From archive (archive) Subject: The Cage (Stirling and Meier) From: haste+@andrew.cmu.edu (Dani Zweig) Organization: Graduate School of Industrial Administration, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA Date: 1 Aug 89 00:17:12 GMT I thought I'd point out a book that's a better read than it looks. "The Cage", by S.M. Stirling and Shirley Meier. (Baen Fantasy, 8/89, ISBN 0-671-69836-2, $3.50). Call it 2.5 on a 4-point scale: 2.0 for quality, but 3.0 for readability, which is not a common combination. I almost didn't look past the cover: another set of barbarians who don't have the sense to wear warm clothes. (One of them with Dazzler face-paint). But I did, and I'm a sucker for good [inside] cover blurbs. This blurb, by Jo Clayton, was right on the mark: "...a book that keeps you reading on..." I'd have sworn this was a first novel -- with all the good things that implies and all the bad ones as well -- but it was pointed out to me that the authors have an earlier book ("The Sharpest Edge", Signet, 1986) featuring the same characters, and that Stirling also wrote "Snow Brother". The book? The year is 4970 AD, though that dating system hasn't been used much since things went Bang almost three thousand years earlier. The world is well thought out. Metal swords (expensive) and fibreglass shields. Recognizable linguistic and cultural continuities from our day, and massive discontinuities. (We are told nothing about the War and the subsequent reconstruction, but much can be inferred. The physical descriptions, for example, clearly imply a prolonged period of small isolated populations undergoing genetic drift.) The world of this time shares the stage with two protagonists who are coming home to wreak vengeance on a traitor. (Engaging protagonists to read about, but I'd hesitate to invite either into my home.) The traitor in question is Evil. He even forecloses on mortgages. He's also not very important to the plot -- the trip home is more of a cross between a guided tour and a triumphal procession than it is a struggle. It is the *imminence* of his enemy's return, rather than its actuality, which is destroying him. And it is the imminence of her revenge, threatening to destroy *her*, which provides the main tension. To conclude, this book was an enjoyable evening's read. Nothing more, but also nothing less. If you don't care for this sort of stuff, this isn't the sort of thing you'll care for. If getting this book is a borderline decision for you, give it a try. Now how's that for an enthusiastic recommendation? ----- Dani Zweig haste+@andrew.cmu.edu The inability of snakes to count is actually a refusal, on their part, to appreciate the Cardinal Number system. -- "Actual Facts" From archive (archive) From: ecl@mtgzy.UUCP (Evelyn C. Leeper) Organization: AT&T, Middletown NJ Subject: MARCHING THROUGH GEORGIA by S. M. Stirling Date: 11 Jun 88 18:21:33 GMT MARCHING THROUGH GEORGIA by S. M. Stirling Baen, 1988, 0-671-65407-1, $3.50. A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper [**Spoilers**] Let's get one thing clear straight off--when Stirling talks about "marching through Georgia," he ain't talkin' Savannah. As the tag line says, "You don't know how lucky you are, boys...." In other words, we're back in the U.S.S.R. But not the U.S.S.R. we know. No, this is (you guessed it) an alternate history in which Loyalists fleeing the United States during the American Revolution founded the Domination of the Draka in South Africa. The Draka have maintained serfdom, but achieved female equality. They have developed technology faster than we have in our universe, but then it seems to have gotten stuck so that World War II is being fought with a similar level of technology in both universes. All this seems contrived for the author's convenience, so that he can show scenes of decadent life on the estate on one page and women in combat on the next. After a few hundred pages of combat, Stirling ties in all up far too neatly and quickly. The good guys win, the pseudo-villains see the light of day, and the really bad guys are dead. Ho-hum. Evelyn C. Leeper 201-957-2070 UUCP: att!mtgzy!ecl or ecl@mtgzy.att.com ARPA: ecl%mtgzy@att.arpa Copyright 1988 Evelyn C. Leeper From rec.arts.sf.written Wed Oct 14 10:32:47 1992 Path: lysator.liu.se!kth.se!sunic!mcsun!uknet!doc.ic.ac.uk!agate!spool.mu.edu!decwrl!csus.edu!netcom.com!dani From: dani@netcom.com (Dani Zweig) Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written Subject: Saber and Shadow: A Reprint of the Fifth Millenium Message-ID: <1992Oct11.214235.20214@netcom.com> Date: 11 Oct 92 21:42:35 GMT Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Lines: 28 "Saber and Shadow", by Stirling and Meier, is out. As is typical of Baen, it does *not* have a little warning along the lines of "a substantively identical version of this book was published as The Sharpest Edge, back when sales weren't as good." What a disapoointment; I was looking forward to a new Fifth Millenium novel. As near as I could tell from a short inspection, this version differs from the original primarily in that it has an extra introductory chapter at the beginning and a pile of appendices at the end. (The Sharpest Edge begins with Megan, who has been in the swamp, coming into an inn looking for a bath. The new chapter tells us how she got *into* the swamp. I suspect that chapter got edited out the first time.) I don't understand why Baen keeps pulling this stunt. It's not as though many of the sales are likely to come from unwary buyers who have already read the book in its previous incarnation. And it's not as though there's any percentage in incurring the ill will of those who *wouldn't* buy the book if it were more honestly packaged. Ironically, I've heard Baen complaining about the fact that readers don't pay attention to publishers names any more, and hence won't buy a book just because they trust the publisher. ----- Dani Zweig dani@netcom.com "The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity." -- W.B. Yeats