This contemporary riff on Jules Verne, a departure from Herter's well-received SF debut, Ceres Storm
(2000), exhibits the same fine storytelling but, sorry to say, closes on a false note. A few years after his wife fell to her death from a cliff in Empire, Ore., Russell Kent returns to the quiet coastal village to compose an opera about Verne's Captain Nemo. Dreams of his dead wife soon trouble Russell's sleep, as do dreams of the town itself strangely altered. He begins an affair with his alluring landlady and gets acquainted with the locals, all the time sensing that everyone in Empire shares a secret. People who otherwise might seem merely eccentric, or behavior that might just be amusing, such as the town's general obsession with the varieties of cheese produced there, become more and more uncanny. The author does an excellent job of presenting everyday events in a slightly odd light. Russell gradually catches on that the folks of Empire believe that they're on the verge of literally unearthing something wonderful. Herter cranks up the suspense, amid increasingly bizarre but still vivid and convincing characters and settings. Unfortunately, the plot unravels in its last pages in a snarl of unexplained revelations and rushed action. While the novel's promotional copy compares it with Gene Wolfe's Peace
and Charles de Lint's Newford stories, the cop-out ending is not one either of those pros would have chosen. But all the good writing that goes before suggests that Herter should gain the necessary mastery of his craft in due course. (June 6)
