Pasquale's Angel
An artist chases a murderer through a steam-driven Renaissance
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Pasquale's Angel
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By Paul J. McAuley
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AvoNova
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$5.99/$7.99 in Canada
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Paperback, March 1997
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ISBN 0-380-77820-32
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Review by L.R.C. Munro
 asquale is a young artist in an alternate history in which Italy is undergoing its industrial revolution during the time of Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci. Although the arts are overshadowed in this time period and are declining in importance compared to the technological marvels of the artificers and engineers, Pasquale still dreams of following in the footsteps of the great artists of the day and painting what he hopes will be his masterpiece -- an angel such has never been painted before. When the great painter Raphael comes to Florence as an envoy of the current Pope, Pasquale is determined to speak to him about his work and goes to the welcoming ceremony hoping to get his chance. But Raphael is accosted by a drunken rival and the ensuing commotion keeps Pasquale from getting close.
A chance meeting with a reporter in a bar gets Pasquale a much needed commission to produce a picture of the event for the local paper. The reporter, Niccolo Machiavegli -- yes, that Machiavegli, once a powerful politician, now a drunken but brilliant investigator -- introduces Pasquale to both the newspaper business and the world of Florentian power politics. Pasquale starts out with little interest in the intricate political machinations surrounding Raphael's visit and the impending arrival of the Pope. Then the news breaks that one of Raphael's assistants has been murdered.
Machiavegli takes Pasquale along to the crime site, and suddenly understanding politics becomes central to Pasquale's survival. Soon Pasquale finds himself forsaking his art to spend time spying on nobles, interrogating madmen and running from murderous thugs as he helps Machiavegli attempt to unravel first the murder and then the threads of a larger conspiracy that threatens not only the lives of the wealthy and powerful, but possibly the future of Florence itself.
A renaissance Watson and a drunken Holmes
Pasquale's Angel is a novel that works on a number of entertaining levels: as an alternate history, a mystery and a coming-of-age tale to name a few.
It's at its best extrapolating on the possibilities of a past that never was. It's great fun and thought-provoking to consider how the Renaissance might have been different if engineering, rather than art, had become the highest form of creative expression. McAuley takes readers through many fascinating alternatives in everything from daily life to politics to war, without either lecturing or requiring readers to have any more than general knowledge of the period.
The story also works well as a Sherlock Holmes-type mystery with Niccolo Machiavegli as the deductive thinker and Pasquale as his earnest Watson. Actually it's a bit too specifically Holmesian when McAuley uses a plot device annoyingly similar to one used in a well-known Holmes tale, but thankfully it's only of minor importance to the overall plot. The mystery itself takes off from the simple "locked-door" murder of Raphael's assistant and leads Pasquale and Machiavegli to uncover a larger and more sinister conspiracy. McAuley does an excellent job of imbuing the investigation with a real sense of danger and suspense, and it's particularly effective that the mystery is intimately tied to both the consequences of the new technology and the "real" history of that time period.
Least satisfying is the book's coming-of-age story -- not that it's poorly done, only that Pasquale's growth from young dilettante to artist seems predictable. And while the running theme of the "angel" he wants to paint feels indefinably right, somehow the emotional impact gets lost amid all the excitement of the plot.
Not a major drawback, however. Pasquale's Angel is a fun, gripping read that overcomes its flaws with sheer, tour de force storytelling.
Some of the machines and structures McAuley comes up with are so intriguing I would love to see them rendered in a visual medium . -- LRC
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Saturn Rukh
Fly to Saturn and earn a billion dollars...if you survive
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Saturn Rukh
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By Robert L. Forward
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Tor Books
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$22.95/$32.95 Canada
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Hardcover, March 1997
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ISBN 0-312-86321-7
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Review by Susan Dunman
 ard SF writer Robert Forward takes readers on a theoretical voyage to Saturn in this, his eleventh SF novel. When a job offer of one billion dollars per person is made to prospective crew members, it doesn't take long to assemble the six-person team necessary for an exploratory mission to Saturn. The mission is sponsored by a consortium interested in the production of meta, a new rocket fuel which near-future Earth relies on for interplanetary travel. Producing meta requires large amounts of helium, an element which just happens to be in plentiful supply in the upper atmosphere of Saturn.
In order to determine the feasibility of creating meta from Saturn's atmosphere, the crew must transport and deploy a miniature meta factory in Saturn's atmosphere. In addition, their return trip depends on the factory's production of enough fuel to boost them out of Saturn's gravitational field.
The crew, consisting of four men and two women, are confident in their ability to complete the mission. Unfortunately, contingency plans do not take into account the variety or size of alien life forms in Saturn's atmosphere. Of particular concern is the Rukh, a bird-like creature at the top of the food chain on Saturn. With a wing span of four kilometers, this cross between a hot-air balloon and a flying albatross has the audacity to mistake the spacecraft and accompanying meta factory for a tasty morsel.
Ensuing efforts by the crew to avoid becoming an appetizer result in discovering that the Rukh are intelligent and curious about their insect-sized visitors. With mechanical failures occurring at an alarming rate on board the ship, the crew realize their only hope for survival depends on communicating with the floating giants.
Sinbad the Sailor makes a comeback
The crew commander likens Saturn's balloon birds to rocs, the mythical winged creatures that made an appearance in Sinbad the Sailor's adventures. Ironically, the spaceship and its crew find themselves in situations no less incredible than Sinbad's trauma-attracting activities. Solutions for seemingly impossible predicaments are sometimes highly unlikely, but there is great fun in seeing how everything manages to work out.
The crew is a typical combination of pilots, engineers, physicians and scientists. Characterization is minimal, resulting in a lack of concern for the welfare of any of the humans. However, what the author lacks in developing earthlings he more than makes up for with his portrayal of the alien Rukhs. Discovering these creatures is sufficient justification for reading the book.
The novel has plenty to offer the hard SF fan, which is what one might expect from an author with a Ph.D. in gravitational physics. There are enough facts about orbits, trajectories, velocities, moons, and planets to keep aspiring astronomers and mathematicians pacified. An appendix includes data on Saturn, its rings and satellites, and drawings of the spacecraft. A short bibliography is also included.
A book doesn't always have to be cerebral, metaphysical, allegorical, or controversial to be enjoyed. Sometimes all that is required is a pleasant diversion from the daily routine. Saturn Rukh accomplishes this task admirably and leaves readers wishing for a return visit to the ringed planet.
I've always associated Saturn with its rings. Now I'll think of Rukhs instead. -- Susan
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Silicon Karma
Heaven is a hard drive
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Silicon Karma
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By Thomas A. Easton
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White Wolf
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$11.99/$16.20 Canada
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Trade Paperback, 1997
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ISBN 1-56504-8180-0
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Review by Curt Wohleber
 hile Congress and the media ponder human cloning, science fiction has long since moved on. Forget about cloning yourself: instead, copy your mind into a supercomputer and enjoy eternal youth in virtual reality, where your every wish is made real, or real enough anyway.
Thomas Easton's Silicon Karma envisions a future in which the wealthy can enjoy just such online immortality (though the original "meat" stays behind to suffer and die like everyone else). In Virtual City there is no aging, disease or hunger. But a serpent is slithering through this paradise. Someone is eating up memory and processing power faster than technicians in the real world can add hardware upgrades.
Meanwhile, certain inhabitants of Virtual City are disappearing. The artificial persona who runs the place knows they aren't dead, but Marvin (also known as "Ada," "Bertha" and a bunch of other names) has limits built into his programming, designed to safeguard people's privacy, that prevent him from finding where the lost virtual citizens have gone.
Marvin recruits Albert, who in life had been a police detective specializing in computer crime. The investigation progresses slowly because someone keeps killing Albert. Death is only a temporary inconvenience in Virtual City, but for Albert it's a real nuisance because he loses all memory of anything after his last backup.
Things get really complicated when a pair of new arrivals shows up in Virtual City: Albert's wife, Rose, and Michael, the ruthless former CEO of the Coleridge Corporation, which owns the supercomputer that runs Virtual City.
A mind is a terrible thing to waste
Silicon Karma is one of those science fiction novels in which most of the characters are a bit dumber than they really should be in order to give better-informed characters an excuse to lecture readers. And there are too many characters, at least for a 280-page novel. Easton supplies Albert, Michael, Rose and several others with complex, plausible motivations, but none of the characters occupy center stage long enough to come alive.
The plot unfolds in fits and starts -- flashbacks and lessons on the ins-and-outs of virtual reality take up a lot of time. The few plot twists and surprise revelations are pretty mundane, though the novel eventually revs up for a lively showdown between Albert and a femme fatale with an insatiable desire for sex, drugs and random-access memory.
Silicon Karma was originally published on disk by Serendipity Systems in 1995. Like most books from White Wolf Publishing, Silicon Karma sports funky art and design on the cover, cheap paper and weird type inside. The packaging has a definite cyberpunk look, though there's not much "punk" here. The solidly middle-class characters spend their afterlife lounging in lakeside cottages and even watching TV.
Actually, there's not that much "cyber" either. Other writers, including Greg Egan, have explored the idea of mind uploads in greater depth, and with more style and daring. Still, Easton has put a lot of thought into Silicon Karma's virtual world. People who haven't read much hard science fiction might find Karma easier to digest than, say, Egan's Permutation City. Then they will have a head start on the pundits and politicians when they start debating the morality of mind uploads.
The book has some worthwhile insights into human nature, but I wish they had been packaged in a more compelling and adventurous story. -- Curt
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