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OtherRealms Issue 16 Part 01
Electronic OtherRealms #16
June, 1987
Part 1
Table of Contents
Part 1
Editor's Notebook
Chuq Von Rospach
Non-Western Mythology in Fantasy: A Sampling of the Field
John Wenn
The River of Time
James Brunet
The Flame Key
Liralen Li
Knight Life
Jim Johnston
Battle Circle
James C. Winner
The Native Tongue Series
Lynda Feng
Part 2
Stuff Received
Back Issues
Publishing Notes
Pico Reviews
Part 3
Words of Wizdom
Chuq Von Rospach
Strut Your Stuff
Alan Wexelblat
Terry Carr: An Appreciation
Chuq Von Rospach
Frank Catalano
Paul Chisholm
Letters to OtherRealms
Editor's Notebook
This is the next to last monthly issue of OtherRealms, and I don't
think my timing could be better. As a number of you noticed, last month
was late, primarily due to the fact that I moved in the middle of
trying to get #15 out. Unfortunately, the issue wasn't ready by the
time I had to put it away and pack everything into boxes, so it just
had to wait. Due to a new project at work and other new time
commitments, it doesn't look like it will get better for a while, so I
expect both this issue and the final monthly issue to slip from
schedule by a couple of weeks.
The move was more than worth it, as we're now in a house instead of an
apartment, and with significantly more space to move than before. Still
not enough bookshelves, but that will be dealt with.
As things have been going, there is no way I can realistically continue
a monthly format, so the upcoming changeover is welcome. One thing I've
found is that trying to publish OtherRealms monthly simply means that I
do nothing except publish OtherRealms, which gets tired after a while.
I'm getting none of my own writing done, and there are growing demands
on my time. I'd really like to try to do some fiction again, but as
things currently stand, it isn't worth getting started. I'm definitely
looking forward to taking a month off between the July and Fall issues,
and working on some other stuff. It is definitely not going away, but I
need to put the work I'm doing here back in perspective with the rest
of my life.
My plans for the quarterly issues are to publish them around the
following dates: Spring issue, March; Summer issue July; Autumn issue
September; Winter issue December, with the hopes that the Summer issue
will be ready for Westercon and the Autumn issue for Worldcon.
Submission deadlines will be a month prior to any issue or when I run
out of pages. I expect to be printing around 72 to 90 pages an issue.
The mix of material is changing, too. Instead of rotating columnists
every month, they'll all be in every issue (assuming they meet
deadlines, of course, and have something to say). I'm also working on
picking up material that will supplement the reviews -- I have, for
instance, an article by Harry Turtledove on Historical Realism that
should be out next month, and interviews with Joel Rosenberg and Mike
Resnick scheduled. I'm also in process of lining up the first Behind
the Scenes article, which I hope to be able to talk about next month.
If you've got material that is about the SF/Fantasy book world or the
people around it, I'd like to see it. I'm trying not to gut the main
focus of reviews but to supplement it with related material.
Format changes
This month debuts the first cover art for OtherRealms, done by none
other than last year's Hugo Winning Fan Artist joan hanke-woods. Next
month I'll be featuring long time OtherRealms contributor Brad Foster,
and I plan on running cover art from now on, assuming I can find good
pieces to use. Moving artwork onto the cover means a number of other
format changes, moving the Table of Contents to page three, and
re-arranging the Editor's Notebook. Starting this month, the Notebook
will have an inside continuation. While I've avoided continuations in
the past because I find them personally annoying when reading a
magazine, this becomes a necessary evil because of the way OtherRealms
is laid out, the Editor's Notebook has been one of the first things
laid in stone, making it hard to get late-breaking information into it.
This way, I can leave the column until I'm close to the end of the
publishing, and make it a more useful and up to date than it has been.
I still plan on avoiding continuations as much as possible in the
future, however.
There are a number of other small changes throughout the layout as I
continue to experiment with ways of improving the look of OtherRealms.
The major change is that headlines are now three columns wide with
three column text, to try to keep articles from bleeding into each
other and to make the headlines easier to see. A minor change is that
all headlines are now in Bookman font, a serif font, instead of Helvetica,
a sans-serif font. Bookman is a stronger looking font, and the serif
forms tie in better with the serif form of the text font, Palatino.
Layout and page design is an art form unto itself, and even though it
wasn't why I started OtherRealms, graphic design has turned into my
main focus for publishing it. I've learned a lot, and I've had a
wonderful time learning it. I still have a long way to go, though, and
I appreciate the time some folks have taken in critiquing the look of
OtherRealms over the last year -- especially Alexis Gilliland, for
asking a few innocent but loaded questions early on that pushed me into
layout in the first place, Charles Brown for a lot of help last fall at
Octocon, and joan hanke-woods for pointing out a number of glitches
that I'm taking steps to correct this issue and next. My name may be on
the masthead, but OtherRealms is in many ways a group project, and I
appreciate the feedback.
Horror?
In taking a look at the last few issues, I've noticed I'm giving horror
books a short shrift. It looks like I've been the only person to actually
review horror in OtherRealms, and this makes me wonder if I really ought
to be covering it (or, as the current reality stands, pretending to) here.
Let me know what you would prefer me to do on this -- completely drop
Horror from OtherRealms, or see if I can actually do some real coverage
of this genre. If we do keep Horror around, it looks like I'm going to
need a contributing editor to help out with the Horror reviews;
any volunteers?
A New Name
in the Masthead
I've added a new name to the masthead this month, as Alan Wexelblat
joins us as a Contributing Editor. He's been a consistent contributor
for the last few months, and adding him as an Editor gives him the
opportunity to explore his material in a little more depth by using a
column instead of individual reviews. Welcome aboard, Alan!
Alice Sheldon P James Tiptree, Jr. Dies
I've just gotten word that Alice Sheldon, who wrote as James Tiptree,
Jr. has died at the age of 71. More details next issue, with an
obituary and appreciations. If you want to write an appreciation,
please let me know.
See you next month!
Non Western Mythology in Fantasy:
A Sampling of the Field
John Wenn
wenn@gandalf.cs.cmu.edu
Copyright 1987 by John Wenn
Are you tired of Fantasy filled with trolls, elves, wizards, and
dragons? Have you ever wondered why most of the Fantasy written today
all derive from the stories of one small group of people from a small
island in a period of a few centuries? One of the reasons is that the
Celtic mythos has a rich, descriptive tradition. Also important is that
much of our cultural heritage derives from that one small section of
history. And one can't overlook the combination of the overwhelming
influence of Tolkien with the sheep phenomenon ("Look, Celtic Fantasy
is selling well. Let's publish more of it"). While it is still
perfectly possible to write good stuff in this field (Raymond Feist and
Guy Kay most recently), I also want something different. So I'm going
through a brief survey of some of the books that incorporate
non-Western myths in their setting.
First a few words on what I'm doing. This doesn't attempt to deal with
non-western mythology in SF. The dividing line between Fantasy and SF
is especially thin here, since we are talking about the myths of the
culture. The best examples of non-western mythology in SF are Roger
Zelazny's Lord of Light [*****] and Creatures of Light and Darkness
[*****-]. These are both classic works that I recommend most highly,
but if you look you can see the technological strings behind the scenes
making the mythology work (Hindu and Egyptian pantheons in the
respective books).
I'm also generally avoiding non-Celtic, but nevertheless European
mythology in Fantasy. This can be anywhere from the well worn classical
Greek/Roman pantheon to rarely seen settings (renaissance Italy in
MacAvoy's Damiano trilogy). While these can be a change of pace, they
are still familiar territory.
Jessica Amanda Salmonson has made a minor industry writing books
written in mythic Japan. Representative is Tomoe Gozen [***], the first
book of the Tome Gozen trilogy. Tomoe is a female samauri who is on her
way to becoming the best samauri in Japan. The setting is in the middle
of the shogun era, always a favorite period due to the social
upheavals. The style is episodic, a given opponent or quest rarely
takes more than 40 pages to resolve. While this does give an
opportunity to show a variety of settings and opponents (wizards,
priests, and demons are favorites), the book suffers from not enough
continuity to have the entire story work as a whole.
In a related culture, Chinese Fantasy is a popular topic. This is
probably due to the fact that Fantasy has been an important field for
centuries. The typical Chinese Fantasy is characterized by savage wit,
everyone (warriors, priests, merchants, magicians, peasants, gods,
bureaucrats) is made fun of. A good example is The Devil Wives of Li
Fong [****-] by E. Hoffmann Price. This is the story of a student
apothecary and his two wives (who are really spirit snake demons).
Buddhist priests, Taoist magicians and political maneuvering conspire
to break up the happy family. It is some measure of the books success
that the two wives are the most realistic and practical characters in
the story.
An excellent Chinese story is Bridge of Birds [*****] by Barry
Hughart. This is a romping fun tale. The basic plot is that Number Ten
Ox (an innocent and strong peasant) with the sage Li Kao (a worldly
rogue with a slight flaw in his character) search the known world to
find the cure for their village children. In the process, they come
across any number of rare and exotic adventures. For some reason, it
most reminds me of The Princess Bride by William Goldman in tone, and a
higher recommendation is hard to find.
Well off the beaten trail is Australian Fantasy. Patricia Wrightson has
written an excellent trilogy The Ice is Coming [****+], The Dark Bright
Water [****] and Journey Behind the Wind [****] set in modern Australia
but containing elements of aboriginal mythology. Wirrun is a young
aborigine (The People) and educated among the whites (Happy Folk).
Disturbed by unaccountable frosts in summer, he quits his job to
investigate. Eventually he is called upon to take the role of Hero of
the People. The first book deals with ice-spirits seeking to bring a
new ice age, the second with a drought, and the last with a new power
that kills through out the land. One noticeable thing is the
territoriality of the spirits: the Mimi live in the north, the Ninya
centrally and the Nyols in the east. The characterization is fine, with
the differences between the types of spirits especially well drawn.
Highly recommended.
The last two books deal with 20th century mythology, the myths and
legends of our own life. Mulengro [***] by Charles deLint deals with
modern Romany (Gypsies) in Ottawa. The central plot deals with a brutal
series of murders linked to the Romany community. The police look for a
crazed killer, but the Romany know that it is really done by "he who
walks with ghosts." The story is fairly interesting, although the
violence and body count is high. The main problem is that the depiction
of Romany society is probably is accurate on the surface, but it feels
like there is much more that is never dealt with.
Wizard of the Pigeons [****+] by Megan Lindholm is set among the
homeless of Seattle. There are all the standard Fantasy elements
(magic, wizards and nameless horrors), but they have original
treatments. The wizard of the title is one of several wizards trying to
survive in the streets. Magic is present, but it is more personal:
knowing what to say to people in trouble, hunches, turns of luck, and a
way with pigeons. More spectacular powers are also present, they aren't
central to the plot. The antagonist isn't really traditional either,
but I can't say more without spoiling the plot. The description and
characterization are particularly fine, making an unusual and great book.
There are many mythos not touched upon: African, American (Aztec,
Incan, Indian), Egyptian, Indian, and many others. Unfortunately I
don't know of any works that deal with these subjects. Any
recommendations would be appreciated.
The River of Time
David Brin
Bantam Spectra, 1986, $3.50
[**+]
Reviewed by
James Brunet
ism780b!jimb
Copyright 1987 by James Brunet
This single-author collection of eleven stories is a potpourri,
containing works previously published and not, ranging in quality from
Hugo-winning to a couple that I suspect were long mouldering in some
out-of-the-way file cabinet.
The lead story is "Crystal Spheres," a tale containing an imaginative
explanation of our apparent solitude in a universe that should, by many
calculations, be teeming with intelligent life. Imaginative as the
explanation is, this reader was left with the vague sensation that the
story failed as fiction, that it was little more than an off-the-wall
essay dressed up in fiction clothes.
For my money, two of the better stories in the collection were "The
Loom of Thessaly," previously published in serial by Davis Publications
(Analog and Asimov's) back in 1981, and "Lungfish," which appears here
for the first time. "The Loom of Thessaly" is splendid blend of science
and fantasy, an adventure where a near-future Greek consultant to NATO
encounters the Fates coloring, weaving, and cutting the mortal threads
into their tapestry. "Lungfish" is both subdued and intense at the same
time, alternating points of view between an archaeologist-explorer in
the asteroid belt and the consciousness of a long-dormant
self-replicating probe from an alien civilization. "Lungfish" seemed to
end a bit too soon, and as a result the ambiguity was disconcerting
instead of delicious. Still, a nicely done story.
"Toujours Voir" is a curiosity, the "precision story" in which the
author must hit a given word count, in this case 250 words, exactly. As
Brin points out in the author's note that accompanies this story,
contractions and hyphenations make this easier than it might seem. The
real trick is getting a "story" complete in that amount of text; Brin
succeeds to a competent enough degree, but the real grin is evoked by
the idea of a "neuroconvulsive hyperdrive." As Brin says, "Oooh."
Other interesting stories include "Thor Meets Captain America"
(published in F&SF) and "The Fourth Vocation of George Gustaf." "Thor
Meets Captain America" was written in answer to a dare by Gregory
Benford to write a story where the Axis plausibly could have won World
War II. Well, plausibility must be in the eye of the beholder. In his
author's note, Brin acknowledges P.K. Dick's The Man in the High Castle
as a great, classic work while scoring it for implausibility. I find
the idea of the Norse Gods fighting alongside the Axis (except for
Loki, who has defected to the Allies) in the still-going war in 1962 to
be just as implausible -- but great fun. "The Fourth Vocation of George
Gustaf" is a charming story about a world where real work -- vocations
-- is strictly limited and application to serious hobbies strictly
enforced. Some people who pursue their hobbies diligently enough to
make contributions to their field, e.g., sociology or psychology, are
granted an honorary "second" vocation. And of course, for a few rare
people, this isn't enough....
The most ambitious story in this collection is also one of Brin's
earliest efforts. "Senses Three and Six" (referring to smell and the
inner mind) is a story that hinges upon the nature of reality --
subjective or not? -- and the Uncertainty Principle and how a man with
an assumed identity tries to protect himself from a horrifying past.
The fluid nature of reality makes it difficult to establish "reality"
for this story, and while as a result it's not quite successful, it's
still interesting.
The remaining stories in this collection, including the title piece
"River of Time," are run-of-the-mill hard SF stories. If you enjoy a
bit of speculation dressed up as fiction, you will like them. If you're
insistent on having your SF spiced with character and/or style, you
will probably find these indifferent. In summation, this volume is
enjoyable enough to browse through, but it's not one would rush to consume.
The Flame Key
Daniel Moran
Tor Fantasy, 222 pages, $2.95
[**]
Reviewed by
Liralen Li
li@vlsi.cs.washington.edu
Copyright 1987 by Liralen Li
There are books that I call D.N.D. books with the following
characteristics:
o The characters are better told apart by their physical appearance
and abilities than by themselves.
o They are only tested in their adventures by physical and mental
trials. While they might have emotional problems or pasts full
of dark secrets, these do not seem to affect the performance of
the character.
o The characters go after some super-colossal goal, and only learn
about the affects it has on their civilization after they go
after it. They simply do not seem to be a part of the world
that they are travelling through and it is reflected in their
ignorance of what are supposed to be Great Things in their world.
o Lots of traveling about, with groups losing each other and then, by
some odd (sometimes too odd) twist of fate, they are brought
back together again.
o You need a map.
They are shallow. Even though the action is sometimes interesting and
the motivation of the main characters to take on the quests are good, I
find that I cannot get into the characters and the plots take on
amazing twists in fortune. I can almost see the dice rolling... If you
like books that read like a roleplayer game, this is OK, not nearly as
good as Saberhagen's Books of Swords, but good for this new genre in
that it is an interesting world. There is the fact that it seems to be
Moran's first work, and the first of a trilogy, there is potential in
the world he builds and the characters he has to use. While I may judge
this book quite harshly, I am also curious as to whether he will be
able to use what he has managed to build.
Liege-Killer
Christopher Hinz
St. Martin's Press, $19.95, 458 pages
[*****]
Reviewed by
Danny Low
hplabs!hpccc!dlow
Copyright 1987 by Danny Low
It is 200 years after the Apocalypse. The only known survivors are the
inhabitants of the space colonies orbiting the Earth. The colonists
numbered about a billion people and have a prosperous and peaceful
society, almost utopian. Someone has found and released a paratwa from
the pre-Apocalypse times in the colonies. Genetically altered human
beings, the paratwas were created to be super killers made more deadly
by the fact that they were created as pairs of telepathically linked
individuals. Realizing that they do not known how to deal with the
paratwas, Rome Franco searches the E Tech data banks for forbidden
knowledge that may help him destroy the paratwa. He finds it and a lot
of trouble as a result.
The basic story structure is that of a mystery. The mystery is who
released the paratwa and why. As a mystery, it is well done. The clues
to figure it out are all there. The only flaw is that there are no
false clues to mislead the reader. Figuring out what is going on is
fairly easy. The pacing is that of a chase. The story development is
well done. Events follow logically from one to another.
Hinz has created a very realistic society. It has the complexity and
untidiness of a real society. He has also created an organization, E
Tech, that is charged with suppressing science, and succeeded in making
it into the good guys while making their archrivals, who want to
restore scientific freedom, look like a lunatic fringe. This is quite
an accomplishment considering the predilection of anyone who would be
interested in this book.
The main reason that E Tech comes across as a well intentioned
organization rather than a tyrannical one is the people we see running
it. They are intelligent, well meaning and are able to override their
indoctrination when their common sense tells them to do so.
Characterization is a common weakness of many SF writers. Hinz does not
have this weakness. Every main character and many minor characters have
very distinctive personalities. The paratwa, who is called Reemul, is a
suitably fascinating character. It is a sign of Hinz's ability that
Reemul is not the only fascinating character. Nick the dwarf and Rome
Franco also come across as well done characters who rival Reemul in
interest. A fascinating villain is the mark of a competent writer. A
good writer can also create heroes that are equally fascinating.
The story does end in this book. However, there is an obvious hook for a
sequel. This book is clearly Hugo quality. It has the potential to become a
classic. Very highly recommended.
Knight Life
Peter David
Ace Fantasy, $2.95, 195 pages
[****-]
Reviewed by
Jim Johnston
ihnp4!icarus!jj
Copyright 1987 by Jim Johnston
For once, a book with a cover blurb that doesn't ruin things!
This book is not quite a juvenile, because some of the obvious humor
has another layer of humor beneath, one that would slide right on by
most of the early teen set. It can most certainly be enjoyed by the
younger reader, at least the kind of reader who would like So You Want
to Be a Magician by Diane Duane.
Knight Life is about King Arthur, after an enforced rest of a thousand
years or so that we all know about. Arthur and Merlin have arrived in a
place that really needs their help, specifically 1980-ish New York
City, where Arthur is running for Mayor. Arthur doesn't do badly, for
somebody who's been asleep for so long. He adapts quite nicely, in his
own way, for a person who won't ever lie.
Although one might expect a set of running gags involving the problems
of adaptation to modern life, that isn't the case. While there is some
slapstick humor in the book, most of the humor is quite a bit more
subtle and ironic, perhaps even gently lampooning the sort of reaction
that one sees from a modern professional politician.
The book is certainly lightweight, compared to most Fantasy, but it's
quite enjoyable, and I've rated it for its enjoyable nature, rather
than for its profound substance. If there's any purpose to the book,
other than entertainment, it's well hidden.
Peter David is "known for his work at Marvel Comics," according to the
bio. I've not seen any other Fantasy/SF books (as opposed to comics) of
his, but I will take a look at anything new that shows up.
Battle Circle
Sos the Rope
Var the Stick
Neq the Sword
Piers Anthony
Avon, 537 pages, $2.95
[****]
Reviewed by
James C. Winner
Copyright 1987 by James C. Winner
Originally 3 separate, short books, this story is now sold as one large
novel. Each of the shorter books follows a different main character,
but it is all one story. This is probably one of Piers Anthony's best
told stories. The characters follow reasonable courses of action,
sometimes failing and sometimes succeeding, but always in reasonable
ways. Never are we asked to completely suspend belief in the rational
so that the author may twist the story to go where he wants to take us.
This is a post-holocaust story, which tells the story of the potential
rise and fall of the post-holocaust society. It is a simplistic society
with a group of producers, a group of distributors, and a group of
consumers. But what is important about this story is that it goes
beyond showing us this new civilization, but shows how it developed,
and how it can fall apart, and how it can grow into something different
from both what it was before the holocaust and what it is at the time
of the story. It is a society of potential, and as the potential for
change is what allows life to evolve, so it is true with societies also.
This is also a story of characters. We meet people who learn to change
as they learn more about the world around them. The people we meet are
not always what they at first seem to be, but they also change as we
watch them, learning from their mistakes and coping with their situations
as best they can. Through these characters we see that the events which
cause history are of many styles, more often being caused by luck or
misunderstanding than by the careful planning of the people involved.
Piers Anthony also seems to be very comfortable killing people when
situations show up that people should die in, and people survive when
there is a way for them to survive. It is the feeling that the story
follows the flow of the events, rather than the events occurring to
further the story, which makes this story so good and so believable and
so easy to read. Piers Anthony does not get bogged down telling us how
the holocaust occurred, and the moralizing about the evil is woven into
the story rather than overpowering it. This is one of the stories that
makes me a Piers Anthony fan and deserves a place on everyone's
post-holocaust book list.
The Native Tongue Series
Suzette Haden Elgin
The Native Tongue
Daw books, 301 pages, $3.95
[***+]
Native Tongue II: The Judas Rose
Daw Books, 363 pages, $3.50
[***-]
Reviewed by
Lynda Feng
ihnp4!icarus!jj
Copyright 1987 by Lynda Feng
When I read the back cover of these books, I thought "Bleech, feminist new
wave." However, being desperate for reading material, I bought them anyway.
Elgin has built a convincingly plausible world and a series of
convincingly plausible events. Peace is kept by focusing the energies
of the USA and Soviet governments towards spaceward expansion, assisted
along the way by friendly aliens. The Christian religion reigns supreme
in the US, and women have clearly lost the battle of the sexes. Women
are minors, without the privilege of bank accounts, limited to
purchasing properly feminine products, escorted everywhere, subject to
the decisions of responsible men. After all, these silly women are not
intelligent and therefore can't be held responsible for their actions.
Because of the pressure of outward expansion, several families have
developed a monopoly on translating alien languages for government
negotiations. These "linguist" families have pressed their women into
translation services due to the ever increasing number of languages
needing translation. Of course, these silly women, in their spare time,
have been working on a special project, developing a language
especially for women. Through this language, they are able to become
"perfect women" to the delight of their husbands, and are able to
create social change, to the delight of the women. And therein lies the
interesting tale.
The second book deals with the passing of the linguist women's language
on to the rest of the women in the world. How? Why by using the Church,
its numerous convents and nuns, and their daily contact with mundane
women. The women get some help from the men, who consider the whole
thing a big joke on the Church. The Church, of course, discovers this
evil, goddess worship plot, and goes after the perpetrators. But that's
another story, and perhaps a third book.
The premise of these books is that language can shape social and
personal behavior. Elgin displays a fascinating knowledge of language
(the book cover claims that she is in fact a linguist), as well as the
ability to write a riveting story with very little action. The
characters are well developed, the vignettes of human behavior
representative, and the pace of the social change realistic. For all
that the cover proclaims this as a controversial feminist novel, I find
very little controversy and feminism of the "Oh, those men!" variety.
The second book is weaker than the first. Its plot is not as tightly
woven, and the pace is slower. More importantly, I think it has a cheap
ending (those all knowing, superior aliens, you know) and would have
better off without the last chapter.
If you like sociological fiction with traces of scientific speculation,
read these books. If you like Rambo style space opera, skip it. I found
them entertaining, engrossing reading because of the linguistic elements.
OtherRealms #16
June, 1987
Copyright 1987
by Chuq Von Rospach.
All Rights Reserved.
One time rights have been acquired from the contributors.
All rights are hereby assigned to the contributors
OtherRealms may be reproduced in its entirety only
for non-commercial purposes. With the exception of
excerpts used for promotional purposes, no part of
OtherRealms may be re-published without permission.
