Electronic OtherRealms #14 April, 1987 Part 1 Table of Contents Part 1 Editor's Notebook Chuq Von Rospach Time Out of Mind Barb Jernigan A Voice for Princess Danny Low The Myth Series Alan Wexelblat Living in the Ether Liralen Li No Safe Place Danny Low Borderland Alan Wexelblat The SF Book of Lists Jim Day Part 2 Pico Reviews Part 3 Books Received Words of Wizdom Chuq Von Rospach Letters to OtherRealms Editor's Notebook Chuq Von Rospach Quarterly cutover I've decided on the date for the cutover to quarterly. The last monthly issue of OtherRealms will be the July issue, due out the end of June. OtherRealms will then return in the fall, in its new, improved, and larger format. I'm currently guessing that a quarterly issue will run about 72-90 pages, more or less, as opposed to the current 26-30. Since I'm starting to use more art (a trend I hope will continue), total wordage will probably drop to somewhere around the equivalent of 2 and a half of the current OtherRealms. From my printing and postage estimates, I don't see that cover price or subscription charges will change (although if my subscription base grows, I might be able to drop it again due to economies of scale). I'll know better after I do some more research and get some estimates. Other Changes I'm planning a number of changes to OtherRealms over the next year to go with the conversion to a quarterly. One is the increasing use of artwork. I'm planning to move from Xerographic printing (meaning the local copy shop) to a real printer, so that OtherRealms starts looking more like a real magazine. That will also give me the capability of using cover art to compliment reviews (something I plan) and photographs. I'm already testing layouts with cover art, and you should see the first results in a couple of months. I'd like to encourage publishers to send me cover flats if they'd like them used in OtherRealms. I'm also planning to change the article mix over the next few months, and cut down on the size of the Pico Review section to make room for more feature material. One feature I have in the works is a series of articles tentatively titled "Where it came from." This feature would give an author a place where they can discuss the background of a book and the research and information that went into it -- in many ways an extended version of the Author's Notes that many recent books are carrying. As an example of what I'm talking about, look at Poul and Karen Anderson's wonderful Roma Mater from Baen Books. If you or one of your authors in interested in writing an article on an existing or upcoming book, please write to me. I'll try to schedule articles to match publication dates to the best of my ability. Another thing I'm planning to start printing is publishing information -- things like contracts, promotions, and other news dealing with authors and the publishing industry. I don't plan on turning OtherRealms into a full newszine (Locus and Science Fiction Chronicle both do a fine job of it already), but I'm looking to get a wider base of material than just reviews. That is hard to do in 26 pages, but in the larger size I have a lot more flexibility. I'm always interested in ideas for articles, so if you have any suggestions, please feel free to drop me a note. OtherRealms Readers OtherRealms' readership continues to grow. Issue #13 shipped over 100 copies of the printed version, and this issue is likely to match or beat that value. Even more astounding is the electronic readership, where it looks like I'm over 4000 readers if you believe the statistics. My direct mailing lists go to well over 600 readers, and the Usenet link goes to around 3200 more. There are also readers on a number of computer systems that I don't know of, as I'm constantly hearing about new computers networks that have OtherRealms on it. Once something is sent out to the electronic ethers, it takes on a life of its own. Even if the figures are off by a whopping 50% (the maintainer of the sampling program claims it to be +- about 5%) the size of OtherRealms is rather amazing. Almost as astounding is the geographic distribution. OtherRealms reaches all of the U.S. and Canada, of course, but I also have readers in Australia, Japan, England, West Germany, Finland and Sweden. I probably have readers in Moscow, but they aren't known for advertising their presence. All of this is a bit mind-boggling. When I started OtherRealms, I felt that I'd be happy with a subscription base of 200, but the first issue of OtherRealms was mailed to almost 300 readers, and the growth has been steady since. I think it has just about hit the practical limit of the network, but I really don't know. There are definite advantages and disadvantages to electronic distribution. I don't need to deal with large print-runs or postage, but at the same time a lot of the extras get lost, since all the electronic readers see is text, and reading text that is minimally formatted is a lot more strenuous on the eyes than reading on paper. And the electronic readers miss out on the artwork, since there is no way to pass that stuff around electronically, so they don't get the entire magazine. Someday, I expect, technology will catch up to all of this. But not for a while... There are Awards, and Then There are... Awards. Locus #314 has announcements for two more awards: the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial and the Arthur C. Clarke award. Philip K. Dick has an award. It seems like awards are propogating as fast as people can get to the trophy shop. Now, I don't want to denigrate any of these folks. Sturgeon and Dick were very important influences in Science Fiction, and Clarke still is. But I find it very disappointing to see the most important person in the field since John W. Campbell ignored. If any contemporary Science Fiction person deserves an award, Judy- Lynn Del Rey does. She almost singlehandedly took Science Fiction off the pulp rack and put it on the Bestseller list. She pried many of the best works out of many of the best authors in the field. John W. Campbell defined Science Fiction, Judy-Lynn Del Rey legitimized it and broke it out of the ghetto. Someone, a major con, a major fan group, perhaps even Del Rey books, should bring forward an award that honors her name and what she means to Science Fiction. She never got the recognition she deserved while alive, and I'm sorry to see her being forgotten so quickly now that she's gone. For all she gave us, a little honorarium is seriously needed. Corrections Last issue I inadvertantly gave one of my artists a new identity -- my apologies to Wendy Christensen who was arbitrarily metomorphosized into Ward. This is just a great example why I try to type all of my notes. Sorry, Wendy. See you next month! Time out of Mind John R. Maxim [***] Tor Books, 1986, $4.50 Reviewed by Barb Jernigan barb@oliveb.ATC.OLIVETTI.COM Copyright 1987 by Barb Jernigan "He did not have the look of a man who frightened easily. But what made him afraid, in a way no bar bully or snarling dog could, was snow... Jonathan Corbin saw things in the snow. For when it snowed, another consciousness claimed Corbin, memories not his own filled his senses, memories of 1880 New York City, of a blizzard, of a woman he stalks... and murders." Ancestral memory? That's what psychiatrist Harry Sturdevant believes -- an explanation plausible as any impossibility to his "niece," Corbin's lover and confidant Gwen Leamas. Or ghosts? That's what paid investigator Raymond Lesko refuses to believe, what his employers are terrified may be true -- and they want Corbin dead. A dual mystery. A single yarn spun from two threads, a murder committed a hundred years ago, a murder in the planning now. And caught in the vortex is Jonathan Corbin, pulled increasingly into a dead man's memories. Maxim handles the two threads well. His style is quite descriptive, full of sensual detail that brings 1880 and 1980 New York City alive -- often simultaneously. Corbin's "flashbacks" (or should I say "Corbin's" flash-backs) are like a stone skipping across a lake, at first brief touches, then sinking deeper and deeper until.... Indeed, Maxim loses marks in the last two chapters for becoming pedantic - - he's in a rush to fill in the last of the historic detail, to confirm beyond doubt what the reader should already suspect. But the wrap- up is interesting enough to overcome this technical difficulty. On the whole, Time Out of Mind is a well written, engaging read. By its cover, it's geared for the newstand reader, and is more a detective tale of inner circle intrigue and a waltz through history than what the fantasy/sf reader might expect from a "ghost story." There is no horror other than the darkness of the human soul -- and the lingering effects of a dying curse that comes full circle. Maxim is a talented writer -- other than the pedantic, get-it-all-in ending, he only faltered once. His name dropping could also be seen as a flaw (Col. Cody, John L. Sullivan, Teddy Roosevelt), although perhaps his point, beyond giving his story a firmer grounding in history, is that these people were not the outstanding notables -- "heroes" is one word that comes to mind -- that a hundred years of history has shaped them into. Roosevelt, for example, was merely an energetic young man with a tendency to shout. And Buffalo Bill Cody was "that long-haired actor fellow with the Wild West Show." If you're looking for an entertaining diversion, tightly written by a man who has apparently done his homework ("apparently" as I know too little of NYC history to be certain of Maxim's "facts"), Time Out of Mind is well worth the money. A Voice for Princess John Morressy [****] Ace Books, 1986, $2.95, 213pp Reviewed by Danny Low hplabs!hpccc!dlow Copyright 1987 by Danny Low Kedrigen is the finest counterspell wizard around although he sometimes is impetuous which results in a counterspell that doesn't quite lift the original spell cleanly. That is the reason for the title of the book. When Kedrigen hastily unenchanted his wife, she went from a talking frog to a croaking princess. The underlying story in the book is about Kedrigen's attempts to restore his wife's voice. This main story is not enough to fill out a book, so Morressy has interspersed short stories about Kedrigen's efforts to counter spells for various clients throughout the book. The main story and the short stories hang together well resulting in an episodic novel. The book is clearly written tongue-in-cheek. While it has its share of puns, it is not a punishing book like Piers Anthony's Xanth series. The comedy is broad but it is not slapstick. The characterization is quite good for the main characters. Kedrigen's wife, Princess, is a better developed character than Kedrigen. In the end, Princess gets her voice back but there is room for a sequel. The Myth Series Robert Asprin Another Fine Myth [***+] Myth Conceptions [***+] Myth Directions [***] Hit or Myth [***] Myth-ing Persons [**] Little Myth Marker [*+] M.Y.T.H. Inc. Link [**] Reviewed by Alan Wexelblat wex@mcc.com Copyright 1987 by Alan Wexelblat I don't normally buy large-size, illustrated, paperback editions; usually they are overpriced novellas padded out to novel length with large type and pictures. In the case of the Myth series, though, I have made an exception. The illustrations are by Kelly Freas and Phil Foglio, two of my favorite artists, and their work is worth the extra money. I should point out to the unwary that there are actually three editions of some of these books. There are the illustrated ones which were first issued. There are also un-illustrated, small-sized versions of each. In addition, the first two books were originally illustrated by Kelly Freas. The latter five have art by Phil Foglio. Sometime after the switch, Starblaze decided to go back and reissue the first two with Foglio illustrations. I suspect that the Freas first editions will be hard to find. The Myth series concerns the mis-adventures of an aspiring wizard, Skeeve, and a demon (that's short for dimension-traveller) named Aahz. The two, plus an assortment of odd companions, manage to scheme and bumble their way through a series of fairly humorous adventures. Along the way, Asprin develops their characters and relationship at a nice pace. The books are fast-paced and fun, with jokes aplenty. Aahz and Skeeve were designed to parody the familiar hero-sidekick style of many Fantasy books. People who hate puns and parody should stay away. Reading these books is a little like riding a roller coaster you've ridden dozens of times before. You know you're going to be thrilled, perhaps scared, by the ride. You know that you're going to `defy' the laws of physics. And knowing that you'll arrive safely at the end of the ride doesn't spoil the fun. In this series, Asprin uses hoary old plots (the insane wizard, the unstoppable army, etc.). He gets away with this only by making it lots of fun. In those cases where it's not fun, the entire book flops. The first book, Another Fine Myth, shows how Aahz and Skeeve meet and team up. In addition, several minor characters are introduced. The dimension of Klah, of which Skeeve is a native, is being used as a base by the insane wizard Isstvan. He plans to take over all the dimensions and it's up to our heroes and an assortment of friends and unwilling allies to stop him. This book is just pure fun - the dialog is snappy, the characters are interesting, the jokes are funny, and the plot is nicely handled. I reread the book for this review and enjoyed it as much as I did the first time. In the second book, Myth Conceptions, the dauntless duo set out to seek gainful employment which they find in the tiny kingdom of Possiltum. The job of court magician is quite cozy -- until a marauding army decides that Possiltum is between the army and where the army wants to be. Aahz and Skeeve assemble another improbable group of companions and attempt to stop the army. There are a few rough spots, but this book really establishes the trademark of the Myth series: the setting up of and escaping from a seemingly-impossible situation. Myth Directions continues in the same vein. If you've dealt with the largest army in your dimension, what do you do for diversion? Steal the most valuable object in another dimension, of course. It would spoil things to say more. This book is, like the two before, a great deal of fun. You know they'll solve the impossible situation and you enjoy almost all of it. As with Myth Conceptions there are a few rough spots but they're hardly noticeable. Hit or Myth changes the direction of the series. Rather than trying to create bigger and badder opponents, Asprin divides the previously inseparable team. Early in the story, Aahz is lured back to his home dimension of Perv, leaving Skeeve to face the wrath of a medieval Mob and a scheming bride-to-be who would make Machiavelli pause. This time, Skeeve must assemble and direct his own team. The problem is, he does it too easily. The plot has potential complexities that Asprin doesn't develop deeply enough. Things just happen and a good deal of the fun is lost. In addition, there's a good deal more talking and less doing than in previous books. Characters stop and lecture each other every so often. The resolution of the action is fun though, and saves the story from being a total loss. Speaking of total losses, Mything Persons resembles that pretty nicely. Oh, it starts off well enough. Some shady characters use Skeeve's house to escape from the wrath of a group of merchants and so he has to hunt them down or lose his all-important reputation. Unfortunately, Aahz decides it's too risky for "the kid" and so knocks Skeeve out in order to do it himself. Naturally, Skeeve has to rescue him. It's a good premise and there are glimpses of interesting new characters. But that's about it. Asprin seems to think that it's okay to stop the action at any time so that characters can have long- winded discussions about emotional issues. The jokes are really strained; the framework they're in doesn't help them along at all. Last year, Asprin talked about the Myth series while at a mini-con here in Austin. He claimed that Aahz and Skeeve "just weren't funny any more." Well, after reading Little Myth Marker, I'm convinced it's Asprin who's not funny. He's definitely running out of material for jokes. The plot of the book is very simple: Someone has hired a character assassin, known only as The Axe, to do a hatchet job on Skeeve's reputation. No one knows who The Axe is or who hired him. Even this simple an idea could have been interesting, I guess, but it isn't. Asprin spends page after page on emotional exposition. There's virtually no action and the talking that fills this book just isn't funny. The witty dialog that characterized the first three books is totally gone by this point. Give this one a miss. I bought the last two books together, and, after suffering the disappointments, I cheated. Instead of buying the next book outright, I borrowed it from a friend. M.Y.T.H. Inc. Link is a tough book to explain. Unlike the other book, Asprin wrote this collection of short stories with a purpose. The idea is to split Aahz and Skeeve off from their entourage, yet allow readers to enjoy both. Thus, we will have Myth books about the dauntless duo (told from their point of view), and M.Y.T.H. Inc. books about the other characters (told from, I gather, varying points of view). This book serves as the link between the two new series and the unified old one - thus the title. Confused yet? M.Y.T.H. Inc. Link is a collection of five short stories, each told from the point of view of a different character. A couple of the stories are pretty good, almost up to the quality of the first books. The problem is that Asprin doesn't differentiate the characters enough. They all say pretty much the same things. And most of them have that stop-the-action-and-talk habit that really ruined the later books. The stories tie together nicely, and there are hints that things could get really funny, if Asprin can think up new material. Overall, I think the series is a good idea. The first three books are worth buying. The others I'm not so sure of. I hate to think Asprin will let these characters continue to go to waste. Living in the Ether Patricia Geary [****-] Bantam Spectra Reviewed by Liralen Li li@vlsi.washington.edu Copyright 1987 by Liralen Li An intricate origami structure often requires folds which are undone in order to create the proper creases needed for an entirely different, yet necessary, fold to complete the structure. This work greatly resembles an origami of a character, with a gradual, patient folding, unfolding and refolding along the creases of the past. This isn't a mainstrean fantasy, even by the farthest reaches of the imagination. It is a careful balancing act between the fantasy and the reality of a psychological case study. It is a first person account of a character who is literally unsure of exactly where the line between reality and fantasy lies. Deirdre Gage is a medium, one whom other people hire to go into a trance and give them access to the spirits beyond; however, even she is unsure as to wheither there is really a spirit world, or if it is all "a great hoax" and those spirits are merely alternate, unconscious personalities. She never speaks directly to a spirit, other than the illusion of the spirit of her long dead brother, a suicide. There are signs she finds from her brother, which she reads, and then destroys, writing that now there is no evidence, there may never have been. At another point she realizes that she had done several tasks without being conscious of them. She acknowledges that her memories may not be true, and throughout is the Zen thought, "I'm lying when I just want to be perfectly clear." It is a disturbing piece, wound about with the sensuous and disturbing essense of Mishima, a Japanese author of astonishing power and a grisly past; although, on the surface, Mishima is just one of the target spirits of one of Deirdre's customers. Deirdre is fascinated and repelled at the same time by what is offered by what Mishima found the essence of Japan, as well as the customer who brings it all to mind. The power of the piece is in its delicate and intricate construction of Deirdre, of her past, and of her reactions and desires. Deirdre is the perfect name for her, as is the harmony of all that she is. However, so careful is the construction I was badly disappointed with the conclusion of the book, for it came clearly down on one side of the delicate balance of the rest of the book, crushing the structure. I would rather the author had stopped five paragraphs sooner. This is not for light reading, in fact, on my first reading I was disgusted with the thing because it just wasn't what I was led to expect from the blurbs on either the back or inside the front cover. However, after re-researching Mishima's works, and recollecting that state of mind that I have to be in to even approach Zen, I found this work fascinating. I would highly recommend it for those that wish to read something complex, intricate, and as harmonized as an origami structure with knife-edge folds. No Safe Place Anne Moroz [***] Popular Library/Questar 323 pages, $3.50 Reviewed by Danny Low hplabs!hpccc!dlow Copyright 1987 by Danny Low Kate Harlin is an officer on a company ship that discovers an alien artifact. The crew, which includes an artificial person, is decimated by an alien life form found in the artifact. Only Harlin survives. She escapes using a lifeboat. After being rescued, she discovers the company does not believe her story and she is forced to lead an expedition back to the planet. No, this is not the book version of Aliens but the background and much of the details of the story are so similar that it is clear Moroz decided to write her version of Alien/Aliens. For example, the crew has to go into hibernation for the FTL trip. Considering the lead time for a book to get published, I suspect that Moroz worked from the story of the original movie, Aliens, and created a sequel that is remarkably similar to Aliens. Moroz has used the advantages of the novel to explain the situation and the background universe in much more detail than could be shown in a movie. For example, the culpability of the company is fully explored. She also resolves the conflict between Harlin and the company which is more than has been done with Ripley and her problems with the company. The book can stand on its own. No knowledge of the movies is needed to read and understand the book. For someone who has seen both movies, the book is an interesting study of what could have been. Borderland Created by Terri Windling & Mark Alan Arnold [***] 1986, Signet books 252 pages, $2.95 Reviewed by Alan Wexelblat wex@mcc.com Copyright 1987 by Alan Wexelblat Somewhere in California, at a time when the technological world is collapsing, the magical Elflands reappear. The area where the two worlds overlap is called the Borderlands; the town where humans, elves, and "halfies" mix in large numbers is called Bordertown. Bordertown is a hard-rocking, pseudo-punk blend of magic and technology. With a setup like this, and a bevy of talented young writers, it seems that this shared-world anthology just can't fail. And yet, and yet... Borderland is not so much a failure as it is a disappointment. It raises high hopes that it just doesn't meet. A shared-world anthology is both a curse and a blessing to its writers. The blessing is the shared presence: The reader is familiar with the setting, background, minor characters and other details which support a story. The author is thus relieved of much of the burden of setting the scene, describing the environment and so forth. This allows them (in theory, anyway) to concentrate more on telling the story, developing characters, or whatever else they want to do. The curse is more subtle: In a sense, the authors in a shared-world anthology are running a relay race; if one story lags, the pacing and overall impact of the anthology are reduced. The lead-off and anchor stories take on a magnified importance. In addition, the atmosphere of the shared world creates expectations in the reader which each story must live up to. I think that this curse has struck Borderland. The four stories, "Prodigy," "Gray," "Stick," and "Charis" are fine works. Submitted separately to professional magazines, I am sure they would all have sold. But they don't work as a team. Boyett's "Prodigy" is a long (104 pages) slow-paced story that contrasts poorly with the tighter, faster pace of the other three. Having it as the lead-off story in an anthology is a bad idea. It has good plot and characters, but they develop too slowly and the answer is obvious to the reader long before the main character gets around to figuring it out. Bach's "Gray" is a little tighter, but its confusing point-of-view shifts make it a hard work to read and prevent it from easily playing a team role. Bach, as well as Boyett, gives the impression that he finds Bordertown too confining to write in -- something that you don't want in a shared world. De Lint and Kushner, however, save the book. Their stories are fast- paced and exciting. They breathe life into Bordertown and generate interesting characters to populate it. Although their stories are complete in and of themselves, in each case I wanted the author to write more. I really want to see what happens to Stick and Manda and Charis and all the rest. The overall impression, as I said before, is one of promises unfulfilled. There is a lot of good material here; I think future books (Bordertown is already out; I have it but haven't read it) will have lots to work with. The SF Book of Lists Maxim Jakubowski & Malcolm Edwards [***] Berkley Books, 1983, 384 pages, $7.95 Reviewed by Jim Day JimDay.Pasa@Xerox.COM Copyright 1987 by Jim Day Maxim Jakubowski is an editor and critic who also writes SF and Fantasy. Malcolm Edwards is an editor and former administrator of the Science Fiction Foundation. The book itself is a potpourri of informative data and a plethora of picayune trivia. I found it delightful, despite the fact that it has neither a table of contents nor an index. Although voluminous, the book makes no claim to being comprehensive. For instance, the list of SF writers named Smith mentions a mere 23 authors. Its categories include the following and many, many more: Fifty great aliens of science fiction. Nine generation-starship stories. Ten characters who have promoted the consumption of coffee in improbable quarters of space and time. Ten brain-twisting time paradox stories. Ten alternate worlds novels. The forty most popular SF short stories. The thirty-four best SF short stories published before 1940. The twenty-six all-time best SF novels. The ten most unjustly neglected SF novels ever written. Forty-three famous Astounding/Analog serials. The five most useful SF reference books. Six SF Short stories whose combined word length equals that of this heading. OtherRealms #14 April, 1987 Copyright 1987 by Chuq Von Rospach. All Rights Reserved. One time rights have been acquired from the contributors. All rights are hereby assigned to the contributors OtherRealms may be reproduced in its entirety only for non-commercial purposes. With the exception of excerpts used for promotional purposes, no part of OtherRealms may be re-published without permission.