From new Thu Jun 16 19:01:49 1994 Path: liuida!sunic!trane.uninett.no!eunet.no!nuug!EU.net!howland.reston.ans.net!cs.utexas.edu!convex!news.duke.edu!godot.cc.duq.edu!nntp.club.cc.cmu.edu!hudson.lm.com!telerama.lm.com!not-for-mail From: dani@telerama.lm.com Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written Subject: Ripley: The Warden of Horses Date: 16 May 1994 10:56:35 -0400 Organization: Telerama Public Access Internet, Pittsburgh, PA USA Lines: 46 Message-ID: <2r81j3$t1m@telerama.lm.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: telerama.lm.com "The Warden of Horses" is the second book in Karen Ripley's "Slow World" trilogy, and it should not come as a surprise that it reads like the second book in a trilogy. The first book, "The Persistence of Memory", was quite good. It begins with a woman who thinks of herself as Cassidy riding a horse in the middle of nowhere, with no memory of her past, or of how she got there. It turns out that she's in a world of people whose memories are in even worse shape than hers -- to the point where they aren't even curious about what they're missing, or particularly aware of how little sense their world makes. Towards the end of that book she hears of a man known as the Warden, who is particularly interested in people with Memories -- and determines to seek him out. (I've left out most of the details -- the Villages, the monsters, the telepathic links between Horsemen and their horses, the reason Cassidy ends up fleeing the Villagers for her life -- but it doesn't make a lot of sense to read "The Warden of Horses" without reading the first book anyhow.) Typically enough for second books in a trilogy, most of "The Warden of Horses" is spent getting from Here to There, with 'There' in this instance being the city of the Warden. Along the way, Cassidy's memories improve (we learn later that the rule for people with Memories is that their memories of our world fade with time), and as they improve, she is increasingly beset by attacking monsters -- as are the people she is with or through whose land she passes. At her destination, Cassidy picks up a few more clues, including a reference to "The Alchemist of Time" (which I've capitalized because, coincidentally or not, it's the title of the forthcoming third book in the trilogy). The book ends with Cassidy and most of the other main characters the trilogy has acquired to date going off to seek the Alchemist. It's hard to evaluate middle-of-series books. They are almost invariably weaker than their neighbors, having neither the freshness and innovation of the first book nor the answers and resolutions of the last. It often comes to a question of how competent the author is at writing about a character going from Here to There. In this case, 'so-so', but good enough that I'll be reading the third book when it appears. ----- Dani Zweig dani@netcom.com dani@telerama.lm.com The inability of snakes to count is actually a refusal, on their part, to appreciate the Cardinal Number system. -- "Actual Facts" From rec.arts.sf.reviews Mon Dec 12 10:35:06 1994 Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.sf.written Path: news.ifm.liu.se!liuida!sunic!pipex!howland.reston.ans.net!ix.netcom.com!netcom.com!postmodern.com!not-for-mail From: dani@telerama.lm.com (Dani Zweig) Subject: Karen Ripley: The Alchemist of Time Message-ID: <3c029h$k6i@africa.lm.com> Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Sender: mcb@postmodern.com (Michael C. Berch) Organization: Telerama Public Access Internet, Pittsburgh, PA USA Date: Wed, 7 Dec 1994 22:18:58 GMT Approved: mcb@postmodern.com (rec.arts.sf.reviews moderator) Lines: 61 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.sf.reviews:693 rec.arts.sf.written:83068 "The Alchemist of Time" is a disappointing conclusion to Karen Ripley's initially promising "Slow World" trilogy. In "The Persistence of Memory", Cassidy finds herself riding a horse across an unfamiliar landscape, with no memory of how she got there or, for that matter, of who she is. This turns out to be the norm where she now is: It's the fact that she retains some memories of our world that is unusual. There are other anomalies in the Cassidy's new world: Objects from our world seem to make their way to this one in a random fashion. The inhabitants maintain a technology far more advanced than the apparent infrastructure would support. They've also never heard of sex. A substantial number of people can bond with horses (or other animals). And there are monsters, though people don't talk about that. The first book introduces Cassidy, and the reader, to this world. The second book, "The Warden of Horses", is one of those travelling-from-here-to-there books that so often occupy the middles of trilogies. By its end, Cassidy (who has regained her memories) meets the Warden of Horses and recognizes him as an autistic patient from her old world. She also recognizes that the monsters (who, by this point, are tearing up the Warden's city), have been following her. That book ends with all the cast members setting off to find the mysterious Alchemist of Time, who might have answers for them. Which brings us to book three, most of which is again travelogue. The first two thirds of the book consists of the group's travails in getting from here to there. Plot advancement consists of the Warden's periodic spells, during which he can perceive our world through the eyes of his autistic counterpart. (Cassidy takes about two hundred pages longer than the reader to figure out what he's seeing, which is irritating.) The Alchemist, when they find him, is much less than they expected, but he does fortuitously hold the keys which enable them to solve the mystery of their world. What makes the conclusion unsatisfying is that the solution is too flimsy to bear the weight of the trilogy. I won't give it away, but it doesn't make much sense, it lacks internal consistency, and it fails to explain most of the mysterious phenomena, such as the presence of Cassidy's horse, the monsters' behavior, the absence of a sex drive ("they forgot" doesn't seem to cover it), and the time-stop phenomenon. Aside from the central mystery, most of the page-count of the trilogy consists of Cassidy and her companions making their way through assorted underbrush and getting themselves soaked, muddy, and mauled, so an ending which doesn't deal with the mystery in a satisfying manner is understandably disappointing. %A Ripley, Karen %T The Alchemist of Time %I Ballantine/Del Rey %C New York %D December, 1994 %G ISBN 0-345-38118-1 %P 470pp %O $4.99 %S The Slow World ----- Dani Zweig dani@telerama.lm.com 'T is with our judgements as our watches, none Go alike, yet each believes his own --Alexander Pope