Electronic OtherRealms #29 Winter, 1991 Part 8 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. Flights of Fantasy Reviews by Laurie Sefton This column we begin with an economics lesson. We're going to discuss the concept of marginal utility. Those of you who suffered through Econ 101 may have sudden stirrings at the back or your brain (or the pit of your stomach, depending on how you did) concerning marginal utility, marginal cost, and how the two help to set the price of an item. Marginal utility is the "good" that a consumer gets out of one more unit of a particular item. So, the marginal utility of the third hot fudge sundae ought to be quite a bit less than the first. And being a rational consumer, you won't pay more for the 3rd hot fudge sundae -- in fact, you would be willing to pay quite a bit less. Now, take this concept and stretch it a little to book buying. Are you, as a rational consumer, willing to pay a larger amount for the nth in a series of books, because you feel that you'll get that extra cost's "good" out of the book? The publishers are betting that you (or that enough of you) will. Switching to hardcover in the middle of a series appears to be the latest fashion. The publishers hope that you're hooked on a series or an author to the point that you won't mind paying $20.00 instead of $5.00. The question is: Is a book that is good enough to buy at $5.00, still good enough to buy at $20.00? Stronghold Melanie Rawn DAW, 1991, 0-99677-440-3, 487 pp, $21.95 Melanie Rawn's Stronghold is definitely worth your extra money. Stronghold is the first book in the Dragon Star trilogy, which follows from the Dragon Price trilogy. I find it interesting that while it is advertised as such, the Dragon Prince trilogy really didn't come to a conclusion at the end of Sunrunner's Fire, considering we left with Andry, the Lord of Goddess Keep, hunting down and killing diarmadh'im (the sorcerous race who are able to use starlight to power their spells), and realizing that the crown prince Pol is of that race. However, Andry has much more to worry about. The kingdoms are being attacked by raiders, who appear to be interested only in destruction. Andry and Pol are set against each other while both attempt to fight off the raiders. Each refuses the help or the abilities of the other, and with each attempt to breach the chasm between the two, each becomes more disdainful and mistrusting of the other. Kingdoms are lost and many are slaughtered because of the pride of two men. If you remember the review of Dragon Prince, I mentioned that one of the refreshing aspects was that no one misunderstood each other because of stupidity that most children would have noticed. The misunderstandings, hurt, and suspicion between Pol and Andry are due to flaws in both their characters. Neither of them recognize it yet, but they're reflections in a mirror. How far down the path of destruction their shared flaw will lead them and their kingdoms remains to be seen. Stronghold is the story of a deadly dance between two very powerful men. [****+] By The Sword Mercedes Lackey DAW, 1991, 0-88677-463-2 492pp, $4.95 By the Sword is one in a series that I worry about making the transition. Mercedes Lackey pulls together the Vow and Honor diptych with the Heralds of Valdemar trilogy. The uniting character is Kerowyn, the granddaughter of sorcerous Kethryn, who suddenly finds herself the owner of Need, which both requires her to fight for a woman in distress, and forbids her to harm a woman. Kerowyn is trained by Tarma and sent out on her way as a mercenary, but not before she she crosses paths with Prince Darenthallis, the third son of the king of Rethwellen. Kerowyn then spends the next several years rising through the ranks as a mercenary, leading to her captaincy of her own company. The Heralds appear when Valdemar, threatened by outside forces, who are using both mages and ensorcerlled fighters, entreats the King of Rethwellen for aid. Kerowyn forces the issue, by bringing up a age-old promise by the Rethwellen to Valdemar. Kerowyn finds herself fighting for Valdemar, and torn between her duties as a mercenary captain and her feelings for a Herald, still burning from her past. By the Sword is unevenly paced, with a lot of detail up front, and increasingly lighter detail until the deus ex machina end of the novel. It seemed as if this was two books, and Lackey was forced to tie them together, and the second book lost. The mercenary scenes were also lighter than needed; By the Sword suffers in this respect by comparison to Elizabeth Moon's Paksennarion's Deed trilogy. Too much is tied up too well and too neatly at the end of this novel to push a reader towards buying a hardback to get the next stories. [****-] The Dagger and the Cross Judith Tarr Doubleday/Foundation, 1991, 0-385-41182-0, 474 pp, $10.95 (Trade), $21.95 (Hardcover) The Dagger and the Cross is the sequel to Alamut, Judith Tarr's story of love, hate, alienation and desire, set during the 11th century Crusades. At the end of Alamut, Aidan, Christian knight and Prince of Rhiyana, and Morgiana, assassin and Muslim had found their peace together. Now they waited for Gwydion, King of Rhiyana and Aidan's twin, to come with a Papal dispensation to allow them to be wed. But once again, petty jealousies and the fear and hatred of the "elvenkind" come into play. An important document is stolen, and Aidan and Morgiana are cast against each other, just as the armies of Saladin and the Christian crusaders are thrown into conflict. Once again, Tarr works at multiple levels within the story. There is the animosity between Christian and Muslim, human and "elf", and the interfamilial warring that erupts when jealousies over past love; such as between Morgiana and Joanna, or perceived preference and maternal love; between Aimery, Joanna son by her husband Ranulf, and Ysabel, Joanna's daughter by Aidan and inheritor of Aidan's magic. One point that I found exceptionally interesting was King Gwydion's reaction to his niece Elen's taking of a Muslim lover. After all the talk and action of need for acceptance that kept being expressed by the Rhiyanan's Gwydion's anger at Elen's choice came as a bit of surprise. It seemed as if the "elves" needed to If practice a bit of what they preached. There almost seemed to be a duality of freedom -- the "elves" were free to pick their lovers, as they weren't free to do much else, while the humans were expected to act within the constraints of their own society. Either that, or Gwydion was showing more than a little chauvinism; while his brother was free to choose a Muslim assassin as a lover and wife, his niece would not have that choice available to her. A small, but interesting point, which lends itself to the complexity of the story. If you haven't read Alamut or The Dagger and the Cross yet, go to the bookstore now. You won't find this level of writing often. [****+] Raising the Stones Sheri S. Tepper, Doubleday/Foundation, September 1990, 453 pp $19.95, 0-385-41510-9 Reading Raising the Stones is damn close to a transcendental experience. After I finished it, I was overwhelmed by the story and it's implications. Raising the Stones points out the pain and suffering that religion can cause, how evil can be done in the name of a religious deity, but also how religious worship or a deity can be incorporated into a harmonious life -- even if it is the deity who makes the life harmonious. While Tepper once again makes the comparison between a good and kind matriarchal society and a harsh and evil patriarchal society, the lines are not as broadly drawn as before. For example, the High Baidee have taken their entire religious instruction from their "Prophetess", who gave out such advice as "don't be sexist pigs", and twisted it around into a number of dietary laws. While the High Baidee are almost comical in their misinterpretation of what would be considered fairly useful advice, the people of Voorstod have taken the worst of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, and bent it to their ways. The colony of Voorstod exists because their ancestors were driven from Earth for being so warlike and despicable. On Voorstod, they continue to plot and plan the overthrow of the known worlds for the glory of their one god, and by that, to bring about the end of the universe. At the same time, Hobbs Land, a agricultural colony, is quietly being populated by "gods", or more closely, the reconstructed personalities of the recently dead held in a gestalt with what appears to be an intelligent fungus. The "gods' make their worshippers happy, productive, and fill them with a sense of ease. At the same time, they make little or no demands on the moral or ethical structure already in place. It is inevitable that these two systems come into violent contact. Beyond the immediate story, Raising the Stones is a question about the place of religion in society. Does society need a person, place or thing to venerate, and will that religion always become the reason behind actions that people refuse to take responsibility for? Tepper always provides questions to ponder. [*****] Lammas Night Katherine Kurtz Ballantine, 1983, 0-345-29516-1, 438 pp , $4.95 Lammas Night is a re-issue of a 1983 book by Katherine Kurtz, but I suspect that it was originally issued somewhere in the 3-digit range, given how many people I know who have looked for it, and how few people actually read it back in 1983. Lammas Night is not in the Deryni universe -- it's set in Britain in 1940. A witches's coven is attempt to stop the psychic, as well as physical attacks by Nazi Germany. This isn't just any coven however, the witches are also working in the highest echelons of the British military and intelligence. Their plan? To "protect" the British Isles by forming a grand coven of every witch and magic worker in Britain, and projecting a psychic shield around the island. This has been done before, but only at the cost of either a willing royal sacrifice or a willing substitute Into this walks Prince William, the "extra prince" of the Royal family. You won't find a Price William among the sons of King George V in this world. However, in Lammas Night, Prince William is both the twin brother of Prince John (who did exist, and died at the age of 13), and a representation of what happens with "extra" royals -- Prince William feels useless, more of a public relations dummy than a human being. The Prince finds himself drawn into the covens' workings, and heads towards a fate which eerily parallels that of Prince George, Duke of Kent in real life. Lammas Night is a entertaining mixture of magic and intrigue. [****] Deryni Magic, A Grimoire Katherine Kurtz Del Rey, January 1991, 0-345-36117-2, 371 pp, $5.95 Kurtz has also recently come out with Deryni Magic, A Grimoire. While this is set in her Deryni Universe, it is not fiction per se. It's actually a source book for the background and implementation of Deryni magic. There are parts of the book which are copied out of previous Deryni books (and in one case, at least twice), and parts which appear to either be drafts or short stories never before seen. The book does give the Deryni fan a concrete and consistent base for how the Deryni universe operates. [****] Sunder, Eclipse & Seed Elyse Guttenberg ROC, December 1990, 0-451-45046-9, 351 pp$4.95 Sunder, Eclipse and Seed made the review list this time for a couple of reasons, one good, and one bad. First it has one of the more interesting female triumvirates of goddesses I have seen in a time. They're definitely based on the maiden, mother, crone archetypes, but are twisted to match the almost fatalistic attitude of the people who worship them. The role of religion in this world seems to be more of "what can we get out of you" rather than "what can we do for you". It appears the the latter was twisted into the former along the way. Calyx, the protagonist, finds herself able to have lucid dreams, but because she is the daughter of the local liege lord, she isn't able to go off for proper training, Even when she is trained in secret by one of the monks, she isn't taken seriously more because it would break up the monks' social structure and societal power than any rational reason the monks might have. In Calyx's world, those who have the power would rather stand by and let their world collapse around them than engage in any creative thought. Calyx has to fight both on a physical and a psychic level to save her world. One thing about the book, though -- nowhere does it say that it is the first part of a trilogy until you get to the author's biography at the end. I'm not quite sure what was the rationale for this from the publisher -- whether the reader wouldn't care, or that they were afraid it wouldn't be bought. As it is, I'll now check the cover, cover page and the end page of the book before I start it. I think the publishers lose on this fight. [***+] P.J. Plauger Mitch Wagner Originally published in UNIX Today! Republished with permission of the author. From the elegant title to the low-key opening paragraph to memorable closing, "Child of All Ages" is a perfect little gem of a story in 19 pages. It was one of the first and last fiction efforts of P.J. Plauger, who -- in the words of the more melodramatic species of pulp fiction-led a double life. And Plauger's other life was taking up too much time for him to continue with fiction long after the 1975 publication of "Child of All Ages." Plauger is a Unix programmer, who marketed the first Unix workalike, Idris, through his Westford, Mass., company, Whitesmiths, before Unix itself was available for mass consumption. He made the first commercial C and FORTRAN compilers, and has co-authored several seminal textbooks, including a C manual and The Elements of Programming Style. But fiction is his best love, and, with the sale of Whitesmiths about 18 months ago, he is looking forward to returning to it. "It was simply a matter that the world of business sucked me in," said Plauger, 46, in a telephone interview from his Massachusetts home. "It was too demanding and it took up too much of my life." During the early '70s, he published half a dozen short stories in Analog. He won the John W. Campbell award for Best New Science Fiction Writer of the Year. "Child of All Ages" was nominated for the Hugo and Nebula Awards. "I'll be honest with you," said Plauger. "Had 'Child of All Ages' won either a Nebula or a Hugo, I'd probably be a science fiction writer already, today. I couldn't stand losing." His fiction work was done while he was an employee of AT&T Bell Labs. He worked on a remote terminal at his home, hooked up to a Digital Equipment PDP 11-20 and later a PDP 11-45, running Unix. He worked in the ed text editor, using the nroff formatter for printouts. Unknown to him, the work made him a minor celebrity among the Unix pioneers at Bell Labs. "On my last day, in 1975, I found a strange little gift. [Unix co-inventor] Dennis Ritchie had done a three-page critique of my novel, and left it for me in E-mail. I used it, too," said Plauger. "Turns out that people at Bell Labs had been going through my directory all along, looking to see what I'd been writing lately." Noted critic Norman Spinrad, who publishes a column in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, said he remembers Plauger as showing signs of being a very talented newcomer. "I remember that one story, the 'Child of All Ages,' " said Spinrad. "That thing stood out. It was elegantly written. It was an emotional story, not the kind of thing I would associate with [hard-core] science fiction. "It seemed like one of those stories that" -- he paused for wording. "It was one of those stories by a newcomer that seems to have been written by a guy who's been around for years. ------ End ------