"Santiago: A Myth of the Far Future" is a science fiction story set in the future history of mankind as written by Mike Resnick.
Santiago is a man with a price on his head. Long time thief, he has pulled off many daring exploits, many of them against the league of worlds known as the DEMOCRACY. His exploits on the inner frontier and his ability to strike and disappear with the goods are legendary. And in a time when there are many legends walking the inner and outer frontier, his name stands above the rest. And with the DEMOCRACY putting a high price on his head, there are an endless number of bounty hunters, assassins, rogues, villains, lawmen and such searching for Santiago... but they never seem to find the elusive King of the Thieves.
Sebastian Nightingale Cain is a past revolutionary who has seen one revolution too many. He decided to place less trust in revolutionary compatriots and more trust in his guns... old fashioned guns with bullets because he enjoys the sound. Much to his chagrin he has been written up by Black Orpheus who is composing a work to immortalize the figures of the inner frontier, and Cain is known as The Songbird in that work. Thus Cain has notoriety and a nickname he hates... but he feels that if he can make his mark on the universe all of his troubles will have been worth suffering. Cain has decided to track down the King of the Thieves...
Cain talks with Giles Sans Pitie ( a man with a steel left fist who is also a bounty hunter) and he knows of a friend of a friend of a friend who may have some idea on how to find Santiago. This leads to Johnny Jeremy Jacobar Stern, a small time fence who has been done wrong by Santiago's organization and gives some hints to the whereabouts of an old contact of that organization. Along the way Cain picks up Halfpenny Terwilliger who is being chased down by Man Mountain Bates after a bit of a problem during a card game. Terwilliger can help Cain find the next contact, but only if Terwilliger can travel with him. So Terwilliger gets immediate protection and Cain gets on the cold trail of Santiago's organization.
The trail leads through some of the most strange and notable people of the inner frontier: Sargasso Rose and her fleet of dead ships, Socrates who has knowledge and is willing to die rather than reveal it, the Virgin Queen who is a journalist hot on the story of a life time to interview Santiago, and many, many others. In particular Cain works a while with the Virgin Queen to pool their resources to track down different bits of Santiago's organization. And they both feel under the gun as the most feared bounty hunter from the outer frontier, known as The Angel, has also decided to hunt Santiago. Soon the Virgin Queen is tracking down the Angel because she feels that he may have a better lead to finding Santiago. But not before she introduces a big-time criminal fence and art appreciator known as the Swagman into the fray. The Swagman only wants to pick over the finest pieces of Santiago's art for himself and leave the glory to others.
The plot from here gets complex, with shifting alliances and needs between all of those on the hunt or involved with the hunters. Each member is tested in some way to show how worthy they are of being on this hunt. Cain must face the beautiful and ever deadly Altair of Altair, assassin for Santiago. The Angel must face down annoyances, like having to kill Man Mountain Bates after he has dealt with Halfpenny Terwilliger, and also put up with the Virgin Queen. And the Swagman must try to dance the fine line between greed and being overbearing with two of the most deadly bounty hunters in the galaxy. The web of lies, intrigues, double-crossings and such that goes on is not easy to recount, but ever so fun to read!!
In the end the race is to be decided by Santiago himself as he must make a choice between tractable and intractable people. Needless to say he has seen and watched the goings-on with some interest and when he finally decides to reveal himself and what he is REALLY doing, the entire cast of the novel changes completely. Finding out who Santiago IS turns out to rest upon who he WAS and what he is doing not for himself, but for all of mankind. Robin Hood he isn't... his motives go much, much deeper than wealth and he has a longer vision of a struggle that can never be won, but must be fought. And only a King of the Thieves can have a chance of fighting the good fight unending.
"He robs and he plunders, he kills and he loots.
He stealthily sneaks up and suddenly shoots.
He never forgets and he never forgives;
He never relents while an enemy lives."
- A stanza from Black Orpheus describing Santiago
Very few authors in science fiction deal with such a dynamic, complex and larger than life universe in the way that Mike Resnick does. Larry Niven comes close with his KNOWN SPACE works, which mainly deal with ordinary people pressed into extraordinary situations. H. Beam Piper drew a wider canvas, but rarely pulls out such mythology in his FEDERATION/EMPIRE works, but "Space Viking" does come close. Perhaps the best works closest to Mr. Resnick's are those of Gordon R. Dickson's in his DORSAI/CHILDE CYCLE works, in which many a character is drawn just as large as life and with a mythic background. And only Alan Dean Foster can equal Mr. Resnick for nasty planets and deep background in Foster's HUMANX COMMONWEALTH book, in which the mythology around past civilizations gives an ominous threat to all sentient beings.
Recommended:
Yes
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