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From: VLSI%DEC-MARLBORO@sri-unix.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers
Subject: review of "The Practice Effect"
Message-ID: <17553@sri-arpa.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 14-Mar-84 17:46:00 EST
Article-I.D.: sri-arpa.17553
Posted: Wed Mar 14 17:46:00 1984
Date-Received: Sun, 18-Mar-84 08:23:13 EST
Lines: 32

From:  John Redford 

"The Practice Effect" by David Brin

   The gimmick here is that there is a world where things become better
through use.  As you use a knife its edge becomes sharper and its handle
better fitted.  Beds become more comfortable, clothes more beautiful,
walls stronger, etc.  The hero, a 21st century physicist, has to figure
this out and come to terms with it.  
   Why did Brin bother to write about such an implausible premise?  It's
still a page-turner, but there doesn't seem to be much point.  His
explanation for the effect at the end of the book is extremely weak.
Most of it is just fun and games in trying to exploit the effect.
Each chapter seems to consist of the hero getting into a jam and escaping
by introducing another bit of Earth technology to this feudal society.
This "Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" theme is a popular one
in science fiction but there doesn't seem to be much justification for
it here.
   Aside: how many other books can people think of
that belong to this genre?  There's "Lest Darkness Fall" by De Camp
where an American saves the Roman Empire by introducing printing and
double-entry bookkeeping, and "Conjure Wife" where they work out the
laws of witchcraft by applying symbolic logic.  Can you think of others?
   Brin has written some novellas recently that would seem to me to have
much more promise for expansion.  There was "The Postman" where 
civilization is restored by the US Postal Service, and another about a
space station built out of Shuttle external tanks.  It beats me why he
spent his time working on this instead.  I suppose that a full-time 
writer has to get out something to pay the bills.

John Redford
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