Electronic OtherRealms #19 Winter, 1987 Part 6 Pico Reviews Part 1 Arrows of the Queen by Mercedes Lackey [****+] DAW, $2.95, 1987, 320 pages This is the best first fantasy novel I've read in a good long while. I picked up the book because Mercedes Lackey is the finest lyricist in fandom. Her facility with words is evident in the clear, flowing prose style. It is a fairly standard coming-of-age story: Talia, a runaway, is chosen to become a Herald of the Queen. Talia growing up and helping to defend the kingdom against it enemies forms the rest of the story. What really makes this book special, however, is its characterization. Everyone rings exceptionally true, the characters are people who have real problems and triumphs. An excellent start for a novelist I expect to read for some time. -- John Wenn wenn@gandalf.cs.cmu.edu Arslan M. J. Engh [****] Arbor House, 1987, $ 17.95 This is a disturbing book, not the least because it is so well written and effective. How was it that, in a field as rife with awards and reviewers as SF, nobody noticed this book when it first came out eleven years ago? The book begins as the inhabitants of Kraftsville, Illinois, learn the alarming news that General Arslan of (of all places!) Turkistan has achieved control over the armies of the world (yes, all of them): it is the twentieth century, and the world has been conquered by a brilliant and ruthless man, Arslan. But this book is about the people of Kraftsville and their reaction to Arslan's presence among them after he decides to make his temporary headquarters there. This reaction is characterized by the two narrators: Franklin Bond, former school principal, who adapts to the new situation but does not accept it, and Hunt Morgan, who both loves and hates Arslan, typifying the new era where all value, but also much suffering, is ultimately due to Arslan. The portrait that results is quite impressive, as ordinary people find means to cope with quite extraordinary suffering, and with the presence among them of a man at once fascinating and ruthless. The two narrators are quite clearly distinguished (they do have different writing styles: I found Hunt's hard to take), and the human aspect of the story that they convey makes this book less bitter than it might have been, and make it very rewarding. This is serious SF, but it is also a good, if not always pleasant, read: not to be missed. -- Fernando Gouvea Atta by Francis Bellamy [**] Pocket, 1974, 172 pages. This story is closer to the fantasy of Wind in the Willows than true science fiction. One man is mysteriously shrunken into the insect world and there he meets intelligent ants with a primitive but complex civilization. The story is told after all the events have happened and consequently there is a great deal of foreshadowing as the story progresses, a technique I found somewhat annoying. russell.Wbst@Xerox.COM Bard IV, Ravens' Gathering Keith Taylor [***] Ace, 235 pp, $2.95, 0-441-04924-9 A good sequel with a disturbing ending. Felimid mac Fal and Gudrun Blackhair fight their final battle together. King Arthur gets thrown in the middle of the book, but for no more than a side trip. The story drags down to a "why bother" ending. Maybe this was the only way out of the current story line, but it could have been handled differently. -- Laurie Sefton The Blood of Ten Chiefs ed. by Richard Pini [***] TOR, $6.95, 1986, 314 pages This short story anthology is a set of shared-world stories based on the comic book series Elfquest, one story for each of the ten chiefs in the wolfriders history. The stories are linked by connecting passages of a storyteller relating these histories/legends to give advice to members of the tribe. Good background if you're already an Elfquest fan, otherwise probably not too interesting. --Mary Anne Espenshade mae@aplvax.arpa The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter [****] Harper, $3.95, 1979, 164 pages This book takes several classic fairy tales (Beauty and the Beast [twice], Puss in Boots, Sleeping Beauty, Little Red Riding Hood [thrice], and others) and retells them in a hazy, sensuous fashion. This has much in common with Tanith Lee's "Red As Blood" collection, but important differences also exist. While Tanith Lee's stories are elegant and ironic, Angela Carter's stories are moody, atmospheric pieces much more concerned with style then plot. One short story, "In The Company of Wolves", was made into an underrated movie of the same name. I found it amazing how such small tale was directly translated into a movie; the film only added the opening and closing scenes in the 20th century, all else was directly taken from the 12 pages of the story. Recommended. -- John Wenn wenn@gandalf.cs.cmu.edu Challenge of the Clans [***] The Dark Druid Kenneth C. Flint [**+] Bantam Books, 326 pp, 0-553-25553-3, 0-553-26715-9 Two books about Finn Mac Cumhal, one of Eire's greatest legendary warriors. These books break off from the earlier Flint books, while the Celtic flavor is there, a Norman influence be peeking though. Instead of both brave hearted female warriors, Finn's ill-fated wife is a fading lily; she needs to be rescued. The second book is marred by a bad cover. Technically, it's not too bad, but it's better suited for a romance novel than a Celtic legend retold. -- Laurie Sefton Chess with a Dragon by David Gerrold [***-] Walker and Company, 207pp, $15.95, 0-8027-6688-9 The third in the Millennium series of Science Fiction novels based on traditional themes written towards the younger reader. This time, Gerrold takes on Interstellar Empires, and Gerrold goes after it with a vengeance, putting an Earth Diplomatic mission into the InterChange, an information bank where you can buy and sell with other cultures. Earth, a new entrant, is just finding out what happens when the bills start coming due, and have to either learn to survive in an intergalactic Ponzi scheme or be eaten. Parts of it are fascinating, but other parts (especially some of the alien names) step over the boundary and become too cute for their own good. Also, some of the content is probably too intense for younger kids, since one of the cultures involved is strongly cannibalistic. -- chuq von rospach Cold War in a Country Garden by Lindsay Gutteridge [***] Pocket, 1973, 157 pages. In this story a group of men are miniaturized as part of an elaborate government project. They spend the first half of the book learning to survive in a normal backyard. The second part is a rather fantastic spy mission they are sent on behind the iron curtain. I enjoyed the first part more than the second. There is at least one sequel, Killer Pine. russell.Wbst@Xerox.COM Counting the Cost David Drake [**] Baen Books 267 Pg. $3.50 Another Hammer's Slammers novel. This is basic combat SF and is utterly unremarkable except for the cover. That is an excellent example of bad marketing. The format of the cover, the cover painting and even the color scheme is so much like the previous Slammers novel, At Any Price, that my first impression when I saw this book in the bookstore was that it was a reprint of At Any Price. I only stop to check the book out because it was in the new books section of the store. As it was, I had to go home and verify that it was a new book and not a re-issue of At Any Price. Using a fixed format for a book cover can be a very useful marketing tool for notifying readers that this book is part of a series that they like. But in this case, the format is so fixed that the books in the series look too much like one another that a reader cannot distinguish between a new book and an old book in the series. As for the story, it is based on the palace coup that overthrew Diem's regime in Saigon except in this case the Diem character, Delcorio, wins. Danny Low hplabs!hpccc!dlow Courtship Rite by Donald Kingsbury [****] Pocket, $3.95, 1982, 409 pages Another type of SF is world-building. The real stars of Dune, Ringworld or Helliconia is the worlds themselves. Courtship Rite is another exercise in world creation, one that succeeds overall. Be warned that this book is not for the faint of heart. An lost human colony, due to incompatible biocultures their primary source of food is cannibalism. You didn't expect people to eat alien foods did you? Their science is an interesting mixture of technological and primitive. Their biology is quite advanced (as a matter of survival), but other sciences are at a generally medieval level. The other portions of the culture are equally fascinating, from marriage customs to politics. Recommended for those who don't mind the subject matter. -- John Wenn wenn@gandalf.cs.cmu.edu Cvltvre Made Stvpid Tom Weller [****] Houghton Mifflin, $7.95 ISBN 0-395-40461-4 The guy who brought us a new look at Science (and won the 1986 Hugo for it) is back, and this time his target is art and cvltvre. Again he's right on as he takes on Michaelangelo, Gutenberg, Opera (can you imagine Linda Rondstat and Barry Manilow doing the Broadway version of the Ring?) and people with pretensions or artistic bents. He doesn't always hit, but Cvltvre Made Stvpid is on target often enough to make this a very enjoyable piece of parody. -- chuq von rospach Cybernetic Samurai by Victor Milan [****] ACE, $3.50, 1985, 337 pages A novel of the creation of the first artificial sentient being in post-WWIII Japan. Building on 5th generation AI computers, Dr. Elizabeth O'Neill creates TOKUGAWA and trains him with scenarios of feudal Japan. Interesting both as a view of a post-WWIII world and as a SF extrapolation of computer science. --Mary Anne Espenshade mae@aplvax.arpa Daughter of The Empire Raymond E. Feist and Janny Wurts [***+] Doubleday, 394 pp, $17.95, 0-385-23393-0 A companion piece to the Riftwar saga, this tells the story of Mara, who becomes the Ruling Lady of the Acoma, on Kelewan, after her brothers and father are killed in battle. She must learn to play the deadly game of politics in Kelewan, which will decide the future of her house and herself. Mara is able to manipulate her way to power, while proving she isn't the frail fainting flower that many believed. The story itself is good, as it provides another viewpoint to the Riftwar. However, the pacing suffers from too much expository dialogue; all the characters describe what they're going to do, when they're going to do it, and why in painful detail. A bit of detail on the character, and why they happen to be where they are would have sufficed. The reader doesn't need everything spelled out to him. -- Laurie Sefton Deep Domain (Star Trek #33) by Howard Weinstein [****+] Pocket, $3.50, 1987, 275 pages Definitely the best one of these I've read in a long time: good incidental characters that don't overrun the story, interesting aliens, good conflict, new discoveries, teamwork, the Enterprise on a scientific mission for once instead of meeting "a threat to the universe" and a conflict that is resolved without an interplanetary war. Most of the Star Trek novels have been, to me, passable SF but poor ST, this one gets high marks on both points. --Mary Anne Espenshade mae@aplvax.arpa A Distant Soil: Immigrant Song Colleen Doran [**] Starblaze Graphics, $6.95 ISBN 0-89865-514-5 Doran has significantly reworked her B&W WArp series and published a new, color graphic edition of the series. Her claim is that this edition is how she has always envisioned the story. Unfortunately, she may be a little too close to the story for her own good, because Immigrant Song is very sketchy and bounces around all over the place without any attempt to help a reader unfamiliar with the story follow it. I was left confused and disappointed. -- chuq von rospach The Dragon Waiting by John M. Ford [****-] Avon, $3.50, 1983, 383 pages Every once in a while, I run across a novel that makes me wish I knew more history. This is such a book, and the time period is middle 15th century Europe. It is a alternate history tale, but the story sticks close to the true history of the times (at least from what I know of the period). The most obvious changes are the fantasy elements: the main characters include a Welch wizard and a German vampire. Christianity seems to have never taken root, and magic is political fact of life. The setting is the Italian city states, London around the time of the crowning of Richard III, and points between. The story itself is confusing if you are unfamiliar with the period, but is well told. I intend to re-read it after doing some research on the period. Recommended if you are willing to do some work to follow the author. -- John Wenn Duncan & Mallory #2: The Bar-None Ranch Robert Asprin and Mel. White [**] Starblaze Graphics, $3.95, ISBN 0-89865-506-4 I had misgivings about this series -- the first issue had potential, but was a fairly blatant attempt to recreate the success of the Myth Adventures series without the sharpness or the humor that makes it fly. The second issue unfortunately continues this -- the humor is flat, the story somewhat self-indulgent (the characters continually smirk at the reader from the page) and it just doesn't have the edge to the material that it really needs to be good. White is a good artist, although she seems to be putting more energy into emulating Phil Foglio than she is in showing her own capabilities. It doesn't look like this series is going to go anywhere, and I have to (somewhat regretfully) give it a Not Recommended. -- chuq von rospach Free Lancers Elizabeth Mitchell, ed. [****] Baen Books, $2.95, ISBN 0-671-65353-0 This is the fourth volume in the Alien Stars series, original anthologies of novella length material. This time there are three stories about mercenaries by Orson Scott Card, David Drake, and Lois McMaster Bujold. The Card work, "West" is from an upcoming book titled Tales of the Mormon Sea. It is also, unfortunately, the least successful of the three. Not bad, but it could have used another draft. The Drake story is related to the Hammer's Slammers series, and the Bujold story, "The Borders of Infinity," is a Vorkosigan story. That story is currently at the top of my list of Hugo novella nominations for 1987. -- chuq von rospach FTL: Further Than Life by Michael Lindsay Williams [*] Avon, $3.50, 1987, 327 pages This wins the turkey of the month award. A silly plot, absurd science, cardboard characters, and several "in jokes" too cute to be tolerated (e.g. robots have Asimov circuits). A definite miss. -- John Wenn The Guardians of the Flame: The Sleeping Dragon [****] The Sword and the Chain The Silver Crown The Heir Apparent Joel Rosenberg, Doubleday (1,2,3), Signet (4) Would you like your Saturday night dungeon session to be real? Really? A group of college students find out that living the life of their gaming character isn't all they thought it would be. When you get hurt, it's for real, not just hit points taken. And let's face it. no one thinks about indoor plumbing when they're on a quest. Through the first four books, the students find themselves integrated into what they thought was a fantasy world, while trying to drag the residents, kicking and screaming, at least into the 19th century. And technology isn't the answer to all their problems, as there is enough questing and wizardry about. The books aren't high literature, but they're extremely entertaining. -- Laurie Sefton Hardwired Walter Jon Williams [****] Tor Books, $3.50, ISBN 0-812-55796-4 My own personal feelings about the viability of Cyberpunk as a subgenre notwithstanding, if more of the works being touted under that banner had the quality of this book, I'd have to rethink my position. This is a bleak and unrelenting view of a future Earth controlled by orbital megacorporations and a group of panzerboys -- people who work outside the system smuggling needed good across the continent. It's good, although the book won't be to everyone's taste. The Isle of Glass [****] The Golden Horn [****+] The Hounds or God Judith Tarr [****] Tor Fantasy, 0-812-55601-1, 0-812-55603-8, 0-812-55605-4 The three parts of The Hound and the Falcon trilogy shouldn't be missed. Tarr is able to create a convincing land of Faerie in England during the time of the crusades. The books follow the life of Alfred of St. Ruan's a foundling of the fair folk and Thea Damaskena, one of the court of the kingdom of Rhyiana. Their lives are examined beyond the usual gloss of magics; for example. what happens when you find that you have out-lived all your family? Or, if the fair folk live forever, what use would be immortal souls? This is an important question in medieval Europe--the church is strong, but the Crusades, the sacking of Constantinople, and the constant bickering among political factions make the existence of the people of Rhyiana a volatile situation. Tarr is able to blend history and fantasy so well that, even though you know what's going to happen, getting there is the best part. -- Laurie Sefton Insect Warriors by Rex Levie [***+] Ace, 1965, 143 pages. This is the story of a primitive tribe trying to survive against the insect world. It is the one I enjoyed the most of this set of books because it stayed on track as a simple adventure story of the struggles of these people in a different world for most of the book. The end has a possible explanation as to how the tribe came to be. russell.Wbst@Xerox.COM The Lady of Han-Gilen Judith Tarr [****] Tor, 310 pp, 0-312-94271-0 While the second book of a trilogy is often a travelogue or a preparation for the third book, Tarr has written a middle story that not only managed to move the greater story along, but is a whole and entertaining volume on its own. Elian, the Lady of Han Gilen, runs away from her royal family, and their hopes of a political marriage. After many troubles, she finds Mirain, only to be brought into a final battle between him and a mad priestess of the dark, who believes that Mirain will cause the end of the world. The world of Mirain and Elian is both familiar of exotic; it's a refreshing change from the ante-deluvian venues, while being comfortable enough that the reader isn't thrashing with the scenery. -- Laurie Sefton Lincoln's Dreams Connie Willis [****+] Bantam Spectra, 1987, hardcover, $ 15.95 Here is a book which centers not on plot, but on people and their feelings. A plot summary doesn't do it justice, since it depends so strongly on the moods it evokes and the characters the author portrays. The story turns on Annie, who is having dreams that seem to recall the American civil war. The dreams distress her, and she seeks help, first from a specialist in sleep disorders, and eventually from Jeff, the book's narrator, who is a historian currently working as researcher, assistant, and general errand boy for a well-known historical novelist. The plot concerns his attempts to help her and the relationship that develops between them. Along the way, the book achieves a high level of intensity, even though nothing much happens. One leaves it with genuine affection for the characters; this is a book I will remember. There is a real danger that this quiet but effective book may be lost in the shuffle, its voice drowned out by the louder but less deep statements that prevail in the genre. But readers who really care won't miss it. Fernando Gouvea The Man Who Folded Himself by David Gerrold [***+] Popular Library, $0.95, 1973, 160 pages What would you do with a time machine? That question occupies an entire subgenre of SF. The obvious thing to do is sight-see throughout the ages. But there are all those paradoxes lurking out there. Killing your grandfather before he married you grandmother, killing yourself, saving Lincoln, preventing the machine from being invented, etc. This book is an examination of all the paradoxes time travel I've heard of, as well as adding a few new ones. The style is OK, and the characterization is irrelevant to some degree. I mean what does characterization mean when multiple copies of the hero exist at once? An interesting reductio ad absurdum of time travel. -- John Wenn Marion Zimmer Bradley Presents Sword and Sorceress IV [***] Daw, 285 pp, 0-88677-210-9 This is a mixed bag of over the edge feminist rehashes, and some very good stories that just happen to have women as the main characters. Look for Dave Smed's story about gullriders and Deborah Vogel's short-short, the first for anyone who has ever seen "saddle up and ride" seagulls, and the second for a stunning example of how a short-short should be written. -- Laurie Sefton OtherRealms #19 Winter, 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 not be reproduced in any form without written permission of Chuq Von Rospach. The electronic edition may be distributed or reproduced in its entirety as long as all copyrights, author and publication information remain intact. No individual article may be reprinted, reproduced or republished in any way without the express permission of the author. OtherRealms is published quarterly (March, June, September and December) by: Chuq Von Rospach 35111-F Newark Blvd. Suite 255 Newark, CA 94560. Usenet: chuq@sun.COM Delphi: CHUQ