Subject: "The Cult of Loving Kindness" by Paul Park

From: [email-masked] (P. Douglas Reeder)
Date: Thu, 5 Jan 1995 02:58:19 GMT

A Review of "The Cult of Loving Kindness" by Paul Park
review by P. Douglas Reeder

        Park draws a complex, plausible picture of a society in turmoil.
Unfortunatly, his narrative strings out descriptions of events so that it
is often difficult to discern what has happened, and the reader must
struggle to put together references.  This is particularly true of sister
and brother Cassia and Rael's flight from their home village, a major event
which Park motivates only indirectly.  His characters are difficult to
understand and most of them I found difficult to identify with -- reading
this immediately after "The Mists of Avalon" by Bradley may have been a
mistake, as my appetite for stories about religious fanatics who believe in
reincarnation is limited.
        The main characters are Cassia and Rael, and Deccan Blendish, a
graduate student, and Cathartes, a definite villain, a professor of
Theology (he and his university are far more powerful in his society than
ours).  There are a number of other characters, though, and it only
gradually becomes clear that these four are central, a feature that is not
unattractive.
        Cassia's acceptance of a role that others put on her is difficult
to understand, given her earlier reactions. Rael is easier to understand,
and their closeness is plasible given that they were the only humans in
their village (the villagers are near-humans).  Blendish has a tendency to
pop in and out of the narrative, and his final role was dissapointing to
me, given that I identified more with him than the others.  Cathartes is a
fairly straghtforward villain, though this thankfully is not evident at the
start.
        More interesting to me than the characters is their society, whose
nature is gradually (too gradually) revealed.  It has a very third-world
character, though insofar as I can tell, it is not intended as an allegory
for some current country, unlike Resnick's "Paradise".  I haven't read the
first two books of the Starbridge trillogy, which would have made some
things clear, though "The Cult of Loving Kindness" is readable by itself.
        This novel has much more of art than entertainment in it, and the
art failed to reach me.  It is somewhat reminiscent of Gene Wolf's work.

P. Douglas Reeder

Roboticist and Fashion Designer
[email-masked]

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