Subject: HARM'S WAY by Colin Greenland

From: [email-masked]
Date: 01 Oct 93 01:06:55 GMT

HARM'S WAY by Colin Greenland
                     A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper
		      Copyright 1993 Evelyn C. Leeper

     As WINTER'S DAUGHTER by Charles Whitmore was science fiction written in
the style of a Norse saga, so is HARM'S WAY written in the style of a
Victorian novel (though I would call it science fantasy rather than science
fiction).  We have the poor, semi-orphaned girl who leaves home, has
adventures, meets all sorts of people, and eventually discovers her true
identity.  HARM'S WAY is set on what is apparently an alterate Victorian-era
Earth, an alternate in which at some point between Defoe and Victoria, space
flight was developed (using what appear to be typical large sailing ships of
that era in our time in their appointments), and all sorts of alien races
inhabiting the solar system were discovered.  (I place the "change-point"
after Defoe, because in a world of space flight, the sense of isolated parts
of the earth that Defoe depended on in ROBINSON CRUSOE would no longer have
been there.)  How any of this happened is never discussed, and with the
exception of space flight and weaponry the society is technologically at the
Victorian level.  The result is extremely disorienting--we never know what
to expect from the society because it is *so* inconsistent.  HARM'S WAY is
an interesting stylistic experiment, but not one I can actually recommend.

%T      Harm's Way
%A      Colin Greenland
%C      New York
%D      August 1993
%I      AvoNova
%O      paperback, US$4.99
%G      ISBN 0-380-76883-6
%P      310pp

-- 
Evelyn C. Leeper | +1 908 957 2070 | [email-masked] / [email-masked]