"Compelling Historical Sci-Fi Novel"

Writer Pete Hamill, New York City resident, and writer for various NYC newspapers, combines elements of fantasy in this work of historical fiction that tells the tale of one man's immortality. Born in 1723, in Ireland, Cormac O'Connor is the son of an Irish father and Jewish mother. After both parents have died at the hand of the Earl of Warren, Cormac is determined to avenge their deaths. Aboard ship journeying to New York City to find Warren, he meets Kongo, an African sold into slavery. And Cormac's kindness to the young African grants him with the slave's friendship.

Amidst the slave and Irish rebellion in New York in the 1740's, Kongo grants Cormac the gift of immortality in a cave, per the condition that he always remain on the island of Manhattan. Leaving Manhattan would assure him immediate death and ban him from entrance into the Otherworld. Only when he meets and makes love in the cave to a dark-skinned woman with spirals on her skin can Cormac journey to the Otherworld.

Hamill has deftly portrayed the hopelessness of both the African slaves and the Irish indentured servants of the mid- eighteenth century, even as he reminds readers of the rarely-mentioned slaves who fought in the Revolutionary War without reaping the benefits of abolition. While New York's past comes alive, no one could accuse Hamill of being a romantic, as his vivid descriptions of a nineteenth century New York with no running water and epidemics of cholera leave little room for the poetry of love. This sense of realism gives an earthy feel to this novel whose only downfall seems to be that the reader is never really given much insight into Cormac's personality. But overall, this read is a fascinating combination of sci-fi and history culminating on that tragic day of September 11, 2001.

Reviewed by Sheri Melnick
Posted January 26, 2003