Conference noted::sf

1217.0. "Ripley's The Persistence of Memory" by JVERNE::KLAES (Be Here Now) Fri Mar 25 1994 12:59

Article: 543
From: [email protected] (Humphrey Aaron V)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews
Subject: Prograde Reviews--Karen Ripley: The Persistence of Memory
Date: Thu, 24 Mar 1994 15:54:36 GMT
Organization: not specified
 
Karen Ripley: The Persistence of Memory [minor spoilers]
 
A Prograde Review by Aaron V. Humphrey
 
This book I picked up totally on impulse at the library.  I'm not sure
why; perhaps it was because 1)I'm a big fan of Salvador Dali(there's
even a melted clock on the front!), and 2)I'm a sucker for amnesia
stories(for so was it described on the back).  Well, I'm not terribly
disappointed in it... 
 
That sounds like faint praise.  Okay, it's a good book.  It has some
flaws, surely, but it's surprisingly good. 
 
Ripley has delineated an intriguing world, where most people have no
memory of how they got there, and are not worried by the fact...others
don't remember, or remember a little, and it bothers them; and some
remember the other world they came from, which they call The Slow
World.  Cassidy(who names herself after a vague memory of Butch Cassidy, 
since she can't remember her own name)remembers more than most. 
 
She starts out in the company of Horsemen, who share a psychic link
with their horses, and who tend to feud with Villagers, who farm and
raise horses--the Horsemen "steal" horses by imprinting them as foals,
which the Villagers do not appreciate.  Cassidy ends up with Villagers
after being separated from her Horseman companions, and spends most of
the book in their company, trying to figure out why she finds some
things, or their absence, odd while nobody else does. 
 
It's an interesting setup; one of the problems is that Cassidy is far
too inclined to doubt her own sanity than believe that things are
_too_ much different in the world where she finds herself.  And a bit
too much time is spent with the Villagers, which gets a bit slow in
the middle before things pick up near the end.  I'm looking forward to
the next book, _The Warden of Horses_. 
 
%A Ripley, Karen
%T The Persistence of Memory
%I Ballantine del Rey
%C New York
%D November 1993
%G ISBN 0-345-38120-3
%P 247 pp.
%S The Slow World
%V Book 1
%O Paperback, US$4.99, Can$5.99
 
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