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%T Yvgenie
%A C.J. Cherryh
%I Del Rey
%D November 1991
%O clothbound, US$19.00
%P 280
%G ISBN 0-345-36784-7
Yvegenie is the conclusion to the Russian fantasy
series begun by Cherryh in Rusalka (see RR#158) and continued in
Chernovog. Everything I've previously said about these
books applies. [CCO]
%T Remaking History
%A Kim Stanley Robinson
%I TOR
%D December 1991
%O paperback, US$18.95
%P 274
%G ISBN 0-312-85126-X
Uh oh, Kim Stanley Robinson's trying to be an artiste again. I've
commented before (RR#65) that this
debilitating disease of young writers is one to which he seems
particularly prone. The result is a collection of atmospheric,
well-written meditations that may hit big with the literary-merit
mafia but have almost nothing to do with SF and abandon its
traditional virtues. To be fair, the one exception (Sensitive
Dependence On Initial Conditions) is a spectacularly
good SF story...original, gripping, and experimental in a way that
succeeds brilliantly. But I found the rest pointless and/or boring,
often intolerably so. Caveat emptor.
RECEIVED BUT NOT REVIEWED:
A Matter Of Taste, by Fred Saberhagen (TOR). Yet Another Vampire Novel.
The Sorceress And The Cygnet, by Patricia A. McKillip (Ace). Yet Another coming-of-age fantasy.
Omega Sub #5: Death Dive by J. D. Cameron (Avon). Utter bilge...
Hook by Terry Brooks (Ballantine). A movie tie-in by Terry "Shannara" Brooks? Goddess help us all... The Last Of The Renshai by Mickey Zucker Reichert (DAW). Yet another overweight warrior-hero-of-the-prophecy fantasy.
City by Clifford Simak (Collier). Reissue of a Golden Age classic I personally never liked very much. Of historical interest.
Virtual Mode by Piers Anthony (Ace). So bad that I gave up in disgust within a handful of pages. Yecch...
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Eric S. Raymond <esr@snark.thyrsus.com>