Customer Reviews

Night of Power.

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is one of Hugo and Nebula award winning author, Spider Robinson's earliest books. The American-born author, now living in Canada paints a grim but possibly accurate picture of the possible future between white and African Americans. As with all of Robinson's books, the characterisation is excellent and the plot well developed. An excellent story that holds you until the last page.

I read this book in a college "Cultural Anthropology" class around 1986 or so, the same year "Eyes on the Prize" was airing on PBS. Both the book and the documentary series were real eye-openers for a small-town middle-America kid! I never forgot the book and its disturbing content, especially the very real statistics and news items with which the author preceeds each chapter. While this 2005 mass-market edition is still a good book, it is NOT the same book I read in college. At first I thought my memory was responsible for what felt like significant changes from the story I recalled, so I dug out my old, dog-earred copy and compared the two. Then I found a tiny footnote on the title page of the newer Baen edition: "Newly revised by the author for this edition." OH. This is not just an updating of research , statictics, etc. Some of the revisions are drastic and definately weaken and dilute the book and its message. I doubt I would have recalled the book so clearly for 20 years if I had read this edition first. I wonder what prompted the author to so dramatically alter the original?

Robinson had written this in the mid-eighties, when Reagan's policies seemed to indicate a less "melting-pot" but rather WASP-oriented domestic policy. When this book went out of print, it also seemed that the idea had gone out of fashion, and it read more like a fantasy instead. It appears this book has gone to "in print" status in a very timely manner - the criticism on the treatment of the people who were affected the most by the Katrina desaster seems to echo in the story of those who would not believe peaceful co-existence between the races was possible without segragation in the territorial sense. The thrilling story of a man who would come to New York City because his black wife, a dancer, would be able to dance once more in public before age would make her retire, is made all the more poignant because recent advances in technology would make success of a revolution much more likely. So go totally unprepared, read this story with as little information as possible, and you will enjoy it the most. Spider Robinson was in a peak of his creativity (in the 80s eclipsed only by "Mindkiller") when he wrote this one.

"Night of Power" (1985) is Spider's third or fourth novel and as such isn't quite up to the standards of his later work. In it he wrestles with white liberal guilt over the state of race relations in America. The long interior monologues by the narrator/author get preachy and wan, the characters are cartoonlike, and the action is way over the top. However as with any Spider book there are moments of sublime pleasure and delicious wordplay, and if the novel helped him work through some of the very real issues involved then it was certainly a therapeutic project. It's interesting to see several threads appear which would later be woven into his body of work.

"Night Of Power" is based in Manhattan, in a nebulous future where smog is serious enough to cause people to live in domes and racial violence has increased beyond anyone's worst nightmares. What would you do if confronted with a racewar? More than that, what would you do if stuck on Manhattan Island while it is being taken over? This is a twisted tale into the minds of a caucasian family as they struggle their way through the Manhattan suburbs, on this Night of Power. Well worth the read!

I am a big fan of te Calihan books that Spider Robinson puts out. Seeing Spider's name on this book and the fact that i loved his previous reads is the reason i picked up this book.

When i read diction i read it as an escape from reality and not to read in any social relevance.

With all that bein said before hand, i didn't find this book to be all that great. it wasn't an escape for me. it seems more of a call to arms for the African American people.

I am sorry if this offends people here. I just didn't get a lot out of it except that it was ok to rise up against your country....Which it isn't

I recently re-read "Night of Power" - a few weeks after the tragedy of Sept. 11 in NYC. I'd always felt the events in Spider's book to be insightful, but somehow... in the light of real life events, it was almost too painful to read. But still, as with most of Spider's works, it ends with hope. After it's all over, there's hope. We need to keep working toward that end.

This book left me with really strong feelings. Intellectually, I understand this as an indicator of a good read, but it was really unsettling. While I agree wholeheartedly with Michael's message, I would never, under any circumstances, support his methods, or conclude that it would get the results he sought. It was disturbing that seemingly intelligent people that I'd grown to like a lot, would let themselves get so caught up in the decisions that were forced upon them. Actually, Russell didn't until his choices were totally eliminated.

Mr. Robinson is an excellent creator of the written word, so it deserves 4 stars for that reason alone, but the end eclipsed the entire book - the ultimate commitment made by the 14 year old, Jennifer, and its acceptance, was creepy and ruined an otherwise wonderful, apocalyptic adventure.