ewx | (no subject) (Reply)

I finished re-reading Black Easter last night. The book concerns, primarily, an arms manufacturer (Baines) and a black magician (Ware) and the commission executed for the former by the latter. Without spoiling the details, let's just say that said commission is a very bad idea. I'd read it before many years ago so I knew roughly how it went, but one thing I'd definitely not spotted before was the insertion of a bunch of 60s-era SF writers as white magicians (mentioned largely in passing). I might have to look up a couple of names I didn't recognize.

Most of the evil human characters come across as thoroughly amoral. Baine's assistant Ginsberg is the only exception, apparently having some vestigial sense of right and wrong, but he doesn't even try to stop the disastrous event his employer wants to bring about (and Baines doesn't even consider the possibility that he might, though Ware's actions could be interpreted as intended to lock Ginsberg into the conspiracy).

The Day After Judgement, the immediate sequel, is in the same volume.