Review
It's 1945, and Darrell Reeves, an archaeologist, makes an important Indian find during a dig: a king's grave, replete with skeletons of three female consorts plus that of a conquistador. Unfortunately, however, the dig site happens to be squarely within range of the Los Alamos bomb-test area - and, obviously, Reeves will have to leave the site, finished or not. So one of the Los Alamos scientists, Lloyd Coulter, is assigned to give Reeves the word - a situation further complicated by the feelings of one of Coulter's assistants, Anna Brown: she finds herself intensely drawn to the archaeological project. And Coulter, in love from afar with Anna - as is also Reeves, eventually - views all this jealously. . . with tragic results. (Anna, it turns out, sends strong signals that aren't meant to be sexual at all.) Butler has a potentially strong central image here: the juxtaposition of the ancient dead with the deadly, anarchic future represented by the bomb. (In the novel's best scene, the lower-ranking scientists set up a pool on the explosion's force, betting whether or not Fermi will be right that the blast will, by chain reaction, blow up the atmosphere and destroy the world.) Promising, too, are the added sexual tensions of a mistaken triangle. But, as in Sun Dogs (1982), Butler proceeds too implacably, too earnestly - an approach which leads, almost unavoidably, to climactic melodrama: blood-lust fighting in the dig pit; then a foolish finale in which Coulter intends to stop the bomb test with his own body. So, though Butler (Alleys of Eden) again writes intensely about various pulsations of emotion, he's all but done in by excessively binding symmetry, by a clenched-teeth determination to overstate themes better suited to subtle, intimate treatment. (Kirkus Reviews)
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product Description
Ten miles apart in a New Mexico desert, unknown to each other, two scientists are involved in secret work. One is engaged in unearthing the past, the other in shattering the present. Through the contrasting mysteries of their projects and the woman they both love, they come to a confrontation.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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