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OtherRealms Issue 20 Part 12
Electronic OtherRealms #20
Spring, 1988
Part 12
No Prisoners!
Reviews by
Laurie Sefton
Copyright 1988 by Laurie Sefton
Reviewed in this Issue
Cyteen [*****]
by C.J. Cherryh
Warner Books, 688pp, $18.95, May, 1988, 0-446-51428
P=G+E
Expressed phenotype is the result of the genotype and the environmental
influence. A simple equation that tries to explain a complicated issue.
Perhaps a better way of writing this equation would be:
P= pG+qE
Where p+q=1.0. The "p" part of this equation is often referred to as
the "heritability" of a specific phenotype, the percentage of
expression that can be accounted for soley by genetic material. For
example, the heritability of the specific gravity of a white potato is
0.7. So the specific gravity of any given white potato is due to 70%
genetic and 30% environmental influence.
It's easy to determine the specific gravity of a white potato. In
humans, it's also fairly easy to approximate the heritability of
something like red hair or blue eyes. Note that I said "approximate."
The environment has a nasty habit of throwing biological monkey
wrenches into the works. So when we move away from traits like red hair
and blue eyes, and move into expresed intelligence, environment starts
to play a much larger role. If we wanted a human being with an
expressed intelligence in the 99% percentile, and an overriding
interest in genetics, we'd have to have complete control of the
environment -- if we knew what that environment was.
This is one of the issues addressed in C.J. Cherryh's latest book,
Cyteen. Cyteen is the home of Reseune, which produces phenotypes to
order. Reseune is the home of Ariane Emory. Ariane Emory is a
brilliant geneticist, a genius at producing "tapes", the environment
that produces the phenotypes from the genotypes, a consummate
politician, an iron-willed director, and a cold hearted cynical bitch.
Just as the "tapes" control the "azi", the human product of her
laboratories, does she control her underlings. She is admired, feared
and loathed by those beneath her.
Enter Jordan, Justin and Grant. Justin is the parental replicate of
Jordan, both are gifted developmental psychologists. Grant is an "azi"
brother of Justin, taken from the same genetic material as Justin,
given a few genetic tweaks to keep him from being a perfect replicate,
and subjected to the immediate conditioning that all "azi's undergo
from birth. "Azi"s may range in intelligence and abilities; after all,
you don't want a soldier as a cook. But they are all alike in one
regard; they need the constant reassurance of their "citizen" keepers.
They have little to no creativity beyond what has been "programmed"
into them. "Azi"s are the ultimate progeny of Brave New World.
Jordan, Justin and Grant find themselves entangled in Ariane's web of
threats, bribes, and blackmail. Ultimately, Justin and Grant have
nervous breakdowns, and Jordan is sent into exile for Ariane's murder.
This is not the end of the book -- this all occurs in the first fifth
of the book. Now the fun begins. Reseune, and the whole of Cyteen have
a political structure that falls somewhere in between the Daley
democratic machine in Chicago and Byzantine Constantinople. The loss of
Ariane Emory would be political suicide for Reseune, so Reseune
recreates Ariane; this time with a slightly more tractable nature --
they hope.
The rest of the book parallels the development of young Ariane with the
development of Grant and Justin. Ariane as she moves through a pre-arranged
environment, including the cloning, training and introduction of her
"azi" bodyguards; and Grant and Justin and they both move away from
their "programming" -- Grant as an "azi" and Justin as his genetic father's
replicate. In addition to this are the sidelights of political dealing,
and the nagging reports of a "lost" azi/citizen colony; who, being
found after 70 years are longer discernable as azi or citizen. They're
simply human. Add this to the revelation that pehaps Jordan didn't kill
the original Ariane Emory, and you have a multi-dimensional epic.
Cyteen is neither a quick nor easy read; Cherryh has included so many
subplots and tangential plotlines that I had to pay close attention ot
the book to keep from missing an important point. It is also a
disturbing book; the azi's are treated with no more regard to their
inherent humanity than one would treat a highly excitable thoroughbred
horse. While their intelligence and abilities meet and exceed those of
their citizen "keepers," they are nothing more than expensive lab
animals. They are the ultimate differentiation of a slave class; they
are the same sex, race, and species of their captors. Their only
difference is in their developmental environment.
Cyteen is a thought-provoking study of society as well as one of the
best science fictions novels of the year. Don't wait for this one to
come out in paperback -- you won't be disappointed.
Letters to OtherRealms
The Kindly Ones
Melissa Scott
Boston, MA
I'd like to correct a problem with the Science Fiction Book Club
edition of my novel The Kindly Ones. Due to an error of
miscommunications, both the publicity flyer and the dust jacket of the
Book club Edition -- and most recently the nomination notice for the
Book Club's book fo the year award -- refer the to novel's narrator,
Trey maturin, as "she." I did not specify Maturin's gender at any poing
in the book, nor do I wish to do so. Rather, I intended to leave that
decision to each individual reader, in the hope that this would allow
people to examine the reasons behind their assumptions.
Marooned
in Realtime typo
Wayne A. Throop
dg-rtp!throopw@mcnc.org
There appear to be two errors in the electronic OtherRealms version of
my review of Marooned in Realtime.
First, I mistakenly separated "realtime" into two words, which Vinge
did not. I thought I had sent you a correction, but my archives show no
trace of this, sigh. Sorry about that.
Second, the paragraph about how Wil feels about Marta's death (the one
concluding "Someone must die for this") was indented in the original
version I sent you, because it was a quotation from the book. The
format of the electronic version obscures this point, and I wouldn't
want to appear to claim Vinge's text as mine.
-- To err is human
-- to blame the other guy is even more human.
-- Solomon Short
(quoted by David Gerrold)
Well, one small,
sort of, nit
Tom Galloway
GALLOWAY@CLSEPF51.BITNET
Oops. There is one small not-quite-a-nit. In Dan'l's review of Bova's
Kinsman, he notes that a) he hasn't read the 1976 Millennium which
makes up a good part of the book, and b) Kinsman is heavily SDI propagandized.
Well, I haven't read Kinsman yet, since I refuse to pay hardcover
prices for something with a binding like that used by the SFBC, so I
don't know if the book really plays up SDI propaganda. But in
Millennium, the SDI concept of laser satellites played a major and
prominent role in the book. And as noted, this was published by in
1976, when SDI was definitely not a political issue.
[Dan'l Replies: True...but it most certainly was not called
"SDI" at that time, as it is from early in "Kinsman" in The
Kinsman Saga. I presume this to be a revision from the
original editions of the books, as it would have been simply
impossible (excepting the microscopic chance of Bova happening
to use a term which Reagan would later "invent"). There is no
particular plot reason to be calling the project "SDI"; I
conclude that Bova made the change to align the books with
modern SDI propaganda/terminology.]
Availability of books
Fred Bals
bals@nutmeg.dec.com
Although I support the idea of a quarterly rather than monthly
OtherRealms for all the reasons we've discussed and which you cite,
I'll note one problem that I've run into. Alan's review of Steakley's
Armor sparked my interest enough to search out the book. I can't find
it anywhere. Now, admittedly, southern New Hampshire isn't a cultural
center at least as sf isn't concerned, but we do have a couple of
decent chains with well-stocked sf shelves. But I suspect that a first
novel by an unknown writer with little or no publicity attached to it
had a shelf life of only a few months at best. And that runs into the
second problem, which we've discussed before -- inconsistent publishing
info from your reviewers. Without the issue at hand, I'm pretty sure
that Alan didn't note the publication date of Armor (though he did list
ISBN and publisher). Anyway, I'm going to have to find out how long ago
Armor was issued, and then see if any of the specialty shops in the
Boston area still have it. But I won't be surprised if they don't --
especially if the book was issued a year or more ago.
So, two problems: One, as you acknowledge, is the lag time between a
book's issuance and its review in OtherRealms. The problem is
exacerbated when the review is of a lesser-known work, the acknowledged
area you want your reviewers to concentrate upon. By the time a
respective issue of OtherRealms appears, it's not beyond the realm of
possibility that the book has disappeared, as seems to have happened
with Armor. I don't anything that can be done about this. Perhaps as
your reputation among publishers grows, you'll have enough
pre-publication copies in to be able to beat this. But I think right
now it somewhat hampers the usefulness of OtherRealms for people who
want to find new reading material.
[The time lag is a real problem, and one that delayed the
switch to quarterly for a number of months. Unfortunately, the
reality of publishing and bookselling means that some books,
especially paperbacks, are gone. The Bay Area is blessed with
a number of good specialty stores with people are work hard at
keeping their stock up. Not everyone is that lucky, of course.
But given the limitations of my publishing schedule and the
realities of publishing, I'm not sure what to do about this.
One thing I'd recommend is tracking down a specialty store that
you can mail order from for those books that are impossible to
find otherwise. One store that I recommend for this would be
Change of Hobbit in Santa Monica, at (213) Great-SF. I'm sure
there are many others around the country. In fact, if you know
of a specialty store that has a strong stock and does mail
order, let me know (or better yet, have the store contact me)
and I'll give them a free plug. If I get enough of a response,
I'll put together a list of specialty shops for regular
publication in OtherRealms]
Second problem, which I think can be handled, is the inconsistent
publication info. This has improved from previous issues tremendously.
But I'd recommend -- and include me in this rule -- that you let your
reviewers know that you expect that all reviews include all the
standard publishing info and a rating based on your scale. If that
information isn't included, then the review will be automatically
rejected until it is. A few instances of you enforcing that rule, and I
think you won't have a problem.
[A lot of the missing information is coming from older reviews
that I've had stockpiled. They're cleaned out as of this issue,
and future reviews will have as complete publication
information as I can get. The minimum set I am going to require
from now on is Title, Author(s), Publisher and ISBN. I also
want to see publication (or copyright) dates, pages, and
cloth/paper/trade designation. I'll be supplementing this with
information out of the long delayed book index database when I
get it fully functional, since right now I don't have an easy
way to look up a book and get the missing information]
Let's see: I respect your opinion as always, but think you missed the
march on Watchmen (which is, btw, only Watchmen, not The Watchmen, sez
nit-picking Bals). You make a good point that Watchmen will probably
not fare very well in the Hugos due to its inacessability -- at least
as compared to The Dark Knight Returns. But I personally consider that
a failing on the part of sf fans, rather than on the work. Maus, for
instance, has done extremely well in the mainstream, even given that on
first glance it might appear to only be a "funny-animal" book. Would
that fandom could have as a collective open mind as the people they
label "mundanes."
Although I realize that your review of Watchmen was probably somewhat
constricted for space reasons, I think you do it a disservice by
implying that it's not much more than a parody of superhero
conventions. Nor do I think you need a familiarity with the Charlton
characters (or comic books as a whole, for that matter) in order to
follow the book In fact, in discussions about the series here at DEC, I
actually found that most people hadn't realized the Watchmen characters
were based on the Charlton heroes.
Rather than Watchmen parodying superheroes, I think what Moore does is
to realistically extrapolate what would happen if masked vigilantes and
at least one super-powered being actually existed. In many ways, as the
title's reference to the Juvenal quotation implies, Watchmen is a
cautionary tale in the best tradition of science fiction, dealing with
the dangers of absolution power and the ends justifying the means. I
still consider it the most impressive science fiction work I read
during 86-87.
You generated less of a furor than I expected from HHF #1. The general
consensus on the con seemed to follow your opinions, and indeed were
reflected by those DECcies who attended.
Not as a complaint, but as a matter of curiousity, what happened to the
paragraph breaks in my review of Mindplayers? Did they get stripped out
somehow, or did you eliminate them to get the review on one page? It
kinda made me appear to have been on speed when I wrote it (gee, gonzo
reviewing).
[Actually, I felt the Mindplayers review had that special,
cyberpunkish feel to it. Seriously, there was some kind of
computer glitch that I didn't catch until too late. MacDuff got
hungry and ate all the internal formatting of the piece during
layout, and by the time I noticed, the deed was done and I
couldn't go back to the source to see where the paragraph
markers were. Steps have been taken to make sure it doesn't
happen again, but with the wonders of modern day computers, I'm
sure something even more amusing will happen as soon as my
guard is down.]
Subscriptions
OtherRealms is available for the usual bribes and trades: a copy of
your zine, submissions, letters, comments or artwork. If you don't want
to be a part of OtherRealms, you can subscribe for one year (four
issues) for $8.50. A single issue is $2.50. OtherRealms is available
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People in the publishing industry can qualify for a free subscription.
Please contact me for details.
Electronic
OtherRealms
An electronic, text-only version of OtherRealms is available on many
different computer networks and bulletin boards.
On the ARPAnet, BITNET, CSNet and UUCP networks, send E-mail to
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to USENET, OtherRealms is available in rec.mag.otherrealms. It is also
available on the Delphi Timesharing service.
Submissions
OtherRealms publishes articles about book length Science Fiction and
Fantasy. The primary focus is reviews of books, especially the newer
and lesser known authors that might otherwise be missed in the crowded
shelves of your bookstore. Other material about books and the authors
that create them are welcome, including bibliographies and interviews.
Authors are invited to write articles for the Behind the Scenes series,
where the background and research that went into a book can be discussed.
Please query on interviews, Behind the Scenes articles, and longer
works. Reviews should be sent in their entirety. OtherRealms does not
publish poetry, fiction, movie or fannish material.
Submissions can be made either on a Macintosh or MS-DOS disk. With the
Mac, either text, MacWrite or Word files are fine. For MS-DOS, please
submit ascii readable disks.
Please include an envelope and return postage. If you ever want to see
your submission again, you need to post bail. Also, while I don't mind
multiple submissions, you need to tell me if something is going to
multiple markets. I take first serial rights unless we agree on
something else. Folks who forget these rules will find it hard to get
published in OtherRealms in the future.
You can also submit via the networks to either the account CHUQ on
Delphi or"chuq@sun.COM" on USENET.
Submission deadline is the 15th of the month prior to publication or
when I run out of room. Letter column deadline is the first of the
month of publication.
Publishing
News
OtherRealms is interested in publishing news about the happenings in
the field -- contracts, promotions, deals, sales, market needs. If
something has happened to you that you want the word to know about, I
want to know about it.
Art
I'm always in need of good genre art, from small clip-art pieces to
front and back covers. Anything with a genre flavor is welcome here! I
prefer reproductions and photocopies to originals.
Those
Funny Runes
The gobbledygook attached to the names of OtherRealms contributors are
addresses. Computers use them to figure out how to get to another
computer to pass along a message. If you don't understand them, don't
feel bad -- neither do many computers, and they're the experts. Believe
it or not, it does work. Most of the time.
The Details
OtherRealms is published using a Macintosh computer, a Laserwriter
Plus, Ready, Set, Go! 4.0, Microsoft Word 3.01, SuperPaint, and other
pieces of software. The body typeface is Palatino 10/11, the Headers use
Bookman Bold and Zapf Chancery in various sizes.
Is This Your
Last Issue?
The number on your mailing label is the issue your OtherRealms
subscription dies. Negative numbers indicate complimentary
subscriptions. If it is zero, this is the only issue you'll see untilI
decide to send you another (if you hate leaving things up to chance, do
something!). Don't wait for me to tell you to renew, do it today!
Rates will go up soon, thanks to the Post Office. Lock in current rates!
Book Ratings
in OtherRealms
All books are rated with the following guidelines. Most books
published should fall into the range [***-] to [***+]. Ratings are
modifed with - or + to show a half step, with [***-] subjectively
better than [**+].
[*****] One of the best books of the year
[****] A very good book, Above average
[***] A good book. Recommended
[**] Flawed, but has its moments
[*] Not recommended
[] To be avoided
OtherRealms
Science Fiction and Fantasy
In Review
Editor & Publisher
Chuq Von Rospach
Associate Editor
Laurie Sefton
Contributing Editors
Charles de Lint
Dan'l Danehy-Oakes
Alan Wexelblat
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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