From rec.arts.sf.reviews Wed Jul 26 11:08:44 1995 Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.books.reviews Path: news.ifm.liu.se!liuida!sunic!sunic.sunet.se!umdac!fizban.solace.mh.se!paladin.american.edu!gatech!swrinde!sgigate.sgi.com!uhog.mit.edu!news!nobody From: "Evelyn C Leeper" Subject: The Greatwinter Saga by Sean McMullen Message-ID: <9507211439.ZM3218@mtgpfs1.mt.att.com> Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Sender: news@media.mit.edu (USENET News System) Organization: Date: Mon, 24 Jul 1995 17:22:42 GMT Approved: wex@media.mit.edu (Alan Wexelblat) Lines: 94 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.sf.reviews:811 rec.arts.books.reviews:709 The Greatwinter Saga: VOICES IN THE LIGHT by Sean McMullen Aphelion, ISBN 1-875346-10-4, 1994, 306pp, A$12.95 MIRRORSUN RISING by Sean McMullen Aphelion, ISBN 1-875346-14-7, 1995, 332pp, A$14.95 A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper Copyright 1995 Evelyn C. Leeper Up-front declaration: This is a single story told in two volumes. The first volume ends with the infamous phrase "to be continued," and cannot be read on its own. The covers do indicate that these are books one and two, but I want to make sure that's clear. The story begins at 9:45 PM on the 26th day of September in the Year of Greatwinter's Waning 1684, and takes place in a much changed and clearly post-apocalyptic Australia. (In fact, the extent of the changes make one wonder why they still use a 12-hour clock and our current month names, when hardly anything else is the same.) Our main character, Frelle Darien, finds herself catapulted up the ranks of librarians as the Libris in Rochester needs more and more mathematicians to run the Calculor, and for the lower ranks is even resorting to kidnapping people and blaming the Call. Sorry, this book doesn't come with a glossary, but it's fairly easy to pick up what all this means. But it takes a while, and in fact it is not until most of the way through the first volume that we get any information about what the Call is, or what causes it, or what Greatwinter was, or why some people think it may return. As if this weren't enough, there is also political intrigue, and various deceptions, and a lot of explanation of various Rube-Goldbergian mechanical devices. Eventually it all fits together--even the machines make sense--and it's a bit like putting together a jigsaw puzzle which makes no sense until the last key pieces are put in, revealing everything. (Foolishly, perhaps, the blurb on the back of the second volume reveals a lot of what is only gradually disclosed in the first volume, so don't read the blurb first!) The second book starts out with more politics and military engagements, but eventually returns to the technology and to the Call and its implications. For me these were the more interesting aspects-- the military sequences may be necessary for the plot, but they are not what makes this series interesting. There are several pages of maps in the front of each book, but the non- Australian reader will need a current map of Australia as well to get the full benefit of them. For example, I knew that "Alsprings" must be "Alice Springs," but most of the other names didn't ring any bells. It's sort of like having a post-holocaust novel set on the west coast of North America: "Sanfran" would be recognizable to most, but only someone who knew the area well would know that "Petloon" is probably "Petaluma" and "Napson" is likely "Napa-Sonoma." Maybe all this is part of why this book "feels" Australian, but it does to me. (In some indefinable way it also reminds me of some of the sort of thing LeGuin writes.) I'm developing a definite fondness for Australian science fiction, and look forward to going to a Worldcon there (1999, I hope). Until then, I'll have to stick to what I can get here. Luckily, McMullen's books are in that set. (People in the United States can order these books from the United States agent for Aphelion: Mark V. Zeising, P. O. Box 76, Shingletown CA 96088. Add US$3.50 for shipping and handling, but I'm guessing on the prices in the first place--what I list is based strictly on the current exchange rate.) (A portion of VOICES IN THE LIGHT appeared as "Souls in the Great Machine" in UNIVERSE 2, edited by Robert Silverberg and Karen Haber.) %T Voices in the Light %A Sean McMullen %C North Adelaide, South Australia %D 1994 %I Aphelion %O trade paperback, A$12.95 [~US$8.75] %G ISBN 1-875346-10-4 %P 306pp %S Greatwinter %V 1 %T Mirrorsun Rising %A Sean McMullen %C North Adelaide, South Australia %D 1995 %I Aphelion %O trade paperback, A$14.95 [~US$10.10] %G ISBN 1-875346-14-7 %P 332pp %S Greatwinter %V 2 -- Evelyn C. Leeper | +1 908 957 2070 | Evelyn.Leeper@att.com "If there were a verb meaning "to believe falsely," it would not have any significant first person, present indicative." -- Ludwig Wittgenstein From rec.arts.sf.reviews Sun Jun 20 12:21:14 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!cam-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!cam-news-feed5.bbnplanet.com!news.gtei.net!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!usenet From: "Aaron M. Renn" Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: The Centurion's Empire, Sean McMullen Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Date: Sun, 13 Jun 1999 15:14:12 -0500 Organization: GNU's Not Unix! Lines: 33 Sender: wex@tinbergen.media.mit.edu Approved: wex@media.mit.edu Message-ID: NNTP-Posting-Host: tinbergen.media.mit.edu X-Newsreader: Gnus v5.3/Emacs 19.34 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.sf.reviews:2376 The Centurion's Empire by Sean McMullen Review Copyright (c) 1999 Aaron M. Renn Conclusion: Worth Reading This is one of those "the way the past really happened" books that follows the life of Vitellan Bavalius from the days of the Roman Empire to the 21st century. Before the birth of Christ, a man discovered a potion that would allow a perons to be safely frozen and revived. He founded a secret society that controlled the Roman Empire from behind the scenes. These "Temporians" slept frozen for years at a time to be revived only when needed in times of crisis. Vitellan never became a member of this group, but obtains some of the potion, enabling him to be frozen. In fact, our friend Vitellan gets frozen and revived several times: in early Dark Ages England, during the Hundred Year's War, and finally in the mid-21st century. I personally found the historical episodes more interesting than the generic near future setting at the end of the book. Neither particularly overwhelmed me though. The book was fast paced and kept my interest, but I'm fairly sure I'll never be tempted to pick it up and read it again. %A McMullen, Sean %T The Centurion's Empire %I Tor %D 1998-07 (original publication date) %G ISBN 0-812-56475-8 %P 363 pp. %O mass market paperback, US$6.99 C$8.99 -- Aaron M. Renn (arenn@urbanophile.com) http://www.urbanophile.com/arenn/