Electronic OtherRealms #25 Summer/Fall, 1989 Part 11 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. Words of Wizdom Reviews by Chuq Von Rospach Copyright 1989 by Chuq Von Rospach The Star Scroll (Dragon Prince, Book II) Melanie Rawn DAW, 591pp, $4.95, 0-88677-349-0. Tekwar William Shatner Ace, October, 1989, 258pp, $18,95, 0-399-13495-6. Falcon Emma Bull Ace, October, 1989, 281pp, $3.95, 0-441-22569-1. Phases of Gravity Dan Simmons Bantam, 278pp, $4.50, 0-553-27764-2. Paradise: A Chronicle of a Distant World Mike Resnick Tor, 323pp, $17.95, 0-312-93183-2. In the Red Lord's Reach Phyllis Eisenstein Signet, July, 1989, 268pp, $3.95, 0-451-16073-8. Full Spectrum 2 Lou Aronica, Shawna McCarthy et al Bantam, 464pp, $19.95, 0-385-26019-9 A Fire in the Sun George Alec Effinger Doubleday, 289pp, $6.95, 0-385-26349-X Apartheid, Superstrings and Mordecai Thubana Michael Bishop Axolotl Press, Box 1227, Eugene, OR 97440 The Further Adventures of Batman Martin H. Greenberg, ed. Bantam, 401pp, $3.95, 0-553-28270-0. A Study in Sorcery Michael Kurland Ace, 184pp, $3.95, 0-553-28270-0. Callahan's Lady Spider Robinson Ace, 191pp, $16.95, 0-441-09073-7. The Dark Side of Guy de Maupassant translated by Arnold Kellett Carroll&Graf, $18.95, 0-88184-459-4. The Gryphon King Tom Deitz Avon, $3.95, 0-380-75506-8. Snow White and Rose Red Patricia C. Wrede Tor, 273pp, #15.95, 0-312-93180-8. The Year's Best Science Fiction, Sixth Edition Gardner Dozois, Editor St. Martin's Press, 596pp, $13.95, 0-312-03009 The Best of the Nebulas Ben Bova, Editor Tor, 593pp, $14.95, 0-312-93175-1. The way the publishing industry is today, it's hard for a new author to get a break. This is one of the reasons I really like DAW books. They don't pay the highest advances, they don't have the largest ad budgets, they don't have the biggest names. What they do have is a belief that good books deserve to be read and good people deserve to be treated well. In the discussions I have with authors, I find it almost impossible to find people who are unhappy with DAW. Many, in fact, tell me they feel like they've been adopted into an extended family. I wish I could say this wasn't uncommon, but get any group of authors together and you'll start hearing the gripes. Justified or no, the only people who seem generally immune to them is DAW. Another thing that makes me like DAW is that they're not afraid to ignore conventional publishing wisdom when needs dictate. They publish a lot of new authors. Once in a while, they find an author with a lot of potential and, first novel or no, they push them as hard as they can. Tad Williams' Tailchaser's Song. C.S. Friedman's In Conquest Born. Melanie Rawn's Dragon Prince. Michael Whelan covers. Advertising budgets. Promotion. Unheard of with first authors. So far, they're three for three, too -- all three are good books that have sold well and stayed in print. DAW seems to have figured out that a good book by an unknown will sell well if you can help the audience find it. Even more important than the book, though, is the career. A single book may sell well, but if it isn't followed up then the promotion and money is wasted. Which is why it's good to see The Star Scroll by Melanie Rawn, her sequel to Dragon Prince. The first book was a romantic fantasy (as opposed to a fantasy romance, which it definitely is not) with a very wide, multi-generational scope and a complex, compelling plot. The Star Scoll takes up a number of years after the end of Dragon Prince when Rohan and Sioned are reaching middle age and their son, Pol, is starting to make the switch from child to Prince, with the responsibilities and requirements that this implies. There are many problems in the kingdom; Lords who aspire to Rohan's seat and princelings who aspire to each other's land. There are outsiders who are plotting as well, some known, some not. The Star Scroll is, then, a long, complex intertwining of personal interplay, palace intrigue, growth and transformation. Rawn, despite this being her second novel, carries the complexity forward and never lets it get out of control. This series is not everyone's cup of tea, but I find her writing fresh and invigorating after too many me-too forgettable fantasies. This book shows that the support of the first book was not misplaced. This book is one of the highlights of the last few month's reading. I know that I'm looking forward to whatever she publishes next. I also have learned to trust the people at DAW. They don't put the special packaging on many books. When they do, however, I know it's a book I don't want to miss. The DAW folks don't go all out pushing the best book of the month, each month. They wait for the books that really deserve a little something special. I'm going to be here, waiting with them. [****] Most first novels can expect tiny advances, no publicity, small print- runs and an limited exposure before going out of print. The exception, of course, is when the first novel is by someone who already has a well- known name and an acknowledged audience. When that happens, publishers fall all over themselves to give out large advances, promise large print runs, massive amounts of publicity -- even though there's no evidence that the person involved can string together words in a minimally cohesive form. The thought, I guess, is that it doesn't matter how bad the novel is, the name will sell it. That is, of course, what they thought about Vanna Speaks, of course, and it disappeared like a rock in a bog. But the mentality is still there. William Shatner. Star Trek. Guaranteed Best Seller! What's depressing about that is that a very good novelist like Emma Bull or Tom Deitz gets lost in the noise everyone is making, while William Shatner can waltz in, turn in just about anything and expect to make lots of money. It ain't fair. It's the way it is, but I don't have to like it. I don't have to like the book, either. Playing Captain of the Starship Enterprise or directing Star Trek V doesn't say anything about a person's writing skills. Actually, neither does Tekwar, since I've heard from too many independent sources that the book was ghostwritten. Assuming that's true (and I feel my sources are right) we've got a case of ultimate marketing hypocrisy -- get a journeyman author to turn out a journeyman book, sell the hell out of it to the Trekkies and everyone makes money and is happy. Except, perhaps, the Trekkies, since this isn't really a Shatner novel. Ghostwritten books are standard procedure in the celebrity non-fiction kiss-and-tell system, but novels? Let's give the book and the author the benefit of the doubt. Assume that it really is a William Shatner novel and it is his first book. How is it? To be honest, Tekwar isn't a bad book. I hesitate to call it a novel, though. What it really is is a fleshed out sequence of action sequences about private detective Jake Cardigan that reads more like a novelization of a script for a made for TV movie than a novel. As a book, it's somewhat wanting. If it hadn't been William Shatner and was going to get enough publicity and hype to deserve a review, I wouldn't have finished it. There's nothing really special or exciting about Tekwar. The words that come to mind are commercial, pedestrian, and journeyman. I keep wondering why might happen to an Emma Bull if *she* got the hardcover, what wouldn't happen with Deitz if he got the hoopla and hype. If you took a really good book (as opposed to a sure-thing marketing piece) and hyped the heck out of it, what would happen? Perhaps if publishers look at what DAW has done, maybe we'd get the beginning of an answer. [**] Speaking of Emma Bull, what's better than a really sharp first novel? A second novel that proves it wasn't a fluke. I can't begin to count the number of times I've recommended Emma Bull's wonderful War for the Oaks, a contemporary Fantasy set in current Minneapolis. Ace has published Bull's second novel, Falcon, and I'm thrilled to say it's as good. It is, however, a very different book. Rather than build upon her first novel, Bull has written a Science Fiction thriller, involving Niki Falcon, former member of royalty, various nasty people in the bureaucratic agencies that took his planet away from him and another planet under siege that is in need of his services. The book reminded me somewhat of Melissa Scott's The Kindly Ones because of the various cultures in conflict. There are also hints of proto-Cyberpunk (Cyberpunk fans are likely to consider this part of The Movement; I disagree -- it is closer in spirit to Walter Jon Williams' Hardwired, skirting the surface, using the pieces that it needs but never signing up for a tour of duty). There are layers within layers, as different groups generate intrigues upon each other to advance their various hidden agendas, and if things are not what you expected them to be at the conclusion, neither does Bull cheat the reader by pulling loose ends out of her hat. The various palace and bureaucratic intrigues are all in there -- the job is figuring out which ones are important. What Falcon shows is that Bull isn't just a good, young fantasy writer. She's a good writer, period, and anything she puts out is going to be worth the time to pick up and read. Her name is a name I expect to see on good books for years to come. [****] It's been a while since I read a book that has hit me in the gut. Books can be good for many different reasons. Melanie Rawn's books are good, solidly written fantasies. Craig Shaw Gardner writes wonderful excursions into mind-candy. Mike Resnick writes books with a strong vision and a wide scope and an interesting message. Occasionally, though, you run into a book that resonates inside at some unknown level, that leaves behind it memories etched onto the little neurons that you call home. They're rare in the field today (to be honest, they always have been), so when you finally hit one you just want to stare at nothing for a while and savor the memory -- reading anything else would suffer in comparison. Dan Simmon's Phases of Gravity is one of those books. Which shouldn't surprise me. His book Song of Kali hit me the same way for many of the same reasons. Song of Kali was a horror novel without any distinct element of horror in it. Phases of Gravity is a science fiction novel without any science fiction in it. If a purist were to pin me down, I'd be forced to acknowledge that there wasn't anything explicitly SF in this book, but that doesn't mean it isn't SF. What Phases of Gravity is, instead, is a memoir. The story of Richard Baedecker, an astronaut who walked on the moon. Baedecker, years later, is adrift, wallowing through a mid-life crisis and trying to find meaning to his life. He spent years sacrificing to reach the ultimate goal of walking on the moon only to find out that he (and the space program itself) had never bothered to ask "what comes next." His life an anti-climax, he wanders through an unfufilled job, unsatisfactory marriage, in neutral waiting for something. Anything. Doesn't sound like science fiction? What Simmons has done is create in this story a symbol of American society and the space program. Apollo was a raging success, but when it was done the American public moved on to the next fad. Baedecker, a humanified symbol of the space program, is adrift, unwanted and not sure what to do next. Part Flowers for Algernon, part The Right Stuff and part Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Phases of Gravity is a depressing indictment of NASA, the space program and the American public, yet it is also strangely upbeat and hopeful. It is a book that will depress you horribly if you care about space, but also show you that it's not hopeless. You may not like the book, but you're unlikely to put it down without being affected strongly by it. One of the strongest recommendations I can give to a book is that I was changed by what I read. That acknowledgement is rare, but it applies. There have been a number of books this year that I thought might win awards. This is the first I've read that I feel deserves it. [*****] Mike Resnick is carving his own niche in the field. He's an SF writer, but beyond that he's taken up the difficult job of writing myth. His special interest is Africa, and he has been translating the history and culture of Africa into a series of books that tell the stories of different African areas. Ivory was a parable of the final Maasai, set thousands of years and thousands of lightyears from now while still reaching back and also being a tale of the here and now. His latest, Paradise, is a fictionalized history of the country of Kenya and the problems the country had once it gained its independence. Once you make that connection, you can almost read Paradise as a straight historical text. While Paradise is, I think, the superior work, Ivory is the more accessible. Resnick obviously cares about Africa deeply. That attachment seeps through more in Paradise. He's trying to both entertain and get his message across while not overpowering the reader with the emotional content of the material. He does this by taking a somewhat literary approach and keeping the reader at a distance emotionally. Mike claims this was necessary to keep the reader from being emotionally overloaded, and I can see his point. At the same time, however, I think there are places where the distancing is overdone and the impact is lost, and it makes me wonder if the distancing is more to allow the author to deal with material that threatens to overload him. Paradise is a book that will affect you. It may, in fact, drive you away with the intensity. If you see it through, though, you will find yourself enlightened. On a continent with too many poachers and not enough elephants (the slaughter of the elephant-analogue on Paradise being an important element), this book can entertain and help you better understand how things are on our own planet. Not an easy read, but well worth it. [****] Short Takes: This issue, my new author is Phyllis Eisenstein and In the Red Lord's Reach. This isn't her first novel, but it is my first experience with her. In the Red Lord's Reach is a significant enlargement of a novella first published in Fantasy & Science Fiction, and it is fantasy in a classic format, as Alaric, a wandering minstrel with the power of teleporting himself from place to place. He finds himself at the Red Lord's palace, where he plays for room and board for a while. Unfortunately, the Red Lord is a sadistic tyrant and visitors don't leave -- they become playthings for his tortuous hobbies. Alaric, by dint of his special power, escapes his grasp and moves on, finally settling with the reindeer-herding nomads of the north. Any reader of fantasy should realize by now that he hasn't left the Red Lord behind forever, and that's true -- eventually the Red Lord and the nomads fall into conflict, in which Alaric plays an important, if distasteful role. It seems like a fairly standard plot -- Boy finds Trouble, Boy loses Trouble, Boy finds Happiness and settles down, Trouble pops back in and files a paternity suit. While the journey is somewhat familiar, Eisenstein does put some twists into the plot that makes it interesting and fresh. My only real gripe is the ending, which seems to flutter about and then resolve itself in a major anti-climax. Yes, things are resolved, but no, they're not resolved in a way I felt was satisfying This is a way to spend a few hours relaxing and escaping into a enjoyable read. [***-] Full Spectrum 2 is the second volume in Bantam's new original short fiction anthology. While it doesn't have a single, outstanding work like Spinrad's "Journal of the Plague Years," everyone is going to find stories to remember in it, from David Brin's "The Giving Plague" to Ed Bryant's "'Saurus Wrecks." Full Spectrum is certain to be well represented at award time. [****+] Marid is back in A Fire in the Sun, the sequel to George Alec Effinger's When Gravity Fails. The first book came out to very positive and well- deserved reviews and came close to winning both the Hugo and the Nebula award. The only thing I can find lacking in Fire is that it doesn't have that sense of being different that Gravity had (which, if you think about it, makes sense, since it is a sequel). Being a sequel of an original book doesn't make it less of a book, though, which makes the somewhat mixed reviews I've seen for it somewhat disappointing to me. This is definitely a book to read -- if you can find it. A tiny (less than 4,000HC) print run forced me to settle for the trade paperback. You may well find yourself having to wait for the paperback, but it'll be worth it. But I wonder at the intelligence of these minimal hardcover/trade paperback simultaneous editions. All it seems to do is make it impossible to find the book. [****] Apartheid, Superstrings and Mordecai Thubana by Michael Bishop is a novella published in a limited edition by Axolotl Press (now part of Pulphouse Publishing, Box 1227, Eugene, Oregon, 97440). It's an interesting Science Fictional (sort of) diatribe against South African apartheid (sort of). As a limited edition (about 1,000 copies total) this book will be hard to find, but something Bishop fans will definitely want. If you can't find it, the novella will also be in Full Spectrum #3 in 1991. If you're a collector, though, or enjoy well- written fiction at the novella length (which is increasingly rare due to market pressures these days) then you really should contact Axolotl and get on their mailing lists. They have yet to turn out an unsatisfactory book. [***+] The Further Adventures of Batman is an anthology of fourteen original stories written about the Caped Crusader. This book was obviously put together to take advantage of the popularity caused by the movie and it shows. While there are some stories that sparkle (notable George Alec Effinger's "The Origin of the Polarizer," which is both well written and shows an author who both knows the history of and and cares for the character) most of the anthology is uninspired, pedestrian prose and some of the stories (notably Robert Sheckley's "Death of the Dreamaster" are downright embarassingly bad. There are a few, all too few, moments in this book. [*] Study in Sorcery is Michael Kurland's second attempt to write in Randall Garrett's Lord Darcy universe. I wasn't terribly impressed with the first try, Ten Little Wizards. The new book, fortunately, while it still isn't Randall Garrett is an acceptable substitute. Kurland seems to have gotten the characterizations of the various people right and has put together a readable story and an interesting mystery worthy of Lord Darcy and Sean. A fun afternoon of diversion. It's not Randall Garrett, but Kurland is being true to Garrett's legacy. [***]. When last we heard from Spider Robinson, he was destroying Callahan's Bar with a thermo-nuclear device. The only problem with a plot device like that is that it doesn't leave a lot left over to carry on with (which was, in Spider's case, the point exactly). While the bar may be gone, Spider has created a new and equally interesting new venue in Callahan's Lady: Lady Sally's, a brothel somewhat different than normal. Once you get past the exceptionally inaccurate cover on this book, you'll find vintage Spider Robinson. It's light and enjoyable fare. My major gripe is that Robinson once again decides to toss in a few convenient deus ex machina plot devices when the going gets rough -- it isn't until well into the book when the gadgets become necessary that he brings in the extra-terrestrial aspects. I don't have a problem with Lady Sally being an alien (no surprise to anyone reading his previous work), just that Robinson doesn't foreshadow this into the story and chooses to ignore it until it's convenient to use. I find this a bit of a cheat. The Lady Sally stories, so far, don't have the emotional edges found in "The Time Traveller" or "The Guy with the Eyes" but that doesn't seem to be the point here. The point is to kick off the shoes, relax and enjoy. In this, it succeeds. [***-] The Dark Side of Guy de Maupassant are a set of translations of a French horror writer from the 1880's and 1890's. Arnold Kellett has made a selection of his best work available in English. Heavily influenced by French translations of Poe, de Maupassant's work, unlike a lot of fiction of that time, is still very readable and very effective. Definitely something that horror readers (especially readers of Poe or Lovecraft) should track down, although you're likely to read it a piece at a time. [****+] It's no secret I'm a fan of fantasy, especially the burgeoning sub-field of contemporary fantasy. Tom Deitz has mined that field very successfully to day, mixing the various aspects of Fairie with real people in Rural Georgia and then sitting back and watching what happens. His third novel, The Gryphon King, is set in the same arena as his previous books but is otherwise separate. Years ago, a nasty person in Fairie is given the ultimate sentence: death by Iron. But he was able to hide his being away, waiting for the right time to return to this reality and challenge Fairie for control of the world. That time is now, and rural Georgia is a convenient place. And lots of innocent people are going to find that everything they understand is going to be different. [***] I loved every book of the "Fairy Tale" series that's been published so far. The series has moved from Ace to Tor, and I'm happy to say my enjoyment continued. The latest is Snow White and Rose Red by Patricia C. Wrede, and it uses the classic Fairy Tale about two sisters as a starting point for a look at the interactions between our reality and Fairie as scheming on both sides get in the way of people trying to live their lives. The covers by Tom Canty are visually stunning as well, making these very attractive and enjoyable books to have. [***+] Finally, two thick trade paperbacks of short fiction. Every year, Gardner Dozois, editor of Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, collects the best fiction to be published into a single omnibus volume. Unlike other Best of the Year volumes, Dozois is able to publish a large number of the best works. While you can argue a choice here and a choice there, it's clear that The Year's Best Science Fiction is the definitive definition of the year in fiction. [****] Ben Bova's, The Best of the Nebulas, takes a slightly different tack. Every year, the Science Fiction Writers of America awards the Nebula awards to the best pieces of fiction published. Bova polled the members of SFWA to see which of the past winners they felt were the "best of the best" -- the works that have stood up to the test of time. While there are problems with this approach -- only winners were on the ballot, so a strong work that placed second one year is ignored while a lesser work in a weak year could be voted on -- the results is an anthology that makes a wonderful introduction to the field. Included are three Ellison stories, two by Zelazny, Tiptree and Delany and works by Silverberg, Moorcock, Russ, Leiber, McCaffrey, LeGuin, Sturgeon, McIntyre, Varley, Simak and Martin. Also included is an amusing statistical analysis of the results of the balloting that primarily shows that statistics can be made to prove whatever you believe to be true. The fiction, however, is what's important, and what is worth having. [****] ------ End ------