A few months back I was looking up there in the deep dark recesses of my As-Yet-Unread bookshelf and I noticed the vibrant yellow cover of my paperback copy of SANTIAGO by Mike Resnick. Since this book was first printed way back in 1986, and I remembered having purchased it shortly after it first appeared on the bookstore shelves, I found myself wondering just how in the world this legendary Myth of the Far Future had escaped my prying eyes over the past eighteen years or so. Although I enjoyed this book immensely, for reasons related to a hectic schedule of traveling throughout many different states back in March, I wasn't able to immediately write a review of SANTIAGO. I find it much easier to write up an effective review either right after turning the last page of a book or within the next day or so--something that I was not able to do with this book.

Nevertheless, after learning that Mike Resnick had recently written a quasi-sequel to SANTIAGO, I began an all-out assault on the local bookstores in my search for a copy. Luckily for me, I was able to find THE RETURN OF SANTIAGO in a Waldenbooks not too far from where I live about two weeks ago. During another trip out of state this past week, I devoured Resnick's second Myth of the Far Future and found myself very happy for the experience.

You see, unlike most sequels, THE RETURN OF SANTIAGO does not take place immediately after the events of the first book. In fact, more than a hundred years have passed in the SANTIAGO Universe by the time the sequel begins. The Democracy, the Inner-Frontier and the Outer-Frontier have been without Santiago, the King of the Outlaws, for nearly all of that time and the poems of Black Orpheus, that had made Santiago a Legend, were now just so much history.

Enter Danny Briggs, a low-level thief and petty criminal, who just happens to stumble upon the original manuscript of historic poetry belonging to Black Orpheus--the very poems used so effectively in Resnick's original SANTIAGO. In sheer amazement, he spends the next few days absorbing the material, learning of a rich history in the vast universe that he knew little of...and deciding that the time had come--the Universe was finally ready for the return of Santiago...

Ok, that's all you get in terms of a plot-summary for this book. Going any further would not only ruin it for you, the reader, but it would ruin the plot of the original SANTIAGO as well. Although there might not be too many science fiction fans around these days who haven't yet read Mike Resnick's original SANTIAGO, I'm not willing to take that chance at this point in time.

Resnick fills these novels with tons of colorful characters, people with histories immortalized by Black Orpheus and, later, by The Rhymer in their various stanzas. The locales are alive with atmosphere and texture, everything is a visual extravaganza, allowing the reader to "see" clear pictures of each scene as it happens. There are constant references to certain people or places that make you yearn to learn more. There is plenty of action and intrigue and scandal and...you get the picture (pardon the pun).

So, take it from me, if you haven't yet stumbled across either of these two GEMS in your travels, do yourself a favor and pick them BOTH up. Read them in order, too, to get the most satisfaction out of them. They harken back to a time in science fiction that was still filled with wonder and awe, a time of sheer adventure among the stars and when anything could happen at any time. They take place many, many years from now but still manage to capture that feel of the old west, lawlessness and gunslingers running loose in the streets. These books don't take themselves too seriously and neither should you. Simply sit down, turn to page one and have yourself a good old time. I sure did.

Before you read this please note there are some slight spoilers for the first book.

Danny Briggs was a petty criminal who survvied by stealing information. Specifically he would download information on the owners of pets being housed in a kennel and sell it to people who would then burgle their houses. He thought it the perfect crime as he left the real dirty work to others and just took a cut of their profits. When he leaves a clue for the police following his latest break-in he needs somewhere to lay low for a while and chooses the home of one of the pet owners currently using the kennel's facilities.

Here a turning point in Briggs's life occurs, for in the house he chooses he discovers thousands of pages of manuscript containing the original verses of Black Orpheus's 'Ballad of the Inner Frontier'. He spends the next few days reading the entire poem, discovering from it's verses the truth of the identity and purpose of Santiago some hundred years earlier.

Thoroughly affected by the saga he decides that the time is right for another Chronicler and so leaves the Democracy and sets out for the Inner Frontier to meet the people he will write about in his ballad. He changes his name to Dante Alighieri and fashions himself as 'The Rhymer'.

But for any poem to have the majesty of Black Orpheus's original it needs a figure as grand as Santiago. And also sensing that the injustices that the original Santiagos fought are still around, he sets out to find the man who can continue the legacy of the original 'King of the Outlaws'.

To sum this book up - it's wonderful. I first read the original Santiago novel in the late 1980's - it was the second of Mike Resnick's novels I read (the first being Stalking the Unicorn) and it was this book that confirmed me as a total fan of Resnick's writing.

It's been a long time since the first Santiago book came out and I was a little worried about the author's ability to write one that stood up to what has to be one of my favourite sf novels. Also the fact that this was set a hundred years later and that none of the original characters could be in it except for in passing mention added a certain foreboding to my expectancy.

I shouldn't have worried. Mike Resnick has written a book that is the equal of the first. Okay, this book being a sequel (although very remotely) it does lack a little of the originality of the first - but it's made up for in many ways. The most obvious is that in seventeen years the author has improved his writing style. Having written many more short stories in the years between the two novels than in the years preceding the first it does seem that his style has become more precise.

The characters and names in a Resnick novel are glorious and highly evocative. The first person we meet as Dante journeys to the frontier is Virgil Soaring Hawk - a man of highly dubious sexual tastes. This man decides that he should follow the Rhymer - proclaiming himself Virgil to Danny's Dante, and offers to be his guide through the hell of the Inner Frontier. Through their travels and the search for the new Santiago we encounter Tyrannosaur Bailey, the One-Armed Bandit, Silvermane, September Morn and many more eccentric and eccentrically named folk.

This is adventure filled sf. It's not going to appeal to high-concept sf devotees, but more to the type of sf fan who liked the original "Wagon Train to the Stars" description of the original Star Trek series, or the adventurous feel of some of Robert Heinlein's earlier fiction (such as Starship Troopers).

And if this might be your idea of a sf novel worth reading, take the chance - read it. For in my opinion I have an early contender for the best sf book of 2003.