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From: ecl@mtgzz.UUCP (e.c.leeper)
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers,net.books
Subject: RELATIVES by Geo Alec Effinger
Message-ID: <1652@mtgzz.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 9-Feb-86 10:26:33 EST
Article-I.D.: mtgzz.1652
Posted: Sun Feb  9 10:26:33 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 12-Feb-86 01:12:37 EST
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		       RELATIVES by Geo. Alec Effinger
			  Harper & Row, 1973, $6.95.
		      A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper

     Yes, this is YAAH (yet another alternate history)--everyone has their
favorite sub-genre, so why should I be an exception?  Similar to Russ's
FEMALE, MAN and Finch's INFINITY'S WEB, this novel follows the same
character through different alternate universes.  Ernest Weinraub lives in a
dystopian future New York (a la 1984).  Ernst Weinraub lives in the one city
in Africa in a world in which Europe never colonized the New World or Africa
and civilization is crumbling.  (Anti-space-developers, take note.)  Ernst
Weintraub lives in a world in which Germany won World War I (yes, that's
right, "I", not "II").

     Effinger is more consciously "literary" than most authors of alternate
histories.  On reflection, I found the novel unsatisfying because Effinger
has really written three novellas rather than a novel.  The characters never
interact between worlds, so that (possible) unifying thread is lost.  Had he
published them as three novellas it would have been an interesting concept;
interleaving them into a "novel" adds a level of confusion that left me less
than enthralled.


					Evelyn C. Leeper
					...ihnp4!mtgzz!ecl

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*	       Get a Usenetter on the ballot at Confederation!               *
*	Nominate MARK R. LEEPER for Hugo for Best Fan Writer in 1986!        *
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