Amazon.co.uk Review
Alison Sinclair's previous sf novels were the well-reviewed Legacies and Blueheart; this is her third. It opens in a bizarre setting of huge, cathedral-like caverns within an alien spacecraft--an environment designed for humans. This ship's broadcasts to Earth invited potential hitch-hikers to indicate their wish by waiting at the sea's edge on one particular night. No other promises are made, but more than 100,000 people accept the invitation...to find themselves suddenly aboard, with gaps in their memories. Alien biotechnology gobbles all their electronic gear (bad luck for the guy with the pacemaker) and poses subtle, continuing challenges. What follows is a slow learning process, sometimes painful, sometimes rewarding, as the passengers struggle to master their surroundings, and vice-versa. Both must adapt. Meanwhile, where are the aliens themselves? There are hints and glimpses, but also an artful reference to Waiting for Godot... Sinclair tells her tale in jigsaw sections, from a number of very human, believable and likeable character viewpoints. The traditional four horsemen--death, famine, plague, and even war--all harass our spacefarers before the final revelations and an exhilarating vision of the philosophy behind this immense journey. Cavalcade is written with charm and professional skill. --David Langford --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Just as the aliens promised, a ship has landed and taken away those who took up their invitation to a new, better life. But when the pioneers wake aboard the vessel there is no welcoming committee to be seen. All the watches have stopped, except for one old-fashioned pocket watch which reveals two and a quarter hours have passed unawares. And then a scream rends the air: a pacemaker has stopped and there's nothing anyone can do to restart the ailing heart. When the US Special Forces squad radio also malfunctions, it's clear that something on board the alien ship is decommissioning everything electronic, no matter how mundane.

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews   1 of 1 people found the following review helpful: Less than inspiring, 2 Aug 2000 By A Customer It seems entirely fitting that this book was listed for the Arthur C. Clarke award: it's style is very similar to his, indeed the plot of Cavalcade owes a huge debt to Clarke's Rama series. Also reminiscent of Clarke is Sinclair's tendency to focus on the character interaction a little too much, and to ignore the science fiction. It is, after all, a science fiction novel, and will be read almost exclusively by SF fans. I would also criticise the fact that the characters all seem to be very similar: surgeons, anthropoligists, drifters, scientists and military men all speak in cultured tones with large vocabularies, making it less easy to distinguish between who's talking at any given time, and making them all seem one-dimensional. Only one of them talks & thinks in a less educated manner, but Sinclair fails to convey this convincingly, occasionally lapsing into verbose loquacity like all the other characters. The plot is slow, which wouldn't be a problem if the characterisation was better, and Sinclair has an irritiating habit of breaking up lines of dialogue in the most illogical places. Example: "I see you," said Morgan darkly, "haven't been listening." A small niggle, perhaps, but after three hundred pages of this you'll be ready to throw the book out the window in irritation! The geography of the space ship's interior is also of significant importance to the plot, but I found the book frequently referred to the details of features not previously discussed, forcing me to continually revise my mental picture of the environment. Thankfully the last quarter of the book sees the pace of events quicken, and the conclusion is a satisfactory one, leaving this reader feeling that Cavalcade is a worthwhile read, but only just.  Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? (Report this)