From rec.arts.sf.reviews Sat Nov 14 23:27:03 1998 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed1.news.luth.se!luth.se!sunqbc.risq.qc.ca!newsfeed.cwix.com!18.181.0.26!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!usenet From: hklaus6073@aol.com (HKlaus6073) Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews,soc.history.what-if Subject: Review: The Lady In The Loch, by Katz Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Date: 12 Nov 1998 14:20:51 -0500 Organization: AOL http://www.aol.com Lines: 36 Sender: wex@ronin.media.mit.edu Approved: wex@media.mit.edu Message-ID: NNTP-Posting-Host: ronin.media.mit.edu X-Newsreader: Gnus v5.5/Emacs 20.2 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.sf.reviews:2167 soc.history.what-if:95857 THE LADY IN THE LOCH by Elizabeth Ann Scarborough Review Copyright 1998 Harriet Klausner Walter Scott expects to have a lot of free time to hone his novelist skills because he anticipates a quiet time as the newly appointed sheriff of Edinburgh. However, instead of kicking off his shoes and picking up his plume, Walter soon finds a mix of corpses, skeletons, and body parts along the shore of the nearby loch. Initially writing it off as the work of some grisly grave robbers, Walter changes his mind when he realizes that Gypsy women are being abducted. The townsfolk are uninterested in the disappearances because these are only Gypsies. However, that changes when Midge Margaret tells the sheriff about a mystery coach that seems to appear just before the women vanish. Walter puts his writings aside to investigate what is happening to destroy the peace of his home city, unaware that he is about to dive into a circle of the foulest of black magic. Elizabeth Ann Scarborough is renowned for her enchanting fantasy novels (see THE GODMOTHER series, etc.). Her latest novel, THE LADY IN THE LOCH, is a wonderful historical mystery, starring Walter Scott at the beginning stages of his career as a novelist. Though there are liberties taken with the lead protagonist and his time period, the Scott persona rings genuine and the support cast with their deep Scottish brogues adds to the period piece. A fabulous tale that will remind readers of Heck's Twain mysteries and hopefully have as many sequels. Harriet Klausner %T THE LADY IN THE LOCH %A Elizabeth Ann Scarborough %I Ace %D Dec 1998 %O $19.95 %P 272 pp. %G ISBN 0-441-00582-9 From rec.arts.sf.reviews Mon Jan 17 18:31:51 2000 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!skynet.be!hermes.visi.com!news-out.visi.com!cam-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.gtei.net!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!dreaderd!not-for-mail Sender: wex@deepspace.media.mit.edu From: "Evelyn C Leeper" Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: PAST LIVES, FUTURE TENSE edited by Elizabeth Ann Scarborough Approved: wex@media.mit.edu Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Organization: none Date: 13 Jan 2000 10:27:13 -0500 Message-ID: X-Newsreader: Gnus v5.5/Emacs 20.3 Lines: 54 NNTP-Posting-Host: deepspace.media.mit.edu X-Trace: dreaderd 947777234 22496 18.85.23.65 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.sf.reviews:2562 PAST LIVES, PRESENT TENSE edited by Elizabeth Ann Scarborough Ace, ISBN 0-441-00649-3, 1999, 336pp, US$13 A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper Copyright 2000 Evelyn C. Leeper This is a "shared-world anthology," for which Scarborough has provided the premise in "Soulmates": Tsering manages to implant the personality of his dead mate, Chime, into himself without destroying his own, creating "Dr. Chimera." The other authors then develop this idea independently of each other, each choosing a different past life to "resurrect," with Dr. Chimera and his technique running as a thread throughout. My main problem with this book is that I have difficulty with the premise that all our personality and memories are stored in our DNA. Jerry Oltion's story says MRNA, but Scarborough specifically says DNA, so Oltion must have gotten it wrong. First of all, there is a bandwidth problem. Second of all, this smacks too much of Lamarckian genetics. Given that, some of the stories are mildly entertaining. "A Rose with All Its Thorns" by Lillian Stewart Carl puts the personality of Anne Boleyn in a (female) Tudor historian at an academic conference which reminds one of Connie Willis's academic settings and characters, and performs admirably in that genre. Not surprisingly, Nina Kiriki Hoffman produces a very strong story in "Voyage of Discovery," in which the personality of Meriwether Lewis is implanted in a young woman who has become completely uncommunicative after an accident. Carole Nelson Douglas's "Night Owl" treats the idea a bit differently than the others. There are, naturally, a couple of stories dealing with holy relics. Depending on your interests, you might like the Civil War themed story, or the sports one, or the author one, or one of the others. But on the whole, most of the stories seemed merely repetitive. This, of course, is a problem with commissioned anthologies, but this topic is even more restrictive than most. The best stories would stand alone, and even most of the weaker stories might pass muster if it were the only one of its premise. But putting them all together takes away any claim of originality, and just emphasizes their weaknesses. %B Past Lives, Present Tense %E Elizabeth Ann Scarborough %C New York %D November 1, 1999 %I Ace %O trade paperback, US$13 %G ISBN 0-441-00649-3 %P 336pp Evelyn C. Leeper | My other email address is eleeper@geocities.com +1 732 332 6218 | http://www.geocities.com/evelynleeper Don't ever save anything for a special occasion. Every day you're alive is a special occasion. --Ann Wells