Juniper Time

by Kate Wilhelm

Book Overview

250 pages of excellent science fiction This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060146575
• ISBN13: 9780060146573
• Release Date: June 1979
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Length: 280 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Excellent science-fiction novel

"Juniper Time" is a first-rate science-fiction novel. Kate Wilhelm has done her usual excellent job of weaving an intricate plot and sympathetically portraying believable and complex characters in settings that are described with force and clarity. This 1979 novel is set in the not-too-distant future, when a devastating drought in the American West, and much of the rest of the world, has caused economic and social collapse. The story alternates between the viewpoints of Cluny, a scientist dedicated to the construction and operation of a space station, and Jean, who was Cluny's childhood friend but has now gone her separate way and become a linguist, naturalist and photographer. Wilhelm's most powerful and engrossing writing, it seems to me, is in her descriptions of the natural world and of the vastly different ways that people relate to it. Jean's experiences on the Oregon coast are beautifully described, as is her life on the high desert of Oregon with the Wasco Indians. (Wilhelm and her husband, Damon Knight, live in Bend, Oregon.) Jean gradually comes to understand the way of life of the Wasco people, and her spiritual growth is described very effectively. Cluny and Jean are reunited when they become part of a project intended to discover if contact with an alien civilization has occurred. Their decision may decide whether a nuclear war between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. can be avoided. The climax of the novel is unexpected but believable. I recommend this book very highly.

Excellent science-fiction novel

"Juniper Time" is a first-rate science-fiction novel. Kate Wilhelm has done her usual excellent job of weaving an intricate plot and sympathetically portraying believable and complex characters in settings that are described with force and clarity. This 1979 novel is set in the not-too-distant future, when a devastating drought in the American West, and much of the rest of the world, has caused economic and social collapse. The story alternates between the viewpoints of Cluny, a scientist dedicated to the construction and operation of a space station, and Jean, who was Cluny's childhood friend but has now gone her separate way and become a linguist, naturalist and photographer. Wilhelm's most powerful and engrossing writing, it seems to me, is in her descriptions of the natural world and of the vastly different ways that people relate to it. Jean's experiences on the Oregon coast are beautifully described, as is her life on the high desert of Oregon with the Wasco Indians. (Wilhelm and her husband, Damon Knight, live in Bend, Oregon.) Jean gradually comes to understand the way of life of the Wasco people, and her spiritual growth is described very effectively. Cluny and Jean are reunited when they become part of a project intended to discover if contact with an alien civilization has occurred. Their decision may determine whether a nuclear war between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. can be avoided. The climax of the novel is unexpected but believable. I recommend this book very highly.

This is how the world will end

This is a marvellously unflashy tale of the slow social apocalypse that comes with environmental neglect. Jean, the heroine, is the daughter of a space-hero, and through her a "it's a crazy plan, but it just might work" scheme to save the world from space is hatched. Cross-cut with space stations and government desperation, are Jean's experiences as society fades, from a well-drawn rape to Jean's spiritual rebirth. All this and a linguistic sub-plot that rings true. The novel carries a convincing sense that this is not fiction: this is what it will be like in the future.