ALT.SF4M

  Review: ARTIFACT by Greg Benford

   • s******j@**.com
     21/06/1996 00:00:000 UTC

     This is an oddity for Greg Benford, who usually writes epics set in

     vast settings.

     In this case, the place is Earth -- Greece and Boston, mostly -- around

     2005. (A pre-Death-OF-Communism 2005, where the Soviets are courting the

     treacherous greeks...) American archeologists Jill (no, only kidding)

     Claire and George discover a really strange artifact in a mycenean

     burial chamber; a cube of black stone with an amber horn sticking out

     of it. Alas, before they can fully analyze it the greek liason puts on

     a tin hat and tries to kick the yanks out of his country.

     The pair return just before the deadline with John Bishop, an MIT

     mathematician brought in to run some test equipment. They discover some

     very odd things about the cube -- and a map showing Thera as an intact

     island -- before they are roughed up and kicked out.

     The rest of the book details the trio's attempts to retrieve the cube

     and get it back to America for study. How they do that, what they find
     inside,

     and what they do about it make for some fun reading.

     Fun: **

     Wonder: **1/2

     Technical: ***

     --

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