A Funeral for the Eyes of Fire Author:Michael Bishop A Funeral for the Eyes of Fire, Michael Bishop's first novel, concerns itself with a pair of brothers, the Balduins, who seek to negotiate the transplant of the Ouemartsee, a small nonconformist society on the planet Trope, to another nearby planet, Glaparca, in order to assist its residents in taming an unlivable region there. The brothers emba... more »rk on this mission essentially out of boredom, as at this point in the future, human society has become hivelike, with every need provided for but with no means of achieving distinction from humanity's mass.
It isn't until the novel's end that the question of the Ouemartsee's relocation is resolved and the various parties' motives are revealed or confirmed; the bulk of the narrative serves to 1) provide a fascinating look at the Ouemartsee, the Glaparcans, and the majority culture of Trope, and 2) set in motion an event (the proposed relocation) that allows these three cultures and their philosophies (as well as that of the human negotiators) to interact in a variety of ways. This is very much a novel of manners, albeit set far in the future on a distant planet.« less