Hello Summer, Goodbye

Hello Summer, Goodbye

Author	Michael Coney
Country	UK (also USA, Canada)
Language	English
Genre	Science Fiction
Publisher	Victor Gollancz Ltd
Publication date	June 1975
Media type	Print (hardcover & paperback)
Pages	192 pp (Pan paperback)
ISBN	0-330-25226-7

Hello Summer, Goodbye is a science fiction novel by British author Michael G. Coney, regarded as one of his best and most representative works.^[1],[2] It offers an unusually sympathetic portrayal of an alien race on a very strange planet. A fear of cold which is embedded in the race consciousness plays a significant part in the story, together with the semi-sentient lorin and other creatures.^[3]

The protagonist is a precocious youth, Alika-Drove, whom Coney manages nonetheless to make engaging through Drove's struggles with the forces around him. In the story, Drove learns about his world, about what drives the adults of his species to make the choices they do, he falls in love, and he grows up.^[3]

Plot

The story begins in Alika-Drove's home town of Alika. The narrative moves to Pallahaxi, a small coastal village where fishing and tourism are the main sources of income. At first it seems that, in spite of "the war with Asta" and other hints of disturbance, this is going to be their usual summer holiday by the seaside. Drove encounters Browneyes once more, for the first time since they met the previous summer, together with some other youngsters and local characters.

As a result of the planet's global geography and eccentric orbit, the sea undergoes a strange transformation in which it becomes a semi-solid. This phenomenon is called the 'grume'. Some creatures are specially adapted to take advantage of this.

Politics and a global climatic crisis drive the unexpected denouement, in which Coney allows readers some latitude in how to view the conclusion. The narrator Drove, is in the end driven by love for his girlfriend Browneyes, and grief for his friends who have perished in the killing cold, to abandon his refuge and find whatever waits for him outside,.^[3]

Other characters

Drove's parents, Alika-Burt and Fayette

To humans, Drove is strangely isolated from his parents, and there seems to be little love lost either way.
In spite of this, a parent-child relationship clearly exists.

Pallahaxi-Browneyes

The tavern owners' daughter, thus a permanent resident of Pallahaxi, and Drove's first love: in the end he staggers out into the killing cold to try to find her, if she is still alive.

Ribbon

A physically attractive young girl with a rather abrasive, perhaps arrogant, personality, yet with many good qualities, so that Drove, the hero, remembers her in the end with love and pity: "I was always in love with you, Ribbon, just a little".

Wolff

The son of a colleague of Drove's father; a parentally-approved 'suitable' companion whom Drove dislikes. He is portrayed as an arrogant know-it-all who has already bought into his parent's status and concomitantly their view of life, and of other people: yet in the end Drove feels pity for him, as Wolff seems doomed to die in the killing cold.

Squint

Ribbon's baby brother, whom Drove at first regards as a frequently annoying presence, but in the poignant ending remembers as "a small boy very long ago who woke safe and happy on a doorstep".

Silverjack

Mutant, fisherman, smuggler & boatyard owner.

Aunt Zu

Does not actually appear as a character, but is important as the subject of a story within the story, which illustrates the potential impact of excessive exposure to cold, or of the fear of cold, on a person's sanity: Drove, her nephew, comes to believe that her fatal mistake was to refuse help from the kindly lorin.

The Lorin

A semi-sentient species covered in long white fur and which in Drove's experience are used only for dumb labour, usually in an agricultural setting. There are hints that not everyone has the same limited relationship with them which Drove at first believes to be the universal rule: in the end he embraces them as his hope of salvation.^[3]

Major Themes

In this book Coney deals with the impact of a dramatically varying ecology upon an intelligent species, both physically and psychologically. It is also a book about coming of age, examining what that might mean both in terms humans would understand, and what it might mean in the resident dominant species (who, naturally, think of themselves as 'human'). The physical impact on evolution is also given significant weight. The sun is clearly a source of enough radiation to promote mutations in all species, and the extreme climatic cycles have also evolved creatures which are specialised to endure extreme cold (such as the lox and the lorin, or the ice-devils), or which have evolved to take advantage of events like the grume, such as the grume-riders.^[3]

Style

In Hello Summer, Goodbye, Coney writes very much in the first person and almost exclusively through Drove's eyes. He uses this to assist further in drawing the reader into sympathy with Drove and his friends. The ending is poignant, as Drove remembers with pity and affection his friends, especially Ribbon, who are dead, and goes into the cold to see if his first love Browneyes is still alive.^[3]

Publication history

First published by Gollancz in June 1975 in the UK as Hello Summer, Goodbye. The first US publication followed in November 1975 under the variant title Rax; however this title was last used for a 1977 issue by Michel Albin. ("Rax" is the name of the cold, giant planet which perturbs the orbit of Drove's home world.) The book was also published in Canada in 1990 under the title of Pallahaxi Tide. DAW Books released a paperback version for publication in the United States with the title "Rax". All other issues used the original title of Hello Summer, Goodbye.^[4]

References