ormally, Monitors of the Associative are invisible observers of primitive
cultures on nonaligned worlds. But when alien predators called Kra'agh
attack the ship of Monitor Ma'khleen while he's on the way to 1880s Earth--forcing him to crash-land outside Tombstone, Ariz.--he finds himself very much involved with the local inhabitants.
Suffering from amnesia thanks to an injury he sustained during the crash,
Ma'khleen gratefully accepts help from the occupants of a passing
stagecoach: Doc Holliday and boarding-house proprietor Sarah Nevers. Sarah, instantly soft on the handsome stranger, gives him a room and fills him in on the brewing power struggle between the cattle-rustling Clantons and the Earps, who are the law in town but who are themselves nearly as shady as the Clantons. Through Holliday he meets the Earps and impresses them with his lightning-fast draw. He agrees to spy on the Clantons, though they soon become suspicious of the nosy greenhorn called Macklin, who doesn't even know enough to wear a hat.
Another thing he doesn't know is that he's being hunted by two
bloodthirsty Kra'agh, scouts for an imminent invasion. Using their
biotechnological ability to perfectly disguise themselves as humans, the
Kra'agh have infiltrated the Clanton gang and plan to use the power-hungry
outlaws to find and kill the unsuspecting Macklin. Fortunately, Macklin's lover and copilot, Dorree, has tracked him down. Can they rescue Sarah, keep from getting marooned, and face down an alien monster that can appear to be anything at all?
If Shatner can do it...
It's irresistible to picture Bruce Boxleitner, who played Captain Sheridan on Babylon 5, casting a flinty eye over a
certain rival starship captain's successful Tek series and thinking,
"If he can do it, so can I!" This opportunistic image is reinforced by the
novel's jacket photograph, which depicts the author in full Babylon 5
regalia--conceding up front that it was Captain Sheridan's cachet, rather
than Boxleitner's literary talent, that got this book on the
shelves.
What budding talent Boxleitner has is young and raw. He hits all the items
on the novice SF writer's checklist: 1) Any combination of letters can be
an alien word, as long as it has an apostrophe in it. 2) End a large number
of sentences with ellipses so they trail off mysteriously... 3) Stop the
action early and often by disgorging all the backstory in long contrived
monologues. (And so on.)
Frontier Earth does make an honest and largely successful effort to
convey a sense of both time and place and an understanding of the key
players in the Tombstone drama. What's missing is synergy. The two interwoven struggles--Macklin/Kra'agh
(which is essentially hero versus monster) and Clanton/Earp (which is more
nuanced)--should inform and complement each other; but in the end they have nothing to do with each other. At times Macklin's story meshes with the feud; at other times the offworlders seem superimposed, like Han Solo digitally inserted into My Darling Clementine.
Boxleitner clearly tried to create an intriguing young hero and a dastardly
new alien race with hints of a grand story on a galactic scale, and he
very nearly succeeds. He also clearly hopes to revisit Macklin in future
books. Perhaps next time he'll dig deeper.
When I read a new SF author I usually try to figure out his or her attitude
toward women, but this book was inconclusive for me. That's partly because
it's set in the repressed 1880s, and partly because memory-impaired
Macklin has two girlfriends, but dithers around with both of
them and doesn't really "get" either. Perhaps he forgot how.
-- Mark
ucia Del Mar is a prima ballerina working with one of the most
cutting-edge dance companies in the world. Naturally shy, she reserves her
passions for the dance floor while living a carefully sheltered life. Her
primary contact with the world at large is conducted via the safe anonymity
of the Internet--until she meets Rashid al-Jazari.
Rashid is a brilliant inventor from Morocco whose creation of a
revolutionary Web browser has derailed him out of a life in academia and
into the position of CEO of his family business. During his second meeting
with Lucia, an attempt is made to kidnap him, and the unfortunate dancer is
swept into increasingly dangerous events. Though they escape to his family
home, Rashid is convinced that they are both in danger, and he asks Lucia to
remain in Morocco until he can unravel the kidnapping conspiracy.
The growing attraction between the two becomes increasingly problematic. The demands of their respective religious faiths threaten to make any relationship very difficult. What's more, outstanding questions about the kidnapping make it impossible for either one to truly trust the other. As the period of her "visit" to Morocco gets longer and longer, and Lucia finds herself falling in love for the first time, she must ask herself: is
the real danger Rashid's enemies, or is it Rashid himself?
Romance, intrigue, and AI
Catherine Asaro manages an intricate balancing act in The Veiled
Web, moving back and forth between the novel's hard SF infrastructure
and a close focus on her characters' relationship. This hybrid does not
always work--at points it is easy to imagine the romance without any SF
elements, or vice versa. In most places, though, the melding of the
two forms is seamless and enjoyable. What's more, the extrapolation of
Internet developments in the near future provides endless fascination, not
least because it is delivered with so much authority.
The novel's greatest attraction is its romantic focus on
character. Rashid in particular is presented with a complexity that is often
passed over in books more interested in gadgets
or adventure. He remains a potential threat
to Lucia without sacrificing sympathy or sex appeal. Even though the book is written with an abiding sense that things will turn out right, there are
moments when readers will wonder how, and despair of the unlikely couple's ever emerging triumphant.
The Veiled Web also raises questions about the nature of
romantic fiction, because Asaro goes to great lengths to make Lucia an
accessible heroine. Lucia gets it all: looks, brains, moxie, success and
resourcefulness. But the story undermines these strengths: Rashid is the scientist, Lucia the
intuitive arty type. Much of her contribution boils down to
nurturing a dysfunctional AI. After giving her
protagonist more assets than a saint, Asaro tosses them aside to
make Lucia most important in her capacity as the mother of Rashid's
brainchild.
Even so, readers searching for a book that breaks the usual SF molds
without sacrificing science and adventure will find that The Veiled
Web is exactly the place to look.
This has a satisfying romance and some very solid science, but Rashid steals
the show. Lucia, in her flawlessness, seems less human in comparison.
-- Alyx
ormally, Monitors of the Associative are invisible observers of primitive
cultures on nonaligned worlds. But when alien predators called Kra'agh
attack the ship of Monitor Ma'khleen while he's on the way to 1880s Earth--forcing him to crash-land outside Tombstone, Ariz.--he finds himself very much involved with the local inhabitants.
ucia Del Mar is a prima ballerina working with one of the most
cutting-edge dance companies in the world. Naturally shy, she reserves her
passions for the dance floor while living a carefully sheltered life. Her
primary contact with the world at large is conducted via the safe anonymity
of the Internet--until she meets Rashid al-Jazari.
