Electronic OtherRealms #17 July, 1987 Part 5 Words of Wizdom Reviews by Chuq Von Rospach Copyright 1987 by Chuq Von Rospach The Riddle of the Wren, Charles de Lint, [***+] A Night in the Netherhells, Craig Shaw Gardner, [****] The Pig, The Prince & The Unicorn, Karen A Brush, [***+] Archer's Goon, Diana Wynne Jones, [**] Beyond Wizardwall, Janet Morris, [***] Mage, The Hero Discovered, Volume 1, Matt Wagner, [**+] The Net, Loren J. MacGregor, [****] The Death of King Arthur Jackbird, Bruce Boston, [***] She Comes when You're Leaving & Other Stories, Bruce Boston, [***] Ascian in Rose, Charles de Lint, [***+] It's been an interesting month. It started by being late to press with the last issue, with some projects at work all coming due at the same time, and a new cockatoo that decided that it was more fun to pull books out of my hand and chew on them than let me read. Between all of these endeavors, it was impossible to concentrate on reading anything involved, so I decided it was a good time to work on my Fun pile. I went looking for escapism, long a part of Science Fiction. And I'm happy to announce that SF escapism is alive and well. One thing I've been meaning to explain is how books get chosen for review. I'm only going to cover what I do -- each contributor handles their own books differently. I get books from two sources: directly from the publisher in the form of review copies, and books that I buy. With review copies, everything gets checked in to the Stuff Received column, the publicity material, blurbs, cover info gets read. I generally retire reprints because there are too many new books to devote space to older works. First novels go into the review pile, as do works from the authors that most people are interested in (Steven Brust, R.A. MacAvoy, Larry Niven and Gene Wolfe as examples). Anything else that looks interesting goes into the pile as well. Depending on the month, 50-60% of the books I get don't make the first cut. Each editor has favorite authors -- Alan reads Crowley, Dan'l reads Moorcock. These are put in the appropriate places. From what's left, I try to come up with a reading schedule for myself, usually about half a dozen books, depending on how strong the month's titles are. The rest I either farm off to a contributor or put on the shelf. Out of about 30 review copies a month, around 10 get scheduled. Not all of them get reviewed. Sometimes a book goes to an person who either hates it or finds that it isn't to their taste and they feel they can't give it a fair review. I also toss books I buy into my reading queue. At any time, my in-box holds about 45 books that I want to read -- and in at least one case, there is a book on that shelf that has been there for three years, waiting for the right moment (it is Don Quixote). Generally, I add 6-8 books from the review lists and a similar number from the store every month, and I read between 10 and 15 books a month. The queue tends to grow over time, so every so often the books that never made it out get retired. If I have a choice between reading a "name" book and a promising or unknown author, I tend to read the latter. I never read book two (or three, or seventeen, or...) unless I've been following the series -- partly because I don't have time to read all the previous volumes and partly because I don't think most multi-book series ought to be -- they're a convenience to the author and publisher, but they tend to be crutches as well. If you think that it's tough to get a book through the maze of my in-box, you should see what happens to them when they come out. I'd like to have a moment of silence for The Riddle of the Wren by Charles de Lint (Ace Fantasy, 295 pages, $2.95). This book was unfortunate enough to be the one being read when things went crazy -- over a period of two weeks, it got carried around work, sat on, stuck in backpacks, carried around Baycon, watered in the garden, roasted in the sun, and given the worst possible reading environment. The cover is torn, half the pages (literally) have fallen out of the binding, and the book need to be painlessly destroyed and put out of its misery. Few books I've read recently would fare well against this kind of neglect, but despite the treatment it was given, I enjoyed this and it kept pulling make back into the story until I finished it. This is a standard High Fantasy quest story -- a fourteen year old urchin is sent a Quest in a dream, meets Important Folk, fights Nasty Foe, and finally wins the Great Battle for Peace and Apple Pie. There is no original theme or action in this book, except that de Lint made the protagonist female. Even in this, he never does anything with the sex of the child -- she's really neuter in action. The lack of originality isn't a problem though. De Lint is purposefully taking a familiar story and writing it well. It kept my attention when lesser books would have been shelved and it succeeds in what it sets out to be. It is a Good Read, and if you're looking for a diverting and enjoyable book, comes highly recommended. If you're looking for Fun, you need look no further than Craig Shaw Gardner and his Ebenezum trilogy. The third book, A Night in the Netherhells (Ace Fantasy, 185 pages, $2.95) is just out, and it keeps up the frenetic pace set in the first two books. Ebenezum, master wizard with an unfortunate allergy to magic, his apprentice Wuntvor and their entourage (Hendrek, the Conan clone; Snarks, a demon kicked out of the Netherhells because he has to tell the truth, Norei, witch and love-interest for Wuntvor; Alea, vaudeville singer and love-interest for Wuntvor; and Hubert, the singing dragon) have made it to Vushta, city of ten thousand delights, where Ebenezum can be cured. Unfortunately Guxx Unfufadoo, the rhyming demon, has sucked Vushta down into the Netherhells. Our intrepid explorers must go and get it back, foiling at the same time the plot by the demons to take over the Earth. Gardner succeeds where many authors fail -- he takes a silly premise and keeps it silly for the entire book. Just when you think you've got things figured out, he throws in a ferret. If one ferret isn't funny enough, how about 60? At the same time he is telling a good story without ever letting the jokes get in the way. Many authors in the same situation run out of jokes before they run out of pages, and the book falls flat. Gardner actually did a trilogy, with the final book as crisp and silly as the first chapter. It is, shall we say, a hell of a book. Imagine, if you will, a Tolkien clone, where Bilbo is a pig. That's the basis of Karen A. Brush's first novel, The Pig, The Prince & the Unicorn (Avon Fantasy, 216 pages, $2.95). The Pig is Quadroped, straight from Charlotte's Web, chosen to be the Key Bearer when a bird drops the Key on his nose. The Prince is Glasgerion, Prince and Bard, who hopes to escort the Key Bearer to the Gate so it can be locked. The Gate keeps the Black Unicorn, a nasty beast, locked in Chaos where it can't do any harm. Unfortunately the magic of the Gate needs to be renewed once every hundred years by the Bearer, who must re-lock the Gate, or the Unicorn will return to reclaim his lands of Ravenor and lay waste to the wonderful Kingdom. In Quadro's path (of course someone has to be in his path...) are the Warlords, leaders of the Black Unicorn's kingdom, and their friends the Pitch Fiends, the Water Demons, the Death Wings, and the nasty Manslayers. Almost surprisingly, this book works. I found it strange that even though most animals couldn't talk to humans, nobody really found a talking pig with a magic Key unusual. Quadro is allowed inside, and brought to table to eat with the rest of the folks, carrying on conversation all the while, without anyone seeming to realize that they're talking to a (hopefully housebroken) pig. There are Many Adventures, and Quadro seems to spend a lot of time saving the lives of his protectors, and he is captured, and he escapes, and he reaches the Gate in time. Does he lock it? I won't tell -- JBrush carefully works in several moral questions as to whether it is the right thing to do, and I won't ruin it for her. By doing so, she takes a Quest book and gives it some complexity and flavor, making it a Good Story and Fun. He was Large, Ugly, and not leaving their kitchen. He was a Wizard's Enforcer. He was Archer's Goon. So says the blurb to Archer's Goon by Diana Wynne Jones (Berkley Fantasy, 241 pages, $2.95). This is her second novel, and is the least successful of the books this month. 12 year old Howard Sykes comes home one day to find Archer's Goon in the kitchen. He won't leave until he gets the 2,000 words his father owes. Suddenly, this normal British community is engaged in open warfare between seven wizards and Howard's family. It seems that a series of 2,000 words have been used by one of the seven to keep the rest from leaving the city limits for the last 13 years, and suddenly they all want to break the spell so they can take over the world. A major problem: nobody seems to know how the words work, and nobody knows which wizard is entrapping them all. So, suddenly, after 13 years, everyone tries to get the words at the same time. Jones seems to be trying to write a satire on Government -- each wizard owns a specific segment of the city: public works, policy, sewers, utilities, recreation. Each uses their own power to try to bend the will of Mr. Sykes into writing them the 2,000 words. The tear up the street, dig ditches, turn off the power and gas, send bagpipe bands to serenade them, and sit in their kitchen and refuse to leave. This book, while it tries to be Fun, fails. There are many plot holes large enough to drive trucks through that kept me from enjoying the humor. The worst is the Haunted House syndrome that plagues many horror books: a family is besieged by evil spirits in a house. Any sane family would get out and then figure out how to deal with the problem. But no, rather than leave the city and get away from all these nasty wizards (after all, they can't leave the city -- that's what they're trying to fix), this family cowers in its house, taking all this abuse and going "What do I do? What do I do?" The answer is simple: get out. But if they do, it's a forty page book. In other words, Archer's Goon suffers from idiot plot complex -- the people involved have to be idiots, because any rational person would have acted in such a way that the story is over in 10 minutes. Another problem is the wizards. Five of them show up early, and it becomes obvious early on that once you figure out who the two missing people are and why they're missing, you've figured out what's going. To be fair, it isn't exactly easy to do this, but I also felt the ending was somewhat arbitrary and patched on. If you can read around the plot holes and enjoy the book for what it is, I think it can be enjoyable. I couldn't. The Thieves' World anthology series has spawned a series of novels by author Janet Morris, who has taken the characters to the Wizardwall. I've never been overly impressed with Morris' writing, but Beyond Wizardwall, the third in the series (Ace Fantasy, 250 pages, $2.95) is significantly better than its predecessors, and it shows a polish that I haven't seen before. She takes Tempus, Niko, Randall and the various gods and other denizens and builds up a complicated plot as everyone vies to either grab or protect Niko's soul, save the Empire, and free Nisibisi. This book is of interest only to folks who follow Thieves' World, but well worth reading, even if you've skipped the first two novels. Mage, The Hero Discovered, Volume 1 by Matt Wagner (Starblaze Graphics, $12.95 color graphic novel) is the first five issues of the comic book Mage issued as a color graphic novel. It's well written -- Wagner has a dry sense of humor, and his protagonist, the savior of the people and full of super powers, doesn't believe this is happening to him. The graphic novel is a different format than most people are used to, and to some degree is an acquired taste. My big problem with this volume is that it stops at a bad point -- like most multi-volume stories the reader is left hanging, something I find distasteful. You might want to wait on this until future volumes are out so that you can read the complete story. The Net, by Loren J. MacGregor (Ace Science Fiction Special, 225 pages, $2.95) is the first of the second series of specials edited by the late Terry Carr, and one of the last books he bought and edited. The Special series was designed as a showcase of the best first novels -- previous books included William Gibson's Neuromancer and the first novels by Lucius Shepard and Kim Stanley Robinson. A tough act to follow, especially since this is MacGregor's first professional sale, not just the first novel. If this book doesn't raise the ripples of a Gibson or a Shepard, it is because MacGregor doesn't have the short story reputation helping to point people at the book. It's a simple plot, with complex overtones -- there are two companies in fierce competition with each other. The protagonist runs one, having wrested control from her father -- she's honest, works hard, plays fair. The antagonist is the son of the owner of the other company, spoiled, brash, given to excess, trying to wrest what he feels is due from his father. He makes a bet. If she can steal a jewel from his museum without getting caught, he'll cede certain businesses to her. If she loses, she does the same. Of course, he's sure he'll win, and she's sure that she can take him. The competition is subtle, complex, and the reactions are real. MacGregor has put a lot of work into building the supporting cast -- Jincluding one major character in a wheelchair; physically hindered but not disabled by any means. This character points out a painful flaw in much fiction these days -- few authors are willing to build a convincing mix of characters or a complex society. Writers should read this book and see what happens when you build real people into the books, even in secondary roles --Jand real people don't always have legs to walk on, or ears to hear with, or eyes to see. Too often we seem to imply physical perfection in the people who will conquer space -- an implication that is a subtle bias that we should work to remove. This is a good book, not by any stretch of the imagination a Fun book like the ones I reviewed above. It is complex and subtle, it says and implies things that have to be thought about, and it involves the reader at several levels. I don't think it can be recommended highly enough, and MacGregor is definitely someone to watch in the future. Briefly noted, and for Arthurian fans only, is The Death of King Arthur (Penguin Classic, translated by James Cable, $5.95), an anonymous French work from the 1200's. It's an interesting version of the classic mythos, but not terribly accessible for people who haven't read the field heavily. Small Press Notes: Bruce Boston has published widely in the small press magazines. Some of his stories, all horror oriented, have been collected and published in two collections through the Berkeley Poets' Workshop and Press [P.O. Box 459, Berkeley, CA 94701]. The first is Jackbird (1976, 85 pages, $2.00), which contains six stories from places such as New Worlds and Fiction. The other is She Comes when You're Leaving & Other Stories (1982, 62 pages, $3.95) which contains eight of his works. They're good, generally as good as the horror I've seen printed in Twilight Zone, and if you like horror, well worth tracking down. The other small press book I want to bring to your attention is Ascian in Rose by Charles de Lint (The Axolotl Press, 3915 1st Ave. N.E., Seattle, WA 98105). This is actually a novella and a sequel to de Lint's book Moonheart, which I haven't read yet. This story stands on its own for the most part, as an ex-Biker works to protect a young woman from an evil enchantress who wants to sacrifice the girl. This is a limited edition 875 copy print run, signed, and available in leather, cloth, or perfect binding (the first 25 numbered). This book is for de Lint fans, but a good story to read. Alice Sheldon, An Appreciation Alice Sheldon, who wrote under the name James Tiptree, Jr. died on May 19, 1987 of self-inflicted wounds after killing her husband and warning her lawyer to notify police. She was 71, her husband was 84. Sheldon was evidently depressed because of the continuing illness of her husband, who was bed-ridden and had recently gone blind. As Tiptree, she was a critical success and a prolific short story writer. Her most recent work was Starry Rift, published in 1986. It's hard for me to say much about Sheldon. I've enjoyed her works over the years, but she stayed behind the pseudonym for most of her writing life, which makes it hard to discuss the person. As a writer, she was exemplary, and never got the public recognition she deserved. But her writing lives on, and speaks for itself. There has been a lot of pain and anguish over this death on the computer networks -- many people have had problems accepting the fact that she killed herself. So do I, for I shall miss the times she has shared and enriched my life. But I can also understand, I think, about two people who love each other enough to believe that life without each other is no life, and to take a chance that there will be togetherness on the other side. So I'm hurt that she chose to leave us, but I'm hopeful that she found what she was looking for. And when you think about it, she really isn't gone. The body has passed beyond us, but open up any of her books, and she can rejoin your life and bring it new warmth. If only I could tell them how I feel inside, she thinks. So light and free, all duties done.... And at last I know it all; my whole life is my own.... All known. Like a child on a high hill, like a first plane ride --I can see it all from horizon to horizon, and think it all over. And me ... funny, I'd forgotten myself. I suppose they count this as tragic. Oh, if I only could tell them--all they see is this rotting body; they don't see I'm perched in it like a bird in an old tree. When the tree goes I'll only float away. Maybe, when it crumbles, could I just fly away, free? Flying to death.... But such a beautiful sunrise -- so comfortable, so radiant and limitless! I wish they had time to enjoy. . . . When you're dying you have time. And you don't need help to die. No arrangements. You can just do it, all alone. Right the first time.... Brightness Falls From The Air: James Tiptree, Jr. (1915-1987) Brightness Falls from the air; Queens have died young and fair; Dust hath closed Helen's eye. I am sick, I must die. Lord, have mercy on us! -- Thomas Nashe May you find the peace you sought, the togetherness you craved. If there is no quality to life, is there meaning? May you be together, wherever forever is. You leave your family behind, and we grieve, yet you aren't gone, merely frozen in an instant of time. May we have the strength to remember you for what you were and what you meant to us, and may we keep your name before our eyes forever. You are missed, you are loved, you are with us. -- chuq von rospach She was one hell of a writer. I hope that if there is anything after this world, then she is being cherished and comforted with the same amount of love that shone from her works. I hope somewhere there is peace. -- Fred Bals bals%nutmeg.DEC.COM As you undoubtedly know by the time you read this sentence, Alice Sheldon is dead by her own hand. Her husband had suffered from Alzheimer's Disease for many years; in the end, she took his life, then her own. All evidence leads one to believe that this was a case of mercy-killing in both instances. Sheldon wrote a great many stories about love, hate, and killing over the years; two of them affected me profoundly. The first was "The Women Men Don't See," whose appearance in F&SF shocked me out of a great deal of what I can only describe as middle-class male complacency. For that story, and many others in lesser degree, I am eternally grateful to Alice Sheldon. The other affected me in a way rather opposite to the way I believe she intended it -- "Houston, Houston, Do You Read?" seems to me a story of misanthropy in the feminist sense, an attitude that I have never learned to live with. Yet Sheldon lived with her husband, apparently happily, for many years; she was apparently willing to take her own life to end his suffering. Somewhere between the poles of violent antimasculinism and profound love (the latter, also, is expressed in many Tiptree stories) lies a human being. And that, is what has been lost in Alice Sheldon. A human being. One possessed by love and hate, by good and bad...and incidentally by a talent which allowed her to change my life with one story and enrage me with another. A human being who, like all of us, was ultimately alone, but one who reached out to touch all of us, just a little bit. A human being like you and me. Rest in peace, Alice Sheldon. You are not alone. -- Dan'l Danehy-Oakes ptsfa!djo OtherRealms Reviewing the worlds of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror. Editor & Publisher Chuq Von Rospach Associate Editor Laurie Sefton Contributing Editors Dan'l Danehy-Oakes James Brunet Alan Wexelblat OtherRealms #17 July, 1987 Copyright 1987 by Chuq Von Rospach. All Rights Reserved. One time rights have been acquired from the contributors. All rights are hereby assigned to the contributors. OtherRealms may be reproduced in its entirety only for non-commercial purposes. No article may be reprinted without the express permission of the author. OtherRealms is published quarterly (March, June, September, December) by: Chuq Von Rospach 35111-F Newark Blvd. Suite 255 Newark, CA. 94560 Usenet: chuq@sun.COM Delphi: CHUQ Review copies should be sent to this address for consideration. Subscriptions OtherRealms is available for the usual bribes & trades: a copy of your zine, submissions, letters, comments, artwork or because I want you to see it. People who don't like to write can still get OtherRealms for money: $2.50 for a single issue, or $8.50 for four issues. Folks in the publishing industry can qualify for a free subscription. Just ask. OtherRealms is available at Future Fantasy bookstore, Palo Alto, California. Stores interested in OtherRealms should contact me. Electronic OtherRealms An electronic, text-only version of OtherRealms is available on a number of different computer networks and bulletin board systems. On the Arpanet, Bitnet, CSNet, and UUCP networks, send E-mail to chuq@sun.COM to subscribe. On USENET, OtherRealms is distributed in the group rec.mag.otherrealms. It is also available on the Delphi timesharing service and a number of Bulletin Board systems across the country. Submissions OtherRealms publishes articles about Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror. The primary focus is reviews of books that otherwise might be missed in the deluge of new titles published every year, but the magazine is open to anything involving books. Authors are welcome to submit articles for the Behind the Scenes feature section, where you want to talk about the research and background that went into your book. I'm also interested in author interviews. Any thing of interest to the reader of book-length fiction is welcome at OtherRealms. We don't cover shorter lengths, media, or fannish news. Submissions can be made on either Macintosh or MS-DOS disks (disks will be returned), via one of the computer networks, or the old-fashioned way if you insist. Submission deadline is the 15th of the month prior to publication. Lettercol deadline is the first of the month of publication. OtherRealms is always on the lookout for genre art, from small clip- art pieces to front and back cover. Cartoons, line art, anything with a genre flavor is welcome here! Book Ratings in OtherRealms All books are rated with the following guidelines. Most books receive [***]. Ratings may be modified a half step with a + or a -, so [***-] is somewhat better than [**+] [*****] One of the best books of the year [****] A very good book -- above average [***] A good book [**] Flawed, but has its moments [*] Not recommended [] Avoid at all costs Back Issues OtherRealm Back Issues are available. Electronic versions of the previous two issues only are available by contacting me at the addresses in the masthead. Hardcopy versions of the following issues are available: E-mail format (each $1.50) #2: Karen Joy Fowler, Wasp, Writer's Workshops #3: Dervish Daughter, Listening to Science Fiction #6: SF Magazines, Wizenbeak, The Sorcery Within, A Jungle of Stars Magazine format (each $2.50) #9: Reviewing the Reviewers, The Dream Years, Schismatrix, Fiction by Jim Brunet #10: The art of paperbacks, It, Dimensions of Science Fiction, fiction by Fred Bals #11: The Diadem, Always Coming Home, Broken Worlds, Flamesong #12: Voice of the Visitor, Silent Tower, Little Big, Agents of Insight, Quest of the Riddle Master, Echoes of Chaos, Children of Flux and Anchor #14: Time Out of Mind, Voice for Princess, The Myth Series, Living in the Ether, No Safe Place, Borderland, The SF Book of Lists #15: Darkchild-Bluesong-Starsilk, SF: The 100 Best Novels, The Regiment, Adventures of Hajii Baba of Isapahan, A Door into Ocean, With a Single Spell. #16: Non-Western Mythology, The River of Time, The Flame Key, Liege-Killer, Battle Circle, The Native Tongue Series, Terry Carr Appreciations.