Engine Summer by John Crowley
"Engine Summer" is a narrative set in a post-apocalyptic world, exploring themes of survival, memory, and the intersection of humanity and technology. The story unfolds six centuries after a catastrophic event known as the Storm, which has left humanity fragmented and struggling to rebuild. Central to the plot is Rush that Speaks, a disembodied imprint of a young man named Rush, who recounts his life experiences in a society called the Warren. The Warren is characterized by its commitment to truth and harmony with nature, contrasting with other factions like the technologically inclined angels and the Long League, who resist such advancements.
As Rush navigates his journey, he encounters various groups, including Dr. Boots's List, descendants of the Long League who trade with the Warren. His journey is marked by a search for his love, Once a Day, and a series of interactions with unique characters, such as Blink, a hermit, and Teeplee, a scavenger. The narrative culminates when Rush is approached by Mongolfier, an angel seeking to record his consciousness, connecting the past with the present. Ultimately, the story raises questions about identity, belonging, and the legacy of human experiences in a world reshaped by the remnants of a lost civilization.
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Subject Terms
Engine Summer
First published: 1979
Type of work: Novel
Type of plot: Science fiction—post-holocaust
Time of work: Several generations after a holocaust
Locale: Earth
The Plot
Looming behind the narrative is a legendary story of humankind before the Storm. While those known as the angels vigorously pursued technological advancement, the Long League, led by its matriarchs, tried to counter the ill effects. Taking a third option, the people of Big Belaire avoided technological conflict by taking to the Road and finally building the Warren. When the Storm came (whether it was ecological disaster or warfare, or both, is unclear), the angels departed Earth in their flying city, their proudest achievement, leaving the rest of humankind behind in isolated pockets.
The story opens with Rush that Speaks, a disembodied voice, telling his story to the angels. The voice belongs to an imprint of the original Rush’s memory, personality, and consciousness, recorded in one of the angels miraculous machines. The actual Rush lived six hundred years earlier, in an era that was itself several generations after the Storm.
Rush’s story is a detailed account of humankinds survival on Earth after the Storm. It begins in his birthplace, the Warren, a settlement that strives to live within human limits and in harmony with nature and whose chief virtue is telling the truth. Periodically, the people known as Dr. Boots’s List, who claim to be descendants of the Long League, visit the Warren to trade, especially for St. Beas bread, an organic substance that promotes a sense of well-being and unity with the environment.
Once a Day, Rush’s adolescent love, leaves with Dr. Boots’s List. He follows her a year later. Before searching for her, he spends a year with Blink, a hermit who has collected books and other artifacts from the angel ruins.
After virtually sleeping through winter in Blinks treehouse, Rush moves on, walking over the Road, the crumbling interstate highway system. When he finds Dr. Boots’s List on the Road, Once a Day is with them. He accompanies the group to Service City, where they live with their giant cats in a ruined angel building.
Each member of Dr. Boots’s List routinely receives a letter from Dr. Boots. When Rush asks for his letter, he is taken to a machine that allows him to enter into the mind of a recorded personality. The experience leaves him feeling a sweet simplicity that is beyond the need for words. Later he will learn that the mind recorded in the machine is a cat who was named Dr. Boots.
Once a Day, fearing that Rush’s experience with Dr. Boots will change him in a way that she cannot accept, will not return to Service City until Rush leaves. He moves on, next encountering Teeplee, a scavenger living amid the ruins of the angels, aimlessly gathering objects that he does not understand. After a short time scavenging with Teeplee, Rush decides to return to the Warren.
Before reaching the Warren, Rush encounters a man parachuting from the sky. He is Mongolfier, an angel from the floating city, alerted to Rush’s position by objects that Rush scavenged. He has a simple request: He wants to record Rush’s mind, just as Dr. Boots’s mind was recorded. Rush agrees, and at this point the story comes full circle. The living Rush goes on to the Warren, presumably to live out his life. The recording of his mind stays with the angels. To generations of angels living in the floating city, he tells his story up to the point of meeting Mongolfier. He knows nothing further, not even what happened in the remaining life of the person he was.