Electronic OtherRealms #25 Summer/Fall, 1989 Part 2 of 17 Copyright 1989 by Chuq Von Rospach All Rights Reserved OtherRealms may not be reproduced without permission from Chuq Von Rospach. Permission is given to electronically distribute this issue only if all copyrights, author credits and return addresses remain intact. No article may be reprinted or re-used without permission of the author. From Beyond the Edge Reviews by our readers (part 1) Alien Death Fleet [***] Edward S. Hudson Pageant $3.50 207pg. The story starts out running and accelerates from there. It is pure pulp style action. A mysterious alien fleet invades human space and kills all life on the human colonized worlds. A lowly sub-lieutenant, Pier Norlin, becomes captain of a battle cruiser by the simple expedient of being the surviving command officer. He blasts his way past the alien fleet to sector headquarters where the climatic battle against the alien fleet is fought. The characters are all cardboard cutouts. The deeds they do are superhuman although in real wars people have done things almost as implausible. Hudson knows how to fill the story with technical details that make the story seem more realistic. In general the pace of the story is so fast that the flaws are easily overlooked. This book is good for casual fun reading. Unfortunately, it is the first book of another trilogy. -- Danny Low And the Gods Laughed Fredric Brown Phantasia Press, 1987 In the 1950s and 1960s Fredric Brown published some of the shortest, most succinct stories in the sf and mystery fields. He was a master of the sneaky twist ending, especially noted in his short shorts (under 500 words.) A lot of his mysteries are being reprinted in hard cover and paperback by another small press, this book has only science fiction. His people are characters with bad habits (poker, gambling, not brushing their teeth?), but the quality that shines through for me is his humor: The puns, the wide open roar and the small snicker at humanities' faults. Very much recommended. -- Joyce Scrivner Azazel [***] Issac Asimov Doubleday $16.95 221 pg. This book is a collection of bar stories. The name comes from the SF tradition of having the stories told in a bar although this is not mandatory. In this case, the stories are told over dinner. The stories follow the traditional format of bar stories. The stories are told by George Bitternut concern his misadventures with the demon Azazel. In each case, George tries to help someone by using Azazel's powers. However, Azazel is not too familiar with human customs and George is too lazy (not to mention dumb) to explain things fully or to make a precise request. As a result, things never quite turn out as planned. Asimov has tried to write the stories in a mildly satirical manner in emulation of P. G. Wodehouse. The result is the stories are a bit livelier than your typical Asimov story which tend to be rather "dry." The result is more slapstick than droll. Because of the sameness of the stories, they should be read in small doses even though they are well- written in the traditional Asimov manner. -- Danny Low Azure Bonds [***] Kate Novak and Jeff Grubb TSR $3.95 380pg. This is a fantasy novel set in the AD&D world known as the Forgotten Realms. However, it is a good fantasy. The authors do not fall into the trap of writing for hardcore AD&D players. Anyone unfamiliar with the AD&D games will find this novel comprehensible. The story is well plotted. The characterization is excellent. Alias is a mercenary who wakes up one morning in a strange tavern with no idea of how she got there and alarming gaps in her memory. She also has a strange set of magical "tattoos" on her arm. They are the azure bonds of the title as she discovers the tattoos will occasionally make her do something against her will. Since the something always involves killing someone, Alias decides that this is a problem. The story is her quest to have the tattoos removed. She quickly discovers she is not alone in this quest. A strange lizardman like creature immediately becomes her companion in the quest. Alias is unable to determine if the creature is an intelligent being or a very intelligent animal. She names him Dragonbait. In her effort to find the origins of the tattoos she has to rescue a halfling bard, Olive Ruskette, with the aid of a merchant mage, Akabar Bel Akash. These two then become part of her party. It is evident to the reader that Alias is not what she appears to be about midway through the story. Nor is the lizardman what he appears to be either. The story pacing is rather uneven. In the beginning many pages are devoted to not much of anything while the rapid series of battles in the end get compressed into fewer and fewer pages. This does not quite successfully convey a sense of increased pacing. However the length of the story is right. There is a fair amount of humor in the story. It is not excessive and is a nice contrast to the usually serious tone of most fantasies. In summary a good fantasy worth reading. -- Danny Low Becoming Alien [***] Rebecca Ore A first novel from an author with real potential. The setup is fairly standard: space ship crashes on Earth, kid named Tom tries to help surviving alien. Things start moving away from the usual plot when the alien dies and bequeathes his position as cadet to Tom. And once the action moves to the academy, things are very different from usual. The Earthman is not the most competent being at the academy; alien species do not trust each other immediately; being a cadet is not fun and games (Tom wonders if making him a cadet was the alien's gift or curse); different species do not all act like Americans. It's an interesting twist on the usual "Earthman makes good in the galaxy" plot. I thought it was more realistic than the usual space academy situation. Certainly the aliens were not the usual humans with funny bodies and one exaggerated characteristic; they were probably the books strongest point. Unfortunately, I didn't quite buy Tom's character. He reacted too neatly in some situations, especially considering his background. But overall, an enjoyable read. -- Chuck Koelbel Black Grail Damien Broderick Avon 1986, $3.50 I have read several of Damien's previous works, and they are all 'modern.' I was disappointed in this book. It seems to me that he is attempting to write an adventure story (the hero has a sword and wins a lady fair) and solve a major science debate (the loss of dinosaurs) in a single plot. To my mind he fails. I was disappointed, also in how quickly the ending of the book resolves several plot devices as well. Try his Dreaming Dragons instead. -- Joyce Scrivner The Blind Archer John Gregory Betancourt Avon, 1988, $2.95 Ker Orrum lives in a world of magic. He is ordained to take the Great Ruby from the god Blind Archer. His brashness causes the Blind Archer to blind him when they first meet. He learns how to live with his blindness and works at achieving his destiny. The magic is integral to the story, yet there is a lack of discipline in what magic will work and how it does. I'd like to see better definition for the setting. -- Joyce Scrivner Blue Magic Jo Clayton DAW 1988, $3.95 This is the second book in the fourth series Jo Clayton has written. As all the others, she has a female protagonist in an adventure setting who interacts with a large cast of human-like characters. By this I mean that even though some of the characters are alien to humanity, their reasons and actions create some empathetic response in the reader. I enjoy having books written with female protagonists who are capable, witty and accomplish tasks ranging from cooking to fighting and Jo Clayton's cast of worlds and aliens are interesting enough to hold my attention. This book concerns a legendary 'witch' Brann who is called on to protect the descendants of people she owed a debt to. She must find these descendants, fight several 'gods' with her magic and win the 'humans' release. She picks up help along the way in the guise of a future human man, a passive wizard and two 'angels'. It's fast, fun and there is at least one more story to come in this series with more of Brann. -- Joyce Scrivner The Book of Fantasy [***+] ed. Jorge Luis Borges, Silvina Ocampo, and A. Bioy Casares One evening in 1934 three friends (who also happened to be major writers) were discussing literature and bemoaning the scarcity of good fantasy. Although it was rare, they did know of a lot of excellent fantasy stories. Somewhere along the line, one of the three suggested that publishing a collection of these stories would make a great book. This book is the result of that suggestion. It consists simply of stories that Borges, Ocampo, and Casares felt showed the best of the fantastic imagination. (This edition also contains a number of stories written since 1934; the introduction is vague about whether the original editors or somebody else added these later.) Overall, I agree with the editors' taste, although I'm not sure how all these stories fit under the label of "fantasy". There are stories by "classic" fantasy writers (Poe, Wells, Kipling), lesser-known writers (many of them South American), and some authors not generally associated with fantasy (James Joyce). The subjects range from horror and alternate reality to oriental legends and poetry. No cute unicorns, beautiful elves, or evil wizards, though; Borges and company are more interested in playing with the boundaries of reality than in using stock fantasy concepts. The introduction by Ursula K. LeGuin also deserves mention; it is well worth reading. -- Chuck Koelbel Box of Nothing Peter Dickinson Delacourt 1988, $14.95) This is a short juvenile novel. Peter Dickinson is best known in the United States for Blue Hawk, an Ace book in the early 1970s. This story tells of James who acquires a box of the original nothing from the Big Bang in a Nothing Shop. He gets involved in an adventure in the local dump with a mixed creature, the Burra, who is constructed of doll legs and bodies. They must fight the Rat general in order to save themselves and achieve harmony. This is minor Dickinson (I love best when he combines reality with fantasy as in his Seventh Raven which mixes terrorists with children's pantomime) but pleasant reading for all that. -- Joyce Scrivner The Brave Little Toaster Thomas Disch Doubleday 1986, $10.95 This book, "a bedtime story for small appliances," has been animated by Disney, though I haven't seen the result. It tells the story of a toaster, blanket, clock, light and vacuum cleaner who have been abandoned by their owner in a summer cottage and journey to find him again. It is humorous and ends on an up beat. Worth reading if you like Disch. Some of his poetry is used as a preface. -- Joyce Scrivner The Bridge of Lost Desire [***] Samuel Delany Maybe this is what I get for picking up the last book in a series first. The Bridge of Lost Desire is a collection of novellas set in Delany's world of NeverXon. He has described the series as "a child's garden of semiotics" and, sure enough, everything is a symbol for something else. While I admire the prose style and obvious crafting that went into these stories, I just couldn't get excited about the subject matter. Whether that comes from not knowing the rest of the series or from not caring, I don't know. The best I can say for this book is that I'm interested in looking up the rest of the NeverXon books. -- Chuck Koelbel Chance and Other Gestures of the Hand of Fate [***] Nancy Springer Baen, 1987, $3.50, 240pp. Long and short stories with a few poems mixed in, mostly fantasy. "Chance" and "The Golden Face of Fate" are traditional fantasy stories about an enchanted forest and the not so happily-ever-after love story of a princess and a woodsman. The forest denizens bring them together, but for their own ends, bringing to mind the moral `It's not nice to fool Mother Nature'. The "Bright-Eyed Black Pony" belongs to a little boy who goes to visit a wizard for help, it just wasn't a pony when they started out. Horses play a major role in several stories. "The Bard" has each soldier imagine his ideal horse, but sees for himself the white horse, symbol of death. "The Boy Who Plaited Manes" must enchant the horses to get them to stay so still and may be something enchanted himself. I don't really know how to evaluate poetry, but I especially liked "The Wolf Girl Speaks", a feral child's view of being "rescued" by her own kind. While all were entertaining, none of these stories really jumped out at me. If you're sick of traditional fantasy, there is nothing particularly unusual here. -- Mary Anne Espenshade The Complete Time Traveler: A Tourist's Guide to the Fourth Dimension [****] Howard Blumenthal, Dorothy F. Curley, and Brad Williams Ten Speed Press, Box 7123, Berkeley, California 94707, 0-89815-284-4, $13.95 The Complete Time Traveler is a clever book designed as a tongue-in- cheek guide for tourists who are as interested in visiting when as they are where. For example, the copyright date says both 1988 and 2038, and the authors have books credited to them which won't be written for another forty years or so. The Foreword is by H. G. Wells. The Complete Time Traveler tells you what are the best modes for time travel, what are the best places to visit, what diseases to be inoculated against (Black Plagues and all that, you know), what to wear, what rules must be obeyed, and even how to bring children along. The authors obviously had a lot of fun writing this book, and they know their SF: A bibliography on books, films, and television series dealing with time travel (some of which have yet to exist in our time period) is located in the back. -- Larry Klaes Crown of the Serpent Allen L. Wold Questar, 1989, 0-445-20624-1, 250 pp., $3.95 Just when you thought the "Bat Durston" had been laid to rest in boot hill, Wold rides his trusty starship into view, blasters blazing, and rounds up those slimy monsters at the Horsehead Nebula. In what seems to be book two of a series, Gesta rogue Rikard Braeth, complete with handy .75 calibre shootin' iron, gets caught with his pants down on conservative planet Nowarth. He and his lover, Darcy Glemtide, are rescued from nasty local interrogation by Agent Sukiro of the Federal police. Sukiro delivers the pair of alien artifact thieves to Colonel Polski on planet Natimarie, where the native centaurs have just been hit by mystery brain slavers. No one wonders why the Press on any of the hundreds of inhabited Federation worlds has failed to notice this brain drain, now into its 40th planet. And, Darcy gets lost in the shuffle as our hero lets Polski draft him for a secret mission. Braeth senses the evil of Tathas, your standard tentacled creepy-crawly, and rides off into the badlands, eh, deepest space with Sukiro and her Goon Squad of cops. When they arrive at the moon-sized alien "deathstar," the apparent 10,000 year old Tschagan capital, Braeth and the cops find lots of brainless bodies, bodiless brains, and a fast shuffle of cartoon dimensions. Unfortunately, about 70% of this novel involves strolls up halls, down stairs, and into elevators. Well, to be fair, once inside the old Tschagan shack, on their way to the Dragon, ah, Droagn, weird alien stuff is all about, so it's travel down corridors, up stairs, and through elevators, all with random piles of tinker toys. Do the good guys win? Who cares. -- Dean R. Lambe Cyberbooks Ben Bova Tor, 1989, 0-312-93181-6, 283 pp., $17.95 Some novels have value just for the fun of it; others have depth as teaching tools. With this near future satire of the publishing industry, Bova offers both fun and instruction. Early in the next century, software wiz Carl Lewis leaves his safe haven at MIT for the wilds of New York City. Lewis has perfected the device we all know is coming, the electronic book. Comely Lori Tashkajian, a junior editor for Bunker Books who survives the expense of Manhattan by belly dancing at night, tries to convince her superiors and the odd husband and wife team who own Bunker Books that Lewis' invention means cheap information for the masses and salvation for the company. Meanwhile, higher in the Synthoil Tower, CEO Weldon W. Weldon of multi- national Tarantula Enterprises goads his flunky, P. Curtis Hawks of Webb Press, to acquire Lewis's invention at any cost. Hawks, sure that his boss is senile, agrees to set a spy, and Scarlet Dean begins to vamp Lewis from her new position as the Bunkers's editor-in-chief. Down in the mean streets Lt. Jack Moriarty of the NYPD begins to take stock of a mystery killer, while a crazed writer from the Gulf Coast, sure that his great work of literature has been ignored, takes arms against the evil empire of publishing. Not to be outdone, once they realize that cyberbooks will make them obsolete, everyone from book salesmen to lumberjacks gathers to attack the Bunkers. If, at times, the novel has a bit too much Goulartian fun with character names at the expense of character depth, Bova may be forgiven for the insider grins he brings and the truth he tells. For every morality tale herein is gospel somewhere in Manhattan, and this very funny book should be required reading for all aspiring writers and editors. -- Dean R. Lambe Dancing at the Edge of the World [****+] Ursula K. LeGuin A collection of essays, speeches, and reviews that LeGuin wrote between 1976 and 1988. The table of contents labels each of the essays and speeches with symbols for "Feminism", "Literature", "Social Responsibility", and "Travel" (many pieces have more than one symbol), and those labels are pretty accurate. The quality of the writing varies quite a bit. Everybody will find at least one essay that they think is pure gold in this collection, and probably one that they just don't care about. For me, the good outweighed the indifferent by a huge margin. LeGuin's views are generally well thought out and presented, and make great food for thought even when I disagree with her. Highly recommended as a glimpse into the mind of a great writer. -- Chuck Koelbel Dawn Octavia Butler Questar, 1987, $3.95 This book is by another author who uses plot and characters in an unusual manner. Octavia creates an Earth on which mankind has killed itself and then presents an alien race which must merge its life processes with mankind (it weaves genes) in order to save both sapiens. The story is written from the point of view of the first woman to wake Lilith Iyapo, who is treated as Lilith of Biblical fame. She learns what the Oankali want from mankind and fears that mankind will not give it, nor does she want mankind to. She is both saviour and traitor according to those she helps. I understand the sequel is published in hardcover, and I intend to buy the paperback as soon as it is available. -- Joyce Scrivner Demon Lord of Karanda David Eddings Del Rey, 1988, $18.95 This is the fourth volume of Eddings' second series telling the story of Garion and his family and friends. Garion is a wizard descended from the most famous wizard Belgarath who is still alive after centuries of life. Belgarath and his daughter Pol (also a wizard) had guarded Garion until the time of the prophesy. The first series of five books (the Belgariad) is spent hauling Garion around to the places he must go while the prophesy makes sure things work out right. (As opposed to the bad prophesy which is working for the other side.) Obviously things do. This series of books is about a further prophesy which Garion must follow until either he or the bad guy wins. For all that these books are just another quest series, I rather like the characters. Garion is a polite young man, even if he gets moved around like a chess piece. Pol has sentimental and sharp sides. And Belgarath is properly knowledgeable and overconfident. The setting is full of Gods and magics and different cultures, so it isn't monotonous. Too many times resolutions occur from thin air when needed, no one expects Garion to lose. -- Joyce Scrivner Dido and Pa Joan Aiken Dell 1986, $3.25 Another children's novel in her series about Dido that contains with Wolves of Willoughby Chase, Black Hearts in Battersea, Nightbirds in Nantucket, The Stolen Lake and the Cuckoo Tree. Dido has spent the previous stories leaving England and traveling the world from America to Spain. She is a sensible cockney child with a rascally father who reappears in this story. Pa is allied with Margrave Eisengrim against the Hanovers who are being crowned as England's royalty and Dido, who has saved the king in the past, becomes woven into her father's plot. The fantastic healing powers of her father's music, for no man is totally evil, add their saving grace to the plot as Dido struggles to warn the king of Margrave Eisengrim's threat. Excellent story on its own, but it is worth finding the rest of the series too. -- Joyce Scrivner Eyes of the Killer Robot John Bellairs Bantam-Skylark 1987, $2.95 John Bellairs had an adult fantasy published by Ace several years ago (Face in the Frost) but all the other books I have found by him have been juveniles. Most of those, like this one, are about Johnny Dixon and his friends Professor Childermass and Fergie. They are all science fictional or fantastic with ghosts and strange experiments. One thing I like about these books is that the evil characters are evil (with dripping fangs and nasty natures), and the good characters can be very wishy washy in their goodness. (In this book the lead characters tell several lies at various times and feel uncomfortable/guilty about them.) This story is about an old robot designed to win baseball pitching contests. For reasons of envy Professor Childermass wants to reconstruct the robot and defeat a minor enemy of his at pitching. Meanwhile the original creator of the robot, who believes Johnny's grandfather did him wrong, wants to use Johnny's eyes to fuel the robot in the same contest. Most of the story is taken up in finding the robot and his creator. The art, as in the other books, is by Edward Gorey and appropriate. Pleasant reading. -- Joyce Scrivner Fantasy Poul Anderson TOR, 1981, $2.50 A collection of 14 of Anderson's fantasy short stories classified into three areas; historical, alternate historical and it-could-happen-to- you. All are well written stories, but none are classics. A couple have twist endings, i.e.. the hero runs away from his true love, one upping the devil. Fun stories to read by the fire. -- Joyce Scrivner The Firebrand Marion Zimmer Bradley Pocket, 1987, 608 pgs.,$8.95, 0-671-66703-3 The story that Marion Zimmer Bradley tells in the Firebrand is compelling. Though she is working from the classics, she tells the tale from a unique point of view, that of Kassandra, daughter of Priam, King of Troy, and Hecuba, sister to the Queen of the Amazons. Bradley's style is well suited to this work. Her Kassandra forecasts the inevitable fate of Troy for the benefit of those not familiar with the classics, but not to the boredom of those who are. In fact, it is Kassandra's ability to foresee the future that accounts for much of the drama in the book. Because no one will believe Kassandra, she finds it easy to spend a year or more traveling with the Amazons. She later leaves her family to become a priestess of Apollo. Even under the God's care she is tormented by her vision of burning Troy. There is nothing she can do to intercede for humanity in the battling of the Gods. This work has been praised as the feminist re-telling of the Iliad. I would beg to differ. In the prologue, which is the end of the story, Kassandra as matriarch of her clan is still not believed as she tells of Troy. Her own grandchildren did not even know she had been there! She has little sympathy for her sisters and fellow priestesses, even when she comes to understand the cultural benefit of their behavior. She even condemns the tribes of Kentars, that the women would be better off if they were dead. Even though I found Kassandra an unsympathetic protagonist I was drawn and held by the story. The struggle against a fate decreed by the Gods is as dramatic in modern America as it was in ancient Greece. This is a truly compelling work and Marion Zimmer Bradley does it justice. -- Lisa Besnett& Brett Slocum The Fleet [**+] David Drake & Bill Fawcett, eds. Ace, $3.50, 280 pgs. 0-441-24086-0 Here we have yet another attempt at developing a shared world. I say attempt because it doesn't quite come off. The 11 stories which make up the book are connected only by a broad, overall concept; galactic war between a human-led alliance (the Fleet) and a weasel-like race known as the Khalia. Though efforts by John Brunner, Robert Sheckley, Janet Morris and Steve Perry are above average, they are counterbalanced by less than glowing work from Anne McCaffrey, Bill Fawcett, Jody Lynn Nye and E. Gary Gygax. A particularly lackluster story by Margaret Weis leaves one ready to call it quits a mere halfway through. Each story is tied together with an interlude written by Bill Fawcett. These short connectors are poorly written, confusing, occasionally seeming out of sequence and unnecessary. -- Steven Sawicki ------ End ------