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From: rickc@iddic.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers
Subject: Re: Demon
Message-ID: <1770@iddic.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 25-Jul-84 13:51:10 EDT
Article-I.D.: iddic.1770
Posted: Wed Jul 25 13:51:10 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 27-Jul-84 08:28:03 EDT
Organization: Tektronix, Beaverton OR
Lines: 28

Re: Demon review recently posted:


>   I was bothered by some of the "magic"
>   used, since it seemed to be rather non-scientific, and since
>   Gaea had never shown such abilities before. 

I agree!  Furthermore, there were no rules apparent for the magic.

Someone (Larry Niven in one of his collections, I think) wrote about the
necessity of having rules for events not possible with our current knowledge.
Varley did a good job with the genetic engineering - I can believe asphalt
producing critters.  But if one is going to bring in causality violations
(time travel) all bets are off. The reader is left with a disatisfied feeling,
like saying 'it was all a dream'.  The defense is that ordinary mortals can
not understand what is going on - but that sure makes a poor story. I would
bring in more specific points, but would probably be a spoiler.

Varley had some of this problem with the 'Ophiuchi (sp?) Hotline' stories.
The Jovian beings were completely beyond our understanding, but it played better
since they were disinterested in humans.

I thought that 'Demon' was weak - but still enjoyed it.  Varley has a knack
(like Heinlein) of writing  very readable stories, even if one doesn't agree
with the politics or science involved.

							Rick Coates
							tektronix!iddic!rickc