Electronic OtherRealms #19 Winter, 1987 Part 12 Letters to OtherRealms Part 2 I'm glad to see Harry Turtledove's article, "Historical Realism," and I feel I must explain that, although my CRT does show green type, it appears on a blackish screen. Not, as might be expected, pink. Nor is there a cute little alligator on the screen -- or on the computer's dust cover. I personally think he's onto something. I'm fascinated by the whole problem of researching an historical fantasy or an alternative timelines novel, especially if you no longer have a university library to rely on. I don't think that any of us would be likely to state that we were the wave of the future: most of us are too firmly and fondly grounded in the past for that, and we know what happens to people who make such pronouncements. there's nothing quite as stupid as an out-of-date manifesto. Except maybe two out-of-date manifestos. I was intrigued by your conreport on Conspiracy. My experience with European fans seemed pretty good. The norwegians were just great, and I didn't have any of the run-ins that you and your friends unfortunately did. Perhaps this might have been due to my own attitudes. I had utterly no intention of standing still for Yank-bashing. To responses that Americans seem to spend a lot of money (a comment I ran into in London from Mundanes whom I met in the normal course of running about), I simply pointed out, "well, don't you spend money when you're on holiday -- and then you have to go home and be very, very good until you've saved up enough for the next bash?" They seemed to understand that line of reasoning, as well as the "well, I live in New York, and we're all workaholics there" line of thought. The way I felt was that, as a guest, I had to be polite. But as hosts, so did they. I saw no reason to carry abour a burden of guilt or any other burder because I was American: there was no way I'd have said anything rude about anyone else's country, and I was damned if I'd let anyone say anything about mine. I agree with you that Brighton simply wasn't up to a 5,000 person convention, though I must admit that going through the train station and seeing many people from the States was very funny. The World Fantasy Con next year will be in London; I'm hoping to be able to go. If Worldcons, increasingly, become Eurocons, I predict a vasst rise in the size and prestige of the Nasfic, simply because of economics. I'm damned sure I can't afford Australia, but I definitely could manage Chicago, for example. That may be imperialist or any adjective that people wish to throw at me: it's also realistic. I don't know about anyone else, but I'm sick and tired of hotels having two policies: one for paying guests; a second -- and far more restrictive and unfriendly one -- for convention-goers. In self-defense, and because the Brighton ConCommittee screwed up my hotel reservations, I had a place far away from the Metropole Messup; and they were charming. I don't want to have to check into a non-convention hotel in order to be treated with courtesy, but that seems to be what's happening. Susan Shwartz I can't disagree with much that you say in your con report, but I think you're overlooking a few things which to some extent mitigate your criticisms, especially those of the con comittee. To begin with, England is a different country. It is unrealistic to expect facilities which could have been transplanted from anywhere in the USA (albeit damned few US cities can now muster the facilities for a 5,000 plus Worldcon) -- although the Brighton Centre came close. More to the point, Britain has been suffering economically on a scale which we've not seen for fifty years: staggering unemployment and inflation have created a standard of living seriously inferior to ours. It's easy for American concoms to throw about the bucks with free soft-drinks (at the least) and munchies, but far more difficult for a British concom to do so, and what is "traditional" here simply isn't traditional at British cons. However, and offsetting that, the Brits have the tradition of buying rounds -- drinks for everyone in the group -- so that it may well be that clever maneuvers one can cop a number of free drinks, although if others catch on there could be a problem. My hotel facilities in Brighton were awful. The first hotel -- Keehan's, on Regency Square -- was clean and hospitably run, but our room required a climb of 88 steps (six and a half flights), there being no lift, and the toilet was down the hall (the bath a flight down). Worst, the lock on the door fell off at the first push. Despite a listing in the Brighton Chamber of Commerce publication that assured it took plastic, Keehan assured me he "never had done." We stayed two nights, settled our bill (for cash)_ and moved to the Churchill Palace Hotel, where we were only one flight up (a lift was available), a bathroom adjoined the room, and plastic was acceptable. On the other hand, we had to awaken a resident each night to get in (the night porter was never there), a dunk used our door for his toilet, and the people in the next room never let us slepp past 9:00 AM. In each place the general quality of furnishings and maintenance of plumbing was best characterized as "shabby." I haven't seen such inferiour hotels in this country in thirty years. But the room rates (30 pounds a night in Keehan's; 40 at the Churchill Palace) compare closely with the rates I paid for first-class accommodations in US hotels at recent Worldcons. I attended little of the pro programming -- just the dialogue John Brunner and I had on the sixties -- but the fan programming was definitely superior at Brighton to that found at American Worldcons. (Mike Glyer's protestations and pullout from the "Why have American's Hijacked the Worldcon?" panel were an embarrassment to all American fans, but all too typical of LA fandom's highhandedness. I voted for Holland so that LA wouldn't end up with another quarter of a million dollars in profits from this non-profit convention -- and so I'd have a good excuse to visit Holland, a country I've never been to. As for the program item, it was not at all what you appear to think it was -- perhaps you should've attended it -- and its title accurately reflects the annoyance non-Americans have over the American proclivity for pronouncing American events "World" events. If we want to hog the "Worldcon" perhaps we should call it the "national Con" and stop pretending otherwise....) I've been to two previous British worldcons -- 1965 in London and 1979 in Brighton -- as well as local British cons like the Mexicon, and in general I think the Brits put on better-programmed conventions than we do. But just keep in mind that they're working with a) less money, and b) less cooperative venues than we do. Ted White Reviewers & Critics Your Editor's Notebook in OtherRealms #18 brings up some interesting issues about the nature of reviewing and, by extension, the difference between a reviewer and a critic. I certainly agree with your admonition to look at authors' works, not their lives, for political and cultural conclusions. However, I think that there is a place for the kind of critical writing that goes beyond plot summaries and "I liked this book, you will too", and looks at an author's relationship to his or her audience, to the genre, to contemporary (or period) literature in general, and even to his or her social and political views, to the extent that they are reflected in the work discussed. I, too, regularly read the New York Review of Books, the New York Times Book Review, and many other mainstream critical publications, and believe that the quality of writing (and therefore the service to the readers, authors, and publishers involved) is quite high and worthy of emulation by those of us in the SF/Fantasy community. While "having the first mention of the work on the second page of a review" may be an extreme case, I think that the mainstream reviews offer a level of comprehensive literary criticism and analysis that just is not found in our community beyond writers such as Samuel Delany, Ursula K. LeGuin, Algis Budrys and perhaps a few others. I have seen evidence of this kind of critical ability in OtherRealms, particularly among the regular columnists, and it is a service to the SF/Fantasy community that is well worth cultivating. In encouraging writers to "review the book", let us not drive out more complex and analytical criticism simply because it doesn't mention the book title often enough, fails to tell the reader whether he will like it or not, or delves into the "forbidden" areas of the author's political and social attitudes. One example of "irresponsible" criticism that you cite in your discussion of the demise of Fantasy Review is the article in FR #102 attacking Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead as being thinly-veiled Nazi apologias [and so forth]. I'm sure that I found the article in question as offensive and preposterous as you did, but I am glad that FR published it. We need to air controversial views, especially unpopular ones. It is not a discredit to Robert Collins and FR for publishing it; on the contrary it was a credit that he permitted Mr. Card to review the article and publish a full response. If anything, it made me feel better about FR -- and that much sorrier that it is gone. Michael C. Berch mcb@tis.llnl.gov [There definitely is a place for criticism, and I encourage it where I can. The fact is, however, that writing good criticism requires a strong background in writing and the fields involved and a lot of work, things very few people can claim to be qualified. For every Budrys, there are dozens of people who mistake opinion for criticism and come off half cocked. Criticism has its place here, and I hope to see more of it in the future. Reviews are my bread and butter, and it allows people who's voices aren't as skilled or their background as deep to be heard -- something I consider to be very important. About the Card article, I have nothing against controversy, but there is a line where it stops being controversial and starts becoming irresponsible. We can disagree where that line lay, but I still feel that the article was set up as a "controversy for the sake of controversy" hit-job with Card as a convenient (and prominent target) by someone trying to make a name for themselves. The fact that Collins allowed a rebuttal to be printed is laudable, but doesn't refute the fact that, to me, the article in question was unpublishable in any professional venue. It was factually inaccurate (starting with the very obvious blunder that the author called Card a White Anglo Saxon Protestant, when in fact it is a generally known fact that Card is Mormon), it was inconsistent and self-contradictory, it was full of accusations that were not backed up or backed up by quoted material taken out of context, and the tone was one of anger, not of critical examination. There is a difference between criticism and hack-jobs, and it stepped across the line -- chuq] Breaking Strain Paul Preiss Arthur C. Clarke's Venus Prime Volume 1 Avon Books, 262pp, $3.95 Reviewed by Danny Low hpccc!dlow Copyright 1987 by Danny Low [**] This novel is built around an old Arthur C. Clarke story, Breaking Strain, which appears in modified form, as part 3 of the novel. There is no intrinsic connection between the novel and Clarke's story. It could have been replace with a different story with no effect on the novel. The use of Clarke's story and name is nothing more than a marketing ploy to associate Clarke's name and appeal with Preuss' story. For all practical purposes, the novel is wholly the creation of Paul Preuss. The story outline should be very familiar. Sparta, as a result of childhood trainning and some physical alterations, has superhuman powers. She also has several gaps in her memory and is being held prisoner as the story opens. She escapes and now must: 1. Stay alive. 2. Find out what happened in those missing periods of her memory. 3. Stay alive. 4. Find out who did all this to her and why. 5. Stay alive. Basically, this is a traditional superhero SF story. Preuss had added a couple of minor twists. Sparta is a woman and her superhuman powers does not include superhuman strength or endurance. It is well written but is not extra ordinary enough to interest anyone who is not already interested in this type of story. Those who have a preference for superhero stories will enjoy this one. OtherRealms #19 Winter, 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 not be reproduced in any form without written permission of Chuq Von Rospach. The electronic edition may be distributed or reproduced in its entirety as long as all copyrights, author and publication information remain intact. No individual article may be reprinted, reproduced or republished in any way without the express permission of the author. OtherRealms is published quarterly (March, June, September and December) by: Chuq Von Rospach 35111-F Newark Blvd. Suite 255 Newark, CA 94560. Usenet: chuq@sun.COM Delphi: CHUQ Subscriptions OtherRealms is available for the usual bribes and trades: a copy of your zine, submissions, letters, comments or artwork. 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Other material about books and the authors that create them are welcome, including bibliographies and interviews. Authors are invited to write articles for the Behind the Scenes series, where the background and research that went into a book can be discussed. Please query on interviews, Behind the Scenes articles, and longer works. Reviews should be sent in their entirety. OtherRealms does not publish poetry, fiction, movie or fannish material. Submissions can be made either on a Macintosh or MS-DOS disk. With the Mac, either text, MacWrite or Word files are fine. For MS-DOS, please submit ascii readable disks. Please include an envelope and return postage. If you ever want to see your submission again, you need to post bail. Also, while I don't mind multiple submissions, you need to tell me if something is going to multiple markets. I take first serial rights unless we agree on something else. Folks who forget these rules will find it hard to get published in OtherRealms in the future. You can also submit via the networks to either the account CHUQ on Delphi or"chuq@sun.COM" on USENET. Submission deadline is the 15th of the month prior to publication or when I run out of room. Letter column deadline is the first of the month of publication. Publishing News OtherRealms is interested in publishing news about the happenings in the field -- contracts, promotions, deals, sales, market needs. If something has happened to you that you want the word to know about, I want to know about it. Art I'm always in need of good genre art, from small clip-art pieces to front and back covers. Anything with a genre flavor is welcome here! I prefer reproductions and photocopies to originals. Those Funny Runes The gobbledygook attached to the names of many OtherRealms contributors are addresses. Computers use them to figure out how to get to another computer to pass along a message. If you don't understand them, don't feel bad -- neither do many computers, and they're the experts. Believe it or not, it does work. Most of the time. The Details OtherRealms is published using a Macintosh computer, a Laserwriter Plus, Ready, Set, Go! 4.0, Microsoft Word 3.0, SuperPaint, and various other pieces of software. The body typeface is Palatino 10/11, the Headers use Bookman Bold and Zapf Chancery in various sizes. Review Copies Press Release Books to be considered for review in OtherRealms, press releases and other interesting stuff should be mailed to: OtherRealms 35111-F Newark Blvd. Suite 255 Newark, CA. 94560. OtherRealms Science Fiction and Fantasy In Review Editor & Publisher Chuq Von Rospach Associate Editor Laurie Sefton Contributing Editors Charles de Lint Dan'l Danehy-Oakes Alan Wexelblat Book Ratings in OtherRealms All books are rated with the following guidelines. Most books published should fall into the range [***-] to [***+]. Ratings are modifed with - or + to show a half step, with [***-] subjectively better than [**+]. [*****] One of the best books of the year [****] A very good book, Above average [***] A good book. Recommended [**] Flawed, but has its moments [*] Not recommended [] To be avoided