Russian Spring

Russian Spring
by Norman Spinrad
October 1992; Bantam Spectra;
 review by John W. Herbert

It's not often that a book goes from "science fiction" to "alternate history" between hardcover and paperback editions, but Norman Spinrad's latest gets caught by the speed of the upheavals in Eastern Europe. In his story set not far in the future, two lovers, an American space engineer and a young Russian woman who has decided to party (pun intended) across Europe, play out their lives against the background of the decline of the American Empire and the rebirth of the former Soviet republics. This is Spinrad's best work in ages, at times moving and engrossing, and constantly entertaining. Read this.