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%T Sheltered Lives
%A Charles Oberndorf
%I Bantam/Spectra
%D March 1992
%O paperback, 450 pp, US$4.99
%G ISBN 0-553-29248-X
Oberndorf's near-future America fights crime with 24- hour monitoring of
(most) citizens. It fights the spread of AIDS by sending infected persons to
concentration camps while providing government-trained prostitutes for the
healthy. Fertile ground for ethical speculation about important social issues?
Maybe, but Oberndorf doesn't play it that way. What he gives us is a
prosaically-drawn thriller set in an America that would have shocked George
Orwell. In best modern novelist fashion, Oberndorf even refuses to wrap up
most of the plot twists, leaving the reader to speculate about how protagonist,
"servicer" Rod Lawrence, can pick up the remains of his shattered life.
Fascinating reading for those who don't detest stories that lack a definite
ending. [CCO]
%T The Remarkables
%A Robert Reed
%I Bantam Spectra
%D March 1992
%O paperback, US$4.99
%P 344
%G ISBN 0-553-29362-1
The author of Down The Bright Way (RR#199) delivers a solid, well-textured novel
of wilderness adventure in an alien ecology. As in the classic
stories of this type, the mutual strangers on a trek across the
wilderness of Pitcairn have secrets which explode into shocking
relevance as the quest isolates them from civilization. The really
fun thing about this novel is how carefully Reed confounds all one's
expectations about the interactions between the human Pitcairns and
their treelike alien symbionts, and the nature of the aliens
themselves. The result is perhaps a tad too overwritten and
introspective for its own good, but displays a fine strong SF talent
from which we can expect more original work.
RECEIVED BUT NOT REVIEWED:
Chains Of Command by Bill McCay and Eloise Flood. Trekfic.
Unicorn Highway by David Lee Jones. Looks sweet enough to kill.
Beauty by Sheri S. Tepper (the pb edition). Hardback reviewed in RR#132.
Up to Eric's Home Page | To Index | Mon Mar 30 18:53:39 EST 1992 |
Eric S. Raymond <esr@snark.thyrsus.com>