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SF BASED ON FINNISH MYTHOLOGY FROM THE NEBULA NOMINEE AUTHOR!

In a bland, planned, regimented future, a strange new alloy extruded from another dimension is used in millions of products, triggering murderous impulses in everyone who touches them. The rational, benign leaders of government are helpless, but two daring scientists Dr. Clifford Enoch and his niece Silia believe they have the answer. Through a dimensional gap, the metal has come into contact with the Pahaliset, evil, God-like aliens who attempted to invade Earth long ago -- but were driven back by the four legendary heroes of Finnish mythology, whose powers and exploits were chronicled in the Finnish national saga, the Kalevala.

To stop these destructive, near omnipotent beings, Enoch and Silia suggest scanning all computer records to find the genetic descendent of the greatest of the heroes of the Kalevala, the lover, warrior Lemminkainen. Enter Carl Lempi, a restless misfit in the perfectly designed future utopia, who just may have the power to overcome the Pahaliset.

But, first he and Silia must journey alone to the frozen north, then cross the dimensional barrier to seek out Ilmarinen, the wonder-smith who hammers out magical weapons. Then, when Silia is kidnapped, Carl Lempi he must confront the vile star witch, Louhi in her own demon-haunted island in space time, the dark realm known as Pohyola, where imprisonment and ignominy wait.

Finally, defenseless and unarmed he must face the assembled Pahaliset. In all its might -- armed only with his own uncertain beliefs and the help of a Goddess who may not exist!

THE SPACEMAN HAD TO USE SCIENCE AGAINST STAR MAGIC!

In each volume, one of the great heroes of the Kalevala is reborn in one of his genetic descendents in the far future to prevent the return of evil alien forces, the Pahaliset, who once tried to conquer Earth in the dim ages of Finland's past. But, now they are returning, stronger and more dangerous than ever.

In ages past, the wondersmith Ilmarinen had used his awesome psychic powers to fashion a Sampo, a device powered by the energy of stars and capable of creating anything asked of it. But, the Star-Witch, Louhi, one of the Pahaliset, had gained the Star Mill and turned its atom-transforming power from creation to a terrible destruction that would not end until all matter, animate and inanimate, has been shattered.

Then a castaway is found on an interstellar asteroid not far from a dangerous storm of cosmic disintegration that has been growing in the region of Ursa Major for millinea. His survival is impossible, and he can not explain it, for he has no memory of who he is or how he reached the asteroid. But as he attempts to solve the riddle, he comes to realize that he may be the living embodiment of an ancient legend. A man who has a date with destiny that will pit him against an ancient evil force in a battle beyond the frontiers of known science.

In the distant future, Wayne Panu, captain of a battleship, undergoes terrible psychic trauma when he is forced to kill innocent alien children and then sacrifice his best friend, all in the name of duty. When Wayne looks out a viewport and sees an ancient copper canoe floating in space, bearing a bearded elder of great psychic and physical strength, Wayne knows he has suffered a mental breakdown. But the copper boat is real, and its passenger is the greatest sorcerer of the past, the present and the future, Wainomoinen.

For behind the Terran-alien war is the near-immortal hag-witch, Louhi, the vessel through which the Pahaliset, cruel forces from another dimension scheme to conquer our own. To stop them, Wayne will have to accompany Wainomoinen across time and space, learn the secrets of the Vanhat (the ancient Finns), beguile Louhi, craftiest of all the Star-Witches, trick her greatest trick from her, and then allow himself to be totally consumed by the Pahaliset!

This fourth science-fantasy novel based on the Finnish legendary epic, KALEVALA, seemed like a good idea because there are actually four important heroes in these wonderful legends, and this novel completes the cycle concerning itself with the prophecy of the Great Return when the Vanhat seed shall return to Oava, the planet of their origin.

Kullervo is the "bad one" of the legends. Ugly, sullen, despised, he was actually born out of evil. He kicked his cradle to pieces and refused to drown when the wise women flung him into the river. As a vindictive cow-her slave he changed cows into bears and this killed all of Ilmarinen's household. Like Manfred and Oedipus, he was predestined for tragedy and doom. However, he is surely one of the most fascinating characters in all mythology. Jean Sibelius, the great Finnish composer, chose his tragic life for the theme of this magnificent symphonic tone poem, Kullervo, one of his finest works, involving choruses, soloists, and a sweeping Wagnerian nobility.

My Kullervo Kasi, a prototype of his ancestor, is the spawn of a leakage from a dark dimension of matter-energy that is incompatible with the life-forces in this one. Therefore, Kullervo Kasi is the natural choice of the Starwitch Louhi to find the tag-end remnants of the Vanhat existing somewhere on despoiled Terra and destroy them...