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Home , Alan Dean Foster, Algis Budrys, Darrell Schweitzer, Dean Ing, Engines (book), Fragmentary novel

SCIENCE FICTION SPRING T>T7T TTU'TXr number 46 1983 Xvj!i V X Jli W $2.00 INTERVIEW: JOHN SLADEK PROFILE: REVIEW (ISSN; 003^8377) P.O. BOX 11408 Formerly THE CRITIC PORTLAND, OR 97211 FEBRUARY^ 1983 - VOL. 12^ NO. 1 PHONE: (503) 282-0381 WHOLE NUMBER 46

RICHARD E. GEIS—editor & publisher PAULETTE MINARE', ASSOCIATE EDITOR (DVER BY STEPHE]^ FABIAN

PUBLISHED QUARTERLY TEN YEARS AGO IN SF FEB.., MAY., AUG.. NOV. BY ROBERT SABELLA.36 ALIEN THOUGHTS SINGLE COPY - $2.00 BY THE EDITOR.4 THE VIVISECTOR BY DARRELL SCHWEITZER.37 THE LAST VKTORIAN A POEM BY STEVE ENG. .5 Sim PRESS MAGAZINES REVIEWS BY DARRELL SCHWEITZER....42 (HANGE INTERIOR ART- A POEM BY BLAKE SOUTHFORK.. .7 RAISING HACKLES TiM KIRK—2.4.29.60.63 BY ELTON T. ELLIOTT.47 A^^s„5iuLiU ^ " INTERVIEW: JOHN SLADEK CONDUCTED BY , ..8 LETTERS.49 BRUCe"CONKLIN-7 JOHN MILLER GIUSEPPE MANGONI-8 TEH YEARS AGO IN SF LARRY NIVEN JAMES MCQUADE 14.48 BY RCBERT SABELLA... .14 DARRELL SCHWEITZER DAVID TRANSUE 16.17.19.27 ATOM—20.21.47.58 ED ROM ARNOLD M. FENNER GEORGE KOCHELL—^.42.46.52.54.59.62 TRADERS OF THE WORST BARK R. REGINALD ALLEN KOSZOWSKI—^4 BY .14 BRAD W. FOSTER-26 JOHN HARLLEE OLE PETTERSON-40 ALEXANDER-44 ONCE OVER LIGKTLY RAYMOND H. ALLARD-49 BOOK REVIEWS BY GENE DEWEESE.15 RICH BROWN MIKE GILBERT-57 BRUCE GILLESPIE -59 NEAL WILGUS TAD MARKHAM-61 HOW 1^ TO WRITE SCIENCE FICTION JEAN WEBBER BY .18 MARK H. CAMPOS ELTON T. ELLIOTT

PROFILE: LARRY NIVEN BY CHARLES PLATT.21 Sm PRESS NOTES BY THE EDITOR.60 NO ADVERTISING WILL BE ACCEPTED OTHER VOICES BOOK REVIEWS BY ALIEN CONCLUSIONS Second Class Postage Paid JOHN SHIRLEY BY THE EDITOR.63 at Portland, OR 97208 ELTON T. ELLIOTT MARK WILLARD ALUEN VARNEY Copyright (c) 1983 by Richard E. DEAN R. LAMBE Geis. One-time rights only have G.B. CHAMBERLAIN been acquired from signed or cred¬ JOHN DIPRETE ited contributors, and all other ANDREW ANDREWS rights are hereby assigned to the PAUL MCGUIRE contributors.

SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW is published THE ARCHIVES at 1525 N.E. Ainsworth, Portland, BOOKS RECEIVED WITH COMMENTARY OR 97211 AND OCCASIONAL REVIEWS.29 POSTMASTER: Send address changes to SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW, STANDING BY JERICHO FOB 11408, BY STEVE GALLAGHER.35 Portland, OR 97211

'Because you are one of the im¬ ALIEN THOUGHTS portant opinion leaders in field of science fiction, we were asked by Mr. L. Ron Hubbard to seek your ad¬ BY THE EDITOR M vice in making known his new Sci¬ ence Fiction Book, BATTLEFIELD EARTH, which is arriving in all major bookstores now by their de-

# CHICON IV SENT ^E MY HUGO AT LAST 'During these first days of I was beginning to think Mike publication, the book is becoming Glyer had shot the horses and burned a runaway best seller. It has al¬ the stagecoach in which it was journ¬ ready gained for the author the eying from there to here. But Will¬ Golden Scroll Award of Merit.' iam Leininger sent it parcel post, Fred goes on to say that BAT¬ and for over $5. the postal service TLEFIELD EARTH is on its 3rd house put it on a fast train...1 think. printing in as many weeks, and It's a most handsome Hugo, I he asserts that the is spear¬ must say, and gleams with an im¬ heading a new drive to bring mil¬ pressive phallic glow of polished lions of new readers "into the Sci¬ nickel in spaceship form. ence Fiction Field." So, therefore, Thanks again to all who nominat¬ it "pays every SF fan and author to ed me and voted for me. I'll humbly get behind it." try to gag you all to the max with Sure. We get behind it and brilliant and wise fan writing now push the $24 book and L.Ron Hub¬ and in the . bard gets the profit. Has anyone ever heard of the Golden Scroll Award of Merit? does in the U.S.A. She enclosed If anyone wishes to give Mr. a one-page synopsis of two proposed Harris advice, the address of # GL£ANINGS FROM PLBUSHERS WEEKLY stories about two young women who AUTHOR SERVICES, INC. is; I subscribed in November and re¬ travel in time and "get out of the 6464 Sunset Blvd., Suite 900, ceived my first copy in early Decem¬ most incredible fixes." Hollywood, CA 90028. ber. Here are some items of inter¬ Not enclosed was any return Oh, I notice on an accompanying est to sf readers and writers. postage. brochure that the Golden Scroll A- I cannot respond to this kind # 'Pocket Books president Ron ward of Merit was awarded by the of amateur. These types ask one Busch charged that pressure by "au¬ Academ of Science Fiction and Hor¬ to perform, gratis, time-consiming thors, agents, paper sheiks, whole¬ ror. Interesting name. Real Holly¬ salers and retailers" has led to a tasks which can and should be per¬ wood thinking. formed by the amateur; there are critical situation for mass market publishers.' writers magazines which specialize in market reports, addresses, etc. 'In the last year, he noted, # I HAVE RAILED MIGHTILY AGAINST four of the 12 mass market publish¬ This young woman got SFR's ad¬ free verse in Small Press Notes ing companies have either disappear¬ dress SOTiewhere and decided to let this issue, and from that you ed or been absorbed by larger firms. me do her work for her. might think I'd never, ever publish "In the next six months," Busch pre¬ From the skill-level and word- any of that stuff in SFR. However, dicted, "at least one more house and choices in her synopses, I'd say I admire vivid writing, bizarre possibly three will be gone." she hasn't a prayer of selling her imagery, wild thinking that somehow [Word of mouth is that those stories to anyone. just might make sense if approached three are Dell, Avon, and possibly All editors and publishers re¬ just so.... Signet/NAL.] 12-3-82 ceive Dumb Letters from Dumb Ama¬ So, in this issue, and in sub¬ teurs. Professional writers receive sequent issues, you'll stumble # William P. McGivem, long-time their share of letters from un¬ across some surrealistic free verse pulp writer and lately known best thinking, Dumb Amateurs if the by a local poet/madman name of as a mystery/detective writer, dies pro is unfortunate enough to have Blake Southfork. Make of it what of cancer November 18, 1982 at his his address known to the general you will. home in Palm Desert, CA. He was 60. public. It's a hazard of the I knew him best for his 1940s trade. A certain amount of this and 1950s sf stories. 12-3-82 sort of thing goes with the terri¬ tory. A SHORT INTERVIEW WITH ALTER EGO I choose to swear and curse and "Hi, Geis." not respond. *Gasp!* Who said that? § An announcement from John and I do respond to Smart Amateurs, "Me, Alter. Your long lost mind- Beatrice Alexandra Shirley arrived however, who are considerate. mate." announcing the birth of their twins, *Shudder* W-what are you doing two boys; BYRON JOHN and PERRY FRAN¬ back in my mind? CIS. Bom the morning of September # AUTHOR SERVICES SENTSFRA PUFF "Uimm, just visiting. Slumming. 14, 1982 in Ollioules, France. package promoting L. Ron Hubbard's Wondering what you've been up to." Congratulations John and Bea¬ monster-size new sf novel, BATTLE¬ I've been happy while you've trice. FIELD EARTH. Their letterhead is been gone. Alter. Let's keep it iiipressively embossed and gilt on that way, please. # Received a letter from an Ameri" heavy tan paper. Fred M. Harris "Oh, don't worry. I've found a can woman in Italy vdio wishes to addresses SFR thus: far, far better mind to stay with. know if I publish science fiction I was just...curious. I sort of and if not, who [addresses please] 4 miss the old synapse collection. You have the oddest synapses, Gels. Errr... thanks, I think. "They bring a good price on the THE LAST VICTORIAN: STANTON A. COBLENTZ used synapse niarket, by the way. (Aug. 24, 1896 - Sept. 6, 1982) And yours are unique--sort of half- He was an Atlantean seer decades ago baked on one side and underfired In "science fiction," though he'd not yet heard the word: on the other, and a lovely purple In poetry his would flow in color. Quite striking." Uhhh. Who are you tormenting Ecstatic toward the stars. A stellar, lyric bird. Then...Armageddon's shadow seemed to grow now? Any body I know? And cloud his verse. He warned-but was unheard. "No. 1 can tell you 1 was in your cat, Kookie, for a few weeks. But -Steve Eng that was just for rest and recuper¬ ation. I had a ball tickling her little brain into constantly jump¬ ing up on your desk and sitting ex¬ off the System--like the thousands actly on the copy you were typing, cocoon till—about 15 or 16 years of age? of psychologists, psychiatrists and or smack on the book or manuscript That's the theory. That's the therapists, extra police, etc.) is you were reading." Aha! 1 wondered- New Liberal Morality. A precious terrified their con game will be ex¬ "And I loved bugging Elton when he golden age of security and fun and posed. They exert tremendous effort visited you by trying to leap onto innocence before they have to face in laying Guilt Trips on society. his lap for a fine deposit of cat the cold cruel world. hairs. Pity he kept pushing me a- This says volumes about the Lib¬ More than one psychiatrist/psy¬ way." eral and Christian psyche. chologist [not sucking the teat of Elton reads cat minds. Some govt./juvenile services] has observ¬ people's minds, too. It also helps that whole govern¬ ed that all the interventions and "Well, I did it so often with Koo¬ ment departments, millions of people, "Oh, my God, what has been done to kie I divine now she's kept it up are required to monitor society, you!" treatment by The System does all this time since I left her." seek out children who are deprived more harm to the child than an un¬ Thanks a lot! of this nirvana, spend billions disturbed, unnoticed abuse, and of¬ "My pure pleasure. See you around, helping them, punishing those guilty ten traumatizes and marks and warps Geis. Got to get back to my un¬ of depriving the precious children of the adult/parents involved as well their unwritten right to a golden- knowing host.” to a degree beyond that of a family age, and constantly publicizing the Can't you give me a hint who dustup or divorce over the matter. "molestation" and "abuse" uncovered In essence, the Liberal do-good¬ in order to alert children of their "Welllll... It's...he's a very ers are in the business of detroy- "rights" and to alert (and instruct) influential man. But I don't think ing lives in order to save them, in neurotic and psychotic adults in the I'll stay with him too much longer. order to assure continuation of their I'm getting so I hate the taste of self-punishments and inspired crime. salaries and status. jellybeans." All the publicity and uproar ov¬ er cases of child abuse is mostly The truth is that there is al¬ the Liberals, the professional bleed¬ ways going to be some incest, some ing hearts, the government employees beating of children-a certain involved, seeking to convince society number of cases which society must SEXUAL FREEDOM IS A MYTH, OF COURSE, their jobs and services are necess¬ handle. Society always has done so, in the true sense, because underly¬ ary and of value. All the TV-movies in the past, and always will. Rela¬ ing the surface of tolerance among and documentaries and features in tives intervened, the church inter- Liberals lies the old, unrepentant newspapers and magazines acconplish sex-is-sin, sex-is-evil Christian is more unenforceable laws, the attitudes which have stained Europ¬ desired discovery of more work [and ean and American civilization from the hiring of more social workers, the beginning. more salary increases]. There are always impulses and The children are in fact (under trends toward greater sexual freedom the pious words and crocodile tears) and rationality, but the results are being shamelessly exploited by a always warped and distorted by the class of college-educated parasites sick Christian anti-sex morality who have a vested interest in creat¬ that permeates our society and cul¬ ing a need for their services. ture. They have to maintain those The Liberals use these anti-sex precious case loads. They have to attitudes and feelings (unconscious¬ have child abuse cases! And under ly) to buttress and assist their all the piety and cant lies a vicious drives for power and control and self interest in "processing" child¬ enpires. ren and adult "offenders" in an end¬ They have made *C*H*I*L*D'*R'‘E*N* less series of hearings, judgements, especially the vehicle for their treatments, foster hones, etc., which need to control society and promote require an endless series of reports, their class wealth. Children are to conferences, meetings, appearances, be protected from all experience or trips, sessions, testimony.... This knowledge of adult sex. Children whole apparantus, from the Juvenile must be protected from violence of Court judges on down to the file all kinds. Children especially must clerks (to say nothing of the pro¬ be protected from work and the cold fessions who are used by and covert¬ realities of adult life. Somehow, ly and nakedly support and grow fat children are supposed to live in a soft, warm, insulated, protected possible by the acquiring or pro¬ cult fiction would most likely turn cessing of materials or vegetation to such books as The Exorcist and from the ground. That is primary. the V.C. Andrews trilogy, with all Otherwise we'd be a nation of hairy their explicit sex and violence, to primates living by picking each satisfy their curiosity. In 'Dark other free of lice and twigs and Forces,' we've created stories as fleas. [But even in that society suspenseful and terrifying as their somebody would have to dig up roots adult counterparts but have elimated and catch fish and kill animals once the more suggestive aspects." in a while.] If these books were aimed at The higher the technological civilization, the greater the ex¬ adults who were expected to buy them ploitation and use of raw materials for their teenage sons and daughters, and vegetation, the greater the I could understand the no-sex dic- surpluses which can be enjoyed. tun, but these are aimed at teenagers It's too bad those surpluses themselves---the same teenagers who are stolen fran the producers by crowd into movies to see excessive vened, the police intervened. There (in the beginning) priesthoods, sex 8 violence horror/occult films. were [still are] private organiza¬ and later by overlords, govern¬ And who have read THE EXORCIST, the tions which aid battered and abused ments and bureaucracies. Andrews trilogy, the King . children. All these parasite classes use Why should the kids buy toned- lies and manipulation and force to down, de-sexed novels once they've What we didn't have in 1882, read and seen the adult level occult say, was a vast array of highly paid keep themselves in power. We have always had these bloodsuckers and material? These Bantam middle-class hypocrites, or self- books will be about teeners involved we always will. That is the pattern, deluded, self-serving do-gooders in the occult, and that identifica¬ on the public payroll raanufacturing the structures, the nature of man in the mass. tion factor might help, but... work for theraselves. And stretching The unspoken calculation here, The individual man [and woman!] out and over-processing that work. I think, is that these novels are ex¬ can see these mechanisms, patterns, They are all very conscientious in pected to sell mostly to teenage assuring everyone involved the full structures, and either minimize their harm to him, or use them to his ad¬ girls, who might not relish the protection of rights---from the child stronger stuff. And in fact the vantage. to the parents, requiring, again, covers of these four books show endless paperwork, hearings, visits, A little government is necessary; a lot of it is a racket. The govern¬ teenage girls as the main figure, conferences... either as witch/sorceress or as vic- ment rackets are worse than the Mafia This vast overlay of protective because at least the Mafia provides government is a scam to employ and services and products some people The publisher/editors are will¬ keep employed the vast armies of want and are willing to pay for. ing to risk the wrath of the funda¬ college graduates which have been mentalist religious groups on the churned out of the education syst¬ *SIGH* This is a long way from matter of leading girls and boys to em [another self-serving, hypocriti¬ what I started out to write, which the devil, but not in the matter of cal scam designed to feed off the was a short editorial on the new realistic sex. taxpayer] since the en d of World DARK FORCES series to be issued by There you have a naked example War II Bantam beginning March 1, 1983. of our morality/value system in com¬ The release says: mercial publishing. Sex is still This Child Protection racket is anathema for children. Adults have "'Dark Forces," a new fiction only one of the scams in operation, so many sexual hangups and sexual series dealing with the supernatur¬ of course. Women and Wife protec¬ unhappiness and frustration (partly al for readers ages 12-up, will be tion is another classic case, along because of sexual curiosity and with protecting against Racism, Dis¬ launched in early 1983 with the pub¬ crimination, Environmental Protec¬ lication of four titles. Each of tion. ... Welfare is the biggest the $1.95 paperbacks focuses on employer of middle class college teenage boys and girls tempted into graduates, I imagine. the unknown and often evil world of All these huge numbers of govern¬ the occult, bringing sinister conse¬ ment employees, and the "progressive" quences. They become trapped by the programs they serve and protect, are forces they release. mostly the creatures of surpluses 'The four launch titles are THE created by the industrial revolu¬ GAME by Les Logan, MAGIC SHOW by tion and the post-WWII boom in Ameri¬ Laurie Bridges and Paul Alexander, ca and Europe. THE DOLL by Rex Sparger and DEVIL As the boom continues to wither WIND by Laurie Bridges and Paul and die, the surpluses will shrink, Alexander. Among the subjects ex¬ the armies of social servants will plored in the series are sorcery, have to be cut back more and more. , witchcraft and communion It is fashionable to say that with evil powers. Four more "Dark we are now a service economy, and Forces" titles will be published in that basic smokestack industires are July. old-hat, old-fashioned, and not re¬ "'Booksellers tell us that teen¬ quired anymore. agers make up the largest single group buying books on the occult and the supernatural," reports Ron Bullshit. All wealth comes from Buehl, Vice President and Editorial the ground. ALL WEALTH OlffiS FROl Director/Books for Young Readers. THE GROUND. Our food, our shelter, "Until now, teens interested in oc¬ our energy comes from or is made 6 frustration and lies imposed on them AFTERTHOUGHT: I'm a bit disturbed as children) that they unwittingly that as a result of the last few contribute to the perpetuation of years' feminist activism and Liber¬ that children-must-be-innocent-of- al propaganda, men have been paint¬ THE sex wish/rule imposed by sex-fearing, ed as the primary evil in tiiis soci¬ sex-is-power religious forces. ety, and probably in the world. CORPORATION The exploitation of sex in our It is men who iTtostly abuse chil¬ society even extends to the despica¬ dren. It is men who rape and beat ble carrot-on-a-stick technique, us¬ wives. It is men vd.o do 99% of the STRIKES BACK ed by all the media and collaborated crime. It is men who lead countries with by the religionists — another into wars. It is men who love girnis. A NEW EROTIC SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL scam, another racket. They wash It is men who seem to love combat BY RICHARD E. GEIS and seek solutions in violence. each others' hands to keep sex front THE STAR WHORES SAGA CONTINUES— and center—just out of reach. That The inplicit message is how nice Toi King, Sex Guild Companion, is way they all make money or power off and perfect the world would be were kipnapped by the corporation she it. They need each other. it not for MEN! frustrated in STAR WHORES. Taken 1 don't condemn Bantam in this. And males, especially in this to Phallus, the pleasure planet, They're only trying to make a buck country, are loaded with guilt and injected with a new, powerful sex by giving a reader group what they humiliation for wanting sex! Why, hope that reader group will buy. men are the new niggers. And there drug, enslaved, she must make her Bantam didn't make the rules. The is nothing worse than being a young, escape and seek a terrible revenge. goes to those who best under¬ black, heterosexual man. stand the reality of what's going And I wonder if this state of on and who best use that understanding. belief/propaganda isn't inherently askew from a well-integrated soci¬ Christ, I'm sounding a lot like ety? Is advanced, high-tech civili¬ an idealist! I slip into that hor¬ zation structurally hostile to the rible mode of thinking occasionally. instinctual needs/nature of mascu¬ I usually climb out and reassert my linity? Are males best suited for healthy cynicism and realism. I a 1850s society and culture than a do not really oppose or want to 2050s world? change The Way Things Are, or want If true, then the space frontier to alter Human Nature. Therein is a critical necessity for mankind. lies battering your head against Because it is quite possible that un¬ stone walls and self-righteousness less society makes room for mascu¬ and the-end-justifies-the-means and line drives and needs and recognizes in-the-public-interest thinking. and admires masculine traits, those Before you know it you're into this- traits will be genetically engineered is-for-your-own-good thinking. out of the species "for the good of society". And, ironically, it will I'll leave for others the be men who will do the job on the implications of the fact that ap¬ species, trying to eliminate those parently teenagers are the largest 10% who are misfits, sociopaths, single group who buy books on the etc. in future generations. occult and the supernatural. Are The only other possibility is an they also buying a lot of ? eventual worldwide disaster [or slow Does this signify a flight from devolution of technology] which would bring the survival value of the real world, science, the de¬ pression? basic masculine nature to the fore.

CHANGE 19 COPIES LEFT. $4.00 per copy

Change sits on a wheel - ever brooding - ever staring out across the river bright of tiny gondolas ORDER FROM: huddled next to huge gray looming battleships. SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW Change sits on a veranda silently pirouetting - looking P.O. BOX 11408 out across the fields of broken clay and molten lava PORTLAND, OR 97211 splashed mauve, crimson and vermilion littered with bones, a broken axe, a spent missile. Change lolls in the meadow breathing the sweet pungent air listening to the soft chirping, twitter of swallows # THE PROBLEM IS RELATIVE VALUES swooping and diving across the glade, while nearby a group of shirtless men haul two large oblong rectangles into to SFR readers, of reviews of say 25 position. books as opposed to a listing/review/ Change leans against a tree while the quiet of the glade is notes/comments combination as I'm shattered, extirpated by crowds of mental lepers yelling ill- resuming [after years] in SFR this understood dirges. issue, of over 100 books. Change smiles under skies once blue then magenta, Whether it's better to have re¬ now blue again. views of a relative few books, or

—BLAKE SOUTHFORK alien THOUGHTS IS CONTINUED IN "alien conclusions" on page 63 "People have laughed at all great inventors and discoverers," John Slad- ek points out. "They laughed at Gal¬ ileo, at Edison's light bulb and even at nitrous oxide.” In SF novels he hijiiself has invented a world-dominat¬ ing mechanical horde, a man tragical¬ ly converted to computer tape, a naive who's lynched when mis¬ taken for a black. And what was the callous world's response? That's right. They laughed. John Sladek was bom in Iowa in 1937, that year which is the futuris¬ tic goal of a time-traveler in his lunatic story "1937 A.D.!" After studying first mechanical engineer¬ ing and then English literature at the University of Minnesota, he went on to "take up the series of jobs which usually characterize writers and other malcontents -- short-order cook, technical writer, railroad switchman, cowboy. President of the United States." He left the U.S.A. to spend thne lurking in Morocco, Spain and Austria, alarming the peas¬ antry with his strange habit of writ¬ ing. Since 1966 he has lived in Lon¬ don and acquired a steadily swelling reputation as an SF author who -- and this is rare -- not only produces stimulating and intelligent SF but can be hilariously or cruelly funny while doing so. Which is why they laughed. His first published story was "The Poets of Millgrove, Iowa" CNEW WORLDS, 19663; the even earlier "The Happy Breed" appeared in Harlan El¬ lison's C1967). His SF novels are THE REPRODUCTIVE SYSTEM (1968 -- known as MECHASM in the U.S.A.), THE MULLER-FOKKER EF¬ FECT (1970) and RODERICK (1980). A sequel to the latter, RODERICK AT RANDOI, is due from Granada in Janu¬ ary, 1983, and a further novel TIK- TOK from either Granada or Corgi. There have been three collections of his short stories: THE STEAM-DRIVEN BOY AND OTHER STRANGERS (1973), KEEP THE GIRAFFE BURNING (1977) and THE

INTERVIEWED BY DAVID LANGFORD BEST OF JOHN SLADEK (U.S.A. only, SLADEK: I started writing, or rather, they expected it to be like anything 1981, comprising most of the contents thinking, stories as a child, and at else. SF has at least the advantage of the previous two). Another col¬ that time the reason was very clear. of not depending on preconceptions. lection, ALIEN ACCDUNTS, was releas¬ Kids vdio read a lot come up against In a science fiction story, anything ed by Granada in June 1982, shortly the disheartening fact that every can happen. God can walk in halfway after this interview was conducted. story ends. They can try re-reading through and erase the universe and re¬ He has also written Gothic novels the same story or they can read more place it with 30-second coninercial under the name Knye: THE stories in the same series or by the for Singapore Airlines. Or the world CASTLE AND THE KEY (1966) and THE same author. Or they can just read turns out to be nothing but a big do¬ HOUSE THAT FEAR BUILT (with Thomas M. other things and hope that by some ner kebab, and we're the salmonella. Disch, 1967). BLACK ALICE (1968) is magic they'll pick up the narrative Why am I telling you this? You must a satirical thriller, again written thread again. When all of these have read some science fiction your¬ with Disch, which first appeared in stratagems fail, there's nothing to self. You know this is true. the U.S.A. under the pseudonym Thom do but continue the story yourself, Demijohn. The solo novels BLACK AURA or else give up reading altogether SFR: Yes, but -- (1974) and INVISIBLE GREEN (1977) are and try some healthier hobby like skillful recreations of the no-long- smashing telephones. We didn't have SLADEK: Anything can happen in SF. er fashionable "locked-room" detect¬ a phone when I was a kid, and I was And the fact that nothing ever does ive story; an earlier in too shy to smash any public phones, happen in SF is only due to the pov¬ this vein, "By an Unknown Hand," won and our town didn't have a pool hall erty of our imaginations, we who the 1972 TIMES detective story comp¬ either, so I had to hang out at the write it or edit it or read it. But etition. Perhaps the best of Slad- public library -- and anyway, I told SF can in principle deal with anything. ek's non-SF writings is THE NEW APO¬ myself stories. There was a contin¬ Of course, that leads people CRYPHA (1973), which along with Mart¬ uing bedtime saga in which I was the into the error of believing that SF in Gardner's FADS AND FALLACIES IN hero in whatever I'd been reading has all the answers, that it's a pre¬ THE NAME OF SCIENCE belongs on the lately, Dave Dawson with the RAF or scriptive or predictive. They want shelf of anyone sceptical of today's the Hardy Boys or the Oz books -- to use it to get a peek at the way irrational cults and beliefs. His it all got blended into the main sa¬ the world really will be or really alter ego "James Vogh" has meanwhile ga, continued from night to night. ought to be. Very dangerous, because written books which the author of the predictions of SF are almost al¬ THE NEW APOCRYPHA might have handled SFR: Is it merely force of habit ways too sijiple-minded. It's not severely: ARACHNE RISING (1977 -- which keeps the -- outwardly -- ad¬ futurology -- though futurology is too THE THIRTEENTH ZODIAC in the UK) -- ult Sladek writing? simple-minded too -- and it's not a and THE COSMIC FACTOR (1978). recipe book for cooking up tomorrows. SLADEK: Nowadays why I write is To my mind, the best SF addresses it¬ In 1968-9 he co-edited a poetry conplicated by a lot of factors hav¬ self to problems of the here and now, magazine with Pamela Zoline: RONALD ing nothing to do with writing, such or even to problems which have never REAGAN, THE MAGAZINE OF POETRY. as the need to earn a living and find¬ been solved and never will be solved ("We may revive it.") In 1982 he was ing out that I'm constitutionally un- -- I'm thinking of Philip K. Dick's co-guest of honor with Angela Carter suited for working an honest job. work here, dealing with questions of at the British National Easter SF There are probably a lot of deep psy¬ reality, for example. Suppose one Convention, "Channelcon" in Bright¬ chological drives too, such as the were to tackle one of his themes in a on. (He has since been revived.) Freudian need to impress the neigh¬ conventional novel, the question of bors (Freud called it keeping up with Something of the feel of reading the reality of other people. Do Ernest Jones), the Oedipal urge to Sladek was expressed by the serious other people have thoughts and feel¬ use a lot of carbon paper, the deep- and critical SF journal, FOUNDATION'S ings as I do? In a conventional nov¬ seated need to earn millions and be¬ el, the question can only be tackled football critic not long ago: "And come a household name, like Harold that brilliant header, from a man who by having a mad or a philo¬ Robbins or or for that sopher, or a mad philosopher, in the is so good above the shoulders that matter Flash. he scarcely needs to use his feet at story. But there has to be a frame¬ all, sends the ball sailing between work of conventional reality, a world I, and I suppose SF fans in the posts!" SFR: full of real people enveloping this general, think of you as primarily local madness. In most conventional Back in the changing room ... a science fiction household name. novels, God is not allowed to be nuts. Do these same deep-seated urges drive We are nuts allowed to be God. you to write SF in particular? SFR: They have to content themselves SLADEK: Not guilty. Oh, all right. with being interviewers. Having quiz¬ I do write a little SF in my spare zed you on why you write SF, I'd be SFR: John, I have a long-standing time. I have a kind of standard ex¬ interested to hear why you don't -- grudge against you. Have you ever planation why, which goes like this: whether, that is, you think there's considered what trouble you caused Science fiction is one way of making any significance in your wide spec¬ young people called Langford, as they sense out of a senseless world. I trum of activity. Gothics, crime, asked partially-deaf librarians for think people are often bewildered by cultism on both sides of the fence the world they find themselves in, the title, THE MULLER-FOKKER EFFECT? between bunk and debunk, parodies, where Russia puts up a special satel¬ "mainstream" fiction -- ^ many S1_/\DEK: Young persons have no busi¬ lite to watch the Falkland Islands writers stick not only with a genre ness reading such a book, which con¬ War, while in Britain the Queen Moth¬ but in their own small niche inside. tains sex, violence and anagrams. I er visits a meat market and is given a 40-pound slab of beef. Today I think I can speak for the moral major¬ SLADEK: I guess basically I wanted ity here when I assure you that we turned on the radio to hear scxne re¬ to make ten million dollars a min¬ are doing our best to prevent such cipes for water flea, a delicacy of ute and also see W.H. Sinith filled tonorrow. Anyway, people find them¬ problems by closing all libraries. with nothing but ray books in every selves in this world, and they say category: SF, crime, romance. West¬ "It's like science fiction," as though SFR: But just for now, you're a ern, biography, astrology, non-fic¬ writer. Why? What makes you write? 9 tion, cookery, car repair manuals. ortlnancc survey maps, crossword puz¬ writing locked-room mysteries like tween books, so a further collabora¬ zles. those. SF has much more glamour and tion looks unlikely for some time. glitter attached to it, in these high- The whole idea of genre fic¬ tion makes a lot of sense if you hap¬ tech days. SFR: Since we've strayed towards the beginning of your career, per¬ pen to be running a book supermarket and you need to know whether a given SFR: At least you've never seemed to haps you have words to say about those gothics, as by "Cassandra Knye?" book should be shelved with tlic tooth¬ be a starving author. Your career paste or the tinned veg. But 1 don't started with quite a splash in 1966-8: Tongue-in-cheek, or deeply-felt works think of m) self as a genre writer and two solo and two collaborated (with of stark emotional power? I don't see why any writer should. Tom Disch) novels, plus your first N'obody expects the reader to confine short SF stories. Does Disch have a SLADEK: Help! The gothics again! Will they never give me peace? No, himself to one department all his lot to answer for? life; he can read James Joyce and I see the grave-earth moving, the Barbara Cartland and Zanc Grey and SLADEK: He was really responsible withered hand of Cassandra Knye claw¬ for getting me started in SF. To be¬ Agatha Christie as well as Ray Brad¬ ing back to the surface ... a wither¬ gin with, we collaborated on a few ed cheek with a hideous black tongue bury, so why shouldn't the writer stories, silly stuff like "The Dis¬ still in it ... have the same freedom of choice? covery of the Nullitron" (GALAXY, And as it turns out, the writer does 1966). On the strength of our sel¬ Deeply-felt works of stark emo¬ have. He can move from being tinned SFR: ling these, he persuaded his agent to tional power, then. Undoubtedly Ms. carrots to become a frozen rissole. Knye's favorite novels are UDOLPHO He can even decide to go out of the take on my own fiction. He also told and THE CASTLE OF OTRANTO. But what supermarket altogether and write me about all those professional writ¬ books and authors does Mr. Sladek something available only in discern¬ ing tricks like typing on one side of most enjoy? ing delicatessens, i.e., in old-fash¬ the paper, and he criticized stories ioned bookstores. I'm thinking here that I read aloud to him. Tlien we of Donald Barthelme and Harry Math¬ collaborated on a Gothic and BLACK SLADEK: % t°P forty? I suspect the ALICE. These early collaborations list would be longer than that and would seem odd, mostly because I couldn't stop to explain why I like each writer. Even then, much of it probably resembles the lists of ev¬ eryone else (or of English class syl¬ labuses); for instance, my favorite book is ULYSSES and my list would no doubt include Swift, Fielding, Sterne, Dickens and George Eliot, Hawthorne, Melville and Poe. So let me just mention at random a few people on my list who might not turn up everywhere. Ring Lardner, G.K. Chesterton, 0. Hen¬ ry, Nathaniel West, John Barth, Don¬ ald Barthelme, William Gaddis, Harry Mathews, Bernard Malamud, Vance Bour- jailly, George P. Elliott, Djuna Bar¬ nes, Joe Orton, Tom Stoppard, Kenneth Koch, Robert Coover, Vladimir Nabo¬ kov, Angus Wilson, Terry Southern, Evel^ Waugh, Flann O'Brien -- to mention only writers in English. The ews, for example; Samuel Beckett is not only helped finance my start as problem and privilege we all have is seldom seen in the supermarket either. a full-time writer, they gave me the being alive in this century and able confidence to carry on. I've been to read this language. It makes any SFR: What about the barriers within writing full-time ever since. list meaningless except the list of the supermarket? once an illiterate. told me he'd use a pseudonym should SFR: BLACK ALICE is rather a disting¬ he write outside the SF genre, since uished thriller, with some very Disch his SF connections might be harmful and some very Sladek bits. How did SFR: Some of my own favorites there, especially Chesterton and O'Brien. outside the ghetto wall. Might your you go about the collaboration? You don't mention any specifically own detective novels, say, have suf¬ SF authors, though. fered thus? SLADEK: We wrote BLACK ALICE like SLADEK: So far as SF goes, I am an this: Tom had the main idea. We illiterate; my list of favorites discussed and agreed upon a out¬ SLADEK: I think these days an SF ccanes down to Tom Disch, Philip K. connection would be a boost to other line. I wrote a rough draft. Tom Dick and half-a-dozen others. I books; I'm sure more people have read wrote a second draft. We then arg¬ haven't read much, and am not au cour- my two little detective puzzles be¬ ued and argued, each trying to pre¬ amt with what's in the magazines. cause of the SF connection. Those serve his own favorite characters and TRTs is mainly because I spend a lot two novels suffered mainly from being lines, and finally the book came out of time writing and so don't have written about 50 years after the bigger than planned. much time to read; I hate to waste fashion for puzzles of detection. that time reading what may turn out I enjoyed writing them, planning the SFR: Might you repeat the perform¬ to be junk food for the mind, when absurd crimes and clues, but I found ance some day? there's so much real writing to be I was turning out a product the super¬ read. market didn't need any more -- stove SLADEK: Tom and I are never in the same long enough and both be¬ polish or yellow cakes of laund:^' SFR: Do any of your favorite authors soap. One could starve very quickly 10 exert a sinister, creeping influence over your own work? SFR: Clute also makes some critical SLADEK: And J.L. Borgus wrote, "Ac¬ play with your being a "lapsed Cath¬ cording to Bloy, we are the versicles SLADEK: whatever I'm reading at the olic"; and Michael Frayn once wrote or words or letters of a magic book, moment seems to influence whatever of "the tone of voice, hard to des¬ and that incessant book is the only I'm writing. I found some time ago cribe yet curiously distinctive, thing in the world; or rather, it is that I have to be careful, while which sounds through a great many of the world." working on a novel, what I read. the English Catholic writers. Perhaps People may notice the influence of I think scientists also share it is a certain intellectual perverse¬ Joseph Heller in "Masterson and the in that peculiar vision of the world ness." Considering that there's a Clerks" or of William Gaddis in ROD¬ as a book. There's Fred [loyle's idea thread of compulsive intellectual ERICK. Recently I've been reading of clouds of n'iA or bacteria or some¬ doodling (ciphers, anagrams, palin¬ Angela Carter and John Cheever, so I thing floating around in space and dromes, acrostics, endless word and suppose my work will soon have clouds now and then starting life on a plan¬ number games) running through your of purple perfume or else exhilerat- et like ours -- so the DNA code would work, I can't help wondering whether ing sunlight on suburban lawns, or be written across the universe (in you think there might be some connec¬ something. all the margins of the book). tion? SFR; Whereas much current SF would SFR: You have me there: I'm a Well, of course it would be merely afflict you with rotten gram¬ SLADEK: lapsed physicist. Still on the sub¬ swell to be bracketed with Graham mar. Disregarding all these influences, ject of your own incessant books -- Greene and Chesterton and Evelyn which of your own books do you like let's not sit round being impartial. Waugh (I draw the line at Belloc). best? One of the SF novels, presum¬ I think THE REPRODUCTIVE SYSTEM, UtE But I'm not even English. In .Ameri¬ ably. MULLER-FOKKER EFFECT and RODERICK ca, I think, Roman Catholicism tends are fine SF books which stand up to to be more Protestant, populist, rereading, and I'm looking forward sweaty and anti-intellectual. Nfore to the further Sladek books promised. SLADEK: Roderick -- the completed in the tone of STUDS LONIGAN (by Now besides the Midwestern setting story. I usually like whatever I've recently best. Just as a parent prefers a new baby or a Def¬ ence Department prefers the new im¬ proved missile with extra warheads and teletext and an optional 5-year service warranty.

SR: The "complete" RODERICK being the published book RODERICK plus its sequel, provisionally titled RODER¬ ICK AT LARGE?

SLADEK: Tile second volume is now called RODERICK AT RANDOM; I'm hop¬ ing to sell a few copies to any Smol¬ lett scholars who happen to be buy¬ ing books in a hurry.

SFR: That famous scourge of the writ¬ ing classes, , suggests that a couple of keys to what makes you tick are to be found in your up¬ and word/numberplay we've discussed, James T. Farrell) than say THE MAN bringing, in the American Midwest. your SF novels have more in common: WHO WAS THURSDAY or Scobie in Greene's Certainly, though you've lived in they're very funny and satirical THE HEART OF THE MATTER or the chap since 1966, your SF novels about U.S. life and everything else, in BRIDESHEAD REVISITED. I'm trying have tended to be set in the Midwest they have large casts of characters, to see how my being a "lapsed" Cath¬ and to satirize it mercilessly. Is they involve several narrative lines olic relates to my being a compulsive this a matter of convenience or of intellectual doodle dandy, if I am chopped into many short scenes -- deep significance? more complexity. Does it just hap¬ either. Whence the ciphers and ana¬ pen that you haven't yet cojne to grams, I don't know. SLADEK: I always figure I can have write an SF novel where you'd find the Midwest one way or the other. One connection might be that a "straightforward" continuous nar¬ Because it's my background, it ought in general. Catholics () rative appropriate? to be a voice that comes easily. I behave as though the world were one could argue that I know fairly well enormous cipher text in which every¬ SLADEK: I guess it's the influence how Midwesterners speak and think. thing means something -- but only to of Dickens again, but once I think But if that turns out not to be true, God or Fate. Catholic writers cons¬ of a comic character I find I have if I'm mythicizing the place, that's tantly have characters struggling to get them into the novel one way fine too. Well-realized mythical against their fates, or trying to di¬ or another. The narrative line of places are hard enough to come by, vine the meaning of their lives, usu¬ TIK-TOK looks fairly straight so so I win again. I am planning some¬ ally failing. far -- but I haven't finished fid¬ day to set a novel, or at least a dling with it yet. short story, in Albania. All I know SFR: Science fiction, you said ear¬ of Albania is that Americans aren't lier, is a way of making sense out SFR: Another long-running Sladek allowed to go there and that it once of a senseless world ... theme is our danger of growing less had a King Zog; the rest can be made human than our machines. (That word up. It'll probably come out looking you coined in the story "The Brass exactly like the American Midwest. 11 Monkey" speaks volumes: robotomized.) In RDDERIOC there's an obvious and SFR: A masterpiece of the softsell. powerful contrast between the very human machine Roderick and the nomin¬ SLADEK: No, actually it's a cover ally human characters whose minds run blurb for CATCH-22 I saw about 20 in more mechanical grooves than his. years ago and memorized. I knew it "Automata conditioned by conscdousness would come in handy. programs," as Ian Watson likes to say of everyone but him. SFR: Well, can you reveal anything about your next novel TIK-TOK -- S1_/\[)EK: It's an idea that our cent¬ also 1 understand, featuring ? ury seems to have taken up as a touch¬ stone for other social and psycholog¬ SLADEK: Yes, TIK-TOK is about a ro¬ ical worries: the idea of people act¬ bot, but not a nice robot like Roder¬ ing like machines acting like people ick. In fact, Tik-Tok is bad. That certainly appealed to the Dadaists, is about all I can say now, except to for instance. Duchamp took it pretty mention that it's a story of war and far before he retired from painting peace, of sons and lovers, of mice to play chess. And there's always and men. a mixture of comedy and terror in the idea, as in Ambrose Bierce's "Moxon's SFR: And after that? Master," the chessplaying robot who rebels. I suppose the idea bites SLADEK: I'm still finishing TIK-TOK. deep into the psychological mechanism After that, a book provisionally cal¬ by which humans recognize other hum¬ led MAPS. It will be something be¬ ans, babies recognizing faces and tween a novel and a set of linked so on. Now we know that theoretical¬ stories, but the linkages are going ly we can fool that mechanism with to be fairly complex, with stories artificial people, and that knowledge inside stories, stories conqjletely has to affect the way we think about permeating one another, a character ourselves. Many of the old defini¬ in one story turning into, say, an tions of "human" are no longer so event or a place in another --in sal of them. But do you find that, clear. other words, the notion of mpping as someone said, it's only possible is going to predominate. If all to write good parodies of authors you SFR: "A featherless biped" certainly this sounds vague and confusing, it admire? fits Roderick ... I liked touches is because I'm still vague and con¬ such as his attenpts to create Art, fused about it -- and will be until SLADEK: I don't admire all the auth¬ little meaningless purple squares I start work on it. ors 1 parody equally, and usually which later prove identical with the what 1 admire about them doesn't come works of a highly regarded conceptual SFR: This brings us with suspicious into the parody. For instance, Rob¬ artist. neatness to short fiction. I've no¬ ert Heinlein has written stories of ticed that some favorites among your paranoia, beautifully sustained and SLADEK: There's a touching argument own stories don't seem to have made slowly articulated -- like "They." that people used to use against the it into Sladek collections ... So it's easier to parody his other idea of artificial people, namely stuff, naturally. that a machine will never be able to SLADEK: Most publishers seem very My deep admiration for Ray paint like Velasquez. But the world reluctant to publish short story col¬ Bradbury, Philip K. Dick and J.G. is full of real people who couldn't lections at all; they bring them out Ballard must show, I think. paint the Rokeby Venus, either. They in paperback, often disguised as nov¬ may lack originality or talent, or els. SFR: Yes -- though perhaps not the they may happen to lead unfortunate funniest, those are definitely the lives cut off from beauty, lives whol¬ SFR: Specifically, I was thinking best parodies. ly constrained and mechanical. of "Masterson and the Qerks," your office epic, which gets an admiring SFR; To quote one of your own auto¬ SLADEK: Some of the others are ob¬ thumbs-up in the ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF SF viously less careful. The Wells par¬ biographical snippets; "I feel I yet hasn't been collected; I had to ought to do my part in helping mach¬ ody -- "Pemberly's Start-Afresh Cal¬ dig it out of an old NEW WORLDS. liope" -- isn't a parody at all, real¬ ines take over the arts and sciences, Will it and more of your uncollected ly, just a silly leaving us with plenty of leisure stories appear in the forthcoming I'm not sure I could do any more ... time for important things, like ex¬ ALIEN ACCOUNTS, or will this book tracting square roots and figuring feature more new tales? pay rolls." SFR: Silly science leads to THE NEW Since the sequel to RODERICK SLADEK: The stories in ALIEN ACCOUNT ATOCRYPHA, subtitled "a guide to is almost upon us, have you anything are all used, or as they say of cars strange sciences and occult beliefs" to say about it here? (Apart from the nowadays, pre-owned. They are all ... where you put the boot into num¬ jsual "Buy it! Act without thinking!") stories of office life, beginning wit erous weirdo cults, UFOs, perpetual "Masterson and the Clerks." motion machines, ancient astronauts, the lot. 1 gather SFR: Your parodies of other SF auth¬ talked you into writing this one, ors (in THE STEAM-DRIVEN BOY) have following your dismissals of McLuhan, SLADEK: I don't want to seem to attracted some praise -- good fun and von Daniken etcetera, in 1960s issues hype the book. Let's just say it is often worthwhile criticism into the of NEW WORLDS? the story of a group of happy-go- bargain. For example, the Asimov lucky flyboys on their tight little spoof is a imich more entertaining as¬ SLADEK: Moorcock was actually going Mediterranean island. It's the story sault on the Laws of Robotics than to do the book, or at least some of war and peace, love and lust, Stanislaw Lem's rather boring dismis- book on irrational beliefs under beauty and the beast within all men. 12 that title. But he got busy or tired of it, and turned the title and some establishing a mystical thirteenth and out fall copies of OMNI and a sources Ca starter set) over to me. zodiacal sign, for exanple, with reas¬ Carl Sagan book (it falls open to In no time at all I was buried far oning somewhat better than that of the well-thumbed page with the Pion¬ too deep in it. See, I have no journ¬ the average von Daniken in the street. eer 10 drawing). Then of course, he alism in my background, so I wasn't Were these books conceived as serious goes to an analyst who shows him pic¬ practiced at research or writing non¬ and devout contributions to astrol¬ tures of asteroids and gives him fiction, nor at handling the truth in ogical lore? painful shocks. But nothing works. a journalistic way. Journalists know Finally he just puts on his green when to call a halt and write some¬ SLADEK: The James Vogh books, ARACH- pointed ears and goes to the super¬ thing, but I kept on looking for an¬ NE RISING and THE COSMIC FACTOR, were market -- and nobody notices! They swers . conceived as jokes, but very quickly treat him just like a real ! turned into moneymaking enterprises. SFR: ■Rie hero of your BUCK AURA Only they didn't make a lot of money, SFR: I'™ speechless. (Long pause.) observes that it's just as dangerous either. So finally they turn out to Thank you, Nhoj Kedals of Mars. and fanatical to disbelieve all have been a gigantic waste of time. A*********************************** strange phenomena as it is to fall Except that I can say that I invented for them all. Is that more or less or discovered the lost 13th sign of your own view; and did you approach the zodiac. the cult material with, perhaps, the hope that some of these loonies might SFR: Ah, yes, the sign Arachne (May have found something worthy of be¬ 13 to June 9). Were you bom under lief? it, by any chance? ALIEN ACCOUNTS By John Sladek SLADEK: Yes, I did, but it was a SLADEK: No, I was bom in either Granada, 1982, 202 pp., LI.95 vain hope. I especially hoped para¬ October or December, depending on psychology would turn up something, whether you believe the hospital re¬ REVIEWED BY DAVE LANGFORD because much of it looked like good cords or records -- the science being done by good scient¬ two don't agree. Each Sladek collection moves fur¬ ists. But all I found were murky ex¬ ther from anything that can be called periments, self-deception and fraud. SFR: From hospitals it's a natural standard SF. This, his third, will step to SF conventions (or vice baffle readers with a deep-seated SFR: So in the end you came down versa). Having just been joint guest need for mighty spaceships and black hard on just about everything. of honor at the 33rd British Easter- holes -- its appeal is to those who con this year, how do you regard the agree with the Aldiss dictum that SF SLADEK: The sources, with their im¬ teeming hordes of SF fans? I assume is at its best when on the point of penetrable prose and lack of humor, from the evil leer you constantly turning into something else. With didn't make it any easier. In reac¬ wore in the bar that it wasn't that bizarre and highly literate wit, Sla¬ tion, I probably was more sarcastic horrid an experience. dek puts the faceless forces of Kaf¬ to some of them than I needed to be. ka's CASTLE or TRIAL in the proper Anyway I seemed to spend years on SLADEK: Leer? That was some kind of modem setting -- office life -- and that book, always finding more I had rictus brought on by the strychnine makes them not only sinister but fun¬ to read. The occult explosion was flavoring in the lager (vdiich reaches ny. the parts no one even wants to reach). on, too, with more stuff happening Forms are more important than There was anyway only one teeming every week. The year or so after what's described by them, as the hero horde, and it didn't teem all that the book came out, we had Uri Geller, of "Name (Please Print)" learns when much. There seemed to be a lot of Koestler's coincidence theories, the his are lost; "Anxietal Register B" SAS-type military people about, and Berlitz triangle and so on. The book is a quintessential form which devel¬ they did teem a bit, but everyone could probably use a new expanded ed¬ ops into a kind of do-it-yourself hor- else gallantly pretended not to no¬ ition, but I'm reluctant to undertake or story ("If you are merely reading tice. It was altogether not a bad this form, why do you believe that tores-midi d'un Fan. A lot like you have not been asked to fill it wnat I imagine a good class SFR: Pity. Wasn't a snippet cut out?"). Closest to familiar SF are to be. from the paperback TNA, though, be- blackly funny tales which let real cause somebody complained? people run riot in the interstices of SFR: But as well as mingling with a Gemsbackian vision of future wond¬ SLADEK: The Scientologists sued me fans, you're one of the relatively ers ("198-, a Tale of 'Tranorrow'") or for libel because I had quoted an few authors who in addition to some send up the self-deception of psychic SF genre success can, well, "pass" in article from QUEEN magazine without researchers and debunkers ("Scenes the world of Serious Mainstream Lit¬ realizing that they had successfully from the Country of the Blind"). sued for libel over that. So in lieu erary Worth -- magazines like BANAN¬ of damages, they got to alter the AS, AMBIT and so on ... Two-thirds of the collection is section on Scientology in the Brit¬ taken up by the longest "office" ish paperback edition -- much in the SLADEK: Well, of course, this inter¬ tales. "Masterson and the Qerks" way vets alter tomcats. view is going to blow all that. is the sort of piece to make review¬ People who thought I was straight ers put straws in their hair and ten¬ SFR: I si^pose you must have had a will now realize I go in for "SP' as tatively scrawl, "If Kafka had writ¬ vast anguished response to that book. we call it. ten CATCH-22 with an office setting You make it sound as though I ..." The most opaque and unconprom- SLADEK: Yes. Most letters agreed am this writer whom everybody thinks isingly non-SF item here, it seems a poor choice for opening story, yet with me that all these subjects were is straight until one day his wife it does grow on you and is ultimately a conplete waste of time -- however, comes home and finds him standing be¬ rather touching, besides causing many there was this one subject that was fore the mirror wearing a silver suit a smile en route. Closing the book not at all.... and a glass helmet. He makes some is "The Communicants", a mini-novel feeble excuse about a costume party, whose crazed zigzaggery resembles SFR: More recently, you've been hav¬ but then she opens his desk drawer ing a go at the other side of the that of the brilliant THE MULLER- case with your "James Vogh" books -- 13 FOKKER EFFECT. Drum Inc. is in the communications business; it and all employees have weird and hilarious comnunication problems, floundering LETTER FROM JOHN BRUNNER in the gap between names and things, BRUNNER FACT & FICTION. LTD 'PS: Barkis was called Bar¬ saying and meaning, their own make- The Square House, Palmer Street kis before we got him because his believe and Sladek's (one chap ampu¬ South Petherton mother is Peggotty and Barkis is tates all his limbs one by one in a Somerset TA13 5DB. willing. Domino is called after succession of "cries for help" which July 25, 1982 Domino Harbor in Labrador because is hideously funny), the bottom line 'We have a new dog called she i_s a Labrador, and Vrisketai always being the alarming paradox: Barkis. Today, when I took him, ("she is found" in Greek) because "There seems to be no difference at Domino and Vrisketai for the reg¬ she was found: a starving little all between the message of maximum ular Sunday morning walk I had a Welsh collie who is now fat, old content (or maximum ambiguity) and bad fit of logogriphy. (Don't and allergic to something that the message of zero content (noise)." ask! It means the compulsion to makes her chew out her hair by There's a good deal (but not ;^o much) create anagrams, apparently, and jawfulls every summer. Poor content in this 72-page story, which is most often applied to people beast! -- JKHB' alone is worth the price of admission. who go in for Scrabble competi¬ A couple of slight pieces round the tions: logogriphists!) collection out to eight stories. I love Sladek's inventive wit, TRADERS OF THE WORST BARK his gift for parody, his flattering assumption that the reader is intel¬ BY John Brunner ligent -- so many authors feel each The story so far: joke should be underlined twice and preceded by a man carrying a red flag. SIRA. B.ARKIS, KB, receives a This cuts both ways, and sometimes I BRISK note from a native letter-writ¬ find myself metaphorically ducking er, or SKRIAB, in SRI BAK, informing in alarm at the whiz of some little him that S.K. BAIR -- a keen sunbath- piece of cleverness going over my er, or BASKIR -- has gone BASIRK aft¬ head. All the same: recommended. er eating BRAKSI mutton, and vanished ************************************ into the great cane-forest known as the BRAIKS. Since Bair was his ARK- SIB, i.e. shared a locker with him at the 'varsity, this IRKS BA, as he is known. He consults BAKIRS Travel Serv¬ ice, who book him on a ship belonging to SIRK AB of Sweden, the BISKRA (Captain B. SKIRA commanding). On board he makes friends with A.B. RIKS (hello, sailor!). Arriving in SARBIK, he goes to the police house, or BARIKS, where sinister Inspector TEN YEARS AGO IN SF — FALL. 1972 KRAIBS says Bair should have travel¬ BY RCBERT SABELLA ed by any means BAR SKI. Later, dining at the RIB SAK, a The rush to memorialize John Camp¬ fast-food joint run by the enigmatic bell was on. Conde' Nast announced RABSKI, off smoked herring (KIBARS), the John W. Cajipbell Award to be giv¬ seafood stew (KRABIS) and a delicacy en to the best new writer as voted by the attendees each year at the . Illinois Institute of Tech¬ BIR, KRIS AB tells him he thinks Bair nology announced the John W. Campbell was kidnapped by a motorcycle gang, Memorial Award to be given for the the BIKARS, who mistook him for a rev¬ best original novel each year. It would be voted on by a panel of five enue agent or I.R. SKAB. judges, including both writers and A voice says, "KAB, SIR? Com' academics ... Roger Elwood began so¬ viz me to ze KIS BAR!" Recognizing liciting submissions for a reported the dancer BRISKA from BAKRI'S Thea¬ 42 original anthologies he was edit¬ tre of the ABSIRK, who performs to ing. Hardly a week passed by without an old record of SBARKI and His Magic his announcing a new title ... Sing¬ Piano, he realizes he's in a terrible er David Bowie released THE RISE AND SKRAIB, but not wanting to seem to B FALL OF ZIGGY STARDUST AND THE SPID¬ SKAIRed simply answers, "No, I'm BAR ERS FROM MARS, a fully-realized con¬ SIK just now, but my friend's last cept album with a strong science fic¬ words were ASK BRI -- what do you tional theme. It received strong know about all this?" So she advises reviews, even being selected by TIME him to go to BIR SKA in North Africa, MAGAZINE as one of the best albums where Bair used to toss KABIRS. Sud¬ of the year ... Avon Books announced denly he notices Ris pointing a gun. they would publish NEW WORLDS as a "BAK, RIS!" he shouts. "BAK, SIR!" paperback ... The November issue of Too late. A shot rings out. "IS FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION contained KARB!" moans the dying girl, and he "The Meeting", a new collaboration sets out for IKBAR'S to find out who by C.M. Kombluth and , KARB IS. Now read on. And on. And 14 years after Kombluth's death. MINDKILLER BOOK REVIEWS BY GENE DEWEESE By Spider Robinson Holt, Rinehart and Winston, $14.50 REVIEWED BY GENE DEWEESE On the other hand, 2010 is not 2010: ODYSSEY TVO so much a sequel to the original Two seemingly unrelated stor¬ By Arthur C. Clarke book, which was in many ways super¬ ies, both beginning with unsucces¬ Ballantine/DelRey, $14.95 ior to the movie, but a sequel to sful suicide attempts, one in 1994 and a explanation of the movie. and the other in 1999, are inter¬ REVIEWED BY GENE DEWEESE Unfortunately, many of these ex¬ cut until they blend into one. The elements are kidnapping, mind For my money, Arthur C. planations already existed in the book, 2001,,though not always in control, international conspiracy Clarke has written two of the and a reluctant hero aided by the three most memorable science fic¬ the same form. In 2010, some are simply expanded upon or modified emotionally stunted young woman tion stories of any length; "Res¬ whose life he saved and the super¬ cue Party" and "Childhood End." slightly, such as the reasons for HAL'S turning against the crew. computer setup whose origin is (The third is 's lost in one of the many blank spots "Nightfall.") And all of his fic¬ Others, however, are in effect, downgraded. The monoliths, for in his memory. The style is well- tion, from "A Fall of Nbondust" done best-seller adventure and in¬ through "" to instance, are treated in a much more down-to-earth way in 2010. trigue with dollops of well-integ¬ "Fountains of Paradise," is liber¬ rated and largely necessary-to-the- ally sprinkled with that same, The biggest comedown, however, was in the nature of the Star Child, plot sex. The settings are a de¬ spine-tingling sense of wonder generating, end-of-the-century New that made me read his first nov¬ the creature into which Bowman was transformed at the end of 2001. York and a relatively safe and sane el , AGAINST THE FAI.L OF NIQIT at Halifax and surrounding Nova Scot¬ least three times and buy, over In the original book -- and to some extent in the movie -- the ia countryside. The result is the years, at least a half dozen Star Child was cosmically spine- very grabby, almost nonstop sus¬ copies of it and the later, expand¬ pense of the kind all too often ed version, CITY AND THE STARS. tingling, a harbinger of the next, unknowable quantum leap in human missing from "straight" science 2010 also has its share of evolution. In 2010, however, the fiction, combined with the sort of that same sense of wonder, which transformed Bowman is no longer a surprises that, while not unusual means that it is one of the dozen god-like Star Child but an all too in SF, are very unusual and unex¬ or so most enjoyable SF books of human energy creature who is lit¬ pected in best-seller intrigue the year. Even so, it is in some tle more than an observer for his novels. ways disappointing, not only be¬ still inconprehensible masters be¬ cause it doesn't live up to the yond the Star Gate. Similarly, exorbitant advance publicity but their purpose, compared to what because it doesn't measure up to was only hinted at in the original Clarke's best. book, is though a bit mind-bog¬ gling, all too cut and dried. On the plus side, as Carl Sa¬ DAGGER OF THE MIND gan says on the dust jacket, it is Still, for those who have on¬ a "daring romp through the solar ly seen the movie (and were perhaps By Bob Shaw system." Clarke shows us a vari¬ confused by its ambiguities), 2010 Ace, Paperback, $2.25 ety of wonders, both real and im¬ is an excellent way to clear up agined, and the picture of a fut¬ that confusion while being taken on John Redpath is the subject ure of cooperation in space be¬ a fascinating tour of the post-Voy- in an all-too-successful experi¬ tween the U.S. and Russia is real¬ ager solar system. Just to play it ment in drug-induced , or istically optimistic. There is safe, though, don't read 2001 maybe he's just going crazy. life not only tens of thousands of first. Either way, he's having horrendous miles down in the maelstrom of Jup¬ visions of skinned people, houses iter's atmosphere but beneath the with stomachs that are trying to ice of Europa. eat him, and the murder (by Red- path himself), of a girl friend. The Star Gate, still orbiting In the end, things are explained Jupiter, opens once again and in a suitably science fictional something -- not quite the David way having to do with gestalt minds Bowman who vanished there nearly a and aliens, and along tne way decade before -- emerges to carry Shaw shows us his usual interest¬ out the wishes of its new masters ing assortment of troubled, unhap¬ and, in the end, give a cryptic py characters. The visions do go warning to the expedition that has on a bit too long, however, after finally come to the Jovian system everyone knows they're nothing but to find out what happened to the visions. Even so, it's an enjoy¬ original expedition in 2001. The able few hours that would have lobotomized HAL is even revived been even more enjoyable with and (I think) given a soul. 15 twenty or thirty fewer pages. THE FIRES OF PARATIME , FIRST LENSMANy puters and hence into the recon¬ By L.E. Ntodesitt, Jr. GALACTIC PATROL, GRAY LENSMAN., structed humans and their , Paperback, $2.95 SECOND STAGE LENSMAN^ CHILDREN OF "Defenders." Williamson, s top THE LENS writer for more than fifty years, has managed to combine the sense By "diving through undertime," Berkley, Paperback, $2.50 each. members of the immortal Temporal of wonder of his old-time space operas witli modem psychological Guard of the planet Query can roam at will throughout most of the With epic space battles, end¬ realism and he's done it far more past two million years and much of less intergalactic heroics and vil¬ successfully and satisfyingly than, the galaxy. Query, however, has lainy and staunchly cardboard char¬ for instance, Frederik Pohl did no science of its own and produces acters galore, these six novels, in a few years ago. nothing. Instead, it lives para- originally published more than sitically, using what the timediv- thirty years ago, range across ers can buy or steal from other most of our universe, past and fu¬ civilizations, past and present. ture, and a couple more besides. In a way, the Lensman series serv¬ And if any civilization appears NOR CRYSTAL TEARS to be a threat, it can be destroy¬ ed as a prototype for all subse¬ ed by the timedivers before it ev¬ quent space operas, a sort of su¬ By Alan Dean Foster en comes into existence. per , and if you're in Ballantine/DelRey, Paperbk, $2.75 the mood for that sort of thing, THE FIRES OF PARATIME tells of they're great fun. A first-contact novel told en¬ one young Guard who slowly, if not tirely from the aliens' viewpoint, These are, by the way, pretty all that convincingly, learns the IJOR CRYSTAL TEARS tells of the cheap reissues. They didn't even true nature of the Guard, and with first, accidental meeting between bother to change the footnotes re¬ his own growing and almost godlike humans and the insect-like Thranx. ferring to previous books. They powers, sets out to destroy its in¬ The civilization and psychology of still refer to the Pyramid editions fluence. The cosmic concepts are the Thranx are explored in detail, instead of their own ... often fascinating, the action fast, including their ingrained fear of and the prose sometimes chilling mammals, those strange and terrify¬ if a bit purple, such as when the ing creatures who literally wear narrator speaks of the "winds of their bodies outside their skele¬ change ... that howl down the cor¬ tons. The story never bogs down ridors of time." In short, it in the background, however, or probably wouldn't hold up to a rig¬ slows down enough to get dull as orous logical or literary analysis a small group of humans and Thranx but it's a lot of fun. take daring chances to overcome the shortsighted reservations of their governments and establish a meaningful contact between the two space-traveling races. In fact, EARIHCHILD if the book has a fault, it's an By Sharon Webb overuse of dramatic coincidence, Athaieuni, $11.95 but that's a minor quibble about this excellent prequel to Foster's In the not-too-distant future, equally excellent, "Tar-Aiym- the government secretly puts some¬ Krang" series. thing in the water and food that makes everyone below 17 ijimortal MANSEED but has no affect on anyone else. When adults begin slaughtering By children out of jealousy, fanatic¬ Ballantine/DelRey, $10.95 FEVRE DREAM ism, etc., the children are taken By George R.R. Martin In the not-too-distant future to isolated encampments where they Poseidon Press, $14.95 can be raised and trained in safe¬ the genetic information necessa^ to reproduce human life is fed in¬ ty. A hundred years later, howev¬ Vampires, long-lived and with to the computers of thousands of er, it has become apparent that tremendous strength and recupera¬ "seedships", which are launched in the "spark of genius" invariably tive powers, are a separate race hopes that a few will survive the vanishes with the coming of inmort- that has always coexisted with hu¬ journey to other stars and will ality, and the possibility of giv¬ mans, using them as cattle to sat¬ find unoccupied worlds on which ing a few gifted children the op¬ isfy their recurrent and irresis¬ to take root and grow. A million tion to forego the inmortality tible "red thirst." Only a score years later, one of the ships, its treatment is being considered. The or so still survive, and one has memory damaged by a micrometeor¬ first of a trilogy, EARIHCHILD is learned how to conquer that thirst. ite, comes to a planet on which seen through the eyes of a budding In partnership with a riverboat an advanced civilization once ex¬ musician who gives up his nusic to captain he searches for the others isted but on which thousands of be trained for leadership in the new in order to share his knowledge, years ago, all animal life outside world. The early chapters, with which would eventually enable them the oceans was obliterated. The their disturbing pictures of par¬ to live in harmony with humans, struggle to survive is conplicat- ents turning against children, but their leader, their bloodmast- ed not only by the fear that the work better than the later ones, er, is dangerously insane and will destroyers will return but even in which the "utopian" new world have none of it. Filled with rich more by the fact that all too many and its problems are shown. Still characters and almost continous of the mental and emotional weak¬ it is all well wrritten and often suspense, FEVRE DREAM is for at nesses of the conputer’s original gripping, and the loose ends will least the first 200 pages, the builders have seeped into the com¬ presumably be tied up in later vol- best vaitpire novel I've read, and 16 Martin's recreation of the 1850s along the Mississippi is the equal CREEPSHCW, though, there was one of the best historical novels. final scene with erupting cock¬ The only problem is that the story roaches I could have done without, turns overly melodramatic now and but that's a relatively minor quib¬ then, especially near the end, but ble.) even so, it kept me up till 5:00 As for predictability, I've a.m. to finish it. seen my share of horror movies, and both INCUBUS and THE SENDER kept me guessing, even after the final scene, which I suppose is why the critics complained about a lack of clarity. Since what ■mE VENETIAN COURT kills most horror movies, however, By Charles L. Harness is all too much clarity and pred¬ Ballantine/DelRey, Paperback, $2.25 ictability, these were, for me, refreshing changes. In this somewhat surreal pic¬ ture of the 21st Century, patent THE SENDER is perhaps the most infringement is a capital offense original, involving a projective with no appeal, and ninety percent telepath who has no control over of all inventions are being churn¬ his talent and involuntarily drags ed out by Faust, a super computer people into his own nightmares. whose own inventor has mysterious¬ It also contains a number of in¬ ly disappeared and whose new owners terestingly weird crazies in the appear to be out to take over the asylum he is taken to after his in¬ world. Then there's the judge pre¬ itial suicide attempt fails. One, siding over the patent infringe¬ for instance, is convinced he's ment case around which the story Christ and is quite offended by revolves, Rex "Spider" Geyer, who hints that the new arrival may can only get his creative juices himself be Christ. flowing in order to write a long INCUBUS is a bit more stand¬ overdue legal opinion by sentenc¬ ard, taking the incubus idea ing someone to death. (During law straight out of mythology, in¬ school, he got himself "up" for cluding its appearance and pur¬ exams by killing rats in the lab in pose. Its human identity, however, which he worked.) Harness, a pat¬ and some of the clinical problems ent attorney himself, has come up of being raped by a demon weren't with a fast-moving and entertain¬ all that expected, at least not ing mixture of Perry Mason court by me. And the acting in both is room action, wild adventure and a cut above average, as well it biting satire. MOVIE REVIEWS should be with people like John Cassavetes and John Ireland. CREEPSHaVy INCUBUS AND THE SENDER Parts of CREEPSHOW, on the After taking a chance on these other hand, are very, very pred¬ SIDESHOW three despite almost universally ictable, particularly to anyone By Mike Resnick negative reviews. I've begun to who ever read EC Comics way back Signet, Paperback, $2.50 wonder if, in passing up other hor¬ when, but in four of the five stor¬ ror movies because they've been ies it doesn't make a lot of dif¬ A galaxy-spanning bureaucrat¬ panned by critics, I'm not missing ference. I mean, who could fault a ic travel agency routinely uses a some good things. Had I listened story that has a gruesomely rot¬ carnival freak show as a cover for to the reviewers in these three ting corpse climb out of its grave its alien tour groups on Earth. cases, I certainly would have. and stomp around killing people while croaking loudly, "I want my During one of the tours, however, What's particularly irritat¬ a crooked human camy operator cake!" Or one that has a Scrooge- ing in the case of INCUBUS and like tycoon threaten to fire who¬ steals the freak show, takes it on THE SENDER is that tliese same crit¬ tour, and eventually manages to ever let an unauthorized person ics usually spend their time com¬ get his private phone number, and make a profitable deal for him¬ plaining about how simple-minded self with the alien bureaucracy. then, idien he learns that the of¬ and predictable and graphically fender is the caller's husband, The idea is interesting, the char¬ gory the usual horror movies are, acters -- alien and human alike -- who died only hours earlier, shrug while here they complained about and smile in satisfaction. Or well developed, and the grungy ambiguity and a lack of satisfac¬ carnival background is vivid. Un¬ one that has a murderous monster tory explanations. Not only that, take the crate from which he was fortunately, the camy owner, as they made the movies sound as if seen through the eyes of the nar¬ just released and shove it back un¬ they were filled with slashing and der the stairs where it had been rator, a put-upon hunchback, is so severing and all the rest, while insensitive and obnoxious that hav¬ kept for 140 years and then crawl in reality there was hardly a sing¬ back inside, not to wait for more ing him start to show signs of le such on-camera scene in either synpathy and humanity rather than victims but because it felt more movie. True, a lot of gore is be¬ at home under the stairs. In having him wiped out is, though ing generated just out of camera believable enough, not all that short, it did exactly what it set range, particularly in INCUBUS, out to do, i.e., to have a lot of satisfying. Still, I'm looking and bloody floors and sheets a- forward to the next in the series gruesome fun and to literally put bound, but the acts themselves an EC-type comic book on the when the camy operator apparently are, thankfully, never shown. (In will take his show on the galactic road. 17 HOW liQI TO WRITE SCIENCE FICTION

BY RICHARD WILSON

I take my text from page 16 of book reviewer in DISCOVER Magazine I know how they work. At the time I that newly definitive work entitled spelling Grosset 8 Dunlap with two wrote, the senior wire service report¬ "Asimov on Science Fiction", the 1982 t's. Every Tom Swift reader knows er ended the press conference by say¬ Avon edition: "In science fiction better! ing, "Thank you, Mr. President," you not only must know your science, Enough of that. The science fic¬ whereupon he and his colleagues but you must also have a rational tion magazines have literate editors, dashed to the press room, picked up notion as to how to ynodify or extrap¬ it seems to me -- though I have bones direct-line telephones to their of¬ olate that science." This horrifies to pick with a couple of big semi- fices and cried, "Bulletin," or as me and 1 have to voice a minority professional ones that shall be name¬ in my story when there was supreme opinion. less here. news, "Flash!" They did not, as the AMAZING editor edited my copy, yell, But first let me digress to con¬ So far I have not been talking gratulate Avon Books for having learn¬ "Grab a sharp pencil!" In the first about not writing science fiction. place the reporter dictates to an ed, just this year, how to spell "fore¬ A good way not to is to get paranoid word." For years Avon had been spel¬ editor who has been seated at a tele¬ about what an editor might do to type machine with earphones on, wait¬ ling it "forward" as in the reverse your story. Most editors, like our of "backward." At least 1 can docu¬ ing for the call. In the second and own I. Asimov and his dear associates, every other place, it would be a stu¬ ment it back to the year 1969, when will not change your story except to Avon spelled it "forward" on the pid line of dialog even in a Grade Z title page of A.R. Luria's "The Mind of a Miemonist." The reason 1 know Avon learned to spell better tliis year is that when it reprinted 's "The Star Dwellers" in February, 1982, the first text page was headed "For¬ ward" -- but when it did Blish's "Mis¬ sion to the Heart Stars" in March, 1982, the word was correctly spelled "Foreword”. You'll notice 1 said Avon learn¬ ed "to spell better," not "to spell." I'm glad its editors caught on to "Foreword" before it reprinted "Asi¬ mov on Science Fiction" in April, 1982, because there are 55 Forewords, more or less, in that book, and I am sure 55 misspellings would be more than even the good-hearted Isaac Asi¬ make it better by fixing spelling 1930s movie. mov could forgive. (I don't call him and punctuation. If they think more "the good doctor," you observe. More Another way not to write is to than that needs work they get in about that later.) sell a story to and touch and suggest. Usually you ag¬ wait for it to be published in THE Back to Avon. Fortunately for ree, and the change is for the bet¬ LAST DANGEROUS VISIONS. You sit and its editors, there are only four ter. But there are other editors, wait with visions of rave reviews, Afterwords in the Asimov book and who change words, phrases and para¬ foreign and other subsidiary sales, they managed to get three of them graphs, even titles, without your a movie or television option, fame right. The one on page 245 is spel¬ and money, money, money. You wait led "Afterward." That's why I can't Horace Gold, then editor of GAL¬ and wait. Ah, well. The story I'm yet say Avon has learned to spell; AXY, changed an item on a grocery talking about, "At the Sign of the three out of four isn't good enough list that had something to do with a Boar's Head Nebula" (Shall I take for people in the word business. story of mine. I had listed the item out the word Nebula? Would the word And I hope the Avon editors aren't as "toilet paper." Horace changed jinx a nomination or an award?), was confused if they get to reprint Dr. it to "toilet tissue." I wonder if at one time only a gleam in my eye, Robert L. Forward. he thought "paper" was a dirty word. a fragment no one was interested in until Harlan saw 17,000 words of it. I've been giving you examples of At an editor He liked it and demanded more. It what I call Dingalinglish -- goofs whose name I can't recall changed grew and grew and in 1969 it was by people who ought to know better. the title of a story of interplanet- 40,000 or 47,000 words long, depend¬ The NBf YORK TIMES, for instance, aiy contact from my "Press Confer¬ ing on who was counting, and Harlan which once managed to spell "naphtha" ence" to "Visitor From the Void." bought it. He's still got it. I three different ways on the same page. The press conference was at the White heard the book will be out real soon One was right. Even Time Inc.'s em¬ House; at it the President of the Un¬ now. It's only 13 years later, so pire has developed seepage. It used ited States spoke of his meeting with I really shouldn't conplain. You to be impeccable, wordwise, but now the extraterrestrial visitor. I've don't hear me complaining, do you? we find a television commercial for covered White House press conferences; SPORTS ILLUSTRATED using "phenomena" for the singular "phenomenon" and a 18 You can set up a block against writing by worrying about the science in his book, but I can't find it Anscombe has, and I've read her book you're going to have to use in it. again, wherever he said it, if he AN INTRODUCTION TO WinGFiNSTEIN'S We're back to my text for today. said it. If I don't make notes when TRACTATUS. Well, I've read most of You've got to know your science, it I first read something it all runs it ... some of it. She's difficult says. Boy, is that a stopper for together; sometimes this is good be¬ too, but she often points out where me. I was too intimidated by science cause it runs together into a story, WTG is wrong, which is comforting to to read SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN. I'd but mostly it's just a pain to be know, especially when he raises the flunked intermediate algebra in my so absent-minded. possibility that "what is false can be true." last semester in high school and my In deference to the academic first in college (and then dropped atmosphere that surrounds us I'll She also tells us that what WTG out of college for a decade). What refer to our toastmaster as Prof. means is not always what he says, I did was wander through bookstores, Asimov. "I still teach through my and that he gives meanings to certain looking for something that might in¬ books and lectures," he said in that words such as "tautology" that are spire me. In those days there was handbook, "Asimov on Science Fiction," not what other people mean by them. a store on 42nd Street in Manhattan and indeed he has taught me much in So it's good to have her forewarn us near Sixth Avenue, where all books his articles and columns. I may if we intend to read him directly. were 194 each. Most of them were re¬ choose to ignore the teachings in my mainders, or from Vanity Presses, but I don't mean to get deep into fiction -- or ignore them through this subject -- and "deep" is the at that price you could spend a buck ignorance and a bad memory -- but and get ideas galore. I remember word I want -- but there are things that is another matter. one word -- from a sort of theosoph- WTG says, filtered through Miss Ans¬ ical self-help book: duoverse. It Prof. Asimov's doctorate is in combe, that are terrific catalysts was new to me so I gave it a meaning the highest kind of learning -- phil¬ to the writing of science fiction -- different from the old author's and osophy, higher even than science. or to the thinking about writing, if stuck it in a story I was writing. We know this to be so because the you want to procrastinate about get¬ "IXjoverse?" I had one of my charac¬ Ph.D. is an earned degree, hard- ting to the typewriter. Here's one: ters say. "That's what keeps time earned, whereas most Doctor of Sci¬ "The meaning of the world must lie outside the world. In the world ev¬ travelers from running into them¬ ence degrees are honorary. Thus we selves." That's about all the sci¬ must admit that philosophy is super¬ ence I had in the story and at 24 a ior to science and pay attention to word, that phrase alone paid for the what the philosq)hers tell us, among book. them Britains' Bertrand Russell and Still another way to duck having his Austrian-bom pupil, Ludwig Wit¬ to make my story scientifically ac¬ tgenstein. curate or even plausible is to let A splendid way not to write is the protagonist be a person as much to do a lot of research, especially a scientific ignoramus as I am. research in subjects of no earthly, Thus he, in character, can say dumb or even extraterrestrial, use to yoa things which are plausible for the I spent some time in Bird Library, kind of person he is, but which I as where my current job is to complete a supposedly knowledgeable and cons¬ a volume of the history of Syracuse cientious science fiction writer University, researching Wittgenstein would be embarrassed to say direct¬ -- or, as his literary executrix, ly myself. G.E.M. Anscombe, calls him sometimes, WTG. She's British, so she probably In a story I'm not writing now doesn't know that the initials WTG (because I'm doing this talk instead) mean to me W.T. Grant, which I and my protagonist, for example, is a certain other parties with long mem¬ radio station manager who would score ories knew as a five-and-ten-cent erything is as it is, everything 7 1/2 on a science quiz. He tells store before it got delusions of happens as it does happen; there is the story in the first person and grandeur, expanded exponentially and no value ^ it -- if there were any, makes it clear that it happened many went bankrupt. it would have no value." As Robert years ago and is part of the mythol¬ Shaw playing the gangster in THE ogy of the area -- which happens to I digress. I see a note to my¬ STING says, "You follow?" I_ don't, be the North Country of this state. self -- "Segue to WTG and the pres¬ but I think it's delicious. That's The story -- which I have been not ent King of France." Do you know from page 170 of the Harper Torch- writing since 1971 but which might that "segue," that great musician's book second edition. be finished this year --is about a term, is from the Italian and means, caveman and a spaceship along with "Play the following like the preced¬ Earlier (page 169) he spoke of other unlikely combinations ... but ing"? That's one of the things I "the feeling of being dependent on look not to it for your scientific learned in Bird Library when I was an alien will." How's that for a advancement, if anybody ever buys surprised to find that pteranodon thought variant? It's the very stuff it. I hope it will be entertaining, is spelled the way it is, with four that the covers of the old ASTOUND¬ though. syllables, and has no pteeth. That ING STORIES were made of. is p-t-e-e-t-h, and it's funnier in This is what I also hope for a print. Or maybe it's the pterosaur series of short spoofs in which my that has no teeth. Anyway, one of At page 53, WTG is quoted as say¬ protagonist is frankly called Harry them is from the Greek words for ing, "Theories that make a proposi¬ Protagonist. He's a deadpan con wing and toothless. tion of logic appear substantial are artist who brazenly makes use of always wrong." That's where "true" such non-scientific material as Al¬ versus "false" being "two properties Segue, segue. Wittgenstein. I fred Jarry's somewhat surrealistic among other properties" comes in, pataphysique -- the "science of im¬ love him. So far I haven't read him and it's where I go out, because if aginary solutions." -- The TIMES of London calls him I continue to page 59, I'll find "notoriously difficult" -- but Miss I thought Isaac Asimov had used Miss Anscombe saying her man has the term imaginary science fiction 19 been considering "facts that, taken together, would tend to shew that so has ironic, witty iconoclastic I turn in my Royal Standard and stop there was no such person as Moses." views on almost everything that lead writing the stuff that is published you, as a science fiction writer, to every now and again, despite all my I suspect that this is the high¬ wonder if there's anything more to procrastination, in a science fic¬ er logic and that I'm not getting be said. tion magazine? No, because I'm not from it what I should. But what I in it for the money or to educate Russell is a great comfort to am getting is a gluimering of an people, or to show off, but for the anyone who feels he has to keep up idea for a way to eliminate an ex¬ fun of it. I don't have to write to traneous character from a science with the very latest scientific the¬ formula as I thought I had to to sell fiction story without going back in ories lest some editor or critic when I started in the 1930s and '40s. time and killing his grandfather. chide you for your ignorance. Rus¬ And after October 30th, I won't have sell reminds us that these, too, may to write for Syracuse University as At another point (page 171), be discarded. He recalls, for in¬ I've been doing for 18 years (and Miss Anscome refers to Wittgenstein's stance, that Aristotle believed wo¬ did for wire services and newspapers use of the word Aufgabe, which I sup¬ men had fewer teeth than men -- but before that). I won't have to write pose is pronounced owf-gob-uh and "although he was twice married, it which she translates as meaning "the at all but, of course I will because never occurred to him to verify this I always have, starting with my pre- task set," as in a child's homework. statement by examining his wives' I prefer to think of it as pronounc¬ SF days when as a pre-teenager I was ed owf-gabe -- gabe as in Gabriel y published in the Sunday children's and translated as outgrabe, which is section of the LONG ISLAND DAILY what Lewis Carroll said the mome PRESS. raths did. So a good way not to write is to So, lest you think I'm making have written. A few years ago the fun of Wittgenstein -- which I'm not Science Fiction Writers of America because there are more ideas in him were wondering how to amend the crit¬ And he had words of advice for eria for manbership so as not to bar than W.T. Grant had notions -- I'll young professors: "I suggest to give you one last quotation. It's those who had not written or publish¬ young professors that their first ed science fiction in recent years fran the last page of Miss Anscombe's work should be written in a jargon book, quoting WTG talking about his -- under the rules in force at the only to be understood by the erudite time Isaac Asimov could not have been own took and saying in his introduc¬ few. With that behind them, they can tion: "The whole meaning of the a member. One suggestion was that ever after say what they have to say publication of a certain number of book could perhaps be summed up as in a language 'understanded of the follows: What can be said at all words of SF in one's lifetime -- a people.' In these days, when our can be said clearly, and vdiat can¬ million words, some thought -- would very lives are at the mercy of the not be spoken of we must be silent qualify. I went to my card file and professors, I cannot but think that about." found that I half qualified; I'd then they would deserve our gratitude if written something over 500,000 words. I'll buy that. I'll keep quiet they adopted my advice." With even a modest backlist like that if you will. Speaking of a young professor -- the averages are on your side when the anthology editors come looking, I'll bet you thought I forgot Long before the creationists of and especially when Professor Asimov about the King of France. This is a our time irritated Professor Asimov and his colleagues on far-off camp¬ reference to Bertrand Russell's theo¬ into replying to them in the pages uses, Professor Martin Greenberg of ry of descriptions, which influenced of the TIMES magazine, the the University of Wisconsin and Prof¬ WTG. There's a whole chapter on this arguments of anti-evolutionists were essor Joseph Olander of the University and in it Miss Anscombe maintains heard. One such argument was that of , are seeking short-shorts. that "the author of Waverley" and the world was created in 4004 B.C., Lots of my stuff is short and they "the present King of France" are def¬ conplete with fossils, which were in¬ took seven of my stories for their inite descriptions, whereas "a man" serted to try our faith. I laughed two volumes. So a good way to stay is an indefinite description. I^ say at this naive way of thinking until in print is to have the Asimov name "the present King of France" is no I read Bertrand Russell vdio said, on your spine. I mean the Asimov more a definite description than is and I quote: "There is no logical name on the spine of the book that a rainsoaked and windblown sign on a impossibility about this view. And anthologized you. telephone pole that you know is a similarly there is no logical inpos¬ week old but says "Garage Sale To¬ sibility in the view that the world I'm going to conclude with a day." There's another part of the was created five minutes ago, com¬ story. I told it originally as the chapter where she discusses the truth plete with manories and records. afterword to my first novel when Bal- or falsity of the sentence "Some man This may seem an inprobable hypothe¬ lantine published it in 1955. It has been on the moon." I think I sis, but it is not logically refut¬ must be a good story because I saw know enough by now to know that what's able." Unquote. it again just this year in READER'S true may be false, but it's interest¬ So maybe all we can say about DIGEST. It wasn't original with me, ing to note that Miss Anscombe's Professor Asimov's admirable article I hasten to disclaim, but a variation took was published in 1959—and to in the TIMES is that it disputed the of it would make an ideal science wonder if there was a philosophical creationist view, but did not refute fiction story. It's about three (and therefore superscientific) it. deaf old English ladies on a bus. moon landing a decade or more earlier Che says, "Is this Wembley?" "No," than the one we orthodox types re¬ I think the creationists are all says the second, "this is Thursday." member. wet nyself, but I also think their "So am I," says the third. "Let's ingenious explanations are.wonderful all get off and have a drink." spurs to a writer's imagination, pro¬ Not as provocative as Wittgen¬ viding alternate ways of looking at Each of the women is being per¬ stein but far more fun to read is things -- even if only plotwise. fectly logical but the result is con¬ that scientist-pMlosopherinathematic- fusion and a happy ending. ian Bertrand Russell. He's written Does this make me come on as a book, THE ABC OF RELATIVITY, that anti-science? And if it does should More I cannot wish you. makes Einstein's theories as clear as any layman can expect. But he al¬ 20 Li=iF(F(%j nii/cri A Profile By Charles Platt

(c) 1983 by Charles Platt

"I would say that we're the most buy one of your novels, not much mon¬ "It's utterly true that the new successful collaboration in science ey changes hands. writer won't make a million dollars fiction history," Larry Niven remarks The truth is that, on the whole, on his first novel in science fiction. of his partnership with Jerry Poum- this has always been a low-paying But the science fiction label guaran¬ elle. "Frederik Pohl and C.M. Kom- field. A typical novel only earns tees that he'll sell a minimum of, bluth were good; they did as well as its writer $5,000 or so, and many let's say, 40,000 to 100,000 copies. was possible in the science fiction writers refer to science fiction bit¬ People will buy it just because it's field of their time. But today is terly as a literary ghetto. science fiction. different. Today you can sell to an "Here's the real advantage. You audience a hundred times as large. So how is it that Larry Niven can always step outside the science And that means, incidentally, you has come to be rewarded so highly, fiction country club to make a lit¬ can spend more time on each piece and read so widely, while most oth¬ tle money, once you've gotten your¬ of work. ers struggle to get by? self established. John D. MacDonald He speaks decisively, leaving no For a start, Niven rejects de¬ did it right. He started in science doubt that he knows exactly what he featist talk about the so-called fiction, made a name for himself, is talking about. At the same time, ghetto. "I dislike that phrase. I enough money to keep going and pres¬ he's very relaxed, almost bored, as suggest you adopt the phrase 'science ently went to the mainstream. if he wouldn't bother to argue if any¬ fiction country club' and see where "Niven and Poumelle did the body started disagreeing with him. we get. same thing, except that they didn't He has the bland equanimity of some¬ "Look at the parameters of a stop writing science fiction. They one from a wealthy family who has country club. It's expensive to be just started selling to the main¬ gone on to make his own small fort¬ there, but it does have certain ad¬ stream audience as well." une on top of theirs. If nothing vantages. One is the company of seems to bother Larry Niven very your peers and another is the chance He says this as if nothing could much these days, that's hardly sur¬ to make business deals conveniently. have been sinpler. And the way he prising. All of this is true of science fic¬ talks about himself in the third per¬ son accentuates his air of serene "When I first started writing tion. detachment. there seemed zero chance that I would "The expense of being a member is make serious money out of it. I was -- well, the royalty advances are He agrees, however, that there doing it as a hobby; my real profes¬ low, science fiction receives a lim¬ was a little luck involved in his sion was counting the money in the ited amount of critical acclaim and early success. trust funds I inherited. I wrote very little publicity. This does "I got started in the heart of science fiction because it just hap¬ cost you money. the "new wave" period, in the late pened that that was where my ideas 1960s. This was one of the best "But the conpany of your peers? were coming. All I wanted out of it pieces of good fortune that I could was a . What I achieved Damned straight. And the opportuni¬ have asked for. In that period, the ties to make business deals are very was way beyond my ambitions. "new wave" looked really good to all real. All you've got to do is go to the new writers, who were interested "Even now, I'm not in this for a science fiction convention and you in experimenting and getting away the money; we'd be living in a smal¬ will meet all the people you want to from old-style science fiction. The ler, less comfortable house without deal with. To the new writer, that's only new writer who didn't go along it, but I mainly use the money to a godsend. keep score of how many people I've with that, and stuck with solid sto¬ reached. I'm talking to a lot of ries of the model, was people --ray audience is over a mil¬ Larry Niven. lion. And I'd like to talk to a " was the first guy lot more." to notice Larry Niven as a good thing in the field. He said something like, 'Larry Niven makes you feel as Perhaps this sounds self-satis¬ if it's important whether the main fied. Perhaps, if you're a strug¬ character gets killed.' Nobody else gling starving author measuring out was doing that. your dinner of boiled beans in your crumbling cold-water tenement, Niv¬ "Some of the critics of that en's attitude is the sort of thing time, of course, did not like what I that makes you more than a little was doing. I had to wonder whether angry. From your point of view, these critics were right. But when times are tough; the American pub¬ turned down 'Inconstant lishing industry is no healthier Moon' for , in exactly the form than any other industry at this time in which it went on to win a Hugo of economic recession, so it's even award -- I knew Damon was wrong be¬ harder to sell your work than it used fore the awards came up. I knew how to be, and even when a publisher does valuable that story was. I knew how "I grew up among mundanes. longer than I have, back when he was When I say 'mundanes' it's not pejor¬ working on the space program, essen¬ ative, it's a short way of saying tially creating the field of space 'people who never look to the sky medicine, wiring astronauts with all for anything other than to tell the kinds of instruments. time.' And sometimes not even that. "fie and I got talking one time "The Vvrhole world I knew was like after a science fiction convention that when 1 was in my teens. The and he started talking about collab¬ people who think like science fic¬ oration. tion fans, in terms of a future that "I'd done a collaborative novel is different from the present, have with and enjoyed my¬ grown in numbers by leaps and bounds self a lot. 'Let's try it again,' since then. It's been a series of I said to myself; but what I was jumps: Sputnik, the Russian men in really saying was, 'Let's keep talk¬ space, the American men in space, ing about it,' because talk is cheap 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, the Itoon pro¬ and talk is recreation. gram, , STAR WARS -- each well I'd written it. And I stopped of these caused a surge in the numb¬ "We set up a date for Jerry to taking Damon seriously as a critic. er of people willing to listen to come over one night after dinner. I ideas such as the ones I use. dug something out of my files: an "Okay, that's for Damon Knight. alien I'd been calling 'Cross-hatch¬ As regards James Blish, I do not "I have profited enormously, but er' , designed for a novel that fell give great weight to his comments so has the rest of the world, because apart two-thirds of the way through. on , which were that it we do now think in terms of project¬ would probably win a Hugo but it ing problems, finding solutions, "One of the first things Jerry shouldn't. looking for the ideas that can create said was, 'This book can't be in the technology that can solve the . I can't believe in "I admit, I felt picked on by problems. Known Space; it doesn't follow soc¬ the critics. Or rather -- I felt iological principles that I know are ignored, and that's worse. And what "There still are the mundanes, valid.' I told myself then I guess I still of course. Most of the populace tell myself now: If I need a critic still doesn't bother with this kind "I said okay -- I didn't want to explain a story for me to the read¬ of stuff. They expect, and would him in Known Space, anyway. I don't er, then there's something wrong with feel more comfortable in, a future let anybody into Known Space. It's the way I wrote it." which is just like the present. my private domain. But I am not talking to those people. "He told me about his future- Like other writers I've met who I am trying to talk to the people have become very commercially suc¬ history, the empire he'd been work¬ who are ready to know that the fut¬ ing in. He'd published some stories cessful, Larry Niven shows more re¬ ure will be different from the pre- spect for his readers than his crit¬ in it; 'The Mercenary' was one, I ics. think. I could see he had a fully "When I decide to write a story, human enqjire, with no alien intel¬ "I'm very keenly aware of the I can get the feel for what kind of ligences. This struck me as pretty obligation I owe to anyone who buys audience it will call for. A novel dull. one of my books. When I was fifteen, like includes enormously "I realized that I could put an I spent a month with my dad and some complex games played with sociology, alien planet in the middle of his other people in Carmel. The TV set anthropology and space travel. The empire. I tossed the alien into the got only one channel, and it wasn't audience for that one is small, has pot. And we had a hell of a night. very interesting, so I tried being a very high I.Q. and a very good ed¬ I introduced him to brandy and cof¬ a storyteller. And it was glorious. ucation. Okay, that's who I was writ¬ fee, which gets you drunk without But I could see it was easy to lose ing to in that one and I can resist putting you to sleep, and we drank the attention of all those other making concessions with the language brandy and coffee all night, and by fifteen-year-olds. for such people and I can skip over the time we finished we had elabor¬ some ideas that they already know. "Okay, now I'm expecting people ated and extrapolated and made vast They have the education or they would to pay me honest-to-god money for amounts of notes, and we set to not be reading the book. my storytelling. I'm still keenly work." aware of how easy it is to lose that audience. And from this, of course, came "With LUCIFER'S HANWER it was THE MOTE IN GOD'S EYE, which was different. A very simple idea, here; more successful for Niven than any there's nothing really complex about of his other work had been. the description of a comet hitting the Earth. With that simple an idea Since then, however, he's prov¬ I've got a potentially very large ed that his own fiction can be just audience. And I have to explain e- as successful. THE RINGWORLD ENGIN¬ ven the simplest concepts to them, EERS was a recent example. or I'm not doing them justice." "I was mightily surprised by I ask him how he made the trans¬ the success of RINGWORLD ENGINEERS. ition from writing mainly short sto¬ Sequels to successful books are gen¬ ries, solo, to writing best-selling erally not as good as the original, collaborative epics. and maybe they don't sell as many copies, total, because their real "1^ collaboration with Jerry be¬ audience is restricted to people who gan like this; We had met a few remember reading the first one. But times at social events, because Jer¬ what does happen is that the sequel ry has been a science fiction fan to a successful book sells in one 22 lun^j. So RINGWORLD ENGINEERS was on the paperback best-seller list for a out that I can shoot holes in their it's set up to create inequalities, month, in mainstream.” arguments most of the time." to some extent." This was classic hard-science, And to prove his point, as in To what extent should rewards high-tech Niven -- the kind of prob¬ the previous exajnple, he argues from be unequal? lem-solving fiction for which he's something that happened to him per¬ "Put it this way. The adminis¬ famous. He had written fantasy nov¬ sonally. I get the feeling that tration seems to be returning tax els too, however. As a serious ad¬ whereas Jerry Poumelle reaches con¬ breaks to the people who actually vocate of science and space technol¬ clusions by examining the big sweep pay the taxes. And there is a lot ogy, I can't help wondering how he of history, Larry Niven works on a of yelling from people who seem to can produce fantasies which could much more direct, day-to-day basis. think that this is a new and radical actually encourage people to reject "I was in Houston, Texas, in a and dangerous idea. Well -- I'm for science and turn away from real life restaurant near the center of town, it!" problems. in a bad neighborhood, with Marilyn "If the fantasy weren't there in a fur coat, both of us looking This leads him into a little lecture on economics -- with space those people would be reading noth¬ expensive. It was getting late, industrialization as the lesson to ing, and watching television and I and we kept trying to call taxis to be learned. think that would be mildly worse. take us back to our hotel, but the Fantasy does show a world that is taxis never showed up and we finally "The way we're handling currency different from our world and it does got a taxi company to admit that they problems now creates inflation. That stretch people's imaginations. So just wouldn't send a cab to where leads, in the end, to poverty. I'm not against it. I'm not even we were. Period. So you can guess There are two ways to deal with this. against the kind of sword-and-sorc- now that I have no real confidence One is a hell of a lot of work: You ery which is very popular now. There in the libertarian method. stop printing more money, and mean are vast numbers of people out there it. taking approaches that I wouldn't "If a taxi driver can choose take, but I'm reluctant to stop them. not to go to a certain part of town, "Japan took that route and the I wouldn't even stop Ralph Nader. that perfectly fits the libertarian result of course, was a decade of Nader has done a great deal of dam¬ philosophy, but it leaves me in a not much money. And then they got age to America's ability to become hell of a lot of trouble. So I want used to the idea that the government power-sufficient. He's against the a certain amount of regulation, simp¬ really meant what they said. That ly to protect my own interests." is easier for a Japanese to grasp than it is for an American -- Amer¬ Is this a kind of law-and-order icans are less likely to believe outlook? what their government tells them -- "Yes, it is. The people who call so if we take this route, we can ex¬ themselves law-and-order advocates pect a couple of decades of real want a great deal more regulation horror. It'd be fourteen dollars than I do, but I see where regula¬ for a steak and nobody would have tions make things easier. Licensing the fourteen dollars, until the but¬ taxis is good. Traffic lights are cher finally decided that the govern¬ good. The Food and Drug Administra¬ ment really meant it, and would not tion is good, if they'll do their print any more money, at which job, which includes getting useful point he would lower the price of drugs on the market." steak to seven dollars. That would building of any kind of atomic power end inflation. stations anywhere, apparently. And What about regulations that leg¬ he is a mighty voice; he is listened islate equality? "The other approach is to create to. But I got hit from behind while actual new wealth. If you do that, "I would think 'equal before the then you can keep up with the new my car was at a stoplight, a while law' is as much equality as we would back. I got out, and here is this money that's being printed. want to legislate. After all, sane- woman cringing in her driver's seat one who has obeyed the law should "This sounds kind of vague and and a McDonald's hamburger on the not be equal to someone who has not nebulous, so let me get concrete. I floor. She had tried to save it obeyed the law, in the eyes of the bring an asteroid into near orbit from sliding off the seat at a point law. That's what the law is for; around the Earth. I mine it for all when she should have been stopping. Wham! Her car hit me fairly hard. But I've got a headrest, right? So I'm not whiplashed. And there was no damage to my car, because of the shock-absorbing bunpers. I have Ralph Nader to thank for that." But I thought Niven was a con¬ servative, in favor of Reagan-style deregulation. "Yes, I'm certainly more in ac¬ cord with them than with Ralph Nader. But I think they should both keep talking." Is this a free-for-all liber¬ tarian outlook? "No. Libertarianism is a form of anarchy and they can put up some pretty good arguments, but it turns ography for me while I look out at the swimming pool and patio at the rear of the house.

Before 1 leave, he talks a little more about his own role in science fiction. "I continue to benefit from the growing audience of people who think that the future will be different from the present, and who think that this is a good thing," he says. I mention that New York publish¬ ers seem to think that the reader- ship for science fiction is diminish¬ ing at present, rather than expand¬ ing. "That is true. What happened is that the field pulsed wide open and then contracted. A lot of the STAR WARS audiences went out looking for books to give them more of the same, but then they found -- oh, my book, PROTECTOR, and it was too com¬ plicated for them, or Barry Malzberg, and it was a critical treatise being sold as a novel, or Samuel Delany, and it wasn't comprehensible. You can expect that two-thirds of them, at least, got turned off by whatever it was they came across. "When the field contracts, the the metals, and I ship them down. I In the near term, we want to save new writer is in a hell of a bad sell the metals. Now the inflation¬ civilization and make a little money. shape. But you see, those writers ary spiral isn't doing anyone any In the far term, we want all the pol¬ who are at the top of the field, in lution-producing factories out in terms of money and audience, aren't space and the Earth made into one hurt at all." He smiles cheerfully, "Not long ago, the Citizen's great big park." and puffs on his pipe, as unruffled Advisory Council on National Space as ever. Policy met at this house under Jerry He sounds just as definite, talk¬ Poumelle's guidance. About thirty- ing about this, as he sounded when odd of us, including three science he was talking about the science fic¬ Editor's Note: The profile of Larry fiction writers. CXir purpose was tion country club. It's hard to im¬ Niven, and last issue's profile of to carve out a detailed space pro¬ agine Larry Niven expressing self¬ , and next issue's pro¬ gram for the United States and pre¬ doubt or misgivings, just as it's file of Janet Morris, will be in¬ sent it. We have no authority, of hard to imagine him getting very agi¬ cluded in the second volume of course, but at least we had guaran¬ tated over anything. Charles Platt's DREAM MAKERS, in tees that certain people would lis- After we have talked for ninety May (1 understand) from Berkley. minutes or so, he shows me around his The first volume of profiles/inter¬ "We pushed for a total tax break home. He and his wife live in the views is available at $2.75 and is for products brought back from space hills above Tarzana, north-west of an exceptionally interesting and re¬ until the year 2000 -- that's obvious. Los Angeles. It's a quiet location, vealing book. Not so obvious is rewriting the laws surrounded with lush vegetation and regarding what happens to money not too many neighbors. plowed into space. These regulations The house is dramatically modem, are a little fuzzy, a little vague. a series of huge spaces linked by A corporation lawyer trying to tell big archways offset from one another This publication a corporation president what will be so that the perspectives keep chang¬ the result if he does thus-and-so is is available ing as you move from room to room. in a hell of a bind if the laws are The living room, where the taping in microform. vague. And there's no cost to the took place, has big windows of tint¬ taxpayer in making these laws hard ed-brown glass, a long, soft, ample and rigid, using unambiguous langu¬ University Microfilms couch and a ceiling two stories high. age. So we pushed that idea very We walk through a central dining area International hard. like a modernist baronial hall where eight high-backed chairs stand around ?eb Road "Then there are the space treat¬ a long glass-topped table. He leads Dept. PR. ies. Not just the Moon Treaty, 48106 me up to his office, where there are which hasn't been signed, but earli¬ USA. the usual writer's bookshelves, a er treaties that were signed. They photocopying machine and a comfort¬ all seem designed to keep free en¬ ably upholstered chrome swivel chair terprise out of space. We have got in front of a word-processing system. to get out of those. Niven prints out a copy of his bibli- "Our basic aims are very simple. 24 that began with THE MANY-COLORED LAND and THE GOLDEN TORC and con¬ cludes with THE ADVERSARY. After the destruction wrought by events chronicled in THE GOLDEN UOfCES TORC, the Tanu attempt to put their civilization back together. The human trouble-maker, Aiken Drum DH/WIRE richness of his imagery, the pow¬ (the Nonbom King of the title), erful narrative momentum, and the makes a move to take over the Tanu By Scott Baker tantalus of new revelations seeth¬ throne. He is opposed by many fac¬ Pocketbooks ing always just under the surface, tions including Felice Landry, a carry us through. We can overlook very powerful, very mad human meta¬ REVIEWED BY JOHN SHIRLEY the occasional muddled sentence, psychic, and conservative members of the expository lumps, because we the Tanu. I will not say anything For a while, I was wondering know that just beyond each hurdle more about the plot. (The blurb if it were possible to write a are fresh wonders. that accompanied the uncorrected refreshing, original tale of the proofs from Houghton Mifflin gave Conceptually, Baker takes us supernatural -- one involving away too much of it.) from old vampirism to a new sort, vanpires, witches and demons, the from this into the fine points of THE NONBORN KING marks May's classic elements. It had all Satanism and its weird interdepen¬ continued growth and maturity as a been done, it seemed to me. I was dence with Christianity; from novelist. There is a surety about wrong: Scott Baker has resurrect¬ Christianity seen skewed and in a her handling of the characters and ed the Undead, the secret cabal, new, revealing light, into its se¬ narrative that was muted in the the power-mad Satanist, and has cret otherworld conflict with the two previous books. The prose in made them dance in unfamiliar powers of the Hindu pantheon. THE NONBORN KING is as rich as ev¬ choreographies. This is a strange paranoid book er, but more under control. The Baker is best known for SYM¬ with many curious ancestors; the humor that made the two previous BIOTE'S CROWN (Berkley) idiich won vision of John Milton is there, and books so enjoyable is also present. France's for something of Aleister Crowley's May has always included multiple Best SF novel. MOONCHILD; something of Lawrence levels of meaning in her work and Burrell's BLACK BOOK is there and if you look you'll find it; but He brings the flair for be¬ also the wicked colors from Moor¬ for those who just want an exciting lievable characterization and in¬ cock's paintbrush, the ghost of El- story, THE NONBORN KING is cer¬ tricate inventiveness he showed in ric hovering in the background. tainly that. SYMBIOTE'S CROWN to DHAMPIRE. A This is not a "horror" story -- Ehampire, Baker tells us, is a When THE MANY-COLORED LAND it's a novel of supernatural sus¬ nonvampire who controls vampires, first came out, I said I was going pense, and allegory. and who draws power from their to nominate it for a Hugo. I did. thievery of lifeblood and life- Fiercely and fascinatingly er¬ I believe THE NONBORN KING, like force. When he dies, he becomes a otic, perverse, blood-drenched, THE GOLDEN TORC, deserves serious vanpire and is controlled in turn imperfect but engaging, DHAMPIRE consideration at award time. by another Uiampire, a successor is a feast for the fantasy fan. in his own family. The novel's A jlc******it ************************** A protagonist is the owner of a snake famr who uses his snakes to smug¬ LOST WORLDS gle cocaine through customs, until THE NONBORN KING someone from his mysterious fam¬ By ily, The Bathorys --a family of By Julian May DAW #398, 176 pp., 1980, $1.95 Qianpires and vampires, he learns, Houghton Mifflin, XLI descended from the Countess Batho- 397 pp., 1983, $16.95 REVIEWED BY MARK WILLARD ry and Vlad the Impaler -- kills REVIEWED BY ELTON T. ELLIOTT his lover via supernatural manip¬ This is an anthology of eight ulation of a particularly venom¬ The NONBORN KING is the third stories set in fabled, or lost, lands ous snake and then, as part of a volume in the Pliocene Quartet of Earth: Atlantis, Mu, Hyperborea, power-through-sex ritual, causes him to make love to his long-lost sister who is a representative of a Hindu snake cult involved in the family's arcane power struggles which take place in secret under¬ ground sub-worlds where --

Sound painfully complicated? That's just the beginningl It would take 5,000 words to sketch in the general outline of this book's labyrinthine background de¬ tail and almost neurotically con¬ voluted plot. Such paranoid machinations on the part of the author would be, in the hands of a lesser talent, tedious. But Ba¬ ker is a major fantasy talent, just beginning to bloom, and the Lemuria, Antiilia, and so on. The two longest --a little less than half the book -- feature Carter's S5S hero ; the others feature various characters and stylistic backgrounds. There's a Lovecraftian tale, one reminiscent of 's "Morreion", some "posthumous collab¬ orations" with and Robert E. Howard, and the usual (for Carter) first installment of a new story- or novel-cycle. It's been said of Lin Carter that his tremendous enjoyment of and en¬ thusiasm for the sword-and-sorcery and fantasy fields go a long way to atone for whatever his works may lack in technical polish and absolute first-line quality. I'd call most of the tales in this volume enjoyable though not memorable, and perhaps best not read all at one sitting -- the Thongor stories are the only ones where the author's enthusiasm becomes a mite obtrusive, and the tone is a bit too gung-ho for credi¬ bility. While this volume barely skims Carter's prodigious output. I'd call it a good introductory book for those interested. ************************************

THE MAN WHO HAD NO IDEA By Thomas M. Disch Bantam Books, 232 pp., $2.95 REVIEWED BY ALLEN VARNEY

It's probably useless to re¬ view Thomas Disch's new story col¬ lection in these pages, for every¬ one in fandom has undoubtedly al¬ ready decided where he stands in the matter of Disch. I think it's clear by now he's the finest writer in the field. But I also think no one will admit it until he's safe- Other notable successes in this THE DIMENSIONEERS volume include the title story, a By Doris Piserchia romp about a social climber's quest The problem we all have with DAW, 1982, $2.25 Disch -- both fans and his fellow for a conversation license; "Josie writers (especially those of the and the Elevator," a non-fairy-tale; REVIEWED BY DEAN R. LA^BE so-called "Labor Day Group") -- the delightfully dumb (but serious proposal "Pyramids for Minnesota;" is that his very presence is an Hunger for the occasional adol¬ and, best of all, the collection's implied slight. He keeps producing escent rite-of-passage daring-do brilliantly crafted, funny, sophis¬ concluding entry, "Understanding ? Most of us do from time ticated stories that as much as Human Behavior." This perfect to time, and most SF writers add to shout, "Fun is fun, but really, story of a man who has his memory that larder at least once. Piserch¬ we're all grownups here. Let's erased keeps going in unexpected ia, with a fine track record in this act like it." This unstated com¬ directions with the precision and area, offers a cut above SF junk mentary on the rest of the genre inventiveness of a Wodehouse novel; food with a true, holding onto your explains why Disch will never, ev¬ until by the end, the reader feels disbelief suspenders, skipping through er win a Hugo or Nebula. the title is ^ressively appropri¬ the corridors of alternate universes, ate. It's science fiction and lit¬ loving that precocious spoiled brat, The best illustration of this erature and it's funny, all at once. roup. It's "Podkayne of Mars" on a point in the collection at hand is "Glory Road," complete with teleport¬ probably "Concepts," a story on In fact, that's the best way ing lions and a whole cast of white Harlan Ellison's world of Medea. to describe this whole book. Even hats and black hats -- not to mention Many writers have done Medea stor¬ (or especially) if you don't like grey hats -- and it's fun. ies, all featuring the strange al¬ depressing "New Wave" stories such ien races inhabiting it; but only Our un-named teenaged heroine eas¬ as Disch has produced in the past, ily tires of her ophanage school, Disch describes a hilarious attempt give this one a try. to convert the aliens to Catholic¬ and prefers to ride Wyala, a mutant ************************************ ism. That's something you'll never lioness ganiber, with whom she achiev¬ es telepathic access to D, the twist- find in Larry Niven. 26 ed corridors of space-time. IVhile ly Boy, 6-1 and 280, "an eerie shit spired Silverberg in WORLD OF A THOUS¬ hopping from world to world one day, sadist killer with the brain of a AND COLORS. In one way, it's an em¬ the red-haired kid and her furry pea" who is a national treasure be¬ barrassingly early collection of not- steed encounter a nasty lot of reptil¬ cause when diverted under hypnosis so-good stories, and others which ian Kriff who start throwing glass from karate-chopping and rape, he were not missed, but some that have bullets. In her escape from the can reach not only 1876 but 1917. a certain maturity for their time, Kriff, our saucy heroine discovers a many published in the early 50s and band of human and alien rebel allies, CONTROL takes some reading; 60s. who fight long odds to free the oth¬ Ccildman lets you sort out the tem¬ In "Something Wild is Loose," a er worlds of D from Kriff domination. poral settings hy atmosphere, not dateline subtitles. What carries hapless telepathic organism calling Meanwhile back on Earth, Mrs. it is the people. Some years back, himself "Vsiir" accidentally boards Asel, headmistress of the orphanage, Ursula LeGuin pointed out the an earthbound ship and comes in con¬ plots to confine her AWOL charge to shortage of "Mrs. Browns" -- real tact with six starship crewmen. The quarters, while the mysterious rich human characters --in modern sci¬ Vsiir almost kills them with its dev¬ woman, Cornelia Ember, shows unusual ence fiction; she named only two, astating telepathy. But the invis¬ interest in the gamboling gamber-ing one of whom -- Mr. Tagomi in THE ible kindly organism wants only to girl. Toss in an angry Army General, MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE -- is spoil¬ return to its homeworld. Ignorantly, a bad boy, a dog-faced man and a ed for me by the hokiness of his it stumbles into an earth hospital cut-em-off-at-thc-pass rescue of "Oriental" background. She'll find and wreaks havoc, and only the tele- Earth and you've got it. Enjoy. more than that in CONTROL. patiiically latent Dr. Peter Mookherji and the comatic Latina can help it return. "Something Wild is Loose" is a touching, clumsy piece by Silv¬ CONTROL erberg, but simply enriching. In THE JEDl master's QUIZBOOK "The Rain Peddler," TV at the turn By William Goldman of the century has become like Rome Delacorte, 1982, 30.S pp. , $1.8.95 Compiled by Rusty Miller and bread-and-circuses, but instead Del , 1982, 135 pp., $1.95 REVIEWED BY G.B. CHAMBERLAIN of bearbaiting, blood-crazy viewers reviewed by JOHN DIPRETE get to see and feel surgical opera¬ Time-travel has made the NEW tions with patients who are given no YORK TIMES. Written by the author I look at this book and say, anesthesia. In "Going Down Smooth" of the spoof fairytale THE PRINCESS "Why? Why'd they pick Rusty Mil¬ a computer psychoanalyst is as dis¬ BRIDE and an impressive run of ler?" Why choose an eleven-year- turbed as the emotional wrecks it thrillers and screenplays, CONTROL old to write a trivia book, in¬ analyzes. It is a software psychotic. was headlined on the front page of stead of one of the dozens of pros the BOOK REVIEW last April 25 as who probably offered to write one? "How to Change the Past." The In "Neighbor," a planetary feud Look at the promos -- it's critic -- Evan Hunter, himself a exists between Andrew McDermott and obvious. Packaging. Publicity. sometime writer of SF -- found Gold¬ his keep and Michael Holt's castle. Cosmetics. A cute little-boy- man's unannounced use of three sep¬ Both survive off each other's cold with-braces who gets As in school arate time frameworks hard to fol¬ hatred, but weakly avoid a confront¬ will catch the public's fancy. low. Seasoned science fiction ation that will lead both to death. His 425 questions, which actually readers shouldn't. Tome Niles remembers everything in offer an excuse to depict idiosyn¬ "The Man Who Never Forgot." He be¬ The premise: Suppose the So¬ cratic side-segments on the films comes an outcast because of his photo¬ viets were into psychic research; (STAR WARS 6 THE EMPIRE STRIKES graphic memory ... a prelude to thanks to the "moonshot mentality," BACK), should appeal to fans of Silverberg's DYING INSIDE? "How It so would we be. (Hasn't the Penta¬ the series. Let's face it: Rusty Was When the Past Went Away" examines gon funded odder projects?) Sup¬ knows more than the ex¬ the aftermath of San Francisco as it pose isolated individuals -- usual¬ perts -- all rolled together. The copes with ranpant amnesia in 2003, ly "insanely difficult" kids or latter were stumped repeatedly by after a memory-wiping drug is drop¬ childlike mentally disturbed ad¬ the kid's quizzes. ped into the city's water supply. ults -- could psychically contact But, hey -- no photos? In the title story, Jolnar Hollinrede and control people in the past. and Derveran Marti are competing for "We can go to 1917 and kill Trot¬ Miller gets an A for effort. a chance to take the "Test" on the sky -- we can zap the Russian Rev¬ ************************************ World of a Thousand Colors, discov¬ olution before it goes anywhere -- ered hundreds of years before by ex- we can win it all!" But first, a controlled experiment . . . WORLD OF A THOUSAND COLORS Back in the Pyrite Period (1940-55), the rest was routine; By one installment for the experiment, Arbor House, 1982, 329 pp., $14.95 three for the thrilling action, plus an Astounding switch ending. REVIEWED BY ANDREW ANDREWS For Mr. Goldman, the premise is all Nobody will disagree that it's but the conclusion. He focuses not hard to review a new Silverberg book on how the project works out (I with clean hands. His work is never should tell you?) but on what it a happy medium; it's demeaning or does to people caught up by it: the demanding and all different. trapped young wife of a Wall Street moneyman; a Bloomingdale's matron Even though I'm not pleased with post-humously recognized as a femin¬ the types of fantasy he writes these ist; some crisply-drawn cops, days, readers who agree will apprec¬ shrinks, street people and govern¬ iate some rather dated, but still in- ment types. Not to forget -- who can? -- the psychic psychopath Bil¬ 27 plorers reaching the far end of the rabid. Jerusalem's Lot is a short universe. The Test is the final pas¬ drive away. sage allowing humans and other sent- In "The Body" (approx. 57,400 ients to live in a blissful, pure- cauTiom: 3)0 wds.), four boys learn that the body energy form. However, the narrow MCT' TtAYTHIS of a boy hit by a train is lying in and self-seeking Hollinrede devises •p,E:co;?l) "BACK- the woods outside of town, and that a way to illegally take the Test, WABt-sr \ the two boys they overheard talking and faces the curcumstances. about it are not going to tell any¬ The stories are well worth your one. Naturally, they decide to make time. an excursion out there to see it. ************************************ Tlie four boys in this adventure are of the type grown-ups will shake their heads over and wonder what will escape is telegraphed very early on, ever become of them. Poor kids. long before a large hint is freely Tough. Bad-mouthed. Trouble makers. DIFFERENT SEASONS given, but getting there is so fas¬ Normal American boys, in other words, cinating that it is all right. The By Stephen King the kind who grow up to be doctors, escape method may be obvious, but Viking, 518 pp. + Afterword, $16.95 alcoholics, lawyers, factory workers the full scope isn't, and the epilo¬ 0-670-27266-3, Jacket design by or anything else, sometimes even writ¬ gue is beautiful, touching and quiet¬ R. Adelson; Jacket illustration by ers. Mr. King remeriibers what it was ly profound. Kinuko Y. Craft like and can give a very good idea of There are a few minor criticisms that to his readers. REVIEWED BY PAUL MC GUI RE 1 could make, but since 1 wouldn't get that picly on a conmoner writer, About a quarter of the way into The title is a gininick. "Seas¬ 1 won't on a king. One is not minor. this story, time is taken out to re¬ ons" refers to the fact that the book At one point, we are told that prison print the protagonist's first pub¬ contains four separate works, each of uniforms have no pockets. Later, an lished story, written many years af¬ which has a subtitle containing the inportant piece of the story's resol¬ ter the events of "The Body." Then name of one of the seasons. Not on¬ ution involves the protagonist's the protagonist reviews that story, ly does the season named have noth¬ hands being in his pockets. gets nostalgic about it, reveals he ing to do with the story, but "Fall" is now a best-selling author of hor¬ "y^t Pupil" (approx. 72,000 wds.) is not used to denote a season, and ror novels whose bank book gets re¬ is about a grotesque symbiotic rela¬ "Spring" appears as "Hope Springs E- viewed more than his novels, and tionship between a Nazi war criminal temal." Well, it made for an attrac¬ gives a thought or three on the craft and an all-American boy. The story tive jacket painting. There is some¬ of writing. Then Mr. King picks up is not one of fantast-horror, but of thing different here. Not the seas¬ "The Body" where he left off. I a horrible reality. Early on, the ons, but Stephen King himself. think this is what you call your ba¬ Nazi considers the boy to be a mons¬ sic self-indulgence. In some other Mr. King is one of those happy ter because he is so fascinated by context I am sure it would have work¬ instances where great popularity is the crimes. If one makes the con¬ ed, but slapped in out of left field greatly deserved. He doesn't just nection that the reader is also the into this story, aside from Stephen tell stories, he creates realities in boy at that point, it beccanes quite King, who cares? Then 44 pages lat¬ vdiich stories take place. This is disturbing since "Apt Pupil" is one er, he does it again! all the more amazing because Mr. King of Mr. King's most bloodcurdling has chosen to write SF6F and horror. tales. Perhaps the most frightening Even without the stories within Not everyone would agree with that aspect is how convincing this story the story, "The Body" uses too many last opinion. To this day many peop¬ is that great evil and drastic con¬ words to tell what it has to say, le think those are second-class gand- sequences can stem from a minor but the majority of it was well worth ras. Kid stuff. Mr. King has writ¬ chance encounter and then one thing reading. ten a book for them. This novel just follows another. "The Breathing Method" (approx. (novels) is (are) mainstream. (Hor¬ 25,000 wds.) quite appropriately and rors) ! They are also very good. Like in Thomas Tryon's C3K3WNED satisfyingly has stories within stor¬ "Rita Hayworth and Shawshak Re- HEADS, the stories are tied together ies. Here Stephen King gives us his denption" (approx. 38,000 wds.) tells in various ways. A character from addition to the ranks of literature's of a remarkable individual who is one will be briefly mentioned in an¬ clubs. This club is comprised of sent to prison on a life sentence. other, an image or particular phrase elderly gentlemen very like those in The first half of the story leisure¬ or bit of business will be repeated 's . ly (but with enough hooks to open a and there is a subtle relationship After describing his first Christ¬ bait and tackle shop) gives an anec¬ between the themes. The first story mas meeting there and giving a few dotal creation of the man's character is about convicts, the second about delectable hints as to the tradition¬ and prison ambiance. a former conmandant of a concentra¬ ally, macabre tale told that night, tion can;), the third about some young Mr. King, after what is clearly men¬ Just as the protagonist seems to boy's confrontation with death and tioned as the second Christmas meet¬ have the system working for him and the fourth about birth. That is one ing, recounts a different story told in the process be well on his way to way of looking at the thematic link¬ that night and states it was the becoming a Cool Hand Luke mythic fig¬ age. There are others. first Christmas tale he heard there. ure, Mr. King, as in THE STAND, re¬ Stephen King has set almost all "The Breathing Method" is not anoth¬ veals that none of that is what the of his writing in the same world. er Christmas tale, but the best of story is really about. Stephen King Science fiction, fantasy, horror and the Christmas tales. is one of the few novelists vrtio knows mainstream all exist and overlap in Well, now bozos at parties or how to get away with this, or would the world of Stephen King. "The dare to try. The story, as it turns what-not may stop saying things like Body" is set in Castle Rock, vdiere "Sure, you give good horror, Stevie- out, is about escape and -- some¬ the killings in THE DEAD ZONE took thing else. Baby, but when are you going to grow place and the area where CUJO went up and do something serious?" That there will eventually be an 28 THE ARCHIUES

AFTER THE CRASH-SURVIVAL INVEST¬ THE SUN SHINES BRIGHT ING DURING THE FINANCIAL CRISIS OF By Isaac Asimov the 1980s By Geoffrey F. Albert. Avon/Discus, $2.95 Signet, $3.95 Seventeen of his science columns Revised and updated to 1982, from F8SF, 1980-81. this book sees radical changes forc¬ ed by events in the USA and world¬ wide; depression, revolts, break¬ STORM SEASON Edited by Robert Lynn Asprin downs of vital services. In any Ace, $2.95 case a drastic lowering of living Fantasy anthology centered a- standards. Albert advises moving round the planet Sanctuary. ITiis to a safe place and investing in is the fourth of a series. Stories supersafe ways. in this volume are by Asprin, C.J. A classic quote in the book: Cherryh, Diana L. Paxson, Lynn Ab- We have seen the development of a be^', Janet Morris, and Andrew J. society in which "half the people Offutt. work for a living, and the other half vote for it." DHAMPIRE By Scott Baker Timescape/Pocket, $2.95, Dec. 1982. Occult fantasy novel. AMAZING STORIES January, 1983 $1.50 BEST OF BEAUMONT By Charles Beaumont Obviously making a bid for a Bantam, $2.95 top - rated status with a clever/ TWenty-two stories. Introduc¬ provocative cover by , tion by . Afterword by and stories by Poul Anderson, Tan- Christopher Beaumont. Charles ith Lee, and . Beaumont died in 1966.

MAURAI & KITH By Poul Anderson BLOODED ON ARACHNE By Tor, $2.75 Timescape/Pocket, $3.50, Jan. 1983. Five stories about the People Thirteen science fiction short of the Sea and the People of the stories, all by Bishop. Stars.

NEW AMERICA By Poul Anderson AND ALL THE STARS A STAGE BEDLAM PLANET By John Brunner. Tor, $2.50 Dec. 1982 By James Blish Ballantine, $2.25. Second edition. Stories collected for the first Avon, $2.25 First published in 1968. time about the freedom-oriented Reprint of a 1971 Doubleday novel, which was a rewritten 1960 colony planet. New America, and THE DRAMATURGES OF YAN AMAZING novel. A race flees a dy¬ its struggle to stay free from a By John Brunner ing sun system in a small fleet of dictatorial Earth. Also included Del Rey, $2.50 survival ships. are "The Queen of Air and Darkness" An ancient race on an alien and ".Home." planet, human colonists—conflict TEST OF FIRE By Ben Bova of a special kind. First published THE GODS LAUGHED By Poul Anderson Tor, $2.95 in 1972. Tor, $2.95 Part of this novel was publish¬ New novel about contact with ed separately, in substantially dif¬ THE WEBS OF EVERYWHERE ferent form, as WHEN THE SKY BURNED, By John Brunner in 1973. Ballantine, $2.25 January, 1983 Reprinted (1974) sf novel about Ballantine, $2.95 January, 1983 COLONY By Ben Bova the consequences of matter-transmit- New Xanth novel. Fantasy. Timescape/Pocket, $3.95 Jan. 1983 Fifth printing of this near-fu¬ ture sf novel about a degenerate, CINNABAR By Edward Bryant dying Earth and its space colonies. COUNTING THE EONS By Isaac Asimov Bantam, $2.50 Doubleday, $13.95, Jan. 1983 A mosaic of stories about the city at the center of time. Seventeen science essays from THE JUDAS MANDALA First published by Macmillan in FGSF. By Damien Broderick Timescape/Pocket Books, $2.50. 1976.

MEGALODON By Robin Brown ISAAC ASIMOV PRESENTS THE GR^T Playboy, $2.75, 1982. SF STORIES: VOLUME EIGHT-1946 Edited by Isaac Asimov and Martin A 200-foot-long ancestor of H. Greenberg. DAW, $3.50 the shark, thought extinct, is KESRICK By Lin Carter Sixteen stories, most from not. Near-future sf novel. DAW, $2.25 ASTOUNDING. 29 'An adult fantasy.' FANTASY ANNUAL 7 2010: ODYSSEY TV» THE MECHANICAL GODJ MACHINES IN Edited By Terry Carr SCIENCE FICTION Timescape, $2.95 By Arthur C. Clarke DelRey/Ballantine, $14.95 Edited by Thomas P. Dunn and Twelve stories, including the Richard D. Erlichs Hugo-winning novelet "The Quicken Sequel to 2001: A Space Odys¬ sey. Greenwood Press, $29.95 ing" by Michael Bishop. Also a 88 Post Road West, P.O. Box 5007, section of Recommended Reading. Westport, CT 06881 A TAPESTRY OF MAGICS Quality hardcover, subtitled By Brian Daley 'Contributions to the Study of Sci¬ Del Rey, $2.95 February, 1983 CARIFEX MARDI GRAS By John F. Carr ence Fiction and Fantasy, No. 1.' Pequod Press Hardcover $12. New fantasy novel: 'An action- POB 122 Signed 5 numbered, $20 filled fantasy set in a world where Northridge, CA 91328 any character from myth or reality QUEEN OF SORCERY By David Eddings. The 21st Century, high-tech, a may be found--from Robin Hood's un¬ Ballantine, $2.95. Book TWo of The Belgariad. PAWN OF PROPHESY was period of virtually total personal merry men to Count Dracula.' freedom--used by some to explore the first book. Forthcoming novels in the series are: MAGICIAN'S GAM¬ weird, grotesque religions, life¬ THE ELECTRONIC COTTAGE styles, body-alterations, drugs. BIT, CASTLE OF WIZARDRY and ENCHANT¬ By Joseph Deken ED END GAME. Not truly a novel. Segments Bantam New Age, $3.95 of lives — Roald Vallen, award¬ All about computers and how winning holotape producer/director they are and will impact on the #28 whose artform is fading from favor, individual and the home. The visi¬ Edited by Charles Elkins and Robert seeks to rejuvenate his career by ble possibilities are fabulous. M. Philmus an expose of the mysterious Jack- SFS Publications, $5.50 son Hole Enclave. He finds warped R.M. Philmus, DHALGREN By Samuel R. Delany rites of passage---a kind of deadly English Dept. CONCORDIA UNIV., Bantam, $3.95 initiation—to true "citizenship" 7141 Sherbrooke St W., Redistribution of the 15th in the Enclave. Montreal, CJuebec, printing of this rite-of-passage/ And in Part TV/o a youth captur¬ CANADA H4B 1R6 metaphysical/search-for-meaning ed from the gang-controlled Teener Heavy academic raking over sf. Town is purchased by a Jackson novel about youth in a destroyed Hole resident and forced to become future. THE PRINCES OF THE AIR one of the family and then to endure By John M. Ford The Crying Clown Rites, too. THE DRAGON LORD By David Drake Timescape, $2.50 In Park Three, "The Dance of Tor, $2.95 Dec. 1982 Space adventure in a galactic the rwarfs," Allen Heart, a vicious Excellent told enpire by the author of WEB OF talkshow host with 82 million view¬ with a gritty realism and which in¬ ANGELS. ers, is kidnapped and surgically troduces two new major characters altered into a dwarf as revenge by to rival Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser. the king of the dwarfs. Meet Starkad and Mael, two excep¬ None of these major characters tional mercenaries in the time of are likeable or worth caring about. King Arthur who in the end are re¬ They're all warped by their society. quired to help kill a dragon The segments of this "novel" only CHIMERA By Stephen Gallagher barely track together, and the pur¬ St. Martin's Press $13.95 pose is still obscured. This book THE CABAL #3: THE EVANGELIST "A terrifying novel of genetic is a prequel to John F. Carr and By Philip Dunn engineering gone wrong." Camden Benare's eight volume work Berkley, $2.25 December, 1982. 'about the trials and trails of the The Cabal is (apparently) a Third Jesus.' loose alliance of supercriminals THE PIRATES OF ROSINANTE That Jesus is introduced in the of the future whose adventures in By Alexis A. Gilliland final pages of the Allen Heart seg¬ the galaxy are followed in this DelRey, $2.50 Dec. 1982 ment by matter-of-factly performing series. This third Rosinante novel a miracle—raising a dead woman to These were (are?) first publish¬ continues the space colony's trials life. ed in England. The two previous and tribulations in its struggle This fragmentary novel is a titles are THE CABAL and THE BLACK with the space forces of Earth na¬ kind of s^le of the civilization MOON. tions for freedom. Ruler of Rosi¬ involved in this projected series, This adventure features Pinball, nante, Cantrell, plays the odds and and a sampler of the people. It's 'Olympic wrestler and brilliant has exquisite help from sentient intriguing, it could be inpressive, tactician with a taste for nuns. 8 computers. Mix in a computer-origi¬ and important. I hope further books known wives, 64 offspring. Wanted nated space religion, satire of the of the series are published. for usual crimes plus matrimonial third kind, and you have a curiously The many, many full-page Fabian offenses.' readable adventure series. There’s illustrations are very fine. The The four other members of the hard science, too, which baffles me. production values of this hardback cabal are as bizarre in talents and are very high. predilections. TTie writing style is thin and THE WARRIOR ENCHAINED littered with present-day colloquial¬ CHARON: A DRAGON AT THE GATE By Sharon Green isms; the plausibility quotient is DAW, $2.95 January, 1983 By Jack L. Chalker. near zero. Ballantine, $2.95. Book Three of Quoting the backcover blurbs is The Four Lords of the Diamond series. probably enough. I've dipped into this 352 page novel enough to say the writing is a turnoff for me: I BLACK FIRE By Sonni Cooper found the style clumsy and cute and Timescape/Pocket, $2.95, Jan. 1983. a pain to read. A Star Trek original adventure. 30 'Terry was Central's Prime in- telligence agent. Her talent made HEARTLAND By David Hagberg conscious through his "science fic¬ her nearly priceless as an inter¬ Tor, $3.50 Jan. 1983 tion” writings. 'Fantasy' here is planetary operative. Yet there came Near-future novel about the de¬ used in its broad meaning, not as a time when that price had to me met. pendence of the world on U.S. grain genre as we know it. This is a The barbarian Tammad demanded it and and a plot by the Soviets to ruin very cognitive book. Terry's bosses were willing to meet the grain crop by means of a grain disease. 'As Famine threatens, 'So she was tricked into return¬ there are no rules to war.' ing to a world that considered women And who controls the world's the property of their men-and a PULLING THROUGH By food supply controls the world. hig'nly civilized one such as Terry Ace, $2.95 January, 1983 to be a prize possession. A very hard near-future atomic war novel loaded with how-to-survive- 'But Terry was a warrior at MISPLACED PERSONS By Lee Harding in- the-resulting-radioactivity-and- heart and though her role called Bantam, $2.25; ,Jan.l983. First social-chaos information. for submission to dominance and ev¬ published by Harper 5 Row, 1979 /Ind, to make the book must-have, en bondage, she was prepared to use A teenage boy gradually fades in the final section are fact arti¬ all her feminine wiles and secret- from our world. His parents, girl¬ cles showing/telling of jury-rigged agent cunning to show a primitive friend, waitresses...all ignore survival equipment that can be made, world just who would be its true him and fail to see him, think about and used. him. He enters a grey universe of A rough book to read because of 'IF YOU LIKE JOHN NORMAN, ghostlike, non-useable, non-edible the brutal reality of its basic, YOU WILL LIKE SHARON GREEN.' things... But there are a few items, all-too-believable premise. This is written from Terry's a few places — and two people who point-of-view. Terry is a mind- also exist in this strange plane of reader of sorts. existence: an old man and a girl. A WOMAN OF THE FUTURE The book is packaged blatantly They scrounge for enough to eat and By David Ireland to appeal to the John Norman GOR drink and try to make sense of their Bantam Windstone, $3.95 readership, especially the women predicament. j\ novel set in a future Aus¬ readers, as it indulges their sub¬ Then the old man disappears. tralia, about a young woman who mission/bondage fantasies and yet Then the girl. And finally the boy somehow changes into a leopard. provides a core of female superior¬ feels the darkness closing in on him. This has the taint of literary ity to the structure. The mystery is explained, sort- speculative/symbolic/social fiction, of, and the reader is left with a and then some. feeling of having been cheated. TOE BROKEN CITADEL This short novel touches deep By Joyce Ballou Gregorian fears in adolescents but is frustrat¬ TOE DEFENDER Ace, $2.95 January, 1983 ing for adults. By High fantasy novel with the Lee Harding is a long-time sf Tor,$5.95 usual medieval-like feintasy land fan and writer who lives in Austral- A new Conan adventure. Trade with a queen of dark sorcery, a paperback edition--but with pulp prince on a quest, an imprisoned paper. princess, a dragon.... and a girl protagonist from our world who en¬ TOE STAINLESS STEEL RAT FOR Robert Jordan is an excellent ters via a "window." PRESIDENT By colorful action writer who easily Bantam, $2.75 takes Conan through a t;^ical Conan A new "Slippery Jim" diGriz adventure defending a king, opposing TOE ROAD TO SCIENCE FICTION #4 adventure in the 30th Century. an evil sorcerer, contending with FROM HERE TO FOREVER various beautiful women and intrig¬ uing groups in the city of Nemedia. Edited and with an Introduction UNDERSEA By Paul Hazel and Notes by James Gunn Tor will be publishing another Boston: Atlantic--Little, Brown Jordan CONAN novel in April: CONAN Mentor $4.95 $14.95. Fantasy hardcover novel; Thirty-one stories, 531 pages. THE UNGONQUERED. second book of a trilogy. First Again: Jordan is very good at More cream off the top of decades book was YEAKVOOD. of sf. this—sensual, detailed, action/ suspense oriented. Robert E. Howard TOE HUMBOLDT EFFECT By Delia Huddy would approve. Greenwillow Books, $9.50. Science fiction Juvenile novel. H.P. LOVECRAFT By S.T. Joshi Starmond Reader's Guide #13, $5.95 UMiT/lOR, SOFTLY WALKS TOE BEAST By Thomas 0. D. Hunter Avon, $2.75 An after-the-bomb survival novel. Looks good’.' WINTERMIND By and Doubleday, $15.95 TOE LOGIC OF FANTASY: H.G. WELLS This novel continues the epic AND SCIENCE FICTION future begun in THE MASTERS OF By John Huntington SOLITUDE. Press $22.50 562 West 113th Street, New York, NY 10025 Heavy academic analysis dissects Wells' thinking, conscious and un¬ HOME TO AVALON By Arthur H. Landis 31 DAW, $2.50 A WORLD CALLED CAMELOT DRAGON LORD OF THE SAVAGE EMPIRE rang in the hallways, and the arch¬ By Arthur H. Landis By Jean Lorrah ing ceilings echoed back the clash E&w, $2.35 Playboy, $2.75, Dec. 1982. of falling swords. Joiry's command¬ Revised, rewritten version of Fantasy novel. er was brought, still struggling the 1969 novel, LET THERE BE NIAGICK violently, before the conqueror. by "James R. Keaveny". Standing tall, armor running red with blood, Jirel of Joiry refused to surrender her home, and vowed BATTLESTAR GALACTICA to her enemy that his victory By Glen A. Larson and Robert THE IMPULSE OF would cost him his life, and more. Thurston. By C.N. Manlove 'That very night Joiry's Lady Berkley, $2.50 Dec. 1982. Kent State University Press $17.50 crept by secret ways to the castle's First published in 1978, this Kent, OH 44242 deepest dungeon. Laying her strong is this novel's sixth printing. Looking deep, Manlove sees fan¬ hands upon a forbidden door, she There are six sequels in this ser- tasy as a reaction against technolo¬ bade farewell to the world of gy and the subsequent enforced dis¬ treacherous men—then walked of tancing between man and nature. her own will through the doorway RETIEF AND THE WARLORDS Fantasy celebrates individuality and into Hell, in search of her By Keith Laumer and being, feeling, a special kind revenge. ' Timescape/Pocket, $2.50; Fourth of wonder. Pocket printing. First published Tech future shock has apparent¬ in 1968. EARTH DREAMS by Janet Morris ly produced a growing nostalgia/ Berkley, $2.75 Dec. 1982. Pulp-style interstellar diplo¬ yearning for a natural, impossible TTie final volume of the Kerrion macy/adventure . medievalism with wish and daring. En5)ire saga. DREAM DANCER and EARTH This is a quality hardback and DREAMS are the other volumes. KNIGHT OF DELUSIONS By Keith Uumer publication date is January 20, 1983, First published in hardback in Tor, $2.75 I wryly note that the book was print Sept. 1982 by Berkley-Putnam. The short title novel is joined ed in Hong Kong. And this book has by a novelette. an English edition by Macmillan Press, Ltd. THE WINE OF VIOLENCE By James Morrow The short title novel, first pub¬ Ace, $2.75 lished in 1973, is joined by a nov¬ 'A science fiction fable.' Writ¬ elet, "Thunderhead" (1963), and a THE JEDI master's QUIZ BOOK ten in a breezy, pulpish, almost juv¬ long short story, "The Last Command" Conpiled by Rusty Miller. enile style. (1971). Ballantine, $1.95. Trivia Q's 8 A's. THE UNHOLY By Alex Nebrensky retief: diplomat at arms OMEN IV: ARMAGEDDON 2000 Signet, $2.95 By Keith Laumer By Gordon McGill Supernatural horror novel. Timescape/Pocket Books, $2.75. Signet, $3.50, Oct. 1982. Stories collected from the 60s. Latest in this occult series. THE MAGIC MAY RETURN Interesting that this novel is Edited by Larry Niven RED AS BLOOD By copyrighted by 20th Century Fox. Ace, $2.95 January, 1983 DAW, $2.50 January, 1983 A fantasy anthology by Poul Subtitled "Tales from the Sis¬ THE BLUE SWORD By Robin McKinley Anderson, Steve Barnes, Mildred ters Grimmer," this is a 9-story Greenwillow Books,$11.SO. Downey Broxon and Dean Ing, who fantasy collection. Fantasy Juvenile novel. created their stories to fit into [Greenwillow Books, 105 Madison Av., the fantasy/magic world created THE EYE OF THE HERON New York, NY 10016] by Larry Niven in his reprinted By Ursula K. Le Guin novelette "Not Long Before the Harper 8 Row, $11.95 January, 1983 THE ODDS ARE MURDER By Mike McQuay End." This short sf novel originally A Mathew Swain adventure A trade paperback edition was appeared in the anthology MILLENNIAL Bantam, $2.50 published in 1981. The fourth Mathew Swain sf fu¬ WOMEN, EDITED BY and ture private eye novel. BLOOD BROTHERS OF GOR published by Delacorte Press, 1978. By John Norman The themes are similar to those DAW, $3.50 in her ; the evils THE FIRES OF PARATIFE By L.E. Modesitt, Jr. A lot more of the same. This of capitalism exaggerated, the re¬ Timescape, $2.95 is the 18th book of the Tarl Cabot bellion of the oppressed who are Science-fantasy novel. saga. Pure macho fantasy. better off separating themselves from the contamination of Greed and ALL IN GOOD TIME its evil consequences. In this THE WAR HOUND AND THE WORLD'S PAIN story there are strong-willed women By Edward Ormondroyd By Michael Moorcock playing key roles in the desperate Bantam, $1.95 February, 1983. Timescape, $2.50 minority's struggle to escape into , An intriguing, tough fantasy the Uncharted wilderness of an un¬ intended for Young Adults; a sequel involving an unusual deal with the explored planet. to TIME AT THE TOP. Devil. Multileveled.

JIREL OF JOIRY By C.L. Moore channel's DESTINY Ace $2.75 By Jean Lorrah and Jacqueline Fantasy stories from the Thirties Lichtenberg packaged as a Feminist Fantasy novel: DAVY By Edgar Pangbom. Doubleday, $11.95 'The heavy boots of invaders Ballantine, $2.75. A new Sime/Gen novel. Second printing. First pub¬ 32 lished in 1964. LADY OF LIGHT By Diana L. Paxson Roland Green, and is copyrighted in analog's lighter SIDE Tijnescape/Pocket, $2.75, Dec. 1982. both names, though Green's name Edited by Stanley Schmidt Hie First Book of Westria, a does not appear on the cover [yet Dial Press, $12.95 January, 1983. fantasy series. does on the title page---a screw-up Thirteen-story anthology. Intro¬ by the publisher?]. duction by Schmidt. Numerous illus¬ trations by Kelly Freas, and by Ed TITUS GROAN $18.95 Cartier, John Sanchez, Jack Gaughan, GORFENGHAST $18.95 DELIA OF VALLIA By Dray Prescot Vincent Di Fate. TITUS ALONE $18.95 DAW, $2.35 Humorous science fiction. By Mervyn Peake This is the 28th "Dray Prescot" liie Overlook Press novel of his adventures on the c/o Viking Press planet Kregen. This series used to NIFFT THE LEAN By Daw, $2.95 625 Madison Av. be written by "Alan Burt Akers." A novel, subtitled "Raiders New York, NY 10022 Behind all these pseudonyms is Ken of the infernal domains," with a The Gormenghast trilogy in Bulmer. quality hardback. This definitive marvelous Michael Whelan cover painting. text, representing the author's OPERATION LONGLIFE final intentions, is available in By E. Hoffman Price no other edition in the USA. Ballantine, $2.75 January, 1983 ALPHA CENTAURI By Robert Siegel Introduction by Anthony Burgess. New sf novel about Avery Jarvis Berkley $3.95 Trade paperback. Many black 8 white illustra¬ "Doc" Brandon, a 186-year-old gene Fantasy tions in each volume by Peake. engineer who looks 35. A lot of A remarkable saga. people desperately want his secret. THE BOOK OF SKULLS Set in the 21st Century. By Robert Silverberg PHILIP K. DICK By Hazel Pierce Bantam, $2.95 Starmont Reader's Guide #12, $4.95 OPERATION MISFIT A fascinating, well-character¬ By E. Hoffman Price ized metaphysical/sf search for THE DEADLY SKY By Doris Piserchia Ballantine, $2.75 January, 1983 possible immortality. Tensioned! DAW, $2.50 January, 1983 Reprinted sf novel (1980) about First published by Scribner's Science fiction novel. a social misfit, exiled into space, in 1972. who discovers an alien race and in¬ credible mineral wealth. This pre¬ OUT OF THEIR MINDS By Clifford Simak yesterday's tomorrows sents Earth's 21st Century Thought DAW, $2.50 January, 1983 Edited by Frederik Pohl Control Board even more problems. Fantasy novel. Berkley, $9.95. Large trade paper¬ back. Thirty-four stories and ex¬ cerpts selected from the eras and SPECIAL DELIVERANCE formats of sf through the decades. By Clifford D. Simak Del Rey, $2.75 A word about the above trade SIDESHOW By Mike Resnick Time travel enigma novel. paperback : the paper used is a good Signet, $2.50, Oct. 1982. First paperback edition. quality pulp. It is the same paper, Tales of the Galactic Midway, I think, used in regular size #1. Aliens show up in a freak show, SHAKESPEARE'S PLANET paperback books. The Pohl book is in a carnival. over 400 pages of small type, so may By Qifford D. Simak be worth the price. It's doubtful Del Rey, $2.75 the book will last long or survive KING OF THE WOOD Lone survivor of a 1000-year many readings. By John Maddox Roberts space journey...and intriguing Doubleday, $11.95, Jan. 1983 Simakian complications on a new planet. First published in 1976. UNDERSEA QUEST In 1450 A.D.--sword and sorcery. By Frederik Pohl 8 Jack Williamson Del Rey, $1.95 THE 57TH THE VOID captain's TALE A 1954 Juvenile about undersea By Rudy Rucker By living and intrigue. Ace, $2.50 January, 1983 , $13.95, Jan. 1983. The latest Rucker Wonder; a sto¬ His new sf novel. Dynamite ry collection involving weird, ex¬ premises. UNDERSEA FLEET istential, surrealistic mathematical By Frederik Pohl 8 Jack Williamson bends of his mind. Then there is Ballantine, $1.95 "Hyperspherical Space and Beyond" This 1956 sf juvenile (in its which will warp your mind! EARTH IS HEAVEN By E.C. Tubb second Ballantine edition) continues DAW $2.25 the adventures of Cadet James Eden This is the 27th novel in the of the Sub-Sea Academy. THE KILL By Alan Ryan IKimerest of Terra series. In this Tor, $2.95 book Earl Dumerest is about to blast New horror novel. off in a starship in a very promis¬ WALL AROUND A STAR ing voyage to find at long last the By Frederik Pohl and Jack Williamson legendary planet Earth, mythical DEL REY, $2.95 birthplace of humanity. But first Sequel to FARTHEST STAR. there is this problem with the de¬ Available 2/83 monic Cyclan and a conspiracy....

CLAN AND CROWN By Jerry Poumelle Ace $5.95 8 Roland Green A ROSE FOR ARMAGEmON The second JANISSARIES sf novel. By Hilbert Schenck A VATICAN AFFAIR By Maria Valdemi Illustrated by Josep M. Martin Timescape/Pocket Books, $2.50. Tor, $2.95 Sauri. Trade paperback. This is a A Nazi, now a Cardinal, may be¬ collaboration between Poumelle and 33 come the new pope. THE NETWORK REVOLUTION-CONFESSIONS RIGHT WHERE YOU ARE SITTING NOW sorcerer's LEGACY By Janny Wurts OF A COMPUTER SCIENTIST By Robert Anton Wilson Ace, $2.50 By Jacques Vallee And/Or Press, $7.95 A fantasy novel about a woman And/Or Press, $7.95 Trade paperback, quality book trapped in a strange land of wizards Trade paperback, quality paper. paper. Further tales, essays, ideas, and power struggles. A perspective from inside the revolu¬ speculations, essays, commentaries on tion and of its far-reaching impacts the Illuminati and other things of on humanity. interest.

TO LIVE FOREVER By Jack Vance ELSEWHERE—TALES OF FANTASY, vOL II TEMPTING FATE By Chelsea Quinn Yarbro DAIV $2.50 Edited by Signet, $3.95 Sf novel, originally publi.shed 6 Mark Alan Arnold Yarbro's hero vampire. Count in 1956. Ace, $2.95 November, 1982 Saint-Germain, battles the Nazis. A New anthology featuring twelve long novel—662 pages. new fantasy stories, seven reprinted THE CURSE OF THE WITCH QUEEN stories, and thirteen poems. Also, By Paula Volsky many very good pencil drawings by Del Rey, $2.95 Terri Windling. New fiction by such EYE OF CAT By High fantasy. First publica- as , Joanna Russ, Evangel¬ Timescape hardcover, $13.95. ine Walton, Patricia A. McKillip, and . DILVISH., THE DA^MED By Roger Zelaz¬ ny. Ballantine, $2.50. STEPHEN KING By Douglas E. Winter Dilvish is recently delivered Starmont Reader's Guide #16, $5.95 from the spell of Jelerek, the evil Series editor for the Guides is sorcerer who bound him for hundreds THE BOOK OF THE DUN COW Roger C. Schlobin. Each contain of years in Hell. He has vowed By Walter Wangerin, Jr. analysis, bibliographies, an index. to kill Jelerek and is on the trail Pocket Books, $2.50. of the ageless, eternal sorcerer Fantasy novel, first published all through this book. SCIENCE FICTION DIALOGUES in 1978; second PB printing. There is one minor confrontat- Edited by Gary Wolfe tion at the tower of ice. Academy Chicago, $8.95 Dilvish's conpanion/steed is a THE SWORD OF BHELEU 425 N. Michigan Av. By Lawrence Watt-Evans kind of intelligent, magical steel Chicago, IL 60611 horse of great power. Del Rey/Ballantine, $2.50 Essays by Aldiss, Gunn, Budrys Advance copy of this third The writing of t’nese stories, and others. An overview of sf, progressing from 1964 through 1981 fantasy of the adventures of Garth with rather interesting examina¬ the overman. To be published 1/83. or 82, changes from a bare-bones, tions of various aspects. Many high-fantasy narrative to that of Garth is the possessor of (and is pages of resource materials. A lot possessed by) the fearful sword of jocular, almost satiric dialogue- of valmble material here for even style in the final, latest story, Bheleu, the god of destruction. a casual fan/reader. The first paragraph shows Watt- "Dilvish, the Damned," as if Zel¬ The format is trade paperback, azny himself couldn't take the saga Evans to be a skilled writer, and with good book paper. an effective one; I hope to find seriously any longer. time to read this. THE SWORD OF THE LICTOR COILS By By Roger Zelazny and Fred Saberhagen THE HANGING STONES Timescape/Pocket, $2.95; First pap¬ Tor, $2.95 By erback edition: Dec. 1982. First New collaborative novel about Doubleday, $11.95, 1982. published in 1981. giant computers and giant corporat- This is the fourth Silver John This is Volume Three of The tions. Many sketchy full-page illos novel. The others: THE OLD GODS Book of the New Sun. Superior by Ron Miller. WAKEN, AFTER DARK, and THE LOST AND science fiction. The story deals in standard THE LURKING. Volume One: THE SHADOW OF THE ways with a memory-wiped psi-talent- TORTURER. Volume Two: THE CLAW OF THE ed man who gradually discovers who and what he is and who finally brings BREAK OF DARK by Robert Westall CONCILIATOR. Greenwillow Books $9.50 down the super-corporation and its 105 Madison Av leader who used and abused him and New York, NY. 10016 THE CITADEL OF THE AUTARCH others. Some good, imaginative A five-story collection about By Gene Wolfe bits and characters, intriguing ac¬ strange and unnatural occurrences. Timescape [hardcover], $15.95 tion. For ages 12 and up. Westall is an This is the fourth and the 'clim¬ award-winning author. actic' superb volume of the saga of THE TWILIGHT ZONE COMPANION Severian the Torturer in THE BOOK OF By Mark Scott Zicree THE NEW SUN. CITY OF CAIN By Bantam, $9.95 Timescape/Pocket Books, $2.75. Previous volumes were: Trade paperback, good book Novel, first published in 1974. THE SHADOW OF THE TORTURER paper. A chronicle of THE TWI¬ THE CLAW OF THE CONCILIATOR LIGHT ZONE TV show, with over 200 THE SWORD OF THE LICTOR. THE QUEEN OF THE LEGION photos, a synopsis of each of the By Jack Williamson 150+ episodes. Rod Sirling's open¬ Timescape/Pocket, $2.95 Jan. 1983. ing and closing narrations, and THE PLAYGROUND By T.M. Wright con^jlete cast listings. In short, Space adventure novel. The Tor, $2.95 latest in the Legion of Space series. everything you'd want to know about Occult horror novel. THE TWILIGHT ZONE and its creator. 34 able, and there are at least two images that reappear, word-for-word, elsewhere in King books. Wouldn't you know it, a fast-flick through my copy hasn't turned up either of them, but the one which sticks in my mem¬ ory is that of eyes "hard and shiny like doorknobs" which also appears in THE MIST, King's long novelette in the DARK FORCES collection. THE LONG WALK is by no means a poor work, so I think we have to look elsewhere for an explanation of the pseudonym. Maybe it covers a collaboration, but I don't believe this. More likely, is the idea that it's a response to genre pressures. You couldn't really get away with calling it anything other than SF. BY STEVE GALLAGHER Sometimes you can just about manage it with a near-future story that doesn't feature outlandish hardware, but in this case the nature of the contest itself can't be disguised as For a while now, I've been trying ry that I might have become a faddist anything other than a feature of a to come to terms with something I can¬ instead of a plain old fan. Faith projected tomorrow. Which makes it not easily understand. As I've grad¬ was restored by my discovery of the SF, which places it firmly in the ually been sliding into fandom over Gunslinger series in F5SF; a thunder- good old ghetto. ing dudT I fell on it with relief.) the last couple of years, I've also Pause for a digression. I don't been falling out of love with SF. Besides, I wouldn't like to see want to rehash all the arguments The growing involvement and the grow¬ character downgraded against plot; about the so-called SF ghetto, partly ing disillusionment have been proceed¬ SF's reviewers would seem to agree, because I don't know all of them and ing at roughly the same rate and I but amongst the paying public perhaps partly because the ones that I do was beginning to wonder if the two the feeling has never really become know can get a bit dull. Instead, might be related. widespread. The (in my view) damag¬ let me try to draw an inference from But now I'm pretty sure they're ing notion of "the idea as hero" another field altogether. not. As a way of attempting to ex¬ still has a lot to answer for. But A few years ago, when I had a plain why, I'd like to talk about a now I'm getting ahead of myself. steady job and a better-than-average minor SF work that made a brief ap¬ IHE LONG WALK was sneaked out income, I used to collect movies on pearance on the bookstands and then by NEL in large numbers but with no eight millimeter film. Video was faded away without leaving much of a promotion. It had an indifferent cov¬ around but hadn't taken off; there trace. It was called THE LONG WALK, er with one of those "in the great were more incompatible systems than by one Richard Bachman; I think I tradition of ..." copy lines that you could count and the whole idea saw a single medium-tenperature re¬ serve more as a waming-off than as seemed doomed anyway. view of the book in a British fan¬ encouragement; in this case, the zine. "great tradition" was that of ROL- The paucity of titles available Rumor reached me a couple of LERBALL. The similarities are so was easily compensated for by the weeks before it appeared that THE superficial that they're barely worth avidity of collectors. Print quality LONG WALK was, in fact, a pseudony¬ talking about; near-future society, varied from lousy to really lousy, mous effort from Stephen King, and public catharsis achieved through a with the honorable exception of Dis¬ so I went looking. King is one of nationally-hyped contest involving ney material. The Trufans -- sorry, those writers whose works I tend to genuine suffering and death. Howev¬ the most ardent collectors -- gather¬ devour, and I'd probably go out and er, whilst the ROLLERBALL movie turn¬ ed for conventions where there were buy his COLLECTED NOTES TO THE MAIL¬ ed out to be little more than Conan MAN. He's what I'd call an invisible on rollerskates, THE LONG WALK avoid¬ stylist; subtle without being obvious¬ ed showy action and heroics; here ly clever, stylish without being the story is of a group of ordinary showy, providing dazzle without ob¬ teenagers, all volunteers, walking Li- take You To vious razzle ... I hate him. When until they drop. Those who drop and you're a new arrival just starting don't get up are shot where they lie; to make a living at this game (I call at the end, the single survivor is it the struggling phase of my auto¬ declared the winner and allowed to biography) , the last thing you need name his own reward. is somebody making it look so easy. And that's really all the plot Not everybody agrees with me there is. Internal evidence for the about King; the conmonest criticism book being one of King's is high and I've heard is that his books are out for me, convincing. There are open¬ of balance, his attention to charac¬ ing quotations in which Thomas Car¬ ter exceeding his attention to plot. lyle and are happily jux¬ All I can say is. I've never found taposed, and a -New H^pshire it to be so. (In fact, my enthusiasm setting. The no-frills, sharply evo¬ for King as a writer has been so un¬ cative style is immediately recogniz- critical that I was starting to wor¬ 35 screenings, panel discussions and this would be the case, and the kind will be that which the industry dealers' stalls. There were amateur of fiction we'd get as a result would presses writers to produce. If you press magazines on offer, filled be marvelous to behold. Unfortunate¬ want to succeed within the genre, with film reviews and capable of mak¬ ly, what we'd more probably get is you have to play it the genre's way; ing you rethink your ideas of punctu¬ SF's complete disappearance. It and if you want to avoid those re¬ ation. The future was looking good; lives as a genre because there's a strictions and take your chance in more titles, bigger titles, improved self-defining and repeat-buying mark¬ the mainstream, then you have to print and sound quality. et for it; remove that by some kind leave your SF credentials at the gate of campaign of de-classifying titles on your way out. Or you can take a But then video finally managed and de-spacifying covers, and the trip in from the outside, but you'd to crawl out of its egg and 8mm start¬ publishing industry will no longer better make sure it's under an as¬ ed to die on its feet. The big stud¬ have a target group to serve/exploit sumed name. As far as the future of ios and the distributors -- the "pub¬ (choose either term depending on SF is concerned, it's a no-win situa- lishers" of the film titles -- saw a your prejudices). growing mass-market of casual users with considerably more spending pow¬ So when King, a writer whose But meanwhile, there's fandom, er than the small hard core of film mainstream appeal has taken him to that refuge for the disillusioned. buffs, and they swung their marketing the top of the world's bestseller Pass the bottle, and I'll tell you guns around accordingly. lists (don't blame me if this isn't about the days when I thought Alfred accurate, blame Dick Cavett), comes It made good business sense. Un¬ Bester was God ... up with a piece of undisguisable SF, fortunately, the hard core will nev¬ you can almost hear the editorial er believe it; they continue to talk shudders. An SF tag on a mainstream about the amazing opportunities that writer is just bad news. To get auto¬ the companies are missing by overlook¬ biographical for a moment, last year ing them. During a panel discussion I sold a novel to a publisher vdiich at the last filmcon that I attended, was mainstream-classifiable, and then someone stood up and, gesturing a- I offered to the same house a pure round the hall, said that it was SF work. This was bought as well, surely a measure of the relative im¬ portance of the video market that but on the contractual condition that they could never get together a gath¬ I'd use a pseudonym for it; the fear ering as inpressive as this. There was that the SF book would actually were about three hundred people in drag down sales of the first book. the place. THE LONG WALK isn't the best SF Well, I can't help it; the anal¬ I've ever read, but it's better than ogy's far too detailed to be ignored. most. What really elevates it for Hie mutually exclusive technologies me is the craft-quality that is TEN YEARS ^ IN SCIENCE FICTION — of film and video have a direct par¬ brought to bear on a simple subject, WINTER., 1973 allel in the distinct and rarely-ov¬ a few dozen kids shuffling down a erlapping genres maintained by the road and gradually reducing in numb¬ BY ROBERT SABELLA publishing industry. SF is a small ers. Although this, in essence, is all that happens, there isn't a part of that market, although the For the past year Frederik slack passage in any of the 2S0 pages. avidity of its supporters and part¬ Werthan has been researching fan¬ Imagine the toughness of it as a writ¬ icipants doesn't really allow them zines. Werthan is the author of ing exercise; you're not even allow¬ to appreciate this. SEDUCTION OF THE INNOCENT, a scath¬ ed to vary the ages of your charac¬ ing attack of comic books in the It's difficult to say vdio does ters to provide differentiation. Fifties that led to the creation more to keep the situation this way, That the characters stand clearly of the Comics Code Authority. Now the publishers or the public. The and separately in the reader's mind he has announced the forthcoming publishers design and run the system, without needing any of the old pulp publication of THE WORLD OF FAN¬ but only in response to what the "tags" is a clear indication that ZINES, while fandom waited with readers appear to want. Every book vdiat we have here is no sinple hack- baited breaths for his conclusions bought is a kind of vote and, as in epr, but the real stuff, clearly pre¬ ... Illinois Institute of Techno¬ any democracy, once the votes have visualized and sincerely executed. logy announced the annual John W. been counted, then the minorities In the British market at least, Cajifibell Memorial Award to be given have to put up with whatever system the book seems to have vanished with¬ for the best original novel of the they get. out a trace. Which is a shame; may¬ year. Winners will be selected by That's how the "ghetto" comes to be it wouldn't be a guaranteed award- a panel of judges and will receive be; and as long as it exists, SF will winner, but it does showcase the kind a monetary grant as well as the be limited. The iconography of the of good writing that has drawn TIME- award itself ... Random House genre was fixed a long time ago, and SCAPE so much praise. Both are "peo¬ purchased but the fiction-as-product system des¬ ple stories" which draw their strength announced that Ian and Betty Bal¬ cribed by Piers Anthony Jacob in SCI¬ and plausibility from their SF con¬ lantine would stay with the com¬ ENCE FICTION REVIEW #43 determines text. An unfortunate and long-last¬ pany as director and editor of that it will be used and re-used ing consequence of the rule of idea Ballantine Books respectively ... rather than developed. So is the as hero has been that the people are TWo authors whose reputations answer, as some advocate, the remov¬ often cut to shape at the last min¬ would grow considerably in the Sev¬ al of divisions between SF and the ute to fill the holes that the story enties made their first big mainstream? allows for them. splashes in science fiction: George R.R. Martin with "The Sec¬ The justification given for this If I thought that either of these ond Kind of Loneliness" in ANALOG is that SF would benefit from many works was a signpost for the future, and Michael Bishop with "Death of the mainstream's stylistic and I'd be heartened; unfortunately, I and Designation Among the Asadi" thanatic advantages whilst the main¬ don't believe it's the case. The SF in IF. stream would get new energy from SF's that we'll largely continue to get ideas-content. In an ideal yyorld 36 THE UfUISECTOR BY DARRELL SCHWEITZER

IN SEARCH OF A "REGULAR" FANTASY sions are enough out of the ordin¬ more recent one, with Ursula Un¬ novel: an experiment in reading ary to seem fantastic. In the sec¬ dress, is the archetypal B-movie. ond century people believed in The book itself has seen countless witchcraft (and at one point Apu¬ reprintings, from mass market pa¬ I'd like to start off on a leius got himself acquitted on perbacks to Modem Library. Mine cheerful note this time by telling such charges), but they did not, is Longman's, 1900. you about two fantasy novels I in the regular course of things, SHE is Lost Race novel, in¬ read recently and enjoyed hugely. see people turned into donkeys, in¬ corporating all the elements which They will become relevant later on. flated pigskins come to life and later became standard. It is also impersonate hunans, eldritch spec¬ The two books are not recent: as Lovecraft remarked, surprisingly tres hang their victims from raft¬ by Lucius Apuleius good, an authentic break-neck nov¬ ers, etc., etc. Routine "super¬ was written in Latin during the el of thrilling adventure, the naturalism" of the day included reign of Marcus Aurelius (c. 170 likes of which the world rarely omens, portents and astrology, A.D.). The author was an African, sees anymore. The opening chap¬ but this novel has a lot more. It from the area which is now Libya. ters are incredibly powerful and was intended as romance, as a fan¬ His native language was Punic, and promising, and for the most part tastic tale. It is the best fan¬ he was Greek by education. He the promise is fulfilled, for all tasy novel to survive from antiq¬ learned Latin on his own as an ad¬ it is somewhat static at times uity, and the only one in Latin. ult, with considerable difficulty, (how exactly a breakneck novel of (The others are all Greek. The according to his own account. As thrilling adventure can be static Latin is a fragment, and a result, the most bizarre and at times I have not the space to is a Roman "mainstream" novel, for archaic Latin words and phrases explain, but when your heart stops all somebody tells a werewolf were no more foreign to him than thunping, you do notice that the story over the dinnertable at one the most commonplace, and he evolv¬ heros tend to stand around chatting point.) ed an incredible prose style. He in the Caves of Kor a lot), and was the Clark Ashton Smith of the You really ought to go out and Haggard tends to run on in poetic ancient world. Ironically, the read it. Skip any three conteirpo- rhEpsodies when he's not very good most famous English translation, rary fantasy novels in the process. that of William Aldington (mid- THE GOLDEN ASS not only handles Go read SHE right away, and 16th Century), makes no attenpt to its fantastic elements well but, also skip any three contemporary reproduce the original style. It in a way that many modem fantas¬ fantasy novels. In a minute I'll was apparently regarded as the Tu¬ ies fail to do, it touches ground get to which three you can skip. dor equivalent of "See Spot run" in reality. For all the dialogue But now let us regard SHE in per¬ prose. To make things more inter¬ is stilted by our standards, the spective as a generic novel which esting, Aldington didn't know Lat¬ people are real. There's a lot of created and then outlived its gen- in very well and committed about earthiness. We are left with a one howler per page, in addition vivid picture of the Roman-ruled to cribbing more from French and Greece in the Second Century the Spanish versions. However, he was author knew. (My copy was publish¬ Fantasy by itself is not a a brilliant writer, and his vers¬ ed by Boni 6 Liverwright in 1927.) genre. It is a broad spectrum of ion remains miraculously readable literature, occurring in every cul¬ after 400 years when the more orn¬ ture in just about every era. On¬ The second book is SHE by H. ate stuff conten5)orary with him ly cultures with dead souls like Rider Haggard (1886). You've definitely is not. It is one of Nazi or Stalinist Russia heard of this one. It's been film¬ the early triumphs of English don't have fantasy of some sort, ed many times. The 1896 Swedish prose, and the intevening years and usually great fantasy. But version, PILLAR OF FIRE, was per¬ have made it quite exotic enough every few centuries, fantasy grows haps the first fantasy film. A for a 20th Century reader. Perhaps a new branch (if you'll allow me now it approximates the original more than Aldington ever imagined.

Hie book itself is a riotous e:^losion of sheer story-telling, filled with hairbreadth adventures, lurid tragedies, witchcraft, shape¬ changing, lust, a touch of per¬ version and sincere religiosity. With a miraculous appearance of the Goddess Isis to straighten everything out at the end. It is clearly a fantasy novel by the standards of its era in the same sense that THE EXORCIST is in ours. We have people today who believe in devils, but still such posses¬ to mix metaphors), and these tige of some ancient civilization I might also mention that the branches are genres. "Mainstream” in an inaccessible comer of the detective novel went pretty much literature might be regarded as a world, the immortal, supernatural the same way. Every time, a genre mirror-image of fantasy, the seductress, the white adventurer begins to develop, than wham! along startling innovation of a story who is almost lured into abandon¬ comes some overwhelmingly influen¬ which is not fantasy. ing Western civilization forever, tial work and the form is locked in place. It follows the model un¬ THE GOLDEN ASS was probably a fabulous ruins, strange races and til the genre dies. (Maybe science generic novel, but not enough has customs, etc., etc. Lost Face fiction has lasted so long because survived for anyone to tell. (For novels, good, bad and indifferent it has actually managed to break more information see " followed after Haggard by the hun¬ of the Novel" in Michael Grant's dreds, most of them incorporating away from its original models. That's probably part of it.) THE aiMAX OF ROE.) Medieval ro¬ the major elements. The last real¬ mances were genre pieces. Typical¬ ly noteworthy one was LOST HORIZON SHE is such a work. TIE CAST¬ ly, only a few of them are read (1!)33). The genre persisted in LE OF OTRANTO is such a work. anymore, except by scholars. In the pulps, particularly in WEIRD So is THE LORD OF TIE RINGS. the middle of the 18th Century TALES and FANTASTIC ADVENTURES, Presto. Generic fantasy. there arose a genre of Oriental and there have been a few scatter¬ tales, mostly imitations of the ed books in recent years, but it There is a problem in termin¬ ARABIAN NIGHTS. But who among you is effectively dead. ology here. I've just said that has heard of the works of, say, Each genre evolves in the same fantasy is not a genre, but some¬ Thomas Simon Gueulette or The Com¬ way. It is typical of its age. thing more universal. Then again, te de Caylus? The closest thing The Gothic was a rejection of the we clearly have something being to a survivor of this school is cold neo-classicism that had gone published today which constitutes William Beckford's VATHEK, which before it, and was perhaps a Ro¬ a genre as distinct and as rigid is usually classed as a Gothic mantic attempt to ignore the early as the Gothic or the Lost Race nov¬ novel. The Gothic was a very Industrial Revolution. (Something el. Some future literary histor¬ clearly, very closely defined gen¬ people forget, since they don't ian will provide us with a handy re, of which thousands of speci¬ actually read these Gothics any label. In the meantime, I will mens were published. Perhaps an more, is that most of them were just call such works genre fantasy. informed reader can name four or set in a romanticized Middle Ages (GF for short.) five today: THE MONK by Lewis, rather the way much modem fantasy THE MYSTERIES OF UDOLPHO by Mrs. is, rather than in the authors' A genre may be said to exist Radcliffe, THE CASTLE OF OTRANTO present.) Science fiction is a whenever the type of novel is more by Walpole, THE ROMANCE OF THE FO¬ reaction to the latter part of the important than who wrote it. THE REST, also by Mrs. Radcliffe, and Industrial Revolution. It remains MYSTERIES OF UDOLPHO is a generic ... urn ... well, maybe FRANKEN¬ vital today because it is also a novel first and foremost. Then we STEIN, which as per¬ reflection of current technologic¬ might consider whether it is a good suasively argued to be the first al change, threat and promise. specimen of the type. Oh, yeah, science fiction novel. Science it's written by Mrs. Radcliffe. fiction as a genre seems to contain The Lost Race novel evolved a lot more variety and good writ¬ during the era of exploration and In the present day book indus¬ ing than the Gothic genre did, and empire-building in the 19th Cen¬ try, this means category publish¬ I think that in 200 years more than tury. People really were, like ing. We clearly have books which four or five specimens will be re¬ Haggard's heroes, penetrating jung¬ are fantasy novels first, and nov¬ membered, but you can never be sure. les, climbing vast mountain ranges, els by so-and-so a very weak sec¬ discovering peoples previously un¬ ond. They have certain clearly At the same time science fic¬ known, etc. The ruins of Zimbabwe definable characteristics. They tion was getting started, the Lost and Angkor Wat were authentic, ex¬ are, I think, as characteristic a Race novel was in full swing. Like otic lost cities. As the last product of late 20th Century Amer¬ other genres, it has its anteced¬ places of mystery were being open¬ ica as the Lost Race novel was of ents going way back. There are ed up, what literature could be late 19th Century England. I am elements of the traveler's tale, more exciting to the public than not a sociologist, so I can only the utopian romance, etc. If GUL¬ the Lost Race novel? Of course offer amateur guesses as to why. LIVER’S TRAVELS had been more of a that era has passed and so has the But there it is. straight adventure and written a heyday of the Lost Race novel. century later than it was, it would This brings us to Lee Wein¬ be classified as a Lost Race novel. But consider what happened stein's "regular" theop', which is But SHE set the pattern: the ves¬ in each case: the final strand in this present ball of yams. THE CASTLE OF OTRANTO, the Lee Weinstein is a friend of first Gothic, included a haunted mine, an occasional book reviewer castle, an imperiled heroine, a for SCIENCE FICTIOJ REVIEW, and the leering villain, a romantic hero author of one very good story, "The vdio is the rightful heir to the Box", in WHISPERS II, edited by estate, supernatural manifesta¬ Stuart Schiff (Doubleday). He al¬ tions, etc. So do all the others. so is a purveyor of Silly Theories, one of vdiich goes like this: Lost Race novels followed Hag¬ gard closely. "What kind of bird is that?" he asks. There are several paradigmic works of science fiction. The fact "A crow," I say. that science fiction didn't fall "And those?" into such a hard-and-fast formula needs to be studied. I don't have "A sparrow, a grackle, a star¬ room for it here. ling and a finch." 38 "Well, what about a regular bird? You know, two wings, a beak, outs in the hills surrounding the istic details. He cannot describe a tail, two feet. Not any partic¬ village, since these raids are a forest or a hillside or a beach ular kind, just a regular bird." fairly common. At breakfast, our convincingly enough to make a scene hero "ate the fried grinil, though That might be described as the seem real. His people are not he had long learned to hate the real. He fails utterly to touch theory of Platonic archetypes re¬ ever-present smoked bird flesh." told in the manner of Chico Marx, down in reality, which is more es¬ but 1 think there is something in It would seem that Burgo doesn't sential in a fantasy novel than in any other kind. Otherwise, if it. 1 think it can be applied to know the difference between fried meat and smoked. Later on, he there is no anchor to reality, the literature. does seem to know what a smoke story loses all dramatic power. house is, so this must be just an¬ The reason THE LORD OF THE RINGS What about a regular fantasy? other bit of clumsy writing. works, and many inferior fantasies don't, is that Tolkein could des¬ 1 decided to find one. 1 The opening is larded with cribe a forest at night or what searched among the piles of re¬ pages and pages of turgid exposi¬ it's like to sit by a fire, or a view copies I receive for three tion. The raid goes badly. The snowstorm well enough for the set¬ fantasy novels which would seem to enemy was prepared, being not as ting to seem real. have no distinguishing features. dumb as the good guys. (Later on A prerequisite would be that the a story of sorts emerges. Our hero, As for the fantastic elements, authors would have to be toally Ehred, is a particularly wimpy ver¬ Burgo's hero seems to have a lot of unknown to me. The artwork on the sion of that old stand-by, the dis¬ visions, so vaguely and muddily covers and the blurbs should sug¬ contented young man who doesn't described that the reader has a gest only a standard package of share the values of his society or hard time following them. (Sug¬ pre-determined elements. IVo ele¬ fit in anywhere, but has longings gestion: If you're going to write ments of non-randomness entered in¬ which direct him to adventure be¬ visions, go read the Old Testament to this experiment: I was in a yond the narrow confines of the first. Learn to be particularly bit of a hurry, so 1 picked one place he grew up in. There's noth¬ clear, so that the mysterious ele¬ book because it was shorter than ing particularly wrong with using ments are vividly in front of the most of the others. I also wanted such a figure. Clarke's AGAINST reader.) There are some mins to sample one from each major genre THE FALL OF NIGHT is a classic nearby, of vast and ancimtcities, publisher: Ace, Pocket Books and featuring one. the inhabitants of which, we are Del Rey. But Borgo's kid is never be¬ told, in one of the expository My selections were: lievable for an instant. His big lumps, all went mad. Far, far problem is that he does not share away is what sounds like a reposi¬ THE LIGHTS OF BARBRIN by Jo¬ tory of ancient learning, to which the battle-frenzy and general com¬ seph Burgo. Timescape. The copy¬ villagers send their misfits. (At right date is 1978, but this seems munity spirit of his kinfolk. He this point, if this were science to be a reprint. 192 ppp., $2.50. just wanders away from the raid. fiction, it would start turning in¬ This is the short one. Short Even when an enemy tries to set to an idiot's version of THE LONG books did not cost $2.50 in 1978. fire to the village (Burgo seems to think that one guy can set en¬ TOMORROW.) SHADOW MAGIC by Patricia C. ough of a fire that the sparks will Generic characteristics: The Wrede. Ace, 1982, 279 pp., $2.50. bum down the whole village and in¬ setting is never-never land. The THE WIZARD IN WAITING by Rob¬ cinerate everybody before the alarm society is vaguely medieval, but ert Don Hughes, Del Rey, 357 pp., is raised; ray guess is that accid¬ without any distinct medieval fea¬ $2.75. ental fires must happen. A thatch tures, like feudalism or religion. roof goes up. Maybe somebody in It's the standard fantasy setting. Then I set out to read them. the house in question is killed The magic, such as it is, is stand¬ What started out as a neat idea but this raises such a ruckus that ard fantasy magic. But, curiously, for a column turned into a gruel¬ it wakes up the rest of the village the book has none of the character¬ ling experience. long before stray sparks set every istics which the anti-fantasy reac¬ I never managed to finish THE other roof aflame), he is able to tionaries have gotten up in arms LIGHTS OF BARBRIN. The cover blurb warn someone, but he can't partic¬ about of late. It is dreadful, calls it a "lyrical fantasy of one ipate in the fight. He also does tme, but its failings are the com¬ man's mission against the force not seem to do any work, such as mon ones of bad writing. There that chokes all life." Well, lyri¬ killing the migratory birds which are many space operas that are no cal it is not, and the only thing provide the basis of the local di¬ better. I found choking all life was Bur- et. Instead, he just moons around go's prose. He is decidedly ill alone, Being Sensitive. No one at ease with the English language. raises the possibility that he is It is also evident within a page just a goddamn coward and lazy. or two that he has no powers of Then again, none of this makes any observation. He starts out with a sense in terms of human behavior. raiding party encamped within sight Our hero does have very good of an enemy village. Someone shales hearing, though. The villagers the hero awake. He has to get bum and eat the would-be arsonist. dressed before he's fit for break- Even though Ehred is standing a feist. Now you would think anyone good distance away, he can hear who slept in such a circumstance them ripping flesh off and chonp¬ would do so fully clothed, with ing away. Just try that. Tear a weapons by his side, ready to drumstick off a cooked turkey. spring up in case of an attack. How much noise does it make? How But no ... breakfast is cooked over much noise does chewing make? a fire, supposedly too small to be seen by the enemy, but it being And so on, and so on. Burgo dawn, I wonder about the smoke, or fails again and again in the real- v\hy the enemy hasn't posted look¬ 39 SHADCW MAGIC by Patricia Wrede and away the best of my three ran¬ book doesn't even have to be par¬ is at least vaguely competent. dom selections. It even begins ticularly well written. SHE, as Burgo is on a low slush-pile level. with an original notion, as a sen¬ Lewis points out, is actually rath¬ With a little training, Wrede should tient castle returns to conscious¬ er badly written, but it has this be just right to work on a literary ness in the first few pages. quality, and it lives. (And, I assembly-line. She's also a little Hughes is a quite competent writer. would add, the genre spawned by short on observation. A band of He is even witty on occasion. His its imitators lacks this quality, kidnappers, having made off with a descriptions describe. His use of and does not, for the most part.) princess, are fleeing through a language is never outstanding, but Patricia McKillip's THE FORGOTTEN forest. They have gone through an it is perfectly serviceable, which BEASTS OF ELD has this quality and elaborate ruse to throw off pur¬ is what you'd expect from a well- stands head and shoulders above the suit, but still they are deep in crafted generic product. I came rest of genre fantasy, even though enemy territory. When they camp, away from this book with the im¬ it has the standard setting, skimp¬ they light a roaring fire .... pression that is def¬ ily detailed. A balance has to initely in the standard fantasy Don't would-be fantasy writers be struck, of course, even when the mythopoeic element is present. ever read anything like NORTHWEST business, but Lester knows what There has to be some element of PASSAGE? Maybe a western or two? he's doing. This book will have realism, convincingly portrayed, as When I was a kid I used to read the desired effect on the project¬ there has been in fantasy all the what you might call "easterns," ed audience, and probably do rath¬ way back to Apuleius, so that the that is adventure stories usually er well. I found it boring after a set in New England during the while, though, because again, the reader is drawn into the story and comes to believe that the characters French and Indian Wars or thereab¬ setting is the same standard cos¬ are human beings, but beyond that outs. I learned very early why tume ^Iiddle Ages with the culture removed, the characters are types, it's the myth-making that counts. you don't light a bonfire when try¬ and the plot, involving a usurper ing to evade pursuers in a forest. These genre-fantasy writers queen, a rightful heir, intrigue aren't even trying. This new genre, But aside from a few such and magic, was a bit too routine to which is as distinct a branch of slips, and sometimes strikingly bad hold my interest for 357 pages. fantasy as the Gothic or the Lost phrases ("she said freezingly." Hughes does have a certain super¬ Page 37. Did her teeth chatter?), ficial inventiveness, but that's the book has a bland competence. all. There's no depth in this There is no texture, but a kind of book, no particular insight, no ... television realism, acceptable for to use the term common among fan¬ the moment. The plot, aside from tasy advocates ... no magic. There involving a kidnapped princess, has is nothing special about this book to do with this kingdom which is the way there is about THE LAST UN¬ threatened by evil invaders from CORN or THE KING OF ELFLAND'S outside, who have been growing DAUGHTER. bolder of late. It seems that sorcerers (who lack faces, and crumble into empty clothing when killed) have gotten hold of these This brings me to my conclusion talismans, you see, of which there about Genre Fantasy. It has the were twelve in the distant past, outward trappings copied from the two of which sank with an island, great fantasies of the past, even one of which was destroyed with a as most of the later Gothics and volcano, the other nine of which Lost Race romances copied the trap¬ have been scattered, but now are pings from their seminal influences, being brought together. To stop but the characteristics which act¬ this vile manace, a mixed crew of ually made those classics great good guys must enlist the assis¬ are totally absent. Either they tance of a race of short, furry are beyond the grasp of GF writers wood-elves called Wyrds, and the or such writers aren't even aware more mysterious race called the of them. The most striking thing Shee ... stop me if you've heard about these three books is that this before. they have no mythopoeic quality whatever. The setting is again the very routine quasi-medieval land devoid This is the core of good fan¬ of any discemable culture. The tasy, why such stories can be more characters are types. The emotion¬ beautiful, more intense than any¬ al tone is non-conmital. The auth¬ thing else in literature. C.S. or sometimes has trouble control¬ Lewis tells us that myth transcends ling point of view, but otherwise allegory, in that allegory may have writes tolerably. She shows prem¬ only the meaning the author has ise as a technician, where Burgo put into it, while a myth may have does not. If SHADOW MAGIC posses¬ meaning the author hasn't discov¬ sed any shred of originality, in¬ ered yet. It goes deep into the sight, beauty, wit, cleverness or subconsious and as a characteristic emotional power, I might have en¬ of literature, may ultimately be joyed it. But it is such a stand¬ something no one can explain, only ard product that I now understand recognize, in the sense that if why Pocket Books didn't have to you have to be told that a sunset issue a No Frills Fantasy. This is beautiful, you will never under¬ is it. stand. To have this quality, a

THE WIZARD IN WAITING is far 40 Race novel or any of the several the characteristics of a first-rate ■ptAFE ARAAOK. varieties of science fiction, fantasy. It has mythological depth QHVES AAE iNUl^STTOtA strikes me as pretty feeble stuff. and refreshingly, excitingly, the The inherent weakness of a fantasy myth turns toward the future and story is that, because we know that the stars, rather than to an imag¬ the elements in it are impossible, inary past. It is "like" a lot of the ideas can never be interesting other fantasies, but also triumph¬ for their own sake, beyond the sort antly different. of superficial ginmickry of Robert Don Hughes. An inept science fic¬ There are some awesomely good tion story can sometimes get by on parts: a visit with a wizard who the strength of its ideas. Pat¬ seems to have come from an alter¬ ricia Wrede's actual writing tal¬ nate time-track; vivid scenes of ents would be about average for quasi-futuristic battles; stories science fiction. If she could come within the stories, including a up with a neat idea or two, or charming legend, "The Armiger's some interesting speculation, for Daughter" (which you may have seen all that her novel is cookie-cut¬ in the first George SciIdlers AMAZ¬ ter stuff, she might have gotten ING), and more surprisingly, a by in science fiction. But "ideas" story told by an Ascian. The As¬ in fantasy are more ethereal things. cians, you may recall, are the Other aspects don't quite get go¬ You have to be able to do poetic people with whom the Comnonwealth ing under their own steam. It's things with them. Otherwise the has been fighting a protracted, about the problems besetting soci¬ result is like perfectly competent distant war during the last three ety. LeGuin is too realistic to but totally uninspired, totally books. Now we plunge into the war make everything work out the way itself, and discover that the enemy conventional verse. The only po¬ Pacifists would like them to. When are super-Maoists, whose entire ets worth reading are the inspired push comes to shove, the heavies vocabulary consists of officially- ones. I think this is also true start shooting and the Pacifists approved platitudes. But subtly, of fantasy writers. get killed. Like THE DISPOSSESSED, the people have turned this into a THE EYE OF THE HERON is certainly true language, and in a casual dis¬ an ambiguous depiction of the type So Genre Fantasy just muddies play of the kind of technical skill the waters. It creates a definite of society it superficially seems which leaves other writers weak to advocate. Unfortunately, the niche for fantasy in the bookstore with envy, Wolfe brings off a which is a good thing, because it setting, for all it may be more in¬ comprehensible story in these teresting than the story sometimes, makes it all that much easier for terms. a really good fantasy novel to be enables the author to duck all the published. But it also makes it Most of the mysteries raised problems raised. The Pacifists set harder to find the good ones. I in the previous volumes are off, pioneer-like, into the wilder¬ don't think I'll repeat my experi¬ solved. More are raised. The ness, where they can live as they ment, at least not for a while. same failings we have seen before choose beyond the reach of their I'll try to find the good books are still present: The story has oppressors. Of course, on Earth and use this column to tell you very little dramatic tension and this hasn't been possible in a long about them. tends to ramble. More seriously, time, if it ever was. one of the major conflicts, that involving a woman who has been chasing after our hero since the first book, is solved quite arbit¬ rarily, and offstage. This is the one aspect of THE CITADEL OF THE 2010: ODYSSEY TWO AUTARCH which is likely to prove AND NOW A WORD ABOID’ SOME GOOD By Arthur C. Clarke genuinely disappointing. BOOKS ~ Del Rey Books, 1982, 291 pp., $14.95 But other than that, the book CITADEL OF THE AUTARCH has at a near-genius level, all Purely a coninand performance, By Gene Wolfe those attributes which I found written not because the author h^ Timescape, 1983, 317 pp., $15.95 lacking in the three specimens of anything more to say on the sub¬ genre fantasy considered above. ject at hand, but because he suc¬ This is the final volume of cumbed to the tenptation of sever¬ . I don't al million bucks, even as you or I have a lot more to say about it, would. His writing ability is very having reviewed the work as a whole much in evidence. The book is a grand tour of the solar system, earlier. If you've come in late, THE EYE OF THE HERON you absolutely must go back and superbly described. You might read all four volumes in order. By Ursula K. LeGuin think of it as a prose version of This one will be inconprehensible Harper fi Row, 1983, 179 pp., $11.95 an episode of COSMOS. Surely Arth¬ otherwise. The work is more of a ur Clarke has become the Loren four-volume novel than a true tet¬ This short novel was first pub¬ Eiseley of outer space. ralogy. lished in Virginia Kidd's anthol¬ ogy, MILLENIAL WOMEN in 1978. I But as a novel, it leaves srane- You'll be glad to know that reviewed it in depth at the time, thing to be desired. The charac¬ the level of writing in the fourth in this same column. It's minor ters are actually better developed volume remains extremely high. LeGuin, enormously readable,.with than many in Qarke novels, but Wolfe's powers of invention never a beautifully-described setting on they have nothing to do but watch flag, and he retains his wonderful an extra-solar planet, but no real¬ as events unfold around them. sense of image and texture. While ly memorable characters. The prob- There are lots of nice touches, but the story takes a decidedly sci¬ nice touches do not make a story. ence-fictional turn, it has all 41 All the mysteries of 2001 are ex- plained, often in more detail than regular paper, and lose something. In light of recent controvers¬ you'd like. (The details, by the However, the dustjacket art (also ies in SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW, here way, fit those of the movie, not by Peake) reprint from the first is a quote for Elton Elliott: the original book, where the two editions (1940, 1950, 1959) and are differed.) Some readers will be much more attractive than the Eyre upset to see most of the potential and Spottiswoode ones. But the of the Star Child casually tossed more significant point is that this aside. He doesn't influence the version represents the first Ameri¬ future of humanity any, but just can printing of the restored text works for the folks who made the of TITUS ALONE. When tliat book monoliths as they foster a new sen¬ was first published, Peake was al¬ tient race on Europa. ready ill from the disease which later killed him. The publisher 2001 ended with the promise of chopped out a lot of material in a whole new age dawning, perhaps a an effort to make it coherent. Actually, Lewis wis talking quantum leap in human evolution In 1970 Langdon Jones produced a about establishment attacks on about to occur. 2010 comes on restored text, carefully edited science fiction there, but the like SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE's Emily which includes whole chapters not shoe's on the other foot now. Litella and says, "Never mind!” in the American editions. TITUS ALONE is much weaker than the first two volumes, either because as Lin Carter suggests, its concep¬ TITUS GROANy GORMENGHAST tion is faulty, or simply because and TITUS ALONE Peake was ailing as he wrote it and wasn't at his best; but still, this By Mervyn Peake is the edition you should read. Overlook F>ress, 1982 Respectively 506, 511, 263 pages. $18.95 each. ON STORIES AND OTHER ESSAYS ON The Gormenghast Trilogy or LITERATURE more specifically, the first two books of it (it was never intended By C.S. Lewis as a trilogy anyway) justifies all Edited by Walter Hooper those old cliche's: "There is no¬ Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich thing like it in all of litera¬ 153 pp., $4.95 ture," "A unique reading experi¬ ence," "Impossible to describe in a People who haven't read Lewis short space." All these things are tend to dismiss him as a Christian actually true. I think it's the propagandist, but that sort of MOBY DICK of 20th Century litera¬ short-sightedness is just the kind ture. Nothing else approaches it of thing he calls to question in in its nearly lunatic intensity. books like this one. He was one of Peake had a genius for making the the most lucid, sensible critics grotesque live, for the poetry of ever to enter the fray. He was prose. His vision was intense, and more interested in providing under¬ Enough time has gone by since uniquely his own. C.S. Lewis clas¬ standing than building up his rep¬ my last column, that issues of sed his work among those which "are utation, which is a large part of just about every major small press actual additions to life; they why he was so good. It seems to title has accumulated. So I will give, like certain rare dreams, me that the best critics are always just explain briefly, for newcom¬ sensations we never had before, and people who are capable of writing ers, that what I_ mean by a "small enlarge our conception of the range something other than criticism and press magazine" is a periodical of possible experience." do most of the time. which publishes professional qual¬ The Gonnenghast books have been Topics include Tolkein, Charles ity fiction but is not distribut¬ compared to Tolkein ever since THE Williams, methods of writing for ed on newsstands. Even thou^doz¬ LORD OF THE RINGS was a big success children, science fiction, the na¬ ens of titles have appeared since in paperback and Ballantine started ture of storytelling, "The Mytho- the early Seventies, and stories looking for more trilogies. This poeic Gift of H. Rider Haggard," from such magazines keep winning isn't fair either to Peake or Tol¬ George Orwell, "Different Tastes in major awards (e.g. Dennis Etchi- kein. They have little in conmon. Literature" (who else could write son's "The Dark Country," from If you come to Peake expecting the an essay like that without seeming FANTASY TALES and FANTASY BOOK, Tolkein sort of fantasy, you're go¬ ponpous and actually say something won the British Fantasy and World ing to be very surprised, to say worthwhile in the process?), crit¬ Fantasy Awards this year), not to the least, but perhaps you'll find icism, etc. There is even a three- mention getting anthologized reg¬ your horizons enlarged in the man¬ way dialo^e on science fiction be¬ ularly, there are still, apparent¬ ner Lewis describes. So go and tween Lewis, Kingsley Amis and Bri¬ ly a lot of fans out there who read. an Aldiss. He was far more favor¬ still confuse these things with ably inclined toward science fic¬ amateur fanzines, and refuse to tion than many people think. In read them. There are also a lot of The Overlook Press edition is professionals who don't know they made from the same plates as the fact, he was the most tolerant of critics in all fields. exist. To both groups I say: early '70s Eyre and Spottiswoode Let me fill you in on the latest one (British). The interior line He is also inmensely quotable. news. Have you heard? Dewey lost. drawings by Peake (vdio was also an I've been quoting him and alluding Let's take a look at the cur¬ extremely accomplished illustrat¬ to him throughout this column. or) came out very well, but the rent crop: glossy plates are here printed on 42 KADATH #5 is a special issue devoted to occult detectives. It magazine with a color cover and estly well-done routine fantasy, contains new stories by Manly Wade glossy pages. It's also limited light in tone without being actual¬ Wellman (resurrecting his sleuth to 500 numbered copies and sure to ly funny. It falls between two John Thunstone of be a collector's item. stools. fame), , Ardath Mayhar, The only really bad story is Brian Mooney and Mike Oiinn. All "The Years Like Rain" by Michael of them except the one by Chinn, Davies, which seems to have stumb¬ which tends toward the broadest led in out of third-season STAR slashes of prose and caricaturing TREK. Get this: Circe on another on the level of Doc Savage, are planet, and by an amazing coinci¬ quite well written. But I've al¬ dence all the characters' names ways had trouble with occult de¬ just happen to almost spell names tectives, even the classical ones, from Homer. And they even talk like John Silence and Jules de in STAR TREK gobbledeygook. It's Grandin. " of species" rather The inevitable pattern in such than "parallel evolution", which stories is that, after discovering was the excuse for some of the what the eldritch menace is, the stupidest ST episodes. As a psychic sleuth dispatches it with¬ story, it's dull and utterly, ut¬ out further ado. There is rarely terly unbelievable in the way that any complication or suspense. And something about a flat Earth with since the solutions are arrived edges never can be. It pretends at by purely magical means which FANTASY BOOK #6 continues the to be plausible and the hokum are made up by the author, the development of one of the most reg¬ shows through. ular of the fantasy magazines. endings seem arbitrary. Stoker Another fairly average issue. avoided this problem in DRACULA. This issue shows FS's tendency to¬ Van Helsing is not all-knowing. ward slapstick, funny fantasy, The count has a chance. There are more reminiscent of FANTASTIC AD¬ surprises. But in Wellman's VENTURES than UNKNOWN. The stor¬ ies for the most part have their "Rouse him Not", there is this eld¬ FANTASY TALES #11 seems a lit¬ moments. "Stage Magic" by Richard ritch slime-pit in someone's back tle below par, perhaps because it Rieller has a dragon created in¬ yard. Sure enough, the place was was preceded by an unusually side a washing machine in a laund¬ once inhabited by a sorcerer, and strong issue. #10, still avail¬ romat by a magician who forgot to his demonic familiar is still in able, featured a long novelet by empty the pockets before washing the slime. The rest is a foregone which proved that his robe. "Negotiations on a Lo¬ conclusion. Thunstone has a magic despite all odds, it is still pos¬ wer Level" by Mike Hodel has some sword made by St. Dunstan. It sible to be original and creative nice satirical bits about the proves effacious. within the , and the first diplomatic visit to Hell, key to it is not inlcuding shelf- In Mooney's "The Affair at before coming to a weak conclusioa companions to the Necronomicon or Durmamnay Hall," there is yet an¬ Overwhelmingly the best story in large accumulations of tentacles. other departed sorcerer causing the issue is R.A. Lafferty's "Cal¬ There's also a good Manly Wade trouble, this time sucking the amities of the Last Pauper," which Wellman story in that issue. life-energy out of a young woman. is about the elimination of pover¬ He too is readily dispatched, but ty from the world of the last pau¬ Issue #11 starts off with a Mooney is a bit more inventive in per's dead body. Unfortunately sentimental ghost story by H. War¬ his details. Brian Lumley's story this defies divine law ("The poor ner Minn, reprinted from WEIRD is a Titus Crow adventure, anoth¬ will be with you always") and a TALES. It is heralded as a "clas¬ er of his almost-parody Cthulhu Biblical-quality catastrophe oc¬ sic" on the cover, when it is ac¬ Mythos things. It manages to de¬ curs. We end with the writer's ad¬ tually nothing of the sort. It's part from the formula somewhat, vice to post-collapse authors a- one of those short fillers Farns¬ and is strengthened for it, but bout what sort of animal bones worth Wright used to stick in the you're not likely to get any chills they should write on if they want back of the magazine, and aside I suppose my favorite is the May¬ to achieve true elegance. This is from a reprinting in THE DIBERSI- har, in which the investigators, about middling-Lafferty, a bit too FIER, it hasn't seen the light of having discovered a recurring man¬ inclined to lecture, but still day till now. ifestation in an English country very inventive in his unique man- house, decide not to perform an The title is "A Sprig of Rose¬ exorcism. No, they plan to set mary" in it, and there's a little t^ an exhibition and charge admis¬ The best of the more serious girl named Rosemary in it, who sion. An eminently practical sol¬ stories is Steve Rasnic Tern's "On dies and is led away by the ghost ution to the average haunting, me- a Path of Marigolds," which is al¬ of an old miser only she would thinks. most very moving. It has a lot of take pity on. Very much the sort good touches, but is severely flaw¬ of thing you'd expect to find in a Who am I to knock these things? ed by clumsy use of flashbacks. A Victorian family magazine. As The Jules de Grandin series ran on story line like this should go Oscar Wilde remarked about the 90-something stories and made Sea- straight to the heart. We should death of Little Nell .... buiy Quinn the most popular writer not be left trying to figure out in the whole history of WEIRD what's going on. For sheer weirdness, the best TALES. Most of these KADATH stor¬ story in the issue is "Dead to ies are better done than the typic¬ the World" by Allan A. Lucas, There's also a Hyborian Age al de Grandin. which is about a guy who finds that tale by Raul Garcia Capella, who all the openings in his body are has been doing these things for 20 sealing up. All of them. Lucas If this is the sort of thing years or so. And "But I don't Do almost, but not quite gets beyond you like, this is just what you'll Dragons" by Kathleen Sky is a mod- like ... KADATH is, as always, an the medical absurdity, and again, extremely handsome, large-sized 43 almost makes the story mean some- thing, in the sense that Kafka's a ghost or a Thing in residence see, childhood fears, ghosts and "The Metamorphosis" is more than but King's bad places build up vampires -- and produces superior, just an account of how somebody long-lasting resonances of very albeit very traditional results. turned into a bug. human pain and frustration. "An End to Dreaming" by Janet Mor¬ ris is about the death of the last None of the other stories The rest of the issue is only sorcerer in the world. It too stand out. "The Story of Lallia unsatisfactory, mostly, I suppose, makes good use of image and atmos¬ the Slave Girl" by "Dray Prescott'/ because one comes to WHISPERS with phere, but it lacks that extra Alan Burt Akers/Ken Blumer, is an extremely high expectations and something that makes, say, Tanith episode in the Scorpio series, and there is nothing thunderously Lee's best short work stand out. "The Storm Devil of Lan-Kem" by brilliant this time. Most of the "A Night on the Docks" by Freff Peter Tremayne is part of a series stories are merely competent. The tells how the children of a town of his. Niether made me want to best of them is 's "The torment and kill a vanpire. By go read the series. "Legacy of Other Room," which gracefully and the end of the story they're more Evil" by Peter Bayliss is quite atmospherically mixes familiar horrible than the vampire. "The well written but is just one of themes and elements --an extra Dancer in the Flames" by David those stories about a young man room in a house not everyone can Drake mixes two of Drake's famili- who inherits his ancestral abode and too late discovers the dread secret .... My feeling is that if someone were to compile a reference book entitled THE CWLETE GENEOL- OGIES AND LIFE HISTORIES OF ABHOR¬ RED SORCERERS, WITCHES AND PERSONS UNPOPULAR IN SMALL RURAL VILLAGES, such protagonists would be saved a lot of trouble. John R. Lansdale contributes very routine sword § sorcery.

My feeling is that if you want to sanple FANTASY TALES -- and any magazine which has now won four awards and been nominated for scads more is worth san^jling -- you ought to send away for the tenth issue.

WHISPERS 17/18 is another special double issue, this time devoted to Stephen King. (Tbe previous one was the Ramsey Canp- bell issue.) It is reportedly selling very well, and will no doubt become a fabulous collectors' item. It is a must for all King fans -- all two or three million of them. Alas, the print run is not large enough to meet the de¬ mand. The King material consists of an article by King on THE SHINING, a hitherto unpublished prologue to that novel, and a short story, "It Grows on You," which is a revision of an early story from a literary magazine. The short story is a trifle too synoptic for my taste, and the prologue is synoptic too, but it works a lot better, outlin¬ ing the long, unfortunate history of the Overlook Hotel before the festivities of the novel begin. Much of the power of King's writ¬ ing is in evidence, and the over¬ whelming impression from this (and also, to a lesser extent, from the short story) is that Stephen King is one of the few people in the field vAio really knows how to haunt a place. Most fictional haunted houses just happen to have ar settings, Vietnam and medieval David Garnett's "Saving the to evade the whole idea of fiction Europe, but with only ordinary Universe" is essentially about altogether. The result was gib¬ results. Basically, it's another science fiction. It's an absurdist berish. V/hen the fad for gibber¬ man-fascinated-and-destroyed-by- piece set at a British SF con dur¬ ish was over, those who did not supematural-phenomenon story, no ing a "time war," as each side know how to write stories were no better or worse than countless hurls temporal-dislocation devices longer able to get published. others. There are several other at the other. This doesn't seem to INTERZONE, fortunately, is a stories which read well enough, interrupt the con much, for all magazine of stories, and it may but fail to stand out. Surprising¬ the hero steps into the bar and turn out to be a quieter, but ly, a few of them don't read well finds himself in the 19th Century more successful revolution. enough. Robert Chilson's "In at one point. The characters are Quest of Something" introduces a all writers and the like, many of character named Colan the Caligin- them real people disguised. They ian, which makes the reader expect bemoan the state of current sci¬ a parody. But no, it's not funny ence fiction a lot. In the end at all, just a routine sword § the war becomes a more orthodox The third issue of Millea Ken- sorcery adventure. "Lovey's Rival" nuclear one. It's all rather a- in's OWLFLIGHT is a surprisingly by Juleen Brantingham tells of musing. substantial magazine. There is eldritch doings among sailors in a Equally amusing, in an even lots of good fantasy in the little very Old Salty style, which gets odder sense is Nicholas Allan's magazines because the big-time to be wearisome after a while, "Cheek to Cheek" in which two lov¬ market for fantasy is inadequate, particularly since everything is ers awake one morning to find their but the big-time market for sci¬ told in a synoptic, second-hand genitalia stuck together. This is ence fiction is over-expanded. manner, with few opportunities for for people who like well-written Yet there are three stories in the reader to actually get into fantastic erotica. this issue which would have done the story. Steve Rasnic Tern's credit to lASFM, ANALOG, or F5SF. "Preparation for the Game" runs Disappointing are Angela Cart¬ I wonder how that happened. OWL- through variations of the same biz¬ er's "Overture to A MIDSUNWER FLIGHT is now so overstocked with arre situation over and over again^, NIGHT'S DREAM" because it fails to material that it takes options on without making a bit of sense. add up to anything, for all that submissions Ci-e. if the story is It seems to me that in horror fic¬ it presents a few memorable images, available in two years, they prom¬ tion, as elsewhere, the reader has and Josephine Saxton's "No Coward ise to buy it), so I also wonder to have some idea of what is going Soul" because it is incoherent. if future issues are going to be on and why, or he will lose inter¬ This latter is a surprise, because equally good. Is the chronic est after a while. Ms. Saxton has done excellent work shortage of good short fiction in the past (look for "The Pressure All in all, a comedown from caused by Kenin's horading it all? of Time" in NEW DIMENSIONS 1 or any the previous few issues. Inter¬ of her novels), but the failure of The three stories: esting King material. Very good the story is absolute. The pieces "The Lhified Field Manual" by graphics and production values. don't relate to one another. The The rest would do credit to most Richard Grant. This one is about characters and situations fail to a bunch of jaded aristocrats in a small mags, but are a bit below convince on any level and become par for WHISPERS. post-holocaust society based on tedious as the reader is left wad¬ magic going out to visit the mys¬ ing through a lot of gunk waiting terious author of an article which for it all to make some sense. implies a Unified Field Theory. This story should never have been Everything is twisted in terms of published, but at least it is op¬ The third issue of INTERZONE the peculiar beliefs of the day. aque due to its being badly writ¬ shows that magazine developing The author must claim to have got¬ ten rather than the writer's get¬ along lines I predicted in an ten a revelation, and to have bas¬ ting arty to hide the fact she has earlier column. INTERZONE special¬ ed this on the work of the anc¬ nothing to say, a'la NEW WORLDS. izes in "odd" stories which don't ients. In fact, she has rediscov¬ So it is a lapse in judgment rath¬ fit into any category, but which ered the scientific method and has er than a mistake in policy. can still be termed "imaginative." done her own calculations. This Frequently they're of very high In fact the policy of INTERZONE makes her a fraud to her visitors. quality. For example, "The Dis¬ is made reassuringly clear in an In the end the narrator decides semblers" by Gary Kilworth is an editorial in which Malcolm Edwards that it may not be "science" but effectively atmospheric tale about lays to rest the ghost of NEW it's great art. The reason the a man obsessed with death to the WORLDS. Everyone seems to expect story works is that Grant can take point that he keeps almost hanging INTERZCWE to be the resurrection a gaggle of superficial, chatter- himself in hope that he will catch of NEW WORLDS and seems to judge some people and give them all a glimpse beyond the Veil. This it by those standards. But NEW distinct personalities in a short is effectively contrasted with the WORLDS, we must remember, was a space. They become true products obsession of the narrator, who has failure, not merely in the econom¬ of their society, and the changing escaped the frustrations of West¬ ic sense, but as Edwards deftly perspectives of the idea of know¬ ern life by becoming a Muslim. points out, because the writers it ledge in the story come across with considerable effect. Does the death-seeker find some¬ fostered not only haven't prevail¬ thing at the end or not? He is ed and changed the field in their certainly changed. But the actual own image, but for the most part "Remembering Kwajalein" by fantastic element of this story they haven't even survived. In Paul A. Glister is a very siaqjle is slight and ambigupus. I can short, yes, NEW WORLDS was a rev¬ story about aliens landing in a see a olution, but the rebels lost, and small town and seeming to kill all turning this story down out of the reason they lost is that- they the children there. It is simply hand. A fantasy magazine might were not, as they claimed, trying very vivid and atmospheric, with consider it too marginal. But to e:^and the boundaries of imag¬ good characterization and Ascrip¬ it's a very good story, and that inative fiction. They were trying tion, conveying a real sense of is vdiere INTERZONE comes in. 45 mystery and terror. There is a by A. Bertram Chandler and Jeffrey crew. The only "revisions" which Elliot, book reviews and a lot of are any good are those like "The poetry. The printing and produc¬ Mound," which H.P.L. wrote whole¬ tion values are very good. The sale from notes. No one could artwork is mostly mediocre. publish Zealia Bishop's "original Still with three very good stones, version" of "The Mound," for ex¬ one sort of OK one, and the Chand¬ ample, because it doesn't exist. ler/Elliot piece, this magazine is worthy of your support. The title story, "Ashes" by C.M. Eddy and H.P.L. was published in WERID TALES in 1924. We are told that when scholars discovered the Lovecraft connection they tri¬ Less interesting is the first ed to suppress it, rather like issue of PARSEC. This is largely Shakespeareans who would dearly an amateur fiction magazine, de¬ love to disprove the authorship of voted to letting fan would-be writ¬ TITUS ANDRONICUS. But actually, ers air their attempts (without it's a routine bit of trash about pay), but there is one (paid for) a mad scientist, and was probably story by a professional each is¬ no worse than anything else in sue. This time it is "Slow Vi¬ WEIRD TALES at the time. What we rus" by Sharon Webb, a routine forget, because the earliest is¬ story about alien spores arriving sues are rare, fragile and worth in a meteorite. 'Webb completists hundreds of dollars (and thus seld¬ will want it. Also in addition to om read), is that the earliest is¬ to the amateur fiction, the issue sues of WEIRD TALES were pretty contains interviews with Walter trashy. "Ashes" is no worse than Tevis and Doug Chaffee, book rev¬ some of the lesser stories under iews, and an article by Michael H.P.L.'s name that appeared about Bishop. The back cover is a the same time -- "From Beyond," painting by Chaffee, reproduced for instance. But we are a little far a- field. Next time I will try to "surprise" ending which seems an concentrate on magazines which have organic part of the whole rather not been reviewed in this column than a cheap tag-on. ASHES AND OTHERS by H.P. Love- before. There are a lot of them. craft and Divers Hands counts as They slither around the room at "Honcho the Birdbrain" by ein issue of Robert Price's "pulp night in huge piles, muttering eld¬ Bruce Hallock is rather crudely thriller and theological journal," ritch curses. written, with awkward expository . Normally, 1 passages, but it turns into a don't cover such things in this well-developed story of a parrot column, but this little booklet, with artificial intelligence. You (56 pp., small type, digest size) plug him into a headless robot KADATH. Francesco Cova, Corso is surely the most important con¬ Aurelio Saffi 5/9, 16128 Genova, body, and he's super-smart. Un¬ tribution to Lovecraft studies plug him and he's a parrot. This Italy. Single copies $5.00; 4 this year. It contains, several for $18.00. creates a sometimes-sentient being uncollected Lovecraft "revisions" completely aware of his unique na¬ (i.e. virtual rewrites) of other FANTASY BOOK. POB #4193, Pasadena, ture. He grows, tries to realize people's work, plus original vers¬ CA 91106. $3.00 per copy; 6/$16. his potential, and the results are ions of some of the more famous FANTASY TALES. , 73 tragic. This would be a little revisions and collaborations. The above average in ANALOG. Danes Court, North End Road, Wemb¬ most interesting item is E. Hoff¬ ley, Middlesex, HA9 OAE, England. The rest of the issue isn't as man Price's preliminary version of $2.50 per copy. good. There's "Covenant" by Math¬ "Through the Gates of the Silver ias Freese, which is completely Key." It's awful, but an important WHISPERS. Stuart Schiff, 70 High¬ opaque. I think it's an attempt primary source for scholarship. land Avenue, Binghamton, NY 13905. to do alien viewpoint. "Tourist Price, of course, was a very cap¬ $5.00 each; 2 double issues/$8.75. Trap" by Jay Marshall is well writ¬ able and successful writer at the INTERZONE. American and Canadian ten and slightly amusing, but de¬ time (as he still is), but with subs are $10.00 per year (4 issues) pends too much on stereotypes of this draft he seemed to be forcing from 9 Patchin Place, New York, funny aliens and funny/rustic yok¬ himself into a manner that wasn't NY 10011. el Earthmen. "The Thinking Circ¬ his own. Virtually the whole le" by Claudia Peck just presents story consists of lectures in oth¬ OWLFLIGHT. Millea Kenin, 1025 a not very remarkable idea without er-dimensional geometry. Love¬ 55th Street, Oakland, CA 94608. making a story out of it. "The craft only used it as a guideline $3.00 per copy; 4/$10.00. Raven Mockers" by Stephen Gresham for the classic collaboration. PARSEC. Robert Mack Hester. seems to be routine horror, but 1 He incorporated some elements and Route #5, box 110, Russellville, gave up halfway through when it discarded others. Hiis differed AL 35653. $2.50 per copy. was evident that it was because very much from his other collabor¬ the writer's grasp of language is ations and revisions, because ASHES AND OTHERS. Robert Price, poor that the atmospheric scenes Price provided him with workable 35 Elmbrook Place, Bloomfield, NJ don't come off and sometimes one material. The other folks didn't. 07003. $2.00. Bob's excellent has to read a passage three or HPL fanzine, CRYPT OF CTHULHU has H.P. Lovecraft's revision no price listed. Send him anoth¬ four times to tell what is going clients were a pretty talentless on. Also present in this issue er two bucks for a sample. are an interesting essay-interview 46 BY ELTON T. ELLIOTT SCIENCE FICTION IS DYING: CAN IHE PATIENT BE SAVED? ical change and the resonations The reason is that for the Science fiction is a field in created by this change throughout last three decades there has been decline. And nowhere is it more society. Science fiction by los¬ no change in the content of SF. apparent than in the failure to ing sight of this has blundered The innovation has almost stopped capitalize financially on the op¬ grievously. Those favorable to¬ cold. This was not always the portunities offered in the past wards the field have commented case. In the first quarter-cen¬ half decade. With the movie STAR many times on how SF looks toward tury of science fiction's exist¬ WARS, handed the SF the future. And that that field ence, as a separate genre market, field tremendous commercial poten¬ of literature which concerns it¬ two massive revolutionary changes tial and power. It was pissed self with the future need never hit the field. The first came in away. Why? worry since it will always have a the late Thirties, almost a dec- I believe it is because sci¬ future. Well, I say they had bet¬ ade-and-a-half after Gemsback ence fiction lost sight of what it ter start worrying since, ladies founded AMAZING STORIF.S. John W. is and, as a consequence, where it and gents, science fiction doesn't Campbell took over as editor at should be going. If you as a per¬ look toward the future anymore -- ASTOUNDING and he proceeded to re¬ son do not know who you are and do it looks toward the past. The em¬ volutionize the field. He insist¬ not have a clearly defined set of peror is buck-stark-naked, folks, ed on better writing, but here is goals many opportunities will go and too goddamn many people were the important point: He insisted ungrasped. Chances for personal too busy slapping themselves on on better thinking as well. No and professional progression will the back and chortling over how longer could an author haphazardly go unrealized. So it is with sci¬ Lucas' flick was gonna make them write about aliens. Campbell in¬ ence fiction, and has been for too rich to notice. Well, piss sisted that his writers show him some time. on 'em. I've got the bad news aliens that thought as well as a and here it is. • Science fiction man, but not like a man. He in¬ But before we can go any fur¬ is a literature which concerns it¬ sisted that future societies be ther, the question looms: What self with change, as well as the carefully extrapolated from the is science fiction? Lack of a future -- and any literature which present, not thrown together willy- definition has always plagued the concerns itself with change and nilly as is too often the case to¬ field. More so today, I believe, does not itself change is in day. than in the past. Then strong- trouble. willed editors like John W. Camp¬ The two above examples and nu¬ bell and Horace L. Gold could im¬ The key element ih any change merous others show the crucial im¬ pose their personal vision onto in science fiction has to be con¬ port of the revolutionary changes the field, vision honed by many tent. Obvious, you say. Well, if Campbell wrought on this field. years of writing SF before edit¬ it is so bleeding obvious then why Changes in thought and preparation ing. At that time the agreed up¬ the hell hasn't it been done? The on the part of the wnriter which on definition was, "SF is what I world isn't sitting still. I al¬ directly led to changes and im¬ point to when I mean SF." Today ready have a digital watch on the provement in the content of what people can't even agree on what cap of ray pen. Soon I'll be able was being written. If you doubt to point to when they say SF. to buy telephones or televisions the seminal influence the Campbel- Many of today's editors have had which'11 be small enough to wear lian revolution had on this field, little experience reading SF, let on my wrist. Don't tell me sci¬ remember time is the ultimate alone trying to write it. At no ence fiction is suffering from proof. There's a simple way to time is a strong clear definition shock -- there, there. Amazing, prove the lasting impact Campbell more needed than at the present, a old fellow, don't fret; Unca Tof- had on the field. Go to your lo¬ definition that is inclusive with¬ fler'll be here in a minute to cal library or bookstore, or your out being exclusive. I believe I make it all feel better -- why? own collection if it's large en¬ have come up with that definition: Why do the few stories and novels ough, and check the number of untranmeled by the disease of fan¬ stories anthologized from the Science fiction is that tasy insist on ringing the changes Forties. Now, check the number branch of literature which res¬ for the ten-thousandth time on an of those that appeared in ASTOUND¬ ponds to the options made possible idea Heinlein, Asimov, Sturgeon or ING against those that did not. by scientific and technological van Vogt did better, with more ex¬ You'll find that stories Campbell change. citement and conviction, in the bought are far more numerous than In short, SF is all about early Forties? those of his contemporaries. As a matter of fact, there are more change. Scientific and technolog¬ 47 stories reprinted from ASTOUNDING are what puts food on the table deja vu; you probably have read in the Forties than all of the for full-time writers.) the premise upon which the content stories published in all of the Another reason for the failure is based somewhere else. This is magazines combined before Campbell to capitalize on the vast new caused largely by writers who This is not coincidental. audience created by STAR WARS is think research for new ideas means because many in science fiction going out and buying twenty used The second great revolutionary misjudged that audience. Many SF paperbacks. Now, while that change in content came about felt that those viewing STAR WARS might work for certain movie di¬ through Horace L. Gold, editing time and again were merely fascin¬ rectors who take Polynesian vaca¬ GALAXY, in the early Fifties. ated by the romance/adventure/ex¬ tions, it is killing science fic¬ This involved writers taking a far citement created by the plot. I tion. more critical, often satirical, believe many of them also yearn The solution is simple, alter glance at human society and social for extrapolation. High sales the approach and you change the institutions. If it seems that for magazines like OMNI and the result, just as in golf where your Gold was merely fine-tuning cer¬ emergence of new magazines like grip determines the angle at tain aspects of the Campbellian TECHNOLOGY ILLUSTRATED show there which the clubface strikes the revolution that just shows how far is an audience out there. I be¬ ball, making your tee shot end up Campbell brought the field. Gold lieve that when that audience samp¬ in the fairway, if done correctly, without Campbell might have pushed led science fiction, they were or off it if not done correctly, the field as far as Campbell did, turned off by the fantasy and the so in science fiction the writer's although it would probably be a old-fashioned -- even antique -- approach determines the result the vastly different genre today. The . A lot of the science reader purchases. crucial area of content that Gold fiction of the Eighties seems as developed was the cynical downside out of date as the Forties and If we refer back to my defin¬ view of human social progress Fifties -- where an SF character ition of science fiction we will placed against ongoing scientific would vdiip out a slide rule to see that one of the keys to scie- and technological change. He op¬ compute a planetary orbit. It ence fiction is the options made ened up the dystopian view of hu¬ was bad SF then; it's even worse possible by scientific and techno¬ manity's future. True, Campbell logical change. In order to cor¬ had hinted at this in his stories; rectly assess these options the "Twilight" and "Night" published approach the writer needs to take in the Thirties under the Don A. is to extrapolate from Today's To¬ Stuart pseudonym. But, as an edi¬ morrow -- that is from the best tor, Campbell had never gone on information available today (the to fully explore this arena of con¬ present), the author extrapolates tent the way Harace Gold did. what Tomorrow (the future) might be like. (I don't say Tomorrow's These two editors shaped and Tomorrow or what Tomorrow will be changed the content of this field like, because science fiction is the way no editor has since. Even not in the business of prophecy.) the much-ballyhooed and debated Having chosen the correct approach New Wave did not radically alter the result is inevitable: New- or shape the basic areas of con¬ Fashioned Futures. tent in this field. It changed the way in which that content was presented to the reader, true enough, but style alone is incap¬ In conclusion, this article is able of providing the change sci¬ an introductory outline of ideas ence fiction so desperately needs. and concepts which I will cover In short, my major criticism of in depth in future issues. There the New Wave is that it didn't go will be more coverage on commer¬ far enough. A revolution in sci¬ cialism in SF, on philosophical ence fiction which doesn't address approaches to writing SF like To¬ itself to content is not a wave, day's Tomorrow and New-Fashioned it is a ripple. Futures, a piece on why SF seems plagued by "corporate politicians" (this'll involve a little Hender¬ The other major key is the sonian corporate-style strategic response to the options made pos¬ analysis applied to SF) and final¬ sible by scientific and technolog¬ ly some remedies to get the field ical change. Given the correct working again. approach it is this response which informs the result and gi-ves us Because of this lack of rev¬ these New-Fashioned Futures. Thanks to those who've sent olution in content, what we are Because of the failure of sci¬ left with in the field today are Christmas cards; they are deeply appreciated. Thanks for your ence fiction to renovate and two major problems: decadence and cards and letters with conments on evolve its content, the commercial stagnation. The approach to con¬ my last two articles. Special options made possible by STAR WARS tent in science fiction stories is thanks to Von Thiel for his kind have not been grasped. This inev¬ decadent and the result is stagna¬ itable commercial stagnation will tion. The approach is what I call conments and to Gary Dockter and C.J. Kelly, Jr. for their gracious lead (and in fact already is) to Nostalgia For Yesterday's Tomorrow, declining sales in both unit and the result is Old-Fashioned Fut¬ card. volume. (And by the way, let's ures. How many times have you We will have scxne interesting get rid of this notion that to be been reading a novel and felt more surprises next issue. Until then commercial is not to be literate, than a touch of deja vu. It's not best wishes for the New Year. profound or progressive. Commerc¬ ialism leads to sales and sales 48 Iwl# 'His analysis of the function¬ damn thing as a work of fiction and '1) Fred Saberhagen has asked al dynamics of fantasy worlds is not as an accurate portrayal of half a dozen friends to write unbelievably shallow. Accept for life during the Ice Age. "" stories. When he's a moment the reality of a fantasy got them, he intends to embed the 'The second review that caught world where magic docs work. Grant¬ stories in a novel. my eye was Diprete's vapid critique ed, this is often a difficult task of Simak's THE GOBLIN RESERVATION. 'My contribution is already and the degree to which readers be¬ First, the review shows that he in, and I've sold it to OMNI. OMNI lieve in (however momentarily) a gave the book only the most cursory will publish it in April 1983, as particular fantasy world may be reading. There are no talking cats "A Teardrop Falls." taken as one method for gauging in the book. Second, the review the effectiveness of the writer. '2) , a nov¬ consists of two paragraphs of un¬ A character in such a world might el set in a decidedly strange en¬ substantiated opinion. Frankly, indeed "mutter the correct magical vironment is finished. Del Rey why should his bare opinion be spell" to deal with some difficulty can't find a slot to publish it something anyone should pay atten¬ facing him. until early 1984, but I'll probab¬ tion to? If you're going to do a ly sell it as a serial; location book review (particularly if you unknown, sometime in 1983. 'But how did the character or¬ are going to savage a book) you iginally obtain the use of that should at least try to back up op¬ '3) , with Jerry Pour- spell? Answer; through a study inion with something more substan¬ nelle, is due at the end of March, of the natural laws of his fantasy tial than appeals to your own per¬ 1983. continuum, through effort, expend¬ sonal writing preferences or pre¬ '4) Jerry and I have invited ed in committing the spell to mem¬ judices . ory, and finally, through some sort David Gerrold in on FALLEN ANGELS, of price paid in terms of mental 'Thanks for an interesting a novel we've been talking about and physical effort expended when for years. We'll be using a good utilizing the spell. This process many of our friends as characters, doesn't differ materially from that since fandom has become an illegal utilized by a character in a "sci¬ ((Elton's gut argument goes deeper, underground by the time of the ence fiction" world who "feeds in I think, though he hasn’t made it story (about 2010 A.D.). the equations she has learned very clear: he feels the basic '5) Eighth Day Productions is through a lifetime of education" orientation of fantasy (backward¬ me and seven collaborators who got into a computer that charts the looking, frozen) is inherently bad together at the last Equicon/Film- proper course and solves her dif¬ for sf to the extent that those con to design a solar system. The ficulties. Both characters are elements "infect" sf which he feels Tliraxisp System has appeared as functioning correctly within the is (or should be!) forward looking, articles in magazines, and will confines or of their own fluid, optimistic, scientific, tech¬ presently become a book. Only two particular universes. nological. To Elton, it really of us are novelists; Paul Preuss doesn't matter how well written a 'One of the glaring weaknesses is writing a set of stories from fantasy story is, nor how rigorous of Elliott's articles is that he de¬ Thraxisp history, and I'll be writ¬ is the magic. He says in essence, nies with sweeping generalities ing continuity. The rest are art¬ (As the kid said of spinach in that ists. I expect most of your read¬ that are easy to pontificate about. famous HEW WRKER CARTOON) "I say He offers no concrete examples of ers have seen our globe, sculpture, it's fantasy, and I say to hell paintings, etc. at conventions. good or bad fantasy or science fic¬ with it!")) tion and bastard science fiction. '6) A Ringworld role-playing In fact, the third paragraph of game is under construction from his current article suggests that Chaosium Inc. A Ringworld comic he is totally non-conversant with book by Larry Todd may have run the field of fantasy. It's fool¬ into trouble. Meanwhile, one Rob¬ ish and non-productive to criti¬ ert Mandell is at work on a feat¬ cize from a position of ignorance. # LETTER FROM LARRY NIVEN 3961 Vanalden Avenue ure-length animation of Ringworld, 'Having vented ray speen suf¬ Tarzana, CA 91356 using Japanese animators, to be ficiently on Elliott, I'd like to December 27, 1982 final-cut in New York. touch briefly on two book reviews. 'The first is Shaw's review of 'Merry Christmas] Happy New 'I'm not sure I ever said this THE CLAN OF THE CAVE BEAR. I'm an Year! This is an update on what archaeologist by profession and it I've been doing lately. My life always irks me to see archaeology has turned interesting lately. 'You've been sending me SCI- abused. CLAN may be passable as fiction, but it's laughable as a portrayal of life in Neanderthal times. The dust jacket of the hardcover edition, by the way, tries to maintain CLAN's masquerade as history by gushing about all the research Auel did and all the really neat stuff she personally experienced to learn what life was really like way back then. I could write a point-by-point review of the inaccuracies and outright mistakes contained within this book, but I don't want to ramble on much long¬ er here. I just want to warn all potential consumers to read the ENCE FICTION REVIEW since I was a tionary fan, who is desperately novice. You discovered me early. afraid that "his" field will be [MY MISSION, SlioULb I X The ego enhancement was valuable contaminated by outside influences. CHOOSE To ACjC^pr If V to me: It gave me the sense that In the 1960s, such people opposed IS To slay the citESART I what I was trying to do was worth¬ any use of "mainstream" techniques dra^n elton t. Ei-Korr I while. Thank you.' in SF, lest it pollute the precious bodily fluids of the field. Now, ^lOHEKES MV TKoFfel-l-Oe- with the same sort of hysteria, El¬ Hecmet 2 ((FALLEN ANGELS sounds fascinatingj liott resents the use of fantasy fandom hasn't had a top-level "Tuck- techniques. (Aside, lest I be cal¬ erized" novel published in a loooog led the pot calling the kettle time.)) black: During the New Wave era, I did not exactly welcome all that was going on. But my objection was that writers were displaying fancy tecl\nique for its own sake, in ord¬ er to hide the fact that they had # LETTER FROM DARRELL SCHWEITZER nothing to say. Those who produced 113 Deepdale Road innovations and widened the range Strafford. PA 19087 of the field, I approved of. If November 3, 1982 you actually go back and read what 'I don't like the implication I wrote during the late 60s and in your reply to ray letter (in SFR early 70s, you'll find favorable #45) that I am claiming that fantasy reviews of , CAMP is a superior form of literature CONCENTRATION, THE BLACK CORRIDOR, read by inherently superior people. BAREFOOT IN THE HEAD and even A (The scientist hero discovers a That would be exactly the same sort CURE FOR CANCER. All of which new ray and zaps the piffle virus.) makes my^ reactionary credentials of narrowness I am condemning in El¬ 'Sound familiar? ton Elliott. My attitude toward rather shaky.) science fiction, as I think you 'Your claim, Dick, that fantasy know, is extremely favorable and op¬ ((Uhh, what is a fantasy writing is written by literateurs who des¬ timistic. While it is true that technique? To me technique in writ¬ pise the "pulp" mode is groundless. you'll find more fantasy than sci¬ ing is using the tools of writing- First of all, there is a lot of ence fiction in what is acknowledg¬ characterization, suspense, plotting, pulp fantasy, by whatever defini¬ ed to be the world's great litera¬ technical scene development, pacing, tions you care to use. Some pulp ture, and fantasy is certainly a etc., and they can be used (must be fantasists also wrote science fic¬ more universal form, I see no reas¬ used) in any kind of fiction writ- tion. Clark Ashton Smith is an ob¬ on why science fiction cannot be vious example. His fantasy, typic¬ that good also. I think it can be. ((Style is the individual's ally, has none of the characteris¬ This brings us back to the hackney¬ personal way of using those tools. tics Elliott attributes to the ed old question: "Will science fic¬ ((And content-themes, ideas, field. tion ever produce its Shakespeare?" etc. are the material molded, car¬ 'The reason that there is so Yes, I think it will. THE TEMPEST pentered, shaped by the techniques much fantasy and so much better is fantasy. I think that somebody, and style of the author.)) fantasy is, simply, that it is a , will produce a work of more universal and older form, less science fiction that is that good. dependent on a certain place and Already there were science fiction 'Well, no field of writing can set of social conditions (i.e. sci¬ works which I am sure will live for do anything but die if it remains ence fiction only exists in scientif¬ centuries and be recognized as a- closed off and impervious to cul¬ tural trends. If it is influenced ically advanced, industrialized mong the major works of the 20th countries; it is a literary res¬ Century. Unlike, say, Michael Moor¬ by no other forms of writing, it ponse to the industrial revolution, cock, who has stated in several art¬ will soon become unreadable to all while fantasy is produced by a wid¬ icles that he does not think that but a very few. Sorry, Elton El¬ er variety of stimuli). Therefore, science fiction can ever be as rich liott, but you can't keep anything by sheer random chance, more writers or satisfying as the very best pure of outside influences unless of genuis have worked in the fant¬ mainstream novels (if someone in¬ you pickle it in formaldehyde. asy field than in science fiction, sists, I will find the quote; I That means that if science fiction simply because there have been more think it's from a NEW WORLDS edit¬ is to live and grow, it must incor¬ porate the fantasy influences, un¬ fantasy writers than science fic¬ orial). I see no inherent limita¬ tion writers. tions in the form, or even the fact til a synthesis is achieved, as it that it is published as genre fic¬ was at the end of the New Wave per¬ iod. 'It is no fault of science fic¬ tion. After all, Elizabethan tion that fantasy had a 4,000-year theatre was a genre too. 'Elliott's charges this time head start. If we count oral trad¬ 'But when you raise the subject are very, very similar to those ition, fantasy had perhaps a half¬ of superior readers, I would say used by English teachers who want million-year head start. that, yes, I would consider an op¬ to prove that science fiction is 'I should also point out that en-minded reader, who is not will¬ not "good literature." The argu¬ in America for most of this centuiy ing to dismiss most of the world's ment goes like this: Science fic¬ fantasy was not the "in" thing a- great literature out of hand, who tion provides no insight into the mong the literati, and any fantasy is willing to read beyond the nar¬ human condition because in a typi¬ writer was very much going against rowest confines of the commercial cal story there is a made-up prob¬ the grain. Literature only began SF genre, to be a person of super¬ lem (an outburst of piffle plague to revert to normal in the 1960s. ior taste to Elton Elliott. makes robots malfunction) which is followed by a completely arbitrary 'You are probably right that 'This time Elliott comes off the best fantasy isn't wildly com¬ as a virtual caricature of a reac¬ 51 mercial. Peake, Dunsany, Machen, etc. were never best-sellers. I 'On the subject of the World tion which the primitives can nev¬ don't think Twain's THE MYSTERIOUS Fantasy Con, the award winners were er hope to match. Once the Spanish STRANGER will ever be as widely as follows: were established in the Americas, and the Indians failed to wipe out read as HUCKLEBERRY or LIFE Novel: LITTLE BIG by John the Jamestown and Massachusetts Bay ON THE MISSISSIPPI. Crowley; settlements, they never had a chance. 'Ed Rom is certainly wronjj Novella: "The Fire When it They were rapidly outnumbered by Comes" by Parke Godwin; about fantasy being "easier" be¬ sheer population. They could not Short Story: "Do the Dead cause the elements are part of field large armies. They failed to Sing?" by Stephen King and "The common folklore. Very little fan¬ comprehend "civilized" concepts of tasy deals with common folklore. Dark Country" by warfare and often fought for person¬ Some does, but for (tie); al glory, or as a sport, rather the most part the folklore elements Special, Professional: Ed than strictly to win. They wholly in fantasy are foreign, and have to Ferman; lacked the concept of an industrial Special, Amateur: Paul Allen be learned. Norse elves or Greek base, which meant they could never satyrs are not part of the common and Robert Collins (FANTASY NEWS¬ manufacture weapons. A gun implies folklore. Classicists know of LETTER) ; a mining industry, a metal industry, them, but there aren't many of Best Anthology: ELSEWHERE, factories, transportation systems. these. The rest of the public Editor Terri Windling; Indians apparently did not under¬ learns of them from reading. Best Artist: Michael Whelan. stand support technology, and while 'C.J. Cherryh mentioned some¬ # # # # they were able to use the end-re¬ thing on a panel at the World Fan¬ 'Other matters: I would agree sult of a long process (i.e. the tasy Con which is relevant: She rifle), they could not duplicate with Ian McDowell that I handled was traveling in Greece at night the Malzberg affair of some years the process. when suddenly a huge dripping thing back quite badly. Nothing I said loomed up out of the darkness. It 'They also did not understand was anything less than what is now the white man's need for supplies, was an enormous dredge, working in the standard opinion, and the only a river without lights. But the transportation, and communication. thing remarkable was that I said it mixture of awe and terror that one If they had, they might have spent about a year and a half before ev¬ their time more fruitfully tearing would have at such a sight or even eryone else did. (During which feel slightly when hearing about up railroad tracks and cutting tele¬ time I received a large number of graph wires. The analogy to modem it, is universal. Similarly, (on congratulatory letters and at every another panel) Jane Yolen told of guerilla warfare is inadequate. convention I went to, complete being in an olive grove (also in The modem guerilla is not a prim¬ strangers would come up to me, itive, and knows exactly what to Greece) at sunset, watching the shake my hand and thank me for what slowly lengthen, so that I had done.) the changing light seemed to make 'Courage isn't enough, nor is the gnarled trunks writhe as if 'However, as I've learned in even a sudden understanding of how something (a dryad) were inside, the meantime, mostly by helping the civilized folk do it. Apparent¬ trying to get out. That too, is the readers rout Joseph Nicholas ly the Zulus of South Africa got universal. There is no reason why in the pages of HOLIER THAN THOU, some idea of European military org¬ science fiction can't do so, but it it is always better to use sarcasm anization, and were able to produce seems that fantasy is gaining and satire when dealing with the large armies. They also had a ground because it is simply more ridiculous rather than a blunt hat¬ couple leaders of genius. They emotionally and psychologically chet. Were Malzberg only in the did everything humanly possible to valid than bland, run-of-the-mill second or third year of building up defend their liberty, but it was engineering science fiction. It is to deciding to quit science fiction not enough. The British had the more human. today, I would certainly respond advantage of hundreds of years of in a more entertaining fashion. industrial growth and made short 'If science fiction writers work of them. Someone wrote a book are afraid of losing their audience 'Charles Saunders' review, THE about this process recently. It's to fantasy, they'll just have to INDIANS WON, caused me to stop and called THE SOCIAL HISTORY OF THE shut up and hit the typewriters, think about why the Indians didn't MACHINE GUN. until they turn out stories which win. The answer is simple: True do everything fantasy does, only primitives never do. Even in anc¬ 'Actually, all of this is sci¬ better, while at the same time pre¬ ient Roman times, primitives always ence-fictional. It's what Wells serving uniquely science-fictional lost. Right at the very end, as was writing about in THE WAR OF THE characteristics. Stilicho and Alaric were squaring WORLDS. From the viewpoint of the off, there was an invasion of real Indians or the Zulus, there was an barbarians. This caused a brief invasion from Mars. Strangers, not interruption, while the Romans previously even known to exist, slaughtered them and then hostili¬ suddenly appeared in oven*helming ties resumed. The guys who won numbers, equipped with unbeatable (the Germans) were not primitive weapons and tactics which were pro¬ at all. They were the full mili¬ duced by incomprehensible means. tary equals of the Romans. In fact Given a long enough period of con¬ when they were working for the Em¬ tact without conquest, the intended pire, they were the best troops the victims might have become a match Romans had. for the invaders, but of course, that was not allowed to happen. 'Primitives always lose against civilized peoples because civiliza¬ 'Rich Brown argues convincingly tion can support a much higher pop¬ about FRIDAY. He has seen things ulation, and because the civilized I overlooked in the emotional rush people have resources and organiza¬ at the end of the story. But I must admit, I don't find the mere 52 fact that the Realm hired a top a- gent to be implausible. If they thus found his life sufficiently a mercenary way and takes him up. were expecting trouble, they would filled with other things that he An excerpt from this sequence: want to have the prize delivered by no longer had the time nor inclina¬ '"Felix shifted his cargo someone who is very, very good at tion to write. The hitchhiker slightly to keep his arms delivering things, no matter what (whose name I forgot) was glad that from cramping and brushed the opposition. somebody remembered Filer, but did against buttocks which not know where he was. A very were quite literally skin 'What I don't find convincing vague and unsatisfactory story. at the end, aside from all the con¬ Some detective I would make.' and bones. Surrounded by veniences, is Friday's attitude to¬ his bounty, Ryan had the ward one of her former rapists. physique of a concentra¬ She discovers one of the guys who tion camp victim. Felix participated in the gang-bang, and started to ask, thought is only momentarily hostile. When better of it. Ryan cough¬ he tells her he didn't approve of # LETTER FROM ED ROM ed nervously, unnecessar¬ or take part in the subsequent tor¬ 2600 1/2 Caliban Avenue ily, his only hint of a ture, she forgives him. He still Bemidji, MN 56601 plea. Felix decided then did rape her. He even tells her November 11, 1982 to give him all of it, that he did it, not because it was 'Hang on, old man!' he shouted gaily, and turn¬ his job, but because he "wanted to." 'I took Darrell Schweitzer's ed it on."' 1 suppose this is a Gorean-type advice and sent a letter to AMAZ¬ compliment. This is what I mean by ING. They probably still won't her being unconvincingly blase' 'Double entendre, all the way print it, though, because of the through. The whole story is like about the whole matter. I cannot subject matter. Which brings me believe a woman would react like that. His next rich mark is named to the real reason for this LoC: Chatham: that. Not only did she fail to Tm referring to a story in the ring his neck, she didn't even at¬ September, 1982 AMAZING (which I '"Chatham, the Chief Dom¬ tempt to castrate him with the believe was the last Mavor-edited estic Advisor, was right nearest rusty spoon. A few pages issue) entitled "Flyer" by one later she marries him. John Steakley, which I believe pig. He came stumbling 'This is a much more shrieking is a nom de plume. out through the casino implausibility than any logic lapse. doors onto the sidewalk It's the most serious flaw in the 'This is one of the strangest, wearing a custard yellow book. I should have brought it out most bizarre stories I have ever suit (side pockets bulg¬ more in my review. read, and Steakley made it that ing with chips) and a way on purpose. It is a story on black satin shirt open 'It think FRIDAY does have a to the waist. He had a plot in the mainstream sense. It two levels. The surface level is about a young man who can fly with¬ sort of medallion-thing is the story of Friday's self-dis¬ around his neck that covery and her transformation from out mechanical aid (synchronicity: the song "Greatest American Hero" swung loosely amid great a top-secret courier to a house¬ black tufts of chest hair. is playing on the radio just now). wife. It even works in traditional In his left hand was a The level underneath is about the problem-solving terms. Her problem half-finished martini. young man learning he is gay, com¬ is finding a new life for herself Felix, watching from the ing out of the closet, hustling when her old one comes apart, as shadows of the wharf, the organization she works for dis¬ and finally reconciling himself to integrates. The resolution comes his gayness. If you read the • when she does. story with this second level in 'Felix meets his old girl¬ mind, it becomes more and more friend and lets her know that she 'Oh, one other thing. I know obvious. no longer has any sexual power ov¬ what happened to the missing AGAIN er him. The story goes on in this DANGEROUS VISIONS author, Burt K. 'Flying is so ecstatic that Filer. Or some of it, anyway. Fi¬ Felix can't bear to hold himself ler, as you may recall, had a numb¬ down to a 9-5 routine job. He is 'I advise you to get a copy er of modestly good stories in Fred getting rather hungry and meets of the September AMAZING and read Pohl's magazines in the late 60s the old man, Ryan, who has seen this story. It's real art in the in addition to the one he sold to him flying from afar. Ryan wants sense that it took great skill to Harlan. Then he disappeared. Well, Felix to take him up flying. Fe¬ put together, and also in the it so happened that about 1975 or lix bargains with him for food in sense that it is rather tasteless. so, as I was coming back to Phila¬ delphia from a convention with a carload of people, we picked up a hitchhiker. TTie subject of SF came up. This guy just happened to have known an SF writer: Burt K. Filer.

'I don't believe we were being put on, because this hitchhiker was not a fan, and had no idea that Filer was "missing." Now this was some years ago, and I may have for¬ gotten some details, but the gist of the story was that Filer had started writing while in school, but later settled into a job (en¬ gineering, I think), and gotten married at the age of 23, moved and Good art is seldom tasteful, be¬ 'It did sound like Elton was ful of covers as it is for Darrell cause the arbiters of taste are judging a lot of fantasy books by to put down the present ASIMOV'S as dull and limited as the norm of their covers and ad copy rather and F5SF with such a cavalier society. than by their actual content. statement. God knows that jillions of books 'As a person who has made a have had inappropriate covers and 'You know, in light of all the living writing pornographic novels, ad campaigns and that jillions raised hackles in this issue and you ought to appreciate this story. more will suffer similar fates in last, I can't help but remind you Unless you are "John Steakleyl" the future. Barbarians wind up of those immortal words spoken by Lloyd Bridges in the movie AIR¬ 'The Brad W. Foster cover is on books without barbarians just PLANE: "Loy! I sure picked the just great. IVhat an artist!' as often as spaceships turn up on books without spaceships. wrong day to give up sniffing glue!" 'I think the only logical ((I read the story, and it does thing to do is to look at the fan¬ 'Take care, Richard.' seem to have the hidden content you tasy field in general and cither perceive. And I suspect the story buy and enjoy what you like or ((As you know, wrap-around covers was accepted and published partly shrug and look for things you do. for that content to jolt the read¬ are difficult to use and I doubt - To attack either fantasy or sci¬ I'll indulge again. I am instead ership of AMAZING and reward a writ¬ ence fiction on the basis of its er willing to take a chance on putt¬ using the bacover for a display of (theirj worst examples while ig¬ large art pieces I rarely have ing that much work into a story with noring the high points seems a law marketability prospects. room for inside. I must work down bit silly. Better to sharpen the this huge artfile!)) ((No, I'm not Steakley. And I'm sword for the various marketing not gay. The story has no emotional advisers .... special interest for me even though I admire the skill of the writer in 'While I agree with Darrell places.)) Schweitzer that the Mike Whelan cover for AMAZING is especially # CARD FROM R. REGINALD nice, I think he's out of line THE BORGO PRESS when he says SF paintings on F6SF POB 2845 magazines have become, "... a nov¬ San Bernardino, CA 92406 November 18, 1982 # LETTER FROM ARNOLD M FENNER elty since the Idiot took over the 84.TS Carter covers at Davis, and F6SF has gone Overland Park, KS 66212 mostly to first-year art student 'Charles Saunder's review of Martin Smith's THE INDIANS WON, November 9, 1982 imitations of Magritte." in SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #45, 'Again this boils down to a states that this is Smith's unpub¬ 'Wh-what? Wait a minute! A matter of taste, but I think ASI¬ lished first novel. Actually, the SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW with a wrap¬ MOV'S has had some exceptional book was published by Belmont in around cover illo? It's unheard covers this year, covers that any 1970.' of! Shameless! No ad for back is¬ professional magazine would be sues and subs on the backcover?! proud of. Perry Realo's cover I ... I ... for March 15th and Peter Loyd's 'I like it. When you gonna for June come instantly to mind. do it again, Mr. Geis, sir? Nat¬ If either of these don't make it # CARD FROM ROBERT BLOCH urally you've got it down pat af¬ into the Illustrators Show or the 2111 Sunset Crest Drive ter all this time so of course C.A. competition this year I'll Los Angeles, CA 90046 #45 is another excellent issue. It be very surprised. November 9, 1982 would be surprising if it wasn't. 'Also FGSF has had some beau¬ 'Yes, SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW tiful covers over the past couple 'Charles Platt's profile of #45 is another outstanding issue, of years. I would hardly call Keith Laumer was amusing. I some¬ but upon careful consideration I the works by Gahan Wilson or Bar¬ how have this image of Laumer serv¬ must say that its best work is con¬ ing in a diplomatic capacity at clay Shaw or Carl Lundgren or Da¬ tributed by -- Richard E. Geis. the SALT talks, waving his sword vid Mattingly (or others that Your observation that all fiction and cane simultaniously over a could be easily named) "first- is fantasy is something I've been Russian counterpart's hdad scream¬ year art student imitations of Ma¬ waiting for someone to say, and in gritte." ing, "MOTHERFUCKING ASS HOLES! this context, much of the controv¬ FUCKING LAY OFF! NAARGHHH!" ersy takes on an air of quibbling 'My. My, my, ray. Elton sure over supernatural concepts vs. did raise a few hackles, didn't technological and/or techno-illog¬ he? Several years ago I was sit¬ ical extrapolations. I also admire ting on a panel at ArchCon with your comments on economics --a Ed Bryant, Ken Keller and Leah branch of fantasy all too frequent¬ Couch — one of the topics of dis¬ ly neglected. Personally, I'd cussion was "Has Fantasy Become the rank "supply-side economics" right Tail that Wags the Dog." Both the up there with the OZ books. It's fantasy and SF camps were heard really weird, man! Hoping you are from with the arguments sounding the same.' pretty much like your latest let- 'Of course, the Scithers' ASI¬ tercolumn and Elton's article(s). MOV'S had some nice covers -- they Basically all that was decided had some pretty bad ones, too. It ((It has struck me that in my quar¬ was that (A) covers and blurbs would be just as irrational for me terly economics commentary I am oft¬ are misleading 90% of the time, to condemn George's ability as an en indulging in a form of non-fic¬ and that (B) one person's reading art director based on that hand- tion science fiction. In that e- treasure is another person's gar¬ vent the material is appropriate bage. 54 for SFR. ((In fact, considering the re¬ book I can think of where the read¬ unpalatable social truths and killed lationship to truth and reality of er's interest in the characters a college-aged youth engaged in a most non-fiction material (like and plot is broken by menu read¬ prank—an anti-authoritarian (in newspaper stories), we could ex¬ ings. his eyes) prank. You punished stu¬ tend "all fiction is fantasy" to pidity, unforgivable in our present- 'As to the comments of Darrell "All writing is fantasy!" All re¬ day culture. and others concerning Heinlein's views, all diaries, all essays, all ((In brief, your audience, does females, their thoughts and char¬ ... Well, maybe cookbooks and in¬ not vote in the Hugo or Nebula awards acters, I'd very much like to hear struction manuals aren't fantasy. process. )) On the other hand....)) from Virginia Heinlein on the sub¬ ject. '

# CARD FROM JOHN HARLLEE SOUTHERN LIBERTARIAN MSGR. U LETTER FROM RICH BRCWN POB 1245, Elorence, SC 29503 # LETTER FROM J.E. POURNELLE 1632 19th Street, NW, #2 November, 1982 J.E. POURNELLE AND ASSOCIATES Washington D.C. 20009 12051 Laurel Terrace Drive November 16, 1982 'I don't think Jules Verne Studio City, CA 91604 deserves all that much credit for November 6, 1982 ' I was one of those fans at "predicting the submarine;" after the Chicon business session who all, the first rudimentary vers¬ 'You were, of course, right on voted on that change to the fanzine ion was used by the U.S. Navy in the mark in your notes to the let¬ Hugos. But I lost. I voted and the Revolution (it was named the ter by Steve Perram in SCIENCE FIC¬ urged others to vote for the elim¬ Turtle, and it attacked a British TION REVIEW #45. ination of the fan awards; that a- warship in N.Y. harbor^ and by managed to reach #8 on the best¬ side, I think the worst of the al¬ Verne's time people like the Con¬ seller list and stay better than ternatives offered was eventually federate Navy were actually build¬ 20 for several weeks; it probably what was chosen. (The only other ing subs. What he did was predict wouldn't have done that as a Time- alternative I really thought worthy the development into the 20th Cen¬ scape book. of consideration was one put for¬ tury ships with living accomoda¬ 'It will become a Timescape ward unofficially by Andy Porter tions and the ability to stay sub¬ book in another year or so; books --to have the fan Hugos made of merged for weeks, and tell a real¬ do better in backlist as science plutonium of slightly less than ly good tale in the process.' fiction than they do as mainstream. critical mass ...) It's a complicated world ... 'If the alternative accepted 'It's as well that OATH sold a at Chicon is ratified at Constel¬ lot of copies, since it was never lation, I seriously doubt SCIENCE nominated for any awards. That FICTION REVIEW or LOCUS will ever # LETTER FROM ALAN DEAN FOSTER may be because it wasn't good win another Hugo -- ar at least THRANX, INC. enough, although most reviewers that they or STARSHIP or THRUST 4001 Pleasant Valley Drive don't seem to have felt that way; will ever win a "Best Semi-Prozine" Prescott, AZ 86301 more likely it is because it was 8 November 1982 published in hardback (as a Time- 'Any of you could, as you scape, incidentally) in Fall. point out here, get back into the 'Darrell Schweitzer's comments competition by letting your circu¬ in SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #45 on 'Fall is the proper time for lation slide and making a few mi¬ FRIDAY summed up the book quite hardback publication if you want nor changes to the way you do well. It's strange to see two to sell books; but it's plain lousy things. But it is more likely Heinleins at war with themselves. if you're interested in Hugos, that the Best Semi-Prozine Hugo Perhaps the end result will be a since Fall publication puts the will go to something like UNEARTH whole writer greater than the sum paperback out just after the nomin¬ of his parts. ations are over. Other things be¬ or WHISPERS or FANTASY BOOK or may¬ ing equal, I'd suppose you'd have be even STARLOG ... and I really 'I found it gratifying that the best chance at a Hugo if the have to wonder if that is what one of our grand masters should paperback came out in March or so, those who proposed this change had be the one to work up so detailed meaning that the hardback should in mind. And if so, why? a description of an ununited have come out in the previous June 'I'm sure you're quite aware, states, much less a plausible de¬ at the latest. I wish someone Dick, how frequently I've said that scription. That sort of thing's would think of a way to run the SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW and LOCUS supposed to be the province of Hugo such that authors don't have are not "my kind" of fanzine -- the young turks. Now what REH to choose between sales and a but I hope I do not need to explain needs to do is edit down his se¬ reasonable chance at awards. that while my primary fannish int¬ quences of domestic dialogue. But erest lies in participating in what at least plot has returned to his 'Ah, well.’ is largely another kind of fanzine storytelling. In fact, storytel¬ (of which PSYCHOTIC was a worthy ling has returned to his storytel¬ example), it does not follow that ling, save for an anti-climactic ((OATH failed to win an award, ending. in my view, because of its content, I am incapable of appreciating SFR not for lack of writing quality. or LOCUS or THRUST or STARSHIP for 'Interesting sidenote: In com¬ The award nominators and voters are what they are. And "what they are" paring FRIDAY to his last novels, largely young, optimistic, liberal, are fanzines -- whether you or he seems to have settled on subs¬ anti-authoritarian. You and Larry Charlie Brown or Andy Porter or tituting descriptions of meals for presented them with a carload of Doug Fratz make a few bucks on them descriptions of sex. Intercourse mixed emotions when you mixed in or not. I don't believe the same or main course, it's still unnec¬ can be said for UNEARTH, FANTASY essary padding. FRIDAY'S the only 55 BOOK or STARLOG. 'But all right. You and Char¬ BOOK and STARLOG can do to you of fanzine is superior to another. lie -- blast your hides, you filth- what you've been doing to all of (I do make such assumptions, of y rotten swine.' -- have worn most of us. Uh-huh. course. But it's only my opinion.) the fanzine Hugos for the past de¬ 'So now "my" kind of fanzines cade or so, with Andy and Doug 'Yet what is not arguable, I are going to win the fanzine Hug¬ standing in the wings should eith¬ think, is that SFR and LOCUS and os, right? er of you stumble. No chance, in THRUST and STARSHIP are the best that situation for a low circula¬ fanzines of their kind -- and there¬ tion high-quality fanzine to win fore superior to their lower-grade 'It will go to you or Charlie the award, no matter how good it imitators. In comparing similar might be, against the four of you or Doug or Andy if you let your fanzines, published with similar -- since the "low-circulation" can¬ circulation slip, and make a few goals and for similar reasons and cels out the "high-quality." The other minor concessions to fit in given that all of the fanzines in kind of fanzine which 1 like best the new "fanzine" category. If it this particular category are active¬ tends to be one which is published is simply not worth that kind of ly seeking subscribers, I think bother to any of the four of you, as a hobby and seldom has a circul¬ circulation can certainly be used ation over 2-300, of which perhaps it will go to some low-grade imi¬ to at least partially gauge their 40 or 50 are overseas fen. Maybe tation SFR, LOCUS, THRUST or STAR- quality. And I think it is obvious half the remaining number would be SHIP that does not have quite the that it will be these imitation in a position in any particular same circulation but which other¬ SFRs, LOCUSes, THRUSTs and STAR¬ year to vote on the fanzine Hugos wise falls within this new "fan¬ SHIPs, which aren't quite as good -- and probably some of those would zine" definition. because they only have a circula¬ tion of 500 or 600 or so, which think that some other fanzine with 'Why? a 2-300 circulation deserves the will stand the greatest chance of award. Which means, if any of 'Because no one who is publish¬ winning a fanzine Hugo if this pro¬ these kinds of fanzines should get ing one of those high-quality hobby posal is ratified. Those high- 100 votes, and more than 1/lOth of fanzines is at all interested in do¬ quality low-circulation just-be- SFR's readers also vote (the maj¬ ing the extra work (which can only cause-they're-fun-to-do fanzines ority of whom have never seen these make the hobby tedious) or paying will still not be in the running -- other kinds of fanzines), that low- the extra expense of building a even though the people who brought circulation high-quality fanzine 200-circulation fanzine into a cir¬ these proposals to Chicon were in¬ gets swamped. culation of 500 or 600 or 700 tent on giving these fanzines "a where they might stand a chance 'So whathell -- let's just pen¬ under this new scheme. In many 'I frankly don't know what all alize you and Charlie and Andy and cases, the expense of publishing the fuss is about. Most of these Doug because the kind of fanzine these fanzines is entirely or hobby editors would prefer to win a you like to publish is more popul¬ largely borne directly by the edi¬ fan poll in which the voters were ar than the kind of fanzine I like tor -- and since most of these ed¬ clearly their peers -- other people best. Just push you out of the itors are more interested in re¬ way and bump you into a category ceiving response than trying to actively involved in fanzine fan¬ dom. I know I would. If I got one where UNEARTH. WHISPERS, FANTASY make a profit, this would require doubling or trebbling the expense of those little rockets, I'm afraid of their hobby. Either that, or my reaction would be something like, taking on a lot of silent subscrib¬ "Yeah, well, it's nice, I suppose. ers, who would increase the amount I guess this means ray fanzine is of work necessary but would not in¬ every bit as good as FANTASY TIMES." crease the pleasure of publishing that fanzine to any appreciable '(Perhaps, for those who've not been around fandom for the past 20 years or so, I should 'On the other hand, there are point out that FANTASY TIMES, one a number of imitation SFRs, LOCUSes, of the earliest Hugo-winners, was THRUSTS and STARSHIPs, the editors a fanzine somewhat like LOCUS, in of which are trying to do precisely the sense that it presented news what you, Charlie, Doug and Andy about the SF field. Nonetheless, are already doing -- providing a F-T would, unlike LOCUS, have to service to a large number of fans rank as one of the most quasi-lit¬ who are not involved in fanzine erate fanzines of all time.) fandom, while building a subscrip¬ tion circulation so the entire ex¬ 'I don't believe I would ever pense of publishing does not fall get a chance to say that -- it on the editor. could only have happened (even un¬ der the plan proposed at Chicon) as 'Comparing SFR to PSYCHOTIC or a result of some kind of fluke -- LOCUS to FILE 770 or THRUST to an exceptionally low turnout of BOONFARK, etc., is like comparing voters, or maybe the fanzines with apples and oranges. It is at least the 700-800 circulation cancelling arguable that PSYCHOTIC was "bet¬ each other out, or something like ter" than SFR -- I have my opinion that. And where's the egoboo, the on that, but I admit it's a matter sense of having Accomplished Some¬ of tastes and tastes are just opin¬ thing, in that? ion and therefore arguable. Since 'I don't deny that the people these are different kinds of fan¬ who put all these alternative pro¬ zines, before judging one to be su¬ posals forward should be credited perior to another, it is necessary with anything but good (or at least to make an assumption that one kind kindly) motives. Yeah, sure, it 56 would be really nice if a fanzine like, say, BOONFARK or TAPPEN or year by year. I think the fanzine IZZARD were to win an award because Hugos should be abolished because of the excellence of their efforts. there's no chance that that number (This presumes, I think mistakenly, of people can make a quality judg¬ that the Hugos are awarded for qual¬ ment, given the fact that a large ity rather than popularity. Or number of excellent fanzines are rather, in the belief that qual¬ published in a circulation of only ity will win over popularity, a few hundred. which is not quite the same thing.) But at the same time I think the 'On the other hand, if a sig¬ people who publish BOONFARK and nificant number of people at the TAPPEN and IZZARD should be credit¬ worldcon disagree with me, I think ed with a little pride and at least the least we can do is acknowledge some intelligence -- the award is that the fanzine awards are for popularity with perhaps some judg¬ not going to mean diddly-squat, to ment made on the relative quality them or anyone else, if it has beer of the most popular fanzines. And "won" simply because the rules have been "rigged" just for that purpose. in that event, 1 see no good reas¬ These editors win legitimate praise on why SFR, LOCUS, THRUST or STAR- SHIP should be penalized for their from their readers, and I think it is an insult to the intelligence of these editors to try to set things up so they might receive what must ((For those who entered fandom late, ultimately be seen as counterfeit or don't care, PSYCHOTIC was my fan¬ zine in the middle-late Fifties and late Sixties. Yes, I ^ ancient. 'The real problem, you see, is that the Hugo is not a "peer" a- ward, as is the Nebula -- it's the award of the world science fiction convention. The intent of all these proposals to redefine the fanzine in the Hugo category is clearly to make the vast majority of worldcon attendees decide they are unqualified to vote -- leaving the 400 or 500 or so who are qual¬ ified to make that judgment. 'I don't believe the proposal can possibly accomplish that in¬ tent, since I think people will vote whether they meet "my" (or anyone else's) criteria for being qualified or not -- and good on them, I might add. 'But even if it did succeed in accomplishing that intent, 1 can¬ not help but wonder how the recip¬ ient of the award could avoid the realization that the fanzine Hugo would then be a hollow cheat. It would, if successful, only be a way to "rig" things so 500 people could give an award in the name of 5000 or more. The 500 who voted for the award would know this. The 4500 who refrained from voting would know this. The recipient of the award would also know this. Who would be fooled? 'As I said at the outset, I really think the fan awards should be abolished. When world conven¬ tions only drew 500-800 people, there was always a slight chance that these fan Hugos could be peer awards -- at that time, a signifi¬ cant portion of the attendees would also have had some involvement in fanzine fandom or at least some part of it. There's really no chance of that sort of thing hap¬ pening when worldcon attendance is averaging 5-10,000 -- and rising # LETTER FROM RICH BRCWN # LETTER FROM NEAL WILGUS 'L-2 is limericks. The fates 1632 19th Street, NW, #2 Box 25771 and the muses conspired to make me Washington, DC 20009 Albuquerque, NM 87125 guest editor of the Mensa LIMERICK December 10, 1982 November 22, 1982 SIG NEWSLETTER for November, 1982 and the result was PLANET OF THE 'Stopped over at Ted White's 'Forget about the three Rs -- LIMERICKS, a collection of 99 lim¬ the other evening and he beat me here's some stuff on the three Ls. ericks, with original contributions mightily about the head and shoul¬ by Isaac Asimov, Ruth Berman, Rob¬ 'There were two references to ders and called me all kinds of ert Bloch, Steve Eng, Don Maker, libertarianism in SCIENCE FICTION names. Well, no, it was nothing Rod Walker, Gene Wolfe and others, REVIEW #45 that seemed to call for quite that bad -- it just seems with reprints from ASIMOV'S SF MAG¬ comment. In the Keith Laumer pro¬ that way in retrospect. The sub¬ AZINE, Asimov, Poul Anderson, S. file, Laumer screams that libertar¬ ject which led to this abuse was Dale, M.M. Moamrath and such clas¬ ianism is anarchy, which is close the "nonsense" in my review of FRI¬ sic sources as Legman's THE LIMER¬ enough, but jumps to the common DAY in SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW which ICK, Baring-Gould's THE LURE OF conclusion that anarchy would mean tied menstruation to ovulation. THE LIMERICK, Crist's PLAYBOY'S that the "biggest assholes" would A woman who has her tubes tied (tu¬ BOOK OF LIMERICKS and many others. take over, and that suddenly we'd bal litigation, I believe it's cal¬ PLANET OF THE LIMERICKS turned out be without TV, gas and groceries. led) would not ovulate but would so well that I'm now looking for continue to menstruate, and it But that's simpleminded bullshit because anarcho-libertarianism is a paperback publisher for an ex¬ would not only be possible but panded version which would include not likely to happen overnight — sensible to remove one of her ova some of the classics that were if it does happen it's liable to (if that's in fact what was sup¬ left out and as much new material be a gradual evolution, a racial posed to have happened to Friday) as possible. for the purpose of fertilizing it maturation that will make govern¬ without desterilizing her, i.e., ments, as well as those biggies, 'SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW read¬ untying her tubes. No doubt, the wither away like the hemorrhoids ers can assist in this foolhardy sophisticated readership of SFR they are. venture by bringing my attention has pointed this out. No doubt 'The other reference to lib¬ to SF/fantasy limericks I might they will wish to beat me mightily ertarianism was in Darrell Schwei¬ have missed. In particular I'm about the head and shoulders and tzer's review of Kombluth's THE in need of two collections of SF call me all kinds of names. SYNDIC, where Schweitzer quotes limericks listed in the Limerick SIG's semiannual limerick biblio¬ 'As someone who has frequently Frederik Pohl as saying that SYN¬ graphy. These are George Barr's made a fool of himself, I make use DIC has become a "sacred tract" of the tried-and-true method of to libertarians. Well, maybe SF AND FANTASY LIMERICK ILLUMINAT¬ changing the subject. Hey, what some libertarians somewhere, but ED (Philadelphia, 1968) and Roy Lavender's LOST LIMERICKS AND BAR do you think about the price of I suspect that most people who i- ROOM BALLADS (Cincinnati: World SF rice in China? Don't you think dentify with the label simply re¬ Convention, 1949, reprinted Rey¬ it depends upon the value of the cognize the libertarian spirit in noldsburg, OH, 1957). By the time yen? Gotten any lately? Will THE SYNDIC and leave sacred tracts this letter is printed I may well the friction-type belt-buckle be to someone else. It should be have the Barr collection in hand, the thing of the future?' clearly noted that libertarians are not necessarily connected in but the Lavender one may be hard¬ any way with the "Libertarian Par¬ er to track down. If someone out ((Relax; nobody has wrn,tten about ty" (a contradiction in terms if there has a copy of Lavender (or your blunder. To answer your ques¬ ever there was one). any other such critter) I'd apprec¬ tions: I have no opinion. No, Yes. iate hearing from them. No.}) 'L No. 3 is that lefthanded 'All of which leads up to the business that I've mentioned in following plug for the Libertarian some earlier issues of SF REVIEW. Futurist Society which was organiz¬ # LETTER FROM BRUCE GILLESPIE Little new to repeat except that GPO Box 5195AA ed last spring by Michael Gross- Shevek in LeGuin's THE DISPOSSESS¬ Melbourne, Victoria 3001 berg (Box 14181, Austin, TX, 78761) ED was lefthanded and that I heard Australia to revive the for from Rick Kennett of Coburg, Vic¬ 4 December 1982 best libertarian SF novel. The toria, Australia, who says he is first Prometheus went to WHEELS left-oriented in everything except 'My one achievement for 1982 WITHIN WHEELS by F. Paul Wilson his hands. Is LeGuin lefthanded, — and I hope you can announce in 1979, and then the award was or just leftwing? Australian this sometime, somewhere -- had suspended until Grossberg and oth¬ slang for a leftie is Molly Dooka been, at last, to publish S F COM¬ ers started the LFS to carry on in case anyone is interested. MENTARY REPRINT EDITION: FIRST the tradition. The Second Prome¬ L-4 and L-5 will have to wait YEAR 1969, which includes the theus (a Hayek Half gold coin) was for future developments.' first eight issues of SFC, type¬ awarded the THE PROBABILITY set, printed, indexed, with a new BROACH by L. Neil Smith at the introduction by me. 200 numbered 1982 Worldcon, and it looks like ((Here's a limerick I Just composed: copies only. More than 200,000 the award will be with us for a Consider a weird writer named Geis words. Photos of people as they good long time to come. There Whose habits were not very nice. were in 1969. Authors include will be a quarterly LFS Newslet¬ When not picking his nose Geis, Aldiss, Lem, Dick, Brunner, ter, PROMETHEUS, but at this writ¬ He was screwing a hose, Delany, Turner, Foyster, Harding, ing I haven't seen the first issue Not to mention his primary vice. Bangsund, Broderick, etc. $40 a and the editorship has already copy (which would be the cost of changed, so anyone interested photocopying the originals). US should contact Grossberg until further notice. cheques acceptable — send to For what it's worth, I'm left- "Bruce Gillespie".' 58 handed, too.)) # LETTER FROM JEAf>l WEBER it matter that a lot of what he few who disagreed with my article, c/o CSIRO, POB 1800 doesn't like is also being pub¬ but it didn't have the right feel Canberra City, ACT lished? Publishers have to make so I deep-sixed it. I won't change Australia 2601 a profit, after all. their opinions by whatever I say November 19, 1982 and they won't change mine by furth¬ er rejoinders, so I'll just reserve '1 found it particularly amus¬ my commentary for "Raising Hackles" ing to compare the comments on and leave the letter column for un¬ fantasy by Darrell Schweitzer and related observations. Elton Elliott in SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #45. Elton, like several 'To all those who wrote in to others I've read in the last year me personally and expressed regret or so, seems very distressed, over the end of the news column, angry and even offended that his thank you. It was time, I felt, to narrowly-defined version of sci¬ go on to new areas. I was pretty ence fiction appears to be less burned out on news. Besides, most popular than other forms (includ¬ of the recent news was too depres¬ ing fantasy). He asks, "What sing. At Berkley they answer the caused this, what will the results phones, "Berkley/Jove/Ace/Playboy." be, and what can be done about it." I don't care to report on mergers; the shrinkage of market that they 'As far as I'm concerned, it's represent is to me very frighten¬ a total non-issue. If Elton does ing, not only economically but al¬ not want to call the stuff he does so politically. The thought of the not like by the name of "science future of paperback publishing ten fiction", fair enough. Let him de¬ U LETTER FROM MARK H. CAMPOS years down the road being only 3 fine his terms however he prefers. 5435 Pearl Drive publishers with a half dozen im¬ The stuff will still be written Sun Valley, NV 89431 prints each is disquieting. Such and will still be popular. Why December 8, 1982 concentration of publishing in a should it matter in the least? democracy could change the politic¬ The ending of his article suggests 'On the subject of Phillip K. al nature of our country in ways that he may consider insult and Dick, rest him: I went to college none of us would like. ridicule a way to influence other (Willamette, Salem, , 1981) readers' tastes. Fortunately, few with a girl named Nicole Thibo¬ 'Speaking of political realit¬ people are likely to care about deaux. Pretty girl, Hawaiian. ies that none of us like: Poul his opinion. Anyway, long after I'd lost touch Anderson was quite correct in his with her, someone who understands letter that would-be secret rulers 'Darrell, on the other hand, of the world are probably not smart suggests positive reasons why fan¬ my fondness for the writing of Mr. Dick handed me a copy of THE SIM¬ enough to succeed. But that does tasy appeals to people (rather not mean that they wouldn't try. than suggesting it's merely a juv¬ ULACRA, written in 1963, in which the power behind the Presidency is In fact, if intelligent people enile trait to be outgrown) -- and know that domination of the world he suggests that many of those ele¬ a woman named Nicole Thibodeaux. Same name, same spelling. This is is impossible, it makes sense that ments could be incorporated into only stupid people would try. In science fiction -- without detri¬ obviously not a coincidence; head games are (or were) being played. fact, the ij-billion dollars that ment to SF. the "brains" running the Chase Man¬ 'My personal experience sug¬ hattan Bank have lost in the past year show me that they possess the gests that Darrell's right. I PHIUPK- u^? read SF through the 50s but virtu¬ intellectual capacity to try. ally quit in the mid-60s, because 'With what we know of human most of what I read didn't satisfy nature, the idea that nobody would me. Too many gadgets and not en¬ 'I am reminded of this by the attempt to secretly dominate the ough characterization -- or at following: I finally caught the planet through economic or politi¬ least few women to whom I could movie NIGHT SHIFT this evening, cal means, I find harder to believe relate. Along about 1975 (when I and while reading the titles (some¬ than the fact that somebody would discovered fandom at Aussiecon), I thing I always do), I noticed the try. It's not paranoia, it's just started reading SF again, and name "Hans Beimler" listed as As¬ plain common sense.' found numerous authors writing sistant to the Director or Second things that I enjoyed. Soon I dis¬ Unit Director or something like ((Those ....'benighted few' you men¬ covered that much of what I liked that. Hans Beimler is also the tion who oppose your arguments in re was classified as "fantasy" (or Commisar in the song sung by Herb fantasy vs. science fiction are name- sometimes "science fantasy"), Asher in Mr. Dick's last novel, ed Legion; I've had to pick the op¬ which surprised me. I'd always THE DIVINE INVASION. Something is position letters printed in this is¬ looked down on fantasy as "fairy happening here, and I don't know sue from among dozens. There's a tales," as Elton appears to do -- what it is.' message embedded in these responses. till I discovered that there's a ((The shift of the publishing lot more to it than that. Now I industry to the automobile industry realize how absurd labelling is -- model—a Big Six (one might say) who there's good writing and poor writ¬ issue books under a variety of im¬ ing, triviality and meaning (or # LETTER FROM ELTON T. ELLIOTT prints the way GM, Ford and Chrysler importance) in all "labels," and 1899 IVeissner Drive, NE produce cars from various divisions what appeals to one person is Salem, OR 97303 and sub-divisions-is both frighten¬ loathed by another. Why worry? ing and heartening: the dinosaur syn¬ (Perhaps snobdom appeals to Elton?) 'Dick, I had a big, flashy re¬ drome allows small, independent hous¬ As long as there's some of what he sponse prepared for those benighted es to flourish in the areas the big¬ likes being published, why should gies won't or can't bother with.)) 59 A very good assemblage, a kind SMALL PRESS NOTES of sampler of styles and subject- matter in fantasy. All of these BY THE EDITOR artists are professionals.

TRANSMUTATIONS-A Book of Personal Alchemy. By Alexei Panshin URANUS #3 Books Edited and published by Roger Box 999, Dublin. PA 18917 Butcher, 1537 Washburn, Alexei has gone through a Beloit, WI 53511 kind of young-life crisis precipi¬ A 28-page offset, letter-size tated by untimely deaths and an in¬ sf poetry magazine full of typical evitable, "What's it all about, Al- free verse, a couple haikus that fie?" reaction. He's naturally in¬ actually rhyme, and good intentions trospective and metaphysical, I If this sort of thing is your think. bag, fine. Make $1.50 checks to There's lots of good stuff in this collection of short pieces, Roger Butcher. about sf and writing. Some per¬ On another matter, Roger sent ceptive parables on life and living. along Cwith URANUS 1(3) a photocopy Old crocks like me who have gone of a page from COLLECTIBLE BOOKS: # THE LONE WULF RIDES AGAIN AND through this agonizing and reap¬ SOME NEW PATHS. It is from Peter AGAIN AND AGAIN.... praising of the cosmic joke that B. Howard's article, "American ....in George Kochell's three mini- is life and human consciousness, Fiction Since 1960." There is a comic booklets. Lone Wulf is action get a bit impatient with each paragraph that reads; satire on war, escapism, and Herbert new writer who thinks no one else ■•As should be abundantly clear Hoover. Good cartooning, but short. has had these same thoughts, and by now, first editions are often LONE WULF #1, limited edition, who insist on putting them in print paperbacks. In two and one-half signed and numbered by the artist. yet again.' But wotthehell, archy. years Essex House in Los Angeles $1.00 postpaid. (16pp) The main thrust of TRANSMUTA¬ published 41 paperback originals LONE WULF n is 50^ TIONS is an analysis of sf and a by collectible authors like Charles TOO TENSE TOONS #1 is 50*. pointing of the way toward a new Bukowski, Kirby Doyle, Philip Jose All three—$1.75. kind of sf. Farmer, and David Meltzer, and by George Kochell Alexei is also into Sufi thought, some very obscure authors like 5432 Main, #4 and that way-of-thinking/perceiving Richard Geis. The editions ranged E. Petersburg, PA 17520 permeates this book. There are two editions availa¬ from 15,000 to 30,000 copies.' George also writes that the illo in Ah, fame- ble: Limited 150 copy hardcover SFR #44 I credited to Koszowski, p. edition, numbered and signed, $20. 12, is his. Or the trade paperback at $8. I have too many "K" artists. Intriguing cover by . REALITY INSPECTOR By John Caris Somebody change your name! From Westgate House $3.95 now on everybody sign your full 1716 Ocean Av., Suite 75 name on everything. Your full last THE RHYSLING ANTHOLOGY name, anyway. At least the first San Francisco, CA 94112 The Best Science Fiction Poetry four letters of your last name? John Ocean is called in to de¬ of 1981. Contains the final nomin¬ bug the Federal Reserve's prime ees for the Rhys ling Awards. conputer which keeps mis-reporting Published by the Science Fiction weekly M-1 figures, allowing person Poetry Association, or persons unloiown to profit great¬ DARK AGE--A Collection of Fantasy 1722 N. Mariposa Av., #1 ly in the financial markets. Art. $3.95 + 55* postage Los Angeles, CA 90027 Mmdane.. .but Ocean is able to Dark Age Productions Price: $1.50 enter other realities and by follow¬ 5539 Jackson A 42-page booklet, offset, il¬ ing clues, by divining meanings from Kansas City, MO 64130 lustrated. warnings given him, by alliance with Inpressive, intriguing full- These are all prose poems. metaphysical, psychic, psi-talented color covers by Hank Jankus and Sentences with some meaning (some friends—one of whom is in a match Richard Corben enclose this 52- without) chopped up adroitly and for the World Chess Chanpionship— page collection of black 8 white stacked one piece below another, he solves the problem of an imposs- fantasy art. in "stanzas" to form effective flows ible-to-find recurring computer pro¬ Steve Fabian has 13 pages, most and stops and starts for the eye 8 gram in ZAC (the Fed. computer). of which I've not seen before. mind. This is an extraordinary novel Other artists include Vaughn which seems full of messages, satir¬ Bode, Wallace Wood, James Odbert, But not a one of these "poems" es, portents and warnings given the Phillipe Druillet, Roy Krenkel, rhymes! For me poetry is sound as reader about life, our civilization, Jeff Easley, Bemi Wrightson, Nest¬ well as image/thought evocation, our very humanness. The core is a or Redondo, Richard Corben, John and the delight of a clever, skill¬ series of championship chess games Severin, Jeff Jones, Howard Chay- ful marriage of meter and rhyme (actually played by past masters) kin, Marcus Boas, Jim Fitzpatrick, with content is my measure of fine i^ich influence the story and [John George Barr, Clyde Caldwell, Alex poetry. Caris hopes] the reader. Nino, and Reed Cran¬ Not everybo^ is anymore in¬ If you are into chess and/or dall. clined to the discipline of meter other levels of Reality, this novel Inside covers are by John Sev¬ and rhyme. That's an added boulder is worth experiencing. It's more erin and Barry Windsor-Smith. of work and frustration and talent than worth the price. 60 few wish to lift. Hell, anybody can write a laden IN AND OUT OF QUANDRY KEEP WATCHING THE SKIES! sentence and cut it into odd saus¬ By Lee Hoffman By Bill Warren $39.95 ages of words. UP TO THE SKY IN SHIPS McFarland 5 Co. ■^1.25 hfis Hell--- By A. Bertram Chandler Box 611 Anybody can write a laden NESFA PRESS, $13.+$1. postage Jefferson, NC 28640 Sentence and Box G, MIT Branch P.O. This is volume one of a two-vol¬ Cut it Cambridge, MA 02139 ume survey/review of science fiction Into odd sausages of words. films, 1950-1957. An "Ace Double" small hardback Bill has an encyclopedic know¬ And because the easy way has issued to ccmmemorate the Pro Guest ledge of sf films, directors, pro¬ been taken for decades, and because of Honor (Chandler) and the Fan ducers, actors... And he writes non-rhyming poetry is considered Guest of Honor (Hoffwoman) at Chi- in an informal style ripe with sar¬ better poetry [anything that rhymes con IV, the 40th World SF Conven¬ casm and assertiveness. Bill makes is low class...doggerel!] the poets tion. judgements and doesn't mind letting have lost the public. The poets NESFA does this every year. you know what they are. And 99% of are off into a tiny clique all alone The Chandler half of this book con¬ the time, I think he's right. with themselves, thinking they're tains seven stories, including the This book is endlessly fascinat¬ an elite, a special Chosen few. first Grimes story and a story set ing for its perspective, its detail They have my pity and my con¬ in the alternate universe of his and its analysis. tempt. They probably have the con¬ upcoming novel. tempt of that blind space poet, Lee Hoffman's half features Rhysling, too, who rhymed. essays and. stories, including "The A FAN TYPOLOGY: being an anthroplog- Bluffer's Guide to Publishing a Fan¬ ioal study of Fandom zine," and her 1957 "A Surprise for -OR- Harlan Ellison." WHAT I SEE ON THE ELEVATORS! There are two full-color dust- Concept, text: Beth Lillian A DISCORDIAN COLORING BOOK jacket covers by Kelly Freas, the Drawn and published by Illustrations: Charlie Williams Chicon IV artist Guest of Honor. Published by Lillian, Laramie Sasseville, 1800 copies, limited edition. c/o LAUaiING DRAGON GRAPHICS 102 S. Mendenhall #13, 1921 Elliot Av. S. Greensboro, NC 27403 Minneapolis, MN 55404 INFINITY CUBED #8 An hilarious, merciless satire Black 6 white drawings, un¬ Edited by Lowell Cunningham of sf convention denizens, by t;^e, shaded, suitable for coloring. Published by The Science Fiction including outstanding dress habits, Professional-level art, centered and Fantasy Writers' League, speech, and sexual proclivities. around the Discordian Illuminations POB 8445, U.T. Station, Also: odor ratings. -whatever they may be. It's all Knoxville, IN 37996 Read this and cringe. satire, I tell you! There are peo¬ $2.50 single copy. ple out there taking it seriously! INFINITY CUBED graduates from Anyway, if you have a Discordian amateur to semi-pro status by be¬ child with an accordian mind, you ginning to pay for art and writing. THE LAST MURRAY LEINSTER INTERVIEW might want to give him a copy of Low rates, but ya gotta start some- vdiere. By Ronald Payne this to color or paint. Sasseville Waves Press didn't mention a price--and there is Letter-size format, offset printing, large type size, a pro- 4040 MacArthur Avenue no price on the cover, or inside Richmond, VA 23227 that I can discern in the cistern. zine-style contents page and for¬ mat. 64 pages plus heavy covers. This isn't much for the $10 ask¬ A-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-. ing price. Typeset, 12 pages on high quality paper, heavy cover. Booklet. Ronald Payne is a profess¬ SHAYOL #6 ional writer, a novelist, and a long¬ REALITY WORLD ---A Souvenir Guidebook Published by Amie Fenner; Executive time admirer of William Fitzgerald By David Ocker and John Steinmetz Editor, Pat Cadigan. Jenkins [Murray Leinster]. Push Poke Prod Press $5.00 Flight Unlimited, Inc. $3.95 The interview was given in 1972, 4313 Finley Av. 8435 Carter, Overland Park, KS 66212. and Jenkins died in 1975. Los Angeles, CA 90027 This latest exquisite labor of It's a good interview, revealing Qever, often devastating satire love, superbly produced, a feast of of the man and his work. on Disneyworld-type amusement parks art and graphics, of fiction and and our absurd civilization. articles, features a fine, fine cover A 58-page half-size booklet, it by Michael Whelan and excellent in¬ may, subjectively be worth $5., but tfE AtujT HAVE JyJST terior art by especially Don Ivan P)S(.oVee.BD THAT not in 1957 money (inside joke—see Punchatz. the Guidebook). There are interviews with Stephen "»upDha'} VBUbtif' ,5 King and George R.R. Martin, and very good fiction ("...The World As We 01HERGATES UPDATES #3, Fall, 1982 Know't." by Howard Waldrop, and "The Edited by Mi Ilea Kenin $3. yr. Ultimate Spy" by Ken Doggett) which 1025 55th St. deserves ANALOG appearance. I did Oakland, CA 94608 not like the clumsily written and A valuable adjunct to OTHERGATES. puerile anti-war story, "Patriots," This issue updates and has new list¬ by Michael Bishop ings of the wants and policies and A new SHAYOL is always an Event, payments of small press and special¬ and this new one is a marvel. Love ty press publications. that portfolio of artists With Tim There's an amazingly varied and Kirk, Thomas Blackshear, Richard electric world of semi-pro publish¬ Corben, Kim Eide, Robert Haas. ing out there for those interested. 61 COOK By Tom Case VORTEX itl $1.95 November '82 The story is "non-commercial" Tom Case, Vortex Magazine in that it deals with an extensive 2 Champion Road, Caversham, 493A Bloor St. W., Russian socialist mining presence Reading RG4 8EL, ENGLAND Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 1Y2. in the asteroid belt, and one Russ¬ A different time-travel novel: Superior drawing and half-tones ian miner's sexual attraction to A modern man is timewarped to 43,000 mark this first issue's primary com¬ an alien. It's a slice-of-life BC and befriended by a small tribe ix story, "In the Lion's Den,"" which story...and not a slice likely to of Neanderthalers...one of whom is far-future sf and peopled with attract young WASP readers or edit¬ the narrator calls Cook, a one-armed, beautiful, sexy, half-nude, promin- ors...in spite of being well-written. one-eyed Neanderthaler genius. ently-nippled women. Also---aliens, The novel is the diary of the robots, the self-induldent, ruthless modem man's adventures with this ruler of a thousand solar systems... TfE SKEPTICAL INQUIRER Fall, 1982 tribe, and it is a well-written, "Trip to Glory," the second sto¬ Box 229, Central Park Sta., very human diary. ry, is funny/clever/unusual. Credit Buffalo, NY 14215 There is another story behind Don Marshall. This is the Journal of the Com¬ this novel: this is a well-printed Editor/Publisher of VORTEX is mittee for the Scientific Investiga¬ color-cover paperback, and it is William P. Marks. Good job. Not a tion of Claims of the Paranormal, self-published by the author who has bad drawing in the whole mag. Worth and the featured section in this chosen "Tom Case" as a publisher/ having, though it seems overpriced. issue is "Prophesy and the Selling author pseudonym. His real name is of Nostradamus." Three articles Tony Knight. And he has further Tom destroy the accuracy and "interpre¬ Case books in the works. tation" of Nostradamus' obscure and You can have a copy of Cook by NYCTALOPS #17 amibiguous quatrains which through sending $3.50 to the above address. Edited and published by Harry 0. the centuries since 1566 AD have A final word: this is profession¬ Morris, Jr. been touted as foretelling history. al writing, and well-researched; you 502 Elm Street SE, There is a "News and Comment" believe the Neanderthalers looked, Albuquerque, NM 87102 section which covers briefly current acted, and lived this way. And you A beautifully put-together, psi, UFO, bigfoot, ghost, clone, care for the poor who was myster¬ offset, quality-paper fanzine de¬ astronomic, etc. claims. Book re¬ iously transported into their lives. voted to Lovecraftian horror and views, letters, other articles, all fantasy. Really fine artwork, es¬ are revealing and no doubt depress¬ pecially by J.K. Potter, Brad W. ing to those who need-to-believe. Foster, Steve Fabian. Subscriptions: $16.50 per year. THE DARKLING By David Kesterton Articles about the Cthulhu Arkham House, $12.95 mythos and Lovecraft, and fiction Sauk City, WI 53583 of professional quality, especially Far future, warped seasons, "A Book of Verse" by William Wallace THE PATCHIN REVIEW #5 $2.00 strange mutant/artificial life- ---exceptionally good writing; com¬ Edited by Charles Platt forms, mankind reduced to tribe^ mand of words, mood, style. 9 Patchin Place, New York, NY 10011 living in caves--- Single copy price is $3.00. A fine issue of this controvers¬ A bold, intelligent, psi-tal- Worth it. ial and controversy-laden magazine. ented young tribesman sets out to A mixture of editorial cynicism and find his missing father and discov¬ idealism—Charles wants better ers wonders, friends, enemies, and STROKA PROSPEKT quality writing in sf and fantasy answers. The answers involve aliens, By Richard A. Lupoff and derides the hack, the sell-out a cataclysmic past, an ancient city Illustrated by Ann Mikolowski and the self-serving lies of edit¬ and vicious, powermad remnants of Toothpaste Press ors, publishers and writers in the . Box 546 sf/fantasy "family." Standard plot elements, effect¬ West Branch, lA 52358 The stand-out item in this is¬ ive writing, good imagination. Av¬ This is a novelet in booklet form sue is Charles' profile of Donald erage adventure characterization. [4-1/2" X 9-1/2"] and is printed A. Wolheim, head of DAW Books. Very good dust jacket painting on qiality papers. Sewn bindings. by Raymond Bayless. 950 copies, of which #1-100 are sign¬ ed by the author and artist and bound SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY BOOK RE¬ VIEW #7, September, 1982 $2.00 in cloth covers. Balance are bound Edited by Neil Barron in Fabriano Ingres wrappers. Published by the Science Fiction There is an Introduction by Thomas EXOTIC WEAPONS-AN ACCESS BOOK Research Association. Subscrip¬ By Michael Hoy 1982 M. Disch. tions (10 for $15. USA) address: Loompanics Unlimited, POB 1197, Elizabeth Cogell, SFRA Treasurer, Port Townsend, WA 98368 Dept, of Humanities, Univ. of Mis¬ Everything is pictured and ex¬ souri, Rolla, MO 65401. Make checks plained. From all kinds exotic guns, knives, whips, bolas, sword and money orders payable to SFRA. canes, hand weapons, shockers, What we have here is academic sonic weapons, tomahawks... over values in publishing and editing 40 categories of unusual/illegal/ shooting themselves in the foot. hard-to-get weapons. And, if you The format is your basic hard- are interested in acquiring them, to-read reduced-too-small type in dealer addresses. crowded wall-to-wall single-column But for me, and for most writ¬ print. No illustrations. No space ers, the value of this book is as between paragraphs. reference. You can add touches of They give you 60-80 reviews per gruesome/detailed authenticity to issue which they discourage you from fiction by using this book. reading. This is called elitist No price on the cover—write suicide. Loompanics. 62 SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #35 Inter¬ 1 ALIEN I views with Fred Saberhagen and Don Wollheim; "The Way It Is" by Barry I CONCLUSIONS I Malzberg; "Noise Level" by John Brunner; "Coming Apart at the a listing of everything received Themes" by Bob Shaw. with some reviews and other informa¬ tion whenever possible. SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #36 Inter¬ "The Archives" is back! 1 hope view with Roger Zelazny; A Profile it helps you readers to have the of Philip K. Dick by Charles Platt; basic knowledge it supplies. I'm "Outside the Whale" by Christopher including my own reviews of new Priest; "Science Fiction and Polit¬ ical Economy" by ; In¬ terview with Robert A. Heinlein; The books and other items in¬ "You Got No Friends in This World" cluded will be grouped alphabetical¬ by . ly, but not in proper sequence with¬ in each letter group. In order to make room for "The ARCHIVES ANNEX- Archives" I've had to drastically $1.50 per copy from #37 onward cut the "Other Voices" pages. And A DIFFERENT DARKNESS SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #37 Inter¬ I'm now saying to the "Other Voices" By Gene DeWeese view with Robert Anton Wilson; reviewers: STOP! Do not send any Playboy, $2.95 more reviews. With a few exceptions "We're Coming Through the Window!" you find it inpossible to write short For thousands of years an entity, by Barry N. Malzberg; "Inside the reviews, and I haven't room to pub¬ housed in a strange talisman, has Whale" by Jack Williamson, Jerry lish the longer ones. I'll use up given incredible powers of psychic Poumelle, and Jack Chalker; "Uni¬ the many reviews I have on hand in killing and healing to whomever pos¬ ties in Digression" by Orson Scott subsequent issues. sessed it.. plus resulting madness. Card. Readers: myself. Gene DeWeese, And the entity's enemies from and Darrell Schweitzer will be the its home in another dimension have SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #38 Inter¬ reviewers for SFR in the near future. worked to bring it back, using hu¬ view with Jack Williamson; "The [And Paulette, when she has the time, mans as their agents. of the Night" by Barry N. will review new books, too.) Now the struggle reaches crisis Malzberg; "A String of Days" by again in modem America. ; "The Alien Inva¬ "The Archives" gives readers a Gene has the skills and talent sion" by Larry Niven; "Noise Level' run-down on what has been published to make his characters very real and by John Brunner; SF News by Elton and available now, plus added infor¬ vulnerable, and can mix apparent oc¬ Elliott. mation and commentary and review cult with actual science fiction in when possible. high-tensioned suspense/horror sto¬ SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #39 Inter¬ It's decided! May Ghod have ries. view with Gene Wolfe; "The Engines mercy on my soul...if there is a His THE WANTING FACTOR was ex¬ of the Night"-Part Two by Barry N. ghod...if there is a soul...if there cellent. This novel 1 thought a Malzberg; "The Nuke Standard" by is mercy. bit slow , easpecially in the be¬ Ian Watson; "The Vivisector" by ginning as he introduces his char¬ Darrell Schweitzer; SF News by acters and sets the stage. His up¬ Elton Elliott. coming SOMETHING ANSWERED is more MAGAZINES LIVE. MAGAZINES DIE.... tightly knit and gripping from the beginning. SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #40 Inter- # MILLEA KENIN HAS PURCHASED EMPIRE view with Robert Sheckley; 4-way writes Kevin O'Donnell, Jr., former conversation: Arthur C. Clarke, publisher. She assumed total con¬ Harlan Ellison, Fritz Leiber 8 SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #45 Inter¬ trol of the magazine Jan.l, 1983. Mark Wells; "The Engines of the view with Keith Laumer; "Pulp!" by SEND ALL subscriptions, queries, Night"-Part Three by Barry N. Algis Budrys; Interview with Terry editorial material, etc. to: Malzberg; Darrell Schweitzer; Carr; "The Vivisector" by Darrell UNIQUE GRAPHICS SF News by Elton T. Elliott 1025 55th Street, Schweitzer; "Raising Hackles" by Elton T. Elliott. Oakland, CA 94608 SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #41 Space SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #44 Inter¬ Shuttle Report by Clifford R. Mc- # ETERNITY SCIENCE FICTION HAS BEEN view with Anne McCaffrey; "How Murray; "Chuck's Latest Bucket" by DISCONTINUED. Stephen Greg notes: Things Work" by Norman Spinrad; David Gerrold; Interview with Mi¬ 'Refunds on all subscriptions "Fantasy and the Believing Reader" chael Whelan; "The Bloodshot Eye" to ETERNITY SF went out several by Orson Scott Card; "Raising Hack- by Gene DeWeese; "The Vivisector" weeks ago § a number have come back Irs" by Elton T. Elliott. by Darrell Schweitzer; SF News by as undeliverable. Anyone not re¬ Elton T. Elliott. ceiving a refund should send a SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #43 Inter¬ change of address to me at P.O. Box view with ; "The Porno 62, Clerason, SC 29633.' Novel Biz" by Anonymous; "How To SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #42 Inter¬ Be A Science Fiction Critic" by view with Ian Watson; "One Writer Orson Scott Card; "The Vivisector" and the Next War" by John Brunner; by Darrell Schweitzer; "Once Over "The Vivisector" by Darrell Schweit¬ Lightly" by Gene DeWeese; SF News zer; "The Human Hotline" by Elton by Elton T. Elliott. T. Elliott. 63 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 COMTRIBLrriONS iam F. Nolan; "The Gimlet Eye" by John Gustafson. SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #26 Inter¬ views with Gordon R. Dickson and SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #15 Inter¬ Larry Niven; "Noise Level" by THE ALIEN CRITIC #5 Interview view with L. Sprague de Camp; John Brunner; "Fee-dom Road" by with Fritz Leiber; "The Literary "Spec-Fic and the Perry Rhodan Richard Henry Klump; ONE INMORTAL Dreamers" by James Blish; "Irvin Ghetto" by Donald C. Thompson; MAN--Part Two. Binkin Meets H.P. Lovecraft" by "Uffish Ihots" by Ted White. Jack Chalker. SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #27 Inter¬ SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #16 Inter¬ views with Ben Bova and Stephen THE ALIEN CRITIC #6 Interview view with Jerry Poumelle; "The Fabian; "Should Writers be Serfs with R.A. Lafferty; "The Tren¬ True and Terrible History of Sci¬ ...or Slaves?"; SF News; SF Film chant Bludgeon" by Ted White; ence Fiction" by Barry Malzberg; News; The Ackerman Interview; ONE "Translations From the Editorial" "Noise Level" by John Brunner; INMORTAL MAN--Part Three. by Marion Z. Bradley. "The Literary Masochist" by Rich¬ ard Lupoff. SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #28 Inter¬ view with C.J. Cherryh; "Beyond SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #17 Inter¬ Genocide" by Damon Knight; ONE IM¬ view with George R.R. Martin; In¬ MORTAL MAN--Conclusion; SF News; terview with Robert Anton Wilson; SF Film News 8 Reviews. "Philip K. Dick: A parallax View" by Terrence M. Green; "Microcos¬ mos" by R. Faraday Nelson. SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #29 Inter¬ views with John Brunner, Michael SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #18 Inter¬ Moorcock, and Hank Stine; "Noise view with ; Inter¬ Level" by John Brunner; SF News; -BACK ISSUE ORDER FORM- view with Alan Burt Akers; "Noise SF Film News 8 Reviews. $1.25 EACH Level" by John Brunner; "A Short One for the Boys in the Back Room" SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #30 Inter¬ Dear REG: I enclose $ by Barry Malzberg. views with Joan D. Vinge, Stephen Please send back issue(s) #5 #6 R. Donaldson, and Norman Spinrad; #9 #10 #14 #15 #16 "The Awards Are Coming" by Orson #17 #18 #19 #20 #21 #22 #23 SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #19 Inter¬ Scott Card; SF News; SF Film News #24 #25 #26 #27 #28 #29 #30 view with Philip K. Dick; Interview 8 Reviews. #31 #32 #33 #35 #36 with Frank Kelly Freas; "The Note¬ books of Mack Sikes" by Larry Niven; [Circle #'s desiredJ SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #31 Inter¬ "Angel Fear" by Freff; "The Vivi- view with Andrew J. Offutt; "Noise sector" by Darrell Schweitzer. Level" by John Brunner; "On the $1.50 EACH — #37 and onward Edge of Futuria" by Ray Nelson. SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #20 Inter¬ Science FiaioN Review views: , and Joe SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #32 Inter¬ SUBSCRIPTION COUPON Haldeman;"Noise Level" by John view with Andrew J. Offutt--Part Dear REG; Start my subscription Brunner; "The Vivisector" by Dar¬ Two; Interview with Orson Scott with issue #_ rell Schweitzer; "The Gimlet Eye" Card; "You Got No Friends in This by John Gustafson. World" by Orson Scott Card; "The OIC YEAR / TWO YEARS $7.00 $W.OO Human Hotline" by Elton T. Elliott. SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #21 Inter¬ view with Leigh Brackett 8 Edmond SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #33 Inter¬ Address. Hamilton; Interview with Tim Kirk; view with Charles Sheffield; "A "The Dream Quarter" by Barry Malz¬ Writer's Natural Enemy—Editors" berg; "Noise Level" by John Brunner. by George R. R. Martin; "Noise City. Level" by John Brunner. SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #22 Inter¬ State.Zip. view with ;"S-F and S-E-X" by Sam Merwin, Jr.; "After¬ SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW thoughts on Logan's Run" by William BACK ISSUES LISTING CONTINUED ON P.O. Box 11408 F. Nolan; "An Evolution of Cons¬ Portland, OR 97211 ciousness" by Marion Zimmer Bradley. PAGE 63