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OtherRealms Issue 07 Part 01
OtherRealms
A Fanzine for the Non-Fan
"Where FIJAGH Becomes a Way of Life"
Issue #7
August, 1986
Table of Contents
Part 1
Stalking the Wild Secondhand Book
Carl Hommel
The Cat Who Walks Through Walls: A Comedy of Manners
Steven Bellovin
Women in Fantastic Armies
Courtenay Footman
Voyagers II: The Alien Within
Chuq Von Rospach
Blood Music and Eon
Jim Brunet
Part 2
Pico Reviews
Part 3
Editorial: The Past Through Tomorrow
Chuq Von Rospach
Letters
OtherRealms Notes
Chuq Von Rospach
Stalking the Wild Secondhand Book
Carl Hommel
With paperback cover prices soaring above the $5.00 mark, and trade
paperbacks more expensive than the hardcovers of even 10 years ago, the
secondhand bookstore is a good place to shop. Why buy the latest Baen
Books cheap ink and ratty paper knockoff for $3.00 when you can find
the original for under $1.00? Since leaving college 4 years ago, I
have tripled my SF collection to over 6,000 books. Less than 100 were
bought for the cover price.
Patience is everything in secondhand browsing. It also demands a
phenomenal memory for titles, or a list that you carry with you.
There are three kinds of secondhand shops: those who know the worth of
SF and make you pay for it; those who know SF is different from
everything else on their shelves; and those who are being robbed blind
by the likes of me.
The first kind are the sort you find at SF Cons in the huckster room
with old first editions in mylar bags and high price tags. Specialty
stores like The Other Change of Hobbit in Berkeley or the Victor Hugo
Book Store in Boston are aware of the demand for the older, pre-1960
paperbacks. While these stores are the most expensive, they are more
likely to have a specific title. I just had to have the 1970 Ace
edition of _Servants of the Wankh_ - the third book in the _Tschai: Planet
of Adventure_ series by Jack Vance to complete my set. Although the
cover price was $.50, and I would have paid from $.25 to $.50 cents at
most store, I was not willing to wait years until I found it. So, I
coughed up the $5.00.
The second kind of bookstore has realized that SF is a hot item. Most
genres, like westerns, mysteries, and especially romance novels,
circulate in and out of the store. The same book may be sold back to
the store several times before it finally wears out. Not SF! We are
collectors and hold on to a title until death do us part. Stores will
get an entire collection and see it vanish within a week, never to
return. To combat this, most stores in the Boston area have a policy
that credit for non-SF books you sell the store cannot be carried over
to SF titles.
With spring cleaning comes yard sales and library sales. They
generally have books published recently, with cover prices ranging from
$1.95 to $4.25 and selling them from $.05 to $.50 apiece. Buy anything
you find interesting for yourself and then buy anything else with the
highest cover price you can. The third kind of bookstore goes solely by
cover price and the higher the price on the books you trade in, the
more credit you get to buy SF.
How can you tell a good shop? Here are some questions to ask
yourself. You will have to decide how the answers fit into your buying
patterns:
1. Did you find it easily? If so, chances are good that other SF
lovers will, too.
2. Do they have thirty copies of _Star Wars_?
3. Are the books in alphabetical order?
4. Are they all on display, or are some of them in boxes or behind
others on the shelves?
5. Are old records, magazines, and other oddities also sold?
6. Do they discount for bulk purchases? (I once bought 40 'Doc
Savage' books for $12.50 by pointing out that they had been
sitting there for 3 months.)
7. Do the store owners read SF themselves?
-----
E-mail address: carlton@masscomp.UUCP
Copyright 1986 by Carlton B. Hommel
The Cat Who Walks Through Walls: A Comedy of Manners
Robert A. Heinlein
Reviewed by
Steven Bellovin
[slight spoilers]
Heinlein is about to drop off my "buy on sight" list. _Cat_ is, in my
opinion, his fourth turkey in a row, following _The Number of the Beast_,
_Friday_, and _JOB: A Comedy of Justice_. They're all pervaded by an
atmosphere of paranoia -- the characters are struggling against an
unknown force to, ultimately, no particular purpose. The books thus
have no global plot rather, they turn on local escapades, theme and
style. The two latter points are certainly enough to justify a book if
well-executed; unfortunately, they are not in this case. In fact, the
style tends to interfere with the theme.
The problem is that Heinlein's style has become too predictable, and
too wearyingly familiar. His characters all love sex, but they seem to
spend most of the time giggling and leering over it, explaining at
great length why it's so good and why their partner(s) have the right
attitudes. Killings, escapes, etc., are all handled oh-so-competently
-- there's no chance of (to cite an earlier Heinlein work) a Professor
Bernardo de la Paz dying.
It's not that his themes are trivial, either. As its subtitle
indicates, _Cat_ turns on manners -- or, more precisely, what constitutes
civilized behavior under difficult circumstances. But the constant
adventure and sexual encounters distract too much. Contrast this with
earlier Heinlein works: how many battles are described, rather than
merely alluded to, in _Starship Troopers_? Remarkably few, given the
theme of the book. And generally, each one had a point to make about
Rico's development. Not only that, Heinlein committed a mortal sin --
spending a lot of time lecturing his audience -- and got away with it.
And in _Time Enough for Love_, he tied together a set of mood pieces and
managed to produce a work that was utterly fascinating -- despite the
fact that many of the individual components were not really science
fiction internally.
There are good points to _Cat_. The plots are locally interesting, at
least until they become too predictable. We get a new look at some old
characters and old scenarios (Heinlein, like Asimov, is starting to
indulge in literary grand unification theories); their behavior is
different, but so is the narrator's viewpoint. Ultimately, it fails to
satisfy.
-----
E-mail: smb@ulysses.UUCP
Copyright 1986 by Steven Bellovin
Women in Fantastic Armies
Courtenay Footman
Many recent fantasies, such as Diane Duane's _Tales of the Five_, most of
Barbara Hambly's books, and the _The Sharpest Edge_ by Stirling and
Meier, have non-technological armies with women on a more or less equal
footing with men. These books are all good, but this assumption is
unrealistic and detracts from the work.
There are unarguable differences between men and women. Beyond the
obvious, the average man is taller than the average woman, has greater
upper body strength and a faster sprinting speed. In a technological
society none of this makes much difference. With hand-to-hand weapons,
though, it means that given equal training a man will best a woman.
If a story has humans, if the primary weapons are hand to hand weapons,
if military training is not universal, if the society is compelled to
maximize its military efficiency, and if the story is rational, the
military use of women ought to be an exceptional event.
The requirement that the story be rational is necessary because if the
story is parody, satire or farce there is no requirement that the
author be required to make sense.
I am not saying that one should not write a book where women are
routinely used in combat; just violate one of my assumptions. The
first one can easily be altered, although it usually isn't. I have no
objections to female soldiers if technology or sorcery makes physical
strength unimportant in combat.
True universal training is rare because it so expensive; generally,
only a technological society can afford it. Hodgell's _Dark of the Moon_
is an example of when universal training does make sense.
The fourth assumption can only be violated if the society does not have
to face strong external threats, or the society will not be long for
the world. Phyllis Ann Karr's novels _Frostflower_ and _Thorn, Windborne_
violate that assumption; in her society, the only combat is ritualized
raiding in which only combatants get hurt, there is minimal damage to
property and no distance weapons are allowed. There are no external
enemies. For religious reasons, all warriors are women.
I am also not saying that there can be no women soldiers - one of the
best medieval combat leaders was a woman. It was not uncommon to leave
the command of medieval castles to the wife of the lord when he was
away, but commanding is not the same as fighting.
A story about an exceptional woman can be exceptionally good, e.g.
Robin McKinley's _Hero and the Crown_ and _The Blue Sword_, and Tamora
Pierce's Alanna stories. Women will not necessarily be in an inferior
position in a non-technological society, they just will not be the
first line combat troops. Andre Norton's _Estcarp_ is a matriarchy because
only women can use magic. Even there the combat troops are male.
-----
E-mail address: cpf@lnsvax.tn.cornell.edu
Copyright 1986 by Courtenay Footman
Voyagers II: The Alien Within
Ben Bova
[***+]
Tor Books, 1986, 344 pages,
$15.95 Hardback
Reviewed by
Chuq Von Rospach
_Voyagers II: The Alien Within_ is the latest from Ben Bova, a journeyman
SF writer and editor. _Voyagers II_ is a near future political intrigue
with a strong leaning towards hard SF.
Keith Stoner has been asleep for 18 years in cryogenic suspension. He
froze himself in deep space in an alien space craft to force the Earth
to rescue it. When medical advances allow his revival, the acquired
technology has reshaped society by making nuclear war impossible and
bringing many new ideas into the world. The rapid changes have also
brought the world to the brink of ruin, and Stoner awakes to growing
unease and escalating violence in Africa.
The company that revives Stoner is interested in using him and his
knowledge. Stoner has changed, though. The alien has merged with him
and the book is about the coming of age of these combined as they
discover and flex their powers.
The political aspects of this book are superb. There is a plot line
involving the political intrigue within the large multi-national
corporation attempting to control the alien knowledge and Stoner.
Everyone is spying on each other, sleeping with each other and hating
each other. There is also the global scale, as the worlds social and
political structure falls apart. The realities of a world where things
are changing too fast are very realistically portrayed.
The book is not without its flaws. Bova, in general, is a little rough
with expository dialog. You can tell when he switches gears and pulls
out the blackboard to explain something. Many authors get away with a
lot worse, though, and this is a minor nit.
A bigger problem was Stoner himself. Halfway through the book, the
Stoner develops a Messiah Complex. He walks from France to Africa and
singlehandedly stops a war. The action evolves well, but it was hard
to swallow; almost pulpish, it reminded me more of Doc Savage than
serious SF.
Despite this I really enjoyed this book. It is a good read. The
problems are minor. If you like Analog-style fiction, this one is
definitely for you.
-----
Copyright 1986 by Chuq Von Rospach
BLOOD MUSIC,
Arbor House, 1985
SFBC edition, 215 pages
EON
Bluejay Books, 1985
$16.95, 436 pages
Greg Bear
reviewed by
Jim Brunet
Buy both of these books and read them. I have a lot to say about both
books and much of it, especially about _Blood Music_, may seem to dwell
on the negative. How can I be negative and recommend the books at the
same time? Perhaps it's because an exciting near-miss can be so more
exasperating than the shot that falls wide of the mark.
Both are are very good books, far above the average. _Blood Music_ is on
the Hugo Ballot and I think that _Eon_ should be. Greg Bear is one of
the better, most consistent SF writers around today and both works are
to his credit.
_Blood Music_ is the expansion of a novelette of the same name that won a
Hugo award last year The story line is fascinating, revolving around
the development of microscopic intelligence as the inadvertent
outgrowth of research on biochips -- viruses incorporating computer
elements programmed to achieve tailored, biological functions, e.g.,
cleansing plaque from arterial walls.
One unauthorized experiment leads to viruses that, instead of following
designated programs form intelligent viral colonies that multiply
inside the human body, mutating rapidly and re-designing themselves
until they evolve the capability to literally remake their human
hosts. The viruses are, of course, highly contagious. The novelette
was chilling, terrifying even, arousing a sense of horror far
transcending the trivial tales of Stephen King-derived beasties. The
novel is less successful despite the added detail.
The novelette focused on the character of Vergil Ulam, a bio-technical
genius who has problems with authority and a predilection for
performing unauthorized experiments. Vergil is a well-sculpted tragic
character in the highest sense of the word. He is a nerd without being
a cliche; he has obstinate faith in his own abilities versus those
short-sighted, mediocre managers and directors who obstruct his genius;
he is socially and politically clumsy, yet not without insight into his
faults; finally, he has a sense of recognition of what he has done and
how he has overreached himself. He would be perfectly at home on a
Greek stage, waiting for the just retribution of the gods.
Near the end of the novelette and about a third of the way through the
novel, Vergil meets a more mundane, if artful, demise than any Greek
god would have devised. In the novelette, this is the penultimate
climax; in the novel, it marks the air slowly hissing out of the
balloon, the tension dissipating, a long slow spiral of declining
drama.
The second two-thirds of the book concern the lives of Dr. Michael
Bernard, another bioscientist, who has caught the plague from Vergil,
and Suzy McKenzie, a mildly retarded girl living with her family in
Brooklyn Heights. Suzy is an anomaly, one of a bare handful of people
in North America who do not catch the plague.
The struggles of Dr. Bernard to understand the plague and the
intelligent invaders and transformers of his body, and of Suzy, who
copes with the literal dissolution of her family and an empty New York
City, do not have the same sharp focus and interest as the torment of
Vergil Ulam. Indeed, the originator of the plague is the central figure
of a triptych, where the other two panels are pale shadows, offering
little additional illumination of the central theme. As a result the
second two-thirds of the novel do not maintain the high interest and
tension of the initial third.
Finally, the novel ends not with a bang, not even with a whimper, but
drifts away softly as if it were a boojum that wasn't even there. There
is the suggestion of new hope, new beginnings, mankind transformed and
uplifted. However, suggestion it remains. Instead, the metaphysical
images are murky, the final realizations wait vainly in the wings for
their cues, and the general sensation is not unlike waking up from a
dream that doesn't quite make sense. It's a pity, because the book has
more going for it than 90% of the random selections off the shelves.
Bear's style is accessible without being glib or shallow, the technical
ideas are interesting but worked in for the sake of the story, not
themselves, and both characters and images are very well rendered.
If _Blood Music_ is a triptych, _Eon_ is a large canvas with a truly cosmic
scope. Central to _Eon_ is the mystery of the Stone, an asteroid that
arrives into Earth orbit from interstellar space. The Stone is hollow,
its inside carved into seven chambers. The Stone's external
measurements are roughly 300 kilometers long by 100 kilometers thick at
its widest point; inside it ultimately measures millions of kilometers
long. The story begins in the year 2000; in the Stone is found a copy
of Mark Twain with a copyright date of 2110. Mystery after mystery is
piled on and they're all engrossing.
If the mysteries are piled high, so are the plot elements. Spies,
total nuclear war, space assaults, multi-dimensional mathematics,
alternate universes, alien cultures, intra-Soviet intrigues, the legacy
of Ralph Nader, sex... So many events and ideas are woven into the
tapestry of the story that the East-West nuclear war is almost a
footnote.
_Eon_ is a terrific novel, making its few flaws stand out in sharp
relief. It has a slow beginning. Part of this is due to the large
number of characters located in many different locales that must
necessarily be introduced and established, making for a "...was
happening in Washington; meanwhile, back at the Russian airfield..."
sort of feeling. Unlike _Footfall_, another novel that uses the
large-cast-of-characters-and-locales beginning, _Eon_'s characters are
believable and fully fleshed.
I have a couple of minor nits with the body of the book. One scene
detailing informal negotiations between Americans and Soviets, knowing
that they are on the brink of nuclear war, is flat and unrealistic.
And then there is the matter of sex. I think that the insertion of sex
into science fiction when it began in the Sixties was a good thing; sex
is a part of the world and characters that science fiction embraces.
To leave sexuality out results in as distorted a world or character
view as that of works which have sexual scenes for the sake of
titillating the audience.
Greg Bear seems to be of a similar view; his characters have sexual
feeling and upon occasion even have sex. However, the rendering of the
feelings and encounters is so flat, so devoid of energy, so
unconvincing, I wish that either they had been left out or that Bear
had spent a couple of weeks practicing writing sex scenes. Sex and
humor are two of the most difficult topics to write well, and Bear is
too talented a writer to stumble over this barrier.
One of the prime motivating forces for the actions of a major group of
characters is an alien race called the Jarts. The Jarts remain
off-stage for the entire novel, their threat remaining abstract and
unfelt by the reader, and serving as a force-ex-machina to press
certain plot levers at the author's convenience. This type of plot
device is encountered in a lot of SF writing; _Eon_ is so fine a work
that it sticks out like tennis shoes with a tuxedo.
Then there is the ending itself, or should I say endings, for there are
separate endings for each major group of characters. There is a
letdown feeling, an oh-is-that-all-that-happened sense. Like _Blood
Music_, the ending is anticlimactic and low key. Perhaps this is a
matter of taste, but I did not experience the ending as either the
resolution of an adventure or as an Epiphany of any sort.
Nonetheless, _Eon_ is a very fine book. In my judgment, it belonged on
this year's Hugo ballot and, given the relatively weak field this year,
might have won. If you want a good hard SF book, I strongly recommend _Eon_.
-----
E-mail: jimb@ism780b.UUCP
Copyright 1986 by Jim Brunet
This issue is Copyright 1986, by Chuq Von Rospach
All Rights reserved
One time rights only have been acquired from the signed or credited
contributors. All rights are hereby assigned to the contributors.
Reproduction rights: Permission is given to reproduce or duplicate
OtherRealms in its entirety for non-commercial uses. Re-use,
reproduction, reprinting or republication of an individual article in
any way or on any media, printed or electronic, is forbidden without
permission of the author.
