Electronic OtherRealms #19 Winter, 1987 Part 7 Pico Reviews Part 2 Mathenauts, Tales of Mathematical Wonder Ed. Rudy Rucker [***] Arbor House, $9.95, 1987, 300 pages A collection of new and reprinted short SF stories that revolve around mathematical concepts, puzzles and mathematicians. The stories are of very mixed quality. A few I didn't see the math connection to but most include interesting mathematical puzzles and several go almost too far to include math terms. Some are computer oriented and seem the most dated, even if written within the last 10 years. --Mary Anne Espenshade mae@aplvax.arpa Matters of Form Scott Wheeler [] DAW Books 240 Pg. $2.95 This book is incompetently written. Most of the time, the first person narrative is used to describe events, including those where the narrator was not present. Periodically, the narration switches to the third person. The switch may occur for a few paragraphs or a few chapters. The switches happen suddenly with no transition passages or story breaks to signal that such a switch is to take place. The narration is so long and boring that sometimes the unexpected switches in viewpoint was a relief.There is no character development. Even the narrator is not developed as a character. The story is a unoriginal nonvariation of an old SF theme. I am amazed that something this incompetently written could ever have been published by a well established publishing house such as DAW. Good or bad, DAW books have usually been competently written. Danny Low hplabs!hpccc!dlow Micronauts by Gordon Williams [***] Bantam, 1977, 282 pages, with illustrations. This has the best attempt at a scientific explanation for how you might miniaturize humans. The first part of the book deals with Earth in the not to distant future where mankind is starving to death because he has polluted the environment so badly. The second part deals with the secret research of a group of scientists to provide a new 'world' for mankind by reducing him in size. Both parts of the book make good reading and the entomology and botany of the second part help to enhance a good adventure. There is a sequel, Microcolony, which I would probably read based on the first book. russell.Wbst@Xerox.COM Mindplayers Pat Cadigan [*] Bantam, $3.50, ISBN 0-553-26585-7 This is Cadigan's first novel, and while I really enjoy her shorter work, I couldn't finish Mindplayers. She's attempting to write in an artificially Cyberpunk style about a society advanced heavily into technological decadence. She is a good writer, but I wasn't able to find a single character I was able to care about -- there is such an emphasis on the style and the decadence that none of the people in the story really seem to exist. Without that point of reference, none of what she wrote mattered to me. Folks with more of a bent towards Cyberpunk or with a little more tolerance of weak characters should enjoy this a lot more. I, personally, will have to settle for looking forward to her next book. -- chuq von rospach The Model Robert Aickman, [***+] Arbor House, 1987, hardcover, $ 14.95 This strange and dreamlike fantasy is set in czarist Russia, and has a genuine hypnotic effect. It concerns a young girl, Elena, who dreams of becoming a ballerina. She builds a model of an opera house, scavenging the necessary materials from her large and rather mysterious household, and fantasizes herself as the main dancer. Then, strangely, her fantasies start to come true, with sometimes dreamlike, sometimes nightmarish results. Events are not really ever explained, but draw their effect from the strong archetypal images which Aickman introduces at every turn. It all adds up to a strange book, but one which will reward the reader, especially if she is in search of a different sort of fantasy book. Fernando Gouvea New Destinies Vol II Jim Baen, Ed. [***+] Baen Books, 232 pages, $2.95 ISBN 0-671-65346-6 This is the latest edition of Jim Baen's quarterly anthology magazine. It contains a number of fiction pieces (including good ones from Harry Turtledove, and Phillip Jennings) and some really well thought out non- fiction by Charles Sheffield. this is basically a theme-less original anthology, and while the quality varies to some degree, there's enough here to please just about anyone. -- chuq von rospach Never the Twain Kirk Mitchell [***] Ace Books 294 Pg. $3.50 This book is really a straight historical novel. The time travelling is only a gimmick to get the story started. As a historical novel, it is better than most. The story is even written as if it were a straight historical novel from an alternate timeline created by the events of the book. Howard Hart was a poor orphan who only wants to be wealthy and well placed. Unfortunately, he is not competent enough to succeed honestly and not unscrupulous enough to succeed dishonestly. The result is that he is about to lose the little wealth and position he managed to gain and faces a Federal prison term as well. Fortunately for Hart, his best friend has just found a way to travel back in time. Hart sees this as way out of his troubles and realize his life's ambition. The plan calls for him to kill Mark Twain before he is ever born by making Samuel Clemens so rich that he will never become so desperate for money as to take up writing for a living. The story and the time travel paradoxes are handled very well. There are clues throughout the book as to how the story will proceed. The historical details are well handled. The only flaw is that the ending is just not believable. The ending requires a major character change on the part of Howard Hart. The ground work for this change is well done and that part is believable. The problem is that Hart also has to become very competent but throughout the story, his behavior only emphasizes his incompetence with no indication of any improvement. The implication that Hart's change of character was all that was needed to transform him from insecure incompetent into self-assured self-made man is too unbelievable. Still, except for the fairy tale ending, the book is very well written and worth reading. Danny Low hplabs!hpccc!dlow Pro by Gordon R. Dickson [***] This is a pleasant little adventure about two men and their different approaches to helping a planet's civilization advance. Interestingly enough, our hero disappears from the book at the end chapter of two and doesn't really reappear until almost the very end of the book. The way he triumphs is also relevant. Sort of reminds me of a lot of American companies -- the experienced but not degreed old timer versus the new kid on the block right of college. The book is well paced and makes a cozy afternoon's reading. Larry Kaufman lsk@sun.COM The Quest for Saint Camber Katherine Kurtz [****] Arrow Books, 423 pp, #3.50, 0-09-950360-3 Another typical Kurtz novel. Typical for Kurtz in that she creates a tapestry of a world so lush and full that you wish it was real. Kurtz has a knack of description and characterization that makes her works swallow up the reader. The Quest for Saint Camber follows King Kelson and Dhugal, on their journey to find the relics of Saint Camber. However, they don't know that Kelson's cousin, Conall, is eager for the throne, and has taken up Deryni training, and (or) also having planned a few mishaps for the travel party. The integration of the Deryni/human conflict plus the conflict in the royal family moves the greater story of the kingdom forward. -- Laurie Sefton The Ragged Astronauts Bob Shaw [***] Orbit (UK), 310pp, #2.95 ISBN 0-7088-8227-7 (also Baen books hardcover) One of the 1987 finalists for the Hugo, this is an interesting Science Fantasy but I'm not sure it belonged on the ballot. It's a look at a society under siege by a natural menace that is trying to escape to a nearby planet -- by balloon. Shaw is writing this as a Hard SF book, but I could never quite decide if he was playing games with the Science or not. -- chuq von rospach The Riders of the Sidhe [****] Champions of the Sidhe Master of the Sidhe Kenneth C. Flint Bantam,$2.95 each These aren't only a good re-telling of the Lugh Lamfda saga, these are a fun re-telling. The stories have the feel of of a Spielberg movie, while keeping true to the legend. Flint is able to dress out the Tuatha de Dananns, so they aren't just figures in a story; they feel like people we've known. The explanation behind the existence of the de Dannans, the Firbolgs, and the Fomorans is unique and believable. Manannan MacLir is particularly well done; those who expect all their gods and demi-gods to be stuffy are in for a shock. Even the slightly melodramatic endings of the first two novels don't rankle. A good story for those who like their legends to come alive. -- Laurie Sefton Roderick by John Sladek [****+] Caroll and Graf, 1987, $3.95, 348 pages I'll recommend this book, but with a caveat. It has a somewhat surreal approach, reminding me of Illuminatus works, so it probably won't be to everyone's taste. But with that in mind, it touches on a wide variety of subjects, and quite thoroughly explores the notion of a robot created as an infant-like learning machine growing up in a parody of our own society. The thing that grabs you in this book is the dialog. Most everything is revealed as a by-product of fascinating discussions between the characters. This is not something I take to, normally, but Sladek gets away with it nicely. I rate it [****+] if you like surrealism, a real dud if you don't. -- Wayne Throop mcnc!xyzzy!throopw Shadowspawn Andrew J. Offutt [**-] Ace Fantasy, $3.50 The fourth Thieves' World novel, and the first full length book to feature a character other than Tempus, I really enjoyed Shadowspawn as a character in the anthology series, but this novel just didn't do anything for me. The characterization was flat and I just didn't care much for the plot. It could have been much, much better than it was. -- chuq von rospach The Shrinking Man by Richard Matheson [***+] Gold Medal, 1962, 192 pages. This is the book that the movie The Incredible Shrinking Man was based on . The story concerns one man who, because of a strange sequence of events, starts shrinking 1/7th of an inch a day. The story alternates between his last several days at insect size trapped in his own basement, and flashbacks from his experiences leading to that period. This is a fairly good horror tail and does a good job of conveying the anguish one might go through in the course of shrinking out of the familiar world of family and friends. russell.Wbst@Xerox.COM Starquake by Robert L. Forward [****] Del Rey SF, $3.95, 1985, 339 pages Starquake is the sequel to Dragon's Egg, continuing the story of the Cheela civilization on the neutron star they call Egg. The Cheela have passed their human teachers in scientific knowledge and are a space-going race themselves when a starquake, a collapse of the outer surface of the neutron star, all but wipes them out. The survivors in space rebuild the civilization, reclaim the planet and go on advancing their knowledge, all in the course of one 24 hour human day. The "slow moving" humans can do little to help and are rescued by the Cheela several times. Advanced degrees in nuclear physics probably helpful - technical appendix and bibliography provided. --Mary Anne Espenshade mae@aplvax.arpa A Storm Upon Ulster Kenneth C. Flint [***] Bantam Books, 309 pp, 0-553-24710-7 A re-telling of one of the Cuculain legends, this of his holding off the forces of Queen Maeve at the river Oun Dia. Flint is true to the original story, instead of relying on another interpretation, as some of the authors of "Celtic" legends have. The story tends to drag out a bit, and the "evil druid" is played a bit melodramatically, a bad Celtic Iago. If you can glide past this, it works much better. -- Laurie Sefton Tatja Grimm's World Vernor Vinge [**] Baen Books, 277 pp, $3.50, 0-671-65336-9 This is a collection of shorts, cunningly disguised as a book. The cover has more to do with one of the ruses in the book than the book's character itself. The pieces of the stories are well tied together up until the last quarter, where the premise starts to fall apart. It's almost as if Vinge decided against his first outcome and rewrote the ending. The story itself has to do with a woman who is an evolutionary blip--she is so much more intelligent than anyone else on her planet that she schemes and devises her way to the stars, just to find someone to talk to. It's a great premise, and I wish it had been carried out better. -- Laurie Sefton Thieves' World Graphic #5 Robert Asprin & Lynn Abbey [**+] Starblaze Graphics, $3.95, ISBN 0-89865-521-8 The continuation of the B&W Graphic novel version of the Thieves' World story with art by Tim Sale. The art is good, but this issue seems a little flat. If you read the anthology, the story will be familiar. -- chuq von rospach To the Haunted Mountains Ru Emerson [****] Ace Fantasy, 314 pp, 0-441-79558-7 It's refreshing to see a fantasy that has nothing to do with anything Celtic. Emerson is able to create a believable world for the fantasy, the description of the environs is enough to make the reader comfortable, without boring the reader with minute detail. The inner workings of the characters are well done; the members of the group aren't cut-outs, with one personality factor's difference. These are real people. The one problem I had with the book was the discussion by the cat, a cat infused with magic, but a cat nonetheless, at the beginning of each chapter. It was almost as if the cat was providing crib notes for the book; read the cat's discussion, and you know what's going to happen. -- Laurie Sefton The Traveler in Black by John Brunner [****-] Ace, $0.75, 1971, 222 pages A classic story collection of the One Who Has Many Names But One Nature, and his attempts to bring reason and order to the chaos of the cosmos. His method of changing a situation has a certain witty elegance; he grants a persons spoken desire, but not generally in the method desired. These are tales of magic and style, I am most reminded of "The Dying Earth" by Jack Vance. -- John Wenn wenn@gandalf.cs.cmu.edu Twisting the Rope by R. A. MacAvoy [****] Bantam, $3.50, 1986, 242 pages Music, mystery and maybe murder in another adventure with Martha Macnamara and Mayland Long from Tea With The Black Dragon. The fantasy elements are there if you know where to look, but this is mostly a detective story, with a victim nobody was sorry to see dead and suspects who aren't what they appear to be. --Mary Anne Espenshade mae@aplvax.arpa Universe 17 edited by Terry Carr [***+] Doubleday, 1987, $ 12.95 This latest Universe series is quite typical of Terry Carr's skill as an anthologist: all of the stories are quite good, even though none of them strikes me as a real winner. The best this time is Jack McDevitt's In the Tower, a moody story set on an alien planet; there are also strong stories by James Tiptree, Jr., Marta Randall, and Cherie Wilkerson. What is mostly lacking in many of these stories are adequate conclusions: some are marred by unbelievable endings, some by lack of closure; in either case, the endings reduce the value of good stories. Still, people who like short SF would do well to pick this up, at least when it comes out in paperback. Fernando Gouvea The Wandering Fire by Guy Gavriel Kay [***+] Ace, $3.50, 1986, 271 Pages I really liked the first book of this trilogy: it was an entertaining high fantasy with several modern characters as well. But I am disappointed by the direction of the second book: instead of the archetypal but still new characters of The Summer Tree, he introduces a personage from standard fantasy (you're guaranteed to find out who in three guesses). The strengths of characterization and description are still present here, but the entire concept doesn't work as well this time. -- John Wenn wenn@gandalf.cs.cmu.edu Watchtower by Elizabeth Lynn [****] Berkley, $2.50, 1979, 226 pages I almost didn't review this book. Periodically I find books to review by going through my library looking for little known books I liked. I picked out Watchtower since it was a really good book, but even after re-reading it I couldn't pinpoint the reason I liked it. After reviewing several other books in my list, however, I figured out what it was. All the elements: the style, the characters, the plot, the descriptions, all combine seamlessly to tell a story. All work so well together that I couldn't find anything to point to. It's a fairly standard plot of a deposed prince seeking to regain his throne, but told with uncommon skill. Also recommended are the sequels The Dancers of Arun and The Northern Girl. They tackle more original plots, and (a detail I like) each book is set ~100 years after the previous book, so that the changes made previous book are shown in the current one. -- John Wenn wenn@gandalf.cs.cmu.edu When HARLIE was One by David Gerrold [***-] Ballantine, $1.25, 1972, 279 pages An oldish entry into the "sentient computer" story sweepstakes. It avoids the hard question (how DO you build a sentient computer) by a lot of hand-waving, but does try to address the nature of a machine intelligence. The main conflict is that HARLIE needs to financially justify his existence to the bean-counters on the corporate board. The story works fairly well, the major problem is that untold pages are spent having HARLIE and his psychologist discussing philosophical questions of existence, morality and love. Worthwhile if you enjoy computer SF stories. -- John Wenn wenn@gandalf.cs.cmu.edu Wild Cards III: Jokers Wild ed. by George R.R. Martin [**+] Bantam, $3.95, 374pp, 0-553-26699-3 The third in the Wild Card shared world anthology series. In this one, Martin does a strong editing job and turns it into a true mosaic novel, with the various stories intertwined in a true novel format. This works, mostly, but sometimes breaks the stories up arbitrarily, leaving you with a choppy, hard to follow plotline. I was disappointed that, with so many interesting things to talk about, they went back and worked over the Astronomer again. -- chuq von rospach Wings of Flame by Nancy Springer [***+] TOR 1986, pb. $2.95 Springer fits into that category of excellent, but overlooked authors. Her characters have depth, her settings are interesting, and her plots are worth reading. Wings of Flame deals with perceptions: national and personal. Two countries have customs based on the worship of the Horse God, Suth, but one country's sacred rituals are the other's blasphemies. The main characters are a young warrior-prince, sent to the other country as a hostage, a young outcast girl, lower than a slave, and the pacifist magician-king. Together they must overcome their prejudices about each other and themselves in order to end the curse that has kept their countries constantly at war. -- Brett Slocum Wingwomen of Hera Sandi Hall [**] Spinsters| Aunt Lute, 180 pp, $8.95, 0-933216-26-2 This is a book in need of a good technical editor; the story is there, it just needs to be cleaned up. The premise of sister planets is good, how they get there isn't. Comets just don't have the firepower to knock one planet entirely out of orbit, and another into a figure-eight around two stars. Also, the idea of popping into another universe to get to a planet in the same star system is a little obtuse. The comparison of the two worlds; one a highly regulated, frozen (in more ways than one) sphere, with its only hope a girl child born to be its future Guider; and the other a lush garden planet, with parthenogenic, loving, sensual, and extremely intelligent "wingwomen" gives a big hint who the heroines of this story are going to be. A good basis for a story, good characterizations, but the technical flaws in this work keep coming back to bite the reader. -- Laurie Sefton The Witches of Wenshar Barbara Hambly [***+] Del Rey, 339 pp, $3.95, 0-345-32934 What happened to Starhawk and Sun Wolf after Sun Wolf was thrown our of Mandrigyn? Well, they wandered south into the desert kingdoms, into the area known for the evil of the witches of the ruined city of Wenshar. I don't consider this a sequel; you can read this without having read The Ladies of Mandrigyn, and still be able to enjoy the book. Sun Wolf and Starhawk both grow in this story; Sun Wolf learns the control of his power, and of the uses and abuses of it. Starhawk grows within herself, and shows that you don't have to be a wizard to be powerful. I hope to see more of the both. -- Laurie Sefton Wolf Dreams Michael D. Weaver [**+] Avon, 186 pp, $2.95, 0-380-75198-4 This is a series of what appears to be separate stories about Thyri Bloodfang, worked into a novel. The heroine, Thyri becomes a werewolf after defending her cousin from another werewolf. After that, she wonders, trying to keep others from sharing her fate. The book itself is disjointed, the person keeps changing without notice, and the chapters aren't given in chronological order. You spend a lot of time wondering when something specific happened, and rereading chapters to try to figure it out. -- Laurie Sefton World Enough and Time by James Kahn [***+] Del Rey, $2.25, 1980, 340 pages The basic plot is SF, but most of the story elements are fantasy. The setting is post-apocalyptic: there are only a few scattered humans after several wars and plagues. The fantasy elements come from the winners: vampires, unicorns, centaurs, griffins, and the like. These were the results of genetic engineering, and they rose together to fight human civilization. The story is the quest of a human scribe, a centaur, a talking cat and a neuroman go to rescue their families that were kidnaped by the "new animal". It is the world presented during their quest that was most interesting, a good mixture of both SF and Fantasy. While this story stands alone, there is a sequel "Time's Dark Laughter", which is also recommended. Rumor says that a third book is planned, but I have no idea how one could follow the second book. -- John Wenn The Year's Best Science Fiction: fourth annual collection ed. by Gardner Dozois [****] St. Martin's Press, 1987, paper, $11.95 Of the several best-of-the-year anthologies supported by the SF field, the one edited by Gardner Dozois is the biggest and, every year, the first one to appear. Just that would be a recommendation, but Dozois also has broad but discerning tastes which usually lead to excellent results. If this year's volume is a little less impressive than the preceding ones, it seems more the effect of a less-than-stellar year for short SF than anything else. The parameters of the book have remained essentially the same over the years, most especially the large format and the generous amount of stories. The one significant (and, I feel, unfortunate) change this year is that fewer novellas were included.Still, this volume includes several excellent stories, from Connie Willis's "Chance'' to Lucius Shepard's "R&R'' to Somtow Sucharitkul's "Fiddling for Waterbuffaloes". Especially for those who do not usually follow the magazines, this can offer several hours of reading pleasure. The "Summation" by Dozois is, as always, a competent summary of the year in SF, and the book concludes with a (much too long) list of honorable mentions. Not to be missed by anyone who likes to follow short SF. Fernando Gouvea Young Rissa by F. M. Busby [****] Berkley, $2.95, 1976, 177 pages The first of the Rissa/Tregare chronicles (the many ways that the stories have been published is too long to go into here). This is good space opera with characters well above space opera standards. The evil empire keeps much of Earth's population in Total Welfare Centers, holds control of its stellar empire with a stolen alien space drive, trains its army under brutal conditions, and is generally not very nice. This is the story of Rissa Kerguelen, a Total Welfare Client who escaped by winning the lottery through a corrupt official's mistake, ran into the Earth's underground, and escaped to the stars. All the characters are well realized, although they suffer from extreme competence in every field. The characters do have problems to balance their numerous skills, making for a believable situation. One thing I enjoy is that the space drive is slower than light (with relativistic effects). Many of the implications of how one fights a battle under those conditions are well thought out and presented. This, and most of the other books of the series are recommended. The books I can't recommend are those that happen after the good guys win. -- John Wenn 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