From archive (archive) Xref: sssab.se rec.arts.sf-lovers:13763 rec.arts.books:4503 Path: sssab.se!isy!liuida!sunic!mcsun!uunet!mailrus!umich!samsung!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!apple!rutgers!att!cbnewsj!ecl From: ecl@cbnewsj.att.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf-lovers,rec.arts.books Subject: TERRAPLANE by Jack Womack Message-ID: <1990Jul23.171247.17729@cbnewsj.att.com> Date: 23 Jul 90 17:12:47 GMT Followup-To: rec.arts.sf-lovers Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories Lines: 50 TERRAPLANE by Jack Womack Tor, 1990 (1988c), ISBN 0-812-50623-5, $3.95. A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper Copyright 1990 Evelyn C. Leeper This starts out as a futuristic science spy type of novel. But when the main characters try to escape from the Soviet Union in an airplane, they trigger a device which catapults them into an alternate world--or more accurately, a parallel world. Why the latter rather than the former? Well, they find themselves not in the 21st Century, but in 1939, which they attribute to the rate of history being different in the second world. This idea of a similar (or not so similar) world just a step away from ours is more in line with the parallel universe assumption, even though the use of a break-point to build a different world than our own is more an alternate history convention. And there is a break-point, though to reveal it would take much of the enjoyment out of the novel, since part of Womack's skill is in gradually showing us what has made this world what it is. It is not a "steampunk" world, though the cover with its high-tech look around a 1930s car might give you that impression. The technology in universe #2's 1939 has minor differences from our own, but there are no amazing steam-driven spaceships or anything. Womack also does a good job in showing life in universe #2 from the point of view of the blacks. Too often, scientists who travel to an alternate universe meet scientists in that universe, travel in comfortable circles, and don't have to deal with any class problems. The other variant, of course, is they find themselves a black scientist in an America where slavery still exists or some such. But in TERRAPLANE Womack draws something partway between these two extremes, and does it well. The weaknesses of the novel are minor. The claim of differing rates of time to explain how the protagonists end up in 1939 is, I think, not really convincing. (Is it that some critical event such as the first multi-celled being occurred 60 years later in one universe, or is it that everything in universe #2 happens at the speed of the life of universe #1 minus 60 years, all divided by the life of universe #1?) Some explanation of how traveling between universes sometimes results in a time-slip might have served better. A couple of the subplots could have been eliminated, but don't really detract greatly. A more annoying distraction is the future lingo that the characters speak--evidently the next major resource crisis is that all the verbs are used up and nouns and adjectives must serve instead. So the characters talk about how someone needs to be hospitaled, or how they curbsided their car. After a while the reader is annoyanced by this, and wants to wallslam the book. Luckily, for most of the book the characters normal-language rather than future-speak, so it is bearable. Evelyn C. Leeper | +1 201-957-2070 | att!mtgzy!ecl or ecl@mtgzy.att.com From rec.arts.sf-lovers Mon Dec 17 15:35:33 1990 Path: herkules.sssab.se!isy!liuida!sunic!uupsi!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!ucsd!pacbell.com!att!cbnewsj!ecl From: ecl@cbnewsj.att.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf-lovers Subject: HEATHERN by Jack Womack Message-ID: <1990Dec17.024702.24141@cbnewsj.att.com> Date: 17 Dec 90 02:47:02 GMT Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories Lines: 22 HEATHERN by Jack Womack Tor, 1990, ISBN 0-312-85078-6, $16.95. A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper Copyright 1990 Evelyn C. Leeper This is a well-written book about an unpleasant world and the rather unpleasant people who live in it. The world is our future, or certainly a possible one. Part of the same series as AMBIENT and TERRAPLANE, this novel does explain the language in the latter that I found so annoying. Of this I had said in my review of TERRAPLANE, "Evidently the next major resource crisis is that all the verbs are used up and nouns and adjectives must serve instead. So the characters talk about how someone needs to be hospitaled, or how they curbsided their car. After a while the reader is annoyanced by this, and wants to wallslam the book." Well, it turns out this is not a language arrived at my the usual evolutionary process, but rather starts out as a language of the young, "post-literate" crowd. As such it is more similar in origin to the language of A CLOCKWORK ORANGE than to a "natural" language. While I personally didn't enjoy the novel, I think those whose tastes run towards gritty futures would. Evelyn C. Leeper | +1 908-957-2070 | att!mtgzy!ecl or ecl@mtgzy.att.com From rec.arts.sf.reviews Thu Feb 4 12:45:29 1993 Path: lysator.liu.se!isy!liuida!sunic!lunic!eru.mt.luth.se!enterpoop.mit.edu!ai-lab!mintaka.lcs.mit.edu!micro-heart-of-gold.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!nobody From: ecl@mtgzy.att.com (Evelyn C Leeper +1 908 957 2070) Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: ELVISSEY by Jack Womack Message-ID: <9302021625.AA25884@presto.ig.com> Date: 2 Feb 93 19:40:23 GMT Sender: news@news.media.mit.edu (USENET News System) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Organization: Lines: 50 Approved: wex@media.mit.edu (Alan Wexelblat) ELVISSEY by Jack Womack A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper Copyright 1993 Evelyn C. Leeper Well, I suppose it's only reasonable that after reading three books centering on God and Jesus, I should proceed to a book set in a future where the main religion is the Church of Elvis. And, in fact, the parallels are intriguing, especially with Monteleone's BLOOD OF THE LAMB: both deal with unwilling messiahs, called forth by fallible human beings to save the world. And because those who summon them are fallible, things don't go as planned. ELVISSEY is part of Womack's "Dryco Chronicles," set in a world forty years in the future in which most power is held by Dryco Corporation and Elvis is not just the King, but the Messiah as well. Dryco figures that if they actually had a live Elvis, they could exert even more control, so they decide to pick one up by sending a couple through a "gate" to get Elvis from a parallel world which is eighty years behind and where, in addition, Lincoln was assassinated in 1861, resulting in a somewhat different world than ours--or than the world Dryco knows as its history. Still, John and Isabel manage to cope, right up until they find Elvis standing over the body of his mother, whom he has just shot. Then things get really weird. My main complain is still the futurespeak that Womack has invented (would language really change that much in only forty years?), but it was less annoying than in TERRAPLANE. That may be because I'm getting used to it, or it may be because it's tempered by the need of the main characters to use more understandable language when communicating with people in or from the parallel world. Or maybe it's the wordplay Womack throws in: "Call me Isabel," the main character says at one point. And later, on the telephone, John asks, "Information, help me. Get me Memphis, Tennessee." In any case, it's probably only slightly more difficult than the language in Heinlein's THE MOON IS A HARSH MISTRESS, and easier than that of Russell Hoban's RIDDLEY WALKER. Though part of the "Dryco Chronicles," ELVISSEY can be read as a stand-alone and is, in my opinion, better than the earlier works in the series. Start with this one and then decide if you want to try the other ones. %T Elvissey %A Jack Womack %C New York %D January 1993 %I Tor %O trade paperback, US$12.95 %G ISBN 0-312-85202-9 %P 319pp Evelyn C. Leeper | +1 908 957 2070 | ecl@mtgzy.att.com