SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW

$2.00 SPRING 1982 NUMBER 42

Interview: IAN WATSON ONE WRITER AND THE NEXT WAR BY JOHN BRUNNER GENE DEWEESE - DAVE LANGFORD - DARRELL SCHWEITZER SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW (,SSN Formerly THE ALIEN CRITIC P.O. BOX 11408 FEBRUARY 1982 ----- VOL. 11, NO.l PORTLAND, OR 97211 WHOLE NUMBER 42 RICHARD E. GEIS—editor & publisher PHONE: (503) 282-0381 PAULETTE MINARE', ASSOCIATE EDITOR

COVER BY STEPHEN FABIAN PUBLISHED QUARTERLY "Mameena Finds A Bem" FEB., MAY, AUG., NOV. STWLL PRESS MAGAZINES ALIEN THOUGHTS REVIEWED BY DARRELL SCHWEITZER,..45 SINGLE COPY ---- $2.00 BY THE EDITOR...... SMALL PRESS NOTES interview: IAN WATSON BY THE EDITOR...... 48 CONDUCTED BY DAVID LANGFORD...... 8 REVIEWS------"deathhunter" AND THEN I SAW.... REVIEWED BY DAVID LANGFORD...... 14 BY THE EDITOR...... DEATHHUNTER...... 14 CITY ■ ■ > ■ ■ . ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ « . > r . ■ ■ « . ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ . a ■ ,. .6 INHERIT THE EARTH...... 16 SCIENCE FICTION QUIZ OTHER VOICES...... GUARDIAN...... ■ ■ > ■ ■ >.. ■ ■ ■. ■ ■ i. .6 COMPILED BY ROBERT SABELLA...... 15 BOOK REVIEWS BY OZYMANDIAS...... 16 SUSAN M. SCHWARTZ ONCE OVER LIGHTLY TOM STAICAR BOOK REVIEWS BY GENE DEWEESE.....16 ANDREW ANDREWS NEAL WILGUS STEVEN E. MCDONALD LINDA BLANCHARD AND THEN I READ.... DEAN LAMBE BY THE EDITOR...... 18 W. RITCHIE BENEDICT STEVE LEWIS TEN YEARS AGO IN SCIENCE FICTION ROBERT SABELLA JOHN DI PRETE BY ROBERT SABELLA...... 21 DAVID A. TRUESDALE PAUL MCGUIRE ONE WRITER AND THE NEXT WAR FRED PATTEN ANDREW TIDMARSH BY JOHN BRUNNER...... 22 JAMES ANDERSON

LETTERS...... 24 THE HUMAN HOTLINE ORSON SCOTT CARD SF NEWS NO ADVERTISING WILL BE ACCEPTED JOHN SHIRLEY BY ELTON T. ELLIOTT...... 64 Second Class Postage Paid CHARLES PLATT at Portland, OR 97208 HANK STINE DARRELL SCHWEITZER JOE R. LANSDALE RONALD R. LAMBERT Copyright (c) 1981 by Richard E. ROBERT A.W. LOWNDES INTERIOR ART------Geis. One-time rights only have been acquired from signed or cred­ DOUG FRATZ tim kirk—2,4,18,48,50,67 ARNIE FENNER ited contributors, and all other W. PAUL GANLEY rights are hereby assigned to the contributors . 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ACCUMULATES AFTER SEVEN DAYS GUILT A good writer chooses the specific OF RELATIVE SLOTH AND AVOIDANCE OF detail to show character...as often DUTY AND THE EXERCISING OF SKILLS, did the pulp writers who used speech TO THE POINT OF FORCING ME TO BE­ "tags" to identify characters, and GIN AGAIN... often used specific details of body # Harry F, Leonard, after having or face to remind readers who was who. discovered SFR and bought a copy It's a challenge to do without of everything in stock, asked, "Do you cater to individuals foolish interior monologues, without inter­ enough to be interested in life­ ior feelings. It's the cinema tech­ time subscriptions? (LOCUS has nique of staying out of the charac­ been charging 10X the one-year sub­ ter's mind...using only spoken words, scription price, including your cur­ actions and brief exterior descrip­ rent year's payment.) Please let tions . me know if you do." I've written a few novels using that technique. It's difficult, but it speeds up the novel and usually The offering of lifetime sub­ inproves it by eliminating a lot of scription rates is tenpting. Raw self-indulgent and purple prose. I greed raises its head. recommend the technique; try giving Because the subscriber gets a the information the reader needs only ripping-off in that kind of deal. There is always danger, suspense, movement, lusts, violence..." with dialogue and action. It involves I pondered this revelation. a lot of body language, facial expres­ For instance, if I offered a Visual fiction media, admitted, sion, tone of voice...and probably lifetime sub to SFR for $70. I'd be have an advantage in that with a recasting scenes, adding and sub­ able to sock that $70. instantly in­ few seconds of picture they can tracting scenes to compensate and to a money market fund and get at show a city, an alien, a space­ adjust. least 10% interest—$7.00 per year. ship, a terrible wound, a peaceful "Stylists" hate this kind of Thus the interest on the sub money countryside, all in vivid color. writing, of course; they want to be pays the lifetime costs (plus the But I also know damn well a the show, and this kind of narrative usual profit) and I'd still have skillful writer can create such discipline is more suited to liter­ the subscriber's $70. whenever the images and atmosphere with a few ary carpenters than literary impres­ magazine died. words, and can weave more and more sionist artists. No wonder lifetime subs are a images into action and dialogue. I'm not saying all sf and fan­ good deal for a publisher if he can There is no reason why a word­ tasy should be written in the high- get any. fiction creator cannot match the tensioned cinematic style. Variety, The subscribers would be far images, the action, the pacing, change of pace, by all means. But better off putting their "lifetime" the dialogue of the visual fiction to keep readers reading and even to sub money into a secure [govt, paper creator. expand the overall readership, writ­ only] money market fund and going to And I suspect very strongly ers must adjust to the realities of the bother of using the interest to that unless text fictioneers begin the on-going visual entertainment buy a subscription every year. to write more visually and adopt age. I guess I'm not ruthless enough. the pacing of The Tube and The Screen fictioneers, they will find Why are STAR WARS, THE EMPIRE themselves in an entertainment STRIKES BACK, and RAIDERS OF THE ghetto which will shrink and shrink LOST ARK such great movies as ent­ every year until it is a vanishingly ertainment and as moneymakers? # It hit me while I was watching small segment of entertainment...a a movie on TV a few days ago: "My province reserved for eccentrics, Because they are superior pulp Ghod! The scenes are so short! diehards, and the idle intellectual. fiction in film format! And they Ahhh, I realize there are those The dialogue is minimal..." And even have subtleties of character as I watched a wild surmise bloss­ in my readership who will recoil in and motivation, conplicated pasts omed in my mind. horror. "You're talking reverting and promised futures embedded in or returning to pulp writing, Geis! I watched other movies and them. Coherent, advanced technolo­ paid monitoring attention to the You're talking giving up all of our gies, or detailed historical fact. pretentions to Literary Quality! pacing. Aha! Ahaaa! All this in two hours of breathtak­ "Why don't fiction—text fic­ You're talking giving up Characteri­ ing action, wonders, quests, battles, zation!" tion writers—write like that?" I loves, deaths... Yup. Adapt or die. Entertain asked myself. "They're in direct Who among the presentday sf and or die. Stop boring the readers— conpetition--life and death conp- fantasy writers comes close to writ­ etition--with The Tube and The or die. Stop suiciding with too- ing the equivalent in text? Screen. And the story-telling small typefaces [AMAZING is a clas­ In my judgement, only Roger virtues of the visual media are sic case of that type of hara-kiri]. Zelazny. Ron Goulart comes close, plainly action-action-action. Stop dilly-dallying with "setting but he always has satire and farce Very few scenes of people sitting the scene" at the beginnings of sto­ in mind. around philosophising or having ries and novels. Text fictioneers have a tremen­ long, obvious internal conflicts. 4 dous advantage over the visual fic- tioneers—we can create visions With hundreds of cable networks Why throw roadblocks and tons which they cannot, short of two seeking slots, willing to offer a of padding in their way? We only years work and multi-millions of full range of uncut movies, and turn them off and gradually dimin­ dollars. And the only thing that made-for-cable fare, reading will ish our audience. is staving off the death of text suffer. The printed fiction format has fiction is the huge costs of creat­ Science fiction and fantasy great advantages over The Tube and ing wonders for filming. can survive if its writers and pub­ The Screen: portability, variety, If text sf and fantasy writers lishers face the realities of read­ accessability. We can provide more will learn to adapt to the pacing ing dynamics, write at a signifi­ of sf and fantasy than any watcher and higher skill levels required cantly higher level of skill, create can find on Tube and Screen. We to write superior pulp fiction, high-tensioned, fast-paced adult must make people want more. We must they can survive and even thrive fiction full of wonders and fascina­ write so excitingly, so rivetingly, in the increasingly visuals-dominat- ting ideas, and present these sto­ so well, that millions of people ed entertainment world. nes and novels at reasonable pric­ will choose to read rather than It is easier to watch than to es. watch. read, write it on your walls: IT Even the lowly sf magazine It can be done. ' It must be IS EASIER TO WATCH THAN TO READ! could survive and prosper if it done. And sneering at TV and movies and adopted the pace/tension/adult for­ pulp-pacing will not change that mula and went to the text fiction basic reality one jot or tittle. equivalent of cable—subscription- Afterthought: I don't want to be If we want to survive and pros­ only. Allowing the distributor absolutist in advocating a strict per, we'll have to give the TV audi­ and/or the supermarkets to dictate no interiors, no character-thoughts ence the swift pace, the vividness, content or to impose taboos is the technique for science fiction and the color they get on TV and MORE! equivalent of the networks censoring fantasy. For most writers the We'11 have to give them what they themselves to keep advertisers and wrench would be too difficult, the can't get on TV or do get from Lucas to placate "morality" pressure recasting of plot and scene too every two years—bold, detailed, groups. alien and "unheard of”. In real exciting wonders, thrilling, suspens- If people are spending $25-$30 terms I'm advocating a shift, a re­ ful action, heroic characters who per month for cable channels, they duction to a bare minimun of the are also human, and villains with a will pay for it by cutting back on easy-to-write thoughts-and-realiza­ touch of humanity. books and magazines, as well as tions which make fiction—espec­ Ahh, but you ask, "Can't we also not going out to see movies. ially Serious Literary SF § F—so do something 'serious' like ORDINARY All the tricky cover art and easy to write. PEOPLE?" Sure—if you can write the design will not be enough to save No doubt there are writers who short scenes, telling dialogue and book/paperback publishing from a will accuse me of wanting to take acute gestures and expressions that slow death in the coming decades. away one of their most valuable and make that film a winner. [Some publishers spend more on the necessary tools. On the contrary, What I'm calling for is an aware­ cover of a book than they pay to I'm asking them to throw away their ness of coming doom. An awareness the author for the ms.!] most overused and unnecessary nar­ that our reader base is eroding, an We have been seduced by atten­ rative crutch. awareness that a radically different tion from academe and our new gen­ set of storytelling "rules" is called erations of writers have come— for, and a willingness by editors and more and more—from the university/ publishers to look for and buy this literature matrix. Science fiction new style fiction. and fantasy have tended to shift to­ # It's curious how naked our schem­ And publishers are going to have ward an elitist/intellectual orien­ es and ulterior motives are, some­ to remember to make it easy to read tation. The older "first generation" times. Nakedly obvious to others, their books by using larger, black­ of pulp editors and fan-tumed-pro yet masked in our own minds. er type. Reading skill levels are editors are dying off, being replac­ Thus I was surprised and declining every year. Even college ed by university graduates who are struck with terror when I notic­ students don't read well! Readers not themselves (and never were) wri­ ed the short note Andy Porter will gratefully buy pocketbook novels ters. They tend to edit for the of 40,000 words if the words are college-educated person, and they gripping, exciting, and easy to read. tend to reflect the biases of their English Lit. education. I suspect they are leading sf With the ever-increasing cable and fantasy into a worse ghetto than access by watchers, and the ever- they think they are escaping. increasing cost of even paperbacks, And I believe the next ten years (hardcovers are a luxury for the will prove me correct. rich and/or fanatic) more and more readers will spend more and more time watching uncut cable offerings. We have to give people what they cannot get elswhere in the visual The lure of cable is its presenta­ tion of more honest, more realistic, media, and we must make it as easy more sexy, more violent visual fic­ as possible for them to get us and tion. read us. We must learn to give our hard­ Network TV has been the salva­ tion of text fiction because its core readership and above all the dishonesty, stereotypes, cliches vast once-in-a-while readership and boring, sanitized formulas stories told in the visual media have driven away the easily bored style; they're used to it, and it and the intellectual. Reading was is easier for them to read if ye the only alternative short of get­ use that type of narrative tech­ ting into an expensive-to-run car nique. and spending $3-$5 per seat in a theater to see a film. 5 had penned on the December 1981 ft Sickening confession of failure. So, with a heavy sigh and clear copy of his SCIENCE FICTION CHRON­ Destroyed illusions falling dead to eyes, I have put away the art books, ICLE that he sent me: the carpet. Tears of frustration. the equipment, the supplies. Never 'Review SFC or be out off!' Firm uplifting of jaw. Clenched again. No. Never. I'll stick My guts turned watery'. My breath teeth. Determination to face real­ with what I do have talent for— hissed, my heart pounded. My Ghod! ity. Whimper. Cringe. Acceptance. writing. Not to receive SFC again? Never to Dry eyes, trembling smile. New Writing this entry has been read the latest sf and fantasy news joy.... more fun than drawing. I smile. that Andy Porter sees fit to print? What's it all about, Dickie? I function. And I realize how much N-never again to be able to contrast It's about my art career. I have work and talent is required to be a his coverage with ours? N-n-never had—lo, all these fifty years since good professional artist. I realize again to smirk over the stories he's I used to draw side-views of sail­ that more than ever. And a small missed, the stories he's avoiding? boats in kintergarden at Vernon corner of my mind is filled with en­ I tried to remember when last grammar school—a Plan to turn to vy, salted with bitter regret. he reviewed SFR? It's been...years? art as a hobby when I had time. However, in spite of the 'Trade' A week ago I had SFR #41 mail­ indicated on the address, Andy clear­ ed off, bookstore orders filled, ly considers his sending me SFC a the decks cleared... I felt it was great favor, and that he expects an time to get out all those how-to Artistic Afterthoughts: Final solu- occasional review in exchange, and art books I've been accumulating for tions, final judgements, final con­ that he really only trades his STAR- twenty years, all those pens and clusions. . .certainty. . .they're all SHIP with me, for SFR. pencils and pads of paper and spend very hard to come by. Too, he may be stung by my com­ an hour or two each morning happily After I had written the above ments in these pages last issue in drawing. sour observations on my artistic which I gently suggested that he and I did. I set up a corner of skills and talent I decided to give other fan publishers charge too much the diningroom and took up the char­ landscapes a try. My botches were for the value they give, printed-page­ coal pencil----- of the human body and parts there­ wise, not counting ads. Oh, AAAAAARRRRGHHH11! of. Why not, I decided desperately, Surely, surely he knew that There was a reason I've delayed try the wild outdoors where there such a peremptory command/threat: this "art time" all these decades. is a certain amount of leeway in­ 'Review SFC or be out off! ' There was a reason I made promises herent in the field? I mean, who would get my back up and result in to myself and kept putting off the will know the difference if a tree precisely the situation he (secretly) hobby [after several abortive branch crooks this way or that? wished—no bloody possibility of a starts]. If a mountain is humped here or review of SFC? Counterproductive on I can't draw. there? If a stream is a few yards the face of it, but exactly what he I have no artistic talent. wider than originally intended? wants, I imagine. Ahh, the subconscious knows! And so it came to pass that I I'm happy to oblige him, and That's why I developed my writing turned to a book on how to draw make him happy. and editing skills. That's why I old barns and buildings...and lo, As for me...have I brought him kept putting off facing the truth. and even behold, I managed, first to this act by unconsciously refus­ There is no fun in making ugly thing, to draw [copy] a credible ing to review SFC lately? By throw­ lines on paper. There is no satis­ old grist mill...up to a point. ing rocks at his publishing policies? faction in hours of erasing, mend­ I used pen to make the stark Possibly. ing, starting over.... drawing with some detail and used So it goes. Persistence has proved that I Pentel fine point felt-tip colored can make distorted, malformed botch­ pens to fill in color. es. Persistence has proved I don't Very nice. Fun. But a worm have that magic ingredient—talent. in the apple of my content: those pens-"-in a 24-color set—cost a fucking fortune to a cheapskate like me. $12.50 is ruinous. There isn't that much ink in the things. [And don't buy the K- Mart packs of same—they have a- bout one drop of ink in each— a ripoff "bargain." So I considered: why not just stick to pen and/or pencil work? I began to realize I had vast oc­ eans of technique to explore in the pen/pencil area. I went to Gill's [books-art-office-supply] and found the volume. Paulette decided to buy me the book, Rendering in Irik and Pencil, for Christinas. I have a set of nibs and a few pens. I have lotsapencils of varying leads...and I have the prospect of many, many interesting, bemused, frustrated, happy hours ahead of me as I attempt to acquire the techniques I must have to accomp­ lish the effects I want on paper. Maybe my artistic future will come to pass after all. I'll keep you posted. # Elton Elliott and I were loung­ with each of the above "solutions" sentially inflexible followers rare­ ing around the house a month ago to poor book distribution. The ly read books (excepting the Bible) (or so) speculating on ways to save obvious one is low profit margins of any kind, do not believe in free­ the book business and science fic­ and high overhead. The individuals dom, democracy, true morality or the tion in book/magazine form. involved would make very low wages free enterprise system. The problem [aside from style in the beginning, until a clientele And those that do believe in and technique in narrative—dis­ was built up. the above are smart enough to avoid cussed earlier] is in the spotty, In any event, something, some him like the plague. halfhearted, unfair, maladroit, radical change in the distribution A psychologist would shake his clumsy book/magazine distribution system will have to be tried, and head in disgust at the blatant use system in this country. will have to succeed if reading, of symbol and smear words and exag­ Even if you are a reader you book publishing, and authoring is geration to motivate those who might often can't find what you want even to be saved from slow death at the read this literature. if you make heroic efforts to go hands of the electronic media. I Falwell is on a power/ego trip where it should be available. And am convinced the answer is provid­ masked by his "crusade" to "do that's in a city! If you live in a ing a unique, exclusive product God's work." small town or a 100,000 people city and personal delivery service. you are shit out of luck. You ord­ Falwell and his ilk are using er by mail and wa-a-a-a-a-i-i-i-t, the vast pools of envy, hate and in­ or you do without. feriority which lie in 90% of the Till now most distribution sys­ emotionally rigid, insecure, terri­ tems involve putting books and maga­ fied minds who make up the lower- ft Those moral racketeers called class, under-educated, women and zines in stores and requiring the The Moral Majority who through soph­ readers to come to the stores. some men who feel themselves help­ istry and rationalization convince less in a world they know is too An awful lot of readers don't themselves (and are convinced by bother very often. They're probab­ much for them to understand or cope their "leaders") that they have a with. They are desperate and ang­ ly the majority of readers. They'd right, a duty and an unmitigated be willing to buy a book or two, es­ ry. They want control! They want permission from their god to use simple! They want to stop people pecially a new one by one of their force, threat, and intimidation to from liking and enjoying sex!--and favorite authors, but.... achieve their superficially masked getting away with it! They want Elton and I speculated on ways lusts for power and punishment [Ah, 1840 A.D. brought back and frozen to bring the books to the readers. for the Good Old Days of the Inqui­ in time. They want to burn witch­ These methods surfaced: sition!] should read their money­ es and books and homosexuals and begging mailings with the eye of a abortionists. 1. Bookmobiles stuffed with trained psychologist. They don't have a chance. new releases which stop on a regu­ What would such a mind conclude But they are a governor on the lar schedule at various high-den­ from the underlined messages in that rate of social change, and probably sity areas—colleges, downtown literature? a necessary one. Irresistible forc­ lunch hours, even close to various 'Our grand old flag is going es are killing their remnant culture sports events. down the drain.' and religion and they're crying out This involves retailing books 'I believe that the overwhelm­ in pain and outrage. like junk food, and the volume ing majority of Americans are sick There will always be a segment would be lower, at least in the be­ and tired of the way the amoral of our society who can't handle ginning. liberals are trying to corrupt our change who will organize to stop the world. There will always be 2. Bookstores could advertise nation from its conrnitment to free­ intelligent men and women who will and announce via leaflets a "we de­ dom, democracy, traditional moral­ use that pain and terror for self­ liver" service. Phone orders could ity, and the free enterprise sys^ promotion. Big frogs in little be delivered the same day. A small tern.' puddles live very well indeed, as delivery fee would be acceptable as 'But how can I be silent about they croak. They wrap themselves reasonable by those who want home the cancers that are destroying the in the Flag, in the Home, in Mom, delivery. moral fiber of our nation? 'But as God gives me strength and the way things were when they 3. Door-to-door book salesper­ ---I must do more. I must go into were kids...and they have a fine sons who would carry a stock of new the halls of Congress and fight for time being Spokesmen and Leaders, releases in their cars, or who would laws that will protect the grand being paid attention to, catered accept orders and deliver next-day. old flag-••1 to, wined and dined...and often The salesperson could leave a book­ 'Will you join me in this bold well laid. listing sheet/leaflet at each door venture? Will you help me save our Instead of riding the wave they which promises home delivery of phone grand old flag from going down the are resisting. They sure make a orders. A connission would be paid drain?' lot of noise as they drown, don't on each sale via phone. they? This fund raising circular is 4. The establishment of thous­ signed by Jerry Falwell. He asks (Metaphors and similes courtesy ands of special interest sf/fantasy for a contribution of $10, $25, or FIGURES OF SPEECH LTD.) bookstores in small cities. The $100. overhead would have to be very low The cancers he's worried about and the use of unused garages, are homosexuals in classrooms and basements with outside doors, etc. pulpits, smut peddlers selling would be appropriate. A setup kit ft You had to have noticed that "The pornographic books, X-rated movies Affair of Logical Lunatics" by Phil­ of suggestions, do's and don'ts allowed in almost every coimimity, would have to be developed by the ip Jose Farmer is not with us this television channels showing R-rated issue. I am coming to the reluc­ franchise organization. There are movies and sex and violence, and, all kinds of local ordinances which tant conclusion that Phil doesn't legalized abortion. want that piece reprinted in a fan- might limit this home bookstore ap­ His problem is that his narrow­ proach. based ignorant, lower class, es- I can see all kinds of problems 7 ALIEN THOUGHTS CONTINUED ON P. 21 Jf £ MAt> A HAMMER, £'J> M0RMIV6, x, I«t> HAMMER iM THE. « if Ev6AiiM6 j ALt 0V6R THl^ tAHO--.

"British SF in the 1970s belonged to Ian Watson", says David Pingle of FOUNDATION. "Watson may not be the best writer in British science fic­ tion, but he is probably the best thinker", enthuses Peter Nicholls of ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF SF fame. "There is no other writer in the field who provides such a bold challenge to the imagination", insists Brian Stap­ leford. It was with fear and tremb­ ling that SFR girded itself for this interview.... Ian Watson was bom in North Shields in 1943, and twenty years later escaped our educational system inn uinison INTERVIEWED BY DAVID LANGFORD with a degree in English from Balli­ his only collection to date, reached Your intrepid reporter approach­ ol, Oxford. Subsequently he lectur­ the final Hugo ballot; GOD'S WORLD ed Ian Watson at work, crouching ed on English in Tanzania (1965-7) (1979); THE GARDENS OF DELIGHT (1980); 1,000 feet beneath Moreton Pinkney and Tokyo (1967-70), meeting his most and UNDER HEAVEN'S BRIDGE, with Mich­ in the deep structure of the semantic terrifying challenge teaching Future ael Bishop (1981). His latest novel mine where this skilled artisan hacks Studies at Birmingham Polytechnic is DEATHHUNTER (Gollanez, October out his novels in an atmosphere of (1970-6). Since then he's been a 1981). Forthcoming are two Watson- sweat and toil. Still weary from a full-time author, though his career edited Science Fiction anthologies: long shift wielding his meta-cleaver began in 1969 when his short SF PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION (Grey­ at the reality interface, he brushed story, "Roof Garden Under Saturn" stoke Mobray, November 1981)and ----- loose concepts from his soiled cover­ was published in NEW WORLDS and his co-edited with Michael Bishop ----- all before squatting to share a trad­ educational book JAPAN: A CAT'S EYE CHANGES (1982). itional chip butty with me. The typ­ VIEW in Osaka. ically proletarian surroundings sug­ Ian Watson was British Guest of gested an obvious first question — Fame and power came with his first Honor at the 1981 British National Science Fiction Convention (where science fiction novel, THE EMBEDDING SFRi In his book of interviews, (1973), a runner-up for the John W. his short "The World SF Convention DREAM MAKERS, Charles Platt describes Campbell Memorial Award and Nebula of 2080" was a runner-up for the you as an Oxford academic. I gather finalist. Its French translation BSFA Award), and is Features Editor you objected rather forcibly to this? L'ENCHASSEMENT won the 1975 Prix Ap­ of the respected critical magazine Indeed, within hours of his visiting ollo. Then came THE JONAH KIT (1975) FOLNIATION, British representative you, you and Judy and Jessica quit whose paperback won the 1978 British of the Science Fiction Writers of Am­ Oxford forever, for the fair village Science Fiction Association (BSFA) erica, deviser of the forthcoming of Moreton Pinkney untold miles award; THE WOMAN FACTORY, a collab­ Channel 4 TV series, MINDPROBE (to away. oration with his wife Judy though which he's also contributing the not their daughter Jessica (publish­ first and other scripts), and active in local (Labour) politics. He lives WATSON: Charles was unloading his ed only in French translation as own hang-ups about Oxford and Cam­ ORGASMACHINE, 1976 ----- but see be­ in Moreton Pinkney, Northainptonshire, and talks very fast. bridge onto my head. His hang-ups low!) ; THE MARTIAN INCA and ALIEN were about the "horrors of academia". EMBASSY (1977); MIRACLE VISITORS * * * * The reason why we ended up hating Ox­ (1978); THE VERY SLOW TIME MACHINE ford was because of the privileged (1979) ----- the title story of this, 8 frivolity of the place, its narcis­ sism and power, and its brain-twist­ Presently the case came up in ing grip upon the arteries of Brit­ court. We hadn't been in a court ish life and thought. The only before, so we sat in on the previous reason I would like to go back to case to observe procedure, then I Oxford is to demolish those colleges defended us. We were let off with stone by stone and distribute the no fine and no court costs, and the building materials around the land. police prosecuting officer came over Apart from their intellectually numb­ afterwards and said, "I should like ing effect, and their social hegemony; to congratulate you on your lucid the Oxford colleges came out in presentation of the evidence, and, their true colours as rich exploit­ what's more, on having done the deed ers towards the end of our stay. in the first place." But we did Which is why Judy and I were both have to refund the damage. So I arrested for criminal damage, short­ claimed it from the Inland Revenue ly before Charles called. as a tax-deductible business expense, since the disturbance had been inter­ SFR: Eh? You were arrested? I fering with work and lowering my in­ mean, I blew up a pillar box at Ox­ come, and I had taken action to de­ ford, but ... fend my business. While pointing out that there are grounds in law WATSON: I don't know if you know for disallowing this sort of thing, this, but in that pillar box was the the Revenue agreed to accept it this first letter I ever wrote to John to stop wrecking their living and time. Brunner. Only the charred fragments working conditions. There were com­ But Oxford was Poison City now, of the envelope were left, but the plaints to the Public Health, etcet­ because what had happened had direct post office delivered them to John, era. Without result. I was losing economic roots in the bahaviour of and he sent them back to me. When sleep. I couldn't think to write. I opened the envelope and burnt the colleges. What had always been scraps of my own letter to him fell An 84-year-old, one-eyed woman latent, in happier times, now be­ out, I thought, "My God, I've really living over the road hobbled across came manifest. When we left, the offended him!" You nearly ruined a one night waving her walking stick, street was like a row of gaping rot­ beautiful friendship with John Brun­ threatening to push in a window, ten teeth, about to be crowned with ner. she was so distraught. We deterred gold. It's educational, becoming a her, and ... we did it for her. criminal. Iimediately one joins the SFR: I grovel utterly. But why were When the row started up one evening majority of the population. you arrested? after daughter Jessie had gone to bed, and we were eating sqpper, SFR: I know, I know. Later on, WATSON: The Oxford colleges are we said, "Okay, that's it", and in a they got me for blowing up my col­ huge landlords. (You can walk all co-ordinated 45-second operation lege ... But if we could diverge the way from Oxford to Hyde Park, Judy and I took out all his windows, wildly, onto the subject of writing? or down to Southhampton docks, with­ front and back, with bricks and a Let's try the traditional questions out ever leaving Oxford-owned soil.) hamner, and went back to get on with -- like why do you write, and why The property boom was on at the time, our supper. write science fiction? and St J—'s college went crazy with greed because of the rise in central SFR: That reminds me__ have an­ WATSON: I reach a larger audience city house prices. The pressure was other chip butty? 1han by talking to people individual­ really on for the old tenants to get ly. So I can disseminate ideas more out -- even if the houses just stood WATSON: Thanks ... Soon police widely. In the past, maybe I would enpty, while they coasted upward in boots were pounding around the block, have been a traveling preacher or a value. The old street community hunting the assailants. And eventu­ peripatetic philosopher. was being wrecked, and replaced by ally a couple of passing police Why science fiction? Because rich middle-class property owners knocked on our door, and said, "Do it's a thinking literature. (Or at -- which hardly helped the students you happen to know anything about least it can be.) or the academics of Oxford, whom tEe colleges nominally ought to have "Yes, we did it", said Judy and I. SFR: By "a thinking literature" do cared about. "Dons" were being forc­ you imply that (as an "ideas" man) ed to take out punitive mortgages The policeman staggered back, you find complex ideas can be put in their middle years. A highly- amazed. over without so much gift-wrapping-- regarded Professor next door to us "Then ... then ..." he gasped, so many concealing layers of meta­ was squeezed far out into the sub­ "I arrest you for criminal damage." phor, as would be necessary outside urbs while all the money he had science fiction? spent on the house and garden vanish­ So off we were hauled to the cop ed into the coffers of his own col­ shop, and Jessie too, pulled out of WATSON: To answer with a metaphor: lege. bed by a sudden infusion of police­ at the Annual Horticultural Show in women, and even her Rupert Bear. In this way, the house next door Mareton Pinkney this year, one of to us got sold -- to a small-time ex­ We explained what had been going the table flower arrangements was ploiter, who packed it with rowdies on, and they said they'd lock us up censured for having the "mechanics who kept people awake night after for the night unless we promised not showing" if you squinted closely night, while he was living somewhere to go back and do it again. Judy re­ enough; I don't agree with this way else. He also hired in people to fused, but I pointed out that since of judging flower arrangements. bang and thunp after working hours, all the windows were already bpaken, "improving his property". Our whole we couldn't possibly do it again. end of the street was going mad with So they phoned for a taxi for us. SFR: Your fans will all be aware the unceasing disturbances. The sur­ that at that very show, you were rounding ten households signed a awarded the Winifred Jackson Memor­ petition to the owner calling on him 9 ial Perpetual Challenge Cup for the Best Front Flower Garden, yet another Press, in Soho.) About a year later linguistics came largely when I was coming amendment to your ENCYCLOPAED­ when I wanted to know what had hap­ teaching future studies back in Birm­ IA OF SF entry.' But, SF ... actual­ pened, he revealed that he had sub­ ingham, in the company of a psychol­ ly your first book JAPAN: A CAT'S mitted it unsuccessfully ... Well, ogist and semiotics fellow, and a EYE VIEW, wasn't SF, was it? I also not exactly to the Society for the social anthropologist. I was self- had the ingress ion you'd written Propagation of Christian Knowledge taught, since Oxford didn't teach me some odd things to keep the, er, and to Oxford University Press, but any language theory, but only Lit. thoat from the door -- when we first almost. Had he popped upstairs with Grit, and the history of sound changes met in the early 70s, you remarked it, to Olynpia? Not likely. So I from Anglo-Saxon onwards, and how to with a curled lip that a certain sent the book myself to Olympia; translate Middle English texts about Priest who shall remain nameless had they said, "Great!" and zoomed it nuns' underwear. THE EMBEDDING grew written soft-pom potboilers, but straight over to the New York office out of my own discovery of the "soft" aristocratic Watson wouldn't lower -- and a couple of weeks later we sciences at the time, plus the pol­ himself to write less than hard pom. saw a newspaper article about how itical impetus of having lived in a Olympia Press had just gone bankrupt. developing country in the third world WATSON: . I didn't write A CAT'S EYE Your remark about my aristocrat­ VIEW to keep the wolf from the door. ic mien is interesting, since this SFR; So that's what you brought from I was being well-paid by the Japan­ can only be a product of inner grace. outside the science fiction genre? ese Ministry of Education at the The only aristocrats I resemble are What about influences from outside, time. The project was suggested by Swinburne and Toulouse-Lautrec, both if any? a Japanese educational publisher. Their Government had actually paid of whom were dwarfs. (As am I, due to my Northern working class origin.) WATSON: While I was lying about on (!) to fly our tabby cat out to Tok­ Oxford lawns reading Ernest Dowson A la lanterne, les aristos! yo with us -- and a Japanese classic with one hand, with the other I was of daily life in the Meiji Era (just schizophrenically clutching van Vogt. after Japan was forcibly opened to SFR: Turning with an immense effort back to science fiction ... One of But science fiction seemed a bit the West) is I AM A CAT, by Natsume the impressive things about your like masturbation, a furtive pleasure Soseki: contemporary life seen which must be kept secret. I only first novel THE EMBEDDING is the dis­ through a cat's eyes. So I decided got my head together about science play of expertise in numerous areas to write a 1960s version of Tokyo fiction in Tokyo, where it was a -- the traditional space flight and life, seen through a British cat's tool for survival -- though I had alien contact, yes, but also politics eyes. The book has gone on selling been reading the genre since I was and anthropology and underdeveloped ever since. eleven or twelve. I tend to have countries and, especially, linguis­ been influenced by the genre as a I wrote another one for the same tics. Was all this part of your ex­ publisher in 1977: JAPAN TOMORROW -- isting intellectual furniture, or whole, rather than by a short list a science fiction storybook for the was some swotted up for the novel? of books and authors. same high school market, about alter­ native futures for Japan. WATSON: The politics "began" after SFR: But if you had to draw up a I left the gilded pleasaunce of Ox­ short list of authors you admire? SFR: Now, let's hear the bit our ford University life for the Social­ readers are waiting for. ist Republic of Tanzania. The pos­ WATSON: As of now: Michael Bishop, sibility of writing something mean­ Barrington Bayley, Philip Dick (mid­ WATSON: Hard Pom, ah ... In a toy­ ingful began then too -- since my dle period), John Brunner, for examp­ shop in Tokyo called Kiddyland, which greatest dream in Oxford as a stu­ le. My very favourite book is David catered to the American army, we dent had been to write decadent beau­ Lindsay's A VOYAGE TO ARCTURUS, and picked up almost all of the innova­ teous prose: a mixture of Beardsley, indeed I wanted (and it's still my tive Essex House novels -- innovative Huysmans, Walter Pater and Ronald ambition) to write the sequel to in the sense that they were an at­ Firbank -- though the necessity of this. I wrote two chapters of the sequel, but Gollancz deterred me tempt to produce speculative, intel­ writing science fiction only became from continuing -- and they own the ligent, artistic, satirical, social­ fully apparent when we got to Japan. copyright. To me, my chapters seem­ ly critical pornography. (So of I began writing science fiction, ed like Lindsay reborn, though not, course the series was squashed, as deep in future shock at the Japanese alas, to Gollancz. I was told that soon as the controlling company re­ 21st Century landscape of high-tech my idea of Lindsay wasn't their idea alized what was going on -- subver­ toys and eco-horror, as a survival of Lindsay. Lindsay is atmospheric; sion through sex.) This was porno­ mechanism. The anthropology and graphy as attack, not as wank-fantasy. I am philosophical, said they. Ac­ As in my THE WOMAN FACTORY, a novel of woman's liberation. A contract is being signed right now, with Play­ boy Paperbacks, for a new and improv­ ed edition, with a totally rewritten storyline. In the retrospect of 10 years, the book could do with rewrit­ ing. This will be the first English language edition.

And if I might say so, THE WOMAN FACTORY is one of the reasons why I don't have a literary agent. Arriv­ ing back in the UK, and believing that all real writers have agents, though knowing that this novel was a dead cert for Olympia Press, I got an agent (who shall be nameless) to market it. (He did, incidentally, occupy the floor beneath Olympia tually, this shows a thorough misun­ in the problem of "the reality of ing there, in order to understand derstanding of Lindsay, and as far reality". And if I hadn't solved it, their own reality. as I'm concerned, what I wrote is by coirpleting the book, I feared still Lindsay Reborn. This is a pro­ that I wouldn't be able to write any­ SFR: The "transition period" also ject that I will take up again one thing honestly again. In a sense, seems to mark a division between day, such as when ARCTURUS goes in­ this is a problem that confronts books dealing with social and polit­ to public domain in about 1990.... any author who begins to worry about ical reality, and later ones where the nature of the reality that he or this enphasis vanishes in favour of SFR: Watson and ARCTURUS, good she is creating in a book. One ans­ metaphysics -- more and more ab­ grief! Sounds like your earlier wer is to begin writing "meta-texts", stract .... novels with their yoking together of fiction about fiction, meta-litera- wildly different elements. We've ture. But in my case the problem of WATSON: This isn't really true, be­ mentioned THE EMBEDDING --in THE the reality, and explicability, of cause the books form an evolutionary JONAH KIT there's whale communication the universe itself. sequence (or at least I hope so!). It would have been quite possible to plus mind transfer plus extremely far- So, as you say, in GW and THE out cosmology, and of course, the dish up another third world/conscious­ GARDENS OF DELIGHT, the whole caboodle unlikely connection shows up right in the title of THE MARTIAN INCA. Any profound comments?

WATSON: it wasn't a deliberate trick. It's just the way I think. Possibly, as regards narrative inter­ weaving, I was influenced by Graham Greene, possibly by the structure of Wagner's music dramas with their leit­ motifs. I read a lot of Greene and listened to a lot of Wagner, once.

SFR: Let's have a look at the Themes of your work to date, your Messages for Mankind, all that. The obvious theme is the examination of reality, starting with mere different view­ points in the earlier books, through a kind of transition period in ALIEN EMBASSY (various official realities for various levels of enlightenment), to the sequence starting with MIRACLE VISITORS where the ground gets treach­ erous underfoot and objective reality becomes more and more dubious. In VISITORS people can't grasp the "higher reality" of strange phenomena like UFOs without becoming part of it and thus strange, non-objective phenomena themselves. Later, in GOD'S WORLD and GARDENS OF DELIGHT, whole realities have to be created from scratch by an act of imagina­ tion before they can be explored ... I remember you saying those last two were essentially mirror images of each other because -- but you put these things much more beautifully than I could hope to.

WATSON: You're right about the "tran­ sition period" in my books, though I has to be created from scratch -- ness novel -- but this would have myself would tend to say that MIRACLE hauled up by its own bootstraps. been just repetition; it wouldn't VISITORS marks the transition. The (Just as physical existence itself have been an honest exploration of books up to then had been about the is hauled up, perhaps, by its own the themes inherent in the earlier nature of reality, consciousness and bootstraps.) GW and GARDENS are mir­ books. It would have been the mere perception, yes, but they were in a ror images in the sense that, in the production of a "politically cor­ sense "innocent” books. They pro­ former, the journey to an objective rect" commodity. By taking my themes ceeded quite spontaneously (albeit alien world is presented as a journ­ off Earth for a while, into the out­ plotted in advance). I, the author, ey through imaginative space, the er space "laboratory", I've worked was safely outside the reality prob­ physical starship journey being also my way round ("by a commodius vicus lems confronting the characters. a journey through the imagination -- of recirculation", as James Joyce By which I mean that I was involved whereas, in the latter, the creators put it) back to the triple theme of in my characters' destinies, but my (who are also the inhabitants) of the the nature of reality, power and its own destiny wasn't in danger. Where­ alien Bosch-world have to imagine misues, and utopia/dystopia, in as in MIRACLE VISITORS (which the (and create) a human starship arriv- DEAIHHUNTER. Also, the flip-side of themes of the earlier books led to) political commitment and criticism I myself was embroiled, as author, 11 of abuses is, in fact, the yearning of GOD'S WORLD and what I'd heard thing to change this, even if we all for utopia. (Politics may be the about its taking a long time to sell get blasted into radioactive dust as art of the possible, but Socialism in paperback? a result. This is the bankruptcy of is at heart the striving for utopia} the supposedly autonomous aesthetic Insofar as GW and GARDENS represent WATSON: GW sold British paperback stance. No wonder he likes the band two very different, and not necessar­ rights very quickly, for the highest Status Quo! ily trustworthy, utopias, they are advance to date, or since. (The re­ part of the earlier progression, the cession started shortly afterwards.) SFR: Ouch, I hope that's just a search for the earthly paradise. It didn't sell at all in America. snide comnent on poor old Chris rath­ No doubt one of the reasons for that er than a suggestion that didactic SFR: These two in particular also is that GW is a somewhat up-market writers such as the later Heinlein contain fairly conplicated exposi­ book. But I was also messed aroind stand to the left of the mere aes­ tions of "God" and the universe, imcredibly for ages by a certain Big thetes .... which take up a good many words. Do Name Editor over there, and if a nov­ you think this is why some critics el hasn't sold after a while in Amer­ WATSON: You've got me there, squire. accuse you of being arid, of simply ica, there's a certain tendency to Cunning devil, aren't you? lecturing? regard it as having gone stale or sour. Like yesterday's doughnut. SFR: No comnent. A word more on ac­ WATSON: Well, I've been accused of tual writing, now — your settings, that -- but on the other hand I've SFR: Is GW your favourite book? for example. Although you've got a also been praised for precisely the Have you a favourite book amongst nice line in Third World locales, opposite. I think it all depends on your own? Also though here it may I'm surprised we don't see more use the level of ambition of the reader, be Fifth Amendment time, I wonder of your experiences of science-fic­ or critic. There's also such a thing whether you have a least favourite tional Tokyo? as fixed ideas among critics and re­ Watson book...? viewers. For example, in a THRUST WATSON: I have used Japan a fair interview with J.G. Ballard, when WATSON: Which is my favourite fing­ bit, in THE JONAH KIT and then in they happen to discuss my books in er? I would rather rephrase this: UNDER HEAVEN'S BRIDGE with Mike Bish­ passing ... now, where is it? Which book am I most emotionally op. But I don’t really write auto­ connected with, still? (Though even biography, you see. I'd just as soon (He searches through his tool this is false, as it suggests that steep myself in a country I've never kit, tossing thanatoscopes and es- I have divorced myself from the been to, and then invent it. "Ima­ chatometers out onto the ground.) others.) But ... well, MIRACLE VIS­ gination is not memory", said Wil­ Oh, yes, here we are. The inter­ ITORS was the most dangerous book to liam Blake; and if we can't invent viewer says to Ballard: "So you're write. Not merely because UFOs start­ unvisited countries on our own globe, still, to put it crudely, an 'ideas' ed manifesting themselves closer and say I, then how on Earth are we go­ man rather than a 'style' man? Some closer to Oxford, as though they ing to invent alien planets? people have faulted Watson as a lit­ were homing in on me, but because of erary stylist". And Ballard answers what I said earlier. SFR: Let me have a tiny pinch of salt for my chip butty before I ask in puzzlement, "He's got a good style, My least favourite book is a pre­ about Watson Characters ... The hasn't he? He's a good descriptive tentious novel I wrote in Oxford as a ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF SF, here a mere writer ... He can set a scene. I student, called THE INFANT GLADIATOR. mouthpiece of Peter Nicholls, would think he's got a good style..." The It strove mightily for effect, but I have it that your characters are point being, that Jim Ballard didn't was merely writing. (Oscar Wilde, to mostly afflicted with anomie to the know till then that I was supposed his Aunt: "My dear, one doesn't to have an "arid" style, or lack of point where they become indisting­ write about things. One merely uishable. How do you plead? it. He'd just been reading the books writes.") themselves. No one had told him. No one had injected this bit of crit­ WATSON: Actually, most people are ical colouring into his appreciation. SFR: Chris Priest and you have had indistinguishable from each other, So maybe it isn't true at all. rousing arguments on approaches to most of the time. They are in a science fiction: To sunniarize with ground state, and tend to collapse SFR: But how does a "fashionable" all my characteristic crudity, it back constantly into the ground judgment like that become fashion­ seemed to be Watson the Didactic Vs. state, from their brief moments of able? Priest the Aesthetic. "Neither pre­ high existence. Constant high exis­ cedes the other, but aesthetics, tence, and wildly differentiated in­ WATSON: Well, I've spoken out in rendered sufficiently high, can dividuality, is a consoling artistic favour of "ideas-fiction", and have trounce didacticism any time!" said fiction ... of novels, films, plays. written several polemical essays Chris in FOUNDATION 10. Now, five A theme of my books is the self-re- about science fiction as a "didactic" years after that stage of the debate, progranuiing of human consciousness, literature: It's assumed that I'm how do the positions look to you? to escape from this ground state. sinply making a virtue of my own "faults" and it's assumed further­ WATSON: Well, we did start that off, SFR: Speaking of differentiated in­ more that my characters must be dif­ as co-editors at the time, to get a dividuality, I nust say that liter­ ferent from the warm, breathing per­ rousing debate going. The Didact ary collaboration has fascinated me sonae one is conned into accepting versus Aesthete business really con­ ever since I first shared a bottle into one's bosom, elsewhere. People ceals an underlying political bias, of plonk: How did the Bishop/Watson associate ideas with dryness, and which really came to the fore when novel INDER HEAVEN'S BRIDGE cone oppose this in a simple binary way my dear, misguided mate Chris pro­ about? The aliens in it are pure to warm human emotion, characteriza­ claimed at the Leeds convention, dur­ Bishop (from CATACOMB YEARS and A tion, well-crafted style. This is ing the debate on whether science LITTLE KNOWLEDGE); their cybernetic as simple-minded as a traffic light ficticn should support causes, that God is pure Watson. I had visions of switching from red to green. Britain is an occupied country '(oc­ it starting with a phone call: "Hey, cupied by America) and that we could Ian, can you do me some metaphysics? SFR: I'd wondered about a connec­ not, and should not, try to do any- or "Hey, Mike, can I borrow some tion between ambition and complexity 12 aliens until next Thursday?" conscious memory of news footage of ing theory about death. But then the last US troops scrambling for the solving of the problem required the last helicopter out of Saigon, relocating the action of the story, and I think he might have been right. into a society much more occupied I arrived at the 2nd French SF Cong­ with their own theory of death. Out ress in Angouleme, after two days of which the narrative of the novel out of touch, to find everyone in could then evolve. Then spontaneous the hotel lounge staring at the TV narrative took over, since the ending screen, just as the last helicopter of the book -- the last 2 chapters -- was lifting off.) We both polished came as a complete double surprise the text, and it was all done, pretty to me. speedily and without problems or dis­ agreements. The book grew outwards SFR: Me too. Now, all I know of organically from a centre, rather the novel after DEATHHUNTER is that than being written chapter by chap­ you've mentioned a "comic" approach ter, turn by turn. ... that right?

SFR: Onward to your newest book, DEATHHUNTER, which grew from your WATSON: Yes, that's the book we're (damn good, I thought) short "A talking about. It's a slapstick com­ Cage for Death" .... edy, concerning the theme of the su­ perhuman. Maybe there's too much WATSON: The story in OMNI, yes. slap and not enough stick? But it Actually, the novel has some of the was the book that I felt like writ­ same scenes, but otherwise, a dif­ ing at the time. Now I'm in the ferent setting entirely, and charac­ preliminary stages of a wholly new ters are shifted around and renamed. science fiction novel, about which DEATHHUNTER is an expansion of the all I'm prepared to say is that it idea, rather than of the text of the is set in 19th Century Russia. I'm story. Chapter One of DEATHHUNTER back from off-world, with a vengearne. is by no means "A Cage for Death", in the way that "Of Mist, and Grass, SFR: But your next book is in fact and Sand" is Chapter One of DREAM­ your first attenpt at editing an SNAKE. anthology, PICTURES AT AN EXHIBI­ TION. This, as I know too well, has SFR: I suppose the novel and short one of the most warped approaches story forms are so different that of any original anthology I've met. the odds are against such an approach What sparked it off? working. WATSON: This is to be published by Lionel Fanthorpe's Grey stoke Mobray WATSON: I was fascinated by Mike's WATSON: Well, exactly. If a short story works successfully as a story, publishing venture. Until I met Lion­ alien Cygnusians in CY and ALK and el my kneejerk reaction was, "God, wrote --we write to each other fre­ then simply making it into Chapter One of a novel verbatim by no means that foul hack!" Fifteen secpnds quently -- asking if he was going to after meeting him, I realized he's do a story set on their home world, guarantees a successful novel. If anything, the opposite is likely! a wonderful human being. He was since they certainly deserve^ it. wanting to publish an original anth­ He said he wasn't planning such, but ology ... We batted ideas around, why didn't I do it, or why didn't we SFR: Just been reading proofs of DEATHHUNTER (got my chip butty wrap­ and as I'd just written GARDENS, set both do it together? So I nipped out in a Bosch painting, I thought of all and did some research on 61 Cygni ped in them, actually): I liked the way an almost conventional and vague­ the other paintings that it would be (separation of the binary stars, spec­ interesting to enter, hence the orig­ tral classes, etc.) and discovered ly satirical narrative suddenly starts throwing up disorienting inal idea. But they needed a frame­ to my dismay that we couldn't use work, and this emerged from the fer­ 61 Cygni after all. So I invented shocks, beginning with the onstage appearance of Death itself (from tile brain of Roger Campbell, a mem­ the Gemini system instead, and wrote ber of the Norwich Science Fiction sections of the tale (which was go­ "Cage") and then topping even that ing to be a novella at this stage) several times. An accessible book, and mailed them to Mike. Looking at especially since the point of death, the sections I wrote, in retrospect, and after, must be where metaphysics

Things and events can't be dis­ 15. I was busy translating one of missed as unreal, Watson seems to my MADIGRALS MACABRE into Mart­ say, merely because they lurk in ian on the morning I was found "imagination space". You might acceptable. have to create your own afterlife by an act of imagination when the 15 CITY By Clifford D. Simak Ace, Paperback, $2.75

Closer to fable than to straight science fiction, this award-winning classic, now published with a new ep­ ilog, tells how humans desert Earth, leaving behind their robots and ani­ mals. Dogs with artificially boost­ ed intelligence and the power of speech form their own peaceful, pas­ toral civilization with the help of the robots, who act as their hands. The eight stories and epilog that make up CITY cover many thousands of years and are connected by scholarly commentaries debating whether such odd beings as "humans" and such ir­ it gradually verges toward melodrama his powers are gripping. And from rational constructs as "cities" and concludes with a series of un­ the downbeat and inconclusive end­ could really ever have existed or surprising revelations right out of ing of OZYMANDIAS, it's a good bet are pure myth, invented by early Dog­ a 1950s EC Comic. Despite the dis­ that a third volume will be coming gish storytellers. Despite some out­ appointing ending, however, it is before long. dated material on the technological not the kind of book you can put reasons for the disappearance of hu­ down once you start it. man cities (most of the stories were written in the forties), CITY remains one of a handful of science fiction IN THE HANDS OF GLORY books that should be required read­ By Phyllis Eisenstein ing for everyone, whether they norm­ Pocket Books, Paperback, $2.75. ally read science fiction or not. GUARDIAN By Thomas F. Monteleone When the Stellar Federation Fawcett, Paperbk, $2.25 broke up, twenty ships of the now defunct Federation Patrol took over OZYMANDIAS the human-colonized planet of Amphora By Thomas F. Monteleone ostensibly to provide protection from INHERIT THE EARTH Doubleday, $10.95 By Irma Walker the "Outsiders". Now Dia Catlin, a Atheneum, $12.95. In GUARDIAN the supercomputer gung-ho Patrol pilot captured and that controlled the defenses of the nursed back to health by Amphoran Shea is, among other things, a Citadel in the last days of the war rebels, begins to doubt the purity telepath and a pyrokinetic. Because that brought an end to the First Age of Patrol motives, past and present; of her slow physical and mental mat­ is rediscovered by a small band of and eventually turns her back on ev­ uration --in her thirties at the end adventurers. eryone in the Patrol, even her own of the book, she appears to be still parents. in her teens -- she was thought to In OZYMANDIAS, it is, at its be retarded so none of her family own request, "made human", its mem­ In some ways, IN THE HANDS OF objected when a mysterious govern­ ories transferred to an artificially GLORY is a space opera not unlike ment agency took her off their hands, grown body with numerous latent something out of PLANET STORIES and a good one, at that. The only trouble secreting her in a mountain hideaway psy powers. It names itself Ozy­ is that the treatment reminds one a where they can study her various mandias in honor of the poem by talents and try to figure out ways Shelley, a First Age poet, and sets bit of a John Wayne movie turned up­ of using them. When the hideaway is out with a First Age cyborg to learn side down. That is, the "message" destroyed and her captors killed, "what it is like to be human" and about fascist-like militarists (the Shea escapes and is raised by a back- possibly to restore the science and Patrol) is overly obvious, and the woods family in the area. Unfortun­ civilization of the First Age. De­ heroine's "conversion" is far from ately, she spends much of the rest spite an episodic story line and oc­ believable. It seems apparent that, of the book escaping from various casionally jarring anachronisms in despite the Patrol propaganda she factions wishing to make use of her the dialog, Monteleone's picture of mouths enthusiastically at the start, abilities for less than desirable this desolate far-future world -- she was never really "one of them" ends. INHERIT THE EARTH starts ex­ the Slaglands, the Mantag Depression, and was just waiting around to have cellently, at times reminiscent of the Ironfields, etc. -- are often her eyes opened to the truth. a cross between Stephen King and El- impressive, and Ozymandias' adven­ Still, none of this really gets na Stone (VISIONS OF ESMAREE), but tures as he learns to make use of in the way of the story, and there is a bit of cynicism directed at the rebel motives, too, perhaps to make up for the stacked deck the Patrol BOOK REVIEWS BY GENE DEWEESE was dealt. AT THE EYE OF THE OCEAN fools-of-bumbling-bureaucratic- BEYOND THE IMPERIUM aliens" stories. But here the "bright By Keith Laumer By Hilbert Schenck Pinnacle/Tor, $2.75, Paperback. Pocket Books, Paperback, $2.50. earthman" is an Indiana carpenter killed by a train in 1943 and then, a An entire universe, past and pres­ In 1840's Cape Cod, young Abel few thousand years in the future, faultily resurrected to be a slave, ent, is wiped out fairly early in Roon learns that he is mystically this sequel to the 1962 WORLDS OF linked to the seemingly living org­ laborer. And the "aliens" are the regimented and brainwashed Amazonian THE IMPERIUM, but that's okay. It's anism that makes up the world's not our universe, and an infinity of oceans. Able to sense its motions women who resurrected him to work in a small, isolated and futuristically other universes on other time lines and moods as well as those of the still exist, at least for now. The creatures that inhabit it, Roon be­ self-sufficent town in the middle of what used to be Indiana. The resur- narrator, a transplanted diplomat comes a godlike figure to those he from our own time line, is the only works with while transporting ship­ rectee, thinking and speaking, logic­ ally enough, in forties slang cliches, survivor because he luckily and inad­ loads of escaped slaves to freedom vertently slipped into Null Time just in Canada. Told in slow, almost seems to maintain a bemused air throughout, and you get the feeling before the destruction. It's now up archaic first person narratives by to him to race across countless time Roon and his bride, Hope Mayhew, and that, regardless of his perilous ad­ ventures in trying to escape from the lines, escape from certain death a by her parents, the story nonetheless half dozen times, find out who de­ keeps you fascinated from first page bumbling Amazons, he's never really in serious danger. All in all, an enjoy­ stroyed the universe and somehow to last with its larger-than-life restore it, all in the first half of characters and detailed picture of able but rather strange little book in which it's often hard to tell just this two-novel volume. Laumer spec­ 19th Century life. And the final ializes in fast and furious action sections have the most powerful sus­ how far the author's tongue is poked into his cheek. with new and mind-boggling (if gob- tained emotional impact of anything bledeygookish) discoveries and con­ I've encountered since the last time cepts thrown in every few pages, and I saw Thornton Wilder's "Our Town". BEYOND THE IMPERIUM is no exception. It's great fun as long as you don't stop to think too long, but then, you probably won't have the time. And for those who want to know how it all started, Pinnacle/Tor will next THE DINOSAURS year be publishing the less flamboy­ Text by William Service ant but actually more enjoyable Art by William Stout WORLDS OF THE IMPERIUM itself. Edited by Byron Preiss Bantam, $12.95, paperback.

THE DINOSAURS consists primarily of a series of short "dramatic nar­ ratives" of the imagined everyday □ life of dozens of varieties of dino­ saurs, profusely illustrated with Conan-style paintings and drawings. The narratives, says Dr. Peter Dodson STATUS QUOTIENT: THE CARRIER By Ralph A. Sperry in his introduction, have been creat­ A GLOW OF CANDLES Avon, $2.50, paperback. ed by "poetic license ... tempered By Charles L. Grant by facts, reasonable inferences and Berkley, Paperbk, $2.25 After thousands of years on the restrained speculation". The result, planet Ath, all humans but one des­ while interesting, is more than some­ A macabre twist on parental pos­ troy themselves in an inexplicable what frustrating, raising but not sessiveness and the old saw about orgy of killing. The one survivor answering countless questions. What turnabout being fair play; an unseen is an immortal "regenerative", and, could make this book truly fascinat­ milkman who, in addition to leaving through his slowly evolving percep­ ing would be an additional hundred skim and homogenized each morning, tions, there emerges a puzzling and pages of footnotes explaining what grants wishes in a way that reminds often contradictory picture of Ath the underlying facts are, where in­ one of THE MONKEY'S PAW, a desolate before and after the destruction. ference ends and speculation begins, conputerized future world in which, Did the humans destroy the "imitat­ and how much is pure poetic license. for one lone soul at least, dark pow­ ors", a possibly superior and cert­ Still, if nothing else, the book may ers still exist. These and nine ainly different race native to Ath, send a lot of people, as it did me, other novelets and short stories make or do the aliens still exist? Could heading for the library to look up up this collection by a Nebula-win­ they even have played an unseen hand more detailed accounts of the latest ning writer whose shorter works, at in the destruction of the humans? paleontological theories and discov­ their best, are reminiscent of the And what became of the Starship Pro­ eries. darker side of an early Ray Bradbury, ject, so near conpletion when the both in mood and style. destruction came? The answers are never spelled out unambiguously, and Occasionally the author's self- the carefully constructed, introspec­ proclaimed love for and involvement tive first-person narrative is often with Shakespeare are a bit much for slow going, but it grabs your int­ RESURRECTION DAYS a Shakespeare hater like myself, but erest on the first page and never By Wilson Tucker those are minor problems that didn't once lets go. For fans of "last Pocket Books, $2.75, paperback. for a minute keep me from enjoying man" stories, STATUS QUOTIENT: THE inmensely almost everything here, in­ CARRIER, is often reminiscent of In some ways, RESURRECTION DAYS cluding the author's anecdotal com­ George R. Stewart's classic EARTH seems a cross between Ron Goulart's mentaries on each story. ABIDES. frothy comic novels and Eric Frank Russell's "bright-earthman-makes- 17 Starduster.. .and with the help of AND THEN I READ.... the Ancient Mariner—an old space bum who had a sighting of the Beast many years before — searches and finds the creature in a vast dust­ quences of a basic social/cultural cloud. clash, types of justice, varieties Nicobar Lane and The Soul Eater of loyalties, of technologies, of share a telepathic emotional linkage moralities, the value systems of in­ that shakes him to his core. He dividualists, conpetents, incompet­ becomes obsessed with the need to ents . kill the Beast. He tracks it for The sympathies of Larry Niven decades, encounters it repeatedly... and Jerry Poumelle are with the and is unable to compell himself leaders and citizens of Todos San­ to destroy it even though he has a tos . They inply that a kind of New weapon capable of doing it. Medievalism is coming as a solution In the end... Well, THE SOUL to the anarchy and New Barbarism of EATER is an extraordinary love story. the present-day trends/reality. They BY THE EDITOR are hinting strongly that most citi­ zens will give up a degree of priv­ acy to insure safety, will accept often ruthless security procedures OATH OF FEALTY to insure their safety and to gain PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION By Larry Niven § Jerry Poumelle the privilege of working in a hard- Edited by Ian Watson Timescape/Pocket Books/Simon 5 money, self-reliant meritocracy. Graystoke Mobray Ltd. LI.75 [US$3.] Shuster, $13.95 129 City Road, This is a novel to make you In the near future, in America, Roath, Cardiff CF2 3BP, think. It challenges many precious Wales, UNITED KINGDOM in Los Angeles, federal and local givens and assumptions of present­ government is trapped in its high- day America. A few reviewers will An unusual anthology—eight tax, high-inflation, ever-more-wel­ call its authors names. stories [by Brian Stableford, Michael fare social and economic policies. But OATH OF FEALTY is excellent Bishop, David Langford, Chris Morgan, The payoff is higher crime, more science fiction--coherent, honest, Roger Campbell, Richard Downes, Pat­ social breakdown, more social con­ challenging, plausible, well-written. ricia and Lionel Fanthorpe, Ian Wat­ flict. son] with critical linking story ma­ In the burnt-out ruins of (I terial by Roger Campbell and Ian presume) southern Los Angeles, has Watson. been built with private money a The uniqueness of the idea is giant 'areology'—a two-mile-on- SLOW FALL TO DAWN that each writer tells a story based a-side, a fifth-of-a-mile-high By Stephen Leigh on a famous painting. Of course it structure called Todos Santos which Bantam, $2.25, 1981 is obvious they all wrote with cer­ houses and protects a quarter of a An assassins guild on the plan­ tain linkages in mind and with cer­ million citizens. And to a man et Neweden fights for acceptance tain restrictions. they consider themselves citizens and integrity. Its leader, the The result is uneven, often baf­ of Todos Santos. They have develop­ thane, has a crisis of identity and fling fragments which, even when the ed a separate, saparatist, elitist motivation which creates climactic vital background information is re­ loyalty...a fealty...to this giant vealed in the final few "linkage" structure, its way-of-life, its own­ problems. Good medieval society of guilds pages, do not seem to be anything ers and its leaders...and themselves. portrayal with the overlay of high more than irrelevant filler. This loyalty and this social technology and Alliance-of-planets Granted, the stories, anecdotes, organization is medieval-like, and diplomats in the mixture. and vignettes here accumulated, is an insult and a contrast, and A small cast of characters, good written around famous paintings' con­ a constant goad to the "lesser" citi­ characterization, good action. tent, are in themselves interesting zens of surrounding Los Angeles who A small scale, narrow focus sci­ and intriguing, they lack coherence. resent the wealth, safety and happi­ ence fiction novel that doesn't de­ The basic flaw in this anthology ness of the residents of Todos Sant­ pend on the-fate-of-mankind to hold is its baffling, mysterious, opaque os . attention. meaning from beginning to the very Ecology oriented terrorists/soc- end. The adventures of Enin as he ialists have been attacking literal­ wears the "total sensory" helmet to ly and figuratively the structure experience lessons in humanity after and the culture and the "concentrat­ THE SOUL EATER By Mike Resnick he is taken from his Home in a str­ ed waste of precious natural resourc­ Signet, $2.25, 1981 ange, alien-like spaceworld are biz­ es" inherent in Todos Santos. arre and (to me) not obviously with As the novel begins a small band The M9BY DICK theme is melded to clear point. I'm left with the of idealistic, misguided college the FLYING DUTCHMAN legend in a grip­ feeling that Ian and the others are students, dressed as terrorists, car­ ping sf novel that follows hunter­ operating over my intellectual head, rying what appear to be dynamite and killer Nicobar Lane as he provides and I resent it. a bomb, using sophisticated electron­ exotic animals for museums on far I freely admit to being sometimes ic equipment to penetrate the advanc­ planets. He hunts on the fringes obtuse and thickheaded; yet I'm pat­ ed locks and telesurveilance monitors of humankind's section of the gal­ ently not stupid and probably in the of Todos Santos, have passed through axy, and is curiously a loner, a top 10% of the sf readership...so I an outside door marked: IF YOU GO man somehow incomplete. He lives to tend to think that if a story (or THROUGH THIS DOOR YOU WILL BE KILLED. kill... anthology linkage) escapes my under­ One of those killed is the son Until he encounters a spacebeast standing, it will probably baffle and of a powerful Los Angeles Councilman. which eats energy, a legendary crea­ anger at least 90% of the story's The plot and cast of characters ture called the Dreamwish Beast, or potential audience. in OATH OF FEALTY explore the conse­ 18 In this case I feel vaguely cheat­ ed; the idea that a parent freeworld ed P.I. with the usual soft spot in THE SHADOW MAN (bionic, massmind) has recreated a his heart. His client is Roger By John Lutz pair of the original species of man­ Rabbit, 'toon (cartoon) rabbit who Morrow, $10.95, 1981 kind for mating purposes, required is into an airtight contract with Martin Karpp, a deeply disturb­ for the "birth" of a new, young a comic strip syndicate owned by ed man with six separate personal­ freeworld—and has used famous pre­ the DeGreasy brothers. ities (one of whom assassinated a In this strange nowtime, 'toons spacelife paintings as a format with state governor) is in a federal are about half the population of which to "humanize" its humans — maximum security prison for the seems more a gimmick contrived by the world, but second class citizens criminally insane. as humans regard and treat them with Watson than a likely device by the Yet a psychiatrist who has been contempt. incredibly far-future creature des­ interviewing Karpp and investigating cribed in these pages. 'Toons talk with sound and oft­ the previous activities of the other en with word-filled balloons will ch I suppose my irritation with personalities inhabiting Karpp's come from their mouths or appear ov­ this anthology and its stories is mind/body—is murdered. er their heads...and iimediately dis­ with its purely intellectual ap­ U.S. Senator Jerry Andrews, integrate to dust. proach and the structure which vir­ friend of the psychiatrist, begins "Toons also have the ability, if tually prohibits reader identifica­ investigating the murder...and one- they concentrate real hard, to create tion and emotional involvement with by-one close associates of Karpp's doppelgangers of themselves — short­ Emm and with him in his "lessons". personnas begin to die. lived duplicates which live for only Emm has no real human future, doesn't What's going on? Is Karpp some­ at most a few days before crumbling know what's going on, is manipulated how able to leave the prison? Is to dust. from beginning to end, and is sacri­ there a supernatural explanation? ficed for the greater good of its Valiant's problems compound when As danger—attempted murder— one of the DeGreasy brothers is shot massself--or something. closes in on Andrews the tension in­ Could my Libertarianism and In­ and his client, Roger Rabbit is also creases . dividualism be recoiling from lan- shot...and Roger's doppelganger This novel is well-crafted, well- and-cohorts' socialism? shows up to help Valiant solve his told. It holds the reader in a very murder! tight grip and compells reading on Add suspects: Jessica Rabbit and on to the high-level conspirator­ (Roger's former wife) , Sid Sleaze ial conclusion. (porno comic king), the other De­ The book isn't exceptional in BRINKMAN Greasy brother? plot, writing, characterization... By Ron Goulart And why does everyone want Rog­ Doubleday, $9.95, 1981 but Lutz knows his business and uses er's old teakettle? his tools superbly: an intriguing WHO CENSORED ROGER RABBIT? is a The first two-thirds of this puzzle, danger, suspense, violence, complicated, told-straight, believ­ new Goulart serio-comedy sf novel characters the reader doesn't want able murder mystery. As you read is excellent—inventive, master­ to die. you come to accept the 'toon people ful dialogue, swift illuninations If only most science fiction as real. Wolf never tells how the of character and motive—as a writers had that much sense and 'toons came into being in the past young future slum man, living by skill. his wits, body and sonic-electron­ [everybody knows that!] but there ic tools, accidentally sees a are small hints in passing. years-dead former girlfriend fly I'd be very happy to read furth­ by in a government aircar. er Eddie Valiant capers in this 'toon-human nowtime. Wolf writes He meets an old conman friend IN THE SHADOW OF OMIZANTRIM and they seek to find the girl, extremely well. His supply of meta­ The War of Powers: Book Five for different reasons. phor and simile is copious and super­ By Robert E. Vardeman and Victor One incident, adventure, en­ ior: Milan counter leads to another, and the I pointed toward the door. Playboy 16999, $2.50, 1981 novel's formula grows clumsy and "Take a hop." His puppy face grew up in a big The continuing story of Fost obvious and the reader is left with Longstrider, somewhat reluctant a faintly cheated taste in the mind. hurry into a beaten cur. His word balloon came out so heavily weight­ hero, as he aids his lovely Prin­ Did Ron have to have his hero cess Moriana in her quest to re­ save the world from alien invasion ed down with guilt, it dented the top of my desk. gain (yet again) the throne of again? We've been saved so many the floating Sky City. thousands of times I'm getting sick of it. Goulart is marvelous in painting Roger waffled so quickly I could futures with satirical brush strokes; almost taste butter and syrup. I would wish for less absurdity and! far fewer cliched endings in future Little Rock's Adam's apple gulp­ efforts. ed through a series of moves good enough for first place in a yo-yo tournement.

WHO CENSORED ROGER RABBIT? The ending of this murder myst­ By Gary Wolf ery will surprise you. And you'll St. Martin's, $10.95, 1981 feel very sad for doppelganger Rog­ The pixie editors at St. Mart­ er Rabbit. in's have struck again! This de­ licious satire of tough private­ eye novels elevated to high comedy with low tragedy is just about as good as it can be. Eddie Valiant is the hard-boil­ 19 The Demon of the Dark Ones MERLIN is released from the ancient magic By Robert Nye spells which inprisoned it in the Bantam 13550-3, $2.95, 1981 foundation rock of the Sky City. Subtitled 'A Very Adult Fantasy' The reptilian humanoids, the Zr'gsz, MCEE., Y0vK~ this bizarre, ribald, occasionally emerge with hibernated hordes and pornographic rendition of Merlin's retake the City from the eons-long life (as told by Merlin from before human control. his conception in the womb of the A new War of Powers is unfold­ virgin Vivien) is hilarious, startl­ ing. ing, even disturbing in that it pre­ Moriana, Fost, their two genies- sents Satan and his demons Astarot in-jugs companions and as many humans and Beelzebub in cunning realism, as possible flee the City. Thousands in a curiously believable way in a fall or are thrown thousands of feet totally incredible story about the to their deaths... legendary wizard and the legendary Synalon Etuul, Moriana's evil Arthur. twin sister, also a sorceress, also Merlin was conceived to be the wanting power, survives along with ent; planned and executed marvelous- iy- Antichrist, but he decided other­ her aide, Prince Rann. wise and was eventually inprisoned This saga is adult fantasy, real­ This calculated mix of realistic action/violence, sex, magic, and in a crystal castle for his rebel- istic in battle, human relationships, iousness. politics and culture. There is also lurking, other-dimensional forces/ gods is very well sustained in each The plots of Lucifer and his humor and tragedy. Yet all the maj­ evil cohorts are part CIA, part or characters survive the battles, book, and I would expect either fur­ ther adventures with the survivors Laurel and Hardy, part medieval the savage encounters (though often absolutist, part wild and erotic wounded, sickened, drained) to strug­ on this world, or another series using a different set of characters sorcery. gle another day. Nye is clearly having fun in Yet the stakes grow higher, and and a different world/setting/theme. this book, indulging in the obscure, the fate of humankind on the planet The partnership of Vardeman and Mil­ an seems to have a great future. the idiosyncratic style, the re­ (colonized thousands of years ago) peated phrase that tweaks curiosity hangs in the balance. The final, and (possibly) outrage: '...grinned sixth book of this series is due like a fox eating shit out of a out in March, I believe, and will wire brush.' be the climactic finish to the strug­ NEPTUNE'S CAULDRON Then there's the matter of the gle between aliens and humans, be­ By Michael G. Coney Tower 51755, $2.25, 1981 Sleeve Job. Were Nye to write an­ tween The Dark Ones and their Demon other novel and promise to detail and the humans and the World Spirit, An intriguing man-on-the-run in it the Sleeve Job, everyone who updated chronology of the history of novel set on a water planet dom­ has read this book will be forced the Sundered Realm—from 20,000 inated by a gargantuan undersea to buy the other. years before the first War of Powers, continuously erupting volcano to the now of the series, 10,121 named Neptune's Cauldron. years after that pivotal struggle. The natives are the amphibian The books in this series are: Tadda who are being exploited by Book One: THE SUNDERED REALM King Kalman, a ruthless Earthman MADWAND Book Two: THE CITY IN THE GLACIER operating a vast floating process­ By Roger Zelazny Book Three: THE DESTINY STONE ing plant/city, The Providence. Ace 51510-X, $6.95, 1981 Book Four: THE FALLEN ONES The man-on-the-run is Tyg Book Five: IN THE SHADOW OF OMI ZAN- Brood, clone brother of Francis This is the second of the Change­ TRIM Brood who was convicted after death ling saga, and better, more varied, Book Six: DEMON OF THE DARK ONES of having sabotaged The Providence more intense, more vivid, tense, and in the process killed several than CHANGELING. humans. According to existing law, all We follow young Pol Detson, son DEMON OF THE DARK ONES clones are as guilty as the clone of an infamous sorcerer who died in The War of Powers: Book Six brother who conuiitted the crime. a titanic battle of magic years be­ By Robert E. Vardeman and Victor Tyg must clear his dead clone of fore attempting to open the Gate to Milan guilt or suffer execution. And on still another magic-ruled world. Playboy 21012, $2.50 his trail is a never-fail alien The magicians who defeated Pol's This final volume should be detective... father, with Pol, face another ter­ available in March. This series The plot is routine. The alien rible challenge as Lord Det's former has been a very good seller for Play­ Tadda are not; their undersea cult­ allies seek to use Pol to help open boy. ure and especially their hollow-log the Gate yet again. The climactic, terrible battle submarines are fine, coherent, in­ between the twin sister sorceresses, ventive science fiction. Among the players in this book Moriana and Synalon, and the unleash­ And let me give the plot its are Pol's friend, Mouseglove (the ed Demon who now possesses the Sky due: it works well—is tightly professional thief), Moonbird, the City is joined. written, gripping, the sets detailed dragon, Larick ---- a young magician The planet is subjected to great, and the people believable. whose true identity is a surprise— destructive upheavals, monster I do cavil at the use of first- and above all Henry Spier, the mast­ forces of destruction. The result person narrative since it telegraphs er sorcerer who seems unbeatable in will be either the total destruction the hero's inevitable survival. his plot to open the Gate. Yet Spier of the Demon or the death of mankind One other thing: I never expect­ is from our Earth and the mystery of on the world. ed Michael G. Coney to use that Grade his past will be a factor in any sub­ And the clash is majestic and D TV cliche: the villain cries to his sequent volumes in this excellent terrifying. The magic unleashed is henchman, "After him, you fool!" saga. stupendous. The writing is excell- 20 This is Roger Zelazny in top form. His phrasing is superb, # Just received a too-late, no­ his incredible pacing and riveting ALIEN THOUGHTS CONTINUED FROM P. 7 room-left review by Darrell Sch­ style continue to amaze and delight weitzer of RIGEL, a new small­ me. His imagination, his creations press sf magazine. Darrell thinks of other worlds in detail and coher­ zine or his editing of the piece or it's remarkably good. Details ence are wonders of discipline and the writing of an Intro for it in next issue of SFR. RIGEL is $1.75, technique. its un-altered form is waiting for from Aesir Press, POB 2523, Rich­ mond, CA 94802. Ahh, I must not forget the cru­ free time which never arrives or cial demon involved in this story -- is so far down on the priority list the very individual and terrible as to be invisible. # That's it. No more room any­ Curse of Rondoval ... I will no longer promise it where. I had hoped/planned on list­ for an issue until lightning Nor the magic city of Belken ing contributors' addresses begin­ strikes and I have permissions and ning this issue. That will begin where the world's sorcerers gather texts in my big clammy hands. every two years ... in #43. So it goes. Have a good three months. Nor the dangerous apprentice sorcerers' initiation in the bowels of Belken's mountain which Pol must # Editorial matters: The usual TEN YEARS AGO IN SCIENCE FICTION survive ... backcover artwork had to be December '71 -- February '72 bumped this issue due to the extra­ Zelazny's magic is concrete, long length of the letter column. BY ROBERT SABELLA his sorcery-ridden worlds deadly, Too many good, provocative, must- and the plots and counterplots, lay­ print letters came in. Stanley Kubrick's "A Clockwork ers of power and planes of existence, It was a good thing Elton's Orange" was released to generally altogether convincing. news column was short this issue, favorable reviews although some as that helped with the letters people objected to the film's explic­ problem. it violence. It was selected by I wanted to start a new column the New York Film Critics as Best (well, sort of new) this issue, Film of 1971. It was nominated for "Report From Alternate Earth #666," an Oscar as Best Picture but the which would be a current events com­ conservative members of the Motion mentary, but alas... Next issue, Picture Academy would never award I hope. You haven't seen an ad for such a controversial picture their CONSPIRACY NEWSLETTER in this issue highest kudo ... Robert Silverberg because I decided to suspend publi­ moved from New York City to Californ­ cation with issue #7. But so many ia, continuing the westward migra­ ANSWERS TO SCIENCE FICTION QUIZ recent events have proved me cor­ tion of science fiction talent. Terry Carr would be the next promin­ COMPILED BY ROBERT SABELLA rect in my assessments of the forces at work in the world today, that I ent figure to follow ... Outstanding (Huiz is found on page 15 ) had the urge to continue my obser­ stories published included "A Meet­ vations on a quarterly basis (diary ing with Medusa" by Arthur C. Clarke 1. FOUNDATION by Isaac Asimov. format) in SFR. in PLAYBOY; "Goat Song" by Poul And­ Mayhap I'll be able to find erson and "Painwise" by James Tip­ 2. THE EINSTEIN INTERSECTION by tree, Jr., both in February's Samuel R. Delany. three pages or so for it in SFR #43. By the way, as of 1-8-82 there FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION. 3. "The Persistence of Vision", by are three [3] copies of CANNED MEAT John Varley. left. 4. "Stardance" by Spider Robinson. 5. "Bom With the Dead" by Robert This publication Silverberg. is available 6. A PRINCESS OF MARS, by Edgar CANNED MEA T in microform. Rice Burroughs. A SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL 7. THE FOREVER WAR by Joe Haldeman. BY RICHARD E. GEIS

8. "In the Bowl" by John Varley. Life in a computer-run domed 9. "The Doors of his Face, The city and the failing civiliza­ Lamps of his Mouth", by Roger tion of which it is a part. Zelazny. Roi and Eelia, two young citi­ 10. "Nightwings" by Robert Silver­ zens of the dome, two children berg. of Great Mother Computer, meet ! and experiment with forbidden 11. "The Star-Pit" by Samuel R. De­ sex. University Microfilms lany. Covers by Bruce Conklin International 12. "'Repent, Harlequin!"'Said the Ticktockman" by Harlan Ellison. $4. 300 North Zeeb Road Dept. PR. 13. "The Star" by Arthur C. Clarke. Ann Arbor. Mi. 48106 Order from: U.SA. 14. THE CAVES OF STEEL by Isaac As­ Science Fiction Review imov. POB 11408 30-32 Mortimer Street Portland, OR 97211 Dept. P.R. 15. "A Rose for Ecclesiastes" by London WIN 7RA Roger Zelazny. England

21 ONE WRITER AND THE NEXT WAR

JOHN BRUNNER

My specialty has been science fiction since I first began to sell my work in my late teens. Thanks to the unusual nature of the SF field, and particularly to its national and international conventions, I've had the chance to meet and argue with a very wide range of my colleagues here, in the States and Canada, and on the continent. One thing upon which an out­ sider might reasonably expect science fiction authors (concerned above all to project credible futures to their readers) to agree is that the threat of nuclear war is the most inportant obstacle to our achieving in reality UWf Mb those glamorous dreams -- about vis­ iting other worlds, contacting al­ LffF MJb DtAW, ien races, even ultimately traveling Sl&Wb Mb through time -- which spun off from our forebears' yearnings. Given that, following such a war, the survivors would have painfully to reconstruct civilisation without many of the irreplaceable resources T«e OAky phaW we have squandered, and indeed for a period of generations at least with­ out the facilities like clean water MMT and available food and adequate medi­ cine which in the richer countries we have come to take for granted, so that fulfilment of more grandiose ambitions must be postponed for prob­ ably centuries, maybe millennia, one might assume that here at least was one group of people with a voice audible to the public who would be active in trying to prevent the cat­ astrophe. Back in 1958, I assumed Xfifr&vmT the same. But -- ! Oddly, and infuriatingly, some of the doyens of the SF field, part­ icularly in America, have apparently set up mental house in the eighteenth century. For every story like the late Fredric Brown's "The Weapon", in which an anti-nuclear canpaigner brought a present to the idiot son of a bomb-designer, in the shape of a loaded revolver for him to play tisement in GALAXY magazine condemn­ the cost of finding themselves eith­ with, one can find another in which ing US involvement in Viet-Nam (open er messily dead,- or at any rate re­ the writer appeared to imagine that only to US citizens, or I'd have duced to instant poverty in a world nuclear war was something to be shrug­ been a signatory). The counter-move­ where even survival manuals could ged off --a phenomenon like the ment was unable to find as many ac­ not be published and marketed, is weather, which one might grouse about, tual autiers to sipport the war, and beyond me. I can only hazard a but not avoid. In contrast to the had to bulk out the list with pub­ guess that despite their own proved fascination which most of them dis­ lishers and editors. Regrettably, ability to affect others through play vis-a-yis technology, their ig- though, the pro-war faction did in­ the written word they cannot believe norance of history, sociology and clude some of the best-known and that they too have been systematical­ plain ordinary human nature has often highest-paid of ray colleagues, and ly manipulated and deluded, along been appalling. they are similarly pro-"deterrence". with the general public throughout Why exactly they should wish to the rich world where we are bombard­ Luckily, however, the trend has risk sacrificing the system which ed with newspapers, TV, and the rest altered. In the early seventies, has so generously rewarded them, at of the "information explosion". Hav­ for instance, a group of anti-war ing always had a taste for the foot­ SF writers took a full-page adver- 22 notes of history, rather than the official versions of the past which of our SF friends. We got positive I was offered at school, I've been reactions. Accordingly I wrote an fortunate in wanting to look not only at the information I was being open letter to my SF colleagues, in­ viting them to become associated given, but also at the motives of with the many distinguished signa­ the giver. tories already involved, such as And looking at those motives has Heinrich Boll and Stefar Heym, Hans often saved me from believing what Magnus Enzensberger and Giihter Grass. organisations like the CIA are said Not only are the replies coming in to refer to as "disinformation" -- almost daily; I've been asked to pounced on by your subsidised media- draft a similar appeal for SF fans, editors because it would please the and Marjorie has persuaded the Soci­ prejudices of those they had already ety of Authors to publicise the orig­ partway entrapped into a state ap­ inal appeal in the next issue of THE proaching conditioned reflex than AUTHOR. At the time of writing I'm rational judgment. scheduled to attend an SF convention in Birmingham next weekend, where I do not, for example, believe I'm on a panel to discuss "The Fu­ that the Russians plan to invade ture of the Real World" with some Western Europe, let alone Britain, therefore, when in THE GUARDIAN in rather distinguished company. This because (a) if there is a country on mid-August I read that an appeal de­ is a marked improvement over what this planet which really appreciates nouncing the idea of limited nuclear happened at another SF convention the disaster of modem war it must war with neutron bombs, cruise mis­ not too long ago, where a small be the USSR, and (b) they have never siles and the like, as "a criminal managed to digest even their portion notion", and calling for an end to group of bigoted reactionaries threatened to issue a writ of manda­ of the spoils of WWII --as witness the arms race, had been launched by mus against the organisers for per­ contemporary Poland - - and (c) in mitting author Ian Watson to any case, while the so-called "free" world is busy betraying its coninit- poll the attendance on the question ment to "democracy" and "liberty" by of nuclear disarmament. Mark you, propping up corrupt regimes and man­ some of them may be there again, I ufacturing weapons of mass destruc­ suppose ... tion, they can walk in at leisure In which case, I shall cheerful­ and mop up support among those con­ ly rub their noses in the fact that scious of such betrayal. If there at the same convention they raised is a threat of conquest, it's at no objection when the committee devot­ least a threat within the compass of ed some of the proceeds to sending an individual to oppose; witness dqilicators to Poland for Solidarity, Russia's inability, after so long, a cause to which I donated some first to eliminate dissidence. Even an in­ editions for auction. vader meets you face to face. But Ah, I'm drifting away from the you can't argue with an H-bomb question of writers per se. It's launched from beyond the horizon by not unforgivable in the SF field, an efficiently dehumanised automaton where writers and readers come into of the kind one sees in TV documen­ such intimate and frequent contact. taries, seated underground in mis­ sile silos. But in conclusion I would observe that, while it saddened me when it It is a measure of the distor­ turned out that authors from other tion imposed on rational thinking by branches of fiction which have no the mere existence of nuclear weap­ pretensions to scrying the future ons that again and again one must care more about our real and present argue in favour of the Soviet Union writers' unions in both East and danger than people in SF, at least (a country I personally would loathe West Germany, in France, in Italy, it seems something is being done to to live in) purely because the threat and at several European centres of put that right. against which we in the West are PEN. ranging our armaments is the wrong While we were in France and Italy PS: While as I said above I dis­ threat -- because, in sum, the gen­ during the next two weeks we inquired believe the idea that Russia plans to erals and politicians are planning about the chance of support from some invade Britain, in common with most to fight the wrong war, at a time informed circles in Europe I do be­ when they are already being defeat­ lieve President Reagan, who has said ed, so that they wind up as deranged the USA plans to fight a nuclear war as Hitler in the bunker, determined on European territory without if pos­ that if he goes under so must the sible involving an attack on America rest of the world in a shoddy imita­ itself. Bully for you over there -- tion of the Gbtterdammerung. but how the hell do you think we feel about being fried to a crisp without Equally, our distraction from ra­ a chance to say no? You broke off tional thought is exenplified by the from British domination on the slo­ reluctance of so many SF writers to gan "No taxation without representa­ admit that what they base their stance tion!" We're raising the cry "No on is the result of being fed clever­ incineration without representation!" ly-organised information designed not When you elect European representa­ as news but as propaganda -- that, in tives to Congress, then and only then sum, they are being told what they you may have the right to gamble have been taught to want to hear. with our lives. But not before. You may imagine my delight, 23 ************************************ LETTERS

# LETTER FROM ORSON SCOTT CARD November 14, 1981

'Between being a full-time writ- er and a full-time student I don't have much time for science related reading anymore -- SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW remains the one SF magazine I read, despite my best in­ tentions, from cover to cover the day it arrives. The only other mag­ azine I do that with is TV GUIDE. One must keep one's priorities straight. 'Your juxtaposition of letters from Polyphemus and George Warren made both letters better than either would have been alone. Both letters struck home. Within the Mormon com­ munity I have felt the scathing claw of the rabid feminist reviewer who, incapable of seeing anything except in terms of the woman's movement, utterly misread several of my works. In the same community I have also seen the masculine mindset that

24 aroused that feminist rage in the I know that she has read it, and 'Apparently, however, once you first place. Contrary to what many read it intelligently, and read it as are perceived as a menace by some feminists seem -- understandably — I meant it to be received. No edit­ people, you continue to be seen that to think, most of the perpetrators or can possibly do more. Susan Al­ way until you die. What saddens me, of injustices to women don't hate lison knows good writing and good though, is that John Shirley (and women. They just don't think of science fiction, and actually notices Thomas Disch, and anyone else who them as real people. This excuses where they overlap. Ellen Datlow names me with the other corrupters nothing, but does explain the look and Terri Windling are also fine ed­ of the public taste) run the risk of hurt surprise they get on their itors. I'm not saying they're bet­ of ruining their credibility by so faces when accused. And we who con­ ter than men because they're women; naming me. People who actually read sider ourselves sexually egalitarian I'm saying that these are editors my work will say, "Card's stuff isn't look even more hurt and surprised who will actually make the world a anywhere near as exciting as Niven's when that feminist sword falls. It little better for those of us who and Longyear's and Pournelle's. And bites deep. I have had a novel out­ write and read for our lives. The if he's like them, where are all his line rejected because it included a notion that anyone could think their Hugos? Why is he not surrounded by woman who, in an America ruled by inevitably strong presence dangerous adoring fans? Why are his autograph­ Russians, decides that the only route is a bit frightening. Frightening, ing lines so short at conventions?" to personal freedom is the bed of but not surprising — because people If I am to be a credible enemy, I powerful men. I thought I was satir­ with ability are dangerous, and their need to be built up and buttressed izing a society even more sexist enemies are right to fear them. in my position. John Shirley owes it than our own. But even depicting an to his own reputation now to secretly 'I wonder, however, if Polyphem­ evil, apparently, is frowned upon -- lobby for votes for my work --we us hasn't done more harm than good it does not matter, apparently, that can't have another year like this with his letter. If there really is she discovers the limits of her one, where I didn't even make the such a conspiracy against women in choice and performs revolutionary ballots, or Shirley will start to publishing as he implies, then of acts after all; it is enough to make look as though he doesn't know what course he is right to say so. But the book unacceptable that a woman he's talking about! The way I figure if what he has detected is merely is shown making a mistake. How in it, if Shirley and all the other cocktail conversation and old-guard the world satire can ever work with­ right-thinking guardians of correct griping, then Polyphemus has merely out depicting ugly social systems writing get together and vote for given weight and credibility to min­ and the strategies people are forced me, I can win at least one award. or-league idiocy. into to survive within them is be­ Then I will be certifiably popular yond me. and crass and their reputations as perceptive thinkers will be safe 'However, I cannot share Mr. forever. Warren's alarm. Oh, I was annoyed at the unspeakable stupidity of this 'It is interesting to find, editor's gross misreading of my through David Gerrold's report on work, but I am not afraid of the "Chuck's latest bucket", that I am "censorship" perpetrated by timid or still linked with such disgustingly ideologically hidebound publishers commercial and, God help us, popular and editors. That sort of censor­ writers as Longyear, Niven and their ship has always been with us, and, ilk. I could understand the alarm frankly, I'm glad of it. Let the felt by some when, back in 1977, I cowards be cowards; let fools be seemed to appear suddenly in the lit­ fools; let the ideologues tie them­ tle world of science fiction, cop­ selves in knots. The only censor­ ping the Campbell Award and getting ship 1^ fear is censorship by the gov­ my teeny fragment of a $50,000 paper­ ernment and by the mob. I fear that back advance from Dell; I could und­ sort of censorship enough to spend erstand the criticism when my first some of my time making probably-fu- novel come out more than a year late, tile speeches and writing splenetic so that instead of debuting decently articles to help keep the Moral Maj­ and modestly in its proper place in ority in its various incarnations my career, months before the Camp­ 'I don't share David Gerrold's from winning control of either the bell Award, it came as my first post­ annoyance at pseudonymous writing, government or the fearful, mindless Campbell entry; naturally my flaws however, perhaps because of my love mob. But publishers are free to re­ were excoriated, my failings as a of 17th-and-18th-Century invective ject my work for any reason they human being verified -- one expects and satire, most of which appeared please. The fools are eventually that sort of thing. But by now, under false names. Of course, in weeded out, if the public is intel­ years later, it surely should be those days you could lose your free­ ligent; if not, the public gets the clear that I am not a reliable story dom or your life for writing frankly pap that it deserves. factory, and that I do not write for and now all you can lose is the re­ the masses. Or if I do, the masses spect of respectable readers -- but 'It is Polyphemus whose letter, do not notice. I have no more Hugos I think pseudonymous writing is at despite its overuse of the shift key, or Nebulas than, say, Charles Platt; least as defensible as convention alarms me. My agent and the editors I attend about one convention a year costume parades. By raging at pand­ I work with at the moment are all and the fans at the other conventions ering storytellers under false but women, and anyone who supposes they do not tear down the halls looking are doing harm to science fiction for me; I wrote more scholarly arti­ meaningful names, they can pretend that they are Dryden and Pope, the (or to anything) is simply wrong. cles last year than short stories; The percentage of women in the Book I haven't written a speck of science undisputed geniuses of their times. It is certainly as therapeutic for Biz shouldn't alarm anyone — it fiction in two years -- surely the them as pretending to be Darth Vader should delight us all. Since I'm virginity of our little world is no saying nice things, why not name longer threatened by Orson Scott is to a pimply teenager, and it seems names? Victoria Schochet and I do Card. cruel of Gerrold to criticize them not have identical tastes, but when for it. she reads a novel and responds to it, 25 'When will critics realize that they are incompetent to judge any tinge of masculinity creep into the say who should set the higher stand­ work that they did not approach with line he edited? ards, and then you say "most writers respect and hope? No book, however ((Or is it all really a matter already know them". If we already good, can survive a hostile reading, of publishers hiring women to edit know them, then that tells you, ob­ and once a critic has committed him­ whatever because women command small­ viously, who must set (or re-set) self to despising a certain author er salaries? And if men could be the standards. Those who already or a certain genre, he can no longer hired at even lesser salaries men know them -- but ignore them. We're make any intelligent comment on that would displace women?)). ignoring standards that are set -- author or that genre, because he is yes! as you say! -- in "first-year no longer a fit audience for it. I writing texts". Why? They're not submit that anyone who finds Larry really so restricting we can't abide Niven's work worthless because of by them and still write imaginative­ his "shallow characterization" or ly- "wooden prose" or any other of the # LETTER FROM JOHM SHIRLEY literaiy set's current epithets, has 'Only 8% of America's population 1123 Avenue K, #E6 probably forgotten how to read. regularly reads books! This is a Brooklyn, New York, 11230 Really read. They are detached now, nation of illiterates! And if we November 29, 1981 admiring works, not for the stories write badly, and abuse the language, they tell, but for the manner of tel­ 'About my article in Platt's and write without thought-out themes ling them, like gourmets who enjoy THE PATCHIN REVIEW... I think it may and good characterization, we're anything if the table setting is ele­ be true that Charles indulges in shit- contributing to that illiteracy. gant enough. They use the dicta of flinging rather much, and he's learn­ I've been guilty of it too: Witness Modernism as cudgels against those ed (from Geis?) that an editor can my first novel, TRANSMANIACON; in­ who write within a completely dif­ generate controversies and by so do­ ventive it was — but for the most ferent tradition. To criticize Niv­ ing generate sales ... But I think part, pure trash. A patchwork of en for not being, say. Bishop or my article seems to Gerrold of a imagery and incredibly sloppy writ­ Priest is like criticizing Boccaccio piece with the sludge being lobbed, ing. Mea Culpa! I still need im­ for not being Joyce or Woolf. It only because it appeared in Charles' provement. I do NOT say that science has been done, but it adds little to magazine. I think if he'd read it fiction has to be High Literature. the collective wisdom of the world. elsewhere he might have paused and All I ask for is a basic level of competence so we can communicate 'The world of writers has always considered my remarks more careful­ ideas to our readers with the ut­ been plagued with squabbles and con­ ly and viewed me more charitably. most clarity, efficiency and sincer­ demnations. It's a sign that, even 'Because as it stands, he's full ity. You ought to re-read Orwell's though the squabblers rarely know of shit. The very stuff he accuses excellent essays on lucidity in lit­ what is important in storytelling, me of flinging. erature. they at least know that something is important in it. And those of us 'Now, see here, Gerrold, you 'One side effect of the canoniza­ who love good stories told well can write: "Shirley states his position tion of sloppy writers is the over­ always turn in relief to Gene Wolfe in his very first line: 'The sci­ shadowing of those who deserve recog­ and his too few kin, who quietly ence fiction field is in dire need nition. Someone tell me why Disch's bring out excellent work, always ex­ of higher, tougher standards.' Shir­ brilliant and epochal science fic­ perimenting, always growing, without ley does not say who should set or tion novel 334 was not reviewed in seeming to think that hate is an es­ enforce those standards; it is ob­ a single science fiction publication? sential part of the creative life.' vious who he believes is best quali­ Maybe it was overlooked because we've fied. He begins by sitting in judg­ inadvertantly trained most science ment on Barry Longyear (etc) ... At fiction readers to respond to simplis­ the end of the journey, he states tic thinking and hackneyed charac­ ((It isn't that male chauvinists the standards he wishes to see in ters and television voice-over hate women, or think them not human the field. They're straight out of prose. Hence, editors assumed read­ (though there is a small segment, no the old first-year writing texts. ers wouldn't be interested in 334. doubt, who consciously or unconscious­ It's old news. Most writers already ly believe/feel thus), but I think know them. We just choose to apply 'Claiming the standards I asked they don't feel women are quite com­ them in our own ways." Apply them for are irrelevant because they're petent to edit male-oriented or in our own ways!? "old news" doesn't make it. Ein­ basically action-oriented fiction stein's theory of Relativity is an magazines and anthologies because old one now -- been around for three- women aren't instinctually or gland- fourths of a century, or thereabouts. ularly attuned to that kind of fic­ It's Old News. So is it without ap­ tion. plication? How about Blish's criti­ ((SF has been considered basical­ cal writings?. How long has it been ly a male-oriented fiction genre... since they wdre first published? adolescent male, spedfically.. .with Decades? Is Blish now irrelevant? its emphasis on exploring, conquer­ He was asking (by implication) for ing, fighting, experiment, etc., and much the same thing I'm asking for. on a deeper symbolic level-- that 'I am saying this: We're screw­ phallic spaceship. ing our readers and we've got to ((It would be instructive to see stop.' how many male fiction editors there are in the romance, young love, con­ fessions genres. Assuming women predominate heavily in those areas, ((If it were only that easy to would that betray sexism and female get rich by dealing in controversy! chauvinism? Could a heterosexual 'You contradict yourself. It tried deliberately to generate male editor be as attuned to the read­ First, David, you allege that I don't a controversy in SFR about... eight ership as a female? Would he make years ago...by commissioning an the right ms. choices, or would a 26 article designed to raise hackles and infuriate all and sundry. Re­ ity, irreverence is also useful -- I am not alone in my dissatisfac­ sult? Zilch. It flopped. which is why I run a self-satirical tions: I sell a lot of subscrip­ ((No, I discovered it's sim­ gossip column. When authors lose tions and I get a lot of favorable pler to be myself, provide a for­ sense of proportion and sense of hu­ mail (in fact, thus far, not a sing­ um, and let nature take its course. mor, it's time to poke fun. le complaining letter). I also get ((Long-time fans in England a surprising number of contributions 'Re the slinging of mud (or, as know that Charles Platt was a very by professional authors. Thus my opinionated, controversial fan ed­ he prefers it, buckets of shit): outlook is shared by a surprisingly Gerrold himself is no amateur where itor and fan writer long before he large "elite". Also, I print op­ this is concerned. His piece grat­ came to the U.S. and before he was posing views, such as Brian Al diss' (if he was) infected with the Geis uitously mentions bad books I once article in the second issue, savage­ wrote, uses the term "fanzine" as a Disease. ly attacking my own magazine as suf­ pejorative three times, and quotes fering from the very vices it crit­ ((I don't agree Tom Disch's an (anonymous!) limerick, all to icises in others. I would certainly novel, 334, was brilliant; I read discredit me. This is good fun (at have published Gerrold's far less it, liked it, and perhaps reviewed least, I always find it entertaining eloquent attack, and would have it in SFR. I do know the novel was to be attacked personally in print), paid him, had he sent it to me. reviewed in SFR a long time ago. but it makes me wonder about his This reflects not elitism but the But you were referring to its non­ motives. To undercut my little maga­ idealism which Gerrold thinks is review in the prozines, I presume. zine? Hardly; his article functions bogus. I value freely-expressed As I recall several fanzines review­ as a free advertisement. Rather, I criticism and personal comment (I ed the book. think he is working out an old pers­ have never understood the need for onal grudge (for details of which, ((Yes, the latest stats do show libel laws). The ultimate expres­ see below). Too bad; an attack im­ that only 8% of those Americans who sion of such ideals is to pay some­ pelled by sincerely held beliefs, can read, read books fairly regularly. one to apply them to me, then spend rather than petty malice, would have That percentage is going to wither my time typing the article into the carried more weight. away in the decades ahead. The computer, pasting it up, and doing question becomes: do we fight like 'Which brings me to elitism. headings and art for it. mad dogs over the shrinking reading As a writer of daytime TV, Gerrold 'The trouble with Gerrold is dollar, or do we try to reach out seems to have reached that stage that he is a mediocre talent who to the rarely-read-a-book people, where he resents other writers who backed away from his earlier ambi­ to the tumed-off-readers-of-books, still hold onto their critical val­ tions, turned to opportunism, but and those who don’t-read-books-but- ues. He feels perhaps that no one isn't even very good at that. In might? has the right to sit in judgment — condemning those who haven't won any ((It's a challenge which an ad­ that writing is just a craft, and awards and resent writers who have, venturous (and greedy) publisher it's meaningless to say that such- Gerrold omits to mention his own might consider.... especially one and-such is "better" than so-and-so. name. He remembers, perhaps, that who isn't already up to his eyeballs it was I who asked officials to with­ in debt and/or owned by a conglomer­ draw his book THE MAN WHO FOLDED HIM­ ate which is trying to unload him.)) SELF from the Hugo ballot because I counted the words and discovered it should only be eligible as a novella. Perhaps he also remembers being de­ scribed by me in a Los Angeles news­ paper nine years ago as "the nouveau riche pimp of science fiction". At the time, Gerrold's revenge was to # LETTER FROM CHARLES PLATT try to get me fired by Avon Books, 9 Patchin Place my employers; even now, he probably New York, NY 10011 nurses a grudge. November 2, 1981 'But within certain limits it is possible to distinguish absolutely 'Maybe he even remembers my re­ 'I suppose I have to take David between good and bad writing. Bad jecting his story "In the Deadlands" Gerrold's critique of THE PATCHIN RE­ prose is derived second-hand from when I worked on New Worlds in the VIEW seriously. He seems to have other authors; deals in cliches; late sixties. That story, incident­ three main points: that my little shows little first-hand observation ally, showed rather self-conscious magazine's use of pseudonyms is of the world; is clumsy; may be un­ literary ambition; the person who cowardly, that I am engaged in mud­ grammatical; is repetitive; misuses wrote it still believed in those slinging, and that my approach is words; and shows signs of lazy or "elitist" critical standards, which, elitist. hasty habits. I can define precise­ like idealism, were more fashionable 'Re the pseudonyms: Gerrold con­ ly these various traits, just as then. How far Gerrold has retreated veniently ignores my editorial ex­ C.S. Lewis did when he wrote on the over the ensuing decade, to the planation for this. Briefly: the criticism of literature decades ago. point where he now slings his mud science-fiction field is very inces­ This is purely an assessment of func­ at those who are so tactless as to tuous and friendly. We are therefore tion, and elitism has nothing to do be critical — and who thus threat­ reluctant to offend each other with with it. en his own comfortable marriage with frank criticism, we speak polite plat­ mediocrity. ' 'Let me rephrase this on a more itudes instead, and we thus encour­ down-to-earth level. I get tired of age one another to produce lazy, reading science fiction which is un­ mediocre work. Frank criticism is imaginative, which insults average needed as an antidote; I personally intelligence, and which lacks any ((I’ll object to your implied smear prefer signed articles, but if the kind of relevance to real life. I of daytime TV writing. Every type preservation of friendships neces­ of fiction writing, for any media, get angry when this work receives sitates anonymity, well, unsigned has its must-do's and must-not-do's. shallow praise and even Hugo awards. frank criticism is better than none. And every genre can be written In the face of proliferating pompos­ 27 well or badly within professional techniques as required by the form. cent people on both sides, we will The thing is, there seems to be as It is obviously possible to write let it rest.) much legitimate variety in sex drives superbly crafted and effective fic­ as in height, weight and intelligent Second, INTERSTELLAR CONMAN by tion for daytime TV, to the point or perceptivity. (Again, there are Randall Garrett and Vicki Heydron of winning awards and critical ac­ a frightening number of the ignorant will complete the "Leland Hale" sto­ claim among those who can judge the and ego-centric who believe that any ries begun by Garrett for ANALOG sex drive higher, or lower, than skill and effectiveness of such some years ago; three new stories scripting. It is entirely possible their own is neurotic or worse.) will be written to complete the book. that forty years from now certain It is the first volume of a proposed "I'm okay, Mac", (in spite of the authors ' scripts for certain shows series. fact that my life is utterly fucked will be collectors' items, and a up). "You however, are not doing great critical literature will be As to the "feminist Mafia" in things the way I do them, and are ut­ written about those scripts and fandom, yes, Richard, it really ex­ terly unredeemable".' authors. After all, who at the ists. Now, instead of paternalistic time would have thought that hack males telling women what lifestyle Elizabethan playwright, Shakespeare, and mode of thought is best for them, ((I suspect there is a great would turn out to be an immortal of we have a group of matemalistic fe­ deal of fear behind urges to con­ Literature? males (all of them extremely atypic­ trol and downplay sex: women don’t ((Tour "analysis" of 'The al of the male population at large) want to have to compete with or be trouble with Gerrold’ is pure smear telling other women exactly what life­ compared to the beautiful women and damages you more than he. style and thought patterns they think "used" in and by the media, and ((Aside to David: Let's let are best for them. And woe betide men want young women (mostly) to this personal attack business stop the woman who's sex-drive, fantasies be inexperienced and non-judgement­ here. or ambitions are significantly dif­ al in lovemaking when first met or ((Finally: I've followed David ferent from their own -- she will be married.)) Gerrold's sf career through the subjected to as much abuse, attack years-- as I have a hundred or so and social ostracism as any rebel­ others-- and have concluded that lious woman in a paternalistic soc­ he writes well, writes often dar­ iety. ing, speculative sf novels, and have noted that he has had inno­ # LETTER FROM DARRELL SCHWEITZER vative, interesting saga novels 113 Deepdale Rd cut off because of poor sales and Strafford, PA 19087 editorial-publisher lack of in­ November 17, 1981 terest-- hardly the mark of a mediocre hack. I suspect David 'Your view of Attanisio's RADIX writes daytime TV scripts in order is remarkable. You've favorably re­ to live; I suspect he 'd far rather viewed a book which was panned by devote full time to his sf novels Theodore Sturgeon. I trust you re­ if he could sell them. So would alise how unusual an event this is. a lot of us.)) Surely a sign or a portent of some sort, presaging some great miracle. Then more remarkable things have hap­ pened. PATCHIN REVIEW #2 contains a 'Here is a question to chew on. favorable review of a book which # LETTER FROM HANK STINE If men getting turned on by the was not published, namely the Ace THE DONNING COMPANY/PUBLISHERS sight of a woman's body represents edition of Ellison's BLOOD'S A ROVER. 5659 Virginia Beach Boulevard sexual exploitation, then does that Perhaps this indicates a reviewer Norfolk, VA 23502 mean that the leaders of the femin­ with prophetic powers. But since October, 1981 ist Mafia don't want their males the future is not predetermined, he turned on by them when they make is only able to foresee possibilit­ 'As is inevitable when anyone is love? If not, where do they expect ies, and in this case he was looking taking notes during a long-distance sexual desire to come from? Perhaps up an alternate timeline in which telephone call, one or two errors as the natural result of a long the book duly appeared. crept into Elton's account of our courtship and a ripening acquaint­ ance (sounds like the Victorianism 'One amusing detail Wayne Keyser 1982 line-up which I would like to doesn't mention about the Jesus set straight for the record. of the 1950s doesn't it)? For that matter, has no woman in the movement freak types at last year's Disclave 'The controversy over Ray Fara­ ever been betrayed into a bad rela­ was that after they had made a nui­ day Nelson's novelette, "Turn off the tionship by the simple arousal of sance of themselves for a while, a Sky!" was not that it failed to be overwhelming physical lust? And if chorus of fans gathered in front of nominated, but that it was nominated they have, why is it wrong for men their table to serenade them with a and announced, and then in a rather to become similarly enflamed? rousing rendition of "We are sinking peculiar move, a new ruling was sud­ deep in sin/won't you come and push denly made by the Con Committee, in 'Re your comment on the remake of us in?" (Melody: "Rock of Ages") which a novelette written forty THE POSTMAN RINGS TWICE: Yes, there A friend of mine who had a table years before by Edgar Rice Burroughs are a fair number of men (and women) right next to these people reported (but only recently published) was who have sex drives exactly that pow­ that they were very tiring to listen deemed eligible, a new tally taken, erful, and who would be, and often to after a while, and also bad for and Nelson's story, was, inevitably, are, in bed three, four and six business, as they tended to scare beat out by the Burroughs piece on times a day; and an equal number customers away from that end of the with no, or practically no, sex the nostalgia vote (he hadn't had room. drive at all (the bell curve seems anything new in print in three de­ 'My feeling is that it might have cades) . (There is a great deal to be more of a universal constant than most people want to realize). been better to have brought together more to all this, of course, but to a large number of fans in strange avoid fresh injury to some very de­ 28 costumes to zap them with the most elaborate and thundrous Satanic/Yog- gion is wiped out and the player is Sothothian curse imaginable. It declared "saved". He then loses sev­ would either have scared them off or eral turns and a lot of points (his at least made the spectacle a bit magic and intelligence ratings at more amusing. least temporarily drop to zero) un­ less by some lucky throw of the dice 'But seriously, I understand he manages to backslide. that some DSD events have been can­ celled in some places because of Mo­ 'I wonder if it wouldn't be pos­ ron Minority pressure. Yes, on the sible to produce and market a game grounds that such games encourage de­ along these lines.' vil worship. One concludes that we are dealing with frightened zeal­ ots who are too insecure in their ((We make a serious mistake if beliefs to actually understand what we think the Born-Again, Moral Ma­ they are condemning. Actually they jority types are of low intelli­ rather doubt it. (As it was, the do have good reason to fear fantasy gence. They have chosen that set story was perhaps the most promising role-playing games. If you can have of beliefs and priorities for emo­ author debut I have ever seen. Alas, Jesus Christ or Satan appear in your tional reasons! In my view they the author has not followed it up.) dungeon as easily as you can Sauron are weak-ego, insecure, dependent 'Jerry Falwell and his ilk make or Darth Vader, that tends to reduce types who need Answers and Certain­ a convenient bogey, but I don't religious figures to the same level. ties and Inferiors and Masters and think they seriously menace science It does not encourage the worship of Enemies. Rational arguments, facts, fiction yet. If they ever do, they anything. Instead it trivializes all proofs that they are wrong only in­ will have to be combatted, but we objects of worship. But no self-pro­ furiate them and they must reject are talking about the contemporary claimed Christian is likely to be such out of hand. situation. smart enough to figure that out. ((Their often considerable in­ telligence is bent to the task of 'I don't think there's an editor 'By the way, have you noticed defeating opponents/enemies/deviIs in the field who is censoring from that the idiot-level ones are al­ and giving a rational, plausible the Rightist/Fundamentalist view­ ways those who call themselves Christ­ veneer to their emotionally imper- point. This is not to say these ians, rather than Catholics or Pres­ itive belief needs. people are any more tolerant than byterians or Baptists or whatever? ((Such character/personality Leftist/Secular Liberal/Feminists, The reason is that the established types can choose other belief sys­ but that none of them are in power churches are too sophisticated for tems, of course: Liberalism (the just now. all this sort of nonsense. I can State is Master), Communism (the 'So neither McGarry nor Lee ran tell you from my own experience that State is Master), Socialism (the into any trouble, because homosexuals they teach evolution at Catholic State is Master), or other relig­ are on the official Protected Minor­ ions.) ) highschools and universities and ity list, along with blacks, Amerinds they encourage scientific/literary/ Hispanics, Jews, women and several textual studies of the Bible. Also others. (The one religious group the last couple of popes have been which doesn't seem to be there is big supporters of the space program. # LETTER FROM DARRELL SCHWEITZER Muslims. I wonder that there are But then in the eyes of the fundam­ 113 Deepdale Road not more Arab villains in science entalists, these people aren't Strafford, PA 19087 fiction, along with that old standby, "Christian". November 22, 1981 Fundamentalist white, Southern rural 'Actually, one might point out reactionary bigots.) I think the that the fundamentalist who proclaims 'Further comments on SCIENCE sort of people who read science fic­ himself "saved" (at 19% interest one FICTION REVIEW #41: tion have at least grudgingly settled hopes) is not only guilty of arrog­ into an acceptance of gays as people 'Mark McGarry has completely ant pride (one of the seven deadly who happen to coexist with everybody misunderstood the nature of the cen­ sins, no less), but blasphemy (or else. How many anti-gay science fic­ sorship problem in today's field. maybe heresy) because no one can be tion stories can you think of? Per­ Of course he was able to sell a story sure they are in a state of grace. haps you may have heard some of the with a sympathetically portrayed homo­ amazing rumors (including a very 'I have an idea. I don't play sexual character to the most conserv­ good Harlan Ellison story) which DgD myself, but I wonder if the ative magazine in the field. Simil­ got started when a conservative edi­ people who do have thought to intro­ arly, when ISAAC ASIMOV'S SCIENCE tor tried to commission one. duce Jerry Falwell as an imaginary FICTION MAGAZINE published "Full monster-type figure, right there a- Fathom Five My Father Lies" by Rand 'As a result, the remaining long with the balrogs, dragons or B. Lee, a downbeat story set in a censorship is in the name of Liberal­ whatever. Perhaps if a character is society in which father-son incest ism. Robert Silverberg has expressed is the norm (the tragedy came when unlucky enough to encounter a Fal­ it all very well in a recent editor­ well in his stretch of the dungeon, the son fell in love with another ial in AMAZING. He pointed out that everyone and everything in that re­ boy), there was no outrage from the before long the only allowable vil­ readers. On the contrary, the story lains will be WASP males. (Until was extremely well received. There they start protesting.) His conclu­ was a lot of mail on it, and the sion is that it isn't the artist's closest thing to an unfavorable one job to be nice to people. (He was was from someone who said, well, he being taken to task for an unsympa­ didn't approve of homosexuals, but thetic gay in THE BOOK OF SKULLS.) it was a good story anyway. If the story had been conspicuously bad, 'But, to be honest, we must admit maybe there would have been a few that what the censors are out to el­ charges of sensationalism, but I iminate really exists. Vigilantes usually have a legitimate complaint, 29 before they become as serious a prob­ lem as the one they set out to com­ successful or intelligent? (Do not bat. Extremists tend to become ex­ cite PLAYBOY or lesser mags of that actly like their enemies. How dif­ ilk. Again irrelevant. We are talk­ ferent is a Communist slave state ing about the core of science fiction from a Fascist one? How different publishing.) Can anybody cite a re- is a Feminist/Liberal censor from a cent example of a story being turned Conservative/Moral Majority one? down because the protagonist is a But I digress. The Feminists are sympathetically-portrayed black, gay, right when they say that a lot of Hispanic, Indian, Jew, etc.? Again, blatantly sexist science fiction I can cite examples of stories with does exist, and that this sexism strong women characters being pub­ passed unnoticed for decades. (Actu­ lished in the allegedly most conserv­ ally, the earliest story I can find ative markets imaginable. (Example: which questions these attitudes is "The Barbie Murders" by Varley in "Delilah and the Space-Rigger" by -- ISAAC ASIMOV'S SCIENCE FICTION MAGA­ you guessed it! -- everybody's favor­ ZINE. The story was fairly well re­ ite Right Wing Sexist, Robert A. ceived. Some people complained about Heinlein.) Sexist science fiction one-dimensional characterization, a is still being published, though common fault with Varley. One per­ not as much as many would have us be­ son insisted that because of the lieve. Biggest change I see in this strong sexual element in the story regard is that an increasing amount we were dancing on John W. Campbell's of it is written by women and that grave. To which Isaac replied, women are able to get away with far "This just isn't 1938 anymore.") more blatant bigotry than men are. 'I suspect most of the perceived Consider reversing the gender roles anti-women censorship is really a in say, "The Female Man" or "Houston? far, far more graphic and detailed matter of editors refusing to publish Houston? Do You Read?" Would these in re the sex acts which are the stories in which the propaganda gets stories still be publishable? I whole of the book or movie. There in the way of the story. You don't, doubt it. is, in the printed porno novels, you'll notice, see Gorean type stor­ 'Of course there are the Got a more intense humiliation of the ies in the magazines, or in, say, books. But their appeal is, I think, woman/girl, and they are required the Timescape Books line. This is extra-literary. They are simply to worship not just the male's power not a matter of ideology. The anti­ pornography, not read for story or and lordship, but imperitively his women, rape-is-what-they-want obses­ idea value, but for glandular inter­ huge, ever-potent penis. Too, in sion of the author dominates the est, and perhaps for reassurance by printed porno (of which I can speak books, to the exclusion of the story. men who are afraid of women. (What with some authority) , the woman/girl The reader who is not into that par­ disturbs me the most about them is is helpless in her lusts for sex and ticular fantasy, who is trying to the large number of women who read orgasms; a slave to her sex needs. read them for story (or literary) them.) They would probably be pub­ And she is not an exceptional nympho­ value, will O.D. in about five pages. lishable as hardcore porn, save that maniac; she's everyone 's wife, daugh­ Similarly, the reader looking for it's more profitable to do them mass­ ter, sister, aunt, widow, secretary, story value will find little of int­ market. This way lots of readers nurse.... erest in a Feminist tract. This is can buy them and booksellers can ((Call the GOR books porno in a bedrock commercial matter. I am sell them and delude themselves into theme if you like; but they 're not not saying that Feminist tracts or thinking they aren't dealing in porn­ porno in execution or in current anti-Feminist tracts or save-the- ography. In this sense their appeal legal definition.)) whales, anti-pollution, anti-(or pro) is similar to DHALGREN, save that Communist tracts should not be pub­ they appeal to a different set of lished, but when editors refuse to sexual fantasies. 'The Gor books also make a con­ market them as fiction, this is cen­ venient bogey. A Feminist censor sorship. can justify anything by saying, "But the Gor books are being published!" 'Correspondent Polyphemus will ((The GOR books are not porno­ Irrelevant. The appeal is on another indeed probably be out of a job soon graphy! They deal in male power/ level. Last time I looked at a dirty if he practises what he preaches. sex fantasy—the totally self­ book rack (admittedly this was years He does not understand that when assured male, the submissive beauti­ ago and the trends may have changed) readers want positive, upbeat stor­ ful women, the power to command or the big areas seemed to be spanking ies in which science/reason/and man­ force instant sex, the wish to have parties and women having sex with kind conquer the universe, they are worshipful, adoring sex slaves.... dogs, collies preferred for some rea­ not insisting that women be relegated (And, let's note the occasional se­ son. to the kitchens (or the ovens). No, quence in which the woman lords it they are insisting that there be up­ over the male-- later to be punish­ 'The stories at issue are the beat stories with science/reason etc. ed for her usurpation of the male more subtle ones, which are designed conquering the universe. Gender is role and brought to a full realiza­ to do something other than stimulate not the issue. It is true that most tion of woman's place in the right glands. The pro or anti-feminist such stories in the past have featur­ scheme of things.) That relatively elements are in there as assumptions ed male protagonists. Does it fol­ large numbers of women read and en­ in the way the characters behave or low that these stories found favor joy the GOR novels suggests they perceive the world. This is where because the protagonists were male, share that belief system; they are the censorship occurs. or for other reasons? Does it fol­ of that character type (as are the low that readers would not favor an other weak-ego, master-needing, de­ 'But, as I said, there's no discern­ able Right Wing/Anti-Feminist/Funda- upbeat, positive story in which the pendent types ) which finds such mentalist censorship going on. Can scientific, reasonable, universe­ fantasies attractive. conquering type is a woman? I think ((Pornography is (in most written anybody verify a case of a story be­ ing rejected because the heroine was they would. The story would have and film examples today) also a male the same appeal. Polyphemus sounds power/sex fantasy media, more blatant, 30 to me like the sort who will put him­ self out of business by publishing ((But if the current recession whole business is falling down ar­ tracts and Social Rightness rather ripens into a full-fledged depres­ ound our ears and we're all walking than the stories the public wants sion, and if there is a further, around with a smile on our face and to read. cataclysmic, shake-out among the a corncob up our ass. publishers of sf and fantasy, then 'A couple parting thoughts: 'Don't make waves, they may not the remaining publishers of books Would it be possible for a woman to buy anything else. They may hold and magazines will find themselves produce a counterpart of Gor, in your check. able to pick and choose from among which men are shown as better off many fine stories turned out by 'What the hell does it matter if when enslaved and humiliated by wom­ many, many fully professional writ­ you're not getting paid anyway, huh? en? I think such a thing would be ers-- experts at the craft---who published if the right author found will be rather desperate for sales. 'Right now there is considerable the right cynical and irresponsible ((I suspect there will be a talk about a Writer's Union. publisher. Whether or not it would strong buyer’s market very soon, sell would be a sociological and 'I hate Unions. They become even for short stories.)) psychological problem rather than a governments within themselves, tell literary one. us what we will and will not do. 'The shortage of publishable 'But ... I'm wavering. It's material in the magazine/short fic­ starting to sound like a good idea tion market is getting pretty severe. to me. My ass is raw from the fuck­ Even with the highest budgets, the ing I'm getting and it doesn't look editor must struggle to find short # LETTER FROM JOE R. LANSDALE to be near healing. In fact, I see fiction which isn't too bad, which 608 Christian a big spiked dildo coming now.' is minimally readable and written on Nacogdoches, TX 75961 something vaguely like a profession­ November 8, 1981 al level of competence. He must ((A writers union sounds great fill his pages mostly with the work 'Pardon my coffee-stained stat­ -- except there are too many poten­ of beginners, because the more estab­ ionery. It was handy. tial scabs. Now, all you have to do is change that dead black in lished writers are all off writing 'Polyphemus's letter is well your novel to a dead white commie novels, and realises that he will lose intentioned, but misses the point. Muslim who used to live in Libya.)) most of his regular contributors af­ Your reply stated this, but one ter a couple years when they, too, thing: I'm not advocating that we go off and write novels. go back to fiction the way it was, that women be given back to the 'If John W. Campbell, with all cookstove and the bedroom. Only the crotchets and dogmas of his later saying that sometimes a knee-jerk years, were to start up today, I do reaction keeps an editor from seeing # LETTER FROM RONALD R. LAMBERT not think he would be able to survive good fiction. Often, as in the case 2350 Virginia, Troy, MI 48084 as an editor. I don't think a Rav­ of my novel, mentioned last time, re­ November 16, 1981 ing Feminist or Fundamentalist or marks are made out of hand, and stup­ Black Radical or Neo Nazi would be idly. Like the editor calling me a 'For some time now you have been able to survive in today's magazine racist just because a character that relating the horrendous facts of life field. They would be turning down was killed in the book was black. in the writing/publishing business. perfectly good stories for ideologic­ Does he want only white victims? Is What I wonder is, what has allowed al reasons and there aren't enough this better? Might not it have been such a state of affairs to develop? good stories to go around. In his better for him to at least read You can say human nature -- but in last years Campbell was conspicuous­ enough of the book to find out that our society we have established sys­ ly lowering the quality of ANALOG the main character of the novel is tems of checks and balances that on in order to get stories which were black? (Honkeys die in this one, the whole make it possible for many ideologically right, but in today's too.) lines of business to be pursued in market, I doubt he would be able to more or less equitable fashions. maintain the barest minimum stand­ 'No, he didn't have time for What has gone wrong in the writing/ ards of readability. The day of that. He reads a sentence where a publishing business? the dogmatic editor dictating the Black is killed, and since my novel 'Do you think we need new laws content of the stories may be over.' is from the South, why I'm obviously sitting here at the typewriter in a or new activism? For example, would white hood and sheet with a cross it help if enough people pressed burning in my front yard. Congress to enact legislation pro­ hibiting large corporate conglomer­ 'If you think the book sucks, ates from owning controlling inter­ okay, but Christ, give a writer a est in any publishing company? This chance. At least try to see what would tend to leave publishing in he or she is trying to do. the hands of the people who under­ 'You have my permission to put stand and (hopefully) care about pub­ this on a toilet roller and install lishing, and would help facilitate it in your bathroom. That's probab­ freedom of the press. ly the best place for it. Arguments 'Writing, especially fiction writ like this don't do a fucking thing, ing, is the last widespread cottage other than cause enemies. It's industry left to civilized Man. I sort of like all of us who squawk would hate to see it closed down. about publishers, late payments What might replace it is something (do the janitor and secretary and like no-name brand supermarket nov­ editor wait for their checks as long els cranked out by salaried hacks. as we do?) and such. We're not go­ In order to write to sell, you would ing to do a fucking thing. The have to be in a publishing company's 31 "stable", writing according to speci­ fications set by market analysts. tion to enforce the exclusivity AMAZING STORIES "(first issue in Ap­ You would labor under a "bonded serv­ of union writers and their lock on ril, 1926)". No, no, no.' The first itude" contract that required you to all publishers' needs. In that issue of AMAZING STORIES did NOT turn out a novel a week, which you case sooner or later the govern­ appear in April 1926; it appeared in offer on speculation to your exclus­ ment will dictate content...as in March, 1926, and was dated April. ive employer. How is that for a the U.S.S.R. today. 'I won't cry shame upon Mr. El­ nightmare? If it ever comes to that, ((The next boom/debt cycle liott because he is most likely a we might as well not bother teaching will spread the Electronic Age to victim of widespread and longstand­ school children to read any more. undreamed of heights and exten­ ing misinformation perpetrated by sions. It’ll be marvelous. The 'I have always suspected that oldtimers writing on the science fic­ danger is in an unwillingness to thoughtful, artful writing of any tion magazines. The shame is on let the current debt structure com­ sort is by nature an underground act­ them -- Lester del Rey, Mike Ashley, plete its deflation; we could choose ivity (thinking is an underground ac­ Dave Kyle and many, many others government intervention to the point tivity these days). Only a fluke has (perhaps even I myself sinned once of stagnation and dictatorship. ever brought it into the open market­ or twice in that regard) -- because ((That course would delay the place. How many people read books? they should have known better. It Rennaissance for perhaps genera­ A few million at most in this country gets most insidious when you see that tions. )) -- which is a very small percentage type of error perpetuated in ency­ of the total population. In one clopedias of science fiction. sense literature seems like a mass market business, but in another sense 'Let's try to get the past it is very small scale. It is not straight. and never has been anything more 'I'm hardly in the same league than an intellectual indulgence of a as Sam Moskowitz when it comes to very small minority. Perhaps we are being an expert on science fiction approaching a day when all publica­ and the old magazines, but I can tion of thoughtful, artful writing claim a fair amount of expertise will be an underground activity. about the science fiction magazines 'Still, I prefer to believe the issued in the USA between March 1926 Renaissance continues. We will weath­ and December 1937 -- the period that er the present economic downturn. Del Rey rightly calls the "Age of Mankind will yet ascend to the stars Wonder". I must pass on MIRACLE in body and in soul. Even should a SCIENCE AND FANTASY STORIES; not new Dark Age descend, there will also only do I not own copies, though I come a new Renaissance.' have seen them, but even if I had them there is no sure indication as to whether the April-May 1931 issue ((The writing/publishing busi­ went on sale in February or March ness has always been this way, wit­ 1931, and the June-July 1931 issue ness the problems of Balzac, Hugo, appeared in April or May 1931. I'm Dumas, etc. in the 1800's. In fact, missing the first two issues of AS­ it was probably worse in the last TOUNDING STORIES OF SUPER SCIENCE, century. The great wealth provided but I've studied them both in the by the exploitation of the natural past; and I let my first four issues resources of the planet by way of of STRANGE TALES go, since I reprint­ the industrial revolution has allow­ ed all the stories in those issues ed a generalized prosperity for a- in my own magazines during the '60s bout 400 years so far that has grad­ and early '70s. (I'm also lacking ually increased till now we live the December 1935 AMAZING STORIES, like kings in terms of comfort and # LETTER FROM ROBERT A.W. LOWNDES and I didn't bother to keep the last services and entertainment and food. two issues of the Teck AMAZING STOR­ 717 Willow Avenue ((We are currently in the grip IES QUARTERLY, since they were all- Hoboken, NJ 07030 of a monstrous worldwide debt struc­ reprint issues.) Otherwise, I don't November 7, 1981 ture which has become too big to have to rely upon memory; I have handle. It is in the process of the copies here at hand. crashing and it takes time and in­ 'Jim Blish is supposed to have volves a great deal of pain-- usual­ noted somewhere that we really don't 'It gets very confusing when ly to the wrong people. As usual, know much about the future, but at you want to say in what year a cer­ ignorance isn't bliss-- the ignor­ least we can keep the past straight. tain story appeared, or a certain ant get screwed in a debt collapse. I hope that is a slight misquote, author made his or her debut, if the 99.99% of the people are ignorant because such optimism wasn't really issue of the magazine in question or misinformed about what causes characteristic of Jim — I hope that was dated January (or, on some oc­ what in economics. The dynamics of he put the word "try" in. Because casions, February). In what year did debt/credit bubbles are fascinating "try" is all we can do. Not only John W. Campbell's first story ap­ -- but I must not let myself get are memories highly infallible, but pear? Not 1930 as I (and perhaps carried away here. The problems people are often deceived in what you) have read too many times. It of publishers compound in a debt they honestly believe they saw, heard, was 1929; in the January 1930 issue crunch, and the writer is the one or read, etc. Even if everyone were of AMAZING STORIES, which went on least able to force payments due, 100% honest, we'd still have trouble sale in December 1929. trying to keep the past straight. by the very nature of the writer­ 'Likewise, the first issue of publisher relationship. 'What brought forth that bit of ASTOUNDING STORIES OF SUPER-SCIENCE, ((The only way to give writers philosophy was a line in "The Human dated January 1930, appeared on the leverage and power is to forbid Hotline", #41. Actually, it's a first Thursday of December 1929. any but a few card-carrying Writ­ parenthesis in the paragraphs about er Unionists to write and sell. 'A brief rundown: AMAZING STOR­ This requires government interven­ 32 IES appeared one month earlier than the cover date from March 1926 to 'STRANGE TALES was erratic, after sue of SFR) will be Required Ref­ July 1933. One issue had a double the first four issues, but I do be­ erence Reading for future sf ency- date: In July 1933, we saw the Aug­ lieve that the final, January 1933, clopediasts. ust-September issue, which was the issue appeared in October 1932. ( (By the way-- SFR is habitually last one in the original large size. mailed on or about the 26th of Jan­ 'WEIRD TALES played a fascinat­ Then in August 1935, we saw the Oct­ uary, April, July, and October... ing, if dirty, trick on us in 1933. ober, rather than the September is­ give or take a Saturday and Sunday The April 1933 issue, containing sue; AMAZING STORIES had become a bi­ when the P.O. is closed, and lack­ monthly, and every issue in the Teck the first installment of Jack Wil­ ing an exceptional oceurance like liamson's "Golden Blood", appeared series thereafter was dated two an ice storm, fire, flood, earth­ as it should in March. The release months ahead. quake, extreme illness.... This date was always, officially, the note for the official record.)) 'SCIENCE WONDER STORIES, AIR first of the month. But come the WONDER STORIES and WONDER STORIES first of April, there was no May is­ were all dated one month ahead. sue of WEIRD TALES. It finally show­ The first two combined in May 1930 ed up around the 15th, without any and the June 1930 issue was Volume explanation of the delay, and we two, number 1. It remained that were assured the June issue would way, although during 1933 there were be on sale May first. But it wasn't. # LETTER FROM DOUG FRATZ two combined issues: July-August It appeared on June first, and now EDITOR THRUST PUBLICATIONS and September-October; each appeared it was explained that they'd decided 8217 Langport Terrace a month before the earlier of the to change the release, so that the Gaithersburg, MD 20877 two dates on the cover. In October magazine actually appeared in the November 27, 1981 1935, we saw the December, rather month shown by the cover date. That than the November issue, and the mag­ lasted until August 1936; the new is­ 'I continue to enjoy SCIENCE azine became bi-monthly, appearing sue had a combined date, August-Sep­ FICTION REVIEW, but the only thing two months before the cover date for tember; but the magazine had not gone you seem to have to say about THRUST the final three Gernsback issues. bi-monthly (as it actually had done lately (as well as other semi-pro The last one, dated April 1936, went during 1931). They had decided to efforts) is that they cost too much on sal,e in February. THRILLING WOND­ return to one-month-ahead cover dat­ for so few pages! Such critical ER STORIES started in June 1936, ing, and on September first, 1936, acumen! (Bring back Alter!) dated August, and maintained regular there was the October issue. That 'My main objection is, natural­ bi-monthly appearance through the system remained stable so long as ly, your inclusion of THRUST in this rest of the period. WEIRD TALES remained a monthly pub­ "over-priced" category. THRUST has lication. 'ASTOUNDING STORIES was stable, had a cover price of $1.95 since 'The errors about what month appearing on the first Thursday of Winter 1980 (up from $1.50) and my magazines appeared "in" after 1937, every month preceding the cover four issues since then have contain­ when the boom started, are too numer­ date, from December 1929 to May 1932. ed 52, 56, 44 and 40 pages. Only ous to mention. As a result, the Then things became hectic. No issue the latter issue was typeset — but confusion as to just when a new sci­ appeared in June 1932, but in July being typeset enabled more text per ence fiction (or weird or fantasy) 1932 we saw a September issue. From readable page. I'd be willing to title really appeared is tremendous. that point until the end, it was bet that no other semi-pro publica­ regular, bi-monthly, with the final, tion during that same period, with 'My copies of various books on March 1933 issue appearing in Jan­ the exception of SCIENCE FICTION RE­ science fiction magazines are litter­ uary. September 1933 saw the title's VIEW, presented more material for ed with marginal corrections on dates revival, dated October 1933, and less money. But also note that alone. the magazine became the most regul­ THRUST is almost all "paid" material, ar of all, never missing a month 'How important is it? That's with only a couple of pages of let­ (although to Isaac Asimov's and my relative, of course, when you con­ ters, which makes my costs higher, own temporary horror, the release sider the price of potatoes and oth­ when compared to SCIENCE FICTION RE­ day was shifted — but, I believe er things we need in order to have VIEW. I also spend more on graphics that was later than the end of 1937 the leisure, strength, etc. to read (including typesetting) and printing -- whoops! there I go, relying on science fiction. I'm a history nut, (Washington D.C. probably has the na­ memory, when I have the relevant is­ real history as well as science-fic­ tion's highest printing costs, due sue at hand. Shame on me! Well, I tion-magazine history, and I do get to federal government money). just checked and find that this time annoyed by those errors when they're 'And let's look at that $1.95 my memory was OK). committed by people who should know THRUST cover price for 40 pages, ver­ better. (Particularly ex-magazine sus SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW'S $2.00 editors, who should remember that cover price for 68 pages. That cov­ their own issues did not appear in er price is paid only by bookstore the month shown on the covers.) buyers. For subscribers, THRUST costs $1.50 and SCIENCE FICTION RE­ 'I implore you, good sir: If ever again, you have something to VIEW $1.75. That closes the gap a run in SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW where­ bit. And the fact is that 75% of in the writer avers that the first THRUST sales are still wholesale to issue of AMAZING STORIES appeared in bookstores and not subscribers. I April, 1926, will you please change get, on the average, about $1.00 for that to "in March 1926, dated those. April?"' 'I suppose that what raised my ire here is that I have always fully ((I'll try to remember. Thanks, realized that a too high price for Bob, for the detailed history lesson. THRUST would decrease income, and I suspect this letter (and this is- have continued throughout THRUST'S existence to keep the price artific­ 33 ially low. The final proof of this lies in the fact that I have main­ Robert Blake said: "When times get 'That doesn't count the $675 paid tained my losses (not profits) on tough, you gotta grab yer stick and to contributors, or the lesser ex­ THRUST at a constant $500-$1000 per keep strokin'!"' penses -- like $50 pro-rated for the issue for years. I cannot go higher cost of this IBM Selectric, minor in my losses, but I refused and con­ advertising, general overhead costs tinue to refuse to try to cut my los­ ((Another aspect of small-press (the bulk rate mailing permit, the ses and thereby kill the magazine as publishing is the problem of find­ box number, etc.). so many others have done. ing those people who will feel your publishing effort worth .the money 'I haven't kept count of the 'THRUST is just a goddamned hob­ you have to charge. single copies sold since then, but by, but an expensive one.' ((I'm convinced there are per­ I would estimate perhaps another haps 10,000 people, worldwide, who hundred at an average return after postage of somewhere around $300. ((I had no idea THRUST was a would be willing, even eager, to money-losing operation. Especially subscribe to SFR; it's a question 'That still puts me $375 in the that much! I have to admire a man of letting them know SFR exists and hole on that issue, minimum. Sure, who puts his money where his mouth what it offers. Short of a hundred there are around 500 copies in the is. I hope your enjoyment and pleas­ thousand dollar inventment in ad­ basement. Sure, some day I'll get ure in publishing continues to com­ vertising, the only other way is my investment back, in inflated dol­ pensate you for many years.)) the el cheapo classified ad in the lars . prozines and word-of-mouth. ((Come to think-- I'm also 'Too bad I don't have 1800 sub­ fairly sure I don't want 10,000 scribers (but then neither does subscribers. Too much bookkeeping AMAZING STORIES). and order-filling would be involv­ 'Don't tell me to advertise be­ ed at that level of mail process­ cause ads don't bring in enough mon­ # LETTER FROM ARNIE FENNER ing. And the job of enveloping ey to pay for their cost. A favor­ 8435 Carter and addressing...!!! able mention in SF REVIEW does more Overland Park, KS 66212 ((I’ll be happy to keep the for me than two ads. (And most of December, 1981 circulation-by-mail between 1500 your reviews have been favorable.) and 2000. Of course I do advertise anyway...' 'SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #41 was ((And my response to Robert another enjoyable issue. Very nice Blake is: I’m strokin' as fast as ((I see now that 95% of the fan erotic cover by Fabian, phallic I can!)) publishers who turn out a quality broomstick and all. I guess I should product are not in it for the money. make some sort of comment on your It's a hobby, idealism, madness.)) editorial dealing with the small press publishers and the prices of their respective magazines. But there's no need to put on your slick­ # LETTER FROM W. PAUL GANLEY er because I'm not going to start Box 35, Amherst Br. flinging shit. Not me. Buffalo, NY 14226 9 November 1981 # LETTER FROM MICHAEL WARD 'Because you're right. Pretty MEGATHERIUM PRESS much, anyway. $3.00, $3.50, $4.00 'I was very disappointed at your P.O. Box 1496 is too much to pay for some of the remarks juxtaposing WEIRDBOOK 15 Cupertino, CA 95014 fan/semi-pro zines being sold today. with Greed on page 7 of your excel­ 4 November 1981 Not that those prices are necessar­ lent 41st issue. ily out of line with the present rate 'You are right about the small 'When I was attending the World of inflation -- production costs and press publications pricing themselves Fantasy Convention last weekend, some­ low circulation, as you pointed out, out of the market, and you are right one asked me if I made a living from drive prices through the ceiling. about the reason: insufficient mar­ WEIRDBOOK PRESS. I laughed. But I think that the cover price of ket for the kinds of material, kinds an amateur magazine (or any other 'Since 1977 I have lost approx­ of publications. You could have men­ project) can be justified by the imately $10,000 on this publication tioned P*S*F*Q: print run of 1000, amount of entertainment that a read­ effort. I am hoping for a really price $2.50 for 36 or 40 pages at er can derive from said publication. good year in 1981 -- under $500 lost. the newsstand. Of course, few (re­ Most fans know deep down that no one latively) copies are bought for full 'Of course, I have lots of back gets rich off fanzine publishing cover price; subscribing is cheaper issues in the basement. And I DO (for that you have to go over to the to the reader and nets more money sell some as time goes on. Issue 8 comics field) and judge a magazine to the publisher as well. Once went out of print recently. on its own merits. again, it is cheaper to subscribe. 'If they get $4.50's worth of 'Anyway, let's look at some ele­ And the publisher is happier. mentary facts. WEIRDBOOK 15 cost me reading out of WEIRDBOOK then they'll 'Distributors, such as carried about $1600 to print 1500 copies. probably feel their money's well FANTASY NEWSLETTER, pay on the order About 400 sent to wholesalers garn­ spent; if they yawn through TRUMPET of 40% of cover price for their cop­ ered $600, and about 200 sent to or SHAYOL they'll probably find ies -- which they have to do, to dealers on my "special standing order something else to spend their dol­ stay in business. That doesn't leave list" brought around $400 more after lars on. Intrinsic value justifies much for the per-copy cost of the postage. Subscription copies? the price tag. magazine. You, and Charlie Brown, Around 250 at most, and count them and perhaps Andy Porter, live (more 'Which, of course, means that at $2.50 per copy since most of the or less) off your small-press maga­ you could get away with charging subs date back to the 4/$10 price. zines. The rest of us hope to more for SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW and That's about $600 after bulk rate break even. (Please correct me if get nary a grumble from my corner. mailing costs. Add them up — $1600, I am wrong. Mr. Fratz? Mr. Fenner? right? Enough to pay for the print­ 'So there. Mr. Keller?) ing bill. 'Take care. And remember what 34 'Given the above situation, what's a boy to do? Don't ask me; many others more deserving of the whom I know nothing, invented it I have decided that I must be doing award. earlier (refer to: Verso-rhyme, page 197) in PATHWAYS FOR THE POET it for Art. If Art is triumphant, 'I don't know how the CAS Award by Viola Jacobson Berg, 5 Roosevelt we can look for more semi-prozines was determined, but in the Rhysling Avenue, Malverne, New York, 11565; coming from an association of some competition eight others were nomin­ hardcover, 1977, 235 pages, $9.00; form with a local college or uni­ ated in the long poem category (over highly recommended). versity (non-profit mailing rates, 40 lines), including a fine narrative free typesetting and production la­ poem by Chad Walsh (which I nominat­ 'Finally, let me complete an up­ bor and printing under university ed and which took second place), a date on that SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW auspices, even course credit in first-rate mythical piece by Paul Ed­ #39 letter by noting that my appeal journalism school...) As for win Zimmer, an unintelligible mammoth for Science Fiction Leftys to come P*S*F*Q, I am in the position of do­ by Gene Van Troyer, a light satire by forward and be counted resulted in ing job typesetting to pay for the Suzette Haden Elgin, my own inscrut- only one letter from a lefthanded Compugraphic ACM9000 which I bought ible "Balloon to the Center of the fan (Roger Waddington, North York­ to be able to do my magazine in a Earth" and several others. Since shire, England). Thus Juanita Coul­ presentably attractive fashion. only about half of the SFPA members son and Gene Wolfe are the only pro 'One more publishers' puzzle: voted and the first, second and third science fiction writers to proclaim Is the new FANTASY NEWSLETTER still place poems together took 60% of the leftishness -- Wolfe noting in his eligible for the Fanzine Hugo? People votes cast, Disch's win was hardly letter in SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #40 keep having fits when you and Charlie a landslide. that he had already mentioned his lefthandedness in the interview in win the award (I've even got an art­ 'Specifically, Disch's message SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #39. Wolfe, icle on this very subject coming up is that Science Fiction people are by the way, was the winner of the soon in P*S*F*Q); can a university- all cripples. "First admit that/" first Rhysling long poem award (1978) sponsored journal conceivably be con­ Disch sings, "And it follows we in­ and has since become President of sidered a "fanzine"? Anyway, keep cur no uncommon shame/By lying in the Science Fiction Poetry Associa­ them banners flying, Mr. Geis!' our beds telling such tales..." And tion. ' so on for 61 additional lines, flesh­ ((Who is and who is not eligible ing out an idea that, if not crippl­ for the fanzine Hugo is a matter ed, is at least hobbled by its own ((For what it's worth, I’m left­ for the voters and the Convention self-loathing. handed, too. Cormittee to decide. ((The argument that sf readers ((LOCUS has won the award two 'Giving the Disch his due, "On and fans are emotional cripples who times in a row now, and no fanzine Science Fiction" does carry out the need the "crutch" of fantasy and are ever has won the Best Fanzine Hugo poet's obligation to play with a avoiding reality is elitist crap concept/image until at least some of three times in a row. We'll see which springs from the elitist's if tradition prevails or if LOCUS its ramifications shine through. Al­ need to be superior. Sf fans and as, Disch's poem does not strike me can win it again.)) readers have been a good target for as particularly clever or insightful that put-down. nor does his use of language stir me ((If that argument is valid, to great admiration. Adequate is then all readers of fiction, all the best description. viewers of films, all watchers of TV, all spectators at sports, opera, 'But the main point is that Disch ballet, concerts...all readers of is wrong. We are not cripples, ly­ poetry...all those who go to plays ing abed and escaping into fantasies ... everyone who is entertained, div­ and we should not "admit that" as erted, amused, affected emotionally Disch exhorts us to do. Disch and by any activity which is non-fact, his admirers may be cripples if they non-work, non-immeaiately devoted # LETTER FROM NEAL WILGUS wish, but include me out. Science to sober consideration of grim, Box 25771 fiction is a dynamic, creative and deadly, serious, no-win reality-- Albuquerque, NM 87125 important use of the human brain and all those (all of humanity!) are December 1, 1981 deserves our support and respect, also emotional cripples who are whatever its shortcomings. Science guilty of the sin of avoiding Real­ 'SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW has pret­ fiction poetry in particular seems ity. Has Disch ever played a game ty good coverage of the various to me to be the cream's cream and I of chess? GUILT!! Take him away.)) awards (Hugos § co.), but somehow don't find amusing Disch's attempt the Rhysling Awards (given by the to poison it with malice afore­ Science Fiction Poetry Association thought ... each year) seem to be overlooked. 'One of the poems nominated for The 1981 Rhyslings went to "Meeting the short poem Rhysling this year, Place" by Ken Duffin (from ISAAC AS­ by the way, was Roger Zelazny's "I IMOV'S SCIENCE FICTION MAGAZINE) for Used to Think in Lines that were Ir­ short poem and "On Science Fiction" regular to the Right" (from WHEN PUS­ by Tom Disch (from TRIQUARTERLY) for SYCATS LAST IN THE CATYARD BLOOMED), long poem. The Disch poem also won which is not science fiction to my a Clark Ashton Smith Poetry Award, by mind but is a good piece in its own the way. right. Readers of SCIENCE FICTION 'Now, I have a lot of respect REVIEW may recall my letter in #39 for the Science Fiction Poetry Assoc­ last year in which I noted that Zel­ # LETTER FROM GENE WOLFE POB #69 iation, for its newsletter STAR LINE azny and I had independently invent­ Barrington, IL 60010 and for its 150-plus multitalented ed the technique of alligning a poem members. But. It seems to me a to the right margin rather than the Nov. 10, 1981 shame that Disch's insulting and left. Since then I've discovered lackluster verse has been selected as that L. Ensley Hutton, a poet of 'Piers Anthony Jacob flays me with some justice. I did not intend the "best" long poem when there were 35 to say that there was no such thing ((Well, now that you mention it 'The story goes on from there, as learning disability; but it ap­ —my dissatisfaction with my series though. I didn't really expect a pears that I implied it, or some­ of menial jobs in my twenties (and pink-and-white-bunny-rabbit story thing very like it. What I meant to other, physical-emotional factors) from Harlan -- but "The Executioner say was that lazy and stupid kids probably explain why T------after one of the Malformed Children" I didn't are now called learning disabled by abortive, too-soon attempt-- turn­ expect, either. the teaching profession. I still ed to writing. But why was I able 'Well, I didn't get a lot of believe that this is so, and indeed to sell my first story? And after things I did expect. that a majority of the children who my 95th sold story, why did my first are now classified as having learn­ novel sell? A certain talent and a 'Came time to put together the ing disabilities by the public certain drive and self-discipline program book and Harlan's story was schools have none. I apologize to is how I explain it. I succeeded. nowhere to be seen. So I set aside the genuinely disabled and their But I know there are millions of six pages and tagged them for the pro­ parents and I extend my sympathy to others who didn't succeed who were gram. I supposed that he had simply the parents whose children are de­ just as pissed at boring, grinding forgotten about it, and that was nied education and discipline be­ 8 to 5 jobs as I.)) okay. I wouldn't ask a professional cause it is so much easier for the writer to do a story gratis under school to stick them in an LD class. any circumstances -- and Harlan was donating a bunch of other goodies 'As I said in the interview, I to the con anyway. So when next I always try to write well, but I talked with him (about every other sometimes fail. day at that point), I mentioned 'PS: Mr. Jacob subtly flatters that we had laid out the program me by intimating that he had to read book without his story. THE SHADOW OF THE TORTURER to page '"Wait a second," he said. "You 173 in order to find something to can't do that. I'.ve got the goddamn­ complain about. I can find some­ ed story waiting for you". Okay. thing in every chapter, and in fact So I shrugged and bumped the program on almost every page.' to the pocket program (which is why it got printed so tiny, by-the-by). And proceeded with the pasteup. 'And it didn't arrive, and it didn't arrive. Came nail-chewing time. We were on deadline, and we # CARD FROM ROBERT BLOCH had these six, blank pages .... 2111 Sunset Crest Drive Los Angeles, CA 90046 GEIS NOTE: The following two let­ 'To make a long (very long) November 5, 1981 ters complete the background, fore­ (Harlan can think up the most inven­ ground, sideground, underground and tive excuses...) story short, we fin­ 'About why people write ... your overground of the Iguanacon Anec­ ally had to send Phil Paine and Anna conclusion is "Deep character drives dote. This is a tempest in a tea­ Vargo in Pat Mueller's car to go to and talent explain those who do be­ pot, but sometimes such storms must Sherman Oaks and kidnap the manu­ come selling authors. Illusion and be allowed to blow themselves out. script. Harlan was revising it (for delusion probably explain the other the fifth time) as they arrived. 98%." We had already sent the rest of the program book to press -- and in fact, 'I think that's a bit simplistic all the other sections had already and would tend to place my bet on been printed -- so I typeset the misanthropy to win, place or show. # LETTER FROM BILL PATTERSON thing myself, and we got it in lit­ Perhaps there are more people than November 13, 1981 erally just under the wire. one thinks who are seeking an escape from a nine-to-five daily grind 'I happened to see Bruce Arthurs' 'Another exciting chapter from that begins and ends in bumper-to- loc in your recent SFR and thought the Secret Protocols of the Elders bumper traffic and has as its center­ I would write to "amplify and cor­ of the Iguana. piece the insistent — and frequently rect" the IguanaCon Anecdote he 'PS. Incidentally, I'm writing idiotic — demands of an alleged cites, which did, indeed, happen, up a history of Phoenix fandom that "superior" or the constant clamoring but not quite as he remembered it. of "customers". Perhaps there are will contain, among many other things, an intimate history of IguanaCon -- many who dread the assembly-line 'When the concom met with Harlan but are equally unhappy with the at WesterCon in 1978, he volunteered presumably for publication by next either-or dictum which offers them presumably in an excess of good spir­ year's WesterCon. It'll probably its or what passes, in him, for bon- run to 50,000 words, of which 30,000 an alternative existence as a drop­ out. hommie, to do a story for the prog­ are finished as of this moment.' ram book. "Sure", I said. Me look ’A' writer who can operate at a gift horse in the mouth? Nah. better than a mere subsistence lev­ Never happen. "Okay, I'll do it. el has beaten the system, at least You want a pink-and-white-bunny-rab- in part, and expanded his or her bit story, right?" Visions of fut­ # LETTER FROM HARLAN ELLISON freedom of choice. And he suffers ure Hugo ballots crediting a World- 3484 Coy Drive less fools gladly — as your letter- Con program book that had been form­ Sherman Oaks, CA 91403 cols and articles eloquently attest. ing in my head crashed instantly and November 21, 1981 In short, I think many turn to writ­ died in flames. "Huh? Well, it'll ing as an escape from being dumped be a change of pace," I said. But 'I am in receipt of the various on. Hoping you are the same. it was too late: The conversation Xerox copies of letters/postcards had already passed to other matters. from Bruce Arthurs, Bill Patterson 'PS. Stunning Fabian cover art! and myself in re: "The Executioner (#41) And a stunning -issue! • 36 of the Malformed Children" and how it came to be written for the Iguan- or a splendid colorist, or that he his vision so all-encompassing, the aCon program booklet. shows a terrific sense of design or books are saved and saved wonderful­ construction. I could say, "Yes, 'Bill's letter is 100% accurate. ly- that's a beautiful tree, it's a per­ When I wrote Bruce, my memories of 'So what if someone's (yours, fect sycamore, I saw one just like the circumstances were so hazy it mine, his, hers ...) expression is it in the park, this man can cer­ would ennoble them to call them im­ not efficient in some places, or tainly paint good trees". Instead precise. The way Bill Patterson re­ some areas? Look to the strength I look forward to the artist showing lates the story is absolutely cor­ of IMAGINATION." me some of his personal IMAGINATION. rect. Reading Bill's recollection I want him to astound me, to entice of the casual offhand flip way in me, to conduct me (the viewer, the which I'd said "soft pink-and-white ((Yes, yes, Piers Anthony's science- reader ...) to places I might never bunny rabbit story" at the 1978 West- fantasy novels are readable, obvi­ have imagined without his help. erCon, I realized I'd said just ously, else hundreds of thousands The crudity of one's expression is that; and he should not be consider­ of copies of his books would not neither something to be frowned up­ ed either in error or as one who re­ be bought; I was just zinging him on nor spoken of with distaste. writes history. Quite the opposite. back for zinging me in re Alter- His memory is bloody faultless. I'd 'Two painters (with quite dissim­ Ego. even forgotten that Phil Paine and ilar styles) here in Saint John are ((Curious how, in your mind, Anna Vargo had driven all the way Don and Dave. Don is a commercial at least, crudity and undisciplin­ from Phoenix to Sherman Oaks and graphic artist who paints landscapes ed style and technique equals vi­ back, without sleep, just to pick up in his spare time. He is fast, deft tality and excitement in art and the revised manuscript. and meticulous. Dave, on the other in fiction. I suppose this linkage hand, doesn't use brushes anymore; exists in many minds. I think it's 'Which is something so damned his implements are trowels, rags, a false assumption springing from fannishly heroic, I would be a swine split wood, chisels, anything which an impression of "primitive power" to misremember it. Which I did, I can spread paint on a canvas. His and "spontaneous emotion bursting suppose, out of subconscious chagrin paintings drip, they're splotchy, forth... " "untrammelled imagina­ at how long I kept them waiting for they're haphazardly executed. And tion. .. " Unmitigated bullshit, I the story. yet -- their vitality excites me. think. 'The one part that is not exact­ I admire Don's work too; but it ((I'll admire and respect the ly as Bill reports it (sorry, Bruce), doesn't touch my nerves in the same mastery of words and their usages, is that the first version of the com­ way. Don's paintings are infinitely the mastery of drawing and its pleted story did get sent off to be more salable than Dave's (at least techniques before the "primitve" mailed by Linda Steele's assistant, here in Saint John where it hurts stylists of any medium of expres­ whose name was Maggie Impens (mar­ me to admit, abstract expression is sion. The artist who has full com­ ried name, Pierce), who did toss it more often ridiculed than seriously mand of his tools and techniques into the back seat of her car, go discussed or purchased. This kind and who uses them to do precisely what he wants-- to evoke emotions eymoon and never even returned the of attitude irritates me.) all all kinds in the viewer and manuscript long after the IguanaCon. ' Much the same is true of writing reader-- that man or woman will 'I'm sorry that my failing mem­ I think. Piers Anthony, for example, win my praise and admiration. The ory -- premature senility is what we possesses one of the most unrestrict­ artist or writer who lacks disci­ call in the crazy person biz a. real ed and riotous imaginations in sci­ pline or control or knowledge and bitch -- has cast even the faintest ence fiction. The fact that his mode produces "impressionistic" daubs shadow on Bill Patterson's historic­ of expressing such imagination often­ or flawed stories wins some ap­ al recollections or Bruce Arthur's times seems crude is due, I think, in plause from those conned by a reportage of same. They are both part to the vast amount of material special effect or trick or theme, right, I am wrong, go ahead drive he produces. This, I'm sure, is his but I always wonder what a skilled in the fucking spikes, I'll just own choice. At least he shows us artist or writer would have done cross my legs.' things we've never even considered with the same idea or material. before -- and he does it consistent­ Alas, in our imperfect world the ly. His novels are readable, Dick. combination of mastery of technique and great imagination and emotion­ 'But on the other hand, so are al power is rare.)) Gene Wolfe's, whose writing in one sentence in one book Piers finds grammatically offensive. # LETTER FROM VINCENT PERKINS POB #234, Saint John, 'History shows that art is many New Brunswick, Canada things. Fauvism and impressionism December, 1981 were only two of many styles which were crude. By my God, weren't they # LETTER FROM STUART DAVID SCHIFF 'Piers Anthony's letter in SCI­ exciting! How different from, for WHISPERS/kHISPERS PRESS ENCE FICTION REVIEW #41 (and subse­ example, magic realism, whose paint­ 70 Highland Avenue quently your reply: "...Have you ings invoke even more detail than Binghamton, NY 13905 written any readable novels yet?") photography. A worthwhile art form December 23, 1981 has sparked some thoughts on art. and exciting, too. 'I mentioned that I wanted to re­ If you were to ask me if it's enough 'Rudy Rucker's novels are anoth­ spond to your statements in #41. -1 for the artist (or writer, or sculp­ er case in point. The first two — apologize beforehand for the possible tress...) to be competent in his or SPACETIME DONUTS and WHITE LIGHT are lack of coherence of this letter but her medium, I would have to say no. I believe, undeniably crudely writ­ it is late and this is coming off the Personally, I don't think competence ten (though WHITE LIGHT is a great top of my head. The remarks to ans­ (and by that I mean technical ac­ improvement over his first. This wer were in regard to your mention of complishment in a particular art man is going places.'), but because increased prices for semi-prozines. form) is enough. For instance, when his imagination is so strong, and I look at a painting, I may agree This note may contain "anticipatory" that the artist is a good draftsman 37 statements in "answer" to what you will be saying when you receive the azine rack and looks to perusal? refuses to buy because the col­ next WHISPERS. Yes, Richard, there B&W covers do not usually catch the umns aren't justified. is a WHISPERS (sorry, Virginia). eye as well as color. SFR's colored ((Were I you I would go to paper and black ink is an excellent 'With the Ramsey Campbell double­ saddle-stitch binding, a bril­ way out, but this publisher feels issue of WHISPERS (March, 1982), the liant white heavy cover stock, that full color is best. Do I have magazine's price will increase to a fine, vivid, eye-catching to switch? What about typesetting? $5.00. Needless to say, I was loath cover art, get an electronic I started out perfict-tieping (well, to do this. I do not want to commit typewriter which can use the almost perfect) and unjustified the suicide you talked about, but Qume printwheels and use the right-hand margins. Now, I have gone sometimes a price increase IS neces­ Bookface Academic wheel...in to typesetting (and an additional sary. I would like to consider it place of the cost of typesett­ cost of between $1200-1500 per doub­ an "adjustment" rather than an in­ ing. le-issue). Should I go back to typ­ crease since I am also increasing the ((Ads are almost always a ing to save money? Will I lose size of the magazine from 132 pages waste of money. Bookstore dis­ people with the old look that I at­ to at least 176 pages. As an aside, play, word of mouth, and reviews tracted with the new one? I'm still almost $1000 in the red on are the best promotion methods. the Leiber issue so you can see that 'What else can a magazine do to Accepting ads is okay if you can I am not banking "it" away on WHIS­ keep their costs (and, subsequently, get enough to make a difference, PERS. the price) in line? I am trying sev­ and if you have the guts to eral methods. My first thought, of charge enough for the space. 'Why do some fanzines ask dif­ course, is to sell more magazines. ((There, I've saved you a ferent prices for "similar" products. The new look was one way, improved couple thousand dollars! Now, The answer is very simple, one can­ quality another, and new markets go and do as you will anyway. not compare apples and pears. Every­ (like libraries) a third. Certainly Nobody takes my good advice... .)) body has a different "fruit". First­ I am always trying to get lower mat­ ly, the more copies you can sell, the erial costs without sacrificing qual­ cheaper your price can be. That is ity. I have now decided to take ads simple economics. Also the more mon­ inside of the magazine to help in­ ey one takes in, the better price crease revenues. I have also creat­ one can give. You, for example, say ed another product, our signed hard­ your product goes about 3/4s to sub­ # LETTER FROM MARK BERRY cover editions of 250-350 copies, to scribers and only 1/4 through deal­ POB #16, Taylor, MI 48180 fill the coffers. I am doing the ers. This gives you more money per December 12, 1981 best I can in the face of all the copy than someone such as me whose problems. sales are 2/3s to dealers and 1/3 'In the last issue of SCIENCE to subscribers. Simply speaking, if 'In summary, I have tried to give FICTION REVIEW, it was noted that my figures were reversed, I would you a look at the problems I believe Asimov's book, LIGHTNING ROD was due have almost $1000 more income with­ I am facing and some solutions I am out in the fall. I recently inter­ out selling one more copy of the mag­ taking. Indeed, my price increase viewed Isaac for a newsletter I pub­ azine. $1000 is a major change in may turn out to be the suicide you lish on space colonization and explor­ income for a magazine such as mine. spoke of. Look what happened to ation and I asked him about the book. My object, therefore, should be to Paul Allen. He committed Hari-kari He said, "The book is due when I fin­ aim to reverse those figures. May­ when FANTASY NEWSLETTER proved of ish it. The earliest it will be out be more ads (but they cost money limited profit potential. I certain­ is Spring 1983." He is presently at which is not here to use)? More dis­ ly do not want to do that, but I can­ "just" the 70,000-word mark. I also counts on subscriptions (but this not afford to support the magazine found out his current book count is could result in LESS income if no out of pocket either. In the final 244. When I interviewed him the sizeable increase in subs)? For analysis, as always, the public will count was 242. Two weeks later, it WHISPERS I also plan to get back to make the decisions. I hope, as do had increased by two. Whew! He a regular schedule which is sort of all magazine editors, that the hands must burn out several typewriters a an "ad", I suppose. Any ideas? will be thumbs up. year!'

'To get on, the current news for WHISPERS not only includes its re­ birth in March, but a second double­ issue in July. That will be our Ste­ phen King double-issue. August will see us publish the hardcover edition # LETTER FROM WILSON BOB TUCKER of Robert Bloch's PSYCHO II in both 34 Greenbriar Drive 'How else can we compare semi- a trade and signed-slipcased version. Jacksonville, IL 62650 prozines? Let us look at author and I have several more projects in the December 11, 1981 artist payments. Firstly, many zines fire, but rather than jinx them, I do not pay any money, period! I will keep mum for now.' 'You should be advised that the started WHISPERS out paying authors world is coming to an end. I know a maximum of 1$ per word. These this because I have been given eleven ((We each have our own style of rates are now from 1-3-5$ per word. wondrous signs in the space of a publishing; I would consider the My B§W covers cost me $35.00, but my single year. Eleven ghosts of fan­ cost of typesetting exorbitant, color covers now cost me anywhere dom past (Fandom Past) have made and full-color covers far, far from $200-$500-$1000 depending on their presences known to me at unex­ too costly, because I don’t be­ the artist. To reduce costs, do you pected times in divers places, and lieve the buyer cares that much. lower the quality you took so long to one need not be a divine oracle to I don’t believe anyone buys a build (and maybe lose readers)? Do realize those ghosts are harbingers small press publication because you beg your friends to lower their of doom. Don't pay your debts too it has a four-color cover (all prices for you (and as a result, get quickly — you may save money. what you pay for)? Any ideas? other things being equal), nor 'The first ghost appeared at a 'How about the look of a maga­ bookstore autographing session in zine, the way it stands out on a mag­ 38 Ann Arbor, Michigan last January. He was Joel Nydahl and he appeared fandom in its cradle a quarter-cent­ in the chair beside me and asked ury or a half-century ago. wistfully if I remembered him. I 'The eleventh and final ghost did. About 1953-55 he was a four- was Dan McPhail, an Oklahoma fan who teen-year-old whiz-kid fan-editor began publishing fan newspapers in who produced many multi-colored fan­ 1931 and who still publishes a quart­ zines of high literary quality (Lit­ erly fanzine today. He awarded me a erary Quality) and then burned him­ freebie position on his mailing list. self out by exhaustion. He left be­ hind him a condition now called 'All this has to mean something "Nydahl's Disease". Nydahl is now (Mean Something) for it is beyond teaching in Ann Arbor but doesn't the bounds of mere coincidence that care a moldy fig for fandom, although I would discover eleven ghosts in he seemed pleased that I remembered one year, eleven signs in less than him. a twelve-month. Nydahl didn't seek me out just because he saw my name 'The second ghost appeared just on a bookstore poster, Degler didn't a month later at a convention in find me just because he saw my face South Bend, Indiana,and at first I on a TV interview, Amsbury and Mac- thought it a quaint coincidence. Niel Dermott didn't attend the Denvention DeJack, who used to roam the Chicago because it happened to be there. and northern Indiana fan scene in These were signs. I suspect the the early 1940s popped into the con­ world is coming to an end and the vention hotel to wonder wistfully signs were sent to me, to reveal to (again) if I remembered him. I did. the world. I may even be a latter- He was one of the fans who taught me day degler. not to play poker with fans. He had been gone from fandom for perhaps 'Repent, Richard.' thirty years and now had no desire to return. REVIEW thoroughly (especially boo!- 'The third ghost was a. shocker, ((Pent.. .pent.. .pent.. .pent. ..I’m reviews -- to see what I want to the most amazing of the lot. The repenting as fast as I can, Bob.)) buy -- and your capsule film com­ third ghost was Claude Degler (him­ ments). By the time you've seen a self!) who came to the convention movie and written about it in SCI­ hotel in Indianapolis last Fourth of ENCE FICTION REVIEW, it's usually on July weekend to learn if anybody re­ the cable channels, so your reviews membered him. We recognized each often are timely. other at once in the lobby. With # LETTER FROM BUZZ DIXON 'On to commenting on SCIENCE FIC the brilliant hindsight I now have, 8961 Yolanda Avenue TION REVIEW #41: I realize that I should have seized Northridge, CA 91324 him by the lapels and dragged him up December 18, 1981 'In regards to your comments re to the microphone to address the as­ writers' boards, writers' incomes, sembled multitude there -- he could 'I have (truly-uly, as my daugh­ etc. I'm a member (finally!) of The have spoken on The Cosmic Circle or ter would say) been meaning to write Writers' Guild of America, which his memorable dig down to hell. But, and compliment you on the truly out­ handles union writing in Hollywood alas, he disappeared shortly never to standing job you're doing with SCI­ (as opposed to scab writing or non­ be seen again. ENCE FICTION REVIEW (particularly guild signatory writing). There are 'By now I was aware that the the Malzberg offerings -- for the about 6,000 members in the guild, signs were not coincidences but were first time in my experience I found of whom maybe 3,400 are current mem­ omens of vast import. I awaited the myself reading Malzberg's writings bers (i.e., have enough credits next and the next, knowing them to and agreeing with his point of view points; one-shot writers are assoc­ be signs of doom. and understanding his perspective, iate members until they get enough so much so that I was nodding my points). Less than 10% of the writ­ 'The signs and the ghosts came head and saying, "Yes, yes," to my­ ers in Tinsel Town make more than in great, glorious clumps at the self, "Go get 'em, Barry!" And if $10,000 a year. In fact, something Denver Worldcon this past Labor Day you know my reluctance to even read like 300 writers write over 50% of weekend. They were Clifton Amsbury anything by Malzberg you'll appreci­ all the TV scripts in this town and Aubrey MacDermott who edited and ate my enthusiasm. Barry is a far (which means they're averaging five published fanzines as early as 1932; better critic than fiction writer). scripts per person, giving them mini­ Olan Wiggins who was doing the same mum incomes of $60,000 to $120,000 'I've also been slaving away at in 1936 and went on to sponsor the a year!). first Denvention in 1941; Chuck Han­ the Ruby-Spears salt mines, cranking sen and Roy Hunt who became fans out scripts for THUNDARR THE BARBAR­ 'The vast membership of the about 1939 and helped with that first IAN and GOLDIE GOLD. We've also guild, however, has gone a long time Denvention; Ted Dikty, who published been doing development work on a between meals. We're not talking as early as 1938 and was a sparkplug variety of series for next year, in­ about neophytes here, but people of Indiana fandom; and Judy May Dikty cluding two shows developed by yours like George Clayton Johnson and D.C. who discovered fandom about 1949 and truly which received the back-handed Fontana, talented writers who've con­ liked it well enough to co-chair the compliment of "these are too good tributed quality scripts in the past. for Saturday morning so we're not 1952 Chicago Worldcon. (She also 'Why -- with such a huge number buying them." (!?!?!) liked Ted Dikty well enough to marry of scripts available each year (we him.) All these ghosts of Fandom 'So I haven't been indolent, are talking in the 3,000 range — Past turned up at Denver and found Dick, waiting for the next SCIENCE and this is just for TV alone, not me, or I found them, and together we counting radio and films) — aren't examined the convention around us to FICTION REVIEW to roll in so I can ignore it. I read SCIENCE FICTION more writers selling shows? marvel at what we had wrought by our inaction. We could have throttled 39 'Apparently a lock-out has des­ cended on this town. Producers are 'Now, with people demanding agers are never to blame for the fail­ hiring staff writers but dubbing guarantees before they sign on as ed­ ure of talent (particularly top-line them "story editors" and "associate itors and producers, guarantees of talent) I suggest he look at the producers". Now, the guild doesn't a minimum number of scripts, free­ season record for the ex-L.A. Lambs frown on hiring staff writers, nor lancers are in effect frozen out of ... er ... Rams. does it frown on writers who work as the market. 'Glad you disliked BLOW OUT: story editors or as producers. 'I am lucky; my income is above Another horror story regarding screen­ 'What's been happening is that $10,000 a year. However, last year writing is that I was one of three these bogus story editors (who are I wrote eight animation scripts, people (at least!) who wrote full- in theory charged with the task of which gives me an income of about length screenplays for that film. locating writers, obtaining scripts $25,000. I get no residuals, no Two of us weren't paid, none of us from them, then polishing those royalties, no share of the profits got any credit. Some of our mater­ scripts into the type of episode us­ (indeed, the animation union speci­ ial did end up in Mr. DePalma's (hoo- ed by a particular show) are in di­ fically prohibits me receiving such ha!) screenplay. I'm glad the movie rect competition with the people benefits). If I create a show for laid a turd for two reasons: DePal­ pitching stories. a company, I never see a penny of ma's less-than-ethical behavior and its rentals, residuals or merchan­ the fact that Filmways -- in a luna­ 'Case in point: 1 pitched six dizing. Had I written eight live- tic budget cut to keep from spending story ideas to a now defunct TV ser­ action hour-long scripts this year, money on a company they planned to ies that was so loathsome I'm not I would have made a minimum of sell -- kept me unemployed for the even going to mention it by name. $160,000. bulk of 1980. The story editor -- who was writing scripts on his own at a furious 'DRAGONSLAYER, by the way, is clip -- rejected five of my stories not a Disney film. It was partially but did take a fancy to one (need­ financed by Disney (in return for less to say, the sleeziest, most overseas rights), and some of the cliche-ridden of a thoroughly bad full-scale effects were done by the lot). Disney effects crew, but the film was a Paramount venture. It got buried 'However, if the story editor in the summer sludge rush this year; bought the story from me, it would too bad, I hope Paramount re-releas- mean he'd lose two scripts he could es it at a more opportune time (say write himself; the script I'd sell after the CONAN movie). and the script he could have writ­ 'So Robert Sabella and Barry Malz- ten in the time it would take him berg are kicking around the age-old to edit and polish my script. So he question: If tin whistles are made strung me along, kept me dangling of tin, what are foghorns made of? with promises of "I'll take it to What is science fiction? (You de­ the producer in a week or so when cide if it's science fiction, specu­ he's less busy." lative fiction, sci fi or what). Al­ 'The series got shitcanned long low my two cents worth to be depos­ before the producer ever saw my story ited : idea. Needless to say, three more scripts by the story editor were writ­ "'Science fiction is what a ten and filmed during that period, writer writes about when he plus a script written by a person to thinks about what the world whom it was politically advantageous could be. for the story editor to buy a story "'Fantasy is what a writer from (you lick my anus, I'll lick writes about when he wishes yours). what the world would be. '"Horror is what a writer 'My story is not the most ter­ 'There's a lot of money to be writes about when he thinks rible of this sort; it's actually made writing, but more and more about what he fears the rather mild. Other people have pit­ cliques are taking over the publish­ world is." ched ideas only to be told "we're ing and dramatic markets. These are doing something like that already" 'By the way, I liked your two not conscious, evil conspiracies, nice ZAPS to Christopher Priest and then once the writer was out of ear­ but simple groupings of people who Piers Anthony Jacob -- it's so nice shot the story editor hot-footed it have worked together before. The to see you haven't lost your male­ over to the producer with "his" new problem is, by their very nature, idea. volent old form ... or wit.' they tend to exclude outsiders. 'Back in the Bronze Age of tele­ 'And when you think about it, vision (contrary to starry-eyed ro­ aren't most good writers outsiders ((I think that as the economy con­ mantics, it never had a Golden Age), at heart? tinues to slide, the contraction story editors only edited stories, in publishing will result in more just as producers only produced. In­ 'Cliff McMurray's shuttle report and more "staff" writers—proven deed, the worst episodes of a series was fascinating; you have a particu­ writers who are part of an unof­ were usually the three-week wonders larly good batch of non-fiction re­ ficial clique who supply 95% or that a story editor wrote in utter porting recently. I do wish you and so of the fiction needs of publish­ desperation when his regular writers he would stop criticizing Governor ers. As you say, the newcomers and failed to come through. In the Moonbeam — he's the most entertain­ the outsiders will have an increas­ Bronze Age of TV (1950-65) freelance ing comedy-soap-opera running today. ingly tough time breaking in. writers were catered to and enticed; Grant's "Wow!" cartoon fitted the ((I'll dispute you: sometimes producers seemed to be of the opinion tone of the article perfectly. the "insider" is also a good writ- that the more input they had to a 'If David Gerrold maintains man- series, the better the series would LETTERS CONTINUED ON P. 47 be. 40 THE UIUISECTOR BY DARRELL SCHWEITZER

ELFLAND, THIS EXIT; RIGHT LANE ONLY

We might as well admit it: Fan­ When the type of book is more inport­ tasy has become a genre for the first ant than the name of the person who time. Fantasy is the oldest form of wrote it, you've got a genre. For "literary" writing. Some Chinese the first time, in the past ten years oracle bones are older but the earl­ or so, publishers started clearly- iest piece of written storytelling labeled Fantasy lines, just like their is probably THE EPIC OF GILGAMESH, mystery lines, their mainstream lines, and it is ... you guessed it. Real­ their gothics, westerns or whatever. istic literature does have ancient antecedents, but nothing that anci­ This is a mixed blessing. A ent. Fantasy remained the dominant genre offers protection. A genre form of fiction in our culture until book will sell a predictable amount about 1600, when it retreated a lit­ of copies, merely because it is in tle, but by the end of the 18th Cen­ that genre. Therefore if it is budg­ eted properly, it will not lose mon­ tury it was back. The mainstream end, there's formula sword-and-sorc­ novel, by which I mean the novel ey, no matter what is between the ery. On the other, there's a kind of which is realistic in both treatment covers. It is less of a risk for the publisher to undertake. The ad­ fantasy romance, usually written by and subject matter, is a recent in­ women and read by women, which threat­ novation. Its strongest period of vantage of this is that it becomes far easier for new writers to break ens to become as totemized as the dominance was probably about 1880- gothic or the Regency Romance. (Or 1960. It seems to be declining now. iii. The major disadvantage is that there is a general lowering of aver­ maybe the Bodice-Ripper. Has any­ You might say fiction is reverting body written a Fantasy Bodice-Rip­ to normal. age quality. Back in the old days, before Fantasy was a genre, when a per yet? If not, steal my idea. See But, for all fantasy has existed Fantasy novel was likely to meet with if I care.) Somewhere in the middle for thousands of years, it has only prejudice and outright incomprehen­ there's a kind of fake, lifeless med­ become a genre in the last ten. There sion, the few that got published tend­ ievalism which ignores all the char­ is an obvious reason for this. As ed to be brilliant: The GORMENGHAST acteristics which give real medieval Norman Spinrad points out, everything books, THE LORD OF THE RINGS, ONCE literature (or even real after-the- is genre these days. There aren't AND EUTURE KING, JURGEN, THE BROKEN fact medievalism, like White's) its any "general" fiction books anymore. SWORD, THE WORM OUROBOROS, THE CROCK interest. If you ignore both the The other reason is less obvious. OF GOLD, Lord Ikinsany's early story spirituality and the earthiness; if Fantasy reached its many-centuried collections. They were usually pub­ you don't use the peculiar world­ low point in the 1950s when virtual­ lished as rather odd entries in the view -- well, all you've got left is ly no books of the type were publish­ Literary category. Certainly there a lot of people in armor and/or droop­ ed, and the very concept was virtual­ are Fantasy books contemporary with ing robes calling one another "My ly unknown to the reading public, the above which have been forgotten, Lord" and "My Lady" (or maybe "Sir­ not to mention the publishers. (The but damn few compared to the number rah", which is Elizabethan, please sort of people who read and publish of dustbin mainstream novels there note) and living in papier mache' "Novels" with a capital "N". The are for every FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS castles. As Avram Davidson pointed implication of the use of the word or THE GREAT GATSBY. out recently, in any real castle to mean realistic Literary fiction there are hundreds of absolutely es­ is that the beholder is unaware of Genrefication makes room for med­ sential people who are neither My Loid any other kind of novel.) Then Fan­ iocrity. But it also allows new or My Lady; there are latrines over tasy was rediscovered, first through writers to start at a beginner's lev­ the moat; those old and doddering Tolkein, then T.H. White, then Bur­ el and work up to greatness. Before, wizards were once young and not so roughs, then Howard. Each time a Fantasy writers usually had to spend doddering, etc. In other words, publishing explosion occurred, but their apprenticeships writing some­ life was not a Society For Creative in each case (with the possible ex­ thing else. (Who reads Cabell's THE Anachronism event. Nor was it a ception of White) it centered around EAGLE'S SHADOW these days or White's Dungeons and Dragans game, even in the author himself and.closely iden­ early books?) I wonder how many nev­ Romance. (I am not saying one has tifiable imitators. The phenomena er got started at all because there to be realistic. The romanticizing had not broadened into a field. was no genre to protect them. of the Middle Ages began in the Mid­ Lin Carter changed all that with When a field becomes a genre, you dle Ages. But one has toTe some­ thing.) the Ballantine Adult Fantasy Series. have to lower your expectations for Not only did he reintroduce William any randomly-chosen book. So it is What I mean to say, before run­ Morris, Dunsany, Cabell and many in Fantasy today. There used to be ning on longer, is that each genre others, but he showed clearly that just a few great books. Now there has its own particular straight)ack- Fantasy books sell. Not Tolkein are just a few great books, and a ets, its pitfalls, its fossiliza- books or T.H. White books or Robert lot of not-so-great ones. On one tions, and now that Fantasy is a gen­ E. Howard books, but Fantasy books. 41 re, there is a lot of bad fantasy, and this bad fantasy tends to run in uations , but ... but ... Fantasy genre. It is worth reading. channels. When you open a Fantasy It will probably be popular. It may ... but the book is rather dis­ book, you can no longer expect it to even win awards. But I don't think appointing, because it isn't nearly be something special. It can be any­ it'll be a classic. We have to get as good as it should be. Nfeybe I came used to the idea that every Fantasy thing. to it expecting it to be non-genre, book isn't a classic anymore. The only encouraging note is that automatically far above average. It there is no evidence that genrefica- is one thing to carefully explain tion decreases the number of great how Fantasy is genre fiction. It is works written. It just hides them. quite another to get used to the idea. It may even increase the number (The irony of it all is that Carter slightly, by making less commercial created the genre using non-genre THE CHANGING LAND By Roger Zelazny books (which would never make the books, most of them far superior to Del Rey Books, 1981, Paperback Best Seller List) safer to publish. what is published as Fantasy today.) 245 pages, $2.50. THE WAR HOUND AND THE WORLD'S PAIN To consider some recent Fantasy: has all the material for a great Genre or no genre, I have my book (and I mean a really Great one, limits .... Here's a real disap­ like TITUS GROAN or ONCE AND FUTURE pointment. Zelazny used to be one THE WAR HOUND AND THE WORLD'S PAIN KING), but there are passages in it of my favorite writers. He is still By Michael Moorcock which read like any Moorcock sword- a writer I think has done excellent Timescape Books, 1981, 240 pp.,$12.95 and-sorcery novel, including the work, even if most of it was a while ones he used to dash off in a few ago. This is not just a case of By genre standards this is quite days. good. It is above average for Fan­ adolescent infatuation either. I There is a curious lack of pas­ tasy books published in 1981. It is grew up on Zelazny, yes, but this sion or intensity, which robs the original in conception, quite inven­ past year I was hired to write an­ tive and well written in spots. story of its enormous potential. notations for a bibliography of his This is supposed to be the most apoc­ work, and I went back and read a Curiously, serious treatments of alyptic era in the history of Europe, great deal of it. And I read a lot the Christian Mythos are rare in Fan­ you see. The tale opens: of his early stuff I'd never gotten tasy. There is the humorous variety to before. It held up. a1la JURGEN, "The Devil and Daniel "It was in that year when Webster", or those endless slushpile the fashion in cruelty de­ I've long since ceased to regard stories about the formalities of the manded not only the cruci­ every Zelazny book as an Event, but hereafter, but Christian elements in fixion of peasant child­ I never expected to be bored by one. a serious work are almost taboo. Ed­ ren, but a similar fate It came as a shock. CREATURES OF itors clam up. They are hyper-defen­ for their pets"....(p. 11) LIGHT AND DARKNESS might have been inferior. DOORWAYS IN THE SAND might sive, expecting a preachment. In But there follows a rather bland have had a slapdash ending. BRIDGE the pulp era, one just didn't do that synopsis of the hero's early life OF ASHES might have been a framed sort of thing. Sword and Sorcery fic­ and his military experience. Noth­ fragment rather than a whole novel. tion, which is pulp-derived, almost ing real on a gut level. No pain, But those books held interest. They never uses Christian elements. Even no horror, no convincing remorse for had considerable virtues. THE CHANG­ C.L. Moore's Jirel of Joiry series, his evil deeds. No emotion at all. ING LAND is simply tedious. one of the very few to use the hist­ There are no scenes of cruelty, vio­ orical past rather than Never-Never lence, terror. We have to take some­ Some review --it might have Land as a setting, carefully avoided one else's word for it that things been Algis Budrys -- coimented in a Christianity. (And probably lost are as bad as they are. The reader review of TO DIE IN ITALBAR that most of its potential that way. If never gets a chance to see for him­ Zelazny has been, over the years, your story is based on something self and to react. The first person putting all his magic tricks into which is one of the most fundamental narration may be at fault. Like many the hat. There goes the poetry. elements of our culture's way of first person narrators, von Bek talks There goes the characterization. thinking, it will resonate nicely in too much, merely describing his emo­ There goes the sheer personality of the reader's subconscious. It isn't tions. He is perhaps too self-cons­ his narration which sometimes took a matter of being a Believer.) What cious, unable to submerge himself in the place of characterization (and Moorcock has done is not only use the the action. you didn't care) ... There goes the Christian Mythos but make it stand wit ... The hat is nearly full, on its head, jump through hoops, etc. On the plus side, the novel is folks. Virtually all the elements fast-paced, smoothly written, and it which made his early work so distinc­ WAR HOUND sounds like great stuff is enlivened by flashes of irony. tive are lacking in THE CHANGING LAND. from the generally accurate flyer It is at its best in the real of It's the f irs t Dilvish novel. and jacket copy: Ulrich von Bek, abstract moral and philosophical Dilvish, you'll recall is the hero mercenary captain and professional ideas, either standing conventional who was sent to Hell for 200 years survivor during the Thirty Years War, notions on end or elaborating a new one of the most brutal and dismal while his body was turned into a and unusual theology which doubt­ statue. He returned at last, a leg­ periods in European history, meets less would have gotten Moorcock burn­ endary figure, to save his country. the Devil in a strange castle. It ed at the stake in the period he's He rides a black metal horse which seems that Satan wants to be recon­ writing about. What I like about ciled with God, but is unable to is sentient and occasionally given this novel is that, not only is it to wisecracking. Zelazny's prose communicate with him. Therefore he inventive, but it is definitely about had a lot more zing in those days. sends von Bek on a quest for the Cure something. It does more than just go For the World's Pain, the Holy Grail, through genre motions. What I don't About all that remains is the offering him redemption as a reward. like about it is that it lacks the invention. The characters spend The quest leads through strange depth and intensity it would have most of their time trying to cross lands, through the intersecting Mul­ had to get published, say, twenty the Landof the title, which constant­ tiverse familiar to long-time Moor­ years ago, back when there was no ly undergoes deadly transformations cock readers. There are striking in­ (one is reminded of the shifting ventions, vivid images, unusual sit­ 42 temporal fronts in Dickson's TIME­ STORM) because a mad/senile god-like few before his life, before his con­ a classic. He continued to write being dwelling in a castle in the ception even. How is this? What the stuff out of love, even when it center is dreaming these things. The else can you do cooped up in a crys­ could only be sold to marginal mark­ wizard Jelerak (who sent Dilvish to tal cave? ets. He can hardly be accused of jumping on the bandwagon now that Hell originally) is master of the The cause of the book's undoing there's gold in them thar elves ... place, but he's missing and every ama­ is mentioned on the cover. "A VERY teur wizard in the universe, not to Adult Fantasy", it's blurbed. Well, FANTASY contains a sampling of mention Jelerak's servants and the no it isn't. It’s a very adolescent stories published between 1951 and like, has a scheme for seizing cont­ one. It would be just great smug­ 1979. There are also a couple of es­ rol of the god's powers. Plots and gled into the Tenth Grade at an all­ says, one of which, "Of Thud and counterplots multiply. There are a boys prep school. This is the Sexy Blunder" ought to be, like Le Guin's lot of odd details. Slaves have to Version, you see, and every situa­ "From Elfland to Poughkeepsie", re­ shovel shit (literally) into the ten- tion is exploited for its obvious quired reading for would-be scrive­ tacled god's pit constantly. No one possibilities. There is even a long ners in the field. It will teach (not even the author) ever makes sequence in which an abbess teaches them to avoid most of the standard anything of this. There is an in­ Vivien (Merlin's mother) how to mas- stupidities, including fifty-pound genious description of a whirlpool terbate properly. This after she's swords, bareass barbarians riding of land, what it would be like to be gone to confession with a priest who horses as if they were motorcycles, on one, and how you escape. must know (for Theology's sake pre­ etc. etc. Embarrassingly, one of The novel is full of good bits, sumably) whether or not the Devil these stupidities (heads lopped off and that's all. The story itself is has hairy balls. It isn't just be­ by one blow with a sword) turns up dull because the characters aren't cause of the abbess that this remind­ in one of the stories in this book, even made of well-cut cardboard. ed me of a porno book I read part of but nobody is perfect. It is a witty, Only one flickers to life briefly once, called NUNS IN CHAINS. All intelligent discussion, rich in sug­ and that's when remembering her past. the characters have such one-track gestions for making such fiction bet­ Like the Moorcock book, this one too minds. The humor wears thin quickly. ter. is dispassionate very much to a Yawn. As for the stories themselves, fault, only this one isn't about any­ my favorite is "The Tale of Hauk", thing, and therefore does not hold Merlin contains one good dirty which is a Norse tale in the manner interest. In a total absence of emo­ joke. I'm going to tell it to you of Norse tales, both humane and grim tionally-involving characterization right now, so you can save three bucks: A certain merchant and his at the same time. I don't read Old there can be no suspense. Motiva­ Norse, 1 confess, or even Icelandic. tions don't make sense. Conflicts daughter were set upon by robbers, who took all they had, except for What I mean is that it reads like an bring a sigh of "so what?" One is excellent translation of an old reminded of Mark Twain's dictum that some jewels which the girl concealed in her privates. Later, she return­ story. It captures the special fla­ the reader should learn to love the vor of the Northern Thing. good people and hate the bad ones, ed the jewels to her father to cheer not wish they'd all go drown in a him up. "If only your mother had lake together. come along", he sighed. "Then we could have saved the horse and wag­ Worse, I couldn't care if they on!" drown in a lake together. The book is a lifeless shell in the shape of a novel. It is a finger exercise. Darrell Schweitzer in his column, Zelazny still possesses his remark­ THE VIVISECTOR, relates a "good, dirty able talents. I only wish he would joke" which he read in the Fantasy take the time to feel his way through book, MERLIN. The joke may be "good" a book. and it may be "dirty" but new it is Ah, well, it'll probably make a not. I was properly astounded, as good board game. I have heard that one ever since my childhood and it was old already then, serving as a part of our "Behind- the-Barn" sex education, the only kind available. — Paulette MERLIN By Robert Nye Bantam, 1981, paper, 238 pp., $2.95

This one won't even make a good The other stories demonstrate an board game. King Arthur always sells. FANTASY This isn't just a commercial thing. By Poul Anderson admirable variety. One of the prob­ The Arthurian story has amazing vit­ Tor Books, 1981, paper, 334 pp,$2.50 lems Fantasy now has as a genre is ality. It still moves us. It in­ that some people (editors and read­ spires great works in every age. Its This is more like it. Poul And­ ers) think that if the story hasn't facets have been examined again and erson has written a small amount of got wizards, dragons, castles and again, and upon examination there al­ Fantasy over the years. He continued people in droopy costumes calling ways turn out to be a few more facets to do so even during the years in each other "My Lord" and "My Lady”, than anybody imagined. which such fiction was hardly a com­ well, it just isn't fantasy. The field is a lot richer than that. It There are also a few smudges. mercial proposition at all. He wrote THE BROKEN SWORD, one of the wouldn't have survived this long if MERLIN begins well enough. In an it wasn't. Anderson does a good job oddball, almost stream-of-conscious­ best Norse fantasies ever, which had a tiny edition in 1954, was met with of demonstrating this. He does Vik­ ness manner (with a lot of arty five ing stories. He does rationalist sentence chapters), the famed wizard little understanding or appreciation at the time and endured to become fantasy, in which some fantastic begins to recall the experiences of premise is treated with rigorous log­ his life. He also recalls quite a 43 ic, as if it were science. Stories like "Superstition" (arguably science look like every other Fantasy book (C.HTH'JLU IS A fiction: A post-Blast society which cover on the market. The semi-ab­ has space travel, but believes in stract, rather fuzzy style reminds (SHCALAK HUA4AMISTJ charms, portents, astrology, rain me vaguely of Goya's painting of dances, etc. and regards materialis­ Chronos devouring his children. tic science as superstition) and The subject matter isn't similar, "Pact" (the ultimate deal-with-a- but the technique is a little like human story: A Devil discovers the that. I am getting tired of Disney­ lost reverse-Faustus technique, con­ land Realism, photographic covers jures up a human, and things don't (usually by Rowena Morrill) filled work out the way he wants them to) with chesty males and busty females, would have fit into UNKNOWN splen­ skimpy costumes and heroic poses, didly . completely lacking any wrinkle, smudge, texture or movememt which "The Visitor" is, in Anderson's would convince the viewer that every­ words, the saddest of all his works. one and everything depicted isn't It's about a little girl living in a molded out of plastic and put on dis­ fantasy world -- only she isn't lit­ play in Fantasyland. So, for the uninitiated, AT THE MOUN­ tle. She's been in a coma for years, TAINS OF MADNESS is certainly the bet­ and it's a timeless prison inside ter buy. The title novella is severe­ her mind. The story is very moving. ly flawed, but it is a major work One of the most encouraging and there are readers who claim it things about such a broad selection Noted: as their favorite. "Dreams in the of Anderson's work is that there is Witch House" is superb and shows H.P. no diminishing of quality over the THE TOMB AND OTHER TALES Lovecraft at the height of his pow­ By H.P. Lovecraft years. When you think about it, you ers. "The Shunned House" and "The Ballantine, 1981, 190 pp, $2.25 realise that most of the great tal­ Statement of Randolph Carter" are ents in Science Fiction/Fantasy did AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS rather minor. their important work in a short By H.P. Lovecraft I'd dearly love to see Ballantine space. Heinlein had about fifteen Ballantine, 1981, 184 pp, $2.25 package all of Lovecraft this well. good years. Bradbury had perhaps ten. Silverberg perhaps eight or Ballantine is beginning to re­ nine. Van Vogt very clearly had el­ issue the old Beagle Books Lovecraft even, 1939-50. But after more than titles with new covers by Michael thirty years, Anderson is still go­ Whelan, which are far superior to THE LETTERS OF J.R.R. TOLKIEN ing strong. A slow improvement is the old ones, but just as non-illus­ Edited by Humphrey Carpenter visible. The early stories are good trative. The problem with this ser­ Houghton- Mifflin, 1981 but tend to include stereotyped char­ ies is that Ballantine/Beagle does 463 pp., $16.95 acters. The later ones show more not own the rights to much of the sensitivity. best material. The basic Lovecraft, Like most volumes of literary Also a must: "The Barbarian", for any serious reader, consists of letters, this one is for specialists. possibly the first (1956) and still the three continuously in print Ark- Only rarely does anything turn up as the best Conan parody. It actually ham House volumes, THE DUNWICH HOR- good as, say, Lovecraft's letters, has a point. The Barbarian comes to HOR, AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS, which are a wonderful reading exper­ grief because he cannot comprehend and DAGON. The first contains most ience for their own sake. (Better of the best short and middle-length civilized war: After all that slaugh­ than the stories, some people insist.) ter and pillage the Empire is mad at fiction, including the classic title Perhaps it is because Tolkien led a story, "The Colour Out of Space", him, because there's no one left to fuller life, richer in direct person­ pay taxes. The reason this parody "The Call of Cthulhu", etc. The sec­ al contact rather than correspondence works is that it undermines the typ­ ond contains three short novels, and that he didn't put as much of himself ical sword-and-sorcery epic with log­ other (mostly important)-material. into his letters. Then again, the The third, DAGON, consists of every­ ic rather than simple exaggeration sort of letters presented here, bus­ and slapstick. thing else, including the dregs. iness correspondence with his pub­ THE DUNWICH HORROR was the first to lishers, answers to fans, etc. aren't be sold to the paperbacks and was Long-time Anderson fans will al­ the sort in which the personality of split into two volumes (THE DUNWICH the average writer really shows so like "House Rule", a tale of the HORROR and THE COLOUR OUT OF SPACE) Old Phoenix, the tavern outside of through. But his letters to his sons which have wended their way through are rather dry too. time and space, where famous people a tangle of Lancer, Zebra, Jove etc. from all eras (and also from fiction editions, none of which, alas, have If you've studied Tolkien rather and legend) gather. The place has been nearly as well distributed as than merely read him, this volume will no doubt be a revelation. There turned up in other works, most not­ the Ballantine/Beagle series, which ably A MIDSUM4ER TEMPEST. is derived from the last two Arkham is a lot of literary data. Several times he explains religious ideas in I found I already had most of volumes and contains much inferior material. As a result, THE TCMB AND great detail. Che of the things the stories, but few fans (nuch less that surprised me was that Tolkien OTHER TALES is a pretty bad book, general readers) read magazines these apparently didn't think of THE LORD days, so probably most or all will be and not a suitable introduction to the author. Only three of the stor­ OF THE RINGS as a massive work orig­ unfamiliar to you. Reconmended. inally. There are a few letters A strong possibility for a Best Col­ ies are of interest to non-special- ists: "The Festival", "The Strange from the late 30s asking his publish­ lection Award, either World Fantasy er if they think they can get it out or Balrog. High House in the Mist" and "In the Walls of Eyrx". The title story is by the next Christmas season if he I should also like to coimend enough to scare away any sophistic­ hurries up and finishes it. the (uncredited) artist for producing ated reader. (It does contain a Of obvious interest to Tolkien a painting and the art director for wonderful drinking song, though.) students, but this isn't the sort of buying a painting, which doesn't 44 book that's going to become popular. I hope Houghton Mifflin didn't print Lyman, and is a novelet called "The as many copies of this as they did Prayer Machine". In some ways it's of THE SIMARILLION. quite standard, a tale of eldritch revenge in a Nepalese monastery, but the prose is vivid and powerful and the characters are alive. Too many stories of this type feature card­ CONTEMPORARY LITERARY CRITICISM board cutouts which exist solely to Edited by Sharon R. Gunton be eaten by Things. (Which I sup­ That must be Volume 19, Gale Research, 1981 pose tells us something about the MY KETEC/E'OM 500 pp. plus indexes, $68.00 nutritional requirement of Things.) In this case there is real interac­ As long as they keep sending me tion and a conflict the reader cares these things I'll keep reviewing about. Also the remote Himalayan them. I don't imagine any individ­ setting comes across very well. I uals will buy CONTEMPORARY LITERARY was completely caught up in the CRITICISM, but every library should story as I read it. Who is Lyman? and anyone who does literary re­ If he sticks around, I predict he search of any sort should be famil­ will go far. iar with the series. It consists Brian Lumley's "Recognition" of excerpts from reviews and articles tells us more about the nutritional about various authors. The idea is requirements of Things. Actually, to give an overview of critical opin­ I don't want to sound too harsh. ion on each. A weakness is that Lumley writes well. His ability to sometimes the concentration is on keep me reading one of his tales of recent work rather than the most im­ the Derlethian Cthulhu Mythos des­ portant work. The Isaac Asimov entry pite everything is a sign of that. spends too much space on his autobi­ All I can really say is that for ography, not enough on his fiction. those of you who like this sort of story. Also, in the last paragraph Science Fiction/Fantasy authors cov­ thing, this is the sort of thing you of page 15, one sentence makes more ered this time include Asimov, Jorge are bound to like. Standard elements sense if you change "not found" to Luis Borges, Philip Jose' Farmer, fall into place like tumblers in a "not found". Brian Moore, Sylvia Townsend Warner well-oiled lock. There are few sur­ The one big disappointment this and John Wyndham. prises. The Eater this time is a ************************************ issue is "Wanderers of the Waters" kind of spider god, possibly new to by the late H. Warner Munn, who has the Mythos. I'm not sure. I have been a regular in this magazine since not consulted the program lately. the beginning. This story, too, SMALL PRESS Another story in the issue that completes a trilogy (the others are I like is Jerry Page's fable, "Two in issues 12 and 13), or more pre­ Princes of Saturn". There is an at­ cisely, it rehashes the previous MAGAZINES tempt at something similar by Jes­ stories then slaps an ending on. Hu­ sica Salmonson, which is far less manity is having it out with the Deep Reviewed By successful. Ones, and other undersea critters, you see. Alas, that the virtually Darrell Schweitzer One of the more interesting indistinguishable characters spend things about WERIDBOOK is that it virtually the entire piece retelling sometimes publishes what can only be what has happened, filling one anoth­ called experimental fiction like er in on the world situation (which that in NEW WORLDS only with content. should already be known to them), or There is a new WEIRDBOOK out. There's one by Eddy C. Bertin this otherwise lecturing in the finest I have been looking forward to each issue, which almost comes off. There RALPH 124C41+ style. This is a nov­ issue of WEIRDBOOK for well over is also a William Scott Home piece, elet-length story in which nothing ten years now. I'll admit to a sent­ "Prisoner of the Omega" which I was happens. With a bit of handwaving, imental attachment: The magazine not able to read. Home produced one a solution is arrived at offstage, has not only been one of my best brilliant tale, "The Fruits of Yebo's but there is no dramatic tension at markets over the years; it was my Sins", in WEIRDBOOK #4, years ago, all. The other two stories are worth first market. Before that, Editor but since then he has produced some reading, by the way. Ganley wrote me some long and patient of the most intensely opaque prose Also featured are stories by letters explaining why the stories I imaginable. I understand he is in­ Michael Avallone, Dennis Etchison wrote in my middle teens were so rot­ fluenced by M.P. Shiel. That could and a few others plus a poem by Rob­ ten. But besides that, WERIDBOOK is explain a lot of it. ert E. Howard. This is an average one of the oldest small press magaz­ I have two stories in this issuer issue of WEIRDBOOK. I can't judge ines, founded in 1968. It has been "The Other Murder of Etelven Thios" my own work, of course, but for me roughly annual since then and fairly and "The Final? Murder? of Etelven it's the Lyman story which makes the reliable in quality. There is al­ Thios?" which, together with the one issue worthwhile. ways a spread of stories, ranging I had in issue #14 (I will let you from fairly weak but still readable guess the title -- Etelven Thios is a There was a fairly good story by to superior. Usually one story per wizard who is hard to dispose of) Charles L. Grant in the June FANTASY issue really stands out. I can think form a trilogy. There is one remark­ NEWSLETTER. FANTASY NEWSLETTER is of some professional operations over able typo in the text. On page 19, probably known to most of you for its the years which haven't been nearly the last paragraph of the last story, reportage, very strong columns by as dependable. someone makes his "penultimate mis­ people like Fritz Leiber and Karl Ed­ Sure enough, the stand-out in take". Unlikely. Please change it ward Wagner and its author inter - WERIEBOOK 15 is by one of the least- to "ultimate" before you read the views. It also publishes fiction on known people in the issue, Thomas G. 45 occasion. The 37th issue presented "The Residents", which is about Jonathon L. Breen parodies the welfare cheats and degenerate hippies strange doings in a homey urban neigh­ Gray Mouser series. This is the they can lure to their town. The borhood and an old man who feeds chil­ sort of thing which would probably crisis of the story occurs when bod­ dren he doesn't like to his haunted put the audience in stitches if read ies pile up faster than the undertak­ car. The writing is polished; the aloud at a convention under the right er can get rid of them in double-deck­ setting comes off as very real, and circumstances, but it seems to go on er coffins. But all ends happily there is even a plausible motivation too long in print. when a bunch of cows die and there's for what happens (too often lacking a lime-pit handy ... This sort of There's also a hitherto unpub­ in this sort of story), but 1 wonder: sprightly humor (?) strikes me as lished story by L. Ron Hubbard cal­ The car is usually seen as an ininob- coming about four decades too late. led "The Were-Human", also presumably ile wreck at the curbside. The old It would have been just right for an old manuscript. It is not his man offers the boy a ride and, quick the "Time Out" section of the Ausch­ best by any means. The illiteracy as you can say Twilight Zone, the car witz camp newspaper. of the title should tell you some­ is shiny and new. The kid is reluc­ thing. Since "were" is an Old Eng­ tant to get in because his momny told Other authors in the first issue lish word for "man" a "were-human" him not to get into cars with people, include Kathleen Sky and Stephen Gold­ would presumably be someone who in, Walt Leibscher and J. Neil Schul­ but he doesn't even seem to notice stays the same under the influence the amazing transformation the old man. The magazine promises more than of the full moon. (That other old it delivers at this point, but con­ heap has suddenly undergone. My dis­ standby, the "were-woman" would be a sidering that it is on a larger scale belief never quite recovered from kind of Swedish convertible, I than anything except TWILIGHT ZONE, that. The idea that the old man can guess.) Ah, but no, this is about a one can hope the future will be bet­ actually go places in some mysteri­ wolf who is stuck in human form. The ous way in this memory-and-ghost-fil­ ter. idea is merely presented. The "hu­ ed wreck is very good, but Grant has man" does a sufficiently brutal deed, Its most glaring need right now not quite shored it up with convinc­ turns back into a wolf, and romps is a new title logo. The present ing detail. one is in such a thin script that it off. Not much of a story really. can only be read up close. Bad new's Now, turning from the old stand­ But here is a classically bad piece for bookstore display. bys to new publications, let us con­ of writing: sider FANTASY BOOK. This is an ex­ "... he found a blind man tremely interesting entry, a more playing a guitar and tapping than yearly (announced as bi-monthly) SORCERER'S APPRENTICE is a fan­ with a cane as he moved a- fantasy magazine with eighty 8 1/2 tasy gaming magazine, rather like long ... With socketless X 11" pages per issue. That's about THE DRAGON. Most of the contents eyes, twisted from left to 70-80,000 words of fiction per issue. deal directly with gaming, but there right in an effort to gain Therefore, the most exciting thing are always a few more general artic­ sympathy ..." (P. 44) about FANTASY BOOK from the writer's les and a story or two. The story point of view is the prospect of a All explanations to the contrary, in the eleventh issue (Sunmer 1981 -- regular market which can publish a I refuse to believe that this fellow the most recent issue I've seen) is lot. doesn't have at least three arms and "Can These Bones Live?" by Manly eyeballs completely outside of his Wade Wellman, in which John the Bal- But sure enough, within a month head,dangling like grapes. ladeer encounters yet another spectral or so the magazine had become over­ thingie in the Appalachian Mountains stocked, as new small press fantasy But to be a bit more positive, which seem to be nearly as haunted as magazines usually do. But as a read­ except for the two incoherent stories the part of New Jersey Jules de Grand­ er I can't help but wonder if the already noted, everything in the is­ in used to live in. The story is problem might not be that the editor sue is very readable. "A Symphony about average for the series. The grabbed everything in sight with for Sarah Ann" by Sheila Finch-Ray­ writing is good, incorporating dia­ just a little less discrimination ner, about a musician's love for a lect deftly and the background is than might be desired. The first mermaid, has real emotional paver. convincing. The supernatural theme issue is not very good. The second But nothing stands out as excellent. is drawn from an old song ("Dry promises to be better (it includes There is only one story I strongly Bones" this time) and after a brief a story by Dennis Etchison), but the object to, and that is "We Take Care encounter the menace is laid to rest. first does tell us something about of Our Own" by Terri Pinckard, in John has gotten a lot of practice what this magazine will be like. which the jes' plain country folks laying menaces to rest, but his fans There are a couple of quite weak cook up a scheme to murder all the always want more. pieces of science fiction, including an overly cute and unfunny cover story by Sherwood Springer. There is a great tendency toward Folksiness, CzxjajT ZPfWLULA ? l His coffiu corm which is to say the characters are LKpUil) mitRdGtHm. THE NJEXT 1 ^Kou»jp jus' plain country (or small town) H IftA TO TASS A folks such as writers who live in MESH SIEVE. the city are likely to imagine. No less than four stories fall into tush । i>n> A this category. By contrast, the one MA^-NEFiC SEEAR reprint in the issue, a hitherto un­ into /q reprinted H.L. Gold story fron UN- KNCWN, is about an urban laundryman I ipDNhFK IF &XTRAGTEP and it rings true. There are also I CAN TEX SUfl* two stories (by Kris Neville and Wal­ ITH HEX TO SACOF MS UFI ter Beckers) which are completely AtCoHoL AMP incoherent. Actually the Neville, Ether. presumably an old manuscript, is IQWITEbT sufficiently formless and opaque ■RESIDUES AT that I'm surprised he couldn't sell 90O°C it during the New Wave era. FANTASY TALES #8 is for people page novels like THE WANDERING JEW, who wish they still wrote 'em like so I wonder why so many modern writ­ LETTERS CONTINUED FROM P. W they used to. Take heart: They ers just present their ideas and stop^ still do. The magazine is handsome­ which is all Glenn does. er. Some insiders are former out­ ly produced and looks like an under­ siders who decided to conform-- in "Sic Transit" by Mike Chinn is sized issue of the digest-styled middle-age, perhaps-- having learn­ a little less than okay. It's anoth­ WERID TALES. The fiction is about ed that the "glamorous" image of er one of those comical God-and-Devil as good as that found in the late the Individualist, Outsider, Rebel stories. An angel gives the hero WEIRD TALES: No classics, but rang­ is self-defeating, counterproduct­ extreme longevity, you see, because ing from fair to pretty good. "A ive, and dumb. But the factors Heaven is getting crowded. Chinn Place of No Return" by Hugh B. Cave involved in that change of atti­ writes well enough. Perhaps some reads like pure, vintage pulp fic­ tude are usually not conscious.)) day he'll get beyond superficial tion. An American professor, who is cleverness. also a bit of an arrogant ass, wants to know if there really are zombies A fairly good issue of one of in Haiti. 1 need not tell you the the fantasy field's standbys. rest. The setting is well realized. # LETTER FROM ELAYNE WECHSLER The story could easily have been pub­ 418 East Third Avenue lished in WEIRD TALES, STRANGE TALES Roselle, NJ 07203 or any of the other pulps Cave used December 15, 1981 to write for. WEIRDBOOK W. Paul Ganley, Box 35, Amherst 'First, to explain my initial "The Dark Country” by Dennis Branch, Buffalo, NY 14226 reaction to a quickie scan of SCIENCE Etchison reminds me of Bradbury's $4.50 per copy, 3/$10.00 FICTION REVIEW (in a previous post­ "Next in Line" and the trouble is card mailed to you) -- I agree that that last time I read "Next in Line" FANTASY NEWSLETTER the abundance of female nudes vs. (which I confess was years ago) I Paul Allen, POB 170A, Rochester, an almost total absence of male didn't like it much. It's a tale of NY 14601. nudes in science fiction illustra­ brooding and vaguely-defined doom in $1.95 or $15.00 per year (monthly) tion is due in large part to cultur­ Mexico. When it gets specific, it's Note: FANTASY NEWSLETTER is now al conditioning. In fact, the whole merely sordid. Some of you may see debate of a supposed feminist cons­ more in it than I do. You may also published by Robert A. Collins, Col­ lege of Humanities, Florida Atlantic piracy (damn, why don't they ever see something in Michael D. Toman's let me in on it? I love spy stuff) "Weirwood" which didn't make a lick University, Boca Raton, FL 33431. Allen still has back issued in Polyphemus' letter and your reply of sense to me. All I saw was some belies conditioning and conscious intensely florid prose. Toman should counter-conditioning. Polyphemus work on reducing his adjective-to- FANTASY BOOK spouts the usual feminist dogma -- noun ratio. Fantasy Book Enterprises POB 4193, Pasadena, CA 91106 my mouth dropped open in total shock There are some stories this is­ $3.00/$18.00 for six issues when I read, for the second time sue I liked more. I smiled when I Bimonthly this month (hm, is there some cons­ read "The Elevation of Theosophus piracy?) , the line "Have you ever Goatgrime" by Brian Mooney, not just SORCERER'S APPRENTICE been raped?" I've never been raped because it's witty but because I'm Flying Buffalo Inc., POB 1467, and no, I wouldn't like such sense­ editing an anthology of stories from Scottsdale, AZ 85252. less violence either, but this lurch­ magazines like FANTASY TALES and I $2.25/$10.00 for six issues ing into horrific reality to make a thought I had something here. Not point about science fiction's socio­ logical implications is a bit too quite. The writing is good, the FANTASY TALES style spritely as the inept hero Stephen Jones, 73 Danes Ct., North much of a jump, even if there is an (who has been an apprentice sorcerer End Road, Wembley, Middlesex, indirect connection. Stick closer for over 100 years, never getting HA9 OAE England to the theme ... I agree with you, good enough to graduate) tries to im­ 75 p plus 18 p postage. REG, in part. Censorship of ideas prove his lot, but the ending turns U.S. price: $2.50 + $1.00 postage. should not be imposed. Publish all. on the usual vaguely worded Three But, to me, the word "idea" implies Wishes by which he comes to a bad Note: You can save on postage by newness. buying it at a convention or getting end. Good, but not quite. Mooney 'What is new, or for that matter it from a dealer as part of a large is definitely a writer to watch, even creative or imaginative, about though. male dominance, pornography, vio­ "Shadows From the Past" by Mary lence, all the traps into which many Clarke incorporates an outrageous authors of "shoot-outs in space" per­ image and is horrific in what it sug­ petually fall (even willingly dive)? gests, but that's all. The author Science fiction attracted me, a fe­ doesn't seem to see the possibilit­ male, as a teenager (even though my ies. The writing is quite Victorian first exposure was to early Hein­ (as are Clarke's ideas about hypnot­ lein BOYS LIFE schlock), because ism) , which gives the present-day the notion of newness and original­ action an odd texture, but certainly ity appealed to me. Here was a lit­ this is one of the strongest pieces erary form which supposedly did not of sheer grue to come along in a content itself with wallowing in fam­ good while. iliar territory. The whole concept of science fiction to me is one of choice. That is also the particular "The Legacy" by James Glenn is well, okay. It's another one of aspect of feminism to which I as­ those stories about Biblical and/or cribe. Alternate cultures and uni­ Legendary matters being worked out in verses. Beings not necessarily male the present day. It's an venerable genre, and sometimes begets thousand­ LETTERS CONTINUED ON P. 53 tion yielded to at the highest levels SMALL PRESS NOTES of power and influence? Of course conspiracy exists at BY THE EDITOR all levels. Robert Eringer's unwill­ ingness to make distinctions between fantasy and legitimate conspiracy commentary is sad. It simply shows he is a tool of the Denebians who are plotting the takeover of Earth on COLLECTED POEMS By Richard L. Tierney July 19th, 1997. Arkham House, $6.95 Sauk City, WI 53583 to This handsome small book, HOW TO MAKE YOUR FRIENDS AND MURDER YOUR ENEMIES bound in a black leatherlike By Jack Woodford $14.95 cover with Tierney's signiture in Woodford Memorial Editions, Inc. gold, subtitled Nightmares and POB 55085 Visions, with occasional fine Seattle, WA 98155 drawings by Jason Van Hollander, contains 82 poems, all but a few That's an incredibly commercial short, all but a few enclosing title, isn't it? Especially when dire warnings of mankind's fate, the subtitle is: Telesthesia, the detailing the horror of Things Ancient Art of Thought Control■ in the night, in the earth, in and suicide by the villain. This is the last book Jack wrote. the night sky... Horrors slaver­ Hi-ho. It's fun to read, as much He was ill, living in a mental in­ ing for souls and power... for the customs of the late 19th stitution, destitute. Tierney has a dim view of century as for the skill of writing Yet— In these 238 pages is our future, as his final poem, Shiel obviously possessed. the wonderful, calculated, impulsive, "To the Hydrogen Bomb" attests. off-the-cuff, above all casual and But for quality and a view of conversational style that holds stark inner feelings—"A Man In the reader with anecdote, facts, the Crowd", the first poem in the THE CONSPIRACY PEDDLERS fable, lies, exaggerations, opinions, book—is the finest verse in the By Robert Eringer biography, autobiography... collection. Loonpanics Unlimited $3.95 plus Here is the Woodford Mix, used All of Tierney's poems rhyme; POB 264 $2. mailing well to serve a possibly paranoid this produces a kind of gratitude Mason, MI 48854 mind, promoting the belief that in me, and, as they are read, a telepathic hypnosis is not only pos­ kind of mental/physical sensation Subtitled 'A Review of the Con­ spiracy Media in the United States' sible, but has been used through of pleasure for the precise meter the ages by great men (to become this booklet (44 pages) provides and repetitive sounds. These poems great and stay on top as long as are fine for reading aloud. around two dozen listings of books, magazines, cassette releases, news­ possible), by Eastern Mystics, and letters , tabloids.... by everyday folks. The book is valuable for that Jack here gives specific, detail­ THE RAJAH'S SAPHIRE ed instructions in the use of tele­ By M.P. Shiel reason only. Robert Eringer's attitude in his pathic thought control. The chants, Highflyer Press $6.00 the images, the content. Order from: J.D.S. Books, reviews/descriptions of the conspira­ cy media is that all the conspira­ He repeats everything often, P.O. Box 67 MCS, half by design, and partly because Dayton, OH 45402 cies are fantasy or malevolently bas­ ed in racism, intolerance, hate. The he wasn't keeping track. But he This small 125 page book title of the book signals his belief: keeps drilling his message into is a facsimile reproduction of "Peddlers" is a putdown word. So is your mind, makes it seem so ration­ Shiel's first novel, including the his use of "preach" in his distorted al, logical, easy.... original illustrations. There is an introduction. As you read you'll find yourself Afterword, "The Curious Tale of Nowhere is there a hint that trying out the chants, the "orders" Shiel, Stead and The Saphire" by there may be an element of truth in on those whom you'd like to control John D. Squires, which examines the any of the conspiracy material ex­ —or kill! origins of THE RAJAH'S SAPHIRE and tant. Only—you'll be struck by the traces Shiel's writing career. "Conspiracy" is a loaded word old "If you're so smart, how come The story isn't of novel length, to begin with, of course. It's a you're not rich?" argument. Caged and it is told in a kind of light­ great label to tack onto a person, in an institution he hated, bedev­ hearted graceful style that invites a publication...a body of knowledge. iled by a woman who was tormenting the reader to not-quite-believe. But just as the local city coun­ him, in despair at the treatment and The story is about old-fashioned cil can rig things to benefit itself condition of his daughter in another (1890s) romance and superstition as and its friends [as has happened wing of the institution...why could­ the ancient deadly curse of doom-to- since time immemorial, following n't he use his mastery of Telesthesia the-owner follows the saphire from a the paths of human nature], so too to cure his daughter, get himself and lovesick young diplomat-aristocrat can and do more higher and more pow­ her out of that terrible place? from Germany to his vain, thought­ erful elites in human affairs—even He apparently couldn't, and God less love in England, to the rake­ including giant international con­ knows he had motive and will enough hell, amoral villain who manages glomerates, holding companies, banks, to make the technique work—if it to marry her. oil corporations.... If the tempta­ works at all, ever. Hie action is occasionally su­ tions to conspire for personal and/or So... you are left with a fascin­ perb- -as when the oceanliner sinks business advantage is yielded to in ating piece of delusional writing, after having been ramned in a storm small towns, why is not that tempta- so coherent and believable that you —but mostly silly and melodramatic will...come on, admit it...try the as in the final confrontation scene 48 chants.. .just in case.... WARHOON 29 A professional thief is sent into a scathing criticisms of sf pros by Edited and published by Richard vast building in the vast city of sf pros is eye-opening. Ilie pin­ Bergeron, Rheem to find the sister of a rich pointing of genre flaws and edit­ P.O. Box 5989, man. She was dumped into one of the orial misjudgements and wrong Old San Juan, Puerto Rico 00905 huge death chambers in error by city trends is often right on. Charles crews who thought her dead. Private Platt runs a schizophrenic ship Richard Bergeron is an old fan, burial in the ground is unheard of. here as serious-constructive rubs and not yet tired. WARHOON, for the In the bowels of this huge re- elbows with gossip and cheapshot. newcomers to sf fandom, is long-lived. cepticle for the dead the thief dis­ THE PATCHIN REVIEW, 9 Patchin Almost as old as I, I suspect. Rich covers the sister—and discovers Place, New York, NY 10011. recently published the momumental, lies, double-cross, attempted murd­ impossible, reverential WARHOON 28 er... An exciting, fascinating, which was/is a fucking BOOK, the inventive story. Worthy of some AURORA SF is a home for Speculative biggest fanzine known to man [of a BEST FANTASY OF THE YEAR antholo­ Feminism. A good, very thought- fannish nature], about Walt Willis. gies. provoking fanzine which views and WARHOON and Bergeron are about "The Fate That Money Can Buy" reviews through the Feminism prism. the celebration of fans, by fans. is rather trite, but sensuous and A learning experience. And this is called a faanish fanzine, realistic. By William Tredinnick, $2.50 a copy. Send to SF\ as opposed to SFR which is, in the Jr. Box 164, Madison, WI 53701. fannish language of yor, a Serious As Ganley notes in his editorial, Constructive fanzine. Thus are the postage costs for small press items fans divided—those whose primary are simply horrendous and now repre­ NEXUS fl is a new comic book from interest is sf, and those whose main sent 50% of the subscription price. Capital Comics which presents a interest is other fans. There seems no end to the post of­ new super hero [Nexus] at $1.95 Ah, the legendary BNFs* the fice's lust for money, to the point per copy. 40 pages--color cover, Tuckers, the Ellisons, the Silver­ of pricing 2nd, 3rd and 4th class b/w interior art—is very high. bergs, the Calkins, the Benfords, rates close to first class rates! Nexus isn't all that new or differ­ the Hoffwoman, the Vick, Keasler, One of these days some fan pub­ ent. Good artwork, though, and McCain... And a dozen others I lisher will discover that a special a good idea/story. can't pull from my memory. Tower­ 8 lb., high opacity paper, though From: POB 908, Madison, WI 53701. ing over them all--Walt Willis. very costly, will , if used for his Anyway, this issue of Wrhn is zine, save huge amounts of money in a time binder, and revels in nostal­ postage costs, more than offsetting gia, with Bergeron, Bangsund, Harry the paper costs. Warner, Tom Perry, Willis, Ted White, I'm certainly thinking about and letters.... it. ELFQUESTj BOOK 1 is the first conic For those who don't get WARHOON, book I've seen worth its asking you can trade your fanzine for it, price...a hefty $9.95. or as a newcomer's entry fee--pay This large-size, full-color $2.00 for a copy. FANTASYBOOK #2 is available now. Starblaze edition is singly superb The WARHOON 28 book costs $25. The December 1981 issue. (I agree in all directions, in every aspect. * [Jig Name Fans with Darrell—see his review of Wendy Pini's world of elves, their #1 in his Small Press Reviews — enemies, their quest is above all that the script logo onthis maga­ realistic and dynamic, with depth zine should be changed.) Some of of character not often found in the interior art is amateurish and a regular sf novel. EERIE COUNTRY #5 $2.00 brings down the professional image The colors, the drawing, the Edited and published byW. Paul Gan- I suppose the editors want. The printing are all super fine. This ley, POB 35, Amherst Branch, Buffalo, covers should have been switched, graphic art saga will be appreciat­ NY 14226. front to back, for more impact and ed for generations. It is a work A well mimeographed fictionzine excitement. of art by all concerned. of 32 pages with offset covers and Starblaze Editions, Donning, interior full-page art. THE PATCHIN REVIEW #3, at $2.00 5659 Virginia Beach Blvd., Norfolk, The supernatural fiction is ex­ single copy, is probably worth it; VA 23502. ceptionally good, of professional the frank opinions and sometimes SMALL PRESS NOTES CONTINUED ON P. 67 quality. True, "Land of the Wolf" by John Wysocki is predictable, but this werewolf story has fine pace and a kind of authenticity; cert­ ainly the vicious winters of Russia are a great 18th Century background, and Wysocki makes you feel the cold and the horrible death, the fear and hate. "Moanworm" by Walton Simons is an after-death vampire story with a twist--the point-of-view of a special kind of worm which feeds on the re­ cently buried. Well done. It should be considered for new horror anthologies. "Arthur" is utterly predictable, as a fat, unpopular boy discovers a way to walk through walls and inevit­ ably... By John Taylor. The best story in this issue is "The House of Bones" by Brian Crist. AND THEN I SAW....

BY THE EDITOR

TIME BANDITS (pg) is an English fantasy Juvenile with a confused, un-rational!zed storyline and an equally confused set of morals. A 10-12-year-old boy follows a pell-mell, clutzy band of dwarves through a time portal that has ap­ peared in his room after they tum­ bled in through another portal in his closet. The dwarves have stolen a map showing these portals from a supreme being who is after them! With the boy they narrow-escape their way through incidents and episodes in medieval times, ancient Middel-East...and into a time of legends where they encounter an ogre man with professional skill. Shelley and ass and to degrade women. One and wife on a grisly old ship who Duval appeared as a mockery of a med­ of the Dolls angrily says she isn't want to eat them for supper...an ieval Lady who is robbed along the 'meat', but the thrust of the movie incident with a huge giant of a man highway. David Warner played the says she is. who wears that ship like a hat... prince of evil with relish and a hot Hollywood and TV continue to Finally they are lured to a cas­ cross bun. underline the male chauvinist, sex­ tle of darkness wherein is imprisoned The film is fun, funny, interest­ ist party line. the prince of evil who—with the ing and at times intriguing and full map of time portals—can escape and of wonders. Fine special effects. let pure evil loose upon the world. But it doesn't make a bit of coher­ STRIPES (R) The dwarves and the boy escape a ent sense. stars Bill Murray as a dangling cage (over a void), steel The dwarves steal every scene. smart-ass self-oriented misfit with back the map...and finally in the integrity (somewhere in his makeup) crisis battle the prince of evil who loses his job, his girl and his with allies from the time-frames options and who joins today's army they've visited—I think. There for lack of anything better to do. was a tank, a clutch of mounted, ar­ ...ALL THE MARBLES (r) He talks a buddy into joining with moured knights, bowmen, an advanced is a more him. laser weapon... human comedy about a lovely down- Warren Oates plays the inevitable Finally, to save their souls and and-almost-out team of women tag­ long-suffering, tough drill sergeant. the world, the supreme being inter­ team wrestlers and their clever, The plot deteriorates into an in­ venes, sets the boy back in his bed desperate, mostly honest manager. credible farce toward the end as the in his proper time and reveals that Peter Falk plays the manager. Two scene shifts to Germany and a secret He had planned the entire sequence talented, lovely, tall, curvy girls weapon and a fuck-up Captain. in advance to prove something to the play the team—the California The usual four-letter language, boy. Dolls. brief nudity, sex jokes. The army There is ambiguity and puzzlement The women tag-team wrestling is presented as Nice. No racial all over the floor: was the time-hopp­ circuit is the pits, but these problems, no real discipline prob­ ing all a dream? But a piece of three have dreams of making it to lems ... A fantasy. pure evil has caused a fire in the the big time. They eventually do, house, and one of the rescuing fireman but the movie asks the viewer to is the same man who was a king in a believe the wrestling matches are time-trip epsiode—and he winks! straight, honest and decided in the ring, while the show-biz ring SO FINE (R) Also--the boy's parents [evil?] depends on farce and are destroyed as they touch the piece action, the holds, the "agony", ribald humor and some slapstick as of pure evil in the toaster-oven. all scream pre-arrangement and co­ operation. it weaves, ducks and bobs through Also--all those deaths, all that a silly mob-in-the-clothes-biz sto­ violence—real or not? Do pre-teen Some attractive nudity and ry. Jack Warden plays Jack Fine, boys exist in an imaginary world of natural four-letter language add a womens clothes mfgr. in debt to his savage violence--and no sex? Does to the movie. Yet the California eyeballs to Big Eddie, a 7-foot ruth­ the supreme being want it that way? Dolls seem, compared to the husky less moron of the Mob (played by No answers. No answers. teams they wrestle, to be too frail Richard Kiel—we know him best as Sir Ralph Richardson played the to win honestly; alas the film fails Jaws of the 007 pictures). For some supreme being with aplomb, a disdain­ to convince and becomes suspicious­ reason never told, Big Eddie wants ful weary inpatience. Sean Connery ly like a poor excuse to show tits Jack Fine's son brought into the played the ancient king and the fire­ 50 failing clothes business, even though the son—Ryan O'neal—is a and its poor, desperate, manipula­ THE LAST CHASE (PG) sincere English Lit. associate prof, tive caddies...and a strange grounds­ has flashes of at a small New England college. keeper. good sf in its painting of a Big Big Eddie has a hot-blooded Ted Knight plays the pompous Brother future for the U.S. [Total blonde young wife who falls instant­ fool of a club president, Rodney conformity, no cars, no privacy, ly in love with Ryan, and visa versa. Dangerfield plays the crude, rude, no private enterprise.] But the In the ensuing comedic cuckoldry superrich guest, Chevy Chase plays story of an ex-racecar driver (Lee Ryan O'Neal eascapes Big Eddie's bed­ the superior, casual, subtly dement­ Majors) who finally has had it with room in a pair of the wife's too- ed golfer-menber, and Bill Murray the regimented bureaucracy, puts to­ tight jeans which split over his plays the weird groundskeeper whose gether his hidden, forbidden Porsche, cheeks. He desperately uses pieces mission in life is to rid the course and makes a dash across country from of clear plastic to patch the oval of a ndfo gopher/mole. Boston to the freedom of independent, splits and inadvertently creates Everyone acts with relish, the ecology, freedom-oriented California a new sensation in peek-a-boo jeans. comedy is fine, clever, outrageous. is riddled and raddled with idiotic Success saves the company but The gopher steals the movie. plot holes and devices. Big Eddie discovers his wife's in­ Majors' conpanion is a boy comput­ fidelity and comes after Ryan with er genius who is wanted by the gov­ blood in his eye. ernment for sabotaging the federal Chase, blunders, narrow escapes, system. They stop for aid and rest etc. follow. The climax occurrs SATURDAY THE 14lH (r) in a wilderness indian village and on stage during an opera at the is an inept meet a few white people there who college auditorium. spoof of horror/supernatural films are survivalists and live free. This is an entertaining, broad which throws in everything from The evil government, resenting comedy. SO FINE is a pun title. magic to vampires to alien creat­ the escaping duo's guts and implied Sew it goes. ures . criticism, terrified of the symbolism It misuses Richard Benjamin and if the two make it to California (a Paula Prentis as buyers of an old, rebel, mobile TV broadcast unit is cursed house whose young son discov­ able to break into the TV network ers an ancient book and releases a shows to inform the population of THE CRATER LAKE MONSTER (pg) horde of monsters. the escape's progress), drags an may be The movie disintegrates into old, druken jet pilot (Burgess Mere­ the worst low-budget monster movie a mish-mash of stolen, satirized bits dith) out of retirement, rebuilds an ever made. The lake involved was and pieces from well-known horror/ ancient sabrejet, and sets him to not formed in a crater. The mon­ supernatural movies of the past. hunting the "escapees." ster was hatched from a dinosaur SATURDAY THE 14th has a few good The plot sickens, but it pulls egg preserved by the icy lake water moments, a few nice comedy bits and a few heartstrings along the way. for millions of years, when a met­ touches, but isn't worth seeing to As usual—what a pity these eorite plunged into the lake and see them. idiot Hollywood types cannot get it warmed the egg. through their plywood skulls that The monster is hungry and eats they cannot play fast and loose with every fish in the lake and a few science fiction films; there has to people. CHU CHU AND TFE PHILLY FLASH (r) be internal integrity, consistency, The plot is peopled by idiots, starring Carol Burnett, Alan Arkin truth. A script composed by a com­ morons, and cliches, only one of and Jack Warden is a fine, offbeat mittee, each of whom tosses in a fav­ whom (the sheriff) can act. comedy about a bum who was a star orite sf element, simply doesn't Do not waste your time or money pitcher for the Phillies twenty make it. They could care less. Sf to see this abortion. years ago, about a failed dancer­ is for kids and morons, ain't it? singer who barely survives by giv­ Besides, this movie may have been ing dancing lessons and by doing put together as a tax write-off, so an outrageous Carmen Miranda act who gives a shit? FIRST MONDAY IN OCTOBER (pg) on the streets of San Francisco casts (for small change appreciations), Jill Clayburg as the first woman and it is about the poorest of the justice of the Supreme Court, and poor who live hand-to-mouth in the Walter Matthau as a crusty strict- semi-honest underground economy. constitutionalist justice. The Jack Warden plays a kind of Fagin MOTOI E DEAREST (r) two are attracted to each other and role to a small group of terminal is R-rated for argue constantly. losers. the "child abuse" as Joan Crawford, It's amusing. But their argu­ Chu Chu and the Flash manage to parent of Christina, an adopted ments on points of law, logic, and fall in love somehow through the child, often terrorizes the girl freedom are often inept, badly chos­ comedy of errors involving a dis­ with bizarre, overreactive punish­ en, and flawed...leaving an intelli­ covered briefcase containing secret ments concerning dirt, self-reliance gent viewer to think the script govt, plans, the Mob, and their and pride. Joan Crawford, as play­ writers second class and the produc­ small-time attempt to sell the ed by Faye Dunaway (marvelously), ers dull-witted. briefcase for a few hundred bucks. is a cleanliness-obsessed perfec­ Clayburg is too attractive for (Thinking higher is not in their tionist, terrified of failure, of the role and the producers couldn't world.) losing her status, her fame and resist putting her (and women) in This film opened at a second- her fans. her place by requiring a nude scene. run house and is in its first re­ Crawford was an example of lease. No advertising, no pro­ the character-warping that results motion. The powers-that-be have from a terrifying drive for success dunped it. They may feel it's a and money. Combined with a strict CACDY SHACK (r) bomb. But see it if you can; it's Catholic childhood (which she also is a broad farce a- better than 90% of the comedies inflicted on her adopted children) bout a private golf course, its pom­ given the Big Push. and strong sexual needs, conflict­ pous president, its rich members, ing hates and guilts, all this 51 boiling, bubbling mental stew drove her and in the end killed her as Alas... The film never reach­ she resorted increasingly to alco­ es high comedy. True, Matthau as hol to soothe or at least quiet the a methodical contract killer of demons. three Mafia squealers who is beset The film is lopsided, too ambi­ by a suicidal wimp with wife tious as it covers Crawford's life trouble (Lemon) is chillingly and from 1939 to her death a few years humorously convincing. ago. We only see two of Crawford's And Jack Lemon is funny as he adopted children(There were four, pathetically and innocently tries I believe) and the movie concentrat­ to make friends—pours out his es on four or five extreme instanc­ heart!--with a conscienceless execu­ es of vindictive, eccentric, extreme tioner who is planning on killing punishments of Christina-as-a-child. him to eliminate interference with The ultimate punishment is leav­ the planned and critically timed ing Christina and the innocent-of­ shooting of the most-important crime younger little boy out of her govt, witness against the Mafia will—cutting them off without a (the first two witnesses were elim­ cent. inated by bomb-in-the-mail and As the last scene shows, Christ­ poison-in-the-moming-milk). ina, a fairly successful actress But this grim comedy is per­ herself by then, decides to have haps too grim, too cruel. Paula the last word—by writing the best- Prentiss as Lemon's bored, selfish eller book, MCM4IE DEAREST. wife who is living in a sexual self- A flawed but absorbing film; awareness clinic with her sex guru/ Dunaway is made up to resemble Joan doctor (Klaus Kinsky, for Christ's Crawford to a remarkable degree. sake!) is trapped in the character, Her part is raw and juicy and she and Kinsky is miscast horribly. chews a lot of scenery. There is a He's a great villain as Jack the uniformly fine supporting cast. Ripper or as a vampire...but a comedian he ain't. Still, and yet... It's a fun­ ny film. Watchable. Not a waste of time. But with all that talent BODY HEAT (r) in the works it should have been is the familiar plot a hell of a lot better. of the man sucked into a love af­ fair with a beautiful, sexy woman married to a rich older man. They decide to kill the husband... HALLOWEEN 11 (r) From there it gets double-cros- reprises the last sy and complicated. few moments of HALLOWEEN (the night William Hurt as the seduced, he came back to town) and shows Don­ casual lawyer is excellent, Kath­ ald Pleasance pumping six large cal­ leen Turner is fine as the steamy ibre slugs into the escaped young wife, Richard Crenna is okay as man who has killed and killed and the rich husband. almost killed during that Hallow­ Hurt's law friends are scene­ een night. stealers (especially the deputy Nothing seems to hurt this prosecuting attorney), and the apparently supernatural menace as production, photography, etc. he persists (like a slow-moving are extra fine. Great editing. zombie) in his one-track desire Great pace and tension. The male to kill the young woman played by dialogue is raunchy real and the Jamie Lee Curtis. bits of business are lovely. Pleasance hunts his homicidally You may- not agree with the insane escaped patient up one last scene. street and down another... In There is nudity and lovemaking, the meantime Curtis is taken to but it's almost incidental, in a the local hospital, the creature way; it does underline the lust learns her location...and the the lawyer and wife feel for each hospital, late at night, becomes other. a chamal house as nurses and em­ I would recommend this one ployees as He kills them horribly for its realism, tension, humor. one by one and seeks Curtis, chases Curtis__ This monster s inply cannot be killed. Slugs simply put him down and out for a few minutes. He seems to be wiped out for BUDDY BUDDY (r) good in thelast few scenes. I promises much mean, how could even he survive with Walter Matthau and Jack Lemon what Pleasance manages in the way as stars, with direction by Billy of a sure-fire coup de grace? Wilder, with a script by Billy Yet I have just read in the Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond. paper that HALLOWEEN II did very- well at the box office this year, 52 and it seems likely that HALLCWEEN Ill will be made. love. The film shows their sex friends interested only in a common What I object to most in these lives, their basic drives, their goal, equally competent vertically HALLOWEEN films is the unfairness men problems. without any horizontal necessity. of an implacable, unkillable mon­ Bisset has most of the scenes Why stoop? It doesn't say too much ster; the poor victims have no but throughout plays, essentially, about the author's ability at chara­ chance at all. He's too smart, herself. Candice Bergen, marvel­ cter development. too strong, too immortal. ously in character, showing char­ 'Sorry if I've gone overboard Some delectable nudity in this acter change, steals the movie. one, and a lot of very graphic, and redundant, but as a woman who cringey death. [The death-by- enjoys most types of science fiction fire of a teenage boy early in (except, as a matter of personal taste, the violent "kill aliens and the movie, and the long look at ONLY WHEN I LAUGH (r) other enemies" kind), it infuriates his burnt, blackened corpse later follows a me to see the art form brought low in the morgue will haunt you for a stage star (Marsha Mason) from a by stooping to the unimaginatively while!] months-long residence at a private conventional. Aren't science fic­ drying out hospital for alcoholics tion people supposed to be more op­ back to her NY apartment and the en-minded about life's possibilities basic problems of her life: pres­ than, say, your average Harlequin sures inherent in a stage career, FUNHOUSE (R) Romance reader? is a low budget, cast- and pressures inherent in her being of-unknowns horror movie of excep­ a mother to a growing teenage daugh­ 'One more thing, REG. Why do tional quality. ter (Kristie McNichols). you feel that "the insecure young It sets up the on-a-dare situa­ Inevitably Mason is overwhelmed male" comprises "the natural, bed­ tion of two teenage couples deciding and takes that first drink... rock science fiction readership"? to stay the night in a carnival fun­ This movie, scripted by Neil Unfair! house. They stumble into seeing a Simon, shows clearly his great tal­ murder and are hunted among the fun­ ent with real/humorous dialogue. 'Your writers' news and tips al­ house mechanical monsters, ghosts, The clever, revealing, often brutal­ so frighten me. Think I'll hold on and naked machinery. The exits are ly honest characters and their words to my 9-5, however distasteful, for all locked. make any Simon play or film well awhile when I decide to "free" lance Hunting them are a retarded, worth seeing. He is a national ... You express wonder at why so terribly grotesque young man and treasure for his wit and perception. many people want to become pro writ­ his funhouse-owner father. But his plots are unexciting, ers at such risks. My theory lies The tension never stops, the and his endings banal. They play in the nature of creativity and in characters are very human, and the well in DeMoines. the basic human need to communicate acting is very good. The deaths Kristie McNichols as a teenager and to, perhaps, leave a legacy. are grisly and often inventive. angry and loving is good; she looks Only in our creative output are we There is one survivor. more masculine than one expects, immortal. I'd never discourage cre­ This is one of the best of its however. ativity; just those who expect mon­ kind. It doesn't cheat. The supporting cast is excel­ etary reward in return. lent, especially James Coco as a frustrated, failing, gay, aging actor who loves (platonically) and 'Clifford McMurray's Columbia is loyal to Mason. report/travelogue is richly detail­ BUTCHER, BAKER, NIGHTMARE MAKER (r) ed, perhaps too richly. I loved the is remarkable for the performance of way the account drew me in until I Susan Tyrell, who twitches, mugs and could actually feel the surround­ chews the scenery (as an insane moth­ LETTERS CONTINUED FROM P. 47 ings, taste the anticipation (bravo er determined to have her way and for the observations-during-final- protect her son, no matter who she or female, or perhaps both. Matri­ countdown paragraph!), but it also kills!) to the point of ludicrous­ archies (like those which quite a contained quite a few trivial and ness on occasion. The killing ram­ few speculate existed right here on irrelevant digressions, which I page at the end of the film is so home base centuries ago) or egalitar­ thought tended to clutter (Dr. Pep­ overdone as to be horror high camp. ian societies. Exotic cultures in per-dispensing machines) rather than which sex plays little or no role. enhance (in the way the sunburn ep­ Situations which can start in "norm­ isodes did). Overall, though, the al" roles and end up differently, work's phenomenal. Nice stream-of- or vice-versa. Creatures with five consciousness writing. And within, one of the best arguments I've heard RICH AND FAMOUS (r) breasts, or something not even faint­ proves the ex­ ly resembling genitals, or sexual so far in favor of space travel. Ad­ cellent acting ability of Candice glorification of cuticles. Why as­ venture for the sake of same. Hoo­ Bergen as a lifelong friend of sume every other planet has a phal- ray! ‘ Jacqueline Bisset. They part at lic/mammary hangup? That's the main college, Bergen to marry and be a reason nudes (especially the over­ housewife and mother, Bisset to go drawn -- pun intended — females) ((Of course there are inherent lim­ on to become a famous writer of an don't make sense to my conception its on how new a new idea can be; acclaimed novel of literature. of science fiction. What's new too far out and it becomes incom­ But then Bergen, portraying a about dominance/submission or s6m prehensible to the readership-- or girl and then woman from Atlanta, sex? Even a little imagination can too repellent—and the editor won't a soft accent, a down home value go further into other existing (and buy it. And, too, the human mind system, writes a super best-selling just as interesting) Earth relation­ is only capable of human ideas, romance and eclipses Bisset. ship types, from friendships to fam­ just as human society seems capable This is a "women's picture" ilial ties. I don't find it so hard of a limited range of governments which is both subtle and bold. to fathom men and women as platonic These "best friends" take blows, give hurt and joy, fight and S3 LETTERS CONTINUED ON P. 66 OTHER UOICES

PATH OF THE ECLIPSE NOTES TO A SCIENCE FICTION WRITER By Chelsea Quinn Yarbro By Ben Bova Houghton Mifflin Company New York: St Martin's Press, 1981 Trade paperback, $5.95 447 pp., $13.95 REVIEWED BY TOM STAICAR REVIEWED BY SUSAN M. SHWARTZ This fourth novel in Yarbro's NOTES TO A SCIENCE FICTION WRIT­ Comte de Saint-Germain series takes ER was set up to show writers the her immortal and sexy vampire into pitfalls and errors to be avoided thirteenth-century China and India. as they set out upon a career as SF In China, Saint Germain (called Shih writers. Sections dealing with char­ Ghieh Man) is forced out of a teach­ acter, background, conflict and plot ing post at the school at Lo Yang are presented with Bova short stor­ by xenophobia intensified by the ap­ ies as examples, followed by adjoin­ proach of Temujim, also known as ing sections on theory and practice. Genghiz Khan. He takes a post as Use of his own stories was not simp­ alchemist to a female Warlord who ly self-serving; its purpose was to fights a hopeless battle against Im­ allow him to report first-hand on perial bureaucracy and the Mongol the thinking processes which went on hordes. Brave and tough, she is al­ at each stage of planning and revis­ so a profoundly lonely woman -- which ion of the stories. naturally appeals to Saint Germain. The revised section on slanting Yarbro is one of the finest fan­ for markets is particularly useful, tasy-horror writers going on her evo­ as are his insights into the way ed­ cation of exotic backgrounds. Hav­ itors view the slushpile and the Third Revolution, who want to over­ ing done superb jobs in Renaissance gems they must find there in order throw the Lobbies. The Third Revo­ Italy (in THE PALACE), Rome (BLOOD to keep the field going. An excel­ lution is a guerilla movement hell­ GAMES), and eighteenth-century France, lent book. bent on removing nuclear stockpiles (HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA), she researches ********A A*A*AAAA A* A A ******A* AA AAA** by launching them. the history, costumes, culture and In this near future, promiscu­ occult lore of China and Tibet with ous sex is common public behavior. meticulous care. However, smoking cigarettes is il­ legal. Most families incorporate My one problem with this book - - WORLDS themselves for tax purposes. no, make that two -- was in its By Joe Haldeman structure. PATH OF THE ECLIPSE real­ The Viking Press, 1981, 262 pp. ly consists of two separate actions, The concept is sound and origin­ $12.95. linked by that high-altitude Tibetan al enough, but the plot is familiar. pilgrimage; and Saint Germain's path REVIEWED BY ANDREW ANDREWS *********************************** from unhappy love and political tur­ moil to political turmoil and unhap­ The year is 2084. Earth is rot­ py love is fairly predictable. But ting in pollution and overpopulation. then, I do not read Saint Germain Huge inhabited asteroids ("Worlds") novels for plot twists; I read them orbit Earth. The asteroids are min­ THE ENTROPY EFFECT for fascinating conjurations of long- ed for minerals. They are Human­ By Vonda N. McIntyre dead cultures and for characteriza­ kind's Destiny. Pocket Books (Timescape), 1981. tion: the vampire himself, his ser­ 224 pp., $2.50. vant Rogerio, his long-ago lover, Marianne O'Hara, a brilliant and the Roman aristocrat Olivia, the boy witty political science student on REVIEWED BY SUSAN M. SHWARTZ Lama, Padmiri, an Indian princess the Worlds colony, New New York, de­ ... the list goes on and on. Yarbro cides to do postgraduate study on is, nonetheless, one of the most sat­ Earth for a year. THE ENTROPY EFFECT can stand on isfying purveyors of a certain kind its own without Star Trek hagiograply On Earth, Marianne becomes en­ of horrific, sex-laced melodrama in to justify its existence. McIntyre tangled with the U.S. government, the business, and if this book is pumps new vitality into the main the Lobbies. Most countries have slightly predictable, it delivers characters: Kirk fights a sort of nuclear arms. Essentially, Earth is precisely what the reader expects spit-and-polish mentality; Bones the Earth of today: The U.S. in and wants. isn't rampantly emotional all the 2084 against the Supreme Socialist time; Spock's inner war between his ************************************ Union. human and Vulcan sides is subtly and While at a management seminar, movingly portrayed. Marianne meets Jeff Hawkings, an The characters she adds redress FBI agent, fighting the underground the imbalance of male-to-female 54 characters on the original show. .And these women are hot of the "Cap­ speculative poet calls the "opaque”. death's angel tain- I'm-frightened" school. There Some of Zelazny's work, such as By Kathleen Sky is Hunter, for example, commander "Somewhere a Piece of Colored Light", Bantam, 212 pp., April, 1981, $2.25 of a fighting ship and capable of "The Burning" and even the title commanding Sulu's hero-worship. poem, is mostly comprehensible on REVIEWED BY LINDA BLANCHARD (Incidentally, the portrayal of Sulu first reading and there is some en­ as a young officer facing career joyment, even wonder, scattered Kathleen Sky's second novel, dead-ending is exceptionally good.) throughout. And Patti's reliance on DEATH'S ANGEL, like her first novel, Mandala Flynn, chief of security, is more traditional forms has its rec­ VULCAN!, was not what I expected. prickly, ambitious, a superb martial ognized drawbacks and limitations It was neither fun nor easy to read. artist, and a stateless, planetless which she sometimes aggravates with DEATH'S ANGEL was not even about my individual. Add her security team, totally unnecessary "thees" and old familiar friends. the feline, ferocious Snnanagfash- "thous", apparently intended to en­ Shortly after a mysterious and talli and the 250 cm. tall, heavy­ noble but only serving to distract debilitating disease affects our gravity Changeling Jennever, who from the main show. heroes, Kirk and Spock (and Dr. would much rather be a botanist, and Perhaps the real difference be­ M'Benga) the Enterprise is assigned two sketchily described but very in­ to carry a party of diverse ambas­ teresting men. tween these two is in content. Alicia Patti is an eager young opt­ sadors to a sensitive meeting to de­ These characters combine to imist who sings praises to past gi­ cide whether or not a detente will deal with a theoretician, the bril­ ants ("A Tribute to Newton and Ein­ be established with the Romulans. liant and erratic Georges Mordreaux, stein", "Semmelweis: Father of Ant­ As soon as the ship is under way, who has developed a method for trav­ isepsis" and others) and looks for­ ambassadors begin dying at the hands eling in time. McIntyre's skill is ward to a future in which the human of their various "Death Angels". all that saves him from being a Mad race has the will to free itself Kirk and Spock are too weak and daz­ Scientist; instead, he is a Faustian from past tyrannies and go boldly out ed by their recent encounter with figure to whom we can react with to explore the universe ("The First the mystery disease to be able to sympathy. In the course of the work­ Colony", "New-World Dreams" and solve the murders. McCoy -- profes­ ing out of the plot, Kirk is wounded "Freedom's Child"). Zelazny is not sing to know too little about non­ by a spiderweb and it looks like necessarily a pessimist, but his human physiology -- calls on the everyone's most horrible fantasies poems are introspective at best and ship's veterinarian for help. When are going to come true. McCoy turns often too personal and subjective it becomes apparent that the of­ off the life-support. to communicate much, saying little ficers of the Enterprise can't handle about the world out there where we the situation, the Special Security McIntyre takes about 200 pages have to survive. Personally, I pre­ Division -- in the person of Col. of intricately worked-out plot to re­ fer Patti's philosophy as well as Elizabeth Schaeffer -- is called on store things to the status quo ... her school of prosody, but neither to find out who or what is murdering almost. is In these days and Zelazny's verse the ambassadors. ************************************ may well be Just Your Thing. Having shuffled our regular ************************************ heroes into the background, Ms. Sky proceeds to lead the new protagon­ ist up and down several pointlessly WHEN PUSSYWILLOWS LAST IN THE CAT­ blind alleys, introducing the reader YARD BLOOPED to several poorly-developed charac­ By Roger Zelazny ters and finally bumping Col. Schaef­ PROFUNDIS fer's devastatingly beautiful (of Norstrilia Press, Australia; Amer­ By Richard Cowper course!) body into poor muddled ican Agent: Chuck Miller, 239 N. Pocket, $2.25, 207 pp. Captain Kirk. 4th Street, Columbia, PA 17512. Cover: Don Maitz Paperback, 44 pp., $5.00. This novel was painful reading. The narrative was choppy and dif­ REVIEWED BY STEVEN E MC DONALD FREEDOM'S CHILD: NEW-WORLD POETRY ficult to follow; the turns of plot By Alicia Patti PROFUNDIS, is a comic novel led nowhere and worst of all, the about the unfortunate Tom Jones, a major characters in any Star Trek Anlician Enterprises, Box 971, dolphin communicator of remarkable story were barely used. Grover City, CA 93433. stupidity and unusual gifts. The ************************************ Paperback, 48 pp., no price listed 21st-Century setting is after the Estimated price: $5.00 holocaust (which seems to be a prom­ REVIEWED BY NEAL WILGUS inent theme again), the place is the gigantic submarine HMS PROFUNDIS, whose guiding computer, Proteus, pre­ chekov's enterprise These titles represent the two vented the sib's destruction, and By Walter Koenig major schools of poetry which seem the subject is the new Messiah. Pocket Books, 222 pp., $2.25. Cowper keeps the tone light -- the to have been waging guerilla warfare REVIEWED BY STEVEN E MC DONALD with each other for most of this characters are basically a good grade of cardboard, and the narra­ century. Alicia Patti is of the Koenig's diary of his involve­ "old school" -- which still uses tive is fairly predictable, though ment in the making of STAR TREK-- great fun in spots. Sane parts will those ancient devices called rime THE MOTION PICTURE, provides inter­ be rather obscure to American read­ and meter and which strives to com­ ested parties with a far more inter­ ers unfamiliar with British politi­ municate because it has a message or esting overview of work on a big­ cians, though the tale of how PRO­ a story to tell. Roger Zelazny is budget movie than Susan Sackett's FUNDIS came about is a classic piece of the "modem school" which uses THE MAKING OF STAR TREK - - THE MO­ almost exclusively free verse and of satirical nastiness. TION PICTURE; while it doesn't go looks with disdain on stories or ************************************ into detail about the background to messages --or even communication -- the script and production problems in its search for what a leading 55 that dogged the movie, it has a fine load of fascinating personal mater­ almost mythic texture to Bradshaw's has achieved very fine character de­ ial, from the weird feelings on be­ writing. It is moody, but never velopment. Even the robots are al­ ing back on a STAR TREK set after a "sensitive" or "artistic". ive in this one. Since Doubleday ten-year hiatus to giving his all in *********** ******** ***************** doesn't seem to believe in advertis­ a scene and discovering that his fly ing, search out this novel. It's was open. Koenig has a lively style worth extra effort. and a narrative talent that should ************************************ do well with practice; his sense of humor is certainly sound, likewise A WORLD CAI 1 FD SOLITUDE his sense of structure. By Stephen Goldin Doubleday, 1981, $9.95 For anyone who wants to know what THE MOON'S FIRE-EATING DAUGHTER it felt like, as opposed to the prac­ REVIEWED BY DEAN LAMBE tically official version of what it By John Myers Myers was, this is worth attention. On an uncharted planet whose The Donning Company/Publishers ************************************ star is hidden within a dust nebula, 5041 Admiral Wright Road, Virginia Birk Aaland has played Robinson Cru­ Beach, VA 23462, U.S.A. soe for 11 years -- his Friday a 1981, 176 pp., $4.95 sophisticated robot of alien manu­ KINGDOM OF SUFFER facture. Although the Makers, the REVIEWED BY W. RITCHIE BENEDICT original humanoid inhabitants, had By Gillian Bradshaw killed themselves with biological Way back in 19-ought-49, a book Simon 6 Schuster, 283 pp., 1981 warfare, the Makers' robots have was created that became something of $12.95. maintained their cities, complete an underground legend. It was THE ROCKY HORROR SHOW of its time for REVIEWED BY SUSAN M. SHWARTZ with art nuseums and advanced wea­ pons, for over two thousand years. science fiction fans. I refer, of KINGDOM OF SUM4ER is the second When his ship full of mutinous hu­ course, to that work full of liter­ novel in Gillian Bradshaw's Arthur­ man prisoners crash-landed, the ro­ ary allusions and illusions: SILVER- LOCK. A few years ago, Ace released ian trilogy. HAWK OF MAY was the first, and IN WINTER'S SHADOW will a new edition. I only have had the be third. opportunity as yet to read the first few chapters, but I was most defin­ This novel, like the first, is itely inpressed and amazed at the set in an historically and archeo- scope of the vision of the author. logically accurate Britain in which Now, after more than thirty years Irish, Welsh, Saxon and Romanized of waiting, he has come out with a British are fighting it out, against sequel. themselves and one another, and against the Darkness symbolized by It is more of an original that Morgawse, Queen of Orkney and the stands on its own than a sequel. mother of Gwalchmai (Gawain), the Dr. George Puttenham, a profes­ hero of HAWK OF MAY. The story is sor of Economic Geography meets some told this time by Rhys ap Sion, the weird characters while leaving a son of a farmer who once befriended canpus bar (weirder than most that Gwalchmai and who takes him in after is), and before you can say "PRINCE­ he is wounded and exhausted. Rhys TON REVIEW", he is back in ancient determines to follow Gwalchmai wher­ Sumer via a certain Ninshubur and a ever he goes. Since he cannot be a chariot of swans. Your standard warrior (warriors start training at sword and sorcery novel this is not. about age seven), he decides to be bots were able to save only Birk, a servant. His sturdy commonsense who became master of the world. Before he gets back to home­ and compassion protect Gwalchmai as sweet-university, he rubs shoulders Birk's solitude is broken when he leaves Arthur's court for a quest with everyone from Voltaire to a second human ship crashes, a mili­ of his own. Twain and there are balladic contrib­ tary vessel that may represent the utions by the score. Sort of the The combination of gallant, al­ dictatorial government that destroy­ Monty Python of ancient literary beit introspective knight and sturdy ed all that Birk loved on Earth. society. servant provides for a certain ten­ Again the robots can save only one, der amusement. We see Gwalchmai Lieutenant Michi Nakamura. Birk is Readers who ate up the original through Rhys's eyes as an almost torn between his strong desire for like hot-buttered walnuts, will find magical being, but one possessed of human companionship and his fear of the new outing to their liking. I what Rhys calls a "proud humility" human duplicity. Michi, whose ship was somewhat off-put until I got used that guarantees that he will be tak­ was crippled during the unprovoked to the rhythm of the language. en advantage of. Nevertheless, this alien attack on her colony world, ************************************ humor, enhanced by the earthy realism must convince Birk of the government­ of Eivlin, a girl Rhys meets, is al changes within the human Coimon- only a part of the larger story, wealth of Planets. She seeks Birk's which is a quest by the Forces of aid in alerting the Commonwealth of FIRE AT THE CENTER the Light against the Forces of Dark­ the alien threat. Birk, whose know­ By George W. Proctor ness. In it, Gwalchmai once again ledge could save millions, refuses Fawcett Gold Medal, 220 pp., $2.25. confronts Morgawse and her son by to break his exile for an Earth that c. 1981, 1-44417-8, 1st printing, Arthur, Medraut. Once Gwalchmai rejected and tortured him. Then the July '81. adored his younger brother and his murderous aliens land...... mother. Now he must face them as REVIEWED BY STEVE LEWIS Although the plot is straight­ enemies. Now, even more than earl­ forward with few surprises, Goldin ier, Morgawse must be destroyed. I don't really get it. In one way or another most time-travel stor­ There is a deeply-satisfying, 56 ies are built about the premise that going back physically into the past taken up by long novelettes by John ultimately weakens the depth of his must somehow effect the future. Some­ Varley and Joan Vinge. Both are love for Megan. Still that cannot times there's a "damper" effect that among the best writers in the field take away from the believability of minimizes long-run changes. Some­ and they are at peak form here. Var­ the rest of the story. times visitors from the future can ley's "Blue Champagne" is a love only view and cannot otherwise make story filled with all his usual ex­ Joan Vinge's "Psiren" is also a their presence known. And sometimes citement. It also contains his fin­ love story but that is where the re­ whole histories of civilization are est characterization since "Options". semblance ends. Her lovers live on wiped out. It takes place in a Bubble in lunar the edge of fear and suffering, their orbit which serves as a super-vaca­ lives so tortured that their affair On the very first page Proctor tion resort for rich Earthlings. Be­ is almost certainly doomed from the effectively clears the air of any tween wining and dining they swim start. Cat is a bumed-out telepath such highfalutin speculation by pos­ in an awe-inspiring solid sphere of trying desperately to recover his iting the following law: What is water. One visitor is Megan Gallo­ gift. Ineh is a telepath so power­ past is past. History is unchange­ way, a worldwide television celebrity, ful she can break right through his able. who falls in love with Q.M. Cooper, defenses. However, she is an en­ So how is going back to the Age one of the lifeguards. At first both slaved entertainer, forced to spend of Dinosaurs to retrieve two prime seem ster®typical of their back­ her nights filling customers' minds specimens of tyrannosaurus rex at grounds: she is self-centered, spoil­ with joy. Cat becomes a regular all possible? It happens, and no ed and used to using people for her attendee where he tries to indicate one has to worry about the history own benefit; he is shallow, over- his feelings for her, not knowing of the future, or so Proctor says. himself if they are love, his need of her gift or concern for her con­ But, time-travel doesn't play dition. These are not rich, pamper­ all that important a role in the ed lovers but rather survivors in story. It's more of a spy or mystery the war of life. They grip your thriller, in a futuristic setting, emotions from the very start and as Nils Kendler of the LofAl Psi leave you drained by the last page. Corps is forcibly paired up with a It is a stunning achievement by Joan female agent named Caltha Reneret to Vinge. discover why the inhabitants of the planet Morasha are being subjected There are three other stories by to worldwide sieges of mass insanity. M.A. Foster, Arsen Damey and the late Tom Reamy. All are worthwhile And so this straight-forward reading, especially Reamy's since action story, while it reads well, it is one of his two surviving stor­ never really says anything new. What ies. The Varley and Vinge stories surprised me the most was the, urn, are so good that this volume is a prudishness and the juvenile attitude must buy. Scrounge up $2.25 and you displayed toward everydale male-fe­ will not be disappointed. male relationships. When they meet ************************************ for the first time, our hero and her­ oine are forced into a mutual antag­ onism so phoney you'd think you're still reading THE SATURDAY EVENING POST. Later, of course, they find themselves falling in love —. THE DOOR IN THE HEDGE Though not really worse than By Robin McKinley about fifty percent of the science Greenwillow Books, 216 pp., $8.95. fiction being written today, this is REVIEWED BY SUSAN M. SHWARTZ still kiddie fare. A*******************A*A************* Robin McKinley is one of the most promising of the newest genera­ tion of fantasy writers. As when sexed and unable to understand love she wrote BEAUTY, she retells in NEW VOICES 4 much less experience it. Gradually, THE DOOR IN THE HEDGE some of the as they both learn more about each Edited by George R.R. Martin oldest and loveliest of fairy tales. other, the reader begins to under­ Berkeley, 262 pages, $2.25. Here, in McKinley's exquisitely- stand them better. Megan becomes a wrought prose, are the stories of REVIEWED BY ROBERT SABELLA truly sympathetic character while the princess who was stolen by fair­ Cooper, through his growing love ies, the classic about the princess This is the annual anthology of for her, becomes a more mature person and the frog, the story of the hunt- stories by the John W. Campbell One weakness with love stories is of the hind and the story of the Award Nominees for Best New Writer. that they are among the most predict­ twelve dancing princesses. The cover blurb claims that "today's able of stories. With rare excep­ McKinley is deft at protraying best new writers choose their own tions one of two outcomes is likely: best stories” but that is an out­ characters -- frequently lonely, either the lovers will eventually quiet ones who learn to find healing right lie. These are all original overcome myriad obstacles to their stories solicited by Editor Martin. in the events of their stories. For happiness or they will succumb to example, the princesswhose father The anthology is currently running them. While Varley does not rise five years behind the awards so that ignores her, but whose love for the above this, his ending is a logical brother who has always been her this volume contains the 1976 Award outcome of his characters' back­ Nominees. It should also be the champion rescues him and heals her grounds. My only complaint is that land. Or the story of the soldier last volume since Berkeley recently Q.M. Cooper seems to flipflop be­ concelled the series. who has lost health, hope and future tween shallowness and maturity which during twenty years of warfare, un­ Approximately 50% of the book is 57 til an ostler's tale helps him win a throne. McKinley, in these stor­ the heart of any music lover"), etc. in a category separately speculative, ies, is afraid neither of great etc. such as "Camps" by Jack Dann and beauty nor of great evil. She has "Passengers" by Robert Silverberg. Deeply absorbing, fascinating the gift of taking these stories and readable, broken down into easily- There's an introduction by Steph­ and retelling them with love and accessible chunks of memories. en King. Included is his story, "The gentleness, not the sort of arch Crate". cutesiness that makes many retold A pleasure to read. fairy stories acutely unpleasant. ** ************* ********************* All styles of horror and super­ ******* ********************** ******* natural are assembled in this treas­ ury. While the collection still ex­ THE ARBOR HOUSE TREASURY OF HORROR cludes masters such as Ray Bradbury AND THE SUPERNATURAL (his "The Small Assassin” would have SHI BINI fit perfectly) and Harlan Ellison Compiled by Bill Pronzini, Barry N. (his "The Prowler in the City at By Trevanian Malzberg and Martin H. Greenberg. the Edge of the World" could have Ballantine Books Arbor House, 1981, 599 pp., $8.95, been included), the collection is 440 pp., $2.95. Paperback. positively engrossing. REVIEWED BY STEVEN E MG DONALD REVIEWED BY ANDREW ANDREWS ************************************ SHIMBUMI, the fourth novel by Assembled here are the classics the mysterious Trevanian, returns and masters of the horror/supemat- to the sardonic assassin format of ural genre. The selection is as di­ THE EIGER SANCTION and THE LOO SANC­ versified as it is definitive. SUNFALL TION, after the author's sidestep By C.J. Cherryh into detective fiction with the ex­ DAW Books, 158 pp., $2.25. cellent and complex THE MAIN. REVIEWED BY SUSAN M. SHWARTZ The assassin here is Nicholai Hei, and despite his background, SUNFALL'S Michael Whalen cover he isn't a patch on the bizarre Jon­ shows a procession of ruined cary­ athon Hemlock of EIGER and LOO. atids, and, skulking between them, a robed man clutching something that The theme -- this time it's a might be a robot or a weapon. In power company conspiracy controlling the background is a vastly-engorged, the world for profit. Trevanian reddened sun. As the prologue tells cheerfully evinces dislike of every­ us, the six stories of SUNFALL take one bar a handful of his characters, place at a time when Earth is old and the Japanese characters who make and tired. Those people capable of up the flashbacks. As far as the moving offworld have departed; the writing goes, there are occasional ones remaining on Old Earth, under glimpses of the wit and character the red, dying sun, have drawn into that distinguished Trevanian in the cities, each of which has its own earlier books; mostly, the writing peculiar character. is mediocre, and there are times when mediocrity descends quickly in­ For exanple, the story about to shambolic amateurishness. London, "The Haunted Tower", invokes ************************************ all the many hauntings of England, from the Romans to the two little princes in the Tower of London and shows how such hauntings can make even the weakest person strong. "The General", the story of the IN JOY STILL FELT (The Autobiography of Isaac Asimov, chief of chiefs of barbarians at the 1954-1978) gates of Peking, postulates not just Pronzini and associates have a character like Moorcock's Eternal By Isaac Asimov chosen a melange of shockers (includ­ Avon, 828 pp., 1981, $9.95 Chanpion, but instead, a sort of Et­ ing "Hop Frong" by Edgar Allan Poe; ernal Triangle -- Arthur, Lancelot REVIEWED BY JON DI PRETE "The Hand" by Theodore Dreiser; "The and Guinevere living out life after Screaming Laugh" by Cornell Wool­ life in conflict with a Mordred. The prospect of reading this rich -- all from the collection's illustrated, 828-page autobiography first section, entitled "Grandmas­ Like LeGuin's Orsinian tales, of science fiction's bon vivant may ters") and horrors (including "The these stories are organized around paralyze the reader, but if you've Valley of the Spiders" by H.G. Wells one particular reality, oddly dif­ enjoyed Isaac Asimov's introductions and "Bianca's Hands" by Theodore ferent from our own. Like Vance's to his other books (such as THE HUGO Sturgeon) that mark the field of Dying Earth stories, Cherryh's fan­ WINNERS Volumes) or his feet-wetting the supernatural as perturbing and tasies contain a profoundly moving self-ramblings in the EARLY ASIMDV exciting. interaction between living people volumes, you'll devour his insights and a dying world; the descriptions In the book's second section, of the Jades and Onyxes living in about John Campbell ("When John Camp­ titled "Modem Masters" there are bell accepted an item, he did so their palaces along the river Sin in present-day twists on old themes and Paris are as chic as anything Vance with a check. When he rejected one, alarmingly new ideas to madden your however, he would ... do so with a --or that fine exponent of the de­ mind, from "Sticks" by Karl Edward cadent, Tanith Lee -- has done. long letter"); Robert Silverberg. Wagner to "The Mindworm" by C.M. ("He was one of the brightest people Kombluth. Also included are stories I had ever met, but somehow an un­ that resemble science fiction but Cherryh's sinewy, restrained happy one"); Poul Anderson ("The prose, with frequent, sometimes be­ sound of his (folk songs) will wrench 58 wildering point-of-view changes, force a reader to put a great deal Effects/Computer Program by David The discriminating reader will of understanding into her stories. Cox, was an experiment that failed. find similarities with Chandler's ************************************ This is an attempt to overlay vis­ THE BIG SLEEP and Hammett's THE DAIN ual images slightly out of synch CURSE. McQuay apparently believes with each other in order to portray that imitation is a high form. Nev­ the out-of-synch realities in "He­ er mind that "Sam Spade" ill fits SCIENCE FICTION PUZZLE TALES lix". The effect is terrible. The this future, or that the derivative By Martin Gardner visual reality is muddied, unattrac­ writing style can only be sustained Clarkson N. Potter tive and hardly worth the effort. for the first few chapters, there 148 pp., 1981, $4.95 I've a hunch that for all Byron is a whole series building here and Preiss' packaging talent he over­ the un-read will love it. All the REVIEWED BY JOHN DI PRETE reached himself on this one and author's science seems to have come someone at Bantam should have step­ from old Sci-fi B movies; it's a Ever since the spring '77 incep­ ped in and said, "No. You've gone treat for refugees from common sense. tion of ISAAC ASIMOV'S SF MAGAZINE, too far on this one; it just does McQuay really thinks that the moon the delightful puzzle short-shorts not work". has a "dark side". Those who believe of Martin Gardner (a long-established ************************************ that Hiroshima, Eniwetok and Three writer and columnist for SCIENTIFIC Mile Island are surrounded by two- AMERICAN) have proven to be succes­ headed people will appreciate the sful, regular treats for the brain­ quarantined mutants of Old Town, cen­ teaser and SF fan. Gardner's MATHEW SWAIN: HOT TIME IN OLD TOWN tral to-plot and city in this tale. "SF Tales" actually form a witty, While the American Tobacco Institute By Mike McQuay thinly-veiled disguise for Gardner's will love Swain's two packs before Bantam, 1981, $2.25 stock-in-trade: knotty devices of breakfast, the Meddling Morons are annoyance, thought-provokingness and REVIEWED BY DEAN R. LAMBE appeased by the cover illustration originality. of a distinctly unlit "cig" in our Most of the puzzles produce When supposedly the most creat­ hero's loose lips. ticklish nerve-stimulation in the ive decorate 40-year-old Saturday Akin to a TV series, Matt Swain brain's cerebral layers -- the amuse­ morning serials with Hi-Tech special might sinply be turned off, but Mike ment reflex. Perhaps the book's effects, we know that Hollywood is McQuay claims to teach a course in only drawback, for some readers, may dying. Does the reappearance of the science fiction writing. Sigh. be the overly mathematical (alge­ flippant, hard-boiled gumshoe as "What a crapshoot. What a goddamned braic, geometric) portions of the "the 21st Century private eye" sig­ crapshoot." nal the dealh of SF? book; but otherwise, fascinating ************************************ reading. Matt Swain, mouthing lines that A unique feature consists of must have given Bogart cancer, stirs an idea using three Answer Sections, from his seedy office when he hears instead of one. The first answer of the death of a former client. THE "PENDEX": AN INDEX OF PEN NAMES poses another problem, to which the After a bit of banter with local AND HOUSE NAPES IN FANTASTIC THRIL­ solution appears in Section II, fin­ Texas cops, Swain is hired by Silas LER, AND SERIES LITERATURE ally ending up in the last section. Grover, rich and decrepit father of the murder victim. Old Silas, a bio­ By Susannah Bates Inspiring fun. nic marvel, knows that the cops are Garland Publishing Inc., 233 pp. ************************************ not being paid enough to be interest­ $22.50 ed in the case. Grover's two REVIEWED BY TOM STAICAR daughters -- sexy and wacko -- and the family butler toss in a few Susannah Bates took up the chal­ enigmas, and Swain quickly finds lenge of SF, fantasy and thriller DISTANT STARS himself at odds with billionaire pen names and has published her re­ By Samuel R. Delany Rick Charon. What rotten fruit sults based upon years of scholarly Bantdm Trade Paperback, Aug., 1981 hangs in the Grover family tree? research in THE PENDEX. Rather than 352 pages, $8.95 Why does Swain's rich girlfriend let toss any likely name into the book Produced by Byron Preiss Visual him eat crackers in bed? Fortunately she has relied upon verifiable, re­ Publications, Inc. Swain has friends in low places, some liable, printed sources for each Cover by Michael Whelan of whom become extinct in messy ways. entry. Eliminating many sources REVIEWED BY DAVID A. TRUESDALE I was especially overjoyed to HAl/E Y°U HOLV MUcfl receive DISTANT STARS, a beautiful (Whelan wraparound cover), over­ large collection of short fiction including an absorbing introduction by Delany, an entire novel (EMPIRE STAR), the Nebula-winning "Time Considered as a Helix of Semi-Prec­ ious Stones", as well as an original short story -- all laced throughout with art (some 60 full-page illustra­ tions) from seven different artists. But I was fooled, and more to the point, disappointed. Aside from EMPIRE STAR and "Helix", the remaining five stories were either slight, obscure or uninspiring, and the "new" Special Effects by Digital 59 which might have allowed her to sell a 1,000-page manuscript of dubious Department of Silly Sci-Fi: when he is introduced, exhibits ad­ merit, she utilized only certain mirable common sense. But the funny animal/fruit protagonists are so in- sources which she knew to be accur­ SPACEBREAD ate. Private communications, rumors fantile that almost anybody over and other sources were not admissable By Steve Senn the age of 8 would be embarrassed evidence. Her experience gained Illustrated by the author. to be caught reading this. If you from thirty years of collecting al­ Atheneum, 1981, 216 pp., $9.95. happen to be babysitting a 6-to-8- lowed her to locate often obscure ISBN: 0-689-30830-2 year-old and want a book to read sources of reference and she always Atheneum Pub., 597 Fifth Avenue, that has something to offer both of tried to find two or more sources of New York City, 10017. you, SPACEBREAD will probably do fine. verification for a name. reviewed BY FRED PATTEN The value of THE PENDEX to schol­ ars, researchers and general readers This is one of the weirdest novels is enhanced by its scholarly accur­ I've encountered in 31 years of read­ acy. Cold trails are made fresh ing SF. I'm almost ashamed to admit again in THE PENDEX as new primary that I sorta liked it. Of course, -rim'd X ercr* sources are added to the available Fritz Leiber has already written literature by given writers now that stories starring his housecat, but additional pen names and house names Gummitch was a respectable cat-type are revealed. Collectors and schol­ cat. SPACEBREAD is, as far as I ars should find this book useful, know, the first example of space and libraries would do well to add opera in the grand tradition whose it to their reference collections. dynamic heroes are apparently the Bates has compiled a valuable work author's pet cat and a fig off his tool for those who seek to uncover fig tree. i information in these fields. The story isn't bad. It's no­ ************************************ wise original and it's lousy SF, be ing a particularly blatant example THE WORMS OF KUKUMLIMA of hack pulp melodrama stuffed in­ By Daniel Pinkwater side a space suit. In this case the E.P. Dutton, 152 pp., $10.95 adventure, set on the primitive plan­ ISBN: 0-525-43380-5 et Ralph, is a standard Middle Ages GALACTIC EFFECTUATOR soldier-of-fortune romance. The Some day an SF novel will be By Jack Vance characters are all cardboard, but printed on used greaseburger 219 pp., $2.25, Ace, 27232-0 Senn can establish some really like­ wrappers. That novel will un­ Cover art by Mattingly able good guys and some really his­ doubtedly be by Daniel Pinkwater, sable villains with just a few words. who "has what he understands to REVIEWED BY PAUL MC GUI RE However, every time I'd start to get be the largest and most complete wrapped up in the action, I'd get collection of false noses in the Jack Vance, who has been awarded jolted by a description that remind­ not only the Hugo and Nebula but al­ non-communist world." Pinkwater ed me that it was a little green fig is the author of LIZARD MUSIC, so the Mystery Writers of America's who was creeping up behind a brutal Edgar, has written a most enjoyable the widely acclaimed novel about guard to clobber him with a wine bot­ a civilization of intelligent science fiction mystery. In the tle, or that it was a fluffy white farthest comer of his Gaean Reach lizards who worship a golden Persian cat (female) who was offer­ statue of Walter Cronkite. is the planet Maz. This world is ing to take on all comers in a bar­ inhabited by incredibly fierce alien room brawl. I imagine that the auth­ On page 9 of THE WORMS OF warriors, but is divided and control­ or had his tongue firmly in cheek as KUKUMLIMA it is proven that Los led by three interstellar empires. he wrote the long purple passages in Angeles does not exist. The To this world comes Vance's laid- which the little round figlet pled- novel is really about a scientif­ back investigator Miro Hetzel, who ges to make his barbarian-warrior ic expedition to Darkest Africa becomes involved with smuggling, in­ fig ancestors proud of him, or in by Sir Charles Pelicanstein, Seum- trigue, a bizarre kidnapping, assas­ the "today I am a fig" scene, but as Finneganstein, and Ronald Don­ sination and warfare, all leading to the whole concept is just too bizarre ald Almondotter to find a civili­ a conspiracy of interstellar import­ for me no matter how deadpan he pre­ zation of intelligent earthworms ance. salts it. from outer space. They find many This adventure covers the first interesting things as they tromp If Senn has one other fault than about and get sidetracked all 147 pages. After three blank pages, intrusive silliness, it's his pen­ there is a second Miro Hetzel invest­ across East Africa, such as a chant for tragic death scenes. A discarded pinball machine with igation included in the book. This sympathetic supporting character one begins with the unique crime of "a picture of Gamal Abdel Nasser, can't last for more than a couple of the former president of Egypt, a man's seminal glands being forcib­ chapters without getting raygunned ly exchanged by transplant with ano­ on the backboard." Anyhow, I or run through, and expiring in won't reveal the horrible secret ther's, denying him the right to Spacebread's arms as she tearfully father his own children. of the giant earthworms (except pledges to add him to the list of that it involves crunchy granola), The novel is listed as a juven­ all the others she'll avenge. but the explorers sure do have ile, "14 and up" is the phrase Ace an interesting experience and it uses. Like any intelligent and well- Damned if I know what the intend­ all ends in a big party at Wim­ ed readership of this novel is. It's written juvenile, it can be enjoyed py's in Nairobi. just as nuch by adults, but unlike presented in a Young Adult/Adult hard­ most books of any label, this one cover format with an appropriate voc­ The dustjacket includes a was written by a master of artistic abulary. The characters are adults photograph of the author in one entertainment. and act in mature ways. Even the fig, of his Free World false noses. who is obviously a callow youth ************************************ ********************************** 60 BLOOD COUNTY townspeople who all seem to be hid­ get?) of the author's immense comic By Curt Selby ing ominous secrets, and the lair of talents. He describes a re-colonis­ DAW Books, #436, June, 1981. Mallory himself, with its shelves of ation of America during the twenty- 176 pages, $2.25 ancient texts and its laboratory, first century that occurs during Cover by Ken W. Kelly all have their roles to play in "that far longer safari across the building the mood of the novel. The diameters of (our) own skulls". REVIEWED BY DAVID-A. TRUESDALE inevitable, though always welcome, The desertified landscape is as lovely young woman in peril arrives BLOOD COUNTY is a much more familiar to us as are its archetyp­ on cue in the person of Arabella Cun­ al characters. The youth, Wayne, sensible effort than most, albeit ningham. She is oddly infatuated incorporating all the elements that bom in Dublin of an Irish mother with the older Lucian Mallory and and -- perhaps? --a German father, would make a plausible -- and fright­ his promises of immortality. who, "like his unknown ancestors be­ ening -- movie. Case makes no attempt to sur­ fore him ... had come to America to The story takes place in a back­ prise or unsettle the reader who has forget the past, to turn his back water mountain village -- Blood, come to an Arkham House book (with forever on an exhausted Europe". West Virginia, and centers around a its superb Stephen Fabian cover and (It is ironic that Ballard's fictions female news reporter who discovers interior illustrations) to be chil­ are better received in Europe than that the local folk are being quiet­ led by the unknown. We expect the in America.) Captain Steiner, who, ly bled, quart by collected quart, villain to be evil, the woman to having "beached the leaking Apollo by the Baron-on-the-hill. The fact fall prey to him, and the hero to be as planned on the silk bank beside that they submit quite willingly hopelessly stymied as the last chap­ the Cunard Pier, in the very space and have done so for generations, ter approaches. The manner in which occupied by the great Queens ... had is but one anomaly to be found and the plot unfolds is the mark of the returned to his own country, where rectified by the twin protagonists better horror writers, not the in­ he would soon ride again, one foot -- the news reporter who refuses to on the stirrup, the other with luck leave the dangerous hidden valley on space itself". (An example of a and let things be, and the half- prose that -- I have long wished to brother of the evil Baron Duquieu, write this -- resembles a strand of Clint Breen. beads fashioned from glass, alternate­ ly translucent and opaque; alternate­ As the pieces unfold one by one ly sensible and ... stupid.) Saxon- (and the pace is a fast one, with a complexioned Professor Anne (former­ terrific opening scene after a brief ly Anna) Summers (formerly Sommer), first chapter), we see brutal murd- . "brought up in the American ghetto ers, a gigantic increase in the num­ in Berlin", upon whose breath-taking ber of the grisly un-dead as they waist-length, blonde hair, we (you, stalk the countryside, scenes so I, J.G. Ballard) are lowered into gory they could have been straight "the last place on Earth where dreams from NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, and a (can) still take wing". (America? genuine sympathy for Clint Breen as Surely not. Space is the final he struggles with his split inner frontier (that man, by voyaging to self -- half-human and half-Lamprou, novations in plot which are better the moon, has crossed)). Charles one of the living dead. suited to mainstream novels. Mason "a middle-aged man lying on a BLOOD COUNTY is a romping good Case's strong point here is his surgical couch in front of a battery vampire thriller with more of the gradual addition of weird background of television screens ... naked ex­ good stuff and much less of the information -- allusions to the BOOK cept for the towel around his waist", trite and cliche than one might at OF THE DEAD, mentions of types of nevertheless the forty-fifth Presi­ first glance expect. Egyptian curses, the worldview of dent of the United States, having the Egyptians, and their attitudes succeeded the "last U.S. President­ And Curt Selby? A pseudonym toward death and immortality. Spec­ in-exile, President Brown (a devout­ for none other than Doris Piserchia. ulation about the nature of life and ly religious nonagenarian who had ************************************ the possibility of devolution rather died sixty years before Wayne's than evolution as a result of great­ birth in a Zen monastery in Osaka". ly-expanded lifespans form the basis of the fictional story of Lucian THE THIRD GRAVE Mallory and his work. I mock a ... good book, I think By David Case because provided with so many ... Arkham House, hardcover, $10.95 THE THIRD GRAVE is a fine novel good quotes. "On all sides was a which should delight lovers of weird secret but rich desert life. Scor­ REVIEWED BY TOM STAICAR fiction and also satisfy the needs pions twitched like nervous execut­ of SF and fantasy readers who are David Case has just the right ives in the windows of old advertis­ looking for a high-quality novel of ing agencies. A sidewinder basking touch for a novel of this type. A the unknown. native of New York, now living in in a publisher's doorway paused to England and Greece, he has a natural ************************************ observe Wayne approach and then un­ talent for concocting believable nov­ coiled itself in the shadows, wait­ els of the macabre and the weird. ing patiently among the desks like a HELLO AMERICA restless editor. Rattlesnakes rest­ The book begins as hieroglyphics ed in the burrow-weed on the window­ expert, Thomas Ashley is called upon By J.G. Ballard sills of theatrical agents, clicking to interpret some ancient writings Jonathan Cape, 1981, L6.95 their rattles at Wayne as if dismis­ found during an archaeological dig ISBN: 0-224-01914-7 sing him from a painful audition". in Egypt. One visitor is particul­ REVIEWED BY ANDREW TIDMARSH arly interested in the meaning of Perhaps I ought to have read at a faster pace, or from pages 1 to the symbols -- the mysterious and This is an amusing book that re­ obviously evil Lucian Mallory. 224 on the same day. Had I done so, minds his readers (how could we for- I would not have examined as closely Belly-dancers, tight-lipped 61 as I have the above passage, in which the word "window" appears twice, and city of antique gamblers about to be the (contradictory) words, "restless" vapourised fifty miles away. It and "rested" are separated by no (is) time for new dreams, worthy of more than two others. A minor crit­ a real tomorrow, the dreams of the icism, from which I conclude that, first of the Presidents of the Sun­ though Ballard can be said to write light Fliers". It is time for new well, he is not a writer whose style dreams from J.G. Ballard, one among another ought copy. His books are us in whose pre-cognitions (no mat­ distinguished by the clarity of his ter how incredible: the Presidency vision, rather than by their logical of Ronald Reagan!) I believe. construction: emotional peaks and troughs occur as though at random, How much more selfish can I get? Is not to have been amused enough? of newcomers -- and the inevitable whenever an especially vivid meta­ slaughter (of the reasonable, sane phor is coined, a narrative bridge ************************************ outsiders) that ensues ("The House required. That there exists no the Blakelys Built”). story (in the sense of a continuous recital of facts) in HELLO AMERICA, In short, STRANGE SEAS AND SHORES is just what the title implies, and may be confirmed by referring to STRANGE SEAS AND SHORES "The Index" (published in BANANAS: hence may be a little too off-the-wall The Literary Newspaper, Summer, By Avram Davidson for those who gorge on hard Science 1977) of "the unpublished and per­ Introduction by Ray Bradbury Fiction or more traditional, adven­ haps suppressed autobiography of a Ace Books, Aug. 1981, 219 pp., $2.25 turous strains of fantasy -- but if you're even a little like me you'll man who may well have been one of REVIEWED BY DAVID A. TRUESDALE the nost remarkable figures of the find this collection a surprising 20th Century". The content of the Originally published in 1971, detour from sameness. novel could be re-presented in the the seventeen stories in this col­ ************************************ form of an alphabetically-ordered lection date from 1958 through 1971 list of characters and events with­ and for the most part first saw print out significant loss of meaning. in either GALAXY of F(jSF. They still NEW DIMENSIONS 12 Ballard's method, to quote his great­ read very well, but are not the eas­ est admirer, Barry Malzberg, is "to iest things in the world to classify. Edited by Marta Randall 5 Robert set up a few characters ... moving Silverberg amidst various symbols and events What they are not is science fic­ Timescape (Pocket) Books, 1981 in the fictions which are controlled tion. What they are can best be de­ 223 pp., $2.50 metaphors ... and then, as the work scribed as an oddball amalgam of (begins) to fuse toward climax ... the Sturgeon-Bradbury type fantasy REVIEWED BY ANDREW ANDREWS in that they deal foremostly with to hit the metaphors rapidly, one Marta Randall has assumed the after another, noise and colour, un­ the effects on, or reactions to, strange situations or bizarre cir­ helm in what is now the second de­ til at last they (spin), (move) in­ cade of the New Dimensions series. to one another ..." The emotional cumstances by very fallible, very human people. She selects stories on her own judg­ inpact of the work derives, in part, ment, different from Silverberg; but from the reader's knowledge of the Take, for instance, "The Sixty- the quality's the same. metaphors employed, in part, from Third Street Station" and a poor the quality of the author's prose, bloke conned so cleverly into step­ The best includes "Pain and Glory" how obvious or obscure are his re­ ping off a subway where there hap­ by Gordon Eklund. The Cohens are ferences . pens to be no scheduled stop; and empaths; they've been so for genera­ for just what macabre and deathly tions. Papa Isaac is dying of can­ A reader to whom America was an reason? No, I won't. Read it for cer; his family is breaking apart. unfamiliar territory would learn, yourself. Squabbles and petty jealousies clash. from HELLO AMERICA, nothing, would Papa's son Kelly has inherited the Or better yet, read "The Vat", power to experience people's suffer­ judge the book upon its merits as "The Goobers" or "The Certificate" poetry. The frequent banalities, ing. How he copes with his father's for gemlike examples of the shock death and his troubled family while the lapses of the author's concentra­ short story so difficult to pull off tion, would be excused because, else­ learning to adjust to his own adult­ and so ingeniously perpetrated by hood creates a very poignant story. where, Ballard had demonstrated his Davidson. ability to "keep a diary of (his) "Elfleda" by Vonda N. McIntyre extraordinary visions". And I think words akin to ingen­ explores love and lust between a cen­ ious, oddball, etc. are perhaps (in taur and a unicorn. Manufactured Alas -- the relevant anthologies any one of several ways) the most re­ are THE DAY OF FOREVER, VERMILION by humans to roam in wide-open pas­ membered aspects of these stories, tures to amuse humans, these fabled SANDS, THE ATROCITY EXHIBITION and for in virtually every one there is LOW-FLYING AIRCRAFT -- for me, "the creatures learn to crave freedom and sensed some slightly askew, odd­ flee for their lives. old dreams (are) dead, Manson and angled perspective that renders the Mickey Mouse and Marilyn Monroe (be­ story a uniquely Avram Davidson crea­ "Walden Three" by Michael Swan­ long) to a past America, to that tion; whether it be a wryly humor­ wick examines life in an L-5 Colony. ous reworking of a standard, cliched It examines society, and individual­ theme ("Paramount VI", first contact ity and makes for a disturbing read. -- "Take Wooden Indians", time trav­ These stories are wholesome and el for a most peculiar reason) or a unique speculations on the human con­ bleak and grimly realistic set piece dition as it confronts the fantastic. exhibiting without qualm or reserva­ They cannot be called "science fic­ tion what generations of inbreeding tion" anymore; that term is too lim­ can do to a small colony of serious­ iting. They surpass the nuts-and- ly degenerated space settlers who bolts stuff and leap into a wonder are naively befriended by a family all their own. 62 ************************************ 1T£ BEST SCIENCE FICTION OF THE must take place which creates under­ CITIZEN VAMPIRE YEAR #10 standable conflict in the person se­ lected to meet them. By Les Daniels Edited by Terry Carr Charles Scribner's Sons Timescape Books, 1981, 434 pp., $3.50 George R.R. Martin and John Var­ New York, May, 1981, 199 pp., $9.95 ley are two of the very best science REVIEWED BY ROBERT SABELLA fiction writers to emerge in the Sev­ REVIEWED BY JAPES ANDERSON enties, yet their approaches to writ­ Virtually all readers of this ing are quite different. Martin is The city of Paris in 1789 is magazine know that Terry Carr's an­ not a great innovator, but he takes just about the last place one would nual anthology comes closest to be­ the vast body of science fiction expect to find a vampire. But Rhode ing a genuine Best-of-the-Year vol­ and molds some danried fine stories Island writer, Les Daniels has sur­ ume. For those new to science fic­ out of it. "Nightflyers" is a ghost prised the fantasy world once again tion, suffice it to say that six of story transplanted into deep space, in CITIZEN VAMPIRE, his third novel Terry's twelve selections this year complete with technological spirits featuring the vampire "hero", Don were nominated either for Hugo or and a vast legend that is worth a Sebastian de Villaneuva. Nebula Awards or both. This anthol­ whole story itself. Martin is the THE SILVER SKULL, the previous ogy is must reading for fans of best pure storyteller in the field book in this series, ends with Don short-to-middle-length science fic­ and he is at the peak of his form Sebastian finding peace and tranquil­ tion. here. ity among the stars with the immort­ Howard Waldrop's "The Ugly Chick­ al gods of Tenochtitlanian Mexico. ens" has already won the Nebula Aw­ By contrast, John Varley is the In this latest adventure, the vam­ ard which is slightly surprising field's leading innovator. "Beat­ pire is rudely recalled to Earth by since it is science fiction only by nik Bayou" is his unique look at ed­ an ambitious French magician and his the broadest definition of the term. ucation, justice and, most important­ benefactor, the beautiful Countess It is a cute and occasionally funny ly, approaching maturity. Varley de Corvi lie. story about an ornithologist's has lost none of his creativity Don Sebastian is none too happy search for the last surviving dodoes. while his plotting has become tight­ at being tom away from eternal Although basically a trivial story it er and his characters have begun to is nice to read something entertain­ breathe real life. He is currently bliss, especially when he finds him­ self caught in the midst of the con­ ing that is not deadly serious all science fiction's most inportant flicts of revolutionary France. And the time. writer and should continue to be so if he does not get too hung up writ­ to make matters worse, Sebastian be­ Another Nebula winner is Clifford ing adventure trilogies and movie comes tangled in the affairs of two Simak's "Grotto of the Dancing Deer", novelizations. opposing women, the aristocratic a fine balance of mystery and charac­ Countess, and the revolutionary Mad­ terization about the identity of the Bob Leman's "Window" is one of eleine, both of whom know his secret. primitive artist of two-thousand-year- those stories that I hesitate to say Despite the plentiful flow of old cave paintings. Simak's profes­ much about lest I ruin it for some blood in the streets of Paris, Seb­ sionalism shows here since the myst­ reader. It is likely the single astian finds it difficult to find ery is solved halfway through the most horrifying story I have ever nourishment without creating an army story but he still keeps the reader's read. I don't like the horror fad of undead that would arouse suspic­ interest with some fine observations which has overrun movies and books, on human nature. but Bob Leman and George R.R. Martin ion in this unfamiliar world. He have adapted it so skillfully to resorts to playing the role of a "Giguangagap", by Michael Stan- science fiction that I cannot help ruthless murderer who rips out his wick, resembles a John Varley story but approve. victim's hearts after cutting their in that it is offbeat enough to feel throats. genuinely futuristic yet is realis­ There are six other stories by CITIZEN VAMPIRE, in addition to tic enough to be genuinely moving. people like James Tiptree, Jr. and Physical contact is about to take Philip K. Dick, all good and combin­ being a top-notch fantasy, is also place between humans and aliens for ing to form the best single science a superlative work of historical fic­ the first time. In prior communica­ fiction package of each year. This tion. Les Daniels presents an in­ teresting and accurate portrait of tion with the aliens suspicion has book is highly reconmended for all been aroused that their motives are science fiction fans. revolutionary France, complete with the guillotine, the Bastille, and less than friendly. Yet the contact A *****************A*AA*A* AAA*******A the Bals des Victimes, the dance of victims where citizens of the revol­ ution dress like the dead in bloody finery and toast the beheading of famous nobles. Some of the minor THAT'S- a ?R©>GS77AJAT(OtJ characters of the book are among the rl/sti THE most interesting and infamous pers­ /MP IT BUZ-Z-EF IF I T IxoESBUZZy onages of history: The Marquis de Sade and Robespierre himself. These are presented as believable human beings rather than as stock figures of history.

CITIZEN VAMPIRE is an absorbing novel of historical fantasy that combines the vanpire myths of Rumania with the morbid reality of 18th Cen­ tury France. It is a book that will change the reader's notions about the typical vanpire tale. * *********************************** ms JilMAB MUSS S-F NEWS BY ELTON T. ELLIOTT

REMEMBER THE ADDRESS FOR THIS COLUMN IS: ELTON T. ELLIOTT, SFR, 1899 WIESSNER DRIVE N.E., SALEM, OR 97303.

MAGAZINE NEWS! COFDENTARY cause George Lucas also produced RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, which they AMAZING: After much thought, my business consider blasphemous. As Ben Bova From bi-monthly to quarterly. associate, Thaddeus Dikty, and I con­ said when he told me he felt the U. cluded that the non-performance of S. is headed towards a religious dic­ ANALOG: certain clauses in the contract be­ tatorship, "Robert Heinlein's been Thirteen issues per year. tween New Media Publishing and our right about everything else, why not company, S.F. Productions, Inc., about that?" asimov's: made further effort on the magazines intolerable. In a letter dated Oct­ One piece of good news: Most ec­ George Scithers, ASIMOV'S editor ober 20, 1981, we so informed Hal onomists are predicting a pick-up in since its inception, has resigned. Schuster of New Media Publishing. the economy in the second or third His staff of first readers, includ­ quarter of '82. This would be of ing Darrell Schweitzer, has also Both magazines, S F BOOKLINE and tremendous benefit to the publishing left. The new editor will be Kath­ SCIENCE FICTION NOVELS, are dead. industry where a smooth cash flow is leen Maloney, former executive edit­ Both titles are the exclusive prop­ more difficult to sustain than in or of Bantam Books. erty of S F Productions, Inc. most other areas of the economy. Scithers and his staff of first On to other items -- The recent However, if the Reagan administration readers lived in Philadelphia, the court ruling against the teaching of does run up a deficit of over 100 bil­ rest of the Davis editorial opera­ creationism in the classroom was of lion dollars as predicted, then int­ tions are headquartered in New York. great benefit to science fiction, erest rates could climb over the 30% Davis wanted a full-time editor in since most science fiction stories mark, effectively dousing any econom­ New York; this was a reported area accept the Darwinian theory of evo­ ic recovery. Recent speculation of friction, as was cover and art lution. Science fiction books and about just such an occurrence sent control which Davis took away from classes in the public schools could the stock market down 17 points in Scithers last year. (ANALOG editor have come under criticism had the one day. Let's hope this does'nt Stanley Schmidt also lost art and fundamentalists succeeded in their happen: If publishers bet on recov­ cover control.) Scithers' resigna­ opening wedge to gain control of the ery, expand their programs and inven­ tion had been rumored for some time. minds of our young people. Already tories and sales do not pick up or Circulation at ASIMOV'S had drop­ some fundamentalist parents are re­ should actually reverse themselves, ped from over 100,000 at the begin­ fusing to let their children view TV some publishers might be forced out ning of 1981 to 80,000 at year's end. shows such as STAR TREK, because one of business as might some science Possibly as a step to keep subscrib­ fundamentalist minister declared the fiction programs at some larger New ers and halt the circulation plunge character of Spock represented the York publishing houses. Cheer up: Davis has finally decided to put Devil. The playing of certain games As you can see I've passed my les­ wrappers around their subscription such as "Dungeons and Dragons" has sons in The Richard E. Geis School copies, to take effect in January, been attacked as attempts to convert on the subject of Pessimism 101. good upstanding fundamentalist Chris­ '82. tian children into Satanists through ASIMOV'S remains at thirteen the use of occult powers. I kid you issues per year. New Editor Maloney not. Some preachers have warned promises more Isaac Asimov in the their congregations not to allow magazine, science fiction as well as their children to see STAR WARS be­ 64 science fact. FANTASY & SCIENCE FICTION: # Hank Stine is now Editor in Monthly. Chief of Donning's entire line. Kay Reynolds has been named editor of a FANTASY BOOK: new line of graphic novels which Beginning in December, have a Donning/Starblaze will be publishing bimonthly schedule. Have not seen in 1982. a recent issue. # Tor Books became self-sufficient GALAXY: in its cash flow in September -- In limbo. inpressive, since their first title only came out in May. □MN I: AUTHOR NEWS: Executive Editor Ben Bova, in an Ellison. The original contracts # Michael Resnick has sold a novel exclusive interview, reports that were never signed by Ellison and the SIDESHOW, to New American Library, OMNI is "profitable --in good shape." $50,000 advance never paid. Now, set for September 1982 publication, As for the possibility of an OMNI over two and a half years after the the first of an open-ended series science fiction magazine, he says reported sale, Ellison returned the titled "Tales of the Galactic Mid­ that Omni Publications is "still contracts, evidently with changes kicking it around". way". The next two of the series unacceptable to Berkley who decided are tentatively titled THE THREE- the original offer was void after LEGGED HOOTCH and THE WILD ALIEN TA­ As for rumors that Omni Publica­ this long delay. tions are interested in buying out MER; both will be written in early Davis, Bova scotched them: "Nothing 1982. Resnick has sold an erotic This anthology was originally could be further from the truth". suspense/horror short story called sold to Doubleday, then to Harper "Watching Marcia", to THE ARBOR and Row (where in 1973 a tentative quest/star: HOUSE TREASURY OF SUSPENSE. table of contents showed 77 stories), then to Berkley in 1979 where 113 Announced bimonthly. Have not # Jack L. Chalker is working on a stories were reportedly bought; the seen a recent issue. large fantasy novel, THE RIVER OF number has purportedly increased in DANCING GODS. Then he will begin RIGEL: the last two-plus years. (One re­ MEDUSE: THE MAZE IN THE DIAMOND, port had over 150 stories already Announced bimonthly. Have not the final book in "Four Lords of the bought.) seen a recent issue. Diamond" tetralogy. The third book, CHARON: A WALK IN THE DARK, is # Jim Frenkel has reportedly SCIENCE FICTION DIGEST: turned in to Del Rey and will ap­ bought mass market rights to Somtow Announced bimonthly -- the first pear in the fall of '82. Sucharitkul's MALLWORLD, from Don­ issue was out in September; I have ning. not seen a subsequent issue. His mainstream novel, THE DEV­ IL'S VOYAGE, has sold to Japan. The # LOCUS reports that Jack Dann SCIENCE FICTION NOVELS & BBC is considering doing MIDNIGHT AT and Gardner Dozois have sold an an­ S. F. BOOKLINE THE WELL OF SOULS as a radio serial. thology titled UNICORN to Ace. See commentary. # Ben Bova is doing the text of a # John Manchip White sold DEATH BY book for Abram's, ROBERT MC CALL'S DREAMING to Ace Books. PUBLISHING NEWS! VISION OF TOMORROW by Ben Bova, # Michael McCollum has sold LIFE # Gregg Press has suspended all scheduled for release late in '82. PROBE to Del Rey. science fiction publishing until ex­ Robert McCall will do the paintings. isting inventory is decreased. # Isaac Asimov has finished 70,000 # Glen Cook has sold a science fiction trilogy, "The Starfishers" tf Filmways, the comnunications and words of the first draft on the new to Warner. media conglomerate is reportedly in Foundation novel, to be about 125,000 the process of liquidation. Ace is words on completion. Doubleday has # LIZARD ASK NOT by Barry Longyear, a subsidiary company. No concrete announced over a million dollars in which takes place 250 years after word on any possible sale of Ace. subsidiary rights offers have been CIRCUS WORLD, has been sold to Berk­ received by their subsidiary rights ley. # Davis which recently announced department for the Asimov Foundation # Lynn Abbey has sold a book to novel, LIGHTNING ROD (this info frcm editorial changes at ASIMOV'S (See Ace, DAWN WOLVES. Magazine News), has dropped its SCI­ SCIENCE FICTION CHRONICLE). ENCE AND ELECTRONICS magazine as # Damon Knight has sold a novel, # Ace will publish the three Tel- well as its CCMPUTER magazine. zey books by James H. Schmitz, THE THE MAN IN THE TREE, to Berkley. UNIVERSE AGAINST HER, THE LION GAME Their Vice President, subscrip­ # Michael Moorcock has sold THE and THE TELZEY TOY, in a uniform tion director and newsstand circula­ CITY AND THE AUTIMI STARS to Time- edition. tion director have all been let go. scape. Rights director Constance Direnzo, # Robert Silverberg has sold to with the conpany since its incep­ # Ray Faraday Nelson has sold a Tor first paperback rights to two tion, has resigned. novel, THE PROMETHEUS MAN, to Don­ juvenile novels, GATE OF WORLDS and ning. ACROSS A BILLION YEARS. # Berkley has announced expansion from their current three, to four # Cliffom D. Simak has turned in # WIZARD by John Varley has 210,000 books a month, as of mid '82. a novel, SPECIAL DELIVERANCE, to copies in print after a third print­ Del Rey, along with an untitled fan­ ing of 25,000 copies. # Starlog Press has ceased public­ tasy novel. ation of FUTURE LIFE. # Granada Books bought British # Ace Books has announced a juven­ # Berkley has renounced rights to THE LAST DANGEROUS VISIONS, the long- rights to Arthur C. Clarke's 2010: ile fantasy line to be distributed ODYSSEY TWO for $230,000. Hayakawa through their Tempo imprint to be rumored three-volume encyclopedia­ length anthology edited by Harlan Publishing bought Japanese rights edited by Terri Windling, also the for $50,000. Clarke receives none Ace fantasy editor. 65 of these monies until Ballantine earns back their $1 million advance LETTERS CONTINUED FROM P. 53 sequently rumor abounded that this through rights sales, after which was some kind of rip-off operation, he gets 75% of all sales. and pretty damned chutzpahnik at that. # Stephen King and Peter Straub (large scale) and types of economy have sold a collaborative work for (large scale). 'I have no intention of naming $2 million +, THE TALISMAN, to Vik­ ((In the last analysis the en­ names, but allow me, please to veri­ ing and Coward, McCann and Geohagan. during themes and elements of sf fy the situation at least as far as stories are what people buy over I see it, and allow as well, that I # FIRESTARTER by Stephen King has and over and over, through the may be entirely off the beam in my over 2.5 million copies in print in decades. Editors and publishers conclusions. According to Dr. Na­ the Signet edition as of August 1981. have to give the buyers what the chman Ben Yehuda, who attended the Peter Straub's GHOST STORY, is cur­ buyer wants to read! And shoot- 1980 Worldcon, each of those persons rently at the top of the best sel­ em-ups in space, for instance, is listed on our brochures announced his ler charts; the movie version open­ one of the major stock, sure-fire or her intention to make it to Jeru­ ed in the theatres in December. sellers...and is supported by the con. Indeed, this was not recorded # Philip Jose' Farmer's next novel young male reader to satisfy an in writing and consequently notariz­ is A BARNSTORMER IN OZ. The hero instinctual/biological need. He ed, but where I come from, a verbal is Dorothy's son. conquers and triumphs vicariously. contract is as binding as the writ­ In my opinion instinctual/biologic- ten sort. I am not hinting at any MOVIE/TV NEWS: al needs (all unconscious) underly gross miscarriage of justice. People all the genre fiction to one de­ can and do change their minds and as # Sensing a publicity bonanza, gree or another. I see nothing Paramount has reportedly shot two long as money has not exchanged wrong or shameful about that. hands, nobody gets hurt (not much endings to the new Star Tre]; movie; ((The argument that people anyway). As'well, I accept entirely in one ending Spock lives, in the "should not" be slaves to their Barry Longyear's comment that it is other he dies. Trek fans are unhap­ gonads or pituitarys or other unfair to hold a man who may have py that Spock might be killed. One glands is idiocy. And yes, there been sleepless,' ill-fed and harried group of fans, who are also in the has always been a power struggle for three days, to something he legal profession, took out an ad of a kind between males and fe­ might have said in passing at a party. in a Hollywood trade paper, pointing males, and because most men can Fair enough, and Mr. Longyear was out that Spock's death would cause beat up on most women (basic power gentleman enough to point out the lost revenues from the sale of movie equation) women will lose in cer­ exigencies of the situation. Never­ tickets, discs and videotapes. Para­ tain areas of society. And while theless, these comments were taken mount is being coy about which ending most young women have strong sex in good faith, often in the presence they will use. In any case, even appeal to most young men, women will of witnesses, and if Dr. Ben Yehuda the unused ending would be of inter­ have that "weapon" to use. regarded them as commitments, naive­ est to hard-core fans. ((Nature or evolution has dis­ ly or otherwise, this hardly constit­ # Milton Subotsky has renewed the covered that this biological/in­ utes the makings of a rip-off. I movie option on Robert Asprin's stinctual setup works-- the species think that many of the individuals survives and prospers. Our present ANOTHER FINE MYTH. who complained that their names were high-tech civilization will last on­ being bandied about were aware of # The Conan movie is set for Dec­ ly as long as most of the planet's this, or I expect their complaints ember, '82 release. mineral weaitn can oe easily used. would have been a great deal louder # PBS stations KCET -- Los Angeles These are extraordinary times-- a than they were. You just had to see and WNET -- New York have announced golden-age blip in the life of our the vapid expressions on the faces of plans for a series of shows based species. Our instincts and our certain writers, when I tried to fol­ on science fiction short stories. body plumbing are designed for sur­ low up on their original statements. Stories by LeGuin and Budrys have vival over the long haul. What we "Israel, oh, yes, that's somewhere in already been acquired. More info were we will be; what we are we will the Middle-East, hmmm..." Maybe I next issue. never be again. That's my bedrock had bad breath. I just don't know. worldview. Time will tell if I'm # Philip Jose' Farmer's novel, TO right.)) 'I wish to state for the record YOUR SCATTERED BODIES GO, the first that Jerucon '82 will take place this book in the Riverworld series has summer as announced, though the site been optioned by ABC-TV for produc­ has been changed to the Diplomat Ho­ tion as a mini-series. The script tel (5 stars) in Jerusalem, and that is already completed. # LETTER FROM SHELDON TEITELBAUM a number of pros will be in attend­ Rehov Mordechai Anelevitch ance, as well as leading academics 23/2 Holon, Israel in the field, notably Richard Er­ 29 November, 1981 lich, Thomas Dunne, David Ketterer, BOOK NEWS! Jon Robert Colombo, Paul Lewis, Ray­ it Absent this issue -- will re­ 'I wish to comment upon a dis­ mond Thompson, Roderick McGillis, turn next issue. turbing phenomenon that I became Tom Moylan, Michael Larsen and Bev­ aware of during my attendance at erly Friend. The list of particip­ Denvention as representative for ants now numbers over 60 and I fig­ the Jerucon 82 Organizing Committee. ure, as the winter progresses, that it will number threefold, not to CONCLUDING WORDS: My purpose in doing so is not to pick a quarrel with anyone, but mention those who are attending for # The column this issue is shorter simply to express my puzzlement. their own enjoyment. than usual due to personal details which cut down my writing and re­ 'To wit, a fair number of the 'Our motivation in organizing search time. pros whose names feature prominently this thing is varied. We are inter­ in our convention brochures, pointed ested in contributing to the legit­ jt Thanks to all who sent cards and out that they never had any inten­ imacy of science fiction studies kind words this Christmas -- I do en­ tion of attending the Congress. Con­ joy and appreciate them. LETTERS CONTINUED ON P. 67 66 LETTERS CONTINUED FROM P. 66 cover as much as possible of the sf/ SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #35 Inter­ fantasy field for the newest-genera­ views with Fred Saberhagen and Don tion of fans and enthusiasts, with Wollheim; "The Way It Is" by Barry within Israeli academic institutions. an accent on the visual media. Malzberg; "Noise Level" by John We feel that this will be good pub­ William P. Marks, publisher, Brunner; "Coming Apart at the lic relations for the country, in writes that Hania Wojtcwicz is now Themes" by Bob Shaw. that many who are exposed to it editor. only through the media can witness Single copy price: $2.00. first-hand the reality of Israel SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #36 Inter­ Miriad Productions, 61 Warner Av., view with Roger Zelazny; A Profile and not just the shit that comes ov­ Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M4A 1Z5. er the tubes. And finally let's not of Philip K. Dick by Charles Platt; forget that this whole shebang was "Outside the Whale" by Christopher suggested in the first place by KADATH Vol. 1, No.4—July 1981. Priest; "Science Fiction and Polit­ some of those very people who now go Devoted to weird and fantast fic­ ical Economy" by Mack Reynolds; In­ blank at its mention. Be assured tion, this special, limited edition terview with Robert A. Heinlein; that we're not in it for the money magazine in an English edition, is "You Got No Friends in This World" nor for our health. It's kind of published in Italy. by Orson Scott Card. difficult making a living here and Excellent artwork, with text the hours are a little rougher than contributions from Manly Wade Well- what many Americans are used to, an, H. Warner Munn, Darrell Schweit­ and what with the army, reserve du­ zer, Frances Garfield and Mike $1.50 per copy from #37 onward ty and the normal hassles of stock­ Ashley. The Jim Pitts cover is ing the pantry, you can be sure that really fine work, full-color, on SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #37 Inter­ organizing Jerucon means going with­ very heavy gloss stock. view with Robert Anton Wilson; out certain other things. KADATH is a highly collectible "We're Coming Through the Window!" by Barry N. Malzberg; "Inside the 'On the other hand, I would like item. $4. single copy. From: Kadath Press Whale" by Jack'Williamson, Jerry to thank especially Jaqueline Lich­ Poumelle, and Jack Chalker; "Uni­ tenberg, Cherry Weiner, Forrest Ack­ Francesco Cova, Corso Aurelio Saffi 5/9, ties in Digression" by Orson Scott erman, Robert Adams, Marty Cantor, Card. Janice Gelb and Ed Bryant for their 16128 Genova, ITALY. help, consideration and enthusiasm SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #38 Inter­ during my stay in Colorado. It was view with Jack Williamson; "The a pleasure meeting you folks. Next Engines of the Night" by Barry N. year in Jerusalem, eh?' INDEX TO THE SCIENCE FICTION MAGA­ Malzberg; "A String of Days" by ZINES—19/9 is available for $4.50 Gregory Benford; "The Alien Inva­ by mail. Compiled by Jerry Boyajian sion" by Larry Niven; "Noise Level" and Kenneth R. Johnson, it covers all SMALL PRESS NOTES CONT. FROM P. W by John Brunner;. SF News by Elton the prozines, including DESTINIES, 6 Elliott. GALILEO. It lists fiction, nonfic­ THE SPACEGAMER, December '81. tion, editorials. It has an author SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #39 Inter­ If you're not aware of it and are index and an artist index. "into" sf5 fantasy games, SPACEGAM­ view with Gene Wolfe; "The Engines Also available is a 1980 Index, of the Night"-Part Two by Barry N. ER is available. Articles, reviews, and listed as becoming available letters, news, etc. about gaming. Malzberg; "The Nuke Standard" by in January, 1982 is the 1981 Index. Ian Watson; "The Vivisector" by Available from The Space Gamer, All $4.50 by mail. POB 18805, Austin, TX 78760. $2.50 Darrell Schweitzer; SF News by Send to: Twaci Press, POB 87, Elton Elliott. for a single copy. MIT Branch P.O., Cambridge, MA 02139. This is a well done special in­ terest zine, professionally set up. SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #40 Inter- STARMONT READER'S GUIDE #7: view with Robert Sheckley; 4-way SF AND FANTASY WORKSHOP Sept. 1981. THEODORE STURGEON conversation: Arthur C. Clarke, A monthly news and writing-tips/ By Lahna Diskin Harlan Ellison, Fritz Leiber 6 instruction letter. Good how-to bits Cover by Stephen Fabian Mark Wells; "The Engines of the and mini interview (from the writer's Why would 'a reader' pay $3.95 Night"-Part Three by Barry N. angle) of James Gunn. This could be for this slim 72-page, half-size Malzberg; Darrell Schweitzer; a great help to beginning sf writers. book? SF News by Elton T. Elliott $10 brings membership in SF § FANTASY If the hypothetical reader has WORKSHOP and a sub to the newslett­ a fan of Sturgeon's and wanted to er which is published monthly. Oth­ know everything possible about his SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #41 Space er Workshop activities are mentioned. favorite author. He'd get a life­ Shuttle Report by Clifford R. Mc­ Send to: 8125 S.W. 21st Street, chronology from 1918--birth, to 1978 Murray; "Chuck's Latest Bucket" by Topeka, KS 66615. ---published VISIONS AND VENTURERS. David Gerrold; Interview with Mi­ Editorial Director: Alan R. Bechtold; He'd get an analysis of Sturgeon's chael Whelan; "The Bloodshot Eye" Asst. Director: Kathleen Woodbury. major works, a bibliography of the by Gene DeWeese; "The Vivisector" author's fiction, his nonfiction, by Darrell Schweitzer; SF News by and a listing of books which con­ Elton T. Elliott. MIRIAD #0, #5 is devoted to the tain substantial conmentary on visual end of the sf-fantasy spec­ Sturgeon's writing. Plus an Index. trum—movies, the visuals magazin­ And he'd get a backcover list­ es like HEAVY METAL, and the art­ ing of the eight other Reader's ists and creators of these visuals. Guides to other well known sf and Professionally done, slick pap­ fantasy authors, and of the 42 oth­ er, full-color covers... photos, er titles in preparation. portfolios, and also some serious Starmont House, Mercer Island, analysis and opinion. Tarai reviews Washington 98040. fanzines... MIRIAD is a very nice attempt to 67 THE ALIEN CRITIC #9 "Reading SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #23 Inter­ BACK ISSUES Heinlein Subjectively" by Alexei views: A.E. van Vogt, and Jack and Cory Panshin; "Written to a Vance, and Piers Anthony; "The Pulp!" by Sam Merwin, Jr.; "Noise Silverberg That Was" by Robert Level" by John Brunner; "The Shav­ Silverberg. THE ALIEN CRITIC er Papers" by Richard S. Shaver. SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #24 Inter­ NO OTHER BACK ISSUES ARE THE ALIEN CRITIC #10 Interview views: Bob Shaw, David G. Hartwell AVAILABLE with Stanislaw Lem; "A Nest of and Algis Budrys; "On Being a Bit $1.25 per copy Strange and V.'onderful Birds" by of a Legend" by Algis Budrys. Sam Merwin, Jr.; Robert Bloch's EACH ISSUE CONTAINS MANY REVIEWS Guest of Honor speech; The Hein­ SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #25 Inter­ EACH ISSUE CONTAINS LETTERS FROM lein Reaction. views with George Scithers, Poul WELL-KNOWN SF & FANTASY WRITERS, Anderson and Ursula K. Le Guin; EDITORS, PUBLISHERS AND FANS. SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #14 Inter­ "Flying Saucers and the Stymie view with Philip Jose Farmer; Factor" by Ray Palmer; ONE INMORTAL THE FOLLOWING LISTINGS ARE OF "Thoughts on Logan's Run" by Will­ MAN--Part One. FEATURED CONTRIBUTIONS iam F. Nolan; "The Gimlet Eye" by John Gustafson. SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #26 Inter­ views with Gordon R. 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