Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.3 4.3bsd-beta 6/6/85; site lzwi.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxn!ihnp4!lzwi!psc From: psc@lzwi.UUCP (Paul S. R. Chisholm) Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers Subject: THE YEARS OF THE CITY by Frederik Pohl Message-ID: <342@lzwi.UUCP> Date: Fri, 4-Oct-85 17:40:15 EDT Article-I.D.: lzwi.342 Posted: Fri Oct 4 17:40:15 1985 Date-Received: Sun, 6-Oct-85 04:42:00 EDT Organization: AT&T-IS Enhanced Network Services Lines: 48 < Oxygen is for people who can't take New Jersey > THE YEARS OF THE CITY: novel, Frederik Pohl, 1984. Winner of the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for best novel of the year. Recently, it seems I've talking about the good points of a book, then vaguely explaining why I don't like it. This time, I'm hard put to find particular elements that are outstanding, but I like the results. THE YEARS OF THE CITY looks like a collection of short stories. It's not. It's a novel that covers several hundred years, by considering five crises. (I'm not sure if they would stand alone as five individual stories.) The city of the title is "the City", New York. The first episode, "When New York Hit the Fan", tells of a city very much like the one we know and love (well, some of us), on a day where the Mayor is less in charge than Murphy. The key to this story is that New York - and by imitation, the rest of the world - decides to really *solve* its problems. The next two parts, "The Greening of Bed-Stuy" and "The Blister", concern the forces of change and their fight with the powers that be, notably, organized crime. The final two sections, "Second-hand Sky" and "Gwenanda and the Supremes", take place in a New York that's a utopia, compared to our own. The problems are trivial, compared to the earlier stories, because New York has learned to deal with some of its worst weaknesses. So, how does it measure up on my usual rulers? The characters don't leap out of the book at you, but they're fleshed out nicely, no more or no less than necessary for the stories to be about THEM. The prose is Pohl at his best: GATEWAY, say, or THE SPACE MERCHANTS. But what I really enjoyed about the book is the way Pohl kept it all together. Most of the changes the city (and society) goes through are based on ideas from the twentieth century (well, heck, Pohl had heard of them). One year's dream is the next year's project, and the following year's history. At the beginning, the new political and technological ideas are in conflict with each other, as well as the STATUS QUO; they blend together as time goes on. And by various tricks, Pohl manages to keep a minimal continuity of characters across the centuries. Some books are good reads. THE YEARS OF THE CITY is a GOOD read. (And it's now out in paperback, or soon will be.) -- -Paul S. R. Chisholm The above opinions are my own, {pegasus,vax135}!lzwi!psc not necessarily those of any {mtgzz,ihnp4}!lznv!psc telecommunications company. (*sigh* ihnp4!lzwi!psc does *NOT* work!!! Use above paths.) "Were you ever famous?" "No." "Then how can you be a has been?" Brought to you by Super Global Mega Corp .com