Subject: PAST LIVES, FUTURE TENSE edited by Elizabeth Ann Scarborough

From: "Evelyn C Leeper" <[email-masked]>
Date: 13 Jan 2000 10:27:13 -0500

PAST LIVES, PRESENT TENSE edited by Elizabeth Ann Scarborough
              Ace, ISBN 0-441-00649-3, 1999, 336pp, US$13
                   A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper
		    Copyright 2000 Evelyn C. Leeper

     This is a "shared-world anthology," for which Scarborough has
provided the premise in "Soulmates": Tsering manages to implant the
personality of his dead mate, Chime, into himself without destroying his
own, creating "Dr. Chimera."  The other authors then develop this idea
independently of each other, each choosing a different past life to
"resurrect," with Dr. Chimera and his technique running as a thread
throughout.

     My main problem with this book is that I have difficulty with the
premise that all our personality and memories are stored in our DNA.
Jerry Oltion's story says MRNA, but Scarborough specifically says DNA, so
Oltion must have gotten it wrong.  First of all, there is a bandwidth
problem.  Second of all, this smacks too much of Lamarckian genetics.

     Given that, some of the stories are mildly entertaining.  "A Rose
with All Its Thorns" by Lillian Stewart Carl puts the personality of Anne
Boleyn in a (female) Tudor historian at an academic conference which
reminds one of Connie Willis's academic settings and characters, and
performs admirably in that genre.

     Not surprisingly, Nina Kiriki Hoffman produces a very strong story in
"Voyage of Discovery," in which the personality of Meriwether Lewis is
implanted in a young woman who has become completely uncommunicative after
an accident.  Carole Nelson Douglas's "Night Owl" treats the idea a bit
differently than the others.

     There are, naturally, a couple of stories dealing with holy relics.
Depending on your interests, you might like the Civil War themed story, or
the sports one, or the author one, or one of the others.  But on the
whole, most of the stories seemed merely repetitive.  This, of course, is
a problem with commissioned anthologies, but this topic is even more
restrictive than most.  The best stories would stand alone, and even most
of the weaker stories might pass muster if it were the only one of its
premise.  But putting them all together takes away any claim of
originality, and just emphasizes their weaknesses.

%B      Past Lives, Present Tense
%E      Elizabeth Ann Scarborough
%C      New York
%D      November 1, 1999
%I      Ace
%O      trade paperback, US$13
%G      ISBN 0-441-00649-3
%P      336pp

Evelyn C. Leeper    |  My other email address is [email-masked]
+1 732 332 6218     |  http://www.geocities.com/evelynleeper
Don't ever save anything for a special occasion.  Every day you're
alive is a special occasion.  --Ann Wells