Rewriting world history

Two talented writers in the realm of science fiction and fantasy portray world-shattering events in their latest efforts, both the third books in four-book series. Harry Turtledove's Breakthroughs is an action novel set during a fictionalized World War I in which the United States struggles in a war of vengeance against the Confederate States. John Crowley's Daemonomania is a philosophical novel, which hints at the end of the world as we know it.

REVIEWS BY STEVEN SILVER

Breakthroughs continues the multi-viewpoint saga of a world in which the South successfully seceded from the Union in the 1860s. Nearly 60 years later, the two nations are at war again, this time as part of a worldwide conflict similar to the World War I fought in our own history. Turtledove's theater of action ranges from the South Atlantic to Canada as he presents the war through the eyes of combatants from both sides as well as civilians. This range of characters allows the author to present the political and social situations in all their complexity. Turtledove has reached the point in the story and his writing ability where initially unsympathetic characters come across as likable as the reader gets to know them better.

In the previous novels in the series (The Great War: American Front and The Great War: Walk in Hell), Turtledove balanced the relative strengths and tactics of the two sides. In Breakthroughs, the balance of power clearly shifts in favor of the United States. This allows Turtledove to focus less on the military aspects of the war and look more closely at the societal changes that have occurred during the years the war has been waged. The issues the novel brings to the forefront as the war is wrapped up set the stage for the fourth, and final, novel in the series, which will examine the post-war world.


While Breakthroughs is epic in its scope, Daemonomania is a more intimate story, focusing on a few main characters far from the traditional centers of power. Rather than attempting to recreate the realistic horror of war, Crowley is more intent on creating an almost existential philosophical novel that looks at the beliefs and forces that drive our reality.

Daemonomania continues the story of characters introduced by Crowley in Aegypt (1987) and Love and Sleep (1994). The focus of Crowley's tale is Rosie Rasmussen's attempt to discover the cause of the strange seizures afflicting her daughter, Sam. In the process of taking Sam to doctors and exploring alternative methods of diagnoses, Rosie becomes enamored of an ancient text, which, she believes, contains the key to Sam's cure. In the process, Rosie runs into a variety of evil forces intent on destroying the world, and all indicators point to the culmination of their plots during Halloween.

Daemonomania is an ambitious novel in which Crowley strives to stretch the boundaries of the genre and succeeds in advancing the cutting edge of fantastic literature. Crowley's beautifully crafted work has been described as an acquired taste. His focus is not on plot or characters, but rather on visionary ideas. Using beautiful language, he weaves a pattern that manages to raise intriguing issues and possibilities, including the transformation of the past and the future.

Both Breakthroughs and Daemonomania are well written, entertaining novels that demonstrate the broad scope of the science fiction genre.


© 2000 ProMotion, inc.
www@bookpage.com