#80. HELLICONIA By Brian Aldiss

Published : 1985
Pages : 1303
Overall Mark : 6/10

A planet orbiting binary suns, Helliconia has a Great Year spanning three millenia of Earth time : cultures are born in spring, flourish in summer, then die with the onset of the generations-long winter.

The Helliconia trilogy, Spring, Summer and Winter, represent one of SF's greatest feats of world-building.

Helliconia Spring was the winner of the John W. Campbell Award for Best SF novel in 1983 and the trilogy still stands as an exemplary example of the Planetary Romance.

BRIAN ALDISS (1925-)
Aldiss served in the Far East during the Second World War, and later worked as a bookseller. He published his first SF story in 1954, and has been a leading figure in British SF ever since. His many other novels include Hothouse and Non-Stop; his Trillion Year Spree (1987, with David Wingrove), which won a Hugo award, remains the best history of SF.

VERDICT
If you can get passed the sheer volume of this trilogy you'll find a well thought through universe that Aldiss has clearly put a lot of thought into. Sadly for me this didn't really get going until Winter, by which time I'd already felt like the first two thirds of the book has been something of a waste.