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Conference noted::sf

Title:	Arcana Caelestia
Notice:	Directory listings are in topic 2
Moderator:	NETRIX::thomas

Created:	Thu Dec 08 1983
Last Modified:	Fri Jun 06 1997
Last Successful Update:	Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:	1300
Total number of notes:	18728

1253.0. "Allen Steele - Labyrinth Of Night" by ARRODS::WHITAKER (The man from Hull) Sat Nov 12 1994 14:22

    I recently picked up a copy of Labyrinth Of Night by Allen Steele. It
    tells the tale of the exploration of Alien artefacts on Mars. The team
    on Mars is multi-national with a mixture of civilians and military
    people. As new discoveries are made national politics become more of an
    influence with some interesting developments. 

    I have to say I like this author especially his descriptions of the
    technology and the alien artefacts. It is classic SF with rockets and
    spacemen etc. but with the addition of an excellent story.

    The story is presented in the normal style but there are several "news 
    bulletins" slotted in amongst the chapters. I liked them as they gave
    you a feeling on what was happening back on Earth. However a friend
    said that he felt they got in the way of the story.

    I'd recommend this book to everyone else - but then I enjoyed it!

    Andy

T.R	Title	User	Personal Name	Date	Lines
1253.1	Ooops !	ARRODS::WHITAKER	The man from Hull	`Sun Nov 13 1994 22:49`	12
	I forgot to add the publishing details in my earlier note. Allen Steele Labyrinth Of Night Published by Legend ISBN 0 7126 4814 3 0 7126 5398 8 (Ppr) Andy
1253.2	Another vote	TRUCKS::GORE	Bar Sinister with Pedant Rampant	`Thu Nov 24 1994 12:13`	10
	The other Allen Steele novels (that I know of) are also good reads; "Orbital Decay", "Clarke County (Space)" (a blatant plagiarism of "The Moon is a harsh mistress", but so what?) and ??? (set on the Moon, but I can't remember the title). There's also a book of shorts, involving the same characters, but again my memory fails me! The cover notes compare Allen Steele with Heinlein. I think it's a good comparison; if you like the idea of a modern, early Heinlein, then give him a read. Ian G.
1253.3	been a handful of Steele books out since last note...	SMURF::PETERT	rigidly defined areas of doubt and uncertainty	`Fri Apr 11 1997 17:05`	33
	Although the last note here was three years ago, I think the title Ian was looking for was Lunar Descent. I haven't been able to find either Clarke County(Space) or Lunar Descent, thought I've been looking for a while. Just finished reading his latest in paperback, "Tranquility Alternative". It's what I guess you would call an alternative present book. Or alternative history, though the main story takes place in 1995. The main difference in the history time line is that the US entered the space era at the end of WWII, when American intelligence got wind of German plans to build a space plane. The story opens with a news report of the American space plane intercepting the "Amerika Bomber" and shooting it down over the Gulf of Mexico as it was on its way to bomb NYC. The space race took off after that, with Von Brauns dreams all realized, and Willy Ley's depictions of space craft being the model that was followed. But things have stalled, interest in space has declined, and America is about to turn over Tranquility Base, it's currently unmanned lunar base, to a German company. A good read, though perhaps not as intricate as Labyrinths of Night. There has also been another book in the interim since the last report here and this. "The Jericho Iteration" which relies heavily on computers and the intrigue generated around who knows what about "Ruby Fulcrum". It's a mystery as much as a science fiction story, so I don't want to say much more than that. I enjoyed it so much on an oversea's flight, that in my layover in San Francisco, I made a quick round of the shops in the SF airport to see if I could find more Steele. Which is how I picked up "Labyrinths of Night". PeterT