From archive (archive)
From: ecl@mtgzy.att.com (Evelyn C. Leeper)
Organization: AT&T, Middletown NJ
Subject: KING & JOKER by Peter Dickinson
Date: 30 Jan 89 17:48:18 GMT




		       KING & JOKER by Peter Dickinson
		  Pantheon, 1976, ISBN 0-394-71600-0, $2.95.
		      A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper
		       Copyright 1989 Evelyn C. Leeper

     KING & JOKER is an alternate history mystery.  The alternate history
aspect is slight: what might have happened if King Edward VII's son Albert
Victor hadn't died young and had gone on to become king of England instead
of George V?  Well, according to Dickinson, not much different than what did
happen--the same wars and conflicts, the same technology, the same economy.
So why suppose it?  Without giving too much away, let me say that Dickinson
needed to set up some relationships in *his* royal family that don't exist in
the current royal family.

     While Dickinson is considered a good author, I found the characters in
KING & JOKER unconvincing, the plot twists extremely unconvincing, and the
whole book a disappointment.

Evelyn C. Leeper   |   +01 201-957-2070   |   att!mtgzy!ecl or ecl@mtgzy.att.com