Electronic OtherRealms #26 Winter, 1990 Part 4 of 8 Copyright 1990 by Chuq Von Rospach All Rights Reserved. OtherRealms may be distributed electronically only in the original form and with copyrights, credits and return addresses intact. OtherRealms may be reproduced in printed form only for your personal use. No part of OtherRealms may be reprinted or used in any other publication without permission of the author. All rights to material published in OtherRealms hereby revert to the author. From Beyond the Edge Reviews by our Readers Ancient Images Ramsey Campbell Scribner's, 0-684-19081-8; 311pp, 1989; $18.95 The last novel that I enjoyed by this highly acclaimed British author was Obsession; much too long a wait. This has now been remedied with Ancient Images, a story that I feel could be his best book to date. For some unknown reason, an old 1930's movie starring Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi, Tower of Fear, has been suppressed and all known existing prints have been destroyed. However, Graham Nolan, a movie buff and film buyer for a British TV station, has managed to track down the only copy of Tower of Fear. Before he can view it, he is brutally murdered and the film again disappears. A friend of his, Sandy Allen, decides to try and solve the murder of Nolan and others who have come in contact with the film, hoping to find the missing movie. Her search takes her to Northern England where she begins by interviewing the surviving members of the production crew. This eventually leads Allen to the town of Redfield and the family who originally suppressed the films release. All this leads to one of the darkest climaxes in any of Campbell's books. Ancient Images is one of those books where every word must be carefully read so as not to miss all the subtle horror that Campbell instills throughout the story. Ancient Images is an entertaining, highly innovative and original novel which grips the reader from the first grisly murder to the final confrontation between Allen and Lord Redfield. This is a novel that should not be missed. --Richard Weilgosh Ash Ock [****] Christopher Hinz St. Martin's, $18.95, 308pg. This is the sequel to Liege Killer. This book is as good as the first book, but incomplete and with no proper ending. Instead the story stops just after two major revelations. It is 56 years later. The paratwas are about to return. The humans are ready. However the paratwas know the humans know they are returning and have implemented a secret plan to undermine the human defense plans. A key human has been subverted by the Paratwas and is hindering the effort to resist the Paratwas. Nick and Gillian are revived secretly and are now operating in secret even from most of the Council of Irrya. The plot mirrors that of the first book. There is a Paratwa killer operating secretly in the colony. Nick and Gillian have to find the killer and determine the reason for the killings. The story ends with the exposure of the Paratwa and the reason for the killings. Nick and Gillian break up and Aristotle returns. The return of Aristotle is expected. The first book made a big deal over the mysterious death of Aristotle and the fact his body was never found. This screams that Aristotle is still alive and will return. The book hints at who attempted to kill Aristotle and why he has remained hidden until now. Very little is resolved and the book abruptly ends with the exposure of the killer leaving lots of unanswered questions. Supposedly, the third book is the final book. The situation at the end is quite intriguing. The humans appear to be doomed, but Aristotle seems to be on their side and strategic planning was Aristotle's specialty. The Paratwas have some reason for returning other than conquering. Gillian is in danger of becoming a Paratwa again. The strengths of the book are a very well done plot and good characterization. All the clues as to what is happening are there for the reader, although some of it comes from being able to listen in on the paratwas, since the story is told from the omniscience viewpoint of the author. The plot convolutions are sufficiently complex that it is not obvious what is happening until just before the revelation by the author. In the first book, Nick is the main character of the Paratwa hunting pair. This is Gillian's book. His character is developed better and undergoes logical changes as a result of what happened in the prequel. One other character is carried over from Liege Killer, Jerem Marth. He is now the Lion of the Alexanders. Hinz does a very good job of transforming Jerem into an old man while retaining the character of the twelve year old boy from the prequel. Despite the cliffhanger ending this book is one of those rare sequels that equals its predecessor. --Danny Low Bimbos of the Death Sun Sharyn McCrumb TSR, 1988, 0-88038-455-7, 228pp., $3.95 Some instant classics disappear from the racks almost as fast as they are printed. Fortunately, TSR has had the good sense to reprint Bimbos for the further edification of fen everywhere. You'll still have to look for it on the mystery racks where it was an Edgar Award winner, for it's yet another murder at a SF convention, and the punctured characters aren't all entirely fictional. Neopro Dr. James Owens Mega, author of the hard SF novel that lends its name to this story, embarks upon his first con at the urging of his significant other. Marion Farley, tenure-seeking professor of literature and/or science fiction, pushes her lover into the fray of fen and filk to promote his first book, but they both find the paths crossed at Rubicon more than they expected. As his nom de plume, Jay Omega, the engineering prof threads his way through filkers, gamers, Big Name Fans, visiting Scottish troubadours, costumers, SCA sword swingers, a runty egotistical BNP, a Trekkie wedding, and the odd assassination. Miles Perry, the con chairman, does his best to juggle the demands of the masses vs. the "feed me" tantrums of the GOH, author of the 28 book Tratyn Runewind series, Appin Dungannon. Brenda Lindenfeld, whose appetites overflow both costume and bed, searches for her perfect soulmate, while Clifford Morgan struts his stuff into fan history. When one of this merrie band falls victim to excessive zeal, police Lt. Ayhan keeps muttering "I love this case," as his own band of magicians work the halls. Then Omega takes role playing a little too seriously, and ups the body count, while the Concom vows to carry on. When names like Isaac Asimov and Fredric Brown have tilled this soil before, what new harvest has McCrumb reaped? For one, her jabs at fans and pros alike are tempered with understanding, keen insight, and tolerant charity. For another, this is the best introduction to SF cons anyone could receive. If any of these terms puzzle you, you need this book; even if they don't, you'll enjoy it. --Dean R. Lambe The Complete ElfQuest: [****] #5: Siege at Blue Mountain #6: The Secret of Two-Edge Wendy and Richard Pini The good news is, the latest ElfQuest collection is out. The bad news is, these collections aren't quite as good as the first ones. My vote for the best fantasy series of the decade goes to Wendy and Richard Pini's ElfQuest series. The most recent adaptation is The Complete ElfQuest, published by Father Tree Press, which collects the two series of comics books. The first four books were also published several years ago by Donning/Starblaze. Both collections added color to the black-and-white comics. The stories deal with a group of elves searching for a safe home. Unlike the lofty, ethereal beings from Tolkein, these elves are earthy creatures with human desires, foibles, and personalities. Characterization is strong in ElfQuest, not only for the main elf characters but also for the trolls, humans, and other villains that they meet. There is a well-done quest plot and excellent art. If you are a first-time reader, I would not suggest diving in with Siege at Blue Mountain and The Secret of Two-Edge; too much of the action depends on things that happened in the first four collections. I'd also say to track down the Donning/Starblaze collections if possible. The Complete ElfQuest recolored the art in the old collections, and in my opinion did a horrible job. The new colors are generally muddy and often don't fit the mood of the scene. --Chuck Koelbel Cradle [**] Arthur C. Clarke & Gentry Lee Warner; 408pp; $4.95; 0-446-35601-8 This novel is about aliens coming to Earth, and the 3 main characters, plus several support players, who find them. However, that's telling the ending. The plot of this 400 page book begins at about page 250. The first two hundred pages consists of telling us about the way sexual situations have messed up the minds of the major characters or describing robots building machines. In fairness, the prose is well written, but the information is boring. When they are dealing with the main plot I see the potential for an interesting story. But in this book the main plot seems secondary, and the ending would make you moan in pain if you were watching it in a movie theatre. --Jim Winner The Drabble Project Rob Meades & David B. Wake Beccon Publications, 75 Rosslyn Ave., Harold Wood, Essex RM3 ORG, ENGLAND A Drabble is a story of exactly one hundred words. Up to fifteen additional words are allowed to cover title, sub-titles and so on. The genre originates in the Birmingham Science Fiction Society, where the game of Drabble has been played for many years. This book is a collection of exactly one hundred Drabbles written by both professional and amateur authors who took up the challenge from the brilliant Brum crowd. The writers include Brian Aldiss, Isaac Asimov, Josephine Saxton, Garry Kilworth, Brian Stableford, Patrick Tilley, Larry Niven, Barrington J. Bayley, Terry Pratchett, Gene Wolfe, Harry Harrison, John Brunner, Bob Shaw, Charles Platt, to mention only a few of the pros -- in addition, the book reads like a "Who's Who in British Fandom". Nobody will like all the stories -- but there are a few stories that will tickle anyone's fancy, and of course there's the attraction of owning this little green-bound jewel of a book. Bound to be a collector s item and a great conversation piece. --Heidi Lyshol Eve's Rib Bryn Chandler Pageant, 1989, $3.50, 270pp, 0-517-00645-6 The only survivor of an Earth colonization ship, Eve Conner is stranded on the unknown planet she chooses to call Genesis. She is, however, equipped with a mechanical biolab and a generous supply of human ova and sperm. From these, Eve will populate her colony. Yet it is up to her to shape the moral, ethical and political structure of humanity's last hope. Eve faces hard choices as she struggles to define the perfect society. This is apparently the first SF novel by an experienced writer. As a first effort by a mundane, it's not too bad. The book spends too much time explaining the obvious; it's somewhat preachy in places, and pulls too many convenient technological rabbits out of hats. It would have been much improved by one ruthless pass from an experienced SF editor such as Ben Bova. Still, Eve's Rib has a clear vision of where it's going, and a certain sense of irony, however muffled. --David M Shea Farside Cannon [**] Roger MacBride Allen Baen, 1988, $3.95, 406pp, 0-671-65428-4 A mining corporation is shifting an asteroid to Earth orbit. A geological team is drilling off the coast of Iceland in search of proof of an ancient disaster. A rabidly anti-tech ecological group is stirring up trouble. On the Moon, politicians from several planets are arguing about the economy. Mr Allen has shown he can write a killer novel when he has a real idea (Orphan Of Creation); and can create lively characters even in the service of a routine plot (Rogue Powers). Alas, little of this talent shines through in Farside Cannon, a stolid techno-disaster story which just never came alive for me. It's not awful, but I've come to expect more from this author. --David M Shea Feather Stroke Sydney Joyce Van Scyoc Avon, 1989, 264pp, $3.50, 0-380-75438-X Dara was raised a daughter of the simple folk, a people who had abandoned the old gods and farmed their valleys in peace and security. But one day a pirate lord from the coastal cities came, demanding a marital alliance. Confronted with unacceptable choices, Dara must confront her heritage and learn to use the powers she has suppressed all her life. Destiny awaits Dara and her bird-companions: a showdown with a mad flame-priest in the rubble of a burning city. This is billed as the author's first "fantasy", yet it shares many elements with her acclaimed trilogy Darkchild/Bluesong/Starsilk: an abiding sense of family; an almost instinctive ecological sense; an internalizing of the standard "quest" factor toward personal identity rather than an exterior goal. A moody book, it reminded me of James Taylor's "deep greens and blues"; yet the attentive reader will find the sun shining in late afternoon. --David M Shea Feral Cell Richard Bowes Questar, 1987, 212pp, $2.95, 0-445-20352-8 Manhattan, 1999: Robert Leal is a "game master", one who stages perverse role-playing games for debauched clients. He is haunted by the melancholy music of a dead friend; and people keep appearing and vanishing in the unknown realm called Capricorn, muttering cryptic slogans about "the Undying Cabal" and "the Feral Cell". Robert Leal faces almost certain death in New York, possible immortality in Capricorn; but the price of either may be appalling. Call it cyberpunk without the "cyber-", an alternate-worlds novel as it might have been conceived by Lenny Bruce. This book combines dark Sixties nostalgia and future-shock paranoia, with a low-key style not ideally suited to either. Feral Cell is a weird and challenging, if not entirely successful book; admirers of, say, Delany might want to check it out. (Note to the publisher: Hire a proofreader who can punctuate correctly.) --David M Shea Firebird Kathy Tyers 1987, Bantam, $3.50, 265 pp, 0-553-26716-7 Lady Firebird Angelo is a Wastling: an excess princess in the ruling family of Naetai. When the birth of her sister's child pushes her to the fatal fifth place in the succession, Firebird's duty is to die: heroically in combat if possible, so long as she dies. A battle and two suicide attempts fail her, however. Captured by the Federacy, interrogated by the telepathic Sentinels, Firebird must choose between the traditions she was raised to, and a potential new loyalty to a higher cause. Routine in concept, largely predictable, about forty pages too long, this melodramatic little space-opera-cum-romance still has a certain modest appeal in the actual writing. This would rate as above average fan fiction, though short of real pro standards. --David M Shea Laying the Music to Rest Dean Wesley Smith Questar, 1989, 0-445-20934-8, 194pp., $3.95. First novels grant readers a look through an unique window and carve the benchmark by which future works are judged. Smith has set himself an especially heavy task with this book, for it begins a series of vast temporal dimension, yet only hints at the underlying rationale and conflict. When friends Fred and Constance ask his help in clearing a female ghost from their rustic inn, Doc Kellogg Jones agrees immediately. Jones, a dropout from Academia and a widower, readily abandons the bar and grill he runs in Boise, and hops jeep and packhorse for the Salmon River Primitive Wilderness Area. Once at the Roosevelt Lake Inn, he soon encounters ghostly Gretchen, the piano-playing saloon girl who drowned when a mudslide flooded the town of Roosevelt in 1909. Wait a minute...a ghost from 80 years ago, underwater, on the shore, in inn, out and about, in a science fiction novel? Well, yes, and that's just one of the questions left hanging. Anyway, guests of the inn include Susan Rule, who mutters something about coming from a future Earth reseeded with humanity from past and present, and psychic researcher Steven Jerome, who's in empathic contact with the ectoplasmic lady. A fortuitous skindiving dip to the bottom of the lake gains a magic mirror for Fred and Doc. Susan, who apparently told some truths about her origins, activates the mirror's transdimensional trigger and disappears. Doc, with nothing better to do, argues that he must use the mirror to follow Susan, since that's the only way to find Alex, ghostly Gretchen's long lost lover. So Doc rubs the mirror, and finds himself aboard the Titanic, yes, that Titanic, mere hours before the fateful iceberg. Just when he thinks he's going mad and going down with the ship, Doc meets Marjorie, and finds hundreds of fellow "prisoners" of a six-hour temporal recycling process. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, eh, the inn uptime 78 years, the Lomaxes are gunning for...well, you get the idea. Was it some publishing decision to give us only fragments, hints and loose images about what's really going on here? Certainly the characters are just beginning to show development by the last page, and only one of several major plot elements reaches a meaningful conclusion. Yet, the saddle sores and Titanic banisters feel authentic, and Smith's full story seems worth waiting for. --Dean R. Lambe Orbital Decay Allen Steele Ace, Nov. 1989, 0-441-49581-5 New hard SF authors are rare these days, and a first novel that manages to combine fiction with technology is even rarer. Allen Steele's new book is both good hard SF and good fiction, and deserves the promotion it will receive as Ace's lead title for November. While the book has its flaws, Steele has written a genuinely original near-Earth orbit novel. And even though the blurbs will make the inevitable comparisons to Heinlein, Orbital Decay is far more realistic and subversive than anything the Master ever wrote. The book has its flaws: an acceptable, if not amazing plot, a number of anachronisms (e.g. Steele's characters only like music from the sixties through the eighties), and a weak ending. But it does have a unique vision of the future. Orbital Decay works within believable human and physical constraints, and as such, is close to the ideal of a book from rather than about the future. --Ken Meltsner Prisoner of Dreams [***] Karen Ripley Ballantine Books $3.95 263pg. This is a very fast paced action story. It starts off running and never stops. Jo-lac is forced by a lack of money or a better cargo to pick up an indentured human, Lewis, as cargo. On takeoff the Military Authority tries to destroy her ship. It is clear her cargo is no ordinary person. The story is about Jo-lac's attempts to discover the secret of Lewis. The plot, while predictable, is sensible. The relationship between Jo-lac and Redding is very obvious. Lewis's origins are obvious to the reader long before Jo-lac figures it out. The background society is well done and quite sensible as made up societies go. Except for Jo-lac most of the characters are developed just enough to avoid being cardboard cutouts but not enough to avoid being stereotypes. Ripley manages to present Jo-lac as a head strong impulsive person who is not a spoiled or stupid brat. This is an entertaining first novel that is competently done. --Danny Low Sinbad: The Thirteenth Voyage [****] R.A. Lafferty Broken Mirrors Press, Box 473, Cambridge, MA 02238, $9.95 + $1.00 p/h R.A. Lafferty's popularity of the 6O's and 70's when he appeared on Nebula and Hugo ballots (winning the Hugo in 1973 for "Eurema's Dam") has sadly decreased in recent years. Now, his unique short stories and novels are published only by small presses. Sinbad: The Thirteenth Voyage is his latest novel. Essindibad Copperbottom, the true Sinbad the Sailor (and spy) and his wife, Grand-Dame Tumblehome, travel from the planet Kentauron to Earth during the time of the Arabian Nights to find Harum, the golden child, who has been born again. Once there Sinbad and his wife encounter more spies; John Scarlatti Thunderson of North Chicago, inventor of the Almost-Anything Space-and-Time Ship; and Scheherazade. They all get caught up in a wonderfully funny and crazy tale of Harum, two brothers fighting over a kingdom, dragons, demons, spaceships and a battle at the Gates of Hell. No attempt to describe the plot would do it justice. There's a lot of Lafferty's own brand of humor, twists, turns and double crosses, strange characters (including the spaceships) and a perfect ending. Highly recommended. --Steve Pasechnick Target Janet Morris and David Drake Ace, 0-441-79955-8, 312 pp., July 1989, $3.95 Morris and Drake have worked together before in Kill Ratio and Active Measures fairly successfully. Their books tend to fall into the military/political categories as far as plot goes and their strength lies in believable behind-the-scenes action and realistic characterization. Target is a novel of first contact, and while this is certainly not a new topic, Morris and Drake do provide enough twists to make it worthwhile. The story revolves around Channon, an alien negotiator whose peacekeeper mission to Rillian space is quite rudely interrupted when his ship is blown apart by those he's going to negotiate with. The destruction of his ship has thrown his survival capsule through a hole in spacetime and into our universe. Landing his ship on the farside of the moon, Channon makes his way to a United Nations-run moonbase. From here the novel flies. This really is quick-paced stuff with barely enough time to catch your breath before another conflict bursts upon you and tugs you along for the ride. While I found the aliens (both Channon, representing the Unity and the Rillian warriors who are environmentally developed to fill their roles) quite interesting, the strength of the book lies with the human characters. Yes, at first Morris and Drake seem to be casting up stereotypes--the square jawed American Deputy of Security, the Russian General, the American Diplomat who's really undercover intelligence--but it doesn't last. These are real people, and that's both a negative and a positive. Every time I found myself starting to like one of the characters and thought I had them figured out, they went ahead and did something totally human. This threw me at first. Who was I supposed to identify with? But as I read on, I couldn't help but be impressed with how true to form these characters were--how their thoughts and actions mirrored reality. This book can be enjoyed on a couple of different levels--as a straight action adventure, as a novel of first contact with some relatively interesting aliens or as a novel which dares to give its characters conflicting beliefs, attitudes and behaviors--just like you and me. You'll find enough to keep you going to the end. --Steven Sawicki Walkers Graham Masterton TOR, 0-312-93201-4, 346pps, 1989, $18.95 Not many horror novels raise goose bumps as I read them, but Walkers set such chills through me that I had to look around the bedroom before turning off the light (the last novel to do this previously was Phantoms by Dean R. Koontz). Jack Reed's life is coming apart, his marriage is crumbling and to complicate matters he has just purchased an ancient rundown insane asylum with the intent of turning it into a country club. However he gets more than he bargains for as he discovers that the walls of this asylum contain the still living bodies of the former inmates who disappeared sixty years earlier. Now they are trying to escape and they kidnap Jack's young son planning to use him as their gateway to freedom and let loose destruction on the world. However in order to accomplish their release, 800 innocent people must be sacrificed for each of the inmates imprisoned in the walls. With Walkers, Masterton has created a superb, well-conceived chiller of ultimate evil. Masterton enhances the effectiveness of this well-developed story with vivid imagery and strong characterization. Walkers is one of Masterton's best and is very highly recommended. Some of Graham Masterton's other works include Mirror, The Manitou, Night Warriors and his most recent success (as editor) Scare Care. --Richard Weilgosh The Wall Around Eden Joan Slonczewski Morrow, 1989, 1-55710-030-6, 288pp., $18.95 The few, yet remarkable novels from Slonczewski share common concerns for nonviolence in the face of the human condition, but no two of her lyrical tales are alike in setting or plot. This time she offers a rite of passage for a troubled young woman, against a background of near-future alien invasion and small town survival in post-holocaust America. A score of years after Death Year and nuclear winter, the village of Gwynwood U.S.A. struggles to maintain its tiny bubble of life. One of a very few remaining pockets of humanity in North America, the heterogeneous mix of 142 people, some Quaker, some Lutheran, token Catholics and Jews, all of Gwynwood wonder why God or alien might have spared them from the nuclear Armageddon, and whether alien or God may be one and the same. In this close, yet diffuse community, Isabel Garcia-Chase seeks escape through the airwall that the Keepers have locked around the town. At weekly worship and town meetings, Isabel and her friends press their elders for answers to the what and the why of the strange alien presence, and the workings of the Pylon devices that support what little communication and trade remains in the world. The older generation fears the visible horror of death that lies immediately outside the Walls, as well as the continuing radiation hazard of the deadlands, and there seems little chance that Isabel, her friend Peace Hope, or her unrequited love, Daniel, will ever master the aliens' extradimensional transport system to reach Earth's last remaining city, Sydney, Australia. Isobel does construct a forbidden radio, and while it gains her insight into the nature of the Angelbees, a Committee of Concern--in the Quaker fashion--convinces her to surrender this threat to Gwynwood security to their enigmatic masters. Then, blind Becca, Isobel's influential teacher, leaves a cryptic message about the hydrogen gasbag Angelbees and disappears from the community. The ever-curious Isobel finds a way through the Wall and earns an apparent summons from the alien hive queen for herself and Daniel. Once beyond the Wall, the teenagers discover more truth than they are ready to accept about both human past and future, and the alien mission. For all she has sought escape and independence, Isobel learns that they come at a price which may be too high to pay. In tone and texture, Eden recalls the very best of young adult science fiction, and it fits well with modern classics by Yolen and Le Guin. In religious and moral discourse, however, the novel is fully adult--albeit a bit out of step with current "I've got mine" culture. However categorized, it's sure to be an award contender, and a work not to be missed. --Dean R. Lambe ------ End ------