Up to Eric's Home Page | To Index | Mon Feb 10 17:16:09 EST 1992 |
%T Phule's Paradise
%A Robert Lynn Asprin
%I Ace
%D February 1992
%O paperback, US$4.99
%P 252
%G ISBN 0-441-66253-6
This sequel to Phule's Company (RR#076) is more of the same --- light, fluffy,
mindless, fun for Asprin's fans from the Skeeve books and probably a
stone bore for anyone else. You Have Been Warned.
%T The Emperor of Everything
%S The Emanicipator
%V Book II
%A Ray Aldridge
%I Bantam
%D February 1992
%O paperback, US$4.50
%P 278
%G ISBN 0-553-29491-1
I said of volume 1: "This is glitter-trash formula SF reminiscent
of Christopher Rowley --- the hero is an assassin working for (but
secretly against) the galactic slavers' guild. Lots of sex, violence,
perversion, decadence, grotesquerie, and picturesque villains.
Inventive, though, and better written than such stuff usually is. You
might enjoy it." All the above still applies.
%T The Difference Engine
%A William Gibson
%A Bruce Sterling
%I Bantam
%D February 1992
%O paperback, US$5.99
%P 429
%G ISBN 0-553-29461-X
In this bizarre and marvelous book, Gibson & Stirling give us a
Victorian techno-thriller, an alternate-history speculation worked out
in a depth that recalls Heinlein's future history. What if Charles
Babbage had succeeded in building his mechanical computer in the
1830s? What would have been the consequences of an Information
Revolution before electronics, a first Computer Age a century early?
Never mind the technical and engineering bobbles in this book; the
audacity of the premise and the cleverness with which the authors weave
historical characters and events into a tapestry of might-have-been more
than saves it. Highly recommended.
Up to Eric's Home Page | To Index | Mon Feb 10 17:16:09 EST 1992 |
Eric S. Raymond <esr@snark.thyrsus.com>