Copy Link
Add to Bookmark
Report
OtherRealms Issue 21 Part 07
Electronic OtherRealms #21
Summer, 1988
Part 7
Words of Wizdom
Chuq Von Rospach
Copyright 1988 by Chuq Von Rospach
Darkspell
Katherine Kerr
Doubleday, 370pp, 1987, $17.95
0-385-23109-1
***+
Pitfall (Alien Speedway #2)
Thomas Wylde
Bantam, 198pp, February, 1988, $3.50
0-553-26946-1
***
The Web (Alien Speedway #3)
Thomas Wylde
Bantam, 245pp, May, 1988, $3.50
0-553-27166-1
**+
The Man-Kzin Wars
Larry Niven, Poul Anderson, Dean Ing
Baen, 289pp, June, 1988, $3.95
0-671-65411-X
***
The Brave Little Toaster Goes to Mars
Thomas M. Disch
Doubleday, 72pp, $11.95, 0-385-24162-3.
****+
Resurrection, Inc.
Kevin J. Anderson
Signet Books, July, 1988, $3.50
0-451-15409-6
***+
Silk Roads and Shadows
Susan Shwartz
Tor, March, 1988, 337pp, $3.95
0-812-55411-6
***+
When Gravity Fails
George Alec Effinger
Bantam, 276pp, $3.95, 0-553-25555-X
****+
The Forge of God
Greg Bear
Tor, 473pp, $4.50
0-812-53167-1
****+
Terry's Universe
Beth Meacham, ed.
Tor, 234pp, June, 1988
0-312-93058-5
*****
Tool of the Trade
Joe Haldeman
Avon, 248pp, June, 1988, $3.95
0-380-70438-2
****
A Brief History of Time:
From the Big Bang to Black Holes
Stephen W. Hawking
Bantam, 182pp, $19.95
0-553-05340-X.
****
The Year's Best Science Fiction
Fifth Annual Collection
Gardner Dozois, Ed.
St. Martin's Press, 678pp, June, 1988, $12.95
0-312-01854-1
****
The 1988 Annual World's Best SF
Donald. A. Wollheim, Ed.
DAW, 303pp, June, 1988, $3.50
0-88677-281-8
****
Kiteworld
Keith Roberts
Ace, 293pp, May, 1988, $3.50
0-441-44851-8
****
The Starcrossed
Ben Bova
Tor, 223pp, June, 1988, $2.95
0-812-53231-7
***+
To Sail Beyond the Sunset
Robert A. Heinlein
Ace, 434pp, June, 1988, $4.95
0-441-74860-0
*****
I'm so tired of trilogies I want to scream. I've almost stopped reading
anything with "Book 93 of..." on the cover, because I know I'm going to
find myself reading a 700 page novel. A three volume, one plot story
with two cliffhanger endings and nine months or so between chapters.
Chances are it'll have an elf or a dwarf in it somewhere, or maybe some
pseudo-Celtic goulash that was researched out of some other Generic
Celtic Fantasy Trilogy(GCFT).
I was talking with some folks on Delphi one night when this topic came
up. I did a quick check on the number of series books in a typical
Stuff Received. 30% of the books listed were in a series.
What bothers me about GCFT is that, almost invariably, there's a good
story in there. But the author takes three books to tell a one book story.
How? They pad. They bring in lots of minor characters and let them
disappear later -- or perhaps they remember to kill them off. They move
off on tangents, they go on long, convoluted travels and quests.
Why do they write them? Because they sell. Trilogies sell better than
single, standalone books. It's a chance to go back and relive a
favorite universe, for one thing, and book 2 in the series will
motivate someone to go out and find book 1 -- and the bookstores to
order book 1 again.
It's less work for an author. It's more profitable for both the author
and the publisher. The buyers seem to love it. So it's being done,
more and more. All at the expense of the story.
I don't have the time to commit to 800 or 1000 pages, to spending
upwards of $10.00 paperback for something that's an average story.
There are too many other, better books I could be reading.
So I'm revolting. If the book says "Book" or "Volume" on the front cover,
it's going to have to have something really special about it for me to
pick up. Chances are, if I first see it at book two, it'll never get read.
About 75% of the time, if I do read book one, I never bother with book
2, because I don't find anything interesting enough to bring me back.
I think a story should be written to a length appropriate to the story.
And I've just read too many three-volume, one book stories for my
taste. If you're going to write that much material, give me something
worth reading.
Darkspell
Now, of course, the first thing I'm going to talk about is a book two
of a GCFT. Life is like that sometime. But Darkspell, the sequel to
Daggerspell by author Katherine Kerr, is a perfect counterpoint to the
problems I'm talking about.
What we have here is the middle book of a Celtic oriented trilogy with
Tolkien influences, elves, a couple of dwarves, magic, the long quest,
the kingdom on the edge of ruin.
Once she took all the pieces, though, she tossed out the rule book and
went off and built a good story. We watch the continued struggles of
Nevyn as he tries to complete the tasks necessary to fulfill the geas
he placed upon himself.
One fascinating shift from GCFT that Kerr has done is toss in a liberal
amount of Eastern Philosophy with the addition of reincarnation. When a
person dies, they return to inhabit a new body, and what happens in
previous lives affects the personality and actions of the new incarnation.
In Daggerspell, Nevyn caused the deaths of some close friends, and
seriously damaged their Wyrd. He then was allowed immortality until he
could help the friends that had died return to the proper paths.
All of this is done surrounded by the larger picture of the problems in
Deverry. Major political battles for power are going on, as well as
continual fighting and raiding. The forces of Darkness are also working
their ways in hopes of coming in and taking over. It all ties together,
but never too neatly.
When Kerr is done with the book, even with another book on the way,
you're satisfied. Darkspell ends, rather than just stops waiting for
the next installment. Much progress has been made, and many
accomplishments and setbacks can be accounted. Darkspell, and
Daggerspell, both made me look forward to the next book, rather than
making me curse the author for making the next book necessary.
These things separate Kerr's work from the Generic Celtic Fantasy Trilogy
label: a large enough scope to make a trilogy work; three separate, if
related stories -- each standing alone; growth and transition of the
characters; originality -- even while handling familiar objects and
themes; and an ending instead of simply a stopping point.
Darkspell isn't quite the book Daggerspell was. Technically it is
better. But there is a more of leisurely pace, a sense of waiting. The
crisis is not as crucial as the first book, and the denouement hushed;
this is definitely a middle book. The book is a real joy to read, as is
the series as a whole, and I'm looking forward to the next one.
Pitfall
The Web
What books could possibly follow a GCFT review? Obviously the ultimate
in generic fiction, the Packaged Universe. A recent fad in publishing,
packaged universes are an offshoot of shared world anthologies, where a
book packager gets together with a big name author, does a designer
universe and then packages it out to journeyman authors to do the
actual writing.
There are three major Packaged Universes these days: A.C. Clarke's
Venus Prime, Asimov's Robot City, and Roger Zelazny's Alien Speedway.
Both Venus Prime and Robot City have been getting so-so to negative
reviews. Reviews of Alien Speedway have been so- so to good, so perhaps
I got lucky when I picked it up, but this series is a lot of fun.
I reviewed Clypsis, by Jeffrey Carver a couple of issues back and I
thought I'd hang around and see how the rest of the series turned out.
One of the things I was worried about was consistency between volumes,
since different authors handle different books.
Next thing I know, both book two and book three are both out. Both are
by Thomas Wylde. And they're both lots of fun, especially if you like
action-adventure space jockey stories.
There are a few caveats, though. If you buy the rest of the series
because you liked the style of the first book, beware. Carver and Wylde
are very different authors. Clypsis was really a Juvenile coming of age
story. The two Wylde books are much more mature, much darker books --
Mike Murray, novice pilot, has had some of the gloss rubbed off.
Pitfall is best. There's sabotage going on, and unless Mike can track
where and why, he's out of a job and being shipped home. It's an
interesting mystery, and you really get a chance to learn about Clypsis
and the racing life. The Web, unfortunately, gets off-track and goes
looking into the history of Speedball Raybo, a racer who died 20 years
earlier and has since been incarnated as an intelligent robot. The book
ends up side-tracking into some gosh-wow-look-at-this-neat-thing plot
twists that really weaken the series, sending it away from Murray, away
from Clypsis, and away from the things that were focus points in the
first two books.
These are not heavy books, with deep, philosophical thoughts. They
won't win awards, and they aren't going to give you nightmares. They're
fun, entertaining, escapist fare, which is exactly what they were
designed to be.
The Man-Kzin Wars
Another variation of the packaged universe is The Man-Kzin Wars,
created by Larry Niven with novellas by Poul Anderson and Dean Ing and
Niven's original Kzin story "The Warriors."
The stories are good. But I felt, reading them, that while they are set
in Niven's Known Space, it wasn't the same. It's like looking at a print
of a painting instead of the original. If the reproduction is good
enough, you don't really notice it, but it still registers as a copy.
I'd rather read Niven's Known Space rather than anyone else's
interpretation of it. This is a good substitute, but it just makes me
want the original more.
The Brave Little Toaster Goes to Mars
I don't know how he does it. When I first read The Brave Little
Toaster, I didn't know whether to expect high camp or cloying
sentimentality. What Thomas Disch did, however, was create one of the
most beautiful and pure stories of friendship and love I've ever read.
It was the story of a little toaster, who, along his friends and fellow
appliances, set off in search of their missing master. The Incredible
Voyage, with power tools instead of animals.
In the hands of most authors, a concept like this would quickly degrade
to sniggering, to simpering cuteness, to drug induced-like weird
fiction. Disch, however, has pulled it off twice now. The latest, The
Brave Little Toaster Goes to Mars, has our toaster teaming up with his
friends and with a prototype hearing aid developed by Albert Einstein.
They travel to the planet Mars to stop an impending invasion of Earth
by a band of rogue appliances that want to wipe out humanity. They
succeed, of course, but it isn't the simplistic victory you might
expect in a "kids book."
This is definitely a Juvenile work, but it's one that is not only
accessible by all readers,but older readers can better appreciate just
how well crafted and complex the story is.
Resurrection, Inc.
They've finally figured a way to put the blue collar workers out of
work. They're bringing back the dead to do their jobs. Why? They work
cheap. The unemployed workers, as you might expect, aren't amused
That's the conflict in Kevin Anderson's first novel, Resurrection, Inc.
The people at Resurrection, Inc. have found a way to bring the dead
back to a form of mechanized life, allowing them to be used as slave
labor. Riots randomly break out, usually surrounding one of the Servants,
to be put down by the Enforcers, a private force that has taken over
the duties of the police and tries to keep the peace. And a new cult,
Neo-Satanism, is on the upswing, a cult that includes human sacrifice.
And the Cremators, a mysterious group who's purpose is to guarantee
that people who don't want to become Servants don't. They succeed more
often than Resurrection, Inc. would like, but nobody can find them.
If this sounds like a horror novel, you're close. There are a number of
strong horror elements in Resurrection, Inc. but this is definitely a
Science Fiction novel. The dead are raised with technology, not magic,
and the problems are those of a near-future dystopia.
All this is the background for the story of Danal, killed by the
Neo-Satanists and raised by Resurrection, Inc. to be the Servant of the
head of the Neo-Satanists. Something went wrong in the resurrection
process, and Danal has access to memories of his past life -- something
that normally can't happen. We follow him as he searches for his past
and as he tries to understand his connections with the Neo-Satanists.
There's a lot in this book; more complications than I can even start to
discuss without ruining everything. Anderson sends out the various
subplots to the four winds, but keeps control of them and brings them
back together for the climax quite nicely. He's got a strong sense of
dialogue and character, and throws in enough detail to make the world
he's writing about come to life and mean something to you.
The book isn't flawless. His science is somewhat simplistic, and his
sociology is naive, which hurts the impact of the book. He bases an
important part of the book on an unrealistic restriction that will be
hard to swallow for many readers -- it tossed me out of the book when I
ran into it. I gave him the benefit of the doubt on it and plunged back
in, and I wasn't disappointed -- it's a serious flaw, but not a fatal
one, and it is the only serious problem with the book.
This is a Anderson's first novel, and it's a good start by a promising
writer. It will appeal to both Horror readers and Science Fiction
readers (even SF readers who don't like horror) because it successfully
melds the best of both genres. This is a book worth your time.
Silk Roads and Shadows
Evil is afoot in Byzantium; someone has poisoned the silk worms. If
something isn't done to replace them, the empire may not survive. This
sets the scene for Alexandra, of royal blood, to start the long trek
across the silk roads to the east in search of silkworms for the crown.
This is the setup for Susan Shwartz' latest, Silk Road and Shadows.
The trail leads from Byzantium through the lands of Tibet, leading
finally, after many altercations, to China and the worms. Along the
way, Alexandra is marked for travel along the Diamond Path -- the
legendary trails to Shambhala. The book sidesteps into eastern
mysticism and self-discovery, with the original quest, the worms,
always present but somehow on hold.
Shwartz is a very good story-teller, and this is a good story. The
problems with the book are related to there being so much inside the
covers -- a little too much, in my eyes. She's trying to give you a
realistic glimpse of three very different, complex cultures and tell a
number of stories, all at the same time. She almost pulls it off --
enough so that I recommend the book without question. But I think it
would have been better to narrow the scope somewhat, and perhaps split
this into two different, related stories: the search for the worms and
the Tibetan adventures. Both almost stand apart from each other
already, and the entire book suffers somewhat because each sub-plot
deserves the focus, but neither is allowed to keep it.
When Gravity Fails
I used to know what I was going to vote on for the Hugo this year (my
personal favorite, Pat Murphy's The Falling Woman, didn't make the
ballot, but it did win a Nebula, which is some consolation, I guess). I
was voting for Gene Wolfe's Urth of the New Sun. I read it coming back
from Worldcon last year, and nothing I've seen has come close to it in
style, substance, and quality since then.
I always read the other finalists, but this year it was just going to
be a formality, you understand. To be fair. And then I'd vote for Wolfe.
Then I read George Alec Effinger's When Gravity Fails, and I started to
worry. It's good. It's very good.
It's not really Science Fiction, but we can give him the benefit of the
doubt. What When Gravity Fails is is a murder mystery set in an Arab
ghetto. The lead character is an Arab, a loner, a drug addict. All of
the people around him are the Arab scum you would expect to see in an
Arabian ghetto.
These really are Arab scum, not generic scum with Arab names. Everyone
in the book, from the non-protagonist down, are very real, very nasty
people. It's hard to find anyone you wouldn't want to take out and
shoot. Finding a sympathetic character? Forget it.
The book has rather obvious cyberpunk edges. It's a near future world,
with plastic money and designer drugs and computer implants in your
skull. But beyond that, not much has changed. The drugs will still kill
you, the prostitutes rob you, the drinks will be watered, and the
flophouses dirty and stale.
Effinger builds an environment that could be any ghetto in any city in
any town of the world, but he then takes it one step farther and brings
it alive. These aren't just generic thugs in Anywhere, USA, but real,
honest to God Arab thugs, in a squalid dump in the desert, trying to
get by. The sense of detail, the structure built up and the
characterizations create a vividness that goes beyond normal fiction.
I won't say much about the plot, because to talk about a mystery makes
it easy to say too much, and I don't want to ruin this one for you.
Under normal years, my vote for the Hugo would be simple -- I'd vote
for When Gravity Fails. But....
The Forge of God
As soon as I finished When Gravity Fails, I picked up The Forge of God
by Greg Bear. It's an Aliens-Are-Coming-to-Destroy-Earth novel.
Well, maybe. Perhaps the aliens are coming to help mankind. Or perhaps
there are one set of aliens trying to destroy earth, and one trying to
save it.
The opening of the book is one of the most pastoral, humane, and truly
nice narratives on being a family that I ve ever seen. I was starting
to look for Norman Rockwell's painting of it, it was so Nice and
Sugary. You're not supposed to do that with openings, trailing off into
pleasantries and trivialities. You're supposed to hook the reader, get
them going, get them to turn that first page.
And then the phone rang, and I realized that Bear had me, hook, line,
and sinker. Because he's set up the perfect family, the perfect life,
the perfect universe. And that one phone call is going to bring it all
to an end. In the hands of most writers, this opening would have been
boring or ineffectual. Bear, however, was in complete control the whole
time, and by opening with a master's gambit and pulling it off, builds
in a sense of horror that makes the entire book sing.
Europa's disappeared, without a trace. Next thing you know, they've
found aliens in Death Valley and Australia. Tthe two aliens are saying
completely different and contradictory things. The end is coming. Or
maybe salvation? Or neither -- could this be a hoax?
There are only so many ways an "end of the world" story can end. The
world dies, the world lives. Or the world dies but we aren't there.
Bear concentrates on the people and the world -- the society and
psychology of an entire planet lurching into possible darkness. In the
past, many who have done the same have prophesied madness, social
collapse, bacchanalia, the worst of man's sins unleashed, almost as
though they are "proving" mankind deserves to die. Bear's end is
different, calm, almost melancholy. From a number of places, viewing a
number of people, you see people get ready.
The Forge of God is Hard SF, but it's also a very strong book about
people, attitudes, and a very positive look at humanity as a species
and culture when it's somewhat in fashion to view ourselves in a
negative way. And despite the fact that he really does blow up the
earth in the end (which I hope isn't too much of a spoiler for folks)
his tale is generally positive, with an ending that is hopeful without
being sappy or contrived.
And Bear is the first author I've seen who has tackled the problem of
"if there ARE other lifeforms out there, why haven't we heard them?"
(also known as the SETI Lament) - - and does so logically and in a way
that is so Right (by Occam's Razor) that I wonder if I ought to be worried.
And now, I find myself with an exceptionally unenviable choice. Three
works, any one of which would demand a Hugo in an average year, and I
have no idea how I'm going to vote. Because I'd hate to slight the
other two. I'm leaning towards the Bear book because it's the most
mainline Science Fiction book of the three, as well as the most
original use of a standard SF theme I've run into in a long time.
If it were up to me, I'd award three Hugos -- simply because awards
that use arbitrary time slots every so often run into this situation:
really good books that are going to lose because they happen to run
head-on into someone else's really good book. Everyone can't win, but
in this race, nobody is a loser.
Terry's Universe
I'm not going to mince words. You are going to go out and buy this
book. Why? For starters, this is the way many people are saying goodbye
to Terry Carr, a man who was one of the top SF editors in the field.
It's also a way for them to acknowledge the debt they have for the man
and what he did for the field and their careers.
Not convinced? This book is also a benefit. All proceeds have been donated
to Terry's widow to cover medical experiences. None of the authors are
getting paid for the stories, or taking any royalties. All of the
stories are new, and won't be reprinted anywhere else anytime soon.
Still not convinced? Well, this is one kick-ass anthology. There are
going to be award winning stories coming from this book. Terry's
Universe does not have a weak story in it, or even a merely good one.
What it does have, though, are new pieces by Robert Silverberg (my
personal favorite of the anthology, "House of Bones"), Ursula K.
LeGuin, a new Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser story by Fritz Leiber, Kate
Wilhelm, Carter Scholz, Michael Swanwick, R.A. Lafferty, Kim Stanley
Robinson, Roger Zelazny, Gene Wolfe, Greg Benford (a story related to
Great Sky River) and what is considered Terry Carr's best short work,
"The Dance of the Changer at the End of Time."
All of these folks are power-hitters in the industry. All of these
folks wrote killer stories to help remember Terry. You're going to miss
some exceptional fiction if you skip this book, and you'll regret it later.
Go buy Terry's Universe. You won't regret it. In fact, do it now. I'll wait.
Tool of the Trade
Joe Haldeman writes gritty, realistic Science Fiction. His work The
Forever War took a post-Vietnam look Heinlein's Starship Troopers and
in many ways redefined War in Science Fiction. His newest work, Tool of
the Trade, is a very near-future version action- packed spy thriller.
Nick's a mole, a Russia spy left hibernating inside the United States
until they need him. But Nick has gotten used to the U.S. over the
years, and isn't really sure that he wants to be activate. But now the
C.I.A. is onto him, trying to force him into being a double agent.
And Nick has this Thing, this ability to make anybody do anything he
wants them to, as long as he gets within hearing range. Neither the
U.S. or Russia knows this exist, and the one thing Nick is sure of is
that he wants to keep it that way.
Both sides figure out he's up to something, and mobilize. Nick cuts and
runs, and we start a globe hopping chase as both sides stalk each
other; the agencies trying to shut him down before he does anything,
Nick trying to get himself out of the whole mess and reach his ultimate
goal before he's stopped.
What goal? That would be telling. But if you had a Thing that made
anyone, absolutely anyone, do your bidding, what would you do with it?"
I think Tool of the Trade is Haldeman's best work since The Forever
War. I was up extremely late three nights running trying to finish it
because it refused to let me go. Haldeman's twisting of the standard
"individual fighting against the state" plot is fascinating. His
protagonist isn't the clean-cut goody-goody man authors use, he's a
spy, a willing killer, and yet still a person with morals. Using this
to counterpoint the bureaucratic nastiness of the spy organizations
simply makes the comparisons that more powerful. This one is highly
recommended, but don't take it to bed with you.
A Brief History of Time:
From the Big Bang to Black Holes
If you've ever tried to understand the leading edges of physics, but
been completely overwhelmed by the jargon and math, there is finally a
work that is aimed at those of us without advanced degrees. Better yet,
it's from the person generally acknowledged to be at the forefront of
theoretical physics, Stephen Hawking. It's fascinating to watch his mind
at work, as he explains, in a technical but understandable format, how
ideas are developed, fleshed out, presented, and sometimes thrown away.
There's essentially no theory or math in A Brief History of Time: From
the Big Bang to Black Holes -- the only formula in the book is
Einstein's E=MC^^2. Hawking here is not prove, but to explain, and he
does a very fine job of it. A definite must for anyone interested in
science from a layman point of view.
The Year's Best Science Fiction
Fifth Annual Collection
The 1988 Annual World's Best SF
It's June, which means it is time for the annual parade of the
anthologies of the "best" things of the year. Frankly, it's hard to go
wrong with these books. A lot of it depends on what you're looking for.
These two books are representative. The Year's Best SF, edited by Isaac
Asimov's SF Magazine editor Gardner Dozois, attempts to collect
everything good in the year. This year, he has 28 stories and about
250,000 words in a huge trade paperback. Wollheim's Annual World's Best
is a much smaller, mass market paperback with nine stories. Between the
two, five stories are shared, as well as six authors (Dozois and
Wollheim choose different Lucius Shepard stories -- these collections
somewhat arbitrarily limit themselves to a single author, probably to
keep themselves from becoming the "best short fiction of Lucius Shepard
of the year" anthologies).
There's enough difference between the two books that in a perfect
world, readers would buy both, take the Wollheim book with them to read
on the train and come home to snuggle up with Dozois before the fire.
Since this isn't a perfect world and budgets rarely stretch far enough,
which book you buy should really depend on your reading habits. If you
want something transportable, or are interested in the highlights of
the year, pick up the Wollheim book. If you want more stories, as well
as Gardner's look back at last year and a final list of honorable
mentions, then pick up the bigger work, but don't expect to stick it in
your jacket pocket. Neither is "best" but both are good representations
of what the "best" was in 1987.
Briefly noted
Briefly noted, some books that I've mentioned before that I think
deserve a quick comment. Kiteworld, by British author Keith Roberts, is
now in paperback. It's published as a Science Fiction novel; I would
claim it instead to be Fantasy, but it should please readers of either
genre. What Roberts has done is build a world that extremely vivid and
real, pushing the fantastic elements so far into the background that
the book becomes, not a Science Fiction work about the world, but a
mainstream work published in the world. It's fascinating, and worth an
effort to find.
Ben Bova's The Starcrossed, a thinly veiled (and extremely funny)
novelization of his life and times as Science Advisor on the
short-lived Canadian television series The Starlost. Trying to describe
this novel is impossible, you have to read it to believe it.
Especially fun is trying to figure out which parts are real and which
are made up, and picking out the various real people under their new,
fictional names.
Finally, To Sail Beyond the Sunset, by Robert A. Heinlein. Now out in
paperback from Ace, and if not his best work, very close to it. It felt
to me that he was very carefully and very lovingly saying goodbye. It
turns out that he was. And I feel, very strongly, that this is one of
the books he will be proud to be remembered by.
OtherRealms #21
Summer, 1988
Copyright 1988
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 not be reproduced in any form without written
permission from Chuq Von Rospach. The electronic edition may be
distributed or reproduced in its entirety as long as all copyrights,
author and publication information remain intact.
No article may be reprinted, reproduced or republished in any way
without the express permission of the author.
