Omha Abides was a novel I had never noticed before. I stumbled across a copy at a used bookstore and had to have it. The author is C. C. MacApp (real name: Carroll Mather Capps) , an American writer who passed away in 1971. He is probably best remembered as the author of the Gree stories in Worlds of If. (These appeared at the same time as Fred Saberhagen’s Berserker and Keith Laumer’s Retief tales. I will do another piece about them later.) I quite like his adventure-oriented (but by no means unthinky work). It reminds me of H. Beam Piper’s Fuzzy novels a little.
The novel Omha Abides was “mostly published” earlier in two short stories: “Under the Gaddyl” (Worlds of Tomorrow, April 1964) and “Trees Like Torches” (Worlds of Tomorrow, May 1966). In fact these two account for the first 95 pages of the book of 160 pages. MacApp rewrote these pieces when he combined the two. Some characters, like Peter of the Sierra Norms, disappear altogether. Some events are changed too. MacApp tried hard to provide a novel that wasn’t episodic or chunky. He adds subplots about other characters like the alien Oory, who will be Murno’s pursuer and nemesis.
The plot follows Murno, a freed norm or unmutated human. He and his family live in the forest and have no technology above bows and arrows. The Gaddyl, an invasive alien race, now own the Earth and use it as a hunting reserve. The Gaddyl are an aquatic species but have a high level of technology. The norms are tolerated as long as they follow the law never to touch a Gaddyl. Murno is one of the few to do so and live. When he was a slave, he saved Guddun’s life but had to touch him to do so. Guddun is now Fief, or master of the region, his father Kokiel having died.
Something is going on in the woods. Murno goes to investigate. He is surrounded by hunting preloons, mutated hunting baboons, used by the Gaddyls as trackers. The aliens also have mutated eagles called geehawks. These surround Murno while a hovercar bobs above. It is Oory, the head of security for the Fiefdom. He tells Murno that slaves have escaped and anyone (and their family) who helps them will be killed.
Later, Murno returns home to find Kenth, the neighbor’s son with a package. It is the tech that the slaves have stolen. There is an alien pistol, a device called a distorter and a mysterious piece of human tech. Kenth also tells him “Omha Abides”, a phrase from legend of a savior for the human race. Murno knows he and his family have to leave. They begin a long journey where they must avoid the aliens and the terrible life forms that now populate our world, such as the Lure, giant lizards brought from off-world. To make matters worse, Guddun is driving the other Fiefs to allow for the hunting of humans for sport.
Murno takes his family from clan to clan as he works east to find Omha. He goes first to the Sierra Norms, who have more technology than most clans. But the leader of the clan is in bed with the aliens and Murno has to flee them. (In the magazine version this goes another way.) He finds the Blue Mutants or Bluies, a race of mutated humans that can read emotion, and put people to sleep with their minds. The Gaddyl find them in the Black Grove, a dark canopy that houses strange mutants like the Big Ears and their talking trees. A terrible battle takes place here, ending with the Black Grove being cut in half by the aliens. (This is where the second story ends.)
The finale of the book, takes Murno (his family safe with the Bluies) to the plains and the Orse. This numerous tribe lead by Larkan begins to get ideas of attacking the Gaddyl, but Murno presses on to the Burnies, a tribe that openly worships Omha. In the Rockies, he finds the Burnies and a priest called Pel. The Burnie priests subject themselves to radiation in worshiping Omha. Murno lays the mysterious gadget on the altar of Omha but nothing happens (We learn better. We know old computers are clicking on and getting ready.)
Disappointed, Murno returns to the Orse, thinking Omha a lie. The Gaddyl, Oory, has lost status after the Black Grove and is put in charge of catching Murno. To do this, he sets a trap, making Munro think that his family has been taken to Ingress, the center of Gaddyl security. From Ingress the Gaddyl can summon spaceships in minutes. The plan is now to destroy Ingress and cut off the Gaddyl from their space network.
Murno, along with Larkan of the Orse, his allies from the Bluies and the Big Ears, attack the city, its Translocation Center in particular. A diversionary attack on a distant city of Chunn, has the Gaddyl air cars fly off, then the Orse drive a stampede of cattle at the outer defenses. Riders attack; captured air cars and munitions help. Things appear to be going well but the Gaddyl are better at scheming. A flotilla of air cars drops from above and the attackers are soon put to the grind. It all looks like it is going sideways when Omha calls out loud and clear across the land: “Ohma Abides”. Ancient humans weapons destroy the aliens, their armories, their ships. Earth has been freed in a single moment.
Murno and Oory meet for one last conversation over truce. The Gaddyl applauds him as an example of the human race. The hostilities renewed, Murno has no choice but to end Oory’s life and all the other invaders.
The book ends with Murno now the president of Earth. He knows that the Gaddyl will be back, but not for at least a decade since they destroyed their Translocation Center. Humanity will be ready for them when they come. Buried in paperwork, he dreads his day of dealing with minor administrative tasks. He dumps the work on an aid and finishes with: “There are some kinds of slavery, for which a man has nobody but himself to blame.”
