Date: Mon, 10 Jan 2011 10:54:48 -0500 From: "Michael Walsh" <mjw at press.jhu.edu> To: "WSFA members" <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>, <wsfa-forum at yahoogroups.com> Subject: [WSFA] S. M. Stirling has this to say ... Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net> "Keith Robert's PAVANE is one of the ur-examples of alternate history, and = a crackling good story (or set of stories) with sharply realized characters= who are at once very much of their time and place and yet universally = human. But it's quite a bit more; a beautiful and moving meditation on = the arc of history, the price and benefits of progress and tradition, and = the interaction of necessity and free will. Finally, the landscape = descriptions are some of the most memorable in science fiction, or for = that matter in fiction generally. To use an overworked word, it is a = classic." As the kids say: w00t !! mjw