Subject: Review: "Dancing Vac" by SN Lewitt

From: [email-masked] (p-m agapow)
Date: Thu, 29 Aug 1996 17:18:21 GMT

"Dancing Vac" by SN Lewitt
		A Postview, copyright p-m agapow 1996

In this largely independent sequel to "Cyberstealth", the crack fighter
pilot Cargo is on the loose.  Betrayed by his alien partner he sees only one
solution - go after his former sidekick, even if it means slipping through
enemy lines.

There's a peculiar faultline that separates military SF/F from the remainder
of the genre.  It would be simplistic to describe it as rightwing vs.
leftwing, but militaristic fiction does tends to be authoritarian,
mono-cultural, extravagant and divide people into two groups: important ones
and others.  So does much commodity fantasy.  There are exceptions - perhaps
Glen Cook and Lois McMaster Bujold.  Shariann Lewitt is another.

Lewitt deals more in personal narratives and little details, reflected in
her multicultural worlds and loner characters.  This in itself served to
raise "Cyberstealth" above the pack, although some the plot twists were
telegraphed.  Unfortunately "Dancing Vac" suffers a little from this same
flaw and in addition has to show the same world and lead character in a new
and interesting light.  And here it stumbles: there's just not that much
more to say.  The world is convincing, the writing effective, the plot moves
along, but it never carves out the territory that would make the story more
distinct form the others, unlike the author's other works "Blind Justice"
and "Cybernetic Jungle."  On the positive side, the action scenes are
tightly controlled and evocative without losing sight of our protagonist's
part in the battle or reducing the enemy to a mere target.

A lesser effort for Lewitt.  Not bad but she's done better.  [**/ok] and old
westerns on the Sid and Nancy scale.

%A SN Lewitt
%B Dancing Vac
%I Ace
%C New York
%D 1990
%G ISBN 0-441-13668-0
%P 236pp
%O paperback, Aus$12.95

paul-michael agapow ([email-masked]), La Trobe Uni, Infocalypse
[archived at http://www.cs.latrobe.edu.au/~agapow/Postviews/]