Subject: THE COUNTRY OF THE BLIND by Michael Flynn

From: [email-masked] (Evelyn C Leeper +1 908 957 2070)
Date: 26 Dec 91 17:09:57 GMT

THE COUNTRY OF THE BLIND by Michael Flynn
                        A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper
			 Copyright 1991 Evelyn C. Leeper

        This book falls into that interesting category of "secret history"--
   interesting to me, at any rate, because it frequently straddles the line
   between fiction and non-fiction.  For example, Michael Baigent's HOLY BLOOD,
   HOLY GRAIL supposes that Europe is really ruled by a secret society led by a
   descendent of Jesus, and the book is marketed as non-fiction.  Well, IN THE
   COUNTRY OF THE BLIND is marketed as fiction, but there's nothing
   *impossible* in it.

        The premise is that Charles Babbage completed his analytical engine,
   but news of its success was suppressed by a group of social scientists who
   decided to use it to predict historical trends.  If this sounds like Isaac
   Asimov's "psychohistory," it is, and Flynn's characters even discuss the
   similarity.  In present-day (or very near future) San Francisco Sarah
   Beaumont stumbles across the existence of a secret society which has been
   using the engine, and now computers, not only to predict trends, but to try
   to change them.  While she is trying to accept this idea, she is told there
   is at least one other group with a similar plan--and it is more ruthless in
   what it will do to effect change.  This second group wants to kill Sarah to
   protect itself, and Sarah finds herself in an uneasy alliance with the first
   group to try to block the second.

        Through the book there is a lot of discussion and philosophizing on the
   morality of all this.  While in some books this sort of thing might seem
   preachy, it works here, because the plot requires someone to try to convince
   Sarah to help the society.  (Even so, there are a few occasions when even
   this is strained, including some classroom sessions reminiscent of of ones
   from Rober A. Heinlein's STARSHIP TROOPERS.) And Flynn also managed to win
   the Libertarian "Prometheus Award" without having more than a smattering of
   violent sex, an element that I had come to think was almost a requirement
   for that award (two past winners were J. Neil Schulman, who wrote THE
   RAINBOW CADENZA, and L. Neil Smith, who wrote THE CRYSTAL EMPIRE and
   acknowledged his debt to Schulman in the acknowledgements of that book).
   Maybe some Libertarian out there can explain why there seems to be a
   correlation.

        However, as I said, Flynn avoids this, and sticks to the subject at
   hand.  The characters are well-drawn and more varied (racially, ethnicly,
   and otherwise) than most authors bother to do.  This may seem like a minor
   point, but it helps give the novel a more realistic feel than many novels
   have.  The book does drag a bit at the end and devolves from philosophy into
   a chase sequence, but on the whole it is a satisfying book with some ideas
   to think about when you're done.

        (Is Charles Babbage making a comeback?  William Gibson and Bruce
   Sterling recently wrote THE DIFFERENCE ENGINE in which the adoption of
   Babbage's *difference* engine--not analytic engine--by the British
   government leads to a very different world than our own.  And did you know
   that Babbage also invented the cow-catcher?)

        (A note on the proofreading, or lack thereof: This is the worst
   proofread book I have ever seen, with the possible exception of some cheap
   porno novels.  "Assesor" should be "Assessor" (page 54), "Hickock" should be
   "Hickok" (pages 63 *and* 67), the typeface should have returned to Times
   Roman in the middle of page 101 (not stayed italic), and there is at least
   one line missing in paragraph six on page 107.  After that, I stopped
   keeping track.)

   %T      The Country of the Blind
   %A      Michael Flynn
   %C      New York
   %D      July 1990
   %I      Baen
   %O      paperback, US$3.95
   %G      ISBN 0-671-69886-9
   %P      527pp

Evelyn C. Leeper   |   +1 908 957 2070   |   att!mtgzy!ecl or [email-masked]

From the amount of equipment they bring back in time, one can only
assume that they have a very large time machine or that there is a
continuing link with home. If the latter is true, wouldn't that
connection be severed when they alter history? Alternatively, they may
be returning to the 2010s to measure the effect of their changes. Or
possibly the 1864 and 2014 which have been connected are not in the
same timeline, as James Hogan did in his PROTEUS OPERATION. Well,
whichever the case may be, Turtledove doesn't get into it and I am left
sitting here, stewing in my own juices.

And two other truly trivial points which somehow got under my skin. At
one point the "Star-Spangled Banner" is played to salute the American
flag. It's my recollection that the SSB did not become the national
anthem until the 20th century, and earlier in the novel Turtledove does
mention the use of "Hail Columbia" in a somewhat similar situation.
Pardon me, but I'm a bit confused by that one. The other trivial
bugaboo occurs when Caudel returns to his home town, goes to the local
postmaster to buy some writing paper and off- handedly asks for a
postage stamp. The US did not begin using stamps until 1847, and the
Confederacy issued so few that I wonder if a butternut soldier would
have had much opportunity to use one. In both these cases Turtledove
may be correct in his usage, but I wonder.

I mentioned above a major point in favor of THE GUNS OF THE SOUTH and I
suppose I ought mention a trivial one also. Early in the novel,
Turtledove describes a baseball game being played by the encamped North
Carolina soldiers. I have long been aware that the Civil War was
responsible for the spread of my favorite game through the country and
for the relative standardization of its rules. This book, though, is
the first Civil War novel in which I have ever seen the game mentioned.
Finally!

To sum things up then, my recommendation is that THE GUNS OF THE SOUTH
is not worth purchasing in hardback. Alternate history fans with some
money may wish to rush out and grab a copy, but other should wait for
the paperback or get their local public libraries to order it. Those of
you who don't care for alternate history can safely give this one a
miss.

%A	Harry Turtledove
%T	THE GUNS OF THE SOUTH: A NOVEL OF THE CIVIL WAR
%I	Ballantine
%C	New York City
%D	1992
%G	ISBN 0-345-37675-7
%O	hardback, US$19.00
%P	517 pp.

-- 
Robert B. Schmunk <[email-masked]>
SPAC, Rice Univ, Box 1892, Houston, TX 77251 USA