Subject: Karen Ripley: The Alchemist of Time

From: [email-masked] (Dani Zweig)
Date: Wed, 7 Dec 1994 22:18:58 GMT

"The Alchemist of Time" is a disappointing conclusion to Karen Ripley's
initially promising "Slow World" trilogy.  In "The Persistence of Memory",
Cassidy finds herself riding a horse across an unfamiliar landscape, with
no memory of how she got there or, for that matter, of who she is.  This
turns out to be the norm where she now is:  It's the fact that she retains
some memories of our world that is unusual.

There are other anomalies in the Cassidy's new world:  Objects from our
world seem to make their way to this one in a random fashion.  The
inhabitants maintain a technology far more advanced than the apparent
infrastructure would support.  They've also never heard of sex.  A
substantial number of people can bond with horses (or other animals).  And
there are monsters, though people don't talk about that.  The first book
introduces Cassidy, and the reader, to this world.  The second book, "The
Warden of Horses", is one of those travelling-from-here-to-there books
that so often occupy the middles of trilogies.  By its end, Cassidy (who
has regained her memories) meets the Warden of Horses and recognizes him as
an autistic patient from her old world.  She also recognizes that the
monsters (who, by this point, are tearing up the Warden's city), have been
following her.  That book ends with all the cast members setting off to
find the mysterious Alchemist of Time, who might have answers for them.

Which brings us to book three, most of which is again travelogue.  The
first two thirds of the book consists of the group's travails in getting
from here to there.  Plot advancement consists of the Warden's periodic
spells, during which he can perceive our world through the eyes of his
autistic counterpart.  (Cassidy takes about two hundred pages longer than
the reader to figure out what he's seeing, which is irritating.)  The
Alchemist, when they find him, is much less than they expected, but he
does fortuitously hold the keys which enable them to solve the mystery of
their world.

What makes the conclusion unsatisfying is that the solution is too flimsy
to bear the weight of the trilogy.  I won't give it away, but it doesn't
make much sense, it lacks internal consistency, and it fails to explain
most of the mysterious phenomena, such as the presence of Cassidy's horse,
the monsters' behavior, the absence of a sex drive ("they forgot" doesn't
seem to cover it), and the time-stop phenomenon.  Aside from the central
mystery, most of the page-count of the trilogy consists of Cassidy and her
companions making their way through assorted underbrush and getting
themselves soaked, muddy, and mauled, so an ending which doesn't deal with
the mystery in a satisfying manner is understandably disappointing.

%A Ripley, Karen
%T The Alchemist of Time
%I Ballantine/Del Rey
%C New York
%D December, 1994
%G ISBN 0-345-38118-1
%P 470pp
%O $4.99
%S The Slow World

-----
Dani Zweig
[email-masked]

   'T is with our judgements as our watches, none
   Go alike, yet each believes his own
		--Alexander Pope