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Days of Cain
It is the greatest atrocity in human history, and it must be preserved at all costs
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Days of Cain
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By J.R. Dunn
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Avon Books
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$23.00/$30.00 Canada
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Hardcover, Aug. 1997
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ISBN 0-380-97433-9
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Review by Craig E. Engler
 he Moiety is an organization dedicated to preserving the continuity of the universal timeline, ensuring that historical events, no matter how terrible, are allowed to run their course. Gaspar James was recruited by the Moiety at the lowest time in his life, and he has become intensely loyal to the organization, even though its ultimate purpose plays out so far in the future that he cannot hope to fathom it. For the last 10 years he has served as monitor of the relatively calm 24th century, or C24, and although he has only been involved in one continuity crisis (and that one so far upline that he was literally unable to grasp the point of the mission) he is considered a tough but efficient monitor.
Tough and efficient is just what the Moiety needs when a surprisingly large and well-organized group of rebels sets up camp in C20, where they attempt to assassinate Hitler and derail the coming Holocaust. When that plan fails, the rebels decide to take a more direct tack, targeting the most notorious German death camp of World War II, Auschwitz. But the C20 monitor, unable to continue his job in the face of the German atrocities, does the unthinkable and resigns his position in the midst of the crisis. The job falls to Gaspar, who is out of his era of expertise but who has a significant advantage over the other monitors...the rebel leader was Gaspar's protege. He is also one of the few monitors willing to take the assignment.
Dunn asks--and answers--hard questions
J.R. Dunn has written an ambitious novel that succeeds surprisingly well on a number of levels. First and foremost he has created a time travel novel that is neither trite nor cliched, and although it is not original in concept, it is certainly original in execution. Dunn wisely avoids the science of time travel and instead focuses on its implications, exploring the idea with both depth and breadth through the characters and events he describes. And he is not afraid to push the concept to its extreme edges, offering readers a glimpse of a time when the stars have gone dim and the universe transcends itself.
More importantly, Dunn has accomplished the far more difficult and far less savory task of recreating Auschwitz, which he renders convincingly real. So real that it makes Days of Cain a difficult book to read, a problem Dunn overcomes, but not with complete success. Strangely, Dunn's biggest stumbling block seems to be the scene where the rebel leader, Alma Lewin, explains her motivations, nominally to a fellow character but in reality directly to readers. The scene reads as if it were a last-minute addition, one not entirely necessary (though it is easy to see why Dunn chose to include it) and which jars the story, but thankfully does not derail it.
Where Dunn deserves much credit is for asking the tough questions readers would expect, and for answering them as well. They are not easy answers or complete ones, and they do not redeem the often irredeemable actions of humanity (and other sentients), but they are important answers nonetheless. And that makes Days of Cain an important book, both for its excellence as a story and for the lessons it imparts.
A weighty book indeed, and well done if not quite as well done as it could have been. Put Dunn down on your Writers to Watch list. -- Craig E.
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A King of Infinite Space
The gift of life-after-death is slavery
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A King of Infinite Space
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By Allen Steele
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Harper Prism
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$23.00/$32.50 Canada
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Hardcover, Sept. 1997
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ISBN 0-06-105286-8
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Review by Clinton Lawrence
 lec Tucker has always felt that his wealthy, divorced parents consider him someone who is just in the way, and he barely notices when his father buys him a membership in something called the Immortality Partnership. His nerdish best friend Shemp also receives a membership from his parents. Not long after, Alec and his girlfriend Erin attend a Lollapalooza concert with Shemp. On the ride home, following a day of indulging in drugs and beer, Shemp tries to cut in front of a truck.
Alec wakes up to find himself lying in a bed in a large, white room surrounded by other people lying similarly in their beds. He doesn't remember anything, but a robed man named John helps him get up and begins to show him how to do things like take a shower. John also teaches Alec how to access a "helper" implanted in his mind. Alec doesn't remember anything from his past, but slowly, as he relearns the basic tasks of life, his memories begin to return. One of the other men seems vaguely familiar to him, and that person turns out to be his old friend Shemp.
John encourages his progress even as Alec and the others are put to work as servants. John reveals that they have all died and been revived, in Alec's case 104 years after his accident. As his memories fully return, Alec wonders why they have all been revived only to serve as slaves, and he also wonders how he can find out whether Erin joined the Immortality Partnership. His inquiries lead to conflict with his new masters, and ultimately he will learn the true reason for the resurrections.
A lively novel indeed
In A King of Infinite Space, Allen Steele creates an intelligent, sophisticated suspense novel with many surprises. In Alec, he has invented a capable and (if readers discount the first chapter) rational character who, when all is finally revealed, has misinterpreted almost every aspect of his situation, including his personal relationships. Steele handles this delicate balance with great skill, and at the end, when Alec learns what's really going on, readers don't feel cheated. All the while, Steele creates a sense of increasing danger and menace, particularly from the eccentric and powerful Pasquale Chicago, the man behind the revivals.
Steele also creates an intriguing historical and political background, which is at the heart of Chicago's motivations. In fact, this novel is part of a future history that Steele has been developing, which already includes several novels and short stories. Some of the more interesting ideas in this history include a race of humans genetically engineered for life in space (complete with an attitude of arrogant superiority), and a complex network of trade and political ties and rivalries across the solar system.
But Steele's most impressive accomplishment in this novel is his use of subtle details, which enrich the characters and the background, and which provide a basis for interpreting the logic of the novel in alternate ways. This is not a simple book, even though it has a seemingly clean resolution. But it does manage to reaffirm science fiction's traditional values while avoiding the simplistic innocence of the novels of several decades past that inspired it.
Most of Steele's chapter titles come from song titles and lyrics. I learned that I like his musical tastes as well as his writing.
-- Clint
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