From archive (archive) Subject: _The_Game_of_Fox_and_Lion_ by Robert R. Chase Summary: Read this book. From: throopw@dg_rtp.UUCP (Wayne Throop) Date: 26 Aug 86 05:13:11 SDT I haven't heard of Robert R. Chase before. My loss, if he has written other books and they are as good as this one. It re-hashes old themes: war, superman (the main character has artificially enhanced intelligence, the "bad guys" have enhanced strength and endurance), politics, and so on and on. But it held my interest and made me think by using these old themes in pretty original ways. Chase also has a pretty good turn of phrase. Some random snippets of conversation to show the general flavor: "I have been sane for years, and it is much less than it is cracked up to be." ----------------- "Don't prattle on things beyond your understanding. Even now, if you had any true penitence, I might intercede for you. But all you have is fear for your own wretched hide. To regret doing a wrong simply *because* it is wrong -- well, I can see from your face that the idea fills you with complete incomprehension. No, Couteau, your disloyalty is exceeded only by your shortsightedness. There is little in you for salvation and scarcely enough for damnation." ----------------- "There are some holy men here. There are even more who could be. I, however, coming to Ariel, considered transubstantiation and the Parousia one with phlogiston and the houses of the zodiac. 'Holiness' was a meaningless word." "Then why did you come here?" she asked. "For the best reason in the world," he said lightly. "To keep on breathing." ----------------- "I am just about as clever and farseeing as my legends credit me with being. I can win this war, but even I cannot establish peace." This fluent way with words, and the fact that the book deals with interesting ethical issues in a relatively deep non-sophomoric fashion makes the book well worth reading. And the fact that it is fun also makes it enjoyable to read. Very *very* nicely done. -- He saw angels in the architecture, spinning in infinity. He said "Hey... halleluiah." --- "Call me Al" by Paul Simon -- Wayne Throop !mcnc!rti-sel!dg_rtp!throopw From rec.arts.sf-reviews Tue Aug 27 22:50:35 1991 Path: herkules.sssab.se!isy!liuida!sunic!news.funet.fi!fuug!mcsun!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!samsung!know!dg-rtp.dg.com From: sheol!throopw@dg-rtp.dg.com (Wayne Throop) Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf-reviews Subject: Review of _Crucible_ by Robert R. Chase Message-ID: <31625@know.pws.bull.com> Date: 25 Aug 91 22:35:50 GMT Sender: news@pws.bulL.com Reply-To: sheol!throopw@dg-rtp.dg.com Followup-To: rec.arts.sf-lovers Lines: 65 Approved: wex@pws.bull.com CRUCIBLE by Robert R. Chase Review Copyright (c) 1991 Wayne Throop %A Robert R. Chase %T Crucible %C New York %D July 1991 %G ISBN 0-345-36656-5 %I Ballantine %O paperback, US$3.95 %P 182 pp. I am aware of three books by Robert R. Chase, all from Ballantine. _The_Game_of_Fox_and_Lion_, _Shapers_, and _Crucible_. All have been very worthwhile, though I'd have to rate _Crucible_ as the weakest of the three. [NOTE: As with any review of a sequel, this review may contain spoilers for earlier books. --AW] _Crucible_ is a sequel to _The_Game_of_Fox_and_Lion_, and follows the occurrences on an expeditionary vessel crewed by representatives of both participants in the war described in the _The_Game_of_Fox_and_Lion_. The book starts out in mid-crisis, as the ship's crew tries to recover from damage to the ship's power plant. The action is followed from the viewpoint of one of the engineers revived from cold sleep to deal with repairs. Awakening, the engineer is plunged into factional politics, as the "Norms" and the "Gens" (the "sides" in the late war) choose sides and blame each other for everything going wrong. At sort of a center of the tempest is Father Benedict, also known as "Fox" or "Grandfather Fox", "...the last of the specially enhanced Multi-Neural Capacitants." He is a center of controversy, because he has ties to both groups. The "Norms" because he (seemingly) took their side in the the war, and to the "Gens" because he is genetically enhanced (though mentally, not physically as most Gens are). His enhanced intellect becomes key to getting them out of their pickle, but his ambiguous status and his reputation for doing the cleverly unexpected make him trusted by few. This type of "pressure cooker" story, with a Machiavellian manipulator in close confines has many examples. Perhaps most recently (and most similarly) is Gerrold's _Voyage_of_the_Star_Wolf_, which also deals with issues of genetic enhancement, though from a significantly different viewpoint and level of biotechnology. But there are also echoes of everything from Sauron Supermen to the Van Vogt collection _The_Voyage_of_the_Space_Beagle_. In this incarnation, the story is handled fairly well, and even could be considered to relate to recent discussions here and there on the net about the problem of determinism and the difficulty of predicting what an "intelligent" being will do. There are also interesting and seemingly plausible technical background details, well handled. The book even (sort of) fits the "Catholicism in SF" query recently on sf-lovers. But finally, there isn't nearly as much "meat" to this story as either of the other two Chase books. It is a suspense-turned-mystery adventure story, with many layers and better than many another such, though the ending seemed somewhat abrupt and tacked on to make a point. While it was worth reading, and I'll be looking forward to other Chase books, this isn't really the sort of thing I'll be most eagerly waiting for. -- Wayne Throop ...!mcnc!dg-rtp!sheol!throopw