The Penal Colony

by Richard Herley

  — Publishers’ Weekly

  Author Richard Herley has built a thriller as tight and disciplined as his inmate society.

  — Enid News & Eagle

  A gripping novel, as thriller or novel of ideas.

  — Library Journal

  … a well devised and gripping novel.

  — Yorkshire Post

  It’s savagery – not civilization – that lies like a thin veneer on the human character. That’s the ironic theme of The Penal Colony, an absorbing, offbeat thriller by British novelist Richard Herley …

  Tension and philosophy artfully mix in this story, thanks to terse prose, plenty of action and a convincing milieu. Multiple battles of wits propel the plot as Routledge struggles with himself, his environment and bloodthirsty human adversaries to embrace his nature as a social animal and learn the values of his new society.

  Herley explored similar themes in The Pagans (1978-84), a notable trilogy about the Stone Age now being published in paperback in the United States. The Penal Colony is the trilogy’s equal, casting the eternal love-hate conflict between individual and tribe in a modern context of solid adventure.

  — Vince Kohler, The Oregonian

  … a well written and a memorable story of a chilling adventure.

  — Lake Oswego Review

  Normally I shun such reviewer clichés as “a real page-turner”, “leaves you breathless”, “can’t put it down”, considering them to be empty substitutes for critical thought. Well, there’s always an exception: I’ve weighed those phrases carefully, and I believe that each of them accurately applies to a new novel, The Penal Colony by Richard Herley.

  The Penal Colony is a gripping novel of suspense, terror, thrills and adventure. It raises your intellectual speculation while raising your heart rate. It has been a long time since I last encountered a book that so successfully blended those elements along with compelling characters.

  … It is a marvelous plot, reminiscent of Geoffrey Household’s Rogue Male in its rendering of helplessness, aloneness and vulnerability when Routledge is on the run. Herley is an expert at setting up this kind of story – heightening the reader’s suspense, easing it, backing into the resolutions of episodes.

  But novels that depend almost exclusively on plot are generally not very interesting. This novel does not, and so this novel is captivatingly interesting. By setting his story only a few years in the future, Herley is asking what sort of society we are – and becoming.

  Within this grand vision are other, subtle, supporting images, parables and metaphors. The Village, for instance, is like a monastic community: highly structured, obedient, non-democratic and headed by a beneficent man called “Father”. This is in contrast to the utter lawlessness of the Outsiders, one of whose dominant figures, named Martinson, has a fixation on Christ, Satan and crucifixion – and a violent hatred for Father.

  Altogether, this makes a neat conceit. These are all (except Routledge) terrible lawbreakers, yet some have become law-abiding and others outlaws.

  Significantly, on the island are the ruins of a monastery, one of those guardians of learning in the Dark Ages. Now we have, in Routledge’s estimation, “the new Dark Ages” with “Britain wallowing out of control”. There is more than one reference in the book to feelings of reincarnated lives and loyalties.

  Is the Village, then, an example of how society can save itself, the way the monasteries once saved civilization? Maybe, maybe not. The book’s ending would seem to lead one away from such grand conceptualizations.

  Yet it is true that, despite the primitive conditions, Routledge feels for the first time that he really belongs, which he never had felt in his comfortable middle-class existence. The Village offers “the opportunity to be a man”. These men deal honestly, squarely, fairly and kindly with each other, a way of interaction most of them had not experienced before.

  If I could bring myself to put “perfect” in front of any noun, which I can’t, I’d be tempted to use it here. The Penal Colony came into the office absolutely unheralded, with little promotion or publicity, which usually means the publisher has few hopes for it. I really think this novel is in a class with Walter Miller’s A Canticle for Leibowitz, whose intellectual qualities it shares. I wish for it the same long-lasting fame and respect.

  — Roger Miller, Milwaukee Journal

  Table of contents

  PART ONE

  1 Routledge becomes conscious

  2 The triumvirate

  3 The cliffs

  4 Gazzer and Tortuga

  5 Billy

  6 The lighthouse

  7 Perdew Wood

  8 Martinson's hut

  9 The crossbow

  10 Routledge burns off the hours

  11 The wild man

  PART TWO

  1 His absolute authority

  2 Jacqueline Lister

  3 Interview with Appleton

  4 Franks above the cave

  5 The drop zone

  6 King's crime

  7 The new meat

  8 Zugzwang

  9 Godwin on the spot

  10 First storm of autumn

  11 Houlihan

  12 Neptune shows his hand

  PART THREE

  1 Fitzmaurice and his music

  2 Christmas afternoon

  3 The lightships

  4 Obie in the Village

  5 A war council

  6 Star Cove

  7 The lottery

  8 The onslaught

  9 The Chinooks

  10 The crew gathers

  11 Ojukwu

  Envoi

  About the author

  Also by Richard Herley

  Press opinion of The Penal Colony

  Table of Contents

  PART ONE

  1 Routledge becomes conscious

  2 The triumvirate

  3 The cliffs

  4 Gazzer and Tortuga

  5 Billy

  6 The lighthouse

  7 Perdew Wood

  8 Martinson's hut

  9 The crossbow

  10 Routledge burns off the hours

  11 The wild man

  PART TWO

  1 His absolute authority

  2 Jacqueline Lister

  3 Interview with Appleton

  4 Franks above the cave

  5 The drop zone

  6 King's crime

  7 The new meat

  8 Zugzwang

  9 Godwin on the spot

  10 First storm of autumn

  11 Houlihan

  12 Neptune shows his hand

  PART THREE

  1 Fitzmaurice and his music

  2 Christmas afternoon

  3 The lightships

  4 Obie in the Village

  5 A war council

  6 Star Cove

  7 The lottery

  8 The onslaught

  9 The Chinooks

  10 The crew gathers

  11 Ojukwu

  Envoi

  About the author

  Also by Richard Herley

  Press opinion of The Penal Colony