From archive (archive)
Subject: CRY REPUBLIC by Kirk Mitchell
From: ecl@cbnewsj.ATT.COM (Evelyn C. Leeper)
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Date: 12 Nov 89 22:45:04 GMT




			CRY REPUBLIC by Kirk Mitchell
		    Ace, 1989, ISBN 0-441-12389-9, $3.95.
		      A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper
		       Copyright 1989 Evelyn C. Leeper

     This is the third novel in this series (the first two were PROCURATOR
and THE NEW BARBARIANS).  The premise of the series is that Pontius Pilate's
wife has a dream which convinces her to convince him not to crucify Jesus,
hence Christianity never gets started, hence never brings about the fall of
Rome.  Now (in the series) it is the equivalent of the present (i.e., 2000
years later) and Rome is still the Empire it always has been.  Science has
progressed to about the World War II level but the rulers in Rome are still
emperors in an unbroken string back to Augustus.

     I said of the first two novels that the problem with this premise is
that (as Terry Carr once said) it's the aerodynamics of a bird in flight--if
it doesn't keep moving forward, it falls.  Rome did not appear to have
advanced politically in any notable fashion in the intervening two thousand
years in this novel.  She still had rule by imperial fiat, decadence,
conspiracies--in short, all that helped cause her fall in our universe.  But
now, in CRY REPUBLIC, Mitchell has introduced the idea that change might
actually occur, as he writes about a plot to return to the pre-Augustan
Republic rather than imperial rule.  The book is full of political
conspiracies and assassinations, with traitors and plots galore, but somehow
it never caught my interest.  It's possible, however, that students of
history who know more about the real Republican plots in ancient Rome might
find it more appealing

Evelyn C. Leeper   |   +1 201-957-2070   |   att!mtgzy!ecl or ecl@mtgzy.att.com

From archive (archive)
From: ecl@mtgzy.UUCP (Evelyn C. Leeper)
Organization: AT&T, Middletown NJ
Subject: NEVER THE TWAIN by Kirk Mitchell
Date: 18 Feb 88 22:21:41 GMT




		       NEVER THE TWAIN by Kirk Mitchell
		    Ace, 1987, ISBN 0-441-56973-0, $3.50.
		      A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper

     Howard Hart, the last living descendent of Bret Harte (his grandfather
dropped the final E on the theory that one shouldn't use five letters when
four would do), has been making a living as a minor con-man when he is
approached by a researcher who tells him that it was mere chance that stood
between his ancestor and perpetual literary fame: had Samuel Clemens been
successful as a gold miner in the West in the 1860s, he would not have
turned to writing (as Mark Twain) and eclipsed the then popular Harte.
Howard is currently being pursued by Federal marshalls for some fraud or
other and realized that being the last surviving heir of a literary giant
would be preferable to being that of someone relegated to the status of
minor author.  He also just happens to know some whiz-kid science-type (of
the Zen philosophy of science variety) who just happens to have figured out
how Hart can travel back in time to arrange all this.

     The time travel aspect of this novel seems to take forever to get
going, Hart (and hence the reader) sees very little of Mark Twain, and the
book is more like a Western novel than science fiction.  You do get several
long descriptions of the insides of frontier bordellos, but trust me,
they're not worth reading the book for.  The ending is also quite
predictable.  On the whole this is a pretty light-weight and disappointing
read.  One would do better to go read Twain--or even Harte.

					Evelyn C. Leeper
					(201) 957-2070
				UUCP:	ihnp4!mtgzy!ecl
				ARPA:	mtgzy!ecl@rutgers.rutgers.edu
					Copyright 1988 Evelyn C. Leeper