From: noone@nowhere.com   
      
   Up Jim River. Michael Flynn.   
      
   This follows on directly from The January Dancer which had its own   
   fitting conclusion but Up Jim River expands the reader's knowledge of   
   the characters having related but new adventures.   
   The Harper is on a quest, an adventure, with the Scarred Man from   
   Jehovah's only pub and again it is a tale of mystery, intrigues,   
   misunderstandings, duplicity, pragmatism, narcissism etc ad finitum.   
   There is often something going on which perhaps only one or some of the   
   characters knows about and behaves accordingly and I know nothing about   
   until it is revealed and explains that characters actions. Delicious!   
   The background is the same as that of The January Dancer in regard to   
   which I expressed my frustration with the complicated naming of people   
   and places. Though often they are cryptic allusions to mainly forgotten   
   ancient times, (21st Century). Some of the more obvious include Urpans   
   and Murkans which describe minor sub cultures. This continued in Up Jim   
   River where I eventually learn from a tiny side story that Up Jim River   
   means up a creek with no paddle. Some of the planet names were almost   
   comical and the book names of so little relevance, January didn't   
   feature for long, Dancer never danced, They certainly went Up Jim River   
   at the end of the quest. To my joy, I read: "The First Officer's full   
   name was Dalapathi Zitharthan ad-Din, but to the joy of his shipmates,   
   he would answer to his initials."   
   His lyrical prose and extensive explanations of cultural, technological   
   and scientific aspects sometimes slowed down the plot when I was anxious   
   to discover more, but they provide the rich background that makes this   
   series amazing. Often the second of a series is not so good as the first   
    perhaps because of the lack of novelty of style but in this case I   
   enjoyed Up Jim River just as much if not more than The January Dancer.   
   A solid Four stars.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)