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OtherRealms Issue 25 Part 09
Electronic OtherRealms #25
Summer/Fall, 1989
Part 9 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.
From Beyond the Edge
Reviews by our readers (Part 2)
Araminta Station
Jack Vance
Tor, 554 pages, $19.95, paper, $4.95.
All fiction is a lie. All fiction is also a non-verbal contract between
author and reader, the fulfilling of which negates the first statement.
Beyond the basic agreements of structure, spelling and syntax, this
contract demands that each party bring certain things to the dance; the
reader an open mind and a willingness to suspend belief; the writer a
tacit adherence to form and convention. Each contact between reader and
writer generates a new agreement; the basis of which is the reader's
demand that, upon conclusion, the work in question make sense, entertain
or at the very least hold interest. To which the writer demands the
reader's attention and withholding of judgment until the work is fully
read. It is a guided tour we take with expectation and trust.
Nowhere is this agreement more obvious than in the works of Jack Vance.
Historically, Vance has been trustworthy, fulfilling his part of the
bargain if only you'll fulfill yours. Times, however do change.
Long recognized as a master wordsmith, Vance's complex use of language
is at first unsettling. Combine this with simple plots, sometimes
divergent storylines and dialogue that is formal to an extreme and one
would think to have found a formula for disaster. One could not be
farther from the truth.
Araminta Station, Vance's newest novel, is a return to science fiction
after a successful series of fantasy works. Once again he delves into
the sociological underpinnings of society, creating patterned fabric
from single threads until a believable whole is achieved. If the plot is
weak and sometimes seems missing altogether, it is more than balanced by
the humor and insight his characters bring each situation. Set on the
planet Cadwal, established and set aside as a protected preserve by the
Naturalist Society of Earth, the story involves the coming of age of
Glawen Clattuc. Cadwal, originally inhabited by a limited number of
human scientists and their families has evolved, warped into a culture
ruled by great houses with a limited number of members. Excess
population is denied admittance and socially disappears from view. Each
house has developed into a sub-culture with its own history, flair and
obligations. This is Vance at his best -- poking fun at parts of our own
society by drawing them out to extremes. And yet, his characterization
makes behavior otherwise bizarre, seem natural. While there are basic
themes here; industrial man vs natural man; interventionist vs
conservator; id vs ego -- they all played out on an individual level.
And so colored by perspective and opinion.
The strengths of Araminta Station rest solely upon Vance's ability to
make the absurd real and commonplace. Where others rely on bullet truth,
Vance takes us to the ball -- dancing us around and around until we are
overcome by the music and not realizing until later the true purpose of
the visit. Vance is a stylist, his sentences flow and ebb, his dialogue
rings with hearty pronouncements and verbal wonderments. It is writing
that cries to be read aloud, to be rolled across the tongue and savored.
It is what, in the past, has fulfilled Vance's part of the contract. It
would do so here but for one thing. With no warning the book ends
without resolving at least two key issues -- and blatantly so.
Leaving the door open for a sequel has become commonplace, but not so
much so that it can be done in such an offhand manner. This is a
violation of trust -- and contract. We've stepped into a world to be
swept along only to find ourselves teetering at the edge of a canyon --
with no way to get across. We were promised the full trip -- we agreed --
only to have the tour guide leave halfway through.
-- Steven Sawicki
Being Alien
Rebecca Ore
Tor Books, 1989, 0-812-54792-6, 277 pp., $3.95
Being alien is not easy; communicating the essence of aliens to human
readers is even more difficult. Ore, with her well received first novel,
Becoming Alien, has attempted this challenging task with great success.
Now, the direct sequel continues the story of Tom Easley, Virginia
hillbilly to the stars.
Tom's marriage to the Tibetan woman, Yangchenla, simply hasn't worked
out. After all, the primitive Tibetan villagers have been virtual
prisoners on the Interstellar Federation of Sapients' administrative
planet Karst for 500 years, and even Tom finds them provincial. Tom's
new official duties for the ET Federation -- overseeing first contact
with the dinosaurian Watch Species 467 -- aren't working out either.
Thus, his mentors, the batlike Black Amber and birdlike Karriaagzh, send
Tom back to Earth to broaden his education and to acquire a new mate.
Once located in California, Tom finds himself almost as out of place
among Berkeley academics as his fellow disguised alien spies. But he
does meet Marianne and her sister Molly, and convinces the sisters and
Molly's husband, Sam, to help rescue Tom's older brother, Warren, from
his life as a drug addict, and then to all become a part of the isolated
human colony on Karst. Once back among the many species which make up
the Federation, Tom and his new relatives encounter further disruptions.
Molly's marriage falls prey to alien attractions; Warren's addiction
defies the best efforts of advanced neurosurgery; and Marianne insists
on equality, despite her strange condition -- being pregnant in a
strange land.
A simple tale, really, of boy-meets-aliens-meets-girl- meets-more-
aliens, Being Alien continues to surprise and delight with artistic
critter creation and superb linguistic confabulation. The story is not
done, but this trilogy midpoint stands well on its own. Count Ore among
the few who must be on that First Contact team, should T*H*E*Y land.
-- Dean R. Lambe
Blood is Not Enough
edited by Ellen Datlow
Morrow, 0-688-08526-1, 319 pp, $19.95
When I hear the word vampire. I automatically think of the undead who
suck blood from your neck. Blood is Not Enough, a new anthology on
vampirism, changed that notion. These vampire stories take not only your
blood, but the inner you as well as your emotions and your youth.
Of the seventeen stories in this anthology, eight are reprints and nine
are original. The reprints are by such notables as Ellison, Leiber,
Gahan Wilson and Dan Simmons. The novelette "Carrion Comfort" by Dan
Simmons, a tale of mind vampires or "mind rape," comprising part of his
newest novel of the same name, brings mind control to new heights of
terror. The Leiber story, "The Girl With 'The Hungry Eyes" tells us how
a woman with haunting looks can be harmful to your health.
Of the new stories, "Varicose Worms" by Scott Baker stands above all the
others. It shows us what happens when a shaman tries to keep his wife
under control as he prepares for another business trip. The rest of the
new stories in Blood is Not Enough are good but none of them come close
to being as gruesome and horrific as "Varicose Worms." Two other stories
that stayed in my mind are; "...To Feel Another's Woe" by Chet
Williamson and "Good Kids" by Edward Bryant. Both stories teach us not
to get involved with other people.
Blood is Not Enough is not the best anthology I've ever read, but it is
an entertaining one and serves to remind us that the world out there is
far more horrible than we could possibly imagine.
-- Richard Weilgosh
Cyberstealth [**]
S. N. Lewitt
ACE Books $3.50 232pg.
This books starts out reading like a cyberpunk version of the movie Top
Gun. Fortunately, after the first few chapters, it settles down to be a
more normal SF story. However the big problem about this book is it is
undecided as to whether it wants to be a cyberpunk story, as SF version
of Top Gun or an adult version of an Andre Norton juvenile. The story is
also told with erratic flashbacks sequences. It usually takes a while to
realize that a chapter is actually a flashback as they are not labelled
as such. This causes considerable confusion in the beginning and makes
it difficult to read the book later. The ending is rather abrupt and
very incomplete as it is not certain exactly what happened. It is a nice
sentimental but meaningless ending as the reader does not know how the
conflict was resolved.
Cargo is a fighter pilot who is offered a chance to fly the latest
stealth fighters. He takes the chance and discovers that his first
mission is intertwined with a plot by his guardian to end the war. The
problem is that there is a spy who knows of the mission and is trying to
sabotage it.
-- Danny Low
The Drive-in 2
(Not Just One of Them Sequels)
Joe. R. Lansdale
Bantam Spectra, 0-553-27905-X, 192pps, $3.95
Joe Lansdale is rapidly becoming one of our more enjoyable writers and
although he's a bit wacky and far-out, it appears he likes what he's
doing and he tries to ensure that we also will enjoy his work. He has
written western's, mysteries and what I feel is his forte -- horror.
The Drive-In 2, a continuation of The Drive-In, takes place immediately
after the comet passes and they leave the Drive-In. Trying to make some
sense in a world gone mad and trying to find someone who is not crazy is
the chore our heroes have ahead of them. They all eventually end up back
at the Drive-In, where they end up living happily ever after, but not
until they engage in a skirmish for control of the Drive-In. This
allegory does have a serious message in that it's better to live life to
the fullest and enjoy yourself than be part of normal world and be dull
and lifeless.
The Drive-In 2 may not be to everyone's liking, but it was fun and a
great way to spend a couple of hours. I should caution that this book is
not for the squeamish. The descriptions of death are very explicit and
graphic; without them the story wouldn't be as enjoyable.
-- Richard Weilgosh
The Empire of Fear
Brian Stableford
Simon and Schuster, 1988, 0-671-69945-8, 386pp, $27.95
It has been said that an author's conception of vampires reveals how
imaginative that author is. On this count, Stableford's "vampires" are
certainly quite novel, and reveal him as having a mind that isn't
hidebound by the traditions of the past. In fact, not only is this a
vampire story, it's an alternative universe story. And it also spans
some three centuries from 1623 to 1983. In Stableford's world, a race of
vampires appeared early on in history, seemingly made by Attila the Hun
in his battle against the Roman Empire (though actually not). In our
world, Attila lost, but here he seems to have won. It began a long
period of violent vampire rule over common mortals, in which the
vampires were aided by their strange traits of recuperation and
longevity (the traditional vampire elements). Unlike past vampires
however, Stableford's have no fear of sunlight, and although they do
take mortal blood, they don't harm anyone by doing so, and certainly
don't sleep in coffins at night. The question is raised whether these
creatures are divine, supernatural, or just long-lived humans.
This provides an interesting comparison with another well-known vampire
writer, Anne Rice, whose trilogy beginning with Interview with a Vampire
so caught people's fancy and triggered the current rush of vampire
stories. Rice's vampires are much more traditional in some respects,
sleeping in coffins, only coming out at night, etc, but she has taken
these traditions and updated them (so that Lestat has become a rock
star). Stableford rather prefers to invent his own story.
It starts in the early 17th century with the Cordery family, a father
and son outfit. Edmund, the father, is a "mechanician" or
inventor/alchemist who works for the royal vampire court of Richard the
Lionheart in England. Edmund's son Noell is forced into hiding when his
father commits suicide, taking a vampire lover with him (he belongs to a
secret society trying to overthrow the vampires). I thought this an
unusual move; we were just settling in with Edmund (32 pages), and now
he's dead (this portion had originally appeared as "The Man Who Loved
the Vampire Lady" in the August 1988 Fantasy and Science Fiction). The
book does this several times, having six parts in all, some of them
separated by large time gaps. And yet Stableford is able to get away
with these temporal dislocations, mainly due to his prose style. I was
reminded of a painter at work (the house type, rather than the artist
type) patiently painting a large wall. The text has that flat narrative
quality, as the painter continues rollering on a seamless covering. If I
had complete faith in the author, I would say this is done on purpose to
reflect the timeless lives of the long-lived vampires, many of whom,
especially in the mysterious valley of Adamawara in central Africa
(where the vampires come from), are content to just let the world
unfold, as if everything were pre-ordained. That's the feeling you get
reading this book, even in its most urgent sections. Having read some of
Stableford's criticism I will reluctantly conclude that this prose style
is his usual one, but though flat, strangely enough, it is seldom
boring. We have an imaginative author on our hands (though the last
section, which takes place 300 years after the main story, showing how
modern science has revealed the vampire secrets seems like an
unnecessary case of "look, I can explain it all!"
Stableford seems to capture the flavor of the times well, and generally
seems quite knowledgeable about the Medieval period. There are
interesting theological discussions (Noell's long-time companion
Quintus, is a monk) and speculations about the origin of the world.
There is even mention of the Knights of Malta, who today are devoted to
good works (officially), although Robert Anton Wilson argues in the July
1989 issue of Spin that they are really a secret Catholic society with
ties to the Mafia, P2 (an Italian fascist organization), the Vatican,
and the CIA (William Casey and William F. Buckley Jr. are supposed to be
members). They have a more prosaic place in Stableford's story, however,
being a sort of fighting unit that helps defend Noell from an Armada-
style invasion by the Lionheart and Vlad the Impaler or Dragulya.
Simon and Schuster has done a great packaging job, with an interesting
cover (it appeared as a recent Interzone cover). There were odd
proofreading errors, but it's been a while since I bought such a well
designed book.
The Empire of Fear has been well received in the United Kingdom,
already making some award lists. It should have no difficulty finding an
audience over the big pond.
-- Jeremy Crampton
Haunted
James Herbert
G.P.Putnam's, 0-399-13486-7, 240 pp, Oct.1989, $17.95
With Haunted, the latest novel from James Herbert, England's leading
horror author, we have another psychologically chilling tale of the
haunted house mystery. Herbert is one of the most influential and
original authors of our time and one of my personal favorites.
An alleged haunting in a remote country house called Edbrook, has
brought David Ash, a psychic investigator, onto the scene to try and
placate the Mariell family. The haunting is an apparition of a young
girl dressed in a flowing white gown, apparently the twin sister of
Christina Mariell. David Ash has made for himself a solid reputation by
exposing so-called psychic phenomena and fake mediums. Armed with all
his equipment he plans on doing the same at Edbrook. His non-belief in
ghosts stems from the death of his young sister and the dreams he still
has of her resurrection, for he doesn't believe in the existence of the
spirit after death. However he soon discovers that these apparitions are
real and he has problems coming to grips with this actuality and how to
fight it. Several attempts on his life by the ghost bring help from his
employer and friend, Edith Phipps, who receives David's distress signals
of something wrong at Edbrook. The ending is superb and would be
visually exciting at the movie theater.
With a skilful blend of horror and thriller fiction, Herbert has created
a novel of brooding menace and rising tension as the mystery of the
Haunted unfolds. Haunted is one of Herbert's best and shows once again
why he remains one of the most popular horror writers today.
-- Richard Weilgosh
Hyperion
Dan Simmons
Doubleday Foundation, 1989, 0-385-26348-1, 482 pp, $8.95
Shakespeare, it is said, was well aware that the groundlings must be
entertained with sex and violence while the educated class perceives the
play's deeper meaning. Never mind that the aristocrats, then and now,
have never missed a hog wallow, the distinction remains to mark high
brow from low. SF, of course, is low. But no more. With a remarkably
talented salvo of original novels, Dan Simmons has been tap dancing with
the genre but a few short years. His Song of Kali picked up a World
Fantasy award, and now he's taken on hard science fiction, literate SF,
historical SF, on a frame of English literature.
Hyperion, a distant planet in the 28th Century hegira of homeless
humanity, welcomes seven pilgrims -- each after his or her own special
grail. Hyperion, an unfinished poem by John Keats, source, setting, and
inspiration for a scholarly homage to the grand scope of SF. Take your
pick, it's all here, plus a little Chaucer, a lot of philosophy, a
superb command of world building, an intelligent answer to the challenge
of cyberpunk, and the requisite star wars with blood and guts.
A diplomat, an ancient poet, the consummate soldier, a tortured priest,
a temporal Dutchman, a lonely detective, and a mad ecologist, seven
selves in search of a soul, all tell their tales as they journey to and
over Hyperion, as they approach the mysterious Time Tombs and the
terrible creature that guards them. Unlike the unprecedented three
reviews given this unique novel in the same issue of Locus, I reveal no
more lest readers curse me.
True, Simmons pushes tongue in cheek as with "Betty's Ford" at the
river, and his science slips a bit with ozone around fiber optic cables;
thus academic purists and New York litcrits may still dismiss this "sci-
fi stuff." The rest of us know art when we read it. Give Hyperion the
prizes. All the prizes.
-- Dean R. Lambe
The Jaguar Hunter [*****]
Lucius Shepard
A collection of stories set around the world by Lucius Shepard. This is
one of the few collections I can think of that has no bad (or even
mediocre) stories. They are uniformly excellent: well written, good
plots, great characters, everything you could want in a story. All of
the stories have some science fiction or fantasy content, ranging from
horror through magical realism to near-future warfare in Central
America. Don't look for it in the science fiction section, though; the
publisher has decided to market it as mainstream fiction. And that
categorization makes sense, because the stories also have a realistic
feel to them. These are stories that don't need genre walls; they are
excellent no matter how you read them. Highly recommended.
-- Chuck Koelbel
------ End ------
