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%T Consider Phlebas
%A Iain M. Banks
%I Bantam
%D October 1991
%O paperback, US$5.99
%P 497
%G ISBN 0-553-29281-1
If, like me, you consider big-screen space-opera one of life's enduring
comforts, you'll want a copy of this book. It gives you a ringside seat on
the Culture-Idiran war, through the eyes of a shape-shifting agent of the
Idirans assigned to recover a downed Culture battle computer. Even after
you figure out that Bora Horza Gorbuchul is working for the bad guys,
you'll love the scenery -- the thousand-mile-long worldships of Vavatch
Orbital, the tunnels of Schar's World, the jungle planet of Marjoin and its
Temple of Light. And there's action aplenty as well; space battles,
intrigue, treachery, mystery, and world-engulfing cataclysm. The author
even thoughtfully includes an appendix giving a brief history of What
Happened After. Great fun, and recommended.
%T Slow Freight
%A F. M. Busby
%I Bantam Spectra
%D October 1991
%O paperback, US$3.99
%P 311
%G ISBN 0-553-29110-6
This book plays some interesting games with a genuinely novel premise -- a
teleportation method that costs you a constant two years per transit. And
the method involves hyperspatial links that can seriously screw up passing
alien starships, and thereby hangs a tale. Busby's house specialty in "the
long view", the odd effects of relativistic travel, is fully on display
here. It's too bad so much of the wordage is taken up by a mess of human
power games and largely pointless sexual intrigues, but if you like your SF
hard you probably want this book anyway.
Up to Eric's Home Page | To Index | Fri Jan 17 18:18:00 EST 1992 |
Eric S. Raymond <esr@snark.thyrsus.com>