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OtherRealms Issue 29 Part 06
Electronic OtherRealms #29
Winter, 1991
Part 6 of 10
Copyright 1991 by Chuq Von Rospach
All Rights Reserved.
OtherRealms may be distributed electronically only in the original
form and with copyrights, credits and return addresses intact.
OtherRealms may be reproduced in printed form only for your personal use.
No part of OtherRealms may be reprinted or used in any other
publication without permission of the author.
All rights to material published in OtherRealms hereby revert to the author.
From Beyond the Edge
Reviews by our readers
Another Day, Another Dungeon
Greg Costikyan
Tor $4.95 339 pg.
Reviewed by Danny Low
First, this is NOT an AD&D novel even though the story universe bears
a remarkable resemblance to a typical AD&D gaming universe.
Timaeus D'Asperge is a newly graduated fire mage. He is also a noble
which severely limits the professions he can engage in honorably.
Fortunately, adventuring is one such profession and there just happens
to be a "dungeon" conveniently nearby. He hires the adventuring
outfitters of Pratchitt (Does this name sound familiar or not?) &
Stollitt to facilitate his first adventure. Pratchitt & Stollitt are
really a pair of thieves for whom, outfitting adventurers is more of a
front than a real avocation. They know only a little more about
outfitting an adventuring party than Timaeus.
They undertake the commission anyway and put together a most eccentric
group of adventurers. There is Father Thwaite who is a very good
healer when he is sober which is rarely. There is Kraki, the fearless
and brainless barbarian. Only Garni the dwarf is competent but he
firmly believes in bringing everything including the kitchen sink on
an adventure.
The book is divided into two parts. The first part is about the
party's adventures in the "dungeon" and the fabulous treasure they
find, a life size magical statue. The second half is about what
happens when they bring the statue back. Everyone knows there is much
mana in the statue but no one knows exactly what type of magical power
is in the statue. Nevertheless every magician and political power
group in Durfalus wants that statue and will do anything to get it. In
a world where magic works, "anything" is really something.
The story is written as a droll British parlor comedy. It succeeds
quite nicely. There is the right amount of wacky but dignified humor.
Despite the AD&D flavor, this book in no way resembles the typical
AD&D adventure book. It is a good solid tongue-in-cheek adventure
story. It also has a shameless "to be continued" ending. However the
break happens at a natural breakpoint in the story. [***]
The Barsoom Project
Larry Niven & Steven Barnes
Ace, $4.50, 340pp, 0-441-16712-8
Reviewed by Steven Sawicki
There must have been a subconscious reason this book sat around for so
long before I picked it up to read. I mean, I loved Dream Park,
generally like everything Niven and Barns have done -- individually and
as a team, and have a particular like for "game" based novels. So
what's the problem?
Well, first I was a bit put off by a 4 page cast of characters and
glossary list. Niven has done this before and it hasn't bothered me,
but for some reason I interpreted this as an indication that the
characters were so interchangeable I'd need the list to get through
the book. And I was right.
Niven and Barnes seemed to have taken the best qualities of Dream Park
and intentionally ignored them. There's a large cast of characters who
for the most part are interchangeable, there's two interweaving plot
lines that tend to weaken each other rather than strengthen, there's a
certain lack of tension throughout the entire novel and the amazing
constructs of Dream Park seem somehow now mundane.
Let me give you one example. The action of the plot takes place during
one of the games -- a Fatripper Special -- a game modified for the education
of substance abusers. So, in a sense, you have a cast of characters
who, by nature, are seriously flawed. Imagine what could have been
done with this. Instead Niven and Barnes utilize their characters as
if they were ordinary people -- no, not ordinary, extra-ordinary -- given
the things they do during the game. Consistently, I had to keep
wondering when these people's problems would rise to hinder their
goals. The problems never did. Perhaps in Dream Park, problems are
always minor and need not really be addressed.
To say I'm disappointed with this would be putting it too mildly. It's
tedious, boring in spots, lacking logical followthrough and generally
a waste of time. [+]
Carmen Miranda's Ghost is Haunting Space Station Three
Edited by Don Sakers
BAEN Books, 0-671-69864-8, $3.95, 312pp.
Reviewed by Mary Anne Espenshade
This is the best anthology I've read in a long time, not a failure in
the bunch, with lots of first time writers as well as familiar names.
Filking is one of my favorite parts of fandom. I don't compose but I
sing along whenever possible and I have a collection of both purchased
and recorded-myself-at-filksings tapes. There are filks on everything
from Asimov to Zelazny, from Beauty and the Beast to Star Wars, but
this must be the first time a book has been written because of a filk.
Leslie Fish's "Carmen Miranda's Ghost is Haunting Space Station Three"
is available on several tapes. It is funny and different and inspired
this whole collection of short stories, some of which closely follow
the details of the song, others using it only to set the scene. This
includes everything from stories that exist only to set up a pun punch
line to hard SF murder mystery. A number of the authors are filkers
themselves. Only one story makes the ghost a horror figure (I won't
spoil it by telling you which one). Usually she is the catalyst
making the story happen but sometimes she just dances by in the
background. The stories were very well selected, no two are the least
bit similar though they all had the same song for a starting point.
[****+]
The Colors of Space
Marion Zimmer Bradley
Donning/Starblaze, 0-89865-191-3, 1963, $8.95, 171pp.
Reviewed by Mary Anne Espenshade
I bought this reprint of an old MZB story because I'm always on the
lookout for MZB I've missed and because the illustrator, Lee Moyer, is
someone I'm acquainted with through fandom. It is a good, juvenile
story, if you can get past some of the very dated feel. The Lhari
control all interstellar space travel, with a monopoly on the only
working warp drive. Humans can't use it directly, they must be kept in
suspended animation during warp travel or die. Bart Steele is half
human and half Mentorian, his Mentorian mother was a mathematician on
a Lhari ship. Since the Mentorians are the only race able to work
directly with the Lhari, humans resent them for it. The title refers
to the main difference between the species in this book - the Lhari
don't seen any colors in the spectral range that humans do. The
Mentorians can see human colors and into the Lhari range. Bart sets
out to find the "eighth" color -- the secret to warp power - -and faces
dangerous adventures aboard a Lhari ship to find it. He learns the
Lhari aren't as superior or as different as they have lead humans to
believe. [***]
Dimensions: A Casebook Of Alien Contact
Jacques Vallee
Contemporary Books, 1988, $17.95, 304 pp, 0-8092-4586-8
Review by David M. Shea
Debunking UFOlogy is entirely analogous to debating theology, a
harmless intellectual game of no lasting value. This point is clearly
made in the Foreword, wherein Whitley [Communion] Streiber calmly
asserts as fact that the UFO question is both "the deepest mystery
that mankind has ever encountered", and "certainly a real phenomenon".
Better you should read Streiber, a mere priest of the cult who assumes
you will believe in UFO's on faith because he says so. Vallee debases
what appear to be legitimate academic credentials by hiding his New
Age mumbo-jumbo under a patina of pseudo-science. Vallee states,
apparently sensibly, "I am not prepared to abandon the rational
approach ... for conclusions based on faith [or] intuition." Cut to
the chase, however, and you find that he reserves the right to define
"rational" according to his own whim. This includes the assumption
that there may be "variants of current physics ... in which psychic
phenomena could be the rule rather than the exception". This brings
Vallee to the pat conclusion that UFO's "cannot be understood apart
from their psychic and symbolic reality". Sure thing, Jack. Pardon me
while I go light a candle at the Shrine of Shirley MacLaine.
Expanded Universe
Robert Heinlein
ACE, 0-441-21891-1, $4.95, 582pp.
Reviewed by Mary Anne Espenshade
Expanded Universe is a large collection of stories and articles from
the '40's and '50's through 1980. Most of the fiction is in the
oldest section, some familiar, some less so - I'm not a Heinlein
expert. The second half is nonfiction, predictions and political
diatribe. Future predictions made in 1950 are updated twice, once for
the 1966 collection and again in 1980. Heinlein sounded surprised in
the 1966 revisions that World War III hadn't happened yet and almost
disappointed in 1980 that we still hadn't been invaded by Russia, as
he was so sure it was going to happen. I only wish he had lived
through 1989, since his political predictions get farther off base all
the time. His economic predictions, however, are spot on (and that was
by 1980, before the Reagan deficit years), as are his dismal
statements about education in the US. Lest this sound like a
political review - all the predictions are stated in SF terms,
sometimes as near future fiction, others as "life in the year 2000"
type articles. There is a wonderful article from 1979 testimony to a
House committee on NASA spinoffs - if only it could be required
reading in Congress now. My favorite fiction piece was "Over the
Rainbow ...". I had read it before but I still love the punch lines.
It is the story of a vice president, added to the ticket only to get
votes from certain special interest groups, that unexpectedly (to
those who engineered the election anyway) becomes a great president.
From the fiction I also especially liked "Nothing Ever Happens on the
Moon", one of his Boy Scout juveniles, and "They do it with Mirrors -
an Edison Hill Crime Case", a pulp mystery from 1945 that was too
risque to print as written at that time (after reading it I still
haven't a clue as to why, but times have changed a lot since then).
[****]
Expecting Someone Taller
Tom Holt
Ace $3.95 231 pg.
Reviewed by Danny Low
Malcom Fisher is your basic henpecked English male. One night he runs
over a badger who turns out to be the giant Ingolf who is the keeper
of the Ring of the Nibelungs and the Tarnhelm. As Ingolf's Bane,
Malcom gets the ring and helm which makes him the ruler of the world.
There are a few problems though. Wotan, Alberich and others want the
ring too. That was why Ingolf was running around as a badger. It was a
disguise.
As you might expect, the story is basically a very humorous re-telling
of the ring cycle. There is a Gotterdammerung but the ending is happy
as expected. The humor is typical droll English humor. Nothing
unpleasant ever happens. The suspense is in what Holt will turn up
with the turn of the pages. There are the usual cliches but also some
original surprises. In all, this is a pleasant read. [***]
Fire on the Border
Kevin O'Donnell, Jr.
ROC $4.50 368 pg.
Reviewed by Danny Low
The alien Wayholders have attacked the Terran Association but their
purpose is not conquest but training. The Wayholders are fighting a
battle of survival against another alien race. They have found that
experienced soldiers have a better chance of success against these
aliens. The relatively defenseless Terran frontier worlds provide the
Wayholders with the right combination of resistance and ease of
conquest for the final training of their troops.
The leaders of the Association have been intimated by threats of full
scale conquest into allowing the Wayholders free reign to attack the
frontier worlds. This capitulation is kept secret but the reality of
the nonexistent defense of the frontier eventually leaks out and a
small rebel defense force forms.
This is an ambitious work. It is a military hard SF story that tries
to be more humanistic than most stories of this type. There are enough
detailed battle descriptions to satisfy any armchair general. The
attempt to be more humanistic is not quite as successful. The story
viewpoint bounces between the characters of Darcy Lee on the rebel
side and Kajiwara Hiroshi on the Association side. However instead of
concentrating on these two, O'Donnell tries to include too many other
characters. The result is too many spear carriers who are too
prominent in the story but who also suffer from the lack of
characterization typical of spear carriers.
Hiroshi is also an unsympathetic character. He is someone who lets his
principles do his thinking for him. He is caught in a situation where
there is a conflict of principles and takes the easy way out of
continuing to follow orders. His clone Daitaku is a much more
sympathetic person for being able to apply common sense thinking in
the same conflict of principles.
The most successful aspect of the story is the portrayal of the
downside of longevity. There are many people today who feel that a
practical form of immortality is just around the corner and they
proselytize about the benefits of such a achievement. O'Donnell shows
the more likely result of such an achievement.
This book is a well done military SF that also tries and partially
succeeds to be more than that. It presents some very good
extrapolations of the consequences of technology on society which is
an old hard SF tradition. The books tries for good characterization
and partially succeeds. In all, this is a book that even those who do
not like military SF will enjoy. [***]
The Girl, The Gold Watch,And Everything
John D MacDonald
1962 Fawcett $2.25 207 pp 0-449-14296-5
Reviewed by David M. Shea
The girl was Bonny Lee: beautiful, nineteen, and in her own ingenuous
description, "cheap, ignorant, and fun-loving". Kirby woke up one
night and found her in his bed. The gold watch was Kirby's only legacy
from his eccentric millionaire uncle. When he turned the silver hand,
time stopped. Everything was seductive Charla, suave Joseph, the
lawyers, the business men, the Internal Revenue Service, and everyone
else who wanted a piece of the $27 million dollars they assumed Kirby
had embezzled. Would Kirby stand up like a man, or would he be a ninny
all his life?
The author was best known for an endless string of gumshoe mysteries.
MacDonald went against form with this amusing book, of which SF people
seem mostly ignorant, though it was made into a TV-movie. Comprised of
equal parts SF, mystery, comedy, erotic fantasy, and pop psychology,
TGTGWAE is a hoot, fast-paced and funny all the way. Sure it's
mindless drivel, but it's good mindless drivel. What more do you want?
[****]
Hawk and Fisher
Simon Green
Ace Books $3.95 213 pg.
Reviewed by Danny Low
This is basically a whodunit with a very superficial fantasy coating.
Hawk and Fisher are Guardsmen for the city of Haven. They are assigned
to guard councilman Blackstone during a party. Naturally, Blackstone
is killed and the two must solve the mystery before dawn. This book
almost totally lacks any originality or imagination. The style is
straight modern police thriller and is an anachronism in the fantasy
setting. Haven is a clone of the Thieves World Sanctuary down to the
similarity in names. An unastute reader can solve the mystery well
before the two characters mainly because Hawk and Fisher commit a very
obvious blunder. Without this blunder the story would have ended half
way through the book. The only thing that saves this book from total
failure is the method by which Blackstone is murdered. That is
original and imaginative and fits completely in the fantasy setting.
One wonders if the method came first and the story was then built
around the method. However this one piece of inspiration is not enough
to recommend the book. [*]
The Heralds of Valdemar
Mercedes Lackey
Arrows of the Queen
DAW, 0-88677-311-3, 1987, $3.50, 320pp.
Arrow's Flight
DAW, 0-88677-222-2, 1987, $3.50, 318pp.
Arrow's Fall
DAW, 0-88677-255-9, 1988, $3.50, 320pp.
Reviewed by Mary Anne Espenshade
The first trilogy set in Valdemar, exploring the training of a Herald.
The Heralds of Valdemar are much more that the traditional post of
announcing guests to the Queen. They travel the country as impartial
arbiters in all judicial matters and disputes. Talia, of the
Holderfolk near the southern border of Valdemar is chosen by the
Companion Rolan to be the Queen's Own Herald. The first book
describes her training at the Herald's Collegium and the internal
strife in the government surrounding her selection. The second volume
follows Talia on her field apprenticeship with Kris and learning to
control her Gift. The third book brings the political problems to a
head with Lord Orthallen's plot with Ancar of Karse to invade
Valdemar. The descriptions of the society are fascinating, this is
not the typical uniform fantasy world. [****+]
In Between Dragons
Michael Kandel
Bantam $3.95 181 pg.
Reviewed by Danny Low
Sherman Potts is your typical nerdy SF reader. He fantasizes a lot.
The difference is Sherm's fantasies come right off the pages of books
in a magical library. Unfortunately, because Sherm's fantasies are
real, they have a way of getting totally out of hand and they threaten
to destroy the magic library and Sherm's real life.
The resolution is not as well done as the story but the ending is
acceptable. Sherm's fantasies are exactly that of an adolescent boy in
the troves of puberty. The book is filled with ironic humor. Sherm
knows that many of his problems will resolve itself when he grows up
but that does not help him cope with them any better. This is the
voice of the author speaking and Kandel injects many such instances of
humor throughout the book. In all, this is an accurate book and maybe
not to the taste of many people for that reason. [***]
The Last Herald-Mage
Mercedes Lackey
Magic's Pawn
DAW, 0-88677-352-0, 1989, $3.95, 350pp.
Magic's Promise
DAW, 0-88677-401-2, 1989, $4.50, 320pp.
Magic's Price
DAW, 0-88677-426-8, 1990, $4.50, 352pp.
Reviewed by Mary Anne Espenshade
Lackey's second Valdemar trilogy is actually set much earlier than the
first. Talia is reading about the adventures of the Last Herald-Mage
when she is first introduced in Arrows of the Queen, so the reader
knows going into this what the ending will be, at least according to
the legends within Valdemar. It's a good thing Lackey is a fast
writer because I could not put these books down once I had started
them. [*****]
Mad Roy's Light
Paula King
Baen $3.50 275 pg.
Reviewed by Danny Low
Jennan Bartlett is one of the few humans allowed into the Daruma Guild
that controls space trade in most of known space. Bartlett considers
herself more Daruman than human but finds herself in a situation where
her basic human values conflict with basic Daruman values. Bartlett
finds herself given what seems to be an impossible mission involving a
trade agreement between three races, one of them human. As it turns
out, there is a fourth race involved and this one is not bound by the
niceties of interstellar etiquette as it has evolved in known space.
Paula King acknowledges C. J. Cherryh and Andre Norton for their
inspiration and it shows. The feel of the story is very much a blend
of the style of the two authors. The male characters are not as
incompetent as those in a typical Cherryh story. Bartlett is a bit
more competent than a typical Norton heroine. The story is more the
hard SF of Cherryh than the soft fantasy of Norton. If you like either
Norton or Cherryh, you will most likely enjoy this book. [***]
Mighty Good Road
Melissa Scott
Baen 1990 306 pp $3.95 US 0-671-69873-7
Reviewed by David M. Shea
Freelance salvage specialist Gwynne Heikki accepts a contract to
return to the planet where she spent her childhood in search of a
missing cargo blimp. Little does she know that the very people hiring
her are the ones who have the vested interest in making certain the
real truth never comes out.
I have enjoyed previous works by this Campbell Award-winning writer.
This book contains a readable story, but the first half is told at
glacial pace -- it takes 131 pages to get the actual salvage operation
under way. Eventually the story speeds up (to a slow walk), but mostly
it consists of people standing around talking, lots of cyberjargon,
and reams of irrelevant physical description. I know that Ms. Scott is
capable of better than this. [**]
Never Deal With a Dragon
Robert N. Charrette
ROC Books $4.50 377 pg.
Reviewed by Danny Low
First, let me say that this is an excellent book. Hopefully that will
keeping you reading pass the next few sentences. This book is set in
the Shadowrun game universe. Shadowrun is what you get when you
combine AD&D with cyberpunk; Uzi toting elves who can jack into the
Net and cast Feeblemind spells on AI's. Seriously, the Shadowrun
universe is well constructed and makes more sense than most despite
the premise of magic working along side of science.
The book is written as a novel and not a game session transcript.
There are several coverging story lines told from different points of
view. The main story is about Sam Vernor's rite of passage. He is a
salaryman for the Renraku megacorporation. During the course of the
story, he realizes that Renraku is not the benevolent company he has
believed it to be. His escape from Renraku is abetted unwittingly by a
rival megacorporation seeking to steal Renraku secrets.
Vernor is driven by self preservation and a need to discovered what
happened to his sister to involve himself in this corporate war. The
story ends with Vernor thwarting the plot despite the double and
triple crossing that happens. At the end, Vernor has matured into
someone who can stand on his own with a little help from his friends.
Neither Vernor or any of the characters in the story are supermen who
succeed solely on their abilities. Everyone who survives does so with
the help of friends. This emphasis on friendship is rather refreshing
in an action story. All too often action stories revolve around a
superman and everyone else serves only to show off the superiority of
the hero through their incompetence or hero worship. This book succeed
on its own merits. You can read and enjoy this book totally
independent of any knowledge of the Shadowrun gaming system. [***]
Othersyde
J. Michael Straczynski
E.P.Dutton; 0-525-24873-0: 294 pages; June 1990: $18.95
Reviewed by Richard Weilgosh
Have you ever wished harm to come to someone? Combine this idea with
two lonely teenagers and their desperate wanting to belong and you
have the makings of a horrific story.
Chris Martino and his mother have recently moved to California from
the East following his parents separation. Roger Obst or 'Horseface'
to his classmates is a fat, abused and lonely boy who is looking for
friendship from anyone. Naturally these two become friends, and
together they suffer beatings at the hands of the high school jock.
'They use invisible ink to write messages back and forth, but one day
the message received is not the one sent. Instead it's a message from
the Othersyde. As instructed. Chris and Roger buy telegraph keys in
order to better communicate with the Othersyde. However Roger is the
only one to use the key and the Othersyde offers to help him get
revenge on those who have hurt him. Will he do it? If he does. at what
cost to himself and to his only friend? The climax of the Othersyde is
quite exceptional. This is a fast-paced. gritty novel of supernatural
horror with the gore kept to a minimum. Othersyde has a well executed
plot combined with very believable empathic characters. He tells this
thoroughly enjoyable tale with style and flair and it should appeal to
a wide audience.
Polar City Blues
Katherine Kerr
Bantam $4.50 262 pg.
Reviewed by Danny Low
This book is very unlike the fantasy books that Kerr wrote previously.
It has a certain gritty texture that suits the story very well.
However there is a sense of romanticism in this story that precludes
it being a 'book noir'. The story is about a major interstellar crisis
that threatens to destroy Polar City. Bobbie Lacey comes closest to
being the main character in what is basically an ensemble cast of
characters.
The story starts off with the murder of an Interstellar Confederation
diplomat. The murder eventually proves to be an assassin for the rival
Coreward Alliance. Chief of Police Al Bates has to solve the mystery
without creating an interstellar incident that will precipitate an
attack on Polar City. Lacey is drawn into the mystery as she is the
one person that various less than honest citizens will approach with
information.
This is not a "solve it before the author reveals it" type mystery. It
is more of a "see how the characters figure it out" type of story.
Kerr succeeds quite well. Nobody acts stupid. The various characters
fumble their way to the solution like intelligent people. The only
weak point is the ending. Kerr puts the main characters in a position
where they cannot escape death and literally has someone comes out of
left field to rescue them. There is some forewarning of the rescue but
it comes too close to the end. This is a minor flaw in an otherwise
excellent story. [****]
------ End ------
