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OtherRealms Issue 18 Part 01
Electronic OtherRealms #18
Fall, 1987
Part 1
Table of Contents
Part 1
Editor's Notebook
Chuq Von Rospach
Historical Realism
Harry Turtledove
Part 2
Two Books on Robert Bloch
Jerry Boyajian
Double Nocturne
Danny Low
The Uplift War
Fred Bals
Part 3
An Interview with Mike Resnick
Part 4
Scattered Gold
Charles de Lint
Stuff Received
Part 5
Rebellion, Counter-Revolution, Blemishes and Potential
Jim Brunet
Part 6
Words of Wizdom
Chuq Von Rospach
Part 7
Loose Ends
Alan Wexelblat
Publishing Notes
Part 8
Much Rejoicing
Dan'l Danehy-Oakes
Part 9
Letters to OtherRealms
Editor's Notebook
Chuq Von Rospach
Conspiracy
As I write this, I've finally recovered from jet lag having returned from
two weeks in England playing tourist and attending Conspiracy. Since
OtherRealms is a reviewzine I'm going to limit my personal comments
here (and point you instead at Hard Hat Fanzine #1, which should be in the
envelope as a special added bonus this month) but I did want to thank all of
the OtherRealms readers (from seven countries, by my count) who took
the time to track me down and say hi. The feedback I got on the magazine
was both enlightening and encouraging, and it was nice to finally put some
faces to names I've only known via mail and computers. So, for all the
friends I met for the first time (and also to those I got to see again) thanks
for sharing part of your vacation with me, and I hope this was just a
beginning.
Partings
I read with some regret, but to be honest, not much surprise, the
termination of Fantasy Review as of issue #103. I recommended Fantasy
Review as a source in my Reviewing the Reviewers article in OtherRealms
#9, but since that time the magazine, with a new publisher, has shown a
continuing drop in the quality of its material. In issue #102, there
was an irresponsible article attacking Orson Scott Card that had me
wondering whether to renew my subscription --Jit now looks like this
might have been a last ditch effort to generate some controversy in the
hopes that people would buy the issue. I'm sorry to see Fantasy Review
go, although the Card article left a bad taste in my mouth that
tarnishes all of the good things that editor Robert Collins and the
magazine did -- nevertheless, Collins should realize that he did some
very good things with FR, and did them amazingly well considering the
financial and other problems that seemed endemic to the publication.
Heinlein's Women
Is Robert Heinlein sexist? And why is everyone interested?
I bring this up because I have had three people query me in the last
two months about writing articles on this exact topic. My answer to all
three was the same:
It's none of our business. The question ought to be "Are Heinlein's
works Sexist?"
This may seem like a trivial difference to you, but it is critical to
understand if you plan on writing for OtherRealms. One of the most
common mistakes critics make is to believe that the author and the work
are the same thing, and that you can do a study of the author's books
and use them as a basis to judge the author.
This may be true of some authors and some books, but as a general case
I believe it to be false. The purpose of a review is to review the
book, not call the authors beliefs into question, nor is it to abuse
the author, make fun of the author, or to espouse the reviewers
political beliefs. The idea is to help the reader of the review decide
if they want to read a book.
Many reviews (although, hopefully, none in OtherRealms) have hidden
agendas -- the reviewer is more interested in getting their viewpoint
aired than they are in discussing the work -- if you disagree with that
statement, read the review section in any major newspaper or the New
York Review of Books and see how many of the reviews actually have much
to do with the work in question. In the latter, having the first
mention of the work on the second page of a review is common -- an act
I find completely unjustifiable.
So if you want to write an article that proves that Heinlein's works
are sexist, be my guest. But leave Mr. Heinlein out of it. (For the
record, when given that option, all three authors declined). If you
have to bring the person into it, there is a flaw in your article.
[And as an aside, I don't believe that Heinlein's works are sexist. He
does write about women from another, more traditional generation, but
that should not be mistaken with sexism. And I feel that Sailing on the
Sunset, reviewed in this issue, has one of the most positive and
effective female characters ever written by a male author. But if you
still disagree, and want to prove it, I want to see it -- but leave the
people out of it].
Contributor
Notes
Congratulations are in order for Contributing Editor Jim Brunet. His
latest story, Symphony in Ursa Major, can be found in the July/August
issue of Aboriginal SF. Also, congratulations are in order to Stephen
Fox for his nomination and Brad Foster for his long deserved award for
Best Fan Artist in the Hugo's this year. Foster continues to show up in
the pro and semi- professional markets as well -- the latest being the
cover of the August Science Fiction Chronicle.
I'd like to welcome a new artist to the OtherRealms family, with a
twist. Alf Yngve sent me some fascinating material all the way from
Sweden, along with a couple of Swedish fanzines. In his letter, he
mentioned that the fans in Sweden are rather few, so I thought I'd drop
him a plug and mention that if you're interested in sharing SF with
folks with different perspectives, consider becoming a penpal of
someone like Alf. If you want to drop him a note, write him at Alf
Yngve, Kullasgatan 20A, 463 00 Lilla Edet, Sweden. You'll be seeing
more of his art over the next few issues (and hopefully more
international art as OtherRealms penetrates the continental boundaries
further).
Finally, I'm very proud to announce the addition of a new name in the
OtherRealms masthead. Charles de Lint, an author (his latest being The
Jack of Kinrowan: A Novel of Urban Fairie from Armadillo/Ace) and
former reviewer for Fantasy Review has joined OtherRealms as a
Contributing Editor. His column debuts this month, and I think you'll
agree with me that he is a strong addition to OtherRealms and a voice
that deserves to be heard. Please join me in welcoming him aboard!
This Issue
This is the first quarterly issue of OtherRealms, but it isn't the
final form that the zine will take. I tried to put it together on a six
week schedule in time for Worldcon, and almost made it. From the looks
of it, I'm going to be right around 48 pages in eight weeks, which
isn't bad and gets the magazine in your hands the end of September, a
nice tradeoff between wishes and reality. OtherRealms will probably
continue to be about 48 pages for the next few issues, since that is
about the limit that I can handle financially. I'm working on the
budgets and getting quotes to see if I can afford to take OtherRealms
offset, so it can be saddle stitches and to improve the reproduction of
the art; if it works out OtherRealms may be offset next issue, or
perhaps the one after.
The limiting factor for magazine size right now is financial -- I have
enough good material to double the number of pages and still give me a
good start on the next issue, but I simply can't afford to use it all.
My hope is that the paid subscription base will continue to grow -- as
my subscription base goes up, my per copy costs go down and I can add
pages without changing the subscription costs.
I've made a number of layout changes in my continuing attempt to figure
out how to design a magazine and make it look good. I'm still playing
around with the way the title section of an article looks -- trying to
make sure it stands out without overwhelming the page and get the
information out in a clear way. A couple of people mentioned
(justifiably so, in retrospect) that it was difficult to tell who was
actually writing the reviews, since that information was sometimes on
the second or third page of the article. This new layout should take
care of that.
Corrections
I accidently misspelled Ardath Mayhar's name as Ardath Mayhay in the
Stuff Received section last issue. Her book is out from Space And
Time, and is titled The Wall. Sorry for any confusion.
Apologies
It looks like my comments on Ace and Dave Smed's last issue were not
researched as carefully as they should have been. The time between The
Sorcery Within and The Talisman of Alemar is a very long one as series
go, but it isn't as long as I first reported it, and there are
contributing factors on all sides that explain the publication delay.
I made some comments about Berkley that weren't true and weren't fair,
and I want to apologize to everyone involved for not being as careful
in my reporting as I should have been.
And to everyone, especially Brad Foster, for the reproduction problems
of the art in issue #17. I'm still not sure what went wrong, but last
issue simply didn't reproduce well, and a lot of the wonderful detail
in the cover got lost. The work I've done with book covers isn't up to
what I'd hoped, either, so I'm going to hold off on printing any more
until I can get the quality up. It makes no sense to take a nice cover
and reproduce it in a terrible way, so until I can do the art justice,
I won't.
Future
Issues
Next issue will feature the first article in the Behind the Scenes
series, by author and Campbell award winner Melissa Scott. Melissa
takes us behinds the scenes of her new book The Kindly Ones (A Baen
Books paperback). There will also be an interview on Jack Chalker as
well as a bibliography, an article on Brian Aldiss (who just won the
Hugo for his reference book The Trillion Year Spree) and all the normal
stuff.
Laurie is also working on an article about post-apocalyptic agriculture
and how our current dependency on technology in the fields will affect
us. You will probably be surprised and perhaps frightened by what
she's found.
The Pico review section (missing this month due to space problems) will
return.
Future issues will feature interviews with Gardner Dozois of Isaac
Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine and the new Isaac Asimov Presents
imprint of first novels and author Joel Rosenberg. They will have lots
of material that hasn't been written yet, too, so get busy!
Deadline for the winter issue (which is pretty full already, from the
looks of it) is November 15, and should be on your porch for Christmas.
Finally, the long delayed OtherRealms index to reviews may finally see
the light of day. At least, I hope so ("This time for sure!")
See you then! ("I take a size seven and a half...")
Historical Realism
Or
Oh My God, Not Another Movement
Harry Turtledove
Copyright 1987 by Harry Turtledove
[Harry Turtledove's latest novel, An Emperor for the Legion,
is available from Del Rey Books]
Cyberpunk, or The Movement, or whatever the folks who write it and like
it want to call it, has been getting a lot of ink lately. No wonder:
it's the Miami Vice of SF. It's fast paced, it's exciting, and it has a
lot of flash, all of which draw attention to it. It's not what I want
to talk about.
Much more quietly, a fair number of people have started turning out a
kind of Science Fiction and Fantasy that used to be rather rare:
historical realism is probably as good a name for it as any. For
whatever it's worth, I'm one of those people. If cyberpunk is Miami
Vice, what we do is more like I, Claudius -- work for the mind as well
as the glands.
Now that I've named historical realism, I suppose I ought to define
it. One way to do that is to say that it's the place where the
techniques of good SF and Fantasy meet those of historical fiction:
where the research that goes into the background of the world
presented, whether it's a Fantasy world, an alternate history, or the
"real" world with odd types of characters running around loose, gives
that world a depth and authenticity it couldn't get any other way -- a
sense that there's more going on in that world than you or the
characters actually see, that pieces of the world don't disappear when
you or the characters aren't looking directly at them.
Another, probably better, way is to point at some examples. Here are
three: L. Sprague de Camp's Lest Darkness Fall, Poul Anderson's Three
Hearts and Three Lions, and H. Beam Piper's Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen.
Of the writers whose careers began before 1950, de Camp, Anderson and
Piper most clearly exemplify historical realism at its best; indeed,
along with their SF and Fantasy, both de Camp and Anderson have
published historical fiction. de Camp's historical novels, in
particular, rank with those of Mary Renoult as the best and most
painless way to get a feel for the history of classical Greece.
Newer authors whose work fits the mold of historical realism include
Katherine Kurtz, Barbara Hambly, Judith Tarr, the team of Roland Green
and John F. Carr, Susan Shwartz, and myself. Some of us write only
Fantasy, some only SF (John Carr says he can't write Fantasy because he
doesn't believe in it), and some, like Susan Shwartz and I, do both.
One thing most of us have in common is graduate work in medieval
history or literature -- Jthere may be more people doing historical
realism these days because there are fewer academic jobs around. Or
maybe, as Judith Tarr has remarked, it's just that writing fiction is
more fun than academic prose. God knows that's true!
Katherine Kurtz was in the UCLA Graduate Program in History when I was
an undergrad there, back in the late sixties. Even then she was
publishing her Deryni tales, and she has for the most part stuck to the
Deryni universe ever since. Her stories draw heavily on her knowledge
of English medieval history, church history and canon law; her people
are very much part of her quasi-medieval world in their attitudes, not,
as is all too often true, misplaced twentieth-century types who somehow
happen to be toting swords instead of AK-47s.
Barbara Hambly would have been perfectly at home in the pages of the
old Unknown. If ever there was Fantasy with rivets, she writes it: the
magic in her stories is as rational and self-consistent as an
inherently chaotic business like magic could be. She also has a
master's degree in medieval history from UC Riverside, and it shows,
for her backgrounds are as meticulous as her magic. She is also honest
enough not to leave out the dirt, sweat, and pain that are inevitable
parts of any pre-technological society. Add to all that a smooth style
and a gift for sharply defined, quirky characters and it's no wonder
that she's established a large and loyal audience.
Judith Tarr's trilogy, The Isle of Glass, The Golden Horn, and The
Hounds of God explores the boundary between the medieval world and
Faerie. In that way, the books remind me of a Christianized version of
Anderson's The Broken Sword. But Tarr's work is very much her own. The
research she's done for her own studies (she's finishing up a Ph.D at
Yale) gives her world -- well, it's actually ours, but with some very
strange things going on --Ja you-are-there verisimilitude it couldn't
get any other way. Her people have a gentle strength to them that's
most appealing.
Writing pastiche is hard work. I know, I've done it. Writing well is
tough enough by itself; writing well and trying to sound like someone
else at the same time is at least four times as hard. In Great Kings'
War, their continuation to Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen, Roland Green and
John F. Carr sound so much like H. Beam Piper that they make what's
left of my hair stand on end. Only Piper, I would have thought, could
have described an ineffectual king as not even reigning over his
country, just drizzling on it a bit. But that's Green and Carr, both of
whom have also published on their own. They're currently working on the
next book of the adventures of Calvin Morrison, AKA Lord Kalvan. Look
for it.
Susan Schwartz has a doctorate in medieval literature from Harvard. She
describes herself as a renegade academic. She has an upcoming Fantasy
trilogy set in a universe where Antony and Cleopatra beat Augustus at
Actium instead of the other way around; the first volume, Byzantium's
Crown, will be out this spring. She has also appeared often in Analog;
she's in the process of turning two powerful stories there, "Heritage
of Flight" and "Survivor Guilt," into a novel. Along with that, she has
edited several Fantasy anthologies, including Moonsinger's Friends, a
collection to Andre Norton: the Festschrift for a distinguished elder
professor is an academic tradition of long standing. Shwartz and Judith
Tarr are also two of the founders of the cyberprep movement, perhaps
out of an atavistic fondness for pink and green. Oh, well, nobody's
perfect.
Finally, me. I flunked out of Caltech after my freshman year, and ended
up with a Ph.D in Byzantine history from UCLA. Among other things, I've
written Byzantine-flavored SF (my Basil Argyros stories, set in a
universe where Muhammad converted to Christianity and the Empire stayed
strong) and Fantasy (my Tetralogy, whose first volume, The Misplaced
Legion and the just released An Emperor for the Legion, drops three
cohorts of Caesar's legionaries into a Fantasy world based on
eleventh-century Byzantium). I've also done a series of stories, most
of them in Analog, set in a world where the Americas were populated,
not by Indians, but by Homo Erectus -- the land bridges worked out a
little differently than they did here. That series was harder for me to
put together; I had to work hard both on anthropology and on real
American history from colonial days to close to the Civil War, to see
parallels and divergences in my alternate universe, and also to make
what I was doing seem authentic.
I doubt historical realism is the wave of the future for SF and
Fantasy, as some have claimed the cyberpunks will be. Frankly, I doubt
any one movement will swallow the whole genre. I certainly hope not.
Diversity is one of the things that makes SF and Fantasy as enjoyable
as they are. But to my admittedly biased point of view, the
possibilities in twisted history, when it's twisted by people who know
what they're doing, are among the most exciting and thought-provoking
the field has to offer.
OtherRealms #18
Fall, 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. No article may be reprinted
without the express permission of the author.
