Conference noted::sf

1174.0. "Cristabel (Christine Abrahamsen)" by VERGA::KLAES (Quo vadimus?) Wed Oct 06 1993 13:02

Article: 385
From: dani@netcom.com (Dani Zweig)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews
Subject: REPOST: Belated Reviews PS#4: Cristabel
Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest)
Date: 01 Oct 93 01:06:58 GMT
 
		Belated Reviews PS#4:  Cristabel
 
I'm going to take time out from reviewing Great SF to haul out a justly
obscure sentimental favorite.  Cristabel (one of her books has Christine
Abrahamsen listed on the copyright, so I assume that's her real name)
wrote four books which owed a lot more to the romance genre than to sf/f.
They're not very good, by any reasoned measure -- and I loved reading them.
As best I can tell, she wrote these four books around 1970, each saw a
single printing, and then she stopped writing.  They should appeal to
readers who sometimes enjoy a well written bad romance novel -- the sort
which is the distillation of long daydreams.
 
I'm not sure what the setting is supposed to be for "The Cruachan and the
Killane" (***?).  The cover blurb claims that it's "1000 years in the
future", but the text itself is silent on whether the action takes place
on a future Earth or another world.  If it is the future, it's a strange
one, as the technology is purely 20th century -- though there are mystical
forces active in the background, as well as the odd starship. 
 
(I honestly have never been able to figure out whether any interstellar
travel is taking place or whether everything is happening on a single
planet, or whether Cristabel is simply unclear on whether one travels from
one planet to another by spaceship, airplane, or submarine.  "The Cruachan
and the Killane" has a picture of a man in a spacesuit on the cover, but
that has nothing whatever to do with the story.  It's just the way the
publisher (Curtis) chose to tell the audience that this is supposed to be
a science fiction book.)
 
This review took absurdly long to write, because I was unable to come up
with plot summaries that aren't facetious and ridiculous.  I'm not sure it
can be done.  Cristabel's typical formula involves the hero and the heroine
meeting in the first chapter or two, in a land under some imminent threat,
and immediately falling in love.  They then proceed to combat said threat,
in the course of which the heroine typically needs to be rescued a couple
of times.  And if worse comes to worst, there's some supernatural or
mystical intervention, to make sure the course of true love runs smooth.
How is one to recount such a plot with a straight face?  I'll just have to
give you my word that I had a lot of fun reading these books.
 
"The Cruachan and the Killane" starts off with a bang -- as a bomb aboard
a passenger plane sends it crashing into the sea.  Nora, the heroine,
survives the crash, and so does a message given to her by a poisoned
courier.  She is rescued from a watery grave by Jaime Killane (captain of
the Cruachan), who is, of course, the hero.  Piecing together subtle clues
(eg, the poison, the bomb), they conclude that something's wrong, and head 
the Cruachan for the mystical island of Veltakin, where trusted help can be 
found.  On Veltakin the courier's message is decoded and, Sure Enough, 
There's Dirty Work Afoot:  A large conspiracy of villains is conspiring to 
commit villainy.  The rest of the book is devoted to taking care of said
viallains before the villains take care of them. 
 
	On and on she went until, at last, exhausted, she was about
	to turn back when the low, sleek, gray shape appeared out of 
	the sea below her.  With hope born of desperation, Nora stood
	on the deck and searched for the mind that ran this ship.  With
	unerring instinct she went forward, down the steps, along the
	passageways and into the Commander's room...
 
"Manalacor of Veltakin" (***?) is the prequel to "The Cruachan and the
Killane".  (Or maybe TCatK is the sequel.  They were published almost
simultaneously.  I read MoV second, so I think of it as prequel.)
Veltakin itself is an island, vaguely Hawaiian in feel, though it's 
located just off the coast of the continent, and is the focus of numerous 
prophecies and legends.  It's also surprisingly well armed, as one of the
legends states that the mainland can't be conquered as long as the island
is free.  When a would-be conqueror threatens the island, a small
contingent of soldiers, led by Jois Storm (who is a minor character in the
other book) comes to protect it.  There he meets Tikke, one of the islanders,
and, for the rest, see the GCPS (generic Cristabel plot summary). 
 
	Too experienced to be taken in by her artifices, he had,
	nevertheless, played along with her until he could place
	her in his mental map of places, people, and things important
	to his job of protecting the Island.  He had no doubt that
	she fit somewhere in that map.  She really had a lovely
	and charming way about her, and he hoped that she was not
	a spot that would have to be erased.
 
"The Mortal Immortals" (***?) (which I've only seen in hardcover) comes
closest to being pure romance.  This being Cristabel, that means a
combination of Gothic, fantasy, and just a touch of sf.  It takes place in
Cordelion, a country which might as well be Scotland, in a time when clans
wielded much more power, except that technology and weaponry are at about
modern levels.  (I respect the latter:  It's hard to write this sort of novel
without finding some far-fetched reason for your characters to carry swords.)
The king of Cordelion has just died, and the country is in turmoil, with
multiple factions -- at home and abroad -- vying for power.  Into this
mess comes Killy Legrange, a foreigner who finds herself surprisingly at
home in this country, and swiftly finds herself involved in it struggle.
Fortunately, she has the help of a bevy of ancestral ghosts, who are as
determined as Killy to see a happy ending to the affair.  Two of those
ghosts are dead ringers for Killy and for Shannon, the love interest.
 
	Angus and Essie, in bemused wonder, had seen the face
	emerge from the rainhood, and with one accord had swung
	their gaze to a portrait near the head of the stairs. 
	As they watched in fascinated silence, a pictured
	materialized out of the air and slid slowly into the frame
	over the portrait.  When the motion ceased, a man's face
	peered out of the frame where a woman's had formerly reposed.
 
There was a fourth book, "The Golden Olive" (*?).  It's by far the
weakest of the batch and, wouldn't you know it, the only one of
Cristabel's books that's relatively easy to find on used-book shelves.
If you've never read her books, don't start with this one.
 
Again, if you like the occasional well-written bad romance, the sort where
the plot doesn't hold a great deal of water but the writing pulls at all
the right emotional strings and wish-fullfillment fantasies, you may have
fun with these books.  If not, give it a miss.
 
%A Cristabel
%O probably a pseudonym for Christine Abrahamsen
%T The Cruachan and the Killane
%T Manalacor of Veltakin
%T The Mortal Immortals
%O the last of these may only have appeared in hardcover
 
=============================================================================
 
The postscripts to Belated Reviews cover authors of earlier decades who
didn't fit into the original format -- whether because the author seemed
an inappropriate subject, or because I was unfamiliar with too much of the
author's work, or whatever -- or sometimes just isolated works of such
authors.  The emphasis will continue to be on guiding newer readers
towards books or authors worth trying out, rather than on discussing them
comprehensively or in depth.  I'll retain the rating scheme of ****
(recommended), *** (an old favorite that hasn't aged well), ** (a solid
lesser work), and * (nothing special). 
 
-----
Dani Zweig
dani@netcom.com
 
   If you're going to write, don't pretend to write down.  It's going to be the
   best you can do, and it's the fact that it's the best you can do that kills
   you! -- Dorothy Parker