From archive (archive)
Subject: THE BREAKING OF NORTHWALL by Paul O. Williams (mild spoiler)
From: duane@anasazi.UUCP
Organization: Anasazi, Phoenix Az.
Date: 21 Jun 86 06:52:53 SDT



The jacket reads:

  "To the Pelbar, the sentence seemed a living death -- exile to distant
  Northwall for a year, isolated from the security and order of Pelbarigan
  society, facing the barbarian tribes of the Shumai and Sentani.

  But the rebellious Jestak embraced his punishment -- for only with the
  lore of Northwall and the battlecraft and bravery of the wild tribes could
  he accomplish what he sought. The woman he loved was a captive in Emerta,
  fabled city of the slaveholding Emeri. Jestak meant to free her -- and, if
  he had to, destroy utterly the power of the Emeri."

This is another instance in which the jacket summary probably wasn't written
by a person who had read the book. Perhaps someone gave this person a three
minute precis, from which the teaser was written.

The book is a lot more interesting and complex than the jacket makes it out
to be. Jestak doesn't know where his girl friend is when he goes to Northwall,
and he's never heard of Emerta.

The location is central United States, and the time is some hundreds of years
in the future, after a nuclear war has killed most of the population and
destroyed all large cities. Different cultures have sprung up, each having
different levels of technology and different mores. The Pelbar are the most
sophisticated from a technological standpoint, but they tend to isolate
themselves in a couple of strongholds. The Shumai and the Sentani are
Indian-like groups that fight each other and the Pelbar except during
truce weeks. Jestak is an unorthodox Pelbar: he has a taste for the open
spaces and the knack for landing on his feet in bad situations. Previous
to this story he had a number of adventures, the outcome of which is that
he is a blood brother to one of the Sentani tribes.

You never know what you'll get in a novel about post nuclear war Earth.
This one is pretty good. Though Jestak's ability to make peace between warring
groups is, perhaps, a little hard to swallow, I liked the character very
much, and I got caught up in the adventure. Once the story gets started,
it doesn't slow down.

I give this book 3.5 stars out of 4.0: it's very good. I'll keep it and look
for more books by this author.
-- 

Duane Morse	...!noao!{mot|terak}!anasazi!duane
(602) 870-3330

From archive (archive)
From: duane@anasaz.UUCP (Duane Morse)
Organization: Anasazi, Inc., Phoenix, Az.
Subject: _The Pelbar Cycle_ by Paul O. Williams (mild spoiler)
Date: 13 Aug 88 02:55:29 GMT




Time: near future

Place: Earth

SF elements: Post nuclear war Earth, rediscovery of some technology

Introduction: Many generations after some unspecified nuclear
disaster, life on the North American continent is fragmented into
a number of different cultures. A few of the groups have maintained
some level of technology; most haven't.

Main storylines: explorations out from the Pelbar heartland,
rediscovering the US; making alliances with other cultures;
individual adventures.

Critique: As a rule, I don't care for post-WWIII novels, but
this series is wonderful. It doesn't dwell on the cause of downfall
of civilization; that happened so far in the past that people don't
know or care what happened, so I didn't encounter the expected cliches.
The main emphasis is on character development, and the main theme is
the effort of a few far-sighted individuals to try to make the different
societies get along with each other (apropos for any age). The author
is successful in both aspects. The characters are very well drawn:
they seem real, they evoke sympathy, and their behavior isn't predictable.
Various interesting adventures, largely accomplished without support from
the leaders of the groups, carry the theme along. Except for the 7th
(the last) book, it's not necessary to read the books in order. There's
one story per book, and though the events in one take place after
the events in the previous one, the carryover is primarily in terms
of background: the stories are quite different. (But save the final
book for last.)

Books in the series: _The Breaking of Northwall_, _The Ends of the
Circle_, _The Dome in the Forest_, _The Fall of the Shell_, _An
Ambush of Shadows_, _The Song of the Axe_, and _The Sword of
Forbearance_.

Rating: 3.5 out of 4.0 - very, very good. I'd recommend these even
to people who don't ordinarily read SF.
-- 

Duane Morse	...!noao!mcdsun!nud!anasaz!duane
(602) 861-7609