Corrupting Dr Nice
John Kessel
286 pages
published in 1997

Dr. Owen Vannice is a paleontologist, somewhat clumsy, somewhat homely, very naive, heir to the fifth largest private fortune in North America in 2062, with an AI bodyguard implanted in his head. Genevieve Falcon is a rogue, a swindler, somewhat cynical, very beautiful and running scams on time travelling tourists with her father. They meet in Jerusalem , first century A.D., when Owen is on his way back to the present carrying an Apatasaurus called Wilma and Genevieve and her father have just left revolutionary Paris after having run their latest scam. It is --of course-- love at first sight. More or less.

Not that, you know, their love will be easy. This is not a lovestory, this is a screwball comedy. Before they both have a) realised their love for each other and b) cleared up all the misconceptions between them will take the entire book. As well as some excruciatingly painful moments for the reader, when either behaves like a fool again jeopardising the whole affair.

In between their story another's story is interwoven: that of Simon, the Zealot, ex disciple of Jesus, now working in the time travellers' hotel, the former palace of Herod the Great. Ever since Jesus has gone to the future to host a successful talk show, Simon's live has been drifting, but he hopes to strike back at the time travellers soon and liberate his country from them and the Romans...

I quite like the concept of timetravel Kessel has pictured, with the past being plundered for the amusement of the future. No fear of paradoxes here: every time travel trip creates or opens up a new separate universe --and in each second some 137 of them can be accessed. The future sketched, for all its excitement is not nice: a rigid class system with a few lucky ultra rich people, a smallish middle class and a huddled mass of poor and oppressed coupled with a morality system which thinks of being poor as being sinful and punishment for sins. It's somewhat disconcerting to have glimpses of this grim reality intrude in the screwball comedy every now and again, in a good way.

Quite an enjoyable book, altogether. It reads very fast, feels somewhat slight but has some unsuspected depths to it. The idea of Famous Dead People being brought out of the past to serve as talk show host or play in rock bands --cheerfully stolen from the Bruce Sterling/Lewis Shiner story "Mozart in Mirrorshades, as Kessel admits in the dedications-- is fun and deserves more attention.