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OtherRealms Issue 23 Part 07
Electronic OtherRealms #23
Winter, 1989
Part 7
Copyright 1989 by Chuq Von Rospach
All Rights Reserved.
OtherRealms may not be reproduced without written
permission from Chuq Von Rospach. The electronic
edition may be distributed only if the return address,
copyrights and author credits remain intact.
No article may be reprinted or re-used in any way
without the permission of the author.
All rights to material published in OtherRealms
hereby revert to the original author.
Scattered Gold
Charles de Lint
Copyright 1989 by Charles de Lint
Installment #6: In which we consider some more high-ranked books.
David M. Shea makes a good point in his letter last issue and Chuq
answers it well. What I'd like to add is merely a repetition of what I
said when we first set out on this column a few issues ago and that is
that I prefer to concentrate on material I like, as opposed to cutting
apart the bad books.
The latter course is too easy andI'd rather spend my time reading good
material instead of plowing through the bad. Like Chuq, I won't review
something I haven't read all the way through (unless I point out that
fact in the review) and when a book's going badly, I just don't have
the inclination or time to spend in its pages. For every book you see
in this column, there's four or five others that I've read or started
that, for one reason or another, don't get discussed here.
The Last Coin [*****]
James P. Blaylock
Ace Books, November 1988; 328pp, 0-441-11381-8
Having a personal fondness for the Southern California beach town Seal
Beach, the setting for James Blaylock's new novel The Last Coin, I have
to admit that I went into this book already anticipating a good read.
Being enamored with Blaylock's storytelling ability and his deft hand
with a good turn of phrase, didn't hurt either, I suppose, but I
digress. Let me tell you about the book itself.
The main character Andrew Vanbergen, for all his quirkiness and
foibles, is a true Everyman. His strengths are his innocence and his
good heart; his major weakness is his inability to take responsibility
for the most simple of errors, compounding the initial problem with
excuses and convoluted lies that would do proud Basil Fawlty (the hotel
owner that John Cleese played so effectively in the British TV series
Fawlty Towers).
Vanbergen and his wife Rose are in the midst of setting up a hotel and
cafe in Seal Beach, aided and plotted against by as entertaining a cast
of characters as you're likely to meet in a novel. There's Aunt Naomi,
bedridden in the attic and surrounded by her cats; Uncle Arthur, at
once wise and mad; Vanbergen's friend Beams Pickett who sees a
conspiracy in the most innocuous event; the mysterious Pennyman whose
every move seems calculated to distress Vanbergen.
There's a very real sense of place present as well, from interiors of
the inn, the cafe, and Vanbergen's garage where any amount of plotting
goes on, to the town of Seal Beach itself. Its streets and beachfront,
the old pier, the Naval Station nearby and Leisure World, the old
folk's home--they're all brought vividly to life.
Complexities, real and imagined, abound wherever Vanbergen treads,
perfectly suiting a Blaylock book where the plot doesn't so much unfold
as unravel in a hundred directions, all at once, like a knitting bag
spilling out a half dozen balls of yarn. In this case we learn of the
real import behind the thirty pieces of silver paid to Judas, of pigs
carrying magical spoons in their mouths and flocks of parrots with
cavalry instincts, of the magical importance of carp and of coin magic,
as opposed to coin tricks. The Wandering Jew is explained, but far more
is left mysterious and secret--as well it should be.
For the strength of Blaylock's work isn't simply the whimsical
characters nor the delightful prose. It lies instead in an underlying
theme that has pervaded most of his writing to date: Everything that
exists can have more than one meaning. There's the natural, sensible
meaning, but settled side by side with it could be any number of
complexities and moments of wonder. Simply by having us consider the
possible existence of these other levels of meaning, Blaylock allows us
to see the mundane world through new eyes, to perceive the familiar as
strange, and therefore fascinating--for what it is as well as for what
it might be.
The Last Coin is an utterly charming book. Under its madcap
carryings-on lies one of Blaylock's most solid plots to date--almost
everything is connected in the tradition of the best conspiracy
paranoias. And the characters--particularly with the development of
Vanbergen, the Everyman who slowly realizes his part in the scheme of
the universe--while painted in broad strokes, also contain in their
makeup all the small idiosyncrasies that a real person would, making
them very satisfying to have met.
I had thought with the publication of Land of Dreams (Arbor House,
1987) that we had been given the quintessential Blaylock book, but I
was wrong. Blaylock, while retaining his own distinctive style, has
far more tricks up his sleeve than the average writer, and I don't
doubt that he will continue to surprise, and charm, his readers with
each new book for many more years to come.
Walkabout Woman [****+]
Michaela Roessner
Spectra/Bantam, September 1988; 276pp; $3.95, 0-553-27545-3
Michaela Roessner's Walkabout Woman has got it all: clean, lyric prose;
a fascinating "alien" setting juxtaposed with a contemporary one; and a
guise of Mystery not often seen before.
To be more specific, the story centers around a young Aborigine named
Raba who is training to become a wuradilagu, a healing woman expert in
woman's magic. The first half of the novel follows her growth both as a
practitioner of a native Australian "Way" and as a child becoming a
young woman. Roessner has done an admirable job of depicting Aborigine
life in the forties and fifties. She mixes pathos with charm and deftly
portrays the simplicity of a people who are-- if one looks at them
through their own eyes rather than that of a "white-fella's"-- far more
complex than surface appearances might allow.
(I refer you to a quote from one Stanley Garn: "If the Aborigine
drafted an I.Q. test, all of Western civilization would presumably
flunk it." )
The second half of the book picks up Raba's life some fifteen years
after a climactic occurrence in her teens (and no, I'm not going to
tell you what it is--read the book and enjoy the discovery of it all
for yourself). By this point, Raba has been denying her Aborigine past,
but now the Dreamtime is impinging on her comfortable new world with
frightening results. Only a young Welsh witch can help her, but she
appears as though she might have some questionable designs of her own.
There is power in Roessner's prose and a simplicity that's as beguiling
and deceptive as that of her subjects themselves. And like the
Dreamtime of the Aborigines, there's a gritty sense of truth underlying
what is still, at heart, a fantasy novel.
I must tell you as well that there's a certain Romanticism involved in
this book- -not related to Harlequin et al, but rather to a worldview
that allows the possibility of a magical occurrence that, in this
otherworld, could make right a wrong; an occurrence that,
unfortunately, won't come about in our own world. However, this doesn't
lesson the book's impact, nor what we can learn from it. What it does
do is provide the reader with a thoughtful, as well as entertaining
read, and allows the epilogue to acquire a poignancy that's both
uplifting for how things work out in this otherworld, and a sadness
that it won't do so in this one.
Twice Upon a Time [****]
Allen Appel
Carroll & Graf, 1988; 351pp; $18.95, 0-88184-384-9
Allen Appel's Twice Upon A Time is for those of you who are tired of
time travel books in which everyone's trying desperately not to mess up
the past. It's for those of you who want someone to try to set right
some past wrong for a change, because to do anything else would be immoral.
Appel is the author of Time After Time--not the movie that came out a
few years ago, apparently, but a novel set in revolutionary Russia that
first introduced the character of Alex Balfour, a member of a family
who can inadvertently travel back through time. This is an ability that
has its drawbacks as a return trip isn't guaranteed.
In this new novel Balfour is drawn back to the Philadelphia Exposition
in 1876. There he becomes involved with the rescue of a pair of
Indians, eventually setting off on a voyage across the Western frontier
with the Indians, a black man and Mark Twain as his companions. Balfour
has decided to attempt to stop the Little Big Horn massacre--believing
that it was this particular incident that fanned the white hatred for
Indians to the extremities from which our present-day Native People
have yet to recover.
Meanwhile (as they say), his lover Molly Glenn is still in our time,
covering a story for the New York Times that also deals with Native
People: the possible beginning of a new uprising that could have
connections with Crazy Horse's slaughter of the Custer and his men
exactly one hundred years ago.
Over the course of the novel both Balfour and Glenn (and thereby the
readers) are presented with some hard facts about racism, past and
present, against black and Native. This alone, if it makes people think
and remain aware of a problem that is still far too prevalent, would
make Twice Upon A Time well worth reading. It's obvious that Appel has
done his research from how he presents Native Americans' struggles in
each time period.
But it's also an entertaining adventure novel; a finely-tuned and
well-considered time travel story; and a well-written piece of
fictional craft that includes some sharp insights into how the human
mind and heart work--both in times past and the present. And there's
also the fun of "hanging out" (you'll understand the emphasis I put on
that phrase when you've read the book) with a character like Twain--
someone who I, having grown up on his books, would love to have met.
Roofworld [***+]
Christopher Fowler
Ballantine, September 1988; 333pp; $7.95, 0-345-35701-9
UK author Christopher Fowler's Roofworld works on a neat premise: what
if there was a whole society that lives up on the rooftops of London?
Squatters, who travel by night from building to building utilizing
special harnesses and cables to bridge the gaps made by the streets, or
following certain permanent "runs" that criss-cross the city. They
could remain undetected for years for how many people really take the
time to look up?
Scriptwriter Robert Linden and amateur photographer Rose Leonard end up
doing just that, he in search of the author of a book he wants to
acquire for his film production company, she out taking photographs one
night and happening upon a band of the rooftop dwellers on one of their
cross-city runs. The pair get caught up in a war between two rooftop
factions, a war that soon has murdered bodies showing up on street
level with ever-increasing frequency.
Fowler's the author of a couple of short story collections and some
non- fiction. For his first time out at novel length he's done a fine
job. His prose is clean--even inspired at times; his characters are
warmly portrayed and a likable group; his ideas are intriguing and
well-thought out; and he conveys a good sense of the city of
London--from both its rooftop and street level views.
The only real problem with the book lies in parts of the storyline
itself where we find some awkward plotting. The sections from the
police's point-of-view are fine until we reach the end where the main
character we've followed for large portions of the book ends up having
nothing to do with the finale. Instead, one of his colleagues--barely
on stage before--is pulled out of the hat and plays a sudden pivotal role.
Some of the scene shifts are awkward as well, but the other main
plotting problem comes with the character of Chymes who heads up the
bad guys. Although revelations are promised, we never really learn
anything about him and one's left at the end to feel as though there's
a sequel coming, which would be unfortunate, as I, at least, would
prefer to see Fowler utilize his delightful sense of prose and
speculations on a fresh subject, rather than rehashing an old one.
If I seem a little harsh discussing those plotting elements, it's only
because the book began with such promise that I really wanted it to be
fabulous all the way through. As it is, it's still a fine read and I
hope you'll try it. I've already ordered a copy of his short story
collection City Jitters from my local bookshop and will be watching for
more of his work in the future.
(Late date addendum: The above review was written before the World
Fantasy Convention in London where I had a chance to talk to Fowler and
discover, to my horror, that the American edition is three chapters
shorter than the UK one-- fantasy elements were taken out, but also the
ending was changed. I haven't had the chance to read the original
version, so my review of the Ballantine book stands as above, but I
urge you to seek out the UK version if you're at all interested in
reading this book. Given some time, I will be doing the same.)
Someplace Strange [****]
Ann Nocenti & John Bolton
Epic Graphic Novel, 1988; 64pp; $6.95, 0-87135-439-X
Ann Nocenti & John Bolton's Someplace Strange proves that a good
contemporary fantasy can be found in any medium. It's not necessarily
usual-- especially when one considers the comic book field which
certainly isn't the place we're going to regularly find either good
writing or fresh ideas--but it does happen.
So what's it about?
Basically it's an exploration of consensual reality. It has the feel of
Jonathan Carroll's Bones of the Moon, with dashes of Blaylock and that
other Carroll-- Lewis. But while the dialogue is very good, what makes
Someplace Strange so enchanting is Bolton's artwork--a wonderful
combination of realism and surrealism. Bolton appears to have used a
number of mediums to achieve his desired effects--again something not
necessarily commonplace in the comics field--and the overall effect is
very effective.
When the art's put together with Nocenti's delightfully witty script,
it is, indeed, a time to "get scared, get dizzy, get up, get wild/time
for razzmatazz and soft shoe shuffle...."
You don't have to be a comic book fan to like this one. In fact, it
would probably help if you weren't, so check it out.
Due to new space considerations for OtherRealms, this column is, and
will continue to be, somewhat shorter than it has been. I don't cover
as many books this time around because the column was mostly written
beforehand, so I edited it by chopping off reviews of books by Holt,
Vinge, Wilhelm and DiSilvestro. They might appear next time, in
shortened form. And in fact, most of the reviews will be shorter.
My question to you, as the readers, is do you want a larger number of
short reviews, or fewer reviews, but longer ones? Do write in to the
magazine's letter column so that I can get an idea as to what you would
prefer to see.
Until again....
