Subject: Review: "Yesterday's Men" by George Turner

From: [email-masked] (p-m agapow)
Date: 16 Oct 1997 17:39:55 -0400

"Yesterday's Men" by George Turner
		A Postview, copyright p-m agapow 1997

It is the 21st century, after a nuclear war and the rebuilding of the
world in the image of the Ethical Culture.  While abiding by a code of
non-interference, war is forbidden, impossible and unthinkable.  Yet there
are those who say that the past should be understood not forgotten.  And
so, deep in the jungles of New Guinea, a experiment is hatched to refight
World War II.

"Yesterday's Men" is the third in the "Ethical Culture" series, the
previous entries being "Beloved Son" and "Vaneglory."  The series as a
whole has been accused, correctly in some respects, of being surly and too
bleak.  "Yesterday's Men" is less guilty of this, while still being tough
and black.

There's a lot going on here. The secret government manuevering to stage
the experiment, a film crew taking part with an eye to commercial
concerns, the machinations of the seemingly alien Orbitals ...  there are
wheels within wheels, yet the detail doesn't get overwhelming.  In
Turner's world, everyone has an agenda yet no one can fully control the
outcome.  After a literary diet of omniscient ubermensch (with optional
dose of oh-so-trendy angst), the fallible characters are refreshing. And
although Turner does not use his usual Melbourne settings, the New Guinea
highlands are a claustrophobic and well set stage.

There is a small problem or two. Some background details are contrived so
as to make the staging of the experiment, and the subsequent plot, easier.
(A contemporary police unit that is _just_ like a WWII patrol?)  Turner's
voice and dialogue does have a slightly old fashioned feel, although this
is far less pronounced than in his (say) "Brain Child".  However, the
quality of the surrounding material is such that these are very minor
complaints.

For those who have not read the previous books, "Yesterday's Men" does
largely stand alone.  Literate and brutal at the same time, it's reminder
of how much we lost when George Turner died.  Recommended.
[***/interesting] and Leonard Elmore on the Sid and Nancy scale.

%A George Turner
%T Yesterday's Men
%I Sphere
%C London
%D 1983
%G ISBN 0-7221-8644-4
%P 223pp
%O paperback, Aus$10.95

paul-michael agapow ([email-masked]), La Trobe Uni, Infocalypse
"There is no adventure, there is no romance, there is only trouble and desire."
[archived at http://www.cs.latrobe.edu.au/~agapow/Postviews/]