SCIENCE FICTION SUMMER TJTTIT 7TT71TT 7 NUMBER 43 1982 XVCi V J. JjJ W $2.00 SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW “8377> _ _ Formerly THE ALIEN CRITIC F.U. T)UA 1140o MAY 1982 - VOL.11, NO.2 PORTLAND, OR 97211 WHOLE NUMBER 43 RICHARD E. GEIS—editor & publisher PHONE: (503) 282-0381 PAULETTE MINARE', ASSOCIATE EDITOR
PUBLISHED QUARTERLY ALIEN THOUGHTS FEB., MAY, AUG., NOV. BY THE EDITOR..,..A OTHER VOICES.45 BOOK REVIEWS BY SINGLE COPY - $2.00 SUE BECKMAN TEN YEARS AGO IN SCIENCE FICTION BOB BARGER BY ROBERT SABELLA..7 PAUL MC GUI RE MARK MANSELL ROBERT B. ROSS interview: JAPES WHITE NEAL WILGUS CONDUCTED BY DARRELL SCHWEITZER...8 RALPH E. VAUGHAN COVER BY STEPHEN FABIAN ALMA JO WILLIAMS RUSSELL ENGEBRETSON THE PORNO NOVEL BIZ W. RITCHIE BENEDICT BY ANONYMOUS.13 ALLEN VARNEY MARK WILLARD ANDREW TIDMARSH HgW.Jjj BE A SCIENCE FICTION ROBERT B. ROSS DAVID A. TRUESDALE BY ORSON SCOTT CARD.15 ROBERT SABELLA STEVE LEWIS PATRICIA SHAW SMALL PRESS NOTES KEITH SOLTYS BY THE EDITOR.18
ONCE OVER LIGHTLY THE HUMAN HOTLINE BOOK REVIEWS BY GENE DEWEESE.20 SF NEWS BY ELTON T. ELLIOTT.59 AND THEN I SAW.... BY THE EDITOR.22 ALIEN CONCLUSIONS BY THE EDITOR.63 THE VIVISECTOR BY DARRELL SCHWEITZER.25 NO ADVERTISING WILL BE ACCEPTED Second. Class Postage Paid at Portland, OR 97208 SMALL PRESS MAGAZIltS INTERIOR ART- REVIEWED BY DARRELL SCHWEITZER...28 Copyright (c) 1982 by Richard E. Geis. One-time rights only have LETTERS.31 been acquired from signed or cred¬ A.J. BUDRYS ited contributors, and all other BUZZ DIXON rights are hereby assigned to the ED BURNS contributors. PIERS ANTHONY JACOB DARRELL SCHWEITZER THE ALIEN CRITIC CHRIS HULSE SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW ROBERT BLOCH Available in microform from: BOB BARGER OXFORD MICROFORM PUBLICATIONS, LTD ALMA JO WILLIAMS Wheatsheaf Yard, Blue Boar Street PHILIP MICHAEL COHEN Oxford OX1 4EY, United Kingdom RALPH E. VAUGHAN GEORGE H. SMITH SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW is published LINDA S. BLANCHARD at 1S25 NE Ainsworth, Portland, OR MILLEA KENIN 97211. NICK SMITH ARNOLD FENNER POUL ANDERSON POSTMASTER: Send address changes IAN WATSON to SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW, POB JOHN BRUNNER 1408, Portland, OR 97211. DEAN R. LAMBE TAD MARKHAM—56 REVIEWS- THE COVENANT OF THE CROWN.bZ THE EROTIC WORLD OF FAERY.52 . INTERNATIONAL CbWSPiFWlV _ / WHISPERS #15-16, OPTIMAN.52 OF ELECTRIC Tower compares.' h - THE CATCHER OF THE rye!'. !!!!!!!!!!$ THE AFFIRMATION.53 SEEKim^- WORLO C£>M
THERE IS A RISK IN GIVING PRINT TO my political, geo-political and ec¬ THE OREGONIAN 3-3-82 onomic opinions and views in these pages. But only if I'm soft-heart¬ SCI-FI WRITER DIES ed and fuzzy-minded as editor. NEW YORK (AP) — Philip K. Speaking here of these matters Dick, author of 35 science fic¬ will provoke and impell some in the tion novels, including the 1962 readership to write letters-of- Hugo Award-winning "The Man in comment aimed at the letter column. the High Castle," died Tuesday And I will be tempted to print a in California at the age of 53, few. his publisher said. But this is SFR, not REG or Pocketbooks, which publish¬ CONSPIRACY NEWSLETTER (both de¬ ed Dick's recent works under its funct) , and the primary function Timescape Books imprint, said of this zine is to pay attention the author suffered a stroke to science fiction and fantasy. Feb. 18 and had been a patient Only extraordinary Iocs on my at Western Medical Center in mundane thoughts will see print. Santa Ana, Calif., since then. I rarely printed letters in REG In addition to his novels, and never in CONSPIRACY NEWSLETTER. which included "Solar Lottery," Some may argue—with justice "Martian Timeslip" and "The Three —and with the repeated best-sell¬ ---that REG and CN commentary by tigmata of Palmer Eldritch," ing DUNE books...science fiction me should not appear at all in SFR. Dick had published six collec¬ and fantasy are more and more seen I can only say that the readers tions of short stories. as great vehicles for making a lot have consistently cried for more His novel "Flow My Tears, of money. And in our society mak¬ and ever more Geis writing here, the Policeman said" won the John ing huge amounts of money gives and I frankly have only a few W. Campbell Memorial Award in respectability and acceptance to things to say about sf and fantasy 1974. virtually any activity or genre. [Socially taboo drugs and porno are editing, publishing and writing, and that at present I'm dry. I now So sayeth the Associated Press. still struggling; they have greater resistances to overcome.] turn to the real world for triggers What is remarkable about this not¬ and raw material. ice is that AP thought Dick's death of sufficient import to send out Time and again the readers have about 150 words and that the edit¬ written that they find SFR (and REG ors of THE OREGONIAN, Oregon's PRAISE HUGO., STATUS AT LAST.... and CN when they were being publish¬ largest newspaper, decided to print ed) a provocative, interesting mag¬ it. A correspondent sent an ad that appeared in the San Francisco Chron¬ azine even though they didn't agree Phil Dick is not, I think, as icle for a run of Stanley Kubrick's with much or any of what is print¬ well known as Heinlein, Asimov, A CLOCKWORK ORANGE. ed. Herbert, Le Guin, Norton, Ellison, The heading at the top of the So I give vent now to that end. and others. Yet he's given a rath¬ large ad reads: Here is a worldview, a slant, a way er large obit on a national level. of thinking about mankind, the world, Now, either the AP is studded 10 major awards and the United States which hopeful¬ with sf readers and fans, and THE including the HUGO ly will give you a jolt, which will OREGONIAN is also, or science fic¬ for science fiction force you to think of counter argu¬ tion has crept up in importance to This is astonishing! Are the ments, which will pop open that a remarkable degree in the past few ad media now recognising the im¬ third eye of yours. years. Note the mention of the Hugo But mostly I'm doing this to Award. portance of the Hugo and beginning to use it as a status credit? I please myself, to please my ego, The process of accumulating a- think so. and to fill up space! wareness of sf and its writers in This sort of use can only make the public massmind...its gradual a Hugo Award win more and more im¬ acquisition of a subtle respecta¬ bility... now has reached the point portant to authors, artists, pub¬ lishers, movie-makers, editors_ of feedback: each public notice As the Hugo is recognized ever more MEANWHILE, BACK IN THE "REAL" WORLD, of sf event reinforces its position widely as an important internation¬ the published plans of the Select¬ in the public massmind and its stat¬ al award for sf, we can expect ever ive Service to run two tests of its us as a legitimate fiction form or more savage infighting and campaign¬ draft procedures—one in March us¬ media. ing for nominations and wins. ing National Guardsmen as simulated In these increasingly desperate draftees, and the other, more exten¬ With the continuing dynamic times of low book sales, any tiny sive test in the fall---suggests success of the STAR WARS films and bit of leverage becomes increasingly to me an ominous preparation for a quality sf films as OUTLAND, the important. real draft of 18 and 19-year-olds SUPERMAN films, ALIEN, and others We’ll have to be wary of attempts in 1983. to come---including BLADERUNNER, to buy votes, extensive hype, etc. in Combine this testing of facili¬ the film made frcm Phil Dick's DO ties and procedures with the equal¬ ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP? ly ominous war games being conduct- ed in Louisiana (through March, I've quantum jumps); incredible as it the Geis Analysis of what used to been told) of the whole corps of may seem, there is a percentage be going up, and why. the National Guard (rotating them of subscribers to SFR who do not Go back, wayyyy back to the Great in and out, a few states at a time renew—probably (unreasonably) Depression of the Thirties. We then for two weeks) in order to bring considering SFR a luxury compared had 2 and 3% interest rates. How them up to 'war readiness', and I to paying rent and buying food. come no boom? We had zero inflat¬ get the distinct feeling that the And the new subscriber rate is not ion. How come no boom? powers-that-be in New York and Wash¬ keeping up with the non-renewals. Consider that in the Twenties ington have something planned. And bookstores are not ordering there was a great credit expansion. Add the huge budget increases as many copies as before.... A great boom as "new" money flowed in Defense for 1982-3-4-5, and through the economy. Nobody worried a strong "police action" aroma per¬ So we enter the recession/de¬ about the other side of the credit meates the atmosphere. pression later than others in the coin. It's called debt. Yet public opinion polls show field, and assume the hunkered- Banks, corporations, individuals 89% of the American peoole opposed down position to outlast the storm. — all went into debt for what seem¬ to any military (American troops) ed at the time good reasons. But as Gone last issue was the logo- involvement in Central America. with all booms [debt bubbles] the and-cover-art-only policy I adopted Twenties bubble burst as the inter¬ .And that suggests that an "in¬ or a few issues. There was some cident" will have to be manufactur¬ est burden became too great to bear. billboarding on the cover of #42. ed— a provoked attack on Americans, Deflation set in: In order to pay This issue I'm increasing the size another embassy seizure...something off interest and/or debts, people of the logo for greater bookstore to overcome this reluctance to send and businesses had to cut back, had impact and putting Names and Feat¬ American soldiers overseas and to to sell some stocks, some property, ures on the cover, to somewhat some bonds, some other assets. make the people MAD! compensate for the loss of the The prices of those assets na¬ A small war would relieve some colored cover stock. Root, hog, turally declined. Supply exceeding social/economic pressures in this or die! And so it goes. country, too...considering that demand---lower prices. an increasing number of respected, At this time, too, the newly high-level financial experts are be¬ created Federal Reserve system ginning to talk of a slide/crash (1913) clamped down hard on the into a true depression later this money supply, afraid of runaway in¬ year. [More on the economy later.] THE PROBLEM WITH ARTISTS IS.... flation and the inherent disaster If you accept a depression in that they send me a lot of it. I'm that entails. No doubt they had 1983, mass unemployment, mass bank¬ grateful, even often delighted. But the lesson of the terrifying infla¬ ruptcies ...riots...foreclosures of even I, who use virtually one il¬ tion of Germaiy in 1922-23 in mind. houses, farms, building...a nice lustration or cartoon per page, even The Federal Reserve clamped down on little war which requires a war I, I say, am overwhelmed with so bank reserves and the banks had to economy, war controls, etc. might much art that I have at least a cut back on loans. The "new" money look damned good to a lot of people year's supply on hand. It's so bad stopped. on a conscious and unconscious lev¬ I can't remember it all. It's so Deflation began. el. Baldly put, "Want a good, high- bad it takes me ten minutes to go Does this have a familiar ring pay job? Invest your son in our through it, looking at it, seeking to it? Especially when it is noted carefully managed Central American a given piece I may vaguely rememb¬ that in the Twenties multi-billions War---only 20% chance of loss of er. of dollars were loaned overseas by investment.", is a bargain few par¬ The only recourse is this im¬ the big banks, and billions of for¬ ents would accept. But the choice passioned plea: stop sending me eign bonds were bought in this won't be so clear or stark. Propa¬ art! Please! For the love of Ghod, country.... ganda and media manipulation can do Montressor! Those loans and bonds turned wonders. sour and worthless very often, in And, of course, if you're con¬ the early Thirties. vinced you're only investing some¬ body else's son... And so as deflation worked its WHAT WE HAVE HERE IS NOT YOUR AVER¬ way through the economy, as bank¬ AGE; GARDEN-VARIETY RECESSION.... ruptcies mounted, businesses closed, But before I examine what's go¬ purchasing power declined, prices ing down today, let me treat you to declined, as assets shrank in value.
THE RECESSION; AS IT MUST TO ALL MAGAZINES; HAS COME TO SFR...... and it's a drag. As you will have instantly noticed, the color stock cover is gone, That $450. luxury has become a burden too great to bear. Well, we had the pretty color¬ ed covers from #37 to #42. Not bad. SFR is now back to the 64 page self-cover format of numbers 26 to 36. The reasons for this retreat are simple and dreadful: the postal service continues to raise its rates in all classes of "service" (sometimes raising 2nd, 3rd, and 4th class rates twice a year in banks could not make any loans ex¬ backing.] run 2-1/2 years. But the debt bub¬ cept to gilt-edged borrowers—and After suffering massive losses ble had burst, finally. Inflation/ there were damned few of those! of gold, our government "closed the devaluation had eventually created So in the middle and later 30s gold window" by refusing to buy our the forces of its destruction. nobody much dared borrow, even at currency with gold. So much for rock-bottom interest rates. There ethics, promises, integrity. were precious few prospects of mak¬ After that (and concurrently) With the lid on debt creation, ing a profit. silver coins disappeared as infla¬ pressures began to grow. Because The government under Roosevelt tion drove up the price of silver all that debt---govt, corporate, spent billions to stimulate the to past the coin designated value. personal—had to be paid off. In¬ economy. The federal deficits were It became profitable to melt coins terest had to be paid. In real, (for those days, in real dollar into bars. constant value or even (shudder) terms) staggering. Yet despite a Then the arabs refused to be increasingly valuable dollars! No recovery in 1936-37, the economy paid off in ever-less-valuable dol¬ more ever-cheaper dollars being fell back into depression. lars any longer and got together created to pay with. But during this period of Bad and raised the price of oil a whole And so, gradually, prices stop¬ Times the economy became healthy bunch. As we tried to compensate ped rising as fast, as money became in the sense that its debts were by inflating even more, they raised relatively scarce. Sales declined. burned away. Banks were very high¬ Values declined. Prices of raw mat¬ ly liquid. Their debt-to-reserve erials fell. Even wage floors crack¬ ratios were at rock-bottom lows. Recessions came and went, and ed open. And foreign debts went Bankers were extremely conservative. we bailed out with more and more The consumers were extremely conser¬ and more massive infusions of debt. vative. Debt was anathema, credit Now the world was wise to our And here we are today with a was rarely used. Cash was king. tactic of sending multi-billions government on the federal level running 100-150 billion dollar It took World War II to rip overseas to keep the lid on our in¬ this country out of the depression. flation. They sent them right back deficits while local and state gov¬ A war economy, forced mass saving, by buying U.S. assets—real estate, ernments are forced, by law, to cut controls...all this was financed stocks, bonds, businesses_ In¬ and cut and cut to maintain bal¬ anced budgets. by about $350 billions of national flation crept upward, ever higher. debt spent over four years — an in¬ We ran ever-higher deficits, We have the debt bubble now in credible flood of "new" money. borrowed, borrowed, borrowed- its final stages of existence. The After the war the forced sav¬ The dollar plunged in value. pressures are now enormous as the debtors are willing to pay ruinous ings came out of the banks to buy Until finally the common man final¬ interest rates in order to keep on and buy and buy, creating a new, ly got wise and he too refused to borrowing to avoid bankruptcy. They long-term boom. Every time the keep dollars, refused to save. He boom paused for breath—a reces¬ spent his money quickly. Or he de¬ are selling assets to keep going. sion-- -the government "primed the manded—and got!—interest rates They are begging, pleading, threat¬ pump" with new debt and the boom high enough to compensate for the ening their debt holders. But the. was "managed" into another exten¬ inflation/devaluation of the dollar. base is eroding. Lower sales, lower sion. prices, lower production, lower The "police action" in Korea wealth creation.... was financed with debt—more And the time came in October of There may be one last-gasp rally boom. The war in Vietnam was fin¬ 1979, in Italy, at an international in the economy in 1982. The govt, anced by debt—more boom! monetary conference, when the for¬ is hoping it deficits will save Except that increasingly all eign creditors of the United States the situation. this "new" money was driving up told the new head of the Federal But too much money is being prices. That was unpopular. So Reserve, Paul Volcker,to stop the destroyed via falling house prices, the government and the big banks ever-upward inflation of the money falling stock prices, falling pro¬ began loaning billions overseas supply or suffer a massive run on duction, unemployment, for the govt, to "take the pressure off" the the dollar so cataclysmic that its spending to compensate. domestic economy. We in effect value would shrink to zilch and in¬ The process will continue--- exported our inflation. This flation in the U.S. would reach 1001 until once again loan demand is low, surge of money to Europe [mostly] or more per year. It would be ab¬ the inflation rate is zero, and debt was at first welcome, then dislik¬ solute ruin. is a dirty word, and banks are flush ed; it drove up prices there and Volcker and the Secretary of the with reserves once again. caused economic and social disloca¬ Treasury rushed home and began the Then....then the process will tions. "tight money" policy that has now begin again. Many countries---especially France—began cashing in their ex¬ cess dollars for gold. There was no doubt about it by then---the dollar, at one time as good as gold, was losing value; we had reached the point of inflating the money supply that our assets backing the dollar wouldn't cover our debts. The age-old response to that policy of inflation to keep the good times going was being put into effect---get the gold and silver while the getting was good. [In order to keep inflating, our government had reduced the re¬ quired gold backing for each dollar, and in the end eliminated any gold There is a certain delicious SELECTIVE ANTI-COffUNISM RAISES ALL down to 75 copies left. Catch-22 irony in the current situ¬ KINDS OF QUESTIONS STAR WHORES and CANNED MEAT are ation. The government is trapped in sold out. They, too, were 500-copy in my mind. Why is our government a no-win economic cul'-de-sac: its self-published editions. so chummy and cooperative with China, deficits are seen as reasons for I was asked recently at a book say, and Yugoslavia, and even Russia, disastrously high interest rates, store when a third Toi King adven¬ and most east bloc socialist coun¬ yet if it cuts the budget in order ture would be written. I have no tries ...and yet is so frothy at the to free up more savings for the plans for one at the moment. There mouth about socialism in Central private sector and in order to les¬ is a plot forming gradually in the America? sen the pressure on interest rates, back of my head, but for 1982, at I'll venture a guess. As David it will have to cut government least, I'll be writing a series of Rockefeller, former head of the spending and increase taxes! The partials with Elton Elliott and Chase-Manhattan Bank and overseer spending cuts and heavier taxes having a NY agent see if they can of the Rockefeller family mega¬ will hurt the economy more than be placed. fortune, has said, the big banks and possibly lowered interest rates STAR WHORES is slowly being typ¬ transnational corporations can do will help. ed into ms. form from the single¬ business with any kind of govern¬ The downhill roller-coaster spaced text of the mimeo edition, ment. There's no moralistic, ideal¬ ride will continue. and that, too, will be offered a- istic anti-communism guiding their And no one in government (in round. tactics---once a communist/social¬ public, at least) seems aware of I'm becoming more and more ab¬ ist government is in place and in the five trillion dollar debt sorbed by fiction writing. After solid, permanent control of a coun¬ structure whose death throes is 22 years and 5 or 6 million words try. primarily responsible for the cur¬ of published fiction you'd think Ah, but a "young" socialist rent agony. I'd bum out...but not so. The country like Nicaragua, and a flame does get low every few years, country in transition from feudal¬ though. ism to socialism...those are situa¬ tions where the owners of property STRENGTH corrupts THE POLITICAL, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL will fight! The megabanks and the "B-eGAuse wtieu you have FALL-OUT WILL BE HEAVY transnational corporations have 'V IT'S EASIER TO ~PO THE as voters short-sightedly blame heavy investments and large hold¬ Ujory YcxJRsecF Thau To "Reagononics" for the deep reces¬ ings in Central America and their TCUEG-ATE. sion and continuing travail. ownership of these is at stake! Very, very few politicians will If they lose that ownership, tell people there's no way out of and after a time it is clear the this situation short of paying off new socialist/communist state can¬ the debts or reneging on paying. not be overthrown or defeated, then Bankruptcies are 1001 higher the big money will accommodate to this year over last year, and will reality and do what business it can continue to escalate in the years with that country...and will try to to come. Huge corporations will wriggle in for "cooperative" exploit¬ go under. Millions of smaller busi¬ ation of the natural resources and/ TEN YEARS AGO IN SCIENCE FICTION — nesses will die---and with them all or people. SPRING, 1972 will die their debts. The United States' foreign poli¬ And the people and institutions cy is based on that truth. The mega¬ BY ROBERT SABELLA who hold all that debt paper, once banks and world corporations control terribly burned by defaults and our foreign policy and use our power The Nebula Award winners for 1971 bankruptcies, will be triply-shy to protect their interests overseas. were: A TIME OF CHANGES by Robert about loaning out good money in They pick our presidents, staff the Silverberg, "The Missing Man" by the future. key cabinet positions, and can make Katherine McLean, "The Queen of Air Republicans will of course lose or break congressmen and senators. and Darkness" by Poul Anderson and heavily in the coming elections. But of course sometimes the Am¬ "Good News from the Vatican" by Rob¬ The Democrats have nothing new to erican people balk. And sometimes ert Silverberg. Silverberg was the offer except promises and gobblede- power struggles break out among the first double-Nebula winner since Sam¬ gook; their basic inflation strategy elites. Compromises are made or uel R. Delany in 1967 ... THE TCMBS isn't workable anymore [not for at actual coups take place. I believe OF ATUAN by Ursula K. LeGuin was a least five years, or longer]. the Kennedy assassinations were a runnerup for The National Book Award The Democrats, in power, will coup. Johnson did as he was told, as Best Juvenile ... Science fiction either do what has to be done (but and our Vietnam policy was reversed, writer Fredric Brown and British edi¬ with "Compassion") or they will re¬ a war was begun. tor Ted Camell died ... In an at¬ sort to war, impose total controls The American people—after a- tempt to beat its hardcover publica¬ on the economy, and effectively de¬ bout ten years—got fed up and tion, Isaac Asimov's THE GODS THEM¬ stroy our republic. forced the powers-that-be to stop SELVES was serialized in three parts Yet--- In the depths of the the war. over a two-month period. TWo instal¬ Great Depression, with 25% unemploy¬ It's becoming obvious that an lments were in GALAXY and the third ment, there was 75% employment. Some intervention into the Persian Gulf was in WORLDS OF IF ... The movie fortunes were made. New industries area is being readied. We'll see SLAUGHTERHOUSE - FIVE, based on Kurt rose and prospered. if the American people will buy Vonnegut's novel, was released to The intelligent will always live the rationale offered for that generally favorable reviews ... Har¬ well off the unintelligent, as a move. lan Ellison's anthology AGAIN, DANG¬ rule, because they see reality, see EROUS VISIONS was finally published. key interrelationships, see how to The five-year wait was bemoaned by succeed. They adapt more easily to fans who have since came to consider changed environments... if they are THE CORPORATION STRIKES BACK., MY it a brief interlude compared to the not too emotionally tied up in moral¬ long wait for THE LAST DANGEROUS self-published sf/sex novel, is istic and/or character/personality VISIONS. knots. INTERVIEW jnmc§ uu mte
in ASTOUNDING had the Earth descend¬ CONDUCTED BY DARRELL SCHWEITZER ing into mutations or things vapor¬ ized or something like that. Every¬ thing he published was downbeat, with the result that I felt impel¬ led to write an upbeat story of the kind that I would like to read. So SFR- How did you discover science sense that science fiction was some¬ I tried to do a story of the kind I fiction? thing you took home in a plain brown had liked to read in the old days of wrapper. ASTOUNDING. It was a story called VHITE:While I was a schoolboy in "Assisted Passage" and it sold the Belfast. It was during the closing WHITE: Yes. In the case of the Ber- first time out to Ted Camell's NEW of the war, and the American service¬ g^' girls you had a beautiful unclad WORLDS in 1952. It was published in men who were stationed in Northern maiden -- well with a very flimsy 1953. He liked it and asked me if Ireland used to buy science fiction life support system at least and a I had any other ideas and that's how magazines at their PX, but then they bug-eyed monster threatening her and I got started. ■ always used to sell them to second¬ the hero standing by to defend her hand book dealers in Belfast. I al¬ honor, though why a bug-eyed monster SFR: Did you send much to Campbell? ways went down to see what was avail¬ would be interested in a human fe¬ able and picked up quite a few Amer¬ male, unless it had serious psycho¬ WHITE: My third story I sent to ican edition ASTOUNDING. There was logical problems , I don't know. Campbell and it was accepted,and I a very slim sixty-four page British think I sent my fourth through to my edition which I thought was the def¬ SFR: I would guess it was hungry. sixteenth to Campbell and they were initive edition, when I suddenly all rejected. But I didn't have an¬ found out that it was being published WHITE: Well, the lady looked good other story in ASTOUNDING until abort at sixty-four pages four times a year enough to eat, but the man didn't. twelve years later. and in America these stories were Is that what you mean? coming out at a hundred-and-forty SFR: Was this because Campbell was pages every month. It did something SFR; Well, if she had such a flimsy dictating what the stories would to me and I became a fan and a col¬ life support system, there would be say? Did you get the feeling that lector eventually. less of a shell to crack, so to he wanted stories to either echo or speak. But seriously, did you want argue with his editorials? SFR: Did people look down on science to be a writer from the beginning? fiction there the way they did in the WHITE: At that time I don't think I United States at that time? In the WHITE: Ho, I wanted to be an illus¬ was well enough informed to decide, trator. I had done quite a lot of but I'd send him a couple stories and oil and water color illustrations of I'd just get a letter back with two science fiction subjects from books or three lines on it saying, "This I'd read, and when I met Walter Wil¬ doesn't fit with our editorial pol¬ lis and we started a fanzine, I be¬ icy". Then I got discouraged. Pos¬ came the art editor and did lino- sibly if I'd kept on sending stories cuts for the magazine, quite a lot some of them would have clicked, but of them. This wasn't because I was I got discouraged and Ted Camel 1 of very keen or Walter was very keen -- NEW WORLDS was finding that my work it was just that we couldn't afford for his magazine was popular. He enough type to fill a page. Each asked me to do sequels to the Sector page had at least half of it an il¬ General stories which became very lustration. popular, and I just kept sending to Ted Camell even though Campbell SFR: Any temptation to do something paid a lot more money at that time. in the manner of Earle Bergey? SFR: Was there a distinct differ¬ WHITE: No, I was a pure-minded young ence between what the British maga¬ fan who just wanted to draw space¬ zines were publishing at this* time ships on covers. and what the American ones were?
SFR: How did you eventually get in¬ to writing and how long were you try¬ ing before you sold anything? WHITE: There seemed to be. The Americans were much more technical and the idea seemed to be treated as WITE: I was very fortunate in that I sold my first story, but how I hero more than the actual characters, started to write it was that at that while the British stories had nuch particular time John Campbell was on slower pace, and they introduced char¬ his atomic doom kick and every story acters much more slowly. It was just a different style. There was an American science fiction style and a British science fiction style SFR: Did your fan writing affect I knew I couldn't write the way they and ray stories seemed to fit into your professional career at all? were writing, and I really didn't the British style better than the want to. American. As well, my ideas seemed WHITE: I wasn't a very prolific to develop into the novelet and long fan writer in any case, because I SFR: Did you feel that at that time novelet lengths, rather than the was illustrating most of the time, your work was being ignored in favor short story which was preferred by but when I started selling profes¬ of the more flamboyant stuff? most American magazines. I found sionally -- it was just before I was that the American magazines had married -- I hadn't a very well-pay¬ WHITE: Yes, I've had this feeling greater difficulty scheduling long ing job. So as the children began from time to time, but I grew up by stories than short ones. to arrive, my writing in my spare being a very fanatical reader of time became a sort of voluntary kind science fiction in the so-called SFR: How much of this different of overtime rather than just a prof¬ Golden Age of the 30s and early 40s. approach was Carnell's doing? itable hobby. With being forced to I wasn't reading then, but I became write professionally in my spare a collector and I read a lot of the WHITE: That's a difficult one. time, the fanning diminished marked¬ old ASTOUNDINGs from 1934, 1935, etc. Ted Camel 1 didn't always agree with ly. I do occasionally write the odd and I got to know what was being the way I treated stories, but he did fan piece, but not often anymore. done then, the good stuff as well as not ask to change things very much, I'm not in touch with what's going the bad. This imposed a discipline except on one occasion. He seemed on in fandom anymore, except by meet¬ on me. I felt that I couldn't write to think that the readers liked me ing people at conventions. I like something which was substandard. I the way I was, and so leave good ' going to conventions. had all these heroes like Isaac As¬ enough alone, but on one occasion I imov and Lester del Rey and Ted Stur¬ wrote a story called "Second End¬ SFR: The different British approach geon, Heinlein and so on. They were ing", which was sort of a challenge to science fiction seemed to drift all new and coming up and they were to myself. I wanted to write a further from the American in the writing stories which were beautiful¬ story about the last man on Earth 1960s. What did you think of what ly polished and had real characters. which had an upbeat ending. It was went on in NEW WORLDS after Camell They were exciting and they stretched about 35,000 words and I sent it to left? the imagination. I felt there was no Ted, and he sent it back and said it point in doing something that didn't should be shortened to about 20,000 WHITE: I didn't like it at all. I at least approach this level. So I words and a surviving island of hu¬ feel about what happened then a lit¬ was always trying to aim as high as manity written into it, which seem¬ tle the way I feel about some types I could. Even though I was writing ed to not be the point of a last-man- of modem art, when someone can get for money in my spare time to try on-Earth story. So this is one thousands of pounds for sticking a and help with the household's ex¬ thing I had a basic disagreement bent nail in a block of wood and cal¬ penses, I had an ordinary job, so I with him on, and so I sent the story ling it "An Unknown Political Pris¬ didn’t have to become so commercial to Cele Goldsmith, who was editing oner". I think someone is having me that I just churned out work in ord¬ FANTASTIC at the time and she took on. In the Moorcock NEW WORLDS you er to get money. I always felt that it and it was published as a two- would get a page of words typed at I should try and make each story a part serial; later Ace picked it up. random or cut from a newspaper and little better than the last, and I It got onto the short list of five pasted up like a ransom note except had these old masters to remind me for that year's Hugo. That was the that it didn't make that much sense. that there's things you can't get year Heinlein's STRANGER IN A STRANGE When you asked Mike what was he get¬ away with. LAND won, and was a much longer story ting at, he'd say, "It's just how it and a better one, no doubt. But any¬ affects you as a whole". I thought SFR: Weren't there also times when way, getting onto the short list of somebody was getting money for very- you wanted to do things the old mas¬ five meant that it must have been a little effort and they were making ters didn't, and go in another direc¬ good story, but Ted just hadn't seen a fool of me. Sane of the New Wave tion? it that way. That was the only time writing was very effective, I thought. we had a basic disagreement about It really came across to me, but a stories. lot of it -- I think they were just chancing their arm. Do you under¬ WHITE: Yes, there are certain sci¬ SFR: What was he like as an editor stand that simile? But like most ence fiction themes which are like overall? Did he shape stories and new movements, the best of it has measles and children. Everybody gets feed ideas to you or did he just been kept. It's a new wave that has take what you sent him? washed up some very good stuff and the stuff that is no good has been washed back to sea. The literature as a whole has profited a little by WHITE: He didn't shape the stories the way John Campbell was reputed to have done. He was very critical of stories. He didn't like his auth¬ SFR: Did you every attempt to part¬ ors to get careless and if he thought icipate in any way? Did you ever you were hurrying your writing, he submit a story to Moorcock? said so. Very often a grudging ac¬ ceptance from Ted Camell was worse WHITE: No, I knew I couldn't. It than a dozen rejection slips because wasn't my style. And at that time he left you feeling like you had no I had switched from writing novel- skin left on your back. He accepted etes to novels and collections of the story but wrote two pages point¬ novelets like the Sector General ing out its faults and said not to collections, so I really wasn't do this the next time. While it was terribly interested in breaking into very unpleasant to take, I think it the Moorcock market. First of all did me a lot of good as a writer. 9 them and they have to get them out "Sector General", which was publish¬ know why it's so popular, really. of their systems. It's a very bene¬ ed in NEW WORLDS in 1957, and Ted I have a nice feeling for it and I ficial illness as far as the fans asked for a sequel and then another don't want the series to develop in¬ are concerned, because each patient sequel and I thought with three nov¬ to a sort of kitchen sink/doctor-and- has a different idea of how the dis¬ elets, perhaps Ace would be interest¬ nurse romance-type situation. I on¬ ease should progress. So I've had ed in publishing it as half of an ly write a story if I have an idea my particular idea of how a time Ace Double. Ace turned it down. for a really alien alien. Most of travel story should be and how a The readers of NEW WORLDS still want¬ the stories are simply medical puz¬ first contact story should be and ed more with this background and I zles. They're partly medical and hew medical science fiction should did two more short stories. Then partly first contact stories where be. In a story called "The Watch Ballantine accepted and published very often the alien is in no posi¬ Below" it was basically a Heinlein all of them as HOSPITAL STATION. tion to communicate because of its "Universe" setup, but I put in a That was to be the end. Then I got injuries or its illness. The doc¬ few different twists which made it an idea -- I'm a pacifist at heart tors have to sort out a lot about completely different from Heinlein. and I had this idea in my notebook its background and evolution in ord¬ But I freely admit that it was Hein¬ for a long time, about an interstel¬ er to treat it. lein that got me started on the idea. lar war, not viewed from the victor There isn't really anything new und¬ or the defeated side, but from the This is a form which I personal¬ er the sun, but I like taking a story people in the middle who do the med¬ ly find very interesting, and if I I really admire and thinking what ical repair work created by both can get an alien that has never been would have happened if the author sets of combatants. The more I used before, I write it up but it had gotten a different idea of how thought of it, the more this fitted has to be a completely new alien for that story should have developed, a different ending and perhaps dif¬ ferent characters. What sort of a story would it have been like? This is usually how I start to work. I end up much of the time by having a plot and a story which bears no relation to the original one except very generally. I like to do new work, not go over old ground no mat¬ ter how fallow it happens to be.
SFR: You seem to have specialized in medical science fiction more than anyone else? How did this come about?
WHITE: Well, I always wanted to be a doctor but the family was too poor to send me to medical school and I just got an ordinary job, initially in the tailoring industry and then at an aircraft factory where because of my science fiction writing, I was able to get a job in the public re¬ lations department, writing and ed¬ iting the company newspaper. But I always had this fondness for medi¬ cine and also for reading about aliens. The early stories of E.E. Smith were into the Sector General background. me to want to write another story really what got me hooked on science in the series. I suppose that's why fiction. The first one that really So I did this story. It was a short it's popular. There are also a blew ray mind was a magazine I found novel called FIELD HOSPITAL. It was couple of characters in it who are in the second hand shops, the Octob¬ too short for book publication, so I did another introductory novelet very popular: O'Mara, the chief er 1939 ASTOUNDING which had the psychologist, who's very sarcastic first part of GREY LENSMAN, and I called "Resident Physician" and join¬ ed the two together. These were and nasty, and obviously has a heart read this and discovered that there of gold but never shows it, and the were aliens who were actually good published as STAR SURGEON. After that I thought, well, that's the empath, Prilicla, who's a very frag¬ guys, no matter how visually horrify¬ ile insect intelligence. Though, ing they might be. This appealed to series' finish, but Ted Camel 1 had left NEW WORLDS to edit NEW WRITINGS honestly, I don't know why it's gone me and I think this part of the rea¬ on so long. For twenty years they son why the Hospital Station stories IN SF, which is an anthology series published by Corgi and he asked me have been running now, and I've just came about. I had this feeling of been writing for twenty-eight years. wanting to be a doctor and I had to do a couple of short Sector Gen¬ this liking for extra-terrestrials eral novelets for him. So the series was resurrected again and the five SFR: I think one of the reasons in stories. The two somehow merged I did for him became MAJOR OPERA¬ it's going on is that you're one of together into the Hospital Station the few writers whose aliens are not series. TION frem Ballantine. I thought, well, that's it. I can now talk clearly humans in costumes, and the about a Sector General trilogy, and backgrounds are not just human hist¬ the series is now at an end. But a ory repeated in costume. SFR: To what do you attribute the few years ago Ballantine asked me if longevity of this series? I would try and do another book on WHITE: Yes, I suppose so, but there SECTOR GENERAL and I did it. I don't is the problem there that if you WHITE: I don't know. There was have a really alien alien, it won't meant to be one long novelet called 10 be understandable to human beings. So you have to give an alien at least one human attribute in order to have a channel of communication. And then you can begin to understand the differences. But if I was play¬ ing completely fair, and had a com¬ pletely alien alien, nobody would be able to understand. So I feel a lit¬ tle bit embarrassed when people say "You do very good aliens". Actually, possibly the reason why my aliens are popular is that they have a lit¬ tle bit of humanity in thei? which enables you to empathize with them. I don't know.
SFR: I'd think any intelligent species would have something in com¬ mon with us: will to survive, will to reproduce and if they were tech¬ nological, a will to create and ex¬ plore. is a large scale structural problem Belfast when I was writing it. I WHITE: We know from our own exper¬ as well as a medical one. Then I've live in a very troubled area, Ander- ience the technological and politic¬ done another short novelet. I'll sonstown, and I was getting very an¬ al cooperation that's required even have to write another longish novel¬ noyed that I was trying to write to put a man on the moon, and if et or two short ones to get another nice, forward-looking science fic¬ someone is going to send a ship out book together. to explore among the stars, it pre¬ tion, while all around the house supposes that the culture it came this bloody melodrama was going on. Have you ever considered doing from is highly technical and also SFR: The story I wrote was set in a hos¬ something completely apart from the cooperates among itself. Therefore pital, in the intensive care unit. rest of your work such as a fantasy the people who are going out to ex¬ Now, my wife worked for three years novel, and if you did, how would you plore are not absolute baddies, be¬ in the intensive care unit of the go about it? cause if they were hostile and war¬ Royal Victoria Hospital on the Falls like and just wanted to kill every¬ Road in Belfast, which is the hospit¬ WHITE: I don't think I'd try a fan¬ thing in sight, they could never al right in the middle of the troub¬ tasy novel. Again, it's a case of have gotten to the stage of getting led area, and gets all the gunshot literary measles, something you have off their own planet. This is the wounds and bomb blast victims as to get out of your system. I have way I like to think it would be. well as the traffic accidents. never done an alternate universe nov¬ Quite a lot of that story was based el, and I'd like to try that some¬ on her experiences. This was a very SFR: What if they cooperate for the time. But that would be the closest downbeat story and that's probably opportunity to kill everybody else? I would get to fantasy, I think. I why it wasn't taken by the American tried one fantasy of the UNKNOWN type publishers. They were used to nice WHITE: I don't think this is a good way back, and it was awful. It optimistic Jim White stories. The reason, because if they're cooperat¬ bounced, so I just stuck to science story was published by a U.K. pub¬ ing to kill everybody else, it's fiction. lisher, and by the Germans and the nuch handier to kill each other. Italians, and I got record advances They're nearer by. I don't want to SFR: How about a straight medical for it, but I thought later that the go along with that. novel? U.K. and Germany and Italy are the people most troubled by urban guer¬ SFR: Have you written any more Sec¬ WHITE: I did write a book called illa warfare and they would probably tor General within the last year or UNDERKILL, which wasn't taken by a understand what I was getting at so? U.S. publisher. It was set in the more than the Americans. The Amer¬ near future, and I felt very strong¬ icans may have violence but you do WHITE: I have a long novelet done ly about the situation around me in not have urban guerrilla warfare as in the series. My agent wasn't able to sell it to a magazine because it was an awkward length, and he sug¬ gested that I keep it and add two or three novelets in the series and submit it as another Sector General collection. This I intend to do, but it'll take some time yet.
SFR: Have you written the companion novelets?
WITE: No. The big one is called "Operation Midgard". The alien is so large -- you know,-the old Midgard serpent bit; it's supposed to stretch around the world with its tail in its mouth. It's not quite that big but it's too large to fit in the hospital so the job of treating it much. thing. While Stanley liked this hundred words before supper, Buster, story, it's far too long, so when I or you won't get any". But what I SFR: Did any of your own experi¬ get back home I've got the job of usually do is write for three or ences go into it? trimming it down a bit and resubmit¬ four evenings a week, and either ting it. After that I'll get on to Saturday or Sunday write for most the Sector General stories, and aft¬ of the day. If it's raining on Sat¬ WHITE: Some of them, but pretty well disguised. I don't want to er that, "The Big One" as I call it, urday, I do it Saturday and go out preach in a story, but in that part¬ which I'd like to work on, but which with the family or take it easy on icular story -- again like the Sec¬ needs a lot of research. Sunday. In winter sometimes I write tor General stories, it was a medical both Saturday and Sunday because detective story -- the situation SFR: Can you say anything about the there's nothing better to do. was an intensive care unit, where Big One? What is it? in this future hospital the pain-kil¬ ler used was a derivative of a truth WHITE: Well, no, I suppose you've SFR: Do you outline, or just plunge met this with writers before. There drug security forces used, so the into it, or what? is a time when you get an idea and people weren't suffering, but while it's in a very delicate state, and they were patients they were talking WHITE: This is a funny question in if you talk about it, and somebody their heads off. Inside this partic¬ that I've been asked it several says, "Oh, So-And-So did that", or ular ward the patients were talking times and there's no clear answer. "I think the idea is ridiculous", it and it represented in microcosm all My friend. Bob Shaw, if he was writ¬ is so unformed and, as I say, deli¬ the troubles of the world outside. ing a story, could plot it out in ad¬ cate, you're just going to destroy By listening to them it became ap¬ vance and write a sentence or two it utterly. At this stage when I'm parent to the doctor in charge that about what was going to happen in trying to think up a plot, I want to there was some sort of conspiracy every chapter. He would almost wait until my brain child has devel¬ going on outside, and there were write it in his head. He'd put oped a little bit of muscle so it'll extra-terrestrial forces causing it. down this outline, and then as soon be able to resist criticism. I That's how the story began to devel¬ as he'd get the time, he'd start op. But some of the descriptions think too, if you talk about plot writing the story, and he knew how ideas too much, you tend to lose the inside the hospital are accurate so exactly it was going. Well, I work far as Belfast is concerned. charge that makes you want to write differently. I know where it's go¬ them. Have you found this with ing to end, because basically a sci¬ writers? SFR: So you think the reason it did ence fiction story is a problem not sell in the United States was story and you have an answer to pro¬ that you'd become typecast? duce, and so you start with the end¬ ing in mind, and you go back -- not too far back because you don't want WHITE: I'd like to think so, but it the story to be slow -- but back far is quite possible that the story enough to introduce the types of wasn't as well written or well bal¬ characters and advance the action anced as sane of the other ones. toward the conclusion you've plan¬ I don't want to be big-headed, but ned. This is how I work. Sometimes when one is close to a subject, one I'm not sure how the characters are isn't able to view it objectively going to do it and during the writ¬ the way you can self-criticize other ing of the story I find shortcuts SFR: Yes. I've found it with my •stories of one's own. for them that will get them to the own experience too. But there are conclusion. But I very often don't same writers who like to talk things SFR: At the same time, shouldn't know what the middle of the story is out. What are your actual writing this closeness to the subject give going to be like. Jim Blish and I methods like? the story a greater conviction and discussed this once. He said that intensity? the essential difference was that WHITE: Well, I have this full-time Bob Shaw used a map to see where he job in the publicity department of WHITE: It did. The people who re¬ was going in a story, whereas I used the aircraft factory at hone. I'm jected it in the United States all a compass. I think this was very responsible for writing the company had complimentary things to say well said. newspaper and producing it, and also about the characterization and the for answering historical queries and background which was described, but SFR: Do you ever find yourself stuck taking visitors around. At night they didn't think it was a Jim White and unable to get from the beginning when I come hone, I often don't feel type story. I don't mind characters to the end? like going up to the roof space and suffering throughout a story, but I sitting at a typewriter again, but like the story to have a happy end¬ WHITE: Very rarely. If I would I've schooled myself to go up and ing. This one didn't. find myself in that situation, I sit there, and I don't come down un¬ would backtrack and go on. I got til I've done maybe five- or six-hun¬ SFR: Do you think you could have into a bad habit one time of start¬ dred words before suppertime. My sold it under a pseudonym? ing stories, not liking the begin¬ wife has been a considerable support ning, and going back and rewriting in this over the years. She says WHITE: I don't think so. until I had three or four starts ray typewriter is the other woman be¬ and not getting at all into the cause I leave her alone and when the SFR: what are you working on now? story. Now I force myself to write children were growing up she had on to the end, so that at least I much of the responsibility with them WHITE: I am in the process of re¬ have this untidy heap of material because I was upstairs trying to vising a story for Stanley Schmidt which I can cut and trim rather than earn more money. You know the old of ANALOG. When I'm writing a story a whole lot of alternative starts saying, "Behind every successful man I tend to run on a bit, and for a which aren't saleable. there's a good woman"? She would magazine publication there mist be say little things like, "A couple a lot of discipline when you're de¬ SFR: Thank you, James White. veloping characters and that sort of 12 ************************************ For the past year and a half, I tually sinking your teeth into a have worked as an editor for a com¬ perfectly cooked steak. pany which publishes novels which Picture books do not present co¬ many people would label pornographic herent stories which is necessary to In that time I have edited novels make sex real in the mind. And the on every forbidden sexual subject models are there before the viewer from erotic wives to incest to bes¬ -- there is no pretending they look tiality to homosexuality. any different. There is nothing People who know what I do for a BY left to fantasize about. living refuse to believe me when I I feel that those who go after say it's a job just like any other ANONYMOUS the visual pornography are like most job. It is. In some ways. But in people in that they do not have the other ways, it's like no other job- ability to fantasize. They don't in the world. First of all, I learn¬ dream as readers do. ed not to let everyone I know in on virile man who can do anything, who what I do every day of the week. always satisfies the woman. He has In talking to readers who have Even those who are liberal minded the power. Porno books also allow called me and'in reading their fan about drugs, civil rights, freedom the reader to play the part of the letters (yes, I get both and from of the press and the rights of con¬ voyeur (an urge which lurks in ev¬ all parts of the country), I find senting adults will bristle with eryone) in a way that is not pos¬ that they have certain conceptions outrage when they learn that I am sible in the real world, in a way of sex. They see sex as more than the prince of porn. that is much more satisfying. The grunting sweaty bodies, rutting like readers can watch and at the same animals, more than something which I get typed. They have my num¬ time identify with the characters. takes a lot of energy and effort, ber. It doesn't matter that I am The characters can come their brains which is not always satisfying, not not what I do for a living. They out forever, and so can the reader. always the best thing in life. just know that I spend every night engaged in endless orgies and they Not only can the reader identify The reader-as-character does refuse to believe that I spend my with the characters but he can also not have to worry about not having evenings quietly, writing mysteries, shape them to fit his ideas of what a planet-shattering climax because science fiction and poetry while I they should look like, can mold them that is the inevitable outcome of listen to classical music. into a physical form that will be any sexual union. The character guaranteed to turn him on. The never tires, and he is always able They also refuse to believe characters become more than real. to do just the right thing to wring that the people who read the books out the last bit of pleasure from I edit are just normal run-of-the- And that is where the paperback the sexual act. He never does any¬ mill people who work at the same oc¬ porno book triumphs over the films, thing wrong and is always able to cupations as everyone else. They sex magazines and picture books. come at just the right time. And he can't believe that any more than It is the difference between look¬ is able to come time and time again, they can believe that there is a ing at a picture of a steak and ac- pausing only to switch partners or market for sex fantasy novels in the change positions. first place. Surely the porno book biz must be dying. In this way, porno novels deliv¬ I used to think so too. Now I er huge doses of satisfaction that don't. Not after looking at sales visual pornography and real-life sex figures and not after talking to ed¬ cannot. itors, writers and readers of sex That is not to say, however, novels. that the numbers of readers have not I am convinced that screw novels been cut by the proliferation and will not vanish from the marketplace easy availability of picture maga¬ no matter how many films, picture zines, porno video cassettes, films books, dolls and gadgets are sold; and real sex. All of those things no matter how far to the right or have lured people away. But, at left this country swings; no matter the same time, those same things how many laws are enacted; no matter have sent people scurrying to the how much visual pornography competes novels. with them. Most porno novels are not cheap, Why? Because people need them, sometimes costing two or three times and in some ways nothing can take as much as a regular book, but they their place, not even real sex. are quite a bit cheaper than picture books ($7-$15), video cassettes ($50 and up), films ($4 and up) and Sex novels satisfy a yearning in real sex ($30, the price of drinks, people in much the same way as or marriage -- plus some people sword-and-sorcery stories do -- for are just losers when it comes to however long it takes the reader to making a pick-up). And, as said be¬ finish the book, he is the handsome 13 fore, many people just get more sat- isfaction by experiencing sex closets and, in extreme moments, the through the medium of the mind. offending cover can be ripped off, the reader pretending to everyone All through this little article that it's really a detective or sci¬ I have used the masculine pronoun ence fiction novel. That's a typic¬ in describing the readers of the al school kid trick. porno books I edit. That's not the case in real life. I have received Getting beyond sexual gratifica¬ calls and letters from women read¬ tion, though, porno novels provide ers, and I know that a great many a service to the entire publishing women are on mailing lists to re¬ industry and to social libertarians ceive sexually oriented literature. on the whole. They act as a barom¬ eter of social liberties, as a ther¬ Like nothing else, working in mometer of the moral climate of the this job has made me aware that wo¬ country. As long as people are al¬ men have sexual needs and desires lowed to buy them, as long as stores that are just as strong as those of can sell them, then most other books men. They too, have sexual fantas¬ will be safe. ies that cannot be satisfied by real life. But when these self-righteous Moral Majority types go on a rampage I have been told that, contrary with their cans of gasoline and to what many people believe, women books of matches, watch out. If cannot get all the sex thay want, this country ever falls into the any time they want. And the sex hands of the book burners, porno that they do get may not be physic¬ novels will probably be among the ally or mentally satisfying. first books to go up in smoke, not For many generations, men have counting the visual pronography treated sex as their personal prop¬ which will be easier targets. erty, the woman being nothing more By their own words, the book than the receptacle of their male¬ burners have said that they will not ness, making a woman climax being stop with what they consider blatant nothing more than proof of their pornography. They're out to clean sexual prowess. The old joke that the entire house. If they bum learning how to fake an orgasm is TROPIC OF CANCER, CRY OF THE LOON part of becoming a woman turns out and HOT PANTS DAUGHTER, then it is to be no joke. only a small step to torch STRANGER Another factor which drives men IN A STRANGE LAND, TITAN and VENUS and women to seek sexual satisfaction ON THE HALFSHELL. in the pages of a book is the sexual repression and suppression which But I digress. Pornographic goes on in many parts of the country, novels are, for the most part, cheap¬ particularly in the Midwest, the so- looking publications that are hur¬ called Bible Belt. If mail order riedly written, competently at best, sales are any indication (because nearly illiterate at worst. I would it's hard to find stores in that be the last person in the world to part of the country) then there are claim that they are lasting or even just as many homy people there as serious literature. They are not. in the big sinful cities. And they No more than any other book. But are all craving sexual satisfaction they do represent the thoughts of of sane sort. the writer, of the story teller. In some areas, especially in And to many people they represent hundreds of thousands of small towns sexual satisfaction and release, where everyone knows everyone else, sometimes the only kind they can sexual satisfaction of any kind out¬ have without falling afoul of the side the sanctity of marriage is law or the social mores of the places frowned upon or even legislated where they live. against. And for many people, sex Surprisingly then, the porno is the least satisfactory part of book biz is not an ailing industry, their marriage. In those towns, one of the few industries that can affairs and overt purchases of sex¬ make that claim in these times of ual literature immediately become economic woes. common knowledge. The postal car¬ rier works overtime there, carrying I will always have a job editing small packages sent by companies pornographic novels, though I may that bear innocuous names, but are not always do that task. If not me, really companies that specialize then there will be others. in delivering sexual fantasies ... Porno novels will never die a dreams and pleasures that are other¬ natural death, of that I am sure. wise forbidden. And when it seems that they have been murdered by the moral climate, Books, in many cases, are easier torched by spiritual misfits, look to get hold of in places where the underground ... and there they'll be Puritans still hold sway spiritual¬ waiting for the return of more tol¬ ly. Plus they last longer, are eas¬ erant times to came into the open. ier to shelf away in the back of 14 ************************************ ir there is anything more desir¬ able in all the world than to be a science fiction writer, it is to be a science fiction critic. True, the money is not as good, but that is no impediment, for the first requirement to be a good critic is that you des¬ pise money. The good critic is so free of the profit motive that he not only refuses the many offers of New York publishers to taint his pov¬ erty with cash advances, he also re¬ gards it as his special duty to call attention to the fact that large sums of money are invariably paid to the worst writers. There are several ways to prepare yourself for a life of criticism. The first requirement, at least for
HOW TO BE A SCIENCE FICTION CRITIC
a beginner, is that you read some¬ Story. Along with these, you must tic Philosophy, he spawns the most thing. Later, of course, when your learn the names of the lesser demons embarrassing sort of Puritanism. If reputation has solidified, you can which are quite numerous, but include he's going to write a bad book, he offer profound criticism of other such familiar faces as Cardboard Char¬ could at least make it consistent". people solely on the basis of observ¬ acters, Leaden Prose, Lack of Motiva¬ Thus the writer who fits neatly with¬ ing their names in the table of con¬ tion and Fascism. As a righteous in the categories and the writer tents of certain anthologies. A Pigeonholer, you will of course des¬ whose work defies categorization can handy guide is: If the writer's name pise all of these. And you will, be damned with equal ease. appears in an anthology that has a through practice, become adept at de¬ The main drawback of the Pigeon- theme or that is read by a lot of ciding which devil inspired a story holer School is that your reviews people, you can be sure tKat he" before you are more than three para¬ quickly become repetitive and dull writes trash, and your reputation graphs into it. and you will soon want to find new will be enhanced by condemning him From then on, you need not pay things to say. When that happens, soundly. the slightest attention to anything one of the next two Schools will going on in the book, for you already probably be just right for you. A Guide to Schools of Criticism know what to say about it. If Heroic Ye Olde Modernists. Once upon a Fantasy inspired it, you can be sure time there was a movement called "Mod¬ However, as a beginner, you must that the demon Fascism is right be¬ ernism". The Modernists -- such peo¬ prepare yourself more thoroughly. The hind, with Cardboard Characters easy ple as Percy Lubbock, Virginia Wolfe first thing to do is decide which to find on every page. If Analog and Henry James -- knew that the old School you will belong to. Each crit¬ Story is the devil responsible, look Victorian ways were trivial and out¬ ical School, like each Rung Fu School, for the demons Lack of Motivation moded, that writers and critics were has its own passwords and special and Leaden Prose. handshakes, along with other secret mindlessly imitating past masters. rituals like Dorsal Scratching, Sel¬ One problem with this approach It was time for a fresh approach, one ective Obliviousness and the Indis¬ is that now and then, despite your that was true for Today, for Now, for criminate Sneer. Following is a best efforts, you will become inter¬ our Current Dilemma. They are all fairly reliable guide to the current ested in a story even after you know dead, but Ye Olde Modernists worship- Schools: which devil inspired it. You may fully preserve their ideas, for if even notice some elements that make it was good enough for James Joyce Pigeonholers. Not since the Ren¬ it different from other stories in¬ and T.S. Eliot, it is good enough aissance has there been a more consis¬ spired by that devil. This problem for us. tent system of identifying and naming is easy to handle. Here's my tip: everything in the universe as the Just say, "Not only is the story Her¬ Among science fiction critics, system developed by the Pigeonholers. oic Fantasy, it is bad Heroic Fantasy however, Ye Olde Modernists have a Furthermore, they have discovered for it keeps making pathetic attempts special reason for carrying on the that every book is inspired either by at being Science Fiction; and where- cause. For Modernism is still, in a god or by a devil -- usually by a ever the author slackens his Fascis- its slow and clumsy way, respectable devil. in the outside world. It is a tried and true critical technique which The Pigeonholers' basic technique can be memorized and applied to any¬ is to learn the names of the devils thing. Unfortunately, you have to and decide which devil inspired the BY ORSON SCOTT CARD read some books, like FINNEGAN'S book or story at hand. Some of the WAKE and TO THE LIGHIHOUSE and THE most prominent devils are Hard Sci¬ GOOD SOLDIER; fortunately, you do ence Fiction, Heroic Fantasy, Sword not have to understand them. All you and Sorcery, Space Opera and Analog 15 have to do is see if a science fic- tion writer sounds like one of these made grid that you can lay over ev¬ The basic pose for the Insider is writers, and if he does, you know ery story you read; it doesn't allow educational. The readers of your re¬ he's acceptable. If he doesn't, you to get by with skimming a book views are, of course, outsiders; you then you sneer at him. for the attackable errors. All you will tell them how it really is in¬ can really report on is your exper¬ The sneering must be done circum¬ side. You must speak of all the ience in reading the book. spectly, however. An indiscriminate great old writers, like Asimov, Hein- or gleeful sneer brands you as an If you are a good writer, then lein and Clarke, with awe; you must enthusiast. You must adopt a pose you can make your account of the ex¬ afford proper dignity to such lesser of brilliant wisdom tempered by the perience of reading seem fascinating lights as LeGuin, Ellison, Bradbury, utmost self-restraint. You must whether you liked the book or not. Silverberg and Niven. However, this does not mean that you will give speak of science fiction as if you Unfortunately, if you are not a good them good reviews. As an Insider, stood above it, looking down, call¬ writer your readers will find your you know better. You must always ing it a field with promise, with personal responses singularly unint¬ say that the great writer "is slip¬ undeveloped potential. You must be eresting. But if you are determined able to make frequent allusion to to join the Just Folks School, here ping" or "hasn't written anything Modernist masterpieces. And you must is a hint: Just write a short out¬ really good in years” or "really never sneer at a book written by an¬ line of everything that you can re¬ ought to stop embarrassing himself other 01de Modernist. This technique member about the book. Think of it with weak stories like these". It when properly carried out, is called as a junior high school book report. will help if you can drop in some "dishing". When you have finished writing this gossip, like, "At our magazine we synopsis, then go back and add some have even had to reject a stoxy of The Fossil Wave. The advantage modifiers. If you didn't like the his recently", or, "Word from those of becoming a Fossil Waver is that book, where your outline says, "Then who have seen his latest book in man¬ you do not have to read as nuch as he jumped into the crocodile-infest¬ uscript is that it's actually good". Ye Olde Modernists do. All you have ed lake", you will now say, "Then he If you have no gossip, then just say to do to be a Fossil Waver is to stupidly jumped into the crocodile- "I could tell you some hair-raising write an awful lot but never publish infested lake". If you liked the stories, but this isn't the place". anything for real money, or if you book, then at the beginning or end do, make sure that everyone knows As an Insider, you must be sure of your review just say, "A real that you are only churning out trash to condemn every new writer who has page-turner", or "I couldn't put it because pleasing the masses is so not "paid his dues" -- i.e., who has easy, while you keep your virgin not been to a lot of conventions or who is not publishing with your mag¬ masterpieces untainted by vulgar Slide Rulers. If you know a lot eyes. Your philosophy must be late- about science and engineering, then azine. After all, as an Insider you sixties radicalism tempered with you'll be a natural for Slide Ruling are a keeper of the flame. If just anyone could be Inside, how would world-weary cynicism, and you must the books you read. This review say "fuc-" and "shi-" whenever an technique consists of examining ev¬ you be special anymore? The price ordinary person would suppose it un¬ ery scientific idea in a story and of being Inside is constant vigil¬ necessary to say it. seeing if it works out with the known ance. laws of science -- or at least the Whenever anyone who is not a How to Know if You Really Belong current trends. Ideally, you would Fossil Waver publishes a book, you build and test all artifacts describ¬ One of the problems of joining respond in one of two ways. If the ed in a story. Since this may be be¬ one of the Schools is that it's some¬ book was written by an Olde Modern¬ yond your ability, it is enough mere¬ times hard to know if you really be¬ ist, then you must sigh wearily and ly to notice scientifically implaus¬ long. None of them give out member¬ say, "Hasn't B- got tired of ible events. If you liked the story ship cards. But here are a few guide¬ writing the same old s-it over and anyway, then say, "I really liked over again? She has a great book in lines that will help you if you are this story, despite the fact that it her, if only she weren't too much of in doubt: was scientifically inpossible". If a fu-king coward to write it". If you didn't like the story, then say, the book was written by a new writer "Why does a writer this ignorant of 1. If you always keep a copy of or by a writer known to be popular, science bother to write science fic¬ Camp Concentration on your coffee then you must become, not angry, but tion?" table and hide all your George R.R. livid. "When will science fiction readers stop masturbating with this This particular approach is only f-eking garbage!" is always a good open to sincere believers. If you opening line. ever catch yourself noticing that The disadvantage of being a Fos¬ maybe it doesn't matter in a partic¬ sil Waver is that no one will like ular story whether the science is you anymore except other Fossil Wav¬ plausible or not, you will soon find ers, and most of them will think you it impossible to devote whole re¬ are a dumb little -ucker, too. views to noting scientific flaws, and then you will have to go hunting Just Folks. If you still read for another School. science fiction for pleasure, this is the category that will probably The Insiders. This approach is appeal to you most. Here the pose only open to those who have been fans is, "I just like a good story, I for a very long time or who have don't care about anything else". worked as junior editors at various As a defense mechanism for popular ublications or who are themselves science fiction writers who are sick udding young writers. If you do of being dumped on by Pigeonholers, not fit at least one of these prereq¬ Olde Modernists and Fossil Wavers, uisites, you might as well skip this this pose works quite well. But for section, for like a Ph.D., your In¬ the beginning reviewer, the pose sider Credentials cannot be faked. leaves you with very little to say. It doesn't provide you with a ready¬ 16 (If the writer is female, the offend¬ ing passages are all satire and soc¬ ial conmentary.) Other causes in times past have been ecology, racial equality and peace. This approach is similar to Pigeonholing in that you don't actually have to read what the author wrote; you only have to catch telltale signs.
Another approach is Debunking. Just look for a book that a lot of other people like and then explain why they are all fools for liking it. This allows you to feel smarter than practically everyone. Still other reviewers have found success with the Personal Assault. This technique can be adapted for use by Fossil Wavers and Insiders as well. All you have to do is write a review that says deliciously vici¬ ous things about a well-known writer's character or family or private life. Even if your statements are libelous lies, as long as you have enough rhymes and alliterations to sound clever, you'll find a fan publisher willing to publish it, in hopes that the victimized writer will respond. Then the publisher will be able to put the famous writer's name on the cover of the next issue. And if the offended writer does not respond, the publisher can call his fanzine "hard-hitting" and "controversial". Don't worry about lawsuits. Either the writer can’t afford lawyers, or if he can, he'd rather count his Martin in the back room when company member, if one School rejects you money and ignore you. If you can't comes, you are an Olde Modernist. rudely, that alone is almost sure to think of anyone to attack, attack give you membership in another SchooL Harlan Ellison. He's planning to 2. If you go to conventions Just get yourself damned by a Fossil publish a collection of brilliant, and then stand around in the halls Waver, and you will quickly find acid-tongued letters called ANSWERS telling people how dumb the program¬ yourself welcomed by an Insider or TO A-SHOLES and he'd love to have ming is, you are probably an Insider. a Just Folkser. Get yourself hated you inspire him to write another To be sure, write a convention report by enough Just Folks, and you will piece. If someone publishes it, you are an surely be able to parlay it into at Insider. But don't -- I warn you! -- don't least tentative acceptance by Ye ever approach a book that you mean to 3. If you believe that anyone Olde Modernists. If the Insiders review with respect. The most you who makes money at science fiction and the Just Folks hate you, the Fos¬ can ever hope for is a "good read" has sold out to the establishment, sil Wavers will love you. So it goes. (if you're Just Folks) or a vindica¬ or if you sometimes wish that you had tion of your point of view (if you died in glory in a peace rally in belong to any other School). For if 1968, or if everyone you know calls you willingly put yourself in the Jerry Poumelle a Fascist, then you writer's hands, and try to experience are a Fossil Waver. the story as she presents it to you, 4. If you tend to buy books be¬ you run the untenable risk of pro¬ cause the cover looks interesting, found disappointment --or the even you are definitely Just Folks. more terrifying risk of letting a book change you. What would you do Are There Alternatives? 5. If you believe that it means then? If you still, foolishly, wrote something to say that Mary Renault If none of these Schools looks a review, you would have to write in¬ and Victoria Holt both write histor- interesting or achievable to you, telligently about your cam soul, and icals or that Howard and Tolkien both there are a few alternatives. people might not like you then. wrote heroic fantasy or that Larry They might even sneer at you and say, Niven and Barry Longyear both write You might find a Cause, and re¬ view everything you read in terms of "So that's what you like. How int¬ hard science fiction, then you are a eresting." And you would be almost Pigeonholer. how it measures up to your Cause. For instance, if you are a feminist, completely alone, not a member of a If you are not presently a mem¬ you only have to find examples of comforting comnunity of fellow be¬ ber of one of these schools, do not male dominance or unsubservient self- lievers. If would be just you and the book you read, and with the glue despair. Study the masters. Follow awareness and, if the writer is male, the hints I have given you. In time you can condemn him as a sexist. they're using for bindings these days, you will find that you are accepted, books make pretty thin armor. and you will be lonely no more. Re¬ ************************************ THE FABULOUS ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF SMALL PRESS NOTES PSYCHOACTIVE PLANTS or GREAT GRAND¬ MA S PLEASURES $U.95 BY THE EDITOR By Michael Starks Loompanics Unlimited POB 264, Mason, MI 48854 This large (9 x 12) format hard¬ cover contains 194 pages and hun¬ whispers #15-16 (march, 1982) $s.oo dreds of old photos (mostly from Published and edited by Stuart David Asia) which detail the history and Schiff, 70 Highland Av., Binghamton, uses and abuses, and the technical NY 13905. details of how-to, of: This double issue isn't strict¬ Marijuana ly speaking a magazine. It's a Tobacco book! I mean, when you get up to Coffee 178 pages, full-color covers, per¬ Cocoa fect binding... And when there are Tea ten stories, seven articles and de¬ Mate' partments ... you have a volume! Coca The fiction is by Ramsey Camp¬ Cola bell, Ray Russell, Michael Shea, Khat William F. Nolan, Gerald W. Page, Fly Agaric Kava Kava Joel Hagen, Frances Garfield, and Here is a delightful chunk of Thom Apple, Karl Edward Wagner. fannish history on the hoof, fully and is the reference book on these This is the Ramsey Campbell is¬ revealed after all these years. No matters for anyone, especially a sue of WHISPERS and features three Trufan should be without this publi¬ writer, and especially a writer of stories by Campbell as well as an cation. historical adventures. interview with Campbell by Dr. Jef¬ In a covering letter with this frey M. Elliot. review copy, publisher Jeanne Gomoll The "News” column by Stuart says: "Copies cost $6. apiece, plus Schiff is a highlight of each issue, postage ($1.00 US, $1.50 foreign). and this issue's twelve-page news- There were only 200 published and review-comnentary on people, publi¬ all copies are numbered. I have a THE LOWBROW ART OF ROBT. WILLIAMS shing, magazines, and sundry relat¬ limited number of signed copies (by By Robert Williams ed items is a non-stop gem. both Brandon and Carr), and I will Rip Off Press, POB 14158, San Fran¬ The John Stewart cover is a send those out to whoever requests cisco, CA 94114. wonder of the grotesque. The back them as long as quantities last for A very good sampler of Williams' cover by Bok is strangely compell¬ no extra charge. art, including many of his famous ing. "Anyone who bought a copy at surrealistic and bizarre paintings WisCon might be interested to know that a botched page was discovered in full color. He seems to be obsessed with --page 54, on which two paragraphs death in its various guises, cars, were transposed during layout—and sex...all the interesting things I have since reprinted that page in about life. a corrected form. Anyone who wants THE CATCHER OF THE RYE Costs $10.95. Large format 95- By Carl Brandon a replacement page has only to send page trade paperback. Introduction by Terry Carr me a postcard and I'll send them one. Obsessive Press, Box 1624 Then the defective book can have its Madison, WI 53701 staples removed, the new page insert¬ ed, and put together good as new." What we have here is the true and funny story of how Carl Brandon was created, grew, thrived and died THE BEST OF SOUTH AFRICAN SCIENCE —as the most successful and dis¬ FICTION - VOLUME ONE Edited By Tony Davis tinguished hoax ever perpetrated OTHERGATES #3, 1982 $5.00 Published by Science Fiction South upon sf fandom. Way back in the Edited by Millea Kenin Africa, PO Box 144, Isando 1600, S.A. mid-fifties- That part is told Unique Graphics by the prime player of the hoax, 1025 55th St., Oakland, CA 94608 Eleven stories, an introduction, Terry Carr. The bulk of this book and a "Brief History of Science Fic¬ is made up of the writings of "Carl OTHERGATES is a market guide tion South Africa" [their sf fan org¬ Brandon". covering the fields of Fantasy, anization] , and an explanation of the There is also a Carl Brandon In¬ Science Fiction, Mystery, Horror govt, book banning standards/criter¬ dex listing all of Brandon's writ¬ for the small presses, fan press, ia, and a list of sf books banned, ings and where they appeared and etc. including Ballard's CRASH, Moor¬ who wrote them. Other authors of cock's BEHOLD THE MAN, Heinlein's Carl Brandon's works were Bob Stew¬ STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND, Dick's art, Dave Rike, Ron Ellik, Pete A SCANNER DARKLY,Spinrad's BUG JACK Graham, Miriam Carr, and Karen And¬ BARRON, many titles by Philip Jose erson. are hundreds of publications and Fanner, Brian Aldiss, and Harlan They fooled everybody! Except their requirements listed. In fact, Ellison. And much and many more. me, of course. I was publishing an academic researcher in the fields The stories in this volume are PSYCHOTIC then and I_ knew. Well, I of sf, fantasy, occult, etc. would generally fair as stories; many be¬ did! I did, too! I swear to Ghod find this volume invaluable. tray small amateurisms and clumsi¬ I suspected! Well, I would have nesses; many are of great interest tumbled if I'd thought about it e- for their localized color/customs nough! and "different" slant. BRITISH SCIENCE FICTION WRITERS three different Awards are covered the mind of DAW, the canny and very VOLUME ONE — BOB SHAW from their beginnings to '80-'81. successful editor of DAW Books. Edited by Paul Kincaid § Geoff The Whelan painting is excellent The six sf authors essayed by Rippington and intriguing. Published by rhe British Science Brian Stapleford are Edmond Hamil¬ Fiction Association ton, Leigh Brackett, Barry N. Malz- c/o G. D. Rippington berg, Kurt Vonnegut, Robert Silver- 6 Rutland Gardens berg, and Mack Reynolds. Birchington, Kent, CT7 9SN, Those interviewed in FANTASY THE PATCHIN REVIEW #4 $2.50 mail UNITED KINGDOM VOICES #1 are Manly Wade Wellman, Edited and published by Charles John Norman, Hugh B. Cave, and Platt, 9 Patchin Place, New York, A three-part examination of Katherine Kurtz. NY 10011. Bob Shaw and his writing, this booklet of 40 pages contains a Those passing opinions in GREAT Charles Platt has a simple pol¬ short Introduction by Bob Shaw, ISSUES OF THE DAY #1 are: Gordon icy: "to promote and publish frank a longish workover by Brian Staple- Dickson, Raymond Z. Gallun, James opinions and arguments relating to ford titled "Algebraic Fantasies, Gunn, Isidore Haiblum, James P. the writing, editing and marketing The Science Fiction of Bob Shaw," Hogan, Robert AW Lowndes, Richard E. of science fiction and fantasy." and a 56-item bibliography by Mike Lupoff, Larry Niven, Charles Shef¬ He does it remarkably well. Ashley which covers t>oth the pro¬ field, Jack Vance, A.E. van Vogt, This magazine is an "insider's" fessional and fan writing of Bob Joan D. Vinge, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, meeting place, where (this issue) Shaw. Roger Zelazny, Mildred Downey Brox- Norman Spinrad writes about "The The U.S. price is $3.00 post¬ on, Poul Anderson, Octavia A. Butler, Feminist Mistake," where David Hart¬ paid. C.J. Cherryh, Robert Silverberg, well suggests sf writers took a few John Varley, Jack Williamson, and wrong turns in the '70s, where F. Robert Anton Wilson. Paul Wilson in "Literary Darwinism" advocates letting the readers deter¬ SCIENCE FICTION VOICES #5: INTER¬ mine the mix of sf, fantasy, of lit¬ VIEWS WITH SCIENCE FICTION WRITERS erary sf, barbarian sf, space opera, CONDUCTED BY DARRELL SCHWEITZER THE MEN FROM ARIEL etc., while John Smith in "Vile By Donald A. Wollheim Dross" suggests pure greed as the WILDERNESS VISIONS—SCIENCE FIC¬ dust jacket painting by Michael factor ruining sf today. TION WESTERNS., VOLUME ONE There are departments, too, as BY DAVID MOGEN Whelan. The NESFA Press Cousin Clara gives advice to the SCIENCE FICTION VOICES #4: INTER¬ Box G, MIT Branch P.O. alienated, and where Richard McEnroe VIEWS WITH SCIENCE FICTION WRITERS Cambridge, MA 02139 gives an astonishing number of cap¬ CONDUCTED BY DR. JEFFREY M. ELLIOT $13.00 plus $1. postage. sule book reviews of generally high value. SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY AWARDS This small book---limited edit¬ The magazine continues to be ex¬ BY R. REGINALD ion of 1000 copies (less than 800 cellent but has dropped off from its left)—contains 10 stories by Don ESSAYS ON SIX SCIENCE FICTION first two issues of high dynamics Wollheim, including some pieces AUTHORS BY BRIAN M. STAPLEFORD and low blows. I suspect Charles is never before published. putting less and less personal time FANTASY VOICES #1: INTERVIEWS WITH These are a varied lot, all pro¬ and writing into it. FOUR FANTASY AUTHORS CONDUCTED BY fessionally done, all interesting DR. JEFFREY M. ELLIOT and in the whole provide a look at GREAT ISSUES OF THE DAY#1: THE FU¬ TURE OF THE SPACE PROGRAM; LARGE CORPORATIONS & SOCIETY-DISCUSSIONS WITH 22 SCIENCE FICTION WRITERS CON¬ DUCTED BY DR. JEFFREY M. ELLIOT All of the above: $2.95 each from: The Borgo Press, PO Box 2845, San Bernardino, CA 92406. In SF VOICES #5, Schweitzer in¬ terviews Isaac ASimov, Leigh Brack¬ ett, Lin Carter, Lester del Rey, Ed¬ mond Hamilton, Frank Belknap Long, Clifford D. Simak, Wilson Tucker, and Jack Williamson. WILDERNESS VISIONS examines the influence of the frontier myth in American sf. In SF VOICES #4, Elliot interviews Charles D. Homig, Bob Shaw, Frank Kelly Freas, and Brian M. Staple- ford. This first edition of R. Regin¬ ald's SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY AWARDS includes all the major awards histories, as well as such as foreign awards, sf film awards, the J. Lloyd Eaton Awards, the Jupiter Awards, the Locus Awards, the Milford A- wards, the Pilgrim Awards... Twenty- atomic world (Harlan Ellison's "A THE COATTAILS OF GOD By Frederik Pohl Boy and his Dog", which is noticeably By Robert M. Powers Bantam, Paperbk, $3.50. better than the movie of the same Warner Books, $15.95. name); human society adjusts to "in¬ The time is December, 1981, and vasion" by a host of invisible and This non-fiction account of how nut cults are predicting disastrous immaterial beings who can and do take we may someday go to the stars cov¬ "Jupiter effect" earthquakes as a over the minds of any human anytime ers more than just the possible con¬ result of the straight-line align¬ they wish ("Passengers" by Robert figurations of interstellar space¬ ment of the major planets that canes Silverberg). These are just three ships. There is also the already about every 179 years. The major po¬ of the sixteen stories in this near- successful search for extra-solar tential for real disaster, however, ly-700-page book containing all the planets, a discussion of the mathe- comes from the politicians, land novellas, novelets and short stories matically-possible "wormholes throqgh speculators and outright criminals that won Nebulas in 1965 through hyperspace”, and an outline of the who are financing the hysteria in 1969. For quantity, quality and search for ways of extending the hu¬ hopes of cashing in on it in a big variety, this collection is hard to man lifespan, including a drug al¬ way. Most of the disaster conven¬ beat. ready tested on flies which has the tions are observed -- large cast of potential of tripling our lifespan characters, only two or three of but the possibilty of turning the whom are anything short of despicable; subjects into semi-vegetables. a modest amount of sex; italicized These and other subjects are explain¬ interludes explaining all the pos¬ ed in a light, almost Asimovishly sible sources of disaster; an insid¬ A GREATER INFINITY clear and open-minded style. For er's view of corruption in business By Michael McCollum the seasoned space buff, a lot of and politics; etc. In SYZYGY, how¬ Del Rey/Ballantine, paperbk, $2.50. the material may be familiar, but ever, Pohl has managed to turn the for others it's an excellent intro¬ genre upside down, or maybe inside Slightly expanded and greatly duction to a lot of science-fiction¬ out or sideways, without any loss of smoothed out from three recent "Ana¬ al concepts that are on their way to excitement or suspense. In fact, if log" novelets, A GREATER INFINITY is being factual. And for those who anything, there's more suspense here a new and somewhat different para¬ want to dig further, there's a because, unlike the standard disaster time adventure. Here, the timelines 27-page bibliography. novel, you don’t have any idea where are not neatly parallel but twist Pohl is taking you until you get and turn in all directions, touch there. And for the straight science only occasionally in the vicinity of fiction readers, he's bracketed the planetary bodies, and sometimes even whole thing with a neatly integrated run backwards. Narrator Duncan Mac- SPECIAL DELIVERANCE short story about a Jupiter probe Elroy, after being attacked by what By Clifford D. Simak whose instrumentation conked out im¬ looks like a Neanderthal with a las¬ Ballantine/Del Rey, $12.50 mediately after registering an inex¬ er weapon, is snatched away from our plicable massive temperature rise. own timeline and suddenly finds (Incidentally, if anyone wants to himself the key figure in all-out Edward Lansing, a New England see what Pohl was writing 35 years war between two paratime empires, college professor in the near fut- ago, take a look at PLANETS THREE, each holding several timelines. He a $2.50 Berkley paperback collection is so nuch of a key figure, in fact, of three short space operas fran the that a party of the Neanderthal types pulps of the forties.) fran the future spent several years in a timeline where time runs in re¬ verse just to come back and try to kill him. Since by the end of this book we still don't know for sure THE SCIENCE FICTION HALL OF FAME just why he is so important, except VOLUME III for a remarkable ability to be "in Edited by Arthur C. Clarke and the right place at the right time", George W. Proctor one can only assume more books are Avon, Paperback, $3.95. planned. I hope so, at any rate, since A GREATER INFINITY so far An obsessed time traveler goes strikes a very nice balance between back to search for the historical the more mundane, adventure-oriented Jesus and ends up not finding but paratime stories of the late H. Beam becoming Him ("Behold the Man" by Piper and the frantically-paced, Michael Moorcock); A boy and his tel¬ new- twist - every - five-pages " Imper ium'' epathic dog survive in a grim post- series by Keith Laumer.
BOOK REVIEWS BY GENE DEWEESE 20 ure of what may or may not be our ern college, is a vampire, his story boiling clouds in CLOSE ENCOUNTERS. own world, is suddenly and mysterious¬ is definitely science fiction, not ly transported to another Earth. fantasy. He is not human but he In addition to 170-odd pages of that kind of insight, as well as de¬ Like most of Simak's worlds, it at looks on humans as his prey. He is tailed descriptions of front and first appears peaceful and pastoral. not supernatural but is as subject The discovery of an abandoned city, to injury and death as anyone. He rear projection, stationary and trav¬ eling mattes and dozens of other doors to other dimensions, a massive is not immortal but does have a life¬ energy barrier called Chaos, and span measured in millennia rather techniques, there are biographical more, however, indicate that a highly than decades. He does not sleep in sketches of many special effects people like Ray Harryhausen and Doug¬ advanced civilization once existed a coffin each day but does periodic¬ las Trumbull, a bibliography and an here. Lansing is joined by five ally retreat into remote hiding others from five different Earths -- places to hibernate for long periods index. Unlike many of the glossy picture books on movie or TV art, a pastor and a military man, both and when he awakes he must painstak¬ of them nameless and fanatical; two ingly discover the state of his prey this one has only black and white young women, one a poet and one an -- humanity -- and then fit himself photos, but it's still twice as in¬ teresting as most of its competit¬ engineer; and of course, an intel¬ back into the pattern. He remembers ors. ligent robot. Most of the story is no childhood and has never met anoth¬ simply their trek through this world er of his kind. Made up of four con¬ in search of the reason for their nected novelets, THE VAMPIRE TAPESTRY having been put there, like much of follows Weyland through the last Simak's recent work, "Special Deliv¬ months of this lifetime as he be¬ erance" is restrained -- perhaps too comes more and more emotionally en¬ restrained this time -- and has lit¬ tangled with his prey and is eventu¬ FRANKENSTEIN LIVES AGAIN tle physical action. Even so, the ally forced to retreat into hiberna¬ By Donald F. Glut mystery of the world itself and the tion. The only flaws in the grip¬ Donning, Paperbk, $4.95 search for the reason they are there ping narrative are the links used to keeps you going and makes for a very connect the four stories, which would REVIEWED BY GENE DE WEESE pleasant, almost nostalgic, few hours. have been even more powerful had they Despite the fact that this is in been allowed to stand alone. Despite roughly the same fonnat and from the Stephen King's front cover quote, same publisher and editor as Star- the book is not "scary", but it is blaze, the Starblaze logo does not fascinating, which is better than appear on this book, which I hope is scary any day. TWENTIETH CENTURY SCIENCE FICTION intentional and not just an over¬ WRITERS sight. Starblaze publishes a lot of excellent fiction, both new and old Edited by Curtis C. Smith (SHROUDED PLANET and THE DAWNING St. Martin's, $65.00 LIGHT by Silverberg and Garrett, for A massive companion volume to instance, or the upcoming BLAKE'S the equally massive TWENTIETH CEN¬ PROGRESS by Ray Nelson), but FRANKEN¬ TURY CRIME AND MYSTERY WRITERS, this STEIN LIVES AGAIN is as close to a book contains brief biographies of total loss as anything I've seen re¬ over six hundred science fiction cently. (I should have been suspic¬ writers along with bibliographies of ious right at the start, when I saw their work, short critical essays, that the two quotes extolling the and, in some cases, comments by the book's virtues were credited one to "Famous Monsters" and the other to writers themselves. On the debit "CheeR upt My ass./?Cuj mould side, there are odd omissions as Forrest J. Ackermann and that, ac¬ well as odd inclusions. For in¬ you lide Tc spend you# e/uT/f?e dfe cording to the biographical blurb, stance, Art Tofte, who wrote science df d £pdce ? ” Ackermann is Glut's agent.) fiction extensively in the thirties Basically, FRANKENSTEIN LIVES and the seventies, is not included, SPECIAL EFFECTS IN THE MOVIES AGAIN is about someone who: 1) Be¬ while British philosopher Bertrand 3y John Culhahe lieves Shelley's original novel was Russell, who could at best be des¬ Ballantine Books, Paperbk, $9.95 fact. 2) Goes to the Arctic to dig cribed as a dabbler in science fic¬ the monster out of the ice and steal tion, is included. And Joe Hensley, If you've ever wondered how Hol¬ it from the band of Eskimos who have better known for his mysteries than lywood makes all those inpossible been worshipping it for the last hun¬ his science fiction, is in this vol¬ things appear to happen so realistic¬ dred years or so. And 3) Haul the ume rather than the mystery writers' ally, this is the book for you. It frozen monster back to Castle Frank¬ volume. And many of the bibliograph¬ covers not only the well-known and enstein in Ingolstadt to revive it. ies -- Ross Rocklynne's, for instance moderately interesting (like STAR The story aside, the major problem -- seem far from complete. Still, WARS and the like) but the less well- is that, despite all the references the accuracy of what is included known and absolutely fascinating. to Shelley's original "Frankenstein" seems reasonable (there were only There is, for instance, the mushroom this reads very much like a bad nov- two minor errors in the "DeWeese" cloud made for an early film about elizaticm of one of the Frankenstein entry), and it is fascinating to the atomic bomb, THE BEGINNING OF THE movies. The Lionel Atwill character browse through. END, made while actual photos of the and the torch-bearing villagers are bomb were still secret. With only all there, being even more predict¬ word pictures to go by, special ef¬ able than in the movies, not to men¬ fects man A. Arnold Gillespie ended tion being terribly anachronistic, THE VAMPIRE TAPESTRY up using the same device he'd seen considering this is supposedly set By Susy McKee Chamas • used years before to make one of Tar- in the present. All the way through, Pocket Books, Paperbk, $2.75 zan's mechanical crocodiles bleed you keep thinking, "He's got to be underwater. The same technique was kidding", but apparently he isn't. Though the man known r- in this used later to make the dramatically And this, according to the cover, lifetime -- as Dr. Edward Weyland, is only Volume 1. an anthropology professor at an east¬ 21 ************************************ AND THEN I SAW....
BY THE EDITOR
GALAXY OF TERROR (r) used a lot of money to build some damned good a- lien sets and spaceship sets, along with appropriate equipment...and then skimped on the script. The result is a pathetic, derivitive sf space terror/horror movie which misuses Ray Walston, Edward Al¬ bert and Erin O'Brien. They play some of the crew of a space cruiser sent by The Master to investigate the deaths of the crew of another of The Master's ships on the planet Organus in an¬ other galaxy'. Ftl drive is used. The grave¬ yard of spaceships on the surface of Organus is tantalyzing. The huge, alien pyramid that requires exploration is fascinating. But the plot becomes muddled and in spite of the gory deaths of the pie as director/star, but DEATH HUNT (r) of all but one of the crew (includ¬ his bad decisions created a cliche- pits grizzled, wilder¬ ing one rape of a lovely young wom¬ ridden police movie which is impos¬ ness-wise Lee Marvin as a sergeant an by a monstrous caterpiggle which sible to believe and impossible to of the Royal Mounted Police vs. melts off her suit first) the film like. That limits the size of the pie. Charles Bronson as a solitary dog- disintegrates into a metaphysical As a narc detective busted to loving trapper unjustly accused of fear-is-thy-worst-enemy mess and the vice squad who cannot resist murder. an incoherent testing of the new investigating a contract/drug kill¬ The time is 1931 and the place Master. ing, and who easily cons/lures his is the Canadian Yukon territory. Weep for what might have been. fellow vice detectives and lieuten¬ Bronson kills only in self-de¬ See it on cable if you must. ant into the depths of this Mafia- fense and is brave, compassionate politics-police corruption case, and cunning. Burt asks too much of the audience The chase by the mounties and HUMANOIDS FROM THE DEEP (r) deputies after him is icily realist¬ plugs IXaring this case he falls for ic. There is laconic man-talk humor, along in the ruts of formula as hum¬ a $1,000.-a-night call girl named bloody death, betrayal, bravado, anoid flesh-eaters (mutated and ev¬ Dominoe. He has confrontations all the good stuff. olved with lightning speed from--- with a Mafia lord. He has life Angie Dickinson is inserted in was it radiated salmon?---do a JAWS and death battles with a corrupt the middle of this film for her number to a small, isolated fishing cop and the cop's Chinese martial name in the advertising and to add town on the coast of Washington. arts cohorts. He has a final chase a white woman for a bed scene with The only saving grace is the 5 shootout with Henry Silva who plays Marvin. several buxom, bare breast scenes a drug-addict Mafia hit man. But this is a "man's" picture. and the climactic night-time battle And there are a few memorable There quickly develops a mutual by townspeople against a score of scenes, a few good dirty-dialogues, admiration society between Marvin the creatures at dockside. humorous bits. and Bronson, and the ending is a- Doug McClure plays the hero But the film is lopsided, trite, bout what you'd expect. fisherman. unbelievable. It doesn't hang to¬ Great scenery. There is a horrendous final gether, so it hangs separately. ALIEN-like scene in which a girl, The supporting cast: Charles impregnated by one of the humanoids, Duming yells and screams a lot as gives birth to one of the things: the vice squad lieutenant; Bemie it rips its way out of her belly. Casey is quietly effective as a Gaaaaah! vice detective; Brian Keith is al¬ HELL NIGHT (r) most invisible as another vice re- features chipmuck¬ tective. Earl Holliman as a Mafia- cheeked Linda Blair reduced to a controlled candidate for Governor run-of-the-mill horror thriller is adequate. role, complete with low-cut dress SHARKEY'S MACHINE (r) and endless (it seems) screaming. starring Burt This movie—-hopelessly derivi¬ Reynolds, and directed by Burt Rey¬ tive—concerns itself with four nolds, betrays his lack of direct¬ pledges to a sorority and fratern¬ ing talent and his inferior story ity who must spend a night in a sense. He may get a bigger slice 22 huge, isolated, empty-for-twelve- years mansion. There had been a Burt Reynolds has a strong Kristofferson and Fonda fall horrible multiple murder... tendency to choose charming son- in love—unconvincingly, dutiful¬ And some malicious frat/soror- of-a-bitch roles for himself. ly—and collaborate in uncovering ity members had rigged the house When he plays honest-to-god heroes the secret account and its purpose. with speakers, "bodies", etc. (THE LAST YARD, HOOPER) he makes Underlying th is surface story Yep...the long-ago murderer better pictures—or at least is a U.S. economy and banking sys¬ and a supposedly murdered son more satisfying pictures from the tem so vulnerable (illiquid) that still live (like animals) in the audience's point of view. a sudden massive withdrawal of a old mansion and its labyrinthian A funny, worth-seeing movie few billions will result in a chain basement and grounds. is PATERNITY, but it left a slightly reaction of bankruptcies. And they don't like intrud¬ bad taste in my mind. Alas, when the Arabs learn ers! that the secret account has been One by one the pranksters, discovered they call their loans, and then the pledges are messi- sell their holdings in the U.S. ly murdered. There is one This triggers an economic col¬ survivor—Linda. POLYESTER (r) lapse of unparalleled magnitude. Be warned: the youthful audi¬ is a comical night¬ The movie is clumsy, and to ence laughed in many of the wrong mare of domestic travail played unsophisticated folk the financial places, and mocked the stupid straight by Divine—a gay/trans¬ talk will seem impenetrable and plot—rightly. vestite queen of middle age---whose boring. But people come out of There is no nudity, only aver¬ philandering cur of a husband owns the theater sobered and nervous, age state-of-the-art grue. a porno theater and who leaves, talking about how something like whose daughter is a promiscuous that could happen. tramp... Altogether, this satire As indeed it could, one way MANSION OF THE DOOMED (r) follows Divine's destroyed life or another, because this economy is a into alcohol, overeating, and is floating on a vast sea of debt, 1975 horror effort about a mad despair. and is extremely vulnerable...and surgeon determined to replace his But Divine is met and seduc¬ becoming moreso every year. daughter's blind eyes with those ed by Tab Hunter (now about 50 taken from: her fiance, a house¬ years old) for ulterior motives, and Tab, too, betrays her. Poor, keeper, a hitchiker, a real estate CHAC (R) saleslady, two low-class laborers. poor Divine, like all the maso¬ was made in a remote part But alas, rejection sets in chistic, dumped-upon heroines of of Mexico and used indian actors and her sight rarely lasts more millions of historicals and domest¬ exclusively. than a few days...and her eye ic fiction, nevertheless survives It is about a drought and a sockets become more and more rav¬ the humiliation, the terrible tribe's desperate attempt to find aged. .. blows of fate and men and relativ¬ a sorcerer who can perform the Finally, the surgeon sacrific¬ es, and with chin and tits up, right rituals and bring rain. es his wife (her mother) to obtain carries on to a hopefully better The acting is remarkably good, a final set of eyes... day to a relatively happy ending. the photography superb, the violence There is a final, grisly retri¬ Throughout, Divine plays the stark and vivid, the magic elabor¬ bution. wife as a full-fledged woman, ate and precise. Don't waste your time with this and everyone plays it straight, Mostly, though, the film is one dud. Richard Baseheart is wasted as too. No nudity—especially not of character, custom, superstition the father/surgeon, and Gloria Gra- of Divine!-—but some four-letter (this is set in the present day) and hame needed the work. words. faith—or lack of it. No nudity, but very eTTecnve, Oh—I just remembered—-her The interest and fascination convincing empty eye sockets in son is a repulsive foot fetishist for me was in the life-style, dress, the kept-alive-but-prisoner vict¬ who gets his compulsive jollies customs, .society. ims who finally get their revenge. stomping pretty women's feet. He is arrested, and maybe rehabilitat¬ ed. So, too, is the daughter AGUIRRE: THE WRATH OF GOD (r) changed to the good. fol¬ A funny film, if savage mockery lows an ill-fated expedition through of everything we hold dear is your PATERNITY (PG?) the mountains of Peru, into the Ama¬ is a Burt Reyn¬ thing. It is one of mine. zon basin, to discover and conquer olds movie—clever, funny, well- (in the 16th Century) the legendary acted, but somehow ultimately dumb. golden city .of El Dorado. It is led Burt plays a highly-paid mana¬ ROLLOVER (r) by Francisco Pizarro. Attacked by ger of Madison Square Garden. He cast Kris Kristoffer- indians, bogged down, Pizarro sends likes kids very much but doesn't son as a hot-shot big-league banker a few dozen men on rafts to find want to get married. His solution and he didn't carry it off. help, food, El Dorado...and report is to pay a healthy young waitress Hume Cronyn, now, as the con¬ back. to bear his child and then sign it spiratorial, "Elder Statesman" head Alas... over to him...and go away. She of a top New York bank...is superb. The majority of the film is has a potential music career, and He projects an arrogant high-risk what happens to that small explora¬ agrees. cynicism so wel1. tory party. There is a steady dead¬ All the obvious comedy/humor Jane Fonda is okay as the wid¬ ly attrition by the cannibalistic is milked from this situation, and ow of a recently-murdered corporate natives (who shout among themselves the plot progresses into love and executive who had stumbled upon a from a village beside the river, those complications. mysterious secret account in Cronyn's "Food is floating by! Food is In the end, of course, love bank. Billions upon billions of dol¬ floating by!"). wins, but the Reynolds character lars are being inconspicuously ac¬ There is a revolt led by a has behaved so badly and so ir¬ cumulated in that account—-and the nobleman played by Klaus Kinski rationally, that you wonder where money is owned by a huge Arab in¬ which raises a complaisant accom¬ his smarts, sophistication and vestment entity. panying nobleman to self-proclaimed integrity went to. 23 "Emperor" status. The plots and sub- terfuges and executions and assass¬ Segal has a phenomenal winning Judson Scott is a good actor and inations all flow from the deranged, streak in Reno, winning over eighty was cast because he has a lean, long¬ paranoid mind of Kinski. He's a fim thousand dollars in one night— haired blond ascetic look about him actor of evil men. he is empty, emotionless, sad. He which lends some credence to the idea The scenery is often stunning and Elliot split their winnings that he is a human-like alien who liv¬ and stunningly photgraphed. and go their separate ways. Joined ed on Earth among the indians of Peru The arrogance of these white men in desperate low-scale betting and long ago. and of their religion is equally fringe living, they are forced apart But, alas, the plotting is rou- stunning—and horribly unrealistic, by success. time, the sf and fantasy elements as it turns out...for that century. They won, but lost. Segal, at are incoherent and self-serving, The film v/as made by Germans, least, had to face the real reasons and I doubt if THE PHOENIX will last directed by Herzog, and is excellent. behind his life-style and charact¬ much longer. It's a dead loss a- er. Gould was not affected. gainst DALLAS and even as a time-fil¬ ler to use up the hour isn't worth a repeat look.
ATLANTIC CITY (r) Shows us Burt Lancaster as a little-account, never-was very small beer under¬ world numbers runner who on the THE PHOENIX (tv) THE side services, cooks for a semi- is THE FUGITIVE crippled woman in the run-down- tricked out in a clever plastic fan¬ but booming Atlantic City just tasy disguise. Instead of a doctor CORPORATION as new gambling casinos are go¬ on the run from the authorities who ing in. want him for a murder he didn't com¬ He is silver gray of hair, mit, we have an alien ressurrected STRIKES BACK thicker of body...aged. Ah, how from a tomb/life-support system which sad. A desperate life of small had kept him in suspended animation A NEW EROTIC SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL humiliations, lies, yearnings for for 1,000 years and who is wanted BY RICHARD E. GEIS the pretty, toothsome wench who for "examination" by the authorities. THE STAR WHORES SAGA CONTINUES- lives in the apartment next to Instead of a doctor seeking the Toi King, Sex Guild Companion, is his. elusive real murderer (a one-armed kipnapped by the corporation she The wench in Susan Sarandon man), we have the alien seeking a frustrated in STAR WHORES. Taken woman alien who also is in hiberna¬ [who played Brooke Shield's moth¬ to Phallus, the pleasure planet, er in PRETTY BABY (also, as here, tion. He is opposed by another al¬ injected with a new, powerful sex directed by Louis Malle)]. She ien who... drug, enslaved, she must make her is training to be a card dealer, Well, I'm not sure about that escape and seek a terrible revenge. working as a waitress. motivation. And then returns to her life Part of the problem with this her shitty husband who had run series is that all the mystical, off with her sister. Now the fantastic and science fictional weirdo sister is 9-months pregnant elements are not provided and ex¬ and the husband has stolen about plained often enough for a casual fifteen thousand dollars worth of viewer to know what's going on and cocaine.... why. From there all these lives are The alien (Judson Scott) has intertwined, endangered...as the remarkable mental powers--reading mob hunts for the thief and wants minds, for one, levitation and tele¬ its money from the piecemeal sale kinesis, for another, power over of the dope. animal minds for a tihrd...whatev¬ This is a movie of character, er is needed by the writers at the of small, desperate selfishnesses moment. and heroisms, of survival and love He also can instantly speak and and sad, expected betrayals. It comprehend English moments after re¬ has symbolism, contrasts, shocking vival, can drive a car_ He can realism, beauty. absorb knowledge like an ever- Hey, it's a damned good film! thirsty sponge...speed-read and as¬ Burt Lancaster deserved an Oscar similate books at about one book for this performance. Susan Sarand¬ per five minutes.... on has her best work ahead of her. A super man. Whenever cornered Excellent supporting cast, especial¬ by the FBI/CIA he resorts to his ly including Atlantic City. powers, sometimes by clutching at a magic medallion he wears around his neck and which glows with power. But under all the magic science claptrap and supernatural effects, CALIFORNIA SPLIT (r) we have THE FUGITIVE, the man on the is a Robert run with a quest. Altman film starring Elliot Gould A different adventure each week, and George Segal as excellently a new clue to the location of Myrra realized addicted gamblers. Their (or whatever her name is), and a dif¬ NOW AVAILABLE $4.00 per copy lives revolve around betting, ar¬ ferent guest cast except for Richard ound staving off creditors, around Lynch who plays Preminger, the ever- ORDER FROM: excitement and a bit of danger. pursuing govt. man. They are only alive when they SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW are betting. And yet---when George P.0. BOX 11408 24 PORTLAND, OR 97211 THE UIUISECTOR BY DARRELL SCHWEITZER
THE ANTIQUITY OF THE FUTURE
THE SWORD OF THE LICTOR course the other Bronx subway riders take all this for granted, but, al¬ By Gene Wolfe as, the story is being read by tril¬ Timescape Books, 1981, 302 pp.,$15.50 obites.) So the future tends to be crumbly and this conjures up images THE BOOK OF THE NEW SUN, the ov¬ of ancient civilizations known to erall work of which the present vol¬ our day, the Egypt of the Pharaohs, ume is the third part, is going to. become a classic, I think, not be¬ the Roman Empire etc., the only dif¬ cause it is wholly new and original ference that the setting of the as the jacket copy alleges, but be¬ story is removed by futurity rather cause it is the apotheosis of a par¬ than antiquity. It is a very spec¬ ticular tradition. ialized metaphor, with its own res¬ onances and meanings. It is impossible to extrapolate when writing about the distant fut¬ You might call this the Dying ure, the year Two Million rather Earth tradition, because Jack Vance's than the year Two Thousand. Obvious¬ THE DYING EARTH is the best-known ly, everything our epoch has produc¬ work of the type. (This may be about ed will have long since passed away. to change.) There are earlier ones. There may be traces left, but only William Hope Hodgson’s THE NIGHT faint ones. Are there echoes of anc¬ LAND is an important, pioneering ient Minoan social customs in daily work filled with magnificent visions life in the Bronx? More to the point but sadly hobbled by a grotesquely how much is life in the Bronx root¬ illiterate style. (Imagine Doc ed in the customs and worldview of Smith writing Malory.) I suspect trilobites? So much for extrapola¬ it is a more important influence on /y'T tion. What remains is visionary im¬ people who have heard about it but agination. haven't read it than people who have, because the sensitivity to language The first great vision of this required to wrrite a good visionary sort was that of Wells, in THE TIME fantasy almost precludes the ability has given the Antique Future a tex¬ MACHINE, particularly the last few to read Hodgson for enjoyment. ture and wealth of detail it has chapters. This was almost Old Test¬ (Seriously, a translation of THE never had before. ament quality, archetypal: the tir¬ NIGHT LAND into English might be a ed, barren world, the sun flickering workable conmercial proposition.) His future has mythological out or fading into darkness, all More widely read are Clark Ash¬ depth. It fits into a mythological life coming slowly to an end. Mag¬ framework which allows the metaphor nificent, but a little limited in ton Smith's Zothique stories, in which, as the sun dies, the world's of its antiquity to make sense. The story possibilities. Therefore most action takes place at the end of an subsequent writers have restricted last continent is filled with demons, wizards and decadently ornate prose. era. After the sun dies, there will themselves to a time when the Earth come a New Sun, and the world will and Sun are dying, but there are These are very clearly fantasy, as have been most Antique Future stories be created anew. This time may not still some people around. It fol¬ be very far off. As a result, the lows that such an era will be utter¬ since. THE DYING EARTH is right on the edge, making a few noises about characters and their society are ly strange and will seem magical, completely permeated with a set of so it isn't surprising that most of scientific explanations for the wonders. Robert Silverberg's NIGHT- beliefs invented by the author to the works of this type are at least the extent that medieval Europe was borderline fantasy. They are creat¬ WINGS is clearly science fiction but it feels like fantasy. permeated by Christianity. This is ed like fantasy, out of image and no mean feat. Most authors never metaphor, rather than out of idea Gene Wolfe's THE BOOK OF THE achieve it, and their futures are like science fiction. NEW SUN (comprising THE SHADOW OF filled with decidedly 20th Century Such futures tend to be antique. THE TORTURER, THE CLAW OF THE CON¬ people wandering through what may Civilizations are old, layered with CILIATOR, THE SWORD OF THE LICTOR well be a Hollywood back lot. Wolfe millenia of traditions and history. and the as yet unpublished THE CITA¬ has managed to make the Antique Fu¬ Usually technology is at a low lev¬ DEL OF THE AUTARCH) is squarely in ture feel right■ Further, he uses el, simply because if technology is this tradition, again right on the details extremely well. Among the assumed to have continued to prog¬ borderline between science fiction ruins and even among the fossils ress all that time, the writer will and fantasy, centered on image rath¬ known to the characters there are not be able to present it convincing¬ er than idea. The reason I think echoes of past ages, all of which ly and the characters will seem too it will prove to be the climax of are still far ahead of our time. godlike for there to be many story the tradition, or at least one of There was a great, galaxy-conquer¬ possibilities. (As a Bronx subway its high water marks, is that Wolfe ing, space-faring age. A couple of rider would seem to a trilobite. Of 25 the characters seem to have returned to Earth (or Urth, as they call it) stream" (i.e. genre Literary fic¬ turer's coming into manhood. The on time-dilating ships, after an tion) nowadays, this is about the fellow has the deepest respect for absence of thousands of years. And only plot there is. his work, too. He regards it as an there is one detail I particularly Unfortunately, Wolfe doesn't fo¬ art and says his chief interest is like: in a vast gallery of ancient cus on the character. The hero re¬ in seeing it done well. (There is pictures, there is one, described by mains unchanged through incident aft¬ even a witty, aside in which the art the narrator as "an armored figure er incident. Details and wonders of torture is compared to the art of on a desert landscape" which is very pile up. There is little dramatic literature -- quite convincingly.) clearly at least a copy of one of tension. The hero has no particular Wolfe's ability to draw us into the those photos taken by Apollo astro¬ goal, just an excuse to travel. torturer's point of view and make us nauts, showing a blank-faced figure When he comes into conflict with understand is quietly amazing. Then in a spacesuit with more of the moon someone, this almost seems a distrac¬ again, the whole three volumes are reflected in the suit's visor. This tion. There is a sequence in TORTUR¬ quietly amazing as each scene is one tenuous thread ties the whole ER in which a brother and sister made real, each bit of strangeness vision to the here and now. Strange make an elaborate attempt to steal comes to life. The story is alter¬ as it is, Wolfe's Urth is our future, the hero's sword. This is the most natively beautiful, touching and not never-never land. plotty part of the book and also the bizarre. You hardly notice that it lacks tension, that its direction Embedded in the main narrative least interesting. The hero executes seems arbitrary. are samples of the literature of the brother and the sister pops up this imagined epoch, two exquisite here and there throughout the fol¬ There are only a couple things lowing two volumes making trouble fables which may be the best speci¬ I would consider to be failures of for him. There are also constant mens of short myth-fantasy since execution (Oops! A word fraught encounters with a mysterious doctor early IXjnsany and a play, which isn't with meanings in this context!). and a giant. And since the work is very good, but is rich with the lore The first person narrative tends to being written retrospectively by the of its time and doubtless means more leave out things the narrator takes hero after he has attained the stat¬ to the audience before which it is for granted. There is a certain log¬ us of Autarch (emperor) we know that performed than to us. ic for this. The KORAN, after all, somehow he succeeds to the throne, does not mention camels. But then, but this contributes little to the The main narrative is less int¬ it is read by Arabs or at least by ongoing story, because few of the in¬ eresting than the setting. It is people who know that Arabs ride cam¬ cidents have anything to do with it quite weak on plot. Some readers els. But THE BOOK OF THE NEW SUN, will find the work a complete waste and the idea never seems to have oc¬ being as the author puts it in one of time on this basis. An aside: curred to the hero at the time. of his appendices, translated from there are, in my observation, two There is also some to-do about a futurity, does not share such a kinds of readers: Type A reads subversive political movement to frame of reference. As a result we slowly, carefully and is capable of which the hero is naively attracted. don't know what many of the animals appreciating image, texture, the res¬ So you can't say that there is are and have to imagine horses, cam¬ onances of language, etc. This type no plot. There are several but they els, etc. This is the "call a rab¬ reads everything on the page. Type are all little plots which fail to bit a smerp" syndrome, whether by B doesn't really read at all, but embrace the scope of the character design or otherwise. The salient merely skims for a broad outline of and the narrative. The only one details can be worked in unobtrus¬ story events. This is sometimes that comes close is that which oc¬ ively. What I particularly don't called "reading for the plot" or cupies about half of the first vol¬ like is finding out on page 146 of even "reading for content". Type B ume. The hero begins his odyssey the third volume that the stars are readers can tolerate things which by falling in love with a highborn visible in the daytime. The writing Type A finds excruciating: THE NIGHT female prisoner, to whom he later is very visual and centered on imag¬ LAND, Doc Smith, Fenimore Cooper. slips a knife so she can kill her¬ ery. Such a revelation tells the Type A reads what is on the page, all self and escape future torment. reader that he has internally visual¬ of it, and recognizes the absurdity. This haunts him throughout the work, ized every scene up to now wrong. Type B misses all that and just no¬ particularly since he shares some of All we've been told previously is tices that the plot is rather inter¬ her memories as a result of a necro- esting. Type B readers will find lit¬ phagic ritual in the second volume. tle of interest in THE BOOK OF THE (Yes, the subversive movement gains NEW SUN. knowledge of the past by devouring This is not to say that I'm being corpses under the influence of a elitist to the point of sneering at certain drug, which enables than to people who want a plot. No, let's share the brain-contents of the de¬ admit it: those long, gorgeous, tap¬ ceased, a'la planarian worms.) estried classics like THE LORD OF You may wonder then, how Wolfe THE RINGS and the GORMENGHAST tril¬ gets away with it. This sounds like ogy are greatly enlivened by strong a recipe for a boring work. The plots. Wolfe's work is weakened by only thing I can say is he gets away the absence of one. with it superbly. Indeed, when you THE SHADOW OF THE TORTURER be¬ break all the rules, you nust do it gan well enough with our hero, a superbly or go down to defeat. True, young torturer, betraying his guild the books drag in some places, and and being sent out into the world to sane parts are more interesting than find his fortune. All well and good. others, but the overall vision, the This premises a "plot” in terms of character, and the interesting epi¬ character development. The book sodes are more than enough to keep seems to be about the hero's grow¬ the reader going. Consider first ing realizations, perceptions and that Wolfe has managed to write a struggles for identity in terms of sympathetic account of a young tor- his birth and upbringing. In "main¬ 26 that the sun is reddish and perhaps a little dimmer than it was in the past. Still, this is a rich, fascinat¬ ing work, impressively imagined and beautifully written. It should be read slowly and carefully, not merely so you can keep track of everything but because the individual parts are so good for their own sake. If I don't seem to focus much on THE SWORD OF THE LICTOR in this review, that is because THE BOOK OF THE NEW SUN is not a tetralogy. It is a four-volume work. Each volume is like a serial installment and es¬ pecially since there are no synopses at the front of each, you absolutely must start at the beginning and read them in order. The volumes can't even particularly have self-contained climaxes. Things just continue be¬ two British collections, KEEP THE THE LURKING FEAR tween the next set of covers. GIRAFFE BURNING and THE STEAM-DRIV¬ By H.P. Lovecraft EN BOY. The stories are mostly Ballantine, '82, 182 pp., $2.25 If the Book Club ever does a from NEW WORLDS and other organs of one-volume edition, it'll be one the "New Wave" (remember that?) but THE CASE OF CHARLES DEXTER WARD hell of a bargain.* Sladek's work always differed from the surrounding material, which tend¬ By H.P. Lovecraft ed to be either opaque or intensely Ballantine, '82, 127 pp., $1.95 (sometimes clumsily) serious. He is a "serious writer" in that the TVo more reissues of the old stories have real content and reveal Beagle Books editions of Lovecraft. THE BEST OF JOHN SLADEK an outlook on life, the universe, THE LURKING FEAR is largely derived Pocket Books, 1981, 220 pp., $2.50 things in general, etc. but the sa¬ from the Arkham House catch-all vol¬ lient characteristic of this outlook ume DAGON, and mostly consists of Great stuff. Sladek is one of is that nothing is taken seriously, early and minor works. The title the true and original lunatics of least of all literary conventions. story, which even Lovecraft thought science fiction. He is one of the Most of the stories are parodies hokum, is hysterically bad. Con¬ funniest writers in the field. No (some avowedly so, brilliantly dis¬ noisseurs of the implausible will science fiction humor anthology tilling various major science fic¬ relish the scene in which one of the should be without a Sladek story. tion figures down to their essen¬ investigators of a haunted house tials) , but the parody has a life of leans out a window and his face is More specifically, this is a se¬ its own and develops a weird sort chewed off, but this is done so deft- lection of stories taken from the of logic. There is, for example, ly that no one else in the room no¬ "The Face", in which a human face tices. In "The Unnamable", the nar¬ * Except to rare book collectors. is found growing in the ground. The rator, a horror writer, is derided Note for collectors: I predict that face never speaks or does anything, by a friend for climaxing stories the first edition of THE SHADOW OF but political chaos, religious move¬ in unnamable, unmentionable vague¬ THE TORTURER is going to be one of ments and more result from its pre¬ ness. Sure as an eldritch gibber, those instant rarities like NINE sence. This is all told in a mock an unnamable, indescribable Thing PRINCES IN AMBER. It was published serious manner as if this were an appears, everybody runs off shriek¬ with great stealth in a period in account of intensely dramatic hist¬ ing, but between yawns the reader which Timescape Books had no public¬ orical events. There is also a concludes that the friend was right ity or promotion. It was virtually story about what happens when an as¬ all along. There are also several out of print on publication. By tronaut, giving a speech at a small better stories (some not from DAGON), the time the later volumes had ap¬ town festival, doesn't give the us¬ including the famous "The Ckitsider", peared, the work had begun to at¬ ual sort of speech. And there's an a bleak parable of alienation; "The tract attention and a lot of them 18th Century pastiche in which a ‘ Hound", which is florid as all hell, were grabbed by people who had mis¬ thinly-disguised Doctor Johnson flab¬ but a remarkable tale of depraved sed the first book in hardcover. La¬ bergasts a time-traveler by already thrill-seekers and an eldritch curse; ter Amber books are common enough, having imagined the wonders of the and the novella "The Shadow Over In- but I saw an ex-library copy of 20th Century. (But when he actually nsmouth", a major work showing Love¬ NINE PRINCES going for $100.00 re¬ goes there, he is horrified.) "Is craft at the height of his powers, cently. In ten years the same There Death On Other Planets?" may and his characters slowly turning should be true of TORTURER, to some be the ultimate time/space epic, all into squamous, bug-eyed frog-things. inflationary equivalent. Scour your distilled into nine pages. "Space This one too is about alienation and local bookstores. If you can find Shoes of the Gods" explains seme of the loss of self. The resolution, a copy still on the shelves, grab the Earth's mysteries. And so on. in which the protagonist accepts his it. If Wolfe keeps a crate of them, Sladek begins at the point of reduc- fate and looks forward to his new he'll have enough to retire on. To to-ad-absurdum. What follows might life, is strangely beautiful. make things particularly difficult be called a Higher State of Cons¬ for the latecomers, all the people ciousness . who have the first volume will re¬ CHARLES DEXTER WARD is one of fuse to part with it. It's that the best things Lovecraft ever did, good. his only novel that doesn't suffer 27 from grotesque structural flaws. It is also the subject of one of the PKD: A PHILIP K. DICK BIBLIOGRAPHY strong features: Alan Dean Foster on great publishing horror stories of media, Debbie Notkin on books (she all time. In the 1930s, Lovecraft Compiled by Daniel J.H. Levack is candid and concise), and an author submitted a collection of his stories with annotations by Steven Owen interview, Ben Bova this time. But to a few publishers and was turned Godersky the fiction is what makes it. The down. But they asked him if he had Underwood-Miller, 1981, Paperback lead novella, "Strength of Stones, anything in novel length. Then as 158 pp., $7.95 Flesh of Brass" by Greg Bear (since now, novels sold better than col¬ incorporated into his Ace novel, lections, which would only be issued An impressive work of scholar¬ STRENGTH OF STONES) deals with liv¬ after a writer had built up a fol¬ ship, indispensable for anyone whose ing cities which slowly creep across lowing through novels. Lovecraft interest in Philip K. Dick is more a planet's surface, falling apart had WARD in hand-written manuscript, than casual. This book contains list¬ for want of purpose. The cities had but never bothered to type it up or ings for all books and stories by a moral sense, you see, programmed send it in. After his death, it Dick, plus non-fiction, verse, second¬ into them by utopia-minded builders. was believed lost and only survived ary materials, etc. While no such Unfortunately the cities decided through the diligent efforts of his compilation is ever totally complete, their inhabitants weren't perfect friends and admirers. It was a very this one can be called exhaustive -- enough and kicked them all out. It's close call for what must rank among every edition, story appearance, an extremely good idea, replete with the top ten supernatural novels of translation, etc. is listed. Pro¬ striking images. The story itself the 20th Century. It's about a duction values are lavish. There is at least adequate, although I do young man who resurrects his sorcer¬ are 190 cover reproductions. It not quite believe the woman who man¬ er ancestor from the dead, only to must have been a formidable task ages to ignore the fact she's being be murdered and impersonated by him. simply to gather all that stuff to¬ raped. Otherwise, things move along Then the festivities really begin, gether. If you are a Philip K. in a gripping fashion. My only real as opposed to the way things happen Dick completist, this is just the objection is that the interplanetary in, say, "At the Mountains of Mad¬ guide you need to keep you occupied setting is extraneous. Why go to an¬ ness" where the whole story builds for the rest of your life. other planet just to have an environ¬ up to merely stating the premise. ment exactly like Earth? It could All the classic Lovecraftian themes just as easily be taking place on are there: alienation and the loss the Earth in the future. of self, cosmic horror and the es¬ cape from the strictures of time. The other stories are much short¬ Great stuff. It was ludicrously SMALL PRESS er, and tend toward humorous fluff. filmed once as EDGAR ALLAN POE'S I'm not sure if this is an editorial HAUNTED PALACE with the plot changed MAGAZINES policy or a trend in science fiction. to a simple case of possession. (I suspect the latter.) The best of Those who saw the film might want to Reviewed By these is "Lux Was Dead Right" by read the book to see what the story Richard Lupoff, a thrilling and iron¬ was actually about. ic saga of black holes, interstellar Darrell Schweitzer war, strange aliens and the rare book business. It all ties together. I kid you not. David Bishoff's "The Way to the Science fiction small press mag¬ Heart" is about an alien invasion azines are less common than fantasy that brings along free beer. Cute, ones, and rarely successful, because but I wondered where the people went? they have more competition for mat¬ Dead drunk on the carpet? Condensed erial from the regular markets. But down and stored in the empty cans? every once in a while someone prod¬ uces one that makes me wonder why "Fishing Trip" by Tom Easton is its contents weren't sold to ISAAC another of his series about science ASIMOV’S SCIENCE FICTION MAGAZINE or fictional doings in a small Maine ANALOG for three times the money. town. Overlooking the plausibility RIGEL is one of these. Editor Eric problem that creeps up when these Vinicoff must be a very good editor stories start making references to indeed to maintain the standard of one another (and the small town quality he does in face of the comp¬ seems to have as many aliens, super¬ etition. Quite simply, his first is¬ science wonders, etc. as Jules de sue is the strongest new entry in the Grandin's stretch of Jew Jersey had small press field in many years. It spooks), the story is rambling and is better than the first issue of GAL¬ formless, building up to an amusing ILEO in all respects, save that it anecdote, but without the components has a two-color cover. And look ever asembling themselves into a where GALILEO went. I don't expect plot. RIGEL to remain in the "small press" category much longer. Vinicoff has "Conservation of Mass" by Karl produced a magazine fully as good as T. Pflock is one of those dumb lit¬ any of the standard newsstand digests tle short-shorts in which, after wad¬ and at a competitive price. It ing through a page and a half of wouldn't matter if he did it at five poorly-focused gunk, you find out that the planet being destroyed is bucks a copy. (gasp!) Earth. This is the only real¬ The magazine is in an 8 1/2 X 11 ly bad piece in the issue, and I'll inch format, on good paper, with fair- say this for it: the idea might have to-good illustrations and several worked if it had been written up into a story rather than just presented. 28 The one serious short story is Balladeer, but doesn't seem to have PANDORA " ^e magazine of "role-ex¬ "Time of Sea Change" by Marcia Mart¬ shared that worthy's talent for sur¬ panding science fiction and fantasy", in, which is a readable but hardly viving supernatural encounters tries to pass itself off as a kind memorable tale of dolphins develop¬ (Ending #1). The spirit in "Lamia" of DANGEROUS VISIONS of the little ing intelligence and deciding to do seems to have gotten moldy over the magazine world, publishing, so its something about tuna nets. years, and isn't at all like the advertisements claim, stories "the lamias we meet in what seems like establishment magazines wouldn't Not a bad first issue at all. every third Clark Ashton Smith story. touch". Watch this one, folks. (No seduction power left. Ending Well, I hate to say it, but now #2.) One reads stories like this that I have read the eighth issue, I mostly for the background lore and have more faith in the establishment for Wellman's ability to bring the magazines than ever. There is noth¬ settings alive. "The Sweet Grapes ing whatever "dangerous" in the mag¬ of Autumn" by Garfield has most of azine. I can't say I'm surprised. the same characteristics (Ending#l) KADATH Such claims exist to be disbelieved. but for a female protagonist. It's Francesco Cova What surprises me, though, is that about a comfy old Southern planta¬ Corso Aurelio Saffi 5/9 despite the avowed feminist orienta¬ tion with sinister underpinnings. 16128 Genova Italy tion of PANDORA, there is very lit¬ 54.00 per copy or 4 for $15.00. Actually, you could almost say tle "role expansion". The stories that this is the Southern Fantasy don't explore the relationship be¬ KADATH #4 contains an article issue, not the WEIRD TALES issue, tween the sexes in any meaningful by me berating the Zebra Books WEIRD since all three stories are set in way, nor are they about alternate TALES for being stuck in the past. the American South and deal with its social setups. If the magazine were published on a lore. It's always nice to see Ameri¬ large scale, the same criticism can fantasy (I mean much more than The only story of any interest would hold, but it isn't. KADATH is just fantasy by Americans), even if at all is "The. Princess, The Fencing the magazine equivalent of the deluxe one has to read Italian magazines to Master, and the Unicom" by Jim Aik- limited edition. The English lang¬ find it. in. This, we are assured, is a story uage version is limited to 400 numb¬ only PANDORA could print. It's about ered copies, of which the first 100 a transvestite and a unicorn. There are signed by the major contributors. The Mmn item is "The Affair of is nothing in the rules, you see, re¬ It is for collectors, and just the the Cuckolded Warlock", which was quiring that the traditional virgin place for nostalgia, special tributes, published in a 250-copy edition in be female. The story is a lot more etc. Issue #4 is a tribute to WEIRD 1975. It's a commencement address interesting to hear about than to TALES and in addition to my mold¬ from a sorcerers' university, out¬ read. It is not humorous, but done stirring article, it contains two lining the deplorable downfall of a completely straight (no pun intended) new stories by Manly Wade Wellman, learned mage who committed "the hein¬ in a bland, lifeless and (I might one by Frances Garfield (Mrs. Well¬ ous sin of sympathy". It's all very add) totally unerotic way. There is man) and a reprint of a pamphlet by witty and works by subtle innuendo; a Nice Princess, who learns fencing the late H. Warner Munn which should the only problem is that it builds from a Nice Man who also happens to be new to most readers, and a biblio¬ up. to a climax which is either too be a transvestite. Unfortunately graphy of the works of Minn. The subtle for me or just not there. I this Wicked Man wants to force the two Wellman stories are quite well didn't get it in 1975, and I still, Princess to marry him. He can't be written but, like most of his recent don't. The story is otherwise bet¬ killed because of a charm he wears. work, suffers from excessive simplic¬ ter than I remembered it. To counteract this, the Doddering ity of plot. There is little inter¬ Old Wizard needs three hairs of a uni¬ play between the characters. Some¬ corn, gotten by traditional methods body meets a Legendary Critter and It all ends happily, even for there are only two possible endings: Next issue will be a special the transvestite. The Princess likes Occult Detective issue. Wellman Either the Thing gets him or he gets him that way. the Thing. "Arimetta" is about a has a John Thunstone story. Brian The setting is a standard-issue female forest spirit inclined to le¬ Lumley has a Titus Crow. Just the thing for the right sort of reader. medieval costumeland. Aikin writes thal fits of jealousy. The hero in a featureless, but vaguely com¬ learned guitar-picking from John the • petent manner, but the story, like much mediocre fantasy, has no dram¬ atic power because it simply never intersects with human reality. The reason only PANDORA could print it and no one else, is that it isn't good enough to sell elsewhere. Single as that. In this day and age, when the allegedly prudish and arch- conservative ISAAC ASIMOV'S can pub¬ lish stories about homosexual incest, the sex life of the Frankenstein mon¬ ster, ministers who get laid and talk dirty, etc. fetc.,the mere idea of having a trdnsvestite in a story isn't going to raise any eyebrows.
"Brother Computer, What Say Ye of Salvation?" by Ralph Roberts is a heavy-handed satire on the Moral Majority. If it had been done in half as many words, with characters that were less than total caricatures, The book will obviously deal with redundant style: it might have sold to ANALOG as fil¬ further attempts to establish his ler. "Rand was a veteran of many identity, at least for a while. I've campaigns, who had won his The other stories in the issue never read Carr's fiction before, belt of knighthood for his are blatantly sub-professional, con¬ but he turns out to be a forceful heroism in the war ... He taining comon and obvious narrative and inventive writer. One thing I was a warrior and a fight¬ flaws. One even dredges up (and particularly like: Where an inferior er." (Page 45) does nothing interesting with) the writer would just hope we believe hoariest cliche' of the modem slush that the hero is such an effective I should think that after the pile: the electronic game which nasty interviewer, Carr shows us. first is stated, the second would be seems to be (or turns out to be) real I suppose it's a maxim of fiction obvious. These things are what Adam and Eve that you can't have a character who "The Carrot of Doom" by Edward stories were twenty years ago. has a barbed wit unless you can ac¬ DeGeorge makes several common mis¬ tually produce some of it. Carr can. But it is a semi-prozine, you takes. The setting is so vaguely The TV show scenes all but crackle. might say. It should be judged by defined it could be anywhere from different standards ... "The Christmas Demon" by James 11th Century England to 19th Century Hemesath is a routine sort of story, Romania. (In fact, a battle in the Don't give me that. I don't be¬ I suppose, but better done than most. Borgo Pass is mentioned.) There's lieve that small press magazines are A runner caught in a snowstorm gets a vampire in it, a Count, of course. a kind of affirmative action program picked up by a very strange motorist. (Why aren't there vampires of other for writers who aren't good enough He can never rest easily afterwards. orders of nobility, earls, dukes, for the big markets. They are spec¬ etc? But then, Robert Bloch once ialized markets, which do not suffer "The Return of the Mad Santa" asked why there are so many mad doc¬ much competition from the big markets by A1 Sarrantonio (apparently this tors and not enough mad dentists. He because of what they print, not be¬ was intended as a Christmas issue, never got an answer.) The hero is a cause of the level of quality. If though it is dated February) is a magician, who happens to be a cat- PANDORA actually stuck to its alleg¬ delightful piece of lunacy. Every man. How he came into this world and ed goals, it might carve a niche out 800 years all that selfless goodness why the peasants take him for granted for itself, the way WHISPERS has. gets to be too much for Santa, and is never explained. The spirit of Right now, forget it. he has regrettable lapses, while the the vampire seems to have escaped elves scramble like mad to cover up. his stake-impaled body and settled The story is witty, vivid and extreme¬ in ... you're not going to believe ly readable. It soars over the sil¬ this ... a carrot. This is a story liness of the premise. about a cat-man magician battling a blood-thirsty carrot. At one point there is an attack of ravenous eye¬ FANTASY BOOK #5 " shows a marked balls on spindly legs, like something, improvement over the first issue. out of a Mike Gilbert cartoon. All The packaging is natch better. There silliness aside, the hero magics him¬ is some very good Fabian art. Also, self out of trouble much too easily. the work of Walter Lee (never heard This is not a parody, alas. Unlike of him) is quite attractive. The Sarrantonio, DeGeorge does not soar fiction is still a bit uneven, but over the inherent absurdity. There the best is quite good by any stand¬ is an old saying which fantasy writ¬ ard. The editors seem to know what ers need to keep in mind: If any¬ the best is too, because the three PRA0C*JWRITER thing can happen, no one cares what items listed on the cover stand well CF- PERM- does. above the rest. Several of the other stories are The issue's one reprint, a fan¬ "The Dance of the IVarfs" by John basically okay, of fully professional tasy "classic" by Arthur J. Burks, F. Carr is an excerpt from a forth¬ quality (as I would expect and demand is simply terrible. It's from THRIL¬ coming novel. It is clearly science from a magazine like this), but no LING MYSTERY, 1933, and involves a fiction, in FANTASY BOOK, I suppose more than that. There's an eldritch mad scientist and giant iguanas. because parts of it take place in an chess match in David Kaufman's "Mr. Some people might enjoy it as camp. underground ccmmunity based on Tol- Hancock's Last Game". "The Pegasus I didn't. kein's Moria, and also simply because Suit" by Frank Ward has the Greek it's a good story and the editors Gods making a comeback through the FANTASY BOOK is worth getting. didn't want to pass it up for the ads in comic books. C. Bruce Hunter's Not all the stories are good, but silly genre considerations. Carr's "A Shade of Jealousy" is a typical then neither were all the stories in future is a super-scientific hedon¬ revenge-of-the-murdered-spouse tale. WEIRD TALES. What I want a small istic one, rather like Sucharitkul's press magazine to be is a fairly re¬ Mallworld, only handled more serious¬ Oi a lower level are a couple of liable source of high-quality mater¬ turgid short-shorts, and a few stories ly. His protagonist is a spectacul¬ ial or a sort not adequately covered arly nasty talk-show host who humil¬ which misfire for a variety of reas¬ by the newsstand magazines. FANTASY iates the self-styled "King of the ons. Lil and Kris Neville's "Milk BOOK fits the bill. I expect there &varfs” and suffers their dread re¬ Into Brandy" is an attempt at a will be at least something worth read¬ venge. This is obviously an opening nostalgic mood piece of the sort ing in every issue from now on. episode in what will be a fascinat¬ Bradbury used to do well. It might have worked if it had focused on one ing novel. The hero is left surgic¬ ally transformed into a dwarf, his emotionally powerful incident rather PANDORA, Sproing Inc., 3721 Barcelona features unrecognizable, his finger¬ than running all over the place like Street, Tampa, FL 33609, $2.50, prints and brainwave patterns altered syrup. "The Sumner's Garden" by 4/$6.00. Irregular. Eric G. Iverson, is High Fantasy, so the world computer net won't rec¬ FANTASY BOOK, POB #4193, Pasadena, ognize him. His studio has replaced centered on a nice image, forming a superficial allegory and told in a CA 91106. $3.00, 6/$16.00. Bi¬ him with a clone and denied that he monthly. was ever kidnapped by the dwarfs. 30 pretty damned smoothly, proving its only noteworthy manufacturing cost writers talking to publishers about credentials as technically the kind remaining as an increment of retail furnishing the composition codes of story you're prescribing for the price is the paper. And you can get right in with the text keystrokes, future. What really gets driven the public to accept even cheaper and do you suppose no one's thinking home, though, as you watch the long paper than we're using today, if the about where that could lead? With declarative speeches convert into product doesn't have to stand up to the keys to Fort Knox dangling be¬ very brief dialogue and a few camera long-distance shipping and long-term fore his eyes? Can you think of a directions and set decorations, is storage. So if you think fortunes likelier scenario for an industry how wordy you're forced to get in are being made in publishing today, that's being forced to attempt books writing "pictorial" prose for a rea¬ what's it going to be in the (near) with fifteen-dollar retail price tags sonably sophisticated story. When future? Distribution costs drop, for a routine category novel and you don't have that screen in front tight demographic marketing becomes prices nudging $20.00 for a major of the audience and you want to con¬ possible, and segmented demographics title and books being broken up into trol what they see and hear, you're come into play.--i.e., you can sell trilogies and tetralogies and the into word after word after word. to small segments of the total mar¬ same proportions applying to paper¬ I'm convinced that any kind of sparse, ket, "manufacturing" and "distribut¬ backs -- which are also pricing them¬ conventional narrative, unlike what ing" in down time, and make a small selves out of all natural bounds I used in ROGUE MOON and initially fortune which is larger than today's and creating enormous production baffled everyone with, is limited to large fortunes. In other words, headaches for reasons that have no¬ telling sparse, conventional stories. you get the AV sales and the other thing to do with selling information? That spells trouble. sales too. 'How soon? Damned soon; almost 'There are just so many times 'Chaos in the industry? You bet. as soon as the 200-channel home, be¬ you can ingeniously limit yourself Ups will become downs, entirely new cause the technology's well within to AV-like stories. Invention flags kinds of fraud and defalcation will the state of the art and the indus¬ and then the only place left to go be invented, and never go anywhere try's almost entirely free of out¬ is beyond the bounds of locales and without your shit-detector and your side regulation; is free to develop plots already so familiar to the read¬ stab-repellent. But you sure ain't without clearing it through fourteen er that you don't have to use a lot gonna starve. And the chances are bureaus and eighteen volumes of a of words to describe them. What I'm there will be more breadth to the saying is that while some writers kinds of things that can be written will be able to do AV all of the at a profit, not less. time, and some will be able to do it f(The many editions of THE WALL some of the time, most will not be STREET JOURNAL, printed in strateg¬ able to sustain it most of the time. Bur IF ITS TjGjrHr ic areas around the country to in¬ I'm not talking doctrinaire ideas on sure next-day delivery, are an ex¬ U>HY 7>(2> isting distribution system that what ought to be written, and I'm not MEL BROOKS talking artistic integrity. I'm could be copied in part if not in Mnt to whole. talking laziness and burnout — gaf- Tut ir i/o ia -- as the thing that will ensure ((University Microfilms Inter¬ rtts srupru the continued production of a great national, which has royalty con¬ deal of non-AV prose. tracts with hundreds of small-press publishers (perhaps thousands), has 'Where's it going to go? The plans afoot to set up or license easy answer is that most of it will printers/copiers/computers in li¬ never see the light of day, being braries (perhaps bookstores?) which would be able to print facsimilies swamped off the publishers' lists of back issues or (possibly) the by the no doubt copious supply of current issue when keyed into the AV, and leaving a lot of readers proper computer memory via phone without access to it. But it may link with the company's central not prove to be so. Try this computer library... for a fee. scenario: ((It’s obvious-and economic¬ 'There's no technical reason ally vital-that all that expense why publishers can't feed word-proc¬ in handling and transport of books essors output almost directly into and magazines should be wiped out their type-composition machines. by computer memory and copier- All it takes is some interface soft¬ printers connected by phone or oth¬ ware, which no doubt any number of er electronic link. people will be happy to create and 'Is this a likely scenario? ((The home cable link could sell, if they haven't already. For How not? Publishing today is hide¬ eventually be used to "buy" print¬ writers who prefer working with a ously expensive because the business out copies of the old and rare or pencil and legal pad, there can read¬ side hasn't changed since the nine¬ the new by some kind of credit card ily be paper-to-disc interface ser¬ teenth century when it was not pos¬ system. It’s all coming and it vices. Zip, you've eliminated the sible to separate the information will revolutionize our society and salaries and overhead of compositor that publishers sell from the pack¬ culture in ways we know not yet.)) crews. Now: At the present time, ages in which the information is books are centrally manufactured and bound. That day is over. Let the shipped to distribution centers as distributor become the manufacturer common carrier freight. But there's — his business is local freight no reason why you can't set up an distribution, not information, and # LETTER FROM BUZZ DIXON automated book-manufacturing machine he's set up to do it. Do you want 8961 Yolanda locally — in a distributor's ware¬ to bet we're not already edging to¬ Northridge, CA 91324 house, say -- and feed it informa¬ ward that day? There's been a per¬ February 24, 1982 tion by landline or microwave. Zap, sistent rumor for years about some there go the long-haul trucks and 'The quarterly arrival of SCI¬ the freight tariffs. Suddenly, the 32 ENCE FICTION REVIEW is always a wel- come day at my house; I've never been disappointed by any issue of # LETTER FROM ED BURNS '"Our God is reborn -- not your zine (indeed, I picked up an 3247 51st Ave. Dr. West outside as such, but in early fifties version of PSYCHOTIC Bradenton, FL 33507 each of us. Slumbering and some mid-sixties SCIENCE FIC¬ March 17, 1982 not under snow over the TION REVIEWS that I didn't have and ground-surface but with¬ was pleasantly surprised with the 'I was saddened to learn of the in the right hemisphere high level of readability and intel¬ death of Philip K. Dick. These lines of our brains." Page 223 ligence in all of them. You've been from VALIS came to mind: from Dick's essay in SCIENCE FIC¬ pubbing PSYCHOTIC/SFR/REG/TAC/SFR '"There is no answer; there TION AT LARGE. for nearly thirty years now -- long¬ er perhaps? -- how about writing an is only a dead animal that 'I would like to end with the overview of what changes have been just wanted to cross the conclusion of Dick's SOLAR LOTTERY: street. We're all animals wrought in science fiction, fandom that want to cross the 'Don't feel bad about it. and the world in relation to them street only something mows It's only the physical during that time?). part of John Preston that's us down half-way across 'Back to the issue at hand: I dead, and that part is that we never saw!" fhap. 14) really liked the Fabian cover. Ex¬ not really very impor- 'Then in Chapter Six of A MAZE cellent use of shading to represent OF DEATH we are told that: depth, an intriguing juxtaposition "'All death comes as a result, ".... Its blind eyes gazed of symbols, good technique. of a deterioration of form, out over the group of peo¬ 'You made some good observations due to the activity of the ple, not seeing them, re fiction techniques (TV style vs. Form Destroyer!" not hearing them, not literary style). I don't think the 'The Form Destroyer has not won aware of their presence. osbservations are 100% true, however. It was speaking instead -- for Dick's works always pointed to listeners far off, 'Consider Delaney -- long, artis¬ toward a transcendent significance. tic, symbolic, deliberately-paced Indeed from his interview with Dani¬ watchers far away. 'It isn't a brute instinct novels -- who sells quite well, el DePrez in SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW thank you. Consider LOGAN'S RUN, #19, we have his words: that keeps us restless and dissatisfied. I'll the prototype "movie as literature" '"... I often have the feel¬ tell you what it is: book, a rather disappointing novel, ing — and it does show it's the highest goal wouldn't you say? up in my books - that of man -- the need to 'The fast-paced action of the this is all just a stage." grow and advance ... to current crop of movies and TV shows find new things ... to 'I believe that Dick's life and is not new (look at the old pulps) expand. To spread out, works illustrate the struggle for and certainly does not automatically reach areas, experiences, unity that Dick called Ubik. Ubik exclude quality writing (look at comprehend and live in was invented by a "number of respons¬ Bester's first two novels), but to an evolving fashion. To ible half-lifers" threatened by the cite it as a virtue above and beyond push aside routine and Form Destroyer, Jory. This struggle all others ain't necessarily so. repetition, to break out for unity is called the transcendent of mindless monotony and 'Remember, whatever grabs a read¬ function by Carl Jung -- whom Dick thrust forward. To keep er's attention and doesn’t let go is has called the greatest of the human moving on ...'" good. Stephen King and Peter Straub thinkers (in OUR FRIENDS FROM FROLIX allow slow, leisurely build-ups to 8). Dick illustrated Jung's myth of their stories, never rushing head¬ modem man in which the individual long to the heart of terror but grad¬ has the choice ually spiraling towards it in an ev¬ '"between becoming conscious er tightening circle. enough to create 'objective existence and meaning', or 'Indeed, Straub is an excellent become unconsciously the refutation to the TV/movie style of slave of the state and those writing. He's never direct, very who know how to manipulate leisurely paced, extremely literate it, and thus going down to and artistic, but always engrossing. his unknown end 'in the pro- foundest night of non-be¬ 'In fact, even in films the "mov¬ ing. ' Page 336, JUNG HIS LIFE ie style" of story doesn't always AND WORK by Barbara Hanna. work and sometimes decidedly non-cin- ematic films are highly successful. 'Dick says as much in his inter¬ MY DINNER WITH ANDRE -- 90 minutes view with Charles Platt in SCIENCE of two guys sitting down to dinner FICTION REVIEW #36. Dick cites the and carrying on a conversation -- greatest menace of the twentieth has been enormously successful. Var century as being the totalitarian ious cult films — screened repeated state, then continues... ly on TV and in revival houses -- eschew traditional cinematic forms. "'Essentially, I'm pleading the cause of those people 'Remember, the form is not the who are not strong". content. 'The something overlooked that Dick wished to acquaint people with ((In the context of a shrinking was the archetype of unity and total¬ audience for written fiction in ity -- the Self. In which ... the future, I think we should (some of us) try to give the audio-visual consumer an alter¬ 'I can cite grievious and bitter performed at least once every act), native-in-text, but in a form personal experience. Both are shows three animals, a "guest star hero", that new reader can easily I'm currently working on, one as a a villain and his henchmen, plus our handle. Yes, we should fight scriptwriter only, the other as a "emotional interest", some wimp in¬ like tigers to keep our exist¬ creator (neither, or maybe just one, nocent bystander who tugs at the ing readership by providing of these shows might make it to Sat¬ heartstrings of Roxie and gives her that readership with better urday mornings next fall, so don't an emotional stake in the story (as written sf and fantasy, and be surprised if this is their first if patriotism and saving one's own to that end I suggest more bed¬ and last public mention). ass wasn't enough). rock story elements, more power¬ 'Add to this other incidental ful fiction dynamics. 'One is called ROXIE'S RAIDERS. characters, a rigorous and stifling ((It may be that easy-to- It's about a band of secret service plot structure and a host of other read and no-interiors (or as few agents cleverly disguised as a band garbage that must be strung together as possible) story-telling tech¬ of circus freaks. Actually, we nev¬ in a 21‘; minute plot. nique and book/magazine formats er use the perjorative term "freaks" are a lost cause, inherently doom¬ but how else can you describe char¬ 'As every writer who's approach¬ ed. But I think we should try. acters with hands the size of shov¬ ed this show has said: It ain't Otherwise we'll be ever more isola¬ els or faces of silly putty? gonna work. The ROXIE scripts have ted and ghettoized-as readers. been uniformly dismal and disappoint¬ ((The form is not the content, 'This is meant to be an action- ing, boring and bad. And these are and the content is not the form! adventure show with a touch of com¬ scripts written by people who like I suspect that most ideas in sf edy -- in other words, no campy, animation and who have turned in can be presented effectively in a far-out stories. The network has quality work for films, magazines, variety of styles and techniques; been stressing "plausibility" in comic books and prime-time televis- the writer chooses which for emo¬ each show. tional/status/monetary reasons.)) 'Now -- get this -- this is how all the shows must operate. Roxie -- '(Why, you ask, if it's so bad our daring 20-year-old heroine -- does the network still show interest 'Falwell and his "Moral Major¬ gets a secret message telling her in it? Well, the network presented ity" has come under such diverse where the instructions for her next our "concepts" to a research company attack that I'd almost feel sorry mission are hidden. It's never ex¬ which reported they "tested" well. for him and defend him if he wasn't plained why the instructions aren't I remind you the networks hired a such a flaming asshole. Don't worry delivered with the initial message fortune teller last year to make pre¬ about "hillbillies" becoming engros¬ or why she has to sneak off by her¬ dictions on the ratings of various sed with this clown. My brother. self to find these instructions shows and rest my case.) Bob, who is in Greensboro, N.C. (supposedly no one knows she's a se¬ 'SKANNER, the show I created studying to be a Baptist minister, cret agent ... but I digress). then watched be raped and mutilated, tells me the real hard-core Southern 'Our plot must be patterned aft¬ was meant to be a 21st Century ver¬ Christians see Falwell as a shuck er the old thrilling serials of the sion of Sam Spade or Philip Marlowe. and a leech and are not inclined to thirties ... only we can't have the The future was gritty but real -- help him. Most Southern Christians villains deliberately trying to hurt advances and benefits for humans in are very active in their local anyone. We must use real locales certain areas, drawback and problems churches (indeed, fundamentalists and events in history ... only we nationwide tend to support their can't use names for fear of libel. local churches extremely well) and 'By the time the network got Our plots must be logical and be¬ prefer to do the Lord's work through through with SKANNER, he had (a) a lievable ... except given the re¬ those churches instead of sending beautiful secretary who was first an strictions placed on us and the ut¬ money to some stranger in another alien then not an alien according to ter vapidity of our characters, a part of the country; a stranger network fiat (b) a sidekick robot troop of determined Boy Scouts wearing $600 suits, to boot. (c) two kids who hang around with could expose and slaughter our "her¬ him (d) a cop who started out as a 'I suggest you get THE BEVERLY oes" in less than fifteen minutes. cyborg rival but ended up just a HILLBILLIES out of your mind and re¬ 'In addition, we've got five normal person who likes Skanner member Gordon Dickson's axiom: Prim¬ regular characters (each with an an¬ (e) a black cook buddy who's real¬ itive does not mean stupid. The pop¬ noying personal schtick that must be ly heroic and happens to act a lot ular media, from Li'l Abner on down, like a popular character on a prime has tried to pass Southerns in gen¬ eral and hillbillies in particular as being slow-witted and unsophis¬ ticated. I cite Thomas Wolfe and Manley Wade Wellman as two bright examples of pure "hillbilly" who are remarkably sensitive and intel¬ ligent. The Southern lawyer in AB¬ SENCE OF MALICE is a lot closer to the truth than the DUKES OF HAZARD. 'Re your comment to Charles Platt's letter of comment re David Gerrold (I think we need a map and compass to find our way through that one; consider -- this is a letter of comment on your editorial comment to Charles Platt, etc. ... but I di¬ gress): You say it's possible to turn out quality work under severe restrictions. Would that it were so. time TV show (f) eradicated any and DER WOMAN had her fighting Nazis in all "downbeat" (i.e., realistic) WWII.) However, on Saturday morn¬ depictions of the future in favor ings at least, you can't have Nazis. of a Disneyland "Big Bright Beauti¬ Why? Because Nazis deliberately ful Tomorrow" look. hurt people and even the nastiest Saturday a.m. villains are never al¬ 'I mention all this because when lowed to even want to deliberately I turned in my first six-page vers¬ hurt someone. ion of SKANNER, several other writ¬ ers here saw it and liked it very 'Re Ronald Lambert: The types much. So much so that they came up of laws he wants for publishing al¬ with thirty or forty possible story ready exist for television. It is ideas almost immediately. The la¬ specifically against the law for test SKANNER presentation -- twenty networks to influence or dictate to pages -- is so limited that we've producers and artists how to do been able to come up with a grand their programs. All the networks total of three story ideas -- none can do (legally) is allot commercial of them very original, good or ex¬ citing. 'However ... there are far more 'It's only possible to do quality producers, writers, etc. than there work with restrictions when (a) the are available programming hours. So restrictions are known up front and a network is allowed to pick and (b) the writer/artist is given com¬ choose among the shows offered them; plete freedom to create within those pick and choose those most likely to restrictions. Neither SKANNER nor be seen by the most people and hence ROXIE'S RAIDERS will ever reach an bring in the greatest advertising even mediocre level; both are doom¬ revenues. ed to disaster. 'Now the networks can't tell '(And please, those of you who producers what to do, but they can want to write for TV and can think make suggestions. Naturally, these of dozens of great story ideas for suggestions are like whims of iron. these two shows, please, I repeat Co-operative studios (those that toe again, please don't send your ideas the line) get shows on the air, unco¬ to me. Even if the shows are pick¬ operative shows (those that stand ed up, by the time this letter is for aesthetic integrity) don't. published the scripts will have been 'He who pays the piper calls required in the story is the pres¬ completed and the animation begun. the tune, Mr. Lambert. Anyway, I'm only a staff writer and ence of the usual sf, western, have no authority or power to buy 'Actually, the most chilling romance, or historical furniture. scripts or recommend writers.) thing about his letter was his re¬ It may be a terrible thing to say, markably accurate prediction of "no- but I suspect that beyond a cert¬ 'Re Darrel Schweitzer: "Born frills" super-market books; I'm sure ain level, for most readers "quali¬ again" means public acceptance of you're aware of those already on the ty writing" is counterproductive Christ as one's savior. The salva¬ market. They're just a novelty to¬ and wasted. They don't want depth tion through this public confession day, but they're not that unthink¬ of characterizations and its inev¬ can be described in the following able. itable ambiguity and (for them) analogy: If someone is drowning puzzlements and need-to-understand 'In closing, a compliment to the (living in sin) and you throw them and think-through. They want cheap overall intellectual and visual a rope (witness to them about Christ), thrills in the genre of their package of SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW; they can accept the rope (proclaim choice. Why is that a bad thing, very nice on all levels. I always Christ as their Savior) or reject and why is it so terrible to give skim through SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW it. Salvation means different things that to them?)) to different people: To born-again upon arrival for the cartoons and Christians it means a public faith artwork. in Christ and belief that this faith 'The cartoon on page 56 is one will save you from the consequences of the funniest — and nastiest -- of your sins. It does not mean one you've ever printed.' is immune from temptation or incap¬ # LETTER FROM PIERS ANTHONY JACCB February, 1982 able of sinning. Bravo your editor¬ ial comment to his letter. ((Those no-frills genre books that 'Mostly these days I just read 'As for Darrell's second letter, Leisure is publishing-and they're and absorb, but this time a remark white male villains (non-denomina¬ set to publish four a month now- in SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #42 letter tional) are the preferred villains have one devastating premise: push column sparked a chain of thought. in TV today. the reader's buttons and nothing But first let me back up and catch up on a remark in SCIENCE FICTION 'Anytime you use an ethnic vil¬ else much matters. REVIEW #41. You inquired whether I lain, you're required to show at ((Since the books cost only have written any readable novels yet, least one virtuous ethnic character $1.60 each, the lack of a cover and my answer is yes, of course I (series regulars not included). painting doesn't matter all that much (after fifty years of sf, have — but I was unable to find a 'Indeed, one would think the romance, western and historical publisher for them, so had to go com¬ perfect villains would be Nazis — romance covers, covers are "all mercial. I thought you understood they're white, hateful bigots who the same" anyway) and to a certain that. That commercial course has like hurting people and are almost percentage of readers all that is put me comfortably in that top 5% unbearably beautiful. (Indeed, the and my income has not fluctuated first -- and best -- season of WON¬ 35 much in the past few years. Mean- while, from your comments in SCIENCE 5, right between the mainstream best¬ Xanth novels and sequels to other FICTION REVIEW #42, it is evident sellers -- well, here. I'll quote ones. It seems I am making quite a that you have stopped reading my nov¬ the top ten: 1. SIMPLE SOLUTION number of the less-critical readers els, and thereby deprived yourself RUBIK'S CUBE 2. AZTEC 3. BRAIN happy, and that touches me. Today of the very type of fiction you pro¬ 4. NEVADA 5. CENTAUR AISLE is the 21st of the month; I have fess to crave. Why don't you try 6. ANSWER AS A MAN 7. GHOST STORY answered 24 fan letters and turned MUTE or TAROT and see if it isn't so? 8. COMPANY OF WOMEN 9. SIMPLE SO¬ down an invitation to a convention, LUTION/CUBE PUZZLES 10. AMITYVILLE so far this month. As I ponder it, 'Some issues back, you gave a HORROR II. I suspect that that may be more im¬ user report on the solid bicycle That was for January 8, 1982. No, portant than the literary excellence tires. On your recommendation, we I'm not saying that the sales of my I long for. I am not being face¬ invested in same, and now have them tious; I would like to know how on two-and-a-half bikes. They novels mean criticism is irrelevant; other writers feel about this mat¬ are okay; the ride is a little hard¬ damn it, I'm one of the critics! I ter, about God or Caesar, and wheth¬ er, but the security of no flats and don't like seeing junk at the top. er they would sell out similarly, the convenience of not having to pump But if it does have to be junk there, then I am ready to compete, showing had they the opportunity. I do not them up every few days is gratifying. that I have mastered commercial writ¬ for a moment condemn those who pur¬ So thanks, Dick; we are satisfied sue God. But I rather wish I could users. ing. I think that gives me as solid a basis to criticize it as exists; have both. 'Now, the remark that started my I have proved I understand it. But 'That's it, my thought for the chain of thought. It was in the let¬ this is a corrupting thing, because day. Tomorrow I return to the sheer ter by Vincent Perkins, who finds my I discover I like hauling in money joy of greed, because damn it, Cae¬ imagination riotous and my expres¬ for superficial and perhaps hurried sar does pay well.' sion crude. Now, by training and in¬ entertainment, and I don't like go¬ clination I am actually one of the ing broke on meaningful writing. De¬ most meticulous writers; incorrect spite the manner I chided Gene Wolfe ((I'm very hard ,to please, as a syntax and inappropriate expression reader. I've read so much over annoy me to the point of pain. What the years... In a very real sense am I doing, I wondered, to give an I'm advocating writing that in opposite impression? And I realized practice I cannot read. Almost that I am in fact writing at a break¬ everything I pick up is leaden, neck pace, to commercial standards, dull, drab, slovenly, low-tens¬ so that inevitably precision suffers. ioned. Even the "commercial" I suspect this is true of many writ¬ writers are not producing the ers, and this may be part of what exciting, grabbing, riveting fic¬ the critics mean when they decry the tion I like to read. They slop descending standards of the genre. around in their formulas and I It is as if I am running a marathon hate them for it. -- I run for exercise, though I do ((I'm becoming depressingly three miles at a time, hardly a mara¬ aware that really good "pulp" thon, but it means this kind of ana¬ writing is rare...and apparently logy comes readily to mind; every so very difficult to write. often I make my distance in under ((I'm glad you're making so much 21 minutes, and that pleases me im¬ money with your novels; God knows mensely — so here I am, running you've paid your dues and worked this figurative marathon, and every your butt off. I'm sorry to see so often some bystander or short-hop you apparently sinking into the runner comes up and paces me a few guilt trip and apologizing for steps and lo! he is fresh and clean your success. Please don't ever and bouncy and strong, while I am try for "literary" success. Most tarnished with sweat and my breath is for an awkwardness in his prose, I of the great writers wrote "com¬ rasping and my feet land heavily. have a certain envy of it, for that mercial junk" in their day-Hugo, 'He may chide me for being crude, is the only such awkwardness I per¬ Balzac, Scott, the Brontes, Shake¬ for not being as pretty as he. But ceived in the whole novel. I be¬ speare, Dickens, Stevenson, Baum... he is running perhaps fifty paces lieve I could match that level -- Your novels may last as long as while I am midway through a marathon. but not when I'm turning out a third theirs. Or longer.)) How much fiction do most writers of a million words per year. So I turn out regularly? One novel, of absorb Vincent Perkins' critique 75,000 words, per year? Two? The with a certain regret. I prefer al¬ equivalent in stories? I turn out a ways to do my best, but the immediate third of a million words a year, rewards of formula writing are virtu¬ every year, and last year I deliver¬ ally overwhelming, and I just can't # LETTER FROM DARRELL SCHWEITZER ed to my publisher about 480,000 quite bring myself to give them up 113 Deepdale Road words of fantasy. (Yes, I can ident¬ right now. At such time as I get Strafford, PA 19087 ify it, if you're interested: JUX¬ really fed up with compromise, and January 30, 1982 TAPOSITION, CENTAUR AISLE, OGRE, OG¬ really secure financially, I may RE, and NIGHT MARE. The first is quit it and write what pleases me, 'First of all, I'd like to men¬ about 135,000 words, the others each and Vanity-publish it. We'll see. tion that the Curse of the Typo has just over 115,000.) Few genre writ¬ struck again. A crucial "not" has ers deliver as much fiction as I do, been left out of a sentence in one 'Yet for the moment there are and I'm not sure that any of those of my letters, rather distorting the other compensations. I get letters match the sales my novels achieve meaning of what was intended. On of adoration from children, ages 9 in print. At the moment only CENT¬ page 30 of SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW and up, begging me to write more AUR AISLE is in print, but it has #42, third column, end of the second been seven weeks on the B. DALTON paragraph, the last sentence should bestseller list, peaking at number 36 "I am not saying that Fem¬ 700-plus-page pulp magazines make fairly visual. The layout man auto¬ inist tracts or Anti-Fem- good conversation pieces. Then I be¬ matically broke the text up about came interested in Robert Bloch's once a page for the benefit of those whales, anti-pollution, Lefty Feep series and now have a with short attention spans. (Actual¬ anti-(or pro) Communist stack of these things about two feet ly, most pulps did this.) Everything tracts should not be pub¬ high. (That's five issues. Equals is clear. The stories get going, lished, but when editors 15 issues of FANTASY ADVENTURE QUAR¬ something happens, something else refuse to market them as TERLY itself.) happens, and the story stops as soon fiction, this is not as the conflict is over. The level 'It was my first prolonged plunge censorship." of writing, in terms of technical into unabashed pulp fiction. I've 'One more apparent contradiction read a lot of pulp science fiction expertise, is far higher than that bites the dust. The point is that before, and science fiction pulps found in the science fiction maga¬ zines of the middle 30s. much of what is perceived as censor¬ too, but those were mostly (by pulp ship is really editorial decisions. standards) kinky and unclassified 'The difference is that the stor¬ When the author's obsessions over¬ things like WEIRD TALES, ASTOUNDING, ies have no human elements at all. whelm the fictional values of an al¬ UNKNOWN, the Merwin STARTLING STOR¬ It isn't so much that the authors leged novel, and the editor refuses IES. were incapable of characterization. on this basis to buy the work, this 'FANTASTIC ADVENTURES and its I get the distinct inpression that is not censorship. If the author's companion, AMAZING, in this period any kind of probing of human emotions, obsession happens to be popular, the were pure pulp magazines. They're any attempt to get across what a work gets published anyway. Hence character might feel or perceive, was THE FEMALE MAN, the Got Series, the simply regarded as beyond the scope last three Heinlein novels. Or the of pulp fiction. The characters are later books of H.G. Wells for that identified by speech tags and other matter. But they only sell to people labels, in finest pulp style. (I sharing the obsession or interested suppose I should clarify: I have of in the author's Thought, not to stoiy course read "pulp" fiction before, readers. and a lot of it. Edmond Hamilton's 'An awkward statement in "The serials from WEIRD TALES in the 30s, Vivisector" I should clarify is THE FIRE PRINCESS, THE LAKE OF LIFE, this business about publishing etc. But that sort of thing didn't explosions (page 41, first column): dominate WEIRD TALES, which was a "in each case (with the possible ex¬ very "literary" sort of magazine.) ception of White) it centered around The stories consist of action and the author himself and closely ident¬ nothing else. There is no atmosphere. ifiable imitators". What this ac¬ The imaginative content is minimal. tually should mean is that to my Another rule seems to have been that knowledge, ONCE AND FUTURE KING had one should never, never stimulate the no imitators. It just sold very well mind of the reader. So there's no¬ in a time when very little fantasy thing which stays with a reader after was published in this country. It the story is done. The regular sci¬ didn't have anything to do with the ence fiction magazines at least had creation of the Fantasy genre. To idea content consistently. Human this day most people who read it values may have been weak, but the probably aren't aware there is such reader was left with thought. a thing, or if they are, they don't know they're reading Fantasy, any 'Guess what? Although the Palm¬ more than people who read FLOWERS er-edited AMAZING and FANTASTIC AD¬ FOR ALGERNON know they're reading VENTURES were shunned by fans, they science fiction. were the most successful science fic¬ tion/fantasy magazines ever published. quite different from most of the 'Middle of the next column: During the war, when paper was scarce, other science fiction magazines of I should point out that Dunsany's and a publisher had to use his allot¬ the same period. Some of the writ¬ early collections, which established ment carefully, these two were pub¬ ing is unrelievedly awful, notably his reputation, aren't novels. The lishing issues nearly 200 pages long. that by John Russell Fearn under a sentence seems to say this. WEIRD TALES rapidly shrank to less variety of pseudonyms (I am led to than a hundred. Obviously, the pub¬ conclude that the current interest Everytime I read my work in print lishers felt that the extra paper in him on the part of some British I always find things like this. It could more profitably be used else¬ fans is either sheer nationalism, or is an entropic effect. The Thought where. The publishers of AMAZING the most misty-eyed case of nostalgia occurs in the mind with perfect order and FANTASTIC ADVENTURES knew where on record), but a lot of it is fairly and clarity, like the structure of a their goldmine was. polished. FANTASTIC ADVENTURES paid snowflake, but it begins to melt high. The editor, Ray Palmer, knew 'While I was reading all this when put down on paper, even more so what he was doing, and could get stuff, I paused to watch DARKROOM, when it gets into print. what he wanted. What he wanted was and there was this episode in which By a remarkable coincidence, I just different from what everybody Billy Crystal played a dim-witted have just been reading a large amount else wanted. but sympathetic wimp who gets a mag¬ of the kind of SF you're calling for ic makeup kit and is able to become 'The stories were very much the in your editorial. The-stuff was characters out of old movies. More sort of thing you're calling for. published quite widely at one time. by happenstance than anything else, They start at once. There is no in¬ he foils some gangsters and lives 'I read some of those phonebook¬ trospection, no lecturing, no long happily ever after. sized FANTASTIC ADVENTURE QUARTERLYs description, although everything is from the early World War II years. 'I made the connection. The I got a couple just as curiosities. 37 DARKROOM episode would have fitted perfectly into FANTASTIC ADVENTURES, by Robert Moore Williams that anyone go the way of the sports story or 1942. Pulp fiction was prose tele¬ reads anymore. Very little from Palm¬ the western. Sure enough, AMAZING vision. er's two extremely successful pulps (and the successor to FANTASTIC AD¬ is reprinted these days, whereas if VENTURES, FANTASTIC) declined marked¬ 'Ultimately, I found FANTASTIC you look in ASTOUNDING, UNKNOWN, or ly when the audience for pulp fiction ADVENTURES unsatisfactory for the even WEIRD TALES (which was beginning went over to television. It wasn't same reason I watch very little tele¬ to decline by this period), you'll until they metamorphosed into some¬ vision. While it is easy to consume find two or three stories in every thing more like the other science (read/watch) there is nothing to it. issue which have been reprinted wide¬ fiction magazines that they became There is nothing for the intellect, ly- more than marginal. During the same nothing for the emotions, just a kind period, ASTOUNDING, GALAXY and FAN¬ 'The thing about pulp fiction, of shadow-play with one-dimensional TASY 6 SCIENCE FICTION did rather pure pulp fiction, the non-intro- figures who have nothing to do with well. Their audience wasn't captured spective, non-elitist stuff you des¬ human realities. It is easy to say by television. It was a smaller aud¬ cribe, is that the elitist readers that the FANTASTIC ADVENTURES stories ience than that of the pulps in their lose interest in it very quickly. didn't depict life as it is. In real hey-day, because they were elitist Everybody else watches television. life pain hurts. People have more magazines. There's no audience. than one identifiable trait. All 'My point is that you can't com¬ women aren't beautiful and ready to 'I think we have to just admit pete with television for its audience fall passionately (but vapidly) in that text fiction is an elitist en¬ For the "pulp" audience, television love with the square-jawed Everyman. deavor. We are not appealing to and movies are better. Text fiction Emotional relationships are tangles. the broad masses. We are not trying can only go for that portion of the There are no easy answers to prob¬ to be accessible to .everybody. The public which is capable of appreciat¬ lems. You could say that the pulp ability to read and appreciate rich ing those characteristics of text writers had no powers of observa¬ text fiction is a talent, and most fiction which cannot be duplicated tion, but I suspect that observation people don't have it. The ability by films. No film could ever dupli¬ was not regarded as part of the pulp- to appreciate imaginative text fic¬ cate the experience one gets from ster's stock in trade. The readers tion of any quality is an even scarc¬ reading the Gormenghast books, even probably liked it that way. Any¬ er talent. though a very fine film might be made thing which stirred up the emotions 'But it's the eccentric stuff, from them. A small percentage of was disturbing. Anything which stir¬ the stuff which stops to probe human the public will always be able to red the intellect was hard to under¬ nature, which has thought content tell the difference. Therefore, stand. So these were to be avoided, and insight and individual personal¬ Peake continues to sell, because no and the magazines were an incredible ity rather than broadly defined, subsequent verbal technician can re¬ success. (AMAZING in this period mechanical characteristics, that place him. This isn't just true of allegedly sold about 150,000 copies. stays in print. This is a commercial Fine Literature either. Edgar Rice FANTASTIC ADVENTURES may have been a thing actually. A classic is a good Burroughs had something which pulp little less, but the way the publish¬ commercial property. I would rather writers of subsequent generations er lavished paper supplies on it dur¬ own the literary estate of, say, were not able to duplicate. Otis ing the wartime rationing, surely Mervyn Peake, than unlimited reprint Adelbart Kline tried, as did a lot indicates that it did nearly as well.) rights to all the stories published of other people. They are forgotten. 'You're absolutely right, Dick, in FANTASTIC ADVENTURES. I'd rather More to the point, the Tarzan movies when you say that it's easier to own MOBY DICK. and TV shows did not take away the watch than to read. This is why audience for the Burroughs books. '"Pulp" fiction can be produced you're the one that's courting obliv¬ by any skilled practitioner. The 'Of course, science fiction books ion, rather than the elitist "liter¬ catch is that any skilled practition¬ and magazines are edited for college- ary" writers. The kind of fiction er of pulp fiction can be replaced educated English major types. (Ex¬ you're calling for existed, with ev¬ by any other such practitioner. This cept for those which are avowedly ed¬ ery characteristic you describe, and is why most of the highest-paid pulp ited for Engineering major types.) it flourished and it was even writ¬ writers, the contributors to BLUE These are the people who still read. ten with a high degree of skill, but BOOK and ARGOSY and (yes) FANTASTIC They are not the television/"pulp" that was before television. This ADVENTURES are forgotten, but all audience. By so slanting, the edit¬ kind of fiction has since transfer¬ the odd characters like H.P. Love- ors are able to avoid direct compet¬ red over to television. In the craft and Clark Ashton Smith and Ray ition with television. You can't print media, it is already utterly Bradbury, who did not write "pulp" expect much from the non-book audi¬ extinct. You're not urging writers fiction are reprinted again and ence (i.e. those who read three or to adapt to the realities of today's again. A purely pulp writer, the less books a year). If, say, Dave market. You're trying to revive a sort you're calling for, can be re¬ Hartwell at Timescape were to slant dinosaur. placed, and will be replaced by some¬ his line for this audience, would 'Typically, Robert Moore Williams one else in the next generation. he sell more books? No, the audience once wrote a moody, atmospheric sto¬ Since his product is no better, there would be watching television or mov¬ ry called "Robot's Return". He sent is no reason why it should be pre¬ ies, and he would alienate the read¬ it to Ray Palmer, who turned it down ferred. Since the product of pulp ing audience. Instead, he publishes saying, "This is beautifully writ¬ magazines in general was no better things like SHADOW OF THE TORTURER ten, but it's not pulp fiction." than television, and television does and TIMESCAPE which are capable of Well, Williams got the message and not require reading skill, the pulps capturing a large portion of the read¬ became one of the regulars of Pal¬ died in the wake of television. ing audience, but are as far removed mer's AMAZING and FANTASTIC ADVEN¬ from the TV/non-book/"pulp" audience TURES. He became a pure pulp writer, Science fiction didn't. It is as possible. and a fairly skilled one. He became precisely because science fiction of the kind of writer you're calling the sort you're calling for is no 'They are accessible to most for more of. But his odd, early longer published, and because that readers, and within the smaller read¬ story, the one that isn't "pulp fic¬ kind of science fiction was never ing audience they are non-elitist in¬ tion" can be found in ADVENTURES IN dominant, that science fiction didn't deed. They require that the readers TIME AND SPACE. It is the only thing 38 be literate and possess some degree of imagination and intelligence. did that. There are other styles They are perfect examples of what They can never compete with televis¬ and techniques which will do that, you want. Especially FLETCH, which ion. There are few people who can't too. I think the fast paced, won the Edgar Award. Each told in understand/enjoy television, except minimal-interior-thinking tech¬ the third person; fast-paced, well- the severely retarded. There are nique will appeal to a greater plotted and sub-plotted, strongly lots of people who can't understand/ number of potential readers. A characterized through characters' enjoy books. This is just the nat¬ certain percentage of the new actions and dialogue, all with ab¬ ure of things. If this were forty readership will "mature" into the solutely no getting inside Fletch's years ago, they wouldn't be able to more traditional and intellectual head (or anyone else's, for that compete with pulp writing. But they sf available. matter). They are marvels, indeed. will stay in print longer, and ultim¬ ((You argue against this ef¬ The next time you want to make your ately turn out to be stronger commer¬ fort because you don' t much like point, wave FLETCH around as an ex¬ cial properties. TV, you're of the elitist school, ample. You coudn't ask for a better from the academic/literary scene. fiction example of how to compete 'Pulp writing is extinct. It You're willing to edit for an elite with the dreaded Tube, or the abhor¬ has no audience. There's nothing and eager to scorn the great un¬ rent Screen. left but various forms of elitist washed masses. As I said last is¬ writing. I'm optimistic about the 'Perhaps you have read them. I sue-that leads to a ghetto per¬ think back in the old ALIEN CRITIC future of such elitist writing, be¬ haps even smaller than we had be¬ cause I see no indication that TV days George Warren mentioned in glow¬ fore. ing terms FLETCH -- so if George sez and films can ever take its audience ((Using the Ray Palmer AMAZINGS away. The people who flocked to see it's good, it is good. Feeling as as a typical pulp example while ig¬ you do, you ought to cough up two STAR WARS were not people who former¬ noring the Shaver Mystery which hyp¬ ly read books. They were people who bucks and buy FLETCH, available on ed circulation to those huge levels the Mystery rack at your local book formerly didn't watch science fictim seems dishonest. movies.' shop. Take you about an hour to ((It may be as you say: "text read it.' fiction is an elitist endeavor. ... ((I see you've evaded my basic The ability to read and appreciate premise: text fiction writers can rich text fiction is a talent, and offer more sf wonders and 'con¬ most people don't have it." I think tent' than even uncensored cable not. I think that philosophy is elitist bullshit which springs from # CARD FROM ROBERT BLOCH TV, but we have to write better 2111 Sunset Crest Drive weak egos and perceived inferiority than we do now (mostly). I am Los Angeles, CA 90046 mixed with envy and jealousy. saying there is a vast audience February 2, 1982 out there beyond the hardcore who ((But we'll see what happens. That's the ultimate test.)) will read books and magazines if 'In the letter column, someone we give them what they want and named Wilson Bob Tucker says, "You cannot get on TV. To do that we should be advised that the world is have to recognize that they are coming to an end". used to the visual story-tell¬ ing style and we should adapt as 'I beg to differ. # LETTER FROM CHRIS HUUSE much as possible to that style. 1571 Happy Lane 'The world is not coming to an ((Yes, we will always have Eugene, OR 97401 end. It has already ended, but no¬ our hardcore sf readership and January 27, 1982 body noticed.' our elitist literary readership, but that core will shrink...and 'Having read your editorial in shrink. .. ((I_ noticed, Bob. But I didn't #42 and Paulette's insertion concern¬ think it mattered. I think I ((I repeat: "We have to give ing MERLIN, I felt compelled to dash people what they cannot get any¬ was right, too; the world has off these short notes. where in the visual media, and we ended and it doesn't seem to must make it as easy as possible 'Gershon Legman in his RATIONALE have made a bit of difference!)) for them to get us and read us. " OF THE DIRTY JOKE examines this joke: ((You've dressed up pulp writ¬ his quoted version, in fact, almost ing as it perhaps existed in the word-for-word the same as Darrell 30s and forties in an evil-smell¬ Schweitzer's paraphrase. He dates ing suit of anti-intellectual (for this one back to 1735 (giving that morons only) clothes and handed version, too). On this theme of va¬ # LETTER FROM BOB BARGER it to me and said, "Here, this is ginal size, he says that the joke re¬ 5204 Dayton Blvd, #6 what you want sf to return to." flects "the fear that the penis is Chattanooga, TN 37415 ((No. I want superior, eff¬ insufficiently large (this fear being February 6, 1982 ective writing which hooks the projected upon the woman)." "The reader, intrigues him, involves commonest insult". Legman says, "con¬ 'The latest SCIENCE FICTION RE¬ him and rivets him with a strong cerning the female genitals is that VIEW arrived yesterday and was much story about people and issues they are too big". So obviously, appreciated. The first thing that which he now cares a great deal this joke has been around in folklore caught my eye, as chance would have about. Superior "pulp" writing for much longer than it can be trac¬ it, was Darrell Schweitzer's review ed back; true for most jokes, in of Zelazny's THE CHANGING LAND. It fact. surprised me considerably. No one I have talked to who has read the book 'Richard, as for your pitch for has understood it, and most have an reduced interior narration in fic¬ opinion of the book that parallels tion, assuming you refer to all pop¬ Mr. Schweitzer's on most points — ular fiction and not just SF, then but to be frank, I had rather expect¬ see FLETCH, or CONFESS, FLETCH or ed Schweitzer, with his presumably FLETCH’S FORTUNE by Gregory McDonald. well-read background in fantasy and 39 science fiction, to pick up on many of the subtle points of the book ly because he has written such Modern winning two poetry awards, I think that most readers have apparently Classics in the past. he doesn't give it its due. Per¬ overlooked ... (and by overlooking 'And that hardly seems fair, to haps, though, it's more suited for them miss enjoying the book on the a William Atheling Jr. award? If either Zelazny or his readers.' level it was apparently intended). such existed. But Schweitzer didn't mention any 'I think you misinterpret Vin¬ of these subtle points of the book, cent Perkins; he doesn't say crude¬ and I was vastly disappointed -- not ness = vitality, but that crude vit¬ so much for the fact that many Zelaz¬ ality is better than polished empti¬ ny readers will continue to mistak¬ # LETTER FROM ALMA JO WILLIAMS ness. As his reference to Gene Wolfe enly consider this book to be one of JAMES A. BAKER INSTITUTE FOR seems to say, polished vitality Zelazny's worst, as for the fact ANIMAL HEALTH (Wolfe, Vance, Cherryh) is better that William Hope Hodgson fans (few New York State College of Vet¬ than either. Shoddy thinking hind¬ and far between as they apparently erinary Medicine, Cornell Uni¬ ers my enjoyment more than shoddy are nowadays) will miss a book that versity, Ithaca, NY 148S3 prose, which is why I can enjoy the should be of considerable interest December 28, 1981 crudeness of Rudy Rucker more than to them. If a reader is both a Zel¬ that of Anthony or Chalker. azny fan and a Hodgson admirer, then 'If you have read Zelazny's "The this book is an absolute must. Changing Lands", did you realize that 'Your comment to Schiff, that he has incorporated the Cthuhlu myth- nobody buys a small press publica¬ 'First, I felt about the book as os into it? And this last answer tion for a four-color cover, is wrong did Schweitzer in his review. And really blew my miniscule brain. One I bought SHAYOL #1 for its beautiful then, on page 119 of the paperback of his magician characters -- a good cover more than for its contents, edition I read: guy -- is weaving a counterspell ov¬ and though that's exceptional, at "'... a horde of snouted, er a magic mirror that the bad guy least I'm willing to pay more for a piglike creatures of con¬ owns. His manner of constructing zine with a good color cover than siderable size, running the spell reminded me of the constr¬ for one with a good plain black-and- on their hind legs, tore uction of a computor program -- one white one. past with snuffling, pant¬ false "statement" and the whole cons¬ truct bombs! So I asked him this ing noises. Some appear¬ '"The Vivisector" is good, as question and he said, "Yes, that ed to be carrying cushions usual. Proof of Schweitzer's taste Holrun's spell was modeled on comput¬ and earthenware jugs. As is that he agrees with my opinion or programming and that so far you they vanished in the dis¬ that THE CHANGING LAND is the worst tance, it seemed almost seem to be the only one who has not¬ (dullest) book Zelazny ever wrote. iced this". WOW!' as if they had begun To Hell with Dilvish, as I've said chanting. before. Right, too, about the lack "'The little bastards of appeal of THE LETTERS OF J.R.R. are out in force," Bar- TOLKIEN. I would note, though, that an remarked, "A few of some of the letters are essentially them always manage to mini-essays that reward skimming make it upstairs and dis¬ through the rest, and the whole turb me when I'm in the # LETTER FROM PHILIP MICHAEL COHEN thing might have a special appeal 726 Golf Course Road for Catholics. Aliquippa, PA 15001 'What the fuck was this scene February 25, 1982 'Better book reviews this month meant to be, I asked myself. It in "Other Voices", or at least fewer bad ones. I'm gonna have to look read something like THE THREE STOOGES *The Ian Watson interview in for those Silly Sci-Fi books. visit THE HOUSE ON THE BORDERLAND ... SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #42, is one and, in a sense, that's what this of the more enjoyable you've printed. 'Again I found your choice and I think it'll add something to my en¬ placement of the cartoons unusually joyment of future Watson novels. good. Gilliland's cartoons star 'THE CHANGING LAND is a prequel The footnote was needed. The chip again, as he's recovered from a dip to William Hope Hodgson's THE HOUSE butty as described by Langford sounds in quality; the predestination de¬ ON THE BORDERLAND, and any reader even nastier than Crottled Greeps mon on page 13 in this issue is a who has a familiarity with the lat¬ Richard (chocolate cake in tomato classic. Mohr (8, 11), Erichsen ter can hardly help but recognize soup, right?). (14) and Allard (24) also deserve this -- Hodgson himself is a major character in the book, in fact, and 'John Varley is one of my three this book is worth reading for, if or four favorite science fiction writ¬ no other reason, Zelazny's "explana¬ ers, but I thought "The Persistence tions" of all the mysteries of Hodg¬ of Vision" was one of his worst ef¬ son's book that Hodgson himself nev¬ forts, its fine start spoiled by a er revealed in his own work. But tacked-on epiphany. (I think the # LETTER FROM RALPH E. VAUGHAN same thing ruins the novel version also to the reader who is familiar POB #85152 MB116 with and enjoys the stuffy English of the Robinsons' STARDANCE.) Even having read the Panshins' SCIENCE San Diego, CA 92138 prose of the Hodgson original, this January 12, 1982 book is very humorous. FICTION IN DIMENSION, with its calls for transcendence, I couldn't under¬ 'Which perhaps brings up another stand how "PoV" could win a Hugo and 'I was very interested in the point. Judging from many recent re¬ a Nebula. Then Disch's poem "On comments and news in #41 of SCIENCE views, there are a lot of people who Science Fiction" made it clear. It FICTION REVIEW about so-called "back¬ somehow think it a crime for Zelazny overstates its case, but I think it's door" censorship. I have always felt to write a light-hearted adventure dead right about one of the facets that America may end up being the novel or spoof (and THE CHANGING LAND of science fiction's appeal. So only country in the history of the must almost certainly be regarded when Neal Wilgus complains of its world that will have an absolute dic¬ as a spoof of THE HOUSE ON THE BORD¬ tatorship elected and approved by ERLAND at least in some sense), simp¬ 40 the people. 'Each special interest group -- 'I believe that any attempt to from the feminists to the ecologists ban a specific science fiction book to the "Christians" to the militants should be met by the science fiction -- want the government to enforce community. A good source of informa¬ their particular view of the way the tion about banning is the American world should be. They are all busy Library Association's Journal of In¬ handing the government little bits tellectual Freedom, which lists indiv¬ of power, and one day the government idual banning attempts. is going to have all the power. # LETTER FROM GARY L. ADLER 'I was surprised by the behavior 'Publishers are engaging in self¬ February 15, 1982 of "born again" fans at Disclave. censorship by publishing only "safe" As I do not attend science fiction books. Oatmeal is supposed to be 'After reading SCIENCE FICTION cons outside the New York area due good for you, but I would have to REVIEW #42, I was rather distressed to the cost, I can only say that no¬ eat it day in, day out, especially at the way both you and Darrel Sch¬ thing of the sort has ever occurred at gunpoint. weitzer did not take the threat posed by the Moral Majority seriously. at a New York Science Fiction or 'Living in fear is a hell of a To be sure, groups like MM. FLAG and Star Trek Con. However, we do have way to live, especially when it comes others of the "New Right" are far problems on the street with Moonies, to publishers, most especially when outside the mainstream of American Krishnas and Scientologists. it comes to science fiction. Science Life. However, history has shown 'In closing, I believe that fiction, at its best and worst, that small groups and often indivi¬ there are always those who follow should stir up a hornet's nest. Sci¬ duals have a way of conquering com¬ their hindbrain or R-complex. These ence fiction is a revolutionary brand' placent majorities. One can argue people are weak-willed; anti-intel¬ of literature and should not be afraid that both Communism and Nazism were lectual; and suspicious of all who of stepping on toes ... unfortunately both political movements; but what do not follow their beliefs. science fiction is not in the hands about Trofin Lysenko and Savanarola? of the writers or the readers but in 'It is our responsibility to the hands of the publishers and the 'As science fiction fans, we fight back and meet challenge for should not be so quick to breathe a challenge. If we do not, then we 'There have been several little- sigh of relief after the Arkansas de¬ are to blame for our own situation. publicized cases, usually in the cision by Judge Overton. This was South though not always, where crates just the first battle into what is likely to be a long protracted war ((The attempt to ban books and con¬ of books have not been allowed off trol thought is self-defeating un¬ trucks because they were not wanted with scientific educational control as the prize. less total dictatorial control is on the stands by the powers that gained over a country. In our be. And there have been many cases 'In fact, according to the Janu¬ country as students become aware where wholesalers have refused to ary 22 issue of SCIENCE, pp. 381- of "sanitized" school libraries distribute a book or magazine because 384 shows that the creationists are and courses, those few with guts of its controversial nature. And merely shifting the battleground. and intelligence and curiosity when wholesalers say no, they mean Rather than engage in court trials, will get the banned material from no. And you can forget about trying they will instead force every local bookstores, by mail order, from to distribute your own on the stands. district to buy and use creationist friends... There are always Most wholesalers control areas in books and materials. people terrified of words and much the same way that Tammany con¬ 'Before the 1980 election, I met thinking different, and always trolled New York. In San Diego here, attempts to control words and ARA controls the territory and any with a leader of the New Right who told me that they would take on the thinking. In most of the coun¬ store which wants to carry a publica¬ tries most of the time such at¬ tion that is not approved by ARA tactics of the "Left" and make their bid to "Lead". As times grow harder tempts are marginal and essential¬ runs the risk of having other publi¬ ly ineffective. )) cations cut off. Why should they and the weak need something (any¬ give up NEWSWEEK and TIME for the thing) to believe in, the sheep will sake of something like OWLFLIGHT or indeed have their choice of people SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW? They won't. telling them how to recreate an Amer¬ ica that never in fact existed. 'There is a tremendous amount of # LETTER FROM GEORGE H. SMITH censorship going on that people nev¬ 'The threat posed by intolerant, 4113 West 180th Street er hear about and almost none of it anitscientific groups to Science Torrance, CA 90504 is being done by the federal govern¬ Fiction is diffuse but present. As February, 24, 1982 ment — they don't have to because the MM has already indicated, they people are doing it to themselves. would like to control the books used 'I really don't understand why They have let wholesalers dictate in public schools. As many people you should be so worried about the their tastes; they have let pressure become fans because of exposure dur¬ Moral Majority. They haven't done groups dictate what is safe to read ing school years, this could cut the anything but talk and even that is and what is not; they are convincing number of new fans entering the field. being drowned out by the liberal themselves that some types of censor¬ howl. Don't forget that Jim Jones ship are required for their own good. was an ACLU-certified. National Coun¬ cil of Churches, mainline Christian. 'There are some people in this That is where the real danger lies. country who think they know what There are more crooks, scoundrels, people should read, which people potential mass murderers and commun¬ should be slapped into prison for ists in mainline churches than in their viewpoints. They are not unin¬ Sing Sing. When the Moral Majority telligent. Many of them are quite takes 900 innocent black men, women intelligent. and children off into the jungle and 'They have their freedom of murders them. I'll worry about it. speech, but do they have to have Until then. I'll worry about the mine too?' 41 National Council of Churches. 'Brunner is way off base with sold stories to OWLFLIGHT and since ft LETTER FROM MILLEA KENIN his fear of Europe becoming involved OWLFLIGHT, Editor/Publisher then to TWILIGHT ZONE and very wide¬ in a war between the United States 1025 55th Street ly in the small press, submitted to and U.S.S.R. All the missiles are Oakland, CA 94608 me (a female editor) a story which aimed at the United States and if we February, 2, 1982 had been rejected by Scithers (a are A-bombed out of existence, it male editor). Though Scithers will be in a misguided attempt to 'In the same issue of SCIENCE thought it was well-written, excit¬ defend Europe against Soviet aggres¬ FICTION REVIEW, Darrell Schweitzer ing, had well-paced action, believ¬ sion. The Europeans are natural bom says (in a review of FANTASY BOOK) able characters and an interesting slaves. Let's get our army out of that "within a month or so the maga¬ setting, he rejected it because it Europe and forget it. Later on per¬ zine had become overstocked, as new could easily be interpreted as sex¬ haps we can work up a deal with the small press magazines usually do") ist. Male chauvinist, that is, not Soviets giving them a free hand in and (in a letter) "The shortage of female chauvinist. I suggested two Europe in exchange for a neutral publishable material in the magazin^ changes which dealt with this prob¬ Middle East.’ short fiction market is getting pret¬ lem, the author agreed to them, and ty severe". it will appear in OWLFLIGHT next ((We'd better make that deal with year (yeah, I'm backlogged). Russia pretty quick-before the 'COME ON NOW!!! Since his re¬ Europeans throw us out for the sin views of small press zines do not 'If editors were hard up for of having and making nuclear weap¬ indicate that he thinks that most of good stories, they would suggest ons. Once we are militarily out the material in most of them should changes -- Campbell used to do it. of Europe we will have no cards to never have been published, Schweit¬ Now, it's clearly a situation where play.)) zer is contradicting himself. editors receive enough competent-not- marvelous material that they don't 'I'm editor/publisher of a year- need to consider anything with prob¬ old overstocked magazine (OWLFLIGHT); lems (or things that editor perceives a lot of stories I've had submitted as problems). Small press editors to me -- including several I've ac¬ sometimes do, because they're doing cepted -- had been bought by maga¬ it for love not a living, and so the i LETTER FROM LINDA S. BLANCHARD zines such as GALAXY which folded be¬ best of the small press -- like DRAG- 23509 Hedlund Avenue fore publishing them, or were return¬ ONFIELDS and SHAYOL -- is as far Mountlake Terrace, WA 98043 ed by commercial markets that had above the average issue of the aver¬ March 12, 1982 bought others by the same writers, age pulp as a crudzine is below it. Editor, SEATTLE ASTRONOMICAL because of overstock. Overall, the 'It's a buyer's market NOW, folks, SOCIETY NEWSLETTER percentage of SFWA members among and anyone who's starving along sel¬ Editor, WORLD SPACE FEDERATION those who send stories to a penny- ling half-a-dozen stories a year (SEATTLE CHAPTER) NEWSLETTER a-word, 1500-circulation publication knows it.' Organizer, World Space Federa¬ is appallingly high; but there is no tion, (Seattle Chapter) significant difference in the average quality of submissions between mem¬ 'I'd like to add one brief com¬ bers and non-members. ment to the discussion of censorship 'Of course, there is an interest¬ in science fiction today. At least ing paradox in that, while pro Big # LETTER FROM NICK SMITH as far as the magazines go, of course Names don't submit stories to serai- Editor/Art Director there's censorship, blatant censor¬ pro zines (unless the editors are FANTASY BOOK, The Magazine of ship. Perhaps it's not focused on close friends of theirs), neither do Fantasy Fiction major issues of the day (racism, sex¬ rank amateurs. Every reader of IA/ POB 4193 ism, political chauvinism), rather it sfm knows you can send for writers' Pasadena, CA 91106 discriminates against a mood. Ask guidelines. Only hard-core fans February, 1982 any editor and they'll tell you they (who, whatever their skills and tal¬ don't print down-beat fiction — our ents, have been exposed to the genre 'I think you missed the point times are depressing enough, they long enough to know what you CAN'T about high production quality vs. say. get away with) and serious would-be low selling cost. In your reply to 'There are some thoughts that pros know of the existence of maga¬ Stuart Schiff, you said that "I don't can only be expressed realistically zines that sell almost entirely believe the buyer cares that much with unhappy endings. A sense of through specialty bookstores and (about typesetting and color covers)". futility alone shouldn't be the ba¬ mail-order subscriptions. As a science fiction dealer, in stores and at conventions for nearly ten sis of rejections, and yet I have 'This means that the general lev¬ seen it happen to more than my own years, I can tell you that you're el of quality Schweitzer saw as a wrong. work. reader for IA/sfm was probably lower 'And then there's the "we don't than what a small press editor gets, 'It's true that there is a dedi¬ print anti-science stories" brand of which may help to explain his asser¬ cated market out there that will buy censorship ... ' tion. Still, I'd bet that at least anything that has typed pages, espec¬ twice as many literately-written ially if they recognize the name of stories without glaring weaknesses the magazine or the names of some of ((I think there'8 a difference be¬ are received by any prozine as it the writers. Unfortunately, that tween censorship and policy.)) has room to print. market isn't a very large one. There are a lot of readers (or at least 'I can give an example from my part-time readers) whose attention own experience (and this relates to must be obtained before they will the male/female/censorship contro¬ plunk down their hard-earned money. versy also currently being hashed One reason was one that you pointed around in SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW). out in your "Alien Thoughts": the A male author who has previously marketplace is a heavily visual one. We are competing with Lucasfilms and 42 TV for the time as money. And for every fan who the others, Dick, and your suggestion walks up and says, "Oh, the new WEIRD- about cutting costs and production BOOK is out. I'll buy it," there are quality will only hurt them, by mak¬ ten more who have never heard of it, ing them even less accessible to the and who have no idea what's inside casual reader. And those casual read¬ it. And the best way to get the at¬ ers, not the hard-core fans, make up tention of those ten is to get them a lot of the market. At my store, I to pick the thing up and read it. Un¬ run into a lot of people who say, "I fortunately, that doesn't work very just read a book by this neat writer well in practice. Most magazines do named Zelazny (or Tolkien, or Bur¬ not have hired goons standing in ev¬ roughs) . Can you suggest something ery bookstore and saying, "Pick up I might like? Are there any magazine that magazine or I'll blow your head of this stuff?" A lot of these people off," and anything more subtle in have never heard of fanzines, and terms of.coercion is lost on many wouldn't know a semi-pro outside of people. a football game. But they're part of FICTION REVIEW -- snazzy Fabian cov¬ 'There is an alternative, and it that 8% who still read, and by Ghod, er, lots of interesting reviews (but I'm not going to abandon them to the is something that we here at FANTASY a good rating for FUNHOUSE? Whew?), digest-sized magazines. BOOK have been trying to achieve. It enlightening interview with Ian Wat¬ son. Good show throughout as always. is very sneaky. We make the magazine 'You were right about our logo, look nice. Typesetting! Pretty pic¬ though, and we are working to make it 'Letters from the various fan/ tures in color on the cover! And for more visible. It will still be a semi-pro zine editors were interest¬ Ghod's sake, don't scare the poor po¬ script logo, but much clearer and ing. I truly sympathize with Paul tential reader away too quickly! more readable. You'll see the new Ganley and the financial strain (That last, by the way, was the reas¬ WEIRDBOOK causes him. I respect Paul on for the relatively "unexciting" and admire the work he's done -- his cover positioning in issue #2. A efforts have always kinda been over¬ scary or gruesome back cover will ((You're right, of course, that looked when you come to think of it. discourage fewer people than a scary a color cover and typesetting and A real shame considering the consis¬ front one. Also, we liked the Vess professional layout is necessary tent level of quality he's been able piece.) for a magazine aiming for wide pro¬ to achieve all these years. He's 'I know the preceding paragraph fessional distribution; you gotta put some excellent material into sounds callous and calculating, but compete-splash on the color! print, not the least of which is a ((For SFR and most of the sf it isn't. It's just a matter of com¬ cover illustration (on #6, I think) and fantasy small-small press, by Frank Bambara that I consider to peting in the marketplace, and that's sales to the aficionados doesn't be absolutely brilliant. just what you told the writers they require the expensive formats. should be doing. It all depends on who you're aim¬ 'Stuart Schiff has the money 'When FANTASY BOOK was being ing at and how many. and the rep to do as he pleases with readied, two of the questions we ((To this day I don’t see why WHISPERS, but I think that it's a were asked by every potential dis¬ certain newsprint issues of SFR mistake to measure quality by color tributor were: "Is it typeset?" and sold better than the colored- covers and typesetting. The things "Does it have color covers?" There cover issues. No rhyme or reason that Tom Reamy accomplished with are stores (and distributors) who that I can see. Same cover art¬ TRUMPET, sans typesetting and sans are unhappy with several very good ist, same interior mix of inter¬ four-color, immediately come to mind magazines, simply because they have views, articles, reviews, etc. -- as do Carl Bennett's with SCINTIL- no visual appeal. Without visual ap¬ Some readers bum out, lose inter¬ ATIQN. Before FANTASY CROSSROADS peal, the casual reader is lost, the est, then five or even ten years folded, I think Jonathan Bacon was later write for current subscrip¬ sales aren't as good, the store isn't doing some marvelous things with tion rates to "find out what's as happy, and the distributor isn't duo-tone and two-color covers. It's going on." It's an amazing genre as happy. These all lead to the rel¬ not the mechanicals that equal qual¬ and fan /reader world. atively small sales figures listed ity, but rather how you use them. ((It is also my conclusion that in SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #42. And Stunning things can be done with a publisher has to go for quality like it or not, as long as a magazine black-and-white and two- or three- and a very high price or mass audi¬ has a small press run, its price is color processes. ence. This requires a committment going to be higher than it needs to and a knowledge of everything in¬ be. Our original plan with FANTASY 'Stuart's right about there be¬ volved. You really have to think BOOK was to have a digest-sized mag¬ ing a prejudice against black-and- big and spend some money to make azine, with limited color, something white cover art, though -- but not a significant ammount of money in like FANTASY TALES from England. really on the part of the reader. science fiction. I was never When we mentioned the idea to distrib¬ Dealers and distributors love four- willing or able to do that and utors, they uniformly said: "We can color -- in many cases a color cover have piddled along, half-fan, half sell more if it's full size and has justifies their buying the magazine pro, all these years. Go argue color." They were right. We're al¬ in the first place and allowing it with basic character.)) ready selling a lot more than WEIRD- a decent display space. A number BOOK or most of the other small press of worthy projects don't get adequate magazines. Eventually, we plan to support simply because a lot of deal¬ make money at this, rather than just ers don't want to take the effort to losing money forever. My personal § LETTER FROM ARNOLD FENNER sell what they stock — if it does feeling is that only a relatively 8435 Carter not sell itself many dealers don't successful magazine can offer writers Overland Park, KS 66212 want to bother with it. a stable marketplace, and that a mag¬ February, 1982 'Jesus. $1,000 for a cover. azine that constantly loses money For $1,000 I could get the Dillons just isn't very successful. 'Another good issue of SCIENCE or Hickman or Corben or maybe even 'I like WEIRDBOOK, WHISPERS and 43 Don Punchatz .... 'Anyway, I'm of the opinion refugees and ongoing war. A Russo- I don't know who the publishers are that everyone should experiment to Chinese slugfest is only the most in the States, and I got to the book some degree with their magazines if obvious early consequence of a sur¬ late (it was published in 1981) when they want to stay healthy. Nothing render by the West. (Incidentally, it arrived here this week. But it so radical that it frightens off the those glowing reports the intellec¬ ought to be a non-fiction prize-win¬ readers, mind, but enough of a change tuals are bringing back from China ner on any and everybody's list. so that people say "HeyI" when they read very much like those the form¬ It turns what most of us regard as see a new issue instead of "Ho-hum." er generation of them brought back past-related into future-related A genuine feeling of excitement -- from Stalin's USSR. Like the Bour¬ with (almost) impeccable logic plus a look-at-this! attitude -- bons of old, that class has learned imagination of the best science fic¬ can do more for a magazine's sales nothing and forgotten nothing.) tion type. It's the only book I know than a dozen color covers. which attempts to project evolution 'No, it is our duty to maintain into the epoch following our own dis¬ 'And in response to Michael Ward: as much influence in the world as we appearance. Marvelous! Plug it! If SHAYOL breaks even, Pat and I are able, attempting to keep things It deserves awards on top of awards! faint. Lf it makes a profit of $5 from blowing up altogether and even or $10 we sacrifice puppies or neigh¬ exerting pressure on the Communist 'I also want to tell Sheldon borhood children to the God of Fool¬ regimes to move in the direction of Teitelbaum something about the Jeru- ish Endeavors. some liberty and common decency. We con, which used my own name in its can't do that without appropriate publicity. When Marjorie and I were 'No one can say we don't know armed-force behind us, including a first informed about the project (at how to have a good time. nuclear arsenal. Eurocon 1980 in Stresa, Italy), we 'Take care, Richard.' were asked whether we would like to 'I don't like this any better be invited. Now in my book, if we're than John Brunner does, but facts invited to a conference/congress/con- don't go away merely because someone vention, that implies payment of chooses to ignore them.' travel expenses and/or hotel expenses at least, plus - in most cases, if not all -- some nominal fee for de¬ # LETTER FROM POUL ANDERSON livering a talk or lecture. Not un¬ 3 Las Palomas til long, long (Oh Lord, how long?) Orinda, CA 94563 after my name had been printed in February 13, 19S2 # LETTER FROM IAN WATSON the publicity was I told that if I Bay House, Banbury Road took part it would be at raj' entire 'With all due and considerable Moreton Pinkney near Daventry respect for him, I am forced to de¬ Northants NN11 6SQ, England clare that on matters of war and 16 February 1982 'No way, tovarim! I got caught peace in general, and nuclear weapons that way before and bad-mouthed half in particular, it is John Brunner 'Chris Priest has pointed out to around Europe on the grounds that I who is living in a dream world. me in mild tones that readers of had broken my promise to attend a Not only has the Soviet Union been SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #42 might con. Doubtless the same thing is steadily building up its nuclear as couple my remarks in the interview now happening again in another com¬ well as its "conventional" forces about Chris's stance during the er of the world ... but it's not for more than a third of a century, "Science Fiction and Causes" debate true. Like many other established it is quite prepared to use them. at Leeds, with John Brunner's re¬ writers, I get far too many con in¬ Its military leaders have repeatedly marks a few pages later about "a vites to accept the lot without re¬ and in considerable detail discussed small group of bigoted reactionaries" compense. Verb, sap. ' this in their journals; organization threatening to issue a writ of man¬ and deployment show that they aren't damus over the same business; and trying to bluff anybody; meanwhile, thus leap to the conclusion that at home there is an excellent civil Chris was one of these "bigoted re¬ defense program. actionaries". # LETTER FROM DR. DEAN R. LAMBE Route #1, Northlake 'He certainly wasn't. Chris 'It is almost beside the point Vincent, OH 45784 had nothing to do with mandamus-mong- whether any nation can survive such 11 February 1982 a war. The fact is that the Soviet ering. rulers are convinced that theirs can 'P.S. I loved the illo introduc¬ 'The letters in reponse to the and indeed that it can and will win ing my interview — it looks just question of reverse-discrimination in a completely meaningful sense. censorship were most interesting but The record of that government, from I am puzzled by Darrell Schweitzer's 1917 to the present hour, shows how comments. Schweitzer claims to peaceful it is. know of no "... story being rejected 'Some (I do not believe they in¬ because the heroine was successful clude John Brunner) have therefore or intelligent", yet many profession¬ argued that the West should lay # LETTER FROM JOHN BRUNNER al women writers felt that was the down its arms and let the Soviets in, The Square House, Palmer Street rejection policy at ASIMOV'S under hoping they will reform. I think South Petherton Scithers, Schweitzer, § Co. It history shows that this cannot hap¬ Somerset TA13 5DB will be interesting to see whether pen, that the leopard neither wishes United Kingdom these women find the new editor of nor is able to change its spots. January 30, 1982 ASIMOV'S more congenial.' Moreover, that peace of the concen¬ tration camp would be short-lived at 'I want to start a campaign. ((Now that Scithers has taken over best. Only look at Southeast Asia, Please tell people: RUN, do not AMAZING (from all reports) his sto¬ where that is happening which some walk, to your nearest bookstore to ry decisions will he under closer of us predicted would happen if the acquire a copy of AFTER MAN, A ZOO¬ examination than ever, it seems. United States abandoned Vietnam — LOGY OF THE FUTURE by Dougal Dixon. An editor's life is DIFFICULT!)) tyranny, genocide, famine, hordes of 44 -TH& -&LVE FAlRV ] OTHER VOICES
THE JOURNEYS OF MCGILL FEIGHAN, BOOK I: CAVERNS By Kevin O'Donnel, Jr. his dorm room, and the staff telepath, Berkley Books, April 1981, 214 pp. like a house mother administering $2.25. ISBN 0-425-04730-X Pepto Bismol, relieves McGill's ment¬ Cover illo by Janet Aulisio al anguish with efficiency and care. O'Donnell writes with flair and fac¬ REVIEWED BY SUE BECKMAN ility, but also with sensitivity. On April 1, 2083, a giant, ochre, His characters, alien and human alike, are utterly lovable -- even the bad multimorphous gastropod, that com¬ municates through a sort of biologic¬ guys. al CRT, arrives on Earth, allegedly O'Donnell's previous novel, on a mission for the mysterious Far MAYFLIES (Berkley, 1979), was more Being Retzglaran. The forms this circumspect in its telling and not On this adventure and the next twenty-meter slug can take and its at all frivolous; it was a hard McGill is accompanied by his young antics are 99 1/2$ unbelievable, but story, with plenty of ponder points. ward Sam, a precocious reptilian lad nevermind, it's a delightful charac¬ With CAVERNS, O'Donnell shows he can from Throngom II. Sam is a typical ter. It precedes to abduct and swal¬ write for fun and still pack a mes¬ youngster-- annoying and endearing. low just-born McGill Feighan, excret¬ sage for punch. The only problem is O'Donnell obviously believes kids ing the infant intact four days lat¬ the ending. Typical of a prequel, will be kids, whether they're cover¬ er. Then offering no account of its the author drums up a loud finish in ed with skin, fur or scales. behavior, it flashes, "My timetable place of a real conclusion. The hero quite tight is", and leaves. On Delurc McGill comes a step is tom by indecision, but the reader closer to discovering the true nature Time passes, and McGill at age knows he won't give up; he has to re¬ of the Far Being, but his quest is five, is discovered to possess The gain his sanity for the sequel. far from finished. Talent (teleportation). His abilit¬ Berkley will release Book II, ies grow unbridled, until with train¬ In Book III, the subject of the REEFS, in October and Book III, ing at the Flinger Academy, McGill Far Being's possible divinity is ex¬ LAVA in April. now in his teens, learns to safely plored. This time, the adventures Fling anyone or anything (up to 918 are set on Actu, a sulphur-choked kilos) to any place he can visualize. planet of sentient, mobile, cacti -- Flingers, the air traffic control¬ THE JOURNEYS OF MC GILL FEIGHAN yes, cacti. Actu is a theocracy and lers of the future, enable the 693 BOOK 11: REEFS; BOOK III: LAVA the spiny Actini monks are very cur¬ member races of The Flinger Network By Kevin O'Donnell, Jr. ious about McGill's connection with to interact routinely. They also Berkley Books, Oct 1981 8 April 1982 the Far Being. In the end while some make possible the galaxy-wide expan¬ REEFS: 220 pp., $2.25 very convoluted but not entirely un¬ sion of The Organization -- the ISBN 0-425-05059-9 expected revelations are made, Mc¬ twenty-first century version of the Gill seems bound for further journeys. REVIEWED BY SUE BECKMAN Mafia. Gryll, head of the Organiza¬ I wouldn't be surprised to see a Book IV. tion, wants an explanation for the Sure enough, McGill, now aged Far Being's interest in McGill. nineteen, pulls himself together for Throughout this series, the dia¬ Gryll's henchmen pursue McGill as he Book II and resumes his efforts to pursues a solution to his postpartum unravel the unique circumstances of logue is natural and zippy, occasion¬ puzzle. his birth. Following his first tor¬ ally provoking a chuckle or three. The stories are given heft by themat¬ McGill's quest takes him to turous love affair (he gets an A for effort and a C- for technique), Mc¬ ic interests: In REEFS, it’s cultur¬ Throngom II, where two dominant al relativity (the Deluvian civil species, one mammalian, the other Gill is off to Delurc, where the giant gastropod made a stopover on code might make sense to a psycho¬ reptilian, vie for cultural suprem¬ path ; to each his own), and in LAVA, acy. Their habits, prejudices (warm its way to Earth. Delurc is a sea- shrouded world of enormous sapient it's the absurdity of religious riv¬ versus cold blood) and social div¬ alries (the Actini do battle over ersity are wholly convincing. I fish who buy and sell information with a mania that would make the New whether it's more righteous to pray found myself siding first with one at dawn or dusk). But the rest of then the other species in a moving York Stock Exchange look like a tea room. Extra-Delu City is a maze of the complimentary things I can say contest of moral propriety. Unex¬ apply only to Book II; REEFS and pectedly heavy stuff for a book transparent underwater domes --a reverse goldfish bowl. McGill's aq¬ LAVA are worlds apart -- literally geared mainly to entertaining melo¬ and literarily. As the hero grows drama. uatic hosts are anything but graci¬ ous and accommodating; the food is from teenager to adult, he suffers McGill's adventures come fast monotonous and almost everything is all the sweaty-palmed insecurity and furious, with a few completely illegal -- even whistling. The auth¬ we all remember -- and some we don't. unforseen twists. O'Donnell has a or does a fine job of conveying the The love scenes are sensuous and in¬ knack for creating gripping tension bleak and dehumanizing atmosphere of timate, without being crass. The ex¬ in a scene. Two outstanding examples Delurc. It's an unforgettable dream- position and review, especially symp¬ are the grueling initiation ceremony prison of a place. tomatic of a sequel, are usually un¬ on Throngom II and the time McGill obtrusive. But the frequent blood is psychically attacked one night in 45 and gore, though consistently excit- ing, eventually overwhelms. By Book mere handful of writers who have suc¬ comfortable air of Sherlockian Eng¬ III, McGill has become a bit of a ceeded in writing good science fic¬ land to the stories that is most ap¬ bastard, neglecting Sam, making over¬ tion mystery stories prove, by their propriate) . Magic, however, has pro¬ ly vicious threats and killing re¬ small number, that good science fic¬ gressed. Magic is an exact and very morselessly. I know -- the charac¬ tion mysteries are damnably hard to highly sophisticated art. In fact, ter grew. But I didn't like him write. magic is dealt with in the most exact¬ ing and precise terms; one is tempted anymore. And yet, in a science fiction to refer to it as a science rather LAVA has more problems: There's world, no matter how far removed than an art. a blunt hook at the beginning (unus¬ from our world it is, the basic laws ual for O'Donnell), the plot is smoky of the universe still hold true. Lord Darcy is Chief Investigator and contrived and full of lumps to The basic laws of biology, chemistry for Prince Richard, Duke of Normandy. brief the new reader and it's almost and physics do work in the same man¬ He, with the competent assistance of empty of the clever, often poetic ner in which they are observed to Chief Forensic Sorcerer Sean O'Loch- prose I had come to expect. And work today (well, more or less...). lainn, investigate primarily question¬ worse, Sam starts acting like a TV able deaths or outright murders among It therefore follows that in a the Empire's nobility. sit-com kid. fantasy setting, where the laws of Still and all, the series is en¬ science are, if not altogether dif¬ The stories give a great deal of tertaining. It's full of imagina¬ ferent, then at least undiscovered attention to atmosphere and detail tive aliens and in many a narrow es¬ and where magic works -- well, in a (expected of course, since these are, cape, McGill outwits the best the fantasy universe it would seem, at but for the element of the alternate Organization has to throw at him. least to me, that writing a good universe and the fact that magic Reminiscent of Heinlein's juveniles, mystery story would be even more works, mystery stories cut very much he survives because he's smarter and difficult. from the traditional cloth). Charac¬ terization is handled very well; quicker and has "God" on his side. But by no means inpossible, of ************************************ after a couple of Lord Darcy stories course, since Randall Garrett has the reader can't help but consider been writing the excellent Lord Darcy Lord Darcy and Master Sean as any¬ stories since around 1964 or so. thing but old and valued friends. LORD DARCY INVESTIGATES is the latest These stories also contain some of volume in this series. the most truly devious plotting in Overall, the Lord Darcy stories the genre of fantasy! LORD DARCY INVESTIGATES are a milestone in the field of fan¬ Lord Darcy, himself is no sorc¬ tasy, taking place as they do in an By Randall Garrett erer. He does not possess the Tal¬ alternate universe where Richard the Ace Books, Sept. 1981, $2.50 ent, though his associate. Master Lion-Hearted did not die from a cross¬ Sean, does. Lord Darcy solves the REVIEWED BY BOB BARGER bow bolt in 1199. King Richard lived crimes of magic not by the use of on to conquer France and to found the magic, but rather his unfailing abil¬ John W. Campbell supposedly once Angevin Empire, which at the time of ity to nab the bad guy (where there said that science fiction mysteries the Lord Darcy stories also emcompas- is one) which comes from his use of could never be written -- much too ses New England and New France and that which all men have, the Intel¬ difficult to write in a science fic¬ most of the rest of the New World. lect. Lord Darcy's reasoning ability tion environment which many times While he was at it. King Richard al¬ in this world of magic functions is very different from the world we so sponsored research which discov¬ quite as well as did that of Sher¬ live in and are familiar with. Sci¬ ered and codified the Laws of Magic. lock Holmes in our own world of sci¬ ence fiction worlds inevitably con¬ ence -- though to be sure, the com¬ tain a greater number of unknown and parison of Lord Darcy with Sherlock frequently unmentioned variables, Magic works in Lord Darcy's world. So does science and its ac¬ Holmes is an unfair one. Lord Darcy than does the real world, thus com¬ and Master Sean are much, much more plicating immeasurably the task of companying technology of course, since Darcy's universe was our own than mere fantasy equivalents of writing a mystery story set in a Doyle's characters! science fiction environment. until 1199. But science hadn't pro¬ gressed far beyond alchemy (although Asimov and Bester and Boucher, there are steam trains and limited Some of the stories in LORD DAR¬ among some few others, later proved telegraph systems in England and on CY INVESTIGATES are very good. Some him mistaken. Yet, nontheless, the the Continent as well, lending a are brilliant, including the wonder¬ ful "Orient Express" spoof, "The Na¬ poli Express". It would seem that every mystery writer, even a fantasy UOHAT A FLYiVQ: one, must pay homage to the Orient Express theme, and the presence of ur my OuOAM7> "The Napoli Express" in this volume OO/VUfddr OUT further highlights the fact, as I °F i~r tsJ)T~H AM have stated above, that the Lord Darcy stories are very much tradi¬ tional mystery stories, they are TV/^M 1 also very much traditional fantasy of the old Unknown type. Seldom does a writer blend two genres to¬ gether as well as Garrett has blend¬ ed fantasy and mystery together in the Lord Darcy series; these stories are damn good writing. And as a last note, perhaps Lord Darcy and his world appeals to the little irrational hankering we all have deep within our minds for a sweet tragedy of the other. To any¬ CUJO one who hasn't read other books of "simpler" and less technological By Stephen King the series, parts of the novel may world. (This desire manifests it¬ Viking Press, $13.95 self most often when Ma Bell's com¬ be confusing, but is well worth the puter billing system sticks us for effort since Ms. Clayton is as good REVIEWED BY ROBERT B. ROSS a handful of long distance calls we at portrayal of alien viewpoint as didn't make, or when we're filling she is at action adventure. Cujo is a 200-pound Saint Bern¬ out our income tax forms.) ************************************ ard, the family pet of Joe and Char¬ ity Chamber and their son, Brett. These stories appeal to our de¬ One day, Cujo chases a rabbit into sire for a less technological world a hole in the ground which leads to and its assumed "simplicity" while an underground cave. Cujo tries to WE ARE ALL LEGENDS at the same time revealing to us very follow the rabbit into the hole -- clearly, although subtly, that By Darrell Schweitzer and gets stuck like a cork in a bot¬ Darcy's world is certainly as comp¬ Starblaze Books, $4.95. tle. His bellowing irritates some lex, probably even more so, than our rabid bats inside the cave and one own world. That in itself is no REVIEWED BY MARK MANSELL of them gives Cujo a nasty bite on small achievement. Darrell Schweitzer is well known his snout. Cujo drags himself out ************************************ to various aspects of fandom for his of the hole and lumbers away, in incisive reviews, numerous columns the very first stages of rabies. and correspondence and for his rich, The horror of CUJO comes when Cujo evocative fantasies which have called goes rabidly berserk and starts kil¬ to mind the traditions of Lord Dun- ling. (King hints briefly in the sany, Clark Ashton Smith and George book that the spirit of Frank Dodd, MacDonald. Now he has produced a a twisted killer from THE DEAD ZONE novel that will stand as an inport- has to some degree moved into the ant work in the field, and which dog's body.) But the dog Cujo, is will help to enrich a field become not really what CUJO is about. diluted of late with endless amounts The story is about Vic Trenton, of Robert E. Howard and Unknown pas¬ an advertising genius from Manhattan tiches . who packs it in, moves to Maine and WE ARE ALL LEGENDS brings togeth¬ starts up his own agency with his er Schweitzer's story saga of the longtime partner, Roger Breakstone. tormented knight Julian the Apostate. (While in New York, Vic and Roger Julian begins as a questioning, youth¬ spent six years at the "Ellison ful knight, but loses his youth and Agency".) It is about Vic's wife, his innocence in encounters with a Donna, who didn't want to move to woman who has sold herself to the Maine, who has a growing, festering devil and wishes to exchange Julian impatience and dissatisfaction with for her freedom, and with a beautiful just being a wife, and mother to vanpire who gives him love even as their four-year-old, Tad -- enough THE NOWHERE HUNT she steals his life's blood. to have an affair with Steve Kemp, a wandering tennis player and poet. By Jo Clayton Julian then feels himself etern¬ And it's about Tad, who sees some¬ DAW Books, #457, uel665, 208 pages ally damned and his previous fear of thing in his closet on some nights, Cover Art by Ken W. Kelly. God, so prevalent in the Middle Ages, something with glowing eyes and a heightens to the levels of theophobia bad smell, something that is the REVIEWED BY PAUL MC GUI RE and he searches desperately for an spirit of Frank Dodd. escape from the alternatives of heav¬ In this novel of the Diadem en or hell. His quest leads him I would have enjoyed this novel Series, a top agent of Hunters Inc. through lands of Jungian symbolism more if it had had no Cujo, no rabid is sent to find and return the hive- filled with horrors and madness. dog. (Cujo keeps a woman trapped in queen of an alien race whose ship He finds that there may not be any a Pinto for 130 pages; not every crashed on an unexplored planet. true answers, but only illusion under¬ page is devoted to this; the book Aleytys, the agent, knows that three lying illusion. Those partial answeis does cut to other characters, other ships of scavengers are on planet he does find do not bring him comfort plot lines . . . but I think this after the same prize and that a fleet but instead reveal that madness, cos¬ is too much.) waits in space to prevent her escape mic in proportions, is the basis of should she succeed. Unknown, a reality as he knows it. By my calculator this book is greater danger is the three forms of roughly 140,000 words long. Now, Schweitzer writes with skill alien life native to the planet, all King is very good at making even evoking powerful moods and beautiful of which are determined to kill the peripheral characters stick in your imagery. There is horror and adven¬ off-world "demons". mind by virtue of their being three- ture aplenty written in a readable dimensional, but he's also good at Most of the novel concerns a and compelling, yet often nusical stretching a novel longer than it trek through the marshlands, a fog¬ prose. needs to be stretched. This tend¬ bound area where practically every¬ WE ARE ALL LEGENDS is a fine ency marred the last half of FIRE- thing is deadly and the searchers novel and an important one. Stephen STARTER (just ask yourself what ac¬ are constantly harassed by natives, Fabian's gorgeous cover and equally tually happens in the last half) and a violent march as nightmarish as beautiful interiors enhance the text it's even more apparent here. Henry Stanley's Congo River expedi¬ and guarantee that this shall be a ************************************ tion. sought-after item by collectors as The story is seen from two points well as by the aficionados of fantasy of view, Aleytys' and the reptilian in the classic tradition. native, Roha. In counter-point to ************************************ the heroism of the one is the bitter¬ 47 FOUR REVIEWS BY NEAL WILGUS ON THE SHORES OF ETERNITY Bob Frazier is a reader of dic¬ By Jessica Amanda Salmonson tionaries and this is the key to Niginata Press, 2127 South 254th PI., understanding PEREGRINE, a sequence Kent, WA 98031 of poems that might otherwise be on¬ Paper, 12 pages, $1.50 ly marginally intelligible. The sec ond poem in this collection, for in¬ STRANGE THINGS HAPPEN Poetry is tricky stuff. On the stance, is titled "Dictionary Co¬ By Robert Randolph Medcalf, Jr. first reading I didn't like SHORES incidence" and consists of five Quixsilver Press, box 171, Baltimore, OF ETERNITY very much and would have pairs of words which occur together MD 21203 given it a negative review at the in the dictionary and have similar Paper, 31 pages, $2.00. time. Reading it again several or related meanings (i.e. star, stare). This little collection of verse months later everything seems dif¬ is a sideshow, really, with 30 var¬ ferent, the poems better and the Now if you look up "peregrine" iations on the theme of alien lovers. things I would have criticised no in the dictionary you'll find that Here there be vampire women and ghost longer seem a problem. it coincides with "peregrination", girls, demon lovers and devil wor¬ Well, there is a problem in that a wandering, and "peregrinate", to shipers, fire and ice and lizard SHORES is too lightweight, too slim, travel -- and that "peregrine" it¬ ladies. too trivial. I expected more from self means foreign, alien or strange Salmonson than the ten poems in this in addition to being, of course, a It's all good clean fun, you falcon which is a hawk. And from understand -- each poem an invita¬ booklet, and more in terms of sub¬ ject matter, too. Reprinted from PEREGRINE'S context, such as it is, tion to dally with another variation you can discern sort of a story for ten or twelve lines, but it's places like MUSHROOM STEW, TREADERS OF STARLIGHT and FANTASY AND TERROR, about an astronaut/wanderer/pere¬ all suggestive and never pornograph¬ grine who sometimes is being denied ic. And what is good "speculative there are several slight fantasies, a satire on TV, an homage to "Rhy¬ the freedom to travel and sometimes poetry" supposed to be if not sug¬ glorys in the freedom travel brings. gestive? mesters" -- and little else. Hardly the kind of thing to expect from the The trouble with PEREGRINE (and Bob Medcalf is a bright new tal¬ firebrand Salmonson we're used to. much of today's speculative verse) ent in science fiction verse and an is that even after repeated readings editor with lots of ambition and lots Nevertheless SHORES OF ETERNITY shows the promise of something bet¬ and trips to the dictionary the mean of one-shot poetry anthologies in ing remains unclear. I still don't the works. Try STRANGE THINGS HAP¬ ter to come when the collected poems of Salmonson are pulled together. know what most of the lines in PERE¬ PEN and give his Quixsilver Press a GRINE mean -- and more importantly, boost. Pleasantly illustrated by Wendy Ad¬ rian Shultz, SHORES is a tantalizing I don't really care. When poets taste of the poet Salmonson may be- stop trying to communicate and con¬ centrate instead on opacity they're about as interesting to read as the dictionary. But not nearly as use¬ WEIRD SONNETS ful. By Keith Allen Daniels This is not to say that such Owl Creek Press, Route #1, Trading PEREGRINE stuff is not the wave of the future. Post, Blueberry Hills, Beeville, By Robert Frazier Maybe it is. If so, poets have one TX 78102 Salt-work Press, Box 649 hell of a job to do, educating their Paper, 23 pages, $2.00. Dennis, MA 02638 readers to comprehend. Good luck, Paper, 16 pages, $4.00. Bob. Admirers of H.P. Lovecraft's "Fungi from Yuggoth" sonnet sequence will probably be the most interested in this slim volume of verse, but any one who enjoys fantasy poetry will surely get something out of it. Not exactly a sequence, these stark and powerful sonnets are a valuable addition to a sort of sub-mythos which includes HPL's "Fungi", two sonnets also titled "Fungi from Yug¬ goth" in Alice Briley's FROM A WEAV¬ ER'S SHUTTLE and probably others -- with roots going back perhaps to Aleister Crowley's CLOUDS WITHOUT WATER, a collection of 113 strange sonnets first published in 1909. This collection is not a sequel to "Fungi", you understand, but it belongs to the same loose tradition -- definitely Lovecraftian even thoi^i not specifically of the Cthulhu Myth- os. With an introduction by J. Vern¬ on Shea and fine illustrations by Karren Jollie, WEIRD SONNETS is a sign that a fine old tradition still flourishes. SOFTWARE AN ISLAND CALLED MOREAU SANDKINGS By Rudy Rucker By Brian W. Aldiss By George R.R. Martin Ace, 211 pp., $2.25, #77408-3 TIMESCAPE, 83533-5, $2.25, 158 pp. Timescape/Pocket Books; 42663-X, 238 pp., $2.75, Cover Art by Rowena. REVIEWED BY RALPH E. VAUGHAN REVIEWED BY PAUL MC GUIRE REVIEWED BY PAUL MC GUIRE In SOFTWARE Rudy Rucker tries to THE ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU was a raise questions about what makes up powerful and brilliant novel by H.G. If you learn to think like your a living being -- the body (hard¬ Wells; science fiction, adventure, enemy in order to defeat him, be ware) or the thoughts (software). allegory, satire, horror and social careful that you do not become him. To do this he sets up a human civil¬ commentary combined. It concerned a That is a recurring theme in litera¬ ization on Earth and a robotic cul¬ madder-than-the-average scientist ture. Harlan Ellison used it as a ture on the moon. Then he moves his using vivisection to turn animals frame in "'Repent Harlequin,' said characters across the interface be¬ into men. In this "sequel", Aldiss the Tick-tock man", and George R.R. tween the two. uses not only the basic idea, but Martin uses it for the same purpose actually structures and paces his in a very different story, "The Way Rucker has a flare for handling work after Wells, and at times of Cross and Dragon" that tells of a the language, twisting and shaping achieves the same ambience. The religion which worships Judas Iscar¬ words into new meanings. Some of problem with reworking a classic is iot as a saint and preaches the holy the best passages in the book come that it is almost impossible for the virtues of lies -- and damned if when he uses words and phrases to new work to be very original, let George won't almost convert you. make the reader feel the same drug alone itself a classic. state that one of the characters is "Bitterblooms" is one of my fav¬ experiencing. orite of "Railroad" Martin's stories. Joseph Silva novelized the The plot line with its twist may be Rucker also has the ability to screenplay of the '77 film. The guessed early on„ but that is not write vividly at times when describ¬ mad scientist's henchman in Aldiss' as important as you might think. As ing characters and cultures. But "Moreau" is named Silva. Aldiss in so much of George's fiction, the one cannot help but get the feeling also has beast-people named Bella point is not so much the story he that Rucker is less than enthused and George. Bela Lugosi was a beast- tells, marvelous as it usually is, (or perhaps uncomfortable) when writ¬ man in the '32 film version and but the way he tells it. Martin is ing about ordinary human beings and George was Wells' middle name. Not master of the writer's trade, combin¬ the culture in which they live. only can this novel be taken serious¬ ing words to create vivid images Though Rucker tries his best to ly, but it can be used as a party with emotional inpact. animate the human characters, it is game. Describing the hideously de¬ "House of the White Worm" is a not until they step from the ordinary formed mad scientist of his novel, story of the general type called that they are imbued with vivid life Aldiss writes: "Dying Earth", where science and -- the cult nurderer who is about to '"He might have started as fantasy have merged into future- eat a living brain, the anarchist pitiably as Frankenstein's mythology. Clark Ashton Smith was who trades his fleshy hardware for monster; but he had turned the first I'm aware of to pen them; electronic hardware, the ne'er-do- himself into a Frankenstein -- Jack Vance is the best-known for well who puts on a Happy Cloak and a victor, not a victim."' them; C.J. Cherryh most recent (with is able to talk to boppers. The first four-fifths of the the very fine SUNFALL); and George But if Rucker's human characters novel is little more than a pleasant R.R. Martin here writes one of the and his vision of a future Florida way to kill time, but then Aldiss best. are just words on paper, his robots runs out of Wells and starts writing "Fast Friends" is an example of (boppers) and the lunar culture that like Aldiss. He delivers an off¬ storytelling at its finest. George they have built sparkle with life. beat lyrical scene, (sort of blui- creates miraculous space phenomena, One can see, hear and smell them. zarre lagoon). Not long after that, firefly-like creatures (?) that move They are alive in a way that the ord¬ he serves up wonderfully realized at the speed of light, and an energy inary human characters are not. incongruent context and cliches where the hero learns the true state being (?) that feeds on them. Then SOFTWARE is not light reading, of affairs which makes perfect sense he invests them with importance by though there are sane wonderfully if one assumes the world is insane. having it turn out that humans can light moments in it. Rucker forces Since World War III is blazing away merge with the latter to become yet the reader to think. Halfway that assumption is one of the few a third kind of life-form (!), a through the book, you begin to wond¬ things which is safe. Then he takes true starperson which can travel at er whether you, the real you, are that cheerfully-given insanity and speeds which makes the whole galaxy the hardware (the meat) or the soft¬ renders it into bureaucratese and his natural habitat and range. All ware (the chemically coded thoughts). shows how little removed from our this is "simply" the set-up for the If you're not sure by the time you own world is the island of Moreau, human story he tells. The hero's finish the book, then I think Rucker and how easy to understand. The lover has become one of the star- has done what I feel he meant to do twisted Catch-22 thinking begins to kind, but since the merger is often in writing this book. sound like things presented serious¬ fatal, the hero does not have the ************************************ ly as wisdom on the six o'clock news. nerve to try. He has to find some way to learn the secret of transport¬ Having abandoned the style and ing a ship faster-than-light since themes of Wells, Aldiss at last after many years he is still obses¬ achieves some of the depth and im¬ sed with his now fast-friend lover. pact of Wells. His finale alone is worth two and a quarter. Not only does he solve the prob¬ lem of faster-than-light travel, and ************************************ does the solution combine all the , 0mm. story elements, but George has given us a clue to that solution several Yew m if m times. As if that is not enough, k 49 the solution is used only as catalyst for the hero's resolution of his emo¬ to The Edge, an open pit copper mine tional problems. Would you believe formerly worked in Neolithic eras the story is only twenty-two pages and thus retaining some of the old long? magics. Colin and Susan go exploring and are almost kidnapped by a strange "The Stone City" is an eerie lady in a car, who begins to recite tale reminiscent of Kaffka, about a Latin phrases [you just know it has spaceman seeking a berth from a more to be an evil spell) to induce them inhuman-than-average race of aliens. to come against their will. The My only quibble is that not only are spell is broken by Uncle Gowther who the flashbacks not really needed, comes on the scene. Susan notices [well-written, often fascinating, that her "Tear", a small iridescent never-the-less unnecessary), but stone which is a family heirloom, has they are enough different in tone opaqued. It becomes clear later and and style to make the story seem dis¬ the children think no more about it. jointed. George has used this method of intercutting between continuous They continue their exploring at narratives of "present" and "past" The Edge, are almost captured by ugly events several times to good advant¬ gollum-like creatures [Morthbrood), age, "Fast Friends" for example, but are rescued by a dwarf, meet the Wiz¬ it works against him here. ard who identifies Susan's "Tear" as the magic stone Firefrost, which "Starlady" is a pretty good will awake the sleeping knights whom story, but ... Maybe it doesn't the Wizard, Cadellin, is guarding. work as well for me because I found He warns them that the woman who it hard to accept that after an int¬ tried to kidnap them is a witch [The wife with her brood and the son of erstellar empire has had time to be Morrigan) who is one of his mortal the woman who runs the hunting lodge founded, flourish and fall, prostit¬ enemies from eons back. The adven¬ in the Welsh hills where they are ution would have undergone no change tures continue with a fearful trip vacationing. There is quite a lot except for clothing style and a few through the old copper mines and fin¬ of bickering between the children as new slang words. ally involves Uncle Gowther as all one might expect, and attempts by of them flee cross-country to avoid While a superb story, "Sandkings" the father to get to know his step¬ is one of limited purpose, to scare the ancient forces of evil which have children. the hell out of the reader. It suc¬ been roused by the children's coming. Frankly, all of that could have ceeds. In a mysterious "pet" shop, This is highly recommended read¬ been stricken from the book with no a junior-grade sadist buys some ant¬ ing and is certainly NOT in the same loss of plot. The real magic comes like aliens. They come in four col¬ vein as the many Tolkein imitators. ors which fight wars, will grow larg¬ in with the idiot gardener, the hired er if given larger space, are said woman's son, the eldest daughter and to be intelligent, and it is promised a set of dishes on which owl faces The second book, MOON OF GCMRATH, they will worship him. At first it mysteriously appear and disappear. as with most sequels, does not have seems that is the case, but they are There is an unsolved death which may the spell-binding power of THE WEIRD¬ not insects, and worship can become be an accidental nurder or else a STONE. Too many new characters ap¬ hate. One day they escape. What sacrifice to the Welsh god, Llew pear and there is no time for their Law Gyffes. Recommended. happens after that is as surprising development. It's O.K. and terrifying as any nightmare ************************************ Stephen King has ever had. ************************************ ELIDOR is the tale of four modem children who accidentally wander into the parallel universe of Elidor while THE WEIRDSTONE OF BRISINGAMEN, playing in an inner-city abandoned DREAM DANCER THE MOON OF GOMRATH, ELIDOR, church which is due to be tom down. By Janet Morris THE OWL SERVICE They are made guardians of the four Berkley Books, N.Y., 1982 Sacred Treasures of that land --a 327 pp., $2.75 By Alan Gamer spear, a stone, a sword and a cauld¬ Ballantine, $1.95 ron. They are then returned to their REVIEWED BY RALPH E. VAUGHAN REVIEWED BY ALMA JO WILLIAMS modern-day existence. The electro¬ magnetic emanations from these talis¬ Janet Morris has written a book Alan Gamer is known as a child¬ mans draw the evil ones from Elidor of power and beauty. The universe ren's novelist in Great Britain, but from their medieval existence to our she has constructed is vivid and vi¬ his books make good adult reading. world and the means whereby the child¬ brant; her characters actually breathe Unlike most of the modem fantasists, ren save not only the treasures but but it is her masterful use of the he uses present-day settings for his their own lives -- making a good 90 English language which makes DREAM. tales of wonder, myth and magic. The minutes of absorbing reading. DANCER more than just the first book first two titles are sequels; THE in yet another trilogy. WEIRDSTONE introduces us to Susan The story follows a young girl and Colin who have come to visit THE OWL SERVICE is again modern- from a backwater Earth as she becomes their Aunt and Uncle Bess and Gowth- day children drawn into the primal heir to the vast Kerrion Empire. er Mossock, who are farmers and live Welsh legend of Llew Law Gyffes, his Some very interesting developments in one of the rural sections which flower-bride, Bloudewedd and her lov¬ happen along the way. fill in the great gaps between the er, Goronway Pens. The story involv¬ modem British cities. At best, most trilogies are un¬ es a father with several children even and unsatisfying; at worst, Gamer has drawn on Pictish and of his own plus his newly-married they are abysmal and disappointing. Nordic-British legendry to create After reading DREAM DANCER I cannot his spells. The Mossocks live close 50 believe that the Saga of the Kerrion Empire will have the same faults. helpful to the reader) concerns a constant fighting and quarrelling go¬ It will be interesting to see if Mor¬ Rolling Stone concert he attended in ing on between them. The civiliza¬ ris can sustain the craftsmanship of Buffalo: "...the great thing was tion is roughly equivalent to anci¬ her prose, the magic of her words. that the music was so loud you could ent Babylon. Ironically, the nuclear ************************************ not tell, after a while, what the war was apparently set off by a met¬ song was". eor shower in the Middle East. ************************************ Unknown to the tribesmen Stel and Tor, another civilization is in co-existence with them. There is a GUARDSMEN OF GOR dome in the forest beneath which is By John Norman a comnunity of survivors. They have DAW Books, 304 pp., $2.95 kept functioning for centuries the technology inherited from the Old REVIEWED BY PAUL MC GUIRE THE DOME IN THE FOREST World, using genetic breeding to en¬ The novel begins with a huge By Paul 0. Williams sure against radiation damage to battle between warships. Since this Ballantine Books, Ltd., 5590 Ambler the last of the human race. Due to was well-researched, it is rather Drive, Mississauga, Ontario, a malfunction of a detector, they fascinating and although Norman is Canada L4W 1Y7. still believe the outside is too hot wretched at dialogue, generally well- and for anything to survive very long. Random House, Inc., New York, NY. written. His philosophy is that all But their small in-bred society 1981, 214 pages, $2.75. men love killing and all women love is beginning to decay from shortages slavery. REVIEWED BY W. RITCHIE BENEDICT of fuel and supplies, and their re¬ ************************************ maining geneticist is believed by This new novel by Paul 0. Wil¬ some to be a little mad due to his liams, which is apparently part of unorthodox ideas (he turns out to a continuing saga, is extremely well be one of the more sane personalities SPACETIME DONUTS done for this theme. 1100 years af¬ in this world). The people of the By Rudy Rucker ter the Big Atomic War, a semblance dome tend for the most part to em¬ Ace, 1981, 196 pp., $2.50 of civilization has re-established body cold, intellectual qualities itself near what used to be St. Louis. which is one of the reasons they REVIEWED BY RUSSELL ENGEBRETSON A melange of city states exist with have survived so long. SPACETIME DONUTS is a dystopian novel with a typical discontented protagonist who sets out to change the system. The action takes place in an American city in the year 2165, but the characters smoke dope, listen to Frank Zappa and the Rol¬ ling Stones, engage in casual sex and otherwise comport themselves like any respectable member of the late 60s youth culture. A plot sum¬ mary would sound even more ridicu¬ lous than the foregoing and would be an injustice because this is a truly whiz-bang novel. Rudy Rucker plays around with concepts found in higher mathematics and quantum physics by applying them to imaginary inventions. He throws in a liberal dose of metaphysics, which is almost unavoidable when one writes about quantum mechanics. He also includes a couple of juicy sex scenes and some moderately graphic violence. Something for everyone. The tone of SPACETIME DONUTS -- which oscillates from playful to serious --is strongly reflected in the author's short foreword. He as¬ sures us, for instance, that his fic¬ tional use of miniature black holes is scientifically feasible thanks to Holeflaffer's 2038 technique of mag¬ netic monopole injection. Never mind that most of the technology here would be right at home in the Lens- man saga, or that Holeflaffer is al¬ so the name of a character on an al¬ bum created by the twisted comedic genius of the FIRESIGN THEATER. Another interesting conment from Rucker (which might or might not be A girl named Celeste, not be¬ There's even an ending, which is and the Brothers Grimm, rambles lieving the official propaganda, more than the series has yet provid¬ through PETER PAN and finishes in a escapes from the dome and makes her ed. dazzle of Asimov, Heinlein and Andre way to one of the tribal city-states Norton, with an aside to Harlan El¬ called Pelgarigan. If you liked the series and/or the first book, you'll like this one lison. She also converses about the From this point on, it becomes too, though the novelty has worn off Art of Faery and has four pages of evident that it is only a matter of and further installments might be¬ pictures with interesting footnotes. Highly recommended. time before both groups meet on a come pretty thin. And if you're not collision course. familiar with the story told in the ************************************ The novel is complete in itself first volume, you'll be lost in this but mention is made toward the end one: caveat emptor. Otherwise, of the book of journeys to other enj oy! parts of the benighted continent. I suspect there will be further books. OPTIMAN By Brian Stableford TIE DOME IN THE FOREST is a DAW #406, 190 pp., $1.95 fully-realized science fiction nov¬ THE COVENANT OF THE CROWN el and most successful in its pur¬ REVIEWED BY MARK WILLARD poses. I have read other novels By Howard Weinstein that are more complex in makeup in¬ Timescape/Pocket Books, 191 pp, $2.25 OPTIMAN is considerably different sofar as characters and plot, but I from Brian Stableford's last twelve think this is a bit better than the REVIEWED BY PAUL MC GUI RE or fifteen books. It combines the best features of the epic themes and average beginning writer is able to This STAR TREK book is science tum out. Mr. Williams may have a freewheeling adventures of his mid- fiction junk food; when a science 60s novels with the logically con¬ promising career as a science fic¬ fiction writer says a ship in outer tion writer ahead of him. structed backgrounds and realistic space "rose up on its tail" that is detail of his "Grainger" and "Daeda¬ ***************************** ******* really too much. I know the TV ser¬ lus" series. ies had the same kind of mistakes, such as the line dividing two space The human race and the alien areas, but it is not too mich to ask Veich are locked in a centuries-long that a science fiction writier under¬ space war. Humans have captured the planet Heidra from the Veich and oc¬ THE RESTAURANT AT TIC END OF TIE stand at least the basic nature of space. cupied one continent; the second UNIVERSE continent is home to the world's na¬ By Douglas Adams This novel has a young princess, tive race, the Sioconi, remnants of Pan Books, 1980, pb, 9Spp, $3.25 Mr. Spock and Dr. McCoy on an ice the Veich garrison and settlers and world searching for a lost crown the Er'Kresha, tribes of Sioconi bar¬ REVIEWED BY ALLEN VARNEY while being chased by the Klingons. barian nomads. This is the sequel to THE HITCH¬ Mr. Weinstein wrote one of the Across explored space, archae¬ HIKER’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY, based animated STAR TREK episodes, but the ologists have found the remains of on the hilarious 1978 BBC Radio series book is no better (or worse) than the mapirenes and cascarenes -- ex¬ which seemingly has already develop¬ the majority of STAR TREK books. tinct races who died out or destroy¬ ed a cult following. The series, ************************************ ed each other some thirty thousand you'll recall, began with the des¬ years previously in a conflict para¬ truction of Earth to make way for a lleling that of the Veich and humans. hyperspatial bypass and grew rapidly Evidence suggests that a large, pos¬ crazier from there. The first book sibly undamaged mapirene installa¬ adapted only the first four episodes THE EROTIC WORLD OF FAERY tion exists on Heidra, in the second of the 12-part (so far) series; this By Maureen Duffy continent's hinterlands and that it new volume takes up immediately Non-fiction, Avon Discus Books, dates from the climactic point of where the first left off and barrels New York, NY, 401 pp., $3.50 the ancient conflict. on in similarly weird fashion to a Illustrated Remy is a human deserter, manag¬ fairly satisfying conclusion. REVIEWED BY ALMA JO WILLIAMS ing a mercenary force of other hu¬ Along the way our heroes (Ford man deserters and Veich and Sioconi Prefect, Zaphod Beeblebrox, Arthur The cover blurb states succinct¬ warriors, all of them in the service Dent, Trillian and Marvin the Para¬ ly ... "A visionary history of the of a refugee Veich nobleman. Remy noid Android) visit Megadodo Publica¬ erotic underside of literature from joins a hirnan military/scientific tions, publishers of that entirely the dark ages to the science fiction expedition to investigate the pur¬ remarkable book THE HITCH-HIKER'S and fantasy of our time." Since Ms. ported mapirene base; the Optiman GUIDE; meet the true Ruler of the Un¬ Duffy is British, the literature of the title is an expedition memb¬ iverse, the colonizers of Earth, and scanned is mainly British with an er. The Optiman is a test-tube pro¬ the leader of the loudest rock band occasional aside to American recent duct, or android or super-warrior, in creation, Disaster Area; get science fiction and fantasy. She there to gain experience; he and oth¬ thoroughly drunk at the establish¬ does an excellent job of explaining ers like him will soon be deployed ment of the title (a nice set-piece why the World of Faery was suppres¬ against the Veich on other worlds. that could almost stand on its own sed by the early Church and how the -- anthologists, take note); and in early eroticism of the Celtic pagan general hop about the galaxy at a lays were camouflaged into the fam¬ From these complex beginnings, frenetic pace. iliar stories and nursery rhymes we OPTIMAN spins into an action novel read and loved as children. For you with an intricate plot, interesting There appears to be very little Spenser fans, she dwells at great characters and situations, visual overlap with the series here; the length on THE FAERIE QUEEN. She al¬ grandeur and some pace-changing phil¬ few incidents that have been adapted so devotes a whole chapter to sex osophical discussions. Several of have been reordered and transmogri¬ the human characters are rather fied into a semblance of structure. 52 single-minded and shallow, but Stable- ford is simply describing these peo¬ led that, to comprehend, he must re¬ novel that Mr. Priest has written; I ple as they come, and how they inter¬ cord, in writing. A first draft of shall pay it the greatest conpliment act with more complex characters his autobiography is discarded, a I can by re-reading it. such as Remy. The few weak charac¬ second prepared but considered unsat¬ ters (and a couple of annoying ones) isfactory -- however, a third --he are not enough to sabotage the book. would have us believe -- penetrates It's a good vividly realistic adven¬ via the use of metaphor and al¬ ture yam, more thoughtful than most, legory .... and especially welcome in that it He is interrupted before he can CATACOPBS may mark a new direction in Stable- finish the sentence, the paragraph, By John Farris ford's writing that is a synthesis the page. Delacorte Press, $13.95 of the best points of the previous directions in his work. Recommended. REVIEWED BY ROBERT B. ROSS Though he writes at length, Pet¬ er is unable to affirm his identity. Within the boundaries of Tanzania, He fails because caught between two deep within Mt. Kilimanjaro, lie the worlds: which is real, which imagin¬ Catacombs. And inside the Catacombs ed? Having been "rescued" -- from are the perfectly preserved remains THE AFFIRMATION himself -- by his sister, Felicity, of a strange, alien, African culture By Christopher Priest boarded with her family, of a sudden much older than our own. They were Faber 5 Faber, 1981, L6.2Sp, 213 pp. he embarks for the Dream Archipelago. much more sopHsticated and technolog¬ During the voyage he discloses to the ically advanced than any civiliza¬ REVIEWED BY ANDREW TIDMARSH reader that he has won the Lotterie- tion at present, and they have left Collago; his prize is a treatment an incredible legacy: Etched into To test the hypothesis that the that will indefinitely prolong his hundreds of rare, bloodred diamonds story of a book may be told in its life; a consequence of the operation is the formula for Firekill. own words -- indeed, with its own is a complete loss of memory; his words -- I would quote brief extracts response to a lengthy questionnaire Firekill is "a spatial distortion from this novel. By so doing, I achieved by combining the forces of would hope to demonstrate that it is electromagnetism and gravity to create the autobiography of Peter Sinclair, unusually strong gravitational fields. who, having undergone major surgery, A force field, if you will". The writes in an effort to re-discover, perfect anti-missile defense. perhaps to re-fashion his past. Jumbe Kinyati is the ruler of Problems immediately arise. How Tanzania. When he learns of the dia¬ old is the writer? 29. Yet, he re¬ monds and gets his hands on them, members an incident that occurred two he transcribes the entire formula or three years ago, when he was 29. and attempts blackmail. Inviting the Where does he live? London; a cot¬ defense ministers of both the United tage near the Welsh border, with his States and Russia to a meeting in sister, Felicity and her family, hus¬ Tanzania, he reveals some of what he band and two children in Sheffield. knows about the ancient race called Yet the operation was performed upon Zan. Their bodies still held in per¬ the island, Collago. Where? Collago fect suspended animation inside the lies within the Dream Archipelago Catacombs, they are panther-like, (that has featured in other stories will underpin his rehabilitation. half man and half cat. by Priest: WHORES, THE WATCHED: do However, pressed for time, he sub¬ But Kinyati is not interested in not be misled), an immense group of stitutes his autobiography for any that. What he wants from the U.S.A. islands that encircle the Earth, sep¬ more objective description of him¬ or the U.S.S.R., are a few missiles. arating the warring states of Jethra self. I -- myself a writer --at Just enough for him to take over or and ... What was its name? I for¬ this point foresaw that the novel destny South Africa. In exchange get. Peter -- or ought I write Rob¬ would be shown to be a faithful trans¬ for these armaments, Kinyati will ert? -- has also forgotten: his age, cription of that text. give the bearer the conplete formula the names of his parents, his country to Firekill. Kinyati sends the min¬ of residence, in short, his identity. To be brief: THE AFFIRMATION is isters home, giving them a thirty-day an analysis of the nature of fiction, The novel is an affirmation of presented as fiction. Descriptions deadline. life, no more. To start, Peter -- of the Archipelago resemble those of Both America and Russia want the the name that he prefers --is con¬ the Greek Islands that Peter had vis¬ formula. Neither one wants to give fused by the simultaneous loss of his ited from London. The development Tanzania any weapons. Both enploy job, death of his father and disin¬ of his friendship with Seri, an em¬ their top agents to try and infil¬ tegration of his relationship with ployee of the Lotterie, who accompan¬ trate Tanzania, and steal the foimila. Gracia. Impulsively, he makes con¬ ies him to the hospital, resembles The Russians send Michael Belov and tact with an elderly friend of the that of his relationship with Gracia. the U.S.A. activates a retired agent, family who agrees that he might "bor¬ Perhaps Peter's autobiography re¬ Mathew Jade. row" his country cottage for a short sembles that of his creator? Plaus¬ period. In lieu of rent, Peter und¬ ible, yet contradictory answers are An interesting premise, which ertakes to redecorate the house, clear provided for this, and similar ques¬ Farris turns into a sometimes inter¬ and re-organise the garden. He finds tions. The novel succeeds in con¬ esting, sometimes confusing novel. the works difficult. He clears and vincing that reality and fantasy are There are too many characters. New paints white one room downstairs, in indistinguishable. Though abrupt, chapters keep introducing new char¬ which he lives, then is overcome, per¬ its resolution is satisfactory be¬ acters, new sub-plots, some of which haps by lethargy, perhaps despair, cause a logical consequence of the are left dangling. Mathew Jade is supposed to be the main character; perhaps by the realisation that he form the author has chosen to use. cannot answer the -- simple? -- A technical tour de force; the best he is the hero of the book, but he question: "Who am I?" Fragmented isn't on stage any more than a half- memories of his childhood are recal¬ S3 dozen other characters. The conclusion is exciting, but could be sent to each world, but the artificiality of the worlds of the it does leave some unanswered ques¬ problem is that once there, he could Warden Diamond? tions, all dealing with the Zan. A never leave again due to an organism frustrating book, but worth reading. which infiltrates the bloodstream. There are many familiar elements AM:****** ************ *************** The solution is to impose the mind in this book: game playing; sword of one man over that of four expend¬ and sorcery; fantasy; science fic¬ ibles and send them each to a res¬ tion, even Gor. But somehow it all pective planet. That way, the main hangs together and makes an enter¬ taining novel. It will be interest¬ MYSTERIES OF THE WORM agent need never leave home to exert control. ing to see how the remaining three By Robert Bloch, Edited by Lin Carter worlds are developed. Zebra Books, Kensington Pub. Corp. Lilith is a world where techno¬ ************************************ New York, NY ISBN: 0-890830815-1-295 logy does not exist, as such -- any metals soon decay and disintegrate. REVIEWED BY ALMA JO WILLIAMS Consequently the furthest it has ev¬ olved is a sort of medieval hierar¬ SAN DIEGO LIGHTFOOT SUE and other The subtitle reads "All the chy, with the aristocracy in control Stories Cthulhu Mythos Stories of Robert through highly developed psi powers. The short fiction of Tom Reamy Bloch", and the time span of these Earthlight Publishers, 5539 Jackson, Cal Tremon is sent to this world tales runs from 1935 to 1958. Lin Kansas City, MO, 64130. Trade Edi¬ and must work his way up from the Carter's Foreword explains succintly tion $14.95. Slipcased Edition $25. Bloch's role in the Lovecraft circle, bottom until he can meet with the and tells of the "in" puns like put¬ mysterious Lord who rules the planet. REVIEWED BY DAVID A. TRUESDALE ting Luveh-Keraph, priest of Bast The social system is every bit as as the author of BLACK RITES -- Bast brutal as that on Earth centuries Although this book appeared in being the patron saint of cats in 1980 with a print run of 2,300 copies the Egyptian god hierarchy and Love- it has not been reviewed in these craft being fond of cats -- and re¬ pages and there are at least 500 cop¬ telling for the nth time, the inter¬ ies remaining. esting story of how the Trilogy of Aside from two yet to be publish¬ "The Shambler from the Stars", "The ed stories ("Potiphee, Petey and Me" Hunter of the Dark" and "The Shadow in THE FINAL DANGEROUS VISIONS and from the Steeple" came to be written. "M is for the Million Things" in NEW The time period for most of the VOICES IV), this is all the short fic¬ stories gives the flavor of the 1930s tion we will ever see from Tom Reamy. and early '40s, except for "Terror in This book, as well as Tom Reamy, de¬ Cut-Throat Cove" which was written serves a much wider audience than in 1958 and which is definitely a just those of us who are devoted to modem addition to the Mythos. fantastic literature, and, as Har¬ There are some little-printed stor¬ lan Ellison states in his critical ies such as "The Fane of the Black and insightful introduction, even Pharaoh" and "The Secret of Sebek", the mention of science fiction while which no one except collectors may discussing Tom's work is to damn it have had access to. This book is a and label it as such forever, when definite must for Lovecraft and Bloch in reality extremely little of Reamy's collectors. fiction even concerned itself with ************************************ the genre. Tom was a fantasist, plain and simple. Just take a quick look at the 1976 Nebula Award winner "San LILITH: A SNAKE IN THE GRASS Diego Lightfoot Sue" or "Under the Hollywood Sign" or "The Mistress of By Jack L. Chalker ago -- it is a prison colony, just Windraven" and see what I mean. Ballantine, NeW York, 1981 as Australia served the same use They're all of them fantasies, ala $2.95 here. Bradbury if you will, or yes, Har¬ REVIEWED BY W. RITCHIE BENEDICT Even the doctors on this world lan Ellison, too. But the undercur¬ rent in most of these disturbing This new novel, the first of a show a knack for innovation and ex¬ perimentation --on humans, that is, and sometimes superficially grotesque proposed quadrilogy (quadrology? otherwise they would not be there. pieces of Ream'ys (see "Beyond the -- quadruplets anyway) begins with a robot looting the memory banks of Of course, there also has to be a Cleft") is a psychological twisting the Confederacy --a quasi-empire/ representative of the church --a of the knife into those dark areas priest who is wandering around try¬ most of us would sooner leave quite dictatorship. The robot comes from ing to convert the benighted inhab¬ aliens whose purpose is unknown, but alone. Tom dealt in his own unique presumedly hostile to the powers itants of a benighted world to a bet¬ fashion with fear, as shown in "Twil- ter life in the hereafter. that be. The robot travels toward la", wherein a small schoolgirl un¬ the Warden Diamond --a planetary leashes a nightmarish monster on the small Kansas town she and her system of four worlds: Lilith, Med¬ Hie ending is somewhat of a sur¬ usa, Cerberus and Charon -- each prise to Tremon and his friends. Ap¬ simulacra parents now inhabit. "Un¬ different in an unpleasant way and parently the Lords and the aliens der the Hollywood Sign" delves into populated by misfits from Earth. are not so much malign as a threat the two-sided coin of fascination to the existing order. But will this and fear of homosexuality and how A Lord presides over each world be true in the forthcoming books? one policeman comes to terms, in a who is suspected of collaborating Is there something else behind them review of most short fiction of Tom with the aliens and therefore must again, as seemingly implied by the Reamy -- gripping and disturbing, be terminated with extreme prejudice oh, most disburbing manner, with as the CIA would say. An agent 54 his inner self. And there are more, to be sure, most readers in general would rath¬ The stone cannot be transferred like these. But Tom also wrote er be entertained than elightened. from one person to another except screenplays and there are several as an act of love, and the alien For those readers who do enjoy treatments included here, some un¬ gypsies dare not abandon it -- it is a taste of the literary, a careful completed but showing much promise beyond their powers to reproduce one. reading of Gene Wolfe's fiction will ("2076: Blue Eyes") and at least But .Allis herself is rejected by prove rewarding. THE ISLAND OF DOC¬ one ("Insects in Amber") which is them, as unworthy of their captain's TOR DEATH AND OTHER STORIES AND OTH¬ very thin stuff and not very good love; in fact, Milani, the other co¬ ER STORIES contains nearly all of at all, and which, incidentally, Tom captain, was herself Daneth's lover the author's better-known stories. hated as well. on board ship. Allis has the stone, My favorite is "The Island of Doctor however, and she will soon have Dan¬ But inasmuch as SAN DIEGO LIGHT- Death and Other Stories" in which a eth's child, a rare event now for FOOT SUE is a memorial, a testament lonely boy immerses himself in read¬ the radiation-ravaged race of gypsy to Tom Reamy, put together and pub¬ ing fantasy only to find his whole stargoers. lished by those who loved him most, world gradually being enveloped by it shows much of Tom, his range and it. Many readers will empathize As Allis eventually begins to interests, from excellent award-win¬ with the boy but even those who can¬ leam her new powers, she also dis¬ ning work to merely fair adventure not will surely be moved by his covers that trust is gained even pieces, in a beautifully bound, long- story. more slowly. For each step she lasting edition those who knew Tom, takes forward, at times it seems she There are several other stories or his work, should not pass by. falls two steps back. nearly as good: "The Hero as Wer¬ The dust-jacket and endpapers are wolf is about the struggle of hu¬ Being able to read minds is not by the incomparable Leo and Diane mans to survive in a world dominat¬ the key to social acceptance and Dillon, and close friend of Reamy's, ed by superhumans; "The Death of Doc¬ leadership one might imagine. There Howard Waldrop, offers a personal tor Island" is set in an asylum in are subtlties of "human" relation¬ and touching reminiscence of Tom the form of a tropical island whose ships here that were simply undreamed leading up to his winning the John computerized brain performs the role of in the days of pulp science fic¬ W. Campbell award for best new writ¬ of psychiatrist; "Seven American tion. Realized here are the endless er at the 1976 World SF Convention Nights" concerns a foreigner's visit contradictions rife in "human" char- in Kansas City. to America during this country's de¬ actor. Tom Reamy died of a heart attack cline. In all these stories we are And, as you've well noticed, the on November, 1977, slumped over his treated to real people struggling to word "human" is in quotes, deliberate¬ typewriter while working on a story survive in well-defined environments. ly so. If there is a flaw in Feli¬ for Ed Ferman at THE MAGAZINE OF There are fourteen stories in ce's story, it is that her aliens FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION. SAN all totalling 410 pages of thought¬ are not alien. They are as identif- DIEGO LICHTFOOT SUE and other stor¬ ful science fiction, making this iably human as any other man or wo¬ ies, the short fiction of Tom Reamy, anthology one of the treats of the man found on this planet. Foreign, has helped to ease that great loss. past year. It is recomnended for perhaps, from a faraway land, but ************************************ any serious science fiction readers. not otherwise alien. ************************************ Yet Ftelice is that rare writer who not only understands emotion and its uses in producing a story, but THE SUNBOUND she also knows now to translate it By Cynthia Felice as raw, unformed feelings into words Dell 18373; c. 1981, First Printing as well. April, '81. 366 pp., $2.50 And as if that were not enough, REVIEWED BY STEVE LEWIS what she does here in addition is to seamlessly blend an honest sense Let me choose my words carefully. of romance into a world filled with THE ISLAND OF DOCTOR DEATH This is the finest science fic¬ the wonders of high technology -- a combination much harder to find AND OTHER STORIES AND OTHER tion novel I have read in the last than it may sound. STORIES five years. By Gene Wolfe No, it's not without flaws, and This is a marvelous, mind-expand¬ Pocket Books, 1980, 410 pp., $2.95 yes, there are a lot of books I just ing book! ************************************ REVIEWED BY ROBERT SABELLA haven't gotten around to reading yet, -but -- if I had to come up with ’a Although a very talented writer. convincing argument that character¬ Gene Wolfe has never achieved the ization is- not inherently inconpat- same popularity as many of his peers. ible with the rigors of writing W EXPERIENCES IN THE THIRD WORLD One explanation is that he is not science fiction, right now here's WAR the work I'd point to first. an entertainer in the traditional By Michael Moorcock sense of the word. His stories shy It's a long book, but there's Savoy Books, 1980, 176 pp., ti.so away from heavy plotting with never not a page that's wasted. There's a a hint of slambang action or rapid lot of background to go with it, but REVIEWED BY ANDREW TIDMARSH pagetuming. His stories are tap¬ in essence the story is this: Allis, This volume contains three stor¬ estries wherein the reader exper¬ an Earthwoman, is kidnapped by aliens ies, original to this book, that de¬ iences the fullness of- his fascinat¬ and taken with them into space. She ing worlds and their inhabitants. has received a token of love from one scribe the experiences in the Third His writing is very measured and can World War of a Russian Intelligence of their co-captains as he lay dying officer; a Jerry Cornelius story, be extremely slow-paced at times. --a conmunicator stone which gives Most science fiction readers shy "The Dodgem Division", that has not its wearer the power of telepathy. away from this literary side of the been reprinted since its publication genre, which is not unusual since 55 in the fanzine SPECULATION in 1968; the cartoon-strip adventures of RED SONJA: THE RING OF IKRIBU high. Dr. Rudy Gerson, an Ob-Gyn "Jerry Cornelius: The English Assas¬ By David C. Smith and doctor, has several patients whom he sin", words by Moorcock and M. John Richard L. Tierney has sent there, experience this dis¬ Harrison, pictures by Mai Dean and R. Ace Books, 246 pp., $2.25 aster. A med school friend of his Glyn Jones; "Peace on Earth", Moor¬ REVIEWED BY PAUL MC GUIRE who works in research there, hints cock's first adult SF story, expanded that the babies are not dead but are prior to publication by Barrington J. Sonja is a sword-wielding drift¬ part of a monstrous experiment. Bayley; "The Love Beast", a story er, not as brutish or brutal as most The friend dies of a seeming heart Moorcock supposes has not been re¬ of her male compatriots, but little attack. Rudy and another friend, printed for years for good reason; different. Marvel Comics wanted a Mary from Philly, take on the estab¬ and "The Real Life of Mr. Newman: woman counter-point to Conan. Roy lishment single-handed, complete with Adventures of the Dead Astronaut". Thomas based Red Sonja loosely on a freaks. The inportant stories are "Go¬ character called Red Sonja in a lit¬ The guiding light of the grot¬ ing to Canada", "Leaving Pasadena" tle-known R.E. Howard historical esque, Dr. Bradford, is a former stu¬ and "Crossing into Cambodia". In tale. Smith and Tierney based their dent of Rudy* s father. He and his his introduction. Moorcock warns that novel on the comics and it falls female counterpart. Dr. Gaby Latiol- the narrator of these pieces is not somewhere between Marvel and Howard. er, are the archetypal cold-blooded himself. He also writes that he cur¬ Action-adventure fantasy often scientific fiends. rently holds the "belief that any seems as if it is plotted like one Only one thing puzzles me: .Al¬ large scale future war will be avert¬ orders a Chinese dinner; one from ed (if it is averted) simply from though the monsters were nicknamed Column A, one from Column B; the ev¬ Sendai in honor of the virus ap¬ fear, from the knowledge of the ir¬ il arcane wizard, the dispossessed reversible consequences of engaging parently, Sendai virus was not used king, the young loyal knight, the in their production. in such a war". The three stories mysterious man with the covered face, analyse one person's reaction to the Alan Hale, the magic ring, the wand¬ This is a fast-moving potboiler outbreak of the Third World War. ering warrior, a slithering-slimy and except for a few minor liberties, The narrator seems not to be fright¬ abomination, assorted boogie men, most of the scientific procedures ened. He does not describe the real¬ dungeons and dragons. The writing are correct. ities of the war. Instead, he re¬ here is competent, but simple. Al¬ ************************************ presents the conflict as a conflict though lacking REH's special moody between himself and a woman. In the passion, and having even less depth absence of orgasm, the conflict is than he did, it should be quite sat¬ unresolved. The war goes on. The isfying for all those desiring more pieces are exquisitely written. Moor¬ of his style of blood and guts es¬ cock examines the struggle between capism. good and evil, order and chaos. He allows his reader to judge which is At least five more Red Sonja morally right, which morally wrong. novels are forthcoming. Also of interest is "The Dodgem ************************************ Division", an essay disguised as a piece of fiction, in which Jerry Corn¬ elius functions as the author’s clean¬ shaven alter-ego. The piece may have been written to explain, indeed, to THE SENDAI justify the "New Wave". It repays By WilliaiiBWoolfolke attention because it contains such Fawcett Popular Library/Fiction, passages as the following: New York, NY; January, 1981, 288 pp. $2.75 ISBN 0-445-04628-7 By Clark Ashton Smith "Jerry wondered why there REVIEWED BY ALMA -JO WILLIAMS Pocket Books, 1981, 240 pp., $2.95. should be the need for a new fiction. Were there Sendai -- the word is unfamiliar REVIEWED BY RUSSELL ENGEBRETSON really new ideas circulating? to most people, but well-known to This is the first mass-market New subject matter? Probab¬ those in the fields of virology and paperback of Clark Ashton Smith's ly. But even if there were cell culture. Sendai virus was first fiction to be published since the not, it was always better to isolated from mice in the Sendai dis¬ early seventies, and it should be try to extend the range of trict of Japan. It is in the same read by anyone interested in fan¬ fiction ... Most of the family -- paramyxovirus --as measles tasy who hasn't encountered his books published in England and canine distemper. The cells in¬ work before. were already dead before fected with it will tend to coalesce, birth. It was disgusting, forming "giant cells" -- one memb¬ THE CITY OF THE SINGING FLAME really. One would have rane, many nuclei. Inactivated Sen¬ contains the title story and a doz¬ expected a certain develop¬ dai virus is used to promote cell en others, most of them falling into ment in the field ...." fusions for DMA recombinate experi¬ one or another story-cycle. ments. Inactivated Sendai will al¬ I wonder, what development has there C.A. Smith possessed a large vo¬ so induce cells to produce a lot of been in the field since 1968? I cabulary and to the dismay of the would answer: little. THE LEFT interferon. This last phenomenon is reader he used most of it. Still, NOT what this book is about. HAND OF DARKNESS, THE INVESTIGATION his jeweled style enhances his writ¬ of Stanislaw Len, EHALGREN, Disch's The Laryll Clinic was set up ing more often than it detracts. sadly-under-rated 334, Wolfe's BOOKS for the invitro fertilization techni¬ Many of his stories reach excruciat¬ OF THE NW SUN. ques for use in women who are phys¬ ing levels of weirdness. iologically unable to allow sperm to Given the bankruptcy of the pub¬ One of the best is "The Dark fertilize their ovum. Unfortunately, lishers, this volume will be a col¬ Eidolon", which is included in this the death rate of these infants is lector's item. collection. ************************************ 56 ************************************ CHILDREN OF THE ATOM fix their hair before the science FANE fair opens -- they are our children, By David M. Alexander By Ivilmar H. Shiras happy, noisy and having fun. They Pocket Timescape, c. 1981, #83154-2 Afterword by Marion Zimmer Bradley could have been us. First printing, August 1981 Illustrated by Lela Dowling Pennyfarthing Press, San Francisco ************************************ PP-> $3.50 1978, Trade paperback, $5.95, 221 pp. REVIEWED BY STEVE LEWIS
REVIEWED BY PATRICIA SHAW One of the things that the ini¬ FUZZY BONES tials SF stand for, and more and CHILDREN OF THE ATOM was one of more so all the time, or so it seems, those books that expressed the feel¬ By William Tuning is Science Fantasy. Here's a prime ing of an age, and spoke to every¬ Ace Books, 375 pp., $2.50 example. body trapped within that age. First REVIEWED BY PAUL MC GUIRE Fane is a world, and it's one published as a series of short stories where, because of its magnetic in ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FICTION in 1948, To my knowledge, the most lov¬ field, magic works -- and machinery 1949 and 1950, Wilmar Shiras' stories able alien race in science fiction doesn't. It has been settled by of the genius children in hiding is The Fuzzies created by H. Beam three groups: descendants of (1) struck a chord -- or a raw nerve -- Piper. In LITTLE FUZZY a sunstone the original colonists, (2) a gang in everyone intelligent enough and prospector discovered the furry hu¬ of convicted criminals marooned different enough, to read science manoids and came to believe they there, and (3) the Ajaj crewmen of fiction. When "In Hiding", the lead were sapient. The Zarathustra Com¬ the ship that landed them all there and possibly best story, was reprint¬ pany (there's a joke there somewhere) but which never safely took off ed in a Doubleday Book Club anthol¬ owned the planet since it was believ¬ again. Native to the planet are the ogy called CHILDREN OF WONDER, along ed to lack intelligent life, and four-armed (but ,not fore-warned?) with classics like "Rocking Horse they were willing to play dirty to Fanists, mysterious humanoids who Winner", Shiras' story became synon¬ keep it that way, but lost. The tend to avoid the new inhabitants ymous with the mutant-genius genre. Fuzzies gained equal status in the of their planet. The book, CHILDREN OF THE ATOM, was Federation and the planet was open¬ published in 1953 and the title was ed up. In FUZZY SAPIENS (original Some time later, well-defined indicative of the spirit of the times. title: THE OTHER HUMAN RACE), Piper boundaries between (1) and (2) have Gifted children, in those days, wrote a low-key entertainment about developed. Members of (3) serve were simply not normal. They were a the hectic early days of colonial them both. There is a wizard and breed apart, either in the mold of status on the world. He took polit¬ his hapless nephew assistant. There Dilton Doily in the funnies, with ical hassles, organizational prob¬ his bow tie and short pants and five- lems, and a medical mystery and dollar words and obvious immaturity, turned it into a fascinating adven¬ or they were mutations created by ra¬ ture. (Piper's Fuzzy novels are diation, homo superior, or they were available in a single volume from children in danger of execution or Ace.titled THE FUZZY PAPERS). brainwiping, but human was the one Since both novels covered about thing they were not. a half-a-year's worth of events, By the same token, there were there is ample "space" for continua¬ is an opposing sorcerer and the beau¬ only two categories of personality, tion of the Fuzzy saga, but can any¬ tiful girl he forces to help him. "normal" and "not-normal". Shiras one equal, or even create an accept¬ There are bloodstone rings with the took great care to make her hero, able facsimile of Piper's special power to enhance magical prowess. Timmy, almost painfully well-adjust¬ ambience? Mr. Tuning does an amaz¬ There is revolt. ed; the eccentric kids of today, the ingly fine job of it. The plot itself is fairly tight. single-talented kids, the wild kids, This story begins about six (Or in other words, it hinges on hardly existed, except as problems months after the events of FUZZY SA¬ coincidence at every turn.) It is to be cured. PIENS. Although nothing seems to well enough written. What irks me Marion Zinmer Bradley, in her have happened to the main characters is that anyone could have written it afterword, is acid about the treat¬ in the meantime, the planet has been and it would have come out about the ment of the bright girl in that per¬ hit by the expected population boom same. iod; one story exemplifying this at¬ of immigrants following the breaking A lot happens, and nothing hap¬ titude perfectly takes place at of the company's strangle-hold on pens, if you follow me. On a world "Richard Nixon High School", where land and economy, or so we are told. where anything can happen, and usu¬ the noncomforming English teacher is Be warned -- like the original ally does, it takes a skilled writer desperately searching for a mind to novels, we sit in on a lot of casual¬ to tell his story in such a way so enlighten, but contemptuously dis¬ ly held business and other meetings, as to make it appear he's coming up misses the "girls who get straight which make the novel slower moving with something of more than passing As by docility and rote memorization"; and more talky than post-Star Wars interest. he wants a boy. He gets one, who space opera, but this is probably pronptly betrays him. I will say this. (I've said it much more what empire building is before.) Most of fandom seems to all about. like this sort of Silly Fiction a Shiras' mutant children today lot more than I do. seem like today's gifted children, And what about the Fuzzies? It lacking only Rubik's cubes to be is that aspect of the novel, where totally familiar. Their gifts and they came from, and how to reverse a their conversations, their enthus- rapidly declining birth rate, which iasnEand projects, are an accurate brings surprising results. Fuzzies if exaggerated reflection of the are much more than ambulatory teddy bright young polymaths who fill to¬ bears and maybe more than human. day's classes for the gifted, show ************************************ up at science fiction conventions. 57 THE PHOENIX LEGACY thoroughly enjoyed myself. THE PHOE¬ When Menx is discovered by the By M.K. Wren NIX LEGACY is a very good novel and planets of the Concord, an immense Berkley Books, 1981, $2.75 each. might have been a great one with a clash of cultures is inevitable -- Published in three volumes. little more care. neither quite capable of understand¬ ************************************ ing the other -- and the reader, REVIEWED BY KEITH SOLTYS poor sap, is left square in the mid¬ dle. The combination of science fic¬ tion and the family saga may be the The story itself is that of a next publishing phenomenon. Science quest, of sorts. A mystery tour. fiction readers always have been par¬ It's easy to find yourself caught tial to long books and the format of up in the swirling mists of its the family saga utilizes a scope multi-colored complexities, a story that is natural to science fiction. told on the thin edge of hysteria, A few authors have tried it, notably with prose as tormented as a Gothic Matha Randall and F.M. Busby, with heroine's heart. varying degrees of success. In a lot of ways it's like watch¬ ing your favorite afternoon soap op¬ Up until now such books have era -- not much seems to happen at been packaged and marketed as science any one time, and the dialogue is fiction. But THE PHOENIX LEGACY by filled to overflowing with deliber¬ M.K. Wren takes a different tack. It's packaged to look like the his¬ ate ambiguities and veiled hints of what may be to come, something like torical romances which fill super¬ oracular molasses -- but, like me, market and drugstore paperback racks. you may find it an experience you In this case it would be a mistake can't quite tear yourself away from. to judge the book by its covers. ************************************ Although published as three books, THE PHOENIX LEGACY is not a trilogy but rather one long novel. The indi¬ vidual titles are SWORD OF THE LAMB, SHADOW OF THE SWAN and HOUSE OF THE THE RED MAGICIAN WOLF. By Lisa Goldstein It's set in the thirty-third Timescape/Pocket Books, 156 pp., $2.25 century as mankind stands on the brink of a third dark age. Wren has REVIEWED BY PAUL MC GUIRE set up a feudal society, the Concord, This novel uses fantasy to bet¬ complete with Lords, slaves and a By Ann Maxwell ter tell a mainstream story. The rebel underground, the Phoenix. Signet, #AE1037; c. 1981, First printing. Sept. '81, 248pp., $2.75 life, death and rebirth of the Euro¬ The central character, Alexand pean Jews is seen through the odyssey Woolf, is the son of a Lord and thus REVIEWED BY STEVE LEWIS of one young woman. At thirteen, the in line for a Directorship on the protagonist is bored by the small, ruling Concord Council. His brother, I'm much impressed with Ann Max¬ timeless village which is her whole Richard Woolf, becomes one of the well's uncompromising approach to world and dreams of exotic places Phoenix's leading agents, known as science fiction. as Singapore which are little more the Lamb. Alexand is also in love She seems utterly unyielding in than names to her. When a wandering with the lovely Lady Adrien Eliseer, giving the reader an honest portrayal magician arrives, this changes. He whom he cannot marry for political of what alien beings on alien worlds prophesies fire and death and incurs reasons. would have to be like. A lot goes the wrath of the sternly traditional rabbi, also a magician. The early Hie plot may sound formulaic but on in her stories that will either encounters of the two are played the novel does work, thanks to the leave you completely cold or will within a medieval-like ambience of detail of Wren's setting. Wren has fill your mind with wonder and amaze¬ golems and the Kabbalah. scattered "lectures" by Richard Lamb ment -- and with probably only half throughout the book which give a a comprehension either way. Her When the stranger leaves, life wonderfully logical and detailed stories are not written for the cas¬ returns to normal. The emergence of history of the Concord. They can be ual reader. the protagonist into womanhood and skipped but they do add greatly to Take Menx, for example. An at¬ love is aborted by the horror of the the feeling of reality. tempt at any ordinary sort of synop¬ Nazi holocaust. Surviving that real, human evil leaves her in a state al¬ The central characters are de¬ sis would be foolhardy -- and I'm no most of living death. Again the mag¬ veloped with some skill. Alexand's fool -- but here's a planet where ician appears, hoping to lead her affair with the Lady Adrien occasion¬ the gods of the local inhabitants back to her village and then on to a ally borders on cuteness but Wren are real and insane, and the entire new existence. But first, they nonetheless makes you feel for their cultural system is built around a must face the rabbi and once more do plight. Most of tiie other major solution designed simply to "cope" battle while allegorical avenging players come vividly to life. with such a problem. ghosts hover waiting to destroy all The novel isn't a complete suc¬ three. cess. Wren's prose sometimes tends The' book has much of death, but to the purple, ruining some crucial is about life. There are finely- scenes. I found the plotting in the written scenes of the supernatural, last part of the story spoiled by but its power is in the wisdom of a technological deus ex machina that its theme, the ability of the human really should have been avoided. spirit to triumph. But I kept reading anyway and 58 ************************************ will lead to "improved distribution". He declared that AMAZING's cur¬ There are plans to move into the rent editor, Elinor Mavor, has been amazing: bookstore and hobby store markets as doing "an incredibly good job with According to reports, AMAZING is well, areas where TSR has had phen¬ limited resources" and he professed in the process of being sold. The omenal success with their game line. no knowledge of TSR's rumored inter¬ buyer is TSR (Publishers of IXmgeons est in buying GALAXY and GALILEO, but Recent reports from Gary Gygax, § Dragons and other games/hobbies), said if "I had been asked I would not head of TSR, put the income from George Scithers to be editor. recommend it". Dungeons 6 Dragons sales alone at In an exclusive wide-ranging $20 million. (Dungeons 8 Dragons An irony: The last story he phone conversation, Mr. Scithers has been attacked recently by funda¬ bought for ASIMOV'S was by Gene Wolfe, stated that TSR and Arthur Bernhard, mentalist groups as "an occult game as was the first story purchased for previous owner of AMAZING, have "not which leads its players on a path to¬ AMAZING. completed all the arrangements" for wards the devil".) the sale, but that "some money has analog: changed hands and papers have been AMAZING will pay 6{ per word for signed". short material and 4tf a word for long Davis will return to dating by material. The rates are flexible -- month and year only on their maga¬ AMAZING is now quarterly. The short-shorts will be paid more than zines and will continue publishing next two issues, roughly June and 64. No foreign rights will be pur¬ thirteen times a year. The extra September, will contain current AMAZ¬ chased. Their permanent address issue will appear in the fall, prob¬ ING story inventory. Mr. Scithers' for editorial submissions: ably dated as a special Holiday Is¬ name will appear on the November sue. Its first issue will be May -- George Scithers masthead. Mr. Scithers stated that no April issue, but no issue was as soon as the magazine is on "solid POB 110 skipped -- the "April" issue was Lake Geneva, WI 53147 footing" with a planned "bi-monthly dated March 29 and Davis retained schedule" TSR will "consider going the original numbering system (the monthly -- eventually" and that TSR An address good for the rest of May issue would've been dated April plans to increase the 128 pages 1982: George Scithers 26). (plus cover pages) to a possible POB 8243 176, or about the same number as ASI¬ Philadelphia, PA 19101 MOV'S and ANALOG. Editor Scithers reports he is asimov's: Scithers maintained that AMAZING still getting left-over manuscripts The first issue under the new dat¬ will continue to be sold on the news¬ from ASIMOV'S magazine. Please send ing process is April. The extra is¬ stands and that TSR has "no plans to all of that material to the ASIMOV'S sue will appear in the fall and car¬ change the basic digest format" and address (given in the section on ASI¬ ry a Holiday date. Address for sub¬ that the new owners do not plan to MOV'S elsewhere in this column) in missions: 380 Lexington Avenue endanger the newsstand base of 14,000 New York. He will forward manuscripts New York, NY 10017 sales per issue by starting a large but it takes longer. He will be buy¬ subscription campaign. He said it ing more science fiction than fantasy costs about "eight dollars per sub¬ but the "subject matter for fantasy scription" including mailing costs, is unlimited". FANTASY & SCIENCE FICTION: etc. He believes a "bigger budget" 59 Remain monthly. FANTASY BOOK: itive with magazines selling 100,000 son, or Hartwell's Timescape imprint (which recently postponed several Quarterly. I have received the copies! This will help guarantee scheduled titles), will be affected third (listed as bi-monthly) and the quality". by the purchase. fourth issues. Editor/Art Director INTERZONE's editorial collective: Nick Smith, reports "FANTASY BOOK, John Clute (novelist and critic), Al¬ # CBS has sold six of the seven while technically bi-monthly, has an Dorey (Chairman, British Science Fawcett imprint lines to Random been coming out every ten weeks, due Fiction Association), Malcolm Edwards House: Crest, Gold Medal, Columbine, to production difficulties. We may (past-editor of VECTOR and FOUNDATION), Coventry, Premier and Juniper. The only have five issues during 1982, Colin Greenland (Writing Fellow at unsold seventh imprint is Popular since we'd rather have five good ones the SF Foundation), Graham James (ed¬ Library which the Carter F.T.C. had than six OK ones. Since there isn't itor of MATRIX), Roz Kaveney (review¬ ordered CBS to divest. It will be any good term for an 'every ten er and publishers' reader), Simon sold to another buyer, rumor’d price weeks' magazine, I don't know what Ounsley (BSFA Council Member) and Da¬ more than $10 million dowr and more our official statement will be", but vid Pringle (present editor of FOUND¬ than $15 million over the next three it would probably indicate quarter¬ ATION) . to four years. ly, at least for the rest of 1982. Subscriptions: $16.00 for 6 OMNI: Random House, which owns Bal- issues; $17.25 in Canada; $22.50 Monthly. lantine/Del Rey was itself sold re¬ overseas. Address is: POB 4193 cently by RCA to S.I. Newhouse Pub¬ Pasadena, CA 91106 QUEST STAR: lications for over $70 million. Has suspended publication with Scheduled for the August issue Random House plans to run Faw¬ issue #13, reportedly killed by too (#5), on sale June 1, 1982: cett as a separate line with its own many production, staff and business distribution. The sale did not in¬ Short fiction by: Katherine problems. clude Fawcett editorial personnel -- Kurtz, Alan Dean Foster, Charles L. rigel: some will be hired, others not. No Grant, Jack Wodhams, Kris Neville, word on how the science fiction lines A1 Sarrantonio, Boyd Correll, Brenda Quarterly -- third issue is out at Fawcett would be affected. It is Gates Spielman and an excerpt from and fourth on its way. According to rumored they lost over $9 million THE DOOR INTO SHADOW by Diane Duane Editor Eric Vinicoff, it sold between the first quarter of this year. titled "The Mdaha", plus a fantasy 1500 and 2000 copies and is doing classic by L. Ron Hubbard. "very good ... growing steadily" # Quick Fox, which published HER¬ with "highly favorable response" from OES OF THE SPACEWAYS by Bill Harry GALAXY & GALILEO: the readers. For subscriptions: in March, has been purchased by Put¬ There have been several attempts nam's. RIGEL and rumored attempts to buy these mag¬ Aesir Press # Dodd Mead has been bought by azines. (See AMAZING article else¬ POB 2523 Thomas Nelson. where in this column). The latest Richmond, CA 94802 by David Chandler has apparently # Playboy Press is reported for failed. Dell and GALILEO are still $6.00 per year U.S.A.; $9.00 sale. in litigation over Dell's distribu¬ foreign. Single copies $1.75 plus # Avon is reported for sale. tion of GALILEO. $.50 postage/handling ($1.00 for foreign). # Dell is reported for sale. Dell ETERNITY: is rumored considering bringing back Ihe publishers have reportedly SCIENCE FICTION DIGEST: a science fiction line, but not un¬ encountered production problems, but Announced bi-monthly, but its til their problems with the previous a new issue reported under way. schedule seems to be quarterly. science fiction line, edited by Jim Frenkel, are resolved. INTERZONE: One author who has had problems A new quarterly British magazine. with Dell is Richard Lupoff. He has Subscriptions are $10.00 a year U.S. four books they contracted for which and Canada, to: INTERZONE he has been unable to extricate: a PUBLISHING NEWS! 9 Patchin Place novel, CIRCUMPOLAR!, and a trilogy, New York, NY 10011 # Simon 8 Schuster has purchased The End Of All Being, comprising In Britain 5 pounds per year to: SUN'S END, GALAXY'S END and TIME'S 28 Duckett Road Ace/Grosset 5 EUnlap. Their previous owners, Filmways, were purchased by END. He said four publishers are in¬ London N4 1BN terested and he expects to get control England Orion Pictures. (Filmways had a large stock of old movies which Orion of the books shortly. He feels that INTERZONE's first issue is to wanted.) Orion did not want Ace/G8D, "Dell has no legal or moral claim to appear in February, 1982, featuring so they looked for another buyer. the books". He views it as "one ind¬ such authors as: Brian Aldiss, J.G. Both Warner and Berkley were rumored ividual versus a multi-million-dollar Ballard, Barrington J. Bayley, Angela to be bidding along with Simon 6 corporation". Carter, Thomas M. Disch, M. John Har¬ Schuster. A settlement has been reached be¬ rison, Michael Moorcock, Josephine tween Dell, Gregory Benford and other Saxton, John Sladek and others. I contacted David G. Hartwell at Norwescon, where he had just heard authors involved. (See report in SFR INTERZONE has a unique editorial about the sale --he had "no comment". #41). process. It is, according to a press Hartwell's Timescape imprint has been # New Media Irjax, the distribu¬ release "edited and produced collec¬ the principle purchaser of science tion company in Florida has filed tively by a team which has a wealth fiction for Simon 8 Schuster. Now for Chapter #11. New Media Publish¬ of experience in editing, magazine with the addition of Ace to the Gulf ing, owned by the same people as production and publishing. None of 8 Western-owned Simon 8 Schuster fold, N.M.I., has reportedly not been af¬ the collective wants or expects to Ace is the largest purchaser of sci¬ fected. make money and all profits will go ence. fiction. No word yet on how to pay authors and artists. Even Ace's program, edited by Susan Alli- with a comparatively low circulation, 60 our rates of payment will be compet¬ AUTHOR NEWS: BOOK NEWS: May: Warren Norwood--THE WINDHOVER TAPES: # Julian May has sold the third # ACE: ---AN IMAGE OF VOICES and fourth books, THE NONBORN KING April: Parke Godwin-FIRELORD and THE ADVERSARY, in the Pliocene Frederic Brown-HONEYMOON IN HELL Exile series to Pan Books in England. [Michael Bishop 5 --- UNDER HEAVEN’S The second book in the series, THE (Ian Watson - BRIDGE June: GOLDEN TORC and THE NONBORN KING, Phyllis Gottlieb - EMPEROR, have sold to Del Rey. THE NONBORN SWORDS, PENTACLES Samuel R. Delany-THE JEWELS OF APTOR KING has just been turned in to Tim Lukeman-RAJAN J. Michael Reaves-DARKWOOD DETECTIVE Houghton Mifflin. Trevor Hoyle - THROUGH THE - EYE OF TIME # Frank Herbert has sold another BERKLEY: (Jack Dann §-FASTER THAN Dune novel to Putnam --- for $1.5 (George Zebrowski (Editors) ---LIGHT April: million dollars. Keith Roberts-PAVANE # Gene Wolfe has signed to do an¬ E.C. Tubb-THE WINDS OF GATH Kevin O'Donnell, Jr. -LAVA other book in his Book Of The Sun (Dumarest of Terra #1) Barry B. Longyear - ELEPHANT SONG series. Robert Silverberg--THE SEED OF EARTH Poul Anderson -SHIELD Greg Bear-LOST SOULS (Glen A. Larson 5—THE LIVING LEGAND # Robert Silverberg has sold a Edgar Rice Burroughs---THE LAND THAT (Nicholas Yermakov sequel to LORD VALENTINE'S CASTLE, ---TIME FORGOT (Battlestar Galactica #6) plus a short story collection and Edgar Rice Burroughs --OUT OF TIME'S non-sf novel, to Arbor House for a May: -ABYSS reportedly six-figures-plus advance. Edgar Rice Burroughs-THE PEOPLE THAT Stephin Goldin---PLANET OF TREACHERY # Gregory Benford has sold a new -TIME FORGOT Keith Laumer-THE ULTIMAX MAN novel, AGAINST INFINITY, to Pocket. Harry Harrison-INVASION EARTH Philip Dunn -THE CABAL 2 The contract is similar to the one (Trade pb.) Joseph Payne Brennan - THE SHAPES which earned him a reported $200 ---OF MIDNIGHT May: thousand so far. An earlier book, Robert Aickman- COLD HAND IN MINE ACROSS THE SEA OF SUNS, also sold to (Larry Niven 8 - DREAM PARK Robert Bloch - PLEASANT DREAMS Pocket, will not appear pending furth¬ (Steven Barnes Richard Matheson- I AM LEGAND er revision. (Jack Dann 5 UNICORNS! J.G. Ballard - CONCRETE ISLAND (Gardner Dozois (Editors) # Stephen King has sold a new nov¬ Trever Hoyle - THE GODS LOOK DOWN June: el to Doubleday. L. Sprague de Camp-THE QUEEN Elizabeth A. Lynn --THE SARDONYX NET # The story in SCIENCE FICTION RE¬ - OF ZAMBA Keith Laumer- BOLO VIEW # 42 about THE LAST DANGEROUS James H. Schmitz-THE TELZEY TOY John Silbersack (Editor)-' THE VISION was inaccurate, and I retract --AND OTHER STORIES -COLLECTED FANCIES OF AVRAM DAVIDSON it -- more details next issue. E.C. Tubb -DERAI Janet Morris -EARTH DREAMS (Dumarest of Terra #2) # Houthton Mifflin published an (Final volume of Dream Dancers Tril- Robert Silverberg-COLLISION anthology in April, SPECULATIONS, -ogy) - COURSE edited by Alice Laurence and Isaac Future Berkley Titles: LYONESSE by Bob Shaw-ORBITSVILLE Asimov. There are 17 stories writ¬ Jack Vance, a trilogy; DARKCHILD by Roger Zelazny---THE ISLE OF THE DEAD ten by different authors; according Sydney Joyce Van Sycoc; HART'S HOPE Barry N. Malzberg--THE CROSS OF FIRE to the press release "their names by Orson Scott Card. are concealed by a code and it is up June: to you to figure who wrote what". Info not available. # Glen Cook has just sold to Pock¬ et KING WITHOUT A THRONE. He has al¬ AVON: (April): so sold them an as-yet untitled sec¬ Isaac Asimov-ASIMOV ON SCIENCE ond novel, both in the Dread Empire (Non sf)-FICTION series. Parts of THE BLACK COMPANY, James Blish -CITIES IN FLIGHT a fantasy novel, will be in F8SF. Warner will publish STARFISHERS in May: May, the second book in the Starfish- Stanislaw Lem--RETURN FRCM THE STARS ers trilogy^ The first, SHADOWLINE, Piers Anthony-VISCOUS CIRCLE is already out, and the concluding volume, STAR'S END, will appear in June: August. Info not available. H Elton T. Elliott has sold a bio¬ graphy of Forrest J. Ackerman to ATHENEUM: Starmont House. The title is MR. SCIENCE FICTION. May: Roberta Smoodin..PRESTO!
BANTAM: deaths:
Philip K. Dick died on March 2, April: 1982. Thomas M. Disch announced at Allyn Thompson—THE AZRIEL UPRISING Norwescon '82 the formation of a Phil¬ Samuel R. Delany---.THE EINSTEIN ip K. Dick Memorial Award. -INTERSECTION Frank Herbert-HELLSTROM'S HIVE • 61 daw: June: assignments. Even art directors may go. This is another consequence of April: Brian Daley- TRON financial tightness in the publishiig (Movie tie-in with stills from film) Tanith Lee----11® SILVER METAL LOVER industry. This type of packaging may Lawrence Watt-Evans-THE CYBORG Marion Zinmer Bradley-SWORD be more common; next may come "gener¬ -AND THE SORCERERS - OF CHAOS ic authors", house names that will E. Hoffman Price-THE JADE A.E. van Vogt - THE DARKNESS churn out a novel a month for a thous¬ -ON DIAMONDIA -ENCHANTRESS and dollars. Lester del Rey--THE MYSTERIOUS PLAfCT E.C. Tubb-THE COMING EVENT Jack L. Chalker-DANCERS IN THE (Dumarest of Terra #26) PI AYBOY: -AFTERGLOW A. Bertram Chandler-THE BIG BLACK April: -MARK (David Gerrold, --THE FLYING SORCERERS (Larry Niven Egon Friedell-THE RETURN OF THE Jacqueline Lichtenberg--MOLT BROTHER -time MACHINE May: May: James P. Hofcan-VOYAGE FROM Donald A. Wollheim (Editor)-THE __yesterday John Cleve - OF ALIEN BONDAGE: --- 1982 ANNUAL WORLD'S BEST SF Carole Nelson Douglas--SIX OF SWORDS -SPACEWAYS #1 Jo Clayton -MOONGATHER James Kahn-TIME'S DARK LAUGHTER John Cleve - CORUNDUM'S WCMAN: Clifford D. Sirnak-THE GOBLIN Jack L. Chalker---AND THE DEVIL WILL -SPACEWAYS #2 -RESERVATION -DRAG YOU UNDER (The start of a monthly sf series Lin Carter-RIC OF ZANTHODON Lester del Rey---OUTPOSTS OF JUPITER blurbed "High Adventure for Adults") Lin Carter-WHEN THE GREEN STAR -CALLS (Jack Williamson-STAR BRIDGE (8 James E. Gunn June: Dray Prescot (Kenneth Bulmer)-FLIERS Terry Brooks---THE SWORD OF SHANNARA - OF AMTARES John Morressy-KINGSBANE (Prescot #8) John Cleve - ESCAPE FROM MACHO: DOIIRI FDAY: June: - SPACEWAYS #3 Info not available. April: Starting in April, DAW has gone to July: six titles per month. Charles L. Grant---NIGHTMARE SEASONS Ardath Mayhar-WARLOCK’S GIFT Charles L. Grant (Editor)-TERRORS John Cleve-SATANA ENSLAVED: DEL REY. HARDCOVERS: Isaac Asimov-THE COMPLETE ROBOT (The Asimov title will be released --- SPACEWAYS #4 April: on April 9 and will contain all of his robot stories with the exception Stephen R. Donaldson -- THE ONE TREE of the two Robot Novels, CAVES OF pqcket/timescape: (Covenant #5) STEEL and THE NAKED SUN) (There are over 4 million books in April: the Covenant series in print) May: June: Joe Haldeman - WORLDS Richard Purtill.-MURDERCON John Sladek - RODERICK Frederik Pohl-STARBURST (First of trilogy) June: Glen Cook- THF SWORDBEARER July: Jack Vance-.-THE DYING EARTH Terry Carr (Editor)-UNIVERSE 12 R.G. Austin-LOST IN A STRANGE Terry Brooks-THE ELFSTONES -LAND - OF SHANNARA (From Pocket/Archway -- a "choose (Also available in trade paperback) your own adventure" novel) FAWCETT COLUMBINE! D.M. Thomas-.. THE FLUTE PLAYER DEL REY PAPERBACKS: April: (Washington Square Press title) (Roger Zelazny - COILS April: Julian May-THE MANY COLORED LAND (5 Fred Saberhagen Piers Anthony-BLUE ADEPT (Trade paperback) (A Trade pb. from Pocket/Wallaby) David Eddings-PAWN OF PROPHECY WHAT IF VOLUME 3 edited by Richard Lupoff scheduled for April has been Richard Bowker - FORBIDDEN LEISURE: _SANCTUARY postponed. Craig Mills-THE BANE OF LORD CALADON April: May: Frank Herbert-THE HEAVEN MAKERS John Wyndham-TROUBLE WITH LICHEN Lin Carter-BEYOND THE GATES OF DREAM Lee Correy-.-THE ABODE OF LIFE (A Star Trek novel) May: (George R.R. Martin-WINDHAVEN May: Lin Carter.TOWER AT THE EDGE (b Lisa Tuttle ..OF TIME Robert Holdstock--- WHERE TIME WINDS Philip K. Dick.. BLADE RUNNER -BLOW (Movie tie-in, complete stills from NOTE: The above 2 titles are Jack Vance ---THE BEST OF JACK VANCE — the film) listed as "inflation fighters". Along Juanita Coulson-;---OUTWARDBOUND with TIME OUT OF JOINT by Philip K. Theodore Sturgeon's SLOW SCLUP- Robert F. Young--THE LAST YGGDRASILL Dick (a March 1982 release), appear TURE has been postponed. James White-THE DREAM MILLENNIUM without cover artwork, have a uniform June: Jack L. Chalker-THE WEB OF THE cover logo design and cost $1.50. -. CHOZEN If this format catches on it will Adam Corby -THE DIVINE QUEEN Barbara Hambly-TIME OF THE DARK mean artists will be locked out of Juanita Coulson--TCMORRCW'S HERITAGE Russell M. Griffin.THE BLIND MEN 62 . AND THE ELEPHANT Norman Spinrad-THE IRON DREAM MOVie/tv news: SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #35 Inter¬ Marta Randall (Editor)-NEW views with Fred Saberhagen and Don # BLADE RUNNER, starring Harrison - DIMENSIONS 13 Wollheim; "The Way It Is" by Barry Ford, is set for July 1982 realease. Robert Holdstock- EARTHWIND Malzberg; "Noise Level" by John The film was adapted from Philip K. Charles L. Grant-THE NESTLING Brunner; "Craning Apart at the (A Pocket Books release) Dick's novel, DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF Themes" by Bob Shaw. The Washington Square Press ELECTRIC SHEEP, and is directed by trade paperback edition of Russell Ridley Scott, director of ALIEN. SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #36 Inter¬ Hoban's Nebula-nominated novel # POLTERGEIST is a Steven Spiel¬ RIDDLEY WALKER has been postponed. view with Roger Zelazny; A Profile berg Production. He is joined by co¬ of Philip K. Dick by Charles Platt; producer Frank Marshall, the producer "Outside the Whale" by Christopher TOR: of RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK. The dir¬ Priest; "Science Fiction and Polit¬ ector is Tobe Hooper who gained not¬ ical Economy" by Mack Reynolds; In¬ April: oriety as director of THE TEXAS CHAIN¬ terview with Robert A. Heinlein; SAW MASSACRE. The special effects "You Got No Friends in This World" Poul Anderson-COLD VICTORY are done by Richard Edlunds who won by Orson Scott Card. (Second book in the Psychotechnic an Oscar for his work on STAR WARS League future history series) and George Lucas' Industrial Light (Includes an introduction and and Magic special effects company. • added material by Sandra Miesel) The movie stars Jobeth Williams, $1.50 per copy from #37 onward Harry Harrison-THE QE2 IS MISSING Craig Nelson and Beatrice Straight, (Non-SF suspense novel) set for a June 4, 1982 release. SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #37 Inter¬ Jessica Amanda SaLmonson - THE view with Robert Anton Wilson; -SWORDSWOMAN # STAR TREK 2, retitled THE REV¬ "We're Coming Through the Window!" ENGE OF KHAN, is scheduled to open by Barry N. Malzberg; "Inside the in June of '82. The movie stars (in Whale" by Jack Williamson, Jerry addition to the regular cast) Ricardo Poumelle, and Jack Chalker; "Uni¬ Alfred Bester - THE DECEIVERS Mantalban as Khan and Paul Winfield. ties in Digression" by Orson Scott (Gordon R. Dickson-PLANET RUN Leonard Nimoy has signed to do Card. (8 Keith Laumer STAR TREK 3. He will, according to rumors, suffer a "death" along the SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #38 Inter¬ lines of Han Solo in THE B4PIRE view with Jack Williamson; "The STRIKES BACK. It is reported that Engines of the Night" by Barry N. Gordon R. Dickson-THE OUTPOSTER towards the end of the movie engine Malzberg; "A String of Days" by Philip Jose Farmer-GREATHEART SILVER trouble develops on the Enterprise Gregory Benford; "The Alien Inva¬ which necessitates the Vulcan touch sion" by Larry Niven; "Noise Level" Jul^: in the engineering area, an accident by John Brunner; SF News by Elton happens and .... Elliott. Poul Anderson - STARSHIP Fred Saberhagen-DOMINION Also reports have Khan turned SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #39 Inter¬ into an android, causing Dick Geis view with Gene Wolfe; "The Engines Starting in August Tor will publish to say that if they show his innards of the Night"-Part Two by Barry N. three SF titles every other month, to be metal he'll "puke right there Malzberg; "The Nuke Standard" by two in the off months. in the theatre". Ian Watson; "The Vivisector" by Is Baramount concerned about a Darrell Schweitzer; SF News by possible "Trekkie" boycott of the Elton Elliott. film? No, according to Paramount publicist, Eddie Egan, who told me SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #40 Inter- that "if every single 'Trekkie' boy¬ view with Robert Sheckley; 4-way This publication cotted this film, it wouldn't affect conversation: Arthur C. Clarke, the box office". is available Harlan Ellison, Fritz Leiber 8 in microform. Mark Wells; "The Engines of the Night"-Part Three by Barry N. CONCLUDING WORDS! Malzberg; Darrell Schweitzer; # Next issue I will have a coninen- SF News by Elton T. Elliott tary on what the growing tendency to¬ ward monopoly in the New York Pub¬ lishing industry means to science fic¬ SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #41 Space tion and to publishing as a whole. Shuttle Report by Clifford R. Mc- Murray; "Chuck's Latest Bucket" by # Again, thanks for the cards and David Gerrold; Interview with Mi¬ letters. See you next issue. chael Whelan; "The Bloodshot Eye" University Microfilms by Gene DeWeese; "The Vivisector" by Darrell Schweitzer; SF News by International ALIEN Elton T. Elliott. 300 North Zeeb Road Dept. PR. CONCLUSIONS Ann Arbor. Mi. 48106 I promised to list the ad¬ SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #42 Inter¬ USA. dresses of the artists...out of view with Ian Watson; "One Writer space. If any other editor and the Next War" by John Brunner; 30-32 Mortimer Street wants an address, drop me a line. "The Vivisector" by Darrell Schweit¬ Dept. PR. zer; "The Human Hotline" by Elton London WIN 7RA LAST MINUTE NEWS from Elton: TSR T. Elliott. has just bought SPI. To sf and fantasy gamesters, that's news! THE ALIEN CRITIC #9 "Reading SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #23 Inter¬ BACK ISSUES Heinlein Subjectively" by Alexei views: A.E. van Vogt, and Jack and Cory Panshin; "Written to a Vance, and Piers Anthony; "The Pulp!" by Sam Merwin, Jr.; "Noise Silverberg That Was" by Robert Level" by John Brunner; "The Shav¬ Silverberg. THE ALIEN CRITIC er Papers" by Richard S. Shaver. SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #24 Inter¬ NO OTHER BACK ISSUES ARE THE ALIEN CRITIC #10 Interview views: Bob Shaw, David G. Hartwell AVAILABLE with Stanislaw Lem; "A Nest of and Algis Budrys; "On Being a Bit $1.25 per copy Strange and 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. Le Guin; EDITORS, PUBLISHERS AND FANS. SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #14 Inter¬ "Flying Saucers and the Stymie view with Philip Jose Farmer; Factor" by Ray Palmer; ONE INMORTAL THE FOLLOWING LISTINGS ARE OF "Thoughts on Logan's Run" by Will¬ MAN--Part One. FEATURED CONTRIBUTIONS iam F. Nolan; "The Gimlet Eye" by John Gustafson. SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #26 Inter¬ views with Gordon R. Dickson and SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #15 Inter¬ Larry Niven; "Noise Level" by THE ALIEN CRITIC #5 Interview view with L. Sprague de Caup; John Brunner; "Fee-dom Road" by with Fritz Leiber; "The Literary "Spec-Fic and the Perry Rhodan Richard Henry Klurnp; ONE INMORTAL Dreamers" by James Blish; "Irvin Ghetto" by Donald C. Thompson; MAN--Part Two.. Binkin Meets H.P. Lovecraft" by "Uffish Thots" by Ted White. Jack Chalker. SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #27 Inter¬ SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #16 Inter¬ views with Ben Bova and Stephen THE ALIEN CRITIC #6 Interview view with Jerry Poumelle; "The Fabian; "Should Writers be Serfs with R.A. Lafferty; "The Tren¬ True and Terrible History of Sci¬ ...or Slaves?"; SF News; SF Film chant Bludgeon" by Ted White; ence Fiction" by Barry Malzberg; News; The Ackerman Interview; ONE "Translations From the Editorial" "Noise Level" by John Brunner; INMORTAL MAN--Part Three. by Marion Z. Bradley. "The Literary Masochist" by Rich¬ ard Lupoff. SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #28 Inter¬ view with C.J. Cherryh; "Beyond SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #17 Inter¬ Genocide" by Damon Knight; ONE IM¬ view with George R.R. Martin; In¬ MORTAL MAN--Conclusion; SF News; terview with Robert Anton Wilson; SF Film News 8 Reviews. "Philip K. Dick: A parallax View" by Terrence M. Green; "Microcos¬ mos" by R. Faraday Nelson. SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #29 Inter¬ views with John Brunner, Michael SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #18 Inter¬ Moorcock, and Hank Stine; "Noise view with Lester del Rey; Inter¬ Level" by John Brunner; SF News; -BACK ISSUE ORDER FORM- view with Alan Burt Akers; "Noise SF Film News § Reviews. $1.25 EACH Level" by John Brubber; "A Short One for the Boys in the Back Room" SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #30 Inter¬ Dear REG: I enclose $_. by Barry Malzberg. views with Joan D. Vinge, Stephen Please send back issue(s) #5 #6 R. Donaldson, and Norman Spinrad; #8 #9 #10 #14 #15 #16 "The Awards Are Coming" by Orson #17 #18 #19 #20 #21 #22 #23 SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #19 Inter¬ Scott Card; SF News; SF Film News view with Philip K. Dick; Interview #24 #25 #26 #27 #28 #29 #30 6 Reviews. with Frank Kelly Freas; "The Note¬ #31 #32 #33 #35 #36 books of Mack Sikes" by Larry Niven; [Circle #'s desired] SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #31 Inter¬ "Angel Fear" by Freff; "The Vivi- view with Andrew J. 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