Electronic OtherRealms #25 Summer/Fall, 1989 Part 10 of 17 Copyright 1989 by Chuq Von Rospach All Rights Reserved OtherRealms may not be reproduced without permission from Chuq Von Rospach. Permission is given to electronically distribute this issue only if all copyrights, author credits and return addresses remain intact. No article may be reprinted or re-used without permission of the author. From Beyond the Edge Reviews by our readers (Part 2, continued) Limbo System [***] Rick Cook Baen Books $3.50 305pp The starship Maxwell makes First Contact with an alien civilization. The whole book is about how the contact affects the various factions on the Maxwell and the aliens. The Maxwell crew is a misfit crew chosen more for political reasons than competence. The aliens have not had a war for millennia and some humans mistake this for a superior civilization when the reality is the aliens have formalized warfare that stops short of open fighting. The characterization is quite good even although the characters tend towards stereotypes. The development of the plot is well done if predictable. With a name like Derfuerher, you know who is the main villain and his eventual faith. On the whole this is a much more sophisticated and realistic First Contact story than most. -- Danny Low Nightshade Jack Butler 276 pp, The Atlantic Monthly Press.$18.95 Making Mars livable could provide the stuff of grand technoepic -- but the ever-inventive Jack Butler, accomplished poet and novelist (Jujitsu for Christ), has chosen to give us a mad jape, a stylish turn through the labyrinths of science fiction's own self-made worlds. The swirling action revolves around a seemingly stock figure, John Shade, an omnicompetent immortal who lurches through the complicated interstices of Martian politics. The plot ramifies as so many science fiction epics do, preoccupied with skulduggery and power, but elevated by the plain fact that here, technology is destiny. Shade's allies are humans with brains partly replaced by digitized intelligence, and an engaging artificial intelligence, Mandrake, who reflects on our amusing traits: "'Nor do I observe that most humans resent the fact that their own lives are played out chiefly in the service of DNA, of a living stuff that is perhaps not aware of humans at all, or aware of them only as carriers, means to an end -- peripherals, shall we say?"') Mandrake allows the author to wax philosophical, so that the book ricochets between spirited action and sober reflection. "'You think forgetting is losing information, but it isn't, not unless there's damage. Forgetting is absorption. The things you know become you. They aren't isolated little packets of information any more."' Butler uses science fiction's devices for gaining perspectives on ourselves with the savvy of a longtime genre reader, fully aware of the threadbare devices the field sometimes employs. Like much science fiction, it is not content to take in less than everything, so we get intersections of social, economic, personal and scientific vectors -- the real world, in other words, not a minimalist reduction. But this future is not a dry lecture: "Man was not made for full gravity. Think of it: You lie on your lover, warm, for hours, and she breathes easy. Legs and arms don't go numb from pressure, the folds in the covers don't hitch and bind.") Through it all strides Shade, centuries-old but not solemn: "Thought is the one genuine pleasure, but the monotonous universe keeps breaking in with its schedules, its insistence on stupid, repetitive melodrama, and bingo, bango, boingo, there you are in Car Chase City again.") He is engaging, strange, emotionally rounded, and Butler brings off the difficult task of depicting the rub of time on a personality: "You begin to see ideas as works of art, created unaware from the guts of the species and lasting from generation to generation. They do not so much explain reality, as everyone thinks they are meant to, as enter it, furthering and complicating the plot.') But Shade is more still: a vampire. "Why vampires?" Butler asks in an afterword, and there is some pseudoscience supplied tongue-in-cheek, as if to say: the fantastic is fantastic, remember? We don't get away with an abstract vampire, either. During its feeding "Ribs cracked, blood jumped like coveys of startled birds into the air." Dining on the innocent gives Shade a wry slant on matters human, since he isn't. Even Mandrake's creation of the Martian ecology seems a routine miracle. "Awe is a large flower, but a short-lived one. Besides, when God cracks a joke or two and clearly hopes you'll ask him over for a drink, you lose respect." Butler serves his subtle stew with adroit bows toward the corpus of science fiction, tangy descriptions and pithy tossoffs like Robert Heinlein's ("Money's just a social code for available energy."), surrealistic nods to Philip K. Dick (a category of ancient epics called "johnwaynes"), and a headlong plot which stacks ideas on ideas to dizzying effect. This is a great 'read.' It assumes sophisticated readers and allows the author a poke fun at himself, seen here as the inadvertent father of a religion, Butlerianism. Fans do have a way of turning preachy authors into icons. "'It's just Christianity grafted onto Zen and spliced with science fiction,"' Shade remarks. There is tremendous lighthearted fun here, skating on a somber surface, meditating on mortality and our technology-driven definitions of being human. With its amusing explanations and glossary the cyclonic storyline seems to wish to introduce Butler's considerable audience to the complex landscape of fantastic fiction, pouring on vivid imagery and thoughtful extrapolation, often in the same paragraph. Butler is an accomplished author, exactly the sort who should venture into sf, bringing their own quirky methods, while quite knowledgeable about what the field has done and can, perhaps, do. At one point Shade notes now much the tech of his time resembles our earlier dreams: "It has been interesting to watch the comics and the covers of the science fiction magazines come true. They have come so true it is difficult not to believe the artists were visited by genuine vision, which is perhaps why that art has risen so in the estimation of the critics." Ah, if only it were so! And for the book itself, as Shade says, "It is a tale of pretty horrors and well-wrought pain, it is an archaic brocade of golden woe, a measured piece." -- Gregory Benford Novelty [****] John Crowley A collection of four fair to excellent stories by John Crowley. The first story, "Why the Nightingale Sings at Night", is a perfect fairy tale/legend. "Great Work of Time", the second story, is a time travel (or alternate universe) novella tracing many possible destinies of the British Empire. I thought it was a great examination of how such an empire corrupts (and is corrupted). The third story, "In Blue", was the only one I didn't care for too much. I guess I just couldn't see why nobody in the story's dystopian society didn't stand up and say "Something's wrong here!" Nevertheless, I have to admit it is a well- written story. Finally, "Novelty" traces an author's thoughts as he plans a science fiction novel. The story-within-a-story aspects of it appealed to me, although I can see other readers saying there isn't enough fantasy/science fiction content. Overall, an excellent collection. -- Chuck Koelbel Orbital Decay Allan Steele Ace Books, 1989, 0-441-49851-5, 324 pp, $3.95 An extraordinary amount of hype surrounds this first novel. While early attention has been known to ruin a new writer, Steele's talents may actually match his cover blurbs -- someday. In an episodic framework that owes much to Paul Bunyan myths and such sea chanties as Mr. Roberts and The Caine Mutiny, we follow the lives of the first hardhats in space, the "beamjacks" who work for Skycorp in Clarke orbit. As the men and women of Olympus Station struggle to build the first powersats for the energy-hungry America of 2016, we gradually learn of their backgrounds, of the reasons they have fled Earth for the unforgiving vacuum. Popeye Hooker, a former Gulf Coast shrimper, can't forget his ex-wife, and begs the boys in the Meteorology section for a peek at the ocean through their telescope. Only those "boys," as everybody on Skycan knows, are really NSA spooks who could care less about the weather as long as it's not a threat to national security. Virgin Bruce, a St. Louis biker who can't go home again, has the hots for Commtech Joni Lowenstein, and he is equally obsessed with silencing the Muzak that project director Wallace has forced on everyone's ears. Wallace, in the Humphrey Bogart "mad captain" role, plays crazy as a loon with the blessing of the dirtside corporate bosses, while Dr. Felapolous tries to balance the whole crew between boredom and mayhem. Then Hydroponics engineer Jack Hamilton signs on board -- with his own secret agenda, and a bag of marijuana seeds. Hamilton passes the pot and other good dope on the nefarious plans of their bosses and the government spies, and many things in orbit really do begin to decay. No question, Steele can tell a story, although he fails to fully control this one. Like so many first novels, the second half doesn't match the fine beginning, and for all the intrigue and "dying man's last wish" aspects of the plot, no real surprises materialize. In this future, the "Grateful Dead" probably should be. While this one is well worth your time, expect Steele to become, just a few novels down the road, the major writer his editors already claim that he is. -- Dean R. Lambe Scare Care edited by Graham Masterton TOR, 0-312-93156-5: 416pps, $19.95 This is a unique horror anthology in that all the stories have been donated by the authors and all the profits from the book's sale will go to charities that look after abused and needy children. On this note alone, I urge you to buy Scare Care. Of the 38 stories in this anthology, all but 7 are original and written especially for Scare Care. All the stories deal in some way with abuse, be it mental or physical. All the stories chosen for Scare Care are excellent and contributions by several major horror writers only enhance this anthology i.e.: Ramsey Campbell, James Herbert, Harlan Ellison, Steve Rasnic Tem, Brian Lumley, William Nolan, Roald Dahl, Charles Grant and of course Masterton himself. However the real pleasure is in discovering the less known British and American authors, several of whom are published here for the first time. Two stories that remained with me are: Masterton's "Changling," a horrifying lesson not to pick up a beautiful lady in a bar and "Junk" by Stephen Laws, a chilling tale of how not to get rid of a nuisance. Several other tales particularly noteworthy if only for the fact they were fun to read are -- Kit Reed's "Mommy," a disturbing yet humorous story of revenge on a parent constantly on a diet; Celeste Sefranek's first published story, "Printer's Devil," about an editor who likes to play practical jokes even after his death; and "Table for None" by William Jr., a sad but funny tale on the tribulations of ordering all you can eat. Graham Masterton has done a superb job in putting together a superior anthology and I understand that, due to the overwhelming response from the authors, a sequel is planned for next year. I heartily recommend Scare Care, a thoroughly enjoyable anthology and with the knowledge that your money is going to a worthwhile charity. -- Richard Weilgosh The Silver Spike [***] Glen Cook Tor Fantasy 313pp $3.95 Although the Black Company never appears in this book, it is the final book of the first Black Company series. At the end of The White Rose, the White Rose movement broke up. The fate of the Black Company is chronicled in the new Black Company series. This book tells the fate of Darling, Raven and all the others who did not go with the Black Company to the south. In The White Rose, the Dominator is killed and his evil essence imprisoned in a silver spike which was embedded in a godlike tree. The problem is the spike is in plain view and the inevitable happens. A group of thieves steal it, planning to sell it to the highest bidder. Their plan goes awry. Any wizard powerful enough to use the spike is also unscrupulous enough to kill for it. The whole book is about how the spike is recovered and its eventual disposal in a safer manner. The ending makes it very clear that this is the final book in the series. All manner of loose ends are tied up and all personal issues resolved. Despite this, the book stands very well on its own. The background leading up to the beginning is explained. While the book is best read as the last book of a series, it is possible to read this book first without being confused by references to past events. -- Danny Low The Steerswoman [****] Rosemary Kirstein Del Rey/Ballantine Books $3.95 279pp Rowan is a Steerswoman, dedicated to recording knowledge. She discovers a mystery concerning some strange jewels and decides to investigate their origin. However the wizards clearly do not want her to learn the secret of the jewels and make several attempts to kill her. Once Rowan and her order realizes their peril, they decide the only way to end the menace is to discover the secret of the jewels. Most of the book is about Rowan's quest. The book is clearly the first book of a series. Rowan discovers the origins of the jewels but all this discovery does is reveal another mystery to be solved. Rowan's world is one where advanced technology has been lost. The wizards are alchemists who have regained some of the lost knowledge but it is the Steerswomen (and Steersmen) who are the true bearers of the scientific spirit. The characterization is very good. The plotting is well done. The mystery of Rowan's world unfolds naturally from the pace of the story and is not forced upon the reader by paragraph-long expository. This is a sign of very good writing. The story ends properly for a series. The issue raised in the book is resolved and the resolution naturally sets the stage for the next book. -- Danny Low Tangled Webs [**] Steve Mudd Questar/Popular Library $3.95 248pp The quality of this book is very erratic. At its worst, it is space opera. At its best, it very well written drama. It is also the first book in a series and reads like the first act of a traditional three act play. The characters and situations are introduced. The beginning of the conflict is the end of the act or in this case, the book. All known human space is controlled by the Union which is slowly expanding and absorbing any rediscovered colonies. The Union provides peace and stability at the price of freedom and diversity. Some lost colonies have retained or regained their interstellar technology. They do not want to be absorbed into the Union but are too weak to openly oppose it. They infiltrate the Union and seek out sympathizers in high positions. This book tells how certain Union officials become involve in their cause. The characterization is generally good but the plotting has its flaws. One key set of characters make a radical change in allegiance during the book. This change happens off stage so the reader is mystified as to why they made such a change. However the pacing is well done. -- Danny Low Treason Orson Scott Card St. Martin's, 0-312-02304-9, 275 pp, 1988, $18.95 Way back in 1979, when Card was yet an unknown, Dell published his second novel; A Planet Called Treason. Why now, in 1988, St. Martin's feels a need to reprint this work is beyond me. True, Card did rewrite and revise the work and yes, a small percentage is new material. Still, this is one that should have been left to history. Treason is the tale of one Lanik Mueller, a young man with the inherited ability to regenerate body parts. In fact, the Muellers are near immortal. Unfortunately, Lanik quickly discovers he's a rad -- a genetic mutant -- growing body parts left and right with no apparent reason. While rads are normally placed in pens and harvested for their body parts, which the Muellers use to trade for high technology from off planet sources, Lanik is the son of The Mueller -- head of the clan. So, of course, he's allowed his freedom to wander the planet at will. Along the way, he has great adventures, gets cured, discovers the truth behind how and why the planet was colonized and is granted great and wondrous gifts. In fact, he becomes almost god-like. And the ending? Well, by now you can guess for yourself. There are few surprises here and one would be tempted to chalk this book up as just another juvenile written by a talented author. But this is Card we're talking about and old Card at that. I'm afraid readers who buy this book anticipating another Speaker For The Dead or Seventh Son will be greatly disappointed. Hardcore Card fans are better off seeking out the Dell paperback. All others steer clear. -- Steven Sawicki The World Treasury of Science Fiction [***] ed. by David G. Hartwell The Book of the Month Club is producing a series of anthologies representing the best writing in the world in various genres. Apparently the books are also being distributed through bookstores, since I spotted a copy at my local store last week. The World Treasury of Science Fiction weighs in at 52 stories totaling over 1200 pages. That's far too many stories to review individually, so I'll fall back on statistics; the ratings for individual stories fall in a normal distribution with a mean of [***+] and a standard deviation of a half . While that's slightly above average for a multi-author anthology, I certainly wouldn't call it the best in the world. Speaking of the world, the editors seem to have skipped a few geography lessons. There are no African stories, only one from Asia (Japan), and South America is grossly under-represented. (I guess the magical realists are being saved for The World Treasury of Fantasy.) Of the countries left, only the U.S., U.S.S.R., England, and France seem to have active SF communities; the introductions to stories from other countries generally describe those countries' Science Fiction as "derivative". What's the point of creating an international showcase if only a handful of countries have anything to show? Anyway, I can recommend a number of the stories on their own merits, but in this case the whole is less than the sum of its parts. -- Chuck Koelbel The Year's Best Science Fiction #3 Gardner Dozois Bluejay Books 1986, $17.95 Gardner, who has edited magazines, has managed to lose more Nebulas and Hugos than I have fingers. I trust his judgment. In this book reside "The Jaguar Hunter" by Lucius Shepard, "Fermi and Frost" by Frederik Pohl, "Green Days in Brunei" by Bruce Sterling and "Sailing to Byzantium" by Robert Silverberg. These were all nominated for the Nebula and/or Hugo in 1986. I think "The Jaguar Hunter" with its South American atmosphere and fantastic hero was the best story of that year. One of James Tiptree's final stories: "The Only Neat Thing To Do," is also here. I've said before that I enjoy short stories and I find this series of books to give me my money's worth without having to buy all the magazines published in a year. -- Joyce Scrivner ------ End ------