Subject: The Greatwinter Saga by Sean McMullen

From: "Evelyn C Leeper" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 24 Jul 1995 17:22:42 GMT

The Greatwinter Saga:
                 VOICES IN THE LIGHT by Sean McMullen
          Aphelion, ISBN 1-875346-10-4, 1994, 306pp, A$12.95
                   MIRRORSUN RISING by Sean McMullen
          Aphelion, ISBN 1-875346-14-7, 1995, 332pp, A$14.95
                   A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper
		    Copyright 1995 Evelyn C. Leeper

     Up-front declaration: This is a single story told in two volumes.  The
first volume ends with the infamous phrase "to be continued," and cannot be
read on its own.  The covers do indicate that these are books one and two,
but I want to make sure that's clear.

     The story begins at 9:45 PM on the 26th day of September in the Year of
Greatwinter's Waning 1684, and takes place in a much changed and clearly
post-apocalyptic Australia.  (In fact, the extent of the changes make one
wonder why they still use a 12-hour clock and our current month names, when
hardly anything else is the same.)  Our main character, Frelle Darien, finds
herself catapulted up the ranks of librarians as the Libris in Rochester
needs more and more mathematicians to run the Calculor, and for the lower
ranks is even resorting to kidnapping people and blaming the Call.  Sorry,
this book doesn't come with a glossary, but it's fairly easy to pick up what
all this means.  But it takes a while, and in fact it is not until most of
the way through the first volume that we get any information about what the
Call is, or what causes it, or what Greatwinter was, or why some people
think it may return.

     As if this weren't enough, there is also political intrigue, and
various deceptions, and a lot of explanation of various Rube-Goldbergian
mechanical devices.  Eventually it all fits together--even the machines make
sense--and it's a bit like putting together a jigsaw puzzle which makes no
sense until the last key pieces are put in, revealing everything.
(Foolishly, perhaps, the blurb on the back of the second volume reveals a
lot of what is only gradually disclosed in the first volume, so don't read
the blurb first!)

     The second book starts out with more politics and military engagements,
but eventually returns to the technology and to the Call and its
implications.  For me these were the more interesting aspects-- the military
sequences may be necessary for the plot, but they are not what makes this
series interesting.

     There are several pages of maps in the front of each book, but the non-
Australian reader will need a current map of Australia as well to get the
full benefit of them.  For example, I knew that "Alsprings" must be "Alice
Springs," but most of the other names didn't ring any bells.  It's sort of
like having a post-holocaust novel set on the west coast of North America:
"Sanfran" would be recognizable to most, but only someone who knew the area
well would know that "Petloon" is probably "Petaluma" and "Napson" is likely
"Napa-Sonoma."

     Maybe all this is part of why this book "feels" Australian, but it does
to me.  (In some indefinable way it also reminds me of some of the sort of
thing LeGuin writes.)  I'm developing a definite fondness for Australian
science fiction, and look forward to going to a Worldcon there (1999, I
hope).  Until then, I'll have to stick to what I can get here.  Luckily,
McMullen's books are in that set.

     (People in the United States can order these books from the United
States agent for Aphelion: Mark V. Zeising, P. O. Box 76, Shingletown CA
96088.  Add US$3.50 for shipping and handling, but I'm guessing on the
prices in the first place--what I list is based strictly on the current
exchange rate.)

     (A portion of VOICES IN THE LIGHT appeared as "Souls in the Great
Machine" in UNIVERSE 2, edited by Robert Silverberg and Karen Haber.)

%T      Voices in the Light
%A      Sean McMullen
%C      North Adelaide, South Australia
%D      1994
%I      Aphelion
%O      trade paperback, A$12.95 [~US$8.75]
%G      ISBN 1-875346-10-4
%P      306pp
%S      Greatwinter
%V      1

%T      Mirrorsun Rising
%A      Sean McMullen
%C      North Adelaide, South Australia
%D      1995
%I      Aphelion
%O      trade paperback, A$14.95 [~US$10.10]
%G      ISBN 1-875346-14-7
%P      332pp
%S      Greatwinter
%V      2

-- 
Evelyn C. Leeper | +1 908 957 2070 | [email-masked]
"If there were a verb meaning "to believe falsely," it would
not have any significant first person, present indicative."
-- Ludwig Wittgenstein