From archive (archive) From: usenet@agate.BERKELEY.EDU (USENET Administrator) Organization: University of California, Berkeley Subject: _The_Tides_of_God_, by Ted Reynolds (minor spoilers) Date: 1 Feb 89 08:47:19 GMT The final book of the New Ace Science Fiction Special series has appeared. It was accepted for the line by Terry Carr, and edited by Damon Knight after Carr's untimely death. It is entitled The Tides of God, and it is an excellent, disturbing book. The premise is that about 100 light-years from Earth lies a being capable of telepathically inducing mystical and religious experiences. The two known times that it came close to Earth corresponded to the two Dark Ages (~400-1400 and 2100-2800 Christian Era). Now it is approaching Earth again. An expedition goes into deep space to destroy it, but to do so they must approach close enough to be affected. This is a book that aspires to greatness, and comes close. It is held back by flaws in the writing. The prose is quite good, but some of the characterizations are a bit shallow (at least, by the standards of literature; it's still much better than a great deal of SF). But the shallowness of character is, rare thing, made up for by depth of concept. Caveat lector: this is (IMHO) a profoundly *anti*-religious book, and anyone who takes a theistic religion seriously will probably find it infuriating. But I feel that there are times when one ought to be infuriated. For anyone interested in science fiction, religion, or both, this is one of the "must-read" novels of 1989. From: c60c-2at@e260-2d.berkeley.edu (Seggev Weiss) Path: e260-2d.berkeley.edu!c60c-2at David Goldfarb (a guest of Seggev Weiss) As those who saw my previous posting will have seen, the first-line bug has struck again. (In case the first line is missing here too: those who saw my previous posting will notice that the first-line bug has struck again.) The first line should have read: Apologies to all. David Goldfarb (a guest of Seggev Weiss) From uucp Sun Mar 26 03:09 SNT 1989 >From majestix.ida.liu.se!matoh%teorix.ida.liu.se Sun Mar 26 03:09:53 1989 remote from enea Received: by sssab.se (smail2.5) id AA29508; 26 Mar 89 03:09:53 SNT (Sun) Received: from kth.se by enea.se (5.57++/1.105) via EUnet id AA19484; Fri, 24 Mar 89 02:17:10 +0100 (MET) Received: from majestix.ida.liu.se ([130.236.30.102]) by kth.se (5.57+IDA+KTH/4.0) id AA15074; Fri, 24 Mar 89 02:12:17 +0100 Received: from teorix.ida.liu.se by majestix.ida.liu.se; Fri, 24 Mar 89 02:16:00 +0100 Received: by teorix.ida.liu.se; Fri, 24 Mar 89 02:15:41 +0100 Date: Fri, 24 Mar 89 02:15:41 +0100 From: Mats Ohrman Message-Id: <8903240115.AA13041@teorix.ida.liu.se> To: matoh@sssab.se Status: R Path: liuida!draken!kth!mcvax!uunet!lll-winken!ncis.llnl.gov!helios.ee.lbl.gov!pasteur!ucbvax!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ukma!gatech!rutgers!att!mtuxo!mtgzy!ecl From: ecl@mtgzy.att.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf-lovers,rec.arts.books Subject: THE TIDES OF GOD by Ted Reynolds Message-ID: <4932@mtgzy.att.com> Date: 20 Mar 89 22:12:15 GMT Organization: AT&T, Middletown NJ Lines: 51 Xref: liuida rec.arts.sf-lovers:19373 rec.arts.books:808 THE TIDES OF GOD by Ted Reynolds Ace, 1989, ISBN 0-441-80894-8, $3.50 A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper "Terry Carr's Ace Science Fiction Specials" are back, albeit edited by Damon Knight now that Terry Carr is gone. (It is a somewhat sobering realization that it was never "Terry Carr's Ace Science Fiction Specials" when Carr was alive, just "Ace Science Fiction Specials.") TIDES OF GOD is the tenth in this series (the third so-called "Ace Science Fiction Series") and continues its high level of quality. The premise of THE TIDES OF GOD is that in the 33rd Century humanity, which had been the beneficiaries of Kroc technology for many centuries, but only under Kroc tutelage, has finally been given a spaceship of its own, with one condition--its first mission must be to seek out the Enemy and destroy him. This enemy is a being which sends out some sort of beam or radiation that causes religious fervor and irrationality in all who are within its range. This is the cause of the "Dark Years" from the 4th to 14th and the 22nd to 29th Centuries--these were the periods when this being passed close to Earth. (It's strange that the dates are all given in our current calendar, though Reynolds does use the designation "C.E." rather than "A.D.") Anyway, as the ship approaches the Enemy, people on the ship are gradually taken over (brain-washed, as it were) and those who are the most susceptible turn against those who are still trying to complete their mission. In many ways, this is old-fashioned science fiction: a spaceship out to destroy a powerful enemy. The attempt to give a scientific explanation for religious fervor is laudable, but fails on a couple of counts. First, it fails to explain where religious feelings come from when the being is elsewhere in the universe. And second, giving this being as the cause of the religious fanaticism in Europe during the 4th through 14th Centuries conveniently avoids asking what was going on in the rest of the world. Were there witch-hunts in North America? Inquisitions in China? Crusades in Africa? I don't think so, and this apparent ethnocentrism is a major stumbling block to my acceptance of the book's premise. The other flaw is that this book fairly screams "Sequel coming!" at the end. perhaps it represents the author's wish to avoid offending anyone, but at the very end, the book fails to resolve the issues it has raised. All the speculation about the nature of God is left as speculation, fine in a philosophy book, but dissatisfying in a novel which has implicitly promised to answer all its questions, and then fails to do so. It's like reading a murder mystery and being told at the end, "Well, we're still not sure who did it." Yes, it's true, there are a lot of clues and readers can draw their own conclusions, but that's not what I expect from a novel. Recommended with reservations. Evelyn C. Leeper | +01 201-957-2070 | att!mtgzy!ecl or ecl@mtgzy.att.com Copyright 1989 Evelyn C. Leeper