sexton_blake's review
4.0
On the colony planet Arcadia, the moons align every 52 years. It’s only happened once since the colony was founded, and on that occasion, people who’d settled near water went mad and started attacking each other. Now, the moons are in conjunction again, and Mark Swindon, a marine biologist, has been given the task to observe the effects. From this fairly straightforward idea, Michael Coney weaves an engaging tale that develops into an intriguing examination of a single but multifaceted element of the planet’s complex ecosystem. There’s a pervasive sense of alienation throughout. Earth feels like a distant Eden, and Arcadia like a mystery whose surface has been barely scratched. The small population is so focused on the petty suspicions and prejudices brought from its homeworld that it fails to recognise the true nature of its new environment, and as the plot unwinds the sense that the settlers don’t belong becomes ever stronger. The novel is short and didn’t make any great impact when it was published back in 1973, but it’s a good one and has me thinking that Michael G. Coney deserves a higher profile and should be listed alongside John Wyndham, John Christopher, and early J. G. Ballard.
ederwin's review
Read this loooooooong ago. I'll guess 1981. The only thing I remember about it is that I learned the meaning of the word "syzygy". I still haven't found any need to use that word, not even in Scrabble®.
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