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Home , Alan Dean Foster, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, Cordwainer Smith, Dangerous Visions, Darrell Schweitzer, Eric Frank Russell

SCIENCE FICTION FALL T)T1T 7TT?TI7 NUMBER 48 1983 Mn V X J_J W $2.00 REVIEW (ISSN: 0036-8377) P.O. BOX 11408

PORTLAND, OR 97211 AUGUST, 1983 —VOL.12, NO.3 WHOLE NUMBER 98 PHONE: (503) 282-0381

RICHARD E. GEIS—editor & publisher PAULETTE MINARE', ASSOCIATE EDITOR

PUBLISHED QUARTERLY FEB., MAY, AUG., NOV.

SINGLE COPY - $2.00

ALIEN THOUGHTS BY THE EDITOR.9

THE TREASURE OF THE SECRET C0RDWAINER by j.j. pierce.8

LETTERS.15 INTERIOR ART-- ROBERT A. COLLINS IAN COVELL E. F. BLEILER SMALL PRESS NOTES ED ROM WILLIAM ROTLSER-8 BY THE EDITOR.92 KERRY E. DAVIS RAYMOND H. ALLARD-15 ARNIE FENNER RICHARD BRUNING-20199 RONALD R. LAMBERT THE VIVISECTOR ATOM-29 F. M. BUSBY JAMES MCQUADE-39 BY .99 ELAINE HAMPTON UNSIGNED-35 J.R. MADDEN GEORGE KOCHELL-38,39,90,91 RALPH E. VAUGHAN UNSIGNED-96 TWONG, TWONG SAID THE TICKTOCKER DARRELL SCHWEITZER THE PAPER IS READY DONN VICHA POEMS BY BLAKE SOUTHFORK.50 CHARLES PLATT THE ARCHIVES BOOKS AND OTHER ITEMS RECEIVED OTHER VOICES WITH DESCRIPTION, COMMENTARY BOOK REVIEWS BY AND OCCASIONAL REVIEWS.51 KARL EDD ROBERT SABELLA NO ADVERTISING WILL BE ACCEPTED RUSSELL ENGEBRETSON TEN YEARS AGO IN SF - SUTER,1973 JOHN DIPRETE BY ROBERT SABELLA.62 Second Class Postage Paid GARTH SPENCER at Portland, OR 97208 THE STOLEN LAKE P. MATHEWS SHAW NEAL WILGUS ALLEN VARNEY Copyright (c) 1983 by Richard E. MARK MANSELL Geis. One-time rights only have ALMA JO WILLIAMS been acquired from signed or cred¬ DEAN R. LAMBE ited contributors, and all other PAULETTE MINARE' rights are hereby assigned to the W. RITCHIE BENEDICT contributors. SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW is published RAISING HACKLES at 1525 N.E. Ainsworth, Portland, BY ELTON T. ELLIOTT...36 OR 97211 POSTMASTER: Send address changes ONCE OVER LIGHTLY to SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW, POB 11408, BOOK REVIEWS BY GENE DEWEESE.38 Portland, OR 97211

vitality and commercial anemia. It means the end of a tradition where¬ THOUGHTS by agents do not act as purchasers, which the Meredith group will do in BY THE EDITOR M providing 48 books a year for the renamed Starscope line. And it means the end of the tether for the Science Fiction Writers of America, which is protesting that possible conflicts of interest in the agen¬ A writer's diary, suitably censored cy's role as both buyer and seller Even though SFR doesn't cross my will be not only "detrimental to our buns with silver and gold, it will writer and artist members" and their continue and continue, because it agents, but "damaging to publishing provides me with great fun, variety and friendships. 'But Pocket sees potentially This section is devoted to my astronomical returns from the new ha-ha professional writing endeav¬ line, which is set to debut next ors, and let the Devil take the sec¬ spring. "was losing a lot ond bite if he dares. of money," Pocket Books president Ronald Busch said yesterday, and Got a rejection notice from agent "we were paying too much for the Joe Elder---passing along a note product. We were getting great lit¬ from a woman sf editor. Sayeth she erary reviews and awards-but the of ONE I MORTAL MAN: science fiction audience is looking 'I'm afraid this one just doesn't for more entertainment and fun than grab me—it doesn't feel magical we were publishing." enough to be a or straight¬ 'In yesterday's joint announce¬ forward enough to be science fic¬ ment, agency head Scott Meredith tion. ' said the behemoth popularity of Okay, if this bounces often I perceive more and more clearly "E.T." and the "" trilogy, enough, I'll rewrite it to make the that a New York agent is VITAL. At coupled with the fact that six of lead character a woman. ONE INMORT¬ least for me. 15 titles on a recent best-seller AL WOMAN.... I keep getting the list were science fiction novels, message that every novel nowadays # BUT—before working on my own meant that the genre "has the power must have a 'strong woman' in it. novel proposal developments—each to reach beyond science-oriented But by mentioning this I may have takes a month the way things are readers to a broader national audi¬ poisoned my well. Ah, the taste going—I'm working on a second col¬ ence," including "women readers who of Hemlock... laboration with Elton. We are ob¬ buy the largest percentages of books It goes without saying, I hope, ligated to show-first our second these days." that ONE INMORTAL MAN is a man's novel effort to Fawcett (according 'Marta Randall, president of the novel in which the male lead is a to a clause in the contract for 800-member SFWA, said yesterday from sexist and uses women for sexual THE SWORD OF ALLAH!). her Oakland, California home that pleasure. And the ending! Dear This new novel is titled THE "our objection stems from what we Ghod, he eats a young woman's MASTER FILE and I have in hand 54 think is probably a conflict of in¬ heart and kidneys and liver to pages of outline for 32 chapters. terest. We fail to understand how a stay alive in his tomb. This one will line out at about writer can benefit" from an agent But, ah, if an immortal woman 90 thousand words. "who is in a position, in effect, were forced to eat a man's vital We break no new ground here: we to sell the work to himself." More¬ nutritious organs.... that would save the world again, this time from over, the Meredith agency, by acting ring a gong in the hearts and minds the threat of brain slavery by means as a packager, "would be under the of New York publishing houses! of.... (Dasn't reveal the plot!) same economic dictates as a publish¬ I may have to write under an er—that is, to acquire the maxi¬ assumed name after this. (5-7-83) ff In 25 years of professional fic¬ mum number of books at a minimum tion writing I've seen editors come financial investment." Randall, # Sent four novel ideas/proposals and editors go—by the dozens! whose latest novel, "Dangerous Gam¬ to Joe for evaluation: he advises So it was'no surprise to be sent es," was published by Pocket Books, which are good bets to develop, which a Washington Post story dated 6/16/- said she also feared that Meredith to drop. (5-7-83) One is a Disaster 83 headed SCIENCE FICTION, subheaded, would not "actively solicit works novel, one Supematural/Occult Horror, LITERARY AGENCY TO EDIT LINE FOR from people not represented by that one Medical Paranoia, and one Rich 5 POCKET BOOKS. By Curt Suplee. agency." Famous/Mirder Mystery. I'll take the liberty of quoting No science fiction. The kind of the story in toto. 'The SFWA, she said, has demand¬ sf I want to write seems not to be ed a "complete and detailed account¬ wanted, so far. Besides, there's 'The Scott Meredith Literary A- ing" of the new arrangement from probably more money to be made in gency, long a deal-maker to the Meredith and Pocket, and "it will be the other categories. stars, is now taking on the cosmos reviewed by our officers and out le¬ -as the new editor and packager of gal counsel." SFWA's attorney, Hen¬ science fiction and fantasy titles ry Holmes, said from for Pocket Books. ft Joe advises me to develop the that he could not comment on the 'The unusual agreement, announc¬ Medical Paranoia novel, and the joint venture defore seeing details ed yesterday in New York, means the Disaster novel. Huh! I would of the deal, but speculated that literal end of the line for Pocket's have bet the farm the Occult/Horror the agency's buyer-seller function esteemed Timescape series, which had would be okayed. So much for my "could be some sort of restraint of developed a reputation for literary judgement of the market—and my trade that the federal government own novel proposals. might want to get involved in." "The paranoia in science fiction six novels out of fifteen on a re¬ fantasy, with a strong female char¬ people is a little higher than most," cent best-seller list were science acter required in almost every Busch said. "We thought there would fiction and fantasy. We hope to at¬ book. be a fuss, but if they would quit tract both longtime science fiction # Conment: The Laser line of a crying wolf until the wolf is at and fantasy readers plus large numb¬ few years ago was also aimed at the their door, they'd see that the con¬ ers of readers new to the field, in¬ mass audience and was tilted toward flict of interest doesn't exist." cluding women readers who buy the a juvenile audience. It didn't Meredith said, "it's really a join¬ largest percentage of books these ing of interests. We check every sell well enough to satisfy its pub¬ deal with our clients anyway, and 'Meredith also stated that the lisher and was dropped. Will Star- the client ultimately makes the de¬ growing publishing practice of con¬ scope Books also be slanted to the cision and won't take anything he sidering only material submitted by juvenile with all the restrictions doesn't like. It's nonsense to as¬ agents or established authors will on content and character that im¬ sume that we're going to buy our own not apply to the new line. "We'll plies? people too cheaply." As for favor¬ read everything submitted," he said, The economics of this packaging itism, he said, "obviously we'll be "and move quickly. We'll guarantee deal suggests lower average advances publishing a lot of our own authors," to buy or return manuscripts within for writers, with newcomers taking and if forced to choose between two two weeks following receipt. Ob¬ a significant number of slots. equally attractive books, one of viously, we'll be publishing many The strong possibility that oth¬ them written by his client, "of books by our own clients, but we course I'd buy our own manuscript. also intend to buy heavily from oth¬ er major sf/fantasy publishers decid¬ But what I'd really do is buy both." er agencies and from unrepresented ing to follow suit if the Pocket/ 'Some of Meredith's clients- writers. We'll be as tough on our Meredith deal works out. These publishers could decide to farm out Arthur C. Clarke, and own clients' work as on everybody their sf/fantasy lines to expert Lester del among them-have at¬ else's, and the sole determining tachments to other publishing hous¬ packagers in order to cut staff factor on purchasing scripts will costs and product costs, too. And es. Might Clarke, published by Bal- be their quality and our estimate of lantine, end up in Pocket? "The this system, if successful, might their potential sales." spread to other genres. Some other forces of the marketplace are going 'Meredith added, "We're very to dictate that," Busch said. "But large literary agencies might bid familiar with the advances and roy¬ for the packaging opportunities. Scott's not going to jeopardize his alty rates being paid for material relationship with one of his stars." You could have, in time, pub¬ all over the world, and we're pre¬ lishers switching packagers as now Judy-Lynn del Rey, editor-in-chief pared to bid competitively and pay of Ballantine's Del Rey Books, some advertising clients switch whatever is necessary to secure the from one advertising agency to an¬ agreed: "Before this even hit the best science fiction and fantasy other. fan, Arthur and I discussed the being written today. Of course, situation. He considers us his pub¬ we'll do our best to avoid overpay¬ And you could have some authors lisher. We consider ourselves his ing and acquiring material which sign long-term multi-book contracts publisher. Ans Scott considers us won't earn out costs and bring a with packagers instead of with pub¬ his publisher." Besides, she said, profit, but we'll pay top dollar to lishers.... The packager who could Del Rey has a new Clarke manuscript get the best. All offers we make deliver X number of books by authors on material by our own clients will, A, B, C, and D would have a strong of course, be submitted to the cli¬ bargaining position. 'Timescape, which Randall called ents for approval, just as we do I suspect we're entering a new "one of our major markets," has routinely on offers we receive from era in author/agent/publisher/packag¬ stopped acquiring manuscripts, al¬ all other publishers." er relationships...if this Pocket/ though backlist titles will remain 'The operations of the new line Meredith deal is not challenged in in print. It's editorial director, will be conducted from the Meredith the courts, and if it is successful David Hartwell, will leave the com¬ Agency's offices at 845 Third Avenue, on the bottom line—profits. We'll pany in October for editorial con¬ New York, NY 10022, and submissions know in a couple years. sulting work. "I have simply agreed should be made to that address.' to a no-fault divorce," Hartwell (June 15, 1983.) said yesterday. "According to my own knowledge of my budget, I wasn't Some speculations and conclus¬ losing money. But they can do their ions can be made from all of the a- Scarcely after the ink was dry accounting any way they choose. It's bove: on the Pocket/Meredith sf packaging their company. I am leaving with deal, the deal came unglued, smear- my reputation for doing good books # The economic advantages to Pocket are: paying less for 48 sf/ intact.' fantasy books per year, and saving Received from Pocket Books Dir¬ the entire editorial salaries of ector of Publicity, Anne Maitland, is David Hartwell and his Timescape staff. a release dealing with the change. A significant quote from Scott # The economic advantages to Meredith in the press release is the Meredith Agency are: making a this: considerable profit from the packag¬ '"For the first time," Meredith ing deal (possibly also a share of said, "science fiction and fantasy the profits on sales), as well as are demonstrating consistently the collecting an agent's fee from its power to reach beyond science orient¬ clients. The authors pay Meredith ed readers to broader national audi¬ and the publisher pays Meredith. ences. In addition to the extra¬ ordinary success of such recent # A change in editorial needs to movies as Star Wars, E.T., The Empire a more heavily-plotted, fast-paced, Strikes Back and , action-adventure science fiction and the genre has become so popular that ed and dead. I received the follow¬ THE AWARDS, THE AWARDS. It was a dark and stormy night; ing news release from Pocket's Anne the rain fell in toeerents-except Maitland dated June 28, 1983: NEBULA AWARDS at occasional intervals, when it was Presented by the Science Fiction 'Ronald Busch, president of Pock¬ checked by violent gusts of wind Writers of America on April 23, at et Books, and Scott Meredith, presi¬ which swept up the streets (for it the New York Statler-Hilton Hotel, dent of Scott Meredith Literary A- is in London that our scene lies), the winners were: gency, Inc., have mutually agreed to rattling along the housetops and dissolve the previously announced [Best Novel] by fiercely agitating against the science fiction and fantasy publish¬ . scanty flame of the laps that ing program, Starscope. struggled against the darkness. ANOTHER ORPHAN [Best Novella] by 'In making this announcement, Mr. John Kessell. Now the contest is over and Meredith stated, "although we still the winner is judged to be Gail Cain, believe that this co-publishing ven¬ "" [Best Novelette] by 38, a San Francisco echnical writer, ture represented a tremendous oppor¬ . whose entry reads thusly: tunity for the science fiction com¬ munity, a problem has arisen which "A Letter From The Clearys" [Best The camel died quite suddenly on has caused our two companies to make ] by Connie Willis. the second day, and Selena fretted sulkily and, buffing her already this decision. The problem, inci¬ Way to go, Connie! dentally, is entirely unrelated to impeccable nails—not for the first the recent controversy over whether time since the journey began-pon¬ or not an agent can be both a buyer dered snidely if this would dissolve into a vignette of minor inconveni¬ and a seller of literary properties." ences like all the other holidays 'With the dissolution of this 'Winners of the 10th annual Sat¬ spent with Basil. agreement, Mr. Busch wished to stress urn Awards given by The Academy of that Pocket Books remains strongly Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror committed to the successful publish¬ Films, June 30, 1983. Second prize went to Barbara Kroll, 57, an accounting teacher ing of science fiction and fantasy Best SF Film: E.T. from Kennett Square, PA, who enter¬ in both hardcover and paperback. At Best Fantasy Film: THE DARK CRYSTAL ed this: present. Pocket Books is actively Best Horror Film: POLTERGEIST looking for a new science fiction Best Low Budget Film: EATING RAOUL The sun oozed over the horizon, and editorial team.' Best International Film: THE ROAD shoved aside darkness, crept along WARRIOR the greensward, and, with sickly Well, this on-again, off-again Best Animated Film: THE SECRET OF fingers, pushed through the castle deal has got to be embarrassing to NINH window, revealing the pillaged prin¬ Pocket and Meredith. Did somebody Best Actor: , STAR cess, hand at throat, crown asunder, not read the fine print in their TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN gaping in frenzied horror at the contract? Was pressure applied to Best Actress: Sandahl Bergman, CONAN sated, sodden amphibian lying be¬ kill the deal from non-SFWA quarters? THE BARBARIAN side her, disbelieving the magnitude We may never know. Best Supporting Actor: Richard Lynch, of the toad's deception, screaming All that does seem to remain is THE SWORD AND THE SORCERER madly, "You lied!" a new editorial policy for the Pock¬ et sf and fantasy line, no matter Best Supporting Acress: Zelda Rubin¬ who is chosen to carry it out. stein, POLTERGEIST Now, okay, that's bad, but it's That can be seen from a quote Dest Direction: , STAR not a true or fair contest, because from "Talk of the Trade," a column TREK II these entries were written specific¬ written for PUBLISHERS WEEKLY by Best Music: , E.T. ally for the contest and are not Leonore Fleischer. She quotes Ron Best Special Effects: Carlo Rambaldi, really the opening sentences of Busch as follows: "Starscope will Dennis Muren, E.T. complete novels. And especially, be first of all comnercial, then, Best Costume: Elois Jenssen, Rosanna there are not the opening sentences hopefully, literary. We're not go¬ Norton, TRON of published novels! ing after big books, and we're not Best Make Up: Dorothy Pearl, POLTER¬ The Bulwer-Lytton effort was going to pay as much as we did; the GEIST in fact published. Best Screenplay: Melissa Matheson, science fiction fans are interested So, in fact, I consider Scott E.T. in fun and entertainment, and we're Rice's contest a fraud. Best Poster Art: John Alvin, E.T. going to give it to them." I urge SFR readers to send me Life Career Award: Martin B. Cohen But Pocket has at least nine their choices for worst-opening Posthumus Award: Buster Crabbe months of in the sentences [or paragraphs] of sf Service Award: Dr. Robert Kams 8 pipeline, and it will be Spring, or fantasy novels. Louis Ramsey 1984, before we'll see the first President's Award: Elsa Lanchester. of the new line. AFTERTHOUGHT: forget it. The opening paragraphs quoted by Darrell For further coverage of and Schweitzer in his review of STAR conmentary on this story, see Elton RIDERS OF REN win hands down. But Elliott's "Raising Hackles" column THE BULWER-LYTTON FICTION CONTEST if anyone has another entry.... this issue. [created by Scott Rice, an English Professor at San Jose State Univer¬ sity] asked for entries thought to be the worst opening line of a nov¬ el. The contest was inspired by the opening sentence of the 19th Century English writer, Bulwer- Lytton's novel, PAUL CLIFFORD. It ran thus: 6 stranglehold of the West's oil sup¬ plies from the Persian Gulf, dominate tpe sperm connectep Saudi Arabia, and rule der vorld! “TO DB . . ■ OVUM BO WE \ And, alas, all there will be to T>E OVUM BONE CONNECTED stand against the Russian hordes will TO 3E... UTERUS BOWE.f^ be a miniscule American force based tbE UTERVS KWE in...urn...where are they based? gowwec,te> to m... Well, there's that secret air TELVIS -BONE! base in Egypt... A few hundred mar¬ Wow HMH ie vJORi> ines in the Mediterranean_ An or >e mW> r aircraft carrier in the Gulf or the Indian Ocean n earby... 3>BM Bowes, All these sob stories seem to 1>EM -BONES, urge a strong expeditionary force ^OWKJA IWAUK in the Middle East, ready to repel AR.OUW& i Russian aggression at a moment's no¬ tice. [We own the planet, remember, and all those natives and others are only renters! ] But the Russians wouldn't dare invade Iran under any pretext. Such THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GEIS At present, because of citizen "outrage" the police department is a move would instantly turn every moslem in the world against them, # There has been an on-going drive assigning dozens of policemen and destroy their alliance/use of Syria, against street prostitution in Port¬ women to controlling street prosti¬ produce a Jihad against them, pro¬ land lately. Union Avenue (nearby) tution while the district attorney duce unrest in their own sizable being the focus. The TV stations is refusing to prosecute whole class¬ moslem minority in southern USSR, and love to drive along Union taking es of misdemeanor crimes---petty make enormous demands on the Russian footage of "the girls" loitering theft, vandalism, shoplifting, etc. economy it couldn't meet after a on the comers, occasionally talk¬ for lack of deputy D.A.s and clerks certain period. Considering the ing to men who slow or turn off Un¬ to handle all the paperwork. problems Russia is having with Af¬ ion and stop. Sex is still the bugaboo of the ghanistan and its 17 million people, The police have even set out Christian mentality. suitably dressed undercover police¬ imagine the resistance of Iran's 30 women to lure unwary men so that million. Further, any attempt to cut off 'soliciting for prostitution' charg¬ # The Israelis must be happy as or control oil to Europe and the es can be imposed on the 'johns'. clams at the way the PLO is falling U.S. would result in total trade But, alas, these media and police apart and fighting among itself. tactics haven't done much good. The embargoes—no more wheat, spare neighborhood groups of upright citi¬ In the meantime, the Israeli pol¬ parts, etc. The U.S. and Europe zens still report pickups, front- icy of settling the West Bank contin¬ would instantly offer arms and sup¬ seat blow-jobs, and harrassment of ues apace and their intent on keeping plies to the moslem rebels, and attractive, provocatively dressed southern Lebanon is hardening. They would emerge as saviors. young non-prostitute women on and have their new jet fighters from us, No American expeditionary force near Union by homy men in cars. and the Pope in Poland has monopoliz¬ is needed in the Middle East. Be Now the City Council is manfully ed the media for a couple weeks. wary and cynical of any push to es¬ and womanfully debating ordinances The bomb/sniper attacks against tablish one; the intent will be to which would impose fines of $300 to the Israeli soldiers in Lebanon are intimidate local rulers, not Russia. $500 on the girls and their customers, perceived in the U.S. as dirty-pool and additionally, 7 to 30-day jail and the Israelis are once more the sentences for repeaters. victims in our eyes. Everyone seems to be in favor of I expect the Isrealis forces this 'cracking down' on street pros¬ to draw back to the Litani river # Liberal/media doublethink is evi¬ titution. They don't consider the eventually, but the twenty-twenty- dent in the stories about how John F. consequences. Which are: more clog¬ five miles from the northern Israeli Kennedy selectively recorded phone ging of the courts with prostitutes border to the Litani will be held conversations and person-to-person and johns demanding jury trials, indefinitely as a buffer, and per¬ talks in his office in the White more bodies taking up space in the haps eventually annexed. House. already overcrowded prisons and There's not a word about the il¬ jails, and more switching by the legality of what saint JFK did, or girls to off-street meeting places # There have been a spate of news of the immorality of such recordings. and call-girl activity. stories lately about how, when Kho¬ He is absolved of guilt, of crime, What is really involved here is meini dies, Iran will become a chaot¬ of unethical behavior. the Visibility Quotient of prostitu¬ ic battlefield as various moslem and Only Richard Nixon is a criminal tion. Keep it discrete, girls, and communist parties vie for power. for having done the same thing years The theory goes that the current¬ no problem. (Xit of sight, out of later. mind. ly oppressed Tudeh coimunist party in What I can't really understand Iran will seize power and imnediately is why these girls ply the streets ask Russia to help it stay in power, in the first place. They're social whereupon Russia will send in its lightning rods. Angry Christian currently poised divisions in Russia # Elton Elliott likes to tweak women band together around and Afghanistan and overrun Iran, me about the roaring bull market the core of male preachers who have take control of the Persian Gulf and in stocks. Late last year I wrote ulterior motives, to attack the put a lock on the crucial Strait of that the stock market would soon street prostitutes and the local Hormuz, and thus put a geopolitical porno theater. ALIEN THOUGHTS CONTINUED ON P. 63 | THE TREASURE OF THE SECRET CORDWAINER

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Rod MzBan leading an armed re¬ Here are some other teasers for bellion of cat people? With Lord you: Jestocost calling in the High Space # Would you believe that Paul Fleet to put it down? M.A. Linebarger (the man behind You don't remember reading it Gordwainer Smith) wrote his own It is best to begin at the be¬ that way in ? Well, do book about dianetics in 1959? ginning: Genevieve Linebarger, wid¬ you remember such # Ever hear of a literary mag¬ ow of Paul, died in November, 1981. stories as "The Archer and the azine called THE F0UR1H DECADE? Her passing went unnoticed by the Deep?" or "How the Dream Lords That was another Linebarger project fan press at the time, because her Died?" or even "Fluminescent, Lum¬ for a few months in 1934. family and friends had no contact inescent?" with it — one sf newsletter that # What about a mainstream nov¬ I won't keep you in suspense. did learn of the the follow¬ el, GENERAL flEATH, in which an "ed¬ You did read "Fluminescent, Lumin¬ ing February never reported it. ucated man with a good knowledge of escent," or could have: That was firearms" goes on a campaign of ran¬ The old Linebarger home on 29th just an alternate title for his dom killing? Street N.W., Washington, D.C., was story published as "Under Old left crannied with all sorts of be¬ Earth." But "The Archer and the longings (neither Paul nor Genev¬ # Does it amuse you to know Deep" has never been published. And ieve ever seems to have thrown any¬ that the very first SF Linebarger "How the Dream Lords Died" was nev¬ thing out). Among them were a huge wrote was "The Mad God of Mars," er written -- but there are notes number of manuscripts, notes, cor¬ an unfinished Burroughs pastiche? for it. respondence and miscellany related As for that armed rebellion of to Paul's career --- some in rela¬ tive order, others just scattered cat people, it comes from an early about. draft of NORSTRILIA -- Smith's on¬ ly novel, and one that turns out to Most of the Linebarger papers, have undergone a startling metamor¬ chiefly related to his political, phosis between the time it was diplomatic and military career, but first conceived in 1958 (under the BY J.l. PIERCE ""j possibly including some sf material working title of STAR-CRAVING MAD) that got in by accident (no expert and completion of the final draft advice or assistance was ever sought in 1963. 8 in taking inventory of the papers as far as I can determine), went to that the game wars lasted a few cen¬ "The Queen of the Afternoon," which the Hoover Institute at Stanford turies -- until the world popula¬ I know had been making the rounds University. Other material, includ¬ tion reached 31 billion and the unsuccessfully; and "The Cravat of ing specially bound volumes of pub¬ real Ancient Wars broke out, leav¬ the Brilliant Stars," which is set lished works, went to Linebarger's ing Earth a wilderness inhabited on Olympia in the late instrument¬ daughters. by "saints and morons" preyed on ality period. The second may be by a "few man-hunting machines." publishable, but I can see why the The rest, consisting of enough first never sold. material to fill three tall shelves "War No. 81-Q" was rewritten in a bookcase about four feet wide, for possible inclusion in the Cord¬ Even in "The Queen of the After¬ was consigned to Larry McMurtry, a wainer Smith collection then in the noon,” Genevieve had gone against neighborhood book dealer and author planning stages at Regency Books. what I think was the original tenor (THE LAST PICTURE SHOW), and even¬ This was published as "You Will Nev¬ of the unfinished story; Juli Vom- tually sold to the University of er be the Same" but Linebarger's Acht in the original fragment was Kansas. reports that suggested title was "Strange Ladies an unpleasant character, possibly one of his students there already and Mad Lovers: Romances from the representing the evil side of the plans a doctoral dissertation based Plunging ." Vomact family. Just what Paul in¬ on the material in the collection. tended to do with her, I'm not sure A memorandum dated November 11, -- the fragment ends with the illeg¬ I myself was able to spend six 1961, with a list of suggested con¬ al people taking her to the Wise hours one day last sunner going over tents, mentions yet another story, Old Bear, who does not recognize the McMurtry material—only enough "My Love is Lost in the Null of her as "another one." time to scratch the surface, to get Nought." In a letter November 26, some idea of the contents of various Linebarger refers to it again, this More jarring, chronologically, ring binders, bound volumes, note¬ time as "She Lost Her Love in the was that Genevieve wanted to put books, etc., without being able to Null of Nought," indicating he would underpeople, the, Old Strong Relig¬ read through them except for various not be able to get it finished in ion, etc., into this story -- I got sf manuscripts I '.eroxed. It's the time for Regency. her to remove most of that, but science fiction that SFR readers still wasn't entirely satisfied I wasn't able to find any copy are chiefly interested in, of course, with the result. I'd had the idea of this story -- finished or unfin¬ so I'll lead off with that. of putting in the Jwindz, but had ished --in the collection at Book¬ imagined them as far more fearsome ed Up. But the November 11 memo than Genevieve made them (I was gives its length as eight pages and First, there are two complete thinking of the E-telekeli's refer¬ from the title and the length, I unpublished SF manuscripts by Paul ences (Norstrilia, P. 211) to "oth¬ think this may have been a revision Linebarger himself that would have ers in the Earth -- the ones who of "Himself in Anachron" (original¬ to be part of any complete collect¬ came after the Ancient World fell."). ly written in 1946), which Gene¬ ed works of Cordwainer Smith. vieve Linebarger reworked in the One of these, "The Archer and early 1970s for Harlan Ellison's "The Saga of the Third Sister" the Deep," is actually a fantasy LAST . again introduces elements from thou¬ about a precognitive dream that sands of years later in the Instru¬ In the November 11 memo, Paul comes true. It was originally writ¬ mentality chronology -- specifical¬ Linebarger included "Nancy" as part ten in 1941 and submitted to UN¬ ly the , the Rat and the Copt, of his (something KNOWN in 1942 (according to a log whose visions from Space are refer¬ that wasn't evident to me from the of submissions in one of the note¬ red to in NORSTRILIA and the Casher text when I had it included in THE books). It was rewritten in 1961 O'Neill stories. Apparently Gene¬ INSTRUMENTALITY OF MANKIND); more¬ and submitted to . vieve Linebarger was more interest¬ over, he offered to supply Regency ed in the period of the underpeople Incidentally, another story, a "chronological table" for the and the Old Strong Religion than in "Alauda Dalma," was also submitted history. If only he had been taken that of the Dark Age (which may to UNKNOWN in 1942. I remember up on that offer; as has been re¬ seeing this story 10 years ago in ported before, a 1957-65 notebook a bound volume of manuscripts (pub¬ on which most of the chronology was lished and unpublished) dating from based is lost. 1937 to 1955. This particular vol¬ ume is not in the collection Mc- Mirtry received; I hope it has not Genevieve Linebarger left two been lost. unpublished Cordwainer Smith stor¬ ies of her own. As is doubtless The other complete unpublished known to most readers here, she had story is a revised 1961 version of collaborated with Paul on some sto¬ "War No. 81-Q." In its original ries -- "The Lady Who Sailed the form, this had been Linebarger's Soul” and "Golden the Ship Was, (Si, first published SF story --in the Oh, Oh," in particular. She revis¬ 1928 ADJUTANT, yearbook of Central ed "Himself in Anachron" for Elli¬ High School in Washington D.C. son, as noted above; and in 1977, where Linebarger was a 15-year-old on commission from me at GALAXY, student at the time. she did "The Queen of the Afternoon" based on an unfinished story of THE INSTRUMENTALITY OF MANKIND Paul's from 1955. "Down to a Sun¬ (1979), last volume in Ballantine less Sea" (1974) was entirely Gene¬ Books' Cordwainer Smith series, vieve's work. included the original -1928 version. The two unpublished works by The revised version fleshes out the Genevieve Linebarger are "The Saga story, and also integrates it clar- of the Third Sister" a sequel to ly into the Cordwainer Smith future history. We leam, for example. 9 have been conceived before she met Titled "The Weapons," and dated and married Paul. January 7, 1945, it suggests a "fu¬ ture or imaginary world" in which Although it may be out of ord¬ humanity must always be on guard er, this seems a good place to bring against the old weapons, "perpetual up the surviving Cordwainer Smith and automatic," surviving from an notebooks, because they -- even old and forgotten war. These un¬ more than most of the unpublished named weapons were clearly the basis stories and fragments -- bear on for the "manshonyaggers" in "Scan¬ some of the mysteries raised in ners" -- written just a few months the published canon. later: a log of submissions shows One notebook was kept in 1965- it was sent to ASTOUNDING July 18, 66, after the loss of the main note¬ 1945 and returned August 31 with a book, and includes ideas for sever¬ note (from John W. Campbell, obvious¬ al stories -- including "The Robot, ly) calling it "too extreme." the Rat and the Copt," which was Evidence is strong that the en¬ originally conceived of as a single tire background of "" was story but later as a cycle of four worked out in the six months from stories, rather like the Casher January to July 1945. In earlier O'Neill stories. articles, I had theorized that there The notes are quite sketchy; might have been earlier stories fore took the rat was to have been named (possibly earlier versions of the place over a shorter period than R'obert, and there was to have been previously estimated. origins of the Vomacts) written a Coptic planet. In another note before "Scanners," but I didn't (included in a ring binder of "New Other story ideas in the 1965- find any evidence, of such (another Science Fiction by Cordwainer SmitH' 66 notebook don't add as much to log records stories written each -- of which more later), there is a the future history, but are intrigj- year from 1927 through 1966 -- al¬ list of Coptic words. One of these ing nonetheless. though oddly, it omits some like is "Shenuda," or "God lives" -- I One, dated November 6, 1965 "Alauda Dalma," from the missing wouldn't be surprised if that were (OUR TIME, in which the Dream Lords bound volume). to have been used as the name for story was conceived April 1, 1966) the Copt in the story cycle. has to do with a remote, prosper¬ The other SF idea from "Future As was obvious in any case from ous world in which one-parents gamb¬ Works" doesn't seem to relate dir¬ references in published stories, le on the future of newly-issued ectly to the future history, al¬ "The Robot, the Rat and the Copt" children. This evidently has to do though it might. In a projected was to have been the most explicit¬ with the social and legal relation¬ novel, the U.S. is nearly destroyed ly religious of Cordwainer Smith's ships between children and their in a future war. One Samuel Schall SF works, with the protagonists en¬ one-parents, two-parents and three- is crowned as Lord Samuel, and pro¬ countering Christ in the extra-dim¬ parents (terminology used in "Under ceeds to unleash plagues against Old Earth," but not explained), who ensional location where He "had the other nations in revenge. This take turns raising the children. really been and always was exper¬ idea, dated November 11, 1946, The note for the story is clearly- ienced," and being converted to might relate to the Lords of the worded, but still cryptic because Christianity by their "pentecostal Instrumentality -- but the Chiefs of all the unknown thinking behind experience" there. of the Instrumentality had already it. been referred to in "Scanners." The same 1965-66 notebook in¬ Still another unwritten story What is more definite, based cludes ideas for other stories, was to have been about a Go-Captain on early drafts of NORSTILIA and most set in the late period but one, who has a mysterious experience in other works, is that details about "How the Dream Lords Died," dated space and is treated as a lunatic the late period of Cordwainer 6111 A.D. Undoubtedly set even be¬ on his matter-of-fact home world. Smith's future history changed con¬ fore the period of "Mark ," it In yet another, a forlorn suitor siderably between 1958 and 1962. would have been about the downfall manages to have the crushed head It should be noted that several of these Lords, who used drugs and of his would-be bride, killed in an stories published later, including telepathy to operate 12,000 slave accident, regrown on Shayol and re¬ "Nancy," "When the People Fell" brains each -- apparently for the implanted with her personality. ("The Goonhogo Itself on Venus"), purpose of spying on other times, And one note is simply the name of "Golden the Ship Was, Oh, Oh, like some of the future men of Sta- a character -- the Lord Sto Dva, Oh" ("The Lords of the Instrument¬ pledon's LAST AND FIRST MEN. I evidently a successor to the Lord ality") and "From Gustible's Plan¬ think these are obviously the "oth¬ Sto Odin of "Under Old Earth." et" ("The Big Lick") were all writ¬ ers in the Earth" referred to in ten in 1958. NORSTRILIA, as cited earlier. Another notebook, entitled "Fu¬ ture Works," dates from the 1940s, STAR-CRAVING MAD was the work¬ Aside from the interest of the and includes poetry, notes on cur¬ ing title of the novel that became story idea itself, the date suggests rent events and plans for main¬ NORSTRILIA, and it was begun in that the Dark Age in Smith's chron¬ stream fiction and non-fiction as April 1958 (not 1960, as I had been ology lasted considerably longer well as a couple of SF story ideas told some years ago by Genevieve than I had estimated in the chart (one of the poems, incidentally, Linebarger). A number of complete I did for THE BEST OF CORDWAINER written in 1944, is "Tell Me Love”, chapters were written during the SMITH -- perhaps several thousand used later in NORSTRILIA). One of spring and early simmer of 1958, years longer. That WQUld mean, of the SF ideas clearly relates to with stannaries of chapters not writ¬ course, that the social evolution the gestation of the background for ten; after which the project seems that began with the period of re¬ "." to have been given up for a while, birth ("Scanners Live in Vain") and although a new version of at least ended with the bland just be¬ 10 one chapter was begun in late 1959. Still later, chapters of key scenes future history that included NORS- Boulevard, for example, may have that are closer in letter and spir¬ TRILIA and all the shorter works been the Originals. And the Bright it to the published version were related to it. It was during this Ones may have sponsored the Inter- written --by that time (1961 or period that the martyrdom of D'Joan world Dance Festival in "No, No, later), such other stories as "The and the spiritual role of the under¬ Not Regov;" the Bright Empire men¬ Ballad of Lost C'Mell," "Alpha Ral- people, along with the treatment tioned in NORSTRILIA may also be pha Boulevard," "Think Blue, Gount of the Lords as philosophers and associated with them. TVro" and "A Planet Named Shayol" their sponsorship of the Rediscovery The same early draft of "The were also written, at least in of Man, all developed in Linebarg¬ Ballad of Lost C'Mell," which does their initial form. er' s mind. not seem to have gotten past the The first draft of STAR-CRAVING There were continuing changes first three pages, also credits MAD -- which itself changed some¬ in background detail too, as re¬ Lord Redlady with having reintro¬ what as it was being written -- dif¬ vealed by mss. in the "New Science duced the old diseases to Earth. fers in nearly all concrete details Fiction..." binder). An early But the rationale for this isn't from NORSTILIA, although the set¬ draft of "The Ballad of Lost C'Mell" that given laterin "Alpha Ralpha tings and the main characters (Nor- ("Where is the Which of the What She Boulevard." It is, rather, a de¬ strilia. Old Earth, McBan, Jesto- Did") opens with an extended pro¬ fensive military strategy: If cost, C'Mell) are the same. The logue that gives the entire history Earth has illnesses natives can most striking difference is that of Earth from ancient times to the survive but outsiders can't, would- there isn't any religious element time (well past C'Mell's, evidently) be invaders will think twice be¬ at all, nor any clear reference to the story was "written" or "told." fore attacking. anything resembling the Rediscovery Our times are referred to as Yet the seeds for the Rediscov¬ of Man. the Second Ancient Days, which came ery of Man are hinted at even in before the First Ancient Days but The E'tellikelli appears, but STAR-CRAVING MAD, where C'Mell's strictly as a secular leader. There were discovered later. Following father C'Mackintosh is described, isn't any Holy Insurgency -- only a the Long Nothing came the rule of not as an athlete, but as a "lic¬ political rebellion of the under¬ the Dwellers, who restored the cit¬ ensed robber" at a savage park in people. McBan -- called simply Ar¬ ies and clustered around the ruins Mississippi. Such parks are a thur McBan CLI in this draft -- is left by the Daimoni -- including means for mankind to "keep the not hailed by anyone as a Christ Earthport Gulosan. Then the Orig¬ peace within its own troubed and figure. But he is more a man of inals, invaders who came from the complex soul." They are apparently action, involving~himself in the stars. Then the Bright Ones, who a long-standing institution, how¬ rebellion for the sake of C'Mell. ruled after true men and undermen ever; not part of a revolutionary The first draft was never finished, drove out the Originals -- the program to bring freedom and excite¬ but the plan seemed to be for the Bright Ones were patrons of music, ment back to mankind. dance and other arts; they built underpeople to seize spacecraft Another stage in Linebarger's the peace square at Anfang. The from a largely undefended Earth thinking may be represented by a "temporary rule of Lord Redlady" which hadn't known war for centur¬ one-page fragment, "Strange Men and and the fall of the perfect men are ies) and flee to the stars. The Doomed Ladies." Although it has a associated with this period, which E'tellikelli's main concern is that date of September 16, 1961, it reads was followed by the High Cruel Years mankind never learns that it has as if it had been written a year or and yet another invasion by the been defeated by a superior power two earlier (perhaps the date is a Pure, who yet rule when the story (and the underpeople are superior typo, or refers to Linebarger's note is told. to true men in many respects, it to himself at the end). Among other develops), lest it hunt down and things the story would have provid¬ destroy them to the ends of the un¬ Some of this chronology was ed a background for a character iverse. certainly changed. The Daimoni, named John Huss, used in a chapter for example, are referred to in NOR- for STAR-CRAVING MAD/NORSTRILIA Lord Jestocost, in this early STRILIA and elsewhere as having draft, is portrayed as a shrewd, written 1959 -- but dropped from come at a far later time to build later drafts. but cruel leader -- without his Earthport and other wonders. But name ("cruelty" in Russian) having other elements were kept. Those any of the ironic inport given it In this fragment. Lord Jesto¬ who brought tribute up Alpha Ralpha by the background later developed cost pushes through a policy to in "The Dead Lady of Clown Town." There is much political intrigue involving Teadrinker and others, while B'dikkat (later used in "A Planet Named Shayol") appears as a spy sent by Jestocost to learn about tiie rebellion -- and killed for his trouble. But there isn't any real moral conflict within the Instru¬ mentality, and if there is any real theme, it is that of the true men inadvertently having created super¬ men in the form of the underpeople.

If Genevieve Linebarger was in any sense right about Paul's serious illness in 1960 leading to NORSTRIL- IA, it would seem that that illness actually led to the wide-ranging revision of the Cordwainer Smith let the "spoiled" -- the diseased, rather than just a young man of in¬ of it), but Linebarger evidently crippled, over-brilliant or over¬ determinate profession. Both var¬ thought there was something valuab¬ stupid -- live on instead of being iants experiment with the odd nar¬ le in dianetics, despite having res¬ put to happy deaths: "Let them be, rative techniques and poetic word- ervations about L. Ron Hubbard's and let us see." There isn't any rhythms that were becoming increas¬ version. He called Hubbard's DIA¬ mention of Lady Alice More or the ingly prominent in Cordwainer Smith NETICS "complicated, brilliant, dog¬ Rediscovery of Man -- both central stories, yet neither resembles the matic doctrine" as opposed to his to "," pub¬ final opening in any detail. own "relatively simple" theory. lished in mid-1961 -- but Lady Jo¬ Material in the collection in¬ The use of the term "mutual hanna Gnade is reported opposed to dicates that Linebarger had several aid" is intriguing, since this is the new policy, which is to "bring ways of writing his stories. Some, associated with the theories of the disaster in its wake." The note at he sat down and typed out as soon Russian anarchist Pyotr Kropotkin. the end advises, "Work out more as inspiration came -- the 1940s Kropotkin isn't mentioned, however, plot," and to base it on "I'll Be notebook does not have any note at least not in the introduction. a Witch" -- one working title for for "Scanners Live in Vain," and The stress in the book seems to be "The Dead Lady of Clown Town." the reason must be that he wrote on method rather than theory in any Clearly there are still mys¬ the story immediately. In other case: "I am a great deal happier teries in the development of the cases, he would jot down the idea now than I was two years ago when Rediscovery of Man, let alone the for the story in a notebook, and I began testing some of these tech¬ Holy Insurgency and other thematic write it later. niques." keystones of the late Instrumental¬ Some stories were dictated off IXiell, Sloan and Pierce, pub¬ ity stories. the top of his head. STAR-CRAVING lisher of Linebarger's mainstream Future scholars will marvel at MAD is one such case; there are fiction, turned down PATHEMATICS, how drastically Linebarger's style notes about the recording disks in¬ which was bylined Carmichael Smith shifted in succeeding drafts of volved, apparently intended as aids -- the same pseudonym used for AT- NORSTRILIA and other works; it's to either Linebarger himself or a ONEK (1949), the espionage thril¬ almost like canparing STEPHEN HERO second party, such as his wife or ler set in the Soviet Union. There with PORTRAIT OF IHE ARTIST AS A secretary, in transcribing them. isn't any evidence he made further YOUNG MAN. "" is perhaps And in yet other cases -- "Strange efforts to market the 36,000-word the most extreme example. First Men and Doomed Ladies," for example treatise. written in 19S5 as "Hie Colonel --he seems to have started stories The psychiatric aspect of Line¬ Came Back from Nothing at All," which, if they didn't jel inrnedi- barger's writing naturally brings it was revised in 1958 under that ately, would be abandoned until his up another --a theory promoted by title and involved the first man to subconscious as well as his consc¬ Leon Stover and that lanoform --no mention of Space, ious mind could work them out. Linebarger was the real-life vers¬ et along Arthur Rimbaud's poetry. "Dictate this sanetime," begins the ion of "Kirk" in Robert Lindner's note to himself at the end of that In 1963, Linebarger took up the THE FIFTY MINUTE HOUR. "Kirk", "Strange Men ..." fragment. story again, going through at least for those who don't already know, two variant openings before com¬ A few years ago, Genevieve Line¬ allegedly imagined himself to be pleting the final draft. Both var¬ barger referred to recordings of the hero of a popular science fic¬ iants make explicit references to still other stories, or notes for tion series. Linder diagnosed his Rimbaud, citing "Le Bateau Ivre" stories, which she had never trans¬ retreat into a fantasy identity as and even quoting from it. A vari¬ cribed because she was too squeamish having steraned from teenage seduc¬ ant title, "Archipelagoes of Stars," about listening to the voice of a tion by a family maid. is based on a line from Rimbaud, and dead man. At the time, I informed in one of the variants, "Art" in members of the Washington Science It is rather annoying that this theory has gained the status of the story is said to be a "singer" Fiction Society, Harlan Ellison (a great admirer of Cordwainer established fact, being enshrined Smith) and others -- but nobody ever in a science fiction encyclopedia did anything about the recordings. and being treated (so it seems to Unless they went to the Hoover Ins¬ me, at least) as if it were the titute or the daughters, they must only thing worth knowing about have been thrown out by someone Linebarger. Of course, it may turn failing to realize their value dur¬ out to be true, but there is noth¬ ing dispositien of the estate. ing in the McMirtry collection to prove it. Whether other records will turn up elsewhere, I cannot say. Mast of the McMirtry collection isn't science fiction. TVro classes There are some intriguing of manuscripts account for the bulk notes, apparently related to ses¬ of it: several mainstream novels, sions of psychotherapy or ¬ and a vast amount of juvenilia; fic¬ analysis that took place in 1948. tion and non-fiction written betweai There is reference to somebody nam¬ 1927 and 1932. But the most unusu¬ ed Ruth, all mention of whom was al¬ al manuscript of the lot is PATHE- legedly suppressed by Linebarger's MATICS (1950), subtitled ETHICAL mother, and cryptic references to nWNETICS: THE LAY PSYCHOTHERAPY OF people designated "X" or "Y" that MUTUAL EMOTIONAL AID. apparently relate to Linebarger's first marriage and to pre-marital I didn't have time to read or extra-marital affairs, but no¬ through this or any others among thing pointing to the fantasy life the longer mss. (except for STAR¬ Lindner described for "KirkV" CRAVING MAD, after making a xerox Linebarger's juvenilia origin¬ 12 ally ran to 18 volumes, a number of which appear to have been lost -- literature. Hardly a profound in¬ either over several decades since sight, but it indicates Linebarger their compilation or during the re¬ was thinking seriously about science cent breakup of the estate. From fiction, among other things. a corsory examination, most of it is no better than one would expect In 1927 his first essay dated of juvenile writing: it is notable his discovery of SF to reading that the original 1928 version of Verne's TWENTY-THOUSAND LEAGUES UN¬ "War No. 81-Q" is no better than DER THE SEA. He quickly read the the other fiction he was writing rest of Verne, then discovered AMAZ¬ at the same time or even two or ING STORIES. Reading the magazine three years later. led to his discovery of Wells, sev¬ eral of whose major works were re¬ printed therein. All in all a con¬ Much, if not most of the juven¬ ventional introduction to science ilia comprises the FANTASTIKON -- fiction -- Linebarger evidently a literary conceit inspired by Boc¬ had not then come across more unus¬ caccio's DECAMERON. Although the ual works like Alfred Doblin's collective title implies a great GIGANTEN. deal of fantasy and science fiction, THE FOURTH DECADE, "a magazine most of the stories seem to have story of a gun collector turned for new writers," appeared in 1934 been historical or Oriental. There mass murderer doesn't seem to have with Linebarger apparently the pub¬ are also examples of poetry, drama aroused any interest. After Paul's lisher --it was copyrighted in his death, Genevieve Linebarger tried and essays. Some of the volumes name, at any rate. But the only to interest her agent in both GEN¬ are in Linebarger's original hand¬ works recognizable as his (all or ERAL DEATH and a 1947 manuscript, writing; others are typed; a few most of the "other" writers, of are retyped versions of handwritten THE DEAD CAN BITE. Both were dis¬ course, may have been himself under mss. missed as "dated." pseudonyms) are a couple of Chinese Besides "The Mad God of Mars" poems translated by "Anthony Bear¬ THE DEAD CAN BITE was a Carmich¬ (1928), early SF works include "Cel¬ den" -- Genevieve Linebarger once ael Smith novel, originally titled estial Recoil" (intended as a par¬ told me he used that name for his SARMATIA and later referred to in ody of some of Einstein's ideas) and own poetry in various little maga¬ Linebarger's correspondence as MR. "Stella Sinenova" from the same zines, although I have never found TREASON. Apparently the pseudonym year. "Stella Sinenova" is of any of it. annoyed one of the readers at Duell, some historical interest, as it in¬ Sloan and Pearce. "Why this Car¬ Several mainstream novels date volves a Chinese conquest of Venus michael Smith dodge?” she asked af¬ from the 1940s. As most readers --an idea used much later in "When ter recognizing the same style from are aware (even if they haven't the People Fell." There isn't any the works of "Forrest" and another read them, or even been able to other resemblance, however; the novel Linebarger had submitted the find them), Linebarger's published 1928 work takes the form of an offi¬ year before under his wife's name works included RIA and CARD LA cial report by the Chinese govern¬ (TIME BEYOND PHILLIP). 'He can’t (both as "Felix C. Forrest") as ment, full of dull statistics. Per¬ disguise his writing any more than well as AT0M5K. One of the unpub¬ haps it was intended as a parody of he can hide his fascination with lished works, JOURNEY IN SEARCH OF government reports. bureaucracy and his love for schol¬ A DESTINATION, seems to be a joint arly-scientific la-dee-da." One of the missing volumes of sequel to the Forrest novels, since juvenile works is from 1930, and both Ria and Carola appear as char¬ called THE BOOKS OF FUTURITY. Its acters. But its proposed byline Still other mainstream works chief interest is that one of the was J.W. Doublewood, a pseudonym were never finished. WEST OF TOM0R- works contained in it was the first never used in any published work. RCW set in Hong Kong, seems to have version of "The Fife of Bodhidhar- been a combination novel-travelogue. ma," which was revised at least Notes and correspondence in ANGROK was a historical novel set twice before seeing publication in various folders indicate that J.W. in the reign of the Ceylonese king 1959. Other works in the volume Doublewood, rather than Felix C. Sri Radjasa (1144-69). TIME BEYOND bear the cryptic but intriguing ti¬ Forrest, was used for the original IHILLIP, submitted as by Margaret tles of "Amaziah Ssong Must Die," manuscript of CAROLA, then titled S. Linebarger, I didn't have time "Die Grosse Alvorafrage," "The Age MANY NOVEMBERS. once to even glance at. This may be of Bitterness" and "Conversations remarked that RIA and CAROLA remind¬ the same work referred to in one of with Lincoln Richter." ed him of Robert Briffault's novels the logs as THE ROGUE IN THE GALL¬ EUROPA and EURDPA IN LIMBO. It is ERY, begun in 1939 and "conpleted" Among the essays are neo-Socrat- fascinating, then, that CAROLA turns by Margaret. As late as 1951, there ic exercises such as the PANSOPHIK- out to have been submitted for com¬ was a chapter of a projected work, ON, dealing with "the problem of ment in 1948 to Herma Briffault, MHHTY CLOSE TO HEAVEN. After knowledge and the state," and the Robert's widow -- only she compared that, only science fiction and non¬ TELEOKRATIKON, about the role of a "Forrest" to Sartre. fiction writing. "reigning purpose" in human affairs --with the Soviet Union as an ex¬ Linebarger's first attenqpt at Se\eral bound volumes from the ample. Both date from 1932, as a major novel, GENERAL DEATH, was 1950s contain scores of reviews, does another essay on H.G. Wells started in 1939, but abandoned for published and unpublished. Mast almost a decade. It was evidently are on non-fiction works of social which characterizes him as "the and political interest, such as little British Confucious," and intended as a philosophical-psycho- Hannah Arendt's ORIGINS OF TOTALI¬ argues that just as Confucius long¬ logical thriller, akin in some re¬ TARIANISM. One review from 1958 ed for the utopia of the past and spects to Colin Wilson's novels of is of science fictional interest, put it ahead of any love for liter¬ criminal like RITUAL IN ature, Wells put his ]onging for THE DARK. Completed in 1948, this however. Written for ARMY magazine^ it praises C.L. Kombluth's NOT the utopia of the future ahead of 13 THIS AUGUST for its understanding taught for many years, it would be a particularly appropriate for a major program on Cordwainer Smith. Maybe we can even get Tony Lewis to follow through with an idea he had about ten years ago for a fannish Honored Confraternity of Scanners. Let Lord Jestocost and C'Mell be seen again at the masquerade. Let Earthport Tower be seen in the art show. Let 1983 usher in the Redis¬ covery of Smith.

ASSORTED ALTERNATE TITLES:

NORSTRILIA (1963 draft): STAR-CRAVING MAD; THE BOY WHO BOUGHT THE PLANET EARTH; EVERY¬ BODY’S FOND OF MONEY; RODERICK FREDERICK RONALD ARNOLD WILLIAM MACARTHUR MC BAN CLI; THE LOVER of military problems. More import¬ age as a legendary past, seems a WHO LOVED AND LOST C'MELL; THE ant, careful study of the review logical candidate to contribute to STARS OF EXPERIENCE. volumes should shed a great deal of a volume of Cordwainer Smith pas¬ light on what Linebarger thought of tiches. Sandra also suggests Gene "On the Gem Planet": major social, political and moral Wolfe -- another fan (I can't re¬ "The Wise Old Horse on Pontippi- issues of the day. member who) thought of him immed¬ don." iately when I suggested the idea. "Drunkboat": The important thing would be for "Archipelagoes of Stars." the writers to convey the feel of authentic Cordwainer Smith stories "The Good Friends": (perhaps they should be put under "Those Gold Old Friends of Mine." hypnosis and encouraged to dream up There is much more than scholar¬ "The Dead Lady of Clown Town": stories based on Smith's ideas). ly interest to the collection, how¬ "The Dead Lady Pane Ashash;" ever --an interest that goes be¬ Whether or not we shall ever be "The Brown and Yellow Corridor;" yond the two complete unpublished able to read "The Robot, the Rat "I'll Be a Witch;" "Never Never stories. An idea that seems to me and the Copt," or "How the Dream Underpeople." to be irresistible -- and which I Lords Died," I hope the discovery "Golden the Ship Was, Oh, Oh, Oh;" hope could be realized -- is for of the Cordwainer Smith collection "The Lords of the Instrumentality.'' rights to be negotiated with the will encourage renewed fahnish as estate for new Cordwainer Smith well as scholarly interest in his "When the People Fell": stories based on the notes and frag¬ work. As of this writing, Smith "The Goonhogo Itself on Venus;" ments. I mentioned the idea recent¬ was one of the "neglected author^' "The Taking of Venus;" "A Rain of ly to Sandra Misel, feeling that discussed at one of the Chicon pan¬ People." now that she has become a profes¬ els. It seems a shame that he "Think Blue, Count Two": sional novelist and taking note of should be neglected, his works laps¬ her religious interests, she might ing out of print, when he surely de¬ "Lady if a Man ..." one day consider tackling "The Ro¬ serves as much popularity as LeGuin "From Gustible's Planet": bot, the Rat and the Copt." or Zelazny or Delany. "The Mg Lick."- , whose NIGHT- "Mother Hitton's Littul Kittons": WINGS succeeded in conveying a 1983 being scheduled "The Robber, the Woman and the sense of time similar to that in for , home of Johns Hop¬ Moon;" "Benjacomin Bozart;" Smith's stories that treat "our" kins University, where Linebarger "To Wake, to Kill, to Die."

"A Planet Named Shayol": "People Never Live Forever." YOU HAVE: f*EEM IU THE "The Ballad of Lost C'Mell": "She Got the Which of the What She Did." "Three to a Given Star": "In Praise of Folly." "Under Old Earth": "The Sum is Null;" "The Douglas- Ouyang Planets;" "Put a Double on the Dark Remote;" "Akhnaton Retold;" "Fluminescent, Lumin¬ escent." "On the Storm Planet": “T'Ruth."-

14 abandoned by academics in the "pre-conceptions" are then appli¬ figures show. A little of that field, and Elton's offering, "SF ed to more data, etc. In no case stuff goes a long way, a point not is all about . .. scientific and does data acquire meaning until too often realized by editors and technological change," is incredi¬ "pre-conceptions" are formed and publishers with terming instincts bly naive. It describes a great applied. A successful writer, who saw the $$$$$$$ earned by a few deal of written history, hundreds by the consistent manipulation of exceptional fantasy titles and forth¬ of historical novels, many fantas¬ detail, leads a reader along pre¬ with jumped in with hundreds of ies, a good deal of anthropology, cisely this spiral path, until an imitations. And who can blame the half the work of the Rand Corpor¬ image of the "reality" of the writers who got the word from agents ation think-tanks and philosophy "world" of the text is establish¬ and editors-"fantasy's in!" and from Plato to Wittgenstein. Of ed in the readers' minds. Of who then wrote big, fat, dull copy¬ course, he meant to limit what's course that image may be shatter¬ cat novels to fill the 'needs'. included to "science fiction," so ed by comparison with the data ((The inherently small genre perhaps we can exclude "learned which reaches the reader from the fantasy market was inundated with literatures" by defining litera¬ so-called "real world" after he product and the hard sf readers ture as "fiction." But that still ceases to read. But this would were turned off and turned away. includes a lot he obviously does apply equally to readers of "fan¬ ((We'll probably see another not want inside his favored en- tasy" and "science fiction," it trend soon, and new (I hope) market¬ seems to me. ing techniques to reach the computer oriented class of people which is 'And right away it brings us 'Why bother with all this? growing by bounds and leaps. Prob¬ Because somebody ought to point to another problem, defining fic¬ ably a magazine titled COMPUTER SCI¬ tion. We can always go back to out that both Elton's analysis of ENCE FICTION would succeed.)) the old pointing routine ("Fic¬ what's wrong with science fiction tion is what I mean when I point and his prescriptions for a cure, to fiction") but that doesn't are essentially meaningless in terms of logical argument. What give us a definition; unsurpris¬ .THEY APPROVED THE PROJECT ' ingly, "fiction" is just as hard his "analysis" amounts to is a to pin down as "science fiction" cry from the heart: "Give me more / FOP- A GOMPl/TBR THE SIZE OF THET j is. If you define it as "state¬ of what I used to love, but make empire ^tate: -puiLM^? ysiN$- ments contrary to fact" or "con¬ it different so I won't be bored. MiA<*AI?A falls for: cboliuq- trary to reality" you then have Let me enjoy the illusion that the problem of defining those these dreams are better than 'fan¬ tasies' because they are 'scien¬ tific.' Let me believe that wond¬ 'Of course we all think we er resides in the technologies of know what "reality" means, until the future." we're put to the test of defining it for someone else. Then we dis¬ 'It's completely irrational cover that what we include in but I'm sure his cry will reach a that category doesn't match what number of sympathetic hearts.' others include, at least in some disturbing details. "Reality" is no easier to define than "fiction" for the very obvious reason that ((Elton can defend himself, of we do not yet know precisely to course, though he often doesn't what extent our "observations of bother out of enui, sloth, and the world" are controlled and arrogance. But I'm familiar with shaped by the "minds" that appar¬ his thinking, and a large part of ently perceive them. (Husserl, Heidegger, Wittgenstein.) The it is cormercially oriented; he's concerned with the success of sf # LETTER FROM CHARLES PLATT laboratory scientist's naive faith as a money-making genre (and thus 9 Patchin Place in the "reality" of his data has New York, NY 10011 been questionable, to say the as a market for writers and editors and publishers) and feels from his June 13, 1983 least, for several generations contacts in bookstores, among read¬ ers, etc., that genre fantasy is 'Just read your review of 'Obviously, if you can't pin proving to pe not the bonanza it DREAM MAKERS II in FANTASY NEWS¬ down the nature of reality, you was supposed to be, and that hard- LETTER. It made me blush. Thank can't eliminate the possibility science, rationalized sf is what is you. that those worlds which Elton re¬ called for in the body of action- 'When Bob Collins asked me jects ("fantasy worlds") have as adventure. If I may go further, he who I would like to review the much validity as the ones he feels some New York editors have book, I suggested either you or likes ("scientific, technological" been elitist and out of touch with Darrel Schweitzer (I was honestly worlds). Again, unsurprisingly, the main body of readers. Elton is curious what Darrel would write, it turns out that what we know of with the farmer definition of reali¬ because he had previously told me the perceptual process, in which ty: if it looks like fantasy, talks that, regardless of other differ¬ ideas of reality are acquired, is like fantasy, and smells like fan¬ ences of opinion, he admires my very much like the process employ¬ tasy-it's fantasy, and should be interviewing work.) I knew you ed by writers of fiction, includ¬ buried. would write an honest review and ing "fantasy" fiction of course. ((My own feeling is that we've I also liked the idea of your re¬ 'The process is incremental flooded the markets with wizards viewing work appearing more wide¬ and circular. Data appears, in¬ and quests and dragons and magic ly than in your own magazine. ferences are made, the resulting to. the point of upchuck, and should 'It's always valuable to see "pre-conceptions" are applied to take a long look at what the sales oneself described by someone who apparently similar data, confirma¬ is both preceptive and uninhibit¬ tions or rejections occur, new 16 ed about expressing his opinions. In your case, you've taught me cot/Akers book contained. Given idea when THE SWORD OF ALLAH will something about myself, in your a chance, I'd have edited it a be published. Probably sometime in comment that I seem to feel "a little more, though I didn't not¬ 1984. I'll keep the readership post¬ really rich, successful writer is ice at the time. It's interest¬ ed.)) a contradiction in terms." You ing to note that the next in the are right; I do have a gut reac¬ series is listed as #2 of a new 'I write this letter two days tion of suspicion, when confront¬ section of a series, but DELIA OF before our national elections. ed with wealth. I'm annoyed that VALLIA was not #1. In short, DE¬ There seems little doubt our con¬ I was not more properly aware of LIA is a sport, a diversion, not servatives (right wing) party this bias; and I'm glad you point¬ really integral to the develop¬ will be re-elected, mostly on the ed it out. As for my real polit¬ ment of the series; just something strength of the image Mrs. That¬ ics, I favor a mixed economy; in Bulmer had to say. cher projects. There are rumours other words, capitalism moderated 'Also happy for you about of "hidden manifestos," of plans by some regulations to rein in your collahorative novel. I read to institute repressive measures the wilder forms of exploitation. a short note in LOCUS but it was (for example, re-introducing the So I'm not quite the "anti-capit¬ interesting to see just how much contentious "Police Bill" that alist" you infer; after all, I of the book existed at the mo¬ will give police access to vari¬ moved from England, which has a ment — and what it was about. ous private files as well as pow¬ welfare state, to the U.S.A. 100,000 words seems a bit short ers of arrest without charge for where there is much less of a (250 pages of 400) for the plot up to 96 hours, etc.) and run "safety net" for the sick, unem¬ elements you list...but since I down the welfare state and Nation¬ ployed and unfortunate. I would believe you are a good writer (to al Health service ...Ah, well. like to see more compassion; I my shame, I could never afford would also like to see less bur¬ 'Strange to look at the lists any of the Toi King series, but I eaucracy. ' of nominees for various awards — always kept an eye open for your I mean, in the Libertarian Futur¬ early erotic novels and "enjoyed" ist one, while I can't quite see ((We already have a mixed econo¬ those I discovered), maybe the the reason for including VISCOUS my in the U.S.; it's only a question length bears no relation to the CIRCLE or MORPHODITE or especial¬ of what the mix is-5% more social¬ complexity. ly WARH0UND ... at least they ism, or 5% more capitalism? A pure have quality on their side; but capitalist economy probably has nev¬ what on earth is FIRST CYCLE do¬ ((The length of THE SWORD OF er existed (and never will, so you ing here — such a farrago of a- ALLAH! was dictated by the publish¬ can forget the chances of Libertar¬ bridged nonsense I have not read er. Originally, we were intent on ianism) , and a pure socialist economy for many years. (And where, pray 175,000 words. Joe Elder suggested has never existed. Both are inher- tell, was Donald Barr's brilliant that was too long—only best-selling ently contrary to the structure of novel PLANET IN ARMS? Its econo¬ authors can write novels that long hitman nature which is itself a con¬ mic structure is brilliant and and get them published, production tradictory mix of instinct and drive, logical, its political knowledge costs being so high, and reader mercy, compassion, brutality and clear, precise and speculative, resistance being so high against selfishness.. .all overlayed with its characters gorgeous, colour¬ paperbacks costing more that $3.50. talents, intelligence and lusts. ful and real ... So where is it?) From this amazing stew we get the So we backed off to 149,000 words and a faster pace. world we have had, the world of now, 'I'd read the article on P.K. ((The contract called for 95,000 and the world of tomorrow. Dick before (also read Ellison's words. This required cutting chapt¬ rather sad rejoinder that he Sid ((Wo, you don't mean more ers and writing a bullet-paced story not think Nicholls ' setting him up compassions you mean more govt.- that may be the ultimate, leanest, at Metz was funny) but I was in¬ forced, taxes-paid-for handouts. most gripping novel you’ll see in trigued by the illustration — You can go dawn on the street and a long time. page 11 -- you chose to -- er — give a $10 bill to a bag lady, and ((We think the book may be pric¬ you are free to urge others to pick ed at $2. 95. insert in it. The one thing I never associate Dick with is er¬ an unfortunate to help. If enough ((Beginning novelists and mid¬ otic power; odd when you consider others feel as do you, there will list authors are far more disciplin¬ his name. be more real compassion and more ed by their agents and their publish¬ real help. But at gut-level you ers than those few writers who can 'BYZANTIUM ENDURES: Inter¬ want to force others to do the giv¬ dictate terms and force anything esting review by J.E. Rudd. I ing even if they don't want to or they write to be published. And think it's important to know that can't afford it. You have a very while I often think editors and pub¬ the book is one of four planned low level of faith in your fellow lishers are stupid, shortsighted, under the umbrella "Mrs. Corneli¬ humans and feel they must be forced and occasionally venal, I also know us Between the Wars." As I und¬ to be compassionate-something of they are more often canny, knowing, erstand it then, the books should a contradiction in terms and in experienced and correct. I think run 1920-40, 1940-60, and 1960- your anti-exploitation morality.)) the trial-by-fire period for an ed¬ his death. I think it's interest¬ itor is about three or four years; ing that Moorcock is sectioning up if he/she lasts monger than that, the twentieth century in this way. it proves skill and knowledge- his/her choices and decisions were # LETTER FROM IAN COVELL largley correct ans have been proved 'The reviews of MISTS OF AVA¬ 2 Copgrove Close so by the sales figures. Nowdays, LON are very mixed aren't they? Berwick Hills, Middlesbrough with fiction pipelines manning up For a while, it seemed to be that Cleveland TS3 7BP, England to 18 months, it takes 3-4 years women reviewers were for it or 7 June 1983 for an editor to be proved good, or found great merit, while men to be fired. were the opposite. Then the wom¬ 'Received SCIENCE FICTION RE¬ ((We have, at this writing, no an reviewer in EPIC ILLUSTRATED VIEW #47 the other day. Very hap¬ slated it. Not having read it, I py to see my review of the Pres¬ 17 can't offer an opinion on quite then the book is lopsidedly incom¬ plete; the attraction and popular¬ ity of Norman's books, almost vir¬ ulently anti-everything except heterosexual bondage, is a vital point, and his views on women must be part of any survey of the field. 'It's annoying to read the "Archives" and recall -- as I must -- that a parcel of books I bought has gone astray on its way from the States, and almost a doz¬ en new books are now and possibly forever beyond my reach. '(P. 59): Not sure your point about MAN IN THE MAZE is right. Silverberg's "literary" period began with THORNS in 1967 why the opinions are so varied; such, and thereby miss the point. and didn't stop until he regained would you like to try a few pages Fantasy like most of Van Vogt's his senses some years later. in between writing SWORD OF ALLAH! fiction, is the direct collision MAZE is part of that literary per¬ and offer a reason? of exposed psyches. (I have yet iod: drenched with character, full another point: Of course most of meaning, symbol, repercussions stories end with the good guys ((No, I have no fully-realized opin¬ and so on. Dumb, dull and downer winning, who'd want it to end any ion of THE MISTS OF AVALON. I found -- three Ds to describe his work other way?) (I have yet another it tedious and self-indulgent. But or its reader. point-- if I may insert this ser¬ as a reader and a writer I'm more at ious note in sudden brackets. 'The mag, as always, is so :io-'.e with high-tensioned scenes, ac¬ After a botched eye operation I high quality, it's difficult to tion scenes. Novels which report have been left with permanently say anything except "Much enjoyed' every nuance of thought and behavior, divergent vision, I can't see from the illos to the articles. every possibility of motive, every three-D, always two separate im¬ The woman on the cover as well as aspect of the room, the house, the ages. Now, when I thought about she on P. 14 seem to have very countryside...make me fidget, unless this, it meant that the right hand flexible spines. An advantage. the writer is a bloody genius. MZB and left hand sides of my brain 'Aside from recently being is not a genius.)) were at odds ... and this got me frightened by Koontz's PHANTOMS thinking. One side of the brain (I wish I'd managed to buy his rules linguistics -- and hence, 'Odd how Ian Watson can be so book on how to write -- if this is words -- and the other controls true and funny and relevant in what it produces . . .) , one of the vision -- and hence pictures; his fan stuff, but when he des¬ most interesting books I read re¬ this means that when an author cends to lengthy novels, every¬ cently was published in 1943 in a sits down to write he sees'what thing goes except the relevance, paperback imprint; it very quick¬ he wants to write about, but then and that overpoweringly. ly vanished and has never been re¬ has to dim that vision or lose it ferred to in any biography of the 'The other odd thing this is¬ momentarily to find words to de¬ author I've seen. It is called sue -- apart from the diverse re¬ scribe it; thus, straightaway, CRUX ANSATA: AN INDICTMENT OF THE views of MISTS OF AVALON -- is the pure vision has been stepped ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH, a savage this interview with Janet Morris. down in quality. Now, could it be attack on the repressive religion I read the Silistra novels, and that some authors work best on a with a first chapter entitled second draft because then the vis¬ found much of them incomprehensi¬ "Why do We not Bomb Rome?" (writ¬ ble, with their supposed "erotic¬ ion is in words before them and ten in 1943, remember). An auth¬ ism" so subdued it was non-exis¬ they can step outside and see why or friend thinks the Church step¬ tent. I then read the first two the words don't create the proper ped in to have all copies of the of her next series, before sel¬ vision ... I.e., some make bet¬ book destroyed and/or erased. ling my collection. And I do not ter editors than writers? Just a Does seem reasonable. They did understand the growing acclaim for thought. It isn't too clear, but the same thing with another book. her work. Has there ever been a I needed some reason why none of If the book still hasn't struck a case when someone has achieved my 34 stories have sold.) memory chord with you ... this gafia status, but been the last slim, indelible attack on repres¬ 'Schweitzer's coy review sion and cruelty in the name of (p. 45/6) of UNBEHEADED KING is God, this Crux Ansata ... maybe very interesting, for exactly one the author's name will. H.G. reason. I have waited nearly ten Wells.' 'Schweitzer's letter (31/2) a- years for this third Jorian book. bout fantasy is about the clear¬ If the book ends as DS hints it est truest thing he ever said (I does, I intend to sell every De say this mostly because in my Camp book I own ... When he re¬ just "completed" article on Wil¬ ((Powerful religions and special- views URANIAN WORLDS, I don't interest groups have always tried liam Morris, I had to assume a think the phrase "gay and lesbian!' purpose for fantasy before I to intimidate publishers and often makes any sense; either, like I, tried overt and covert censorship. could explain Morris) -- fantasy: he should use "homosexual" or he The Catholics and the Zionists and true, worthwhile fantasy, is an should just use "gay," not both. the Scientologists come to mind as emotional rather than an intel¬ If they have missed John Norman lectual exercise. Some, of course the most active and powerful today. cry "wish fulfillment" or some 18 And let us not forget the CIA.)) will be a proper one-volume edi¬ # LETTER FROM E.F. BLEILER applied for a job at $3.35/hr., 426 Spring Avenue tion from , bless 3 hours a day, and there were six Ridgewood, NJ 07450 or seven other people applying May 20, 1983 'What's really funny is that for the same job. I'm beginning the story was marketed as a tril¬ to understand the self-righteous "gimme" attitude of the left wing 'May I comment on Darrel ogy but Warner insisted on one Schweitzer's review of my GUIDE long book. Sometimes publishers -- it gets increasingly hard to be rational about a situation of TO ? The Mer- don't know what they want.' vyn Peake Society has been jump¬ economic powerlessness, and all ing on me too, and I would like to too easy to start craving revenge clarify my position on Peake, on those who have, such as the since my point seems to be missed. utility companies, etc. In short, everyone who wears a three-piece 'First, Darrell is drawing a suit. So far, I have not given wrong conclusion when he says in to this mode of thought; I try # LETTER FROM ED ROM that I dislike Peake. I didn't to be rational. make any comments on Peake in gen¬ 822 Irvine Avenue Bemidji, MN 56601 eral, but I did say that I thought May 13, 1983 'It really bugs me to read MR PYE a somewhat weak book -- about large American and European this I will stand by. But I like 'I just got SCIENCE FICTION RE¬ banks lending such huge sums to some of Peake's other work very countries like Brazil and Mexico much. TITUS GROAN, for example. VIEW #47 today and I must say that I really like the cover by Brad on such easy terms. Somebody I have a presentation copy of like me can't even borrow $500 at this that I treasure. And I W. Foster. Brad will know what I mean ... I feel a certain amount less than about 12%, and 1^ would would rate Peake's pen-and-ink spend the money right here in the work very high. of regret and a lot of it has to do with that illustration. community. 'But the Gormenghast trilogy 'Congratulations on THE SWORD 'There's something screwy go¬ is irrelevant to the GUIDE, and ing on in the world -- I find it I don't see any more reason to OF ALLAH! I may buy a copy when it comes out, if I have the money hard to believe that bankers are have included it than THE PRISON¬ so stupid' as to pour such huge ER OF ZENDA. The GUIDE is con¬ for such frivolity. Which brings me to the next topic, sort of. sums into such bad investments as cerned with supernatural fiction they have in the case of these -- as is indicated in the title Economics as it applies to the individual. 3rd world and communist nations. and spelled out in the introduc¬ Maybe they have (or think they tion and classificatory chapter -- 'I feel like a victim and a have) some kind of leverage on and so far as I remember there is fool for my irresponsible conduct these countries, and are (or will no supernaturalism in the first over the past couple of years. be) profiting in some unseen way. two Gormenghast books. (I have I had a civil service job in Min¬ God knows that the money would do not read the third.) neapolis until just about two a lot more good if it were invest¬ 'As for Peake's being really years ago and I quit it in order ed in the industrialized world in¬ fantasy, as Darrell says I ques¬ to come to Bemidji for the pur¬ stead of the backward shitholes tion, I didn't express any opin¬ pose of finishing my education. the banks seem to be so enamored ion at all on this, and would not This with the economy in the of. care to until there is a consen¬ shape it's in! And then I dis¬ sus on the meaning of the word cover that north-central Minnesota ((The big banks poured out those "fantasy." It has been so absurd is one of the 10 most economically hundreds of billions of dollars of that it's almost meaningless.' depressed areas in the United States, even in the best of times. loans to patently wastrel foreign countries because (a) they were 'Have you ever kicked your¬ encouraged to by our government; self over blowing an opportunity? (b) they had assurances (they I'm kicking myself hard. Hind¬ thought) that in a pinch the Fed¬ sight is 20-20, but my God, I eral Reserve would bail them out; # LETTER FROM ALAN DEAN FOSTER should have been able to see that (c) they and the government knew THRANX, INC. 1981 was not the time to do some¬ 4001 Pleasant Valley Drive that if they invested/loaned all thing like that! There are times that OPEC and USA money in the USA Prescott, AZ 86301 to move forward and there are June, 1983 they-woyld drive inflation through times to conserve what you have; the roof and precipitate a depres¬ I have gone from having little sion.)) 'A word on your comment in and owing nothing to having less SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #47 on the and owing wads of money. I'm publishers getting antsy about learning the hard way that one books more than 100,000 words in hangs on to what one has, if one length due to pricing pressure as wants to have breathing room and reported by booksellers: SPELL- a foundation to build upon. SINGER (which was mentioned in the Archives section) is a 190,000 'I have the GI Bill and I word novel which was turned in have been forced to join the Army and accepted three years ago. Reserve; this income barely makes It's taken this long to get pub¬ ends meet. What I'm going to do lished for various reasons when I have my degree is beyond (naughty words, intimations of me -- if I make it that far. bestiality, etc.) but-also be¬ 'It's just about impossible cause of its length. So Warner to find part-time work around Books, against my wishes, is here — for example, I recently splitting it and publishing it as two books. Fortunately, there 19 'In the meanwhile, I'm strug¬ which happens to be mostly male. to success and power. Girls are gling to keep my head above water This is something that I myself choosing popularity with boys to and am looking into all sorts of really like: BIG conceptions. competition with boys in what they ways to come up with more cash Hard-core SF is to me much more perceive as the glamour profession flow than I have right now. I enjoyable than fantasy, and al¬ ahead. To me this new data reinforc¬ have a manuscript in circulation ways has been. es the pattern of behavior which (2 rejection slips so far), and 'Is this because I happen to focuses girls on personal relation¬ am at work on another. I know be male? My older sisters have ships, boys on goals/power/money. that writing's a tough way to go, told me that I was quite awestruck I think it’s obvious that girls are but what else is there for an in¬ when I saw my first railroad loc¬ not just biologically structured to tellectual with no mechanical omotives at the age of 3. They have children, but are emotionally skills to speak of? I'm tempted seemed to be amused by this, as structured/oriented to care for to go back to the Cities and see though this was an emotion that and raise children. Nature has if I can't find some type of men¬ they did not share. Or perhaps programmed us all to make sure ial labor to make ends meet while females are, in this culture at humanity continues to breed. I pursue writing; I think, however least, discouraged from an inter¬ The programming isn't hard and that I shall at least complete my est in that which is large and fast as in other, less intelligent degree before I leave this area. awesome. animals and species, but it is Perhaps it won't matter; I sus¬ there and it is a very powerful pect that this society is in for 'Be that as it may, I tend to social/cultural force. I suggest a major upheaval fairly soon and agree with your analysis. that men are sexist and male chauv¬ the only thing that will really inists not out of cussedness and matter is skill with weapons, and unsavory motives, but because they luck. I hope not, because such ((It's been noted that BIG'and POW¬ are responding to basic instincts upheavals usually ruin more for¬ ERFUL are attractive to males, and to protect the future of the spec¬ tunes than they make, and kill a that phallic spaceships are essent¬ ies. Our genes are protecting lot of people to boot. Though I ially male symbols (Let's get back their future.)) am not a bad shot with a rifle, to penis-shaped spaceships plunging and know something of infantry into black holes and insure sales techniques and tactics (my re¬ of our novels, men!) and that women serve unit is infantry and we're prefer to ally to or subtly master good). Enough of this depres¬ men who are big and powerful (or 'Ronald R. Lambert's letter sing stuff! big in other ways—like rich or in¬ was very interesting. Disease was fluential or famous...) because indeed a large factor in the con¬ 'Regarding 's they are instinctually oriented to quest of the Americas by the Eur¬ letter -- your reply struck me as seeking a prime male as father/hus¬ opeans, though I think that this hitting upon something that should band. Security. Status. Feminists conquest would have been achieved be obvious, yet seems to be often object to this biological destiny anyway even without smallpox and overlooked. In the days when I analysis. And some men object to the rest of it. It just would could afford to attend SF conven¬ being money/power symbols as some not have been so complete as it tions, I noted that the vast maj¬ women object to being sex symbols. ority of the women I met were eith¬ But I tend to think our genes and 'Now, here's an interesting er out-and-out fantasy fans (of¬ glands are more powerful than most thought: I believe that it's en¬ ten with a seeming fixation on un¬ people realize or like to accept, tirely possible that the white icorns) , or media fans. And look since it is distinctly ego-deflat¬ at the output of male authors as ing and contra-freewill. man's fleeting tenure in sub-Sah¬ opposed to female authors. The aran Africa (exclusive of South women seem to concentrate on ((I am not saying women should Africa and Rhodesia) was due to things that are either fantasy or not pursue equality and the full the fact that Africa is home to quasi-fantasy, while all the hard¬ developments of their talents. But even more in the way of virulent core SF is done by men. even today, culturally (and culture endemic disease than is Eurasia. is rooted in biology), girls are The sheer unhealthiness of the en¬ more and more shying away from com¬ vironment there is probably what 'I can't think of any excep¬ puters even as computers are becom¬ kept Europeans from ever going tions to this, though there may be ing known as the path of the future there in large numbers. such. It may be that there is an essential difference between the male psyche and the female psyche that is illustrated by this dif¬ ference in taste. I wouldn't ven¬ ture to guess as to whether this difference is environmental, in¬ nate or a combination of the two, though I suspect that it's a com¬ bination of the two. It is true, however, that there are a lot of male fantasy fans and authors; why are there so few female hard¬ core SF fans? 'One thing I've noticed about most fantasy is that it lacks true grandiosity, while hard-core SF is quite often nothing short of bombastic in its emphasis on the big. It may be that the grandi¬ ose mentality is something that is possessed only by a minority, x 'I have seen it suggested in or whatever) science fiction? towards past "good ol'days," or print that the reason for the lack It's my feeling that SF will prob¬ more usually future "good ol' of any great indigenous civiliza¬ ably be their main form of enter¬ days," through fantasy, when all tions south of the Sahara was the tainment, because interest in the of mankind's history is but an prevalence of endemic disease future as being different from to¬ eyeblink over cosmic time. So there, which sapped the strength day seems to be one of the factors much better to look to the future. of the natives. I don't see any¬ that distinguishes the more ad¬ The human race can have a much thing wrong with the theory my¬ vanced from the less advanced. bigger role in the future than it had in the past, if only you will self, but I withhold judgment be¬ 'Still in the same vein, I cause of my lack of expertise in have an idea (I think I picked it start looking to it for your this area. up from something I read by Timo¬ goals.' 'Lambert's last paragraph fits thy Leary) that fundamentalists nicely into another part of this are sure to hate: Evolution is ((Dear Ghod...er, God. If I may com¬ theory. You see, the reason for the Will of God, whatever God is, plement You, it isn't future-vs.- the grip of endemic disease on the because God wants living creatures past so much, as a credible/possible populations of equatorial Africa to develop to the point where they sf world vs. an incredible "magic" is very simple. That is where can comprehend God. I won't say land. Psychologically, genre fan¬ the human race evolved, and the Him, because seeing God as male tasy is safe-with no historical disease germs evolved right along (or female) is hopelessly anthrop¬ or rational relationship to present- with men. They exist there in a omorphic. ' day realities. It is non-threatening kind of malign symbiosis, the hu¬ in real life and non challenging; it mans being the disadvantaged part- ((Religionists have the same doesn't require anything of the read¬ problem with god that sf writers er now. It doesn't require or impose ' But humanity has a great ad¬ have with the far future and aliens; thinking about the real future or vantage compared with most other the unknowable has to be made under¬ make implied demands that something species (and disease germs belong standable to present-day humans, and be done about it. It is a cousin to to species just as do larger crea¬ especially to the less intelligent Regency romances, historical romances, tures!), that being the ability to humans, to insure mass belief and etc. Genre fantasy is, like the oth¬ adapt to many different climates mass sales.)) ers, pure escapist fiction. through the use of technology ((And, alas, much of science fic¬ such as fur coats, fire and dwel¬ tion is so diluted with magic sci¬ ling places. When men left Afri¬ ence and far-out wish-science that ca, many of the diseases could it merges into a bastard sub-genre not come along. I call science-fantasy, a tenuous kind of fiction of pure imagination 'Still humanity has been es¬ # LETTER FROM GHOD (sic) with little or no plausibility or in¬ tablished long enough in the Eur¬ A.K.A.! KERRY E. DAVIS ternal discipline. I find it as in¬ asian land mass for a number of 1736 Plateau Dr. N.E. credible as 'magic' fantasy. And diseases to develop there that Salem, OR 97305 if, perchance, science-fantasy or were adapted to attacking the hu¬ May 19, 1983 man organism. Again, many of genre 'magic' fantasy compensates for basic incredibility with real these were left behind when people 'Okay, I've kept quiet long characterizations, then they make crossed the Bering landbridge. enough. One more column or letter their worlds more plausible or, And humanity has not been living from Darrell Schweitzer extolling like as not, more impossible-to- in the Americas long enough for the virtues of fantasy, particu¬ be lieve, because real people many indigenous diseases to de- larly as set forth by ancient couldn't exist in such absurd sur¬ Chinese sages, and I'll just puke. roundings. In any case, mired in I have no stomach for any more 'It's certainly a tidy theo¬ magic or magic-science, real-life Chinese fantasy-novels of past ry; I wonder how many holes can characters throw the reader into millenia. And I do hope that no be poked in it? Do you have any a greater concern for character serious thinker would believe thoughts on the matter? relationships (a la romances and that romance, "gothic," horror, 'Hmmm... I haven't looked at best-seller power/sex/fame novels) mystery or any form of what you which is-dare I say it?-the OMNI lately -- I'll have to find humans call non-fiction was the that piece by Vernor Vinge. This natural concern of women, who are first literary form. At least acutely aware of subtleties of is something that I myself have Schweitzer has not made any claim been thinking about; how do you tone, body language, dress, behav¬ to the dinosaurs writing fantasy ior, since so much of their lives realistically depict truly super¬ -- so far, anyway. The truth is. depend of those aspects of living. ior intelligence? If the human My invention came first, before mentality is about to take one or ((Arid, finally, God, did you ANYTHING, and even though Dante have to use Kerry Davis as your more quantum leaps, then most of tried to steal my thunder (so to science fiction will be invalidat¬ vehicle to contact me. My mind speak) by claiming divinity for is open to You 24-hours a day. And ed immediately. It won't matter his, he was in fact right on the of course, to those who make the I'd dearly love to be able to say, nose overall. I hope you will "God spoke to me last night...")) advance; they'll probably be far all now remember that the first down the road to literally find¬ literary form was -- and still is ing God. I just hope that I'll (what do you think you've been be one of those making the quant¬ living in, anyway?) -- MY Divine um leap, or if the evolutionary Comedy! # LETTER FROM ARNIE FEWER jump is genetic in nature, that 9402 West 82nd Terr. my descendants will be in on it. 'As for supremacy among forms of literature Elton Elliott is Overland Park, KS 66204 closer to the truth with S.F. -- June, 1983 'Here's a thought -- will consider the futility of looking the more advanced intelligences 'Just finished reading SCI¬ of the future still read (or scan 21 ENCE FICTION REVIEW #47 — anoth- er fine issue (and I'm glad The others all publish and (more im¬ 'Darrell and I aren't going Archives are back). But I was portantly) sell either almost as to agree about the ASIMOV'S cov¬ somewhat surprised that someone many or more copies than any of ers. And that's fine. It's a in the letter column hadn't caught over the last matter of taste, really. I sus¬ an error in Steve Gallagher's ar¬ five years. But none of them (ex¬ pect that current trends in SF ticle "Standing By Jericho" from cept for FN this year) has made art and graphic design (which de¬ the previous issue. You rememb¬ it on the ballot. But fanzines finitely have a more "mainstream" er, the piece that asserted that of 1000 copies and much less reg¬ look, whatever the hell that is -- had used the pseudo¬ ularly have and do ... I never thought of quality of any nym "Richard Bachman" to write 'Goddamit, it's the quality, sort as being confined by a lab¬ THE LONG WALK and THE RUNNING MAN the appeal of the magazine in el) leave Darrell cold and wanting because, hey, he didn't want to question that makes it an award a more traditional look. Person¬ dirty his name with an SF label ... contender. It's the personal rap¬ ally, I enjoy the experimenta¬ 'Ah, ah, ah, shame on you: port between editor and reader tion -- something doesn't have some people haven't been reading that makes the voter want to honor to "This is SCIENCE FIC¬ their Shayols thoroughly. In his that publication beyond the oth¬ TION!" at me before I can accept interview in #6, King states very ers. That LOCUS means so much to it as such. Different art styles plainly that he is not Bachman, so many people -- for whatever and different interpretations are that Bachman is a real person liv¬ reasons -- is enough justification just as valid and important to ing in New Hampshire --he even for their receiving the award; the the field as different writing mentions how the rumor got start¬ same with Dick Geis and the fan- styles. And naturally, you can't ed. writer award. Both have an effect have artistic successes without on the largest number of people. some artistic failures ... 'Marty Ketchum mentioned the To eliminate them from competi¬ fact that King was not Bachman in 'Or a ying without a yang. tion -- or worse, to eliminate the brief introduction to the bib¬ Or a dick without a Ge ... their award categories altogether liography in FEAR ITSELF, too ... Well. I guess you can. -- won't change that fact, it'll Take care, Richard.' 'I was also sort of surprised only mean they won't be honored that Rich Brown's letter in the for the entertainment or services same issue didn't elicit a little they provide. ((I can understand the rage and des¬ more response. If you discount 'I'd really rather that the pair many fanzine publishers feel his listing UNEARTH (which offic¬ Hugos for fanzine stay the way at being unable to win a Hugo against ially folded something like three they are; if the category is such as LOCUS and I. Both of us years ago) and STARLOG (a fully split, how can a potential group have been around so long, become so professional, newsstand distrib¬ of say 8000 voters possibly cast well known, and have accumulated so uted magazine) as fanzine Hugo honest ballots in a "fannish" large a number of loyalists come Hugo contenders, the impression is fanzine category in which the nomination and voting times, that an still given that Rich doesn't largest circulation is perhaps "upstart" must be exceptionally tal¬ quite have both oars in the water 700? If an editor actually wants ented and visible and persistent to when it comes to discussing this to compete for an award, then overcome the accumulations of decad- topic. Really. I mean when it said award can only be worthwhile comes down to the bottom line all if you're running a race with '((Life, said the winners smugly, he's really saying is that he the best. is never fair.)) thinks it's unfair that an ama¬ teur magazine that 3000 people 'LOCUS and SFR are the best. buy regularly gets more votes for Beat either and you can say you the Hugo than a magazine that have really accomplished something. sells 500. And since he thinks 'You know, I somehow think it's unfair the fanzine Hugos that it was a fannish attitude should be abolished. something like Rich Brown's that 'Sure. prevented Tom Reamy's TRUMPET from winning a much-deserved Hugo 'Personally, I think that the back in those "golden" days when fanzine Hugos are probably the the World Con only had 600 or so closest thing to a "peer" award attendees. Remember, Tom took a the field is going to get, simply lot of flack because TRUMPET was because it i^s voted on by people "too beautiful" and his circula¬ who read the magazines they're tion was "too high" and not using voting for. That most of the vot¬ a mimeo just wasn't fannish ... ers read LOCUS and SFR and enjoy what they're getting is evident by 'As to the issue in hand — the history of the awards and by Platt's profile of Morris was as the current ballot. Their contin¬ interesting as the rest of the ued popularity justified their in¬ series. She certainly comes off creased print runs — but because as having some, ummm, different BOONFARK and FILE 770 don't have viewpoints. And of course, being an equal amount of success (de¬ proficient with a handgun is a spite contending for the attention genuinely admirable attribute. span of the same active SF read¬ Good golly, there were many times er) , the Hugos have become mean¬ in my police department days when ingless. I was just hoping that the perp in the alley or the neighbors 'Bullshit. Circulation is tearing at each others' throats only one consideration in the were small arms experts. winning of a Hugo. One of many. WHISPERS, FANTASY NEWSLETTER and 22 of the faculties of adulthood, he # LETTER FROM RONALD R. LAMBERT 'SF is a form of recreation. 2350 Virginia Just as children learn to become understands that adults are real¬ Troy, MI 48084 adults by playing, so science fic¬ ly superchiIds, not monsters. May 14, 1983 tion is a means of playing with Likewise the synergistic effects knowledge that helps us to grow of our technology acting upon our 'Congratulations on the book up into the future. That is its nature will make us supermen, not sale. I am a little worried nature, and its value. As Norman monsters. This will be the next though about that guy you are col¬ Spinrad has very reasonably argu¬ step in human evolution. For hu¬ laborating with. He seems to be ed, by rights science fiction manity, evolution is no longer coming down with a case of "fu¬ should be culturally central to principally concerned with genes ture shock," judging by remarks this country in the twentieth cen¬ and chromosomes. We have advanc¬ he made in his last column. That tury, and it is unfortunate and ed as a species to the point of is supposed to be impossible -- potentially dangerous for it not genetic threshold, where now oth¬ members of the SF community do to be. er means for evolution take over not get future shock, because SF from genes and chromosomes. Our 'No one should feel inade¬ tools will change us, evolve us. confers immunity to it. SF makes quate and overwhelmed in the face progress and change fun, so that We should not fear changes in our¬ of knowledge. Knowledge is the selves, any more than children we welcome innovation and the ex¬ antidote for feeling inadequate plosion of knowledge. Thus it should fear the changes involved and overwhelmed. Knowing -- and in growing up. Nor should we is surprising for a member of the learning -- are what human beings SF community to be decrying the fear our tools, for they arise were made for. I have long be¬ out of our own nature. accelerating growth of knowledge lieved that modern educational and referring to a "singularity" methodology is largely responsible 'I mean no insult to Elliott where intellectual penetration for psychologically conditioning or to Vernor Vinge in saying this* becomes impossible for the SF people to feel inadequate in the but actually we should regard it writer. Come on, Elliott -- keep face of knowledge. I also believe as the ultimate blasphemy to damn the faith! that SF goes a long way toward un¬ knowledge because it is increas¬ doing this damage. If there ever ing. At the very least it is should be any sort of problem certainly ironic -- like the man 'We should not expect SF to with there being too much to know lost in the desert and dying of be prophetic. Elliott could well for anybody to know anything (a thirst who falls into a pool of have used the example of how the self-contradictory concept, but I water, and then curses because he development of the cheap electron¬ will go along with it for the sake is wet. As for the SF writer who ic pocket calculator took SF of argument), then knowledge will laments that he does not know writers by surprise. Just a few provide its own remedy. What I enough science to write a "real¬ years before the things started mean is this: Already we have istic" story about alien civili¬ becoming as ubiquitous as pencils, learned to make devices that aug¬ zations and the future of human SF stories were being written ment our senses (telescopes, tele¬ society, I would say let him not that depicted engineers in the fu¬ vision, radar), and we are start¬ curse that there is so much to ture still using sliderules. But ing to use devices that augment know. Every datum of that flood that is not of vital importance. our faculties (computers, calcul¬ of knowledge is a potential story What is vitally different about ators, and other logic processor idea: Drink, you fool! So what SF that distinguishes it from oth¬ applications); soon we shall un¬ if you cannot swallow it all? No er literary genres is that it in¬ doubtedly have devices that aug¬ one expects you to. Remember, we corporates the element of radic¬ ment our minds. Breakthroughs write for OMNI, ANALOG, ISAAC AS¬ al, transforming change. In fact, have already occurred in the lab IMOV'S, etc. — not for SCIENTIF¬ it is because of this that SF can with detecting and translating IC AMERICAN. Our fiction is for be regarded as the only wholly thought activity in the human everyone, not just for scien¬ realistic fictional genre — be¬ brain electronically, and the day tists. Let Dr. Robert L. Forward cause radical, transforming change is not far off when direct brain- worry about penetrating Vinge's is a part of reality, and all oth¬ to-computer interfacing will be singularity; I will use my warp er genres ignore it. But it is possible. When that time comes, drive to get around it.' not necessary that we be correct not only will we be able to ab¬ in our speculation about just sorb vast amounts of information what that radical, transforming quickly directly into our brains change will be. It is enough ((You make very good points, Ron, (databibing), but we will even be that we make a good guess, that and the world of human-computer able to use computers to think our speculation is plausible. linkage may occurr. But obviously with. We shall be able to expand The essential thing is that we not for everyone, because of econ¬ our minds however large they may make the assumption that something omic, social and religious reasons. need to become in order to cope will change, and human existence We could see a new breed of scien¬ with the volume of knowledge. will be transformed. This is all tists with computers in their heads that it is humanly possible to do, and an instinctual revulsion against after all -- except perhaps for 'Some people may recoil in them. Add gene manipulation of someone who has the gift of proph¬ fear at this prospect. It really humans and we'll see a two-class ecy, or is very lucky. Even fut¬ involves the ultimate maturing of society develop. For real. And urists, with their careful.ly cal¬ the human species — evolving to quite possibly a "Holy War" by culated extrapolations, are right a new intellectual adulthood. the "normals" against the "freaks. " in their predictions no more of¬ But some people are like children There is an enormous conservatism ten than weathermen are. The bur¬ who fear adulthood. Adulthood in human society which resists den of trying to predict the fu¬ can seem incomprehensible and ev¬ change, and it is rooted in our ture does not rest upon SF writ¬ en monstrous to a child. Yet genes. ers. That is not what SF is for, once a child reaches adulthood ((I'm inclined to think humanity that has never been its value and finds himself in possession will accept direct mind-link with (despite a few lucky guesses by computer databases, and maybe the Jules Verne). 23 unobtrusive inplantation of biochip cumputers in with direct BLACKOUT. The man had a distinct¬ # LETTER FROM ELAINE HAMPTON access to and by the brain. I ex¬ ive style; Kurt Von Rachen was 441 Dartmouth Road pect "good" gene manipulation to be the first pseudonym I ever pick¬ Burbank, CA 91504 accepted to prevent inborn diseases ed up, all by myself (the "Kil¬ June, 1983 and monster births, imbeciles, etc. kenny Cats" series of stories). BUT-even minor shape change of the TO THE STARS gave me some ideas 'Although I don't correspond standard human body, and especially that came in handy for me, years much, I do enjoy SFR tremendously any attempted change in emotional later. I even got a kick out of — all of it. makeup-would bring on a full the one (THE END IS NOT YET) in fledged social upheaval and a limit¬ 'F'r instance, I totally dis¬ which he began the story with a agree with Darrell Schweitzer's ing of such activity. You can see "frame" and then forgot to close the beginnings of that now with at¬ opinion of THE MISTS OF AVALON. it at the end, and Saint John, I think it is the finest thing MZB tempts to legislate against DNA- Jr., didn't catch it either! changes of humans, even to save liv¬ has written to date; and I plan on es and prevent birth defects. 'But I should mention to John reading it several more times this ((Many sf novels have been Hertz that Hubbard did write one year because it's so rich in de¬ written on this theme, and many more piece (serialed in FANTASTIC AD¬ tail that I'm sure I missed a lot will be. And soon a major best-sell¬ VENTURES, probably the late sum¬ the first time. (I must admit to er will happen with that theme. mer of 1951) that very definitely some prejudice in her favor. The incorporated his "theories," or Darkover Books have held me in ((Of course enhanced-brain humans at least his biases. MASTERS OF thrall for years.) At the very might be able to relate to and talk SLEEP was full of violent harang¬ least THE MISTS OF AVALON is on a with aliens, but until 90% of the ues against Evil Psychiatrists par with Mary Stewart's Arthurian American public is brain-enhanced, with their lobotomies and shock novels ... Damn fine books! who will be willing to read about it treatments. I have to agree with as comprehensible science fiction? 'And ... I totally agree with LRH that those measures are bar¬ Mr. Schweitzer's comments about Who will pay money to read about the baric, but still that work is the gibberish thinking of a superhuman— the ugly covers on the Davis mag¬ worst fiction Hubbard ever wrote. azines. (He hasn't mentioned the except other superhumans? That I_ saw, anyway. ((In a few years-when computer/ over-large logos and type, but brain interfacing begins-look for 'I haven't read BE since I'm they're part of the problem.) xenophobia to step in and create a not given to buying $24 hardbacks The contents pages are dreadful line of science fiction sold to con¬ and the publisher didn't see fit too. Those itty-bitty "previews" servatives in which the "freaks" are to "paper the house" at SFWA with of interior art and vertical lines the villains conspiring to take over freebies, as some do. My feeling from story to page number seem to the world and kill off all the ’ob¬ is that Hubbard probably isn't all be throwbacks to the "50s -- or solete' "normals." that interested in Awards; let earlier. There was nothing wrong ((The ramifications are endless someone else polish the trophy, with the ANALOG contents page be¬ and fascinating. The future is going while he counts the million. fore they started mucking around to be cursed: a very interesting time. Very sensible. with it — but it was devised un¬ Add the possibility of very expensive der the previous ownership. cures and very expensive artificial 'I see by the teevy that Nibs 'I've seen it before in busin¬ organs-even artificial bodies-and (once L. Ron, Jr., when he visit¬ ess ... the new boss wants to put you get another layer of social tur¬ ed Seattle, but now running under his stamp on everything -- and moil involving the haves and the a changed surname) claims that makes a lot of cosmetic changes majority of have-nots. Cheating his daddy is either dead or hope¬ that add nothing to the product. that great democrat-death-will lessly senile. Funny thing: Nibs Rule #1 in any business: Don't cause catastrophic social upheavals.)) looked hardly any older than he fuck around with something that did 30 years ago. Hardly any works. (Hoping you are the brighter, either. So it goes. same ... ?)' As to Sonny's claims, I haven't the faintest idea, either way. Shades of Howard Hughes; right? ((Yes, I'm still fucking around # LETTER FROM F.M. BUSBY with SFR, and it still works.)) 2852 14th Avenue West 'So watch it, see? (Do you remember using that letter-ending Seattle, WA 98119 line on a diatribe to Russ Hag¬ 11 May 1983 gard, back ia the very first in¬ carnation of PSY? I think the 'I think the fannish flap re BATTLEFIELD EARTH stemmed largely letter was in a prozine, though.) ' from the well-financed promotional # LETTER FROM J.R. "MAD DOG" efforts at Chicon-IV. The idea MADDEN (as expressed in fanzines) seemed ((No, I don’t remember, but it POB #18610-A to be that the Scientology "org" doesn't surprise me that my uncons¬ University Station (their word) would pony up for a cious dredges up things like that Baton Rouge, LA 70893 great lot of Con memberships this and reBuses them. You have a re¬ 9 May 1983 markable memory to have picked up year, enabling a bloc-vote that 'Your addition of "The Arch¬ would in effect "buy" the Hugo. on that from 19SS or so. What else am I recycling from those days when ives" to SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW (I expect the WorldCon Committee has turned out to be a very good would have loved all that Nice I was a letterhaak in the letter columns of STARTLING STORIES and idea. I like to scan the list and Money.) Anyway, it didn't hap¬ get an idea of just how much SF pen, obviously, since BE failed THRILLING WONDER STORIES? My lurid past is catching up with me.)) and fantasy there is out there. to make the ballot. ' And, the little capsule reviews 'I'm rather fond of most of are helpful in weeding out the pos¬ Hubbard's work in ASF and UNKNOWN, sibilities for purchase. That is having teethed first on FINAL 24 the problem, isn't it, choosing from amongst the ever-growing list ((I OWE YOU AN APOLOGY, Ralph; miracle is that even he turned out of titles and deciding what to your review in SFR #47 was misspelled to have some small, hidden talent spend the time to read. on the contents page and in the cred¬ after all. Does he know that in it line over your review of CRUISER he is sometimes referred to 'I also can vouch for the ex¬ DREAMS. Please review for SFR again. as Charles "At Least I Talk To Fa¬ istence of one John Steakley. He Trust me.)) mous People" Platt? Well, I sup¬ was a last minute guest at Coast- pose it is better than being known Con in Biloxi, Mississippi back in as the author of PLANET OF THE March of this year. He hails VOLES. from Dallas. In addition, he is a last-minute addition to our own ' I certainly would never want SwampCon here in Baton Rouge to to have my work praised by him or # CARD FROM ROBERT BLOCH be held over the Memorial Day 2111 Sunset Crest Drive to be thought his friend. It weekend (God help us all.').' Los Angeles, CA 90046 would ruin my reputation. He pos¬ May 6, 1983 sibly has no idea how reviled he is by the SF community. (If he 'Once again I find your gloom does, I suspect he glories in it.) and doom comments the highlight At PhilCon shortly after the cele¬ brated incident (which he misre- # CARD FROM RALPH E VAUGHAN of an issue. The fact that so few POB #85152 MB116 of your readers ever comment on members or exaggerated) I found San Diego, CA 92138 them is in itself significant: a his nametag on the floor. It May 12, 1983 revelatory reflection of the fact must have fallen off. I put it on that, unless personally affected as a conversation piece, explain¬ 'When can your book be expect¬ by the economic situation, nobody ing, "I'll be Charles Platt for the evening and be nasty to every¬ ed to hit the stands? Why the pen gives a damn. And because the body." The usual response was name? It'll probably cost $3.95+. majority fails to heed, let alone a'dismayed, "Oh, please. " I was going to buy 's care, matters continue to get ■■ REBEL IN TIME, but $3.50 for a worse. Cosmetic efforts will be 'I guess I don't have it in thin book with large print? I do made by the present administration me to do a good Charles Platt imi¬ not think so. Two things have to until the 1984 election and then tation. I guess I also have to be happen, to bring back good reading I am afraid your predictions will careful to avoid the Grand Analogy. habits: come to pass. You know, the way crackpot pseudo¬ scientists always compare them¬ '1. The total collapse of 'Having lived through one selves to Galileo. It would work radio and television Great Depression as a kid, I don't like this: Charles Platt despis¬ ("Of Godlike Power" by relish facing another in my second es LeGuin, Delany and Heinlein. Mack Reynolds in WORLDS childhood. But discussions of No, it isn't like that. He also OF TOMORROW, Vol 3, #2; this "future" doesn't interest SF despises Jerry Poumelle, Ted Vol 3, #3) fans because it neither exalts White, Orson Scott Card and hund¬ technology or the virtues of the '2. The price of books drop¬ reds of others. I suppose it is junk-food generation. Still, I ping to $1.00 and mags inspiring that all of us from so think you're right, and the hand¬ to 50*. many backgrounds have this one writing on the wall ain't just thing in common, but actually I 'What would the social implic¬ graffiti!' ations be?' find it rather tiresome. I wish Charles Platt would grow up. His ((My corments on the economy in this behavior is that of a 15-year-old issue should further interest you- neofan in his first burst of at¬ ((As noted before, I have no i- and depress others. tempted notoriety. With the neo¬ dea when THE SWORD OF ALLAH.' will ((A few people have written to fan, you can wait a few years. be published. But be assured when disagree with my doom&gloom editor¬ With Platt, there is no such hope. I -know, all of fandom will be alert¬ ial commentary, but I try to keep ed! the letter column of SFR primarily 'Actually, I can only wish ((The pen name of Richard El¬ dedicated to sf and fantasy. Too him well. Maybe if he becomes liott was chosen because the name much current event stuff would be successful at something finally Elton Geis didn't seem very appeal- a bad idea.)) and has an exciting career, he won't feel so insecure that he ((The total collapse of radio has to carry on like this. He'll and television will not occurr. The let his accomplishments make his price of books will not drop to $1.00 reputation, not his boorishness. short of a total demolition of -the If he would be so kind as to stop money supply during a depression of acknowledging my existence, I devastating depth and magnitude. # LETTER FROM DARRELL SCHWEITZER would be willing to return the ((Reading will continue to 113 Deepdale Road shrink in the lower classes, expand Strafford. PA 19087 in the middle and upper classes. June 7, 1983 'A final note to Ron Lambert: Books and magazines will be 'aimed' Yes, I know about the ecological at those people with money to spend 'I don't feel very intimidat¬ upset the whites caused when they and time to read. Too, the upper ed by Charles Platt's threats a- invaded the Americas. Within ten and middle classes will be those gainst me. It is so hard to take years of the conquest, 90% of the who have acquired and continue to him seriously. I mean, he is a inhabitants of Peru had died of use reading skills. joke, as a writer, as a critic, new diseases. However, this has ((More and more public signs will simply as a human being. The fact nothing to do with the conquest incorporate illustrations-of-content that he is a pretty good inter¬ itself, and the overwhelming sup¬ to aid the increasing numbers of viewer must be dismissed as a co¬ eriority of Spanish military prow¬ functional illiterates in the popu¬ incidence. Or a miracle. The ess. I suppose it helped them lation. 25 hold the country, but then they were probably dismayed to find race involving three kinds of 'I feel especially bitter a- their slaves dying off so fast sports, with running, swimming bout what has happened to THE little money could be made from and biking being predominant) due WARNING because it is such a good their labor. In the 19th Century to TV coverage of the Hawaiian book and really provides the real when thoughts turned to genocide, Ironman contest, two new maga¬ story of what happened. Maybe it whites did use disease as a wea¬ zines devoted to the sport, and is old news but most of the news¬ pon, passing on the blankets of major magazine and newspaper cov¬ paper and magazine accounts were smallpox victims to the Indians. erage of local triathlon events. incomplete and confusing, whereas But the conquests of Mexico and Nevertheless, the bookbuyers at this book benefits from exhaustive Peru came too quickly for this to Waldenbooks and B. Dalton felt research of over 50,000 pages of be a factor.1 that it was a West Coast phenomen¬ depositions and the reports of on, a passing fad (Rubik's Cube five different commissions. It is and video games aside!). They not a muckraking or biased report; said this in spite of the fact ((That's funny, Darrell, I keep it is just good writing that getting reports that you are con¬ that a major triathlon is going thrills and educates the reader. sidered a joke in sf circles. Does to be held in NY this spring. it take one to knew one? 'The original hardcover book did not sell to the expectations ((But seriously...you're doing 'Needless to say, we have not of the booksellers -- the cover your overreacting bit; Charles was been overwhelmed by orders for omitted mention of TMI, a mistake being funny. this book. The point I would like I think, and looked like just an¬ ((It'll probably make your day to make is: We publishers have other thriller. to know I’ve invited Charles to to get the bookstores to sell our be a columnist for SFR, and that he books and it isn't easy when the 'Enough -- I don't mean to has accepted. If things work out bookbuyers are uninformed. Mack plug the book. , But while I may his first column will appear in the Reynolds' comment about a new not agree completely with your next issue of SFR-perhaps right crop of editors applies to the economic predictions, I do not next to your column! There is no bookbuyers as well. And when you have a lot of optimism about pub¬ limit to my cruelty.)) command as high a percentage of lishing in this country. The book sales as B. Dalton and Wald¬ whole structure of the industry enbooks do, the bookbuyer's posi¬ is archaic and is not as direct tion can usurp even the best-in¬ in selling to the open market as formed editor. These large chains most products are. If writers are beginning to dictate to the think that there are too many mid¬ # LETTER FROM DONN VICHA publishers what to publish, so ev¬ dlemen (read: editors) in publish¬ 2633 West Estes en an "old breed" SF editor can ing, they are overlooking the ex¬ , IL 60645 expect to be told that a cover or tra line of middlemen that have May 12, 1983 subject is wrong for his or her emerged in the bookstores: the bookbuyers who have the ultimate 'Although I can't comment say in how well, if at all, a 'The middle ground in publish¬ directly on SF publishing, I book will be stocked in the book- ing is starting to deteriorate. would like to join the ongoing Book sales of 5K to 1SK are slow¬ discussion of what's-wrong-with- ly becoming unacceptable. Anoth¬ the-publishing-industry with some er case in point: We bought pap¬ complaints about bookstores, and ((I think at some point in the near erback rights to THE WARNING: in particular the major chains future book publishers will begin ACCIDENT AT THREE MILE ISLAND. that seem to be taking over edit¬ to advertize on cable, using a Agreed, it is not a sports in¬ orial decisions. My company is thirty-second "page" of time on the struction book, so we were taking the largest trade book company spare channels of cable networks. a risk but that's what's exciting outside of New York and supports And I think some form of mail order about the business. We thought it itself mainly through sports in¬ or electronic order servicing of the was a well-calculated risk: The struction books. Right now, our public is going to come from book LA TIMES BOOK REVIEW raved about bread and butter is in bodybuild¬ advertising on cable TV. The econ¬ it saying, "If you read no other ing books -- we were first and omics and mechanics have to be work¬ book in the next five years, by our source for bb books is the ed out, but some kind of alternate all means read THE WARNING." leader in the field. The orders to the existing distribution system (I'm sending you a comp copy so for bb books keep coming in, so must be devised.)) you can see for yourself.) It we will continue to put out more, has raves from Mike Wallace, PW, but we are always looking for the Jack Anderson, Peter Maas and Kir- next trend in sports in order to kus. One of the authors wrote maintain our reputation in sports the screenplay for THE SYN¬ instruction. DROME and we are touring him 'Last year we noted that tri- through the country for radio and athlons were growing very quickly TV. A week hasn't gone by that in popularity and contacted a wo¬ there hasn't been a report on TMI man who had self-published a fair¬ and yet the bookbuyers are tel¬ ly popular book on the subject. ling us it'sold news. (When you She reworked the book, added more see our copy of the book, I think photos, and benefited from our you'll agree that the cover is al¬ editorial suggestions and typeset¬ most worth the price of the book!) ting, design, etc. .Anyway, we What books have been ordered have weren't alone; four other publish¬ been hidden under Current Events ers had triathlon books in the and so it goes, the bookstores works. We felt that there was a undermine our sales. rapidly growing interest in this kind of sport (generally, it is a 26 in setting former friends to niggling. If these latter, then wrangling in public, but while I he's entitled to his perceptions, REG NOTE: The following two letters accept full measure of shame and but they do not jibe with Peter's of response to ' art¬ chagrin for being a participant, past friendly relations with me. icle in SFR #47, "PHILIP K. DICK— Peter had better understand that If the latter -- and I'm sure Pe¬ A Cowardly Memoir", require some it was not, for me, the heroic ter will so advise -- then it's recognition that it took a consider¬ and delightful encounter he good to know how I'm viewed by able chunk of courage and honesty one who has always been all to write and have published in Eng¬ smiles and camaraderie. But if land. And I think it took even 'The important point I need Peter is dealing in analysis by more to let me publish it in SFR. to make, for myself, is that the reason I had not spoken to Phil physical appearance, then I sug¬ gest it is no more honorable or Peter knew beforehand the reac¬ for two years (1978, Metz) was not valid a way of writing about tion it would produce; hence the the result of something as petty people than were I to compare a title of the piece. He admitted as a squabble over a woman. Where ignoble reactions and behavior in Peter got that idea, I have no i- meeting of Phil and Peter by writ¬ ing, "One was sober and the oth¬ himself. Why? dea. What caused me to end a er was very, very drunk." He felt he had something to twenty-year friendship with Phil report about Phil Dick of value and was a singularly odious attack on 'It is necessary, I think, interest to thousands of people, and Ed Ferman's integrity indulged in for those who make sport of oth¬ that it should be on the record for by Phil as a result of Ed's ask¬ ers solely on the basis of anat¬ access by scholars now and in the ing for an essay on my work, in¬ omical variations over which they future. He felt it was important tended for the July 1977 "Harlan have no control and which are not, enough to risk the punishment he is Ellison Issue" of THE MAGAZINE OF of themselves, relevant to the now taking. FANTASY 6 SCIENCE FICTION. worth of the people being discus¬ I admire that aspect of his sed, to learn that it is a nasty character. 'It serves no purpose to weapon of comment that knows no dredge up the circumstances of master. Harlan Ellison's letter appear¬ that awful exchange between Phil ed in FOUNDATION #27, the issue and Ed, save to point out that Ed following the appearance of Peter's was blameless in the matter. I 'For my part, all I have to "Memoir." The letter appears here could not absent myself from de¬ say about’Phil is the following, at Harlan's request. fending Ed, and I wrote to Phil which appeared in the LOS ANGELES Charles Platt's "Reply to Peter saying his behaviour was the fin¬ WEEKLY in July. It is contained Nicholls" is a response which is al act of nastiness I had seen in the 32nd installment of my reg¬ appearing for the first time. growing stronger in his nature ev¬ ular column "An Edge In My Voice:" ery year. And I said silence "'I was asked to take note of I have invited Peter Nicholls to should prevail between us. the recent death of Philip K. write in his defense if he wishes. Dick. That is not an easy thing However, time is very short now, and 'There was nothing casual for me to do. We were close anything he sends may have to be put about it. It was infinitely sad¬ friends once. We fell out. We over to next issue. dening to me to cut off my friend¬ had not talked civilly to each ship with Phil. Apparently, Phil other in a number of years. I felt the same way. Having now learned, shortly before the two learned that Peter was playing with strokes that took him, that he us, I feel even worse. But at regretted the distance between us least in the same forum where Pet¬ and wanted to get together. Time # LETTER FROM HARLAN ELLISON er has carelessly trivialized my and circumstance and probably January, 1983 last meeting with Phil, I have pigheadedness on my part prevent¬ corrected the bit of nonsense ed that. Now he is gone and, like 'I am moved by a casual er¬ that Peter has dropped. many of you, I never got to say to ror in Peter Nicholls' memoir someone who mattered, how much he of Phil Dick in FOUNDATION 26 'One other comment by Peter mattered. So I am not the proper (October 1982) to set the the in that memoir, also rankles. person to speak of this enormous¬ record straight, though in truth Peter no doubt thinks it an amus¬ ly talented, tormented man. I it doesn't matter in the wake of ing observation when he says, "I am not entitled to eulogize him Phil's death. thought it was pretty silly that as so many others have. Only these two grown men, one very big this, as one who came out at the 'Peter says, on page 8: and the other very, very small, finish line too far behind to "The great event at Metz was the should go on avoiding one another make his presence known, is open confrontation between Harlan El¬ for three days ..." Apart from to me: nowhere in all the high- lison and Philip K. Dick, which the presumption on Peter's part flown testimonials to Phil and I|m proud to say I set deliberate¬ that he had the right to muck a- his singular writings, has anyone ly myself. Harlan had already bout in our lives for his own a- noted that there were greedy and told me that he had been furious musement, I find the comparison amoral fuckers who used him bad¬ with Phil for years -- it was of Phil's and my height gratuit¬ ly, who kept him paranoid and something about a girl -- and ously insulting, and the sort of poor and delusional with night¬ that he refused to speak to him." invidious sophomorism expected mares of life that served their Italics mine. from adolescent fans, not a re¬ own commercial ends. As one de¬ 'Reading Peter's essay, I spected editor and critic. Un¬ nied the right to praise him, I learned for the first time that less it is meant by Peter that am permitted, I suppose, to sug¬ the sorry spectacle was a set-up. Phil's talent was great and mine gest that each and every one of Peter may take pride in having is small, or that Phil was great those scum who fed off his life- gulled us into the "confrontation" in the sense of containing multit¬ force be condemned to live out but for my part, I'm sorry it ev¬ udes while I am very, very small the rest of their days under the er came to pass. I don't know on in the sense of meanspirited and miasma of anguish and paranoia what ground someone can take pride 27 they visited oh him." 'Forgive the ramble. I'd chance remark years later, that were hardly a "silly political intended merely to write the one Phil was hurt by it. gesture." I gather that his 1960s sentence, "That which alienated activism was equally sincere and After staging this entertain¬ Philip K. Dick and me had nothing ment, Nicholls states that he there is evidence that some peop¬ to do with a girl, as Peter Nich- "sneaked out of the theater" dur¬ le took it seriously enough to olls suggests in his memoir." break in and wreck his house, as ing Phil's notoriously strange 'That I have gone on as long Metz speech, rather than stay and reported in ROLLING STONE maga¬ as I have should be chalked up to give support to the man whose zine. a gutfull of longing for my old friendship he claims. There seems to be a natural friend, and a soul full of re¬ law that the people who write a- morse at words left unspoken. He then describes Phil's bout you after you're dead will be Peter's insensitive comments and quote, "Did you successfully un¬ the wrong people. Where Phil is the knowledge that we were pawns dertake sexual intercourse last concerned, many of the testimoni¬ for his amusement do not make it night? I need to know how it's als have been bogus, inaccurate or any easier. But then, why should done," as being delivered with a embarrassing. We have had Ursula they?' deadpan look that to Nicholls was LeGuin's gushy tribute to a man a disturbing, "profoundly enigmat¬ she once refused to conmunicate ic, glazed expression." If obit¬ with because (according to Phil) uaries must be written by poseurs, she told him he was "crazy.” We can they not at least be written have had John Brunner smugly, by poseurs with a sense of humor, sanctimoniously regretting that REPLY TO PETER and the wit to know when someone N I C H 0 L L S Phil died because he wasn't ra¬ is putting them on? tional enough -- i.e. as boringly BY CHARLES PLATT "The whole point of this artic¬ rational as Brunner himself. We le is to give some flavor of what have even had a poem from Tom All obituaries, of course, Phil Dick was like." Yet Nichol¬ Disch that, although sincere, nev¬ benefit only the people who write ls obviously lacks the knowledge ertheless presented one piece of them -- unless you believe that or empathy to do any such thing. idle speculation as fact, and in¬ relatives will be comforted or I suggest, rather, that as an aca¬ cluded a rumor that subsequently that the deceased is perusing a demic, the most he could aim for turned out to be totally untrue. spiritual carbon copy. Obituaries would have been to concoct a the¬ Those who knew Phil best -- tend to be written out of pro¬ sis. This is what academics do. forma social obligation; out of Norman Spinrad, Russell Galen, It is how they achieve a sense of Paul Williams -- have written guilt at having failed to express worth and purpose. one's love for a friend while he least. After all, when conment- was alive; or out of a desire to Indeed, when dealing with the ing upon the death of someone who acquire status by claiming an in¬ work, as opposed to the man, Nic- truly was a dear, close friend, timacy that never existed. olls writes a fair simulation. one becomes uncomfortably aware of But even this is devalued by gos¬ the inadequacy of the act, compar¬ Peter Nicholl's inaccurate sip and hearsay: "In the 1960s ed with the enormity of the event. and presumptuous tribute to Phil¬ he used to drop acid and take ip K. Dick seems to fall in this I did not know Phil especial¬ large numbers of uppers and down¬ ly well, myself, but I had deep last category. "My friendship ers, he cancelled firm arrange¬ with Philip Dick," he begins, as admiration for his talent and ments, he made silly political courage and he inspired love. if he must emphasize from the gestures." start that he was far more than a Much has been made of his mystic¬ mere critic or admirer. If I may quote from my own ism; yet in all that I heard from interview with Phil: "I used to him on this subject (first in an And yet it seems he met Phil talk like I was really into acid. interview,, and then on four visits only once, and had a brief cor¬ But the fact of the matter is that lasting three to four hours each) respondence which ended when he I took it two times ..." (Of he was scrupulously rational in lacked the nerve to respond to course, Phil may not have been his arguments and never once lost what was surely a heartfelt ap¬ telling the truth here, but in his sense of irony and the absurd. peal for empathy and understand¬ view of his revelatory honesty la¬ He seemed a lot better equipped ing. This does not fit my defin¬ ter in the interview, I trust his to evaluate philosophy and sanity ition of friendship. Nor am I statement.) Also: "The only than any of his obituarists. Of¬ impressed by the ingenuous "mea drugs I took regularly were amph¬ ten it was his playfulness that culpa" act of titling the piece etamines .. .* which were prescrib¬ led nitwits such as Nicholls to "a cowardly memoir;" this seems ed for me." Of course, he also think he was crazy. At other more like a facile confession, used marijuana as much as anyone times, it was his fundamental con¬ to win social approbation, than a in the Californian culture of the viction that reality is subjective genuine admission of remorse. times. But he went on to write a and malleable. He lived-this con¬ Indeed, Nicholls seems incap¬ devastating anti-drug novel -- viction in a way that could be able of remorse. He refers to which Nicholls seems not to have disturbing to those of us who the confrontation he arranged be¬ read. lacked his vision and his capac¬ ity for belief. tween Phil and Harlan Ellison as As regards "cancelling firm "ensuring myself a minor niche in arrangements," Nicholls doesn't His writing was sometimes un¬ fannish history," as if seeking say what he means, unless he's re¬ disciplined and hasty, but it pos¬ notoriety on the pettiest level ferring to the lecture series he sessed genius. I am angered by is a legitimate motive that he organized himself, which Phil was "tributes" that begin by claiming takes for granted. .He shows to¬ unable to attend because of ill friendship with such an important tal insensitivity to the feelings health. exceptional man, and then devalue of the two men in the encounter; his life, persona and work with their angst is his entertainment. As for politics, Phil's gifts anecdotal inaccuracies and pre¬ I don't know how Harlan felt a- of large sums for famine relief sumptuous egotism. bout it, but I suspect, from a 28 OTHER VOICES

DOC SAVAGE RIDES AGAIN .... A REVIEW OF L. RON HUBBARD'S along with more exciting, intrigu¬ Most artists, of whatever genre BATTLEFIELD EARTH ing story, and ends with story. and whatever level of accomplish¬ Only in a few instances does he ment, wish to produce a magnum op¬ BY KARL EDD interrupt the narrative line while us , a work to be remembered by. you learn the scientific intricac¬ If he had not already impressed us Doc calls himself ... or, ies of equipment, with the worldwide success of dia- rather L. Ron Hubbard calls him advanced warfare and medicine. netics and Scientology (though he Jonnie Goodboy Tyler. Like Barbar- has not been associated with the ossa (Frederick the Great of the ? So be it. The book lends a new dignity to the official church for more than a de¬ Germans, or the Spanish El Cid), cade) , and his historic position Doc Savage, the man of bronze, has term. Doc Savage Jonnie Tyler has his moments of doubt, horror in as one of John Campbell's ASTOUND¬ come to life when needed and in¬ ING stable of the Golden Age of spires a dedicated, polyglot team the face of possible loss of his science fiction, L. Ron would of Chinese, Russians, Scots, etc. woman, his civilization and its values, undying friendship for his still appear a veritable literary to such pulpish deeds of derring- Halley's Comet with this gargantu¬ do as are needed to save Earth’s loyal cohorts, displays ingenuity, an work. He zips together one scattered human remnants. desperation and jumps from black moment to black moment to ultimate cliffhanger chapter after another There are 819 pages of rousing triumph, the triumph of a living, and yet retains essential believ¬ adventure in this $24.00 book, breathing human rather than the ability. ISBN 0-312-06978-2. It is of al¬ triumph of a computerized, dehuman¬ One Pyschlo villain, Terl, is most WAR AND PEACE stature. In ized person. Yes, Virginia, thank so chillingly diabolical, so ful¬ the fascinating introduction La Ghod there was a Doc Savage some¬ ly realized as an alien entity, Fayette Ron Hubbard assures you where in a time capsule! (Figur¬ that you come to hate him, want to the book is pure science fiction. atively speaking.) see him killed, and yet understand The background, machinery and sci¬ The tremendous scope of this his alien outlook. This is good ence may bear this out but some of writing. the characters border on those of novel, its sheer exuberant vast¬ fantasy land. But for pure enter- ness, its unfolding of character after character, episode after ep¬ tainment, this is the book. PLAN¬ Imperialism is satirized as is isode, all neatly and profession¬ ET STORIES' entire production international banking in the guise ally linked by skilled foreshadow¬ pales into insignificance in the of intergalactic banking. Home ing and adequate motivation, com¬ shadow of this behemoth. and family values are treated ro¬ bine to make this book worthy of a mantically yet not preachy. Any The year is 3000. Jonnie is large place in sci-fi literature philosophizing is inherent and im¬ an "outsider" type among his hill and the literature of adventure plicit rather than explicit and folk of a surviving Rocky Mountain and brave men. When you read page expository. area. An alien, oppressive race 270, remember that a gold pound, (is there ever any other?) called Troy weight, is 12 oz. Also, you Unlike a pure space opera, the Psychlos, whose math is to the will note from the text that the book does not end with the termin¬ base eleven, exploit earth for hero has a blond beard though the ation of war between Psychlos and various minerals, especially gold. book cover artist depicts Jonnie Earthmen. A hundred or so pages They breathe a gas that explodes clean shaven. These two insignif¬ at the end delineate the difficult¬ if the slightest bit of uranium icant details only make the bal¬ ies of a military conquerer after touches it -- a significant point ance of the book more impressive. a war. of future vulnerability, especial¬ ly since many persons of Jonnie's hill coninunity have classical symp¬ toms of radiation poisoning.

When you create a future-world it is difficult to keep every de¬ tail consistent with supposed evo¬ lution but L. Ron has succeeded, perhaps to a greater degree than PhilipJose Farmer's RTVERWORLD, though much of James Blish's best writing also possesses the immed¬ iacy and believability of BATTLE¬ FIELD EARTH. Of course, this be¬ lievability is predicated on an author's skill at initiating you into the world he has spun from dreams and such. L. Ron does an admirable job. Old pro that he is* he begins with story, carries you You can read this book as a you there are two volumes to fol¬ playing experiments include the series of interlocking short stor¬ low (unless you're a member of the surrealist's self-portrait drawn ies in the tradition of the old A- Science Fiction Book Club, in from a reflecting globe; a self- MAZING STORIES serials, or you can which case you can buy the three- perpetuating, hand-drawing-hand- hyperventilate and then plunge in¬ in-one volume and escape the grow¬ print; and many many others. to the book as a whole. It is both ing trend of multi-volume anxiety). Escher's outre and illusory an integrated whole and a pleasur¬ *********************************** style is so completely depth-or¬ able series. The book took me a iented that, three years ago, "3d" week to read. During that week I cut-outs --in the form of "kaleid- happily neglected most of my usu¬ ocycles" -- were released from Bal¬ al duties. My favorite beagle lantine in cardboard-format, as a whimpered frequently, certain that TOE PARASITE "do-it-yourself" sculpture in book another dog somewhere had displac¬ By form. ed her in my affections. None had. Pocket, 1981, 372 pp., $2.95 I was simply enjoying future-mech¬ The graphic titles described anics with master-mechanic Ker, the REVIEWED BY RUSSELL ENGEBRETSON here feature the best of Escher's friendly turncoat Psychlo, a midget masterpieces in beautiful, large- at eight hundred pounds, and help¬ Reading this novel is like moving size renditions. THE GRAPHIC WORK ing Jonnie Goodboy lyier overcome through a series of dreams, each a OF M.C. ESCHER contains a small the vicious Terl with the aid of bit stranger and more nightmarish amount of text by the artist in Doc Savage's sidekicks. Monk, Ham than the last. The prologue is a descriptive, lasting form; in THE and Rennie, now known as Robert chilling description of how Rose, the MAGIC MIRROR OF M.C. ESCHER, Bruno the Fox, Stormalong and Chong-Won. main character, is infested by the Ernst explores the artist's back¬ Innumerable characters move across parasite while still a young girl. ground and artistry in greater stage and even the thumbnail char¬ From that point on we see Rose as a detail. Each work is a fine con¬ acters are as rounded as those in young, married woman as she struggles versation piece; both are recom¬ Dickens and Balzac's writing, to understand the supernatural events mended. which is to say -- perhaps not to that are turning her life into a *********************************** the liking or criteria of a col¬ shambles. lege professor, but they are un¬ Unlike most supernatural horror forgettable , all. novels that sport cover blurbs pro¬ Hey, man! --As you will see claiming the novel to be "occult", when you enjoy this treat. THE PARASITE is actually based on oc¬ MINDKILLER cult practices and beliefs, and de¬ By Spider Robinson Pull down the shades and can¬ rives much of its power from Camp¬ New York: Holt, Rinehart 8 Winston cel your appointments. L. Ron has bell's thoroughly researched present¬ 1982, $14.50, hardback struck. His cosmopolitan wisdom ation of the dark side of Western sequins the script. Few twenty- magical systems. REVIEWED BY GARTH SPENCER dollar-and-more books are worth THE PARASITE is a major novel the price today. This one is. MINDKILLER begins with a sui¬ from an important writer who is not *********************************** cide attempt. Throughout the book well known outside of the circle of there is a gritty,.and sometimes aficionados, but Ram¬ gross, reality. sey Campbell should be removed from the realms of obscurity by the ag¬ Norman Kent is an English gressive marketing of this mass mark¬ professor teaching in Halifax in et paperback. 1994, whose sense of self-worth was shattered by the African war. FANTASY TRILOGY With the exception of the epi¬ When his wife leaves him and his logue, which almost seemed to be tack¬ By Suzette Haden Elgin department chairman hints at a ed on as an afterthought, I strongly Berkley Books, $2.50 possible staff reduction, he caves recommend THE PARASITE to all those in; he sets out to junp off a REVIEWED BY ROBERT SABELLA readers who take their grue serious¬ bridge. He is only saved by a ly- man who tries to mug him. Norman TWELVE FAIR KINGDOMS is a ************************************ quirky little book set in a color¬ returns home to find his sister ful world and peopled with some Madeleine has returned from Eur¬ quite irresistible characters. ope, apparently to escape an un¬ happy love affair. They establish Responsible for Brightwater is a rapport and learn to sustain a teenage ruler who undertakes a TOE GRAPHIC WORK OF M.C. ESCHER and TOE MAGIC MIRROR OF M.C. ESCHER each other; then she disappears. solemn quest to prevent the twelve Norman turns into an academic mach¬ kingdoms from blowing apart over By Bruno Ernst ine until semester break. With petty differences. She travels Ballantine, $10.95 nothing to distract him anymore, alone on a flying mule and engages REVIEWED BY JOHN DIPRETE he must find the fiend who may in adventures with the likes of have stolen her. And he disap¬ wimpy magicians and cantankerous These two on-going titles pears . grannies. from reproduce Joe is an amnesiac burglar in The use of magic is restrain¬ (in b§w and color) the artistic New York in 1999. In a chapter ed and realistic rather than an genius of M.C. Escher. Escher based on Robinson's story "God is all-purpose giamick when all else was known for his tricks with view¬ an Iron," Joe finds a woman comnit- fails. The Ozark culture incorpor¬ point and perspective; for instancy ting suicide by wireheading; she ates enough advanced technology so incredible staircases that fool has short-circuited the timer on that its future setting is believ¬ the eye, winding and overlapping the "droud" that stimulates her able. The story is told tongue- in angle-defying, non-conmonsense pleasure center. On inpulse he in-cheek and has many bright spots. patterns. A variety of eyeball- saves Karen, learns the ghastly I recomnend it heartily but warn 30 story of her life, and takes her under his wing. He brings her to THE STOLEN LAKE vants Manuel Fluellen, Daffyd Go¬ the incredible hidden apartment he By Joan Aiken mez, Jose Glendower, Juan Jones somehow found, complete with a London: Cape; New York: Delacorte and two royal sempstresses who computer offering enormous illegal 1981, 291 pp., he, $10.95 moonlight as wyf-owls. Pick up access power. Eventually they de¬ Latin, Spanish, Regency slang and cide to tilt at windmills --to at¬ REVIEWED BY G.B. CHAMBERLAIN the lore of Malory and the Mabinog- tack the corporations that produce ion. Enjoy the triumph of good, drouds. One of the most powerful King Arthur is alive and well set off by a volcanic eruption. corporation chairmen, Jacques Le- in the Andes -- at least in the In sum, enjoy. Blanc, is in Nova Scotia. While wacky alternate 19th century where Ms. Aiken has already produced five In lesser hands --no names, doing their detective work there, no pack drill --so exquisite a Karen brings home a nurse, who re¬ literate and action-packed juven¬ iles. No dynamite plots against mishmash might disintegrate into cognizes Joe as her lost, supposed¬ picaresque episodes, with pedantic ly dead husband, Norman. the Stuarts this time; no tipping St. Paul's into the Thames; good backgrounding and aimless free-for- King James III and his Hanoverian alls doing duty for imaginative rivals rpmain offstage. Front and realization and continuing purpose. MINDKILLER is Robinson's first Ms. Aiken plots better. Why are book to ask: When are we likely center are the returned Arthur, his ever-loving Ginevra, and the there so few children around -- to see devices like drouds patent¬ especially girls? From whom do ed and sold, and wireheading be¬ sharp-tongued, sharp-witted Cock¬ ney, Dido Twite, taking her third trained cats bring agonized pleas come a growing addiction? When for help on pages from Johnson's this and related neurological tour in the lead and a more force¬ ful pre-teen role model than ever. DICTIONARY? And what is the true technologies become available, who identity of the foundling, Atahal- is going to control them? And to Why the Andes? The sword Cali- lpa, foster brother of the wicked what end? Like his other works, bum is there along with its lake, King of Hy-Brasil, Huascar Ccaed- MINDKILLER is informed by a strong which the Romano-British settlers mon? As suspense builds, the read¬ moral awareness, a sense of the of New Cumbria took along in emi¬ er suspends disbelief with a will. value of people and of relation¬ gration after the Saxon victory at ship and a hope that one or a few The series to date, in order Dyrham in 577. (You didn't read of action and with thanks to Baird leaders can set an example for a that year’s ANGLO-SAXON CHRONICLE?) society. Searles in IASFM for the tip: THE The lake is stolen by Ginevra's WOLVES OF WILLOUGHBY CHASE (1962), The mystery surrounding Jac¬ neighbor. King Mabon of Lyonesse, BLACK HEARTS IN BATTERSEA (1964), ques, the "mindkiller" and Made¬ as hostage for the return of his NHJTTBIRDS ON NANTUCKET (1966), leine, the relationship between missing daughter, the lovely Elen, THE STOLEN LAKE (1981), THE WHIS¬ Norman and Joe, are wrapped up in who speaks seven languages and can PERING MOUNTAIN (1969), THE CUCKOO a series of surprises at the cli¬ ride a catamount. Hence the Royal TREE (1971). The first three can max. And yet only the discovery Navy and Dido again, hitching a be found in paperback at discrimin¬ of the real Bad Guy is actually ride on the H.M.S. Thrush after ating children's sections; before a surprise. The formation of a foiling the Hanoverian plot (two gift-wrapping for deserving juniors, team of Good Guys at the end -- books back) to bombard St. James' sneak around yourself. Like Narnia, as in TELEMPATH and STARDANCE -- Palace from Nantucket. Pook's Hill and E. Nesbit's London is a little too neat and simple to of psammead and phoenix, Ms. Aik¬ be satisfying. It doesn't quite Up the alligator-haunted Sev- en's 19th Century is not just for era, then, by tidal bore and muscle- answer the problem of evil that kiddies. Robinson started out to face from powered paddleboats, by wood-fired ************************************ the beginning. cog railway to Upper Cumbria, Arth¬ urian altiplano set about by volcan¬ But read this book. This oes; past the classic facades of blend of idealism, harsh realism Bath Regis, where mulecars rattle and some hilarious situations is along streets cobbled with silver; very much worth your while. to the revolving palace of the THE SHROUDED PLANET *********************************** White Queen. Meet her loyal ser¬ THE DAWNING LIGHT By Robert Silverberg and Randall Garrett, writing as Robert Randall , 1982 Original copyright, 1957 $2.50 each. REVIEWED BY P. MATHEWS SHAW

This is what they mean by As¬ tounding Science Fiction stories, or Campoell-era fiction. The set¬ ting is an alien world with an al¬ ien culture, carefully constructed, yet thoroughly understandable and believeable and very easy for even the most culture-bound reader to relate to. The plot concerns the efforts of the Earthmen to break up and re-form the Nidorian cul¬ ture, which is now static and trad¬ ition-bound, though rather well de¬ veloped, as seen through the eyes of four generations of Nidorians. The theme, though it escaped a good many of us back in 1957, is "The end justifies the means." Silverberg, in his afterword to SHROUDED PLANET, calls the first book a deliberate effort to write a "Campbellian" story, and calls it the "basic CIA story." Campbell's genuis as an editor is shown in one short comnand given the authors, "Write it from the aliens' view¬ point." Campbell's values, Silver- berg defines as "Earthmen are su¬ perior to alien life-forms. Earth- men may therefore meddle with ali¬ en cultures at will, provided they are serving some higher goal. An acceptable higher goal is to med¬ dle with an alien culture for its own good, especially if the med¬ dling will also serve to enhance the quality of Earth culture." * he anticipated in 1912 something that didn't happen in the real The origins of 's world until the 1970s. Believe Prime Directive, and Kirk's cons¬ it or not, evil President Rockland tant violations of it, can be By Colonel Edward Mandell House and his eviler cohorts are brought clearly seen here; the ethos has Omni Publications, Box 216, low by the public revelation of lost its hold on Earth-human heads, Hawthorne, CA 90250 their secret conversations record¬ but old habits remain. Paperback, 312 pp., $4.00 ed on a dictagraph! The genius of Silverberg and REVIEWED BY NEAL WILGUS How do you like them apples, Garrett are shown in the enormous Milhous? likeability of the aliens. One Frankly, I haven't read this cares what happens to them, even book and probably won't, so this ************************************ when they are behaving like prime is more of a news item than a re¬ blockheads or worse. The revela¬ view. But PHILIP DRU is of inter¬ tion that two of the leading char¬ est on at least three counts so LIFE, THE UNIVERSE, AND EVERYTHING acters, each in his own time, cal¬ it should be noted in passing. lously sacrificed a human life -- By Douglas Adams innocent in one case and an old First, this is a utopian work Pan Books, 1982 mentor in the other -- for the high¬ of at least historic interest, a Paperback, 162 pp., $4.50 (!) er goal -- canes with the same out¬ projection in 1912 of "radical" rage it would in life. The reader ideals into the "future" world of REVIEWED BY ALLEN VARNEY 1920-35. Secondly, many of the is outraged; the writers simply By now nearly every sentient state the facts and leave the read¬ ideas put forth in PHILIP DRU, such as the graduated income tax being is at least distantly ac¬ ers to react, rather than wallow¬ quainted with THE HITCH-HIKER'S ing in outrage. This take skill. and various welfare programs, were eventually put into law and we're GUIDE TO THE GALAXY in its various Their skill with a plot is still living with the results. And aspects. The BBC Radio series. less, partially due to the strait- third. Colonel House was an advisor The record albums. The TV show. jacket of the imposed theme. The to Woodrow Wilson and is considered And, of course, the book (1979), end is too easy. The revelation by various conspiracy theorizers as with its sequel, THE RESTAURANT AT that Earth wants another techno¬ one of the masterminds behind the THE END OF THE UNIVERSE (1980). logical race in the universe to Plot to Take Over the World. The most important thing to say bear it company and keep it on its about LIFE etc. is, DON'T read it toes, and therefore proceeds to Omni (formerly Cfomi/Christian until you've made your way through make one, bears an amazing resemb¬ Book Club) is a John Birch-type the first two! --But with that lance to the mentality that would organization that no doubt be¬ statement stated, I am pleased to marry a child in order to rear a lieves Colonel House was an unin¬ report that LIFE is a medium-strong proper mate in one's own image. dicted co-conspirator but surpris¬ addition to what may become an op¬ Self-defeating and specious. ingly this reprint contains no ac¬ en-ended series. cusatory introduction or afterword, History buffs, readers under not even a backcover blurb crying Once more we join our bewild¬ thirty-five, and nostalgics should proofs-of-a-conspiracy. In fact, ered heros Arthur Dent and Ford make an effort to read this. Omni/Christian isn't even identif¬ Prefect on another frenzied and Those who read and remember the ied as the publisher. nutty tour of our galaxy, from the original don't need to be told. swamps of Squomshellous Zeta, where the mattresses grow, to the Skimming a few chapters to get flying cocktail party that's last¬ * SHROUDED PLANET, page 215, the flavor confirms my preconceiv¬ Silverberg's afterword. ed four generations. Here, for ed notion that this would be a once, Adams weaves the episodes in¬ ************************************ pretty dull read -- non-dimension¬ to a moderately coherent adventure al characters, unlikely plot man¬ plot that pits Arthur, Ford, Tril- ipulations, lectures, lectures, lian, Slartibartfast, Marvin the lectures. However, Colonel House Paranoid Android, and (briefly) I COULD USE A LOT OF FLAT, 3 did one of those amazing things Zaphod Beeblebrox against an at¬ WIDE ILLUSTRATIONS FOR SPOTS that happen from time to time -- tempt to revive a tremendous inter¬ LIKE THIS, 32 stellar menace. The pace is neatly sustained -- civilization after things fall a- MARATHON that is, apart from the frequent part. By D. Alexander Smith digressions to explain such trivia The story is told from two Ace, 1982, $2.50 as Bistro Mathematics (based on the viewpoints: that of Newton McClin- well-known fact that numbers on tock, who fails his employment restaurant checks obey different test and has to join an Unemploy¬ REVIEWED BY DEAN R. LAMBE principles than they do everywhere ables camp; and that of his wife. else) and the Campaign for Real Holly, who leaves her husband to First Contact is all the rage Time (which tries to discourage join those in the floating sphere. again it seems, yet Smith --in what frivolous time-travel paradoxes). It is a tribute to Nelson's writ¬ I assume is a first novel -- offers In the course of the story we ing skill that he can make his an intriguing variant of that theme. learn why Earth has been shunned readers care about these two un- The story opens halfway to halfway; by galactic culture and why the likeable characters. Newton is ai a voyage of Earth's first starship, last thought of the bowl of petun¬ ambitionless, noncommital alcohol¬ "Open Palm" at midpoint turn-around ias (in Volume I) was "Oh, no, not ic, while Holly is scheming and a- for a close encounter of the third again." moral. Nevertheless, Newton is kind. Captain Erickson and his in¬ the one chosen to carry on the ternational crew of ten have just be¬ I loved the original book and musical religion, and Holly joins gun deceleration for their meeting still recommend it and its sequel him after her takeover of the some three and a half years hence highly to all fans with a bent sphere ends in disaster. with bipedal aliens from a planet of (or do I mean warp?) for Monty Py¬ 61 Cygni. The Cygnan djan made rad¬ thon and/or Wodehouse. But it's io contact with Earth and both sides Nelson has a fine, readable often easy to detect a somewhat agreed to dispatch near-light-speed style, although that he used in strained quality to the humor ships in 2058 for a deep space join¬ his novel BLAKE'S PROGRESS was ing of hands. . here. After two books the novel¬ more appealing since it was biz- ty is gone; in his long treatises arrely lyrical in a unique way. Increasingly detached from hu¬ on Brockian Ultra-Cricket and how Of course, BLAKE'S PROGRESS, pos¬ manity, and more and more involved to fly, for example, Adams seems to sibly the strangest with the transmissions from the aliens, be reaching for laughs. story ever told, is less of a the "Open Palm" crew experience a Still, he usually gets them. mainstream science fiction work gradual drift from normality. Cap¬ And any book that postulates that than THE PROMETHEUS MAN is, being tain Erickson and First Officer Hel¬ a ten-billion-year-old galactic more closely influenced by Moor¬ en Delgiomo plot remedial psychology, holocaust is memorialized in the cock's version of the New Wave. for the one most in need of help is English game of cricket -- well, BLAKE'S PROGRESS ia also to be the ship's psychiatrist. And Xeno- it's worth your time, right? printed in the near future by psychologist Bennett seemingly goes Just wait for a (cheaper) American Starblaze, the original version mad and insists on being treated as edition. And read the other two having been much truncated by a Cygnan. Then a mysterious explos¬ first! the editorial policies of Roger ion, perhaps a bomb, rips out the Elwood’s Laser Books. hull in a storage hold and the Cap¬ tain is found dead in his cabin. Did THE PROMETHEUS MAN is a fine the mad Xenopsychologist try to kill and thought-provoking work, and both ship and captain? All crewmemb¬ Nelson is clearly a writer at the ers are tortured by self-doubts and top of his form. H€ PROMETHEUS MAN old fears, while the twelfth entity By Ray Faraday Nelson ************************************ on board, the now-sentient computer, tries to salvage deteriorating mor¬ Starblaze Books, $5.95 E.T.: STORYBOOK ale. REVIEWED BY MARK MANSELL G.P. Putnam's Sons, NY $6.95 Although flawed in both charac¬ Ray Nelson has come up with terization and plotting, Snith's ef¬ a fascinating novel of the near REVIEWED BY ALMA JO WILLIAMS fort merits attention. A sequel is future in the "if-this-goes-on" almost a necessity. This is a shortened version dystopian tradition of the 1950s ************************************ and early 1960s. THE PROMETHEUS of William Kotzwinkle's full MAN, however, is written from a length adaptation of Melissa Math- 1980s perspective and therefore ison's screenplay, with color pic¬ takes more current problems, un- tures from the movie. Good for ad¬ ults and children alike. enployment in particular, as a MAJIPOOR CHRONICLES basis of its extrapolations. *********************************** By Robert Silverberg In this future, most problems Arbor House have been solved -- pollution, crime, war -- but at the cost of REVIEWED BY MARK MANSELL polarizing the population into MAJIPOOR CHRONICLES is Robert two camps: the "Techs" who are Silverberg's follow-up to his able to pass the intelligence highly successful LORD VALENTINE'S tests and run society, and the CASTLE. Like the previous work "Uns" or Eneraployables who are it deals with the incredibly im¬ kept in places such as a 100- mense world of Majipoor and its story barracks which used to be variety of races and customs, and Berkeley. Throw in an Underground like the previous book also, it of disaffected Uns, -a religion is in the area of science fiction (or lifestyle) based on the power that resembles fantasy. of nusic and a group of highly-in¬ telligent people floating in the CHRONICI.E.S is a series of stratosphere aboard a geodesic stories recorded in Majipoor's sphere, hoping to re-establish Registry of Souls -- recordings of the memories of people's lives. in ALGOL a few years back when he THE AYES OF TEXAS They are connected by brief pre¬ retired for awhile before coming By Daniel Da Cruz ludes of how Hissune, who appeared back with LORD VALENTINE'S CASTLE. U.S.A., Random House, Inc., NY, NY; He was tired and disappointed with in CASTLE as a young boy, uses Canada, Ballantine Books of Canada, the recordings to learn more about the reception of his important Ltd., 5390 Ambler Drive, Mississauga, the world of Majipoor which is works, which sold poorly and got Ontario, Canada, L4W 1Y7 ruled by a hierarchy able to con¬ some critical mauling by those 1982, 246 pp., $2.75 trol and influence the dreams of used to his early action-oriented its inhabitants. In these stories stuff. So, you can't blame him REVIEWED BY W. RITCHIE BENEDICT we learn more about the way that for turning out what sells. If this style of governing works, you stick with this field long Mr. Da Cruz is new to the science and the ways the different races enough, though, a person's taste fiction field and according to his of Majipoor interact -- from the tends to improve (yes, even mine). biographical data at the back of multi-armed Vroons to the toad¬ this book, has a rather incredible So even though MAJIPOOR CHRON¬ background -- working as a miner, a like Hjoorts to the reptilian ICLES is enjoyable excellent read¬ Ghayrogs to the shape-shifting professor, a taxi driver, a journal¬ ing, it's enjoyable, excellent Metamorphs, which are original in¬ ist, a salesman and a judo expert, light reading. Maybe I'm wrong to habitants of Maj ipoor before being among other things. I missed his complain; even the Flying Wallen- conquered and relegated to reser¬ das can't do a triple somersault first novel (GROTTO OF THE FORMIGANS) but judging from his second, he vations by the humans. each time on the trapeze. I real¬ should be a force to reckon with in I enjoyed every one of the va¬ ly liked MAJIPOOR CHRONICLES, and the future, as he is able to create rious tales presented here. Of if you enjoyed LORD VALENTINE'S scenarios that are both fresh and course, I find very little of any¬ CASTLE, you will also. However, inventive. His military background thing that Silverberg writes not unlike THORNS, THE BOOK OF SKULLS (yes -- that too) is strongly in ev¬ to be enjoyable. Nonetheless, I and others of Silverberg's clas¬ idence in his tale of a futuristic came away less than satisfied. sics, I didn't love MAJIPOOR CHRON¬ Alamo. I suppose it's like eating a ICLES. square meal and then comparing it Gwilliam Forte is a self-made to an airy something for dessert. millionaire and a triple amputee After THORNS, DYING INSIDE, THE (the left arm surviving) who served BOOK OF SKULLS and SHADRACH IN THE on board of the battleship Texas in FURNACE, I've been spoiled. Any¬ World War II. The development of one else having written this book sophisticated prosthetics in the would have been at the top of his '80s and '90s enable him to almost or her form, but with Silverberg function normally. As a special pro¬ it's as if he's decided to coast ject, he decides to have his old ship for awhile. refitted with the latest in ultra¬ modern weapons in time for the close- I know, that's not a fair approaching millennial year 2,000. statement. I read his statement Besides being a pet project of the Texas state governor, the refitting also provides a will to live for the ther frustrated that they were not twenty-three disabled veterans that further developed. I won't give constitute the crew. CARLISLE STREET the plot away, but is it quite T.M. Wright fair to make seemingly deliberate Meanwhile, the outside world has Tor Books, 1983, 316 pp., $3.50 efforts to plant suspicion of a slowly been going to hell in a hand murder on an innocent party? I basket, as the Russians have swallow¬ REVIEWED BY PAULETTE MINARE' was amazed at the time element on ed up Western Europe, leaving only page 89 -- if it was intended to five nations of any size to survive, This horror novel takes place show some time confusion resulting those being Canada, the U.S., Japan, near a small industrial town where from previous events, I fail to and South Africa. Most of Miss Leigh Roberts purchases a se¬ see the coherence: (early?) the Third World is still intact, but cluded country acreage. The house the U.S. is being bled white trying "He left here to go and find has a macabre past -- it was mov¬ to support their ever-growing popula¬ a phone early this morning, ed to the country 50 years ago, tion and an emergency military build¬ a little after 11:30, I the only surviving house on Car¬ up in order to contain the Soviets. think ... Yes. A little lisle Street when the entire neigh¬ (Mr. Da Cruz has a few acid comnents past 11:30, maybe 12:00..." borhood was destroyed by fire. about the Carter administration in Leigh is trying to make Credited to T.M. Wright are this context). changes in her lifestyle, to make two other horror novels. STRANGE The U.S. had long anticipated a her own choices and become more SEED, 1978, I found to seriously final push by the Conmunists to take organized, to escape domination lack credibility, although I do over the remains of the Free World, by father and brother, and later enjoy a well-written horror novel. but it was unable to determine why "her ten-month involvement with a It is reviewed by Richard E. Geis it did not crane ten years earlier well-known and very destructive in SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #36. when the U.S. was at its weakest. religious sect." The plot shows The other, THE PLAYGROUND, 1982, Apparently, the Russians anticipated how, as many believe, evil can be I never finished due to loss of absorbed by a house and later re¬ that the U.S. might commit hari-kiri interest. CARLISLE STREET is by with its remaining nuclear stockpile leased. Shocking murders are con¬ far the best novel of the three. nected with psychotic denizens of and launch a first strike upon their Carlisle Street. I am looking forward to the territory. Therefore, it was content next book by this developing to wait until its plans were ripe. Very interesting characters novelist. The planned conquest is scheduled appear in the novel -- I felt ra¬ for 2001 after the U.S. is forced in¬ to accepting visits by Russian war¬ ships at its ports as a gesture of "mutual" friendship. The only pos¬ sible way of foiling these plans is to create an incident which will ex¬ pose Russian intentions for what they really are. And this is where the crew of the Texas and the remod¬ elled battleship come in. The title of the book comes from a poll held by satellite (it detects lights from space) as to whether Tex¬ as should secede from the Union in order to meet the forthcoming threat. The President of the United States who is boxed in by the peace-at-any- price factions hopes the Texans do leave, as it is the one hope of sur¬ to challenge and defeat the malev¬ vival the United States has. FORBIDDEN SANCTUARY olent aspects of the occult. Needless to say, there is a bang- By Richard Bowker Wellman's previous book from up battle in the Gulf of Mexico be¬ Ballantine tween the Texas and an inmense Sov¬ , , won Paperback, 1982, 203 pp., $2.50 the and is now iet taskforce, that ends the threat a classic in the field. Although REVIEWED BY GARTH SPENCER to freedom forever. Besides the Al¬ amo, there are echoes of the 1905 this volume shows Wellman's ever¬ present craftsmanship and story¬ FORBIDDEN SANCTUARY is another Russia-Japan War which ended with novel about the problem the Church telling ability, they don't reach nuch of the Russian fleet sunk and faces when alien contact is estab¬ the sheer heights of delightful was a first nail in the coffin of lished. The twist in this story is fantasy as displayed in his other the Czar. the aliens already have something works,such as WHO FEARS THE DEVIL? like Christianity -- but it exists As an exploration of an alternate Of course, none of these tales underground, like the early Church. future world, the book is quite fas¬ were meant to be preserved for the cinating. It succeeds as an action- ages, and the occult detective The Numians look like humans. thriller as well. It narrowly avoids genre is a difficult one to pave Their technology apparently re¬ the pitfall of too much flag-waving. new ground in. As these types of flects an early Iron-Age culture. For light reading, it is an excel¬ stories go, they are entertaining Yet they can teleport to other lent diversion, having the "feel" of and there are some innovations planets in large, luninous blue an ANALOG serial. like the depiction of ectoplasm as pyramids. After the excitement ************************************ a kind of jelly exuded from a per¬ and confusion when one appears in son's body and the characters of New England, and after regular com¬ the Shonokins, who are humanlike munication is established, one of beings predating the Amerinds in the Numoi guards approaches one of America and who appear in Wellman's the interpreters, Angela Sumners. LONELY VIGILS more recent Silver John novel AFTER He is a clandestine believer in DARK (which also features an off¬ the new religion, and he hopes the By Manley Wade Wellman stage John Thunstone). Carcosa, $15.00 Terrans can coerce the Numians to stop the persecutions. REVIEWED BY MARK MANSELL Like Seabury Quinn's Jules de Angela contacts a Catholic Grandin stories, those in LONELY One of the more specialized priest, who doubtfully contacts VIGILS are best taken in small another priest ... and the word forms of fantasy fiction is the bites. Despite not reaching the occult detective story, which goes up the line. The Pope's ad¬ quality of WORSE THINGS WAITING, visors don't want to touch the is¬ flourished during the pulp age LONELY VIGILS is still a worth¬ sue. from the Thirties to the Fifties, while purchase, both as a view of but which has largely disappeared pulp fiction and as an exemplary Meanwhile, Tenon the guard when the demand for continuing example of the bookmaker's art. goes AWOL. After a long, dispir¬ series characters dried up along All Carcosa books have been pro¬ ited walk he finds a church. He with the pulp magazines. Now fusely illustrated, printed on the knocks, and keeps knocking, and is what continuing characters there finest paper and painstakingly taken in by Angela's priest. are in fantasy fiction are those bound with sewn signatures (not who can stand up despite longer like Doubleday's half-hearted glu¬ respites between appearances -- ed ones). A book you'll be proud From there events move swift¬ Wellman's own Silver John series to keep on the fancy bookshelf in ly. The Numians want to know or L. Sprague de Camp's Willy the living room, as well as the where Tenon has gone, and demand Newbury tales. read-it-before-bed shelf. his return; the authorities want This roundabout beginning ************************************ to keep the Numians happy, and brings us to LONELY VIGILS, a start a search; the Catholic hier¬ collection of Manley Wade Wellman's archy wants to know who has spir¬ occult detective tales in WEIRD ited him away; and everybody is TALES and between thrown into a moral and political 1938 and 1951. They deal with stew. The shenanigans and polit¬ three dabblers in the occult -- ical maneuvers that ensue are in¬ Judge Pursuivant, Professor Nathan teresting and convincing; the Enderby and John Thunstone. Each thoughts and experiences of humans of course, is well-educated in va¬ and Nunoi are illuninating. rious and sundry aspects of the supernatural and each does his best 35 SFWA is considering appealing to Norman Spinrad maintains that CONTROVERSY IN PIBLISHING: the Justice Department. Gregory there is more to this than wheth¬ THE AGENT AS EDITOR/PACKAGER Benford, the West Coast Regional er a science fiction line did or did not make money. He claims BY ELTON ELLIOTT Director of the SFWA, makes it clear that the science fiction this is "part of an attempt by Pocket Books announced last writers organization is serious: publishers to do to writers what week that it was starting a new "We're really going to slug it has happened to auto and steel science fiction line called Star- out, give them a lot of legal workers, and airplane control¬ scope. The response by writers problems. We have the time, mon¬ lers," by lowering the monies paid and literary agents to new lines ey and the people to push on them and by reducing the number of is usually favorable. That's why this." available markets." He went on to the publishing field was shocked say that labor/management rela¬ Ron Busch indicated that Pock¬ tions in publishing are very low when their response sounded more et Books will not back down. "If like a declaration of war. and writers see this Starscope we feel our position is defensible situation as part of an attenpt The reason is because the edi¬ we will fight in the courts; we to take away contract rights they tor and packager of Starscope will haven't done anything legally, have won over the last several de¬ be the Scott Meredith Agency. morally or ethically wrong." Rus¬ cades . Meredith is the world's largest sell Galen of the Scott Meredith literary agency and includes a Agency is undeterred. "There is Ron Busch said that the events number of science fiction writers no legal issue and we're proceed¬ of the past several weeks are as clients. Other literary agents ing apace with the line; we're al¬ "certainly exciting," but that have objected, feeling that as ready accepting manuscripts." He Pocket is going ahead with Star- Joseph Elder of the Joseph Elder further admonished "those writers scope. Russell Galen said that Agency put it, "I think it could who contemplate legal action the Scott Meredith Agency is not constitute a conflict of interest” should be working on their next worried and they are excited a- where they would have to submit manuscripts rather than talking bout buying books for the new line. their authors' manuscripts to an¬ with lawyers," but he also joked Gregory Benford, however, served other agent. The Science Fiction that if "I'm arrested by the NYPD notice that they won't be allowed Writers of America has charged in then I'll have to stop." to conduct business as usual with¬ out a fight, "they better get down a letter to Ron Busch, President On both sides there appears to of Pocket Books, that the arrange¬ in the trenches, 'cause here it be no room for compromise. There comes." ment is "detrimental" to its mem¬ is not even agreement on why the bers and other science fiction new line is being started. Pock¬ writers. Norman Spinrad, pro-tem et Books says it is because the chairman of the SFWA's grievance previous scftence fiction imprint, ADDENDUM: committee is more outspoken: Timescape Books lost money. Time- Two weeks after the events "This reeks of cynical corporate scape Books editor, David G. Hart¬ described in the above article, piggery. This is an attack on well says, "to the best of my word filtered out of New York that the rights of authors and the sur¬ knowledge the line has not lost the agreement between Pocket Books vival of literature and a free money; however, they've not chos¬ and the Scott Meredith Agency press in America." Ron Busch re¬ en to show me the figures and I had collapsed. plied to the reaction ... "This is guess they can do their accounting something we anticipated; we're any way they want." Ron Busch "That is correct," a spokesman not surprised. The paranoia in says "Dave Hartwell's a wonderful from Scott Meredith confirmed. science fiction people is a little man, but he doesn't understand the "We've withdrawn for reasons tot¬ higher than most ..." mass science fiction audience. He ally unrelated to the controversy. It was our decision." Ron Busch, Not surprising, given such edited to appeal to people close President of Pocket Books concur¬ attitudes, legal action has been to him in the field, the science red, "We have mutually agreed to threatened. The Independent Lit¬ fiction he chose was too elitist disagree. The controversy was erary Agents Association is in¬ and he published too many fantasy not the deciding issue in the deal vestigating legal action on the novels. Timescape's numbers were falling apart." basis of conflict of interest and not large enough to make it an ec¬ restraint of trade, according to onomically beneficial line." Mr. Busch said that Pocket President Albert Zuckerman. The 36 Books plans to continue publish- ing science fiction and that they As a businessman who's res¬ fantastic, futuristic present -- are looking for a new editor to ponsible for the bottom line (i.e. science fiction's utter failure to edit the line in-house. He said profits) he couldn't help but no¬ see the computer revolution comes that they want to get "the best tice the conmercial successes of to mind." possible person" and that it SF in the movies, on TV, and the Right on, Vince, right on. should take about "thirty days." recent domination of the hardcov¬ er bestseller lists by some of the All right, all you smug Meanwhile, the Science Fic¬ big and some of the not-so-big Schweitzers out there. More and tion Writers of America were re¬ names in science fiction. At a more people outside the little joicing. "It was a marriage made certain point, if money is being cliques and coteries inside SF in hell," said John F. Carr, Treas¬ spent and the revenues coming in are hip to the fact that the emp¬ urer of the SFWA, of the Pocket aren't sufficient, a business de¬ eror has no clothes. Books/Scott Meredith venture. He cision has to be made. It isn't added "I'm glad it's fallen For a long time SF has taken as if the Timescape line didn't through," and that had it not, it credit for being the brave new have time to prove itself. would have been the "biggest case literature of the future, when it of conflict of interest the pub¬ The Meredith situation is over. is in fact becoming the timid old lishing industry has seen in a Now's not the time-to be pointing literature of the past. long time." Another member of fingers. When Mr. Busch says "let All this fantasy mystical crap the SFWA, who requested anonymity us get on with business,” I agree. is a symptom of a far deeper ill¬ said, "This situation proves the Why alienate one of SF's support¬ ness -- the refusal of so-called power of the SFWA. We forced two ers. He's knowledgable and inform¬ science fiction writers to keep of the biggest entities in publish¬ ed about SF, appreciative of its up with science and technology in ing to back down. This proves the possibilities and cognizant of its the present. If you don't under¬ SFWA has clout. This is just the shortcoming and failures. His stand science, and technology (or beginning, this proves we can comments make sense (I know all at least keep up) then the present, scare people, now that we have the about childish behavior by SF let alone the future, is magic. momentum we are going to use it. people -- having been on the re¬ And if it is magic, I guess it The publishing industry has never ceiving end of it myself these makes sense to write fantasy. had to deal with a strong writers' last few issues). How many peop¬ This is laziness. How many of organization before. Boy, are le in publishing can the SF field you would attempt to become a they going to be in for a few sur¬ alienate and still survive? carpenter without first knowing prises." how to hanmer a nail. The same Ron Busch said, when asked a- MUSINGS: holds for science fiction. bout the above quotes, they are It is apparent as never be¬ It's time for SF to quit this very "unfortunate." He went on to fore that science fiction has great orgy of self-congratulation, face say that this is "not the time to commercial possibilities. The up to the facts; SF hasn't been be flexing muscles. If they are doing what it claims it does. We smart they will let us get on top six movies of all time are SF. haven't been the scouts of the with our business instead of mak¬ The highest rated show for NBC this entire TV season ('82-83) was present peering into the future. ing noises and tilting at wind¬ V. V didn't have big names, all And until we 'fess up, take off mills." He further said of sci¬ the emperor's clothes and do our ence fiction writers, that "they it had was a fairly weak SF prem¬ ise. The hardcover bestseller homework we (and I use the collec¬ should cut out this childish be¬ lists read like a "Who's Who in tive editorial we) in science fic¬ havior ... and stop uttering this tion deserve all the scorn that barrage of nonsense." He said SF." critics like Kohler can heap on that the reason a lot of major Look for this situation to us. publishers "are not in science cause more upheavels in New York, fiction" is because of this "child¬ as SF lines don't perform up to ish behavior" by a "small group of expectations. Look for new money people" inside the science fiction to enter SF publishing, possibly field. "We are dedicated to sci¬ from outside New York. ence fiction, we are not dedicated to a war of words or pressure. And yes, before anybody writes Why can't they just be gracious." in, I'm aware that the Timescape line published some excellent mat¬ erial. Benford, Wolfe and Bishop all won awards and deserved to. THfS HAS <3oT TO EE COMMENT: Norman Spinrad should have won one 2VL^iJb'FICTiOfi... for A WORLD BETWEEN. Lisa Gold¬ YOU REAb, AMb flEXT Ron Busch's statement should stein won the American Book Award morn you have be paid serious attention. Mr. for first novelists. However, as Busch has been supportive of sci¬ THE SPi-iTTiNGj- HEA>- Ron Busch said, "too many fantasy AcHEJ ence fiction. While other major novels." houses have ignored SF or cut back on their lines, Mr. Busch helped QUOTABLE: Vince Kohler, SF critic form two major SF programs. First for the Portland OREGONIAN, "Get¬ at Ballantine where he helped ting hold of the future has been start and oversee the early devel¬ science fiction's main mission, opment of the Del Rey imprint, and all in all the popular genre then when he moved to Pocket, he hasn't been doing too well in its hired Dave Hartwell and helped self-assigned task. A desperate create the Timescape inprint. emphasis on escapist romance has Pocket Books prior to this had left readers out in the cold when never made a major or lasting com¬ it comes to grappling with the mitment to publishing SF. 37 BOOK REVIEWS BY GENE DEWEESE

he thoroughly demolishes in a few If any book, by Asimov or anyone THE ROVING MIND short pages. Later he devotes else, should be required reading By several essays to the follies of for every American, particularly Prometheus Books, $17.95 those who, for whatever reasons, those in our government, THE .ROV¬ are either indifferent to science ING MIND is that book. In the introduction to his and science education or even see recent collection of essays, science as a problem rather than "COUNTING THF. EONS," Isaac Asimov as a solution to most human prob¬ spoke of how the creationists, lems and misery. Overpopulation , have recently begun and the outdated forms of Biblic¬ THE MCANDREW CHRONICLES to have alarming success in their al morality that are among its attempts to undermine science and major causes get similar treat¬ By Charles Sheffield Tor, Paperback, $2.95 common sense in this country, and ment, and he shows that the so- he spoke of doing his best to called "loosening moral climate" These are the stories of counteract their efforts. In the of which so many complain is not, essays themselves, however, he spaceship captain Jeannie Roker as it would have been in ancient and her friend McAndrew, the most limited himself to a straightfor¬ times, a sign of decadence and ward, albeit fascinating, presen¬ brilliant absent-minded physicist impending collapse but is virtual¬ in the solar system. Among other tation of the overwhelming evi¬ ly a necessity if civilization is dence that supports various theo¬ things, he invents an inertialess to survive beyond the next few de¬ drive that isn't really inertia¬ ries to which the creationists cades . object, such as the one that says less but works as if it were be¬ the earth is several billion years In short, Asimov argues bril¬ cause part of the ship weighs sev¬ old rather than several thousand. liantly and effectively for logic eral trillion tons. Luckily, in and common sense and survival, order to power the ship, he also In THE ROVING MIND, he takes and those arguments will be great¬ finds a way of getting virtually up the battle more directly and ly appreciated and probably wide¬ unlimited energy literally out of more effectively. Here, in rough¬ ly borrowed by those who share nothing. What may be most startl¬ ly half of the sixty-two essays in his views but are themselves less ing of all, however, is that every the book, he doesn't simply pre¬ eloquent or less well informed. invention is solidly rooted in sent the evidence and let it go at that. Here he argues, even crusades. Here, for example, he compares the creationists' so-cal- ed science with real science and lucidly points out the mass of inaccuracies and misrepresenta¬ tions and downright absurdities that the creationists are trying to get a scientifically untrained and often gullible public to be¬ lieve. He also shows how, if the creationists are successful, Amer¬ ica would rapidly deteriorate to a point at which it would be un¬ able to even keep up with other countries scientifically, let a- lone lead them as it has in the past. He does not, however, limit himself to the creationists but argues just as effectively again¬ st other trends and beliefs he sees as dangerous, perhaps even fatal, not only to this-country but to the whole world. There is, for instance, the belief shared by virtually every country in ev¬ ery war in history, the belief that "God is on our side," which isting ammonia compounds, convert them into usable oxygen compounds and defecate, the results are mu¬ tating at an alarming rate. The mutations, unfortunately, don't always eat and defecate what they should, so they have to be de¬ stroyed, either by hunting part¬ ies of settlers or by other ani¬ mals created specifically to prey on the mutants. Those, of course, mutate too, and the problem goes on. At the same time, a huge ali¬ en artifact, called Aleph by the current physics, a field in which, LIFE PROBE settlers, wanders the moonscape, alternately floating silently a- with its black holes and naked By Michael McCollum bove the ice and burrowing be¬ singularities, truth is rapidly Ballantine/DelRey, Paperbk, $2.95 becoming stranger than fiction ev¬ neath it. Probably billions of years old, Aleph appears totally er used to be. An interstellar ship, control¬ oblivious to the settlers, but led by a sentient computer, is The ultimate in "hard sciencd' it is still capable of causing approaching earth after traveling science fiction, THE MCANDREW massive unintentional damage, and ten thousand years in its search CHRONICLES has the same sort of the settlers have come to see it for civilizations which have the excitement generated by old-fash¬ as the ultimate trophy in a sort potential to help its Makers de¬ ioned space operas, but here there of moon-wide big-game hunt. is the additional excitement of velop a faster-than-light drive, knowing that the author, who has without which they will soon per¬ The picture of Ganymede it¬ a doctorate in Relativity Theory, ish. Once the ship's approach is self and the proced¬ is describing things that, though detected, humans of course don't ures is not only detailed but viv¬ perhaps unlikely, are actually trust it any more than they trust id and thoroughly convincing, and possible. each other, so by the time it the settlers are similarly believ¬ reaches a solar parking orbit, able. Still, for me at least, the situation is both complex and AGAINST INFINITY was not nearly as tense, with many factions compet¬ enjoyable as TIMESCAPE or other ing openly and secretly for what¬ Benford novels, and I'm not alto¬ THE SHADOW OF THE SHIP ever advantage they can gain while gether sure why. Perhaps it was By Robert Wilfred Franson some are even planning to destroy the characters. It's not that Ballantine/DelRey, Paperbk, $2.75 the ship rather than let its know¬ they were mostly unlikeable. Good ledge fall into enemy hands. villains, after all, are always interesting. The problem is that This is a strange book in Despite occasional overlong I got the feeling that I was sup¬ many ways. For one, it introduc¬ descriptions of the nuts and bolts es the only truly different meth¬ posed to like these people, which of twenty-first-century technol¬ I just couldn't manage to do. od of interstellar travel I've ogy, LIFE PROBE is an excellent seen in years -- trains of gaslit first-contact novel that grabs Then there was the fact that railway-like cars pulled along a the reader early on and doesn't no matter what trouble they got in¬ glowing "subspace trail” by ele¬ let go until the last page. phantine animals. The "trail" to, they had mostly themselves to touches various planets but most¬ blame. And unlike TIMESCAPE, ly it winds along the surface of where the entire Earth and bil¬ the "meadow," the black, airless lions of innocent bystanders surface of subspace itself, where could be wiped out as a result of any non-living object that loses AGAINST INFINITY the foulups of others, if these settlers destroyed themselves, it contact with the train and the By Gregory Benford "mentational field" generated by wouldn't seem to be that much of a Timescape, $14.95 the animals pulling it will in¬ loss. Or maybe my mindset is so stantly vanish. anti-hunting and pro-science that AGAINST INFINITY is Benford's treating a billion-year-old arti¬ first novel since TIMESCAPE, and In THE SHADOW OF THE SHIP, fact like a rogue elephant in¬ there's little doubt that it's Reinhault Eiverdein, an earthman stead of as a vital and intrigu¬ trapped in the "trail civiliza¬ good. I'm not sure, however, ing mystery turned me off from tion," leads a caravan of adven¬ whether or not I like it. turers along one of the subspace The basic story, though simp¬ trails in hopes of finding an in¬ le, is not all that predictable. terstellar ship seen in the mead¬ A few hundred years from now, ow by an earlier explorer, a ship while Earth itself has turned to a perhaps as old as the universe rigid form of socialism, Ganymede, itself. And some of the advent¬ one of Jupiter's moons, is being urers, as well as their motives, terraformed by a colony of pion¬ are as odd as the trails themsel¬ eering settlers. The massive a- ves. In some ways a mystery, in mounts of ice they are melting, others an adventure-, THE SHADOW however, threaten the stability OF THE SHIP often has a mystical of the moon's crust, and the tone that, along with the fascin¬ herds of animals they have genet¬ ating concept of the subspace ically engineered to eat the ex- trails, makes it not only unique but very hard to put down. 39 the start. For that matter, Ben- broadcast almost invariably turn ford may even have been purpose¬ psychotic themselves within a few ly presenting a warning that months. The executives, predict¬ whether humans stay on Earth or ably, are so involved in corpor¬ go exploring, they're going to ate infighting that they refuse foul things up unless something to listen. can be done to change "human na¬ Told entirely from viewpoints ture." within the Networks, HYACINTHS In any event, AGAINST INFINI¬ has virtually no physical action, TY is an impressive if ambiguous and yet it crackles with tension book, and everyone should try it and suspense from almost the first and then make up his or her own page to the last, and the central mind whether or not to like it. character, Network executive Je- hanne Bliss, while not particular¬ ly "nice," is so recognizable and understandable that in the end she is tragically sympathetic. KING OF TIC WOOD By John'Maddox Roberts Doubleday, $11.95

For those like myself who THE MED SERIES don't care for standard sword-and- By Murray Leinster sorcery tales, KING OF THE WOOD is Ace, Paperback, $2.95 a pleasant surprise. The basic story isn't all that unusual, in¬ Calhoun of the Med Service volving the travels and battles fective -- methods imaginable. darts about the galaxy dealing Those two also have, perhaps not of a young warrior who is ensor- with one planet-wide plague after celled by a beautiful witch and coincidentally, the lightest touch another, usually with the help of Many of the others, though, may who is destined one day to be Murgatroyd, his trusty tormal, a king. What makes it interesting, be designed to induce weight loss small, furry critter whose body in the reader. Taken in a single aside from the less-than-heroic rapidly produces antibodies in re¬ but nonetheless sympathetic char¬ gulp, certainly, the sometimes sponse to whatever germs it is funny, sometimes tragic misadven¬ acters, is the vividly developed injected with. More often than setting, North America of 1485. tures of various gross overeaters not, however, the plagues are man¬ that seem to make up the bulk of In this world, however, America ufactured by various human nasti¬ has been settled for hundreds of the book could send one running es, and Calhoun has to resort to for the nearest diet clinic. years, not only by Norsemen but Sherlockian trickery and occasion¬ by Spanish Muslims and by Saxons al bolts from a blaster to set fleeing the Norman Conquest. La¬ things right. Mostly from the ter, even the Mongol hordes of early sixties, the five novelets the Khan appear, and the story's that make up MED SERIES have a MILLENIUM hero is involved with them all, straightforward writing style from Treeland in the north to the that's a lot pulpier than I re¬ By John Varley Azteca Empire in the south. For member from when I originally Berkeley, Paperback, $6.95 parallel world fans as well as read them, but they're still a lot For several reasons, MILLEN¬ those who like straight adventure, of fun if you're in the mood for NIUM reminds me of last year's KING OF THE WOOD should be a re¬ a few hours of fast and light ad¬ "Mindkiller" by Spider Robinson. freshing change of pace. venture on alien worlds. First, both Varley and Robinson are award-winning science fiction writers. Second, both books take purely science fictional concepts and do a hangup job of "best sel¬ HYACINTHS THE SCIENCE FICTION WEIGHT-LOSS ler" treatment as far as pace and By BOOK character and style go. Third, Doubleday, $11.95 Edited by Isaac Asimov, both unwind from two alternate George R.R. Martin and viewpoints which are separated in In the near future, the abil¬ Martin H. Greenberg time but which gradually converge ity to record and broadcast dreams Crown, $12.95 and interweave. And finally, both has spawned an industry that has have endings which, though stand¬ supplanted television and become, Despite the title, very few ard fare for science fiction, may literally, the nation's addiction. of these fifteen stories, many startle or even shock the general At the same time, the country is from GALAXY and THE MAGAZINE OF reader. disintegrating at an accelerating FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION, are pace, with city-destroying riots In MILLENIUM, there are two directly involved with weight loss breaking out daily while the gov¬ principal narrators: Bill Smith, ernment in a vain effort to keep Oddly enough, however, the best the head of a team of experts in¬ two selections, "The Truth about control, is inserting more and vestigating a 100% fatal mid-air Pyecraft" by H.G. Wells and "Quit¬ more subliminal messages in the collision of a 747 and a DC-10 ters, Inc." by Stephen King, ac¬ dream broadcasts. One-Network sometime in the 1980s. And Louise tually do involve losing weight, psychologist, however, is convinc¬ Baltimore, the head of a team of in one case by purely magical ed that the dreams themselves are time travelers from the "Last the cause of the disintegration, means, in the other by the most Days" who snatch the living humans pragmatic -- and horrifyingly ef- particularly since out of such accidents at the last minute and substitute physically who produce the dreams that are 40 identical but mindless, manufac¬ THE ALIEN UPSTAIRS WALL AROUND A STAR tured bodies in order not to raise unanswerable questions and gener¬ By Pamela Sargent ' By Frederik Pohl 5 ate time-destroying paradoxes. In Doubleday, $11.95 Ballantine/Del Rey, Paperbk, $2.95 this operation, however, one of Sarah and Gerry are among the This sequel to FARTHEST STAR Baltimore's teanEloses a piece of few who have "real" jobs in this continues the adventures of a few equipment which Smith later finds. near-future world in which contin¬ humans and aliens as they fight a- The result, unless she can retrieve ued short-sightedness has virtual¬ mong themselves while trying to the equipment or somehow minimize ly reduced the industrialized na¬ solve the mystery of Cuckoo, an the effects of its being found, tions to one large soup kitchen obviously artificial world many will be a stress on the time in which the unemployed are "draft¬ millions of miles in diameter mov¬ stream such that, according to one ed" and given meaningless, make- ing into our Galaxy. Suffice it theory, the entire universe will work jobs. Then one day a new to say that the answer they find be destroyed. tenant moves into their boarding is as mind-boggling as Cuckoo it¬ These elements by themselves, house, a tenant who not only says self, but what they do after they along with a fascinating look at he's an alien but offers to prove find the answer is disappointing, the workings of a crash investiga¬ it. After a day-long trek in the perhaps for the same reason the tion team, make for a fast-paced country with him, however, Sarah's book is somewhat disappointing. and intriguing novel, but what memory of the "proof" is almost The concepts and the writing are makes this one special is the cyn¬ totally gone. Eventually she and first rate, but the human charac¬ ical and often hilarious narration Gerry end up on Phobos, one of the ters, as in Pohl's earlier STAR- by Baltimore, a sort of ultimate moons of Mars, where they learn BURST, are generally so unpleasant survivor type who refuses to give who the alien really is, although that it's hard to be interested up even as the world is literally many other mysteries remain. in them and even harder to cheer crumbling around her. For ins¬ Though fast moving and entertain¬ for them when they win out. For tance, when the magnitude of the ing, THE ALIEN UPSTAIRS also seems me, at least, they effectively potential disaster is realized, to be something of a "message" wiped out the tremendous "sense i.e., that the entire universe book, what with the way it relates of wonder" that should have been may simply vanish, she comnents: the plights and motives of the evident, in much the same way that "This is known as the Cosmic Dis¬ characters to the dismal picture the grungy and mostly unlikable gust Theory. Or: If you're going of the world itself. As a result, characters in the movie ALIEN did. to plav games like that, I'll take the characters are not all that If such things don't bother you, my marbles and go home. Signed, sympathetic. However, they are however, WALL AROUND A STAR could interesting and believable, and be a real treat. this is not a book you're likely to put down once you've started In short, like very, very few books, it is the sort that you may race through in order to find out how it turns out and then go back and reread more slowly to make sure WHEN THE WIND BLOWS you didn't miss anything. By Raymond Briggs Schocken Books, $10.95

Don't be deceived by the fact that WHEN THE WIND BLOWS looks AGAINST THE NIGHT, THE STARS: like a comic book bound in hard THE SCIENCE FICTION OF ARTHUR covers. An atomic war and three C. CLARKE totally different alien invasions By John Hollow are featured. True, the story is Harcourt Brack Jovanovich, $14.95 simple and the artwork seems al¬ INVASION: EARTH most childishly unsophisticated Though written by a universi¬ By Harry Harrison at first, but both story and art¬ ty English professor, this book Ace, Paperback, $2.75 work pack more punch than most is not so much a scholarly treat¬ novels as they combine to show ise on Clarke's fiction as an At first glande, INVASION: what happens to a middle-aged, appreciation, even an introduc¬ EARTH reads very much like a working class couple in England tion. True, there is much talk thrcwback to the pulps, in which as they try to cope with an atom¬ of symbolism and the like, but cardboard human heroes win out ic war. Mich of it is understat¬ it's the sort that even a deter¬ over superscientifically villain¬ ed gallows humor, such as when mined anti-academic like myself ous alien invaders. Here, howev¬ the wife warns her husband not to can see and understand. Virtual¬ er, there are a few differences. ruin the paintwork while he's ly everything Clarke has written, For one,.you can't be sure which building a bomb shelter in the from RESCUE PARTY to 2010: ODYSSEY of the two alien forces are real¬ house and he assures her he'll TWO, is covered, including many ly the villains. For another, touch up any damaged paint "after short stories. For died-in-the- there's actually a logical reason the Bomb's gone off." Soon though wool Clarke fans, it's a fascinat¬ at the end for humans to win out. there is little to laugh at as ing jaunt down memory lane, while There's even a reason for the al¬ they slowly die from radiation to anyone who has never read iens to invade. And finally, all poisoning while still trying vain¬ Clarke or knows him only as "that of Earth's macho derring-do seems ly and touchingly to "carry on." 2001 man," the plot summaries and to be repudiated in the end. All In short, WHEN THE WIND BLOWS is particularly the liberal use of in all, INVASION: EARTH is an odd one of the best and most depres- quotations from some of Clarke's sort of book that probably isn't singly realistic pictures I've ev¬ more spine-tingling prose may be what it appears to be on the sur¬ er seen of the effects of atomic enough to send him to the nearest face. war on ordinary people. library or bookstore for a larger dose. 41 THE COIN WHOLESALER May, 1983 SMALL PRESS NOTES POB 80125, Chattanooga, TN 37411. Monthly, free sample copy on request. BY THE EDITOR The big news this issue is the discovery that perhaps 2000 1982 dim¬ es were circulated without the Phila¬ delphia "P" mintmark on them. These dimes are out there now in common NYCTALOPS #18 circulation and are worth around Edited and published by Harry 0. $175.00 each! Morris, Jr., 502 Elm Street S.E., That's worth a close look at Albuquerque, NM 87102. $3.00 your pocket change. The "P" should The magazine of surrealist appear above the 1982 date on the horror, of doom and death, of coin. If it doesn't...you've got a and coagulating blood... little windfall. Strange, montage illustrations, a feeling of utter horror and Dif¬ ferentness_ Fiction, analysis, CRYSTAL SHIP #7 reviews, letters. The usual mix, Edited and published by John D. Owen, but a weird brew. 4, Highfield Close, For those of arcane tastes and Newport Pagnell, horrible appetite. Ahha-ha-ha-ha... Buckinghamshire. MK16 9AZ ENGLAND But seriously, an excellently Available for contributions, produced, high-quality magazine on than he does reviews, since his dis¬ letters of comment, and trade. fine paper and slick cover stock. mantling of Smith's novels was care¬ I don't like the faint type or "The Cathedral of Evil" by less and sloppy, though legitimate his mis-spacing typewriter. I don't Clarence John Laughlin is an extra¬ and perceptive. like his O-my-god-what'11-I-write- ordinary story...both effective and A $1. will probably get you a now editorial, nor his choice of glazedly overwritten. The J.K. copy of this issue, if you really badly written ho-hum analytical Potter illustrations are very fine. and same-old-shit articles and fan- nish satire. His letter-column, with good letters, is cut off at the knees by his blah responses'. TWLLDDU #20 CLAUSTROPHOBIA $1.50 BUT--good artwork by Steven Fox, Edited and published by David Lang¬ Edited by Eric Geislinger Dave Hicks and Joan Hanke Woods. ford, 94 London Road, Reading, Berk¬ 5047 SW 26th Dr. shire, RG1 5AU, United Kingdon. Portland, OR 97201 Probably, it pains me to admit, A monthly, pro-science, pro¬ Dave Langford is the best fanwriter technology newsletter covering sci¬ THE TEXAS SF INQUIRER #2 in sf fandom, for his humor, his entific breakthroughs in life-ex¬ Edited by Pat Mueller painlessly inserted barbs, and his tension, space-industrialization, Published by the Fandom Association ability to get-away-with-it-all and the related medical and technical of Central Texas, POB 9612, Austin, without being sued, assaulted, and fields. TX 78766. $2.00 per'subscription. hated. Now, that's talent! There is a strong libertarian No data on how many issues per sub. This is a personalzine with a influence in CLAUSTROPHOBIA. This 4-page typeset newsletter letter column. is dedicated to celebrating Texas He also publishes and writes sf authors, fans and personalities, which is for sale (sub¬ and especially to promoting the LINES OF OCCURRENCE #7 F.A.C.T. bid for the 1985 North scription $2.00--send cash, a Writ, edited and published by Arthur American Science Fiction Convention check is impossible to process in D. Hlavaty, 819 West Markham Av., (which occurrs whenever the worldcon U.K. for that amount, I think). Durham, NC 27701. goes overseas--is it once every four Enjoy this man; he's a treasure. Arthur, a Hugo nominee for Best years?) There is also news of upcom¬ [He ought to be buried.] Fan Writer, is liberal, earnest, sin¬ ing Southern regional sf conventions. cere and cogent. He has no visible flaws or faults. He thinks all the right thoughts, is mature, noble and BCSFAzine #120 generous. To make matters worse, he ALPHA CENTURA COMMUNICATOR #83 The clubzine of the writes very well. Edited by Craig Chrissinger. Science Fiction Assiciation You can enjoy his virtues by c/o SF3, SUB Box 120, PO Box 35577, Station E, sending $1. (U.S.) or $2. from a Albuquerque, NM 87131. Vancouver, BC, Canada v6m 4q9 foreign place to the address above. A clubzine, with reviews and Informal, entertaining for the news. naked emotions of its retiring edit¬ or, Neil Williams, who shreds the libertarian novels of L. Neil Smith AUTODUEL QUARTERLY #1 RATAPLAN #21 (Incorporating the [THE PROBABILITY BROACH, THE VENUS Published by Steve Jackson Games, airworthy parts of 0RNITH0PTER #12) BELT, and THE NAGASAKI VECTOR] as Edited by David Ladyman is edited and produced by Leigh Ed¬ unrealistic and uncritical, simple- POB 18957, Austin, TX 78760. $2.50 monds, PO Box 433, Civic Square, minded, and badly written. A mag devoted to the CAR WARS A.C.T. 2608, Australia. Williams, in his farewell edit¬ game(s) and elaborations, presented orial, is caustic and bitter, vowing Leigh is a smooth, interesting as if all-out car duelling and war¬ writer in his personalzine, and in¬ never ever to edit another BCSFA¬ fare really existed in the year 2033. cludes items such as Bruce Gilles¬ zine, having better things to do— A fascinating kind of science fic¬ like writing a novel, and being more pie's "Why I no Longer Read Science tion. involved in anarchist activity. Fiction (Well, Hardly Ever)." Bruce I hope he writes fiction better 42 is burned out, disillusioned, and embittered [Ah, to have wasted all P.O. Box 4655 P.S.S.E., Edmonton, THE RIGHT TO BE GREEDY — Theses that time!]. Alberta, CANADA T6E 5G5. On The Practical Necessity Of Demand¬ Helen Swift discusses a disposs¬ My copy arrived unbound, loose ing Everything essed group of Aborigines in a back¬ pages, weird type face. Is this Loompanics Unlimited, POB 1197, Port water, Yalata, and their social dis¬ stenciled by a dot matrix printer? Townsend, WA 98368. $5.95 + $2.00 integration and drug habits—sniff¬ What is fandom coming to? shipping. ing gasoline! NEW CANADIAN FANDOM is devoted Extremism in the pursuit of ego¬ A letter column is included. to... Canadian fans and professional ism is a virtue, sayeth these unnam¬ A $1. will probably bring you an writers, of which there are a few. ed authors in this dense, obscurant¬ issue. $1. will bring a copy to you, ist, intellectualized booklet which What bothers me about Australia stapled or unstapled, take a chance. ignores the way mankind is as it bureaucracy is their requirement lusts after a way mankind cannot be. that all publications, even fanzines, be registered. Thus RATAPLAN is I.D FOR SALE-A COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE Publication #NBH5483. What is FOUNDATION #27 TO THE MAIL ORDER I.D. INDUSTRY. that government afraid of? "The Review of Science Fiction" Edited by David Pringle Loompanics Unlimited, $9.95 + $2.00 SF Foundation, shipping. North East London Polytechnic, Names and address of people and THE FREEMAN May, 1983 Longbridge Road, Dagenham, RM8 2AS, businesses which will sell legal I.D. Edited by Paul L. Poirot United Kingdom. cards, permits, certificates, diplom¬ Published monthly by the Foundation $5. single copy, $15.00 for one as, etc. in any name you choose. for Economic Education, Inc., year subscription of three issues. Also lists sources for machines Irvington-on-Hudson, NY 10533. This is the magazine which per¬ to make I.D. cards. Free to interested people, but a mitted me to reprint its article by Could be useful to a writer of donation would be appropriate. A Peter Nicholls on Philip K. Dick in spy/mystery novels. donation/subscription of $18. per SFR #47. year is the no-profit bottom line. It's a periodical with solid, HOW TO CHEAT ON COLLEGE EXAMS The articles in these monthly caring articles, reviews and letters. issues raise embarassing points for Many of which are written by profes¬ AND GET AWAY WITH IT anyone advocating government control sionals such as , By Butch Cavendish of any aspect of the economy, or in¬ Brian Aldiss, , David Loompanics Unlimited, $6.95 + $2.00 tervention in the economy. Langford, , Gary Wolfe, shipping. Case in point the feature arti¬ All the various ways. For those cle this issue: "The Trouble With There is in this issue an inter¬ who like short cuts and to whom the Farming" in which it is shown that view with Rudy Rucker. end justifies the means. subsidies and controls send farmers wrong, expensive signals, result in UNINHABITED AND DESERTED ISLANDS too-high prices, bankruptcy, and end By Jon Fisher DRUNKARDS' TALK #6 up promoting the problems and effects Loompanics Unlimited, $7.95 + $2.00 A personalzine by Malcolm Edwards, the govt, efforts were supposed to shipping. 28 Duckett Road, London N4 1BN, prevent f 150 islands, with maps, details, United Kingdom. Other articles [all by experts climates, etc. All difficult to No price, but fifty cents.... and long-time observers] deal with reach or live on. They're usually For fun, mockery, satire and little criminal liberty and civil liability, empty of people for very good reas- bits of real life happenings, this Hong Kong's future, minimum wages, is produced to bring joy into your , economic forecasting. life and egoboo into Malcolm's. But the scary item, and most A fair trade. Long-time fan, semi- important, is John Chamberlain's re¬ OTHERGATES 1983 $7.00 pro, (pro?) Edwards likes to play view of THE STRATEGIC METALS WAR Unique Graphics, 1025 55th Street, around once in a while, and this is by James E. Sinclair and Robert Oakland, CA 94608 his play. Good job. Parker (New York, Crown, 185 pp., This is the fourth edition of $17.50) which points out our vulner¬ this very valuable market guide ability to scarce metal ores from covering the fields of fantasy, sci¬ Zaire, Zambia and Zimbabwe (for ence fiction, mystery, horror. How cobalt, chrome, platinum and R.A. LAFFERTY: FOUR STORIES to subnit material to the publish¬ manganese) without which our Published by Chris Drunri, P0B 445, ers .... All kinds information and industries would grind to a halt. Polk City, IA 50226. resources listed. Note: this is Geopolitics is paramount in The four stories are: a small press market guide in es¬ Africa now, and these underlying "The Last Astronomer" sence, though the prozines are list¬ vital ore/industry relationships are "In the Turpentine Trees" ed. why Russia has 20,000 Cuban soldiers "Faith Sufficient" in Angola now, and why Russia is "Bird-Master" busily promoting Marxist insurgen¬ And there's a sonnet by Lafferty oif DRAGONFIELDS #4 WINTER 1983 $5.00 cies and rebelions on the African the backcover. Edited and published by Charles de continent. Russia has its own Two editions: one of 100 signed Lint, POB 9480, Ottawa, Ontario, sources of these (and other) rare and numbered copies, $5. each; and Canada K1G 3V2. metals and ores. We do not. one unsigned, unnumbered, $2. each. Major items of interest are an Protecting central and southern Offset printing, booklet format. The interview with , a check¬ Africa is more important than pro¬ signed edition will be handstitched list of her works, two stories by tecting Saudi Arabia, as we will binding. her. learn in the next few decades. A Lafferty Checklist is also About 22 other stories and poems available from Drunm. are in this issue, including items by Gordon Linzer, Steve Eng, and Ardath NEW CANADIAN FANDOM #6 Mayhar. Edited by Robert Runte. Heavy book paper, some fine art. Address: NEW CANADIAN FANDOM, 43 THE UMSECTOR BY DARRELL SCHWEITZER

THE LAST WORD ON FANTASY FOR A less suited to assembly-line pro¬ You may recall my past griping a- WHILE: THE GOOD STUFF DISCOVERED duction, but that's what we have. bout writers who write about the AT LAST: REACTIONARIES: SOME There really is a kind of fantasy Middle Ages but leave all the sub¬ AWFULNESS nowadays which might best be com¬ stance out, ignoring both the re¬ pared to the formula gothics of a ligiosity and earthiness of the Sometimes, if we exaggerate a few years ago. But formula goth¬ period in favor of costunes, a bit, it becomes possible to devel¬ ics, I might point out, do not few papier-mache' castles and a op a siege mentality in the fant¬ diminish the quality of THE MONK lot of hokey "high" style. THE asy field. There's been so much or MELMOTH THE WANDERER or WUTHER- WANDERING UNICORN is a brilliant attack and abuse of late, so lit¬ ING HEIGHTS. I am sure the pres¬ example of how to do it right. tle understanding. It's absurd to ent wave of bad fantasy will It is not a historical novel, say that fantasy is taking over reach a saturation point. The though it has a lot of history in or polluting science fiction. If market will diminish. It may be¬ it. Borges calls it "a glowing it is doing anything of the kind come harder for good books to get dream set in the past.” Indeed -- and I doubt it, as long as into print, but they still will, it is a very vivid dream, a vis¬ competent science fiction writers and Peake and Tolkein and Dunsany ion really, the sort of thing are to be found to practice their and the rest will seem as good as that doesn't go away. very special, specialized gifts ever. -- fantasy is reabsorbing science In the meantime, where do you Lainez knows that fantasy is fiction back into itself. Science find the best fantasy? Outside best used not to hide reality, but fiction is a small, recent branch- the comnercial genre, of course. to magnify it. "These things," ing-off of fantasy. It isn't the (This may also be true of science he writes, "are true, as myth and other way around. But shifting fiction. It is clearly what was magic and what cannot be are al¬ metaphors like gears in a car, we meant by whoever it was who cal¬ ways true.” (Page 241) might say that our somewhat dimin¬ led RIDLEY WALKER the best sci¬ ished, crumbly but still magnifi¬ The story is set in the 12th ence fiction novel since A CLOCK¬ century, in France and in Pales¬ cent citadel is beset by the bar¬ WORK ORANGE.) barians, by reactionaries, fossil tine, just before the Third Crus¬ wavers, fannish illiterati, and Which brings us to the best ade. Historical personages make Charles Platt. Their motives are fantasy novel I've read since up a good deal of the cast. Most many. They are afraid of change. FREDDY'S BOOK: memorable is the brave, pathetic They display the inevitable con¬ boy-king of Jerusalem, Baldwin servatism of the members of any the Leper. We are presented with sort of movement whose time has a great deal of very genuine lore. come and gone. And there are The texture of the period is very those who resent the intrusion in¬ THE WANDERING UNICORN real. Even the literary referents fit: the characters read Cretien to their field (as if they own it) By Manuel Mujica Lainez de Troyes and hear a recitation of unwholesome "outside" literary Translated by Mary Fitton of the romance of Oberon and Huon influences. Science fiction can Forward by of Bordoux. be such a cozy little island, Taplinger, 1983, 322 pp., $16.95 containing all its own landmarks Even though the narrator is and reference points. It's pos¬ This is the real stuff, for a fairy who spends much of her sible to be an "expert" in SF literate, adult readers who are time invisible and then gets in¬ while ignoring everything else. tired of the gruel we're getting carnated as a knight (so near to I suspect that some of the resent¬ in category fantasy paperbacks. and so unreachably far from the ment against fantasy nowadays is caused by the realization that in order to really understand the stuff you have to know general literature. This gets scary. Suddenly the "experts" aren't ex¬ perts anymore. So it is much more comforting to decry the evil in¬ fluence and go on ignoring most everything that's ever been writ¬ ten, just as before.

Admittedly, modem fantasy gets a bit hard to defend some¬ times. If you pick up a book la¬ beled "fantasy" at random, it's probably going to be less than impressive. There's so much crap being published, now that fantasy has become a commercial genre. Probably no type of literature is mortal she loves), there is little in it which would strike a 12th century reader as unrealistic. In such an age, wonders were ac¬ cepted uncritically. So from such a viewpoint, angels, demons, fairies, a unicorn's hom (the beast of the title is represented only by its hom, a seven-foot- long spiral of ivory which we would say came from a narwhale, but which is unquestionably the genuine article), and miraculous cures are part of reality, almost everyday experience. The 20th century reader disagrees. So this is fantasy, for all it captures the spirit of the epoch far better than most novels that are realist¬ ic by our standards. The plot is like that of a very good medieval romance, as carefully thought out as the best of Sylvia Townsend Warner's THE Young Man, Gleaming White” by Joao of them. Of course, everything KINGDOMS OF ELFIN. I am also re¬ Guimaraes Rosa (a Brazilian, pre¬ is symbolic. But then, your 12th minded of the curious mixture of viously unknown to me), which is century reader would say, so is modem and medieval viewpoints in also a curious and beautiful fa-, life. The essence of the appeal T.H. White. Lainez knows how to ble, and "Amigo Heliotropo" by Fe¬ of this sort of thing is that, use the very difficult device of lix Marti-Ibanez, which is a more when all incidents of life are controlled anachronism. He's also dramatic story (in the sense that assembled, they suddenly mean comparable to Cabell, only better it is fleshed out, rather than seme thing extra by the juxtaposi¬ than Cabell, who had his moments just the sleek outline of a fable) tion, while they remain real and of real beauty and sadness at the based on what is probably a genu¬ living incidents, rather than realization that such beauty is ine Central American saint's leg¬ signposts in some heavy-handed only true in the higher sense, but end. (Marti -Ibanez isn't that allegory. This is a characteris¬ couldn't keep from sniggering or unknown to fantasy readers. He tic which has been mostly lost in showing off his erudition. Cabell has been published in FfjSF and modem literature. The wonder of probably reads better in excerpts even , but few people Lainez's book is that he has added than whole. But you'll want to seem to know his splendid collec¬ to this very fine subtle charac¬ real all of Lainez. tion. ALL THE WONDERS WE SEEK, terizations. which really ought to be reprint¬ The World Fantasy Award judges ed.) I intend to investigate this should keep this one in mind. Borges tells us that he is a and report my findings. There's student of Henry James and the Borges, of course, and Austurias' great Russians. So when the boy MULATA (and a much less common Aoil, beloved of a fairy, wanders book, THE CORN KINGS), and I must through so many surprising en¬ find time to read some very inter¬ counters (with supernatural be¬ ELSEWHERE II esting-looking books by Jose' Dono- ings, a homosexual werewolf, a Edited by and so, including one with the curious witch/prophetess/fairy, the Wand¬ Mark Alan Arnold title of THE OBSCENE BIRD OF ering Jew) he is very much a real Ace, 1982, 388 pp., $2.95 NIGHT ... person, trying to reach his own ideals of knighthood and achieve Here's another example of how But back to the book at hand. salvation. He has a sister who good fantasy can be if you just Fantasy being a universal form of lures him into incest, then under¬ look in the right places. The ed¬ human literary expression, the ed¬ goes her own bizarre redemption as itors explain that the ELSEWHERE itors of ELSEWHERE have been able the mysterious nurse to the Leper series is designed to broaden the to draw from quite a range of King. She too, and the other knowledge of the audience by pre¬ material. There's an Eskimo characters, are well-realized in¬ senting the best work by "main¬ chant, a poem from ancient China, dividuals. This underlying real¬ stream" writers along with the a story from the NEW YORKER and ity strengthens both the fantastic more recognizable names. So the another from the ATLANTIC, etc. and the symbolic elements. (In book has something very few sci¬ A little more than half the con¬ the end, the unicorn hom broken, ence anthologies can match: a tents are originals, though. Re¬ the Holy Lance of Longinus discov¬ contribution by a Nobel Prize presented are Joanna Russ, Robin ered at last, the lad jumps off a winner, a beautiful fable by Ga¬ McKinley, Patricia McKillip, Fritz cliff to evade the further perils briel Garcia Marquez. Taken in Leiber, , Somtow of Lust. He is spirited to Heav¬ context with the Lainez book, Sucharitkul, and Paul en by his sister and the Leper ELSEWHERE incidentally provides Hazel. Russ' "The Little Dirty King. This is theologically dub¬ evidence that there may be a great Girl" is outstanding, a sensitive ious, but good drama.) deal of the world's best fantasy tale of a doppelganger and a lone¬ I don't want to make this book to be found in Spain and South A- ly woman. It only reminds us how sound ponderous and e.soteric. It merica. In addition to the Mar¬ good a writer Russ is when she's is anything but. The tone is of¬ quez ("The Most Beautiful Drowned not being polemic. Leiber's "The ten light. The fairy narrator Man in the World," frem LEAF Moon Porthole” is one of those can be quite witty. I am remind¬ STORM), the book also contains "A largely autobiographical stories ed of the detached wit and beauty 45 he's been doing of late, involv- ing rooftop astronomy in San Fran¬ Gorgik has met her before, but THE BLUE SWORD cisco, but slowly building up to has reason to think her a spy. his own unique brand of strange¬ What happens? They discuss ab¬ By Robin McKinley ness. Sucharitkul's "The Fallen struse philosophical and linguist¬ Greenwillow, 1982, 272 pp, $11.50 Country" is a little disappoint¬ ic matters for many pages. Yeah, ing, considering that he's the sure. I also wonder why Gorgik Here's another book which author of "Fire From the Wine-Dark has an in-town office, the loca¬ does right many of the things I've Sea" (surely one of the best tion of which is reasonably well found done wrong in much recent short in recent years). known. The government does no¬ fantasy. It is set in an imagin¬ It begins well enough, but strains thing. This is as likely as ary world, but a pseudo-Victorian to be exquisite and becomes merely Spartacus setting up shop in the one, rather than the standard-is¬ forced. Yolen is in top form. Roman forum. sue textureless Middle Ages. This The Walton is good, but minor. gets it several points right there But it is senseless to try to McKinley has a good sense of the And so on. Buy this book. criticize this in terms of story. outdoors. And she knows horses. If you're tired of all those non¬ It seems to me that Delany has Again, many points ahead of the descript fantasy trilogies, this lost interest in writing fiction average fantasy writer. is what you should be saving your altogether, and is turning out money for. tracts and essays. Unfortunately, But I couldn't finish this NEVERYONA isn't even very good as one. Admittedly, I got about an essay. Its predecessor, TALES three-quarters of the way through, OF NEVERYON, was at least inter¬ and was even entertained for the esting as a commentary on the first half, before another, even NEVERYONA fantasy field. NEVERYONA just more serious (if just as common) By Samuel R. Delany gets lost in its own verbiage. A failing became overwhelming. The Bantam, 1983, 385 pp., $6.95 more disciplined writer might have book is just too comforting. The made a novel out of some of the heroine, an ill-adjusted adoles- Delany's second foray into material, but as is there's just cent, is carried off by magic¬ imaginary world fantasy is, I re¬ nothing there. The grammar isn't working nomads. She has quite a gret to say, another disaster. I even very good. (Page 67: "Pryn good time. She doesn't get home¬ think he's finished as a novelist. heard the barbarian accent across sick. She isn't afraid after the Here's why: There are parts of the echoing hall, saw his yellow very beginning. The nomads are books that the author regards as hair, his close-set eyes." The all very nice. And sure enough, best. He may be very fond of his accent has hair, eyes? Well, she quickly becomes the center of ability to describe bizarre scenes maybeit's a typo, and should be attention, a champion honored by or the way he handles dream se¬ "the barbarian's accent," but the nomads, a legendary heroine. quences or the way he molds his still, "accent," not "barbarian" Of course there is a secret about characters to present differing is the object of the sentence.) her which gives her unusual pow¬ philosophical viewpoints, or what¬ ers .... ever. There is a great temptation The parallels between Delany's It's all very perfunctory. particularly when one is establish¬ career and Heinlein's are disturb¬ The element of wish-fulfillment is ed, to write a "good parts vers¬ ingly close. A brilliant writer too nakedly visible. McKinley is ion," which contains these things lost totally in a sheer lack of a skillful writer without doubt. the author particularly likes to novelistic discipline. Only This book will appeal to some aud¬ the exclusion of all else. This where it took Heinlein thirty iences, particularly teenaged phenomenon is called self-indulg¬ years to come unglued, Delany did girls, but it left me fidgety. ence. We all struggle with it. it in less than ten. He is now But Delany has lost the battle writing his own equivalents of I long ago, or else he never real¬ WILL FEAR NO EVIL, etc. Of course ized he had a problem. The aver¬ Heinlein has partially redeemed age writer is like someone who is himself with FRIDAY. Maybe De¬ twenty pounds overweight. Imag¬ lany will yet. He needs desper¬ ine someone who weighs four hun¬ ately to be forced to write a nov¬ ELOQUENT EYEBALLS IN THE BOTTOM dred pounds and doesn't even con¬ el less than 200 pages long, in OF THE SKY AND OTHER PRODIGIES: sider himself fat. which less than half the total text is dialogue. But alas, he is STAR RIDERS OF REN NEVERYONA is four hundred established as marketable conmod- By Calvin Miller pounds of muddy lectures. Every¬ ity now, and the time at which Harper 6 Row, 1983, 223 pp., $7.95 body explains things at vast some editor might have saved him length to everybody else. Curi¬ is probably past. We can still While we're on the subject of ously, they all speak in the same hope, but in the meantime (to bad, here's a book that's totally voice. Curiously also, after steal a good line from Doug Fratz) astonishing. It serves a purpose twenty pages of chatter, sometimes I must, out of the deepest re¬ though, if you run any kind of you're left wondering what they spect, consider his career to ha\e writing workshop or class. You were all trying to say. ended in 1969 with the publica- give its prospective participants this book, ask them to start read¬ The book has no virtues as ing at any point and if they get fiction, aside from an occasional more than a page into it without striking image or vivid scene. laughing or throwing it away in The chatter excludes any humanity disgust, they don't know enough from the characters. You don't about the English language to e- believe them for an instant. At ven consider writing fiction. one point the semi-literate peas¬ I tried this test recently on a ant girl heroine burglarizes the latecomer at a workshop. She did headquarters of Gorgik, the liber¬ not know we had been giving ran¬ ator of slaves. She is caught. dom readings, to the great hilar- the same time. When he tried to do a Wells-type story, "The Ter¬ ror," he botched it. Wells' work is usually more satisfyingly com¬ plete than most of Machen's. He was a more controlled writer. Comparing him with Dunsany is harder to do, an apples and orang¬ es matter, but when Dunsany tried to do a Wellsian novel, THE LAST REVOLUTION, the results were un¬ impressive. 'But then. Wells wrote stories which were clearly fantasy by any standard and he considered his science fiction to be fantasy al¬ so. He saw no difference, al¬ though science fiction by his time was becoming quite distinct from

'Gilliland's cartoon about ity of all. After a minute, she that was the name of the wondrous lawyers not writing like Cicero put it down, a little stunned plane.") anymore is quite funny. Pliny the and said, "But this is wretched." Younger made the same complaint And so it is. Here's the op- One's jaw hangs slack in a- in the early second century.' mazement. But seriously, folks, this may be the worst written fantasy "Rexel, the falcon, rode novel to be published in modem easily on Raccoman's times. (Except for others in the shoulder and peered in¬ same series. The frightening to the final darkness of thing is, this isn't Miller's the long night. Already first book.) It would rank in SMALL PRESS morning gently touched the bottom ten percent of any the night with fingers slush pile I've ever seen. It MAGAZINES of silver. The bright will be a cause of hope or maybe Reviewed By stars at the bottom of despair for would-be writers ev¬ the sky riveted the un¬ erywhere. It will inspire Calvin Darrell Schweitzer certain horizon to the Miller's creative writing teacher to commit suicide, ritually burn¬ "The void through which ing his copy of THE ELEMENTS OF TWo new titles this time, one Raccoman sailed with his STYLE first. of which didn't last long enough wife, Velissa, was warm. Harper and Row, which has for me to write this column: The He smiled. The starlight published writers as fine as Urs¬ stronger of the two is PULPSMITH, glinted on his white ula LeGuin, Kate Wilhelm and which is not a fantasy little mag¬ teeth. Christopher Priest, ought to be azine at all, but one of the reg¬ "... Neither of them ashamed. ular, literary kind. It has been spoke. Both were afraid around for a couple years, has a that the slightest whisp¬ circulation of about 10,000 and er would shatter the en¬ has newstand distribution in New chantment of the night York at least. However, the edi¬ sky that now enveloped tors have been making a deliberate them ... Their eyes attempt to reach out into the gen¬ conversed in an eloquent FROM DARRELL SCHWEITZER'S LETTER res, and have been publishing a and lively dialogue." ACCOMPANYING HIS COLUMN: lot of science fiction and fantasy (Page 2) of late, so I bring it to your "There’s a reckless statement attention. It gets worse. Honest. Next at the beginning of my column in to this, THE SWORD OF SHANARRA is The spring 1983 issue (Vol. 2, issue #47 of SCIENCE FICTION RE¬ #2) starts out with a "classic great literature. THE BLIND SPOT VIEW which I really should re¬ polished and witty. Those of you pulp story" from a 1941 ARGOSY, tract. On page 43, column 1, I "But Our Hero Was Not Dead" by who go to conventions might have say, "You are not going to find . It's a detec¬ been to one of those panels at any science fiction writer contemp¬ which editors read some of those tive story. A nazi spy parachutes orary with, say, Arthur Machen or into England disguised as a sold¬ pricelessly funny lines they cull who is as good a wri¬ ier on leave. He comes to a from bad manuscripts in the slush ter as either of them." pile. Well, now you can have a country house and asks to use the whole book of them! (From the 'I overlook the obvious: H.G. phone. It's just his bad luck that he's stumbled on the retire¬ same opening: "The windfoils of Wells. He was not quite the styl¬ ment retreat of the most famous which it was built had been welded ist that either Machen or Dunsany detective of all time. The rest faultlessly together by the ingen¬ were, but he was overall as good ious Graygill who now piloted them a writer as either. Certainly bet¬ is deduction, not necessarily el¬ ementary. A charming pastiche. through the glittering void. Po- ter than Machen who could be rambl¬ ing and muddied, if exquisite at liting was a sophisticated word Not strictly SF, but also for the Paradise Falcon -- for 47 charming, is Paul Dilsaver's wond- erfully disgusting "E.T. Meets Not all the fiction is any vigor to it that none of the oth¬ Conceptual Art," which is just the good, but of the ten short stories ers in the issue do. You can see thing for those of you who wish this issue, seven are SF or fan¬ that Hubbard was a real writer, that a certain cute alien would tasy. This is a magazine to watch even in so minor a piece. Recom¬ get a bit part in a remake of THE mended for Hubbard completists. TAXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE. I imagine the publisher still has copies. It's downhill after such a no¬ ble effort, but some of the other The less healthy of the new stories are pretty good. "In titles is META SF, edited by John Borges' Library" by Ken Kalfus is Dalmas, the ANALOG writer. Short¬ an able pastiche of the master. WEIRDBOOK 17 is another solid ly before I wrote this column, it issue by an old reliable. Feat¬ "Three Faces of Desire" by Dick was announced that the magazine Higgins is an interesting attempt ured are two novellas, one of had been shelved for a while. It them, "Holy Fire" by yours truly to do a surrealist film in prose. may come back. If it does, I hope "Memory's Noose" by George Flor¬ being one of a series in the same it improves. META SF's first setting (all prequels actually) as ence -Guthridge and Steve Perry (and only) issue has a definite reads like a George R.R. Martin THE SHATTERED GODDESS. It comes philosophy: The stories must be second in line after "The Story story that didn't come off: An militantly upbeat, problem-solving intense, introspective, emotional of a Dadar" (AMAZING, June 1982); things. Larger-than-life charac¬ the story in the middle (they're experience ending in self-realiza¬ ters. Positive-outlook. Dalmas tion, all taking place on another all self-standing, I hasten to was trying to out-ANALOG John add) will appear in a Paul Collins planet with exotic aliens. Unfor¬ Campbell's ANALOG. tunately, the characters and set¬ anthology soon. The whole se¬ ting aren't well defined, and the I read the issue with a cer¬ quence will be collected as ECHOES writing is muddy. tain trepidation, expecting every¬ OF THE GODDESS. thing to be about as exciting as a "Lord of the Worms" by Brian "Keep the Lid on Your Id" by Comnunist boy-meets-tractor ro¬ Lumley, the other novella, is Wendy McElroy is a cute, minor mance, but it turned out that many chronologically the earliest Titus story about the difficulties en¬ of the stories were not as formu¬ Crow story. It's rather fun. countered by an Earthman on an¬ laic as the editorial seemed to Lumley writes in a lucid manner, other world when the natives start imply. They also weren't very unlike many later "Lovecraftians." reading human literature. "Laur¬ good, mostly middle-to-upper lev¬ Actually, it is a misnomer to call el Fixation" by Scott Edelman I el slush-pile quality. Lumley and his fellow Cthulhu Myth- can't remember at all, even though os practitioners "Lovecraftian," I read it just a few days before Jon Inouye's "Big Business" since the Mythos as we know it is writing this column. Forgetful¬ seemed to demonstrate all the 's invention, and ness is_ an opinion. Nancy Jack's weaknesses of the editorial stance particularly when in the hands of "The Natural World" is an attempt with a wish-fulfillment hero who a second or third generation writ¬ to depict an alien reality or can do anything at all so deftly er, only very remotely related to something by using lots of made- that there is no conflict and very Lovecraft. up words ("Vairings grow in Phanta little reader interest. The only Sea. A fluffy-free faskle stands story worth reading is "He Found Rather, I would compare Lumley blue to most at every turn.") and God" by L. Ron Hubbard. This is a to Seabury Quinn, the author of the incredibly repetitious (but no more successful than usual. reject from the early 1950s. It If this is experimentalism, why was to be published in that rock- popular) Jules de Grandin series. If Lumley had been around in the do writers keep repeating the same bottom (non-paying) magazine, FAN¬ mistakes decade after decade? TASY BOOK (no relation to the cur¬ heyday of WEIRD TALES, he could "Private Rites" by Donald Olson is rent fantasy magazine of that tit¬ have given Quinn a run for his a middling-good mystery. "Escort le) , but FB folded first. There money. He's a much better writ¬ Service" by Dave Pedneau is a it lay until Forrie Ackerman final¬ er, less formulaic, with a better sense of texture. His characters middling-good TWILIGHT ZONE/quirk- ly sold it to META SF. Yes, the even come alive sometimes. Sure, of-fate . "Big Bang character does find God in deep the plot is standard enough: Young Theory Explained" by Joe Halde- space. The story is crudely writ¬ Titus Crow is hired by an eccen¬ man is a science fiction story in ten and full of the pulp cliches light verse. of the time, but it also has a tric recluse of sinister reputa¬ tion to come out to his creepy es¬ tate to catalogue his library of occult books, including such ab¬ horrent and fabulous volumes as _, and the darkly legendary _. And as quick as you can say "Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh w'gah'nagl fhtagn," dis¬ turbing things start happening. Clearly, the old occultist has more in mind than straighten¬ ing up his messy library. Then Lumley deviates from the formula. Where your average Mythos protag¬ onist would sit around and be eat¬ en, Titus Crow shows a certain spunk. He starts to do something about it in an intelligent fashiai. This isrefreshing. A further non-standard element is added in the large doses of standard oc- cultism (which Lovecraft ridicul¬ lish" is not major Ellison, but it Flying Bomb" by David Redd and ed and never would have included isn't fantasy either. It's basic¬ "The Quiet King of the Green South- in a story). The climax hinges on ally an elaborate joke, but it's West" by Andy Soutter are routine numerology and astrology. An in¬ written, in Harlan's words, as "a surrealism. Strange images and advertantly funny moment comes story-to-be-heard." It's extreme¬ situations are presented without when the occultist discovers that ly oral an3 aural. If you've nev¬ meaning or conmentary. Both are Crow lied to him about his birth er heard Harlan read, from this well enough written, but only mod¬ date and thus all the numbers are you can hear his voice. erately diverting. I'm glad to wrong. So the unspeakable horror see Redd writing again, however. falls on the occultist instead. "Patriots" by Michael Bishop I remember several very fine "You cheated!" he gasps... You is also not SF or fantasy (by it¬ things he published in the '60s. won't be scared by this story, self anyway; it's a chapter that The best story in the issue is was dropped from NO ENEMY BUT but you may smile. Malcolm Edward's first sale, "Af¬ TIME). It's about a conscience- ter-Images." Three atomic bombs "Yellow Light" by Edmund Shir- stricken U.S. airman (who forgot hit London, but space-time is con¬ lan is another occult sleuth sto¬ to flip a switch and accidentally torted somehow so that the explo¬ ry. (Lumley's hero goes on to bombed a Cambodian village, a sions expand very slowly, only a become such a character in the Japanese tourist and one of those few feet a day. It's all very rest of the series.) It's quite Japanese soldiers still fighting Ballardian, with passive/obses- good, which surprised me, because World War II after all these sive characters and vivid imagery. there is rarely any suspense in years. This is obviously supposed these things. The hero knows the to be about serious moral issues, The worst story is "The Ur- magic formula and uses it, and but it lacks power, at least in Plant" by Barrington Bayley. Bay- that's that. Usually. But Shir- isolation from ENEMY. The slight ley, we are told, has been writing lan pulls off the quite difficult irony at the end isn't enough. SF for 30 years and is renowned feat of maintaining suspense when But anyone interested in Bishop's for the originality of his ideas. two characters battle it out ac¬ work will want to read it. Well, I didn't find his ideas very cording to completely arbitrary original, and it's obvious enough rules made up by the author. Re¬ Howard Waldrop's "...The World why he is still a minor writer af¬ markable . As We Know't" is sort of a period ter 30 years. (Have you ever piece/altemate universe story, heard of him? I have, but then I "Thurigon Agonistes" by Ar- set about 1800 in a universe that read all sorts of out-of-the-way dath Mayhar is about a nastier- works according to the scientific things.) He hasn’t learned any¬ than-usual evil wizard (he even theories of the time which have thing about technique that the molests children) who gets his been proven wrong in ours, mostly contributors to SCIENCE WONDER come-uppance in a perfunctory man¬ phlogiston chemistry. (If you STORIES didn't know. There!s ner. "The Moths" by Steve Rasnic don't know what phlogiston is, you lots of lecture. Characters ex¬ Tern comes a lot closer than Arth¬ will probably not understand the plain marvelous inventions, blath¬ ur Machen did in THE TERROR to story.) The period is depicted ering long colunns of pseudo-sci¬ making hordes of moths frighten¬ well. The story moves right a- ence gobbledeygook. The attempt ing. The story has a mad femin¬ long. The results of an attempt to give the story Meaning by nam¬ ist for a villain, and I am sure to isolate phlogiston are logical ing the characters after famous this will upset some feminists, and quite surprising. To my mind people (It’s set in Argentina; but I wasn’t offended by it. No this is a better, more compactly there's a military man named Gal- group is imnune from evil. Hitler structured story than Waldrop's tieri, a Professor Borges, and a after all, was a mad paperhanger. Nebula finalist, "God's Hooks," shady Doctor Mengele, but not the Jessica Salmonson's "Entity From which was also a quirky period ones you're thinking of) is only Beyond Creation," despite its hyp¬ piece. distracting. The publication of this thing is a serious lapse for erbolical title, is a Slight but "The Ultimate Spy" by Ken Dog- INTERZONE. Otherwise the issue workable fable, one of her few gett is a dumb little gimmick is about average, though it lacks stories that I've found bearable. piece. You get to the end and the one genuinely outstanding sto¬ "The Gate" by Carolyn White I you wonder why you bothered. found too turgid to finish, but it ry found in each of the previous does contain some striking imag¬ Also in this issue are inter¬ ones, i.e. "Kitemaster" by Keith ery. Speaking of striking, the views with George R.R. Martin and Roberts in #1, "Memories of the cover is one of 's Stephen King, a showcase of Kansas Space Age" by Ballard in #2, and best drawings. City art (Tim Kirk, Richard Corben, "The Dissemblers" by Kilworth in etc.) and a profile/showcase of #3. The next issue promises Rich¬ Don Punchatz. All very attractive ard Cowper, , M. John stuff. Harrison, and John Shirley.

SHAYOL #6 has a similarly im¬ pressive cover by Michael Whelan (in color). Inside the graphics INTERZONE continues in its NIGHT VOYAGES #9 features a and illustrations are up to the 4th issue (Spring, 1983, reaching special Glen Cook section. He is usual standard. SHAYOL is one of this country in June) very much as profiled, reviewed, and has a new those small magazines (TRUMPET what the late NEW WORLDS might story, "Enemy Territory," which is was probably the most famous) in have been like if the stories had about genetically-engineered war¬ which the graphics are consistent¬ been coherent. John Sladek's riors who have problems and prove ly superior to those in any of "Calling All Gumdrops" is mild to be a problem during peacetime. the professional magazines. satire. It presents an idea (the It isn't nearly as powerful a roles of children and adults re¬ The fiction consists mostly of story as it should be. Most of versed) , toys with it a little, the drama is offstage. There, interesting odds and ends by big and ends. "On the Deck of the name writers. Harlan Ellison's characters aren't well enough de¬ "Prince Myshkin, and Hold the Re¬ 49 fined. Crucial bits of informa- tion come late, so you read a There are better small maga¬ META SF. 4747 Fountain Avenue, thousand words or so before real¬ zines. There are also worse. No. 220, Hollywood, CA 90029; izing that some of these guys are Send the editor some money. He $3.00 per copy; no subscriptions, nearly the size of elephants, deserves the support for trying. obviously. 8 1/2 X 11", 48 pp. while others are like spider mon¬ keys. The climax is vague and WEIRDBOOK. W. Paul Ganley, unsatisfying. The whole story POB #149, Amherst Branch, Buffalo, feels like a fragment. NY 14226-0149; $5.00 per copy, And finally, one story in is¬ 75if postage "per order." 4 issues Less ambitious, but more suc¬ sue #16 of SORCERER’S APPRENTICE. for $15.00. 8 1/2 X 11", 62 pp. cessful is "Nature's Way" by Fred S.A. is a gaming magazine, but Singer, in which machines take ov¬ with much material of interest to SHAYOL. 8435 Carter, Overland er all useful functions and obso¬ non-gamers. The story is "Carrion Park, KS 66212; $3.00/4 for $11. lete humans start vanishing bit by Troll" by Allen Wold. Standard (That's what it says on the con¬ bit. (Literally: first fingers, medieval setting. Some effective tents page. The cover price is then arms, etc.) The tone is very moments of atmosphere, but mostly $3.95. I'm not sure.) Effinger-esque, though not as wit¬ just action, a pointless conclus¬ 8 1/2 X 11", 48 pp. ty. The author shrugs as if to ion, and characters we don't care INTERZONE. British: 124 Osborne say, "Isn't that weird." about. I preferred a couple of Road, Brighton BN1 6LU. United the articles: Janrae Frank on States: 9 Patchin Place, New York, I won't judge my own "An auth¬ historical Amazons (she takes a NY 10011; one pound twenty-five entic Werewoman." I'll just say saner, more anthropologically or $2.50 per copy. Four issues it's my revenge on all those fan¬ sound view than some) and Keith for five pounds/$10.00. tasy writers who don't pay atten¬ Taylor on legendary shape-chang- 8 1/2 X 12", 34 pp. tion to the meanings of words. (Read it and see.) NIGHT VOYAGES. Raconteur Publica¬ tions, POB # 175, Freeburg IL 62243. "Skeletons" by Wayne Hooks is • $3.00 per copy; no sub price list¬ a moderately good childhood horror ed. 8 1/2 X 11”, 52 pp. story. "Waystation to the Future" PULPSMITH. 5 Beekman St., New by R.A. Godsey-Bell is moderately York, NY 10038; $2.00 per copy. SORCERER'S APPRENTICE. Flying good science fiction. There are No subscription price listed. Buffalo Inc., POB #1210, Scotts¬ other stories, by Ardath Mayhar, (There was a slip. It's fallen dale AZ 85252; $2.95 per copy/6 Mike Bracken and Gene O'Neill, out. Hey, guys, that's grade-A issues for $15.00; 8 1/2 X 11"; which are not good at all, alas. dumb. Always, always list the sub¬ Jeffrey Eliot profiles William No¬ scription price in the magazine it¬ lan. self!) Digest size, 192 pp. •

™0NG, TWONG SAID THE T1CKT0CKER TO THE TICKETED TIGER

Two cosmic puffs of sweet-smelling smoke THE PAPER IS READY Attack a couple of drunken winos Causing power outages in Tibet which in Ink flowing Turn create window ceilings on the third The night drags along Planet on a place which is inhabited by Bleeding brightness replaced by Pygmies that are out to stop the sale of Scarlet indigo hues Rare gems to the purveyers of radical Which are washed away by a Politics that are attempting to get the Bobbing sun peeking over Chinese to return to carrying manure up The LP's hole The hills of their communes in which to Moss bugs coagulate Make vats of rotted cheese. This of course Great gnarled trees Is a big disappointment to the people Trunks tilted 45 degrees Who believe in the proletariate. Mean- As a supplicant to an While in a deserted beach house in the upper Artificial orb of life Adirondacks a couple furiously cornnit rather The star Routine acts and are puzzled when their Ejaculation premature Neighbors who are really never there. Halfway up Or would even care are not disturbed. Begins to dip While a little boy on a mountain home Into the vast honeywell of vacuum In Malibu keeps waking the family with Illuminating the flipside of a His wet dream — you see he talks in his World of giant mental blocks Dreams and it is not nice talk. In deepest The paper is ready Africa a machine turns out data on the But the ink is impotent Secret Nine which it is presumed rule the World, as nobody — except college professors —BLAKE S0UTHF0RK — Is stupid enough to believe in the accidental Theory of History, and if you doubt that Why Jean Paul Sartre was wright, but who Am I to discuss French Philosophy with a Basque.

--BLAKE S0UTHF0RK 50 THE ARCHIVES

MY JEDI JOURNAL a mortal duel with a unicorn Herd A SPECIAL DIARY FOR JEDI KNIGHTS-IN- Leader, against whom his magic pow¬ TRAINING ers were useless!' Ballantine, $3.95, June, 1983. This novel is the second in the A hardcover book of blank pages three-part saga that began with SPLIT (with the exception of a small Yoda INFINITY and ended with the just pub¬ imprint on each page). lished JUXTAPOSITION.

• JUXTAPOSITION By Piers Anthony Del Rey, $2.95, May, 1983. Chum ON OF THE LAST BATTLE The final volume in The Appren¬ By Robert Adams tice Adept series. Previous novels SIGNET, $2.50, May, 1983. were: SPLIT INFINITY and BLUE ADEPT. #11 of the Horseclans series. Stile, a man from Proton, a sci¬ 'The day of prophesy had come ence world, was sent through a "cur¬ at last-the time for Bili and tain" to Phaze, a world of magic. Prince Byruhm to rally their troops There he doubled for a murdered for the final defense of New Kuhm- sorcerer, The Blue Adept. But the buhluhn. But even as the people of murderer went after Stile, too. the kingdom flock into their great To survive, Stile had to master stone city and Bili's warriors take magic, fight a dragon, win the up their posts on the walls, the friendship of a lady unicorn, locate Skohshuns are building new weapons his enemy, and return out of Phaze of destruction to storm the fortress. to win the Great Games on Proton. And within the very castle grounds But on Phaze the infallible stalks a creature of nightmare, Oracle is suddenly involved in the striking down the defenders one by conspiracy against him. Proton and one in a reign of bloody terror that Phaze are out of balance and heading may prove far more deadly than the for disaster, and Stile is supposed enemy at their gates...1 to save them, somehow, or go down to total destruction with all he loves. He has to act quickly—with no idea THE LONG NIGHT By Poul Anderson Tor, $2.95, May, 1983. of what to do. A Del Rey hardback edition was Five-story collection/anthology published in March of 1982. woman like Mu Ren. From that moment highlighting the decline and fall on. Tinker was no longer a Good Citi¬ of interstellar civilization, in¬ zen of the hive. Suddenly Tinker volving the Polesotechnic League, STARSHIPS knew he wanted more. He wanted out. the Terran Empire...into the long 'Tinker had become a man...' night of barbraians and aliens. Edited bylsaac Asimov, Martin Harry Greenberg, and Charles G. Waugh. Fawcett Crest, $3.50, May, 1983. THE GODWHALE By T. J. Bass Thirteen-story anthology of space DEL REY, $2.75, July, 1983; first BLUE ADEPT By Piers Anthony voyages beyond the solar system. published January, 1974. SF Novel. Del Rey, $2.75, First published in Stories by Cordwainer Smith, Rich¬ 'Rorqual Maru was a - 1981, this is its fourth printing: ard McKenna, Robert Sheckley, part organic whale, part mechanized February, 1983. Christopher Anvil, Doris Pitkin ship...and part god. She was a 'For Stile, life was a matter Buck, Frank M. Robinson, A.E. van harvester-a vast plankton rake, of shuttling madly between two Vogt, Anne McCaffrey, James V. now without a crop-abandoned by worlds, with the problems growing McConnell, A. Bertram Chandler, Eric Earth Society when the seas died. greater on each. On the science Frank Russell, Isaac Asimov, and 'So she selected an island for world of Proton, he was a serf, Fred Saberhagen. her grave, hoping to keep her car¬ trying to prove his right to exist cass visible for possible salvage. by competing in the Great Games. On Although her long ear heard nothing, Phaze, where only magic worked, he • she believed that Man still lived was the Blue Adept, trying to master in his Hive. If he should ever re¬ HALF PAST HUMAN By T.J. Bass turn to the sea, she wanted to the powers of sorcery. And on both DEL REY, $2.75, July, 1983; first serve. She longed for the thrill worlds, someone was trying to published July, 1971. SF Novel. of Man's bare feet touching the skin assassinate him. 'Tinker was a Good Citizen of of her deck. ... She needed Man!' 'Aside from winning increasingly the hive, he had no choice. The The sequel to HALF PAST HUMAN. difficult contests with no time to time had come to give up his neuter prepare, all he had to do was win status and become polarized. The the love of the Lady Blue, fight a Big Earth Society wanted Tinker to THE OFFICIAL SILICON VALLEY GUY HAND¬ dragon, seek the paranoid Adept or mate. BOOK the all-powerful Citizen who was 'But no one had prepared Tinker By Patty Bell and Doug Myrland trying to kill him! for sexual activation, nor for a AVON, $3.95, June, 1983. 'And now, just when things were Large softcover pb affectionately growing impossible, he had to fight 51 mocking the pecilair people who work in Silicon Valley (and similar places) clones from Earth, can lead them Kenneth Smith, Moebius, David Weis- and who live and breathe computers. safely to a new life on a distant ner, , and Overton Loyd. This is their culture, folks. They planet. But the Tropiards have Trade paperback format. are also peculiar. other goals for the rebels...' SWANP WITCH By Laurie Bridges & Paul Alexander WHERE THE NI-LACH THE WIZARD AND THE WARLOARD By Marcia J. Bennett By Elizabeth Boyer BANTAM, $1.95, July, 1983 DEL REY, $2.50, July, 1983. DEL REY, $2.95, August, 1983. A NOVEL, ages 12 New sf adventure. New fantasy novel. and up. 'On the lush green planet men 'Sigurd grew up with his grand¬ Linda visits a friend, is haunt¬ had named Ver-Draak, a green-haired, mother, bothered only by the trolls ed, has visions, nightmares. Friend crystal-eyed race once had lived. that seemed bent on destroying their Heather has a riding accident and But the Ni-Lach were no more, killed settlement. Then she died, leaving Linda must face alone evil like a off by humans who feared their him a mysterious box he couldn't creature from an ancient hell, a strange powers. Yet legends of the open and a confused warning against demonic hex called up by a voodoo great Ni-Lach treasure lived on. some dread warlord or wizard-he priestess who has sworn to destroy 'Eventually, men's search for couldn't be sure which from her her. Ni-Lach gold led them to a great final ravings. Then the grim war¬ forest called the Deep—and to an lord Halfdane to abduct him by force orphan named Dhalvad, a carefree into the Realm of the Alfar. THE WORTHING CHRONICLE young man who played with alien fur 'Now he was a virtual prisoner By Orson Scott Card children and...cured the sick with¬ in the hill fort of Halfdane, caught ACE, $2.75, July, 1983 out medicine. in a bitter war between light and Some portions of this book ap¬ 'Soon Dhalvad and his friends- dark elves. And he seemed trapped peared previously as parts of the human, alien and otherwise-are on the losing side. His only hope author's books CAPITAL and HOT running for their lives before re¬ was to escape and somehow learn what SLEEP. lentless pursuers who do not know powerful magic was contained in the 'Jason Worthing was a telepath, the true value of the wealth they box and which everyone seemed bent and the best of the ark captains on stealing from him. sent to seed humankind anew on a 'Of course, there were a few hundred new worlds. He vowed that walking dead, a cursed sword, and a THE REGENSBURG LEGACY his new world would be different multitude of savage trolls to be By Jack M. Bickham from the stagnant one lie had fled. faced. But the strange wizard TOR, $2.95, April, 1983; first pub¬ He established his colonists and his Jotull was willing-oh, very will¬ lished by Doubleday in 1982. descendants; and when he was sure ing—to help him!' 'The dead hand of past villain¬ that they would survive, he sealed ies slaps into the present when a himself in the last somec chamber Nazi supply of deadly chemical and in all the galaxy, triggered to THE WINDS OF ALTAIR By Ben Bova awaken him when his world had built biological agents is discovered in¬ Tor, $6.95, May, 1983. tact and secretly moved to Africa. a new civilization. New sf novel, trade paperback 'He slept for fifteen thousand Retired CIA agent, Joe Dugger, size, about human-alien struggle shady businessmen, African politic¬ years. And when he awoke, it was to for the aliens' planet—the sixth ians, and revolutionaries, together a future he had never dreamed of...' planet of Altair. with...CIA and FBI operatives, clash, Bova is a very good writer! plot and move through Zurich, New He delivers a good, interesting, York, Paris, Germany, and Africa.' exciting story every time. NAVIGATOR'S SINDRONE By Jayge Carr Doubleday, $11.95, May, 1983. THE SHUTTLE PEOPLE By George Bishop SOUTHING WICKED THIS WAY CONES New sf hardcover. BANTAM, $2.95, July, 1983. By 'The planet Rabelais is a world New sf novel. Knopf, $13.95, April, 1983. unlike any other in the galaxy- 'They were called the Shuttle Originally published in 1962. wilder, stranger, and infinitely People, men and women bred in space, A combination of Juvenile and more dangerous. The masters of free from the pressures of Earth's Adult fantasy about evil and home¬ Rabelais maintain their cruel, per- , gravity, Earth's morality. Earth's town America, about a strange Car¬ verse dominance by an extraordinari¬ laws. Nothing could stop them from nival and about growing up. ly complex system of contractual using their newfound powers to con¬ Bradbury has a wonderful, re¬ arrangements which are as binding on trol the world. Until they committ¬ laxed, yet controlled style in which the subject race as they are incom¬ ed a murder, and a cop named Ted he gets his way with you with appar¬ prehensible to the unfortunate trav¬ Royce dared to stand in their way.' ently very little trouble. elers whose star-course intersects the planet's coordinates. SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES 'On any other world, for in¬ EYES OF FIRE By Michael Bishop By Ray Bradbury stance, Jael's black Navigator uni¬ Pocket/Timescape, $.2.95, May, 1983. Bantam, $2.95, June, 1983 [25th form would have protected her. And Third printing of this hardcore sf printing]. on any other world. Freighter-master novel. This version is completely Hannibal Reis wouldn't have to hide rewritten and expanded from the 1975 his real motives for staying on the FUNERAL FOR THE EYES OF FIRE. DINOSAUR TALES By Ray Bradbury evil planet. But on Rabelais, Lord 'The ruling race of Tropiards BANTAM, $6.95, June, 1983. Golden Singh makes the rules, and were powered by the telepathy of A collection of six stories the Golden Rule is Lord Golden's their crystalline eyes---but the about saurians interacting with pleasure. He's manipulated the ob¬ Sh'gaidu refused to join them in humans, with an accent on humor. scure laws into a protective screen their rebirths to higher mental Delightfully illustrated through¬ of legitimacy, but—though he does¬ powers. Mystical, mysterious, the out by William Stout, Steranko, n't know it—there are powers in Sh'gaidu must now go into bitter the galaxy much greater than his, exile—unless Seth and Abel, the 52 powers that become very angry when he tries to make offworlder Jael the three young people to rescue the 'Their communication satellite victim of his self-legislated self- stricken land. One to wake the pow¬ suddenly destroyed, they found them¬ indulgence. . . ' ers of the Star Magic. One to rouse selves each alone on an alien and the peoples of Vandarei to battle. hostile planet. And one to fulfill an ancient proph¬ 'Death and mystery and terror THE BEST SCIENCE FICTION OF THE YEAR ecy to become the Chosen One, a became their lot-until they learn¬ Edited by #12 champion of the Khentor riders, to ed the true meaning of the Walker- Timescape, $3.95, July, 1983. confront the powers of darkness und¬ on-Earth, the Form Destroyer, and 13 stories from 1982, an Intro¬ er the evil Red Moon.' the Intercessor....' duction by Terry Carr, a rundown of Intriguing, mind-blowing reality major events in the year by Charles warping. Dick at his near-best. His N. Brwon, and a Reconmended Reading GHOSTHUNT By Jo Clayton UBIK is forthcoming from DAW, and I list for 1982 by Terry Carr. DAW, $2.50, May, 1983. urge you to read that one! Well worth the money! A novel of the Diadem. Stories by: Robert Silverberg, 'A ghost was haunting Cazarit. Bruce Sterling, Joanna Russ, William A kidnapper who snatched the wealthy THE MAN FROM EARTH Gibson, Frederik Pohl, Bill Johnson, clientelle who vacationed there as By Gordon R. Dickson Ursula K. Le Guin, Thomas M. Disch, if the intensive security didn't ex¬ Tor, $2.95, June, 1983. Gregory Benford, Connie Willis, 0. ist. Local security was getting One-author anthology of ten Niemand, Nancy Kress, and Bruce Mc¬ desperate-after hundreds of hours stories. Allister. and days trying to locate and iden¬ 'How has this undistinguished tify their "ghost" they were no race from a backwater spiral arm closer to an answer than when they UNIVERSE 13 won for itself a galaxy? It is not began. They needed the help of a Edited by Terry Carr intellect; a few of them are rather Hunter. And there was only one who Doubleday, $11.95, June, 1983. bright, not many. Their machines? would meet their demands. Aleytys, New anthology. Stories by Mich¬ Other races possessed better when wearer/symbiote of the mysterious ael Bishop, Ian Watson, Kim Stanley the humans conquered them. Not even and powerful Diadem, had a reputa¬ Robinson,Bill Bickel, Lucius Shep¬ valor; many were fiercer far than tion which preceded her across the ard, Leanne Frahm, Bruce Sterling. humans, before the humans came. No, galaxy. But little did they know it is none of these, and nothing that Aleytys already had a good idea else that we can measure. who their ghost was, and didn't want MATILDA S STEPCHILDREN 'What power is in them?' to catch him!' By A. Bertram Chandler DAW, $2.50, July, 1983. New sf novel. • 'John Grimes, owner of the deep TOUCH THE STARS: EMERGENCE SHAITAN By Max Ehrlich space pinnacle Little Sister, could By John Dalmas and Carl Martin Tor, $3.95, June, 1983. not afford to be fussy about whom he TOR, $2.95, August, 1983. A novel of reincarnation, set carried. But there were compensa¬ New SF novel. in the time of Gandhi and the Prince tions, for if his ship had not been 'Since 1880 the world’s richest of Wales. Is a man-eating leopard chartered to take Fenella Pruin, men have been conspiring to "help" the reincarnation of an evil holy muckraking reporter, to exclusive the human race. So far the cost of man in India? New Venusberg, he would never have their meddling has included two been able to visit that fabulous World Wars, the Red Revolution and pleasure planet. the African Debacle. But what of 'But there was to be little that? The profit will justify the pleasure in it for him. Among the cost of doing business on the way ECLIPSES By Cynthia Felice TIMESCAPE $3.50, June, 1983. visitors was a Shaara princess who to their version of Utopia. 'One family ruled the empire's owed him vengeance. The planet's 'But now it's the year 2010^ and authorities were after Fenella's precious water—and so they ruled space travel is getting harder ’and the planet. blood to prevent her snooping. Had harder to repress. Soon, if a cer¬ it not been for the boomerang throw¬ 'When Earthbom anthropologist tain Apache space industrialist has Beth married Aram, the Water Baron's ing abilities of two sexy dancers his way, the Human Race will be in from New Alice, the spaceman and the son, she knew he would soon become space in force—and out of control. Baron of the Empire, the most power¬ journalist would have been sacrific¬ So even if it takes a nuclear strike ed ot make to Roman holiday. The ful man on the planet Serensulnar. to do it, Jason Roanhorse has to die. spectator sports of the very rich 'But as their children grew up and very depraved involve a high within rhe privileged walls of the mortality rate among the players...' TRITON By Samuel R. Delany Water Baron's mansion, angry voices Bantam, $3.95, Tenth printing, June, outside rose up against the Empire. 1983. Now chaos threatened to plunge Seren- Life and times in the human colony sunar into ecological disaster. And RED MOON AND BLACK MOUNTAIN on Triton as. seen through the eyes of the rebellion spread to Aram's own By of young adults and Delany's style of household, when his wife and sons Bantam, $3.50, June, 1983. writing. deserted him to lead a defiant mis¬ Originally published in 1970 in sion to the End of the World!' England. A MAZE OF DEATH By Philip K. Dick High fantasy. Subtitled The DAW, $2.50, June, 1983; originally End of the House of Kendreth. published by Doubleday in 1970. 'A shadow had fallen across the THE MAN WHO USED THE UNIVERSE 'Fourteen people came to Delmak- Starlit Land of Kedrinh. Fendarl, By Alan Dean Foster 0 in separate one-way space carriers. renegade Sorcerer of .Black Mountain, Warner, $2.95, August, 1983. Their hope-to make new beginnings challenged the Starbom for rule of New sf novel. away from the world where God had all Vandarei. When the red moon The problem with this story made Himself manifest. rose, the powers of the Dark Lord of Kees vaan Loo-Maklin, a young man would reign. Then fate brought 53 in the underworld of Cluria, a city on a minor Earth-like planet in the and a girl who was, at best, never herself dreaming of an impossible human-controlled part of the galaxy all there...' city where alien horrors swarmed in this far future, is that he is so from underground lairs of darkness smart, so ruthless, so far-seeing, • to destroy mankind and all the works so ambitious and so totally sucess- of men. But when the wizard Ingold ful, that the reader soon realizes NIGHTMARE SEASONS Inglorian crossed the void to ask that no one and no thing is ever By Charles L. Grant sactuary for the last Prince of Dar, going to really seriously threaten Tor Books, $2.95, May, 1983. she learned her dreams had been true this super man as he takes control. Horror novel, first published visions of a strange reality. Even the apparent betrayal of by Doubleday in 1982. 'On Ingold's world, the monstrous mankind by Loo-Macklin to the aliens 'In this book, keyed to the Dark had been mere legends for 3,000 is sensed as a false, fake, phoney seasons, Grant gives us...face to years. But now, for unknown reasons, plot device to lend some tension to skull confrontation with Death, they were ravening savagely across the novel. Of course, Loo-Macklin variously personified as a man/ the land, and there was no escape was far ahead of the aliens and out- serpent, eliminating its romantic from their foul powers and insatia¬ thinking everyone every step of the rivals, a little girl who gives her ble hungers. way as he carried out his master mother's admirers violence and 'Attempting to help Ingold, Gil plan. lightning, a faceless motorcycle and Rudy, a young drifter, were Still...it's a very readable, gang, and a shadow in a black rain¬ drawn into the nightmare world of almost captivating novel, well- coat ...' the Dark. There they had to remain written. Incredible: this super¬ —unless they could solve the mys¬ rich, super-powerful man who is so THE WARNING tery of the Dark.' manipulative and emotionally ACCIDENT AT THREE MILE ISLAND cold, so turned off and sociopathic Contemporary Books,$7.95, 1983. as a youth, all along is harboring By Mike Gray & Ira Rosen a magnificent altruistic plan for THE ARMIES OF DAYLIGHT First published 1982 by WW Norton. By Barbara Hambly the peace and prosperity of the The complete, detailed, dramatic, DEL REY, $2.95, July, 1983. galaxy. terrifying story of what happened at New fantasy novel. Book Three Three Mile Island, and what almost of The Darwath Trilogy. happened. SPELLSINGER By Alan Dean Foster 'Outside the great stone Keep Written in a near-fiction style of Renweth, the night was the prov¬ Warner, $2.95, June, 1983. of narrative, it paints personalit¬ Fantasy novel. ince of the Dark Ones—monstrous ies and background expertly. Actual creatures that had swarmed out of 'It was where beasts walked and dialogue is used. talked as men, armed with sword and their eldritch undergrouhd caverns You may never trust an 'expert' to destroy humanity. dagger. And it was where Clotha- again, anywhere, at any time. hump, turtle and wizard, stretched 'Inside, where the pitiful rem¬ his powers of sorcery, seeking a nant of the once-great Realm of Dar¬ source to the unknown evil that wath huddled. Chancellor Alwir and AN OATH TO MIDA Bishop Govannin continued their bit¬ threatened his land, seeking a JALAV/AMAZON WARRIOR:11 helper from another dimension, an¬ ter struggle for dominance. Against By Sharon Green all advice, Alwir went ahead with other universe. DAW, $2.95, June, 1983. 'And so Jonathan Thomas Meri- plans to use Ingold, Rudy, and the 'Their world was threatened— other wizards in a hopeless, desper¬ weather--grad student and rock tom asunder from within by the guitarist--found himself plucked ate invasion of the Nests of the primitive warring of bloodthirsty Dark. The Bishop, obsessed with from his cannabis-filled campus room nomadic tribes; now threatened from in L.A. and whisked into a world of fanatical fury, sought to root out without by mysterious strangers. all magic by murdering the wizards. disarming beauty and savage violence. But Jalav, Amazon war leader of the Here Jon-Torn, Mudge the otter, the Both conspired together to seek the savage Hosta clan, lay dying on a aid of Alketch, ancient enemy of the flame-haired Talea and others would cold battlefield and cared for form a motley fellowship with the Realm. naught but her spirit's safe flight 'In that hotbed of ambition, wizard. Their mission: to travel to the bosom of Mida, patron goddess where no warm-blooded being had been hatred and fear, no one except In¬ of the Midanna Amazons. gold would heed Gil's discovery of and destroy the strange new force 'But peace was not to be the lot emanating from the dreaded Green- the truth that lay behind the rising of Jalav. of the Dark!' 'Abducted in her weakness by a tribe of northern barbarian riders, her destination lay in the frozen CITY AT WORLD'S END arctic wastes, far from her beloved THE SHADOW OF THE SHIP By sister warriors and the protective DEL REY, $2.75, July, 1983; first By Robert Wilfred Franson embrace of Mida the Golden. For she Del Rey, $2.75, May, 1983 published in 1951. Sf novel. was the one spoken of in the proph¬ 'This novel describes the shock¬ Science fiction. ecy of the Snows-the savior who 'Rumor had it that out there, ing experience of a group of ordin¬ must travel to the glacial hell of ary people, catapulted by a myster¬ somewhere, a starship lay abandoned Sigurr's Peak and beyond, and with¬ along the airless subspace trail ious explosion into the terrifying¬ out whom any mission to save their ly strange world of a million years that was the only means of travel embattled world would surely fail!' between planets for the primitive hence.' trailside peoples. 'And Eiverdein needed a ship if ever he was to return to known THE TINE OF THE DARK GOD EMPEROR OF By space and the culture of Earth Hum- By Barbara Hambly Berkley, $3.95, May, 1983. DEL REY, $2.50, June, 1983; first Previous editions were in hard¬ 'But many things stood in his published May, 1982. Fantasy Novel. cover and trade paperback. path—murderers, strange physics, 'Night after night, Gil found Leto, the son of Dune's savior, an alien whose speech could kill, 54 is still alive---but changed/chang- ing into a giant Dune worm. His Aboard the interplanetary trans¬ RETURN OF THE JEDI purpose is strange and noble as he port-in addition to the usual mix SKETCHBOOK continually manipulates key people of flight crews and scientists- Ballantine, $5.95, June, 1983. in his government and in the end are parapsychology researchers, lin¬ By and Nilo Rodis- sacrifices hijnself to the future of guists, psychologists, representativ¬ Jamero, with additional material by mankind. es of industry, an ambassador... and Ralph McQuarrie and Norman Raynolds. This is a fascinating novel of elite military units from several The early, conceptual sketches applied power, social insights and Western nations. Clearly something for the creatures, machines, back¬ constant tension. is up. But no one is talking!' grounds of the film. 96 pages, large trade paperback size. ANVIL OF THE HEART THE LAZARUS EFFECT By Bruce T. Holmes By Frank Herbert and Bill Ransom THE HAVEN CORPORATION, $11.95, 1983. PUTNAM, $15.95, June, 1983. RETURN OF THE JEDI 802 Madison Av., Evanston, IL 60202. A sequel to THE JESUS INCIDENT. The illustrated edition. New Novel. 'In THE JESUS INCIDENT we met by James Kahn 'It is the year 2057 and John Ship, a mechanical intelligence so Del Rey, $5.95, June, 1983. Cunningham's genration is the last complete it believed it was God. Illustrations by Joe Johnston and of its kind. Cunningham is a Homo Ship denied its man-made origin Nilo Rodis-Janero. sapiens, a member of the old race. and set of on an intergalactic A good, swift-reading, compet¬ 'At the turn of the century, the journey of centuries' duration, ent job. But reading the story, genetic engineers were able to cre¬ taking along thousands of human be¬ instead of seeing it, devalues the ate a new version of humankind, a ings. After a test of their ability story and makes it into juvenile new race of highly intelligent, un¬ to Worship to its satisfaction. Ship pulp adventure. Don't, for The emotional, non-violent, rational be¬ abandoned many of its subjects on Force's sake, read this before see¬ ings. Half a century later an amend¬ the hostile planet Pandora, a nearly ing the film. ’ These small illos ment to the Constitution was passed all-sea world with one sentient life are not a patch on the film. . safeguarding the rights of each form that man had just destroyed: child to it's full potential. No kelp. longer could parents doom their own RETURN OF THE JEDI 'It is now several centuries lat¬ children to second-class citizenship By James Kahn, Screenplay by Law¬ er. Civilization on Pandora is just because the results seemed rence Kasdan and , split into two peoples: Mermen, human strange and ufamiliar. story by George Lucas. normals who live in vast underwater 'The future belongs to the new DEL REY, $2.95, June, 1983. complexes and enjoy sophisticated Eight-page color photo insert. technology; and Islanders, mutants 'It is not a proud time to be 'It was a dark time for the Rebel of all sorts, left over from early alive. With the factories automated Alliance... Hans Solo, frozen in clone experiments on Pandora, who there are millions of the old race carbonite, has been delivered into live on floating islands made of unemployed and living on the dole. the hands of the vile gangster, "organics" in the now all-sea planet. Housing is overcrowded; travel re¬ Jabba the Hutt. Determined to An uneasy coexistence has been main¬ stricted; and the police exist only rescue him, Luke Skywalker, Prin¬ tained between the two peoples for to protect the new people in their cess Leia and Lando Calrissian generations, but now something is enclaves. Entertainment deemed ap- launch a hazardous mission against threatening to destroy that peace— proproate for the vulgar passions Jabba's Tatooine stronghold. and possibly destroy all Islanders of the old race ranges from the orgy 'Now, in the most exciting as well. And, the kelp is return¬ channel to the Roaster Toaster Hour. chapter of the STAR WARS saga, the ing! ' There are those who might rebel, yet Rebel commanders have gathered all it is hard rebelling against one's the warships of the Rebel fleet into own children. single giant armada. And Darth 'John Cunningham has two genetic¬ Vader, who has ordered construction ally altered children, both far more to begin on a new and even more pow¬ CODE OF THE LIFEMAKER intelligent than he, and a wife ad¬ erful Death Star, makes his plans to By James P. Hogan dicted to bobcat orgasms and asper- crush the Rebel Alliance once and DEL REY hardcover, $13.95, June, um. He is an encyclopedist working for all.' 1983. on a summation of the old race his¬ 'Approximately one million B.C. tory which the new people will file an automated factory ship from an away and probably forget. He is an KILLER FLIES By Mark Kendall alien civilization passes too near anachronism, a relative moron in a SIGNET, $2.25, June, 1983. a star unexpectedly gone nova. Suf¬ world of genius. New novel about large flies who fering extensive damage to its elec¬ 'So how does one pass the time are very, very hungry and who swarm tronic circuitry, it continues blin¬ while waiting for extinction?' like bees and attack anything with dly for millennia before finally blood. crashing into the snows of an un¬ Town are emptied, civilization charted world... • is at risk, and a lone scientist ' In the second decade of the works feverishly to discover/develop twenty-first century, a probe from THE LAKE By R. J. Jensen a weapon to fight the flies. Earth orbits Saturn's moon Titan and TOR, $2.95, August, 1983. launches a lander. Unfortunately, New occult/horror novel. the lander malfunctions before trans¬ 'Jerry was the first, and Ilene mitting pictures from the surface— was the second (to die). How many THE GALACTIAD By Gregory Kern at least that is the official story. more would there be before the lake's DAW, $1.95, July, 1983. A colony ship supposedly destined new owner discovered that there was New sf novel. for Mars is surreptitiously rerout¬ something in the lake? Something 'The things from beyond the Mil¬ ed to Titan...and only the leaders incredibly ancient. Something rav- ky Way galaxy found the intelligent of the Military Industrial Complex races of our universe amusingly know why. 55 slight. To them, possessors of vast cosmic power, the strivings of var¬ 400 light years from home, "native" A note on the publisher; it's ious humanoids to outdo each other gun bearer for a lordly alien and Harper & Row, San Francisco, and were a source of contemptuous amuse- his beautiful mistress.' the address is 1700 Montgomery St., San Francisco, CA 94111 'They established a contest be¬ THE INFINITE CAGE By Keith Laumer tween the worlds. It would be an Tor, $2.75, May, 1983. Olympiad of the whole galaxy—a LADY OF THE MANSION Sf novel first published in 1972. By George MacDonald Galactiad. Let these puny interstel- The well-told story of a kind of lae intelligences meet each other Harper & Row, $5,95, 1983; first superman who awakens in an alley published originally as THE PORTENT, in contest. Pit one against the oth¬ without memory and begins to discov¬ er-and let the losers beware! in the 19th Century. er himself. Mildly occult romance novel. 'Earth had its team-a mixed Top-notch Laumer. group of powerful athletes and gen¬ Trade paperback format. ius scientists. Because other worlds did not always believe in the ideal HIERO'S JOURNEY By Sterling E. Lanier DANCER'S LUCK By Ann Maxwell of good sportsmanship, they had to Del Rey, $2.95, May, 1983. Signet, $2.50, April, 1983.* confront the reality. Win at all First published in 1973, this The first novel of this series costs...or goodbye to humanity!' excellent sf novel tells of a mission was FIRE DANCER. by Per Hiero Desteen 5000 years from 'A forgotten place at the very now after a holocaust known as The edge of the galaxy, a dying planet GREAT WORLD CIRCUS Death. He is a priest, a telepath where people lived by luck alone. By William Kotzwinkle and a trained killer. He seeks a This was the number one stop for Illustrated by Joe Servello lost secret of the ancients (us) Rheba, the Senyas fire dancer, and Putnam, $13.95, May, 1983 and is opposed by the evil Brother¬ Kirtn, her Bre'n mentor, as they A book-length poem about a mys¬ hood of the Unclean, mutated humans sought to fulfill their promise to tery priestess from the ancient past who war against the remnants of return a whole shipload of ex-slaves who wanders, ghostlike, through time normal humanity. to the widely scattered worlds they to plague and bless those she en¬ Del Rey has just published (May) called home. counters. a hardcover sequel, THE UNFORSAKEN 'Twice Rheba and Kirtn had achiev¬ Matching illustrations for each HIERO, $11.95. ed the impossible—first surviving page of poetry. their own home system's fiery doom, A somewhat baffling storyline, then escaping the lair of the evil obscure and vague... Not my cup of SUNG IN SHADOW By Tanith Lee Loo-chim, bringing with them the tea. But it's nice to see Putnam DAW $3.50, May, 1983. odd assortment of beings who were doing an occasional thing like this, Fantasy novel. now their shipmates. Having blast¬ even though they know the book won't 'In a parallel world, in a ed free of the Loo-chim, Rheba and sell worth a damn. Renaissance Italy just a little bit Kirtn assumed the worst was over. different from what we know, a dash¬ Then they landed on the planet • ing young man named Romulan met a Daemen...' lovely young lady named Iuletta. WARLORDS OF XUMA But between their romance stood the By David J. Lake hatred of their feuding families— isaac asimov's aliens & outhorlders DAW, $2.50, June, 1983. and a witchcraft that really worked.' Edited by Shawna McCarthy 'The planet at first appeared DIAL PRESS, $12.95, April, 1983. to be a duplicate of old Mars as 20-story anthology of stories Burroughs had portrayed it—Barsoom THE COMPASS ROSE By Ursula K. LeGuin which first appeared in ISAAC ASIM¬ come to life. But the desperate BANTAM, $3.50, July, 1983; first OV'S . The expeditioners from Earth soon found published in 1982 by Harper & Row. stories are illustrated by the art¬ out otherwise. The red "Marians," Twenty short stories. work which (it appears) accompanied the flying boats, the warring cities, their first appearance in IASFM. and the canal network were all parts UNNATURAL TALENT The artwork adds to the readability of an ancient and well-established By Les Logan and attractiveness of this volume. civilization. BANTAM, $1.95, July, 1983 'This did not stop the little A DARK FORCES Novel, ages human colony from dreaming of con¬ 12 and up. quest. It still seemed possible. LIFE PROBE By Michael McCollum Teenage basketball player be¬ Only now it would take cunning di¬ DEL REY, $2.95, June, 1983. comes a star by means of an occult plomacy and the preparation of a few New sf novel. rite from an old book. But he must Earth weapons to make themselves 'Before man's ancestors began please a she-demon in the bargain, masters of that world.' to walk upright, the Maker civiliza¬ and is trapped by a too-high price. tion was already ancient. When Man first used fire, the Makers had been • searching slowly through space for GALACTIC ODYSSEY THE FLIGHT OF THE SHADOW millennia. By Keith Laumer By George MacDonald 'Then, after a 10,000-year TOR, $2.75, August, 1983. First pub¬ Harper & Row, $5.95, 1983; first journey, a Maker Life Probe blunder¬ lished in 1967. publishedin the 19th Century. ed across twenty-first century Earth 'It was raining, starting to Something of a gothic romance, —and eons of Maker science would sleet. My last ride had dumped me set in the Scottish highlands, in¬ soon be Man's for the asking. All twenty country miles from nowhere. volving love, rivalries, and a Earth had to do was repair the Probe. If I didn't get warm soon I was go- terrible curse. 'But first both Earth and the Trade paperback format. The Probe had to survive a war...' 'That's why I took a chance on cover illo suggests a modern story that weird com silo, even after I with roots in the past. Somewhat BE AN INTERPLANETARY SPY #1 knew it was... something else. And misleading. FIND THE KIRILL IAN that's why I, Billy Danger, woke up 56 By Seth McEvoy Illustrated by Marc Hempel and Mark Viking warrior who held her heart. In his golden scabbard rests the Wheatley. 'But war was brewing in the land, magical Sword of Lur. Bantam, $1.95, June 1, 1983 a brutal struggle for kingship that 'Together they descend into an Comicbook style adventures in a would set father against son. Viking underground world of soulless mach¬ "You are--" format, requiring making against Saxon, and put Branwen's own ines and eternal night. High Priest¬ decisions and often doubling back love to a test of faith and magic ess and Warrior, Jewel and Sword, to correct mistakes or avoid death. that would try her strength to the they join in battle against the Dark Set up to lure video games players. utmost and shake the very foundations Lord. If they fail, the Holy Force For readers 9-up. of her world...' will fall-and Thora and Makil will These adventures require close be forever entombed in the flesh attention to visual clues and teach memory, logic, deductive skills. WEB OF THE ROMULANS But how many kids 9-up will By M.S. Murdock plunk down $2. for these? Bantam TIMESCAPE, $2.95, June, 1983. THE WINDHOVER TAPES—FIZE OF THE will find out. STAR TREK novel. GABRIEL RATCHETS 'Ravaged by a killer virus, the By Warren Norwood BE AN INTERPLANETARY SPY #2 Romulans enter Canara, where the Bantam, $2.95, July, 1983. THE GALACTIC PIRATE only antidote can be found. Desper¬ 'Return with Contract Diplomat By Seth McEvoy ate, they incite a victorious Enter¬ Gerard Manley to the lost decade Illustrated by Marc Hempel and Mark prise attack on one of their vessells before the adventures recorded in Wheatley. -but Kirk discovers their ruse. the Windhover tapes. Recapture the Bantam, $1.95, June 1, 1983. 'Meanwhile the central computer intrigue, treachery and passion of As above. has fallen in love with him, severe¬ his years as Consort to Fairy Peg, ly crippling the Enterprise. Now ruler of the Ribble Galaxy, and Su¬ Kirk must bring the antidote to the preme Commander of the elite fight¬ THE MANY-COLORED LAND Romulans-before the galaxy crashes ing force known as the Gabriel Rat¬ By Julian May over the brink of war!' chets. Del Rey, $2.95, July, 1983; first pb 'Follow Manley on a brutal mis¬ edition. Volume One of The Plio¬ sion to subdue a rebel planet, as he cene Exile. fights to survive the rivalries of 'An orderly and peacefull inter¬ TERRA SF 11 - THE YEARS BEST EURO¬ the Ribble court...and on a voyage stellar society, the twenty-first PEAN SF to the reaches of his own mind to century's Galactic Milieu had little Edited by Richard D. Nolane learn the awesome secrets locked place for the incurable adventurer, DAW, $2.95, July, 1983 within.' the secret psychotic, or the ruthless New anthology. 12 stories from France, Germany, Denmark, Belgium, 'So, when a one-way time tunnel Holland, Norway, Italy, Spain, and to Earth, six million B.C., was dis¬ Finland. THE LADY OF THE SNOWMIST covered, every misfit for light- Somebody goofed and neglected to By Andrew J. Offutt years around hurried to pass through include the contents page. Ace, $2.50, June, 1983. it, hungry for adventure, the romance Fantasy. Volume Three of the of the unknown, and a life free of War of the Gods on Earth series. Milieu's stuffy rules. 'When the Lady of the Snowmist GRYPHON IN GLORY By 'Each sought his own brand of freed Jarik Blacksword of his god- Del Rey, $2.50, May, 1983. First happiness. But none could have bonds, She bound him forever with a published by Atheneum in 1981. guessed what awaited them. Not even blood-tie and battle-scar to the 'The Waste was stirring and in a million years...' knowledge that gods warred with gods strange forms of the Dark, long on the earth—and why. quiet, began to wake as Kerovan- 'Yet even she could not contain whose cloven hoofs marked his kin¬ the boundless rage of Jarik"s god- ship with the Old Ones—journeyed RETURN OF THE JED1 sword. Or his thirst to become, PORTFOLIO into the Waste on a secret mission, leaving behind the girl he loved. through battle, whole at last.' By Ralph McQuarrie Two other novels in this series Joisan, however, rode after him, Ballantine, $9.95, June, 1983 are scheduled: THE IRON LORDS (July) wearing about her neck Kerovan's Twenty 11 x 15 full color prints and OUT OF HELL (August). of paintings illustrating a panorama gift, a small crystal globe encasing of scenes from the film. Excellent a miniature gryphon. work, fine paper, all suitable for 'While Kerovan strove for an¬ • framing. Well worth the money. swers to the riddles of the Dark, Joisan worked to unlock the power of the crystal gryphon. But only CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE #9 together could they hope to find DREAM TRIPS AN UNKINDNESS OF RAVENS the ancient Sleeper and defeat the By Edward Packard By Dee Morrison Meaney forces of evil...' Illustrated by Loma Tomei ACE, $2.75, July, 1983. Bantam-Skylark, $1.95, June 1, 1983 New fantasy novel. For ages 7 to 9, this and the 'Branwen was the daughter of a other Choose Your Own Adventure Saxon lord, lady of the manor. MOON CALLED By Andre Norton books listed below, are simpler, Where, then, did her strange powers TOR, $2.95, July, 1983. First pub¬ big print adventures with drawings of healing come from? And her lished in 1982. that illustrate scenes and are not ability to call birds down from the 'Thora is the Chosen One. Press¬ crucial to deciding which storyline sky to her hand? ed against her breast is the Sacred to follow. 'She had to know. She had to Jewel, possessing all the powers of These books are the sort of find the secret of her grandmother's the Moon. thing a parent will buy to involve unicorn before she could be satis¬ 'Makil is the Man of Pure Light. a child in reading and to improve fied—even in the arms of the tall 57 a child's reading/thinking skills. CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE #10 less, at the gates of the terrible SPACE ANGEL By John Maddox Roberts THE GENIE IN THE BOTTLE temple of the Leem. Del Rey, $1.95, First edition 1979, By Jim Razzi 'To rescue a girl sacrifice 2nd printing. May, 1983. Illustrated by Kevin Callahan there was but the start, for next he 'For Kelly, it was an impossible Bantam-Skylark, $1.95, June 1, 1983 had to help torch the temple and all dream come true when he shipped out the others like it, and finally take on the Space Angel. Ship's boy was to the sea to confront the next wave the most menial job aboard, but it CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE #21 of the fish-headed marauders from was excitement enough just to be in Kregen's Southern Hemisphere.' By Edward Packard 'Things became even more excit¬ Illustrated by Anthony Kramer ing than even Kelly wanted when an Bantam, $1.95, June 1, 1983 REENTRY By Paul Preuss unimaginably old and powerful entity Bantam, $2.95, June, 1983. Second commandeered the Space Angel and printing; first---Feb. 1981. sent the freighter on an incredible 'Through the space-time hyper- mission to the center of the galaxy By Leonard Peikoff fold of a double black hole. Holder —with two hereditary killers and a poetic crab added to the crew for MENTOR (NAL), $3.95, June, 1983. journey's backward through time into Introduction by Ayn Rand. one of a billion other possible extra interest!' 'Self-sacrifice, mysticism, realities. By reliving his youth on collectivism, doing one's duty, a primitive planet, he hopes to these are among the seductive catch- change the shape of his destiny. CESTUS DEI By John Maddox Roberts phrases that Leonard Peikoff dissects, 'Pursued by a beautiful assassin, Tor, $2.75, June, 1983. examining the kind of philosophy and used by an old woman whose secret 'The newly rediscovered planet they symbolize, the type of thinking experiments have achieved the un¬ Charun bears an uncanny resemblance that lured Germany to its doom and thinkable, Holder defies probability to late Imperial Rome, but with atom¬ that he says is now dangerously pre¬ to save a universe of the edge of ic weapons. Its upper classes are valent in the United States.' destruction.' riddled with vice and corruption. First published by Stein and Day The lower are oppressed to the level in 1982. of animals. Both live only for gambling and the Gladitorial Games. JOURNEY By Marta Randall Worst for all, Charunites engage in ULLER UPRISING By H. Beam Piper Timescape, $3.50, May, 1983; first the one wholly forbidden vice: the Ace, $2.75, June, 1983. First pub¬ printing May, 1978. creation of artificial life. lished in 1952. A sf family saga novel. In a future ruled by a new 'The Ulleran challenge begins 'Aerie—a vast, muddy rock, float¬ Church of Rome, Father Miles, a with the rantings of a prophet and a ing in cosmic darkness, uninhabited. combat-trained Jesuit missionary, seemingly incidental street riot. But for Jason and Mish Kennerin, it has been set the task of returning Only when a dose of poison lands in is shelter, a new beginning as their these strayed sheep of Charun to the governor-general's whiskey does own planet crashes into the void. the paths of righteousness. To suc¬ it become clear that the "geeks" 'Aerie becomes their hope in ceed, he'll have to stray pretty have had it up to their double-lidd¬ the universe, a safe harbor for their far from those paths himself. If ed eyeballs with the imperialist love. And when others join them, he fails, Charun will .be cleansed Terran Federation's Chartered Uller they forge a mighty empire, a dynas¬ with fire. Company. Then, overnight, war is ty whose name will thunder down the everywhere. generations, through the universe, 'How it will end is in the to the farthest reaches of time and (merely) two Terran hands of the new space.' STARDANCE governor-general, a man shrewd enough By Spider and Jeanne Robinson to know that "it is easier to banish TOR, $2.95, first Tor printing a habit of thought than a piece of THE WILD ALIEN TAMER July, 1983. Portions of this work knowledge." The problem is, the By Mike Resnick first appeared in ANALOG magazine particular piece of knowledge he Signet, $2.50, July, 1983. in different form. needs hasn't been used in 450 years.' New sf novel in the Tales of A woman of perfect beauty is the Galactic Midway series—#3. too big for perfect grace as a bal¬ 'When Jupiter Monk took his an¬ lerina; she will never be more than imal-taming act to the stars as part an understudy. STARDANCE is the DREAM MAKERS—vol ume II of Thaddeus Flint's interstellar story of one such, Shara Drummond, By Charles Platt carnival, he hadn't expected all his who seeks self-expression in space. BERKLEY, $6.95, June, 1983 animals to die and leave him a train¬ 'Her life is to be devoted to Interviews, exceptionally good, er with nothing to tame. creating a weightless artform that with 28 science fiction writers, plus 'Still, with countless planets is to dance as three dimensions are an interview with Platt by Douglas to choos from, he could surely put to two. But then the aliens arrive, E. Winter. together a new act. Endless creat¬ beings of pure light who dance for¬ Recommended. ures and worlds later, Jupiter was ever between the stars. But their about ready to call it quits. How dancing is a form of communication could he work with a chlorine-breath¬ as far beyond language as language er, a purple snarler the size of a is beyond the grunting of apes— FIRES OF SCORPIO: DRAY PRESCOT #29 child's toy, or a thing that looked just as Shara's is. DAW, $2.50, April, 1983. like too close a cousin to a human? 'And so it falls to Shara Drum¬ 'Triple trouble always dogged 'Monk was desperate when he mond to prove that the human race Dray Prescot just when he thought landed on Sabellius III. Then he is...human. By her Stardance.' he had things under control. This met the monster that called itself time, involved with setting things his native guide—and that was when right on the continent of Pandahem, Jupiter got his great idea for the the Star Lords yanked him away from sweetest carny con the universe had his friends, and dumped him, weapon¬ 58 THE HIDDEN WORLDS OF ZANDRA bout the same things, but each in a ic bomb—and the eleven stories By slightly different way, differently which follow offer other specula¬ Doubleday, $11.95, July, 1983. accented. And these deep thoughts tions... not all battlefield ad¬ New sf novel. Second in the and keen observations are endlessly ventures . ' Zandra series. fascinating to those who have simi¬ Mostly well-known and previously 'Having passed through a time and lar thoughts, and so these writers anthologized stories by: space warp, Mace Wilde, Eve Clayton, are seen as Important (naturally) T.L. Sherred, A.E. van Vogt, Liberty Crockett, Barney Boone, and for expressing...echoing...repeat¬ Murray Leinster, Vernor Vinge, Dr. Richter-all fellow ing... Intellectuals dote on in¬ Gordon R. Dickson, Dean McLaughlin, on a jetliner whose flight pattern tellectuals, and often a certain , Hank Davis, Marc had taken them over the Bermuda Tri¬ type of intellectual makes a living Steigler, , and angle-find themselves in an alien by doting, and there is a small . world called Zandra. Peopled by a subdivision of academia and of pub¬ variety of races, some humanoid and lishing which formalizes this activ¬ ity. others reptilian, Zandran civiliza¬ THE MCANDREW CHRONICLES tion is at once familiar and complet- It isn't that the Empress is wearing no clothes, it is that she By Charles Sheffield ly foreign. Its inhabitants live in Tor, $2.95, June, 1983. a society almost medieval in struc¬ is wearing, artfully, individually, rags—once glorious, now worn-out A collection of stories all ture yet whose rulers enforce their about the worldclass, far-out in¬ will through the use of technologic¬ —which others, years and years ago, created, used, and discarded. But ventor, McAndrew. And about ship ally and genetically advanced weap- captain Jeannie Roker. then those raiments were worn to low- These are class parties, in a disreputable stories and there is an Appendix at 'With Princess Falana, heir to part of town, unknown to the aris¬ the end of the book detailing the the Emperor's throne, the Earth peo¬ tocracy. How humiliating for the current science used in the stories ple, or Terrans, tour the mysterious aristocracy now to discover these and telling of the science extrapo¬ and long-neglected Zandran provinces. old rags and think them new and fine lation used to create the future But the casual tenor of their voyage and to parade around in them for science used. soon turns serious as they become their adoring friends and hangers- the targets of both a court conspir¬ on, while the original owners have acy to usurp the Emperor's power gone on, created newer, even finer THE SELKIE and the rebellious subjects they garments... encounter. By Charles Sheffield & David 'Pressed to the limits of endur¬ Bischoff SIGNET, $3.50, May, 1983; first pub¬ ance and forced to adapt and master WHISPERS IV lished by Macmillan in 1982. the lost technology of the ancient Edited By Stuart David Schiff 'Mary Willis comes from America alien superbeings who once controll¬ Doubleday, $11.95, July, 1983 to Scotland to join her husband, who ed Zandra, Mace and his followers New anthology. Beautiful wrap¬ is working on an engineering project survive and conquer only to face around Steve Fabian dustjacket. in a rugges coastal vi-lage. It is questions beyond survival...' This is the latest in a series here that she meets Jamie McPherson devoted to tales of terror, the and is swept up in a love beyond supernatural and the macabre. Some • imagination. of these 16 stories are from the 'She knows little about him but magazine WHISPERS, and some are CRY HAVOC By Barry Sadler she does not care, for he is the originals for this volume. Tor, $3.50, June, 1983. most spellbinding lover she has ever Authors are: Freff, Karl Edward had-a seducer of erotic mystery NOT a science fiction or fantasy Wagner, Ramsey Campbell, Tanith Lee, and exquisite sexual genius. novel. Frances Garfield, Gerald W. Page, '....She is always ready for him, William F. Nolan, Charles L. Grant, 'The Special Forces at Plei Jrong thie stranger cloaked in a beauty Lawrence Treat, , trust Vietnamese Captain Lim. He's a that is more than human...until, Stephen Kleinhen, Hugh B. Cave, good officer; he's proved his loyalty little by little, she uncovers the Richard Christian Matheson, Michael more than once. They trust him until nature of his dark and terrible he slips into their bunkers and cuts Shea, David Drake, . their throats. 'Lim is Viet Cong, and he's through serving the Americans. Now all he wants is revenge. Revenge on WAR AND PEACE-POSSIBLE THE GOSPEL FROM OUTER SPACE Sergeant Reider-the Green Beret FROM ANALOG By Robert Short that Lim must humble, the battle- Edited By Stanley Schmidt Harper & Row, San Francisco. worn American he must destroy. Dial Press, $12.95, Aug., 1983 $5.95 1983. 96 pages, trade 'But Reider has other ideas.' 'In 1944-a little before the paperback. earth-shking events at Hiroshima The religious implications of and Nagasaki-ANALOG'S earlier E.T., STAR WARS, SUPERMAN, CLOSE EN¬ self, ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FICTION, COUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND, and DORIS LESSING published a story involving the cre¬ 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY. CONTEMPORARY WRITERS SERIES ation of an atomic bomb. The auth¬ By Lorna Sage or's description of the supposedly THE COMPANION By Scott Siegel Methuen & Co., 733 Third Av., top-secret device was accurate e- BANTAM, $1.95, July, 1983 New York, NY 10017 nough to bring FBI agents to the A DARK FORCES NOVEL, ages 12 and $4.25, April, 1983 magazine's offices, demanding to up. An analysis of the writing and know who had leaked classified in¬ Since childhood Jeff's secret, thinking and the meaning of it all, formation. invisible companion, Kim, has pro¬ of Doris Lessing. 'This Volume's introduction tells tected him. But when he entered Each talented, perceptive, observ- more about the incident of the atom- boarding school, Kim becomes a hell- er-of-man-and-culture, of time and spawned creature intent on possessing angst and death...every one says a¬ 59 his body and soul. THE MASKS OF TIME A bargain with the devil is made were not cut off from one another By Robert Silverberg by a struggling high school rock but could send messages and enjoy BANTAM, $2.95, July, 1983; first band. Result: success!--and a price festivals and meetings together. published in 1968. Sf novel. to be paid. 'Except for one thing. The mas¬ ' In the waning days before the sive abundance of the ocean spawned millenium, an apocalyptic fervor far more than food for the puny hu¬ raged, rocking the foundations of THE GOLDEN SWAN By Nancy Springer man beings living on its surface. society. Then a mysterious strang¬ Pocket/Timescape, $2.50, May, 1983. The Floats were in constant danger er called Voman-19 appeared, claim¬ Fantasy novel. The sequel to from the ravaging attacks of monster ing to be an emissary from the fu¬ THE BOOK OF ISLE and THE BUCK BEAST. sea creatures against whom there was ture. In a few short days he at¬ Young Dair, changeling wolf-hu¬ no defense-except cowardly propita- tracted a following of millions, man son of King Trevyn of Isle, is tion. inspiring hope, desire, and fear. called by a mysterious vision to 'The Blue World needed a rebel, This is his strange testament, told share his destiny with a strange, one who would give his life if by a man who shared his orgiastic wandering youth known as Frain. necessary. They found one. This odyssey through the mad days of a is his story.' dying century.' THE TREASURE OF WONDERWHAT BLUESONG By Sydney J. Van Scyoc By Bill Starr Berkley, $4.95, May, 1983. Trade CEMETARY WORLD By Clifford D. Simak Del Rey, $2.50, First Edition, 1976; paperback edition. DAW, $2.50, May, 1983. First pub¬ this edition May, 1983. This science/fantasy is the se¬ lished in 1972-3. Farstar & son novel #2. quel to last Fall's DARKCHILD, and 'Earth-graveyard to the galaxy. 'Ranger Farstar, the dauntless is the second volume of a trilogy. Those who could afford it shipped the captain of the starship Gayheart It is the story of two separated bones of their dead back to Mother had heard of the legendary treasure children of a stranger trapped in Earth, man's ancient birthplace. hip that had been caught in the tail their alien world. Ravaged 10,000 years earlier by war, of the comet Wonderwhat. Now he Earth was reclaimed by its space¬ aimed to find it and turn a handsome dwelling offspring as a planet of profit. And he was willing to fave EMPIRE OF THE ATOM By A. E. van Vogt landscaping and tombstones. the unknown dangers that awaited all Timescape, $2.95, July, 1983. First 'Fletcher Carson came back to those who attempted to claim the published in 1956. Earth to work on an artistic crea¬ treasure. 'The mutant Clane was banished tion of revolutionary design. He 'Dawnboy, blood-son of his space- from the Court of Linn. He was a was accompanied by a powerful robot, roving father, the young warrior had victim of the Atom Gods--Uranium, by a talented art machine, and by a no fear of the unknown; but he har¬ Radium, Plutonium and Ecks-whose strikingly beautiful treasure hunter bored many uneasy doubts about godstuff powered rockets, whose whose secret goql was vastly more Shaynne. That mischievous Vampir- fires had laid fearsome waste to the important than mere gold and jewels. ian lass was always getting in the Old World. 'But for them, the world of the way and-worse-getting him into 'But Clane survives, strengthen¬ dead was hostile terrain, where the trouble. ed by the ways of science, art, war Wolves of Steel dogged their foot¬ 'Together with help-and an and love—while the Linn empire steps, where the shrouded Census- occasional warning—from Lulu, crumbles, burdened by war on Venus taker floated faceless beside them, their biocomputer. Ranger and Dawn- and Barbarian attack from Jupiter's and where the frightful Shades hov¬ boy traveled through the darkest ered at landscape's edges.' reaches of space and into pirate- 'Fighting intrigue, assassination infested galaxies hoping to claim and treachery, the child Clane must the golden treasure before anyone rule to preserve the Empire. In the LANDO CALRISSIAN AND THE MINDHARP could beat them to it!' Century 12,000, no man dares ques¬ OF SHARU tion the Atom Gods—but Clane will By L. Neil Smith dare to discover their secrets...' DEL REY, $2.50, July, 1983. New SF novel based on the characters and FIRST BORN By Caroline Thompson situations created by George Lucas. Coward-McCann, $13.95, June, 1983 THE SORCERER'S SKULL 'Gambler, rogue, and con-artiste, A diary-format story of a young Lando Calrissian was bom with a woman's abortion and her later ob¬ By Robert E. Vardeman well-developed taste for the good session with an oddly deformed boy Ace, $2.75, June, 1983. life. More comfortable at the deal¬ who is the age of her never-born Second novel of the Cenotaph er's end of a fast shuffle than at child. Road series. the rear end of a blaster, Lando A mother's horror story. 'Dar-elLan-Martak walked the always had his sensors scanning for New novel. Cenotaph Road—and in the blink of the chance to pick up easy credits. an eye he exchanged his old life 'So when he heard that the plan¬ • for a new one. But in this other ets of the Rafa System were practic¬ world, Lan found himself with a THE BLUE WORLD By fussy spider for a companion and ally buried in ancient alien treas¬ DAW, $2.25, April, 1983. First ure, he hopped aboard the Millennium a powerful wizard for an enemy. published in 1966. Hardly an even trade—and certain¬ Falcon and brushed up on his rusty 'The Blue World was beautiful— astrogation. He never stopped to ly no accident. a world of water, with floating is¬ 'Now he and Krek were in a think that someone might be conning lands made by the thick, spreading the con man...' desperate race with the wizard tops of gigantic ocean growths, Claymore. At the top of a mirored big enough to support neat houses mountain, inside a sacred temple, and sea gardens alive with fish of was an alien artifact controlling The BARGAIN By Rex Sparger all kinds, rich with edible water all the portals along the Cenotaph BANTAM, $1.95, July, 1983 plants, and even communication tow¬ Road. Lan had to reach it first or A DARK FORCES NOVEL, ages 12 and ers so that the People of the Floats be stranded forever. He thought up. 60 that Claymore, reduced to a mere skull, would have difficulty climb¬ fabled land of the Amazons, for it strange eyes stare through the tall ing the mountain. He forgot that is his taske to bring back the gold¬ grass in the middle of a country wizards always have their own in¬ en girdle of the amazon Queen. And field. In darkened air beneath a ventive ways and underhanded meth- although he means no harm, Hercules bright blue sky, their desolate unwittingly sets up a destined en¬ mother's scream falls into silence. counter which will prove devastating Beside an unseen lamppost, among for both his nation and the Amazons. the darkening trees, a gentle kill¬ MILLENNIUM By John Varley From this journey, Theseus returns er, smelling of cloves, waits to BERKLEY, $6.95, June, 1983. with a vision of his future wife— repeat, "I love you." Carlisle A new, high-powered, high-ten¬ Antiope, the Queen of the Amazons- Street's people want. They need. sion sf novel in which time "raiders" and sets in motion a tragedy that They're here. Now.' from the far, far future screw up will become legend.' Interesting cover-a gothic and have to risk enormous alterations, Classic fantasy. Guess who's old house with a single lighted even doom, in history as they strive supposed to buy and read this. window is entwined in the wavy, to correct the situation. Along the demon-ridden hair of a terrified way an extraordinary human rela¬ blonde young woman. That pulls tionship develops between a woman of AN AMBUSH OF SHADOWS a lot of strings. The hair and the umpteenth century and a man of By Paul 0. Williams demons are embossed. Maybe they're our era. Del Rey, $2.95, September, 1983. not demons; maybe lost souls. An exceptionally well-written New sf novel, uncorrected proof. story. It leaves finger marks on Book Five of The Pel bar Cycle. your throat. 'This series, set in a post holo¬ • caust America a thousand years in THE SAINT-GERMAIN CHRONICLES the future, relates the history of By Chelsea Quinn Yarbro the Pelbar people in their attempt Timescape, $2.95, May, 1983. DARK CRUSADE By to restore civilization to a savage Five stories about the charm¬ Warner $2.95, May, 1983; third ing , with linking letters printing from December, 19 6. of a certain nature... A Kane adventure. 'For years after their disastr¬ ous defeat by the Pelbar at North- 'In his four thousand years, 'Out of the blackness of an al¬ the Count has known royalty and rab¬ most-forgotten past, the cruel cult wall, the slave-holding Tantal had kept their distance. ble, artists, spies, adulteresses— of Saraki has come to life again. and the most beautiful women in the Orted Ak-Ceddi, a daring outlaw, is 'But once the Prlbar moved north¬ ward to colonize the shores of the world. From the glittering capitals its prophet. He draws thousands of of 18th Century Europe to modem converts to his Dark Crusade-a Bitter Sea, Tantal forces were al¬ ways on the attack. New York, he appears again and again. design to destroy mankind. His 'Now meet the Count—in an Ed¬ bloody cohorts conquer Shapeli, but 'Then one day they kidnapped the young daughter of Stel Westrum, Pel- wardian sitting room; in a chateau they are defeated when they drive behind enemy lines during World War to vanquish the southern kingdoms. bar master craftsman, re-inventor of the steamboat-and, suddenly, the II; in a Colorado resort where a Orted knows he must have a powerful murderer lurks; on a New York-bound cavalry to launch a new drive—and single-minded foe of all things Tan¬ tal. .. ' jet, he greets you—a master of the Kane is the man who can command the mysterious, a man of peculiar, conquest. But Kane intends no final terrifying desires.' victory for the Forces of Darkness.' POLTERGEIST—A STUDY IN DESTRUCTIVE HAUNTING By Colin Wilson THE GODFORSAKEN DEATH ANGEL'S SHADOW Wideview/Perigee, $6.95, August, 1983. By Chelsea Quinn Yarbro By Karl Edward Wagner 'In this study, Colin Wilson ex¬ Warner, $3.95, May, 1983. Warner, $2.95, June, 1983; third amines the evidence regarding pol¬ Historical occult horror novel. printing from June, 1973. tergeists and develops a masterful "as the Inquisition spread its A Kane adventure. and definitive theory of the forces fiery fingers across the land of 'A quest that took Kane into that surround us and are contained Spain, holding kingdom and king in forbidden wastelands, and tested within each one of us.' its terrible grip, a new horror his killer skills against the most High-quality trade paperback would rise to challenge even the in¬ brutal forces ever summoned against edition. vincible power of the Grand Inquis¬ a single man. itor. A curse on the hoouse of King 'Kane faced death duels in Alonzo that came from the very Devil. strange swamps, assassin's attacks, 'A curse would leave his daught¬ the heart-freezing terror of the THE 1983 ANNUAL WORLD'S BEST SF Edited by Donald A. Wollheim with ers unfit to marry or rule. A curse werewolf—and lived to laugh at Art Saha. that would transform his only legit¬ DAW, $2.95, May, 1983. imate son, Rolon, into the very 'But he knew he'd lost his New anthology, with stories by Hound of Hell, whose unspeakable strength, and perhaps his soul, James White,- Connie Willis, Frederik secret bloomed under the full moon when he entered the erotic web of Pohl, Gardner Dozois & Jack Dann, of a country where terror came in the vampire.' Timothy Zahn, Timothy Robert Sulli¬ mother's milk and vengeance roamed van, Tanith Lee, Joanna Russ, Bruce abroad. Rolon, the chosen, the damned. Rolon, the kind, blessed TIC SWORD IS FORGED Sterling, and Rudy Rucker. with a compassionate soul and a By Evangeline Walton TIMESCAPE BOOKS, $15.95, July, 1983. great and tragic love; cursed by a secret plague sent by Lucifer Him¬ 'Set is the islands of ancient CARLISLE STREET By T.M. Wright Greece... Theseus, son of Poseidon self. Rolon, Heir to the Throne TOR, $3.50, July, 1983. of Spain, who dared to defy the and future King of Athens, is sail¬ Horror novel. ing the strange, unexplored waters Inquisition in the ungodly raiment ’From Carlisle Street, the of THE GODFORSAKEN. of the Black Sea with his kinsman, children’s voices call. Their Hercules. Still executing his leg¬ endary labors, Hercules seeks the 61 # EYE OF CAT By Interview with R.A. Lafferty by THESE HAVE BEEN THE ARCHIVES, A LIST¬ Timescape, $2.50, July, 1983. Hard¬ Darrell Schweitzer. ING OF SF AND FANTASY AND OTHERS RE¬ back published in 1982. Poems by Wendy McElroy, Robert Fra¬ CEIVED FROM MAJOR/MINOR PROFESSIONAL 'William Blackhorse Singer, the zier, Tom Disch. PUBLISHERS IN THE PAST THREE MONTHS. last Navajo tracker on a future earth, Cartoon by William Rotsler & Alexis WE HOPE THEY ARE OF VALUE TO YOU. has stocked the Interstellar Life In¬ Gilliland. stitute with its most exotic creat¬ ures. But one of Singer's prizes preys on his mind: a metamorph, the FANTASY & SCIENCE FICTION June, 1983 one-eyed shapeshifter Cat, whose $1.75 This publication home planet has been destroyed. Cover by Michael Garland 'Billy offers Cat freedom to Cartoons by Nurit Karlin, Joseph is available help him stop an alien assassin, and Dawes. in microform. Cat accepts. The price: permission Books by to hunt Billy. And the deadly game Films by begins. In a fierce, global hunt, Science by Isaac Asimov University Microfilms Billy flees his extra-sentient kill¬ Stories by Ian Watson, Gardner Dozois International er. And suddenly, he is pursuing and Jack Dann, A Bertram Chandler, not life, but the mysteries of his Reginald Bretnor, B.L. Keller, Fred Zeeb Road people, and the blinding vision of Singer, Rene Rebetez, , Dept. PR. his own primeval spirit.' Richard Mueller, James Patrick Kelly. r, Mi. 48106 U.&A. 30-32 Mortim THE BLACKCOLLAR By Timothy Zahn FANTASY & SCIENCE FICTION July. 1983 Dept. PR. $1.75 London WIN DAW, $2.95, July, 1983. England New sf novel. Cover by Andrew Probert 'Allen Caine had never met any Cartoon by Joseph Farris of those superbly trained guerilla Books by Algis Budrys warriors, but their exploits in the Films by Baird Searles war against the alien Ryqril invad¬ Science by Isaac Asimov IN SF — ers were legendary. Chemically aug¬ Stories by George Alec Effinger, mented with drugs to prolong youth, George R.R. Martin, Greg Frost, double speed and reflexes, and en¬ Barbara Owens, , Gene BY ROBERT SABELLA hance memory, they were a special DeWeese, Pamela Sargent, John M. task force trained in hand-to-hand Landesberg. J.R.R. Tolkien died on Septem¬ combat against an enemy far more ber 14 at the age of 81 ... Bal- powerful and swift than human sol¬ lantine Books paid Arthur C. diers ... the Blackcollars had been Clarke $500,000 for reprint rights the eeadliest men in the history of August, 1983, $3.00 to , IMPERIAL Earth warfare. Cover by Walter Lee EARTH and FOUNTAINS OF PARADISE. Back Cover by Alan Gutierrez 'But that was 30 years ago- This was the largest paperback Verse by Jonathan V. Post sale of science fiction books to that was had been lost-and Allen Stories by Gordon Linzer. Kim Hughes, Caine, an operative in Earth's un¬ date ... The original anthology , Paul Ed¬ fad was in full swing with every derground Resistance had a mission ward Zimmer, Ardath Mayhar, Jack to complete. A last-chance effort theme anthology imaginable being Wodhams, Eric Leif Davin, Brian Lum- published: 's CONTIN¬ to overthrow the alien domination ley, Kris Neville, Robert Burnham, UUM contained eight science fic¬ of Earth and her colonies would de¬ Jr., Susan Schwartz, Uwe Luserke, pend on his re-convening a Blackcol- tion series spread over four vol¬ Amelia Reynolds Long. umes while his FUTURE CITY con¬ lar unit—ij[ they still existed, Comic art by Lee Nordling and if he could find them.' tained stories based on the title P.O. Box 4193, Pasadena, CA 91106 theme; David Gerrold's PROTOSTARS and EMPHASIS featured stories by new writers only; Terry Carr's ADDENDUM- STRANGE BROTHERS contained stories INTERZONE Spring, 1983, $2.50 about relationships between hu¬ CONFLICT By Poul Anderson Editorial by Simon Ounsley mans and aliens while AN EXALTA- TOR, $2.95, August, 1983. Stories by John Sladek, Alex Stew¬ TATION OF STARS was concerned with New 10-story anthology of art, David Redd, Malcolm Edwards, the religious experience; Pamela Anderson stories. Andy Soutter, Barrington Bayley. Sargent's featur¬ 9 Patchin Place, New York, NY 10011 ed stories by and/or about women; and the list went on ... Harlan Ellison declared he would finally submit the completed manuscript MAGAZINES- RIGEL #7, Spring, 1983, $2.50 for THE LAST DANGEROUS VISIONS in Cover by Alan Gutierrez September. 1983, perhaps? ... AMAZING September, 1983, $1.50 Editorial by Lela Dowling The Hugo Winners were announced at Cover by John Lakey & Val/Artifact Interview: TorCon: Isaac Asimov's THE GODS Opinion by Robert Silverberg Visual Media: Alan Dean Foster THE^ELVES was Best Novel; "The Reviews by Frank Catalano & Robert Opinion by Debbie Notkin Word For World is Forest," by Ur¬ Coulson. Science by Dr. Dean R. Lambe sula K. LeGuin was Best Novella; Editorial by George H. Scithers Stories by Joseph Green and Patrice Poul Anderson's "" was Stories by: Andrew M. Greeley, Rory Milton, Tom Easton, Frank Catalano, Best Novelette; Best Short Story Harper, R.A. Lafferty, Tanith Lee, Alan Dean Foster, Eric Vinicoff. was a tie between R.A. Lafferty's Arthur Pendennis, Eric G. Iverson, P.O. Box 2523, Richmond, CA 94802 "Eurema's Dam" and Pohl 8 Kom- and Reginald Bretnor. bluth's "The Meeting." Article by Steve Aaronson 62 ALIEN THOUGHTS CONTINUED FROM P. 7 coming when the last subscriber will be paying $3200. per issue. No... SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #35 Inter¬ no, it'll never come to that! views with Fred Saberhagen and Don So, you're welcome to renew or Wollheim; "The Way It Is" by Barry Malzberg; "Noise Level" by John collapse and those speculators who extend your subscription at the pres¬ ent rates until January 25th, 1984, Brunner; "Coming Apart at the were riding the market up would be Themes" by Bob Shaw. jumping out of windows in a year. when the new rates will take effect I've got maybe six months for with the mailing of SFR #50. that dire circumstance to happen and By that issue, unless I get some SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #36 Inter¬ prove me right. But what really hot interviews in the file, you'll view with Roger Zelazny; A Profile bothers me about the current euphor¬ see even more Geis than you thought of Philip K. Dick by Charles Platt; ia is that the pension funds are possible. "Outside the Whale" by Christopher pouring large amounts of money into The saving grace of this price Priest; "Science Fiction and Polit¬ this wild stock market surge, and increase is the continuation of bond/ ical Econany" by Mack Reynolds; In¬ are not following conservative in¬ bookpaper in these issues. So many terview with Robert A. Heinlein; vestment policies. Pension funds of you have quailed at the prospect "You Got No Friends in This World" should invest, not speculate, and of pulp paper issues that you've by Orson Scott Card. the current roaring rally on Wall recklessly told me you'd rather pay Street is all based on maybe and more. An option I couldn't resist. • hope and betting-on-the-come. The pages will stay the same. The format will stay the same...until $1.50 per copy from #37 onward Currently we are into a strong, I decide to change the mix again. short recovery, and everyone is as¬ I still refuse to accept adver¬ SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #37 Inter¬ suming the resurgence of the economy tising. view with Robert Anton Wilson; is going to be sustained into 1984 "We're Coming Through the Window!" and possibly beyond. Oh, almost forgot. THE CORPORA¬ by Barry N. Malzberg; "Inside the Not I. MARK ME! Steel produc¬ TION STRIKES BACK, my 500-copy self- Whale" by Jack Williamson, Jerry tion is faltering now. The housing published erotic sf novel, has been Poumelle, and Jack Chalker; "Uni¬ boom is faltering now. The inter¬ sold out. No more copies available. ties in Digression" by Orson Scott national debt structure is showing None. No. Don't ask. Card. more and more cracks. [The U.S. stock market had a heart attack SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #38 Inter¬ when it was rumored that either view with Jack Williamson; "The Brazil or Argentina had defaulted Engines of the Night" by Barry N. on some bank loans.] And, above all, Malzberg; "A String of Days" by SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #47 Inter¬ interest rates are climbing again, Gregory Benford; "The Alien Inva¬ views with Janet Morris and Charles and the commodity markets are falt¬ sion" by ; "Noise Level" Platt; "Philip K. Dick--A Cowardly ering again. Lumber orders and pro¬ by John Brunner; SF News by Elton Memoir" by Peter Nicholls; "Of duction are falling again (and they Elliott. are a leading indicator.) Ground, and Ocean, and Sky" by Ian Watson; "Once Over Lightly" by Gene I expect November-December to SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #39 Inter¬ DeWeese; "Alien Thoughts" by REG. mark the end of the current "re¬ view with Gene Wolfe; "The Engines covery." And I don't think the un¬ of the Night"-Part Two by Barry N. employment rate to get below 9.2% Malzberg; "The Nuke Standard" by SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #46 Inter¬ this time down. In the 1984-8S Ian Watson; "The Vivisector" by view with John Sladek; "How NOT downleg of this depression the un¬ Darrell Schweitzer; SF News by To Write Science Fiction" by Rich¬ employment rate will go over 12% Elton Elliott. and will kill Reagan's reelection ard Wilson; profile of Larry hopes. Niven; "Standing By Jericho" by Steve Gallagher; "The Vivisector" SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #40 Inter- by Darrell Schweitzer; "Raising view with Robert Sheckley; 4-way Hackles" by Elton T. Elliott. AS THE PUBLISHER SAID AS HE RAISED conversation: Arthur C. Clarke, THE PRICE OF HIS MAGAZINE, THIS Harlan Ellison, 6 WILL HURT YOU MORE THAN IT WILL ME SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #45 Inter¬ Mark Wells; "The Engines of the view with Keith Laumer; "Pulp!" by Night"-Part Three by Barry N. Yes, people, the sad, bad news Algis Budrys; Interview with Terry Malzberg; Darrell Schweitzer; it that SFR is in fairly dire need Carr; "The Vivisector" by Darrell SF News by Elton T. Elliott of a price increase. Issue #37 saw Schweitzer; "Raising Hackles" by the price rise to $2.00 cover price, Elton T. Elliott. and to $1.75 by subscription. SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #41 Space Three years have passed. SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #44 Inter¬ Shuttle Report by Clifford R. Mc- That long? Why, it seems like view with Anne McCaffrey; "How Murray; "Chuck's Latest Bucket" by yesterday... Things Work" by Norman Spinrad; David Gerrold; Interview with Mi¬ Anyway, to make it short and "Fantasy and the Believing Reader" chael Whelan; "The Bloodshot Eye" bitter, with the #50 issue (Feb., by Orson Scott Card; "Raising Hack- by Gene DeWeese; "The Vivisector" 1984)[Big Brother is dunning you.] lrs" by Elton T. Elliott. by Darrell Schweitzer; SF News by SFR will increase its retail price Elton T. Elliott. to $2.50, and its subscription SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #43 Inter¬ price to $9.00 per year, or $18.00 view with James White; "The Porno for two years. Novel Biz" by Anonymous; "How To SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #42 Inter- Ghod! That seems a lot! Be A Science Fiction Critic" by view with Ian Watson; "One Writer Foreign subscribers will be re¬ Orson Scott Card; "The Vivisector" and the Next War" by John Brunner; quired to fork over US$9.50 for one by Darrell Schweitzer; "dice Over "The Vivisector" by Darrell Schweit¬ year, and US$19.00 for two years. Lightly" by Gene DeWeese; SF News zer; "The Human Hotline" by Elton If this price increase loses me by Elton T. Elliott. T. Elliott. subscribers, I can see the year 63 THE ALIEN CRITIC #9 "Reading SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #23 Inter¬ BACK ISSUES Heinlein Subjectively" by Alexei views: A.E. van Vogt, and Jack and Cory Panshin; "Written to a Vance, and Piers Anthony; "The Pulp!" by Sam Merwin, Jr.; "Noise Silverberg That Was" by Robert Level" by John Brunner; "The Shav¬ Silverberg. THE ALIEN CRITIC er Papers" by Richard S. Shaver. SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #24 Inter¬ NO OTHER BACK ISSUES ARE THE ALIEN CRITIC #10 Interview views: Bob Shaw, David G. Hartwell AVAILABLE with Stanislaw Lem; "A Nest of and Algis Budrys; "Ch Being a Bit $1.25 per copy Strange and Wonderful Birds" by of a Legend" by Algis Budrys. Sam Merwin, Jr.; Robert Bloch's EACH ISSUE CONTAINS MANY REVIEWS. Guest of Honor speech; The Hein¬ SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #25 Inter¬ EACH ISSUE CONTAINS LETTERS FROM lein Reaction. views with George Scithers, Poul WELL-KNOWN SF & FANTASY WRITERS, Anderson and Ursula K. 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