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OtherRealms Issue 13 Part 03
Electronic OtherRealms #13
March, 1987
Part 3
Much Rejoicing
Reviews by
Dan'l Danehy-Oakes
Episode One:
Back to Yesterday's Future
In the frozen wastes of Nador, they were forced to eat Sir
Robin's minstrels; and there was much rejoicing.
-- Monty Python and the Holy Grail
I had often wondered what, after forty years, made Dr. Asimov suddenly
begin pouring out new novels in the "Foundation" and "positronic
robots" series. In the introduction to his newest, Foundation and
Earth [Doubleday and Co., 1986; $16.95; ISBN 0-385-23312-4], Dr. A.
tells us: Doubleday offered him ten times his usual advance to write
the first of them.
Well, I, for one, do not regret Doubleday's actions in doing so. The
new books are not masterpieces of modern literature -- or even of
modern SF -- but they have been solid entertainment, every one.
Foundation and Earth is no exception. It picks up precisely where
Foundation's Edge left off, and carries Golan Trevize and his crew
through a series of adventures, looking for the birthplace of Mankind -- a
birthplace they only presume to exist and know next to nothing
about. Their quest leads them to the Spacer and Settler worlds of
Robots and Empire, and finally to... Well, that would be telling.
Questions deliberately left unresolved not only in Foundation's Edge
but also in Robots and Empire are answered, and if some of the answers
seem a bit unlikely, well, this is the 1950's. [***]
Which is rather my theme song this issue. An awful lot of SF is
looking backwards these days, reusing the ideas that fueled a series of
Golden Ages. We have met the future and we don't like it, so we're
reverting to the past, or at least its visions and versions of the future.
Nobody understands this like Michael Moorcock. He has written a long
string of novels concerning Jerry Cornelius, a fantasy hero who
resembles an amoral James Bond, wandering through incest, death,
resurrection, and an astonishing string of alternate-reality Earths in
search of an acceptable version of the late Twentieth Century, but
never quite finding it. The Cornelius Chronicles, Volume II [Avon,
1986; $3.50; ISBN 0-380-75003-1] consists of two of Jerry's unlikely
adventures, combined in one inconvenient volume -- too large to fit
into a jacket pocket, my usual keeping-place for paperbacks.
The first of these, "The Lives and Times of Jerry Cornelius," is a
loosely-connected series of short stories from the Sixties and early
Seventies. These range from London to Southeast Asia, from
uproariously funny to nearly incomprehensible. Over the years,
Moorcock has developed a range of wonderful supporting characters for
Jerry, from the grossly fat and loathsome Bishop Beesley to his sister
and occasional lover, Catherine Cornelius. Most of these put in at
least a cameo appearance in these stories, but they focus largely on
Jerry and his irregular methods for restoring balanced imbalance to a
Universe that seems, at times, to exist solely for the amusement of
Jerry and his fellow time-travellers.
The second book, "The Entropy Tango," is one of a number of books that
we have been told over the years were the last Jerry Cornelius novel.
Here Jerry's supporting cast are featured; the story is told from the
view of the actress and revolutionary, Una Persson. The novel appears
to be concerned with a series of small revolutions led by a particular
hero of Moorcock's, the Ukrainian nihilist-anarchist, Nestor Makhno.
But appearances are deceiving, and there's a lot of other stuff going on.
Both books are enjoyable, but be warned; they are highly experimental
in structure and style, and not a quick, light read. The method of
storytelling Moorcock generally uses for these novels and stories is a
series of quick slices, with little or no explanation of what goes
between. If clues are missed, this can make for extremely frustrating
reading. Not a book for speed readers. [***-]
From one alternate world to another: I've heard a lot about David Drake
over the years, but never read more than a few early short stories in
Analog. So I jumped at the chance to review Fortress [Tor hardcover,
1986; $15.95; ISBN 0-312-93001-1]. I shouldn't have bothered.
There is a basic rule in writing an alternate-world novel. You make
one change in history, no more, no less, and let your world develop
logically from that change. Drake gives us a world where, in November
of 1963, President Kennedy was not shot. We all know Kennedy was
gung-ho on space, right? So Drake reasons that Kennedy, in his second
inaugural address in 1965, might have proposed something much like
SDI. Well, okay. Then he postulates that, given a government push
beginning in the '60s, it might be operational by the mid-'80s. We're
getting into dubious waters, here; technology can only be pushed so
fast, but I'll accept it.
Now we meet our protagonist. Tom Kelly. He fought in the US "police
action" in Turkey (huh?) in the mid-'60s aiding Kurdistani rebels.
Because of this background, he is peculiarly suited to deal with a
problem in Turkey in 1985: the Kurds seem to be working with some
aliens. Well that makes sense; if Kennedy had lived, obviously we'd
have been contacted by aliens by now. And of course, it turns out that
the Kurds are really tools of the Nazis, who have been waiting all this
time in Antarctica for a chance to come out of hiding with their flying
saucers and take over the world. What could be more logical? The
aliens help the Nazis take over Fortress (the SDI-like base), then turn
around and help Kelly attack the Nazis. No hint of their motivations
leaked through to my by-now befogged brain.
Oh, and did I mention the Nazi base on the moon? Shades of Rocket Ship
Galileo... which takes us back to the '50s. [*-]
From the ridiculous to -- well, something much better, anyway. I've
never liked Keith Laumer's work, so I'm pleased to say something nice
about Galactic Odyssey [Tor, 1987; $2.95; ISBN 0-812-54385-8]. It's
fun, of the classic Earthman-goes-to-space-and-has-adventures variety.
In this case, the Earthman is a nearly-dead derelict named Billy
Danger. Danger takes refuge from a storm in a silo (as in farm, not as
in missile). The silo takes off, and so does the plot.
Danger finds himself on the hunting ship of a human (not a humanoid)
from a distant part of the Galaxy. The hunter and his assistant are
killed, leaving Danger alone with the obligatory Beautiful Woman. The
story runs through the gamut of love, adventure, hate, betrayal, and at
least one plot twist that I confidently predict you will not. This is
a reprint of a book from the sixties, and it does have a dated feel.
It makes good bedtime reading, but nothing more. [***]
Also in the eminently acceptable category, please welcome L.E.
Modesitt. I enjoyed Modesitt's Ecologic Envoy very much, so asked
specifically if I might review Dawn for a Distant Earth [Tor, 1987;
$3.50; ISBN 0-812-54586-9], which purports to be "Volume I of The
Forever Hero." Modesitt has no talent whatever for titles, alas, but
don't let that put you off.
The setting seems to be the same future Empire in which Ecologic Envoy
took place -- at least there are a number of names and terms in common
-- but from a radically different viewpoint. This books concerns
itself with the ruins of Old Home Earth, which has been poisoned so
that only a few barbarians live on its surface. One of these, a
"devilkid," is kidnapped by an Imperial survey ship, cleaned up, given
a name (MacGregor Gerswin), and sent to get an education. Later, as a
newly-commissioned officer in the Imperial Space Service, Gerswin
returns to Earth to assist in the clean-up, a project which may be
impossible. Over a period of fifty or so years, he rises through the
ranks, and accomplishes much toward the clean-up effort.
Gerswin himself is not very likeable, but is very easy to identify with
as he deals with impersonal bureaucracy and personal self-interest in
attempting to accomplish his goals. Several times, Gerswin's ploys and
tricks to acquire the resources his project requires made me want to
cheer. The ending resolves very little; not terribly surprising in the
first book of a series, but still somewhat annoying.
Modesitt has a talent for producing interesting and believable
supporting characters, which I observed in The Ecologic Envoy, is if
anything more pronounced in Dawn. One set of plot twists, when Gerswin
pays a return visit to his first lover, grows so inevitably and so
unexpectedly from their characters and the nature of their previous
encounter, that I started to read the passage aloud to the person next
to me -- then stopped. It would have made no sense; it grew so
organically out of what had gone before that I'd have had to summarize
the entire book to that point. A well-constructed, entertaining
novel. [****-]
I wondered what Gene Wolfe would do when he finished The Book of the
New Sun. The answer should have been obvious; he wrote another book.
Free Live Free [Tor, 1986; $3.95; ISBN 0-812-55813-8] is a lot of fun,
but hard to say much about. If I had to sum it up in a word, I'd call
it "amiable."
It concerns four not-very-nice, but very likeable, people -- a fat
prostitute, a psychic Gypsy witch (she really is), an unemployed
detective's op, and a lecherous novelty salesman -- who met in a house
they came to because they were told they could live there rent-free.
The house, belonging to a Mr. Ben Free, is demolished; Free vanishes.
The four of them go in search of a treasure which may or may not exist,
based on very little evidence. They don't know what it is even if it
does exist (though each has an idea).
In the course of the search they do strange and wonderful things and
meet strange and wonderful people. Wolfe maneuvers his characters
apart and back together with the skill of a master choreographer; the
high point, for me, occurs when all of them, seemingly by chance,
coincide at "Belmont" -- a thinly disguised Bellvue Hospital, which
they proceed to turn, with the aid of an electrical blackout, into a
literal Bedlam.
Wolfe's writing is no less clear, concise, and unexpected than in New
Sun. He brings the book to a conclusion as much by convincing you it's
over as by ending it. This isn't a heavy like New Sun; it's more of a
romp. [****+]
Closet Classic: It is the purpose of your Humble Servant to alert you
to books you might otherwise have missed. A number of books well worth
your attention have, over the years, passed into and out of the shelves
of your local purveyor of reading material. To this end, I'll be
ending each installment of this column with a book that appeared and
vanished some time ago, but deserves to be recalled from the dead.
You're invited to recommend books for this feature, care of my E-mail
(djo@pbhyc on Usenet) or this OtherRealms.
This time, let me introduce to you the estimable David R. Bunch. In
the late sixties and early seventies, Bunch produced a series of
bizarre and twisted stories, which appeared everywhere from Ted White's
Amazing to Harlan Ellison's Dangerous Visions.
The vast majority of these tales concerned a future version of Earth
called Moderan. In Moderan, the Earth has been covered with plastic,
the people have had their bodies replaced with wear-forever new-metal,
and the people devote their time to endless pursuit of the pleasures of
war, sex, war, the arts, war, and war.
The stories progress from a kind of youthful energy, through domestic
decadence, to the final disintegration of an entire society, in an
elegant parable on the fate of all millenial empires. The book does
end with hope -- or rather, it begins with hope, for the stories are
introduced by people from another culture, after the fall of Moderan.
Life goes on.
These stories were collected by Avon in a book called (cleverly enough)
Moderan -- originally published in 1973, out of print since. It's
pleasantly and yet depressingly easy to find in used book stores all
over the country. If you don't have a good used book store, or if they
don't carry it -- or even if you do get a copy -- I recommend writing
to Avon and asking them to reprint this little gem. I wouldn't steer
you wrong.
Words of Wizdom
Reviews by
Chuq Von Rospach
Copyright 1987 by Chuq Von Rospach
The Master is back. After 23 years, Ray Bradbury has published a new
novel. It doesn't matter that Death is a Lonely Business (Bantam, 216
pages, $3.95) isn't Science Fiction or Fantasy. Bradbury has always
been his own genre.
No matter what he publishes, Bradbury is special. To many people,
like myself, he is the genre. He was, literally, my first, and that
encounter is one you never forget. Walking through the slightly musty
hallways of the library, your own library card clutched in a sweaty
hand, you make a decision that will follow you for the rest of your
days. Much to the annoyance of the librarian, I marched right past
the kiddie section and into That Corner, where Those Books were,
somewhat reluctantly, displayed.
He was my first, and you never forget your first. Bradbury dedicated
the new library in my home town, when the old one grew cramped and
old. He spoke a couple of times at my school, spending as much time
after the lectures simply talking and being available as he did behind
the podium.
Today, he is still a major factor in my life. When I'm depressed,
when the words don't come, one of the dog-eared copies of Martian
Chronicles comes out, solace and encouragement, a reminder to myself
why I want to be a wordsmith. Out comes Dandelion Wine, or perhaps
October Tree, signed one sunny day when his life touched mine for a
short while, and carried from bookshelf to bookshelf through the years.
This is not, really, a review. It really isn't possible for me to
review a work by Bradbury and be rational and objective. The thought
of trying to judge, to make a critical and objective comment, on Ray
Bradbury seems to me the height of arrogance. He Is, and nothing will
sway me from the reality that I'm good enough, perhaps, to sharpen his
pencils, but not his prose.
I found myself avoiding Death when it came out in hardback. Because I
was afraid that he would disappoint me. And, more, because I was
afraid I would disappoint myself, to be able to see the magic and not
accept it.
I was wrong. The magic is there. Death is a very good book, and
Bradbury is still the Master. The magic is there.
This book is somewhat autobiographical. The protagonist is obviously
based on Bradbury himself. A young, struggling writer in Venice,
California, during the time that the canals were dying and the pier was
being torn down. When the trolleys still ran, red and noisy.
People start dying. An accident here, a seizure there. All natural,
all unconnected. Except to Bradbury. Death stalks the streets.
Bradbury stalks Death, and also stalks himself. In the end, he finds
what he needs to survive, to succeed.
What has always attracted me to Bradbury was his skill at all levels of
the writing process. Many authors can develop strong, living
characters. Others concentrate on the plot, or the world that is spun
out around the story. Others are known for the style the story is
told, but Bradbury is one of the few authors that can work with all of
these and meld them into a seamless whole. His characters breathe and
sweat. So does his city. You open the book and you see, not the
words on the page, but the images that Bradbury weaves inside your
head.
As you can guess by now, I enjoyed this book thoroughly. It brought
back memories of the classic Bradbury books, but it wasn't derivative
of them. It is a good, solid, mystery, but I believe it has the
Bradbury magic that will make it enjoyable to all of his fans,
regardless of the genre you prefer to occupy. Bradbury transcends the
genre. Regardless of what he writes, he defines his own category.
This is not a book you want to miss.
Editor's Notebook
Polly Freas dies
I'm very sad to have to announce the death of Polly Freas at 12:45AM,
January 24th of cancer. Polly was a long time East Coast fan and the
wife of artist Kelly Freas. A fund has been set up to help Kelly
offset medical costs. Your donations should be sent to Butch Allen,
C/O HAROSFA, P.O. Box 9434, Hampton, Va. 23670. According to
CompuServe, the news broke at Confusion, and an impromptu auction
raised over $2000.
Kelly has requested that donations be sent in her name to the
Children's Welfare Fund, Stabur Graphics Inc., 23301 Meadow Park,
Detroit, MI 48239 in lieu of flowers. This is an organization that she
helped found, and it is appropriate that we support it in her memory.
Cards and letters to Kelly should be sent to him in care of OtherRealms
and I'll make sure they get forwarded. There are other comments on
Polly in this months lettercol. My sympathy goes out to Kelly and all
of their friends. We've lost another of the wonderful people that
makes Fandom a wonderful place to be.
Publishing News
St. Martin's Press will be publishing a mass market paperback line to
supplement their hardcover offerings. Horror is edited by Lincoln
Child and Science Fiction is edited by Stuart Moore.
Baen Books is also starting a Fantasy paperback line. It will be
edited by Betsy Mitchell.
Murphy Strikes Again Dept.
A couple of issues ago, Locus converted to a laser printer, and Charles
Brown discussed some of the startup problems they had. So it was with
some glee that I put last month's issue (my first on the Laserwriter)
to bed ahead of schedule and with no pain whatsoever. I'd done a lot
of planning on it, and having worked with the technology for a while,
felt I had all the angles covered. When nobody was looking, I even
chortled a little bit for outsmarting my arch-nemesis, Lord Murphy.
Well, just to make sure everyone knows that the proud will do
themselves in, it wasn't until the last issue of OtherRealms was
printed, stuffed and stamped that I found out that the database with my
subscription lists in it wouldn't print mailing labels on a Laserwriter.
A couple of days of frantic scrabbling and patching and I finally got a
set of usable mailing labels. This little episode shows a couple of
things: that when you know nothing can go wrong somewhere, it will go
wrong somewhere else, and even someone who knows technology can get
tripped up by assuming the obvious. When a computer salesman tells you
that what he is selling you is a complete solution, you better make
sure that your definitions match. Murphy will out.
By the way, since last issue I've got new and wonderful software that
does mailing labels just fine, as well as a few things the old program
couldn't do. The new functionality is useful enough that I'm finally
getting around to indexing OtherRealms reviews, a compilation of which
will be out as soon as I'm done.
The New Address
Astute readers will notice a new address in the masthead. OtherRealms
has moved, so please make sure your mailing lists, publicity
departments, address books and whatever else might be interested in the
new address get the information. If I get mail from you, you'll
probably get a private note as a reminder as well, just to make sure
everything gets where it belongs.
Actually, OtherRealms hasn't moved, but since we're planning on finding
bigger quarters in the next few months, I finally got around to renting
a drop box. Both U.S. Mail and UPS are acceptable, and with any luck,
this will mean the suicide notes from my postman will stop.
Grade Inflation?
A couple of people have written in complaining of grade inflation,
suggesting that in the last couple of issues the reviews grades have
been trending upward. Well, thanks to my new database and the
OtherRealms review index (see next item) I've been able to crunch some
numbers and see what's been happening.
The numbers are really aren't changing. The average for all reviews in
a given issue has been solidly around 3.2 or 3.3 since issue five. The
low point was a 3.1 in issue 5, and the hight point was issue 9 with a
3.5. The last three issues were 3.2, 3.3, and 3.3 respectively. So
there isn't any real grade inflation in the magazine, the averages are
staying pretty steady.
That's the good news. The bad news is that looking back over the last
couple of Words of Wizdom columns, there has been a tendency for me to
get into "best book of the year this month" mode. Part of this is on
purpose -- I firmly believe that the good books should be featured, so
I select my reviews to emphasize the positive works I've read. Average
or lesser works, in general, go into the Pico Review section. At the
same time, though, I've seen situations where a given book might
deserve the rating I've given it, but in comparison with other books,
things get out of skew. I'm going to work on consistency in the next
few issues, to make sure this doesn't get completely out of hand.
OtherRealms Review Index
Thanks to the wonders of computers, I've compiled an index to all of
the reviews in OtherRealms. Over the previous 12 issues, there have
been 433 reviews. Issue one had 13, issue 12 had 71; I feel like we
covered a lot of territory in the last year.
I'm still working out the report parts of the database, so the index
isn't quite ready to distribute. What I'll probably do is key in this
issue, and then make it available next month.
Having all those numbers in the database gives you a good chance to
play around and see what happens. According to the database, the most
popular publishers (based on number of works reviewed in OtherRealms, a
definitely biased sample) are Ace (46), Tor (42), Del Rey (37) and
Bantam (30). Not surprising, since they are the largest paperback
houses and have the widest distribution. What was more surprising,
though, was that two hardcover houses (Doubleday at 19 and Arbor House
at 16) had more reviews than major paperback houses such as Daw (18),
Questar (6), and Signet(12). OtherRealms readers seem to read more
hardback books than I'd expected. The number of different publishers
reviewed were 73, which means the readership of OtherRealms gets around.
Another thing I took a quick look at was the popularity of a given
author. If you base popularity on the number of works reviewed, the
Frederik Pohl, with 12, was the most read author. Orson Scott Card was
runner up with 10, and Larry Niven and R.A. MacAvoy both had 9.
If you look at the average rating, you get different names. If you
throw out people with three or fewer reviews in the last 12 issues (to
make sure a single 5 star review doesn't skew things too far), the
favorite authors is Steven Brust, with a 4.4 rating. Runners up
include: Raymond Feist (4.2), William Gibson (3.9), Orson Scott Card
(3.75), David Brin (3.75), Ben Bova (3.4), and Anne Rice (3.8).
What does all this mean? Damned if I know. Statistics are wonderful
for proving whatever it is you want to prove, but beyond that the
utility of things like this are left up to the reader. Regardless, the
index should be out by next issue.
OtherRealms Recommends
The other night, a friend that I haven't seen for a couple of months
asked me the fatal question "So what do you recommend reading?"
Twenty minutes of rooting through the bookshelves later, I had a stack
of books that will keep him busy for most of 1987, and a chance to give
a second mention to some works I feel define the good side of Science
Fiction in 1986. So, in no particular order, OtherRealms recommends:
Death is a Lonely Business by Ray Bradbury; The Falling Woman by Pat
Murphy; A Malady of Magicks and A Multitude of Monsters by Craig Shaw
Gardner; Sword-Dancer by Jennifer Roberson; Mythago Wood by Robert
Holdstock; The Sorceror's Lady by Paula Volsky (which seems to be her
second novel, not a first novel as Locus claimed); Teckla by Steven
Brust; Bridge of Birds by Barry Hugart; A Baroque Fable by Chelsea
Quinn Yarbro; Wild Cards edited by George R.R. Martin; Tailchaser's
Song by Tad Williams; Silence in Solitude by Melissa Scott;
Windmaster's Bane by Tom Deitz; Artificial Things by Karen Joy Fowler;
and Soldier of the Mist by Gene Wolfe.
Which means I don't have to write a 1986: the year in review column.
Thank Ghod...
And Now a Word From Our Sponsor
This month has been an interesting month, working out glitches in the
layout and the software, playing with the new database, keying in the
index data (ouch, my poor fingers...) and trying to catch up on all of
the administration of publishing a magazine. The one thing this didn't
leave a lot of time for was reading, which is why Wizdom is very short
this month -- most of the books I read simply didn't deserve more than
a Pico, so I'm filling space here rather than pushing books that I
don't feel should get that much push. Besides, after reading the new
Bradbury, everything else is anti-climactic.
There are a few formatting changes since last issue. The typeface for
the headlines has changed because the original face, while quite
pretty, simply disappeared into the page. Also, I've put a little
more white space between lines (from 9/10 to 9/11 points for you
publishing types) because the text looked cramped. Thanks to everyone
who sent me mail discussing the new layout and making suggestions--your
feedback is making a good start even better.
Finally, if you sent me an article or review prior to January first,
and it hasn't been published yet, it won't be. As far as I know, all
my old inventory is gone, so if I haven't printed it or contacted you,
either the December disk crash (see last issue) ate it, or some other
random factor has come into play. If something is missing, please let
me know.
See you next month...
Letters to OtherRealms
Polly Freas
I've known the Freases for a long time and we encountered each other
regularly at conventions.
When did we first meet? I don't remember, but it was surely before
1974, when we invited Kelly to be Guest of Honor at Disclave.
Thinking about her, the first quality that comes to mind was her gaiety
of spirit. She had a bright smile with an infectious laugh and if you
spent time with her, some of her happiness would rub off on you.
She was also a class act. Polly was: a lady, supporting her husband
in his career by handling the business details which everyone just
naturally detests but especially artists, a loving wife, a devoted
mother, a woman of courage, all of these things. The last time we saw
here was at the Atlanta Worldcon, socializing at assorted parties as
she lavished the energy she conserved during the afternoon. You could
tell she was enjoying herself, and if her stamina was a little short,
why that was just a problem to be worked around.
To meet her was a pleasure anywhere. She enhanced the conventions she
attended, and she will be truly missed by those who knew her.
Alexis Gilliland
Arlington, VA
Polly Freas was far more than an appendage to Kelly Freas, more than an
inspiration for his art. She was a delightful, warm, generous woman
who enriched the lives of everyone she met. We shall all miss her.
Mike Resnick
Cincinnati, Ohio
More on the Hugo
I've long since stopped thinking of the Hugo award as anything but a
glorified popularity contest. In a year like this, with books from
each of the big three (Asimov, Clarke and Heinlein), it does not take
clairvoyance to know what three of the five nominees for Best Novel
will be when the ballot appears. My abilities as a handicapper aside,
I think the current state of Hugo balloting is an outcome of the change
in the SF field and in WorldCon attendance.
There was a time, in the dim and distant past, when there wasn't as
much SF as there is now, and most of it was published in magazines.
Fans, whose numbers were significantly less than legion, could (if they
put their minds to it), and often did, read everything as a matter of
course. You simply can't do it today. Even if you had the time, the
money, the ambition, and the stomach for it, you probably couldn't
track down all the titles published as science fiction or fantasy, let
alone the numerous titles that are clearly SF, but not marketed as
such. You probably don't want to know about the romances published in
the last few years that feature time travel or E.T.'s.
The two times I've been a member of WorldCon, I made a sincere effort
to nominate studiously, and to make sure I'd read all the nominees
before I voted. I'm sure it made no difference whatsoever. My vote
can be counterbalanced by the voter who's read only one item in each
category and votes for it. And who's to say that's not right; after
all, they paid for the privilege just as I did.
The upshot of all this discussion is that switching to deciding a win
by a simple plurality is adopting a new philosophy in what a vote in
the Hugo balloting should mean, and doesn't address the bigger issue of
why people want to vote for the Hugos when they've read only a few of
the nominees.
You also brought up the idea of insisting on a quorum of voters, using
the Best Fanzine category as an example. Personally, I think too many
people vote in that category already; how many people who vote for Best
Fanzine have read all the nominees? A large number of the people who
attend WorldCon these days are not fans in the traditional sense: they
entered mainstream fandom from a "fringe fandom" like Star Trek or Dr.
Who. They may not read any of the professional SF magazines at all (in
fact, they may not know that they exist!), and they may never have laid
eyes on something like File 770. If the fan awards are to remain part
of the Hugo balloting, you have to accept the fact that many people who
vote in the major fiction categories won't have read any of the fanzine
nominees, and so the quorum for the fan categories should be smaller.
Neither article mentioned a spectre that has loomed over the Hugos ever
since the attendance increased to include many people who do not spring
from the old reading tradition. I've heard a rumor to the effect that
the Church of Scientology encouraged its members to join WorldCon and
block vote a Hugo for Battlefield Earth. I know of an attempt to block
vote for a media fanzine. Whether the awards would have been deserved
is beside the point. Once someone with sufficient organization cottons
onto the fact that the Hugo can be bought with enough warm bodies
willing to spend the non-attending fee, the award won't even be a true
popularity award.
Kathy Godfrey
kgodfrey@bbn.com.arpa
And then they wrote...
Sorry to hear you'll be going to a quarterly format, but I understand
your reasons. You put an enormous amount of work into OtherRealms, and
you've made good choices for your associate and contributing editors.
Your rating system still bothers me. In case you're interested, a grep
of #12 (Ah, the convenience of electronic media!) shows:
5 stars:13
4 stars:20
3 stars:28
2 stars:15
1 star:4
0 stars:3
If this is a gaussian distribution, it's compressed at one end. I'll
be lucky to read 13 books all year, let alone manage to skim that many
of the best each month. I think one solution may be to change your
guideline of a 5-star book from "one of the best books of the year" to
"one of the best books I've read in years".
[see my comments in the Editor's Notebook on this] -- chuq
On other topics, I think you overrated Free Live Free. It started out
great, but Wolfe couldn't decide whether to write a serious book or a
comedy, and the characters all mellowed too much at the end - they were
very vivid the way he sketched them at the beginning.
[Free Live Free is one of those books reviewers hate, since it
is essentially impossible to review. I may well have rated it
a star high, but at the same time, the book has stayed wtih me,
haunting my thoughts long after most books have returned to
the shelves. It definitely struck a chord somewhere, and I
really believe that it is exactly what Wolfe wanted it to be,
so in that way it is a success. Whether it is as successful
to his readers, since it IS a real change of pace, each reader
needs to decide individually] -- chuq
Also I'd disagree with you on the Mirror of Her Dreams - I liked the
Thomas Covenant books better. MOHD had complex characters, but I'm
burned out on books about swordfights and evil magicians, no matter how
well done.
[As I've burned out on Celtic mythology books, no matter how
good. That doesn't make MOHD a bad book, but a book that you
probably shouldn't read at this time. Burnouts change over
time, so perhaps this should go on the list for later, then]
-- chuq
George S. Walker
Tektronix, Inc.
P.O. Box 500, M/S 39-222
Beaverton, OR 97077
I am really impressed with your new layout for OtherRealms. It is so
much easier to read than previously; the Pico Review section is
especially nice. From what I've read so far, I'm going to enjoy reading
your new reviewers. I like being able to develop an affinity for a
particular reviewer, which the column format allows.
I would like to commend Fred Bals for his review of Burning Chrome; he
really put the book into perspective for me. I hope to read more of
his reviews.
I was interested to see that the Latin American authors Gabriel Carcia
Marquez and Miguel Mujica Luniez were both reviewed in Issue #12, I
have been wanting to read Marquez for quite some time, and now, not
only do I have a good excuse, I have another Latin American author to try.
Brett Slocum
hi-csc!slocum@UMN-CS.ARPA
OtherRealms
Reviewing the worlds of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror.
Editor
Chuq Von Rospach
Associate Editor
Laurie Sefton
Contributing Editors
Jim Brunet
Dan'l Danehy-Oakes
OtherRealms #13
March, 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 only for non-commercial purposes. With
the exception of excerpts used for promotional purposes, no part of
OtherRealms may be re-published without permission.
OtherRealms is published by:
Chuq Von Rospach
35111-F Newark Blvd.
Suite 255
Newark, CA. 94560
usenet: chuq@sun.COM
Delphi: CHUQ
Review copies should be sent to this address for consideration.
Submission Policy
OtherRealms publishes articles about Science Fiction, Fantasy, and
Horror. We focus on reviews of authors and books that might otherwise
be missed in the crowd, but OtherRealms will publish anything of
interest to the serious reader of the genre.
Pico Reviews are solicited on any book. Duplicate the format in the
magazine, and limit your comments to one paragraph.
Your comments are solicited! Letters to OtherRealms are always welcome
-- tell me how I'm doing, what I'm missing, or where I've goofed. All
letters will be considered for publication unless otherwise specified.
If you have an idea for an article you would like to see covered in
OtherRealms, drop me a line. I'm always looking for new and
interesting things to bring before the eyes of my readers.
Artists!
OtherRealms is looking for a few good hands. I'm looking for genre
oriented pictures, comics, dingbats, doodles, and anything else that
looks good on the printed page.
I need anything up to and including full-page cover art --my inventory
is currently very small.
Book Ratings in OtherRealms
All books are rated with the following guidelines. Most books should
receive a three star rating Anything with three or more stars is
recommended. Ratings may be modified by a + or a - to for a half star
rating, so [***-] is better (slightly) than [**+].
[*****] One of the best books of the year
[****] A very good book -- above average
[***] A good book
[**] Flawed, but has its moments
[*] Not recommended
[] Avoid at all costs
Subscriptions:
OtherRealms is available at Future Fantasy bookstore, Palo Alto,
California and through the mail. A single issue is available for
$2.50. Subscriptions are for $11.00 for five issues and $21.00 for 10
issues. Please make checks to "Chuq Von Rospach." Fanzine trading
rules apply. Publishers are welcome to a free subscription upon request.
Electronic OtherRealms
Electronic OtherRealms is a text-only version of this magazine that is
available on a number of computer networks throughout the world.
On the ARPA, CSNET, BITNET and UUCP networks, send E-mail to
chuq@sun.COM for information on subscribing.
On the usenet network, Electronic OtherRealms is available in
mod.mag.otherrealms.
Electronic OtherRealms is also available in the Science Fiction section
of the Delphi timesharing system, and on numerous Bulletin Board
Systems throughout the country.
