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From: ecl@cbnewsj.att.com (Evelyn C. Leeper)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf-lovers,rec.arts.books
Subject: THE UNCONQUERED COUNTRY by Geoff Ryman (and Cheap Truth ramblings)
Message-ID: <1990Jun27.212413.24313@cbnewsj.att.com>
Date: 27 Jun 90 21:24:13 GMT
Followup-To: rec.arts.sf-lovers
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Lines: 91


		    THE UNCONQUERED COUNTRY by Geoff Ryman
	   Bantam Spectra, 1987 (1986c), ISBN 0-553-26654-3, $2.95.
		      A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper
		     (with some comments on CHEAP TRUTH)
		       Copyright 1990 Evelyn C. Leeper

     [This started out as a review of THE UNCONQUERED COUNTRY, but, like
some mutant plant, it grew off in a different direction and ended as much
about CHEAP TRUTH as about the book in question.]

     When I reviewed FULL SPECTRUM last year, I said that Andrew Weiner's
"This Is the Year Zero," whether intentionally or not, was basically the
story of the Pol Pot takeover in Kampuchea (now once again named Cambodia)
presented as science fiction and that rewriting a historical event as
science fiction rarely results in good science fiction, no matter how tragic
the event.  Someone suggested THE UNCONQUERED COUNTRY as another, better
written, example of the same phenomenon.  And then I saw that CHEAP TRUTH
#16 had listed this as one of its top ten (at least for that issue), and
described it as a "slightly expanded version of the instantly classic
INTERZONE novella, a shocking, brutally depressing SF tragedy that directly
confronts the reader with high-voltage visionary excess."  In addition, the
novella version had won the British Fantasy Award AND the World Fantasy
Award in 1985.

     There are some basic differences between Weiner's story and Ryman's.
In Ryman's book (expanded from the novella, but still only novella length--
30,00 words) the story is presented as fantasy rather than science fiction,
and in fact is written in such a way than it is about the Pol Pot takeover
itself rather than an imitation or copy of it.  But the fantasy makes the
entire story so surreal as to detract from the human beings involved in it.
(For example, houses are apparently living beings with feelings.)  There is
a certain distancing, a certain coldness, that the reader may find conflicts
with the sympathies that s/he knows s/he should have for the victims of
this.  Lisa Goldstein's RED MAGICIAN is a fantasy set in a Nazi
concentration camp that avoids this distancing, at least for me, so it does
not seem to be a necessary element.  It could be that some critics will say
that the distancing is intentional and part of the literary style of the
novel.  But for me, I found it disturbing (in a negative sense--one would
hope a book about Pol Pot would be disturbing) and it seriously detracted
from the book.  Also, because the book is so clearly a representation of
events in Cambodia, I found myself trying to map all the names and events
onto real names and events.  This, too, provided distraction from the flow
of the story.

     The structure of the narrative is unusual.  Although short itself, the
novella is divided into several sub-stories.  The structure and the style
seemed alien enough that I found myself wondering if Ryman were copying the
style from Southeast Asian literature in the same way that Charles Whitmore
copied the style of Scandinavian sagas in WINTER'S DAUGHTER.

     In fairness I should say that LOCUS and the LONDON TIMES LITERARY
SUPPLEMENT apparently loved THE UNCONQUERED COUNTRY (to judge from the back
cover).  Maybe there is some background for appreciating Ryman's style that
I don't have.  I can't say it's a bad book, but after the build-up, I did
find it a bit of a let-down.

     And what of CHEAP TRUTH's rave review?  Well, in #10 CHEAP TRUTH says,
"You've already heard about Gibson's NEUROMANCER, and if you've got any
sense you've already read it.  This book had half again as many
recommendations as its closest competitor to get on the preliminary Nebula
ballot, and its brilliant depiction of a credible future has appealled [sic]
to the sense of wonder in even the most hardened of intellects."  Then when
everyone has read it, in #12 we read, "Now that NEUROMANCER has garnered so
many accolades, maybe it's time to sit back and see just what heights have
been climbed.  ...  The book has, yeah, STYLE....  Wonderful!  ...  And that
slick style carries us forward on a garbage-reeking tide for about a hundred
pages.  ...  But then you become uncomfortably aware that Gibson doesn't
actually KNOW much about computers beyond brand names, and you are enmeshed
in a standard pulp plot."  And on, and on, demolishing what two issues ago
they had been lauding.

     So what has replaced NEUROMANCER in CHEAP TRUTH's eyes?  Well, in that
same issue #12, they rave about Greg Bear's BLOOD MUSIC: "In a triumph of
the human spirit that makes one glow, Bear has shattered the limits of
formula and is delivering truly superior fiction.  BLOOD MUSIC in its
award-winning short form was a fine, visionary piece; as a novel, it's
staggering."  Of course, come #14, they describe it as a novel which
"expands predictably his earlier ... short story" and in a later paragraph
goes on to other works saying, "Even the good stuff here [...] is tainted
with guilt and predictability."

     So it seems as though recommendations from CHEAP TRUTH are designed
more to stir up the waters than actually to present a coherent and
consistent critical viewpoint.  (Yeah, I know--who am I to criticize Bruce
Sterling and Lewis Shiner?  The only answer to that is: I don't know; who do
I have to be?)  But they were right about one thing: "Really great
illustrations!"  (I should note that the illustrations are by Sacha Ackerman
and the cover is by Ilene Meyer.)

Evelyn C. Leeper   |   +1 201-957-2070   |   att!mtgzy!ecl or ecl@mtgzy.att.com