From /tmp/sf.4146 Tue Aug 9 01:57:47 1994 Xref: liuida rec.arts.sf.reviews:562 rec.arts.books:84574 alt.books.reviews:3216 Path: liuida!sunic!aun.uninett.no!trane.uninett.no!eunet.no!nuug!EU.net!howland.reston.ans.net!gatech!udel!news2.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!dg-rtp!sheol!dont-reply-to-paths From: Evelyn.Chimelis.Leeper@att.com () Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.books,alt.books.reviews Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Subject: INTERFACE by Stephen Bury Approved: sfr%sheol@concert.net (rec.arts.sf.reviews moderator) Message-ID: <9404280948.ZM599@mtgpfs1.mt.att.com> Date: Thu, 28 Apr 1994 23:48:56 GMT Lines: 65 INTERFACE by Stephen Bury Bantam Spectra, ISBN 0-553-37230-0, 1994, 592pp, US$12.95. A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper Copyright 1994 Evelyn C. Leeper Stephen Bury is a pen name for the writing team of Neal Stephenson (SNOW CRASH) and J. Frederick George. (Someone on the Net claimed that George is Stephenson's father; I have no further evidence of that.) And INTERFACE is a high-tech political thriller about a politician who suffers a stroke and undergoes a radically new treatment--with some startling side effects. In many ways this was reminiscent of Stephen King's DEAD ZONE--there's a political campaign, complete with fascists, seedy politicians, and schemes and plots galore. There are some everyday sorts of characters who find themselves caught up in the sweep of events. The plot device may be different (though both deal with extraordinary mental powers), but a lot of what surrounds it is the same. It's true that Bury uses his humor slightly differently from King. King uses a slapstick approach, while Bury has a more intellectual tack: "Brain cells didn't grow. But the connections between them did. The network of linkages was constantly shifting and reconnecting itself in a process that was usually described as 'learning.' Dr. Radhakrisnan did not really care for this terminology because it contained a value judgment. It implied that every time new synapses were formed inside a person's head it was because they were memorizing Shakespeare or being taught how to integrate transcendental functions. Of course, in reality most of the internal rewiring that went on in people's brains took place in response to watching game shows on television, being beaten up by family members, figuring out the cheapest place to buy cigarettes, and being conditioned not to mix plaids with stripes." Unfortunately, the careful plotting slips up in a couple of spots. On page 10 it is established that Clinton is no longer President, yet on page 356 a televised debate is running the theme of "Campaign '96." (Yes,there could have been an impeachment, but the story seems to rule this out.) Later, someone seems to think a Presidential term runs eight years. And would a whiz-bang political campaign manager really hire someone from STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION as someone he was trying to pass off as a news anchorman? If the science-fictional device is not entirely convincing, well, I'm willing suspend my disbelief given that most of the rest of the story is believable. The book moves along briskly (I read it in five hours of plane flights) and keeps the reader's interest. But it's more a political thriller than hard science fiction. Readers who enjoyed SNOW CRASH may also miss the philosophical underpinnings that were present in that earlier work. Of course, this may be one reason why Stephenson's name does not appear on this volume. %T Interface %A Stephen Bury %C New York %D April 15, 1994 %I Bantam Spectra %O trade paperback, US$12.95 %G ISBN 0-553-37230-0 %P 592pp -- Evelyn C. Leeper | +1 908 957 2070 | Evelyn.Leeper@att.com "The Internet is already an information superhighway, except that ... it is like driving a car through a blizzard without windshield wipers or lights, and all of the road signs are written upside down and backwards." --Dave Barry