Conference noted::sf

1218.0. "Sawyer's Far-Seer Trilogy" by JVERNE::KLAES (Be Here Now) Fri Mar 25 1994 16:00

Article: 542
From: aaron@amisk.cs.ualberta.ca (Humphrey Aaron V)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews
Subject: Prograde Reviews--Robert J. Sawyer: Fossil Hunter
Date: Thu, 24 Mar 1994 15:52:51 GMT
Organization: not specified
 
Robert J. Sawyer: Fossil Hunter
 
A Prograde Review by Aaron V. Humphrey
 
[some spoilers for this book and _Far-Seer_]
 
Robert Sawyer is one of the fastest-rising authors today.  Having
heard him speak knowledgeably about how one has to work on one's
career to get anything out of it, I'm not terribly surprised. 
 
I've also heard that he always wanted to be a paleontologist.  So it's
not that surprising that he has three books out on a planet of
sentient dinosaurs, the first being _Far-Seer_ and the most recent
being _Foreigner_. 
 
My main objection to the series so far is how scientific progress
seems to be accelerated.  In the last book, the main character, Afsan
became Galileo, as well as Columbus/Magellan.  In this book, Toroca,
one of Afsan's sons, becomes Darwin.  I kept sighing as I read things,
saying, "Oh, no!  Not another piece of evidence in favour of
evolution!  How could they have missed them for so long?"  Of course,
things are somewhat more complicated than on Earth.  How dinosaurs got
to Quintaglio(from Earth)is explained... 
 
But Sawyer also juggles several other plots.  First, some background:
Quintaglios have an extreme territorial instinct, violation of which
can throw them into a frenzy.  They lay eggs in clutches of eight, but
to avoid overpopulation, a "bloodpriest" culls seven hatchlings from
each clutch. 
 
Afsan, being a worldwide hero(having discovered, among other things,
that Quintaglio is only a few hundred kilodays away from destruction
as it draws nearer to the gas giant it orbits), was granted the
survival of all his children.  When it is revealed that, for years,
the family of the Emperor has received the same treatment, the public
reception is not as favourable, and they demind a belated culling; in
the meantime, they refuse to let culling of their own eggs take place,
resulting in a "baby boom". 
 
Meanwhile, Afsan's children are dying, one by one, the victims of
cold-blooded murder, a rare crime on Quintaglio...Afsan, despite being
blind, attempts to track down the culprit. 
 
And then Toroca stumbles onto a buried spaceship(a la McCaffrey's _The
White Dragon_), made of an indestructible material... 
 
Sawyer keeps the tension on as he interweaves the various plotlines
throughout the book.  I would most emphatically state that this book
does _not_ suffer as second books of trilogies normally do.  Read
_Far-Seer_, if you haven't already, then read this one.  And watch for
it at Hugo time. 
 
%A Sawyer, Robert J.
%T Fossil Hunter
%I Ace
%C New York
%D May 1993
%G ISBN 0-441-24884-5
%P 290 pp.
%S Quintaglio
%V Book 2
%O Paperback, US$4.99, Can$5.99
 
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