Conference noted::sf

611.0. "Williams' Voice of the Whirlwind" by DEADLY::REDFORD () Sun May 08 1988 23:08

    by Walter John Williams
    Tor books, 1987
    
    An espionage thriller set in the cyberpunk near future.  Etienne
    Steward (Alpha) grows up in the docks of Marseilles, running with
    the gangs.  He enlists with Coherent Light, a 'policorp' (corporate
    nation) and is trained as a Zen warrior.  Artifacts of a lost
    alien civilization are discovered on the planet Sheol, and a
    vicious war erupts among the policorps over control of the
    technologies they represent.  Shortly after the war, the alien
    Powers discover humanity and set up extremely profitable trading
    agreements. Steward survives the war, but is left adrift and
    traumatized. 

    But this isn't his story.  This is the story of Etienne Steward 
    (beta), a clone of the Alpha.  For a certain (high) fee you can
    take out clone insurance - the preservation of your memories for
    later dumping into a blank body.  The Beta amakens to discover 
    that his Alpha has been murdered, apparently while chasing Colonel
    De Prey, his old commander on Sheol.  He resumes his Alpha's 
    interrupted quest in an effort to discover his own past and his own
    purpose.
    
    All well and good.  The action is fast and the setting imaginative.
    It has the appropriate amount of paranoia and double-crossings for
    a thriller, and the layers of intrigue get steadily grimmer as 
    they are peeled away.  Unfortunately, I found it hard to sympathize 
    with the protagonist.  He struck me as cold and brutal, someone 
    who practiced the Zen martial arts to cover his almost complete 
    lack of soul.  The title refers to his behavior on Sheol, to his becoming
    an uncaring force of destruction.  The Beta also leaves a trail 
    of violence and death behind him, to little ultimate good as far 
    as I could see.  
    
    Also, this is another example of Williams' phenomenal ability to
    imitate other writer's styles.  In "Knight Moves" he produced a
    fine Zelazny novel, in "The Crown Jewels" he extended Alexei
    Panshin's series about Anthony Villiers, and apparently
    "Hardwired" (which I haven't read) is vintage Gibson.  This one
    borrows the setting of "Schismatrix" and "Vacuum Flowers".  All 
    of these are fine books ("The Crown Jewels" was particularly 
    funny), but when is he going to find his own voice?  For a writer
    of his obvious talent to produce pastiches is a criminal waste.
    
    /jlr

    
    I just read this ... I had short patience with it for the first
    chapter or two; it seemed too blatant an attempt to write "like
    Gibson."  Obviously, nobody can write "like Gibson" as well as Mr.
    Gibson himself, so why try?
    
    But as it went along, I found it picks up a certain energy of its
    own and after a while you can forget that "N"-book more or less
    altogether.  Williams has strung together a nice, fast-paced narrative
    that keeps you interested and, in the end, even puts together some
    (I thought) very nice and unexpected plot twists.
    
    All in all, by the end I had really enjoyed it, rather more than
    I feared I might from the opening pages.  If you pick this up to
    read (especially if you've read the "N"-book already) hang with
    it; it accelerates nicely and by the end it's purring along at rather
    a nice clip.
    
    Matt
    

    Walter Jon Williams has a new book of short stories out, "Facets". 
    Highly recommended.   Some of the stories are award winners, such
    as "Dinosaurs" (humanity evolves beyond such primitive needs as
    consciousness) and "Side Effects" (unexpected, but not unwelcome
    results of trying the enormous output of the pharmaceutical
    industry on uninsured patients).  Some I haven't seen before, such
    as "No Spot of Ground", about how Edgar Allan Poe fared as a
    Southern general in the Civil War.  "The Bob Dylan Solution",
    about how to take care of aging rock stars, is so logically
    necessary that I expect it to happen any day. 
    
    Be warned, though, that some of the paperbacks duplicate pages
    117-148 in place of pages 149-180.  Check your copy before buying.  
    It's an incredible printing error, but what can you expect from
    Tor Books.  /jlr