Electronic OtherRealms #29 Winter, 1991 Part 6 of 10 Copyright 1991 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 Another Day, Another Dungeon Greg Costikyan Tor $4.95 339 pg. Reviewed by Danny Low First, this is NOT an AD&D novel even though the story universe bears a remarkable resemblance to a typical AD&D gaming universe. Timaeus D'Asperge is a newly graduated fire mage. He is also a noble which severely limits the professions he can engage in honorably. Fortunately, adventuring is one such profession and there just happens to be a "dungeon" conveniently nearby. He hires the adventuring outfitters of Pratchitt (Does this name sound familiar or not?) & Stollitt to facilitate his first adventure. Pratchitt & Stollitt are really a pair of thieves for whom, outfitting adventurers is more of a front than a real avocation. They know only a little more about outfitting an adventuring party than Timaeus. They undertake the commission anyway and put together a most eccentric group of adventurers. There is Father Thwaite who is a very good healer when he is sober which is rarely. There is Kraki, the fearless and brainless barbarian. Only Garni the dwarf is competent but he firmly believes in bringing everything including the kitchen sink on an adventure. The book is divided into two parts. The first part is about the party's adventures in the "dungeon" and the fabulous treasure they find, a life size magical statue. The second half is about what happens when they bring the statue back. Everyone knows there is much mana in the statue but no one knows exactly what type of magical power is in the statue. Nevertheless every magician and political power group in Durfalus wants that statue and will do anything to get it. In a world where magic works, "anything" is really something. The story is written as a droll British parlor comedy. It succeeds quite nicely. There is the right amount of wacky but dignified humor. Despite the AD&D flavor, this book in no way resembles the typical AD&D adventure book. It is a good solid tongue-in-cheek adventure story. It also has a shameless "to be continued" ending. However the break happens at a natural breakpoint in the story. [***] The Barsoom Project Larry Niven & Steven Barnes Ace, $4.50, 340pp, 0-441-16712-8 Reviewed by Steven Sawicki There must have been a subconscious reason this book sat around for so long before I picked it up to read. I mean, I loved Dream Park, generally like everything Niven and Barns have done -- individually and as a team, and have a particular like for "game" based novels. So what's the problem? Well, first I was a bit put off by a 4 page cast of characters and glossary list. Niven has done this before and it hasn't bothered me, but for some reason I interpreted this as an indication that the characters were so interchangeable I'd need the list to get through the book. And I was right. Niven and Barnes seemed to have taken the best qualities of Dream Park and intentionally ignored them. There's a large cast of characters who for the most part are interchangeable, there's two interweaving plot lines that tend to weaken each other rather than strengthen, there's a certain lack of tension throughout the entire novel and the amazing constructs of Dream Park seem somehow now mundane. Let me give you one example. The action of the plot takes place during one of the games -- a Fatripper Special -- a game modified for the education of substance abusers. So, in a sense, you have a cast of characters who, by nature, are seriously flawed. Imagine what could have been done with this. Instead Niven and Barnes utilize their characters as if they were ordinary people -- no, not ordinary, extra-ordinary -- given the things they do during the game. Consistently, I had to keep wondering when these people's problems would rise to hinder their goals. The problems never did. Perhaps in Dream Park, problems are always minor and need not really be addressed. To say I'm disappointed with this would be putting it too mildly. It's tedious, boring in spots, lacking logical followthrough and generally a waste of time. [+] Carmen Miranda's Ghost is Haunting Space Station Three Edited by Don Sakers BAEN Books, 0-671-69864-8, $3.95, 312pp. Reviewed by Mary Anne Espenshade This is the best anthology I've read in a long time, not a failure in the bunch, with lots of first time writers as well as familiar names. Filking is one of my favorite parts of fandom. I don't compose but I sing along whenever possible and I have a collection of both purchased and recorded-myself-at-filksings tapes. There are filks on everything from Asimov to Zelazny, from Beauty and the Beast to Star Wars, but this must be the first time a book has been written because of a filk. Leslie Fish's "Carmen Miranda's Ghost is Haunting Space Station Three" is available on several tapes. It is funny and different and inspired this whole collection of short stories, some of which closely follow the details of the song, others using it only to set the scene. This includes everything from stories that exist only to set up a pun punch line to hard SF murder mystery. A number of the authors are filkers themselves. Only one story makes the ghost a horror figure (I won't spoil it by telling you which one). Usually she is the catalyst making the story happen but sometimes she just dances by in the background. The stories were very well selected, no two are the least bit similar though they all had the same song for a starting point. [****+] The Colors of Space Marion Zimmer Bradley Donning/Starblaze, 0-89865-191-3, 1963, $8.95, 171pp. Reviewed by Mary Anne Espenshade I bought this reprint of an old MZB story because I'm always on the lookout for MZB I've missed and because the illustrator, Lee Moyer, is someone I'm acquainted with through fandom. It is a good, juvenile story, if you can get past some of the very dated feel. The Lhari control all interstellar space travel, with a monopoly on the only working warp drive. Humans can't use it directly, they must be kept in suspended animation during warp travel or die. Bart Steele is half human and half Mentorian, his Mentorian mother was a mathematician on a Lhari ship. Since the Mentorians are the only race able to work directly with the Lhari, humans resent them for it. The title refers to the main difference between the species in this book - the Lhari don't seen any colors in the spectral range that humans do. The Mentorians can see human colors and into the Lhari range. Bart sets out to find the "eighth" color -- the secret to warp power - -and faces dangerous adventures aboard a Lhari ship to find it. He learns the Lhari aren't as superior or as different as they have lead humans to believe. [***] Dimensions: A Casebook Of Alien Contact Jacques Vallee Contemporary Books, 1988, $17.95, 304 pp, 0-8092-4586-8 Review by David M. Shea Debunking UFOlogy is entirely analogous to debating theology, a harmless intellectual game of no lasting value. This point is clearly made in the Foreword, wherein Whitley [Communion] Streiber calmly asserts as fact that the UFO question is both "the deepest mystery that mankind has ever encountered", and "certainly a real phenomenon". Better you should read Streiber, a mere priest of the cult who assumes you will believe in UFO's on faith because he says so. Vallee debases what appear to be legitimate academic credentials by hiding his New Age mumbo-jumbo under a patina of pseudo-science. Vallee states, apparently sensibly, "I am not prepared to abandon the rational approach ... for conclusions based on faith [or] intuition." Cut to the chase, however, and you find that he reserves the right to define "rational" according to his own whim. This includes the assumption that there may be "variants of current physics ... in which psychic phenomena could be the rule rather than the exception". This brings Vallee to the pat conclusion that UFO's "cannot be understood apart from their psychic and symbolic reality". Sure thing, Jack. Pardon me while I go light a candle at the Shrine of Shirley MacLaine. Expanded Universe Robert Heinlein ACE, 0-441-21891-1, $4.95, 582pp. Reviewed by Mary Anne Espenshade Expanded Universe is a large collection of stories and articles from the '40's and '50's through 1980. Most of the fiction is in the oldest section, some familiar, some less so - I'm not a Heinlein expert. The second half is nonfiction, predictions and political diatribe. Future predictions made in 1950 are updated twice, once for the 1966 collection and again in 1980. Heinlein sounded surprised in the 1966 revisions that World War III hadn't happened yet and almost disappointed in 1980 that we still hadn't been invaded by Russia, as he was so sure it was going to happen. I only wish he had lived through 1989, since his political predictions get farther off base all the time. His economic predictions, however, are spot on (and that was by 1980, before the Reagan deficit years), as are his dismal statements about education in the US. Lest this sound like a political review - all the predictions are stated in SF terms, sometimes as near future fiction, others as "life in the year 2000" type articles. There is a wonderful article from 1979 testimony to a House committee on NASA spinoffs - if only it could be required reading in Congress now. My favorite fiction piece was "Over the Rainbow ...". I had read it before but I still love the punch lines. It is the story of a vice president, added to the ticket only to get votes from certain special interest groups, that unexpectedly (to those who engineered the election anyway) becomes a great president. From the fiction I also especially liked "Nothing Ever Happens on the Moon", one of his Boy Scout juveniles, and "They do it with Mirrors - an Edison Hill Crime Case", a pulp mystery from 1945 that was too risque to print as written at that time (after reading it I still haven't a clue as to why, but times have changed a lot since then). [****] Expecting Someone Taller Tom Holt Ace $3.95 231 pg. Reviewed by Danny Low Malcom Fisher is your basic henpecked English male. One night he runs over a badger who turns out to be the giant Ingolf who is the keeper of the Ring of the Nibelungs and the Tarnhelm. As Ingolf's Bane, Malcom gets the ring and helm which makes him the ruler of the world. There are a few problems though. Wotan, Alberich and others want the ring too. That was why Ingolf was running around as a badger. It was a disguise. As you might expect, the story is basically a very humorous re-telling of the ring cycle. There is a Gotterdammerung but the ending is happy as expected. The humor is typical droll English humor. Nothing unpleasant ever happens. The suspense is in what Holt will turn up with the turn of the pages. There are the usual cliches but also some original surprises. In all, this is a pleasant read. [***] Fire on the Border Kevin O'Donnell, Jr. ROC $4.50 368 pg. Reviewed by Danny Low The alien Wayholders have attacked the Terran Association but their purpose is not conquest but training. The Wayholders are fighting a battle of survival against another alien race. They have found that experienced soldiers have a better chance of success against these aliens. The relatively defenseless Terran frontier worlds provide the Wayholders with the right combination of resistance and ease of conquest for the final training of their troops. The leaders of the Association have been intimated by threats of full scale conquest into allowing the Wayholders free reign to attack the frontier worlds. This capitulation is kept secret but the reality of the nonexistent defense of the frontier eventually leaks out and a small rebel defense force forms. This is an ambitious work. It is a military hard SF story that tries to be more humanistic than most stories of this type. There are enough detailed battle descriptions to satisfy any armchair general. The attempt to be more humanistic is not quite as successful. The story viewpoint bounces between the characters of Darcy Lee on the rebel side and Kajiwara Hiroshi on the Association side. However instead of concentrating on these two, O'Donnell tries to include too many other characters. The result is too many spear carriers who are too prominent in the story but who also suffer from the lack of characterization typical of spear carriers. Hiroshi is also an unsympathetic character. He is someone who lets his principles do his thinking for him. He is caught in a situation where there is a conflict of principles and takes the easy way out of continuing to follow orders. His clone Daitaku is a much more sympathetic person for being able to apply common sense thinking in the same conflict of principles. The most successful aspect of the story is the portrayal of the downside of longevity. There are many people today who feel that a practical form of immortality is just around the corner and they proselytize about the benefits of such a achievement. O'Donnell shows the more likely result of such an achievement. This book is a well done military SF that also tries and partially succeeds to be more than that. It presents some very good extrapolations of the consequences of technology on society which is an old hard SF tradition. The books tries for good characterization and partially succeeds. In all, this is a book that even those who do not like military SF will enjoy. [***] The Girl, The Gold Watch,And Everything John D MacDonald 1962 Fawcett $2.25 207 pp 0-449-14296-5 Reviewed by David M. Shea The girl was Bonny Lee: beautiful, nineteen, and in her own ingenuous description, "cheap, ignorant, and fun-loving". Kirby woke up one night and found her in his bed. The gold watch was Kirby's only legacy from his eccentric millionaire uncle. When he turned the silver hand, time stopped. Everything was seductive Charla, suave Joseph, the lawyers, the business men, the Internal Revenue Service, and everyone else who wanted a piece of the $27 million dollars they assumed Kirby had embezzled. Would Kirby stand up like a man, or would he be a ninny all his life? The author was best known for an endless string of gumshoe mysteries. MacDonald went against form with this amusing book, of which SF people seem mostly ignorant, though it was made into a TV-movie. Comprised of equal parts SF, mystery, comedy, erotic fantasy, and pop psychology, TGTGWAE is a hoot, fast-paced and funny all the way. Sure it's mindless drivel, but it's good mindless drivel. What more do you want? [****] Hawk and Fisher Simon Green Ace Books $3.95 213 pg. Reviewed by Danny Low This is basically a whodunit with a very superficial fantasy coating. Hawk and Fisher are Guardsmen for the city of Haven. They are assigned to guard councilman Blackstone during a party. Naturally, Blackstone is killed and the two must solve the mystery before dawn. This book almost totally lacks any originality or imagination. The style is straight modern police thriller and is an anachronism in the fantasy setting. Haven is a clone of the Thieves World Sanctuary down to the similarity in names. An unastute reader can solve the mystery well before the two characters mainly because Hawk and Fisher commit a very obvious blunder. Without this blunder the story would have ended half way through the book. The only thing that saves this book from total failure is the method by which Blackstone is murdered. That is original and imaginative and fits completely in the fantasy setting. One wonders if the method came first and the story was then built around the method. However this one piece of inspiration is not enough to recommend the book. [*] The Heralds of Valdemar Mercedes Lackey Arrows of the Queen DAW, 0-88677-311-3, 1987, $3.50, 320pp. Arrow's Flight DAW, 0-88677-222-2, 1987, $3.50, 318pp. Arrow's Fall DAW, 0-88677-255-9, 1988, $3.50, 320pp. Reviewed by Mary Anne Espenshade The first trilogy set in Valdemar, exploring the training of a Herald. The Heralds of Valdemar are much more that the traditional post of announcing guests to the Queen. They travel the country as impartial arbiters in all judicial matters and disputes. Talia, of the Holderfolk near the southern border of Valdemar is chosen by the Companion Rolan to be the Queen's Own Herald. The first book describes her training at the Herald's Collegium and the internal strife in the government surrounding her selection. The second volume follows Talia on her field apprenticeship with Kris and learning to control her Gift. The third book brings the political problems to a head with Lord Orthallen's plot with Ancar of Karse to invade Valdemar. The descriptions of the society are fascinating, this is not the typical uniform fantasy world. [****+] In Between Dragons Michael Kandel Bantam $3.95 181 pg. Reviewed by Danny Low Sherman Potts is your typical nerdy SF reader. He fantasizes a lot. The difference is Sherm's fantasies come right off the pages of books in a magical library. Unfortunately, because Sherm's fantasies are real, they have a way of getting totally out of hand and they threaten to destroy the magic library and Sherm's real life. The resolution is not as well done as the story but the ending is acceptable. Sherm's fantasies are exactly that of an adolescent boy in the troves of puberty. The book is filled with ironic humor. Sherm knows that many of his problems will resolve itself when he grows up but that does not help him cope with them any better. This is the voice of the author speaking and Kandel injects many such instances of humor throughout the book. In all, this is an accurate book and maybe not to the taste of many people for that reason. [***] The Last Herald-Mage Mercedes Lackey Magic's Pawn DAW, 0-88677-352-0, 1989, $3.95, 350pp. Magic's Promise DAW, 0-88677-401-2, 1989, $4.50, 320pp. Magic's Price DAW, 0-88677-426-8, 1990, $4.50, 352pp. Reviewed by Mary Anne Espenshade Lackey's second Valdemar trilogy is actually set much earlier than the first. Talia is reading about the adventures of the Last Herald-Mage when she is first introduced in Arrows of the Queen, so the reader knows going into this what the ending will be, at least according to the legends within Valdemar. It's a good thing Lackey is a fast writer because I could not put these books down once I had started them. [*****] Mad Roy's Light Paula King Baen $3.50 275 pg. Reviewed by Danny Low Jennan Bartlett is one of the few humans allowed into the Daruma Guild that controls space trade in most of known space. Bartlett considers herself more Daruman than human but finds herself in a situation where her basic human values conflict with basic Daruman values. Bartlett finds herself given what seems to be an impossible mission involving a trade agreement between three races, one of them human. As it turns out, there is a fourth race involved and this one is not bound by the niceties of interstellar etiquette as it has evolved in known space. Paula King acknowledges C. J. Cherryh and Andre Norton for their inspiration and it shows. The feel of the story is very much a blend of the style of the two authors. The male characters are not as incompetent as those in a typical Cherryh story. Bartlett is a bit more competent than a typical Norton heroine. The story is more the hard SF of Cherryh than the soft fantasy of Norton. If you like either Norton or Cherryh, you will most likely enjoy this book. [***] Mighty Good Road Melissa Scott Baen 1990 306 pp $3.95 US 0-671-69873-7 Reviewed by David M. Shea Freelance salvage specialist Gwynne Heikki accepts a contract to return to the planet where she spent her childhood in search of a missing cargo blimp. Little does she know that the very people hiring her are the ones who have the vested interest in making certain the real truth never comes out. I have enjoyed previous works by this Campbell Award-winning writer. This book contains a readable story, but the first half is told at glacial pace -- it takes 131 pages to get the actual salvage operation under way. Eventually the story speeds up (to a slow walk), but mostly it consists of people standing around talking, lots of cyberjargon, and reams of irrelevant physical description. I know that Ms. Scott is capable of better than this. [**] Never Deal With a Dragon Robert N. Charrette ROC Books $4.50 377 pg. Reviewed by Danny Low First, let me say that this is an excellent book. Hopefully that will keeping you reading pass the next few sentences. This book is set in the Shadowrun game universe. Shadowrun is what you get when you combine AD&D with cyberpunk; Uzi toting elves who can jack into the Net and cast Feeblemind spells on AI's. Seriously, the Shadowrun universe is well constructed and makes more sense than most despite the premise of magic working along side of science. The book is written as a novel and not a game session transcript. There are several coverging story lines told from different points of view. The main story is about Sam Vernor's rite of passage. He is a salaryman for the Renraku megacorporation. During the course of the story, he realizes that Renraku is not the benevolent company he has believed it to be. His escape from Renraku is abetted unwittingly by a rival megacorporation seeking to steal Renraku secrets. Vernor is driven by self preservation and a need to discovered what happened to his sister to involve himself in this corporate war. The story ends with Vernor thwarting the plot despite the double and triple crossing that happens. At the end, Vernor has matured into someone who can stand on his own with a little help from his friends. Neither Vernor or any of the characters in the story are supermen who succeed solely on their abilities. Everyone who survives does so with the help of friends. This emphasis on friendship is rather refreshing in an action story. All too often action stories revolve around a superman and everyone else serves only to show off the superiority of the hero through their incompetence or hero worship. This book succeed on its own merits. You can read and enjoy this book totally independent of any knowledge of the Shadowrun gaming system. [***] Othersyde J. Michael Straczynski E.P.Dutton; 0-525-24873-0: 294 pages; June 1990: $18.95 Reviewed by Richard Weilgosh Have you ever wished harm to come to someone? Combine this idea with two lonely teenagers and their desperate wanting to belong and you have the makings of a horrific story. Chris Martino and his mother have recently moved to California from the East following his parents separation. Roger Obst or 'Horseface' to his classmates is a fat, abused and lonely boy who is looking for friendship from anyone. Naturally these two become friends, and together they suffer beatings at the hands of the high school jock. 'They use invisible ink to write messages back and forth, but one day the message received is not the one sent. Instead it's a message from the Othersyde. As instructed. Chris and Roger buy telegraph keys in order to better communicate with the Othersyde. However Roger is the only one to use the key and the Othersyde offers to help him get revenge on those who have hurt him. Will he do it? If he does. at what cost to himself and to his only friend? The climax of the Othersyde is quite exceptional. This is a fast-paced. gritty novel of supernatural horror with the gore kept to a minimum. Othersyde has a well executed plot combined with very believable empathic characters. He tells this thoroughly enjoyable tale with style and flair and it should appeal to a wide audience. Polar City Blues Katherine Kerr Bantam $4.50 262 pg. Reviewed by Danny Low This book is very unlike the fantasy books that Kerr wrote previously. It has a certain gritty texture that suits the story very well. However there is a sense of romanticism in this story that precludes it being a 'book noir'. The story is about a major interstellar crisis that threatens to destroy Polar City. Bobbie Lacey comes closest to being the main character in what is basically an ensemble cast of characters. The story starts off with the murder of an Interstellar Confederation diplomat. The murder eventually proves to be an assassin for the rival Coreward Alliance. Chief of Police Al Bates has to solve the mystery without creating an interstellar incident that will precipitate an attack on Polar City. Lacey is drawn into the mystery as she is the one person that various less than honest citizens will approach with information. This is not a "solve it before the author reveals it" type mystery. It is more of a "see how the characters figure it out" type of story. Kerr succeeds quite well. Nobody acts stupid. The various characters fumble their way to the solution like intelligent people. The only weak point is the ending. Kerr puts the main characters in a position where they cannot escape death and literally has someone comes out of left field to rescue them. There is some forewarning of the rescue but it comes too close to the end. This is a minor flaw in an otherwise excellent story. [****] ------ End ------