From /tmp/sf.3694 Sun Nov 8 23:09:40 1992 Path: isy!liuida!sunic!psinntp!psinntp!rpi!usc!sdd.hp.com!mips!pacbell.com!pacbell!pbhyc!djdaneh From: djdaneh@pbhyc.PacBell.COM (Dan'l DanehyOakes) Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: THE WORLD NEXT DOOR by Brad Ferguson Message-ID: <1991Dec23.195840.6191@pbhyc.PacBell.COM> Date: 23 Dec 91 19:58:40 GMT Reply-To: ecl@mtgzy.att.com Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Organization: Pacific * Bell Lines: 50 Approved: djdaneh@pbhyc.pacbell.com Original-From: ecl@mtgzy.att.com (Evelyn C Leeper +1 908 957 2070) THE WORLD NEXT DOOR by Brad Ferguson A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper Copyright 1991 Evelyn C. Leeper As the book begins we are shown what is clearly a post-holocaust town in upstate New York. And, like so many poorly written post-holocaust novels, this one has everything too easy--lots of stuff to scavenge, no residual radiation, no real damage to the area. But this *isn't* poorly written, because in THE WORLD NEXT DOOR, it *is* "the world next door"--a world in which the atomic war came in 1962, when such a fortuitous outcome was still possible. But life is not entirely idyllic for the people of the town of McAndrew. For one thing, they're all starting to have strange dreams, dreams that the reader recognizes immediately as being of our timeline, dreams of what the dreamers would have been doing had "Kingdom Come" not come. And other strange things are happening. Songbirds are returning, and deer, ... and then cats and dogs--not wild cats and dogs, but animals obviously well fed and cared for. Just what is going on? This would seem to me to be a sufficient story, but Ferguson adds more. There is an attempt by the army--or what passes itself off as the army--to take over the town. There are other, more distant government pressures. There is a whole subplot of romantic entanglements and conflicts. I found the love story an awkward intrusion on the rest of the story, and the resolution of the political aspects a little too facile and unconvincing. Either of these plotlines alone might not have grated, but using both of them is like piling Ossa on Pelion. (Or perhaps more accurately, Pelion on Ossa, with Olympus as the dream plot. The former reference is Virgil's GEORGICS I:281; the latter is Homer's ODYSSEY XI:315.) But the dreams, and what they mean, and what they lead up to, did keep me interested through all this. On the whole, THE WORLD NEXT DOOR is a worthwhile book with one too many subplots. (This novel is an expansion of Ferguson's short story "The World Next Door," which appeared in the September 1987 ISAAC ASIMOV'S SCIENCE FICTION MAGAZINE and THERE WILL BE WAR VIII: ARMAGEDDON! edited by Pournelle and Carr.) %T THE WORLD NEXT DOOR %A Brad Ferguson %C New York %D October 1990 %I Tor %O paperback, US$3.95 %G ISBN 0-812-53795-5 %P 342pp Evelyn C. Leeper | +1 908 957 2070 | att!mtgzy!ecl or ecl@mtgzy.att.com From /tmp/sf.3694 Sun Nov 8 23:10:05 1992 Path: isy!liuida!sunic!psinntp!psinntp!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!pacbell.com!pacbell!pbhyc!djdaneh From: ecl@mtgzy.att.com (Evelyn C Leeper +1 908 957 2070) Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: THE WORLD NEXT DOOR by Brad Ferguson Message-ID: <1991Dec23.200831.6737@pbhyc.PacBell.COM> Date: 23 Dec 91 20:08:31 GMT Sender: djdaneh@pbhyc.PacBell.COM (Dan'l DanehyOakes) Reply-To: ecl@mtgzy.att.com Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Organization: Pacific * Bell Lines: 54 Approved: djdaneh@pbhyc.pacbell.com [Moderator's note: Due to my occasional ineptitude with inews, this review may have accidentally escaped from PacBell with my name in the From: line. I believe that I cancelled it in time, but just in case, this note to apologize to Evelyn Leeper. --djdaneh@pbhyc.pacbell.com] THE WORLD NEXT DOOR by Brad Ferguson A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper Copyright 1991 Evelyn C. Leeper As the book begins we are shown what is clearly a post-holocaust town in upstate New York. And, like so many poorly written post-holocaust novels, this one has everything too easy--lots of stuff to scavenge, no residual radiation, no real damage to the area. But this *isn't* poorly written, because in THE WORLD NEXT DOOR, it *is* "the world next door"--a world in which the atomic war came in 1962, when such a fortuitous outcome was still possible. But life is not entirely idyllic for the people of the town of McAndrew. For one thing, they're all starting to have strange dreams, dreams that the reader recognizes immediately as being of our timeline, dreams of what the dreamers would have been doing had "Kingdom Come" not come. And other strange things are happening. Songbirds are returning, and deer, ... and then cats and dogs--not wild cats and dogs, but animals obviously well fed and cared for. Just what is going on? This would seem to me to be a sufficient story, but Ferguson adds more. There is an attempt by the army--or what passes itself off as the army--to take over the town. There are other, more distant government pressures. There is a whole subplot of romantic entanglements and conflicts. I found the love story an awkward intrusion on the rest of the story, and the resolution of the political aspects a little too facile and unconvincing. Either of these plotlines alone might not have grated, but using both of them is like piling Ossa on Pelion. (Or perhaps more accurately, Pelion on Ossa, with Olympus as the dream plot. The former reference is Virgil's GEORGICS I:281; the latter is Homer's ODYSSEY XI:315.) But the dreams, and what they mean, and what they lead up to, did keep me interested through all this. On the whole, THE WORLD NEXT DOOR is a worthwhile book with one too many subplots. (This novel is an expansion of Ferguson's short story "The World Next Door," which appeared in the September 1987 ISAAC ASIMOV'S SCIENCE FICTION MAGAZINE and THERE WILL BE WAR VIII: ARMAGEDDON! edited by Pournelle and Carr.) %T THE WORLD NEXT DOOR %A Brad Ferguson %C New York %D October 1990 %I Tor %O paperback, US$3.95 %G ISBN 0-812-53795-5 %P 342pp Evelyn C. Leeper | +1 908 957 2070 | att!mtgzy!ecl or ecl@mtgzy.att.com