The Golden Nineties (Bantam Spectra Book) [Paperback]

Lisa Mason (Author)

Book Description

Series: Bantam Spectra Book | Publication Date: October 1, 1995

A woman from twenty-fifth-century China, where she is arrested for attempted murder, travels back in time to San Francisco in 1895, where she searches for a slave girl whose life has far-reaching consequences for the future.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Mason's sequel to Summer of Love is a delightful expansion of that work and a major step forward for her. The tale centers on Zhu Wong, a Chinese national whose lawyer plea-bargains her release from prison so that Chiron and his companions from the previous novel's Luxon Institute for Superluminal Applications can transport her 600 years into the past to find a macguffin called the aurelia. Once in San Francisco, 1895, Mason brings the environment and the times to life with her rendering of the city's activities, especially its corruption. The several historic personages who appear?including Frank Norris, Jack London and Susan B. Anthony?are all given dimensions that reflect the rigor of Mason's research without leaving the reader overburdened by minutiae. Zhu Wong finds herself embroiled in a world of decadence and prostitution; she sees friends and companions abuse themselves with such things as alcohol, cocaine and corsets. As with Karen Joy Fowler's Sarah Canary, Mason uses the novel partially to explore the role of women in society. As Zhu grows to understand the hypocrisies of the 1890s, she becomes even less comfortable with the presumptions of her own time. She creates several "closed time loops," apparent paradoxes that impede her mission?and, perhaps more important, thwart her own desires. Eventually she finds her way out of the time loops and in the process teaches everyone?including herself?a few lessons about life. Mason has matured beyond the hipper-than-thou tone that tainted her "cyber" novels (Arachne and Cyberweb). Her bravura performance with this book should both leave the reader wanting more and solidify her position as one of the most interesting writers in science fiction.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

The discovery of a golden brooch that should not exist in the 25th century prompts the Luxon Institute to send a young Chinese woman 600 years back in time. She arrives in San Francisco in 1895 to prevent the future from altering the past. This sequel to Summer of Love (LJ 6/15/94), seen through the eyes of an observer from the future, juxtaposes the tempestuous, sprawling milieu of boomtown San Francisco with its shadowy underside of prostitution and decadence. Mason's graceful prose and her skill in orchestrating a complex and satisfying plot make this a solid purchase for sf collections.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 369 pages
• Publisher: Spectra; First edition. edition (October 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553373315
• ISBN-13: 978-0553373318
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,645,881 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I'm totally delighted to announce the launch of THE GARDEN OF ABRACADABRA, the advance Kindle ebook of the 2013 print edition of Book 1 of the Abracadabra Series. If you enjoy Charlaine Harris, Kim Harrison, Laurell K. Hamilton, Neil Gaiman, and, yes, Harry Potter, please give this a try!

I'm also happy to announce several new publications on Kindle: SUMMER OF LOVE, A TIME TRAVEL and the sequel, THE GILDED AGE, A TIME TRAVEL, both from previously published works; TESLA, A WORTHY OF HIS TIME, A SCREENPLAY, which is presently being read by L.A. producers; U F uh-O, A SCI FI COMEDY, a novella adapted from my science fiction comedy screenplay which is now FREE from January 9, 2012 to April 9, 2012 as a Kindle Select Title in the Lending Library; and EON'S KISS, a paranormal romance written under the pen name, Suzanna Moore. THE QUESTER TRILOGY, based on my cyberpunk classics, ARACHNE and CYBERWEB, as well as two collections of stories are forthcoming.

A graduate of the University of Michigan School of Literature, Sciences, and the Arts and the University of Michigan Law School, I'm the author of two dozen stories, two screenplays, and nine novels, including SUMMER OF LOVE, a San Francisco Chronicle Recommended Book and Philip K. Dick Award finalist, and THE GOLDEN NINETIES, a New York Times Notable Book and New York Public Library Recommended Book.

I published my first story, "ARACHNE," in Omni and have since published short fiction in magazines and anthologies worldwide. My Omni story, "TOMORROW'S CHILD," is in active development at Universal Studios.

I live in the San Francisco Bay area with my husband, the acclaimed artist and jeweler, Tom Robinson, and am a huge fan of cats and hummingbirds.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hypnotic Read, February 20, 2000

By 

Robin Boone (San Diego, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Golden Nineties (Mass Market Paperback)

Lisa Mason's Summer of Love and The Golden Nineties both have this quality - you want to reread them as soon as you've read them. Her writing conveys an abiding love of San Francisco, and interesting bits of California history are woven into the storylines. The writing is so compelling that you feel as though time travel were a possibility. I hope she writes more of these San Francisco fantasies, and I'm sorry to see these are evidently out of print!

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Borderline crazy, May 17, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The Golden Nineties (Bantam Spectra Book) (Paperback)

Wowsers. The main character is strong-minded feminist, who at the beginning of the novel is arrested and sent to 1890's San Francisco. There, she's put in a sitation where she's forced to live a degraded lifestyle in a house of prostitution. Despite her radical feminist background, she easily falls into a masochistic relationship with a drug-addict who starts things off by raping her. Through it all, she's an active participant in both the masochistic relationship and the degradation of prostitution.

These serious themes are dealt with oddly, as the author downplays the ugliness inherent to the situation. The rapist is also the romantic interest, and is depicted as a pretty good guy trying to get over a troubled past. The rapes are generally inferred, to the point that it's easy to not realize them. Lip service is paid to the faults of prosititution, but it comes off as a pretty good career choice for women. Zhu's mental state through all of this is unclear, but seems stable.

Overall, the story gave the feel of a soft-core masochistic sex fantasy, written in the form of a sci-fi novel. That's weird enough, that although I don't have any desire to read more by this author, the book itself maintained interest. Also, I live in Oakland, and am interested in the history of San Francisco and Oakland (actually, that's why I read the book). This novel did a so-so version of invoking the times.