OtherRealms 25 — Chuq Von Rospach - Birds - Landscapes

OtherRealms — Issue 25, Summer/Fall 1989

Issue 25, Summer/Fall 1989 (part 1)

Electronic OtherRealms #25
Summer/Fall, 1989
Part 1 of 17

OtherRealms may not be reproduced without permission from Chuq Von Rospach.
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Table of Contents

Part 1
Editor's Notebook
Chuq Von Rospach

Part 2
From Beyond the Edge
Reviews by our readers, Part 1

Part 3
From Beyond the Edge
Reviews by our readers, Part 1 (continued)

Part 4
From Beyond the Edge
Reviews by our readers, Part 1 (continued)

Part 5
Scattered Gold
Charles de Lint

Doris Lessing's Canopus in Argos
Fantasy in the Mainstream
Chuck Koelbel

Part 6
Odds 'n' Ends
Alan Wexelblat

Past Imagining: Forgotten Classics
Lawrence Watt-Evans

Part 7
Much Rejoicing
Dan'l Danehy-Oakes

Part 8
Thoughts on Reading the Classics
M. Elayn Harvey

Scattered Gold
Charles de Lint

Part 9
From Beyond the Edge
Reviews by our readers, Part 2

Part 10
From Beyond the Edge
Reviews by our readers, Part 2 (continued)

Part 11
Words of Wizdom
Reviews by Chuq Von Rospach

Part 12
Books and Magazines Received

Part 13
The Agony Column
A Special Look at Horror in the Small Press
Rick Kleffel

Part 14
No Prisoners
Reviews by Laurie Sefton

Part 15
The Agony Column
Rick Kleffel

Part 16
Your Turn -- Letters
Thomas Maddox
Martin Morse Wooster
R. Allen Jervis
George Walker
Sheryl Birkhead
Richard Brandt
Gary Farber

Part 17
Your Turn -- Letters (continued)
Ken Meltsner
David Thayer

Editor's Notebook Chuq Von Rospach

Welcome to issue #25

Here we are, 25 issues later, still trying to get it right. I never expected OtherRealms to survive 25 issues and four years (the first issue was January, 1986, so I'm about to begin year number five). OtherRealms, on the other hand, is not even remotely the fanzine I envisioned it to be. Writers talk about a plot or a character taking on a life of its own. So is OtherRealms, thanks to the enthusiasm and support of the many writers, artists and readers. I may be editor, but it's very much a collaborative event, and much of the credit belongs to the people who take time to get involved and pitch in. The first 25 issues were a joy to publish. I hope the next 25 are as much fun for you as they are for me.

What I did on my summer vacation

For those who were wondering, no, there was no Summer issue. This issue is a combined Summer/Fall edition which should be about double the size of a typical issue. My apologies for the silence, but too many things happened all at once, and I ended up with the choice of doing a small, sloppy issue on time or combining Summer and Fall into a double-sized issue and taking a little more time. Hopefully, now that I'm back on schedule, I'll stay that way (hint: don't move, have a computer and a hard disk die within days of each other and then have the disk drive manufacturer sit on the repair for nine weeks. It does wonders to schedules).

The typo fairie again

The typo fairie was at the last couple of issues. Thanks to both Laurie and Dan'l and their endless scrutiny of pages of work-in-progress, the number of typos in OtherRealms has dropped significantly. Unfortunately, those that are left are sneaking into places where only I can find them. Calling Sheryl Birkhead Sheila, for instance, or letting the spell checker rename Peggy Ranson to Ransom. Or, for that matter, the typo in the return address two issues back (rule 1 of publishing: proofread everything. Rule 2: proofread it again!). Getting names wrong is inexcusable and sloppy, and my apologies to the people I accidently dinged.

Promotions

I'm really thrilled to announce the following change in my masthead. We have, as of this issue, made Laurie a co-editor of OtherRealms, acknowledging the fact that, for a long time now, OtherRealms is more than a single person can handle. A lot of the improvements that have happened in OtherRealms in the last year can be traced back to her by taking on onerous tasks like editing and proofreading and helping me think through future directions and design decisions.

The reality is that OtherRealms has grown to the point where, even if I wanted to, I couldn't do it alone. Laurie's been a lot of help acting behind the curtain and it's time to make her contributions public. Without her, there would be no OtherRealms.

Laurie's going to be taking on some of the functions I've been doing as well, giving us both a chance to work on new and different things. From now on, please refer Fantasy and Science material to her. I'll continue to work with Science Fiction and Horror material as well as the art, although I hope eventually to let her deal with the artists as well (she's got a much better background in art than I do; unfortunately, right now, the art is tied too heavily to the layout aspects, which I'm still doing).

The hope, obviously, is to share the workload so that OtherRealms can stick to a regular, reliable schedule without either of us burning out. It's also a way for me to publicly say "thank you" to her for always being there when I needed a little help or a push, for doing the grunt work without any recognition, and not killing me when I'm up until 2AM arguing with Pagemaker.

Laurie, by the way, left NeXT Computer after a few months of continuing lack of support from management in her attempts to get her job done. On the positive side, she's now working for Apple as well and having a lot of fun trying to figure out neat new ways to make NFS throw up on the Cray and other computers over in engineering. If you want to send her E-mail, she's at lsefton@apple.com, Compuserve 74010,3542 or Delphi: LSEFTON. Which makes both of us happy and fixes the problem of not being able to tell each other what we did at work during the day (working for competitors can be fun. For a while...).

Futures....

As of this issue, I've gone back to photocopy. Offset printing is really nice, but it's also expensive enough at my printrun to make it worth switching back. If OtherRealms ever hits 800 or 900 copies (which I hope it never does, not for a long time!) I'll have to switch back out of self preservation, but for now I'm always running out of pages long before I run out of material and it just doesn't make sense. I can print more pages of material cheaper with photocopy for now, so that's what I'm going to do. This involved some tweaking of the layout to allow for a slightly larger font so everything didn't turn to a grey mush on the page, but I won't bore you with details since desktop publishing jargon is boring except to the desktop publisher. From what I can tell so far, it should be a fine looking issue of about 60 pages.

Material Wanted

With the relaxation of the page count restrictions, I'm once again hoping to publish material I had to put aside: interviews, bibliographies, factual science articles (especially with an angle towards helping people understand or better write SF and Fantasy) and more unusual items. On all of this, please query the appropriate editor so we can schedule it in. The Behind the Scenes section is still available as well, and we have commitments from both John ("Deep Quarry") Stith and Elizabeth ("The Sheepfarmer's Daughter") for articles in upcoming issues. I would really like to see more material on the history of SF and classic works, especially on the Fantasy side where the classics are less well-known and harder to find.

Techie Tallk

Starting this issue, I've switched from Ready, Set, Go! to Pagemaker. The main reason was a series of crashes and bugs in RSG 4.5 (one of which literally ate my hard disk last issue) and a lack of responsiveness from the software manufacturer. I finally got tired of it. Fortunately, Pagemaker is a really neat, powerful program that let me get things done a lot faster than I could with RSG.

Also this issue has been put together on a new computer. Out of sheer necessity (and a nice employee discount) I've upgraded MacDuff (an original 128K Mac with lots of added features) to a Mac II. Part of the reason there wasn't a summer issue was that Laurie's Macintosh blew a power supply, followed a week later by my hard disk going poof and refusing to work any more.

The hard disk was a Jasmine drive, and Jasmine took three weeks to get me an estimate for repair; said estimate was almost big enough to allow me to buy a brand new hard disk (85% of the cost of a new drive). I declined their generous offer and put the money into a 4Megabyte MacII with a 40Meg hard disk. Jasmine then took six weeks more to return the hard disk to me (nine weeks total turnaround to do absolutely nothing). For someone who depends on a hard disk, these kinds of numbers are deadly, so I'm unloading what's left of my Jasmine hardware and upgrading to some other vendor. These times for repair are typical according to other Jasmine owners (and ex-owners) that I've talked to, so if you're looking for hardware, think about it before you buy Jasmine. Even if it's under warranty, can you live without it for a month?

Working at Apple has given me access to lots of neat toys, the most interesting (for OtherRealms readers, at least) being a scanner and OCR software. I played with the scanner a bit last issue, but this issue all of the art was scanned in and laid out electronically. I'm generally very happy with the reproductive quality and it gives me the ability to resize and position the artwork more precisely. It also reduces the amount of post-DTP layout work I need to do, which is nice. On the downside, though, this issue is going to use up over 15 megabytes of hard disk before I'm done, perhaps 20. Which is a lot of data. It wouldn't have been possible without the new Macintosh, and not something everyone can (or should -- scanning is something that takes practice to do well, I found out) do. But it was fun learning how to integrate the new functionality into the issue. OCR (Optical Scanning Recognition) software, by the way, is software that reads a page of text and turns it into ascii characters. It lets the computer do the data entry for me. I'm just starting to really experiment with it, but the results have been encouraging. It's a faster typist than I am, and it is a lot easier (and faster) to correct the OCR errors than type it in and then correct my own typing errors.

Finally....

A note to OtherRealms authors and artists. As of this issue, I have completely cleared out my backlog of reviews and articles sent to me prior to August 1 of this year. I have, unfortunately, suffered a couple of catastrophic disk crashes in the last year and one of them happened while I had a bad set of backups, so I lost various files including a couple of pending articles. This note is just to let you know that if you are expecting me to publish something and it hasn't shown up, it's gone to the great byte-bucket in the sky and it needs to be resubmitted. I've taken steps to keep this from happening again in the future, but that just means Sir Murphy will become more ingenious next time....

For the artists, I current have a large inventory of material -- enough for the next three or four issues. Since I hate keeping things in inventory for a long time, I'm asking that you consider OtherRealms a closed market until the first of the year to give me a chance to use up some of the stuff I've been holding too long. I like to get things published in as short a time as possible, but I'm getting more material than I can use and need to balance things up a bit. I would also be interested in feedback from artists about the quality of the reproduction of the scanned art -- it may be good enough for me, but if it isn't good enough for the artists, it isn't good enough and I'll go back to the old ways of X-acto knives, waxers and Band-Aids.

See you next issue!

------ End ------

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Issue 25, Summer/Fall 1989 (part 2)

Electronic OtherRealms #25
Summer/Fall, 1989
Part 2 of 17

From Beyond the Edge

Reviews by our readers (part 1)

Alien Death Fleet [***]
Edward S. Hudson
Pageant $3.50 207pg.

The story starts out running and accelerates from there. It is pure pulp style action. A mysterious alien fleet invades human space and kills all life on the human colonized worlds. A lowly sub-lieutenant, Pier Norlin, becomes captain of a battle cruiser by the simple expedient of being the surviving command officer. He blasts his way past the alien fleet to sector headquarters where the climatic battle against the alien fleet is fought.

The characters are all cardboard cutouts. The deeds they do are superhuman although in real wars people have done things almost as implausible. Hudson knows how to fill the story with technical details that make the story seem more realistic. In general the pace of the story is so fast that the flaws are easily overlooked. This book is good for casual fun reading. Unfortunately, it is the first book of another trilogy.

-- Danny Low

And the Gods Laughed
Fredric Brown
Phantasia Press, 1987

In the 1950s and 1960s Fredric Brown published some of the shortest, most succinct stories in the sf and mystery fields. He was a master of the sneaky twist ending, especially noted in his short shorts (under 500 words.) A lot of his mysteries are being reprinted in hard cover and paperback by another small press, this book has only science fiction. His people are characters with bad habits (poker, gambling, not brushing their teeth?), but the quality that shines through for me is his humor: The puns, the wide open roar and the small snicker at humanities' faults. Very much recommended.

-- Joyce Scrivner

Azazel [***]
Issac Asimov
Doubleday $16.95 221 pg.

This book is a collection of bar stories. The name comes from the SF tradition of having the stories told in a bar although this is not mandatory. In this case, the stories are told over dinner. The stories follow the traditional format of bar stories. The stories are told by George Bitternut concern his misadventures with the demon Azazel.

In each case, George tries to help someone by using Azazel's powers. However, Azazel is not too familiar with human customs and George is too lazy (not to mention dumb) to explain things fully or to make a precise request. As a result, things never quite turn out as planned.

Asimov has tried to write the stories in a mildly satirical manner in emulation of P. G. Wodehouse. The result is the stories are a bit livelier than your typical Asimov story which tend to be rather "dry." The result is more slapstick than droll. Because of the sameness of the stories, they should be read in small doses even though they are well- written in the traditional Asimov manner.

-- Danny Low

Azure Bonds     [***]
Kate Novak and Jeff Grubb
TSR $3.95 380pg.

This is a fantasy novel set in the AD&D world known as the Forgotten Realms. However, it is a good fantasy. The authors do not fall into the trap of writing for hardcore AD&D players. Anyone unfamiliar with the AD&D games will find this novel comprehensible. The story is well plotted. The characterization is excellent.

Alias is a mercenary who wakes up one morning in a strange tavern with no idea of how she got there and alarming gaps in her memory. She also has a strange set of magical "tattoos" on her arm. They are the azure bonds of the title as she discovers the tattoos will occasionally make her do something against her will. Since the something always involves killing someone, Alias decides that this is a problem. The story is her quest to have the tattoos removed.

She quickly discovers she is not alone in this quest. A strange lizardman like creature immediately becomes her companion in the quest. Alias is unable to determine if the creature is an intelligent being or a very intelligent animal. She names him Dragonbait. In her effort to find the origins of the tattoos she has to rescue a halfling bard, Olive Ruskette, with the aid of a merchant mage, Akabar Bel Akash. These two then become part of her party.

It is evident to the reader that Alias is not what she appears to be about midway through the story. Nor is the lizardman what he appears to be either. The story pacing is rather uneven. In the beginning many pages are devoted to not much of anything while the rapid series of battles in the end get compressed into fewer and fewer pages. This does not quite successfully convey a sense of increased pacing. However the length of the story is right. There is a fair amount of humor in the story. It is not excessive and is a nice contrast to the usually serious tone of most fantasies. In summary a good fantasy worth reading.

-- Danny Low

Becoming Alien [***] Rebecca Ore

A first novel from an author with real potential. The setup is fairly standard: space ship crashes on Earth, kid named Tom tries to help surviving alien. Things start moving away from the usual plot when the alien dies and bequeathes his position as cadet to Tom. And once the action moves to the academy, things are very different from usual. The Earthman is not the most competent being at the academy; alien species do not trust each other immediately; being a cadet is not fun and games (Tom wonders if making him a cadet was the alien's gift or curse); different species do not all act like Americans. It's an interesting twist on the usual "Earthman makes good in the galaxy" plot. I thought it was more realistic than the usual space academy situation. Certainly the aliens were not the usual humans with funny bodies and one exaggerated characteristic; they were probably the books strongest point. Unfortunately, I didn't quite buy Tom's character. He reacted too neatly in some situations, especially considering his background. But overall, an enjoyable read.

-- Chuck Koelbel

Black Grail
Damien Broderick
Avon 1986, $3.50

I have read several of Damien's previous works, and they are all 'modern.' I was disappointed in this book. It seems to me that he is attempting to write an adventure story (the hero has a sword and wins a lady fair) and solve a major science debate (the loss of dinosaurs) in a single plot. To my mind he fails. I was disappointed, also in how quickly the ending of the book resolves several plot devices as well. Try his Dreaming Dragons instead.

-- Joyce Scrivner

The Blind Archer
John Gregory Betancourt
Avon, 1988, $2.95

Ker Orrum lives in a world of magic. He is ordained to take the Great Ruby from the god Blind Archer. His brashness causes the Blind Archer to blind him when they first meet. He learns how to live with his blindness and works at achieving his destiny. The magic is integral to the story, yet there is a lack of discipline in what magic will work and how it does. I'd like to see better definition for the setting.

-- Joyce Scrivner

Blue Magic
Jo Clayton
DAW 1988, $3.95

This is the second book in the fourth series Jo Clayton has written. As all the others, she has a female protagonist in an adventure setting who interacts with a large cast of human-like characters. By this I mean that even though some of the characters are alien to humanity, their reasons and actions create some empathetic response in the reader. I enjoy having books written with female protagonists who are capable, witty and accomplish tasks ranging from cooking to fighting and Jo Clayton's cast of worlds and aliens are interesting enough to hold my attention. This book concerns a legendary 'witch' Brann who is called on to protect the descendants of people she owed a debt to. She must find these descendants, fight several 'gods' with her magic and win the 'humans' release. She picks up help along the way in the guise of a future human man, a passive wizard and two 'angels'. It's fast, fun and there is at least one more story to come in this series with more of Brann.

-- Joyce Scrivner

The Book of Fantasy   [***+]
ed. Jorge Luis Borges, Silvina Ocampo, and A. Bioy Casares

One evening in 1934 three friends (who also happened to be major writers) were discussing literature and bemoaning the scarcity of good fantasy. Although it was rare, they did know of a lot of excellent fantasy stories. Somewhere along the line, one of the three suggested that publishing a collection of these stories would make a great book. This book is the result of that suggestion. It consists simply of stories that Borges, Ocampo, and Casares felt showed the best of the fantastic imagination. (This edition also contains a number of stories written since 1934; the introduction is vague about whether the original editors or somebody else added these later.) Overall, I agree with the editors' taste, although I'm not sure how all these stories fit under the label of "fantasy". There are stories by "classic" fantasy writers (Poe, Wells, Kipling), lesser-known writers (many of them South American), and some authors not generally associated with fantasy (James Joyce). The subjects range from horror and alternate reality to oriental legends and poetry. No cute unicorns, beautiful elves, or evil wizards, though; Borges and company are more interested in playing with the boundaries of reality than in using stock fantasy concepts. The introduction by Ursula K. LeGuin also deserves mention; it is well worth reading.

-- Chuck Koelbel

Box of Nothing
Peter Dickinson
Delacourt 1988, $14.95)

This is a short juvenile novel. Peter Dickinson is best known in the United States for Blue Hawk, an Ace book in the early 1970s. This story tells of James who acquires a box of the original nothing from the Big Bang in a Nothing Shop. He gets involved in an adventure in the local dump with a mixed creature, the Burra, who is constructed of doll legs and bodies. They must fight the Rat general in order to save themselves and achieve harmony. This is minor Dickinson (I love best when he combines reality with fantasy as in his Seventh Raven which mixes terrorists with children's pantomime) but pleasant reading for all that.

-- Joyce Scrivner

The Brave Little Toaster
Thomas Disch
Doubleday 1986, $10.95

This book, "a bedtime story for small appliances," has been animated by Disney, though I haven't seen the result. It tells the story of a toaster, blanket, clock, light and vacuum cleaner who have been abandoned by their owner in a summer cottage and journey to find him again. It is humorous and ends on an up beat. Worth reading if you like Disch. Some of his poetry is used as a preface.

-- Joyce Scrivner

The Bridge of Lost Desire       [***]
Samuel Delany

Maybe this is what I get for picking up the last book in a series first. The Bridge of Lost Desire is a collection of novellas set in Delany's world of NeverXon. He has described the series as "a child's garden of semiotics" and, sure enough, everything is a symbol for something else. While I admire the prose style and obvious crafting that went into these stories, I just couldn't get excited about the subject matter. Whether that comes from not knowing the rest of the series or from not caring, I don't know. The best I can say for this book is that I'm interested in looking up the rest of the NeverXon books.

-- Chuck Koelbel

Chance and Other Gestures of the Hand of Fate [***] Nancy Springer Baen, 1987, $3.50, 240pp.

Long and short stories with a few poems mixed in, mostly fantasy. "Chance" and "The Golden Face of Fate" are traditional fantasy stories about an enchanted forest and the not so happily-ever-after love story of a princess and a woodsman. The forest denizens bring them together, but for their own ends, bringing to mind the moral `It's not nice to fool Mother Nature'. The "Bright-Eyed Black Pony" belongs to a little boy who goes to visit a wizard for help, it just wasn't a pony when they started out. Horses play a major role in several stories. "The Bard" has each soldier imagine his ideal horse, but sees for himself the white horse, symbol of death. "The Boy Who Plaited Manes" must enchant the horses to get them to stay so still and may be something enchanted himself. I don't really know how to evaluate poetry, but I especially liked "The Wolf Girl Speaks", a feral child's view of being "rescued" by her own kind. While all were entertaining, none of these stories really jumped out at me. If you're sick of traditional fantasy, there is nothing particularly unusual here.

-- Mary Anne Espenshade

The Complete Time Traveler: A Tourist's Guide to the Fourth Dimension [****] Howard Blumenthal, Dorothy F. Curley, and Brad Williams Ten Speed Press, Box 7123, Berkeley, California 94707, 0-89815-284-4, $13.95

The Complete Time Traveler is a clever book designed as a tongue-in- cheek guide for tourists who are as interested in visiting when as they are where. For example, the copyright date says both 1988 and 2038, and the authors have books credited to them which won't be written for another forty years or so. The Foreword is by H. G. Wells.

The Complete Time Traveler tells you what are the best modes for time travel, what are the best places to visit, what diseases to be inoculated against (Black Plagues and all that, you know), what to wear, what rules must be obeyed, and even how to bring children along.

The authors obviously had a lot of fun writing this book, and they know their SF: A bibliography on books, films, and television series dealing with time travel (some of which have yet to exist in our time period) is located in the back. -- Larry Klaes

Crown of the Serpent
Allen L. Wold
Questar, 1989, 0-445-20624-1, 250 pp., $3.95

Just when you thought the "Bat Durston" had been laid to rest in boot hill, Wold rides his trusty starship into view, blasters blazing, and rounds up those slimy monsters at the Horsehead Nebula.

In what seems to be book two of a series, Gesta rogue Rikard Braeth, complete with handy .75 calibre shootin' iron, gets caught with his pants down on conservative planet Nowarth. He and his lover, Darcy Glemtide, are rescued from nasty local interrogation by Agent Sukiro of the Federal police. Sukiro delivers the pair of alien artifact thieves to Colonel Polski on planet Natimarie, where the native centaurs have just been hit by mystery brain slavers. No one wonders why the Press on any of the hundreds of inhabited Federation worlds has failed to notice this brain drain, now into its 40th planet. And, Darcy gets lost in the shuffle as our hero lets Polski draft him for a secret mission. Braeth senses the evil of Tathas, your standard tentacled creepy-crawly, and rides off into the badlands, eh, deepest space with Sukiro and her Goon Squad of cops. When they arrive at the moon-sized alien "deathstar," the apparent 10,000 year old Tschagan capital, Braeth and the cops find lots of brainless bodies, bodiless brains, and a fast shuffle of cartoon dimensions.

Unfortunately, about 70% of this novel involves strolls up halls, down stairs, and into elevators. Well, to be fair, once inside the old Tschagan shack, on their way to the Dragon, ah, Droagn, weird alien stuff is all about, so it's travel down corridors, up stairs, and through elevators, all with random piles of tinker toys. Do the good guys win? Who cares.

-- Dean R. Lambe

Cyberbooks
Ben Bova
Tor, 1989, 0-312-93181-6, 283 pp., $17.95

Some novels have value just for the fun of it; others have depth as teaching tools. With this near future satire of the publishing industry, Bova offers both fun and instruction.

Early in the next century, software wiz Carl Lewis leaves his safe haven at MIT for the wilds of New York City. Lewis has perfected the device we all know is coming, the electronic book. Comely Lori Tashkajian, a junior editor for Bunker Books who survives the expense of Manhattan by belly dancing at night, tries to convince her superiors and the odd husband and wife team who own Bunker Books that Lewis' invention means cheap information for the masses and salvation for the company.

Meanwhile, higher in the Synthoil Tower, CEO Weldon W. Weldon of multi- national Tarantula Enterprises goads his flunky, P. Curtis Hawks of Webb Press, to acquire Lewis's invention at any cost. Hawks, sure that his boss is senile, agrees to set a spy, and Scarlet Dean begins to vamp Lewis from her new position as the Bunkers's editor-in-chief.

Down in the mean streets Lt. Jack Moriarty of the NYPD begins to take stock of a mystery killer, while a crazed writer from the Gulf Coast, sure that his great work of literature has been ignored, takes arms against the evil empire of publishing. Not to be outdone, once they realize that cyberbooks will make them obsolete, everyone from book salesmen to lumberjacks gathers to attack the Bunkers.

If, at times, the novel has a bit too much Goulartian fun with character names at the expense of character depth, Bova may be forgiven for the insider grins he brings and the truth he tells. For every morality tale herein is gospel somewhere in Manhattan, and this very funny book should be required reading for all aspiring writers and editors.

-- Dean R. Lambe

Dancing at the Edge of the World        [****+]
Ursula K. LeGuin

A collection of essays, speeches, and reviews that LeGuin wrote between 1976 and 1988. The table of contents labels each of the essays and speeches with symbols for "Feminism", "Literature", "Social Responsibility", and "Travel" (many pieces have more than one symbol), and those labels are pretty accurate. The quality of the writing varies quite a bit. Everybody will find at least one essay that they think is pure gold in this collection, and probably one that they just don't care about. For me, the good outweighed the indifferent by a huge margin. LeGuin's views are generally well thought out and presented, and make great food for thought even when I disagree with her. Highly recommended as a glimpse into the mind of a great writer.

-- Chuck Koelbel

Dawn
Octavia Butler
Questar, 1987, $3.95

This book is by another author who uses plot and characters in an unusual manner. Octavia creates an Earth on which mankind has killed itself and then presents an alien race which must merge its life processes with mankind (it weaves genes) in order to save both sapiens. The story is written from the point of view of the first woman to wake Lilith Iyapo, who is treated as Lilith of Biblical fame. She learns what the Oankali want from mankind and fears that mankind will not give it, nor does she want mankind to. She is both saviour and traitor according to those she helps. I understand the sequel is published in hardcover, and I intend to buy the paperback as soon as it is available.

-- Joyce Scrivner

Demon Lord of Karanda
David Eddings
Del Rey, 1988, $18.95

This is the fourth volume of Eddings' second series telling the story of Garion and his family and friends. Garion is a wizard descended from the most famous wizard Belgarath who is still alive after centuries of life. Belgarath and his daughter Pol (also a wizard) had guarded Garion until the time of the prophesy. The first series of five books (the Belgariad) is spent hauling Garion around to the places he must go while the prophesy makes sure things work out right. (As opposed to the bad prophesy which is working for the other side.) Obviously things do. This series of books is about a further prophesy which Garion must follow until either he or the bad guy wins. For all that these books are just another quest series, I rather like the characters. Garion is a polite young man, even if he gets moved around like a chess piece. Pol has sentimental and sharp sides. And Belgarath is properly knowledgeable and overconfident. The setting is full of Gods and magics and different cultures, so it isn't monotonous. Too many times resolutions occur from thin air when needed, no one expects Garion to lose.

-- Joyce Scrivner

Dido and Pa
Joan Aiken
Dell 1986, $3.25

Another children's novel in her series about Dido that contains with Wolves of Willoughby Chase, Black Hearts in Battersea, Nightbirds in Nantucket, The Stolen Lake and the Cuckoo Tree. Dido has spent the previous stories leaving England and traveling the world from America to Spain. She is a sensible cockney child with a rascally father who reappears in this story. Pa is allied with Margrave Eisengrim against the Hanovers who are being crowned as England's royalty and Dido, who has saved the king in the past, becomes woven into her father's plot. The fantastic healing powers of her father's music, for no man is totally evil, add their saving grace to the plot as Dido struggles to warn the king of Margrave Eisengrim's threat. Excellent story on its own, but it is worth finding the rest of the series too.

-- Joyce Scrivner

Eyes of the Killer Robot
John Bellairs
Bantam-Skylark 1987, $2.95

John Bellairs had an adult fantasy published by Ace several years ago (Face in the Frost) but all the other books I have found by him have been juveniles. Most of those, like this one, are about Johnny Dixon and his friends Professor Childermass and Fergie. They are all science fictional or fantastic with ghosts and strange experiments. One thing I like about these books is that the evil characters are evil (with dripping fangs and nasty natures), and the good characters can be very wishy washy in their goodness. (In this book the lead characters tell several lies at various times and feel uncomfortable/guilty about them.) This story is about an old robot designed to win baseball pitching contests. For reasons of envy Professor Childermass wants to reconstruct the robot and defeat a minor enemy of his at pitching. Meanwhile the original creator of the robot, who believes Johnny's grandfather did him wrong, wants to use Johnny's eyes to fuel the robot in the same contest. Most of the story is taken up in finding the robot and his creator. The art, as in the other books, is by Edward Gorey and appropriate. Pleasant reading.

-- Joyce Scrivner

Fantasy
Poul Anderson
TOR, 1981, $2.50

A collection of 14 of Anderson's fantasy short stories classified into three areas; historical, alternate historical and it-could-happen-to- you. All are well written stories, but none are classics. A couple have twist endings, i.e.. the hero runs away from his true love, one upping the devil. Fun stories to read by the fire.

-- Joyce Scrivner

The Firebrand
Marion Zimmer Bradley
Pocket, 1987, 608 pgs.,$8.95, 0-671-66703-3

The story that Marion Zimmer Bradley tells in the Firebrand is compelling. Though she is working from the classics, she tells the tale from a unique point of view, that of Kassandra, daughter of Priam, King of Troy, and Hecuba, sister to the Queen of the Amazons.

Bradley's style is well suited to this work. Her Kassandra forecasts the inevitable fate of Troy for the benefit of those not familiar with the classics, but not to the boredom of those who are. In fact, it is Kassandra's ability to foresee the future that accounts for much of the drama in the book.

Because no one will believe Kassandra, she finds it easy to spend a year or more traveling with the Amazons. She later leaves her family to become a priestess of Apollo. Even under the God's care she is tormented by her vision of burning Troy. There is nothing she can do to intercede for humanity in the battling of the Gods.

This work has been praised as the feminist re-telling of the Iliad. I would beg to differ. In the prologue, which is the end of the story, Kassandra as matriarch of her clan is still not believed as she tells of Troy. Her own grandchildren did not even know she had been there! She has little sympathy for her sisters and fellow priestesses, even when she comes to understand the cultural benefit of their behavior. She even condemns the tribes of Kentars, that the women would be better off if they were dead.

Even though I found Kassandra an unsympathetic protagonist I was drawn and held by the story. The struggle against a fate decreed by the Gods is as dramatic in modern America as it was in ancient Greece. This is a truly compelling work and Marion Zimmer Bradley does it justice.

-- Lisa Besnett& Brett Slocum

The Fleet       [**+]
David Drake & Bill Fawcett, eds.
Ace, $3.50, 280 pgs. 0-441-24086-0

Here we have yet another attempt at developing a shared world. I say attempt because it doesn't quite come off. The 11 stories which make up the book are connected only by a broad, overall concept; galactic war between a human-led alliance (the Fleet) and a weasel-like race known as the Khalia. Though efforts by John Brunner, Robert Sheckley, Janet Morris and Steve Perry are above average, they are counterbalanced by less than glowing work from Anne McCaffrey, Bill Fawcett, Jody Lynn Nye and E. Gary Gygax. A particularly lackluster story by Margaret Weis leaves one ready to call it quits a mere halfway through.

Each story is tied together with an interlude written by Bill Fawcett. These short connectors are poorly written, confusing, occasionally seeming out of sequence and unnecessary.

-- Steven Sawicki

------ End ------

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Issue 25, Summer/Fall 1989 (part 3)

Electronic OtherRealms #25
Summer/Fall, 1989
Part 3 of 17

From Beyond the Edge

Reviews by our readers (Part 1, continued)

The Gold Coast       [**]
Kim Stanley Robinson

The cover blurb calls this a "prophetic glimpse" of Orange County, CA, in the 21st century. I've seen better prophets handing out literature in airports. OC is the drug capital of the country, but there are no problems with violent crime, worker productivity, or long-term addicts. But that almost makes sense, since drugs don't have any inconvenient side effects like hangovers, overdoses, flashbacks, or withdrawal syndrome. The engineers working on SDI-style missile defenses haven't noticed that their system can't aim fast enough to shoot down ICBMs, and are concentrating their efforts on other problems. The San Diego to Oslo red-eye (Hey, there's a profitable route!) is nearly as fast as military fighters that can outrun surface-to-air missiles. Suspension of disbelief is one thing, but this is ridiculous. The only thing that partially saves this novel is some strong characterizations (mainly of the men -- most of the women are cardboard cutouts), and that's not enough by a long shot.

-- Chuck Koelbel

The Illyrian Adventure
Lloyd Alexander
Dell, 1986, $2.50

This book is meant for children older than those who read Alexander's The Wizard in the Tree. The story concerns orphaned Vesper Holly and her guardian Brinnie who search for the legendary treasure her father believed Illyria contains. From the beginning there is deceit and villainy towards them by the government of the country. From the beginning the rebels of the country are shown as heros. But the solution is not as simple as that. The author shows his pleasure in words by how and where he uses them, but I found the characters easy to pigeonhole.

-- Joyce Scrivner

Imago
Octavia E. Butler
Warner, 1989, 0-446-51472-1, 264 pp., $19.95

True to the nefarious trends of modern publishing, Butler's Xenogenesis trilogy has become a series, which means that this third novel is not the last we'll hear of the alien Oankali, and their genetic absorption of humanity.

As with Adulthood Rites, the second book of this tale of sundered and conquered Earth, Imago focuses on crises in the life of a human-Oankali chimera, a "construct" child of Lilith, who was the first post-Third World War human victim of the alien's master plan. Again, the setting is in the mixed species colony in the Amazon basin, where Jodahs comes of age -- twice. As his first metamorphosis (hence the title) takes place, Jodahs discovers that he will not be male, as was always assumed, but will be in fact the first construct ooloi, the powerful third sex which initiates and controls all reproduction. Of his five parents, Nikanj, his own Oankali ooloi is equally disturbed at this development, for a human-based ooloi is not yet a part of the alien's master plan. Both on Earth and back on the giant organic mother ship that orbits beyond the Moon, the Oankali debate the wisdom of allowing Jodahs' independence. For an ooloi, especially one who may still contain elements of what the aliens regard as the suicidally violent "contradiction" that condemns unmodified humanity to extinction, can do great harm with its great powers of genetic manipulation and activation.

Jodahs and his extended family separate themselves from the larger colony, even though they risk attack by the wild human resisters, the sterile free people who refuse to mate with the Oankali. As Jodahs' final metamorphosis approaches, however, he becomes desperate for human mates, and is shocked when he discovers young Jesusa and Tomas, diseased and disfigured, yet somehow fertile. In curing the brother and sister, he learns of their secret human town high in the mountains, and binds them irreversibly to himself as lifemates. The three rejoin Jodahs' family, only to discover that its sibling, Aaor, is also becoming a human ooloi and is even more needful of fertile human mates.

Butler's fine writing skills have created another moving, memorable story, with believable settings and characters, despite the bizarre themes of this series. And still my skin crawls at the explicit and implicit messages. Time and distance factors also begin to seem inconsistent with the first two novels.

With Imago, the vampire-like alien hunger for humans is made clear; mates are attracted and bound to ooloi via a neurochemical addiction that makes hash of free will (and of contemporary social values). Of more fundamental concern is the pivotal distinction Butler tries to make between the "bad" hierarchical life of human evolution and the "good" acquisitive life of the Oankali. Nothing in the biological literature supports such a separation, or suggests that good and evil could be so easily, evolutionarily resolved. "E" for effort and masterful writing recommend this novel to your attention, but my suspension of disbelief remains on hold.

-- Dean R. Lambe

In Alien Flesh
Greg Benford
Tor, 1986, $3.95

I've long been waiting for a collection of Greg's short stories. He is one of the few current writers who produces high quality hard SF; Timescape is especially memorable. His characters are usually human (this helps in short stories to bind the reader to the situation) presented by either a specific hard science problem (in other words a classic hard sf story) or by a problem created by society interfacing with a scientific discovery. The latter is shown in the lead story in the anthology where the main character has immersed himself inside an alien being to achieve scientific goals of discovery. The character afterwards has nightmares possibly caused by the alien's thoughts that interfere with his readjustment into his relationships. I think Greg is one of the more successful writers of character and plot in the field at the moment, and it shows in these stories.

-- Joyce Scrivner

King of the Murgos
David Eddings
Del Rey 1988, $16.95

I enjoyed David Edding's first series about Garion and Belgarath. I've reread it several times when I wanted to read a book I enjoyed and forget the current reality. I don't think it requires a second series about the same people and I wish he had created a new culture with new characters to act heroically. However, just because this second book in the Malloreon isn't what I would like, I refuse to reject the idea of returning to characters I have enjoyed already. So I do. And I recommend this book to those who enjoyed the first series, but wait for the paperback. The problems are much the same as those in the first book (evil gods stealing Garion's son this time and forcing him to follow them around to save the world.) It's a bit like Star Trek in the third year. I watched the shows because I enjoyed them more than other television, but there was a sameness in the plot and characters.

-- Joyce Scrivner

The Legacy of Herorot
Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle & Steven Barnes
Simon and Shuster, 1987

This is a hard science adventure of how to colonize other worlds. The problems are ecologic, the solutions are in changing the earth-logic thought for Herorot-logic thought. The people are intelligent, except when they use false assumptions. One man thinks differently and the story revolves around the conflict of the individual and his society as well. The resolution brings both situations to a climax.

-- Joyce Scrivner

Melancholy Elephants    [*****]
Spider Robinson
TOR, 1985, $2.95, 244pp.

Excellent short story collection, including the 1982 Hugo winner, the title story. A few puns, but more serious in overall tone than Robinson's Callahan's stories. Both "No Renewal" and "In the Olden Days" make unpleasant points about the kind of society our world's current greed and lack of conservation are leading too, so does "Melancholy Elephants", in a way. "Father Paradox" is a different solution to the time travel "kill an ancestor" plot. "Chronic Offender" is a time travel story on the "you can't really change anything" model. "Rubber Soul" and "Satan's Children" are my favorites of the bunch. Though I'm not quite old enough to get all the references in "Rubber Soul", I did realize who it was about rather quickly, and the detailed footnoted explanations are as interesting as the story itself (to say more would be a definite spoiler).

-- Mary Anne Espenshade

Memory Prime [Star Trek #42]    [**]
Gar and Judith Reeves-Stevens
Pocket, 1988, $3.95, 309pp.

I hadn't planned to get this one, it didn't sound very promising, and if I had spent money on it I'd be very disappointed, but since it was given to me I read it. While the overall quality (plots, characterization, consistency) of the Trek books has improved a great deal over time, don't use this book as an example. We have here yet another episode sequel, this time to "The Lights of Zetar", with yet another over- zealous Starbase commander made to look like an idiot by taking command of the Enterprise away from Kirk. Commodore Wolfe arrives on the Enterprise convinced that Spock is guilty of treason and assorted other crimes, before any of them have even been committed, on the flimsiest of circumstantial evidence. The real guilty party, and his motives for framing Spock, are all too obvious from the beginning. I think the authors have borrowed the repressive Federation from Blake's Seven -- it isn't recognizable as the UFP I'm familiar with, the portrayal of the Andorian characters is quite off base as well. The last quarter of the book picks up a bit, but it was hardly worth getting there.

Memory Prime, the replacement for the destroyed library Memory Alpha, is a top security installation, using self-aware computer "programs" that interface directly from "core" with altered humans. It is also the location of an awards ceremony involving all the major scientists of the Federation and the target of a terrorist attack. The only redeeming features of this book are the continuing relationship between Scotty and Mira Romaine, now chief computer technician in command of Memory Prime, and some good lines foreshadowing the Next Generation, like McCoy's reference that he probably won't make Admiral (and be able to requisition a shuttle instead of using the transporter) till he's 140.

-- Mary Anne Espenshade

Outpassage      [****]
Janet & Chris Morris
Pageant, 1988, $3.50, 0-517-00832-7, 368

Paige Barnett was a high-ranking executive of InterSpace Tasking, the powerful mining and exploration company. She probably knew too much about the peculiar disaster on the planet known only as "X-31A", but she assumed her rank would protect her. She was wrong. Sergeant Dennis Cox was a good soldier, a US Ranger on loan to IST. He was also one of the two survivors of X-31A, and he definitely knew too much. Cox had no illusions about protection, but even he was surprised when he and Barnett were shanghaied off Earth to another planet where the same problem seemed to be appearing. Was it merely a revolution among IST's slave laborers? The founding of a new religion? Could it possibly be the alien contact fearfully awaited for so long? It was a strange and weird challenge for Cox and Barnett, with not merely their own lives, but possibly a new departure for the entire human race hanging in the balance.

Experience shows that the Morrises do, about as well as anybody, the fast-paced action/adventure story, combining that with a genuine feel for characters which is beyond most of the "future combat" wordslingers. Outpassage goes a step beyond that. This is not a book which glorifies militarism. It recognizes militarism as an inherent part of the human psyche, a useful and necessary tool in certain situations, not an end in itself. The book then goes on, exploring the next stage of human evolution. A book which thus combines exciting and plausible action sequences with thoughtful philosophy is something of a rarity, and well worth your trouble. I definitely recommend this book. Remember, you only die once....

-- David M. Shea

Paradise: A Chronicle of a Distant World
Mike Resnick
Tor, 1989, 0-312-93183-2, 323pp, $17.95

Paradise, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder -- so Resnick discovered in the East Africa he's come to know so well. Thus his latest novel, set within his multi-species future history some 2800 years from now, is really about neither paradise nor a distant world, but a highly readable tale of politics and ecology, evil and good, and the interdependence of all things relative.

As Matthew Breen begins his journalistic career in chronicling alien planets, first dominated, then freed by the vast human Republic, he focuses on Peponi and its lush, unspoiled past. Breen's first books follow from interviews of human expatriates, from big game hunters to colonial farmers, who -- in their own ways -- destroyed the Peponi they loved. August Hardwyke remembers the idyllic world of Landship hunting, with near savage Bluegill beaters and gunbearers. Sadly, the market for the Landship's gemlike eyestones meant extinction for those massive animals by the time Amanda Pickett had settled into her fertile Greenlands farm. Amanda, who came to be Peponi's first well-known human author, recalls those better days for Breen as well, and her fellow exiles explain the human side of the Kalakala Emergency, the wag's native uprising that drove Men out.

On the strength of his books about the world and its people, the legendary Old Man, President Buko Pepon, invites Breen to see the planet. The pepons (as the bluegill wags wish to be called), newly independent and self- governing, face many problems as they try to accommodate imported livestock and crops, as well as a vital tourist industry.

In the final segment, their harsh dusk in sad and sharp contrast to their innocent dawn, Breen visits a Peponi without its historic great leader, a planet of dust and death, yet still with beauty and dignity.

If this morality play seems a little too close to home, rather than in a "far galaxy," it's no less science fictional or worthy of your attention. True, the "Bradburys," the portrayals of a different place and time as much like the people next door, are as apparent here as in most of Resnick's episodic novels, but one can scarcely fault Grand Master modeling. For those who see the world through traveler's glasses, Paradise will strike a chord and mist an eye; for others, it teaches that sometimes it is too late to go and see.

-- Dean R. Lambe

Paradise [****+]
Dan Henderson
Tor, 1983, $2.95, 314pp, 523-48549-2

In the Middle Ages, one of the common vices was overreaching: the wild ambition to be more than you were permitted to be. (See, for instance, MacBeth.) I suspect it is this flaw which caused this otherwise excellent novel to be slapped down, not by a status quo deity, but by a marketplace which would not take the trouble to figure out what the author was attempting. Henderson was trying to do about three different novels here with the same set of words, and if he fell a trifle short of bringing them all off, he should at least get bonus points for effort. First there's the religious novel, exploring the theme of Perfectability Of Man; and if you think it's a picnic doing a religious novel without mentioning God, you try it. Then there's the neo-noir mystery novel, an obvious growth industry in the SF genre (see Effinger's When Gravity Fails) which Henderson anticipated. Finally there's the New Southron Fantasy novel (as distinguished from the Old Southron Fantasy of the Manly Wade Wellman school). Of these three novels, Henderson succeeds in bringing off about two-and-a-half. Some writers of much greater commercial success can't write a book that succeeds as one novel.

I don't know much about this author. (Though I also admired his wonderfully gonzo short story "Carruthers' Last Stand," deservedly anthologized by Donald Wollheim in his World's Best for 1979.) I do know this is much too good a book to be relegated to oblivion. Seek it out.

-- David M. Shea

Phases of Gravity
Dan Simmons
Bantam, $4.50, 0-553-27764-2

Simmons does not write simple entertainments, nor does he pen whizbang adventure, yet there is both action and amusements in his works. With his award-winning Song of Kali, he seemed to tell a chilling fantasy of contemporary Calcutta; now, as he ventures into almost science fiction, the territory is familiar -- if just a bit out of phase.

Framed in flashbacks to his childhood, his failed marriage, his oddly hollow moon walk, we leapfrog about the life of middle- aged ex- astronaut Richard E. Baedecker. We first meet Baedecker as he attempts to communicate with his son, Scott, who has gone guru gah-gah in darkest India. There, amidst the flies, beggars and Taj Mahal, Baedecker loses his son and gains his girlfriend, Maggie Brown.

Back home in St. Louis, Baedecker makes a pilgrimage to the home town he doesn't remember, then quits his empty aerospace job in favor of a random odyssey across America in search of sons and lovers. First in Colorado, where his former Apollo command module mate, Tom Gavin, seeks salvation on mountain peaks, then in Oregon, where his mission commander, Dave Muldorff, makes his own peace with mountains, Baedecker continues to look for his lost dreams. That he, and his former crewmates, all find separate truths about their sons is but one of many threads knit through this fine tapestry of hard engineering and mysticism.

Well-tred though these paths may be, from The Right Stuff to the Jack Nickolson role in "Terms of Endearment," Simmons brings new meaning to the tarnished American Dream and those lunar footprints dearly won and so sadly lost. And if mention of Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev seems odd in a SF context, remember that Simmons isn't really writing genre fiction here -- all the more reason to read him, and to encourage more of these Special Editions from Bantam.

-- Dean R. Lambe

Prison Ship             []
Martin Caidin
Baen, $4.50, 0-671-69814-1

I had to wait some time before I wrote this review, as I did not wish to let my first impressions overwhelm any secondary feelings. I reacted very badly to the book. Although I did finish it, I can't recommend this book to anyone.

This is the first book that I've seen that had the literary equivalent of Television's "Viewer Discretion Advised" warning. It certainly deserves it. The offensive sections are discreetly marked, maybe too discreetly. My personal opinion is that the book would have been vastly improved by removing those sections entirely. The protagonist's total disregard for the lives of those not in his immediate circle while still being portrayed as a desirable role model, is a heavy turn-off.

It may be as the discretion warning states, that Martin Caidin takes special pride in "faithfully rendering" reality. If so, you may be certain that I will no longer purchase books written by Martin Caidin. I've read some of his earlier work, so it's somewhat dismaying that I won't be able to enjoy his work any more. To give you some idea of my depth of feeling on this book, I (who NEVER have parted with a fictional work) have the hard choice of attempting to recoup some of my money by selling this book to the local used book store, or to avoid being responsible for someone else reading this book by throwing it away.

-- Edwin Wiles

Shadows of The White Sun        []
Raymond Harris
Ace, 1988, $3.50, 230pp, 0-441-06881-2

I wish I could figure out what's going on here, but I can't. The author seems to have fallen into the trap of knowing his own elaborate creation so well, he has forgotten the reader doesn't. There's a truckload of local color, names, places, ranks, customs, relationships, simply thrown without explanation at the reader, who struggles helplessly to sort the grain of story from the chaff of superfluous detail. I couldn't make heads or tails of it.

-- David M. Shea

------ End ------

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Issue 25, Summer/Fall 1989 (part 4)

Electronic OtherRealms #25
Summer/Fall, 1989
Part 4 of 17

From Beyond the Edge

Reviews by our readers (Part 1, continued)

Shadow Games    [***]
Glen Cook
Tor $3.95 311pg.

While this book is the start of a new series about the Black Company, there are many references to past events and people. This is especially true in the second half of the book. As a result, anyone who has not read the first series will suffer from some confusion.

When the first series ended, the Company was down to seven people and Croaker expressed the intention to return the company annals to Khatovar, where the Company originated. The first half of the book is about the journey south. Unknown to the Company the Shadow Lords stand between the Company and their final destination. However the Shadow Lords know about the company and are trying to stop them. The reason for the Shadow Lords' enmity become clear in the second half.

The ending is a cliffhanger. The Company suffers a major defeat at the hands of the Shadow Lords. Croaker is captured. Lady may or may not be dead. No mysteries are solved. No conflicts are resolved. The whole book is basically the first installment of a very long serial. This is a well written book although not up the level of Cook's best work.

-- Danny Low

Shadow Guests
Joan Aiken
Dell 1986, $2.95

This is a children's book about ghosts and responsibility. Cosmo, whose mother and brother disappeared in Australia, returns to England, while his father sells off the remains of their life down under. Cosmo lives with his aunt on weekends in the family's ancestral home and discovers that there is a curse on his family in which the eldest son of each generation is killed in battle with his mother dying of sorrow afterwards. The shadow guests of the title are the ghosts of previous sons from history. Cosmo works to bring the curse to an end during the story. I enjoy the individuality of Joan Aiken's work

-- Joyce Scrivner

The Singing     [***-]
Theron Raines
Atlantic Monthly, 1988, 163 pp., $12.95, 0-87113-177-3.

The Singing is so full of cliches and stereotypes that you'd expect it to be a complete disaster, but it is saved to an extent by the smooth style of its literary-agent author. Atlantic Monthly Press doesn't publish much science fiction, but when it does it's typically by "mainstream" writers like Theron Raines who are apparently unaware of the vast SF world Out There. Thus they tend to reinvent the rocket -- or in this case, the Man from Mars.

The Man in The Singing is a Martian called 4-S-T, who arrives in a UFO with several co-conspirators bent on finding and mating with Earth women in a last ditch effort to save the dying Martian race. 4-S-T meets a girl named Mary Alice after his spacecraft crashes onto the roof of the Guggenheim Museum in New York, but it's no accident, for each of the Martian agents have their future loves already targeted, and with the vastly superior Martian mental powers at their disposal, it doesn't take long to get things going. Soon Forrest, as Mary Alice calls him, is working in her office and sleeping in her bed -- and fathering her child as the Martian plan to reinvigorate both races moves forward.

Alas, as the time approaches for Forrest to abandon Mary Alice and return to Mars, it becomes clear that the attempt to merge the two races will fail and that there will be no revival of the Martians or improvement of the Earthians after all. But even though his mission is a failure, Forrest ends on an upbeat note, a poetic and mystical stream- of-consciousness interchange with his Martian brothers -- an interplanetary slam-bam-thank-you-mam, to put it crudely. Yep, them Martian devils skip out on child support and Everything, but redeem themselves by listening to and appreciating The Singing of Ole Mother Earth on their way out.

The Singing is subtitled "A Fable About What Makes Us Human", and if you can see it in that light you'll probably enjoy the book. Veteran SF readers, however, will probably have trouble understanding why anyone would want to read such soft core speculative fiction at all when there's all that Good Stuff out there still waiting to be read. Be warned -- The Singing is pretty thin stuff.

-- Neal Wilgus

Space Mail Isaac Asimov, Martin H. Greenberg & Charles G. Waugh Fawcett, 1982, $2.50

Another anthology of stories by classic writers. The diaries area holds excerpts by Mark Twain (in a biblical tradition), Arsen Darnay (meditation on nuclear power), Will Stanton (on animal intelligence), John Collier (living away from modern life), Joan Vinge (mortality and advancement), and Algis Budrys (advancement and the military.) Memos section holds work by Walter Jon Williams (politics and society), Anthony Boucher (alien views), R.A. Lafferty (education from biased view), Gerald Jonas (growing up and parents), and Arthur Clarke (travel and invasion). The letters section bears up under Sharon Webb (alien medicine and romance), Paul J. Nahin (military secrets), Al Sarrantonio (controlling children), Barry N. Malzberg (writing and publishing), John Sladek (revolving history), Murray Leinster (curing madness), L. Sprague de Camp (historical view) and John Campbell (hope and man). A good selection from new work (and writers) to old stables.

-- Joyce Scrivner

Starfarers              [****]
Vonda N. McIntyre
Ace, 3.95, 0-441-78053-9

I've just finished reading this book, and it's one of the few books that I simply could not put down. The first third of the book is taken up in setting up personal relationships. Normally this would irritate me to no end. I like books that get moving rapidly, but in this case, the relationships were interesting of themselves! The ideas behind them were fascinating. When the action did start, it was extremely well paced, and didn't appear to sag except when the characters themselves couldn't seem to find the right thing to do.

Unlike quite a few recent books, I found that I could not figure out what was going to happen next. Though the major climax occurs several pages before the end of the book, the ending is excellent. It leaves no dangling threads, but the future is left wide open and exciting! I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys science fiction.

-- Edwin Wiles

String in the Harp
Nancy Bond
Puffin Newbery Library 1976, $5.95

Books for children, though ignored by many readers, seem to me to have several things which I enjoy: they have clear, clean plots with characters with integrity (though the characters have no overt sex life, they can be as convoluted as any human) and the major problem(s) have resolutions, though not always happy. Newbery and Caldecott winners in particular tend to be well-written and pleasant to read. So I do. This book is no exception. The story is about a family with three children (two girls and a boy (in the middle)) whose problems include the fact that their beloved mother died shortly before Christmas, and the father and two youngest siblings moved to Wales for a year for his can do research. The living situation in Wales is foreign and difficult for all of them, the boy in particular. The oldest child, who was finishing school in America arrives for Christmas and stays for the rest of the year learning to organize the family as her mother might have done. The boy Peter finds an ancient harp key (which belonged to Taliesin from the Mabinogion legend) and through the mechanism of the key, history and the Welsh lifestyle bring the family to several resolutions. The legends retold are not those most Americans recognize, and the division in the family is believable as are the characters of several Welsh who befriend them.

-- Joyce Scrivner

Svaha   [***+]
Charles de Lint
Ace, 1989, $3.50

I'd known Charles de Lint as an author of contemporary fantasy, but I'd seen Svaha reviewed as cyberpunk. It is.

The Native Americans have developed advanced technology and retreated in to sealed Enclaves, while the rest of the world has gone to hell. Life isn't so bad in the megaplexes (especially if you're pure Japanese), but it's a different story in the squats, especially for the little people like Lisa Bone, courier, and Phillip Yip, security officer for Ho Anzen, who finds his job is full of ethical dilemmas.

An Enclave flier crashes, and Gahzee is sent out to recover its chip. Needless, everyone else is after this item, too, from the yaks (yakuza clans), to the triads, to Ininzi/Bell Northern, though who is working for who isn't always clear.

De Lint manages to combine Gahzee's trip to a gritty cyberpunk city (full of interesting details) with his visits to Dreamtime. He uses at least 5 different languages for added color. And he provides the insight as to why someone would replace perfectly good parts of their own body.

I found one assumption of the background hard to believe, but enjoyed both the setting and the story.

-- David Dunham

Swimmers Beneath The Bright     [***-]
M. Coleman Easton
Questar 1987 $2.95 US 236 pp 0-445-20456-7

Mera Magus, the cyborged last guardian of Safehold, has slept in her orbital station for eight thousand years, while the water-adapted people of the colony world have gone their own way unhindered by technology. Now, however, Mera Magus has been revived by the ancient machinery, for the immemorial enemy, Spore, poses a new threat. The sea-change, bred into the semi-aquatic folk of Safehold through countless generations, may be humankind's last hope -- if only the ancient and dying "god" from the sky can teach them how to activate and use it.

This is by no means a bad book. It held my attention and though after about 100 pages I had my fill of local color, and began wishing the author would simply get on with it. There are also some hazy areas; the entire mechanism of the gleaners and their relationship to the "god- metal" is simply taken for granted, never explained. (Perhaps this would be obvious to a metallurgist; it wasn't so to me.) Swimmers reminded me slightly of Vinge's Snow Queen on a smaller scale. I would consider reading another book by this author.

-- David M. Shea

A Talent for War        [****]
Jack McDevitt
Ace $3.95 310pg.

Christopher Sim was the Hero of the Resistance. His death after his betrayal by his best friend Talino united the human worlds against the invading Ashiyyurs. However the details of the betrayal and death are clouded by mystery as almost all the main participants died within months of that fateful event. Two hundred years later, the death of Alex Benedict's uncle thrusts him into a search for the solution to what really happened to Sim.

Benedict is drawn in almost against his will. He starts out with a handicap. Some one does not want him to continue his uncle's research into the matter. A key document is stolen and Benedict must attempt to recreate his uncle's research.

The mystery is very well constructed. All the denouements are foreshadowed by hints so the reader can figure them out beforehand. The solutions are sensible and sometimes even ingenious. The solutions are easy to figure out since McDevitt is more interested in developing the story than challenging the reader.

The background universe has a feeling of depth that is often lacking in other books. The characters are very well developed. It is the characters, not the mystery, that is the focus of the story. The characters are complex and often irrational just like real people. The solution to the mystery is ultimately based on the frailty of even the strongest person.

The basic idea of the Sim story has been used before by other SF writers. McDevitt has managed to come up with only a minor variation on the story. As told by McDevitt, the story is a dramatic tale of tragedy and redemption.

-- Danny Low

Tales from the Spaceport Bar [***]
George Scithers & Darrell Schweitzer
Avon, 1987, $3.50, 235pp.

Callahan's Place and the White Hart aren't the only bars with unusual regulars and tellers of unbelievable tales. This short story collection includes famous and not-so-famous tales set in and about bars of every dimension, 22 in all (including a limerick). Most of the stories keep to SF but a few stray into fantasy, though the editors decided to leave out the sword and sorcery taverns -- there are probably enough of those for an entire collection of their own. Many well known authors are represented here -- Niven, Kuttner, Aximov, Clarke, Zelazny, Silverberg. My favorites: "What Goes Up" by Arthur C. Clarke, a tale about a real anti-gravity device; "One for the Road" by Gardner Dozois, questions asked in a bar; "Strategy at the Billiards Club" by Lord Dunsany, a cautionary tale from 1948 on the dangers of atomic weapons; "They Loved Me in Utica" by Avram Davidson, a down-on-his-luck bar entertainer is the same in every age, giving this story a quite surprising ending.

-- Mary Anne Espenshade

Taltos [****]
Steven Brust
Ace, 1988, $2.95, 181pp.

A story set early in the career of Vlad Taltos, assassin -- the whole book is flashbacks. Each chapter begins with Vlad at work on a spell that actually concludes the story, then alternates scenes of his journey through the Paths of the Dead and anecdotes from his childhood and early career -- his studies of witchcraft, his training in weapons, the first time he kills, the first time he's paid to kill and the first time he kills with a Morganti weapon. Lots of light, comic touches, particularly in Vlad's comments to his jhereg familiar, Loiosh (watch for a Blake's Seven quote and a reference to the computer game "Adventure"). Sequel to Jhereg, Yendi and Teckla, it takes place before all of them and could be read first. A must-read if you have the other three.

-- Mary Anne Espenshade

The Thief of Bagdad     [***]
Achmed Abdullah
Donning/Starblaze, 1987, $12.95, 120pp.

The first volume in the Starblaze Classics series of illustrated novels is an Arabian fantasy originally written in 1924 and long out of print. It is the novelization of the silent film of the same name and one of the earliest movie novelizations written. The prose style is like nothing you'll find now -- every sentence in a paragraph long, adjectives and adverbs travel in packs, never in less than groups of 10 -- flowery only just begins to describe it. But the story is great fun, fast paced with rambling breaks into the "historical" sources. For those interested in the fantasy of an earlier and decidedly different time and place.

-- Mary Anne Espenshade

To Sail Beyond the Sunset Robert A. Heinlein

It is the 'history' of Lazarus Long's mother, Maureen, and how she grew up from the late 1800s into the 2100s. All the women are beautiful, their breasts don't ever droop (unless they want them to), they succumb to the scent of desire of the male anatomy (only hypocrisy drives them away, and no science fiction reader has hypocrisy, correct?) Some of the men get snotty over not having enough women in the ways they want them, but it is always brought on by the petty jealousy of a not-so beautiful woman (ie. Maureen divorced Lazarus' father due to another woman's desire for possession) or female lack of control (the two youngest children of Maureen and her first husband are emotionally twisted by the girl's absolute passion in bed for her brother, or if she can't get her brother, anything in pants.) This is another long 'talky' novel in which the narrator (ie. Maureen) tells the story for chapter upon chapter. Only in the first couple chapters and the last couple chapters do the framing incidents of time travel and Maureen's lust for her father win out. My suggestion would be go buy a selection of the Heinlein juveniles. Nothing he has written in the past ten years can better those. This is a male fantasy as the cardboard women just fall in bed with them.

-- Joyce Scrivner

Under the Mountain
Maurice Gee
Oxford University, 1979, $9.95

This is another children's book by this New Zealand author. The story concerns red-haired twins whose stay with relatives has legend woven into it. Theo and Rachel spend the book solving the problem. The setting is Auckland, which has a slight cultural difference to the US reader, and adds to the feeling of eerieness. I thought the children were slightly flat (like Coke that has grown lukewarm) as major characters, but the situation and their struggles are emotionally satisfying.

-- Joyce Scrivner

Walkabout Woman [****] Michaela Roessner

This is a novel based on the Australian Aborigine idea of the Dreamtime, sort of a parallel reality to ours. It gives a feel for a very alien perception of the universe, and does it well. Part 1 (the first two- thirds of the book) describes the heroine's education about the Dreamtime, and how she is brutally cut off from it. This is by far the stronger section of the book, both because of the conflict of cultures (Aborigine versus white) and the conflicts within the tribe. Part 2 picks up the story a decade later, after Raba has been living in the white's world. The conflicts still exist, but are not as emotionally involving. Maybe the author overextended herself tackling bigger and bigger themes, or maybe the supporting characters were just less interesting. In spite of the somewhat weak ending, I do recommend this book highly. It is one of the best evocations of an alien culture I've read recently, and the culture really exists here on Earth.

-- Chuck Koelbel

Weaveworld
Clive Barker
Posideon, 1987, $24.95

This is being marketed both in the US and UK as the Clive Barker blockbuster. The book that will change him to a best seller like Stephen King. Well, I don't know how Stephen King got to be a blockbuster, but I doubt if this does it for Barker. It is a good, involving book, though. It is a long (584 pages), interwoven story about a fantastic land which resides along side the 'normal' everyday life you and I know so well (i.e. work, eat, work, eat, weekends off and back to work). The land had been protected from destruction by placing it into the rug and now enemies are coming close again. Suzanna, the granddaughter of the last guardian, fights hard to protect the land with Calhoun, who had seen and revealed the land by accident. They attempt to defend it from Immacolata and her stooge, Shadwell. Recommended as a well-constructed fantasy. For those who like horror, check out Barker's Books of Blood.

-- Joyce Scrivner

Who's Afraid of Beowulf?        [***]
Tom Holt
St. Martin's, 206 pg.

Tom Holt turns around Arthur C. Clarke's saying that any sufficiently advanced technology looks like magic. In this book, it takes a very advanced technology to duplicate the effects of magic. Hildy Frederiksen is an archaeologist who stumbles upon the find of her dreams, an intact Viking burial ship. However the ship is intact because it and its crew have been preserved by a magic spell. The spell is intended to be lifted when the Evil Sorcerer is once again ready to take over the world. That time is now.

Willy-nilly, Hildy is caught up in the quest of 1200-year-old Vikings to find their ancient enemy who is quite real and running a worldwide conglomerate. The Vikings are not as helpless as Hildy first thinks. They know all about elevators and television. In fact, the magical versions they had were much better. Naturally they all wear enchanted armor which is totally bullet proof and wield magical swords that can slice through composite tank armor like it was so much cardboard.

The book is very well done and is very humorous. Holt walks the line between satire and caricature and succeeds. His Vikings are simple but not simplistic. They are not the brutish killers of a Harry Harrison or Keith Laumer parody. Holt does some contrasting between Hildy's modern sensitivity and the Vikings casual attitude towards killing. Their leader, Hrolf Ketilsson, is an intelligent leader who quickly adapts to the modern world. In summary, a well-done humorous story.

-- Danny Low

With a Tangled Skein
Piers Anthony
Del Rey, 1985, $3.95

This is the third of the unique Incarnations of Immortality series. People assume the guise of an incarnation to achieve an end they desire. The first two books concern death and time, this one is about fate. Each book is separate within itself, yet reveals aspects of a more complex story. Niobe takes on an aspect of fate when her lover is shot in a plot to kill her by Satan. She spends the remainder of the novel opposing other machinations against herself and her descendants. The resolution depends upon a test very much in the classical question-of-the-Sphinx tradition.

-- Joyce Scrivner

The Wizard in the Tree
Lloyd Alexander
Dell, 1975, $3.25

Lloyd Alexander is best known for his Prydain chronicle based on Welsh mythology, but I also enjoy his other children's books. This is the story of Mallory, a kitchen maid, who finds the wizard Arbican in an oak tree. She attempts to help him in his journey to Vale Innis, Land of Heart's Desire and is opposed by the greedy town squire and his henchmen. This is another of the charming-young-hero(ine) and helpful- older-wise(man) stories with morals and manners and pleasant writing, it is easy to read and forget.

-- Joyce Scrivner

Wizards
Isaac Asimov, Martin H. Greenberg & Charles Waugh
Signet, 1983, $3.50

An anthology of stories by science fiction's master writers. Jack Vance "Mazirain The Magician," L. Sprague de Camp's "The Eye of Tandyla," Ron Goulart's "Please Stand By" (in shades of humor) and Robert Howard "The People of the Black Circle" tell stories in their unique styles. Larry Niven's "What Good is a Glass Dagger" has long since become an oft- reprinted classic. Greg Bear has "The White Horse Child" which talks of one type of daily magic for the modern world. Ursula Le Guin's "Semley's Necklace" shows how technology can appear as magic to the less technical society. John Jake's "And the Monsters Walk" is now a rare item to be in print. Theodore Cogswell's "Wall Around the World" revels in human accomplishment. Manly Wade Wellman's "The Seeker in the Forest" talks about human weakness. A good collection of interesting work.

-- Joyce Scrivner

Wolf Moon       [***-]
Charles de Lint
Signet 1988 252 pp, $3.50 0-451-15487-8

Fleeing a predatory magician/harper and his magical monster, Kern the shapechanger finds shelter at the Inn of the Yellow Tinker. Among the staff of the inn Kern finds acceptance, friendship, and eventually love. But to those pursuing him, Kern's death is not enough: they will twist all his happiness into tortured betrayal before striking the fatal blow, if they can. Will Kern's wolf powers and the loyalty of his friends stand up against evil magic?

Here we have standard plot number 3-B, were-creature as inadvertent hero (see Andre Norton's Year Of The Unicorn, Clifford Simak's The Werewolf Principle among others). The setting is a standard pseudomedieval world. The writing is graceful but overdone, carefully explaining each minutest point, as if the reader cannot be trusted to figure out anything on his own. The strength of the book lies in its characters, who are pretty much standard issue fantasy characters, but are mostly fleshed out well enough to be plausible as people. Wolf Moon is, as diverting entertainment, a perfectly good read, though I would have liked it better if it had a little more faith in the reader.

-- David M. Shea

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↑ Top

Issue 25, Summer/Fall 1989 (part 5)

Electronic OtherRealms #25
Summer/Fall, 1989
Part 5 of 17

Scattered Gold

Reviews by Charles de Lint

Installment 8: In which we visit with friends, old and new

The Mace of Souls       [****]
Bruce Fergusson
William Morrow & Co., 321pp; $17.95, 0-688-08477-X

Bruce Fergusson's The Mace of Souls is proof positive that his first novel was no accident. Set in the same world as The Shadow of His Wings (albeit in a different corner), it's another gritty high fantasy, strong on setting and character, and a wonderfully refreshing addition to the field.

It follows a street thief named Falca, looking for the big score, who finds his convictions and character undergoing changes after he becomes involved with Amala, the rebellious daughter of a high born family. When Amala's soul is stolen by a religious sect (sucked from her body and carried off in the crystal head of a mace) and she's left behind as an "empty", Falca sets off to recover her soul, gaining some help on the way from what would normally be his own people's traditional enemies.

As with many books, when the plot's distilled down to a simple sentence, it doesn't sound like much. What makes this latest from Fergusson so satisfying is that beyond that thumbnail familiar sketch of a plot, he follows none of the usual conventions of the field.

To be begin with, Falca is a thoroughly unlikable character at the beginning of the book. The character changes he undergoes aren't convenient plot devices, but a slow, natural transformation that shows off one of Fergusson's principle skills: his deep understanding of character. Combined with the kind of inventiveness in cultural background and world-building more normally associated with sf, the novel gains a believability and immediacy that leave one certain that if Fergusson's "Six Kingdoms" and its characters don't really exist in our world, then they do somewhere.

This is one of those novels that swallows the reader up -- right until the last page is turned, and then some.

Falling Out of Time          [****]
O.R. Melling
Viking/Penguin, 1989; 201pp; $22.95, 0-670-81421-0

O.R. Melling is a Toronto author of two previous novels who divides her time between working in Toronto and Ireland. The early books, The Druid's Time (1983) and The Singing Stone (1986) were delightful fantasies aimed at a young adult market, but gave only an inkling of what their author was capable.

Her new novel is her first adult book, a contemporary fantasy set in Ireland that weaves together three separate plot threads. There are the short pure fantasy sections detailing a flight of two godlike lovers across an ancient landscape; the unfolding of a relationship between Rafaella Knight, a Canadian student studying in Dublin, and a modern Irish musician named Michael O'Dea; and lastly the relationship between the unnamed protagonist of the book and another Michael.

The first two plot threads are actually part of a novel that the protagonist is writing as a kind of exorcism after a bad marriage. She realizes that her relationships tend to fail because she makes doomed mythologies out of them and thereby causes them to fail. So she sets out to make the new novel that she is working on to be a catharsis that will allow her to break the circular pattern of her misfortune.

The three plotlines dart back and forth, but remain clearly delineated through Melling's use of first person/present tense for her protagonist and third person/past for the plotlines of the novel she is working on. Towards the end of the book, however, they bleed into one another -- in a manner somewhat reminiscent of Michael Bishop's Who Made Stevie Crye? (1984) -- and we end up with characters from the novel and the novelist herself on the same stage.

This is dangerous territory to wander into, because the situation is one in which it is very easy to lose the reader, but Melling pulls it off, as much through the magic of her evocative language and sharp sense of characterization, as through the reader's willing suspension of disbelief.

Falling Out of Time is an ambitious novel and a welcome addition to the burgeoning field of contemporary fantasies.

Lavondyss              [*****]
Robert Holdstock
Victor Gollancz, 1988; 367pp ,0-575-04375-X Trade); 0-575-04374-1 (Hardcover)

Robert Holdstock's earlier novel Mythago Wood (1984) tied for the 1985 World Fantasy Award for Best Novel with Barry Hughart's Bridge of Birds, and justifiably so. The novel was a tour de force that took the poor tattered garments of Teutonic and Celtic myth cycles and breathed new life into their over-used fabric.

In it, Holdstock introduced Ryhope Wood -- a remnant of ancient post-Ice Age forest that has a far greater acreage than its outer borders would appear to allow. Some aspect of the forest, combined with human racial subconsciousness, peoples the wood with beings of myth and legend -- the mythagos of the book's title. Some of these mythagos take the shape of familiar figures -- the questing knight, Jack-in-the-Wood and the like -- while others originate so far back in time that they are familiar only as archetypes, remembered subconsciously.

The new novel, Lavondyss, again explores that forest, this time through the youthful eyes of Tallis Keeton, a young girl whose brother has disappeared into its hidden reaches and whom she is determined to find. Tallis, through knowledge she gleans from shadowy mythagos that haunt the border of the wood, creates a series of masks that allow her to see into the secret lands that the forest hides, and eventually travel into those supernatural worlds. Physical renditions of these masks are beautifully realized by artist Alan Lee and form chapter headings throughout the book.

The resulting story takes the reader from post-World War II England, deep into a forest that has grown from the global Jungian consciousness that underlies all folklore and myth. Tallis's journey acquires the scope of an Everyman's quest in which we can recognize the hidden meaning that underlies our own world, delineating the perils as well as the wonders of such exploration.

Lavondyss can be read on its own, but taken with its prequel, Mythago Wood, the two novels form a stunning foray into the world of legend and myth that has rarely been equaled. Holdstock's prose, rich and evocative, is a true pleasure to read; his imagination a soaring blend of commonsense and fancy that delights as well as frightens; while his understanding of exactly how much the resonances of the mythic past continue to influence the present creates a fascinating logic that readers will find themselves considering long after the books have been put aside.

The Gryphon King             [***+]
Tom Deitz
Avon, June 1989, 406pp, $3.95, 0-380-75506-8

Like Matt Ruff's Fool on the Hill (discussed in the last column), Tom Deitz's new novel The Gryphon King is also mostly set in a university -- this time in the University of Georgia which was Deitz's alma mater. It also sports a large cast of madcap characters, most of whom are involved in alternate lifestyles, but there the resemblance ends.

Where one never knew what to expect in Ruff's novel -- wherein lay a great part of its charm -- Deitz's third outing is a straightforward fantasy that merely happens to be set in contemporary times. Its weakness is that the principal magical characters are two spirits with a long history of enmity who take over the spirits of two brothers who also have a long history of antagonism.

While this might sound like I'm criticizing the book I wish Deitz had written rather than the one he did, the reason for my complaint is simple: taking the confrontation away from mortal concerns, where their strengths and weaknesses could have been utilized, also undermines the reader's involvement in the encounter. I never really cared about either one of the spirits.

On the other hand, I was extremely taken with the large cast of contemporary characters. Their problems were far more engrossing and engaged me in ways that the magical elements never did, and happily, in the end, it is their integrity and belief in each other that lends worth to the struggle in which they've become entangled. They're the kind of people that, when the book's done, you wish it was just a little longer, because you'd enjoyed their company so much.

On the strength of them, and on Deitz's fine handling of his contemporary setting, including the intrusion of "on stage" (as opposed to ethereal) magical elements into the real world, I find it easy to recommend this novel. These delightful aspects far outweighed the somewhat ho-hum confrontation between the spirits.

Novelty    [****]
John Crowley
Foundation, May 1989, 227pp, $18.95, 0-385-26171-3

Parallel Universes          [***+]
Fred Alan Wolf
Simon & Schuster, 1989, 351pp, $19.95, 0-671-66091-8

In an odd moment of synchronicity, I found myself reading during the same week both John Crowley's new fiction collection Novelty and an exploration through modern quantum mechanics of the viability of parallel worlds and time travel in Parallel Universes by Fred Alan Wolf, the author of Taking the Quantum Leap.

Of course all moments of synchronicity are odd by their very nature, but in this case, the parallels between Crowley's "Great Work of Time" -- one of the more intriguing recent stories concerning the paradoxes of time travel -- and Wolf's non-fiction approach to the same subject was so sharp that I could go from one to the other -- fiction to non-fiction to fiction again -- and almost never lose the thread.

Wolf's book is a fascinating introduction to some of the odder theories of modern quantum mechanics, exploring everything from black holes and cosmology to that Zen-like riddle, if there is no one present to observe an action, does the action still occur? His prose is highly readable, clear and precise and admirably suited to bringing the bewildering puzzles of his subject matter down to layman's terms without making the non-specialist feel like a moron.

Crowley's writing, on the other hand, gets so dense in one of Novelty's four stories -- the near future sf tale "In Blue" -- that this reader, at least, was left baffled and backtracking through its pages. Far more successful are "Why the Nightingale Sings at Night", a sweet fable about the loss of innocence, and the title piece that takes the reader into the mind of a writer desperately searching for a story that matters. And, of course, rounding off the quartet of stories, is the aforementioned "Great Work of Time" which will undoubtedly be ranked with the all-time classic time travel stories....

Unless someone goes back and changes things....

The Hour of the Dragon         [****]
Robert E. Howard
Donald M. Grant, Publisher, Inc, 1989; 247pp; $30.00, 0-937986-86-0

With the lame Hollywood version of the character, not to mention the endless parade of posthumous collaborations and outright pastiches added to the canon over the years, it's sometimes hard to remember just how entertaining Robert E. Howard's Conan stories are. You have to strip away all that excess baggage mentioned above and go right back to the original, untampered-with stories to do that and I can't think of a better place to do so than with the Donald M. Grant Deluxe Conan Editions series.

From 1974, when they first published The People of the Black Circle, through to 1979's Jewels of Gwahlur, Grant produced nine uniform titles in the series. Like all Grant books, they were beautifully made books, illustrated and on acid-free paper, reprinting Howard's material from its original sources, rather than the "edited" versions that have appeared over the years from Lancer, et al. In 1986, after a seven year break, we finally got The Pool of the Black One, and with this year's The Hour of the Dragon -- the only real novel-length Conan story Howard wrote, the series is finally complete.

Now I know there's better writers out there in the great world of letters, but as with Burroughs, it wasn't the author's stylistic nuances that readers sought in their work, but their sheer storytelling skill. And that's what, as one goes back to these Grant Conan editions, one finds in Howard's work. He was first and foremost a storyteller, and one of the best when it comes to this style of adventure writing.

It's also true that the lone barbarian who shuns magic, the awful demons, sorcerers and monsters, the bloody plots themselves might seem stereotypical, but do remember, that's only because over the years all these other writers have ridden piggyback on what, when this material first appeared, was fresh and innovative. The derogative remarks that are often leveled against heroic fantasy -- and Howard in particular -- are usually as misinformed as the two young boys I overheard in an sf shop a year or so ago who belittled Tolkien's work because he was -- and I quote -- "just a Terry Brooks rip-off".

Grant is preserving a slice of our field's history with this handsome series, and for my money, you'll have to go a long way to find as entertaining an adventure series as the original Conan stories.

End of lecture. Now why don't you go read one of the books instead? If your local bookstore doesn't carry them, you can order them directly from the publisher at P.O. Box 187, Hampton Falls, NH 03844.

Doris Lessing's Canopus in Argos Fantasy in the Mainstream

Doris Lessing is one of the leading writers in the world today. Her reputation rests on books like The Golden Notebook and The Four-Gated City which deal with great themes of modern civilization. So it was something of a shock when she announced in 1979 that she was writing a series of science fiction novels. The literary establishment blasted Lessing for wasting her time in such a low-class genre, in some cases not waiting for the first book to appear. The science fiction establishment, on the other hand, read the first book and then blasted it for not being "real" science fiction. Since then, all five volumes of Lessing's Canopus in Argos series have appeared to rather mixed reviews. Many critics on both sides of the fence have given at least one of the novels favorable reviews, although I have yet to meet anyone who liked all five books. Opinions on the individual books also vary; if there is a pattern to who likes the first novel and who hates it, I haven't been able to figure it out. This essay is an attempt to describe the series and hopefully give potential readers some idea of whether they will like it or not.

Canopus in Argos consists of five novels set in a common universe and sharing several characters: Shikasta; The Marriages Between Zones Three, Four, and Five; The Sirian Experiments; The Making of the Representative from Planet 8; and The Sentimental Agents. Any of the five novels can be read independently of the others, although I recommend Shikasta as the easiest starting place.

Shikasta is, on its surface, the story of three galactic empires wrestling for control of the planet Shikasta (their name for Earth). The three empires are Canopus, Sirius, and Shammat, and their maneuverings are the basis of the series. The tactics they use on Shikasta are fairly typical of their operations in the other books. The Canopeans are the good guys; their only concern is for the welfare of all, they are all of one mind, and they refuse to resort to base tactics to gain their ends. They attempt to colonize Shikasta with specially bred intelligent creatures who will evolve into a race in harmony with the universe. (This is done before humanity evolves; in fact, we evolve from these creatures.) To ensure harmony, they establish a supply line of SOWF (substance-of-we-feeling), a very important substance. The Sirians are a race of somewhat amoral scientists. They manage events for their own self interest, conducting experiments to find the optimal strategies. Their evolutionary tactics are similar to the Canopeans, although their subjects are not volunteers. They also make various attempts to subvert Canopus' creatures to their will. Shammat is a planet of space pirates. They want power for its own sake, and are willing to use any means to get it. On Shikasta, they start by blocking the SOWF supply. This not only makes the evolving creatures aggressive, but it affects Canopeans and Sirians visiting Shikasta. After humans have evolved from the Canopean creatures and Sirian experiments, Shammat moves to propaganda, totalitarianism, and other less subtle measures.

Most of the plot of Shikasta involves the three empires influencing human affairs in the late twentieth century. Sirius and Shammat must rely on conventional spies and agent provocateurs. Canopus has another option: their agents can be born into human bodies, sort of as the person's soul. This is done by passing through spiritual realms known as Zones 1 through 6 and finally entering the embryo. Although only briefly described, this is one of the most fantastic (in both senses of the word) parts of the novel. Most of the Canopean characters in Shikasta have been reborn in this way. The second half of the novel follows these agents as the world staggers toward World War III. The major themes of Shikasta include the dangers of totalitarian systems and the value of cooperation.

The Marriages Between Zones Three, Four, and Five takes place in the spiritual realms mentioned above. Sirius and Shammat are not present, but Canopus is. Here Canopeans appear as disembodied voices ordering the inhabitants around to create harmony. The zones become more primitive as the number goes higher, causing conflicts. Canopus smooths these arguments by arranging the marriages of the title. Not surprisingly, many of the conflicts reflect problems between men and women in our world. The overall effect is a fairy tale about relationships.

The Sirian Experiments chronicles the colonization of Shikasta from the Sirian point of view. There is a lot of time overlap with Shikasta, but surprisingly little plot overlap. Instead, this novel is about Canopus' influence on the Sirian empire, again driving it to harmony. The narrator of the novel is Ambien II, one of "The Five," a secret council controlling Sirius' figurehead democratically elected government. Her duties bring her in contact with Klorathy, a Canopean diplomat, again and again. Eventually, these meetings begin to effect Ambien II and, through her, the rest of Sirius. For this is how Canopus operates: rather than commanding directly, they show others how much better their system is, and let the others chose it freely. Most of the action is not overt, but simply the changes in Ambien II's character over time.

The Making of the Representative for Planet 8 again shows Canopus guiding the development of a planet. This time there is no interference from Sirius or Shammat, but there are other complications. The planet is entering an ice age that will wipe out the entire sentient population. Canopus is helpless to stop the physical destruction of the race, but there is still some good that they can do for the race's spirit. Themes of duty and helping others run through this book, as well as a sense of inevitable destruction.

Finally, The Sentimental Agents shows Canopus, Sirius, and Shammat again battling for influence over a planet. In this case it is the Volyen empire, a small stellar empire that is rapidly breaking up politically. Both Sirius and Shammat are unleashing their heaviest propaganda to influence the inhabitants. Most of the story revolves around Incent, a Canopean who is seduced by these messages. The book itself is a tract against propaganda and other rhetoric.

Are these books any good? That isn't an easy question to answer. I'm going to try to answer it from several different viewpoints, hoping that you will get an overall picture of the series.

As hard science fiction, Canopus in Argos fails miserably. Faster-than- light travel is used with no explanation. Evolution occurs in thousands of years rather than millions. Glaciers form on a world with only one lake (and a small one, at that). And this doesn't count things like getting the rotation of a planet backwards. Almost nothing is explained and what is explained is unconvincing.

As straight fantasy, only The Marriages Between Zones Three, Four, and Five worked for me. All of the other books seemed to be set on contemporary Earth, including those explicitly set on other planets. Marriages had a definite storybook feel to it and a structure like many fairy tales.

For strict realism, I don't think any of the books quite work. Governments are uniformly nasty totalitarian regimes with extensive spy and propaganda networks. While some might find this realistic, I thought it went a bit far. Similar comments apply to large-scale extraterrestrial interference with a planet's affairs. Parts of Shikasta and The Sirian Experiments did remind me of South American magic realism, although this wasn't the impression that the novels left as a whole.

As myths and allegories, Canopus in Argos fares somewhat better. The Marriages Between Zones Three, Four, and Five has a fairy tale quality to it, but it reflects directly on relations between men and women here on Earth. Shikasta strikes me as a myth about life on Earth rather than a realistic novel. This mythic feel is most noticeable in the early parts of the book, when Canopus is seeding life on the new planet. The Sirian Experiments contains some myth-like sequences similar to Shikasta. Finally, one could probably read The Making of the Representative from Planet 8 as an allegory about facing disaster, although I'm not sure this reading improves the book.

As far as ideas go, Canopus in Argos is a mixed bag. Lessing has an idea of a "group mind" that runs through the series. Essentially, this is a group of individuals in such close agreement that all their actions can be for the good of the group rather than individual concerns. While this in and of itself is an interesting idea, the handling here is much less intriguing. Lessing's Briefing for a Descent into Hell also deals with the group mind idea, and in my opinion does a better job of it. The Canopeans embody the group mind faultlessly; they are also boring. They have no individuality except when they succumb to some "mental illness" (like Shammat interfering with the SOWF supply); then they act irrationally. Canopus' benevolent care of other races is designed to bring them into the group mind. This sounds good in theory, but one could be forgiven for wondering if the races lose their free will in the bargain. This relates to another problem that bothered me: the amount of influence that Canopus, Sirius, and Shammat wield over Shikasta. To judge from these books, all the world's ills and most of its good points are caused by visiting aliens. Even when the aliens are good I'd prefer that humans have some control over their own destinies. Balancing these problems, however, Canopus in Argos does make some good points: the power of words in The Sentimental Agents, the workings of governments in Shikasta and The Sirian Experiments, architecture as an influence on mental health in Shikasta. While some of these ideas are not handled very subtly, they are food for thought.

I'd recommend Canopus in Argos to people who want to think about what they are reading. If you are looking for escapist reading material, this series isn't for you. My ratings for the individual books are as follows:

o Shikasta [****] - Read it first to get a feel for the series.

o The Marriages Between Zones Three, Four, and Five [***] - Different enough from the rest of the series that you might like it but none of the others.

o The Sirian Experiments [****] - If you liked Shikasta you'll probably like this too.

o The Making of the Representative from Planet 8 [**] - Not much to recommend it.

o The Sentimental Agents [**] - Propaganda against propaganda.

I'll also mention in passing that Lessing's Briefing for a Descent into Hell rates [****+]. It deals with the idea of group minds (and much else besides), but is not connected with Canopus in Argos.

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Issue 25, Summer/Fall 1989 (part 6)

Electronic OtherRealms #25
Summer/Fall, 1989
Part 6 of 17

Odds 'n' Ends

Last time everything was more or less the same. Which is great if you happen to like a steady diet of the same sort of thing. This time there's something for everyone: semi-serious SF, dark fantasy, light fantasy, and war story.

Software [***+]
Rudy Rucker
Avon, 167 pp, 1982, 0-380-70177-4

In the kingdom of cyberpunk novels, Rudy Rucker is something like the court jester -- irreverent, rude, sometimes corny, always risque. Underneath the farce, though, is something worth listening to. Software is not his best work but if, like me, you're interested in robots, AI, and the problems of consciousness, it's a nice addition to your shelves.

Software is a novel about programs, the kind that drive our bodies and the kind that drive computers. Rucker juxtaposes a decaying human society, top-heavy with aged baby-boomers, against an infant robotic society coming to grips with its own evolution. Sounds weighty? It's not. Rucker's a jester and, even though he breaks into Narrator's Voice on occasion, he keeps things amusing for most of the novel.

The main characters are an old pheezer (freaky geezer) named Cobb Anderson and a young wastrel who insists on being called Sta-Hi, an apt description of his only talent in life. Cobb is the man who, to the dismay of humanity, created robots with the potential to evolve self- awareness. Humans were unable to directly create artificial intelligences but Cobb, by simulating evolutionary processes, created conditions out of which AIs could emerge. Naturally, people didn't want to lose their slaves, so they've banished the rebellious machines to the moon. So it's something of a surprise when a robot who looks remarkably like Cobb shows up in Florida offering him an all-expenses-paid trip to the moon.

It seems that some of the larger robots have decided that they need recorded human brain patterns. Just as humans were unable to create intelligence by themselves, the evolved intelligences of the robots cannot produce other creatures with the spark of self-awareness. In order to continue along the path toward unified consciousness, the robots are looking for a few good men. The process of recording the brain patterns is destructive but, since the robots have promised Cobb an all-but-immortal mechanical body to house his consciousness, he's willing to go along with the plan. He and Sta-Hi set off for the moon. Unfortunately, they arrive in the middle of an anarchist revolution. The little boppers, not wanting to be absorbed into the group consciousness that the larger robots are trying to impose, are rebelling.

Rucker pontificates a bit and some of the puns are truly awful, but the action is good and the ideas are excellent. People who are not 'into' computers and the problems of self-consciousness will probably get less out of this book than those who are into it.

Fairie Tale [***]
Raymond Feist
Bantam fantasy, 435 pp, 1988, 0-553-27783-9

Faeries are not nice people. Not cute, not funny. They're an alien species living in, at best, an uneasy truce with mankind. At worst, they're implacable enemies of humanity. Like the jacket blurb says: not all fairy tales are for children.

The story revolves around the family of Phil Hastings, his wife, college-age daughter, and young twin sons. They have purchased a farmhouse in upstate New York and are living there for the summer. Phil is trying to write a novel, his daughter Gabbie is trying to fall in love with Jack Cole, a doctoral student. The twins, Patrick and Sean, are trying to find someone to play baseball with and Gloria, their mother, is trying to keep order in the house. Then the Magic comes.

It starts off simply enough: under the Troll Bridge in the woods is a Bad Thing. Sean and Patrick know it's there even though none of the adults seem to be aware of it, and they can avoid it. Unfortunately, it seems to have quite an interest in them, showing up in their bedroom and frightening them badly. Meanwhile, the adults are engrossed in unravelling the mystery of the house. It seems to have been the refuge of a mysteriously-rich immigrant who left Germany in something of a hurry after a period of odd activities there. The hunters are aided by Mark and Gary, a pair of professional oddity-investigators who make their livings tracking down mysteries and publishing books on their findings.

As the house's secrets are being unravelled, it becomes more and more obvious that odd things are going on. First, Gabbie has her horse's shoe fixed by a mystery blacksmith, then Patrick is swept by a flash flood under the Troll Bridge and badly injured by the Bad Thing. Finally, Gabbie is nearly raped by what, to all appearances, is a particularly vicious teenager. From there the plot accelerates as the family is caught up in the faeries' machinations.

Feist does a good job of portraying people hopelessly outclassed by the Magic forces arrayed against them. He switches to the faerie point of view long enough for the reader to get a sense of the importance of actions which are not apparent to the family members. As the trouble worsens, no wizards or heroes show up to help the family out. They have to make do with Mark's parapsychological research and the maunderings of a drunk Irishman who remembers the old legends well. The adults staunchly refuse to give up their rationalistic explanations for what's happening, leaving the children to deal with the situation.

Unfortunately, the novel is marred by a number of problems. For all that Feist pushes the Magic aspects, he seems unwilling to allow that to be an explanation. The characters keep talking about "energy beings" and "alien races," as if Feist thought that were a more logical explanation. The first seventy-five or so pages move very slowly as a lot of time is spent introducing characters without really making them distinct. Feist's style is a bit pedantic; he spends too much time telling you what's happening instead of showing it. The ending also has a logical flaw in it that makes it look like the author was trying to take the easy way to tie up a loose end.

The good points and the bad just about balance out. I'd have liked something exceptional for the effort of reading 400 pages, but you can't have everything.

The Story of the Stone [****+]
Barry Hughart
Doubleday hardcover, 236 p, 1988, 0-385-24636-6

Putting The Story of the Stone in the same 'genre' as Fairie Tale makes me wonder about the usefulness of genre labels. It would be hard to think of two books less alike. Hughart's specialty is humorous tales of a China that never was. His first novel, Bridge of Birds won a well- deserved World Fantasy Award. The characters from that book -- Number Ten Ox and Master Li -- return in this story. While this one isn't quite up to the caliber of the first, it's still a fun book.

For those who haven't read the first book, go out and find it. This one will make much more sense if you have. Hughart doesn't assume that you've read that one, but the background explanations in The Story of the Stone are pretty sparse. The in-jokes are also funnier if you're in on them from the beginning.

This book tells the story of a mysterious and powerful stone, a prize people are willing to kill for. It is also the story of the Laughing Prince, an ancient evil ruler who appears to have risen from the dead. Li and Ox are initially hired to investigate the death of a monk in the monastery of the Valley of Sorrows. The monk has lost his life over a document that, while appearing rare, is actually a fairly obvious forgery. Clearly there's more to the monk's death than initially meets the eye, and our heros are soon off on a quest to discover who has murdered the monk and why. Along the way they meet the usual quotient of magic, madmen, schemers and innocents. Saying any more would, I'm afraid, ruin the plot.

Those who have read Bridge of Birds are apt to be taken somewhat aback by the prologue and first couple of chapters of this book. They're written in a harsh and unexpectedly brusque style. It's almost as though it took a while for the author to settle back into the characters. In addition, there's an ongoing rant about Neo-Confucianism running through the whole book. I'm sure it's supposed to be an allegory for something, but for me it just detracted from the enjoyment of the book.

Even with these weak points, I still found The Story of the Stone enjoyable exciting light fantasy and I look forward to seeing what Hughart will do next.

The Healer's War [****-]
Elizabeth Ann Scarborough
Doubleday, 303 pp, 1988, 0-385-24828-8

There's a lot to be said for anyone who has the guts to try and write honestly about her experiences in the Vietnam war. For anyone who wants to get some idea of what China Beach was really like or of what it meant being an Army nurse in Nam, this book is for you. It's not exceptionally gross, but it's not prettied up either. Elizabeth Ann Scarborough, a Vietnam vet and former nurse, doesn't pull a lot of punches in this one.

Add to that the fact that she's not writing her own story, or even a purely factual one: she's writing a fantasy novel, weaving in the elements of a native Vietnamese healer and his magic. Combining these two ideas is a tall order. Scarborough succeeds partway; the book has flaws, but my hat is definitely off to her for her audacity and honesty.

The book tells the story of Lieutenant Kitty McCulley, a midwestern girl with a family and a prospective boyfriend at home. She writes frequent cheerful lies to her mother to shield the old woman from the horrors of the war; her boyfriend gets the real stuff, when Kitty can bear to write it.

Kitty treats both the GIs and the Vietnamese. The former leave quickly and don't play a large part in her life. The latter, however, stay as long as they can, trying to heal before being shoved back out into the war. This gives the hospital staff a chance to become attached to them.

One day an old man appears on the Vietnamese side of the ward. He has lost both legs and is clearly dying, yet he keeps trying to help the other patients. His power is somehow connected to an amulet which he always wears. When the doctors make him take it off for surgery, he insists that Kitty wear it. She discovers that it allows her to see auras and that it amplifies her natural healing tendencies to unnatural levels. By using her energy, she can effect miraculous cures of everything from broken nails to infected amputations. Before the old man dies, he passes the amulet on to her.

I had a hard time getting started with this book; the pace is extremely slow for almost the entire first half. A lot of characters who aren't very important to the story are introduced in great detail while those who are important tend to stay enigmatic. I suspect that many of the minor players are drawn from the author's experiences. The important characters, with the exception of Kitty, seem to be creations and therefore less detailed.

In addition, Scarborough spends a good deal of effort on describing the surroundings and setting from the nurses' quarters to China Beach to the Vietnamese jungle and villages. While this gives the book its unshakeable feel of authenticity it further slows the pace of the action. It also had the unfortunate side effect of distancing me from Kitty. At times when I most wanted to be drawn in, I found myself sitting back admiring the book like I'd admire a painting in a museum.

Still, this is a far cry from most of the war stories that find their way onto the fantasy shelves and I recommend it.

Past Imagining: Forgotten Classics

World Out of Mind by J.T. McIntosh
The Sentinel Stars by Louis Charbonneau
Costigan's Needle by Jerry Sohl
A Scourge of Screamers by Daniel F. Galouye
The Circus of Dr. Lao, by Charles G. Finney

I couldn't remember the title or the author, but for years I remembered the story. It was one of the very first novels I ever read; I think I was eight. It was the story of Eldin Raigmore, a man with no past, and his rise in a society where social status is completely dependent upon one's performance in a series of tests of intelligence, creativity, character, morality, etc. I looked for it half-heartedly for years -- half-heartedly because I was afraid it wouldn't be as good as I remembered.

I found it; it's World Out of Mind, by the much-maligned and underrated Scottish SF writer J.T. McIntosh, published in the U.S. under the name J.T. McIntosh so as not to look so foreign. And if it's not quite the great epic I remembered, it's still a fine novel in the pulp tradition, with its stratified society of Browns, Purples, Reds, Yellows, and Whites, sub-graded as Circles, Crosses, and Stars, threatened by emotionless alien spies working from within. It's naive by modern standards, but a good read all around. It was a Science Fiction Book Club selection, and can be found in either paperback or book club edition in the used book stores.

I know now that The Sentinel Stars owes a lot to the classic dystopias of 1984 and Brave New World, but I read it before I read either of them, so I didn't care. It's an odd combination of the two; most of the world is a drab, oppressive 1984-style world state where citizens labor to whittle away their tax debts. However, there is hope, a goal they're working toward -- Freeman status. That's right, when one's debt is paid, one is free to live in one of the special freeman reservations, where nobody works, where there are endless entertainments -- and occasional bits of nastiness that the workers don't hear about, as it might harm the idyllic image, and where the real danger is terminal boredom.

TRH-247 is an ordinary citizen who finds himself tangled in the truth behind the idealized image of the freeman camps, involved in an illicit romance with ABC-331, and just generally running afoul of the entire system.

This was a 40" Bantam paperback, one of dozens they churned out in the sixties, but it's one that stands out in my memory as being a notch or two better than the rest.

Costigan had invented a gadget that did something amazing; things that went through the "eye" of the needle-shaped device didn't come out the other side. At least, not in our world. They did come out somewhere, though.

The local religious fanatics considered this tampering with other worlds to be diabolical, and during the first critical testing of the first man-sized "needle" (prototypes had been little table-top models) one of them threw a monkey wrench in the works.

The resulting power surge put the entire population of a one-block radius around the needle into a harsh alternate reality where survival was difficult. Costigan's Needle is a "survival" novel in the tradition of Heinlein's Tunnel in the Sky (except I believe Needle is the older, actually) or Tom Godwin's Space Prison, where a bunch of people are thrown into a hostile environment and not all make it to the end of the novel. In Costigan's Needle there's the added twist that they know how to build a needle that might get them back -- if they can get their technology to a high enough level in time.

Daniel Galouye's writing career was aborted in 1973, apparently as a result of an argument with his publisher, Bantam. Before he left the field, however, he produced a series of midlist novels that were pretty nifty. The best, in my opinion, was A Scourge of Screamers, in 1968.

For no known reason, people all over the world suddenly burst out screaming in anguish; is it a plague of some sort? Is it a new weapon? What is it?

It's the onset of zylphing, a result of rault previously obscured by the huge Saggitarian dust-clouds that block Earth's view of the galactic core, rault that's now getting through. It's a new means of perception. Why the screaming? Imagine if you had grown up in total, absolute darkness, having functional eyes but not knowing that you did, never seeing anything, having no concept of light or vision -- and then suddenly you're plunged into brilliant displays of light and color. You'd scream, too. It's a nifty idea done well.

I almost didn't include The Circus of Dr. Lao in this, because unlike the others, just about everyone who has ever read this acknowledges it to be a classic. Even so, far too many people out there (and you know who you are) haven't read it.

Well, you should. It's been reprinted several times, either by itself or with other stories; I originally read it in an anthology edited by Ray Bradbury, but the copy now on my shelves treats it as a complete novel. It's an awkward length -- just under 50,000 words, where novels are generally considered 60,000 and up, and novellas are 20,000 to 45,000. That may have something to do with its not having gotten the attention it deserves.

If you've seen the movie version, The Seven Faces of Dr. Lao, don't think you know the story, because you don't, and it wouldn't matter if you did; it's one of the most literary fantasies ever produced, and needs to be read.

Written in 1935, in the depths of the Depression, it's the tale of the very strange circus that arrives mysteriously in Abalone, Arizona one day, a circus run by an odd little Chinaman named Dr. Lao and featuring attractions that are much more real than anyone can quite deal with -- when they realize just what the attractions are at all.

It's a story of mysteries -- most of them never explained -- and of how people deal with mysteries -- usually, by ignoring them. The whole thing is written in a cynical style that's at odds with what's being described, giving a peculiar result indeed, epitomized by the weird "Catalogue" at the end -- "An explanation of the obvious which must be read to be appreciated" -- which lists the characters, starting with the more or less human ones and working down to the foodstuffs, which also, as it happens, include a human or two.

This is really simply indescribable; the author drew on extensive travels in China and Mexico as well as experiences in the American Southwest, and seems to have managed to put everything he ever did or believed into this one story -- which virtually no writer ever manages. If you haven't read it, you should; there have been many editions over the years, both hardcover and paperback, so you should be able to find one.

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Issue 25, Summer/Fall 1989 (part 7)

Electronic OtherRealms #25
Summer/Fall, 1989
Part 7 of 17

Much Rejoicing

Episode 10: The Dream Machine

Virtual Reality Arrives! VPL Research, Inc. and Silicon Graphics, Inc. are showing the worlds first Virtual Reality (VR) product, called the RB2, or Reality Built for 2. -- Advertising flyer circulated (among other places) at SIGGRAPH '89.

Friends and neighbors, the above is from a real advertising flyer. If you have read Stewart Brand's excellent volume The Media Lab, you know what VR systems are: a means of inducing three-dimensional interactive pictures by mechanical means. You choose your own hallucination.

Of course, some of us have been messing with the ideas behind virtual reality for a long time. Centuries. There's one very effective VR technology that's been with us since the days of Babylon, and probably much, much longer.

It is called storytelling. Come with me to the caves of our earliest human ancestors. See them, around the fire, as Thog the Bold, son of Thud the Dead, tells the story of the great mammoth hunt. The flames leap and crackle as he raises his hand to cast the first virtual spear, and the people gasp when he tells them how he missed his cast. He moves so they see him only through the smoke.

The people listen raptly as he tells how the angry, wounded mammoth turned to charge. He cringes, imitating his own terror. Suddenly he lets out a horrible trumpeting cry -- it is the sound of the mammoth itself! The people are terrified! The meat makes a crackling sound and a greasy smell, roasting on the spit; the people know he lived, but how?

They are caught up in the spell of his story, a virtual reality machine, and if you look carefully you can see them looking off to the side when he points -- that is where his son Thok the Crafty was hiding. When he tells how Thok leapt out and plunged his spear deep into the mammoth's belly, the people grin with expectation of the blood that flowed out; and they drool a bit at the thought of the mammoth meat to come. They can almost taste it already.

They jump, a little, when he tries to make with his mouth the sound of its massive body hitting the ground.

There. If I was at all successful, there, your sensorium was briefly caught up in my VR device, my story about Thog. If not, at least you can see what I mean by imagining his tribes' reactions; and you can undoubtedly think of some author who has been successful for you -- some author who made you see his world, taste the food his characters ate, feel wind on your face or pain in your gut.

That is virtual reality at its low-tech finest. Someday a machine may be able to do it better; I suppose it's inevitable. But for now and for some time to come there's no machine that can give you the sense of reality a good storyteller makes part of his routine. A book is a little dream machine, a guided hallucination, a virtual journey through the kingdoms of another person's mind.

From the sublime...

Storytellers who can create and sustain such dreams at novel length are too rare, and their appearance on the scene should be greeted with shouts of joy and dancing in the streets. Let me then add my voice to those who have sung Hallelujah to the appearance on the SF scene of David Zindell and his first novel, Neverness (Bantam 0-553-27903-3, $4.95). The names appearing on the cover range from Orson Scott Card to Michael Bishop to Ed Bryant to Gene Wolfe.

It is this last name I'd invoke most in looking for comparisons for Zindell: he seems to be the first "post-Wolfean" science fiction author, in that he's managed to capture some of Wolfe's technique. His richness of creation is superb; his characters, fully-fleshed. The narrator, like Severian and to a lesser extent Latro, pauses to ruminate on the deep questions of existence. The plotting is heroic; things you barely notice at first take on considerable significance, and the book's parts reflect each other like the facets of an inside-mirrored Fuller dome.

Zindell doesn't have the stylistic facility of Wolfe, perhaps, but neither did Wolfe when he began. I've rarely read a first novel that came this close to perfection.

So someone out there says: "Oh, shut up with the praise, already, and tell us what the goddamn thing is about."

What it's about is the quest for meaning in life. Mankind has been a starfaring race for twenty thousand years, and is still questing for the secret of existence. Who are we, why are we born to suffer and die, that sort of question. Star travel is ruled by a rigid "Order of Mystic Mathematicians and Other Seekers of the Ineffable Flame."

Mystical, yes, but this is applied mysticism. They include Pilots, who prove the theorems that let ships fall between stars; Akashics, who can read the information in a human brain; Scryers, who can see the future through their blinded eyesockets; Remembrancers, who follow the trail of genetic memory through their ancestors; and many more. Over all rules the Lord Timekeeper (shades of the Ticktockman!).

Mallory Ringess, a young Pilot of doubtful origins, becomes a Journeyman at a most propitious time: the Lord Pilot, his uncle, has returned with a message from the mysterious Ieldra. Mallory makes a rash vow to invade the nebula known as the Solid State Entity, one of the so-called Silicon Gods, to search for the meaning of that message -- which promises an answer to the great question of life.

In the course of Neverness, Mallory meets a collection of strange beings, from the Entity itself to the Alaloi, who have mutated themselves to resemble Neanderthals. From each he learns an important piece of the truth about himself, and, finally, decodes the message of the Ieldra. The imponderables are pondered and even answered; and, while the answers may not be right, they are satisfying.

On the way there is blood, death, birth, pain, suffering, and occasional joy. On the way there is love, hate, and conflict between son and father. On the way Mallory becomes nearly godlike, a condition that is almost a cliche in science fiction, but which is carried off with such skill and freshness that you don't even notice the cliche while you're reading, because it isn't a power fantasy. Not at all.

Do I rave? Do I babble? Very well, then; I rave and babble. This is a book to rave and babble about, as fresh and important as Life During Wartime, or Dhalgren, or Neuromancer were when they appeared.

...To the ridiculous...

I must have done something really awful in a previous life. I don't know what it is, but I know it must have earned me some really bad karma, because Chuq, now and then, is the instrument of my punishment. He sends me some amazingly good books (there are a few of them coming up in this column), but he also sends me some...things.

The latest, um, gift was a set of galley proofs for a book claiming to be the first in a new series about Bill the Galactic Hero. It was called Planet of the Robot Slaves, by Harry Harrison. (Avon, 0-380-75661-7, $3.95)

This fascinated the hell out of me. If Robot Slaves was the first in the series, what was the book called Bill the Galactic Hero, which I'd read some years ago and enjoyed? And where did it fit in?

Answer: it was a victim, as are we all. Bill the Galactic Hero was a moderately funny satire on militaristic space operas, from Starship Troopers to the Foundation books. This series, if Robot Slaves is any indication, is a travesty.

The humor ranges from third to fifth grade in its maturity. At its very best, it is redolent of MAD magazine crossed with Sam J. Lundwall; at its worst, it is unreadable. The story picks up where Bill left off, and ends in pretty much the same place. In between, Bill and a set of poorly-concocted supporting characters have some pointless adventures on a planet full of robotic creatures. All the simpleminded jokes are there, from drinking oil to... Well, you get the idea. Things aren't helped by the intrusion, for no apparent reason, of a pathetic parody of John Carter of Barsoom.

The lowest point on the sagging hyperbole, however, is the techie character introduced so that his memories can serve as a jab at William Gibson. His name, believe it or not, is Cy berPunk. It goes downhill from there.

I don't know whether Harrison has lost all semblance of taste, or if this was a quick for-the-money knock-off, but the word "Sophomoric" springs to mind, and then recoils in horror. Don't touch this one with a ten foot Czech.

...To the Professional and Competent

Q: What's bigger than a ringworld and has a sequel? A: I don't know, but there's one crawling up your back.

Actually, it's not only bigger than a ringworld, it's a better book. It's called Orbitsville, and Bob Shaw wrote it, which is why it's a much better book. (Baen, 0-671-69816-8, $2.95)

It is better because it has characters, and a plot. In Ringworld, as you may recall, Louis Wu goes to the Magic Place with a bunch of people and aliens and says ooh and ahh and has some adventures and comes home, essentially unchanged. It's a wonder-journey and, as far as it goes, a pretty neat one, but its isn't much of a story.

Now Orbitsville is a story in the classic mode of Faerie. Our Hero steals a starship, complete with crew, to take his family and escape from the Evil Witch Who Rules Earth, who hates him for something he didn't even do. Searching for a safe place he finds the Magic Place.

The Magic Place is bigger and scarier than the Ringworld: it's a Dyson sphere, the artifact proposed by Freeman Dyson for a Stage III civilization, using the full resources of a sun. What's scarier about it is that Shaw has a real, gut-level feeling for how &#!! BIG the thing is, and how small people are. And, most important, he has come up with the most frighteningly plausible reason I've ever seen for why a culture powerful enough to build one would bother.

Recommended, as is the sequel, Orbitsville Departure. Neither is the Second Coming of Heinlein, but they're both good reads. Hey, what do you want for under five dollars?

Sex and drugs and wrack and ruin

Then there's this guy name of John Shirley. He looks and talks like an overage hippie, but I wouldn't want to get him mad at me. He might put me in one of his stories. If you don't know what that means, you haven't read the bizarre A Splendid Chaos, or the odd City Come A-Walking, or the chillingly savvy but rather dull Eclipse Penumbra.

But, like William Gibson, like many of the c-word writers, he really shines like a polished pinball at the short lengths. He specializes in an intensity of imagery and weird that is damn near impossible to maintain at novel length. (His only total success in that line has been Chaos; Gibson hasn't had one yet.) So why only now, after ten years, that we are finally getting a collection of his short stories?

I don't know: but Heatseeker (Scream/Press, 0-910489-26-2, $25.00) was worth the wait. And then some.

Lavishly (and strangely) illustrated in glorious black-and-white by Harry O. Morris, Heatseeker contains some of the most gutwrenchingly peculiar fiction I've ever read. It also contains an excerpt from Eclipse Penumbra, but that holds up surprisingly well when it's taken out of its context of political lecture.

The book opens with a barrage of images called "What Cindy Saw." This is essentially Heinlein's "Them" updated and upscaled -- the heroine is a mental patient who suffers delusions of seeing what's behind ordinary reality -- only they aren't delusions. But where Heinlein was satisfied with the little frisson of discovery, at the predictable end, that the shrinks are part of the conspiracy, "Cindy" begins when her belief- system is confirmed in the living room. (This last sentence contains one (1) grotesque pun, but you won't get it unless you read the story.)

The second story, "Under the Generator," is equally unsettling. After "Cindy" I knew I would have to put this book down between stories; by the middle of "Generator," I had to recover in mid-story. You know how old science fiction movie folks would discover the secret... of life... itself, nyaaahhaaahhaaah? Well, these people have discovered the secret of death itself, and they're using it to run the nation's power grid. And then Shirley manages to pull an upbeat ending out of this... No, I won't tell you how.

I'm sorely tempted to go through story-by-story; it's that good. But that would take too much space, and I can probably do better by listing a few of the titles: "Tahiti in Terms of Squares." Or "I Live in Elizabeth," and he doesn't mean New Jersey. Or, my favorite, "Recurrent Dreams of Nuclear War Lead B.T. Quizenbaum Into Moral Dissolution." Now that's a title.

Don't hold your breath for a paperback edition of this one. It wasn't just worth the wait, it's worth the 25 smackers.

They Came to... party!

Yow! Aliens invade Earth! Party all night! Film at 11.

It sounds like a combination of Zippy the Pinhead and Philip K. Dick. And maybe that's what it is. Or maybe not.

The guy who sold me Michael Kandel's Strange Invasion (Bantam/Spectra, 0-443-28146-1, $3.95) told me it was a first novel. I had trouble accepting this; his name seemed so damn familiar. The reason is simple: for years, he's been the best translator of Stanislaw Lem in the field, a man who could translate successfully a sonnet where every word began with an "S" (see The Cyberiad).

Strange Invasion shows that he's learned something, at least about style and idea, from laboring in the fields of Lem. It's a witty and vicious and very, very funny book about the end of civilization as we know it. Our Hero is a recently-released mental patient, who still hallucinates regularly. (He's also, uh, not too bright.) This tends to make him a bit dubious about the aliens who tell him he's the only hope for mankind to survive the coming alien invasion.

But, it appears, he is. They come in strange droves -- the first arrive in South America, where Wally (the hero) must defeat a bunch of gourds who want to party, with only a Marxist toucan to help him. Others, with equally unlikely physiologies, want to sleep, or to study. All are dangerous beyond belief -- not because they are destructive per se, but because humans exposed to them tend to contract their obsessions.

And, remarkably, he succeeds. For a time. But the successive gangs of aliens get tougher and more insidious, and Wally is only one man... and he gets tireder and tireder.

Will Wally save the earth? Will mankind survive the last and most hideous invasion?

Of course not. But, frankly, who cares?

I don't know why the ending of Strange Invasion isn't depressing. It has all the earmarks of New-Wave-post-holocaust-everything's-gone-to-hell- in-a-handbasket fiction, but I kept giggling right down the the last line on the book. Perhaps it's because Wally keeps hallucinating weird shit right to the end. Or perhaps its because the survivalists get theirs.

Great art it isn't, exactly, but in a field where humor is generally measured by merde like The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy and "The Trouble with Tribbles" and Planet of the fergodssake Robot Slaves, the intrusion of the genuinely funny is a welcome relief.

The Happy Hooker?

When I was a kid, we had this poem. It went like this:

"Spider, spider, on the wall,
ain't you got no sense at all?
Can't you see the wall's been plastered?
Get off the wall, you little bastard?"

Somehow that came to mind when I read Spider Robinson's newest "Callahan's Place" book.

I'm really sad to be saying that, because I like Spider's work. I even liked the third "Callahan's" book, which everyone yelled at for being a "betrayal" of the Callahan's principal. (I disagree vehemently.)

Well.

In the intro to that book, Robinson observed regretfully that he seemed to have committed a trilogy (the "t-word," was how he put it). In a world full of such, I guess I can understand how he'd feel that way, but he made a boo-boo. You don't cure a trilogy by making it four books.

Especially when the fourth book is a travesty.

But guess what Spider did...?

Sigh.

See, it's called Callahan's Lady (Ace, 0-441-09073-7, $16.95), and it's about Lady Sally's, the whorehouse run by Callahan's wife. Instead of Jake (who does put in a token appearance), it's narrated by Sherry, one of Lady Sally's hookers. It begins with Sherry's escape (with her life, barely) from her pimp and her entree to Sally's, a place where prostitution is an art rather than a degradation.

Okay: I'll accept that it's conceivable that sex-for-money might be an art. In some culture. I've heard some pretty convincing reports about the geisha of medieval Japan, for example.

But, no, I'm sorry, I do not believe that, in the culture of the United States as it is today, prostitution can ever be anything but the crass and dehumanizing use of one person as an object by another. That may be a prejudice, but it's one that's so strong in me that I can't discard it even for the length of a few stories disguised as a novel.

I give Spider credit for this: he does, in the first story, ("A Very Very Fine House") portray real American prostitution for the ugly thing it is. But for the rest of the book, Sherry is a happy hooker in a happy hook-joint where the customers are all pleasant and the sex is an art form and everyone goes away happy.

Sorry, Spider, but the place would be out of business in a week. Perhaps, says the nitpicker in the back row, the place is subsidized by the same odd arrangement with the future that gets Callahan his glasses so cheap. Well, maybe. But I don't like it.

There's a fundamental difference between Callahan's and Lady Sally's Places: drinking is a vice whereby, as long as you don't get drunk, you aren't hurting anyone. With prostitution, a person is used. Period. Prettying it up, as is done here, doesn't make it better.

The second story, "The Revolver," I'm afraid, is even worse. It's just an extended dirty joke of the "Cuban Superman" variety.

The third and fourth are better, and would in fact have been very good stories in the "Callahan's" setting (if they could be transplanted: I suspect they could with very little trauma). The third, "The Paranoid," has the same odd combination of science fiction and psychological pathos that makes the best of the "Callahan's" stories so good; it deals with a woman who can make you do anything she tells you to.

The fourth, "Dollars to Donuts," is a "scam" story whose plot would do Donald Westlake (The Hot Rock, Dancing Aztecs) proud. Indeed, some of the humor is Westlakian to the extreme.

All in all: if you're a Robinson addict (as I am) and can stomach the sanitized image of prostitution presented here (as I couldn't), you'll probably enjoy the book. I don't like to judge a book on its political rectitude or lack thereof; that leads to Heinlein-bashing and other fannish social sports I'd rather eschew. The issue of prostitution is, to me, not a fundamentally political one at all; it's an issue of failing to grant one's fellow-humans the dignity of personhood. Spider, clearly, doesn't feel that that's (necessarily) the case. So I'll agree to disagree, and neither recommend (because I can't) nor pan (because it goes against my ethics to pan a book for that kind of reason) Callahan's Lady.

Nonfiction corner

Alan started this, but I like it. The idea is to point out books that accurately reflect the way the world is, or is going. He's reviewed important books like The Media Lab and Engines of Creation.

Well, here's one you'd do best not to miss if you really want to understand how things work in the Happening World: Kathleen Meyer's How to Shit in the Woods (10 Ten Speed Press, 0-89815-319-0, $5.95). This is about precisely what it says, a no-nonsense book about sanitation and waste disposal in the Great Outdoors.

This may sound silly or facetious to some of you, but consider. We are living in a world where more and more waste is being dropped into our air, our land, and our drinking water every year; an intelligent approach to all this is a must for continued existence on this planet.

How to Shit is short (76 pages) and clearly written. It approaches its subject with respect and dignity, but also with humor. Trust me.

Who's afraid of the big bad wolfe?

Well, big, anyway. Bad only if you think it means "good," as Michael Jackson apparently does.

Here we have not one, but two batches of short stories.

The first batch is Endangered Species, his newest collection. Some of you will go out and buy it right away when you learn that it contains two by-blows of The Book of the New Sun: not excerpts, but separate short stories that sorta wandered out of the same world. One, "The Map," is particularly interesting as a fable on greed. Others won't touch it no matter what I say, which is a pity, but for those people there's always Planet of the Robot Slaves, and more power to them.

But for those of us who want something a little more from our fiction, there's Wolfe.

The collection also contains my all-time favorite Wolfe short, "The Detective of Dreams," which is a unique and lovely allegory cast in the mode of a hard-boiled detective story. It first appeared in an anthology with Stephen King's The Mist, where it was sadly overshadowed by the more spectacular horrors therein; in Endangered Species, it risks being overshadowed by Wolfe's own more pyrotechnic works.

Wolfe's range of technique is well-served by the form of a collection; he can range from an introspective first person, to a very phenomenological and action-oriented third, to a near-second person in which the protagonist and "Mr. Wolfe" discuss the action to take place and their part in the creation of the story.

I'm not going to attempt a detailed critique of all this -- for one thing, there is now an entire 'zine devoted to Wolfeology (The Book of Gold, available from Jeremy Crampton), and for another, there isn't space. So leave it at this: Wolfe knows short stories as well as he knows four-volume novels.

Closet classic

Which is why my close classic this time is also a Wolfe, Gene Wolfe's Book of Days. A lot thinner than Species, this is a "theme" collection on a very odd theme.

Wolfe selected a largish number of holidays -- Christmas, Opening Day (of hunting season), Arbor Day (Arbor Day? Yeesh), Lincoln's Birthday, and so on -- and picked a story that was thematically associated in some way with that day. A few of them, such as "La Befana," the story for Christmas, have been collected elsewhere (like in the collection The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories and Other Stories), but most of these are generally not available; and generally, they are quite good. None are as stunningly brilliant as New Sun or "Detective of Dreams," but all are engaging and thought-provoking.

While the theme is a bit more artificial than that of most theme collections, this is actually a strength rather than a weakness; theme anthologies tend to develop a sense of sameness, and one-author theme collections are often positively flat. Because the theme of Days is really a collection of different themes, it allows the range of Wolfe's interests to play freely.

This had a single hardback edition nearly a decade ago, and hasn't seen print since. Some paperback publisher would do very well to pick up the rights to Gene Wolfe's Book of Days.

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Issue 25, Summer/Fall 1989 (part 8)

Electronic OtherRealms #25
Summer/Fall, 1989
Part 8 of 17

Thoughts on Reading the Classics

I credit Damon Knight for this article; he once wrote words to the effect that claiming to be a writer without reading the past literature of your field was like claiming to be a leaf, but denying there was a tree[1]. So, endeavoring to become a science fiction writer, I crawled back along the branch and explored the trunk of our Golden heritage.

I visited a local used books store and gathered an armful of what SF genre has labeled Classics. Half of them were novels of the late forties -- early fifties: Fury, by Henry Kuttner; The Demolished Man, by Alfred Bester; and The Green Hills of Earth, by Robert Heinlein.

I admit three works are probably not enough upon which to base an objective opinion; however, that is not my intent. I want to offer a subjective observation for the purpose of defining for myself, and perhaps for others, the meaning of the term Classic in our genre.

Before I continue, I'd like to offer the first three definitions provided by the dictionary I use: The American Heritage; second college edition.

"Classic: adj. 1. Of the highest rank or class. 2. a. Serving as an outstanding representative of its kind. 3. Having lasting significance or recognized worth."[2]

It is my opinion the three books mentioned above fail to qualify for the exalted title -- except in the last sense of the word. I grant them this not for any literary merit, nor for content, but for a curious archaic phenomenon common to them all; a phenomenon I feel certain the writers did not intend; in fact, could not possibly have intended because they themselves did not recognize the psychological limitations under which they were writing. I am speaking of the social climate of their times.

In all three books the authors are attempting to portray to the reader what it might be like to live in the future. I am certain that to the contemporary reader they succeeded wonderfully; however from my historical vantage point, the illusion is not convincing. I submit it is not for the reason you might suspect. Yes, some of the science is out-dated; Kuttner could not write, in this day, of oceans on Venus, but that type of out-datedness is easily dismissed. What destroyed my belief (that I was reading about the future) was the characters: their lack of social evolution.

Here were three men, living in the fifties (Fury was published in 1947, the other two in 1951), writing about three fictional men who, we are asked to believe, were products of the far future. Yet, the illusion fails because the lead characters remain trapped in the psychological patterns of the past. They are egotistical, aggressive, insensitive, and immature. In short, they possess the traits we of the 1980's have come to associate with unenlightened males.

I had wondered all through the reading of these novels why I could not sympathize with the main characters. They were unappealing. They were men I would not wish to know. They were (shudder) chauvinistic; constructs of the author's conditioned expectation of what a male should be.

Before you search my pockets for feminist pamphlets, let me state that I found the same dated psychology in the make-up of the female characters; they were stereotyped as weak, over-emotional, and subservient. Again, they were not women I could admire.

Now, this is not meant as a negative criticism of the author's personal development. As I said, each wrote from the perspective of their times. Not having experienced the sexual revolution, how could they have written any other way?[3] And I must take into account the age, gender, and receptivity of the audience for whom they were writing. Being aware of this, and of the fact that I am an audience unforeseen, I can only appreciate their work as a sociological time-capsule of our past; classics in the sense that they show us where we were, psychologically speaking, during the so called Golden Age. Their lasting value is in proving to us we have progressed. We are growing up.

So, back here as one leaf on our genre tree, I thank Bester, Kuttner, and Heinlein for teaching me something I think will be of great benefit to my growth as a writer. I have been made aware of how we pattern our characters upon our current social models; something I was not aware of before.

To avoid dating my own work in the same manner, my attempt to portray the future must take this awareness into account.

Men and women of 2030 A.D. will most likely live within an entirely different social structure; gender roles and the way in which the coming generations respond to one another will be a reflection of their time, not ours.

Having made that statement of belief, let me add that as worth-while as this intent is to pursue, there is a fine line between realistically depicting attitudes of the future and alienating the readers of the present. It is the same problem in reverse. Just as time had erased my simpatico with Kuttner's Sam Harker, and thereby my interest in the entire book (I could not finish it), there is the danger that in advancing a character beyond our society, we could, for the same reason, fail to sustain the attention of our readers.

This would be unacceptable; our primary goal, as writers of science fiction, is to communicate ideas that will illuminate our possible future, either to inspire or warn.[4] The delicate integration of reader and character is our vehicle. Without it we become mute; by our own hand, we slay our ideas. This is serious enough to intimidate the most bold among us.

However, much as the social structures have changed in the last thirty years, one thing remains constant: human nature. Its tenacious qualities (fear of pain, desire for pleasure) still rule our actions and reactions; so long as we continue beings of energy in bodies of matter, they always will. What changes is the elusive restrictions upon its expression. By utilizing these basic characteristics alone, I feel the writer can walk that fine line, producing a true classic in all senses of the word. We can accomplish the goal of expressing new ideas, or new perspectives, by extrapolating not only the evolution of science, but the evolution of humanity.[5]

The above criticism is not meant to imply that The Demolished Man, Fury, and The Green Hills of Earth are not worth reading. Bester won the Hugo for his ground-breaking exploration of telepathy as a social service, and the ramifications thereof.

Kuttner's book is interesting for two reasons: it was, to a minor degree, a collaborative work (with his wife, C.L. Moore); and it says some very insightful things about how it might feel to be immortal.

Heinlein's work is an interwoven collection of stories outlining a fictional history of man's development of space. Written in the early days of the space age, it is the definitive "bible" of what we now call "hard" SF. I found a sad nostalgia in these pages of space conquest dreams: nearly forty years later they're still dreams.

All three books should be read by SF writers; they are valuable foundation research. SF readers can find in them what they find in any SF work: the bold exploration of ideas.

Notes:

1.Knight, Damon. "Creating Short Fiction": Writer's Digest Books, 1981.

2.Morris, Williams, et al. The American Heritage Dictionary, 2nd College Edition: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1982.

3.For the record, this myopia was not shared by every writer of the decade. In 1953, Judith Merril published a novel, titled: "Daughters of Earth", in which matriarchy played a key role; and females were depicted as the prime colonizers of the stars.

4."The function of science fiction is not always to predict the future but sometimes to prevent it." Frank Herbert, "Science Fiction and a World in Crisis," in Science Fiction: Today and Tomorrow, ed. Reginald Bretnor (Baltimore, Md.: Penguin Books, 1974), p. 71.

5."It is when both dimensions are touched that science fiction as literature is authentic ...". Regina Sackmary, "An Ideal of Three: The Art of Theodore Sturgeon," Critical Encounters, ed. Dick Riley (New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing Co. Inc., 1978), p. 143. 2

Scattered Gold

Installment 9: In which we begin with an apologia and end with simply raving on

Before we get to the matters at hand, I'd like to make a small correction concerning last issue's column. Recent correspondence from Don Grant indicates that The Hour of the Dragon will not be the last of the Grant Conan editions. In fact, Don says that he's got at least three or four more volumes to come. The next one on the schedule is The Scarlet Citadel which will include "The Phoenix on the Sword" as well as the title story. So, to Don, and you aficionados of the original Howard material out there, my apologies. It looks like we've got a bunch more of that Good Stuff to which we can still look forward.

The Midnight Examiner
William Kotzwinkle
Houghton Mifflin, 227pp, 0-395-49859-7

The newest novel from the author of Fata Morgana, Dr. Rat and the E.T. novelization is an hilarious adventure that features the madcap writers of a sleazy supermarket tabloid as its cast of characters. Though not marketed as a fantasy, humorous or otherwise, there are some moments of silly voodoo (reminiscent of how Thorne Smith handled his fantastical bits) and the book really should appeal to anyone with a sense of the absurd.

The principal viewpoint character is Howard Halliday, the neurotic editor in chief of The Examiner, but the cast includes everyone from a schizophrenic staff artist who goes into seizures in moments of crisis, a bumbling porn star, a mob boss who spends half his time worrying that his interior decorators have foisted off imitation heirlooms on him, an Egyptian cab driver whose idea of a turn signal is to stick his hand straight up in the air, middle finger extended....

But I think you get the idea. There is a plot, but it's thin and to talk much about it won't tell you what the book is really about -- and that's having fun. One of its high points is how the characters continually speak in tabloid headlines -- a classic being, Doctor Finds UFO in Young Girl's Uterus.

Kotzwinkle's prose and worldview, always a treat, really sparkle here and while The Midnight Examiner isn't high art, I highly doubt you'll regret your time spent in its pages.

The Stress of Her Regard
Tim Powers
Ace, 400pp, $17.95, 0-441-79055-0

Gonzo historian, Tim Powers, is back with a new exploration of (and I hope Hunter S. Thompson will forgive my stealing his classic phrase) "Fear & Loathing" -- this time among England's notorious poets, Lord Byron, Percy Shelley and John Keats.

The viewpoint character is one Dr. Michael Crawford who, on a stormy night inadvertently marries the poet's muse, la belle dame sans merci, by putting his wedding ring on the finger of a statue. This mightn't be such a terrible thing -- who knows, it could even have made a poet out of Crawford, if things went well -- except that this is a Powers book and anyone familiar with his work will realize that nothing goes the way it should when it's his hand that's stirring the brew.

For -- and here we come to the heart of the matter -- what if the Muse was actually a vampiric creature who, while inspiring poets and artists to great works, also feeds on them? And if muses are jealous creatures to boot.... Well, you can see where this might become complicated, especially as the day after Crawford's unintentional wedding to the Muse, he goes on to marry his flesh-and-blood fiancee.

What follows is an inspired trip through western Europe in the latter part of the nineteenth century that's as much a romp as it can be serious. Powers's settings are vividly brought to life -- enough so that you're almost certain that he was creeping about in the shadows, notebook in hand, as he spied on the events. And while I'm not sure how closely Powers's story relates to the real lives of his historical characters, the bits of Byron's, Shelley's and Keat's lives that I am familiar with, fit quite readily into his skewed version of their histories and I was willing to take the rest of it on trust.

The Stress of Her Regard is easily Powers' best book to date -- on a par with The Anubis Gates, which isn't to denigrate the books that have appeared in between. It's just that every creative person has high points in their career, and this pair of books just happen to mark two in his. That he is one of those few writers with an utterly unique voice and sense of vision makes it a hard call, but I don't think I'm far off the money. And I don't doubt -- considering the driven sort of a man that he is -- that this won't be the last such high point in Powers's career, either.

The only bad news this time around is that, while Ashbless gets a couple of mentions, he never does actually make it on stage, more's the pity.

On Spec; The Canadian Magazine of Speculative Writing The Copper Pig Writer's Society, Spring 1989; 84pp; Cdn$5.00, Periodical; ISSN 0843-476X

I'm making a brief mention of this new magazine, simply because a lot of readers south of the forty-seventh parallel might otherwise not know it exists.

It's difficult rating a magazine on only one issue, but this one comes in a nice five-by-seven package and the writing's pretty good throughout, particularly in Rhea Rose's "Duty Free" which has some very evocative prose. Fans of Dave Duncan -- who writes a number of popular fantasy series published by Del Rey -- will be interested to note that his first short story ever also appears in this issue.

The Snake Oil Wars
Parke Godwin
Foundation, 212pp, $18.95, 0-385-24772-9

Much as I like Parke Godwin's work, and as good a novel as this sequel to Waiting for the Galactic Bus is, I have to tell you it's as much a failure as a success.

Let me explain.

The Snake Oil Wars is about Coyul, one of the two aliens who basically gave the human race their kick-start to sapience in the first book and then went on to take care of their souls in the afterlife. This time around Coyul is forced to defend himself in a heavenly court against the charge that he is the Devil of the Christian mythos, rather than the alien he claims to be.

The premise makes it possible for Godwin to further the basic thematic thrust of both this novel and its predecessor which is that the blind, unthinking zeal of organized religion -- and other such "concerned" institutions -- are the real root of the world's problems. We're never going to treat each other, or our world, any better until we realize that we're all entitled to an informed opinion and no one has the right to try to make everyone else follow the same "party line" that they themselves hold.

I've got no problem with that. And I doubt many of you reading this will either.

And that's where the book fails. Godwin's book isn't going to find the audience that needs it -- those intrepid souls who really could use a bit of a shakeup in their narrow-mindedness. Don't kid yourself, these people are dangerous. But they're not going to read this book. You and I are going to read it. Most of us will nod in agreement to the arguments Godwin presents through the black humor that underlies The Snake Oil Wars, but nothing's going to change. And that's a shame, because Godwin's book is a lucid, bitterly funny argument that one wishes could make a difference.

Frost & Fire
Roger Zelazny
William Morrow & Co., 288pp, $16.95, 0-688-08942-9

As far as I'm concerned, there are two Roger Zelaznys: the one who whips off things like the Amber books, and obviously has great fun in doing so; and the one who's responsible for more serious works such as Eye of Cat. I like them both -- the latter more than the former, I have to admit -- and they're both represented here in Zelazny's latest short story collection.

The stories and essays will mostly be familiar to the Zelazny enthusiast, but the introductory essays are new and well worth reading on their own, and its also nice to have such brilliant stories as "Permafrost" and "24 Views of Mt. Fuji, by Hokusai" (the "frost and fire" of the book's title) collected together in a cloth edition. And if you're not a Zelazny convert -- shame on you -- then this is as good a place as any to get your introduction to his work.

Strange Invasion Michael Kandel Spectra Special Edition, 152pp, $3.95, 0-533-28146-1

I've been quite impressed with this new series from Spectra -- both with the new titles like those by McDonald and McQuay, and the older titles they're adding to it, such as the Geary and Bishop. And this one looked good. We have a guy suffering from a disease that makes him see constant hallucinations who is drafted by one bunch of aliens to fend off a series of invasions by some other aliens. The latter aren't looking to conquer the world; they're tourists -- and we all know the kind of mess tourists leave behind.

The impression was that it was going to be a tongue-in-cheek romp -- along the lines of Frederick Brown's Martians, Go Home, but updated. Unfortunately, while there's nothing exactly wrong with the book -- the prose is clean, the humorous bits are funny enough -- nothing really clicked for me. And I can't help but feel that Brown did it better -- thirty-four years ago.

Hidden Turnings
edited by Diana Wynne Jones
Methuen, 183pp; #8.95, 0-416-11272-2

This anthology is worth buying just for Emma Bull's "A Bird That Whistles". It's a wonderful exploration of coming of age in the turbulent protest years (late sixties/early seventies) that explores unrequited love, friendship, anger and all the emotional ups and downs in between. It's got a thorough knowledge of music in it -- what makes it work and why -- and its got the Daoine Sidhe as well, so what more do you want?

Well, Bull's story isn't the only good piece in the collection. Terry Pratchett turns in a change of pace story that shows that he too understands music, while editor Jones has a fascinating piece that explains just enough and then lets the reader finish it. Then there's also Roger Zelazny, Garry Kilworth, Tanith Lee....

In other words, some good stuff. But the Bull's worth the price of admission all on its own.

The Craneskin Bag
Robin Williamson
Canongate Publishing, 157pp, #9.95, 0-86241-218-8

If you're at all familiar with my novels, you'll have noticed numerous acknowledgments to, and epigraphs by, one Robin Williamson, who is, to my mind, one of best wordsmiths we've got working on the planet today.

Say, who? you ask.

Quick history: born in Scotland; recorded some fourteen albums with the Incredible String Band; plays umpteen instruments, but concentrates a lot on the harp these days; has written a mystery novel (a collaboration under the name "Sherman Williamson") and numerous musical tutors, poetry collections and the like; has recorded any number of LPs and cassettes as a solo artist and with his one-time "Merry Band"; has written music for theatrical and film productions; and is currently touring the UK and the States as a harper, storyteller, poet, singer -- in short, he's a contemporary bard.

(One word of warning: I'm incredibly biased towards his work, so take that into consideration as I rave on.)

Over the years, Williamson has been moving more and more into the field of collecting and retelling the old tales, be they folk stories, myths or simply excursions into silliness. If you haven't caught him in performance, you can find much of this material available on cassette -- wonderful stories and poems, told with harp accompaniment and delivered in a voice that stretches the ear, that encompasses any voice necessary for the telling, and spills it out, each word note true.

Those of you familiar with the oral storytelling tradition won't find this particularly innovative (although undoubtedly entertaining), but what's odd about Williamson is that he has the same knack when it comes to the written word. His prose and poetry doesn't just sit there on the page, dead black ink on the white paper; instead, the words rise up with the same medley of voices that one hears in his oral performances. His newest collection, The Craneskin Bag, is no exception. The stories and poems, drawn from the Celtic tradition, read as though a bard were sitting at your side, speaking the words into your ear. Some of the grand tales are here -- "The Wooing of Isolde" and "Deirdre of the Sorrows", for example -- but there is also a great deal of obscure matter: the original Arthur stories from the Borderlands, Wee Jack tales, poetry and conversation with Taliesin and Ossian....

In short, it's a treasure trove of Celtic matter -- not watered-down versions, but material that cuts close to the original heart of the verses and tales; not dryly laid out before us like dead history, but brought alive by the Williamson tongue and the Williamson wit.

Needless to say, I highly recommend you give him a try. The Craneskin Bag, as well as other poetry collections, LPs and story cassettes are available from Robin Williamson Productions, P.O. Box 27522, Los Angeles, CA 90027. For Celtic material, this new collection's the best place to start. For his own stuff, I'd recommend the book and cassette collection, Selected Writings, 1980-83 which is only $15.00 for the pair, or his poem history of the British Isles, "Five Denials on Merlin's Grave", which is available as a book with copious notes, and also appears on the album A Glint at the Kindling (Flying Fish, FF096).

And no, I don't get a cut of the action, but do tell them that OtherRealms sent you.

------ End ------

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Issue 25, Summer/Fall 1989 (part 9)

Electronic OtherRealms #25
Summer/Fall, 1989
Part 9 of 17

From Beyond the Edge

Reviews by our readers (Part 2)

Araminta Station
Jack Vance
Tor, 554 pages, $19.95, paper, $4.95.

All fiction is a lie. All fiction is also a non-verbal contract between author and reader, the fulfilling of which negates the first statement. Beyond the basic agreements of structure, spelling and syntax, this contract demands that each party bring certain things to the dance; the reader an open mind and a willingness to suspend belief; the writer a tacit adherence to form and convention. Each contact between reader and writer generates a new agreement; the basis of which is the reader's demand that, upon conclusion, the work in question make sense, entertain or at the very least hold interest. To which the writer demands the reader's attention and withholding of judgment until the work is fully read. It is a guided tour we take with expectation and trust.

Nowhere is this agreement more obvious than in the works of Jack Vance. Historically, Vance has been trustworthy, fulfilling his part of the bargain if only you'll fulfill yours. Times, however do change.

Long recognized as a master wordsmith, Vance's complex use of language is at first unsettling. Combine this with simple plots, sometimes divergent storylines and dialogue that is formal to an extreme and one would think to have found a formula for disaster. One could not be farther from the truth.

Araminta Station, Vance's newest novel, is a return to science fiction after a successful series of fantasy works. Once again he delves into the sociological underpinnings of society, creating patterned fabric from single threads until a believable whole is achieved. If the plot is weak and sometimes seems missing altogether, it is more than balanced by the humor and insight his characters bring each situation. Set on the planet Cadwal, established and set aside as a protected preserve by the Naturalist Society of Earth, the story involves the coming of age of Glawen Clattuc. Cadwal, originally inhabited by a limited number of human scientists and their families has evolved, warped into a culture ruled by great houses with a limited number of members. Excess population is denied admittance and socially disappears from view. Each house has developed into a sub-culture with its own history, flair and obligations. This is Vance at his best -- poking fun at parts of our own society by drawing them out to extremes. And yet, his characterization makes behavior otherwise bizarre, seem natural. While there are basic themes here; industrial man vs natural man; interventionist vs conservator; id vs ego -- they all played out on an individual level. And so colored by perspective and opinion.

The strengths of Araminta Station rest solely upon Vance's ability to make the absurd real and commonplace. Where others rely on bullet truth, Vance takes us to the ball -- dancing us around and around until we are overcome by the music and not realizing until later the true purpose of the visit. Vance is a stylist, his sentences flow and ebb, his dialogue rings with hearty pronouncements and verbal wonderments. It is writing that cries to be read aloud, to be rolled across the tongue and savored. It is what, in the past, has fulfilled Vance's part of the contract. It would do so here but for one thing. With no warning the book ends without resolving at least two key issues -- and blatantly so.

Leaving the door open for a sequel has become commonplace, but not so much so that it can be done in such an offhand manner. This is a violation of trust -- and contract. We've stepped into a world to be swept along only to find ourselves teetering at the edge of a canyon -- with no way to get across. We were promised the full trip -- we agreed -- only to have the tour guide leave halfway through.

-- Steven Sawicki

Being Alien
Rebecca Ore
Tor Books, 1989, 0-812-54792-6, 277 pp., $3.95

Being alien is not easy; communicating the essence of aliens to human readers is even more difficult. Ore, with her well received first novel, Becoming Alien, has attempted this challenging task with great success. Now, the direct sequel continues the story of Tom Easley, Virginia hillbilly to the stars.

Tom's marriage to the Tibetan woman, Yangchenla, simply hasn't worked out. After all, the primitive Tibetan villagers have been virtual prisoners on the Interstellar Federation of Sapients' administrative planet Karst for 500 years, and even Tom finds them provincial. Tom's new official duties for the ET Federation -- overseeing first contact with the dinosaurian Watch Species 467 -- aren't working out either. Thus, his mentors, the batlike Black Amber and birdlike Karriaagzh, send Tom back to Earth to broaden his education and to acquire a new mate.

Once located in California, Tom finds himself almost as out of place among Berkeley academics as his fellow disguised alien spies. But he does meet Marianne and her sister Molly, and convinces the sisters and Molly's husband, Sam, to help rescue Tom's older brother, Warren, from his life as a drug addict, and then to all become a part of the isolated human colony on Karst. Once back among the many species which make up the Federation, Tom and his new relatives encounter further disruptions. Molly's marriage falls prey to alien attractions; Warren's addiction defies the best efforts of advanced neurosurgery; and Marianne insists on equality, despite her strange condition -- being pregnant in a strange land.

A simple tale, really, of boy-meets-aliens-meets-girl- meets-more- aliens, Being Alien continues to surprise and delight with artistic critter creation and superb linguistic confabulation. The story is not done, but this trilogy midpoint stands well on its own. Count Ore among the few who must be on that First Contact team, should T*H*E*Y land.

-- Dean R. Lambe

Blood is Not Enough
edited by Ellen Datlow
Morrow, 0-688-08526-1, 319 pp, $19.95

When I hear the word vampire. I automatically think of the undead who suck blood from your neck. Blood is Not Enough, a new anthology on vampirism, changed that notion. These vampire stories take not only your blood, but the inner you as well as your emotions and your youth.

Of the seventeen stories in this anthology, eight are reprints and nine are original. The reprints are by such notables as Ellison, Leiber, Gahan Wilson and Dan Simmons. The novelette "Carrion Comfort" by Dan Simmons, a tale of mind vampires or "mind rape," comprising part of his newest novel of the same name, brings mind control to new heights of terror. The Leiber story, "The Girl With 'The Hungry Eyes" tells us how a woman with haunting looks can be harmful to your health.

Of the new stories, "Varicose Worms" by Scott Baker stands above all the others. It shows us what happens when a shaman tries to keep his wife under control as he prepares for another business trip. The rest of the new stories in Blood is Not Enough are good but none of them come close to being as gruesome and horrific as "Varicose Worms." Two other stories that stayed in my mind are; "...To Feel Another's Woe" by Chet Williamson and "Good Kids" by Edward Bryant. Both stories teach us not to get involved with other people.

Blood is Not Enough is not the best anthology I've ever read, but it is an entertaining one and serves to remind us that the world out there is far more horrible than we could possibly imagine.

-- Richard Weilgosh

Cyberstealth [**]
S. N. Lewitt
ACE Books $3.50 232pg.

This books starts out reading like a cyberpunk version of the movie Top Gun. Fortunately, after the first few chapters, it settles down to be a more normal SF story. However the big problem about this book is it is undecided as to whether it wants to be a cyberpunk story, as SF version of Top Gun or an adult version of an Andre Norton juvenile. The story is also told with erratic flashbacks sequences. It usually takes a while to realize that a chapter is actually a flashback as they are not labelled as such. This causes considerable confusion in the beginning and makes it difficult to read the book later. The ending is rather abrupt and very incomplete as it is not certain exactly what happened. It is a nice sentimental but meaningless ending as the reader does not know how the conflict was resolved.

Cargo is a fighter pilot who is offered a chance to fly the latest stealth fighters. He takes the chance and discovers that his first mission is intertwined with a plot by his guardian to end the war. The problem is that there is a spy who knows of the mission and is trying to sabotage it.

-- Danny Low

The Drive-in 2
(Not Just One of Them Sequels)
Joe. R. Lansdale
Bantam Spectra, 0-553-27905-X, 192pps, $3.95

Joe Lansdale is rapidly becoming one of our more enjoyable writers and although he's a bit wacky and far-out, it appears he likes what he's doing and he tries to ensure that we also will enjoy his work. He has written western's, mysteries and what I feel is his forte -- horror.

The Drive-In 2, a continuation of The Drive-In, takes place immediately after the comet passes and they leave the Drive-In. Trying to make some sense in a world gone mad and trying to find someone who is not crazy is the chore our heroes have ahead of them. They all eventually end up back at the Drive-In, where they end up living happily ever after, but not until they engage in a skirmish for control of the Drive-In. This allegory does have a serious message in that it's better to live life to the fullest and enjoy yourself than be part of normal world and be dull and lifeless.

The Drive-In 2 may not be to everyone's liking, but it was fun and a great way to spend a couple of hours. I should caution that this book is not for the squeamish. The descriptions of death are very explicit and graphic; without them the story wouldn't be as enjoyable.

-- Richard Weilgosh

The Empire of Fear Brian Stableford Simon and Schuster, 1988, 0-671-69945-8, 386pp, $27.95

It has been said that an author's conception of vampires reveals how imaginative that author is. On this count, Stableford's "vampires" are certainly quite novel, and reveal him as having a mind that isn't hidebound by the traditions of the past. In fact, not only is this a vampire story, it's an alternative universe story. And it also spans some three centuries from 1623 to 1983. In Stableford's world, a race of vampires appeared early on in history, seemingly made by Attila the Hun in his battle against the Roman Empire (though actually not). In our world, Attila lost, but here he seems to have won. It began a long period of violent vampire rule over common mortals, in which the vampires were aided by their strange traits of recuperation and longevity (the traditional vampire elements). Unlike past vampires however, Stableford's have no fear of sunlight, and although they do take mortal blood, they don't harm anyone by doing so, and certainly don't sleep in coffins at night. The question is raised whether these creatures are divine, supernatural, or just long-lived humans.

This provides an interesting comparison with another well-known vampire writer, Anne Rice, whose trilogy beginning with Interview with a Vampire so caught people's fancy and triggered the current rush of vampire stories. Rice's vampires are much more traditional in some respects, sleeping in coffins, only coming out at night, etc, but she has taken these traditions and updated them (so that Lestat has become a rock star). Stableford rather prefers to invent his own story.

It starts in the early 17th century with the Cordery family, a father and son outfit. Edmund, the father, is a "mechanician" or inventor/alchemist who works for the royal vampire court of Richard the Lionheart in England. Edmund's son Noell is forced into hiding when his father commits suicide, taking a vampire lover with him (he belongs to a secret society trying to overthrow the vampires). I thought this an unusual move; we were just settling in with Edmund (32 pages), and now he's dead (this portion had originally appeared as "The Man Who Loved the Vampire Lady" in the August 1988 Fantasy and Science Fiction). The book does this several times, having six parts in all, some of them separated by large time gaps. And yet Stableford is able to get away with these temporal dislocations, mainly due to his prose style. I was reminded of a painter at work (the house type, rather than the artist type) patiently painting a large wall. The text has that flat narrative quality, as the painter continues rollering on a seamless covering. If I had complete faith in the author, I would say this is done on purpose to reflect the timeless lives of the long-lived vampires, many of whom, especially in the mysterious valley of Adamawara in central Africa (where the vampires come from), are content to just let the world unfold, as if everything were pre-ordained. That's the feeling you get reading this book, even in its most urgent sections. Having read some of Stableford's criticism I will reluctantly conclude that this prose style is his usual one, but though flat, strangely enough, it is seldom boring. We have an imaginative author on our hands (though the last section, which takes place 300 years after the main story, showing how modern science has revealed the vampire secrets seems like an unnecessary case of "look, I can explain it all!"

Stableford seems to capture the flavor of the times well, and generally seems quite knowledgeable about the Medieval period. There are interesting theological discussions (Noell's long-time companion Quintus, is a monk) and speculations about the origin of the world. There is even mention of the Knights of Malta, who today are devoted to good works (officially), although Robert Anton Wilson argues in the July 1989 issue of Spin that they are really a secret Catholic society with ties to the Mafia, P2 (an Italian fascist organization), the Vatican, and the CIA (William Casey and William F. Buckley Jr. are supposed to be members). They have a more prosaic place in Stableford's story, however, being a sort of fighting unit that helps defend Noell from an Armada- style invasion by the Lionheart and Vlad the Impaler or Dragulya.

Simon and Schuster has done a great packaging job, with an interesting cover (it appeared as a recent Interzone cover). There were odd proofreading errors, but it's been a while since I bought such a well designed book.

The Empire of Fear has been well received in the United Kingdom, already making some award lists. It should have no difficulty finding an audience over the big pond.

-- Jeremy Crampton

Haunted James Herbert G.P.Putnam's, 0-399-13486-7, 240 pp, Oct.1989, $17.95

With Haunted, the latest novel from James Herbert, England's leading horror author, we have another psychologically chilling tale of the haunted house mystery. Herbert is one of the most influential and original authors of our time and one of my personal favorites.

An alleged haunting in a remote country house called Edbrook, has brought David Ash, a psychic investigator, onto the scene to try and placate the Mariell family. The haunting is an apparition of a young girl dressed in a flowing white gown, apparently the twin sister of Christina Mariell. David Ash has made for himself a solid reputation by exposing so-called psychic phenomena and fake mediums. Armed with all his equipment he plans on doing the same at Edbrook. His non-belief in ghosts stems from the death of his young sister and the dreams he still has of her resurrection, for he doesn't believe in the existence of the spirit after death. However he soon discovers that these apparitions are real and he has problems coming to grips with this actuality and how to fight it. Several attempts on his life by the ghost bring help from his employer and friend, Edith Phipps, who receives David's distress signals of something wrong at Edbrook. The ending is superb and would be visually exciting at the movie theater.

With a skilful blend of horror and thriller fiction, Herbert has created a novel of brooding menace and rising tension as the mystery of the Haunted unfolds. Haunted is one of Herbert's best and shows once again why he remains one of the most popular horror writers today.

-- Richard Weilgosh

Hyperion Dan Simmons Doubleday Foundation, 1989, 0-385-26348-1, 482 pp, $8.95

Shakespeare, it is said, was well aware that the groundlings must be entertained with sex and violence while the educated class perceives the play's deeper meaning. Never mind that the aristocrats, then and now, have never missed a hog wallow, the distinction remains to mark high brow from low. SF, of course, is low. But no more. With a remarkably talented salvo of original novels, Dan Simmons has been tap dancing with the genre but a few short years. His Song of Kali picked up a World Fantasy award, and now he's taken on hard science fiction, literate SF, historical SF, on a frame of English literature.

Hyperion, a distant planet in the 28th Century hegira of homeless humanity, welcomes seven pilgrims -- each after his or her own special grail. Hyperion, an unfinished poem by John Keats, source, setting, and inspiration for a scholarly homage to the grand scope of SF. Take your pick, it's all here, plus a little Chaucer, a lot of philosophy, a superb command of world building, an intelligent answer to the challenge of cyberpunk, and the requisite star wars with blood and guts.

A diplomat, an ancient poet, the consummate soldier, a tortured priest, a temporal Dutchman, a lonely detective, and a mad ecologist, seven selves in search of a soul, all tell their tales as they journey to and over Hyperion, as they approach the mysterious Time Tombs and the terrible creature that guards them. Unlike the unprecedented three reviews given this unique novel in the same issue of Locus, I reveal no more lest readers curse me.

True, Simmons pushes tongue in cheek as with "Betty's Ford" at the river, and his science slips a bit with ozone around fiber optic cables; thus academic purists and New York litcrits may still dismiss this "sci- fi stuff." The rest of us know art when we read it. Give Hyperion the prizes. All the prizes.

-- Dean R. Lambe

The Jaguar Hunter       [*****]
Lucius Shepard

A collection of stories set around the world by Lucius Shepard. This is one of the few collections I can think of that has no bad (or even mediocre) stories. They are uniformly excellent: well written, good plots, great characters, everything you could want in a story. All of the stories have some science fiction or fantasy content, ranging from horror through magical realism to near-future warfare in Central America. Don't look for it in the science fiction section, though; the publisher has decided to market it as mainstream fiction. And that categorization makes sense, because the stories also have a realistic feel to them. These are stories that don't need genre walls; they are excellent no matter how you read them. Highly recommended.

-- Chuck Koelbel

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Issue 25, Summer/Fall 1989 (part 10)

Electronic OtherRealms #25
Summer/Fall, 1989
Part 10 of 17

From Beyond the Edge

Reviews by our readers (Part 2, continued)

Limbo System [***]
Rick Cook
Baen Books $3.50 305pp

The starship Maxwell makes First Contact with an alien civilization. The whole book is about how the contact affects the various factions on the Maxwell and the aliens. The Maxwell crew is a misfit crew chosen more for political reasons than competence. The aliens have not had a war for millennia and some humans mistake this for a superior civilization when the reality is the aliens have formalized warfare that stops short of open fighting.

The characterization is quite good even although the characters tend towards stereotypes. The development of the plot is well done if predictable. With a name like Derfuerher, you know who is the main villain and his eventual faith. On the whole this is a much more sophisticated and realistic First Contact story than most.

-- Danny Low

Nightshade
Jack Butler
276 pp, The Atlantic Monthly Press.$18.95

Making Mars livable could provide the stuff of grand technoepic -- but the ever-inventive Jack Butler, accomplished poet and novelist (Jujitsu for Christ), has chosen to give us a mad jape, a stylish turn through the labyrinths of science fiction's own self-made worlds.

The swirling action revolves around a seemingly stock figure, John Shade, an omnicompetent immortal who lurches through the complicated interstices of Martian politics. The plot ramifies as so many science fiction epics do, preoccupied with skulduggery and power, but elevated by the plain fact that here, technology is destiny. Shade's allies are humans with brains partly replaced by digitized intelligence, and an engaging artificial intelligence, Mandrake, who reflects on our amusing traits: "'Nor do I observe that most humans resent the fact that their own lives are played out chiefly in the service of DNA, of a living stuff that is perhaps not aware of humans at all, or aware of them only as carriers, means to an end -- peripherals, shall we say?"')

Mandrake allows the author to wax philosophical, so that the book ricochets between spirited action and sober reflection. "'You think forgetting is losing information, but it isn't, not unless there's damage. Forgetting is absorption. The things you know become you. They aren't isolated little packets of information any more."' Butler uses science fiction's devices for gaining perspectives on ourselves with the savvy of a longtime genre reader, fully aware of the threadbare devices the field sometimes employs. Like much science fiction, it is not content to take in less than everything, so we get intersections of social, economic, personal and scientific vectors -- the real world, in other words, not a minimalist reduction. But this future is not a dry lecture: "Man was not made for full gravity. Think of it: You lie on your lover, warm, for hours, and she breathes easy. Legs and arms don't go numb from pressure, the folds in the covers don't hitch and bind.")

Through it all strides Shade, centuries-old but not solemn: "Thought is the one genuine pleasure, but the monotonous universe keeps breaking in with its schedules, its insistence on stupid, repetitive melodrama, and bingo, bango, boingo, there you are in Car Chase City again.") He is engaging, strange, emotionally rounded, and Butler brings off the difficult task of depicting the rub of time on a personality: "You begin to see ideas as works of art, created unaware from the guts of the species and lasting from generation to generation. They do not so much explain reality, as everyone thinks they are meant to, as enter it, furthering and complicating the plot.')

But Shade is more still: a vampire. "Why vampires?" Butler asks in an afterword, and there is some pseudoscience supplied tongue-in-cheek, as if to say: the fantastic is fantastic, remember? We don't get away with an abstract vampire, either. During its feeding "Ribs cracked, blood jumped like coveys of startled birds into the air."

Dining on the innocent gives Shade a wry slant on matters human, since he isn't. Even Mandrake's creation of the Martian ecology seems a routine miracle. "Awe is a large flower, but a short-lived one. Besides, when God cracks a joke or two and clearly hopes you'll ask him over for a drink, you lose respect."

Butler serves his subtle stew with adroit bows toward the corpus of science fiction, tangy descriptions and pithy tossoffs like Robert Heinlein's ("Money's just a social code for available energy."), surrealistic nods to Philip K. Dick (a category of ancient epics called "johnwaynes"), and a headlong plot which stacks ideas on ideas to dizzying effect. This is a great 'read.' It assumes sophisticated readers and allows the author a poke fun at himself, seen here as the inadvertent father of a religion, Butlerianism. Fans do have a way of turning preachy authors into icons. "'It's just Christianity grafted onto Zen and spliced with science fiction,"' Shade remarks.

There is tremendous lighthearted fun here, skating on a somber surface, meditating on mortality and our technology-driven definitions of being human. With its amusing explanations and glossary the cyclonic storyline seems to wish to introduce Butler's considerable audience to the complex landscape of fantastic fiction, pouring on vivid imagery and thoughtful extrapolation, often in the same paragraph.

Butler is an accomplished author, exactly the sort who should venture into sf, bringing their own quirky methods, while quite knowledgeable about what the field has done and can, perhaps, do. At one point Shade notes now much the tech of his time resembles our earlier dreams: "It has been interesting to watch the comics and the covers of the science fiction magazines come true. They have come so true it is difficult not to believe the artists were visited by genuine vision, which is perhaps why that art has risen so in the estimation of the critics." Ah, if only it were so!

And for the book itself, as Shade says, "It is a tale of pretty horrors and well-wrought pain, it is an archaic brocade of golden woe, a measured piece."

-- Gregory Benford

Novelty     [****]
John Crowley

A collection of four fair to excellent stories by John Crowley. The first story, "Why the Nightingale Sings at Night", is a perfect fairy tale/legend. "Great Work of Time", the second story, is a time travel (or alternate universe) novella tracing many possible destinies of the British Empire. I thought it was a great examination of how such an empire corrupts (and is corrupted). The third story, "In Blue", was the only one I didn't care for too much. I guess I just couldn't see why nobody in the story's dystopian society didn't stand up and say "Something's wrong here!" Nevertheless, I have to admit it is a well- written story. Finally, "Novelty" traces an author's thoughts as he plans a science fiction novel. The story-within-a-story aspects of it appealed to me, although I can see other readers saying there isn't enough fantasy/science fiction content. Overall, an excellent collection.

-- Chuck Koelbel

Orbital Decay
Allan Steele
Ace Books, 1989, 0-441-49851-5, 324 pp, $3.95

An extraordinary amount of hype surrounds this first novel. While early attention has been known to ruin a new writer, Steele's talents may actually match his cover blurbs -- someday.

In an episodic framework that owes much to Paul Bunyan myths and such sea chanties as Mr. Roberts and The Caine Mutiny, we follow the lives of the first hardhats in space, the "beamjacks" who work for Skycorp in Clarke orbit. As the men and women of Olympus Station struggle to build the first powersats for the energy-hungry America of 2016, we gradually learn of their backgrounds, of the reasons they have fled Earth for the unforgiving vacuum. Popeye Hooker, a former Gulf Coast shrimper, can't forget his ex-wife, and begs the boys in the Meteorology section for a peek at the ocean through their telescope. Only those "boys," as everybody on Skycan knows, are really NSA spooks who could care less about the weather as long as it's not a threat to national security.

Virgin Bruce, a St. Louis biker who can't go home again, has the hots for Commtech Joni Lowenstein, and he is equally obsessed with silencing the Muzak that project director Wallace has forced on everyone's ears. Wallace, in the Humphrey Bogart "mad captain" role, plays crazy as a loon with the blessing of the dirtside corporate bosses, while Dr. Felapolous tries to balance the whole crew between boredom and mayhem. Then Hydroponics engineer Jack Hamilton signs on board -- with his own secret agenda, and a bag of marijuana seeds. Hamilton passes the pot and other good dope on the nefarious plans of their bosses and the government spies, and many things in orbit really do begin to decay.

No question, Steele can tell a story, although he fails to fully control this one. Like so many first novels, the second half doesn't match the fine beginning, and for all the intrigue and "dying man's last wish" aspects of the plot, no real surprises materialize. In this future, the "Grateful Dead" probably should be. While this one is well worth your time, expect Steele to become, just a few novels down the road, the major writer his editors already claim that he is.

-- Dean R. Lambe

Scare Care
edited by Graham Masterton
TOR, 0-312-93156-5: 416pps, $19.95

This is a unique horror anthology in that all the stories have been donated by the authors and all the profits from the book's sale will go to charities that look after abused and needy children. On this note alone, I urge you to buy Scare Care.

Of the 38 stories in this anthology, all but 7 are original and written especially for Scare Care. All the stories deal in some way with abuse, be it mental or physical. All the stories chosen for Scare Care are excellent and contributions by several major horror writers only enhance this anthology i.e.: Ramsey Campbell, James Herbert, Harlan Ellison, Steve Rasnic Tem, Brian Lumley, William Nolan, Roald Dahl, Charles Grant and of course Masterton himself. However the real pleasure is in discovering the less known British and American authors, several of whom are published here for the first time. Two stories that remained with me are: Masterton's "Changling," a horrifying lesson not to pick up a beautiful lady in a bar and "Junk" by Stephen Laws, a chilling tale of how not to get rid of a nuisance. Several other tales particularly noteworthy if only for the fact they were fun to read are -- Kit Reed's "Mommy," a disturbing yet humorous story of revenge on a parent constantly on a diet; Celeste Sefranek's first published story, "Printer's Devil," about an editor who likes to play practical jokes even after his death; and "Table for None" by William Jr., a sad but funny tale on the tribulations of ordering all you can eat.

Graham Masterton has done a superb job in putting together a superior anthology and I understand that, due to the overwhelming response from the authors, a sequel is planned for next year. I heartily recommend Scare Care, a thoroughly enjoyable anthology and with the knowledge that your money is going to a worthwhile charity.

-- Richard Weilgosh

The Silver Spike    [***]
Glen Cook
Tor Fantasy 313pp $3.95

Although the Black Company never appears in this book, it is the final book of the first Black Company series. At the end of The White Rose, the White Rose movement broke up. The fate of the Black Company is chronicled in the new Black Company series. This book tells the fate of Darling, Raven and all the others who did not go with the Black Company to the south.

In The White Rose, the Dominator is killed and his evil essence imprisoned in a silver spike which was embedded in a godlike tree. The problem is the spike is in plain view and the inevitable happens. A group of thieves steal it, planning to sell it to the highest bidder. Their plan goes awry. Any wizard powerful enough to use the spike is also unscrupulous enough to kill for it.

The whole book is about how the spike is recovered and its eventual disposal in a safer manner. The ending makes it very clear that this is the final book in the series. All manner of loose ends are tied up and all personal issues resolved. Despite this, the book stands very well on its own. The background leading up to the beginning is explained. While the book is best read as the last book of a series, it is possible to read this book first without being confused by references to past events.

-- Danny Low

The Steerswoman [****]
Rosemary Kirstein
Del Rey/Ballantine Books $3.95 279pp

Rowan is a Steerswoman, dedicated to recording knowledge. She discovers a mystery concerning some strange jewels and decides to investigate their origin. However the wizards clearly do not want her to learn the secret of the jewels and make several attempts to kill her. Once Rowan and her order realizes their peril, they decide the only way to end the menace is to discover the secret of the jewels. Most of the book is about Rowan's quest.

The book is clearly the first book of a series. Rowan discovers the origins of the jewels but all this discovery does is reveal another mystery to be solved. Rowan's world is one where advanced technology has been lost. The wizards are alchemists who have regained some of the lost knowledge but it is the Steerswomen (and Steersmen) who are the true bearers of the scientific spirit.

The characterization is very good. The plotting is well done. The mystery of Rowan's world unfolds naturally from the pace of the story and is not forced upon the reader by paragraph-long expository. This is a sign of very good writing. The story ends properly for a series. The issue raised in the book is resolved and the resolution naturally sets the stage for the next book.

-- Danny Low

Tangled Webs [**]
Steve Mudd
Questar/Popular Library $3.95 248pp

The quality of this book is very erratic. At its worst, it is space opera. At its best, it very well written drama. It is also the first book in a series and reads like the first act of a traditional three act play. The characters and situations are introduced. The beginning of the conflict is the end of the act or in this case, the book.

All known human space is controlled by the Union which is slowly expanding and absorbing any rediscovered colonies. The Union provides peace and stability at the price of freedom and diversity. Some lost colonies have retained or regained their interstellar technology. They do not want to be absorbed into the Union but are too weak to openly oppose it. They infiltrate the Union and seek out sympathizers in high positions. This book tells how certain Union officials become involve in their cause.

The characterization is generally good but the plotting has its flaws. One key set of characters make a radical change in allegiance during the book. This change happens off stage so the reader is mystified as to why they made such a change. However the pacing is well done.

-- Danny Low

Treason
Orson Scott Card
St. Martin's, 0-312-02304-9, 275 pp, 1988, $18.95

Way back in 1979, when Card was yet an unknown, Dell published his second novel; A Planet Called Treason. Why now, in 1988, St. Martin's feels a need to reprint this work is beyond me. True, Card did rewrite and revise the work and yes, a small percentage is new material. Still, this is one that should have been left to history.

Treason is the tale of one Lanik Mueller, a young man with the inherited ability to regenerate body parts. In fact, the Muellers are near immortal. Unfortunately, Lanik quickly discovers he's a rad -- a genetic mutant -- growing body parts left and right with no apparent reason. While rads are normally placed in pens and harvested for their body parts, which the Muellers use to trade for high technology from off planet sources, Lanik is the son of The Mueller -- head of the clan. So, of course, he's allowed his freedom to wander the planet at will.

Along the way, he has great adventures, gets cured, discovers the truth behind how and why the planet was colonized and is granted great and wondrous gifts. In fact, he becomes almost god-like. And the ending? Well, by now you can guess for yourself.

There are few surprises here and one would be tempted to chalk this book up as just another juvenile written by a talented author. But this is Card we're talking about and old Card at that. I'm afraid readers who buy this book anticipating another Speaker For The Dead or Seventh Son will be greatly disappointed.

Hardcore Card fans are better off seeking out the Dell paperback. All others steer clear.

-- Steven Sawicki

The World Treasury of Science Fiction   [***]
ed. by David G. Hartwell

The Book of the Month Club is producing a series of anthologies representing the best writing in the world in various genres. Apparently the books are also being distributed through bookstores, since I spotted a copy at my local store last week. The World Treasury of Science Fiction weighs in at 52 stories totaling over 1200 pages. That's far too many stories to review individually, so I'll fall back on statistics; the ratings for individual stories fall in a normal distribution with a mean of [***+] and a standard deviation of a half . While that's slightly above average for a multi-author anthology, I certainly wouldn't call it the best in the world. Speaking of the world, the editors seem to have skipped a few geography lessons. There are no African stories, only one from Asia (Japan), and South America is grossly under-represented. (I guess the magical realists are being saved for The World Treasury of Fantasy.) Of the countries left, only the U.S., U.S.S.R., England, and France seem to have active SF communities; the introductions to stories from other countries generally describe those countries' Science Fiction as "derivative". What's the point of creating an international showcase if only a handful of countries have anything to show? Anyway, I can recommend a number of the stories on their own merits, but in this case the whole is less than the sum of its parts.

-- Chuck Koelbel

The Year's Best Science Fiction #3
Gardner Dozois
Bluejay Books 1986, $17.95

Gardner, who has edited magazines, has managed to lose more Nebulas and Hugos than I have fingers. I trust his judgment. In this book reside "The Jaguar Hunter" by Lucius Shepard, "Fermi and Frost" by Frederik Pohl, "Green Days in Brunei" by Bruce Sterling and "Sailing to Byzantium" by Robert Silverberg. These were all nominated for the Nebula and/or Hugo in 1986. I think "The Jaguar Hunter" with its South American atmosphere and fantastic hero was the best story of that year. One of James Tiptree's final stories: "The Only Neat Thing To Do," is also here. I've said before that I enjoy short stories and I find this series of books to give me my money's worth without having to buy all the magazines published in a year.

-- Joyce Scrivner

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Issue 25, Summer/Fall 1989 (part 11)

Electronic OtherRealms #25
Summer/Fall, 1989
Part 11 of 17

Words of Wizdom

The Star Scroll (Dragon Prince, Book II)
Melanie Rawn
DAW, 591pp, $4.95, 0-88677-349-0.

Tekwar
William Shatner
Ace, October, 1989, 258pp, $18,95, 0-399-13495-6.

Falcon
Emma Bull
Ace, October, 1989, 281pp, $3.95, 0-441-22569-1.

Phases of Gravity
Dan Simmons
Bantam, 278pp, $4.50, 0-553-27764-2.

Paradise: A Chronicle of a Distant World
Mike Resnick
Tor, 323pp, $17.95, 0-312-93183-2.

In the Red Lord's Reach
Phyllis Eisenstein
Signet, July, 1989, 268pp, $3.95, 0-451-16073-8.

Full Spectrum 2
Lou Aronica, Shawna McCarthy et al
Bantam, 464pp, $19.95, 0-385-26019-9

A Fire in the Sun
George Alec Effinger
Doubleday, 289pp, $6.95, 0-385-26349-X

Apartheid, Superstrings and Mordecai Thubana
Michael Bishop
Axolotl Press, Box 1227, Eugene, OR 97440

The Further Adventures of Batman
Martin H. Greenberg, ed.
Bantam, 401pp, $3.95, 0-553-28270-0.

A Study in Sorcery
Michael Kurland
Ace, 184pp, $3.95, 0-553-28270-0.

Callahan's Lady
Spider Robinson
Ace, 191pp, $16.95, 0-441-09073-7.

The Dark Side of Guy de Maupassant
translated by Arnold Kellett
Carroll&Graf, $18.95, 0-88184-459-4.

The Gryphon King
Tom Deitz
Avon, $3.95, 0-380-75506-8.

Snow White and Rose Red
Patricia C. Wrede
Tor, 273pp, #15.95, 0-312-93180-8.

The Year's Best Science Fiction, Sixth Edition
Gardner Dozois, Editor
St. Martin's Press, 596pp, $13.95, 0-312-03009

The Best of the Nebulas
Ben Bova, Editor
Tor, 593pp, $14.95, 0-312-93175-1.

The way the publishing industry is today, it's hard for a new author to get a break. This is one of the reasons I really like DAW books. They don't pay the highest advances, they don't have the largest ad budgets, they don't have the biggest names. What they do have is a belief that good books deserve to be read and good people deserve to be treated well. In the discussions I have with authors, I find it almost impossible to find people who are unhappy with DAW. Many, in fact, tell me they feel like they've been adopted into an extended family. I wish I could say this wasn't uncommon, but get any group of authors together and you'll start hearing the gripes. Justified or no, the only people who seem generally immune to them is DAW.

Another thing that makes me like DAW is that they're not afraid to ignore conventional publishing wisdom when needs dictate. They publish a lot of new authors. Once in a while, they find an author with a lot of potential and, first novel or no, they push them as hard as they can. Tad Williams' Tailchaser's Song. C.S. Friedman's In Conquest Born. Melanie Rawn's Dragon Prince. Michael Whelan covers. Advertising budgets. Promotion. Unheard of with first authors. So far, they're three for three, too -- all three are good books that have sold well and stayed in print. DAW seems to have figured out that a good book by an unknown will sell well if you can help the audience find it.

Even more important than the book, though, is the career. A single book may sell well, but if it isn't followed up then the promotion and money is wasted. Which is why it's good to see The Star Scroll by Melanie Rawn, her sequel to Dragon Prince. The first book was a romantic fantasy (as opposed to a fantasy romance, which it definitely is not) with a very wide, multi-generational scope and a complex, compelling plot. The Star Scoll takes up a number of years after the end of Dragon Prince when Rohan and Sioned are reaching middle age and their son, Pol, is starting to make the switch from child to Prince, with the responsibilities and requirements that this implies. There are many problems in the kingdom; Lords who aspire to Rohan's seat and princelings who aspire to each other's land. There are outsiders who are plotting as well, some known, some not. The Star Scroll is, then, a long, complex intertwining of personal interplay, palace intrigue, growth and transformation. Rawn, despite this being her second novel, carries the complexity forward and never lets it get out of control. This series is not everyone's cup of tea, but I find her writing fresh and invigorating after too many me-too forgettable fantasies. This book shows that the support of the first book was not misplaced. This book is one of the highlights of the last few month's reading. I know that I'm looking forward to whatever she publishes next.

I also have learned to trust the people at DAW. They don't put the special packaging on many books. When they do, however, I know it's a book I don't want to miss. The DAW folks don't go all out pushing the best book of the month, each month. They wait for the books that really deserve a little something special. I'm going to be here, waiting with them. [****]

Most first novels can expect tiny advances, no publicity, small print- runs and an limited exposure before going out of print. The exception, of course, is when the first novel is by someone who already has a well- known name and an acknowledged audience. When that happens, publishers fall all over themselves to give out large advances, promise large print runs, massive amounts of publicity -- even though there's no evidence that the person involved can string together words in a minimally cohesive form. The thought, I guess, is that it doesn't matter how bad the novel is, the name will sell it. That is, of course, what they thought about Vanna Speaks, of course, and it disappeared like a rock in a bog. But the mentality is still there. William Shatner. Star Trek. Guaranteed Best Seller!

What's depressing about that is that a very good novelist like Emma Bull or Tom Deitz gets lost in the noise everyone is making, while William Shatner can waltz in, turn in just about anything and expect to make lots of money. It ain't fair. It's the way it is, but I don't have to like it.

I don't have to like the book, either. Playing Captain of the Starship Enterprise or directing Star Trek V doesn't say anything about a person's writing skills. Actually, neither does Tekwar, since I've heard from too many independent sources that the book was ghostwritten. Assuming that's true (and I feel my sources are right) we've got a case of ultimate marketing hypocrisy -- get a journeyman author to turn out a journeyman book, sell the hell out of it to the Trekkies and everyone makes money and is happy. Except, perhaps, the Trekkies, since this isn't really a Shatner novel. Ghostwritten books are standard procedure in the celebrity non-fiction kiss-and-tell system, but novels?

Let's give the book and the author the benefit of the doubt. Assume that it really is a William Shatner novel and it is his first book. How is it? To be honest, Tekwar isn't a bad book. I hesitate to call it a novel, though. What it really is is a fleshed out sequence of action sequences about private detective Jake Cardigan that reads more like a novelization of a script for a made for TV movie than a novel. As a book, it's somewhat wanting. If it hadn't been William Shatner and was going to get enough publicity and hype to deserve a review, I wouldn't have finished it. There's nothing really special or exciting about Tekwar. The words that come to mind are commercial, pedestrian, and journeyman.

I keep wondering why might happen to an Emma Bull if she got the hardcover, what wouldn't happen with Deitz if he got the hoopla and hype. If you took a really good book (as opposed to a sure-thing marketing piece) and hyped the heck out of it, what would happen? Perhaps if publishers look at what DAW has done, maybe we'd get the beginning of an answer. [**]

Speaking of Emma Bull, what's better than a really sharp first novel? A second novel that proves it wasn't a fluke. I can't begin to count the number of times I've recommended Emma Bull's wonderful War for the Oaks, a contemporary Fantasy set in current Minneapolis. Ace has published Bull's second novel, Falcon, and I'm thrilled to say it's as good.

It is, however, a very different book. Rather than build upon her first novel, Bull has written a Science Fiction thriller, involving Niki Falcon, former member of royalty, various nasty people in the bureaucratic agencies that took his planet away from him and another planet under siege that is in need of his services.

The book reminded me somewhat of Melissa Scott's The Kindly Ones because of the various cultures in conflict. There are also hints of proto-Cyberpunk (Cyberpunk fans are likely to consider this part of The Movement; I disagree -- it is closer in spirit to Walter Jon Williams' Hardwired, skirting the surface, using the pieces that it needs but never signing up for a tour of duty). There are layers within layers, as different groups generate intrigues upon each other to advance their various hidden agendas, and if things are not what you expected them to be at the conclusion, neither does Bull cheat the reader by pulling loose ends out of her hat. The various palace and bureaucratic intrigues are all in there -- the job is figuring out which ones are important.

What Falcon shows is that Bull isn't just a good, young fantasy writer. She's a good writer, period, and anything she puts out is going to be worth the time to pick up and read. Her name is a name I expect to see on good books for years to come. [****]

It's been a while since I read a book that has hit me in the gut. Books can be good for many different reasons. Melanie Rawn's books are good, solidly written fantasies. Craig Shaw Gardner writes wonderful excursions into mind-candy. Mike Resnick writes books with a strong vision and a wide scope and an interesting message. Occasionally, though, you run into a book that resonates inside at some unknown level, that leaves behind it memories etched onto the little neurons that you call home. They're rare in the field today (to be honest, they always have been), so when you finally hit one you just want to stare at nothing for a while and savor the memory -- reading anything else would suffer in comparison.

Dan Simmon's Phases of Gravity is one of those books. Which shouldn't surprise me. His book Song of Kali hit me the same way for many of the same reasons. Song of Kali was a horror novel without any distinct element of horror in it. Phases of Gravity is a science fiction novel without any science fiction in it. If a purist were to pin me down, I'd be forced to acknowledge that there wasn't anything explicitly SF in this book, but that doesn't mean it isn't SF.

What Phases of Gravity is, instead, is a memoir. The story of Richard Baedecker, an astronaut who walked on the moon. Baedecker, years later, is adrift, wallowing through a mid-life crisis and trying to find meaning to his life. He spent years sacrificing to reach the ultimate goal of walking on the moon only to find out that he (and the space program itself) had never bothered to ask "what comes next." His life an anti-climax, he wanders through an unfufilled job, unsatisfactory marriage, in neutral waiting for something. Anything.

Doesn't sound like science fiction? What Simmons has done is create in this story a symbol of American society and the space program. Apollo was a raging success, but when it was done the American public moved on to the next fad. Baedecker, a humanified symbol of the space program, is adrift, unwanted and not sure what to do next.

Part Flowers for Algernon, part The Right Stuff and part Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Phases of Gravity is a depressing indictment of NASA, the space program and the American public, yet it is also strangely upbeat and hopeful. It is a book that will depress you horribly if you care about space, but also show you that it's not hopeless. You may not like the book, but you're unlikely to put it down without being affected strongly by it. One of the strongest recommendations I can give to a book is that I was changed by what I read. That acknowledgement is rare, but it applies. There have been a number of books this year that I thought might win awards. This is the first I've read that I feel deserves it. [*****]

Mike Resnick is carving his own niche in the field. He's an SF writer, but beyond that he's taken up the difficult job of writing myth. His special interest is Africa, and he has been translating the history and culture of Africa into a series of books that tell the stories of different African areas. Ivory was a parable of the final Maasai, set thousands of years and thousands of lightyears from now while still reaching back and also being a tale of the here and now. His latest, Paradise, is a fictionalized history of the country of Kenya and the problems the country had once it gained its independence. Once you make that connection, you can almost read Paradise as a straight historical text.

While Paradise is, I think, the superior work, Ivory is the more accessible. Resnick obviously cares about Africa deeply. That attachment seeps through more in Paradise. He's trying to both entertain and get his message across while not overpowering the reader with the emotional content of the material. He does this by taking a somewhat literary approach and keeping the reader at a distance emotionally. Mike claims this was necessary to keep the reader from being emotionally overloaded, and I can see his point. At the same time, however, I think there are places where the distancing is overdone and the impact is lost, and it makes me wonder if the distancing is more to allow the author to deal with material that threatens to overload him. Paradise is a book that will affect you. It may, in fact, drive you away with the intensity. If you see it through, though, you will find yourself enlightened. On a continent with too many poachers and not enough elephants (the slaughter of the elephant-analogue on Paradise being an important element), this book can entertain and help you better understand how things are on our own planet. Not an easy read, but well worth it. [****]

Short Takes:

This issue, my new author is Phyllis Eisenstein and In the Red Lord's Reach. This isn't her first novel, but it is my first experience with her. In the Red Lord's Reach is a significant enlargement of a novella first published in Fantasy & Science Fiction, and it is fantasy in a classic format, as Alaric, a wandering minstrel with the power of teleporting himself from place to place. He finds himself at the Red Lord's palace, where he plays for room and board for a while. Unfortunately, the Red Lord is a sadistic tyrant and visitors don't leave -- they become playthings for his tortuous hobbies. Alaric, by dint of his special power, escapes his grasp and moves on, finally settling with the reindeer-herding nomads of the north. Any reader of fantasy should realize by now that he hasn't left the Red Lord behind forever, and that's true -- eventually the Red Lord and the nomads fall into conflict, in which Alaric plays an important, if distasteful role.

It seems like a fairly standard plot -- Boy finds Trouble, Boy loses Trouble, Boy finds Happiness and settles down, Trouble pops back in and files a paternity suit. While the journey is somewhat familiar, Eisenstein does put some twists into the plot that makes it interesting and fresh.

My only real gripe is the ending, which seems to flutter about and then resolve itself in a major anti-climax. Yes, things are resolved, but no, they're not resolved in a way I felt was satisfying This is a way to spend a few hours relaxing and escaping into a enjoyable read. [***-]

Full Spectrum 2 is the second volume in Bantam's new original short fiction anthology. While it doesn't have a single, outstanding work like Spinrad's "Journal of the Plague Years," everyone is going to find stories to remember in it, from David Brin's "The Giving Plague" to Ed Bryant's "'Saurus Wrecks." Full Spectrum is certain to be well represented at award time. [****+]

Marid is back in A Fire in the Sun, the sequel to George Alec Effinger's When Gravity Fails. The first book came out to very positive and well- deserved reviews and came close to winning both the Hugo and the Nebula award. The only thing I can find lacking in Fire is that it doesn't have that sense of being different that Gravity had (which, if you think about it, makes sense, since it is a sequel). Being a sequel of an original book doesn't make it less of a book, though, which makes the somewhat mixed reviews I've seen for it somewhat disappointing to me. This is definitely a book to read -- if you can find it. A tiny (less than 4,000HC) print run forced me to settle for the trade paperback. You may well find yourself having to wait for the paperback, but it'll be worth it. But I wonder at the intelligence of these minimal hardcover/trade paperback simultaneous editions. All it seems to do is make it impossible to find the book. [****]

Apartheid, Superstrings and Mordecai Thubana by Michael Bishop is a novella published in a limited edition by Axolotl Press (now part of Pulphouse Publishing, Box 1227, Eugene, Oregon, 97440). It's an interesting Science Fictional (sort of) diatribe against South African apartheid (sort of). As a limited edition (about 1,000 copies total) this book will be hard to find, but something Bishop fans will definitely want. If you can't find it, the novella will also be in Full Spectrum #3 in 1991. If you're a collector, though, or enjoy well- written fiction at the novella length (which is increasingly rare due to market pressures these days) then you really should contact Axolotl and get on their mailing lists. They have yet to turn out an unsatisfactory book. [***+]

The Further Adventures of Batman is an anthology of fourteen original stories written about the Caped Crusader. This book was obviously put together to take advantage of the popularity caused by the movie and it shows. While there are some stories that sparkle (notable George Alec Effinger's "The Origin of the Polarizer," which is both well written and shows an author who both knows the history of and and cares for the character) most of the anthology is uninspired, pedestrian prose and some of the stories (notably Robert Sheckley's "Death of the Dreamaster" are downright embarassingly bad. There are a few, all too few, moments in this book. [*]

Study in Sorcery is Michael Kurland's second attempt to write in Randall Garrett's Lord Darcy universe. I wasn't terribly impressed with the first try, Ten Little Wizards. The new book, fortunately, while it still isn't Randall Garrett is an acceptable substitute. Kurland seems to have gotten the characterizations of the various people right and has put together a readable story and an interesting mystery worthy of Lord Darcy and Sean. A fun afternoon of diversion. It's not Randall Garrett, but Kurland is being true to Garrett's legacy. [***].

When last we heard from Spider Robinson, he was destroying Callahan's Bar with a thermo-nuclear device. The only problem with a plot device like that is that it doesn't leave a lot left over to carry on with (which was, in Spider's case, the point exactly). While the bar may be gone, Spider has created a new and equally interesting new venue in Callahan's Lady: Lady Sally's, a brothel somewhat different than normal. Once you get past the exceptionally inaccurate cover on this book, you'll find vintage Spider Robinson. It's light and enjoyable fare. My major gripe is that Robinson once again decides to toss in a few convenient deus ex machina plot devices when the going gets rough -- it isn't until well into the book when the gadgets become necessary that he brings in the extra-terrestrial aspects. I don't have a problem with Lady Sally being an alien (no surprise to anyone reading his previous work), just that Robinson doesn't foreshadow this into the story and chooses to ignore it until it's convenient to use. I find this a bit of a cheat. The Lady Sally stories, so far, don't have the emotional edges found in "The Time Traveller" or "The Guy with the Eyes" but that doesn't seem to be the point here. The point is to kick off the shoes, relax and enjoy. In this, it succeeds. [***-]

The Dark Side of Guy de Maupassant are a set of translations of a French horror writer from the 1880's and 1890's. Arnold Kellett has made a selection of his best work available in English. Heavily influenced by French translations of Poe, de Maupassant's work, unlike a lot of fiction of that time, is still very readable and very effective. Definitely something that horror readers (especially readers of Poe or Lovecraft) should track down, although you're likely to read it a piece at a time. [****+]

It's no secret I'm a fan of fantasy, especially the burgeoning sub-field of contemporary fantasy. Tom Deitz has mined that field very successfully to day, mixing the various aspects of Fairie with real people in Rural Georgia and then sitting back and watching what happens. His third novel, The Gryphon King, is set in the same arena as his previous books but is otherwise separate. Years ago, a nasty person in Fairie is given the ultimate sentence: death by Iron. But he was able to hide his being away, waiting for the right time to return to this reality and challenge Fairie for control of the world. That time is now, and rural Georgia is a convenient place. And lots of innocent people are going to find that everything they understand is going to be different. [***]

I loved every book of the "Fairy Tale" series that's been published so far. The series has moved from Ace to Tor, and I'm happy to say my enjoyment continued. The latest is Snow White and Rose Red by Patricia C. Wrede, and it uses the classic Fairy Tale about two sisters as a starting point for a look at the interactions between our reality and Fairie as scheming on both sides get in the way of people trying to live their lives. The covers by Tom Canty are visually stunning as well, making these very attractive and enjoyable books to have. [***+]

Finally, two thick trade paperbacks of short fiction. Every year, Gardner Dozois, editor of Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, collects the best fiction to be published into a single omnibus volume. Unlike other Best of the Year volumes, Dozois is able to publish a large number of the best works. While you can argue a choice here and a choice there, it's clear that The Year's Best Science Fiction is the definitive definition of the year in fiction. [****]

Ben Bova's, The Best of the Nebulas, takes a slightly different tack. Every year, the Science Fiction Writers of America awards the Nebula awards to the best pieces of fiction published. Bova polled the members of SFWA to see which of the past winners they felt were the "best of the best" -- the works that have stood up to the test of time. While there are problems with this approach -- only winners were on the ballot, so a strong work that placed second one year is ignored while a lesser work in a weak year could be voted on -- the results is an anthology that makes a wonderful introduction to the field. Included are three Ellison stories, two by Zelazny, Tiptree and Delany and works by Silverberg, Moorcock, Russ, Leiber, McCaffrey, LeGuin, Sturgeon, McIntyre, Varley, Simak and Martin. Also included is an amusing statistical analysis of the results of the balloting that primarily shows that statistics can be made to prove whatever you believe to be true. The fiction, however, is what's important, and what is worth having. [****]

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Issue 25, Summer/Fall 1989 (part 12)

Electronic OtherRealms #25
Summer/Fall, 1989
Part 12 of 17

Books and Magazines Received

Fantasy

Aamodt, Donald. A Name to Conjure With, Avon, 272pp, August, 1989,
$3.50, 0-380-75137-2. Galley.
Anthony, Piers. Man from Mundania, Avon, October, 1989, 352pp, $4.50,
0-380-75289-1. Xanth #12.
Bailey, Robin W. Enchanter, Avon, May, 1989, 315pp, $3.95, 0-380-75386-3.
An Infocom book.
Bishop, Michael. Unicorn Mountain, Bantam, July, 1989, 418pp, $4.95,
0-553-27904-1.
Blaylock, James P. The Stone Giant, Ace, June, 1989, $3.95,
0-441-28702-6. Sequel to The Disappearing Dwarf.
Bradley, Marion Zimmer. Spells of Wonder, DAW, September, 1989, 288pp,
$3.95, 0-88677-367-9.
Brenner, Mayer Alan. Catastrophe's Spell, DAW, July, 1989, 320pp,
$3.95, 0-88677-357-1.
Buchan, John. Witch Wood, Carroll&Graf, July, 1989, 292pp, $4.50,
0-88184-496-9. Reprint of a 1927 book.
Cherryh, C.J. & Asire, Nancy. Wizard Spawn, Baen, September, 1989,
275pp, $3.50, 0-671-69838-9. Book 2 of The Sword of Knowledge.
Cherryh, C.J. & Fish, Leslie. A Dirge for Sabis, Baen, June, 1989,
393pp, $3.95, 0-671-69824-9. Book one of The Sword of Knowledge, a
shared world anthology.
Cherryh, C.J. Divine Right, DAW, October, 1989, 345pp, $3.95, 0-88677-380-6.
Merovingen Nights #5.
Datlow, Ellen & Windling, Terri. The Year's Best Fantasy #2, St.
Martin's Press, July, 1989, 579pp, $13.95, 0-312-03007-X
de Lint, Charles. Westlin Wind, Axolotl Press, 92pp, $10 TP. Pulphouse
Publishing, Box 1227, Eugene, Or. 97440.
Deitz, Tom. The Gryphon King, Avon, June, 1989, 406pp, $3.95,
0-380-755-6-8.
Drake, David & Miesel, Sandra. A Separate Star. Baen, May, 1989, 278pp,
$3.50, 0-671-69832-X. A tribute to Rudyard Kipling.
Drake, David & Morris, Janet. Explorers in Hell, Baen, August, 1989,
312pp, $3.95, 0-671-69813-3. The latest in the Heroes in Hell series.
Edgerton, Teresa. The Moon in Hiding, Ace, September, 1989, 208pp,
$3.50, 0-441-54215-8. Book two of the Green Lion Trilogy.
Emerson, Ru. On the Seas of Destiny, Ace, February, 1989, 280pp, $3.50,
0-441-80820-4. The Third Tale of Nedao.
Franklin, Cheryl J. Fire Get, DAW, November, 1987, 338pp, $3.50, 0-88677-231-1.
Franklin, Cheryl J. Fire Lord, DAW, June, 1989, 348pp, $3.95, 0-88677-354-7.
Sequel to Fire Get.
Friesner, Esther M. The Water King's Laughter, Avon, October, 1989,
288pp, $3.95, 0-380-75410-X. Sequel to Mustapha and His Wise Dog.
Lackey, Mercedes. Magic's Pawn, DAW, June, 1989, 349pp, $3.95, 0-88677-352-0.
Book one of the Last Herald Mage.
Lahey, Michael. Quest for Apollo, DAW, August, 1989, 255pp, $3.95,
0-88677-364-4.
Lee,Tanith. A Heroine of the World, DAW, August, 1989, 448pp, $4.50,
0-88677-362-8.
Llywellyn, Morgan. The Isles of the Blest, Ace, June, 1989, 170pp,
$3.95, 0-441-36610-4.
McKinley, Robin. The Outlaws of Sherwood, Ace, August, 1989, 278pp,
$3.95, 0-441-64451-1.
Morris, Janet. Prophets in Hell, Baen, May, 1989, 278pp, $3.50, 0-671-69822-2.
Morwood, Peter & Duane, Diane. Keeper of the City, Bantam, August,
1989, 307pp, $3.95, 0-553-28065-1. Note: Neither Duane nor
Morwood are mentioned on the cover or spine. "Created by Bill
Fawcett" is displayed prominently. Look under "Fawcett"
Norton, Andre & Greenberg, Martin H. Catfantastic, DAW, July, 1989,
320pp, $3.95, 0-88677-355-5. Anthology.
Norton, Andre & Shwartz, Susan. Imperial Lady, Tor, September, 1989,
293pp, $17.95, 0-312-93128-X.
Paxson, Diana L. The White Raven, Avon, September, 1989, 461pp, $4.50,
0-380-75229-8.
Powers, Tim. The Stress of Her Regard, Ace, September, 1989, 392pp,
$17.95, 0-441-79055-0.
Rawn, Melanie. The Star Scroll, DAW, May, 1989, 591pp, $4.95, 0-88677-349-0.
Dragon Prince: Book II.
Reichert, Mickey Zucker. Dragonrank Master, DAW, September, 1989,
303pp, $3.95, 0-88677-366-0.
Reichert, Mickey Zucker. Godslayer, DAW, August, 1987, 222pp, $3.95,
0-88677-372-5. Reissue.
Roberson, Jennifer. Sword-Dancer, DAW, September, 1986, 286pp, $3.95,
0-88677-376-8. Re-issue.
Roberson, Jennifer. Sword-Maker, DAW, October, 1989, 464pp, $4.95,
0-88677-379-2. Sequel to Sword-Dancer and Sword-Singer.
Rohan, Michael Scott. The Forge in the Forest, Avon, July, 1989, 405pp,
$3.50, 0-380-70548-6. Winter of the World Volume 2.
Rusch, Kristine Kathryn. Pulphouse #3: Fantasy Issue, Pulphouse
Publishing, Box 1227, Eugene, OR 97740. $17.95.
Saberhagen, Fred. Farslayer's Story, Tor, July, 1989, 252pp, $16.95,
0-312-93170-0. The fourth book of Lost Swords.
Scarborough, Elizabeth. The Healer's War, October, 1989, 312pp, $4.50,
0-553-28252-2.
Sherman, Josepha. The Shining Falcon, Avon, November, 1989, 341pp,
$3.95, 0-380-75436-3.
Shwartz, Susan. Arabesques 2, Avon, July, 1989, 370pp, $3.95, 0-380-75570-X.
Springer, Nancy. Apocalypse, Baen, August, 1989, 341pp, $3.95, 0-671-69819-2.
Stanton, Mary. Piper at the Gate, Baen, May, 1989, 306pp, $3.50, 0-671-69820-6.
Stirling, S.M. & Meier, Shirley. The Cage, August, 1989, 401pp, $3.50,
0-671-69836-2.
Tarr, Judith. Ars Magica, Bantam, 276pp, September, 1989, $3.95, 0-553-28145-3.
Weaver, Michael D. Bloodfang, Avon, May, 1989, 215pp, $3.50, 0-380-75584-X.
Sequel to Nightreaver.
Weis, Margaret & Hickman, Tracy. The Paladin of the Night, Bantam, May,
1989, 375pp, $4.50, 0-553-27902-5. Rose of the Prophet #2.
Weis, Margaret and Hickman, Tracy. The Prophet of Akhran, Bantam,
September, 1989, 390pp, September, 1989, $4.50, 0-553-28143-7.
Rose of the Prophet Volume III.
Wrede, Patricia. Snow White and Rose Red, Tor, May, 1989, 273pp,
$15.95, 0-312-93180-8. A Fairy Tales book.
Wylie, Jonathan. The Lightless Kingdom, Bantam, September, 1989, 298pp,
$3.95, 0-553-28147-X. The Unbalanced Earth Trilogy, Volume II.
Zimmer, Paul Edwin. Ingulf the Mad, Ace, 247pp, $3.95, 0-441-37094-2.

Horror

Barker, Clive. Cabal, Pocket, September, 1989, 406pp, $4.50, 0-671-68514-7
Bergstrom, Elaine. Shattered Glass, Berkley, September, 1989, 372pp,
$3.95, 0-515-10055-2.
Brenchley, Chaz. The Refuge, St. Martin's Press, September, 1989,
368pp, $18.95, 0-312-03417-2.
Card, Orson Scott, Abyss, Pocket, June 1989, 363pp, $4.50, 0-671-67625-3.
Cooke, John Peyton. The Lake, Avon, August, 1989, 218pp, $3.95, 0-380-75768-0
Cormier, Robert. Fade, Dell, September, 1989, 293pp, $4.50, 0-440-20487-9.
Costello, Matthew J. Beneath Still Waters, Berkley, April, 1989, 266pp,
$3.95, 0-425-11532-1
de Maupassant, Guy. The Dark Side, Carroll & Graf, July, 1989, 252pp,
$18.95, 0-88184-459-4. Translated by Arnold Kellett.
Elliot, Tom. The Dwelling, St. Martin's Press, June, 1989, 243pp,
$3.95, 0-312-91551-9.
Fuller, John R. The Pack. St. Martin's, June, 1989, 282pp, $3.95, 0-312-91350-8
Gentile, Gary. The Lurking, Charter, September, 1989, 261pp, #3.95,
1-55773-224-8.
Kane, Alex. The Shinglo, Charter, March, 1989, 281pp, $3.95, 0-55773-171-3.
Ketchum, Jack. She Wakes, Berkely, March, 1989, 260pp, $3.95, 0-425-11453-8
Lansdale, Joe R. The Drive-In 2, Bantam, July, 1989, 179pp, $3.95,
0-553-27905-X.
Saxon, William. Mind Bender, Avon, June, 1989, 250pp, $3.95, 0-380-75597-1.
Skipp, John & Spector, Craig. Book of the Dead, Bantam, July, 1989,
384pp, $4.50, 0-553-27998-X. Original anthology of zombie stories.
Smoke, Stephen. Deliver us from Evil, Berkley, September, 1989, 282pp,
$3.95, 0-425-11640-9.
Stoker, Bram. The Jewel of the Seven Stars, Carroll&Graf, May, 1989,
$3.95, 254pp , 0-88184-501-9
Wagner, Karl Edward. The Year's Best Horror Stories XVII, October,
1989, 351pp, $3.95, 0-88677-381-4.
Watkins, Graham. Dark Winds, Berkley, September, 1989, 328pp, $3.95,
0-425-11609-3.
Williamson, Chet. Dreamthorp, Avon, July, 1989, 357pp, $3.95, 0-380-75669-2.
Winters, Mick. Full Moon, Berkley, May, 1989, 327pp, $3.95, 0-425-11472-4.
Wright, T.M. The Place, Tor, July, 1989, 278pp, $17.95, 0-312-93146-8

Science Fiction

Adams, Robert. Alternatives, Baen, May, 1989, 312pp, $3.50, 0-671-69818-4.
Aldiss, Brian W. Man in his Time, Atheneum, September, 1989, 328pp,
        $18.95, 0-689-12052-4.
Aldiss, Brian, Non-Stop, Carroll & Graf, 269pp, $3.95,     0-88184-492-6.
Anthony, Piers. Unicorn Point, Ace/Putnam, April, 1989, 303pp, $15.95,
        0-399-13433-6. Apprentice Adept #6.
Asimov, Isaac. The Mammoth Book of Golden Age Science Fiction,
        Carroll&Graf, July, 1989, 504pp, $8.95, 0-88184-480-2.
        Collection of short novels from the 1940s.
Baen, Jim. New Destinies VIII, September, 1989, 283pp, $3.50, 0-671-69839-7.
Baen, Jim. New Destinies, VII, Spring, Baen, May, 1989, 287pp, $3.50,
        0-671-69815-X. Anthology.
Ballard, J.G. Hello America, Carroll&Graf, 224pp, October, 1989, $3.95,
        0-88184-547-7.
Ballentine, Lee, ed. Poly: New Speculative Writing, August, 1989, Ocean
        View Press (Box 4148, Mountain View, CA 94040),$16.95,
        0-938075-05-5.  Original anthology of SF Poetry.
Benford, Gregory & Greenberg, Martin H. What Might Have Been, Bantam,
        August, 1989, 291pp, $4.50, 0-553-27845-2. Alternate Empires
        Volume 1.
Bishop, Michael. Apartheid, Superstrings, and Mordecai Thubana, Axolotl
        Press (Pulphous Publishing, box 1227, Eugene, OR 97440).
        Limited edition, $10.00 signed TP.
Bova, Ben. Cyberbooks, Tor, May, 1989, 283pp, 0-312-93181-6.
Bova, Ben. The Best of the Nebulas, Tor, May, 1989, 593pp, $14.95,
        0-312-93175-1.
Bradbury, Ray. The Toynbee Convector, Bantam, June, 1989, 225pp, $3.95,
        0-553-27957-2.
Brizzolara, John. Empire's Horizon, DAW, September, 1989, 320pp, $3.95,
        0-88677-365-2.
Caidin, Martin. Beamriders, Baen, June, 1989, 411pp, $3.95,
        0-671-69823-0.
Caidin, Martin. Prison Ship, Baen, April, 1989, 596pp, $4.50, 0-671-69814-1.
Caidin, Martin. The God Machine, Baen, June, 1989, 314p, $3.50, 0-671-69827-3.
Chalker, Jack L. The Demons at Rainbow Bridge, Ace, September, 1989,
        375pp, $17.95, 0-441-69991-X.
Cook, Rick. Limbo System, Baen Books, August, 1989, 305pp, $3.50,
        0-671-69835-4.
Crispin, A.C. Starbridge, Ace, September, 1989,, 309pp, $3.95, 0-441-78329-5.
Dalmas, John. The Lantern of God, Baen, May, 1989, 406pp, $3.95, 0-671-59821-4.
Dick, Philip K. The Penultimate Truth, Carroll & Graf, June, 1989,
        220pp, $3.95, 0-88184-493-4.
Dick, Philip K. The Zap Gun, Caroll & Graf, September, 1989, 258pp,
        $3.95, 0-88184-553-1. Reissue of a 1965 story.
Dickson, Gordon. The Chantry Guild, Ace, June, 1989, 423pp, $4.50,
        0-441-10266-2.
Dietz, W.C. Cluster Command. Baen, May, 1989, 276pp, $3.50,
        0-671-69817-6. Crisis of Empire II.
Dozois, Gardner. The Year's Best Science Fiction, Sixth Annual
        Collection. St. Martin's, 596pp, $13.95, 0-312-03009-6.
Drake, David & Fawcett, Bill. Breakthrough, Ace, May, 1989, 294pp,
        $3.95, 0-441-24103-4. The Fleet Book 3.
Drake, David. Rolling Hot, Baen, September, 1989, 280pp, $3.95, 0-671-69837-0.
        A Hammer's Slammers book
Duane, Diane. Spock's World, Pocket, August, 1989, 388pp, $4.95, 0-671-66773-4.
Dvorkin, David and Daniel, The Captain's Honor, Pocket, September,
        1989, 255pp, $3.95, 0-671-68487-6. Star Trek: TNG #8.
Finch, Sheila. Shaper's Legacy, Bantam, August, 1989, 279pp, $3.95,
        0-553-28167-4. The Shaper Exile Volume 2.
Finch, Sheila. The Shaper Exile, Bantam, July, 1989, 217pp, $3.95,
        0-553-26801-5.
Foster, Alan Dea. Quozl, Ace, May, 1989, 344pp, $4.50,
        0-441-69454-3.  With Flip-a-mation.
Friedman, Michael Jan. Double, Double, Pocket, April, 1989, 309pp,
        $3.95, 0-671-66130-2. Star Trek #45.
Gear, W. Michael. The Web of the Spider, DAW, July, 1989, 648pp, $4.95,
        0-88677-356-3. Sequel to The Way of Spider.
Harper, Rory. Petrogypsies, Baen, September, 1989, 275pp, $3.50, 0-671-69840-0.
Harrison, Harry. Bill, the Galactic Hero: The Planet of the Robot
        Slaves, Avon, July, 1989, 236pp, $3.95, 0-380-75661-7. Sequel
        to Bill, the Galactic Hero.
Harrison, Harry. Return to Eden, Bantam, July, 1989, 427pp, $4.95,
        0-553-27700-4. First pb. Book 3 in the Return to Eden trilogy.
Ingrid, Charles. Return Fire, DAW, August, 1989, 252pp, $3.95, 0-88677-363-6.
        The Sand Wars #5.
Johnson, James B. Habu, DAW, May, 1989, 315pp, $3.50, 0-88677-350-4
Johnson, James B. Mindhopper, DAW, May, 1989, 269pp, $3.50,
        0-88677-265-6. Reissue.
Kandel, Michael. Strange Invasion, Bantam, September, 1989, 152pp,
        $3.95, 0-553-28146-1.
Kelly, James Patrick. Look Into the Sun, Tor, April, 1989, 279pp,
        $17.95, 0-312-93148-4.
Koman, Victor. The Jehovah Contract, Avon, September, 1989, 230pp,
        $3.50, 0-380-70557-5.
LeGuin, Ursula K. The Lathe of Heaven, Avon, $3.50, 0-380-01320-7. Reprint.
Malzberg, Barry N. Galaxies, Carroll&Graf, May, 1989, 128pp, $2.95,
        0-88184-491-8.
McDonald, Ian. Out on Blue Six, Bantam, May, 1989, 335pp, $4.50,
        0-553-27763-4. A Spectra Special book.
McQuay, Mike. Memories, Bantam, August, 1989, 400pp, $4.95, 0-553-25888-5.
McQuay, Mike. The Nexus, Bantam, May, 1989, 474pp,   0-553-28178-X. A
        Spectra Special Book.
Mitchell, Kirk. Cry Republic, Ace, August, 1989, 267pp, $3.95,
        0-441-12389-9. sequel to Procurator and New Barbarians.
Moran, Daniel Keys, The Long Run, Bantam, September, 1989, 372pp,
        $3.95, 0-553-28144-5.
Morris, Janet & Drake, David. Target, Ace, July, 1989, 312pp, $3.95,
        0-441-79955-8
Morrow, James. This is the Way the World Ends, Ace, May, 1989, 270pp,
        $3.95, 0-441-80711-9.
Niven, Larry & Barnes, Steven. Barsoom Project, Ace, September, 1989,
        340pp, $4.50, 0-441-16712-8. Sequel to Dream Park.
Peters, Ralph. Red Army, Pocket, May, 1989, 334pp, $18.95, 0-671-67668-7.
        Near future thriller.
Pournelle, Jerry & Stirling, S.M. Man-Kzin Wars II, Baen, August, 1989,
        306pp, $3.95, 0-671-69833-8.
Pournelle, Jerry. The Crash of Empire, Baen, June, 1989, 376pp, $3.95,
        0-671-69826-5. Imperial Stars #3.
Preuss, Paul. Hide and Seek, Avon, June, 1989, $3.95, 260pp, 0-380-75346-4.
        Venus Prime Volume 3.
Resnick, Mike. Paradise, Tor, June, 1989, 323pp., $17.95,  0-312-93183-2.
Robinson, Spider. Callahan's Lady, Ace, May, 1989, 191pp, 0-441-09073-7.
Ross, David D. The Argus Gambit, St. Martin's Press, September, 1989,
        406pp, $18.95, 0-312-03287-0. 1st novel.
Rusch, Kristine, Kathryn. Pulphouse: The Hardback Magazine, Issue 4
        (Science Fiction). Pulphouse Publishing, Box 1227, Eugene, OR
        97440.  247pp.
Shatner, William. Tekwar, Ace/Putnam, October, 1989, 256pp, $18.95,
        0-399-13495-6. First novel by the director of Star Trek V. Not a Star
        Trek novel. Ghostwritten
Shaw, Bob. Orbitsville Departure. Baen, August, 1989, 252pp, $2.95,
        0-671-69831-1. Reprint.
Shaw, Bob. Orbitsville, Baen, April, 1989, 219pp, $2.95, 0-671-69816-8.
        Reprint of a 1975 novel.
Shaw, Bob. The Wooden Spaceships, Baen, August, 1989, 294pp, $3.50,
        0-671-69830-3.
Simmons, Dan. Hyperion. Foundation, August, 1989, 482pp, $8.95, 0-385-26348-1.
Simmons, Dan. Phases of Gravity, Bantam, May, 1989, 278pp, $4.50,
        0-553-27764-2. Spectra Special Book.
Stableford, Brian. The Walking Shadow, Carroll&Graf, July, 1989, 224pp,
        $3.95, 0-88184-502-7. Reissue of a 1979 novel.
Stasheff, Christopher. The Warlock Insane, Ace, July, 1989, 247pp,
        $3.95, 0-441-87364-2.
Tepper, Sheri. The Gate to Women's Country, Bantam, August, 1989,
        $4.50, 328pp, 0-553-28064-3.
Tevis, Walter. The Man Who Fell To Earth, Dell, May, 1989, 192pp,
        $7.95, 0-440-50217-9. Reissue.
Vornholt, John. Masks, Pocket, July, 1989, 277pp, $3.95,   0-671-67980-5.
        Star Trek: The Next Generation #7.
Wallace, Ian. Megalomania, DAW, May, 1989, 179pp, $3.75, 0-88677-351-2
Williams, Walter Jon. Angel Station, Tor, September, 1989, 393pp,
        $18.95, 0-312-93187-5.
Willis, Connie & Felice, Cynthia. Light Raid, Ace, May, 1989, 229pp,
        $17.95, 0-441-48311-9.
Wilson, Colin. The Philosopher's Stone, Jeremy P. Tarcher books, July,
        1989, 268pp, $9.95, 0-87477-509-4. Reprint.
Wilson, F. Paul, Soft and other stories, Tor, May, 1989, 306pp, $17.95,
        0-312-93717-4. Collection.
Wilson, F. Paul. Dydeetown World, Baen, August, 1989, $3.50, 0-671-69828-1.
Wollheim, Donald. The 1989 Annual World's Best SF, DAW, June, 1989,
        313pp, $3.95, 0-88677-353-9.
Zelazny, Roger. A Dark Travelling, Avon, May, 1989, 151pp, $3.50,
        0-380-70567-2.
Zindell, David. Neverness, Bantam, July, 1989, 552pp, $4.95, 0-553-27903-3.
        First novel.

Other

Boslough, John. Stephen Hawking's Universe, Avon, June, 1989, 149pp,
$3.95, 0-380-70763-2. Reprint.
Cheetham, Erika. The Final Prophecies of Nostradamus, Perigee books,
July, 1989, 446pp, $9.95, 0-399-51516-X.
Greenberg, Martin H. ed. The Further Adventures of Batman, Bantam,
July, 1989, $3.95, 0-553-28270-0. An anthology of 14 original
Batman tales by different authors.
Gygax, Gary. Master of the Game. Perigee Books, July, 1989, 174pp,
$9.95, 0-399-51533-X. Gygax tells everything you ever wanted to
know about being a Dungeon Master.
Shatner, Lisabeth. Captain's Log: William Shatner's Personal Account of
the Making of Star Trek V. Pocket, 224pp, July, 1989, $9.95,
0-671- 68652-6.
Streiber, Whitley. Transformation: The Breakthrough. Avon, August,
1989, 276pp, $4.95, 0-380-70535-4. The latest sequel in this
non-fiction series about aliens visiting earth. Uh-huh.
Vallejo, Boris. The 1990 Mythology Calendar, Workman, $7.,95.
Zicree, Marc Scott. The Twlight Zone Companion, Second Edition. Bantam,
October, 1989, 466pp, $12.95, 0-553-34744-6.

Magazines Received

Aboriginal SF. Charles Ryan, ed. $14/year from Box 2449, Woburn, Mass.
01888-0849.
Factsheet Five, Mike Gunderloy, 6 Arizona Ave. Rensslaer, NY, 12144-
4502. Newsletter that reviews/catalogs other publications. $2/issue.
Locus, Charles Brown, ed. $28/year (12 issues) from Box 13305, Oakland,
CA 94661
Marion Zimmer Bradley's Fantasy Magazine, Jan Burke,. $14/year, Box
245-A, Berkeley, CA 94701.
New York Review of SF. Box 78, Pleasantville, NY, 10570, $24/year (12
issues). Semi-pro review/criticism magazine.
Pulsar! Science Fiction Quarterly. Tony Ebelhor, ed. $12/year from Box
886, Evansvill, IN 47706-0886.
Scavenger's Newsletter. $10/year (12 issues) from Janet Fox, 519
Ellinwood, Osage City, KS 66523-1329. Small Press market newsletter.
Science Fiction & Fantasy Forum #1. John Eric Colton, ed. A new review
oriented semipro published bimonthly. A one-year, six issue
subscription is $3.00 (yes, three dollars) from Box 138,
Woodbury, NY 11797-0138.
Science Fiction Chronicle. Andy Porter, ed. $27/year (12 issues) from
Box 2730, Brooklyn, NY 11202-0056.
Science Fiction Eye #5, $10/year (three issues) from Box 43244,
Washington DC, 20010-9244.
Short Form. Vol 2 #1 & #2. Orson Scott Card and Mark Van Name, eds.
Irregular from Hatrack River Publications, Box 18184,
Greensboro, NC 27419-8184.
Tales of the Unanticipated #5, Eric Heideman, ed. $2.50. Box 8036, Lake
Street Station, Minneapolis, MN 55408.
Thrust, Douglas Fratz, ed. Quarterly from 8217 Langport Terrace,
Gaithersbrg, MD 20877. $8.00/year.
Weird Tales. George Scithers, et al, editors. $4.00 or $18.00/six
issues from Terminus Publications, Box 13418, Philadelphia,
PA. 19101-3418.

Fanzines Received

8 1/2 x 11 Zine. David Thayer/Teddy Harvia. twice a year from 7209
DeVille Dr. NRH TX 76180-8257
Anvil 49. Charlotte Proctor, ed. 8325 7th Avenue S. Birmingham, Al
35026. Charlotte calls it quits with #49, and we say good bye
to another longstanding fanzine with a long tradition of Good
Things. Sigh.
Art and Writing of Bucky Montgomery, Bucky Montgomery, 692 Calero
Avenue, San Jose, CA 95123. Promotional flyer with art and
writing by Bucky Montgomery.
B.A.S.T.A.R.D #1. Jake MacFarland. Discussion of San Francisco Bay Area
convention fandom. It stands for Bay Area Sci-fi Talk and
Reporting Diatribe. bi-monthly, $6.00/year or the usual from
Box 111124, Campbell, CA 95011.
The Book of Gold, #1 & #2. Jeremy Crampton, 302 Walker Building,
University Park, PA 16802. A quarterly fanzine about the
writings of Gene Wolfe.
Delineator #7. Alan White. The Last Gasp Issue, 455 E. 7th Street #4,
San Jacinto, CA 92383. Alan calls it quits after seven large,
well designed issues and little feedback.
Dilinger Relic #62. Arthur Hlavaty, Box 52085, Durham, NC 27717.
Don-O-Saur #54&55 Don C. Thompson. Irregular from 3735 W. 81st Place,
Westminster, CO 80030.
efilnikufesin #3. Kev McVeigh, 37 Firs Road, Milnthrope, Cumbria, LA7
7QF, United Kingdom.
File 770 #81, Mike Glyer. $5.00/five issues from 5828 Woodman Ave. #2,
Van Nuys, CA 91401. This won the Best Fanzine Hugo in 1989.
Fosfax. C/O Fosfa, Box 37281, Louisville, KY 40233-7281
Gradient #1, Robert Sabella, ed. Irregular perzine from 2 Natalie
Drive, Budd Lake, N.J. 07828.
Insider. St. Louis SF Society newsletter, P.O. Box 1058, St. Louis, MO
63188.
Lan's Lantern #28 & 29 & #30. & 31 From George "Lan" Laskowski, 55
Valley Way, Bloomfield Hills, MI 48013. #28 is a special Arthur
Clarke issue. #29 is a William F. Temple and Lester del Rey
issue.
The Mad 3 Party #33. Leslie Turek, ed. More than you ever wanted to
know about running a Worldcon, the Noreascon 3 fanzine.
Available for $1.00/issue from Box 46, MIT Branch PO,
cambridge, MA 02139
Mimosa #6. Dick & Nicki Lynch, Irregular, $2 or the usual from box
1270, Germantown, MD, 20847-0998
The Optimistic Sturgeon. Dan'l Danehy-Oakes. $2.25/1. Quarterly from
3215 Liberty, Alameda, CA 94501. First issue of Dan'l's
"Fanzine With An Attitude"
Pirate Jenny #3. Pat Mueller, 618 Westridge, Duncanville, TX 75116.
Long awaited (and well done) third issue of the new fanzine by
a Hugo Winning faned. Interesting discussion of the comic book
"Watchmen"
Pulsar! #13, Tony Ubelhor, ed. Quarterly, offset with high production
values. $12/year from Box 886, Evansville, IN 47706-0886.
Remember Lindisfarne. Heidi Lyshol, ed. Irregular from Maridalsvn. 235
A, N-0467 Oslo 4, Norway. English language.
Renaissance Fan #6, Rosalind Malin and Dick Pilz, Jr. ed. Four times a
year from 2214 SE 53rd, Portland, OR 97215. A beautiful
hand-done, limited edition fanzine.
San Francisco Bay Area Fan Directory #7. twice a year from David Clark,
2804 Stuart St. Berkeley, CA 94705.
Sclodion #1. Dave Langford. From 94 London Road, Reading, Berkshire,
England, RG1 5AU.
Star Rover, Terry Gish, ed. San Francisco Area SF Association, 467
Saratoga AVenue, Suite 631, San Jose, CA 95128-1380. Quarterly
directory of things going on in fandom in the San Francisco Bay
Area.
Strange Plasma #1, Steve Pasenchnick, ed. Three times a year, $3.00 ea
($8/year) from Edgewood Press, P.O. Box 264, Cambridge, MA
02238. Semi-pro fiction magazine, with Paul Park, Eric Brown,
Gene Wolfe, R.A. Lafferty and Robert Sampson.
Thyme. LynC, ed. Australiasian newszine. Bimonthly from Box 4024, U. of
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 3052.
Trash Barrel. Donald Franson, 6543 Babcock AVe, North Hollywood, CA
91606. A short fanzine of nothing but fanzine reviews.
Twilight Zine XL, Lisa Kroh, editor. MITSFS clubzine, irregular. from
Room W20-473, 84 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139.
Weberwoman's Revenge. Jean Weber, Box 244, Potts Point, NSW 2011,
Australia. #34 and #35 --Jean talks about her trip to the
United States. Also, in #35, fascinating material about medical
abuses in New Zealand.
Whistlestar 5. Lenny Bailes, 504 Bartlett Street, San Francisco, CA
94110.
YHOS #47, Art Widner, ed. Irregular from 231 Courtney Lane, Orinda, CA
94563.

------ End ------

↑ Top

Issue 25, Summer/Fall 1989 (part 13)

Electronic OtherRealms #25
Summer/Fall, 1989
Part 13 of 17

The Agony Column

A Special Look at Horror in the Small Press

It's not surprising that horror fiction, which makes so much money for so few people, is so poorly treated by both publishers and readers of other "genre fiction". But within the last two years, three of the top magazines to promote horror fiction -- first, "Night Cry", then "The Twilight Zone Magazine" and now "The Horror Show" -- have all closed up shop. The short story is a staple of horror fiction, and beyond big- name, big bucks anthologies, there's a shortage of places to find it. Or is there?

The answer is no! You need look no further than the so-called "small press" to find the "Cutting Edge" of horror fiction. It makes sense. The small presses -- like Dark Harvest, Scream/Press, MacClay and Associates, Mark V. Zeising, and the venerable Arkham House -- to name but a few -- have done wonders for horror fiction books, so it's no surprise that their equivalents in the magazine publishing world are doing a lot for horror fiction magazines. What is surprising, is just how much is being done. I'd happily trade an issue of "Grue", "2AM", "DeathRealm", "The Horror Show", "Weirdbook", "Whispers" or "Midnight Graffiti", say, for last year's "Prime Evil", and feel that any them packs as much punch as the hardcover. And for the price of a single hardcover, I could buy four magazines. As a collector, I've realized that the magazines accrue value as quickly as any book, more so, if the author featured within is or becomes a big name. As an admirer of horror-inspired artwork, I've found these publications are beyond the competition of all but the very best and most exclusive of the small press editions. So, while some old hands and respected names have dropped off the edge, there's every hope that we horror readers can save what's left, enjoy the best and the newest, and by our support, start a new "Golden Age" of horror magazines. It's already started -- only lots of people haven't noticed.

This article is meant to be a "random sample" of what's out there, specifically, what you can buy at your local specialty shop. (The sample was biased, of course, by my Southern California Location, but it's the entertainment capital of the world, right?) For it's only at your local SF/Fantasy/Horror/Comics bookstore, that you can find most of these magazines, and it's these people you need to request to carry these magazines. Once you get a taste, the chances are you'll want to subscribe, because you definitely can't find these magazines at the grocery store -- yet.

Tales By Moonlight 11   [*****]
edited by Jessica Amanda Salmonson
Tor Books, 0-812-55371-3, $3.95

What you can find at the grocery store to start your small press search is this combination of invaluable guide and gut-busting anthology. It includes two remarkable appendices, "How to Start Your Own Shoestring Horror Magazine" by "Grue" editor Peggy Nadramia, and "Current Small Press Horror Magazines". If you want to know everything that's our there, here's a good place to start. Especially since the fiction within is so powerful, so packed with with emotion and variety that any fan of any type of horror fiction, from "quiet" to "Splatterpunk" will find something by a writer they've never read to totally impress them. And, they'll no doubt find new types of horror fiction to enjoy. I was particularly impressed by Salmonson's emphasis on magazines that specialize in translated fiction, because I've never read anything quite so amazingly different as Stefan Grabinski's, "The Area", translated by Miroslaw Lipinski. Also impressive is the inclusion of older horror fiction by well known writers, giving the collection a perspective on how well the genre itself ages (very well, it seems). And, since it's sitting, waiting for you in the grocery rack, you won't have to go out of your way to get it. But once you do, you'll quickly find yourself going out of your way to get to the sources it draws from.

After Hours     [***]
edited by William G. Raley
21541 Oakbrook, Mission Viejo, CA. 92692-3044
ISSN 1043-3686, $4.00 per copy, quarterly

At issue number three, "After Hours" is shaping up to be a nice venue for mostly new writers, with a couple of familiar names, and sparse but effective artwork. It's mostly fiction, with no specific sub-genre featured or forced. Particularly impressive were "For I Have Sinned" by Gary David Johnson, "Road L and Resident" by Craig Anthony and "Black" by Steve Rasnic Tem. "After Hours" leans towards short-short stories, something the horror genre can do especially well, and that gives this 52 page magazine the ability to include 13 pieces of fiction. The "Departments" include a brief one-page editorial, "Coffee Shop", an interview section (this issue featured Chris B. Lacher, editor of "New Blood" Magazine), Market News and writer's biographies. The look of this magazine is still somewhat low-budget and amateurish, but happily very clean. At issue number three, it's still possible to get all back issues, and as the audience grows, there's every possibility that "After Hours" can take a place at the top of the field. It's good, but it's not there yet.

Deathrealm      [*****]
edited by Mark Rainey
3223-F Regents Park, Greenboro, NC, 27405
5 1/2" by 8 1/2", BW, saddle stitch, text, $4.00 quarterly

Finding this magazine was for me like finding an unexpected treasure -- it's the best I could hope for, and until I picked it up at the store, I'd never heard of it. Beautifully illustrated, wonderfully designed, easy-to-read and look at, this magazine hearkens back to classic look of horror magazines. The black and white illustrations are occasionally stunning and always classy. This publication shows what the best of the small press can be -- more cohesive than anything professional, and certainly as nice looking. I looked at issue #2, #3 and #9, and while some things certainly improved, it seems to have been a hard act to beat from square one. But it's the written content that will win most readers over. Issue #9 included Joe R. Lansdale's visceral and disturbing "Pentacostal Punk Rock" and Fred Chappell's literate and imaginative Cthulu Mythos story, "The Adder". Jeffrey Osier's "Don't Clean the Aquarium" (Issue #2) began a first-rate urban "Alien" story, that was effectively continued in "The Dogs" (Issue #3). Editor Mark Rainey also made the notable contributions "Threnody" and "1, Krall" in the earlier issues. Also commendable is the magazine's increasing dedication to horror poetry, a creature whose existence I had never suspected. While the great bulk of the magazine is fiction, there are occasional interviews, and very informative small-press horror magazine reviews. Since you can be guaranteed that this magazine will interest you, and bet pretty heavy on what is recommended within. Definitely something nice to put on your bookshelf with all those Dark Harvest and Scream Press books -- and of equivalent quality.

Fear    [****]
edited by John Gilbert
PO Box 20, Ludlow, Shropshire SY8
ISSN 0954-8017, approximately $6.00, quarterly

While this is neither small press, nor American, it's as difficult to find as anything else, and certainly worth mention. Lot of color, slick pages, full-page illustrations for horror stories by major authors? It'd never fly in America, but in England, they're a lot smarter about this kind of thing. "Fear" is what every horror fan hopes for -- with reservations. It's big, it's slick, it's splashy, it's -- got a lot of advertising (genre-oriented, sure), and a whole lot of movie reviews. Yes, it is something like a hybrid of Fangoria and Twilight Zone, but let's face it -- there are stories by Nicholas Royle, Ramsey Campbell and Stephen Gallagher, so it does have quite a bit going for it. It also has lots of interviews, with people like Peter Straub, Ramsey Campbell and Stephen Gallagher. As a purveyor of fiction, pure and simple, it has punch but is lacking in quantity. And while it is in color, the look tends to get a bit crowded with all those adverts and pint-size film and book reviews. Still, the overall "British" slant makes it interesting for the American reader, and a bit chilling as far as the on-going debate about British film censorship is concerned. Is horror censorship coming soon to a theater near you? Let's hope not, but things don't look so hot on this side of the Atlantic. For those with an overall interest in the horror genre, especially film, this may prove a must buy.

Footsteps Chapbooks Footsteps Press, Roundtop New York

Footsteps by Harlan Ellison     [***]
The House of Fear by Chet Williamson    [****]

51/2" by 81/2", saddle-stitch, 2 color high quality text Irregular, about $10.00 signed

These chapbooks aren't magazines per se, but they fit right in with best of these small-press publications. There's one story per book, signed by the author and the illustrator, and everything is absolute top-of-the- line. "The House of Fear" shows off Chet Williamson at his very psychological best and is complemented by the astonishing illustrations of Douglas C. Klauba. These alone will make it worth the price of admission. "Footsteps" is a reprint of Harlan Ellison story first published in "Gallery" magazine (NOT a small press horror pub) and includes two intros by this always interesting and vociferous writer. Also available (but unseen by this writer) is Douglas Winter's chilling "Splatter", illustrated by Harry Morris. Keep and eye out for "Footsteps" they're definitely worth following.

GRUE Magazine   [*****]
Hell's Kitchen Productions,
PO Box 370, Times Square Station NY, NY
ISSN 0897-9707, $4.50, quarterly

Without doubt one of the most disturbing magazines I've ever read, GRUE is certainly at the front of the line, the top of the heap and the cutting edge of horror fiction today. With the latest issue, Peggy Nadramia has reached a new peak, presenting thirteen first-rate tales of horror that are at times literate and quiet, then stomach-churning, then experimental and disorienting -- but uniformly of excellent quality. Also included is horror poetry that will convince even most hardened skeptic that horror poetry can work beyond your wildest dreams. This was the magazine that made me realize that this format is every bit as good as the big-bucks anthologies. Every day I'd both look forward to and dread the time when I would read the next story -- let this be a warning to the faint-of-heart. While these stories are very well written, the content tends towards the extreme side of upsetting violence and psychology. This is not to say that it is limited to this type of fiction. Thomas Ligotti contributes his usual atmospheric ambiance to "The Strange Design of Master Rignolo", and Bentley Little's "Against the Pale Sand" is so strange that the sexual elements seem subdued by the surreal surroundings, though no less disturbing. Still, there are always stories like "Corky's Quickees" by small press habituee Wayne Allen Salle and David Starkey's "Astronaut" to shock the reader into teary-eyed numbness. Let's not forget the high-quality illustrations, which more than do their part to dislodge any bricks in the reader's instincts of self-preservation. Like "Deathrealm", this is what nightmares are made of.

The Horror Show
edited by David B. Silva
Phantasm Press, 14848 Misty Springs Lane
Oak Run, California 96069
ISSN 0748-2914, $3.95, quarterly

Although it's been officially declared dead, The Horror Show is still being published, with a special double issue expected in Spring of 1990, and an annual anthology also being considered. Even better, back issues are available. This is one of the small press magazines to feature both writers for the small press (Brian Hodge, Paul F. Olson, AR Morlan) and big name stars -- in Dennis Etchison and Dean R. Koontz special issues. While each issue consists primarily wide-spectrum horror fiction, there are also occasional interviews, book reviews and sometimes movie reviews. But the emphasis is on high quality horror fiction. David B. Silva's editorial choices are consistent only in their excellence, but range from the surreal horror of J.N. Williamson's "The Gap Nearly Closed Today" to the splatter of Joe Lansdale. Even better, readers are encouraged readers to look at new and different talents; the Summer 1989 issue featured stories by and interviews with four "rising stars" of horror. It's a sure bet that as these and other writers become better known, and issues of this magazine will become collector's items. There's still time to buy this magazine don't lose a chance you may never have again.

Midnight Graffiti       [****+]
edited by Jessica Horsting and James Van Hise
13101 Sudan Road, Poway, California 92064
$4.95, quarterly

Midnight Graffiti is poised to take the lead, but hasn't quite done so. It's definitely different from the other small press leaders, and it's attracted some major league talent -- Stephen King contributed an all- new story titled "Rainy Season" to the last issue. But it's young yet (only in issue 3), and has a little ways to go before it will have firmly established a look and feel all its own. Still, one can't deny that the fiction is always first-rate, with big names like King, Ellison and Joe Lansdale, and new faces like Stephen Boyett. The covers are beautiful; some folks will want to buy two copies just to frame the cover of one. But inside, things still look a little iffy, sometimes busy, sometimes clean. It's probably just a matter of aging, of settling into a format and feel. And who has time for settling in when Stephen King writes? Be that as it may, "Midnight Graffiti" is also notable for the humorous and fact based articles within. Humorous horror is all to rare, and certainly welcome; the cartoons, the satires, the "True Facts" columns are quite funny and totally different from what is found in the rest of the genre. And the factual articles -- those are strictly for folks who like to really be scared. "The Strange Case of Gary Levinson" told the story of a schlock horror film maker who strayed into making fake "snuff" videos utilizing the makeup effects left over from his films. He's serving time now. It's really creepy stuff, and certainly teeters on the edge of "taste". The occasional "Art Gallery" features have featured such diverse works as "The Gallery of Richard Upton Pickman" by Allen Koszowski, a fine set of black and white prints, to "Too Strange", which lives up to its title by being the 'Seven dwarves' renditions of John Wayne Gacy, convicted serial killer. If this won't give you the creeps, you're dead.

New Blood Magazine      [***+]
edited by Chris B. Lacher
540 West Foothill Blvd Suite #3730, Glendora, CA 91740
ISSN 1040-4392, $4.00, quarterly

New Blood magazine is a good example of why the horror scene is thriving; there's lots of good new talent out there, waiting to "break through". And a lot of established writers, who have more on their hands than they can fit in their books. The look and feel of the magazine is excellent, with classic, restrained illustrations, and a simple, clean, easy to read layout. Like GRUE, the emphasis tends towards the splatter side of things, but there's always room for the surreal humor of Gary ("The Howling") Brander's "The Dogs". No, not those dogs; the dogs to which our great country is going. There's also an excellent critical look at horror by Edgar F. Tatro, something the genre really needs and really benefits from; not a "horror sucks because..." or "horror is great because..." diatribe, but a -- shiver -- scholarly look at how horror works. Interesting, refreshing reading.

2 AM    [*****]
edited by Gretta M. Anderson
Box 6754, Rockford, IL 61125-1754
ISSN 0886-8743, $4.95, quarterly

Here's another of the proven forces in small press horror, and they're still going strong. The bulk of the magazine is fiction, with excellent poetry, stories by an occasional big name (Kevin J. Anderson, David B. Silva), and a constant gallery of highly talented new writers. The emphasis tends to lean towards classic and quiet horror, but there's always room for something like Jeffrey Osier's "The Face on The Stairs". The look of this magazine seems to serve as a model for both "New Blood" and "After Hours"; clean, easy-to-read, well designed layouts. There are columns for Market News, a nice review section by various writers and a regular column by the respected J.N. Williamson. This column combines tales of his writing experiences with off-the-cuff reviews, and is especially entertaining. Unlike other horror magazines, there's an "editorial content"; in the latest issue, William Relling speaks eloquently for gun control. It's a class effort from beginning to end, well worth the price of admission.

Skeleton Crew   [**+]
edited by Dave Hughes
104 Highcliffe Road, Wickford Essex
Approximately $4.95, quarterly

This is a magazine where art is the star; namely, art by head Artist Dave Cason, whose beautiful covers and interior illos will grab any horror fan's eye. But once you get to the inside, well, that's a different story. At least as far as Issue 5, where typos claim 4 of the first 5 paragraphs of a Brian Lumley story. Add to that a dot-matrix style typeface, and you've got a big minus to balance the big plus of Dave Carson's artwork. There's some good fiction by newer writers, reprints of fiction by well-known writers, and a few too many reviews of this, with a bit too much commentary on that. The inside is somewhat poorly laid out, and often just plain hard-to-read. Still, there's hope -- with issues dedicated to Ramsey Campbell and James Herbert upcoming, and artwork by Clive Barker, "Skeleton Crew" may grow up to be something to be reckoned with. But first take care of those typos!

Curiously, the last three publications alphabetically all blur the line between "magazine" and "trade paperback anthology". Their release dates are irregular (with the exception of "Weird Tales"), and two of them are available in signed, hardback limited editions.

Weirdbook       [*****]
edited by W. Paul Ganley
PO Box 149 Buffalo NY, 14226-0149
ISSN 8755-7452 Double Issue, $10.00

Only fiction and poetry, lots of well-known authors, a two color cover with dust jacket(!), available in hardback edition -- this is another example of what you'll find when you start digging, and why you should start doing so now. No major publisher is going to stick out their neck to publish this kind of fiction and poetry. Even if they do, the chances are they won't turn out as well as does Weirdbook. Faring best in the 23/24 double issue are RE Klein, Janet Fox and Brian Lumley, whose "Dagon's Bell" is yet more proof that the Cthulu Mythos are still viable in the right hands. Whether you call it a book or magazine, make sure you buy Weirdbook. And, if you can't find it, pester your local bookstore about it. After all, wouldn't you like to be able to find this sort of thing everywhere?

Weird Tales     [****+]
edited by John Betancourt, George Scithers and Darrell Schweitzer
Terminus Publishing Company, PO Box 13148 Philadelphia, PA 19101-3418
ISSN 0898-5073, $4.00, quarterly.

When the big names do it, they occasionally do it right. Here's that occasion. Weird Tales is an example of good taste, great layout, some chances taken on new talent, some new material by big-name, established writers, and beautiful, frameable artwork. Like Weirdbook, Weird Tales is available in hardback, signed/limited editions. When you pick up the magazine, aside from a slight few advertisements (genre oriented, of course) you'll find little difference between it and trade paperback editions of Scream/Press or Dark Harvest books. In the last two issues, stories of note were Alan Rodgers "Emma's Daughter", Michael F. Flynn's "Dragons" and Karl Edward Wagner's novella, "At First Just Ghostly". It doesn't hurt that this magazine is almost always available in specialty bookstores; but once you've seen, you'll probably want to subscribe.

Whispers
edited by Stuart David Schiff
70 Highland Avenue, Binghamton NY 13905
Approximately $8.00 -- $30.00, irregular

Every cause needs a vehicle, and what better vehicle could the progenitors of the quiet horror sub-genre ask for than Stuart David Schiff's Whispers. Like Weird Tales, it's professional through and through, but far more difficult to find. It's also far more of a collector's item, and like the two previous entries is really closer to trade paperback than a magazine. The contributors are well-known, top selling writers including Charles Grant, Dennis Etchison, and Michael Bishop, all presenting first-run material. Of note is the art that punctuates the fiction and poetry; it's what you'd expect in a limited edition hardcover. In fact, everything about this magazine says "quality" -- quality with teeth.

By now you should get the idea. There's more than meets you eye at the supermarket, more than you'll find at your local specialty store. If you see something new in the world of the small press, look for familiar names; once you start looking closely, a foreign, barren landscape can reveal itself to be an ancient graveyard -- full of freshly buried bodies.

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Issue 25, Summer/Fall 1989 (part 14)

Electronic OtherRealms #25
Summer/Fall, 1989
Part 14 of 17

No Prisoners!

The Star Scroll         [*****]
Melanie Rawn
DAW Books. 589pp 1989.

The Star Scroll, by Melanie Rawn, is the sequel to The Dragon Prince. It avoids the traps that a lot of second books fall into; either the travelogue, or 'the evil person manages to split up all the good guys, so we can have them come together for the big finale.'

One thing Rawn does do, however, is have most of the subplots come together at the end of the story, rather than the almost episodic resolution of subplots that occurred in The Dragon Prince. The characterization is also much deeper and more colorful. Characters who were portrayed in only one aspect in The Dragon Prince have new aspects shown, and their motives made clear. Not everyone lives happily ever after.

Sioned's ability to work her magic with only starlight is also pursued. The trepidation that was felt by the Sunrunners is better explained in The Star Scroll, as their mortal enemies also have the ability to work magic with starlight. The starlight magic workers want their land back; and they want revenge on the Sunrunners. I expect to see this explored in future stories. And I am definitely looking forward to future stories in Rawn's world.

Magic's Pawn    [****]
Mercedes Lackey
DAW Books, 349pp, 1989

Magic's Pawn is Mercedes Lackey's latest in the world of Valdemar's Heralds. Those who have read the Heralds of Valdemar series are familiar with the Heralds, those gifted with "mind magic" who serve, along with their horse-like Companions, as a force for good for the kingdom. In the first series,it was mentioned that there were no more herald-mages. This is the story of the last of the herald-mages. Vanyel is the unlikely son out an outland noble; he has none of the "manly" (I would say testosterone poisoned macho) qualities his father cares for. Vanyel is sent to his aunt, the head instructor at the Heralds' school, with the hope that something can be made of him. Now, if this was the typical $2.95 generic fantasy special, Vanyel would meet a vastly intelligent and beautiful herald, he would find himself in many dangerous situations, at least one involving rescuing at the last minute the vastly intelligent and beautiful herald. Oh, and of course, the vastly intelligent and beautiful herald would be female. Well, the vastly intelligent and beautiful herald doesn't get rescued, and he is certainly isn't a woman. Lackey handles very well what is currently considered a tricky but what should be a classic plot; tragic love is tragic love, no matter who are the lovers.

Vanyel's doomed love only starts the story; how he deals with the loss of his love, and gain of his newfound gifts provides the basis for what may be a classic trilogy.

The White Raven         [***+]
Diana L. Paxson
Avon, 445pp, 1988

The White Raven is the re-telling of another doomed love affair; the legend of Tristan and Isolde. The viewpoint provided is by Branwen, the White Raven of the title. Paxson looks at the legend from a different viewpoint than we are normally provided; the legends typically provide only the viewpoint of Tristan. Using a third observer gives the story a new and fresh viewpoint.

If I can find any fault with the story, it's that Branwen has patience beyond any human endurance. Esseilte (Isolde) is a selfish brat whose lust for revenge, and a flair for the histrionic causes most of the problems. She forces Branwen into an alliance of deceit that harms all around them. even to the end, she feels that she has been terribly wronged. Drustan (Tristan) isn't a much more likable. He tends to alter reality to suit his own ends. When he sent his brother to rape Branwen (although he would probably say it was a seduction), I lost the little sympathy I had for him. All through this, Branwen remains loyal to the two. She does finally lead King Marc'h to them, and even after that she stays loyal to Esseilte. Even after Esseilte attempts to blame Branwen for everything. Drustan and Esseilte deserved each other.

Prince of the Blood     [****]
Raymond E Feist
Doubleday,293pp, August 1989

There is definitely a limit to breast rending tragedies one can digest, even for someone who "plows through one Celtic fantasy after another." That's why Prince of the Blood is so refreshing. Set in the world of the Riftwar Saga, it's the story of Borric and Erland, sons of Prince Arutha, and their adventures in the Keshian empire.

Prince of the Blood is satisfying in so many ways, it's hard to list them all. Feist must have my secret list of ideas I'd like to see explored in a second generation story. Characters from the Riftwar Saga are accounted for; no one is left in plot limbo, or even worse, just forgotten. Familiar characters aren't turned into spear carriers or convenient carrion for the plot. Questions left open are answered, and those characters who need to be retired are allowed to go in a graceful fashion. And we finally get to see Kesh. Kesh had been hinted at and alluded to earlier, but only a taste was allowed. We now get to see Kesh in all its glory, and all its intrigue.

Feist has a an amazing feel for telling a good story, and his characters are always a delight. New to the scene is Nakor, a monk who "knows a few tricks." He is an absolute delight. The Keshians are explored in depth, and their machinations and politics are as convoluted as their personalities. Don't wait for this one to come out in paperback. My only regret for the book is the cover. The horse looks as if you could put a quarter in his neck, and he'd give you a two minute ride. Ignore the cover and get the book.

Adulthood Rites [***+]
Octavia E. Butler
Questar, 277pp, 1988

Imago   [***+]
Octavia E. Butler
Warner, 264pp, 1989

Contrary to popular rumor, I do read science fiction. The latest two are Adulthood Rites and Imago, the second and third books in the Oankali trilogy. The first book, Dawn, dealt with the survivors of the final world war on earth, and their alleged saviors, the Oankali. I say alleged, since the Oankali extract a high price for the saviorhood. The humans must share genetic material with the Oankali, and produce a race without the human's need for destruction and dominance. Humans who don't agree to act as a breeding stock are left sterile. The Oankali are master manipulators; they first "prove" to the humans that humanity is flawed, and then through a subtle series of reinforcements, they bend a number of humans to their way of thinking. I'm torn about this series. It is psychologically horrifying, and at the same time it attempts to change the reader's viewpoint on the Oankali, and disguise the horror. Much of it is Skinnerian theory played out to the nth degree. And I just can't shake the view of the Oankali as some sort of galactic ghouls, patiently waiting for a species to push itself to the brink of destruction, and then come in with their offer.

Adulthood Rites follows the life of one of the constructs, Akin, and his assumption of his adult form, a hybrid between Oankali and human. Kidnapped as a child, with an almost totally human form, he finds he must become as Oankali as possible to prove to his captors, sterile humans, that the Oankali aren't the totally evil beings they are perceived as by the humans. Akin breaches the wall between the human colony and the Oankali construct colony, and provides the first chink in the solid veneer of Oankali superiority.

Imago takes this and changes all the rules. Jodah is a human/Oankali construct who matures into the sexless third gender, an Ooloi. Ooloi are able to manipulate matter, especially organic matter. Their function in the mating of constructs is to mix and produce the best chromosomal mix for the future child. The Oankali were not expecting a construct Ooloi; they attempt to take Jodah to the ship, where he would be used as a permanent biological experiment. Once again, this is not the sign of a totally beneficent race. It turns out that there are many Oankali failed experiments who are doomed to the life a of lab animal. Jodah and his family escape to the jungle in an attempt to help Jodah evolve into a stable construct.

In a surprise to all, Jodah finds a colony of fertile humans left over from the nuclear wars. Here he finds a brother and sister he cures and then mates. Once again, the all-knowing Oankali are found to be deficient in their knowledge. Or are they? The Oankali are superb bio- geneticists, incomparable psychologists, and totally deficient ethicists. These are two truly frightening books.

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Issue 25, Summer/Fall 1989 (part 15)

Electronic OtherRealms #25
Summer/Fall, 1989
Part 15 of 17

The Agony Column

"Why Horror?" Variety. Sure, horror fiction has its black sheep and bestsellers, and, of course, it is these that most people associate with the genre. But it is not limited to these headliners. In fact, these days horror seems to have fewer limits than other genres, if you're willing to be curious and spend some time looking beyond slash'n'splash that most people associate with the horror genre. The common thread that ties together all of these different works is an answer to the question "Why horror?". Because each and every one of them, at the most basic level, deals with human emotions. They're books about people.

The Grotesque   [*****] (for splatterpunks)
Patrick McGrath
0-671-66509-x, Poseidon Press, $17.95

Those who wish to see horror fiction redeemed as "literature" need look no farther than Patrick McGrath's magnificent The Grotesque. In the wake of Stephen King, Clive Barker and the "splatterpunks", it's easy to forget that horror fiction had its start in the rarified realms of high literature, with such works as Henry James' The Turn of the Screw. Admirers of the school of "quiet horror" will find blissful release in the beautifully wrought prose of McGrath's first novel, a tale of emotions twisted beyond release, contained within the mind Sir Hugo Coal, a man unable to move, unable to speak, but fully able to see, hear, think and imagine the worst of about what goes on beyond the realm of his senses. Hugo's bitterness gives the work a bracing sense of humor, and his imagination of the grotesque lends a surreal sensibility to the narrative. The Grotesque may not appeal to those who look for page-turning, stomach-churning violence in their horror novels, but the elegant prose and disturbing imagery will doubtlessly please the connoisseur in search of something truly different.

Carrion Comfort [*****]
Dan Simmons
0-913165-37-9, Dark Harvest, $21.95

Science fiction readers should quickly recognize the name of Dan Simmons, whose newest SF novel Hyperion has recently been released to much acclaim. But horror readers will also recognize this writer, whose chilling and atmospheric novel Song of Kali won a World Fantasy Award in 1986. Carrion Comfort, while distinctly different from Song of Kali, is every bit as good as its predecessor. Surprisingly, Simmons has opted to write what on the outside looks like a Dean Koontz-style international thriller about a cabal of "mind vampires", who can control the actions of others and "feed" when exercising their power. The action is nearly constant, and this reads like the best Frederick Forsyth page-turner ever to come into the hands of horror fans. The author uses this format to explore "the root of human violence". Simmons is amazingly successful in his fusion of a slick style with a serious content there are no sermons, no dead-stops in the action where one character or the other theorizes about this-and-that. It is the plot, the experiences of these fully-fleshed people that carries the thoughtful content of Simmons' concepts. One wouldn't think it could be done, but Simmons' novel is an unqualified success -- and one that could be unhesitatingly recommended to readers of all styles of fiction. Combine this with illustrations by the author and Dark Harvest's classic publishing presentation and you have the collector's edition book of 1989.

The Book of The Dead    [****+]
edited by John Skipp and Craig Spector
0-553-27998-X Bantam Paperback, $4.50
0-929480-08-2 Mark V. Ziesing Hardcover, $22.00

Of course, the other collector's edition of 1989 is the much heralded Mark V. Ziesing edition of Skipp and Spector's The Book of the Dead. The Cthulu Mythos stories established the "shared world" concept in horror before many of today's SF writers were even published, but still, it's rather surprising to find a shared world anthology based on a movie -- except when that movie is the lambasted/respected Night of the Living Dead. This collection in itself should give the average reader a sample of the extreme variety in horror. The keyword is extreme. Skipp and Spector are best known for being leaders of the so-called "splatterpunks", and this collection won't disappoint their fans. Their intro is a highlight of the book, one of the funniest pieces about horror ever printed. But it's the fiction that's the real feature here. David Schow explores the extremes of violence in "Jerry's Kids Meet Wormboy", as does Doug Winters in his truly deadpan satire, "Less than Zombie", while Ramsey Campbell shows up the splatterpunks with the violence-less, gore-less, but nonetheless chilling "It Helps if You Sing". In general, the best works are those that attribute some intelligence to the flesh-eating zombies, particularly Nicolas Royle's dense and poignant "Saxophone". The centerpiece of the collection is Joe Lansdale's "On the Far Side of the Cadillac Desert With Dead Folks", a kind of apocalyptic Python-meets-Peckinpah western with a surprisingly effective touch of romance and friendship. Ziesing's package is beautiful as can be, nicely laid-out, easy-to-read and eerily (though sparsely) illustrated by the inimitable J.K. Potter. While this collection may be a bit too much for the faint-of-heart, true Horrorwith-a-capital-H fans will get their fill of the kill -- and then some -- with The Book of the Dead.

Ancient Images [****+]
Ramsey Campbell
0-684-19081-8 Scribners $18.95

Last year Ramsey Campbell excelled with The Influence, creating an elegant classic of the horror genre, and while this years model doesn't quite reach the literary classic mold of that work, it's a welcome change from this talented writer, for he's given us the first totally atmospheric page-turner ever written. Ancient Images deals with the series of deaths that follows the discovery of a "lost" Karloff film, and reflects Campbell's encyclopedic knowledge of horror cinema. On this count alone, horror movie fans will find the book fascinating. But they'll doubtlessly be surprised by the depth of the characters, especially Jenny, one of the best heroines ever written by a male writer. In terms of pure terror, there are images in this book the reader will never forget, images that are more powerful for their lack of violence and gore. Literate, heart-stopping, nostalgic and emotional, this novel will please a wide audience of horror fans. Don't let it slip past unread, like the half-seen shadows that elude the characters.

Blue World      [****]
Robert R. McCammon
0-246-13455-0, Grafton Press (UK), Approx $30.00

With short stories a staple of the genre, every novelist sooner or later manages to publish a collection of his or her work. In the case of Robert R. McCammon, the British-only release of Blue World is a welcome addition to his novels, which have won him a good a deal of acclaim and a number of awards. Blue World is characterized by variety, and is itself a great introduction to the diversity that can be found in mainstream horror. The stories include the haunting "Nightcrawlers", adapted for TV's new version of "The Twilight Zone", and the title story, a straight-ahead mystery concerning the fate of a priest obsessed with a porno star, who in turn is the target of sadistic serial killer. Particularly moving is "Yellchile's Cage", a very imaginative, upbeat prison story, and "Something Passed By", a surreal sf story concerning life after the laws of physics change. For some reason, Robert R. McCammon (an American writer) seems to get very little exposure in America; perhaps Blue World, in all its variety, can change this.

Valley of Lights        [***+]
Stephen Gallagher
0-812-51832-2, Tor paperback, $3.95

Down River      [****+]
Stephen Gallagher
0-450-49129-3 New English Library, approx. $30.00

British writer Stephen Gallagher, on the other hand, is about to get as much exposure as any American writer could hope for -- a major motion picture is ostensibly "soon to be released" based on his second novel, Valley of Lights. Reading that novel, and his latest Down River, one can see why. He has all the makings of Britain's answer to Dean Koontz (at his best); carefully researched, accurate locales; extremely clever innovations of time-tried lite SF/horror themes grafted onto tightly wound urban thriller plots; and realistic characters who come to live and breathe in the minds of the readers. Valley of Lights, set in a grittily rendered Phoenix locale, pits Police Sergeant Alex Volchak against an ancient, body-hopping serial killer. The relationship that develops between the two is fascinating, while the logistics of this "bodyhopper" drive the plot forward at a furious pace. Down River introduces Johnny Mays, a bad cop who keeps track of his grudges in a small notebook. He is gleeful when he is made partners with Nick Frazier, his sole childhood friend, a moody man contemplating his ruined romance and dead-end career. When a chase of some teenaged joyriders goes wrong, Johnny's car winds up in the lake, but his body is never found. Is he dead? He certainly was insane. Gallagher skillfully whirls the undead/bad cop/revenge plot around in the reader's head, while developing a curiously sympathetic portrait of a small-time psycho. The writing is almost Iyrical in passages, the mood sometimes nostalgic, with the plot providing an ever-increasing tension. It's a mature but exciting novel, and an encouraging sign to see an excellent novelist exceed the boundaries of his genre.

Geek Love       [****-]
Katherine Dunn
0-394-056902-4, Alfred A. Knopf, $18.95

Katherine Dunn makes her genre debut in a big way in Geek Love, a strange hybrid of art novel and teeth grinding gritty horror. It concerns the Binewski Family Fabulon, whose proprietors, Al and Lil Binewski, have hit upon their own way of breeding a freak show; when she's pregnant, Lil just fills up on every nearly-toxic substance she can get her hands on. The results, if they don't live, are bottled up and placed on exhibit in the Chute. If they do live, they're a part of the Bineski Fabulon -- from narrator Olympia, the hunchbacked dwarf, to Arturo (HALF MAN! HALF FISH!), to the Siamese twins, Electra and Iphegnia, to Chick, the "normal" boy they almost abandon because of his apparent normality until he reveals himself to be their "masterwork". Katherine Dunn writes lyrical prose that does not fall into the trap of being overtly artistic or jarringly hard-boiled -- there's a spot of unexpected niceness here, and an electrifying jolt of hardcore horror there. The plot may seem messy, but it's extremely well resolved, and when you get to the core of the horror, it's worthy of the best of the genre. This is a book that will, surprisingly, satisfy fans of both literate and hardcore horror -- a feat worthy of the Binewski Fabulon.

Necroscope III: The Source      [*****]
Brian Lumley
0-812-52127-7 Tor, $4.95

Brian Lumley, England's King of B Movie terror really lets it rip in Necroscope III: The Source. Fans will be happy to note that the first two books were so well received that the trilogy has been extended to become a series -- with Necroscope IV already complete and Necroscope V in the works. Fans will also be happy to note that this series just keeps getting better and better. Necroscope III gives us elements of spy fiction, military hardware thrillers, Cthulu Mythos, Heroic Sword (& Motorcycle!) and Sorcery, shape changing monsters straight out of John Campbell/Carpenter's "The Thing", and Vampire Kingdoms in Alienesque castles. Suffice it to say that there's something to please just about everyone, combined in a rocketship of a plot. Lumley's prose is just the right shade of purple and his characters not only are, they need to be larger than life to combat the monstrous evils that await them and are within them. If you like your thrills in bloody red technicolor Necroscope III is the one book you must SEE this fall.

Dreamthorp      [***+]
Chet Williamson, illustrated by Bob Eggleton
0-913165-39-5, Dark Harvest Books, $19.95

Chet Williamson garnered a lot of praise with last year's Ash Wednesday, an imaginative and emotional novel of "ghosts" who appear in an American small town. Unfortunately, while the beautiful prose and emotions are in place in Dreamthorp, the imagination seems to be slightly lacking. But fans of small town horror novels with excellent, indeed blazingly great characterizations, will find more than enough to delight them in this most recent work. Williamson's Gilbert Rodman is the creepiest (and bloodiest) psycho in years, and some of the scenes will have you climbing the walls. Especially notable is strained relationship between the main character, Tom Brewer, and his son, in the wake of his wife's death by cancer. It's realistic and moving without being manipulative. But the supernatural elements are perfectly predictable. It's a tribute to Williamson's writing talent that he can write such a gripping book around such a generic premise, but I look forward to another, more imaginative work. The usual Dark Harvest package helps matters considerably, with very evocative illustrations by Bob Eggleton.

Scare Care      [****+]
edited by Graham Masterton
0-312-93156-5, Tor, $19.95

The theme anthology is perhaps one of horror's greatest strengths; vampires (Hot Blood), ghosts (Post Mortem), haunted houses (The Architecture of Fear), movies (Silver Scream), horror fiction by women (Women of Darkness and Haunting Women) have all yielded excellent collections of diverse stories. Scare Care is yet another theme anthology, with the theme of this collection being its attempt to raise money for abused children. That's right, benefit fever has hit the publishing world. The emphasis is on the writers in the small press, although Ramsey Campbell, Graham Masterton and Brian Lumley all make exemplary contributions. But this excellent collection may be the first to introduce some lesser known names to the mass American audiences. Particularly notable are Bruce Boston's "Mammy and the Flies", Marc Laidlaw's "Mars Will Have Blood", Chris B. Lacher's 'The Pet Door", and Alan Rodger's "The Night Gil Rhys First Met His Love". The emphasis here is mostly on short short stories, so readers will be able to get a little taste of a lot of writers. It's a noble idea, but that wouldn't mean much if the material wasn't up to snuff. Fortunately, the fiction is as good as the idea. Now it's up to you to buy it.

The Mummy,
or Ramses the Damned    [****+]
Anne Rice
0-345-36000-1 Ballantine, $11.95

Temporarily freed of her vampires, Anne Rice has begun the horror series she was really meant to write -- The Mummy, or Ramses the Damned. I think the title's supposed to imply that he's "damned good looking" -- once he gets out from under all that linen. Well, be that as it may, this series seems a whole lot better planned and plotted than her vampire series, and considerably more light-hearted. It's sort of like an Agatha Christie 1930's mystery with some supernatural overtones, but she's thought out her device well, and her sensuous prose is even better served by this more than slightly romantic novel. It's fast reading, and won't disappoint those want a few small-scale scares. But scares aren't the point -- it's that opulent atmosphere, reeking of excess and incense. Anne Rice isn't breaking any new ground, but she is more than adept at building her elaborate Victorian mansions on a solid supernatural foundation. Even those who usually immerse themselves in violence will find themselves fascinated by the jaded, faded appetites contained in this novel.

Patterns        [****]
Pat Cadigan
Ursus Imprints, Kansas City Mo.
0-942681-07X Trade Edition $19.95
0-942681-09-6 Limited Edition $50.00

Just when you think you've seen 'em all, heard 'em all, and read 'em all, out from another genre comes a new horror writer. So, fresh from the c-word award lists comes Pat Cadigan, with enough queasy unease to sway the hardest bitten horror fan. Patterns is a beautiful book from a new name on the small press scene, Ursus Imprints. It's nicely designed, from the slick cover and oh-so-neo-romantic frontispiece to the final credits. But the content is what will win her fans, demonstrating the vast range of what can pass under the banner of horror, from the surreal insanity of the title story to the numbing, drug induced horror of "My Brother's Keeper". The cleverly titled and written 'Vengeance is Yours" should certainly satisfy mystery, sf and horror fans, while "Eenie, Meenie, Ipsateenie" will fulfill the worst dreams those who love psychological thrillers. "Heal" takes on everyone's favorite target, televangelists, but she knows you believe it was written before all this bad news hit the airwaves. The Nebula-nominated "Pretty Boy Crossover" might even make you want to give the c-word a second chance -- it's that good, and frightening, too, in a "cold reality" way. Come to think of it, maybe Pat Cadigan is hoping to "crossover"; she's certainly got what it takes. We can only hope she'll continue to turn her eye to the bad side of life.

The Bridesmaid [****+]
Ruth Rendell
The Mysterious Press, $17.95, 0-8926-388-3

"Violent death fascinates people. It upset Philip. He had a phobia about it." Thus begins Ruth Rendell's latest novel of suspense, The Bridesmaid, perhaps her finest work to date. Those looking for violence will be disappointed; those looking for unease and a disturbing descent into moral confusion and madness have come to exactly the right place. Like Flannery O'Conner, Rendell manages to show us the limits of each character's point of view, to show the mistakes they make even as they are making them. Philip, with his curious but understandable phobia meets a woman of his dreams, a woman who curiously resembles the marble statue he's always though embodied feminine beauty -- Senta Pelham. Senta is a delicate, erotic creation, who slowly but surely leads Philip to the point where she proposes he prove his love for her by killing someone, anyone. Rendell's narrative is compelling, especially when detailing the ordinariness of her character's lives, for it is the small events which reveal the larger patterns of madness. Don't let the apparent normality of this novel deceive you into thinking that there are no shocks here -- this is vintage horror, quiet but every bit as disturbing as its blood-smeared relatives.

The Grocery List

Sooner or later it has to happen. It'll happen to you. You'll have to go grocery shopping. Now admit it -- when you get into that store, what's the first place you'll go? The liquor section? OK, well, the second place. That's right; those gold lame coated racks next to the greeting cards. Next to the motorcycle and skateboard magazines. The book racks. Where you can find the finest in today's trashy fiction. You can admit it. Frank Zappa did, and now he's respectable. "I love monster movies -- and the cheaper they are, the better they are." All this literature, all this social redemption, the vast variety of horror in all its infinite forms, all that enlightenment -- after a while, something's gotta give.

Cold In July    [*****]
Joe R. Lansdale
0-553-28020-1, Bantam Books, $3.95

Even the worst of us has our best sides, and this Lansdale hardboiled mystery will peel your paint but also put some vitamins in your blood. Those are five serious stars -- this guy's good. If it was a hardback, I might have thought it was quality fiction. But, hey, I just laid back and had a good time as Richard Dane met the father of the burglar he thought he shot in self-defense. When Jim Bob Luke, the Texas detective showed up, I knew things were gonna get dirty. And I wasn't disappointed.

In Darkness Waiting     [****+]
John Shirley
0-451-40080-1, Signet, $4.50

Yes, this is John (HeatSeeker) Shirley with "some small town in danger" horror that will really scare you. He takes ideas straight out of his short stories (Empathy Suppression Syndrome, enzymatic secretions, brain tumors with a mind of their own), runs with them, and emerges, from your eye socket, bloody but triumphant. None of that reassuring stuff here.

The Shinglo     [****-]
Alex Kane
1-55773-171-3, Charter, $3.95

When I saw this book, I said it was the kind I wouldn't buy. When I was sent this book, I thought it was the kind I wouldn't read. When I read this book, it turned out to be the kind I really like. Well-written, dense, with some great, memorable moments of humor ("NOW look what you did!"). I'd look out for more from this writer.

The Dragon      [***+]
William Schoell
0-8439-2758-5, Leisure, $3.95

In his hilarious afterward, William Schoell says that he is "not the future of horror". Be that as it may, if he's the present, I can live with it. This is one of those books that's so easy to read, you can't help yourself, any more than you can help yourself in the face of one of those cheapo chocolate cakes. But with six "pregnant men" giving birth to giant slugs that ravage a town, you won't care about those extras calories, will you?

Antibodies      [***-]
David Skal
0-373-30308-4, Worldwide, $3.95

Photographic proof! Cyberpunk is descended from horror! Uh-oh, Isaac Asimov himself presents one of the most disturbing books ever to get the "purple cover with batwings" treatment. Garbage disposals, anyone? You don't need those hands. We can make you faster -- stronger -- better than before. But something could go very wrong. And don't try to get your money back.

Beneath Still Waters    [**]
Mathew J. Costello
0-425-11532-1, Charter, $3.95

Great cover, looks like quality stuff. Skull-like creatures rushing at you under the water. Is your small town suffering a satanic sacrifice problem? Just DAMN up the river and -- instant sunken city in the reservoir. But twenty years later, don't drink the water. You didn't think those were Horatio's spare skulls on the cover, did you? Costello's writing is fair enough, but some mildly interesting premises don't really pay off.

Well there's your Grocery list, with Variety galore -- shredded raw meat, ground raw meat, chopped raw meat, and pounded raw meat. What, you were expecting, maybe, health food?

------ End ------

↑ Top

Issue 25, Summer/Fall 1989 (part 16)

Electronic OtherRealms #25
Summer/Fall, 1989
Part 16 of 17

Your Turn -- Letters to OtherRealms

Thomas Maddox

Responding to Bruce Bethke's pathetic bit of self-advertisement certainly ranks as a guilty pleasure, but what the hell? He mentions me by name, and someone needs to do it.

Bethke says he spent a "miserable hour" listening to me call him a "semiotic accident." Well, if I did, I'm certainly sorry. Whether Bethke is an accident of any sort, I wouldn't know; he should consult his parents on that one, if he's in doubt. However I phrased it, here is what I meant: Bethke's connection with the [movement, sub-genre, whatever] known as Cyberpunk is a semiotic accident. It seems that he wrote a story called "Cyberpunk" and thus coined the term; somewhere, Gardner Dozois heard the word and applied it to the work of Wm. Gibson and some others . . . and so forth -- check Cheap Truth, Mirrorshades, Fantasy Review, SF Eye, and a whole bunch of other places for what ensued, none of which had anything to do with Bruce Bethke or his story.

So: Bruce Bethke invented the term cyberpunk but otherwise has no connection to the fiction known as cyberpunk. That seems easy enough to grasp. That he did not receive credit for the coinage is regrettable but perhaps understandable: so far as I know, none of the people usually associated with cyberpunk had ever heard of him or his story until last year at Nolacon, where Eileen Gunn and I found to our surprise that we were on a panel with "the guy who wrote a story titled 'Cyberpunk'."

In the rest of his screed -- i.e., the "Contrapunk Manifesto" proper -- Bethke separates himself out quite clearly from cyberpunk itself and takes a principled stand in favor of keeping sf a gutter literature, saying no to drugs, etc.

Well, good luck with it all, Bruce, but I do have one question: given your absolute distaste for all you associate with cyberpunk, why do you want to give your novel that title? Could it be in order to cash in on the success and prestige of writers such as William Gibson and Bruce Sterling? I certainly hope not, because that would be utterly hypocritical and unprincipled, given your stated distaste for cyberpunk and your affinity for the anti-literary right wing of sf.

In fact, given your "contrapunk" position, I wonder why you don't distance yourself as much as possible from all those nasty cyberpunk types. Call your book Contrapunk or give it a Pournellean title like Death and War Will Continue, and We Will Like Them Because We're Manly Men . . .

To put the matter more sharply: why shouldn't I look at your titling your novel Cyberpunk as an attempt to cash in on the success of those you profess to despise? Were I of a draconian moral nature, I might advise you just to say no to cyberpunk, but, alas, I'm not, so I'll merely wish you the best of luck with your novel, whatever its title. I'm absolutely certain that no one will have any difficulty at all distinguishing your writing from Bill Gibson's or Bruce Sterling's or, for that matter, from that of anyone who has been known as a cyberpunk writer, myself included.

[[Editor's note: since "The Contrapunk Manifesto" was published in OtherRealms, Bruce has sold his book Cyberpunk to Baen Books]]

Martin Morse Wooster

While I agree with your comments about David Hartwell, my biggest problem with The New York Review of Science Fiction, aside from its silly title, is not Hartwell's castor-oil approach to sf (if it's painful, it's good for you), but that the editors are also high-ranking editors at Tor, Morrow, and other publishers. This leads to an inherent conflict of interest; will the NYRSF ever publish a nasty review of a Morrow or a Tor title? I'm sure Hartwell and his colleagues have taken precautions to prevent a conflict of interest, but the suspicions will always be there.

I'm glad you have Dean Lambe reviewing for you; he was one of the better reviewers in Science Fiction Review, and he has gotten better. But why, in his review of Twistor, does he feel that $18.95 is "beer money"? I believe the original reference was Poul Anderson's comment that money for new paperbacks competes against alcohol consumption, and the price of a new paperback ($4.50-$4.95) is still about the same as a six-pack of decent beer. But to consider an $18.95 hardcover "beer money" infers either that the reader drinks swill by the case or has very expensive tastes in alcohol.

I enjoyed Bruce Bethke's rant against the cyberpunks, which reminded me, in a small way, of the sort of "Old Guard" rants used against the New Wave in the 1960's. Some of his charges are a bit unfair; Bruce Sterling, for example, is hardly a johnny-come-lately to the field, since his first novel was published in 1976. I predict that Bethke's claim that many cyberpunks will "do the Barry Malzberg" will be accurate, but that the best cyberpunks (Rucker, Sterling, Gibson) will be around ten years from now -- and won't use the cyberpunk label. Bad writers, I've found, tend to have huge egos, agonize about the immense difficulty and burden of producing art, and spit on their readers. Good writers, provided you don't insult them, tend to be friendly and interested in what their readers have to say. Compare Gene Wolfe's behavior at conventions with John Shirley's as an example.

R. Allen Jervis

I read Dan'ls review of Cinnnabar and I was quite pleased! I remember reading it in high school and the bit about the road being paved with the burnt-out shells of buses has been a favorite quote of mine ever since. This is the first time anyone's ever indicated that they've heard it before.

I also noticed that the address you printed for my zine, Hardwired Hinterland, gives a CA instead of an IN for the state. I hope that's not what it says in the colophon! everything else looks good from this end so far, keep it coming!

R. Allen Jervis P.O.B. 743 Notre Dame,IN 46556-0743

George Walker

The War Against the Chtorr[*****] The Labyrinth Gate[not rated]

This radical difference is ratings is good. I like to see a sprinkling of books with serious problems mixed in with your reviews of good stuff, because your contrasting analyses show what makes and breaks a good read. Overall, your credibility as a reviewer goes up (for me, at least).

[[Generally, OtherRealms tends to print more positive than negative. There's a limited amount of room and given that, printing bad reviews doesn't make as much sense as printing good ones, unless I feel there's something that deserves being said. My position is that no publicity is worse than bad publicity. Also, since reading time is limited, if a book is a dog (or simply uninteresting) I tend to put it aside, and I hate to review books I haven't finished. -- chuq]]

Sheryl Birkhead

I hunted, vainly, for credits for the logos -- unless I'm slipping more cogs than I thought, the logos this time are FAR different than previously -- or is it just my imagination? Everywhere I look these days I'm seeing Diana Stein's nice little fillos -- please keep them coming. Nice cover by Tad Williams - I mean really nice. I've not been seeing much work by Brad Foster lately, so seeing the one on page 6 was a surprise. He is a talented artist -- but hasn't been in the fannish scene as much lately -- and I'm still pushing Harvia for the Hugo this year. We'll see ... we'll see.

Somewhere recently (no, I don't remember where or when) I saw some information on Aboriginal SF -- that they had tripled their circulation, etc. Perhaps I am one of the few readers who did not care for the magazine -- and did not renew my subscription. I took out the sub based solely on the reviews I had read -- never having actually seen an issue. I was not exactly enamored with the publication. I do know that during the time I had the subscription it was in flux and changing dramatically, so perhaps things have changed.

For Laurie's column -- I guess I'm lucky in that, by not having the money to just go out and buy novels (I prefer anthologies since I have small bits of time) I've been spared, pretty much, the prequel syndrome. Doesn't sound like a lot of fun for the reader. She reminds me that I need to go look and see what of the Orson Scott Card "Alvin" books are available and which ones I've read.

I've never seen an ish of Thrust so I cannot get into the brouhaha (minor!) about it. I think, in general, any publications are to be encouraged and most -- given time -- cut their permanent teeth (if they survive) and become respectable adults. Of course if you'll look back over the sf (etc.) field, you'll see that our survival rate is abysmal -- but those that make it ... I wait to see what else is said in following issues!

[[All uncredited artwork is done by yours truly, also known as the man with ten thumbs. One of the things I've been experimenting with is computer art and as my skills have improved I've started using some of the better pieces for logos. I'm trying to build a higher profile for the art and graphics in OtherRealms to make it a nicer looking zine, and the ability to get the Macintosh to do some of the work has been a great help. It's also got me starting to work in traditional media (the computer won't protect you from a brain-dead artist, just make some aspects of it easier to control) but don't expect to see any real art from me soon....

Thrust is still improving. I just saw issue #34, and it looks like I did my negative review just as it hit bottom. Which is good -- the more good publications looking at the field, the better. I generally agree with you that publications need to be supported and nurtured, given the survival problems in the field. On the other hand, there is only so much money in any budget, and eventually you need to ask yourself whether the money is better spent on a magazine that isn't doing what you want or on another book or two. I've chosen to not renew my subscription to New York Review of SF, primarily because what I saw in issue 12 was the same quality and style as I saw in issue 1 and I just am not impressed. So it goes. While I think criticism of the field is important, I just don't feel that what NYR is producing is worth spending money on. Others, I know, disagree with that. I did, however, renew both Thrust and SF Eye when they came due, which probably says more about my tastes than the quality of the magazines. -- chuq]]

Richard Brandt

Your gripes about the cyberpunk slant in Gunn's Encyclopedia leads rather directly into Bruce Bethke's column. I'd say "cyberpunk" is and remains a convenient label and nothing more. Mainstream critics who seem to have just discovered the term are emulating some genre critics and describing an "archetypical cyberpunk story" which sounds as if it's Neuromancer or maybe "Johnny Mnemonic" but bears little relation to anything else I've ever read. That reinforces my feeling that the c-word was just coined as a handy label to lump every hi-tech novel whose protagonists aren't mercenaries or engineers into one category -- using a term which really translated into "imitations of William Gibson". ("Novels of Gibsonian sensibility," Ed Bryant called them.) There's really not much call for lumping the works of authors as diverse as Pat Cadigan, Lewis Shiner, Rudy Rucker, Paul di Filippo, John Shirley and K.W. Jeter into one "movement". The whole idea of the "cyberpunk movement" itself was rather silly -- since the two ultimate cyberpunk stories were by those two ivory-tower academic types, John Kessel ("The Pure Product") and James Patrick Kelly ("Rat"). Now Gibson and Sterling are collaborating on a Victorian period romp -- at the same time that Tim Powers and Jim Blaylock are abandoning that "genre" in the face of diminishing returns to the amount of research necessary to plow into each book. There's another cautionary tale: the minute someone coins "Steampunk" as a tongue-in-cheek expression, we have another movement on our hands ...

PS. Putting on my other hat, the conrunning one -- thanks for your donation to the auction for Amigocon 4. The auction was quite a success -- the con, too, or so I am told to my face. I hope we do business again...

[[My position on Cyberpunk is well known. It's a marketing hype in search of a movement. For the most part, all of the Cyberpunk authors are doing other things, and the noise is being generated either by Publicity types who haven't figured out it's a dead issue or fans who don't realize the authors got bored and moved on. I was interviewed by AP at Noreascon and said as much (and got my name on the newswires for the second time this year -- oh boy! yippee! -- and although I said then that Cyberpunk was dead, what I really think is that Cyberpunk was never alive in the first place. A Movement is not half-a-dozen books, three or four authors and a bunch of conscripts. It's a group of people who are trying to change the state of the art and move the field in new directions. Look at Impressionist art, or even the New Wave of the 60's in SF. None of that existed in Cyberpunk, which is essentially a couple of gimmicks wrapped around some fairly common plot pieces -- and held together by the glue of William Gibson, who was able to take all that and make it really interesting. Much of the rest is coattail work. Some people jumped on the bandwagon and found it didn't sell nearly as well without Gibson's name on it, others adopted the pieces and fragments they liked and got drafted into the Movement, and then everyone went off and did other things. There is, frankly, no there there.

By the way, this is probably a good time to plug this again. Since OtherRealms gets galleys as review copies, when I'm done with them I make them available to fannish causes on an as-available basis. If you're going to be running a fund-raiser for something, drop me a letter and I'll see what I can do -- chuq]]

Gary Farber

Thanks for issues 23 and 24. To render due praise, I'm very pleased that OR exists and am grateful that you put all the caring effort and work that you do into it. As you note, there are (understatement) few enough journals commenting on sf, and OR is obviously a labor of love for you. I quite enjoyed the two issues. I liked most of what you published in #24 as well, with an occasional exception, chiefly in "Pico Reviews". I don't see the use of most of these. To be specific: Dan'l Danehy-Oakes' review of LeGuin's essay collection. He says: "what can you say about..." and indeed has nothing to say. The same for Chuck Koebel's review of Wolfe's There are Doors: all he says is that he recommends it, at about 100 words length. Why not just print the one word: recommended? What point is served by these short "reviews" that say nothing? And, while I'm at is, let me praise you for all the other good reviews, and in particular for Koebel's comments on Italo Calvino.

Your review of reviewers is well-taken. More critics should be criticized, leading to a better informed readership and improved criticism (or reviewing). Your opinions of the reviewers are generally accurate. I'm interested that you praise Tom Easton for "having the ability to put a book into perspective without wasting words, although ((...)) he gets so succinct he never says much of anything." I think the latter is the problem with the lesser of the reviews you publish.

To lay my opinions out straight, I think your reviewers, as such, run the gamut from decent to poor. In this issue the better are Alan Wexelblat, Rick Kleffel, Charles de Lint and Laurie Sefton. They have something to say about what works, what doesn't, and why.

The poorer reviewers are you and Dan'l Danehy-Oakes.

Your stated aim is to be "a consumer advocate ((...)) get information to the buying public to help them find the books that are right for them" and not to be a critic who "...try ((s)) to put a book into context, to look at the deeper meanings and help us get a better understanding of the work and how it relates to us and to the field. This requires a good literary background and a deep knowledge of the genre and its history." Wondering why you don't want to do the latter again makes me scratch my head, but never mind.

I think that the flaws of the poorer reviews you publish are, in short, that they are either only plot summary or a mass of words that don't boil down to anything more specific than thesaurus variations of "this is rilly, rilly, rilly good." I hasten to add that this is nothing unique. This is the commonplace of most bad fanzine reviews, of which Lan's Lantern is typically full.

But there's a simple, objective mechanical test. To restrict myself to your aim of only reviewing, your better reviewers are better because they are specific in a) making overall analytical and descriptive points, and b) specific in detailing exactly what elements of the story are praiseworthy or not. Rick Kleffel's opening paragraphs and reviews in #23 are typical examples.

Your poorer reviews, on the other hand, don't say anything. Take your review of Ellison's Angry Candy -- scrutinizing this, all I get out of it is that you like it. The same for your next four reviews or some of Dan'l Danehy-Oakes.

I'm generalizing at your expense, for which I apologize, but to make a point. Any idiot can write a plot summary and declare "a rattling good yarn" or "I didn't get it." This, however, tells the reader nothing and will never help make a decision to buy a book except via ultimately determining statistically whether the reader's tastes match that of the inarticulate reviewer, and buying on a roll of the dice. Surely this isn't worthy of being called "reviewing". Surely even a reviewer should be held to standards of "putting a book in context" and telling us "how it relates to us and the field." Sure this requires "knowledge of the genre". Else why shouldn't the reader merely read the covers, first and last pages of the book and judge from that, or walk randomly round a convention, or club, or even down a street, asking opinions?

Don't publishers publish reviews that say "What can I say about X? Not much ..." Too many bad fanzine reviews consist of nothing more than enthusiasm and a desire to burble. Whole "tributes" have been written, such as Lan's Lantern's, that consist of multi-page puffings that boil down to this: "Goshwowboyohboy, I sure like Writer Y." It's great to feel this way, but when you take pen to paper, more is expected. If you merely want to share the notion that you love a book and urge people to buy it, give us a list. If you're writing a review, have something to say. Be articulate. Okay?

End of today's sermon. So, like, keep up the good work, stout-hearted fellow, and try harder. I shall wonder if you'll ever send me another issue. I hope that you accept this in the spirit that "I think it important that the people who are doing a good job get some recognition and the people who aren't get constructive criticism."

To finish with some random further comments: congratulations to Doug Beason for selling Return to Honor to Pocket. It's difficult, though, not to be amazed and take it as symptomatic of a larger syndrome among many sf fans that it took him a year to realize that his novel might be a better fit in another publishing category (and pay more) and that there's "a whole world of publishers out there". Yeah, this is a great reason to have an agent, but doesn't everyone understand that to publishers "sf" is a label on the spine, a way to market to people who only know to look at the signals on the cover: the art, the tag phrase? All fiction is speculative. Does anyone really want to act as dumb as publishers treat you by not looking at books coded to you on the cover? What is this "mainstream" sf fans toss about, anyway? (By the way, Pocket can't publish sf due to its contract with Baen.)

By the way, I've been trying to spread the word about Bruce Bethke's coinage of "cyberpunk" for years now -- take heart, Bruce, some of us notice these things. Oh, and it was, or course, Howard Hawks, not Howard Hankes, you want to credit for dialogue in THE THING.

I'd be intrigued to see your review of Gardner's The Art of Fiction.

Review comments: since you say you're attempting to edit attacks, I think Dean R. Lambe went over the line in his review of Melinda M. Snodgrass's Final Circuit. I haven't read the book, and if Lambe doesn't like it and thinks it's bad, fine. But what do the two other writers he rings in "ladies, if you don't understand the rules, don't play the game", have to do with it, and "women writers if that's the only language you speak" seems completely gratuitous to me unless something fell out of his review. Eh? Incidentally, Snodgrass has been added as a story Editor to STNG at Paramount.

A trivial point on Danny Low's comment that the Visual Guide to Castle Amber "should have been a 4-color slick coffee table book" is that the publisher, Avon, doesn't publish hardcover books, that another publisher is unlikely publish a guide to another company's books, and do thousands of Amber fans really want to pay $40-$50 a book anyway?

Lastly, I feel guilty for not having the time at present to write a full review of the very wonderful Swordspoint by Ellen Kushner, which Neal Wilgus hated. The point of this book, which Wilgus can't see, is brilliant writing, superb wit, lovely characterization, a clockwork plot that is deeply, elegantly intricate, and is a joy to read. Wilgus thinks the "strange set of rules, that are not historical, but might be." is stereotypical; I sure don't, nor do I think anything else in this book is. His main objection is that it is fantasy instead of historical fiction, while missing the obvious that no known society has ever functioned in the way Kushner describes, or similarly existed -- so how could it be historical? No, it has no Del Rey magic, or elves; is this a reason to pass on a marvelous first novel?

Anyway, I look forward to the next issue, Chuq. Thanks again, very much, for this one.

[[Why don't I try to put a book into context? Well, actually, I do -- at some level. The context I was speaking was that done in criticism, looking at a story as part of the larger field. When I speak of that, I'm thinking in terms of the work of James Blish (as Atheling) or Damon Knight or Dave Hartwell (in Age of Wonders, highly recommended). Criticism requires a knowledge of the field that I don't feel I have. It's not something you can open a book and acquire; you have to open lots of books and spend a lot of time. So, in general, I avoid in-depth criticism, because I hate listening to people who don't know what they're talking about try to sound like experts, and I don't want to be one.

Reviews are relatively easy to write. Criticism is not, and requires skills I haven't yet acquired (I'm working on it, though). So I stick to the things I'm comfortable with. I would love to write criticism. I would love to publish some in OtherRealms. Unfortunately, good criticism is very rare in the field these days (John Clute and A.J. Budrys are the only two consistently writing that I know of, and neither is, frankly, in a class with the three I mentioned above). I'd rather publish no criticism than bad criticism. (consider this, by the way, an open call for critical works for OtherRealms).

I have been trying, over the last few issues, to start being more strict in the quality of material I publish. OtherRealms is now in the enviable position of having more than I can comfortably publish, so I'm going to get somewhat more hardnosed about "book reports" and plot summaries. There is a fine line between getting as many varied opinions out as I can and getting meaningless opinions out. Where you cross the line varies from person to person, but I'm going to do what I can to raise the standards I set in the next few issues and start rejecting more of the marginal material.

What do I think of The Art of Fiction? Gardner sometimes has what I perceive as an anti-genre bias which drives me crazy. He's also one of the most fascinating and educational writers about writing fiction I've ever run into. It's a love-hate relationship, since I like living in the genre ghettos, but his work is a must-have on any writer's shelves (and a must-read, which is an entirely different thing). -- chuq]]

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Issue 25, Summer/Fall 1989 (part 17)

Electronic OtherRealms #25
Summer/Fall, 1989
Part 17 of 17

Your Turn -- Letters to OtherRealms (continued)

Ken Meltsner

I hope the deadline has slipped a bit for OR 25, as we received our copy on 6/17. I mean, I knew the mail was bad in Schenectady, but ...

The issue looks good, despite your troubles with the printer driver. By the way, I heard Ready,Set,Go! was going to split into two editions, one "professional" and one more low-level.

Small, inconsequential comments:

Impressive electronic readership. If you count in all the sites which read USENET material, but can't respond easily (like much of MIT) it may be even higher. Are you going to be involved with the CLARInet people?

(p.5) If you take Asimov's as a base with its 72K subscribers, Amazing's showing in your poll is pretty good, although it does have strong newsstand sales (stronger than IASFM, actually). Aboriginal with 10-14K subscribers is right on the mark, or a bit low in your poll. I was surprised by Analog's poor performance; if Schmidt has lost the techies in his audience to IASFM, he's in big trouble.

(p.15) Beowulf wasn't the one who woke up in the cavern under the moor. It was a company of Vikings.

Real comments:

I agreed whole-heartedly with your opinion of the new Gunn encyclopedia. It's essentially a second-rate reference book, useful only when other works aren't recent enough. I suspect Gunn didn't manage his contributors very well, and allowed personal biases to affect the subjects covered. The number of decent authors that are missing is scandalous.

Thanks for "The Contrapunk Manifesto". It's closer to my attitudes towards writing and reading SF than those of the annoying Gibson- wannabees. I mean, I knew Bethke had a sense of humor ("It came from the slushpile" is wonderful), but he's smart, too.

I also appreciated Dean Lambe's seconding of my opinion of The Seekers. Budspy was good, but TS and his other recent novel Chained Heat were both pretty bad. I'm hoping they were both trunk novels and do not represent his current writing. We have Ursus, but I'm waiting for a slow day before I bother to read it.

[[Yes, the mailing deadline slipped. Obviously.... As of this issue, I've tossed out Ready, Set, Go for PageMaker. The kicker was when the folks at Letraset not only denied that a bug that was killing me off existed, but tried to claim that what was happening wasn't possible. I found out that a couple of months later they did admit that there was an interaction between their program and a utility (that did happen to be on my system) but that they had no intention of fixing it -- people could live without the other program.

I really, really like PageMaker. Aldus doesn't assume I'm stupid and the software doesn't crash or get in my way. I did this issue of OtherRealms in about 40% of the time it took me to do it in Ready, Set, Go. that much productivity difference is worth switching all on its own.

No, I'm not involved with Clarinet, and don't plan on it any time soon.

From the rumors I've heard, expect bad news from TSR on the fate of Amazing Stories in the next few months. If what I've heard (from a number of different sources) Pat Price is leaving the magazine and it's going to go through a major shift in direction that is going to make SF fans rather unhappy..... -- chuq]]

David Thayer

I read with interest your comments about Thrust. Constructive criticism is a good thing, but fans who live in glass houses should not throw stones. I suppose I'll have to subscribe to Thrust to get my contributor's copy to see it for myself.

Since proofreading is a part of my real-life job, finding typos in fan publications has always been an amusing pastime for me. Even with an electronic spell checker, they sometimes slip through.

You should check your text for misspelled names. Last issue it was "Sheila" for "Sheryl"; this issue it is "Ransom" for "Ranson". Most readers hardly notice typos of common words, but misspelled names they take personally.

I enjoyed seeing cover art by Tad Williams. I sat next to him on the flight out of New Orleans after Nolacon. He mentioned that he had started out as an artist before turning to writing. Seeing the drawings of a writer adds another dimension to my appreciation of their fiction.

Your response to Brad Foster's question about your not taking ads was enlightening. Ads influence how readers view both reviewer and reviews. Advertisers expect some degree of loyalty from those to whom they have given money. I had not heard your economic explanation before.

I have heard your name mentioned several times in the midst of the Hugo controversy. I half-expected to read something about it in OtherRealms. What's going on?

[[The Hugo controversy is something best left disappearing into the dust. It was an unhappy episode that I hope we have learned from. I have my own ideas of who did what (and I'm convinced there is a who, and I'm convinced they did a what to the nominations) but I'll keep them to myself. It's time to move on.

With the use of hindsight it's easy to second-guess how Noreascon handled it. On the other hand, I was talking to some of the folks on the concom as everything was happening and felt at the time that they were doing their best with a bad situation. I doubt I could have handled it better knowing what they did, so it's hard to yell at them much.

I do, however, want to yell a lot at the who who did do the what, whoever it is. There were a lot of people affected by the ballot- stuffing controversy. I know (unfortunately) from experience that everyone in the affected categories was proverbially raked through the coals -- as a nominee in Best Fan Writer (and the only first time nominee) I kept getting mail and phone calls from people saying "do you know what so-and-so was saying about it at Infarcticon?". For a while, it made me very sour about the awards, and I'm a lot less thrilled today at the thought of winning awards than I was when I found out I was nominated. Instead of being a lot of fun, it was somewhat embittering and cost me my naive, boyish enthusiasm at being acknowledged by my peers. A Hugo would be nice. But I find it hard to build up a lot of enthusiasm about it right now, considering all the hassles I went through this year (and then losing -- but to good people).

It's obvious that they won't get caught and aren't likely to volunteer themselves up to the executioners. There isn't a lot positive that can come out of endlessly going over it again and again, so I'm moving on and we'll let the past drop into the distance and start worrying about the future. -- chuq]]

We Also Heard from: Boris A Zavgorodry (USSR), Peggy Ransom, Keith A. Walker, David Shea, Ken Meltsner, Taras Wolansky, Steven Fox, Doug Fratz, Brian Lumley, Diane Duane

Subscriptions

OtherRealms is available for "The Usual" or by arranged trade. You can also spend money on it, at $2.85 a copy of $11 for a four issue (one year) subscription.

Back Issues

I have donated all back issues of OtherRealms prior to #24 to TAFF for their fundraising efforts. People interested in older copies of OtherRealms should contact Robert Lichtman, P.O. Box 30, Glen Ellen, CA 95442.

TAFF is the Trans-Atlantic Fan Fund, which raises money every year to send a fan to an overseas convention.

Submissions

OtherRealms is looking for reviews on Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror and related non-fiction. We cover book-length material only.

Authors are solicited to discuss their books in the Behind the Scenes section. This series allows you to describe the background and research that went into your book and the things that make it special to you.

Please submit Science Fiction and Horror material to Chuq, Fantasy and Science Fact material should go to Laurie.

OtherRealms is also interested in a variety of feature material about the field and authors. Please query everything except reviews.

Submissions can be made via electronic mail or the old-fashioned ink-on- paper format. Please include a SASE.

Unless otherwise agreed upon, OtherRealms uses first serial rights on material.

Artwork

I am currently well stocked with artwork. Since I don't like holding onto material forever, I'm asking that people please hold off submission of new material until after the first of the year to let me clear out some of the backlog.

Letters

OtherRealms solicits your feedback. We want to know what you think about the magazines and about the SF field. Letters will be considered for publication unless otherwise requested. They may be edited for space or content (but not context!) as necessary. Addresses will not be published unless you permit it.

Is this your last issue?

The number on your label is the issue your subscription dies. Negative numbers indicate a complimentary subscription. If the number is zero, this is the only time you'll see OtherRealms unless I change my mind or you Do Something.

OtherRealms
Science Fiction and
Fantasy in Review

Issue #25 Summer/Fall, 1989

Editors

Chuq Von Rospach Laurie Sefton

Contributing Editors

Dan'l Danehy-Oakes
Charles de Lint
Rick Kleffel
Dean R. Lambe
Lawrence Watt-Evans
Alan Wexelblat

OtherRealms may not be reproduced without permission from Chuq Von Rospach.

Permission is granted to electronically distribute only on non-commercial networks and if all copyrights, credits and return addresses remain intact.

No article may be reprinted or re-used without the permission of the author. All rights to material published in OtherRealms hereby reverts to the author.

OtherRealms is published quarterly in January, April, July and October by:

Chuq Von Rospach & Laurie Sefton 35111-F Newark Blvd. Suite 255 Newark, CA. 94560

E-mail addresses: chuq@apple.com CompuServe 73317,635

lsefton@apple.com CompuServe 74010,3542

Deadlines

Deadlines is the 15th of the month prior to publication. Publication is the 30th of the month. Next deadline: December 15.

Book Ratings

[*****] One of the best of the year
[****] Above average
[***] A good book. Recommended
[**] Flawed. Has its moment
[*] Not recommended
[] Waste of trees

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OtherRealms — Issue 25, Summer/Fall 1989

Issue 25, Summer/Fall 1989 (part 1)

Issue 25, Summer/Fall 1989 (part 2)

Issue 25, Summer/Fall 1989 (part 3)

Issue 25, Summer/Fall 1989 (part 4)

Issue 25, Summer/Fall 1989 (part 5)

Issue 25, Summer/Fall 1989 (part 6)

Issue 25, Summer/Fall 1989 (part 7)

Issue 25, Summer/Fall 1989 (part 8)

Issue 25, Summer/Fall 1989 (part 9)

Issue 25, Summer/Fall 1989 (part 10)

Issue 25, Summer/Fall 1989 (part 11)

Issue 25, Summer/Fall 1989 (part 12)

Issue 25, Summer/Fall 1989 (part 13)

Issue 25, Summer/Fall 1989 (part 14)

Issue 25, Summer/Fall 1989 (part 15)

Issue 25, Summer/Fall 1989 (part 16)

Issue 25, Summer/Fall 1989 (part 17)

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