Electronic OtherRealms #20 Spring, 1988 Part 2 Waste of Trees Quarterly [Part 1] Reviews by Alan Wexelblat wex@mcc.com Copyright 1988 by Alan Wexelblat Reviewed in this Issue The River of Time [***+] by David Brin 1986, Bantam 0-553-26281-5, 295pp The Princess Bride [**+] by William Goldman 1973, Del Rey fantasy 0-345-31532-4, 283pp Cybernetic Samurai [**+] by Victor Milan 1985, Ace SF 0-441-13234-0, 337pp Charon's Ark [] by Rick Gauger 1987, Del Rey SF 0-345-31773-4, 375pp Thinking on Paper [****] by V.A. Howard & J.H. Barton 1986, Morrow hardback 0-688-04873-0, 156pp A Death of Honor [*+] by Joe Clifford Faust 1987, Del Rey SF 0-345-34026-4, 326pp The Tomorrow Makers [****-] by Grant Fjermedal 1986, Macmillan hardcover 0-02-538560-7, 272pp The Artificial Kid [****] by Bruce Sterling 1980, Ace SF 0-441-03095-5, 233pp Schismatrix [****+] by Bruce Sterling 1985, Arbor House hardcover 0-87795-645-6, 288pp Watchmen [****] Alan Moore, writer; Dave Gibbons, illustrator/letterer; John Higgins, colorist 1987, DC Comics paperback 0-930289-23-4 Burning Chrome [****+] by William Gibson 1986, Ace SF 0-441-08934-8, 191pp Count Zero [****+] by William Gibson 1986 Arbor House hardback 278 pp. The River of Time David Brin is the current master of what I call 'weird physics.' He is one of the new generation of hard science fiction authors -- people writing about space travel, aliens, and giving it the authentic air that hard SF demands. Brin's twist on this is that he can take a principle or idea and stretch it to an extreme end. For example, his novel The Practice Effect dealt with a natural extension of the idea that 'practice makes perfect.' The River of Time collection contains a couple of stories in the weird physics vein. The title story of the collection is a short one dealing with the possibility that people could move 'faster' or 'slower' through time. That is, they perceive that 'ordinary' people are moving very slowly or very quickly. Similarly, "A Stage of Memory" deals with a person who uses a drug that allows him to re-live past memories. The question, of course, is what happens when he starts reliving a memory of himself reliving a memory? Another of Brin's fascinations is the first contact theme. In particular, he delights in speculation about why we appear to be alone in the universe when logical principles seem to indicate that we should not be. The Hugo-winning "The Crystal Spheres" deals with this idea, suggesting that there may some form of imposed isolation that prevents other races from making contact with us. Specifically, our solar system is enclosed in a crystalline egg that has been manufactured to be invisible from the inside. In addition, it can only be cracked from the inside; thus, each race must make its own way into space. "Lungfish" also tackles the first-contact theme, working from the old SF idea of self-replicating probes. The idea is to explore a large segment of the galaxy very quickly. This is inefficient if done from a single point. However, if you can construct probes that not only travel between stars but also carry enough information to replicate themselves, then you can quickly cover a large volume of space. The problem here is that if you can make these probes that sophisticated, then you can also program them to do other things -- some of which can be beneficial, and some not. And it only takes one rotten apple to spoil the basket. The story "Tank Farm Dynamo" is Brin's most traditional hard-SF work. The story, as Brin says in the author note, is one "...in which a point of science is the real protagonist." However, this is not typical of the stories in this collection. Most often, Brin spends his time on characters and social themes. For example, "The Fourth Vocation of George Gustaf" examines a world in which robot labor has reordered human society. Humans now have mandatory, rigorously-controlled lives which include prescribed vocations, prescribed hobbies, and required leisure activities. Of course, some people react differently to this than others, and Brin examines one of the possible outcomes. Similarly, "Senses Three and Six" is almost not an SF story. Although there are aliens created to provide motivation for the protagonist, they're not really necessary. The story is really about a man trying to hide from his past. He does this by burying his true self behind the facade of a made-up personality. This is a very psychological story, and shows off Brin's ability to work with complex characters. And this brings us to the reason I was given The River of Time -- the short "Thor Meets Captain America." Brin warns the reader not to judge a story by its title -- and he's right. This tale, written for Gregory Benford's anthology Hitler Victorious, is not about the comic-book characters Thor and Captain America. Rather it is about a parallel world in which the Nazis won what we think of as World War Two, and now threaten America, with the help of beings who have the powers and personalities of the Norse gods. The story is really about different types of people, the type personified by Thor and the type personified by Captain America and the roles technology and the supernatural can play in the world. I haven't yet read the Hitler Victorious anthology, but if this story is typical of the quality Benford put together, it will be worthwhile. The River of Time is a good anthology and a good introduction to Brin. The author's notes give the book a nice flow and give the reader some insights into how Brin practices his craft. The new hard-SF writers are often touted for their attention to character, setting, and society, things that used to be rare in hard SF. I look forward to seeing more of it from David Brin. The Princess Bride Okay -- it's time for me to commit my heresy of the month. The Princess Bride is one of those books that everybody likes. Except me. Let me try to explain why. For the uninitiated, The Princess Bride is William Goldman's abridgement of S. Morgenstern's classic fairy tale of the same name. Goldman's name will be familiar to afficionados of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid; he's also done more serious works, such as All the Presidents Men and Marathon Man. The Princess Bride, though, is definitely in the humor division. According to Goldman, The Princess Bride was his favorite tale as a child, as read to him by his father. What he didn't know was that his father was editing the story as he read it. It seems that Morgenstern had used the original story as a vehicle for propounding his long and boring essays on Florinese history. These essays had been skipped by Goldman's father and now he is passing this favor on to the world by producing a "good parts" version. At each place where something was excised, Goldman notes this to the reader, often at some detail. And this is the crux of my problem with the book. You see, the heart of the story -- the romance between Buttercup and Westley -- is actually a very good and engrossing fairy tale. But the more interested I got in the story, the more boring and annoying Goldman's interruptions became. He starts off by telling, in a very humorous way, about his wife and son and his efforts to get a copy of the book for his son. I laughed a good deal at the less-than-complimentary descriptions of his family life. Also, the first few descriptions of the excised portions were interesting. However, as the book progressed, Goldman's continued interruptions became less and less funny. I didn't laugh at all during the second half of the book. In fact, it became like one of those interminable shaggy dog stories that some people insist on telling. I just wanted him to be quiet and get on with the story. And the story is quite good. As I noted before, the fairy tale, at it's heart, is about Buttercup, the most beautiful girl in the world, Prince Humperdink, whom she is to marry, and Westley, her true love. Supporting roles are played by Inigo Montoya, arguably the best swordsman in the world, and Fezzik the Giant, arguably the best brawler in the world. The basic problems of the story are that Westley runs off, leaving Buttercup heartbroken, and that Prince Humperdink turns out to be... well, a son-of-a-bitch. Along the way to solving these problems there are sword fights, heroic deeds, love, hate, and so forth. In short, all the elements of a great fairy tale. If Goldman could have resisted the urge to be clever and meddle it would have been a much better work. Cybernetic Samurai Cyberpunk is everywhere these days, it seems. It's controversial, it's new, and it's flashy. With its apparent emphasis on technology and an often bleak outlook on the future, it's cashing in on two growing trains of thought in modern society. Victor Milan's Cybernetic Samurai fits to a Tee most of the pre- conceived stereotypes about cyberpunk. It takes place in a post-trade-war, post-WWIII future in which America has fallen apart into warring regional nations. Refugees from the strife have fled to (among other places) a Japan dominated by the zaibatsu -- the high-tech, semi-feudal corporations -- and MITI, the Ministry of Trade and Industry. MITI is a sort of government-within-a-government; most of the leaders of the zaibatsu follow MITI's directions in ruling the country, while the official Japanese government plays at paper games. The corporations also control the orbiting satellites and space stations which provide communications facilities as well as being orbital factories for the ground-based conglomerates. The story starts off with American Dr. Elizabeth O'Neill's efforts to create a truly intelligent computer for her Japanese employer, Yoshimitsu Telecommunications. The effort, code named Tokugawa, creates a machine intelligence inculcated with O'Neill's interpretation of the values of the ancient Japanese warrior code of Bushido. O'Neill sees her creation as a new samurai -- a potential savior for the world, which is rapidly crumbling toward a fourth world war. She especially wants to keep it out of the hands of MITI, which is why she works for Yoshimitsu, a small company which fiercely maintains its independence from MITI. However, MITI doesn't want to see any saviors, especially not ones controlled by corporations not under its aegis. In addition, Dr. O'Neill appears to have some motives that are not so pure as she claims. Tokugawa himself is more powerful than O'Neill imagined. When she is killed, he sets about achieving a cybernetic revenge on her murderers. The latter two thirds of the novel establish Tokugawa as the protagonist and revolve largely around his actions. Milan writes fairly well, even though the ending of the book is telegraphed way in advance. He has a reasonable grasp of the writer's craft, having written six previous fantasy works. Cybernetic Samurai is his first SF novel, and overall I didn't like it. First off, it's too formulaic. Milan seems to have reduced the cyberpunk idea to its component parts and in the process lost some of the flair that identifies good cyberpunk. In cyberpunk terms, the novel has no "edge." Second, there's the computer issue. As a person who makes his living in the computer field, I found Milan to be exceptionally heavy-handed about computers. Yes, his basic idea on how to create intelligence is plausible, but he really shouldn't have spent the first twenty-five pages proving he did his homework and knows something about computers. As the story goes on he allows himself flights of fancy about the computer world in order to advance the plot. In addition, I found his attitude toward and repeated references to the Japanese fifth generation computer project to be patronizing at best. I suspect a Japanese person would have been even more insulted. Lastly, I was disturbed by the pornography. Yes, that's the word I meant to use -- pornography. Now, I'm a fairly liberal sort and enjoy a love- or sex-scene in my reading. I think it's a normal part of life and authors should treat it that way. However, Milan goes out of his way to set up situations in which O'Neill can make it with Tokugawa. Ok, that's not so bad -- we can write off the scientific mumbo-jumbo as necessary for the plot and to show how attached Tokugawa becomes. But then Milan goes on to describe, in great anatomical detail, just exactly what each of them does to the other's bodily parts -- including some acts that are technically illegal in some states of the US. When Locus used the adjective "rousing" about this book, they probably meant it in the literal sense. Who needs it? As far as I can see, it adds absolutely nothing to the story to use that level of detail. I found it a distraction. All in all, Cybernetic Samurai was a big disappointment. Charon's Ark What's worse than a stupid protagonist? How about a stupid, obnoxious, teenage nerd protagonist. What's worse than a hackneyed plot with inane dialogue? How about a hackneyed plot about UFOs and insane computers with moronic teenage dialogue, written by an author who obviously didn't bother to do his physics homework? This is truly the worst book I've read in years. The only good thing about it is that I didn't have to pay for my copy. I wish they'd saved the trees. Thinking on Paper One common trait among fans and readers of SF and fantasy is the desire to be writers. Many of us dream of, and some actually do, write short stories and novels. Still more of us are required to write as part of our everyday lives, whether it's students writing papers and essays, or professionals writing technical reports or proposals. For all us writers, this is a book to have. In addition, if you ever want to be a writer, or are troubled by occasional writer's block, this book also has something to offer you. There are a number of books out that are useful for writers practicing their craft. The prototypical example is Strunk & White's Elements of Style, which is a concise and very handy guide to punctuation and the mechanics of sentence formation. However, Strunk & White typifies the school of writing thought that is commonly taught in the American educational system -- all the emphasis is on the mechanics, almost none on the style. Thinking on Paper, on the other hand, attacks the problem from a different perspective. Howard & Barton tell you from the outset that they are not going to deal with mechanics, and provide excellent references to other authors who do. Instead of mechanics, they deal with the process of writing -- the series of cognitive and physical steps necessary to put together a coherent piece of written work. The book is organized into two sections, "Writing for Thinking" and "Thinking for Writing." Throughout the book, Howard and Barton attempt to relate and combine the processes of writing and thinking. This is also in direct contradiction to American schooling, which traditionally teaches that the two are separate processes, and that thinking necessarily precedes writing. Although Howard and Barton concentrate on technical rather than creative writing, their process steps are useful for everyone. In particular, creative writers suffering from writer's block will find a great deal of useful information in Chapter 2, "From First to Last Draft: Generating, Composing, and Expressing Ideas." Some writers I know would also benefit from the section entitled "Don't Wait for the Muse." This brings me to another interesting point about the book. Instead of being written in the usual linear style, the book's six chapters and two appendices are each designed to stand alone. They can be read in any order; each is self-contained and avoids depending on material explained elsewhere in the book. As noted before, this is a good reference work for anyone interested in writing. My only complaint is that the authors are a little superficial, since they are trying to appeal to a mainstream audience, rather than to writing specialists. Nevertheless, their approach to the combination of writing and thinking is unique and worth looking into. A Death of Honor This is a first novel, so Chuq says I should be nice. Ok, let's see. It's not as bad as it could have been. I suppose that if you weren't a lesbian, or a liberal, and didn't know anyone with AIDS you could manage not to be offended by this book. It would help if you hated the Russians and the US government, too. I've learned, over the course of many debates, to separate the writer from his or her writings. For all I know, Joe Clifford Faust might be a tolerant, liberal kind of person. It's just that he doesn't write that way. A Death of Honor is a futuristic detective story. It is set in an America under siege. The communist hordes of Russia have stormed the last bastions of freedom in Europe. American society is slowly crumbling as energy shortages take hold. People are paid to procreate, and the centers of meeting and mating are dance clubs. One evening the protagonist, Payne, comes home to find a naked woman sprawled dead in the middle of his living room. The police have a nine-month waiting list for homicide investigations, so private citizens are allowed to investigate crimes of which they are a victim. Since Payne does not know the dead woman, he declines the chance, until a large bruiser comes to kill him. Payne is a bioengineer, working at a genetic-engineering lab. He uses his lab skills to trace down the woman's killer. She has no marks on her; the mystery is: 'How did she die?' Unfortunately, the mystery is not well-handled. There are none of the usual mystery trappings -- no bevy of suspects, no red herrings. The reader figures things out long before Payne does. The supporting characters are fairly one-dimensional. There's the 'good buddy,' the 'loyal secretary,' and other stock players. The villain is very badly handled; he seems to have almost no motivation for anything he does. Faust appears to have done his biology and genetics homework; I could not spot any serious blunders. He has some trouble imagining how the future will deal with computers, though. Give this one a miss. 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