SCIENCE FICTION SUMMER ■DUVK7T'LVKXT number 47 1983 AVl-J V A -1-J W $2.00 SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW

PORTLAND, OR 97211 MAY, 1983 — VOL. 12, NO. 2 PHOfE: (SB) 282-0381 WHOLE NUMBER 47

RICHARD E. GEIS—editor & publisher COVER BY BRAD W. FOSTER PAULETTE MINARE', ASSOCIATE EDITOR

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

ALIEN THOUGHTS JOHN SHIRLEY SINGLE COPY — $2.00 BY THE EDITOR...... 4 JEFF PARKER BRIAN FERGUSON D. CAMERON PHILIP K. DICK: a cowardly memoir HOWARD COLEMAN BY PETER NICHOLLS...... 8 ROY TACKETT RONALD R. LAMBERT ROBERT BLOCH INTERIOR ART-—------SCOTT EDELMAN OTHER VOICES...... 13 tim kirk—2,4,47,50,62 BOOK REVIEWS BY RALPH E. VAUGHN NIGHTMARE FROM THE END OF THE WORLD PAUL MCGUIRE POEM BY BLAKE SOUTHFORK...... 42 ALMA JO WILLIAMS 53,56 r „ SUSAN M. SCHWARTZ ATOM—5,34 DEAN R. LAMBE MICHAEL DUTKIEWICZ—9 MARK MANSELL THE VIVISECTOR BY DARRELL SCHWEITZER...... 43 OLE PETTERSON 11, J.E. RUDD BRUCE CONKLIN----14,61 ANDREW TIDMARSH GEORGE KOCHELL---- ^5,19,33 PAULETTE MINARE' VIC KOSTRIKIN---- lb NEAL WILGUS SMALL PRESS NOTES BY THE EDITOR...... 47 GIUSEPPE MANGONI—18 DAVID PITT RAYMOND H. ALLARD-—30 DAVID A. TRUESDALE DAVID TRANSUE---- 37 ANDREW ANDREWS RAISING HACKLES ROMAN P. SCOTT---- 39 BY ELTON T. ELLIOTT...... 49 WILLIAM ROTSLER---- 40 EIG---- 41 ONCE OVER LIGHTLY MICHAEL GILBERT---- 58,59 BOOK REVIEWS BY GENE DEWEEESE....20 THE ARCHIVES BILL MAXWELL---- 3 BOOKS AND OTHER ITEMS RECEIVED ALLEN KOSZOWSKI---- 3 OF GROUND, AND OCEAN, AND SKY WITH DESCRIPTION, COMMENTARY BY IAN WATSON...... 21 AND OCCASIONAL REVIEWS...... 50

TEN YEARS AGO IN SF - SPRING,1973 ALIEN CONCLUSIONS BY ROBERT SABELLA...... 22 BY THE EDITOR...... 62 NO ADVERTISING WILL BE ACCEPTED

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MAKE ALL CHEQUES, CHECKS AND MONEY ORDERS PAYABLE TO SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW SAVE A HASSLE AND EXTRA EXPENSE IF YOU MOVE WE NEED YOUR FORMER ZIPCODE AND YOUR NEW COMPLETE ADDRESS. FUNDAMENTALLY SPEAKING, ITE ECONOMY ALIEN THOUGHTS IS SLIDING INTO THE DUMPER Yes, yes, it's time for another BY THE EDITOR dose of Geis's Gloom 8 Doom, a po­ tion guaranteed to depress anyone who has the courage and masochism to read on...

THE OPENING SENTENCES OF THE MOST WRETCHED NOVELS.... What is the world economic stat­ That's the goal of a contest us? Continuing default by debtor dreamed up by English professors countries and their private debtor at San Jose State University. companies. A continual face-saving It's called the Bulwer-Lytton desperate "rescheduling" of that Fiction Contest, and is in its debt to keep those loans technical­ second year. Bulwer-Lyttort was ly alive by the huge US and European a 19th Century English writer whose banks and other debt holders. novel, PAUL CLIFFORD, began: They have persuaded the US and European governments to vastly in­ It was a dark and stormy night; crease the resources of the World the rain fell in torrents—except Bank and the International Monetary at occasional intervals, when it Fund so that these entities can was checked by violent gusts of wind make emergency loans to the debtor which swept up the streets (for it is countries so that these debtors can in London that our scene lies), at least pay interest on the default­ rattling along the housetops and ed 600 billions of dollars in debts. fiercely agitating against the If everything goes well, the World scanty flame of the lamps that Bank and the IMF and the on-the-hook struggled against the darkness. banks will pour about 80 billion dol­ a laboring in the trenches as the That is remarkably awkward and lars more into those ratholes, all other chapters are written, edited, inept, granted, but it does set the in a desperate attempt to keep the rewritten.... scene. debt structure from collapsing. Oh, you want to know what THE And I rather suspect that, had With luck and lying and devious SWORD OF ALLAH! is about? About poor Bulwer-Lytton only chopped that manipulation, the teetering debt 100,000 words, I think. Or more. monster up into a few shorter sen­ structure will remain standing for It is also about a mad Arab dictat­ tences, he'd have escaped this kind about another year. But it's that or, a mad scientist, a keen-eyed, of inmortality. next required 80-100 billion dollar courageous CIA agent, a woman Vice In the interests of fair play, injection of new debt into a con­ President of the USA who becomes what say the readers of SFR who stantly deteriorating political and President, a power-mad, greedy bil­ are so inclined send in their nomin­ economic situation which will be im­ lionaire out to control the world, ees for Worst Opening SF or Fantasy possible. his beautiful young equally ruth­ novel of the past year, to SFR. Already there are food and job less wife—and the end of the I'll be happy to publish the most riots in Brazil, and if the savers world as we know and love it. terrible. I be de judge. of Brazil begin, in fright, to with­ We have found a way to destroy draw their money from Brazilian the world never before presented banks [a real likelihood reported in in fiction just this way. THE WALL STREET JOURNAL] those banks will possibly trigger Brazil into a Well....we destroy half the real default which no one can deny. NOW FOR THE GOOD NEWS. I HAVE A JAW­ world. Somebody has to survive! The continual worldwide deterior­ DROPPING ANNOUNCEMENT. The doomsday is1991. [written ation of trade is caused by these Secretly, behind locked doors, 1-15-83] debtor countries no longer being by the light of full moons only, at able to buy the manufactured goods midnights, after a virgin has been of Japan, Europe and the US. This sacrificed, on a stone alter...er, THE TRUTH ABOUT THE CONSEQUENCES has caused, is causing, and will altar, Elton Elliott and I have col­ of selling (and now having to com­ continue to cause lose of business laborated on a novel. A novel par­ plete) THE SWORD OF ALLAH! is that and jobs. Loss of income. Loss of tial [opening chapters, middle chap­ I'll have very, very little time to tax revenues. In turn local, state ters, two final chapters with out­ read sf and fantasy novels for re­ and [eventually] federal governments lines of intervening chapters] titl­ view. I have been pecking away, a are having to cut back on jobs and ed THE SWORD OF ALLAH! few pages at a time every few days, services and spending. This arcane ms. was sent to an at lunch, at Orson Scott Card's new To counteract this export earn­ agent name of Joe Elder. fantasy, HART'S HOPE. I delved into ings erosion, the US government has the first chapter of Chelsea Quinn resorted to running 100 billion dol­ Joe looked upon the words and Yarbro's new THE GODFORSAKEN and lar deficits [1982J and 200 billion found them Good. He sold the novel wanted to read on and on... But dollar deficits this year, with 300 to Fawcett. duty and a June 1st deadline com- billion dollar deficits in prospect pell me to return to the typewriter for 1984. But there is a limit to This pleases me. You can tell for the sweaty process of chopping how much new debt even this country it pleases me by the shoe marks on words out of granite. [My brain is can handle, and 1984 should see that the ceiling where I've been dancing. solid stone, sometimes.] limit reached. It pleases Elton, who plans to Regrets abound. There isn't The current recovery is already dance on the graves of certain fan­ enough time for everything. Prior­ showing signs of dying on the vine tasy-lovers. I keep telling him to ities rule. Guilt accumulates. as continuing layoffs and plant clos­ be magnanimous, but.... So it goes. [2-4-83] ures are scheduled and new unemploy­ So the next few months will be 4 ment claims continue to hover in the 490,000 per week area. Very soon ing will insure a surge of inflation. will also collapse, and we won't see the pool of people who can afford There's really no way out. Once 10-12% Treasury yields again for forty a new house and a new car will be the debt reaches a certain weight on or fifty years. used up, the cost of living will the backs of the world's debtors, increase due to higher prices, a counter-cycle of debt liquidation higher taxes, and retail trade will sets in, and attempts to re-inflate resume its fall or continue stag­ to protect bad loans and investments THE HUGO NOMINATIONS ARE KNOWN— nant. will only make the situation worse. Thanks to Mike Glyer's FILE-770 which Virtually every hard-money So: any surge in inflation will economist and financial observer arrived today [4-11-83] in time for trigger a further contraction in me to make my own deadline for this sees a terrifying resurgence in business and profits, worldwide. inflation next year and a collapse issue. SIGNS: If the price of oil I see I've been nominated for in the world economy. sinks below $27. Everyone is try­ Not I. Inflation requires too Best Fanwriter again, and SFR for ing to keep the price stable at $29- Best Fanzine. Thankee, folk, for many people to be too ignorant of $30 now, but the pressure of lowered the consequences of inflation. the votes. Nominations and Hugoes demand for oil and the desperate need put sparkle in my eyes and zest in This generation has been educated to sell oil to get money to live on too well for that to happen. People my bloodstream. and pay debts will force some price with money, with savings, have The nominations below are a bit cutting. learned to protect themselves and preliminary in that the official the "inflation game" played by the government cannot be played any longer. Very soon after inflation rears its head again people will start going into debt heavily, will refuse to buy long-term bonds, will buy things as hedges, will put what savings they have in shorter and shorter term instruments. Interest rates will skyrocket, inflation will skyrocket briefly—and the structure will collapse as bankruptcies accumu­ late at a horrendous rate.

That is what will happen if the government tries to desperately pump up the economy with pure debt money. The Treasury has been selling its debt to the public and whoever wants it, which sucks most available sav­ ings out of the economy and starves private business of funds for retool­ ing and expansion (if there was/is orders on the books requiring that, not likely as international trade # Watch railroad carloadings. list won't come out until after a shrinks). They are at 15 million tons per period in which possible withdraw­ week now. If they sink below als are allowed. If the Federal Reserve decides this figure—look out! to "eat" a big chunk of new Treasury BEST NOVEL: # Watch new car sales. The car bonds, notes, bills instead of sell­ COURTSHIP RITE by Donald Kings- makers are betting on an big in­ ing them to the public, in order to Bury. crease this spring and producing FOUNDATION'S EDGE by Isaac reserve some savings for private cars on that basis, building up in­ business use and to drive down inter­ Asimov. ventories. If sales stay at current est rates [they hope], it will be FRIDAY by Robert Heinlein levels, GM, Ford, Chrysler and the PRIDE OF CHANUR by C.J. Cherryh. creating pure inflation money out of smaller mfgrs will have to lay off nothing and that pressure of spend­ SWORD OF THE LI CTOR by Gene Wolfe. workers again, a very bad psycho­ 2010 by Arthur C. Clarke. logical event, as well as bad [Significantly, BATTLEFIELD EARTH by economically. L. Ron Hubbard did not get on the # Watch to see if the rate of one ballot.] bank failure per week continues or worsens. # Watch long-term US bond rates; if you can buy a 20-30 year US Treas­ ury bond yielding 12% or more, buy it! The current extraordinarily high real interest rates cannot continue for long. They are caused by a desperate demand for savings and a desperate fear of inflation/ devaluation. When the debt struc­ ture collapses and demand dies and inflation fears die, interest rates

5 AND THEN THERE ARE THE OTHER AWARDS which have sprung up of late. The Libertarian Futurist Society has been awarding a privately minted gold coin to the winner of its Prom­ etheus Award for Best Libertarian Novel of the year. The novels nominated for the 1983 Award are: VISCOUS CIRCLE by Piers Anthony VOYAGERS by Ben Bova THE PRIDE OF CHANUR by C.J. Cherryh THE DIVINE INVASION by Phil Dick THE M3RPHODITE by M.A. Foster FRIDAY by Robert Heinlein VOYAGE FROM YESTERYEAR by James Hogan ^7 03 FIRST CHANNEL by Jacqueline Lichten­ berg 8 Jean Lorrah FIRE DANCER by Ann Maxwell BEST NOVELLA: BEST PROFESSIONAL EDITOR: THE MANY COLORED LAND by Julian May Another Orphan by John Kessel Terry Carr THE GOLDEN TORC by Julian May Brainchild by Joseph H. Delaney Edward Ferman THE WAR HOUND AND THE WORLD'S PAIN The Postman by David Brin David G. Hartwell by Michael Moorcock Souls by Joanna Russ Stanley Schmidt OATH OF FEALTY by Larry Niven 8 To Leave A Mark by Kim Stanley George Scithers Jerry Poumelle Robinson WAR OF OMISSION by Keven O'Donnel, Jr. Unsound Variations by George BEST FANZINE: FIRST CYCLE by H. Beam Piper, expand­ R.R Martin FANTASY NEWSLETTER, ed. by Paul ed by Michael Kurland Allen and Robert Collins A ROSE FOR ARMAGEDDON by Hilbert BEST NOVELET: FILE 770, ed. by Mike Glyer Schenck Aquila by Somtow Sucharitkul LOCUS, ed. by Charles N. Brown CATCHING FIRE by Kay Nolte Smith Fire Watch by Connie Willis SCIENCE FICTION CHRONICLE, ed. THEIR MAJESTIES' BUCKETEERS by Nightlife~by Phyllis Eisenstein by Andrew Porter L. Neil Smith Pawn's Gambit by Timothy Zahn SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW, ed. by THE VENUS BELT by L. Neil Smith Swarm by Bruce Sterling Richard E. Geis THE CALIFORNIA COVEN PROJECT by Bob Stickgold BEST SHORT STORY: MASKS OF THE ILLUMINATI by Robert "The Boy Who Water-skied to BEST FANWRITER: Anton Wilson Forever" by James Tiptree Richard E. Geis EPIPHANY by Nicholas Yermakov "Hike at the Mike" by Howard Mike Glyer Waldrop Arthur Hlavaty "Melancholy Elephants" by Spider Dave Langford Robinson THE FIRST ANNUAL PHILIP K. DICK "Spider Rose" by Bruce Sterling BEST FAN ARTIST: AWARD was given to Rudy Rucker for "Sur" by Ursula K. Le Guin Alexis Gilliland his novel, SOFTWARE. At the same Joan Hanke-Woods time a Special Citation was given BEST NONFICTION BOOK: William Rotsler to Ray Faraday Nelson for his novel, FEAR ITSELF:THE HORROR FICTION Stu Shiffman THE PROMETHEUS MAN. OF STEPHEN KING, ed. by Un­ Dan Steffan Judges were Ursula K. Le Guin, derwood-Miller . Norman Spinrad and Thomas M. Disch. READER'S GUIDE TO FANTASY, ed JOHN W. CAMPBELL AWARD: by Baird Searles, Beth Meach- Joseph H. Delaney em, M. Franklin. Lisa Goldstein THE CANADIAN SCIENCE FICTION AND THE WORLD OF THE DARK CRYSTAL Sandra Miesel FANTASY AWARD FOR 1982 was given by Brian Froud. Warren G. Norwood to Phyllis Gotlieb for her novel, THE ENGINES OF THE NIGHT Dave Palmer JUDGEMENT OF DRAGONS and for "Life­ by Barry Malzberg. Paul 0. Williams time Contributions to the field of ISAAC ASIMOV: THE FOUNDATIONS science fiction." OF SCIENCE FICTION by James Gunn. f YOU’LL NEVER TWATS’ NY PROBLEM, BEST PROFESSIONAL ARTIST: away with ISk)T (T NOuD? Kelly Freas Don Maitz Rowena Morrill Barclay Shawl Darrell Sweet Michael Whelan

BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION: BLADERUNNER DARK CRYSTAL E.T. ROAD WARRIOR STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN 6 This is a sharp drop from the I can save $190 per issue by re­ approximately $1000 I used to clear. turning to newsprint. Remember The depression has hit me, too. SFR before issue #26? That's Let's hear it for the Depression! what SFR #48 will look like. A word to the wise for the bookstore Costs and overhead must be cut managers and owners, too, come to to the bone! No, not that bone! think, if they read these pages, So, as the terrible prospect of too: adjust your next order if you assuming a real amateur status think you'll sell fewer of SFR in stalks my future, and that of SFR, the newsprint incarnation. a word to the subscriber is suf­ ficient : I have discovered that And you want to know the ulti-

CONTINUED ON PAGE 62 BALROG AWARD =NOMINATIONS 1983

THERE ARE THE BALROG AWARDS, TOO, BEST NOVEL NOMINEES: BEST PROFESSIONAL BUT I SEEM TO HAVE MISLAID THAT 1 THE ONE TREE by Stephen R Donaldson. PUBLICATION NOMINEES: INFO. M (Ballentine) 2 CRYSTAL SINGER by Anne McCaffrey (Del Rey 1 ELFQUEST COMICS by Warp Graphics Books) 2 MAGAZINE OF FANTASY AND SCIENCE HOWEVER, LET ME ANNOUNCE THE 1983 3 HAWKMISTRESS by Marion Zimmer Bradley FICTION ed fd Fermah (DAW) 3 ISAAC ASIMOV S SCIENCE FICTION SFR AWARD FOR AN SF NOVEL WRITTEN 4 WARLOCK UNLOCKED by Christopher Stashelf MAGAZINE ed Shawne McCarthy BY ANYONE LIVING IN MY HOME. THE (Ace) 4 ANALOG by Davis Publications. Inc 5 THE CITADEL OF AUTARCH by Gene Wolfe 5 SCIENCE FICTION DIGEST by Davis WINNER IS RICHARD E. GEIS. MR. (Timescape) Publications. Inc GEIS WILL RECEIVE A PAT ON THE 6 SWORD OF LICTOR. VOL J. by Gene Wolfe 6 MIRACE ed Vallejo (Ballantine) BACK AND A CHEAP BOTTLE OF WINE. (T imescape) 7 TWILIGHT ZONE ed T Ed Klein TOUGH LUCK, ELTON; YOU LIVE IN BEST SHORT FICTION AMATEUR ACHIEVEMENT THE WRONG HOUSE. NOMINEES: NOMINEES: A SPECIAL CERTIFICATE WAS GIVEN 1 All of Us Are Dying" by George Clayion 1 Crispin Burnham for ELDRITCH TALES TO MR. GEIS FOR HIS LIFETIME CON­ Johnson from TWILIGHT ZONE MAGAZINE 2 Miller Kenm ror OTHERGATES and OWL (May 1982) FLIGHT TRIBUTION TO SCIENCE FICTION AND 2 "Fire Watch" by Connie Wilhs from ISAAC 3 Alan Bechtold for founding and running science SF FANDOM. THE CERIFICATE WAS ASIMOV'S SCIENCE FICTION MAGAZINE fiction workshops (February 1982) 4 Gordon Linzner for SPACE AND TIME ACCEPTED BY ALTER EGO WHO SAID MR. 3 "The General's Wife" by Peter Straub from 5. SD Schiff for WHISPERS PRESS and WHISPERS GEIS SHOULD HAVE BEEN CERTIFIED TWILIGHT ZONE MAGAZINE MAGAZINE 4 An Act of Faith" by Calad Elflandsson from b Robert M Price for CRYPT OF CTHULHU YEARS AGO. ALSO ON HAND FOR THE HECATE'S CAULDRON CEREMONY WAS MR. GEIS'S CAT KOOKIE, 5 A Pattern of Silver Strings" by Charles DeLint PROFESSIONAL WHO SAID "MEAOW" AND JUMPED ON MR. from YEAR'S BEST FANTASY STORIES ACHIEVEMENT NOMINEES: GEIS'S LAP. BEST COLLECTION/ 1 Frederick ) Mayer tor poetry and radio work A SPECIAL MENTION WAS GIVEN TO ANTHOLOGY NOMINEES: 2 Robert Asprin for creating Syngery, Inc 3 Lester del Rey for his books and publishing PAULETTE MINARY, ASSOCIATE EDITOR 1 SANCTUARY ed Robert Asprin company OF SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW, FOR EX­ (Doubleday) 4 Donald M Grant for book publishing 2 STORM SEASON ed Robert Asprin (Ace) 5 Andre Norton for fifty years of writing CEPTIONAL EDITING, TYPING AND PROOF­ 3 ELSEWHERE ed Terry Windling and Mark b Harlan Ellison for writing and encouraging new READING AND REVIEWING. Arnold (Ace) writers 4 STALKING THE NIGHTMARE by Harlan Ellison 7 Pendragon Gallery for fantasy and art shows MR. GEIS TOOK A LIBRIUM AND DESCEND­ (Phantasia) 8 Ben Bova for writing liction and non-fiction and ED INTO THE DEADLY ARCHIVES TO FIN­ 5 HECATE’S CAULDRON ed Susan Shawartz editing OMNI and ANALOG (DAW) ISH THESE PASTE-UPS. HE HAS NOT 6 SHADOWS 5 ed by Charles Grant (Doubleday) SCIENCE FICTION FILM BEEN SEEN SINCE. SEARCH PARTIES ARE 7 THE LAST INCANTATION ed Clark A Smith HALL OF FAME NOMINEES: BEING FORMED. THE WEATHER IN THE (T imescape) 1 BLADE RUNNLR (1983) ARCHIVES HAS BEEN SO BAD THAT NO BEST POET NOMINEES: 2. STAR TREK II THE WRATH OF KHAN (1982) ONE HAS DARED VENTURE INTO THE 1 Barwood. Lee 3 DARK STAR (1974) TREACHEROUS SENTENCES WHICH MAKE UP 2. Eng. Steve 4 E T THE EXTRATERRESTRIAL(1982) 3 Howard. Robert E 5. ALIEN (1980) THIS ENTRY AND FROM WHICH MR. GEIS 4 Mayer. Frederick b THE THING (1951) CANNOT SEEM TO EXTRICATE HIMSELF. 5 Stearns. Stephanie 7 THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL (1951) 6 Zelanzy, Roger 8 TRON (1982) AN ABSURDIST ENDING FINALLY BROUGHT HIM TO SAFE HARBOR WHERE HE LAY BEST ARTIST NOMINEES: FANTASY FILM HALL 1 Canty. Thomas GASPING WITH DELIGHT AT STILL BEING 2 Froud, Brian OF FAME NOMINEES: ALIVE. 3 Hildebrandt, Tim 1 DARK CRYSTAL (1982) 4 King, Stephen 2 FRANKENSTEIN (1931) 5. Morrill, Rowena 3 THE THIEF OF BAGDAD (1940) 6 Murdock, Daryl 4 DRAGONSlAYER (1981) 7. Musgrave, Real 5 CONAN THE BARBARAIAN (1982) 8 Rteniets. Judy King 6 THE SEVENTH VOYAGE OF SINBAD (1957) 7 QUEST FOR FIRE (1982) BEST AMATEUR 8 RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK (1982) SPEAKING OF THE UNSPEAKABLE... THE PUBLICATION NOMINEES: IRS.... 1 ELDRITCH TALES ed Crispin Burnham 2 FANTASY NEWSLETER ed Robert Collins GEIS NOTE: I found the Balrog I have just discovered to my 3 LOCUS ed Charles N Brown nominations info. Hope the print horror that after deducting my pro 4 PSYCHO II ed Whispers Press 5 SCIENCE FICTION CHRONICLE ed Andrew isn’t too small. I don’t have the writing income, my pitiful interest Porter time or the will to retype all these. income, etc., from the total of my b SHAYOL ed Arnold Fenner and Patricia Cadigan 7 SPACE AND TIME ed Gordon Linzner taxable income for 1982, I profited 8 WELL OF THE SOULS ed Sally Smith mightily from SFR to the tune of 9 WEIRD BOOK, ed W Paul Canley 10 Whispers ed Stuart David Schiff $500 per issue, about. PHILIP H. DILH:

My friendship with Philip Dick ing out the front door and get­ door, as if for physical was enjoyable, intermittent and ting into my car and driving support. Fear made her alarming. It began around the time away forever. I think it was seem ill; it distorted her at which his recent novel, VALIS, the fact that they drove off body lines, made her appear begins -- early in 1974. in my car that unhinged me as if someone had broken her the most, although it may and then, with malice, patch­ I ought to jump ahead here and seem absurd. Perhaps you ed her together badly. Her explain that as I got to know Phil will understand, though. eyes, enormous, glazed over Dick my feelings about him so dis­ Often our identities are con­ fixedly as she attempted to turbed and unsettled me that I was structed around a marriage, smile.' no longer able to read his fiction. so it can be said that when "There is no mistaking the kin­ I have still not read A SCANNER they walked out of my life DARKLY, CONFESSIONS OF A CRAP ART­ my own soul was taken with ship between the two passages. The first has the more concentrated IST and DEUS IRAE. I have read them, leaving me a kind of poetic force, but both writers, only the first chapter of THE DI­ empty husk sitting there in creating a kind of humanity in the VINE INVASION. On the other hand, that living room. It took just in the last few days, I've me several years to get my very, appearance of their characters, read VALIS and I've also read soul back; in fact it just are undeniably using language -- highly charged with feeling -- to Phil's fascinating introduction to now returned this year." the 1980 short story collection THE a very similar end, and with a sim­ The warmth and wryness here, of GOLDEN MAN. And I must have read ilar use of imagery. Both are pre­ course, are very much the same qual­ almost every word Phil ever publish­ occupied by the less-than-human mas­ ed up to 1974, often two or three ities that bring his stories to querading as the human, although times. life. the Dickens character is only meta­ Before I quote the second bit, phorically an android, whereas the I'm getting to my first point character in the second passage, in rather a roundabout way. Now I want to reproduce a short passage from an article I published in from Philip K. Dick's DO ANDROIDS that I've read VALIS I am able at DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP?, is liter­ last to put what disturbed me ab­ FOUNDATION 5 in January 1974; I was arguing here -- God knows why ally an android, though paradoxical­ out Phil into words. I realize ly described with more sympathy." that my relationship, such as it - - that no account of the science was, was not entirely with Phil. fiction tradition that ignores Charles Dickens is complete. I also had a relationship with Here is Phil's response, in one Horselover Fat. of the first letters he wrote me, to what I said: Phil, Horselover and myself ex­ "Here is a typical inhabitant changed 15 or 16 letters between of Dickens' novels: "I'm sure you will be amazed 1974 and 1976. I've managed to lo­ 'His cold lashes would hard­ to learn that I, undoubted­ cate some of them in a dusty bundle ly have been eyes, but for ly like many other readers on top of the wardrobe. The rest the short ends of lashes but with far less reason, no doubt lie mouldering in the Sci­ which, by bringing them in­ failed to recognize the ence Fiction Foundation archives, to immediate contrast with quote from my writings. It that treasure trove of my long and something paler than them­ was one of the greater les­ long-forgotten correspondences selves, expressed their sons I've learned about ray which no doubt will gather dust un­ form. His short-cropped own work to discover that I til the end of time. hair might have been a mere myself wrote this passage, ■continuation of the sandy and indeed a thrill." freckles on his forehead I quote a third passage just to Since the whole point of this and face. His skin was so article is to give some flavour of show you that Phil's death would unwholesomely deficient in have been no surprise to him: what Phil Dick was like -- though the natural tinge, that he nothing like so vivid a flavour as looked as though, if he were "Really, I do not want to his books will give you -- I'd like cut, he would bleed white.' dwell on my troubles, but to read out a few bits of his let­ -- HARD TIMES, Chapter 2 to make the situation worse, ters. The first bit was written and in a very serious way to me when I had just broken up "And here, for comparison, is as I'm sure you will agree, with the American lady with whom I another passage: my high blood pressure again had been living for six years. 'The door, meagrely, opened fails to respond adequately This is Phil on marriage: and he saw within the apart­ to the various medications and in early December I be­ "I can still vividly see my ment a fragmented and misal­ gan to suffer once more from then-wife Nancy and my little igned shrinking figure, a girl Isa and my best friend girl who cringed and slunk dizzy spells ... They've diminished now, but for sev- who was staying with us walk­ away and yet held onto the a cowardly memoir eral weeks I couldn't walk very far. Specific medica­ tion for that did help a lot. They prescribe some­ thing which affects the bal­ ance center of the ear dir­ ectly. But this is still a dreary indication of the un­ responding underlying hyper­ tension. Robert Heinlein told me on the phone in Nov­ ember, when I told him what my pressure reading now was, 'It could kill you.' Well, I knew that already. But I thanked him, since I knew he meant it in a concerned way."

So far, so good. The man re­ vealed in the bits I've quoted so far is sensitive, vulnerable, gen­ erous and self-absorbed. By and large he isn't Horselover Fat, how­ ever. I've lost most of my corres­ pondence with Horselover Fat. Mal­ colm Edwards was corresponding with Horselover at about the same time, and he probably has some letters too. Horselover was paranoid, slightly hysterical, hyperactive mentally, and much given to fear and to conspiracy theories. He talked a lot about how Richard Nixon's "dirty tricks" group -- the same group that pulled off the Watergate raid -- twice burgled his house; he spoke of the voices in his head; at the time he was get­ ting a number of messages from St. Paul; he saw strange portents every­ where, and his life was a patch­ work of meaningful coincidences; the death of his cats had powerful metaphysical implications, as did the illness of his son Christopher. You can get the flavour of Horse­ lover's thinking at that time, 1974, by reading the piece he wrote for " I read "Man, Android and Mach­ somewhat intoxified quality the book I edited, SCIENCE FICTION ine" over the other night ... of the speech). AT LARGE, which was entitled "Man, it is sort of nuts, but also Android and Machine." He began "My collaboration with Rog­ thought provoking. I still er Zelazny (DEUS IRAE) will writing this essay in September, stand by what I said, except be released here in June, 1974, knocked it off when God told that such matters, being so him about his son's illness, and I understand. It is not difficult to communicate, going to be popular: a fun­ completed it in March, 1975. If sound sort of -- to be blunt you it will instant­ ny mystical theological nov­ read now, you -- irrational when set down el. But my solo novel about ly recognize that it is an essay in black and white. I think about the writing of the first drugs and the watchful po­ that Dionysus had me at that lice, A SCANNER DARKLY, which draft of VALIS. And, of course, time, to some extent (I read VALIS itself is the chronicle of Doubleday will release as a a recent very interesting mainstream (!!!) novel next Horselover's thinking, though its article about "Dionysus in tone is a cooler than that January should do very well... little America", and in all truth, the stuff off the of that came hot he certainly did rattle and presses from Horselover himself. "I am proud of SCANNER and break down the prison walls I hope you will like it. I've lost Horselover's more ex­ here, and not in mere mata- It's not like my other treme letters, but the following phor but actually. I guess stuff ... 'a breakthrough', will give you something of the edgy I got drawn into the battle Doubleday told me on the tone of his voice; on his side, as witness the phone, after they had read by Peter nicholls it. On the bad side of humor as cats. I appreci­ and by turns, as if it were a form­ the news, I was in hospital ate the vision, but I wish al duel, they abused one another in in February in the Intens­ I had also been given St. the vilest and most abusive langu­ ive Cardiac Care Unit for a Paul's gift to express it." age. It went on for exactly an mild heart attack, so it's This is not wholly Horselover, hour. Nobody was listening at a good thing I declined to first, but by the time the hour was of course --a lot of it is Phil's come to the U.K. I am told up there was an audience of 60 or ever so slightly sceptical observa­ now that it is my heart 70 puzzled French people. I've nev­ tions of Horselover. which is in most serious er seen two people enjoy themselves jeopardy, that I've got to My relationship with Phil was so much. lay off and take it easy or not restricted to letters. I final­ I may croak (as we say here). ly got to meet him when he was It was the most proficient, col­ Guest of Honour -- one of the 4 or ourful, prolonged and non-repetit- ive trading of invective that I "I'm not sure how one goes 5 guests of honour --at the Sci­ ence Fiction Festival in Metz, have ever heard, or ever will hear. about taking it easy. My Harlan was a shade faster on the psychotherapist with a fur­ France in 1978. draw, Phil was a shade funnier; it ious and grim expression I was in the hotel lobby when was Harlan's New York versus Phil's on his face, yelled at me, West Coast hip; it was elaborate 'You're to draw up a list he arrived, and I recognized him at once from his photographs. I was Jewish curses versus metaphysical of your wants, AND I MEAN lethalities. It was pure magic. THAT SERIOUSLY!' I said, not ready though for his sheer size; he was bulky, tall, overweight and Only yesterday I read for the 'Yessir, yessir,' meekly, first time Phil's introduction to and have been drawing up generally bearlike. He came through the door with a peculiarly THE GOLDEN MAN. He says of Metz: my list of wants. One of "It was the best week in my life. them is to not have people terrified look. When I approached him and said, "Aren't you Phil I was really happy for the first yell at me to draw up lists. time." Dick?" he literally shied away like " But -- I am still at work a startled animal, and seemed about Yet all was not entirely well. on my in-progress novel, TO to deny it, or to run. I said, "I The first really bad sign was Phil's SCARE THE DEAD, trying to am Peter Nicholls" and he looked at Guest-of-Honour speech. It had no­ make my religious vision/ me completely blankly for what seem­ thing of the verve and sanity and revelation into something ed a very long time. It was prob­ humour of his fight with Harlan. which I can communicate, ably around ten seconds. Suddenly This is how Phil described it, ret­ and becoming more and more his face, which had been frozen, rospectively, in THE GOLDEN MAN: frustrated every day. One became warm and animated and he perhaps cannot express gave me an enormous bearlike hug. " I delivered a speech which, these things in words. I I was to learn later that these typically, made no sense what­ feel as if I have an aphas­ lightning transformations of mood, ever. Even the French could ia, actually, a speech which outwardly resembled the trans­ not understand it, despite a block. I try to tell peo­ itions from android to human, were translation. Something goes ple orally, or write about typical of Phil. haywire in my brain when I it, and what comes out ap­ write speeches. I think I pears nonsense. I know The great event at Metz was the imagine I'm a reincarnation what I saw, but I can't confrontation between Harlan Elli­ of Zoroaster bringing news name it. son and Philip K. Dick, which I'm of God." proud to say I set up deliberately "Ah, well. It's as if myself, thus ensuring for myself a This is an understatement. the gods were sitting ar­ minor niche in fannish history. The speech was disastrous and em­ ound and having nothing bet­ Harlan had already told me that he barrassing, delivered in a strange ter to do they said, 'Let's had been furious with Phil for metallic voice accompanied by a see old Phil get THIS down years --it was something about a glassy stare. He couldn't stop on paper.' And then reveal­ girl -- and that he refused to talking and went on for over two ed all the mysteries of the speak to him. (But Harlan had al­ hours, by which time most of the universe to me and sat back so said to me, "Didn't you get my audience including myself had pan­ laughing. Gods must have letter saying what a shit you are icked through embarrassment and the same kind of sense of and how I'm not speaking to you?" sneaked out of the theatre. It "No, Harlan," I said. "Oh, well, honestly seemed as if Phil had lost that's good," said Harlan, "then I his marbles. don’t have to worry about contra­ The following morning too, I dicting myself by being friendly had an enigmatic exchange with Phil juHAT A STRAfJ^E now." Harlan's like that.) Phil which left me more disturbed than WATERMARK.. . had also told me he wasn't speak­ the occasion seemed to warrant. 'FAKANOlbs oF THE ing to Harlan. Phil beckoned me to his breakfast UuORLJ,, IAiiTE ' table, where he was eating with the Anyway, I thought it was pretty woman he'd arrived with, and about silly that these two grown men, one whom he is so dismissive in VALIS. very very big and the other very He was beaming, relaxed and cheer­ very small, should go on avoiding ful and then suddenly, before my one another for three days, so I eyes, he changed into -- who was invited them both, independently, it? I don't know. Perhaps it was to join me for a drink in the bar Horselover Fat. at 6 p.m., told neither that the "I have something vitally im­ other was coming, and sat back to portant to ask you," he said. "Did await the action, which exceeded you successfully undertake sexual my wildest dreams. Courteously, intercourse last night? I need to 10 know how it's done." and it was delivered with a pro­ Brunner made in his short piece. foundly enigmatic, glazed expres­ Clearly, John was also disturbed sion. I've got quite a few crude at that same Metz festival by the mates, perfectly capable of asking way Phil appeared, but his conclu­ the same question with startling sions were not identical to mine. vulgarity, but never, I think, with John writes: such an affectless intensity. It was all very mysterious. " I asked myself, how come a creative spirit of such bril­ I never saw Phil again,* and I liance is living in such an don't recall getting or sending any unhappy body? He was one of letters, either. This had nothing the saddest people I ever to do with any lack of affection, met. He was incapable of on my side at least, or with our em­ helping someone else to hap­ barrassing conversation over the piness except by giving ord­ hot croissants. The whole history ers ... the process of eros­ of Phil's friendship with many peop­ ion had started before his le -- and perhaps of mine too -- is death ... but in fact, it rather jerky and staccato: long, must have begun decades ago, elaborate letters out of the blue, and long before I met him it a sudden burst of activity, and was half past repair." then silence for a couple of years. It was my fault, too that the cor­ Phil Dick himself had worries respondence lapsed. It was partly about his mind, but he expressed laziness on my part, both intellect­ them with rather more humour than ual and emotional. To make further John Brunner. Of one of his stor­ contact with Phil on any level oth­ ies in THE GOLDEN, MAN, Phil Dick er than the completely trivial, I writes: "Either I've invented a would obviously need to work out whole new logic or, ahem, I'm not what the hell was going on in his playing with a full deck.” brain, particularly after I'd met him, and seen how very strangely he often acted. Here was a great writ­ In that same book, incidental­ er who had honoured me with his ly, Phil makes a passing remark friendship, and I backed off be­ that suggests a counter impression cause I was too lazy and too cow­ to Brunner's: ardly to make the attempt to get through to him. This feeling was " Brunner, like me, has got­ just as dishonourable as the every­ ten stout. We all had end­ day feeling that makes you shift less meals together. Brun­ uneasily away from those people ner made sure everyone knew one meets on tube trains who mumble he spoke French." to themselves. With one part of my My hackles rise at John's obit­ mind I thought, "Phil is a loony, uary for Phil. Was Phil Dick real­ and I can't handle it." ly half past repair? In that case, who wrote those books? Were they the work of a man who wasn't quite This brings me to my final right in the head? On the other question: Was Phil Dick sane? The hand, what right have I to criti­ question has no absolute answer, of cize John for being too dismissive course. Madness is a relative term when, as I've just explained, my as R.D. Laing and others have own worries about Phil Dick run par­ shown us. Madness in one situation allel to John's. may be perfect sanity in another, and it may be that Phil Dick read Yet, surely John is wrong. The the situations of life a lot more man he describes, whether he is accurately than I do. But of Horselover Fat or Philip Dick him- course, there is an answer to the question. The~ahswer is in Phil's books, from the first in 1955 to the last in 1982. No WHEN, I'm not quite finished yet. NO (VHEte, The May issue of LOCUS contained a NO nhy. jvsr great many reminiscences of Phil THE MEANING- Dick by his friends and fellow writ­ OP 1-1FE. ers. I want to quote a remark John EX- TRESSE AS A * It was at this point that crude mate Brian Aldiss interrupted I wasn't sure what he meant, Peter's talk to ask, "But what was or why he was asking, but even then the answer?" TAPPEN's vulgar read­ ers will be disappointed to learn I VWNbEg. it's difficult to say why the ques­ IP I Di!) tion seemed so alarming. It appear­ that no elucidation was forthcom­ ed so irrelevant, so inappropriate ing. to anything we'd ever talked about, 11 self, is not the whole man. He is certainly not the man who will come to be recognized as one of the greatest science fiction writers in history, and one of this century's most important writers in any field. Phil saw himself more clearly than John sees him. He spells it out in VALIS, where Horselover Fat, the crazed ex-drug-taker and some­ times institutionalized mystic has to be reconciled with the quiet, sensitive, watchful, observant Phil­ ip Kendred Dick -- they have to be­ come one person again -- before their mutual redemption is possible. For most of Phil's writing life, though not in his baroque and pain­ ful personal life, this reconcilia­ tion took place.

Phil Dick, science fiction's foremost chronicler of schizophrenia, numbers of uppers and downers, he well as his novels -- was not so paranoia, affectlessness, depres­ cancelled firm arrangements, he made much derived from observation of sion and the shifting labyrinths of silly political gestures. (Do you external reality as it was a re­ the mind's perceptual mechanisms, remember the fuss when he opposed flection of a long struggle going often took madness as his theme. Stanislaw Lem's honorary membership on inside Dick's own head. The But his books themselves were not of SFWA?) Phil Dick's life was a distinction Peter draws between mad, not even VALIS. VALIS does mess. Phil and Horselover is a useful met­ lack some of the saving humour of aphor, but as he points out the two That such a man could publish 38 Dick's earlier work, and it will are always blended to some degree; books in 27 years is incredible. not be remembered as one of his there seems, in Peter's and others' That his books should have such wis­ greatest books. But it is a book accounts of Dick in the flesh, a dom and depth, such humour, colour of the most incredible courage, as much more clear division between and sharpness, is nothing short of were all of his books. androidal Dick and human Dick. a miracle. This is not just the Philip K. Dick confronted, and conversational miracle of genius; As Peter mentions, I too was made his friends confront, many of it was a personal triumph of cour­ corresponding with Phil/Horselover, the areas that most of us shy away age and dogged tenacity. He was chiefly in 1974/5, with the same from or pretend do not exist. He one of the bravest of writers. eventual end. Peter fell out of kicked away the props of consensus contact after a disturbing meeting; reality and confronted subjective Phil thought that God had reach­ I did so after receiving a series of letters (three, written on suc­ worlds and series of worlds of the ed into his mind. To this day I am cessive days and totalling 12 most vertiginous, deliquescent com­ not sure whether he meant this lit­ plexity. Yet he did all this cool­ pages, maybe 7,000 words) which erally or metaphorically. In older were simultaneously so formidable ly, compassionately, wisely and un­ times, to call somebody mad was not sentimental ly, and he never just done. One called them "touched by and so crazy that they rendered any abandoned himself to the subjective, satisfactory response impossible. God" -- we still say mad people to pure solipsism. If I were being I've always regretted that, and are "touched" -- like the wise fools, a literary critic here I'd want to now always will. the innocents in Dostoyevsky's nov­ talk about the tone of Dick's writ­ els. I speak as an unbeliever, but ing; it is warm, conversational, there is no doubt in my mind that and clearly addressed to a reader. Philip K. Dick was a man who, in The point here of course -- and I THIS ARTICLE FIRST APPEARED one sense or another, had truly IN FOUNDATION 26 am not just splitting hairs --is been touched by God. that if you evoke the presence of a readership by your very tone of voice, if you attest to some kind of conman humanity outside your­ self, then you are not just a sol­ "The thinkers of antiquity did ipsist, you are not floundering not regard death per se as evil, alone in a solitary universe. The because death comes to all; what thing about Phil Dick's intimate they correctly perceived as evil understanding of madness in his was premature death, death coming before the person could complete books at least, is that he is so AFTERWORD BY MALCOLM EDWARDS transparently sane about it. his work. Lopped off, as it were, Peter raises, almost in pass­ before ripe, a hard, green little Think how amazing Phil Dick's ing, a critical point which I have apple that death took and then tos­ story is! The man could hardly not seen mentioned before, and sed away, as being of no interest get through the week without some which future critics of Dick should -- even to death." kind of disaster -- financial, mor­ really take heed of: that the re­ -- Philip K. Dick al, marital, medicinal or mental. curring theme in his work, the dis­ He had giddy spells, he got into THE TRANSMIGRATION OF tinction between android and human TIMOTHY ARCHER fights, he hallucinated, he alien­ -- the subject of his speeches as ated his friends; in the 1960s he used to drop acid and take large 12 OTHER VOICES

null-jumps is an extraordinary feat, CRUISER DREAMS MERCHANTER'S LUCK and alters his life by calling at­ tention to the fact that he is alive. By Janet Morris By C.J. Cherryh Berkley Books, New York DAW UE1745; 208 pp., $2.95 With Vanye in GATE OF IVARL, Ms. 1982, 296 pp., $2.75 Cover art by Barclay Shaw Cherryh displayed a remarkable abil­ ity to create complex "ordinary” REVIEWED BY RALPH E. VAUGHN REVIEWED BY PAUL MCGUIRE characters and Sandor is definitely one of her best. A fearful border­ This book, the second book in This realistic nuts-and-bolts SF line loser whose one virtue is that the three-part saga of the Kerri- novel is not just about the future, he won't give up, when given a chance on Empire, continues the adventur­ but is about people in the future. he escapes the gloom of his past to es of Shebat the Enchantress, for­ Along with the splendor of spaceflight blaze a way to a new life. In merly the resident of a dusty and is the sweat. Ms. Cherryh shows all that sense, MERCHANTER'S LUCK is dying earth, as she becomes in­ of the grit without tarnishing the a story of transformation, not magic­ volved with the Byzantine intrig­ glamour, while telling a fascinating al or mysterious but accomplished ues of star-spanning empires. tale about characters readers will slowly through hard work. It is also soon learn to care about. As the middle book of a tril­ about the power of misunderstanding ogy, there are certain things The sleek luxurious vessel, IXib- and the courage of trust. which CRUISER DREAMS must accomp­ lin Again, is the homeworld for the The Reilly clan decides to open lish, and it does these things Reilly clan. Planets are just the new trade routes, outfitting Lucy very well. It stands on its own place where cargo waits. The ship is with equipment and a crew headed by while being part of a larger tap­ filled with life and familiar rout­ Allison. Deep in trouble at the time estry; it recaps the first book ines. In it lives Allison Reilly, an Sandor has no choice but to go along and does it rather painlessly; and impatiently ambitious bridgemember. into much deeper and more dangerous perhaps most important, it must Stripped-down, dark and lonely, trouble, and an encounter with space supply a continuity of quality the Lucy is a sort of traveling one- pirates. and style to that which has gone man ghetto. It is sure not much, but Filled with background details, before and the book accomplishes it is all Sandor Kreja (a.k.a. Stev­ that very well. customs and a past, MERCHANTER'S LUCK ens) has ever had. He was bom in is another exceptional C.J. Cherryh Caught in the spell of Morris' it, and pirates murdered his family novel. imagination, the reader actually in it. ************************************ feels a part of the world describ­ Sandor catches a glimpse of Al­ ed, and the writer does a better lison. She is personification of than competent job imagining a beauty for Sandor and in a moment's complete future. STALKING THE NIGHTMARE bravado he says he'll see her at By Harlan Ellison The novel is not just a work Dublin's next planetfall, Pell (a.k.a. Phantasia Press, $16.00 of fiction. The lack of pedestr­ Downbelow) Station. Having said it, ian language and characters makes he does it. Keeping pace with a huge REVIEWED BY ALMA JO WILLIAMS the book read as if it were one liner by single-handedly running his huge prose poem, the sort of thing battered ship through a string of Again, many of the stories that it would be a pleasure to read aloud, just to be able to hear the way Morris has made an already-rich language even richer. It would be tempting for a reviewer to compare this work to DUNE and all its offspring, but the comparison would not do just­ ice to such a work. Morris' tril­ ogy, at least thus far, is in a class by itself and deserves to be taken on its own merits.

After reading CRUISER DREAMS, one can only hope that Morris can keep the fire burning through the final book, EARTH DREAMS. If she can, then she will have succeeded in creating a literary experience that, hopefully, will withstand the tests of time and popularity. *********************************** have been published elsewhere. from the Dippie on Tikil (CATSEYE, This book consists of short pieces NIGHT OF MASKS, JUDCWENT CW JANUS), and personal observations on H.E's well and good. It's intended to. life and times. One of the funni­ Vinge displays her skill in Norton­ est was his four-hour job as a style story-telling, with its empha­ writer at Walt Disney studio, where sis on troubled young people adrift he discovered at faster-than-light in massive, dehumanized societies, speed that "... nobody fucks with people desperate for friends and The Mouse!" Good book for Ellison some kind of home. Like Norton, collectors. The dustcover is well- Vinge is adept at conjuring up the done by J. Mackenzie. psi-gifted character, not as a valu­ *********************************** able and well-regarded member of so­ ciety, but as a freak, an alien among his or her own. The struggles of such a character against loneliness, casual violence and bureaucracy are especially moving; it doesn't matter whether the protagonist is Troy Hor­ an, displaced person from a ranch PSION: A NOVEL OF THE FUTURE world, or the scarred Nik Kolherne, By Joan Vinge stack rat and victim of the Thieves' Delacorte Press, New York Guild, or Contract Labor sign-on 346 pp., $12.95 Niall Renfro --or Vinge's Cat. What makes PSION a Vinge novel REVIEWED BY SUSAN M. SHWARTZ and not a Norton pastiche, are the Hugo-Award winner Joan Vinge's qualities that made THE SNOW QUEEN most recent novel, PSION, is probab­ memorable: the ability to create a ly the best Andre Norton juvenile believable, even a lyrically beauti­ extant not written by Andre Norton -- ful world, from unlikely and sometimes and that's only the start of the unlovely elements; skill in psycho­ book's attractions. When Cat, a ju­ logical revelation of characters; venile delinquent, is picked up in and an emphasis more on interior con­ the undercity of Quarro on a planet flict than exterior violence. PSION that is a crossroads for space trav­ is both immensely readable and im­ el, he expects only impressment into mensely moving. the Contract Labor forces, which pro­ Where Andre Norton's juveniles vide a quick trip offworld and terms tend to conclude with her young pro­ of indenture amounting to slavery tagonists winning what they want -- for anyone unfortunate to fall into meaningful work and affiliation with their clutches. However he is dis­ people they respect -- PSION concludes covered to have psionic talents, more uncertainly. Readers cannot be which makes him a freak among "mind­ sure whether Cat will ever use his blind" humans and a potential subject gifts, whether he will find more for experimentation by the enigmatic, friends, information about his par­ embittered Dr. Siebeling, who regards ents, or even comfort beyond a kind him as a gutter rat and telepathic word of bleak satisfaction that he pickpocket. When Siebeling and Cat is a survivor and, like his namesake, quarrel, Siebeling dismisses Cat, lands on his feet. throwing him into Contract Labor. As Cat himself would tell you, Cat winds up exiled from the only he has nine lives. PSION is the sto­ friends and worthwhile companionship ry of one of them. Now I'm waiting he has ever known, mining telhassium for the others. crystals in the Crab Nebula. Here, ************************************ on a wintry world which supplies the scarce crystals that allow starships to function, he is confronted by the Spooks, aliens with awesome psionic abilities who may or may not be akin SLEEPING BEAUTY to him, and Quicksilver, the terrify­ By L.L. Greene ing and gifted criminal who stalks NAL/Signet, 1982, $2.50 the entire Federation. What he chooses will affect not only people REVIEWED BY DEAN R. LAFBE like Siebeling who have hurt him per­ sonally, or the Federation which has At first "L.L. Greene" seems to never granted him a means of living, offer a nice twist on the old corp- but also the few friends he has made sicle plot. TV newswoman Nancy Sey­ -- the teleport and empath Jule ta­ mour has a quickly-fatal, incurable iling, outcast from her rich, aristo­ disease. A ray of hope is offered to cratic family because of her gifts, the dying woman by her husband, Dr. and Dere Cortelyou, psion and under­ Victor, and Dr. Stepp at North Ameri­ cover agent. can Chemicals, for Stepp has been working on cryogenic suspension for many years. When Stepp promises to If the story thus far reads like put the full facilities of NAC to a cross between Norton's Ross Mir- dock novels and her tales of refugees 14 work on a cure for Nancy's rare trop­ Some reviewers have commented is so carefully manipulated by ical disease, the woman tearfully that SPACE is a fictionalization frauds like the fabulous evangelist bids farewell to her lover, Bill and of Tom Wolf's THE RIGHT STUFF; Dr. Leopold Stabismus, who former­ is frozen for the cause of science -- they've also remarked ironically ly defrauded people with accounts and the slim chance of resurrection. that it's a wonder Michener didn't of little green men and still start with the Big Bang, though he sells degrees in space science. And reborn she is, not centuries does get around to cosmology dur­ later in a cowardly new world, but a ing the course of his story. In­ SPACE, like all of Michener's mere eight months after her great stead Michener starts with World novels, is an absorbing blend of freeze. Little is changed save for War II, after which the United action, sex, accessible philosophy her lack of a job, once her former States acquired German rocketry and careful research. Apparently network boss makes clear that she experts like Wennher von Braun. one of the topics Michener has can't report the news so long as she Using an immense cast of charac­ looked into is science fiction. is the news. Then Nancy is plagued ters, some actual, some fictional, In fact, he makes Randy Claggett, Ey strange nightmares, and discovers he chronicles the U.S. space pro­ the hottest of the test pilots to that, not only is she not hot to gram from its abortive beginnings become an astronaut, a classic SF jump into bed with her husband, but and the frustration during the fiend, who introduces scientist good old Bill turns her off as well. Sputnik era on to the successful friends to the works of Heinlein, Are her hormones still frozen? What Clarke, Damon Knight and Stanley terrible effect of cryogenics is flights of the Space Shuttle and from there into a period of de­ Weinbaum. And the passages during driving her mad? cline. which SF writers complain that Although there is action a-plenty, "we explained all that forty years the plot heads for the porcelain Among Michener's characters: ago" are among SPACE'S funniest. bowl, and the non-SF explanation for Dieter Kolff, a self-taught German But Michener makes an important Nancy's plight pulls more rabbits rocketry expert; Stanly Mott, "den distinction between the writers from hats and gods from machines than mother" to the "Solid Six" group and the astronauts. One group are acceptable in any genre. And I'm of astronauts; Rhee Soon-Ka, a Ko­ dreams; the second places lives on still wondering how the two behind rean journalist who becomes the the line because of those dreams. this pseudonym could carefully re­ Oriana Fallaci of the space pro­ SPACE tells of those risks too. search cryogenics, yet insist that gram, and the astronauts themselves. Michener's use of "A Canticle for liquid nitrogen is flannable. Chief among them are John Pope, Leibowitz" as a metaphor for **$** *A A******A*******************A* whose straight-arrow conscientious­ dreams, risk and the ongoing clash ness resembles Senator John Glenn, between knowledge and blind faith and Randolph Claggett, a tough­ provides a moving resolution to talking Texan who is probably the one of the most poignant episodes most brilliant flyer in the group. SPACE in the book. These men and their formidable By James Michener wives survive service at Patuxent Definitely, SPACE is cut from New York; Random House Base, then leave flight test to the same "right stuff' that made 624 pp., $17.95 become astronauts because of dreams Tom Wolf's book so fascinating. they share: fast ships, far stars It's raucous, larger than life, REVIEWED BY SUSAN M. SHWARTZ and a determination -- no, I am richly exciting, yet tragically not going to say that they want human and it makes me want to trade We can probably say that James in my typewriter for 20/20 vision, A. Michener is to mainstream fic­ "to boldly go where no man has gone before." Michener manages flight training and an application tion what Robert Heinlein, Arthur to astronaut training. Granted, C. Clarke and Isaac Asimov are to to restrain himself from saying that too -- true though it may be. like most SF readers and writers, science fiction: elder statesmen I've had that craving before. Now known for meticulous research, an These people's dreams are en­ thanks to James Michener, main­ ability to tell stories that keep hanced by the explosion in Ameri­ stream readers may decide to share readers turning pages, and above can technology that culminated, as it. all, a talent for depicting human President Kennedy had hoped, in ************************************ beings afflicted by dreams. To 1969, with the first moon landing. sum up: What these writers have But they are opposed by equally is authority. What surprised me powerful forces, among them U.S. as I opened SPACE, Michener's la­ reaction against space exploration test book, is that they also have and the military in the wake of the space program in common. Mich­ Viet Nam as well as the now-per- ener was appointed in 1979 to the vasive and sinister anti-techxjlog- NASA Advisory Council and his ac­ ical bias of the newly militant knowledgments for this book in­ fundamentalists. This conflict, clude NASA scientists, astronauts, as Michener points out, is an old specialists from the universities one, and is fought out in every and engineers from the Jet Propul­ generation. Sometimes, he shows, sion Laboratories. Now all these the "simpletons" (to borrow Walter abilities and interests seem to M. Miller Jr.'s phrase), win out have combined, fusing Michener's and then society sinks into barbar­ driven, conscientious dreamers with ism or at the least, blind obedi­ the monumental blend of genius, ence. The United States portrayed egotism and street smarts that de­ in SPACE is the battleground for note the Heinlein individual or the clash between science and cre­ the analytical reasoning and humor dulity. Michener's characters of an Asimov character (human or must choose between facing the robot) and taking Michener away space age or withdrawing into pan­ from Toko-ri, Hawaii and the Ches­ ic-stricken know-nothingism which apeake out into lunar orbit and many light years beyond. 15 TFE HARP AND THE BLADE est friend and the English advent­ By John Meyers Meyers uress Mrs. Honoria Cornelius. Yet Starblaze Books, $5.95 Pyat (as he becomes known) has all his glorious plans stolen and his REVIEWED BY MARK MANSELL story is told as memoirs discover­ ed by Moorcock years later, when I've always been wary of the Pyat has become a decrepit second­ term "lost classic" and so I ap­ hand clothes dealer in the Porto­ proached this novel with a little bello Road market, ironically now grain of salt since I used to known as "The Old Jew", for he is think that if it were a classic, anti-Semite. it wouldn't be lost. Of course, I don't take into account the va­ The characterization of Pyat garies of the publishing industry is perhaps Moorcock's best to date or of the public's taste, so what as I found myself so absorbed by do I know? That being a strange my reading that I forgot that this attitude for a reviewer to take, was a Moorcock book, and began to notwithstanding, I'll just tell believe that these were the mem­ you what £ happened to think of oirs of Pyat, that it was Pyat who THE HARP AND THE BLADE, original­ STAR TREK: THE WRATH OF KHAN invented the laser and other mech­ anisms, Pyat that formulated Rela­ ly published by Dutton in 1941. By Vonda McIntyre Pocket Science Fiction, $2.50 tivity. Only when Mrs. Cornelius It would be stretching things made her entrance with her charac­ a bit to call this really a fan­ REVIEWED BY ALMA JO WILLIAMS teristic "Wotcher, Ivan, you ole tasy novel. There is a curse that bugger!", that I remembered that a Pictish priest puts upon the By now, most if not all of the this was the fictitious story of Irish bard Finnian early in the STAR TREK fans among you will have Colonel Pyat. novel, but whether it works by su­ seen the movie so there is little pernatural means or simply by co­ point in detailing the plot. How­ Often throughout the novel I incidence and Finnian's conscience ever, Vonda McIntyre has explained a was reminded of Gunter Grass’ THE is up to the reader to decide. It few points and inserted a few others TIN DRUM. Pyat is Oskar, deformed is, however, a terrific adventure which make the book more than just not in body but in mind, for de­ story. a readaptation of the movie script. spite his intelligence, the narra­ Finnian, in exile in France For instance, we learn that the en­ tor's hatred of the Jew comes ab­ during the period following the gineering cadet, later to be killed ove all else. And it is an un­ death of Charlemagne, finds him­ by a direct hit to the engine room, healthy hatred for Pyat cannot ad­ self allied to a warlord named Co­ is Scotty's nephew; that Lt. Saavi_k*s mit to it. His relationship with nan, who is at odds with an un­ Vulcan-Romulan background was a very his mother and the doubt about, his pleasant rival warlord. That traumatic experience; that one of father are similar in both stor­ same warlord would also like to the reasons the technicians of the ies, although the differences are perform various painful indignit­ Regulus I Space Lab were tortured obvious. ies upon Finnian as well, which and killed was because they bought At the start of BYZANTIUM EN­ helps to personalize the conflict. the wounded ENTERPRISE time from In any event, there are battles, Khan's wrath by masquerading their DURES, Pyat cranes across as very much an innocent. At one point he escapes, romance and enough wine computer game as the real Genesis asks his childhood friend and "sis­ consumed to float the Queen Mary. information etc., etc. The book swarms with literary inferences from ter" if she has a sweetheart. Es­ Dickens' TALE OF TWO CITIES, Lewis me tells him that she is waiting As far as plot is concerned, Carroll's works (mainly boojurns and for someone. Technically, this it is straightforward (or, some snarks), and Barrie's PETER PAN, to sequence is excellently written. might call it old-fashioned), in name a few. Great reading, even for The reader knows that she means tune with the tastes of when first non-STAR TREK fans. Pyat, but Pyat does not, or if he published. The style and treat­ ********************************** does, only in retrospect, now that ment, though, is surprisingly mod­ over fifty years have passed. The em. It's hard to describe ex­ narrator's character develops from actly how, but it tastes as though a boy to a man, physically and men written in recent years. I admit BYZANTIUM ENDURES tally, finally to the rambling, in sane old man who writes the story. to being startled, after finish­ By Michael Moorcock ing reading the book, to looking Towards the end of the book he de­ viates from the current story to to the copyright page and discov­ REVIEWED BY J.E. RUDD ering the 1941 date. Myers is a his diverse religious beliefs and fine writer and his SILVERLOCK is BYZANTHN ENDURES is the tale pieces together for us the major quite deservedly a classic in the of Maxim Arturovitch Pyatnitski, details of his later life. fantasy field. THE HARP AND THE a Ukranian boy of extreme talents I finished BYZANTIUM ENDURES BLADE is quite enjoyable, and in languages and sciences. At the feeling that I had watched Pyat de well worth reading -- it would age of eight he invents a flying velop from a boy to a man, but at also make a pretty good movie. machine, at fourteen he attends the same time sad at his misguided One niggle, however, with St. Petersburg College, where romanticism; feeling that Pyat's both this and the other Starblaze three years later he astounds ev­ "memoirs" were merely wild exag­ books I have read recently: They eryone with his visions of the fu­ gerations from pieces of the truth should really get a decent proof­ ture. Pyatnitski also spends some and an over-active insane mind. reader to correct their typeset time in Odessa with his cousin Shura, sampling cocaine and life, I hope that Moorcock will con­ copy; there is no good excuse for tinue to write as well as he has the quantity of typos that have and hob-nobs with Bohemians in Pe­ ter, among them Kolya, his great- recently. For all the excitement slipped by. that the Elric and Cornelius books ************************************ 16 gave us, his writing of GLORIANA, THE WAR HOUND § THE WORLD'S PAIN For two reasons: First, science fic­ ally performs all bodily functions and BYZANTIUM ENDURES shows how he tion has a specialist appeal. It is and instantly destroys invading is beginning to write now with not universally popular. Indeed, it bacteria or fungi. It can restart more skill and he seems to be en­ is widely despised because "juvenile" the heart of a comatose patient af­ joying it as much, I hope, as his or "illiterate". Therefore, it might ter cardiac arrest, snatching him audiences are. circulate without being officially back from a "life-after-life” ex­ AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA controlled. And second, that science perience. fiction is, essentially, a symbolic The salesman-demonstrator is a fiction. It allows more than one tall, blond, blue-eyed man with a interpretation of itself. THREE TOMORROWS brilliant smile, Daniel Forrester. American, British and Soviet (Witness, for example, the use made Dr. Jameson, a staff doctor, finds Science Fiction by Charles Manson of Heinlein's his shady past life is near disclo­ By John Griffiths STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND to justi­ sure by Forrester, and therefore Macmillan/Papermac, 1980, L3.95. fy his murder of Sharon Tate and her arranges his death in a plane crash The hopelessly shattered body is REVIEWED BY ANDREW TIDMARSH companions, a use I would think con­ demned by R. Heinlein.) placed in the LS System where his heart arrests; he is clinically My acquaintance with Soviet sci­ Science fiction in the Soviet ence fiction is slight. The novel dead. But the capsule repeatedly Union must serve as propaganda for brings him back after varying per­ ROADSIDE PICNIC and the novelette, the State. But, Griffiths argues, "The Second Invasion from Mars" by iods of time, up to an hour plus. because science fiction is an art During these intervals, Forrester's Boris and Arkady Strugatsky; the form (and writers of science fiction anthologies PATH INTO THE UNKNOWN surviving magnetic life force is artists), a close examination must ultra-diligent. He avenges himself (Pan, 1969), VORTEX (edited by C.G. reveal an occasionally perversity. Beame; Pan, 1971), and THE ULTIMATE against Dr. Jameson as he flies in The novel SNAIL ON THE SLOPE by the the mountains, and in his own uni­ THRESHOLD (edited by Mirra Ginsburg; Strugatskys or S. Snegov's trilogy, Penguin, 1978); stories scattered que way causes him to crash to his MEN LIKE GODS. Griffiths explains death. elsewhere. science fiction as political alle­ My acquaintance with the Soviet gory. Forrester makes other moment­ Union is slight. ous appearances -- always in res­ I was not convinced. ponse to emotions, moods, instincts I turned to this book for enlight­ AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAA or disconnected memory storms; this enment. causes major disruptions in the John Griffiths has visited the lives of others. His overly pos­ Soviet Union. He speaks Russian flu­ sessive love is endangering the ently. And he cites in this book THE MAN WHO WOULD NOT DIE life of Kate, the love interest of the work of 30 or 40 Soviet writers. his corporeal life -- since he can't By Thomas Page have her in life, he intends she He begins by defining the term (Seaview Books, hardcover, 1981.) should join him in death. "science fiction". In his words: Signet Books, The New American Li­ The diverse ways in which For­ "A science fiction story is one in brary, Inc., 1633 Broadway, New which the suspension of disbelief rester brings about terror, shock York, NY 10019. and death; and the variety of meth­ depends on the plausible development September, 1982; 278 pp.; $3.50 of a central technical or scientific ods used by the characters to com­ idea ..." He then "examines the evo­ REVIEWED BY PAULETTE MINARE' bat him, keeps one's acute interest lution of the genre ... to a point throughout the book. where stories (that match) this def­ This medical thriller offers Even after it is thought that inition ... (came) to be written". love interest, intrigue and adven­ Forrester'S ghost has been laid to A recitation of familiar names: ture. The supernatural aspects are rest, there is an unusual twist at Francis Bacon, Defoe, Swift, Mary treated so skillfully that they are the end. Has he had the last laugh Shelley; William Wilson (in whose readily acceptable. Through Thomas --or smile? Page's vividly graphic writing, one work of 1851, "A Little Earnest Upon ************************************ A Great Old Subject" -- poetry not lives along with his realistic, ab­ science fiction -- occurs the first sorbing characters. use of the term "science fiction"); In the Clayton County Medical H.G. Wells. Chernyshevsky, Tsiolkov- Center near Aspen, Colorado, the THE RHYSLING ANTHOLOGY sky, Alexei Tolstoy, Zamyatin. He "Stendhal Holmes Life Support Sys­ concludes that "conventional fiction tem" (LS System) capsule automatic- Science Fiction Poetry Assoc'n ... does not give us all that we 1722 N. Mariposa Avenue, #1 want". An opinion endorsed by Kings­ Los Angeles, CA 90027 ley Amis and Robert Conquest: "There Paperback, 36 pp., $1.50 are kinds of ingenuity, kinds of in­ vention, kinds of question?, ways of REVIEWED BY NEAL WILGUS putting such questions, notions of possibility, effects of irony or wit, Although the Rhysling Award of wonder and terror that only sci­ for best science fiction poetry ence fiction offers and can offer ... has been around since 1978 when Science fiction is the natural medium the SF Poetry Association was (for discussing social change)". first organized by Suzette Hadin Elgin, this is the first year that Griffith's subsequent comparison the nominated poems have been pub­ of American, British and Soviet sci­ lished in an anthology all their ence fiction is marred by this assunp- own. Previously the nominees ap­ tion. That science fiction is, peared in a "nominations" issue scmehow, different. That science fic- of the Association's Newsletter, tion is the ideal medium for the dif­ STARLINE, which was not available fusion of political opinion. Why? to anyone but SFPA members. Now 17 not appear in the anthology because SFPA didn't have permission to re­ print it. If you're reading this, Steve, please get in touch with the Association again. In the long poem category the best included in the anthology is probably Ursula K. LeGuin's "The Well of Bain,” although several that were eliminated by the commit­ tee struck me as even better. "Bain" is a narrative fantasy of sorts which is at least straight­ forward and understandable, which is more than can be said for some of the other long poems. "The Star- farers" by Gene Van Troyer and Rob­ ert Frazier, for instance, is largely unintelligible, though the authors seem very enthusiastic about whatever it is they're writ­ ing. Adrianne Marcus' "Paper Clocks" makes better sense but amounts to little more than musing over a faded rose in an old diary.

"The Grove" by Terry A. Garey is a narrative which is more or less intelligible but left too much out to be satisfactory. And "Saucer Station, Monday -- Friday" by Albert Goldbarth fits much the same description --an understand­ able narrative that leaves you hanging because too much is unex­ plained. My vote for the long poem category went to "The Star Drifter Grounded" by Bruce Boston -- chopped prose, but a strong narrative, definitely science fic­ tion and very much in the tradi­ tion of Heinlein's "The Green Hills of Earth," from which the Rhysling Award derives its name. "Star Drifter," Chris Pasanen's "Academ­ the anthology serves double duty not half-bad for chopped prose. An­ ic Necrosis" (which I nominated) as a collection of the year's best other in the short poem category and a number of other long poems on the one hand and as the nomina­ that fits this description is were eliminated from the anthology tions issue to be voted on by Marge Piercy's "Absolute Zero in by the committee, which to my view SFPA members on the other. the Brain," but why anyone thinks weakens this as a collection of the it's SF (or even "speculative") is year's best considerably. This is also the first year beyond me. Just referring to Frank­ that Rhysling finalists have been enstein doesn't get it, Marge. chosen by a committee. Twenty­ THE RHYSLING ANTHOLOGY is well eight poems were nominated by SFPA Other short poems are more put together, I should hasten to members and the committee narrowed complex and less understandable. add. The artwork is excellent this down to twelve (although only Kathryn Rantala's "Noah at Sea" throughout and graphically every­ eleven appear in the anthology). is superficially a narrative fan­ thing works beautifully. A very In the process the committee elim­ tasy about Noah and Grendel but brief Preface gives a very brief inated anything with rhyme or met­ the story doesn't go anywhere, background on the SFPA and the er, all humor, most fantasy and leaving the reader perplexed. Al­ Awards, and a listing of previous all but the slightest of narrative so perplexing is "Ybba" by Elisa Rhysling winners brings the volume verse. What's left is what some L.A. Hamilton, which seems to be to a close. If the content was people in the field like to call a narrative too, about a robot something more than speculative "speculative verse," if only the that builds spaceships perhaps, chopped prose this might be a dyn­ label would catch on. A more ac­ but then again, maybe not. Other amic little collection, in fact. curate description is chopped chopped prose short poems include As it is this will still be a col­ prose. "Their Terminals Have Said ..." lectors' item and perhaps on down There are two categories in by Andrew Joron and Robert Fraz­ the line the content will match the Rhysling sweepstakes -- short ier, "Voyager IV" by Kathryn Ran- the first-rate package. poems, under 50 lines, and long tala and "Of Appollo: 7/20/69" The winners of the 1982 Rhy- poems, SO lines and up. Leading by Steven M. lymon. Nfy own vote slings, by the way, were LeGuin's off this volume is Ray DiZazzo's in the short poem category went "Well of Bain" and Dizazzo's short poem "On the Speed of Sight,” to Tymon's poem which, alas, does "Speed of Sight." a simple idea simply developed and 18 ************************************ A BARNSTORMER IN OZ wasn't. The situation is never ANALOG'S CHILDREN OF THE FUTURE By Philip Jose Fanner solidly resolved. Edited by Stanley Schmidt Berkley SF, 278 pp., $6.95 in Canada Also, Hank's future in Oz is Dial Press 1982, $12.95 not established. Will he go home? REVIEWED BY DAVID PITT Will he stay? Who knows? I think REVIEWED BY LARRY D. WOODS Now, as every good fan knows, Fanner wants to write a sequel, An inuiortal living forever as Farmer is very good at this sort which is fine by me. Maybe he'll a child; an eleven-year-old surviv­ of thing. His biographies of Doc include the scenes he had to cut or of the apocalypse -- these and Savage and Tarzan are interesting from this book, especially those other entertaining and fascinating and scholarly, his "true story" of he mentions in the Author's Notes. stories are collected in ANALOG'S AROUND THE WORLD IN EIGHTY DAYS is ************************************ CHILDREN OF WONDER. While the se­ fascinating if a little far-fetch­ lections are limited to tales of ed, and he hasn't let us down this youth and originally appeared in time. The story of Dorothy's son ASTOUNDING/ANALOG, several of the is fun. CYRION finest stories are here ranging By Tanith Lee The book's subtitle is A RAT­ from Padgett ("Mimsy Were the Boro- IONALIZATION AND EXTRAPOLATION OF DAW Books, #499 for Sept, 1982 groves") to Sturgeon ("Mewhu's Jet") to Schmitz ("The Witches of THE SPLIT-LEVEL CONTINUUM, and it 304 pp., $2.95 Karres") and Shiras ("In Hiding"). describes the thrust of the novel. Cover Art by Ken W. Kelly Five other stories by Card, McCaf­ Farmer makes Oz and the surround­ REVIEWED BY DAVID A. TRUESDALE ing areas valid and believable frey, Reynolds, Plauger and Palm­ er are included. places. The book is partially, I This is not a novel, though think, an excuse to answer some one is given the distinct impres­ This volume is a worthy chal­ questions. How was the Tin Woods­ sion it is. There is no inherent lenger to the leading anthology man's "soul" transferred to his harm in this, of course, except in this area: CHILDREN OF WCNDER metal body? How can the Scarecrow for the fact that at least some of (1953). remain the same entity when it reg­ the material is not new, but re­ ************************************ ularly changes its brains? How printed. One of the seven strung- big a role did Glinda the Good together short stories was first play in Dorothy's tale? published in Andrew Offutt's SWORDS Farmer takes L. Frank Baum, AGAINST DARKNESS V, back in Novemb­ THE NEW VISIONS — the author of the original Oz ser­ er of 1979 ("Perfidious Amber"), A COLLECTION OF MODERN SCIENCE ies, to task often. He is cons­ and was then reprinted in DAW's FICTION ART tantly referring to Baum's forget­ THE YEAR'S BEST FANTASY STORIES: Introduction by Frederik Pohl ting or neglecting to include de­ 6, dated November 1980. Others Doubleday, 1982, 87 pp., $14.95 tails. (Although when Farmer may be aware of other reprints a- twice mentions Baum's omission of mong the remaining six pieces, REVIEWED BY ANDREW ANDREWS the sound of displaced air in tele­ though I am not. Too many artists are unfortun­ portation I think he's getting a From Tanith Lee we have come little nitpicky.) ately missing from the slick pages to expect the unexpected as well of THE NEW VISIONS, A Collection We are given an explanation as the beautiful, and none of eith­ of Modern Science Fiction Art. of some of the wilder details in er is in much evidence here. The While the meticulous reproductions the Oz books, Farmer attributing prose is choppy, off-rhythm, hur­ of art by Frank Frazetta, Richard them to Baum's desire to turn Dor­ riedly penned as if it were a first Corben, Mike Hinge, Larry Kresek othy's story into fiction. draft and, in some cases, hard to and others are done with affection follow without a quick re-reading, The book is well-written and for this extremely thin and expens­ which destroys reader flow and ive edition of what are primarily entertaining, and with a certain which, in turn, crunbles the concen­ flair. ("Lightning challenged the SF Book Club book covers, there is tration and ultimate absorption in­ no example or mention of literally earth to a duel by slapping it in to the various fantasy(s). its face.") Hank Stover, Dorothy's hundreds of other artists and son, is a combination of hard log­ And what about the fantasies? their works who would be more than ic and light fantasy. I think if Are there intriguing moral dilemmas at home in this otherwise fine col­ he lived today he'd be a writer if predicated by the situations, mag­ lection. not a fan of SF. ics or evil machinations against Included are artist biographies which Cyrion must wrestle, or re­ and self-sketches. As I said, the book is fun. solve in order to extricate him­ Once past the explanations in the self? Nd. Time after time we see But where are Barclay Shaw, first chapters, the pace picks up Cyrion thrust into an improbable Rowena Morrill, even Kelly Freas? and becomes more action than talk. situation and after ho-humnedly Where are Vince DiFate, Freff, Leo The plotting is skillful, although rolling his tongue around cliche' and Diane Dillon, Karl Lundgren something concerning the invasion dialogue -- be it with monster or . . . surely these names could force's large number of a certain human beguiler, an obligatory scene have added dignity to what may have type of aircraft didn't happen, or two of alternate glitter and been a complete edition. Sadly, and I was sure it would. It has gore -- emerge the victor. After it is not. to do with another aircraft, a the first three stories I was tir­ ************************************ sentient one, and this, unfortun­ ed, following the next four I was ately, brings me to a fault in irritated and bored, and it took the book. herculean effort to force myself through the final third of the Somebody wants to invade Oz. book, a novella titled "Cyrion in Hank's loyalty is questioned re­ Stone." peatedly, mostly by himself and I thought the rest of the novel ************************************ would be a resolution of that. It 19 BOOK REVIEWS BY GENE DEWEESE

yesterday's tomorrows founded by Psychohistorian Hari dered if anything remotely like it Edited by Frederik Pohl Seldon, struggle to soften the in­ could happen, this could be the evitable fall of a galactic empire Berkley, Paperback, $9.95 book for you. Similarly, if you of twenty-five million worlds. have a nodding acquaintance with According to Pohl's introduc­ And in every installment of that various fields of science and are tion, these thirty-odd stories are struggle, brains win out over wondering if there are SF stories the ones that still stick in his brawn, which is an idea Asimov that make use of those fields, mind after forty years of editing has been pushing in both his fic­ the references given here could SF books and magazines and in most tion and nonfiction for over forty point you to enough stories to cases it's not surprising. There years. keep you reading indefinitely. is, for instance, "Space Time for Time travel, hyperspace, robots, Springers," by Fritz Leiber, per­ computers, mutations, natural dis­ asters, Jim Jones-style cults and haps the best ever SF story about A ROSE FOR ARMAGEDDON cats. Then there's "Into the many more subjects are covered, Darkness," by Ross Rocklynne, an By Hilbert Schenck mostly in clear and interesting almost fable-like tale of sentient Timescape, Paper, $2.50 prose, often well illustrated with mobile stars. And Asimov's first everything from old pulp magazine robot story, a vintage Leigh Brack­ In the very near future, civ­ covers to scientific charts and ett adventure, plus Kurt Vonnegut, ilization is disintegrating at an graphs. The only drawback is that Jr., Arthur C. Clarke, Philip K. exponential rate. Tempers every­ one of the contributors, Oxford Dick, Robert A. Heinlein, etc., where are short, and long range physicist David Langford, sounds etc., even Paul Ehrlich of "Popula­ rational thought is rapidly becom­ a bit condescending and all-know­ tion Bomb" fame. And, as a bonus, ing unknown, all apparently the ing in his chapter on "wrong sci­ there are Pohl's always fascinat­ result of a worldwide "hostility ence," and fails to distinguish ing anecdotal glimpses into what resonance." The nature of this between authors who made silly a writer/editor's life is really phenomenon, however, is discovered mistakes because of ignorance and like. Considering the variety of during a morphological study of an those who purposely violated cur­ material, some of the 200,000+ isolated island off the coast of rent scientific theories. Still, words may not be to your taste, New England, and in the end, a that's a minor complaint and but if you don't thoroughly en­ computer analysis of the study re­ shouldn't keep anyone from enjoy­ joy quite a few of them, you just veals a seemingly mystical key ing a book that is as useful as it don't like science fiction. that can save the world, a key is fascinating. that the computer itself cannot even put a name to. As in Schenck's earlier AT THE EYE OF THE OCEAN, the characters here are FOUNDATION fully and interestingly developed, FOUNDATION AND EMPIRE particularly the two sixtyish nar­ SECOND FOUNDATION rators, Dr. Elsa Adams and Dr. Jake MISTS OF AVALON By Isaac Asimov Stinson, who are about as far from By Marion Zimmer Bradley Ballantine/Del Rey, Paper, $2.75 ea. being your standard hero and hero­ Alfred A. Knopf, $16.95 ine as you can get. Mich of the REVIEWED BY GENE DEWEESE book is in fact, an engrossing REVIEWED BY BEVERLY DEWEESE character study of the two. In For anyone interested in the Most readers know the story of addition, it paints one of the King Arthur; however, Marion Zim­ series that was quite deservedly most realistically frightening given a Hugo as the best SF series mer Bradley, in MISTS OF AVALON pictures of a collapsing civiliza­ has written an especially vivid, of all time, here is a handsome tion that I've ever read. Not a new edition, complete with Asimov's unorthodox version of this roman­ "quick read," maybe, but a good tic tale. Bradley's narrator is explanation of how it came to be one. written. (It has to do with Gilb­ Morgaine, a Druid priestess, and ert and Sullivan's "lolanthe," in her England is populated by those case you're interested.) As Asi­ who worship the Lady (the Earth Mother) and those few who are turn­ mov himself says, the entire quar­ THE SCIENCE IN SCIENCE FICTION ter of a million words contains ing to the harsher, more intoler­ virtually no physical action, only Edited by Peter Nichols ant Christianity --a religion thoughts and conversation about ac­ Knopf, $14.95 which equates chastity with good tion that takes place offstage. and sex with evil. But it doesn't matter. There are If you've ever seen an SF The story centers on the strug­ ideas and twists on practically movie or read an SF story and won- gle between the two religions and every page as the thro Foundations, 20 the efforts of each to bring peace to England -- by controlling King Arthur. As part of an elaborate Druid campaign, Arthur and Morg- aine (Arthur's sister) are tricked into mating during the annual fer­ iwn uiwiion tility rites and a child is con­ ceived. Morgaine is so angered by this ruse that she renounces her position as a priestess. And OF GROUND, AND OCEAN, AND SKY when Arthur learns he has been a party to an incestuous union, he is horrified and rushes to marry Ocean, Ground and Sky met to­ "What shape will it take? ask­ Gwenhywfar (Guinivere), a model gether one day, to discuss the re­ ed Sky. She was busily sculpting of Christian piety. Modred, the cent upheavals. her clouds into castles. unwanted child of Arthur and Mor­ gaine, is sent away, literally and "New masterpieces are arising Ground pondered for a while. all along the boundaries of the figuratively. Soon after the mar­ "It will be full of strata of old," declared Ground, shaking with riage, Lancelot attaches himself relationships. These will fold o- anticipation. "Other books are go­ to Arthur's court, and he brings ver and under each other, cunning­ ing under. We three should get up even more tension; for Lancelot is ly." loved by Morgaine, Gwenhywfar and an expedition to be present at the Arthur. But none of them, of eruption of the next new work." "And what will the scenery be like?" course, can admit publicly to his/ "Shall we take gifts with us?" her true love. asked Sky. "Such as gold, and in­ "Ah, there will be plenty of cense -- that sort of thing?" surface beauty for your eye. There will be exciting gorges and pit­ Ocean shook his wavy head. As the years pass, Arthur and falls, too. Adventurous crevasses Lancelot are seduced and manipul­ "No, I imagine there'll be and ledges to cling to. And per­ ated by both Morgaine and Gwenhyw­ plenty of gold and incense." haps some long meanders. Yet the folds underneath will change the far. And their power plays affect "We ought to take something, meaning of what lies on the surface many lives, often bringing unhap­ though --if only as a peace offer­ -- for those who look beneath the piness and pain. But the most ing," said Sky. "There are such surface. Though, for those who do tragic figure is Morgaine. Yet, grindings and rumblings when a new not look too deeply, the surface though she is manipulated, shamed fiction bursts forth. All the will be colorful enough." and frustrated, she remains an in­ fault lines of the other writers tense, appealing figure. tremble." A gale of petulance blew down from Sky. "When the engine of the imagin­ Bradley's many realistic, com­ ation turns over," observed Ground, "It isn't my fault that I can't plex characters involve the read­ "there is always much screeching see all the complicated folds und­ er; however, the most fascinating and vibration. Yet without this er the surface!" disturbance there would be no fresh aspect of this novel is the depic­ "Ah, but in this case everybody deposits of the imaginary on the tion of the long struggle between will want it to be known that they planet's surface. The older peaks Druidism and Christianity. There have seen beneath the surface. So would wear down after a while. Ev­ is little doubt that Bradley sym­ there will be a convenient network erything would go flat." pathizes with the Druids, whose of caves, with an easily navigable religion, according to her, encour­ "Will this new arrival be a nov­ subterranean river.” aged sensitivity, tolerance and re­ el?" asked Sky innocently. spect for females. The most lyri­ "Excellent," said Ocean. "The cal passages are those describing Ground did his best to explain story will flow easily then." to her. the priestesses and their shrine, "This won't be too dense a pro­ a lovely island called Avalon, lo­ "It isn't as cut and dried as duct of the imagination," continu- cated just on the other side of that, my dear Sky. Novel, novella, ed Ground. "Massive, but not dense. this dimension. There is the feel­ novelette, short story -- the one Rule One of Tectonic Success: He ing that the world lost much of category thrusts up into the next that rises to the surface must be value when Avalon slipped --or by a natural process of evolution. twenty-five per cent lighter than was hidden -- from us. The Himalaya of the novel, with its the others." sparkling crown of lucite, grows up "When shall we set out?" asked almost of its own accord out of the Sky, excitedly. Her hair blew out In short, Bradley's Arthurian foothill of the novelette -- quite in long streamers. world is intriguingly different. rapidly too, in some cases. I ima­ Undoubtedly, the brisk pace, the gine we will see a novelette born, careful research and the provoca­ or even a short story. But this "Right now," said Ground. And tive concept will attract and will grow and grow, volcanically, slowly he revolved himself on his axis, to bring himself closer to please many readers. Her strong with much steam and smoke, within female characters are a delight, a few weeks...." the source of the new eruption. though a few readers may be annoy­ Ocean launched himself along a ed by her many references to moth­ Ground hesitated. powerful current. ering. But this is a minor objec­ tion in an impressive book. Over­ "And yet?" prompted Sky. Sky blew in the appropriate all, MISTS OF AVALON is one of the "And yet it may be a whole nov­ direction. best and most ambitious of the el all at once --or even the Pel­ The three friends passed by a Arthurian novels, and it should ion piled on Ossa, of a trilogy. A number of older mountains, still not be missed. whole range of mountains may emerge massive, though now gone cold in­ *********************************** instantly from underground." side. They also passed an aborted volcano, whose initial gush of lava "Going for the trilogy, now!" had solidified in its throat after shouted Ground. the first eruption -- though sub­ stantial puffs of steam still is­ The third and highest mountain reared up and up, till it reached sued from vents around its sides. And they passed many hills and les­ the very fringes of space. And ser mountains, still actively this mountain looked quite differ­ thrusting themselves upwards -- ent at first glance, but actually though already these were being it was a mirror image of the sec­ jostled by the new disturbance. ond mountain. "There! I can see it!" cal­ Nevertheless, the incense arose led out Sky -- since she could see from fumaroles all around, and a rain of gold filled a hollow be­ further than Ocean or Ground, al­ though Ground felt all the deep tween the two latest peaks, brim­ vibrations. "The earth's split­ ful! ting open!" But even as Ocean and Sky were politely applauding the new trilo­ Ground groaned in sympathy. gy, Ground cried out. More seis­ And from out of the hot bowels mic shocks had reached him. of the imagination there flowed a "Another eruption? So soon? new hill. The surrounding hills Surely the engine of the imagina­ and mountains all nodded to it, tion will seize up with the heat!" since it most definitely broke new ground. It expanded their terri­ Even so, another eruption was This publication tory. already taking place, not far away. is available "It's a novelette," said Ocean. Another novelette appeared from nowhere and swiftly swelled in microform. "Wait," cautioned Ground. "It into a novel of splendid girth, is still growing. It's going to be shouldering the new trilogy range University Microfilms a novel." aside. International Presently Sky brushed across Ground sensed disaster. Just the new peak. in time he warned Ocean and Sky. 300 North Zeeb Road "Why, it's a hundred thousand Dept. PR. words high already! A moment ago And a few moments later the Ann Arbor, Mi. 48106 it was only ten." whole crust of the world lifted USA. Ocean reared up on a high wave. off its roots, turned over and 30-32 Mortimer Street thumped back down again. Young Dept. P.R. "Fine exciting terrain, there." mountains, foothills and even ma­ London WIN 7RA England ture ranges tumbled. Catastrophic "Good deep caves beneath," com­ oscillations shook the land. Be­ mented Ground. "Simple but con­ fore very long, there was only one vincing. Only a few of them are vast plain of debris. empty air pockets." Sky loomed over this flattened "It's ... stopped." plain, searching in vain for signs of activity. Ground settled him­ "No, it hasn't -- there's a se­ TEN YEARS AGO IN SF — SPRING, 1973 quel !" self beneath it, patiently to await the advent of some future geologic­ BY ROBERT SABELLA Beside the first mountain there al epoch. And Ocean flowed away. rapidly arose an even higher peak. He felt bitterly cold. For a long Spring is traditionally award "Two hundred thousand words time there was an ice age. time in science fiction and 1973 high, that one," marvelled Sky. She ************************************ was no exception. The Nebula Aw­ was quite out of breath at its ards for 1972 went to Isaac Asimov height. for THE GODS THEMSELVES, Arthur C. Clarke for "A Meeting with Medussa", "But it's the same shape as Poul Anderson for "Goat Song" and the first one," objected Ocean. Joanna Russ for "When it Changed" "It's just bigger, that's all." ... The National Book Award for Children's Literature went to Urs­ ula K. LeGuin for THE FARTHEST SHORE, the concluding volume in I 1>I>UT FALL- FROM HEAl/EN.. her Earthsea Trilogy ... In a mas­ I took Am BaRl Y RET|RemEwt terpiece of irony, the first John From ETERnita W. Campbell Memorial Award went to Barry Malzberg for his anti­ space program novel BEYOND APOLLO. Needless to say, not all science fiction fans were pleased with the selection ... Lancer Books publish­ ed Samuel R. Delany's controversial SF-pomo novel THE TIDES OF LUST which became an instant collectors' item when the publisher folded and the book became unavailable. *********************************** sociobiology thing. I was taking societal conditioning away and showing what was left -- the gen­ J Fl FIET etic reality, as I inferred it from sociobiology." I asked her to give some idea of what sociobiology is about, fHEFFIS since not all of us know. "Well, Wilson says things like 'The urge to creativity may be in­ extricably linked to the desire to I'm sitting with Janet Morris that Janet Nbrris doesn't believe own and dominate.' That's a bot­ in the Author Pit. They don't in sexual equality, and doesn't re­ tom-line quote. Silistran females call it that, of course, but that ject all the old roles. She even are female in their thinking, they is what it is, this sunken area refers to herself as a "girl" are never guys in girl-suits. And with a rail around it, in the base­ once in a while -- and she's only the males are fight-or-flight; they ment of the huge B. Dalton book­ half kidding. are always going after their edge store on Fifth Avenue in New York in a particular way, which makes "There is a degree of satire in them almost walking genes. I was City. They put authors in the Pit everything I do. But to some ex­ and customers come wandering over trying to crystallize human sexu­ tent the Silistra books were meant ality and show the degree to which with idle curiosity and stand at as a kind of cultural antidote to the rail like kids watching animals it could influence decisions. They at a zoo. are not meant to be realistic char­ acters that you could put into this It's Science Fiction Week at world, or characters whose world­ B. Dalton, so I'm in the Pit try­ views would work in this world, ing to promote DREAM MAKERS, and but all of our world-views are Janet's offering to autograph cop­ influenced by the subconscious a- ies of her novel DREAM DANCER and wareness of the kinds of thoughts we're being heckled by a literary that Silistran characters will snob in a dirty raincoat. "I've voice, which no male or female can given up buying science fiction," deny. Any woman who is honest will he complains. "There aren't any tell you that rape fantasies were writers who use solid, up-to-date her thirteen-year-old nightly ex­ science, and have good writing ercise. It's not fun in the real style, and strong characterization.” world, but it sure makes a nice I don't have the stomach to way to get to sleep when you're start arguing with him myself. I that age." can't take the situation serious­ Doesn't she feel that, if rape ly; it's too embarrassing. fantasies are coimon, they are a But not many things in life result of social conditioning? embarrass Janet Morris, and she "No. On a genetic level, wo­ takes everything seriously that men want a dominant male, the one relates to her work. So she tack­ that is strongest and best capable les the heckler. "There is one of producing the child that will writer in the field today, who be most successful. That's some­ combines all those qualities you body who's at least your equal. are looking for," she tells him. We still have the old hunter-gath­ "Yeah? Who?" erer instinct of, you run as fast as you can and the guy that can "Me." says Janet Morris, as if catch you and hold you down is the it ought to have been obvious. one. And if he's not at least strong enough and clever enough to Now, this kind of salesperson­ do that, then you don't want his ship may sell a few extra books, the overkill of women's lib., child." but at the same time, it does rub which was just cresting then, and But shouldn't we attempt to some people the wrong way. Some which I felt was and is wrong. You civilize our behavior above this men, in particular, don't quite can't stand out there in the mid­ primitive level? know how to take it when Janet dle of the street and scream for Morris comes on like a graduate your rights, throwing a tantrum, from assertiveness training and which is often a woman's idea of "In order to deal with the lectures them on anything from her way of getting what she wants. promptings of genetics, one has to particle physics to handguns. It doesn't work in the real world." admit that they're there. To over­ They don't like it when she beats come something, you have to be able than at pinball either. And there "Also in Silistra, I was in­ to pinpoint it without guilt or are some women who resent Janet fluenced by Ed Wilson and the whole societal tsk-tsks or any kind of Morris, too -- for not toeing the feminist line, for instance. Her first four novels (the "Silistra" This profile series) starred some sort of sci­ will appear in ence-fictional prostitute, for DREAM MAKERS II heaven's sake, who felt it was not to be published A Profile By Charles Platt only her function but her pleas­ in June. ure to be used by men. It seems (c) 1983 by Charles Platt 23 negativity that is brought in from never read anything but science not see any more than you write on your conditioning. We have to take fiction, and therefore they get the surface. They don't read into as a given that males are males and their science from science fiction it, to get at the subtlety. females are females, and the drives and they merely rewrite cliches." and the kinds of thought-procon- She's critical of modem sci­ ditioning that come from those ence fiction by female authors. drives are different. I'm a human­ WHICH came first; tret ist, not a feminist. I know I'm "I remember throwing THE FE­ -chicken OK the - ? a female; I have no doubt about it; MALE MAN by Joanna Russ in the WE WEEE LAYING,- I'm very comfortable with it, and waste basket. That was polemic, I'm perfectly willing to accept a treatise, not a story. The only Before there were that females and males are comple­ living female writer who interests mentary but different. I certain­ me -- let's not limit this to sci­ ly would neither like nor encourage ence fiction --is Margaret Your- a society in which across-the- cenar. I think female writers board equality is legislated or generally tend to lack discipline demanded against the indications and structure, and both discipline of nature. Physical equality is and structure are what I like in an impossibility." a story. That doesn't mean, however, that Janet Morris herself is the "I have a theory that there stereotypical female, docilely are authors, and writers. People submitting to men as a slave of who want to be known for doing genetic progranming. something, and people who like to do it. And too many women in this "A lot of times, if I don't field seem to fall into the first hold back I'm there before the guy group. But then there are plenty is, I've solved the problem. I'm of dreadful male writers, too. more than capable of solving almost any problem that comes up in daily "Of the women writing science life and I'm a high-androgen fe­ fiction, I think C.J. Cherryh is male: I've had show horses and certainly the best. I concur with done a lot of traditionally male her main theme of romanticizing things, and now of course, we're science, trying to put science into competitive shooting. I'm back into science fiction. I think "For instance, one of the getting reasonably proficient that the public's fear of science things that was inportant to me, with my handgun. Intellectually, and technology is totally overblown which I was developing there, was I do a lot of homework and research and unwarranted. It tends to be my intuition about what physics is and things interest me that don't worst in older people who are and how it works, and the ability tend to interest other women. Phil shell-shocked. Those of us who of mind to influence probability. Klass said to me the other day are comfortable with going into In this last year, long after those that woman's proper study was man, the future ought to open our mouths books were done, John Wheeler codi­ and man's proper study was what­ "Everyone's terrified of nu­ fied all of those intuitions in his ever caught his interest. By that clear bombs now, and seme people anthropic principle -- the partic­ definition, I'm a man. I like in­ have found they can make a living ipatory universe -- and has pushed tellectual stimulation. lobbying for causes with which no physics almost to the boundary of one can disagree. Who can disagree metaphysics, with pretty much the "My bedtime stories, when I with peace? So all these folks same ideas: that you create your was four and five, were Spenser's are out there making a living get­ future as you go along, that you FAERIE QUEENE and such -- that's ting everyone to march for peace. are co-creator of the universe. what they used to read to me. My The Soviets poured all the initial These ideas are so complex mathe­ father was at Harvard and his field seed money into the European peace matically, you couldn't put them was English literature, My mom had movement, to try to freeze the in a story of hard science fiction. a master's in education. So by 'balance' of theater weapons in It would take too long to define the time I was seven I'd been their favor. But people don't go the terms. But I dramatized them through all the myths of every so­ after information themselves, they as Silistran mind control. ciety, Greek through Norse, Meso­ believe what they hear. This is, "I've had letters from fif­ potamian to Roman -- I was very historically, the failing of demo­ teen-year-olds who knew exactly interested in ancient legends and cracy. You have mass rule and you what I was talking about, and for­ all the magical stuff. have ascendancy of the mediocre. ty-year-olds who couldn't handle "In my family, instead of an It's happening in science fiction it. Each time I write a book I allowance I got a hardcover book too. You get a readership which find out which things are difficult a week. I started reading science is wider, editors who are only do­ for people, and I try the next time ing science fiction on the way to fiction when I was about seven; I to make them simpler, to get my always liked it because in science something 'more exciting' such as points across. But because I read fiction, it isn't easy to tell from women's romances, and therefore more and more, the points get more the third page what's going to hap­ you get mediocre science fiction. and more complex. With twistor pen at the end of the book. There "When I wrote the Silistra nov­ theory and space-time manifolds, are so many more alternatives in els, I felt I was very brave and it got to where I couldn't even science fiction -- when it's good. talked about issues that meant a find anybody to talk to about it. It isn't as good as it used to be, lot to me and I assumed that every­ And then I knew I was in too deep. partially because people don't do body was smart enough to know when There were too few people reading their homework, and you don't have I was teasing them and when I was in this area of science in the the Hugo Gemsbacks who are inter­ serious. But a lot of readers do country." ested in promoting them, you just I ask Janet Morris why, if her have derivatives -- people who've 24 feeling for science is so strong, she writes books which seem to have time, anyone could lose degrees of Janet Morris was born in 1946 a fantasy flavor, and have even their citizenship in the Athenian and lives with her husband Chris­ been published as fantasy. style. And if indeed they lost topher, a rock musician, in a mod­ enough of their citizenship, from em home hidden in the woodlands "I'm sneaking up on people. apathy and lack of participation, of Cape Cod. They're such a tight, People don't want to work; you then at some point they would be­ cohesive couple, it's hard to con­ have to spoon-feed them to some come non-citizens. Each person sider them separately: He goes extent. This is true even in pub­ had a degree of government funding with her to the science fiction e- lishing itself. There are some which they would lose if they opted vents, she goes with him to the re­ powerful women in publishing who out. I think that if we would al­ cording sessions, he reads and com­ have said some frightening things low everybody this kind of condi­ ments on her first drafts, she -- like 'Fuck the science, what tional government kickback, then critiques his demo tapes. They matters is if the boy kisses the maybe they'd have some incentive seem to share most things, includ­ girl,' or 'I never took physics in to participate. ing a fetish for technology -- high school, so I just skip the they even have his-and-hers re­ technical parts.' It almost seems "Our problem right now is that mote control TV channel changers. as if ladies generally don't, we have a system where the people Outside the house is parked a cus­ can't, or won't maintain the lev­ who make our decisions for us have tom-painted Ford van, for the mus­ el of specialized concentration become a parasitic class who do ic equipment; in the garage is a that I think is necessary to be­ nothing but have lunch and pass shiny black Jeep. Soon instead of come premiere in your field. And judgment on a basis of little or the Jeep, there'll be a Porsche. yet they want to be there -- with­ no information. My half-sister out doing the work." was Carter's speech writer on econ­ Life wasn't always so laid- omic policy, so I know just how back or so lucrative. Further to my question about uninformed those people are about "I sold the first draft of the the fantasy flavor of her books, I what's going on. If he was going ask Janet Morris why, if clarity first thing I ever did, which was to make a speech somewhere, he the first Silistra novel in 1976. and conmunication are so inportant didn't even see it until the day to her, she uses a stylized kind I don't talk about what I was doing before he went. He had no idea before then. There are a lot of of writing instead of straight even of the subject he was going storytelling. things that I really can't discuss. to talk on, let alone a chance to Let’s say I did a lot of on-site "Sometimes I want to write generate some point of view that street research, getting into all 'art' and when I'm feeling Homeric he wanted to discuss. They real­ sorts of trouble and then getting my stuff tends to come out with ly don't know. myself out of it, because you have that 'ancient' feel to the prose. "The ideal would be a democrat­ to know what life is like to write If I need to relax, I like to read ic society in which everyone did about life. I went out and got on the ILIAD, so I have a soft spot their homework and was qualified to the wrong side of guns and knives in my heart for prose lines that participate and vote on issues." and got into plenty of trouble, are beautiful. To me, seme of and boy, does that help you. I do those lines were very beautiful. And she brings this kind of not think you can lead a sheltered thinking right back home to the life and be a writer. "The other thing is, when you book business. are dealing with higher math, and difficult concepts, and you don't "Every time publishers find "We still try to keep a bal­ think people are going to get them they can sell a bad romance or a ance, but I'm exercising my hard- if you put them in such a way that Ken Follett novel to nultitudes of earned right now to privacy. I do you need 5,000 words to define people, the standards of publish­ go to science fiction events once your terms, you can convey it ex­ ing go down. But this is where in a while, and ray meetings with perientially, almost as poetry. democracy would really work, if the science fiction public have be­ Ihen people are going to have it the readers would just send back come less difficult than they were whether they know they've got it to the publishers every piece of in the beginning. I was really or not, and they don't have to be trash that they bought and read. offended by the reception that the afraid that they're not going to You wouldn't even have to demand Silistra books got among science understand it. a refund. If you just sent the fiction fans originally; I was "There's so much fear -- people bad ones back, eventually they'd shocked that those readers weren't are afraid to try to learn, because get the idea." bright enough to realize what I they don't want to fail. So if you start giving them information in such a way that it scares them, they're just going to quit on you. FAUTASY WKiTlMq- TE'ctiN'VX/E' What I've given them, in a lot of cases, is experiential physics, without using the word 'physics' at all."

In addition to science, her novels also deal with political concepts. "In DREAM DANCER I described a computerized referendum demo­ cracy. Everyone had to do ten to fifteen study hours to qualify to vote, so you had people who were voting on issues with which they were familiar. They'd seen all the pros and cons. At the same 25 was saying, and it never occurred to me that a young crowd like that would be so prudish, when the books were very well received outside Profile# the science fiction community, in­ cluding HIE NEW YORK TIMES. I held that against them for a while. These days, I'm better in control of it." She now plans to write a fan­ CHARLES tasy trilogy based on a character she invented for the Thieves' This profile will appear World series of story collections. in DREAM MAKERS II,’ to But her real obsession, just late­ be published in June. ly, has been a novel outside of Copyright (c) 1982 fantasy and science fiction alto­ PLATT By Douglas E. Winter gether. "When I wrote the Silistra books, I couldn't say the things diaries Platt is uneasy with without further ado, ushered me I wanted to say about sexuality in the idea of talking about himself, in. and seems reluctant to start the a contemporary format. I would At first, I assumed that his never have gotten a publisher. interview. He fiddles with the air conditioner, then sits down apartment was temporary quarters "With the DREAM DANCER series, carefully at the far side of the -- there was a Spartan and decided­ the things that I wanted to talk dining table, angling his line of ly whimsical quality to its furn­ about were very scientific really, vision away from mine. I ask him ishings -- but later I saw it as a logical extension of his person­ and the politics were very experi­ why, and he responds with the anx­ ality. Books lined three walls mental, which entailed a science ious geniality of a man facing fiction format. root canal work: "Well, I wanted of the living room, while a ster­ eo and a stack of records (Dave my own tape, to hear what I sound "But what I'm doing now is Edmunds and Nick Lowe albums prom­ like. I've never done this be­ writing a high-tech contemporary inent) stood at the fourth. Be­ fore, you see." novel, dealing with contemporary neath one bookshelf were boxes politics. I feel it's time for me The devil gets his due, it is and boxes of Weetabix, a British to stop hiding. In a sense, I've said, and an interview with the cereal to which Platt is addicted been hiding behind the fantasy and interviewer seemed a fitting close (and which, along with other ec­ science fiction screen, talking to the Dream Makers series. Berk­ centric foodstuffs, he will carry about my real-life society indir­ ley Books agreed when I proposed on his travels, and even on oc­ ectly, in a critical way." the encounter, so I find myself casion, when invited to dinner). sitting across the table from The apartment's principal feature Charles Platt, trying to recapture was a word processor (then, still that first impression of him gain­ an innovative tool for a writer); ed several years ago, when a call its decor tacky Americana, ranging to an anonymous telephone number from a plastic 3-D Jesus plaque to in search of NEW WORLDS magazine souvenir plates inscribed with led me to his door. verses to Mother. After a confused taxi ride As this curious mixture of ap­ through Greenwich Village, I found purtenances suggests, locating Platt's apartment, nestled in a Charles Platt may be easier than shadow-land alleyway of parallel defining him. If we look to the rowhouses, originally built as public record (and by this I mean servants' quarters to an estate the charmingly opaque two-line sum­ house long ago vanquished by urb­ mations of book jackets), we learn an expansion. E.E. Cummings once that Platt was bom in Scotland in lived there, and the lower-case, 1949 ... wait, this one says Te­ cloistered atmosphere of an art­ hran in 1944 ... no, here it says ists' colony was unmistakable. a small English village in 1945, the adopted son of Lord Platt. At the last rowhouse, an eld­ One last thing I have to ask erly tenant waved me upstairs as When I ask about the discrep­ -- and this goes right back to my if she knew my destination. My ancies, Platt seems more concerned experience with Janet Morris in knock was answered by the clank that I should actually own the the Author Pit, and some of the of a security bar. The door rat­ books in question. "I can never things she's said about the science tled inward, and Platt jack-in- take anything totally seriously," fiction audience. Has she ever the-boxed out of its shadows. he says, as if the proposition been called an elitist? An unruly shock of chestnut hair were not self-evident; but the in­ topped his thin face, whose sharp terview proceeds with candor and a "Yes, I've been accused of and boyish features were emphasiz­ fair modicum of seriousness. At that, but historically, a society one point, he seemingly apologiz­ becomes known by the best and the ed by mischievous eyes. "Hullo, es, his expression deadpan: "I worst; the mediocre is forgotten. I'm Charles Platt," he said, and And one thing I don't intend to be is forgotten. One doesn't want to have to apologize for one's intel­ ligence in a free society." BY DOUGLAS E. WINTER 26 promised myself that I would do signer and later production manag­ writers, of bringing a real change those considerate things that er for NEW WORLDS, writing little to science fiction? would make an interviewer's life science fiction because of the "No one would have said so, of workload. He supported himself by easier." course, because we didn't want to writing "ridiculous soft-core non­ seem too pretentious; but never­ With the question of birthdate sense," and also played keyboards theless, there was. There was also unresolved, it seems inevitable in several "obscure" rock bands. a sense of 'us versus them,' which that we begin at the beginning. When Moorcock left NEW WORLDS in was happening in all the arts and Platt was bom in London in 1945 1969, Platt took over as editor. (and Lord Platt, a distinguished in politics. The 1960s were the physician, was his uncle). At In the late 1960s and early first time in history that youth age five, his family moved "to 1970s, NEW WORLDS was the focal had been given much power in any­ the horrible, dull, little town point for a loose-knit group of thing, and I was youth at the time. of Letchworth, where I went to a writers who brought a brief and We had our music, we had our peculiarly permissive-progressive startlingly unwelcome "new wave" clothes. I wanted us to have our school which left all its students to science fiction. Platt is literature, too. And NEW WORLDS with a totally unrealistic view of still possessed by the idealism was the focus of what was new in life. They all expected things of those times: "Largely as a re­ this respect. to be extremely easy when they sult of NEW WORLDS, I discovered left school because things had other literature which lacked the been so easy when they were at imaginative component of science "We didn't think that we were school. Some of them became~3isil- fiction but nevertheless was equal­ going to take over the world, but lusioned and bitter; others just ly challenging to the imagination. we did think we could push science remained perpetually naive, which fiction in our direction a bit. is what happened to me." And to some extent we were right; MY WORb PROCESSOR CORRECTS\ although I never imagined that He describes his childhood as MY ^RAMMER, sPEL-LtUS-/ SYmTxX, ' this slow slide, back into conven­ typical of a science fiction writ­ tionality would occur. I thought er. "I was one of those people that innovation in music and writ­ who read a book a day and believed ing was just going to keep on in it in that peculiarly intense from omni . growing outwards and upwards. It way that real science fiction fans never occurred to me that people have. I wasn't terribly popular would really prefer to go back to socially. I was the youngest in the same old stuff after they'd my class -- didn't enjoy sports. had a taste of more innovative and My idea of recreation would be challenging material. People plotting a three-dimensional graph read science fiction to be surpris­ and cutting out the little tem­ ed, so why would prople prefer plates and stacking them. I was something less surprising?" also interested in astronomy -- anything which would entail get­ ting away from being beaten up at When asked what happened, he school." "So I was woken up to the fact shakes his head, honestly bemused. that most science fiction was not "I don't know. I tend to draw an­ Writing science fiction was terribly well-written, and did not alogies with music. Music is no the inevitable next step. "I have any great insights into the longer a very potent force, but in wrote comic strips when I was human psyche -- which is something the late 1960s a lot of people about 7 or 8, which I tried to you ignore when you're sixteen were drawing energy from it. The sell to my friends at school. years old, because at that age, Beatles really did inspire people, This didn't make me very popular you don't have many insights into taking this crass form of popular or very rich, but I had big plans. the human psyche either. But as music and adding orchestras and I tried to sell a few stories you mature, you begin to realize, doing what they liked -- breaking when I was 18 or 19, sending them with a little encouragement, the all the rules and getting away to NEW WORLDS, which at that point areas that are not covered by con­ with it. And when that all fell was a slightly more literate imi­ ventional science fiction. And to pieces -- when that band split tation of the American science I'd always been interested in any­ up, and Jimi Hendrix died, and Bob fiction magazines." thing new or experimental, so the Dylan had his motorcycle accident idea of experimenting with fiction In 1965, Platt entered uni­ and came back giving us country was just fascinating. I never had music -- that was incredibly dis­ versity at Cambridge, intending to the built-in notion that there illusioning. study economics, but he quickly should be limits to things. There dropped out and moved to London. weren't any rules at school, so "Then, of course, the anti-war "Almost coincidentally, Michael why should there be any rules in movement was successful; and there Moorcock took over the editorship fiction? It always struck me as is nothing like success to defuse of NEW WORLDS. I sent him my perverse that some of the older things, because you no longer have fourth story, which he liked very writers felt that you could spec­ anything to fight against. And a much and bought. And it was a cov­ ulate on almost any topic, but lot of people got scared. I think er story, a nice way to break in­ when it came to writing your spec­ Dylan's retreat from all those to print." (Platt prefers to ulation, you had to stay within angry lyrics of the 1960s was a forget that his first professional very rigid stylistic limits. You classic case of someone just get­ sale was in 1964, to NEW WORLDS' should be able to do whatever you ting scared by what he had opened companion magazine, SCIENCE FAN­ like, to try to extend your mind up. Also, you know, people get TASY.) "It also turned out that or imagination or tastes as far more conservative as they get old­ I was living in an area of London as they will go." er, and that's another thing I do about two blocks from where Moor­ not understand. So the decline of cock was living which was very Was there a feeling of mani­ innovation in science fiction, I serendipitous, as Brian Aldiss fest destiny among the NEW WORLDS think, was wrapped up with all of would say." Platt became the de­ 27 that." Between 1966 and 1970, Platt fiction, producing a versatile as­ the great innovator of the 1950s wrote four science fiction novels. sortment of books, including OUT­ and J.G. Ballard, greater innovat­ "I never really had much of a sense DOOR SURVIVAL (a guide for young or of the 1960s," as well as the of direction. So in addition to people), SWEET EVIL ("a fantasy of late C.M. Kombluth and Algis Bud- doing what I thought was a serious Mansonesque decadence"), and three rys (MICHAELMAS was the novel of novel, THE CITY DWELLERS -- (com­ installments of the Christina ser­ the 1970s"). He remains interest­ posed of his first sale to NEW ies of "soft-core" erotica. He ed in most forms of experimenta­ WORLDS and four other stories, was New York columnist for the LOS tion in literature, but holds lit­ forming a near-future chronology) -- ANGELES FREE PRESS (as well as THE tle hope for a near-term return to "I had this tendency to do jokes. FETISH TIMES), taught evening clas­ innovative writing in science fic­ GARBAGE WORLD was the first joke; ses at two New York colleges, work­ tion. in fact, its original title was ed briefly as a magician, and most HJRD FROM THE SUN -- just designed recently has authored numerous "American publishing and, to to be a totally anal fantasy, game and utility programs for mic­ sane extent, British publishing since I was known to have an int­ rocomputers . have changed so much in the last fifteen years. Then, science fic­ erest in that kind of bad taste. In 1977, he published his best And then PLANET OF THE VOLES, and tion was obscure to most publish­ and most serious science fiction ers and they let their hireling do other things equally embarrassing novel, TWILIGHT OF THE CITY, which I just couldn't resist." whatever he liked or she liked; loosely based upon THE CITY DWEL­ but science fiction is now consid­ (Among the "other things" that LERS. It remains his most sub­ Platt dismisses is one of his best ered big business if you get the stantial work of fiction, "notable right formula, and thus it is be­ novels, THE GAS, a post-apocalypse for using economic theory as a way satire written for the renowned coming more like television than a of building the future scenario." small press -- those being the op­ publisher of erotica, Olympia Press. Since then, however, he has pub­ A recent attempt to reprint the posite ends of the artistic scale. lished only one science fiction So it's going to be much harder to book in England saw copies seized story. "I was very disillusioned by police as obscene.) Haunted by do anything too surprising. How­ his failure to have written a crit­ ever, small presses are going to ically or commercially successful become more and more important. As science fiction novel, Platt rages time goes on, there has to be some THIS BOOK IS AN ACCURATE sort of reaction against increas­ against the thought of being judg­ TtoRTKAYAL OF OUR OPERATION, ed solely on his early books: ing conservatism in the big pub­ "They just sounded so nuch fun. I WRITTEN IN A CHEAT? lishers." never imagined them lingering on LURn>, SKI FRY STYLE- THAT years later to embarrass me." ^obs it of plausibility. Hie problem is compounded, in Platt's view, by the lack of ef­ Platt left England in 1970, fective criticism of science fic­ resettling in New York City. The tion. "Most of it is inarticulate reasons for his move "are contain­ -- and not much of it is very crit­ ed in any Beach Boys or Chuck Ber­ ical. Most of it is saying, 'Oh, ry song -- you know, 'I wish they here's another good book in The all could be California Girls' or Shadow of the Torturer Series. 'Hot dogs and hamburgers ... back Jolly good. How pleasing it is to in the U.S.A.' All these national see such fine writing.' Well, cliches of course, turn out to be that is not criticism: That is true. People talk more bluntly the sort of response that one over here, are less reserved. It gives when one's pleasure centers is a country which, up until now are inoffensively stimulated. at any rate, hasn't throttled it­ self with its own history. It's "It's a miserable job being a still willing to change abruptly critic. You don't get paid much. and quickly, and I like change. because that novel was exactly You have to think at least as hard And I also like cities, and I think what I wanted to write at the time as if you were writing a short New York is probably the most vis­ and it didn't sell. I’ve never story. Few critics' works are go­ ually exciting city to be in, and been very good at dealing with ing to be anthologized, so you are I get recharged just be riding my having my work rejected or unsuc­ really writing something which is bike around town." cessful, so I gave it a rest." almost disposable. So it's not surprising that few good writers He continues to view himself bother to write criticism. Why He traveled extensively as a science fiction writer howev­ should they? They're much better through America in the 1970s, er: "It's hard to stop. I imag­ paid and better loved for writing and "wrote some undistinguished ine it's the same if you learn fiction." novels in order to finance an it­ country guitar --no matter what you go on to after that, you still Nevertheless, in recent years, inerant lifestyle." In 1972, he Platt has returned to science fic­ was appointed consulting editor, think in certain guitar-picking patterns. So I always think of tion, primarily as a critic, to specializing in science fiction, tilt at the windmills of its writ­ at Avon Books. He compiled their myself as a science fiction writ­ er, even though I've hardly done ing and publishing establishments. "rediscovery" list of science fic­ He assisted in a brief revival of tion classics, and persuaded Avon any of it, because that's what I started doing. I still get ideas NEW WORLDS from 1978 to 1980, fi­ to publish some new issues of NEW nancing, editing and designing one WORLDS in book form. He resigned for science fiction books. I've got ideas for about twenty science issue himself. In 1980, Platt when Avon refused to buy Philip K. began editing and self-publishing Dick's FLOW MY TEARS, THE POLICE­ fiction books at least. I write them down and store them away ..." THE PATCHIN REVIEW, a 'little mag­ MAN SAID because they disliked its azine" that "is the only truly title. Platt's major writing influ­ radical, skeptical voice within Platt has since spent most of ences have been "Alfred Bester, the science fiction field." The his time writing outside of science 28 magazine presents serious criti­ cism hand-in-hand with unadulter­ there are certain writers who are that he represented my ambitions ated gossip and satiric tomfoolery. on a kind of 'science fiction wel­ as of about 1966 -- and what had Platt's editorial tone has led cer­ fare' -- they're conceptual para­ gone wrong? There are numerous tain writers and critics -- not a sites, serving no useful function figures I could think of who rep­ few of whom have been the subjects in creative or literary terms. I resented my different ambitions of of its barbs --to contend that he would like there to be less of that period. So it's impossible pursues controversy only for the this repetitive, derivative fic­ for me to say. My financial needs sake of controversy. He reacts tion. are modest, so long as I have this with hurt surprise: "Any area of nice rent-stabilized apartment, the arts gets stale unless people "There is also a great need until such time as the building try new things. People are not for good rational fiction, because falls down -- maybe sooner than we going to try new things if they there is so much anti-rational all think. are constantly congratulated for fiction being published. There "I like writing science fic­ doing the same old things. has been such a retreat from sci­ ence just because some of the tion. I think it's important, "I am not in favor of newness things that science achieved turn­ and yet even now when it's a com­ for its own sake, but I do get bor­ ed out to have unpleasant side ef­ mercial category, it's still an ed if there is a conspicuous fects. We now have people who awfully small pond to be a sircess lack of innovation. Science fic­ are against nuclear anything rath­ in. Wouldn't it be more interest­ tion should be a literature of er than being selective. As far ing to be writing movies or to be surprises. We all know each other as I'm concerned, having gone this a success in some larger category? in this field, with the exception far, science is the only thing Wouldn't we all like to be Stephen of a very few editors and writers. that can save us. So this is all King, for instance, who not only We naturally tend to be tactful the more inportant now, to see has had his work made into movies socially, and even in reviews stories which are proper science but can now actually act in his that are published in profession­ fiction rather than just whimsical own short stories for the screen? al magazines. This is bad. It fantasy or myth or whatever you Sure, but this is Walter Mitty leads to complacency, and complac­ want to call it. stuff, this is not real. ency leads to repetition, low "It's very difficult for me standards, bad habits that are nev­ not to get diverted. Somebody er corrected. So, I think honesty wants me to write a series of six is an antidote. I don't see what children's books, for instance. is controversial about that. rot*. MA6HG A41RROR. I've never done it before, so it's "Good heavens, this country ateyovk floppy naturally intriguing. There's an­ has freedom of speech written in­ YOUK MATESTY/ other possibility of adapting com­ to its Constitution. It's another puter programs to run on other reason I live here. The country computers. Unfortunately, there's I came from does not have that not enough time to do all these guarantee, so I feel acutely that things before you die; and, as one it's very inportant to be free to passes the age of 35, you stop speak your mind. I'm always sur­ thinking about how much time has prised when other people want to gone past and you start thinking qualify that. They say, 'Oh, well, about how much time is left." yes, I completely agree -- except of course, in certain circum­ stances.' And that, to me, is not Platt's renewed ambition is ob­ a small difference at all. That is vious as he discusses his interest all the difference." in completing a new science fic­ tion novel by early 1983. "Doing His adamance notwithstanding, the DREAM MAKERS volumes taught me trouble seems to follow Platt. a lot about how people who write In pursuit of his vague ideal of successfully do what they do. honesty (applied selectively, as "It's a question of just do­ And then I began to understand a witness his revisionist approach ing the job properly; that is to lot more about publishing than I to his own history), he holds no say, of making it rational --as ever had. So I now feel I have a truck with tact or diplomacy: opposed to fantasy, which is not "You know, without wanting to much better shot at writing some­ -- and writing it well. And the thing which will please me, some­ sound too profound, sometimes the fact that it often has not been thing which will please other peo­ truth seems more important than a written well does not mean that friendship." Indeed, a friend of ple too, and will perhaps be mod­ that’s what science fiction is, it erately successful." more than ten years' standing be­ just means it has not fulfilled came so upset by his DREAM MAKERS its promise." I have no doubt that Charles profile that he threatened to seek Platt will follow through, quell­ an injunction against the first What about Charles Platt? ing the inevitable distractions, volume. They have not talked to Where would he like to be as a to write his novel. He is a dif­ each other since 1980. writer in ten years? ficult man to know, an easy one to misjudge; but he is scrupulous in What practical effect does he "I always wanted to be about pursuit of his ideals, which have hope his critical efforts will ob­ ten different things. That's the never faltered. His Swiftian tain? Where would he like to see whole problem. That's why, you streak, the penchant for satire science fiction in ten years? know, 'jack of all trades, master of none' and all that. and the seeming pursuit of contro­ versy, is the raw nerve end of a "I'd like there to be less of "Part of me still wants to be deep-seated determination to bet­ it. Some politicians scream, a rock star. I saw Pete Townshend ter science fiction. He has kept 'Get rid of the welfare chiselers.' in a movie recently, and realized his dream, as befits a dream mak­ Well, in my case, I don't object er. at all to people on welfare, but 29 LETTERS

# LETTER FROM MACK REYNOLDS Apartado 252 San Miguel de Allende Gto., Mexico January 3, 1983

'Sorry I've been so tardy in replying to your letter of Novem­ ber 11th. I was in hospital in Texas recovering from surgery in­ volving cancer of the esophagus. So far as I know, I am not being blackballed by editors and publishers. In fact, I just sold four books, for reissue to Jim Baen of Tor. And my things are going quite well in Europe.

What's evidently happened is that the current fans want inter­ galactic wars, feudalistic empir­ es of the future in which the pro­ tagonist slaughters dragons with his laser sword. In short, the current generation of fans wants fantasy not science fiction. They were weaned on STAR TREK, STAR WARS and such, and mistake space opera for science fiction. The type of yarn in which I've specialized, and which was quite popular back in the 1960s and early 70s, is currently out of style. 'I'm still writing, as ever, and occasionally still place

30 shorts and novelettes in the maga­ tasy notions in an SF context zines, although the last ten of were set out in PATCHIN REVIEW my novel lengths are still to be and I need not repeat them here. sold. I don't really disagree with Dar­ rell about the long tradition of 'I think that one factor is that the current crop of editors fantasy (though he stretches the and publishers are not of the old argument a bit). Seems curious breed of science fiction folk. to see him labeling us "reaction­ aries" and then beating the pulp­ All the great editors -- Campbell, it about how fantasy is old as Boucher, Gold, Pohl and Bova and the hills, goes back to Shakes­ Schmidt along with them -- were SF writers themselves and born into peare, etc.... the genre. They were science fic­ 'Again he ventures the argu­ tion editors. Too many of the ment that critics of the avalanche current crop are fresh out of of sludge fantasy are somehow "af­ school and possibly never heard of raid" of the fantasy reading ex­ our field until the first job that perience. Come now! There's popped up was with some publisher plenty of sump-pump emotion in SF who needed a secretary for the SF and dark visions, too. Reading editor. Six months later and our fantasy is a different procedure, johnny-come-lately has inherited in a way, but not that far from the job!' reading any imaginative litera­ ture, including SF. LeGuin's mumbo-jumbo to the contrary, I ((A few days after he wrote this don't think any elitist defini­ letter, Mack Reynolds died. His tions define why people read fan­ problems are over, but the writing tasy (superior emotional range and editorial problems he experienc­ etc. etc.). Different doesn't im­ 9 ed will continue. For a profession­ ply better or worse. al writer with courage, with some­ 'Similarly, his asking if I thing to say, the future doesn't tion is also, subtly, a man's/boy's could write something equal to look too bright. genre, and girls/women have adopted THE ONCE G FUTURE KING is apples ((Who would have thought that fantasy as "their" genre. And and oranges again. T.H. White Mack Reynolds, the most popular editors have picked up on this and couldn't write TIMESCAPE and I writer of science fiction a few tried to accent it, exploit it. couldn't do his work, either. years ago, could have accumulated ((Science is hard and cold and What's valuable about writers is ten unpublished sf novels? Are cruel and rigid and inflexible. It their differentness! we to believe that the readers who invokes a probably frightening, un­ so liked and purchased his novels knowable future. While fantasy is 'I persist in thinking, suddenly, en masse, disappeared? softer, warmer, more secure, know­ though, that SF -- when it's good Or is it more likely that some able, limited, and because it is -- requires more actual thinking editors got sick of his writing, impossible-of-being-ever-real, not than good fantasy. Why? Fantasy his politics, sociology, style, frightening. Fantasy deals more can skate by on a higher emotion­ and decided he was therefore out- with human relationships. Science of-style and not writing what the al gloss, stylistic effects, mood, etc. -- all virtues which the SF fiction deals more with wars and newest readers wanted? male dominance. ((The buyers of Mack Reynolds audience isn't much tuned to, and won't accept as the main content ((Does that fly, or should I novels are still out there, waiting. put it back in its cage?)) And. some smart editor, with a long of their reading. They want i- view and some tenure (or expectation deas and plot -- the two hardest of tenure) will buy those ten novels things to do in fiction, even from the Reynolds estate and make more important than constructing a lot of money over the years.)) believable characters. 'I like to see all this talk about the glacial shifts in our # LETTER FROM DARRELL SCHWEITZER field; they're healthy. I hope 113 Deepdale Road Darrell's editing ventures pan Strafford, PA 19087 out as well as they sound, and February 1, 1983 welcome his ruminations. You do # LETTER FROM GREGORY BENFORD keep the animals stirred up ...’ 'To explain what I mean by 1105 Skyline Drive fantasy writing techniques, there Laguna Beach, CA 92651 really are such things. Such as, January 7, 1983 ((Here I go putting my foot in for instance, basing the entire it again, but I suspect strongly metaphorical structure of a story 'Fascinating winter issue, on a known myth or fairy tale. from the Budrys romp to the Laum- that fantasy---- the new fantasy genre with its medieval orienta­ This is usually done best in fan­ er and Carr interviews. It is tasy. What Greg Benford was com­ good to see Laumer coming back tion, its supernatural aspect, and its string of "strong female plaining about, when referring to after an incredible struggle and THE SNOW QUEEN, was that Vinge had displaying the old verve. characters" is aimed at, and bought, mostly by young women. I suspect let the fairy-tale resonances dic­ 'I am afraid Darrel Schweit­ that because science is a "man's tate the plot, rather then science- zer mistakes me for a fantasy hat­ work" category in our society, and fictional logic. This is an ex­ er. For that matter, I think he because girls are subtly discourag­ ample of fantasy techniques influ­ mistakes Spinrad as well, and ed from entering it, science fic- encing science fiction, not very probably Platt. My arguments a- successfully according to some bout the difficulty of using fan­ 31 people. 'Actually, we can see the be­ over flat sand," and in the end, (it's a fantasy story from the ginnings of this sort of thing in when everybody gives in completely worst-circulated issue of AMAZING the New Wave era. All those myth to a kind of pagan wildness. Elf­ in history), but it would be nice stories are essentially fantasies, land washes over the mortal coun­ for publicity purposes to be on however many transistors there try, separating it from Earth the final ballot. Sigh. might be. THE EINSTEIN INTERSEC­ entirely. 'Amie Fenner is right that TION is fantasy. The fantasy boom 'If you try to make science- my comments on FljSF's art are a of today has its roots in Delany fictional sense out of either little too sweeping. I guess I and Zelazny and LeGuin as much as case, you can't, and miss the over-react because I automatically in Tolkein, I think. point entirely. expect excellence from FtjSF, and 'But to be more specific: many of the covers have been less 'These are not just examples Frequently in fantasy, and only in than excellent. The imitation Mag­ of ideas. You could make science- fantasy, the entire story can be ritte art has become a home-grown fictional ideas out of both in­ based on a kind of literalized cliche', though of course that is stances. Perhaps psionic thought­ metaphor, which would be gibberish not the entirety of what F6SF projection (or a monster from the in science fiction, because sci­ publishes. Id) in LeGuin, and other dimen­ ence fiction represents a whole sions or time portals in Dunsany. other form of storytelling. (In But this would deprive the books essence, Heinlein is right; sci­ of their meaning. In both, some­ 'As for the Davis magazines ence fiction is a form of realism. thing which would be a mere figure being art-directed by an Idiot, I Fantasy, I would add, is not. It of speech in either mainstream or don't retract that. Most of the only incorporates the techniques science fiction becomes something covers still strike me as poor, of realism selectively, sometimes much more through an a-rational though I think they've gotten the uneasily.) (not irrational) structure to the Idiot house-broken by now. Stan­ 'For instance, the plot of A story, which is a little akin to ley Schmidt in particular, has WIZARD OF EARTHSEA has to do with allegory, but not allegory. One been notably successful in getting the "shadow of pride." Quite lit­ of the few science fiction novels ANALOG to look like a science fic­ erally. It is something conjured I can think of that has this char­ tion magazine again. But in the up by the hero in a moment of hu­ acteristic is Zelazny's THE DREAM beginning, ANALOG probably suffer­ bris, and it stalks him throughout MASTER. Otherwise it is a fantasy ed more than IASFM. The first the book. In the end, Ged stops technique. I would call the way "new" cover, April 27, 1981, shows running away, and faces what he the central concept of a book is an op-art bald Dracula with a fuz­ has done, and absorbs the shadow realized, and the way a book ach­ zy black sphere hovering over his into himself. ieves its meaning a technique. head. It communicates nothing of (In the same sense that satire has what the magazine is about. The 'Another very good example is specific techniques of exaggera­ cover following has a dolphin on Dunsany's conception of Elfland tion, for instance.) Technique is it. It could just as well be a in THE KING OF ELFLAND'S DAUGHTER. more than just plot, character, cover for SCIENCE DIGEST. The Ju­ It isn't quite a place, but some­ scene structure, dialogue, etc. ly 20, 1981 cover seems to show a thing sensitive persons can glimpse Pueblo Indian pissing over a ledge. in the twilight of evening and a The September 14, 1981 cover shows few (perhaps aided by magic) can ((Oh, okay. 7 would call those a large cigarette filter masquer­ enter. The hero does and makes elements fantasty structure or fan­ ading as a spaceship (I think). off with an Elfin princess, but tasy themes. But wotthehell.)) One of the contributors in that later when she can't adjust to issue, very proud of being publish­ earthly things, and sails off to 'In fact, there are techniques ed in ANALOG, told me once that he Elfland on the wind, the hero goes unique to science fiction, most of rapidly became ashamed of showing searching. But he can never find which were invented by Robert Hein­ off the issue to his relatives, Elfland again because the Elf King lein, and have to do with integ­ who would take one look at the has withdrawn his borders, leaving rating the background of an imag­ cover and just laugh. ined future or whatever into the "a space that would weary the com­ 'About the same time IASFM et," in which you might hear snat­ story in an unobtrusive manner, so that the events and characters published a very distinguished is­ ches of forgotten songs or find sue, containing a Tiptree novelet things you'd lost long ago. But seem natural to the setting. Main­ stream writers frequently do bad­ later to be nominated for awards when the hero is elsewhere, "Elf­ and the best Lafferty story in land came racing back, as the tide ly in science fiction because they have not mastered these extra years, but all this was deftly con­ techniques. Then again, mystery cealed behind a bleary pink cover fiction has specific techniques be­ showing a vaguely-defined white yond the basic ones of narrative. sphere. That's all. My theory at You P(7LlTHE t/memto out the time was it was an embryonic OF “THE CY-I VE, CWKTT TO THK.BE 'The specific fantasy technique golf ball. I mention is not new. You'll find it a lot in medieval romance. SIR 'Really, these are among the GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT is very worst and most grotesquely inap­ much put together that way -- it propriate covers in the entire his­ is not quite allegory, but its tory of the field. That first ANA­ meaning shapes the story in a LOG cover may be the very worst in specialized way — for all that the entire run of the magazine, or the narrative technique is that of at least going back as far as the alliterative verse rather than the Clayton issues. And I know the novel. readers hated them, because I saw the letters they wrote, which were 'Guess what. I'm on the pre­ about 15-1 against. There were an liminary Nebula ballot. I haven't extraordinary number of them too. got the slightest chance of winning You rarely get much letter response 32 about covers. 'Next to this anything F&SF ever ran is of course among the world's greatest masterpieces of painting. The post-Scithers IASFM has improved somewhat, though there are still serious lapses. The FOUNDATION'S EDGE issue looks like a copy of TV GUIDE. The cov­ ers mostly seem to be an attempt to imitate the random recycling of surrealist art in OMNI. Curiously the most recent issue I have seen (April, 1983) has a crude, clutter­ ed attempt at a science fiction painting on the cover. It's no worse than what you'd expect on the cover of, say, a Manor book, but I would expect more from a ma­ jor SF magazine. 'It seems to me that covers on books and magazines both have been deteriorating sharply in the past few years. The best thing I can say about IASFM covers is that they are better than they were in 1981, and recently they haven't been getting worse.'

'"God!", you said, "I wish I is childish, isn't it being so was thirteen again!" If the concerned about whether we're re­ pleasure of reading -- or writ­ spectable? The mundanes know they ing -- a book like BATTLEFIELD are not on solid ground. They EARTH has to be given up then, keep turning to circuses, to Zor- it's a rite of passage I'm glad I ba-the-Greeks, and by God, to us # LETTER FROM JOHN HERTZ never went through. Some things for refreshment. If we seek to 236 S. Coronado St, #409 are worthwhile because they're be like them, we have only to de­ Los Angeles, CA 90057 tasty and fun. Predictable? Of cide that it's beneath our adult 24 January 1983 course, EARTH was predictable. dignity to like to play.' So is a hot fudge sundae. There's 'Actually, I liked BATTLEFIELD cold vanilla ice cream on the bot­ EARTH. I said so in a review for tom, and hot chocolate sauce on ((I can't argue with you. I liked THIS HOUSE. It's a fine adventure the top, and the only question is what I read of BATTLEFIELD EARTH story in the best pulp manner, the how to get just the right combina­ up to the point I stopped reading. kind of thing Hubbard was always tion into your mouth at each bite. I stopped because I prefer fiction good at. I enjoyed watching the EARTH had good humans, and bad a- (now) to be more realistic and story roll on past the first good liens, and a terrific assembly of 'adult’. .The same scene-by-scene curtain line, where this kind of dangers and problems and silly plot could be written by a differ­ novel usually cuts off. It was gadgets. (It also had bad humans ent writer, in a different style, entertaining and even funny, an­ and good aliens, but they were and I might hail it the greatest other characteristic of Hubbard's just the cookie garnish.) The he­ novel ever written. A word here, writing and one too rare in the ro even had a horse he loved more a detail there, an attitude change pulp genre. Too bad you quit than his girl! I'm convinced Hub­ elsewhere... I claim no superior reading before you finished it. bard dreamed up a semi-agrarian ’taste’ or status for my prefer­ You would have liked the Galactic future just so he could work that ence. BATTLEFIELD EARTH may be Bank. in. the best pulp-style sf adventure 'Andy Porter was quick to wail 'The mundane world is still ever written.)) how terrible it would be if fug- self-conscious about using its im­ gheads praised EARTH because they agination and enjoying itself. liked Scientology. I don't hear The two together are almost too anyone sounding off about fugg- much for it to bear, and the in­ heads carping at EARTH because creasing need to do both in daily they didn't like Scientology. In­ life stirs a reaction that natur­ cluding you, Geis. That column in ally falls on us. Mundane critic­ last issue's "Alien Thoughts" was ism constantly tries to impress on # LETTER FROM LARRY NIVEN pretty cheap. As Darrell Schweit­ us that, even though we're stfnal, 3961 Vanalden Avenue zer pointed out, when Hubbard got we can still be all right if we'll Tarzana, CA 91356 the idea he had come up with some­ only be thoughtful■ In our moods January 18, 1983 thing that could save the world, of susceptibility to this bullroar he had the good manners to go off we feel embarrassed by pulp writ­ 'I woke on a November Wednes­ by himself and do something about ing. We want to assure ourselves day to the thunder of hail maul­ it. He never wrote long preachy that we know how childish it is, ing our roof. novels that stuffed his theories and that those of us who are truly It was disorienting. I'd gone into fiction. There aren't any mature are beyond it. If anything Scientology lectures in EARTH, to sleep in Southern California! Things like that don't happen either. 33 here ... unless this really is 'Putting in a new floor dis­ We did the best we could. rupted our lives more than the the onset of the Ice Age. Hail 'The comic book (Kevin still hailstorm. Installation involved and rain were filling the pool and wants to pay off in Jamaica Blue everything out of the living room. spa and making piles of white ice Mountain coffee, and that's fine Sofas and tables and bookcases and all over the grounds and the golf by me) went into temporary coma books wound up in the hall and course across the street. when one Robert Mandell appeared the bedroom, blocking any path to on the scene. It seems to have 'I lived four years in Kansas anywhere. The TV set that gets recovered: Kevin and Judy-Lynn and I've seen bigger hailstones. the Z channel had to go too. Del Rey (Ballantine/Fawcett/Del But I never saw a hailstorm to Thus I missed seeing UP IN SMOKE, Rey Books) have come to an agree­ top this one. There were still perhaps my last chance in this ment. Nothing is certain yet. piles of ice here and there next life. Jerry Pournelle keeps rav­ morning. ing about it -- funniest movie 'Robert Mandell (ITC Entertain­ he's ever seen -- particularly now 'The hailstorm and following ment) wants to make a Ringworld that I've missed it -- storms damaged a power plant down­ feature-length animated film, us­ hill from us. We were without pow­ 'I do like the floor, and so ing Japanese animators, final cut­ er for more than 24 hours. The does Fuzzy. ting to take place in New York. house temperature dropped to the This looks real. He's had the ex­ # # # # fifties. We lived by candlelight perience, cutting Japanese SF and lanternlight. The battery 'RINGWORLD is getting popu­ cartoons until a story line ap­ lamps held up well enough to read lar. pears. Judy-Lynn wants to take me and cook dinner by. We wore three to the premier. If a Ringworld 'The Ringworld comic book pro­ layers of clothing, and two to animated movie appears, the comic ject, years defunct, rose from the bed: the water bed lost heat too. art should look like the movie art dead in 1982. The artist involv­ ... shouldn't it? It's all pret­ 'When the power came on, Fuz­ ed is Larry Todd, the creator of ty diffuse. I haven't signed con­ zy leapt to her feet shrieking DOCTOR ATOMIC. Picture Doctor tracts for anyting except the game. triumph. "POWER!" I told her Zarkov (Flash Gordon's companion The game is real. Also, the game they'd put her away if she could and forebrain substitute) as a has been delayed .... not shed this schizophrenic dream. drug addict: That's Doctor Atomic, 'We've been losing power in­ the only hard-science-fiction 'Meanwhile, at ChiCon my pri­ termittently ever since. I can't character in the underground com­ mary Japanese translator, Takumi talk without my computer. ics universe. Shibano, showed me a bunch of Ringworld stuff from Japanese fans. 'By now Larry Todd and Kevin 'We've got to build orbiting The Teela Brown good luck charm he Dwayne both know more about the solar power plants, now. They'd kept for himself, but he gave us Ringworld than I do. This by no collect sunlight that was on its Pierson's puppeteers done in felt means uncommon. So do the people way to interstellar space, convert which we hung on our Christmas from Chaosium Inc. who are involv­ the power to microwaves and beam tree; and two packets of sunflower ed in making a Ringworld role­ it down, raising the Earth's heat seeds, which I have been afraid playing game. They've all quizzed balance. I never said that there to plant. Slaver sunflower seeds. wasn't an Ice Age on in Gil the me for details on known space, at ARM's time, or Beowulf Shaeffer's. the Chicago Worldcon and at the # # # # Octocon. There are inconsistenc­ 'Jerry Pournelle and I have # # # # ies and they had to be resolved. gotten involved in some triple collaborations. I mean four such, with four different people, all at the beginning of their development. Maybe we're crazy. But if we don't know how to run a triple collaboration -- any more than anyone else does -- we're going to get plenty of practice. 'FALLEN ANGELS is a book Jer­ ry and I have been wanting to write for years. We invited David Gerrold in because we need his kooky sense of humor ... evident­ ly; by ourselves we have been un­ able to start it at all. 'The story involves a prox- mired future, one in which the space programs died all across the world, after a base was estab­ lished on the Moon. The base is hanging on by its teeth. 'Then a couple of Angels crashland, far north, where the glaciers are marching (yes, the Ice Age has come into its own). They wouldn't have a chance with­ out the underground. Sound famil­ iar? But what's going to make it fun is that the underground is science fiction fandom. 'Steven Barnes and Jerry and be the man with a wood stove, a bark on lunatic causes such as I are writing of a colony on a lantern, and a manual typewriter. the defense of wife and child world of a nearby star, and the At heart I don't trust computers. beating as "natural activities." monster that the prelim survey did I've stood by and watched too many What I object to, as you know, is not find (THE LEGACY OF HEOROT). people try to use those computer­ the self-righteous stupidity of ized tellers on the outside of Darrell Schweitzer, and the vast 'Jerry and I and Alex Pour- banks and savings & loans ... they amount of space he takes up. Had nelle are writing a computerized push the buttons, curse, wait, wait, it not been for disapproval voic­ role-playing game based on INFERNO. wait, wail, cry, scream, and never, ed by others in the room, I would 'Jerry and I and Wendy All, ever, get their bank/credit card have gone further in my prelimin­ the artist (and linguist, with back. ary attempts to strangle him at some other talents too) are writ­ ((Thanks for the update on the Philadelphia convention. But ing a comic book involving a civ­ your writing. Ginjer Buchanan (rightly) told me ilization of evolved moles. She ((I don't think my writing the SFWA suite wasn't the best designed this universe long ago, system would fit with a word place. Her sentiment -- that my with emphasis on the mole scient­ processor: I constantly make so timing was bad, even though the ist, Avogadro. By now we've got many changes, and need to see cause was a worthy one -- was a fairly extensive culture worked the various former versions of echoed by others. I guess I'll out. a line so often, that a word­ have to wait till I next encount­ # # # # processor /printer would be a er DS outside a convention hotel. constant frustration.)) I trust I won't have to wait too 'THE INTEGRAL TREES is fin­ long.' ished. 'The setting of this book, the ((Anything man does is natural. Smoke Ring, is strange even com­ CTHE. AnT> Anything we do is human. Talking pared to the Ringworld. I des­ THE IZ-L/AP ARE BCIH i about 'inhuman ’ acts or 'unnatural' cribed it to some San Diego fans I FUL-L- OF SEXUAL-1 TV J behavior is ridiculous. Some of us in July of 1981. I mailed copies may not approve of some behavior, of the manuscript off in December. at this time, in this society, but Judy-Lynn says she can't schedule let us, as sf writers and cormenta- it for publication until March tors, have the perspective to see 1984. mankind for what he is, truly, and accept him/us/ourselves. 'Bob Mills will auction the ((Anyway, I wasn't, as you know!, serial rights unless he takes my writing a brief advocating child and last letter as a declaration of wife abuse. I was objecting to its war. He just sent me a form let­ exploitation and (I suspect) promo­ ter announcing that he's going to tion by the agencies and individuals start taking 15% instead of 10%. who profit from it. I wrote back telling him he wasn't. ((Darrell will just have to # # # # learn self-defense or carry a weapon, I guess. Either that or stop writing 'My five-year-old computer reviews/criticism.)) died last week. It's been revived like Frankenstein's monster, us­ ing parts from Marilyn's machine downstairs. From the way Tony Pietsch acted while he was trying to fix it -- the machine he built himself -- it's more than obsol­ # LETTER FROM DARRELL SCHWEITZER ete: it's like something dug out 113 Deepdale Road of an Egyptian tomb. He'd forgot­ # LETTER FROM CHARLES PLATT THE PATCHIN REVIEW Strafford, PA 19087 ten everything about this type of February 11, 1983 relic. It took him three days, 9 Patchin Place and he had to keep going in after New York, NY 10011 January 29, 1983 'While waiting out a blizzard something else that had fouled I chanced to notice a typo in my up during repairs. 'One of your correspondents review of EYE OF THE HERON. On 'I've just sent him a check doubts the existence of John page 41 of SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW for two new computers, duplicates Steakley. I met Steakley at the #46, third column, the line read­ of Jerry's equipment, as usual. world fantasy con in October. ing "It's about the problems be­ In theory these should enable me Nice guy. From the South. setting society" should read "... to write like a literate jackrab­ besetting a Pacifist society." bit. In practice ... I don't no­ 'If you change SCIENCE FIC­ TION REVIEW, change it in the di­ 'Now the review seems a lot tice Jerry writing that much more coherent. faster. rection of fuller coverage of small press publications. To me, 'Steve Gallagher's article # # # # this is the most valuable part of is very ironic coming just now, 'This kind of summary- of- the magazine, because I can't get when the best seller lists, both the-year is more traditional in this information anywhere else. PUBLISHER'S WEEKLY and the NY December. I never do it anyway; You could write four paras on each TIMES, have been dominated by SF/ but it's been an unusual winter.' magazine instead of two. fantasy for months in the hardcov­ 'I always enj oy your commen­ er category. In this week's PW, tary, anyway. Even when you em- eight out of the fifteen hardcov­ ((Sometimes I get the premonition ers are SF/fantasy or related. that the last writer on Earth will 35 This has been going on since the . summer. At one point it was sev­ as her other books. She is a big IASFM ANTHOLOGY). Clarke and Asi­ en out of the top ten. name in her own genre. In science mov have written sequels to their fiction she would be a beginner own past "future" history series. 'Uh, I don't think SF writers and would sell like a beginner.' need worry about ghetto limita­ 'A nice summation of science tions anymore. fiction lies in the opening of ((There is something of a best-sell­ Jim Kombluth's THE SYNDIC: 'All publishing is in the form er formula, too, of course. Pub­ '"No accurate history of of genre these days. "Mainstream" lishers are doing more and more the future has ever publishing no longer exists, and demographies research to better been written -- a fact has not for perhaps decades. There pinpoint readerships and special which I think disposes are science fiction genre books, interests. If a distribution/access of history's claim to literary genre books, and bestsel­ system could be put together which rank as a science ..." ler genre books (such as what Irv­ could alert every reader of his/her ing Wallace or Judith Krantz or special interest books as they become 'To me that just means the John Jakes might write). Most of available, it would pay a publisher past doesn't lie -- the future the books on the bestseller list to develop sub-sub-sub-sub genres. does.' are bestseller genre books, often ((It’s true that an author belonging to a subgenre like the could and perhaps should write under generation saga. But it has be­ different names for different ((I think a good working knowledge come increasingly obvious that SF genres. I have had word that at of sociobiology is indispensable books can take on bestseller genre least one editor was prejudiced to understanding past history (in characteristics and do this, as against a novel of mine which was spite of the warping and special­ Heinlein and Asimov especially non-sex because he associated me with interest editing and censoring have shown, without losing their sex novels. So in future it may be that goes on) and for a realistic SF characteristics. They can go necessary or tactically appropriate view of the future. It's impossible all the way to the top. for me to write under another name to know enough science, geography, to overcome that 'taint'. I am politics, psychology, sociology, 'Pity the poor Literary Main­ beginning to understand how some etc. to track mankind more than a stream writer. His genre is get­ actors feel at being typecast.)) year or two into the future as far ting closed out. SF consistently as specific event is concerned.)) outsells "serious" mainstream, and consistently outnumbers it on the best seller lists. 'SF has the added feature that it tends to stay in print for de­ cades, while best seller genre # LETTER FROM JACK R HERMAN books do not. (Will anyone be WAHF-FULL reading Judith Krantz in 40 years? Box 272, Wentworth Bldg. I bet they'll be reading Heinlein Sydney University and Asimov.) Australia 2006 2 February 1983 'The whole idea of an SF writ­ er achieving success by "breaking 'Thanx for SCIENCE FICTION RE­ out into the mainstream" is faulty. VIEW #45 with the brilliant Brad An SF writer can go all the way to Foster wrap-around cover. It is the top within SF. In fact, a the best cover that you've had for mainstream writer, who writes the some time and demonstrates that BF kind of stuff critics call "litera­ is one of the coming fanartists. ture," has a considerably smaller How long before he is hugoed? chance. 'I agree with your comments '"Breaking into the main­ re the stupidity of the splitting stream" results in the discovery of the fanzine Hugo into two cate­ that their ghetto is not nearly gories. The arguments about what as roomy or prosperous as ours. is a fanzine can go back and forth. 'As for why Stephen King used I note there is no mention in the a pseudonym on an SF book, well, Amendment about ."trading," for any successful novelist builds up instance. To me, one of the major the expectations of his audience. things about fanzine editors is Suppose Tolkein had written a # LETTER FROM MARK PROSKEY that they trade, at least for de­ tough-guy murder mystery with ex­ 1217 West Albion cent zines, as you seem to. As it plicit sex in it. Suppose Lin Chicago, IL 60626 is now, a zine with a 900 circul­ Carter, today, were to write a February 7, 1983 ation that is sold, but not for book comparable to Tom Disch's ON much, that has limited advertising WINGS OF SONG. A pseudonym would 'My opinion of the current and doesn't pay its staff, quali­ be in order. science fiction scene (re 1982) fies for a hugo even if it doesn't trade, publish LOCs or engage in 'It is admittedly difficult evokes a feeling of deja vu. Arthur C. Clarke, Isaac Asimov and any other fannish practise, so for a writer to cross over between long as the editor keeps his fan­ genres, from mainstream into SF or Robert Heinlein (in backward ord­ er of preference) are back with a zine income below his other in­ SF into mainstream. But that's come. To me, the fanzine hugo has just the way things work. If Joy­ vengeance. FRIDAY can be consid­ ered a summation of Heinlein's never really been available to fan­ ce Carol Oates were to write an zines, but has been dominated by unmistakable science fiction nov­ past "future" history (from what I gleaned from the excerpt in large circulation zines, some of el, and have it marketed as such, which are or may have been fan­ of course it wouldn't do as well 36 zines. The change in rules which institutionalises a hugo which techniques. Most people associate the protagonist is female, does you, Brown, Porter and Co can the pulp houses with the sort of he have to fall back on the old share around, doesn't make the vo­ image that has a couple of eccen­ "in defense of the poor woman" ex­ ters any more likely to know one tric writers using the same out­ cuse when Friday murders the cop fanzine from another: larger cir­ line for a story and rewriting it who was threatening Janet? What culation zines, or those with 3 or 4 times as historical fic­ happened to the phone number the "names" will still win. If we tion, then romantic, then western Boss gave Friday just before he want a fan peer award for fanzine and finally put on Mars with blas­ died? work, it must be an expanded and ters as SF. It may not be true improved FAAA Award. but the myth may be stronger than 'I think your reply to Sandy the truth. Paris-Barger indicates that your thinking about sex roles and wo­ ((If LOCUS wins the Best Fanzine Hugo ((If you examine the plots of some men writers is very retarded. this gear, for the fourth year in a of the newer fantasy novels you'll "Wimpy" fantasy has a long history row, you can drop STARSHIP and SFR find a very familiar sf plot: the when compared to gore-filled fan­ from the equation: it will simply be boy/girl transported from here and tasy, just as in mystery fiction The LOCUS Award. As LOCUS's circu­ now to a strange land of magic and there are schools of both gentle lation continues to rise, and as king/usurper polities and/or a ter­ detection and of hard-boiled dicks. SFR's circulation continues to drift rible problem requiring a Quest. Women have little to do with it. lower (because I don't advertise any­ It's a matter of substituting high Both men and women write in the more) LOCUS's lock on the award sorcery for high tech. And that divergent fields of SF and fantasy. will tighten. And, let's admit it, isn’t very far from a boy/girl LOCUS is a fine, well-edited fan 'Donald Lambert is a master of brought to the wild west to confront understatement: Not only has Nos­ magazine. )) a greedy land baron or outlaw gang. tradamus not been 100% accurate, 1 see nothing wrong with that; he has only ever been accurate in there are only so many basic plots. 'I disagree with your analysis retrospect. The most laughable of of the economic situation -- we do It's all in how well the writer all is the suggestion that any of writes---- pace, character, style, have rather different philosphic- his centuries refer to Hitler. detail, plausibility...)) al bases for our views -- but ev­ "Hister" is a name for the Danube. en if it were heading down the Enough!' gurgle-hold at an increasing speed, 'Schweitzer sees two Hein­ why try and panic the populace by leins : the competent writer and sensationalising the whole thing. the closet didactic who comes out Isn't the press bad enough in of the closet in his later book. beating-up the death throes of While I admit that there is that capitalism? Don't we have enough problem, he had the wrong two causes of anxiety already? Heinleins: No. 1 is the technic­ ian and engineer who is more int­ (Clou subscribe to a variation erested in the backgrounds than in of the kill-the-messenger syndrome the very thin characters who act beloved of dictators, kings, and in them. He wrote a good series ostriches. If I'm right about the of future history and a number of ' looming economic disaster then I good juveniles. Heinlein No. 2 shouldn't say anything about it for is more concerned with metaphysics fear of spreading panic and despair? than physics: He wants to believe Would you feel that way about a man that Bridey Murphy really was re­ who saw a fire spreading in the base­ incarnated (see EXPANDED UNIVERSE) ment of a crowded theater and who and that there is life after death. kept quiet for fear of scaring He started very early in RAH's ca­ people and making them depressed?)) reer: BEYOND THIS HORIZON, and surfaces every so often, well so # LETTER FROM JOHN SHIRLEY in places like THEY and ALL YOU 'Laumer certainly is portray­ 110 Bis Rue Ordener ed in an interesting way by your ZOMBIES, not so well in FARNHAM'S 75018 Paris, France 259-9192 FREEHOLD, ruining STRANGER IN A writer: the angry old man of SF January 30, 1983 or somesuch. It is good to see STRANGE LAND, controlled in THE MOON IS A HARSH MISTRESS and un­ the undercurrent of humour that is 'Thanks for the SCIENCE FICTION controlled in I WILL FEAR NO EVIL. the main virtue of his fiction is REVIEW and thanks also for the an­ The two Heinleins are integrated also there in the man. nouncement of the birth of my kids. well in TIME ENOUGH FOR LOVE but 'A big bouquet to the malign­ Wife and twins are fine; the boys the metaphysician takes over too are looking more and more identic­ ed Elton T. Elliott: His movie much in THE NUMBER OF THE BEAST. al, are developing at the same reviews are spot-on (at least, for FRIDAY is no better than mediocre those I've seen and that's about rate, and show personality charac­ Heinlein #1 with very little of teristics in common which makes half) especially his analysis of the second Heinlein. It does not ET which has been overrated here one believe in the inheritability stand up well when compared to of character-traits. as much by the mainstream critics earlier adventure works by the as by the SF reviewers. author but is OK: Mediocre Hein­ 'Dave Langford's John Sladek 'Budrys does a good job of re­ lein is better than most writers' interview was superb. Langford defining pulp. Unfortunately, he best. also writes very intelligent re­ views. You should publish him of­ is working very hard against a 'Another few glitches to add ten. negative connotation that the word to Brown's list: Why, when much has acquired as a result of its of the armed forces are female and 'It's perhaps late for me to association with shoddy writing, enter into the is-fantasy-worth- lacklustre editing and quick-sell 37 while controversy. I gotta have my say, though, being a fantasy your used synapses? Mine are shot 'My perspective of science writer, of sorts. Most fantasy, to hell.' fiction has recently received a especially sword and sorcery, is jolt. My first published story, dross. It may be a good thing in "Critique," is in the April TWI­ that it provides a service, it ((Of course the superior writer who LIGHT ZONE. (Why do they put out gives a certain kind of reader a puts "guts" or "content" or "keen the April issue in January?) Of certain kind of escape. But it insights into the human condition" course I feel like a new mother should not be given critical at­ into his/her work will be praised and I want everyone to tell me tention, ot award recognition, un­ and widely read. The critic who how perfect the baby is. The less it really transcends its can appreciate and plant GOOD STUFF thing I wasn't quite prepared for field. The same goes for most so- signs in such work is also to be is the fact that of all the peo­ called "high fantasy." But there praised and widely read. ple I know, only one found the are important exceptions. The ex­ ((The trouble with so much genre story on their own and called me. ceptions are those fantasy novels writing is that it depends almost What good is fame and glory if which are meaningful. Brian Ald- completely on the structure and you have to tell people? iss in PATCHIN REVIEW recently genre elements to carry it along. observed that the main trouble 'The unique human element which can 'More important than personal with current SF is that it has no make it "real" is usually missing.)) egoboo is the larger issue this core of real meaning. No deeply- event raises in my mind. What is felt theme motivating the author. the significance of science fic­ Just a lot of distracting fooferah. tion? Is it Important with a cap­ Same goes for fantasy -- the fan­ ital "I"? Is the world different tasy worthy of recognition is that because SF exists? As an English teacher I am painfully aware that which is meaningful beyond simply # LETTER FROM JEFF PARKER very few people read. However, distraction/escape. Anything by 735 North 116th, #D-13 my friends and associates read Michael Shea, for example -- this Omaha, NE 68154 constantly. Most are highly lit­ brilliant writer deserves all the February, 1983 recognition we can heap on him. erate. Yet I can count on one hand those who even knew there was And have you read THE PRINCE OF 'This is a warning. You will MORNING BELLS by Nancy Kress? A not get away with it. I caught a TWILIGHT ZONE magazine. ("Real­ Timescape. Pure High Fantasy, your intent in a comment in SCI­ ly? Is it connected with the old TV show?") but also high quality -- so high, ENCE FICTION REVIEW #46. in fact, this woman is a talent 'It is obvious that you do 'It is difficult for me to comparable to T.H. White. This admit that science fiction is not book is not only meaningful, it's not understand modern liberal ec­ onomics. You must realize that a Important with a capital "I". It wonderfully entertaining. And it transformed my life twice. The was her first! basic tenet of liberal economics is that need confers ownership, first time was in fourth grade i.e. If I need a house, fuel to when Heinlein's HAVE SPACE SUIT, 'Of course, the aforemention­ heat the house, a car to get me WILL TRAVEL turned me into a would- ed White proved one can write fan­ to work, medical services, etc. it be astronaut. The second was at tasy that is not "backward-look­ is my right and the government's age 14 when Kubrick and Clarke's ing" (though his ONCE AND FUTURE duty to provide for my need re­ 2001 introduced me to the world of KING was set in medieval times, it gardless of cost. To carry this philosophy. Yet, I suppose I must is a very contemporary series and to the underlying principle, the face the fact that those of us who a relevant one). C.S. Lewis' need for any product or service love science fiction are but a mi­ brilliant Perelandra books were provides ownership. nority within a minority. almost too packed with meaning. 'Thus the warning. You noted 'There is still a question re­ The century's most under-rated that you may stop supplying your maining however. Is the world writer, James Branch Cabell (ac­ wit, charm and SF news in SFR. different because science fiction tually, it's tough to say who is You had better not. After all, I exists? Certainly science fiction the century's most under-rated own you.' has had a strong effect on some writer ... so many possible cand­ individuals, but have these indiv­ idates ... like me ...) wrote gen­ iduals then had an effect on the uine High Fantasy that sparkled, world greater than their numbers fascinated and always instructed. would suggest? An interesting 'It can be done. question. I suspect the answer might be yes. "What if?" is a 'A late response to Orson Card: # LETTER FROM BRIAN FERGUSON 183 South Orchard Drive very powerful concept. It may e- Your assertion to the effect that North Salt Lake, UT 84054 ven be the "mother" of progress. most critics are purblind sticks- February 7, 1983 in-the-mud is simply self-serving 'Consider this -- Who is more drivel. A few critics are so. likely to be a science fiction 'You mentioned in SCIENCE FIC­ Maybe too many who have been in­ reader? A plumber or a nuclear TION REVIEW #46 that you are grow­ fluential. But the best critics physicist? A politician or a com­ ing increasingly dissatisfied with -- there are many good ones -- are puter scientist? Am I over-simp­ "the present mix" in SFR. Fine. "participatory" readers who are lifying? Perhaps. But then why Change things. Experiment. Dis­ able to be, on another level, ob­ do our bombs and computers work satisfaction is the father of prog­ jective. A good critic is holis­ just fine while our pipes and our ress. I subscribe to SFR not for tic, reads on several strata, and government clog up and smell?' any particular ingredient (with loves the prose he takes the time the possible exception of "Alien to deeply involve himself in crit­ Thoughts"), but because I know ((Sure, sf is important. It chang­ icizing. Check out Fielder, Bates Dick Geis will give me an inter­ ed my life in 1937, and my changed -- or one of the originals, the esting mix. life resulting in my writing in great Samuel Johnson. PSYCHOTIC and REG and SFR has in 'Geis -- could I buy a few of 38 turn (I am assured) changed the lives of some of my readers. Every­ thought in turn led me to my dusty, little joke. You do not snort thing has an impact in so complicat­ slightly disordered shelves (urn, derisively.) ed a skein of event/action/reaction archives, you understand, archiv­ 'Well, whatever the mistake, that it's impossible to unravel in es] . As I slowly peeled away the I'm sure it will be cleared up. detail the "influences" that are layers of history, a fascinating At any rate, it looks as though most important. Your story may al­ (not to say bewildering) variety SFR is no longer just a friend, ready have affected someone in a of covers and paper styles passed but an old friend, and a valued crucial manner that may never be before me. I crossed the boundary one. Sometimes I wonder just how realized. Take comfort in that, my between the New Series SFR and you manage to keep the issues com­ son, and sin no more.)) The Alien Critic. Shortly I en­ countered the Great MesoSeventies ing, but I trust that you know Extinction, a gap of (for me, that the effort and the results anyhow) five years in which there are appreciated. was nothing. Then, SFR (Old Ser­ 'One thing is certain. As # LETTER FROM D. CAMERON ies) Number 41, dated -- 1970? Is long as I have "Alien Thoughts" POB #23003 there perhaps some ageing mechan­ to read every few months, I will Minneapolis, MN 55423 ism of inks which induces printed never succumb to terminal cheer­ February 16, 1983 dates to change? fulness .

'I am aware of your erotic 'Oh, I dug, heedless of the 'Have I not been paying atten­ SF novels. I have, however, only risk to life and psyche. Final­ tion, or has it been a while since seen the advertisements, which ly, the issue with which I took my we've had a good brawl? I fear means that I have not read them. seat on your personal rollercoast­ that, despite the best efforts of I am wondering if the erotica is er. The first fanzine I ever saw: Mr. Elliott, he may not have start­ on genitalia and making love or SFR Number 31, with a lovely green ed one. (Speaking of fights, that sex? Or if you have extra-ordin­ Fabian cover and, er, striking SFR #31 had in it the echoes of a ary characters and situations pink pages and a Fabian center really good fight, the New Wave which are not necessarily sexual fold, and, and ... Wars. Spun off some wonderful or erotica or genitalia? I am 'And a date of June, 1969, for side battles, too. Gosh, there looking for creative characters Christ's sake. This cannot be. was even a letter from J.J. Pierce. in SF, characters which are not It's bad enough when awkward dig­ Now, there's a name I hadn't related to 20th century America. its start appearing in my age, but thought of ... Where's that other Frigyes Karinthy was inventive in for my first copy of SFR to be parenthesis? Ah! There it is. VOYAGE TO FAREMIDO AND CAPILLARIA. fourteen years old is shocking. Back to business.) Philip Jose Farmer was somewhat (Yeah, I know, you put out thirty 'Mr. Elliott seems perturbed inventive with the snake creature issues before that. That's your more by a state of mind or a way in the vagina, but this was inven­ problem, fella.) Just a little of dealing with reality than by a tive only in the use of a genital­ moup of this, and I'll start to fictional genre. Just as you fail ia and not in character or story. believe that I might someday get to recognize a fantasy writing Perhaps I am not making myself old. (No, Richard, at this point technique, I fail to recognize an clear. you chuckle, appreciative of the outlook on life common to all fan­ 11 am looking for SF that is inventive in character and situa­ tion. The use of genitalia is not inventive in itself, nor is a dif­ ferent method of sex in itself. Are you or any of your readers a- ware of any inventive characters roaming the pages of SF that stand, not lay, above the erotic or humane din?'

((Uhhh.. . . Hou about Heinlein's last feu books? He used sex in some strange computer/human combina­ tions without being erotic. ((My sex novels are usually erotic to a degree. Or are at least intended to^ be erotic. But I'm not writing sex novels anymore.))

# LETTER FROM HOWARD COLEMAN 411 Ridge Crest Richardson, TX 75080 March 20, 1983

'Enclosed is my renewal for another two years of SCIENCE FIC­ TION REVIEW. Many happy returns of the day. Filling out the resub led me to wonder just how long this has been going on, which tasy. Both purveyors and consum­ me to be something as unique to passes or the sales figures kill ers of SF or fantasy can have very our society as that folktale was it or (horrors) confirm it as a different perceptions of their un­ to its. I think that purposes money-making genre. We'll take a iverses and of their roles in served by fantasy in the past are look around and see how many corpses those universes. On the average, as likely to be served in our time litter the lanscape, a year from as members of society, they tend by science fiction as by fantasy. now.)) to adopt society's world-picture. 'For that matter, I think you I think that the way in which our could argue that our society's ((Yeah. I'm more and more viewing society as a whole views the fu­ folklore is highly science fiction­ my life as would a geologist---- ture and society's ability to cope al (as opposed to fantastical) in strata of fanzines, novels, living with that future has been pretty nature. I'm not talking about in Portland... Venice... Portland... accurately reflected in SF$F writ­ anything published in ANALOG or Venice/Santa Monica...Portland... ing over at least the past decade. FfiSF, you understand. No, if you The era of Carol, the era 'The Many want to find the modern folktale Women...the era of Paulette. A 'That outlook is certainly not in its natural habitat, you must life of some variety and change. a confident one. A good deal of hazard a trip to the modern vil­ Yet with continuing underling strands doubt has seeped into the conven­ lage square: the supermarket. of sameness, drives, talents. I'm tional wisdom about our ability to Buy something. Anything will do. not a person, I'm a civilization.)) avoid the Big Screwup. Leaving (Take plenty of cash, though, just aside the question of whether that in case the falloff in inflation assessment is correct (or, at vanishes while you're in the least, any more correct now than store.) As you wait in the inter­ it ever would have been), if we minable Express Lane, you'll get accept that large numbers of the your chance to brush up on modern folks for whom all those bright, folklore, and on what is probably shiny paperbacks are intended do the most widely read science fic­ think that way, it isn't very sur­ tion in the country. Where? Why prising if the Competent Hero is in the pages of the National En­ no longer all the rage. quirer (or like publication), of 'But, while I don't go out of course. "Kidnapped By Saucer my way to read books known to cer­ Men!!'.!!!" and "Pictures of Big­ tain elves or wizards or other foot!!!!!!" are the names of our such exotic fauna, the ones I have modern fairy tales. (Well, the encountered seem no more or less old ones weren't so great before inclined to such a pessimistic/ the Grimms and H.C. Anderson pol­ realistic (choose one, depending ished them up, either.) They on your own protective coloration) serve the same purposes in our attitude than do current SF works. society that the old tales served The basic question of whether the in theirs. Along with "The 200 protagonist can solve problems Miles-per-Gallon Carburetor that (be the problem a soon-to-be-crit- General Motors Killed," they ex­ ical nuclear pile or a peevish plain the workings of our world dragon) or is just there for the and add a touch of excitement to reader to observe as Greater crushingly dull existences. And Forces push him or her around can they are not fantasy. They're be answered in either way, in eith­ science fiction. Makes you feel er type of fiction. swell, doesn't it? 'Maybe I have missed the point 'So why all this dragons and of Mr. Elliott's objection. Any­ magic and co.? I don't know. As how, I still don't think it'll someone pointed out, at least they make much of a fight. There are are reading something. And with some interesting questions about THE MAGAZINE OF FANTASY AND SCIENCE this fantasy binge, though. Why FICTION reporting that its reader­ did it occur, and why in this part­ ship seems to be aging about one # LETTER FROM ROY TACKETT icular form? There's been a great year per year, we need all the good 915 Green Valley Road NW deal of fantasy written in the news we can scrounge up. Albuquerque, NM 87107 past that doesn't fit in with stor­ 'I suppose we could take up 12 February 1983 ies about gnomes or Christian dem­ the question of Hero-As-Prime-Mov- onology. After all, "One Ordinary er versus Hero-As-Billiard-Bal1, 'Herro Lichard: Day, With Peanuts" is fantasy, and but I limit my beating of dead we don't seem overrun with stories 'Or words to that effect. horses to one a day.' of its type. 'At the ASFS meeting last night Pat Matthews, for reasons beyond 'Mr. Schweitzer's contention ((Why has fantasy become a big thing the ken of mortal man, handed me that a deluge of Sword-and-Sorcery in publishing? A cynic would say copies of THE ALIEN CRITIC #7,8 § constitutes a return to tradition­ that a year or so ago a lot of edit­ niner and I glanced through them al literary norms is entertaining ors, publishers and writers looked when I got home in the wee hours but unconvincing. In its original upon the success of Le Guin and and sort of compared them to SCI­ setting, folklore attempts to ex­ Donaldson and said to themselves, ENCE FICTION REVIEW #46 which ar- plain more of the world than you "I think I’ll write-buy-publish a rovled on the scene here a number can see from the highest rooftop big-many-line of fantasy novel (s)" of days ago. There are some dif­ in the village. It is a part of and lo---- now-----all that is on the ferences, aren't there? For one the society that generates it. stands and in the pipeline and thing those issues of AC were fil­ Our own society's attempt at that we're stuck with it until the fad led with controversy, for the most explanation would seem likely to 40 part between the evangelical femin- inists (no, that ain't a misspel­ the huckster rooms at recent con­ This is not as mystical as it ling) and the crusading anti-fem- ventions. Posters and buttons and seems. The settlers brought many ininists. About the only thing other visually oriented items sell things to this continent that did controversial in SFR these days is well. Books and magazines gather not belong here. Most people know Schweitzer discussing generic fan­ dust on the tables. that dandelions, many insect pests tasy. Maybe it is just as well. and various blights came from Eur­ 'Which is why I go to fewer ope. What they often forget is 'As a book buyer I am distres­ and fewer conventions. Film and that the colonists also brought sed to see the lessening of com­ television freaks bore the hell with them the deadly diseases of petition in the publishing busin­ out of me. Europe, such as smallpox. Euro­ ess because it makes it so much 'Be that as it may there is peans, having been exposed to such easier for the remaining companies already some serious speculation diseases all throughout their his­ to get together to raise prices. that the hardback fiction market tory, had developed some resis­ Paperbacks are selling for $2.SO is just about finished, having tance to them. But the Amerind­ to $2.95 now and a graph of my priced itself to death. Is the ians had never before been expos­ purchases vs. prices would show paperback market all that far be­ ed to the diseases of Europe, and mirror images: as the price goes hind?' up the number of books I buy goes had no resistance. Thus whenever a smallpox epidemic swept through down. I gave up purchasing hard­ the colonies, colonial villagers covers a couple of years ago. ((It is said that the big bookstore That statement needs modifying. I suffered a 10% to 30% death rate, chains are dictating price now: while at the nearby Amerindian gave up purchasing new hardcovers. they have told publishers, it is villages the death rate was 90% to I still buy used books.and from said, that they will not handle any 100%. This is what wiped out many the remainder houses. Being one paperback books (with a few hot east coast tribes to the last man, of the ancients I am beyond the exceptions) priced over $3.50. woman and child. It was germ war­ stage of rushing right out to buy, Readers are not willing to fork over fare -- inadvertant, but nonethe­ say, 2010: ODYSSEY TWO for fifteen four buck or more for a paperback. less effective -- that enabled the bucks. I can wait a couple of This in turn is feeding back to European colonists to win America years for it to either show in pa­ the writers who are being urged/re- so easily. perback or hit the shelves of one quired to not write books longer of the used book stores. Now I re­ than about 100,000 words.)) 'One might wonder why there alize that buying used books does were no equivalent American indig­ not do the writer any good in the enous diseases to devastate the matter of royalties but paying out Europeans. Perhaps it is because 15 bucks doesn't do me any good the Americas have not been inhab­ either. Undoubtedly book publish­ ited by humans as long as has the ing has fallen on hard times due Eurasian landmass, thus human dis­ to a variety of economic pressures eases had time to evolve to a but those pressures are working on # LETTER FROM RONALD R LANBERT higher level of virulence in the 2350 Virginia the readers, too. Old World than in the New. That Troy, MI 48084 is only speculation. But it was 'Incidentally, I wonder if March 7, 1983 there's been any speculation on unquestionably an ecological dis­ aster for the Amerindians when the how much the growing percentage 'Civilized ways are superior of illiterates in the population first Pilgrim set foot on Plymouth to primitive ways, of course; that Rock.' is affecting the book business? is why civilization evolved. But 'That'll curl your hair, Dick. that is not the primary reason why I've read a couple of articles in European colonists took over Amer­ the popular press recently that ica from the Amerindians so easily. speculate, seriously, that inas­ Darrell Schweitzer fails to consid­ much as people are getting more er what really did in the Amerind­ ians -- ecological upset caused by information from the electronic # CARD FROM ROBERT BLOCH media the ability to read orally the European settlers. By that I do not refer to the wholesale lev­ 2111 Sunset Crest Dr. is not necessary any more. Some Los Angeles, CA 90046 of this new age sociology is shud­ eling of forests or slaughtering der-producing. of buffalo, I refer to the imbal­ 'Many thanks for the latest is­ ances in nature the Europeans sue! I gather Richard Wilson's 'Some of it seems borne out in caused by their very presence. piece is actually the transcript of a convention speech. If so, where and when was it delivered? 'I am tempted to get into the sf vs. fantasy and Elliott-vs.- the-world hassles, but time pre­ cludes. If you do decide to change SFR—and I don't blame you for the workload must be enormous!—per­ haps you can manage to perpetuate it in present form until #50.'

((I will of course continue SFR until it reaches the point of such a small circulation as not to be worth continuing, or until my professional writing becomes so successful that SFR wouldn't be ■interesting or important enough to me to continue it. The most likely change will be a gradual metamorphosis to a more personal zine... an expansion of "Alien NIGHTMARE FROM THE END OF THE WORLD Thoughts" and the letter column, primarily. I'm as curious as any­ Winged Shadows Of The Mind one as to what will actually hap­ Perched On The Cranium Vat pen. )) Azure Hooks Of The Soul Virgins, Breasts Heaving, Glowing With Satan's Fire Sacrificed Steel R a k e s T

LAST WAVE Do w "THE LAST BEST HOPE OF SPECULATIVE n Mankind's cheeks FICTION THE BURNT STARS CRY OUT Scott Edelman, Editor § Publisher "Little man The Stars Are Not For You." 252 94th Street The Great Weapons Of Eons Past Brooklyn, NY 11209 S^jT Out Their Stellar Fury Step Into The Dead Space The 1980s do not look as if At Your Own Risk they will be very good years for Horrors Untold speculative fiction. The field Retinas Searing has forgotten the literary fruits With Orion's Light of the New Wave, and fallen back Perseus Beckons into a commercial complacency. The Sirens Of Sagittarius Entice Gardner Dozois takes note of this Mankind Into The W-e-b in the March 1983 issue of SCIENCE LOOK OUT FICTION CHRONICLE: Behind You Above "Risk-taking is way down in 11 A You A1 "tn many markets, and it is becoming " You uUnd increasingly difficult to sell INSIDE YOU literary-innovative works ... The market as a whole is also much They've Grabbed Your Mind more reluctant than it was a few Castrated Your Future years back to let authors get a- THE PRIME MOVERS ARE DEAD way with sex scenes, 'dirty words', (Unable To Help) controversial material, moral am­ biguity or unorthodox stylistic Surely Meekness And Humiliation technique." Will Follow All The Days Of Your Life This saddens me, for if these And Thou Shalt Dwell words are true (and few would call With The DEMONS OF DARKNESS them false), then many stories dreams of light that ought to be written will not be. Though there are some writers FOREVER capable of writing well when writ­ ing well will not reward them, there are others who find it dif­ —BLAKE SOUTHFORK ficult to continue without a ready market. But we should not give up hope. In 1982, the World Fantasy Convention awarded Italo Calvino the Life Achievement Award, and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, a writer George R.R. Martin, Alice Sheldon, of undeniably speculative fiction, George Alec Effinger, Jorge Luis won the Nobel Prize for Literature. Borges, Kate Wilhelm ... I could Gene Wolfe is finally receiving go on forever, but by now I'm sure the attention he deserves. you get the idea. I'm looking to In such an atmosphere is LAST be the Paris Review of speculative WAVE SPECULATIVE FICTION born. fiction. I wish to publish the best LAST WAVE will pay 2Avram Davidson, 1983, hopefully in time to debut Gene Wolfe, Joanna Russ, R.A. Laf­ at the World Fantasy Convention in ferty, Italo Calvino, Ed Bryant, Chicago. 42 THE UIUISECTOR BY DARRELL SCHWEITZER

WHAT MAKES FANTASY BORING? level of science fiction. It has beautiful myths of our civiliza­ become a genre. Lester del Rey, tion. Bradley has certainly put a the Hugo Gernsback of fantasy, has lot of effort into this. It is The above question is a puz­ done exactly what Gernsback did in anything but a slipshod job. It zler. Last issue, I chose three 1926. He has identified the field is even in an abstract way, quite fantasy novels at random and found divorced from its merits as a them all dull, varying from mild­ in the public mind in terms of a story, interesting. ly uninteresting to absolutely va­ handful of easily understood char­ pid. But the failings of the acteristics, and made those char­ three books in question (A WIZARD acteristics more important than But, alas, it is not only bor­ IN WAITING by Robert Don Hughes, the quality of writing, in effect ing, but monumentally so. I think THE LIGHTS OF BARBRIN by Joseph lowering standards sharply. in certain circles it will become another DHALGREN, the subject of Burgo and SHADOW MAGIC by Patricia But fantasy is a more fragile "How far did you get?" parlor Wrede) were all the common ones of art than science fiction, precise­ bad writing and a lack of imagina­ ly because it is not idea orient­ games. I couldn't finish it, try tive depth. None of them provided ed. The ideas themselves carry as I might. I then turned it over to H_____ , my captive Lowest Com­ a huge amount of insight into little weight. The things that those special characteristics matter are the same ones that dis­ mon Denominator reader. H______which, when mishandled, can make tinguish a really good poem from is somebody who gobbles up DAW and a fantasy tedious when the writ­ technically competent greeting­ Del Rey books. He doesn't want ing isn't notably bad, and the card verse. There are no halfway anything too demanding. He dotes plotting and characterization are measures. A metaphor is either on Lawrence Watt-Evans and James on a level which would be at least dead-on, providing genuinely pro­ Hogan. He isn't adverse to long adequate in other types of writ­ found insight or else it's just, books. He also dotes on Stephen ing -- science fiction for inst­ ah, ... kind of interesting. A Donaldson. He also reads incredi­ ance. I've noted in the past that story that's only halfway to be­ bly fast, and can get through the the best fantasies seem to be far ing intensely beautiful is, well, average novel in a couple hours. better written than the best sci­ pretty, which is a different mat­ He isn't fussy about style or tex­ ence fiction novels. This does ter entirely. Allegory which is ture. I think he actually skims not indicate an inherent weakness less than incredibly subtle is ob­ for "story," i.e. the broad out­ in the science fiction form, mere­ trusive and boring as hell. A line of events, and little else. ly that fantasy has been around sharp lowering of standards in He reads very differently from the longer, has had longer to refine fantasy has produced a lot of very way I do, and demands different itself, and has attracted the at­ boring books, some of which sell things from a book. He couldn't tention of some of the world's very well, probably because they great writers. Science fiction al­ still contain the quickly recog­ so started with much lower stand­ nized elements which make this ards, even in its pre-genre days. newly genrefied fantasy appeal, Dime novel and pulp magazine roots perhaps for reasons more psycho­ were there even before Hugo Gems- logical and sociological than lit­ back came along. Fantasy at the erary. But for those of us who same time (say, the first two de­ have known the finest fantasies, cades of this century), was a that appeal certainly isn't very "literary" type of writing, which strong. meant regular book publication and publication in higher standard All of which brings us to this "quality" magazines. You are not column's main selection. (Honest, going to find any science fiction folks, I was trying to be nice writer contemporary with, say, this time, but it just worked out Arthur Machen or Lord Dunsany who this way!) is as good a writer as either of them. The reason is that, even then, the science fiction writer had the advantage of novelty. The fantasy writer did not. Likewise, you won't find any science fiction THE MISTS OF AVALON writer contemporary with Tolkein By Marion Zimmer Bradley or Peake or T.H. White as good as Knopf, 1982, 876 pp., $16.95 they. Surely this is the biggest However, you will find science disappointment of recent years. fiction writers quite as good as Here's a book I really wanted to any fantasy writer active today. like. It is a major reinterpreta­ The problem with the fantasy field tion of the Arthurian story, which today, as I've mentioned before, is one of the most profound and is that it has sunk down to the 43 finish it either, though he did make it 100 pages further in than I did. H is also a Marion Zimmer Bradley fan, who has read all the Darkover books and is en­ thusiastic about them. This gave me pause. I note that the book is on the bestseller lists. It is also getting good reviews for the most part. I am almost at a loss to explain this, but fear not, I shall try. I think it's on the bestsel­ ler list for a reason the publish­ er is trying to hide. Hie jacket nowhere mentions science fiction. Hie only other book we are allowed to know about is THE CATCH TRAP. But, I think the book is selling so well because everyone who ever got hooked on Darkover went out and bought a copy, the same way Bradley books on my shelves, but ing so, the would-be bard had to everyone who had ever read DUNE or I just haven't gotten to them. be really good, and nothing less THE LORD OF THE RINGS or THE FOUND­ Simple as that. Right now there would do. In our Century the one ATION TRILOGY went out and put is a sizeable minority in fandom writer who has been able to pull various IXjne sequels, THE SIMARIL- which refuses to read Bradley, it off with Arthur is T.H. White. LION, and FOUNDATION'S EDGE quite the theory being that since there The real problem with THE MISTS solidly onto the bestseller list. are Darkover conventions and Dark- OF AVALON is that it is nowhere SF and fantasy seem to have a over fanzines and (as the phrase near as good as ONCE AND FUTURE staying power that popular main­ goes) "Darkover trekkies," any­ KING. stream fiction lacks. THE FOUND­ thing with that kind of a narrow Of course is is not intended ATION TRILOGY came out in book cult following must be pretty form in the early 50s. How many to be like White's masterpiece. brainless. I don't believe that Its plan is quite original, and as mainstream bestsellers from those for a minute, but at the same time, I mentioned before, interesting years are even in print anymore? if THE MISTS OF AVALON wows its But Asimov went clunking along, quite apart from its merits as a readers by being just like Darkov­ story. gathering generations of readers, er only moreso, I am completely until finally there were enough of unmoved. I should also mention This is the pagan women's them to have an enormous impact. that I am biased in favor of a su­ version. Neo-pagans will want to This happening simultaneously to perlatively-done medieval fantasy, read it to see their side get a several writers is a partial ex­ and am more than partial to King fair shake. Women who will read planation of why the New York Arthur. anything with strong female char­ TIMES and PUBLISHER'S WEEKLY best­ acters in it, whether or not it is seller lists have been dominated So why couldn't I finish the otherwise any good, will also no by SF and fantasy of late. thing. Because it isn't superla­ doubt be interested. And if you tively done, that's why. THE are interested in just how many MISTS OF AVALON is a perfect ex­ new wrinkles the Arthurian story Marion Zinmer Bradley goes ample of a book which is well back a long way. Her books have can develop, here's your big enough written to be passable sci­ chance. This is certainly an or­ been appearing for over twenty ence fiction, but which fails com­ years, her short stories longer iginal and quite well-thought- pletely because of the special out version. than that. They've stayed in demands of fantasy. print, gathering more and more The setting is a quasi-his- readers. Now, suddenly there is torical post-Roman Britain, where a huge mass of them, all of whom Something as familiar as the Romanized (Christian) Britons and rush out and buy this major new story of Arthur, Guinevere, and barbaric tribes of various sorts Bradley novel. Many of them will Lancelot and the fall of Camelot (pagan) must unite against the in­ like it too, because it will re­ simply has to be great art or else vading Saxon hordes. Sorcery is mind them of all those earlier it is wasting the audience's time. real and effective. The isle of books. When you like a book en­ We already know what is going to Avalon, to which the dying Arthur ough, you don't want it to stop. happen. The experience has to be is carried at the end, is a pagan Stopping is not something THE made more vivid than before, the place, where priestesses of the MISTS OF AVALON ever seems to do. insights have to be deeper, or Earth Mother are trained. Morg- else tedium sets in. I suspect aine (Morgan le Fay) studied there Now let me devote a paragraph this is how it was in all of lit­ to biases. It may shock you to for years. But as the land be­ erature prior to modern times. It comes more Christian, Avalon be­ learn that I've never read a Mar­ used to be that storytelling was ion Zinmer Bradley novel before. comes harder and harder to reach. restricted to standard subjects. Those without special powers tend This is for the most innocent of The audience of Homer knew the reasons. She's been around in SF to find themselves on the Isle of story of the Trojan war. Mediev­ for more than twenty years, but I Priests (Christian) which co-ex­ al audiences knew the Matter of ists in the same space. This is a haven't. It isn't humanly pos­ Britain (Arthur), the Matter of sible to read everything, or even nice conceit and one which could France (Charlemagne) and the Mat­ be made rich with symbolic reson­ most of everything, particularly ter of Greece and Rome. This be- if you want to explore other areas ances. But overall, it doesn't of literature too. I have lots of 44 work, for a variety of reasons. For one thing, Bradley seems It isn't particularly bad most of THE UNBEHEADED KING determined to tell "what really the time. Only some of the love By L. Sprague de Camp happened," in the sense of provid­ scenes, which seem to be trans­ Del Rey/Ballantine, 1983 ing the apparent basis for the planted from one of those gold- 186 pp., $9.95 late medieval versions of the embossed women's historical ro­ story. She does this deftly with mances (with titles like LOVE'S Here's a fantasy that isn't some of the names, Sir Kay being TENDER PASSION or maybe LOVE'S particularly ambitious, but is just Caius, Guinevere being Gwen­ PASSIONATE TINDER), are actively completely successful at what it hwyfar, but less deftly with in­ bad. They detract seriously, but does. If you've read de Camp be­ cidents like that of the sword in aren't enough to kill a book of fore, you need only be told that the stone. Here Arthur merely this size. What kills it is that this is another de Campian romp, snatches the sword of the previous there aren't any parts that are up to his highest standards. In king off an altar when he needs particularly good. There is no­ a sense, there is a virtue in pre­ one in a hurry during a Saxon raid. thing intensely moving or beauti­ dictability. If you buy a de Camp There are many changes like this, ful or frightening. Again, I'm book, you know you're going to get all in the direction of the mundane; not expecting this to be T.H. something worthwhile. the ordinary. White, but here we have a 900-page book that is utterly humorless. THE UNBEHEADED KING is the The religious element is simp- third in the Jorian sequence, listically handled. I am reminded White's humor gave his King a warm­ th Bradley utterly lacks. It al­ which also includes THE GOBLIN of those western movies made by TOWER and THE CLOCKS OF IRAZ. Our guilt-ridden White directors who so enabled him to orchestrate the emotional tone. hero has suffered the misfortune go to incredible lengths to depict of becoming king of Xylar. The everything about Indian culture as Xylarians, you see, behead their good, noble, pure, beautiful, Go reread Chapter Eight of THE kings every five years, and whoev­ sensitive, etc., and everything er catches the old king's head about White culture as crass, ug­ CANDLE IN THE WIND, the last sec­ tion of ONCE AND FUTURE KING. This when the executioner throws it in­ ly, spiritually dead. That's how to the crowd, becomes the new king. paganism and Christianity are is the part where Guinevere is a- bout to be burned at the stake for But Jorian escapes, and has many contrasted. Anything pagan is adventures, always pursued by bands good. Anything Christian is bad her faithlessness. Arthur, in ag­ ony over what he must do, knows it of Xylarians out to stabilize the and a bit dull too. But the Arth­ political situation, since his urian story, for all it may have is his duty to watch the whole scene from a window. In charges sudden departure has left the king­ had pagan Celtic roots in the dim dom in a muddle. past, is quite inextricably Chris­ Lancelot and company to rescue the tian. Its beauty comes from queen. A fight ensues, and Arthur Most of Jorian's efforts this Christian mysticism. Its tragedy for all he knows that his knights time have to do with retrieving comes from the Christian concept are being killed, and that every­ his wife who was left behind in of sin. Arthur is conceived in thing he ever worked for is being Xylar. Things just don't proceed sin, from the lust of Uther Pen­ destroyed, feels an intense, if the way they usually do in fantasy dragon. For all Arthur may try to ambivalent joy. He cheers Lance­ novels. De Camp parodies the form be the perfect king, for all the lot on. We're able to forget for by making it more realistic, forc­ knights may seek redemption in the an instant how terrible this is, ing more of the complexities of Grail, the forces that bring them and when the queen is rescued, we life into a type of story that all down are set in motion before are elated. But then word comes tends to ignore them. Thus, when Arthur is even crowned. Without that Gareth and Gaheris, two char­ Jorian and his wizard friend are this you just have a long and com­ acters we know well, rather inno­ escaping in a demon-propelled fly­ plex story with a sad ending, not cent types who idolized Lancelot ing bathtub, the demon gives out real tragedy. and were knighted by him, have and they crash in a game preserve, been slaughtered senselessly, even they're promptly arrested for Further, as H______points out; though they were unarmed. The ef­ poaching. When Jorian hires ano­ this version goes to such lengths fect is devastating. There's no ther wizard to send a demon to to tell the women's side of things trickery, but the scene is an in­ fetch his wife and the demon bot­ that it gets boring, because most credible emotional roller coaster. ches it, a lawsuit results. In of the interesting parts happen the meantime Jorian is haunted by offstage. Alas, for whatever Bradley hasn't got anything even a tenth as good. That is the a spectre that howls, "Pay your reason the women, Morgaine in par­ debts!" To raise money, he has to ticular, just aren't that central real reason I was unable to finish THE MISTS OF AVALON. do something few sword and sorcery to the whole story. They aren't heroes ever consider -- work for a present at crucial moments. All considerations of fairness or gen­ der roles aside, White did better by sticking with Arthur, simply because Arthur is more important.

My added objection is that the writing just isn't good enough to sustain a nearly 900-page book, let alone a 900-page book that re­ peats, yet again, the main Arthur­ ian story. It's the kind of writ­ ing that wouldn't bother you in an Ace Double, or even a 250-page science fiction novel. (Or even a fantasy novel where the author is entirely on her own ground.) living. One of his trades is sto­ braries. This one describes and ry-telling, which enables de Camp evaluates 1775 books from 1750 to to embed several amusing shorter 1960 in great detail, covering narratives in the book. Most of every story in a collection if them have to do with the follies they're all fantasy. It isn't de­ of kings. There is even a techni­ finitive. These books never are. cal discussion of the difficulties There are always books that should in consumating a marriage with a have been included but aren't and mermaid. Finally, when Jorian others that are and you wonder why. climbs a mountain and seeks advice But a great mass of valuable in­ from a noted spiritual master dwel­ formation is assembled here. This ling in a cave, the sage suggests book should be the first place you bribery. This helps, but even turn to when researching an author. then, things don't work out as The judgments, while notably opin­ planned. Alas for romance I ionated, are for the most part sound. The only error I've found All of this is told in a so far is one story omitted from spritely, witty style. The in­ Lady Asquith's THE SECOND GHOST vention never slackens. There quite literally mixes Victorian BOOK. This is the sort of thing isn't a whole lot of depth but and modem elements in a London that results from a lost file card this is an ideal piece of light that has room for both laddering The only entry I find strongly reading. You'll zip through it graveyards and cocaine parties. questionable is the one on Peake. quickly and thoroughly enjoy it Also superior is "The River of Bleiler doesn't like Peake, does all the way. Night's Dreaming," an exercise in not consider him to be really fan­ controlled ambiguity, in which an tasy, and dismisses the GORMENGH- The dustjacket by Darrell AST TRILOGY quickly, covering only Sweet gets a few details wrong, escaped madwoman (or is she) thinks she has found shelter but instead Mr. Pye in detail. He misses "A but is far closer to the spirit Boy in Darkness" and the short of the book than were the bulge- sinks further into terror and hal­ stories entirely. and-biceps covers found on the lucination wrought by the evil in­ fluence of THE KING IN YELLOW. first two books of this series. I don't think casual readers Conanesque adventure this is not. (The imaginary verse play which corrupted the characters in the will want this, but it's of con­ Robert Chambers book of the same siderable value to the serious title.) Both stories take their scholar and bibliophile. titles from THE ROCKY HORROR PIC­ TURE SHOW and give you an idea of the kinky range of cultural in­ IN A LONELY PLACE fluences you're likely to find in By Karl Edward Wagner Wagner. (They're both "erotic Warner, 1983, 265 pp., $2.95 nightmares beyond any measure," as URANIAN WORLDS. Frank N. Furter would remark.) A READER'S GUIDE TO ALTERNATIVE Karl Wagner is best known for ".220 Swift" is an interesting var­ SEXUALITY IN SCIENCE FICTION AND his heroic fantasy series about iant on Machen's "The Novel of FANTASY the swordsman Kane, which I con­ the Black Seal," which makes good fess, has never appealed to me use of Wagner's North Carolina By Eric Garber 6 Lyn Paleo very much. But over the years he background. His "little people" G.K. Hall 6 Co., 1983 has published just a few contemp­ are the "ancients" of Applachian 177 pp., $28.50 orary-scene horror stories, mostly folklore, who supposedly dug mines in WHISPERS and in prestigious an­ in the hills then vanished as the If the present flood of SF thologies. (Also, one in F6SF.) white men came. His ending is reference works would have been Now they are all collected, and quite the opposite of Machen's, hard to believe twenty years ago, the result is one of the best hor­ and will surprise you. "Sticks" this one would have been inconceiv­ ror collections in years. is one of the few good Cthulhu able. It's an annotated biblio­ Mythos stories in recent years. graphy of gay and lesbian-interest I think what Wagner has manag­ SF and fantasy, shading off into ed to do is combine the best ele­ Wagner borrows from Lovecraft, related areas of alternate sexual ments of the classic supernatural Machen, Chambers, etc. but he is styles, feminism, alien sex, etc. story of Machen, Lovecraft, James, not a derivative writer. He makes Good scholarship, lucid annotat­ etc. with the modem variety. Un­ this material his own. He's mak­ ions, if a trifle specialized. I like the Victorians, he doesn't ing a definite contribution to a almost wish the authors had both­ have to hint at matters sexual, tradition, rather than just aping ered to include John Norman. I'm but at the same time, unlike a lot it. If he ever writes a novel sure their annotations would have of bestselling horror novelists I like this, it'll be something been choice. Once in a great while could name, he still knows the special. they slip and hold some 19th Cen­ meaning of restraint. He makes tury author to task for not having effective use of setting and at­ late 20th Century liberal sensib­ mosphere. While he is completely Reference: ilities. Overall, level-headed, uninhibited when he needs to be, and sure to be the definitive he doesn't pile on the action and THE GUIDE TO SUPERNATURAL FICTION guide in this area for a long time gore to hide a lack of substance. Everett F. Bleiler to come. The best story in the book is Kent State University Press "Beyond Any Measure" which I re­ 1983, 720 pp., $55.00 viewed a couple issues back when it was in an issue of WHISPERS. Another one of those massive It's an absolutely stunning vam­ reference works, intended for li- pire/reincarnation tale, which 46 Contained within are 11 short SMALL PRESS NOTES stories and one poem. Included are his first published story, "last BY THE EDITOR Warning," and his latest work, "Ide­ alist," written especially for this volume. This is a limited edition: 200 numbered, slipcased, autographed; THE CASTLE OF THE OTTER By Gene Wolfe and 800 copies numbered from 201- Ziesing Bros. $16.95, Feb., 1983. 1000. Excellent dust jacket by This 117-page hardcover book is Wendi Pini, the Official Artist about the writing of THE BOOK OF THE at Boskone XX. [The boxed edition NEW SUN whose parts, THE SHADOW OF was sold out as Boskone and is not THE TORTURER, THE CLAW OF THE CON­ available.] CILIATOR, THE SWORD IF THE LICTOR, and THE CITADEL OF THE AUTARCH have Address for the Reynolds book and all now been published. for the NESFA Indexes described be­ This book is absorbing and a low is: NESFA, Box G, MIT Branch delight; it provides all kinds of Post Office, Cambridge, MA 02139. detail about THE BOOK OF THE NEW SUN in a conversational style, and it THE NESFA INDEX TO THE SCIENCE FIC­ slides about into anecdotes and TION MAGAZINES AND ORIGINAL ANTHOL­ asides about this and that...writing, OGIES, 1977-78, 1982. military theory, how writers and Edited by Ann A.B. McCutchen editors work together... Schweitzer, Steve Rasnic Tern, The 1977-78 volume indexes 181 Alas, this wondrous book is now Ardath Mayhar, and Brian Lumley... volumes including 114 issues of 12 sold out. All copies of the trade Damn near an all-star lineup. magazines and 67 original antholo­ edition and the signed edition are Good to fine artwork by many, gies. It costs $7.00 + $1. for post­ gone. For many this review is an including two (besides Fabian) often age 6 handling. exercise in sadism. But there may seen in SFR: Allen Koszowski and be a second edition or three. Bruce Conklin. The 1982 Index, same price, There should be. Get a copy if and WEIRDBOOK is a quality magazine. covers 103 volumes of which 77 were when. issues of 10 magazines and 26 were original anthologies.

GRIMOIRE #3 and #4, $2.50 Edited and published by Thomas RIGEL #6, Winter 1982, $2.50 Wiloch, 8181 Wayne Road, Apt. H2084, Edited by Eric Vinicoff Westland, MI 48185. Weird, surrealistic, horror... Features include an editorial, strange little magazine. Stories, letters, an interview with Poul THE GHOST OCEAN Anderson, opinion by Debbie Notkin, poems, collages, articles 6 misc. POEMS CF HORROR AND THE SUPERNATURAL film review and comnentary by Alan BY ROBERT E. HOWARD Dean Foster, science by Dr. Dean R. Published by Vernon Clark, 4900 Jon­ Lambe. quil Lane, Knoxville, TN 37919. Stories by Jack Wodhams, Richard $5. softcover, $10 harcover. Lupoff, Karl Hansen, Charles Shef­ RINGTIME By Thomas M. Disch Send postage for the class of postage field, and Marcia Martin. Toothpaste Press, $10. April, 1983. wished. This is a large-size, profession­ Another short story in the odd The softcover edition weighs 2-1/2 al sf magazine in intent and execu­ booklet, high-quality paper/covers ounces. No info on the hardcover. tion (though some of the interior format [4Ja x 9^], with typeset text This is a limited edition: 360 illos are amateurish, a bit too clum­ The story itself is of course copies, of which 50 are hardbound. sy), with full-color, very fine cov­ intriguing, dealing in blackmarket There are 20 Howard poems here, er artwork and graphics. total-experience recordings and accompanied by full-page illustra­ Subscriptions are $8. for four an apparently washed-up creator of tions by Rick McCollum, Steven R. issues from Aesir Press, PO Box recordings. Trout, and Charles E. Williams, Jr. 2523, Richmond, CA 94802. Disch is clever and acute and All the illos are good, some hint­ Try an issue. Everything is funny, but somehow this story ends ing of comics influences, all in the professional except as yet the cir­ on a blah note for me; I expected lurid, pulpish, sensuous, violent culation. a kicker, a resolution, and it sort tradition of Howard. of trailed away.... Howard's poem are colorful, and Order copies from Bookslinger, they rhyme. 330 E. 9th St., St. Paul, MN 55101. WEIRDBOOK #17, $5.00 Edited and published by W. Paul Ganley. PO. Box 149, Amherst Branch, COMPOUND INTEREST By Mack Reynolds DARK WINDS - Sunnier 1982, $3.00 Buffalo, NY 14226. NESFA, $13.+$1 postage 6 handling. 'The Decadent Fantasy Magazine' WEIRDBOOK has been published February, 1983. Edited and published by Vernon since 1968, I believe, and is a This is the annual volume pub­ Clark, 4900 Jonquil Lane, Knoxville, labor of love, a hobby, and an out­ lished to commemorate the Guest of TN 37919. let for surprisingly good horror Honor of Boskone. Mack Reynolds was This issue is devoted to an ap­ fiction. the GoH of Boskone XX and this book preciation of Karl Edward Wagner, This issue has a superb cover by is perhaps more appropriate and and especially Wagner's exceptional Stephen Fabian and fiction by Ed­ valuable because of his recent sword and sorcery hero, Kane. mund Shirlan, Jessica Amanda Sal- death. Good to average artwork. Seven monson, Carolyn White, Darrell 47 poems. PRINCE VALIANT“An American Epic lishing houses who boldly and bald­ MOONSCAPE #1, Winter, 1983, $2.75 VOLUME ONE: 1937 ly evaluate various novels on a Edited by Mogens Brondum By Hal Foster commercial basis while deciding on Box 1858, Swan River, Manitoba, Edited by Rick Norwood bids for reprint rights. Canada R0L 1Z0. Manuscript Press, PO Box 1762, It's an eye-opening and cold­ In his editorial, Brondum says Wayne, NJ 07470. shower reading experience for any he wants to break down the wall be­ A major labor of love, a will idealistic, literature-oriented tween fantasy and reality, and this to preserve a heritage of comic art writer--and required reading in my finely printed and made-up magazine —call it what you will, this huge opinion. is his first attempt at breaching volume reprints in full, original, Charles solicited sf comment said wall. superior color, on very thick cover on this piece from Richard Curtis, An experienced reader and edit­ stock, the first pages/episodes of Frederik Pohl, Adele Leone, Gregory or can tell story quality from al­ the Prince Valiant adventure strip. Benford, Alfred Bester, Norman Spin­ most the first line. Jack Wodhams This volume is 17" x 22" and 56 rad, David Hartwell, Jerry Pour- is a pro: consider the great first pages. Very expensive at $100. per nelle, Ian Watson, Richard Geis, line of his "Jade Elm," this issue: copy, but of a 1500 limited edition. Edward Ferman, Pat LoBrutto, Piers I cannot remember having a The episodes carry Prince Valiant Anthony, Christopher Priest, J.G. consciousness before I tasted from childhood to young adulthood and Ballard, Brian W. Aldiss, John blood. adventures with knights of King Ar­ Saldek, Kit Reed, Henry Morrison, thur's Round Table. Shawna McCarthy, Janet Morris, and That's a grabber! There are also other samples of Barry Malzberg. Charles has exten­ Consider the first two sentences Hal Foster's artwork and a short sive commentary of his own. of A.J. Thomas' "Gut Reaction": biography. Hal Foster died July 25, It's very revealing of basic The angry scream smote David 1982. attitudes. Gracchi's ears as he pushed Manuscript Press has plans for through the swinging doors into other/further Foster volumes. the pungent-smelling rat.room. They also have a Lost Manuscrip His Greek god handsome face series. So far published are: AN ALGIS BUDRYS CHECKLIST 75

ODDS AND ENDS Part two of "Science Fiction eventually make writing realistic Think about it, mull it over. How is Dying: Can the Patient Be Sav­ SF impossible. (More on this can the world remain intelligible ed?" has been postponed until 148 next issue; check out the magazine given technological progress? so I can bring the readers of from your library if you don't Particularly progress that alters SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW this mes­ own it.) He says that "nothing the human mind. sage: makes the future of any species * * * so unknowable as technical prog­ Richard E. Geis and Elton T. ress itself." And goes on to ob­ Speaking of progress, the Elliott have sold a novel to Faw­ serve that "we are at the point of February '83 issue of SCIENTIFIC cett Gold Medal/Ballantine. Ihe accelerating the evolution of in­ AMERICAN reports that an optical novel, THE SWORD OF ALLAH!, sold telligence itself ... when this analogue of the transistor has al­ December IS, 1982. Ihe authors happens, human history will have ready been built. Hail the age of were represented by the Joseph reached a kind of singularity, an the optical computor. Who needs Elder Agency. The novel was pur­ intellectual transition as inpene- electric current when you can have chased by Fawcett Senior Editor trable as the knotted space-time beams of light. Science Fiction Michaela Hamilton, who described at the center of a black hole, and stories set in the future which it as a "disaster thriller." The the world will pass far beyond our don't take into account optical novel will appear under the joint understanding. This singularity, computers are already obsolete. pseudonym Richard Elliott. It I believe, already haunts a numb­ will not be published as science More on all this next issue. fiction. er of science fiction writers. It makes realistic extrapolations * * * MUSINGS to an interstellar future impos­ Thank you: to all the people Have you noticed that STAR sible." at Norwescon '83 who told me how WARS has now become a generic put- Well, folks, there you have much they enjoyed my news columns down like science fiction? When it. This might very well be the over the years; to those who said Reagan made his "High Frontier" single most important point about they enjoy my current column. Al­ proposal the press jumped on it the current state of science fic­ so thanks to Von for letting me immediately calling it pie-in-the- tion. Vinge is onto something watch "Dallas." sky and NEWSWEEK ran a cartoon that is so crucial to the field I ftftftftftftftftftftftftftftftftftftftftftftftftftftftftftftftftftftft showing Reagan's new defense ad­ cannot overstate its import. visors: E.T., R2D2 and C3PO. On the other hand it moves what used to be considered "way out" SF into an area where writers of suspense fiction can use it as a normal backdrop for their tales of intrigue. It is now possible for the writer who likes science fiction, but is tired of New York SF editors that want only fantasy, to write directly for the thriller market. ft * A Check out the January '83 is­ sue of OMNI. The First Word ed­ itorial is written by Vernor Vinge whose "True Names" is one of the few ground breaking SF stories to come out in the last five years. In the editorial Vinge points out a problem that I believe might 49 THE ARCHIVES

what's the archives all about, Witchmen. DICKIE? Other Horseclans novels are: THE COMING OF THE HORSECLANS, The purpose of The Archives is SWORDS OF THE HORSECLANS, REVENGE to provide the readership with an OF THE HORSECLANS, A CAT OF SILVERY overview of what's been published HUE, THE SAVAGE MOUNTAINS, THE by the professional sf and fantasy PATRIMONY, HORSECLANS ODYSSEY, THE publishers. Sometimes a review will DEATH OF A LEGEND, and THE WITCH follow a listing, sometimes a quote GODDESS. from a blurb to give a general idea of what the book is about, and some­ times not even that will be possi­ ble. TWILIGHT WORLD Of course, we don't receive ev­ By Poul Anderson ery sf and fantasy novel or collec­ Tor, $2.75,February, 1983. tion or anthology. But most do show First published in 1961, this up. sf novel deals with the mutants In "Other Voices," eventually, created by a nuclear’war and their we'll publish reviews of sf and fan­ struggle for survival. tasy books not received but which a reviewer has read and desired to ORION SHALL RISE review for SFR. By Poul Anderson Timescape, $16.95, March, 1983. NEXT ISSUE I hope to expand The Poul's new big science fiction Archives to include Small Press novel. 'A panoramic novel of man's items. More small press efforts struggle to rebuild civilization would be listed/acknowledged/review- after a nuclear inferno.' The time­ ed that way than at present in frame is considerably farther into "Small Press Notes." the future than you might expect. There are too many fanzines This is true, hardcore science fic­ received to include all of them as tion. well...or are there? Why not go whole hog? Why not spend an hour a day typing up The Archives, mak­ FOUNDATION ing snap judgements, quickie reviews? Del Rey, $2.75, March, 1983 That prospect thrills me. I'll see SECOND FOUNDATION if it will trot around the house Del Rey, $2.75, March, 1983 without collapsing at the far turn. FOUNDATION AND EMPIRE STARSHIPS Now—ladies and gentlemen, you are Del Rey, $2.75, March, 1983 Edited by Isaac Asimov, Martin H. about to sink forever into that vast By Isaac Asimov Greenberg, and Charles G. Waugh. uncharted swamp known as The Archiv­ Fawcett Crest, $3.50, May, 1983. es, or Geis's Folly. [Tickle my POB This is probably the most well- Thirteen-story anthology dealing and I'll folly you anywhere!] known and widely read and long-lived with space voyages beyond the solar series of sf novels [from 1951-2-3], system. Divided into sections: The extremely readable and intrigu­ The Complement—a story each involv- ing stories of Hari Seldon's psycho­ ing the Captain, the Crew, the Pas­ history plan to preserve knowledge sengers, and the Cargo; and shorten the "dark ages" after The Type—Time Relativity Ships, THE GAME By Les Logan the 12,000 year Galactic Empire Generation Ships, Suspended Anima­ MAGIC SHOW By Laurie Bridges § Paul died. tion Ships, Cybernetic Ships, and Alexander But not everything goes accord­ Faster That Light/Hyperspace Ships; THE DOLL By Rex Sparger ing to plan.... The Events — First Contact, Inspec­ DEVIL WIND By Laurie Bridges 5 Paul tion, Disaster, and Combat. Alexander Bantam,$1.95, March, 1983. ISAAC ASIMOV PRESENTS THE GREAT SF CAUGHT IN THE ORGAN DRAFT These are the first four Young STORIES - m (194/) Adult (no sex) occult horror novels Edited by Isaac Asimov, Martin H. Edited by Isaac Asimov and Martin issued in the Dark Forces series. Greenberg, and Charles G. Waugh. H. Greenberg. These novels have large print, Fsrrar, Straus 8 Giroux. $12.95, DAW, $3.50, February, 1983. 135 pages-—approx. 30-35,000 words. March, 1983. Fourteen stories by the great Thirteen-story anthology deal­ names of postwar sf. ing with biology in science fiction. It includes Robert Silverberg's THE WINDS OF CHANGE short story of the same title. By Isaac Asimov BILI THE AXE By Robert Adams Doubleday, $15.95, March, 1983. Signet, $2.50, January, 1983. 21-story theme collection of This is #10 in the Horseclans recent (1977-82) stories. series. Bili and his warriors help defend New Kuhmbuhluhm against the 50 FROST By Robin W. Bailey horror, occult fiction—and many well-known belief that "enemies Timescape, $2.75, March, 1983. mixed forms. are just people, too." Bart has New fantasy novel about a witch 736 pages, hardbound, x 11. to deal with that realization at who has lost her powers and must a crucial point in his life and turn to the sword to survive. the life of the several galaxies. FAI I FN STAR By James Blish Not a great read, not a great THE REGIMENTS OF NIGHT Avon, $2.50. Feb. 1983. First story; this is minor Bradley. By Brian N. Ball published in 1957. DAW, $2.50, February, 1983. A well-done Earth-at-risk WEB OF LIGHT Second printing; first in 1972, sf novel, set in the Arctic, in­ By Marion Zimmer Bradley Far future science fiction. A volving a disguised alien. Told Timescape, $2.95, February, 1983. 'Black Army' is released from its first-person by Julian Cole, a This is the first volume of a lost underground stronghold on Earth science writer along on the exped­ new fantasy series. Set by the after a thousand years. ition. shores of Atlantis, WEB OF LIGHT is WELCOME TO MARS By James Blish the story of a war between opposing THE WIND FROM A BURNING WOMAN Avon, $2.50, May, 1983. magical forces, involving two sis­ By Greg Bear First published in 1967, this ters . Arkhan House, $13.95, March, 1983 is a bit absurd as a teenage boy Six stories and short novels (17) discovers antigravity, con­ GREYHAVEN: AN ANTHOLOGY OF FANTASY dealing with a future history and structs a homemade spaceship and two humans involved in that history. visits Mars where he becomes By Marion Zimmer Bradley Many fine illustrative drawings marooned... DAW Fantasy, $2.50, 240 pp. by Dennis Neal Smith. REVIEWED BY ALMA JO WILLIAMS

AGAINST INFINITY By Gregory Benford THE MACHINERIES OF JOY This is a collection of 18 Timescape, $14.95, April, 1983. By Ray Bradbury short fantasy stories written by His new sf novel. Set on Gany­ Bantam, $2.75, Reprint of earlier various writers, professional and mede during a long-term effort by Bantam editions, reset with new otherwise, who were guests at one resident humans to terraform the typeface. time or another at Greyhaven and moon of Jupiter, it involves an in­ Twenty-one short stories. House Greenwalls, Marion Zimmer explicable enitity they call the The front cover headlines him Bradley's domain. Each has a Aleph. This thing is huge, mobile, "The World's Greatest Living Science short introduction by MZB and in­ dangerous, impervious to harm, and Fiction Writer." The back cover cludes Randall Garrett, Vicki Ann indifferent to man. Hunting the more accurately describes him as Heydron, Susan Shwartz Caradoc Ca- Aleph is a yearly event. "...America's preeminent master of dor, Robert Cook, various Zimmers, the fantastic." etc. The stories range in length Solving the problems caused by from a paragraph or two to thirty the Aleph (and answering the or more pages and from this uni­ verse to unicorns and sword and questions it raises) is the core THE COLORS OF SPACE of the novel. sorcery, while the authors run the By Marion Zininer Bradley gamut from computer programmers Starblaze Editions and English professors to tattoo THE DISAPPEARING DWARF ISBN: 0-8965-191-3 $5.95 artists and poets. It is the type By James P. Blaylock REVIEWED BY STEVE MILLER of book that you can read comfort­ Del Rey Fantasy, $2.75, February, ably if your reading time is lim­ 1983. The original publication of ited to short bursts. Worth The sequel to THE ELFIN SHIP. THE COLORS OF SPACE was in 1963; getting. Fantasy with a light touch as Jona­ this book is said to have 1/3 of than Bing, Master Cheeser, accepts the original manuscript restored Professor Wurzle's invitation to to the text. Certainly that alone (A KH/IEW sHWLb KE visit the empty castle of Selznak, will make the book a must for Brad­ Pure CLEAR, LIKE the Evil IXvarf... .where they discov­ ley completists. er a treasure map! A GOBLET OF FERR'EK THE COLORS OF SPACE is a ju­ k^WATEK^ venile, not quite as successful THE Zt>RoP op as a Heinlein or even a typical Poison \S THE GUIDE TO SUPERNATURAL FICTION Norton. OPTiONAU. By Everett F. Bleiler The Kent State University Press Bart Steele is swept along [Kent, OH 44 24 2] $55.00 by events as humanity tries to A monumental work, this. Over throw off the limitations of star 7000 stories and novels are covered, travel imposed by the Lhari. from about 1750 to 1960. Each has Bart's father had died trying to a plot sunuiary and critical comment. free humanity from these bounds. Biographical info on the authors is Bart undergoes a dangerous provided, along with an author index, transformation, and becomes a hu­ story index....pseudonyms are ent­ man spy among the Lhari. The ered... and a subject index is in­ Lhari are color blind: They only cluded. Every kind of 'Contra­ see in shades of grey. That se­ natural' fiction is covered, includ­ cret becomes the key to the novel. ing Gothic novel, Oriental tales, Romantic fantasies, Victorian ghost The book is a fast read, has stories, fin-de-siecle horror fic­ adventure, foreign ports to sight­ tion, plus 20th Century light fan­ see, but is basically about the tasy, heroic fantasy, supernatural 51 TV£ MISTS OF AVALON THE UNBEHEADED KING the future -- the Confederacy. By Marion Zirrmer Bradley By L. Sprague de Camp The Warden Diamond is one plane­ Khopf, $16,95, January, 1983 Del Rey, $9.95, March, 1983. tary system where the Confederacy This hardcover fantasy novel, New fantasy adventure, a light­ does not hold sway -- for a very 876 pages long, is the most ambit­ hearted romp, about a king defying good reason. The system consists ious novel Marion has ever attempt­ the custom of beheading-after-five- of four planets (of varying degrees ed. It deals with the women of the years -of -rule. With the aid of a of habitability -- from blistering legend of King Arthur, of the con­ wizard and a demon he also wishes tropics to cold and barren tundra) flict between the new religion of to save his queen. But there are and has a peculiar organism that Christianity and the old religion always problems, complications and infiltrates the organic system of of Avalon. And it retells the story villains! anyone or anything that settles of King Arthur, the intrigues, the De Camp has mastered this style there. As a result, they are un­ wars, the loves, the magics, the and will always provide a fun read. able to leave, or they will die deaths. It is a new perspective on suddenly and painfully. the Old Religion, on Arthur, on how hart's HOPE The Confederacy decides this is history is made and recorded and how a perfect dumping ground for all it survives. By Orson Scott Card Berkley, $2.75, February, 1983. of their criminal elements (a la Ihis is a disciplined work of Australia in the 18th Century) and fiction. By a woman. For women. This is hardball fantasy, deal­ ing in death, sorcerous, vicious each world soon develops its own The fictional style is woman orient­ peculiar civilization. ed, and the point-of-view is that revenge. A 300-year saga that trac­ of the various women—Guinevere, es brutal, evil consequences. The Lord of each world hates Ingraine, Viviane, and above all of the Confederacy and there is some evidence mysterious aliens have Morgan le Fay. THE WORLDS OF H. BEAM PIPER Most men, and most teenage boys, Edited by John F. Carr made a deal with the Lords that will not like it. Ace, $2.75, February, 1983. may result in the eventual down­ fall of the Confederacy. The dust jacket painting by Ten of the late H. Beam's short Braldt Braids is beautiful. For its stories, including "Time and Time There's a unique problem in in­ length and size, this is a good buy Again," and "Day of the Moron." telligence: how to get infonnatiai for $16.95. from a system where nothing is able to leave? The solution is to mind­ WINTER LORD AS THE GREEN STAR RISES wipe four criminals and replace By Jean Brooks-Janowiak By Lin Carter each with the persona of one man Signet, $2.95, January, 1983. DAW, $2.25, March, 1983. Fourth who will yet be able to experience Supernatural horror novel. printing since 1975. and report; existing in two (actual­ The fourth novel in the Green ly five) places simultaneously. Star saga. The mind of an injured Earthman is transported to an alien NIGHT OF THE WOLF Carrying out this mission is By Christopher Bryan planet to occupy the body of a young not an easy job, and Charon is no Harper 6 Row, $10.95, May, 1983. primitive____ bargain as a planet. Hot and sub­ A novel of suspense set in pres­ tropical, full of strange animals, ent-day England. A police Ispector it is also a place where magic and unravels a world-wide conspiracy to MEDUSA: A TIGER BY THE TAIL witchcraft really work. The hero overthrow existing power systems in By Jack L. Chalker soon finds he is metamorphosizing order to impose a "New Order." There Del Rey, $2.95, April, 1983. into a lizard-like creature and is are supernatural elements. Volume Four of the Four Lords in danger of losing his basic hu­ of the Diamond series. Previous manity. The Lord of this world titles: has apparently been deposed and TIMES WITHOUT NUMBER Book One: LILITH: A SNAKE IN THE gone into hiding and it is a fe­ By John Brunner GRASS. male Lord who is now in power. Del Rey, $2.50, February, 1983; Book Two: CERBERUS: A WOLF IN THE originally published in 1962 but FOLD. revised and expanded since then. Book Three: CHARON: A DRAGON AT THE The Society of Time faces GATE. I have never been too taken by disaster as corrupt officers of the Secret agent mind transfer, ad­ Chalker's specialty -- that of hu­ Society threaten all history. venture on the ice world Medusa.... man transmutation, but I am inter­ The Confederacy vs. the worlds of ested in the complexity of his the Warden Diamond. plot -- where nothing is ever JHEREG By Steven Brust quite what it appears to be. In Ace, $2.50, April, 1983 effect, he is writing a science Fantasy by category, but prob­ CHARON: A DRAGON AT THE GATE fiction spy novel where the quest­ ably science-fantasy in content, By Jack Chalker ion of who is working with whan and this is a new novel about a young Ballantine Books, 1982, 289 pp. why is paramount. There are twists man on another world who, seeking and turns and red herrings all ov­ adventure, becomes an Assassin and REVIEWED BY W. RITCHIE BENEDICT er the place. How he is going to takes as friend/companion a kind of be able to tie up all the loose This is the third volume of dragon with whom he is telepathical­ ends in the final volune (due in The Four Lords of the Diamond ser­ ly linked. There is some witchcraft April 1983) will be a wonder to ies. I caught the first volume, involved. behold. I believe this is a much LILLITH: A SNAKE IN THE GRASS, The writing is realistic and stronger novel than the first vol­ but missed the second, CEREBRUS: very good. ume and it is fast-moving and en­ A WOLF IN THE FOLD. tertaining. Certainly worth look­ There is a super-scientific ing into if extended series are quasi-dictatorship space empire in your bag. Each book can stand on its own merits, however. 52 THE DREAMSTONE THE VARKAUS CONSPIRACY THE THREE STIGMATA OF PALMER By C.J. Cherryh By John Dalmas ELDRITCH By Philip K. Dick DAW, $2.75, March, 1983. Tor, $2.95,March, 1983. DAW, $2.50, March, 1983. First A new novel, fantasy, about the Near-future science fiction published in 1964. last defense of Faery against the novel dealing with the develop­ This is a classic playing-with- encroaching iron sword of the Era ment of supermen. reality sf novel, by Dick in his of Man. prime. Man, materialism, rationality and science are here evil. PATHWAYS TO THE GODS By Erich Von Daniken THE BLUE HAWK Putnam, $16.95, Febryary, 1983. By Peter Dickinson AGAINST THE NIGHT., THE STARS Subtitled "The Stones of Kiri­ Del Rey, $2.50, April, 1983. THE SCIENCE FICTION OF ARTHUR C. bati," this book is Von Daniken's Reprint of this popular 1976 CLARKE latest accumulation of questionable novel about a boy's religious sin By John Hollow evidence that ancient astronauts/ and rite of passage in a primitive, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, $14.95, gods descended from space and creat­ magical world. April, 1983. ed mankind in their image, leaving Analysis of Calrke's sf and thus behind enigmatic "proofs" of their an analysis of Clarke the man is the technology and intelligence. MUTANTS By Gordon R. Dickson result. The basic vision of Arthur This is for True Believers. DAW, $2.95, March, 1983. C. Clarke is optimistic for mankind's An 11-story collection on the future—a destiny out among the theme of human variations and po­ stars. Hollow is mindfull of the TALES OF NEVERYON tential . formative influences of early youth, By Samuel R. Delany Originally published by Mac­ of the background culture absorbed Bantam, $3.50,April, 1983; second millan. in growing up—and Clarke grew up . printing from September, 1979. in England. Five stories and an appendix. THE FAR CALL If you like literary analysis, Samuel R. Delany may be an By Gordon R. Dickson this is a good job and worth your acquired taste; he requires time, Ace, $2.75, February, 1983. time and money. patience and a delight in words The latest edition of this 1973, and phrases and sentences and para­ 1978 sf novel of the first Mars Ex­ graphs sometimes exhausting, some­ pedition. MOONSCATTER times rewarding, sometimes marvelous, By Jo Clayton sometimes impossible. DAW, $2.95, February, 1983. The price asked for this reprint THE PRITCHER MASS The second novel of the Duel of suggests full aim at a small litera- By Gordon R. Dickson Sorcery. A brave warrior-woman bat­ teur audience. The cover showing a Tor, $2.75,February, 1983. First tles an immortal wizard. young nearly-nude couple by a tree published in 1972. (with a flying dragon in the night A strange and horrible fungus background), he with his phallic is among us and Earth's only hope is THE RELIGION By Nicholas Conde sword in full erection, she in her the Pritcher Mass which searches Signet, $3.50, March, 1983. burlesque-style beaded bra and pan­ the psychic wavelengths for living New horror novel about a hidden, ties suggests hedging the bets. worlds. savage, worldwide religion which requires children as sacrifices to its gods. NEVERYONA By Samuel R. Delany WHITE GOLD WIELDER Bantam, $6.95, April, 1983. Trade By Stephen R. Donaldson Del Rey, $14.95, April, 1983. FEVER By Robin Cook paperback. Signet, $3.95, January, 1983. New fantasy novel about a far- Book Three: The Second Chroni­ Hardcover by Putnam in 1982. past empire and about a young woman cles of Thomas Covenant. The full Chronicles of Thomas Cook's latest medical thriller, on a dragon's back on a quest. She this time involving a doctor fight­ joins with a young male with a Covenant the Unbeliever are: ing an industrial conspiracy: his phallic sword and becomes involved Book One: LORD FOUL'S BANE daughter has leukenia caused by in palace intrigue... Book TWo: THE ILLEARTH WAR Book Three: THE POWER THAT PRESERVES industrial pollution. He is labeled Delany here deals heavily in "crazy". parable and metaphor. Bantam deals The Second Chronicles: here in cheap paper. Book One: THE WOUNDED LAND

A TAPESTRY OF MAGICS By Brian Daley Del Rey Fantasy, $2.95, February 1983. New novel. Sword, Sorcery, and elements of hardcore science fiction—as a knight of his world becomes involv­ ed with the Beyonds where a Singu­ larity merges other worlds and real­ ities with his. A complex, plausible science fantasy by the author of THE D00M- FARERS OF CORANCNDE. Book Two: THE ONE TREE TWo of the stories, "Shatter­ FOR LOVE OF MOTHER-NOT Book Three: WHITE GOLD WIELDER day" and "Jeffty is Five" are on By Alan Dean Foster Covenant finally returns to the L.P. records and "All the Lies Del Rey, $2.95, March, 1983. Land and continues the battle against that are my Life" was printed in a The story of how Flinx and his Lord Foul, the Despiser. He realiz­ short Underwood-Miller edition with flying snake, Pip, got together. es he has the key to controlling his forewords and afterwords by Robert Later adventures of these two power and is ready for the final con­ Silverberg, Ed Bryant, etc. are: THE TAR-AIYM KRANG frontation with Lord Foul. Some of the other stories I ORPHAN STAR The style is as rich and color­ had read in F6SF, PLAYBOY and OMNI. BLOODHYPE ful as ever, and the detail and char­ All have been published elsewhere. THE END OF THE MATTER. acterization as fine and deep. Once And I would describe them as good, you're hooked on Donaldson's world vintage Ellison. I was anxious to SPELLSINGER By Alan Dean Foster and themes you're helpless to stop read "How's the Night Life on Cis- Warner, $2.95, June, 1983. reading and reading.... salda," it having been touted as a New fantasy novel. The story This is a long novel—485 pages "really dirty story." Hilarious of grad student and rock guitar­ —and bound to be a long delight for it is! Dirty it isn't, (at least, ist Jon Meriweather, who is trans­ his fans. not to my prudish mind). It's ported to a wizard's world of dis­ worth the price of the book alone. arming beauty and savage violence. The stories can be safely read He becomes a soldier whose weapons THE ONE TREE By Stephen Donaldson are sword and song. Del Rey, $3.50, April, 1983. First on a cold winter's evening in the published in hardcover April 1982. dark, by the light of a dying fire. The Second Chronicles of Thomas Nothing truly disgusting or stom­ ach-turning. But the ideas pres­ THE MAN WHO USED THE UNIVERSE Covenant, Book Two. By Alan Dean Foster The sequel to THE WOUNDED LAND. ented will make you think, will obtrude into your daily thoughts Warner, $2.95, August, 1983. under certain circumstances, in New sf novel [advance copy] certain situations. Flashbacks. about a new Foster protagonist— Get it by all means. 'Kees van Loo-Macklin, a born kill­ er, seizes the reins of an inter­ galactic underworld and spreads magician's GAMBIT his influence to the farthest plan­ By David Eddings ets. He joins with a race of aliens Del Rey, $2.95, June, 1983. in a plot to subvert his own race. Book Three of the Belgariad BENEFITS By Zoe Fairbairns One alien, at the risk of his life saga. Previous titles are PAWN Avon, $2.95, April, 1983. and race, dares to pursue the truth OF PROPHESY and QUEEN OF SORCERY. Near-future sf in which strong —who is Loo-Macklin and what is Fantasy about a quest to recover women battle a right-wing authori­ his real quest?' a stolen, magical Orb. A princess, tarian government in England which A quick dip into this novel sug­ sorcerers, a strange tower, an evil has forced women from the workplace gests Alan has written a tough, magician... back into the home and now is decree­ realistic, adult sf novel. I look ing which women may be mothers. But forward to reading it all the way the contraceptives in the water sup­ through. LOVE AIN'T NOTHING BUT SEX MIS­ ply have deadly side-effects for the SPELLED newborn, in spite of the official By Harlan Ellison antidote. TRANSFORMER By M.A. Foster Ace, $2.95. Feb. 1983. First pub­ DAW, $2.50, April, 1983. lished in hardback in 1968. A genetically constructed COMPANION TO NARNIA genius, virtually immortal, able This edition contains 13 of the By Paul F. Ford original 22 stories; 3 new stories to change body structure, the Harper 6 Row San Francisco, $5.95, Morphodite, now a woman, tracks have been added. Collectors take March, 1983. note. down her and her planet's enemies A complete, illustrated guide in interstellar space. Harlan is compulsively readable. to the themes, characters, and events He will grab you, shake you, alter Harry Harrison writer whose books.have become They are avid readers of sf and Ace, $2.75, May, 1983. classics of Chrisitan faith and Amit is a physicist. This book is Earth against the aliens. Many teaching. an examination of science-fictional very realistic double-page drawings use of known physics and of its use by Evan Ten Broeck Steadman. of speculative physics. The style is conversational, oft humorous, always interesting. Many times using A REBEL IN TIFE quotes from sf to pose problems and By Harry Harrison CONAN, THE UNCONQUERED questions for examination, the auth­ Tor, $3.50, February, 1983. New novel. A crazed colonel in By Robert Jordan ors cover gravity, astronomy in every Tor, $2.95, April, 1983. aspect, entropy, life, hyperspace, charge of a secret govt, time-travel experiment project takes gold and A new adventure written by per­ atoms, mind, the paranormal....all haps the best of those who have at­ with the aid of clear, often funny the plans for a machine gun back to the Civil War South with intent to tempted to imitate Robert E. How­ illustrations/cartoons. Index. ard's style and pacing. In many Foreward by Kate Wilhelm. change history. An agent is sent back to stop him at all costs. ways Jordon surpasses Howard. Lousy, amateurish cover painting by Walotsky. CASTLEDOWN THE FLOATING GODS By Joyce Ballou Gregorian By M. John Harrison Ace, $2.95, May, 1983. Timescape, $2.50, February, 1983. GUNNER CADE By Cyril Judd First printed by Athenium in A new Viriconium novel in this [C.M. Kornbluth 8 Judith Merril] 1977. This fantasy is the sequel fantasy series. Tor $2.95, April 1983. to THE BROKEN CITADEL. A young Hard-core sf from 1952. A loyal English girl is transported to soldier is outlawed and fights back. a strange fantasy world by the Play­ PARADISE By Dan Henderson Also in this volume: TAKEOFF by ers of Omat. Tor, $2.95, April, 1983. C.M. Kornbluth [1952] a short novel Powerful aliens, irritated by about the first human venture into mankind and Earth, retaliate in space. It has a postscript by strange, terrifying ways.... Frederik Pohl. New novel. THERE IS NO DARKNESS By Joe Haldeman 8 Jack C. Haldeman II. NEBULA WIMMERS FIFTEEN Ace, $2.75, February, 1983. Edited by Frank Herbert In a galaxy sprinkled with human Bantam, $2.95,March, 1983. PHANTOMS By Dean R. Koontz colonies grown independent and Earth First published in hardcover, Putnam, $15.95, March, 1983 devastated and degenerate, a giant April, 1981, by Harper 8 Row. New small town horror novel. space-traveling university called The short story and novelet Starschool needs defenses as well as winners for 1979 (it takes a few academics. Its students learn many years to get these volumes in print, different lessons at its ports of considering voting time and editing call. time and publisher pipeline time), plus a novelet from the runners-up, and three short stories from the runners-up...and two essays by others favored by Herbert. THE WALLS OF AIR THE SPACE EATER By Barbara Hambly By David Langford Del Rey, $2.95, March, 1983. Timescape,$2.50, February, 1983. New fantasy novel; the sequel A genuine hard science fiction to THE TIME OF THE DARK. 55 space adventure novel. THE UNFORSAKEN HIERO HARPY'S FLIGHT THE LAST WARRIOR QUEEN By Sterling E. Lanier By Megan Lindholm By Mary Mackey Del Rey, $11.95, May, 1983 Ace, $2.50, February, 1983. Seaview/Putnam, $15.95, March, 1983. HIERO'S JOURNEY [1973] was a New fantasy novel. A heroine This might be called a specula­ very good, well-received sf novel. struggles against creatures known tive pre-history novel. Set in Meso­ This is its sequel, set in the same as Harpies. Set in a world of potamia when written history is a- North America 5000 years from now medieval civilization. bout to begin, it tells of a time of after a holocaust. changes as the great matriarchal Per Hiero Desteen—priest, cities which have dominated civili­ telepath and trained killer—was PRELUDE TO CHAOS zation to that time are beset by By Edward Llewellyn sent on a mission into the wilder­ hordes of male-dominated nomads. DAW, $2.75, February, 1983. ness and encountered and fought On a one-to-one human level it A food additive is sterilizing the evil Unclean and their vile, is the story of Innana, a beautiful mankind. mutated beast followers. young psychic-talented nomad girl This novel shows Hiero and his who leaves an oppressive tribe new bride, Luchare, continuing the KINE and seeks peace and happiness in the struggle against the Unclean who By A. R. Lloyd matriarchal City of the Dove where war against man and civilization. St. Martin's Press, $11.95, 1983. die meets and falls in love with a More wonders and revelations. In a peaceful woodland and marsh gentle man... She is a pivotal It is Lanier's superior writing valley a territorial struggle pits figure, is destined to be queen of which makes this ancient theme work native animals against savage wild the city, and to lead it into battle so well again. His coimand of real­ mink invaders. against the nomads. istic detail, character and tension First published in Great Brit­ This is a feminist novel, and make this a fine, rewarding reading ain by Hamlyn Paperbacks. well done. It is full of love, experience. magic and wishful thinking.

STAR COLONY By Keith Laumer TRIANGLE By Sondra Marshak and Ace, $2.95, March, 1983. First pub­ Myrna Culbreath. lished by St. Martin's Press in 1981. Timescape, $2.50, March, 1983. Mankind's first colony planet, A new Star Trek novel by the Colmar: its struggle to survive. authors of THE PROMETHEUS DESIGN, Classic hardcore, high-tension also a Star Trek novel. sf adventure.

RETIEF TO THE RESCUE THE OBSESSION OF SALLY WING By Keith Laumer By Russ Martin Timescape, $14.95, Feb., 1983. Tor, $2.95, March, 1983. The first new Retief novel Occult horror novel. to be published in ten years. First printing.

DANCE OF THE HAG TENGU By Graham Masterton By Stephen Leigh Tor, $3.50, April, 1983. Bantam, $2.50, March, 1983. The Japanese revenge for the New sf novel. A sequel to atom bombing of Hiroshima and Naga­ SLOW FALL TO DAWN, involving saki is sending an ancient, terrible again the Hoorka assassins' guild demon to the U.S. Tengu is a demon of the planet Neweden. of possession and destruction. New novel.

MEMOIRS OF A SPACE TRAVELER THE NONBORN KING Further Reminiscences of Ijon Tichy By Julian May By Stanislaw Lem Houghton Mifflin, $16.95, Feb., 1983 Harvest/HIB, $3.95, April, 1983. Volume III in the Saga of Plio- Nine stories in which Lem does cene Exile. a kind of intergalactic Jonathan TEA WITH THE BLACK DRAGON Swift turn, satirizing types of By R.A. MacAvoy foolish government and foolish tech­ Bantam, $2.75, May, 1983. nology, which implies very foolish Martha Macnamara, zen practition­ people. er, and Mayland Long, at least a thousand years old, together find KHI TO FREEDOM By Ardath Mayhar magic, adventure and romance as they Ace, $2.50, May, 1983. search for Martha's missing daughter 'For Hale Enbo, servitude prom­ HIS MASTER'S VOICE in the baffling world of computer ised freedom! He loved his life as By Stanislaw Lem wizards and electronice crime. planetary scout, indentured to the Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, $12.95, A charming, modern-day fantasy, alien Ginli, traveling throughout February, 1983 in which you are sure everything the universe, finding and befreind- Translated from Polish by Mich­ will come out all right. It does. ing the myriads of intelligent life ael Kandel. Published in Poland forms. Until he discovered what his originally in 1968. masters were really after. Until A secret 2500-person team in the he found one of his friends staked USA seek to decipher a beamed mes­ out on the Ginli's vivisection sage from space. 56 table...' LIFE PROBE By Michael McCollum ELFQUEST-Book Two The quality of these profiles Del Rey, $2.95, June, 1983 By Wendy 5 Richard Pini can be judged by those published New sf novel. An ancient alien Donning, $10.95, 1982. in SFR recently, especially the civilization's life-probe craft lands The adventures and quests of Laumer interview last issue and on 21st Century Earth. Eons of alien the Wblfrider clan of Elves, and Janet Morris this issue, as well science will be available... if Earth their conflicts with the hated as the picture presented of Platt can repair the probe. humans, the trolls, and as yet un­ Himself by Winter. known forces. DREAM MAKERS I and II are ab­ Wonders abound in this full- solutely must-reading for any sf, STAR RIDERS OF REN color illustrated fantasy, especial­ fantasy reader. They add so much By Calvin Miller ly the amazingly well-done artwork, to the reading of a given author's Harper 8 Row San Francisco, $7.95, the coloring, and the layered char­ novels and stories. March, 1983. Trade paperback. acterizations, honor, and real trag­ This is the second volume in edy. the Singreale Chronicles fantasy Each panel of this graphic-art MIDAS WORLD By Frederik Pohl series. The first was GUARDIANS story is lovely, often full pages St. Martin's, $13.95, July, 1983. OF THE SINGREALE. are integrated for subtle and power­ His new novel about the develop­ Daniel San Souci has provided ful impacts, and the pace never ment of fusion's free, limitless many full-page b/w illustrations. slows except for deliberate accent­ power and the avalanche of production This is Good vs. Evil sword 8 ing of emotion and mood. and consumption that follows, with sorcery, set in a medieval-like These are quality 8% x 11 soft- the consequential waste of the re- time and culture, with a Christian cover books, printed on the best, maininig natural resources of Earth. moral slant. heavyweight stock. Their value in The hero must stop the free power story/art and printing quality (and in order to free mankind and save the collectability) is very high. Well planet. worth the money. A cautionary tale not likely to I cannot believe pure illustrat­ be too popular. ed fantasy could ever be better. THE CHESSBOARD QUEEN UNDERSEA CITY By Sharan Newman By‘Frederik Pohl 6 Jack Williamson St. Martin's, $13.95, March, 1983 TIE DEADLY SKY Del Rey, $1.95, February, 1983. 4th A sequel to GUINEVERE, this is By Doris Piserchia printing. First published in 1958. Newman's second Athurian romance. DAW, $2.50, January, 1983. Another adventure with Cadet New SF novel James Eden of the Sub-Sea Academy as the deep Krakatoan Dome is endanger­ KAJIRA OF GOR By John Norman ed by strong seaquakes which are not DAW, $3.50, March, 1983. DREAM MAKERS—VOLUTE 11 THE UN­ natural. The 1983 Gor book, the 19th COMMON MEN & WOMEN WHO WRITE SCI­ novel of the Counter-Earth saga. ENCE FICTION The beat goes on. More of his Interviews by Charles Platt FARTHEST STAR peculiar version of hardball social Berkley, $6.95, June, 1983. By Frederik Pohl 5 Jack Williamson biology. Women must be put in their More marvelous profiles which Del Rey, $2.75, February 1983. First place (on their knees) and kept in reveal, uncover, illuminate, expose published by Ballantine in 1975. their place, to everyone's satisfac­ the personality and character of The first Cuckoo novel. A tion. those "interviewed" by Charles who strange, vast entity/artifact from has a very keen eye for the inner another galaxy approaches ours. person and the outer clue. Quite Mankind has a lower-class civilization THE WINDHOVER TAPES: FLEXING THE WARP often the author's chosen surround­ among those known to the galactic By Warren Norwood ings tell as much about him as his culture and we rent living human Bantam, $2.75, Feb., 1983 words. 'replicates' to aliens for whatever Gerard Manley, diplomatic Charles Platt has his prejudic­ purposes required. troubleshooter to alien civiliza­ es and is aware of them and largely Replicate human explorers are tions in his sentient starship, compensates or surfaces them to off­ sent to investigate.... Windhover, on a special mission set his possibly warped judgements to unravel the Tenderfoot legend. in certain instances. Previous novel in this series WALL AROUND A STAR was AN IMAGE OF VOICES. Next is Those writers profiled in this By Frederik Pohl 6 Jack Williamson FI ZE OF THE GABRIEL RATCHETS (avail­ volume are: Del Rey, $2.95, February, 1983. able July, 1983.) Jerry Poumelle, Larry Niven, A new novel, a sequel to FARTHEST Christopher Priest, William Bur­ STAR. roughs, Arthur C. Clarke, Alvin Further human contact and in­ Toffler, John Sladek, D.M. Thomas, vestigation of the vast bubble called Keith Roberts, Andre Norton, Piers Cuckoo, with the entire galaxy at Anthony, Keith Laumer, Joe Haldeman, stake. Fritz Leiber, Robert Anton Wilson, ALL IN GOOD TIME Poul Anderson, Jack Vance, Theodore By Edward Ormandroyd Sturgeon, L. Ron Hubbard, Joanna Bantam, $1.95, Feb., 1983 Russ, Janet Morris, Joan D. Vinge, THERE WILL BE WAR Young Adult time travel novel. Harry Harrison, Donald A. Wolheim, By Jerry Poumelle It is a sequel to TIME AT THE TOP. Edward Ferman, Kit Reed, James Tip- Tor, $2.95, January, 1983. tree, Jr., Stephen King. TWenty-two stories, articles, And Charles Platt is himself introductions, and two poems dealing profiled at the end of the book by with man's wars and warlike tenden­ Douglas Winter. cies through the ages and into space. 57 John F. Carr is Associate Editor. DRAY PRESCOT 28 — DELIA OF VALLIA The cover is by Ken W. Kelly; appetite, other titles are: "The I finally know why Prescot is con­ Indian Rope Trick Explained," "The By Dray Prescot tinually trying to get back to his Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied DAW, * 509, Dec. 1982 wife -- which, by the way, is her Poetics," and "A New Experiment 192 pp., $2.35 uppermost reciprocal thought ... with Time" ... and surprisingly, REVIEWED BY IAN COVELL the stories are just as funny, clever and thought-provoking as This latest book in the in­ FIRES OF SCORPIO the titles. DRAY PRESCOT:29 creasingly complex web of Antares' This book is an unexpected gem politics begins derivatively enough: DAW, $2.50, April, 1983. a warrior, lost and weakened in New sf novel in this long-run the desert, lures down a vulture, series. This is the second novel cuts off its head and drinks its in the Pandahem Cycle of Dray Pres­ blood. One twist: The warrior cot adventures on the far planet is a woman called Delia ... aka Kregen. These are told first-person by THE FIRST BOOK OF SWORDS Delia of Delphond, Delia of The By Fred Saberhagen Blue Mountains. Dray Prescot's Prescot, to Alan Burt Akers who is Tor, $6.95, March, 1983. wife, shipwrecked. the Earth agent with whom he has A trade paperback edition, contact. Though the usual adventures printed on good quality pulp paper. This is colorful, action-packed, 'Thousands of years after a war begin there -- capture, assault, alien adventure a la Burroughs, only battle, flight -- Delia's tale better written than ERB could manage. so terrible that it changed the very gradually reveals deeper concerns laws of nature, gods and giants of the author, perhaps not quite once again stalk the earth and play expressible from Prescot's own their games with htinan lives.' memoirs of the last 27 books.

We have never before been THE THREE-LEGGED HOOTCH DANCER shown in detail the life and se­ By Mike Resnick THE SHATTERED GODDESS crets of The Sisters of the Rose; Signet, $2.50, February, 1983. this book in its second section, By Darrell Schweitzer Tales of the Galactic Midway #2. Donning,$5.95, March, 1983. tells us much. Then the emphasis A camy crew in alien-inhabited space switches again as Delia -- having New fantasy novel. has a lot of problems putting on When an evil witch secretly refused the proffered leadership shows and staying alive. of the Sisters --is seconded to substitutes her own son for that seek out a rebel Sister who, once of a royal heir, she unwittingly dishonored and now bitter, has creates her own undoing. Condemned THE 57TH FRANZ KAFKA to a hole-in-the-wall existence at turned to the breakaway sect The By Rudy Rucker Sisters of the Whip who offer her the bottom of society, the true Ace $2.50, January, 1983. heir must study magic to survive. sorcery as aid. This breakaway From Charles Platt: "I happened sect has one main aim: the tor­ When he learns his own real identity upon his [story] collection by ac­ he learns that to reclaim the throne ture, degradation and death of cident, and was very surprised when men. Supposedly in retaliation he must unleash a magic that will I found myself enjoying it more destroy his world. for the subjugation of women for than any other new writer's stories centuries. that I've read in the past couple of years." Slavery is examined in general and in the particular; Delia under­ goes slavery. Slavery of two kinds. REVIEWED BY JAMES J.J. WILSON "Prescot" has used the book to Rudy Rucker, in ^addition to make clear statements about heroic three novels, has published two fantasy but mostly about equality non-fiction books on mathematics. that should (I hope) make feminists This is his first collection. cheer or at least nod. He has made other statements that may He is also a mathematical dampen the antagonism that now philosopher, and while his stories seems to split fantasy roughly in­ are enthralling and funny to the to female authors/male authors. average reader, anyone with train­ He juxtaposes the cruelly anti-male ing in mathematics or physics will sect with a macho gruesome regime delight in the ironic and yet log­ led by a "man" whose treatment of ical ways Rucker treats complex women is not a long way from that theories and plausible specula­ in John Norman's fiction. tions. Told from a woman's viewpoint, I won't summarize every story DELIA'S initially light tone in the book but "Pac-Man" is about a ("Dray Prescot" is almost perfect­ video game whiz who receives a re­ ly in control; while having some ward from Ronald Reagan for invent­ fun with the genre he is also ing a new missile guidance system, writing interesting and affecting and "Inertia" is a story that con­ prose) darkens through stark real­ tains fairies, goblins, sprites, ity (a brutal hideous plague) to people who can fly and the possib­ total black in the pages of tort­ le destruction of the earth, and ure, slavery and death. Prescot is also one of the most hilarious has written an astonishing book. in the book. Just to whet your If you read no other book by him, read this! 58 And, surprise, Darrell can write! THE WORLD INSIDE THE NAGASAKI VECTOR By L. Neil Smith He has a fine, smooth, adroit, con- By Robert Silverberg Del Rey, $2.75, April, 1983. tolled style. He knows plot, con­ Bantam, $2.50, March, 1983. 'To his bosses at the Ochskahrt flict, pace, tension. He handles First published in 1971, this Memorial Academy he was Captain words verrry nicely. I'm impressed. novel tells of life in Urban Monad Bernard M. Gruenblum, Temporal Div­ He's become an accomplished writer, 116, a giant, thousand-story build­ ision—just another time traveler. seemingly in a few months, but of ing in which live 880,000 people in But to the aliens from Yamaguchi he course this quality has been evolving the year 2381 AD. And about trying was, literally, God. So, if Bernie for years. I just didn't notice. to get out. was going to medieval Japan, they were, too. Well, three of them. 'It was supposed to be a routine HEROIC VISIONS MAJIPOOR CHRONICLES historical survey, but things liven­ Edited by Jessica Amanda Salmonson By Robert Silverberg ed up when a mutiny knocked Bernie Ace, $2.75, March, 1983. Bantam, $3.50, Feb. 1983. First pub­ off course. With disillusioned Fantasy anthology of 11 new sto­ lished in hardback, 1981. aliens for a crew and a brig full ries by very well-known sf/fantasy Majipoor, the giant planet of of murderers. Bernie knew getting authors: Michael Bishop, F.M. Busby, LORD VALENTINE'S CASTLE, has a giant home was going to be tough—and Grania Davis, Gordon Derevanchuk, history and varied lands and peoples. that was before the time machine Alan Dean Foster, Charles E. Karpuk, These are sampled as a young man in disappeared!' Phyllis Ann Karr, Fritz Leiber, the Labyrinth re-lives life-records Joanna Russ, Robert Silverberg, and of famous and adventurous from the Jane Yolen. past. THE STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN Featured is Fritz Leiber's new Distancing narrative technique By Zecharia Sitchin Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser novella. doesn't work to involve the reader. Avon, $3.50, May, 1983. Silverberg is intent on moral and Nonfiction. An attempt to prove social messages in these episodes. by archeological and ancient text But an inventive, impressive effort. evidence that mankind formerly wor­ THE ALIEN UPSTAIRS shipped actual immortal "gods." By Pamela Sargent Many photos and drawings. Doubleday, $11.95, February, 1983. THE MAN IN THE MAZE In the near future food, jobs, By Robert Silverberg police and hope are in short supply. Avon, $2.50, April, 1983. NEBULA MAKER & FOUR ENCOUNTERS Then a man who claims to be an Before Bob "went literary" he alien moves in upstairs.... wrote a string of high-quality pure By Olaf Stapledon New sf novel. sf novels—adventures in mind and Dodd, Mead, $14.95 hardback, $7.95 body and space: highly tensioned, paperback (same size, same book paced, with fine characterization paper), April, 1983. THE GOLDEN SPACE and intrguing concepts. The best A short Introduction of this By Pamela Sargent sf of their time. This is one of volume by Arthur C. Clarke. Rather Timescape, $2.95, March, 1983. them. First published by Avon in trite and empty. NEBULA MAKER and Science fiction novel dealing 1969, this is its third printing. FOUR ENCOUNTERS were published with the social consequences of An ambassador to an alien race separately in England and combined planet-wide inmortality. How to is mutilated by that race, goes in­ into this volume for publication revitalize a safety-conscious to exile/hiding, and is sought by here in America. Th ns there is an world. his fellow humans to help defeat English edition Introduction to an alien threat to mankind. They NEBULA MAKER by Harvey Satty includ­ must find him in a deadly maze on ed here, and an English edition In­ EARTHSEED By Pamela Sargent troduction by Brian Aldiss to FOUR Harper 6 Row, $6.95, March, 1983. a distant planet. And if they do find him—why should he help them? ENCOUNTERS. New Juvenile sf novel in which NEBUlA MAKER is a first-person teenagers, newly created from genet­ recounting of "dreams" in which the ic banks of human seed by a super- OUT OF THEIR MINDS Stapledon voice describes his vis­ computerized sentient Ship on a By Clifford D. Simak ions of the creation and development voyage to plant mankind on an Earth­ DAW, $2.50, January, 1983; original­ of our galaxy. like planet, must go through a "sur­ ly published in 1970. FOUR ENCOUNTERS is a recounting vival test" in an Earth-like "Hol­ A man takes a wrong road and of conversations with a Christian, low" of Ship. Instincts are awak­ drives into a reality warp—into a a Scientist, a Mystic and a Revolu­ ened and the boys and girls must time/place where creatures from the tionary. The essenses of these types learn to cope with the problems imagination are real. and viewpoints/lives are contrasted that have bedeviled mankind for and exposed. eons. Stapledon survives in reprint A rite-of-passage type of novel AGAINST THE PRINCE OF HELL after reprint, and yet, could these with a 15-year-old heroine. By David C. Smith 6 Richard L. books be published, new, today? Trade paperback format. Good Tierney. The full-page b/w illustrations book paper. Ace, $2.50, February, 1983. by Jim Starlin don't add anything to This is the fifth novel in the the books and seem to have been in­ Red Sonya series. She is a con­ cluded to fill out the page require­ THE UNICORN CREED temporary of Conan, and travels ments . By Elizabeth Scarborough the same lands. A mercenary, an Bantam, $3.50, Feb., 1983. expert swordswoman, she (of the High fantasy as a hearthwitch, flame-red hair) pits herself in a wandering minstrel and an orphan this adventure against a power- unicorn battle a sorcerer for con­ mad wizard who rules a city poised trol of a kingdom. precariously above the door to the Scarborough's first novel was Seven Hells. SONG OF SORCERY. 59 THE GATES OF EDEN ON THE GOOD SHIP ENTERPRISE — THE BLUE WORLD By Jack Vance By Brian Stableford MY FIFTEEN YEARS WITH STAR TREK DAW, $2.25, April, 1983. DAW $2.50, February, 1983. By Bjo Trimble First published in 1966, this A far-future hardcore sf novel. Starblaze/Donning novel of life on the waterworld An explorer ship has landed on a ISBN 0-89865-253-7 $5.95 called The Blue World is rich in swamp planet whose alien biology imagery and danger. threatens all sentient life in the REVIEWED BY STEVE MILLER galaxy. ON THE GOOD SHIP ENTERPRISE CENOTAPH ROAD THE WAY TO DAWNWORLD By Bill Starr was a pleasant surprise. My first By Robert E. Vardeman Del Rey, $2.50, April, 1983. reaction to the cute cover and Ace, $2.75, March, 1983. A Farstar 8 Son novel, #1. Donning's jacket copy: "The First New novel of a young man un­ Ranger Farstar and his son, Uncensored, Unauthorized Star Trek justly accused of murder--on the Dawnboy, intergalactic merchants, Memoir!" was to let the book sit. run--who takes (in a time of magic) are caught in a deadly race to claim The back cover's proclamation of a way out—into another, alternate an uncharted planet. Bjo as "The Erma Bombeck of Sci- world. There he finds a friendly Semi-Juvenile sf adventure. Fi" didn't help. sentient giant spider, persistent enemies, battles, gore... I did pick up the book at This is book one of a series. FLOATING DRAGON lunchtime and after about forty By Peter Straub The second novel is THE SORCERER'S minutes I put it down to start SKULL (coming in June), and #3 is Putnam, $15.95, Hardcover, Feb, 1983 eating. The short anecdotal sec­ His new novel. WORLD OF MAZES (coming in September). tions lend themselves to quick­ Obviously, Bob, the co-author of the To be reviewed next issue by Darrell read situations, and many of the Schweitzer. successful War of Powers series, has stories are indeed funny. What been busy. the book does not offer, is gossip This novel is fast-paced and THE HOUSE OF THE LIONS By L.T. Stuart worthy of the jacket blurb. marvelously purple, written in a Bantam, $2.95, April, 1983 Effectively Bjo is the main heavily melodramatic, sensual, de­ After the Great Fire, York, character in the book with Star tailed style that will remind you capital of the empire, rose to power Trek second and perhaps Hollywood of the best of the old PLANET STO­ under a cruel tyrant. Below, in the itself third. The behind-the- RIES magazine tales. caverns of the damned, people waited scenes info on the aspects of Star for the White Warrior of legend to Trek I'd never been involved in MILLENNIUM By John Varley return and deliver them. were more interesting than I'd ex­ 'But it was Youngman Snag, the Berkley, $6.95, June, 1983. pected, and shows there is a core New sf novel dealing with time­ sinner priest,whom destiny touched. of witty, thoughtful Star Trek His bold quest took him into the un­ travel and the distinct possibility fans just as there is a core of of the end of the [future] world. lit catacombs of the Undying Ones, witty and thoughtful SF fans. through a hellish jungle of burning Fine detail and characterization. tigers and flying serpents, to a There's much name-dropping Soon to be a motion picture with a final reckoning at a place called here, but it comes with the ter­ screenplay by Varley. The House of Lions, to bring light ritory. If you need to buy a gift Review by Gene DeWeese next is­ and hope back into the world.' for a Star Trek fan, by all means sue. get this book and read it before you give it. The book is an in­ WATCHDOG By Faith Sullivan formal and informative history a- Signet, $2.95, February, 1983. bout a phenomenon that has affect­ New occult horror novel. ed the entire SF genre. IN A LONELY PLACE By Karl Edward Wagner Warner, $2.95, March, 1983. THE YEAR'S SCHOLARSHIP IN SCIENCE A collection of Wagner's present­ FICTION AND FANTASY, 1976 - 1979 day horror stories. Introduction KING'S BLOOD FOUR By Sheri S. Tepper Edited By Marshall B. Tymn and by Peter Straub. Seven stories. Roger C. Schlobin. Foreward by Ace, $2.50, April 1983. Brian W. Aldiss. New Fantasy novel involving a The Kent State University Press, EARTH SONG By Sharon Webb kind of living chess-like game with $22.50. February, 1983. Athenian, $12.95, April, 1983. mortal consequences for the players. Material from EXTRAPOLATION Science fiction novel for Young is organized here into six sections: Adults. This is the second novel SET OF WHEELS general studies; bibliography and By Robert Thurston of a trilogy about a future in which reference; collective author studies an immortality process destroys art­ Berkley, $2.50, February, 1983. individual author studies and bib­ New novel about a man in a istic creativity and about the lives of liographies; teaching resources; and those talented young people who de­ post-2000 AD over-controled world art and film. Entries are cross- who blasts off in an antique hot cide to perfect their art and accept referenced and the volume includes inevitable aging and death. car—a '67 Mustang for a last both author and title indexes run to California.... The novels/trilogy also incor­ porates the ambition of an immortal to make himself dictator of all CHRYSALIS 10 Earth's people. Edited by Roy Torgeson Serious social issues involving Doubleday,$11.95, April, 1983. LYONESSE immortality are treated here, such New short story collection, By Jack Vance as what to do with inmortal idiots original publication. Eleven sto­ Berkley, $6.95, April, 1983. and imbeciles. ries by such as David Bischoff, Tan­ Trade paperback original. Sharon Webb writes very well, ith Lee, Roger Zelazny, Tom Monte­ A high fantasy novel. with a grace and skill and economy leone, Gardner Dozois and others. 60 I find impressive. SECTOR GENERAL By James White TRUCK STOP Newest CAR WARS role­ Del Rey, $2.75, March, 1983. playing supplement, provides move­ Four stories of sf medicine ment and combat rules for the Big THE as practiced by Sector General Rigs. Rules for buses and RVs also hospitalwhere the victims of dis­ included. 27 full-color counters, asters in space are brought. 21x32 map of a fortified truck stop. CORPORATION These are new stories. 24-page rule book. Cost: $5.00. The book is dedicated 'to The Address above. Friends of Kilgore Trout, who treat STRIKES BACK the impossible with the contempt it deserves.' A NEW EROTIC SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL MAGAZINES------BY RICHARD E. GEIS AMAZING May, 1983, $1.50. THE STAR WHORES SAGA CONTINUES---- Cover by Frank Kelly Freas Toi King, Sex Guild Companion, is kipnapped by the corporation she THE GODFORSAKEN Opinion by Robert Silverberg Reviews by Frank Catalano and frustrated in STAR WHORES. Taken By Chelsea Quinn Yarbro to Phallus, the pleasure planet, Warner, $3.95, May, 1983, 400 pages. Robert Coulson injected with a new, powerful sex Set in Spain during the Inquis­ Stories by: Somtow Sucharitkul, drug, enslaved, she must make her ition. . . A heretic's curse by the John M. Ford, Alan Dean Foster, Devil results in horror and death in Gene Wolfe, J. Michael Matuszewicz, escape and seek a terrible revenge. the family of the Grand Inquisitor. William Wu, and Gregory Benford. The detail and recreation of that Editorial by Mark J. Rostien. terrible time is marvelous. The su­ Poetry by Thomas Disch, R. Frazier. pernatural element becomes real. AMAZING July, 1983, $1.50. Cover by Thomas Kidd Opinion by Robert Silverberg HYACINTHS By Chelsea Quinn Yarbro Reviews by Frank Catalano and Doubleday, $11.95, April, 1983. Robert Coulson. New novel dealing with the Stories by: Rand B. Lee, F. Gwyn- seduction of the masses with total- plaine MacIntyre, Kevin Kotowski, experience entertainments—by means Sheila Finch-Rayner, Avram Davidson, of direct brain hookups. There are Ron Goulart, Frederik Pohl. problems... Editorial by Kim Mohan. Cartoon by Wm. Rotsler and Alexis ERIDAH*! By Robert F. Young Gilliland. Del Rey, $1.95, June, 1983. New sf novel. A 1998 time FANTASY & SCIENCE FICTION March, traveler operative, investigating 1983, $1.75. human bones in the Upper Cretaceous Cover by Duncan Eagleson Period, finds a boy and girl there Books by Algis Budrys who claim to be the Prince and Films by Baird Searles Princess of Mars. Science by Isaac Asimov This is written cute, with Stories by: Michael Reaves, Kim short sentences. Stanley Robinson, Timothy Zahn, Richard Mueller, Richard Cowper, Harvey Jacobs, Edward Whelan, Felix C. Gotschalk.

FANTASY £ SCIENCE FICTION April, 1983, $1.75. Cover by James Gurney GAMES------Books by Algis Budrys 13 COPIES LEFT. $4.00 per copy Films by Baird Searles ILLUMINATI [Expansion sets #1 8 2] Science by Isaac Asimov 48 new groups to manipulate in the Stories by: Hilbert Schenck, Lisa ORDER FROM: original ILLUMANATI card game. Each Tuttle,Avram Davidson and Grania SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW new set costs $6. Davis, Gene Wolfe, Bruce Sterling, Steve Jackson Games, POB 18957, P.O. BOX 11408 Walter Satterthwait, Gil Fitzgerald, Austin, TX 78760. PORTLAND, OR 97211 0. Niemand. NECROMANCER Fantasy game for two players. Each player becomes a FANTASY & SCIENCE FICTION May, 1983, wizard with an array of zombies and $1.75. RECORDING------skeletons. 112 counters, 11x17 Books by Algis Budrys Films by Baird Searles two-color map, 24-page rulebook. WHITE GOLD WIELDER Cost: $5.00. Steve Jackson Games. Cover by David Hardy By Stephen R. Donaldson Address above. Science by Isaac Asimov Caedmon LP TC1717 CSS-Cpl717, $8.98 Stories by: Charles Sheffield, Donaldson reads from his new BATTLESUIT Man-to-man combat be­ Frederik Pohl, Nancy Springer, novel the "Winter in Combat" sec­ Thomas A. Easton, John Morressy, tween nuclear-armed infantry who tion. He has a smooth, pleasing Andrew Weiner, Edward F. Hughes, travel and fight in powered armor. voice, but seems awkward, nervous Thomas M. Disch, Gene O'Neill. This is a sequel to OGRE. Four and not quite familiar enough with sheets of giant-sized counters, the material. Too, some of the 21x32 two-color map, 24-page rule words do not pronounce well. book. Cost: $5.00. Address above. 61 SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #35 Inter­ ALIEN I views with Fred Saberhagen and Don I CONCLUSIONS I Wollheim; "The Way It Is" by Barry Malzberg; "Noise Level" by John Brunner; "Coming Apart at the mate fate if pressures continue? Themes" by Bob Shaw. A return to a 32-page newsprint SFR! Imagine! Is no abomination SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #36 Inter­ too great? Can you imagine only view with Roger Zelazny; A Profile these Thoughts and a few pitiful of Philip K. Dick by diaries Platt; outside reviews and the Archives? "Outside the Whale" by Christopher A single article? A short inter­ Priest; "Science Fiction and Polit­ view? Ahhh, how the mighty will ical Economy" by Mack Reynolds; In­ have fallen! terview with Robert A. Heinlein; Why--why, I might even be so "You Got No Friends in This World" desperate and malevolent as to by Orson Scott Card. publish my own science fiction in SFR again! Remember ONE IMMORTAL MAN in SFR #25-26-27-28? It could SMALL PRESS NOTES ANNEX happen again! $1.50 per copy from #37 onward

I can see I've turned the stom­ FAFHISTORICA #4, Dec. 1982, $1.50. SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #37 Inter­ ach of all my readers. Glazed eyes, Edited and published by JoeD Siclari view with Robert Anton Wilson; contorted mouths, flared nostrils, 4599 NW 5th Av "We're Coming Through the Window!" rigid necks, stentorian breathing, Boca Raton, FL 33431 by Barry N. Malzberg; "Inside the shouted imprecations. And that Yes, Virginia, there was a fan­ Whale" by Jack Williamson, Jerry from those who like me! dom in the Oide Days...and this is Poumelle, and Jack Chalker; "Uni­ Well, we'll see what happens a reprintzine displaying some of ties in Digression" by Orson Scott in the real world. Times may get the best fanwriting from the early Card. better. I may never sell another 40's to the early 60's. We have novel, conclude my career is over, items by Alva Rogers, Dick Lupoff, SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #38 Inter­ and have scads of time to read and Bob Shaw, et.al, F. Towner Laney, view with Jack Williamson; "The review for SFR. Wouldn't that be Bob Tucker...Ray Nelson....Artwork Engines of the Night" by Barry N. nice? by Lee Hoffman, Bill Rotsler and Malzberg; "A String of Days" by Relax. I'm not bitter, I'm on­ Richard Bergeron, Ross Chamberlain, Gregory Benford; "The Alien Inva­ ly desperately running on and on to Bjo Trimble, Hannes Bok, Ray Nelson, sion" by Larry Niven; "Noise Level" fill space. When I do this I tend Alva Rogers, Bob Shaw... Many of by John Brunner; SF News by Elton to go to extremes. My id takes ov­ the best writers were also good Elliott. er and I paint gloomy pictures with artists. Or vice versa. words. I just let my fingers go Of course this is mimeographed. SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #39 Inter­ where they will... In typing (and view with Gene Wolfe; "The Engines wine) there is truth...and a kind of of the Night"-Part Two by Barry N. macabre fun. Malzberg; "The Nuke Standard” by SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #46 Inter­ I think I'm having a severe IRS Ian Watson; "The Vivisector" by view with John Sladek; "How NOT reaction; I had to write over $1100. Darrell Schweitzer; SF News by To Write Science Fiction" by Rich­ worth of checks today for taxes to Elton Elliott. Uncle, the state, the new, stupid ard Wilson; profile of Larry Tri-Met [bus system] tax, Multnomah Niven; "Standing By Jericho" by County business tax, the Portland Steve Gallagher; "The .Vivisector" SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #40 Inter- by Darrell Schweitzer; "Raising business license bureau...and in May view with Robert Sheckley; 4-way another $350+ check for house taxes Hackles" by Elton T. Elliott. conversation: Arthur C. Clarke, (the 3rd for 1982--or is it '83?) Harlan Ellison, Fritz Leiber 6 anyway, it's a never-ending drain SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #45 Inter­ Mark Wells; "The Engines of the and it gets worse every year. I'm view with Keith Laumer; "Pulp!" by Night"-Part Three by Barry N. running as fast as I can and I don't Algis Budrys; Interview with Terry Malzberg; Darrell Schweitzer; get nowhere except older and tireder. Carr; "The Vivisector" by Darrell SF News by Elton T. Elliott I can't for the life of me under­ Schweitzer; "Raising Hackles" by stand how people can vote for those Elton T. Elliott. outrageous taxes and politicans who SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #41 Space do nothing year after year but in­ SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #44 Inter­ Shuttle Report by Clifford R. Mc­ crease taxes in one guise or anoth­ view with Anne McCaffrey; "How Murray; "Chuck's Latest Bucket” by er and under one pretext or another. Things Work" by Norman Spinrad; David Gerrold; Interview with Mi­ Ahhh_, the joys of Welfare... .how "Fantasy and the Believing Reader" chael Whelan; "The Bloodshot Eye" sweet it would be to be on the tak­ by Orson Scott Card; "Raising Hack- by Gene DeWeese; "The Vivisector" ing end sometime—and how depress­ Irs" by Elton T. Elliott. by Darrell Schweitzer; SF News by ing. Elton T. Elliott. I'm going up to watch the news SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #43 Inter­ and drink some wine. view with James White; "The Porno Have a nice day! Novel Biz" by Anonymous; "How To SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #42 Inter­ Be A Science Fiction Critic" by view with Ian Watson; "One Writer Orson Scott Card; "The Vivisector" and the Next War" by John Brunner; by Darrell Schweitzer; "Once Over "The Vivisector" by Darrell Schweit­ Lightly" by Gene DeWeese; SF News zer; "The Human Hotline" by Elton by Elton T. Elliott. T. Elliott. 62 THE ALIEN CRITIC #9 "Reading SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #23 Inter­ BACK ISSUES Heinlein Subjectively" by Alexei views: A.E. van Vogt, and Jack and Cory Panshin; "Written to a Vance, and Piers Anthony; "The Pulp!" by Sam Merwin, Jr.; "Noise Silverberg That Was" by Robert Level" by John Brunner; "The Shav­ Silverberg. THE ALIEN CRITIC er Papers" by Richard S. Shaver. SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #24 Inter­ NO OTHER BACK ISSUES ARE THE ALIEN CRITIC #10 Interview views: Bob Shaw, David G. Hartwell AVAILABLE with Stanislaw Lem; "A Nest of and Algis Budrys; "On Being a Bit $1.25 per copy Strange and Wonderful Birds" by of a Legend" by Algis Budrys. Sam Merwin, Jr.; Robert Bloch's EACH ISSUE CONTAINS MANY REVIEWS Guest of Honor speech; The Hein­ SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #25 Inter­ EACH ISSUE CONTAINS LETTERS FROM lein Reaction. views with George Scithers, Poul WELL-KNOWN SF & FANTASY WRITERS, Anderson and Ursula K. Le Guin; EDITORS, PUBLISHERS AND FANS. SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #14 Inter­ "Flying Saucers and the Stymie view with Philip Jose Farmer; Factor" by Ray Palmer; ONE I MORTAL THE FOLLOWING LISTINGS ARE OF "Thoughts on Logan's Run" by Will­ MAN--Part One. FEATURED CONTRIBUTIONS iam F. Nolan; "The Gimlet Eye" by John Gustafson. SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #26 Inter­ views with Gordon R. Dickson and SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #15 Inter­ Larry Niven; "Noise Level" by THE ALIEN CRITIC #5 Interview view with L. Sprague de Camp; John Brunner; "Fee-dom Road" by with Fritz Leiber; "The Literary "Spec-Fic and the Perry Rhodan Richard Henry Klump; ONE INMORTAL Dreamers" by James Blish; "Irvin Ghetto" by Donald C. Thompson; MAN--Part Two. Binkin Meets H.P. Lovecraft" by "Uffish Thots" by Ted White. Jack Chalker. SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #27 Inter­ SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #16 Inter­ views with Ben Bova and Stephen THE ALIEN CRITIC #6 Interview view with Jerry Poumelle; "The Fabian; "Should Writers be Serfs with R.A. Lafferty; "The Tren­ True and Terrible History of Sci­ ...or Slaves?"; SF News; SF Film chant Bludgeon" by Ted White; ence Fiction" by Barry Malzberg; News; The Ackerman Interview; ONE "Translations From the Editorial" "Noise Level" by John Brunner; INMORTAL MAN--Part Three. by Marion Z. Bradley. "The Literary Masochist" by Rich­ ard Lupoff. SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #28 Inter­ view with C.J. Cherryh; "Beyond SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #17 Inter­ Genocide" by Damon Knight; ONE IM­ view with George R.R. Martin; In­ MORTAL MAN--Conclusion; SF News; terview with Robert Anton Wilson; SF Film News 8 Reviews. "Philip K. Dick: A parallax View" by Terrence M. Green; "Microcos­ mos" by R. Faraday Nelson. SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #29 Inter­ views with John Brunner, Michael SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #18 Inter­ Moorcock, and Hank Stine; "Noise view with Lester del Rey; Inter­ Level" by John Brunner; SF News; ------BACK ISSUE ORDER FORM------view with Alan Burt Akers; "Noise SF Film News 6 Reviews. $1.25 EACH Level" by John Brunner; "A Short One for the Boys in the Back Room" SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #30 Inter­ Dear REG: I enclose $ by Barry Malzberg. views with Joan D. Vinge, Stephen Please send back issue(s) #5 #6 R. Donaldson, and Norman Spinrad; #9 #10 #14 #15 #16 "The Awards Are Coming" by Orson #17 #18 #19 #20 #21 #22 #23 SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #19 Inter­ Scott Card; SF News; SF Film News #24 #25 #26 #27 #28 #29 #30 view with Philip K. Dick; Interview 6 Reviews. #31 #32 #33 #35 #36 with Frank Kelly Freas; "The Note­ [Circle #'s desired] books of Mack Sikes" by Larry Niven; SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #31 Inter­ "Angel Fear" by Freff; "The Vivi- view with Andrew J. 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