From rec.arts.sf.reviews Tue Oct 17 11:08:59 1995
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From: ecl@mtgpfs1.mt.att.com (Evelyn Chimelis Leeper)
Subject: THE GOLDEN NINETIES by Lisa Mason
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                   THE GOLDEN NINETIES by Lisa Mason
       Bantam Spectra, ISBN 0-553-09503-X, 1995, 384pp, US$12.95
                   A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper
		    Copyright 1995 Evelyn C. Leeper

     Well, if she had titled it THE GAY NINETIES, it would have been very
misleading--especially with its San Francisco setting.  More proof, I
suppose, that the English language is ever-changing.  But I must admit I
keep thinking of it by that name, a much more common epithet for the decade
that "The Golden Nineties."

     In any case, we have here a sequel to Mason's SUMMER OF LOVE.  Now
since SUMMER OF LOVE took place in 1967, and this takes place in the late
1890s, it might seem strange that this is a sequel, but that's because these
books are about time travel and the part of THE GOLDEN NINETIES that takes
place in the future takes place after the part of SUMMER OF LOVE that takes
place there.  Got that?

     When I read SUMMER OF LOVE I thought it was basically a non-science
fiction novel with a little science fiction thrown in to make it more
marketable.  I suppose that whether or not this was true, THE GOLDEN
NINETIES was written as a science fiction novel, but in spite of that it
also reads like a work of historical fiction with just a thin veneer of
science fiction.  A time traveler is sent back to make sure 	a certain piece
of jewelry ends up with a certain person.  (Could the fact that Mason's
husband is a jeweler have anything to do with this?)  But this is like
Hitchcock's "McGuffin"--it's not really important except to give an excuse
for the rest of the plot.

     As with SUMMER OF LOVE, I like what Mason has done with the historical
period, but I don't like the science fiction aspect, and ultimately it
distracts from the rest.  Does science fiction really sell that much better
than historical fiction that it makes sense to do this?

%T      The Golden Nineties
%A      Lisa Mason
%C      New York
%D      October 1995
%I      Bantam Spectra
%O      trade paperback, US$12.95
%G      ISBN 0-553-09503-X
%P      384pp
%S      Chiron Cat's Eye in Draco
%V      2