Electronic OtherRealms #22 Fall, 1988 Part 4 Copyright 1988 by Chuq Von Rospach All Rights Reserved OtherRealms may not be reproduced without written permission from Chuq Von Rospach. The electronic edition may be distributed or reproduced only in its entirety and only if all copyrights, author credits and this notice, including the return addresses remain intact. No article may be reprinted, reproduced or republished in any way without the express permission of the author. Pico Reviews Alqua Dreams [*] Rachel Pollack Franklin Watts, $16.95, 246pp This is a disappointing book. Pollack does a very good job of writing about people but she has a serious problem with plotting. This story is properly only a novelette. It is grossly padded out with background development of the alien culture and the character development of the protagonist, Jaimi Cooper. While well done , the mechanism used to provide the excuse for this exposition is a very bad one. Basically, Cooper is made to act in an inexplicably stupid manner. It takes him half the book to discover the obvious solution to his problem when he should have gotten it by the third chapter. He then spends the rest of the book fumbling around trying to implement his solution when he could have done it in two chapters. The story is an old SF cliche; Cooper has to get the natives to sign a legal contract allowing his company to mine on their planet, but the natives want nothing that Jaimi can offer them. What is untraditional about this story is that instead of figuring out a neat gimmick whereby Cooper can get the natives to sign on the dotted line, Pollack uses this old plot to explore the nature of religious fanaticism. The problem is that she simply could not come with a plausible plot to allow her to do this without destroying the story. -- Danny Low hplabs!hpccc!dlow Barbary [***] Vonda N. McIntyre Ace, $3.50, ISBN 0-441-04886-2 This is a juvenile novel set on an O'Neill colony orbiting Earth. The plot involves Barbary emigrating to the colony, smuggling a pet cat along, and a first contact with aliens. If you grew up on Heinlein's juveniles, this makes for a good afternoon's escape reading. Readers expecting another Dreamsnake, however, will be disappointed. -- Chuck Koelbel chk@cs.purdue.edu The Belgariad [****] Pawn of Prophecy, 1982, 258pp Queen of Sorcery, 1982, 327pp Magician's Gambit, 1983, 305pp Castle of Wizardry, 1984, 373pp Enchanters' End Game, 1984, 372pp David Eddings Del Rey books, $3.50 each volume. I'm giving this five volume set one overall rating because there is no sensible way to separate the books or read them out of order. I'm very glad I waited until all five were out before I started reading them, because it is very much one story, broken into separate parts seemingly whenever a book's worth of pages were filled. Eddings kept me turning those pages the whole way through even when I could tell much of what was going to happen far in advance. While this has the scope and story line of an epic fantasy, the style isn't the epic poetry/historical view of the Tolkien-clones but rather a down- to-earth, you-are-there approach. The sequel, in another five books, has already started, but I'll wait till they are all available too. -- Mary Anne Espenshade mae@aplvax.jhuapl.edu The Broken Lands [***+] Fred Saberhagen Baen, 192pp, Dec, 1987, 0-671-65380-6 Like a book I recently reviewed (Winter's Daughter by Charles Whitmore), The Broken Lands concerns a culture that exists after some war has wiped out a modern technological society. What makes Saberhagen's book much superior is that he has taken the time to let the reader know what his main characters are all about. And two of them make an interesting contrast. Rolf is a simple peasant who hates the local Satrap, whose soldiers killed his sister. The Satrap Ekuman just wants to rule the world. [Satrap is from the Old Persian meaning "protector of the country," but Ekuman is only interested in protecting and promoting himself.] The plot development is also looked after. Both sides are after the mysterious Elephant; both sides aren't quite sure what to make of ancient technology' when they run across it; both sides have interesting people around them; and both sides are obviously going to come together at the end in a glorious battle. At least here we can happily root for our heroes and hiss the villains. A final note. This book proclaims it is Book I of Empire of the East. There is nothing worse than a book obviously written to be the first book of something, so credit is also given to the author for writing a satisfying ending. There are enough loose ends to pique interest in the future of the characters, but the ending is conclusive enough to leave the reader with a very content feeling when it is all over. -- Larry Kaufman lsk@sun.com A Clockwork Orange [****] Anthony Burgess Ballantine, $3.95, 0-345-35443-5 There isn't a lot new you can say about a modern classic. This is, of course, the story of Alex, a nadsat with a taste for ultra-violence and classical music who is caught and "cured" of those tendencies. The reason that the new edition of this novel deserves attention is that it is the first American paperback edition to include Burgess' original ending. (That's right, the editor decided to cut the last chapter of the book!) If you care about preserving the integrity of an author's work, this is the version to buy. If you have not read this book yet, it is highly recommended. Be aware, however, that it is not for the squeamish. If you have read it, the added chapter is probably worth the price of admission, especially if you haven't reread the book in a while. Check to be sure that the copy you buy has seven chapters in Part 3, not six as in previous American editions. -- Chuck Koelbel Corpseman [*] Joel Henry Sherman Del Rey, 1988, $3.50, 277p Cyborg Spaceship pilots. Islamic assassins. Drunken sprees and mysterious murders. Slavery for convicted felons. Here we have another issue of the standard cyberpunk novel; mediocre imitation William Gibson. Mr. Sherman has the unfortunate but not uncommon flaw of being unwilling to leave anything to the reader's imagination and describes every detail at excruciating length. Had he stuck to the story, it would have been 150 pages or less. If you absolutely cannot get enough CyberPunk, you may be desperate enough to read this. Otherwise, not recommended. -- David Shea David's Sling [***] Mark Stiegler Baen, $3.50, 346pp, 0-671-65369-5 Spent too much time trying to decide whether or not to support SDI? Take a rest and read David's Sling. He has the answers to defense questions no one has even asked yet. Taking the "crowbars from space" theme (first seen science fictionally in Footfall) to its logical extreme and beyond, he posits a world that no longer needs a nuclear defense force. The world will get there with the help of the Zetetic Institute, and their advanced grasp of information processing. First hard science fiction I've seen in quite a while where sociology was one of the sciences. -- Sandy Hereld GODZLA.decnet!CROASDIL The Door Into Fire [***+] Diane Duane TOR, $2.95, 290 pp, 1985, 2.95, 0-812-53671-1 Book 1 in a four part series, this is a most unusual sword and sorcery novel. The most important theme in the book is taking responsibility for your actions, and not accepting guilt for the actions of others. The hero Herewiss is intelligent, charming, and guilt ridden, and his lover Freelorn is feckless, irresponsible and the usurped heir of the next Kingdom over. In this book, Herewiss strives to control the power he feels he has inside him, so that he can help Freelorn take back his throne. Very intricately worked out religion and magic systems; a very nice variation on a theme. It would be 4 stars, but part of the social structure is unlikely in the extreme, and the characters are a bit uneven. If you have read So You Want to be a Wizard, the magic system is totally different, but the fire elemental is back! -- Sandy Hereld An Excess of Enchantments [*] Craig Shaw Gardner Ace, 180pp, July, 1988, $3.50, 0-441-22363-X There is nothing more disappointing than a funny book that isn't. I've really enjoyed Gardner's series of books on Ebenezum and Wuntvor, the Eternal Apprentice. An Excess of Enchantments, unfortunately seems to hit a brick wall, and unlike anything else he's done, isn't even remotely funny. It's as if Gardner just ran out of jokes -- and it looks to me like Gardner knew he was in trouble. Some of the attempted jokes are so obvious and weak you can almost see the snare drum in the background. This is definitely a pass, even for the most die-hard Gardner fans. -- chuq von rospach Exile's Gate [****] C.J. Cherryh DAW, 1988, 414pp $3.95 The quality of mercy is not strained, it droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven; but heaven is usually pretty far from those paths where rides Morgaine the White, sealer of worlds, with the doomsword Changeling under her hand and her henchman Nhi Vanye guarding her back. Mercy is a luxury she can but seldom afford. The more things change, the more they stay the same in the infinity of Gate-linked worlds. Morgaine and Vanye, on the latest lap of their infinite journey, find themselves in yet another land where humans and qhalur are at war. Alliances are shaky, identity itself cannot be counted upon, and victorious lords stake prisoners out on the hillside for the wolves. After several years' lapse devoted to writing in numerous shared worlds, and admittedly several false starts on this novel, the question rose as to whether the author still had her finger on the pulse of the series; whether, indeed, she really wanted to go on with it. This doesn't read like a book that was simply hacked out to satisfy fan demand. There has been growth, change, evolution, as there should be; though Cherryh is still using Nhi Vanye as a viewpoint character, one feels her prying deeper, if with less precision, into the soul of Morgaine. The other characters are equally well drawn, especially a new ally/victim/friend, Chei ep Kantory, in a role analogous to that played by Chya Roh in the earlier books. The writing is consistent in style and feel with the previous books as well, though the prose is not quite so sparse and vigorous. Exile's Gate is a thoroughly worthy successor to one of the most appealing and successful science-fantasy series in contemporary SF. -- David Shea The Fall of Atlantis [*] Marion Zimmer Bradley Baen Books, 1987, 500pp, $3.95 Very disappointing. MZB is one of my favorite authors, but I could not get into this book. Maybe the title mislead my expectations as very little of the story concerns Atlantis at all and only the last 50 or so pages take place there. The cover illustration was very obviously taken from the title alone. Magic and secret plots are uncovered within the Temples of the Priests of Light -- unfortunately they are so secret the reader never learns what they are either. Great Mysterious Things happen, but the characters are so awed by them that they forget to describe them, so the reader isn't shown what is happening. The plot of the book was the best kept secret, I couldn't find one anywhere. -- Mary Anne Espenshade Falling Free [****] Lois McMaster Bujold Baen, 1988, 307pp, $3.50 Leo Graf was an engineer, employed by the giant GalacTech company. His assignment to the Cay Habitat orbiting the world Rodeo was solely as a teacher of welding techniques. He soon grew attached to his bright, energetic -- and perfectly free-fall adapted -- students, the "quaddies," the result of biological experiments, have no legal status as "persons." When another technological development rendered the "quaddies" obsolete, however, it was chiefly Leo Graf who stood in the way of a ruthless executive who wanted to liquidate the project -- and the "quaddies." Trust an engineer to convert an ethical problem into an engineering problem! With her first three novels, Lois Bujold has marked herself as one of the most entertaining of the new generation of SF writers. She plots well, creates entirely believable characters and has a rare talent for pure story-telling. However, those who approach Falling Free expecting the same level of humor and whimsy which prevailed in Bujold's most recent novel Ethan of Athos may be in for a surprise. This book is altogether more serious in tone, and much more technically oriented. This should not be regarded as a bad thing; Falling Free is well up to the high standard Bujold has established for herself. It's just different. Here we see a major writer whose books one buys automatically, the name alone being sufficient guarantee of quality. Falling Free is definitely recommended. -- David Shea Final Frontier [****] Diane Carey Pocket, 1988, 434pp, $4.50 It's the third giant Star Trek novel and they're continuing to improve -- finally a story that doesn't feel like it's been inflated to fit the longer length. The tie-in to the time period of the original series is much better handled and less intrusive than in the previous volume. The story concerns the very first emergency mission of the not-quite-finished and not yet named U.S.S. Enterprise, with Capt. Robert April in command and a very small crew of the scientists and engineers that built her. Sabotage and Romulans provide assorted challenges along the way. -- Mary Anne Espenshade Free Lancers [****] ed by Elizabeth Mitchell Stories by Orson Scott Card, David Drake and Lois McMaster Bujold Baen, 1987 2.95 This is also known as Alien Stars 4, although the logo is getting smaller and smaller each collection; this is the best one yet. The OSC story is from an upcoming collection to be called "Tales from the Mormon Sea," and is set in the Great Smokies, soon after a generic holocaust. This story tells of a band of Mormons, thrown out of their town, determined to make their way to Utah, and of the survivor type that befriends them. The Drake story is a new Hammers Slammers story. It's part mystery, and part psychological study. One of the better Slammers stories I've read, it still doesn't live up to the quality of the other two stories. "Borders of Infinity" is a Miles Vorkosigan story, set a few years after Warriors Apprentice or Ethan of Athos. I would say it stands on its own, but barely. Miles is thrown into a prisoner of war camp with nothing more than the clothes he has on to try to help a man escape. But the story really gets interesting when he finds out that the man is already dead. Great puzzle, unfortunately a fairly downer ending. All in all, a great collection. -- Sandy Hereld GODZLA.decnet!CROASDIL The Grey Horse [***] R. A. MacAvoy Bantam, 1987, 247pp, $3.95 This Celtic fantasy is the tale of a horse-fairy who takes human form to court his chosen bride, an Irish girl with fairy ancestry. A different slant from the over-supply of Celtic-based fantasy books available recently, no elves or leprechauns, just one fantastic element added to everyday life. This appears to be a major point in MacAvoy's style, as she uses the same approach in the Black Dragon books. -- Mary Anne Espenshade mae@aplvax.jhuapl.edu How Much for Just the Planet [***] John Ford Pocket, 1987, 253pp, $3.95 I agree with everyone else on this one -- this book is a fun read. The very idea of a Klingon in a tuxedo gives me a fit of giggles. You too can save your planet by convincing invaders that the whole population is nuts. -- Mary Anne Espenshade The Moon Goddess and the Son [*] Donald Kingsbury Baen, 1986, 471pp, $3.95 Sometimes a writer can spin a viable novel out of a successful work of short fiction, as Spider Robinson did with Stardance or Anne McCaffrey did with Dragonflight. Sometimes even a good writer just can't make a short work fly at novel length; John Varley's Millennium springs to mind. Occasionally the result of such an attempted expansion is just... well, strange. This is the only adjective which seems applicable to the long awaited novelization of Donald Kingsbury's well regarded novella of the same name. The novel has all the problems of the original work, but little of its charm. This is a book which is best read in a sort of "fast forward" mode; anyone attempting to read it word for word will still be at the task next February. An interminable 471 pages -- it seems much longer -- Moon Goddess appears to consist in equal parts of dully correct near-future space colonization, and gushy gosh-wowie juvenile romance. Think of it as "Molly Ringwald Meets the Space Station," all in high-polish chromium and bubble-gum pink. The central character ("heroine" is just not appropriate), Diana Osborne, has neither the brains of Heinlein's Podkayne Fries nor the stubborn courage of Alexei Panshin's Mia Havero. She bumbles in and out of misadventures, in search of a saccharine infatuation, while the grown-ups bandy early-Twenty-First-Century megapolitics over her head. As the product of the author of the justly praised Courtship Rite, this is a major disappointment. -- David Shea The Questing of Kedrigern [***] John Morressy Ace, 1987, 202pp, $2.95 The further adventures of Kedrigern and Princess, introduced in A Voice for Princess. After attending Wizcon, the annual Wizards convention, Princess is a frog again and Kedrigern must find a new transformation spell to restore her. They get sidetracked many times going to find another wizard to help them -- included in a knight's quest for his lady who has been transformed into a fly, through a dangerous mist of power, into the future, and meeting Death -- who, fortunately, is looking for someone else at the time. -- Mary Anne Espenshade The River of Time [****] David Brin Bantam, 1987, 295pp, $3.50 A collection of short stories, reprinted and new, with a short reflection on each by the author. All the stories are good, with something for every taste, ranging from almost fantasy (The Loom of Thessaly) to hard SF (Tank Farm Dynamo) to alternate history (Thor Meets Captain America); from very depressing (A Stage of Memory) to very funny (The River of Time). Overall the stories struck me as downbeat. Even the most positive story internally, "Tank Farm Dynamo," is a sad commentary on how far the space program has fallen from the goals it once had. -- Mary Anne Espenshade The Romulan Way [***] Diane Duane & Peter Morwood Pocket, 1987, 254pp, $3.50 Chapters in this Trek novel alternate between an adventure story centered around McCoy and a history of the developments within Vulcan culture that led to a large group building generation ships to go out and find a new world to settle. After many setbacks they found two, ch'Rihan and ch'Havran, and built what their neighbors came to call the Romulan Empire. I liked the historical sections best. The rest of the plot seemed contrived to include one of the central Trek characters, but at least it was McCoy instead of Kirk or Spock. Good use of characters and plot tie-ins from Duane's previous Trek novel My Enemy, My Ally (especially Naraht, the Horta engineer, one of my favorite original characters from previous novels). The adventure part of the story finally picks up in the last 50 pages, but is distractingly slow moving before that. -- Mary Anne Espenshade Shadow [***] Dave Duncan Del Rey, 1987, 272pp, $2.95 Sale Harl was a most junior officer of the Royal Guard, an offshoot of the most trivial nobility. He was also a skyman, one who flew the giant hooded eagles. However, a royal summons changed his life forever when he was unexpectedly appointed to the role of Shadow: chief bodyguard, and de facto advisor, to the Crown Prince. Escorting the prince on a tour to a remote stretch of the kingdom, Shadow finds himself involved in a convoluted series of plots in which he finds out much more than he ever wanted to know about the eagles he rides, the prince he serves and the kingdom. Eventually he is faced with a confrontation in which anything he does is liable to be called treason.... The previous description might make you think that Shadow resembles a bad imitation Anne McCaffrey. This is not the case. Duncan has a more cynical and realistic view of both politics and interpersonal relationships. His notions of aerodynamics are a shade more plausible, although I don't find the notion of a flying creature large enough to carry a man in anything approaching normal earth gravity likely. However, Shadow is a novel which deserves to be read on its own terms without false comparisons. In a sense it is primarily a SF vehicle for a political novel, but the characterizations and writing work well enough for it to be readable as a story. Moderately recommended. -- David Shea Station Gehenna [***] Andrew Weiner Congdon & Weed, Inc. $15.95 216pg. This is an SF mystery. It is an inverse locked room murder mystery. In this case, everyone is locked in Gehenna station as the environment on Gehenna is deadly. The murder took place outside but there is no indication that anyone went outside or could have gone outside. As a mystery, the story is written well. All the clues and lots of red herrings are presented. The "locked room" was all too easy to solve. Weiner's style is very much like that of Isaac Asimov when he writes a mystery, but with better characterization. Even so, it is the weakest part of the story. Only the main character is well defined. His character is much like that of Sherlock Holmes unfiltered through the softening of a Watson so you get the full brunt of a rather cold personality. Since this is a SF mystery, the solution is a science fictional one but not quite what you might guess. This is a well done puzzle mystery that does not rise above being formula. People who enjoy this type of mystery will enjoy this book. -- Danny Low hplabs!hpccc!dlow Strangers From the Sky [***] Margaret Wander Bonanno Pocket, 1987, 402pp, $3.95 This is the second "giant" Star Trek novel and is a vast improvement over the first. I found it a very believable scenario within the Star Trek universe for the first contact between Earth and Vulcans... up to a point. There is gratuitous use of time travel here -- I have reached a saturation level with Kirk and Spock being present at every historically significant event in this region of the Galaxy. Hasn't anyone else ever done anything? The story felt expanded to fit the "giant" size. The novel subplot, especially since it had already been used by John Ford to introduce The Final Reflection, seemed to be padding on the real story. I guess Pocket decided all books have to tie in with the "present" (ST movie) time frame or readers won't be able to follow them. Pity. I would have preferred either the first contact story without the Enterprise crew at all (the story within the "novel") or the adventure of Kirk, Spock, Mitchell, Dehner and Kelso in the past without the "dream sequence" tie-in to the ST present. Very nice to see the "Where No Man..." characters used again however. -- Mary Anne Espenshade Takeoff! [*****] Randall Garrett Starblaze/Donning, 1979, 247pp, $7.95 Takeoff! is the first volume collecting Randall Garrett's parodies of classic SF stories, pastiches in the styles of famous SF authors, book reviews in verse and punny stories. If you're in the mood for some thought-provoking fun, try this. To describe anything beyond the titles, such as "Backstage Lensman," would be spoilers. My favorites were "The Best Policy," "The Cosmic Beat" and "Look Out! Duck!." -- Mary Anne Espenshade Takeoff, Too! [*****] Randall Garrett Starblaze/Donning, 1986, pp, $7.95 A second volume collecting Randall Garrett's writings, Takeoff, Too is more than just parodies. My favorite stories in this volume were "Cum Grano Salis," ". . . After a Few Words," two with Twilight Zone type endings -- "The Briefing" and "Pride and Primacy," and "The Foreign Hand-Tie" (the characters all have names taken from Marx Brothers movies). -- Mary Anne Espenshade Taltos [****] Steven Brust Ace, $2.95, 181pp., 0-441-18200-3 The most recent in the same series as Jhereg, Yendi, and Teckla, I think that this could be read first. This story tells how Vladimir first met Morollan and Sethra. Though not as dark as Teckla, it is still more thoughtful and introspective than the first two. This series could be used as a textbook on how to let a series grow and evolve over time. -- Sandy Hereld Uneasy Alliances [***] (Thieves' World #11) Robert Lynn Asprin & Lynn Abbey, ed. Ace, 258pp, August, 1988, $3.50, 0-441-80610-4 I was ready to drop Thieves' World after #10, but I gave it one more. I'm glad I did. Uneasy Alliances gets back to Sanctuary -- not as the gods backyards, but as a place where people live and try to survive. There is some new authors (I was very impressed with both the C.S. Williams and the Robin Wayne Bailey stories) that give the world some new characters and a fresh vision. Not High Art, but it doesn't pretend to be. Good escapist fantasy. -- chuq von rospach The Universe [***+] Byron Preiss, ed. Bantam, 0-553-05227-6 A mixture of science fiction and fact. Each of the twelve sections is an essay and a science fiction short story. Both fact and fiction are illustrated, the former with photographs and computer graphics and the latter with original art. The themes of the sections range from "Our Galaxy" through black holes to contacting extra-terrestrial civilizations. The essays were well written, if standard material. The fiction is generally good. The only story I actively disliked was by Greg Benford. Anderson's, Bishop's, and Brin's stand out. They range from extrapolations of the ideas in the accompanying essay to experimental pieces with only tenuous relations to anything in the book. No matter what your preference, you will probably find a story here that fits it. Illustrations range from poor to excellent. Most of the photos are beautiful and appropriate. The art in the short stories is not as good. Most of it is neither exceptionally interesting technically nor particularly accurate to the story. -- Chuck Koelbel Vickers [***] Mick Farren Ace Science Fiction $3.50 263pp This is a standard roguish hero story. Mort Vickers is a professional assassin for Contec, one of the Big Four corporations that rule the Earth. He has been given an unusual mission: to determine if two corporate officials have turned against the company and if so, terminate them. Vickers finds that the two have indeed turned and appear to be instigating World War III. The plotting is tight and fast paced until two-thirds the way through. There is some reasonable although two-dimensional characterizations. The characters are no more than stereotypes and most of them are more suitable for a comic book. There is a fair amount of humor and in-jokes in the story. One of the major corporations in this future world is the Tyrell Corporation. Background development is the strongest point of this book. The near-future world has the appropriate gritty feel. In all, this is a pleasant read for those interested in this type of story. -- Danny Low hplabs!hpccc!dlow A Voice for Princess [***] John Morressy Ace, 1986, 213pp, $2.95 Fantasy for fun -- I picked this up on an OtherRealms recommendation. Kedrigern is a wizard expert in counterspells but has numerous misadventures in restoring the voice of a princess who could talk as a frog but only "brereep" when spelled back to human form. The side adventures on the way to the main plot keep things interesting. -- Mary Anne Espenshade Winter's Daughter [*] Charles Whitmore Avon Books, 220, Dec 1988, 0-380-70117-0 Earth is recovering from a war that almost destroyed the planet and we're reading about a family that survived. This is nothing new, but the story is told as saga. While getting an A+ for following a strict format, he receives a D- in character development, excitement, and holding the reader's interest. Nothing really happens, and the plot is weak. Style is fine, but there must be substance to back it up. -- Larry Kaufman ---- End of Part 4