Copy Link
Add to Bookmark
Report
OtherRealms Issue 29 Part 08
Electronic OtherRealms #29
Winter, 1991
Part 8 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.
Flights of Fantasy
Reviews by Laurie Sefton
This column we begin with an economics lesson. We're going to discuss
the concept of marginal utility. Those of you who suffered through
Econ 101 may have sudden stirrings at the back or your brain (or the
pit of your stomach, depending on how you did) concerning marginal
utility, marginal cost, and how the two help to set the price of an
item. Marginal utility is the "good" that a consumer gets out of one
more unit of a particular item. So, the marginal utility of the third
hot fudge sundae ought to be quite a bit less than the first. And
being a rational consumer, you won't pay more for the 3rd hot fudge
sundae -- in fact, you would be willing to pay quite a bit less. Now,
take this concept and stretch it a little to book buying. Are you, as
a rational consumer, willing to pay a larger amount for the nth in a
series of books, because you feel that you'll get that extra cost's
"good" out of the book?
The publishers are betting that you (or that enough of you) will.
Switching to hardcover in the middle of a series appears to be the
latest fashion. The publishers hope that you're hooked on a series or
an author to the point that you won't mind paying $20.00 instead of
$5.00. The question is: Is a book that is good enough to buy at $5.00,
still good enough to buy at $20.00?
Stronghold
Melanie Rawn
DAW, 1991, 0-99677-440-3, 487 pp, $21.95
Melanie Rawn's Stronghold is definitely worth your extra money.
Stronghold is the first book in the Dragon Star trilogy, which follows
from the Dragon Price trilogy. I find it interesting that while it is
advertised as such, the Dragon Prince trilogy really didn't come to a
conclusion at the end of Sunrunner's Fire, considering we left with
Andry, the Lord of Goddess Keep, hunting down and killing diarmadh'im
(the sorcerous race who are able to use starlight to power their
spells), and realizing that the crown prince Pol is of that race.
However, Andry has much more to worry about. The kingdoms are being
attacked by raiders, who appear to be interested only in destruction.
Andry and Pol are set against each other while both attempt to fight
off the raiders. Each refuses the help or the abilities of the other,
and with each attempt to breach the chasm between the two, each
becomes more disdainful and mistrusting of the other. Kingdoms are
lost and many are slaughtered because of the pride of two men. If you
remember the review of Dragon Prince, I mentioned that one of the
refreshing aspects was that no one misunderstood each other because of
stupidity that most children would have noticed. The
misunderstandings, hurt, and suspicion between Pol and Andry are due
to flaws in both their characters. Neither of them recognize it yet,
but they're reflections in a mirror. How far down the path of
destruction their shared flaw will lead them and their kingdoms
remains to be seen. Stronghold is the story of a deadly dance between
two very powerful men. [****+]
By The Sword
Mercedes Lackey
DAW, 1991, 0-88677-463-2 492pp, $4.95
By the Sword is one in a series that I worry about making the
transition. Mercedes Lackey pulls together the Vow and Honor diptych
with the Heralds of Valdemar trilogy. The uniting character is
Kerowyn, the granddaughter of sorcerous Kethryn, who suddenly finds
herself the owner of Need, which both requires her to fight for a
woman in distress, and forbids her to harm a woman. Kerowyn is trained
by Tarma and sent out on her way as a mercenary, but not before she
she crosses paths with Prince Darenthallis, the third son of the king
of Rethwellen. Kerowyn then spends the next several years rising
through the ranks as a mercenary, leading to her captaincy of her own
company.
The Heralds appear when Valdemar, threatened by outside forces, who
are using both mages and ensorcerlled fighters, entreats the King of
Rethwellen for aid. Kerowyn forces the issue, by bringing up a age-old
promise by the Rethwellen to Valdemar. Kerowyn finds herself fighting
for Valdemar, and torn between her duties as a mercenary captain and
her feelings for a Herald, still burning from her past.
By the Sword is unevenly paced, with a lot of detail up front, and
increasingly lighter detail until the deus ex machina end of the
novel. It seemed as if this was two books, and Lackey was forced to
tie them together, and the second book lost. The mercenary scenes were
also lighter than needed; By the Sword suffers in this respect by
comparison to Elizabeth Moon's Paksennarion's Deed trilogy. Too much
is tied up too well and too neatly at the end of this novel to push a
reader towards buying a hardback to get the next stories. [****-]
The Dagger and the Cross
Judith Tarr
Doubleday/Foundation, 1991, 0-385-41182-0, 474 pp, $10.95 (Trade),
$21.95 (Hardcover)
The Dagger and the Cross is the sequel to Alamut, Judith Tarr's story
of love, hate, alienation and desire, set during the 11th century
Crusades. At the end of Alamut, Aidan, Christian knight and Prince of
Rhiyana, and Morgiana, assassin and Muslim had found their peace
together. Now they waited for Gwydion, King of Rhiyana and Aidan's
twin, to come with a Papal dispensation to allow them to be wed. But
once again, petty jealousies and the fear and hatred of the
"elvenkind" come into play. An important document is stolen, and Aidan
and Morgiana are cast against each other, just as the armies of
Saladin and the Christian crusaders are thrown into conflict.
Once again, Tarr works at multiple levels within the story. There is
the animosity between Christian and Muslim, human and "elf", and the
interfamilial warring that erupts when jealousies over past love; such
as between Morgiana and Joanna, or perceived preference and maternal
love; between Aimery, Joanna son by her husband Ranulf, and Ysabel,
Joanna's daughter by Aidan and inheritor of Aidan's magic. One point
that I found exceptionally interesting was King Gwydion's reaction to
his niece Elen's taking of a Muslim lover. After all the talk and
action of need for acceptance that kept being expressed by the
Rhiyanan's Gwydion's anger at Elen's choice came as a bit of surprise.
It seemed as if the "elves" needed to If practice a bit of what they
preached. There almost seemed to be a duality of freedom -- the "elves"
were free to pick their lovers, as they weren't free to do much else,
while the humans were expected to act within the constraints of their
own society. Either that, or Gwydion was showing more than a little
chauvinism; while his brother was free to choose a Muslim assassin as
a lover and wife, his niece would not have that choice available to
her. A small, but interesting point, which lends itself to the
complexity of the story.
If you haven't read Alamut or The Dagger and the Cross yet, go to the
bookstore now. You won't find this level of writing often. [****+]
Raising the Stones
Sheri S. Tepper,
Doubleday/Foundation, September 1990, 453 pp $19.95, 0-385-41510-9
Reading Raising the Stones is damn close to a transcendental
experience. After I finished it, I was overwhelmed by the story and
it's implications. Raising the Stones points out the pain and
suffering that religion can cause, how evil can be done in the name of
a religious deity, but also how religious worship or a deity can be
incorporated into a harmonious life -- even if it is the deity who makes
the life harmonious. While Tepper once again makes the comparison
between a good and kind matriarchal society and a harsh and evil
patriarchal society, the lines are not as broadly drawn as before. For
example, the High Baidee have taken their entire religious instruction
from their "Prophetess", who gave out such advice as "don't be sexist
pigs", and twisted it around into a number of dietary laws. While the
High Baidee are almost comical in their misinterpretation of what
would be considered fairly useful advice, the people of Voorstod have
taken the worst of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, and bent it to
their ways. The colony of Voorstod exists because their ancestors were
driven from Earth for being so warlike and despicable. On Voorstod,
they continue to plot and plan the overthrow of the known worlds for
the glory of their one god, and by that, to bring about the end of the
universe. At the same time, Hobbs Land, a agricultural colony, is
quietly being populated by "gods", or more closely, the reconstructed
personalities of the recently dead held in a gestalt with what appears
to be an intelligent fungus. The "gods' make their worshippers happy,
productive, and fill them with a sense of ease. At the same time, they
make little or no demands on the moral or ethical structure already in
place. It is inevitable that these two systems come into violent
contact.
Beyond the immediate story, Raising the Stones is a question about the
place of religion in society. Does society need a person, place or
thing to venerate, and will that religion always become the reason
behind actions that people refuse to take responsibility for? Tepper
always provides questions to ponder. [*****]
Lammas Night
Katherine Kurtz
Ballantine, 1983, 0-345-29516-1, 438 pp , $4.95
Lammas Night is a re-issue of a 1983 book by Katherine Kurtz, but I
suspect that it was originally issued somewhere in the 3-digit range,
given how many people I know who have looked for it, and how few
people actually read it back in 1983. Lammas Night is not in the
Deryni universe -- it's set in Britain in 1940. A witches's coven is
attempt to stop the psychic, as well as physical attacks by Nazi
Germany. This isn't just any coven however, the witches are also
working in the highest echelons of the British military and
intelligence. Their plan? To "protect" the British Isles by forming a
grand coven of every witch and magic worker in Britain, and projecting
a psychic shield around the island. This has been done before, but
only at the cost of either a willing royal sacrifice or a willing
substitute
Into this walks Prince William, the "extra prince" of the Royal
family. You won't find a Price William among the sons of King George V
in this world. However, in Lammas Night, Prince William is both the
twin brother of Prince John (who did exist, and died at the age of
13), and a representation of what happens with "extra" royals -- Prince
William feels useless, more of a public relations dummy than a human
being. The Prince finds himself drawn into the covens' workings, and
heads towards a fate which eerily parallels that of Prince George,
Duke of Kent in real life. Lammas Night is a entertaining mixture of
magic and intrigue. [****]
Deryni Magic, A Grimoire
Katherine Kurtz
Del Rey, January 1991, 0-345-36117-2, 371 pp, $5.95
Kurtz has also recently come out with Deryni Magic, A Grimoire. While
this is set in her Deryni Universe, it is not fiction per se. It's
actually a source book for the background and implementation of Deryni
magic. There are parts of the book which are copied out of previous
Deryni books (and in one case, at least twice), and parts which appear
to either be drafts or short stories never before seen. The book does
give the Deryni fan a concrete and consistent base for how the Deryni
universe operates. [****]
Sunder, Eclipse & Seed
Elyse Guttenberg
ROC, December 1990, 0-451-45046-9, 351 pp$4.95
Sunder, Eclipse and Seed made the review list this time for a couple
of reasons, one good, and one bad. First it has one of the more
interesting female triumvirates of goddesses I have seen in a time.
They're definitely based on the maiden, mother, crone archetypes, but
are twisted to match the almost fatalistic attitude of the people who
worship them. The role of religion in this world seems to be more of
"what can we get out of you" rather than "what can we do for you". It
appears the the latter was twisted into the former along the way.
Calyx, the protagonist, finds herself able to have lucid dreams, but
because she is the daughter of the local liege lord, she isn't able to
go off for proper training, Even when she is trained in secret by one
of the monks, she isn't taken seriously more because it would break up
the monks' social structure and societal power than any rational
reason the monks might have. In Calyx's world, those who have the
power would rather stand by and let their world collapse around them
than engage in any creative thought. Calyx has to fight both on a
physical and a psychic level to save her world.
One thing about the book, though -- nowhere does it say that it is the
first part of a trilogy until you get to the author's biography at the
end. I'm not quite sure what was the rationale for this from the
publisher -- whether the reader wouldn't care, or that they were afraid
it wouldn't be bought. As it is, I'll now check the cover, cover page
and the end page of the book before I start it. I think the publishers
lose on this fight. [***+]
P.J. Plauger
Mitch Wagner
Originally published in UNIX Today!
Republished with permission of the author.
From the elegant title to the low-key opening paragraph to memorable
closing, "Child of All Ages" is a perfect little gem of a story in 19
pages.
It was one of the first and last fiction efforts of P.J. Plauger,
who -- in the words of the more melodramatic species of pulp fiction-led
a double life. And Plauger's other life was taking up too much time
for him to continue with fiction long after the 1975 publication of
"Child of All Ages."
Plauger is a Unix programmer, who marketed the first Unix workalike,
Idris, through his Westford, Mass., company, Whitesmiths, before Unix
itself was available for mass consumption. He made the first
commercial C and FORTRAN compilers, and has co-authored several
seminal textbooks, including a C manual and The Elements of
Programming Style.
But fiction is his best love, and, with the sale of Whitesmiths about
18 months ago, he is looking forward to returning to it.
"It was simply a matter that the world of business sucked me in," said
Plauger, 46, in a telephone interview from his Massachusetts home. "It
was too demanding and it took up too much of my life."
During the early '70s, he published half a dozen short stories in
Analog. He won the John W. Campbell award for Best New Science Fiction
Writer of the Year. "Child of All Ages" was nominated for the Hugo
and Nebula Awards.
"I'll be honest with you," said Plauger. "Had 'Child of All Ages' won
either a Nebula or a Hugo, I'd probably be a science fiction writer
already, today. I couldn't stand losing."
His fiction work was done while he was an employee of AT&T Bell Labs.
He worked on a remote terminal at his home, hooked up to a Digital
Equipment PDP 11-20 and later a PDP 11-45, running Unix. He worked in
the ed text editor, using the nroff formatter for printouts.
Unknown to him, the work made him a minor celebrity among the Unix
pioneers at Bell Labs. "On my last day, in 1975, I found a strange
little gift. [Unix co-inventor] Dennis Ritchie had done a three-page
critique of my novel, and left it for me in E-mail. I used it, too,"
said Plauger. "Turns out that people at Bell Labs had been going
through my directory all along, looking to see what I'd been writing
lately."
Noted critic Norman Spinrad, who publishes a column in Isaac Asimov's
Science Fiction Magazine, said he remembers Plauger as showing signs
of being a very talented newcomer.
"I remember that one story, the 'Child of All Ages,' " said Spinrad.
"That thing stood out. It was elegantly written. It was an emotional
story, not the kind of thing I would associate with [hard-core]
science fiction.
"It seemed like one of those stories that" -- he paused for wording. "It
was one of those stories by a newcomer that seems to have been written
by a guy who's been around for years.
------ End ------
