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Title: Cowboy Angels
Author: Paul McAuley
Genre: Alt-history world-walking
Thingummies: 2.5
Synopsis: Super-gung-ho America discovers other realities, decides to export "freedom" to them.
Thingummies: In the first chapter of this book, I found the incredibly hawkish "Go 'Murica" neo-con politics so off-putting that I almost put the book down. For the author, apparently the rest of the world doesn't exist except as shadowy opponents. Given enormous military resources and access to other timelines, America chooses to "free" other Americas in as many timelines as possible--and only other Americas. Cuba is mentioned once, as a temporary refuge for democratic Americans in a despotic scenario; Europe mentioned a handful of times as financial overlord in another. If America is a terrible place but other countries have more sympathetic politics in a sheaf, the world-walking America (called the Real) has no interest in the other countries. If America is fine and the other countries despotic--eh, who cares about them. If America is just different, well, it needs to be remade into the Real's image.
Fortunately, the author sets this up for the sake of challenging it later. It gradually becomes clear that things are more complex and characters question the morality of their government's choices. But you know what? The author still has the blinders on without realizing it. Where is the Real's Europe in all this? Or Real China? Surely after more than a decade of sheaf-walking, other countries have discovered how to access other worlds--America isn't subtle about what they're doing. Why isn't the Real's political battles being fought out across the multiverse? McAuley is still so America-centric that his premise makes little sense.
Equally annoying, the protagonist has a girlfriend that, a paragraph after her introduction I pegged as a fridge-magnet. Sure enough, she gets fridged. Killed off simply to give the protagonist suitable motivation.
The catalyst, a rogue agent, also never quite works for me. His motivations are opaque--he seems to exist mostly to do the most daredevil action at any moment. The killing rampage that kicks off the book never makes a whole lot of sense, either.
There are a lot of really interesting ideas here. But they're unevenly developed in favor of action set pieces that never quite jell.
Author: Paul McAuley
Genre: Alt-history world-walking
Thingummies: 2.5
Synopsis: Super-gung-ho America discovers other realities, decides to export "freedom" to them.
Thingummies: In the first chapter of this book, I found the incredibly hawkish "Go 'Murica" neo-con politics so off-putting that I almost put the book down. For the author, apparently the rest of the world doesn't exist except as shadowy opponents. Given enormous military resources and access to other timelines, America chooses to "free" other Americas in as many timelines as possible--and only other Americas. Cuba is mentioned once, as a temporary refuge for democratic Americans in a despotic scenario; Europe mentioned a handful of times as financial overlord in another. If America is a terrible place but other countries have more sympathetic politics in a sheaf, the world-walking America (called the Real) has no interest in the other countries. If America is fine and the other countries despotic--eh, who cares about them. If America is just different, well, it needs to be remade into the Real's image.
Fortunately, the author sets this up for the sake of challenging it later. It gradually becomes clear that things are more complex and characters question the morality of their government's choices. But you know what? The author still has the blinders on without realizing it. Where is the Real's Europe in all this? Or Real China? Surely after more than a decade of sheaf-walking, other countries have discovered how to access other worlds--America isn't subtle about what they're doing. Why isn't the Real's political battles being fought out across the multiverse? McAuley is still so America-centric that his premise makes little sense.
Equally annoying, the protagonist has a girlfriend that, a paragraph after her introduction I pegged as a fridge-magnet. Sure enough, she gets fridged. Killed off simply to give the protagonist suitable motivation.
The catalyst, a rogue agent, also never quite works for me. His motivations are opaque--he seems to exist mostly to do the most daredevil action at any moment. The killing rampage that kicks off the book never makes a whole lot of sense, either.
There are a lot of really interesting ideas here. But they're unevenly developed in favor of action set pieces that never quite jell.
