Electronic OtherRealms #20 Spring, 1988 Part 1 Table of Contents Part 1 Editor's Notebook Chuq Von Rospach Dead in the West Kevin Anderson Never the Twain Peter Rubenstein Part 2 Waste of Trees Quarterly, Part 1 Alan Wexelblat Part 3 Waste of Trees Quarterly, Part 2 Part 4 Scattered Gold Charles de Lint Part 5 Triplet Danny Low The Stars Like Islands Steve Bellovin Guardians of the Flame David M. Shea Stuff Received Part 6 Northshore Barbara Jernigan African Adventure Mike Resnick Voice of the Whirlwind Danny Low Songmaster Kevin Anderson Soldiers of Paradise Neal Wilgus Part 7 Pico Reviews, Part 1 Part 8 Pico Reviews, Part 2 Part 9 Interview: Gardner Dozois Toolmakers Koan Steve Bellovin Prisoners of Arionn Neal Wilgus Part 10 Much Rejoicing Dan'l Danehy-Oakes Part 11 Words of Wizdom Chuq Von Rospach Stallion Gate Kevin Anderson Part 12 No Prisoners! Laurie Sefton Letters to OtherRealms Melissa Scott Tom Galloway Wayne A. Throop Fred Bals Editor's Notebook Chuq Von Rospach Rotten Reviews I'm going to recommend to everyone involved in the publishing field, including readers, that they take a look at Rotten Reviews, a Penguin book by Bill Henderson. It's a short, mini-sized paperback collection of some of the truly horrible reviews against major literary classics, and it's hilarious. For example, New Yorker is quoted as saying about Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner: The final blowup of what was once a remarkable, if minor, talent. What this has to do with this magazine should be obvious. Reviews are, in the end, one person's opinion of someone else's writing. Reviewers sometime blow it. Then again, so do authors, which is why reviewers exist. If authors never wrote bad books, you wouldn't need watchdogs, you could pick up anything from the shelves and be satisfied. Rotten Reviews is a great source of perspective for me, and anyone considering reviewing books out to read it. Reviews are read once and discarded; the books themselves can live on forever, no matter what the critics say. And they often do. Reviewers should not overemphasize their importance in life. We interpret art, we don't create it, and reviewers that feel they need to step across the line will simply make themselves look silly. One thing I'm noticing as OtherRealms continues to grow is that I'm rejecting more and more material. Not because I can't fit it in (I will, in general, make room for everything I can that fits OtherRealms' style) but because it isn't publishable. I'm getting fiction, I've gotten con reports, and poetry, and movie reviews. This stuff is expected, since people who smit without reading OtherRealms (it is always a good idea to get a sample before trying to write for someone) can make an honest mistake. What bothers me, though, is the growing number of truly bad reviews I'm seeing. Reviews that debate the author's politics. Reviews that argue the author's religion. Reviews that second guess (and at times, rewrite) books. Multi-page diatribes about how Big Name Author is a senile hack, or is getting paid too much for the quality of the books (in many cases, there is a subtext of "and I can't get MY book published, even though it's MUCH better"). Hack jobs ("this author should go slit his throat, and do humanity a favor"). Treatises on why Fantasy is terrible. The common threads in this stuff are hidden agendas and pain. Many of these people have hidden agendas: My stuff is good, nobody will publish it, there's a conspiracy; I don't like Fantasy, so it isn't good; I don't like Big Name Author, so he shouldn't be published. Needless, I return this stuff. I'm not here to promote hack jobs on people and I firmly believe that you review the work. You don't use the work as a stepping off point for your own crusade. If you want to crusade about something, write your own book on it. I've said this before, but it's a good time to say it again. On the reviewer's side, you review the work, not the author. On the author's side, a bad review is not an attack at you. My job in all of this, of course, is to decide whether or not a review is fair, without necessarily having read the book. That's fortunately easier than you might think, but not foolproof. And when I (or someone else in OtherRealms) makes a mistake, I hope someone will bring it to my attention, so I can try to fix it. My policy on mistakes is simple. An error of fact will be fixed, to the greatest extent possible. If the factual error skews the review, we'll either correct the review or I'll have the work reviewed again in a later book. This is one reason I try to make sure that any author reviewed in OtherRealms gets a copy -- I certainly don't believe in saying things that I wouldn't say to the author directly, and the author is in the best position to point out problems. But if you do find a problem, tell me. Brash Obvious Plugs I'm happy to point out that Avon has released Brian Aldiss' Trillion Year Spree in paperback ($9.95, 511 pages of tiny, tiny type, ISBN 0-380-70461). If you didn't pick it up as a hardback (Atheneum, 1987) then you don't have any excuses remaining. This was the book that won the 1987 Non-Fiction Hugo, and is a serious literary look at the genre by someone who knows and understands it. This is a book that deserves a place in your reference library if you're at all serious about SF. Now if only someone would put out the new edition of Peter Nicholls' Science Fiction Encyclopedia (Doubleday/Dolphin, 1979). Mine's getting tired and dogeared, and this is one that cries for updating. Toeing the Line In case anyone out there is wondering how closely I monitor the reviews in OtherRealms, you need look no further than Alan's column this issue. My editors are chosen because they have strong, interesting voices. Mimicking the party line isn't very high on my list; in fact, I've tried to put together a group of regular contributors that has as wide ranging a set of interests in the field as possible. I think OtherRealms has the best overall coverage of any magazine I've seen because of this. I strive to avoid hidden agendas in OtherRealms. I'm not pushing a movement, I try to avoid pushing Science Fiction over Fantasy, Hard SF over People SF, or Elves over Dwarves and Hobbits. OtherRealms has two goals in life. First, to help people find good books to read, books that might otherwise have been missed (as a corollary, OtherRealms also tries to help people avoid the dogs, but as a matter of policy I'd rather point towards something good than away from something bad, so if I have room for one of two reviews, the better book will get the notice). Also, I feel strongly that OtherRealms should be a place where the newer authors get noticed. I keep a close eye out for first and second novels, and do what I can to get them read. Sometimes this works great (as in the case of Emma Bull's wonderful War for the Oaks) and sometimes it doesn't (see Alan's column). The only special guidance I give on first novels is that the reviewers look not only at the work as it stands, but at the potentials of the author as well. First novels generally aren't as polished as later works (although, of course, there are exceptions) and I'll let a new author get away with a some minor glitches that I might rate a seasoned author down on a lot stronger. But bad books are bad books. Publishing Notes Leigh Ann Hussey has "The White Wolf" appearing in Jane Yolen's Werewolves anthology and "The Door" in another untitled Yolen anthology of "creepy" stories. Tim Powers will be the Guest of Honor at Boskone XXVI, to be held January 27-29, 1989. Official Artist is James Gurney. L.E. Modesitt, Jr. has delivered the prequel to The Ecologic Envoy, tentatively titled The Ecolitan Operation, to Tor. He's currently working on a prequel to his first book, The Fires of Paratime. The Sterling/Gibson collaboration went to auction on February 25. It's an alternate universe based on the premise the Babbage got the analytic engine working. William Gibson's third Sprawl novel is written and in the editing stages. Sterling has three books in the queue for 1988. In April, Involution Oceans (rated three stars in OR #13), his first book, will be re-released. In June, Islands in the Net, his new novel, comes out in hardback. And in July, Mirrorshades, the Cyperpunk anthology, comes out in paperback. The publication of the paperback edition of L. Ron Hubbard's Mission Earth series will begin in May, 1988. The first four of the ten volume series will be published by the end of 1988. There will also be a book-tape edition of each volume published by the Random House Tape Division. Upcoming titles from Franklin,Watts include Norman Spinrad's Agent of Chaos (April Hardcover) , The Mercenary by Jerry Pournelle (March Hardcover) and John Shirley's A Splendid Chaos (March Hardcover). The 1987 winners of the Writer's of the Future contest have been announced. For the first quarter, the winner was Jane Mailander, second was Mary A. Turzillo, and third was Pat MacEwen. Second quarter winners were first, Nancy Farmer, second, R. Rayson Deike and third, Mark D. Haw. Third quarter first was Paul Edwards, second R. Garcia y Robertson and third Rick Urdiales. Fourth quarter first was Michael Green, second was Flonet Biltgen, and third was Larry England. The Grand prize winner will be announced later this year in Los Angeles. Vaporware.... I'm starting to sympathize with Ann Arbor Softworks (now part of Ashton-Tate and publishers of the most publicized piece of vaporware, the long delayed FullWrite Professional word processor for the Mac). My long delayed OtherRealms book index is now on hold, this time for at least the next four to six months. Why? I'm now writing regularly for Macintosh Horizons, a magazine put out by the Call-A.P.P.L.E people. I'm actually getting paid for it, but it takes up a lot of time I'd planned for this project, and I just committed to doing a multi-part in-depth case study of Acius' 4th Dimension database. As a practical example, I'm going to be implementing a full featured subscription fufillment database (another long delayed project for OtherRealms -- my current system, based on FileMaker+, is creaking at the hinges) and that's going to take up all my time for a while. The good news is that I've now got some unplanned income coming in, which I hope to use part of to let me take OtherRealms to offset. More good news is that once I get this database done, I'll be making it available in some form or another to interested parties, either as freeware or shareware (folks who want customized versions for their own use can drop me a note). The bad news, of course, is that the book index, a project I really am looking forward to, has to take a back seat. Sleep? What's that? Back Issues on USENET For folks who live on USENET or one of the connected networks, I've installed an archive server on my computer that makes all of the OtherRealms back issues available. For information on using the archive server, send mail to "archive-server@plaid.sun.com" with a subject line of "help". I'm looking for.... The person who wrote the article on Mind in Motion: The Fiction of Philip K. Dick. I've got the article, but the information on who wrote it has disappeared. Please contact me so I can print this thing, it's wonderful! This Issue There are a few layout changes in this issue. The one that really affects contents is in the Pico Review section, where I am now printing reviews that are larger than one paragraph but shorter than a page. The one paragraph limitation never sat well with me and came across as rather arbitrary; at the same time, the shorter reviews were difficult to get laid out cleanly. I plan, probably next issue, to start splitting up the Pico Review section and using it to help fill out the dead areas in the layout, which I think will give me better flexibility. This initial change, though, should make the magazine look cleaner. This issue is huge, I'm currently looking at something like 72 pages. This is because I'm making a serious attempt to clear out some of the material that has been hanging around waiting for room, and I'm trying to set things up so that, except for the specialty articles like interviews and Behind the Scenes, reviews don't sit more than one issue. Once this issue is done, my review inventory should be down to about zero, so things won't wait as long. This assumes, of course, that people will continue to send in material for the next issue -- or next issue will be rather short. Anyway, if you've held up material because of the delays in getting it into OtherRealms, the wait should be more or less over. As long as I can afford to publish the pages, I plan on getting things out as quickly as I can. Speaking of affording to publish, as we speak the Post Office is trying to raise postal rates. Assuming it goes through (and everyone seems to be resigned to that fact) it looks like the cost of mailing OtherRealms is going to go up somewhere about a quarter a copy. Since I'm committed to keeping OtherRealms as first class mail, there's not a whole lot I can do. This issue will (hopefully) be mailed before it goes into effect. Once it does, I'm probably going to have to raise cover and subscription prices to cover at least some of the cost. I may be able to take reduce some of it by going to mailing without an envelope (which will save the cost of the envelope and about an ounce of postage) but only if I decide it'll get there in one piece. Perhaps I'll have to put a paper wrapper around it to protect the art. Anyway, you can expect some kind of price increase announcement next issue. So now is a great time to subscribe if you want to save some money. Upcoming Issues Next issue will have an interview with author Bruce Sterling by contributing editor Alan Wexelblat. The Behind the Scenes article is by new author Kevin Anderson on his book Resurrection, Inc. Future issues will include an interview with Joel Rosenberg, an article by M. Elayn Harvey, a look at Brian Aldiss, and lots of the normal stuff. Stay tuned! Dead in the West Joe R. Lansdale Space & Time books, 1986, 126pp, $6.95 Reviewed by Kevin Anderson kanders@lll-ncis.ARPA Copyright 1988 by Kevin Anderson For the past twenty years, Gordon Linzner has been publishing one of the best and most diverse small press fiction magazines, Space & Time. In 1984, Linzner's wife, Jani Anderson, branched out to publish limited-edition books under the Space & Time imprint; Dead in the West by Joe R. Lansdale is the fourth such publication. In the dedication, Lansdale states that "This is not a book of 'Big Thinks.' It's a lot like the late night horror films you used to watch on television." And it succeeds marvelously in what it sets out to do. The people in the small East Texas town of Mud Creek are trying to forget that they got carried away one night, formed a mob, and lynched a traveling Indian medicine man and his woman for some imagined crime. But the Indian manages to curse the town before the people can string him up and...you guessed it -- the old Indian comes back from the dead to get his revenge, and before you know it the whole town is infested with ghoulish vampires. But, there's a gun-slinging Reverend who just pulled into town, wrestling with his own doubts and guilt, and feels called by God to some final showdown in Mud Creek. "And you, Reverend -- there is something about you," says one character, "You're a man of God, but you're also a realist." Many readers will be familiar with Lansdale through his award-winning non-fiction column in The Horror Show, or from the earlier version of "Dead in the West" that was partially serialized in Eldritch Tales, or from his chilling psychopathic murder novel Act of Love. But if you've never read anything by Joe Lansdale, you couldn't pick a better starting place -- Dead in the West is almost impossible to put down, and it's one of the most enjoyable books I've read in a long time. The story is an unabashed tribute to the pulps and to schlock movies like Curse of the Undead and borrows very heavily from George Romero's Day of the Dead. But, surprisingly, the prose is elegantly and vividly written, not what you'd expect from a "tribute to pulp horror." "He stuck his face out into the rain and the wind, as if inviting lightning to reach down from the sky and shatter his head like a pumpkin." Some of the suspense is really incredible, and comparable to anything the 'Masters' of horror have produced. In particular, look for the scene where the dissected corpse laboriously reassembles itself in a darkened morgue while the horrified doctor watches on. Occasionally, though, Lansdale goes overboard with the blood and guts and gore and graphic dismemberments, which cheapens the genuine suspense and, when repeated so often, becomes boring in the long run. The ending is somewhat of a letdown, and I'm a little puzzled as to where these hundreds and hundreds of walking corpses came from in a tiny East Texas town which shouldn't have had a population of more than 40. But the book flies by so fast that the reader doesn't have time to think about such things until after the book is put safely on a shelf. Dead in the West is terrific. If you like old monster movies, and good exciting suspense, and enough walking corpses to satisfy an entire chain of undertaker stores, this novel could be your best buy all year. Never the Twain Kirk Mitchell Reviewed by Peter Rubenstein Peter_Rubenstein@wally.ceo.dg.com Copyright 1988 by Peter Rubenstein I like time travel/alternate history stories. In fact, you could say that I'm an unabashed fan. I liked Lest Darkness Fall and The Cross-Time Engineer. I also enjoyed "Procurator" by Mitchell. So when I saw Never the Twain by the same author, I jumped at the opportunity to read it. One of my favorite genres, and by an author I knew could handle it! It took very little time for the disappointment to set in. For those readers interested in recommendations of books to read, go no farther! Leave this one in the bookstore. In fact, don't bother picking it up from a freebie heap. This book is filled with inadequately developed characters. Sadly, there are no other kinds to be found here. The protagonist oscillates between anti-social stupidity and aimless stupidity. I couldn't find anything about him to identify with, or to sympathize with at all. Should the reader manage to overcome this obstacle, he/she will merely be frustrated by the character's inane behavior. The reader hoping to read about Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain), will be disappointed too. Clemens appears only in the periphery. While several interesting facts about his early career are mentioned, his activities take place almost entirely off screen. Distressingly, a situation that is laboriously, if incomprehensibly, developed at the beginning of the book is totally abandoned. (Since I didn't really understand the situation, I must admit the possibility that it was resolved without my knowledge, but I don't believe it for a minute.) If this were Mitchell's first effort, I would advise a career change. What makes this book so inexplicable is that Mitchell has done fine work before. If I see another novel by Mitchell, I will do my best to put Never the Twain out of mind and decide whether to read the new work based on its cover description. Other readers can accomplish this more simply and cheaply than I by following my advice and not reading Never the Twain at all. OtherRealms #20 Spring, 1988 Copyright 1988 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 CompuServe: 73317,635 GENie: C.VONROSPAC