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OtherRealms Issue 20 Part 11
Electronic OtherRealms #20
Spring, 1988
Part 11
Words of Wizdom
Reviews by
Chuq Von Rospach
Copyright 1988 by Chuq Von Rospach
Reviewed in this issue
Taltos [***+]
by Steven Brust
Ace Fantasy, March, 1988, 181pp, $2.95, 0-441-18200-3
Great Sky River [****+]
by Gregory Benford
Bantam/Spectra, 326pp, December, 1987
$17.95, 0-553-05238-1
First Flight [***+]
by Chris Claremont
Ace Science Fiction, 243pp, December, 1987
$2.95, 0-441-23584-0
The Kindly Ones [****+]
by Melissa Scott
Baen Science Fiction, 371pp,
September, 1987, $2.95, 0-671-65351-2.
The Dark Lady, A Romance of the Far Future [***]
by Mike Resnick
Tor Science Fiction, 279pp, November, 1987
$3.50, 0-812-55116-8
Jack the Giant Killer [***+]
By Charles de Lint
Ace Fantasy, 202pp, November, 1987,
$16.95, 0-441-37969-9
New Destinies, Volume III [***+]
Edited by Jim Baen
Baen Science Fiction, 273pp, February, 1988,
$3.50, 0-671-65385-7
The Masks of Time
Born with the Dead
Dying Inside [*****]
by Robert Silverberg
Bantam Spectra, 561pp, April, 1988, $4.95, 0-553-27286-1
Buck Godot: PSmith [****]
by Phil Foglio
Starblaze Graphics, 72pp, December, 1987,
$7.95, 0-89865-459-9
Taltos
Steven Brust is one of the few writers that is invariably moved to the
front of my reading list. The reason for this is that he's a great
writer and he's never disappointed. Taltos, the fourth book in the
series about Vlad Taltos, paid assassin, is no exception.
Taltos is actually the first book in the timeline, and tells about the
time when Vlad is setting up shop and how he meets Sethra Lavode, the
vampire of Dzur mountain. Within the pages, he spends a lot of time
trying to not get killed while tracking down the future leader of the
Draegaeran's, who, it happens, is currently living in the Land of the Dead.
This book, unlike the previous, very somber and emotionally charged
Teckla, is much closer to the first books in the series with a
lightning paced plot and a strong subtext of black, almost gallows,
humor. Vlad's attitude seems to be that he expects to die at any
moment, so he's not going to let it bother him; it's also never very
far from his mind, though.
I found Taltos to be primarily an entertainment book. Teckla, and to a
lesser degree the other books in the series, had Messages and Heavy
Thoughts attached. Taltos, on the other hand, is primarily a fun,
enjoyable read. There isn't a lot of depth, but it makes for a very
fine afternoon.
Great Sky River
Greg Benford writing Cyberpunk? No, although I'm sure someone will try
to add Great Sky River into the camp. Because this latest novel from
the Hard SF Maestro is much more than just Hard SF, and because this is
a book that any movement would want to have attributed to it.
Great Sky River is set in the far future of the universe of Across the
Sea of Suns and In the Ocean of Night. The great battle between the
machines and the humans has been fought.
The machines won.
The novel is a story of survival, of the remnants of a family unit
making their way across the face of Snowglade, not with any hopes of
getting somewhere, but simply to stay ahead of destruction. The mechs,
sentient robots, have taken Snowglade and the remnants of the
civilization are slowly being exterminated.
This book is a real downer. It is also probably the best book Benford
has ever written. Here he's taken a strong Hard SF novel and used it as
the skeleton for an emotionally overpowering study of a group of once
dominant people who are losing the only thing left to them: hope.
My only complaint with the book is the ending, which simply seems to
fade away as Benford tries to install a (somewhat artificial and
forced) message of Hope Trancendent, giving the humans a pyrrhic
victory that looks good, but in the end doesn't really mean anything
(but on the other hand, if he'd let the book end on a downer, I don't
know if the book would have been tolerable; it would have likely been
too depressing. So you can't win, either way).
Regardless of your reading preferences, Hard or Soft, Techie or Psyche,
this book should be on your must read list. Benford has proven that
he's not only the master of Nuts&Bolts SF, but of the written word.
First Flight
First Flight is a first novel by long time comic writer Chris
Claremont. It's an auspicious start, as Claremont writes a fascinating
action adventure yarn. Claremont's attitude seems to be that if you
can't figure out what else to do, throw something nasty at the protagonist,
which keeps the book moving at an almost hypersonic speed.
Nicole Shea is a space jockey, a pilot going on her first flight. As
usual, the rookie trip is a milk run, designed to give a new pilot
experience without a lot of risk.
Some milk run. After she's attacked by pirates, loses most of her crew,
and is left streaking for the outer planets in a powerless spacecraft,
it starts getting interesting.
It's about then the aliens show up, you see.
If this had been written humorously, I'd be comparing it to a
Gilbert&Sullivan play, since the action is that complicated. But
Claremont plays it straight and pulls it off -- it's not slapstick,
this is a spacer's greatest nightmare come true.
There's a gritty realism here I like. About the only thing I didn't
like was the sex, which seemed contrived, artificial, and sort of
wedged into the story in an unrealistic, mainstream-fiction sort of
way. Fortunately, it isn't overdone, but I got the feeling it was in
the book because Claremont felt like putting it there rather than
growing naturally from the story.
All in all, though, it's a successful, interesting book. And while
Claremont is working on a sequel, this book stands very well on its
own. As well thought of as Claremont is in comics, I'm glad to see him
stretching his wings and spending some time on our turf as well.
The Kindly Ones
Melissa covered this book in depth in last issue's Behind The Scenes. I
hadn't gotten a chance to read it prior to setting up that article, so
I was looking forward to comparing my reactions to the story to
Melissa's expectations in the article.
I'm happy to note that The Kindly Ones is by far Scott's best book
yet. For those that missed last issue, it is about a culture on a
cusp, as a series of actions occur that will irrevocably change it in
ways nobody understands or can really predict. Orestes is based on an
extreme set of honor codes in a strict and rigid society, an extreme
form of the Japanese Bushido. These are starting to break down due to
both internal and external influences, and the story is told from
various viewpoints that allow a close look at the tears in the fabric.
It's a complicated plot with a fairly large cast of characters and a
number of different viewpoints. Melissa covers the ground surely and
quite successfully. The Kindly Ones will give you material to chew on
long after the book itself is finished. Highly recommended.
The Dark Lady
I've decided that Mike Resnick refuses to re-use ideas. The last book
of his I read, Stalking the Unicorn, was a light, almost farcical hard
boiled detective thriller. The Dark Lady, however, is an intense, brooding
piece that ultimately calls into question the definition of humanity.
It seems that there is a timeless woman, someone who has been seen
across the Universe, throughout time. Some people who see her are
motivated to trying to reproduce her through art; most who see her,
however, die a short time later. Is she real? Is she a Fantasy? And if
so, how can so many people through so many cultures see the same woman?
She is the Dark Lady, and her face shines out from paintings across the
centuries.
Leonardo, of the house of Crsthionn, is an alien in the midst of a
Xenophobic humanity. He's also one of the top experts in the field of
human art, and when a second rate piece goes for a large sum at
auction, he investigates. The painting is one of the Dark Lady, and he
is ultimately hired to search out other instances of her throughout
time and acquire them for his employer. Leonardo travels around human
space, which ultimately leads him into a philosophical search for his
own humanity.
The Dark Lady is another fine book from Resnick, who turns out
consistently good work. About the only thing you can be sure of them,
however, is that they'll be very different from each other. In an age
of trilogies, ninety book series and multi-book sagas, I find an author
that is interested in researching and writing different material each
time to be refreshing and encouraging. You may not know what's coming
from him next, but you will know that it's good.
Jack, the Giant Killer
Jack, the Giant Killer is the second book in Armadillo Press' Fairy
Tale series, published and distributed by Ace. Because of shakeup's at
Armadillo, this may well be the final book, which would be a pity
because this series, re-telling classic fairy tales for adults, is a
real joy. And while this book is written by Charles de Lint, who just
happens to be a Contributing Editor for OtherRealms, I'm going to talk
about it anyway, conflict of interest or no, because it's a really good
book that deserves to be talked about.
A couple of issues ago I raved about Emma Bull's first novel, War for
the Oaks. In Jack, we have a rare but fascinating case of parallel
development. You could almost believe that Bull and de Lint started
out with the same set of notes and went out to write the same story
their own way. Here, the Good and Evil sides of Fairie are fighting for
Ottawa. Into the midst of the struggle stumbles Jacky Rowan, who joins
the cause for Good.
The parallels between this book and Bull's are stunning. Both have
taken on the task of merging a traditional Fantasy element into a
contemporary reality by allowing an outsider a glimpse into Fairie and
giving them a Cause. There are significant differences as well. Bull's
warfare and violence are ritualized and stylized, while de Lint has a
straightforward, gritty reality. Bull's bad folks are to some degree
archetypes, the necessary force that Opposes Good. For all that they're
bad people, you get the feeling they're doing it because that's what
they're supposed to be doing.
The baddies in Jack, though, are really nasty. They like being evil.
They're mean, ugly, smelly, sadistic beings who are in it for the ego
and the power, which makes Jacky's ultimate success (definitely not
pre-ordained, and by the skin of her teeth) that much more enjoyable.
Bull's bad Fairies deserved to lose. de Lint's deserved to die.
I'm personally very glad I don't have to choose which one I prefer.
They're both really good books. And, if you think about it, what these
two books really show is that good, strong, contemporary Fantasy is on
the upswing. If you're tired of generic Celtic historical fantasy clones
like I am, that's something to cheer for and encourage. And this is a
good book to pick up if you haven't tasted contemporary fantasy yet.
New Destinies
New Destinies is a quarterly SF-Magazine-In-A-Book, a format created a
number of years ago by Jim Baen at Ace Books with Destinies. The
thought, of course, is to make the SF Magazine available to book
readers, since many people who read SF novels don't read the magazines.
This edition features fiction by Larry Niven, Dean Ing, and Dafydd ab
Hugh as well as fact and opinion pieces by Jim Baen, Charles Sheffield
and Hans Moravec.
This is by far the weakest issue for fiction I've read in a while. Both
the Niven and the Ing piece are scheduled to be published in other Baen
anthologies later this year, and the ab Hugh piece is unremarkable. You
could skip New Destinies completely and not miss much.
Except for Charles Sheffield. Sheffield's fact piece this issue is on
high-temperature super-conductors, and he's got the subject down cold
(sorry, couldn't resist). He's been doing fact pieces for New Destinies
for a while, and my respect for him as a writer who can take very
complex and esoteric subjects and making them understandable and
accessible by folks who aren't trained to understand them. If you can
imagine someone taking article with the complexity reserved for Analog
fact articles and writing them in a semi-Asimovian, very accessible and
open style you've got a feel for what Sheffield is doing. And while
Asimov discusses limited factual areas with limited general interest,
Sheffield gets down into the guts of things that are happening and
important today -- last volume, for instance, he did a very critical
analysis of the space program that I found to be both to the point and
very depressing.
Sheffield doesn't mince words, and he doesn't hide behind jargon. As a
populizer of science, something that Asimov's done successfully over
the years (and which others, like Carl Sagan, had mixed success at)
he's very good, better, in fact, than Asimov is these days. I'm reading
New Destinies just for him, and happy to seem him have a forum where he
can write about whatever seems to deserve being written about.
Hopefully, someone will notice his articles and put them in their own
collection someday, so they can get the attention they deserve.
If you buy New Destinies just for Sheffield, you won't be
disappointed. And normally, the fiction is stronger than it is in
Volume III, which is just an added bonus.
Dying Inside
Bantam is putting some of Robert Silverberg's long out-of-print novels
back into print in omnibus editions. The first contains three novels from
the Seventies, The Masks of Time, Born with the Dead, and Dying Inside.
Even though I don't normally review reprints, I'm bringing this to your
attention because of Dying Inside, a book that I feel is Silverberg's
best novel, and a book that I push on unsuspecting people at every possibility.
Be warned. This is not a fun read. It's a very grim book. But having a
happy ending isn't a prerequisite for a good book. It's the story of
David Selig, a telepath who never comes to grip with his special
powers, and what happens to him when he realizes his power is deserting
him. Even though he never came to grip with his capabilities, it is the
single thing that defines what he is, and losing it causes him to lose
everything he is. This is, ultimately, a character study of failure
and dissolution, emotionally overpowering and unrelentingly depressing.
but it's also a very real look at the side of a power most authors take
for granted (you always thought that being a telepath would be fun?) or
avoid the side effects of.
With all the new books published every year, I rarely find time to re-
read anything these days. Dying Inside is one of the two books I make
sure I find a way to read every year or so. The Lord of the Rings is
the other. I don't think I can make a stronger recommendation than
that. Buy this book. Be prepared to be depressed. It's worth it.
Buck Godot:
PSmith
I'm not really sure how to explain Buck Godot. Phil Foglio has put
together a 72 page color graphic novel (in many ways a comic book with a
pituitary condition) about Buck Godot, bounty hunter. What Buck is about
and how Foglio makes it all work is beyond description -- Foglio reminds
me of the late Randall Garrett, a very strange, warped and funny sense of
humor that keeps you trying to decide if you want to laugh or groan. I did a
lot of both. If you like a giggle with your SF, track down Buck Godot.
Stallion Gate
Martin Cruz Smith
Random House, 1986, 321pp, $17.95
Reviewed by
Kevin J. Anderson
Copyright 1988 by Chuq Von Rospach
Stallion Gate, by Martin Cruz Smith, is a novel of peripheral, but
vital, interest to science fiction readers. What event could have been
as incredibly influential on the genre as the explosion of the first
atomic bomb? Back in 1944, Cleve Cartmill's short story "Deadline" got
him slapped with an immediate CIA investigation because he had
unwittingly built his story around the Army's most Classified secret.
Stallion Gate is a thriller based on the real events behind the Trinity
test, the establishment of the secret town of Los Alamos in northern
New Mexico, the greatest scientists gathered from across the Allied
world in order to create a futuristic weapon that would end the war.
"By December 1944, five thousand people were crammed onto the mesa and
in the dark without streetlamps because the Army was still trying to
hide its most secret project." Making a thriller out of real events is
sometimes the only way to force a bit of history down the throats of
the public. On the basis of Nightwing, Martin Cruz Smith is no stranger
to the fantastic genres, and with the superb Gorky Park, he showed that
he can construct a fine, complex, moving, and detailed story. Smith
spent about five years researching and writing this book.
Stallion Gate is a historical tale that centers around the usual
fictional observer who always happens to be in the right place at the
right time to watch history as it takes place. In this case, our
observer is Joe Pena, an Army Sergeant who is also an Indian. J. Robert
Oppenheimer, Edward Teller, Enrico Fermi, General Groves -- all the
historical figures are here, and they are real characters (especially
Oppenheimer) rather than just cameo appearances as in a John Jakes
book. Unfortunately, Smith assumes his readers already know the
background detail and doesn't spend a great deal of time putting things
into context.
A bigger flaw, though, is the actual perspective of the book itself.
Some of the events behind the development of the first atomic bomb are
really just disconnected highlights. The storyline is disjointed,
scattered, with a lot of talk and a lot of character interaction, a
good dose of sex here and there (gotta aim for those bestseller lists,
you know!) -- but not much happens. The prose is lean, and often devoid
of real description so that scenes seem to be set in a vacuum. Every
few chapters or so we are treated to a gratuitous shoot-out or some
rather absurd "spy stuff"; the book does have a good climax, but a
too-abrupt ending. The actual historical events are more like
peripheral happenings in Stallion Gate, things occurring in the
background while the author is doing a character sketch. This novel is
more the story of an Army-ized Indian trying to "find himself" rather
than the historical epic the promotional copy led me to expect.
I've been to Los Alamos half a dozen times. I've been inside the lab
buildings where much of the historical Manhattan Project work took
place. I really wanted to like this book, and it's difficult for
someone to make the subject boring. I'm glad someone finally
fictionalized the story, but Smith could have done so much better!
Maybe someone else will.
OtherRealms #20
Spring, 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 of 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 individual article may be reprinted, reproduced or
republished in any way without the express permission of the author.
OtherRealms is published quarterly (March, June, September and December) by:
Chuq Von Rospach
35111-F Newark Blvd.
Suite 255
Newark, CA 94560.
Usenet: chuq@sun.COM
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