kelly’s version of Walden, an entire small planet has been purchased and terraformed into a forested utopia in keeping with Thoreau’s vision. Those who move there from Earth adopt a simplistic agricultural lifestyle, rejecting technology and all influence from the humans who make up all the other planets in space (the “Upside”). The only problem is that Walden was not uninhabited and the original denizens do not appreciate their new neighbors who are trying to force their agrarian lifestyle on the rest of the planet. To show their disapproval, the natives have begun setting fires to Walden’s new forests...3 stars from Kat, read more at
  FANTASY LITERATURE
• 
  Matthew Gatheringwater

  High expectations heightened my disappointment in this book. It isn't a bad book of its kind--more a young adult selection than thoughtful science fiction--but it just didn't live up to its premise.
  
  
  Walden is one of the books that has made me who I am so, when I heard there was a book about space colonists inspired by Thoreau, I was naturally eager to read it. I was prepared, even eagerly anticipating, for a critical look at Thoreau's idealism, but Kelly really doesn't have much to say about Thoreau. Worse, he seems to think he was some kind of Quaker. It is a shame, because New England Transcendentalism is full of all kinds of weird and wonderful real-life attempts at creating utopia. With so much rich material for inspiration, I'm surprised so little actually found its way into this book.
• 
  Maura Heaphy Dutton

  Like many of the reviewers, I discovered James Patrick Kelly when I read his amazing novella "Mr. Boy." In "Burn" (which I think I would describe as novelette), Kelly demonstrates all of his usual flair in worldbuilding -- creating a future and an alien planet. and a social system that is both familiar and satisfyingly strange. The world of Morobe's Pea, the Transcendent State, the character of Spur and his fellow strivers for "simplicity," the sort-of alien L'ung, and their leader, the High Gregory, are absolutely fascinating. Where I felt that "Burn" was less than satisfying was the plot: in spite of a lot happening (forest fires, terrorism, treachery and the tantalizing possibility of romance with what seemed like a sexy spider lady!), it felt thin, and the big "reveal," (trying to avoid spoilers here) could be seen coming AND (more important, in my opinion), left more interesting questions unanswered. But I think leaving you wanting more is deserving of 4 stars ...
• 
  Unwisely

  I picked this up knowing nothing about the author or the book. And, having read it, I am not sure I know anything more about it.
  
  I would describe the book as profoundly weird - maybe this book is set in an existing universe, given how developed the various things felt. But it was WTF in a way that pulled me in and kept me reading even after my eyelids were closing, rather than the sort that just made me think I was wasting my time and quitting.
  
  It is certainly a small book, which maybe contributes to the appeal - it didn't feel like he was being weird just to be obnoxious.
• 
  Stuart Aken

  Disappointing.
  Of course, I'm not American, so Walden isn't in my consciousness as it may be for many from that land.
  I tried to read this twice and on both occasions reached a point where I was skipping passages of tedious description. I found no real depth to the characters, and none were engaging. Time is too short to read a book that doesn't either engage or grip the reader. For me, this did neither, so I never reached the end.
• 
  Kae Cheatham

  [From my Public Library]
  In this SF of future times where myriad worlds have been discovered and settled, firefighter Spur recovers from burns he received on duty. He begins to contemplate the realities he perceives in his community and the planet Walden. Is the Simple Life, too simple? Dynamic characters and good sense of place on a world of violent dichotomy.