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Theodore Sturgeon 1918-1985 A MAJOR NEW MEDIEVAL from Bluejay Books

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> THE NEW BIG NAME IN FANTASY A BLUEJAY INTERNATIONAL Bluejay Books Inc. James Frenkel, Publisher EDITION HARDCOVER $14.95 130 w. 42nd Street, Suite 514 Subscribe to the Bluejay Flyer , NY 10036 Distributed by St. Martin’s Press, inc. Write for a free catalog Dept. FS-5 Canadian distribution by Methuen of Canada 1918-1985

I Winner of Balrog and World Fantasy Awards, Hugo Finalist

(Formerly Fantasy Newsletter) Founded by Paul C. Allen

Volume 8, No. 5, Whole #79 May, 1985, ISSN 0747-234X

Editor-in-Chief: Robert A. Collins

Business & Accounts: Catherine Fischer

Production Assistants Martin A. Schneider Carol Csomay Heather Manning

Contributing Editors: FHtz Leiber Douglas E. Winter Steve oc Cornelia Theys Arnie Fenner Timothy Robert Sullivan Somtow Sucharitkul

Published monthly by Florida Atlantic University through the Division of Con- tinuing Education, Melvin Hall, Dean; and with the cooperation of the Research Association, Donald M. Hassler, President. Single copy $2.75. Back issues, $2.50. Yearly subscriptions: $20 second class U. S. $25 second class Canada COLUMNS & FEATURES: $30 first class U.S., Canada $30 surface to Europe, Asia Theodore Sturgeon: A Biographical Sketch $45 airmail to Europe By BOB COLLINS page 6 $50 airmail to Asia Display advertising rates, based upon I Remember Ted current circulation of 3000 copies, esti - mated readership of 10,000, upon re- By JAMES GUNN page 7 quest. Wholesale rates to dealers upon request. Fantasy Review is also avail- Eudiche: Theodore Sturgeon able from F&SF Book Co., P.O. Box 415, By GARY K. WOLFE page 8 Staten Island, NY 10302, and Prairie News Agency, Div. Prairie Dist. Co. A New Disciple 2404 W. Hirsch, Chicago, IL 60622. By LAHNA DISKIN page 8 Publishers: Please send review copies, related correspondence, prepublication A Certain Slant of Eye: Worst Week of My Life announcements, cover proofs, advertising By S. P. SOMTOW page 9 and all specialty and fan press materials to Robert A. Collins at the address A Belated Interview below. By DEBRA L. McBRIDE page 10 Contents copyright ° 1984 Florida Atlan- tic University. Rights revert to authors REVIEW INDEX page 11 and artists after publication. Submissions are welcomed, and are hand- DEPARTMENTS: led with care, but we cannot be responsible for loss. Letters to the Feedback 34 Trade Books 30 magazine are considered submissions for Specialty & Fan Press 31 June Paperbacks 28 publication; we reserve the right to edit them. Opinions expressed by bylined arti- Events & Awards cles and columns do not reflect the views of the editors. Office of pub- lication at 500 N.W. 20th St., Boca We Are Hoaxed 11 McCarthy to Bantam 23 Raton, FL 33431. Phone (305) 393- Nebula Awards 13, 15 Balrog Awards 26 3 839. Second class postage paid at Year’s Best Fantasy 19 Hugo Nominees 32 Boca Raton, Florida and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: SEND COVER: Theodore Sturgeon, photo by Patti Perret; This page, artwork by ADDRESS CHANGES TO FANTASY for Reader's Guide to Theodore Sturgeon by Lahna REVIEW, COLLEGE OF HUMANITIES, FLORIDA ATLANTIC UNIVERSITY, BOCA Diskin, Starmont House, 1980. RATON, FL 33431. Printed By Review Financial Printers, Miami, FL.

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story, suddenly captured the imagination of fans at the Philadelphia Worldcon. There he met his second wife Mary Mair, a showgirl who sang the "title song" mm from his story. Sturgeon’s confidence mli P was restored. Although the marriage to Mary was brief and childless, through Jerome Stanton he soon met his third wife, Marion, with whom he lived for 18 years, producing Robin, Tandy, Noel and Timothy.

EANWHILE, Prime Press issued M Sturgeon’s first hardcover antholo- gy, Without Sorcery (1948) and Horace Gold founded Galaxy, which was to be Sturgeon’s major market over the next decade. There he published "," his most famous short story, which he expanded in 1953 to More Than Human, a blockbuster novel which got simultaneous hardcover and paperback distribution, beating ’s The Demolished Man for the International Fantasy Award (the best then going) in 1954.. The earliest and best exploration of the "gestalt mind" concept, it has remained in print, a classroom classic, ever since, N Sunday, May 5, Theodore Hamilton was "God in a Garden" to Unknown, but During the 50s Sturgeon produced iSturgeon said goodbye to close "Ether Breather" in Astounding was a series of important novels (The 0friends, by telephone from his published earlier these sales Dreaming Jewels, The (1939); Cosmic Rape, apartment in Springfield, Oregon. His began his first highly productive period Venus Plus X, , lung condition (an effect of cystic ("Shottle Bop," "Microcosmic God," the last a vampire tale) and a host of fibrosis) had worsened, so that he could "Nightmare Island") during which he representative stories ("The Sex utter only a few syllables at a time. A used the pseudonymns "E. Hunter Waldo" Opposite," "The World Well-Lost," "The few hours later he entered the local and "E. Waldo Hunter" to allow multiple Silken Swift," "...And My Fear Is Great") hospital with terminal pneumonia. stories in the same issue of Astounding. as well as several story collections. In There was a gathering of the clan 1962, The Magazine of Fantasy A (Ted had five marriages and eight LUSHED with new success, in 1940 Science Fiction devoted a special issue children). On he Wednesday evening, May 8 married Dorothy Fillingame, his to him, and he was Guest of Honor at ("I think he was just waiting for all the F high school sweetheart, over the 20th Worldcon in Chicago, where he family to arrive," her parents’ said a neighbor) objections. On his honey- delivered a memorable speech outlining Sturgeon ceased his efforts to breathe at moon he wrote that early classic of tne his philosophy of love. 8:15 p.m., Pacific Coast time. He was macabre, "IT," which established his (By 1969, career conflict had 67. reputation as a stylist. But World War ended his third marriage in favor of a II was just around the corner: caught in union with Wina Golden, who bore his Ted was born the British Edward Hamilton West Indies, where he had last son, Andros. Then, a decade later, Waldo in Staten Island on gone to February 26, manage a resort hotel to with that union gone flat, he married his 1918; his parents were a Protestant supplement his writing, Sturgeon found surviving wife, Jayne.) Epicopalian couple, Edward and himself managing army properties Christine Waldo. The marriage was a instead. One of these was a tractor In retrospect, we can see that failure: Ted saw his father only once a lubrication center, where Sturgeon Sturgeon’s most important work had week at Sunday dinner. When he was learned to operate bulldozers and loved been done by 1962. Yet the power of nine, divorce brought him a stern and it. This stint inspired the only story he his mind and personality remained unsympathetic unim- Scottish stepfather, completed during the war, Killdozer paired though relatively unused. His employed as a teacher at Drexel College (published in Astounding, 1944, filmed infrequent contributions in later years in Philadelphia, who gave him little more for television in 1974). ("If All Men Were Brothers...," for Harlan than a new surname. Sturgeon’s long spell of writers’ Ellison’s Dangerous Visions, 1967; His earliest dream, of a career as block undermined his confidence, and "," winner of Hugo and a circus trapeze artist (he was a star Dorothy’s. She divorced him in 1945, Nebula Awards, 1970, "Why Dolphins gymnast in high school, and had been keeping the children (Colin, Patricia, Don’t Bite," written for Ellison’s Medea: promised an athletic scholarship at Cynthia), and he returned to New York Harlan's World, but first serialized in Temple University), was destroyed by a in a daze. Sharing an apartment with L. (>nni, 1980) are still among the very bout of rheumatic fever at 15 that left Jerome Stanton, assistant editor of finest stories in the genre. Yet, as E. F. him with an enlarged heart. an Astounding, he let Campbell coax him Bleiler remarked, the moral of Venus erratic student, Ted T s attitude worsened, gradually his out of depression. In 1946, Plus X (1960), that "even if there were and his stepfather refused to send him to while writing again for Campbell, a way to human salvation, humans would college. Instead, partly with a small Sturgeon also tried agenting (for Pohl, refuse to take it," seems to have been bequest from his grandmother, he was Chandler, Merrill, etc.) and round some Sturgeon's final position. All of his enrolled in Penn State Nautical School, new markets, notably Weird Tales, subsequent work has reflected it. but after a term there he ran away to which took many stories rejected by His legacy, however, is unique. sea as an engine-room wiper. Campbell. Meanwhile he submitted More than any other figure in Science During his years in the Merchant "Bianca’s Hands," a story of obsessive, Fiction's "Golden Age" he consistently Marine he began selling short fiction to fetishist passion, so kinky American attempted profound themes, in the McClure’s newspaper belief syndicate. When editors shunned it, to a story contest in that science fiction should be "an a Brooklyn couple showed him a copy of the British magazine Argosy, and won! instrument of progress. ..an active John Campbell’s Unknown he set out to (1947). The same year his "Thunder and participant in the dynamics of social write for that market. His "first sale" Roses," a powerfully pacifist atomic war Continued on page 32. 6 FANTASY REVIEW , May 1985 Theodore Sturgeon 1918-1 985

VERY member of the science -fiction ED loved finding new writers or community is irreplaceable, but T admiring the new work of older E some are more irreplaceable writers. He fell in love I Remember than others. We will never replace Ted with them and his love overflowed into Theodore Sturgeon. He was unique. By James the reviews he wrote for The New York I did not know Ted as well as Gunn Times and other journals. He may not others have known him, who met him as have been the best critic in the field, a young man in New York in the early because he hated to give a work a bad days of his self-discovery as a writer. review, but he was the best-loved My first contact with him was the result critic. Dozens of important authors will of a telephone call from Horace Gold. never forget the encouragement he gave Horace said he would buy my short novel them. "Breaking Point" if I would let Ted cut Ted also wanted people to live, it by a third. I had such admiration for which meant to not be afraid to enjoy the author of most the stories I liked life and to be eternally curious, as he best in Astounding and Unknown and was. Fred Pohl says that every novel is later in Galaxy that I agreed without about "how to be more like me." That hesitation. Then, when I visited New certainly was true of Ted’s stories, York in November of 1952, having which had more of himself in them than decided to return to freelance writing might be said about the work of any after learning about the sale of four other author I know, but it was also stories, I visited Ted in an unusual true of his life. In that, too, he said house built by a retired sea captain on a "how to be more like me." Each summer hill overlooking the Hudson. He drew we would ask our guest writers to give me in to the circle of people he thought a public lecture, and Ted would tell the mattered, and he showed me Ted audience to "ask the next question," for Sturgeon: personal magnetism, an which a fan had made up a symbol for him interest in others, an intense and were willing to do anything they as a medallion he wore around his involvement with words and writing, neck: a "Q" with an arrow and could to help the Institute, to keep it horizontally a generous through it. And he would admiration for the going. I always wondered whether he always end with the accomplishments of others. loved to go anywhere he could find statement that "you must never stop asking Later I met him occasionally at people to talk to, people to bring into the next question, because if you do that, you’re science-fiction conventions, most his magic circle, but it may have been dead." I hope Ted, wherever his notably in Philadelphia in 1953, when I the special kind of people who came to questing intelligence has heard him announce Sturgeon’s Law the Institute that drew him. They were come to rest, is still asking the next question. ("ninety percent of everything is crud") involved people, teachers most of them, If there is and sing "Strange Fruit." But I got to and special teachers at that, because a great deal in this know him best in his later years, when they were willing to experiment, and reminiscence about love, it is for a good he was not doing much writing any Ted knew that through teachers he reason. Ted loved life, loved people, more, when he answered my appeal to could influence thousands of young and loved writing. He particularly loved help with the Intensive English Institute minds. outsiders, the unfortunate, the despised on the Teaching of Science Fiction —my He wanted the teachers to and the downtrodden. The superhuman decade-long effort to teach the teachers understand what he thought was gestalt in More than Human was made of science fiction. important. That was writing. He up of outcasts, the refuse of traditional Ted arrived for the second wanted them to love words the way he society. For good reason: Most of his Institute (as did Fred Pohl); only Gordon did. He wanted them to love the right fiction involved those kinds of Dickson had a longer tenure, and Ted words and the right way to put them characters because they were his special came last year when Gordon could not together, and he wanted them to pass people. come. Last year Ted was watching his the loves of his life along to their He believed that we should love health, wearing a monitor on his wrist students^ One evening he would talk everybody, but particularly the unloved to check his pulse and having some almost entirely about his discovery of and those who placed themselves beyond difficulty with hills, and that was what he called "metric prose," the scorn or beneath contempt, often by frightening, because Ted had seemed author’s conscious choice of a particular their practices or appetites. His always so wiry and inexhaustible that poetic foot for passages in which the favorite title among his own works was we all thought he would go on forever. author wanted to achieve special "If All Men Were Brothers Would You Let Ted would arrive and immediately effects. But he always insisted (I can One Marry Your Sister?" begin to charm everyone around him. hear him now in his intense, musical Ted cared about people, anybody, voice) that the reader must never NE of the insights that came to me everybody. One student enrolled in the become conscious of the technique or in the early days of the Institute Institute only because Ted the is lost. O was that many would be game science -fiction there, and within hours she had poured He would spend another evening authors (maybe all of them) can be out to him the intimate tragedies of her discussing style and reading a particular differentiated by what they think is the life. Ted was like that; he didn’t so favorite or two among his own work. single change that will solve the world’s much invite intimacy as draw it into him But he would spend most of the time problems: "everything would be with every breath, the breath that must reading from the English translation of a wonderful, if only....’’ have become so difficult for him at the French author who told the same might complete it "...people behaved end. People wanted to do things for ridiculous story in dozens of different rationally"; Robert Heinlein, "...the Ted, just as he was willing to do styles, Ted chortling over each incompetent people let the competent anything for them. They would meet discovery, as if he were enjoying it for people solve the problem"; A. E. van him at the airport, write to him, seek the first time, and then leafing further vogt, "...people could use their hidden him out. One fan came to the Institute into the slender volume to come upon powers." For Ted it had to be "...people just to sit with his wife’s young child another. Once he forgot the book and loved each other." (and later returned to participate in the wrote some examples of his own; they If there is an afterlife, Ted now Institute). Another, when his wife were far more interesting because he must be afloat in a sea of love. If there (whom he always called "Lady Jayne") was a far better writer, but I never isn’t, he left much behind, both in the could not afford to come took up a could convince him of that. He liked his people whose lives he touched and the collection to fly her to the Institute as French author because it showed that books and the stories that distilled his a surprise. somebody else had discovered, before he message into fiction that continues to Ted loved to come to Lawrence. had thought of it, a beautiful way to ask the next question. So did Jayne. They told me so often reveal the power of words and style. --James Gunn

FANTASY REVIEW , May 1985 7 Theodore Sturgeon 1918-1 985

Because of his oblique perspective, he sometimes had to look for new words and concepts to express his concerns. A New Disciple Eudiche: Some of his phrases, like the famous "Sturgeon’s Law,” have become cliches of fandom. Others, like the "Prime By Lahna F. Diskin Directive” which he formulated for the Star Trek TV series, have even entered Theodore [Ms. Diskin is author of The Reader's the vocabulary of management and edu- Guide to Theodore Sturgeon, Starmont cational research, and are widely used House.] by people who have never heard of Sturgeon. But I am referring mainly to On the long eve (just two weeks the peculiar words that he made his Sturgeon ago) of Ted Sturgeon’s death, I met Ra- own--words like "syzygy,” borrowed disa Lukic, writer, filmmaker, and new from biology to become a magical image American citizen. Even before his of an impossible spiritual and physical defection from the Soviet Union, More union; or "infrarational,” which he Than Human had claimed him as its defined as "that source of belief, faith, own. Seven years later, he has "learned and motive which exists beside and and earned” its truths. As he describes above reason.” Or even "extrapolation,” how the book has grown inside him and By Gary K. Wolfe a term he didn’t invent but that he used he inside the book, his face and voice as the title of a story which I guarantee give him away as Ted's spiritual son. will forever change your notions of what Radisa is a man compelled to translate this most overused of science fiction the book into concepts a movie. Once Ted had really implies. told me about several abortive sometimes wonder what readers attempts to do that. Perhaps it never E shall never see him again. worked because the real wonder of it who came to the genre late make of was waiting for this match. Radisa was There will be no more I Sturgeon. The impact of a story W arguments, no more pleasant utterly and openly enthralled — like like "” appearing in Eudiche,’ Ted, not in the least embarrassed to thinking with mourned a 1953 issue of Universe Science Fic- Torth to the other Titan. show his love. To be worked over by tion is hard to recapture for someone Ted’s stories is to understand Radisa ’s '"Come now. Don't be so pes- weaned on Le Guin and Delany. Perhaps stroking the possession. To know the man behind the simistic,’ said Larit, the most commonly cited example of machine. ’The idea of dissociation stories was to be one of many privileged Sturgeon’s being ahead of his time is his has horrified you, that’s all. There lodgers in his roomy heart. use of sexuality and love; how often is every chance that his components Radisa was desperate to meet Ted have I read about the controversy will fuse.’” Sturgeon and show him the script he and surrounding Venus Plus X, with its his wife Emilia had written. He depiction of a bisexual society a decade hungered for Ted’s blessing and counsel. This passage, from a not -too-well- before The Left Hand of Darkness. known story by Theodore Sturgeon He said he had sent a letter, but I And this, of course, brings us back to called ’’Make for Me” may suggested he talk to Ted somehow — on Room (1951), the question of why Sturgeon, even tape so that Ted knows Radisa will not not seem much of an epitaph for the man today, makes readers uncomfortable. himself. There is, after all, little to be be free until he makes the book live out I don’t think it’s sexuality by said about Sturgeon by way of praise of the peopled darkness in theatres itself that is the source of this that hasn’t been said during his life by around the world, its own light discomfort. I think that Sturgeon, more his fellow writers: ’’the finest conscious triumphant in the light of the camera's than any other writer in the field, was artist science fiction has ever had” eye. Talk to him, I said, so that determined to make us aware of our he (James Blish), ’’the finest of us all” knows the "fearless communion fearlessly bodies —and as simple as that sounds, (Alfred Bester), etc. But later in ’’Make shared” by Lone, Gerry, Janie, Hip, it’s something that few writers can get Room for Me,” we learn more about the Bonnie and Beanie changed the life of a away with. Sturgeon’s work is full of departed Eudiche, an alien who has young man in Russia yes, it overcame bodies in strange permutations —bodies — conquest by his own national restraints. Imagine the other saved Earth from that fly and vanish, bodies that can shed race. He was "imbalanced,” we find. their skins, deformed bodies with barriers it can topple! ”'He suffered from an overbroadening of appallingly sensual hands, bodies I am sad for myself, and for Radisa the call it because he will never meet Ted, but the extrapolative faculty. We inhabited by sentient digestive tracts, book as empathy. It need not concern you. It bodies that sweat and smell and get movie will come to be somehow is not only because Radisa is bound to do an alien concept and a strange dirty and that, one way or another, have disease indeed.”' it but also because we owe it to Ted to be dealt with. I leave it to some Sturgeon for giving us ourselves in his future scholar to explore this in more than any other writer characters and their lives, vulnerable ERHAPS more detail, with footnotes, but for now let and imperfect but seeking, asking of his time, Theodore Sturgeon me merely urge you to think about how the P next question — brought this strange disease much most science fiction really tells even better, the right to science fiction. It may be what you about the flesh which you inhabit. questions — enabling us to change and caused him to view the genre in unusual learn how to love. All of us owe Ted ways and what in turn made him hard to S one of the most sensuous of writ- for his honesty, catching us out and categorize for critics; of all the ers, Sturgeon knew things that the catching us up whenever, less than undeniably major figures in the field, A rest of science fiction is still human, we are afraid to companion the Sturgeon has perhaps received the least only beginning to discover. As a master exceptions among us. I am glad for critical and academic attention. He saw of the most important arts of science Radisa and us that his connection with the science in science fiction as meaning fiction, he knew things that Ted, in spite of death, is alive and ur- ’’wisdom" rather than technology, and he "mainstream" writers have only rarely gent — unstoppable. explored themes that other writers discovered. Writers as diverse as Readers of Ted Sturgeon who are would "invent" decades later. He was Bradbury, Vonnegut, and Delany have already his spiritual daughters and sons an unabashed stylist and romantic during learned from him, and any final and those to come find him in The Rare a time when science fiction was assessment of his impact on literature Breed where he says, "Life certainly has characterized first by technology and will have to go well beyond the a wav of throwing in complications. later by social satire; neither was his boundaries of science fiction and This happens so frequently, and in such forte. And to make matters worse, he fantasy. In time, there is every chance spectacular ways, that one tends to made people uncomfortable —but more that his components will fuse. overlook that from time to time life can. about that in a moment. —Gary K. Wolfe Continued on page 32.

8 FANTASY REVIEW , May 1985 Theodore Sturgeon 1918-1985

HAVE been promising Collins I would return to the pages of his august I magazine for some time. I had hoped to make my comeback with some Worst Week of My Life apocalyptic, biting satire, but it is not to be. Two weeks ago I was visiting Los Angeles, attempting to peddle "high By S. P. Somtow concepts" in Hollywood. I was going to do this silly, witty article about it. But instead, I’m sitting at the keyboard ienced from this contemplating a week of grief, both for theft was a kind of disturbing myself and for the world of science fic- background music to the other, profounder tragedies.) tion. It’s been rough, my friends. It’s obvious that I’m going to talk VERYONE who reads this column about Ted Sturgeon. It seems that I knows who Theodore Sturgeon is, was among the last people to talk to E but I think that very few people him, last Sunday (May 5) when I re- ceived a message from Sharon Webb, who have heard of someone named Matthew Tabery. He was a seventeen-year-old suggested that I call the Sturgeons. "I think he’s kid who edited a fanzine in Minneapolis, dying," she told me. "I just The spoke to him, he sounded as if he was Minnesota Science Fiction Reader, which actually paid saying goodbye." When I phoned him in money to its fiction Oregon, he spoke breathlessly, panting contributors like a prozine. I have corresponded with him ever since between words. I told him that my new book, The Darkling Wind, was dedi - he wrote me two years ago. He was a writer of great promise, of acerbic wit cated to him. I had meant it to be a and perceptive irony. When I met him a surprise, when it came out, but I knew year ago, at Minicom, he it would be too late. Ted said, "I love showed me a letter from that profusely you very much." "I love you too," I said. praised his He said, "I know." Then he said, "Good- perspicacity and insights, so I know I wasn’t bye." I talked to Jayne for a while alone in predicting that Matt was going longer, but I was barely coherent from to have a tremendous impact the weeping. I heard his voice in the on literary world when he background; "Tell him, ’Thanks for the was older. Unfortunately, he didn’t get S.P. Phonecall.”* He was still making any older. On my return from Los puns, weakened though he was. Only a Angeles, I found a message on my machine asking few hours after I talked to him, I me to call him back; discovered later, his already critical when I did so, his father told me he had lung condition became complicated by shot himself. me that pneumonia, and he went into the hospi- It was hard for me to believe that Ted would still recall the incident, tal. He died three days later. His something like this had happened to the but years later I heard him say to Jayne, "You know, youngest son Andros told me, "I was boy who had written me this series of he was that kid at our banquet table." there and it was beautiful." brilliant letters, published a respectable By then he had fanzine, and become my friend, but the aura of I had known Ted peripherally been the gadfly-like editor being for "More than about seven years, and been close to of his school newspaper. Of all the Human" never quite went prospective away. him only for the last year of his life. young writers who send me mail, I sure he Once, before I knew Ted, I had But I can barely remember a time when am was by far the most a talented. I young friend who was sick. He to I had not heard of Theodore Sturgeon. can’t help wondering what had stay in bed, and all he could His is the single most important in- would have happened if I’d been home to do was talk on the telephone. He asked fluence on my own work. The earliest receive his phone call. That is one of me to read the him a story. I read him "The Crate," by science fiction story I can remember hardest things for me, because I Theodore Sturgeon. In reading is "The Skills of Xanadu," a once tried to kill myself when I was a the story a bunch of kids, and their teacher, story so rich in resonance that I based teenager and was prevented from doing crashland on this planet. an entire tetralogy on its premise. so by friends. I have not thought about There is a crate among the Another seminal work of his, the novella it in fifteen years. I have learned that wreckage, and with her dying breatn the teacher points it "Some of Your Blood," was the life isn’t so bad, but I also know that I out to tne structural, thematic and conceptual once thought otherwise. kids and tells them they have to take it to the inspiration for my novel Vampire I do not mention Matt because of town because the whole world depends on it. Junction, which is nothing more or less my personal grief, which is great, but They carry the crate through rough terrain, than a remake of and a homage to. his because this is someone who devoted a endure terrible despair and hardship, and book. As always, he said it all in about disproportionate amount of his brief life grow to our field, from children into young a twentieth of the time it took me. and whose passing deserves men and mention in women; finally they reach the I have promised to write a short one of its major vehicles. outpost, only to find that tne crate is eulogy for Charlie Brown’s Locus. It empty. The teacher will represent, as befits the stature of HIS brings me back to Ted Stur- had told them it was important, to give that magazine, a more public sort of geon, because I was really barely them a purpose, so T they’d go on living until they could mourning. Ted Sturgeon was, and always grownup myself when, at SunCon, reach safety. Afterwards, the kid who’s will be, one of the most significant eight years ago, I badgered and manipu- narrating the story says figures in our field, and in a way it is lated the people running the Hugo of the teacher, "You know, hard not to find one’s personal sense of Banquet seating into sneaking me onto she really loved us." That’s loss subsumed in the far greater awe at the very table where the Supreme Deity how I feel about Ted. We a great man’s passing. But here in my of my Personal Pantheon happened to be all have to go on carrying the crate. As many have said, all of Ted’s column I’ve always been a rambler. So sitting. I had planned all these stories deal, in some way, with the idea of love. I want to talk briefly about the week’s intelligent things to say, but I ended up The same can be said of his other tragedies. (I won’t talk about how rather tongue-tied in his presence. life. Ted’s love is in that my credit cards all got stolen, although, Until Ted himself, perhaps noticing how crate, and if we think it’s empty, we’re wrong, because the things in this great country in which I find i hard I was sweating, started a con- you can’t see are the myself, that occurence means that one’s versation with me. I can’t remember a most important things in the world. identity is gone, that one simply ceases thing about that conversation except the S.P. to Exist. The disorientation I exper- excitement I felt. It never occurred to — Somtow

FANTASY REVIEW , May 1985 9 Theodore Sturgeon 1918-1 985

was a writer’s book. In a whole lot of things I didn’t go into particular detail. But mechanically, biologically, it’s per- fectly possible." As always, Sturgeon had quite a few irons in the fire; one of them was his book entitled ’’Godbody,” named after the story’s main character. At the time of the interview, Sturgeon hadn’t sold the book; he said that a sale meant a contract, and that meant a deadline. He refused to put a deadline on ”God- body." But about the book, he said: ”It’s my conviction that sex and religion were at one time very much the same thing. In organizing worship, the two were divided; and a lot oi the world’s ills stemmed from that particular division — the creation of shame, guilt and so on. It’s the only way for a secular organization or organized church to keep their hands on the shoulder of the worshipper when he’s not in sight. TED FIELDS QUESTIONS from Writers’ Workshop students at Swanncon. Godbody is a young guy in the twentieth century who sets himself to bring the two together again. That’s the basic A Belated Interview theme.” Sturgeon also had several unpub- lished stories in the hands of his agent. By Debra L. McBride was an experiment to maintain the ’’Most of my time has been taken humanity of humanity. I didn’t think up recently by teaching,” he said. The interview which follows was that humanity could retain that ’’Jayne and I have traveled almost conducted by telephone late last year, particular thing as long as the sexes 20,000 miles this year. One year, almost as the series of Bluejay reissues of were separated, exploited in one way or five years ago, we did about 36,000 Sturgeon’s major novels was well another. miles in six months. We crossed the underway. Ted and ’’Lady Jayne” had ’’The idea for writing the book country six times. We did twelve courses just returned to Oregon from a teaching came when I saw an ad in a magazine at universities. We were actually for trip in Hawaii. Ted was promoting tire chains. Weed Tire Chains. looking for a place to live; that was one Venus Plus X, perhaps his most There was a picture of a girl in her of the main things we were doing, and controversial ’’utopian” novel, originally underwear holding a tire chain. I said that’s when we finally settled in Eugene published in 1960. The Bluejay edition, ’What the Hell is a girl in her underwear (Oregon). with illustrations and cover art by doing holding a tire chain?’ Pure sex ’’Eugene is picture perfect. Really ROWENA MORILL, was third in the exploitation. beautiful! My lungs aren’t so hot, and series. ”1 tried to imagine a situation the air here is absolutely diamond-clean. The protagonist in Venus Plus X, where there was no such thing as ex- It never gets too hot and it never gets Charlie Johns, tninks at first that he is ploiting sex. The first draft was called too cold. This is what we were looking on another planet, then Earth via a time Oyster World, because oysters are like for. ’’Last Christmas was the first white transport device. The natives, the that; ambisexual. They can switch to Christmas they had in 21 years, and the Ledom, say they need an objective look one side or the other. And this is snow was gone by New Year’s Eve. The at their society from an outsider, and basically the same idea Ursula (LeGuin) first week of January I saw an old lady will return him where he came from had when she wrote Left Hand of with a power lawnmower out mowing her after giving his evaluation. Darkness. lawn. It’s really lovely out here! The Ledom are biologically an- ’’But then I tried to make that "I’m looking out of this big window drogynous, -- have no violence in their work, and I couldn’t make it work as it’s a little, tiny apartment we have society, and have evolved sciences well as the concept of having each with a huge window — and all I can see which leave time for preserving individual with organs for both sexes. is the vegetable garden the landlady is handicrafts and the arts. They have ”1 get all kinds of weird mail on giving a manicure to out there, a horse constructed a statue of a giant child to it. From up in Canada somewhere, or Continued on page 32. represent their theologies --they the Midwest, a teacher is wildly excited TED as panelist in Boca Raton. worship children. There is a harmony about that book. She orders 30 copies permeating the entire society; a sense of every year. She’s going to be delighted oneness. by this particular rerun, because it’s Johns is impressed by the beauty, been hard to get. harmony, and artistry of the Ledom, ’’She sent me her senior papers on until his guide, Philos, discloses a this. I thought I was being relatively secret; the race was not an accidental explicit in saying exactly what I meant. mutation, but a race genetically But one student thought we were killing planned, designed, and brought about by all the little girls when they were born; our own sciences. Unable, now, to and another thought the whole things accept the Ledom, regarding them as wasn’t possible because the Ledom freaks, John attempts to escape. would fertilze themsleves. All of which After twenty-five years, this book was explicitly explained in the book, but still causes ripples of anger. However, apparently not well enough. it takes a hard look at human sexuality ’’One of them wrote me an article and how it affects our culture. about ’Homosexuality is not the cure for ”It was never their purpose or any social problems.’ But this is not mine to have this a continuing species,” homosexuality. He missed that alto- Sturgeon explained. ’’But for some reason gether.” a lot of readers overlooked that. This ’’This was not a reader’s book; it 10 FANTASY REVIEW , May 198 5 We Are Hoaxed by INDEX TO THE REVIEWS Author Title Reviewer Page ANDERSON, Poul Game of Empire Martha Bart ter 12 Gabby Snitch! ASIMOV, Isaac 6c Best of SF Firsts William Schuyler 12 ASIMOV 6c GREENBERG Great SF Stories 12 Joe Sanders 12 LEASE, friends! There is no Helen BENSON, Michael Vintage SF Films Walter Albert 22 Purcell, there is no Pinetree Press, BLISS, Michael Brian De Palma Keith Neilson 22 P there are no porno books by BRUNNER, John New Settlement of Old... Susan H. Harper 23 . King (and I) have been COOK, Glen of hoaxed, by Gabby Snitch, alias Charles A Matter Time Richard Erlich 12 Platt, alias Helen Purcell, plus I’m afraid COOK, Glen With Mercy Towards None c. W. Sullivan III 12 no less a personage than our own de- COOK, Glen Passage at Arms Keith Soltys 13 parting Review editor, the heretofore COOK, Glen The White Rose Glen Reed 13 sage and sober Neil Barron. DELMAN 6c JULIAN Le Rayon SF; Catalogue... Pascal J. Thomas 25 How come? I For openers, was DWORK IN, Susan Double De Palma: Film Study Jon Jensen 23 away playing GoH at the Sixth Con- ELLISON, Harlan, ed. Medea; Harlan's World Thom Dunn 14 ference on the Fantastic in Beaumont, FOSTER, M.A. Owl Time Walter Albert 13 Texas, while the last' diskette of copy from California was run and pasted up GREEN, Sharon Will of the Gods Thom Dunn 13 for FR 78. Thus I failed to notice the HIGGS, Eric C. Happy Man Michael Collings 14 review entitled ’’Another Pseudonymous HILL, Carol Eleven Mile High Dancer Lynn F. Williams 14 King Book?” on page 31. HOWARD, Nic, ed. Masters of Fantasy: Derleth Chris Morgan 25 Nor did Neil warn me. HOYLE, Sir Fred October 1 Is Too Late Steve Carper 14 Thus I was caught slack-jowled HUGHES, Robert Don Power and the Prophet Michael and speechless when Kirby McCauley Collings 15 IRWIN 6c LOVE, eds. Best of Trek #8 Paul M. Lloyd 25 (King’s agent) pinned me by phone for my irresponsibility. JONES, Diana Wynne Fire and Hemlock Gary Zacharias 19 The rest of the story can be KAYE, M. M. Ordinary Princess Mary S. Weinkauf 19 derived from the epistolary record: KENNEMORE, Tim Changing Times Joan Gordon 20 KILLOUGH, Lee Liberty's World Dave Mead 15 LANCE, Kathryn Pandora's Genes Keith Soltys 15 King Testifies LEE, Tanith Gorgon 6c Other Beastly... Susan L. Nickerson 16 LLEWELLYN, Edward Dear FR: Fugitive in Transit Kathleen M. Romer 16 MASON, Anne Dancing Meteorite Susan H. Harper 20 In the April 1985 issue of Fantasy MAYHAR, Ardath World Ends Hickory Hollow Charles de Lint 18 Review someone who identified herself MC EVOY, Samuel R. Delaney Douglas Barbour 23 as Helen Purcell offered a brief critique MORRIS, Janet, ed. Afterwar a. A. Rutledge 15 of a novel called Love Lessons, issued MORRIS, Janet Beyond Sanctuary Patricia Hernlund 16 in a limited edition by Pinetree Press, at MULLER 6c PRONZINI Witches' Brew Sheldon Jaffery 16 a price of $35 per copy. According to MC KENZIE, Alan Harrison Ford Story Keith Nelson 24 the review, I’m John Wilson. Purcell NEWMAN 6c states that a cover letter accompanying UNSWORTH Future War Novels: Annotated Agatha Taormina 25 her reviewer’s copy says so. Purcell NORWOOD, Warren Polar Fleet Allan Jenoff 16 adds her own opinion that I am the au- PELOT, Pierre Le Chien Courait... Pascal J. Thomas 26 thor based on style and characteriza- PIERCE, Meredith Ann Gathering of Gargoyles Walter Albert 20 tion. POURNELLE 6c BAEN Far Frontiers Pascal J. Thomas 24 Love Lessons was originally pub- REED, Kit Fort Privilege Pascal J. Thomas 17 lished in the early 70’s by Bee Line SABERHAGEN, Fred, ed. Berserker Base Jackson Houser 18 Books. Although Bee Line at that time SARGENT, Pamela routinely put a one line copyright notice Homesmind Fredica K. Bartz 20 on their novels, they were never actual- SIMAK, Clifford Le Livre d'Or de SF Pascal J. Thomas 18 ly registered by copyright with the Li- SOMMER-BODENBURG, A. Vampire Moves In Walter Albert 20 brary of Congress. Whoever is behind STIRLING, S. M. Snowbrother Fred Runk 17 this scam was apparently smart enough SUCHARITKUL, Somtow V: Alien Swordmaster Michael Klossner 19 to realize that with no copyright certifi- SUMMERVILLE, Jenny Shields of Trell M. W. Leahy 21 cate on file, the notion that I wrote this TAYLOR, Charles D. First Salvo Allan Jenoff 19 book could not be definitely disproved. VASBINDER, Samuel H. Science of Mary Shelley Frederick Frank 24 The fact is, I did not write Love Les- VERSINS, Pierre sons, nor have I ever published a so- Encyclopedic de l'Utopie... Pascal J. Thomas 26 called porno novel under any name. In WENDLAND, Albert Science, Myth, and... Glenn Reed 24 1968, when I was an impoverished col- WESTALL, Robert Cats of Seroster Mary S. Weinkauf 21 lege student with only three pairs of WILDER, Cherry Yarath the Wolf Carl B. Yoke 21 underwear (who frequently supped on WILLIS, Donald C. Horror and SF Films III Michael Klossner 24 fried Cheerios and peanut butter), I ac- WOLFE, Gene Free Live Free tually did try to write a porno novel. Joe Sanders 17 WREDE, Patricia C. Harp of Imach Thyssel About forty pages in, while writing a Robert J. Ewald 18 YOUNG, Robert R. scene in which gorgeous twin sisters are Vizier's Second Daughter Joan Gordon 19 ZAHN, making love in a birdbath, I collapsed in Timothy A Coming of Age Pascal J. Thomas 22 shrieks of laughter and banished the pro- ject into the oilstove. that I am John Wilson, and would cau- phen King’s attorney. tion I am dismayed at being misre- anyone against buying a so-called I call your attention to pages 31 presented in this fashion and dismayed ’’collector’s edition” at such scalper’s and 32 of issue No. 78 of FR wherein that no one at Fantasy Review asked prices where the provenance is so suspi- there appears an article by Helen Pur- for a confirmation or denial before run- ciously unclear. cell entitled ’’Another Pseudonymous ning this review, but mostly I am —Stephen King King Book?” anxious that collectors not be fleeced in The statements in said article at- such an unsavory business as this one. Lawyer Threatens tributing to Stephen King authorship of a Collectors of the Bachman novels will certain pornographic short story enti- know that the secret finally came out Dear FR: tled ’’Love Lessons” by John Wilson are because of copyright information filed inacurate, highly libelous and of great with the Library of Congress. I deny Please be advised that I am Ste- Continued on page 34.

FANTASY REVIEW , May 1985 11 NEWS & REVIEWS

Season” by Kornbluth, ’’Misbegotten Missionary” by Isaac Asimov, ”To Serve Man” by Knight, "Coming Attraction” by Fiction , ”A Subway Named Mobius” by A.J. Deutch, "Process” by van Vogt, "The Mindworm” by Kornbluth, and "The New Reality” by Charles L. Harness. Kipling Flies High —Again Even if you have most of these stories in other anthologies-or, more likely in several anthologies and Anderson, Poul. The Game of Empire. New York: Baen collections —you should get this book, too. Looking at these Books, 1985. 288 p. $3.50 ISBN 0-671-55959-1. stories in historical context give a sense of how SF was Diana Crowfeather, a cute teenage Kim, just happens to developing. Although Compbell’s Astounding had stagnated, be the daughter of Dominic Flandry. Now that the Terran new magazines such as F & SF and Galaxy suddenly gave SF Empire is breaking up, and Anderson is tying loose ends in his writers broader markets and fresh challenges. There’s joy in Polesotechnic League-Terran Empire series, we have yet these stories, a feeling that, hey, we can do anything. another challenge to stability and intergalactic relations from That’s true even of grim stories such as ’’Coming Attraction” the Merseians and friends, plotted on the model of (1) the that succeed in summing up the dread that lay under the British in India and (2) the Japanese in Asia. surface of those serene "happy days.” Not all the stories are While Kipling concentrated on Kim and said little about this successful. Not all share the excitement of shattering the reasons for his spying, Anderson makes sure we barriers. But as a whole they suggest that it was a good understand a complex situation. We see military and political time for SF, as writers were encouraged to stretch maneuvering, and some laundered results in sophont misery; themselves, to write better than they’d imagined they could. we meet scores of more-or-less attractive races more or less The anthology is a fine installment in an extremely casually (it helps but is not altogether necessary to have valuable series. Strongly recommended. read other works in this series) and at last we really do see —Joe Sanders Flandry himself in action, for at least half of two chapters. But there are drawbacks to using such a well-known Flawed Time-Travel Novel model as Kim. For one thing, the Wodenite, Axor, earnest as he is, simply is not given the intensity of purpose that would Cook, Glen. A Matter of Time. Ace, New York, April 1985. allow him to function as Kim’s Lama, while Diana is an 268p. $2.95. ISBN 0-441-52213-0. interesting character, but nobody’s chela. For another, Kim A Matter of Time is a competent and well-structured is effective partly because the plot does not detail the time-travel novel, combining its time-travel premise with results of Kim’s espionage; he worked for a vast, and techniques and themes from police procedurals and political realistic, organization. Diana and her Tigery friend Targovy thrillers, plus a low-key alternative -universe theme. There (read MahbuD Ali) have to uncover and handle an Empire are occasional lapses on the level of diction, but the story is crisis all bv themselves. For a third, Anderson seems on presented through very contempo (and decorous) non-linear occasion to forget that he is using a model, and then forces a plotting, with enough older virtues to hold the attention even recovery. He’s clever, but the patches show. The Game of of those of us who aren’t particularly keen about authors’ Empire is good, but not great, Anderson. messing about with time, either as topic or technique. —Martha A. Bartter I’d like to recommend A Matter of Time and would, except that the fictional universe here isn’t sufficiently First Come In Last disconnected from ours to keep the book from being in very bad taste. A major part or Cook’s premise is that some Asimov, Isaac, Charles G. Waugh and Martin H. Greenberg, (many? most?) American POWs captured by the army of North eds. Isaac Asimov Presents the Best of Science Fiction Vietnam were brainwashed by the Chinese and sent back as Firsts. Beaufort Books, New York, April 1984. 249 p. $17.95 potential Mancuhurian Candidates in various politically ISBN 0-8253-0184-X. important fields. Some of the brainwashed were retained: The problems for the editors were to determine where ’’Those chosen to remain forever MIA were the moral an interesting science fiction idea did appear first, and then weaklings...”(178). to choose pieces that were good and not too long. They In at least one case, the Chinese were spectacularly came up with twelve stories, 1839 to 1966, each of which is wrong (as the plot turns out) about a soldier "Missing In preceded by a short note intended to establish its claim to Action”, but a "what-if” idea has been planted, and the primacy. suggestion --applied to our world — is rather silly and more The stories in order are: John D. Clark, ’’Minus Planet”; than a little obscene. Fritz Lieber, "Yesterday House”; , ’’Neutron Star”; —Richard D. Erlich Edgar Allen Poe, ’’The Conversation of Eiros and Charmion”; Lester del Rey, ’’The Faithful”; Don Wilcox, ’’The Voyage that Tlie Pretender Lasted Six Hundred Years”; Murray Leinster, ”A Logic Named and the Prophet Joe”; Fits-James O’Brien, ’’What Was It?” and also ’’The Diamond Lens”; Richard Matheson, ’’The Test”; Isaac Asimov, Cook, Glen. With Mercy Toward None. Baen Books. New "Reason”; and H.G.Wells, "The Land Ironclads.” York, February 1985. 336p. $2.95 paper. ISBN 0-671-55925-7. Unless you have a desperate need for the Clark and In The Fire in His Hands (FR 72), Glen Cook Wilcox stories or the bibliographical notes (which fudge chronicled the rise of the desert prophet, El Murid, as he occasionally-the editors might have asked Fritz Lieber acquired a following sufficient to challenge Yousif, a regional whether he was writing about cloning, as they claim, or leader roughly equivalent to a duke. By the end of that parthenogenesis, which they admit is possible but would not book, Yousif had been killed, El Murid was in nominal control be a first;, this book is not recommended. of the region, but Yousif’s son, the neophyte sorcerer Haroun, —William M. Schuyler Jr. had escaped. With Mercy Toward None is somewhat more balanced, Latest in an Extremely Valuable Series following both El Murid in his religious maneuverings and Haroun in his political ones. Secondary characters, especially Asimov, Isaac, and Martin H. Greenberg, eds. Isaac Asimov Haroun ’s ’’viking” friend, Bragi Ragnarson, and El Murid’s Presents the Great SF Stores 12 (1950). DAW, New York, daughter, Yasmid, are more completely developed. Cook also September 1984. 319 p. $3.50, paper, ISBN 0-87997-953-4. introduces an interesting new character, a con man and Consider this anthology’s table of contents: "Not With a charlatan named Mocker. In addition, Cook takes time in this Bang” by Damon Knight, "Spectator Sport” by John D. book to more thoroughly describe people, places, and events. MacDonald, "There will Come Soft Rains” by , This novel, like the first one, begs some comparison "Dear Devil” by Eric Frank Russell, "Scanners Live in Vain” with Herbert’s Dune series (with both positive and negative by Cordwainer Smith, "Born of Man and Woman” by Richard results), but Cook’s novels have a solid historical feel to Matheson, "The Little Black Bag” by C.M. Kornbluth, them —and with the disappearance of El Murid’s ’’Angel” and "Enchanted Village” by A.E. van Vogt, ’’Oddy and Id” by the bracelet which enabled him to call down lightning, much Alfred Bester, "The Sack” by William Morrison, "The Silly of the magic /fantasy element disappears as well. What is 12 FANTASY REVIEW, May 1985 --

NEWS & REVIEWS j

Stark, Unflinching Portrait left, then, is rather good historical/fantasy fiction; and this of War book should not be the last in the series. Recommended. — C. W. Sullivan III Cook, Glen. Passage at Arms. Popular Library, New The Company Goes Home York, April 1985. 272p. $2.95, paper. ISBN 0-445-20006-5. Cook, Glen. The White Rose. Tor, New York, April 1985. 317 Passage at Arms is set p. $2.95, paper. ISBN 0-812-53374-7. in the universe as same The White Rose concludes Cook's trilogy on the T Cook s Starfisher's Trilogy mercenary Black Company (The Black Company, FR74; but the focus is much Linger, FR77). The young girl, Darling, now the narrower in this novel. The White Rose, has retreated to the Plain of Fear with the last story concentrates on the remnants of the Company. She prepares for a final crew of one small group of confrontation with the Lady and the Taken, while, at the men confined in close same time, the enchantments which hold the Lady's dread quarters under conditions of husband, the Dominator, are being loosened. The possibility of high stress. In this, the the Dominator's rising from the Barrow gradually draws the novel is much like WWII Lady and Darling together as they discover a common submarine novels like Run interest in preventing his resurrection. The novel concludes Silent, Run Deep or the with Croaker, the healer/warrior preparing to return the German film Das Boot. Annals of the to the first The SF elements, such Company Company's home, Khatovar. The last paragraph hints at still more adventures to as the detailed descriptions come. of weaponry and battle As in the second volume, Cook works with a split procedures, add little to the narrative, but here it is less effective, with the events in story. The best part of the Barrow land contributing much to plot but little the theme. Best Novel book is the stark, unflinching Cook introduces new characters and new wonders, and some portrayal of the crew as they characters who are wonders, but his energetic portrait fight battle after battle The odds-on favorite, drawn in the first two volumes of the complex relationships under gradually deteriorating WILLIAM GIBSON, walked T among the men of the Black Company is missing here. Several away with the conditions. It s a perspec- of the previous characters do develop in this novel, for Best Novel as tive not commom to SF and members of makes the book worth particularly the Lady and Darling, but strong dramatic the Science Fiction Writers of tensions on the personal level are for the most part lacking. reading. America banqueted at New Even though the beginning and end are not as satisfying York's Warwick Hotel May 4. —Keith Soltys as the middle, Cook's trilogy is well-written, imaginative, Gibson's also above-average in characterization, and sophisticated in took the Philip K. Dick award More Mashing, Less Art narrative structure. Recommended for those who like their for best paperback original, fantasy with a bit of grit and for libraries with moderate -to and is among the finalists for Green, Sharon. Will of The large holdings. the Hugo Award in the same the Gods. Daw Books, New —Glenn Reed category. York, May 1985. 383 p. $3.50, paper. ISBN 0-312-36185-8. This is "Jalav IV" or Bor Suppose A KAJlOrKr "Mida IV" in Green's Amazon SHOO U> <2rE.T UUCKY? Warrior series and features Don't you want Youp. heroine Jalav venturing forth ONE5 TAKEN to do battle among the feuding clans. Green's novels are proof that heroic fantasy can provide a setting for sexual of struggle and capture which are lusty without descending to the female bondage fixity of John Norman's Gor series. In variety of incident and just plain fairness, then, Green's books have the edge in the sub-genre of Swords- John Varley and-Sex, but they fall far Best Novella behind, unfortunately, in Ten-Finger Exercises prose style. Their relent- Best Novella was JOHN lessly elevated diction with Foster, M.A. Owl Time. DAW Collectors' Book No. 612. NY: VARLEY's " 1," 0-87997- locutions like "knew not" and DAW Books, Inc., 1985. Wraps. 251p. $2.95. ISBN which first appeared in AsL- "knew naught, "save that" 992-5. mov's last May. OCTAVIA describes this first and even "naught save," In his brief preface, M.A. Foster BUTLER took the Nebula for in using his leaves this reader full weary collection of his shorter fiction as an exercise Best Novelette with "Blood- and wishing Green would get "plots, themes, notions and characters in styled settings child," another Asimov's of older writers" he on with it. More mashing which intentionally suggest the manner story. the source for the "The with less psuedo-art! has admired. J.G. Ballard is cited as GARDNER DOZOIS Bradbury "or" Harlan Ellison for —Thom Dunn Man Who Loved Owls," Ray picked up his second Nebula Conversation" "Leanne," Nabokov, Borges and Kafka for "The Award with "Morning Child," and for "Entertainment," the only one of the stories A.M. first published in Omni in previously published, Jack Vance. January, 1984, and judged a character who escapes Each of the stories presents Best Short Story. I awoke screaming from a society in which from or is in the process of escaping For a full list of my alarm clock turned me off de -humanizing technology dominates the individual. The most nominees see FR 77, p. 13. and went to work elaborate story is "Entertainment," a depiction of a pleasure oriented society in which each person has the technology in Continued on page 15. —A. J. Grimaldi 13 FANTASY REVIEW , May 1985 NEWS & REVIEWS his home to enable him to create multimedia works of art Edgar Allen Poe and Roald Dahl." Even given the hyperbolic that draw on the resources of a central memory bank nature of dust jacket blurbs, this assessment is at best containing what appears to be the entire range of Western misleading. The opening pages are unsettling, but only music, painting and literature. This story was previously because Higgs begins with climactic violence, then published in New Voices 4, an anthology edited by George R. reconstructs events leading to it. While the technique is R. Martin, and Foster comments that he still cannot resist valid, The Happy Man depends too much upon the reader tinkering with it. I have not seen the earlier version but this remembering that opening horror and not enough on an latest incarnation is certainly impressive. incremental sense of horror. Events move too fast; "The Man Who Loved Owls" and "Leanne" are competent characters either change overnight or Higgs’s merely asserts if not outstanding stories but "The Conversation," like a change. And the novel resembles Poe less than King. "Entertainment," is material of a different calibre. Here, a Structure, style (including King’s trademark use of brand writer creates a character who begins to take on an names), theme, content —all suggest King. Like King’s best independent life of her own and eventually becomes aware work, The Happy Man wants to horrify or, failing that, that she may be a character in a fiction. Although there are "gross out" the reader. fewer of Foster’s distinctive descriptions in this story, they Unfortunately, The Happy Man succeeds at being have some of the enigmatic and hieratic quality of the merely unpleasant. Its sexual content is more explicit than futuristic cityscapes in Rimbaud’s Illuminations. This quality King’s and less inherent to the plot. Nor does it convince me is also fleetingly present in "Entertainment" and whether it that sinister powers operate within America’s upper middle- comes from Borges or Rimbaud, it is striking. class; when it finally identifies those powers, the novel lacks Apparently, Foster considers these stories to be the the resonance of horror associated with King. Higgs’s kinds of exercises in other styles that musicians and artists villainies are more venial than mortal, his characters often engage in as they progress toward a more individual uncomfortably one -dimensional, and his horrors more asserted style. Whatever his intention, they demonstrate a consistency than developed. in technical accomplishment and thematic integrity The Happy Man might interest dedicated horror characteristic of Foster’s longer fiction and I would like to readers: it lacks the depth, however, to draw from a very see him publish more of them. much larger audience. —Walter Albert —Michael Collings Harlan and the Argonauts Pop Art Physics Harlan Ellison, ed. Medea: Harlan's World. New York: Bantam Books, June 1985. 544p. $10.95, tradepaper. ISBN 0- Hill, Carol. 553-34170-7. The Eleven Million Mile High Dancer. Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, New York, March 1985. 447 p. $16.95, In April of 1975, Harlan Ellison convened a synergy of hardcover. ISBN 0-03-070600-8. science fiction luminaries to create the planet Medea, moon Amanda Jowarski, the roller skating astronaut, is of the gas giant Argo in the Castor binary star system 50 a heroine who has everything—a "Wonder light years from Earth. Writers Hal Clement, , Woman" outfit which emphasizes her special wiggly walk Larry Niven, and developed the planet’s and rivets the attention of every man in the Pentagon, two lovers, a cat specifications from astrophysical to sociological; their essays named Schrodinger, a visiting "Frankenstein" who helps dry together with an artist’s rendering by Kelly Freas were then the dishes after parties and an advanced degree in particle presented to a UCLA seminar of Thomas Disch, Frank Herbert, physics. Only her intelligence, courage, and determination , and Theodore Sturgeon (Ellison was can save the earth from the evil Master of the Universe. moderator) who hashed over possibilities for story creation She is also a dingbat blond who claims women think better than before an audience of students and fans. After some "Second men. She likes to talk to high school classes on "Aspects Thoughts" in 1977, these writers and Kate Wilhelm and Jack of the Unknown" because "the unknown itself was her Williamson wrote the eleven Medea stories which have very favorite thing," she adores the hairy, macho, appeared in major outlets over the past decade. The "straw and already married Bronco McCloud, and she slobbers over her stupid boss" for the project, Ellison, was given the title of Medea’s cat. I loathed her immediately. creator by the other writers. And all of these —specs, This has made writing a review "jackpot" session, Freas’ artwork, audience suggestions, rather difficult, because there was also a great deal I liked about this "Second Thoughts" and 300 pages of stories make this one funny and — literate novel. Hill has big, unique ana exciting book. filled a world taken from comic books and pulp SF with some real science, including an awareness Ellison’s enthusiam at the fruition of his project is that the more we learn about subatomic palpable and justified, for his book pleases on several levels. physics the more mystical it seems. Her improbable The stories are suspenseful and detailed, with Pohl and cast of characters includes a spacegoing chimp, a gun-toting Sturgeon offering the deepest extrapolations of alien sheriff, a green alien, a fourteen year old genius with thick glasses. Indians, sentience, the stories’ main subject. And there is the added Russian spies, and even a doddering President who falls interest of seeing the authors deal with the many givens of asleep during his own speeches; her impossibly the setting. far-out plot has an entirely Wisely, Ellison resisted a momentary insane (his predictable ending. word) impulse to justify all the inconsistencies in the tales, Will Amanda’s courage and daring enable her to rescue preferring the "song of friends at work" to strict adherence to her cat and save the earth from certain destruction? Well, imposed rule. The stories, then, appear each in its author’s of course. Do we care? Unfortunately, not much. own cadence, and we have the fun of going back to the That’s the trouble with pop art. Despite developmental sections of the book to see these stories its wit, this novel ultimately begins to seem as hollow and exaggerated as germinating in discussion. Finally there is the framing tale of the giant hamburgers and soup cans it rather resembles. the thousand-year human occupation of Medea and its However, according to the publisher, it is soon conclusion. Rarely has the creative process been laid so bare destined to become a motion picture. If so, let’s hope at such length, nor has the problem of alien contact received they give Goldie Hawn the lead. She’d be just right. such a many-faceted exploration. Students of creative writing, then, along with aU fans and philosophers will find —Lynn F. Williams Medea a golden treasure worth a long and dangerous voyage. Too Little According to —Thom Dunn , Hoyle Horrors More Asserted Than Developed Hoyle, Sir Fred. October the First is Too Late. Baen, New York, February 1985. 281 p. $2.95, paper. ISBN 0-671-55943- Higgs, Eric C. The Happy Man. St. Martin’s, New York, 1985. 5. 166p. $16.95, hardcover. ISBN 0-312-36185-8. One of the many stereotypes of SF which cause literary "From its profoundly unsettling first pages," the dust readers to blanch is the "book of ideas." October the jacket First proclaims, "The Unhappy Man, Eric C. Higgs’s is Too Late is purely an idea, a thought experiment riveting vision of the nightmare underside of the American (abandoned half-way through at that) clothed in a wretched dream, brilliantly echoes the grand Gothic horror tradition of excuse for a novel.

14 FANTASY REVIEW , May 1985 -

c NEWS & REVIEWS )

Pelmen Three Hoyle posits an Earth in which different eras suddenly barbarian attacks force her co-exist. England remains in the present, but Greece is into the company of the Hughes, Robert Don. The reliving the time of Pericles, and Russia has been melted into Principal. Power and the Prophet. glass by the heat of a far -future sun. Hoyle's characters Lance concentrates on New York: Ballantine, 1985. never once think of gathering this information safely by character development to the 339p. $2.95 paper. ISBN 0- satellite. Intrepid Britons all (except for a foolhardy Aussie detriment of some of the 354-30353-0. pilot), they merely pile into a plane and fly into the other aspects of the story. Book Three of Pelmen unknown to have a look for themselves. The character of the the Powershaper shares the Back home, Britain is once again king of the world, and Principal, a man driven by uses strengths and weaknesses of its new-found strength to end World War I, which is still the desire to possess Evvy many multi-volume narra- raging in Europe. After this single use of the one conceivably and the altruistic urge to be interesting tives. It calls upon a fully idea in the book — the clash of cultures inherent a good ruler, is very well developed world with well- in a world of different times — he drops the theme and sends drawn. But the details of developed characters, his narrator off to ancient Greece and 50 pages of music the world he rules are trusting the reader to theory. painted in much broader connect one volume to ano- The first 75 pages of the book could be chopped off strokes and the background ther. It is also, however, without losing a single significant fact; there are no never really comes alive. The difficult to read after the descriptions worthy of the name ("Fashions can't change too story stops rather than ends three year's hiatus since The much simply because of the shape of the human body."); holes suggesting one or more the size Wizard in Waiting and the of megatherium defeat every aspect of the plot; and sequels are likely. the characters can demean six years since The Prophet themselves without help from me, —Keith Soltys of Lamath. "There were one or two women there so it seemed this was Still, Hughes creates to be a social occasion rather than a work conference." intriguing characters and (Later he will speak of a translating machine as producing situations: magicians capable stilted speech. How is one to tell?) Ir t le of appearing in end > October... is yet another alternate _ . ? ] pathetic Rule shapes, animate castles, Bnttama fantasy by a middle-aged Briton unable to reconcile himself monstrous creatures, inclu- to the loss of Britain's prestige after World War II. It ding Vicia-Heinox, the two- is a thoroughly bad book. Don't, under any circumstances, buy headed dragon defeated and dispatched in the earlier ”Steve Carper R-ee books. While the novel tends to be You and Me toward stereotypes (young Killough, Lee. heroes, beautiful and impe- Liberty's World. DAW, New York, March 1985. 238p. $2.95, paper. ISBN 0-88677-023-8. tuous queens, evil merchant In Liberty's wizards, peerless warriors), World a group of colonists leaving oppressive, bureaucratic Earth for the freedom of the Hughes' narration is engaging stars land on an unknown, extremely as Pelmen forges alliances earthlike planet after their spacecraft malfunctions. among the Three Lands to They soon find themselves enmeshed in the complex, violent politics of the defeat the evil Flayh, recover intelligent humanoid indigenes. an ancient talisman, and Liberty Ibarra, on Earth an "undocumented" person living by her wits outside the "suffocating of restore unity to the land. To cocoon government protection," must convince do so, Pelman must either the native Hees to Octavia Butler help the humans find a place of their own, relinquish his power to Flayh apart from the Best Novelette Hees, where the dangers of culture shock can be minimized or destroy the powershaper s' and where magic itself. Hughes the humans can enjoy the individual and collective SFWA President Charles freedom thev have left Earth interweaves narrative threads to find. Sheffield presided over the One of the pleasures of Killough's fiction, awards, while until all logically join. The here and in hospitality (the such works as Aventine and Three Lands are united, the A Voice Out of Ramah, is per- banquet and the SFWA suite suasive characterization. Liberty Ibarra seems quite real, party.) Talisman is re-forged, but her was directed by F. thoughts and actions consistent with what Paul Wilson. the power to shape is lost-- we know of her Nebula night personal history and Killough's imaginary future (cf. boasted a full or is it? New powers may be The moon as more Doppelganger Gambit). The Hees are discovered, presumably in also interesting, than 200 egos gathered at though less for their personalities further volumes. than their culture, which the Warwick, and there were may remind one of ancient China. Unfortunately, simple some crazy —Michael R. Collings errors moments. Harlan of science in the first fifteen pages (e.g. "angstrom units" are Ellison recounted for many taken to be "astronomical units"—p.ll) subvert even the most the facer he landed on First Novel Needs Sequel willing suspension of disbelief. Killough's plot demands just Charles Platt (who apparent- too much coincidence, and our credulity — overworked just ly begged for it), and polite Lance, Kathryn. Pandora's in getting Liberty and the Invictus safely landed — is further advances by Novel winner Genes. Popular Library, New strained by the requirement that she learn a Hees language Gibson were forcefully rebuf- York, April 1984. 288p. almost overnight. The solution to the human-Hees dilemma, fed by testy Tom Disch. $2.95, paper. ISBN 0-446- although thematically apt, seems contrived and anticlimactic. 20004-9. This is not one of Lee Killough's triumphs. Recommen- This first novel is set ded with reservations. in a future world devastated — Dave Mead by the consequences of recombinant DNA research. After the Bomb: No Elves Need Apply Evvy, the daughter of poor farmers, is sold to be the Morris, Janet, ed. Afterwar. Simon and Schuster, New York, concubine of the Principal. June 1985. (proofs) 284p. $ 2.95. ISBN 0-671-55967-2. With the help of Will, the Morris introduces this collection of eleven short stories soldier sent to take her to with the observation that when she first solicited stories the capital she escapes and about post-nuclear holocaust, there were a remarkable joins the Garden, a communal number of stories with elves and witches. Most of these group of women scientists stories were rejected, although three of them, chosen for struggling to deal with the their merit (Stephen Leigh's "Flamestones," Diana Paxon's ravages of plague and "The Phoenix Garden," and Esther Friesner's "Primary"), do ignorance. But her new-found lean toward the fantastic. Both Leigh's and Friesner's stories Gardner Dozois security is shattered when deal with space /dimension /time warps resulting from nuclear Best Short Story

FANTASY REVIEW , May 1985 15 NEWS & REVIEWS

Of Monsters, Men, and blasts, and Paxon’s characters include earth-magic tutelary who has survived for over Mythic Maidens beings as well as holocaust survivors. 2,000 years by world-jumping All of the stories deal with possibilities of survival through Transits, rifts in the Lee, Tanith. The Gorgon, after major nuclear attack. Morris’s own "Hero’s Welcome" is infrastructure of space that and Other Beastly Tales. a bleak evocation of desperate measures taken by the the alien Aulds use to drive DAW, New York, February remaining inhabitants of Martha’s Vineyard to stave off tunnels from world to world. 1985. 288p. $2.95, paper. genetic collapse. Equally bleack is Craig Gardner’s "Bar and Peter Ward, a dreamy, ISBN 0-87997-003-3. Grill" in which those of "clean" genetic stock are offered lovesick scholar of ancient Did you ever wonder companionship, free food, and drinks —but at a sinister price. Greek, happens upon Thalia what a gorgon might be like? One of the most positive stories is "Going After Arvig" by on a Greek island and gets Michael Armstrong: a tribe of Inupiat Indians in Alaska Tanith Lee has an idea. Do caught up in her attempt to it with the aid of a you ever ponder the myster- painfully reconstructs ancient heritage elude aliens, who want to ies of the unicorn, the captive anthropologist. Ian Watson’s "When Idaho Dived," and destroy her because her werewolf, or the selkie? C.J. Cherryh’s "Pots" provide irony and humor. The most knowledge of the Transits Tanith Lee has, and in this elaborate piece is Gregory Benford’s "To the Storming Gulf," may allow unscrupulous collection of eleven tales which blends the struggles of a small group of survivors with humans to plunder new defense (most were published pre- the reconstruction of the disaster’s scenario by a worlds. viously), she has assembled a computer; this long piece is both thoughtful and well -paced. The characters are bestiary that is now The subject-matter of "Afterwar" is both frightening and cardboard and the prose un- depressing. lies in the of charming, now chilling. The The anthology’s main success power inspired, but the references title story, "The Gorgon," good fiction to provoke intellectual confrontation with to ancient Greece and another of the establishment which won the World Fantasy kind of power —fantasy — Thalia’s first-hand knowledge Award, and the others are of may well destroy this very real world. Strongly recommended of gods and goddesses are a the same caliber. for public and college libraries. welcome contrast to the Some are based on —A.A. Rutledge poorly explained science of folkloric or fairytale themes the future. The action ("Draco, Draco," "The First Full Novel from the Thieves' World scenes which dominate the Hunting of Death: The last half of the book are Unicorn," "La Reine Morris, Janet. Beyond Sanctuary. Baen Books, New York, handled competently, and the June 1985. Blanche") but, unlike the 320p. $15.95, hardcover. ISBN 0-671-55957-5. ending is, surprisingly, not With stories in Red As Blood (SF Beyond Sanctuary, Janet Morris begins a trilogy the predictable "girl gets set in the Thieves’ World, a place <5c FBR 15), they are not established over five boy." Of course, ambiguous collections retellings of classic tales but of short stories by different authors, all focusing endings suggest a sequel, but on and establishing the world. new scenarios for familiar The main character, Tempus, case I can do without. leaves in this characters. "Monkey’s the city of Sanctuary to conduct war at Wizardwall. —Kathleen M. Romer Stagger" and "Qatt-Sup" can The gods have endowed Tempus with prowess in battle, but they have also be called science fiction, I cursed him, so that any who love him will die, suppose, and serve as and any whom he loves will reject him. Foiled By Mid -War Crisis humorous diversions amidst The blessing/curse combines with his deep love for his Norwod, Warren. the otherwise ghastly or sister, Cime, to shape an insoluble problem for Tempus unless, Polar Fleet. Bantam Books, supernatural entries. The rest as hinted, Cime isn’t really his sister. One of Tempus’s Inc., New are weird tales, mostly mercenary soldiers, Nikos, also has problems: as he struggles York, June 1985. 256p. $2.95 out of the soul-entrapping wiles of Roxane the Sorceress, he paper, ISBN 0-553-24877-4. contemporary fiction of the Polar horror variety, dealing with does not know that she has fallen in love with him. These Fleet is the second novel in beasts and beastly humans. unresolved problems lead us naturally to the next book. Norwood’s Double Spiral And the beastly humans in However, Beyond Sanctuary is not yet separated from War trilogy. Unfortunately, the "Meow" and "Siriamnis" are the Thieves’ World series. The first half of the book is a book suffers from foul enough to leave the virtual reprint of "High Moon," Morris’s long first story for the mid-war crisis. Aimless, it reader feeling just a bit fifty Thieves’ World collection, The Face of Chaos (1983). wanders through ground war, queasy, so sensitive stomachs Although a few things are added or dropped, the repetition is space war, snip- should beware. so marked that a dedicated fan could start with Part III of ers, espionage, alien ceremo- nies, and brief Lee is surely one of the the novel, skipping the first 107 pages. sexual en- counters. premier stylists of our day, Paradoxically, the top-heavy exposition that is Most of the first book’s and the range of theme and repetitive for former readers is not enough for new readers to characters — Lucky, Marsha, Mica, Rochmon, writing in this collection is understand the workings of the Thieves’ World. The novel Frye, Josiah, yet another illustration of does not stand alone, in spite of Morris’s too -heroic efforts to Judoff — return, but none her considerable imaginative fill all the gaps. The next two books may well be more has managed to develop talents and her uncanny successful because the characters are developing well and the a personality. In keeping with the ability to find the mot juste. story is unfolding in an interesting way. The characters mid-war crisis theme, the characters This is recommended for most change and grow; their increasingly complicated lives are subject to SF, fantasy, and horror gradually absorb the reader, making him want to know their unmotivated fits of collections. Fans won’t be future fates. remorse soon followed by disappointed. —Patricia Hernlund unmotivated bursts of elation. —Susan L. Nickerson The novel has a plot Too Much for Too Little but no plotting. Time and Cteek Muse Fails to again the author pulls some Inspire Adventure Muller, Marcia and Bill Pronzini. eds. Witches' Brew. strange alien ritual, a bit of Macmillan Publishing Company, New York. October 1984. 323 luck, or quite unbelievable Llewellyn, Edward. Fugitive p. $19.95, hardcover. ISBN 0-02-599230-9. coincidence out of his hat. in Transit. Daw Books, Inc., Witches' Brew is the second book to be published in These pitiful devices are used New York, 1985. 302p. $2.95 the Macmillan Midnight Library. Beware, friends, beware. to extricate the author from paper. ISBN 0-88677-002-5. The publisher touts the anthology as being "carefully the intensely boring situation Fugitive is a mediocre compiled," placing "women’s horror fiction in its proper he has created. They fail. story of adventure and historical and literary context," and shedding "new light on In all fairness, readers intrigue, which takes place the genre as a whole." If this were a multiple-choice with a good sense of humour mostly on Earth. The question, the answer would be: None of the above. might enjoy this book. It is fugitive and main character The book, as alleged, spans nearly two hundred years of crammed with unintentionally is called Thalia, after the women’s horror and supernatural fiction with seventeen short funny passages. For the rest, Greek Muse of comedy. She stories. Nevertheless, it’s a careless reaping of what could not recommended. is a native of ancient Greece have been a magnificent crop. Many of the stories are good, —Allan Jenoff

16 FANTASY REVIEW , May 1985 c NEWS & REVIEWS )

and some are, indeed, excellent. Unfortunately, the two The other culture, the Minztans, are traders, farmers, writers/anthologists/essayists who edited this volume are not and craftsmen, perhaps descended from farmers, American particularly expert in the field. Their introduction is shallow, Indians, and urban dropouts. Their culture strives for harmony and the biographical summaries preceding each story are within the group and with the land. Although pacifistic, they painfully brief. In an apparent effort to present ’’the very best have just recently begun to train a specialzed defense group ” the genre has to offer, as with Edith Wharton’s ’’Afterward” to deal with the Komman. Magic works in a limited way and and May Sinclair’s ’’Where Their Fire is Not Quenched,” is practiced by both sides, with differences depending, of they’ve reprinted the author’s most anthologized work. In course, on the culture. other instances, the editors have included either the only or The split narrative presents the tale as seen by one of a few macabre stories written by a famous writer. Shkai’ra, the leader of a Kommanz raiding party that attacks There is a lack of depth of research and an inconsistency of a Mintzan settlement, and by Maihu, a Mintzan captive of the selection which belies the pretentiousness of the editors’ Komman. Other points of view are presented which allows stated goals. Stirling to provide background information without And where are Ellen Wilkins Glasgow and Mary -Freeman, interrupting the narrative flow. While this novel is for God’s sake; or even Margery Lawrence? Elizabeth Bowen? independent, the inconclusive ending leads one to expect Surely a selection from one of those writers of superior future volumes. supernatural tales be would more appropriate than the Recommended for large libraries. While there is enough inclusion of a mediocre story by one of the co-editors. spurting blood, crunching bones, and splattering brains to At $19.95, the price is too steep for too little return. satisfy those who appreciate such niceties, the real interest Recommended only for rich people. rests with the changes in and the clash between the two —Sheldon Jaffery cultural survivals. Ii Stirling explores this conflict in future volumes, he has what A Science Fiction Soap could be an interesting series; if not, then he has produced well-written but unnecessary sword- and -sorcery clone. Reed, Kit. Fort Privilege. Doubleday, New York, April —Fred Runk 1985. 186 p. $11.95. ISBN 0-446-32321-7. All-y, All-y In Free In a near-future Manhattan, all of the city’s honest residents have fled the island, leaving it to a mob of assorted Wolfe, Gene. Free Live Free. Mark V. Ziesing, Willimantic, criminals and revolutionaries. That mob, to be sure, has to Connecticut, 1984. 496 p. $45.00. hardcover. ISBN 0- have something to turn on to, in this instance the Parkhurst, a huge luxurious building on Central Park West. There, a more select, well-heeled crowd is getting ready to celebrate the centennial of the structure. Reed operates a reductio ad absurdum of the violent contrasts of today’s New York; but where she had put preposterous premises to comical use (in ’’The Attack of the Giant Baby” or Magic Time), here she turns melodramatic, evoking revulsion at the sight of the hideously armed teeming throngs of Central Park. The atmosphere is akin to that of A. Offutt’s The Castle Keeps. However, the rich she describes with such a wealth of detail do not get better treatment - dividing themselves between the irresponsible, the perverts, the fascistsat best they are indecisive, like Abel Parkhurst. The protagonists Bart Cavanaugh and Regan Millane, are outsiders to the building, both finding solutions to their psychological problems (he suffers amnesia and loss of reading ability, she needs to kick the bottle) in the cruel siege they are trapped in. One wonders if the same dramatic goals would not have been achieved just as well in a different genre: substitute a cruise ship, stranded on an island with ferocious savages.... It is a good novel, but does it contribute anything to SF? —Pascal J. Thomas

A Good First Novel

Stirling, S.M. Snowbrother. Signet /NAL, New York. March 1985. 251 p. $2.95, paper. ISBN 0- 451-13490-7. Stirling’s first novel is set several thousand years in the future, in a post -nuclear war North America, and details the opening stages of a clash between two cultures. One, the Kommanz, combines a horse culture with highly developed skills in the martial arts. Their culture is brutal, individualistic, and militaristic. Their traditions hold that their ancesters, the Ztrateke ahKomman (Strategic Air Command?), had gone to live in the Sun during the Godwar and the Year Without Sun that followed.

FANTASY REVIEW, May 1985 17 —

C NEWS & REVIEWS 9612970-1-8. Saberhagen displays Not Simply Another "Mad Popular as is, has always been something considerable ingenuity in his Max" Post-War Novel he of a puzzlement. He sneaks up on readers. His writing is framework compositions, simultaneously. Wolfe shows us which attempt to tie the Mayhar, Ardath. The World entirely lucid and mysterious, things, objects, letting us make up our own minds how short stories together, and Ends in Hickory Hollow. extraordinary and/or significant they are. which account for any Doubleday Books, New York. Live begins as the story of an old man’s novular features that the March 1985. 182p. $11.95. Free Free effort to his house demolition to make room for a book displays. ISBN 0-385-18753-X. save from The best of the half Reading the dust- freeway. To gain some allies, Ben Free advertises free living space for anyone, and he attracts four bedraggled tennants: a dozen short stories are also wrapper of Ardath Mayhar’s fat, childish-but-shrewd prostitute; a short, clever-but- the ones which knock off a new novel, one is left with cynical private detective; a glib, fickle -but -lonely salesman; Berserker with a minimum of impression that The World and a mysterious, wily -but -sincere witch. Very soon, in the new technology. Poul Ends in Hickory Hollow is chaos surrounding the start of the house’s demolition, the old Anderson gives us a bunch of of the same violent ilk as the man disappears. The others begin trying to find him, typically Australian T, Mad Max /Road Andersonian motivated partly by concern but largely by greed for a Scottish-worlders who Warrior” films. Instead, it is valuable secret he had claimed to have hidden. So far, Wolfe’s more akin to the family triumph through the masterful story feels wholly straightforward, different chapters focussing survival philosophies of Swiss application of Caledonian on the different characters seeming to be no more tricky than Family Robinson set in a engineering and strategic new frontier: a standard mystery-detective novel. As the search goes on, skills. In passing, he also ex- Post-war twist the America. though, Wolfe keeps showing how the characters plains, by implication, the truth to each other and themselves, becoming more development of the great The bombs have fallen, sympathetic and less trustworthy all the time. But it does Century Scottish En- the holocaust has come, and 18th become clear that their interest in old Free is really lightenment. , in the world is changed forever. bothering some mysterious center of power —maybe the the next best selection, gives In Hickory Hollow, set in the government, maybe an occult force. And so the plot threads wonderfully irritating East Texas scrubland where us a unravel and weave together in new patterns, the situations group of aliens who raise Mayhar makes her home, the becoming increasingly difficult to account for in any non- every instance of social Hardeman family rises to the fantastic way. The actual conclusion is a bit of a letdown, friction into a major civil challenge of, not just but then the mystification becomes so complex that any rights violation. It is not too survival, but the continuance resolution would feel insufficient. It improves witn much to say that they of common-sense values and that each morals. The Hardemans consideration, though: Observing the kind of test indirectly —annoy a Berserker character fails, readers naturally try to imagine how he or to death. (aptly named) were self- she would have to change. That’s where Free Live Free Pleasant as these stories sufficient before the bombs stops, leaving readers to imagine how those personal changes are, they do not justify the fell, having returned to their would change the world. Wolfe demands that we pay price of the book. Berserker family farm from Houston attention, but in return he gives a story that we will think Base is for those who want when city life palled on about because we care about it. complete collections of this them. Because of this they Wolfe fans will notice familiar themes, such as the type of thing. are in an excellent position relation of audience (especially children) to performance —Jackson Houser to make good in the new (especially fantasies, such as the tales of Oz). However, post-war world, gathering Second Rate Simak there’s really not much point in comparing this novel to other around them an extended works like . That was a unique, family of orphaned children Simak, Clifford D. Le Livre startling and wonderful thing unto itself. So is Free Live and senior citizens. The book d'Or de la Science Fiction: Free. All Wolfe’s writings are. follows the first year of their Clifford Simak (ed. by Thus, it makes a great deal of sense that this novel is new life, from the day-to-day Daniel Riche). Presses presented in this deluxe edition. More than simply deserving details of their own pioneer- Pocket, 8 rue Garanciere, such stunning presentation, Wolfe’s story almost requires it. ing lifestyle, to their con- 75006 Paris, France, January This is not a book you can slip in to your coat pocket to pull frontations with a tribe of 1985. 378p. No price, paper. out and read at odd moments. You’ll have to hold it in both harridans who have degen- ISBN 2-226-01506-0. hands and savor it. Adding to the effect are the striking erated to looting for survival. This collection suffers While dustjacket by Carl Lundgren, full page drawings of major Mayhar has characters by Rick DeMarco, and chapter heading sketches by from the duality of purpose of always been a fine writer, the established "Livre d’Or" Rich Schindler. All in all, I prefer Schlindler’s rather cartoony The World Ends in Hickory series: to offer "Best OP’ an- versions of the characters, but each artist’s interpretation is Hollow is easily her best thologies of major SF writers intriguing —and each diners from the others in important work to date. It speaks from with a critical introduction respects. Not that this would bother Wolfe. He probably will the heart, with a voice much and bibliography, and at the just nod and smile. like Mayhar’s own in its first savor. Highly same time to lure the French Readers should smile too. And public person narrative. Recom- recommended. with as many pre- mended to those who enjoyed viously-untranslated stories T —Joe Sanders Suzette Haden Elgin s as possible. Only one of the "Ozark” trilogy. Magic Music eight novelets is this volume — Charles de Lint has appeared in French BasicaUy Berserker Stories Wrede, Patricia C. The Harp of Imach ThysseL Ace Fantasy before, and it was not in any of the half-dozen collections Books, New York, April 1985. 234p. $2.95, paper. ISBN 0-441- Saberhagen, Fred, ed. Ber- 31756-1. of Simak’s short fiction published in the language. serker Base. Tor, New York, Despite some engrossing characters, a humorous touch, As a result, all the March 1985. 316p. $6.95, and some slick writing, this latest fantasy by Patricia Wrede texts here are minor, and paper. ISBN 0-812-55316-0. is very light reading, the sort of entertainment already too most of the older ones down- This is billed as a abundant: pseudo -medieval sword and sorcery set in the same right dull. "The Creator," collaborative novel — indeed, miliew as Wrede’s Shadow Magic (Ace, 1982). A minstrel and which opens the chronolog- as a "stellar publishing his nobleman friend come upon a legendary magic harp in a ically-ordered volume, would event!" It is, instead, just magic castle. Immediately several forces, good and evil, wish fit right into a 1930’s SF another of those currently to secure the harp for their own purposes and the chase anthology, but is no more popular anthologies where a begins. The rest of the novel is concerned with the minstrel’s than a bit of Simak group of well known authors attempt to return the harp to his guildmaster safe and sound, memorabilia. Three stories are invited to weigh in with and ends in the inevitable showdown between good and evil from the 50’s, "Courtesy," their own versions of sorceresses. It’s more fun than TV or Trivial Pursuits, but it’s f "Worlds Without End," and someone else s universe. similar formula.

18 FANTASY REVIEW , May 1985 - y

NEWS & REVIEWS

"The Immigrant,” show Simak Wrede has a smooth, facile style, and she inhabits well- Taylor is the author of simply being competent. crafted settings with interesting people, human and non- Sunset Patriots and Show of "Final Gentleman," on the human. I grew very fond of the the minstrel because he did Force. While hardly a other hand, is a welcome not attempt to play sword-wielding hero, just his harp. The literary giant, he’s no surprise, a conspiracy story story provides some of the same tingle as the lead novella in amateur at this kind of novel as Philip Dick could have one of the old Wierd Tales, but don’t ask me to remember and does produce a fast done it. As usual, Simak is at titles. Recommended as an evening’s entertainment, but not paced and easy-to-read his best dealing with a rural for libraries. novel. At characterization, background, in "No Life of —Robert J. Ewald he is hopeless. None of his their Own," and "Silent heroes or villains is anything Spring." Arabian Nights as SF more than a sad collection of Those stories which cliches. But this does not Young, Robert F. were translated by Lorris The Vizier’s Second Daughter. Daw, New matter; the book is about York, 1985. Murail were well-rendered; 203 p. $2.50, paper. ISBN 0-88677-004-1. ships not men. Taylor is very the bibliography is Robert Young is an old pro, who has turned out a much at home describing the competent, the introduction charming fantasy /science fiction hybrid. Using a time machine modern nuclear and pedestrian. For Simak to visit the legendary past is nothing new, and the pairing of computerized navy. He walks an enterprising completists only. hero and a spunky heroine is no newer, but the reader through these Young shows that old tricks —Pascal J. Thomas can make a delightful new vessels and provides detailed pastiche. descriptions of their Saurians in Osaka Mark Billings passes from twenty-first century America destruction. to ninth century Arabia to kidnap Sheherazade. But he gets Readers looking for a Sucharitkul, Somtow. The her kid sister instead and the pair are transported to an thoughtful novel about a Alien Swordmaster. earlier time of real jinn and magic lamps. Their extrication possible war will be Pinnacle, New York. April forms the plot. Young’s twenty-first century isn’t much disappointed. Readers looking 1985. 185p. $2.95, paper. different from our twentieth, but likeable characters, swift for a novel will be ISBN 0-523-42441-8. pace, and smooth prose make us ignore such quibbles. disappointed. Readers will be The visitors take up Recommended for popular collections. disappointed. Members of the martial arts and impose pre- —Joan Gordon military book club with long Meiji isolation and fuedalism train trips ahead of them on Japan. Sucharitkul didn’t might like this book. strain his brain writing Alien Young Adult Fiction —Allan Jenoff Swordmaster, but it is Year’s Best Fantasy fractionally superior to other 5 fytj YA Novel Recommended for Adults As Well V novels, with local more Here are this yearl best fan- color and characterization, Jones, Diana Wynne. Fire and Hemlock. Greenwillow, tasy stories as picked! by less subplot sprawl, and more New York, November 1984. 341 p. $13. ISBN 0-688-03942-1. Arthur W* Saha: humor, most of it black. "She Jones is a British author of "Dr sec, Dra co" 8 b was so hungry. The gas several highly recommended books. This novel deserves equal acclaim. It is the story Tanith Lee in Beyond the station attendant, perhaps? of a college -age girl puzzling over recent clues about her past Lands of Never* No, just a snack was what w that don’t seem to correspond with the facts. The remainder ii! uS The Harvest Child” by she needed." To show that all of the novel is a series of flashbacks as she attempts to Steve Rasnic fern in Bleep is in fun, Sucharitkul named recreate the crucial events in her past that have led to this where, VoLlII. his man-eating villainess confusing situation. The plot becomes an intricate romantic "Love Among the Xolds" Lady Murasaki, after the fantasy filled with mystery, magic, sorcery and intrigue by John Sladek in fastidious 11th century as the Brumal girl is drawn into an unusual relationship with an older man. Booklet No* IS* • authoress. This book and A.C. There is much here to interest the younger reader, "Stoneskln" by John Crispin’s V (FR 72) are the especially girls, since they would more easily identify with Morressy in F k only acceptable novels in the the main character and her memories of growing up. Whoever 1984). series. V reads it hopefully will respond to the message throughout the "imm i s t a k a b tyi |be —Michael Klossner book advocating the joys of reading as found in Tolkein, Finest" by Scott HradfleM hi War is Heck! Dumas, fairy tales, folk ballads, The Golden Bough, and Snterao&e, (Summer 1984)* many other works. II "The Foxwife" hr Jane Taylor, Charles D. First Though marketed for younger readers, it is a well- Yolen iti the 1184 Jlfolil Salvo. Charter Books, New written book for anyone. Adults can appreciate the finely Fantasy Convention + VAi York, February 1985. vi crafted plot, their own shared memories of the painful process gram Book* 0- 311p. $3.50, paper. ISBN of growing up, and the deepening mysteries that unfold. "Golden Apples of the 441-23982-X. Reality shades hazily into magic and the lack of sharp Sun" by Gardner Bozbisy Jack Admiral Pratt and his distinctions between the two add much enjoyment to Fire and Dana and Michael Swanwlck small crew of navy misfits Hemlock. Highly recommended. in Penthouse. (March 1984 and several agents have a —Gary Zacharias as Virgin Territory).

few days to save the world. • • M y Rose | an Things look bleak. The An Extraordinary Fairy Tale Glove" by Harvey Jacobs m Soviets have provoked a Omni, (May 1884K V jfe i conflict between Turkey and Kaye, M. M. The Ordinary Princess. Doubleday, Garden 1 "Strange Shadows ? bl Greece, seriously City, weakening New York, October 1984. 112 p. $11.95. ISBN 0-385- Clark Ashton Smith in Crypp both NATO allies. Communist 17855-7. of Cthulhu no* 2S* inspired peace protestors Isn’t it boring to read about princesses who are blond, "A ytiM|#wo~Chali wreak havoc in Japan. The blue -eyed, sweet, and destined to live happily ever after with Barber Shop M : *Mlp Russians have more ships, some hanasome prince? M. M. Kaye has taken up her pencil Street" by Donald mm more submarines, more against the usual fairy tale to tell of Princess Amy who was Burleson in Yrflllght £one t missiles, and a plan to granted the special gift of ordinariness by the Fairy (April 1984)*.. S destroy NATO’s information Crustacea. Mousy hair, freckles, girlish awkwardness, and a "Taking -4Mailli by network. Against this the snub nose set Amy apart from her doll-like sisters. She goes Stephen Lft Burns inSword Americans have arrayed a out into the forest to play with her friends, a squirrel and a and Sorceress. wild-eyed group with a crow [and also with ordinary girls]. Happiness and goodness "The Storm" by David desperate plan. Will strength are her virtues. When no prince wants a plain princess, Amy Morrell In Shadows t. and and cunning overwhelm panic runs off to a neighboring land and goes to work to earn a "A Cabin on the Coast" and a bizarre sense of dress to replace the one that is falling apart from being out %y Gene Mfo&ft in f humour, probably not. in the forest. Of course, she develops a relationship with a (FCb* 1984)* i i

FANTASY REVIEW , May 1985 19 ( NEWS r REVIEWS ) "jack of all trades" who turns out to be an ordinary king and union, a development which has brought peace to Earth. ends up normally happy ever after. Peace reigns also on the comet world controlled by This is a charming tale to read aloud or be read by Homesmind and inhabited by descendents of those who had youngsters. Kaye herself did the sketches and full color fled Earth thousands of years before. plates, complete with truly exquisite princesses as well as The only ones left out of this blissful condition have lively Amy and her friends. In addition to the 32 been the "solitaries," the throw-back babies born without the illustrations, there is an introduction by the author now telepathic ability to hear the mindspeak network. The famous for The Far Pavillions. Recommended for librarians central character, Anra, is a solitary who is allowed to live and parents, ordinary or otherwise. only because the comet dwellers on returning to Earth orbit —Mary S. Weinkauf had brought with them the technology of transplants which open that telepathic door. Though Earth people now allow more of the solitaries to live, they isolate them in a Mildly Didactic Fantasy colony which stays in contact with the comet people and Homesmind Kennemore, Tim. Changing Times. Faber and Faver, and which might gradually build a bridge over Earth’s fear of separateness. London, 1984. 149p. 5.95 pounds. ISBN 0-571-13285-5. But then the strange comet appears in Earth’s orbit, a Distr. by Faber & Faber, 39 Thompson St., Winchester, MA cold, threatening cybernetic that whispers 01890, December 1984. $14.95. mind of the end of man’s cycle, of the death wish, of extinction. In peril are Changing Times is fantasy novel about a fifteen year not only the Earth people and the comet people, but also the old girl whose clock transports her back and forth in her own minds which unite them in the Network. As Sargent develops life. Victoria is the beautiful and self-centered daughter of this situation, she works with themes of the Yin and Yang of unhappily married parents and her journeys to her childhood technology, human resistance to change, and the meaning of and her possible future teach her to understand her parents human experience and promise. Woven into the fabric of the and to become less self-centered and more self-aware. Hennemore’s characterizations and dialogue are novel is a love story and a love triangle. The novel is well conceived and well told. The convincing, quite a feat when one realizes that this requires characters are well defined, the narrative pace good, and the him to enter the mind of not only a teenage girl, but of an content thought -provoking. It builds to a gripping conclusion eight year old and an infant as well. In fact, this is a skillful and leaves the reader with profound questions to stimulate adolescent novel, appropriate for female readers ten to fifteen examination of the novel’s themes. It is worth reading both years old. It is amusing, the character of Victoria for young adults and those young enough at heart to hope for idiosyncratic and uncliched, the fantastic premise workable ultimate solutions to ultimate problems. Highly recommended. and intriguing if not especially likely [after all, this is —Fredrica K. Bartz fantasy]. Changing Times is a pleasant, mildly didactic read. One of A Small Number of Fantasy Classics —Joan Gordon Pierce, Meredith Ann. A Gathering of Gargoyles. Little, Alien Communication Explored for YA's Brown, Boston, October 1984. 263 p. $14.95. ISBN 0-316- 70737-6. Mason, Anne. The Dancing Meteorite. Harper, New York, In The Darkangel, [1982; SF&FBR 6], the orphaned October 1984. 214p. $7.95, paper. ISBN 0-06-024097-0. young serving-maid Aeriel freed 13 maidens from enslavement $10.89, library binding. ISBN 0-06-024098-7. to a Darkangel vampire and delivered him from his bondage to Since her parents were left to die on the planet they a malevolent water-witch by becoming his bride and were exploring, Kira Marden has become the only E-comm performing a ritual sacrifice. In A Gathering of Gargoyles [extraterrestrial communications] expert on the station. Aeriel and her husband, Irrylath, have gone to his mother’s Only a cadet and kept from the normal educational routes by kingdom, but Irrylath remains distant from his bride and her mother's ideas about how an E-comm should be educated, suffers from troubling dreams. Aeriel is visited by the she feels strange with her fellow cadets and handicapped by thirteen brides who tell her that the water -witch "whispers" being the only Earthbound [tied to emotions] student. to him in dreams and who recite to her an enigmatic rhyme Suddenly she is assigned to the elite group of cadets who are which she must solve by setting out on a second guest. It is to act as scientific liason with the superior Vallusian this quest which Pierce relates in A Gathering of Gargoyles planetary exploration team. The other cadets resent as Aeriel attempts once again to free Irrylath from the everything as they work with Kira, and she must learn to deal water-witch by destroying her power over the remaining with their feelings as well as her own grief and imagined Darkangels and the countries they dominate. inadequacy. The Darkangel was selected by the American Library Science here is mainly a host of fascinating and varied Association as the Best Book for Young Adults in 1982, was a aliens and how communication is possible between such a New York Times "Notable Children’s Book" for 1982, and was variety of types. As such, it is both crucial to the plot and a recipient of the 1982 International Reading Association easy for readers to understand. In essence, The Dancing Children’s Book Award. A Gathering of Gargoyles is, Meteorite is a rite of passage tale concerning the perhaps, an even finer work since Pierce seems to have found acceptance of human and alien difference, of pain and death, her own, distinctive voice and to be less indebted to fantasy of emotion and the lack of it. It is a first novel for Mason, writers like Tolkien and C. S. Lewis. As in the earlier book, and I hope to see more like it. Recommended with one of her great strengths is her ability to capture the colors enthusiasm to YA collections and readers. and textures of the pnysical world and the voyage of Aeriel —Susan H. Harper across the perilous Sea-of-Dust is a splendid achievement that confirms Pierce’s stylistic growth. Her handling, of both Thought -Provoking Novel For All Ages the fabulous and human characters is equally secure and the air -borne conclusion is exhilarating and moving. Sargent, Pamela. Homesmind. Harper & Row, New York, If Pierce does no more than equal her achievement in A October 1984. 278p. $7.95, paper. ISBN 0-06-25198-0. Gathering of Gargoyles in the third volume, the three $15.95, library binding. ISBN 0-06-025199-9. novels will surely be ranked with the small number of Pamela Sargent, best known for her Women of Wonder enduring fantasy classics. This may be intended for children and Bio-Futures anthologies, has earned the acclaim she has in the 8-11 age bracket, but older children and adults should received for both her adult and YA science fiction. find it equally engrossing.8 8 Earthseed [SF&FBR 16] was a 1983 ALA Best Book for —Walter Albert Young Adults choice, and Homesmind lives up to reputation earned by that very fine novel. Young Resident Vampires Fun, Non -Threatening Homesmind, gently conceived and gently told, picks up the themes and setting of Watchstar [Pocket, 1980]. It is Sommer -Bodenburg, Angela. The Vampire Moves In, trans. set in a far future, post -holocaust world when horror of a of Der Kleine Vampirziehtum, 1980, by Sarah Gibson. violent past of separateness has led mankind to develop Dial/Dutton, New York, October 1984. $9.95. ISBN 0- cybernetic minds which can unite them in a net of telepathic 8037-0077-6. Andersen Press, London [?], 1982. FANTASY 20 REVIEW , May 1985 c NEWS & REVIEWS j This sequel to My Friend the Vampire [Dial, 1984] men and the horses. Although Cam thinks he has found a continues the saga of Tony Noodleman who lives with his wonderful pet in the large yellow cat, he soon discovers that arents in an apartment in a vaguely defined city and has his life is in its paws. ecome the friend of Rudolph and Anna, vampire children who The Cats of Seroster is full of intrigue, battles, and live with an extended family in a nearby cemetary. Anna has convincing characterizations of cats. Anyone fond of cats not yet cut her canines and is still a milk-drinker, but will enjoy the telepathic Miws and their feisty relatives as Rudolph is old enough to require blood which he obtains from they struggle to stay alive. Cam’s love for this cat [actually mice, rabbits, and, apparently, from humans although the he had two but never realizes it ] parallels the love of one of author carefully avoids any specific description of his reeding the villains for his pet, kept in spite of their reputed activities. He shows a slight interest in Tonv T s throat at one indifference to people —an aspect of the novel that will warm oint and his Aunt Dorothy actively pursues the young human, young cat fanciers’ hearts. Eut Tony preserves his blood virginity in a series of ploys In addition to the cuteness of the portrayals of animals, designed mainly to keep his parents from learning that Westall has created a vivid picture of the sordidness of the Rudolph, exiled from the vampire clan for his friendship with time. Cam and Amon come very close to losing their T Tony, has taken up residence in the Noodleman s basement. struggle. The man tries to do things his own rational way in Anna has clearly taken a fancy to Tony, and her spite of the mythic role thrust upon him, and Amon ignores ortrait by artist Amelie Glienke shows her to be a pretty, what he believes to be superstitious foolishness, therefore ulbous-eyed girl with the pointed ears that seem to be a creating more hardships than necessary for themselves and distinguishing feature of all the vampires. Rudolph looks others. There are many things for young readers to reflect somewhat malevolent, and if the series continues Tony may on after finishing this complex adventure. Westall continues have something of a problem retaining his human status. The to prove himself one of the outstanding writers of fantasy for attractive, funny drawings are an asset to the pleasant text, younger readers. and older readers might find this series of interest for the —Mary S. Weinkauf skill with which Sommer -Bodenburg has so far handled what is basically adult material in a non-threatening way. Rulers Of Hylor Saga Continues —Walter Albert Promising Australian Award Winner Wilder, Cherry. Yorath the Wolf. Argo/Atheneum, New York, October 1984. 178 p. $11.95. ISBN 0-689-31060-9. The Summerville, Jenny. Shields of Trell. George Allen & Rulers of Hylor, v. 2. Yorath the Unwin, Sydney, Australia, 1984. 173 p. [Aus] $12.95. ISBN Wolf follows much the same pattern of 0-86861-737-7. $6.95, paper. ISBN 0-86861-460-2. development as its predecessor, A Princess of the Chameln, focusing on a character who, What might have been an excellent book is marred by a even though high-born, must go out alone into the few weaknesses. The continuity of action is frequently world and define himself. Wilder uses this presented in an unconvincingly elliptical manner [e.g. the device not only to structure the story but as an effective children’s space bus approaches their home planet, overshoots magnet to attract and hold her readers. Seeing strong characters succeed in leaving a familiar environment for the and passes it in the space of two short paragraphs]. stresses of a new environment permits to Surprisingly, the characterization is somewhat sexist, with them psychologically rehearse their ’’leaving the nest.” gives the girl, Lara, presented as the emotional character, who is own The rehearsal them no good at mechanical things, and the boys, Peaty and Rex, confidence to face their own forthcoming real experiences. as the computer experts who work out how to fly the ship. Yorath, the hero, is a legitimate heir The story is, in many ways, a succession of cliched science to the throne of fiction themes: the black hole leading to an alternative Mel’Nir, the only surviving grandchild of the Great King, Ghanor. Because he is deformed universe, children discovering latent telepathic abilities, the at birth, however, he is to advanced civilization meeting the primitive, the descendants be killed because of a prophecy that the Great King lies "in jeopardy from of a space colony becoming [through generations] a primitive a marked child of his own house." But Yorath is whisked away under cover of a magician’s spell to a society, worshippping high technology, the old sage who is marshy, rural area called really a robot. ..all these have been done before, and often Nightwood, where he grows up far more successfully. There are also a few technical weaknes- from the influence of the court and unaware of his true ses. identity. Most of the story describes Yorath’s adventures as he But I don’t think this is a book entirely without merits. to It is a pleasant departure from popular space opera and the comes adulthood and flies inevitably down the path of characters, while stereotyped, are drawn with some warmth; destiny. His story is compelling, and the book itself is mechanically better the most endearing character is Radar, the telepathic than A Princess of the Chameln. It is chimpanzee. The morals which are drawn [morals of anti- war, anti -violence, of a sensible approach to technology, of the basic equality of humans with each other and with other animals, etc.] are not drawn overtly or clumsily, as is FANTASY ARCHIVES sometimes the case with juvenile SF. Despite being an Australian /Vogel Award winner, this promising work never realizes its full potential but will “THE UNCOMMON” appeal to some younger readers. Illustrations are by Greg Specialist Antiquarian Booksellers Taylor. M. W. Leahy — SCIENCE FICTION - FANTASY Lord Of The Cats MODERN FIRST EDITIONS

Westall, Robert. The Cats of Seroster. Greenwillow Press, We are now paying highest prices for fine material in our field. New York, October 1984. 306 p. $12.50. ISBN 0-688-03944- A list of books for which we have firm orders is available. 8. Macmillan, London, 1984. In a 16th century France rife with poverty, superstition, We take pride in our fine stock of First Editions, manuscripts, and warfare, young Cam of Cambridge, an itinerant jack of all ALS, TLS, proofs and original art pertaining to the Fantasy trades, fights against the destiny thrust upon him by a chance meeting. Driven by a knife that hungers for the blood of evil genre. men and mysterious white horses, Cam finds himself among Want Lists, Search Service, Catalogues [irregularly] huge intelligent cats, the Miw, who are protecting the young Duke whose father has been assassinated. The usurpers are 71 EIGHTH AVENUE, YORK. led by a mad young boy who surrounds himself with cutthroats NEW NY 10014, USA so vile that they hate the cats who have always been the (2123 929-5391 luck of the city. In order to return justice the cats, led by Amon, also an untried youngster, organize and fight alongside

FANTASY REVIEW , May 1985 21 ( NEWS & REVIEWS D more tightly focused, the characters are better drawn and too numerously to list individually." This cryptic--and thus more identifiable, and once underway, it moves quickly syntactically incomprehensible —annotation leads one to and directly through Yorath’s adventures. Wilder seems to suspect that this was a principal source but in the casual have better control of both the characterization and the manner of too many genre fans masquerading as historians world of Hylor than she did in the earlier book, though some Benson seems to consider footnotes, a statement of purpose, questions remain, to be answered in volume 3. principal sources, and material excluded and included as Nonetheless, Yorath is a well-developed, finely-drawn, dispensable exercises in academic nit-picking. The and thoroughly appealing character who will make readers bibliography does direct the user to some sources but a care about him. His story is one which young readers, in bibliography which pretends to be critical (it is, after all, particular, will find imbued with significance and meaning. annotated) but which fails to list Philip Strick’s fine Science Despite some faults, Yorath the Wolf is well-worth reading. Fiction Movies (Octopus, 1976) and includes Jeff Rovin’s A —Carl B. Yoke Pictorial History of Science Fiction Films (Citadel Press, The Golden Age of SF is 12 1975) with no comment on its major defects cannot be recommended. Zahn, Timothy. A Coining of Age. Bluejay Books, New York, It is difficult to imagine what audience this book can December 1984. 292p. $14.95, hardcover. ISBN 0-312-94058-0. serve. There is almost no visual material — the few stills Human society on planet Tigris is organized around the included are not rare; it is not a solidly researched and psi powers that all of its children possess. Until they reach presented historical survey; and although the "unportentous" - writing puberty "Transition,” as the book has it — they can might recommend it to the fan public, it is too levitate and move objects by telekineses, which makes them expensive and too bare to attract them. And, finally, I have potential dangers for psi-deprived grown-ups. Still living in no idea what is meant by a "vintage" film. Students in my the fear of the dark years when the development of the film courses tend to consider anything in black-and-white or that abilities in the first colonists’ children caused general chaos, predates their meager experience as vintage and from my adults have set up a. system where children are kept busy, ancient viewpoint I would have thought it more appropriate productive and ignorant, until the teen Transition strikes. for silents or early sound films. But I must compliment Mr. This makes the children into pawns for everybody from Benson for including one of my favorite "B" films of the forties, scientists to criminals. The novel itself is a crime story, a Night Monster, although I would liked to have seen thriller in the sense that we follow the progress of the some mention of that series of horrorific moments created by the adroit detective’s inquiry while knowing all along who the culprit is. use of croaking frogs. The writing is serviceable, the characters satisfactorily —Walter Albert delineated, the book reads fast and pleasurably. Blurry Vision of De Palma But do not look for originality here; in a sense Zahn takes SF back forty years, and his product is very much like Bliss, Michael. Brian De Palma Scarecrow Asimov’s (Caves of Steel comes to mind). Being able to Press, 52 Liberty St., Metuchen, NJ 05540, 1983. 176p. $13.50. ISBN 0-8108- reproduce today the energy of is feat, such works no mean 1621-0. but not unheard of. Ideologically, the novel participates in This survey of Brian De Palma’s career from his first SF’s fascination for young geniuses, both directly in the over- commercial film, Greetings (1968) through Blow bright character of Lisa, and through the adult-preteen Out (1981) offers a pretty clear example of both the virtues and vices of relationship in the society it describes. Since its main current academic film criticism the virtues being an question is "What happens when you grow up?" (it is "clean" — insightful, detailed analysis of the director’s "filmic" enough to be a juvenile) it should make excellent reading for excellencies, the vices being an ignoring of almost every "young adults." Recommended for libraries. other aspect of the movies in question. After an awkward —Pascal J. Thomas "Introduction," in which he apologizes for his "linear" approach to film criticism, Bliss settles down to a plodding but interesting picture by picture discussion of De Palma’s Non-Fiction work, his intention being to "avoid unnecessary confusion and categorization of De Palma’s films by treating each of them Another Fannish Survey as an integral, self-contained text." This approach works well in explaining De Palma’s techniques, particularly his Benson, Michael. Vintage Science Fiction Films, 1896- manipulation of visual and verbal imagery to reinforce

1949. Jefferson, N.C. & London: McFarland <5c Co., 1985. character and theme. Bliss gives us a thorough delineation of 219p. $18.95. ISBN 0-89950-085-4. both De Palma’s surfaces and his subtexts. What we do not Michael Benson’s Vintage Science Fiction Films, get is a sense of De Palma as a storyteller. The separate 1896-1949 is outfitted with an index, an annotated observations do not coalesce to give us a sense of the whole bibliography of secondary sources, and a filmography of almost film; the individual chapters do not quite add up to a 400 films, and presented in a plain green binding that satisfying overview of his subject’s career. suggests a no-nonsense approach to the subject. However, And because Bliss says so little about plotting, this stern, critical appearance is deceptive since the character development and interaction, and performance —the narrative history of silent and sound films and serials that "non-cinematic" elements of filmmaking—he does not come to comprises about two-thirds of the book is a chatty series of terms with —or apparently even see —the basic problem, De often humorous plot resumes, production information, and Palma’s weakness in the construction of generally satisfying capsule actor critiques ("dandy Jon Hall," "the forgettable whole films, as against brilliant sequences, scenes, and Allen Jenkins," "adorable Maureen O’Sullivan") that make the individual shots. Because he concentrates so narrowly on the book moderately entertaining on a first reading but hardly exclusively filmic elements in De Palma’s work, Bliss does not qualify as informed critical commentary. appreciate the fact that less cinematically astute observers There is no introduction and, thus, no statement of think Obsession (1976) and Blow Out to be long dull movies, Benson’s principal sources or the criteria for inclusion or despite brilliant beginnings and endings, and that viewers exclusion, but in addition to futuristic films he includes films expecting fully developed coherent story lines find the second with inventors of serums, weapons and machines unknown to half of Dressed To Kill (1980) contrived and self-indulgent. "modern science," and with scientists/doctors experimenting Perhaps the flaw in Bliss’s approach can best be seen with dead and living bodies of both humans and animals /in- in his handling of the sources of De Palma’s films. Except for sects /reptiles. This allows him to devote a considerable his introductory discussion of "The Hitchcock Connection," amount of space to the Universal horror film cycle, in Bliss gives the impression that De Palma’s movies spring full particular Frankenstein and its numerous spawn, a subject I grown from the director’s head. Yet Carrie (1976) and The would have thought was treated in more than sufficient detail Fury (1978), the two films that may be De Palma’s best and in Mank’s It's Alive (Barnes, 1981), thus making it un- are certainly his most coherent, are relatively faithful necessary to give extended plot summaries as Benson does. adaptations of major horror /SF novels. Bliss cannot ignore Benson lists the Arno Press New York Times Directory of King, so he dismisses the novel as "poorly written vwith the Film (1971) with the comment that this guide was "used sketchy characterizations and awkward dialogue) and

22 FANTASY REVIEW, MAY 1985 NEWS REVIEWS Food For Filk Song Fans unconvincing” —and then goes on to credit De Palma with all Charles Pfluger. Dworkin kinds of insights that are clearly in the original (one has to provides more details about Brunner, John. A New wonder if Bliss really did read the novel). John Farris fares De Palma’s later films, such Settlement of Old Scores. even worse. Although he also wrote the screenplay, Farris’s as Carrie, Dressed To Kill, NESFA Press, Box G, MIT name is not mentioned in the text nor is the fact that his Blow Out, and the very Branch PO, novel Cambridge, MA. was the basis for the movie even alluded to. This is not controversial and violent 02139, September 1983. [viii] to ignore De Palma’s brilliant handling of the two books, only film, Scarface, starring A1 + 67p. $8.00 + $1.00 shipping, to point out that De Palma was building on the received Pacino. comb binding. 0- ISBN vision, not starting from scratch. Dworkin has a different 915368-26-9. $8.00 + $1.00 To do his best work De Palma needs a good story and a chapter for each segment of shipping, 0- paper. ISBN good script. Left completely to his own devices, he creates the movie. 915368-22-6. Her interview marvelous shots, scenes, and sequences, but not whole movies. with De illuminates his This Palma collection of Sisters (1973), The Phantom of the Paradise (1974), and somewhat reclusive character Brunner’s filk songs was Dressed to Kill are wonderfully entertaining, if flawed films, and some of the unusual ways published by NESFA for the and there are moments of considerable power in Obsession he relates to his cast and 41st worldcon, Constellation, and Blow Out, but all of them suffer from a fundamental lack crew. Dworkin explores most as the society’s Guest of of balance and design. Perhaps De Palma has not yet learned fully the evolution casting Honor book. , Reproduced in one of the fundamental lessons of his master, Alfred and scripting of a neat music calligraphy by Hitchcock: begin with a good story from a first rate author, pornographic movie within Theresa Renner, illustrated commission a screenplay from the very best writer available, the total film, especially his by 21 fan artists, the 32 and only then apply your own vision and virtuosity to the use of sexuality as an index songs are Brunner ’s protest project. Bliss is so enamored by the cinematic brilliance of of character. songs, con -songs and satirical his subject that he cannot see the flaws in the director songs, as Dworkin provides de- all collected and storyteller. tailed and fascinating printed together here for the —Keith Neilson accounts of key sequences in first time as a group. The Body Double, but these are tunes, generously "filched” comprehensible only to one from British traditional folk Subliterate Sludge who’s seen the film. Thirty sources (except for one unnumbered pages <3c original tune), of b w may be as McEvoy, Seth. Samuel R„ Delaney. Frederick Ungar production photos supplement easy to learn as they are to Publishing Co., Inc., New York, x + 142p., $12.95/6.95. the text. She shows that forget. De Memorability must hardcover /tradepaper, ISBN 0-8044-6462-6. Palma’s artistic vision come from the verses Brunner On the second page of McEvoy’s Samuel R. Delany, we transcends the sex and has penned. Though there are can read: ’’Even when attending the prestigious and violence characteristic of all the usual bits of pure dog- progressive private school of Dalton, dyslexia was not yet of his films and which have gerel, the rest of the songs known as a brain dysfunction.” I was tempted to let this made him suspect in the eyes are quite strong. There are quotation stand as the complete review of this disaster of a of many critics. A useful if pleas for peace, disarmament, book, but more remains to be said. rather specialized account humanism, and for of the Repetitive, superficial, incompetantly written and edited a controversial director understanding of the SF fan (not to mention lacking any sense of an audience), this book whose appeal will be to more as a cultural phenomenon also displays a towering ignorance of all previous serious thoughtful fans of horror (satirically done, naturally). criticism of Delany’s works. Its only value, indeed, and one cinema and large film Brunner’s many fans and the which the author does everything in his considerable power to collections. admirers of filk song will negate, lies in the biographical facts which Delany generously Jon appreciate the convenience — Jensen gave to McEvoy, facts which he then misuses at every turn of the collection. to As for apply a reductionist biographical analysis to Delany’s subtle others, it is interesting and and complex fictions. And these simplex analyses are always nicely done, but can’t be at the expense of other possible readings of Delany’s termed an essential purchase. multiplex and formally innovative writings. Susan H. Harper — One of the delights of reading Delany is that his style, De Palma Dissected though often complex and demanding, always rewards hjs readers with insights and a sense of just how much the Dworkin, Susan. Double De language of fiction can do in the hands of someone who loves 0ne of Palma: A Film Study with the many drudgeries of reading McEvoy is that his Brian De Palma. style, though intellectually simple, is so full of common Newmarket Press, 3 E. 48th errors and obfuscations it obscures even the plainest St, New York, N. Y. 10017, points he wishes to make—about the social relevanace of Delany s novels, November 1984. 212 p. for example. Indeed, [the only writing worth $14.95. ISBN 0-937858-42-0. reading in this volume is contained in the many quotations $8.95, paper. ISBN 0- from Delany; the rest is sludge.] 937858-43-9. This volume is part of Frederick Ungar’s "Recognitions” series, and I can’t, Dworkin, author of for the life of me, figure out who its McCarthy Goes to Bantam Making Tootsie, and a audience might be. Any serious reader, let alone student, of SF playwright, provides a close will find it superficial, offering as analysis less than they SHAWNA MCCARTHY, already know look at Brian De Palma’s from reading Delany’s works. Meanwhile, the editor of Isaac Asimov's reader must 1984 film, Body Double, put up with McEvoy’s continual exclamation Science Fiction Magazine points, suggesting blending with an interview the immense importance of such puerile since the resignation of with De statements as: "One of the puzzling things Palma [1944- ] her about ancient George Scithers three years Greek playrights is that they observations during the would produce a trilogy of ago, has moved over to Ban- plays that were on a serious theme, shooting of Body Double, which they called a tam Books, where she re- and tragedy, and then would always have a fourth play comments from the cast called a places LOU ARONICA as Sci- comedy, which parodied the first three, and and crew. the four were ence Fiction Editor. always put on at the same festival, in that order!” Dworkin prefaces her ARONICA has moved up study Again I ask, who is this aimed at? It with a brief history of was not aimed at the Bantam hierarchy, after me, and I wish it had missed me. If De Palma’s films from The the rest of the launching the new Bantam- Wedding Party the Recognitions texts are as poorly written, researched, [1968], and / Spectra SF line. stepping stone for Robert De edited as this one, they are to be avoided at all costs. McCarthy won a Hugo Niro, who starred in the Samuel R. Delany deserves far better than this. film from fans last year as Best along with Jill Clayburgh and — Douglas Barbour. Professional editor.

FANTASY REVIEW , May 1985 23 c NEWS & REVIEWS ) A Solid, Factual Appreciation chapters each designed to show not simply the pervasive presence of accurate and up-to-date scientific knowledge in McKenzie, Alan. The Harrison Ford Story. Zomba Books, Frankenstein, but the thematic reasons behind Mary Shelley’s London, May 1984. 109p. 4.95 pounds, paper. ISBN 0-946391- learned and accurate portrayal of the new scientist. Chapter 34-3. Priam Books/Arbor House, New York, August 1984. two places Mary Shelley’s work in the emergent tradition of $7.95, paper. ISBN 0-87795-667-1. intellectual fiction and responds to skeptical critics such as Alan McKenzie, British film critic and editor of James Rieger [”Dr. Polidori and the Genesis of Frankenstein”] Starburst magazine had produced a pleasantly mundane and Christopher Small [Mary Shelley's Frankenstein: account of Ford’s rise to fame and fortune, along with Tracing the Myth] who see the science of Frankenstein as interesting descriptions of the productions in which he meretricious or as a dark metaphor for her mythic view of appeared, plot outlines of the films themselves, and oodles of the destructive power of the overreaching intellect. black and white pictures, mostly stills from the movies. It is Independently useful to researchers is Vasbinder’s fourth a solid, economical, factual appreciation that accurately chapter, "The Literature on Artificial Human Beings Prior to assesses Ford ! s skills and contributions, without making 1818.” There are very few errors of any sort in any of the extravagant claims for its subject or the films in which he has chapters and the scholar who is aware of the volume of appeared. The fangush is minimal and the ’’analyses” are Frankenstein criticism has to look very hard to find the confined to relevant quotations from critics, directors, fellow slightest slip. On page 25, Martin Tropp’s monograph, "Mary actors and Ford himself. Thus, while it may raise no profound Shelley’s Monster: A Study of Frankenstein,” is cited as an critical points or answer few questions about Art, Life, or unpublished dissertation, but Tropp’s dissertation was even the deepest secrets of its subject, The Harrison Ford published by Houghton, Mifflin in 1976. This type of minor Story is a useful factual book for anyone interested in error suggests the need for more thorough updating of the contemporary adventure films. dissertation. —Keith Nelson Unpretentious, straightforward, and valuable as a source Destinies and Manifestoes study, Vasbinder’s dissertation deserves a place in the expansive secondary literature on a novel which has continued to haunt the critics since its first publication in Pournelle, Jerry, and Baen, Jim, eds. Far Frontiers (Volume 1818. Usefully supplementing the text is an index of topics 1 1 /Summer 1985). Baen Books, New York, April 1985. 319 p. and titles and a bibliography of criticism on Frankenstein as $2.95, paper. ISBN 0-671-55954-0. well as the history of science. Recommended for graduate Far Frontiers takes up where ’s Destinies and undergraduate levels of readership and libraries serving left off, offering roughly the same mix of stories in the ”hard these levels. SF" vein and space advocacy articles. Book reviews are done —Frederick S. Frank by Richard Geis, who likes a good adventure yarn; each story is chattily introduced by Jerry Pournelle. Self-reflexive SF Those introductions create a theme issue on nuclear war, out of Brunner’s and stories. Bova’s Both suffer from Wendland, Albert. Science, Myth, and the Fictional didactism, their characters being little more than mouthpieces Creation of Alien Worlds. UMI Research Press, 300 North for various points of view. But the longer piece by Brunner Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, MI 48106, November 1984. 200 p. can be saved for superior writing and substance. Gordon $29.95. ISBN 0-8357-1608-2. Studies in Speculative Fiction Dickson contributes another novella, and since it is part of No. 12. his Aalaag invasion cycle, it too is distantly relevant to the Wendland’s revision of his 1980 University of Pittsburgh theme (as domination by a foreign power is the perceived thesis distinguishes between SF in the "conventional mode" alternative to the arms race). It would be good if it did not and SF in the "experimental mode." The distinction, although read like an installment out of a novel, in which it belongs. the author occasionally offers a disclaimer, is invidious. Some good short stories are penned by names unknown Conventional SF does "not raise new issues"; its ideas to me; Rory Harper in ’’Petrogypsies” with John competes "reinforce the reader’s self-esteem" which is founded on Varley in the field of zoologic engineeering, and John Park "images of unlimited power and space travel." These images with ’’The Software Plague” writes a fine evocation of a represent the "wish -fulfillments" of the status the reader computer -heavy future, not unlike Bruce Sterling’s. craves and believes is rightfully his. In this mode, SF The non-fiction is space -enthusiastic, but run of the "supports only its particular group and not all of humanity." mill and predictable. While Far Frontiers may provide an SF in the experimental mode is socially more utilitarian; alternative to Analog, this issue is not a memorable one. it is a mirror in which the dialectic "interplay between the Pascal J. Thomas — subject and the object" involves the reader in an extended A Valuable Source Study of Frankenstein and serious examination of self and society. The remainder of Wendland’s text explores this division Vasbinder, Samuel Holmes. Scientific Attitudes in Mary in relation to works by such writers as Clement, Anderson, SheUey's Frankenstein. UMI Research Press, Ann Arbor, MI, Anthony, Lem, Clarke, Niven, Leiber, Aldiss, Russ, Wolfe, Ballard. September 1984. Ill p. $24.95. ISBN 0-8359-1580-9. Bradbury and the revision of his thesis was Studies in Speculative Fiction No. 8. Wendland remarks that stylistic than substantive, and his text does avoid most This is a reworked version of Vasbinder ’s 1976 doctoral more the dissertational style. He dissertation for Kent State and surveys Shelley’s systematic of the pitfalls associated with reading of such thinkers as Condillac, Priestley, Erasmus includes a useful, but unannotated, bibliography. His modes of if his terminology, will strike most readers of SF as Darwin, and Sir Humphry Davy in order to ascertain how SF, not familiar, but his rationale for the divisions is thoroughgoing much of the novel’s alleged ’’science” is accurate and current. more Vasbinder seeks to answer the question, to what extent can and provocative. One could wish he had concentrated the novel be understood not simply as an early example of on detailing the presumed virtues of "experimental" SF and he associates with science fiction growing out of a declining Gothic tradition but spent less time sniping at the readership is a distraction as a philosophically precise work whose speculative science is "conventional" SF. This halfhearted polemic is too weakly developed also scientific? Vasbinder’s thesis is carefully and clearly form the strengths of his thesis, and function. Considering price and content, pursued and his findings are based on some painstaking to have a dialectic specialists and large libraries. research including a close investigation of the primal text, this is a book for Glenn Reed the manuscript of the 1818 edition of the novel. He discovers — that Victor Frankenstein’s attitudes and procedures in the WiUis Marches On construction of an artificial being ’’are strongly Newtonian, not just ’scientific -looking,”' thus verifying the study's major Willis, Donald C. Horror and Science Fiction Films III. claim that "Mary was already familiar with the scientific Scarecrow Press, Metuchen, New Jersey, October 1984. xiii + elements she used and knew more about scientific matters and 335 p. $25. ISBN 0-8108-1723-3. was more interested in these matters than she is generally Willis's first volume [1972] had 4400 entries; his second given credit for." [1982] 2350. Volume three has 760, including all titles Vasbinder has arranged his materials into seven released from late 1981 to late 1983 [even the rock video

24 FANTASY REVIEW , May 1985 '

NEWS & REVIEWS Derleth in Brief Thriller], new discoveries from before 1981 and additions to For the most part though, entries from the first two volumes. In many cases, a film's Howard, Nic, ed. Masters of this is critical annotation is in volume three, while Fantasy 2: August Der- the film's credits strictly for Trekkies. leth. British Fantasy are in volume one or two and are not repeated in volume —Paul M. Lloyd Society, Birmingham, Sep- three. Including appendices and addenda, there are nine alphabetic sequences Bleak and Skimpy Future tember 1984. 24 0.50 to search in the set. Most entries p, include references to other printed sources, .including pounds 1.50, paper, no ISBN. Newman, John, and Michael [Available from Peter periodical reviews —a valuable feature. As the Unsworth. Future War Coleborn, The British Fantasy number of entries per volume has shrunk, the length of Willis's annotations has grown, from a line or two in Novels: An Annotated Society, 46 Oxford Road, Bibliography volume one to ten or fifteen lines in volume two. In volume of Works in Acocks Green, Birmingham English Published Since B27 three, half a page is devoted to the average piece of dreck 6DT, England, overseas 1946. Oryx, Phoenix 1984. price $2.50 postpaid.] and two pages to an important film. Willis is often brilliant at discovering significant details in apparently trivial 101 p. $25.00, hardcover. This we 11 -produced ISBN material, but he too often arrives at unreliable conclusions. 0-889774-103-X. booklet is a useful intro- The compilers annotate duction He seriously underrates several good films, including Bride of to the life and work novels written after 1945 of August Derleth, Frankenstein, Things to Come, The Thief of Baghdad aimed at (the beginning of the atomic [1940], Cat People [1942], A Christmas Carol [ 1951 War those who cannot obtain, or J, weapon age) and before cannot afford, any larger of the Worlds, Kwaidan, The Seventh Seal, The Wicker and Orwell's year of 1984 and volume on the subject. The Man Alien. Willis shares with Queen Victoria the irritating limit their selection to biographical essay by Nic habit of underlining several words in most paragraphs. realistic novels of weir among Howard is good and existing Libraries wanting a nearly complete filmography to or realistically- interesting, as is the excerpt extrapolated nations. Their from one update Walt Lee's Reference Guide to Fantastic Films of Derleth's semi- emphasis generally excludes Tt [1974] should consider autobiographical stories, The the Willis set, and committed fantastic film buffs will want to consult his annotations. However, stories involving space travel Stuff or Dreams.” There is a beyond general libraries that need only a selective critical guide the moon, time bibliography which is travel, imaginary beings, accurate but too skimpy should prefer Phil Hardy's Science Fiction [FR 76] in to parallel universes, alternative be valuable. This is Morrow's Film Encyclopedia series, supplemented by the item histories, in short, forthcoming horror film volume in the same series. most hard intended for general fantasy science fiction. Though collectors rather than for —Michael Klossner Newman and Unsworth libraries. describe their annotations as —Chris Morgan "more often descriptive than Trekking Along Together evaluative,” literary criti- cism, mostly negative, creeps into a Irwin, Walter, and G.B. Love, majority of entries. eds. The Best of Trek Arrangement of entries is #8. (From the Magazine for chronological so that each Star Trek Fans.) NAL Books work may be seen "in the (Signet), New York. 1985. social, political, and military 221 p. $2.95, paper. ISBN 0- context of its creation,” but 451-13488-5. author and title indexes and Devoted fans of Star cross references are Trek, who can never get provided. enough information and/or Though a bibliography speculation regarding every of such narrow range and possible aspect of the famous scope might be useful to a TV and movie series, will handful of academics, the undoubtedly love this book. majority of readers would Those of us who are have been better served by a somewhat less enamored of comprehensive bibliographic the whole thing are more Foreign Language essay analyzing the import of likely to find that the book, fiction of this sort and highlighting like the magazine from which An Irreplaceable French bibliography the few novels these articles are drawn, worth reading. Such an essay might answer tells us a good deal more Delman, Henri & Alain Julian. Le Rayon SF; Catalogue questions such about Star Trek than we Bibliographique de Science-Fiction, Utopies, Voyages as: How predictive is this fiction ana how reactive care to know. Extraordinaires. Editions Milan, 9 rue des Gestes, 31000 is it to current events? Still, it is only fair to Toulouse, France, Spring 1983. 333p. 120 FF, paper. ISBN 2- Why do add quickly that the pieces 86726-006-X. Texas and Colorado so often appear as sites of in the book are, for the most This book attempts to list all science fiction books pub- rebel, splinter, or part, intelligently written lished in French (in France, Belgium, Switzerland and Canada) exile governments in these novels? What (the last quarter of the book from the 18th century through 1982, approximately 11,000 trends can be discovered in ti)e is made up mostly of letters titles. French histories of the genre by Jacques Sadoul or ways these future wars from fans) and one or two of Jacques Van Herp, for instance, provide are some bibliographic started? them might interest anyone help as does the masive 1972 Encyclopedic by Pierre Versins, This bibliography is not with a fondness for science but none aimed at bibliographical completeness. And Francis worth its $25.00 price tag. fiction. These are the three Valery's previous mimeographed attempt at a bibliography of Recommended for large reviews of the latest Star French SF book series pales in comparison to this work. collections only. Trek movie, including one by Since Delmas <5c Julian also include price estimates for Agatha Taormina the editors. They are all out-of-print books, and many remarks on various editions of — sufficiently detailed and interest to collectors (see the very long section about the ftoties «r Pink thoughtful to make me want various reprints of Jules Verne's works), one is tempted to flBke them my Love, in . to go see The Search for look for predecessors in whatever antiquarian booksellers' pUjpre yours to keep. Spock. Along with them are annotated catalogues may have appeared. However, this one Some say its kinky, Silt a short parody, a speculation is the first to deal exclusively with SF (no mysteries or If sty its neat. X* 8iiJ» on what kind of a cadet comics) and to provide many additional comments which make iso take them my Lovtl* Capt. Kirk was as a bov, and it more than a mere list of prices. The covers of hundreds of —but I get your the results of a poll of fans. books are reproduced in miniature. FANTASY REVIEW, May 1985 25 NEWS & REVIEWS

As SF publishing in France is dominated by book series with a strongly defined image and characteristic packaging (a standardized cover layout usually features the name of the series), we naturally start off with a section titled "Les Collections” where books are listed alphabetically by publisher and chronologically within the same publisher. Historical notes complete what amounts to a very detailed look at the history of SF book publishing in France. In fact, the picture could hardly be more complete, since the short section that follows sums up the history of the too few French SF magazines. The remaining two -thirds of the book are devoted to a listing by author, in which the books already listed in the first section are simply referred to by a code number, while all the others are given in full (title and date). The amazing fact is the sheer number of SF books published outside the specifically science fictional series (and this list does not Donaldson Brin Wi l liamson SF was not include fantasy). Before World War II, of course, Best Collection Best Novel Best Pro Publication published as such, and countless future war, lost race or Verne-derivative novels appeared, often in adventure novels This year the awards lins. Fantasy Tales, ed. Sutton series. Doubtlessly the compilers have not brought ashore were presented at the Alti- Stephen Jones /David amount of research Ego f s convention in Denver, was Second. the entirety of the iceberg, although the BEST PROFESSIONAL they must have put in is staggering. CO., April 28: The book concludes witn interviews with the major SF BEST NOVEL went to PUBLICATION: Masques, ed. J.N. Williamson. Twilight editors of today in France; a list of non-fiction books, both for The Practice Zone, ed. T.E.D. Klein re- originals and translations; a list of awards. None of them is Effect, DAW. Runners up essential, but the interviews (made from a standard were Stephen King for Pet ceived First Runner Up and questionnaire) are occasionally amusing. Sematary, Doubleday, and Second Runner Up went to Despite some omissions (many Jules Verne novels in a Michael Bishop for Who Made Omni, Bob Guccione. recent paperback reprint series; an uneven treatment of small Stevie Crye?, Arkham. The award for presses) and the annoying absence of the original titles of BEST SHORT STORY AMATEUR ACHIEVEMENT B. Silva, ed., translated works, this book is irreplaceable to anyone who went to Patricia McKillip for went to David with has an interest in French SF, or French SF publishing. It ”A Troll & Two Roses,” in for The Horror Show, First Runner up W. Paul Gan- should become part of the collection of any library with Faery. Runners up were - and Se- French -language SF holdings. Robert McCammon for "Night ley, for Weirdbook Jo Fletcher, —Pascal J. Thomas crawlers,” in Masques, and cond Runner Up Jessica Amanda Salmonson for Stephen Jones, and David Everybody Dies, and It's Not Funny "Mrs. Chauncy and her TV Sutton, for brightening up the Set," in Eldritch Tales. BFS. Pelot, Pierre. Le Chien Courait sur l'Autoroute en BEST COLLECTION The award for PROFES- Criant son Norn. Presses Pocket, Paris, November 1984. 158 went to Stephen Donaldson SIONAL ACHIEVEMENT went p. Not priced, paper. ISBN 0-266-01457-9. Hommes sans for Daughter of Regals, Del to Hap Henriksen for estab- Futur 5. Rey. First Runner Up was lishing the National Hall of This latest installment of Pelot's adventure series, J.N. Williamson, ed., for Fame for F<5cSF. Richard Pini "Humanity without a Future,” is even more relentlessly bleak Masques, Maclay; and Second was given First Runner Up for than the others, if that is possible [see review in Fantasy Runner Up was Alan Ryan, developing WARP Graphics Review 75]. In the sunken ruins of what was the Bay Area, ed., for Night Visions I, and Second Runner Up only bits of freeway emerge atop former hills. They shelter Dark Harvest. Charles L. Grant for high the "Tollmen” gangs, and assorted rabble, who all try to BEST POET was Ardath quality editorship. catch a talking dog, a runaway from the unthinkable labs of Mayhar with Fred Mayer as Votes for BEST SF the mutant Superiors who now rule the Earth. But a lone First Runner Up and Steve FILM were tied between E.T. hunter named Brent Cutlass will keep ahead of the pack, be- Rasnic Tern as Second Runner and Starman. Metropolis re- cause he once loved the woman trapped inside that dog... Up. ceived First Runner Up and The whole novel is a brutal, death-ridden chase; most BEST ARTIST was 2010 received Second. characters only survive long enough to fulfill their role in the Richard <5c Wendy Pini. J.K. BEST FANTASY FILM plot, though Pelot is not without compassion. His fascination Potter got first runner up was Raiders of the Lost for the U.S. is reflected by the settings and the movie-like while Allen Koszowski and Ark. Ghostbusters received vehicle mayhem. The dog echoes Pelot ! s more ambitious Le Real Musgrave tied for First Runner Up and The Sommeil du chien [ 1978 ], which cannot have been second. Last Unicorn received influenced by Valis as Bill Collins claims in an otherwise BEST AMATEUR PUBLI- Second. excellent review [FR 75]. You may want to ,get the novel if CATION went to Eldritch A special award, Judges you have others in the series, although there are no common Tales, ed. Crispin Burnham, Choice, was given to Lester characters [they die too fast]. One wonders how Pelot First Runner Up was Fantasy del Rey for his contribution manages to remain the most popular French SF writer. Review, ed. Robert A. Col- to SF <5c Fantasy. —Pascal J. Thomas Major French Reference Work Reprinted

Versins, Pierre. Encyclopedic de l'Utopie, des Voyages Extraordinaires, et de la Science-Fiction. L’Age d f Homme, La Cite, 10 Metropole, Box 263, CH-1003, Lausanne, Switzerland, 1984. 997 + p. Price approx. FS 220 [about $76]. No ISBN. This is the long-awaited enlarged reprint of the 1972 French language encyclopedia of SF, which occsioned some debate between Chalker and Jakubowski [see FR 69 <5c 71]. This edition comes with a new introduction and Pascal f the Ducommun's index, which makes Versins original text, Henriksen Del Rey bulk of the book, easier to use. It has a mass of raw data, Mayhar primarily interesting for its thorough coverage of French Pro Achievement Best Poet Judges Choice

26 FANTASY REVIEW , May 1985 .

TRUMPS OF DOOM by The new AMBER novel, in which Roger Zelazny returns to the world of his most popular classic adventures! $14.95,

SUDANNA, SUDANNA by Brian Herbert ANCIENT OF DAYS “A tingling saga of rare depth and by Michael Bishop complexity—comparable to, but absorbingly Bishop’s first novel since his Nebula Award- different from, the intelligent, authoritative winning No Enemy ButTime. A.E. Van Vogt says work of Brian Herbert's father, Frank.” of this new book: “Michael Bishop is becoming ' the best science fiction writer in —Kirkus Reviews (starred) . the world.”

I ANCIENT OP DAyS

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and coming in October: The Summer Tree by Guy Gavriel Kay. The first volume of THE FIONAVAR TAPESTRY a major fantasy trilogy by the co-editor of J.R.R. Tolkien’s .

by Bruce Sterling

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Books Books Ace Bantam/Speotra I Berkley

series: Thousandstar (0-380-75556-4, in Skinner by RICHARD S. McENROE $2.95, $3.75). and Viscous Circle (0- (0-553 -24597 -X, $2.95). It’s the only ACE BOOKS 380-79879-2, $2.95, $3.75 Can.). way to survive on the world of Troll- shulm. But Chavez Blackstone is July fantasy leader (released in BAEN BOOKS different, the one man strong enough to June) is Liavak, edited by EMMA BULL defy the world’s absolute ruler, Santer. and WILL SHETTERLY (0-441-48180-9, In ROBERT SILVERBERG’S Sha- The latest Star Trek adventure $2.95, $3.50 Can., cover by GARY drach in the Furnace (0-671-55956-7, from Bantam is Vulcan by KATHLEEN RUDDELL). It introduces the City of $2.95), Genghis Mao, dictator of a world SKY (0-553-24633-X, $2.95). Luck, a Renaissance trading capital overrun by plague, seeks the means to Two high fantasy reissues by brimming with magic and wizards, in survive at all costs. His projects include PARKE GODWIN are Firelord (0-553- adventures written by the Minneapolis the development of a mechanical robot 25269-0, $3.95), a portrait of King Writers Group, Gene Wolfe, Barry to house a computer clone of himself, Authur and his relationship with Longyear, and others. Includes a and cell-renewal research to keep his Guenevere, the Queen, and Morgana, the Tourist’s Guide to Liavak (Year: 3317), body healthy forever. But the project mother of Arthur’s son Modred; and A Magician’s Primer and Rules of Magic. closest to completion would plant Beloved Exile (0-553-24924-X, $3.95), Decadent with rings of Genghis Mao’s brain into the healthy, a novel about what happens to power, bestial natives, untouchable living body of a younger man. Guenevere after Authur dies. hybrids, and legendary heroes with Afterwar, created by JANET immortal bodies are among The Child- MORRIS (0-671-55967-2, $2.95) consists BERKLEY BOOKS ren of Anthi, (0-441-10399-5, $2.75, of four SF tales set after apocalytic war, $3.25 Can., cover art by MARTUCCI <5c including one written by MORRIS. The June leader is Emprise by MICH- GRIESBACH), who is the goddess of others include a story of a mysterious AEL P. KUBE-Me DOWELL (0-425-07763- Ruantl, a toxic world lit by a black sun. religion founded in the Last War by C.J. 2, $2.95. $3.50 Can., cover by RON Here, the smuggler and killer Omari, a CHERRYH, a survival tale where those MILLER), about a near-future Earth clone without a soul, finds himself remaining set out to determine whether where nuclear fission has been elim- ursued by Rhyi Sauders, who seeks to they are really alone by GREGORY inated and scientists are blamed for ring Ormari to justice. BENFORD, and a DAVID DRAKE story everything that’s wrong. Astronomer Al- The destinies of a noblewoman about four men who guard a precious len Chandliss, hiding in the Idaho woods, possessed by a demon, a rougish thief, secret. has been waiting for 17 years to hear and a blackhearted villain cross as they The Peace War by VERNOR from space, in hopes other intelligent seek the sorcerer Lorennion in A Yoke VINGE (0-671-55965-6, $3.50) is about life can resolve the world’s ills. Book of Magic, The Swords of Raemllyn by what happens when a Concerned One in the Trigon Disunity. ROBERT E. VARDEMAN and GEO. W. Scientist discovers the Ultimate Weapon, The final book in MICHAEL PROCTOR (0-441-94840-5, $2.75, $3.25 one that makes all others not only ob- MOORCOCK’S Chronicles of Castle Can., cover by LUIS ROYL). solete, but non-existent in a future Brass is The Quest for Tanelorn (0- According to the Powers that be, a world where all research is banned. 425-07763-2, $2.75, $3.25 Can., cover simple man must go mad to win his love In CHERRY WILDER’s fantasy, A art by ROBERT GOULD). in the Oriental fantasy Ou Lu Khen and Princess of the Chameln (0-671- Billed as PHILLIP JOSE FARMER’S the Beautiful Madwoman by JESICA 55966-4, $2.95), the princess Adris is underground masterpiece, Image of the AMANDA SALMONSON (0-441-63500-8, forced to flee her kingdom even as her Beast ( 0-425-07708-X, $3.50, $3.95 $2.75, $3.25 Can., cover art by KINUKO parents lie dying, victims of invading Can., cover art by ) is a CRAFT). To do this, he sets out for the armies. horror novel about the murder of a crumbling tombs of the Lost Dynasty, a detective in a bizarre sexual ritual that time of demons so horrifying it has been BANTAM/SPECTRA is recorded on film. When the victim’s erased from history. artner sets out solve the crime, In PHYLLIS GOTLIEB’s The King- Beginning in June, Bantam is owever, he is faced with the possibility dom of the Cats (0-441-44453-9, releasing its SF and fantasy books under that the killer is a vampire.

$2.95, $3.50, cover by SONYA <3c ENAD), a new imprint, Spectra. Among these is Reissues include House of Zeor by the final book in a trilogy A Judgment Polar Fleet by WARREN NORWOOD (0- JACQUELINE LICHTENBERG (0-425- of Dragons and Emperor, Swords, 553-24877-4, $2.95), which follows the 07745-4, $$2.75, $3.25 Can., cover by Pentacles, a colony of Ungrukh, huge first book in his Double-Spiral War PAUL ALEXANDER) the original novel of telepathic starcats, come to the world series, Midway Between. Devastated by the Sime-Gen Universe. of Solthree to be studied as a gesture of a terrible battle in the Matthews In the horror novel Phantom, (0- interstellar goodwill, but an insane system, the forces of the Sondak 425-08027-7, $2.95, $3.50 Can.), author criminal seeks to destroy them. Confedracy regroup on the world THOMAS TESSIER has conjured up all Satterfield. As three alien races vie for the nightmares of childhood. Only these AVON BOOKS power, two young lovers are reunited don’t disappear when the lights come on. and a proud Admiral tries to turn the This month Avon reissues both the tide of war. DAW BOOKS fourth and fifth novels of PIERS The only thing tougher than ANTHONY’S interplanetary Cluster dragonhides are the men who hunt them Celebrating 50,000,000 books in

28 FANTASY REVIEW , May 1985 DAW Books Del Rey Books Signet Tor Books print this month, Daw heads off its 31060-8), Ozma of Oz (0-345-31888-9), the streets three years after being June SF list with The 1985 Annual Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz (0- kidnapped by her father, whose mangled World's Best SF, edited by DONALD A. 345-31948-6), The Road to Oz (0-345- remains have also been found, in the WOLLHEIM (0-88677-047-5, $2.95, $3.50 31947-8) and The Emrald City of Oz horror novel The Door to December by Can., cover by FRANK KELLY FREAS). (0-345-32028-X). all $2.25 RICHARD PAIGE (G 0-451-13605-5, Ten selections selections include a Although farsighted humans had $3.95, $4.95 Can.). The latest in novella about the computer revolution hidden a colony at the end of the 20th the Horseclan series (# 13, to be exact) by JOHN VARLEY, Plus stories by Century to help Mankind recover from by ROBERT ADAMS, is Horses of the STEPHEN DONALDSON, JOHN DALMAS, the War, time is about to run out for North (0-451-13626-8, $2.95, $3.50 CONNIE WILLIS, IAN WATSON, and them in The Gaian Expedient, Part 2 Can.). others. of The Earthring Cycle by WAYLAND There's fun in store with Tik-Tok DREW (0-345-30888-3, $2.95, cover by by JOHN SLADEK (0-88677-048-3, D.K. SWEET). If something isn't done TOR BOOKS $2.95, $3.50 Can.) He's one of the soon, the leader Yggdrasil may have to finest robots ever made, but it seems his resort to the methods that destroyed the Tor is releasing the first mass circuitry is slightly awry; he wants to world. market publication this month of be vice-president! His route to this In Walk the Moons Road by JIM Pretender by PIERS ANTHONY and exalted position is fraught with cat- AIKIN (0-345-32169-3, $2.95), a human FRANCES HALL (0-812-53108-6, $3.50, -- $3.95 Can., astrophies especially for the sea captain and adventurer on the Vli's cover art by DON MAITZ). unfortunate050- humans who are his masters. world carries a lilith, one of the veiled The host’s body is dying, and NK-2 hopes for In At lan —The Atlan Saga 3 by and secretive Vli priestesses, on his rescue on a nearby primitive JANE GASKELL (0-88677-049, $3.50, ship. She disappears and he has to planet where there is a galactic $3.95 Can.), Cija, wedded against her rescue her. observation station. When he gets there, will to Zerd, conqueror however, the city he expected to find 051- of Atlan, is in It is anticipated that it will cost has been danger when war is revived on the at least 150 lives to get a special destroyed, and he must inhabit secret continent. Zerd must fight to hold satellite working to transport enough the body of a young boy. His only hope on as the enchanted land of Atlan wakes solar power to replenish the energy- is to become a god, but he may have to to rid itself of the invaders. deprived Earth in Space Doctor by LEE destroy the Babylonian Empire to do it. Kyon knows only that he is a COREY (0-345-32486-2, $2.95), so Dr. Reissues are The Imperator Plot gardener in the Ultimate City in LIN Tom Noel is charged with running an by STEVEN SPRUILL (0-812-55488-4, CARTER'S Found Wanting (0-88677- emergency center 22,000 miles out in $2.95, $3.50 Can., cover art by TOM 5, $2.75, $3.25 Can., cover by T. space. KIDD); SPIDER ROBINSON's Melancholy JACOBS). The people are strangers, but Elephants (0-812-55231-8, $2.95, $3.50 Destiny is waiting for him. JOVE BOOKS Can., cover by ); DIANE Reissued this month, four ANDRE DUANE's high fantasy The Door Into NORTON novels: Horn Crown (0-88677- Shadow (0-812-53673-8, $2.95, $3.50 Florida's changed a lot since the 3, $2.95, $3.50 Can.), Merlin's Can., cover by SUSAN S. COLLINS); and last time the extraterrestrials made a Mirror (0-88677-052-1, $2.95, $3.50 Ben Bova's As on a Darkling Plain (0- stop here in Can.), Yurth Burden (0-88677-054-8, 5,000 years ago DAVID 812-53200-7, SAPERSTEIN'S Cocoon $2.95, $3.50 Can., cover $2.95, $3.50 Can.), and Garan the (0-515-08400-X, art by TOM KIDD). $3.50, $3.95 Can.), the tie-in to the Eternal (0-88677-055-6, $2.95, $3.50 Can.). 20th Century Fox film directed by RON HOWARD, scheduled for July release. WARNER/POPULAR LIBRARY DEL REY BOOKS Back to revive the ones they left behind, the alien Antareans discover The Hammer and the Horn by they need help before they can lift off Dorothy is almost convinced that MICHAEL JAN FRIEDMAN (0-445-20028- for home. A group of retirees in a Coral she really dreamed it all up, when a 6, $2.95) is about a Norse god, Vidar, Gables condo are just the people they terrific storm takes her back to her who survived the destruction of Asgard, need. friends in Return to Oz, by JOAN D. home of the gods, 1,000 years earlier, VINGE (0-345-3207-X, $2.95), Del Rey's and now lives on Earth posing as a major promotion and movie tie-in for SIGNET sculptor. When a new enemy comes to June based on the photoplay by WALTER destroy the rebuilt city, however, he MURCH and GILL DENNIS, with the film June science fiction leader, is must go back home and take with him by Walt Disney Pictures to be released Golden Witchbreed by MARY GENTLE the Horn of Death, which once protected this summer. But she finds Oz is now (0-451-13606-3, $3.95, hardcover by the city of the gods. under the spell of the evil Nome King. William Morrow), an epic, complex novel Wilf Ansor Brim, a young starman To coincide with the book and the mov- of planetary diplomacy, intrigue and from the most poverty-stricken world in ie, Del Rey is bringing back several Oz betrayal during a central point in the galaxy, proves to the blue-blooded books by L. FRANK BAUM originally history. How it all turns out depends on cadets and officers on his ship that he's published in hardcover by Contemporary the choices made by one woman. the better man in The Helmsman by Books, including The Wizard of Oz (0- A child whose mangled remains MERL BALDWIN (0-445-20027-8, $2.95), 345-31363-1), The Land of Oz (0-345- have been identified, is found wandering a space adventure. FANTASY REVIEW, May 1985 29 : : : : : : : : : : : : : : $&: : : : :v: x : : : : : : : : x$:^^ S T RM DiE jxj^xjxg:^:;: O O K i***

Argo /Irbor House Harper & Row Donald I . Fine Doubleday

ARBOR HOUSE FENNIMORE, June 15, 1985, hardcover $15.95, 0-385-19761-6. In the *world they call the glamour, Richard and Susan Trumps of Doom by ROGER ZELAZNY, jacket art by meet and fall in love. To Richard, a victim of a terrorist ANDREW RHODES, May 30, 1985, hardcover $14.95, 0-87795- bombing trying to piece together his shattered memory, it is 718-5. a love both strange and new. But to Susan it is a love that This new Amber novel begins a trilogy centering around began in Richard's forgotten past. Merlin, Corwin's son. The glamour is a power that can help them both, but it Merlin has the inherent powers of Amber, but is content is quickly becoming a power they must escape, or be haunted to live in San Francisco as a computer programmer, until his by, forever. life is threatened. He must fight his way, through Shadow, back to Amber, where he finds a complex plot is brewing. He A Trio For Lute by R. A. MACAVOY, jacket painting by must claim his heritage, but his first priority is survival. WALTER VELEZ, March, 1985, Science Fiction Book Club edition, hardcover, $7.98. ARGO Contains three novels comprising the Damiano trilogy, including Damiano's Lute and Raphael, reprinted from the Tlie Saga of Grittel Sundotha by ARDATH MAYHAR, jacket Bantam original paperback editions of 1983-1984. 0- art by NEIL FEIGELES, July 1, 1985, hardcover $12.95, 689-310097-8. GREENWOOD PRESS Grittel is seven feet tall, and her mother despaired of marrying her off. When Grittel refuses a marriage proposal, TTie Scope of the Fantastic — Theory, Technique, Major she is forced to leave home. Authors: Selected Essays from the First International She encounters ruffians, sorcerers, and witches, even Conference on the Fantastic in Literature and Film She learns strange people claiming to be from outer space. edited by ROBERT A. COLLINS and HOWARD D. PEARCE, to use powers she had never dreamed about, and she learns Spring 1985, hardcover $35.00, 0-313-23447-7. about the demanding world outside her home. A scholarly incursion into the fantstic mode, concentrating on current theoretical approaches, structural BANTAM BOOKS techniques, purpose and literary relationships, and critical studies of the works of recognized authors of fantastic Medea: Harlan's World, edited by HARLAN ELLISON, June literature: Singer, Kafka, Borges, Tolkien, etc. 1985, paper $10.95, 0-553-34170-7. Scheduled to coincide with the Special HARPER & ROW Edition (see p. 37) with major multi-media promotion, this is a collection of short stories chronicling the evolution of The Book of Sorrows by WALTER WANGERIN, JR., Medea, a planet envisioned by Ellison, formed and peopled by jacket art by JACLYNE SCARDOVA, May 1985, hardcover the collective imaginations of twelve respective sf $15.95, 0-06-250929-2. contributors: Poul Anderson, Hal Clement, Thomas M. Disch, In this conclusion to The Book of the Dun Cow, Harlan Ellison, Kelly Freas, Frank Herbert, Larry Niven, Chauntecleer, Pertelote, and others from the Coop struggle to Frederik Pohl, Robert Silverberg, Theodore Sturgeon, Kate piece together their shattered lives in the aftermath or their Wilhelm, and . The book is divided into five conflict with Wyrm. Wyrm again appears, but the sections, beginning with "The Specs," or scientific data, reappearance of the dog Mundo Cani unveils an even darker moving through concepts, question and debate, into the final mystery and the threat of a final horror. section, "The Stories." The Last Rainbow by PARKE GODWIN, cover by STEPHANIE GERBER, July 1985, paper $7.95 (Can. $8.95), 0-553-34142-1. Patrick is poised between the old magics of pagan Britain and the new faith he is sworn to spread. Dorelei seeks sanctuary for her people, the Faerie Prydn. Together they bridge a new age, in a world beyond the last rainbow.

DONALD I. FINE

Tom O'Bedlam by ROBERT SILVERBERG, July 15, 1985, hardcover $16.95, 0-917657-31-4. Tom O' Bedlam lives in the high tech, post -industrial world of A.D. 2103. Tom feigns insanity as a means of coping with the mental powers he possesses. He can send his mind out through space and communicate with other worlds. When a star probe sends back images of life, Tom must become the representative of these distant worlds on earth. DOUBLEDAY

TTie Glamour by CHRISTOPHER PRIEST, jacket art by LINDA Bantam Books

30 FANTASY REVIEW , May 1985 SCREAM PRESS r FANTASY You can feel the chill rising from the pages of Cold Print by Ramsey |Ls Campbell. Nightmarish illustrations by •S' & TERROR JK Potter punctuate fifteen tales which 1 include the previously unpublished 1 Blacked Out. Released in May, trade I edition at $17.50, signed limited edition I $37.50. P. O. Box 8531, Santa Cruz, CA 1 95061. Add one dollar for postage and \ fondling. UMI RESEARCH PRESS laugYiten "plame Is rtattf' the rv>r- r Red Stars: Political Aspects of fo> ^almc>nso Leases MpW'P" Soviet Science Fiction by Patrick L. Chnsrn-, McGuire, researches the effects of Ureen political control over Soviet science cbaRles oe fiction writing. The present work is a LirjT revised version of a 1976 study, and seventh in the series Studies in Speculative Fiction, Robert Scholes, Series Editor. Available from UMI Research Press, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106. [Our copy not priced.]

Underwood -Miller

The Trumps of Doom by Roger lorTn«r»Gi || i | Zelazny begins another sequence in the Amber Series. This deluxe, signed and numbered edition of 500 copies will be SCtENCt released in June. Priced at $50.00, this volume features material that will not be included in the trade hardcover. ISBN 0-88733-006-1. Schweitzer. Paper, $6.95, ISBN 0- Scheduled for early summer release 89370-265-5; Clothbound are two previously unpublished suspense $14.95, ISBN 0-89370-162-9. P. O. Box novels by Jack Vance, Strange Notions 2845, San Bernardino, CA 92406. and The Dark Ocean. These novels were written in the early ’60’s, just V prior to Vance’s return to the science FOOTSTEPS fiction genre. Signed and numbered, Munster’s 80 page, digest size limited edition of 500, two matched ’’Special Stephen King Issue” contains volumes in linen slipcase. $60.00. ISBN four 0-88733-015-0 (&0169). articles on King (three of them first presented at the 1984 Conference on the An April release, Lyonesse II: Teecomwas Drive, Uncasville, CT 06382. The Green Pearl; Jack Vance’s Fantastic) plus an interview with King’s biographer, DOUGLAS E. WINTER. THE SHOW magnum opus, is now available HORROR in a There’s signed, numbered, slipcased edition also an interview with T. E. D. Klein, former editor of Twilight Zone. Silva’s issue limited to 500 copies. $60. ISBN 0- Dave Spring contains Fiction includes stories by horror, 88733-010-X. [Berkley’s mass market JANET FOX, (suggestively) thirteen tales of J. N. WILLIAMSON, JESSICA by J. N. WILLIAMSON, R. edition has been delayed until April, JOE SALMONSON, MICHAEL R. COLLINGS, LANSDALE, MARK PARKS, DALE 1986.] Lyonesse Is Suldren's Garden, CHRISTINA KIPLINGER, ELIZABETH ANDERSON, CHERYL COOK, G. L. is still available in trade hardcover, $20. MASSLE and SUSAN LIEV TAYLOR. RAISOR, BEN STOLTZFUS, CHARMAINE ISBN 0-934438-72-2. Add $1 for Cover by DOUG SHORT. $4 postpaid. PARSONS, SEAN COSTELLO, SUE shipping. 651 Chestnut Street, Columbia, Box PA 175121233. 63, Westkill, NY 12492. MARRA, THOMAS JENSON and TOMMIE BATES. There’s also an interview with CORROBOREE PRESS DELTA CON . Cover by BRAD FOSTER. Full size, 60p. $4.95 postpaid. About a hundreed copies remain of Now available is the first volume Star Route 1, Box 151-T, Oak Run, CA MIKE RESNICK’s of The Coscuin Chronicles, The Flame The Inn of the Hairy 96069. Toad, a humorous fantasy p Is Green, by R. A. LAFFERTY, jacket by published in a limited edition of 199 copies for KARIN PREUS, illustrations by DAVID Delta THRUST NO. 22 BRIAN ERICKSON. Signed, limited Con (April 12, 1985). 41p., digest size, edition ISBN 0-911169-05-9; trade $3.75 postpaid. One Finch Street, New Doug Fratz’s summer issue con- edition ISBN 0-911169-04-0; sorry, no Orleans, LA 70124. tains an article on PHYLLIS ANN KARR, price information. by Janrae Frank; a profile of PHILIP RICHARD FAWCETT JOSE FARMER by E. E. Gilpatrick, ”A BORGO PRESS Conversation with A1 Sarrantonio” by Fantasy & Terror #6, edited by PARKE GODWIN, an article by MICHAEL Exploring Fantasy Worlds ed. by JESSICA SALMONSON, is a handy thing BISHOP about how Omni butchered his DARRELL SCHWEITZER, is No. 3 in to keep in the john, most of the pieces prose, an interview with ALEXIS Bor go’s Evans Studies in Philosophy and being short enough to read at a sitting. GILLILAND by Priscilla Lowell, and Criticism. It collects ten essays, by It’s a mixture of old oddities reprinted movie reviews by DARRELL Michael Moorcock, Poul Anderson, Fritz and new ones contributed, and the list SCHWEITZER. $2.75 postpaid, 4/$8. Leiber, David H. Keller, Ben Indick, of authors is too long to rehearse here. 8217 Langport Terrace, Gaithersburg, Sandra Miesel, L. Sprague de Camp, and 40p., digest size. $2.50 postpaid. 61 MD 20877.

FANTASY REVIEW , May 1985 31 Sturgeon, continued 1985 Hugo Nominees ...from page 10. corral, and an orchard. The orchard Best Novel goes down for about two and a half William Gibson, Neuromancer, Ace football fields, it goes down to the river. Robert A. Heinlein, Job, Del Rey I can't see the river; but beyond the Larry Niven, river, of course, are the mountains. The Integral Trees, ! Del Rey That s all I can see. No roads, no build- David R. ings, no nothing. Palmer, Emergence, Bantam Vernor "I spend so much time at the Vinge, The Peace War, Bluejay window; taking pictures and watching the geese flying north when Spring Best Novella comes along; watching sunsets and rain- David bows. We T re happier here than any- Brin, "Cyclops," Asimov's Joseph where we've ever been." TED (center) signs books for teachers at R. Delaney <5c Marc Steigler, "Valentina," Analog * By "we," Sturgeon was referring to the 1982 SFRA meeting. At left is Lee Charles his wife, "Lady Jayne," whom he Killough, right Jack Williamson, Fred L. Harness, "Summer Sol- stice," described as the greatest inspiration in Pohl. Analog Geoffrey A. Landis, his life. Jayne has been an actress "Elementals," Analog since the age of four, is an ordained sibly for broadcast by either PBS of John minister, teaches seminars on the Tarot, Varley, "Press Enter K," cable. Asimov's has just written her first sf book "We tried as hard as we could to entitled "Chipdren" (for "computer avoid the 'talking heads' bit, so we shot Best Novelette children"), besides working with her background scenery, and we did different husband on various projects. They met sets," said Sturgeon, in describing how Octavia Butler, several years ago at a Con, and the love the video was done. "One of the stu- "Bloodchild," Asi- mov's that radiates between the two is dents there (Jim Frankel) wrote music , "The Lucky remarkable! One could even feel it to it on guitar —the scene opens and Strike," Universe 14 seeping through the phone wires during closes with it, and Jane comes in with a Hilbert a long distance interview. composition she wrote." Schenck, "Silicon Muse," While everyone else was at the One of Sturgeon's students on Analog Lucius Shepard, "Man Los Angeles World Con in August, he and Maui, Betsy Angstrom, will soon publish Who Painted the Dragon Griaule," Jayne were teaching a writing course in her first novel, F&SF. When Darkness Loves Eric Maui. Us. Vinicoff <5c Marcia Martin, "The Weigher," "I enjoy teaching very much Sturgeon's most famous novel, Analog Connie Willis, "Blued Moon," because you don't know what you know More than Human, is under option to a Asi- mov's and you don't know what you believe French film company which bought the Timothy Zahn, "Return until you tell somebody else," Sturgeon option three years ago, and recently had to the Fold," Analog related. "That's what teaching is. Now asked for renewal. Sturgeon said he I'm that much firmer in my own convic- refused the renewal because some Best tions, and my own abilities for that American film companies also want the Short Story matter, by teaching somebody else. property. The French company has until David Brin, "The "Of course, on Maui, I've got to the end of October Crystal Spheres," to either shoot it or Analog say, all I could do was scratch the lose it. George Alec Effinger, "The Aliens surface of the talent that could be "More than Human is now in 16 Who Knew, I Mean, Everything," explored. I've never seen anything like languages," Sturgeon said. "I have no F&SF Stephen Gould, "Rory," it. It was wonderful! idea how many editions." Analog Lee Killough, "This one, as a matter of fact, Did Sturgeon think sf as a field "Symphony For a Lost Traveler," Analog came up very abruptly; and it came up has become too commercial? Kim Stanley Robinson, not specifically because of teaching, but "No writing area will ever get too "Ridge Run- ning," F&SF because a friend of ours was having very commercial as long as people are artists Lucius Shepard, "Salvador," serious difficulties there, and we were in a perfect sense, which they must be F&SF afraid for her. The thing to do was to to be good writers. That even goes for PACE make her busy. porno, you know; there's a certain "I found out years ago when my artistry involved. You can exploit that Slow Ferraris ex-wife was in radio; she would work at and make a big business out of it; a creep by a night writing news, and every once in a distortion. But, like it says in the Good turtle wrapped while she'd get a suicide. Sometimes Book, 'In the beginning, there was the around a she'd handle it herself, and occasionally Word'." telephone pole she'd field it over to me at three or four A. J. Grimaldi o'clock in the morning. But I'd talk to them, and I found that THE way, the absolute way to have some success in Diskin, continued Biography, continued handing a new beginning to the person ...from page 8. ...from page 6. or getting the trust of the person is to make a date. 'Meet me at one o'clock at a single stroke, simplify." There we change" (Bleiler). The kind of progress tomorrow afternoon. We'll talk about have the keys to the beauty of Ted's life that interested him was moral rather this some more. I'll see you at one and work. His life had its complications than material. He anticipated the o'clock,' or whatever. As soon as you but he always emerged clearly a rare "Love, not War" ethos of the 60s Flower make a future arrangement.... breed and in ways indeed spectacular. Children by at least a decade; unlike "This whole thing (Maui) fell He was a master of the stroke, because them he never abandoned belief in the together very rapidly, and was the most his fiction has a powerful immediate therapeutic power of love. His assault successful class we've had there. That's effect. His stories will go on forever upon the irrational taboos of human the third time we've been over there, helping us to simplify and not overlook. society included empathic treatments of but this time it worked out just beau- Ted's death breaks my heart. such "deviant behavior" as homo- tifully." Although I have him and will love him sexuality, incest, and cannibalism; even That particular course, inci- for as long as I go on, I wanted him to his unfinished novel, Godbody, an at - dentally, was videotaped, and will be live forever. We always want our heroes tempt to restore the primitive link edited into twelve half-hour segments. in the flesh; we always want the people between sex and religion, was based on They're going to catalog it in colleges, we love to outlive us. And, of course, the conviction that cultural frustration possibly for credits, as well as marketing Ted Sturgeon is and will. and exploitation of human sexuality is at it in video stores, bookstores, and pos- —Lahna F. Diskin the root of all evil.

32 FANTASY REVIEW , May 1985 . .

BIO OFA SPACE TYRANT

toners Anthony

he space saga continues.. Fueled by fury and a quest for social

reform . . His rise to power promises to ensure Jupiter’s future. But his fall from political titan to political prisoner threatens to obliterate any trace of his destiny.

Politician.

Volume III in Piers Anthony’s epic series, Bio of a Space Tyrant. Superb science fiction from a master storyteller. m rm kwmym <4 w>$alaenc coaeyssrs %***/ m A CAU*Y 8&f& 8* <* hcx* »f was pgstntf&to

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CLASSIFIED RATES: $1.00 per line, 35 King cont. FEEDBACK characters per line, spaces included. Hoax, Four line minimum. ALL CAPS or Boldface at no extra cost. Small display 3" damage to Mr. King. Mr. King emphati- Writers 2, Critics 0 ads at $6 per col. inch (paste-up size cally and unequivocably denies having wide). written "Love Lessons," and other works Dear FR: allegedly attributed to him by Ms. Pur- Buy and SeU cell and Pinetree Press or any other sex- Writers 2, Critics 0! John Kessel ually explicit Gentle readers, serious collectors: material. (FR78, p. 9 ) certainly adds support to You are advised to immediately Gregory Benford’s side of the literary SF/FANTASY/HORROR hardcover firsts retract the statements, in writing, set borrowing controversy. Borrowing — and specialty eds. Catalogs issued. forth by Ms. Purcell; issue a written plots, characters, styles, even great Send wants. DMK Books. 22946 Bren- apology to Mr. King, and promulgate lines -- is a timehonored tradition in ford. Woodland Hills CA 91364. such publicity concerning the retraction literature. Can you imagine what Wolfe and apology, and otherwise take such would have said about Shakespeare? SOFT BOOKS 89 Marion St., Tor, Ont, appropriate steps in conjunction with The important thing is the use Can, M6R 1E6. BUY/Sell Necronomicon me, and satisfactory to Mr.King, as are made of the material, whether or not Arkham, Strange Co. HPL and circle, necessary to correct the damage which the borrowed parts have anything new Grant, etc. Pvt. pub. "Young Folks’ has been done. to say in this very different setting. If Ulysses" by HPL. "HPL: The Books", Furthermore, I advise you that the critics and literary criticism have a other items, Send for catalogue. foregoing is without prejudice to Mr. place in sf at all, it should be to do King f s riffht to sue for equitable relief more than point out obvious congruen- For Sale and/or damages, including general, spe- cies of plot and character. Nor should cial and punitive damages. We are re- they content themselves with simple COLORADO’S FINEST SF STORES! Stop serving the right to bring suit at any cries of why? (as Benford says, a phone in and see us. Open 10-6, M-Sat., 12-5 time hereafter and demand that you call would take care of that). Sun., pb & hb. No mail order. Mile forthwith advise us of your response to The critic’s task is to uncover High Comics, 1717 Pearl Street, this letter. what the writer might be trying to say Boulder- -443 -45 0 0; 2901 E Colfax, --Arthur B. Greene or do — consciously or unconsciously — Denver — 393-0478; 220 N Tejon, Colo- and examine the effectiveness of the ex- rado Springs— 635-2516. Neil Confesses periment. This requires deep insight in- to the craft of the writer, not an atti - 660 TRIVIA QUESTIONS - FANTASY/SCI Dear FR: tude in which the writer is considered a FI MOVIES & BOOKS, adaptable to trivia schoolboy caught cribbing answers to games. $5. SAGITTARIUS RISING, Box the I took the liberty of testing the questions of life. 252-F, Arlington, MA 02174. pulling power of FR. Charles Platt had —Sheila Finch -Rayner called me about another matter, and I Notice suggested he write a review of an imagi- nary book by a very collectible author. Customers Please Note FANTASY is the focus of MYTHCON XVI So his review of Love Lessons appears July 26-29. Panels, films, drama, music, on page 31. The address shown is that Dear FR: art, dealers, costumes, etc. MYTHCON of Gary Zacharias, who told me yester- XVI, Box A3120, Chicago, IL 60690. day that he’s received two replies al- Many thanks for mentioning Ar- ready, an inquiry from Bob Weinberg achne in Fantasy Review (#77, p. 32), HARLAN ELLISON SPECIAL (RBCC and a check from a university library but I have to correct your reviewer on 151, published in 1980) is 100 pages of special collections dept. I’ll wait a few one point: I am the book’s publisher interviews, illustrations, photos and weeks for replies to sift in, then return as well as its editor: Antares (which is adaptations — $6.00. Special Limited all monies with a form letter explaining a publisher in its own right) only acted Edition of issue with signed tipped-in as printer on Arachne. is that I —not you--wanted to see how Ms. Rutledge plate--$12.00. Send to: James Van much pull FR has. I’ll send you a copy not the first reviewer to make this mis- Hise, 14156 Tobiasson Rd., Poway, CA of the form letter along with any notes. take, maybe I should have printed 92064 I’m working in an honorable tradition: "Jean -Daniel Breque, publisher" on the Lem wrote an entire book, A Perfect cover. A friend of mine even hinted HOWL-HORROR & OCCULT WRITERS Vacuuin, of imaginary reviews, or re- that I was too modest. So could you LEAGUE Forming writers organization. views of imaginary books, to be precise. please inform potential customers that Focus on horror/ occult. Send $5.00 for --Neil Barron they must order at this address: Res. progress reports & further info. H.O.W.L. Britania 2, Ent. E, Apt. 70, 141 rue de 608 Christian,Nacogdocheds, TX 75961. [If you guys knew how much time, Douvres, 59240 DUNKERQUE, FRANCE. money and intangible trust this caper No problem if they ordered the book WANTED cost FR, not to mention hairs off my from Antares, since they have some LASER -- S.F. MASS MARKET bald spot, you maybe wouldn’t have done copies in stock. paperbck imprint published during it. Then again, maybe you would, you I must thank Ms. Rutledge for her early 1970’s. Nos. 1-10 required only. fair bastards ! —Ed. ] review. Lieber’s story was the first Multiple copies, good or better I translated, and my work is a bit rough. required by FANTASY ARCHIVES, 71 As for likes and dislikes, the reviewers Eighth Avenue, New York, NY 10014, DESCENT FROM who mentioned Arachne thus far have (212) 929-5391. THE TENTH FLOOR their favorite story(ies) and their least favorite(s), but it would be a difficult My hot sharp body slicing job to find two of them in perfect agree- through cool fast air ment: Charles Grant’s story (which SHADOFAX

makes me feel soooo makes me shiver and cry each time I re- NEW ANOB.BE BOOKS ART ORIGINALS PRINTS PORTFOLIOS read it) good all over was thus far unanimously dis- "SCI -FI -HORROR MYSTERY -HC FIRSTS" missed by French reviewers as minor (!), LIMITED EDITIONS- PULPS ART- COMICS Oh, I feel sooo good all while Michael Bishop’s "Within the Wall SOMETHING TO OFFER ANY COLLECTOR Oh, I feel soo good of Tyre," which Ms. Rutledge does not SEND FOR CATALOGUE. SEND WANTS. Oh, I feel so mention, was hailed as a masterpiece WE BUYS SELL STEPHEN KING Oh, I feel (which it is). Well, you can please all ITEMS. CONTACT SHADOFAX BOOKS Oh, I of the people some or the time, etc. 316 W.SEVENTH AVE. COLS, OHIO 43201 can’t feel anything now. —Jean-Daniel Breque

34 FANTASY REVIEW , May 1985 . .

Swords-and-sorceru at the beginning of time in Heaven!

Yes, Heaven. The home of the angels Michael, Gabriel, Ariel, Lucifer, Beelzebub, Satan, and so forth. The time is The Beginning, and the story is the first swords-and-sorcery epic in the history of the universe—a tale of intrigue, power and corruption, of monstrous transformations and magical

battles that shake Creation. If there ever will be a

Creation . .

“When I realized where he was going with this story, my first reaction was, ‘He isn’t

going to be able to pull this one off.’ . .

I was wrong He tells a fantastically engaging story with consummate grace and genuine artistry.” —from the foreword by Roger Zelazny

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i STEVEN DRUST m AUTHOR OF JHEREG AND w

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