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%T The Stress of Her Regard
%A Tim Powers
%I Ace
%D June 1991
%O paperback, US$4.95
%P 470
%G 0-441-79097-6
Tim Powers proved, in The Drawing Of The Dark, The
Anubis Gates, and On Stranger Tides, that no one can match
his inventiveness, logic, and eye for the telling detail in historical dark
fantasy. Until now, I could happily say that he just kept getting better as
he went along. But I don't think this is as good as Tides; it's
too dark, too long, and tends to bog down in details and subplots
that don't really advance the grand design. Still, Powers on a bad day beats
most other fantasists at their best. And his characterization of various
historical figures such as Keats, Byron, and Shelley in conflict with the
secret menace of the Nephelim, the silicon vampires who are their muses and
their dooms, is unfailingly interesting.
%T Shivering World
%A Kathy Tyers
%I Bantam Spectra
%D June 1991
%O paperback, US$4.50
%P 421
%G 0-553-29051-7
It was clever of Bantam to put a plug from Lois McMaster Bujold on the
cover of this book, if not quite as accurate as I'd like. Tyers aspires to
Bujold's combination of hard-edged techno-verismilitude, action, and
sympathetic and psychological nuance, but doesn't quite make it in the
lattermost department. Not that this is a bad book; it's quite a bit
better than average. The world-building is good, the plot is properly
tense, and the whole turns on a most satisfactory microbiological McGuffin.
It's just not as good as Bujold. But then, very little else is, either...
%T Lens of the World
%A R. A. MacAvoy
%I Avon
%D June
%O paperback, US$4.95
%P 286
%G 0-380-71016-1
Another fine fantasy from the author of Tea With A Black
Dragon and The Third Eagle (RR#15) demonstrates once again MacAvoy's deft
touch at characterization and her knack for subtly playing against
genre expectations. Nazhuret the outcast leaves the harsh home of his
boyhood to find Powl, the eccentric genius lens-grinder who educates
him in a hundred fascinating, eccentric and deadly ways. Eventually,
the fate of two kingdoms will hang on what he's learned. I hope we
will hear more of Nazhuret's story; this feels like just the
beginning.
Up to Eric's Home Page | To Index | Sat Jul 20 22:25:50 EDT 1991 |
Eric S. Raymond <esr@snark.thyrsus.com>