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OtherRealms Issue 25 Part 11
Electronic OtherRealms #25
Summer/Fall, 1989
Part 11 of 17
Copyright 1989 by Chuq Von Rospach
All Rights Reserved
OtherRealms may not be reproduced without permission from Chuq Von Rospach.
Permission is given to electronically distribute this
issue only if all copyrights, author credits and return
addresses remain intact. No article may be reprinted or re-used
without permission of the author.
Words of Wizdom
Reviews by Chuq Von Rospach
Copyright 1989 by Chuq Von Rospach
The Star Scroll (Dragon Prince, Book II)
Melanie Rawn
DAW, 591pp, $4.95, 0-88677-349-0.
Tekwar
William Shatner
Ace, October, 1989, 258pp, $18,95, 0-399-13495-6.
Falcon
Emma Bull
Ace, October, 1989, 281pp, $3.95, 0-441-22569-1.
Phases of Gravity
Dan Simmons
Bantam, 278pp, $4.50, 0-553-27764-2.
Paradise: A Chronicle of a Distant World
Mike Resnick
Tor, 323pp, $17.95, 0-312-93183-2.
In the Red Lord's Reach
Phyllis Eisenstein
Signet, July, 1989, 268pp, $3.95, 0-451-16073-8.
Full Spectrum 2
Lou Aronica, Shawna McCarthy et al
Bantam, 464pp, $19.95, 0-385-26019-9
A Fire in the Sun
George Alec Effinger
Doubleday, 289pp, $6.95, 0-385-26349-X
Apartheid, Superstrings and Mordecai Thubana
Michael Bishop
Axolotl Press, Box 1227, Eugene, OR 97440
The Further Adventures of Batman
Martin H. Greenberg, ed.
Bantam, 401pp, $3.95, 0-553-28270-0.
A Study in Sorcery
Michael Kurland
Ace, 184pp, $3.95, 0-553-28270-0.
Callahan's Lady
Spider Robinson
Ace, 191pp, $16.95, 0-441-09073-7.
The Dark Side of Guy de Maupassant
translated by Arnold Kellett
Carroll&Graf, $18.95, 0-88184-459-4.
The Gryphon King
Tom Deitz
Avon, $3.95, 0-380-75506-8.
Snow White and Rose Red
Patricia C. Wrede
Tor, 273pp, #15.95, 0-312-93180-8.
The Year's Best Science Fiction, Sixth Edition
Gardner Dozois, Editor
St. Martin's Press, 596pp, $13.95, 0-312-03009
The Best of the Nebulas
Ben Bova, Editor
Tor, 593pp, $14.95, 0-312-93175-1.
The way the publishing industry is today, it's hard for a new author to
get a break. This is one of the reasons I really like DAW books. They
don't pay the highest advances, they don't have the largest ad budgets,
they don't have the biggest names. What they do have is a belief that
good books deserve to be read and good people deserve to be treated
well. In the discussions I have with authors, I find it almost
impossible to find people who are unhappy with DAW. Many, in fact, tell
me they feel like they've been adopted into an extended family. I wish
I could say this wasn't uncommon, but get any group of authors together
and you'll start hearing the gripes. Justified or no, the only people
who seem generally immune to them is DAW.
Another thing that makes me like DAW is that they're not afraid to
ignore conventional publishing wisdom when needs dictate. They publish
a lot of new authors. Once in a while, they find an author with a lot
of potential and, first novel or no, they push them as hard as they
can. Tad Williams' Tailchaser's Song. C.S. Friedman's In Conquest
Born. Melanie Rawn's Dragon Prince. Michael Whelan covers. Advertising
budgets. Promotion. Unheard of with first authors. So far, they're
three for three, too -- all three are good books that have sold well
and stayed in print. DAW seems to have figured out that a good book by
an unknown will sell well if you can help the audience find it.
Even more important than the book, though, is the career. A single book
may sell well, but if it isn't followed up then the promotion and money
is wasted. Which is why it's good to see The Star Scroll by Melanie
Rawn, her sequel to Dragon Prince. The first book was a romantic
fantasy (as opposed to a fantasy romance, which it definitely is not)
with a very wide, multi-generational scope and a complex, compelling
plot. The Star Scoll takes up a number of years after the end of Dragon
Prince when Rohan and Sioned are reaching middle age and their son,
Pol, is starting to make the switch from child to Prince, with the
responsibilities and requirements that this implies. There are many
problems in the kingdom; Lords who aspire to Rohan's seat and
princelings who aspire to each other's land. There are outsiders who
are plotting as well, some known, some not. The Star Scroll is, then, a
long, complex intertwining of personal interplay, palace intrigue,
growth and transformation. Rawn, despite this being her second novel,
carries the complexity forward and never lets it get out of control.
This series is not everyone's cup of tea, but I find her writing fresh
and invigorating after too many me-too forgettable fantasies. This book
shows that the support of the first book was not misplaced. This book
is one of the highlights of the last few month's reading. I know that
I'm looking forward to whatever she publishes next.
I also have learned to trust the people at DAW. They don't put the
special packaging on many books. When they do, however, I know it's a
book I don't want to miss. The DAW folks don't go all out pushing the
best book of the month, each month. They wait for the books that really
deserve a little something special. I'm going to be here, waiting with
them. [****]
Most first novels can expect tiny advances, no publicity, small print-
runs and an limited exposure before going out of print. The exception,
of course, is when the first novel is by someone who already has a
well- known name and an acknowledged audience. When that happens,
publishers fall all over themselves to give out large advances, promise
large print runs, massive amounts of publicity -- even though there's
no evidence that the person involved can string together words in a
minimally cohesive form. The thought, I guess, is that it doesn't
matter how bad the novel is, the name will sell it. That is, of course,
what they thought about Vanna Speaks, of course, and it disappeared
like a rock in a bog. But the mentality is still there. William
Shatner. Star Trek. Guaranteed Best Seller!
What's depressing about that is that a very good novelist like Emma
Bull or Tom Deitz gets lost in the noise everyone is making, while
William Shatner can waltz in, turn in just about anything and expect to
make lots of money. It ain't fair. It's the way it is, but I don't have
to like it.
I don't have to like the book, either. Playing Captain of the Starship
Enterprise or directing Star Trek V doesn't say anything about a
person's writing skills. Actually, neither does Tekwar, since I've
heard from too many independent sources that the book was
ghostwritten. Assuming that's true (and I feel my sources are right)
we've got a case of ultimate marketing hypocrisy -- get a journeyman
author to turn out a journeyman book, sell the hell out of it to the
Trekkies and everyone makes money and is happy. Except, perhaps, the
Trekkies, since this isn't really a Shatner novel. Ghostwritten books
are standard procedure in the celebrity non-fiction kiss-and-tell
system, but novels?
Let's give the book and the author the benefit of the doubt. Assume
that it really is a William Shatner novel and it is his first book. How
is it? To be honest, Tekwar isn't a bad book. I hesitate to call it a
novel, though. What it really is is a fleshed out sequence of action
sequences about private detective Jake Cardigan that reads more like a
novelization of a script for a made for TV movie than a novel. As a
book, it's somewhat wanting. If it hadn't been William Shatner and was
going to get enough publicity and hype to deserve a review, I wouldn't
have finished it. There's nothing really special or exciting about
Tekwar. The words that come to mind are commercial, pedestrian, and
journeyman.
I keep wondering why might happen to an Emma Bull if *she* got the
hardcover, what wouldn't happen with Deitz if he got the hoopla and
hype. If you took a really good book (as opposed to a sure-thing
marketing piece) and hyped the heck out of it, what would happen?
Perhaps if publishers look at what DAW has done, maybe we'd get the
beginning of an answer. [**]
Speaking of Emma Bull, what's better than a really sharp first novel? A
second novel that proves it wasn't a fluke. I can't begin to count the
number of times I've recommended Emma Bull's wonderful War for the
Oaks, a contemporary Fantasy set in current Minneapolis. Ace has published
Bull's second novel, Falcon, and I'm thrilled to say it's as good.
It is, however, a very different book. Rather than build upon her first
novel, Bull has written a Science Fiction thriller, involving Niki
Falcon, former member of royalty, various nasty people in the
bureaucratic agencies that took his planet away from him and another
planet under siege that is in need of his services.
The book reminded me somewhat of Melissa Scott's The Kindly Ones
because of the various cultures in conflict. There are also hints of
proto-Cyberpunk (Cyberpunk fans are likely to consider this part of
The Movement; I disagree -- it is closer in spirit to Walter Jon
Williams' Hardwired, skirting the surface, using the pieces that it
needs but never signing up for a tour of duty). There are layers within
layers, as different groups generate intrigues upon each other to
advance their various hidden agendas, and if things are not what you
expected them to be at the conclusion, neither does Bull cheat the
reader by pulling loose ends out of her hat. The various palace and
bureaucratic intrigues are all in there -- the job is figuring out
which ones are important.
What Falcon shows is that Bull isn't just a good, young fantasy
writer. She's a good writer, period, and anything she puts out is
going to be worth the time to pick up and read. Her name is a name I
expect to see on good books for years to come. [****]
It's been a while since I read a book that has hit me in the gut. Books
can be good for many different reasons. Melanie Rawn's books are good,
solidly written fantasies. Craig Shaw Gardner writes wonderful
excursions into mind-candy. Mike Resnick writes books with a strong
vision and a wide scope and an interesting message. Occasionally,
though, you run into a book that resonates inside at some unknown
level, that leaves behind it memories etched onto the little neurons
that you call home. They're rare in the field today (to be honest, they
always have been), so when you finally hit one you just want to stare
at nothing for a while and savor the memory -- reading anything else
would suffer in comparison.
Dan Simmon's Phases of Gravity is one of those books. Which shouldn't
surprise me. His book Song of Kali hit me the same way for many of the
same reasons. Song of Kali was a horror novel without any distinct
element of horror in it. Phases of Gravity is a science fiction novel
without any science fiction in it. If a purist were to pin me down, I'd
be forced to acknowledge that there wasn't anything explicitly SF in
this book, but that doesn't mean it isn't SF.
What Phases of Gravity is, instead, is a memoir. The story of Richard
Baedecker, an astronaut who walked on the moon. Baedecker, years later,
is adrift, wallowing through a mid-life crisis and trying to find
meaning to his life. He spent years sacrificing to reach the ultimate
goal of walking on the moon only to find out that he (and the space
program itself) had never bothered to ask "what comes next." His life
an anti-climax, he wanders through an unfufilled job, unsatisfactory
marriage, in neutral waiting for something. Anything.
Doesn't sound like science fiction? What Simmons has done is create in
this story a symbol of American society and the space program. Apollo
was a raging success, but when it was done the American public moved on
to the next fad. Baedecker, a humanified symbol of the space program,
is adrift, unwanted and not sure what to do next.
Part Flowers for Algernon, part The Right Stuff and part Zen and the
Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Phases of Gravity is a depressing
indictment of NASA, the space program and the American public, yet it
is also strangely upbeat and hopeful. It is a book that will depress
you horribly if you care about space, but also show you that it's not
hopeless. You may not like the book, but you're unlikely to put it down
without being affected strongly by it. One of the strongest
recommendations I can give to a book is that I was changed by what I
read. That acknowledgement is rare, but it applies. There have been a
number of books this year that I thought might win awards. This is the
first I've read that I feel deserves it. [*****]
Mike Resnick is carving his own niche in the field. He's an SF writer,
but beyond that he's taken up the difficult job of writing myth. His
special interest is Africa, and he has been translating the history and
culture of Africa into a series of books that tell the stories of
different African areas. Ivory was a parable of the final Maasai, set
thousands of years and thousands of lightyears from now while still
reaching back and also being a tale of the here and now. His latest,
Paradise, is a fictionalized history of the country of Kenya and the
problems the country had once it gained its independence. Once you make
that connection, you can almost read Paradise as a straight historical text.
While Paradise is, I think, the superior work, Ivory is the more
accessible. Resnick obviously cares about Africa deeply. That
attachment seeps through more in Paradise. He's trying to both
entertain and get his message across while not overpowering the reader
with the emotional content of the material. He does this by taking a
somewhat literary approach and keeping the reader at a distance
emotionally. Mike claims this was necessary to keep the reader from
being emotionally overloaded, and I can see his point. At the same
time, however, I think there are places where the distancing is
overdone and the impact is lost, and it makes me wonder if the
distancing is more to allow the author to deal with material that
threatens to overload him. Paradise is a book that will affect you. It
may, in fact, drive you away with the intensity. If you see it through,
though, you will find yourself enlightened. On a continent with too
many poachers and not enough elephants (the slaughter of the
elephant-analogue on Paradise being an important element), this book
can entertain and help you better understand how things are on our own
planet. Not an easy read, but well worth it. [****]
Short Takes:
This issue, my new author is Phyllis Eisenstein and In the Red Lord's
Reach. This isn't her first novel, but it is my first experience with
her. In the Red Lord's Reach is a significant enlargement of a novella
first published in Fantasy & Science Fiction, and it is fantasy in a
classic format, as Alaric, a wandering minstrel with the power of
teleporting himself from place to place. He finds himself at the Red
Lord's palace, where he plays for room and board for a while.
Unfortunately, the Red Lord is a sadistic tyrant and visitors don't
leave -- they become playthings for his tortuous hobbies. Alaric, by
dint of his special power, escapes his grasp and moves on, finally
settling with the reindeer-herding nomads of the north. Any reader of
fantasy should realize by now that he hasn't left the Red Lord behind
forever, and that's true -- eventually the Red Lord and the nomads fall
into conflict, in which Alaric plays an important, if distasteful role.
It seems like a fairly standard plot -- Boy finds Trouble, Boy loses
Trouble, Boy finds Happiness and settles down, Trouble pops back in and
files a paternity suit. While the journey is somewhat familiar, Eisenstein
does put some twists into the plot that makes it interesting and fresh.
My only real gripe is the ending, which seems to flutter about and then
resolve itself in a major anti-climax. Yes, things are resolved, but
no, they're not resolved in a way I felt was satisfying This is a way
to spend a few hours relaxing and escaping into a enjoyable read. [***-]
Full Spectrum 2 is the second volume in Bantam's new original short
fiction anthology. While it doesn't have a single, outstanding work
like Spinrad's "Journal of the Plague Years," everyone is going to find
stories to remember in it, from David Brin's "The Giving Plague" to Ed
Bryant's "'Saurus Wrecks." Full Spectrum is certain to be well
represented at award time. [****+]
Marid is back in A Fire in the Sun, the sequel to George Alec
Effinger's When Gravity Fails. The first book came out to very positive
and well- deserved reviews and came close to winning both the Hugo and
the Nebula award. The only thing I can find lacking in Fire is that it
doesn't have that sense of being different that Gravity had (which, if
you think about it, makes sense, since it is a sequel). Being a sequel
of an original book doesn't make it less of a book, though, which makes
the somewhat mixed reviews I've seen for it somewhat disappointing to
me. This is definitely a book to read -- if you can find it. A tiny
(less than 4,000HC) print run forced me to settle for the trade
paperback. You may well find yourself having to wait for the paperback,
but it'll be worth it. But I wonder at the intelligence of these
minimal hardcover/trade paperback simultaneous editions. All it seems
to do is make it impossible to find the book. [****]
Apartheid, Superstrings and Mordecai Thubana by Michael Bishop is a
novella published in a limited edition by Axolotl Press (now part of
Pulphouse Publishing, Box 1227, Eugene, Oregon, 97440). It's an
interesting Science Fictional (sort of) diatribe against South African
apartheid (sort of). As a limited edition (about 1,000 copies total)
this book will be hard to find, but something Bishop fans will
definitely want. If you can't find it, the novella will also be in Full
Spectrum #3 in 1991. If you're a collector, though, or enjoy well-
written fiction at the novella length (which is increasingly rare due
to market pressures these days) then you really should contact Axolotl
and get on their mailing lists. They have yet to turn out an
unsatisfactory book. [***+]
The Further Adventures of Batman is an anthology of fourteen original
stories written about the Caped Crusader. This book was obviously put
together to take advantage of the popularity caused by the movie and it
shows. While there are some stories that sparkle (notable George Alec
Effinger's "The Origin of the Polarizer," which is both well written
and shows an author who both knows the history of and and cares for the
character) most of the anthology is uninspired, pedestrian prose and
some of the stories (notably Robert Sheckley's "Death of the
Dreamaster" are downright embarassingly bad. There are a few, all too
few, moments in this book. [*]
Study in Sorcery is Michael Kurland's second attempt to write in
Randall Garrett's Lord Darcy universe. I wasn't terribly impressed with
the first try, Ten Little Wizards. The new book, fortunately, while it
still isn't Randall Garrett is an acceptable substitute. Kurland seems
to have gotten the characterizations of the various people right and
has put together a readable story and an interesting mystery worthy of
Lord Darcy and Sean. A fun afternoon of diversion. It's not Randall
Garrett, but Kurland is being true to Garrett's legacy. [***].
When last we heard from Spider Robinson, he was destroying Callahan's Bar
with a thermo-nuclear device. The only problem with a plot device like
that is that it doesn't leave a lot left over to carry on with (which
was, in Spider's case, the point exactly). While the bar may be gone,
Spider has created a new and equally interesting new venue in Callahan's
Lady: Lady Sally's, a brothel somewhat different than normal. Once you
get past the exceptionally inaccurate cover on this book, you'll find
vintage Spider Robinson. It's light and enjoyable fare. My major gripe
is that Robinson once again decides to toss in a few convenient deus ex
machina plot devices when the going gets rough -- it isn't until well
into the book when the gadgets become necessary that he brings in the
extra-terrestrial aspects. I don't have a problem with Lady Sally being
an alien (no surprise to anyone reading his previous work), just that
Robinson doesn't foreshadow this into the story and chooses to ignore
it until it's convenient to use. I find this a bit of a cheat. The Lady
Sally stories, so far, don't have the emotional edges found in "The
Time Traveller" or "The Guy with the Eyes" but that doesn't seem to be
the point here. The point is to kick off the shoes, relax and enjoy. In
this, it succeeds. [***-]
The Dark Side of Guy de Maupassant are a set of translations of a
French horror writer from the 1880's and 1890's. Arnold Kellett has
made a selection of his best work available in English. Heavily
influenced by French translations of Poe, de Maupassant's work, unlike
a lot of fiction of that time, is still very readable and very
effective. Definitely something that horror readers (especially
readers of Poe or Lovecraft) should track down, although you're likely
to read it a piece at a time. [****+]
It's no secret I'm a fan of fantasy, especially the burgeoning
sub-field of contemporary fantasy. Tom Deitz has mined that field very
successfully to day, mixing the various aspects of Fairie with real
people in Rural Georgia and then sitting back and watching what
happens. His third novel, The Gryphon King, is set in the same arena
as his previous books but is otherwise separate. Years ago, a nasty
person in Fairie is given the ultimate sentence: death by Iron. But he
was able to hide his being away, waiting for the right time to return
to this reality and challenge Fairie for control of the world. That
time is now, and rural Georgia is a convenient place. And lots of
innocent people are going to find that everything they understand is
going to be different. [***]
I loved every book of the "Fairy Tale" series that's been published so
far. The series has moved from Ace to Tor, and I'm happy to say my
enjoyment continued. The latest is Snow White and Rose Red by Patricia
C. Wrede, and it uses the classic Fairy Tale about two sisters as a
starting point for a look at the interactions between our reality and
Fairie as scheming on both sides get in the way of people trying to
live their lives. The covers by Tom Canty are visually stunning as
well, making these very attractive and enjoyable books to have. [***+]
Finally, two thick trade paperbacks of short fiction. Every year,
Gardner Dozois, editor of Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine,
collects the best fiction to be published into a single omnibus
volume. Unlike other Best of the Year volumes, Dozois is able to
publish a large number of the best works. While you can argue a choice
here and a choice there, it's clear that The Year's Best Science
Fiction is the definitive definition of the year in fiction. [****]
Ben Bova's, The Best of the Nebulas, takes a slightly different tack.
Every year, the Science Fiction Writers of America awards the Nebula
awards to the best pieces of fiction published. Bova polled the members
of SFWA to see which of the past winners they felt were the "best of
the best" -- the works that have stood up to the test of time. While
there are problems with this approach -- only winners were on the
ballot, so a strong work that placed second one year is ignored while a
lesser work in a weak year could be voted on -- the results is an
anthology that makes a wonderful introduction to the field. Included
are three Ellison stories, two by Zelazny, Tiptree and Delany and works
by Silverberg, Moorcock, Russ, Leiber, McCaffrey, LeGuin, Sturgeon,
McIntyre, Varley, Simak and Martin. Also included is an amusing
statistical analysis of the results of the balloting that primarily
shows that statistics can be made to prove whatever you believe to be
true. The fiction, however, is what's important, and what is worth
having. [****]
------ End ------
