From /tmp/sf.4258 Tue Feb 1 03:33:17 1994 Xref: liuida rec.arts.sf.reviews:375 rec.arts.books:65864 alt.books.reviews:1274 Path: liuida!sunic!pipex!uunet!news!dg-rtp!sheol!dont-reply-to-paths From: Evelyn.Chimelis.Leeper@att.com Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.books,alt.books.reviews Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Subject: HARM'S WAY by Colin Greenland Approved: sfr%sheol@concert.net (rec.arts.sf.reviews moderator) Message-ID: <9309301153.ZM359@mtgpfs1.mt.att.com> Date: 01 Oct 93 01:06:55 GMT Lines: 34 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 | ecl@mtgpfs1.att.com / Evelyn.Leeper@att.com From rec.arts.sf.reviews Fri May 28 17:14:24 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!arclight.uoregon.edu!logbridge.uoregon.edu!newsfeed.cwix.com!18.181.0.26!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!usenet From: p.agapow@ic.ac.uk (Paul-Michael Agapow) Newsgroups: uk.media.books.sf,rec.arts.sf.reviews,aus.sf Subject: Postview: "In Harms Way" by Colin Greenland Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Date: Thu, 27 May 1999 15:59:45 +0000 Organization: Dept. Biology, Imperial College at Silwood Park Lines: 64 Sender: wex@tinbergen.media.mit.edu Approved: wex@media.mit.edu Message-ID: NNTP-Posting-Host: tinbergen.media.mit.edu X-Newsreader: Gnus v5.3/Emacs 19.34 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se uk.media.books.sf:827 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2353 aus.sf:1774 "In Harm's Way" by Colin Greenland A Postview, copyright 1999, P-M Agapow It is a Victorian world, but one where aliens stride the streets of London. Missionaries struggle in the harsh canyons of Mars, gangly wooden docks hang in low orbit to service the yachts and lumbering freighters that catch the stellar winds to other planets. Sophie Farthing is one of the wretched poor, eking out an existence on the flying island of High Haven. Until one night she encounters an enigmatic figure who knows of her long dead and mysterious mother ... Colin Greenland will be best known for the fabulous "Take Back Plenty", a delightful space opera romp that collected the Philip K. Dick Prize a few years back. Although the sequel "Seasons of Plenty" - to my mind - stumbled badly, the first book left such a glowing memory that I've kept an eye out for more of Greenland's work. So when "Harm's Way" showed up on a reduction table for 3 pounds, I swooped. And excellent value it was too. Just as the boisterous "Take Back Plenty" was a work of careful style, so is "Harm's Way". In this case the style is that of a Dickensian morality tale of the good but low person eventually triumphing. Style is hard, facing the twin dangers of being a parody of a style (e.g. "Shakespeare in Love") or being relentlessly and drearily authentic (e.g. "Jude the Obscure"). But Greenland proves again to be a dab hand, and "Harm's Way" keeps in perfect tone without ever being oppressive: "The Aeyrie is a very private institution, and not easy of access. These portals of gleaming local mahogany are removed from all but the men best qualified to reach them: those who come from the sky; by means of the abstruse conductivity of space itself." Steampunk settings tend to rely on novelty and the jarring contrast between Victoriana and technology as a way to capture the reader, a sort of descriptive shaggy dog story. See "The Difference Engine." There's only so many times this trick can be pulled, but the world of "Harm's Way" is still charming. Most memorable are the spaceships, actual ships with sails blown along by stellar winds, their hulls blackened by soot and planetary detritus, the skins of the crew pitted by radiation burns. A minor quibble: perhaps there are too many different aliens and strange objects in parts of the story, threatening to drown out the Victorian element. It becomes a little difficult to accept all these things co-existing in the same world. However this is only a problem in parts of the story. You know that the good will triumph (although not without suffering), the evil will perish (after much gloating), hearts will flutter and battles be fought. It's the genre. But within this framework Greenland still manages to tell a decent and entertaining story. It's not rollicking - that would be unseemly, sir - but we are amused. [***] and Good Stuff on the Sid and Nancy scale. %A Colin Greenland %T Harm's Way %I HarperCollins %C London %D 1993 %P 364pp %G ISBN 0 00 224069 6 %O trade paperback, UKP 8.99 -- Paul-Michael Agapow (p.agapow@ic.ac.uk), Biology, Imperial College "We were too young, we lived too fast and had too much technology ..."