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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Flynn is King, 25 Mar 2003
I purchased Michael Flynn's "In the Country of the Blind" on the say so of a few positive reviews right here on Amazon. I'm not sure why it even came up on my Amazon radar screen; the book suggestions here often seem as randomly generated as a roll of the dice. Perhaps it was because I profess to enjoy Tim Powers, whose oeuvre consists of similar history-bending themes. Maybe it was because I happened to stumble across a Harry Turtledove book or two. Who knows?For that matter, who cares? When a book is this good, maybe I should just thank divine providence for sending it my way. Or, um, maybe the Babbage Society. When Sarah Beaumont accidentally stumbles across some old machinery and a list of obscure historical dead ends, she thinks little of it. But when people around her begin dying or disappearing, she comes to the conclusion that her finds have greater importance. She learns through her researches that she has inadvertently set a secret society bent on predicting and controlling the future in motion to silence her. From this interesting premise springs an intriguing book that works on a number of levels, each weaving in and out of the others into a tight tapestry. While some fans of this book promote it as an example of "secret history" (books that take an existing bit of history and make up a fictional reason for its occurrence), "In the Country of the Blind" barely deals with this subject. Instead, the bulk is more like a spy novel a la John LeCarre, with a framework of historical meddling by the Babbage Society. It is a bizarre love story. It is a novel of awakening. And, importantly, it is a novel of ideas. If you could change the future, would you? What if it required the death of an innocent in order to save thousands? What if it required the death of thousands to prevent the deaths of millions? What if you just wanted to make a few bucks in the stock market? Flynn handles these disparate parts well, giving each its due and creating a satisfying novel. He is remarkably evenhanded in his examination of the ethics of engineering the future, allowing every conceivable argument of which I could think (and a few that didn't even occur to me) a fair shot at representation. His writing style is not necessarily the most skilful, producing many odd clunkers or awkward sentences, but the overall effect is nice, smooth. It's an easy read and a good one. I started this novel without a clue and ended it caring about most of the characters. They had become familiar and friendly and I hated to see it end.
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