Electronic OtherRealms #24
                                 Spring, 1989
                                Part 5 of 10

                      Copyright 1989 by Chuq Von Rospach
                             All Rights Reserved

 OtherRealms may not be reproduced without permission from Chuq Von Rospach.
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                               Words of Wizdom
                         Reviews by Chuq Von Rospach


The War Against the Chtorr	[*****]
A Matter for Men, January, 1989, 435pp 0-553-27782-0
A Day for Damnation, February, 1989, 324pp, 0-553-27765-0
A Rage for Revenge, March, 1989, 517pp, 0-553-27844-4
David Gerrold, Bantam paperbacks, $4.50.

After a five year wait, Chtorr is back. One of the common questions I
get is "Where is book three of Chtorr?" and the answer is, finally,
"It's here!" Caught in the painful demise of Timescape books and
orphaned midstream, David Gerrold has rewritten much of the series
(over 50% of the material in books 1 and 2 is new or changed) and
Bantam has published the series with the fanfare it deserves.

The story is a twist on a fairly common SF theme: terraforming a planet
to make it habitable for future colonists. Unfortunately, it's the
Earth that's being terraformed, and it's humanity that is being adapted
out of the system to make room for the new owners. In the first three
volumes, you have 1300 pages of some of the fastest paced action-
adventure you could hope for. A Matter for Men opens as the infestation
is beginning. You follow along as the first plagues hit, taking out
large chunks of the population. The first Chtorr arrive -- a Chtorr
being a large, pink hungry worm.  Chtorr (the sound the worms make,
hence their name) shows Gerrold's storytelling technique at its prime.
These books will hold their own against any work. They remind me of
Heinlein -- on one level, they read like a juvenile, but there are many
levels that the books work at and as much detail and complexity as you
want to go searching after. While the worms start out as mindless
eating machines, Gerrold keeps building up detail and complicating
matters until you aren't quite sure what to think about them.

The first two books are primarily burn-the-worm action-adventure
stories with a number of sub-plots woven in. Rage for Revenge, however,
shifts gears away from the battle (which Earth is losing horribly) and
takes a much closer look at the impact of the invasion on parts of
humanity -- a tribe of humans who have chosen the Worms as a "God" and
started serving the cause of the invasion, and a group of military
people chosen for "Mode" training to help them work towards humanity's
ultimate survival.  Rage for Revenge is by far the best book in the
series (so far). It's also likely to be the most controversial. It's a
strong, intense (likely too intense for some) book that takes a very
close and not always flattering look at humanity. Many people are going
to be uncomfortable or angry at what he says, which is, I think, part
of the reason for the book's structure -- to make you uncomfortable
with what he is saying, to make you think about it.

Chtorr gets my highest recommendation. All three books kept me up until
the early morning hours. My inability to put a book down is rare these
days. That Chtorr was able to do that, and to convince me to clear out
a number of other books so I could read all three books as they came
out, says a lot about how much I enjoyed Chtorr. The only problem is
that book 4 isn't due until 1990, and I don't want to wait.

Who's Afraid of Beowulf
Tom Holt	[****]
St. Martin's Press, December, 1988, 206pp, $16.95, 0-312-02669-2.

This is a tough book to review. If the title doesn't tell you this is a
humorous book, the cover (a portrait of one of the funkiest Vikings
you'll ever meet) will clue you in. Holt's previous book, Expecting
Someone Taller, was listed as one of the 100 best Fantasy novels by
Michael Moorcock, and in this book Holt continues with his
tongue-ripping-holes- in-his-cheek writing as he tells the story of
Beowulf waking up from a long sleep in a Scottish moor to do final
battle with the Powers of Darkness in modern London.

This is a book for the Monty Python and Douglas Adams fans (although
frankly, I think Holt on a bad day writes better than Adams anytime).
If you can enjoy twelve-hundred-year-old Viking heroes swapping seagull
recipes and complaining about how far civilization has regressed since
the good old days, this book is for you. This book had me loudly
chortling and reading passages at Laurie (whether she wanted to hear
them or not). You've got to be somewhat warped to appreciate this book,
but if you qualify, you'll kick yourself if you miss it.

The Schemes of Dragons	[****]
Dave Smeds
Ace, March, 1989, 246pp, $3.50, 0-441-79559-5.

The Schemes of Dragons is the follow-on to Smeds' first book, The
Sorcery Within. It continues the story of the fight to destroy Gloroc,
the dragon that has taken over the lands of Elandris.

The Sorcery Within was one of the best first novels I've read since
MacAvoy's Tea with the Black Dragon. I'm happy to say The Schemes of
Dragons avoids the sophomore letdown. Smeds has built a complex society
into the book, with many things happening in different areas at the
same time. While this book is technically a sequel, the story it tells
stands alone, so there's no need to read The Sorcery Within to enjoy it
to its fullest. The only weak spot of Schemes is that, while it stands
alone from the previous book, the story it tells is incomplete -- so
you'll have to wait for the third book to find out everything that
happens. The ending, while at a decent stopping point, is a cliff-hanger.
Astute readers will notice an OtherRealms blurb on the back of this
book for Sorcery. I'm happy to say I recommend this one as strongly.

Delan the Mislaid	[***]
Laurie J. Marks
DAW, March, 1989, $3.95, 0-88677-325-3

Delan the Mislaid is an original Fantasy that isn't part of a trilogy.
It doesn't require a sequel. It's set on a world that doesn't include
humans (or things that act a lot like airbrushed humans in Latex). A
book that sets out on its own path to tell an original, interesting
story without being derivative or generic.

A non-trivial task, and one which Marks mostly succeeds. What we have
here is a world with multiple sentient species, from humanoids to
intelligent bears to gossamer winged angels, all (more or less)
co-existing (more or less) peaceably, except for a few bad apples. The
bad apples, however, can, and do, cause a bit of trouble. The Aeyries
(the angelic, peaceful group) has some knowledge that Teksan, a
humanoid sorcerer, wants. He is willing to go to any lengths to take
it. The Aeyries would rather not be massacred, so they're going to
defend themselves. Thus are we set up for a major fight and the
successful defense of the Aeyries.

Unfortunately, the ending just seems to fizzle. Part of this is caused
by the author's decision to change gears at the end of the action and
step back for a bit of hindsight philosophy. Suddenly we're reading a
history text. "...and that is why I chose to write down this story"
endings leave me flat and unsatisfied, and that's what this turns into,
with no hints or warnings until the very end. Another problem was
Marks' decision to develop a new set of pronouns. With the exception of
formal names, this was the only significant variation of the language
she wrote with, so while I think the intent was to create a sense of
alienness, all it did was confuse me and make it hard to keep track of
who she was talking about -- frankly, I thought for the first chapter
or so that it was a typesetting error in the galley, and I never did
get the pronouns straightened out.  That seems like a lot of problems
for a three-star book. Balancing it out, however, is a writer who's
built a fascinating world with some really interesting species and some
strong characterizations. There's a good, if somewhat too laid-back
story. My reaction to the book was not negative but a sense of
disappointment. The book isn't bad, but it could have been much more.
And something tells me that Marks' next book will be.

The Labyrinth Gate	[not rated]
Alis A. Rasmussen
Baen, December, 1988, 345pp, $3.50, 0-671-69793-5

The Labyrinth Gate is another first novel, and I wish I could say I
liked it. I wanted to like it. Unfortunately, I found myself unable to
read past page 100. There are some common first-novel flaws.
Technically, there's nothing wrong with the writing. There are,
however, a couple of plot holes that drove me crazy, and that's why I
finally gave up.

The first is the magic cookie. This is the supernatural tornado (in
this case, a magical tarot card) that gets the lead characters from
Kansas (modern suburban Northern California) to Oz (a parallel universe
that's a dead ringer for Regency England). The magic cookie then
conveniently disappears, forcing our heroes to go on a quest to the
(generic) Wizard, so they can get the (obligatory) second magic cookie
that has the powers to take them home. There are, of course, the evil,
nasty people who also want the second magic cookie for their own
nefarious deeds.  The plot is obvious and well-worn. Many people, from
L. Frank Baum forward, have made it work. Here, it doesn't. Why?
Because the place we're taken, which is supposed to look like Regency
England, feels an awful lot like where they came from -- instead of Oz,
they're in Los Angeles and haven't figured it out.

I have a major problem with magic cookie plots, and Gate brings out all
of those reasons in a nice, clean, easy to discuss package. If we
assume for a moment that the alternate Universe is Regency England
(making the magic cookie a time machine instead of a parallel universe
translator) think of some of the problems you're going to encounter.
You're going to be in a strange land speaking a strange language (at
the very least, a *very* noticeable accent), counterfeit money from a
land nobody has heard of, strange clothes and no explanation of how you
got there.

In Gate, everyone speaks modern English -- down to the slang.
Immediately after arrival, our heroes are picked up by a couple of
mentors. Almost before you know it, they're ensconced in a home,
befriended, have new clothes, have money, have jobs, for goodness
sake!  Imagine how you would do if you woke up tomorrow morning in the
dockyards of Liverpool. Or the slums of Krakow, for that matter. This
isn't a trip to another time, this is a trip to visit the relatives
across town.  All of the potential plot conflicts that are endemic to
bringing outsiders into a situation are dissolved and done away with as
quickly as possible, so that we can get on with the quest with a
minimum of outside interference.

Which brings me to my other problem with magic cookie stories.  There's
a great attraction in taking a "modern person" and plonking them down
into a strange society. It gives you the ability to use a context to
compare against without having to build it from scratch. Unfortunately,
a "modern person" speaks modern English. When you plonk them down into
your alternate reality, speaking modern English, and they have no
problem communicating, what you have just done is told the reader that
everyone in this alternate reality is also speaking modern English,
because you've just built a hook into the language. There's a
suspension of disbelief between author and reader that the story is
written in English, no matter what language the characters are really
using. When you toss in a couple of characters that are speaking
English, that suspension is broken, because you now have said,
explicitly, that everyone is speaking that same language -- unless you
write the language problems into the story.

Now that I've successfully eviscerated The Labyrinth Gate, let me back
off a little bit. I've left this book unrated. While I couldn't finish
it, and while it pushed a few of my buttons, Rasmussen is a good writer
and there's a lot here of interest to some people. If you like Regency
novels, or if you're more tolerant of the kind of plot elements that
I've been talking about, you ought to take a look at this. Me, I'm
waiting for her next book.  If she avoids a few of the glitches in
Gate, it should be a really enjoyable read.

Brothers in Arms [****]
Lois McMaster Bujold
Baen, January, 1989, 338pp, $3.50, 0-671-69799-4.

Bujold is back with another Miles Vorkosigan adventure. The fleet is in
for repairs, the payroll check is missing, and peace has broken out on
the planet, making finding work problematical. Not a good position for
a mercenary to be in.

Worse, as Lt. Vorkosigan, he has to do duty at the Embassy to try to
protect his identity as Miles Naismath, captain of the Dendarii. And
then, of course, there are the assassins. But which version are they
trying to kill?

Vorkosigan is one of the most interesting characters I've come across
in recent years. Bujold has built an exceptionally complex person for
her lead character -- literally a man running three separate, distinct
lives with very different personalities and traits. He does this in a
situation where a single mistake could mean his death. No wonder he
wakes up and sometimes wonders who he is. Or which one..

Brothers in Arms is a frenetically-paced not-quite-farce. It's written
very seriously, but the situations Bujold writes are so twisted and
complex as to defy explanation -- yet she somehow keeps the whole thing
straight and moving forward and avoids having the whole thing collapse
around her ears. As a character study, a solid action-adventure novel,
Brothers in Arms is a good read and highly recommended.

The New Encyclopedia of Science Fiction	[**]
James Gunn, ed.
Viking, 524pp, $24.95, 0-670-81041-X

I originally hadn't planned on discussing this book at all.
Unfortunately, the more I browsed The New Encyclopedia of Science
Fiction, the more unhappy I was. I wasn't sure why, but I knew I didn't
like what I saw.

I should preface this with a comment that what I'm really looking for
is an updated version of Peter Nicholl's Science Fiction Encyclopedia
(Doubleday/Dolphin, 1979). Gunn's encyclopedia, for all the similarity
in title, isn't in the same league.

It took me a long time to understand why I was reacting so negatively.
There isn't any one item or bias I can point to in the book that
bothered me, but a bunch of little things all coming together. One was
the excessive material on inferior or obscure films. Does Meteor really
deserve an entry in any book, except perhaps a Golden Turkey
collection? The review of Disney's The Black Hole, arguably a finalist
in the "worst abuse of the most spectacular special effects" award,
actually tries to convince us that this movie is under-appreciated.
Anyone who's tried to sit through Black Hole knows how accurate this
entry is.

It's my belief that, with a few notable exceptions, SF Film and SF
Literature should be documented separately. What goes on in the
publishing field and what happens on the screen rarely intersect, and
jamming these two disparate (if remotely related) areas together causes
the book to lose its focus. After a while I began to feel that the film
material was added as padding -- as though it was easy to generate
rather than being especially interesting.

Another problem I had was the amount of material dealing with Cyberpunk
and Cyberpunkish authors. I still strongly believe that it's too early
to tell if Cyberpunk is really anything more than some magical
marketing hand-waving -- calling it a Movement is, at best, premature.
Yet the Cyberpunk entry is longer than the New Wave Movement entry --
even though Cyberpunk isn't close to being played out. The Cyberpunk
entry, for that matter, is longer than both Jules Verne and H.G.
Wells.  That's completely out of proportion with the importance of
Cyberpunk in comparison with the rest of the field, and it bothered
me.  This pro-cyberpunk bias also reflects the choice of authors in the
book. As one example, Pat Cadigan is given an entry, but Lisa Goldstein
is not. Without suggesting that one author is more deserving than the
other, Cadigan has a number of short stories and one novel published.
Goldstein has stories, three novels -- and some major awards to her
credit. On balance, if one of the authors should be noted and not the
other, I would think that it makes sense to expect it to be Goldstein.
Except that Cadigan is generally considered Cyberpunk and Goldstein
isn't.  To me, that's a clear example of a bias in the book -- not in
the entries, but in the choices of what material did and did not go
into the book. If you're interested in research material on SF, I can't
recommend this work. Rather, you should spend your money on Brian
Aldiss' Trillion Year Spree (Atheneum) or track down an old copy of the
Nicholl's work -- and send a letter to the publisher requesting that
they bring out a new edition.

Short Takes: George Scithers and Darrell Schweiter bellied up for
Another Round at the Spaceport Bar (Avon, April, 1989, $3.50, 0-380-
75650-1), the second volume of SF stories set in or around the taverns.
If you read the first volume, many of the locales will be familiar to
you now.  Depending on how well read you are, this volume is a
remembrance of old friends or exploration of new territory. [***]

The second issue of Pulphouse (Box 1227, Eugene OR 97440) is out, and
this time it's Speculative Fiction. It's just as good as volume one,
with authors like Spider Robinson, Charles de Lint, Mike Resnick, A.J.
Budrys and Michael Swanwick inside the covers. It's a small-press,
limited edition, beautifully produced hardcover, so you'll have to go
find it. It's worth it. [****]

The third Wuntvor book, A Disagreement with Death (by Craig Shaw
Gardner, Ace, February, 1989, $3.50, 0-441-14924-3) is out. While I
panned the previous volume as simply not being funny, Gardner's back on
track again, as Wuntvor has to fight Death itself in an attempt to get
his master, Ebenezum, free from Its clutches. If you're into this sort
of stuff, it's a great way to spend an evening. Definitely mind-candy,
but someone who can write this funny this consistently is rare. [***}

The Comic Book Killer (Offspring Press, 75 Milthwait Drive, Martinez,
CA, 94553, also Bantam) is by Richard Lupoff, who writes SF as well as
Mysteries. He's also a long-time comics fan, and in this book writes a
straight mystery that starts with a burglary in a comics book store and
gets progressively nastier and grittier from there. It has nothing to
do with SF or Fantasy, but it's good enough (and by "one of us") that I
wouldn't let arbitrary genre restrictions stop you. Highly recommended --
and it might just lead you to a whole new world of reading material.  [****]

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