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I picked up this 1969 novel at a library book sale based on its premise. I had never heard of the author. One of the great pleasures of reading, at least for me, is trying random old books I've never heard of. In addition to the possibility that they might be good, they're also an interesting window into other times. (Often, alas, extremely racist and sexist times.)
Sixteen people, eight women and eight men, who were on a flight to London, wake up in plastic boxes on a short strip of road with a hotel, a grocery store, and two cars without engines. Everything else is a forest. Naturally, most of the women scream, faint, and cry, while most of the men randomly fight each other (!), or run around yelling. Our hero does this:
Russell Grahame, feeling oddly detached from the whole absurd carnival, ran his left hand mechanically and repeatedly through his hair in the characteristic manner that had earned him the sobriquet Brainstroker among his few friends in the House of Commons.
He then goes to the hotel, finds the bar, and has a drink. Everyone else eventually follows him, and he fixes them all drinks. They are a semi-random set of passengers, including two husband and wife couples, plus three young female domestic science students, one Indian, and one West Indian girl improbably named Selene Bergere. I have no idea why that name is improbable, but it's remarked on frequently as unlikely and eventually turns out to not be her real name (but everyone goes on calling her Selene, as she prefers it.) They can all understand each other despite speaking different languages.
Russell takes charge and appoints himself group leader. They find food (and cigarettes) at the market, select hotel rooms, and then the husband-and-wife physics teachers point out that 1) the constellations are not Earth's, 2) gravity is only 2/3rds Earth's and they can all jump six feet in the air! Astonishing that none of the others noticed before. I personally would have immediately run outside and fulfilled my lifelong dream of being able to do weightless leaping. Sadly none of them do this and the low gravity is never mentioned again.
They theorize that possibly they've been kidnapped by aliens, maybe for a zoo or experiment, and the gender balance means they're supposed to breed. Russell approvingly notes that many of the single people pair up immediately, and three of them threesome-up. This is like six hours after they arrived!
On the second night, one of the three female domestic science students kills herself because she feels unable to cope. The next day, a party goes exploring (Russell reluctantly allows women to take part as the Russian woman journalist reminds him that women are different from men but have their own strength) and one of the men falls in a spiked pit and dies. Good going, Russell! Three days and you've already lost one-eighth of your party!
All the supplies they take are replenished, and one of the men spies on the market and sees metal spiders adding more cartons of cigarettes. He freaks out and tries to kill himself.
I feel like a random selection of sixteen people ought to be slightly less suicidal, even under pressure. In fact probably especially under a sort of pressure in which everyone has quite nice food and shelter, and they seem perfectly safe as long as they don't explore the forest.
One of the guys tries to capture a spider robot, but gets tangled up in the wire he used as a trap and dragged to death. Again, this group is really not the best at survival.
We randomly get some diary entries from a gay guy who's sad that no one else is gay. He confesses to Russell that he's gay and Russell, in definitely his best moment, just says, "Wow, that must be really hard for you to not have any sexual partners here." Those are the only diary entries we get, and none of this ever comes up again.
They soon find that there are three other groups. One is a kind of feudal warrior people from a world that isn't earth where they ride and live off deer-horse creatures. Another is Stone Age people, who dug the spiked pits to hunt for food. The third are fairies. The language spell allows them all to communicate, except no one can speak to the fairies as they just appear for an instant then vanish. The non-fairy groups confirm that they were also vanished from where they come from.
Russell and his now-girlfriend Anna the Russian journalist theorize that the fairies are the ones who kidnapped them. They and a Stone Age guy set out to find the fairies...
The title is because up close, the fairies are actually flying sea horses! This would be the best part of the book, except that the part with the chickens (see below) is the best part.
The "fairies" are actually GHOST ALIENS! They explain that they seeded different planets with humanity, then dropped representatives from the three planets here to see what happened. They can't return them because they never took the originals - all the people are copies! The original people are still on their original planets and have no idea anything happened! Also, the aliens are all dead and the fairies are ghosts/holograms/computer programs!
They punish the trio by doing some timey wimey thing so when they return to their groups, four years have passed! The Stone Age guy immediately kills himself because when he tries to explain, the other Stone Age people think he's lost his mind. The Earth people find that of their group, one lost an arm chopping wood (like the Tin Man) and one is blind from playing with explosives.
BUT ALSO, the three groups are now amicable because of one of the surviving domestic science students and CHICKENS! She tried hatching the market eggs, raised chickens, and used them to trade! Everyone was so pleased with this that they loved her, especially the Stone Age people, and she taught them to read and write and do math! Now all three groups are now totally friendly and intermarrying! (Hopefully the gay guy finds a gay feudal warrior or gay Stone Age dude.)
There's a brief epilogue where, generations later, they've invented rockets.
So, was this a good book? Not really. Did anyone edit it? Doubtful. Did it have some interesting ideas and a good twist? Yes. Did I enjoy the hour and a half I spent reading it? Also yes. Would I ever re-read it? No. Do I recommend it? Only if you happen to also find it at a library book sale.
I am now 2 for 2 in reviewing every full length book I read in 2026! (I have not yet gotten to one manga, Night of the Living Cat # 1, and six single-issue comics, three each of Roots of Madness and They're All Terrible.) I think doing so will be good for my mental health and possibly also yours, considering what I and you could be doing on the internet instead of reading books and writing or reading book reviews.
Can I continue this streak??? Are you enjoying it?
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So their (plural) longheld dream was not weightless leaping I guess.
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Seconding this. Also I appreciate that there are almost always optional spoilers so that if I do want to read the book I can opt out of them, but if I know I never will, I'm not left wondering about the end.
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* The subgenre is small. The orgasms and dicks are large.
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I am enjoying it, yes :)
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Now that's an improbable name.
I've read at least one thing by Edmund Cooper because I recognize his name, but I have no idea what. Definitely not this novel.
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I think if you'd read this, you'd remember it.
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I am very much enjoying your streak and your book reviews!
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Naturally, most of the women scream, faint, and cry, while most of the men randomly fight each other (!), or run around yelling.
I'm fascinated by how it's not just the women but even the men who are falling into the most comically cliche stereotypes here. It sounds like literally no one in this novel acts like a real human. Their extreme failure at survival (and keeping their limbs/eyesight) is also pretty hilarious. Good luck to the gay dude, since it sounds like he managed to survive...
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I think the gay dude was the one who lost an arm chopping wood.
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Everyone else eventually follows him, and he fixes them all drinks.
I've gotta say... this sounds VERY British 1969 :PP
while most of the men randomly fight each other (!), or run around yelling.
I choose to believe that they are randomly fighting and yelling to take advantage of the lower gravity!
She tried hatching the market eggs, raised chickens, and used them to trade! Everyone was so pleased with this that they loved her, especially the Stone Age people, and she taught them to read and write and do math!
Okay, I read this incorrectly the first time, and I thought she taught the chickens to read and write and do math. Which, I feel, is a natural misunderstanding given all the OTHER WTF that has happened in this book! So it shall continue to be my AU headcanon :D
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I've gotta say... this sounds VERY British 1969 :PP
I thought this as well.
Okay, I read this incorrectly the first time, and I thought she taught the chickens to read and write and do math.
Hahaha, maybe in a few more chicken generations. The epilogue with the rocket doesn't say there aren't intelligent chickens.
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I love your sense of humor, and at this point, I'd probably be mightily entertained by you commenting on the Grantsville, Maryland, phone book. So carry on!
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This review was fun to read.
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(am also enjoying your reviews!)
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Edmund Cooper was a British SF author, career spanning the late 1950s to late 1970s, and I read too much of his stuff when I was a teenager hungry for moar SF.
I haven't read this one, but going by your review it's not his worst.
I really don't think you need to torment yourself by looking for more: in his early years he was stoutly 1950s-ish (spacers sitting around in bars on Marsport drinking "rocket fuel" shots), and by the 1970s he'd gone over the edge into feminism-averse misogyny (like a hack SF author version of Scott Adams).
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Oh dear.
by the 1970s he'd gone over the edge into feminism-averse misogyny (like a hack SF author version of Scott Adams).
Yikes.
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