Impressions on Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang
October 30, 2001 (7:17 PM) ( link )

Grrr—I wrote up a big list of impressions, and Newspro deleted them. I'm sure it's not Newspro's fault, but I'm pretty frustrated. At any rate: I'm more than halfway through Kate Wilhelm's Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang. It's well-written and interesting, but slow-paced. I have a minor problem with one of the premises of the book—that some sort of telepathy ties cloned brothers/sisters together—but Wilhelm does a pretty good job of making that plausible. The book is also not emotionally gripping enough to keep me up at night. Part of the problem is the book's episodic structure: the first two parts of the book are basically two independent stories, although I'm hoping the third part (the longest of the three) will tie the two parts together. Still, it's a pleasant (and short!) read. I should have a review up in a few days.