Subject: ESCAPE FROM KATHMANDU by Kim Stanley Robinson

From: [email-masked] (Alan Wexelblat)
Date: 28 Dec 92 21:25:17 GMT

Escape from Kathmandu
			by Kim Stanley Robinson
			Review Copyright (c) 1992 Alan Wexelblat

This is the first Kim Robinson book I've read.  I picked it up on one of my
pilgrimages to Mark Zeising's tables at ArmadilloCon, based on his
recommendation.  Mark has yet to steer me wrong, and this is no exception.
I enjoyed "Escape..." a great deal and I'm looking forward to reading more
from Robinson.

Calling this book a novel is somewhat misleading.  It's really a connected
series of short stories -- episodes in the life of George Fergusson, the
protagonist and narrator of the stories.  The stories involve George and a
recurring cast of weird characters and, while the stories do build on events
from past episodes, they don't depend on the past episodes and do make sense
taken individually.

The novel begins with George alone and bored in his hotel in Kathmandu.
He's a tour guide, you see, and there's not much to do in the off season.
So one day, George steals a letter from the hotel's dead letter box.  This
letter is addressed to one George Fredericks and it's a huge thing, almost
six inches thick of folded up paper.

What our George reads in that letter sends him on a path into a secret world
of underground governments, secret cities, and -- of course -- yetis.
There's also Jimmy Carter, the King of Nepal, a crazed ex-British colonial
officer and various other supporting actors.  Each has a part to play in
changing George Fergusson from a care-nothing, lazy tourist guide to...
well, read the book for yourself and see.

Robinson's strengths lie first in the setting, and second in the plots.  He
has been to Nepal, and his descriptions of the mountains, the countryside,
and the experiences of being in, on and under them ring absolutely true.
His descriptions of the mountain hikes and climbs reminded me just how much
I *don't* want to do that any time soon.  Reading this book left me with a
real feel for the country and the people.  Similarly, the plots of the
episodes are well-constructed.  After some initial slowness, the book moves
along at a good clip.

The book's major flaw is in its tone.  For about the first three quarters,
it is light-hearted, with lots of laughs and lots of fun.  However, it takes
a sudden turn for the grim in the last section.  It has to do with George's
development, so I won't give away the details, but suffice it to say that
suddenly I found myself reading a much more serious work than before.  The
changeover is surprising and not very pleasant.

Does that make this a bad book?  No, just one by an author with not-yet-
enough experience.  As I mentioned at the beginning, I think Robinson is a
good addition to my collection and I intend to get more of his books.  But I
did get quite a surprise and you should beware -- all is not fun and games
in Kathmandu.

%T Escape from Kathmandu
%A Kim Stanley Robinson
%I Tor SF Hardcover
%G ISBN 0-312-93196-4
%D 1989
%O $17.95
%P 313 pp