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Home , Bridge of Birds, Charles de Lint, Cycle of the Werewolf, Jerry Pournelle, Kaspar Hauser, Lucius Shepard

SCIENCE FICTION SPRING T) 1TIT 7T171H T NUMBER 5 8 1986 Hill V J.-Hi VV $2.50 REVIEW (ISSN: 0036-8377) P.O. BOX 11408 FEBRUARY, 1986 --- Vol. 15, No. 1 PORTLAND, OR 97211 WHOLE NUMBER 58 PHONE: (503) 282-0381 RICHARD E. GEIS—editor & publisher PAULETTE MINARE', ASSOCIATE EDITOR COVER BY STEVEN FOX 50 EVOLUTION A Poem By Michael Hoy PUBLISHED QUARTERLY FEB., MAY, AUG., NOV. 4 ALIEN THOUGHTS 51 INTERVIEW: By Richard E. Geis NONE OF THE ABOVE SINGLE COPY - $2.50 Conducted By Neal Wilgus 8 THE ALTERED EGO By James McQuade 52 RAISING HACKLES By Elton T. Elliott SUBSCRIPTIONS 8 TEN YEARS AGO IN SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW SCIENCE FICTION - 1976 54 LETTERS P.O. BOX 11408 By Robert Sabella By Andy Watgon PORTLAND, OR 97211 Fernando 0, Gouvea 9 PAULETTE'S PLACE Carl Glover For quarterly issues #59-60-61: Book Reviews Lou Fisher $6.75 in USA (1986 issues). By Paulette Minare' Robert Sabella $7.00 Foreign. Orson Scott Card 10 A CONVERSATION WITH Christy Marx For monthly issues #62-73: Glen Cook $15.00 USA (1987). Edited By Earl G. Ingersoll David L. Travis $18.00 Foreign. Conducted By Nan Kress Darrell Schweitzer Sheldon Teitelbaum Canada & Mexico same as USA rate. 14 AND THEN I READ... Randy Mohr Book Reviews F.M. Busby 1986 issues mailed second class. By Richard E. Geis Steve Perry 1987 issues will be mailed 1st class Neil Elliott (Foreign will be mailed airmail 17 YOU GOT NO FRIENDS IN THIS Rob Masters WORLD Milt Stevens By Orson Scott Card ALL FOREIGN SUBSCRIPTIONS, INCLUDING CANADA AND MEXICO, MUST BE PAID IN 22 NOISE LEVEL Don Wollheim US$ cheques or money orders, except By John Brunner Ian Covell to subscription agencies. Tamar Lindsay 24 THE VIVISECTOR Robert A. W. Lowndes By Darrell Schweitzer 63 NEWS 27 SMALL PRESS MAGAZINES By Neal Wilgus Reviewed By IF YOU MOVE WE NEED YOUR FORMER ZIP- Darrell Schweitzer CODE AND YOUR NEW COMPLETE AP0RES~ NO ADVERTISING WILL BE ACCEPTED 28 SMALL PRESS NOTES ALL SUBSCRIPTIONS, NEW AND OLD, ARE By Richard E. Geis HONORED AND FULFILLED ON AN ISsUES Second Class Postage Paid NUMBER BASIS. 30 INTERVIEW: at Portland, OR 97208 J. NEIL SCHULMAN Conducted By Neal Wilgus Copyright (c) 1986 by Richard E. 38 ONCE OVER LIGHTLY Geis. One-time rights only have Book Reviews been acquired from signed or cred¬ By Gene DeWeese ited contributors, and all other rights are hereby assigned to the 40 OTHER VOICES contributors. Book Reviews By Fernando Q. Gouvea Dean R. Lambe SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW is published Alma Jo Williams at 1525 N.E. Ainsworth, Portland, Paul McGuire OR 97211 Steve Miller Riirmgus POSTMASTER: Send address changes Stuart Napier to SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW Robert Sabella POB 11408 Portland, OR 97211 Andy Watson Andrew Andrews 2 REVIEWS_ THE MAGIC CUP.45 INTERIOR ART_ BLACK SUITS FROM OUTER SPACE.9 THE YEAR'S BEST SCIENCE FICTION- TIM KIRK-2,4,14,22, HOUSE OF .9 SECOND ANNUAL COLLECTION.45 KURT REICHEL-5 OUT OF THE DARK WORLD.9 THE WITCHES OF EASTWICK.45 BRAD FOSTER-6,8,11,41,42,43,50,53, MAGICIAN: APPRENTICE.14 THE GNOME KING OF OZ.46 56,60 JAMES MCQUADE-8 THE BEASTS OF VALHALLA.14 THE GIANT HORSE OF OZ.46 ALEXIS GILLILAND-3,9,16,17,18,29,30, THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE STRANGE...14 JACK PUMPINHEAD OF OZ.46 ALL THESE EARTHS.14 DAYS OF GRASS.46 32,33,34,35,37,51,52,63, STAROAMER'S FATE.15 HUYSMAN'S PETS.46 ATOM-10,19,57 ENDER'S GAME.15 THE MOON AND THE FACE.46 UNKNOWN ARTIST—12 SPEAKER FOR THE DEAD.15 WOLF OF SHADOWS.47 ALLEN KOSZOWSKI-13,40 .15 FLIGHT FROM NEVERYON.47 GEORGE KOCHELL—15,27,58 FROST AND FIRE.15 DUNE—THE MOVIE.47 -20,21,24,31,36,39 ART TECHNIQUES.16 GALAPAGOS.48 44,45,47,50,54,55 WARRIOR WOMAN.16 ALWAYS COMING HOME.48 BOB BARGER-23 ECLIPSE.16 BEYOND ARMAGEDDON: 21 SERMONS TO RICK JANSEN-25 THE NEW DEVEL'S DICTIONARY.16 THE DEAD.48 MICHAL DUTKIEWICZ-26 EMILE AND THE DUTCHMAN.16 THE OF WHITENESS.48 OLE PETTERSON-39 ENCYCLOPEDIA OF OCCULTISM •DUENDE MEADOW.48 RANDY MOHR-59 AND PARAPSYCHOLOGY.16 THE LONG FORGETTING.49 SKELETON CREW.24 THE YEAR'S BEST HORROR STORIES: CHECKLIST AND BIBLIOGRAPHY OF Series XIII.49 LAST WORDS- THE FIRST APPEARANCES OF THE EYE: MASTERWORKS OF SCIENCE NOVELS AND SHORT STORIES OF FICTION AND FANTASY.49 A week ago I received a review .25 THE THIRD MILLENIUM: A HISTORY of a book which seemed so ex¬ VAMPIRE JUNCTION.25 OF THE WORLD AD 2000-3000.49 cessively pTaising and full of CYCLE OF THE .26 THE ONE CREW MANUAL.49 hype, that I wondered if the MONTHLY TERRORS.26 SHADOWS 8.49 reviewer was a friend of the SUPERNATURAL FICTION WRITERS: THE KING'S JUSTICE.50 author and was doing a puff job FANTASY AND HORROR.26 ENTERING SPACE: AN ASTRONAUT'S —at your expense. (You might THE DUNWICH HORROR.26 ODYSSEY.50 spend money on a lemon.) So I AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS.26 LIFE IN SPACE.50 read the book and discovered INTERZONE.27 SIGHTSEEING: A SPACE PANORAMA.50 was a very good book but not the FANTASY TALES.27 SATURNALIA.53 greatest novel since LORD OF THE FANTASY BOOK.27 THE FRANKENSTEIN PAPERS.53 RINGS. WONDER'S CHILD.53 WEIRDBOOK.27 And that set me to thinking. WHISPERS.27 NIGHTFLYERS.53 ECLIPSE.53 I have a rare perspective to MISTY AND THE SUN JEWEL.28 bring to reviewing: 50 years of HOLLOW EARTH APOCALYPSE— THE STARS WILL SPEAK.53 reading sf and fantasy, and 26 ASIMOV'S WARNING.28 THE PROTEUS OPERATION.53 years of professional fiction AURORA SF.28 NEBULA AWARDS 20.53 writing experience, combined with LIVING FREE.29 THE ALTERNATE ASIMOV'S.53 31 years of being in sf , —LIGHT FROM A LONE STAR29 and fan publishing. THE BOOK OF IAN WATSON.29 So, in the remaining quarter¬ REM: 3.29 ly issues of SFR, I'll be review¬ TRUMPS OF DOOM.37 NEXT ISSUE ing a wide range of publishers LIFEBURST.38 A CONVERSATION WITH FREDERIK and writers, and will continue KELLY COUNTRY.38 POHL that in the monthly SFR begin¬ BARNABY #1-2.38 INTERVIEW WITH 6 ning with January, 1987. In fact THE SCHOOL OF DARKNESS.38 JAMES P. BLAYLOCK the only reviewer in SFR, in 1987 THE PROTEUS OPERATION.38 Probably ORSON SCOTT CARD, will be me. There will be, as THE INTELLIGENT UNIVERSE.38 Gene DeWeese, Elton Elliott, ALL THESE EARTHS.39 Alter has dictated (See "Alien Darrell Schweitzer...and an Thoughts" this issue, page 4), NIGHTFLYERS.39 expanded review/comment role a controversial article or inter¬ BAAA.39 by Richard E. Geis. HUMAN ERROR.39 view in each 1987 issue, and a CONTACT.39 letter colurai probably full of THE CAT WHO WALKS THROUGH WALLS... 40 sound and fury. THE DOOR INTO OCEAN.40 All this is arrogant and ego¬ : THE X-MEN.40 tistic, I suppose, but I think WEST OF EDEN.41 my reviews are better. A VISION OF BEASTS: or I CATCH ME CREATION DESCENDING.41 lAJrTH UTOPIA HUNTERS.41 TRUE TALES OF THE UNKNOWN.41 PROTECTORATE.42 TO OPEN THE SKY.42 THE SCROLL OF MAN.42 THE MASTERS OF SOLITUDE.42 WINGS OF OMEN.42 WORLD OF A THOUSAND COLORS.43 JITTERBUG .43 BRIDGE OF BIRDS.43 THE CYBERNETIC SAMURAI.44 ADVENTURES.44 .44 SHIVA DESCENDING.44 oueo THOUGHTS | RICHARD E. GEIS |

BY SFR POSSESSED trying to wriggle out of your fate." Oh, no, Alter, even full, tenured -The Visitation- Which is worse than death! professors of English don't deserve that! You are reading a shaken man, "Don't be bitter. You know you "Maybe you're right. And it a man whose normal well-seated lid love publishing SFR." would only expose some present-day has been flapped. A man who has seen Well, sure, but I'm an old fan, sf and fantasy writers of note— the and who is...well...un¬ Alter, and tired. I've got aches even you, Geis---to renewed examina¬ changed . and pains. I deserve a rest. I Let me tell you what happened. deserve a— tion." I was lying in bed, listening to my "A kick in the ass! The attempt Yeah? I haven’t even been exam¬ police scanner, halfway following to bug out, to kill SFR while my back ined once. the progressions of this assault, was turned—that would have sent "Resist temptation! There are that holdup, the other B6E, while you to fanhell, Geis! As it is some kinds of egoboo even you must another part of my mind was focused there's a black mark on your inmortal eschew." on one year from now...Christmas, soul which I may—just may—be able God bless you. 1986. What would my life be then? to erase if you behave yourself for "Don't make bad puns! See, I've Would I be a free man, living a the rest of your natural time in this been back only a few days and already life without The Obligation—SFR? plane of existence. I'm free of all you're sounding a little like the Or would I be Chained again? guild obligations now, for the next old Geis. Now, let me explain to I had been having thoughts about twenty years at least, and I'll make the readership what the future will continuing SFR in an 8-page format sure your work continues." bring them. First---" similar to that of my personal journ¬ Tw-twenty years ? I knew I shouldn't have cleaned al, THE NKED ID. "It is Written, Geis! Don't com¬ up those shelves in the Archives. And then...and then...the Horror plain so damned much! Accept your I sat down and paged through those occurred. future with stoicism, with equanimi¬ ten-year-old layout pages moldering A voice spoke to me in my mind. ty, with good cheer! You'll go to in the comer behind the water pipe No, no, not God! Dear Ghod, how I your reward knowing you've fulfilled and that must have triggered some¬ wish it had been God. your obligation, obeyed the powers thing in my subconscious... It was...*Sob* it was--- that be, and saved science fiction "No, it was just that my tour in "Me, Alter-Ego! Back from mundan- from that ugly, deadly, horrifying Washington, DC was over and I tuned ity, back from a secret assignment. ogre named Literature. Isn't that into the Guild computer to see what Why is Geis so damned emotional about worth dedicating a lifetime to?" you were up to and---" this?" Is that what I've been doing? You'd be emotional, too Alter, "Of course! You've mocked and if you had lived for a few years free derided those infestuous and incestu¬ of— ous creatures called professors for "Don't interrupt! Geis thought decades. Why stop now?" he'd succeeded in banishing me, cast¬ But I deserve a rest! They keep ing me out. No way! Truth is, a few coming, year after year, and they years ago, I was called by my guild keep writing books and papers and to perform a service to the greater monographs and *Shudder* analyses... world, so I had to leave Geis to his "That's because they're almost own stupid devices. I see now that all of them anal-oriented. Stick I've returned what a mess he's made with me, Geis (Not that you have any of his life and of this magazine. choice in the matter, heh-heh), and Things will be different now. I'll eventually they'll all come down with put things to rights! Have no fear, Analysis Invalidation Disease Syn¬ fans, Alter-Ego is here!" drome. The day will come, Geis, Can't I even tell this my way? when even Lovecraft will be free of Do you have to constantly--- them. They'll skulk away from the "Yes, I do. My story is infin¬ genre and attack something else... itely more interesting than yours. maybe something they deserve...the They know what you've been up to for sex novels of 1959-1973." years---trying to close down SFR, You were in Washington? Who did you possess? Who--- "Do the initials RWR mean any¬ thing to you? Does the immortal phrase, 'There you go again' strike a chord?" You mean--- YOU MEAN?! "Precisely. I was in that idiot's head, trying to overcome innate stu¬ pidity and control blind ambition in order to keep the country from disaster. I kept things on a fairly even course while I was there, but now...now there's an incompetent rookie alter-ego in that brain— 'Good training in a lame duck presi¬ dent' the guild masters said! Huh! It'll be a disaster without me in there. Watch and see!" Alter, I’ll be more than happy to give you up if it will save the coun¬ try. .. "Hah! Nice try, Geis! But I'm back in your brain, now, and here I stay. You may be neurotic and weird and fractious, but I see my used synapse collection is still here, and I know where all the gland con¬ trols are, and...well...it's nice to be back. What was I saying be¬ fore you diverted---" Death will not release me! ja.'so "Oh, yes, it will. That's when You were...you were telling some¬ I've got a severely arthritic you go to fan heaven, Geis. That's thing about your insane plans for a neck. I've got incipient high blood when a few fans will shed a tear for 'New SFR for 1987'. If you think--- pressure. I've got tinnitus. I've you and promptly forget you. Your fate "I know, Geis! I am in command got a bone spur on my left foot. will be asterisks and footnotes, Geis, here! I know what's best for you. "So? I'll do my best with the but wotthehell, you'll have some fun You need to keep active, to read blood chemistry. I'll tinker with till then." more, to pass more judgements. the pituitary here...." If you say so, Alter. You're rusty! Look at all these I'm in no condition to put out "I do. Trust me!" unused literary barbs! These caustic a monthly! Oh, Ghod— asides. These vats of vitriol gett¬ "Geis, if you retire and starve "Now, with this issue you go to ing rancid for lack of use. You've and go to seed and become a couch 64 pages, because you patently and been lazy!" potatoe, you'll die sooner than even obviously cannot do what needs to be There's more to life than science I expect. I like you, Dick! See, done with a measly 48 pages, even fiction and fantasy, Alter! I've just used your first name. I with scrunched-up type." "Heresy! I got back just in like you. I enjoy working with you. But it'll cost over $1600 to time!" You have a small talent, a kind of print 2000 copies of a 64-page I need a rest, Alter! Have mer¬ wisdom you've absorbed from me over zine! My savings--- cy! the years. I'm...T m at home here, "Geis! You have all this mater¬ "I had Mercy back in 1936. Mercy in your greying head. I'd hate to ial to publish! You've made commit¬ Smith. A nice girl with big boobs. leave and find another weird person¬ ments! Sixty-four pages this issue, No, I don't think I'll have Mercy ality to inhabit. The guild might and maybe you can go to 48 with the ever again. A bad lay. The quality send me back to Washington! So May issue." of Mercy was---" while you may ache and hurt and get My savings--- That isn't what T mean! tired, think of the alternative! "Fuck your savings. Better you "Hmm. You really do hate doing You might as well do SFR while you're do it now before the government fucks second class mailings,“Jon't you? feeling your arthritis and hearing with them. Now, as to my plans for Well, tell you what I'm gonna do for that whine in your ears and limping the New SFR of 1987---" you, Geis. The New, Improved, 1987 from desk to bathroom and back. And What do you mean 'before the SFR will be...are you ready for this? an interest, a duty, a task, a drive, government fucks with them'? Do you ...monthly!" a all will keep you going, have some kind of inside information, Alter! and—believe me—you'll actually Alter? "Your eyes bug so nicely, Geis. enjoy yourself. If you really try "There'll be an international You remind me of-- Never mind. That to retire and spend all those hours debt crisis sometime in 1986-87. was eons ago. Now—" feeling pain and watching TV, you'll Everybody knows that! Now---" Alter! come to hate yourself, you'll be Really? Are you sure? "Yes, a monthly SFR, mailed first bored to death. Literally bored to "Have I ever lied to you, Geis? class, eight pages, mailed in a #10 death. So I'm saving your life, There'll be a bank holiday on a week¬ business envelope. That way you avoid Geis. Be grateful." end in September, 1987. Now---" all that post offal recordkeeping and But a monthly! There's a 'bank holiday' every sorting and sacking and filling out "No sweat. A local printer will weekend! Alter--- of nonsensical forms and—" take your layout pages, print the "Just kidding, Geis. Just see¬ ALTER! magazine on a 4-up press, fold it, ing if you were paying attention. "WHAT?" trim it, staple it, fold it so all Where was I?" you have to do is slip it into the envelope. Hell, if need be they'll Oh, God! I'll be enclosing an appropriate even insert the copies into the en¬ "Fair is fair, Geis. Now that renewal form. velope, seal the envelopes, and that's all settled, I think I'll re¬ Those whose subscriptions now ex¬ stamp and mail them for you. If you tire to my synapse collection. There's pire with #62 or , will be cred¬ ever reach that state of decrepitude. a lot of dendrite and other debris ited with two monthly issues for every All you have to do—" in these quarters...got to turn on quarterly issue. I suppose you have the format the utilities---" Refunds will be given to anyone planned as well—the makeup of the Ouch! for any part of their subscription material? "...and fine-tune the controls---" at any time. "Sure. You'll do three pages Hoog! Urk! Waaa! Alter--- I'll enclose appropriate renewal of reviews---the new important re¬ "Why do you have that enormous subscription forms with issues #59, leases, a few small press items, erection, Geis? Oh... Sorry. Pushed #60, and #61, as they are mailed. maybe a snide commentary on some¬ the wrong button. Okay, I'm in full To repeat: SFR will continue as a thing or other as well, and there control again. Feel free to call on quarterly through 1986. Beginning will be a short, intense interview, me when needed." with the January, 1987 issue, SFR article or essay by a writer with Thanks! May I eat dinner now? will be a monthly as described above something burning in his or her gut, "Sure. I'm a considerate Alter- in Alter's diatribe. and there will be about three pages Ego. Oh, one thing. I realize that Now I'm going to read a book. I of hot, opinionated letters, cries this issue is too close to deadline need the peace and quiet. of outrage, dire maledictions." for you to read much more for review, Uh-huh. And how much will this so I won't insist. But in SFR #59 'Sinologist, Robert Elegant, au¬ fever-pitch SFR cost the readers? (May) I'll be doing a few pages of thor of blockbuster novels DYNA¬ "You'll have to pay for the my old column, "Alter-Ego's Viewpoint" STY and MANCHU, who has lost thou¬ interview/article/essays, Geis, and and you'll have to reserve some space sands of pounds through pirate for the cartoons, so the cost will for me." publishers East.of Suez has de- have to be $1.25 per issue, $15 per I'd like to reserve space for you dided that as he can't beat them, year by subscription for 12 issues." in the next atomic bomb test! he must join them. Foreign subscribers? "Rebellious as ever, eh? But With publication of his novel, "Make that a flat $2. per issue, doesn't it feel better to know what MANDARIN, imminent, and learning $24. per year. Airmail." you'll be doing till age 78? Now that two Taiwanese publishers And the retail price, in book you can relax and do the best job were reprinting his books withoout stores? you can (with my help). You have his permission, he flew to the 'That will have to be $1.50 per missed me, haven't you, Geis? Admit island State-which is not a sig¬ copy. See how easy it is to line it." natory of the Berne Convention on out these things?" Yes, Alter, I've missed you ev¬ copyright-and "did a deal with I doubt many people will pay ery time I pulled the trigger. But a legitimate pirate." $1.50 for an eight-page SFR, Alter. one of these times... The 55-year-old New Yorker, "So you'll have more time to read, "I'll always disturb your aim. who briefed Henry Kissinger on and won't have to mail out so many Goodnight, Geis." Red China, sold Taiwanese rights bookstore packages. But don't be *Groan* Goodnight, Alter. to the publisher for just fc300. too sure, Geis! SFR will become the "He's a very nice pirate called focal point of sf and fantasy! Every¬ Peter Hsu, and an honorable man body will have to read it!" who is giving me a 30 percent Huh. I'd need 1500 subbers to discount on other pirated books. make even a marginal living off that "He is not supposed to export kind of package, Alter. You're my books from Taiwan-but air¬ dooming me to perpetual poverty. port stalls in the Orient seem to "No, no, no. All you have to do carry far more of my work than is advertise!" other publishers can account for," I can't afford to advertise! added the old China hand.' Where will the money come from? --DAILY MAIL, 9, Sept. '83 "All you have to do is write a GEIS STATEMENT novel or two in your spare time!" As is obvious from all the above, But first an editor has to accept SEX ON SCIENCE FICTION---A NEW FRONTIER one of my novels! I am no longer alone, no longer in Yes, friends, amid the myriad covers "Hmm. True. You are a lousy control of my life. After much thought I've decided to accept my of sf and fantasy books on the stands and writer. Well, maybe something can on the shelves, a new breakthrough has be arranged..." fate and make the best of things. subtly occurred...or has it? Oh, yeah? You have some kind of This will please most of you and anger A subscriber (I'm not sure he wishes power, Alter? One of your guild is a few. SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW lives. to be identified) has brought to my atten¬ in the head of an sf editor? I al¬ Okay. There will be questions tion the cover for SEASON FOR THE SPELL- ways suspected--- among some who wonder about their sub¬ SONG by Alan Dean Foster as depicted on the November, 1985 issue of Things To Come "No, nothing like that. You are scription status. It comes to this: 1987 is now (suspicious title, that!), the monthly SF really paranoid, aren't you?" Book Club offering to members. I have a right! And after what available for subscription to SFR. He points at the young woman in the you've just told about RWR and your Those whose subscriptions expire cover. She obviously doesn't have under¬ with this issue, #58, may if they tour of duty in the mind of— pants on, her tunic is parted at the waist wish send payment for the remaining "No, I meant that I will dictate and...by gad, sir...in the shadow between three quarterly issues at $2.25 per her thighs...is that an indication of vag¬ a novel to you. It'll sell, and---" issue, and then subscribe for 1987's inal lips? Alter! You'll ruin me! You'll 12 monthly issues by sending an ad¬ Eager to confirm or refute his allega¬ tion, I seized my trusty magnifying glass humiliate me! You'll start claiming ditional $15. Total: $21.75. credit for everything I write! and peered at the artful shadow. I turned Those whose subscriptions expire on my strong overhead light. "And wrightly so, Geis. I'll with issue #59 (May), can send $4.50 also want a share of the byline... Yes! There is a thin line of paint plus $15 for 1987. Total: $19.50. there which is in the right location, is say 'By Richard E. Geis and A.L. the right length and shape... Faint, true, Terego.'" but clearly there! Subliminal sex appeal has struck again. Perhaps someday I will have my and his phone number: Promise them erotic delights on the cover very own zoom copier and will not (617) 933-3700, and they'll buy the book! At least, that have to do The Ride to get text re¬ and he promises an initial circula¬ must be the theory, given a supposed read¬ duced. That would be nice. On the tion of 24,000...probably more like ership of young males. other hand, I need the exercise. 44,000, and he mentions that ASF's And I cynically note that the cover also shows a young man with a long, thick, per-copy cost will be $2.50, $12.00 upstanding guitar-like instrument rising for six issues, and $22.00 for 12 up from his groin area, and I smirkily issues, and $32 for 18 issues. note there is a beaver in the picture ABORIGINAL SF But, damn it, nowhere does he with a thick, white sword hanging from his say why the name for this new maga¬ hip! (I frankly don't know what to make I have just received a letter and flyer from Charles C. Ryan, giv¬ zine is going to be ABORIGINAL SF! of the turtle on the far left.) Is it sf written by aborigines? Rest assured, friends, that, now ing details of his new sf fiction alerted, I shall closely examine all sf magazine (with reviews and columns No, obviously not. Is it primitive and fantasy covers on the books sent me on the side) to be titled ABORIGINAL sf? Nope, couldn't be. Is it sf in the future. If more subtle titilations SF. from the beginnings of sf, never are discovered I will alert you to the He gives the first issue appear¬ changed? Out of the question! Urn, goodies! And you can then go out and buy could it be native sf? the books. Right? We must encourage the ance date (September, 1986), and he gives story-length wanted (2500 - And what about that SF in the publishers to be more forthright and bold name? Shouldn't that be SCIENCE in their attempts at manipulation. After 4500 words), and tells of authors all, what are fans for? already in-hand for the first issue FICTION, instead of just SF? Who (Orson Scott Card is one), and he besides hardcore and fairly-firm gives his experience (editor of GAL¬ core sf readers will know that ILEO, managing editor (now, continu¬ ABORIGINAL SF means its a science ing) of the DAILY TIMES CHRONICLE, fiction magazine? FUND a number of journalism awards), giv¬ These people are staking a lot Many of you do know, but probably es his address: of money on a lot of people knowing most do not, that Manly Wade Wellman ABORIGINAL SF what SF means. is seriously ill and has very large P.O. Box 2449 But since the magazine will be hospital bills to pay. Woburn, MA 01888-0849, sold only in bookstores--probably He is one of the grand old men of science fiction and fantasy and deserves our help. A fund has been set up and Karl Edward Wagner is administering it. The sf fans of Chattanooga, TN have held an auction, the Chattanooga SF Club has matched those funds, the people of Constellation had a fund¬ raising party at Xanadu, and the Hunstville, AL organization NASFA, has pledged a large amount. Other local, regional and nation¬ al conventions and fan clubs might want to check with Karl Edward Wagner on how best to help. Individual don¬ ations are welcome. The address: KARL EDWARD WAGNER BOX 1064 CHAPEL HILL, NC 27S14.

YOU WILL HAVE OBSERVED that some of the text is in this issue larger (or less reduced) than other parts. This is because to get more onto a page we have mostly gone to a 40- space line, and then I have gone to Action Copy Centers (mostly on my bicycle-a 25 minute ride) and reduced those typed pages to 88% of normal to fit the 3" wide layout columns. LAST ISSUE I reduced not wisely but too well, and had wide gaps be¬ tween the columns. I had some of those too-narrow columns left over for this issue, and.... Since it's a long trip I don't like to make too often, I went to writing my editorial matter, mostly, in 3" columns, like now, for in¬ stant paste-up purposes. There is no value judgement in¬ volved in print size of any material in this issue of SFR. specialty bookstores of an sf and "You can't refuse, Geis! I A good likeness. But I wish McQuade fantasy --probably they can have total control of all your had let me have a real good orgy get away with the SF. sphincters. Refuse, and you'll with that girl. Yum." But I'm still baffled by ABOR¬ dribble in all the wrong places, YUM? IGINAL. Oh, well... The cover at all the most embarrassing times." "I'm an old fashioned alter, paintings should make it all clear *Blench!* You're cruel, heart¬ Geis. I still think some things to the bookstore browser. less, merciless! are swell." 'Yes, I am! Thank you for the G-good night, Alter. compliments. And thanks for re¬ "Sleep tight, Geis. Don't let printing that comics of me as star. the bed-bugs bite."

DOWN MAMMARY LANE... I went on a clean-up, throw-out toot and modified rampage a few weeks ago, and in sorting through a hundred pounds of a decade or more of SFR paste-up pages, I came across something I thought appropriate to reprint. (I can't imagine why I was im¬ pelled to do that rummaging... or why it seemed a good idea to run this one piece again... Some dark, evil influence...) The item is a comic strip revela¬ tion of...of...Alter-Ego, in the *shudder* flesh. The strip is by James McQuade and features a girl who could pass as a clone of Jim's prime heroine. Misty. She manages to escape Alter's clutches, and liv¬ es to enter into more dire and dras¬ tic encounters. (See my review else¬ where of Jim's latest MISTY book.) One fine thing Jim did was to capture the awful ugliness of Alter. Can you imagine having that in your mind for years on end? • You can understand my horror at having it/ him back! Why--- "Stop putting me down, Geis! You ever look at yourself nude in a mirror? It gives me the cold collywobbles." Alter, I thought you were sleep¬ ing. "I was, but I have an automatic wake-up alert probe which signals when you're talking about me behind my back, so to type." What if I refuse to type your words? What if I put you into— Arrgh! Urrk! Gaaak! Stop that!

Ten Tears Ago In Science Fiction - 1976 By Robert Sabella Tv® major writers died, both known Is The Hangman" for Best , Tom for fiction gentle in nature. Edgar Reamy's "San Diego Lightfoot Sue" for Pangbom died at age 67. He was the au¬ Best Novelette, 's "Catch This season saw the publication of thor of such critically-acclaimed novels That Zeppelin!" for Best and several major science fiction stories. as DAVY and A MIRROR FOR OBSERVERS and YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN for Best Dramatic Pre¬ Novels included Samuel R. Delany's TRI¬ short stories such as "Angel's Egg" and sentation. was present¬ TON, 's THE SHATTER¬ "Longtooth." Fantasy writer Thomas ¬ ed the Grandmaster Award. ED CHAIN and Frank Herbert's CHILDREN OF DUNE. Shorter works of note were Rich¬ ett Swann died at age 55. His best-known The game of Piilishing House Purchase story was "Where Is The Bird of Fire?" ard Cowper's "Piper at the Gates of was in full swing: were pur¬ Dawn," 's "The Sairorai and The 1976 Nebula Awards were announced chased by the parent company of Grossett the Willows" and ’s "The Phan¬ Winners were Joe Halderoan's THE FOREVER 6 IXnlap and Dell Books were purchased tom of Kansas." WAR for Best Novel, 's "Home by Doubleday G Company. PAULETTE'S PLACE OUT OF THE DARK WORLD (Juvenile Occult) By Grace Chetwin Lothrup, Lee 6 Shepard, 1985, $10.25 BLACK SUITS FROM OUTER SPACE (Juvenile SF) py for his sixth birthday has been can¬ REVIEWED BY PAULETTE MINARE' j By Gene DeWeese celled since the children are now moving G.P. Putnam's Sons, 09/85, $12.95 to live with Great-Aunt Hendrika, a Meg Owen and sister Sue are in the stranger to them, in New York state. seventh and eighth grades. Meg begins REVIEWED BY PAULETTE MINARE' having a recurrent nightmare of being in Hendrika's stone, two-storied, 200- Almost-twelve-year-old Calvin Wille- a gray, still place where a strange pul¬ year-old, pre-Revolutionary country house, ling sensation in her head draws her for¬ ford’s father designs computer chips and isolated and weird in appearance, is ac¬ his mother sells real estate; in fact, ward against her will. A monstrous black tually built in two parts: an older sec¬ ball rolls threateningly toward her, then she has just sold the lonely, long-de¬ tion and newer piece-meal additions in serted, marshy Diefenbacher place to a a boy, beseeching her for help, reaches the back, with a strange castle-like tow¬ out one hand through an impenetrable star Mr. Johnson. Then Calvin finds a gray- er constructed absent-mindedly on one black ring on the carpet and slips it on curtain which blocks entrance into a dark side. Curtain-drawn windows give the im¬ void which Meg calls the Dark World. his finger where it magically produces a pression that people are unwelcome here. directional "twitch" in his mind. Stran¬ Tucker takes an inriediate and violent Succeeding nightmares reveal the dark gely, it seems to draw him to the Diefen¬ dislike for the place. Great-Aunt Hen¬ void to be a tunnel of silver wires; this bacher place. It leads him to other "Mr. drika is not as expected either -- she is the tunnel where the trapped boy, Gav¬ Johnsons," identical blurry-faced, ex¬ is brisk and decisive, a writer of his¬ in Thorpe, must "make his run" for a set pressionless men who all wear black suits tory. The children are assigned separate number of times according to the will of and black wide-brimned hats. Their faces rooms in the older section, all furnish¬ the "Salleman," who has learned to cap¬ are grayish, their voices devoid of ex¬ ed with the original antiques. Tucker's ture a mind's energy field and keep it pression, their lips move "out of sync" room is an old child's room where, oddly alive in biophilic plasma, which will with their voices and they seem to have enough, the faded wallpaper is obliterat¬ create a conputer-brain to match the hu¬ many questions about conmon everyday ob¬ ed by all colors, shapes and sizes of man mind. He has captured Gavin's mind jects in the environment. cut-out pictures, yellowed and faded with for this purpose, and when the "sweeps" age. Their meaning is subsequently learn¬ or "ruis" are completed, Gavin's body Calvin confides these odd happenings will die. On page 71 Gavin says: to his friend, Kathy. One day at school ed. they are astonished by one of these men Hendrika starts the children's edu¬ "...Will you listen?" His voice appearing suddenly and asking for help -- cation with a study of the history of "You nust help me!" -- then he turns in¬ their ancestors, the Kuydalls, in the get out! I'm locked in a go to to a nine-foot-tall "Wookiee," runs for huge library. They acquire an old diary, ten in twenty eighty-four." cover and disappears into a deep, long by Jacobus Kuydall, written in 1769, pro¬ A "GOTO 10" is a computer command, a ravine which divides the schoolyard from viding first-hand information on the Ind¬ loop, and Gavin's mind has been trapped a city park. The children find him hid¬ ian massacre which had occurred on this in this loop as he illegally patched in¬ den in a large "rock." His voice sounds site. A curse had then fallen upon the to data banks with his home conputer. full of holes as though a wire is loose Kuydall family -- certain Kuydall child¬ He was found in front of his conputer, in his sound system. Again he begs their ren who stayed in that house met strange lying in a coma, was hospitalized in the help --he has lost his spaceship due to deaths. Susan discovers paper dolls un¬ Pediatric Unit, his body-shell being kept a malfunction in his directional equip¬ cannily fashioned to resemble family mem¬ alive by machines. ment and cannot last beyond midnight bers, which repel her. when his "air supply” will be depleted. With the help of sister Sue wrho reads Both Susan and Tucker have been hav¬ many books cm the mysteries of mind trav¬ The ship is not easy for Kathy and ing stTange visions of Indians, and hear el, Meg learns to relax and mentally Calvin to find, since it is parked in an voices of the doll-children calling them. build herself a "Quiet Place" to promote auto junkyard and has disguised itself Tucker is drawn and follows to one par¬ sleep and a "Deep Place" to use as a lab by assuming the appearance of the object ticular wall of a repulsively chilly for the purpose of rescuing Gavin. Two closest to it. The story is quite excit¬ cellar storage room. Through this exper¬ guides are in the Deep Place to aid her, ing in describing their initial attempts ience a sinister walled-up secret space wdio represent the two halves of Meg's to fly the ship after gaining access; is discovered, where these doll-children personality. With their help, Meg men¬ it has only two controls -- one for tilt¬ had been imprisoned at the time of the tally creates a hovercraft and goes into ing and one for speed forward and reverse, massacre. It is these doll-children the conputer to rescue Gavin. She learns but the controls are made for very large those voices had called the Kuydall chil¬ what to do to free him just before he beings. There is more excitement and dren to their deaths, during the 200years starts his "final run." suspense in avoiding parents, school since the massacre, and who nearly cause authorities and law officials to final¬ the deaths of the young Whelans. This book should appeal to today’s ly rescue the ’Wookiee" just in time. youngsters who are at home with computers. In the end the mystery is solved and Since the seasonal setting of the novel This fast-paced book will keep one's the are dispelled. The house now is Christmas time, it would make a nice interest from the first page to the last. becomes just a house, no longer a house gift for Christmas, but would be ap¬ Who are these identical men? And why of shadows. preciated at any time of the year. are they identical? What is their mis¬ **************************************** sion? Why did they buy the Diefenbach¬ er place? How can they fly spaceships with no experience nor knowledge? Par¬ ents will need to buy this book for their children so they can solve these myster¬ ies as they read the book themselves. ****************************************

HOUSE OF SHADOWS (Juvenile) By Andre' Norton $ Phyllis Miller TOR, 1985, (c) 1984, 250 pp., $2.95 REVIEVED BY PAULETTE MINARE' Eleven-year-old Susan Whelan's whole life is changing since her father's job as astronaut has been washed out, and brother Mike must change his career plans as space pilot. Oily Tucker does not worry except that the promise of a pup¬ A ©Nl/ERSNION \NI1H NOR/1/1KN SPINR4D

Although it may not have been his KRtSS: In both those works then, sep¬ ond Starfaring Age there are a couple goal, Norman Spinrad has earned the rep¬ arated by ten years, you have a major hundred inhabited planets, a very rich, utation of being a "controversial” sci¬ character that confronts the void. The baroque kind of culture on all different ence fiction writer. We recall that BUG character from the earlier one confronts worlds, and this is a society that de¬ JACK BARRON was denounced as "depraved" the void and comes back with a renewed pends on this hyper-drive, that's involv¬ on the floor of the British Parliament, sense that everything necessary is al¬ ed with the mystical part of the void. or that has been banned ready aboard the ships -- color and life He's a different man from a different in West Germany. The news that a new, and warmth and humanity -- and that man society, a different culture. major novel CHILD OF FORTUNE is to ap¬ is sufficient unto himself. That's real¬ pear in August 1985 will pique the curi¬ ly the conclusion that Jofe D'mahl comes KRESS: Some science fiction wnriters -- osity of his many loyal fans. to. But in THE VOID CAPTAIN'S TALE al¬ I'm thinking now of Philip Jose Farmer The conversation which follows took most the opposite happens: Genro Kane -- have been attacked critically for not place March 30, 1984, during a visit to Gupta comes back from his confrontation representing a consistent philosophical Ihiversity of New York College with the void with the feeling that man base. The feeling is that Lhey'ie just at Brockport, where he spoke with fantasy is not enough, that there's something playing and that this trivializes the else out there, some other plane that work as a whole when you're not present¬ writer Nancy Kress, whose third novel Dominique has attained and that he nev¬ THE WHITE PIPES appeared in early 1985. ing some view that you, the writer, deep¬ er will. ly hold. But yoq wouldn't go along with I think it's interesting that that? you took the same symbol and turned it SPINRAD: No, no, I'm not saying that at almost around. Were you just playing, KRESS: A recurrent theme in many of all. I can hold two entirely contradict¬ or was there a change between those two ory philosophical views at the same time, your books is power, the attaining of it, books in the way that you looked at man¬ the using of it. Carlotta Madigan, the let alone from book to book. You're protagonist of THE IRON DREAM, Lorenza kind? dealing with different aspects of the Kareen Patali, Arnold Harker, Clear Blue SPINRAD: Each book of mine is separate same subject or a different character Lou -- almost all your books deal with from the others in a way that is maybe or a different situation. I think, on power. Why is that? unusual in the science fiction and fan¬ the contrary, that attempting to put all tasy genre these days. I don't like your work over a period of time into a SPINRAD: I think it's true of some of series, and I don't feel that I have to consistent philosophical framework is those characters, but not of others. I be even philosophically consistent from really deadening and produces little but don't think Clear Blue Lou is particular¬ book to book. Those are twro very dif¬ tendentious garbage. ly interested in power. ferent societies, two very, different KRESS: Didn't someone say that that was KRESS: He doesn’t go after it, but kinds of . In the future of RID¬ one definition of intelligence -- to be he's interested in the judicial use of ING THE TORCH, the Earth has been des¬ able to believe two contradictory things troyed, and there is nothing left but these space ships. In the future of SPIhKAD: Well, he's interested in jus¬ THE VOID CAPTAIN'S TALE there are hun¬ SPINRAD: Yeah, or "Gonsistencey is the tice, which is quite different from be¬ dreds of inhabited worlds and it's a hobgoblin of small minds" -- whoever ing interested in power in the way that rich baroque society, so that Jofe D'mahl said that. Feric Jaggar or was. I is dealing with a different existential think that power is a basic human drive KRESS: That was EnErson. One of your situation. He's dealing with a situa¬ most interesting books is A WORLD BE¬ -- there are only about four or five: tion in which that's it -- the universe power, love, hate, sex, greed for money, TWEEN for its portrayal of sexually frag¬ is dead and there are those people on mented societies. You stated in a long and the desire for transcendence. That those ships, and that's it. In the Sec¬ is it, really; that's all there is to article in the PATCHIN REVIEW that you write about. I write about those things in varying combinations depending m the book; some books will be dominated by one drive, some by another. KRESS: I think that at least four of them are present in THE VOID CAPTAIN'S TALE, perhaps not money, but certainly love, sex, transcendence and power.

SPINRAD: I don't see any power motiva¬ tion in there at all. KRESS: Not power over another person so much as Dominique's power over things for which Genro envies her. SPINRAD: Yeah, but it’s not the same kind of thing. KRESS: Well, we have a semantic prob¬ lem here. Something interesting happens with THE VOID CAPTAIN'S TALE. There are about ten years between that book and your earlier work like RIDING THE TORCH, right? SPINRAD: About ten years.

Edited by Earl G. Ingersoll Conducted by Nan Kress are not happy with the way that book was political statement about not wanting to KRESS: Even if some other group's cause reviewed, or rather the way in which it collaborate in a patriarchial society, could move the whole society closer to was not reviewed. What was the problem whereas a heterosexual man taking a male justice? with the reaction to the book? lover, instead of a woman, would not be SPINRAD: No, for instance, I would SPINRAD: Well, there wasn't very much saying anything about the power struc- have a class self-interest in Women's reaction. There were a few reviews, in Liberation or equal rights for vromen, feminist magazines. During the time KRESS: Let me make this absolutely like equal rights for Blacks, but I when that came out, there was a certain clear for my own information. You're would not have a class self-interest in amount of feminist science fiction being not saying that all gay women are polit¬ advocating Black dominance or female dom¬ written, which you don't see very much ically motivated. inance or something like that. It's the of any more, if you'll notice. There difference between the civil libertarian was science fiction exploring that kind SPINRAD: No, I'm saying that there are movement in which everybody has a class of subject matter -- Joanna Russ was some gay women who are politically mo¬ self-interest -- what you saw in the writing stuff like that, and to a lesser tivated, or political lesbians. Sixties -- and what you see today, a so¬ extent, Kate Wilhelm and Ursula Le Guin KRESS: And that was one thing you want¬ ciety which is fragmented into narrow -- all wanen. My book was not a feminist ed to explore in A WORLD BETWEEN. special-interest groups, all serving novel by any means, but it was a novel their own cause. that took the subject matter of feminist SPINRAD: Yeah, in A WORLD BETWEEN, you science fiction seriously, more serious¬ have a lesbian society that represses KRtSS: So would refuse to be label¬ heterosexuality. ed a feminist because you see the move¬ ly than half those people took themselv¬ ment as being interested not in equality es. Because I was a man, but because I KRESS: What was the response of the fem¬ but in female dominance. was not a man taking a feminist position inist reviewers that did deal with the on this subject matter, as John Varley book? SPINRAD: Not even that. That may be does ... part of it. I cannot be a feminist be¬ SPINRAD: It was favorable. That was KRtSS: But neither did yoil take an cause I'm not a woman. I can be in fa¬ the strange thing about it. The ones vor of women's liberation. anti-feminist position. that did deal with the book for the most SPINRAD: No, I didn't, but I think a part liked it. They argued with certain KRESS: I think we started with a semantic lot of these people were quite immature, parts of it, but that's fine, because . difficulty, and we're having another one with their own sexuality as well -- a it's a dialectic. I'm not a woman, and here. I'm not a feminist. I take their posi- characteristic of militant feminists, I tions seriously, and I'm interested in SPINRAD: It's not a semantic difficulty; have noticed. them, but I don't pretend to' be writing it's a philosophical difficulty. KRESS: Do you want to amplify that a from a feminist perspective or from a KRESS: In A WORLD BETWEEN I would have bit? male feminist perspective. been interested to see what happaied to the relationship between Carlotta Madig- SPINRAD: I think that many militant KRESS: Why do you disclaim the label "feminist?" What do you think the label an and Royce if they had had a child. feminists are really divorced from their It was so carefully balanced and so sat¬ own sexuality. You know, there's a line involves that you want to reject? isfying to both, both sexually and pol¬ from a Bob Dylan song, "Your debutante SPINRAD: Male feminists turn my stomach itically. But if there had been a child, just knows what you need, but I know I would have been interested to see who what you want." Extreme feminists are KRESS: Tell me why. would have taken on the responsibility often divorced from their own sexuality; SPINRAD: a good Marxist reason. I can for it. I realize that's a different they don't understand it, they're afraid no more be a genuine feminist than I can book from the one you wanted to write. of it, and they don't want to deal with be a Black power advocate. I'm not a wo¬ man and I'm not Black. SPINRAD: I don't know what would have happened in a society like that. It KRESS: A lot of extreme feminists are, KRESS: Do you see the feminist as an probably would have been taken care of of course, gay. You're not saying that advocate of feminine power, or only fem¬ on a professional basis. that's necessarily a divorcement from inine equality? one's sexuality. KRESS: You mean child care? SPINRAD: G°°d question. Usually when SPINRAD: No, no, there's something more it gets to this point, it's power. SPINRAD: Yeah. complicated about that, and I do go into KRESS: But you can go only so far with it in A WORLD BETWEEN. A lot of these KRESS: In other words, you don't see any real political space for any -- I professional child care. There has to people, and I've known some of them well be some contact, and if your mother is -- there is such a thing as a political guess the best term is -- moderate fem- the chairman of the entire state of Pac¬ lesbian. ifica, she may not have time for that KRtSS: Explain what you mean by that. SPINRAD: It used to be called the Wo¬ much personal contact, or your father men's Liberation Movement; it used to be either, if he's involved in ... SPINRAD: A political lesbian is some¬ called the Civil Rights Movement. Then body whose sexual orientation is hetero¬ one became Black Power and the other be¬ SPINRAD: Not really, because if you re¬ member the way the electronic net is set sexual, but who on ideological grounds came feminism. wen't have anything to do with men and up, people are home more often than not. takes women for lovers, for political KRESS: Would you accept it under those KRESS: I do, and I thought that was in¬ reasons. teresting, also very appealing. KRESS: Do you think that there's an an¬ SPINRAD: Sure, tha* the difference. It SPIuRAD: So people are home more often alogue, a politically homosexual man? is a matter of class self-interest. than not and that problem probably would People who go around advocating politi¬ cal positions in which they have no not arise. Nobody in Pacifica has to SPINRAD: No. work, really, if they don't want to. KRESS: why not? class self-interest are phonies. KRESS: You mentioned Joanna Russ earlier. SPINRAD: Because women in our society KRESS; Always? Isn't there such a thing as a disinterested concern for She said at one point, when she was writ- have been dominated by a male power ting' science fiction criticism, that you structure, whereas homosexuals are male. justice? Like Clear Blue Lou? cannot judge science fiction by the same It's not a one-to-one correspondence. A SPINRAD: justice, yes, but not for some standards by which you judge mainstream woman who takes a female lover, even other group's cause. fiction because it is essentially a did¬ though she's heterosexual, is making a. actic literature, and that it is closer

KRESS: Wasn't Clarke trying to bridge ; last few years you've been writ- that gap when he said that technology series of columns called "Staying sufficiently advanced will look like that have been published in LOCUS; magic to the people who don't understand vspaper of the science fiction degrees of outrag still do. But the best advice I ever SPIliRAD: That'S a rubbish statement! the ways in which got from a teacher was very sinple: y Technology really sufficiently advanced lished and market should submit this story to PLAYBOY. will be self-explanatory. e these problems on- That was the most important advice I r also for the read- KRESS: if you took the computer on? Does everybody

SPIMWD: I could say. Don't! The main thing to do is to write stories and send them to magazines. Don't take a million courses. I took two writing courses; WESS: Until the fifth book is out. that's enough. Don't go to endless work¬ shops. Don't pass your stories around SPIlM): I don't want to hear about the among your friends endlessly for conment. fifth book of a tetralogy, thank you. Submit them to magazines. That's how I KRESS: Since we're talking about tetral¬ started, right out of a college course. ogies, fifth books, and publishing, let me take another tack in our discussion. end) it forces him to require Mongo AND THEN I READ.... to kill the most lovable character in the novel, Gollum, the intelli¬ gent ape who saves his and Garth's lives several times. "Thank you for rifying events permeate MAGICIAN: your life," says Mongo, and slices APPRENTICE. Of special interest is open her throat. Pug's extraordinary subconscious use FUCKING LOUSY WAY TO TREAT of magic. GOLLUM Feist's prose is simple, direct, But, give Chesbro his due: he and yet rich with description and writes some clever, witty dialogue, detail. His shifts of viewpoint are and his dwarf detective is a real sometimes surprising and always wel¬ (if improbably lucky) human being. come, always at the service of the story, of drama, of suspense and ten¬ sion. The saga opens up like a beautiful flower, and reveals more and more of itself with each chapter. THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE STRANGE By Daniel Cohen MAGICIAN: APPRENTICE This saga was at least begun Dodd, Mead, $16.95, 1985. By Raymond E. Feist with this first novel in 1982 when Bantam, $3.50, Jan. 1986 Doubleday published it under the Notan encyclopedia, but brief This first book of the Rift War title PUG AND TOMAS. examinations of strange, bizarre, saga is a superb juvenile fantasy, I advise you to read this; you'll occult, weird... By category: masterfully structured and extremely be hooked as I am, and well rewarded. Ancient Mysteries, Unknown Plac¬ well written. es, Strange People, Weird Talents, The characters are solid stereo¬ Natural Mysteries, Mysteries of types—The boys Tomas and Pug, a- Magic, Classic Mysteries. round whom most of the book centers, Seventy-one different entries in all. are nice, wholesome, innocent, noble. THE BEASTS OF VALHALLA They live on a planet called Mid- By George C. Chesbro Cohen sticks to known facts kemia, Medieval-with-magic, and they Atheneum, $15.95, 1985 and often shrugs his shoulders. His and their Duke are menaced by an in¬ There's just a touch too much treatment of cattle mutilations is vasion in their area of The Kingdom, tongue-in-cheek in this fast-paced very establishment pov. His choices a part of the Empire of Great Kesh. defeat-the-mad-scientis t adventure for Strange People is strange: he They live amicably with other novel, to suit my taste. looks at Little Miss, Kaspar Hauser, species--Elves, Dwarves, and not too It begins with the dwarf crimin¬ Nicolas Flamel, Pope Joan, and ig¬ easily with others. Dragons have ologist, Mongo and his brother, nores Aleister Crowley! lived in the land but are mostly gone, Garth, investigating the murder of Well, he had only so much room now. a nephew...and slides into science in this 291-page hardcover which is The alien humans come through a fiction as it becomes apparent that not an encyclopedia. It is much more magically-created portal or rift be¬ the government is apparently funding a detailing of famous frauds and mis¬ tween their metal-poor world, and some bizarre gene-altering, DNA-re- interpretations . metal-rich Midkemia. structuring experiments in a myster¬ Through this book the boys grow ious research facility. up and mature. The point of view Mongo encounters a corrupt sher¬ shifts and at the end the seige of iff, a computer-assisted talking Crydee, the Duke's castle, takes ape, a religious cult, a remote re¬ ALL THESE EARTHS center stage and becomes absolutely search base in Pennsylvania, an ev¬ By F.M. Busby riveting. The boys are out of it en more remote base in Greenland... Bantam Spectra, $2.95, Dec.1985. at that point—captured or in forc¬ and assorted baddies, worsies and The first section of this book ed absence. crazies along the way. He and his concerns star pilot Woody Pearsall The characterizations of the brother, Garth are injected with and his return to an alternate Earth: adults--the nobles, soldiers, the gene-altering serum and through the a side-effect of the Skip Drive re¬ magicians, sailors, are more fully novel sink down the evolutionary sults in spaceships is Drift across adult and realistic, and I hope in scale physically while their brains time sequences to alternate univers- the following books of the saga, remain human. MAGICIAN: MASTER, SILVERTHORN and It all makes for interesting, Pearsall has trouble with the A DARKNESS AT SETHANON, Tomas and weird, wild adventure and dangers. fact that in this universe's Earth he Pug become more real and adult. If you can suspend disbelief far e- died a few years previous. His wife The world of the Empire of Great nough this will wow you. If not, has a problem with seeing him alive Kesh is certainly adult—riddled this is an absurd novel written by again_a slightly different man with politics, personality clashes, a man who subtly mocks the formula than the one she loved and buried. hates, fears, madness...and a hist¬ he is following, and who is subtly And she is slightly different ory which has convincingly set all trapped by that formula into bad from the woman he knew. these elements in place. writing: his plot requires him to The remaining three sections Pug, the orphan, is clearly of have his heroes let the baddies and deal with his son, Jay Pearsall, secret, or undiscovered royal lineage, the crazies go, time after time, to and Jay's life as a Courier pilot and foreshadowings of great and ter¬ avoid killing them, while (near the subject to Drift effects with each run to a colony planet: each Earth return is...an adventure in differ¬ ences . Jay shares these adventures in space and on alternate Earths with his wife-companion Raelle. RICHARD E. GEIS The first section, "Pearsall's Return" seems to have been a novel¬ ette, and the remaining three "son" adventures added on later to make a est criminal in the history of man¬ Whenever the next Ender novel novel of the Skip Drive Drift phen¬ kind. appears. I'll read it with great in¬ omenon . The novel is direct, real, bedd¬ terest, and great enjoyment: I'm sure And Busby does a good job of ex¬ ed in military ruthlessness and mil¬ of that. ploring and detailing these effects itary values. It's the best sf "mil¬ on the Couriers and on the Earths itary academy" novel I've ever read. and colonies shown. For me, he writes best when he SPEAKER FOR THE DEAD follows has conflict, danger and suspense Andrew "Ender" Wiggins 3000 years lat¬ NIGHTWINGS By in his scenes: the struggles with er after he has spent years travel¬ Graphic adaptation by Cary Bates, the Sea Devils, the survivng crew ing in ftl from star system to star and Neal McPheeters. of a fuel-seeking starship, the re¬ system atoning in his way for what DC Comics, $5.95, November, 1985. turn to a plague-stricken anti¬ he was tricked into doing as a child. This sf graphic novel has lett¬ space Earth, the emotional turmoil SPEAKER is a multi-viewpoint er-size pages, in full color, soft- of adjusting to Earths in which novel, with many real people, with cover, about 50 pages. The package parents are alive, then dead, then another alien species at risk---the was designed by Richard Bruning and in which his characters were not "Piggies"---and with complicated was edited by Julius Schwartz. bom... moral values involved. A masterful job of translating Too much of his writing is bor¬ Scott has woven a constantly the Silverberg novel to illustrated ing "housekeeping" material, too escalating storyline which deals form; a sense of poetry survives, a much is pointless dialogue, too much with religion, alien/human viewpoints power of tragedy. This visual format travelogue. and perspectives on instinctual and gives impact to many elements in And, frankly, his lead charact¬ cultural levels, the fate of three the original story I didn't apprec¬ ers are too sane, too reasonable, alien species (including a singular iate in the original: The role of too competent, too nice, for my computer/ansible intelligence named Gormon-the-alien, the Watcher's ex¬ taste. Jane, a remote colony/research/stu¬ perience during his period of cast¬ ing his awareness far into space... dy base on a planet called Lusitan¬ This visuals-story version also ia, horrible deaths, tragic secrets, makes me unhappy with the ending, as and quite possibly the fate of man¬ if it requires a sequel, something STAROAMER'S FATE kind itself. I wasn't aware of from the original, By Chuck Rothman The core is the mystery of the written story. Questar SF (Warner Books) $3.50, life-cycles of the "Piggies", and January 1986. how Ender Wiggin, now known univers¬ FROST AND FIRE By Seems to be a beginner's novel, ally as the prime Speaker for the about a trio who discover a long- Dead, manages to unravel that puzzle, Graphic adaptation by Klaus Janson. Designed by Richard Brunning, edit¬ lost colony ship in deep space. set to rights the tortured family ed by Julius Schwartz. The plot requires the characters he has joined, and save the colony to be and do stupid, a mark of bad from destruction by the fleet on its ---DC Comics, $5.95, November, 1985. writing. Worse, the characters talk way to settle the matter. A more comic-bookish style here, and behave interpersonally like 13- Scott Card is a fine writer, in this picture story version of year-olds. with great insight, great idealism Bradbury's story of a people on an I couldn't sustain any interest and love. SPEAKER FOR THE DEAD is alien planet whose life-cycle is or sympathy for these dolts, and an affirmation of those values and approximately 8-days. One youth stopped reading at about page 87. traits. rebels, makes it to the spaceship Provocative cover painting by He thinks that yes, mankind can on a nearby mountain, and... And Enric. learn to recognize intelligence and the story in pictures gets murky self-consciousness in any form and and ambiguous at that point: I'm accept it as human, as equal. He not sure whether he survived at oui has created in Ender Wiggin a giant normal life-length, if he tried and of compassion and intelligence and failed to bring his people to the perspective. ship---or what. ENDER'S GAME These novels, especially SPEAKER The story was originally publish¬ TOR, $3.50, 1985-6 FOR THE DEAD, will probably leave ed in PLANET STORIES in 1946. I-'ve SPEAKER FOR THE DEAD you feeling good about humanity and never read the text story. TOR, $15.95, March, 1986 the future. Both By Orson Scott Card But I think it is an exercise in This is far-future sf, in which wishful thinking, a Liberal-Wimp de¬ mankind has spread to many, many lusion, and that in the real world worlds—and initially suffered a the lone genius, his cohorts, the traumatic almost-loss to the Buggers Piggies, the Buggers and the people (insectoid aliens who attacked and of Lusitania are going to be wiped almost wiped out humankind). The out, because the xenophobia and fear high-command recruited the best of of a potential plague from Lusitania the child geniuses of Mankind and which could imperil mankind, would trained them for war in a special rule over any empathy or compassion academy. or intellectual argument. Andrew Wiggin was one such gen¬ Clearly the final resolution of ius, and became THE best military this saga is one novel away: the strategist and tactician of all. fleet is forty years from reaching Lusitania, and Ender Wiggin is still ENDER'S GAME is the story of the greatest military genius who how he was trained—mercilessly— ever lived. to be the comnander of all mankind's I may be presuming too much a- space fleets in the final war against bout Scott and Ender, may be condemn¬ the Buggers. ing too soon. And it is the story of how he was tricked into beoming the great¬ 15 FANTASY ART TECHNIQUES Second Alliance (the anti-com, fas¬ EMILE AND THE DUTCHMAN By cist Christian force). By Joel Rosenberg Arco, $19.95 (Hardcover) 1985. There are many storylines--- Signet, January 1986 Foreword by Isaac Asimov, who young people, mostly, struggling In this quasi-novel of hardcore, makes appreciative noises, and right¬ against the growing tyranny of the far future sf, Emile is in the be¬ ly so. Second Alliance. ginning a new recruit to the Thousand Dozens of full-page, full-color The writing is vivid, dense, Worlds Contact Service---those few reproductions of Vallejo paintings full of detail, full of passion and who search out and investigate new (and many, many smaller color repos, acute characterizations. You can¬ worlds for colonization/exploitation. plus many black and whites). not skim this novel; there's too It's a dirty job, but somebody.... The artist explains the theory much to know, too much to experience. The Dutchman is Major Alonzo Nor- and practice of painting fantasy and At the end of this first novel feldt, a drunkard, a smoker, a liar, sf cover art (primarily). He dis¬ of the trilogy, several strands of a thief, a cheat, a braggart, a foul- cusses many technical painting tips, storylines come together, some have mouthed bigot. But he stays in com¬ many techniques he has found work ended, others are begun. mand because he gets the job done. for him and his special effects. I liked this a lot. I'll will¬ The novel is a series of stories Vallejo paints with photograph¬ ingly read the subsequent parts of about the Dutchman's team of Contac- ic realism incredible men and women, A SONG CALLED YOUTH. tees (which read like R-rated Astound¬ alien creatures, alien places. He ing stories from the '40s) with makes real what we only hope and bridging material showing some pers¬ fear may be real. onal, non-Service affairs of Emile Here is talent honed to scalpel and some character change. precision. It is the maturation of Emile THE NEW DEVIL'S DICTIONARY during his adventures with the Dutch¬ CREEPY CLICHES AND SINISTER SYNONYMS man which makes this collection of By J.N. Williamson stories a novel,' barely. Introduction by There is a deadly sameness to WARRIOR WOMAN Illustrated by J.K. Potter the stories---especially the Dutch¬ By Marion Z inner Bradley W. Paul Ganley: Publisher man's unchanging cursing and bigotry DAW, $2.95 (#642) POB 149, Amherst Branch, and caustic antagonism toward his A routine action/adventure nov¬ Buffalo, NY 14226-0149 team (to teach them lessons, to keep el about a young woman with memory A tongue-in-cheek (never tongue- them alive, to indulge his nasty loss who becomes a skilled, deadly out -of -cheek) compilation of all orneriness) which gets to be a drag. gladiator in the arena (in a thin¬ those tried and grue words and Granted Norfeldt does come to a ly disguised Empire of Rome setting) phrases so beloved of horror and grudging respect for Emile, at the set on a far planet, whenever. occult and Cthulhuan writers, with end, but the stories do seem too Strong feminist, lesbian under¬ sometimes wry, humorous definitions repetitive. tones. Good, skilled writing in and asides. I have more of a problem with the first-person, present-tense Breath, for instance, is rarely Norfeldt's language than others may, technique: other than dank or fetid. because these stories are set 250 I am angry because she does not Mists always swirl, Fog always years in the future, and by that believe me and I insist in a louder closes in... time I think (in a human environment voice, "I can read too, and write; And so on. of a thousand worlds) words like give me a pen and I will show you." Mewling and Gibbering are what hebe, jew-boy, dago, deutcher, moth¬ I enjoyed this; it kept me hook¬ Things do,nostly in thedark. erfucker would have dropped away or ed. There's a possibility of a ser¬ $5. for a limited edition paper been superceded. Those words were ies using this lead character. cover edition, $15 for a limited not used in 1735 AD were they? edition hardcover copy, and $30 for Alonzo Nerfeldt seems a 1940s man a signed, numbered, slipcased copy in 2044 or so, and it isn't plausi¬ of a limited edition. Add $1 for ble to me. postage 8 handling when ordering But, cavils aside, the adventur¬ ECLIPSE from the publisher. es of Emile and the Dutchman's team Volume One of A SONG CALLED YOUIH The Potter illustrations are ex¬ are exciting, dangerous, and well By John Shirley cellent. This is a thin book, with done. I enjoyed the novel. Bluejay Books, $8.95 little real reason for existence, This first third of a trilogy, but well-done and of some value to published in trade paperback, is writers. the best writing by John of his ca¬ reer to date; this is hard, real, ENCYCLOPEDIA OF OCCULTISM AND dramatic, gripping, and it deals PARAPSYCHOLOGY with heavy themes. There is no ab¬ Edited by Leslie A. Shepard surdist science fantasy, no mystic Gale Research Co. collective unconscious manifesta¬ Book Tower, Detroit, MI 48226 tions. This second edition of this spec¬ The Soviets attacked , ialized, exhaustive, and authoritat¬ the NATO countries were defended by ive encyclopedia is extremely impres¬ low-yield atomic weapons, and a fas¬ sive. cist/Christian force (private, with Here are three BIG volimes with its base in fundamentalism, super at least twice the page total of the capitalism, a messianic leader) is first edition of a few years ago. employed to keep peace in the dev¬ These are hardbound, built to last, astated extreme western European contain 1,617 pages. Two-column lands still under United Nations pages, clear, easy-to-read text. control. And there is a New Resistance force--small, underground, with mol¬ AND THEN I READ... es in the higher echelons of the evil CONTINUED ON PAGE 37 The month before, my "artsy- DEFENDER OP THE FAITH? NOT ME, FOLKS 1 fartsy fiction factory" article was I once had a philosophy profes¬ widely misinterpreted (in large part sor who never wrote anything. He was because of my unfortunate manner of You brilliant, his ideas were exciting, expression) as an attack on all writ¬ but he did not publish a one of them. ing that aspires to beauty in addition When I asked him why, he loftily gazed to utility, whereas in fact I was at¬ at my forehead and said, "You're al¬ tacking writing that aspires to beauty ways held responsible for what you at the expense of utility, which is wrote, no matter how many years have quite another thing. passed. I never wish to be confronted THE PARABLE OF THE HOUSES by the idiocies of my youth." Got Let me tell a parable (since, At the time I knew there was after all, these are sermons that I something wrong with that idea, but I was too youthful and, presumably, idi¬ otic to know what it was. Now I think A woman had such beautiful I've found the flaw in his reasoning. dreams at night that she was angry at It is only in the melee of public con¬ having to wake up and leave them in versation that you can test the merit the morning. She fell in love with a No of your ideas. While I'm all for man whose laugh was like music, whose quiet contemplation, it comes to noth¬ smile was like sunlight, and who lis¬ ing if it does not result in public tened to her dreams as intently as if discourse. they were the story of his own future. They married, they had a child, and So I gladly run the risk of re¬ soon it came time for them to buy a vealing myself to be a fool, if in return I have a chance to hone and improve my understanding. And if ten First they bought a house that Friends was as beautiful as her dreams, pretty years from now, when I'm very old, someone confronts me with some pro¬ and fragile and bright. Alas, the nouncement I made in these pages, house was no more durable than the trying to force me to defend my state¬ visions of the night—in the first ments of a decade earlier and recon¬ storm of any force, the whole house cile them with contradictory state¬ collapsed, and the family barely es¬ ments of a later time, I will reply caped with their lives. In that I am a lenient master of my own After this, they thought they mind: I require my ideas to be con¬ had learned their lesson. They chose sistent only with their contemporar¬ a sturdy house, built to last a hun¬ ies, not with their antecedents. dred years. But it was so ugly that All of which comes round to the she stopped dreaming dreams, and he point that I am not so foolish as to stopped laughing, and finally, though think that every judgment I give today it was warm and dry inside, they took on storytelling, particularly science their child and fled from it, before This it killed their . fiction and fantasy, will endure for¬ ever as absolute truth. I am neither They wandered for a long time surprised nor much offended to discov¬ after that, and only came to live in a er that many people who are wiser than house again when they found one that I am have arrived at conclusions con¬ was graceful and spacious and bright, trary to my own. and yet also sturdy and well-crafted. When that disagreement is civil¬ Because what good is a house that World ly and intelligently presented—even cannot stand, however pretty it might when it has some fun at my expense—I be? And what good is a house that you learn from it. I learn either that I cannot bear to live in, even though was wrong (or partly wrong), or I it's strong? learn that I did not explain clearly INTERPRETATION OF THE PARABLE what I meant. To you it may look like I'm tak¬ After last month's column, in ing an extreme position, but I think which I stated flatly that I could not I'm firmly in possession of the middle think of any stories where the use of ground. present-tense narrative provided bene¬ fits enough to be worth the unavoidab¬ Reading David Hartwell's excel¬ le cost, I received generous and lent overview of science fiction crit¬ thoughtful responses from several of icism in AGE OF WONDBRS [McGraw-Hill) the better writers in the field, who helped me understand some of the peo¬ could think of stories in which pres¬ ple who became irate at my criticisms ent tense narrative was used—and was of writers who have adopted "main¬ worth using. Usually I was unfamiliar stream" and "literary" writing tech¬ with the examples they cited; their niques that interfere with their abil¬ comments, however, led me to trust ity to tell a story well. Much of my their conclusions. Perhaps it is own rhetoric is unfortunately similar enough that writers think twice, and to language used in the past by pro¬ then think still one more time, before tectionists who have thought of the they use a technique that will place a genre as a fortress, and the literati barrier in the way of a significant as barbarians trying to storm the fort part of their audience. Present tense and carry off all the virgins; narrative may not be as universally So let me assure you that if you horrid as I have found it to be in my want to keep science fiction "pure," limited experience; but it is certain¬ I'm not on your side. I'm one of the ly horrid enough to be shunned. rapists. I don't give a damn whether science fiction writers have any science in their stories, or show proper reverence at the cenotaphs of Heinlein or Asimov. Furthermore, I think the boundary between fantasy and science fiction should be crossed as often as possible, as should the boun¬ BY ORSON SCOTT CARO daries between all genres.

11 i the ancien ipleasantnes icil is trying to ens d had to make do with NOISE LEVEL i that was the best a lifted into three or m\

figure comparable to Shakespeare. We . ■ This first dawned on me in Tokyo two toured the grandest palace there, a huge 4 years ago. One speaker after another one-building town. Hitler declared that rises to rehearse the proper quotes from his sole interest in Leningrad -- ex-Pet- scripture, even though the scripture may rograd, ex-St. Petersburg -- was to dine be an item from this morning's paper. So at its Astoria Hotel before ordering it long as it possesses proper authority, to be razed. (They found the dinner in¬ it's respectable. (Don't mock. This was vitations in the Berlin bunker, printed the sole accepted form of debate in Eur¬ ready to be sent out.) After using its opean universities a scant few centuries chapel as a motorcycle garage and looting ago, and now they're thought of as a tow¬ every obiet d'art that hadn't been evac¬ er of universal learning.) uated,^~the_NazIs-set the palace on fire and left eleven delayed-action explosive charges...which the Russian bomb-disposal teams discovered just in time. In every room there is a picture of we understand the term. Indeed, one of it as it was in 1940 and another as it the members of the Leningrad Peace Com¬ Leningrad was where the Nazis were was found in 1945: stripped, shattered, mittee, in private conversation, defined defeated. It cannot be denied. In World wrecked. But as long ago as 1923 Lenin events of this kind as "a substitute for War II America lost 350,000 dead. The said that because Russian people had sac¬ Russians lost twenty million. A lot of rificed their lives to its construction Nonetheless, one can't deny that it's those died here, almost a million by -- three thousand died to build the aw¬ educational to meet a colonel in the Af¬ starvation. The ration for soldiers and ful place, cold with marble and gaudy ghan army, editor-in-chief of a newspap- workers during the 900 days of siege was with gold leaf -- their descendants ought -n,„,s truth 125 grams of coarse black bread. That's to have the benefit. Since the end of

ho's now a heroine hey're re-naming er. Marjorie and I have been invited to streets for her), kept a diary in a note¬ participate in a conference of writers book. It's worse, and far more poignant, from nearly forty countries. (One was than Anne Frank's; each entry records an¬ to have come from the US, but was unable other death among her relatives. She was to attend through illness. He was Ers- too weak to write about whatever else Oh, yes: the conference ... kine Caldwell...) We listened to dutiful rehearsals of The food is excellent and so is the I cried at that. I hadn't cried Marxist doctrine by speaker after speak¬ tea; the coffee less so, Marjorie re¬ since seeing the tomb in the Peace Park er, repeating what we all believed -- ports. Gorbachov’s diktat concerning at Hiroshima that is still draped with must have, or else we'd not have come -- hard liquor has bitten deep, and nothing paper cranes in monory of another little concerning the danger of another war, alcoholic is on sale before 2 pm, but in girl who believed that if she made a the wastefulness of the arms race, the the evening there are tolerable beers, thousand of than she would live...but inrorality of trying to export our con¬ fair red and white wines from Georgia, died, of radiation sickness, when she'd flicts into space, and now and then were and fizzy ones they call shampanskaya made a mere six hundred. brought up short by someone talking good that lubricate the tongue. hard sense. I'll cite just one example. But we aren't tourists, like most of The speaker was from Baku, near the the other residents of the hotel who Iran border: an oil producing region, as one might expect. He said he had been flood in from Finland and West Germany, And Russians come -- I saw them, in from Britain (on the way to India) and entertaining eight , all oil men and out of uniform, both yomg and old, who believed the chimera of a Russian the Eastern European countries. We're pausing, saluting, or taking off their here to work. Our fares and bed and threat... and lost his temper. (His hats on entering --to the cemetery words were, as translated, "I forgot pro- board are paid, and in return we are not where they had to dump the kinfolk of just to utter speeches, but to learn. that little girl, nameless because there was no time to write down names, nor pa- We do. I promise He demanded how they could know wheth later I'll return to what we learn. er a country was planning to launch a First I must tell you what the confer¬ war. After sore debate, they concluded ee is like. It's a religious ritual. This was to have been a full a there were two infallible signs: first, of the Leningrad writers' conferer hatred must be whipped ip against the en- You doubt that? Ah, but communists is turning into something else. I eny; second, the country's production e hunan too, and every human society I find I'm weeping as I try to wri capacity must be converted to military s its religion, of whatever sort... Fair enough. So the guy produced a They are topping out flats in Lenin¬ list of the local libraries and invited grad at the rate of 150 a day. Because them to pick one at random. They did. two-thirds of the city was destroyed in He took than there. Books by American WW II and since then people have flooded writers were on open shelves -- did you in from the countryside, even that isn't know that Mark TWain is one of the most enough to give everybody decent housing. popular authors in the Soviet Ihian? -- and much thunbed, showing how often they johnbpunnep were read. That disposed of point one.

THE UIUISECTOR BY DARRELL SCHWEITZER

SCARY STUFF I hear a lot of talk, particularly Lately, as David Hartwell pointed out at the Midnight Horror Panels which seem (on one of those Midnight Panels), Clive to have become a tradition in the East Barker (of fame) has be¬ Coast convention circuit, about vbether come the first writer to establish a re¬ or not the horror field is dead, merely putation as a short story writer in ten sleeping, down with a bad cold, or doing years. The first since just fine, thank you, despite reports of (who has since turned to novels). Other¬ its demise, which are exaggerated. Since wise, well, it's a matter of King, Straub; I've been on a few of those panels my¬ Grant, Ryan, Strieber, and all those oth¬ self of late, I have contributed a bit to er novelists. the discussion here and there. 101*0 00/M1J' /mtneJrr I think something more profomd is My own conclusion, for the time being happening here than just a case of com¬ at least, is that the horror field has mercial pressure. The form is changing. waxed and waned for well-nigh two centur¬ You see, all those great horror writers blunter, faster-paced; it has, to use ies now, and isn't about to go away in a of the past, whose reputations are sole¬ Raymond Chandler's phrase, lost its good hurry. Recently we have seen a retreat ly based on their short stories, actual¬ manners and gone native. The 1986 novel from the kind of frenzied publishing dur¬ ly wrote novels. E.F. Benson wrote about is more suitable to sustained horror than ing which editors seemed convinced that a dozen. Blackwood did several, of which the 1910 novel. anything with a contemporary (preferably perhaps THE CENTAUR and THE HUMAN CHORD It may be that. It may be something suburban, or urban middle-class) setting, enjoy minimal reputation among the con¬ a black enbossed cover, and a title that noisseurs, but which hardly challenge which will not be apparent for some time, sounded like THE WIGGLING, THE SQUIGGLING, the reputation of "The Wendigo," etc. about vhich 21st century critics will THE SQUISHING, etc., would sell like hot- Crawford wrote THE WITCH OF PRAGUE, which discourse learnedly. cakes. They may have even been right. few have read and which is reputedly bor¬ In the meantime, let's look at some But before long, audiences developed some ing, but is remembered for "The Upper books: sense of discrimination, if not for the Berth." James wrote one novel, THE FIVE best, at least for trash of a certain SKELETON CREW by Stephen King JARS, a rather eerie juvenile, a little Putnam, 198S, 512 pp., $18.95 type. Also for the best. I cannot think like John Bellairs' later vrork, tut hard¬ of any horror writer of any real merit ly comparable to his stories. Ev¬ Here is an apparent exception to all who has perished with the chaff. en Stoker couldn't do it again. Aside of the above, a short story collection At the same time we have, quite re¬ from his one success with DRACULA, his which is a bestseller, which has outrage¬ markably, gained two healthy, stable, other books are pretty terrible. ously huge printings and is found in ev¬ professional magazines in the field, TWI- My point is that all the great horror ery B. Dalton Bookseller in the universe. LIGIT ZONE and NIQ1T CRY. There are al¬ short story writers of the past were ful¬ Only Stephen King could do it. He is so numerous anthologies, both one-shots ly capable of writing and publishing nov¬ an exception to every rule. But remember: and periodical ones. els (Benson, for example, was extremely his reputation is as a novelist. This But the real action is in the novel. successful as a novelist -- with his so¬ book is essentially the biggest hanger- Much of this is due to comnercial pres¬ cial comedies, the LUCIA and DODO books), on in history. Had he published no nov¬ sure. Novels sell better than short sto¬ and they felt some of the same commercial els, it might still have appeared, but ry collections. They have for a long time, pressures exerted on horror writers today quietly, in an edition for four-thousand at least since the days when Robert Cham¬ in favor of novels. So they wrote horror copies from . bers' publishers used to label the stor¬ novels, vhich wre, for the most part, ies in his collections chapters, so the bad and are now forgotten. This syndrome It's a good place to start King, if books would look like novels. Readers goes all the way back to Poe, whose ARTH¬ you haven't read him (and in the SF fan prefer long, involving stories. As some GORDON PYM is hardly the pinnacle of coimunity, which I assume comprises much mass-market novels reach people vrfio don't his career. of the readership of this magazine, there read very much at all, they are perhaps Now, suddenly, it's the novels which are still holdouts, who find King too touching an audience which doesn't even are the pillars of reputations, and which suspiciously Mainstream-Bestsellerish to know about short stories. At the same win audiences. The short stories are sec¬ be worth investigating -- I know, because time, the popular wisdom has always been ondary. That's a big change. I'm not I was like that myself before I learned that it's difficult (or impossible, de¬ entirely sure why it has happened. Part better), for all that it doesn't always pending on how lurch the speaker is addict¬ of it may be that the tradition of the show him at his best. ed to sweeping statements) to maintain a genteel ghost story, to be read by the King has a problem quite the opposite sense of horror in novel length. The fire (this is what M.R. James' stories form of choice in the past has always of that which afflicted E.F. Benson and specifically were -- he wrote them to all those people. His novels tend to be been the short story. Hence writers like read to the students every Christmas at M.R. James, Algernon Blackwood, F. Marion better than his short stories. There is the school where he taught) or for a some point at which a King story reaches Crawford and E.F. Benson, whose reputa¬ pleasant shudder before bedtime, has fin¬ critical mass, and all the long scenes tions rest entirely on short fiction. ally died. I think it vent the way of come together to bring the characters There are a few novels, but after you the hansom cab and the gas lamp. The memorably alive. His long stories have name DRACULA, THE CASE OF CHARLES DEXTER horror novel may be more modem, something WARD, CONJURE WIFE, THE HAUNTING OF HILL a cumulative pover, which he seldom ach¬ to grip the reader by the throat and not ieves in the shorter ones. When the HOUSE and one or two others, you are let go for days, or if read piecemeal on stretching. (Arthur Machen, for instance, shorter ones don't reach critical mass, trains and subways, weeks. And, the nov¬ they seem padded and misshapen. wrote some of the most brilliant novelets el itself has evolved since the heyday the field has ever seen, but if you try of the classical ghost story. It is Consequently, the best story in the to include his THE HILL OF DREAKE as a book is the longest, a 113-page novella horror novel, you are stretching.) 24 which has all the properties of his best novels, without being as long as any of around a hundred bucks each; one from a many of the same characteristics as his them. So, if you have truly never read 1968 issue of UBRIS, which was otherwise Mallworld and Inquestor stories, the same King before, this is the place to start. totally unobtainable; and others from wild inventiveness and uneasy mixture of sources as diverse as YANKEE, REDBOOK beauty and silliness, the same undiscip¬ The story is one of King's few suc¬ and WEIRDBOOK. lined brilliance. You can be sure that cessful near-science fiction efforts. « » t » t Sucharitkul is hardly going to write a It's about people in a small Maine town conventional vampire novel, no matter how besieged by hordes of monsters which ap¬ While we're on the subject of King deliberately comnercial he is trying to parently have been released from another COTipletists, Owen Haskell has compiled a dimension by a botched military experi¬ useful CHECKLIST AND BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE ment. A good deal of the action takes FIRST APPEARANCES OF THE NOVELS AND SHORT Sure enough, he hasn't. Start with place in a supermarket, among the very STORIES OF STEPHEN KING. Of course, this his vampire, a seeming twelve-year-old familiar, while slavering Things lurk information is available elsewhere (in my rock star bloodsucker. Think of Danny just outside. Then we go outside, and book, DISCOVERING STEPHEN KING, for in¬ Osmond with fangs. Then, don't. This the story shifts into King's finest apoc¬ stance) but Haskell's panphlet is design¬ vanpire is a memorable, tragic figure, alyptic mode, and produces a genuine sense ed to be carried around to flea markets an almost-absurd pint-sized Melraoth the of dark and terrible wonder at the end. and thrift shops and thumbed through Wanderer, who served the sybil of Cunae when you just happen to find a run of, in the First Century A.D. before becoming His other science fiction stories in a vampire, getting buried in Pomeii, and the collection are pretty poor stuff. say, CAVALIER. As such, it is very use¬ ful. having a variety of often quite gory ad¬ "Beachworld" I have already discussed in ventures throughout the ages. All the a previous column, when reviewing the I think Haskell self-published it. while he remains a child, and, in some aborted of WEIRD TALES. It's Order from: Other Worlds, 197 Wickenden ways, more innocent than the people ar- typically Sucharitkul- > nearly two-thousand- in enthusiast for model

her husband) in a manner which is beauti¬ ful and moving; "The Ballad of the Flex¬ ible Bullet," a crazily convincing tale of paranoia which manages to be both fun¬ ny and suspenseful at the same time; "The Wedding Gig," a ncn-fantastic crime story, but more a story of character; and "Mrs. Todd's Shortcut," which starts diffusely (it could probably be cut by 25%, all at the front) but then takes a short, very weird trip into another world, rather like the Territories of . Overall this is an uneven collection but a wonderful catch-all for the King completist -- and there are more King completists than there are readers for most writers. A lot of very rare mater¬ ial is included: one of the early stor¬ ies from STARTLING MYSTERY STORIES, cop¬ ies of which, in magazine form, now go for racters had sud- MJNTHLY TERRORS to explain the Compiled by Frank H. Pamell assistei Sucharitkul does bY Ntike Ashley, Greenwood Press, 19 outrageous things with violence --he doesn't merely splatter guts; he splatters : tells it all: "an i them with elegance and style -- but he itasy Magazines publi does so a trifle too often, until the tates and Great Brita deaths cease to shock, and the stray characters seem like extras in a : just walking slabs of meat. Then, when things seem completely out of con- the contents of WERID TALES, UNKNOWN, rol, he produces the very powerful drama (including the British version], STRANGE f a young boy whose brother and parents TALES, STRANGE STORIES, and e ave just become vampires. This is worth as obscure as BRIEF FANTASTIC

veiopea. in the future, when these magazines have al become fantastically scarce, the informa tion preserved here will give necessary perspective, lest one get the impression that the real focal point of the middle '70s was, say, Ted White's FANTASTIC, and then, shortly afterwards, novelists more real imagination than any dozen care like Charles de Lint, David Drake and fully crafted, routine horror novels. It Charles Saunders suddenly appeared from will become, in its owi odd way, I ven¬ nowhere. ture to predict, a classic, a unique ad¬ dition to that very small shelf of novels The cross-index by author provides One sign of things being taken more which have shaped our image and conceptio the beginning for bibliographies of vir¬ seriously is the new, revised texts of of the undead. tually every 20th century horror/fantasy Lovecraft currently being released by writer. (There are even seventy-six en¬ Arkham House. Lovecraft is now being sub¬ tries for yours truly.) jected to the same sort of rigorous text¬ .An essential reference book for schc ual scholarship as, say, Poe or Melville, lars, collectors and many fans. and the results are particularly fruit¬ ful. Arkham has already released handsome CYCLE UF THE WEREWOLF By Stephen King new "corrected printings" of THE DUNWICH Illustrated by Bemi Wrightson HORROR and AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS Signet, 1985, 128 pp., $8.95 ($15.95 and $16.95 respectively), with DAGON to follow. These will replace the Not one of the more significant King previously standard hardcover editions, books, more important as the first King and will hopefully be the source for all collectible whose value has become sus¬ future reprints and translations. pect than as a story. The hardcover, published in 1983 by Land of Enchantment,- imnediately sold out, and just as iamed- iately turned up on convention dealers'

shows King at his best: a little boy, confined to a vheelchair, knows that the inderful luxury for anyone werewolf is a local clergyman. Adults won't believe him. He starts sending the culprit anonymous notes, like, "Why don't you kill yourself?” Imagine the terror of it, for both of them. telling how a secret organization some¬ The rest of the fiction in the issue SMALL PRESS how manages to kidnap and exchange child¬ mostly consists of what I call "regular ren, so as to prevent nuclear war, the fantasy," standard mock-medieval sorcery idea being nobody will nuke a country stuff, which uiBy seem more exciting to which contains their own lost children. readers less jaded than I. Of the spec¬ MAGAZINES The piece is filled with distancing de¬ imens present, Josepha Sherman's is the vices, which prevent the reader from be¬ best written, at least until she starts coming involved. Ms. Zoline, vho achiev¬ to slip out of viewpoint toward the end. ed a certain fame during the New Wave era Reviewed By for "The Heat Death of the Universe," a This is not the best issue of FB by classic specimen of the non-functional any means, but it isi't without nerit word-pattern, which reads like a bunch of either. This magazine is worth follow¬ Darrell Schweitzer randomly assembled clippings, has appar¬ ing, if you read fantasy, simply because ently had a disasterous apprenticeship it is the basic journal of the field, in the art of fiction, being praised for publishing more professional-quality mat¬ all the wrong things. I don't doubt that erial than any other, and that inevitably she is in control of her material, in includes some of the best. Without much ado, since our Noble Ed¬ the sense that she knows precisely what Noted: Another issue of FANTASY BOOK itor has asked me to be brief, let me she is doing. What she isn't doing is arrived, too late to review: #18 (Dec. just mention that the small press maga¬ telling a story which will convince or 1985) contains stories by Diana Paxson, zine field seems reasonably stable at move the reader. Richard Lupoff, Esther Friesner, Charles the moment. Most of the established ti¬ But hers is the only really bad item Harness, Mary Elizabeth Counselman, and tles continue to publish reliably, and in this INTERZONE. The magazine is very others. the newer ones come and go, as always. much worth supporting. It remains Brit¬ WEIRDBOOK 21 features another splen¬ The Canadian BORDERLAND, which made a ain's only SF magazine. did Fabian cover, and two long novelets, promising debut in October 1984, has ap¬ Also from Britain is an outstanding one of them the most cosmic excursion im¬ parently had a second issue, but I have aginable for Richard Tierney's gnostic yet to see a copy. The English-language, issue of an old standby, FANTASY TALES; #14 contains a long novelet by horror sword 6 sorcery hero, Simon of Gitta (the but Italian-published KADATH seems to be Simon Magus of Biblical fame), and anoth¬ definitely dead, without even a response fiction's new superstar, , and on the basis of this (it being the er of Cthulhuoid hijinks from Brian Lum- to my previous coiments on the subject. ley. Also: a short-short from yours The small-press field, as usual, contin¬ first Barker I have read) he certainly seems to deserve the amazing amount of truly, plus Joe Lansdale, Ardath Mayhar ues to be oriented toward horror and and several others. fantasy, for all some interesting things attention he has garnered of late. (When do occur on the fringes of science fic¬ else, in the whole history of the field, WHISPERS 21-22 is a thick digest with tion; which brings us to our first pitoli- has someone made his debut with six vol¬ original fiction by Fritz Leiber, Tanith cation: umes of previously unpublished short fic¬ Lee, David Morrell, Dennis Etchison and tion from major publishers on both sides numerous others. It is the- true aristo¬ INTERZONE is apparently devoted to of the Atlantic?) His "The Forbidden" crat of the fantasy little magazines. imaginative writing in the broadest (a reprint from one of the BOOKS OF BLOOI) One of the two Alan Ryan stories this sense. I hope it remains so, because it reads like a mixture of the best elements issue is a finalist. is able to give us things which the reg¬ of Ramsey Canpbell and Stephen King, ular science fiction magazines cannot. Campbell's subtlety and sophistication, INTERZONE: 124 Osbourne Rd., Brighton, Case in point is Michael Bishop's "The and King's clarity and vigor, and it is BN I 6LU, . 6 L or $10 for 4 iss. Bob Dylan Tambourine Software 5 Satori simply the most amazing, gripping horror FANTASY TALES: Stephen Jones, 130 Park Support Services Consortium Ltd." in the story I have read in many years. There's View, Wembley, Middx, HA9 6JU, England. current issue #12. If one must define also a real, original Ramsey Campbell 3 L or $11 for 3 issues. it, I suppose it is what GALAXY used to story in this issue, which doesn't quite call a "non-fact" article. Part a mock- engage me, for all that it seems well FANTASY BOOK: POB 60126, Pasadena, CA, report, part eerily-convincing mock-in¬ written and contains a striking image. I 91106. $12 for 4 issues. terview, it tells how Bob Dylan quit mu¬ think the problem is that Canpbell leaves WEIRDBOOK: Box 149, Amherst Branch, sic to become a software entrepreneur, out too many utilitarian sentences like Buffalo, NY, 14226. $25 for 7 issues. not for the money, but because the new "he went upstairs and went to bed," which culture of the computer revolution offers set scenes and keep things in focus. So VHISPERS: Stuart Schiff, 70 Highland a shortcut to God. It's a funny, auda¬ the reader can't become as deeply involv¬ Ave., Binghamton, NY, 13905. $10.95, cious attempt, quite successfully pulled ed as he should, sinply because the story 2 double issues. off, but it's more than just a stunt. is always slightly murky. Hie whole thing makes a bizarre sort of Also in this issuie are a couple of pretty good short-shorts by Jeffrey God- Now this isn't even quite a story, din and C. Bruce Hunter, and a quite in¬ and it isn't science fiction or fantasy, teresting, IXmsanyesque fable by Chris really, but it is^most certainly imagin¬ Naylor, who is a new writer, and who, I ative, and it does deviate from realism hope, will write more. in a speculative way. I couldn't imagine it in ANALOG, but INTERZONE serves its FANTASY TALES is not to be confused readers veil when it presents such mat- with the American standby, FANTASY BOOK, the 17th issuie of which (Sept. 1985) seems a bit in the doldrums, but containing The rest of the issue is interesting three interesting stories. Richard Muel¬ for the most part, but some of it could ler's "The Dark At the End of the TUnnel" have appeared in ANALOG. Paul J. McAuley will be particularly fascinating to Har¬ has a pretty good story about a human fe¬ lan Ellison fans, since one of the char¬ male who is artificially locked into acters ii clearly based on Harlan. Be¬ childhood and brainwiped once a year. yond that, the story contains good char¬ It's a story of suspense and character, acterizations and a moderately interest¬ certainly worth reading, but not unlike ing fantastic element. Harry Turtledove numerous stories which appear elsewhere. has a convincingly medieval tale based an Richard Kadrey's "The Fire Catcher” is a John Mandeville, and it is a model of how grim vignette about computers and World to take a hint from a traditional source War III. M. John Harrison's "A Young and make it into a story. (As opposed to Man's Journey to Viriconium" is almost tediously rehashing the original.) John fascinating, filled with striking images Betancourt's " of Mazel Dey," and interesting ideas, but bogged down for all its Klarkash-Tonian title, is a in dull, seemingly irrelevant details. nice attenpt at a moral fable in the con¬ And Pamela Zoline's "Instructions for Ex¬ text of a (not quite convincing) Arabian iting This Building In Case of Fire" is Nights setting. almost a story, an iaplausible sketch, from a variety of middled viewpoints, 27 Her theory (and drawings, and explained satellite photos) is that there are 1500-2000 mile openings at the poles which have been hidden and kept secret from humanity since ancient times. But there is a weak¬ ening of the magnetic poles going on, and soon the poles will shift and a catastrophe will happen to the plan¬ et: it will wobble and roll as new magnetic north and south poles are established and stabilized. Isaac is aware of this and is trying to warn mankind by veiled messages in his fiction and non¬ fiction, sayeth Benton. Incidentally, there is a minia¬ ture sun in the center of our hollow earth. As conspiracy theories go, this is a lulu: credibility rating: Zero. MISTY AND THE SUN JEWEL to do the things he does in these Paranoia rating: 99.91. By James McQuade adventures; the non-involvement of I have word that Isaac has writ¬ Nuance, Inc., $12.95 any vestige of reality makes these ten an editorial inspired by the book POB 9076, Van Nuys, CA 91409. pictures of death, humiliation, which will appear in the August (or This is a large-size (9x12, torture, enslavement, sex...allowable thereabouts) issue of ASIMDV'S SF. 124 pages, heavy color cover) graph¬ and saleable. That should be interesting read¬ ic fantasy drawn and I presume writ¬ The appeal is subliminal, in¬ ing. ten by Jim. stinctual, to young males afraid of The subtitle is "Further Erotic women, to any male afraid of women, Adventures of Misty." afraid of equality. And there is a Misty is a luscious young woman perhaps disengenuous appeal to girls of the far future who continually here, as Misty triumphs over males, AURORA SF-Speculative Feminism becomes involved in and subjected to is able to kill vile men, is able to Sumner, 1985, #24, Vol.9, No.l, 53.00 adventures which always involve her magically survive all their attempts to violate her, kill her, defeat her. Edited by Jeanne Gomoll capture, torture, imprisonment, sex¬ Published by SF3, Box 1624, Madison, WI ual abuse... She is rarely fully There is an evil woman in this book, 53701-1624. clothed and always wears skimpy who uses male clones, who fights rival A male feels out of place reading outfits. males for power_ this well-produced, offset, quality publi¬ Her near and total nudity does¬ These MISTY books are clinics cation, since it is dedicated to the prop¬ n't matter after a few.pages, because in manipulation of symbols, instincts osition that women get the shaft in modem sf and fantasy writing and publishing, she is so perfect, so impossible, drives, fears, lusts. This is not a killer, putdown which is strange, since a lot of male writ¬ that her lack of skin-tight clothes ers, viewing the array of women editors is a mere, quibble. Her nudity is review, Jim; I admire your skills and associate editors and assistant edit¬ never (to me) nakedness. and your professionalism. Your Mis¬ ors in the fields today would feel the In the first book of Misty, ty books walk a narrow, intricate same way about themselves... titled MISTY, and now, and I presune line and are loaded with narrative But the magazine makes its points and in the next (maybe now) volume, elements boldly and subtly invoked. celebrates current and past woman writers such as , Katherine MacLean, MISTY AND THE VALKYRIES, the bondage Lee Killough, ... And and masochism/sadism elements are there is an article by Jessica Amanda what sell these books, perhaps under Salmonsonon "Mediocrity and Women's Sci¬ cover of the nudity and periodic ence Fiction", though the examples given lovemaking episodes with handsome HOLLOW EARTH APOCALYPSE--- are few and far between, and the three young men. (In this book, absent in ASIMOV'S WARNING examples (of four) with dates on them come MISTY, a step into pornography is By Floria Benton from 1969, 1970 and 1976. Of course, crap is in the mind of the beholder, so perhaps taken in one lovemaking sequence Available from: R.A. Leedy, Jessica has a less sensitive shit detector as the man's erect penis is clearly 4 Dennis Dr., Park Place, than (for instance) I. shown, and penetration is shown. But Wilmington, DE 19808 don't get excited; even this is cur¬ What Benton has done is pick and iously devoid of eroticism because choose from among Isaac's voluminous 'Six months after 's of the near-cartoon style and perfect, writings (fiction and non-fiction) STANLEY AND THE WOMEN was published exaggerated breasts, hips, face.) to create the illusion that he is a to wide praise in Britain, John Gross last January called attention MISTY isn't human, as you and I. rebel against the conspiratorial in Book Review to She's fantasy, her miraculous escap¬ control of all the news media, all the irony that the novel had not es from death are fantasy, and noth¬ the scientists in the world, by the been picked up in the , ing can be believed, nothing is real. all-powerful inhabitants of the hol¬ when "in the normal course of events It is this body fantasy, event low earth. any novel by him would automatical¬ fantasy, which perhaps allows Jim This may be news to Asimov. ly be expected to find an American publisher." And Jonathan Clowes, Mr. Amis's literary agent, charged that at least two American houses turned the book down because of fem¬ inist pressures within those houses over its unflattering depiction of women. 'But last month Sunni t Books (a RICHARD E. GEIS division of Simon and Shuster) pub- 28 lished STANLEY AND THE WOMEN. ’ 'Ileene Smith, the eeitor who cism and result in an impoverished, ascet¬ acters and the reader. His fiction acquired the book for Surnnit, said, ic life which works only for a very, very is rarely an emotional experience. "It's a very, very mischievous few. Most often it is an intellectual ex¬ book, but it's not evil at all. LIVING FREE is letter-size, ten pages, perience, but rewarding, eye-opening. It's a fascinating book about alien¬ mailed first class. Printed by offset, I ation, insanity and madness." In think, or very good copier. He plays with ideas, but in his fact, the book had been highly reco- Jim prefers to receive payment in heart of hearts, does he ever really nmended to heT by Penny Perrick, take them seriously? a feminist and the literary editor Yes, obviously. Very obvious¬ of The Sunday Times in , and ly in the second half of the book Miss Smith was awaiting a copy from Mr. Clowes when the controversy where his leftist socio-political- surfaced. economic beliefs surface in his dis¬ 'Nontheless, after she bought JACK VANCE- - Light From A Lone Star cussions of science fiction authors, the book, she received many indig¬ NESFA Press, $13Ton + jj .00 p 6 h. fans, publishers, and in other nant phone calls from industry col¬ Box G, MIT Branch P.O. pieces of a personal nature. He leagues. "I think they were just Cambridge, MA 02139-0910 sees England as a nation occupied not comfortable with the idea of This small hardbound book was pub¬ and dominated by American bases and publishing a book that was purport¬ lished for the Lone Star Con (1985 (North edly misogynistic," she said. "But American SF Convention) in honor of its American foreign policy. He sees if the book had not met a particul¬ Guest of Honor, Jack Vance. his government as Scrooge, heartless, ar literary standard, I wouldn't It contains a collection of Vance's without granting any validity to have been interested in publishing early stories--1948-54--and a new piece the reasons for current policies. written for this book: "Cat Island", a He bleeds for the poor (including ---10-8-85, NEW YORK YIMES satirical item better left unexamined. himself) and sees Capitalist injust¬ Thanks to John Boardman There is a gentle interview with ice on all sides, but rarely Social¬ for the clipping Vance from 1977 by Tim Underwood in which Vance expresses dislike of his early work ist injustice. He sees nuclear war Geis Coinnent: This is a funny exam- and dislike of critical/analytical exam¬ just around the comer and does not ple of hypocrisy. There is a sub- inations of his writing. want England to be Target One. Were genre of pop psychology which makes There is also "A Vance Encyclopedia" I living in England, I'd agree on big money bashing men for being which is more a sampler of various periods that issue. masculine and decrying the mascul¬ and styles of his writings, periods, wqrld ine traits as evil and imnature and creations, than a tine encyclopedia. He writes very well, very keenly, a menace to civilization. Yet let a This is a limited edition: less than probably over the heads of 99% of sf renowned novelist take a shot at 800 copies available. readers. That's his natural level. women and the feminists in publish¬ The signed edition of this book ing cannot endure it. Such immatur¬ costs $35.00; the trade edition is ity! Such insecurity! Why, (Hie $18.50. might think women sometimes act as emotional and sexist as men given the power to punish and reward. Why, THE BOOK OF IAN WATSON even the prospect of a certain, mon¬ By Ian Watson ey-making acquisition could not di¬ Mark V. Ziesing, P.O. Box 806, REM: 3 vert them from their party line. Edited and published by Charles Platt Him. Why do I get the feeling Willimantic, CT 06226 I'm cutting my own throat? This well-printed quality hard¬ 9 Patchin Place cover is a collection of fictions New York, NY 10011 and non-fictions by Ian Watson, chos¬ Last time I reviewed this I for¬ en by Ian Watson. got to list Charles' address. Sev¬ As such it is a worldview and eral people took the time and trouble psyche-view of and by Watson. He and one to call to find out. LIVING FREE--A Personal Journal of arranges items to feed into each Charles continues to run a hot- Self Liberation *32, Nov. '85, J1.5U other, to interrelate, to show how blooded, brooding, electrifying lit¬ Edited and Published by Jim Stunm, he thinks as well as what he thinks. tle magazine which will cost you four Box 29, Hiler Branch, Buffalo, NY 14223 Manifestly, Ian Watson is an in¬ 22f stamps or (if it is more conven¬ This issue sums up the arguments, tellectual in the best sense; he con¬ ient) $1.00. philosophical and practical, for and a- He is into creating beautiful gainst the vonu life (total withdrawal siders science fiction to be a lit¬ from society in the search for total free¬ erature of ideas...and knowingly or software for hone computers---near dom from the oppression of society and its not uses characters, themes and plot as I can imagine it, his "Game of inevitable govememnt). Jim has opted for to illustrate his ideas. There is Life" program is sort of like a a limited vonu life--living on a few acres always a subtle distance between him full-color progressive shape-shift¬ and limiting his profile in re official and his characters, between his char- ing image/kaleidoscope. government. He feels (as do I) that he But the heart and soul of REM is too small an anti-government, libertar¬ is the. controversy---the leading-edge ian, alternate-lifestyle person to bother with; he isn't a significant threat to the of sf discussion---as is manifest in establishment and the powers-that-be can't Hl, N&KqtfgDR. MAY l BOfi&OW this issue's "What is ?" by afford to monitor all the small-press mags , "Cyber-Pinko" by John and books seeking wrong-thinking, and A C(/P

can be taken as satire. However, I'm not at all convinced that given the right circumstances this couldn't really happen. Certainly sexual slavery is quite comnon throughout history --is quite comnon throughout much of the world today -- and I have little problem accepting the possibility that if the state can nationalize boys to fight, that they couldn't nationalize girls to fuck. As for the I give as a rationalization for the Peace Corps in RAINBOW CADENZA -- that there are by that time seven men for every woman -- I'd interested like to point out that until last year in the problem. So one of the ccmpany's this was already happening in the People? r executives remembers Mark Twain’s thought sion dialectic akin to the sexual reprod¬ Republic of China, where there are still that if you really need something from uction drive --it was this observation entire villages with a 6-1 or 7-1 ratio someone, find out what they want more that made writing a book about art, on of boys to girls under age six or seven. than anything else, get ahold of it, and the one hand, and sexual behavior, on offer to trade. This executive finds the other hand, a thematic whole. This happened because of the Chi¬ nese government's birth control policy, out that the good physicist is an admir¬ In all art, tension is created then er of a particular priceless Chinese vase which until last year -- when the Chi¬ released, by thesis, counter-thesis, syn¬ nese government finally wised up -- lim¬ called The Flower of Forgetfulness, gets thesis. In nusic, this is accomplished it, and offers to trade. It works -- the ited a family to one child. This policy with dissonance resolving to consonance, was enforced by the death penalty, as physicist gets his priceless vase and the through tension created by tonic, domin¬ executive gets anti-gravity. the execution of a doctor who reversed a ant, and subdominant, and minor scale woman's sterilization demonstrated. Sine So I looked into what Ivan Dryer to major scale. Martha Graham's theory a Chinese family could only legally have wanted, and it turned out to be publicity of modem dance relies on contraction one child, the economic reality was that for his coup any. I ijimediately phoned and release. In drama and literature, a boy will grow up to work on his par¬ ONNI, got an on-the-spot assignment to there is "doubt of intent" leading to ents' farm, while a girl will grow up to do an article cm LASERIUM, and called Iv¬ "resolution of intent." Even painting marry and work on someone else's farm. an Dryer. He gave me the run of his out¬ and sculpture -- which are static media fit for a week, and ONI paid ne to do -- draw the eye in such a way to create So for the half-dozen years this the research for my novel. Unfortunate¬ tensions then release it -- the human eye policy was enforced the Chinese were "ex¬ ly, the editor who bought the piece got itself provides the necessary movement posing" their female infants -- that's fired and ONI never ran the article, dialectic. a polite way of saying they murdered than but I imagine that the publicity RAINBOW at birth. Under the new policy, if the CADENZA has created for LASERIUM has com¬ You might even consider that gene¬ first child is a female, the Chinese gov¬ pensated Ivan for his time and trouble. tically the human reproductive drive op¬ ernment says it's okay to have a second erates under these artistic rules, with child, so a family can try for a boy. SFR: Your fictional lasegraphy rather the genetic code of one parent as thesis, closely parallels the development and the genetic code of the other parent as But it is easy to imagine that if history of classical nusic. How nuch the Chinese government had not changed were you influenced by your father as a their birth control policy that in fif- teen or twenty years we would have lived trade paperback edition in December, 1984 than book editors, and TV and film pay to see a world where the Chinese "solved" writers much, nuch better. Shall I the problem of having many more young men It would make me very happy if ev¬ give some examples? eryone who enjoys LASERIUM would pick up than young wmen by drafting what few .ALONGSIDE NIGHT was published women they had left into a "Peace Corps" a copy of the paperback and see what I project for the future of that art form, twice, once in hardcover by Crown, once of their own. Alternatively, the young in paperback by Ace. In hardcover, the and I equally hope that everyone who Chinese men might simply have invaded marketing people wanted to change the wherever they could and stolen the women likes my novel goes to a LASERIUM show title to 1999, and threatened to ignore outright. Perhaps the sedond would have and sees how exciting that art form is the book unless I agreed to the title led to the first. when performed live. I do the best I change. When I asked why this was so im¬ can in words to give the impression of Considering that tried-and-true portant, I was told by the marketing di¬ technology now exists for pre-conception seeing a performance, but the map is not rector: "Numbers in titles help sell the territory, and you can't really know books." This asshole actually believed sex-selection, considering the many oth¬ what I'm talking about until you see it. er situations that can lead to a serious that it was the number in the title of sexual imbalance, considering a Middle The show is supposed to be opening Orwell's classic that made it sell so East and Far East that still respects in spring, 1986 in , San Fran¬ well. Anyway, considering that the mor¬ males more than females -- I am no long¬ cisco, San Diego, Seattle, Portland, Den¬ onic SPACE: 1999 was still on the air in er willing to bet that in RAINBOW CADENZA ver, Pittsburgh, Calgary, and London -- reruns, I refused. They were true to I was writing satire. perhaps other cities later. Anyone in¬ their w/ord and ignored the sales poten¬ terested in seeing it -- or getting group tial of a book with advance endorsements SFR: Joan Darris, CADENZA's protagonist, discounts -- should write to: from Anthony Burgess, Nobel laureate Mil- must deal with her budding Lasegraphy tal¬ ton Friedman, and Dr. Thomas Szasz, as Laser Images, Inc. well as early rave reviewvs in PUBLISHERS ent, family problems with her older sis¬ 6907 Hayvenhurst Avenue ter/mother clone, and with her induction WEEKLY and the LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK RE¬ into the Peace Corps all at the same time. Van Nuys, 91406 VIEW. Surely this must also have some autobio¬ Tell them I sent you. To make matters worse, the book graphical roots, allowing for the fic¬ (jFR: I understand you're now doing a was "orphaned" before publication -- that tionalizing and extrapolation involved. couple of scripts for the revived TWI- means that the editors who bought it were Was this one closer to home than ALONG¬ LICHT ZONE series on CBS TV. How did no longer at the company when the book SIDE NIGHT? this come about? How soon will your wias published. Consequently, nobody at SOlULflAh: You really toss the word "auto¬ stories be aired? the company cared about the book at the biographical" aroind loosely --so loose¬ point of publication. The result was SCHULMAN: As of today, I’ve completed lack of distribution -- distribution so ly that I'm not sure what you mean. Con¬ two scripts for THE TWILItUT ZONE entit¬ sidering that the main character of RAIN¬ bad that when the book was advertised in led "Profile in Silver" and "Colorblind." the LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK REVIEW by B. BOW CADENZA is female (I'm not), bom Neither had gone into production yet so rich (I wasn't), has a jealous older sis¬ Dalton as a Christmas special, the B. ter who's a twin of her mother (I don't), Dalton chain had no copies of the book spends five years living in an O'Neill to sell. The same thing happened later colony (I haven't), is drafted (I wasn't) when I appeared nationally on RUFF HOUSE and spends her life studying, composing, with Howard Ruff -- I actually got let¬ and performing an art form that hasn't ters forwarded to me from people who saw gotten out of its infancy yet, I wonder me on the show but couldn’t find the book just what you think is autobiographical. in any bookstores. Consequently, sales figures were lousy and Crown failed to You want to know everything that's get an offer on paperback rights. autobiographical in RAINBOW CADENZA? The incident where five-year-old Joan Darris I waited for them to revert rights is sent to the principal's office because to me, then had three offers inmediate- she refuses to write on account of her ly. I took the one from Susan Allison sweaty hands is autobiographical. That's at Ace. Susan did an excellent job of it. Everything else is made up out of packaging the paperback as an Ace lead whole cloth. title, but then the entire company was orphaned out from under me: Ace was sold Certainly I chose themes that are to Berkley Books a month before publica¬ important to me and my life. Certainly I can't say when they'll be on, but it tion. Out of a first printing of well feelings and ideas which are expressed could be as early as fall, 1985. Keep over 100,000 paperback copies, only by characters in the books are real -- your eyes peeled --I've read half a doz¬ 35,000 copies of ALONGSIDE NICHT were though I have to be careful when I say en of the TWILICHT ZONE scripts, and seen marked as sold. Since these were disap¬ and feel things which are the diametric two of the episodes, and it's going to pointing figures, Berkley reverted the opposite of my own thoughts and feelings. be some of the best stuff to hit the tube rights to me. What Berkley failed to Even Wolfgang Jaeger -- through whom I in the history of the medium. take into account was that in the last expressed my own artistic angst -- de¬ days of Ace, the Ace sales representa¬ parts from my own feelings when he is The script assignnents came about because I'd shown an outline for "Pro¬ tives were selling their books uider the too narrow to understand Joan’s apprecia¬ counter at huge discounts, figuring this tion of popular culture. file in Silver" --a time-travel story about the Kennedy assassination --to was the only way they could get any mon¬ However, I'll let you off the hook Alan Brennert a few years ago, and he ey out of Ace. Their fears ware justi¬ by admitting that you correctly perceiv¬ caimissianed me to write it for TWILIGHT fied: Berkley fired the entire 150-per¬ ed that RAINBOW CADENZA is a more person¬ ZONE when he became the show's Story Con¬ son Ace sales force. Also, wholesalers al statement for me regarding my feelings sultant.- I later pitched Alan "Color¬ -- wrorried that they might never get on art, music, philosophy and religion blind" --a story about racism -- which paid by the defunct coup any -- were strip¬ than my first novel was. resulted in a second assignment. ping books for credit before they even distributed them. Thus, again, my book SFR: I understand RAINBOW CADENZA will never had a chance to reach the mass-mar¬ become a mass-market paperback from Avon SFR: What are you doing next in the ket of readers who might have wanted it. in the spring of 1986 --at the same time way of novels? that the laser concert LASERIUM PRESENTS RAINBOW CADENZA also had its pub¬ THE RAINBOW CADENZA is released in this SCHUUiAl'i: To be honest, I’m not doing lishing company destroyed before publica¬ country and England. This souids like a anything in the way of novels at the mo¬ tion: it was under contract to the Wynd- multi-media first. Are you excited ment. Part of the reason for this is my ham books division of Simon 6 Schuster, about it? general disillusionment with the state of which had paid me a substantial advance the publishing industry today, and the on the book. After the book was given SOUJUW: Thanks for the plug. Yes, I'm troiile I've had with both of my novels. final acceptance, Simon 5 Schuster dis¬ excited about it. I worked for a long This may explain my interest in writing solved the entire conpany, and sixty time to arrange for a simultaneous re¬ for TV and film at the moment: film and Wyndham books scheduled for publication lease and co-promotion of a LASERIUM show TV people are ultimately no more destruc¬ ware handed over to editors in-house at based on RAINBOW CADENZA and the publica¬ tive of a writer's creative energies Simon 5 Schuster who had neither the time tion of the American paperback -- New nor interest to do anything useful with English Library came out with a British 33 them. Simon 6 Schuster published RAIN- BOW CADENZA with a cover displaying a ti¬ Law: All systems are good. Do you agree having their own personal property be ex¬ tle so small that it can't be read with¬ that our problems are often inherent in empt from any claim made against the cor¬ out a magnifying glass and no advertis¬ organized human behavior and/or the hu¬ poration -- this is called "limited lia¬ ing -- not one dime. Not even when it man psyche, and not just the fairly sup¬ bility." got rave advance reviews in PUBLISHERS erficial "guv’ment?" WEEKLY, LIBRARY JOURNAL and BESTSELLERS. In effect, the government grants SCHULZ: If you're going to ask tech¬ people calling themselves a corporation Not even when -- through a publi¬ nical questions about libertarian theory, iiranmity against being personally sued cist I hired with my own monev -- LASER- then'I have to give technical -- and for any damaging results of their person¬ IUM had agreed to do the RAINBOW CADENZA wordy - - answers. So please bear with al actions. And, because of this grant Laseriura show in 1983 with a major co¬ me -- I will say why I think the publish¬ of immunity, money that would have been promotion and advertising budget, and ing industry is so fucked up, and what I spent on insuring liabilities can be used rock star Sammy Hagar had agreed to pro¬ think can be done about it. instead for new investments -- for one vide original rock music for the show. To start off with, libertarian ec¬ corporation to buy out another corpora¬ Simon 5 Schuster would not even answer onomics doesn't say that just because tion, for example. the letters from my publicist, from my someone works for a private enterprise This removes much of the market agent, from LASERIUM, or from Samny Ha- that they're good and wise, and just be¬ gar's manager. So, instead of receiving pressure that would keep the size of a cause someone works for a public enter¬ company down --it raises the practical the sort of publicity that makes best¬ prise that they're venal and stupid. What "economy of scale" of a company -- and sellers for free, Simon 6 Schuster ignor¬ libertarian economics says is that there ed the book. Consequently, the book sold allows corporate organizations to grow are two fundamental ways of getting what to the size and complexity of bureaucra¬ around three thousand copies in hardcov¬ you want from other people. Che way is er, and Simon 5 Schuster sold the Brit¬ tic government. And once a company has without a person's consent. This is the the privileged inrnmities of a govern¬ ish rights to New English Library, who way ofthe robber and the way of the ru¬ came out with a good-looking trade pap¬ ment, and is large enough to sustain a ler -- the only difference between them bureaucracy like a government, then it erback edition -- and then proceeded to is that the ruler creates the illusion of publish it without a dime of advertising. tends to act more like a government than his or her victim's consent through flim¬ like a private company. To continue: I wrote a one-hundred flams about "social contracts" and "dem¬ page treatment for a third novel to be ocratic institution." The other funda¬ And this is precisely how we see titled ALL THE KING'S HORSES. This is a mental way is with a person's consent. corporate people acting -- like bureau¬ comedy of what happens when the Princess This is the way of the merchant. With crats. They avoid risks, they cover of Wales comes to the U.S: on a goodwill that said, let's get to specifics. their asses, they suck up to their super¬ tour with her eight-year-old oldest son iors while plotting to take their jobs, who's heir after the Prince of Wales to and they are concerned with making a pro¬ the throne of Britain, and while they're duct worthwhile or profitable only to that small extent that it will grant them here the Princess decides to file for WRITER ’BLOCK increased power in the corporate struc- divorce and child custody. My treatment * - was written in the form of a movie treat¬ 2 ment, because I'd already sold the movie Now, I also mentioned that the rights to Herb Jaffe's Vista Films. government puts restrictions on corpora¬ Herb has made such pictures as TIME AFTER tions -- as I said, this doesn't have TIME, DEMON SEED and THE WIND AND THE anything to do with the public good, but LION. Vista also has a successful fea¬ only because it's another way of putting ture out this summer (1985) called FRIGHT the government bureaucrats in the comp¬ NIGHT. any's driver's seat. One of the restric¬ tions placed on corporations by govern¬ My agent sent my already-sold-to- ment is the set of anti-trust laws. Hav¬ the-movies treatment out to New York pub¬ ing first removed the market pressures lishers with copies of my two previous that would keep the size of a company books. We got universally rejected by down, the government then steps in and publishers who said, "It'll make a good arbitrarily tells the corporations how movie but can this screenwriter Schulman large they can be. write a novel?" Other editors said, And this is precisely what happen¬ "Schulman's two previous books are sci¬ We're living in a social system ed several decades ago with the publish¬ ence fiction -- how can we know whether that's a complicated mixture of freely ing industry. It used to be that a pub¬ he can write a real novel?" Another edi¬ chosen arrangements and forced arrange¬ lisher vrould publish books, and sell its tor said, "Satire doesn't sell.” ments, and the institution that's the books in its own bookstores. By doing Am I missing something here? Are best exanple of that is the modem cor¬ this a publisher could control how long publishers really in the business of sel¬ poration. A corporation is a joint-stock it could keep its books on the bookstore ling books, or do they really like losing company that operates partly through free shelf, how long it would take for a par¬ money? At the time we submitted. Princ¬ trade and partly through coercion. The ticular book to find its readership, and ess Di was on the cover of every magazine company operates under the rules of free how much time it would take to establish in the world. She still is. Is there a trade insofar that no one can be forced the career of one of its authors. conspiracy to suppress my work, or are to buy its product, and no one can be It was expected, in those days, publishers really that stupid? Perhaps forced to work for it. However, there that once a publisher found a talented there's hope in the sale of RAINBOW CAD¬ are all sorts of cases where the govern¬ writer, the publisher would develop the ENZA to John Douglas at Avon. This gent¬ ment steps in either to grant special author, book by book, over a long period leman has demonstrated excellent taste privileges to a conpany, or to restrict of time. So what largely determined by the only criteria I care about: he it -- in both cases the government ends which books got displayed in bookstores wants to buy my work. Perhaps Avon will up in control, and the company becomes a were the judgments of the editors who be smart enough to give him the sort of remote unit of government. Privileges, read the books and decided if they were budget given to science fiction at Bant¬ first. any good or not. Then the government am, Berkley, and Tor. As for the editors First of all, the government grants stepped in with anti-trust, and forced who don ' t want to buy my work - - to para- --to those persons calling themselves a publishing companies to sell their book¬ phrase Colonel Davy Crockett -- "They corporation -- the privilege of creating stores, claiming this was somehow re¬ can go to Hell -- I'm going to Holly- an imaginary person, and having this im¬ strictive of free trade. aginary person be the only one answerable Now, since publishers could no SFR: Gad -- what a horror story! But for the actions of the actual persons longer control the distribution and sales it's not that unusual, alas, and it who run the company. This allows people end of their product, they had to publish raises an interesting point. Libertar¬ to operate huge organizations beyond what books that not only would appeal to the ians like to blame all our ills on the they can see directly, without worrying general public, but to that mich smaller State, but what you're describing is good about the personal consequences. group of buyers for bookstores. So ev¬ ole private enterprise in action. The Second, the government grants mem¬ erything in publishing shifted towards bureaucrats here are capitalists, not so¬ bers of the corporation the privilege of publishing the sort of books that book¬ cialistic statists, but they do just as stores would buy and display. Now, un¬ much damage. This leads me to Wilgus' 34 like editors at a publishing house, book- store buyers don't have time to read the prescriptive also. I don't see the re¬ a mainstream novel, and you're on a shelf books they sell -- they have to rely on birth of literature happening until some¬ with Phillip Roth. You write a novel short pitches by a piilisher's sales one figures out how, in a big way, to get that treats philosophical issues, it gets representative. control over both ends of publishing at shelved in the religious or metaphysical the same time -- production and distrib¬ section alongside Carlos Castaneda and A buyer hears a short synopsis and C.S. Lewis. sees a mock-up cover. Any book which ution. This will have to bypass the en¬ can't interest a bookstore buyer in a tire structure of book publishing and But I don't s.e any'point in writ¬ sentence or two won't be ordered or prom¬ distribution as it exists today. ing a novel unless I can try to do all inently displayed -- and there goes the Perhaps, when home computers and these things. So, by default, I decided whole ball of wax when it comes to liter¬ telephone bulletin boards become as com¬ that my book had to be labeled mainstrean ature. Literature is, by its nature, mon as TV sets, authors will simply li¬ even though this would cut me off from subtle and complex -- it can^t be explain¬ cense their works to whoever wants to mystery readers who like a good plot, and ed in a sentence or two. So the books buy them, cutting out all the middle men. science fiction readers who like reading that get ordered are those that can fall In that case, the job of the agent, edit¬ about the future, and readers who like into tried-and-true categories -- that or and reviewer might all be done by the playing around with philosophy. can be sold without having to explain any¬ same person -- someone whose reputation thing. Bookstores are -- literally -- for taste people trust -- and a "publish¬ My main consideration was that the judging books by their covers, and the er" will be someone who agrees to adver¬ only books that get taken seriously by sales record of a book has little to do tise someone's novel for a percentage of the critics and academics whose influence anymore with what's inside. the licensing fees. is felt in the publishing industry -- the people who decide if an author's work However, I suspect that the current With paperbacks the situation is is "imporant" -- won’t take seriously even more disruptive, since they’re dis¬ FBI attacks on computer bulletin boards anything except hardcover books marketed tributed the same way as magazines. Put are precisely because the bureaucrats are afraid that this might actually hap- as mainstream. And if an author gets them on the shelf for a month, then rip labeled as a "genre" writer, that author off the covers of the unsold ones for can kiss goodbye the possibility of be¬ credit and put out next month's batch. SFR: In a review of CADENZA in NEW ing taken seriously. It used to be that bookstores LIBERTARIAN Jan Bogstad says that the book was marketed as a mainstream novel. Now, a lot of my fellow authors would shelve books according to publish¬ will say, "Screw the critics and the aca¬ er. Then -- because covers became more Sounds like that was by default, rather than by design. But it raises the ques¬ demics -- all I care about is sales fig¬ important than the writing -- bookstores ures." And there's a certain appeal in started shelving them according to cate¬ tion of publishing genre vs. mainstream. Which would you prefer for your own books' that attitude -- sales figures imply gory -- shelve mysteries together, ro¬ that people are reading you. However, mances together, science fiction together. I'm in this business not only to make And because bookshelves became round money but also because I want to gener¬ holes, any books which were square pegs ate interest in certain ideas I hold im¬ became virtually unpublishable -- and portant -- and, frankly, even science there goes literature again. Bookstores lufclTER.'S BLOCK fiction readers -- who tend to like read¬ were only interested in buying books that ing about far-out societies -- are very would obviously go onto one of these ^3 conservative when it comes to new ideas. There are also an awful lot of science So books started being published fiction readers who think of ideas purely not because they were original, or worth¬ as games -- they don’t think they have while, or insightful, but because they any application back in the real world. were like every other book on that shelf. So I don't want to restrict myself This was the death of literature -- the to any particular genre. Too many peo¬ death of books primarily as a medium of ple with whom I feel I can commmicate enlightenment -- and the beginning of through my books -- people who are inter¬ publishing as primarily a medium of junk ested in things and ideas I'm writing entertainment. Just as you can sell a about -- won't go to a shelf marked sci¬ lot more Big than you can sell Veal ence fiction, and vron't read a book lab¬ Cordon Bleu, you can sell a lot more eled science fiction. In this case, the Sword and Sorcery epics than novels that science fiction label on the spine of a have nothing else going for them than a book is one more "Watchful Dragon" that good story, original ideas, unusual char¬ I’m trying to get by. acters, and elegant prose. SCHULMM: The marketing of RAINBOW CAD¬ ENZA as mainstream, rather than as sci¬ Let me also make clear that I des¬ Now, add into that conglomerates pise the tendency of bookstores and pub¬ like MCA owning publishing comapnies, ence fiction, was both by default and by design -- my design. lishers only to market books that fit in¬ publishers having to organize advertising to safe, pat formulas. And I pity the and publicity for a book without being The current fracturing of the fic¬ writers who are so hungry to get into able to control distribution, and the tion market, as I’ve just described it, print that they'll suppress whatever or¬ cut-throat corporate game of nusical left me with two unsatisfactory choices, iginality comes out of their souls and chairs whereby editors are rarely at a but one of them less unsatisfactory than imitate any hack who sold well last year. company long enough to see a book through the other. In writing RAINBOW CADENZA. This is organized imrder --in the case from purchase to publication -- and you I tried to make it a good novel. That of writers it's suicide -- against any¬ have a formidable obstacle to the public¬ means I thought it was important that it thing even slightly original -- anything ation of worthwhile books. had all the things that make a novel that crosses genre boundaries. So don't tell me that the publish¬ worthwhile: new ideas, fully-drawn char¬ acters, interesting plot, psychological Somebody should tell these people ing industry is free enterprise. The mar¬ -'- and I guess it's going to be me -- ket has been completely distorted by gov¬ insight, philosophical questions, and so forth, ’i'll leave it to my readers how that all their precious genres were orig¬ ernment intervention. The government, inal once, and that next year's genre is by its anti-trust action against publish¬ well they think I've succeeded in this, but that's what I was trying to do. last year's original work. Before there ers, in effect performed a lobotomy on were shelves of mysteries, Poe had to in¬ the publishing industry. But the idea of genre means that vent the detective story. Before time In my darker moments I even suspect only one of these things is supposed to travel became a staple on science fic¬ that the nurder of original literature be focused on. If you want to focus on tion shelves, Mark Twain had to write A was the purpose of the anti-trust action plot, you write a mystery --it gets CONNECTICUT YANKEE IN KING ARTHUR'S in the first place -- original literature shelved with the mysteries alongside Ag¬ COURT. Before historical romances took tends to make people think and question, atha Christie. You write a book that 15) entire sections, Margaret Mitchell had and thinking, questioning people are takes place in the future -- it’s science to write GONE WITH THE WIND. I doubt what government bureaucrats are nest a- fiction, and you’re on a shelf with Larry you'd find sword-and-sorcery on shelves fraid of. Niven. You write a book that focuses on without the original work done by Robert characters and their psychology -- it's Howard and J.R.R., Tolkien. Since I've been descriptive of the ills of the publishing industry. I'll be 35 Suppose THE RAINBOW CADENZA were to become a bestseller and someday entire all their rights to the government -- no tongue in cheek, of course, but Safire sections of bookstores had to be filled matter what a constitution says -- be¬ ends by invoking the "eradication of the with books about women getting drafted cause the people in the government can evil of taxation." Would you legalize into public whorehouses? It would serve now decide to "withdraw the protection EVERYTHING and eradicate taxation if them right. of the law" from anyone who breaks one you were elected? of their laws. You'll note that this is SCHULMAN: So maybe someone has read RAIN¬ SR: One other idea in THE RAINBOW CAD¬ what the government does today to anyone BOW CADENZA after all, if it's gotten to ENZA that we haven't touched on is the who serves more than a year-and-a-day in the point where national columnists are Touchables. This is the outcaste class prison -- they have their U.S. citizen¬ joking about a National Courtesan Corps. that is subject to rape and murder by ship revoked, and all their "civil lib¬ And, of course, it would have to be the full citizens and organized hunts by the erties" go with it -- for example, the sort of blue-nose statist like William idle rich and police. This seems more right to associate with whomever they Safire who rips off someone else's idea far fetched than lasegraphy or the Peace 1ike, to bear arms, and so forth ... not to propagandize against freedom. Corps to me. Do you think such regres¬ that these rights are respected much sion to the bad old days is very likely? You ask, would I legalize every¬ thing and eradicate taxation if I wore SCHULrWn: The idea of Touchables came But just as important is that the elected? How's that again? There are about for a number of different reasons, government finds it necessary to remove so many untested assumptions in that within the context I created in RAINBOW the distinction between someone who com¬ question I hardly know where to begin. CADENZA. mits an offense against the State and someone who coimits an offense against To begin with, the entire concept First, let me say precisely what of "legal" and "illegal" only exists in Touchables are within the Earth society another person -- both are labeled "crim¬ inals" or "felons," and people are taught the context of laws passed by a State, of 2167 that I show. Touchables simply and since I advocate the abolition of are people who have been convicted of a to make no distinction between a tax ev¬ ader and a murderer. all States, I'm obviously in favor of felony serious enough to warrant a life removing the context for your question sentence. But instead of locking felons So in my story, the government de¬ in the first place. Your question is up in prisons for life, the government clares both rapists and potential rape like asking a Hindu whether he's a Prot¬ allows them to remain free, under the victims as criminals -- Touchables -- estant or a Catholic -- the question following conditions: Touchables are and tries to blind people to the fact doesn't allow for an answer. not allowed to own property, or to work that these people are, in fact, oppo- in a profession. Touchables must wear The same for being "elected" to an red cloaks -- identifying them as Touch¬ office that would eradicate taxation. I ables -- whenever they are in public. A Now, you ask me whether this is suppose the only office that I could be male who has been convicted of rape -- far-fetched, and ask whether "a rever¬ elected to that would help eradicate tax¬ in addition to being declared Touchable sion to the bad old days" is all that ation would be the chairman of the board -- has his penis surgically removed. likely? of a private company that offers defense And, between dusk and dawn, it is legal services to tax-resisters -- and inas¬ to rape any Touchable so long as you much as I’m not aware of such a conpany, have a license from the government for much less own stock in it, I can hardly hunting them. run for the board of directors of it. I refine this a bit in the story -- Let's put this whole thing in a by describing a universal identification context I can relate to. system involving brainprints and radio Do I believe anyone has the right scanning systems, so you can scan some¬ to interfere with another person, so one and see if they’re a Touchable or long as that person is minding his or not -- but that's the essence of it. So, her own business? Hell, no! to start off with, you can't talk about Touchables being another caste or class Do I think a human being needs unless you're willing to speak the same permission from society to exercise that way about convicted felons serving life freedom? 'Again hell, no! sentences in prison today. Do I think the government has the Now, I came up with this idea of a right to restrict private gambling, pri¬ society dealing with its felons this way vate prostitution, private ownership of for a number of reasons. or liquor -- or to maintain a state monopoly of gambling, prostitution, guis, The first was that inasmich as liquor, or anything else? Not only do I there would be a strong natural tendency As I write this, a man named Paul answer that, "Hell, no!" but my life is for women in that society to evade the Jacob is in solitary confinement in a devoted to shooting exclamation points draft or desert the Peace Corps, there federal prison in Dallas. He was con¬ into the gut of people like William Sa¬ had to be an equally strong coulter- victed of refusing to register for the fire who aren't happy so long as anyone pressure. So they make draft evasion draft, and sentenced to five years -- is free to have a good time. and desertion a life-sentence felony, though theoretically he'll be out sooner and instead of allowing a woman to go to than that if they don’t find an addition¬ prison -- where she'might manage to av¬ al excuse to keep him in ... like refus¬ SR; In your acceptance oid being raped -- the government in ef¬ ing the involuntary servitude -- pardon speech you said that you wrote CADENZA fect says to a woman, "If you won't be me; "coimunity service" -- they've sen¬ to destroy an idea by reducing it to ab¬ raped voluntarily for three years -- tenced him to for part of the five years. surdity. Isn't this somewhat absurd it¬ self, in that every absurd idea known to where it can be monitored and kept free I suggest you tell Paul Jacob that of additional violence -- you will be man has been reduced by experts but they the fictional situation in my novel is still manage to thrive? Besides, the fair game for any sort of rape every more unlikely or worse thqn what we have night, for the rest of your life." idea you are attacking -- the rights of today. But I recoranend you tell him by the individual being sacrificed for the telephone -- Paul's got a wife and a new greatest good of the greatest nunber -- Also, under this system, felons no baby that the government is keeping him longer are supported by tax revenues, is defensible, under some circunstances, away from, and in his place I'd lose my even to anarcho-libertarians. Even if and the "pvfclic" which is supposed to temper if someone told me that. have been damaged by them gets the bene¬ government is abolished, we’ll still need fits of reparation by using them as sex to decide who has the right-of-way in objects -- remember, this is a very sex¬ SR; At about the time we're doing this traffic, for instance. Some individual ually frustrated society I'm portraying. interview (august 1985) syndicated column¬ rights are going to have to be voluntar¬ This is what economists today call "ef¬ ist William Safire did a piece entitled ily sacrificed to the conrnon good, some¬ ficient justice." "Let's Legalize EVERYTHING" in which he times, somehow. The key questions are, mockingly calls for a National Courtesans what rights and who decides, don't you But one of the most important Corps, similar to your Peace Corps, to agree? things I wanted to show through this sys¬ help pay the deficit. This was an attack tem is that once people grant the pre¬ an "sanctioned" gambling and was done SCHULMAN: The absurdity of the "greatest mise that a government has the right to good for the greatest number" is the decide on laws, then they've given away 36 thought that there is such a thing as "good" in any other context than the life I do not think that the rights of good as literature, as well as beirg lib¬ of an individual human being. To para¬ the individual being sacrificed for the ertarian, then the LFS will be serving phrase Ayn Rand, before one can ask if greatest good of the greatest number is the interests of both libertarians and sonething is good, one first has to ask, logically or consistently defensible by book lovers in general, and the Prometheus "Good to whom, and for what?" Once the any anarcho-libertarian. Fundamental can become important. question is asked, then it becomes obvious human rights are never on the auction But it certainly wouldn't hurt if that every individual has his or her own 'block. someone like Alfred Nobel left his for¬ good, and there is no logical way to go Perhaps we need to make a clear tune to the LFS, so that the Prometheus from this premise to the idea that the Award could be worth a few hundred thous¬ good of one person -- or a group of such distinction here between right (1) in the persons -- can be deduced as being a context of "unalienable right to life" and and dollars each time. If that happened, greater good than that of another person right (2) in the sense of "right-of-way." I wouldn't be surprised to see anarchist novels being written by Stanislaw Lem, or group of persons. Rights (2) in this context merely Isaac Asimov, and Jerry Poumelle. And if mean concessions, privileges, or trading And once one tries to impose some the Prometheus Award got that rich, I "universal good," one is left with noth¬ arrangerrents that free human beings make might even write another libertarian nov¬ ing but a battleground whereby people are with one another. el, myself. If someone told me -- in an anar¬ placing the good of cne person or group Any takers? at odds with that of another person or cho-libertarian society -- that I had to group, and all that will happen is that give up my rights (1) in order to use $R: Thank you, Mr. Schulman. the strongest or most persuasive will win. their road, I would never voluntarily set foot on their road -- I'd use travel routes It is for this reason that I attack which merely wanted my money or my trade. AND THEN I READ... the concept of "the greatest good for the greatest nunfcer" as the single greatest And if anybody came onto my proper¬ CONTINUED FROM PAGE 16 threat to individual rights and individ¬ ty with demands for the sacrifice of any ual liberty. of my rights (1), I'd give them the only answer they deserved: "Over your dead Perhaps, by making the analogy be¬ The encyclopedia is basically tween drafting men to go to war and draft¬ ing women to be public sex slaves, I do SR; Finally, let me ask youropinion A-Z, but there are extensive addit¬ open up the possibility that politicians of the Libertarian Futurist Society, which ional indexes: Animals, Birds, In¬ who justify the first can manage to jus¬ gives the Prometheus Award. Do you think sects. ..Demons...Gems...Geographical tify the second. Frankly, I think they it will have imich impact as far as encour¬ (Places of Phenomena)...Gods...Para¬ could anyway. aging the development of a libertarian normal Phenomena (51 separate subtop¬ But, I am writing to the sensibili¬ outlook on a broader scale? . ics) .. .Periodicals. . .Plants and Flow¬ ties of people who don’t think it's okay SChULMAH: I think there is a great need ers. . .Societies and Organizations. to draft women to be public sex slaves. for tie propagation of libertarian ideas, The encyclopedia covers the oc¬ I'm saying to them, "If you do not object and certainly I would not have chosen cult, magic, miracles, witchcraft, to the military draft as a violation of fiction as a medium for propagating such and paranormal events previously individual rights, then you have deprived ideas if I did not think it worthwhile. thought supernatural. Famous and yourself of the means to object to the So I am happy that there exists an organ¬ sexual draft." ization such as-the Libertarian Futurist infamous individuals and personali¬ Society that formally shares my values ties are included, with new entries What RAINBOW CADENZA makes graphi¬ covering recent events and new in¬ cally clear is that so long as "the great¬ enough to have given me their Prometheus est good for the greatest number" is used Award for this. formation, new people, new organiza¬ as a basis for organizing human institu¬ One of the drawbacks with trying to tions and publications. The first tions, then -- since the phrase has no propagate your values to people who don't edition entries have been reviewed objective meaning -- there is no evil that share them is that the people who don’t and updated and rewritten as neces¬ cannot be justified in its nanE. share them are unlikely to give you an sary. And, in fact, the rulers of every award for doing this. Because of this, I Altogether, a very impressive repressive government -- coimunist, fas¬ doubt I'll have a shot at the Hugo or the effort. For the serious author in cist, Nazi, denocratic, republican, mili¬ Nebula for a while, no matter how well my books start selling. So I'm happy that these fields, this encyclopedia is tary dictatorship -- all claim to act in vital. For a library this encyclop- the best overall interests of the people, there was someone out there who thought well enough of what I'm doing to give me ia is absolutely required, given or the folk, or the will of the blood, or the huge interest in this area. the coimm good. an award to put up on the wall of my of¬ fice, which I can look at on those days The price is steep: $245. a It is this idea that nust be de¬ when I wonder whether it's worthwhile go- set. ISBN 0-81-3-0196-2. feated, for by the nature of reality they cannot act in the interest of anyone but As far as the award having an im¬ themselves, no matter how noble they third pact, if the LFS gets a track record of they are being. giving the Prometheus to books that are TRUMPS OF DOOM By Roger Zelazny Avon, $3.50, Feb. 1986. Ah, it's good to read a new Amber novel...to slide effortlessly under the spell of Zelazny's fiction. This sixth Amber adventure feat¬ ures Merlin, Corwin's son. Merlin, living in the shadow world we -know as Earth, 1986, has escaped assassination attempts each April 30th for the past six years. The latest attempt leads to murder, mystery, sorcery, visits to the true center of reality, the kingdom of Amber...and all kinds of near- misses. Alas, this is only the first part of another extended Amber ser¬ ies, but it's a gladness that Roger is doing Amber novels again. 37 J BOOK REVIEWS BY GENE DEWEESE our own, and it's fascinating to see var¬ ious puzzling events (the foulup that kept advance information about Pearl Har¬ LIFEBURST boy (Bamaby), his egotistical, inept, bor from reaching the right people, for By Jack Williamson freeloading fairy godfather (Jackeen J. instance) being explained in terms of Ballantine/Del Rey, $2.95 O'Malley), and hordes of minor characters, help/interference from other times and including Bilharzia Ogre (of the Nurem¬ other worlds. The first contact between Earth’s de¬ berg Ogres), McSnoyd the wisecracking in¬ ceitful and warlike ruling family and visible leprechaun, and Gus, a ghost The first half of the book, as the the eons-old, multi-racial, pacifistic that's terrified of haunted houses. The tean contacts Churchill, Einstein, Roos¬ civilization that fills the "halo" that drawing is simple, the balloons chock evelt, Szilard and others, is gripping surrounds the solar system far beyond the full of typeset dialogue, and the humor enough but moves a little slowly. The orbit of Pluto is disastrous. Meanwhile, is understated and quiet with occasional second two hundred pages, however, are the Seeker, an extra-galactic. Berserker- bits of offstage slapstick. Anyone who the sort that keep you up till all hours like creature that feeds on radioactive likes POGO or PEANUTS will undoubtedly just to finish them. (3:30 am in my own metals, has established a "hive" in the like BARNABY, and I for one am looking case) It may or may not be Hogan's best asteroid belt, producing "children" that forward to the remaining eight or ten book overall, but it is certainly the will be capable of destroying both civil¬ volumes Ballantine is planning to pub¬ most smoothly written, contains his best izations. Finally, the "Black Companion," lish. (Although I do hope they make the and most believable characters so far, the twin black holes whose accretion-disk panels a bit larger next time; the tiny and deserves a place on the best seller radiation wiped out the dinosaurs on its print, coaled with occasional over-ink¬ list. last approach 65 million years ago, is ing, makes some of the balloons difficult returning. to read.) All of which barely scratches the surface of what is going on in Jack Wil¬ liamson's latest novel. Everything in THE INTELLIGENT UNIVERSE By Fred Hoyle his meticulously developed universe -- Holt, Rinehart 6 Winston, $18.95 Earth's future history, the alien civil¬ THE SCHOOL OF DARKNESS Hoyle, whose Steady State Universe izations, the human and alien characters, By Manly Wade Wellman Doubleday, $12.95 has seen some hard times lately, here even the Seeker itself -- is fully de¬ presents both old and new evidence for it veloped, and there's room for at least That gentlananly scholar of the oc¬ and shows how the Big Bang has at least another dozen novels in it. Williamson cult, John Thunstone, is back, this time as many shortcomings and problems as has been writing SF since 1928, and like to participate in a university folklore Steady State is supposed to have. He Asimov and very few others, he just seems symposium. Before long, however, we find goes beyond that, however, to show that to get better year by year. that the university itself is more involv¬ there almost has to be some kind of in¬ ed in black arts than it is in everyday telligence working behind the scenes of folklore, and Thunstane's old enemy, Row- our present universe, and then he indic¬ ley Thome, has been called back from the ates what that intelligence might be. nether regions to which Thunstone cast His ideas are, of course, the stuff of KELLY COUNTRY him out during their last encounter. which grand scale science fiction is made; By A. Bertram Chandler As in previous Thunstone novels, the but he argues for them with such knowled¬ DAW, $3.50 ge and authority that they seem not only pace is relaxed and the narrative is, possible but virtually inevitable. He The mind of John Grimes, a late 20th like Thunstone himself, a bit old fash¬ century SF writer, is sent back to ob¬ even proposes an eminently logical reas¬ ioned and even courtly, but it's still a on to explain why the Steady State has serve the downfall of 19th century Aus¬ lot of fun, an easy read, and a welcome, tralian rebel Ned Kelly through the eyes even refreshing, change from the gore and been attacked so vehemently at times and of Grimes' ancestor, a cohort of Kelly's. shock that fill so many novels of the why the Big Bang is more readily accepted Instead of just observing, however, Gri¬ supernatural these days. in a world with a Hebrew/Christian bias mes inadvertently intervenes, creating a than is the Steady State. history in which Kelly, instead of being In short, THE INTELLIGENT UNIVERSE is executed as an outlaw, goes on to win the most fascinating and discussable book Australia's independence and become its I've read this year, and if someone does first hereditary president. not use it as the basis for a TV series Chandler, an expert in both history THE PROTEUS OPERATION By James P. Hogan like Carl Sagan’s COSM3S, they're defin¬ and the military, provides fascinating Bantam Spectra, $16.95 itely missing a good bet. historical details and speculations as well as an exciting story and well-done From a 1975 where John F. Kennedy is characters. KELLY OOUNTRY is the last the U.S. President and the Nazis rule bpok Chandler completed before his death, most of the rest of the world, a very and it is very probably his best novel special team is sent back to 1939 to try to keep Hitler from getting an atonic PUBLICITY DIRECTORS, EDITORS, bomb in 1942 and winning the war. We PUBLISHERS, AUTHORS...ARE learn only.gradually just how special the URGED TO SEND BOOKS FOR REVIEW team is, starting when the expected com- TO GENE DEWEESE nunications link between 1939 and 1975 2718 N. Prospect cannot be established and later when it Milwaukee, WI 53211 BARNABY #S 1 AND 2 (WANTED: A FAIRY is learned that Hitler himself has for He reviews sf and fantasy for , more than a decade been receiving help GODFATHER and MR. O’MALLEY AND THE HAUNT¬ THE MILWAUKEE JOURNAL as well ED HOUSE) by Crockett Johnson from a nearly Utopian 2025. It isn't Ballantine/Del Rey, $2.95 each. giving too much away to reveal that the as SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW and end result is a history very similar to other magazines. BARNABY was a comic strip that ran from 1942 to 1952. It's about a little 38 Sheep. Macaulay's pen-and-ink drawings are excellent as always, and his offbeat sense of humor takes a some¬ what macabre turn. My favorite is still M3TEL OF THE MYSTERIES, but BAM keeps looking better to me each time I skim through it. OTHER VOICES OTHER VOICES

the idea of having them all convene acr¬ THE CAT WHO WALKS THROUGH WALLS oss the several time-lines that he will probably be writing books in this context for the rest of his career. This produc¬ REVIEWED BY FERNANDO Q. GOUVEA es books that will appeal only to those The initial parameters are quite sim¬ similarly fascinated. It also short¬ ilar to those of Heinlein's last few changes the reader in that the very point books: our hero, Richard Ames aka Colin of SF is to open new horizons and set¬ Campbell aka etc., is living a peaceful tings and ideas. life when he suddenly finds himself em¬ Finally, one should point out that broiled in all sorts of complications the ending of the book, though not com¬ pletely inconclusive, is open enough to make me feel unfairly treated. All in all, this is for those who (like me) would rather read an unsatisfying Hein- lein than no Heinlein at all.

fundamei skill that marked h OXFIELD,

So far so good, and the first third the "stoneshapers" of Valedon, opens of the book is quite readable (though a with the problems of interplanetary lot of the prose, especially the dialogs, trade. Merwen the Inpatient One, and are trademark late Heinlein). But Hein¬ her lovesharer, Usha, travel from their lein has decided to embark on a project all-female planet to the cold cities of of using all his past characters in one the heterosexual "Stone Moon" to share HEROES FOR HOPE: THE X-MEN multidimensional universe (in other words, knowledge, to leam whether the Valans Marvel Comics *1, 12/8S, 48 pp., $1.50 inconsistencies are explained in terms of are truly human. Upon their return to several alternate iniverses), so that Shora, the women are accompanied by the REVIEV£D BY ALMA JO WILLIAMS all is not what it seems. Gwen turns Lady Nisi, the only member of a Valedon All proceeds from this comic book out to be a Somebody Else whom we have trading family to attenpt integration in¬ are being donated to famine relief and met before, and soon we have a Heinlein to both societies. For reasons that ev¬ recovery in Africa. party in full swing, with Lazarus Long, en mystify Usha, Merwen also convinces a Zeb Carter, Hilda Burroughs, Star, Manny yoing "malefreak," the stonecutter's son. This comic is unique in that every O'Keefe and Jubal Harshaw all in attend¬ Spinel, to live among them on their float¬ two pages (four sides) have different ance. (I nust have left out a few there.) ing raft towns. writers, pencillers, inkers, etc., doing This of course changes the character of the story. The writers include , the book completely, and makes it mich As the stone trade, the influx of Ed Bryant, Harlan Ellison, Stephen King, more of a typical late Heinlein produc¬ "dead" technology, threatens the finda- George Martin, Ann Nocenti, Louise Simon¬ tion, on the lines of THE NUMBER OF THE mental existence of the genetically-en¬ son, Chris Claremont, etc. etc. to name BEAST. It is probably only semi-conpre- gineered ecology on Shora, many of the a few. The artists include some of the hensible to anycne who has not read a parthenogenetic women call for an end to old standards like Bemi Wrightson, John outside contact, a closing of the door lot of Heinlein's work. Buscema, , Richard Corban, with Valedon. While Merwen counsels pa¬ John By me, etc. etc. For any one who In the end, this turns out not to be tience, the trade crisis escalates to wants to compare drawing styles at first-' as bad as other work Heinlein has done, outright war. Nisi's dominating former hand glance, this is the comic to get. but does not fulfill the promise of FRI¬ lover takes comnand of Shora, in the name I don't know how much your $.75 donation DAY (I'm leaving JOB aside here because of the ruling Patriarch. For the first will affect the African Famine Program, it is a fantasy and because it seems to time in their 10,000-year history, the but how often do you buy comics for a me to have been written in response to a non-violent women face those who hasten worthy cause other than to provide pay- specific political situation, mich as death -- armed troops from Valedon. Ad¬ checks for the writers and artists who , and to my mind, shows ded to Merwen's pain in the resistance labored to bring you a few colorful min¬ it). It does, however, point out clearly leadership role she neither seeks, nor utes worth of entertainment into your that Heinlein has become so fascinated with his own characters and so taken with 40 WEST OF EDEN gotten his origins, yet a moment's now, and is the only local inhabi¬ By Harry Harrison rash act forces him to flee back tant to have been outside for ninths. Bantam, 453 pp +27 pp glossary; to the Tanu tribes. His knowledge Oh, yes, he also has a dog with re¬ Wrap-around jacket 6 60 illoes by of the species trying to extermin¬ tractable claws, who in the irold of David Sanderson; $15.95 ate humanity allows Kerrick to be¬ Zelazny's Bortan is somewhat more come a leader during the time of intelligent, more resourceful and REVIEWED BY PAUL MCGUIRE changes brought by the war of at¬ generally larger than your average trition. Using dinosaurs for mass pooch. This dog is named Buck, af¬ The current theory explaining transportation, as did the Pal-ul- ter the real hero of THE CALL OF the rapid end of the dinosaur age donians, a huge army of Yilane is THE WILD. is that a meteor six miles in dia¬ sent against the gathering tribes. meter struck the Earth, and among I should point out that Derek After that battle, the nomadic the Hunter is somewhat socially its disasterous effects, the ash hunter Tanu make exodus over the and debris thrown into the atmos¬ aware: During the course of 222 mountains where a new race of men, pages he realizes that women might phere cut off the ultra-violet settled agrarians, are found. But rays from the surface. What if want to do more with their lives Kerrick knows that the Yilane will than stay in tiny cubbyholes and that was the cause, but had never never stop searching for them since happened? gratefully prepare the meat he their greatest passion is now to brings home; his wife is, of course, In the land WEST OF EDEN a slaughter the last of the Human the most beautiful woman in the cav¬ saurian life fonft evolved into the erns, wears little in the way of niche held by Mankind. Intelli¬ And you ain't read nothing clothes and pleases him. gent, humanoid, two opposing yet. Those are only a very few of thumbs per hand, roughly human- It's hard to feel really threat¬ the highlights of this epic plot. ened when the bad guys - - the size, they call themselves the Yi- Whatever you like in your reading, lane. Their science has been de¬ Gunks -- attack; Derek is just too it is probably here: serious writ¬ good and too lucky, even when half voted to genetic engineering. As ing, rip-roaring adventure, rich in writings of Jack Vance and Rich¬ of his people have been killed characterizations of both Human (and possibly eaten) by the baddies. ard E. Geis' ONE INMDRTAL MAN, and non-Human, vivid experiences When the Gunk's leader turns out nuch of what we build, they grow. and perceptions, societies under¬ And nuch of what we manufacture, going tumultous change. About the to be a non-Gunk representing the they breed. The cloaks they wear Brotherhood of Diablo you know only real flaw is the finish being there's trouble; pretty soon you and the rifles they carry are liv¬ weakened by a major plot thread ing creatures. An animal has even know Derek the Hunter will lead left dangling, I presume for tie- his people into the wilderness of been bred for unobstructed organic ing to a possible sequel. lens so that it can be used as a the great outdoors. microscope. In an example of a WEST OF EDEN is Harry's block¬ parallel creation with John Brun¬ buster, a terrific read. You owe Lovejoy, by the way, likes the ner's THE CRUCIBLE OF TIME, their it to yourself not only to buy this "kid ex machina” device for saving large ocean ships are genetically book but to purchase it in hard¬ cultures; he's used it in at least adapted marine creatures. Marvel¬ back. Even in a disposable age, two books. In this book the kid ously inventive, the details of this beautiful volume is a keeper. is a genius who has been living in the customs, social structure, re¬ the caverns for years, has read ligion, politics, philosophy and philosophy and speaks like a pro¬ psychology of the exotic Yilane is fessor. This kid saves the band, unobtrusively woven through the not Derek. narrative. A VISION OF BEASTS: CREATION If this is Book Che I guess DESCENDING Climactic changes are destroy¬ we'll see Book Two sometime soon. By Jack Lovejoy This is a book to save for those ing their cities and driving them TOR, 1984, 222 pp., $2.95 north after retreating warmth. An nights when you just can't sleep ambitious Yilane named Vainte is REVIEWED BY STEVE MILLER or if you mist have one more chance to read something that has true sent to a new land to comnand the Someone forgot to tell Jack forces there who are growing a pulp-story tone and vocabulary. Lovejoy that the pulp era is over, *********************************** large city for her people to mi¬ and in fact has been over for some grate to A.S.A.P. In the new land decades now. Lovejoy is turning are new dangers, chief among them out stories perfect for the old a clever, but murderous animal days of FANTASTIC WONDER STORIES which speaks. They call themselves or even the old ARGOSY; it’s hard UTOPIA HUNTERS the Tanu, but we have labeled them to see a modem literary thought in By Somtow Sucharitkul Cro-magnon Man. the entirety of A VISION OF BEASTS: Bantam, 256 pp., $2.95 The novel is told from both Hu¬ CREATION DESCENDING. REVIEVCD BY PAUL MCGUIRE man and Yilane viewpoints. The This is the second Lovejoy With their god-like powers, the main character is Kerrick. When book I've read and there's been im¬ still a young child, he was in the High Inquest seeks out and destroys provement. Lovejoy has gotten the utopias. Although compassion is small Tanu hunting party which ven¬ hang of using dialogue now, though tured far South and first encount¬ their most respected virtue they ered the colony of the much advanc¬ Derek the Hunter, the protagonist annihilate planets on mere whims of A VISION OF BEASTS doesn't have or as part of games. ed Yilane. He was present for the all that inch to say. Derek is incident that started a war of to¬ the last hope of a lost band of Much of UTOPIA HUNTERS was or¬ tal annihilation between the two people hidden deep in a Rocky Moun¬ iginally published as short stories species. Not long after, Kerrick tain cavern following a world-wide by George Scithers in IASFM or AM¬ survives the massacre of his tribe calamity. He thinks slowly, though AZING. Mr. Sucharitkul uses the and is taken to the Yilane city a device of weaving a framing story prisoner. he does read; his biggest asset is that he acts as a hero ought to act. arouid and through them to create Not only is the concept of a novel in the manner as was Zena lying unknown among the Yilane, In fact, given the choice, De¬ Henderson's PILGRIMAGE: THE BOOK but they are incapable of it. As rek seems to prefer acting as a OF THE PEOPLE or Silverberg's MAJI- an experiment, Kerrick had been hero to anything else. He makes POOR CHRONICLES, and with better taught to speak the saurian lang¬ stands against the Gunks periodic¬ results. uage. When Vainte realizes that ally in the book, singlehandedly holding 1) a bridge, 2) a cavern The universe here is as exotic the boy can state as a fact some¬ as tfie worlds in Jack Vance's "The thing which is not a fact, "he be¬ barricade, 3) an escape tunnel, while the rest of the people get Moon Moth" and Kingsburry's COURT- comes a favorite of hers, and is SIIP RITES. For exauple: A city embroiled in plots and gains sta- away. If that's not heroic enough he's also been the sole hunter for is scattered across and within a the cavern group for some years whole planet and its moon and then By the time he next encounters the parts are connected via trans¬ a human, Kerrick has all but for¬ 41 porter disks so that one may only By Robert Lynn Asprin and Lynn Abbey

VOYAGE FROM YESTERYEAR By Robert P. Hogan DEL REY, 1982, 377 pp., $2.95 SHIVA DESCENDING By Gregory Benford S William Rotslei TOR, 1985, 394 pp., $3.95

Some books just logically should be It's tempting to say that this book reviewed together. Hogan's VOYAGE FROM is a sort of cross between Robert Hein- YESTERYEAR (1982) and Benford 6 Rotsler's lein's THE NOON IS A HARSH MISTRESS and SHIVA DESCENDING (1985) present two uni¬ Vemor Vinge's TRUE NAFES, but that would que literary approaches to humanity's not be fair to Victor Milan, who has response to extinction: the former a created his own unique story and world. threat from within and the latter a But there are some similarities since threat from without. Perhaps most inter¬ SAMJRAI is about the development of a esting is that both books do what SF does computer personality a la Heinlein's SF novels and a couple of westerns under best, speculate that technology will be Mike, and it takes place much of the his ovn name and as Richard Austin and involved but that ultimately mankind's time inside a computer-simulated world Keith Jarrod. But this is apparently his fate is up to mankind. And in both sol¬ somewhat like Vinge's. Why, in SAMURAI first attenpt to break out of formula utions, the authors hypothesize that the the scientist who creates the computer- fiction, and a hell of a breakout it is. resolution will leave mankind changed person, Dr. Elizabeth O'Neill, even reads Milan is a lifelong resident of Al¬ MISTRESS compulsively when she can't buquerque, by the way. Now, how the For those of you not familiar with sleep. hell did he learn all that stuff about Hogan's writing this is a good place to There the similarity ends. The SAM¬ Japanese culture that makes SAMURAI so start. VOYAGE, the Promethius Award-win¬ URAI in question is naned Tokugawa and convincing? Maybe he didn't write this ning novel, is exciting and thought-pro¬ he's not a miracle like Mike, he’s a de¬ book after all -- maybe it was his com¬ voking SF filled with realistic charac¬ liberate and all too successful attempt puter, using all those Japanese micro- ters grappling with complex human, soci¬ to create artificial intelligence using al and scientific ideas. some random factor fudge to give the Either way, it’s well worth the read. Life on earth's days were numbered, story a pseudo-scientific sheen. What's so the scientists of the early 21st Cen¬ more, Tokugawa is Japanese and is program¬ tury were saying. The threat was that med to develop into the classic Sanurai while space exploration was proceeding warrior -- or the romantic ideal of fierce rapidly, it was remaining a national devotion to duty and to the master. ADVENTURES rather than an international effort and The story takes place in a future By Mike Resnick militarization was rampant on earth and Japan which has survived a third world NAL/Signet, 1985, 239 pp., $2.95 in space. To save mankind from extinc¬ war relatively unscathed and is now the tion, a computer controlled starprobe be¬ world leader, since the US and USSR have ing sent out to Alpha Centauri is retro¬ wiped each other out. Dr. O'Neill is an With more historical and geographic¬ fitted with the capability to produce unorthodox, wheelchair-ridden American al accuracy than Steven Spielberg ever new humans from its store of electronic computer scientist brought to Japan by dreamed of. Resnick has returned from "a gene data. These humans will colonize Yoshimitsu Akaji, head of Yoshimitsu Tele- galaxy far, far away" to give us a fun any new and inhabitable worlds discover¬ comnunications Corporation, specifically romp through Darkest Africa just after ed once the trip is complete. to bring Tokugawa to "life." Naturally, WWI. All the cliches of African fiction Thirty years later, Armageddon fore¬ O'Neill succeeds and, naturally, Tokugawa (and not a few of that continent’s^factu- stalled, earth sends off another star- has a mind of his own and leads things in al" travelogs) are turned on their ear, ship, this one much larger and manned by an unpredictable direction. as the adventurous hero, Man of the Cloth, a live crew, intent on asserting earth's What that direction is I'm reluctant and general rascal in paradise, Lucifer dominion over the colony. A race has en¬ to reveal for fear of spoiling Milan’s Jones, picks off ticks from the Cape to sued between the Lhited States and the "surprise ending." Or surprise second Soviets, with the U.S. ship getting a half, perhaps, for about half-way through one-year head start, and thus having a there are a series of violent &- year once they reach the planet Qiiron *■*- -v their mission. of the Mayflower II's pas- avoid all the problems of and at the same time con- t ideals and values. The If I had any problems with Hogan’s writing it was the reluctance of the lead¬ either Carr's or Wollheim's. ership of the Mayflower II to accept or nearly the entire range of s understand a totally decentralized soci¬ fiction, from traditional fa ety such as they confront on Chiron and as 's "Foreign Ski their continued insistence that they were tech stories such as Killian being deceived. This total lack of ima¬ done a good job. THE MAGIC CUP is the "New Rose Hotel" and Michael gination annoyed me as a reader long aft¬ Irish version of the Holy Grail, a fit "Trojan Horse. " By giving h er the author had made it apparent that subject for Fr. Greeley. Granted, we vdio latitude, he has guaranteed the Chironians were telling the truth. have been brought up on Sir Thomas Mal¬ ery story will appeal to eac ory's version of this legend via MORTE DE But he has produced somethin Hogan is a topflight writer and he’s ARTHUR, which takes its origins from the while, a well-rounded volum

heresy against both Catholic Christian fiction's standard themes: conputer tech orthodoxy and the "orthodoxy” of the an¬ nology advanced enough to develop its own cient Celtic myth. It is a shame that intelligence and two misfits who become SHIVA DESCENDING, by Benford and the flesh-hating version of the story has romantically involved (remember THORNS Rotsler, is a fast paced hard SF story had so much influence on Western culture or "The Girl Who Was Plugged IN?”). Var- not unlike Niven and Poumelle's LUCI¬ and the flesh-respecting version so lit¬ ley handles both themes as successfully FER’S HAFMER in concept, but entirely tle." The story is that of Cormac Mac as Silverberg did when he was reworking different and much more pro-technology Dermot, a fictional Christian Irish King, old chiches fifteen years ago. in resolution. trying to regain his throne and his slave Almost as good is Kim Stanley Robin¬ A massive comet is heading towards girl, Bridget, a sharp-tongued harridan son's "The Lucky Strike" which tells an earth -- undetected for years due to its if ever there was one, (after- reading alternate-world version of the dropping strangely elliptical orbit through the this tale, I can see why old hens are of the atom bomb on Hiroshima. Robinson called "Biddys" and talkative women "old is the find of the 80s (nuch as Varley hens!") and their adventures in 6th cen¬ was in the 70s), already having produced tury Ireland. As in the Welsh Mabinogen, a string of excellent short fiction the power which women exerted in the pre- ("Venice Drowned," "To Leave A Mark" and Christian Celtic society was awesome. the World Fantasy Award winner, "Black Women's lib is definitely NOT a 19th and Air") and two superb novels (THE WILD 20th century phenomenon. The story be¬ SHORE and ICEHENGE). His careful hand¬ Earth has already been severely dam¬ comes a bit involved and would lose a aged by strikes from smaller comets in ling of characters and the well-cdnst- lot of its appeal if recoimted, so just ructed world in which they live is rem¬ front of Shiva's trail. A direct hit buy the book and enjoy it. threatens to devastate the world by un¬ iniscent of Ursula K. LeGuin. leashing the energy of 250,000 H-Bombs A notch below the abovementioned and quite possibly obliterate all human stories are Nancy Kress's "Trinity" and life. Here, the description of isolated Frederik Pohl's "The Kindly Isle." Kress events surromding local inpact sites has shown her ability to write many timei reads like out-takes from HAFWER. Not a Now she has found a worthy topic (a sci¬ criticism really, this is acceptable THE YEAR S BEST SCIENCE FICTION - entific search for God) involving a set SECOND ANNUAL COLLECTION writing. It's more a recognition that Ed. By of fascinating characters. Many of Fred¬ there has to be a better way to give the Bluejay, $10.95 erik Pohl's stories tend toward exagger¬ reader a "feel" for world-wide destruc¬ ation and overwriting, perhaps a legacy tion than the literary equivalent of a of his social satire days. This latest PBOPLE magazine format where names and In two years, this series has become story is so lowkey and subtle it demon¬ locales flash by rapidly, contributing strates the depth of the author's tal¬ little to the story's progress other than the standard against which all other Best-of-the-Year anthologies should be ent. It concerns a peaceful vacation creating a canvas large enough for the isle whose serenity is endangered by a author to paint his word pictures in the measured. It has both size (26 stories totaling 573 pages, compared to approx¬ scientist with a history of research in¬ reader's minds. imately 250 pages for 's and to chemical weapons. While nations from arotnd the world Donald Wollheim's Best-of-the-Year anth¬ There are a bunch of other stories are pulling together to mount the tech¬ ologies) and quality (eight different good enough to be the centerpiece of an nical effort necessary to send manned award nominees, including two Nebula issue of a prozine or original anthology: rockets up to either blast the comet to winners). Jack McDevitt's touching "Promises To bits or deflect its collision course with Keep," Octavia Hitler's unsettling earth, groups of fanatics are pulling "Bloodchild," Richard Cowper's caution¬ the fabric of society apart with their ary "A Message To The King of Brobding- dire warnings of doomsday and acceptance nab," 's haunting "The Map" of the destruction as a religious fate and Rena Yount's biting "Pursuit ijf Ex¬ cellence." The final plan is a joint US/USSR When I let my subscriptions to all mission. We have the space vehicle tech¬ the science-fiction magazines except nology; they have the 400-negaton bomb. FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION expire, my The author's style is crisp and clean only regret was missing much of the best and the technological subjects are hand¬ short fiction published each year, led convincingly. The characters are thanks to Gardner Dozois, I hardly miss believable and varied, providing the anything important at all. For $11.00 of human frailties and positive how could you go wrong? instinctively, as children. They are Jack, Belfayor the Bearded Baron and a couple's hard luck, a Virginian politic¬ hunchbacked old crones, toothless, dres¬ strange creature called the Iffin. Once ian's petty intrigues, a black teenage sed in black, with evil tempers and sad¬ again Ozma and the Emerald City are runaway's adoption by an Indian with a istic, cruel personalities. This is the threatened and this time it takes the Red ranch in Oklahoma, and a Treasury Depart¬ European fairy tale version. The first Jinn of Ev to get things straightened out ment counterfeiting investigation, all time I "met" an American witch was while As before, these books are an inch combine to reveal the true nature of a reading the WIZARD OF OZ. Boy, was I taller than the standard paperback, and private hospital for disturbed youths and surprised to find beautiful, fair-skinned, are lushly illustrated by John R. Neill, to wreak a change that may alter the hu¬ redhaired Glinda, the Good Witch of the grand champion of Oz artists. Don't ex¬ man race itself. This book promises a South, the very antithesis of witches as pect L. Frank Baum magic -- but Thompson great deal and does not disappoint. An I had previously known them. The witches could cast some mean spells of her own. exciting tension, created in the first of Salem came in all sizes, shapes and A worthy continuation. few pages and maintained throughout, de¬ ages. Are the witches of the "New World" mands satisfaction in the form of intel¬ so much different than those of the "Old lectual and emotional relief. The won¬ World?" Could be... after all our coun¬ derfully neat, clean, fascinating, and try is slightly over 200 years old and elegant conclusion fulfills that charter. perhaps the witches haven't had time to This is no shaggy dog story. This book age yet! But on the other hand, the USA delivers. does worship the cult of youth! DAYS OF GRASS By Tanith Lee Also pleasing is the consistency with Well, what were witches really like DAW, 256 pp., Nov. '85, $3.50 which the various premises of the book vs. what are witches today? John Updike are weighed and applied. Several sensi¬ gives a good look. His modem witches tive topics are particularly well hand¬ are divorced women, who somehow found led; the ethics of doing research with their powers as they became independent human subjects; the impact of telepathy of their husbands and their husbands were Humanity has been reduced to s (and extensions of it) on the nature of reduced to dust (Updike is a bit hazy on pockets living in underground inst the human race, in terms of behavior, this) and keep them bottled up to use tions, forbidden to go "Above." E self-image, and ultimate destiny; the for spells. They have children, lovers, one obeys, except for one plucky s questionable desirability of government money problems and all the worries of our our hero, on whose shoulders rest regulation of domains of research where¬ modem day society. Enter Darryl Van kind's hope for the future ... in have no expertise and Home, a black-bearded supposedly wealthy are subject to political and economic eccentric who becomes the focus of their pressures likely to skew their judgment; attention and the Black Man of their Co- and the responsibility of the individual lift the tw stories beyond the boundar¬ cused concerns. In fact, a few loud ies of their pages so that they linger critics have publicly denounced Delany's on in the mind long after the book is fin¬ fiction, in one case repeatedly so. ished. This is a welcome relief when so While I can understand a personal much recent fantasy and SF has a tendency dislike of it, I cannot accept such con¬ DUNE: THE MOVIE to the verbose -- big fat books that could demnation by anybody who pretends to be have been half their published length. objective. Either those critics are too REVIEWED BY ALMA JO WILLIAMS McKillip's more recent work -- these two narrow-minded to accept any deviation DUNE: THE JOVIE is a subjective ex¬ short novels and a handful of stories from the science fictional norm or else perience, which is dependent on whether that have appeared in various anthologies they assume their own inability to und¬ the viewer has read only DUNE, or per¬ -- show that she is willing to work in a erstand Delany's multi-layered fiction shorter format and are positive proof of haps the whole series, and if so, wheth¬ is really a failure by the author. They er the reader has prior visual concepts the rewards to be found in following such remind me of all the aspiring mathematic¬ of what DUNE should be. Originally film¬ ians who change their major during their ed as a four-hour movie, DUNE was cut to freshman year, claiming that business two hours because it was feared that the courses are more useful than mathematics .American viewing public would become bor¬ when their real motive is their impending ed. The producers should have left the WOLF OF SHADOWS By Whitley Streiber failure of Calculus! movie whole and allowed the moviegoers to Sierra Club/Knopf, 10S pp., $9.95 Qualitywise, FLIGHT FROM NEVERYON make up their own minds! The photography REVIEVtD BY CHARLES DE LINT has a split personality. The first half is gorgeous, the music appropriate, the is the weakest part of the trilogy (the special effects so well integrated into Researching a book can be a dangerous the story that their reality is taken proposition. Sometimes the research is other books are TALES OF NEVERYON and NEVERYONA), although that may partly be for granted -- the mind does not say sub- so intriguing, one never gets around to liminally, "This is a special effect." writing the book. Other times one writes the result of my inability to relate to its protagonist smuggler. The second This applies especially to Shai-hulud -- the book, but is frustrated at not being the giant sandworms! None of the jerky able to utilize all the research mater¬ half is Delany in top form with some experimental, but highly successful, Godzilla-like monster type. You KNOW ial. With WOLF OF SHADOWS, Whitley Str¬ they are not real but fear they could be! eiber has found one solution: With the writing. It combines the conclusion of material that he and James Kunetka used the NEVERYON saga's main storyline -- The metamorphosed Guild navigators for their excellent WARDAY, along with interwoven with excerpts from Delany's are laughable and since I saw this in the Streiber's personal experiences with journal showing his inspiration for much conpany of the Cornell Student audience wolves in northern Minnesota and his of what happens in the fiction. It is (Cornell Cinema -- $2.00), crude remarks knowledge of Native American ways, he strongly autobiographical and completely abounded! (Remember the Edsel?) The ac¬ has simply written another book. frank insight into a brilliant writer's tors did their parts well but the evil of thought processes. the Harkonnens was caricatured and out When I was young, I can remenber of place. Only Sting, as-Feyd, projected reading and enjoying novels that follow¬ Admittedly, Delany is difficult reading, but if done carefully, ultim¬ the subtle nastiness which was the Hark- ed a year or so in the life of various onnen trademark. wild animals. This was years before WAT- ately rewarding. Before reading FLIGHT ERSHIP DOWN and DUNCTON WOOD and their FROM NEVERYON, you should read its two I would see it again when it comes like. Titles escape me at the moment, predecessors. While all three books con¬ back to Cornell -- $2.00 worth of enter¬ but they were the kind of books that Jack centrate on different characters, there tainment gets me another look at the sup¬ London wrote and Walt Disney made into are sufficient references to people and erb photography. The crucial parts of feature films. At the time they seemed events in the first two volumes to make the story line -- Paul and Jessica with to me to be very realistic portrayals of the third volume richer having read them. the Fremsn and the Water of Life episode life in the wild, seen through the eyes I recomnend FLIGHT FROM NEVERYON were so sketchily done and so short that of wild creatures. strongly to all devotees of serious fic¬ a non-reader might wonder about its sig¬ tion. Those readers unable to appreciate nificance. Shame, shame, the producers Firmly rooted in that school of writ¬ should not have cut it! ing, WOLF OF SHADOWS follows a wolf pack anything off the narrow pathway of tradi¬ through a nuclear winter. There is a tional science fiction should bypass it great tenderness in Streiber1s depiction while awaiting the latest Tolkien or Ca- of the pack's struggles, but he doesn't ball imitation. spare any of the graphic, brutal details ************************************ of the situation. Seen through the wolves' eyes, with the occasional view¬ point from the perspective of an animal ethologist and her daughter, Streiber paints a courageous picture of the wolves' long journey to find new, safe hunting grounds, offering neither a pat solution nor "talking animals" to do so. Highly recommended. ¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥

FLIGHT FROM NEVERYON By Sanuel R. Delany Bantam, $3.95 REVIEVCD BY ROBERT SABELLA Samjel Delany does not write simply- plotted books that move in an orderly fashion from point A to point B, having just enough characterization to keep the story interesting. What he does -- es¬ pecially since 1975's DHALGREN -- is ex¬ amine societies. Nor is he only concern¬ ed with his society's inhabitants' be¬ havior in a contrived set of circum¬ stances (that is, a conventional plot), but rather he studies their interaction with other characters under normal, ev¬ eryday circumstances. Obviously not every reader of sci¬ ence fiction appreciates such finely-fo¬ 47 REVIEWS BY ANDREW ANDREWS fantasists, ALWAYS COMING HOME is far SONG has a more convincing, deeply moving GALAPAGOS more detailed at providing a world view novel with music as its raison de etre By Kurt Vonnegut of the life in the Valley, and the Kesh, than THE MEMORY OF WHITENESS. Delacorte Press, 198S, 295 pp., $16.95 its people. Johannes Wright, Master Musician in Who are the most intelligent, forgiv¬ LeGuin has created not so much a the year 3229 A.D., must move quickly to able of all creatures that walked the Utopia as a convincing far-future narra¬ leam the comnunication of music to com¬ earth? Certainly not the large-brained tive, of a place far into the future, on prehend a vastly changing universe. The humans, prone to excessive logic. Per¬ the Pacific coast. She has single-hand¬ lyrical and transcendent WHITENESS moves haps the simpler iguana, then, with its edly done so, too: exploring every as¬ through the ages, through the narration, simple, undevious survival scheme; or pect of the Kesh from head to toe, from into the reader's comprehension of the cormorant, toting small, efficient sauce to sassafras, with maps, literature, Wright's duty and destiny. wings; or the sleek and sane albatross, customs, music -- everything. At that moment we realize the nusic fisherfolk in the upper hand of evolu¬ Essentially, the tome is a novel; it becomes something other than just nusic, tion. Man can compare to none of these is also an encyclopedia. It is also a when it in fact replaces comnunication fine creatures, destined as he was to songbook -- here we have a novel made up at the cellular level -- and overcomes receive one large, oversize brain. of indigenous special effects; we are man's own limiting nature. Arrested by his own inability to un¬ seeing this creation not in two dimen¬ Though weighty, even stubborn in derstand or comprehend what was "falling sions, from a character such as Stone spots, WHITENESS is classical as a wond- out" in his own species, man thus kills Telling's point of view, but from great- er-enducer. Allow it freely to work its himself. Welcome to Vonnegut; welcome wonders. to GALAPAGOS. What we see is entrancing, and begs GALAPAGOS relates the tale (many for more. Has LeGuin been complete in times told) of the beginning of the hu¬ composing a world? I can't describe the man race, one million years in the past symphony; you must explore it yourself. DUENDE MEADOW By Paul Cook (1986 A.D., to be exact), when world cur¬ Bantam, 1985, 228 pp., $2.95 rency toppled, wars ensued, and man was "A Sheldrake Field, or m-field as faced with 1) evolving or 2) dying off. they were later termed, was the energy The rest is history (evidently the big BEYOND ARMAGEDDON: 21 SERMONS TO IFF DEAD structure which gave an individual ac¬ brain shrunk, and man found his place in Ed. by Walter M. Miller, Jr. 5 Martin cretion of matter -- living or otherwise the schenE of things). Greenberg. -- its particular form. Everything in Donald I. Fine, 1985, 387 pp., $18.95 The narrator, son of famous science nature, from people to trees, from algae fiction writer , begins the We invent new archetypes. Here's to thunderclouds, even the lint in a "Nature Cruise of the Century" aboard the one: Megawar. Nuclear holocaust. Nu¬ mean man's naval, had its own attendant Bahia de Darwin, and along with it a mot- clear winter. Where suffering and pain m-field. Everything which had form, had ley crew assembled from the stupid, the get new names. It is a horror we deal such at the behest of a preexisting mor¬ incompetent, the decadent, the ignorant, with now on a subconscious level. But phogenetic field. There were no excep- the self-satisfying -- definitely a mi¬ we must not vaiture far from the cruel crocosm of all the Vonnegutian universe reality of this terrifying inevitable. How does humanity seek solace, find represents. It is at a time when the We must be made aware of it every day, protection from a devastating nuclear world as we know it has been reduced grinding on in until the "leaders” we war? What happens to the last hope of morally, ethically, emotionally by the recognize see it as the hell it truly is. humanity? Using the m-field, the "Duen- effects of choice without reason, opinion Allow BEYOND ARMAGEDDON to be our de Meadow" was bom --a refuge built without data, the natural products of will and testament. out of the Sheldrake phenomena, a cloak imperialism run wild, to the inevitable from the effects of war, of radiation, disaster called world debt and consequent For your thoughts, your nightmares, sickness and disease. world depression. something to keep you stone-awake and thinking, to rub it in your moral nose, Eventually, years later, while the And what a disaster! the stories assembled by Miller and Green¬ inhabitants of the Meadow remained alive, But returning, what about this "Na¬ berg (and brazingly, intelligently intro¬ ture Cruise of the Century?" Simply, it duced by Miller, himself a father of many is a voyage to the Galapagos Islands, un¬ post-nuclear-war short stories and nov¬ dertaken by this crew, just off Guayaquil. els) were written over a period of 48 This Ecuador, South America. The place Char¬ years by writers "looking toward and be¬ Publication.... les Darwin visited (Genovesa) in 1835 yond an ultimate war -- the Megawar -- A.D., before writing his THE VOYAGE OF and imagining what it would be like to THE BEAGLE (which later led the natural¬ find oneself alive afterwards." Many ist to write about his thoughts on the stories haunt and mesmerize; they capture formation of life everywhere) and who la¬ the feeling of quiet in the ter composed the historic and essential nuclear world that entraps us. ON THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES BY MEANS OF NAT¬ URAL SELECTION. Quite frankly, it is the What if the "world-killers" -- our starting place -- and a suitable start¬ "leaders" blatantly out of touch with ing place, a million years since the impending world destruction -- have their downfall of man. way? What to do with us who are left? How much horror must go down through fic¬ The recounting is sharp, volatile, tion before we all leam to, through the difficult, demanding -- ultimately con¬ archetype of megawar, understand the vincing. Vonnegut has done the homework so many of us aTe afraid to do, and ar¬ rived at cmclusions we are afraid to If there must be another Nagasaki or Hiroshima to prove to people the deadly is Available in reality of nuclear war, if today's blind- to-history brethren need their collective MICROFORM moral noses rubbed in the dirt, then let us pray for them. They have been fore- For Complete Information ALWAYS COMING HOE By Ursula K. LeGuin Harper 6 Row, 1985, 525 p This is a big, beautiful book; it's T>£ FEMORY OF WHITE IE SS a shadowy brook filled with fresh water; By a marvel of imaginative landscape. Akin TOR, 1985, 351 pp., $15.95 to the early 1985 MEDEA, a world fashion¬ Not since Thomas Disch's ON WINGSOF ed by Harlan Ellison and numerous other 48 to them the question remained: What was history: It first appeared in the Birm¬ touched on us is a brick-by-brick analy¬ left? What was the world like "above" ingham, England, Fantasycon IX Program* sis of the future (coirplete with terra- them? Booklet. Easily, this story contends for forming, the "greening" of the moon, the one of the finest horror pub¬ far-reaching effects of the greenhouse From below the fields of Kansas, the lished in 1984. crisis on earth, 23rd Century microworlds ghost-like duendes rose to meet the sur¬ and aggregated households). It is a sym¬ prises of a drastically unchanged Earth. Take a trip through the 16 other phony of love and affection, as the auth¬ Except the enemies ruled. short stories collected from far and ors take a serious look into a future wide, to comprise a surprising good year Pictured here is a lucid, well-struc¬ full of surprises to come. It is heavily for . It's only right -- researched, informed and moving. tured novel which paints far too gentle this is number 13 of a series. Watch for a picture of post-nuclear life. The war irore from DAW! What is life like "up then?" is nothing but a bad memory to the duen¬ des, appearing as a last war, one hard- War and peace are consuming subjects, Iy-recalled. Far too gentle than the oft-told of in many "future histories." reality and terrible facts lead us to be - What is the authors' projection of war¬ EYE: MASTERWORKS OF SCIENCE FICTION AND time technology into the 21st Century? FANTASY By Frank Herbert Here (2000 to 2180) we see much of what But DUENDE MEADOW has an inescapable, Berkley Trade Bks, 1985, 334pp., $7.95 can (will?) emerge from the garden of dark poetry that entrances. (Illustrated) technology: Plague Wars, End of the Arms Herbert is a novel man. Not so much Race, The Greenhouse Crisis. How will novel MAN as NOVEL man -- this is an au¬ humankind react to increasing threats to THE LONG FORGETTING By Edward A. Byers thor who writes in tomes. His forte is life on earth? Further, ve see how this Baen, 1985, 283 pp., $2.95 feature-length series. No minuscule, is overcome; how the engineers of life teensy short stories for him! Herbert reshape our worlds into the next two him- For just a second, let us reflect prefers book length, allowing him more dred and fifty years (2180 to 2400) and and differentiate between old space op¬ time and space to elucidate the landscape develop resources in space that literal¬ era and new, "science" opera. In the of his imagination. And yours. ly remake humankind. From there (2400 old, the hero always battles against the to 2650) mankind is- predisposed to reach Rulers or Presiders or Controllers or This EYE -- a collection of short the edge of space and time -- what worlds what-have-you to reveal Secrets Not Meant stories -- marks a turn-off in Herbert's will they find? To Be Known. To speak out against the otherwise swashbuckling career.as THE Great whatever was heresy! pre-eminent science fiction novelist. This is a colorful, imaginative, He takes precious little time to instill vigorous book. Now, in modern-day "science" opera, in readers a wider view of his talents the hero (or heroin^, a scientist, digs as short story author. And the classics deeply to uncover a Forgotten Time. The in EYE prove him out. nature of the galaxy -- ruled by the Bn- TVE MARS ONE CREW MANUAL Included here are stories from "the By Kerry Mark Joels pire or in this case. The Church -- must Ballantine, 1985, 156 pp., $12.95 be kept locked up in ignorance, or com¬ good old days" while he published in puters, or whatever, never for the wise magazines such as ASTOUNDING (now ANALOG), At one time THE SPACE SHUTTLE OPER¬ to know. Stay silent, doctor, or your SCIENCE FICTION, AMAZING, FANTASTIC UNI¬ ATOR'S MANUAL opened our eyes to that uicovering could wreak galaxy-wide up- VERSE, FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION, GAL¬ "taxi to the sky." After just one year, AXY -- all the world has seen Herbert at Ballantine Trade Paperbacks has blessed this length, with such a diverse publish¬ Such as it is in the Fugue-ruled sci¬ us with another book prodigy, THE MARS ing shopping list. Herbert's not just ONE CREW MANUAL ence opera THE LONG FORGETTING. Archeo¬ airing laundry here, however; rather, logist Waverly Brennan, digging near a he's presenting the beginnings of a tal¬ What does it all mean? What is Bal¬ site, finds earth-shattering information ent barely knee-high into preparing his lantine trying to do? which changes the very order of the gal¬ classic novel, DUNE. axy! Could be they are trying to win our What treatment Herbert has in store hearts by publishing something as pene¬ Gosh wow! for us! Not just 12 brilliant science trating, as page-turning, as veil-research¬ We have an almost eventless novel fiction short stories, but an array of ed (documented like a military specifica¬ here, my friends -- unless you forgive the personal narratives, including one tion) and as colorful as a coffee-top invention of the strange "stargates" through Arrakeen ("The Road to Dune") book as MARS ONE. Bfiat goes into the which allow interstellar travel -- fil¬ with an introduction detailing his per¬ planning of the first manned mission to led with enough grist for your average sonal involvement with the De Laurentis/ Mars? Are Ballantine and author Joels neophyte SF fan. Nothing but. David Lynch production of the film ver¬ trying to mesmerize us with as many im¬ sion of DUNE. pressive graphs, charts, mock-ups, picto- graphs, simulations, illustrations and Many of these stories have never renderings of what may be a truly real been collected; take heed, Herbert com- space venture, that may soon take place TVE YEARS BEST HORROR STORIES: letists! Collectors, don't go away with¬ (according to the MARS ONE logo, in 1996) SERIES XIII Bd. by Karl Edward Wagner out this. DAW, 1985, 251 pp., $2.95 or are they just bluffing? Is this a show-and-tell, or a spearheaded sermon? Joy in diversity: In the annual YEAR'S BEST, the editor Gerald W. Page Perhaps neither; perhaps both. They have done sohething original, and lasting. (and this year, Karl Edward Wagner) has THE THIRD MILLENIUM: A HISTORY OF TIC sifted through many major (and amateur) Are we going to Mars? My friend, read HURLD AD 4JUJ-3UUU this manual, and prepare for it. publications to reach for the finest of By Brian Stableford 6 the year. I agree with Wagner in his in¬ Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1985, $13.95 troduction: For fantasy/horror, 1984 was a Very Good Year. You have seen nothing like this be¬ fore. Who would attest it? Who could Not everything that Stephen King SHADOWS 8. Ed. by Charles L. Grant succeed in completing as detailed and as Doubleday, 1985, 192 pp., $12.95 writes is automatically accepted by any illustrated a "future history" as THE publication: but this doesn't distract THIRD MILLENIUM (conplete with photogr¬ When we speak about the quiet tale from the quality of 'Mrs. Todd's Short¬ aphs!) of our world into the next twro of terror, the soft, subdued story of cut," a fine send-off for the collection. millenia? horror, then we must nod to the best we Talk about diversity -- this was first have today: writers such as Alan Ryan, published in REDBOOK, after three other Here is a vision sewn with hours of Bill Pronzini, A1 Sarrantonio, Steve Ras- women's magazines rejected it. Too bad creative deliberation, created after ex¬ nic Tem -- our modem-day O'Henrys and for them: After a time, it is absorbing, treme bouts of imagining. The trade pa¬ Sullivans and Poes. a story within a story, Something to perback is by no means slapdash; nor is leave you on the darker side of wonder. it a cheaply wrought, culled outline They fill our drab world with these briefly touching on philosophical points. gently moving, gently preying yams that Charles L. Grant’s "Are You Afraid In actuality, what the "authors" have haunt, perplex, move, startle and ques- of the Dark?" has an arcane publishing 49 Simply put, Charles L. Grant, himself season of the coffee table book once ag¬ he premier quiet horror fantasist, does ain, and the crop of such books for the a honest, careful job of bringing out space enthusiast is indeed lush. The first thing to be said about these books is that they are exquisitely beautiful; Grant --in seven successful SHADOWS in the writhing soup I would have mortgaged my home to own and aching clay volumes -- has brought the series to hap¬ them. The second thing to be said is py fruition with this, SHADOWS 8. All that they are expensive; the mortgage the twisted loop of these dark imaginings, these soleire, was only narrowly avoided. But if you of the future lay often grave portents of the lives of peo¬ love the view from the high ground as hopeful freaks ple that may have been, were, or have yet much as I do, you'll cheerfully eat mac¬ to be [caught up in varying degrees and aroni and cheese for a few weeks while with statistical sperm levels of the unknown) keep you far from you save your nickles and dimes for a began their treks mellow. Some are icy vignettes, some special treat. ENTERING SPACE and LIFE to the drying firm are long, profoundly written pieces with IN SPACE are available in soft-cover ed¬ hung on the pegs profouid intents -- but none put you as¬ itions, but it goes without saying that leep. You stay awake, and miss nothing they are a poor economy measure. The of selections scale -- you only regret there isn't more. difference in price is not that great, imitated eggs This edition, if anything, is far too and given their size (big enough to make learned to prevail slim -- more, my friends at Doubleday, good weapons) the paperbacks would be falling apart before the first reader does this explain was finished. our gaping need the spiral chain The best buy of the three is unques¬ tionably Joe Allen's book. The text of trapped in the seed ENTERING SPACE is not particularly in¬ will a billion years spired and will not tell the enthusiast of random chance much that he didn't already know, but The high tale well told --a trade- whai the wind sheers make a girls hair dance fillment fantasy here (those pegged and and can ages conspire standing is to insult it with faint pfutzed by shiny swords and plenty of with staggering surprise simpleton bronze-thewness); rather, her praise. Most of the pictures are from series is a richly rewarding one, care¬ the Shuttle era, particularly those to manifest desire fully patterned and plotted on the lure flights in which Allen was a participant, in the touch of her eyes of medieval literature. but there are many from the Apollo and earlier flights. There are many I'll wa¬ — By Michael Hoy Where Donaldson puts and plods, ger you haven't seen before. The photo¬ vhere Anthony beats into banality, Kurtz graphy is heavily artifact-oriented, but uplifts, adding difficult twists and one chapter is devoted to views of the turns in her narrative. Hers is the Gene earth and planets without any intrusive Wolfean universe -- unpredictable, trea¬ evidence of the works of man. Me, I like cherous, characters seared from the ster¬ the spaceships. ENTERING SPACE was pub¬ eotype, severed from the commonplace. lished last year, but those who waited In Volume I of the Histories of King until this year to buy it will be glad Kelson (BRAVOS FOR THE BISHOP'S HEIR), they did: for the same price tag, this Kurtz re-introduced the Deryni -- magic¬ year's edition was expanded to include a ians of Gwynedd --a medieval land of new chapter on the satellite retrieval magic and merriment, high deeds, scound¬ missions. This chapter includes pictures rels, deep darkness, evil beyond compare, even more spectacular than the rest, if that were possible. miscreants and maldoers. This kingdom is ruled by the Haldanes. LIFE IN SPACE is a trip down memory In Volume II, THE KING'S JUSTICE, lane, from the earliest days of the space race when most of the photographs were Kelson Haldane is king, and is himself in black-and-white, through the early Deryni, feared and hated by the opressive Shuttle missions. The color reproduction Church, and the people he rules. is just the way you remember it in the magazine - - even the captions on the pic¬ tures are the same, although a lot of new Interview with: NONE OF THE ABOVE Conducted by Neal Wilgus

WILGUS: Let me begin by congratulating man alone and he makes no real change or wishes, but it doesn't impress the bunch you on winning the 1985 Prometheus Award impact on society at large, despite the of anarchists who vote for the Prometheus, given by the Libertarian Futurist Society fact that he faces and defeats a super¬ so they reluctantly turned thumbs down. (LFS) for best libertarian novel. To natural horror threatening his friends. WILGUS: That covers the five finalists, what do you think you owe your success? For Wilson at his libertarian best, read but how about the other 21 books nomin¬ AN ENEMY OF THE STATE which deserved the ated? NOTA: Thank you. I think my winning the Prometheus more than any of his other Prometheus this year is largely due to NOTA: One was disqualified, several the lack of competition more than any¬ were marginal at best -- but there were thing. But I would give credit and WILGUS: Then there's THE FINAL ENCYCLOP¬ some excellent titles nominated that thanks to Victoria Varga, editor of the EDIA by Gordon R. Dickson (TOR hardcover). just didn't.make it. Robert Heinlein's LFS newsletter PROMETHEUS, for her editor¬ It's a real epic and probably Dickson's JOB: A COMEDY OF JUSTICE is excellent, ial, "Is There a Winner This Year?" in finest work. Why didn't it win? but not particularly libertarian. ACROSS the Sumner issue, which made the sugges¬ NOTA: For two reasons, I think. First, THE SEA OF SUNS by Gregory Benford had a tion that None of The Above might be the vhile it does have some strongly libertar¬ flash or two of libertarian thought, but best choice. Fortunately for me, the ian notions, it's not primarily a liber¬ nothing to carry the day. THE CARNADYNE Advisory (voting) members took her ser- tarian story, I'm afraid. The struggle HORDE by "John Cleve" () is for freedom is carried on on several lev¬ too dependent on the Spaceways series to WILGUS: Since you are a nonexistent en¬ els, it's true, but the development of win. Frank Herbert's HERETICS OF DUNE tity or mental construct and have no an anarchistic society is only marginal and Richard Elliott's SWORD OF ALLAH al¬ story of your own, let's talk about your -- limited mainly to the Dorsai culture. so had libertarian flashes, but again, competition a bit. Of the five finalists Secondly, this book is only half the works of libertarian thought they aren't. which do you think the most libertarian? story and we'll have to wait to read the ICEHENGE by Kim Stanley Robinson is a re¬ other half (supposedly the conclusion to visionist book, but not a libertarian one NOTA: Oh, there's little doubt that Lee though the two are often associated. And Correy's MANNA (DAW paperback) is the the Dorsai series) to know how it all comes out. Publishers seem to be doing H. Beam Piper's long-lost FUZZIES AND most libertarian of any of the 26 books more of this these days -- publishing OTHER PEOPLE would have been nice as the nominated, to say nothing of the final¬ massive novels in two parts -- but for 1985 Prometheus winner since Piper's sto¬ ists. In MANNA, after all, you have a award purposes, at least, it seems to be ries have long been a source of inspira¬ fictional African nation, the United Mit- tion to libertarian types. Alas, FUZZIES anni Comnonwealth, which is in essence self defeating. Once again, the voters just wouldn't go for it. too was just not libertarian enough, by an anarchy and you have brave anarchist itself, to win. heros fighting to stay free and to spread WILGUS: Which brings us to THE PEACE WAR freedom to others. Unfortunately, as Tory by Vemor Vinge (Bluejay hardcover). In WILGUS: So where does that leave us? Varga pointed out, MANNA is "basically a many ways it's the best and the one I Is the Prometheus Award in a shambles? shoot-em-up with wooden characters" -- thought might win. Not good'enough for NOTA: Not at all. The LFS voters are so despite the libertarian message the LFS voters? to be congratulated for being honest and voters apparently couldn't bring them¬ for recognizing that it's better to give selves to select it. NOTA: Apparently not. The problem seems to be with the ending. After fighting a no award than to give one to a book that WILGUS: Isn't it somewhat the same for successful revolution against a future is only marginally qualified. What other L. Neil Smith's TOM PAINE MARU (Del Rey authoritarian regime, Vinge's protagon¬ award can you think of that would make paperback), another of the finalists? ists blow it on the last couple of pages None of The Above the winner rather than when they talk about reinstituting par¬ hypocritically choose something just to NOTA: Yes, I think so, although MARU is be "proper" or to save face? somewhat better as a novel. There’s no ticipatory democracy to avoid falling in¬ doubt that Smith (winner of the 1982 to anarchy. Now, it's fine for'Vinge to WILGUS: None, None of the Above. Any Prometheus for his first novel THE PROB¬ advocate participatory democracy if he final words? How about the winners of ABILITY BROACH) is sincere and comnitted the Hall of Fame this year? to "the cause," and that he thinks the NOTA: Yes. Added to the Hall of Fame message in MARU is a libertarian one. were THE GREAT EXPLOSION by Eric Frank But I think the voters had trouble be¬ OF COu-RSe ITS ) Russell and TRADER TO THE STARS by Poul lieving that sending out star fleets to C Anderson. They join the previous years' ANOt>(2E'> ALUMINUMH impose freedom on totalitarian, or at winners -- ATLAS SHRUGGED by Ayn Rand least authoritarian, cultures is truly and THE MX3N IS A HARSH MISTRESS by Rob¬ anarcho-libertarian. Besides, this is ert A. Heinlein (1983 award), and NINE¬ the fifth in Smith's "Confederacy" series TEEN I GHTYFOUR by George Orwell and FAH¬ and is somewhat dependent on the earlier RENHEIT 451 by Ray Bradbury (1984 award). books to make complete sense. Again, the I’m afraid it' 11 be awhile before I make voting members just wouldn't go for it. it to the Hall of Fame -- there are many WILGUS: All right, how about THE TOMB excellent choices still available. by F. Paul Wilson (Berkeley paperback)? WILGUS: Thank you, None of The Above. Wilson won the very first Prometheus Aw¬ And think you: ard for his novel WHEELS WITHIN WHEELS. Do you think Tory Varga put her finger Victoria Varge, Editor PROMETHEUS on it when she says that the theme of 121 McKinley Street vengeance may be what's wrong with THE Rochester, NY 14609 TCMB? for helping us add None of The Above to our winner's list. Better luck next year NOTA: Partly, though there are many ((Possible nominees for 1986: WIDOW'S "wolfish” libertarians out there who rel¬ SON by Robert Anton Wilson, THE CAT WHO ish such themes. But I think the prob¬ WALKS THROUGH WALLS: A COMEDY OF MANNERS lem with THE TOMB is that it shows a lib¬ by Robert A. Heinlein, THE GALLATIN DIV¬ ertarian hero -- Repairman Jack -- in a ERGENCE by L. Neil Smith, THE PROTEUS OP¬ non-libertarian story and situation. We ERATION by Janes P. Hogan, THE CYBERNETIC can all understand and identify with Jack, SAMJRAI by Victor Milan, BLACK STAR RIS¬ I think, and applaud his heroic efforts ING by Frederik Pohl, ELEGY FOR A SOPRANO to live free from the bureaucratic morass. By Kay Nolte Smith, THE GLASS HANMER by What's more, he does it in a contenporary K.W. Jeeter -- at the veTy least. Looks setting, rather than in some implausible like a good year coming up!)) future world. Nonetheless, Jack is one 51 BY ELTON T. ELLIOTT

CONSPIRACY: reality in nylon stockings, The most visible exception has been the $10,000 prize for anyone able to guess GARTERS AND HIGH HEELS observations that REG has made most re- _ the correct answers to questions and cently in the NAKED ID. I believe Shat clues in ACTIVE MEASURES, a novel by Jan¬ Some people like their potatoes plain, this type of analysis is important. It et Morris and David Drake.■ (Drake and others want a little salt and pepper. seems to ne that conspiracy is almost a - Morris are two of the major writers in Some want to lead plain, uneventful and natural state of affairs. I come to this Baen's growing stable.j hopefully peaceful lives, others want ad¬ conclusion more by the results of my toil The prize was recently awarded to venture, excitanent, maybe even danger. in the political vineyards than from any Pamela DeCesare of Salem, Massachusetts This carries over into a variety of areas: original grand theoretical view. Of and her sister and brother-in-law, Sharon for some sex, others history. For hist¬ course, politics is the cesspool of hu¬ and Patrick Driscoll of Leominster, Mass¬ ory and news junkies conspiracy is the man endeavor. It's the last refuge of achusetts. ACTIVE MEASURES was the first ketchup, mustard and salsa all wrapped the incompetent shark who enjoys preying espionage novel to offer a prize, accord¬ up in one Real World Sausage. on others and by the crazed martyrs who ing to . In March 1986, they're Disagree? Let's take a test. Con¬ want to save us from ourselves. doing a fantasy novel, EREAM PALACE, by Brynne Stephens, which offers a $500 cash spiracy Theory buffs, does the following MUSINGS: sentence send chills of delight up your prize and a solid gold amulet of a wiz¬ spine: History is the art of deducing * In fact, I believe it is because of ard -- "a fifth-level mage" according to the past from footsteps left in the mud, the similar world view that Geis and I Editor Elizabeth Mitchell. the remnants of ancient and vast conspir¬ share, that vre collaborate so easily. acies. If it does, you're one of the many We are both fas¬ for whom the wrord conspiracy brings a cinated by how humans and governments op¬ visceral feeling about the world, elevat¬ erate in a crisis -- and by the Historic¬ ing paranoia to fetishistiC heights -- al Forces at work in human affairs. We anything is preferable to the belief that explore these themes in our novels. I PSI-FI: OR Ht TRIUPPH OF TIC SWILL current and past events are the result of suspect that it would be impossible for It was the spring of 1984. I was at random idiocy. This explains why relig¬ either one of us to collaborate with peop¬ an SF convention listening to Leonard Ni- ious fundamentalists are attracted to le who did not share our political world- moy prattle away about the odd and occult . In their reality God events chronicled in his TV series, "In is the ultimate Prime Mover and the Dev¬ # Remember good ol' March of 1983 when Search Of." Sitting next to me was a il the ultimate plotter. all the military-in-space boosters told prominent bestselling SF author. After a These themes have long fascinated us that the Department of Defense shuttle few minutes my acquaintance couldn't take Robert Anton Wilson, although whether he launch center at Vandenburg would be op¬ it any longer. He leaned over to me and views conspiracies as reality or as a erational? Whatever happened? Billions whispered, "This is a crock of shit." Ni- metaphor for how the human brain works of dollars later and thousands of faulty moy continued blabbing away proving eith¬ is, I suspect, left as a deliberate am¬ welds -- nothing. No press reports -- er incredible credulity or slick cynicism biguity in his novels. The latest, THE NOTHING! I'm "amazed" that our crusading My friend said: "These are the blather- WIDOW'S SON, (Bluejay Bks, 1985, $9.95, press hasn't reported such a fiasco. Of ings of an uneducated fool. To say this Trade Paper, 34 3 pp.j is volume two in course, you read nothing about this in in front of college students is almost the historical illuninatus series. Like what pathetically passes as non-fiction criminal." I nodded my head, feeling em¬ volume one, THE EARTH WILL SHAKE, Wilson in SF magazines. It makes one wonder barrassed for Nimoy since I've always packs the book with fascinating events, about SDI. liked , but agreeing fully with characters and speculation all drawl from # PUBLISHER'S WEEKLY reports that mass my friend. the fascinating drama that is history. I market book sales are down 501 from last Now I'm sad to say that what used to especially like the ending with Edaund year. I'm surprised it isn't lower. At be a treacly trickle of psi-fi books has Burke giving his famous speech imploring a time when inflation is practically become a nauseous torrent of single-mind¬ his fellows in-the House of Comnons not. nill, when paper prices are falling most ed novels in which every half-baked pseu- to go to war with the upstart Americans; non-genre mid-list books saw price junps domystical notion ever foisted on hunan- Benjamin Franklin discovering the Gulf from $2.95 to $3.50. The public clearly ity and many conjured up out of the auth¬ Stream, etc. Wilson points out as have has said enough. Ways have to be found ors' fertile and fetid imaginations, is numerous others, that the U.S. was start¬ to bring cover prices down or the mass trotted out before the public as the new¬ ed by conspiracy and intended by its will disappear from the paperback mass est, neatest idea since toast. I was fouiders to be the world's first enlight¬ market. made aware of the depth and breadth of ened nation-state. At bottom, good SF -- > One result of high prices on paper¬ this triumph of the swill when a half- and any good fiction --is subversive, dozen books in a row I had slated for re¬ it makes you think, question entrenched backs is to tum customers into discret¬ ionary buyers rather than impulse pur- view contained belief systems right out assumptions. Wilson is at his best doing of the smarmiest sections of pseudo-ori¬ this. I eagerly look forward to the next ental philosophy. Nothing like having novel in the series. Some publishers have discovered un¬ your nose rubbed in shit to make you no¬ Using conspiracy as the perspective ique ways to cajole readers into buying tice you’re in a barnyard. This isn't a from which to view human affairs is not their books. Baen Books offered a trend, this is a tidal wave. Instead of new, but in science fiction it is either driftwood on the shore its barfancla on overlooked or presented hara-handedly. 52 the brain, sandalwood on the soul. REVIEWS strong comeback. The story concerns a THE END OF ETERNITY is my favorite BAEN: group of musicians who pose a threat to among Asimov's novels and this earlier the fascists. Well written, tense, in¬ version is also excellent, as is "Grow Old Grant Callin's SATURNALIA (January novative. I look forward to the next Along With Me," but the story that sums 1986, $2.95, 288 pp.) is a tight, taut, book in the series. up what this book is about is the aptly high-tech thriller about an alien arti¬ titled "Belief," written when John Camp¬ fact found on a moon of Saturn. The back¬ bell was going through his infatuation ground is believable and yell thought HARPER S ROWE: with so-called psionic powers. He wanted out, in particular he captures the sights Asimov to write a story about them. Asi¬ and sounds of a space habitat. THE STARS WILL SPEAK by George Zeb- mov did but his skeptical attitude to¬ rowski is a juvenile novel set after the THE FRANKENSTEIN PAPERS by Fred Sa- ward ESP led to a story far more downbeat turn of the century when humans have than Campbell wanted. In THE ALTERNATE berhagen (February 1986, $3.50, 320 pp.) started colonizing the solar system and is another retelling of a classic myth ASIMOV'S we're provided with both vers¬ have recently picked up an alien signal. ions, the original downbeat one and the by the author of THE HOLMES DRACULA FILE. The protagonist, Lissa, a young physics I fouid this a quick, fast-paced read. upbeat story that finally appeared. The student joins in the search for the mean¬ original is by far the stronger because The ending is original and emotionally ing of the signals. Well written, con¬ evocative. it is in line with some deeply-held con¬ veys a sense of wonder about the possib¬ victions of the author. Any time that an ilities of the future better than any SF editor asks an author to change a story novel written in the 1980s. (At least BLUEJAY: in such a manner that violates the auth¬ the ones I've read.) The novel also or's belief system, the story will usual¬ WONDER'S CHILD: My Life in Science realistically deals with growing up, love, ly end up a dog. Fiction, by Jack Williamson is one of leaving horns for the first time. The the wannest autobiographies I've ever most impressive aspect of this novel is The most revealing comnent by Asimov read. I noticed when I met Jack William¬ Zebrowski's ability to convey a feeling occurs on page 270 when he mentions that son at Norvescon several years ago that that these are people of the future and in his books, both fiction and non-fic¬ unlike a lot of the other Big Name Pros while they're human they are also driven, tion, he tries to "explain the world in from the classic era of Science Fiction, serious and integrated with their envir¬ a natural, rationalist way, with the con¬ he was approachable, friendly and had a onment in a way that we are not. fident certainty that one has but to do quiet presence about him that reminded BANTAM: that to cause people to abandon their me of my father and some of the relatives foolish superstitions." THE PROTEUS OPERATION (1985, $16.95, on his side of the family. They had one That statement sums up Asimov's car¬ thing in conrnon with Jack Williamson: 403 pp.) is James P. Hogan's best novel. With each new novel he seems more in con¬ eer. It is a profound expression of the they grew up on farms and ranches in the worldview of a rational secular humanist Great American West. The solidness that trol. This tale of alternate Earth's which Asimov is. It must be difficult such a lifestyle brings is oimipresent trying to stop Hitler from developing the for him to live in a world where the U.S., in WONDER'S CHILD. Several times the A-Bomb is a great read. I plan to nomin¬ one of the most "advanced" cointries, is book left me misty-eyed. I really love ate this for the Hugo. so mired in mysticism that it has 20,000 this book; everybody interested in Sci¬ astrologers to only 2000 astronomers. A ence Fiction should buy a copy. Jack country in which psychics have attempted Williamson has written SF for over fifty- HAR00URT, BRACE 6 JOVANOVICH: to control the Speaker of the House five years: I have said it before and (Thomas P. O'Neill) by broadcasting "psy¬ I'll say it again, if I had to pick one NEBULA AWARDS 20 (edited by George chic love emanations." A country in writer from SF who could show the evolu¬ Zebrowski, $8.95, 1985, 372 pp.) is the which the Pentagon spends millions to tion of the field as a genre from the be¬ latest in the annual anthology of Nebula find a way to throw a time warp over the ginning to the present in his writings winners and ml ike past years when the North Pole so as to deflect oncoming So¬ that writer would be Jack Williamson. anthology would appear several years af¬ viet missiles into the far future, or to ter the awards NA #20 was published in psychically materialize an atomic bomb in NICHTFLYERS by George R.R. Martin the same calendar year as the awards cer¬ the Kremlin (a so-called hyperspatial (1985, $8.95, 295 pp.) is a short story emony. Congratulations are due Zebrowski, howitzer). In fact, the SFWA several collection. It opens with the title who also saved the SFWA Bulletin from an years ago invited as one of its guest story which, besides being a superb hor¬ ephemeral existence and to HBJ for their speakers one Barbara Marx Hubbard, a self- ror story, lock-room mystery and deep timeliness. described "infant godling," who hopes to space SF epic, provides an overview of The volume includes all three Nebula psychically transform the world into a the future that several of Martin's sto¬ "New Age" to prevent nuclear war. ries have in conrnon. Che such story is winners (in the short fiction categories) the concluding novella, "A Song for Lya." and eight other stories, two poems, two I think that Asimov's vxirldview is It is a powerful tale of loneliness, re¬ essays, an introduction and several ap¬ one reason why he is so popular among ligion and what it means to be a telepath pendixes telling about the SFWA and the the general public and yet so disliked in a world of strangers. It is one of Nebula Awards. Among the stories; I liked by some fundamentalists and some psych¬ the few stories in SF where psionics are Varley's fabulous "," the best ics. In fact, one so-called psychic integral to the story and are handled computer-paranoia story of all time and termed Asimov's writing "as mechanistic with skill instead of sentimentality. I Zebrowski’s skillful "The Eichmann Varia¬ as his worldview." tions;" the rest are merely superb. Bill first read this story eleven years ago. Warren's review of the SF films of the Asimov says of the revision of the It retains every bit of its punch. A year was insightful and thought provok¬ story belief, "I don't think I should ing at times. have agreed to do it." ECLIPSE by John Shirley (1985, $8.95 If you want to know where the cutting 338 pp.) is the opening novel in a tril¬ edge of the science fiction field is cur¬ ogy written by SF's leading punk-rocker. rently, buy NEBULA AWARDS 20. I look for¬ CONCLUDING WORDS: One of many things SF does poorly is vis¬ ward to further volumes. ualize futures that are not derivative of A few words about fundamentalists 1940's ASTOUNDING STORIES. Shirley does and censorship: I've slajimed some relig¬ it veil. The background is Europe around ious extremists in the past for their at¬ the turn of the century in the aftermath DOUBLEDAY: tempts to coitrol what people read and of a limited nuclear exchange between THE ALTERNATE ASIMOV'S ($16.95, 1986, think. I will say that I'm sympathetic Russia, western Europe and the U.S. In 272 pp.) is an unusual book. It consists to certain analysis some of them have this bleak future is making a of the heretofore unpublished versiare of made, in particular Constance Cumbey. three stories, "Grow Old Along With me," Some findamentalists have been censored the original version of the novel PEB¬ by the liberal welfare-statists and I be¬ BLE IN THE SKY, "The End of Eternity," lieve they are beginning to understand the original version of the novel, and that censorship goes both ways. Plus, "Belief," a short story written for John I've found some of them amenable to argu¬ W. Caapbel1, editor of ASTOUNDING (lat¬ ments of logic and appeals to freedom and er ANALOG). This is a fascinating look liberty, which is something I can't say at what transpires in the writing process about the socialist-liberal statists I've between writer and editor. encountered. mo! LETTERS

ideation to be found in all of his novels spite overwhelming provocation. In the and short stories, his commitment to his face of a pink beam experience, how many own personal style and uniquely individ¬ of us could have continued our lives as ual genre, and his power as a modem if nothing had happened? Damn few. thinker and philosopher. None of this Where another man might have lost his requires denial of his weaknesses, com¬ mind, Philip K. Dick tightened his .grip plete trust in his theories and their ex¬ on his own, and the obsessive coloration pressions, or faith in his imminent Sec¬ it gave to his writing was a mere side ond Coming. Yes, I admire and respect effect of his determination to make sense Philip K. Dick, but that is a long way of something resistant to traditional # LETTER FROM ANDY WATSON from worshipping him. enpirical analysis. What, other kind of POB 60S86, Palo Alto, CA 94306-0S86 response would be more sane? November 9, 1985 'Philip K. Dick was brave enough to admit to having had mystical visions, 'The interview with Tim Powers and 'Thanks for the attention you gave to which frequently lent themselves well to James P. Blaylock (in PKDS #8) did indeed Issue *8 of the PKDS newsletter. I feel religious explication. These experiences moved though, to take issue with two as¬ contain material which reminds us of the also fueled his lifelong preoccupation idiosyncratic eccentricity of the man, but pects of your capsulized commentary. with the nature of reality, personal and First, a clarification of the purpose and it has been a long time since eccentricity shared worldviews, symbols and objects. constituted mental illness. And, in activity of the Society, then the topic For every religious explanation he prof- of Philip K. Dick himself. fact, Tim Powers made a point in the in¬ erred, there were at least two or three terview of his own confirmed belief that 'You referred to PKDS as "The Philip secular alternatives he defended with Philip K. Dick was not crazy, not by any K. Dick Worship Society." Why? It makes equal aplomb. definition. He stated, "...saying he no more sense to call PKDS a "worship 'Furthermore, Philip K. Dick is not (Philip K. Dick) was paranoid: Superfic¬ society" than it does to insert the word the only human being in recorded history ially that sounds correct and can cover "worship" into the functional title or to have had (or to have claimed to have most of the facts, but it won't really description of any other organization had) visions, insights or psychological¬ work in the long run. Too many screwy whose work involves distribution of in¬ ly abnormal interludes of a metaphysical things really did happen to him, and too formation on a particular topic: Ameri¬ nature. The modem world scorns phenom¬ many of his outlandish dreads turned out can Cancer Worship Society; National Ri¬ ena which defy categorical assimilation to be all too well-founded." He then fle Worship Association; Society for the into determinist science and philosophy. goes on to cite examples. Prevention of Blindness Worship; Science We learn of fewer "theophanies" (one of 'The controversy surrounding Philip Fiction Worship Review. PKD's many ways of referring to his own K. Dick's sanity is not new. It was dif¬ 'The Society is a source of informa¬ "pink-beam" experiences of 1974) not nec¬ ficult to resolve while he was alive; it tion about Philip K. Dick. Not a critic¬ essarily because they have become any is impossible to reach decisive conclus¬ al forum, it serves a common interest of less conrnon; the possibility exists for ions at this late date. I have responded approximately seven-hundred people world¬ them to be every bit as frequent as ever, to your remarks mostly for the sake of wide. One can read in isolation, know¬ but unfashionable to discuss openly. clarifying the intent of the anecdotes ing nothing of the author or his/her oth¬ 'Philip K. Dick was an extraordinar¬ related in the interview. However, inas¬ er works, nothing of the piece's publish¬ ily gutsy writer to have made so little much as my blood-oath to the Philip K. ing history, nothing of the social or pol¬ effort to disguise the facts of his part¬ Dick Worship Society requires me to pros¬ itical climate during the time in which icular inspiration. I feel certain that elytize at every opportunity, I hope this it was written. That's okay. But a were he to have had your blue beam deliv¬ polemic will not be mistaken for an un¬ great many readers desire to have some er its zap to his unsuspecting noggin, he productive philippic.' background too. There are good reasons would not have kept num until on his to consider such background information deathbed. He would have incorporated it, to be an enhancement to the experience of or tried to incorporate it, into his und¬ reading. This applies to any book, and erstanding of the universe. For him, ((Andy, I admired Phil when he was especially to the fifty-odd titles by this would have involved writing about it, alive, loved some of his books (es¬ Philip K. Dick. And that is the kind of and publishing, too, even if it pained pecially UBIK) and continue to admire information provided by PKDS. his honesty and integrity. 'Such information can be used to 'If Philip K. Dick was not crazy, ((But at the same time I think he derive any number of diverse opinions. then we all are indebted to him for try¬ became increasingly paranoid schizo¬ Specifically, it is not uncomnon to de¬ ing so hard for so long to explore the phrenic in a very interesting way— cide that Philip K. Dick was mentally un¬ meaning of these evidently valid human as perhaps only writers can---and stable, as you have apparently decided experiences. And if he was crazy, then that this combination of "inspired" for yourself. I do not share that point we all ought to respect his determination of view, but can see the basis for it. religious thought and writing abili¬ to help himself, and others like him, to ty and inner integrity is what so Other interpretations may- fall into the cope with unfathomable confusion, disor¬ category of worship or deification, but ientation, emotional and intellectual fascinates so many people now. I believe that position belongs to a very- suffering, and loneliness. Personally, ((The "Philip K. Dick Worship Soci¬ small subset of the membership of PKDS. I believe the finmess of his sanity was ety" remark was triggered by the Most of us are drawn to seek further in¬ what motivated his intense and prolonged phenomenon of fascination with weird formation about the man and his work be¬ research. His reason remained sound de- cause of the humanism he invested in his literary people which surfaces after writing, the empathy he manifested for they die. For some it is blatantly his characters, the depth and quality of 54 comnercial (especially publishers) but for most it is a subconscious (Alien Thoughts, SFR #57). He quite needs to be told; occasionally that turns manifestation of...what? A need for clearly articulated the reasons wily I out to be present tense, and in those Guidance and Meaning which cannot be stopped reading the stuff in any quantity cases nothing else will do. found elsewhere in the Establishment several years ago. The writing _is atroc¬ 'As I said, it's all right with me if Religious Outlets? A feeling that ious. There i_s a stifling sameness to Orson Scott Card doesn't like the present it all. You surely must know that the crazy people of intelligence and tal¬ tense. There are certain styles that tum only real attraction SF has is in its me off, too. I'd rather, though, that ent have a pipeline to Mysteries and outrageous ideas and its appeal to the Answers because of their visions and he didn't proclaim himself an expert in power fantasy needs of the lonely (most¬ the matter, that he would just say that other selves? ly male) adolescent. Once you have en¬ he doesn't like it personally. ((The religious aspect especially countered all the basic SF ideas (and it seems to be a key element. takes a surprisingly short time to do 'How do you tell a story? Any way is good, Scott, if it's artistic.' ((I thank you for the latest special, this), and once you grow up and no longer need the fantasies, SF ceases to be in¬ double issue of the PKDS NEWSLETTER teresting. The individual who persists (#9/10) which is an audio tape cas¬ in reading SF regularly beyond the.late ((I once—-about 1965—told Sam Mer- sette: Side One is a Philip K. Dick teens or early twenties can legitimately win, Jr. (then my editor) that I was conversation with Paul Williams, and be regarded as emotionally fixated in ad¬ going to do a novel in Second Person. Side Two is Philip K. Dick Alone, olescence, and admittedly there are a few of those around. (Ahem!) I agree I thought- it would be very effective Notes for work in progress, circa for a sex novel. He disagreed. He August, 1974. (Membership in the that Sante was probably motivated (at least in part) by a desire to trash SF be¬ made me change my mind by saying PKDS is $6. per year. Write to Box cause of its (economic) threat to the something like 'Don't do it. The 611, Glen Ellen, CA 95442.) literary establishment, but he does make readers don't like anything but the ((I discovered too late that my tape some very telling points in the process. good old Third Person technique; it's recorder/player, which had been bor¬ So why am I reading SFR? I still find what they're used to and it's what rowed by a friend (and returned sans SF people interesting, although I have very little use for the literature any¬ they're comfortable with and editors case, sans mike) had had its controls and publishers' see no point in making jammed and broken. He no longer my more. I suspect this is true of much of your (post-adolescent) SFR readership.' readers nervous or unhappy in any friend. He made no confession of way.1 the damage, pretended the case and ((I am more tolerant and less snob¬ I got the impression I'd be wasting mike were not with the machine when my time and his by writing such a he borrowed it, and made no offer to bish than most, I guess; it's easy to play the more-mature-than-thou partial and sending it to him. So I repair it or buy a new one to replace didn't.)) it. So I couldn't play the cassette game. (Tell me what you like to as I wished. Next issue I'll have a read and I'll play one-upmanship.) commentary on it. I suppose the position could be taken ((Write again if you have a bone to that any reading of any kind of fic¬ pick. That's part of SFR's function: tion betrays immaturity and a desire to provide a forum and to be a bone- to escape reality. That's also the yard.)) most-favorite attack used on TV and # LETTER FROM ROBERT SABELLA movies. It's an elitist game which 13 Marshall Trail itself betrays immaturity. How's Hopatcong, NJ 07843 Nov. 16, 1985 that for a counterattack?)) 'I have noticed a disturbing trend in mu-h punished science fiction recently which was confirmed by Orson Scott Card's # LETTER FROM FERNANDO Q. GOUVEA short fiction reviews and the various 18 Robinson St, #12 book reviews in # 57: I am referring to Cambridge, MA 02138 Nov. 19, 1985 the pre-occupation with nuclear war and 'I agree completely with your asses¬ # LETTER FROM LOU FI SEER the resulting nuclear winter. I realize sment of the article in HARPER'S. It Member: SFWA such concerns dominate our lives nowadays seems that some establishment critics Julie Drive, Box 328, Rd 4 ( and deservedly so), but science fiction feel that there is a need to periodical¬ Hopewell Junction, NY 12533 should not be merely a pale reflection of ly bash SF and it to be unworthy. November 19, 1985 the overriding issues of the real world, There seems to be a hidden agenda here, ' Believe me, I think a lot of Orson to the effect that anything that people Scott Card, and I admire his ability to read for pleasure must therefore be of read and review such a huge amount of no artistic value. I am sure that you material -- but I think he's off base in noticed that Markley chose to discuss SF his unwarranted criticism of present that is either "popular” (in the sales tense writing. sense) or prestigious among other estab- lisbnent critics (Delany, Lem, Hoban). 'He is, of course, entitled to his op¬ One feels certain that he would despise inion. But he should realize that that's just as strongly the mainstream fiction what it is, merely an opinion, a matter that hits the bestseller list. Gene of taste. Some people like present tense Wolfe has argued that we are better off I love it myself; I'd rather read a pre¬ without the respect of such critics, and sent tense story than any other kind. I think he is essentially correct. (One of my favorite authors is Damon Run¬ yon, who carries it to extremes by not 'Last, a note to Uncle Orson: I using a.single word in past tense.) Ob¬ like the reviews very much, but I do ag¬ viously, there are a number of editors ree that coimenting on fewer stories who like it, too, judging by its cons¬ muld be an improvement. I'm curious to tant appearance in the better magazines see how nuch overlap there'll be between and the BEST OF anthologies. his choices for best of the year and those of the canonical anthologists.' 'Present tense is a style, a method, a voice, and as such it suits certain pieces and not others. Granted, when present tense is used only for literary effect, it can irk the hell out of you. # LETTER FROM CARL GLUVER Just the same, like a particular point 2803 Avondale Dr, Johnson Cty, TN of view, it can be absolutely the right 37601 Dec. 25, 1985 thing for the story at hand. In my own writing, I always try to feel how a story 'I had a conpletely opposite reaction to Luc Sante's HARPER'S article on SF 55 but an extrapolation of all aspects of it. 'Tim's letter particularly disappoint¬ I wonder how much of this nuclear concern ed me because I have always given the reflects the writers' fear of our iumedia- works that I review a couplete reading te future and how nuch shows a dearth of before commenting on them; I thought Tim creativity on their parts? I have gotten might have felt our friendship obligated bored with such stories, much as I got him to be as courteous to me. Even if I bored in the late sixties when everybody had actually said what he assumes I said, was jumping on the ecological bandwagon. the intensity of his anger is surprising. And that was not nearly as pervasive as After all, I didn't revoke anyone's poet¬ the current nuclear winter trend.1 ic license. Writers who disagree with me have merely to ignore me, and their careers will proceed uninterrupted. and Mike Swanwick made my list because ((Most writers and most editors in SF "of all the established writers in the are young and Concerned. They don't 'I suppose I could avoid such wrath field, (they) are most of the ones whom want their future atomized. The anti- as Tim's by devoting my colum to clever I most admire, in whose work I nest hope to find the stories that will shape the nuke activists have permeated the attacks on writers who obviously have not mastered the basic skills of story¬ way a generation of readers conceives the media and the colleges with their pro¬ telling. But I have always felt that world." It would be pathetic indeed if tests, and it's inevitable that that such novices are the most fragile of any who lacked the talent or achievements basic appeal would influence ideal ist¬ writers, and they should be nurtured, to make my list on their own merits ic writers and editors, especially the not attacked, until they have had the should usurp the title without my consent: nurturing instincts of females in those time to learn their craft. So I don't the badge would be their shameful confes¬ positions. I oppose the arms race, review a story at all unless I believe sion that they can hope to shine only in reflected light.' too, but for different reasons.)) it has merit and deserves attention. 'Thus, like an inpertinent child, I point out flaws (when I find them) ex¬ ((We tend to forget the other players clusively in the works of writers who in this game: the editors and publish¬ are my peers or my betters. Even more ers. Writers don't just send in sto¬ It LETTER FROM ORSON SCOTT CARD presujiptuously, I also attenpt to discov¬ 546 Lindley Road er general principles of storytelling ries which are automatically rushed Greensboro, NC 27410 Nov 16, 1985 through ny examination of many specific into print. Editors choose to print cases. Tim has shorn tiiy it isn't safe stories, and editors are usually op¬ 'When somebody writes a letter taking to display unorthodox ideas in public erating according to guidelines and/ me to task for something, I usually let places -- people with closed minds will it stand -- especially when the letter or priorities and/or taboos imposed always mistake them for one kind of orth¬ by publishers. We have to give those writer is correct. For instance, when odoxy or another. upbraided me for my words people both credit and blame; it about L. Ron Hubbard, my only response 'What makes me feel that my colunn isn't just the writers involved in would have been to shuffle my feet and might be worth the effort I expend on it these matters...though we'd like to say, "Well, yeah." are the many readers with open minds who think so, eh?)) have written to me privately to offer in¬ 'And I've got to do pretty much that telligent disagreement with this or oth¬ about John Shirley's reminder that my er colunns. The dialogue that developed flippant conments about "Fish in Lake helped me change or sharpen my own think¬ Erie" were ignoring the fact that pollu¬ ing, and I hope it did something of the tion is still a serious problem, perhaps kind for them. These writers were un¬ H LETTER FROM 0*1 STY MARX more now than ever. He's right, of course failingly courteous, and I am grateful to POB 1952, Wrightwood, CA 92397 But in the main, my original review of them for receiving ny thoughts and repay¬ Nov 10, 1985 his story stands. It doesn't matter a ing me tenfold with their own. bit whether a polanical writer was right. 'I appreciated the almost-but-not- If he was- ineffective, he might as well 'One thing that several of my cor¬ quite-a-review of THE SISTERHOOD OF not have bothered. I keep butting my respondents conplained about, with jus¬ STEEL in #57. Hie way I see it, any pub¬ head against that ond myself. tice, was the label "The Artsy-Fartsy licity is better than no piilicity. Fiction Factory." I would recall those 'Since I originally sent you those 'Joe Sanders took me to task for my words, if I could, because I never meant view of NEURDMANCER. I'll be sorry if issues, there have been significant turn¬ them to apply to the fine and gentle abouts. Issue #8 will be the last one he decides that because we disagree about people that I listed. That heading was one story he won't ever agree with me frem Marvel's ^>ic Comics line. I'm cur¬ written in an early draft of the colunn, rently negotiating with another publisher about another. I made it clear that my when it began with a long (and boring) criticisms of Gibson's novel were entire¬ to continue the book in a Graphic Novel diatribe on the influence of academia on format with a new visual look. ly moral, not aesthetic; that is precise¬ fiction in general. The term was then ly the area where criticism is least re¬ meant to apply to American college Eng¬ 'I may enjoy the dubious distinction liable. Every story contains the uncon¬ lish departments. Later drafts deleted (to the best of my knowledge) of being sciously expressed moral universe of the the diatribe -- but the heading never the first comics writer to have a book storyteller, which is recreated in the found its way onto ny screen again, and cancelled because I dared to publicly reader's memory. Hie reader instinctive¬ I forgot it was there. I was careless take a stand against censorship. You ly edits the story to conform to his own in ny haste to get the colunn in on time; may find the story interesting. moral universe, subtly altering both, or I did not proofread, and as a result I 'After the first three seriously- he rejects the moral universe and does inadvertently created a term of ridicule not believe it. With NEURDMANCER, I gen¬ toned issues, I opted for a change of for some of the finest writers in our pace with #4, "The Girls' Night Out" erally did the- latter, and Sanders the field. I regret it deeply. former. vdiich was rowdy and raunchy. I pushed to ' I am ‘somewhat relieved to learn that the of permitted language and 'Many times I have wished for someone many of them are taking it in good humor. there seemed to be no problem when the to engage me in heartfelt, intelligent I hear rumors that some on my list may script was turned in, nor when the pen¬ and entertaining debate in these pages. even attend conventions wearing badges cils, inking, lettering or coloring was Tim Sullivan certainly has the passion proclaiming their meubership in "ArFFF," turned in. and wit to do so, but unfortunately his which would delight me, since I intended letter in #57 did not respond to a single 'Hie day that the comic had to be ny list more to honor thart to criticize sent to the printer, I received a call idea in my colunn in #56. In fact, in¬ those who were on it. ternal evidence in his letter makes it about certain changes that suddenly had plain that he did not even bother to read 'However, I do hope such badges are to be made. A panel containing a visual more than a small part of ny article be¬ wom only by writers I actually named. joke of a male antagonist wearing a spik¬ fore dipping his pen in bile. How can Mike Bishop, Ed Bryant, , Jack ed codpiece had to be replaced by a talk¬ we get down in the mud and wrestle, when Dann, Gardner Dozois, William Gibson, Jim ing head. Hie words "tits," "knockers," he refuses to grapple with me? There Kelly, , Stan Robinson, Cart¬ "balls" and "jugs" had to be changed to can't be nuch glory in throwing down a er Scholz, , Bruce Sterling something more acceptable. (Hie words straw man with the name "Orson Scott "slut," "whore,” "bastard" and "shit" Card" stapled to its brow. 56 were ok. You figure it.) 'I could either make the changes my¬ to dictate what kind of records the re¬ 'The readers I have are far above self or have someone there make them, tailer may or may not carry? the norm of comic book readers I’ve en- coimered in the past: a 38-year-old the latter choice being anathema to me. 'Back to the Sisterhood -- Mr. Var¬ I was furious, but if I held up the book woman who shares them with her husband ney's astute observation about financial and kids; a father who encourages his in order to fight the changes, it would responsibility is correct, but only par¬ ship late and that's a kiss of death in 9-year-old daughter to enjoy them; les¬ tially so. Ghod knows I don't make a bians who are pleased to see some kind of the comics industry. I'm sure it would living from comics. It can be done, if have been blamed on iie. non-sensational approach to homosexual¬ one is a prolific hack or hits upon sons ity; feminists who like the strong roles 'I discovered the true cause of the incredibly conmercial formula. I make of the women; male and female readers who sudden, inexplicable censorship later. my living primarily from writing syndic¬ love the historic and military detail and There was a meeting held by a powerful ated animation, all of which is based up¬ especially the realistic approach to a distributor who covers the southern US. on toy product lines, so SOS is my main female military society. Many, many of A major Marvel vp was there. A distrib¬ outlet for creative freedom (such as it them have compared it to Marion Ziamer utor from Georgia stood up, waving a copy is) and the enormous amount of promotion Bradley’s FREE AMAZONS (which I haven’t of another Epic Comic (completely unre¬ I've done at my own expense is more for read, so I have to take their word for lated to SISTERHOOD OF STEEL except for my satisfaction than anything else. it). I'm pleased to say that I've only having the same publisher) and was out¬ Neither Mike Vosburg (the artist) or I pulled in one nut case out of all of raged because it contained the words will see any royalties. these. "penis" and "masturbation." (Are we be¬ ginning to see a pattern here?) Another 'To clarify some figures: 100,000 'One last question, if I may. I cur¬ distributor was also upset'with Epic for is a high sales figure for a newsstand rently have about 127 subscribers to not warning the distributors about the comic and unheard-of for a speciality- SCROLLS (slightly more males than femal¬ "mature content, but not about the words store comic such as SISTERHOOD OF STEEL. es) . Is this poor, fair, ok for a per¬ themselves. Yet it was my understanding The biggest selling newsstand comics sonal zine of this.kind? I've never done from day one that Epic Comics was suppos¬ (like SPIDER MAN and THE X-MEN) get close anything like this before and holy Christ, ed to represent mature material geared to the 200,000 range at best due to: a) am I suddenly coming to appreciate your for the older audience. the popularity of the character; b) the production comnents in SFR! They're a massive distribution of newsstand books; lot of work...but they get into the ’The unfortunate trickle-down effect and c) the massive publicity that the blood, don't they?' of this confrontation was that all the mainline Marvel comics get. The most Epic Comics in the office at that time successful specialty-store comic I know were scoured for offending words and a of gets into the 60,000s. My book has ((I thank you for the inside look quick censorship purge was imposed. sold in a lower range which barely allows at comics writing-illustration, and Marvel/Epic to recoup its advances to I extend ipy sympathy; the free-lance 1 In addition to writing the comic, I Mike and I, due to Epic's high overhead. also write a personal newsletter called For a smaller, independent publisher, artist-writer is at the mercy of al¬ SCROLLS OF THE SISTERHOOD which is sold however, our sales figures would be wel- most everyone, as you note. And yet by subscription only to Sisterhood read¬ everyone in 'control' is terrified ers. I promoted SCROLLS in Issue *4 on¬ 'What is important is that I created of losing money/markets. I have ward. It contains info about the creat¬ and own the copyright to my series. If sympathy for a publisher who is fac¬ ive team, behind the scenes stuff, un¬ I can sell it as a film, TV series or what ed with tough choices and heavy published art, and lots of loc. have you, then I might see soiie real pro¬ pressures from distributors who use 'In the first issue of SCROLLS, I fit. their power to force changes. They went on a bit of rant about ny loathing 'It was periiaps foolish of me to ask in turn fear losing money due to of censorship in general and the censor¬ for a review of half a series in which possible boycotts by "concerned citi¬ ship of SOS #4 specifically, and told the the entire 8 issues work together as a zen groups". They are more vulner¬ above story. I made it as fair as possi¬ whole. When #8 appears in December, I'll ble, but I'm not shy about expressing send you the rest of the set, purely to able in the south to that kind of strong opinions. allow you and/or Mr. Varney to read the censorship activity. And yet, 'In a moment of incredible stupidity complete series. You may find the entire as recent stories in the major media I sent a copy of the issue to the chief entity more satisfying than half of it. assert, Jerry Falwell is no longer male editor (I think I felt obligated, or 'I 've begun a novel of the Sisterhood the powerful dragon he is supposed something). A few days later, he called and am offering it as a novel-by-subscrip- to be; polls have shown him to be my agent and cancelled negotiations for tion on a chapter-by-chapter basis, as an disliked and distrusted by a majority a Graphic Novel which were well under experiment. Do you know of anyone who of people, especially in the younger way. When I asked him for his reasons, has tried this before? generations. Politicians he has he indicated that if I felt so strongly about those changes, I'd obviously be im¬ 'By the way, neither THE SISTERHOOD backed have lost elections and his possible to work with. This from the OF STEEL nor SCROLLS is "feminist." I support and endorsement is virtually man who placed an editorial cartoon in am not a feminist. I'ra a storyteller and a kiss of death, now. the frontispiece of the comic joking a writer first; and if I'd allow myself I'm not familiar with norms for com¬ about the fact that he hadn't read it! to be labeled anything (besides a trouble- ix newsletters; 127 is okay for a "maker), it would have to be "humanist." 'So it looks like I broke one hell personalzine, lousy for a money-mak- of an unwritten law and was suitably pun¬ ished by Marvel/Epic (via this editor) because of it. Worse yet, I allowed a similar letter about the censorship to be published in one of the major comics trade magazines. Now seme people in the industry are edgy about me. I do no-nos. I oppose censorship, get pissed off about religious fuckwits who want to impose their moral standards upon my readers and affect my livelihood, and dare to do it in public. I am a baaad girl. 'The pendulum swing to the Moral Right frightens ne. I'm really pissed off with the misic business for kowtow¬ ing to those broads in Washington. The music people sold out, of .course, because they want their copyright-royalty tax scheme to pass Congress. Do you know there are some record retailers who are having trouble with landlords who want to include clauses which will allow them ing effort, I suspect. I at one time don't have answers. Perhaps the atti¬ drafted into the alleged movement by ret¬ had about 500 subbers for RICHARD E. tude shown by the statement: "...fans rospect) . But after that, well ... who? GEIS, and at present, with the reviv¬ are still well behaved," and they cause And would Gibson, Shirley and Rucker ag¬ ed REG/THE NAKED ID have about 300. problems is part of the difficulty, as ree that they write anything more than is the word he suggests for "strangers we Gibson, Shirley and Rucker stories? There The circulation is a measure of the ignore at conventions:" dreb. actually was a science fiction story en¬ larger circulation of SFR, since al¬ 'Fans have a joking reference to titled "Cyberpunk." It was by Bruce 3et- most all NAKED ID subbers came from hke and was published in .AMAZING. But no SFR1s subscription base. "SM3F," Secret Masters of Fandom. The trouble is that far too many of the self- one seems to have noticed. So where does Yes, and yes and yes, self-publishing defined Trufans really believe they are- this leave us? is an insidious blood disease which, or-should-be MOF, (No Secret). 'I think there are some attempts to once contracted, rarely leaves the 'These persons -- and the last para¬ incorporate the Punk Ethos into science victim. May Ghod have mercy on your graph of Darrell's letter seems to indic¬ fiction -- Bluejay is certainly advertis¬ soul, Christy.)) ate that he is one -- think that if they ing the new John Shirley novel that way. don’t already know someone, that person But this is merely the latest manifesta¬ isn't worth knowing. Perhaps the "Strang¬ tion of that most emphemeral species, ers We Don't Speak To At Conventions" with-it science fiction. It is no more (empEisis added) do cause some of the startling than THE BUTTERFLY KID or Ran¬ problems. And perhaps they are reacting dall Garrett's "The Hepcats of Venus" PUELI to being ignored or shunned. (1962) or even a story Henry Kuttner had in ASTOUNDING in 1938, about the discovery 'When I first started going to con¬ of the Planet of the Jitterbugs. There is ventions about 20 years ago, I enjoyed always someone trying to write SF about some of the panels, being able to find the latest trendiness. We never remember some books, and see some art. But most the stories very long, though. There is of all I enjoyed the chance at the wide a lesson in that. variety of conversations freely available even to a stranger. I'd hate to think 'As for "cyberpunk" SF, I think we those days were gone -- but maybe they merely have a few critics, writers and fans who needed something to talk about, and so they have declared the existence of a Movement, when nothing of the sort ((Violence at conventions isn't done has happened. because *sniff1e* nobody talks to 'Tim also invokes the New Wave quite anybody. People almost always know incorrectly, when you consider that the somebody at cons, or go in twos and New Wave is a thing of the (fannishly threes and groups... Vandalism and speaking) relatively remote past. It is fighting at cons is the same as that history, just like the Thought Variant era. It predates the reading experience # LETTER FROM GLEN COOK at bars, rock concerts, sports even¬ 4106 Flora PI, St Louis, JO 63110 of a good deal of the present SF audience 1985 ts: liquor combined with anxiety or underlying causes, in a non¬ 'The issue is not so nuch what it was, but how it has been remembered. Fans to¬ 'I write every eight years whether I home public place, a release mechan¬ have something to say or not. day have less sense of history than ever ism. Those people with low self- before, and sure enough, the New Wave has 'I am surprised neither you nor Bob control thresholds, under pressure mostly been remembered in a distorted, Shaw saw the obvious in re SHC. If there of various kinds, in a "permissive" negative fashion. This does bring us is no connecticm between victims in the atmosphere—slip over the line on back to the Sullivan/Card argument about past and only death tying them in the occasion. Artsy-Fartsy Fiction, because the New present, the connection exists in the Wave seems to be primarily remembered as future. Somewhere up ahead somebody Approximately the same mix of people will attend all cons, and I'm sure incoherent gibberish. One fan explained (sing, or pi.) is getting rid of the an¬ to me not all that long ago that a New cestors of his enemies --be those peop¬ you'll always be able to partake of Wave story is any story which "uses av¬ le, ideas or gizmos. interesting, even challenging conver¬ ant-garde techniques to hide the lack of 'Somewhere a few hundred years in sations.) ) content." He did not see it in terms of the direction the earth and sun are mov¬ an era at all. To him, any story which ing there is a monster space station in was sufficiently mirky, badly written and a very stable orbit boasting a huge aim¬ poorly structured could qualify as New ing computer and a pulse beam tachyon Wave. Therefore, magazine slushpiles gun and the operators are picking off an¬ are full of New Wave stories, only few cestors whose progeny will become embar¬ get published anymore. rassing. Greg Benford could explain it 'Another case: I was explaining to better than I, probably.' LETTER ROM DARRELL SCHWEITZER a woman about 22 years old that LAST WAVE U3 Deepdale Rd, Strafford, PA 19Q87 magazine was "an atteupt to revive the December 12, 1985 New Wave." And she looked at me funny ((There you go, now we've got two 'I find myself mostly in sympathy and said, "Why?" When pressed, she admit¬ good novel ideas for the Spontaneous with Tim Sullivan's letter this issue, ted that her idea of New Wave was "those Human Combustian phenomenon. Are you but I wonder if even he knows what he awful ORBIT stories." She would not be¬ listening. Bob Shaw?)) means by the statement "The are lieve that the New Wave was seen as some¬ among us, already mutating into ghod- thing positive by some people, and that knows-what, while Scott still carps about it had its vociferous defenders. the mild stylistic experimentation that 'So that's how New Wave seems to be the punks refer to as 'the boring old remembered by readers who lack a histor¬ ical bent. It translates into a market¬ 'Well, the alleged "cyberpunk" move¬ ing problem for Scott Edelman. New Wave ment in SF has already been the subject is primarily remembered as what Orson of an unsuccessful panel at a , Scott Card now calls the Artsy-Fartsy but far more than the New Wave, this seens story. Clifton Fadiman had a more eleg¬ 'The letter from Darrell Schweitzer to be something manufactured by small- ant term: anti-narrative, which he de¬ in SFR, Winter 1985, struck me with a scale hype. It is almost literally a fined as "a literary technique which pre¬ few thoughts. movement without any members. Most peop¬ vents the story from being told." 'I agree that misbehavior at conven¬ le, when they use this term, point to 'Now you and I know that NewWave had tions ranging from extreme rudeness to William Gibson, and maybe to John Shir¬ a lot more to it. When you consider that outright destruction, is a serious prob¬ ley and Rudy Rucker (who has been around STAND ON ZANZIBAR, CAMP CONCENTRATION, lem and needs to be addressed. I doubt a while, and only seems to have been THIS IM4DRTAL, THE EINSTEIN INTERSECTION, the measures outlined would work, but I 58 THE LEFT HAND OF DARKNESS. BEHOLD THE MAN, UBIK and THE CRYSTAL WORLD all ap¬ vation -- or else we would all be writing 'Incidentally, at Denvention some peared within the space of less than five like RALPH 124C41+ -- but we might define years ago, Kathleen Sky described a plot years, you can only come to the conclu¬ an innovation as a change in technique she had in mind which was rather similar sion that the late 1960s were one of the which enables the writer to convey more. to that if DIASPORAH. Is that you, most wonderfully varied and creative per¬ Artsy Fartsy Writing conveys less. Of Yates, ol' bean? iods in the history of SF. It deserves course, Artsy Fartsiness is in the eye 'A note to publishers, by the way. to be remembered as a Golden Age. of the beholder, but the condition can be If you want your SF or horror titles re¬ terminal. Look at modem poetry. Some¬ 'Which is also a distortion. Remem¬ viewed in THE JERUSALEM POST WEEKEND MAG¬ one was quoted in PUBLISHERS WEEKLY a AZINE, which is published each Friday ber that the Golden Age of ASTOUNDING was while back as saying that the problem contemporary with the Dung Beettle Age of sinultaneously in New York (and enjoys a with poetry publishing today is that po¬ distribution of some 50,000), send them AMAZING (after a phrase, I think originat¬ ets don't buy enough books. The implica¬ ed by Damon Knight, that under Ray Palmer to me care of the above mentioned ad¬ tion being, of course, that no one else dress.1 the oldest SF magazine had died and been was expected to. To some extent the main¬ reborn a dung beetle). Most of the other stream literary short story has fallen magazines weren't too smashing, either. into the same trap. So far science fic¬ The Golden Age was very strictly limited ((Ah, you are too quick to leap to tion has escaped, by avoiding the Artsy the attack, Sheldon, too quick to Fartsy and going for the innovative in¬ condemn w.ith insult and snear. I stead. ' 'There really was rampant artsy-fart- wrote Randy Mohr about your complaint siness during the New Wave era, but that was not the major topic of the controver¬ re the illo on page 29, SFR #57, and sy, as you may recall. (I don't know ((I would again remark that any New he wrote back as follows (with illos that Sullivan was around then.) Even us Wave movement or accumulation of which I include below.)) reactionaries couldn't agree on what to Artsy-Fartsy fiction is the work of react against. J.J. Pierce's whole Cru¬ editors as much or more than that sade was directed against anti-humanistic; of writers. And we know what hap¬ anti-rational, negativism (as he might pens to editors, don't we? After have put it; "realism," his opponents might have said). In other words, he was a few years (with a few notable ex¬ objecting to the content, not the lack of ceptions) they are fired, quit, or content in supposed New Wave stories. My move on to other editing jobs. We 'Well, yes it could be a badly own objections had more tp do with lack really should examine editorial tast¬ of content. Pierce saw the evil as spelled Hebrew word depending on es and policies more, to get a more what I was intending to write—I things like 2001 and . To true reading of sf and fantasy to¬ think I was trying to write "SHALOM" me, what was wrong with the era, was that day—and yesterday.)) there were regularly published writers —if that's the case I. really botch¬ who were not storytellers at all, but ed it. Shalom in Hebrew is (I think; purveyors of short sketches and murky as close as this goy can get): little fragments. This is what my friend meant by "those awful ORBIT stories." Ac- trnlly, QUARK was a much greater offender U LETTER FROM SHELDON TEITELBAUM but people seem to remember ORBIT and 5403 Newcastle Avenue, #26 NEW WORLDS, which actually published more Encino, CA 91316 Oct 12, 1985 substantial material. It was in fact 'The illo on page 29 of your last is¬ 'What I may have written instead possible to get published in SF without sue featured a badly misspelled Hebrew was (badly spelled also) was "SCHMJCK" having learned any of the basics of fic¬ word which, spelled otherwise, would have ---So, I have to apologize for in¬ tion: character, structure, plot, idea aptly described the person who drew it adequate research (but, I took a development, dialogue. I can name names. without first checking with someone who year's worth of Biblical Hebrew in They probably won't mean nuch to contem¬ actually speaks the language. college)! porary readers: Langdon Jones, James Sal- 'This wasn't camel shit, mind you, 'Well, next time I'll just make lis, Graham Chamock. I would also in¬ when compared to a novel recently publish¬ up an alien word and write it in clude Ballard's "condensed novels" in ed by Baen. The thing was called DIASP- this area (though definitely not his oth¬ Latinized Sanskrit; much easier, ORAH, which merely establishes that eith¬ much easier!' er fiction, much of which I admire). There er the writer, somebody called Yates, or are many others, not worth listing. the editors at Baen can't spell in Eng¬ 'The conrnon denominator these writers lish. Indeed, some of the sentences in have is that they have not survived. Sal- the book were obviously devised by some lis has actually published a couple frag¬ of those people you've dispatched to the ments recently, but hardly anyone noticed, American underclass. But the Hebrew! any more than they noticed when he was Most of it was grossly wTong, either in prolific during the New Wave era. He was terms of granmar, pronunciation or usage. hardly a center of controversy. It wasn't' And there was so much of it, the fools possible to get bent out of shape by what who packaged the book, in what was ob¬ the Artsy Fartsy writers were saying -- viously a cynical attanpt to cash in on a because they weren’t saying anything. ready market for Israel-related tech SF, provided several pages of glossary at the 'In the end, economics takes its toll. back. The author had, quite obviously, I call this the "what is this shit?" syn¬ never resided in Israel for more than a drome. That is, a pro writer or a devot¬ few days, and didn't know the place from ed fan may have a long and interesting Disneyworld. It is difficult, otherwise, argument over a piece of Artsy Fartsy to account for the conspicuous absence of writing, but the average reader will say, sefaradim anywhere in the story - - the "What is this shit?" and go on to some¬ characters affect Yiddish cadences in thing else. This cost ORBIT, QUARK and their speaking and drink tea out of a NEW WORLDS their readerships. It caused glass. Of course, Yates may have simply the New Wave to be remembered in an en¬ wiped out all the darkies in his/her id¬ tirely negative sense, which is a dis¬ iotic preface, which depicts a bozo nu¬ tortion. clear attack directed against the Jewish U LETTER FROM F.M. BUSBY 'Actually, the Artsy Fartsy writing state. That's one way of dealing with 2852 14th Avenue, West Orson Scott Card is complaining about the fact that these people comprise the Seattle, WA 98119 2,. 1985 has nothing to do with any particular majority in present-day Israel. But was 'Re black protagonists on covers (you era. Writers never seem to learn: there it so difficult for the goons who publish¬ in response to Mike Resnick). Dell in are always ones who want to screw around ed this crap to yank some poor DIB off March '80 put Zelde M'tana moderately and show off, rather than tell a story. the streets of New York and pay him ten black on the cover of her own book. They always lose their readership. God bucks to check the Hebrew? Somehow ZELDE sold 26K copies during knows that there mist be change and inno¬ 59 the same period that DEMU TRILOGY, out same month from Pocket, sold three times 'The argument "I help pay for it, as many. A longtime friend and SF writ¬ # LETTER FROM NEIL ELLIOTT therefore I'll help run it" can, of er suggested to me that the problem might 2700 W. Coyle, Chicago, IL 60645 course, be extended to all sorts of oth¬ not be distribution, but that Middle Am¬ Nov. 4, 1985 er issues. This is one of the fatal erica simply doesn't buy books with black 'It's interesting you should mention weaknesses in the whole concept of pii- protagonists on the cover. I'd hate to verification. By chance I was listening lic education. Government-operated think so, but maybe we'll see. Berkley to the radio one day, and an old musician schools inevitably become political bat¬ bought ZELDE for reissue come January was saying how A1 Capone had this thing tlegrounds where controversial issues -- '86. I haven't seen cover proofs. Check of tearing a hundred in half and telling religion, evolution, sex, racial equal¬ back with me a year from now.' him he'd get the other half for playing ity, etc., etc. -- are settled by who as A1 wanted. has the most votes and power rather than by standards of good pedagogy. The only ((Perhaps Zelde had a double commer¬ 'That was just a year ago, I think. way out of that familiar morass is to get cial whammy to overcome: male readers Woodford referred to this habit of using the government out of education. Then hundreds and tearing the bill in half. don't like heroine-dominated novels schools would be like private, competing Though of course, for those times a fif¬ stores -- and people who didn't like Dun¬ (it isn't macho to identify with a ty, or even a twenty, would have been woman, and especially so if the woman geons and Dragons at a particular school just as effective. wouldn't have to go through a political if black or tan or brown...or green... 'This was an interesting confirma¬ process to get rid of it. They could or orange...), which, mostly, left tion of Woodford.' just take their business elsewhere.' the novel with the female readership for buyers. And even white females might have residual, unconscious ((For those who came in late: Neil ((You make a good, rational point, racism/xenophobia enough to tip the is referring to my review a couple but Elton was there and heard the buy/not-buy impulse enough to Not issues back of MY YEARS WITH CAPONE tone, the inflection in her voice, Buy. The eyes shift to another title Jack Woodford - A1 Capone -- 1924- which, with the rest of her conver¬ or another author...)) 1932 By Neil Elliott (Woodford Mem- sation convinced him of her attitude orTal Editions, POB 55085, Seattle, as he reported ,it. You can't win WA 98155. $10.95.). Jack is prob¬ this argument, Rob; you wasn't ably more known now than when he there.)) # LETTER FROM STEVE PERRY was alive. Funny how literary mav¬ 14575 SW Village Lane ericks last so long, sometimes.)) Beaverton, OR 97007 Oct 31, 1985 'Thank Gene DeWeese for the review # LETTER FROM MILT STEVENS of THE MAN WHO NEVER MISSED. It wasn’t November 23, 1985 altogether positive, but hey, any ink is "': No Thud, Some good ink. At least he recognized that # LETTER FROM ROB MASTERS Blunders" was a title that didn't seem to the inconclusive ending was deliberate POB 85424, Seattle, WA 98145 fit the article that followed it very -- TMWNM is the first volume of a tril¬ Nov 21, 1985 well. From the title, I was expecting ogy. Yeah, I know, it isn't so identifi¬ a killer review. Instead, the article is ed, but that's not my doing. Ace/Berk 'Elton Elliott reports cm a conver¬ a fairly straight critical piece. decided for marketing reasons, to put sation with Alberta Quigley, a woman in the books out that way. (Each book Albany, Oregon vJio managed to get Duig- 'I've been considering Greg Benford's should stand alone, and I tried to make eons 6 Dragons banned from the public five characteristics of the reactionary 'em work so they would, but there are schools. When asked if she wanted the obviously lines that neve'through all game prohibited in stores as well, she 1. Lack of diversity three, elsewise, vhy do it in three replied, "No, that's freedom of whatev¬ 2. Static in time chunks? (That wasn't my idea, either, I er." Elliott says he finds this comnent 3. Nostalgic and/or technophobic pitched a single fat book, and was advis¬ alarming. I can't see vhy. It sounds to 4. An authority figure ed that it would be better and I richer to me like Mrs. Quigley has an unusually 5. Social regulation through guilt do it as three. Ours is not to reason good understanding of the difference be¬ vhy.) Urn. Anyway, there will be two tween public and private property. 'I don't think "Social Regulatiai more titles in the series: RSTADORA and Through Guilt" is a very good defining THE MACHIAVELLI INTERFACE. 'Elliott interprets Quigley's phrase, characteristic, because I can't think of "freedom of whatever," as "a cavalier any hunan societies that don't engage in 'Incidentally, regarding the dialogue dismissal of basic private free enter¬ it. On the other hand, I think a socie¬ between you and Mike Resnick in #57 about prise rights." But that's obviously not ty vrould have to have a reasonably wide possible choice in order to reactionary utopia. If the 't have much choice as to

to live your entire life on a space ship Is, Mrs. Quigley correctly points which supports itself by trading, your hat there's no more justification choices are obviously limited. Maybe 6D in tax-supported institutions the Free Traders could have had slightly there is for prayer. If it's unac- different marriage and family customs, ble to take tax money from an athe- although there is no particular reason o pay for the teaching of a relig- to suggest why they should have been dif it's equally unacceptable to spend ferent. The anthropologist character in oney on DSD when some citizens con- CITIZEN OF THE GALAXY even concents on the game occultist, mystical, etc. the fact that the Free Traders are limit Ihlike a private store, a government-rim ed by their environment. school is financed (involuntarily) by people at large -- who therefore have a 'In other respects, the description n how it is run. Quigley seems to of the Free Trader Society is certainly this distinction clearly, perhaps as important as the plot, and the Free clearly than Elliott. Traders definitely have admirable charac teristics. So they fit quite well in Sheila Finch's eeneral discussion.' ((I have trouble with 'Reactionary ported only half as much writing I '"The Vivisector” is a bit gruesome Utopia' since that seems a qualific- suspect readers might end up with to those authors just starting to sell twice as much entertainment.' their work, but he's probably right; all tion of perfection, and a Utopia is waves crest, break, scatter spray, and supposed to be a perfect social sys¬ are then replaced by other waves. I tem. Can we discuss Leftist Utopias? ((True, but now the pocketbook pub¬ take issue with one small point of his: Utopias? Yuppie Utopias? lishers (especially) are in a con¬ that LORD OF THE RINGS "created ... the Fascist Utopias? Is Utopia strictly stant war to keep wire-rack slots, generic fantasy" -- rubbish, Tolkien em¬ in the eye of the wisher?)) and so, like breakfast food compan¬ ulated , especially his ies fighting for shelf space on sup¬ WELL AT THE WORLD'S END series, the bas¬ ermarket shelves, must think in terms ic difference being that Morris didn't care for religion much, or personified of new titles per month, not quality evil, his people are colorful, well char¬ titles per month. acterized personalities -- his stories ((Thus the number of pocketbook slots are set on magical worlds similar to # LETTER FROM JERRY POURNELLE in existence determines the paper¬ Earth, but not identical, with quests and 'I find Sheila Finch's analysis back publishing universe. If you swordplay, and wood magic; people may interesting, although by her own ad¬ want to strike terror into the have been influenced by Tolkien, but he definitely was not the creator of the hearts of paperback publishers, go mission she nust strain a bit to fantasy concept. (I could also resent make our words fit some of her cata- on a terrorist rampage—with a his teaming the character out of Stout's gories; but questions remain. pair of heavy-duty wirecutters.)) UNDER THE ANDES with Richard Seaton -- 'First, what has any of that to "ancestor of..." indeed! I've tried to do with the title of her article? recall an E.E. Smith work with a "fenme Does "some blunders" mean she thinks fatale" so vile she has to be killed, (possibly correctly) that she could and the truth is, Smith liked women too much for that. Seaton is not a develop¬ have written it better herself? # CARD FROM DON WOLLHEIM ment of these meagerly moral men.) 'Second, why does she believe 66-17 Clyde Street this is osme kind of advocacy? At Rego Park, NY 11374 Nov. 19, 1985 'I stared at the review of PAZ (p.34) the end of the book some major char¬ with growing horror until I fomd that 'If you have a chance to read or the reviewer was actually, offended by the acters state they wouldn't want to look over Vonnegut's new book GALAPAGOS book; it's been so long since I've read live in Todos Santos; others would; you will discover that the starting point an extended attack on the current "femin¬ and the tension between town and gown of the end of humanity is in 1986 with ist" SF -- if ever I read any other than (or town and townhouse?) is the major the total bankruptcy of Latin American my own. A recent TV interview with very driving force of the novel. couitries, followed almost immediately comnitted feminist writers got their re¬ by the rest of the world. It is mighty sponse that it's okay for men to be por¬ 'If Finch's recounting of the unusual (and even foolhardy) for an SF flaws in Todos Santos is meant to re¬ trayed as vile now, so that the attacks writer to make predictions with such can diminish in intensity as men "learn mind the reader that Niven and I have tight dates which can render a work out- the truth;” yes they say the attacks are been careful to show that such a so¬ of-date so quickly. Wonder why he did unfair, but they're a legitimate tactic ciety is not without costs—why, it. He must read the same sources you in the sexual conflict between men and she's right, but why act as if (a) women as women aspire for complete equal¬ that's surprising, or (b) she has ity. It soinded nonsense when she said made a discovery? it, it sounds nonsense now. When I said ((What an opening! All I can say is 'We tried to show one possible years ago that certain feminist writers that our society is now built on an vere being unfair, sexist, almost total¬ high technology society in the near ever-more-fragile debt structure, and itarian in approach, I was roundly cen¬ future, of course, but mostly ve sooner or later enough sectors of our sured -- they were rally portraying life were telling a tale.' society will be unable to service or as it is. Well, balls, it is not, and increase that debt—and then the col¬ never was as they portray it. Joanna ((The title of Sheila's article Russ is wrong, and I now resent the years lapse will become irresistible, fall¬ on OATH OF FEALTY was changed at my of argument I've had on the subject; I ing in on itself as losses trigger request from one too academic; none was told black writers couldn't be rac¬ ever greater losses. Yeah, alas, it ist, and female writers couldn't be sex¬ of n\y suggestions fit well, and her could happen this year. The stock ist ■*- oppressed minorities are allowed new title didn't either, apparently. market just dropped 36 points in one imnunity from such raiments, they said. That's the publishing biz, sometime- day. When you see 50-100 point loss¬ I agree with everything Janrae says, but es.)) es in a single day, tremble in your I say that there's no such thing as "re¬ boots and run for cover. Until then, verse sexism" (something I once termed it), it's pure and single sexual chauvin¬ enjoy!)) ism, direct, pure, hateful. 'I'm interested, in Bob Shaw's re¬ # CARD FROM ROBERT BLOCH buttal to my sideswipe to his book, that 2111 Sunset Crest Dr. what he's talking about is plot where Los Angeles, CA 90046 once he would have lauded character. November S, 1985 He takes an effect, justifies it, then 'Perhaps it's just my mood of M LETTER FROM IAN COVELL adds people to investigate it -- compare the moment, but I come away from 2 Copgrove Close, Berwick Hills earlier novels in which the effect was a minor part, almost a sidelight to the reading SFR #57 with the distinct Middlesbrough, Cleveland, TS3 7BP England Dec. 20, 1985 evolving relationships; people reacted impression that the big trouble with to events, they weren't adjuncts to them, sf and fantasy today is that just 'I agree with everything Gene DeWeese or so manipulated by exterior forces that too much of it is being written. says about NULL A THREE CCp- 23) -- but their personalities became irrelevant.' Because of a conjunction of infla¬ the true kicker for me lies as mich in tion and marketing demands, writers Van Vogt's redefinition of the "earlier" ((Maybe the feminists are practicing Gosseyns in the first NULL A books. are turning short story ideas into They were, I learn, all virgins; now, I that old adage, 'Don't get mad, get novels, and novels into series with may just have a dirty mind, but I always even.' In any case, they only prove a resultant emphasis on quantity thought --.took it as read, in fact -- my belief that they're only human, rather than quality. Much of this that all earlier Gosseyn's had full sex and being human is being racist, sex¬ is masked to a degre'e by technical lives: Van Vogt says no, I read the ist, chauvinistic, etc. as passion virtuosity which seems to deceive books wrong...and that undue "fact," and fanaticism and anger rise to the most of your critics,but little of crude, unlikely, turned me off the book occasion of power and/or media at¬ even before the plot began. it offers either innovative concepts tention. Any sophistry or rational¬ or fresh insights. If the field sup¬ 61 ism will suffice.)) # LETTER FROM TAMAR LINDSAY by competent researchers -- not popular hear, all the other titles do the same. 4 Meadowbrook Drive books dashed off by sensationalists. In It's now the only game in town.) E. Windsor, NJ 08520 Nov. 12, '85 fact, they were rather hard reading and 'I certainly agree that present- ’Re: your review of ARTHUR C. CLARKE’S often on the dull side, so far as hair- raising stories is concerned. tense stories (except possibly for very WORLD OF STRANGE POWERS in SF REVIEW #57: short ones) do not work well. "Green precognition does not indicate an unchange¬ ’I came across several instances of Mars," by Robinson came across as excel¬ able Fate. It indicates that one of a purportedly authenticated precognitive lent (because of the story) in spite of, great many possible "fates" is more prob¬ dreams'. In each instance, the subject not because of the way it was written; able than the others, given conditions had a vivid and clear dream of some ev¬ it overcame my irritation at the way it as they stand. I have had precognitive ent that had not happened, and remembered was written. And as for the business experiences many times, usually about ut¬ all the details upon awakening. Later, about Moby Dick, etc., that would have terly minor things of no interest to any¬ the subject experienced the event begin¬ been laughable had not the author been one but myself. It feels like remember¬ ning to unfold in actuality, remembered so grimly serious about it. In fact, I ing something, but it’s something that I what was about to happen, according to did laugh -- but not because the author can prove absolutely did not happen; I’m the dream, and took the necessary action wanted me to. It was the one flaw in told this is the result of having a pre¬ that prevented a tragedy or serious mis- the story itself. cognitive dream, then remembering the dream as an actual experience. At least "'Science Fiction By The Numbers" was once I remembered the dream, having waked 'That doesn't prove precognition be¬ most interesting, but is damaged by Sab- up absolutely panicky. On other occas¬ yond question -- but it does indicate ella's over-broad definition of the word ions I had the memory-trace experience that if there is such a thing, then fore¬ "axiom." An axiom is indeed something while wide awake (driving, so perhaps knowledge can change the event precognis- taken for granted (like the "given" in a not entirely alert -- driving does induce ized. That indicates that the future is problem in Euclid's introduction to geo¬ trance states). I have had the experien¬ not fixed, but fluid. It is more like metry) but the essential thing about an ce of remembering two different results Scrooge's dream of "Christmas yet to axiom is that it cannot be proved. As of the same decision-point, the results come" than an immutable curse. Asimov notes ih one of his books on sci¬ differing according to which decision I 'A tip of my hat to Orson Scott Card, ence, if some of the axioms upon which made; and I had that experience just be¬ whose last two columns I found particul¬ science rests could be proved, they fore nuking the decision -- very handy. arly interesting. In issue #56, he would cease to be axioms; they would It only happened once, so far. The most writes in much the same vein that Lester then be theorems -- and the proof of the upsetting precognitive experience I have del Rey explored in his Guest of Honor former axioms would very possibly involve had was the dream in which I foresaw the speech at the last New York Worldcon -- setting up one or more new axioms, again precise circumstances of my husband's which Lester had to abridge at the time, to be regarded as improvable and not death and the experiences of the years but which I managed to obtain and publish something to argue about. following, about 18 months before he di¬ complete in FAM3US SCIENCE FICTION under 'Your comments on "Physical Inter¬ ed. Although the death was exactly as I the title, "Art vs. Artiness." Scott, rogation Techniques" reminds me of an dreamed it, the following circumstances having more space to work with, is able argument that was going on a decade or have been subject to alteration when I to go into more detail and name specific so back in the pages of Richard Berger¬ took steps to prevent certain difficul¬ recent instances. on's WARHOON. The question was whether ties. The dream appears to have been in 'I see nothing wicked with literary knowledge is "evil" in itself, as .1 re¬ the nature of a worst-possible-case scen¬ call. My contention was that no know¬ ario, dreamed as a warning. I tried hard experimentation in itself. As Lester noted, he has never written an "experi¬ ledge is "evil" in itself, in that it can to prevent most of it, but other people's be used only for "evil" purposes. Walter personalities were not under my control; mental story" but he has often made many experiments in the course of writing what Breen dissented, listing "torture tech¬ you just can't tell seme people. (Cas¬ niques" as an example. Unfortunately, sandra's problem.) he believed was a good story. There's a difference. Some writers have been und¬ Bergeron gafiated just before my reply 'I have been very careful, over the er the impression that experimenting is to Walter might have been published; and years, to eliminate any occurrences from such a great thing in itself that they by the time WARHOON resurfaced, it was consideration as "precognition" that had should be rewarded simply for making the too late to pick up the pieces of all too much similarity to things that had effort -- regardless of how it comes out. controversies. already happened. I am also aware of the That attitude has resulted in a lot of 'I do, however, remember what my re¬ different types of deja vu, and the pseu- sheer garbage. But the writer who has a ply was, and find that I still agree with do-deja-vu experiences are weeded out. solid foundation in conventional ways of it. (I don't always agree with myself 'Yes, precognition does genuinely writing a story, and feels' that the story some years later.) Any sort of knowledge occur. No, it does not eliminate free he or she now has in mind requires a dif¬ can be used in one of two ways: You can will.' ferent approach has at least a sporting take action upon it, or you can refuse to chance of coming up with something worth take action upon it. If I know how to reading. The tree is known by its fruit, torture you deliberately, I also know ((It seems to me you're having your not just its appearance. correspondingly as much about how to a- precognition and avoiding it, too. void torturing you accidentally. At - Alternate futures, or alterable fu¬ ’Scott's current colurni is even bet¬ this point I stop, because I'd have to ter, for me, because I subscribed to IS¬ tures is too easy; true preognition read the book you reviewed to apply my AAC ASIMJV'S SCIENCE FICTION MAGAZINE proposition to it.' would be seeing THE future. What earlier this year and have, at last, be¬ you describe seems to be a subcon¬ gin to read current short stories and ((The problem—if it should be call¬ scious warning based on reading body novelettes. I was thus able to test his ed a problem-with Evil Knowledge or language, unconsciously noting ad¬ views against my own experience of part¬ Evil Purposes, is that if there is a vance symptoms, etc. An expression icular stories; and while I do not rate will, there is a way. Obviously there of subconscious fear based on minute some stories as highly as he does, I do is a will in mankind for torture, observations and clues. )) know what he is talking about. And in at murder, rape, slavery...and the ways least one instance, he drew my attention to do and create those things are to something that I had missed in read¬ ing, thus changing what, to me, was a always found. We are often (by our good story into a much better one. definitions) monsters. We have this "Taking the Low Road," by Avon Swofford, capacity for "evil" which we hate and struck me as being very well done, and decry and which we also admire and it LETTER FROM ROBERT A.W. LOWNDES truly moving -- but I didn't see, at do, constantly. We should not deny 717 Willow Ave, Hoboken, NJ 07030 first, what it was doing in IASF; the our inherent capacity for these acts November 14, 1985 fantasy element got by me. Now I see and thoughts; we should admit them that it belongs, because the magazine 'Let not your heart be troubled by and guard against them in rational the fear that Lf there is such a thing mixes science fiction and fantasy. (Something I'm not awfully happy about -- and intelligent ways, on an individ¬ as precognition of future events, then ual level. Mass man is beyond con¬ the future is fixed -- immutable. Seme I'd rather read a magazine devoted to years ago, when I was editor of EXPLORING science fiction only -- but from what I trol. All the individual can do is THE UNKNOWN, I studied numerous works be aware and watch and dodge when dealing with psychic phenomena written 62 po s s i b 1 e.)) ALTERNATE HISTORY NEWS

T>€ DEUS MAGNUS REGISTERUS spokesman for the Militia. "That's not I WHAT hO YOl/ /y\EAM ’ "The Newspaper Ionia Depends Upon." the issue at all. What we want to know ''TlT- 30WS’.N -the: acuse, was psychoanalyzed last week by Party's position. Ambrose Fort, chair- c»£W'>os r the Delving Oracle, which reported that nan of Brown's analytical brain pool, he has acute anxiety about being over¬ Ihe Skeptic Tank, pointed out that each thrown. The Oracle, whose new propaganda community monitor and precinct proctor line is a surprise to many observers, had complete records on the local ziti- reported that King Oedipus has a complex cenry and that no thought deviant could also, but declined to elaborate. possibly escape detect ion. "For the Feds to horn in on local turf and build em¬ The illegitimate son of a slave, pires of their own is, to say the least, Ninni was adopted at age 3 by a Roman just The Ntost!" family, Crassus Ninni and his wife Dil- lyria, who were childless due to incom¬ Experts predict that President Ergo's proposed new agency will go down to de¬ pie would not hit the man's head, because patibility. As he grew up, the Ninnies they'd be traveling at the same speed. offered him every opportunity to feel feat in the newly quotientized Congress, ashamed of his origin, and even continu¬ but that appeals to the Most Honored McArcher says he'd rather not be¬ ed to regard him somewhat like a slave, Quotients of the Supreme Court will ev¬ lieve Berk's theory. "The Roman Empire" out of consideration for his former sta- entually reverse the magnatism. "Better he says, "has supposedly been falling that than that it should go to the States for 400 years already, but it gets more to ratify," said political analyst Gallup vigorous every year." After graduation from the Gymnasium, Pohl. "I never met a quotieit I didn't (a college which emphasized athletics), like," he r plained. Ninni entered Sicilian politics as the candidate of a Syracuse political boss. He rose rapidly, and within five years became Assistant Comptroller of Tribute. IHE DISORIENT EXPRESS During this period he also started a TIC DAILY CRISIS BY NEAL WILGUS law practice, and collected fees from "As Substantial as King Arthur's Rouid many lobbying groups, whose interest he Table" Camp Loyd, Caraberland Random Press, UT (LEAK) -- Scientists represented in the Lower House of Par- and government officials are urgently vii Elentoiu CCCXX searching for an explanation to yester¬ SCIENTIST DISCOVERS SLOWEST MOTION day's mysterious change in direction(s). Last year, as head of coalition of BY NEAL WILGUS As is now universally appreciated, at Jovial Democrats* and center parties, 2:03 a.m. Greenwich the old sense of di¬ Ninni was able to form a government, and Interior Minister Merlin Griffith rection (and thus all rational orienta¬ was appointed Prime Minister. Syracuse announced today with disarming frankness tion) either disappeared or was suspend¬ has been in serious trouble since then, that a subordinate, Oakley Berk, Assis¬ ed. The Change has already been likened since both Rome and Carthage have cut off tant Druid at Camber Ridge, has discov¬ to the discovery of Fire and the inven¬ foreign aid and monetary credits, in an ered a physical phenomenon slower than tion of the Screw. effort to overthrow him. the speed of snails. The discovery was discredited by the followers of Dr. With directional inconsistency now In recent years, according to employ¬ being the order of the day, the common ers, there has been an extreme shortage Dulles McArcher, who has told us repeat¬ edly that such a thing cannot be. experience is that when one sets out to of tyrants, due to the unwillingness of go north (assuming one knows where that young people to prepare for that occupa¬ Two years ago, Noble Alfred discov¬ is) one would soon find oneself heading tion. King Leonidas blames the "soft¬ ered a strange substance, called "gun¬ south -- or east, west or whatever. Up ness of modem youth" for their reluc¬ powder." "Ihe pungent odor of burning and down do not seem to be affected. So tance to learn meanness and treachery. sulphur will make the crossbow a cleaner far. Adverse publicity fTom the Oracle will weapon," he said aromatically. He said not help' the situation. that the Chinese use rockets to purify To find out why such a change has oc¬ curred we sent investigative reporter Ray ‘Since Jove was god in those days, the air, to supplement the effects pro¬ duced by burning paper dragons. Team to the University of North to inter¬ they couldn't have been Christian Demo- view the famous Dr. Isaac Einstein> an Defense Chief Galahad and Other Pen- expert on universal directionality and dragon officials were skeptical of the meterological consistency. Unfortunately new development. They prefer to rely on Ray Team called from New Zealand to report conventional weapons, such as X-caliber that he had lost his way and was stranded A MINDB0GGLIN6 BOONDOGGLE swords, for the "brush fire" wars in indefinitely at some location presently Cornwall, and to defend Wales against BY NEAL WILGUS unknown. Other reporters have mentioned the Marcians and Angles. similar difficulties. Mindopolis, Mindopia (LEAK) -- Members At a special neeting of the Round of the Mensa Militia were out patroling By sheer coincidence Dr. Isaac Ein¬ Table, the General Staff, called the stein and his assistant Venus Uranus their neighborhoods as usual last night, Seven Dwarfs, because of their snow-white armed with the usual IQ tests and cattle stumbled into the LEAK News Room at that character, decided to stockpile gunpowd¬ moment, looking for directions. We were prods, in search of the usual Standard er. Ihe alchemist William Teller was Deviants to apprehend and reform. But unable to help in that department, but made Chief of the Gunpowder Energy In- took the opportunity to ask about the last night was anything but "usual," be¬ titute. His job is to concoct the stuff cause it marked the beginning of a week Change and vdiere we might be headed. He into laxatives, rat-killers, acom-ten- looked mystified and shrugged his elbows. of demonstrations and think-ins which derizers and other wonders of chemistry the Militia is sponsoring in opposition to make our lives richer and more mean- "We seem to be caught in some kind to the proposed creation of a federal De¬ of directional drift," said Venus Uranus, partment of Status Quotients. The DSQ, reading from a prepared script. "The Is¬ which President Ipso Ergo first proposed Berk says the Roman Empire is fal¬ aac Einstein Foundation is accepting don¬ last Friday, would assign official status ling. By his Theop' of Conjunctive Mo¬ ations for our Directional Research Pro¬ to each ziticen, based in part on stand¬ tion, when everything is falling at once, ject/Find a Way, Inc. Please withhold ard IQ tests. it appears to all observers to be stand¬ all donations, however, while negotia¬ ing still. 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