Science Fiction Review 34

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. . . .. ] 11 . SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW (ISSN: 0036-8377) Formerly THE ALIEN CRITIC P.O. BOX 11408 FEB. 1980 VOL.9j NO.l PORTLAND, OR 97211 WHOLE NUMBER 34

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ALIEN THOUGHTS by the editor...... 4 REVIEWS THE NUMBER OF THE BEAST OOTE IN PlfASE, NUMBER 666: COLIN WILSON: THE OUTSIDER AND THE WHITE DRAGON.... YOUR TIE IS Ul^ BEYOND I I 3^ JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH .20 A REVIEW OF ROBERT HEINLEIN S MINDSONG 1 1 1 1 I I 1 1 1 1 133 THE RABEAISIAN LETTERS OF NEW NOVEL, THE WEIRD GATHERING & OTHER JACK WOODFORD .21 THE NUMBER OF THE BEAST TALES iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii 3o JACK WOODFORD ON WRITING. .21 BY PETER PINTO 10 SONG OF THE PEARL .39 PANDORA .21 THE PURPLE DRAGON AND OTHER THE IRON AW OF BURAUCRACY .21 IfTTERVIEW WITH DONALD WOUHEIM FANTAS I ES 39 THE BEST OF ELMER T. HACK .22 CONDUCTED BY RICHARD E. GEIS...... 13 LEGION. I THE RUNESTONE. .22 ATEWAY TO LIMBO 39 FOUNDATION 17 .22 WHAT IS HARLAN ELLMT SOVEREIGN. I . . 1 1 1 . . I . . 1 1 . 1 1 . 1 1 1 . 1 THE BEST OF THE BUSHEL. . .22 REALLY LIKE? THE GENTLE GIANTS OF GANYMEDE ..... 40

THE ASTERCON SPEECHES . .22 A PROFILE BY CHARLES PIATT 16 THE YAR's best HORROR STORIES ETERNITY SCIENCE FICTION .22 SERIES VII .40 FANTASY NEWSLETTER .22 ANDTHBT I HEARD.... GATHER, darkness! 4,. SCIENCE FICTION CHRONICLE .22 RECORD REVIEWS BY THE EDITOR 20 WEB OF SAND ...... 4. WATCHTOWER...... THE PHILOSOPHER S STONE 42 TALES OF NEVERYON am PRESS NOTES THE DOPPLEGANGER GAMBIT.. 42 HEAVENLY BREAKFAST .31 BY THE EDITOR 21 EMPIRE OF THE EAST 42 THE DYING EARTH .3.. IN SOLITARY 43 JUNIPER TIME .32 INTERVIEW wm CHARLES SHEFIELD STAR TREK—THE MOTION PICTURE 43 A DREAMER S TALES .32 PART TWO THE QUEST OF EXALIBUR. MILLENNIAL WOMEN. .33 CONDUCTED BY KARL T. PFLOCK...... 24 OTHER CANADAS: AN ANTHOLOGY OF THE COSMIC TRIGGER...... 33 SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY 44 THE WICKED CYBORG .33 THE VIVISECTOR STAR-ANCHORED, STAR-ANGERED 45 THE LOST ONES A COLUMN BY DARRELL SCHWEITZER. . .30 THE GENTLE DRAGON 45 ON THE BRINK STARS OF ALBION 45 THE COURTS OF CHAOS .34 AND THEN I READ.... AN OLD FRIEND OF THE FAMILY...... 46 PULSAR 1. .34 BOOK REVIEWS BY THE EDITOR. 33 THE PROPHET OF LAMATH 46 MAAFRENA. .35 [See page 57 for the list of THE DOUGAS CONVOLUTION. .35 AND THBI I SAW. . . short fiction reviews . AGANGE FIVE .35 MOVIE REVIEWS BY THE EDITOR...... 36 THE ROAD OF KINGS...... WINDOWS OTHER VOICES

LORD OF THE RINGS. . (MOVIE) .36 BOOK REVIEWS BY NICHOAS SANTELLI, WATERSHIP DOWN.. (movie). .36 NEAL WIL6US, STEVE LEWIS, DAVID A. Copyright (c) 1980 by Richard E. METEOR. .(movie) .36 TRUESDALE, DEAN R. LAMBE, STEVEN Geis. One-time rights only have STAR TREK.. (movie)...... EDWARD MCDONALD, LYNN C. MITCHELL, been acquired from signed or cred- the third WORLD WAR—AUG 1985 JAMES J.J. WILSON, TERRENCE M. •J ited contributors, and all other THE STARFOLLO-CRS OF COROMONDE .37 GREEN, FREDERICK PATTEN, W. RITCHIE rights are hereby assigned to the THE AUNTED MAN: THE STANCE BENEDICT, L. CRAIG RICKMAN 37 contributors GENIUS OF DAVID LINDSAY .37 HUGO fCMI NATIONS BALUDT 51 THE ALIEN CRITIC SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW YOU GOT m FRIBIDS IN THIS WORLD Available in microform from: A REVIEW OF SHORT FICTION OXFORD MICROFORM PUBLICATIONS, LTD BY ORSON SCOTT CARD 53 Wheatsheaf Yard, Blue Boar Street Oxford 0X1 4EY, United Kingdom THE HUmiT HOTLINE PUBLISHING AND WRITING NEWS SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW is published BY ELTON T. ELLIOTT 60 at 1525 NE Ainsworth, Portland, OR 97211.

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don't know about Jakobs sen, Baen or ALIEN THOUGHTS Pierce, but Hank Stine was doing it from Baton Rouge, and now from southern Virginia. In fact, no SF magazine has ever been in the Big Time — they may choose SFR. I like to of New York publishing -- not even think that's what'll happen, anyway. ANALOG -- and I doubt any of their editors ever felt that kind of pressure. Other pressures -- deadline if- A bit of recanting is due here, on my part, in re and concerning pressures, asshole publisher pressures, yes. the comment I made about sf editors being difficult to talk to on the 'But it's hard to think of any phone... at least for me... as they editor I know who fits your image of rush and dominate and don't let me the New York Editor. Most of the get a word in edgewise. book editors are shy, introverted (Not only editors are this way, sorts; editing is a profession one of course; I could name a few aith- comes to out of a love for the print- ors . . . .) ed word in its various manifesta- Since I wrote that entiy I've tions, and we all know what kind of talked twice to Hank Stine, who now person reads . edits both GALAXY and the Donning s£ 'The thing to "the big- line, and I must say that Hank's closest phone manner has eased up, become time of SF editing" in the magazines these days is OMNI. Ben Bova just relaxed and calm... a pleasure to speak with. moved up to Executive Editor, and now Bob Sheckley is the fiction ed- The latest GALAXY news is that itor -- Ben's former position. BY THE EDITOR the publisher mandated a cut to 128 Bob's a pretty quiet guy, too. pages to conform with several of the 'I think the problem is that firm's other magazines, and as a you have this image of the The New result my book review column and York Scene. One visit here would ll}-2f5-79 SFR #33 went into the some other items were necessarily disabuse you of it. mails two days ago, the bookstore cut from the September/October is- copies are on the way... and we start sue which was distributed earlier 'I haven't seen what I assume another issue. All's well with the this month. are the roost recent pair of AMAZING world. Hank gave permission for me to and FANXASTIC issues -- they aren't About half the bookstores who run those reviews in SFR, so here on any of the stands I check out had sold SFR on a credit (pay later) they be, leading off ray "And Then I any more, either in NYC or Viginia basis have purchased copies of SFR read..." column. -- but I must say I've been amazed on the new pay-with- order basis. This new GALAXY has a different (yes) at your reaction to what So, indeed, a lot of those who look — a more fact/ fiction cover strikes me as sleazy packaging and bought SFR at their local sf bookshop layout, and contents. A move toward inept art. You can call it "radi- will indeed find it there no longer. the OMNI format? Except that G.AL- cal" but I'd call it reactionary; I expected about a 501 response, AXY's artwork has suddenly become a return to pulpish garishness and by the way. The New York distribut- small and amateurish again, with the low artistic standards. It's impos-

or predicted a 31 response to my new exceptions of the JEM illos , which sible to know how their readers are approach. are merely small. responding to the magazines, since Am I losing a lot of money? A new GALAXY is due in the Nov- the publisher firmly believes in pub- Not really. This way I know Dec. period. We'll see if the trans- lishing only favorable letters (one within a hundred copies how many to ition from JJ Pierce to pure Hank of his complaints against me was order from the printer, I have vir- Stine continues. that I ran the unfavorable letters) tually no returns (there may be a but I've heard only negative com- few ments. (Chip Carter stopped buying flawed copies to replace) , and

. . I have a four- to- five hundred dollar them when they changed . bulge in account to help with the printer's bill, the postage bill, # LETTER FROM TED WHITE 'In theory the more lavish use etc. when I need it. 635 Madison Avenue of art is a good idea -- in fact, a Also, I don't have to write let- New York, NY 10022 number of the changes of the maga- ters asking for pa>Tnents, and I don't November 19, 1979 zines are ones that I suggested, in have a huge accounts receivable file. theory, to the new publisher -- but My actual profit is less by a 'It's interesting that you find the execution is pretty lame, with few hundred dollars, but the peace of galaxy's editors all talkers; I the exception of Fabian's work. mind is worth it. wouldn't know about Baen; Stine cer- A lot of the art is recycled, too: I see that the subscription list tainly is and always has been, for the same illo is blown up and then expanded by 24 since last issue — as long as I've known him (15 years?); cropped into two or three different nice, conservative growth which is Pierce always struck me as rather illos. The reprints were apparent- fine with me. But as noted last is- shy in person. But I don't think ly chosen at random, the new fiction sue, I anticipate a slow decline in you can blame it on "the high-pres- was dreadful -- slush pile stuff that total subscriptions (barring a mira- sure atmosphere of New York or big- I would have rejected without hesi- cle like a review in TIME or some- mag editing in general..." tation -- and the idea of running thing similar) over the next year, 'GALAXY simply isn't in that the type in a single column across as the recession deepens. league. Gold edited it from his the page hurts readability, although On the other hand, could be that apartment; Pohl from New Jersey. I it improves the wordage per page as fans are forced to make choices 'Oh, well. ---SFR or ANALOG7---SFR or STARSHIP 4 ) f (I suspeat the new AMAZING is fol- ed in a science fiction magazine. 'Here at HM I have for the first lowing ASIMOV'S in the "book page" ("When I want to read pornography. time a copyeditor who works for me. look^ and perhaps in other respects, I'll buy ..." etc.) But "a lot of (I copyedited all the mss. for A/F too. mail" translates to "less than two myself, of course.) She is a stick- ( (The latest word is that AMAZ- dozen letters". It's just that I ler for The Rules as exemplified by ING and FANTASTIC are now into all- published a lot of them. And that one of the Holy Tomes, and occasion- new-fiction policies. ) brought out mail from readers who ally I catch her in a boner (based liked the story -- as I'd known it on her ignorance of the subject be- would. ing written about) or what I con- 'Your interpretation of my edit- , sider to be an unwarranted intrus- orship of the magazines is pretty 'Sol Cohen never read the stor- ion on the author's legitimate style far off beam. I'm referring to your ies -- either before or after pub- -- but more often what she does is statement that "When Ted White tri- lication. And he never told me to to take the twisted syntax of an ed, briefly, to open up the maga- stop publishing stories of any type author's muddy prose and straighten zines with some challenging, dis- at all. His response to the fiction it out into a superior clarity, turbing, "offensive" stories, all we ran was one of benign indiffer- something I appreciate. So I am no hell broke loose. A few fans and ence, God bless him. So I had no longer unalterably opposed to copy- out in one person who perhaps the publisher cried pressure from the editors. agony. He stopped." could have applied pressure legit- imately, and I remain grateful to 'I could argue with your polit- 'My "brief" attempt to publish him for that. ical predictions -- as I have for challenging and maybe offensive mat- twenty years (you'll notice that erial began in 1969 or thereabouts. 'On the other hand, Arthur your dire predictions of doom over It ended when I left the magazines. Bernhard wanted me to send him the the last 20 years have failed to I have no doubt that had I tried to entire inventory so he could "read come true) -- but why bother? I continue my "no taboos" policy und- it and size it up". I didn't care think you enjoy stirring people up, er the new publisher, he'd have ob- for that -- I don't care to have and I can't argue with that. jected, but in fact, that never oc- someone reading over ray shoulder, curred. second-guessing me from a position which I consider to be one of ignor- ( (I was merely ahead of my time. 'Look, Dick, an editor publishes ance -- and that was one factor in Also, I didn't have enough perspec- what he gets from writers. Some- my quitting. tive and knowledge. Age has that times writers come up with some advantage over youth. pretty strong stuff, but often they ( (We are now facing a variety don't. I published a number of my 'From the point, about six of social, economic, political and own stories largely in order to months after I became the editor of cultural disasters brought on by show other authors what I wanted, A/F, and I had developed an idea of an accumulation of mistaken, short- but I rarely got it. The last what I could do and wanted to do, sighted, expedient policies, some story I published which probably I publicly declared on any number based on da-gooder philosophy, some fits the category you describe was of occasions that I had a "no taboos" based on sheer rip-off greed. Chick- Rich Brown's "Two of a Kind". But policy. This policy held firm for ens are coming home to roost, and I also published three other stories the remaining 9 and a half years of we shall reap what we have sown.)) by Rich which, although they had my editorship. It included a Silv- their virtues, were not "strong" erberg serial, a number of stories in that sense. "Two of a Kind" was by Lisa Tuttle, and a lot of other 'I ^ "happy as a clam" here at inspired by my own "Things Are Tough HM, by the way. It's a pleasure to fine stories. So I can't agree that All Over", which I'd published sev- work in a decent office for a pub- it was "brief" or that I stopped. eral years earlier. lisher who has decent budgetary 'Finally, while I have often standards. (The editorial budget 'I had a John F. Carr story in agreed with John Brunner about the for a typical issue of AMAZING or inventory that was pretty strong iniquities of copyeditors, I have FANTASTIC was never over $1,000, in- stuff. Had the magazines continued read both "My version" and "Her ver- cluding salaries; here we try to under my editorship it would be in sion" and I honestly can't see the stay within a per-issue budget of print now. superiority of his version over $20,000, exclusive of salaries.') hers. Perhaps the fact that both It's also a pleasure to meet old versions are shorn of their context ( (I remain unconvinced that an ed- idols like Will Eisner, and work John's itor cannot get the kind of material blinds me to the virtues of with talented new artists as well. version, but "Her version" seems he wants. I do—at 14 a word, and If John I'm sure I could get close to what clearer and more concise. that this pair of ex- I want if I edited a fiction zine — honestly feels amples reveals anything other than at 14 a word. But too many editors version is slop- don't have a strong editorial pol- the fact that his I'd too close to his icy. Campbell did. Ferman does. pier, say he's view dispassionately. Most editors of sf hide behind the story to it old canard of wanting "the best 'Then too, by destroying the " stories I can find/get/buy . copyedited version of the ms., rath- ((I also know that editors are er than "decopyediting" it, John usually looked into a more-of-the- has cost his publishers money and same-old-shit policy by publishers guaranteed himself nothing, since who are afraid to tamper with what the fresh copy of the original ms. makes them money.)) he supplied will simply have to be copyedited all over again, and who knows how much of an improvement 'When I did publish a story like that will be. "Two of a Kind" we definitely did get a lot of mail from people who hated it and didn't think it belong- 5 ' - .

My first issue as editor is the Jan- 'The importance of John W. Camp- # LETTER FROM HARRY ANDRUSCHAK uary, 1980 issue. On sale first bell's influence on modern science 6933 N. Rosemead Blvd. , #31 week in December. Pick up a copy fiction need hardly be stated. Many San Gabriel, CA 91775 and check it out; I'd like your re- of the writers whose work appeared 1979

' action to it . in ASTOUNDING/ANALOG have testified to his remarkable editorial contrib- 'Please announce, in SFR, that ution. Campbell's letters, in which I am the new editor of SOUTH OF THE his influence is made apparent, are MOON, the compleat ((ho ho)) index central to an understanding of the to the fannish apas. Lester Bout- development of modern SF. illier turned it over to me when he U LETTER FROM GEORGE HAY was unable to get the next issue, 38“ Compton Road, London, N21 'Unfortunately, Campbell did #16, out. It should have been out United Kingdom not start to keep copies of his in September. I am now trying to October 5, 1979 correspondence until after 1950, and get the info I need to get that is- then only of his official editorial sue out in December, probably as a 'Those who were present at the letters. We therefore request any- part of Mike Glyer's annual list- Brighton SeaCon just passed may have body holding Campbell letters from ing of SF clubs and Fanzines. I noticed, or perhaps utilised, the before 1951, or later personal cor- welcome any and all information 'computerised SF' programme set up respondence, to forward copies to about any kind of apa. ' by Brian R. Smith, of INTELLIGENT the publisher (address: Route #4, PROGRAMMES and George Hay of STAR- Box 137, Franklin, TN 37064). LIGHT RESEARCH LTD. The program All letters will be copied and the (Hrrmm. There was once a Pornograph- consisted adapted version of of an originals returned promptly. Al- ic Amateur Press Association (PAPA); Fred Pohl's GATEWAY, which was ful- though the books will only feature is there anything comparable now? ly interactive, one of 01a£ Staple- Campbell's letters, where possible And if not, why not? It might be don's STAR-MAKER, which was mildly we would appreciate receiving cop- fun.)) so -- in effect, it talked to ities of both sides of a correspond- self -- and one of Arthur C. Clarke's ence, for purposes of annotation. THE NINE BILLION NAMES OF GOD which (Nothing from letters not written by simply permuted five-letter words Campbell will be quoted without spec- indefinitely. In view of the latter ific permission.) item, and to ensure the safety of all present, if not of the entire 'It is our intention to establish two depositories for copies of Universe, I had obtained Brian's if LETTER FROM GREG BENFORD assurance that this programe could the letters: One will be housed at 1105 Skyline Drive not be exhausted for several days.... the Science Fiction Foundation, the Laguna Beach, CA 92651 other at a suitable American instit- December 13, 1979 'Brian and I would like to ac- ution. Access in both institutions knowledge the permissions and active will be strictly controlled. Any- 'Beautiful article by George assistance given us in this project one not wishing their letters to be Martin. I heartily second his sug- by Victor Gollancz Ltd and Eyre- deposited should so state. gestion that we begin nominating Methuen Ltd. As an historical note book editors for the Hugos. The im- 'It should be added that this we would add that, to the best of mense change in the face of publish- project is undertaken with the per- our knowledge, this was the first- ed SF in the last five years has mission of the Campbell Estate, and ever public presentation of the income from handful of -- had the enthusiastic support of his a people teractive SF novel. Hartwell, del Rey, Frenkel (and Don widow, Mrs. Peggy Campbell, before Bensen, the oft-neglected name at 'Attention, all authors. You her recent death. We welcome any the Quantum office) Baen . . have been warned. The Reader can help in tracking down Campbell's , . It is criminal that we don't even now Strike Back letters, and would appreciate any give them a nomination. publicity you can give to this appeal. All general correspondence 'I look forward to ((I don't believe in literary demo- the rest of concerned with the project should the Charles Sheffield interview. I araoy; let readers write their own be addressed to George Hay, c/o Re- damn hooks. They can keep their ception, London House, Mecklenburgh thoughts out of mine. ((As for God; His name is mid.))

# LETTER FROM GEORGE HAY 38B Compton Rd London, N21, England November, 1979

'The purpose of this letter is to announce an important new pro j ect in science fiction scholarship: THE LETTERS OF JOHN W. CAMPBELL, to be published in several volumes by Authors' Co-op Publishing Inc. The letters will be edited for publication by George Hay, in consulta- tion with Malcolm Edwards, Adminis- trator of the Science Fiction Found- ation in London. ) ' dunno if I have "two styles of writ- # LETTER FROM A.D. WALLACE a LETTER FROM BEV ROMIG-PARKER ing" because it seems to me the 306 E Gatehouse Dr. H 1950 Fisher Rd, NE point of each new piece is to tell Metairie, LA 70001 Salem, OR 97303 it the way that will best penetrate Dec. 1979 November 17, 1979 to the core of the subject. Maybe what Charles means here is (1) a 'It may be, as George R.R. Mart- 'George R.R. Martin's piece, style that's spare-and-direct, just- in says, that editors are natural "A IVriter's Natural Enemy; Edit- plain-talk; (2) anything else that enemies, but publishers are the ors" (SFR #33) was a pleasure for fits the subject. That's two styles; natural enemies of readers. Far me to read. I don't know why I en- I guess. too much glunk is published at ex- joyed it so much, since I have no orbitant prices. Of course, editors personal knowledge of the more en- ' I was interested to find that raging side of editors and won't his list of people he likes to read must share the blame since they rec- pretend to have, but the piece was coincided pretty nearly with mine. ommend to publishers what is to be entertaining anyway. One of the most interesting pieces published. of SF I've seen in a great while is 'Charging $7.95 for a first -nov- 'Reading it was a lot like lis- Charles's own THE WEB BETlffiEN THE el by an unknown is no less than tening to one of those TV talk shows WORLDS. The coincidences with an offrip, pure extortion. I have where all those decrepit old-time Clarke's THE FOUNTAINS OF PARADISE yet to find any reason why the read- celebrities get together and remin- were nearly Fortean. (I've had the ing public should be required to isce about the good old days. You, orbital tower idea in my notebooks pay for the education of the novice the non-show-business viewer, don't since 1964, but never used it, alas. writer. One reason why the publish- know what in hell they're talking I heard it from the lips of the or- ers can continually scalp the read- about half the time, but the cele- iginators, John Isaacs and Hugh Brad- ers is that the latter do not com- brities manage to make it all sound ner, while I was a graduate student, plain about being gipped to the pub - like fun in spite of -- or because before published. Lost op- of viewer ignorance. it was lishers . They complain about the

' portunity. . . 3 poor quality of the novels, and damn 'Back to Mr. Martin's editors' the writers, neglecting the part that analysis, ahem! Like I said, who the publishers play. am I to talk, but it's possibly a masterstroke of genius, that sug- -- ( (Rapacious publishers are an iron gestion of his that editors es- law of nature: they exist, they have pecially book editors -- should get always existed, and they always will their share of wolf whistles and exist. The answer to your problem catcalls. The author sounds friend- # LETTER FROM BUZZ DIXON is simple: don't ly, even sympathetic toward editors 7058 Hazeltine Avenue, #22 buy hardcover books Van Nuys, CA 91405 written by unproven writers. Wait at the end, but I suspect his trump card is really the ultimate revenge, Dec., 1979 till the verdict is in. That's what reviewers and critics are for: ver- after all. Bravo! dicts. Isn't that simple? Any more 'Interesting thought by William 'By the way, no slur on editors problems you want taken care Peter Blatty -- all societies (save of?)) or Mr. Martin's work are intended. -- for two of the most recent ones I have no reason to think malicious- Communism and Fascism) have be- ly of anyone, and this has been mere- lieved in life-after death. The ly an expression of appreciation for belief in an afterlife is so preva- an entertaining piece of writing. lent as to be considered universal it CARD FROM BARRY MALZBERG -- virtually everyone who doesn't November 7, 1979 'An afterthought deals with a believe in life-after-death did be- statement of yours from the review lieve in it at some time in their 'George R.R. Martin's article of SUSPERIA; lives. Assuming such belief leads is intriguingly titled but I note '"I weary of the continual to morality and that one's morality that the only two editors who he kill-the-girls basis for all can often be the death of one, even implies might fall short of these horror films (and most Blatty suggests life-after-death excellence haven't been in a posi- occult and murder films- for- must exist or else such belief would tion to buy or reject his work or TV) . It smacks of -an uncons- be bred out of the human race as a anyone's in years; all the others, cious male hatred for women non-survival trait. Comments?' we are to gather, are saintly creat- that disturbs me." ures unfairly denied Hugo Rocket- you say. It surprised me. Not be- ships. Under those circumstances, cause I think you're a "male chau- ( I Blatty is batty. Using that I cite the title as a clear viola- vinist" as they say (although some- logic the following are also tion of truth-in-packaging regula- times I wonder when I read SFR, and absolutely true: there is a God, tions unless of course, the title that ad for your STAR WHORES novel flying saucers exist, as does was yours and his title was A MAN'S gets me every time, because it magic, telepathy, and the nec- GOT NO CHOICE IF HE WANTS TO SURVIVE. sounds so one-sided, and you prob- cesity of government. There are ably wouldn't notice that because no doubt other universal beliefs 'The blows at Hoskins and Elwood you're obviously not female). It's automatically that are therefore (particularly the former) are cow- just that a statement like that true, but I can't think of any ardly; I'd like to see Martin coming from someone who's not an more at the moment. ) challenge a single extant profes- aboveboard feminist, female, that sional editor. is, always seems to come as a sur- 'His article and this ill-natur- prise to me. I am so used to media ed reaction are further demonstra- hype about women -- even though I tions, of course, of the Principle am a woman -- that like many who are of Geis as discussed in my 9/28 aware of it, I am also used to sort letter which I thank you for pub- of erecting a mental wall against lishing. ' the popular myths. 'The "kill-the-girls" (and any 7 . . , female is always referred to as a pletely original ideas, I admit: gay liberation and child sex libera- "girl" regardless of whether she is Mr. Geis, you can probably think of tion and kinky liberation fully four or forty-four, beautiful or some really kinky ones if you put legitimized. BUT I think hetero- ugly, dumb or competent, and wheth- your (and Alter' s) mind to it.' sexuality will always be the major- er she has a name or a number, while ity sexual orientation.)) one seldom finds people -- of either sex -- referring to males as "boys" ( (Here I go on the weary defensive if they're of post-puberty age) as again. . . Many/most of my editorial you call it, syndrome which provides and authorial deoisions are simply the plot upon which many TV and film masouline based; I like to write 10-31-79 Since I've opened up this stories are based in one case in about heterosexual sex and I like area — trying to sell ONE IMMORTAL point to see/print female nudes. There MAN to a major publisher— for your is a small oormeraial element, too. inspection and information, I'm 'It's not only the sense of ( (Beautiful female bodies are duty-bound to continue. "unconscious male hatred" but that sex objects. So are beautiful male When last we left OIM it was the rape-murder syndrome is used as bodies to others, but not to me. I on the way to Playboy Press. Sharon a source of hooking viewers through have and will publish male nudes, Jarvis is the s-f editor there, and sexual titillation which gets to me. of course, as good art and as she responded with a letter that is The idea of the "good girl degraded" beauty encouraging: she thought it a good including the recent rash of pros- ((In STAR WHORES I do not see read, wasn't turned off by the sex titution themes on TV seems to be a future radically different sexual- and violence, and was interested in something that is getting more prev- ly from now; 200 years isn’t enough taking the book. .. except that she alent instead of less so. The en- time, in my view, for sexual mores wants revisions in re information tertainment media is in a rut! to change significantly. Too, the about Vik and his motivations. At to put it nicely. And why is it so reason for three members of the the moment she is overbooked, and popular? Companions Guild to be employed by would be interested in seeing the 'I notice that the world of SF a giant interstellar corporation novel again in six months. is no exception. (And you know In the meanwhile, she suggests why I say that!) I wonder why a I continue ti^Mng to sell it to male writer can in one breath pro- another publisher, if I wish, who fess to support women, or seem to may take it as- is. support their dignity, and then in Or, I suspect, may want rerds- the next breath announce the com- ions, too. pletion/publication/availability of So ... I ' m at the moment baffled a novel which deals with the age- as to which editor to send it. I'm old theme of female prostitution not at all conversant with editorial with the fond notion that that's the needs and taboos. way it will be in the future. I am An agent would know these things not a prude, recognizing that pros- you say? Yup. But I have not yet titution will probably never be out found (after three tries) the agent of style, regardless of what era for me. I want and need feedback, the human race makes it to, but is some guidance in my career, and a there some reason that SF writers -- feeling of worth. Mbst agents hav- as well as anyone else -- seem to en't time for that if they're any like to omit in their visions of good, and I end up impatient, pissed the fantastic future such things as and on my own again. homosexuality, bestiality, etc. So it goes. (with a few exceptions)? Whatthehell, I'll send OIM to to serve the sexual needs of a star- Ballantine and see what happens. 'If there is a current conflic- ship load of all-male miners and tual movement to recognize the gay crew is explained thusly: experi- community as human beings who de- ments with mixed-sex crews were UPDATE 1-3-80 Judy-Lynn send OIM serve no less equal treatment than failures because sexual problems of back, saying it isn't the kind of heterosexuals, for example, why on long voyages. The sex-pressure thing Ballantine has been publish- should it be assumed that the fut- needs of the men were met by the ing, and she's surprised I offered ure will hold only, say, male aster- Space Guild insisting on contracts it. oid miners starved for sex who em- with sex clauses calling for Com- I'm surprised, too, in retro- ploy only female galactic whores panions on board, and calling for spect. to satiate their carnal needs? X-number of visits per month. I sent OIM to Avon, next. It (Has anyone brought up this argument ((In STAR WHORES Toi King, a has been there for six weeks as of before, by the by?) Is the common Companion Two, is the leading today. female pin-up' such a cherished no- character, a competent person, and tion among men that they feel com- is proud and happy in her profes- pelled to keep it alive regardless sion. She is treated with respect of how liberal-minded they profess and is admired. to be? (Women: How about cherish- ( ( One of the Companions had to ing the notion of the male pin-up?) be killed to make the story viable. # FROM GEORGE H. SMITH She is killed not because she was LETTER 'My strong suspicion is that the 4113 W. 180th Street Companion or a woman, hut because future will hold a variety of sexu- a Torrance, CA 90504 -- I don't want to give away al preferences even as today's November 7, 1979 society does. Perhaps genetically- a key element. ((I might someday write a story bred prostitutes, including two of 'A slight correction, please... detailing the variety everybody so they can have sex with or novel of only one small letter but an impor- sexual preferences and life in such their cloned selves, who knows? Or tant one to me. In your Book News society that might develop with sex with the ultimate computer. a section of SFR #31, you list the These aren't revolutionary or com- 8 author of THE SECOND WAR OF THE . . .

WORLDS as George 0. Smith. It fucking long?" Nooooo. Did he mut- should have said George H. Smith. ter curses about the ass. eds. who I don't believe George 0. has writ- sign the editor's name to rejections? ten any science fiction in years Noooo. What he did say is that edi- STAR WHORES but still this mistake continues tors is overworked and underpaid to be made. and we all gotta be nicer to them. Geezeus Aith Kayrist, Martin, what AN EROTIC 'THE SECOND WAR OF THE WORLDS are you, anywho, somebody who writes is a reissue by DAW of the book pub- SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL for a living, somebody who's gotta lished in October, 1976. It is a take all this shit, kiss all this BY sequel to KAR KABALLA and the third ass, just to make a buck? Yeah, me one in the series is THE ISLAND RICHARD E. GEIS too ... fun, ain't it,. SNATCHERS, all belonging to my Chron- icles of Annwn. The reissue will 'Pleased to discover that John be seeing light again the same month Brunner is also a car nut -- funny as THE DEVIL'S BREED, the first vol- I never noticed that in his fiction. ume in my American Freedom series for Playboy Press.' 'News of the Day: Am very disappointed with the GALILEO people. Still haven't received my November issue, even though it went on the newsstands two days after I got the # LETTER FROM DR. DEAN R. LAMBE Sept, ish in the mail -- this is a 10 Northlake, Route 1 bimonthly? My letter of 3 Oct. Vincent, OH 45784 remains unanswered, with regard to November 1979 7, the above situation, and more impor- tantly, my polite request for either 'Mundane Thoughts about #33; I a copy of the mythical SCIENCE FIC- disagree with most of Sheffield's TION TIMES (for which they cashed notions of science vs. SF, save for my check in June ... yeah, June!) his statement that scientists tend or a return of my money. Given that to be idea-oriented and find it more level of discourtesy on their part difficult to write a story qua story for SCIENCE FICTION TIMES that well a they began advertising back in May, 'What the hell is that Steven E. I'm wondering whether I have any McDonald record review column and other recourse but a claim of mail is it (I hope not) going to become fraud at the Post Awful? All this a regular feature?.' Not only does certainly supports the very good it overlap your own record reviews, policy you have stated with regard but you seem to be listening to en- to single-copy-only prices in your tirely different recordings by the SMALL PRESS NOTES. same title. ROLLING STONE stuff 'To buy a copy of STAR WHORES mayhaps, but what the hell is it or not to buy a copy of STAR WHORES: doing in SFR? The question is, can I spare a hand Toi, Mata, and Senya are Sex 'Enjoyed your large number of from this typewriter long enough to Guild Companions, contracted movie reviews: Avoid METEOR at all read it straight . . . ah, through? to serve the men on an inter- costs (many of the disaster scenes H'mmm, Playboy Press for OIM? Well, stellar mining ship. therein are clips from previous, I sure hope so, but doubt it, as

bad movies.' ) . they're on record as wanting sexy On the way Out, Mata is hor- stuff from a "galaxy far, far away", ribly murdered. 'Appreciate the end of Archives, not future Earth. The problem, me- would appreciate more the end of Toi and the 'Captain begin to thinks, is not the sex, but the similar efforts in Elton T. Elliott's solve the murder mystery. . race column. Should LOCUS ever drop such But life and sex must go on, lists, of course, then you might 'I'm aghast at the crap I see with Toi and Senya caring for consider bringing them back; as it in the liberal press these days the needs of Mata's men as stands now, SFR and LOCUS complement about how race relations have ever well as their own. each other well, and those who care so improved; shit, they've gotten should support both zines. worse! The turds of anti -nigger And when the killer is dis- wisdom I heard on CB radio while covered, a death crisis for 'I am no longer amused at Darrell driving to Cincinnati last week were the ship and all aboard must Schweitzer's repetitiously inane ample confirmation; and that was be- be faced. putdown of his betters at ANALOG. fore the Klan shot down the "commie Not at all surprised that his LOC in Carolina. With advocated prior censorship! niggers" North years of politics as usual and ec- Now available. Approx. 85 'Was all hot and lathered for onomy as bad joke ahead of us, I copies left. $4.00 postpaid. "Railroad" Martin's piece on nasty worry a lot. I'm afraid your prob- Limited Edition: 490 copies editors, and thought it started off lem with OIM is the same problem very well, but oh, what a piss-ant the NBA has with its predominantly- 1 second half! Sure, t'was easy to black basketball teams: Power junk- First come, first served! kick soft targets like Hoskins and ies and middle class ain't buying Elwood; they don't matter any more. no more ... sour ending.' Send cash, check or money order But did he grab balls and name names? to; SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW Noooooo. Did he say, "Hey, you an- ALIEN THOUGHTS CONTINUED PAGE 47 P.O.Box 11408 thology and paperback magazine ed- Portland, OR 97211 itors, howcm you sit on MSS so ,.

heinlein- knocking has been fashion- able for a long time now even though some of the most popular new authors COME openly admit setting — out to copy and hopefully improve on — one or other of his periods, it's been an awfully long time since anyone's IN stood up to say "THE ICON IS A HARSH MISTRESS is a superb SF novel" (or DOUBLE STAR, or ORPHANS OF THE SKY) or "i really enjoyed STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND" (or CITIZEN OF THE

GALAXY, or I WILL FEAR NO EVIL) , or PLEASE, even "there are parts of TIME ENOUGH FOR LOVE that really did make it worth reading once."

heinlein' s more recent books have come in for harder knocks than his NUMBER 666 earlier, of course, and with good reason, they are over- long, short on believable characters other than the central patriarch and tend toward the maudlin, however, it is possible to make out a case that hein- VOUR lein has been attempting, in his a- dult novels since STARSHIP TROOPERS, to perform a feat he has several times declared impossible: taking the TIME bible-belt out of the boy. in STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND heinlein re-examined as many of the learned "gut- reactions" of his culture as he could and ended up throw- IS ing opt the vast majority as both barbaric and senseless, in GLORY ROAD he went further and decided that any way of living is fine as long as it is acceptable to those who live it — and that uptight, mid- UP dle-class, white america fails this test more comprehensively than most other cultures tried or imagined.

FARNHAM'S FREEHOLD, a novel i found thoroughly nasty, manages to dis- miss worries about incest and il- legitimacy — i'm sure more people will have been put off by this than the casual and overt bigotry that so annoyed his critics (and myself)

THE KDON IS A HARSH MISTRESS, possibly heinlein' s best novel to date (although some swear by the juven- A Review of Robert Heinlein 's iles, and DOUBLE STAR has A strong

claim too) , shows heinlein talking Novel, himself into further advances (or New relapses) from the morally strait- jacketed thinking his upbringing THE NUMBER OF THE BEAST gave him, including a dismissal of fears about inter- racial miscegena- tion, and a clear statement that any family arrangement that gives a stable and loving environment to kids is a good one, and in

I WILL FEAR NO EVIL he manages, finally, to accept homosexuality BV PETER PINTO .. calmly (in his major attack on tra- on the basis of a couple of minutes ditional values, STRANGER IN A verbal fencing, and mutual lust, STRANGE LAND, the most he could zebediah carter and deety decide to manage was to avoid condemning "the get married — after which jacob poor in-betoveeners" — and even burroughs discovers that his man- then he was sure he was possessed trap has misfired, he's caught

' . " of ' a 'uTongness ) the cousin of the man he wants, ' nothing daunted, the professor in- I WILL FEAR NO EVIL and TIME ENOUGH vites zeb home with deety and him- FOR LOVE both approach the ultimate self and they are being walked to taboo of heinlein's culture — and the burroughs' car by their hostess still, of our own world, too — i when it explodes, zebediah rushes think the world of sf has still some- them all to his supercar (all-but- thing to learn from a man who can a-spaceship, conplete with conputer discuss death coolly and reasonably, "programmed to sound intelligent." even if he is restricting himself it isn't, we are told, but it acts to monologues. precisely as though it were.) and and heinlein remains one of the at- after they narrowly miss being nuk- most-a-dozen SF authors most paper- ed when zeb's home mushroom clouds back buyers wall have hears of. To- in front of them — together with gether with asimov, moorcock, clarke, the rest of the city — professor wyndham, veme and wells , heinlein burroughs directs them to his hid- is SF to most people. den laboratory complex, where both women get impregnated during a so THE NUlffiER OF THE BEAST is import- twice-over nuptial night. ant to us. for good or ill, it will be the best SF seller of 1980-81 and shortly after, while finishing off will showcase just how much more than preparations to take zeb's all-but- STAR WARS SF has to offer — as far a- spaceship through the continua, as the trade is concerned. they kill someone dressed as a na-

tional parks ' ranger because he which is : bugger all seems "wrong." they then discover STAR WARS comes out ahead on plot and "he" is not human, and immediately characterization, and even in invent- flee into the unknown continua iveness and originality there's noth- looking for a safe haven where the ing to choose between them. tw'o baby- factories can set up shop, (it has taken about one-third of there is no point in my advising you the book to get this far.) not to read this book — it is pre- destined to be the iicist widely-read to begin with, they search through story of '80- '81 simply because it "real" alternate universes, the bears heinlein's name — but at differences may be great or small, least i can explain why i recommend but the only one we are shown at you to borrow a library copy rather length has a mars on which imperial than waste the L10/$20 you'll have russia and great britain maintain to shell out for a hardback copy, or penal colonies . a pleasant inter- the L2/$3 or so the paperback will lude turns into an almost-adventure eventually cost. when the party gets caught tp in the russians' attempt to gain con- oh, and one last word before we're trol of the entire planet, but with off. the plot precis i start with their vastly superior technology is less of a spoiler than the actual (super spacecar vs. omithopters and book — you needn't worry about me balloons) our gang is never in any giving away any surprises. , danger — except from themselves, there is in fact as much hot air ex- the number of the beast pended over internal disagreements as anything else — the four find robert a. heinlein it almost impossible to sort out the 686 pp typescript — to be published by fawcett/columbine as an il- problems of ship-board life, four lustrated trade paperback spring 1980 back-seat drivers in search of some- U.K. edition to be published by new one to pester, but the absence of english library. advanced medical facilities rules out this universe from consideration professor jacob burroughs has invent- as the safe haven they want. ed a device that shifts between all possible continua — universes that they move onto the fictional contin- have/do/will exist, haven't/don't/ ua they share memories of — oz is won't exist, and fictional creations safe, but no good to them for a also, wishing to gain the services reason implicit in the original of the foremost mathematician in the books — pass rapidly through lilli- world, in order to puzzle out what put and the gray lensman's universe without it is his invention is doing, and stopping ....and end up in heinlein's how, and w^hy, professor burroughs uses his sexy and beautiful daughter, future history universe with lazarus marriage the long fam- deety, as man- trap bait at a party long, into ily, the "rescue" of maureen smith throivn by his old flame hilda Con- ners. 11 — and a bloody drawn battle for prim- of brunner's excellent novel, THE i hope you'll take notice of this acy between their captain and the WOLE MAN a. k. a. TELEPATHIST) : a review, as i said, i don't expect patriarch himself end up with closed fantasy world in which noth- to put people off reading a new attendance at the first intercontin- ing harms, happens to, or intrudes heinlein — but the only way peo- ual meeting of heinlein's favorite in any way on, the central charact- ple in the trade will ever change people, real or fictional, his own er and his "real" relfections. their ideas of SF, and which auth- or other authors' creations, if cardboard cut-out spear carriers ors to stock, is when the old known heinlein likes them, they're there. walk on stage to die, or to walk names cease to sell. There are plenty of excellent new novels, during the course of the jamboree, off again. new authors and new points of view they spot that alien you know, — but even allowing for heinlein's coming into print — and a couple the one they killed previously — apparent conviction that we are of massive "bombs" from the authors and chase it. but they don't catch all "the other end of the same the trade recognises is the only it. earthworm" (or, possibly, that only thing that will get the new titles he exists — and everyone else is distributed. either him in disguise or not a comment borrow your copy from the library real person) , remarkably little happens in — you probably won't bother to although i found nothing original THE NUMBER OF THE BEAST, finish it. or exciting in the plot (such as there are only two "real" conflicts in it is), it does offer enormous the six hundred odd pages — why "the number of the beast"? one scope for adventure and the develop- of which is evaded by lazarus oh — for no very good reason hein- ment of characters personalities long's fooling everyone into believ- lein has decided that the number of ' ing as they survive and interact, un- he's given in when he has not possible continua is six to the and fortunately, none of the endless op- — both of which arise from power six, all to the power six a- portunities [is/are] taken: all five the failure of the "characters" to gain, (6^)^. "major characters" (zebediah, deety, to realize they are identical. The and revelations reveals 666 to be first hilda, jacob, and gay deceiver conflict arises from the in- the number of the beast. ability zeb's car) are reflections of the of the four individualists who flee same person, presumably heinlein, earth in "gay deceiver" to as i said at the very beginning of since they all spout forth the ideas shake down into a tight crew/ survi- this piece val/combat set out in previous books — some- unit, all are sure they :come in please, niinber 666: your know times in the identical phraseology better than the others — and time is up." sometimes — indistinguishably from one an- one is on top, sometimes you're boring us. other and equally unbelievably. another. The other conflict occurs, or fails to occur, when sky yacht ^:*S%*AA********** ****** ************** in fact, the final celebration is dora and gay deceiver meet and their advertised as "the first centennial captains fail to agree who has pre- convention the Geis Note: The above review was of intrauniversal so- cedence . ciety for eschatological pantheistic possible because, as editorial multiple-ego solipsism." could all that's nothing like enough to write consultant to Hamlyn Books, Peter six hundred and eighty-six pages some two hundred thousand words Pinto was able to read a ms. copy have been intended as one long, round, and since all the ideas of the new Heinlein novel. This drawn-out joke? have had interesting stories writ- review first appeared in FEETNOTES ten round them, THE NUMBER OF THE #4, Peter's fascinating personal towards the end of the book lazarus BEAST is an object lesson to those journal. His address: long, his twin sisters, his house- who proclaim "SF is about ideas, to 42 Breakspears Road hold computer and maureen smith are hell with characterisation and London SE4, England added to the list of major talking style." parts — but they, too, are inter- changeable with one another and the first group. opportunities for development of this one character are bound to be limited: all conflicts being between reflections of itself reduces them down — once the necessities for life are sufficient to provide for all — to failures in communication. the sole possibility for the role of antagonist — the mysterious alien — is abandoned as soon as created possibly because of the enotmous effort that would be demanded of lieinlein by re-inventing manichaeism, or cath- arism, or simply because heinlein can no longer put himself in another person's shoes, his utterly unbe- lievable treatment of deety and hilda as women — people — is just one facet of this latter problem. the resultant overall effect is amazingly similar to john brunner's realisation of catalepsy from the inside (the "catapathic" groupings 12 . . . AN INTERVIEW WITH DONALD WOLLHEIM

SFR: You are the dean o£ science fiction book editors, with more years and experience than anyone, ivhat is your short-run opinion of the health of book publishing in the genre?

WOLLfiEIM: At this point of time, June, 1979, science fiction/ fantasy as a genre in paperback books seems to be enjoying its greatest boom ever. Obviously it is healthy -- for the moment. Space allotted to science fiction in paperback shops is nrare central and with more slots than such formerly strong and staid categories as mystery. Gothics, West-

erns . .

IVhether it will continue to eventually prove to stay strong and multifold remains paperbacks will be losers . I noticed that in the to be seen. There are some signs of Fall-Winter, catalogues from a leveling off and even a drop-off 1979, Harper fj Row and St. Martin's (re- showing -- note Ace's pulling back knock off a week every month with- cently received) that no SF hard- a bit. On the other hand, some im- out worry. If I were to officially covers seem to be listed -- although prints announce increased entry to retire, what would I do? Not being both these publishers have produced the field -- Pocket Books, Berkley, ahtletic, I would probably publish many in the past years and some that etc. Can the genre stand it? I books . And what am I doing now? presumably went for high prices to think it must retrench at some point, Exactly that! As for DAW stopping reprinters. Could this be meaning- though 1 also believe that when it there is no such likelihood while ful as to the real financial bottom does find its normal level it will it is profitable (and it is). line returns for the last couple be a lot stronger than it had been at any previous leveling- off point. kly daughter Betsy is working years? DAW is remaining conservative, hold- with me, understudying what I do For the benefit of riters ing to five releases a month and and what I buy, acting as associate SFR: DAW: will not venture into hardcovers or editor, and preparing herself to who might like to submit to Do have any advice about manu- "trade" paperbacks. We intend to take over control if and when I you physic- script preparation? Should the com- hold our oivn, no matter what hap- might have to step down for plete ms. be sent? How many manu- pens to the latecomers. al reasons . So I expect DAW Books to continue someday under her con- scripts does DAW receive per week? trol -- and if then she wants to SFR: If you intend to stand pat We have a form letter with five releases, this suggests expand or add other lines, why that WOLLHEIM; we send to writers who ask that you are content with DAW's pos- will be her decision. Being young, which how about submitting a manu- ition and market share and also, I assume she would want to do things to go script. If anyone would like a I'd guess, that you don't ivant to of her own choice. NAL, by the way, of this, se'nd a SASE to DAW add to your workload. True? This knows all this and is allowing for copy Books, Inc. and ask for it. It con- leads to a question of your retire- it. answers the ment. When you do retire, does that tains simple to often about mean DAW stops? SFR; Do you feel that hardcovers elementary queries people ask and trade paperbacks are more vul- the publishing business (which is nerable to a "bust" in SF than pap- a deep mystery to most would-be W)Li>lEir:1; DAW is holding its own quite nicely and has been profitable erbacks? If so, why? writers) to both myself and ny co-partners, The flow of manuscripts varies If there should come to the New American Library. I see no ViOLLHEIM: according to the season. However, be a "bust" in science fiction, ob- sense in adding to my own workload consulting our entry book I see that viously it would hit the most expen- or helping to overload the already 75 manuscripts were clocked in from sive products first -- and hardcov- overloaded racks of book shops. As August 1 to August 30, 1979. Fbst ers and "trade" paperbacks are more for retirement, the thing is that of these were conplete novels. I expensive than the standard mass after carrying a list of up to 20 prefer conplete mss. to outlines market books. books a month for many years (for requiring answers. Many such out- present workload Ace and Avon) , ny As it is, it is probable that lines sound very good, but then it is a snap. I consider this to be fifty per cent of the SF hardcover too often develops that the party something of a retirement job al- books fail to make their costs . . cannot write well or even cannot ready; I work ny own hours; I can and I suspect that many of the trade write at all.

CONDUCTED BY RICHARD E. GEIS 13 . . . .

!ShK: You seem to have discovered The key to all this is the The first week of the month and exclusively published some very term "the day's essentials". the covers go out, the manuscripts good new (to science fiction) writ- Our work schedule calls for the delivered to NAL production, the ers, such as Tanith Lee and C.J. production of four original works books for the next month to be sched- Cherryh. Do you have them under a month, plus one reissue of an old- uled (eight months in the future) long-term contracts; do they prefer er and out-of-print but in-demand finalized and ISBN numbers assigned to write for you alone, or is it DAW title. This means that during and our own sales numbers assigned, that no other editor wants them? one month we must contract or ar- too. Manuscripts due for that month range for four new works -- which gathered and taken for type analysis WOLLHEIf'1: That question is really means a certain amount of manuscript and page approximations (by NAL

poorly worded. I don't much care reading or book reading (much of staffers) , and covers assigned for

for its inplications. I have dis- which I do at home) . Betsy is now what must be ready by the first of covered many new writers and I am first reader and when she turns up the following month (assuming the proud of the fact that writers real- something interesting in the un- covers have not been done in ad- -- ize that I am a rarity among SF ed- knowns and unsolicited, this she re- vance -- which they usually are itors -- a fixed star. I am going ports on and I must read. I also but there is always a laggard some- to be here as I have been for the am usually first reader for works where that has to be worried about) past eight years and I trust for by our regular writers or works Payments for books published the next dozen years. Unlike other that come in that have been on "pro- are worried about by Elsie. Like- publishers, writers are not going ject" contracts -- though sometimes wise books received are sent for re- to find a new wet-behind-the-ears I may let her read them in advance. view for that month (by another staf- editor at the SF slot every time Essentials of the day then al- fer) and all sorts of things they submit a new novel or a new , so include the actual buying of outline. They are going to find So ... at any particular day, these works, assuming that I have the man who gave them a break and an artist may be coming with a previously asked for revisions or will continue to do so. That is sketch, a writer may be delivering written to say I want them, which why DAW writers are loyal. Add to a manuscript or a suggestion for a means doing contracts determining your list the names of Andre Norton, , future novel, and of course, proofs advances, possible publication Marion Bradley, Michael Moorcock, will be coming in, both in galleys dates (we work eight months ahead -- E.C.Tubb, Lin Carter, Ron Goulart, for the bodies of novels coming out and having an inventory on hand plus Ian Wallace, Doris Piserchia, Ken two months later, and the front mat- various assured products like "years' Bulmer, Mike Foster, Bertram Chand- ter proofs (which come separately) best" anthologies, and space open ler, John Brunner, Jo Clayton, Brian Proofs are read by NAL staff, and for series novels such as Dumarest Stabelford, etc., etc. gone over by Betsy or another DAW and Dray Prescot -- this may mean staffer -- front matter proof I Some write for us only, some in practice twelve to fourteen months read personally. Cover color proofs write for others as well. We have ahead) which is done by the writing and type may come in about the mid- nobody under long-term contracts of contracts which I do personally dle of the month and must be check- whatever that means, though we have and mail out. (When signed, checks ed -- if I'm around, I will do it, given multiple-book contracts on for the advances are sent by Elsie, if I'm not around someone else will. occasion. Our rates are competit- who handles the accounting dep't.) ive, our royalties on time and reg- In quieter times (the second Since each book to be publish- ular, our credit rating is the best. and third weeks and spare after- ed requires a cover painting, let- We are always open to reason and noons) I will read manuscripts or tering for the front and back cover discussion. As for other editors books, sometimes take them home to (blurbs) this is my responsibility, wanting them, you can just bet they , finish. Since this is all old stuff so I am usually seeing artists at do! Sometimes they even get them. to me -- I've been doing this for various times during the month, But we like to think that our auth- 35 years -- this really takes up checking sketches, accepting fin- ors are also our friends -- and the not too much time, and I could take ished paintings haggling over pay- feeling is mutual. , the third week off -- and about ments, etc. I do the blurbs and eight times a year, ny wife and I cover lines -- I also do the front do just that and go off on trips matter pages for the books (the to conventions, or just to visit. first four pages must be written We go to Europe about four times a and I do this) and any ads that may give us a fairly year (for nine-day spells, no long- SFR: Could you be called for. The manuscripts due workday? er), usually England and Italy, and detailed look at your the first of the following month occasionally France or other parts must be copy-edited, which is done This is a rather tricky of Western Europe. Otherwise, Cal- WOLLHEIM; by another person on my staff or question since no two days are ever ifornia or some place else in the farmed out to NAL's copy- editing exactly alike in this field. How- USA or Canada. department (as our contract with ever, in general I drift into the NAL permits us to do) office about 9:40 AM, read the mail, answer pertinent letters, and take Our busy weeks are the last care of essentials of the day. and first of each month. The last i Lunch at 12 noon sharp (because of week winds up the preparation of marmataoe the congestion at mid-Manhattan res- the work to go to the book designer taurants) usually with Elsie, some- the next month and via him (NAL's times with authors or agents, re- chief designer) to the printer (W.F.

turning about 1:30 PM. Continue Hall in Chicago) . Also this week with essentials of the day -- cof- must have all the cover paintings fee break and business chat with El- on hand and they go, with cover sie and Betsy (my assistant editor, copy, to our cover designer (a first reader, daughter and eventual free-lance agency) to style, select successor) at 3 PM -- and after type faces and sizes -- which must 3:30 back to whatever is the day's be okayed by me usually the second essential. Leave at 4:30 PM. week of the month. 14 SFR: Are you content with the picture of you as a fan in the late Thirties presented by Harry Warner in his ALL OUR YESTERDAYS and by Fred Pohl in THE WAY THE FUTURE WAS? Any clarifications or addi- tions you'd like to make?

ICLUHEIM: I don't feel any pain at reading these accounts of nyself in ny fan days, including Damon Knight's THE FUTURIANS. I do not think the picture is as I saw myself, but then nobody sees himself as others do. Having become a sort of living legend (that is when I may have forgotten some- the author, Gregory Kem, really is today's fans are even aware of my history) I suppose I must endure thing, probably have, but as you or was? , may suspect, life for me is really it. Obviously, I did a lot of dumb things and also I did a lot of good not very hectic. This is probably i\jni I HFTM: The Cap Kennedy series ... active fan cannot as close to a retirement job as I has been defunct for a long time things as what am likely to get. now. The last one was #16, Decemb- also say. er, 1975. Gregory Kem was a pen- Anyway, it's interesting to SFR: It's been said by a few crit- name for E.C. Tubb who wrote the be a character in someone else's ics that DAW'S covers are "bad", in entire series single-handed. It book. the sense of too much action, too may be of interest to know though,

raw in color . . . Yet I suspect that Cap Kennedy is alive and well a SFR: In your 1971 book on science canny policy in the DAW color style. and living in Japan . . . wdth a tele- fiction, THE UNIVERSE MAKERS, you Would you care to confirm that, and vision series in the offing. showed an optimistic view of the explain the reasoning behind it? future and of humanity. Have your SFR; You were a leading science views changed any in the last nine fiction fan in the thirties and years? early forties before turning profes- WOLLHEIM: A few critics? Since sional. You were one of the origin- when does one card make a full hand? IDLLi^EIM: No, why should they However, all kidding aside, we con- al Futurians and one of the founders change? Just because the tenporary stantly get praise from readers, of the Fantasy Amateur Press Assoc- condition of the world is in crisis book salesmen, and retailers for iation. IVhat is your opinion of in 1979 does not alter the long- our covers. And if you stop and fans now? Has fandom changed sig- range picture of the future. We think about them, are they any dif- nificantly? are, humanity, at the beginning of ferent in style and approach from The Beginning. We are into space, the covers on ANALOG, F§SF, and the I'OLLHEIM; I really do not think and going to go into it more in the other magazines? Our "canny" pol- that fans have changed. After the next century or so. Science con- icy is simply to present what SF publication of THE FUTURIANS a num- tinues to unveil more of the secrets readers prove by their Hugo nomina- ber of young fans talked to me about of the universe that, when mastered, tions to want. Our first years at it and told me they enjoyed the will continue the advance of human DAW relied extensively on Kelly book because they kept finding sim- society that has gone on more or Freas and Jack Gaughan, who have ilarities between the Futurian ant- less continuously since the daiitn of enough Hugos between them to make ics of the Thirties and Forties and recorded history. a picket fence. We introduced, be- the people they met and the things As for 1979, just ask your- fore DAW'S founding, the first pa- they did in their own 1970s fan self if you would rather be in the perback covers of Frazetta, Thole, clubs. Obviously, fans are a type last month of 1939, 1929, or 1919, Krenkel, and Jeff Jones. These and the t>'pe has not changed. instead of 1979? Sure, we have an days we continue the tradition by energy crisis but not a disastrous using Barr, Michael Whelan, Don But what has changed signif- one. There's time to solve it and Maitz, Josh Kirby, Doug Beekman, icantly from my viewpoint, is how solve it we shall. Perhaps we shall Froud (yes that Froud) Richard , , the sex balance has adjusted. In have some temporary hardships for Hescox. Our only problem is that my day, fans were about 90% male. the next few years -- but consider when we start using an artist, all Today they seem to have equalized again 1939, 1929, 1919 -- and what our paperback SF competitors sit up . . . and girls are no longer closet they meant for those who had to con- and take notice -- and try to sign SF readers, but present and active front the years that immediately them up for their own products. on their own account on an equal ba- followed. I remain what I have al- sis. I recently had the experience ways been --an Unreconstructed Ut- I was thinking primarily about SFR: of being a guest at the Darkover opian. use your of yellow in the DAW cover/ Grand Council convention in New spine package. It's said that yel- York -- with over 300 registrants Thank low SFR: you, Don Wollheim. is a strong attention- grabber and about four- fifths female! Out- color; ******* A * A A ********* S: ** A A ******** ji! A A is that why you use it? numbered on all sides! And you Has it proved out? know what -- the con seemed no dif- TPO Ain't tiorriiV ferent from any other with the same BUT FAN WOLLHEIM; Yes to both questions. bounce and vim and enthusiasm. You could spot every type of fan there SFRi Is the Cap Kennedy series de- as at any other general gathering -- funct now? I haven't seen a new except they happened to be non-males. one since #13 in 1974. Are you in a position now to let us know who 15 , . WHAT IS HARLAN ELLISON REALLY LIKE? a profile

By Charles Platt

Upstairs, the writer's work though, constantly. They tie up space, featuring a desk on a dais, his telephone lines, they jam his tiers of filing cabinets, arrays of mailbox with letters, they accost awards (seven-and-a-half Hugos him, nag him and pick fights with -- The house is full every niche three Nebulas , two Jupiters , one Ed- him, when all he wants is some peace occupied, all surfaces covered, with gar) along with certificates, sign- and quiet. Here he is now, at 5:30, books, art, ornaments, records, ed photographs, plaques and testi- still attenpting to secure this sculpture, curios, awards, objets monials. Outside on the roof, past peace and quiet. He is calling the collectables, knick-knacks, memen- the Paolo Soleri wind chimes and an distributors of a free local news- toes, trophies, toys, gifts, gad- authentic British dart board, our paper, vdiich is thrown onto the gets, treasures and trivia. Walls tour ends amid the Robert Silverberg doorsteps of home owners in this are completely hidden behind paint- memorial cactus garden. area. Ellison hates the newspaper. ings crowded up against one anoth- He becomes enraged. He demands Daily life here is a Los Angel- er -- there are even paintings hung that the free deliveries must stop. ean carnival of people and phone on some of the ceilings . And there He's called them about this before, calls, diversions and discussions, are 37,000 books, some stacked in several times . Once they did stop women and dinners out, sudden argu- drawers because all available shelf delivering the paper, but apparent- ments, impulsive decisions and mad space has been engulfed. And there ly out of spite they then threw errands. While gardeners spray are conversation pieces --a 1940s hundreds of rubber bands onto his fungicide on the lawn and spread jukebox, a genuine subway- style driveway instead. Now the deliver- nets over the peach tree, builders candy vending machine, a photograph ies have started again It's driv- and craftsmen debate the architec- of Ikrs framed in red noen tube, a him crazy he can ' t' stand it he tural conplexities involved in the , , conplete framed set of Kellogg Pep warns them he will sue on grounds $20,000 kitchen extension, all , giveaway buttons. In the master of invasion of privacy if the un- glass-brick, neon and stainless bedroom there is a waterbed atop a wanted newspaper deliveries do not steel, now under construction. platform unpholstered in red shag cease carpet, in the attached bathroom a He adjourns for another game of Jacuzzi, an art-deco lamp and cer- Usually there is one long-term pool. The phone rings. He answers; amic tiles iirported from Italy. house guest (a fellow writer or pro- tege) as well as various acquaint- the calling party immediately hangs There's a guest room, a secre- ances passing through. Ellison up. This happens frequently; it's tary's office (full of unassembled trades quips, smokes one of his 400 some kid in San Francisco who likes plastic model kits and Japanese mon- exotically carved pipes and plays to bug Ellison. Why? Why do these ster toys) a living room (with biz- , pool with his full-time assistant, crazies home in on him? Once, he arre modem sculpture, giant TV and Linda Steele. Then, a conference says, he spotted someone in the dis- two video recorders), a newly-built with lawyers to finalize his meta- tance on the hillside overlooking library featuring a beige competi- morphosis into The Kilimanjaro Corp- the back of the house, aiming a ri - tion-size pool table color- coordin- oration for tax purposes. fle at him as he stood in the kit- ated with the walls, long shelves of chen. He had to sneak out and circ- heavy reference tomes, boxed col- The day, mired in trivia, seems le around behind the guy, to catch lections of ESQUIRE and PUYBOY and timeless and yet it devours time. him. Then he had to have all his Marvel Comics back issues. Behind Suddenly it's 5:00 and Ellison is windows specially coated, like mir- one bookcase is a secret soundproof still wrapped in his brown bathrobe rors, to be sure that he wouldn't grotto with walls of genuine volcan- with "Don't Bug Me" embroidered on be seen as an indoor target in fu- ic rock and a soft floor, like one the back of it. They do bug him, ture. And now here's another phone mattress. -- woman who big custom- fitted contoured 16 call from some weird . ;

looked him up in the phone book, He has been known to treat his Time" while sitting in a goddam pyr- has read his stories and intuitive- house guests as though they are raw amid while thousands of people are ly knows he is mystically inspired recruits and he the drill sergeant; trying to break ny bones", he snaps. -- just like her. Perhaps she they shyly ask to stay on for an "1 think that's who I am, you bet could meet him...? Politely, he extra week of basic training. (He your ass I am, I love pulling off declines and hangs up on her. knows he has 37,000 books because the trick no one else can pull off, he once detailed an idle guest to I love it, man. I mean, iry fantas- He must answer the doorbell. count them for him. ies are not of -- of sleeping with Tonight's date, a Hollywoodesque the entire Rockette line from Radio creature in thigh-hugging Levis and By setting up his typewriter City Music Hall, they are: Sudden- a red satin blouse, has just arriv- and producing stories in bookstore ly, while the jazz band is playing, ed in her own Porsche. Ellison re- windows, or in a plastic pyramid at I get up and say to the sax player, ceives her, wearing only a towel a world science fiction convention, 'Can I borrow your ax for a minute?' around his waist. He explains he he has converted even the most sol- And I begin blowing better than was on his way to the shower, but itary act of creativity into a soc- Charlie Parker. Or: There stretch- first, he has to Xerox one of his ial event -- and an exercise in one- es the rope across Niagara Falls and own stories in his library. She upmanship (I'm on this side of the I say, 'Oh, excuse me for a moment', acconpanies him, docilely, and sits typewriter and you're not). On- and walk across it. fantasies watching him, demurely, as he feeds lookers gather, muttering "IVho does are pulling off the stunt that every- the copying machine. It goes clunk, he think he is?" but they gather, one said couldn't be pulled off. click, clunk, click. She sits and nonetheless, as he knows they will. watches. Clunk, click. A fragment "I love it, and I know it pisses of conversation is exchanged, but The stories themselves cry out people off, because people hate an most of the time she sits and watch- for audience response. They are over- achiever, because when they es. Then he adjourns to the delay- often melodramatic, angry and con- see someone is capable of doing the ed shower, but first he must pause troversial in their advocacy of ex- grand thing, they realize how lit- in the immaculate kitchen to reposi- tremism. The writing style is di- tle they have demanded of themselves. tion a coiple of ornaments that rect, reaching out to accost the I take great pleasure in that, in someone has carelessly shifted out reader, and its rhythms are convers- saying to them, you poor fucking of alignment and then he turns the ational, so that each piece is like turkey, you could have done it too, a stand-up all you had to do was do it but you knives on the magnetic knife rack monologue (indeed, El- , so that their blades are all facing lison often reads his work in pub- didn't . And the stories that I write the same way, and -- what's this? lic) . And the stories are frequent- in those windows are good stories, Ants have invaded the mansion. He ly prefaced with introductions man, they're not shit, they're good thumbs them methodically, one by after all, any entertainer likes to stories. I wrote "The Diagnosis of one, then stops to polish the white have the audience warmed up before Dr. D' arqueAngel", which is one of ceramic stove top with a special he starts his act. my best stories, sitting in the window of Words and Music, in London. cleaner, then opens the refrigerat- Ellison is frank about his need or vegetable drawer, which is cram- as a writer to reach people. "It is "'Hitler Painted Roses', for med full of an obscure brand of very necessary for ny work to have Christ's sake, which is a dynamite soft candy yellow that he enjoyed an inpact. The most senseless cavil story, I did that over the radio, as a child. IVhen he heard the manu- that's ever been leveled against me two two-hour sessions, sitting in a facturer was going broke a few years is, 'Oh, you only wrote that to radio booth. The story that was in ago bought he up their last stocks, shock'. I say, 'Of course, you id- HEAIY METAL magazine a couple of so now, here, in this refrigerator, iot, of course that's the reason I months ago, "Flop Sweat", I wrote is the only remaining supply of wrote it. What do you expect me to that in one afternoon to read on a this candy anywhere in the world. do, lull you into a false sense of radio programme that night. If peo- He allows eat himself to one piece. security? I want people's hair to ple want to laugh, that's fine; let The phone rings. A couple of New stand on end when they read my work, them try it and see how easy it is". York friends are in town . . . meet whether it's a love story or a gent- Tough talk, frequently backed up for dinner? IVhy not? A foursome le childhood story or a -story of by tough actions. At age 45 Ellison ... he knows the perfect barbecue drama and violence.'" has built a formidable reputation restaurant in the valley . . He is sitting behind his desk, as a fighter in print and in person. And so on. The question is, on its dais, overlooking the grand Caution and compromise do not fig- when does Harlan Ellison, the writ- panorama of the upper level of his ure in his life-style, and he does er, find time to do any writing? library. I'm on a collapsible wood- not usually allow himself the op- Sometimes, he does it in book- en chair to one side of his desk. tion of retreat. store windows, for Ellison is more It's an inferior, slightly uncom- than a miter, he is an entertain- fortable position, but it is the er. It is as important for him to closest I could get to spatial eq- reach people in person as it is uality with my interviewee. The al- via print. He is aggressive, even ternative would have been to sit on hostile --he insults his audience, a contenporary modular couch, fif- ridicules their sinple ideas and teen feet distant and one foot low- tastes, conplains about their intrus- er in altitude. iveness. his But life seems inten- I ask if it bothers him when tionally structured so that he is people are amused by his acts of seldom alone, and his hostility is writing in public or when they say, an act of courtship: The more he in effect, "Who does he think he badmouths his audience, the more is?" they love him for it. I have seen him tell 5,000 science fiction fans "I think I'm the guy who can that they are stupid and illiterate; write a story that's as good as they give him a standing ovation "Count the Clock that Tells the and gather around him for autographs. 17 " . . . .

"My background is that I came people like a death wish or some- paradoxically, he is in awe of the from Painesville, Ohio, which was thing, but it's not, it's stretch- words of other writers, to the ex- a very quiet town, but within it I ing myself to the absolute limits of tent that he embosses their epigrams was the object of an awful lot of my abilities and finding out what on bits of Dymo tape and sticks violence and an awful lot of hatred new boundaries there are for me. them on walls and work surfaces and bigotry and alienation. I don't Taking risks is urgently important; around his desk. It is as if he take this as a singular state, most I see around me the people who don't needs the wisdom of elder states- people go through a similar thing take risks, who worship security men of literature around him as he in one way or another. But there and comfort, and I see that as a works was never a niche for me when I was living death. So he pays homage to his heroes; a kid, so I was never able to get complacent "Left to their own devices the but he has only impatient scorn for human race would settle into a soft those who don't dare to be great. Gerald Ford -- like hum, a state in As an entertainer, or as an activist "Early on I learned to take which they would just mmmmm along. he hates his public to be unrespons- risks, doing the things that a kid I think that entropy keeps the soc- ive and apathetic. He despises the does to gain attention, to prove iety going along the path that it notion that people might be happier that he's as good as anybody else. wants to go, and big systems and leading lazy, unimaginative lives. And I learned that I can't really be big units, multinational corpora- " Are they happy? I don't think damaged. I can be momentarily hurt, tions, armies and governments will they are. Anybody who settles for I can feel emotional pain, ny heart keep things pretty much in line, anything less than the moon, any- can be broken, but as I was saying and it's only the occasional fire- thing less than painting the Sistine the other day, real pain only lasts brand or troublemaker who shakes Chapel ceiling, or voyaging to the twelve minutes; the rest of the things up enough to get a few peop- center of the earth, is taking less time is spent in justifying it to le thinking. Those mavericks ad- than what the world holds for him. yourself to make what you went vance the cause of history. You This thing about ignorance is bliss, through seem valid and important. know that thing from Thoreau that and they ' re happy as drones ... I So I always and I took risks , when I'm so fond of quoting, 'He serves don't think so. Circumstances and saw how it shook up everybody around the State best who opposes the State indoctrination and a lack of self- me, because I was a kid seeking at- most' ." esteem are the deterrents that keep tention, I would do it all the more. from doing whatever that gold- Climbing a sixteen-story building people I ask if he is arguing that any en thing is within them to do. on steaniblasters ' ropes, bare-hand- kind of radicalism is good and ed, just to do it -- they called change is desirable for its own sake. "I've seen the meanest clay do the fire engines . It was always my intention to be noticed. "There is good change and there the most remarkable things . Look at is bad change, but I think all the Watts Towers (a huge piece of "Now, as an adult, that's a very change eventually brings about an sculpture built in a back yard in bad thing; seeking attention is a advancement of one kind or another. the Watts district of Los Angeles) very childish thing. But I still do Clausewitz said, 'any movement is Here was an uneducated, illiterate it. It manifests itself in other better than no movement at all'. If day laborer, Simon Rodia, who built ways . you sit still you die, you atrophy, something considered great art, with

One big risk that he took at your legs fall off. And besides, his own hands . All you need to see the start of his writing career was I don't think I'm inportant enough, is one of those, and you say, 'Ev- to join a Brooklyn teenage gang in that any change I make is really go- erybody's got it'. I do truly be- order to write about gang life and ing to shake things up. I'm not lieve that in every human being gang warfare. It culminated in a Ralph Nader, and I'm not Eve Curie, there is the capacity, from birth, knife fight in which he was almost and I'm not Joan of Arc. I'm just to reach the stars in some way. killed. a paid liar, and ny perceptions of When we don't we are denying our the world seem minuscule by compar- heritage, what we can be. So I "Joining the gang came natural- ison with the work of any of the struggle toward that. . . ly to me, because I had read Heming- really, really great writers, like way, who wrote 'One should never "I have been many things in my Isaac Bashevis Singer or Tom Disch." I WTite what one doesn ' t know so I life. I was not always a writer; ' ; figured if I wanted to write about This sudden note of modesty is was an extraordinarily fine actor juvenile delinquency I must go and injected casually and yet I think when I was a kid, with an opportun- do it. These things seem to other it is deliberate. Ellison reminds ity to go to Broadway. I was a sing- himself to be humble now and then much as a high- living sinner reminds himself to confess to his priest occasionally. His modesty, when it crops up, is certainly sincere -- There truly are writers whose work he admires more than his own, and he is constantly quoting these people -- "because they're wiser than I, and they know the way to say things".

In fact, his house (Ellison Wond- erland") is named in tribute to one great fantasist, and his corporation is named after a Hemingway short story. Ellison is a fiercely independent individual, and the style and mood of his writing are unique;

18 er, and can still sing, and could with a clear-cut choice of being have made a living, not a terrific courageous or cowardly, and I was living, but a good living, as a courageous. I don't take all the singer. I'm very good with my hands, credit -- if it had not been for

I was a bricklayer and that ' s noble Linda Steele I probably wouldn't too. There is nothing to which I have done it. But she held me to could have turned my hand at which it, frequently, which is why I treas-

I would not have excelled. Because ure her friendship , because she is a that's what I strive for -- excel- woman of great conscience, not lence. Very early in life when I afraid to say to me, 'You're acting read Robert Heinlein I got the thread in a cowardly fashion, you're talk- that inns through his stories -- the ing the talk and not walking the ." notion of the competent man. I've walk' always held that as my ideal. I've He adds that ethical questions tried to be a very conpetent man. are a frequent preoccupation, in When I fuck up, which I do regular- his life and also in his fiction. ly, I pillory myself far more than "I don't put much stock in morality; I pillory anyone around me, because it's ethical behavior I care about." I feel I should be above error, above stupid mistakes." I ask if he has ever been criticized on ethical grounds for a life- Indeed, one senses that Ellison style that some would call extrava- rates himself, critically, and imag- gant or self-indulgent. ines how others might rate him, in his ability to live up to his am- "Well, I feel I've paid my dues. bitions and ethical standards. It's I came from a poor background, ^^y a preoccupation with looking good in father died intestate, I paid off two senses: First, as a stylish gad- his bills, I supported my mother fly with an inimitable image, and for the last ten or eleven years of second, looking like a good boy who her life, so I know what poverty is has conscientiously done no wrong. and I know that it is not necessar- He often makes a point of "doing the ily true that poverty is noble and right thing" and doing it publicly; if you live in a garret you will he has ostentatiously supported such write better than if you live in a causes as the anti-war movement of nice house. For me, to wite well, the 1960s, civil rights for southern I must be in an environment that

Blacks, and, most recently, the Equal pleases me . I got ray home , I got my Rights Amendment. As guest of honor nest, for iryself, and it's filled at the Arizona world science fiction with my toys and ny music and I convention in 1978 he publicized the can come back to it when I need to. fact had The house is an outward manifesta- that Arizona not ratified as much money as I make now. They tion of I the Equal Rights Amendment, he advo- of me, an extension me. are postulating that I'm going to don't much cated that attendees at the conven- pay attention to people make $200,000 this year and I've who say, tion should carp out rather than 'Well, gee, if he was real- had to incorporate. I've spent all such spend money on hotel rooms (he him- ly a humanitarian he'd be liv- my life distrusting and fighting self slept in a van parked outside ing like Ghandi or Albert Schweit- against corporations," he smiles, the hotel and spent no money at all zer'. That's bullshit. I don't "and now 'I are one'. I personal- live fashion. I in Arizona on anything) and he used in an exorbitant ly find it distressing and disturb- the convention to campaign for the make an awful lot of money but I ing." E.R.A. and raise funds for a local give a lot of that money to places feminist organization. Many science each year where I think it should This from the man building a fiction people hated him for polit- go." $20,000 extension to his kitchen. -- icizing their field, but they had to And yet the 'architect of that project is a woman who finished admit, here was someone being true Organized charities? just to his principles, looking so good, college, and this is her first pro- it hurt. "You never know what you're sup- ject, a unique opportunity to enjoy porting these days. Everybody is total creative freedom. The build- Ellison has no false modesty owned by somebody else. I prefer to er runs a small business and is a about the event. "I came back with invest in individuals. Like Dawn friend. A young Chicane, newly in the sure and certain knowledge that Johanson who carved the sculpture, business, has been hired for his I had done something heroic. I real- the gargoyle, out in the back yard. talent working in stainless steel. ly felt like an honest-to-god hero. I bought it from her and sent her And so on. Ellison's whole house I had stood up for ny principles, to art school with the money. Octa- is full of art and artifacts commis- I had done something that I knew in via Estelle Butler, the novelist sioned or bought from artists who the core of my being was ultimately whose work I have supported -- I en- could not survive without his kind good for the human race, and I had couraged her career and sent her off of rich patronage. Truly, he in- to Clarion so she's a successful put my body on the line and nothing now vests in individuals ; he might not writer. There are no actual organ- ' had deterred me. The convention was like the label , but he s the image enormously successful, I was enor- ized causes to which I would sub- of an enlightened capitalist as a mously successful, and we got $2,000 scribe or give large amounts of mon- positive social force. ey, but then I don't want to be rich for the Arizona E.R.A. women and An old-fashioned notion, but in I really don't. I used to think did a thing that was a good thing, some ways Ellison old-fashioned. $10,000 a year was a lot of money it was a good thing that we did, and His references are often to 1950s and that was the pinnacle to which I just bum with pride in it, that culture (the Rockettes, Charlie Park- I was able to do it. There are so I aspired. I'm alarmed that I make er) ; he hates fads (he ridicules few occasions when one is presented 19 disco rollerskating and dislikes . .

most modern rock music) ; he is lib- erated in the sense of the Playboy AND THEN I HEARD.... Philosophy but staid by the standards of Penthouse Forum. And yet, of course, he is more fashionably BY THE EDITOR dressed, more aware of contenporary culture than most other science fiction writers -- whom he mocks for their old-fashioned attitudes and resistance to change.

It's another paradox, but then, entertainers are seldom easy to sum up in sinple terms. The need to be loved by an audience is clear, yet denied, as is the need for drama in JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH daily life, the need to be inpres- Read by James Mason THE WHITE DRAGON seeming to strive for Caedmon TC 1581 sive without Read by the author, Anne McCaffrey it. Caedmon TC 1596 James Mason is a professional our interview, he actor, of course, and a professional At the end of To get the most from these THE sat back and said wearily, disap- reader of highest quality; he has re- WHITE DRAGON chapters (3,4,5, and 6) pointedly, was hoping I could corded ten other classic books for "I you will have to have read at least come up with a terrific revelation Caedimon one of the Dragonrider books . There which just wipe you out". His work in JOURNEY is at that would is much background of this alien He had given his best performance, high level . His voice seems to lend world une:^lained in the context of wasn't good enough to itself to narration that does not yet it still what is given in the record. cruelly demanding require much dialogue, though he satisfy his own Anne McCaffrey speaks clearly most performers, he handles dialogue by means of a deep- standards. Like and pleasingly, with good dramatic finds it unbearable to disappoint ening of the voice, an accent. . .just enphasis and timing. I was impress- himself public. enough to tell the listener another or his ed. However, she tends to give some character is speaking. Some readers his of her dialogue a tone of cuteness Of course, the rewards for go to heroic, throat- rending lengths

; like children trying to speak as obsessive efforts are great He — to give each character's voice dis- adults in a school play and there lives well, is a virtual myth-figure — tinction and an excessive different- is in some. parts of her writing to thousands of readers, is revered a ness. Mason does not say to the soap-opera quality and admired, and has a unique place involving intri- listener, "I'm the star!" He lets cate personal relationships exhaust- in the fields where he has been ac- the text be paramount. -- ively worried- over that is just Too tive science fiction, TV, movies. The text was for this record- Much and a drag , His talent and his charm, his vital- to listen to. ing, abridged, necessarily. ity and his directness, his integrity and his generosity, all are remarkable, and have rightly won friends and influenced people. Even when there are bleak mom- ents -- when the writing does not go easily, in public or in private, and despite the wealth of names in his huge address book he feels he has few real friends, and it so happens that there is no house guest to talk to, no assistant or handy- man around to give a sense of act- ivity, and not even a girl staying

overnight . . . even then there is some consolation. Because even then, the house is full. Crowded with those 37,000 books, all their titles shouting together off the shelves Crowded with all the objets, many in the form of animals and cartoon characters and little people. And crowded with art, most of which depicts human figures and faces. Always, the house is full of faces, the perpetual audience, looking down from every wall.

(This is one of 30 profiles of SF writers that will be published by Putnam- Berk ley in May, 1980, in one volume tentatively titled PROFILES IN SCIENCE FICTION.)

¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥ . . mentary on writing, selling, living in these books is for the person who SMALL PRESS NOTES (U^, , wants to know how to write commerc- ial fiction, superb. I read them BY THE EDITOR repeatedly in my teens and twenties, and when I started to write fiction m I sold my first stoiy and kept on selling and selling and selling... THE RABELAISIAN LETTERS OF JACK rti His advice, his observations are WOODFORD Edited by Jesse E. Stewart of timeless value, because the dynamics of fiction are timeless, be- Edited by JACK WOODFORD ON WRITING cause they are based on the needs/ Jesse E. Stewart demands of the human psyche. Woodford ^fe^lorial Editions, Inc. You can take with a grain of salt POB 55085, Seattle, WA 98155. if it suits you his diatribes against

Communists, gays, politicians. . .but Jack Woodford, whose real, legal his writing about writing is conver- name was Josiah Pitts Woolfolk, spent sational, absorbing, funny, and oh- the thirties, forties and fifties so- accurate. writing how- to- write books and 45 JACK WOODFORD ON WRITING costs sex novels . Sex novels that were $8.95 and is worth every cent! considered hard stuff in those days. He sold well, was the backbone of advice and comments on life's prob- several publishing houses, and was a lems . very contentious, neurotic, hated/ feared/loved guy in the writing game. His letters to Arnold Gingrich, His letters, especially those to long-time editor of ESQUIRE, show a PANDORA #4 agent Donald MacCanpbell, show Edited by Lois Wickstrom a man more professional mein, a writer who was eaten alive rip-off edit- At per single issue, PAN- by seeking work, who also discussed his $2.50 ors and publishers, who knew it, rag- DORA, a Feminist s-f/ fantasy zine, interest in mental disease (he was ed pages plus against it, fought, retaliated, an expert due to his intense, wide- seems expensive. 64 roared, threatened. . . Jack claimed covers, half-size offset format. range reading of the literature due to have network of spies and The cover subtitles it as "an a agents to his daughter's disease) and who in publishing/editing/ original anthology of role-expand- the distribut- was himself suffering from high ion business, and claimed be ing science fiction and fantasy." to able blood pressure, aphasia attacks, and to ruin various and sundry of his But the stories are all Feminist side-effects. He shows a man of de- antagonists... He in viewpoint, and are all by women. was full of gossip, clining writing powers putting up a charges, contenpt, anger, prejudice Some of the artwork and poetry is front of books almost/probably sold, and (let's face it) paranoia. I sus- etc. by men. The roles expanded are primarily female, in this publica- pect the paranoia was grounded in For many years after he left reality tion. about 601. You can't blame prison on parole (after one year of a writer going that route when pub- It's okay by me. served time) he lived in a $21. -a- lishers The fiction is uneven, with steal mss, violate contracts, week hotel room in a small town by Janet Fox of a spread lies to cover their sins.... and apparently spent very little "Death Ring" any prozine. money on food. He sold articles quality worthy of I have been similarly ripped off, Address: 1150 St. Paul St., here and there... (I vaguely rememb- too: novels published without a con- er seeing/reading some Denver, CO 80206. tract, missed payments, foreign rights of his writing in ADAM, SIR KNIQIT, etc. when sold and no payment, no royalties I was selling short sex fiction when due, second and third print- to them. I was both surprised and ings and editions never reported happy to be in the same magazines or acknowledged. . THE IRON LAW OF -BUREAUCRACY with the man whom I considered to So I believe Jack in his end- By Alexis Gilliland. .$4.95 be my Teacher.) And he sold a book less railings and rages about his Looiipanics Unlimited, POB 264, to a small-time, very-low-pay pb endless problems with lying, cheat- Mason, MI 48854. publisher in Chicago on his year/ ting editors and publishers. For many months readers of SFR life in prison. He sold an article He had a very close attachment have suggested I gather the best to ESQUIRE on the same theme. to his daughter, Louella, who sank cartoons of Alexis Gilliland into THE RABELAISIAN LETTERS OF JACK into the pit of incurable hebephren- a book. WOODFORD costs $6.95 postpaid. It's ic schizophrenia and was a terrible I was too busy. worth it to anyone who has read and emotional and financial burden to Now Mike Hoy of Loompanics has admired Jack in the past or pres- him for many years — done it. Two hundred Gilliland ent. What was Jack Woodford really He went to federal prison on cartoons! But not THE best car- like? Here's a partial but reveal- a tax rap and spent his last years toons.. .two hundred of his best, ing look. in a state mental- hospital — in a a vital distinction, because Alexis geriatric ward. . .senile. At the is so prolific, so fertile in mind JACK WOODFORD ON WRITING includes end he had completed a book on "tel- and humor, that there are easily the complete text of WRITER'S CRAMP, esthesia", a form of hypnotically another 200. . .400. . .best cartoons and long excerpts from TRIAL AND administered thought -control via extant, waiting With Alexis, ERROR, HOW TO WRITE AND SELL A NOVEL, mental telepathy. I doubt there are many true 'best' HOW TO WRITE FOR MONEY, and PLOTTING. The letters from prison to Jess cartoons, because each editor is Plus samples of Jack's fiction, in- Stewart are sad; he seems a lonely, tickled by different aspects of cluding his motion picture treat- half-broken man reduced to asking the Gilliland wit and satire. ment of his novel, DELINQUENT. for small monies to spend on needed This offset volume has a fine Jack's instruction/advice/ com- fruits, foods, cigarets, etc. But Introduction by Bill Rotsler. he was ever helpful to Jess, with 21 Buy a copy. ] .

THE BEST OF ELMER T. HACK a shrewd understanding of the im- By Jim Barker and Chris Evans portance of cover art — Steve Fab- BSFA/Hack Press, 113 Windsor Road, ian is used for both months — and Falkirk, Stirlingshire FKl 5DB, he knows exactly what he wants Central Scotland. $2.25 postpaid. FANTASY NEWSLETTER to be and how [Autographed, with a small cartoon to do it. He uses a lot of photos added just for you. Mention SFR.] of book covers, of s-f and fantasy Elmer T. Hack is a cartoon char- personalities, and very little art- acter whose life incidents (insults, work in the interior. put-downs, disasters) have been ap- He probably rightly includes pearing in VECTOR for several years s-f in the NEWSLETTER, reasoning He is a hack writer with some resid- that s-f is a part of the larger ual dignity and who definitely gets- body of fantasy... in a literary no- respect. definition. His page Jim Barker is a professional- Ha! He is a FAAN! He dates 32 format (large- quality cartoonist. Chris Evans back to the legendary Walter Willis size) on a monthly schedule is conducts a funny interview with era and that legendary willis-zine, going to cause him problems : the Hack in the beginning of this col- HYPHEN. And in THE BEST OF THE workload and the money overhead lection. back will soon get to be hard to manage. At the of the book BUSHEL are collected 13 of his de- is the Life" He does cover the news well, "A Day in of Hack, and liciously humorous columns from HY- a review of Hack's new novel, LUCI- PHEN. and attractively, in a profession- FER'S Give this a try, BRADAWL, written by Christo- The collection is delightfully al manner. but pher Priest. Very good humor... and illustrated by cartoonist Jim Bark- I'd be wary of a long-term subscrip- some devastating satire. er. tion.

THE EASTERCON SPEECHES (also illustrated by Jim Barker) consists SCIENCE FICTION CHRONICLE (jAN. 1980 ) of marvelously interesting and funny Edited by Andrew Porter Rogers THE RUNESTONE by mark E. convention speeches from 1974-78. Algol Press, POB 4175, New York, NY Burning Bush Press, POB 7708, New- I urge you to discover this oth- 10017. $1.00. ark, 19711. NJ er Bob Shaw. . .or BoSh as he is known S-F CHRONICLE is another news- [Limited Edition--170 copies — sign- in fandom. zine, more restricted to writing, ed by the author. $5.75 per copy.] editing, publishing news, media I didn't expect much, but this news, a few letters, a few reviews. novelette in booklet offset format, ETERNITY SCIENCE FICTION #1 16-page format, set up in the is a hell of an exciting, gripping Edited by Stephen Gregg and Henry true newsletter style- -no cover as read— if you like blood, guts, a L. Vogel II. such, no art-- just lead stories. supernatural menace... in present-day POB 510, Clemson, SC 29631. $1.75. Andy and his staff do a thorough New York city. Rogers can write! A shakedown issue: good basic job (as do LOCUS and FANTASY NEWS- format, balance between fiction, LETTER. He uses a few photos of science and features . Big names covers, and no interior artwork. present with fiction: Roger Zelazny and Andrew Offutt. LOCUS is the leader of this pack of news-zines, and will likely An attempt, I presume, to fol- FOUNDATION 17 low the route of GALILEO to bookstore survive as long as Charley Brown Edited by Malcolm Edwards distribution, then national news- wants to publish it. I haven't seen Available from the Science Ficion stand display. a copy of LOCUS lately, since Char- Foundation, North East London Poly- And, like GALILEO in its early ley doesn't want to trade,- and I subscribing. technic, Longbridge Road, Dagenham, issues, the artwork is the only don't see any point in Essex RM8 2AS, U.K. [Three issue breakdown. The cover of ETERNITY But I wonder if there are enough subscription to U.S.; $8.00. Make is bad! Amateur drawing, poor buyers/subscribers to support at cheques payable to Science Fiction color choices. If a cover' sells least three sf/fantasy news-zines? Foundation. or kills a magazine (gets it picked The end of the recession year of By far the most professional up and looked through) then this 1980 should answer that question. and best s-f commentary- zine in cover sent a dose of cyanide into England- -and perhaps the world. this issue— it messages corny This issue has articles (all excel- amateurism and implies the interior lent and absorbing) by Philip K. of the magazine is on the same lev- Dick, Fritz Leiber, Brian Aldiss, el. I SEE I HAVE RUN OUT OF REVIEWING Ba-rington J. Bayley, Charles Platt; The interior art, with the ex- ROOM. OKAY... NEXT ISSUE WILL reviews by Ian Watson, Brian Stable- ception of Steve Fabian's work and a HAVE REVIEWS OF: ford, John Clute... few of the headings, is of the same And D.G. Compton writing about good-amateur level of technique and STARSHIP science fiction as a profession. skill. STARSWARM NEWS A superior magazine about s-f. SHAYOL To survive, this magazine MUST THE CARTOON HISTORY OF THE acquire better artwork. UNIVERSE., yOL.III. THE BEST OF THE BUSHEL By Bob Shaw STJERNEBORG #1 THE EASTERCON SPEECHES By Bob Shaw NIGHT MUSIC [Available from Joyce Scrivner, BRAIN CANDY FANTASY NEWSLETTER (jAN. & FEB.) 2528 15th Av. S. Minneapolis, MN NEW WORLDS , Edited by Paul Allen 55404. $2.20 each.] XENOPHILE 1015 West 36th St., Loveland, CO Most of you, I suspect, think QUESTAR of 80537. $1.50. ...AND OTHERS. Bob Shaw only as a fine science fic- In contrast, Paul Allen shows tion novelist and short story writer. 22 A****************?:****************** ,

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3526 iPa^c I) (See instructions on reverse) Apr' °776 . , AN INTERVIEW WITH CHARLES SHEFFIELD PART TWO

been reading and admiring as long At the highest levels of SFR: Concerning the matter of the as I've been reading science fiction science, science fiction and science relationship between the worlds of and he has excellent scientific cre- fiction concepts are much more ac- science and science fiction, you dentials, too. IVhat I should have cepted than at the middle level. At mentioned earlier that there's a done was stand up and walk out -- the middle level, people have learn- kind of one-way membrane that exists no, stand up and punch 'em in the ed a little bit and can't go beyond between the two -- that it's easy nose. But, since I'm a coward, I that bit. And, in a sense, their for a scientist to move into SF but didn't do anything at all like that. refusal to accept SF ideas is consis- that it's virtually inpossible for Instead, after the meeting, I got tent with a very basic principle of an SF writer to move into science. together with the then-president of biology: The territorial inperative. I don't know if anyone has ever tri- the AAS and said, "Don't get You've carved out your little patch ed to make the move from SF to sci- guys like that to control meetings, of jargon, your little area of ex- ence .... and let's get them off the Executive pertise, and you're sure as hell Committee." And we agreed that the not going to let some "unqualified" Yes us outsider come in and pee on your SHEFFIELJ]: , the father of way to solve the problem is to make all: H.G. Wells. In the 1930s, sure boneheads don't organize our peapatch, At the highest level, Wells felt that he should be a res- meetings or set out policies. people don't need to defend their pected scientific figure because territories; their territories are The whole point is, there is many of the things he had predict- much bigger than they could ever oc- ed no acceptance of science fiction cupy. had in fact happened. His life's -- writers in science, that I know of ambition was to be elected a Fellow with two curious exceptions. Arthur of the Royal Society. But he never SFR: I'hat sort of reaction have you Clarke is accepted by scientists was. They said he was not qualifi- gotten from your scientific col- but not because of his science fic- ed, that he did not have the approp- leagues as a result of your success tion. He's accepted because he is riate training, that he didn't have as an SF writer? recognized as the father of commun- the right degree, that he wasn't ications satellites. It's his sci - wearing the right college tie. SHEFFIELD: There's been very little entist role he ' s accepted that by reaction. The most frequent ques- So that's a glaring example. scientists . They permit him his tion I've had is, "Wliat name do you He probably was infinitely more qual- other foibles write under?" That's quite common. ified to be a Fellow of the Royal The other exception, curiously They don't read SF usually, and Society than 901 of the people who enough, is at the very highest lev- they assume that I wouldn't write were Fellows of the Royal Society, els of science. I'm not talking it under my own name. They think but he didn't have the "club card" about the middle level of scient- that would be like signing into a to be let in. ists, I'm talking about the Nobel motel for a "dirty weekend" under Prize winners. You get people like your own name. SFR: To what extent would you say Gell-Mann, who was asked by the gov- that this "club card" is still im- I don't go around saying, "Hey, ernment to come in for a special portant? To what extent would you I write science fiction", to people session and predict the nature of say that this rejection of SF by that I meet. So a relatively small technology as it would be in the science is a consequence of an un- number of people know I do it, and next hundred years. Gell-Mann said, reasoned -- unscientific -- prejud- most of those are people who already "You've got the wrong people. You ice against SF, and to what extent read it. should have asked science fiction it's a matter of science fictioneers I writers . They ' re the ones lAo are Even so, do find I'm constr- being not really scientific? able to make predictions . But guys ained in my SF activities . I think like us, who are into science, are I mentioned to you that I was asked too busy proving what you cannot do." by Ace Books if I would contact some SHEFFIELD: Let me quote you an ex- of my colleagues in the non-SF world What he meant was that scient- -- anple. About three months ago I the president of Rockwell Inter- ists become enslaved by the constr- was sitting in an Executive Committee aints of their theories. After a session of the American Astronaut- IT certain time, a theory ceases to be ME 1 ical Society, discussing a forthcom- ^ an abstract concept; it becomes a ing meeting. Somebody said, "Why basic belief, almost like a relig- TO I KJf=ORM YoOK don't we get Asimov as the kickoff f ion. And when an Einstein comes a- MATesTY that J speaker?" And the reaction of sev- long with something radically new, SEUF- eral present who are considered 1 y/|U_ j many of the older generation never qualified scientists was, "No, no, 'DE5TKt/cr IN do accept it. It finally gets ac- [ no. We don't want anybody like that cepted when the older generation 30 J standing up giving our guys half- j j dies off and the newer comes along, baked ideas". having no preconceived notions that Now, Asimov is somebody I've prevent them from accepting. Yo\! MlQ+fT I^ANT

TO STEP BACK, . 2^-

Conducted By Karl T. Pfiock 24 . -- national, a couple o£ astronauts What I mean is, we can project and ask them for their opinions on from now to twenty or thirty years THE WEB BETWEEN THE WORLDS. I did out -- but it's going to be wrong. not say anything at the time, but So the objectives are what count -- afterwards, I realized I couldn't the things you're going to try to do do that because I had the wrong re- with whatever tools you have, rather lationship with those individuals. than getting there with the specific I had a certain equity with them, tools you have now . We know the and that equity I could expend only tools are going to change, and no for something very important -- like one knows quite how. trying to get a certain clause put into Fuqua's space industrialization For these reasons, I'm very interested in corporation bill. But I couldn't having SFWA, L-5 and use it to get one-liners for the the National Space Institute as sponsors and co-sponsors AAS meetings cover of one of Toy SF books. In of that respect, I'm as two-faced as because I want that thinking, the anybody thinking that's out thirty years and more. But it's quite hard to sell, because there's a very conventional $PR; The most recent annual meeting of the AAS had as one of its co- and conservative core in the AAS -- sponsors the Science Fiction Writers which you have to have too other- careers are going to be spent in of America. How did that come about? wise you can't build the damned things. You've got to have the right that time frame -- and they want in- engineers to make rockets that get teresting things to do. They want to talk about solar power satellites, SHEFFIELD: For the 25th anniversary off the ground. So it's conplicat- industrialization of space, perma- neeting in Houston, I arranged that ed. Space may be the High Frontier, nent space stations, lunar colonies, the SFWA and the L-5 Society should but first and foremost, it's a high- manned Mars missions, unmanned mis- be joint sponsors, with L-5 running technology frontier. a session. That proved very unpop- sions to the fringes of the Solar System -- they'll grab for them. ular with the AAS board of directors So the problem is to bring $pR; And they'll do so without any con- and officers --to the point where about a symbiosis between the en- straint of respectibility or conven- the people running the Los Angeles thusiasts, the visionaries and the tional approach. meeting this fall don't want any of hard-headed practical men, the nuts- those associations. and-bolts guys? There is one thing that, in retrospect, may have been very sig- Why? SFR: SHEFFIELD: Yeah, that's exactly nificant about my own academic back- the problem. And there is a divis- ground. As I said, I attended St. They people are SHEFFIEU): say the ion -- which is a strange one --a John's College at Cambridge and read flakey. They say they stand up and division of generations in many cas- mathematics, quite a conservative make technically unsound statements es. The problem with the U.S. space institution and subject. But my su- -- true -- which is often that they program is that in the last twenty pervisor at St. John's, was Fred don't have the right, "reverential" years it has been phenomenally suc- Hoyle. At that time, Hoyle was not -- approach to science which is cessful, but the people who carried writing science fiction, and yet in true but good -- and that, basical- it for those twenty years are not a curious way, when I now look back ly, know what they're they don't going to carry it for the next twen- to that period, the science fiction talking about. ty years. influence was very much at work. The problem is, the way these If I look at the people in meetings are usually run is that the The way things were, twice a the AAS, at the people in the Amer- week two students at a time would local AAS chapters are relied upon ican Institute of Aeronautics and to do all the leg work. And get one hour with their director of you Astronautics, at those running Hous- can't say, "We're going studies to cover any problems with afford to ton, they're not going to be working profile of the meet- the mathematics courses or to ask to impose our in twenty years. They'll be retir- ing on you". If you do that, you any questions they might have. Now ed. So who's going to carry the Hoyle is an extremely fertile mind, get no cooperation and no meeting. next twenty years? And who's going who will speculate at the drop of a What has to be done is to get to have the enthusiasm and new ideas hat. We would ask him a question, the right balance between controvers- to make the next twenty years as in- which involved, say, Coriolis force ial noncontroversial, from meet- teresting as the last twenty? and or something. Hoyle would take off ing to meeting. You can hold meet- That has to come from men and from there into a discussion of ings in San Francisco that you could women who are in college now. And fictitious forces that arise in ro- not hold in Houston, because of the the AAS has the specific goal of be- tating reference frames, to a dis- different profiles of the two aero- ing interesting to that student com- cussion of the Newtonian view of space communities . So the national munity -- and students are not con- the universe with absolute space AAS office (mostly me) has the jug- servative. But the people who are and time, to a comparison with the gling problem. running the programs, who control Einstein view with no absolute space All these things that are the funds, are, because they're 55 and time, and so on. And these years old. Don't get me wrong. things, in a sense, were the highest said about flakiness , lack of tech- nical competence, lack of reliabil- Some 55-year-olds have younger views form of science fiction. You don't ity, lack of engineering, lack of than some 20-year-olds. But as a get stories like that because the generation, they're not ready to con- physics, lack of mathematics --they readership is not there for them, sider concepts which won't mature are often all true. And they're not but they're fascinating. They're until 2020, because they expect to relevant . The time scale we're look- 991 mathematics, pure intellectual students in at is such that the objectives of be dead. IVhereas the speculation. our technology are more inportant college expect that their working than our ability to project the Hoyle's a very extraordinary technology. 25 man. I was lucky to have him as ny . . s . director o£ studies. What's curious I have my own version: Lord Rayleigh had used the same tech- -- SHEFFIELD: to me is that there are people NASA discovered the Inverse Philoso- nique in 1902 or whatever, then he -- fans who know him only as a sci- pher's Stone, which will turn gold gives attribution to it. I don't ence fiction writer. Yet he is into lead. believe that O'Neill stole the mass probably the most innovative theo- driver concept from Heinlein. I retical astrophysicist to have ap- SFR; I recall at just about this believe that O'Neill may have been peared in Britain since the Second time last year, being on a panel at influenced by people who talked to World War. the AAS meeting here in Washington, Heinlein, but that certainly doesn't sitting between Jerry Poumelle and make O'Neill a villain, any more SFR: The attitudes of those in Brian O'Leary. O'Leary was talking than a scientist who rediscovers a the sciences, pure and applied, to- about the mass driver and its applic- theory or discovers it independently ward SF writers and science popular- ations, while Jerry "whispered" in at the same time as someone else is izers seem to be similar. Why is ray ear: "They're doing it to us a plagiarist. Generally, what hap- this, do you suppose? For instance, again!" IVhat Jerry meant was, these pens is that over the years the se- Carl Sagan seems to be looked upon are ideas that SF writers have been quence of discoveries is traced back with some disfavor by certain of thinking up, kicking about and using Let me give you an example that his colleagues in the sciences. working the for a long time, out goes back to Beanstalks, Interestingly, Sagan has recently or Orbital difficulties of application in their Towers. The first Western reference written, in the NEW YORK TIMES MAG- stories, have and now here we a to Orbital Towers was given in 1966 AZINE, I think, an article about how scientist and introduc- coming along in a paper by a group at Woods Hole, reading SF as a kid inspired him to ing it as being new notion out of a who were interested in lowering go into a scientific career. due credit science without giving long cables down into the sea. And then a Russian, Lvov, wrote a letter SHEFFIEU]; The somewhat cool at- to SCIENCE magazine, saying, "Hey, titude of scientists toward science wait a minute. This idea was invent- popularizers is there, but for a dif- ed by a Russian, Artsutanov, in 1960." ferent reason than the one behind And it was. can't really blame the similar attitude toward science You Isaacs fiction writers. and his people at Woods Hole for not giving an attribution -- It's there because they're theirs was an independent rediscov- jealous as hell of the fact that ery. Sagan can get a forum for his ideas Then in 1974, a fellow at that is a thousand times as big as Wright- Patterson Air Force Base, they can get in the professional Jerome Pearson, who did not know of journals. So I think there is a the Isaacs paper or the Artsutanov good deal of simple envy. The peo- paper, also wrote a paper about Or- ple I know whom I consider to be bital Towers. Now, you can argue good scientists have a high regard that's irresponsible, but it's not. for Sagan. For them, the fact that he popularizes doesn't make him less I had the same experience my- of a scientist. In a sense, it self. I developed an analysis for makes him more of a scientist be- resonances of orbital satellites cause ideas, if they're good ones, with gravity harmonics of the Earth's should be expressable to a very field. I wrote a paper on it. Then large audience. I had a letter from Kaula, who is at the University of California. He Sagan is an example of some- wanted I one who is resented by his less art- to know why didn't refer- iculate colleagues and respected by ence his earlier paper, which did those who don't have any pretentions the same thing. I wrote back and to be like him. The latter don't quoted Samuel Johnson, who when ask- underestimate the value of the pop- ed why he had defined the pastern as the the horse, said, ular! zer, the man who can push the "knee" of idea. The L-5 Society took O'Neill's "Ignorance, Madam, pure ignorance". ideas and put them out to a larger I had never heard of Kaula 's paper. That goes on all time. audience, but O'Neill began the pop- the ularization. You can't ignore the But I think SF people believe importance of that. The populariz- to SF writers. Have you noted this they are unusually susceptible to ers are, in my opinion, as important kind of thing yourself? And why do getting screwed. The reason for as the doers you suppose this happens? that is a simple one: The scientists Which brings to mind NASA' read the journals, but they don't read the science fiction magazines big problem; It has a pitiful pub- SHEFFIELD; I think Jerry assumed Occasionally, get lic relations campaign. It has not malice where there was only ignor- you a scientist understood the need to explain the ance. The reason that no credit is who does read science fiction, and inportance of the doers by suitable given is that the scientist has nev- he writes to a journal, saying, use of the popularizers er heard of the prior "discovery". "With reference to such-and-such a And this not only happens to science device mentioned in Professor So- fiction writers and-So's paper, see..." and then you SFR; I think it was Robert Hein- , it happens to sci- get a reference to a story by Clarke lein who noted that, putting aside entists I the fantastic achievement of putting or Asimov or Heinlein. So things do eventually the attribution. men on the Moon, NASA's greatest All the time somebody is re- get inventing accomplishment was making one of the the wheel, and when he most exciting events in the history finds out that Tsiolkovsky talked of mankind over into one of the about the same idea in 1890 or that SFR: With fairness to O'Neill he -- dullest damned things you can think does give credit to SF writers of. 26 I think particularly of his book . . .

THE HIGH FRONTIER. But SF writers Einstein's papers, they realized at its reduced effort, is not true from do seem particularly sensitive to once. Bom said, that a genius of any sort of multigeneration pers- this sort o£ "theft". I wonder if the first magnitude had arisen. pective. We're exploding off Earth, it's the "ghetto mentality" at work and we're exploding around the Sol- What that says is, if you've ar System. So from that point of The idea of science fic- really got it and you have something SHEFFIELD I view, we're going fast. profound to say and know how to say tion as a ghetto is not one I ' ve seen used by scientists. Yet your It well, you'll get published. If But you have to measure that comments about what Jerry Poumelle you have something profound to say, against how much time we have. In said indicates that perhaps he's in but you can't say it in the language ny opinion, the critical problem of a ghetto, because if he were publish- people can understand, you might get humanity is not that of getting into ing in PHYSICAL REVIEW or the JOURN- published. But if you go too far space quickly. It is population. AL OF MATHEMATICAL PHYSICS or the away from what people are used to Without population control, and JOURNAL OF ASTRONAUTICAL SCIENCES, seeing, and if you have the bad luck soon, anything you do in space be- he would get a very different res- to get someone who is not one of the comes irrelevant. The one thing top read ponse to new ideas. And the answer people in the field to it, that's absolutely guaranteed is that then chances are a is, those journals are available the you'll never you won't be able to use space as published out- extra people. We can for anybody to publish in. If you get if you come from place to put have a good idea, something that side the field. I think it is much breed too fast. Therefore, we may conceivably could be done, there's harder now than it was in 1905 to have only two generations before, nothing to stop any author from get published if you don't have the we begin some sort of technological I how writing it up as a scientific paper right "calling card". But the Ph.D slide backward. don't know and presenting it to the convention- degree is depreciating to the point far it will go; it depends how bad it to col- it will get. But if you talk in al journals. It's seldom done. I where you will soon need don't know why. lect the garbage. When that hap- terms of populations of 10 to 12 pens it will perhaps be easier to billion, I don't think Earth can get along without credentials support that with anything like SFR; But don't you have to have the right credentials? Jerry could the lifestyle to which we are ac- do it; he's got a Ph.D and so on. customed. But what about a guy like Murray It's a very complex question, Leinster, who was an inventor, a but I think that if I were to put holder of many patents, but who, as my priorities on one problem, it far as I know, never graduated from would not be space. The space pro- high school. Could he get publish- gram is great. I think it's fas- ed in a scientific journal? cinating, the most interesting thing that has happened to the human race SHEFFIELD; He'd probably find it in hundreds of years, but it is not inpossible, for a really original the solution to mankind's worst idea. But if he wrote a paper problem, which is excess people. which was a development of ideas And unless we can get some handle which were already considered ac- on that, and get a limit defined on ceptable and if it were a paper with the number of people that the Earth good mathematics and well written, can rationally support, and then it wouldn't matter if he did or did move to achieving that goal of pop- not have a Ph.D or whatnot. It's ulation control, we won't get any- when someone has an idea that bucks where much in space. We'll play wildly against convention that you games in space, we'll try to solve really run into problems . What hap- the problems with space solutions, pens is that the reviewer, who is but we'll keep losing. human, gets a paper from a guy who To look at some specific space doesn't have academic credentials, SFR; Shifting gears; The space programs that I think we should a paper written in a language which program is at a very critical junc- , is unfamiliar, not written in the ture today. It could be renewed have. I'll go back and quote from I gave right secret language, the Secret with great vigor, it could go doivn congressional testimony a Signs of the Mickey Mouse Club; it the tubes. A two-part question; year ago, in which I defined three requires a lot of thought and it's VVhere do you think it will go? And near-term goals. One is the reus- hard to read, and thbn it's very if you had your druthers, where able Space Tug. The Shuttle gets likely to get bounced very quickly. would it go? you to low Earth orbit and back. A really unconventional paper re- The Space Tug gets you to geosynchronous orbit and back, and will quires somebody with exceptional SHEFFIELD; That question is worth talent to see it for what it is about an hour and a half of answer. allow you to carry humans up there. Let's do it in pieces. But it requires a significant tech- Let me give you an example; nological jump, almost certainly In 1905 Einstein wrote papers in How's the U.S. doing compared, a liquid-propellant Inertial Upper three fundamentally different areas. to other countries? Well, the U.S. Stage All of them were great departures is doing badly. And the antitechno- from anything anybody had ever seen logy movement in the U.S. means The second thing to get the before, and it required somebody who that in twenty years the Soviet Un- space program reactivated is an ac- really was a great man to accept ion, Germany, and Japan will have tive manned lunar exploration pro- them for publication. Einstein was space capabilities that we lack. gram. We haven't finished with the someone who was not part of the com- But in the long haul, considered ov- Moon; we've only really just start- We goals munity; he was a patent examiner in er many generations, humanity is mov ed it. have to set some to get back up the re because I Berne. However, read the Bom Ein- off the Earth extremely fast. To , feel sure that witl.in the next ten stein letters.' say that the space program is drag- ;ing, even in the United States with years the Russians will be develop- take Bom was a young man then, and ing spacecraft to people to when he and his fellow workers saw 27 the Nbon, and perhaps developing s to get one with less ambitious ob- That because my own experience tells jectives than Schmitt's. Schmitt me that a lot of what's being pub- proposes a NASA budget of $11 bil- lished is real garbage. Losing that lion a year to start with, two-and- garbage doesn't weaken the field, a-half times the current NASA bud- but it means there's less money in get, with no specifics on how to ab- the field. So hard times may come -- sorb it into NASA programs . That one, two, five years from now would blow NASA's mind. They might -- and the people who couldn't write love the money, but I'm sure they it but were being published anyway couldn't use it effectively. ought to disappear, in any logical world. But it could be that the So modify that --it has to people who can write it, and write be more realistic -- and accept the it well, will disappear; I don't idea of long-term objectives in know. There will be an attrition space, the idea that you will not process when hard times come, and have programs that will be on-again- the people who stick around will be off-again, that there will be on- those readers that want to read. going projects. Then take the Stev- Of course, it's possible that the enson bill and give it some emphasis readers will prefer the junk to the on medical activities the continu- permanent colonies there. , good stuff, and we'll be left with ous survival of man in space, and the Perry Rhodans of 1987. I don't that's a good bill. The third thing is a combined think that will happen. applications platform for weather, SFRi One of the problems with the I have never seen a time when Earth resources and communications , space program is that it's subject hard science fiction, really good which will sit at geosynchronous to political whim. The Fuqua bill hard science fiction, didn't sell. altitude and be staffed by a perm- is directed at trying to get priv- There have been times when it ' anent crew. A space station, to ate industry up there. As Jerry been hard to get published, but Niv- look down . Poumelle has often said, once you en arose in the midst of the New Now, to achieve all these get the entrepreneurs up there mak- Wave. And he will tell you he was goals, there's one enormous hurdle ing money, there's no way in hell very lucky, because -- paraphrasing that we have yet to get over: man's you're going to stop space develop- him --he was the only one who was long-term ability to live without ment. That'll give you your contin- writing anything of that style worth drastic physical damage in a low- uity. What do you think about that? reading in that period, so he got gee environment. I was speaking a off to a flying start. But you couple of months ago to the head of SHEFFIELD; it sounds great -- but will continue to get the Nivens, the medical programs for the Euro- I wish we had Don (Fuqua) the Varleys, the Clarkes, the And- pean Space Agency, who has access to here with us. But, anyway, there's ersens, the Benfords, the Haldemans, the medical records of the Russians no evidence at all that industry the Asimovs, the Pohls and the Hog- and the longest manned space mis- is willing to put more than token ans, who will be writing good hard money into space right now. there's science fiction. And there will al- sions . There have been severe medical problems, which have not been a ver)' simple reason: They can't ways be a good market for them. see the return on investment, be- discussed in any detail in this The ideas won't dry up, and cause the risks are too great and country. There's the long-term loss as long as there are people who are the benefits are too ill-defined. of calcium, which still goes on. interested in ideas more than any- True, once people are sure they can And then there are these peculiar- thing else,' that's what they'll pre- make money, they'll go up there and ities of the vestibular functions of fer to read. the inner ear, which does not get do it . But we're a long way from right at once when we come down and that. which stays wrong for quite a while. One of the things that really I agree. with the old state- These problems must be sorted worries me about the space program ment, science fiction is the liter- out. Otheiw'ise, you can't decide is that it can't attract and hold ature of ideas. And the people whether or not you must have an guys like Rusty Schweiekart. There whose lives are primarily focused aritificial gravity environment or is a really interesting guy, not at on ideas, quite often young males, whether you can get away with the all one of those carbon cutouts the I'm not knocking young females, but Skylab type of environment. So, to public thinks of when it thinks of young males, at a certain time of reach my three goals, you also have astronauts. Once, NASA was it. their lives seem to go through a to lick the biomedical problems. There was no place someone like that phase when they're only interested would rather be. Now, NASA is be- in ideas to the exclusion of all What worries me about the pro- ginning to look like a branch of the posals introduced in Congress is Social Security Administration. that they hardly say anything about biomedical problems . The three SFR; Shifting gears: Dick Geis bills, tw'o in the Senate and one in has suggested that despite all the the House, virtually ignore these new writers, the Big Boom, etc., matters. very shortly the whole SF racket is going to come apart? ^Vhere do you see SF going?

Of the three bills in Congress SFR; SHEFFIELD; W'ell, first of all, I at the moment, which do you consid- agree with Geis, perhaps for dif- er the best? ferent reasons . Science fiction will probably go through its boom SHEFFIEQ]; Well, I think what will peak and back down before too long. happen is that the Schmitt bill will 28 be combined with the Stevenson bill else. They'll always want to read SHEFFIELD: I't catching up on the impressions of your first contact good science fiction. 1 have a short fiction that I couldn't ivrite with fandom in conclave, Disclave character in a book whose motto is when I was working on THE I'/EB BE- 'll. "Ideas, things, people", and he be- TlvEEN THE WORLDS. I have an accum- lieves in them in that order . Well, ulation of a few stories to do. SHEFFIELD: struck me as a unique there are many people like that. There is the much-delayed Henry opportunity for people to behave ir- They're not well represented in the Carver/Waldo Burmeister, "Parasites responsibly without guilt. And I literary field, because they tend Lost", which is written in first thought it was great, because I'm not to write. They tend to be mute draft, plus two more shorts, a nov- always looking for opportunities inglorious engineers and tongue-tied elette and an article. to behave irresponsibily without physicists, but they certainly read. guilt. It was like Mardi Gras. I Also I've been wasting lots And that audience will be there. had a wonderful time there. And of time recently doing useless cal- I've had marvelous times at all fantasy How much will survive culations for a planetary doublet, conventions since. is hard for me to tell, because I'm rotating about each other just out- not a fantasy specialist. I suspect side the Roche Limit. I doubt if Nly only problem is that I good fantasy will survive, because any of it will get into the story can't stay up all night for three it too serves a real need. (tentatively entitled "Summertide") days in a row, which represents but it is a good way of not writing. some feature either of my advanced hope is that there will be I have the plot and all, but the age or ny natural makeup. I can't hard times and a shrinking of the calculations of the surface shapes take it. I wish I could. Since my is carpe diem any- field, to the point that the average are more fun. The programmable cal- motto in life , person can hope to read what is pro- culator I have can just about handle thing that allows you to have a good duced in a year, and not be flooded the necessary programs, but I keep time is approved of. Cons are a with so much material that he can't having to shoehorn them in. Pleas- great idea. It's a pity it took me possibly read it all. ing, but not very productive. To so long to find out they existed; I quote Tennyson, "Miy should life would have attended them long ago, I wrote. That's a all labor be?" I now see why Hal whether or not Clement, Poul Anderson and others very immature view, of course, but SFR: This brings to mind the prob- so enjoy world-building -- it allows by now the reader will have come to lem of awards in the field — you to not -write but still feel vir- expect that.

tuous . SHEFFIELD: The Nebulas? They're SFR: Thank you very" much. supposed to be the SRVA menbers per- ' SFR: To wrap up, let me ask your sonal best book, novella, novelette, and short story of the year. That's absolute nonsense, because people who are so busy writing, the SFWA members, don't have time to read it all. They didn't have time to read enough ten years ago, when there was a tenth as much stuff being produced as is being turned out today. It's a farce. The Nebula Awards should be quietly disposed of, because they represent an unreal situation. They no more are a true reflection of what really is the best of the year than the president of the L&iit- ed States is the person best qualified to run the country. That isn't the way it happens. Awards that are as artificial as that shouldn't continue. We have recently ration- alized the membership requirements for SFlV'A. We next should rational- ize the Nebulas -- perhaps by rat- ionalizing them out of existence.

SFR: How about the Hugos?

SHEFFIELD: I generally approve more of the Hugos, because they're voted on by people who have more time to read simply because they're not, most of them, writing. I know from personal experience that if you're not writing, you have a hell of a lot more time to read. I'm sure you know that too.

SFR: Well, what's Charles Sheffield working on in the time he doesn't have for reading? THE VIVISECTOR

A Column By Darrell Schweitzer

L J

WATCHTOWER The background is a very loosely By Elizabeth Lynn organized feudal society, and for Berkley/Putnam, 1979, 251 pp., $9.95 the most part it is well realized. Apparently there is no government Ihis is the book that was alleg- beyond the level of the local war- edly rendered an instant collector's lord. (The obvious question is why item by a flood at the Berkley ware- someone doesn't try to conquer the house a while ago. Until it was castles one by one and set up an discovered that more were available, empire. Not only has Lynn thought there was quite a run on it. I im- of that, but most of the plot de- agine many SFWA members grabbed cop- rives from it. A prince is deposed ies in order to read the thing by and must win back his realm, and Nebula time, since by all indica- happily few of the expected develop- tions it's going to be a finalist, ments of a conventional swashbuck- which is just as well because WATCH- ler actually develop.) The place TOWER should be read. It deserves has a gritty, down to earth feel attention as something other than about it, and one is convinced. the target of a natural disaster. The only thing that bothers me It is a superb novel, although not is a total absence of religion or, the sort one would expect to see aside from the few followers of one nominated for a science fiction aw- man still living, any belief system ard, or even published as science at all. Not only are there no gods fiction/ fantasy prior to the past to swear by, but nobody seems to five years or so when the practice have any ideas about humanity's of disguising non-SF books as SF in place in the universe, where people order to insure their sales became go after death, or why things hap- common. (Remember when the reverse pen. Such are present in every was true?) known society, even though sometimes But enough of that. If you're there are no deities involved (as one those sorts who demands lots of in Communism or pure Buddhism) , and of wizardly magic, heroic swords- usually at the stage of development men, monstrous critters and the Lynn describes, the supernatural cently into a sequel, THE DANCERS like in your "fantasy", head for the abounds, as it did in the Middle OF ARUN, which Somtow Sucharitkul hills. Aside from a hint of proph- Ages of our world. Because no at- tells me is "sublimely good". I'm ecy, there is no fantastic element tempt is made to fill this niche, eager to find out.) in WATCHTOWER aside from the setting. the picture of the societies is in- It is a "historical" adventure set complete. in an imaginary land, rather on the This is not the novel is order of Leslie Barringer's JORIS OF to say without social ideas. It can best TALES OF NEVERYON THE ROCK, etc. It is also very, be described as quietly Feminist. By Samuel R. Delany very good. Lynn is an extremely Fbst of the women are married to Bantam, 264 pp., $2.25 polished stylist with a touch of men, have families, etc., poetry. Anybody can describe a but there are a few who chose otherwise, and I don't know what to make of bunch of thatched houses, but she Lynn is clearly saying that's their Samuel Delany these days. It's sees them as the back of old men business and no else's. The easy to say that he's lost it, hunched in a row, which strikes me one messenger, Sorren, who wants to go that he has grown hopelessly self- as a novel but fitting image. She off and have adventures is able to indulgent (What was DHALGREN except is deft with understatements. A do so, breaking free of the tradi- 800+ pages of a writing exercise chapter begins, "It was an ugly tional roles, and this is seen to exploring ways to depict sensory ex- fi^t", and it is indeed, ugly and be a Good Thing. But there are no periences?) and unable to reach the intensely real. preachments, even in a section which levels he did ten years ago, but borders on utopian. I am reminded one must keep in mind that if an author Her greatest gift is for charac- of THE DISPOSSESSED at times, in chooses not to do something terization. All the major figures that all this comes across as the anymore, that doesn't mean he is no longer capable and some of the minor ones come al- story moves along, instead of be- of doing it. ive as believable people without ing part of a lecture tour. What Delany has stopped doing

. The black and white stereotypes This is only Ms. L>nn's second is telling stories. Since this is "villain" in a man who would be the novel. She will go far. (Most re- the primary function of fiction, I pulp novel has his own motivations don't think TALES OF NEVERYON is of and is even sympathetic at times. 30 much interest to the story-reading . public. Had it been by John Doe, ilization in which he lived he was shifted, and how such a situation I doubt it would have been publish- a civilized man." (p. 55) can be supportive and worthwhile if ed, brilliant as some of its parts The average sword and sorcery you can stand living in someone are, because it is a collection of else's armpit. is usually set in a kingdom, fragments which don't add up to novel where king sits on a throne and anything, rather like the sort of a A counter-cultural period piece, system is no more com- thing authors leave behind in their the political of literary interest because it plicated. Delany produces an in- papers after they die. shows where a lot of the material in tricately structured court which is Delany's work comes from. Certainly Sometimes such works are pub- one of his finest creations. You anyone who thinks DHALGREN is a lished as curiosities. Sometimes may wonder what scar- faced giants great novel will devour this relig- they are farmed out to other writ- do for kicks. You find out. There iously. (A curious phrase, "to de- ers to complete. In this case, are fascinating social situations, vour religiously". Ritualistic bib- the other writer would have to do a marvellous parody of the concept liographic cannibalism?) Ify feeling most of the work, because what we of penis envy, a creation nyth which is that perhaps this is the book have is a prologue, a few episodes, is fully as female- chauvinist as DHALGREN should have been, or even and various bits of exposition GENESIS is male -chauvinist, and lots a book which by its publication ren- which could be either digressions more. Delany can bring across the ders IHALGREN unnecessary. or appendices. Probably the best actual experience of a fictional At $1.95 it is badly overpriced. conparison is to Peake's TITUS A- event, what it felt like, tasted Thin, high-priced books don't sell, LONE. It is a tantalizing glimpse like, smelled like, better than al- of course. If this were an Ace book of a novel that might have been , most anyone else, certainly better it would have huge print and be had the author conpleted it. than many of those writers who are thick, martyring trees. still story-tellers. twice as However, even if it has little Doesn't anyone have the courage to to offer to most readers, I think Ivhich is why "The Tale of Gor- publish a thin, low-priced book? fantasy writers practicing and would- gik" promises so much and the book be should read it. You see, TALES as a whole is such a disappoint- OF NEVERYON is nothing short of the ment: the skill is there; the prose reverse-image of the average fan- is a joy to read, but Delany isn't tasy novel. It contains all the doing anything with all the ingred- omitted, elements which are usually ients. I think fantasy writers THE DYING EARTH and vice versa. A typical book of should read this so they can see (A noteworthy reprint) this type is strongly plotted. how Delany does so many things well, By Jack Vance so they can learn from him, and go Pocket Books, 1979, 156 pp., $1.75 Delany's vestigial plot only be- on to the things he hasn't bothered gins to move at the ver>' end, and to do at all. This collection of six related when it does, it gets silly fast. stories is one of the authentic The We have a handful of people taking cover, by the way, has no- classics. The first edition began thing to do with the text. Nobody castles and freeing slaves so easily to command fabulous prices after battles huge dragons in the book. that if it were really possible, no its very limited release in 1950, The only dragons are tiny ones, men- one would have ever kept slaves or and there were those who doubted tioned in passing. The is built castles. The final section, painting the work even existed. Happily it superficially attractive, but awk- for sheer stupidity, is surely the has been imore available in recent ward in its including worst writing Delany has ever done, details, a man years, and more happily yet the new a an impossible fash- and the only part which actually holding bow in Pocket Books edition has the most ion. Well, suggests that his talent may be Bantam art direction has attractive cover it's had in quite been none too smashing of late, as failing him. Otherwise, maybe the a while. book is a series of false starts, their Conan books show. THE and it never jells, but it's often DYING EARTH is the tale of fascinating along the way. a time so distant that all we know has been forgotten, science has Your typical sword and sorcery turned into sorcery, and this world novel takes the hulking barbarian HEAVENLY BREAKFAST is a magical realm. Sometimes hero as a given, and as a result he By Sameul R. Delany Vance's writing is very beautiful; is conpletely cardboard. "The Tale Bantam, 1979, 127 pp., $1.95 sometimes it shows a sparkling wit. of Gorgik", which is better than His images and ideas can be aston- the rest of the book put together, An account of Delany's life in ishing. While Clark Ashton Smith the only part which actually works a New York commune, 1967-68. Bo- as a piece of fiction instead of a hemian squalor seems to have gotten writing exercise, explores in splen- less hygienic of late. Those of you did, wholly human detail, how a who read fanzines frequently encount- society would produce such a char- er articles about everyday experi- froo epH6«61iAu CON- acter and then comes to the conclu- ence in which the writer is just re- AK sion yoo to CePT$ op BElATWe that he's not a "barbarian" cording what he did (went to a con, mie VAuie. si«c£ Twe after all: went on a trip, moved) or else try- OP W Q6MM6 If* "...the optimum product of his ing to understand the same and draw i civilization. The slave mine, the some larger meaning out of it. This PHXSlcAl. AMP CwenlcAp court, the army, the great ports is the same sort of writing, only at WHO 'A TO S« H-f po Not seevc Sene cewA/K and mountain holds, desert, field, a professional level of competence 0NW6BSA, rwpose? koti. and forest: each of his civiliza- and a lot longer. I enjoyed it and tion's institutions had contributed read it with interest. Delany gives HoU) &t\|g f\g \t/ to creating this scar-faced giant, a definite sense of what it was like HCAP to . who wore thick furs in the cold wint- to live with about twenty people in a four room apartment, how the inter- er and in the heat went naked . . an easy man in company and yet able actions between individuals subtly to hold his silence. For the civ- 31 . may have done the far future fant- too talky. The long explanations of of a few nearly as good, and they asy before him in his Zothique cy- how the seeming alien message was are all by Dunsany and tend to con- cle, Vance's version is the classic deciphered bored me, and there are tain much of the same material. which has given birth to a whole perhaps too many discussions of Extravagant praise? Well, Dunsany subspecies of successors, which, what everything is all about (inclu- has commanded the same for the bet- sure enough, are often referred to ding the title of the book) which ter part of a century now. Love-, as "DYING EARTH type fantasies". tend to stop the novel dead when it craft went on at length in THE SUPER- Some are very good, but first read should be moving. Now I can under- NATURAL HORROR IN LITERATURE. Yeats, the original. stand why an author might go to writing about one of the stories in these lengths to be clear. If she this book, said that if he'd read has something to say, she will get it as a young man, he would have it said, since communication is looked on it as the creation of his the whole point of writing. But world, and his whole career might JUNIPER TIME showing is better than telling some- have been different. By Kate Wilhelm times . Whenever anyone talks about Dun- Harper § Row, 1979, 280 pp., $10.95 Possibly the cast is too large. sanian-style fantasy, or says that The book lacks focus. Repeated a writer went through a "Dunsany This is not Kate Wilhelm's best shifts in viewpoint, often within period", as so many have, it is novel, and I don't even think it's a scene, tend to dilute the charac- the material in the early fantasy as good as the last one of hers that terizations to the point that when collections, of which many consider I read (THE CLEWISTON TEST) but it , one of the less well developed char- A DREAMER'S TALES to be the best, is certainly worth reading. It is acters undergoes an important change that they are referring to. In one of the better novels of the at the end, it seems like a rabbit brief, it is one the year, although admittedly that isn't of parameters out of a hat. The best parts are of fantasy. Now, fantasy, in my ex- saying much. Maybe I am getting perience, does not appeal to every- bored, cynical and jaded, but I one, and it imay not even be able to doubt it, and am convinced we real- reach as many people as science fic- ly are living in an era of blandly fact that the. tion, but when it moves reader, competent science fiction. The arch- X>espite a it does like nothing typal magazine of the late 70s hook is prtnted on v.on-aAi4. so else. Give the beginner A DREAMER'S TALES, Tol- might be called JUST OKAY SF. Terry •paiper^ aire the chanracters kein, the Earthsea books and Carr might edit THE YEAR'S AVERAGE. maybe wvucK tardhoatil. Peake, and if he doesn't like any Still, JUNIPER TIME has strengths still so of them, give up. which would be outstanding even in the best of times. All these stories are beautiful- Wilhelm doesn't write pretty; ly written and some are just outrag- she writes well. Her prose is viv- eously good. They achieve what few idly descriptive when there is some- other writers can, even though many thing interesting to describe. It may have tried. In a few pages Dun- is lean where it should be lean. sany could build the impression of The dialogue sounds like people a magnificent city, then wipe it talking. She knows how to depict away with a comment that a stone human beings so that their humanity from that city found by the author, comes across to the reader. In this may be one of four yet discovered

novel there are easily five or six ("In Zaccarath") . He could have well-developed characters and a host commonplace articles in a dump tell of plausible spear carriers. those from the viewpoint of the ling- their stories and imake those stories uist, Jean Brighton. Her experience epics ("Blagdaross") . On a bet, he What goes wrong? Certainly the in the Newtown (a refugee center) wrote a brilliant story about the subject is worth writing about. We are nightmarish. Her perception of mud at the side of the Thames or, have a world plagued by vast climate American Indian culture as an admir- more specifically, about a restless changes, droughts which render most able, but alien way of life is sens- corpse which lies there, watching of the western United States all but itively portrayed. At least one eternity pass by, until at last no- uninhabitable. In the face of this other viewpoint (Cluny, one of the thing wrought by mankind drifts on an international space station is space-obsessed ones) is needed in the river ("Where the Tides Ebb and abandoned before it is conpleted. the interests of the plot, but be- Flow") But several of the characters are side these two the rest suffer by obsessed with it and revive inter- comparison. Then there is "The Hashish Man” est. They are the dreamers, the do- At least the book does have its which drew a fan letter from Aleist- ers, the pioneers. They are also Crowley, but had little to do with high points. It is a worthy effort, er the sort of people who will stop at though not a flawless one. real drug experiences and was all nothing to get what they want, and the more fantastic for it. Some of in the end everybody has been com- the stories would, with more pedes- promised and the ideal is sadly trian handling, seem like sketches tarnished. This is an important and fragments, but then so do those and timely theme; Long-term goals of Borges . One has to be a Dunsany in space contrasted with the immed- A DREAMER'S TALES (Important Reprint) or a Borges to pull some of these iate needs of the people down on By Lord Dunsany things off. Only the right phrase earth. It is handled with intel- Owlswick Press, 1979, 160 pp., $12.75 will do. Only a Dunsany would de- ligence. There are no easy answers, Illustrated by Tim Kirk scribe a desert as: "all yellow it no heroes riding out of the sunset, is, and spotted with shadows of no marvelous inventions which save This may very well be the best stones, and Death is in it, like a the day. Certainly everything that fantasy short story collection avail- leopard lying in the sun". Need goes on is convincing. able in English. I can only think anyone say more? One problem is that the book is 32 . .

THE ESPER TRANSFER by George W. AND THEN I READ.... Proctor Major Books, $1.50 The familiar elements are here: the galaxy- spanning empire dominat- THE COSMIC TRIGGER by Robert Anton ed by powerful aristocratic families Wilson ...a newly colonized planet with in- And/Or Press, $4.95 telligent humanoid natives who-have- This man is incredible. He is powers, a human freeman struggling vastly learned in the occult, in to make a living forh imself and his

paranormality , in psi science, on wife on the inhospitable desert aft- everything on the fringe of what er years of indentured servitude to we're so sure of... and he is in tune a ruling Family .... with the underground sea that is the Mix with a renegade native who individual and collective uncon- is wanted for murder, and give the

scious . freeman the task of tracking down In THE COSMIC TRIGGER he weaves the renegade .... By The Editor this knowledge and personal exper- What is surprising is the skill iences into a mosaic of speculation Proctor brings to this warhorse of a and assumption into a kind of unified formula plot, and his ability to in- field theory of the unspeakable. volve the reader. I cared about Through it all runs the feeling/be- Kraal and his rage at the injustices lief that there is a Plan, a Secret of the humans, and I cared about MILLENNIAL WOMEN Group, a Destiny for humanity, for Greybar and his need to save liis Virginia Edited by Kidd Earth. There are hundreds of major freehold from the vindictive Family. Delacorte Press, $8.95 and minor clues pointing to this, And I was vitally interested in the You can forget the first four and Robert Anton Wilson has discov- psi abilities of the natives who, it stories in this anthology; they are ered many of them and is pointing turns out .... so-so shorts that fill out the book. the way. The final secrets are yours if The real quality comes with the nov- He reaches back into prehistory you read the novel. It's a better- elette, "Phoenix in the Ashes" by — Babylonia, Egypt, Sumeria, you- than- expected novel, and George Proc Joan D. Vinge, and the short novel, name-it, incorporates the John Ken- tor is a better writer than perhaps THE THE HERON by Ursula K. EYE OF nedy assassination, the murder of he realizes. Le Guin. Christ, UFOs, the Sufis, witchcraft, Joan Vinge writes powerfully of the mysterious Illuminati, the Sir- the love that developes between a ius mystery, sex magic, tunnel-reali- social outcast in a medieval Calif- ties and imprints . . . Every odd ornia after- the-Collapse, and a phenomena seems to fit into this THE LOST ONES by Raymond F. Jones, crashed Brazilian who had been map- jigsaw puzzle that seems to make adapted from his novel THE RENEGADES ping exploring. The basic story and breathtaking, mindblowing sense. OF TIME. is as time, as these two as old Wilson makes you gulp and think AudiSee audio-visual production, Amanda from a deeply religious, sup- seventeen times about this safe, $3.99 erstitious culture, and Hoffman from solid world we live in: is it all a This package is a 30-minute a sophisticated, technological soci- audio facade, a thin veneer? Are there cassette plus a booklet il- ety first seek adjust, to — at to entirely ugly/lovely/alien/good/evil lustrating the spoken/acted drama help each other, and then knowing Things Going On? (with music) love, manage to make a place for It's like listening to a radio themselves in this "backunrd" society drama (sound effects, music, very of farmers and merchants and God. fast pace, extremely short scenes... Vinge reached deep into my guts THE WICKED CYBORG by Ron Goulart while you assist your visualization with this story; I salute her. DAW, $1.50 by referring to the 36-pages of Ursula K. Le Guin is becoming In this one Ron uses the young- full-color drawings which also tell a bit of a specialist in telling the man-cheated-of-his-inheritance plot the sotry story of an oppressed people seeking skeleton upon which to festoon his The tape drama is professionally freedom. THE EYE OF THE HERON shows usual fun and games —with this time one, with good voices speaking clear how an overclass exploits and ration- an extra- large number of satirical ly, with effective sound background. alizes its use of an underclass, and slices at society, politicians, en- But the action is so fast, and the it shows how non-violence and per- tertainers .... dialogue' so brief and devoted to sistence and love and a dream can Ron Goulart is an expert punctur- necessary information, that no real triunph over greed, brute force and er of inflated egos and fatheads, characterization survives and no unperceived lies. and as time goes by I think his out- motivation for many plot twists is But this novel isn't a polemic. rageous plots and all-too-human ro- given. Why Will and Joel are will- Ursula works through a discontented bots, machines and people (and all ing to risk life and limb to find young woman who feels wasted in the his combinations of these) are mere and rescue Tamarina is never explain house of her father on tliis colony vehicles for his scalpel. ed. It is enough, I suppose, that planet, through a wise older woman The man writes of people, cult- she is young, pretty, and a woman. from the underclass, and through men ures, governments, movements — as And it is also hard to believe that and women of both classes. There they really are: sex-mad, money-mad, Joel could fall in love with her are tragedies and victories .. .you prestige-mad, gullible, cunning, after a few of these thirty-second can see both sides, all arguments... criminal. . .and that's why he's so exchanges of shouts and commands. and in the end the underclass which popular. He doesn't dwell on these The story illustrations are very had been expelled from Earth for flaws, he simply records them, ac- well done by James C. Christensen. political reasons finally resumes cepts them, holds them up to the An unfortunate aspect of the its March to 'freedom. There's lots light in funny ways, and goes on. package these cassettes 8 booklets of room; it's a vast, empty planet. come in is that its destruction is A powerful, idealistic novel. 33 virtually required to free the . . — . , contents. After that — there is noth- ume of the Amber saga. At last! Now ture as a civilized, high-technolo- ing left to keep them in or keep you can find out what really happen- gy creature; he sees famines, raw-

them together. ed to King Oberon and why. . . Md material depletion, wars... There are six of these AudiSee will the forces of evil and confusion "Small World" by Bob Shaw, and packages available: THE TIME MACH- riuiiph over the Pattern that is the "The Skytank Portfolio" by Chris INE, THE STAR PRINCE, THE WAR OF THE bedrock of order, coherence and Boyce deal with life in space habi- WORLDS, THE REBELS OF EMPERIA, and cause-and-effect relationships in the tats, their likelihood of coming THE VOYAGE TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH. universe? Will Brand, the evil son to pass, and their future. These were all timed for [1978] of Oberon be foiled in his alliance Michael Coney's story, "In Christmas sale, and I think over- with the Courts of Chaos? Will Am- Search of Professor Greatrex," is priced. You may want one — or the ber, the true and only center of the most intriguing to me: the set — for collecting, since I doubt reality, be dissolved? idea that mankind's reasoning abil- this project will survive. If you Who cares? I do. I like Roger ity is dependent on a long child- don't find them in department stores, Zelazny's unique style of writing. hood, and that if childhood is write Bonneville Productions, 130 He seems to write with great casual- shortened or is gradually shorten- Social Hall Avenue, Salt Lake City, ness, almost sloppiness at times, ing, mankind's ability to solve

UT 84111. but there is that fantastic, subtle problems will diminish. . .and we

easy- read dynamics , the involvement will devolve back to the cave — or the ability to make fantasy real be- worse. ON THE BRINK by Benjamin Stein with cause his characters — especially Stan Gooch, in "Once Ibre, Herbert Stein Prince Corwin, the central figure With Feeling," discusses intelli- Ballantine, $1.95 of the saga— are downright human: gence, intelligence tests, and the This disaster novelis of the new warts, flaws, selfishnesses .. .and TNT possibility that intelligence sub-genre dealing with financial ca- noble aspects, too. Zelazny's peo- differs between men and women. tastrophe for either the world or ple are not just cardboard cutouts — Josephine Saxton's "Woe, Blight, the U.S.A. they fold this way and that for a and in Heaven, Laughs: a Grim House- This time, in the very near fu- three-dimensional effect. hold Tale" is a convoluted, fascina- ture [1981] a fanatic Chairman of In this final volume Corwin ting "story" about the travail of the Federal Reserve combined with spends an awful lot of time in the writing, living, and what we've a cowardly President manage to flood Shadows , fleeing a Chaos storm, be- been taught to expect of life. the country with gargantuan amounts ing attacked, attacking in turn. The In "The World as Text: the Post- of debt money and trigger an infla- Shadows are alternate, progressive- literate World as Ffeta-narrative" tion of horrendous proportions ly strange variations (Shadows) of Angela Carter juggles words at mer- weekly raises to compensate for the the one real land— Amber. Earth cifully short length; she had noth- price rises — 100% over three months as we know it is one such Shadow. ing to say. and worse come .... But our Earth is not a factor in The final item is a discovered The good people are the econo- this final Amber novel. mists in the White House who try try The third and fourth volumes of to dissuade the President from this this saga were disasters as novels, course, futiley, because he is afraid being so obviously mere continuations of becoming the "new Hoover" by plung- of the saga and very dependant on ing the country into depression if previous volumes . THis last volume he tries to stop the inflation engine. has problems, but it's good enough RICHARD This was copyrighted in 1977, to merit a recommendation from me. E. perhaps written in 1976. . .perhaps Read it, but it would help tremen- before Carter was elected. Herbert dously to have read the first four Stein was, if I remember correctly, volumes GEIS a high economics advisor to Nixon. His contempt for Presidents shows in A PERSONAL JOURNAL this book. He is the source for the fascinating arguments between # A jaundiced aorrmentary on the Good Economists and the Bad PULSAR 1 Edited by George Hay current events. ' Chairman and President in this novel. Penguin Books, 6Sp. (U.K.) # A Libertarian viewpoint. In the end the inflation becomes This is a singularly good- idea # 'Personal counter-culture so bad that people go crazy and oth- anthology; it pairs s-f stories with non-fiction living notes. ers riot — as the glue of a society articles and com- on the themes # dissolves: stable, "hard" money is mentary of the sto- Beginning in issue #10:

ries . SPLITTING, the bedrock of a stable society, and a present-day when a government debauches the A.E. van Vogt's "Death Talk" erotic novel with an acidic currency, that progressively under- is followed by David Langford's view of humanity. "The mines all other morality in the na- Still Small Voice Inside" tion. dealing with the probabilities and $3. for five issues. "wiring" There are sub-plots and some sex possibilities of the body- $6. for ten issues. and some interesting characteriza- brain with a computer to monitor REG #1-2-3 are sold out. REG tion here, but it is essentially a our selves. is the current issue. lesson in basic economics and basic Ian Watson's "Immune Dreams" — RICHARD E. GEIS is published ap- morality. brings "Infectious Science" by proximately 4-6 weekly. Mailed The miraculous ending is pure John Taylor, an examination of the 3rd class, sealed. fantasy relationships between cancer, the brain, dreaming, reality, and Send subscriptions to: catastrophe theory. In the middle of the book is Richard E. Geis "The Time Travellers," an inter- P.O. Box 11408 THE COURTS OF CHAOS by Roger Zelazny view with Isaac Asimov: Portland, OR 97211 Doubleday, $7.95 Isaac is Avon 47175, $1.75 not optimistic about mankind's fu- REG #1 nearly ready for mailing This is the fifth and final vol- 34 . , . . . s — . text of an H.G. Wells talk on radio he returns for good to Malafrena. LAGRANGE FIVE by Mack Reynolds in 1938, titled "Fiction of the But Itale is the center only; Bantam 12856-X, $1.95 Future" in which he discusses the around him and his concerns orbit The main interest in this dis- problems of writing science fiction. the women in his life, and they are play of life- in-huge- L- 5- space- He warns of the cultural/social/tech- the real focus — their struggles, islands is the philosophy of elit- nological blinders writers wear when their development, their eventual ism and exclusiveness stressed to trying to foresee the future. triutiphs insure only the best minds and bod- Altogether, a very good book is In a real sense, this is writ- ies for space colonists this ; worth reading for the stories ten in the 19th century style The plot involves the atteirpts and especially for the following ex- great detail, much interior think- by a private detective to find a plorations of the science and "sci- ing about life and politics and missing VIP in the extant space ence" in the stories. personal relationships. . .yet an islands in Earth orbit. Reynolds I hope Penguin issues it in this almost conplete absence of sex does his usual good job of pacing country. and physical concerns. That aspect and structuring, but he is a hack of life is always inplied, under- and his dialogue and narrative is stated, ignored. It is, in this reflexive and often careless and novel, not a fit subject for polite dumb. MALAFRENA by Ursula K. Le Guin discourse

Putnam, $11.95 This is an intellectual ' This new novel by Ursula Le novel, dealing with the lives of Guin is not science fiction or fan- aristocrats and (at the lowest) the (a new Conan ad- tasy in the true sense of the words upper middle class . It is a very THE RUAU OF KINGS It is a true-to-life story about readable novel, and it contains venture) by Karl Edward Wagner a fictional mid-European country, wisdom, but it does seem like a Bantam 12026-3, $1.95 Orsinia, in the early 1800s. building without a basement, and The formula is familiar: Conan It concerns itself with Le Guin's for all its thinking seems curious- gets into trouble with the local city/kingdom authorities (desperate favorite themes gaining political . : ly empty. .and pointless. freedoms, gaining personal freedoms trouble, this time- -he's got the for women, the emergence of strong, noose around his neck!) escapes or competent women in a male -dominated is rescued and finds himself embroil- society, character development to ed in a rebellion. He is the key wisdom and maturity (though some men fighter/actor in the upheaval, in break and fail the tests) spite of himself, and in the end his way- further adventure on the surface it is the story by Edward goes -to THE DOUGLAS CONVOLUTION in the next novel. of idealistic Itale Sorde, heir to Llewellyn The only question the would be Malafrena, a large estate in the DAW UE1495, $1.75 reader asks is : how well is this country, who feels wasted and who The story of an ex-marine, a story told? goes to the capitol, Krasnoy, to mathematician, who discoveres a • Very well ! Karl Edward Wagner write and agitate against the pup- "convolution" of forces which makes ranks with Andrew Offutt as an ex- pet government controled by neigh- occasional time- travel possible. cellent choice to continue the high- boring Austria. He investigates --and is caught tension, bloody, dramatic, and real- Eventually, after arrest, im- in the time warp. istic life of the mighty Conan. prisonment for years , a revolution The novel details his survival he participates and after It may be heresy, but I think in which , in the future of 2170 : he assumes Offutt and Wagner do better Conans involvement with a lovely baroness the identity of a Guard Captain and than Robert E. Howard. But we'll helps fight the onslaught of mind- never know how well Howard could warped savages as the East coast of have done in today's world of writ- America struggles to maintain a sem- ing freedom. blance of civilization. There are leftover machines and technology from our near- future be- by D.G.' Compton fore a Final War, and the world of WINDOWS Berkley/Putnam, $10.95 2170 is ruled by a matriarchy/reli- This is a sequel to THE UN- gion and local "autarchs". SLEEPING EYE. Coupton continues There are/have been other time the story of the man whose eyes had travellers, it seems... One of been replaced with miniature TV whom is an extremely evil man who cameras and transmitters, and who, wants to overthrow the existing sta- in terrible guilt and rage at what tus quo. he was doing to people report- Interesting plot technique; as a er, blinded himself. telling 991 of the story by way of WINDOWS is a drag as Rod spends a woman pilot assigned to the "Cap- huge chunks of the book feeling tain". She gradually loses her in- sorry for himself, goes through tense mental -set conditioning and character/personality changes due falls in love with Douglas. to his blindness, and finally runs There should be at least two away to the home of an old friend sequels to this novel; the potent- in Italy. There, with his wife, he ial of this future world and the is gradually involved in espionage, time convolutions virtually demand murder and smuggling. In the end it. he and his family escape the isolat- Pretty good for a first novel. ed estate and Rod has reconsidered In fact, Llewellyn's writing skills his decision to stay blind. (Ad- are inpressive. vanced surgery can do wonders.)

35 ******************i!i,f;f,f,f,j!i,j;icj,^^j,^fC*iS . . . ] . .. . — STAR TREK - THE MOTION PICTURE (PG) AND is a big, super-deluxe STAR TREK TV episode padded by an endless ex- THEN I SAW.... terior dry- dock examination of the refitted Enterprise in the beginning of the film (as Capt. --now Admiral-- Sean Connery plays a pissed-off BY THE EDITOR Kirk returns to take command) and scientist who left govt, eirployment , in an even longer entry into the because his pet nuke-armed satelite, symbolic vagina of an alien, space- intended to point outward to guard faring creation whose size and true the planet against alien threat, shape are never made too clear LORD OF THE RINGS (pg) was instead aimed at Russia by his except it is (naturally) huge! is an abortion superiors The basic story: three Klingon committed by Ralph Bakshi on the body So a comet hits an asteroid and spaceships are destroyed by a myster- o£ Tolkien's work. All the excesses sends the asteroid on a collision ious alien presence in a vast space and misjudgements evident in Bakshi 's course with Earth. [Dramatic License cloud. The cloud/entity/ force is WIZARDS is in this movie. is abused to show the asteroid belt headed straight for Earth. Admiral Clearly, as the movie progressed, so crowded it looked like the Santa Kirk assumes command of the Enter- it was obvious that Bakshi 's love for kbnica freeway . prise and gathers the old key crew- using human actors with hideous masks Arkoff likes to use aging (cheap) members to help in this save-the- and grotesque color effects in endless actors who have Names. Karl Malden, Earth voyage. violence scenes overcame his critical Natalie Wood, Brian Keith, Henry There are a few engine problems judgement and his obligation to the Fonda.... They all walk through and one memorable breakdown in the material. The story was lost in bat- their parts for lack of a decent Transporter two crew members, be- tle after battle, and Frodo's quest script. — ing "beamed up" are scrambled and and mission receded to occasional About eight days before the the machine in unable to reconstruct short, time-wasting bits. five-mile wide asteroid is due to their true human matrix. They seem The animation sequences, and ev- hit Earth (with its family of "splin- to warp and become misshapen in the en some of the human/animation scenes ters" leading the way) the govt, vari-colored Transporter chamber were very nicely done. Character, suddenly gets busy and hauls Connery fields ... then are lost. personality and motive emerged and off his boat during a race. After Good- old- Spock (looking magni- were consistent. There was beautiful some unconvincing preliminaries with ficently fierce and not-human at artwork a stubborn, short-sighted Armerican first) joins the Enterprise in space But Bakshi hutched the movie as General (Martin Landau, who did as and takes over the movie. it progressed- -whether due to a need good a job with the role as possi- The sense-of-wonder and awe to reduce costs or simply because he ble) and the suspicious Russian inspired by the Klingons, by the indulged his obsessions- -is beside govt., Connery and Brian Keith (an renewed Enterprise, and above all the point. The result is a boring, unconvincing Russian scientist) by the alien "ship" is warp -factored distasteful botch. And the movie manage to cooperate and aim both into the ground in the last few ends inconplete, in mid-point of the the American nuke-armed satellite minutes as the puzzle of the alien story. Will there ever be a corrplet- as well as the supposedly secret creation is explained and Earth's ion? I hope not, if Bakshi is in Russian equivalent satellite charge danger is removed. What a letdown! The days dwindle down . . . and The last five minutes of the the "slivers" start hitting Earth movie deteriorate into ludicrous like hydrogen bombs . Some good WATERSHIP DOWN (pg) sophoncric wish-philosophy and footage (though too obviously fake) seemed a bit awk- clowning by Kirk and others — the showing a huge town- destroying av- ward and childish at first, but the old comedy relief that Roddenberry alanche, a tremendous tidal wave, story triumphed (though simplistical- must have felt was necessary to re- a direct hit on New York. . . ly) over the less-than-perfect anima- lease tension. What tension? tion and script. Then endless shots of the Ah, but I am perhaps too picky- satellites firing their rockets IVkrtin Rosen wrote, directed and picky. The special effects were produced this version of the best- at the 'asteroid, of the rockets well done; I believed in this future selling Richard Adams book. rocketing through space, of the high technology. And I was fascinat asteroid coming closer. . .closer I enjoyed the film, made allowed by the Klingons and their space- and ever closer. . . ances for the sometimes garbled crafts; a pity they had only get- In the meantime a New York hit dialogue and confusion, and sniffled killed parts in the first minute or has destroyed the New York control at the end. (I cried as a child two. headquarters .... when, in BAMBI, Banbi's mother was The beautiful, bald woman navi- I won't give it all away. killed.) gator and the deposed Enterprise I will say this movie is almost It has a couple admirable heroes, Captain were expendables a total waste of time. Wait. some vicious villains, and a happy Unless you're a Trekkie, this ending. It'll be on TV in a year or two. So what if it’s essentially movie will take your $5. and leave a translation— humans in rabbit you feeling a bit of a sucker. form. It extolls freedom and says boo/hiss to tyranny. [It also en- courages revolt and disrespect for established authority, but wotthe- hell!]

METEOR (pg) convinced me that any Samuel Z. Arkoff movie is going to be second rate. This one is full of scientific howlers and plot cliches. 36 . ) , OTHER VOICES, OTHER VOICES, OTHER VOICES, OTHER

THIS IS A CANE/ FOP- BPiToVS ^ f\HP I ^ THE THIRD WORLD WAR -- AUGUST 1985 chanter Andre DeCourteney, Gil must By General Sir Jolm Hackett and head South to return an infant of other Top-Ranking NATO Generals |NCLU>iN

are hardly any people at all. It enchantments , spells and magical

is a "report" drafted in 1987 by a events . The forces of good and ev- group of British Generals on the re- il are controlled by wizards and cently concluded war- between the by other supernatural figures which Warsaw Pact and NATO. The "report" promise exciting confrontations. is thorough, containing numerous In fact, the good enchanter Andre battlefield maps, charts and tables. THE STARFOLLOIVERS OF CORONDNDE battles Yardiff Bey with spells- so There are some good, realistic "bat- By Brian Daley powerfully binding that he could de- tle front accounts". (The book op- Ballantine Books, $1.95 stroy the world he struggles to sava ens with U.S. Sheridan tanks slug- Reviewed by C. Mitchell And Daley weaves these fantasy mot- ging it out with some Russian T-72s. ifs into an intricate plot that is It also reveals the authors' awesome If you enjoy fantasy with demon- usually successful. knowledge of modem weapons and war- ic birds and mystical swords, then ************************************ fare. Brian Daley's THE STARFOLLOWERS OF Unfortunately the "report" is al- CORONDNDE is for you. A sequel to so dry and didactic, the battlefront THE DOOMFARERS OF COROMONDE, Daley's accounts are too few, and the brief new fantasy continues the adventures of the American Gil MacDonald in encounter between a U.S. Shuttle THE HAUNTED MAN: THE STRANGE the alternate world of Coromonde. and a Soviet Soyuz is unimaginative. GENIUS OF DAVID LINDSAY The final chapter in which a single Although the plot at times is By Colin Wilson nuclear exchange ends the conflict quite confusing (too much of the nov- Paperback, 63 pp., $2.95 is unconvincing and too pat. Gener- el depends on its predecessor) the , The Milford Popular Writers of To- al Hackett 's main reason for writ- story combines political turmoil day Series, Vol. 20. ing the book is contained in the with quest motifs and wizardry. "report's" numerous conclusions. Resurrected from DOOMFARERS, Yardiff COLIN WILSON: THE OUTSIDERAND BE- These conclusions are actually thin- Bey, master wizard and archvillain, YOND ly veiled pleas (some quite persua- has captured Gil's friend Dunstan. By Clifford P. Bendau sive) for the U.S. and Britain to Additionally, Bey is obsessed with Paperback, 63 pp., $2.95 increase defense spending, strength- finding the ancient Arrivals Maca- Milford Popular Writers Series en NATO, and reinstate the draft. bre whose contents would unlock for Vol. 20 Conclusion: If you are looking him all the black magic of the un- The Borgo Press, Box 2845, San for a good novel, SF or otherwise, iverse and provide him with the pow- Bernardino, CA 92406. er to conquer the world. stay away away from this one. If, Reviewed by Neal Wilgus however, you're militaristically in- Daley's heroes are beset by clined and interested in/worried many conflicts. On the one flank Colin Wilson is a writer with an about U.S. military strength . .OR. . is Bey's consummate villainy; on obsession and he's written compul- you are looking for good source mat- the other. Prince Springbuck's suz- sively about it for more than 20 erial to lend accuracy to some of erainity is troubled by rebellious years now, producing 33 books on an your own stories that may have a states within Coromonde. Thus Gil's amazing variety of subjects, yet military theme, TTWW may well be mission is two- fold. With the en- managing always to relate his latest worth the price. variation back to the basic underly- ************************************ 37 ing theme. That theme is the prob- . .

lem o£ the Outsider and appropriate- repetitive and only marginally re- sorcery thrown in for seasoning. ly the title of his first book was warding. The remainder is a book-by- The adventures of a renegade misfit and a gift prophecy THE OUTSIDER (1956) , the first of a book discussion of Wilson's work for are told six-volume Outsider cycle in which and although you may not always ag- lyrically and well, and at times he worked out a basically optimistic ree with his comments they are us- with a su3p)rising amount of deli- philosophy of evolution which he ually to the point. The only thing cate sensuality. calls the New Existentialism. The missing is reference to Wilson's In the second half some of the Outsider may be poet, artist, mag- short novel, THE RETURN OF THE LLOI- more mysterious things that have ician, scientist or visionary mys- TALES OF THE GOR in August Derleth's been happening are gradually ex- tic, but in every case his main prob- CTHULHU MYTHOS which, though enter- plained, but on a scale of reference lem is past sleepwalking to get the taining, is of marginal importance suddenly blown up ten times the state of daily "reality" and down in any case. size. Before the book is done our to the underlying meaning of life and In the long run Colin Wilson hero and his friends have been whisk- the rational management of evolution. will probably turn out to be a lit- ed back and forth across the galaxy Wilson remains somewhat of an erary figure of first importance, more times than you can shake a outsider himself in the science fic- comparable to Shaw, Huxley and Or- trans galactic portal at. tion community, turned but he has well as 20th century writers, and This is a novel of epic propor- to SF to time, in and fantasy from time perhaps more important, he writes tions, and there's a lot going on. both as critic and as novelist. a crisp, entertaining prose that is If you're a reader and you stick THE HAUNTED publica- MAN, his latest often difficult to put down. Borgo around long enough, you're going to tion, is typical of his critical be challenged and rewarded and de- essays and is of interest both as lighted for taking the trouble. another variation on the Outsider 3 3)C)N'r MiN]) THE Author, Overall, I still can't call it theme and as a critical evaluation TAK/M'S- MMe IK) /A(rO altogether successful as a novel. of one of the strangest fantasy writ- OR T/MPlNar HI A Muse^ It's worth the time put into it, ers yet. SUT HE Tai'P SFlAjf\DUES WITH but perhaps its greatest failure is David A CHECK ! Lindsay (1876-1945) is that of simply not measuring up to best known for his SF "classic" A its own ambitions VOYAGE TO ARCTURUS (1920) , but ac- ********************************** 5%* cording to Wilson, his other novels (THE HAUNTED WOIAN, SPHINX, DEVIL'S TOR) also contain important fantasy elements which make his neglected works worthy of wider attention. Lindsay was certainly the arche- THE WEIRD GATHERING § OTHER TALES typical Outsider, a sort of cross Edited by Ronald Curran between D.H. Lawrence and William Fawcett Crest, 574 pp. , $2.50 Blake, seeing visions of the "reality" beyond everyday life yet some- Reviewed by David A. Truesdale how always unable to communicate what he had seen. Colin Wilson This exhaustive tome is certain- seems to take delight in seizing on ly not for the average science fic- total worldy failures such as Lind- tion or fantasy buyer. It is best say or Lovecraft and turning their suited to the college classroom, number of negative philosophies around to ideally in any one of a Women Studies courses either integ- serve his own optimistic New Exist- , The subtitle entialism. It's ironic sometimes rally or peripherally. to hear Wilson's "Lovecraftian" nov- says it all: "SUPERNATURAL" WOMEN IN 1800-1850. els (THE MIND PARASITES, THE PHILO- AMERICAN POPULAR FICTION, SOPHER'S STONE, THE SPACE VAMPIRES) The material is arranged under head- criticized as rehashes of HPL's ings such as: Witches, Covens § Sab- bats The Solitary Sorcerous Water gloomy work, when in fact they are , , - glorious transformations of eldritch Spirits § the Demonic Power of Wo - men , Diabolical Fairies § the Roman doom into existential glory. Sig- Press has done Wilson enthusiasts tic Spirit American Indians "Nat - nificantly, in discussing what he , § a real favor in bringing out these ural" Passion Shrews, Vixens Vir - calls "the existentialist tempera- , § two titles . Outsiders of every agos: The Villainous Women with ment", Wilson comments in THE HAUNT- stripe should find , them of more than many of the archaic and hard to read ED MAN that "it is extremely common passing interest. pieces listed as anonymous. among writers of science fiction. . ************ 5^:************ *********** so common that I am tempted to des- The source material is culled cribe it as the driving force be- from magazines of the period and hind science fiction". is listed in a lengthy, but representative bibliography running from Borgo Press has followed its MINDSONG analysis of Lindsay by Wilson with The Period of Beginnings : 1741- an analysis of Wilson by Clifford By Joan Cox 1794 to The Period of Nationalism : - Bendau and for anyone with an inter- Avon 43638; c. 1979; 1st printing, 1794-1825 to The Period of Expan : 1825-1850. Gift- Books and est in Wilson it's a valuable refer- April 1979; $2.25, 282 pp. sion Annuals, Articles and Excerpts on ence to have around. Alas, Bendau Reviewed , by Steve Lewis by, and about Women as well as is not much of an Outsider and THE , OUTSIDER AND BEYOND is pretty tame, Witchcraft are covered mainly from A curiously split novel. The academic stuff. The first half of esoteric periodicals, women's maga- first half is slow and leisurely the unimaginative re- zines, portfolios, journals, and booklet is an paced, with a hint of swords-and- hash of the Outsider/New Existen- more respected national and English tialism theme which is unnecessarily 38 monthly magazines and gazettes of the period. Pretty dry stuff to not it's a Baum fantasy that first al and needs to be more widely ap- wade through, but a good research turns young readers onto the intox- preciated for his short fiction, source for the scholar or historian ication of freewheeling imagination. which has always been overshadowed wishing to learn how women were He was a Wiz. by the Oz books. Fictioneers has thought of, treated, and written done a fine job in bringing togeth- Unless you're a real Baum fan- about during this limited period of er his best tales in a first class atic and member of the Internation- our literary history ... at least package, complete with illustrations al Wizard of Oz Club, however, you from the standpoint of "The Enchant- by Tim Kirk. So if you want to do are probably not familiar with the ed World of Dark Legends". yourself a favor --go get Baumed. Master's short fairy tales, and it is this gaping gap that THE PURPLE A*********************************** DRAGON goes about filling. It fills that gap very well indeed, for there are selections here from Baum's SONG OF THE PEARL four fairy tale books and editor By Ruth Nichols LEGION David L. Greene has skimmed off the By Charles L. Grant Bantam for June, 1979, 120 pp. , $1.75 cream of each, probably saving us Original pub. date 1976. Berkley, 1979, 213 pp., $1.75 considerable boredom which might Cover by Elizabeth Malczynski Reviewed by Dean R. Lambe have accoiipanied a Complete Fairy Reviewed by David A. Truesdale Tales of L. Frank Baum. Boredom, let me hastily qualify, stemming The casual reader is treated Sparked by an allegedly true more than a bit unfairly by this occurrance on the evening of April third novel in the "Parric family saga", for that reader enters LEGION 4, 1935, Ruth Nichols relates the -- fictional account of Margaret Red- in the middle of the story and mond, who died at an early age to stays there. find herself in an otherworldly, Matthew Parric, grandson of the romanticized dreamheaven where she man who did his best to preserve comes to grips with herself, and civilization after the Eurecom War the conflict between heaven and the and PlagueWinds devastated the Earth, mortal world. Margaret confronts continues the efforts of his fore- private sexual guilt, comes to free bears. At the insistence of Conti- herself of its harmful effects, is Gov Chairman Robbins, Matt sets out introduced to an enigmatic lover from Town Central to capture the and is subsequently involved in his renegade Solomon Quilly. Qullly's family's internal intrigues, all forces represent the only challenge part of the process of cleansing to ContiGov's attempts to reunite herself in order to ready herself scattered towns and re-establish once more for life. the former cityplexes. In the company -- The slim volume closes with the of android Will Dix essentially a Parric family retainer -- and words, "Ife will return to Earth, where lovers lie together and child- four humans. Matt hunts through wild ren are bom, and some men, having country around the Delaware Riv- forgotten their true nature, walk in er. The party is attacked and sep- fear of death. The time has come to arated, the ensuing battle reveals resume our pilgrimage". the real murderers of Matt's wife and children, and the secret of the A soft, sensitive, young-adult Quilly plan is finally discovered. tale of self-awareness set in a life- after-death framework, it aptly re- Since this book does not stand flects the author's own interests. from the fact that these are fairy well alone, only the motivation of Nichols is completing her Ph.D in tales, after all, and for most adult the central character makes much Religious Studies at McMaster Univ- readers a fairly small amount tends sense. There is action enough, and ersity in Canada. to go a long way. fairly routine plot twists, but overall, the writing seems tired. ************************************ Briefly then, THE PURPLE DRAGON Once upon a time, the distinction contains representative tales from between android and robot was clear, A NEW WONDERLAND MOTHER (1900J , Hollywood has hopelessly muddied the GOOSE IN PROSE (1897) AMERICAN FAI- , waters and Grant is not helping with RY TALES and ANIMAL FAIRY THE PURPLE DRAGON AND OTHER FANTASIES (1901) this series. TALES, which were published around By L. Frank Baum 1905 in various periodicals and col- ******:%*** ********** *AAA}%A****A*A*** Fictioneer Books, Ltd., Lakemont, lected into an Oz Club edition in CA 30552 1969. Baum gets better as you go Hardcover, 201 $8.50 pp., along, for the NEW WONDERLAND tales Reviewed by Neal Wilgus of Phunnyland are rather too sinple and sickening- sweet and the Ibther GATEWAY TO LIMBO In a roundabout way, L. Frank Goose material, while imaginative, By Chris Larpton Baum is probably responsible for doesn't really rise to the level Doubleday, $7.95 more SF fans than anyone short of of the originals. But the AMERICAN Jacket by Robert Silverman H.G. Wells. Although he wrote lit- and ANIMAL tales more than make up RevJ^ewed by Steven Edward McDonald tle outright SF, most of Baum's work for this, especially gems such as is definitely in the fantasy realm "The Glass Dog", "The Dummy that The book is passable, the sort and since the Oz books and his oth- Lived" and "The Forest Oracle". of semi- filler that used to turn up er surviving 'fictions continue to Baum was a real American origin- beneath the Ace logo, someplace be- be popular juvenile fare unto the low Zelazny's less impressive work. fourth generation, more often than 39 Take one self-possessed cynical . , young bastard with high-level ment- est scope, Arana -- with her two sep- history of the entire solar system. ality, kick him in the ass, and arate human species -- is an inter- This is the sequel. progress from point A to point B, galactic pawn between the forces of One of the things that Hogan not necessarily in a straight line. Earth and her allies, and the human- have us believe is that the In that sense, it's workable; the oid Uelsons. Teal Ray flees the would planet Minerva once existed in its writing is conpetent and fairly con- emotional chaos of his father's place around the sun where the ast- cise, and the story is no worse than house, and the Royalist war with eroid is now. (Yes, I know a few dozen others of its type, and Caucan dictator Tras, and secretly belt that's not a new idea. Of course, certainly okay for a rainy day sit- joins the defense of Earth against there's more to his theories than down. the Uelsons in Armageddon I. Teal that.) Although the rest of the loses his ship, is captured and tor- Problems do abound, however. tured by Uelsons, escapes, and suc- Mnervan civilization mysteriously The character of Allison Carstairs cessfully passes into service with disappeared over 25 million years (clumsy name) is described as a gen- before, even before the destruction the United Earth Fleet. Interper- ius of a cyberneticist, yet he's nev- world, a ship sur- sonal entanglements, love, hate, and of their home of er seen to do anything that defines vivors miraculously finds its his indelible Royalist roots plague way him as such -- he's just there to be ill-fated expedition Teal throughout the final resolution back from an in the shit. The Leech, a computer- across galaxy. This time the of these complexly interwoven con- the ised djinni of sorts, I can take, discoveries that are made flicts. surprising as a gimmick. Various other things as a consequence are about the very I can take. However, the book has The details at the beginning and origin of mankind, which has some a bad habit of reading like the the ambiguity of the ending cry out far-reaching implications for the James Bond of 1990, rather than a for prequels and sequels -- perhaps homeless aliens as well. Hogan is zapgun thriller set a few hundred the reason for Signet's unusually frying no small potatoes, folks. years away -- a security compound good promotion of this first novel. The nature of a sequel being is ringed by machine guns that fire what before start this in a preprogrammed pattern, rather it is, you read- than relying on conputer- guidance, one I think you're better off radar and infrared sensors; the ing the full version of the part of "Sherlocks", mini-robots reminis- the puzzle that ' s already been solv- both cent of the Hunter in THE PRISONER, ed. Maybe you can piece of have everything but hearing, which them together at the same time, but would allow them to catch the hero since there's an easy alternative, rather inconveniently. I don't believe you're going to find it worth the effort. With And so forth. It might make a fewer details still left to fall in- nice low-budget movie, and it makes to place, you'll also miss out on a moderate hour's entertainment, the mind-dazzling depth of ideas but, despite a slightly fascinating that dominated the first book -- but alien race that is culturally con- never fear, the same bold scientific ditioned towards its own extinction, extrapolation that also characteriz- the book is ultimately forgettable. ed that first book is just as con- ***:‘c***A5*:****s%* *************** ****** vincing now as it was before. And in the meantime Hogan has also increased his skills as a writer, enough so that his scientists from Earth are finally recognizable Sure, there are warts and pimples -- SOVEREIGN as people (well, almost!), and so Meluch must choose more distinct that the tremendous enpathy that By R.M. Lfeluch be- character names (conversations builds for the plight of the unhappy Signet (NAL), 1979, 230 pp., $1.75 tween Teal Terrel drove me nuts) and and embarrassed refugees is what it Reviewed by Dean R. Lambe Read this book; pray for more. is that works to make this a true You're going to love that aardvark! rarity, a sequel that rates a notch Any writer who, just as an as- !%*********************************** higher than the original. ide, can put an aardvark aboard an ************************************ interstellar warship, and make you believe it belongs there, is something above the norm. References THE YEAR'S BEST HORROR STORIES: to M. Z. Bradley, Leigh Brackett, THE GENTLE GIANTS OF GANYMEDE and Zenna Henderson would seem apt. SERIES VII By James P. Hogan Edited by Gerald W. Page At least four stories are pres- Ballantine/Del Rey 27375; c. 1978, DAW Books #346 for July, 1979. ented in SOVEREIGN, spanning over 1st edn July 1978; $1.75, 246 pp. 221 $1.95 50 years. On the planet Arana, Teal pp. , Reviewed by Steve Lewis Cover by Michael Whelan Ray Stewert, 33rd generation Bay Royalist, heir to the Royalist Reviewed by David A. Truesdale I Hogan's crown, is tortured in his soul at Back in 1977 called first published novel, INHERIT THE his father's rejection. Kaela, Teal Fourteen stories are again col- STARS, the "SF puzzle of the year", Ray's father, is challenged for sov- lected in this fine annual collec- and I think with some justification. ereignty over the selectively-bred tion. As a matter of curiosity In that book the discovery of a Royalists by the rival Brekk line. eight of them have varying "contenp- space-suited 50,000-year-old corpse In wider scope, the whole Royalist orary" settings (USA or England) on the moon is the opening of a de- people must battle the Northern Can- four take place in sword § sorcery tective story plain and simple, but cans for living space during climac- milieus, one could have taken place one for which the greater part of tic changes that occur throughout anytime, and one takes place with- the solution is a greatly revised the 40.6 year "Star Year" of Arana's in the confines of a frightening binary star system. And, in broad- 40 future -world arcade. s

Dennis Etchison tells the tale Julian finding himself in the mid- GATHER, darkness; o£ a Vegematic (Variveger) sales- dle of it all, held captive and By Fritz Leiber man who removes the safeguards from near death by the sorcerous King Ti- Ballantine Books, $1.50 the slicing blades after selling kos and The Piaster. Well told, but Reviewed by Lynn C. Mitchell forty of them to unsuspecting house- more of a sword § sorcery effort wives at a kitchen appliance demon- than straight horror, though the stration. latter is certainly evident. Brother Jarles, Priest of the First and Outermost Circle, thought Stephen King, Charles Saunders Earasey Canpbell gives us the he was going insane. His world was and Lisa Tuttle offer three varia- shortest and possibly best story in being ravaged by the dying throes tions on the "switcheroo" gimmick, the book. It is a classic, excel- of a decadent scientific theocracy where, generally speaking, a demon lently told shocker you will not and the resurgent powers of super- or beast or android assumes the forget. The title, "Heading Home", stition --a "nyth" fabricated by shape of a human, only to revert to is hilariously appropos , and is all the theocratic Hierarchy itself. their true form upon death. In Tut- I'm afraid I can tell you about this Now what had been merely an illusory

tle ' s case it is more precise , to one. tool for the Hierarchy to control say that an android believing her- -- David Drake takes us on an ex- the masses was suddenly real but self to be human is found to be cursion with a pair of adventurers worse, these rebelling dark forces the machine she is. offered the only moral seeking a fortune in lost gold, solution to end the cruel injustice and Manly Wade Wellman turns in an only to find it has a deadly life hypoc- risy of the Priesthood. average vanpire story dealing with of its own due to the artificial na- a troupe of actors staging a Dracula ture granted it by a long- dead wiz- Fritz Leiber' s GATHER, DARKNESS.' play in a Connecticut toim where ard. is a suspenseful account of the they find that their lead actress struggle between magic and science. is a vampiress who must eventually In this future world scientists main- be destroyed. tained their privileged status by Tanith Lee gives us an inventive devising a new religion "powered by

science" . Using scientific gadget- little morality piece involving an tHCvOPei- 50MgTt*INfe NeW'" ry, the Hierarchy created a "regi- unwary warrior who enters a monas- we'P UKE cot^nore^i- to tery where he is duped, then drugg- mented, monastic paradise" complete UEA'Je THEig. AUTOS. AT Hotter ed by two ersatz nuns. They seek with serfdom and superstition. The ANP TiZAva- V(A AsTT^At fmrecxt^H. to exchange his soul for that of Hierarchy contrived supernatural their dead master, who has lost his 'W\ events and devilish tricks in order during a prolonged astral projection. to control the Commoners with fake The ending is quite fitting. miracles and to provide emotional outlets for the superstitious nat- Janet Fox, a relative newcomer ure of an ignorant populace. with several impressive stories to her credit, writes a touching piece The real subject of GATHER, about an aging wife in the midst of darkness; is man's use of science. a bout of psychological reminiscing In this power struggle between theo- on all the many boys she freely cracy and magic, science is a de- made love to as a young girl. The vice for either freedom or slavery. sadness of the tragedy comes from As science offers man the means to her total self-delusion as she seeks gratify his craving for power and the innocence and beauty she can control, we are never quite sure, never recapture. You can't go home, even at the conclusion of GATHER, darkness; if the rebel leaders are try as you might. Michael Bishop is again in top but envious and power-hungry theo- form with his touching, sensitive, crats in devil's clothing. slyly humorous account of a two- Jack Vance sketches youthful, headed mutant wishing to be treated GATHER, DARfoffiSS; contains all carefree islanders as they one by as a normal human -- and the kin- the elements of good suspense SF. one discover the horror that life is ship developed between the two "bro- The clash between science and magic not an endless series of fishing, ther" heads and the body they joint- in this future world is framed by loving, laughing in a perpetual par- ly term The Monster. A highlight. a tight plot that takes unexpected adise, when they confront "The Se- turns. The major characters have cret" that all must eventually Robert Aickman, a virtual master — depth as they resist simplistic po- perish. of the macabre and an underrated larities: Goniface is a villain yet craftsman, ends the book with the he becomes an instrument for good. Qiarles L. Grant has written psycho-sexual reinterpretation of one of the most powerful, and best Jarles, labeled an "Idealist", be- Oedipus (ala Freud) . An adult virg- pieces (there two trays his allies. And the Dark are or three) in in "momma's boy" falls in with a Man, the rebel seeking justice, en- the book. An overprotective, but pair of kinky female roommates, one joys the power his successes earn loving father must watch helplessly who screws him silly, the other who him. as his wife is wounded and one of tempts him endlessly. He prefers, his three beautiful daughters is however, his safe, secure mother, But more, the moral ambiguities shot and killed by vengeful hooli- who while seducing him croons, "You of these characters underline an gans while on a peaceful picnic. know who loves you best of all". ethical crisis for science -- that The horror is in the randomness, Now, that ' a horror story, right? is, in how man uses knowledge for the unreasoning, blind aspects of social engineering. this sort of crime, and his inabil- Traditional themes, new treat- ity to come to grips with it. ments ... a few gems evincing originality in theme and treatment make Darrell Schweitzer envisions this one again a good buy. an army of disembodies hands strang- GATHER, darkness; is a warning, ling the populace of a terrified and I strongly recommend it.' countryside, and our heroic knight 41 . arena -- against a huge snake- like THE DOPPLEGANGER GAIBIT sannak. He loses but his fight By Lee Killough attracts the love interest of Ellain Del Rey/Ballantine, 1979, 261 pp. Kiran, a singer who chafes under the $1.95 thrall of a ruling family member. Reviewed by Dean R. Lambe Finally, the only hope for money and escape for Earl and friends is Police procedural SF is rare -- an expedition to sannak lairs, the that makes ils. Killough 's fun romp only place where valuable trannek all the more appreciated. For all stones may be found. Predictably, the advancements in computerized giz- Dumarest battles the elements, mos late 21st Century police work snake-things and his fellow man, , , is likely to be much as it is to- and gets the girl at the end. day -- patient, methodical sifting Tubb is just going through rep- of clues and hours of legwork among etitious motions here. Earl Duma- reticent witnesses rest has not moved any closer to That is just what Killough gives Earth or any further from the evil us here in a well-detailed portray- Cyclan since #15. Cover art and al of the Shawnee County (Kansas) blurb are inaccurate; and it's past Crimes Against Persons squad vs. time for Dumarest to retire. Jorge Hazlett. Sgt. Janna Brill, ************************************ blonde and tough, investigates the apparent suicide of Andy Kellener, a colonial contractor who dies of an overdose of the illegal drug "trick" after the colony ship Invic - THE PHILOSOPHER'S STONE tus exploded. At first it seems By Colin Wilson that Kellener fraudulently short- Wingbow Press, 2940 7th St., Berkeley, changed the 400 colonists who were CA, 94710 aboard the lost ship. But Jann's Paperback, 268 pp., $4.95 screwball partner, Skma Maxwell, Reviewed by Neal Wilgus has a gut feeling that Kellener was killed by Hazlett, even though the has an alibi. Colin Wilson is one of the best suspect iron-clad mainstream writers to turn his hand Thanks to the near-universal ID/ to science fantasy in a long time credit card system, Hazlett can that was nowhere near his and THE PHILOSOPHER'S STONE is a prove he first rate addition to the Cthulhu associate in the colonizing firm Mythos originally created by H.P. when Kellener died. Sgt. Brill dis- Lovecraft and his disciples. First covers evidence of a doppelganger ring using unregistered societal published in 1969, STONE is the story of two men obsessed by the same phil- dropouts, and she must struggle to osophical riddles Wilson has written contain Maxwell's violations of of- so often before -- the problems of ficial procedure in order to con- the Outsider and the potential for vict the murderer. Within herself, superhuman achievement which somehow Janna Brill also debates whether to eludes our best efforts at self im- continue with the frustrations of provement. Through a sinple brain police work, or take her former, operation the goal is at last achiev- now injured, partner's advice and ed and Wilson's philosophical super- ship out to a new colony world. men at last perceive the alien cons- The characters, plot, indeed piracy that has for so long hinder- the whole future society, are very ed human development .... well developed in this novel. No WEB OF SAND CRIME AND PUNISHMENT, but closer By E.C. Tubb Essentially the same story, with different characters, was the meat of than most, and well worth reading. DAIV, 1979, 156 pp. , $1.75 THE MIND PARASITES (1967) and an ************************************ Reviewed by Dean R. Lambe inp roved version of the theme is to be found in THE SPACE VAMPIRES (1976). The Dumarest quest for lost This Wingbow reissue of STONE lacks Earth is surely one of the longest- the introduction by Joyce Carol running single hero, single author Oates to be found in the Warner pap- series in SF. erback edition at $1.95, but for col- EMPIRE OF THE EAST lectors libraries, least, the By Fred Saberhagen In #20, Earl Dumarest and five and at Ace paperback, 558 $6.95 fellow passengers are stranded by a Wingbow quality paperback is the one pp., dishonest ship captain on yet anoth- to have. Reviewed by Neal Wilgus er hostile world. Harge, a planet Colin Wilson has written better of sand and one city, is ruled by books, both fiction and non-fiction, Fred Saberhagen is probably most five degenerate families who hold but PHILOSPHER'S STONE is still sev- widely known for his Berserker ser- the rest of the people in economic eral cuts above the average and is ies, which is unfortunate in a way, slavery. Two stranded passengers well worth reading if you enjoy any- for his best work is outside the have wealth, and disappear from the thing above the grossest sword-and- Berserker framework. Probably his story, but Earl and the others band sorcery. Highly recommended. best yet is EMPIRE OF THE EAST which, together to raise money for off- ************************************ if you must categorize, falls into world passage. Typically, the glad- the swords-n-sorcery genre -- and iator-hero tries his skills in the 42 lord knows there are plenty of swords . ,

and lots of sorcery to go around. be justly proud of this addition to I'm sure the general public is Far from being an airy fantasy, how- his canon. Highly recommended. in for a real shock: This is Scie - ever, EMPIRE is done in a realistic }<:***********************:%*********** nce Fiction , folks. There is no style with all the convincing detail mistaking this for the "sci-fi" found in Saberhagen's hard SF books, garbage that Hollywood has been feed- and although there are some magic us for the past several years in the devices that are sometimes a bit IN SOLITARY form of SPACE: 1999, STAR WARS and hard to accept, the overall effect By Garry Kilworth BATTLESTAR GALACTICA. Hopefully, is that of a gripping, fast-paced Avon, 1977, 125 pp., $1.75 someone out there will realise from adventure this that you can give the public Reviewed by Dean R. Lambe EMPIRE is a trilogy, actually, meaningful SF. For this reason I consisting of three previously pub- hope this movie is a hit. Rarely do I wish that a novel lished novels -- THE BROKEN LANDS had more pages. This English writ- About the content: Fans familiar THE BLACK FOUNTAINS (Ace, 1968), er, whose work is just now reaching with the old STAR TREK episodes will (Ace, 1971) and CHANGELING EARTH these shores, could have used far undoubtedly note similarities be- (DAW, . Although somevAat re- 1973) more detail in this tale of a con- tween this story and the episodes, vised for this "omnibus” edition, quered Earth. Over 400 years prior "The Doomsday Machine" and "The Ul- the three novels are still essential- to the beginning of the story, the timate Computer", with much of the ly separate entities and each stands birdlike Soal escaped their dying plot coming from an episode entitled alone as a separate adventure. This planet and moved into man's home. "The Changeling". trade edition, with large size (6x9) A preconquest earthquake drastical- Roger Zelazny and il- a Prologue by ly lowered sea levels and the rem- lustrations by Enric, is one of the , nants of humanity are relegated to volumes the line initial of new Ace mudflats and islands, while the of quality paperbacks. Soal control all major land masses. characters in EMPIRE The main Soal Law restricts human inter- are Rolf, a young farmer who becomes course (both meanings) but when a soldier when the armies of the , young Cave is exiled from his house the East invade his home in Broken pet status in Soal-ruled England, Lands of the West, and Chup, who be- he meets the mysterious Stella, and gins as one of the Satraps of the becomes involved in a revolution East and eventually joins Rolf and against Earth's masters. Cave, Stel- his allies of the West. The action la, and one other escape to Polynes- takes place in the distant future ia via a pneumatic tube system, and when technology is a forgotten relic join with Tangiia in an attack on of Old World and when magic and the the Soal's "mushroom tower" climate brute strength rule the day. This control/defensive system. The end- unusual play between magic and tech- ing has several nice twists. nology is one of the things that gives EMPIRE a unique flavor not to IVhile there are holes in the be found elsewhere. plot, and in the science, large enough to accommodate a brontosaurus In THE BROKEN LANDS, for instance, real people are fotmd herein. Use the magic is to be found mostly in of a dating system of months, rath- the powerful demons and elementals er than years, is unexplained and that both sides (but especially the irritating. Cover art is good, East) can conjure up and in the two but cover graphics which obscure stones of the desert which have pow- the name of a promising new writer ers that strain reader credulity, are inexcusable. while the technology is in the anci- ********************* ent nuclear powered tank which Rolf A**:*:** ****** *5%* learns to master and turn against the invading Easterners.

In THE BLACK MOUNTAINS, the mag- STAR TREK -- THE MOTION PICTURE ic is in the form of two gigantic By Gene Roddenberry, Pocket Books creatures, Draffut and Zapranoth, 1979, $2.50, 252 Novel. who engage in a fight to the finish pp. , ISBN 0-671-83088-0 while Rolf and his allies invade the Eastern citadel; the technology is Reviewed by James J.J. Wilson found in the balloons which Rolf uses to aid the invasion. And in I think STAR TREK fans will not ARDNEH'S WORLD, the retitled final be disappointed with this book, and book, the magic is summed up in Orc- if the movie is anything like the us, the ultimate personification of book, they will not be disappointed Eastern magic and evil, while Ard- with that either. neh itself is the ultimate in tech- The first few chapters are very nology --a super conputer with near weak but after that I found the novel magic powers which is the force be- almost inpossible to put down. I hind the eventual Western triumph. had a hard time getting into the But there is much more to it characters at first, but about half- than that. Despite some minor flaws, way into the book I felt I was watch EMPIRE OF THE EAST is one of the best ing an episode of the old STAR TREK science fantasy epics to come along TV series. in years and Fred Saberhagen can 43 . . . ;

Here are a few questions for peo- Borgo Press has the right idea ple who have seen the movie and/or in establishing a line of Discovery read the book (I am writing this books to resurrect forgotten clas- two days after the release of the sics. But this book is no classic book and three weeks before the sch- and is better left forgotten. Re- eduled release of the film) : At the commended only for Wibberley fans end of the book Kirk never belays and King Arthur completists. the self-destruct order; why didn't the ship blow up? Why is the self- destruct order so much simpler to invoke than it was before? And last- ly, why didn't Kirk mention having been in a very similar situation be- OTHER CANADAS : AN ANTHOLOGY OF fore ("The Changeling")? He could SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY at least have said, "Hey, Spocko. Edited by John Robert Colombo This happened to us before. Remem- McGraw-Hill Iverson Ltd, Toronto, 1979, Cloth, $15.95 ber Nomad?" Oh, well, I hope these 360 pp., ISBN 0 flaws are not in the film. 07 082952 7 Reviewed by Terence M. Green I found this an extremely enjoy- able book. It is far above the qual- OTHER ity of most film novelisations CANADAS is an outstanding Colombo is perhaps generous in volume for many reasons . It is the his definition of what constitutes first anthology of Canadian science Canadian SF fj F; "By Canadian SF $ fiction and fantasy, and it is edit- F I refer to writing in prose or ed by John Robert Colombo -- a major THE QLEST OF EXCALIBUR poetry form by all of the following: naime in Canadian publishing and let- Canadian citizens, new Canadians, By Leonard Wibberley ters. Colombo has written, compiled former Canadians, even non- Canadians Borgo Press, Box 2845, San Bernar- or translated more than 30 books, (when their work is set in Canada)." dino, CA, 92406 and is nationally known for such pop- Using this criteria, we have fiction Paperback, 190 pp., $4.95 ular reference books as COLOMBO'S by Cyrano de Bergerac, Jules Verne, CANADIAN QUOTATIONS and COL- Reviewed by Neal Wilgus (1974) followed by such as Stephen Leacock, OMBO'S CANADIAN REFERENCES (1976); A.E. Van Vogt, Laurence Manning, Gor- he is a poet in his own right, and Leonard Wibberley is the author don R. Dickson, Phyllis Gotlieb, has done much to create a Canadian of THE MOUSE THAT ROARED and its Michael G. Coney and Spider Robinson; consciousness by collecting the companions, which I haven't read, there are also extremely fine pieces and this 1959 King Arthur fantasy, thought and literature of the count- by such authors as Hugh Hood, Mar- ry. The publisher for this book, Mc- which I . Judging by EXCALIBUR, have garet Laurence, Yves Theriault and I can see no reason for ever looking Graw-Hill Iverson, has provided him Stephen Scobie -- all known primar- into the Ifouse books at all. with a magnificent physical product ily as serious writers and major national distribution -- of non-SF The in Canada. idea of EXCALIBUR is a good both tributes to his established re- one -- King Arthur's return to mod- putation as a serious anthologist. Poetry is represented by Archi- em England to search for the lost bald Lampman, Bliss Carman, James sword Excalibur. Unfortunately, Colombo, a reader of SF§F from Reaney, Jeni Couzyn, Judith Fferril Wibberley does nothing with it what- his teens, has responded wonderfully and Douglas Barbour, to name some. soever. Yes, there are some wacky to the challenge and the opportunity. The two critical articles are by characters -- Cibber Brown, Sir Tim- The book is a large one, containing Margaret Atwood (probably the domin- othy Bors, Princess Pamela, Chuck excerpts from 4 novels, 17 short ant writer in Canada today) and Da- Manners -- who become involved, sort stories, 27 poems by 13 poets, 2 vid Ketterer (Ketterer's "Canadian of, with Arthur and the search, and critical articles, 1 prophetic es- Science Fiction" is invaluable to yes there is a mild bit of satire say (written in 1883 about the Dom- , anyone doing serious research into directed against the British bureau- inion in 1983) , and a film script the field) cracy. Alas, it doesn't go anywhere (the National Film Board's UNIVERSE). or do anything and the reader often Ithat we have here is the definitive There is even a brief annotated wonders why the author bothered to retrospective survey of Canadian bibliography of some 36 books --a write the thing in the first place. SF 8 F. virtual excerpt from CDN SF § F, A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF SCIENCE FICTION AND There is a brief preface by Col- FANTASY ombo in which he confronts the ques- (Toronto: Hounslow Press, compiled by J.R. Colombo, M. tion: "Canadian science fiction 1979), Richardson, J. Bell and A.L. Amp- and fantasy --is there any?" He rimoz. . . decides that not only is there such literature, but that it is worth a serious reader's attention. He then proceeds to point out that there are What more can I say? This book over 600 separate books which fall accomplishes what it set out to do into the category of Canadian SF f) F, it is highly recommended to anyone and heroically suggests what he con- who thinks that he/she might be in- siders to be the 4 characteristics terested. Every library should have of Canadian SF § F: The theme of a copy as well. Hopefully, there the Polar World, the theme of the can be more collections of this cal- National Disaster Scenario, the theme ibre from Colombo -- perhaps survey- of the Alienated Outsider, and the ing the current scene more fully next observation of the Prevalence of time. The potential for such a book Fantasy over Science Fiction. still exists. 44 STAR- ANCHORED, STAR- ANGERED THE GENTLE DRAGON The richness of the Oriental setting By Suzette Haden Elgin By Joseph K. Coates makes it a secondary universe unlike Doubleday, 182pp., $7.95 Lane 8 Associates, POB 3063, La Jolla, most, yet conpletely believable. Cover by Ben Stahl CA 92038, 1979, 329pp., $4.95. The unusual relationship between the Reviewed by Steven Edward McDonald Paper. ISBN: 0-89882-001-4 dragons and the humans evolves both LC 79-84574 Novel, 12 up. of them in intriguing ways. The characters are likeable and the story This book started out by assault- Reviewed by Frederick Patten ing several of ray senses, demolish- is intelligently developed. THE GENT- LE DRAGON is the type of book that ing ray sensibilities conpletely, and This charming fantasy is set may not be for all tastes, but those making ne howl with laughter. Ms. about the time of the spread of who like it will like it very much Elgin's hero. Coyote Jones (who has Buddhism. A young dragon, Quick -- indeed. appeared in three previous works Fire, develops a thirst for human THE COIMJNIPATHS and FURTHEST from civilization. He befriends a small Readers who enjoy it enough to Ace, and AT THE SEVENTH LEVEL from Japanese village and becomes its want other genuinely Oriental heroic DAW) rather naive, awfully is a in- protector against more predatory fantasies might be steered to Wu nocent type of character, despite dragons. The story develops episod- Ch'eng-en's THE PILGRIMAGE TO THE being a spy, and is vulnerable to ically as the dragon and the villa- TOST, also called MONKEY or THE MON- characters such as Dean Shandalynne gers hesitantly come to know each KEY KING (apparently available cur- O'Halloran. Who is a character . other. Quick Fire barely survives rently only in Arthur Waley's trans- Victims of this book will never ag- the attack of the vicious Lightning lation as NDNKEY, from Grove Press). ain be able to face a Playtex adver- Flash. He finds a mate and intro- tisement without wincing. duces her to human ways, and they Ms. Elgin isn't prolific. Per- and their children are eventually iodically, she will produce a book adopted as disciples of the Fault- or a story (spending the remainder less Master to spread His teachings STARS OF ALBION of the time in her job as linguistics throughout the world. Robert Holdstock and professor, or taking care of the Edited by According to a biographical Christopher Priest SF Poetry Association) said book or , note, Joseph Coates is a retired Published by Pan Books, Ltd., story being a welcome entertainment naval commander who spent years liv- Cavaye Place, London SW 10 9PG. -- worth the wait. ing in Japan and researching its cul- London, Toronto, Sydney STAR- ANCHORED, STAR- ANGERED ap- ture. THE GENTLE DRAGON is certainly 238 pp. , $4.50, 1979. proaches the subject of psi powers the most authentically Oriental fan- Reviewed by W. Ritchie Benedict again (Ms. Elgin's work generally tasy that I have read by an Occident- being concerned with said subject), al author, other than the works of "For richer, for poorer, for this time wdth the accent on the Lafcadio Hearn. The story contains better, for worse, until death do possibility of divinity -- it's Coy- an acknowledgment to Tolkien, and -- there is an impression that Coates you part" these words are part of ote Jones ' mission to observe Drussa the traditional marriage ceremony, Silver, with the idea of proving has tried to write an adventure sim- but they also serve to describe an psionic fraud, and thus allowing ilar to THE HOBBIT, utilizing Orient- avid SF fan, particularly a British the Tri- Galactic Intelligence Serv- al cultural roots as Tolkien utiliz- SF fan. This new book contains 12 ice to arrest her and try her (at ed Anglo-Saxon and Nordic roots. stories, and was brought out special- the instigation of the rulers of This is both the novel's strength ly by Pan to coincide wdth Seacon Freeway) . Despite misdirection and and its weakness . Its success may '79, the 37th World Science Fiction attempts to swerve him, Jones begins make it too alien for some American Convention, held in Brighton, England. observing .... readers. The story is slowly devel- The names of the authors, besides And Elgin manages to produce oped and elaborately mannered. Some the aforementioned editors, include something interesting and new from of the dialog reads like Japanese such luminaries as Ian Watson, Keith a well-mined field. It's a fun book, translated too literally into Eng- Roberts, John Brunner, Bob Shaw, and a fascinating book, laced with hum- lish. There are unfamiliar cultural J.G. Ballard. or and tragedy and a remarkable us- nuances. As a result, the writing Generally,, anthologies are age of language that never gets out may require a comprehension level a pretty mixed bag, but I will say of place once. Highly recommended. more mature than is customary for this type of adventure. the standards in this one are high- Ben Stab's cover is plain, but er than most. There is one absolute well-handled, very subtle. One of Speaking as a fantasy addict knockout of a story, "Warlord of Doubleday's better jackets, and who is getting jaded with the unend- Earth" by David S. Garnett, which is matching the book marvelously. ing stream of novels that are too a serio-comic tale of a sword-and- faithful to Tolkien, I found THE ************************************ sorcery type of barbarian transport- . GENTLE DRAGON to be excitingly fresh. ed to present-day California. Anoth- er strong vivid entry is "Weihnacht- abend" by Keith Roberts, and it describes a present-day version of an alternate world where the Nazis won World War II by crushing the British at Dunkirk. The atmospher- ics are very vivid, as the story takes the reader into a post-war British Christmas. Several stories probe the relationship of mental stability in a schizoid reality, or at least a reality that is unpleasant, such as Aldiss' "Sober Noises of Morning in a Marginal Land", Christopher Priest's 45 . "Whores" and "Dormant Soul" by Jos- addition to Holmes and Watson, a links . But the rest of his charac- ephine Saxton. fantastic plot to blackmail London ters are believable enough and the and a fairly loose approach to plot- The piece by Robert Holds took, fast pace and smooth style carry ting which resulted in an ending "The Time Beyond Age; A Journey", the reader along through an enter- that somehow seemed contrived. is a particularly horrifying tale taining entry in the Dracula sweep- of an experiment to study the aging OLD FRIEND OF THE FAMILY, in stakes that suddenly seems to have process beyond 100. Bob Shaw con- contrast, is a story of modem Chic- swept the nation. tributes amusing vignette an on the ago and the fantastic elements are If you're only going to read real behind smile story the of the limited to straight-forward vampire one more vampire story in the next Mona Lisa, and in "The Vitanuls", paraphernalia. Saberhagen seems decade or so, Saberhagen 's OLD John Brunner gives an insightful FRIEND than much more in control of FRIEND is probably the one you'll look into East-West cultural was HOLMES- and everything the he DRACULA want to read. differences on the day that the is tighter this time around -- writ- world runs out of fresh souls. ing, plotting and ending. Though the Old Man is never specifically If you prefer more traditional called Dracula in FRIEND as he was fare, albeit with a variety of new in HOLMES- DRACULA, he is surely the twists and turns, you might try same character and in many ways he "The Radius Riders" by Barrington J. than is a more attractive personage THE PROPHET OF LAMATH Bayley, which features a voyage in- in the air-breathing non-vanpires By Robert Don Hughes to the depths of the earth (it is a both books Ballantine, $1.95, 1979 long time since I have seen some- No Sherlock Holmes this time thing new in this area) . If there Reviewed by L. Craig Rickman instead we have Joe is a common theme that runs through around, but Chicago Pawn Shop de- these stories, it appears to be war Koegh of the Ballantine continues to deluge and the mind, or perhaps war in the the paperback market with epic fan- mind. The humorous stories stand tasies under the Del Rey trademark. by themselves. The quality of these releases usually do Mr. del Rey credit -- especial- Although I have seen one or two ly considering that, for the main of these stories anthologized else- part, they come from the pens of where, most of them will be unfamil- little-known writers. iar to readers in North America, and as such, the collection is well Such is the case of THE PROPHET worth buying for your library. I OF LAMATH by Robert Don Hughes, a thought the balance was nicely fellow Kentuckian. wrought between those stories of a THE PROPHET concerns an actor by rather grim and foreboding nature the name of Pelmen the Player (that and those which were lighter in tone. being but one of this more mundane If these stories are an exanple of professions) and his meeting with what the British have been doing in a rather typical two-headed dragon, the field of science fiction late- Vicia-Heinox. This beastie is the ly, it is no wonder that the 1979 force which keeps three nations -- convention was held over there. Lamath, Chaomonous, and Ngandib-mar There is also a concise intro- -- from each other's throats. It duction and afterword by Holdstock acconplishes this task with little and Priest discussing the British tail who is engaged to Kate Souther- politics --by simply straddling the scene as regards SF, and why they land, an upper- crust socialite whose only access through a range of tre- selected these examples as typical. family Dracula is the Old Friend of. mendous mountains . Only merchant The cover features a robot with a When Kate is found dead and her caravans who are willing to pay a steaming cup of tea, just so there younger brother is kidnapped and hefty toll in plump slaves are al- will be no mistake where this book tortured, Clarissa Southerland, lowed to pass. comes from. A rare and valuable their grandmother, and her youngest The action centers around Pel- paperback to add to anyone's col- granddaughter, Judy, manage to sum- men's quick tongue causing an iden- lection of unusual and highly craft- mon Dracula without really knowing tity crisis in the dragon (which head ed science fiction. what they're doing. Identifying is the real dragon.'), and his foil- himself as Dr. Emile Corday, the *********************:«:************** ing of a merchant scheme to destroy, Old Man soon begins to take a hand internally and externally, the gov- in the affair, tracking down the ernmental structures of the kingdoms. family's enemies (who also happen Naturally, the merchants wish to sit to be his own) and eventually team- themselves on the three thrones -- AN OLD FRIEND ing up with Joe Keogh and others to OF THE FAMILY for the betterment of their profits. set things right again. By Fred Saberhagen Pelmen wins --so the merchants do Ace Paperback, 256 $1.95 pp. , As was the case in HOLMES- DRAC- not; and the dragon doesn't fare so Reviewed by Neal Wilgus ULA, the Old Man in FAMILY is a bit well either. too invincible to be completely con- In THE PROPHET, Mr. Hughes delv- This has vincing, but this time around he book been referred to es a bit into mercantilism and rel- as a does have his setbacks and up till sequel to Saberhagen 's earlier igion, but very wisely does not al- THE HOLMES- the last prolonged chase scene DRACULA FILE and in a low it to "overcome" the novel. He way -- there remains a certain tense doubt it is but not really. That also presents some solid character- is to as to who will win. The Old Man's say in both books the central ization, and a plot of good substance character (if not exactly protagon- Old Enemy, Morgan, is less than con- ist) is Count Dracula. There the vincing and in fact, Saberhagen 's Overall, not an award winner, but resemblance ends. HOLMES-DRACULA villains in general are his weakest fun to read. took place in 1897 and involved, in 46 ************************************ . ] .

I'm very sorry I missed so many least they have to price in ALIEN THOUGHTS CONTINUED FROM P.9 that ex- of the activities , and missed meet- pectation. If book industry market- so many people. I hope the Portland ing practices even approximate the 11-15-79 ORYCON, on the 9-10- 11th S-F Society does it again some year. hobby industry's, that means the of this month was a nice, though I'll be there. production cost of most paperbacks mildly stressful experience for me. One suggestion to the next con is on the order of 5% of the cover Paulette and I showed up on Fri- committee: don't type or print the price. Authors tend to get propor- day, were registered, and greeted. name of the member on the membership tionally more than game designers, We wandered around like lost souls bade in one comer— leave room on and discounts in the marketing chain

for a while. . . Said hello to a few the card for BIG PRINT! It's em- take up to 60% of the retail price, people, visited the art show which barrassing for all to have to lean sometimes more. was still being set up, had coffee, over and peer to read a name. The tea and coke with Elton Elliott, met member's name should be clear from 'The pressure is on to get the F.M. Busby and his wife and a few a distance of six feet, at least. new stuff out, in books or games. S-F more people . . In fact, let's go to sandwich boards. is hot now and it may be too

Already my memory fades . . late in a few years. Also, propor- That night Paulette came dom tionally more of the public is get- with the flu— a particularly severe, ting interested in S-F. That means bout— and she couldn't make it to a dilution of the interest level the con on Saturday. and discrimination of the average mounted ray reader and game player. Science Fic- 1 , however, trusty # LETTER FROM HOWARD THOMPSON horse (a Schwinn S-speed] and pedal- Publisher, METAGAMING tion should hope that we never get ed nyself to the Sheraton and spent Dec. 1979 to the point where S-F attracts con- another hour and a half first list- sumer female marketers. If that ening to a well -attended, funny panel 'The opening letters of SFR #33 happens, S-F as we know it will be discussion of "Erotica In S-f." I clicked my cogitator. Where S-F is flooded out by Gothic, Gossip and observe that in fact the talk and going and what public taste will ac- Romance S-F. In volume everything the Q. § A. period were about sex in cept is crucial to me since we sell else will be so less important it s-f, not erotica. There is practic- 300,000+ S-F game titles yearly. will virtually cease to exist. ally no erotica in s-f, except per- If the public won't go for quality 'If you don't believe me just haps what I am beginning to write. reading matter cause it's too hard look real hard next time you're in work to read, that goes in spades one of those fancy enclosed shopping for games where you actually have to malls. Count the proportion of the understand what's read. space devoted to consumer females 'Irwin Prohlo says, "... the pub- as opposed to anything else. When lic would soon zero in on the pub- they get onto a topic they so out- lisher and stop buying", when drek buy any other market segment it be- got published frequently. Taint comes peripheral. true, Mr. Prohlo. Game buyers must 'Ah, well, I digress. I guess have about the same level of taste my summed-up response is, "things and discrimination as other buyers, are why they are because that's given their area of interest. Gam- what's made the money". There's ing is currently experiencing a boom gold in that thar drek! It almost of publishing regardless of quality. makes me want to get into something Why? Because the game publishers natural, ecological and honest, like see that their growth and sales most septic tank cleaning.' strongly correlate to the number of new titles they can keep cranking out. Stores won't drop their line cause gamers still want the new stuff coming out. Gamers don't seem 12“26-79 I was very optimistic when to be phased by poorly written, poor- I promised that STAR WHORES would be ly conceived and basically unplay- available in late December. I have I able games. After then met some fans and pros and all, there is the barely finished writing and editing was when new crop of games out this month to suitably croggled various the manuscript. It will take at me [having distract their attention. people came to discovered least another month to stencil it who the gink in the blue all-weather 'The pressure on book publish- and run it off, collate it, etc., coat was] and introduced themselves ers must be an order of magnitude and mail it. You may get this issue and wanted me to autograph some cop- worse than in our little industry. of SFR before you do the book. ies of ny 1960s sex novels they had Publishers have to keep cranking to The novel turned out pretty brought or purchased. keep their share of titles in the good, I think; I found myself di- But then began to feel ill, limited display space. I've seen verging from the plot outline due to and swiftly said to old Paint, "Git stores with two or three editions some unforeseen plausibility prob- on home, fella!" Old Paint didn't of different publisher's offerings lems, and had to continually revairp move until I muttered the magic of the same reprint titles. The as I went. But I stayed parallel to words, "Feet, don't fail me now!" problem has worsened in the last the original plotline. Once home I made the mistake of two years with the advent of the The sex and work philosophy of eating some lunch and pronptly lost ENGLISH version of many of the same the heroine, Toi King, came off as I it in the toilet. [I didn't have books, often with different titles. wished it, and the corporate/guild time and vomit in to rush outside future I foresee in this book has the compost box 'Publishers also have to charge . credibility. I like the confronta- Alas, I spent that night and all a high price for their bland offer- tion at the end betu'een the killer day Sunday shivering and moaning ings. They expect to get 50% of and Toi, with the final laser gun piteously while cursing the Fates. what they send out returned, or at battle showing her tougher than I missed con. the rest of the 47 .even she suspected. . . )

# ’LE-TTER FROM HOWARD H. HUGGINS treme crisis for the Allied cause victimized by the Treaty of Ver-

Route #1, Box 311 contrary to Lambert's assertion sailles . Covesville, VA 22931 that their victory was inevitable. 'Also Germany did not decide to December 7, 1979 The Allies were near financial col- aid the Bolshevik lapse and the continuation of the revolutionaries in response to America's entry into 'Ronald Lambert's attempt in war required $7 billion in American the war. Although Lenin's "sealed SFR #33 to demonstrate the existence loans. The French draft pool was train" did not leave Germany for and the operation of moral laws in empty and the failure of Nivelle's Russia until April 10, the decision history displays a misunderstanding Arras offensive in April left 16 to take advantage of the Tsar's ab- of the facts and the nature of his- corps of the French army in mutiny; dication (March 15) by aiding the tory. He offered the following chain the French, at that moment, no long- Bolsheviks was made by March 26 -- of cause and effect as proof: er constituted an offensive force. a week before Wilson By June the Russian army was no long- asked Congress ' into World for 1) To bring America er an effective fighting force of a declaration of war (see Mich- War I and Churchill entered ael Pearson's THE SEALED TRAIN, Wilson any kind. Italy was routed in Oct- into an immoral conspiracy to effect 1975). Germany's move was ober at Caporetto losing 700,000 part of the sinking of the Lusitania which men an all-out effort to achieve a dec- brought America into the war. isive victory in the west which in- 'Although the limited Allied cluded resuming unrestricted submar- '2) America's entry into the success at Cambrai in November dem- ine warfire (Jan. 9), dispatching war was unnecessary because the Brit- onstrated, in principle at least, the Zimmerman Telegram (Jan. 16) ish development of the tank made that surprise and tanks could break and sinking 3 American ships (March Germany's defeat inevitable. Amer- the trenchlines, 3/4 of their gains 18). The decision to aid the Bol- ican aid only served to enable the were lost and their army threatened sheviks came before not after Am- Allies to impose a harsher peace on , , with disaster by a swift German erica entered the war. Thus a com- Germany counterstroke. The tank was a wea- munist Russia, the Iron Curtain and '3) The humiliating and ruin- pon with enormous potential, but it the Cold War cannot be attributed to ous Treaty of Versailles created did not guarantee victory to anyone. America's entry into the war let the climate in Germany that made Also in March-June 1918, Ludendorf's alone the sinking of the Lusitania. possible Hitler's rise to power and "Michael" offensive on the Somme, 'Lambert's argument contains a thus WWII, death camps and genocide. using newly developed "infiltration" tactics, narrowly missed inflicting philosophical error as well as fac- '4) Out of desperation after Am- tual ones. a decisive defeat on the allies. It errs by reducing ex- erica's entry into the war the Ger- ceedingly complex events That is not a description of a cause and their mans Bolshevik revolutionaries relationships to a single, aided whose victory is assured; without simple Russia, -- which led to a communist America's ships, troops, dollars and cause the sinking of the Lusitan- Cold War. the Iron Curtain and the the moral effect of her entry into ia; this is known as the reduction- ist fallacy. Contrary to popular 'In summary, Lambert argues that the war. Allied victory would not belief it is far from easy to draw the sinking of the Lusitania, arrang- have been possible. lessons from history or to determine ed by Wilson and Churchill, led to 'It is also misleading to over- cause and effect relationships. Giv- WWII, death camps, genocide, the emphasize the extent to which the ing too simple answers to hard ques- Iron Curtain and the Cold War. I Versailles treaty accounts for the tions is as popular as it is easy, will address these arguments in rise of Hitler. The rise of fascism but doing so fails to do justice to order. was a worldwide phenomenon result- the complexity of the subject and 'Although there is circumstant- ing from the stresses of a world- to the truth. It also confuses more ial evidence (see Colin Simpson's wide depression and a catastrophic than it enlightens.' THE LUSITANIA, 1972) that Churchill war on socially, politically and knew of the danger to the ship, may economically backward societies have done less than he should have which were also undergoing the vast (I suspect there are three versions to prevent it, and perhaps hoped transformations inherent in indus- of history the popular, simplified that it would be sunk bringing Amer- trialization and modernization (see version, the scholarly, researched ica into the war, there is no evi- Ernst Nolte's THREE FACES OF FAS- version, and the real version which is different because of lack dence to implicate Wilson or sub- CISM) . Fascism also came to power of stantiate the charge of conspiracy in Italy, Japan, Portugal, Spain records, destroyed records, and de- between them. Also such an act and elsewhere (in a certain sense stroyed people whose memories were would have been utterly inconsistent in Russia) -- none of which were dangerous . ) with Wilson's foreign policy objectives and his character. Further- more, this incident. May 1915, did not bring America into the war. It was not until 23 months later, in April 1917, that America entered the war. America's declaration of war followed the exposure of the Zimmerman Telegram in which Germany offered Mexico the states of Texas, Arizona and New Mexico if she would join with Germany in making war on America when and if war broke out between the latter two (see Barbara Tuchman's THE ZIMMERMAN TELEGRAM,

1958) .

'America's contribution was critical to Allied victory. 1917 to early 1918 was a period of ex- " )

# LETTER FROM RON LAMBERT 'P.S. I deny that fiction is a 'Most disappointing of all is 2350 Virginia literature of lies. In its finest the appearance, amid settings at Troy, MI 48084 tradition at least, it is a litera- least reminiscent of the SF we all November 7, 1979 ture of truths. Especially science know and love, of a cutesy-poo rob- 'You said: "When the surpluses fiction, which is the only genre ot (R2D2, go to hell.') with big, shrink, when the wealth diminishes which deals with the whole of real- friendly, puppy-dog cartoon eyes, -- flake-lac- ... then we'll be on the long way ity including the element of rad- matched against a candy- back to 'savagery' because we'll no ical, transforming change, which quered "evil robot" who looks more the of Donald Duck longer be able to afford certain mo- mainstream (per se) ignores.' fit for pages ral luxuries." comics than for the screen. Amevioa 'That sounds to me very similar ( (In colonial times in 'There's been a lot of ballyhoo to what apologists for right wing there was great economic freedom, from Disney about the wonders of religious dictators in Central and South Amer- but social and cultural BLACK HOLE. This was supposed to moral dictatorship. There was no that ica say: "Your democracy is very be the flashy film-buff's reel democracy. There was a repub- nice, senor, and we applaud your com- true was shown, and I am less than im- lican government and the mitment to freedom and human rights, form of pressed. It might have come off were not allowed to vote. shown, in but you see, in our coxmtry we are poor better had not Ellenshaw ( (As I try to follow and absorb from very poor, and we cannot afford such the same lecture, long scenes suspect you want luxuries. your arguments, I 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA and a return to the moral religious dic- MARY POPPINS, both of which were 'These Latino fascists are full tatorship of the past. You're not made possible by his effects artist- of frijoles, and so is a certain happy with personal sexual and re- ry. The first was a deadly-serious, libertarian fanwriter if he doesn't ligious freedoms. . .or the revamping wonderfully successful adventure know any better. and funking of a lot of past relig- film, the second a pure flight of ious garbage. 'The institution of democracy enchanting fantasy. never heard 'righteousness' and libertarian freedoms in America (d've described as superior one-and- 'Common to both was a basic preceded prosperity, not the other a only econo-politico-moral philosophy honesty, a commitment by the film- way around. Clearly, they caused before. Your version what is makers to take their stories and the prosperity -- a lesson that is of 'righteous ' course, is what you their audiences seriously. This mystifyingly lost on the Somozas of , of mean. Wow. commitment is woefully lacking in the world. ) BLACK HOLE, and I think any self- 'It was not natural resources respecting paying audience will that made America wealthy. Spain gnawing sense of being cheat- # LETTER FROM WAYNE KEYSER feel a looted half the New World, but where 1111 Army-Navy Drive, A- 710 ed by BLACK HOLE'S insincerity.' are all those tons of gold today? Arlington, VA 22202 The imperialist nations of Europe November 13, 1979 not had time nor real zest for literally plundered the natural re- (d've seeing BLACK HOLE; and I've read a sources of a planet. Yet today, we 'Just a short and (I'm afraid) series down-putting reviews and are wealthier than all of them put disappointing note. of decry together. Why? Because our system heard knowledgeable sf fans 'I was eager to see Peter El- "SHIT!" is a works better. Because righteousness it in strong terms: lenshaw, longtime Disney matter art- assessment. is the most profitable, wealth- fair ist and production designer of THE letter is warning creating, survival-efficient policy ((Your fair BLACK HOLE (a Disney film slated to the readers SFR as to BLACK of all in the long run. We would of for December release in 70mm Dolby hole's quality. I'll see it eventu- be even better off if we strove to stereo) . He appeared at the Ameri- course. And write a review approach closer to righteousness. ally, of can Film Institute at the Kennedy for SFR. But I suspect my opinion 'So what if we run out of oil Center last night, bringing with will echo others'.)) and suffer an economic depression? him a reel of BLACK HOLE for its Bad as that would be, it would not first public screening. cause civilization to fall and start 'I'm sorry to have to say that us down the long road back to savag- this movie looks as easily avoidable ery. The Great Depression of the as did THE CAT FROM OUTER SPACE. early 1930s didn't. And the coming Ellenshaw's basic designs are in- ~ Since this is probably the depression -- if it is not averted 1 8~80 teresting -- certainly not space- last entry for this issue, let me -- would only last as long as it worthy, therefore not believable, say this about that: I didn't get would take the synthetic fuel indus- but interesting. The film is as much reading done as I wished try to tool up sufficiently to sat- obviously intended to be viewed as because I was neck deep in STAR isfy our fuel needs from coal. pure fantasy beyond the question of IVHORES and struggling to keep up belief or unbelief, and as such it with REG. Ahh, well... who needs may work when viewed as a whole. excuses? I don't plan a self-pub- 'Only if we voluntarily forsake 'Blue, glitter- filled interstel- lished novel for 1980 until maybe the moral principles that produce lar space, a quarter-mile-long space- the fall, so from now on I'll be civilization could civilization fall. ship that seems more like one of digging into the piles of the un- Nothing else is able to make civil- those Victorian glass palaces than read with vim, vigor and vitupera- ization fall, save maybe a nuclear a workable vehicle, candy-colored tion.

war that blasts us clear off the kiddy-toy instrument panels every- I have some good letters here planet. Even in the event of holo- where, all work to defeat any ident- and as usual no room for them: caust, if there were survivors they ification from viewers who have liv- letters from Richard Dodge, Wallace would still probably preserve civil- ed through the era of genuine space A. McClure, and Darrell Schweitzer ization, because that would be the voyages. The typical wooden Disney will be in the May issue. most sensible, survival-efficient characters abound, and come off even thing to do. Most aftermath novels worse than ever. # GEORGE WARREN wrote to announce are a crock. 49 he is starting a paperback book re- ' . , . s ' , . view column in the LOS ANGELES TIMES # AN HOUR WITH HARLAN ELLISON, BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR in that paper's Times Book Review VOLUME 1 is a 60 minute cassette ARTE JOHNSON—LOVE AT FIRST BITE section. wants He paperback orig- tape selling for $4.98 plus SOcf: post- RICHARD KIEL—MOONRAKER inals only mass paperback only, — age f) handling, from Hourglass Pro- LEONARD NIMOY—STAR TREK no trade editions (which go to a ductions, 10292 Westminster Av. DONALD PLEASANCE—DRACULA different editor). He'll review Garden Grove, CA 92643. DAVID WARNER—TIME AFTER TIME all genres — romances, westers, sf, James JJ Wilson, reviewer, loved nonfiction. . . it: 'It will be of interest to those BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS His address: P.O. Box 3830 who want to know what it was like to VERONICA CARTWRIGHT—ALIEN Pasadena, CA 91103. be a struggling writer in the mid- PAMELA HENSLEY—BUCK ROGERS 50' ... and only sf fans will under- JACQUELYN HYDE—THE DARK # EARTHLIGHT PUBLISHERS sent out a stand the references to John W. Camp- FARCY LAFERTY—THE DAY TIME ENDED postcard Dec. 21 saying: 'Due to bell, Horace Gold, Ed Valigursky, NICHELLE NICHOLS—STAR TREK numerous production problems (a full Robert Silverberg, The Futurians, and explanation of which would take more others. This tape is very light and I than the space of 20 postcards) the guarantee you'll laugh out loud as TIME AFTER TIME—NICHOLAS MEYER release of SAN DIEGO LIGHTFOOT SUE you listen. THE MUPPET MOVIE—JERRY JUHL & will be delayed until the first of JACK BURNS January. Orders are being pro- THE LAST WAVE—PETER WEIR cessed and will be shipped in the STAR TREK—ROBERT WISE order of receipt. We ask for your DRACULA—JOHN BADHAM patience and understanding in this matter. It will be a very beauti- WRiims ful book, will one that you be proud TIME AFTER T I FE—NICHOLAS MEYER to own. THE MUPPET MOVIE—JERRY JUHL & (Thanks to Jim Sanderson.) JACK BURNS ALIEN—DAN o'bANNON # JERRY POURNELLE WTote November IS LOVE AT FIRST BITE—ROBERT KAUFMAN to advise: 'ENDLESS FRONTIER, Volume THE BLACK HOLE—JEB ROSEBROOK & Two, is being assembled now. I could GERRY DAY use at least two short contributions. The theme is life in space (as oppos- SPECIAL EFFECTS ed to life on planets) . I could also ALIEN—BRIAN JOHNSON & NICK ALUDER use humor; even short anecdotes. For THE MUPPET MOVIE— ROBBIE KNOTT vignettes I will pay a flat rate rath- MOONRAKER—JOHN EVANS & JOHN RICHARD- er than pro rata royalties; short SON stories will receive shares. ' STAR TREK—DOUGLAS TRUMBULL, JOHN Interested parties would probab- # THE NOMINATIONS FOR THE 7tH ANNU- DYKSTRA, & RICHARD ly be advised to query Jerry on his AL S-F, FANTASY & HORROR FILMS YURICICI needs now but he is a market to ; AWARDS ARE; BLACK HOLE—PETER ELLENSHAW keep in mind. His anthologies sell SCIENCE FICTION well. There are also nominations for MUSIC, ALIEN His address: 12051 Laurel Terrace MAKE-UP and COSTUME. For a complete THE BLACK HOLE Drive list and other info, write: MOONRAKER Studio City, CA 91604 The Academy of Science Fiction, Fan- STAR TREK tasy Horror Films, 334 W. 54th St., TIME AFTER TIME 8 # MARK J. MCGARRY reports that he Los Angeles, CA 90037. has sold his third and fourth novels to Signet/NAL and will be devoting FANTASY, ARABIAN ADVENTURE himself full-time to writing be- DINNER FOR ADELE ginning in January, 1980. NUTCRACKER FANTASY Apparently EMPIRE, his semi-pro- THE MUPPET MOVIE zine, will continue under new editor- 1-10-80 We've had a freezing rain THE LAST WAVE and publishership. and snow storm here in Portland the last few days. The streets are vir- HORROR tually inpassable and more snow is THE AMITYVILLE HORROR forecast. DRACULA I doubt I can get the copy for LOVE AT FIRST BITE this issue into the hands of the # I REFUSE TO AGONIZE TOO MUCH, or bleed all over this issue, but THE MAFU CAGE printer in Forest Grove, down in the an apology is due the ran who wrote PHANTASM valley. Normally they send couriers the review of THE AMERICAN IDNOMYTH into the Portland area to pick up which I ran last issue. I noted that BEST ACTOR copy from customers. But I suspect he had neglected to put his name on GEORGE HAMILTON— LOVE AT FIRST BITE it'll be Fbnday (today is Thursday) FRANK LANGELLA—DRACULA the review ms . and I had forgotten before they can make a pickup. Wliich his name. CHRISTOPHER LEE—ARABIAN ADVENTURE means the delivery of the new SFR to He wrote and gave me his name. MALCOLM MCDOWELL—TIME AFTER TIME me will be delayed three or more And I have misplaced his letter WILLIAM SHATNER—STAR TREK days, which means it may be the first and still cannot remember his name. week of February before I can get the The ghods are against us, sir. BEST ACTRESS sub copies into the mails PERSIS KHAMBATTA—STAR THEK But if you'd care to try again. . . So now you know why SFR was may- MARGOT KIDDER—THE AMITYVILLE HORROR be a week or more late. SUSAN SAINT JAMES—LOVE AT FIRST BITE is to IAN COVELL sent word that John Blame God; this delay due Brunner now acknowledges that his MARY STEENBUR6EN—TIME AFTER TIME an act of His. But then, I always first novel was GALACTIC STORM using SIGNOURNEY WEAVER—ALIEN did believe He is a bad actor. the pseudonym Gill Hunt in 1951. 50 HUGO Nominations Ballot

BEST NOVEL (author and title) (source)

1 .

2 .

BEST NOVELETTE (author and title) (source)

1 .

51 BEST PROFESSIONAL EDITOR BEST FAN WRITER

I 1 .

2 2.

3, 3.

! 4.

5. 5 .

BEST FANZINE BEST FAN ARTIST

I. 1 .

o 2 .

3. 3.

4. 4.

5. 5.

Non-Hugo Awards

JOHN W. CAMPBELL AWARD GANDALF AWARD

1 . 1 .

2 .

3. 3.

4 . 4.

o. 5.

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52 YOU GOT NO FRIENDS IN THIS WORLD A Review Of Short Fiction By Orson Scott Card

the large format quarterly is fold- Quite apart from the stories, not agree , but he knows what he's there are things about the magazines looking for and he finds it, and I ing, I'm glad Scithers is putting and anthologies that need to be am coming to appreciate that more fantasy into the monthly digest Vinge's said, if only because sometimes I and more. magazine, beginning with get so damn mad. Like, for instance "Snow Queen" --in part because fantasy needs a vehicle that the subscription department at the OMNI constantly delights me with good broader audience, and in Asimov magazines. I subscribed when its exciting but accessible science, reaches a -- because it will only inprove the magazines first came out and its stunning visuals, its profes- part the magazine. ended up with two concurrent sub- sional approach to publishing that scriptions. Neither address label is refreshing in a field with heavy The newest magazine, ETERNITY, was correct, and despite several apron- string ties with pulps and shows great promise, though with letters, I kept getting both sub- fanzines. Yet, despite its high- the low payment rates the fiction scriptions until both ran out. est- in- the- field rates, I find that is inevitably uneven. Darrel And- Then, after letting them lapse for it has no better an average in fic- erson and Stephen Fabian set a high several months, I subscribed again, tion that pleases me than, say, ANA- standard that most of the other il- specifically asking for the sub- LOG or the ASIMOV magazines. Al- lustrations don't come up to. But scription to begin with the Decemb- ways there is one story an issue the features are excellent (after er issue. Well, they sent me an is- -- that I like very much but some all, I review books for them ...) sue December -- but it was the in of the others are downright ter- and the editorial slant is broader September which I review- issue, had rible, in my view -- and some of than any of the other magazines. ed months before. those are by people who can do bet- I hope it doesn't narrow with age Another pain -- the hideous ter. It is a surprise to see that and the magazine's deserved success. typesetting at Zebra. The QIRYSALI^ despite its high payment rates, OM- SWORDS AGAINST DARKNESS and OILIER NI is not necessarily getting the GALAXY still struggles along, -- WORLDS anthologies are usually very best out of its contributors a new issue limping out to the good -- but it is infuriating to though, of course, when OMNI is stands every six months or so to see moronic mistakes time after good it is very, very good. sit and rest until the next one finally arrives to take its place. time, issue after issue. Every mag- For all their enphasis on hard -- But still -- good stories now and azine has its share of errors science fiction, ANALOG and the then, and at last, with its new but at Zebra, tliey manage to invert ASIIDV magazines do have one or affiliation with GALILEO, perhaps whole passages of type. Is there two stories an issue where the hard- this grand old mag can get back to no one there who can do a sinple ware takes a definite back seat to its old high standards. continuity check? other values, like character and The art in GALAXY. The F§SF genuine epiphany. Invariably those And FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION are the best stories, the ones with goes on putting out the most consist- covers . The untrimmed pages at Doubleday. The reviewers who dare the strongest reader response, and ently good fiction of any of the I ivhy to dislike m>' books. Gripe gripe. wonder two things: they don't magazines, while Ed Ferman keeps a Murmur murmur. publish more of the emotional, pow- low profile and must take his re- erful stories, and why SF readers wards in the form of the respect of After a year at this business don't realize that their favorite writers and readers while other ed- of reading and reviewing almost all ANALOG stories aren't "ANALOG stor- itors keep walking off with the Hu- the short SF around, the irritations ies" at all. goes. only get more irritating. But I have also begun to regard these And, to my surprise, ASBDV'S The anthologies? NEW DIMENSIONS publications as friends, sort of. SF ADVENTURE MAGAZINE published a 10 will be the last edited by Robert I know their foibles, but I also higher proportion of good fiction Silverberg alone; it will be inter- know their strengths, and there is- than its parent magazine. Now that esting to see, in a couple of years. n’t one of these magazines and anthologies that I don't turn to with expectation of finding something I will like.

GALILEO has often had, in its fiction, a trait that I once described in print as "amateurishness" -- thereby incurring the righteous wrath of Qiarlie Ryan. I didn't change my opinion -- some of the stories still feel clumsy to me -- but I did learn that Charlie wasn't buying stories that he didn't like but had to settle for to fill in an issue. He was buying what he lik - ed . And gradually I have come to see, even in the stories that annoy me, the qualities that Charlie is looking for, the good points that are present in every story in GAL- ILEO. I mean, Charlie and I may ,. . what Marta Randall's influence does another almost painlessly. Robert Sullivan. Jarrass is an ad- to the anthology. UNIVERSE goes ult male in a society where women, Best of all, however, is his ex- on publishing good-to-excellent fic- becaree they usually die at puberty, ploration of the influence of par- tion. are supreme. In order to avoid hav- ents on children. Perhaps it's just ing too many fertile men around, a But, for me, the most exciting my bias (which shows up in my own son is required to behead his father anthology series around right now writing perhaps too much) but I firm- immediately after he first has inter- is Roy Torgeson's CHRYSALIS, which ly believe that the best fiction im- course with a woman. Jarrass, how- will soon be junping from Zebra to itates biography more than history, ever, loved his father, and so en- Doubleday --a surprise, since Doub- keeping a tight focus on a charac- dured eighteen years of humiliation leday also publishes UNIVERSE. But ter, not an event. I like it a lot and ostracism because he let his there won't be much conflict. Roy when a character's whole life is tak- father live. The story is about Torgeson has found an area of fan- en into account, from childhood on, Jarrass 's efforts to win the love of tasy/science fiction that no other instead of picking up at the onset his own son -- and despite the hid- publication is regularly covering. of a major event and ignoring the eous cruelty of the story, it is It happens to be an area that I find most important influences in his beautiful. exciting to read; exciting enough life. After all, our childhood is that despite higher payment rates what made us who we are -- and yet elsewhere I've been submitting some too many writers create characters TAKING THINGS APART TO WATCH THEM of my strangest but most favorite who seem to have been bom at the BLEED: work to Roy. Is it because I be- age of thirty-eight, without par- Cruelty is one of the devices lieve there are higher things than ents. writers can use to good effect -- money? Hell no. It's because I MARRIAGE AND FAMILY COUNSELING: or for gross exploitation. Used like the company I keep in those anthologies. (Is CHRYSALIS an an- Kingsbury's story isn't the on- thology or a magazine? After all, ly one dealing with family ties and it comes out more often than GALAXY parent- child relationships this quart- and it has more fiction each year er. David Bunch has come up with a than DESTINIES. Well, between hard family that makes the folks in Kings- covers it will doubtless settle bury's story look like Ozzie and down into comfortable middle age Harriet. In "A Little Girl's Spring and get a bit stodgy.] Day in Moderan" (GALAXY 39:11), Lit- tle Sister cheerfully takes her fath- I didn't really plan to start er apart in the effort to discover this column with a magazine over- the meaning of the word dirt . view, but as I write this. New Year's Day is me in the face, and staring Lisa Tuttle's story "Wives" since, being an irresolute person, I (F§SF Dec) is a well-told, heart- do not make resolutions, this is breaking story of alien females who about as close as I'll let myself have survived a war with human become to summing up anything about ings, only to end up in the role of 1979. Except that, at the end of precious little sweethearts to sat- this column, I will be listing iry isfy the connubial longings of the choices for the year's best science soldiers. If they show any of their fiction and fantasy. This is in- true, unwifely, inhuman character, stead of doing a best-of-the-year they are doomed. The story would anthology. I would do a b-o-t-y be even better if there weren't just anthology, if anyone would me pay the slightest hint of self-righteous to do it, (sob) no one but so far generalization in this has ever let me near one of them. . If Lisa Tuttle means only what THE STORIES: she actually says in the story, however, (Yeah, I'm Getting Around to That) then it has integrity; if, she is trying to use this as an al- properly, cruelty inflicted by or Tliere's something sweet about legory of the way men and women us- on a character the reader identifies all those old stories about kids ually relate together in marriage, with serves to engage the reader's longing to get to the moon. Now then I can only conclude that either emotions still further; it can often that a couple of kids did grow up Tuttle has had the misfortune of be a climax or prepare for a climax to get to the moon, though, it seems seeing only very strange marriages as no other technique can. However, no one writes that kind of story or she is stretching the truth a in less talented hands cruelty an)’more. Nobody except Donald Kings- bit. In my experience and study, serves only to immerse the reader bury, that is, whose novella, "The marriages are as likely to be wife- in gore. A good example of the kbon Goddess and the Son" (ANALOG dominated as husband- dominated, and latter is ALIEN, a silly film where Dec) is one of my favorite stories equally poisoned either way. And stupid and unsympathetic characters this year. Kingsbury actually does while "Wives" is powerful and well- spend two hours getting taken apart have a kid who takes the name Diana written, it does not contain a true by a meaningless monster; a good because she wants to grow up to live picture of inevitable male- female example of the former is Timothy on the moon -- and she makes it. relationships. (How's that for Robert Sullivan's work -- the just- But the story is a lot more than starting another argument?) mentioned "My Father's Head" and that, of course, or it would be un- Sullivan's first sale, "The Rauncher After all the unloving families bearably sentimental. Unlike most Goes to Tinker Town", in NEW DIMEN- in these stories, it might be cheer- hard SF writers (and this stor>" is SIONS 9. It is a strange story of see father who really loves by most definitions, hard SF) Kings- ing to a a man kept alive only to inflict , his son -- if it weren't in the bury is very good at creating char- welcome death on the immortals who brilliant and ugly story "My Fath- acters ; he also manages very well a preserve him. Sullivan is a writer er's Head" (CHRYSALIS S) by Timothy difficult structure, with the plot to watch -- he is doing exciting skipping from one point of view to 54 work. .

No one does viciousness like nial, this voluntary blindness ul- damage such an ending will do. Jane Karl Hansen, however. I sat with timately does not work. I found my- Yolen's "Angelica" (F§SF Dec) would him at a banquet at Penulticon, and self at the end feeling a bit cheat- have been a perfectly successful a sweeter, funnier man it would be ed, as if a clever scam had been story if she had revealed right at hard to imagine. Give him a type- played on me. It is, of course, the beginning that the little boy writer, hoivever, and he'll rip your well-written; it's by John Varley, was Adolf Hitler. But by withhold- balls off and eat them right before isn't it? ing that fact until the end, she your eyes. "Portrait for a Blind made everything that went before WHAT? NOT PERFECT EVERY TIME? ikn" (CHRYSALIS S) is about soldiers seem trivial. Michael Bishop's who must face an enemy weapon that lly negative response to "Op- "Seasons of Belief (SHADOWS 2) beau- makes them retreat into autism. To tions" may be just part of the tifully showed the touching credulity keep them from going crazy in battle great- author syndrome that plagues of children; but the ending was so they are trained to be monstrous a lot of fine writers. What law absolutely pedestrian that I couldn't human beings, so that they literally says that Varley or LeGuin or Mart- believe Bishop could have thrown cannot bear to be alone with them- in or Ifc Intyre has to come up with such writing away to so little effect. selves. Makes them tough to live a masterpiece every time? But hav- Fortunately for T.E.D. Klein's with -- but it also keeps them func- ing read great stories from all four story "Petey" (SHADOWS 2) , the scenes tional. of them, I find myself disappointed in an upper-middle-class house party when they write stories that are were so well done that the weak one- Cruelty is taken to absurdity merely above average. punch ending didn't overshadow the by James E. Thompson (OTHER WORLDS rest of the tale, which seems design- 1) in "The Birdchaser", a painfully I was disappointed in Vonda ed to prove that ordinary human be- funny little tale about a reporter McIntyre's "Fireflood" (F§SF Nov) ings are far more horrible than the trying to understand the men whose because the ending was more a sur- monster lurking outside. mission is to capture and chop in render than a fulfillment -- the half all the little birds flying story ended up going nowhere. Yet around in the pipes if an unknown had written "Fire- DISCOVERIES HEAVEN SUCKS! flood", I'd review it with glowing praise for the tremendously good Every editor gets a secret de- Utopias usually irritate me, writing in the beginning, for the light out of discovering an excit- primarily because what some writers fascinating superw'oman the writer ing new talent and watching his car- think is desirable coincides pretty had devised. But who could get ex- eer blossom. George Scithers is well with my idea of hell. Such is cited about good writing from Vonda rightfully proud of Barry Longyear; the case with Paul Novitski's "Nu- McIntyre? I mean, what else can Ben Bova has been soundly cursed clear Fission" (UNIVERSE 9). It is you expect? for unleashing me upon the world of very well written, with plausible science fiction; and GALILEO'S Char- characters, but I found their way of Similarly, while George R. R. lie Ryan has every reason to be bust- Martin's life so repulsive that I had a hard "A Beast for Norn" (GALAXY ing buttons over Connie Willis. time rooting for them when they had 39:11) is a rip-roaring outsmart- Willis's quiet but powerful stories trouble accommodating to it. Susan the-assholes tale of a genetic man- have been a pleasure to read over Janice Anderson's "Returning to Cen- ipulator who makes some competitive the last year; "Daisy, in the Sun" ter" (CHRYSALIS 5) works a little families pay for the privilege of (GALILEO Nov) is her best yet, the better for me, if only because her destroying themselves, I was ir- story of what happens to the people ecologically aware society isn't so ritated by a self-righteous prig of who are destroyed when the sun ex- intrusive; the more personal story a protagonist and more than a little plodes . isn't overwhelmed by the utopianism. annoyed at the underlying philosophy that seems to value animal life Who discovered Somtow Sucharit- Population control is often above human life. Martin can do kul? It doesn't matter --he has part of utopia; Jeff Hecht, in "Cros- better than this! I cried in indig- work appearing everywhere, and I'm sing the Wastelands" (NBV DIMENSIONS nation. >bst writers, however, delighted. Two of his stories this underpopulated time travel. In 9) , shows an world can't do as well. quarter deal with that clings to the old overcrowded "Fire From the Wine-Dark Sea" (OTH- And "Ihe Pathways of Desire" slum buildings, keeping them frozen ER WORLDS 1) a father who inexplic- Ursula K. Le- though no one ever visits. It is (NBV DIMENSIONS 9) by ably loves one of his twin sons and a story a lonely world, a sad story of a Guin is beautifully written, dislikes the other finds the prob- man who comes out of cold sleep to of three scientists struggling to lem painfully solved for him by a find that they have preserved the understand an alien people that time-traveling Odysseus, who gave Eng- things he hated worst about New Jer- seem to speak a corrupt form of up on Penelope and now roams the whole sey -- and worse yet, the lower pop- lish. However, she throws the oceans of the world in search of -- ending ulation has made people even less thing away with a sophomoric something. And in "Comets and Kings" that reduces the story to the kind friendly and loving than they were (CHRYSALIS 5) Sucharitkul brings a always com- , in the old overcrowded cities. of plot that friends are time traveler in contact with Alex- ing up and suggesting to me. "Hey, ander the Great --an idea that, John Varley's stories have often Scott, why don't you write a neat less skillfully handled, would have included routine sex- change as part story about how the whole world is been terrible. Sucharitkul makes of the society. In "Options" (UNI- being dreamed up by a thirteen-year- it great. A third Sucharitkul story IHRSE 9) he shows the problems peop- beneath old boy?" Silly, silly, and "A Day in Mallworld" (lA'sFM Oct) le face as sex-change first becomes LeGuin 's talents. Those characters is a fun, silly story about a scav- possible. Unfortunately, it is a deserved better treatment than that. enger hunt for the meaning of life. one-sided presentation of the ideas; Varley makes the enormous assunption One-punch stories, where the Two other stories deal with time that sex-change will just naturally climax is the sudden revelation of manipulation. John M. Ford, who is make people happier and better, and a fact at the end, usually fail mis- quite good at humor, is even better he focuses only on the problems erably, and I think one could make when he plays it straight. His idea that the caused by a man who refuses to change a good case for the story "Mandalay" (lA'sFM Oct) is the sexes when his wife does. Like the better the writing, the worse about time travelers struggling to psychopathic defense strategy of de- 55 get home again, after a massive . , . fracture broke up the system. They friendship on a concrete bench in David Bunch's "Through a Wall travel along a seemingly endless Cleveland -- only the bench turns and Back", (ETERNITY 1) is a brit- tunnel that never quite leads home; out to be a sentient creature in- tle story in a strange voice. So they follow a more than remarkable volved in a vicious high- stakes con- you work hard and get luck and God leader. And in "Rent Control" test with still another alien race on your side and finally break (OMNI Oct) Walter Tevis tells al- , in "Old Friends" (ANALOG Nov), by through to heaven, only to discover most a fairy" tale about a couple of Kevin O'Donnell, Jr. It's a well- that heaven is a boring cocktail lovers who literally make time stand crafted, cheerful little story, un- party. Bunch's poetic style makes -- still. But they pay a price for it like the brooding "The Faces of Man" for slow reading but it's worth in this excellent story. it, (CHRYSALIS 5) by Glenn Chang, one especially since the density BETRAYAL AND UNCERTAINTY of the best stories of the year. allows his stories to be very short. Versola is an anthropologist (of Donald Barthelme spends a lot The most moving love affair I've sorts) who deliberately "goes nat- of time savaging the press in "The read about in a long time is in Tan- -- his ive" only to discover, to Emerald" (ESQUIRE Nov) and his ith Lee's "Deux Amours d'Une Sorci- com- , great pain, that the natives style is affected -- jjut effective.

ere" (SWORDS AGAINST DARKNESS IV) . . pletely misunderstand his role among Usually Barthelme, a In this tale of misplaced love and mainstream them and eventually leave him in un- writer misplaced magic, the language al- of note, leaves me cold; welcome solitude. this ways verges on affectation -- but time, however, his pyrotech- stops short. Are all women sorcer- Sentient creatures also play a nics came off just right, and this ous? Perhaps yes. But the magic role in "Frost Animals" (UNIVERSE 9) story of a woman who mates with the finds its own painful course. by Bob Shaw. This story is a hard moon god (Deus Lunus) and gives SF mystery the way they should al- birth to an emerald is one of the ways be written. The protagonist best fantasies of the year. steps off his first starship flight suspected of to discover that he is NDDERN FANTASY committing a murder -- the murder of the fellow spaceman who got him Three modem fantasies this into an orgy just before he shipped quarter dealt with children, with out. Good characters, good mystery, surprisingly good effect. Kids are and a perfectly satisfactory ending. hard to write -- they tend to turn out as small adults. Not so in Alien machines are saving the Greg Bear's "White Horse Child"

world in "Last" (NEW DIMENSIONS 9) (UNIVERSE 9) , a haunting, nostalgia- by Michael Conner. Or are they? invoking story of how some children trust we?” It's the brittle story of the last find their way into their imagina- man on earth --a death-wishing mad- tion -- and how most are forced to The universe doesn't always make man who loves the role he has to choose another life. Ramsey Camp- sense -- but it still works. So do play, and wants no supporting cast. bell turns the cruelty of children a few strange and ambiguous stories. Machine intelligence is not so alien, around quite effectively in "Mac- Barry Malzberg's "Demystification however, in Gene Wolfe's bitter lit- intosh Willy" (SHADOWS 2), the story of Circumstance" (F§SF Nov) belies tle Christmas present to us in the of children who face their imagin- its title and gives us a protagonist December OMNI. The story, "War Be- ary fears and find them not quite who is at the mercy of a sentient neath the Tree", is about what hap- so imaginary. And Pat Murphy writes rock who may or may not be an enemy pens to last year's toys when the about two twins -- only one of -- and may or may not be real. Malz- new batch is brought by Santa Claus. whom has a soul -- in "Nighthird at berg expertly turns his character -- It is written by Gene Wolfe, which the Window" (CHRYSALIS 5). It is a and his readers -- inside out sever- is recommendation enough. Wolfe, at strangely conpelling story in which -- al times, with betrayal after lie least, has never disappointed me one twin discovers his emptiness after trick. Roger Zelazny's "Go he gets better with everything he the hard way -- and loses his moth- Starless in the Night" (DESTINIES publishes. er in the process Oct-Dec) also refuses to let the HUMOR Not since Peter Beagle's A FINE reader know the truth. His protag- AND PRIVATE PLACE have I read as entrusted with Already into the quick takes onist, who has been good a treatment of the life of the utterly at under category headings? Oh, well. secrets, finds himself dead as Peter Pautz's "The Closing the mercy of strangers -- and just There's never enough space to say Off of Old Doors" (SHADOWS 2) in all that these stories deserve to , suspicious enough not to take them which Carver, dead for twenty-seven have said. at face value. years, finds his way to the funeral There is nothing aiibiguous about Humor is hard to do, and most home where his future awaits him. Philip Dick's delightful "The Exit attempts at it succeed only in be- "Dead End", by Richard Christian Door Loads In" (ROLLING STONE COL- ing light. Often that's enough, as Matheson, also in SHADOWS 2, is like it is with Brian Lumley's "Cryptic- one LEGE PAPERS 1) . Bob Bibleman is of the best of the old TWILIGHT ally Yours" (SAD IV) the involuntarily recruited into a top- , epistolary ZONE stories: A couple, who are secret military academy and gets story of a battle between a power- not doing so well in their marriage, just as involuntarily booted out. mad sorcerer and his unsuspecting find themselves endlessly wandering But in the process, Dick turns the colleagues . Barry N. Malzberg and the hills near Los Angeles, always tables on readers who expect it to Bill Pronzini do an excellent send- running into the same dead end. up of Poe in "Clocks" (SHADOWS 2) be an anti-establishment story. It Unlike the bulk of the stories which wavers between being serious isn't exactly pro -establishment, in SHADOWS Manly Wade Wellman's and funny. Funny is better, in 2, either --it does, however, force "The Spring" isn't really trying this case. And in "Life Among the you to think about the meaning of for terror or shock. His Appalach- Brain Stealers" (ANALOG Dec), Fred- trust ian folk are too lovable, even the erick William Croft finds a diabol- villains, for a reader to fear them FRIENDLY ALIENS ically clever advertising method -- much. It's a warm if dangerous Two old men find warmth and that has side effects. 56 world he has created, and I love . every visit there. Lord of the Royalties or ... or ... order to save the life of the son of ...." Steve Rasnic Tern is a poet; I'm or (F§SF Dec). The title is her friends; and Manly Wade Well- -- glad to see he is also an excellent sufficient review of the story man's "The Edge of the World" is a ivriter o£ fiction. He has two stor- it never gets above that level. rollicking good swashbuckler that The main problem would be the envy of Rafael ies in OTHER WORLDS 1, and both are with Russ's view Sabat- good. In "Hideout", McMahon goes of heroic fantasy -- and the problem ini. (The last three appeared in back in time to try to get his young with many reviewers' tendency to SAD IV.) self to avoid the miseries he knows ridicule what they do not understand lie ahead -- but he finds that his --is that all fiction requires a As usual, I have a couple of old is inpenetrably bull-headed, willing suspension of disbelief. self stories left over after I've run and even nastier than he had remem- Some people can suspend their dis- out of categories. Jay A. Parry is bered. And "The Painters belief for some things, others for Are Coming a friend and sometime collaborator Today" is a strange but wonderful others, but there is no fiction of mine; I admit the- bias and still story housepainters whatsoever that cannot be ridiculed about who come recommend to vou "Gods in the Fire, unbidden to beautify with equal unintelligence by someone a neighborhood, Gods in the Rain" (CHRYSALIS as who is incapable of understanding it 5) residents and all. a sensitive portrayal of what life What Mark Twain did to Fenimore might be like after a complete econ- Paul H. Cook is another poet, Cooper could with equal ease be omic collapse in America. Marta with a respectable reputation in done to Mark Twain. Ridicule is the Randall posits an equally oppressive, little literary magazines. He has most useless and self-debasing form deprived society in "The Captain also sold an excellent novel, TINT- of criticism. Joanna Russ has often and the Kid" (UNIIERSE 9), a sent- AGEL, to Berkley; his story "Char- proved herself capable of much bet- imental but not maudlin stoiy about acter Assassin" in OTHER WORLDS 1 ter -- she should leave the child- an aging ship captain who is sick to is a foretaste of the originality ish antics to reviewers of less ab- death of earthside life and wants and good \v’riting that can be expect- ility. her spaceship back again. ed from Cook in the future. In the story a lover of literature finds A story that would be quite des- OK, Dick. Come out with the that every world that a writer cre- picable to Russ is Charles Saunders's nails. I see the cross is read>^. Card went over the space limit ates really comes into existence "Mai-Kulala" (SAD IV) , and for pret- somewhere -- and a madman named Far- ty good reason. Saunders writes again, worse than ever, and the col- aday is going around ruining the well, and the story is very enter- umn is a week late. This time, at endings of the stories. taining; but I keep wishing his least, can I have the middle cross? main character would turn into a hu- Alan R)'an esq^lores the horrors man being who once had parents and of getting stuck, day after day, in ( (I was reserving that spot for El- who isn't always so damn strong and the linens department of Macy's in ton Elliott. But if you insist. . . )) so remarkably purposeless --a com- "Sheets" (CHRYSALIS while David 5), mon failing in heroic fantasy. Bischoff gives us a delightfully perverted performance of HAMLET in Another frequent problem with "All the Stage, a World" (CHRYSALIS fantasy is the attenpt at high lang-

5) . When the show is over, however, uage. Ursula LeGuin may have cal- the iirprovisers don't necessarily led for formal English in her essay get "From applauded. Elfland to Poughkeepae" , but I assure all would-be fantasists Another fine stoiy^ about a per- that high language is not achieved former is .Alan I^-an's "The Last by tossing in a few forsooths and Performance of Kobo Daishi" (OTHER convoluting the grammar of your dia- WORLDS 1) . First published by Roy logue. Despite some unfortunate Torgeson, Ih^an has found many STORIES REVIEWED THIS ISSUE other dialogue that falls into such absurd- editors who appreciate his gifts; Listed by publication in which the ities, Jayge Carr's "The Pavilion this stor>", however, is his finest. story first appeared. IVhere All Times Meet" (OTHER WORLDS It is a delicately wrought Japanese 1) is a well-written, compelling fantasy that creates a jester and MAGAZINES (genre) fantasy about the man without a the intriguing enperor he performs past and the woman without a future. ANALOG for. (Carr also wrote a Malthusian night- Nov. "Old Friends", Kevin O'Don- HEROIC FANTASY mare story entitled, appropriately, nell, Jr. "Malthus's Day", which appeared in Dec. "The Tfoon Goddess and the Joanna Russ doesn't like heroic the November OMNI. She is a very Son", Donald Kingsbury; "Life fantasy, for perfectly valid reas- talented writer who does not always Among the Brain Stealers", Fred- ons of taste. In fact, the reasons stick with the trendy viewpoint when erick William Croft she has expressed in reviews in FAN- she deals with "pertinent social TASY AND SCIENCE FICTION are precise- DESTINIES issues".) Starless in the ly the reasons why I hate so much Oct. -Dec. "Go Roger Zelazny heroic fantasy nyself. Unfortunate- With space waning, I can only Night", ly, she has somehow got herself in briefly mention four other fine her- ETERNITY the awkward position of expressing oic fantasies: Roger Zelazny's "A No. 1. "A Knight for Meiy'tha", her tastes as if they were absolute Knight for Merytha" (ETERNITY 1) in Roger Zelazny; "Through a Wall standards --as if, because she which the maiden in distress is not and Back", David R. Bunch can't get over her problems with all she seems to be; Gordon Linzner's the genre, no intelligent person "The Ballad of Borrell", the story GALAXY George should. And nowhere is the result of a father with two sons, one of 39:11. "A Beast for Nom", of this more unfortunately express- his body and one of his heart; Diana R.R. Martin; "A Little Girl's ed than in her silly parotfy "Dragons Paxson's "The Dark Kfother", in which Spring Day in Nfoderan", David Bunch and Dimwits or There and Back Again; a woman sacrifices something far GALILEO A Publishers' Holiday or Why Did I more valuable to her than life in Nov. "Daisy, in the Sun", Connie Do It? or Much Ado About Magic or 57 Willis . : , FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION "The Edge of the World", Manly Wade "ilie Thirteenth Utopia", Somtow Nov. "Demystification of Circum- Wellman. Sucharitkul (ANALOG, Apr.) He is stance", Barry N. Malzberg called to destroy a perfect soc- UNIVERSE 9 (Doubleday, Ed. Terry Dec. "Wives", Lisa Tuttle; iety -- and finds that this one is Carr) : "Frost Animals", Bob Shaw; "Angelica", Jane Yolen; "Dragons indestructible. "Nuclear Fission", Paul David Novit- and Dimwits ..." Joanna Russ ski; "The Captain and the Kid", Mar- "Hero", Neal Barrett, Jr. (FS)SF, ta Randall; ISAAC ASINDV’S SCIENCE FICTION MAG- "The IVhite Horse Child", Sep . ) He comes back from the wars AZINE Greg Bear; "Options", John Varley. but his life can never quite be Oct. "Mandalay", John M. Ford; normal again. "A Day in Mallworld", Somtow Such- "The Emerald", Donald Barthelme aritkul (ESQUIRE, Nov.) A noble alien OMNI card's choice sires a sentient emerald on a simp- or Oct. "Rent Control", Walter Tevis le American woman, who must strug- Nov. "Malthus's Day", Jayge Carr THE ones i'd put IN A BEST-OF-THE" gle to preserve her child. Dec. "War Beneath the Tree", Gene YEAR ANTHOLOGY IF I WERE DOING ONE By Orson Scott Card "Wlien the Metal Eaters Come", David Wolfe Bunch (GALAXY, Oct.) To achieve With the hundreds of stories immortality, they have made their bodies metal, lliey just didn't MAGAZINES (Mainstream) published every year, very few SF readers bother trying to read them figure on death evolving, too. ESQUIRE all. Ktost stick with one or two Nov. "The Emerald", Donald magazines, or an occasional anthol- Fantasy : Barthelme ogy, or an occasional issue that ROLLING STONE COLLEGE PAPERS "Deux Amours d'Une Sorciere", Tanith contains a story by a favorite writ- No. 1. "The Exit Door Leads In", Lee (SWORDS AGAINST DARKNHSS IV, er. Unfortunately, this means that Zebra) : She uses sorcery to win Philip K. Dick few readers have a feel for the the love of a man she doesn't know; genre's short fiction as a whole. and finds she has chosen the wrong ANTHOLOGIES I began writing this column a bit subject. CHRYSALIS 5. (Zebra, Ed. Roy Torg- over a year ago in order to provide Center", Susan a handy-dandy guide to the short eson), "Returning to "The Hero Who Returned", Gerald Page Janice Anderson; "Sheets", Alan Ifyan; fiction. I have deliberately not (HEROIC FANTASY, DAW) : He believes "My Head", Timothy Robert limited nyself to my own preferences; Father's his wife despises him, and embarks Sullivan; "Portrait for a Blind Man", I have tried to point out the best on a quest from which none has Karl stories each quarter in every camp Hansen; "Nightbird at the Win- ever returned. dow", Pat Murphy; "Comets and Kings", and subgenre of science fiction and Somtow Sucharitkul; "All the Stage, a fantasy. Even when I hated a story, "Jumping the Line", Grania Davis

World", David F. Bischoff; "The Faces if I suspected that one group would (F§SF, July) : Life is a line of Nfen", Glenn Chang; "Gods in the like it, I said so. In short, I waiting for God knows what or how Fire, Gods in the Rain", Jay A. have tried to enable the reader who long; but don't count on getting Parry wants to keep up with the best in in when you get there. short fiction to do so without spend- "The IVhite Horse Child", Greg Bear NEW DIMENSIONS 9. (Harper ^ Row, Ed. ing all his time reading everything. (UNIVERSE Robert Silverberg) ; "The Pathways 9, Doubleday): That of Desire", Ursula K. LeGuin; "The Whether I have achieved that ob- old man and that old lady know Rauncher Goes to Tinker Town", Tim- jective is one of the great unknow- stories --if your aunt will let othy Robert Sullivan; "Crossing the ables. But now, at the end of my you hear them. Wastelands", Jeff Hecht; "Last", first full calendar year of doing "Rent Control", IValter Tevis (OMNI Michael Conner. this, I want to point out to you Oct ) They find that when two the ones that I think are the very . OTHER (Zebra, lovers touch, time does indeed WORLDS 1 Ed. Roy Tor- finest. Award material. The most still. geson) : "Fire from the Wine-Dark stand iirportant stories you could read, Sea", Sucharitkul; Bird- Somtow "The if you were only reading a few doz- chaser", James E. Thonpson; "The en. And, just to get it off my Pavilion Where All Times Meet", chest, I have also included my pers- Jayge "Hideout" and "The Paint- Carr; onal choices in several other Hugo NOVELETS ers Coming Today", Steve Rasnic Are categories. All of it just this Tem; "The Last Performance of Kobo Science Fiction : writer's opinion, of course, but "The Character Daishi", Alan Ryan; these were the works that pleased "The Faces of Nfen", Glenn Chang Assassin", H. Cook. Paul me most this year. (CHRYSALIS 5, Zebra): There's a danger in going native -- even SHADOWS 2 (Doubleday, Ed. Charles L. the natives' might not want you. Grant) : "The Spring", Manly Wade Wellman; "Mackintosh Willy", Ramsey "The Way of Cross and Dragon", Geor^ SHORT Campbell; "Clocks”, Barry N. Malz- STORIES R. R. Martin (OMNI , June) : He went Bill Pronzini; "The Closing berg and Science Fiction : to stamp out a heresy, and found Off of Old Doors", Peter D. Pautz; it beautiful. (Martin's "Sand- "Can These Bones Live?" Ted Rey- "Dead End", Richard Christian Math- kings" in the August OMNI is more nolds (ANALOG, Mar.) The last eson; "Seasons of Belief, Michael likely to win awards, but in ny woman on earth is given one wish. Bishop; "Petey", T.E.D. Klein. opinion, "Cross and Dragon" was "Go Starless bring SWORDS AGAINST DARKNESS IV (Zebra, in the Night", Roger the more difficult story to Zelazny (DESTINIES 1:5, Oct- Dec) off well, and the more rewarding Ed. Andrew J. Offutt) : "Mai Kulala”, A frozen man is brought to life to read.) Charles R. Saunders; "The Ballad of without any of his senses -- and Borrell", Gordon Linzner; "Deux "Palely Loitering", Christopher asked to trust strangers Amours d'Une Sorciere", Tanith Lee; Priest (F§SF, Jan.): A boy plays "Cryptically Yours", Brian Lumley; games with time, and somehow just "The Dark Mother", Diana L. Paxson; 58 misses finding his destiny. : : :

"Nfy Father's Head", Timothy Robert Fantasy : Sullivan (CHRYSALIS 5, Zebra): HARPIST IN THE WIND, Patricia McKil- It doesn't pay to love your father lip (Atheneum) when you have to kill him the day THE DEAD ZONE, Stephen King (Viking) lose virginity. you your TALES OF NEVERYON, Sameul R. De- "Camps", Jack Dann (F§SF, May) lany (Bantam) There are many kinds of pain you Commentary : can suffer in a hospital. THE LANGUAGE OF THE NIGHT, Ursula "Chrysalis Three", Karen G. Jollie K. LeGuin (Putnam) (CHRYSALIS 3, Zebra) : He loves his friend, not because he is a Art : superman, but in spite of that. A TOLKIEN BESTIARY, David Day (Del Rey) Fantasy : AGE OF DREAMS, Alicia Austin "The Tale of Gorgik", Samuel R. De- MASTER SNICKUP'S CLOAK, Alexander lany (ASIMOV'S SF ADVENTURE, Sum- Theroux/Brian Froud (Harper § Row') mer; also, TALES OF NEVERYON, Ban-

tam) : He rose from slavery to EDITORS power -- losing freedom all along the way. Roy Torgeson, CHRYSALIS, OTHER WORLDS

"The Man Who Walked Through Cracks", Ed Ferman, FANTASY § SCIENCE FICTION R.A. Lafferty (CHRYSALIS 3, Zebra) David Hartwell, Pocket Books. Reality just isn't what it used to be -- but it can be fun messing ARTISTS: it up. Don Maitz, cover for THE ROAD TO "The Last Performance of Kobo Daishi" CORLAY (Cowper, Pocket) Richard Anderson, interior art for Alan Ryan (CTHER WORLDS 1 , Zebra) : With grace and restraint, both ANALOG throughout 1979 f^an and the court jester create Ian Miller, in A TOLKIEN BESTIARY their finest works to date. (Day, Del Rey) "The Things That Are Gods", John NBV WRITERS: Brunner (ASI>DV'S SF ADVENTURES,

Fall) : Beware of what you duirp Karen G. Jollie, "Chrysalis Three" in lakes; and don't grant wishes (CHRYSALIS 3) that might conflict with each Timothy Robert Sullivan, "My Father's other. Head" (CHRYSALIS 5); "The Rauncher Goes to Tinker Town" (NBV DIMEN- SIONS 9) Barry Longyear, "Enemy Mine" (lA's entire NOVELLAS : (There are too few here fm Sep . ) ; and forgiving the to bother with categories) Nbmus series in lA's fm. Connie Willis, "Homing Pigeon" (GAL- "Enemy Mine", Barr\' Long>'ear (ISAAC ILEO July); "Daisy, in the Sun" ASIMOV'S science' FICTION MAGAZINE, (GALILEO Nov.) Sep.): A man and an alien, ene- Jay A. Parry, "Gods in the Fire, mies, are forced to depend on each Gods in the Rain" (CHRYSALIS 5) other for survival. Paul H. Cook, "The Character Assas- "The Dancer in the Darkness", Thomas sin" (OTHER WORLDS 1) F. Nbnteleone (NEIV VOICES 2, Jove) So if you're wondering what in She longs to dance the one flamen- the world to read; if you stare at co dance that will kill her. your stack of magazines and anthol- CANNED MEA T "The Moon Goddess and the Son", Don- ogies wondering where to begin; then A SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL ald Kingsbury (ANALOG, Dec.): The these are my suggestions as to good BY RICHARD E. GEIS moon is all she has dreamed of, stories, good writers, good books and good editors with. in this story where fathers bend to begin Life in a computer-run domed their children's lives. It was a good year for science city and the failing civiliza- "The Story Writer", Richard Wilson fiction and fantasy. But judging tion of which it is a part. galleys I've read of (DESTINIES, Apr. -June): His tales from already Roi and Eelia, two young citi- bend the fabric of reality. books coming up, 1980 is going to zens of the dome, two children be even better. In particular, I BOOKS: of Great Mother Computer, meet suggest that you watch for the re- and experiment with forbidden (I don't pretend to have read lease of Gene Wolfe's new novel, sex. every novel published this year, THE SHADOW OF THE TORTURER, when it Covers and interior illustra- but these are rny favorites) comes out from Simon and Schuster next May, with a wraparound cover by tions by Bruce Conklin Science Fiction : Don Maitz. I have read it, and with- $5. ENGINE SUMMER, John Crowley (Doub- out doing a whole review right here, Order from: leday) let me simply say that it is the Science Fiction Review THE ROAD TO CORLAY, Richard Cowper best science fiction or fantasy nov- FOB 11408 (Pocket) el I have ever read; and I don't say Portland, OR 97211 TRANSFIGURATIONS, Michael Bishop that lightly. (Berkley) 59 ************************************ . . . THE HUMAN HOTLINE S-F NEWS BY ELTON T. ELLIOTT

Remember the address for this column is: Elton T. Elliott, SFR, 1899 Wiessner Dr. N.E., Salem, OR, 97303.

sales on the third issue. Davis Pub- healthy number considering "experts" SPECIAL flAGAZINE SECTIQti lications indicates that sales fig- were predicting its demise within a (^fcnthly) ANALOG ures on the fourth issue will deter- year of its first issue. The January, 1980 issue, marked mine the magazine's future. # STARLOG/FUTURE LIFE the 50th anniversary of ANALOG, (Quarterly) (STARLOG -- ^bnthly) first published by Clayton as AS- # DESTINES (FUTURE LIFE -- 8 yearly) TOUNDING STORIES OF SUPER SCIENCE, DESTINIES #6 has been moved from then as ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FICTION January to February, the third post- Rumors indicate that publishers and later as ANALOG. Under the ed- ponement since the magazine's incep- and staff are spread too thin, with itorship of John W. Campbell Jr. tion. Being through a paperback pub- S-^ magazines and multiple projects. from 1937 to his death in 1971, the lisher, they can afford this luxury Several sources (not connected with magazine became the leader of the that a newsstand magazine, with dis- the STARLOG staff) say they are con- SF field. Canpbell found and shap- tribution orders to fulfill, cannot. sidering going into full- feature ed many of the most famous SF writ- films, requiring enormous capital (Bimonthly) ers. Ben Bova took over until mid- a ETERNITY and a larger staff. 1978, when Stanley Schmidt became The second issue includes novel- THE STARLOG SF YEARBOOK is out. the fifth editor in the magazine's ettes by Orson Scott Card, John Shir- a ARES history; both continued Cairpbell's ley and Benton McAdams, and short goal of developing new writers stories by Grant Carrington, Janet Simulations Publications, Inc. Fox and Robert Anthony Cross. Feat- has announced a new bi-monthly mag- In the upcoming anniversary year. ured is an interview with Gregory azine, ARES, subtitled THE MAGAZINE Editor Schmidt has decided on a yean Benford, a film column by Ed Bryant, OF SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY SIM- long gala with appearances of many Science column by Karl T. Pflock and ULATION, to start with the March/Apr authors and artists associated with Books by Orson Scott Card. issue. The 8 1/4 x 11" 40-page mag- the magazine. On file are stories azine will have a process cover, two by Clifford D. Simak, Gordon R. By subscription only; 4 issues/$6 color interior with full-page illus- ETERNITY Dickson, George 0. Smith and Mack to: SCIENCE FICTION, POB trations and will contain; Reynolds and others. The annivers- #510, Clemson, SC, 29631. ary issue itself contains fiction 1. A fantasy/science fiction sim- FICTION by Isaac Asimov and Ben Bova and has # FANTASY & SCIENCE ulation game with an 11" by 17" play a cover by Paul Lehr. Other artists A fire at the fulfillment house, ing map and 100 counters. include Kelly Freas, Vincent DiFate, which mails subscription copies for 2. A background story, possibly John them and for ISAAC ASIMOV'S, caused Schoenherr and others. illustrated,, to acconpany the game. problems with the October issues. According to Editor Schmidt, Ana- 3. Two or three 3,000 to 6,000- log Books will continue. The con- # OMNI word short stories with payment of tract calls only for paperbacks, Ben Bova has been named Executive 6(j: per word paid on acceptance to through Ace Books. Baronet will Editor replacing Frank Kendig, who "established writers" for first not be involved in the new line, resigned in favor of a writing ca- North American serial rights. Not- edited by ANALOG'S Editor Schmidt. reer. Robert Sheckley has taken ov- ice of acceptance within 45 days. er as Fiction Editor. if AMAZING & FANTASTIC (Quarterly) 4. Articles on science fiction/ The latest AMAZING is totally orig- SF CHRONICLE reported in its Jan- fantasy simulation games -- criti- inal, and it is said they are phas- uary issue: "Current readership cism, hints on play, new scenarios,

studies indicate OMNI ' s readership etc. ing out all reprints , and are buying new material. stands at over 3,000,000 readers." -- 5. A number of regular columns Bova maintains it will increase. (kbnthly) book reviews, media reviews, philo- a ASMIOV'S Note: The three-million figure re- (Non- Subscription) sophy , etc lates only to estimated readers ,

They are maintaining their sales and has nothing to do with an actual 6 . Science fact articles lead over ANALOG. However, the com- near-million sales figure, still a This info provided courtesy of panion magazine, ASIMOV'S ADVENTURES^ Managing Editor, Michael Moore, who has been postponed because of poor 60 adds, "We're hoping that some of the . : . stories might develop as simulation City University. Other pseudonyms; will publish the first edition of games (with royalties, to the auth- "Alan Burt Akers" is Kenneth Bulmer, Robert A. Heinlein's latest novel, or) . as reported in the January 1980 is- THE NUMBER OF THE BEAST. Address: ARES, Simulation Publi- sue of FANTASY NEWSLETTER. The Buck cations, Inc., 257 Park Avenue South, Rogers adaptations from the TV' ser- BQQOiQia New York, NY, 10010. ies, was written for Dell by Rich- ard A. Lupoff, under the name of Ad- # ACE MOVIE NEWS dison E. Steele, according to a Dell February : According to CBS news, David Be- ad. Is "Bill Starr" really Brian gelman, o£ illegal check- writing Daley? If anybody has info on un- Ursula K. LeGuin 8 Virginia Kidd . . fame, was appointed head of MGM. Be- known pseudonyms, please write me (Eds.) (Trade Paperback) .. INTERFACE

Lynn , . THE gelman previously was an independ- and I will try to authenticate. Abbey DAUGHTER OF BRKKI ent producer. (Me of his latest KDON Speaking of "John Norman": projects was AIR RAID from the Hugo - William E. Ctochrane. .CLASS SIX CLIMB A 22-year-old male, Robert Terhune, and-Nebula-nominated short story by Axel Madsen UN I SAVE has been accused of murdering a 16- John Varley. Varley was working as Gordon R. Dickson DORSAI! year-old female, Paula Ashbaugh. script consultant at the time of Be- Colin Kapp . .THE WIZARD OF ANHARITTE During the trial Terhune testified gelman's appointment. Mr. Begelman March: that he was an avid Gor reader, and saved Colt^ia Pictures, with the then "had fantasies of tying up and Lynn Abbey THE BLACK FLA^E help of Steven Spielberg's CLOSE EN- dominating neighborhood girls" (Trade Paperback, unrelated to the COUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND, but lost (from an article in L(XUS #228). Stanley G. Weinbaum novel of the his job when it was found he had The name of the town was not given. same name.) against Cliff Richard- forged checks Jerry E. Poumelle JANISSARIES others. Lovin, son and if Roger 38, SF novelist, Reginald Bretnor (Ed.).. THE SPEAR OF including the recent novel, APOSTLE, No word on how Begelman' s new job .. MARS: THE FUTURE AT WAR VOL. 2 (Starblaze) was arrested in New Or- will affect AIR RAID, which Doug Robert W. Prehoda ...YOUR NEXT FIFTY leans on obscenity charges. A prior Trumbull is set to direct. (Non-fiction) YEARS arrest was on pornography charges. Gordon R. Dickson. . SOLDIER, ASK NOT to STAR TREK was packing them in James Patrick Baen (ED. ),.,.THE BEST # publi sher' s .notes. the tune of $12 million in the first FIWl IF; VOL. 4

three days , with BLACK HOLE drawing Random House, owners of Ballantine considerably less, although both re- Books and its SF imprint, Del Rey April : ceived very poor movie reviews. Books, is up for sale by its parent Larry Niven THE PATCHIVORK GIRL conpany R(A, reportedly as an RCA U (Trade Paperback) ITEMS OF INTEREST consolidation effort. Charles Sheffield ,. THE WEB BETWEFN Forry Ackerman donated his multi- Ballantine Books, in the meantime, THE WORLDS million-dollar collection of SF/fan- has signed a distribution agreement Spider Robinson .... THE BEST OF ALL tasy, movie books, films and memor- with Warner Books. POSSIBLE WORLDS abilia to the city of Los Angeles. Bill Adler 5 Co FUTURESCOPE! L.A. City Librarian Wyman Jones term- a Anne McCaffrey's books, DRAGON- Robert Silverberg INVADERS FRC^I ed it "priceless" and "the world's SONG and DRAGONSINGER, (Bantam Books) . . . EARTH/TO WORLDS BEYOND best". L.A. Mayor Tom Bradley of- have totalled 600,000+ copies in Nbrion Ziimner Bradley: ficially conmended Forry and the print. STAR OF DANGER December 8 Los Angeles Times carried Lou Stathis left the assistant THE PLANET SAVERS the story. a editorship at Dell Books. 'IHE SWORD OF ALDONES As SF literature becomes more ac- THE WINDS OF DARKOVER Darrell Schweitzer has signed cepted, SF collections will gain in if THE WORLD IVRECKERS with value a six-book development contract James Patrick Baen (Ed) .DESTINIES #7 Starblaze Books, says Hank Stine, titles: THE PURPLE PTER- ff The Perry Rhodan series at is- new Starblaze editor. Upcoming sue #137 in America, is dead. Ac- ODACTYLS by L. Sprague de Carp, a St. Martin's has bought a new cording to Wendayne Ackerman the Ger- ^ collection of stories featuring Wil- novel by Allen Wold, STAR- GOD. mans sinply wanted too much money. ly Newbery, and EXPANDED UNIVERSE by a NAL/Signet has started their Itobert A. Heinlein. # Correction : From Elaine Hamp- hardcover line again. No info on ton of KCET: "In re: SFR #33 -- U AVON whether they will publish SF again. Cosmos is a KCET/BBC production -- DAW Books, also part of NAL, now Page Cuddy is now Editor- in-Chief the same (or at least some of the) has a hardback option, although of the science fiction line, in ad- people who worked on THE ASCENT OF DAW'S publisher, Donald A. Wollheim dition to being Senior Editor. She MAN series." has repeatedly denied these rumors. is an experienced publishing editor, # David Lubkin has just sold a has attended many SF conventions and a Rumor has it that Dell, Berk- story to F8SF. He edits a 'zine, is building ip the Avon line by sev- ley and Ace are cutting back their CLARITY, and runs a workshop for eral book purchases, including MAC- SF programs. "Midwest Would-be Skiffy Pulp Auth- ROLIFE by George Zebrowski. ors", open to anyone with a "demon- Britain : Penguin has bought stratable interest in selling SF § the first three Well World books by U BANTAM professionally". If interested, Jack L. Chalker: MIDNIGHT AT THE February : contact: David Lubkin, 416 S. Fran- WliLL OF SOULS, EXILES AT THE WELL cis, Lansing, MI, 48912. Anne McCaffrey DRAGON DRUMS OF SOULS and QUEST FOR THE WEU OF Jack C. Hal deman I I... PERRY'S PLANET Brian W. Aldiss recently re- SOULS. A fourth, THE RETURN OF NA- ^ David Brin SUNDIVER turned from China, where he inter- THAN BRAZIL, was published by Del Thomas M. Disch. ..CAMP CONCENTRATION viewed Premier Deng Xiaoping. Rey, January, 1980, Ray Bradbuiy..THE MARTIAN CHRONICLES

Pennames : "John Norman" is real- In February, New English Library # March ly John Lange, Professor of Philo- sophy at (jueens College of the N.Y. 61 John Crowley ENGINE SUNWER . : .

Boris § Arkady Strugatski .... SNAIL April : WATCHTOWER, paperback, by # DOUBLEDAY ON INE SLOPE Elizabeth Lynn, the first book in a February : (Intro by Darko Suvin) trilogy; the second, THE DANCERS OF

April : ARUN, will be in paper in July. The A.E. Van Vogt.. THE COSMIC CONNECTION concluding volume, THE NORTHERN GIRL, Jack Dann TIME-TIPPING Frederik Pohl JEM will be in hardcover in May. H. Warner Munn THE LOST LEGION Robert E. Howard.. THE ROAD TO AZREAL (paper) L. Sprague de Cajrp . . . CONAN AND THE Upcoming titles: WINDOWS # POCKET (Tentative title) SPIDER GOD and ASCENDANCIES (hardcover) by D.G. February : Conpton. Book Four in the River- ICEQUAKE, a thriller disaster nov- world series, THE MAGIC LABYRINTH by Pamela Sargent WATCHSTAR el by Crawford Killian, is scheduled Philip Jose Farmer, will be a June (Hardcover in. May by SF Book Club) for February. Killian's first book hardcover. Damon Knight's first nov- Jan Mark THE ENNEAD was SF, THE EMPIRE OF TIME, Del Rey, el in a decade, THE WORLD AND THOR- D.G. Conpton ... THE UNSLEEPING EYE 1978. MAN PLUS by Frederik Pohl RIN, will be a fall hardcover. Charles L. Harness .... THE CATALYST will be reissued this spring. Keith Laumer THE BEST # DAW Other upcoming titles: ON WINGS OF KEITH LAUMER OF SONG, the new novel by Thomas M. Daw will be moving to the same ad- March : Disch, and an anthology edited by dress as Signet/NAL: 1633 Broadway, Disch and Samual R. Delany; LITTLE New York, NY, 10019. F.M. Busby THE DEMU TRILOGY BIG, L. Sprague de Canp..THE GREAT FETISH a novel by John Crowley; a Co- SABELLA, by Tanith Lee is to be nan Robert Stallman THE ORPHAN novel by Poul Anderson. released in the spring, and a new First Jack Vance. THE EYES OF THE OVERWORLD in a series inspired by E.E. novel by Stephen Tall, THE PEOPLE John Sladek..THE REPRODUCTIVE SYSTEM "Doc" Smith's Lensman tales, is WOR- BEYOND THE WALL, plus Ron Goulart's SEL LENSMAN, by David Kyle. new novel, LOST ILLUSIONS. April : # BARONET # DELL Chelsea Quinn Yarbro. ARIOSTO FURIOSO Baronet will begin a series of 12 David Skal THE SCAVENGERS February : Harlan Ellison titles in the spring, Gardner R. Dozois § Jack Dann (Ed. ) with THE GLASS TEAT and PAINGOD AND Spider § Jeanne Robinson. . .STARDANCE ALIENS! OTHER DELUSIONS. The ELRIC ILLUS- (The first part of this novel won D.G. Conpton THE STEEL CROCODILE TRATED will be done in the same fash- the Hugo and Nebula awards for Jerry E. Poumelle THE MERCENARY ion as their other illustrated books. best novella of 1977 — it's the second Dell SF title marketed as it SIMON & SCHUSTER H FAWCETT a Dell Science Fiction Special.) March : They have purchased a Thomas F. James Frenkel (Ed. )... BINARY STAR #4 Gene Roddenberry STAR TREK: Monteleone novel, NIGHT THINGS, for "Legacy".. Joan D. Vinge THE MOTION PICTURE $17,500. From Fawcett Gold Medal, "The Janus Equation".... April THE JANUS MAZE and FIRE AT THE CEN- ...Steven G. Spruill Alfred Bester GOLEM 100 TER by George Proctor. Philip K. Dick. THE PENULTIMATE TRUTH Upcoming titles : SONGS FROM THE Manly Wade Wellman WHO FEARS THE STARS by Norman Spinrad, THE VAMPIRE # HARPER & ROW DEVIL? TAPESTRY by Suzy McKee Chamas and February releases: THE BEGINNING March: THE SHADOW OF THE TORTURER by Gene PLACE, a fantasy by Ursula K. LeGuin, F.M. Busby ZELDS M'TANA Wolfe, also Gregory Benford 's TIME- NEBULA WINNERS: 13, edited by Samu- Bob Shaw MEDUSA'S CHILDREN SCAPE. el R. Delany and GALAXY MAGAZINE: (Re: The blurbs on this book, THIRTY YEARS OF INNOVATIVE SF, edit- the publicity release got one ed by Frederik Pohl, Martin Green- important plot detail wrong) ti APOLOGIES: berg and Joseph Olander. Hank Stine, Hugh B. Cave THE NEBULON HORROR Apologies for my comments on GAL- still GALAXY editor, says "It does AXY last issue. I did not mean that not contain what I believe are GAL- Hank Stine was at fault for GALAXY'S AXY'S best stories". # DIAL BOOKS lateness or lack of- payment. An ed- In April : LORD VALENTINE'S CAST- itor must have full cooperation from LE by Robert Silverberg. April : the publisher. Jeffrey Carver PANGLOR I apologize for ny comments in Phyllis Eisenstein BORN TO EXILE # BERKLEY SFR #31 about Andrew Porter and SF Marvin Kaye THE INCREDIBLE CHRONICLE. Hindsight has shown that February : FAITH OF TAROT, the UMBRELLA and SF CHRONIC- Tarot Mr. Porter was right third in Piers Anthony's tril- Keith Laumer Rosel George Brown. . 8 LE has evolved in four issuer into ogy. The first title, GOD OF TAROT, EARTHBLOOD an excellent news magazine. written as one long novel, was brok- March : en into three books by Jove editors Jakes and published in April, 1979. Berk- John § Gil Kane .... EXCALIBUR (By Dial Books, a house ley published the second, VISION OF hardcover associated with Dell) TAROT, in January. MAGIC TIME by

Kit Reed will be published in hard- April : Berkley-Putnam. cover by Joan D. Vinge THE SNOW QUEEN

March : Lead title will be TITAN Other upcoming releases : KINSMAN by John Varley. Varley's WIZARD, by Ben Bova, FIND THE CHANGELING by set in the same world as TITAN, will Gregory Benford and Gordon Eklund, -- be released in hardcover the CITY CISC A' WALKIN' by John Shir- third book of the series is schedul- ley, CIRCUMPOLAR! by Richard Lupoff, ed for 1981. Varley's second short and A PLANET CALLED TREASON by Ors- story collection will be out in the on Scott Card. fall. 62 . , , GALAXY MAGAZINE UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT

In an agreement dated December 13 , A UNIQUE STRATAFORM DESIGN HAS EDITOR KEMSKE ASSEMBLES THE SEC" tion on science fiction 1979, Universal Publishing and Dis- been developed for GALAXY's new on a simi- tributing Corporation has transfer- large page. A horizontal grid lar plan. The feature article is an interview with a science fic- red its right to publish GALAXY conprising three information lay- tion personality, an entertaining Magazine to GALAXY Magazine, Inc., ers makes the magazine graphical- review essay, or a nontechnical a corrpany organized in Boston and ly exciting without necessitating account of a science fiction chielfly owned by GALILEO Magazine. a surrender toward the growing in- con- cept. The modules are then book Ihder the contract, GALAXY Magazine, dustry trend toward shallow, rapid- or film reviews, photo essays, Inc. receives the current and past fire copy. "This is not design short biographies, SF history, or subscriber lists, the right to use for design's sake," says McCaf- anything else which relates to the name, and whatever reprint frey. "We have inportant reasons the future. rights are owned by Universal in for the strataform approach. This type of layered page lends itself previously published material. The THE FICTION SECTION CONSISTS OF to modular construction." Accord- new company has had to commit a five to six short stories. Kem- ing to McCaffrey, portion of the magazine's income modular construc- ske does not anticipate seriali- tion is well suited to a to Universal, but there has been no small zations (although he is interest- staff and enables cash payment. the magazine to ed in "series-type" stories). He cover topics in depth without hav- seeks a balance in each issue a- THE NEW COMPANY IS OWNED 90% BY ing to publish long and dense- look- mong humorous and serious work, GALILEO, a temporary custodial ar- ing articles. space adventure and robots, ali- rangement according to GALILEO'S ens and sports activities, str- publisher, Vincent McCaffrey. "We EACH OF THE THREE STRATA ON GAL- AXY's page carries independent ange planets and the far future. hope to attract new investors to copy which is closely related to GALAXY is not in the market for the venture," said NfcCaffrey, "in the copy in the other strata. A fantasy. The editorial errphasis order to build capital and provide reader can follow a particular is on adventure, but not to the a broader input into the manage- article along its band (which re- e.xclusion of thoughtful stories. ment." The other 10% of the com- mains the same from page to page) "My own taste," says Kemske, pany is owned by Universal. but is encouraged by the layout "does not run to pure space op- GALILEO WILL BE PROVIDING THE to sample the material which aris- era, but I do like adventure fic- management for the new company and es in other strata. tion." has announced that Floyd Kemske of BUDGET GALAXY the GALILEO staff is being install- FLOYD KEMSKE., THE NEW EDITOR OF THE EDITORIAL OF GALAXY, in implementing an editor- is higher than it was under the ed as GALAXY'S Editor. In addit- ial plan which conplements the previous management. Kemske pays ion, GALILEO plans some other strataform design. He divides the $100 to $250 for First World Ser- changes. The new GALAXY is bi- magazine into virtually independ- ial Rights (including a non- ex- monthly (published on the alter- ent sections, one for fiction and clusive option on anthology pub- nate months with GALILEO, which one each for science and science lication) on short fiction, de- is also bimonthly) . It is in a fiction commentary. Each section pendin gon the needs of the maga- large (8% x 11) format, rather is something of a magazine unto zine. Stories average 5000 words than its traditional digest size. itself. ut Kemske emphasizes a need for It is being designed for a college- shorter stories. GALAXY does not age readership, addressing a group THE FICTION SECTION WILL FUNCTION pay by the word. averaging five to ten years young- much as it has for thirty years, er than the GALILEO audience (which using the strataform page for REVIEWS ARE ACQUIRED BY THE NEW is approximately 29 years old on visual effect only. The other Review Editor, Noralie Barnett the average) . The magazine will two sections, however, will each who is seeking freelanced re- stress adventure in its fiction be based on a feature article ad- views of 500 to 750 words for and the selling price, being some- dressing a single topic in some both GALILEO and GiALAXY. Those what lower than that of GALILEO, depth. Tliis lead article will accepted for GALAXY will, be paid reflects the lower average income generally occupy the uppermost $15 to $25, depending on the of the younger readership. stratum on the page. In the oth- needs of the magazine. er two strata, there will be EDITOR^ WILL START PAYMENT ON FLOYD KEMSKE., GALAXY's NEW modules of copy which can be ED TEJA has been with the GALILEO organi- features for the science section read either as independent "shorts" zation for over three years. He at $100 for First World Serial or as glosses on the feature. has worked for GALILEO as Review Rights with a non-exclusive op- Editor and as "Coordinating Edit- galaxy's science EDITOR. ED TEJA. tion on anthology publication. or" and has been involved in vir- builds the science section of the Articles about science fiction tually every aspect of GALILEO'S magazine around a single concept. for the commentary' section are production at one time or another. For his main feature of each issue purchased for $100 on the same GALAXY will boast an enlarged sci- he is looking for nontechnical but basis. GALAXY will sometimes be ence section in the magazine, to well-informed writing addressed to able to pay more than $100 for be edited by Ed Teja, the newly the adventure of the future. He outstanding articles, but it ob- appointed Science Editor. Reviews then surrounds the feature with serves a $100 maximum on inter- will be edited by Noralie Barnett, five modules. Three of the modul- views , GALAXY makes payment on who has been appointed Review Ed- es — Careers, Words, and Nbvers publication. itor for both GALILEO and GALAXY. and Shakers — are planned as regu- Hank Stine, Editor of GALAXY be- lar columns, while the other two fore the reorganization, has been are flexible. Teja tailors each SAMPLE COPIES CAN BE OBTAINED for (which includes asked to be a contributing editor of the five modules to the main $1.50 post- with duties in the area of manu- feature age) from GALAXY, 339 Newbury' script acquisition and evaluation. street, Boston, MA 02115. 63 ;s .

SCIENCE FICTION REVIBV #17 In- SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #28 Inter- BACK ISSUES terview with George R. R. Martin; view with C.J. Cherryh; "Beyond Interview with Robert Anton Wilson; Genocide" by Damon Knight; ONE IM- THE ALIEN CRITIC "Philip K. Dick: A Parallax View” NDRTAL MAN— Conclusion; SF News; SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW by Terrence M. Green; "Microcos- SF film news § reviews. WO OTHER BACK ISSUES ARE mos" by R. Faraday Nelson. AVAILABLE SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #29 Inter- SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #18 In- $1.26 per aopy views with John Brunner, Michael terview with Lester del Rey; Inter- Nborcock and Hank Stine; "Noise EACH ISSUE CONTAINS MANY REVIEWS. view with Alan Burt Akers; "Noise Level" by John Brunner; SF News, EACH ISSUE CONTAINS LETTERS FROM Level" by John Brunner; "A Short SF film reviews. WELL-KNaVN SF § FANTASY WRITERS, One for the Boys in the Back Room" EDITORS, PUBLISHERS AND FANS. by Barry Malzberg. SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #50 Inter- views with Joan D. Vinge, Stephen FICTION REVIEW #19 In- THE FOLLOWING LISTINGS ARE OF SCIENCE R. Donaldson, and Norman Spinrad; Dick; Inter- FEATURED COWTRIBUTIONS terview with Philip K. "The Awards Are Coming!" by Orson "The view with Frank Kelly Freas; Scott Card; S-F News; Movie News. THE ALIEN CRITIC #5 Interview Notebooks of Mack Sikes" by Larry with Fritz Leiber; "The Literary Niven; "Angel Fear" by Freff; "The #31 Dreamers" by James Blish; "Irvin Vivisector" by Darrell Schweitzer. SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW Inter- with Andrew Offutt; "Noise Binkin Meets H.P. Lovecraft" by view J. Brunner; "On the Edge Jack Chalker. SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #20 In- Level" by John terviews with Theodore Sturgeon of Futuria" by Ray Nelson. THE ALIEN CRITIC #6 Interview and Joe Haldeman; "Noise Level" by SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #32 Inter- with R.A. Lafferrty; "The Trench- John Brunner; "The Vivisector" by view with Andrew J. Offutt, Part 2; ant Bludgeon" by Ted IVhite; 'Trans- Darrell Schweitzer; "The Gimlet Interview with Orson Scott Card; lations from the Editorial" by Eye" by Jolm Gustafson. "You Got No Friends in This World" Marion Z. Bradley. by Orson Scott Card; "The Human SCIENCE FICTION REVIEIV #21 In- Hotline" by Elton T. Elliott. ' THE ALIEN CRITIC #8 Tomorrow ' terviews with Leigh Brackett § Ed- Libido: Sex and Science Fiction" mond Hamilton, and with Tim Kirk; SCIENCE fiction REVIEW #35 Inter- by Richard Delap; "The Trenchh- "The Dream Quarter” by Barry Malz- view with Charles Sheffield; "A ' ant Bludgeon" by Ted White; "Ban- berg' "Noise Level" by John Brunner Writer's Natural Enemy--Editors" c^t Speech” by Robert Bloch; "Noise Level." "Noise Level" by John Brunner. SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #22 In- terview with John Varley; "S-F and BACK ISSUE ORDER FORM THE ALIEN CRITIC #9 "Reading S-E-X" by Sam Merwin, Jr.; "After- Heinlein Subjectively" by Alexei thoughts on Logan's Run" by Will- $1.25 EACH and Cory Panshin; "Written to a iam F. Nolan; "An Evolution of Con- Pulp!" by Sam Merwin, Jr.; "Noise sciousness" by Marion Zimmer Brad- Dear REG: I enclose $ . Level" by John Brunner; "The ley." Please send back issue [s] #S #6 Shaver Papers" by Richard S. Shav- #8 #9 #10 #11 #14 #15 #16 er. SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #23 In- #17 #18 #19 #20 #21 #22 #23 terviews with A. E. Van Vogt, #24 #25 #26 Circle #'s desired THE ALIEN CRITIC #10. .An Inter- Jack Vance, and Piers Anthony; [ ] view with Stanislaw Lem; "A Nest "The Silverberg That Was" by Rob- of Strange and Wonderful Birds" ert Silverberg. Science Fiction Review by Sam Merwin, Jr.; Robert Bloch's SUBSCRIPTION COUPON Guest Of Honor speech; The Hein- SCIENCE FICTION REVIEtV #24 In- lein Reaction. terviews with Bob Shaw, David G. All you have to do is fill it in Hartwell and Algis Budrys; "On Be- with your name and address (or THE ALIEN CRITIC #1 1 Interview ing a Bit of a Legend" by Algis that of someone you wish to de- with Avram David- > Founda- Budrys stroy), enclose money, and your

' Ow' life ( or that of the other vic- tion On S=>- ^ .,1 J. Alder- son; " lO Fan History" SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #25 In- tim) will never be the same. by La. ..aw. terviews with George Scithers, One 'fix ' of SCIENCE FICTION RE- Poul Anderson and Ursula K. Le VIEW and you will be hooked. SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #14 In- Guin; "Flying Saucers and the Sty- How else can you become so pleas- terview with Philip Jose Farmer; mie Factor" by Ray Palmer; ONE antly addicted as inexpensively? "Thoughts On Logan's Run" by Will- IM^CRTAL MAN- -Part One. iam F. Nolan; "The Gimlet Eye" by Dear REG; Start my subscription John Gustafson. SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #26 In- with issue # - terviews with Gordon R. Dickson SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #15 In- and Larry Niven; "Noise tevel". by $6.00 ONE YEAR / $12.00 TWO YEARS terview with L. Sprague de Carp John Brunner; "Fee-dom Road" by Name i. "Spec-Fic and the Perry Rhodan Richard Henry Kluirp; ONE INMORTAL Ghetto" by Donald C. Thompson; MAN- -Part Two. Address t "Uffish Ihots” by Ted IVhite. SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #27 Inter- SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #16 In- views with Ben Bova and Stephen City terview with Jerry Pourhelle; "The Fabian; "Should Writers Be Serfs... State Zip True and Terrible History of Sci- r Slaves?"; SF News; SF film news; ence Fiction" by Barry Malzberg; Interview; ONE IM-. The Ackerman SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW "Noise Level" by John Brunner; NDRTAL MAN- --Part Three. "The Literary Masochist" by Rich- P.O. Box 11408 ard Lupoff. Portland, OR 97211