VLSI%DEC-MARLBORO@sri-unix.UUCP (01/30/84)
From: John Redford <VLSI at DEC-MARLBORO> --------
VLSI%DEC-MARLBORO@sri-unix.UUCP (01/31/84)
From: John Redford <VLSI at DEC-MARLBORO>
Some brief reviews:
The Anubis Gates - Tim Powers
Rip-snorting stuff. An ancient Egyptian magician attempts some
demon-raising in the 1800's in England. A present-day American
captain of industry notices the historical effects of the rite and
exploits them to build a time machine. Plus werewolves, a beggar king
with a palace in the sewers, body-switching, and Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
It gets a bit gruesome at times, but is a real page-turner.
The Man in the Tree - Damon Knight
What is going on in this book? Why did Knight come out of his long
period of silence to write it? It's not that it's badly written, or that
the style is difficult; it's just that there doesn't seem to be much point
to it. The book seems to be a Christ allegory about this man, Gene Anderson.
He grows up in a small town in Oregon, and discovers early that he has
miraculous powers. A tragic but stupid accident forces him to flee home
at the age of nine with a revenge-seeking sheriff on his trail. He grows up to
be a giant some eight and a half feet tall. He becomes a sophisticate, an
art-lover and a millionaire. How then can he be a messiah? The wealthy and
successful people of the world don't become saviors. The rich don't need
saving. A well-written but frustrating book.
Courtship Rite - Donald Kingsbury
I must confess that I didn't finish this one. About halfway through
I stopped suspending my disbelief, and that's fatal. It's set in a
lost colony where almost none of the native life is
edible. The only nutrition to be had is in the few species brought
from Earth, and in human flesh. Cannibalism is practiced at the least
excuse. In general, these people seem to be into pain; they have ritual
scars covering their whole bodies (done without anesthetic), and select
mates with rites involving incredible amounts of torture. I don't buy
it. There's nothing in someone else's flesh that you couldn't get just
be eating the same things they do. Since the people getting eaten will
probably object, it's hard to see how this custom could catch on. The
practice of nearly killing a woman you intend to marry also doesn't
seem likely. Kingsbury is obviously trying to teach a lesson in
cultural relativism. He's trying to set up a soceity where torture
and cannibalism are commonplace in order to prod us into thinking about our own
values. It backfires (for me at least) because the soceity seems to be
without internal logic. And since it's a work of fiction, no one has to
believe in it anyhow.
The Alchemists - Geary Gravel
This is the first time in print for a new author. The Empire will
authorize the colonization of a planet if the natives cannot be shown
to be sentient. The standards are tight, though, and no race yet has
qualified. A team is sent to a newly discovered planet to
evaluate the extremely-human looking natives. They are not in fact
human, but the leader of the team has a plan to stop the steamroller
of the Empire's expansion. It's perhaps a bit over-written, but a good
first novel.
/jlr
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