From rec.arts.sf.reviews Sat Jul 31 15:05:43 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!newspump.monmouth.com!newspeer.monmouth.com!news.maxwell.syr.edu!firehose.mindspring.net!gatech!18.181.0.27.MISMATCH!sipb-server-1.mit.edu!senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!usenet From: pm@postviews.freeuk.com (pm agapow) Newsgroups: aus.sf,uk.media.books.sf,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Postview: "The Memory Cathedral" by Jack Dann Followup-To: aus.sf,rec.arts.sf.written Date: 28 Jul 1999 13:13:45 -0400 Organization: Infocalypse Lines: 90 Sender: wex@basil.media.mit.edu Approved: wex@media.mit.edu Message-ID: NNTP-Posting-Host: basil.media.mit.edu User-Agent: MacSOUP/2.4 (unregistered for 56 days) X-Complaints-To: abuse@freeuk.net X-Newsreader: Gnus v5.5/Emacs 20.3 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se aus.sf:1914 uk.media.books.sf:940 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2410 Review: "The Memory Cathedral" by Jack Dann A Postview, copyright 1999, p-m agapow We know Leonardo da Vinci as the world's greatest inventor, reclusive and brilliant. But this is a story of his youth, of his missing years when a lost love and a missing charge lead him across the world to engage in a horrible foreign war. I expected many things upon reading "The Memory Cathedral," but I didn't expect to find out Leonardo da Vinci was such a babe-magnet, or that the history of the 15th century had so much to do with him needing a shag. I guess chicks really dig those prototype helicopters and chapel roofs. Who would of thunk it? Seriously, this novel has collected a swag of praise, including the Nebula and Aurealis awards, but I honestly don't think it's very good. This is not necessarily a criticism of the award process or the judges, but at the very least it is a warning that other readers might also be unmoved by this novel's merits. Furthermore, hard-core genre addicts will be puzzled by the classification of this novel as science fiction or fantasy, as it contains barely any fantastic elements, nor does it deeply explore those that it has. The scenario is this: da Vinci is a young man, still struggling as an artist and yet to be known for his inventions. Illegitimate, he is powerless to pursue the woman he loves, and at the whim of the rich and powerful. Caught between warring clans, civil disruption and a false accusation, da Vinci flees Italy. Drawn into a foreign war by a kidnapping, he pursues missing friends across Asia Minor, unleashing his inventions as destructive weapons. A huge amount of work goes into historical novels, even ones that fill in the gaps like "The Memory Cathedral" does. But the end result here is not an illumination of a time or person, or even an account of an interesting piece of history. Instead what we have is an airport lounge novel, a potboiler. The comparison that comes most immediately to mind are Colleen McCullough's "Caesar" novels, works that clearly required a great deal of research, but in the end are just bodice-rippers, "Dynasty" in togas. I don't doubt the that went into "the Memory Cathedral," but it isn't Art, or even art. How do I come to this judgement? Perhaps it's because the book fails to convince the reader that the skirt-chasing, lovelorn Leonardo and his world are the same as our da Vinci and 15th century Italy. Certainly the story doesn't seem to have been inspired by the facts of da Vinci's life but to have been superimposed upon it. A symptom of this is namedropping, the introduction of historical characters for no reasonable plot or dramatic purpose. Da Vinci has placed in his charge a young boy, Niccoli Machiavelli, who will later become the famed Italian statesman and author of "The Prince." The reasons for the boy being given to da Vinci and da Vinci's later obsession with him are slight. His identity is irrelevant to the story, for he seems to have no family, his later personality is not reflected in the child, nor conversely do the events of the book explain his later career. This character placement is revealed in the afterword to be blatant, when the author admits that Machiavelli was in fact too old to play this role. In other words, it could be any young boy for all the difference it makes, at no point did it need to be Machiavelli and in any case could not have been. Likewise, da Vinci travels on board a ship, the captain happens to be Christopher Columbus. This characterisation isn't just unnecessary, it's distracting and lazy. It's also difficult to identify with da Vinci as a character. His genius isn't reflected in hard work and research, he just comes up with inventions (usually off-stage) and builds them. No prototyping for this man - he makes brash promises and carries them out. When he build gliders for an army to fly against a Turkish fort, it's unsurprising that the scheme works. Note that is about the only fantastic element in the whole story, and it is recounted in a fairly mundane way. After so many leaps of faith, why should he be wrong now? Leonardo's angst also becomes overwrought, following the repeated gruesome deaths of his lovers and friends. By the end of the book therefore, it's all become a bit of a task, what with the brilliant insights, the endless torment and parade of supporting characters. Should you read "The Memory Cathedral"? It won't be a waste of time, but one might hope for something more memorable, more remarkable. Perhaps readers would prefer the more fantastic "Pasquale's Angel" by Paul J MacAuley instead. [**/ok] and primetime sitcoms on the Sid and Nancy scale. %A Jack Dann %T The Memory Cathedral %I HarperCollins %C London %D 1997 %P 575pp %G ISBN 0 7322 5951 7 %O paperback, Aus 16.99 -- Paul-Michael Agapow (p.agapow@ic.ac.uk), Biology, Imperial College "We were too young, we lived too fast and had too much technology ..."