Electronic OtherRealms #27 Spring, 1990 Part 9 of 11 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. Words of Wizdom Chuq Von Rospach Copyright 1990 by Chuq Von Rospach Dragondoom Dennis L. McKiernan Bantam, February 1990, 485pp, $4.50, 0-553-28337 What's the stuff of High Fantasy? Elves and Dwarves and Men and Evil Dragons and Quests and Good People Forced Into Bad Situations. To many people, it's Fantasy with a Tolkienesque slant (not that Tolkien invented High Fantasy, but Tolkien is likely the first one many have read, which is more or less the same thing). It's also, in many cases, highly predictable, formula stuff -- good entertainment but interchangeable with its brothers and sisters. Enter Dennis McKiernan and Dragondoom, a new, independent story set in the same universe as his Iron Tower trilogy. While Iron Tower is a classic example of the interchangeable formula (Which is not to be considered the same as 'bad' -- the worst word I would use for Iron Tower is unmemorable), McKiernan has stretched his wings and flown off on his own with Dragondoom. The story is independent of Iron Tower, so people who haven't read it won't be left out with unknown information; in fact, the Mithgar of Dragondoom is different enough from his other works that it might as well be a new universe. New and much more alive. Dragondoom is somewhat difficult to review, because while it follows the formulas defined by Epic High Fantasy, it refuses to be bound by them. Epic works require Hero and Villain, for instance. Dragondoom has characters that become heroes for a while, then screw up royally and get their tails whomped. Sometimes they die, which is another change: Heroes aren't allowed to fail. No matter how difficult the task, they win out in the end. In Dragondoom, they succeed in their task, but do they win? No, they don't, nor do they live happily ever after. McKiernan has built a lot of complexity into the book. He doesn't follow the safe paths, and while it doesn't always work, it keeps the reader off-guard and involved in the work. It's not safe to assume what's going to happen next -- because you're likely to be wrong. There are problems with the book: McKiernan's style sometimes falls into the purple froth and his characters are sometimes unnecessarily melodramatic, but it's the best work he's done to date and it's a lot more intelligent and thought-provoking than the average formula piece. It's also troubling and ambiguous, without clear winners or losers and, just like real life (and unlike much Fantasy) it shows that bad things happen to good people (and vice versa) and, sometimes, things just fall apart. But it's well worth the time needed to work your way through to the end of the journey. [***+] Cowboy Feng's Space Bar and Grille Steven Brust Ace, January 1990, $3.50, 0-441-11816-X We now turn to the latest Spider Robinson book in the Callahan's Bar series. Except, unfortunately, that it isn't a bar, it's a restaurant, it isn't Callahan, it's Cowboy Feng and it isn't Spider, it's Steven Brust. Now, I really like both authors, and I really like Callahan's Bar, but the whole premise (a restaurant travels through time and space to save the universe from the big blue meanies) is a bit too absurd to play straight and doesn't quite work. It also hurts that Steven Brust is, when you come down to it, a really great writer of Steven Brust books but a pretty so-so writer of Spider Robinson books. This could have been a better book if Steven had written like Steven or done typically Brustian things with it. It could have been a better book if Steven had sent the draft to Spider and collaborated. It probably could not have been more than an okay book, but as it stands, it's simply disappointing -- it's not good Brust, it's not good Robinson, but it's a mish-mash of concepts and styles sitting somewhere in the middle. And part of me wonders if Steve writes hungry, or if he's just read a little too much Hemingway. [***-] Second Contact Mike Resnick Tor, March, 1990, $17.95, 0-312-85021-0 Mike Resnick has turned out two complex, emotionally intense, draining books in Ivory and Paradise. There's only so long you can keep topping yourself without killing yourself in the process, so in Second Contact, he doesn't even try, choosing instead to let his hair down and write something a lot lighter and less challenging. Second Contact is a SF/mystery mix, with Max Becker, a military lawyer, given the charge of defending a starship captain who walked out of his cabin one day and shot two crewmen in cold blood. His defense? They were space aliens spying on his ship. What's funny, though, is how when Becker looks into it witnesses disappear, people start to die and then start shooting at him as well. That sort of activity has a tendency to make you wonder what's going on, so Becker goes underground and starts digging. What he finds is a fun romp through the world of the almost-unbelievable, but Resnick has firm control of the situation. He knows exactly how to keep a reader wondering what in the heck is going on while still planting all the clues needed to come up with an answer that the reader will not feel cheated over. It's all a lot of fun, well-written and intriguing by one of my favorite authors. [****] Dying of the Light George R.R. Martin Baen, February, 1990, $3.50, 0-671-69861-3 I normally don't talk about reprints, and because my reading time tends to be limited I rarely re-read old favorites (that many old favorites aren't quite so favored after re-reading has something to do with it, too). So when Baen re-issued Dying of the Light, I jumped at the chance to re-acquaint myself with it and spend some time with a personal favorite. This is Martin's first book, a very powerful story of love and honor amid conflicting societies. This is one of those books where you really can't point at a character and say "good guy" or "bad guy" because everything is in shades of gray. Even the really nasty people are really nasty because they honestly believe they're doing the right thing. There's one flaw that really doesn't show up until re-reading, and it's the only thing that bothered me about the book. There's a question that one of the characters should be asking but doesn't, for no really good reason -- except that it puts the author in a bind and really screws up the story. Martin seems to recognize this, because occasionally he has the character agonize over it a bit without ever really convincing anyone that he's doing what he's supposed to be doing. I'll give Martin a bit of author-authority, though, because the rest of the story is detailed, complex and alive enough to make you not really mind having a character blatantly manipulated for the sake of the plot. The plot, for once, is worth it. [****] Howling Mad Peter David Ace, November, 1989, $3.50, 0-441-34663-4 When a dog bites a man, that's not news. But when a man bites a dog.... How about when a werewolf bites a wolf? Peter David writes an extremely funny (and sometimes hilariously anti-mankind) book about the story of a wolf that's been bitten by a werewolf and becomes a man during the full moon and has to learn how to be human and while coming to grips with his new reailty. To try to explain it further wouldn't do it justice, and would likely simple devolve into incomprehensibility, but suffice it to say this is a very amusing piece of escapist entertainment with enough philosophical commentary on the human condition to keep you on your toes. If you're looking for a few hours of chuckling to yourself, it's hard to beat. [***+] Carmen Miranda's Ghost is Haunting Space Station Three Don Sakers, ed. Baen, March, 1990, $3.95, 0-671-69864-8 And now for something completely different. An anthology about a ghost in a space station, based on a filksong by fan-singer Leslie Fish. Don Sakers has put together an anthology that deserves the "really weird idea of the year" award. It's strange, and it almost works. It's got some good stories (especially "Confessional Booths" by Susan Shwartz and an even-stranger-than-usual "In the Can" by master-weird-writer Esther Friesner) while having very little in the way of clinkers. It doesn't, however, have anything that stands out significantly and the concept wears rather thin after a while. It's a good romp, and it's probably better suited to reading a story here and a story there for a break rather than straight through, but while the authors meet the challenge of the concept, the concept is a bit on the shallow side. [**+] Last Call Alan Wexelblat Copyright 1990 by Alan Wexelblat If you've read Chuq's editorial, you already know this is my last appearance as a regular columnist in these pages. It's been a lot of fun -- the fan mail always outweighed the hate mail. I might do it differently, but given the chance I'd do it all over again. Last time we looked at new efforts by old favorites, and that's as good a way to finish off as any other. If by now you haven't followed my recommendations to Cadigan, Crowley, Powers, Shiner, or Sterling, I'm probably not going to convince you to check out this issue's fave, K.W. Jeter, even though you should. So here's what topped my reading list this time around. Brothers in Arms [****-] Lois McMaster Bujold Baen, 1989, 0-671-69799-4 I enjoyed reading Miles Vorkosigan's adventures at novella length, so I picked up this Vorkosigan novel. Like Borders of Infinity, it is a 'neat' book. It tells a convoluted story concerning Vorkosigan's two identities and the stresses they impose on his personal and professional lives. It starts out simply enough: the Dendarii fleet puts in at Earth for some rest and relaxation. Almost immediately, the payroll goes missing, which means that the Barrayaran embassy is compromised in some way by enemies unknown. The fleet is in hock up to its ears and several someones are trying to kill both Admiral Naismith and Miles. Which is unfortunate, as one or both of these personalities is falling in love with Elli Quinn who clearly loves the admiral but can't deal with the Miles identity. Superman and Lois never had it this bad. Bujold handles all these complications and more with seeming ease. As with much of her work, she manages to keep the climax of the book from depending totally on the plentiful action. Instead, it is the dynamics of the characters' emotional tensions that keeps the reader on the edge of her seat. Love, loyalty, and identity crises are resolved in logical fashion. Unfortunately for new readers, Bujold appears to be writing the Miles stories in timeline order: Brothers in Arms depends on, and refers to, events in Borders and previous stories. This is not the book with which to start learning about this character, but it should definitely be read in its proper place, after you've enjoyed the others. The Barsoom Project [***-] Larry Niven & Steve Barnes Ace, 1989, 0-441-16712-8 I've never written about a Niven book before -- goodness knows the man gets enough publicity without my chiming in. Nevertheless, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to review this sequel to Dream Park. The story revolves around two major characters: Alex Griffin, head of Dream Park security, and 'Eviane.' Eviane is the Gaming name of a woman who was set up to kill a Dream Park actor eight years ago and who has now returned seeking to mend the damage that the incident did to her psyche. The story proceeds along two threads -- in the outer story, Alex tries to figure out why Eviane is there and what the current plot is against Dream Park. In the inner, Eviane and her compatriots participate in the Fimbulwinter Game, a Dream Park adventure. Along the way, the authors pile on lots of 'in' jokes for and about science fiction authors and stories. They are also pretty merciless in shredding the typical, grossly overweight, SF fan. The Dream Park Game is designed as a "fat ripper special," an adventure that supposedly not only causes people to shed some pounds, but helps them become aware of and modify their eating behaviors. Unfortunately, neither the inner nor outer story is all that satisfying. Alex's attempts to solve the mystery involve unfolding a lot of events that occurred years in Dream Park's past and in which the reader has no stake and for which one feels no sympathy. The "mystery" is solved by the characters in a workmanlike fashion with no chance for the reader to figure it out, since important clues are withheld. The Fimbulwinter game has some high points. Niven and Barnes work in the Inuit mythology, a rich area that is still unexplored by most fantasy authors. But two hundred pages of someone else's D&D adventure gets a bit dull. Both the inner and outer stories are also hurt by Niven and Barnes' inability to deal with the number of characters. Only one or two attain any personality beyond stereotype. Even at the end of the book I was confusing two who had similar names. I know many people will buy this because they loved Dream Park; I wish I hadn't. Falcon [***] Emma Bull Ace, 1989, 0-441-22569-1 Bull's second solo novel is a foray into far-future science fiction, a far cry from the contemporary fantasy of War for the Oaks. Unfortunately, she's even less successful here than in that first novel, but not for lack of interesting ideas. The story is mostly about Niki Falcon, the last of the living star pilots. Niki, to become a gestalt pilot, has been genetically modified to live in symbiosis with his ship. Together the two can "Cheat" space and time to go from place to place. Unfortunately, part of Niki's transformation included an addiction to a time-sense-altering drug needed for the Cheat. This drug, and the other modifications to his system, are slowly destroying him. Before he dies, though, he has the chance to save a world from destruction by smuggling someone past a planetary blockade. Bull puts in a number of interesting secondary characters. As with War, her characters are easier to hate than to like, including Niki. The writing is competent throughout, though the twist at the end should be obvious to anyone with more than a passing familiarity with nanotechnology. The major problem is with the book's structure: the novel starts off with a hundred-twenty-page lump about Niki on his home world before he becomes a pilot. It involves a lot of ultimately-disposable characters and a lot of aimless running about. Its main point seems to be to provide people and incidental facts which can pop up again at the end of the book. None of it makes any difference, since neither the facts or the people are that important to what goes on. I can't tell if this section was tacked on as an afterthought to lengthen a short novel or is the vestigial remains of something more significant. Either way it almost ruins a fairly good book. Cowboy Feng's Space Bar and Grille [****] Steven Brust Ace, 1990, 0-441-11816-X If you're looking for another Taltos-style book from Brust, you're not going to get one here. Feng's is wilder, more mysterious and, ultimately, less complex than most of what Brust has done before. Cowboy Feng's is indeed a bar and grille, but it's nothing like the now-familiar Callahan's Saloon, to which some people have compared it. First off, it appears to have the unusual property that it travels forward through time whenever an atomic bomb goes off nearby. Those who happen to be lucky enough to be inside when it hits are carried along. Feng's meager staff of four seems to know what's going on, but they aren't telling. This leaves the four part-time Irish musicians who've been carried along by accident to puzzle things out for themselves. They do, piece by piece, with the reader going along for the ride. Much of the book works because Brust is able to sustain just enough mystery to keep the reader interested but not frustrated, so I won't spoil things by saying more about the plot, except to promise you that there is a Feng. There are several things going on in this book that are worth commenting on. On one level, Brust seems to be saying, 'Look at these neat characters!' but the mystery and action keeps drawing us away from them. On another this is a simple but classically powerful story about love in the face of an impossible situation. And on another it's a strong commentary about AIDS and the stupidity of some peoples' reactions to it. My only real complaint with the book is that Brust paints the major characters with such a fine brush that some of the minor ones are slighted and when they pass from the story it affects us less than it should. The Stress of Her Regard [****] Tim Powers Ace, 1989, 0-441-79055-0 Byron, Shelly, Keats and vampires. What the Sphinx was really asking. Why you should never put your wedding ring on the finger of a statue and should be careful whom you invite into your home. What more do you need to know about a Powers novel? The Stress of Her Regard is the story of Michael Crawford, a doctor ahead of his time because he takes "women's medicine" seriously. At a drunken bachelor party he places the wedding ring intended for his bride on the hand of a statue in a garden. The morning after his wedding night he wakes to find his wife brutally murdered. He embarks on a journey that leads him into and out of the arms of vampires and into the lives of the aforementioned poetic greats, who draw their beyond-human inspiration from intimate contact with the race of vampires. Powers is at his usual good form. The historical research is impeccable, the action is exciting, the prose is good, and the magic has the trademark gritty realism that I've remarked on in earlier reviews of his books. Powers even manages to do new things with the standard vampire legends, even to the point of blending in the classical Sphinx in a way that makes sense. So what's the problem? Well, it's old hat by now. Powers has done all this before. Stress is stylistically identical to Anubis Gates and On Stranger Tides. Even the science-fictional Dinner at Deviant's Palace shared many of the same elements. I like each book for itself, but I don't see Powers growing as an author through these books. I'd like to see him try something totally new and, from what I hear, I shouldn't have to wait too long. Infernal Devices [****+] K. W. Jeter Signet, 1987, 0-451-14934-3 This is without a doubt one of the strangest books I've read in years. It's subtitled "A Mad Victorian Fantasy," which is an understatement. The cover picture shows, among other things, a man with a piranha face -- which is an indication of how weird things get inside. The protagonist, George Dower, is a proper Victorian gentleman. He has inherited his now-deceased father's clockworks business. Unfortunately, the senior Dower possessed amazing abilities in creating mechanical automata of all kinds. George, despite having access to his father's workshop, does not have the skill to do more than replace worn-out parts on most of the odd things people bring in for repair. Nevertheless, he manages to survive. One day a mysterious Brown Leather Man brings George a device that is completely outside the realm of his experience. In payment he leaves George with a gold sovereign which, having a fish-faced man on one side, was clearly never minted by her Majesty's coiners. This token serves as George's ticket into a shadowy London underground and involves him in plots his father set in motion decades ago, including an apparently-mad effort to destroy the world for the purpose of attracting the attention of extra-terrestrials. The writing is extremely well-crafted. George narrates most of his own story and the author remains true to the Victorian style, including the elliptical descriptions and colloquialisms. Jeter is, of course, parodying that style, as well as most of the traits we associate with the Victorian period: their attitudes towards women, their romance with the mystical, and their adoration of inexplicable scientific complexity. The parody perfectly fits the structure of the book. Jeter also handles his characters masterfully. He keeps the cast small and develops even the minor players into believable persons. He also mixes in just enough science to keep the pseudo-science working. The result is an enjoyable, if thoroughly bizarre, fantasy. Dr. Adder [*****-] K. W. Jeter Signet, 1984, 0-451-15197-6 Dr. Adder, Jeter's first novel, is completely different from Infernal Devices. This is hard SF with teeth and a gut-twisting ethos. Dr. Adder is the virtual lord of future L. A. He is a street doctor who probes the mind of his patients to discover their innermost desires and then modifies their bodies to enable them to achieve what they most deeply want. Many of these modifications involve amputations, but the whores and thrill seekers who come to Adder have no complaints. His antagonist is Mox, an influential television preacher on a jihad to end Adder's reign and life, all as part of a grand plan for salvation of the faithful in L. A. Caught between them is Allen Limmit, a newcomer to L. A. who happens to possess the last working flashglove. The flashglove is an artificially-intelligent limb, programmed to kill and to protect the person to whom it is grafted. Adder wants the glove; Mox wants to catch Adder with it. The collision of these two forces brings an entire city to its knees. Jeter's writing in Dr. Adder is blindingly hard-edged. The pace is full-throttle throughout, and Jeter pushes through dozens of ideas any one of which would be enough for a story in itself. He also deals with things that would make most authors balk; the fantastic sexual perversions are only a sidelight compared to some of the social perversions described. At another layer, the book is allegorical commentary on science fiction itself. Jeter shreds the hackneyed ideas of post-holocaust sf, epic-quest fantasy, and several similar old formulas. One of the minor characters, an aging radio personality, is named KCID -- an obvious reference to Philip Dick. The Dr. Adder character also seems to be based on some of the wilder Dick stories that have circulated. If this all seems familiar to you, if you're sitting there saying: "yes, but the cyberpunks have already done the sf-self-critique; they have already dealt with themes like the invasion of machine into the body, the pervasive brainwashing influences of television, and the uses technology finds in the street," then check out when Dr. Adder was written. It was first created, according to the afterward by Dick, in 1972. But for almost a decade no publisher in the US, England, or France would take it. Science fiction had ossified and only major pushy authors like Ellison and Spinrad could get through. The book was finally bought and first printed in 1979, in part due to Dick's efforts. It is a fair question to ask whether Dr. Adder is indeed cyberpunk. Jeter was reportedly quite upset when Signet put "The Cyberpunk Sensation" on his 1985 novel, The Glass Hammer. That book, the thematic sequel to Dr. Adder, is also worth the effort of tracking down a copy. It is my opinion that Dr. Adderis not cyberpunk. I think this because even though Jeter's L.A. makes the Sprawl look pleasant, it is less rooted in today's reality. Jeter's future is only tenuously connected to the postmodern present. In the end, though, labels matter far less than what is inside. Even eighteen years later, Dr. Adder's contents say more than ninety percent of published science fiction. You make up your own mind. ------ End ------