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Home , 1973 in science, Dark Valley Destiny, Dean Ing, Doorways, Howard Chaykin, John Kessel

FICTION REVIEW (ISSN: 0036-8377) Formerly THE ALIEN CRITIC P.O. BOX 11408 AUG 1980 - VOL.9, NO.3 PORTLAND, OR 97211 WHOLE NUMJER 36 PHONE: (503) 282-0381 RICHARD E. GEIS, editor & publisher PAULETTE MINARE', ASSOCIATE EDITOR

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

COVER BY MARCO BIANCHINI LETTERS SINGLE COPY - $1.75 BY ; GEORGE HAY; ; SANDRA MIESEL; JAMES J.J. WILSON; DONN VICHA; JOHN SILBERSACK; IAN WATSON; RAY NELSON; JOHN REVIEWS- BRUNNER; ROBERT S. COULSON; ALIEN THOUGHTS BOB LEMAN; JOEL DAVIS; JOHN YONDER.5 BY THE EDITOR.A W. THOMPSON; ; THE FABULOUS IDIOT.5 JOHN E. BAER.44 AN HOUR WITH ANNE MCCAFFREY.5 I M LOOKING FOR KADAK.5 I HEAR VOICES... DUNE, THE BANQUET SCENE BY THE EDITOR.5 interview: ROBERT A. HEINLEIN SANDWORMS OF DUNE CONDUCTED BY THE BATTLES OF DUNE DAVID TRUESDALE.49 Reviewed by Mark Mansell., ,5 REALITY IN DRAG QUESTAR, AUG. 1980.12 A PROFILE OF PHILIP K. DICK BETTER THAN ONE.12 BY CHARLES PLATT.6 YOU GOT NO FRIENDS IN THIS THE BRIDGE OF CATZAD-DUM...12 THE BLACK LION.12 WORLD THE EMPRESS OF EARTH & A REVIEW OF SHORT FICTION THE PURPLE CLOUD.12 SMALL PRESS NOTES BY ORSON SCOTT CARD.52 BY THE EDITOR.12 EBON ROSES, JEWELLED SKULLSlZ STARSHIP, SUMMER 1980.12 THRUST #15.13 THE VIVISECTOR THE DUENDE HISTORY OF interview: BY DARRELL SCHWEITZER.56 CONDUCTED BY NEAL WILGUS...14 .13 ETERNITY #2.13 WHOLE CATALOG.13 THE HUMAN HOTLINE A STONE IN HEAVEN.22 OUTSIDE THE WHALE S-F NEWS BY CHRISTOPHER PRIEST.17 DAUGHTER OF THE BRIGHT MOON23 BY ELTON T. ELLIOTT.59 SABELLA:OR THE BLOOD STONE.23 THE VISITATION.23 THE MONITOR, THE MINERS ITEMS OF INTEREST AND THE SHREE.24 4sJ, JAMES J.J. WILSON; TIMESCAPE.24 IAN COVELL, A.L. TEREG0....21 INTERIOR ART- SCAVENGERS.24 THE ALMANAC.26 OTHER VOICES TIM KIRK"”2,4,12,32 BOOK REVIEWS BY ELTON T. ELLIOTT;STEVE LEWIS; SUSAN Copyright (c) 1980 by Richard E. M. SCHWARTZ; PAULETTE MINARE'; Geis. One-time rights only have DEAN R. LAMBE; JOHN DIPRETE; 52;55;56;58 been acquired from signed or cred¬ DAVID N. SAMUELSON; RITCHIE PAUL CHADWICK—8; 9; 53; 54; 58; 59 ited contributors, and all other BENEDICT; RENFREW PEMBERTON; JAMES SHULL—10,57 rights are hereby assigned to the JAMES J.J. WILSON; WILLIAM BRUCE CONKLIN—11;44 contributors. GIBSON; JOE SANDERS.22 DEP (Lost your name.)—11 HARVIA-13 THE ALIEN CRITIC ALLEN KOSZOWSKI—14,15,43,60 REVIEW AND THEN I SAW.... MIKE GILBERT—16,25,48;51 Available in microform from: BY THE EDITOR.32 VIC KOSTRIKIN—24,46 OXFORD MICROFORM PUBLICATIONS, LTD BARNES—49,50 Wheatsheaf Yard, Blue Boar Street KURT REICHEL—57 Oxford OX1 4EY, SCIENCE FICTION AND POLITICAL ECONOMY SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW is published at 1525 NE Ainsworth, Portland, OR BY . 34 97211. NO ADVERTISING WILL BE ACCEPTED AND THEN I READ.... Second Class Postage Paid BY THE EDITOR.40 at Portland, OR 97208 UN I SAVE. I have not even had an answer to THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK.... my letters.'...'Can you help to ... INTERNATIONAL CONSPIRACY , / CHARISMA. sort out the bottleneck? I would of electric Tower companies.' a - THE HOUNGAN. appreciate anything you can do.' SEEKING k,ORU> congest... /-■ - A DEAD GOD DANCING. ((DELAP'S doesn't owe you any¬ IN JOY STILL FELT. THE INFINITIVE OF GO. thing; non-response is an answer serpent's REACH. in itself. EMPIRE SF, however STILL FORMS ON FOXFIELD.... does owe you some accounting, and RAHNE... I hope this publication of your CITY COME A-WALKIN. letter will accomplish what your ZELDE M'TANA. private letter could not.)) THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK.... IT S ALIVE. IT S ALIVE AGAIN. By the way, our policy here at ALMOST HUMAN. good ol' SFR is to send a copy of THE LEGACY. the current issue with a subscrip¬ RABID. tion form and return envelope; if THE SHINING. the enquirer likes the magazine SUBSCRIPTIONS THE DARK. and returns the subscription form SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW don't GO IN THE HOUSE. with a check, that copy he receiv¬ P.O. BOX 11408 ed is the first one of his sub. THE MAGIC LABYRINTH.40 PORTLAND, OR 97211 If not...we lose a copy and post¬ STRANGE SEED.40 age. But 90% subscribe. A copy THE SHADOW OF THE TORTURER.40 For One and Two Years PULSAR 2.40 of SFR is its best advertisement. At Fcur-Issues-Per-Year Schedule GUARDIANS OF THE UNIVERSE?.40 SONGMASTER.40 THE SHERIFF OF PURGATORY ... 40 STOREHOUSES OF THE SNOW,...40 THE HALF-A-MOON INN.42 THE MARTIAN CRYSTAL EGG....42 CANADA*: US$6.50 One Year THE GREAT ROCK N'ROLL US$13.00 Two Years SWINDLE.42 *Canadians may pay with personal CHANGELING.43 cheques if the chequing acct. THE ENNEAD.43 number on their cheques is print¬ SINS OF OMISSION.. . . .43 ed in computer numerals. (Thus "JOSIE AND THE ELEVATOR ... 52 ALL SUBSCRIPTIONS, NEW AND OLD, we become slaves to the needs of "MEN LIKE US .52 ARE HONORED AND FULFILLED ON AN the Machine.) "SOME OF MY BEST FRIENDS"..52 ISSUES NUMBER BASIS. FAR CALLING.56 UNITED KINGDOM: Send pound equiva¬ BRIDGE OF ASHES.56 lent of US$6.50 One Year WATCHSTAR.57 Next Issue.. US$13.00 Two Years THE SKYLARK OF SPACE to agent WM. DAWSON 6 SONS Cannon House, SKYLARK THREE THE AFFAIR OF LOGICAL Folkestone, Kent CT19 SEE THE SKYLARK OF VALERON LUNATICS SKYLARK DUQUESNE.57 By Philip Jose Farmer or write them for current quote THE DANCERS OF ARUN.58 CURRENT AND SOME BACK ISSUES OF TAC AND SFR ARE AVAILABLE FROM: Introduction to WE'RE COMING FANTAST (MEDWAY) LTD THROUGH THE WINDOW 39 West Street, Plus the complete story Wisbech, Cambs., PEI3 2LX LAST MINUTE MATTERS By Barry Malzberg AUSTRALIA: Send A$ equivalent of US$6.50 One Year US$13. Two Years LETTER FROM I.G. PEmALL TERRY CARR REVIEWS WARHOON 28 P.O. Box 463 to agent SPACE AGE BOOKS 305-307 Swanston St. Kingston, A.C.T. 2604 Melbourne, 3000 Vic. Australia 6 July, 1980 ALL OTHER FOREIGN: US$6.50 One Year US$13.00 Two Years 'I write to seek your assist¬ All foreign subscriptions must be ance in resolving a rather sad /'M YO^K COLLECT! OKI OF paid in US$ cheques or money orders state of affairs which has arisen OLD Z-lP COt>E5 JS OUTSTAY, except to agents. in connection with subscriptions MR.erEiS, >TS ousnw The (or attempted subscriptions, I SMITH SDN'tAM TOEFMT HAME W should say) to DELAP'S F6SF RE¬ •ROOM IN THE ATTiC M™. VIEW and EMPIRE SF. Almost two MAKE ALL CHEQUES, CHECKS AND years ago now (on 6 August 1978, MONEY ORDERS PAYABLE TO SCIENCE to be precise) I wrote to both FICTION REVIEW magazines, enclosing a subscrip¬ tion check to EMPIRE SF and mak¬ SAVE A HASSLE AND EXTRA EXPENSE ing enquiries of DELAP'S. How¬ IF YOU MOVE WE NEED YOUR FORMER ever, despite a reminder letter ZIPCODE AND YOUR NEW COMPLETE to both in April last year, I have ADDRESS. not seen hide nor hair of either; And usually the publishers get ALIEN THOUGHTS away with it because there isn’t a damn thing the average writer can do BY THE EDITOR M about it. Who can afford to hire investigators, a top lawyer or two, for a year or two? Again, what’s the answer? Is it an organization like the Sceince Fic¬ ILLUSION AND REALITY tion Writers of America? SFWA has done wonders for its I get phone calls... I hear members with its grievance work, but things... I know things I dare not it has only so much power, so much tell in specific words, using names, willingness by its officers to risk for fear of lawsuits, perhaps per¬ their careers, their future sales, sonal assault. by offending---seriously offending--- These bits of knowledge, gleaned a given publisher/editor/agent. over the years and added to my own The truth is unpalatable. The personal experiences, add up to what truth is there is no answer to agent- most of you would judge a sickening, editor-publisher abuse of the author. revolting situation in the editing, The screwing will continue and may agenting, publishing industry. grow worse as the depression closes Agents who double-cross their cli¬ its fist even further on the publish¬ ents, who have sweetheart, kickback ing industry. Agents will do anything arrangements with editors and pub¬ to make a sale and insure a few extra lishers... Agents who refuse to bucks.. .editors .will do anything to heed the wishes of their clients... keep their jobs...and publishers will Agents who outright steal from their do anything to stay alive, to keep clients.... going. Editors who take kickbacks from Foreign sales will go unreported agents, from authors... Editors for most writers. TVo sets of books or undervalued, contract payments who buy from lovers... Editors who are not uncommon in publishing—one will be delayed, ignored...and roy¬ deliberately sabotage a book out set of records for the IRS and the alties will be (more than usual) a of envy, hatred... Editors who authors, another set for the milking, rare event. blackball certain authors.... skimming, laundering process. This is the real world of writing And publishers! Publishers who [How would you make dirty' gambling, for a living. You may be extremely steal manuscripts, who chronically dope, prostitution money "clean"? talented and become a star, a best¬ violate provisions of a publishing Simple: buy a publisher and claim mil¬ seller overnight, and get a rela¬ contract. Publishers who falsify lions of dollars more sales and pro¬ tively honest agent who will work sales figures and underpay or ignore fits than were actually made. You for your best interests. But like royalty payments... And publishers pay taxes on these phoney profits, as not you'll toil in the fields who do indeed decree that "So-and-so and lo! the remainder is made real for years before (if ever) hitting will never sell another word in New and honest by the dirty money sub¬ it big and being able to command York again!" stitution. With all this clean money big money and honest treatment. This is the reality. And this you can invest in legitimate business, Writing is a tough, merciless, reality reaches to the highest, most buy stocks, do anything you want.] often heartbreaking life. Do not powerful publishers and editors in go into it--or continue in it--- the . What’s the point to this editorial? with illusions. You're in a jungle There are many bitter, disillusion¬ To point with disgust? To view with filled with greedy, consciousless ed writers who can give chapter and alarm? To turn your ideals to dust? animals, and you don't have a gun. verse to all these assertions---in To urge you to not be a writer if You have been warned. private. that is your dream? Unless you are a top-selling, best¬ No. selling author who can force editors My intent is to urge you to real¬ and publishers to yield on. contract ize that in any industry or busihess terms and keep their word upon pain where big money is involved, where a of court action, you are going to group of suppliers are individually get screwed. virtually at the mercy of the buyer, NEW YORK IS A DISASTER AREA The world of writing, editing, abuse will be rampant. It will oc- publishing is one where, for 99% of curr at every level of the industry. That's the word from many well- the published, professional authors, Power corrupts. It always has, known professional sf writers. "No¬ the publisher is master, the editor and it always will. In publishing, body is buying anything!" is his servant, and the writer is since the beginnings in the 1800s, One major house, it is said, up¬ his slave. authors have been ripped off every on instructions from its German own¬ day of the week and twice on Sunday. er, has cancelled 60 book contracts Surely, Geis, you say, hopefully, OF COURSE not all agents, editors, and written off that many first and you jest. Surely you exaggerate. publishers are bastards and/or thiev¬ second advance payments on those No. The lawsuit es. (At least, not until it is "nec¬ contracts. Why would this publisher and just won against two essary" or convenient) And of course waste that much money? BIG corporations shows that even at not all writers are cheated. Because book sales---even sf the top of the corporate system of But the percentages. I’m convinced, sales---are way down, and in the this country this sort of shit hap¬ are shockingly high. The history of face of high publishing and distri¬ pens. Not once in a while, but oft¬ science fiction is often a history bution costs almost any new book en. Some crimes-against-authors are of publisher theft, publisher de¬ will lose money. chronic. fault, publisher lies. In the matter of contracts it is largely a matter of sign-it-and-hope ALIEN THOUGHTS CONTINUED ON PAGE 63 I HEAR VOICES....

i'm LOOKING FOR KADAK Records, and a good number of Caed¬ BY THE EDITOR Written and read by Harlan Ellison mon's own, these three records do not Cassette Recording try to cover any straightforward seg¬ Hourglass Productions, $5.98 + 504 ment of the novels, and are not self- . P.O. Box 1291 sufficient in themselves to the lis¬ Garden Grove, CA 92643 tener's understanding. Rather, they Harlan doesn't just read this are a sort of introduction to as¬ Seven Tales of the Space Age read hilarious fiction, he performs it, pects of Dune. by the author, complete with a broad yiddish accent, Caedmon TC 1643 DUNE, THE BANQUET SCENE, which is and complete with dozens of yiddish Poul has the reputation of being the only lengthy reading in the set, words you wouldn't know, God forgive a nuts-n-bolts, conservative, in¬ is a segment from the first novel, you unless you're a monzer. sensitive man... and is used here to give the listen¬ This is Jewish sf, with an alien But the overwhelming impression ers some basic background as to the cast, caste... It is about Evsise, one receives from this record is of characters of Paul Atreides, his the Zsouchmoid, who is, you should poetry, grace, idealism, hope, a family, and those around him, both pardon the expression, up shit creek magnificent sweep of imagination and friend and foe. as his planet, Theta 996:VI, is about optimism...and sensitivity. to be moved (for the greater good of SANDWORMS OF DUNE serves to in¬ His prose is perhaps more effec¬ galactic society) and he has an inpos¬ troduce the awesotne sandworms, which tive read aloud because his figures sible mission and damn little time Herbert describes as "the mindless of speech are somehow more vivid, to do it in. guardians of the terrible treasure". more conpelling...more visual and Harlan is superb in his reading/ In the record, which is made up of sensual. acting. The story is gentle satire excerpted scenes from the trilogy, He is correct—his voice and in its way, and loving and respect¬ mainly the first volume, there are stage presence are not of a trained, ful, too, of religion and the baff¬ passages which describe the monster- professional calibre...but are in ling, irritating aspects of a putz ous worms, their habits, riding them their way very effective. personality...and others. and the dangers to the unwary on the I enjoyed this recording far, There is a drawing by Tim Kirk desert from them. far more than I expected, and suf¬ of Evsise the Zsouchmoid the im¬ fered an eye-opening new awareness THE BATTLES OF DUNE is, as the probable alien—and Ellison's of Poul's skill as a writer. title says, about the battles on Dune. Grammatical Guide and Glossary for Although, to be more exacting, Duels ************************************ the Goyim. Most of the words are on Dune would be more precise, since marginally familiar, and the others the record is made up of excerpts can be understood in useage and from the trilogy mostly describing THE FABULOUS IDIOT context in the story. one-on-one encounters between Paul reads from his ************************************ Atreides and his opponents in sword MORE THAN HUMAN or knife fights, although there are Caedmon TC 1634 a few other scenes such as the ac¬ The first surprise is that Theo¬ DUNE, THE BANQUET SCENE count of the stonebumer in Dune dore Sturgeon sounds like a man in SANDWORMS OF DUNE Messiah, the end of Aleia, and the his twenties in spite of that d/j THE BATTLES OF DUNE tigers from CHILDREN OF DUNE. photo showing him to be about 60. Read by the author, Frank Herbert The second, if you haven't read Caedmon, TC1555, TC1565, TC1601 Although it is fascinating and MORE THAN HUMAN for eleventy-seven 0 $7.95 instructive to hear how the author years (like me) is how fine a story interprets his work, for which reas¬ it is. THE FABULOUS IDIOT is the Reviewed by Mark Mansell on I recommend these records despite first part of MORE THAN HUMAN, and their hefty price, they are meant it will drive you to the bookshelf The science fiction recording more as conpanion-pieces to the books to finish the story or to your field, despite the Bermuda Triangle- than as independent entities, self- nearest sf/fantasy bookstore to get ish vanishing of founding company contained. You cannot really under¬ a copy. Alternate Worlds Records (Roy Tor- stand the scenes and excerpts read ************************************ geson having gone on to bigger things in them unless you are already fam¬ at Zebra Books) is booming under iliar with the novels themselves, the auspices of the spoken-word re¬ and the liner notes give more help cording company, Caedmon. Caedmon insomuch as the philosophy behind AN HOUR WITH ANNE MCCAFFREY has come out with a number of science the excerpts is concerned rather Interviewed by fiction and fantasy recordings late¬ than what is contained in the ex¬ Hourglass Productions, $5.98 + 504 ly, mostly read by the authors, cerpts. P.0. Box 1291 though in a few cases better-known Garden Grove, CA 92643 names such as Leonard Nimoy, William Nonetheless, Frank Herbert has In this skilled, convivial inter¬ Shatner and others have done the a pleasant reading voice, and gets view David draws Anne McCaffrey into honors. into the spirit of things. Also, discussions of her beginnings as a the record jackets have lovely cover writer, her move to Ireland, and most One such set of recordings are art, the first by , the especially into her Dragon series. excerpts from the Dune trilogy as other two by premier Dune-artist Anne is revealed as a warm, open, read by Frank herbert himself. So John Schoenherr (the art for Sand¬ articulate person, someone you enjoy far, three of these records have worms being my favorite). So, with listening to, someone you'd like to been issued. the warnings mentioned beforehand, know personally. Unlike most of Alternate World's the Dune records are worth a hear. ************************************ ************************************ REALITV IN

A PROFILE OF PHILIP K. DICK BY CHARLES PLATT

The aim of a speculative writer dismissed as "paranoid". Recently, stereo system. As I unpack my tape should be to see what other people references he has made to mystical recorder I realize that he has al¬ have not seen. The few writers who influences in his life have prompted ready set up his own; a high-quality manage this offer more than enter¬ some contemporaries to refer to him, Shure microphone is on the black- tainment, more than inventiveness. sadly, as "mentally unbalanced". glass table-top, and he will be re¬ Thev give the reader a sense of rev¬ cording me at the the same time that elation. When I went to visit him in San¬ I record him. He seems slightly ta Ana, just south of the vast sprawl evasive about this, and says casual¬ It takes a trace of genius or of Los Angeles, I wanted to pin down ly that he always makes his own tape insanity to see what nobody else has the truth in these matters. Fool¬ whenever he is interviewed. I sup¬ seen, and it takes formidable writ¬ ishly, I went looking for objective pose one could regard this as para¬ ing talent to present such visions clarification, from a man who does noid behavior; I don't, but it does graphically, in human terms. Phil¬ not believe in objectivity. A few look as if he is intending to check ip K. Dick has this talent, and a hours later I came away feeling as up on me, to see if my tape tran¬ bit of genius, or craziness, or both. if my mind had been warped. Like a script is accurate -- or am I being His best books are revelatory almost character in one of Dick's paradox¬ paranoid now? Already, it is hard in a mystical sense. ical, unresolved novels, I am left to define the reality of the situa¬ He remains under-rated (especial¬ with more questions at the end than tion. ly in his native America) because he I had at the beginning. We begin by talking about his is an unpretentious man who has yet life when he first started writing to live down a reputation for hav¬ science fiction, as a student at ing produced some undistinguished Mr. Dick is a dignified, thought¬ Berkeley, also working part-time in novels in the 1960s. Certainly at ful, slightly portly figure,'with a radio-TV retail store. that time he wrote a lot of books black hair, graying beard and an in¬ very quickly; but even his most formal but distinguished presence. "I was in a curious position. superficial work tackled fundamental He is erudite, intimidatingly well- I had read science fiction since I questions of perception, philosophy read, but has none of the pretensions was twelve years old, and was real¬ and religion, and in his latest, am¬ or detachment of an academic. He ly addicted. I just loved it. I bitious books he has become one of lives in a plain, modest apartment also was reading what the Berkeley the few science fiction authors whose with two cats, some slightly run¬ intellectual community was reading. insight can be called profound. He down contemporary furniture, heaps For example, Proust or Joyce. So I shows infinite compassion for his of reference books, and an expensive occupied two worlds right there characters; their situations may be which normally did not intersect. science-fictional but their problems Then, working in the retail store are real, and Dick's prose painfully the people I knew were TV salesmen but gently, explores basic questions and repairmen; they considered me of life that affect us all. At the peculiar for reading at all. I same time, he mocks himself with an spent time in all kinds of different endearing, quixotic sense of the groups; I knew a lot of homosexuals; absurd. there was a whole homosexual com¬ munity in the Bay Area even then, in Almost all of his work starts the 1940s. I knew some very fine with the basic assumption that there poets, and I was very proud of them cannot be one, single, objective as my friends: they thought of me reality. Everything is a matter of as strange because I wasn't gay, and perception. The ground is liable the people in my store thought I was to shift under your feet. A protag¬ strange because I knew gay people onist may find himself living out and read books, and my communist another person's dream, or he may friends thought I was odd because I enter a drug-induced state that ac¬ wouldn't join the communist party ... tually makes better sense than the so being involved in science fiction real world, or he may cross into a didn't make all that much difference. different universe completely. Cos¬ mic Law is subject to sudden revis¬ "It was a small divergence com¬ ion (by God, or whoever happens to pared to some of my other divergences be acting that role) and there are Henry Miller said in one of his books, multiple truths. other children threw stones at him These surreal ideas, and the when they saw him. I had that same hallucinatory quality of his writ¬ feeling. I managed to become uni¬ ing, led to Dick being labelled an versally despised wherever I went. "acid-head" author. His obsessive I think that I must have thrived on anxiety about forces of political it, because it kept happening so oppression resulted in his being many times in so many ways. "I got married when I was nine¬ teen, and it wasn't until a little later that I really began to write. I got married again when I was 21. A point came when I began to feel that science fiction was very impor¬ tant. Van Vogt's TOE WORLD OF NULL- A -- there was something about that which absolutely fascinated me. It had a mysterious quality, it allud¬ ed to things unseen, there were puz¬ zles presented which were never ad¬ equately explained. I found in it a numinous quality; I began to get an idea of a mysterious quality in the universe which could be dealt with in science fiction. I realize now that what I was sensing was a kind of metaphysical world, an in¬ visible realm of things half-seen, phical about this situation as he fruit, you homo, admit what you are. essentially what medieval people seems. "Well, when CONFESSIONS OF By confessing to it he didn't cause sensed as the transcendent world, A CRAP ARTIST appeared, that took them to stop, he caused them to yell the next world. I had no religious the sting out of it, and I didn't louder and say. We were right, we background. I was raised in a Quak¬ feel so bad. But of course it did were right. He was sinply begin¬ er school - - they're about the only take 19 years to get that published. ning to agree with them. group in the world that I don't have It's been a long road; but science some grievance against; there's no fiction offered me a route by which "All this can be viewed politic¬ hassle between me and the Quakers -- I could publish the kind of thing ally or psychologically. To me it but the Quaker thing was just a life¬ that I wanted to write. THE MART¬ was all viewed dramatically in my style. And in Berkeley there was no IAN TIME-SLIP is exactly what I writing, as the and uncanny in¬ religious spirit at all. wanted to write. It deals with the vasion of one person's world by an¬ premise that was, to me, so import¬ other person's world. If I invade "I don't know if Van Vogt would ant -- not just that we each live your world you will probably sense agree that he's essentially dealing in a somewhat unique world of our something alien, because my world is with the supernatural, but that's own psychological content, but that different from yours. You must, of what was happening in me. I was be¬ the subjective world of one rather course, fight it. But often we do ginning to sense that what we per¬ powerful person can infringe on the not because a lot of it is subtle, ceived was not what was actually world of another person. If I can we just have intimations that our there. I was interested in Jung's make you see the world the way I see worlds are being invaded, we don't idea of projection -- what we exper¬ it, then you will automatically know where this invasion of our per¬ ience as external to us may really think the way I think. You will sonal integrity is coming from. It be projected from our unconscious, come to the conclusions that I come comes from authority figures in gen¬ which means of course that each per¬ to. And the greatest power one hu¬ eral. son's world has to be somewhat dif¬ man being can exert over others is ferent from everybody else's, be¬ to control their perceptions of real¬ "The greatest menace of the cause the contents of each person's ity, and infringe on the integrity twentieth century is the totalitar¬ unconscious will be to a certain ex¬ and individuality of their world. ian state. It can take many forms: tent unique. I began a series of This is done, for instance, in psy¬ left-wing fascism, psychological stories in which people experienced chotherapy. movements, religious movements, drug worlds which were a projection of rehabilitation places, powerful peo¬ their own psyches. My first publish¬ "I went through attack-therapy ple, manipulative people; or it can ed story was a perfect example of in Canada. You get a lot of people be in a relationship with someone this." all yelling at you, and suddenly who is more powerful than you psycho¬ the mystery of the Moscow purge logically. Essentially, I'm plead¬ For a while Dick attempted to trials of the 1930s becomes very ing the cause of those people who work both inside and outside of clear -- what could possibly make a are not strong. If I were strong the science fiction field: "I wrote person get up and say in a most sin¬ myself I would probably not feel this many novels which were not science cere manner that he had committed a such a menace. I identify with the fiction or fantasy. They all contain¬ crime, the penalty for which was ex¬ weak person; this is one reason why ed the element of the projected per¬ ecution. Well, the answer lies in my fictional protagonists are es¬ sonal unconscious, or projected col¬ the incredible power of a group of sentially anti-heroes. They're al¬ lective unsonscious, which made them human beings to invade a man's world most losers, yet I try to equip them simply incomprehensible to anyone and determine his image of himself with qualities by which they can sur¬ who read them, because they required so that he can actually believe their vive. At the same time I don't want the reader to accept my premise view of him. I remember in attack- to see them develop counter-aggres¬ that each of us lives in a unique therapy there was one guy dressed sive tactics where they, too, become world." kind of nattily, and he was French. exploitative and manipulative." They said, you look like a homosex¬ Such books proved difficult to ual. He started crying. I thought, I ask what his response is, when sell. One, CONFESSIONS OF A CRAP this is very strange, because I know people tell him he is being over¬ ARTIST, was finally brought out in this guy is not homosexual. And yet anxious about authority figures and 1975; the rest have never been pub¬ he's crying and admitting to this is simply paranoid. In reply he lished. "There are nine or ten man¬ thing -- not to cause the abuse to refers to the harassment he suffered uscripts extant, over at the Fuller¬ stop, the screams of these people while he was an anti-war activist, ton special collections library", he all yelling at him. You fairy, you culminating in a bizarre break-in at says, apparently without rancor. I his home which local police in ef¬ ask him if he is really as philoso¬ fect refused to investigate. "I was told I was paranoid before my house He sits back, happy with his ex¬ der California law I was legally was hit. Then I remember opening the ercise at eliminating any foundation bound by her debts and I just wrote door, and finding nothing but ruins for an objective structure of val¬ like mad. I think I turned out 16 everywhere, windows and doors smash¬ ues. He has talked easily, engaging¬ novels in five years at one point. ed in, files blown open, all my pap¬ ly, as if entertained by his own I did 60 pages a day, and ers missing, all my cancelled checks conversation. A lot of what he says the only way I could write that much gone, my stero gone, and I remember sounds playful at the same time that was to take amphetamines, which were thinking, well, it sure is a hell it seems sincere. prescribed for me. I finally stop¬ of a mess, but there goes that 'para¬ ped taking them, and I don't write noid' theory". I ask how much of his thinking was influenced by LSD experiences, as much as I used to. "Actually I was told by a fair¬ and which of his books, if any, are ly good analyst that I'm not cold¬ derived from acid trips. "I used to talk like I was real¬ blooded enough to be paranoid. He ly into acid. But the fact of the said to me, 'You're melodramatic "I wrote TIME OUT OF JOINT in matter is that I took it two times, and you're full of illusions about the 1950s, before I had even heard and the second time, it was so weak life, but you're too sentimental of LSD. In that book a guy walks up a dose, it may not even have been to be paranoid'". to a lemonade stand in the park, and acid. The first time, though, it it turns into a slip of paper marked was Sandoz acid, a giant capsule I "I took the Minnesota Multi- Soft Drink Stand, and he puts the got from the University of Californ¬ phasic Psychological Profile Test slip of paper in his pocket. Far- ia, a friend and I split it, it must once, and I tested out as paranoid, Fucking-out, spacey, that's an 'acid have been a whole milligram of it, cyclothymic, neurotic, schizophrenic experience'. If I didn't know better we bought it for five dollars, and ... I was so high on some of the I'd say that this author had turned I'll tell ya, I went straight to scales that the dot was up in the on many times, and his universe was hell, was what.happened. The land¬ instructions part. But I also test¬ coming unglued -- he's obviously liv¬ scape froze over, there were huge ed out as an incorrigible liar! You ing in a fake universe. boulders, there was a deep thumping, see, they'll give you the same ques¬ "What I was trying to do in that it was the day of wrath and god was tion phrased in several different book was account for the diversity judging me as a sinner. This lasted ways. They'll say something like: of worlds that people live in. I for thousands of years and didn't There is a divine deity that rules had not read Heraclitus then, I did get any better, it just got worse the worlds And I'd say, yeah, there not know his concept of ideos Kosmos, and worse. I felt terrible physical probably is. Later on they'll say: the private world, versus Koinos Kos¬ pain and all I could talk was in Lat¬ I_ don't think there is a divine mos, which we all share. I didn't in. Most embarrassing, because the deity that rules the world. And I'd know that the preSocratics had begun girl I was with thought that I was say, that's probably correct, I can to discern these things. doing it to annoy her. I was whin¬ see a lot of reasons for agreeing ing like some poor dog that's been with that. And later they'll say: "There's a scene in the book left out in the rain all night and I'm not sure if there's a divine where the protagonist goes into his finally the girl said, Oh, barf, deity that rules the world. And bathroom, reaches in the dark for a and walked out of the room in dis- I'd say, yeah, that's about right. pull-cord, and suddenly realizes gust. In every case I was sincere. I there is no cord, there's a switch "About a month later I got the think philosophically I fit in with on the wall, and he can't remember galley proofs for THE THREE STIGMATA some of the very late preSocratic when he ever had a bathroom where OF PALMER ELDRITCH to read over, and people around the time of Zeno and there was a cord hanging down. Now, I thought, oh dear, I can't read Diogenese, the cynics, in the Greek that actually happened to me, and it these, they're too scary. That book sense, those who live like dogs. I was what caused me to write the book. of course is my classic 'LSD novel' am inevitably persuaded by every ar¬ It reminded me of the idea that Van even though all I had had to go on gument that is brought to bear. If Vogt had dealt with, of artificial when I wrote it was an article by you were to suggest to me at this , as occurs in THE WORLD OF Aldous Huxley about LSD. But all moment that we go out for Chinese NULL-A where a person has false mem¬ the horrible things I had written food I would immediately agree it ories implanted. A lot of what I seemed to have come true under acid. was the best idea I ever heard; in wrote, which looks like the result fact I would say,'You've got to let of taking acid, is really the result "That was in 1964. I used to me pay for it.' If you were to say of taking Van Vogt very seriously! beg people not to take acid. There suddenly, 'Don't you think that I believed Van Vogt, I mean, he wrote was one girl who came over one night. Chinese food is over-priced, has it, you know, he was an authority very little nourishment, you have figure. He said, 'People can be to go a long way to get it, and when other than whom they remember them¬ you bring it home it's cold', I'd selves to be', and I found this fas¬ say, you're right, I can't abide the cinating. You have a massive sus¬ stuff. This is a sign of a very pension of disbelief on my part." weak ego, I guess. However --if I ask to what extent he was ever, my view that each person has his un¬ really, into drugs. ique world is correct, then if you say Chinese food is good, in your "The only drugs I took regular¬ world it's good, and if someone else ly were amphetamines, in order to be says it's bad, in his world it's able to write as much as I had to bad. I'm a complete relativist in write to make a living. I was being that for me the answer .to the ques¬ paid so little per book that I had tion, 'Is Chinese food good or bad?' to turn out a very large number of is semantically meaningless. Now, books. I had an extremely expensive this is my view. If your view is wife and children ... she would see that this view is incorrect, you a new car that she liked the looks might be right. In which case, I of and just go off and buy it ... un- would be willing to agree with you." 8 and I made her an amateur Rorschach charcoal in the masks would become I buried it and I took the St. Chris¬ ink-blot, and she said, I see an saturated with the gas and they would topher medal that I wore and buried evil shape coming to kill me. I said, panic and tear their masks off. My that with the rat. And the soul of 'You'd be a damned fool to take acid.' father was a big handsome man, a that rat I carry on me from then on, So she didn't take it then, but she football player, tennis player. I as a question and as a problem about did take it later, and she tried to have read what the U.S. Marines did the condition of living creatures on kill herself and was hospitalized in that war, and those farm boys this world. I could not exorcise and became chronically psychotic. underwent what Remarque describes in the spirit of that rat which had I saw her in 1970 and her mind was ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT as died so horribly. In my novel, FLOW gone; it destroyed her. She said unspeakable valor, unspeakable hor¬ MY TEARS, THE POLICEMAN SAID, the that taking the acid had destroyed rors. And there it was in 1963 armed posse is approaching a build¬ her. looking down at me, a god damned ing where Jason Taverner is shut up fortification from the Marne. My in the dark. He hears them and he "I regarded drugs as dangerous father may even have drawn a sketch screams, and that is the rat scream¬ and potentially lethal, but I had a or had photographs of it, for all ing when it heard me coming. Even cat's curiosity. It was my interest I know. in 1974 I was still remembering that in the human mind that made me cur¬ rat screaming. ious about psychotropic drugs. These were essentially religious "I actually sought refuge in strivings that were appearing in me. Christianity from what I saw in the "Even then, at the trough of my By the time of THREE STIGMATA I had sky. Seeing it as an evil deity I life, where I saw only inexplicable become a convert to the Episcopal wanted the reassurance that there suffering, there came to me a beat¬ Church ." was a benign deity more powerful. ific vision which calmed all my My priest actually said that perhaps sense of horror and my sense of the I interrupt a moment, to ask, I could become a Lutheran because I "Why Episcopal?" transcendant power of evil. My ment¬ seemed to actually sense the pres¬ al anguish was simply removed from ence of Satan. And this has contin¬ He adopts the gruff expression me as if by a divine fiat, in an in¬ ued to plague me, as an intimation tervention of a psychological-mysti¬ that I suspect means he's putting me that the god of this world is evil. on -- maybe just the opposite -- or cal type, which I describe in my new The Buddha, seeing the evil of the book, VALIS. maybe he's not actually sure himself. world, came to the conclusion that "Nty wife said if I didn't join the there could be no creator god, be¬ "Some transcendant divine power church she'd bust my nose. She says, cause if there were, it could not which was not evil, but benign, in¬ "If we're going to know judges and be this way, there could not be so tervened to restore my mind and heal district attorneys and important peo¬ much evil and suffering; I had come my body and give me a sense of the ple, we have to be Episcopalian." to the conclusion that there was a beauty, the joy, the sanity of the If this anecdote is told half in deity in this world, and he was evil. world. And out of this I forged a fun, it's the last joke of the inter¬ I had formulated the problem again concept which is relatively simple view, because at this point he con¬ and again in books like MAZE OF and possibly unique in theology, and tinues on a kind of confessional, DEATH and UBIK and THREE STIGMATA that is, the irrational is the prim¬ which I suspect he planned to make and EYE IN THE SKY. ordial stratum of the universe; it at this time if only to see what re¬ comes first in time and is primary "During World War II, when I in ontology -- in levels of essence. action he would elicit from me, as was a kid, I remember seeing in a a relative stranger. And it evolves into rationality. theater a newsreel film of a Japan¬ The history of the universe is a "I was walking along one day". ese soldier who had been hit by a movement from irrationality -- chaos, His tone is sincere now. "I looked flame-thrower by the Americans, and cruelty, blindness, pointlessness -- up in the sky and there was this face he was burning to death and running, to a rational structure which is staring down at me, a giant face and burning and running, and ¬ harmonious, interlinked in a way with slotted eyes, the face I des¬ ing and running, and the audience which is orderly and beautiful. The cribe in THREE STIGMATA. This was cheered and laughed and I was dazed primordial creative deity was essen¬ 1963. It was an evil, horrible-look¬ with horror at the sight of the man tially deranged, from our standpoint; ing thing. I didn't clearly see it, on the screen and at the audience's we are, as humans, an evolution abo¬ but it was there. I finally identi¬ reaction, and I thought, something ve the primordial deity, we are pyg¬ fied it, years later; I was looking is terribly wrong. Years later when mies but we stand on the shoulders through a copy of LIFE magazine and I was in my thirties and living in of giants and therefore we see more I came across a picture of some the country I had to kill a rat that than they see. We human beings are French forts from World War I. They had gotten into the children's bed¬ were observation cupolas made out of room. Rats are hard to kill. I set iron, with slots where the soldiers a trap for it. In the night it got could look out and see the Germans. into the trap, and the next morning, My father had fought at the second when I got up, it heard me coming, battle of the Marne; he was in the and it screamed. I took the trap 5th U.S. Marines, and when I was a out with a pitchfork and sprung the little kid he used to show me all trap and let the rat go out in the his military equipment. He would pasture, and it came out of the trap put on his gas mask and his eyes and its neck was broken. I took would disappear, and he would tell the pitchfork and drove the tines me about the battle of the Marne, and into the rat, and it still didn't the horrors he went through. He die. Here was this rat, it had tri¬ told me, a little four-year-old child ed only to come in and get food, it about men with their guts blown out, was poisoned, its neck was broken, and he showed me Iris gun and every¬ it was stabbed, it was still alive. thing, and told me how they fired At that point I sinply went crazy till their guns were red-hot. He with horror. I ran in and filled a had been under gas attacks, and he tub with water and drowned it. And told me of the terrible fear as the 9 created and yet we are more rational And yet he is so plausible! In than the creator himself who spawned print it may sound absurd; but sit¬ us. ting listening to his shy, matter- of-fact description of events that "This outlook is based not on are totally real to him, I would faith but on an actual encounter like to find a way to accept it all, that I had in 1974, when I experienc¬ if only because I find him so im¬ ed an invasion of my mind by a trans- mensely likeable, and because I have cendantly rational mind, as if I respect for his intellect generally. had been insane all my life and sud¬ As his recent books have shown, he denly I had become sane. Now, I have has a practical, lucid insight into actually thought of that as a pos¬ the workings of the world. In no way sibility, that I had been psychotic is he a seer or a "psychic" deliver¬ from 1928, when I was bom, until look for a second opinion. In March ing a messianic message or recipe March of 1974. But I don't think 1974, Mr. Dick was married; what did for salvation. He admits readily that's the case. I may have been his wife think about all of this? somewhat whacked-out and eccentric to his tendency to dramatize life, but basically he is a carefully ra¬ for years and years, but I know I "My wife was impressed", he says, tional man who questions any concept wasn't all that crazy, because I'd "by the fact that, because of the with persistent logic. He is quite been given Rorschach tests and so on. tremendous pressure this mind put on people in my business, I made quite ready to discuss the possibility "This rational mind was not hum¬ a lot of money very rapidly. We be¬ that his paranormal experience might an. It was more like an artificial gan to get checks for thousands of have been nothing more than one half intelligence. On Thursdays and Sat¬ dollars -- money that was owed me, of his brain talking to the other urdays I would think it was God; on which the mind was conscious existed half; he's reluctant to accept this Tuesdays and Wednesdays I would think in New York but had never been cough¬ explanation only because it doesn't it was extraterrestrial; sometimes I ed up. And it got me to the doctor, adequately explain all the facts of would think it was the who confirmed its diagnosis of var¬ his experience. Academy of trying out their ious ailments that I had ... it did These facts are numerous. I psychotronic microwave telepathic everything but paper the walls of transmitter. I tried every theory, can't begin to summarize them. He's the apartment. It also said it would had five years to live with the phen¬ I thought of the Rosicrucians, I stay on as my tutelary spirit. I thought of Christ .... It invaded omenon of the "presence" that tem¬ had to look up 'tutelary' to find porarily invaded his mind (and still my mind and assumed control of my out what it meant. motor centers and did my acting and communicates with him intermittently). thinking for me. I was a spectator "I have almost 500,000 words of He had accumulated notes and rec¬ to it. It set about healing me phys¬ notes on all this. I'm quite reti¬ ords, all kinds of research data, so ically, and my four-year-old boy, cent about it, normally. I've talk¬ much of it that, no matter what you who had an undiagnosed life-threaten¬ ed to my (Episcopalian) priest about ask or what objection you raise, he's ing birth defect that no one had been it, and a couple of close friends. already ahead of you, with relent¬ aware of. I tried to discuss it with Ursula lessly logical deductions, facts of LeGuin, and she just wrote and said, all kinds. "This mind, whose identity was 'I think you're crazy.' She return¬ totally obscure to me, was equipped ed the material I had sent her. Of I myself have never seen evidence with tremendous technical knowledge course, when VALIS comes out, a lot to make me believe in any psychic -- engineering, medical, cosmologic¬ of all this will be in the book. phenomena or pseudo-science, from al, philosophical knowledge. It VALIS is an attempt to formulate my telepathy to UFOs. My faith is that had memories dating back over two vision in some rational structure the universe is random and godless. thousand years, it spoke Greek, He¬ which can be conveyed to other I am the last person to believe that brew, Sanskrit; there wasn't any¬ people." there is a higher intelligence, and thing that it didn't seem to know. that Philip K. Dick has a private I have been listening to all this connection with it. "It immediately set about put¬ in a state of confusion. I had come ting my affairs in order. It fired to this apartment for what I assum¬ I do believe that something re¬ my agent and my publisher. It re¬ ed was just another in a series of markable happened to him, if only margined my typewriter. It was very interviews about the business of psychologically; and I do believe practical, it decided that the apart¬ writing science fiction, and now I that the experience has inspired a ment had not been vacuumed recently find myself caught up in a Dickian rather beautiful vision of the uni¬ enough, it decided that I should stop reality-warp. I'm listening to what verse (or Koinos cosmos) and a drinking wine because of the sedi¬ sounds like wild fantasy but is be¬ strange, unique book which may en¬ ment -- it turned out I had an abund¬ ing narrated as fact, with obvious, hance the lives of its readers. ance of uric acid in my sustem -- self-conscious sincerity. I don't This is the minimum with which Dick and it switched me to bper. It made know what to believe; my world --my must be credited. To debate his elementary mistakes such as calling ideos Kosmos -- has been invaded by "mental stability" is missing the the dog 'he' and the cat 'she', which his, as if I have become a character point; what matters is the worth of annoyed my wife; and it kept calling in one of his novels, and he is Pal¬ his insight, regardless of its source. her 'ma'am'". mer Eldritch, dreaming up a new real¬ There have been men far more derang¬ At this point I interrupt, just ity for me to live in. ed than Philip K. Dick who neverthe¬ to be sure I'm getting this right: less produced great art of lasting But I can't live in it, because the presence, the voice, that he relevance to the lives of millions I can't accept it. I can't sudden¬ heard in his head, took over control of un-deranged people. ly believe that there really are ex¬ of his body, his speech and his dec¬ traterrestrial entities invading the Dick remains much the same per¬ isions? minds of men. I can't believe you sonality as before his vision. He "That's right." can learn secrets of the universe by has not metamorphosed into a relig¬ visiting a science fiction author in ious zealot. His perceptions, and My first impulse is to suspend Santa Ana. his ironic, skeptical wit, are as judgment. Ify second notion is to 10 sharp as ever. The Philip K. Dick profile by Charles Platt is one of 30 pro¬ files of sf writers that will STAR WHORES be published by Berkley this November, in one volume titled I PROFILES IN SCIENCE FICTION. There will be a subsequent Gregg SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL Press edition.

THE CORPORATION STRIKES BACK

Toi King, Sex Guild Companion, is kipnapped by the corporation she frustrated in STAR WHORES. Taken to Phallus, the pleasure planet, injected with a new, powerful sex drug, enslaved, she must make hei escape and seek a terrible revenge.

I AVAILABLE NOVEMBER 15, 1980 PRE-PUBLICATION PRICE: $3-00 ORDER FROM SCIENCE FICTION REV I El

cash, check or money ot SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW P.O.Box 11408 Portland, OR 97211 THE EMPRESS OF THE EARTH & THE PURPLE CLOUD Plus Some Short Stories SMALL PRESS NOTES By M.P. Shiel J.D.S. Books, BY THE EDITOR P.0. Box 67 MCS, Dayton, OH 45402 An ambitious gathering of two of Shiel's best-known novels, and eight short stories, all published in the QUESTAR—AUG. 1980, $1.95 Most of this issue is about THE 1890s. The text is page reproduc¬ EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, with a very tions from the original serializa¬ good interview with Mark Hamill on tions on the weekly SHORT STORIES the making of the picture. [price: One Penny!] and from other The other standout this issue is magazines. These include the origin¬ an interview with Robert Bloch. al illustrations, mostly by Lawson QUESTAR is most interested in Wood and John Cameron. visual sf and fantasy--and horror. I find Shiel's 19th Century nar¬ Ibis issue arrived with a heavy rative style and phrasing not to my white mailing cover to protect the taste, but am captivated by the ex¬ magazine. A good idea as it probably cellent artistry of Wood and Cameron; saves some envelope money and work. especially Cameron, who could give Mailed third class bulk rate, I note, lessons to the best magazine illus¬ with its bi-monthly schedule the trators of today. I'm surprised, publishers could save even more if too, at the quality of reproduction tating?), and a funny heroic fantasy they got a second class permit. given the artists in the 1890s--- satire involving animals (as if they Address: MV Comnunications far, far better than given "pulp" were humans). All are well handled, 247 Fort Pitt Blvd., artists of today. all move! and all have a lot or a Pittsburgh, PA 15222 Essentially this volume (the little violence. There's something first of three projected) is for ************************************ so wholehearted, so joyous and un¬ Shiel admirers and collectors. abashed about Mark Rogers' killing These are small limited editions and maiming---and yet so real—that available in two bindings: a sewn it is a wonder. Plainly he likes clothbound edition [$35], and spec¬ BETTER THAN ONE violence in his writing, isn't asham¬ ial ring binder (22 rings) edition By Damon Knight and Kate Wilhelm ed of it, and even seems to relish with silk-screen cover and tabbed To be published by Noreascon II it. sections [$30]. on Aug. 29, 1980. $5. by mail from I do, too. ************************************ Noreascon II, ************************************ POB 46, MIT Branch Post Office, Cambridge, MA 02139. A small hardbound book, a spec¬ ial collectors item, it contains Introductions by each of the authors, EBON ROSES, JEWELLED SKULLS poems by each, a story by each. THE BLACK LION By James William Hjort Damon's story is "Semper Fi," and By Patricia 6 Lionel Fanthorpe Weirdbook Press Kate's is "Baby, You Were Great." Greystoke Mobray Ltd., [$1.95] P.O. Box 35, Amherst Branch, Both stories involve the conse¬ 30, Boverton Street, Buffalo, NY 14226 quences of feeding experiences to Roath Park, Cardiff. CF2 5ES. If you like/liked Clark Ashton the mind or allowing the mind to Wales, UK Smith's style you'll probably like create its own alternate real solip¬ 'Mark Sable, a lonely and alien¬ this book of short stories written sist world---by , by means ated ex-convict, encounters an old in the Smith mode by J.W. Hjort, an of a helmet (more or less). mystic who gives him a curious medal¬ admirer. [Another variation of this idea lion. This strange talisman trans¬ These stories are illustrated is my novel CANNED MIAT.] ports Mark from the hostility of by the author. He is supposed to I think Kate Wilhelm is a very Earth to his rightful home on Deri. be a conmercial artist, but judging good poet: her "Alternatives," 'Here, as the Black Lion, re-in- from this work he is fudging: I'd "Four Seasons" are wrenching insights camate feudal King of Dar, and roy¬ rank him amateur; certainly the into despair and desperation under al brother to the Golden Tiger, Mark botched wraparound cover painting the mask. sets out in quest of the great power points to incompetency/lack of Damon Knight and Kate Wilhelm sphere of Kalun. He learns that the skills. will be the Pro Guests of Honor at shining tower of the citadel is part He's a better writer than art¬ Noreascon II, the world sf conven¬ of the crippled space ship that ist. There are ten stories, and he tion for 1980. brought him to Deri in his first in¬ seems to have a fair talent at the ************************************ carnation centuries ago.' typer. So sayeth the back cover. The This large-size book is availa¬ writing is action, action, action! ble in a paperback edition:$5.75--- and a hardcover edition: $16.50. THE BRIDGE OF CATZAD-DUM and Other Kill, run, kill, go, kill... The Stories by Mark E. Rogers. $5.75 style is 5% archaic, 95% modem in ************************************ The Burning Bush Press phrasing. POB 7708 There is of course a lovely young woman or two involved. Newark, DE 19711 STARSHIP - Summer, 1980. $2.50 Rogers has quite a range; we have The amateurish cover painting P.O. Box 4175, here three different stories---a tra¬ probably will doom the book. New York, NY 10017 ditional mythological horror story ************************************ The recession/depression in the (lotsa gore!), a tale of three brains book industry has trapped Andy Port¬ in one skull (and three minds cohabi- er in an untenable position: his advertising monies have shrink dras¬ ETERNITY #2, $1-75 zine and book sales seems to insure tically, forcing a cutback in pages P.O. Box 510 that view as correct. until now he is at 48 pages plus cov¬ Clemson, SC 29631 Kemske [in his letter] tells the ers, down from 52 plus covers, down writers that the new publisher took from 64 plus covers. In that period It's a good thing this column over a 400,000 word fiction inven¬ he has raised his cover price to is titled "Small Press Notes" rather tory and all this is being re-evalua¬ $2.50 from $2.25. than "Reviews." Most of the material ted for use in the new GALAXY format. If he follows the lead of our I read all the way through, but some If a story is kept it will be major corporations he will go to is skinned, some is 'spot-read' and paid for on publication at 14 per 32 pages plus covers and raise his some, under press of time strictur¬ word, or higher, depending on the price to $2.75. es as now, is "Noted". judgement of the editor. If a sto¬ Nevertheless, this current issue Let it be noted that ETERNITY #2 ry is no longer suitable it will be of STARSHIP is handsome with a beaut¬ is available now, that it has fiction returned to the author with a "kill iful Paul Lehr cover and is inter¬ by Orson Scott Card, John Shirley, fee" of 1/24 per word. But it will esting with items by Harlan Ellison, Grant Carrington, and others, and an take a long time to work through , an interview with interview with Gregory Benford by all this material. George RR Martin, analysis of Phil Darrell Schweitzer. Also many depart¬ ************************************ Dick by , and the Vin¬ ments (mayhap more interesting than cent DiFate art column. the fiction!) by Andy Offutt, Orson Scott Card, Roger Zelazny, Edward ************************************ Bryant and others. This magazine is 80 pages plus covers, typeset, professional in lay¬ THE WHOLE FANZINE CATALOG #W~I5 THRUST #15 Summer, 1980, $1.95 out and etc. Fair artwork. In Edited and published by Brian Thrust Publications short, you get your money's worth, Earl Brown, 16711 Burt Rd., #207, 11919 Barrel Cooper Ct., and unless ETERNITY is to sink out Detroit, MI 48219. This issue $1. Reston, VA 22091 of sight and become just another listed by country,by Editor Doug Fratz has gathered failed small-press experiment, you function (Newszines); a listing unto himself a lineup of very inter¬ will have to buy a copy. of the WoFan poll results; lett¬ esting, outspoken columnists---Michael ************************************ ers; articles... important adv. Bishop, George Alec Effinger, Charles flyers [Yes, damnit, some ads are Sheffield, Dan Steffan, Ted White— newsworthy and their offerings and they say their mind! inportant.) Add an interview with Kelly A worthwhile zine, is WoFan, Freas, book reviews, letters_and SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY BOOK RE¬ especially if you are new to fan¬ you have a pretty claimed good maga¬ VIEW [Borgo Press] has been killed dom and need a key mailing list. zine. Try a copy; you'll probably by its publisher Robert Reginald, ********************************** like it. and its editor Neil Barron. Press Note: this issue is a few pages of other work is given as the reas¬ longer than last, though it feels on, but I suspect it was a money- THE WORLD ENDS TOMORROW AND YOU thinner due to a change to a lighter losing endeavor and all concerned MAY DIE! weight paper. decided to cut its losses. -SubGenius Foundation The last piiilished issue of SF6FBR was February, 1980. ********************************** Paul Allen's FANTASY NEWSLETTER has taken over all SFfjFBR's sub¬ No more room, alas. This is a scription obligations as of FN's very crowded issue and Small Press THE DUENDE HISTORY OF THE SHADOW July issue. MAGAZINE By Murray Notes was short-changed by at least This termination of the last a page. As were my "Alien Thoughts" Odyssey Publications, $8.70 postpaid all-review publication in the sf P.0. Box G-148 come to think. We'll do better 8 fantasy field proves my judgement Greenwood, MA 01880 next issue. that an all-review magazine is in¬ This could be subtitled: Every¬ herently unworkable using the stand¬ *********************************** thing you ever thought of knowing ard review format. about the Shadow and his writers and his magazine... ************************************ And then some. This large softcover quality book is replete with fine illustrations, GALAXY'S new editor, Floyd Kemske, photographs of magazine covers, the has sent a Status Report letter to people involved—mainly Walter Gib¬ authors whose work had been accepted son, who wrote the stories [and there for GALAXY by the former publisher. are two interviews with him], the The first issue of the new GALA¬ illustrators... XY was supposed to have been piilish- There is also an index of all the ed in April, 1980. This letter stories (T. Tinsley and B. Elliott promises June publication, followed also wrote some of the Shadow ad¬ by an issue in October and December. ventures, but not many.) . 1981 is to see regular bi-monthly There is even included a new publication. Shadow story by Walter Gibson, "Black¬ But don't hold your breath. Most How much does Richard mail Bay". insiders and professionals in the pay for his cartoons? And more. And more. field think the publisher is having This is for anyone who carries a horrendous cash-flow problems and Oh, about twelve cralmacs fond nostalgia for Lament Cranston that the odds are GALAXY will never each — just enough for a and who wants to know everything a- be published again. The deepening six-pack of my favorite. bout his origins and life. recession and severe drop in maga- ************************************ 13 1NTERV1EW i ROGER ZEWZNY

SFR: Since you're a man who needs no introduction I'll skip my usual background questions and get right | CONDUCTED BY NEAL WILGUS~| to the meat of things. As one of the top names in the field, what do you see as the role of science fic¬ tion today? Where is it headed? I'm not much on Golden Ages. mythology will develop that all writ¬ Is the Golden Age yet to come? I think there's always some of the ers, SF or otherwise, could use to bright mineral around if you're wil¬ their own purpose? Something com¬ ZELAZNY: I think that the role of ling to dig for it. parable to the Greek myths that science fiction is pretty much the still have relevance today? same as it has always been -- enter¬ SFR: It seems to me that in spite tainment of a variety which exercis¬ of the popularity of STAR WARS and ZELAZNY: I don't think so, and I es the imagination and perhaps ex¬ the newly found academic respectab¬ wouldn't like to see it, anyway. pands the intellect somewhat through ility of science fiction, that the It seems to me that it would be a its play upon ideas and its require¬ field is still locked in a so-cal¬ restrictive rather than a liberat¬ ment that the reader make the effort led ghetto status in the majority of ing influence. I would rather see to set up a new world in the mind's minds. Do you think SF will be the a plurality than'a grand scheme. eye for the working out of each literature of the future, as many story. have predicted? Will we overcome? SFR: Do you hold with the Jungian idea of the collective unconscious Where is it headed? Forward, ZELAZNY: This is a consideration where mythological archetypes dwell, in a temporal sense, but in a some¬ which has never much mattered to waiting to be drawn upon by some what cyclical manner. It has its me. Years ago, I answered a simi¬ questing mythmaker or artist? Do fads and fashions the same as any¬ lar question in the DOUBLE: BILL SYM¬ you feel your own creativity comes thing else. Certain situations or POSIUM with a quote from Santayana from such levels? things seize the fancy and take the which I still consider appropriate: stage for a time. Dragons, I think, "To attempt to give such things a ZELAZNY: To some extent, for peop¬ are about to shuffle off into the wide currency is to be willing to de¬ le of a conmon cultural background. wings, belching fumes, for another naturalize them in order to boast But I like to feel that what creat¬ decade or so. The movement of life that they have been propagated". ivity I possess is intellectual as down Time's corridors will shift It would have to be pretty watered- well as intuitive; that is, I am moods -- pessimistic-optimistic, down stuff to catch on in general willing to challenge an inspiration pro-science, anti-science -- from and hold the attention of the pub¬ with reason, invert it, twist it year to year; it is the developments lic at large for a very long time. about a bit, to see whether I can't in the world about us -- scientif¬ improve upon it by non-intuitive ic, political, social -- that will I believe, basically, that create the swings in emphasis which the general popularity of science produce continued growth. fiction (watered-down or otherwise) or any other type of story is a cyc¬ SFR: In writing on mythological lical, faddish thing. We get our themes it seems obvious that you're turn periodically. I don't see any¬ trying to do something more than thing wrong with this. just entertain. What is your view of the "entertainment vs. message" SFR: One of your own contributions controversy? toward that literature of the future is the introduction of mythological themes into SF. Do you think this ZELAZNY: I do not see it as a dich¬ will grow into a dominant force in otomy. I write mainly to entertain, the field? A new new-wave? but other things do find their ways into my work. I have never written ZELAZNY: It has always been there simply to promote a message, but if to some extent, and I think that I were to I've a feeling it would be it always will be. I doubt it will garbled in transmission by story val¬ become a dominant force, though. ues which I could not keep out.

SFR: it seems like a contradiction SFR' In DAMNATION ALLEY and your in terms for an individual to be latest novel ROADMARKS, as well as writing myths, since mythology trad¬ short stories like "Devil Car" and itionally has been something built "Auto-Da-Fe", you've explored the up over many generations and contrib¬ modem obsession with automobiles. uted to by countless storytellers. Is there a mythology of the motor Yet when SF/fantasy writers collabor¬ vehicle that has developed over the ate on some mythological framework past couple of generations? Were such as the Cthulhu Mythos or the you consciously contributing to such Saga the results tend to be a mythology when you wrote those rather trivial. Is there any hope stories? that some grand "future history"

14 ZELAZNY: Possibly. I was not cons- ciously contributing to any such ZELAZNY; I disagree. I don't mythology, but I have been involved tninK Gallinger or my baitman, say, in some very unpleasant automobile could have solved Angelo di Negri's situations and I suppose I might problem in TODAY WE CHOOSE FACES, have been exorcising a few traumas or vice-versa. Charles Render, in in those stories. , would have been useless as the protagonist in any of SFR: Are there mythologies of rad¬ my other books. Hell Tanner was on¬ io and TV or movies or comics or ly fitted for the role he played in whatever, also developing? DAMNATION ALLEY and would not have been able to resolve, say, Francis ZELAZNY: 1 do not feel qualified Sandow's dilemma in ISLE OF THE DEAD to answer this one. or function in the role of my name¬ less detective in the MY NAME IS LE¬ SFR: Several of your stories have GION stories. But I agree with you been adapted to comic book form or in that I feel that depth of charac¬ illustrated with comic-type artwork terization, in terms of psychologic¬ -- are you satisfied with these in¬ al motivation, is not important in terpretations of your work? all stories. If the emphasis is on spectacle or adventure, one can get ZELAZNY: As satisfied as one can along with external characterization be, I guess, with transference to and let it go at that. It depends another medium. I do like Gray on where the accent is to lie in a Morrow's work. particular piece.

SFR: I see there's a new critical SFR: I've noticed that your Avon study of your work out by Carl B. titles such as LORD OF and Yoke. What's your reaction to this the Anber series are almost the only kind of critical attention? Zelazny books on the newsstands and that NAL titles such as JACK OF SHAD¬ ZELAZNY: I'm pleased with that OWS, TODAY WE CHOOSE FACES and book. He is fair and very percep¬ BRIDGE OF ASHES are conspicuously tive. He is also my friend of over absent. In the flood of reissues 35 years and knows me better than presently drowning the stands, why anyone else who has ever written aren't all of your works in print? ZELAZNY: Possibly so. And a long about me or my works. Or do I just frequent the wrong life would be nice, considering the stands? alternative. SFR: With all the changes taking place in the status of women and es¬ ZELAZNY: JACK OF SHADOWS is about SFR: What about some of the other pecially with women assuming a large to be reissued. The other two NAL optimistic predictions that are be¬ and important role in SF in recent titles (TODAY WE CHOOSE FACES and ing bandied about, such as space years, I'm surprised that your fe¬ BRIDGE OF ASHES) are currently out colonization in the next 20 years, male characters are so relatively of print. I recently queried the cloning of human beings or large minor and undeveloped. Why are publisher on this matter. They say scale improvements in intelligence? Zelazny characters mostly macho sup¬ that the other two will be reissued ermen -- why not some wonder women but that the dates have not yet been ZELAZNY: I believe that there will now and then? be manned satellites within the next 20 years -- not as fancy as O'Neill's maybe, but some things up ZELAZNY: Someone just pointed SFR: One theme you've returned to there with people in them. I'm less out to me an an article in the Win¬ repeatedly is longevity or inmortal- confident on human cloning, or at ter of 1979 issue of EXTRAPOLATION, ity -- which, of course, has endless least on hearing about it if it were where Professor Carolyn Wendell said possibilities. Have your inmortals to occur. I have never considered that in "The Doors of his Face, the been influenced by Robert Heinlein's intelligence, per se, that great a Lamps of his Mouth" I depict the Lazarus Long? Or by earlier treat¬ virtue, beyond a certain point. heroine "as possessing some degree ments of the theme such as Shaw's I've known too many brilliant people of autonomy and, just as importantly, BACK TO METHUSELAH, the utopian who spent most of their time talk¬ as being involved in an interdepend¬ classics -- or even the legend of ing about how brilliant they were, ent relationship, rather than ore in the Wandering Jew? cases of an excess of genius and a which the male takes the lead and lack of application. I've seen lots the female is the submissive follow¬ ZELAZNY: I don't think so. I'm of persistent plodders build better er". Who is the poor author to be¬ familiar with the ones you mention¬ houses of intellect in the long run. lieve? ed, but I've not consciously pat¬ terned anything I've done on any of SFR: How about some of the longer SFR- Along the same lines, I've them. term SF themes such as reacl criticism to the effect that or contact with alien intelligences? your lead characters are mostly in¬ SFR: There's serious talk going Care to hazard a guess as to when terchangeable and not very deeply in¬ around about conquering death in our such developments might develop? dividualized. From what I've read lifetime -- do you expect to see of your work this seems a justified some kind of biological breakthrough ZELAZNY:. Too many variables. I'd criticism -- with significant excep¬ in the next decade or two that will be shooting in the dark. tions such as Conrad Nimikos in THIS greatly extend the human life span? INMORTAL and Fred Cassidy in DOOR¬ Do you look forward to living for¬ SFR: You have long been one of the WAYS IN THE SAND. In general, ever? best stylists in SF -- how import¬ though, is depth of characterization ant do you think style is in writing of little importance in your view? 15 SF? In writing in general? ZELAZNY: It is inportant to me, anthologies to use poetry? Will ZELAZNY: No, we're still going less inportant in general. I am not ONNI ever be a verse market? steady that way. disturbed if a good story is badly told, where it might have been dres¬ ZELAZNY: Yes. I join them in urg¬ SFR: The "About the Author" blurb sed up more. There is a point of ing it. It would be nice to see in the back of ROAEMARKS says you diminishing returns on the amount more in print. OMNI? Hard to tell. are working on an animated film in¬ of polishing one does, especially Possibly a small one. corporating elements of American if one is writing full-time. If Indian mythology. Is this project the story is strong enough, it can SFR: One thing that bugs the hell conplete yet? What's it all about? shine through a lot. On the other out'of me about your characters is hand, I'm a sucker for an interest¬ that they all smoke too much. It ZELAZNY: I did the film treatment, ing style, even if the story is may be a good dramatic gesture if but it's now on the shelf. C'est weak. not overused, but isn't such stereo¬ la vie. typed behavior the opposite of what SFR: Do you think it is fair to you're striving for? Do you smoke SFR: What other projects do you say that your work is toward the that much yourself? have going? Will there be a new "escapist" end of the spectrum? Zelazny title out soon? There are many SF writers, after ZELAZNY: m my next novel -- CHANG¬ all, who express their political, ELING (Ace, June 1980) -- no one ZELAZNY: CHANGELING -- an Ace trade religious or philosophical beliefs smokes while living. I didn't not¬ paperback, in June, as I'd mention¬ in their stories, but your books ice that until afterwards. I'm a ed earlier, with lots of fancy art¬ strike me as almost pure story- pipe smoker myself, though years work by Esteban Maroto. And THE and-style -- and thus immensely ago I did smoke cigarettes fairly CHANGING LAND (Ballantine) -- a readable -- but are mostly devoid heavily. It was partly unconscious Dilvish novel --no date yet set, of sociopolitical content. Even in injection and partly conscious de¬ but probably early '81. BRIDGE OF ASHES the ecological con¬ vice -- I would light a cigarette, cerns seemed mainly story motiva¬ the character would light a ciga¬ SFR: The SF REVIEW referred to tions rather than message. Or do rette, etc. earlier, also contained a piece in I read you wrong? which you commented on each of your SFR: How much were your early short books up through TODAY WE CHOOSE ZELAZNY: True. I've never consid¬ stories prototypes for your novels? FACES. Would you care to bring ered myself a polemicist. For instance, "Love is an Imaginary that list up to date? Number" struck me as the seed from SFR: Can style be learned -- or is which the Amber series might have it something that is too individual grown. "The Man Who Loved the Fai- ZELAZNY: I don't recall what I said, and unique to be communicated or oli" seemed to foreshadow TO DIE IN but my next book out after TODAY WE taught? ITALBAR, and "Devil Car" seems sure¬ CHOOSE FACES was TO DIE IN ITALBAR, ly an early vision of the DAMNATION which I'll admit is a weak one and ZELAZNY: I don't know to this day. ALLEY nightmare. In other words, let it go at that, followed by SIGN I think that it just grows, but are your novels a conscious working OF THE UNICORN, followed by that it can be pruned. I recall a out of themes you first approached IN THE SAND, which had a character professor whose literary criticism in short stories? I liked, a structure I had fun with style intrigued me. He said, when and some pleasing (to me) ideas, asked, that for a long period of ZELAZNY: There is a relationship followed by MY NAME IS LEGION, time he read some Gibbon every night between "Love is an Imaginary Numb¬ where I employed the tighter plot¬ before going to sleep and he felt er" and the Amber books -- yes. ting of a mystery format with ideas that this had influenced his style And probably the others. Not always I liked, followed by BRIDGE OF ASHES, in the manner he desired. Only, a conscious working out, but some¬ where the ideas may have run away if he desired that strongly to be times it is. For that matter, ISLE with the story a bit, here and there^ influenced in that manner I'm not OF THE DEAD was for me, in a number followed by DEUS IRAE, with Philip at all sure he needed to read the of ways, an extension of "This Mo¬ K. Dick, which I considered a suc¬ Gibbon every night. ment of the Storm". cessful collaboration, defining such as being an effective work neither SFR: In an interview published back of the collaborators could have pro¬ SFR: Highly stylized prose such as in 1973 in SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW duced solo, and not sounding exactly yours often borders on poetry and (when it was called THE ALIEN CRIT¬ like either, followed by THE COURTS in fact I've seen some of your poet¬ IC), you made the following remark: OF CHAOS, followed by RQAIMARKS, ry in THE ANTHOLOGY OF SPECULATIVE "Short stories were, and still are, which was harder to write than to POETRY, so I know you have some in¬ my first love in SF. I will event¬ read. The Amber books were a pleas¬ terest in the subject. Why has SF ually get back to them". Would you ant series of relaxations between poetry never been popular? Do you say that short stories are still the others -- and I believe I've got¬ think it will be someday? your first love? Have you ever got¬ ten more fan mail on them than on ten back to them? the total of everything else I've ZELAZNY: It's not just SF poetry. written. I will refrain from com¬ Poetry in general does not sell very ZELAZNY: Yes, I'm still that fond menting on the books that aren't well in this country. Pity. I of them, and I'm doing more per out yet. don't know why. Temper of the times, year now than I was back in '73. perhaps. I'd like to think that SFR: Thank you, Mr. Zelazny. there's a big cycle at work here, too, and that it may make it into SFR: You also described in that greater prominence one day. But I interview your rather unusual work IHt fM FfUtV) don't know. habits. Do you still type in a W*W 10 £AT? semi-reclined position? Any change SFR: Would you join the Science in the four typewriter situation? Fiction Poetry Association in urg¬ jt ing the professional magazines and 16 I originally joined the Science I observe that SFWA has encouraged ment with the collective mind. Fiction Writers of America for the this decadence by putting "market" Such is the momentum of the collec¬ same reasons as I write science considerations before literature, tive, though, that this seems to fiction. I believe in SF as a valid by concentrating on, say, the sort have absolutely no effect. It is a and radical form of literature. I of success attached to making a lot curious but real phenomenon. (There¬ find the company of other SF writ¬ of money rather than the sort of suc¬ fore I must point out that my com¬ ers stimulating and enjoyable. On cess attached to writing well. ments on SFWA are directed at the collective, not the individuals.) the whole, SF writers are alert to SFWA, like all writers' organiz¬ the vicissitudes of the publishing ations, exists for three reasons: industry and freely exchange help¬ Firstly, to work for the common good Firstly, then, how does one join ful information about markets, con¬ by creating a lobby. Secondly, to SFWA? Qualification for membership tracts and so on. I presumed, when provide a social context within is obtained by publishing in the I joined SFWA, that what I would which isolated writers can contact USA a piece of work that is recog- find would be a concentration of their peers. Thirdly, to promote nisably science fiction. It does such pleasures and interests, that an ambience, both commercial and not have to be in an acknowledged SF there would be a certain purity of artistic, within which creative outlet, such as one of the genre mag¬ intent, a sense of radicalism and freedom is encouraged. azines, but in cases of doubt it does progressiveness, and above all, a have to pass the subjective test of propagation of the general good mood one or more officials of SFWA. In and high principles that so many SF It is in the last of these, for general, this is managed sensibly writers manifest in person. reasons both specific and general, and well. The result is, in theory, that there has been the greatest der¬ that the membership is made up of However, I am British and I live eliction of duty. active professional SF writers. in Britain, and so of necessity my role as an SFWA member is from a I have at last escaped from the However, there's a thumping distance. Becoming perforce an ob¬ floundering cetacean that is SFWA, great presumption behind this phil¬ server, I have had for the last de¬ by the simple expedient of failing osophy. Briefly, it presumes that cade the opportunity to watch as an to renew my meirbership this year. entry to the American market is the interested party while SFWA has ex¬ Now I am away and free, it seems to only test of professionalism. The panded at more or less the same rate me that it concerns the SF community sale of a 100,000-word novel to, say, as SF itself has expanded. at large to know something of SFWA. Sanrio in Japan, or Calmann-Levy in I am a partisan, minority voice, France, or Victor Gollancz in Brit¬ The expansion of the SF genre admittedly, and I have not left SFWA ain, does not count. The sale of a has been an acquisition of fatty without reason. (But a caveat: 600-word vignette to 'S tissue rather than a hardening of SFWA as a collective is great¬ SF MAGAZINE does. muscular flesh. SF is now over-pro¬ er or lesser than the sum of its duced, with writers and markets ga¬ parts. I have been in personal con¬ The argument in defense of this lore, series and sequels and film tact with many SFWA members over philosophy goes that the "A" in SF¬ tie-ins and comic-book versions and the years, and I almost invariably WA stands for "America", that it is illustrated novellas, and all the find that on this personal, individ¬ principally an American organisation, other decadent symbols of a declin¬ ual level, few people are in agree- and that if people elsewhere feel ing literary form. In my role of resentful of this they should start SFWA-watcher, in but not really of, 17 their own writers' organisations. This is a sound defense so long feeling within SFWA that what they the contributions to FORUM, notably as you believe that America is the call "overseas" members are more one in which Poul Anderson quoted only place in the world where scien¬ trouble than they're worth. Last Robert Heinlein's perceptive liter¬ ce fiction is written. It is indeed year, an author (who is extremely ary pensee: that writers are in the largest single market, and there famous, and who writes long boring competition for the readers' beer are certainly more SF writers liv¬ books about old men) circulated a money. For all the sarcasm of Lem's ing there than anywhere else. The memo to a nunber of people in SFWA article, he wrote it from an inpas- indications are, though, that this saying, in effect, that "overseas" sioned point of view, and his own is merely a socio/geographical phen¬ members were an expensive nuisance, expressed attitude to writing was omenon, the product of a large, pop¬ and should be charged a levy for written in a civilised manner and ulous country enjoying a high stand¬ the privilege of joining. In this was modest, moderate and balanced. ard of living. If you view the particular author's worldview, "over¬ facts in a different light they take seas" is a place for tax exiles and SFWA's reaction to this was one on different shapes. loonies ... and thus he ignored the of revenge. It was felt: (1) Lem fact that the majority of the world's should not be quoting from FORUM, For instance, if you express population was bom "overseas". (2) Lem was being discourteous to the number of writers actually work¬ the society that had honoured him, ing as a function of overall popul¬ In its attitude to menbership, (3) Lem was preaching dangerous ation, you discover that Britain SFWA is inward-looking, isolationist heresy. (1) is arguable, (2) is has, per capita, more SF writers and self-serving. agreed, and (3) has never been ad¬ and more full-time SF writers than mitted by the SFWA mind. With the This inherent conservatism ex¬ the States. In Australia, a nation hearty approval of the mob, by now tends also to political bias. To with a population smaller than New howling for vengeance, the SFWA com¬ its eternal dishonour, SFWA has act¬ York, there are proportionately more mittee (composed by then of differ¬ ed in the recent past to suppress writers than in the States. In coun¬ ent people from the relatively lib¬ freedom of speech and to silence tries like France and Holland there eral committee that had made the in¬ those whose opinions did not conform are writers who enjoy the same sort itial invitation) slung him out on to what- was presumed to be the con¬ of status and following as (just for his ear. example) Brian Aldiss or Chip Delany, sensus of the collective mind. When the cries of protest were yet whose names are all but unknown SFWA publishes a fanzine called heard, and SFWA realised it had em¬ to the English-speaking SF world. FORUM. This is distributed to all barrassed itself, a searching of the The best-selling SF author in the writer-members (there are other kinds bye-laws went on and a face-saving world lives in Poland, the world's of menber, incidentally, mostly pub¬ rule was found. The Official News- best-selling SF series came from lishers and agents), and contains peak version of Lem's banishment is, Germany. the gossip of the society. The con¬ these days, that his honorary mem¬ tributions to FORUM are supposed to All these authors are permitted bership was revoked on a technical¬ be confidential, and each issue to join SFWA so long as their work ity. makes it across to the States. But prints a statement prohibiting any if it doesn’t? If their work has quotation from the text. Before It is not admitted that Lem was the disadvantage of being written you die of excitement at the thought kicked out for political reasons: in a "foreign" language, if it is of what this must contain, you can that he questioned and derided the "too British", what then? I know take it that most of FORUM is in¬ complacent assumptions on which SFWA of several instances where success¬ tensely boring and trivial, and the is based. Nor will SFWA accept that ful writers, many of whom live by prohibition serves not to protect in acting in the way it did it was the pen, have been barred from entry confidence but enbarrassment. The lowering itself to the level of the to SFWA simply because American taste dialogues in FORUM are at approximate State-controlled writers' unions was not congruent with their work. ly the intellectual level of argu - that pre-censor and control writers Is a successful French author any ments in the public bar, and reveal in communist countries. the same order of prejudices. less of an author because ANALOG or From the time of the Lem Affair Ace Books doesn't like his stuff? In the early 1970s, the work of the writing has been on the wall. Apparently so. the Polish writer, Stanislaw Lem be¬ There is an influential political The first reason for clubbing gan to appear in the West. It at¬ faction within SFWA, conservative together to form an authors' society tracted a lot of attention. The and regressive, one that feels threat- is to gain some kind of collective United States was one of the last muscle. Because there is a multit¬ places in the world where his work ude of writers in the States, their was published, which was ironical numbers and influence should provide because by then he was already sel¬ the cornerstone of a collective pre¬ ling more books than most American sence. Fifty British writers make writers (and today is the top sel¬ a weak lobby of their own, as do ler of all). Realising that Lem was thirty in Australia or fifteen in in a country lacking hard currency, France. But those writers joining the incumbent SFWA committee invit¬ with the Americans would make a pow¬ ed Lem to become an honorary member. erful worldwide lobby. American Lem accepted. In due course he authors enjoy considerable success started receiving SFWA mailings. in booming translation markets of One can only presume he read Europe, yet these major markets are FORUM with a surprised expression. countries where SFWA is barely rep¬ Certainly he did read it, because resented. after two or tfiree years he wrote an SFWA is at present a chauvinistic article for a German newspaper, collection that accepts some and re¬ scathingly describing the attitudes jects others, and consequently it of the collective SFWA consciousness. enfeebles itself. He made free and easy with many of

Moreover, there is a persistent 18 TERSdn^ uiTY. ened by ideas and minority opinions, received before leaving, someone with but there is hearsay and circumstan¬ one that sees the present boom in rather less clout, but again a form¬ tial evidence from the past, and in the SF market-place as vindication er SFWA official, said this: "I find the present there is abundant direct of their attitudes. it most interesting that the most vo¬ evidence that vested interests seek cal opponents of the are to influence the way the Nebula is It was with something approach¬ either people who have already won worked. Writers occasionally draw ing surprise that I discovered, at one or maybe even a handful, or oth¬ attention to their own work, offer¬ this time, that I had "radical" id¬ ers who have so far demonstrated a ing to send Xerox copies to anyone eas. Until then, I had assumed I distinct lack of ability to ever pro¬ who would "like to make up their was moderate in my views. Yet I duce something good enough to win own minds". Publishers circulate aligned with Lem (a writer of whom one." free copies of novels in which they I know nothing). It came as a per¬ have invested heavily, "suggesting" sonal shock to realise that I was at It is possible to detect a kind that they be "considered" for the odds with the collective mind, and of primitive logic in both these re¬ prize. In the past, until it was from that time it was inevitable marks (and they are not exceptions, stopped, editors of anthologies were that I should leave SFWA. I stayed but representative of many others known to nominate stories from their on as long as I did on the principle similar). What is interesting about own books. that it might be better to work for them, though, is the inherent attit¬ improvement from within than from udes they reveal. Both of these (This morning, while typing out without. I no longer think this. writers are assuming that any Nebula this article, I received a package is better than no Nebula, and that from a publisher who evidently has If this realisation came late, it is unquestionable that all authors not heard yet of my defunct status. another did not. Almost from the recognise their value, both as trib¬ In the package was a Xerox of a sto¬ time I joined SFWA I have been an op¬ utes to their skill and as an impor¬ ry, and the following Letter: "Dear ponent of the Nebula Award. It is a tant step towards reaching a wider SFWA Meatier: The enclosed novelette fraud, and the more people who know audience. Therefore, the assumption RAY-GUN RANCH by Ignatius Hacken- this the better. seems to go, anyone who criticises backer, will most probably be on Working within SFWA to abolish the system must have a base motive. the Nebula Award final ballot. We the Nebula is a waste of time and And if there is no underhand motive, think it's a brilliant and important breath, although it has taken me ten then the only other explanation must story and we would like you to have years to realise this. The machin¬ be the tasting of the sour grapes of a chance to read it if you haven't ery of the Nebula wallows on and on, failure. already. RAY-GUN RANCH made its like a mindless, mechanical whale. first appearance in BOGGLING SF in May, 1979, and has just been reprint¬ While in SFWA I did my bit to ed in GRAB-BAG, Ignatius's new col¬ try to turn off this juggernaut. I lection published by us." Can any¬ have published two articles in crit¬ one doubt that a Nebula for this icism of it; I have consistently vot¬ story -- actually written by a gen¬ ed "No Award" in every category; I erally unassuming author, so presum¬ have in recent years followed a pol¬ ably this was sent out without his icy of withdrawing any work of mine connivance -- will not help the that has looked as if it might come publisher?) within a mile of competing for the prize. (I have found the last an unpleasant thing to do, because it Incidentally, the free books sent out to SFWA members are now runs the risk of seeming an inverse institutionalised. At the end of way of drawing attention to yourself However, if the award exists, and 1979 a letter was sent to every SFWA member, prompting renewal of you oppose it, your opposition must be comprehensive.) membership for 1980. It included the following insight into the uni¬ Yet the Nebula is criticised at I find this attitude deeply of¬ verse: "If you're like me, the personal peril. Honourable men like fensive, not only to myself but to free books alone mount up to much Brian Aldiss and -- the other men and women who have more than the dues (and if you're whose integrity is beyond question -- spoken out. not getting many, try Nebula-nomin¬ have put plausible, impassioned cas¬ So the very existence of the ating and see how popular you get) es for its abolition, using words Nebula is divisive, engendering sus¬ -- and those lists, too, are taken like "crooked" to describe it, and picion, cynicism and hypocrisy. from our membership files." have either been ignored or their This could of course be argued about All this is harmless enough on motives have been impugned. Because any important award, but the Nebula the face of it, but the other well- the collective assumption is that is one inflicted on writers by writ- known fact about the Nebula is that the Nebula is per se a good thing, only a relatively few SFWA members it is further assumed that anyone bother to participate in either the who speaks out against it has some Moreover, it is a sham. It is nominations or the voting. To en¬ kind of underhand motive. To take wide open to corruption. Its man¬ sure a prize for any particular tit¬ two relatively recent examples: ner of working is cunfcersome and suspect. And although it was presum¬ le, all that is needed is a small In 1978, a well-known SF writer ably conceived for idealistic mot¬ swing in its favour. Authors who and former SFWA official said this: ives, it represents an incontrovert¬ have the nerve to draw attention to "(I suggest we) stop wasting time, ible dishonesty about the of one of their stories do often pick energy, and trees on debating changes such awards. up the prize. Books heavily touted in the Nebula rules. • We have 500 by publishers do indeed collect. members and 4 annual winners, there¬ That the Nebula has been cor¬ Any author wondering how to go fore 496 people will be dissatisfied rupted is an "open secret", one about launching an effective cam¬ with the results of any Nebula pro¬ freely acknowledged in private by paign should consult LOCUS 229. cedure." many people. Nothing can be proved, This contains a detailed article by In the last SFWA publication I 19 Norman Spinrad on this very subject. Award-grubbing has now become so tation, of accepted themes and id¬ A novel is defined as a work of commonplace that it is developing ioms and tropes, of unwritten rules fiction in excess of 40,000 words; into a science. and shorthand and jargon. a novella is between that and 17,500 words; a novelette is between 17,500 The manner in which the Nebula The best science fiction is, words and 7,500 words; a short story is worked from day to day is also and always has been, that which has is anything below 7,500 words. suspect, for different (but connect¬ broken with the idiom of the day, ed) reasons. that which has taken a few chances, If we assume that all these re¬ commended titles have a word length As the year proceeds, individual that which has stepped forward or titles are "recommended" by apparent¬ outside, that which enlarges and ad¬ at the minimum of their categories ly disinterested ordinary members. vances. We admire and remember or¬ (and the short stories are all, say, A "recommendation" is not intended iginality. 5,000 words long) then we can work out just how many words a voting to be a vote for the title, but is The worst science fiction is SFWA member will have to read. merely bringing it to the attention always that which is or of other members, suggesting they imaginatively borrowed. Bad SF is In the Novel category: read it for themselves. Those who secondhand SF. In short, SF writers 2,600,000 words. Novella: 210,000 "recommend" have their names at¬ are at their least original when words. Novelette: 390,000 words. tached to the story ... so it ap¬ they have been reading too much SF. Short story: 505,000 words. A pears democratic, open and above grand total, in fact, of 3,705,000 Yet here is a prize, the Nebula, suspicion. However, as the months words. tick by it becomes obvious that some which by its lights demands that This is roughly equivalent to titles are more popular than others, those SF writers who award it have as the "recommending" names accumul¬ read every science fiction novel in about forty novels of the same length ate. This de facto counting thus a year, every novella, every novel¬ as Ursula LeGuin's THE LEFT HAND OF turns the simple "recommendations" ette and every short story. DARKNESS. into nominating votes, encouraging It is, or should be, self-evi¬ Remember: These figures are interested parties (as opposed to disinterested ones) to campaign. (Mr. Hackenbacker's publishers are doubtless acutely aware that at this very moment, RAY-GUN RANCH is leading its category.)

Under old rules, this concealed nomination system was acknowledged by the fact that the works with the most "recommendations" went on to the final ballot. Under newly in¬ troduced rules, the SFWA committee has bowed to pressure and changed this. Now all stories with ncre than one or two recommendations are listed as the basis for a prelimin¬ ary vote to establish the composi¬ tion of the final voting form. Procedures can be changed, and in fact the Nebula rules change with the wind. They are irrelevant, dent that if anyone did read all the lowest possible estimates. They though, because no matter how much that science fiction in a year, he do not in any degree represent the the detailed rules are juggled, the or she would be incapable of telling total amount of fiction published. central objection to the whole sys¬ day from night, let alone be retain¬ tem cannot be denied. Can anyone claim to be able to ing a sense of literary perspective. read even this small sample of the That the Nebula was dreamed up And if an award made by writers year's output? from the highest motives is not is not based on literary principles, questioned, but now that it exists Can anyone claim to have read what other reason could there be? we can see that it is conceptually everything? (Never mind whether impossible to work. Anyone who casts a vote for a they should.) "best" work in a year is tacitly The idea is, of course, that the Can anyone who votes without saying that everything has been read. prize is awarded to a few writers reading everything not admit that Not just the titles listed on the by the majority verdict of their they are deceiving themselves, de¬ voting form ... everything. colleagues. It symbolises, in other ceiving -the authors, deceiving the words, the recognition of one's To give some idea of the scale readers? peers. If other science fiction of reading necessary in any one year, writers, the reasoning goes, think consider this: Most of what is in this article such-and-such story is the best of I have already said in SFWA circles, For the 1979 Nebula, the fol¬ the year, then surely it must be? either in the form of letters or lowing numbers of titles have been After all, they should know, etc., articles published in SFWA publica¬ recommended: NOVELS: 65. NOVEL¬ tions, or in direct correspondence LAS: 12. NOVELETTES: 52. SHORT with officials. So none of this The besetting sin of genre sci¬ STORIES: 101. (NB: These are just should be new to SFWA ears, and con¬ ence fiction is its inbred nature. the titles that have been singled sequently I feel free to bring it Since the creation of the SF pulp out; it is not by any means a count into the public forum. I was tempt¬ magazines, the history of SF has of everything published in 1979.) ed to resign quietly, just to let been one of imitation piled on imi¬ 20 SFWA drift away from my profession- al life as once I had drifted into fashionable word, of morality. At it, but I believe the collective times like these, SFWA became a SFWA mind is representative of an force for the good, extending an in¬ ITEMS OF important body of thought in the SF fluence far beyond the matters I world. SFWA stands for the lazy have been discussing here. INTEREST consensus view, the received idea, When SFWA fails in matters of the narrow mind. It is unadventur¬ the spirit, when it no longer keeps ous, unquestioning and distinctly the faith, it becomes a lapse that ODE TO BEN & HARLAN anti-radical. is keenly felt. It betrays the very The Imagi-Nation hears a cry Everything I have said here of people it was set up to represent. Of Victory! "We scotched their lie!" By indecision and inaction, by obei¬ course has opposing arguments, and The ripniks had to pay and fry. in SFWA circles they are often voic¬ sance to what it interprets as the "In FUTURE, COP no more such ed. safe consensus, by mistaking the works!" The BRILLOant team short-term gain for long-term strat¬ The defense of the membership chastised the jerks! egy, it allows standards to slide requirement, for instance, is the and principles to become sullied. — 4s J insular one of the "innate American- It condones the sham of the Nebula, ness" of science fiction ... an as¬ it punishes the heretic, it applauds sumption that is wrong and dangerous, the quick buck. both in practice and as an idea. The Lem Affair is best left undis¬ In the moral climate it has by cussed and avoided ... awkward and default helped create, the preening 'The soundtrack album for DESTINA¬ embarrassing business, that. The need for SFWA Suites becomes not TION MOON was released in 1950 along usual defense of the Nebula is that only accepted but inevitable. This with the film and since then has it makes a lot of money for those is the context in which authors been a valuable collector's item who win it. squabble with convention committees among sf fans. An excellent re-is- over their presumed status, in So ... does any of it matter? sue of the album has just been re¬ which grown men sulk because they I believe it does, although by con¬ leased by Varese Sarabande Records, haven't been given a paper hat to fining myself to three specific is¬ Inc., 1801 Avenue of the Stars, wear, in which big-heads become sues I have so far evaded what is Suite 640, Los Angeles, CA 90067. spokesmen. for me the central failure of SFWA. It was released, ironically, just a This is the failure of the spirit, If SFWA has not directly con¬ few weeks before the death of the and because this is a nebulous con¬ tributed to this decay of the spir¬ film's director, , and is cept, one for which neither arithme¬ it, then certainly it has not been a fitting tribute to him.' tic nor assertion will work, I have felt as a force that resists it. —James J.J. Wilson to approach it indirectly. This is its principal failure, and one to which it has never addressed In spite of the conservative itself. consensus, SFWA is not a monolithic entity, unchanging and unyielding. *************Aft**********Aft***Aft**** The committee changes personnel from '(Richard -- WATERSHIP DOWN -- year to year, and each new committee Adams' new book, GIRL ON A SWING, was sets out with an earnest attenpt to due out in mid-May. This was the improve matters. The writers who book I mentioned a few years ago become SFWA officers usually put in which Adams said would be a break¬ a year's hard service of thankless through in erotic bestsellerdom. labour. They are rarely unrespon¬ So far as I can gather it's a myst¬ sive to criticism, although the re¬ ery with super-natural overtones. sponse too often is sympathy rather Why mention it? Well, a week before than action. Even the Nebula has publication, fast and furious let¬ often gone to deserving works, with¬ ters from the publishers demanded out coercion. the return of every book. It won't In recent years, SFWA has scor¬ now be out till October. They said ed two major victories, neither of it was the binding ... but some¬ which can be gainsaid, but the nat¬ how, nowadays, I don't trust such ure of these victories should be benevolent removal of books ...)' clearly understood. In the first case, SFWA, alone of all writers' -Ian Covell organisations, stood in the face of a pernicious new contract dreamed up by Pocket Books, one of the major American paperback publishers, and "I weary unto death of this endless it won. It won too when it confront¬ caterwalling about 'quality' fiction ed Ace Books, whose former owners vs. 'commercial' fiction. The truth had been getting their royalty cal¬ about fiction is there are different culations wrong for a number of years audiences for fiction, and each audi ence commands different types or lev These victories were tactical: els of fiction. Within each type the outcome of professional writers of fiction skill and art in writing acting in concert for the common can be objectively superb—or terr¬ good. They required expertise and ible...in Juveniles, pulp-level, or skill. intellectual/symbol pieces.' But in addition they required -A.L. Terego the nebulous sense of the spirit, of principle, and, to use an un¬ OTHER VOICES

A STONE IN HEAVEN By Poul Anderson Ace Books Reviewed by Elton T. Elliott

A STONE IN HEAVEN is the cap¬ The series was not written in stone story in the Saga of Dominic chronological order. 'Tiger by the Flandry. Tail" was the first Flandry story published (in the Jan. 1951 issue of The Flandry books, of which ).ENSIGN FLANDRY there are six others (ENSIGN FLAND¬ (Chilton, 1966), was the first epi¬ RY, FLANDRY OF TERRA, AGENT OF THE sode in Flandry's career. A very TERRAN EMPIRE -- available from Ace helpful chart is supplied at the -- and currently out-of-print; THE back of A STONE IN HEAVEN. REBEL WORLDS, A CIRCUS OF HELLS and A KNIfflT OF (HOSTS AND SHADOWS), Flandry's depth and complexity have to rank among the most popular as a character has grown with Ander¬ question and weigh all the answers, of the seventy-five-plus books that son’s ability as a writer. Flandry because no matter which one he picks Anderson has written. is far from the rakish, devil-may- he will sacrifice a part of his life. And it is part of the brilliance of The stories are in the same Fu¬ care hedonist of the early tales; Anderson as a writer that the choice ture History series as that of an¬ he is, by the time of A STONE IN will in the end feel like most of other of Anderson's popular charac¬ HEAVEN, a mature discerning intel¬ the choices we have to make in our ters -- Nicholas van Rijn. This lectual with a slightly fatalistic own lives: bittersweet at best. series, commonly called the Technic view of his civilization and a start¬ Civilization, begins with the out¬ lingly sober assessment of his part In A STONE IN HEAVEN Flandry burst of humanity from Terra's sys¬ in keeping it alive. This reflects rides to the rescue -- literally -- tem following the discovery of an Anderson's perception of the series. to save a planet from the designs FTL drive. Gradually a trade organ¬ What started out as little more than of a would-be dictator. The story¬ ization, the Polesotechnic League, slapstick adventure for PLANET STOR¬ line is understated and Flandry is is developed to regulate interstel¬ IES has now become an arena for a shown as an elder agent on the verge lar commerce. The Nicholas van Rijn serious look at society in the fut¬ of retirement who is ostensibly an stories take place near the end of ure, as well as our world today and advisor to the emperor. And at the this period. Finally, the League in the past. end of the book Flandry finally finds breaks up and Earth itself is invad¬ Terra and Merseia in this con¬ in Miriam Abrams (daughter of his ed by aliens. This period is known text stand as symbols for present- first military commander) somebody as the Time of Troubles. Finally, day U.S.A. and Russia, or if that with whom he can settle down and humans win out and a more autocrat¬ parallelism sticks in your craw, spend the remaining years of his ic form of government, the Terran try the Eastern Roman Empire and life. But the normally romantic and Empire, is bom. Sassanid Persia. Anderson has adopt¬ carefree Flandry is quite serious and almost somber when he tells her: The Terran Empire, however, is ed some of John K. Hord's views (the only a faint shadow of the former book is dedicated to him) on the cy¬ human coalitions before the Time of clic or spiral-like nature of the "Let's be honest with each oth¬ Troubles. The Polesotechnic League future. This view is quasi-Spengler- er, always. We're not a boy operated over a sphere of roughly ian in that it does not attenpt to and girl in love. We're both 800 light years, whereas the Terran draw the same tight parallels as a little old, more than a lit¬ Empire claims control of a sphere Spengler did, although it does allow tle sad, and friends. But we about 400 light years in size. The for the future reflecting the basic make one crackling hell of a main obstacle standing in the way of patterns of the past. The above team. A pity if we disbanded. expansion is the aggressive alien should not be taken to mean that Would you like to continue?" Anderson has neglected the derring- lizard-like race, the Merseians. In A STONE IN HEAVEN Anderson do that made past Flandry titles so The Merseians were a race that hu¬ answers the question of individual exciting; these extra dimensions of mans helped during the Polesotechnic responsibility. The answer is: with concern only add depth and spice to days. Now, however, they are human¬ dignity and (in Flandry's case es¬ Sir Dominic's cloak and laser ad¬ ity's sworn enemies, determined to pecially), a dash of panache. eradicate all Terrans. It is dur¬ ventures . Several words about the book it¬ ing the latter days of the Terran A STONE IN HEAVEN, like the re¬ self. My edition is a trade paper¬ Empire that Dominic Flandry is bom. cent books in the series, does deal back (6 by 9 inches) printed on easy- with one basic question of human na¬ The situation by the time he be¬ to-read white paper, with a beauti¬ ture, one especially important to a gins his service is this: if the ful cover by and man like Flandiy. The question is, Merseians win, the Ear.th will be chock full of nicely-done illustra¬ where does a person's prime respons¬ catapulted into something called tions by Estaban Moroto. The news¬ ibility lie: to himself, to others the Long Night, which will make the stand paperback edition ought to be near him, or to society as a whole. Time of Troubles seem like a taffy out by the time you read this, but Before Flandry undertakes any adven¬ pull in comparison. Flandry becomes buy the trade if you can; the illus¬ ture he has to ask himself this a secret agent whose job it is to trations have mare inpact on the protect the "Pax Terra" at all costs. 22 larger page. This larger edition also has an Afterword by Sandra Mie- la is also a Martian and a . and is slowly dying from cancer, us¬ sel, and like all of her essays, it Bom in Novo Mars colony, Sabella ing pain pills to maintain her ac¬ adds depth and enjoyment to the book is brought up in isolation by her tive life; J.T. Clayton, non-relig¬ or books she discusses. mother, who suspects Sabella's prom¬ ious, raises cotton and operates a ************************************ iscuity and the reason for so many still on the side; Warner Fox disap¬ deaths in their neighborhood before pears completely, leaving no scent they escape. A bequest from Sabel¬ for Sheriff Perry's dogs. His aban¬ la 's aunt, another neurotic with re¬ doned car is found in a driveway ligious blues, drives Sabella out of with driver's door hanging open, DAUGTTER OF THE BRItHT MOON isolation to claim the money and to keys in it, plus a hat, a pearl-hand¬ By meet the Vincent brothers. Sand and led revolver and a case of expensive Ace, 13876-4; c.1979; 1st Ace print¬ Jace. Sand, a parasite, attempts to ladies' clothing, although he is un¬ ing/trade edition, July '79; 1st disclose what Sabella is, but falls married. A shot has been fired, so mass market edition, Feb, '80; il- in love with her and dies of it -- the suspicion is murder. los by Steve Fabian; 410 pp., $2.25. literally: since Sabella prefers to Gaynell Moore, secretary to Dr. kill while making love. Jace, how¬ Reviewed by Steve Lewis Taylor, comes from a very strict re¬ ever, is another of Tanith Lee's ligious order: The women wear drab, dark-haired, golden-skilled and very Make no mistake about it, this high-necked, mid-calf-length dres¬ masterful heroes who Understands ev¬ is not a science fiction. It is ses, black cotton hose, flat-heeled erything, like Rarm Zavid in THE straightforward swords-and-sorcery shoes and no makeup, perfume or jew¬ BIRTHGRAVE or a cross between a sex¬ fantasy -- with slightly more emph¬ elry. She is carrying Warner Fox's asis on the sorcery, if you will. ual virtuoso and a Heinlein individ¬ baby and now he's disappeared. Her ual with a fondness for Aubrey Beard¬ Its main character is a heroine nam¬ strict father will whip her to death sley. ed Rifkind, a warrior and a healer if he finds out. He has already giv¬ whose telepathic powers are still What Jace knows about Sabella en her a vicious strapping for "in¬ growing. Her people, a desert clan, and helps her understand comes subordination". have all been killed. She is on straight from Leigh Brackett's Mars The visitation has strange re¬ her own, forced to find her own and THE SECRET OF SINHARAT: Sabel¬ destiny. sults : Stella becomes a healer of la 's family are not just living on serious diseases; Miss Mattie, the Aha, comic book stuff, Mars; they are Martians of the old, busybody, becomes a leader to whom true race. you say. Not so. It happens that nobody can say "no" and J.T. can no her allegiance falls on the side of As in DON'T BITE THE SUN and longer tell a lie if questioned. a political conflict that is fight¬ DRINKING SAPPHIRE WINE, Lee shows All these talents lead to strange ing to save the throne from the herself the mistress of a breezy, and life-changing consequences to wiles of a sorcerer named An-Soren. ironic first-person style that does¬ many. The hefty middle portion of the book n't hide the torment of the speak¬ Cousin Edith Alexander lets consists of long winter months as er: Sabella is wretched throughout Misses Mattie and Eunice, whom she she tries to perfect her disguise most of the book and it shows. At has never met, know she's coming for as a lady of the court. The humor its. end, a happier woman speaks. a visit and arrives with enough cloth¬ of the situation could have been She is satiated, dominated ... and ing for a prolonged stay. She has played up. It is not. It is all yet, she is still restless and still a high, nervous titter and yellow, very serious business. It is also plotting. So, apparently, is Tanith shifty eyes -- always she insists on not mere idle swordplay. Lee. accompanying Miss Mattie on her many Rifkind has a ruby An-Soren de¬ ************************************ errands and visits. Another strange sires, and her powers derived from thing about Cousin Edith: She does¬ it are still increasing, at times n't know how to operate scissors, nearly out of control. Here the pins or can-openers.' comic book character, Dr. Strange, is THE VISITATION Gaynell's pregnancy has now instead the one who comes to mind, By Elna Stone started to show. The father, Warner he who can pull a needed spell out Jacket Design by Manny Paul Fox, is still missing, presumed dead. of his ever-ready stockpile of spec¬ St. Martin's Press, 1980, Hardback She is to be courted by her father- ial incantations at a moment's not¬ 314 pp., $11.95 chosen-beau this evening. As Dr. ice. So also with Rifkind. Reviewed by Paulette Minare' Taylor is out of the office, she But so also does her conscious¬ takes a bottle of sleeping pills out ness grow, and her conscience, and The author of THE VISITATION, a of his desk drawer, hoping he won't it makes what could have been a lifetime Southerner herself, vivid¬ miss them for tonight, at least. dreary tale much more greatly bear¬ ly portrays the characters and local Then she goes home to -- not what able. What she learns the hard way conventions of the people of Lanier, you think! about friendship and mutual respect Alabama, 1947. There is a second on page 406, for example, is a para¬ The protagonist, Stella Lidell, landing with further unexpected de¬ dox such as all life is filled with. velopments . For this particular subcategory of a highschool teacher, is one of four people who encounter a spacecraft a fantasy fiction, here's a better Was this spaceship landing an mile and a half from town as it is than average example. experiment? Why in Lanier? ************************************ landing in a cotton patch, bathing the surroundings in red light. None This book has much love inter¬ of the four can remember anything est (not Victorian), much suspense about that hour when they entered and many interesting characters. SABELLA: OR THE BLOOD STONE the spacecraft. There is never a dull moment; you By Tanith Lee will not want to put this book down DAW Books, paper, 157 pp., $1.75 As for the three others involv¬ once you have begun reading it. Af¬ ed: Miss Mattie Shepard, a widow Reviewed by Susan M. Shwartz ter reading this book, I am anxious and highly religious town busybody to read Elna Stone's first book, THE lives with her sister, Miss Eunice, Sabella is a neurotic nynpho- VISIONS OF ESMAREE. maniacal and a Jesus junkie. Sabel¬ 23 ************************************ THE MONITOR, THE MINERS AND THE SHREE personality transfers of deceased TIMESCAPE By Lee Killough brains for "tripping" purposes. Man By Gregory Benford Del Rey/Ballantine, 1980, 214 pp. tries to regain lost (dead) love Simon § Schuster, $13.95 $1.95 through a drug-taker (the latter a surrogate for his dead lover). Reviewed by Dean R. Lambe Strangely credible. Is it really appropriate for Ms. Killough's output has always The characters are spent, ex¬ science fiction to be about science? been a peg above simple entertain¬ hausted neurotics, yet they command Ever since Hugo Gemsback, someone's ment, and her third time at bat for interest. One is a glazed-over fan¬ been arguing over whether the first the Del Reys is a home run. Despite atic who opts for cult-suicide. She word in "science fiction" is any¬ her overfondness for "em" sounds was once a talented and charged art¬ thing but an honorific, or -- in and a title that would be awkward ist -- now she "exists" as disembod¬ Alexei and Cory Panshin's book -- even with the right number of com¬ ied brain-cells. Another is a drab, a curse. Gregory Benford has been mas, this story of alien culture enpty being without a self, whose known to straddle that line himself, shock and "Earthman's Burden" is low self-esteem leads to futility declaring himself a "hard science very fine indeed. and compliance, but fails to hide a fiction" writer, a menber of a class gut-charm and respectability. The of which there are no members, since Chemel Krar, young planetary third is a man trying to resurrect fantasy is essential, requiring Monitor for the multi-species galac¬ the dead. A hunted, haunted soul fancy footwork to cover over the tic Sodality's Department of Surveys with asthma who uses brute force to questions science cannot (yet) an¬ and Charters, heads a team of scien¬ slake his drives. swer. tists on the planet Nira. For cen¬ turies, the Sodality has protected Sounds hideous -- but it's not. But being a practicing physicist Nira's proto-sentient race of flying These are people; their less-than- and a conscientious artist, concern¬ hexapods from exploitation, and Chem¬ human characteristics evoke -- if ed with the knowledge won from ex¬ el 's team returns to a hidden obser¬ not pity -- bizarre intrigue. De¬ perience, Benford has tried at times vation post to update data on the finitely readable (style is reminis¬ to make science central to his fic¬ bat-like Shree. When the research cent of William F. Nolan...). tion, almost to the point of exclud¬ team is attacked, Chemel becomes is¬ ing the fantasy altogether. Only a olated from her colleagues, and re¬ careful reading reveals that "White alizes with horror that Sodality di¬ Creatures" (NEW DIMENSIONS 5) actu¬ rectives have been violated. Not ally has a future setting, and only has a mining corporation il¬ changes outside the obsessions of legally plundered the mineral wealth its central character. The forth¬ of Nira, but the miners have been coming "Exposures" is almost entire- guilty of cultural interference with ly limited to the speculative hypo¬ tion. Cambridge is beset by short¬ that turns out to involve the risk theses of its narrator's internal ages -- of food, electricity, raw of everybody's future. monologue. materials, law and order -- but the academic middle class is surviving, All of this is treated with lov¬ Benford has relied on hard in a civilized, barely flappable ing, sensuous detail, much of it science in previous novels, too. way. Signs of the times include taken from life. A physics profes¬ But they were all space opera, to a squatters occupying deserted homes, sor at U.C. Irvine, Benford is fam¬ greater or lesser extent, involved the new King playing down his coro¬ iliar with both Cambridge, where with planetary exploration ( nation ceremony, John Renfrew accom¬ he has taught and studied, and La PROJECT), conmunication with aliens panying his son on a father-son mer¬ Jolla, where he was a graduate stu¬ (IN THE OCEAN OF NIGHT, IF THE STARS cury-scavenging hunt through the dent at the time of the novel. Num¬ ARE GODS), even interspecies warfare erous real-life scientists make cam¬ city's sewers. (THE STARS IN SHROUD, nee DEEPER eo appearances, including Benford THAN THE DARKNESS) . All take place The most serious threat, a new and his brother (under another name) far enough away to make the science cloud-borne life form resulting from and a headline-hunting send-up of almost a curiosity, fantastic data ocean pollution, is officially known Carl Sagan. from alien sources which barely to very few beyond the Emergency inpinges on the here and now. Council, whose efforts to fight on The imaginary details are also all fronts at once both the causes in place, however, from Bernstein's At moments, a character might and effects of the past's profligacy confrontations with his mother and stop and reflect, taking time out family over living with a shiksa, from other adventures to actually do seem doomed. But that Renfrew's tachyon experiment is worth support¬ to Peterson's fulfilling long-laid some science, observing, hypothes¬ ing is agreed by Council menber Ian plans to survive the catastrophe on izing, testing, before he had a re¬ Peterson and visiting American phys¬ his family's country estate. But sult worth announcing. For some icist Gregory Markham, who seek help central to the book is the recur¬ readers, this slowed up the action, from British, American and Continen¬ rent experience of doing science, in as in, for exanple, IN THE OCEAN OF the laboratory, in the classroom, tal sources. Crossing paths in the NIGHT. But in TIMESCAPE this is the laboratory and elsewhere, they are in the colloquim, in the board room action, in so far as it departs from not all-consumed by the experiment; and especially in the mind. living in the real world with all they also live their own lives and of its demands and distractions. make their own plans, some of which Science is not a swashbuckling come to naught. adventure, but an intellectual ac¬ The science fiction of TIMESCAPE tivity, and one in which a single is, loosely speaking, time travel, The situation in La Jolla, thir¬ flash of revelation may lead to end¬ complete with paradoxes, both poten¬ ty-six years earlier, seems contrast¬ less philosophical repercussions and tial and actual. Technically, it's ing in the extreme. America has even mystical overtones, but seldom time communication, by means of a before a thousand obstacles, rebuffs, just entered the Sixties (the book's technique that's dramatically plaus¬ action starts in 1962, making 1980 a distractions, wrong turnings and ible but theoretically inpossible. midpoint between its two presents), after-the-fact reservations. For Scientists in Cambridge, England ebulliently optimistic. Nowhere is all of its vaunted teamwork, science (1998) try to bombard indium anti- it more so than at the La Jolla is also an essentially solitary act¬ nomide in La Jolla, California ivity, like life: in TIMESCAPE the campus of the University of Californ¬ (1963), with tachyons, theoretical ia (now UC San Diego), madly recruit¬ "community of scholars" continually particles that can only travel fast¬ ing science faculty, with Nobel threatens to turn into a school of er than light, hence backwards in prizewinners seemingly around every sharks, just as the traditionally time, directed in space to where comer. sought-after "love of a good woman" Earth was at the target time. Suc¬ can be transformed into a model of cess is urgent, since life, or at Heady with this atmosphere, Gor¬ miscommunication. least civilization, is threatened don Bernstein is an Assistant Pro¬ The result is a thoroughly en¬ by a biochemical reaction that might fessor of Physics, dependent on the grossing novel, about interesting be reversible before it gets start¬ good graces of senior faculty not and real-seeming people, in an in¬ ed, i.e. "if only we knew then what only for tenure and promotion, but tellectually and emotionally charg¬ we know now". also for research grant support and approval. A recent arrival from New ed setting, or pair of settings. Doesn't sound promising? Sounds York, Gordon is also taken with the At the least, it's the best science like an interminable lecture? Like hedonism and eccentricity of South¬ fiction novel since A CANTICLE FOR one of a dozen past novels of eco- ern California, most blatantly em¬ LEIBOWITZ, but there really is no tastrophe? Or a story in which a bodied by his live-in girl friend, precedent for TIMESCAPE in science nameless technician discovers a but he is not conpletely emancipated fiction. The closest competition strange message, precipitating a from his ethnic and geographic roots. outside science fiction, the novels successful rescue by some equival¬ of C.P. Snow, are no match for Ben¬ ent of the U.S. Cavalry coming over Bernstein is the reluctant re¬ ford in vision or style. If Simon the rise? It's nothing of the kind, cipient of Renfrew's inexplicable and Schuster and Gollancz are at any of those kinds. and garbled message, for which he all successful in marketing it as must fight for acceptance and inter¬ general fiction, it should be the What Benford has done to spot¬ pretation, against the weight of the next big book about which people light this action is to write a full- scientific establishment and the pub¬ will say "This can't be science fic- fledged novel about people who live, licized wrong guesses of well-mean¬ who make love, who fight for their ing colleagues and competitors. identity and survival, in the con¬ Against the background of rising cul¬ text of doing for a living an intel¬ tural malaise (American "advisors" lectually obsessing activity known are in Vietnam, Goldwater conserva¬ as science, with all of the attend¬ tism is rising, the counterculture ant politics of the scientific com¬ is just getting off the ground), Gor¬ munity, past and future. don risks his future for the sake of The people of 1998 are, under¬ a puzzle that won't go away, and standably, on the edge of despera¬ 25 THE FANTASY ALMANAC related, then catalogued as to UNISAVE By Jeff Rovin source. Unfortunately, there are a By Axel Madsen Published by Elsevier-Dutton Pub¬ number of fictional lands and char¬ Ace Books, $1.95 lishing Co., Inc., 2 Park Avenue, acters as well as those of more prob¬ New York, NY, 10016, U.S.A. able existence which could be men¬ Reviewed by Renfrew Pemberton 1979, 312 pp., $9.95, U.S.A. tioned but are not. I am thinking $12.95 Canada of Roger Zelazny's Amber, Marion Zim¬ Ordinarily I would not bother to trash this turkey. But Ace had Reviewed by W. Ritchie Benedict mer Bradley's Darkover, the Seven Cities of Cibola and even Sherlock the temerity to advertise it, full- page, in LOCUS, and that kind of If I were a psychologist (which I Holmes and Watson. As Mr. Rovin is still in his twenties perhaps the sheer arrogance calls for a little am not), I would be tempted to call judicious retaliation. this a very archetypical book. An predominance of movies and TV is archetype, for all those not ac¬ thereby explained. Or, it may be Let me say a good word for the quainted with the works of Dr. Carl that he is saving some for a sequel. cover. It looks interesting, thus Jung -- an associate of Sigmund After all, if you are a beginning promising story interest. Unfor¬ Freud --is sinply a universal fig¬ writer or anthologist, it makes tunately, through no fault of its ure who is recognized by cultures sense not to put everything into own, the cover lies. your first book, as if it is a suc¬ everywhere -- whether a hero-type I don't know what the title such as Captain Kirk of STAR TREK cess you will want enough material means, because throughout 260+ pages or a repressed nightmare such as for a second book or even a third. no one ever explains it. The prob¬ the creatures in some of H.P. Love- lem is, of all surprising things, craft's horror tales. Ancient myth¬ As an example of a typical entry consider the following: overpopulation. The dreaded but ap¬ ology is full of these figures, as parently inevitable solution is "VARNEY (L) -- The vampire feat¬ are many modem science fiction, "gericide". The, protagonist's con¬ ured in Thomas Preskett Prest's mas¬ fantasy and occult works. The names sort is illegally pregnant. Nobody sive 868 page novel, VARNEY THE VAM¬ and the faces may change, but the seems to have any good answers. PIRE or THE FEAST OF BLOOD (1847). underpinnings remain the same. (Are you bored? I was, imnediate- Written before DRACULA, VARNEY THE I cannot help but feel that per¬ VAMPIRE is a story of Sir Francis ly. This is the worst book I have ever read all the way through. My haps this book is a bit too ambit¬ Varney. With eyes that resemble ious for its size as it attemps to 'polished tin' and teeth 'hideous¬ reason is that I became utterly fas¬ cinated about seeing how much worse cover classical mythology, folklore, ly, glaringly white and fang-like'. it could get. My fascination paid horror, history, science fiction, Varney is so emaciated as to be al¬ off.) fantasy, comics, motion pictures most skeletal. After 220 chapters and television, and literature in of bloodletting, the fiend dies by The prose is hard to believe. just 310 pages. However, if it is tumbling into the yawning crater of I quote two excerpts from a page intended as a general overview of Mt. Vesuvius. See: DRACULA: Vam¬ opened at random. "Their minds flut¬ the whole field, I must admit that pire." tered around each other like butter¬ in this context it is most interest¬ flies while he told her about the I found that the real oddities ing and entertaining. Every school Bo Lim interview he had just seen such as the above provided the most library should have one instead of on the 0800 news. Jammu himself interest for me personally rather those rather stuffy texts on ancient had tooled out to the skyport at than run-downs on shows like THE gods and mythology. There is per¬ dawn to greet the new man". AND, haps a danger in confusing younger FLYING NUN, which is within recent "They looked at each other and she readers by combining actual authors memory and a not-particularly dis¬ thought of her husband, of how much and film directors, creatures such tinguished example of pop culture. Tunde had taken from her in the end. as the Saskquatch and Loch Ness mons¬ The black and white illustra¬ Tok and she were also a way of heal¬ ter which could be real, along with tions serve to highlight the text ing, a way of putting the past be¬ totally fictional creatures as hob¬ but are of only average quality. hind her. Their love was not only bits and snarks. One thing that is potentially very sweet, unsuspected cravings and mu¬ Each entry is cross-indexed for useful is the distilling of these tual regards, but a curious new easy reference and others that are myths down to crisp concise termin¬ gravity". ology so that you thereby might gain What you can't see from the mere an instant recognition of what they quotes is that it doesn't make any are all about. sense in context either. It is, in One is constantly struck by the a word, blather. Because none of imaginative capacity of the human the purple prose is ever explained. mind that has allowed itself the The protagonist's name is Tok freedom to develop all these ideas, Sort; the name leads off the first most of which have no real existence. page. On the second we see the There are a number of creatures in names (but no meaningful identifica¬ this book that I would not care to tion along story lines) Tunde, Iyabo, meet on a dark night while walking Misha Sev, Sal, Zeke Dua and Soong. alone through a deserted wood. That's merely for starters; stick Despite the flaws in its develop¬ around. ment, this book provides useful re¬ I'd like, before we get to the ferences for other writers and is entertaining to dip into. I rather joyous topic of The Author's Favor¬ hope we will be hearing more from ite Word (no, not that one), to treat Mr. Rovin in the future, as he shows you to some more of his incomparable much promise as an encyclopaedist. nomenclature when it comes to char¬ acters. Do consider that Soong is ft*********************************** Soong Ast; notEKikki, while "Zeke Dua was still meeting with President 26 Hoo" and Sal Belem is elsewhere. Quickly jot down that Ank and Ise THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK are apparently someone's offstage By Donald Glut (based on a story by children, and that Sal (Belem) has ). Ballantine-Del Rey, "his ubiquitous deputee, Nilo". 214 pp., $2.25, paper. Deputee, yes. Jammu (remember Jam¬ ISBN: 0-345-28392-9. LC 80-80518 mu?) is Jammu Nagpur. Oh, hell, Gil Por, Patel Nobu, Professor Las, Reviewed by Susan M. Shwartz "old Javan", Vernon or Sarah Akham- anova (oops, the ref is to two per¬ When the Empire strikes back sons) , and Ro Twer and lyabo Att and at Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Prin¬ Nasiba Riss and Flo Hoo (wife of cess Leia and all the other charac¬ the President Hoo) -- and for Pete's ters of George Lucas' STAR WARS, it sake, Madsen! strikes, you might say, with a ven¬ geance. THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, But now we reach the magic based on Lucas' characters and story point (page 31) with a quote that (and on Leigh Brackett's draft of should stun you while it introduces the script), is action-adventure, you to the Author's Favorite Word: fast-pacing and special-effects all "Today's UN was not nationalism mul¬ the way. Unlike the first book and tiplied by a couple of hundred nat¬ film, which were affectionate parod¬ ion-states; it was not world govern¬ ies of the pulp tradition, THE EM¬ ment but world symbiosis. And eco¬ PIRE STRIKES BACK attempts to revive systems were not neat overlays of the grand, tacky sweep of space op- former countries. Homogenization, which had made everybody look like In this story, which begins on premordial Hawaiians, had erased tribalism and the colonies had giv¬ an icy rebel Base, Luke Skywalker en a merged humanity a focus and a (Commander Skywalker, one should future". *P*R*E*M*0*R*D*I*A*L* and say) is much more aware of his re¬ sponsibilities and shortcomings. upon you I defecate not; from this shock effects. For myself, I do, point the word haunts the text, sel¬ Still desiring to be a Jedi like his father, he by-passes rendezvous with and I was reading just as happily as dom in a way that would make sense I expect -- after May 21 -- to be with correct spelling. Fifty times, the scattered Rebel fighters in fav¬ or of a quest to the Planet Dagobah munching popcorn in movie theatres I betcha, the author socked "premor¬ while I watch Luke battling it out dial" in there, and neither the ed¬ where he meets and studies with Yo- da, eight-hundred-year-old teacher with lightsabers and making a death- itor nor the copy-editor fixed it, defying leap away from Darth Vader even once. The word appears to mean, of the Jedi. Yoda has a low opin¬ ion of Luke: He is too impulsive, -- and all the other amiable goodies in the author's mind, anything that Lucas has clearly supplied. occurred before page one of this too emotional, and too old (!) to book; there are premordial U.S. pol¬ begin Jedi training, but he is over¬ THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK isn’t itical parties mentioned, and even ruled by the diseirbodied spirit of just pulp-adventure; it's trying to premordial television. (I know you Cbi-Wan Kenobi. While in training, be significant. I'm not sure it think I must be kidding, but I'm Luke discovers in himself a danger¬ succeeds, but it certainly has fun not.) ous affinity for the dark side of trying. the Force. ************************************ In the name of mercy, let's cut this short, here. Well, here come Han and the Princess set off Egi Tsu and Ann Shita and Rani Ma- from the besieged Base and wind up zure (deceased) and Bamal spheres on the cloud city of Bespin, which and Zad Gran and Viv Bord and Dal is capably administered by Lando Far and Nilo Dor (who must be the Calrissian, one of Han's old part¬ CHARISMA deputee we noted earlier; I forget). ners in crime, and former owner of By Michael Coney Eti Par, Fel, Lim ... This kind of the MILLENNIUM FALCON. Amid the Dell, 11404; c. 1975; 1st pub. in mess is too easy to bushwhack, if usual wisecracks and insults, back¬ UK by Victor Goliancz Ltd; 1st U.S. one has time to do so. ed by appropriate howls and hoots printing, Dec. 1979; 250 pp., $1.95 from Chewbacca, Han, the Princess The crux is that this schmeer and Lando engage in some prelimin¬ Reviewed by Steve Lewis goes for 260+ pages and has exact¬ ary sparring and mild romance before ly two scenes that carry any excite¬ we discover that Darth Vader has in¬ Even though research into tem¬ ment at all. One is about two- timidated Calrissian into turning poral phenomena is still in its in¬ thirds of the way through and the Han over to a bounty hunter, the fancy, the nature of parallel worlds other is quite near the ending. infamous Boba Fett. being what it is, it is a reasonably These two scenes give me to think safe conclusion that the only chance that Madsen isn't hopeless if peop¬ Meanwhile, sensing this parsecs a human being might have to travel le wouldn't buy his stuff without away on Dagobah, Luke interrupts from one to another would occur when editing it. his training at a critical moment his corresponding double in the oth¬ and goes racing to their rescue, Toward the end, but not quite er world is no longer alive. There only to discover .... close enough to it, the big problem are standard theories of time trav¬ is solved. But the only surprising el, and almost all of them say that thing about the solution is that To tell more would be to give it is impossible to travel backwards somebody didn't come up with it by away what Lucas and Glut obviously in time to meet yourself. It fol¬ about page eight. hope are the great Surprises in the lows that the same would hold true plot. Whether or not these are Sur¬ when passing from one alternative I've read worse science fiction prises depends on whether you like universe to another. short stories; two, at least, maybe action/adventure, sentimentality There is an immediate corollary. three. But never a worse SF novel. that verges on total bathos, and Even premordially. If the girl you are in love with on ************************************ 27 one world has died, she may still be alive on another. And, just may¬ was this done and where did they be, when you find her, she may be had e "go"? able to return with you back to Horace DeSilvier, tall, ageless, What was the power of the sexy your original world. The nature of athletic, handsome and well-dressed, receptionist, Maryette Hubley, se¬ the time flow being what it is, how¬ poised and confident, paid his em¬ cretly the Vodun "mambo" or priest¬ ever, there is an irresistible tend¬ ployees handsomely, and demanded they ess? What was the hideous secret of ency for overall history to merge embrace Horace's religion, Vodun, (an the third floor? into a single pattern. This will be up-dated Voodoo), of which Horace was so, even if individual events never Spirit forces. Van Cerf learned, the houngan, or a priest. conpletely match up in a single one- called "loas" were able to possess to-one correspondence. The implic¬ Mysteriously at first to Van worshippers at compulsory Saturday ations are sobering. If you die on Cerf, each work day the employees evening services. Other spirit- one world, that will be your event¬ went for two hours to meditation in forces were prayed to and used in ual fate on every other world. And a room called a "houmfor". various ways; for instance, "loup- of course, the same applies to the garous" or "bakas", for good or evil. woman you love. Fate is destined In time Van Cerf began the same Nobody every left the DeSilvier to catch up with you both. It can¬ practice of meditating in the "houm¬ Corporation family. Van Cerf found, not be tenpted. for", a dimly-lit, incense-perfumed prayer room, containing pews, altar, and he later began to realize that And so, this exercise into an statuettes, a cross entwined with he, his son, and his co-worker/in¬ infinitude of parallel worlds re¬ colored beads and lighted candles. tended bride, Connie, were in dire sults in a perfect example of the danger through the houngan's powers, dreaded star-crossed romance. More Haiti's principal faith is Voo- with intention to use them for his than that, it is also a detective own expected immortality. stops complete with a quietly ef¬ There is only one thing which ficient detective-inspector who al¬ may lend an of low-quality to ways gets his man by the end of the yt/p jvst whT. the book -- liberally scattered book. Y

BY THE EDITOR

THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK (pg) is an even better picture that STAR WARS. It has more pace, more wonders, more of an underlying theme-made- clear. The cable that now holds these pictures together is the personi¬ fication of Evil—Darth Vader— and his Good opponents—Luke Sky- walker, Obi Wan Kenobi and other (not necessarily human) Jedi Knights. But Luke has special meaning for Darth Vader...there is a here¬ tofore hidden relationship I won't reveal. All through the picture we are given large portions of what we want: much bandinage with the ro¬ The monster infants are never shown bots, a lot of the Wookie, Hans So¬ the Star Wars movies of the future clearly—brief flashes, partial.views, lo, the Princess-many alien ---as long as George Lucas is in etc., and most of the violence is off- creatures and alien intelligents, control. camera. No sex. No nudity. and lots of evil Vader as he pur¬ And shit—now I have to wait sues relentlessly Luke Skywalker. probably two years for the next The acting in both films is conpe- The wonders are many and some Star Wars film! tent, and Sharon Farrell in the first, mindblowing: the small alien goblin/ as the mother, and Jchn Marley as a gnome who turn out to be--- The govt, agent/father of a previous mon¬ sky city....the horrible freezing ster in the second film are good. method using carbon that puts Hans The last scene on the second film Solo in an eternal stasis.... sets up a second sequel if Larry Cohen, From the opening sequences on the writer/director/producer of the it's alive (r) Hoth, the ice planet where Luke is first two decides to go ahead. The it's alive again (r) almost eaten by an animal of huge second film, IT’S ALIVE AGAIN is the is a continuing saga of mediocre better of the two, but since they're size and ferocity...to the final horror films, concerning a series of incredible escape from the air¬ paired in a double feature, you're mutated infants bom to a savage, forced to see both. They'll be on borne city....from his sojourn clawed, fanged tenplate. Ordinary late-night TV in a few years, so keep on a jungle planet to learn more young mothers give birth to these these comments in the back of your about the Force...to the wild escape monsters for no apparent reason. mind. through the asteroid field (and the These "human" babies sense dang¬ brief respite of Hans, the Wookie er to themselves and attack with in¬ and the Princess in a large aster¬ tent to kill those intent on killing oid tunnel that turns out to be...). or hurting their survival. They Ahh, I can't tell you. This slash a lot of throats. They are movie moves so fast, is filled with extraordinarily strong. ALMOST HUMAN (r) so many delights for a SF fan/read¬ IT’S ALIVE AGAIN (originally is a ripoff, a con; er, and is so well done that to tell IT’S ALIVE 2) continues the premise the advertising shows a humanoid face about it is a disservice. SEE IT! of the first movie...only this time with unhumanly large eyes. The blurb There are a few grunches: I the father of the first monster is says: THERE IS A REASON FOR EVERY boggle at the swiftness and ease attempting—with the help of well- LIVING CREATURE...WITH ONE EXCEPTION. with which a fighter craft manages meaning idealists—to make sure the You expect a sf film, eh? Or at to flit from star system to star mutated/monster baby is able to live least a horror film. What you get is system...the delightful but weirdly long enough to attain its full po¬ a cheapo Italian-made film with dubbed clumsy attack machines used by the tential. The government has set up voices in English which is about a empire on Hoth [Wait till you see a task force to make damn sure all young male psychopath---a homicidal them!]...the incredible way empire the mutated monsters are killed, maniac who cannot stand to be called fighter craft manage to miss hitting feeling they are a threat to mankind a shithead...or a pig...or a coward. escaping craft (I mean, don't they as we know ourselves. [A credible The film is an excuse for brutal have computers directing those close- threat, by the way.] killing with knives, guns, sub-mach¬ pursuit laser cannon?). Well, in a SoCal hideaway three ine guns.... But you'll forgive all the delib¬ of the babies get free of their cag¬ It is a cops-and-psycho-killers erate implausibilities because of es and attack all and sundry, having movie, with Henry Silva imported to the delights, the wonders, the strug¬ sensed the govt, forces closing in. give the film some legitimacy in this gle of good vs. evil that carries country. He plays the frustrated this movie and which will carry all 32 cop. Do not waste your money. THE SHINING (r) THE DARK (r) [Note: this was teamed with THE is a very good horror/ was the second feature LEGACY, a supematural/occult film, occult film. It begins with Jack with a new horror film recently. which lent credence to the expecta¬ Nicholson signing on to be the winter THE DARK was released in 1978 and tion that ALMDST HUMAN would be in caretaker of a large, isolated, sumner I missed seeing it. I wish I'd similar vein. Never trust distribu¬ mountain resort hotel. missed it again. tors ! ] Co-produced by Dick Clark, it He, his wife and small son must is a formula sf monster movie and stay there for five long, often the R-rating is for violence; no snowbound months. sex, no nudity. [Clark didn't want The hotel manager mentions that to dirty his image.] the hotel was built on an indian A single humanoid alien of fero¬ THE LEGACY (r) burial ground...and that a recent cious mein who can only go "RQWWWER!" brings a young Los previous winter caretaker had gone but who is smart enough to dress Angeles couple (unmarried) to the mad, axed his wife and two little coherently in human male clothes huge estate of a billionaire Eng¬ daughters, and blown his head away and hide during the day each night lishman. They are prisoners there with a shotgun. grabs a human and tears off the while the old man (kept alive by We learn early-on that Nichol¬ head and/or horribly mutilates the modem medical science and black son's son is psychic and has tele¬ body. magic) decides to kill off his pathic powers. Scatman Crothers, There is much antagonism be¬ other guests one by one in a manner who plays the departing hotel chef, tween the media and the police and appropriate to their past sins. is also telepathic but hides the a famous father of one of the victims. Finally the girl is the one ability. He senses the boy's tal¬ The police are helpless and do not who is to inherit his wealth and ent and makes friends. He calls believe lab reports that indicate evil supernatural powers. In a the ability "shining." the killer is not human and has no climactic scene she accepts and The boy sees the ghosts of the blood. becomes the ruler of all. two axed girls...and as time passes The producers decided to throw Katherine Ross and Sam Elliott sees the former caretaker's wife. in the kitchen sink: the alien has are good as the leads. After a month, Jack begins to superhuman strength which increases Good gore and effective sus¬ be afftected by the evil in the with each kill, it is impervious to pense. Worth seeing. hotel... bullets and has laser-beam eyes. Terror upon terror, vision upon William Devane, Cathy Lee Crosby, vision...and Jack Nicholson is hor¬ and Richard Jaeckel labored with a ribly convincing as a maniac whose plotfull of cliches and came up enp- duty is to axe his own wife and child. ty- The creature, immune to a five- Shelley IXivall as his wife is minute long hail of heavy caliber RABID (R) very good and sensible and courageous slugs and shotgun blasts, .is vulner¬ is better than you might through her fear and hysteria. able to fire, and upon being touched think. Made in Canada, starring Thank God for a woman who doesn't by a burning 2x4 starts to bum Marilyn Chambers (she of porno swoon and do all the wrong things! like a torch and then explodes into fame), it tells the story of a girl Danny Lloyd is wry good as the nothingness. terribly burned in an auto-motor¬ son who has coped with his Dsvchic/ Do not bother with it if it gets cycle accident who is saved by means telepathic ability by giving it to on TV. of experimental surgery and skin a separate personality ("Tony") who grafts at a nearby plastic surgery "lives in my mouth". clinic. But the picture belongs to After a month in a coma, however, Nicholson who is insane and evil she awakes with a great hunger for and nurderous so realistically that blood---and she gets it by means he'll probably be nominated for an of a phallus-like "stinger"---a Oscar. kind of biological hyperdermic syringe Scatman Crothers as the chef don't GO IN THE HOUSE (r) which emerges from a puckered open¬ who senses the boy's terror and uses the ing under her left arm. The embraces tries to rescue him may be nominat¬ homicidal psycho plot as a vehicle she gives various men are deadly, for ed for best supporting actor. for murdering young women—again. as she takes blood she transmits to The scenes of grue and the hal¬ This time a weird young man whose them a fatal disease which makes lucination episodes are superbly mother punished him as a child by them into insane, ferocious, mind¬ handled. Near the end the power holding his arms over a flame goes less creatures intent only on eating of the evil in the hotel is so on a revenge-against-women human flesh. strong it is able to impose visions (when his mother dies) by luring Soon the clinic is a shambles and even on the wife (perhaps because of girls to his house, tying them up she escapes to Montreal where she her terror). in a metal-walled room he construct¬ tries desperately to resist the Urge The final scene suggests an ele¬ ed, and frying them with a flame¬ thrower. and to not believe she is responsible ment of reincarnation... Well, the for the spreading epidemic of rabid film leaves it to the viewer for a The first murder is shown in people and the martial law that re¬ final piecing-together of past and horrible detail. The rest are sults. present, motives, influences. You'll shown before and after. There Chanters is a better actress than want to see the movie twice, to is the ritual death of the psycho you might expect, and the supporting catch small clues here and there, in flames as his house bums down cast is highly professional. There and to watch the superb acting. around him. are many nice occasions when her nice, The film doesn't slow down and A bad movie, badly made. But big-nippled breasts are bared. doesn't let go. See it. it does provide basic horror and Rabid delivers tits and gore and suspense...especially for a young a logical story---once you get past audience of girls who scream and the incredibility of her developing cling to their dates. that blood-sucker under her arm. 33 ************************************ mack reynolds

SCIENCE FICTION AND POLITICAL ECONOMY

The more serious science fic¬ least some of these (my stor¬ field of political economy in gener¬ tion world was thrown into a mild ies), including some that 'en¬ al and, indeed, to other social sci¬ tizzy in the winter of 1974 with the dorsed a Marxist view of change,' ences as well. issuing of Volume 1, Part 2 of SCI¬ for example, RUSSKIES GO HOME.' The following is to be found ENCE-FICTION STUDIES, a literary (FSSF Nov. 1960) which fore¬ publication put out by the Depart¬ under the title THE UTOPIAN DREAM sees a future in which the So¬ REVISITED, in the British journal ment of English of Indiana State Un¬ viet Union has realized all iversity. It all began with an art¬ FOUNDATION (No. 16, May 1979). It its goals and has become the is by English SF novelist Brian Sta- icle by Franz Rottensteiner, of Vi¬ most affluent country in the enna, who has edited VIEW FROM AN¬ bleford, who, according to LOCUS, world. If you are interested has recently taken his doctorate in OTHER SHORE, an anthology of SF sto¬ in an attack on the Soviet Un¬ ries from both East and West Europe. the social sciences at the Univer¬ ion from the Marxist viewpoint, sity of Reading where he lectures try REVOLUTION ASTOUNDING, May It was first answered by the in sociology. late James Blish and then, in turn, 1960) in which a new Russian various others got into the act in¬ underground is attempting to "No writer can produce an im¬ cluding Ursula K. LeGuin, H. Bruce overthrow the bureaucracy to age of future society without Franklin, Chandler Davis, Damon form a new government more in speculating about the politics Knight and your present writer. line with the teachings of of future society and the econ¬ Without rehashing the whole matter, Marx. Or read UTOPIAN in omics of future society, yet we'll just give the gist by quoting Harry Harrison's anthology there are very few genre writ¬ from Damon Knight's letter: THE YEAR 2000 (Doubleday ers who have ever felt the 1970) in which a Marxian So¬ need to refer to political or "It seems to me a mistake to cialist is thrown forward by economic science before em¬ treat Franz Rottensteiner as a time-travel gimmick into barking upon such speculation. a serious critic (when he the world he has worked for In some cases this refusal writes) 'that no American or all his life." has proved pernicious, in English author has written a that we still come across im¬ However, if the truth be told, story that would endorse a ages of future society based there is considerable in what Herr Marxist view of change, or at on such stupid and obsolete Rottensteiner had to say, in spite least contain an intelligent assumptions as those of crude of the fact that he was too sweep¬ discussion of it.' Mack Rey¬ social Darwinism; in other ing in his accusations. Nor does nolds, in a long series of cases it has simply resulted it just apply to Marxism but to the stories published in ANALOG in the unthinking transloca¬ in the sixties, has done just tion of present-day political what is demanded in the second and economic systems into the _J*f|iTFbR 'COO, future (even into the far- s.ppieeovY ivAnt? f flung of galactic civ¬ Damon could have added, of AriVr / course, that there have been others. ilizations) . In Part Three (Spring 1974) of the "The reasons for this reluc¬ same publication is a review of Ira tance to use sociological the¬ Levin's THIS PERFECT DAY in which ory are various. Partly, it he contemplates a specifically Marx¬ is a simple failure of imag¬ ist "utopian" society and does a job ination. Partly, it reflects of ripping up the pea patches of a genuinely unsatisfactory sit¬ both Marxism and Capitalism. Then, uation in modem sociology as of course, Jack London considered regards theories of social himself a Marxist and proved it in change. Partly, however, it some of his work such as THE IRON is due to the fact that sci¬ HEF.L. Then, too, there was Olaf ence fiction as a popular Stapledon of SF fame, and Upton Sin¬ genre is American in origin clair, who considered himself a soc¬ and inspiration,' and that Am¬ ialist and wrote several utopian erican social philosophy has novels. always been allergic to dis¬ Your author, somewhat indignant cussion of theories of social after sweating out ten years under change because it is difficult the editorship of John Campbell, do¬ to begin such discussion with¬ ing a tripie dozen or so stories bas¬ out taking into account the ed on socioeconomic themes, wrote, in most influential theory of so¬ part: cial change, which is that of "I simply can't understand Karl Marx. Marxist social Mr. Rottensteiner reading much theory and Marxist political SF without running into at rhetoric (though there is no necessary logical connection between them) are so closely associated and interwoven that hostility to the latter inevitably engenders hostil¬ ity to the former, and this hostility tends also to sti¬ fle discussion of subsequent contributions to the theory of social change which, even if they are opposed to Marx¬ ist thought, nevertheless have to take it into account. The political climate in America, which has conditioned this al¬ lergic response during the last half century, is largely reponsible for the awkward I predicament of American soc¬ iology as well as the failure of American science fiction to pay any real attention to the possible contribution of least metaphorically, on is¬ The article said in part: sues of contemporary politic¬ social science to the art of "In the West, and in the USA al concern, and this trend has speculative extrapolation. in particular, science fic¬ continued to the present day, tion serves as one of the but what is involved is gener¬ "One might imagine that the means of ideological indoctrin¬ ally the expression of opinion situation in Eastern Europe ation of the broad masses of on particular matters (civil would be very different, in the people. Currently several rights, the space programme, that the governmental systems specialized magazines (science etc.) rather than attempts to of those countries openly es¬ fiction) enjoy mass circulation analyze fundamental issues pouse Marxist theories of so¬ in the United States. ciety. Unfortunately, this concerned with socioeconomic is not the case, for here too change. The number of stor¬ "The most striking feature of the attitude to the political ies which deal with post-cap¬ the social prophecies of the rhetoric of Marxism dominates italist society (however this American and British fantasy and determines attitudes to is envisaged) is really very writers is that they are not the theory of social change. small, and few of those that based on any concept of the The 'official' position of do exist refer explicitly to progressive development of so¬ such governments is that so¬ any assumptions about mechan¬ ciety, but involve regression, cial change has, in accord¬ isms of social change." decline, degeneracy, backward¬ ance with Marxist theory ness and the destruction of (though this claim is high¬ mankind. Modern Western sci¬ ly dubious), been brought to ence fiction writes of an its appropriate conclusion, Harsh words, colleague, however, anti-Utopia, and it is signi¬ and that there is therefore it is to be noted that Eastern as ficant that bourgeois critics no further scope for specula¬ well as Western writers take their and writers themselves use tion about the changes which thumps. And, indeed, the present this term in speaking of so¬ might overtake society in the writer can't recall ever having read cial science fiction ... a story by anyof the Soviet country future. Soviet SF, therefore, "... These dark prophecies authors adequately, or even inade¬ presents a consistent tone of are perfectly consistent with optomistic self-congratula¬ quately, dealing with a future with a valid socioeconomic system that the pessimistic views of many tion while being utterly de¬ bourgeois scientists and writ¬ wasn't, surprise, surprise, that void of any serious socioec¬ ers who do not believe that the which they misname Marxist. onomic speculation. The nations can forestall universal simple fact is that no pol¬ The matter came up back in 1965 suicide. Following in the foot¬ itical system is inclined to when two Russian writers, E. Bradis steps of the philosophers and tolerate the thought of its and V. Dmitrevskiy, wrote a critique sociologists, the bourgeois own mortality, and that socio¬ of American science fiction which writers preach relativism, economic speculation in fic¬ appeared in the KONMUNIST, the org¬ the hopelessness of the mind tion or non-fiction is always an of the Central Committee of the against the mysterious and un¬ likely to be construed as be¬ Communist Party of the Soviet Union. knowable universe and the il¬ ing subversive. It was entitled THE FUTURE, ITS PRO¬ lusory nature of social prog¬ "In the West, such specula¬ MOTERS AND FALSE PROFHETS and sin¬ ress. They regard history as tion is far from being com¬ gled out in particular for criticsm a never-ending cycle. What pletely stifled, but diplo¬ Poul Anderson, , Isaac has been will be again. macy makes much of it rather Azimov and your author. weak, and stimulates much ac¬ Theodore Guerchon, who is well "The characteristic aspect of tivity in the realm of apolo¬ acquainted with Russian, spotted the contemporary science fiction getics. In science fiction, article, translated it and turned it by Anglo-American bourgeois which is a mass-market genre, over to the MAGAZINE OF FANTASY AND writers is the projection into diplomacy usually rules des¬ SCIENCE FICTION which promptly print¬ the future of present state pite a persistent tendency to ed it and asked the four of us who relations, social problems and parodic iconoclasm. The fif¬ had been criticized to respond. events and conflicts inherent ties produced a great number in modem capitalism. These of stories which commented, at 35 writers transfer imperialist contradictions to imaginary ry out the indicated measures. are in a condition of flux. space worlds, supposing that Of course, one prefers to per¬ I am optimistic enough to they will be dominated by the suade them, by reason and ex¬ believe that we have a good old master-servant relations, ample; but if this fails, then chance of making this a pret¬ by colonialism and by the wolf¬ coercion is not only permis¬ ty damn fine world, by the ish laws of plunder and profit." sible but imperative ... standards of the past, but I am also not so blind as not Our Russian friends thereupon "Science fiction in the West to realize that if the pres¬ take apart individually Anderson, operates in the area of what ent policies of the great pow¬ Azimov, Bradbury and Reynolds, men¬ man does not yet know and has ers are continued we more like¬ tioning, in particular, Poul's "Pro¬ not yet experienced. In the ly will see world chaos in our gress", the good doctor's introduc¬ nature of the case, these time. tion to his anthology SOVIET SCIENCE things are unknowable before FICTION, my novel SPEAKEASY and all they come to pass. Therefore, "My novelettes REVOLUTION and of poor Bradbury's work in general. our science fiction, unconfined COMBAT, which appeared in what Ray Bradbury, being the prose by dogma, treats of many con¬ was then ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FIC¬ poet that Ray is, attempted to give ceivable situations, some pleas¬ TION both deal with the future the gentle answer that tumeth away ant, some unpleasant. It has of the Cold War, both are laid rats. His reply began, "My one no more ideological signifi¬ in the Soviet Union and both reaction to the comments of Brand¬ cance than that ... Totalit¬ are up-beat in their dealing is and Dmitrevskiy is sadness". arianism consists in denying with the future. I would say anyone, anyone at all, the that the average informed So¬ The good doctor's reply led to right to his private beliefs viet citizen would not find snide suspicions on the part of and his private exploration them objectionable -- I am not your author that Isaac Asimov is of reality." speaking of party hacks. one of the few American writers who actually gets royalties out of the Largely, in my reply I followed "A science fiction writer spec¬ Soviet Union. (My own work which along the same path Poul had taken, ializing in extrapolating in has appeared in Russia has been pi¬ though in a little nastier vein, and socioeconomics has as wide a rated as has that of most of the said in part: field as writers in more exact sciences -- at least. In my other SF writers I know of, though "Actually, I find a certain time I have published stories it does seem that Fred Pohl once amount of validity in this mentioned that he had a deal where¬ that involved the world of the by they deposited rubles to his name future being based upon anarch¬ in a Moscow bank but he had to go ism, technocracy, socialism, there to spend them.) At any rate, communism (Soviet Union variety), Azimov ended his reply with the fi¬ communism (Yugoslavian variety), nal lines of his introduction to syndicalism, theocracy, indust¬ the anthology: rial feudalism, meritocracy, state capitalism, and various "On the whole, though, what combinations of these. Some¬ I would like to believe is times they are up-beat, some¬ that the Soviet citizen would times not. It's according to really like to see the coming the story and its needs. Nor of a reign of love when 'nat¬ is my background material bas¬ ion shall not lift up sword ed solely on Western propaganda against nation, neither shall I have traveled in more than 75 they learn war any more'. countries, including seven com¬ "Why, after all, should we munist ones, and have been a life-long student of political economy. "If only we could believe it is what they really want, and "One thing I have found. if only they could believe it brief article on Western sci¬ Comformists in any society is what we really want, then ence fiction ... Certain it have a difficult time project¬ perhaps things would yet end is that when SF writers extrap¬ ing themselves into a future in well." olate in the field of politic¬ which the institutions they fa¬ al economy they are more apt vor have been changed. A de¬ Now, Poul Anderson, being Poul, to wind up with an anti-Utopia sirable future in which these was another thing. He wasn't having rather than an upbeat society institutions have been found any and said, in part: of the future. For every Bel¬ outmoded is practically impos¬ lamy's there sible for them to handle. "Unfortunately, Communism -- are several Orwell's 1984. "So I offer this challenge more accurately, Marxism- And possibly one of the reas¬ to Messrs. Brandis and Dmit¬ Leninism — makes human im- ons for this is that a major¬ revskiy : provability a dogma rather ity of our writers are con¬ than a theory, hypothesis, vinced that our present soc¬ "Admitting that many Ameri¬ or pious wish. Then Com¬ ial institutions are so super¬ can and British science fic¬ munism adds the further ior that any change must be of tion writers find it diffi¬ dogma that there is one and a negative nature. cult to produce an up-beat only one correct way to ach¬ "Personally, I don't agree. story of the future in which ieve improvement, an'd it has I am of the opinion that the capitalism is no longer the already been discovered. • socioeconomic institutions prevailing social system but From this, the conclusion fol¬ of the world -- including has been superseded by some¬ lows logically that men who those of the Soviet Union -- thing more in keeping with know that way are duty bound developments of tomorrow, to make their fellow man car¬ 36 show us then a story by a Soviet Union science fiction "These kitchen illustrations If you gave a stenographer the writer that projects beyond demolish the Marxist theory job of plowing a field, she would what you call communism. of value -- the fallacy from add no value to the commodity in¬ which the entire magnificent volved because since she was unskil¬ "Or do you contend that you fraud of communism derives -- led she was not providing "socially have come to the end of the and illustrates the truth of necessary labor". road of social evolution? the common sense definition as That there is nothing beyond Marx himself answers Heinlein's measured in terms of use." that could possibly be super¬ attack in his pamphlet VALUE, PRICE ior to the present system of AND PROFIT (New York Labor News, the Soviet Union?" In the first place. Bob Hein- 914 Industrial Avenue, Palo Alto, lein shouldn't call the Labor Theo¬ CA) as follows: ry of Value, Marxism. If you wish "It might seem that if the to hang a label on the theory, you Few science fiction writers to¬ value of a commodity is de¬ might better call it Franklini'sm. day would dare deal in a story with termined by the quantity of Karl Marx never claimed to have dis¬ a "hard science" with which they labor bestowed upon its pro¬ covered the Labor Theory of Value. were not well acquainted. Or, at duction, the lazier a man, He gives the credit (in Chapter One or the clumsier a man, the least, not until they had diligent¬ of MS KAPITAL) to Benjamin Frank¬ ly researched it. Twenty-five years more valuable his commodity, lin who, in his first essay, A MDD- because the greater the time ago, yes. Our intrepid space cadet EST ENQUIRY INTO THE NATURE AND NEC¬ would jump into his rocket ship and of labor required for finish¬ ESSITY OF A PAPER CURRENCY, publish¬ ing the commodity. This, how¬ take off for Mars at a clip faster ed in 1729, stated the concept in than the speed of light, and the ever, would be a sad mistake. some detail. It was also accepted You will recollect that I us¬ hell with physics. Once there, he'd by highly regarded capitalist econ¬ find the air and gravity identical ed the word "Social labor", omists Adam Smith and David Ricardo, and many points are involved to that of Earth, and the hell with long before Marx. It is true that astronomy. He'd also find humanoid in this qualification of "So¬ Martians good guys and bad guys and shapely girls to boot, and the hell with biology. But no more. Except on the low¬ est level of cartoon strips and TV shows, SF writers today are expect¬ ed to know what they are writing about. Even if they're going to ex¬ ceed the speed of light, they'll have some gobblygook explanation which seems to make it reasonable. Except, of course, in the field of political economy. I could use many examples but I'll choose one from Robert Hein- lein, the science fiction story tel¬ ler par excellence and admired and honored as much as any writer in the field. The example comes from STARSHIP TROOPERS, one of Heinlein's best Marx too adopted the theory, but he cial". In saying that the val¬ known and most controversial novels. didn't originate it. His contribu¬ ue of a commodity is determin¬ In it he has one of his synpathetic tion to economics was the Theory of ed by the quantity of labor characters, Lt-Colonel Jean V. EXi- Surplus Value, which is an entirely worked up or crystalized in bois, a teacher of History and Mor¬ different thing. it, we mean the quantity of al Philosophy, in lecturing to his labor necessary for its pro¬ class, say: The Labor Theory of Value can duction in a given state of be stated: "The exchange value of "Of course, the Marxian def¬ society, under certain social a commodity is determined by the average conditions of produc¬ inition of value is ridicul¬ socially necessary labor involved ous. All the work one cares tion, with a given social av¬ in its production." erage intensity, and average to add will not turn a mud skill of the labor employed." pie into an apple tart; it re¬ The key words are "exchange val¬ mains a mud pie, value zero. ue", "commodity" and "socially nec¬ By corollary, unskillful work essary labor". can easily subtract value; an A mud pie has no exchange value The above mentioned pamphlet is untalented cook can turn whole¬ because it has no use value and to be reconmended to anybody who some dough and fresh green ap¬ hence is not a commodity. So inpor- would like to read a summation of ples, valuable already, into tant is the definition of "cornnod- Marx's economic theories in an eas¬ an inedible mess, value zero. ity" that Marx devotes the whole 55 ily understood ten thousand words Conversely, a great chef can pages of the first chapter of CAPI¬ or so. It's one of the old boy's fashion of these same materials TAL to it. Among other things, he speeches and amounts to a condens¬ a confection of greater value states that a product must have use ation of CAPITAL. I doubt if it than a commonplace tart, with value before it can be called a com¬ will make a Marxist of you but at no more effort than an ordin¬ modity. least from then on you'll know what ary cook uses to prepare an is being talked about when the word ordinary sweet. 37 is used. By the way, had Bob He ini e in the way, not on merit. The "great alism and, once again, the major wanted to do a more efficient job families", continually feuding characters are men -- except for the or criticism of the Labor Theory of among themselves, control the Em- pretty girls. The background is, as Value he might have taken it from a so often, inter-stellar war, a con¬ different angle. If the exchange cept as ridiculous as it is horrify¬ value of a conmodity is determined ing and a theme of a major percent¬ by the nunber of hours involved, Right at the beginning, the char¬ age of all science fiction. what kind of labor are you talking acter Gaal Domick takes a cab from about? Is a ditch digger's hour the spaceport to a hotel and, when worth as much as that of a highly he gets there, pays the driver with trained and experienced construction coins and gives him a tenth-credit I do not wish to give the impres¬ ? Marx answers this by say¬ tip. So, as a means of exchange sion here that there aren't American ing all labor should be reduced to they're still using coins, evidently and British science fiction writers common labor. Fine. But who decid¬ having forgotten the credit card, who have a thorough basic knowledge es what kind of labor is worth more, and they're still giving tips. Damn. of not only Marxism but other and or less, than another? Is Einstein's I'd hoped that would be one institu¬ sometimes more interesting facets of time worth five times as much as the tion the human race would abolish, socioeconomics. Off hand, I can laborer's, or fifty times as much, given time. think of several who most certainly or a thousand? do, including Fred Pohl, Judith Mer¬ The politico-economic system the rill, John Brunner, Brian Stableford, good doctor has prevailing thous¬ Harry Harrison and Ted Cogswell, ands of years from now isn't the on¬ It will be remembered that in among others. ly indication of what Stableford cal¬ both the paper of Brian Stableford led a failure of imagination when Ursula K. LeGuin has proven in and the Russian writers' article in applied to the social sciences. It THE DISPOSSESSED a thorough know¬ the KOMMJNIST, the major complaint would seem that in the Galactic Em¬ ledge of anarchism and has without against American science fiction doubt perused Prince Kropotkin, Bak¬ writers was their depiction of the unin and Proudhon, among other pio¬ socioeconomic systems of the far fu¬ neer anarchists. My only unhappi¬ ture. In actuality, the point is ness with this sympathetic portrayal fairly well taken. There seems to of an anarchist society of the fu¬ be no field in which we extrapolate ture is that the scene is a very in¬ so awkwardly. hospitable planet and, as a result Let us take another masterpiece of the lack of suitable raw mater¬ of another SF master. Surely the ials, the society is poverty strick¬ FOUNDATION trilogy of Isaac Asimov en. I would like to see her present is one of the best known and best us with an anarchist society on a loved of all science fiction clas- rich planet. Among others who have explored The story takes place thousands potential socioeconomic systems of of years in the future. In fact, the future is to be listed the Brit¬ in Part One of FOUNDATION, the first ish writer Dr. Michael Young with of the trilogy, it is revealed that his fascinating THE RISE OF THE MER¬ the Galactic Empire is over 12,000 ITOCRACY. Projecting himself into years old, and consists of nearly the year 2034, Young foresees a soc¬ 25 million inhabited planets. Need¬ iety in which, what it amounts to, less to say, there has been a bit of the conputers select the correct per¬ progress. In fact, science has tak¬ sons to take over given jobs. Ex¬ en off in all directions. Man has perts in education and selection ap¬ even discovered hyper-space and can pire women's lib has come a cropper. ply scientific principles to sift travel from one end of the galaxy Not one major character in the first out the leaders of tomorrow. You to the other instantly. He evident¬ volume of the FOUNDATION trilogy is need intelligence rating, qualifica¬ ly also has such little items as a woman. In fact, there's only one tions, experience and application. anti-gravity. woman character at all, and she's In short, you have to show "merit". the bitch wife of one of the dicta¬ It doesn't make a daim bit of dif¬ And what is the socio-economic tors of a planet. ference who your family is, who you system? One is reminded of both STAR know, or how much money you have. Feudalism. TREK and STAR WARS. Have none of Meritocracy is run by the Merito¬ crats and they don't put up with They don't even have capitalism. the feminine STAR TREK fans ever put such nonsense as poverty, wars, rac¬ They've gone back to feudalism, one up a conplaint of the crewing of the ism and various of the other prob¬ of the most inefficient socioeconom¬ ENTERPRISE? All the senior officers lems that confront us today. This ic systems the human race has ever are men. There are a few junior of¬ is a Pelican Book, published by Pen¬ devised. ficers that are women, or, at least, girls. Pretty young girls at that. guin Books in Great Britain. I am One might wonder at the real purpose not sure that it has been published In the first paragraph, it is of all female crew members being in the United States but I consider revealed that Hari Seldon was bom pretty, sexy girls, in view of the it a must for anyone interested in to middle-class parents. To have a fact that the ENTERPRISE remains in science fiction and the political middle-class presupposes an upper- space for long months at a stretch. economy of the future. class and a lower-class. So, in We never had it so good when your the twelve thousand years plus, be¬ present writer was a seaman here on tween our times and those of Hari Earth. It should be pointed out that Seldon, man has not come up with a there are strong proponents of the method of ending class divided soc¬ In STAR WARS, once again the pre¬ "historical cycles" conception of iety. And a class divided society vailing socioeconomic system is feud- history, defenders of the right of based on family and inheritance, by 38 Asimov to project feudalism as the socioeconomic system prevailing in and should explore every id¬ physics makes a big breakthrough it a Galactic Empire many thousand ea that comes to us...." soon results in chemistry doing the years in the future. same and even, say, biology, which Well, perhaps. It would be rid¬ might then result in a series of iculous to deny that various instit¬ Poul Anderson is possibly chief medical breakthroughs. Nor are the utions have repeated themselves down among these and well appreciated social sciences immune. If, for for his "future history" stories in¬ through history. For instance, the instance, nuclear fission is dis¬ freedom of women in primitive soci¬ volving Nicholas Van Rijn and Domin¬ covered, then we had better soon re¬ ety is beginning to manifest itself ic Flandry. He supports a system vise our socioeconomic systems to again in the modem world. And dem¬ of rise-breakdown-decline-fall. In the point where warfare becomes ocracy as a political system has re¬ short, historical cycles. From time passe. We better, if we know what peated over and over. Primitive to time we clash (friendly clash, we is good for us. have known each other for some thir¬ comnunism (example: American Ind¬ ty years, and entered the SF field ians), was democratic. A form of I thoroughly subscribe to Har¬ at approximately the same time). democracy prevailed even under Chat- lan Ellison's impassioned call in For instance, he has this to say in tie Slavery (Athens, Republican his speech at the Iguanacon for the a letter to TOE DIVERSIFIER, Nov., Rome). A form was practiced under science fiction world to more strong¬ 1976, in answer to a short piece I Feudalism in some Italian city- ly participate in such social prob¬ had contributed: states. And certainly under Capit¬ lems as the emancipation of women, alism we have had democracy in quite the fight against racism and the "...when he (Mack Reynolds) a few nations, for longer or short¬ ending of war. And we could go fur¬ denies that the future can er periods of time. Off hand, I ther. For me, it is all but unbe¬ possibly hold anything like can't think of a democracy in the lievable that the future will condone laissez-faire capitalism, parts of the world today under State politico-economic systems that lead feudalism, empires under Capitalism (read "communism") unless to war and social systems based on hereditary rules, subjuga¬ it might be Yugoslavia, and that's class divided society and the ex¬ tion of women or other fea¬ stretching the definition. ploitation of man by man. Somehow, tures of the real past, he we've got to evolve to a higher eth¬ However, that's not quite the is guilty of the same lack ic. Why shouldn't science fiction same as economic systems repeating of imagination he describes. lead the way, as it has in so many themselves. Slavery might have weak¬ Indeed, in my opinion he other sciences? misreads history. These ened in the Western world, includ¬ things have appeared, over ing North America, but it didn't and over, in civilization die. The coming of the cotton gin, after civilization. Instit¬ as Poul points out, revived it with utions we today consider de¬ a vengeance, but it still prevailed sirable have been invented before Eli Whitney. Nor can I agree before . . . Women in pre-Chr¬ that Quin shi Huang-ti, of the short¬ istian Scandinavia had a lived Quin Dynasty, and the first freedom they would not re¬ enperor of China, was that similar gain until the nineteenth to Mao. They presided over two en¬ century. Slavery flourished tirely different socioeconomic sys¬ in the New World, early died tems. Quin shi Huang-ti brought to out in the medieval West, an end the fuedalism of the period and was massively received before him and established the em¬ because of the discovery of pire. Mao brought State Capitalism the New World and later tech¬ ("comnunism") to China. Because nological advances such as they both dealt with hordes of peo¬ the cotton gin. The career ple, in fantastically huge state en¬ of Mao Tse-Tung parallels terprises such as the Great Wall and with almost eery precision Mao's dams and other projects, does that of Shi Huang-Ti in the not mean a duplication of socioecon¬ Third Century B.C. I could omic systems. go on, but the point should I cannot think of a single case be pretty obvious. Conceiv¬ in history of a people who had achiev¬ ably we are now so wise and ed to Capitalism ever going back to moral that we will never re¬ Feudalism. Nor of a single case of peat any of the mistakes of a people who had evolved from Chat- our ancestors. Conceivably tie Slavery, to Feudalism, going back we have become so much more to Chattle Slavery. Nor can I think intelligent than they that of any people who ever rose from the when troubles arise in the institution of Primitive Comnunism future, we will respond in to that of Chattle Slavery ever go¬ wholly original ways which ing to man's original socioeconomic have no deleterious side ef¬ system. fects of their own. Conceiv¬ ably. No doubt it is a leg¬ Social evolution has never gone itimate assumption to make backward, so far as I know. Has bio¬ for the purpose of telling logical evolution? Has a species a science fiction story. ever become extinct and then been However, the opposite as¬ revived? sumption is equally legitim¬ It seems to me that the sciences ate, and it can be just as more or less march shoulder to shoul¬ interesting to work out the der. a good many starts and stops, consequences of. Since no¬ of course, but if, for instance, body knows what the future will reallly be like, we can 39 "We're going to leave, yes. Not AND THEN I READ.... right away, not tomorrow. In a week or so. We have to be sure, you see. The final book seemed a bit mis¬ £ have to be sure." shapen to me, but it pays off and "You're not sure?" is a fitting conclusion to this ser¬ "Yes, yes, I am." ies. Phil Farmer delivers. "Then why not tomorrow? Why not The first three books in this right now?" very, popular series were: TO YOUR "I'm sorry, I just have to be SCATTERED BODIES GO, THE FABULOUS RIVERBOAT, and THE DARK DESIGN. "You said you were sure, Paul." ************************************ "Okay, then. I trust you, Paul." "And I love you, Rachel. Always remember that." "I will, Paul. I'd like to sleep now. I've been waiting for you; you'] STRANGE SEED by T.M. Wright. back now. I'd like to sleep.® BY THE EDITOR Playboy Press 16673, $2.25 At first (after reading half the Of the 28 chapters half could book) I was outraged at the "testi¬ have been cut 50%, at least. And as monial" on the cover: to answers to a host of questions THE MAGIC LABYRINTH "The best supernatural novel raised in the reader's mind—forget By Philip Jose Farmer since INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE. it; this is an occult/horror novel, Berkley/Putnam,$11.95 You'll be a long time forgetting and TM Wright 6 the editors of Play¬ This is the fourth, and final this book—if you ever do!" boy paperbacks agree that the book in the Riverworld saga, and -. supernatural is inherently inexplica¬ it answers all the questions and Then I realized King was send¬ ble, so you can get away with all settles all the hash-at great ing a message a few readers will kinds of sloppy, careless, amateur cost to a lot of people. get, anyway. Since INTERVIEW WITH writing. The makers of occult/horror Famous people die, famous THE VAMPIRE was a dog, this is even movies get away with it, don't they? people live. more a dog, and you'll be a long Same audience, right? Let's shit As you may know, the Riverworld time forgetting it because it's so on them and insult their intelli¬ is a giant planet upon which runs a memorably bad! gence, if any. HO HO HO. giant river valley. In the valley There isn't much plot: somehow ************************************ on the banks of the giant river that children are created by a small is tens of thousands of miles long, patch of forest in a northern state, live teeming billions of humans--- and they have a kind of psychic power resurrected humans who had died over some nearby residents. The previously on Earth. children are like annual flowers— They are fed by huge Grail Ston¬ they die come winter. In the spring es which thunder and flash three another crop grows...we presume. times a day and provide billions One child, adopted by a local THE SHADOW OF THE TORTURER By Gene Wolfe of meals and drinks and other small family, somehow survives, is taken Simon 6 Shuster, $11.95 necessaries. away to New York City after his It's a book which will leave Among these billions are the "parents" die mysterious deaths. you in awe and anger. Awe because famous and infamous of Earth's past: TWenty years later, drawn by it is so damned good, and anger be¬ Samuel Clemens, Sir Richard Burton, unconscious forces, the young man, Cyrano de Bergerac...kings, , with his wife, return to the house cause it has stopped and the next soldiers.... his "parents" owned and become in¬ volume of this four-part saga won't The Riverworld saga is the story volved with the forest children. be published until next year! of groups of men and women who must Paul and Rachel are frightened This is not an obscure novel, attempt a journey to the headwaters by the mysterious events around not ambiguous, not opaque, not in of the immense river and discover them, by the warnings from an old the least (so far) a New Wave saga. the secrets---the answers to their hermit, and after the hermit's death It is rich, deep, tantalysing, questions about this world, about try to leave...but cannot. Paul colorful, gripping. their new lives. is compelled to stay. It is about a young apprentice Several attempts are made to The ending is predictable and Torturer in a medieval, degenerate, penetrate the vast physical and mech¬ unsatisfactory. far-future Earth ruled by an all- anical obstacles. The writing is an abomination powerful Autarch. There are some There are civil wars, "agents" of vagueness, pretentious obscurity reimant from a pre¬ of the creators working at cross- and angering, padded dialogue: vious high-tech era. purposes, terrible rivalries and "Rachel, are you asleep?" Severian, the apprentice, school¬ hatreds... "I'm awake." ed in a part of an enormous, anci¬ But still a few determined people "They're... gone, Rachel." ent metal Citadel, is gradually persist---and in this book a handful ript from his seeming predestined penetrate the final tower and find... life by love for a beautiful woman Before that, however, there is an "For good, Paul?" doomed to torture, by his allowing all-out naval battle between two huge "For now, Rachel. Until spring. her to die by her own hand, by his modem warships .. .there is the I don't know. Until spring." awakening to the worlds of books and slaughter of half the human popula¬ "And us?" knowledge---[the scenes and encount¬ tion when the Grail Stones on one side "Us?" ers with the blind master librarian of the river fail to produce food. "You said we would talk. You in the virtually endless Citadel And in the final chapters there said we would make plans." library are superb]---and by his are wonders, vast structures, horrible exile to serve as an executioner for revelations...monstrous cunning. 40 Thrax, a distant city. Armed/equipped with an ancient space story, solved as usual by a SONGMASTER by Orson Scott Card executioner's sword, Severian sets security man whose job is hanging in Dial Press, $10.95 (tentative) out from the vast Citadel into the the balance. It may have been my age, my even more vast, seemingly limitless A short-short short, "The Knife," mood, my life experiences...self- City surrounding, and his encounters, by E.C. Tubb, is something grotesque pity...but I wept a bit as I was his adventures as he journeys through and overwritten he wrote for George finishing reading this novel. And the City to the countryside and on Hay, probably as a favor. I can count on the toes of one hand the way to Thrax, are wonders, en¬ This anthology is not as good as the times that has happened. lightening, terrifying. PULSAR 1, but is readable. I pre¬ Orson is a powerful writer; he This first of four novels in a ferred the original format of #1. deals with emotion beautifully, series titled THE BOOK OF THE NEW ************************************ with love, honesty, sincerity, SUN opens paths for Severian (and truth...sentimentality. And with the reader) that promise vast ad¬ the dark side of our selves — lust, ventures, struggle, greatness with rage, murder, anbition, betrayal... strange, mysterious forces coming greed. into play. GUARDIANS OF THE UNIVERSE? For his years he's unusually Reading this novel you realize By Ronald Story mature and skilled, and SONGMASTER you're in the hands of a master writ¬ St. Martin's, $8.95 is a superior novel in any league, The further destruction of Erich er. THE SHADOW OF THE TORTURER is in any genre. von Daniken's theory of space god the first facet of a science fiction The core of the novel---the visitations to Earth, and a further diamond—a masterpiece. basic premise---is questionable: documentation of von Daniken as a Yes, damn it, it's that good! that gifted children can be taught lying fraud. The title of the next volume, for to read subtleties in tone and pitch Also assaulted is Robert Tenple's which we must wait too long!, is and meaning from a person's speech book, THE SIRIUS MYSTERY. THE CLAW OF THE CONCILIATOR. and know the truth or lie of a state¬ This book is very tough on mis¬ ment; that they can sing words or ************************************ representation of evidence and delib¬ more likely melodies--somds--so erate avoidance of contrary evidence effectively as to literally make and findings by people with one eye strong men weep, or laugh, or exper¬ on grinding an axe and the other on PULSAR 2 Edited by George Hay. ience other emotions...and can make big book sales. Penguin Books, [75p in UK], [$2.50 them understand the message---a However, in the last chapter, in Australia], [$2.25 in Canada]. complicated, subtle message---by "UFOs: A Genuine Mystery," the author An original anthology of 'Sci¬ singing (sounds) alone...and that does decide there's something in the ence Fiction and Science Futures'. the greatest of these singers, called UFO phenomena which cannot be explain¬ It's "hard" science fiction, Songbirds, could drive a strong-will¬ ed or ignored. with an exceptionally good and re¬ ed emperor of all mankind [a thous¬ This book is a sequel (or follow¬ vealing interview with A. E. van Vogt and planets] to insanity and a ruth¬ up) to Story's previous debunker, THE by Christopher Evans. The final less assassin to an incredibly self- SPACE GODS REVEALED. piece, an article on atomic power brutal suicide. in and out of sf, by Richard We- ************************************ I couldn't swallow the skills holt, is part rehash and part plea and talents of Ansset, the beauti¬ for more nuclear power and less ful little Songbird, schooled in the hysteria. legendary Songhouse of the planet The fiction starts off with Tew, who is assigned to be the Emp¬ "High Pressure" by Rob Holdstock eror Mikal's Songbird. which says it's okay to murder in But it didn't matter nuch. The the name of progress. novel is so much about people--- "A Warrior Falls" is a fine those who want to kill the Emperor, ANALOG-type alien-contact story in use his Songbird, those who love which a practical man makes the right Ansset and hate him, those who lust decisions in a tough situation in for him—that the incredible sci¬ spite of government idiocy. The ence fiction element is like a pret¬ aliens shown here are a neat switch ty box that encloses the meat and on our biology/robot setup. This potatoes. [Cooked to perfection.] deserves reprinting. This is a fine novel. It hits "On the Mud-Flats of Rhuma" by on basic gut levels. Orson knows Robin Douglas is an interesting de¬ people---loves people---but doesn't piction of the mating ritual of the blink at their flaws. That is his coflics, and a kiss-kiss to dedicat¬ power and greatest strength as a ed scientists who risk life to ob¬ writer. serve things like that. [L’On the This novel follows Ansset whole, Pickering, we are a marvelous through his life—an exciting, profession.1-'] marvelous life in the highest levels "What Do the Simple Folk Do...?" of interstellar government---and it is 's cutesy written is deeply moving. acid answer: they like biood-n-sex ************************************ on TV, and the more real the better! Perry Chapdelaine's anti-war, anti-government story, "The Return of Prince John Israel Mcwayizeni Shaka" is good and gripping until he THE SHERIFF OF PURGATORY cannot resist killing his admirable By Jim Morris characters. Damn knee-jerk Serious Doubleday $8.95 [1979] Message fiction. In 1996 the federal government "Rotating Frame-Up" by Robert M. is a shambles and the Mafia is com¬ H. Carver is a tedious murder-in¬ ing on strong. But in Purgatory County, Arkansas, the sheriff, Frank fears, his triumphs, his learning a- Spurlock, has achieved a workable bout life. law and order based on cooperation, The pen drawings by Kathy Jacobi applied psychology and adroit mani¬ are low key, 19tiCenturish, distorted pulation of force or threat of force. for atmosphere and character. He's a kind of Zen hippie, a war The book is recoimended. veteran, and in his way an idealist. Every tiling worked fairly well in the county until a Mafia chief arrived to begin a takeover, and Frank decided to go to New York--- THE MARTIAN CRYSTAL EGG a disease and vice and crime pest¬ Written 8 Illustrated by Fred Win- hole even worse than we see in the kowski. Harper 8 Row, $6.95 [1980] worst slums today—in order to try A science fantasy about Pik, a to save his son and daughter (now Martian, who saves a crystal egg teenaged) and living with his ex- from destruction in the lost city wife. of another Martian race—the flying With the countryside infested things. In time the egg hatches, and with armed guerillas the journey Pik and Airi become friends. is verry interesting as he travels This is a children's book with with his woman friend (who refus¬ some subtle, somewhat advanced sci¬ ed to be left behind). ence fictional elements involved. What happens in New York is in¬ Yet its format is for the six to 10 credible but somehow convincing, as year old, I estimate. The large Frank applies his philosophy and pen illustrations are well-done, skills to gain his ends. But be¬ but suffer for lack of color, I fore that it looks like the end as think. street gangs at war, the Mafia, the The story teaches tolerance and government and a guerilla leader open-mindedness. Nice, nice, very seem intent on killing him like dead, nice. man. But I leamed/practiced reading A good "western" sf novel, ex¬ ic— I can't believe they'd have the funnies in the daily paper, and citing, detailed, with a different enough seed or food to serve them a child of 6-7-8 who can read the viewpoint you'll find interesting for two years—and the incredibly funnies and can handle the vocabu¬ and challenging. It won't blow fast melt of a continent of ice lary of this thin book (28 large your mind, but some cracks may ap¬ in a matter of days boggled me— pages, 1000 words of text, thirty + pear; it forces you to think in and the conjecture that God was big page illustrations) will go other viewpoints. cleaning house for a new start (fore¬ through the book in a few minutes, ************************************ told in the Book of Job) seemed awk¬ toss it aside and pick up something ward arid mystical...but people think meatier and longer. and do weird things in high trauma I don't think this book is worth situations. the price. [Even as I understand The story is told mainly from the economics of publishing a limit¬ STOREHOUSES OF THE SNOW by Edwin the viewpoints of people aboard two ed edition hardcover.] Woodard § Heather Woodard Bischoff ships in the Antarctic region. Leisure 746, $1.95 ************************************ ************************************ Simultaneously the Earth is tipp¬ ing and the miles-deep ice cover of Antarctica is melting, breaking up, at a terrifying rate. THE HALF-A-MOON INN THE GREAT ROCK'N'ROLL SWINDLE The result is monstrous tidal By Paul Fleischman By waves that drown every seaport in Illustrations by Kathy Jacobi Virgin Books, 75p. the world, sweep over lowlying lands Harper § Row, $7.95 [1980] 61-63 Portobello Road, like Florida, and wreck the world's [Juvenile--ages 10 up] London Wll 3D, England economy and civilization. The Ant¬ An exceptionally well-done A surrealistic "novel" (about 25 arctic region becomes a new temper¬ very short novel about a 12-year- thousand words long) about an English ate zone, and the USA is quickly on old boy who cannot talk. ock group its way to becoming the new north He is dependent on his widowed rock group whose members seek to be pole. mother and is afraid to leave their paid by a very elusive promoter/ All this with many, many points house by the sea. Yet when she doesn't return home from a trip to manager. They...' of view, some incredible rescues, Based on a movie of the same some horrendously bad dialogue, town after a snowstorm he forces himself to go looking for her. name, this fiction brings in some of and clumsy pacing and unexpected Mike's favorite characters---Jerry plotting (which wastes some dramatic He loses his way and comes to be indentured at a disreputable inn and Frank Cornelius, Miss Brunner, potential). Mrs. Cornelius... Even so... it's a pretty good owned by an evil hag. Miss Grackle. His muteness is an advantage for The "book" is printed on news¬ read. Somehow. Maybe I'm a sucker print in newspaper/tabloid format, for disaster novels. And the des¬ the criminal woman—and a terrible disadvantage for Aaron in his at¬ and is mostly photos of the Sex Pis¬ criptions of those gargantuan swells tols and clips from the movie. It... hitting Florida and New York were tempts to escape-her. This is a story of character, Helter skelter action involving powerful in their fashion. The authors a resurrected Jerry who is a decay¬ have a way of keeping their people maturing, and morality. It is so well done—not written down—that ing (literally) former musician as¬ human by ineans of small-time, petty sassin enployed now to fight the concerns in the midst of horrifying an adult can [and will] enjoy it, and become very involved with Aaron, his • forces of evil and monopoly... doom. Satire,jape, jope.jick, juck... The ending was absurdly optimist¬ 42 oh, fuck! Alternate time tracks, alien 'bugs'who monitor the action/behavior of these puzzling humans... And who's got all the money, tell me that, lov.” "Oo the bloody 'ell do they ex¬ pect ter clear up this fuckin' mess, then?" Rosebud. I would like to see the movie, though. This weird fiction was written by Mike between April 24th and May 2 this year. Printed on May 9th. - in Jakubowski, editor of Virgin Books, sent me a copy in early June if memory serves. [But my memory serves 90% fouls and netters.] The Sex Pistols represent uncouth rebelion, anarchy, filthy, shocking songs. .. THE BARBARIANS ARE HERE--- AND THEY IS US! This thing is a collectors item. Christ, the things people collect! No, you can't have my copy.

CHANGELING by Roger Zelazny Ace 10256-5, $6.95 Illustrated by Esteban Maroto

This entrancing novel is one of sorcery vs. science, with the mes¬ sage that any large focus of power "mother" planet so terrible, fear attend when she has a "seizure" is liable to be misused by immature, is constant and security paramount. during some psi testing at a nearby flawed humans. Isaac, a cunning but also inno¬ university, falls for her...a long, .And that the conservative, ig¬ cent young steward, has schemed to drawn-out process. norant, superstitious villagers of import Eleanor, a sculptor, in an In the end there is a formula this alternate Earth are actually elaborate, error-prone plan to in¬ kidnap of Fayne from a hospital, correct in first going to war a- sure his future. a chase, a search, a confrontation gainst a wizard who practiced evil But she is a terror: rebelious, with the coven, a rescue, a black black magic and became too powerful, stubborn, iconoclastic, hard-as- moment when the maniacal leader of as well as trying to kill a scien¬ rock. A damned trouble-maker who the coven almost kills Giles in a tific genius mistakenly imported seeds others to think unthinkable one-on-one battle in the surf.... (as a child from our Earth) by a thoughts and threatens to undermine A piece of hackwork. well-meaning magician. the Establishment. ************************************ Zelazny's sorcery is rational¬ Push any Establishment too far ized, fascinating, credible; in fact and it gets ruthless. more believable than the science There is a Jewish let-my-people- and technology it opposes. go element in this novel, but the The dragon Moonbird is more values are universal, and the writ¬ real and human than the stereotyped ing is very good; engrossing charac¬ RICHARD young scientist villain. The secon¬ ters, realistic behavior and action. dary character, Mouseglove the thief, You won't like the ending. E. is more interesting and likeable ************************************ than the nominal sorcerer hero. GEIS Zelazny might characterize this book as an 'entertainment': non-pre- tentious, a romantic adventure. SINS OF OMISSION A PERSONAL JOURNAL It's a daimed good one. By Chelsea Quinn Yarbro The Maroto illustrations comple¬ Signet E9165, $2.25 # A jaundiced commentary on ment the text marvelously. You could cut the first half current events. of this novel about a lovely psychic ************************************ U A Libertarian viewpoint. woman and the neurosurgeon who falls # Personal counter-culture in love with her—and throw it away living notes. without losing any significant story THE ENNEAD By Jan Mark information. In this one Yarbro $3. for five issues. Pocketbook 82948-3, $2.25 pads outrageously. $6. for ten issues. Freedom vs. disguised slavery Fayne Schoenfeld is the target is the theme, and the vehicle is a of a strong satanist coven in the Richard E. Geis small, arid, stony planet which im¬ Berkley-s.f area; they want to use P.O. Box 11408 ports workers when needed and de¬ her strong psi/psychic talents. Portland, OR 97211 ports them when not needed. Dr. Giles Todd, called in to Because jobs are so precious REG *77 near Ip ready for mailing and deportation to the hell-hole 43 LETTERS

# LETTER FROM DARRELL SCHWEITZER or that it has ever been true. Per¬ 113 Deepdale Road haps it was for THRILLING WONDER dur¬ Stafford, PA, 19087 ing the days of Sergeant Saturn, May 2, 1980 but the lettercolumns don't give the impression overwhelmingly. (Actual¬ 'A comment you make in SFR #35 ly the only lettercolumns which do leads from the specific instance to are those in the Gemsback AMAZINGS.) a more general cliche' I think is In fact a lot of readers during the long overdue for destruction. war years were servicemen, who had 'The specific is that I think to be 18 and up. you're too hasty in your assumption 'John Campbell took a poll ar¬ that FANTASTIC is aimed at a juven¬ ound 1950 and discovered that his ile audience. The April issue isn't readers tended to be scientists and as telling as the July one, admit¬ technicians, or at least science tedly, but I don't think the latter students in the colleges. (Indeed, was a sudden reversal of policy. a friend of mine who was there a The July issue has quite a bit in few years ago, tells me that aside it which would alienate the hypo¬ from technical material, the Prince¬ thetical "14-year-olds and their mom¬ ton Physics Department reads little mies", to use the common phrase. but science fiction.) To wit: The final installment of THE WHITE ISLE contains some low 'Now turn to NEW WORLDS 37 (July key fucking which is downright chaste 1955), which contains the results of and euphemistic by today's standards, one of the Carnell polls. Average but there it is. Also an off-stage age: 31.7 years. castration and somebody going to bed 'NEW WORLDS 141 (April 1964) with a skeleton, a'la "A Rose for has results of another, and. for Emily". Also the Hero, who should comparison, the data from the 1958 have been the male daydream charac¬ poll. Average age, 1964: 26.1; ter turns old and crabby and unsym¬ 1958: 30.8. pathetic and gets killed in the end because it needs doing. "The Impre¬ 'Some data here is irrelevant cise Delights of Love" is about the to the present (education for the difference between love and lust. post-World War II generation of Brit¬ The protagonist has a device one ons) and (about 35% tech¬ can only call an orgasmatron, and nical and scientific) may be a mat¬ he spends most of his time preoccup¬ ter of economics. The male reader- ied with it. There's a weird scene ship has been changing over the inside a garbage disposal vehicle years. (95% in 1955, 90% in 1958, for the fetishists. "The Compromise!' 92% in 1964). But the age distrib¬ by Vinicoff and Martin is about sex¬ ution is fairly constant. ual deviance, and two of the charac¬ 'Recently Davis Publications ters are sympathetically portrayed took such a poll for its fiction lesbians. "The New Member" by Dav¬ magazines. I saw the results. Most id Bunch is difficult and literary, of them didn't surprise me. For one and someone fresh from reading THE thing, the mystery magazines really SPLINTER IN THE MIND'S EYE and two are read by older women. (If you issues of STARLOG won't be able to wonder what the mothers of SF fans make much sense out of it. read, this may be it.) But the age 'In other words the issue has for the ISAAC ASIMOV'S SCIENCE FIC¬ enough to give the proverbial soc¬ TION MAGAZINE spread out like this: ially inept, early adolescent read¬ A full 50% were between 25 and 50. er a heart attack and considerable About 60% were male, a big change confusion. None of it is at all dar¬ from earlier polls of this sort. ing or sensational by modem stand¬ Only 15% were juveniles. It taper¬ ards, but it isn't what one puts in¬ ed off rapidly over 65. to material specifically aimed at 'Virtually all the readers were juveniles. college graduates. That didn't sur¬ 'Which brings us to the general prise me. But I was a little sur¬ point. It is constantly claimed by prised to leam'that 25% had some various writers and editors that a sort of graduate degree beyond 4 large percentage, even the majority years of college. of science fiction readers (or per¬ 'You might argue that this is haps, specifically, science fiction only a poll of people who bother to magazine readers) are juveniles. I see no evidence that this is true. answer polls, but then, to find out else somebody would have done it tury Fox whose permission I need to who the average SF reader is, you with de Sade before that. As long run off a score or so of suitable may take the direct observation meth¬ as fans are finding equivalents be¬ badges, what do I find but that I od. Stand in a science fiction book¬ tween SF and mainstream writers have to write to LUCASFILMS in the store for an hour or two and note (Poul Anderson is our Kipling, De States. I ask you --is this the who the browsers are. You'll find Camp our Wodehouse, etc.) I suppose way to treat a Great Leader? there are virtually no high-school- Norman is our de Sade, but he isn't 'Support for/suggestions on this ers. The customers are all adults, such a spectacular crackpot that his campaign appreciated.' and their ages tend to bear out the works will survive that long, I sus¬ ASIMOV'S figures. You can get the pect. He'll probably go the way of same results anywhere SF is sold. the great mass of 20th century por¬ (Clou have to keep in mind, that the 'In other words, by all indica¬ no, except where he is incorporated into the lore of SF . (e.g. real Darth Vader is two people: a tions, science fiction is read most¬ big body and a separate voice (and ly by adults who have graduated col¬ a Boskone play in which a "typical Gor reader", a dirty old man in a a script). That’s what we have now lege, who reach into the highest ed¬ in the Presidency, and will have in ucation brackets, and are at least raincoat, was chased around the stage by a knife-wielding amazon.) the future: a figurehead president average in income. A surprising like Nixon-Ford-Carter, a Voice who number of people who write in to the 'Not much other news. My first tells the figurehead what to say and magazines let this sort of informa¬ Starblaze Book, WE ARE ALL LEGENDS, which policies to follow (Haig, Kiss¬ tion out. I see a lot of profession¬ will be illustrated by Fabian. I inger), and of course the script is als, architects, doctors, dentists, had hoped to place a couple of the provided by the international finan¬ lawyers, etc. writing on their of¬ stories in AMAZING/FANTASTIC right cial empires who war among themselves ficial stationary.) before the book comes out (August), and use puppet governments and peo¬ 'I suspect that a lot of SF writ¬ but they've changed policy and won't ples as extensions of their inter¬ ers and editors remember when they take any small press or foreign re- ests.)) started reading SF (roughly 11-14 years) and work from the assumption that this represents the typical ((After looking through the July is¬ reader. Yet it is only the excep¬ sue of FANTASTIC Science Fiction (as tionally bright kids who read it at the cover says) I have to agree-the that age (the sort who are likely package and the stories are essent¬ to grow up to be SF professionals, ially. adult. In fact, the fiction # LETTER FROM LARRY NIVEN something most people cannot achieve) in this magazine is probably more April 9, 1980 and this is completely overlooking adult in theme than that of any other the fact that those kids don't stop magazine and 99% of the books. 'I've got three collaborations as they get older (thus becoming ((Too bad the reputation of AMAZ¬ going with Jerry Poumelle and one part of the 25-50 mass, which must ING and FANTASTIC have suffered for going with , and my be larger unless the country is rid¬ so long as low-end fiction outlets part in each of them has slowed to . ing the wave of an enormous baby and-kid-stuff. If this is a what- a crawl. Which leaves me trying to boom, which we are not at present) the-hell, we 've-got-nothing-to-lose answer the ever-popular question, and other readers enter the picture policy change to try and save the "Don't you have something of your later on. It would be very inter¬ magazines and promote a different own to work on?" esting to see a poll asking when image I applaud it. At the same people started reading science fic¬ 'Well, no. Not in the form of time I fear it is too late. tion. I suspect a lot would be writing a story. What I've been found to have started in the late ((The Davis poll results are doing is adding to or correcting teens (senior highschool or early surprising. Does this mean ASIMOV'S notes on half a dozen potential sto¬ college) or early 20s. is going to aim a little higher, ries, hoping one of them will jell now?)) into something. It's kind of ir¬ 'Of course any claim that 90% ritating. Maybe the problem is that of SF readers are under 25 and 50% I'm having too much fun these days; are under 16 is simply runaway lun¬ there's less incentive for serious acy and not worth serious consider- wish-fulfillment daydreaming.

'We might consider some of the # LETTER FROM GEORGE HAY 'THE RINGWORLD will SF novels which have been best sel¬ 38B Compton Road compete for the 1981 Hugos. A lim¬ lers in recent years: THE LEFT HAND London, N. 21, UK ited edition, scheduled for December OF DARKNESS, THE DISPOSSESSED, THE June, 1980 1979, first saw of day in FOREVER WAR, DHALGREN, LUCIFER'S January 1980, and the decision was HAMMER, RENDEZVOUS WITH RAMA, none 'Got to thinking the other day made on that basis. My own opinion: of which are particularly simplified, about the American Presidency. A limited edition shouldn't count toned-down, or aimed at a juvenile What, I asked myself, are the char¬ anyway. Less than five hundred audience. If this is what 15-year- acteristics that Americans must be people will see it, for Pete's sake! olds who can barely read are reading, seeking in a new incumbent? Let's If it costs an author a Hugo to pub¬ I think that's a triumph for the Am¬ see -- well, leadership, decision, lish a limited edition. Fantasia erican educational system. personal magnetism, determination, Press would be driven out of busi- an understanding of the wider forc¬ 'Frankly, I don't have that es of nature and above all, a firm much faith in American education. 'But that's going to be a very grasp of foreign affairs. Now, what hairy year. BEYOND THE BLUE EVENT 'Onward. The news story about name springs to mind? Can there be HORIZON, THE SNOW QUEEN, THE NUMBER Gor is interesting. Do you suppose one moment's doubt? OF THE BEAST, THE RINGWORLD ENGIN¬ that the works of John Norman could 'DARTH VADER FOR PRESIDENT! EERS all scheduled to emerge in 198a have genuine value as a tool for Losing in 1981 will be like just diagnosing certain types of pyscho- 'But when I enquire of 20th Cen- missing a : Something sis? No, seriously, I don't, or 45 to brag about.' # LETTER FROM SANDRA MIESEL # LETTER FROM JAMES J.J, WILSON Jose Farmer's THE MAGIC LABYRINTH. 8744 N. Pennsylvania Street 4814 Seeley Alex Berman of Phantasia purchased Indianapolis, IN, 46240 Downers Grove, IL, 60515 the rights to a limited signed first April 28, 1980 June, 1980 edition of the novel from Berkley/ Putnam. It was our mutual intention 'Nice to see the Saberhagen in¬ 'Some bad news. AMAZING and that the Phantasia Press edition terview (and a favorable review of FANTASTIC are being combined, accord¬ would be published at least one BERSERKER MAN). Neal Wilgus must ing to Editor Omar Gohagen, into one month prior to the Berkley edition. have been persistent to get mild- magazine which will be larger and Unfortunately, a miscalculation of mannered, self-effacing Fred to say appear more frequently. The bad printing and shipping dates on Berk¬ that much. (The mind boggles at news is that they only need one fan ley's part resulted in the pre-ship¬ the thought of a taped conversation columnist and they have opted to con¬ ping and sale of the Berkley/Putnam between Fred and John Schoenherr -- tinue Fahnestalk's more traditional edition in some parts of the country a confrontation between two friendly column than my versatile information a few days before the publication rocks.) Saberhagen is an admirable and opinion column. of Phantasia's collector's volume. example of how to build a writing 'I was getting a little tired of This occurred through no fault of career by steady mastery of craft the poor editorial relations and Phantasia Press. and patient effort. Good to see him the meager pay but it was nice to getting some of the popularity he 'I very much regret that this have my own column for a little deserves. mishap has inconvenienced Phantasia while. Do you know anyone who needs and the collectors who purchased 'One place he's unexpectedly a column? I'd rather do an opinion/ the limited edition and I want to popular is the junior high set. My criticism/review column in which I publicly thank Alex who has been un¬ daughters and their friends simply could talk about any SF or fantasy- failingly gracious during a trying devour (if that's the most tasteful related subject but would not be ti¬ situation. I'm looking forward to verb) Saberhagen's Dracula books. ed down to what was little more than working with Phantasia on other pro¬ What doth this portend? a third-grade-level course on fan¬ jects in the, future and especially dom for uninitiated pre-teenagers.' 'Let me second Darrell Schweit¬ now that we know where the pitfalls zer's lament for bookbinding. The other week there came into my hands an intact 15th C book still in its original binding (calfskin over oak # LETTER FROM JAPES J.J. WILSON 4814 Seeley boards, with bits of the original Downers Grove, IL 60515 clasps still in place). It was writ¬ 1980 # LETTER FROM IAN WATSON ten on paper by non-professional Bay House, Banbury Road scribes for private use and not the 'The only news I have is that Moreton Pinkney (near Daventry) sort of thing to attract solicitous Harlan Ellison says that the SHADOW Northamptonshire NN11 6SQ preservation. Aside from a little comic book he is writing for the England yellowing and the occasional worm publishers of COMICS JOURNAL might 18th June 1980 hole, this 500-year-old book was in be out as soon as early July. Also, sound condition, not a signature THE LAST DANGEROUS VISIONS will al¬ 'Many thanks for SFR #35. I loose anywhere. (We also have a most definitely be out by Christmas was quite intrigued by Barry Malz- 1000-year-old Koran leaf on paper 1981. Yes, that is 1981_. Well, I berg's disguised short story "The that looks no worse than a page guess if we've waited this long an¬ Science Fiction in Science Fiction" from an old SF paperback.) But ec¬ other year and a half can't make which takes as pretext that well- onomics preclude durability. that much difference.' known Silverberg tale about 21st 'Should you be curious why I Century anthropologist Schwartz on was examining a medieval book, I'm a jet-rocket to Papua fantasizing now doing research for an art deal¬ about exotic aliens because there er -- a neat sideline for an unem¬ # LETTER FROM DONN VICHA are no more exotics among Earth's 6444 N. Glenwood ployed medievalist. I can date, lo¬ population, and transmogrifies this Chicago, IL, 60626 cate and explicate Latin manuscripts, into the tale Barry Malzberg would identifications which make them more May, 1980 have written: about a 22nd Century saleable. For instance, what would physicist and rabid SF fan en route ' You might want to mention in you make of the inscription: to Luna, failing dribblingly with SFR that, according to VARIETY, Law¬ the air/space stewardesses -- unlike xim virginu m rence Saunders' TOMORROW FILES is the much-ogled-at Schwartz. "What looking for a cast and director, and 'It means "eleven thousand vir¬ Silverberg is saying -- if I read is going to be a movie! I loved gin martyrs". (At which my daughter him correctly and I usually do -- that book and remember reading your exclaimed, "There aren't 11,000 vir¬ is that science fiction in any era review which was quite favorable.' gins!" Such cynicism!) is going to be a junk medium.*' 'But what would a scholar five ’Oh, marvellously witty! But is centuries hence make of a miraculous¬ it quite fair to present this wily ly preserved SFR?' fictional proof to foreign readers # LETTER FROM JOHN SILBERSACK (Italians in this case) who mightn't SENIOR EDITOR be in on the joke? They might just (fProbably a fire.)) BERKLEY PUBLISHING CORPORATION really take it as "The Way It Is"... 200 Madison Avenue, New York, in which case Italians would seem to New York, 10016. have no more substantial reality for May 16, 1980 the author than Schwartz's Antareans or Capellans. Still, a cunning fic¬ 'I'd like to clear up a very un¬ tion this — albeit cruel to its fortunate situation regarding the readers.' Phantasia Press edition of Philip

46 ((The truth is always cruel. And since 90% of every medium is junk, 'At all events, our tower isn't 'Of course, nothing over here is Barry is correct. But, then, it 500 years old after all. More like as old as much of the scenery in ail depends on one's definition of 200. Sorry.' South Petherton; only man-made struc¬ junk...and whether there can be tures of comparable age in this good junk as well as bad. country would be the Indian mounds, ((Whatthehell, what's ZOO years be¬ ((Personally, I like certain and while there are quite a few of tween friends?)) kinds of junk. Good, well-made, un¬ those in Indiana, there aren't any pretentious junk has its place in locally. But age is important most¬ culture, and some of it lasts an ly to tourists and the tradition- astonishingly long time.)) minded, and John doesn't really strike me as either one (Well, he # LETTER FROM ROBERT S COULSON could be a tourist, but not in his Route #3 home town. ' Hartford City, IN, 47348 May 9, 1980 '(Oh, yes; we don't get fish de¬ livered to our door -- but we do # CARD FROM RAY NELSON 'Surprise! Comments from me on get milk and bread, and we're 7 333 Ramona Avenue SFR #35. miles from the nearest town ....) El Cerrito, CA, 94530 'You missed a point in your May, 1980 'The Brunner article was inter¬ esting because it wasn't all that prediction of "manhives". With computer-directed robots performing 'Public acceptance of science many years ago, when I was touting the actual labor, why do you need fiction seems to bring forth strange the rural life, that he told me that workers living close to the factor¬ contortions in the "SF ghetto" men¬ he needed the atmosphere of a big ies at all? String some wires and tality, as we see in Malzberg's THE city to spark his creativity. Admit¬ you can program a conputer from your WAY IT IS. Once we liked to say tedly, I haven't seen all that much home. Barring the invention of a science fiction was too good for work from him lately, but if he re¬ matter transmitter, the problems of the big world out there. Now Malz- tired I missed the notice. food delivery may require most peop¬ berg is telling us it is too crappy. 'His guests from Dayton don't le to live in small-to-medium-sized 'Either way, SF remains our lit¬ seem to have known much about mid- towns, but electric wires take care tle thing, we happy few who might western small towns, but I suppose of work and recreation. Food deliv¬ be able to understand the real that's par for the course with city ery is theoretically simpler to smal¬ thing if it came along. However, types, particularly the liberal ler separated communities than in his list of five taboos has given creative sort. "... maybe a gas one oversized glob of humanity, where me plot germs for my next five books station," eh? Well, we live 7 miles congestion defeats the purpose of so I guess I ought to thank him.' from Montpelier, Indiana, which is physical proximity. Suburbs may also a bit under 3,000 population well die, but be replaced by the ((Do s-f plot germs qualify as a (pop. 2093 in the 1970 census, if large town or small city rather than social disease?)) we want to be precise). I see noth¬ the "hive". ing in John's list that isn't avail¬ able in Montpelier except a hospit¬ 'Might as well nitpick Brunner's al -- the only hospital in this letter, too. I quote from the AMER¬ county is in Hartford City (popula¬ ICAN HERITAGE DICTIONARY: "rise tion 8207 in 1970), which is the (riz) v. rose (roz), risen (rizen), # LETTER FROM JOHN BRUNNER only other town in the county. rising, rises. -- intr. 1. To as¬ The Square House, Palmer Street sume a standing position after ly¬ South Petherton, Somerset 'On the other hand, Montpelier ing, sitting, or kneeling. 2. To United Kingdom TA13 5DB does contain a furniture store that get out of bed." And so on. "To 24th May 1980 will sell you the "heavy consumer rebel" is definition 19. durables" that he mentions South 'Of course, in Europe the stu¬ 'I have been more or less gent¬ Petherton not having. Or, if the furniture store doesn't have the it¬ dent rising (or rebellion) is a ly taken to task by a friend who is fairly common part of the culture, something of an expert on ballgames em desired, the hardware store prob¬ ably will. And John doesn't mention but it isn't here. The English have and indeed has just published a this casual assumption that their booklet concerning the "fives" game South Petherton having its own news¬ paper; Montpelier does. Plus a way is the only way there is. (Yes, played around here, which I refer¬ I know what he means, but some of us red to in my piece about South Peth- grain elevator, lumber yard, auto repair facilities (several of those do think first of traditional gram¬ in addition to a half-dozen gas sta¬ mar and second, if at all, of revol¬ 'The "fives tower", or "pallotty tions), a couple of small factories, utionary oratory.) wall", can't be as old as I believ¬ school, an annual art show in ad¬ 'Oh, well. Brunner is still one ed. The game itself is a lot older dition to the annual carnival, etc. of the best writers, but I don't than I thought --he cites a refer¬ want him getting smug about it.' ence in 1278! -- but apparently un¬ '1 have serious doubts that sim¬ til comparatively recent times it ilar-sized towns in Ohio contain few¬ was always played against the church er amenities; I have severe doubts ((The usual future for robots and tower itself. Purpose-built walls that John's guests knew what they man is work for the robots and leis¬ came in only about two centuries ago. were talking about. ure for mankind. But mass use of 'I suppose from the date given, robots will only compensate for the 'And that was chiefly because of increased costs of raw materials. damage caused by the ball: at Taun¬ the English John mention¬ ed was the Cromwellian one; Cavaliers Human workers will (as you say) be ton Sessions in 1633 people complain¬ forced more and more into service ed about broken windows, "much tor- and Roundheads. Of course, England's Wars of the Roses and even Bonny jobs-mental jobs-jobs involving ren and defaced to the great dislike the care and feeding of (in this of the inhabitants, especially those Prince Charlie and the Jacobites could be also considered civil wars, country, at least) hundreds of whose seats were adjoyning, by rea¬ millions of unemployed and unemploy¬ son of the foul drift in the weathei". but maybe they don't count. 47 able morons and dull-normals. The costs of food distribution, power # LETTER FROM JOEL DAVIS # LETTER ROM JOHN W. THOMSON and shelter for the people will force President and Publisher POB #291 society to seek the cheapest forms Davis Publications, Inc. Palm Desert, CA, 92260 of warehousing: existing big cities 380 Lexington Avenue changed into manhives. Only the New York, NY, 10017 'The epigrams by Malzberg struck upper middle-class and the, wealthy May 12, 1980 a nerve because I've been an epi- and a lucky few others will live gramite for years. Here's a few for Outside...in those ideal little ham¬ 'I thought it might be worth¬ your collection: lets full of electronic convenience. while to comment on your article 'If you call a tail a leg, how ((This is the trend, as I see it referring to our recent purchase of ANALOG in your Edition #35. many legs has a dog? Five? No I developing. Calling a tail a leg doesn't make ((The robots are very expensive, 'I must tell you in all honesty it a leg. —Abraham Lincoln and their use will force greater uni¬ that I share with the loyal readers formity of product to get the most of ANALOG, not to mention the loyal 'Write 'til thy ink be dry and work-life from the robot. Product readers of ISAAC ASIMOV, their con¬ with your tears, moist it again. changes will be minimized and new cern over the non-wrapper situation —William Shakespeare products will be fewer. There will on subscription copies. If the 'All that stands between most be a greater and greater conoentia- problem were easily solved I assure men and the top of the ladder is tion of ownership/control of produc¬ you that we would have solved it, the ladder. —Anon tion, greater and greater centraliza¬ but unfortunately that is not the tion of government. 'Junk expands to fill any given ((There certainly will be great volume. —Thompson's law 'Very simply, the printer that leisure but it'll be much like the we use on all of our digest maga¬ 'Have you considered that the leisure of a prison. The manhives zines utilizes an outside mailing light at the end of the tunnel may will develop some remarkable cultur¬ house to perform the subscription be an onrushing train? —Anon al and social phenomena.)) mailing operation. Unfortunately, 'Applause is the echo of a plat¬ this firm does not have the equip¬ itude. —Ambrose Bierce ment necessary to affix the wrapper. We are hopeful that in the beginning 'One of these days is none of of 1981 the printer will have pur¬ these days. —Anon # CARD FROM BOB LEMAN chased the necessary equipment to do 'Democracy substitutes election 2615 Broad Street this operation himself which will by the incompetent many for appoint¬ Bethel Park, PA, 15102 obviously simplify matters. ment by the corrupt few. —G.B. Shaw June 22, 1980 'We are attempting to place the 'Better a good enemy than a bad label over the UPC symbol which friend. —Yiddish Proverb 'I think notice should be taken will of course not deface the art¬ in your pages (and wherever else work but still remain on the front 'Forgive your enemies but first possible in the microcosm) that THE cover. It is obviously impossible get even. —Irish Proverb NEW YORKER has a review in its June to place it on the back cover be¬ 23 issuer of Ursula LeGuin's THE BE¬ 'An honest man does not make him¬ cause of our fourth cover advertis¬ GINNING PLACE, by no less a person¬ self a dog for the sake of a bone. er who would hardly want his adver¬ —Danish Proverb age than John Updike. It's a highly tising message obliterated by a lab¬ laudatory review, and -- I have to el. We are also looking into the 'No one is satisfied with his for¬ say -- probably more perceptive than possibility of a peelable label, tune nor dissatisfied with his in¬ anything likely to be seen in SF's although as yet we have not been tellect . —French Proverb regular review media, unless A.J. successful in locating one. 'Wouldn' th' way things are go- Budrys or possibly Malzberg reviews in' these days make a fine argyment it. He lumps her with Bradbury and 'To insure the best possible Vonnegut, says she recently passed condition of both ANALOG and ISAAC in favor of woman suffrage if we didn' already have it?—F.M. Hubbard through the same "cultural space- ASIMOV to our subscribers, we have warp" they did into the mainstream. utilized a stiffer cover in order 'When the audience comes to see Okay. Maybe that sort of thing to protect the copy and although us authors lecture, it is largely doesn't help the genre, per se, but this does not directly answer the in the hope that we'll be funnier it can't hurt, and it's great for problem of the defaced front cover, to look at than to read. her. it at least protects the most impor¬ —Sinclair Lewis' tant ingredient we have, namely, 'Updike calls it "sci-fi", and the editorial content. condescends, but not to her.' 'In closing, I do appreciate your comments in the latter part of ((Updike welcomed Ursula to the thin the article and I am hopeful that creek known as American Literature we will eventually be able to cor¬ (Modern) which is held fiercely in rect this particular labeling prob¬ the clutching hands of a coterie of lem to everyone's satisfaction.' academics and fashionable writers. She has the family, academic, liter¬ ary, schooling and writing credent¬ ials to join the club. Now maybe ((Thank you for the information. As she can bore from within....)) a matter of record: the 'Comment' in SFR #35, in Elton Elliott's news col¬ umn, was Elton's, not mine. He raised some tough, legitimate concerns, and I'm glad you could respond to them.))

48 LETTERS CONTINUED ON PAGE 51 ROBERT A. HEINLEIN INTERVIEW CONDUCTED BY DAVID A. TRUESDALE

Robert A. Heinlein's triumphant tain the ship (along with the bor¬ return to the town of his birth, ing and repeated inner-workings as Butler, Missouri, was, in his own to how the ship. Gay Deceiver, would words, a "day I will never forget". jump from one universe to the next), April 17th was proclaimed Robert I felt were so much wasted space. Heinlein Day in the small farm com¬ In short, I found the book to be munity (pop. 3,984) and the entire nothing more than an overlong work¬ town turned out to greet their fav¬ ing exercise, a study in how to he- orite son, the SF world's first ac¬ come proficient in auctorial over- knowledged Grand Master of the form. indulgence. I have rarely read so poor an effort from so good a writ¬ Even as short a time as one year er, and am left with the hope that ago, however, such a festive occas¬ his next novel has to be better. ion would have been at best dampen¬ ed, at worst difficult to bring off I spoke with Mr. Heinlein as at all, for science fiction's most he was signing autographs for fans influential author was in poor health in Butler, kneeling beside him with and admittedly senile. As Guest of ny cassette picking up anything and Honor at the World Science Fiction everything -- from crowd noise to Convention hosted in Kansas City in his pleasantries with well-wishers 1976 he appeared but a walking sim- and fans, and yes, even my few ques¬ ulacre of his former self. Dif¬ tions and answers. Despite my ad¬ ficult, forgetful, rambling, he was verse feelings toward THE NUMBER OF even roundly booed while in the midst THE BEAST, I was totally taken with of his Guest of Honor speech follow¬ Heinlein and was grateful for the ing some reactionary remarks he rare opportunity to speak with him. had made. Herewith, our brief conversation: Then, last year, thanks to one of the miracles of modem science SFR: Why was the detailed, repeat¬ that in years gone by would have ed explanations as to the program¬ seemed science fictional itself, ming of the computer Gay Deceiver Mid-aftemoon saw Heinlein pre¬ Heinlein was not only restored to each time the ship "jumped" from sented with several plaques during a full health and mental alertness but one alternate universe to another? reception at City Hall (one from has now produced a new novel, THE Were the mechanics for each jump the Kansas City Science Fiction and NUMBER OF THE BEAST, and a retros¬ necessary? Fantasy Society, bestowing upon him pective collection of stories forth¬ lifetime membership). He then grac¬ coming this summer, EXPANDED UNI¬ HEINLEIN: I didn't realize I had iously signed scores of autographs VERSE. The latter will probably be explained it too much. I felt it for enthusiastic fans and even grant¬ the closest thing to an autobio¬ was necessary to show how they swap¬ ed several interviews with visiting graphy we will ever see from the ped around. I thought it was nec¬ media representatives, a boon that 72-year-old Heinlein. essary, that's all. reporters who vainly attempted to As detailed by Heinlein in the interview him several years ago March issue of OMNI magazine, it will readily appreciate. Following was a dangerous and delicate brain a semi-private dinner, the rejuven¬ SFR: There seemed endless bicker¬ operation involving micro-laser ated Heinlein attended a public ing among the four protagonists as surgery to by-pass a blocked artery meeting at the Butler public lib¬ to who would captain Gay Deceiver. that saved him. rary, rounding off a thoroughly re¬ There were at least four changes of warding day for those lucky enough command, each time preceded by pages Having just returned the prev¬ to have attended. of arguing and decision-making that ious day from his fourth global seemed to slow the development of cruise from which he was in conval¬ Having just finished a bound set the book. Any reason for this? escence, the chipper and jovial Hein¬ of uncorrected advance proofs of lein privately began his day by vis¬ THE NUMBER OF THE BEAST I was most HEINLEIN: 1,16 story was intended iting the Bates County Museum, then anxious to speak with Mr. Heinlein to be entertaining. I did not set enjoyed a luncheon with relatives about the book. To be quite honest, out to teach any lessons. I set out prior to speaking to students at I felt the book to be terribly over- to entertain. If it entertained you Butler High School. He then sat in long. There was no plot to speak of, then, it was successful. review while a brief parade consist¬ the characters were flat, interchange¬ ing of a marching band, several able and difficult to relate to on theme floats and local groups wound any reasonable level, and what Mr. SPR; You seemed to have had a lot its way around Butler Square to pay Heinlein felt to be amusing, those of fun while writing this book, es¬ homage to their hometown hero, who irritating bickerings among the four pecially so in the latter chapters accepted the tribute with smiles and protagonists as to who would cap- when so many SF personalities were applause, obviously pleased with name-dropped in. Was it a particu¬ the whole affair. 49 larly fun book for you to write? HEINLEIN: oh> 1 had fun in siting SFR; Would you say a little about SFR: Could you tell a little about that book. Sometimes writing can the novel upcoming, after THE NUMB¬ your brain surgery? become a bit tedious, but that was ER OF THE BEAST? a fun one practically all the way HEINLEIN: Get hold of the March is¬ through. HEINLEIN: I never have anything to sue of ONMI. I have an article in say about a book until after I've there that's based on the testimony SFR: On one of the worlds Zebediah finished it and it's ready for pub¬ I gave before Congress. It has all and the crew briefly visited you lication. I do have a retrospective the details that a layman would be once again professed the belief that collection appearing in July, and interested in, plus a reference to there is justice in strict punish¬ it's the closest thing to an auto¬ the technical description of the ment for criminals - - and even go so biography I expect to write. It's operation. They sawed through my far as to have this particular alt¬ called EXPANDED UNIVERSE. skull right here (pointing to the ernate world's police cripple a hit- left temporal region), went in and and-run convict by breaking his legs SFR: How do you feel about critics rearranged the arteries. I was se¬ with a drawn cart. Hasn't history and reviewers? nile before that. It's one of those shown that "eye-for-an-eye" retribu¬ go-for-broke operations. They eith¬ tion doesn't deter crime? HEINLEIN: You've read THE NUMBER OF er fix you up or they kill you; that THE BEAST? You'll find the answer was the bet. I took the ganfcle and HEINLEIN: 1 have portrayed all in the last chapter. won. sorts of cultures in the course of my stories. I don't necessarily SFR: You don't hold many of them favor that particular culture per se. in the highest regard then, do you? SFR: Are you a gambler? But I do believe in punishment. I do not think that our present method HEINLEIN: I have never seen any¬ HEINLEIN: You have to be a bom of patting criminals on the head thing that was ever any use to me gambler if you want to be a free¬ and saying, "Now, dear boy, don't do from a critic; nothing that would lance writer. it again" works. We have too many enable me to write a better book the people comnitting murders who've al¬ next time. SFR: And an optimist? ready committed murders. Out in Cal¬ ifornia we've got 'em by platoons. SFR: Several years ago, Phil Klass-- HEINLEIN: Not necessarily. I tend And I don't think that history has to be a pessimist rather than an shown that retribution doesn't work. HEINLEIN: The one who's a college optimist, except for an abiding con¬ One thing that history does prove is professor? viction that the human race is too that if you hang a murderer he nev¬ tough to kill. er commits another murder. History SFR: Yes. In an argument he had has proved that. with you many years ago, he expres¬ sed the view that the liberated so¬ SFR: Do you think the human race SFR; It seems as if, after briefly cial structure in STRANGER IN A deserves to spread itself among the introducing the evil aliens, the STRANGE LAND was correct for the stars? "Black Hats", that you just dropped short term, but definitely not for them from the book (for all intents the long run. You espouse this same HEINLEIN: There's no "deserve" about and purposes). Aside from sporadic, sexually liberated viewpoint in NUM¬ it; it's whether or not you can do brief referrals to them during the BER. What do you think of his as¬ it. Since the human race has re¬ course of the book, was there a rea¬ sessment? mained mean, ornery, stubborn for son you ignored them? Were they all these many, many millennia, I really necessary? HEINLEIN: I say it's a bunch of assume there must be survival value twaddle. in it. I do not expect us to be¬ HEINLEIN: I thought they were nec¬ come sweetness and light. If we essary' or I wouldn't have put them SFR: Do you keep up with the sci¬ ever become sweetness and light why, in there. ence fiction being written today? move over, dinosaurs, here we come.

SFR: In your GoH speech at MidAmer- SFR: N°w that science fiction has HIENLEIN: Oh, yes, I've just fin¬ icon in 1976 you said you believed blossomed economically, do you be¬ ished A HERITAGE OF STARS by Clif¬ this planet was all used up and we lieve, as Fred Pohl does, that Big¬ ford Simak. Everything Cliff Simak should find another place to live. ness may indeed be Bad for a writer? does is good. The man’s very intel¬ Does what you just expressed go al¬ ligent, and he always does a good ong with this view? Do you still HEINLEIN: I don't see why it should job. believe it's time we moved on? be bad or good. There has always been a market for anybody who really had good stuff to print.

SFR: You don’t think it spoils a writer into writing only what the audience wants, instead of being creative?

HEINLEIN: You have a hidden pre¬ mise in your question. You assume that writing what the audience wants is not being creative. You have to be extremely creative to write what the audience wants, instead of writ¬ ing what everybody else is and the audience is tired of. HEINLEIN: 1 believe very strongly LETTERS CONTINUED FROM PAGE H8 ((I knew it wouldn't work all the that we've got to get viable colon¬ time! Thanks for the math and ies on other planets for the safety scientific reasons. Several other of the race. We know that even if correspondents wrote to make the # LETTER FROM ROBERT A. BLOCH we don't blow up this planet now, 2111 Sunset Crest Drive same points, more or less.)) that eventually it's going to be Los Angeles, CA, 90046 worn out, that our star is going to CON? May 2, 1980 be worn out; that if we expect to live for the next 30 billion years 'Reading the review of THE SCI¬ we've got to have more room and more ENCE FICTION ENCYCLOPEDIA, one sent¬ baskets for our eggs. We can be ence intrigued me -- "Open any page wiped out on one planet by natural at random and you’ll probably learn catastrophes as well as man-made something you didn't know". How catastrophes, so we need to have true! I opened it to page 216 and # LETTER FROM DR. DEAN R. LANBE more places to live. Route 1, Northlake learned Ralph Milne Farley was a Vincent, OH, 45784 state senator from Wisconsin. Even 10 May 1980 SFR: D° you stay abreast of all Farley himself never knew that; he the new developments in the sciences? always told me lie' d served in Massa¬ '#35 arrived yesterday; seemed chusetts. HEINLEIN: i work very hard at it. a little late but nothing about the As Alice said in THROUffl THE LOOK¬ 'Page 446 informs me that Ray Post Awful surprises me anymore. ING GLASS, you have to run as fast Palmer, when appointed editor of This issue seemed shorter, somehow; as you can just to stay in one place. , was a Chicago res¬ don't know why, although there didn't The art is increasing much faster ident. By golly, that imposter liv¬ seem to be near enough Alien Thoughts than I'm able to keep up with it. ing in Milwaukee sure had me fool¬ and putting all the letters together ed! into one lump felt strange. Funny, as you strive to un-clutter your SR: Do you think, as Arthur C. 'On Page 58 I discover that J.G. cover, OMNI does the opposite. Must Clarke does, that those alive in Ballard coined the term "inner have a word with Bova about that, as the year 2000 will most likely be space" in 1962. .And here I thought the OMNI cover lines are obviously able to live another 100 or 200 I heard it first in a several-times produced at a different time than years? reprinted speech issuing from the the final contents, and the contrast mouth of the 1948 Worldcon's Guest is getting silly. HEINLEIN: It's possible. I think of Honor, who happened to be me! the time is coming when the question of how long we will live will be a 'I'm afraid that as a reliable 'Having done two separate re¬ matter of personal choice, but I reference, this book is a crock. views of the new Heinlein, I must don't know when that will be and Hoping you are the same disagree with both you and Pinto. I'm not qualified to have an opinion. While I freely admit that my notes ((I want to say this to the American on THE NUMBER OF THE BEAST include: SFR: "bat do you feel about cryo¬ people: I am not a crock!)) "Agh, the rumors are true, H. is genics? senile!" and "Only H. could have ((I am, however, half-crocked gotten this mess past a publisher!", HEINLEIN: (Chuckling) Pretty chil¬ some of the time.)) I soon got past that point and start¬ ly. In TINE FOR THE STARS I sug¬ ed laughing again. I left that book gest one use for it -- not original with the warm feeling that he wrote with me -- that cryogenics could be it just for us in the SF community, used to put a man on the shelf un¬ # LETTER FROM JOHN E BAER with full knowledge that while he til science or medicine has solved 6039 Hazelwood Lane may have made a successful end-run Bellevue, WA, 98006 the problem. around one blocked artery, he still May 8, 1980 could drop dead at any moment. Ever SR; Have you ever considered be¬ seen the stuff Picasso did in his ing frozen? 'A note on the proposal by Rich last frantic years? Methinks mor¬ Dodge (SFR #35, p. 53): I'm afraid tality is a heavy, nay, wordy and his theory is too good to be true. HEINLEIN: I hadn't planned on it. turgid, burden when you ain't got I plan on being cremated. The flaw is that relativistic velo¬ cities do not add in the normal man¬ ner, namely: 'Should the book have been 30,000 words thinner? Perhaps, yet V3 = V1 + V2 • I'd have hated to miss something SR: One final question, please. Do you have any feelings one way or 'but rather: that soon may be irreplaceable. Of course, "Joe Smith" couldn't have the other --to change the topic from science fiction for a moment -- V3 = (V1 + V2)/(1 + V1V2 3 published it; no "Joe Smith" has on the Iranian situation? About been as pivotal a part of the his¬ tory of American SF and could have President Carter's handling of it? 'So that if we have V1 = he and as much fun saying so in the final chapters. Happiness is a warm Hein¬ HEINLEIN: This is not a political V = 3c/4, then V is NOT 5c/4, but lein, and since Lazarus Long is too interview, and I am hindered by the only 10c/ll (always less than c). much of an independent cuss to sit situation from using scatological Therefore, the electrons in Rich's in a rocking chair next to his neuro¬ language, so let's leave, the matter torus do not restrict the freefall alone. (A short pause) I'm sore velocity of the torus; the torus surgeon, why don't we all chip in as hell. can fall at any speed (less than c) and get him a portable satellite without the electrons moving faster data link and MedEvac chopper. Geez, and NEWSWEEK thinks Johnny Carson is SFR: Thank you very much, Mr. Hein- than light. The removal of that vi¬ lein. tal link destroys the further reas- a "national treasure". ' YOU GOT NO FRIENDS IN THIS WORLD A Review Of Short Fiction By Orson Scott Card

I am burned out. The type has what my successor writes because ed to heaven merely by showing a bit become rhythmic repetitions of old such an overall, superficial guide of remorse, whereupon the whimsical familiar shapes; I read and nothing to current short fiction does fill elevator, in God's place, restores enters my head. For salvation I have a need. her to her proper home); or may be turned to reading eighteenth-century satirizing typical happy endings; essays and poetry, trying to recover I just can't read stories that and certainly carries on the origin¬ by immersing myself in Swift, Pope, way anymore. I can't write that way al irony by being the world the im¬ Addison and Steele. anymore. plied author thinks our world ought A TALE OF THREE STORIES: to be, but isn't. (Levels under lev¬ It is not that the stories have els: The implied author paints this got worse -- they haven't. Nor have In this last column, instead of ideal world with such broad strokes, I lost the ability to discern good and it is such a hackneyed liberal from bad in science fiction. What's an overview, I want to talk about only a few stories, the three pieces utopia, that one is either depressed changed are my definitions of good at the banality of the author's vis¬ and bad, what I look for in a story. of fiction in the May, 1980, issue of ONNI: "Josie and the Elevator", ion or confident that the real auth¬ At once my definitions have grown or, at one remove, is sneering even looser and tighter. by Thomas M. Disch; "Men Like Us", by David Drake; and "Some of Nfy- Best at the heaven in the story.) Looser, because the "goodness" Friends", by Francois Camoin. "Men Like Us" begins with three or "badness" of a story depends on men approaching a village; one of what the reader wants. Action? My guess is that few readers will like all three. Some, of them, Smith, goes on ahead. The vil¬ Thought? Beautiful language? Irony? lage is powered by a nuclear gener¬ A convincing milieu? Awe? Cathar¬ course, will like none; most will like one or two; but rare indeed is ator, one of the few surviving since sis? All are perfectly legitimate the holocaust. The author rather things to look for in literature, the reader so schizophrenic as to be pleased by all of them. clumsily lays the groundwork for us and no two readers look for exactly to believe in the existence of some the same proportion of satisfaction "Josie and the Elevator" is the people somehow miraculously changed in each area -- nor do I, on any cynical, ironic story of a spoiled by the nuclear explosions of the war two days, look for exactly the same brat named Josie who vandalizes an to become immortal shape-changers, combination. Where is the impartial elevator, which sends her to hell as implacably opposed to the prolifera¬ standard? a punishment. Hell is a very nasty tion of nuclear power. And, to no Tighter, because through years place: "exactly like the world we one's surprise. Smith and his com- of editing badly written articles all live in, the only difference be¬ rads turn out to be Changelings, and and reading students' stories, I ing that everyone you meet there is in a bang-up action-adventure ending primarily read science fiction now completely inconsiderate and rude. they wreck the power plant. from a diagnostic point of view: Judging by appearances, they are the What is the writer trying to do, same people you knew above, but they where does he fail and how can he behave quite differently, which Jos¬ "Some of Best Friends" is a fix it? This is fine for helping ie was soon to discover". The story quietly written story of a one-hand¬ students get control of their stor¬ is, of course, ironic: Hell is not ed American trying to survive in a ies. It's even appropriate for ed¬ at all different from where we are New York City run by Arabs under Mis- iting an anthology. But it isn't now. In fact, when Josie at last lim law, where being a Jew is a cap¬ particularly helpful for reviewing returns to her real home, it is a ital offense and those who don't col¬ short fiction. quite unrealistic heaven, which may laborate are treated like scum. The be satirizing the Christian idea of voice is subdued, and events unfold¬ This short-fiction review colunn repentance and grace (she is restor¬ ed without fireworks, until through as I envisioned it and largely as I carried it out, is not diagnostic at all. A reviewer's stance is not that of a teacher -- it's that of a guide to the reader. In this colunn I had to speak to readers, not to writers. And the more I learned, the less I had to say to readers. It became frustrating to stand outside Hell like a cowardly Virgil, pointing at the entrance and telling Dante, "There's a bunch of circles in there, lots of suffering, a few familiar faces, and good luck". Not that the colunn hasn't been worth doing. I hope someone else will carry it on in my place -- Dick assures me that there is already a queue of readers who thought ny taste was execrable and wanted to show how it should be done -- and I will read an almost' inevitable accident the tific flaw or one inconsistency, and events, or toss in machines that narrator is caught stealing and los¬ the illusion shatters, we throw the aren't explained or ignore the so¬ es his other hand. Ironically, he book or magazine across the room and cial or historical background, and has actually been involved in a con¬ we write angry letters and reviews we become convinced that the writer spiracy against the Arab rulers, for because the world was not habitable; is too stupid to satisfy us and we which he could be subject to the the milieu was not convincing. go on looking for a writer who has death penalty, yet it is not for his ideas. actual crimes but for an accidental 2. Some readers are looking for fun -- for the sudden twist, the non-crime that he is punished. With¬ 5. Some readers are looking for out gimmicks, the narrator speaks dazzling effect, the punch ending. We look to literature as we would a joyously personal voice: a Vonne- affectingly: "It wasn't going to gut who laughs at everything until hurt, I told myself. I hugged my look to an amusement park -- for a little fear, a sudden plunge, an ex¬ he weeps, a tiredly intellectual hand. I thought about the palm Disch, a mad and gleeful Lafferty, trees (in California) and that won¬ plosion, a wild spin and then every¬ thing neatly wrapped up when the an impetuously sentimental Bradbury. derful, warm blue ocean. There Let a writer withdraw his voice from would only be the prick of the need¬ ride's over. But let a story leave something hanging, let the danger be the work and we get bored, for it's le and then the numb feeling that the conspiracy of reader and writer crept slowly up the arm. No real unfrightening, the twist predictable and slow and we impatiently move on we're looking for, someone to put pain. I thought about the beaches. our own feelings into a voice that The naked women walking. The sea." to the next story, hoping that this time we'll get the thrills. might be our own, so that we ident¬ Under normal circumstances, I ify, not with the characters, but probably would have reviewed only 3. Some readers are looking for with the implied author of the story, the Camoin story, because it was the self. Not, of course, their own self seeing the world as he sees it and only one that satisfied me as being or the author's self, but the self of taking pleasure from at last finding an excellent work of art-that was a character they can identify with, a kindred spirit. one with nobility enough for them to worth reading. The Drake story is 6. Some readers are looking for seriously flawed; the Disch story language, the well-made sentence, is so over-ironized that it negates flowing paragraph, the apt metaphor, itself and gives me nothing. and when a writer is clumsy or vague Yet all three of these stories or pedestrian, we get inpatient and were purchased by an editor -- prob¬ go on to someone who knows his way ably by the same editor, though I around the English language. can't be sure where Bova leaves off 7. Others are looking for cath¬ and Sheckley begins in the selection arsis, however that's achieved --a of (Mil's fiction. As my writing profound emotional experience that students pointed out last quarter: cleanses us and yet lingers in the All three stories were obviously memory like an unrequited love. We good enough to sell, and that's good reread the works that gave this ex¬ enough for us. And if two of them perience to us, trying to remenber; aren't very good, why were they and when we read stories that ach¬ bought? ieve only lesser things, we are in¬ Why do you read? evitably disappointed. Which leads directly to a digres¬ 8. All of us, I think, are sion. When you and I approach the looking for story, or we would not reading of science fiction, what are turn to fiction in the first place. we looking for? The tale, the myth, the series of wish to behinv with flaws enough for events happening to the same person 1. Some readers are looking for them to believe they might become or people or group -- that alone a convincing, satisfying milieu. him, with initiative enough to change draws us in, however else we might Some call this reason for reading his own life, with doubts enough for hope to derive our satisfaction. escapism, but that's a pejorative them to fear for him. In short, we History satisfies much of our need and I don't think it really fits. who read for self are looking for a for story, but it has the drawback The frontier is gone in America, and character to whom we can give, not of being true, so that it never ach¬ with it the space, the anarchy that just love, but a portion of our ieves closure. The Civil War does the frontier has always provided. self-love, and from whose experienc¬ not end at Appamatox, it lingers on Where in America today can anyone es we can grow as if they were our even in racial conflicts, contempt find a place to be a hero? Kissing¬ own. But let the character be shal¬ for Southerners, party aligranents. er finally got his lone-cowboy dream low or unmotivated or too good or Did the Norman Conquest begin with fulfilled, but how many others? too bad or, God forbid, let him be William's birth, or with Edward's Those of us who do not fit well with¬ thrown away meaninglessly or left in exile in Normandy, or with Rolf's in organizations and clubs and groups pointless despair, and we feel des¬ trip up the Seine? Fiction, howev¬ and families, where is our home? So pair, and we feel personally offend¬ er, imposes order on events. Only we look for fiction as a place to go ed by the author, for it is our own certain characters are involved and home to. Wild adventures in space, self he had denigrated. not others; only certain events ap¬ travel through time, trips into fan¬ ply and not others; only certain in¬ tasy worlds -- but all with this in 4. Some readers are looking for formation is necessary and not other; common: The milieu that satisfies philosophy and ideas, and are uncon¬ and at the end, with even the most us is the one where the individual's cerned with the story itself except vague story, there is some sort of choices make all the difference. as it reveals a utopia or a dystopia closure, and when we put the story We'll put up with a nincompoop like or a theory or a machine or a hist¬ down, we know there is no more. Be¬ Conan, a noncharacter like Spock or ory or a language or -- whatever the cause a story is an artifact, it Skywalker, silly plots and pedestrian reader is entranced by. But let a can be held and used. language, just so the world is rich story deal with mere characters or and real and convincing. But let a S3 The Reviewer's Impossible Quest: speculative world contain one scien¬ It is not just that you and I For all that I found "Josie" negat¬ inevitably different from yours, why are looking for different things to ive and trivial, as an editor I should I review? My answer might satisfy us. It is also that we find might have bought the story. If I seem to be, I shouldn't -- after all, it inpossible to agree even on which wanted to be snide, I could suspect this is my last column. But then -- stories satisfy which desires. I that it was bought because Disch is I'm still hoping someone will carry love both beautiful language and id¬ in among the artsy set. In fairness, on the idea of reviewing the best iosyncratic voice; and yet, though iiowever, I must admit that I could short fiction, reading all of it in I'm told Disch has both, I find him conceive of buying it myself, in order to sift out those stories dissatisfying on both counts. And part because I would know there was worthy of comment. It's not because while it is painfully obvious that an audience for it, in part because, I believe the next reviewer will "Josie and the Elevator" means to be despite the weakness of the whole, have a vision superior to mine -- philosophical, to me the philosophy it does have intriguing ideas and different, certainly, but what I see of unstable, open-ended irony is mor¬ some entertaining moments and, after I see fairly well. It's because not ally equivalent to nihilism and I reading a slushpile for several everyone can be a Virgil, leading am repelled. I am sure, however, hours, turning to a professionally Dante through Hell and Purgatory and that there are other readers -- per¬ written story would be a great sat¬ Paradise, pointing out every feature haps Disch himself -- who would be isfaction despite the emptiness of along the way. Some of us also must baffled at ny reading of the story the story itself. serve as mere signs, saying, "Aban¬ and be convinced that I simply did¬ don hope, all ye who enter here". And even though I found "Men" n't understand what was going on. clumsily executed and implausible I'm quitting because I no longer How can I argue with them? and predictable, I might have bought enjoy filling that role -- but it's I am as susceptible to action it, too. After all, the writing is, not because the role should not be and adventure, to fun and thrills word for word and sentence for sent¬ filled. as anyone -- why else did I enjoy ence, competent. There are some ele¬ And it is not just for readers STAR WARS so much? (Parenthetically, that reviews should be continued. much of what I liked about SW was Writers send out their stories into the directorial voice, Lucas's cons¬ absolute silence, except for the re¬ cious and clever parody of old-time views. No applause, just the sil¬ SF.) Yet, character means more to ence of turning pages, the magazine me, and because in "Men Like Us" and anthology sales figures that say Smith was nothing more than a body nothing about the individual story. occupying a place in a series of Sometimes it is better even to be events manipulated by the author, criticized negatively than to be I didn't give a damn. Philosophical¬ left in silence: I would rather ly I did not approve of blowing up know that I was read and hated than the power source for a comnunity; to be treated courteously and never nor did I believe in the plausibility read at all. As Samuel Johnson de¬ of the Changelings, which rather scribed those of Us who write: ruined the story. And the twist Drake tried for, the "surprise", was "Prodigious madness of the predictable and pedestrian to me. writing race! Yet there are doubtless others who Ardent of fame, yet fear¬ thought the Changelings a marvelous less of disgrace." idea, were utterly surprised and are now writing letters to Drake plead¬ ments in the story that can't help Negative reviews can sting, es¬ ing for more Changeling stories, but grab an audience: the crucified pecially when the critic gets cute which will soon be out in a collec¬ frog at the opening (though not a and writes his invective more to tion, quickly to be followed by "an¬ damn thing is done with it); Smith's show his own cleverness than to il¬ other fine novel in the Changeling being forced to strip in front of a luminate the story that he pretends series". If, of course, there are crowd of strangers (always a good is his subject. But the real sting enough such readers. Who am I to thing to do if you want the reader of bad reviews is that they might tell them they are wrong? to identify with your hero's vulner¬ well be true, something that is hard ability and unshakeable confidence). for the fragile ego of the creator And even though I found the nar¬ to bear. Nevertheless, the writer rator of "Some of My Best Friends The foreshadowing of the Changelings only seems clumsy to me because it has to bear it, because it is ines¬ Are Americans" believable, likeable, capable that even the best of writ¬ a kindred spirit; even though I was so obvious --at least the auth¬ or had sense enough to prepare for ers will, occasionally, at least, found the milieu convincing and lad¬ write something mediocre. And if a en with implication and stable irony, his later revelation of Smith's real identity. And if you happen not to writer refuses to admit that possib¬ even though I found the language per¬ ility, he does himself no favor. fectly appropriate, the images beaut¬ like nuclear generators, the story ifully drawn and the experience cath¬ would be just about perfect for you. At the same time, however, the artic, there will undoubtedly be (There is also the chance that the reviewer has a responsibility to many who will be bored by the story's author means the main character to treat the act of writing itself slow pace, who will find the narrat¬ be unsynpathetic -- for the story with respect. No matter how bad a or unlikeable, who will regard the to be taken ironically. That read¬ story is, by one standard or another, milieu as impossible, who will look ing does not seem to me to be sug¬ all stories are good at least this in vain for a big effect or a sur¬ gested by the text, and would make far: There is some value within the prising twist ending. How can I the action-adventure aspects rather work that impelled the author to tell a bored reader that a story is stupid. Drake is clearly not a stu¬ write it. And while a reviewer can not boring, or an unsympathetic pid writer and so I discount that congratulate himself profusely on reader that the character is really possibility.) finding weak characters or clumsy loveable? Then Why Review At All? sentences -- not a remarkable achiev- ment, actually, nor particularly All three stories had some vir¬ If my reading of stories is so telling -- the critic must, to be tue that led the editor to buy them. S4 able to speak intelligently at all, also find the value that the author short fiction reviews in the future: found. If the critic cannot get in¬ I want a different reviewer for each side the story enough to find any magazine or area [such as original This value at all, it is his flaw, not anthologies, small press, the rare Publication.... the author's, and the critic would issue of almost-dead prozines...]. be well-advised to set the work a- Thus one or two bumed-out re¬ siae and confine his comments to viewers will not cause too much dis¬ those stories whose appeal he can location of coverage overall. at least understand, if not agree To this end I ask applicants for with. Otherwise the reviewer will the short fiction reviewing slots to speak from ignorance, condemning ba¬ send a sample review with your second con because it doesn't taste like choices for reviewing slots in case beef. you are Chosen but your preferred magazine or category is already tak-

The reviewing slots open are: (My thanks to Dick Geis, not on¬ ly for providing a space for me to ANALOG F5SF publish for the last year and a half is Available in ASIMOV'S but also for publishing the sort of 0FNI MICROFORM magazine where readers can tum in Small Press Short Fiction the expectation of occasionally find¬ For Complete Information ing intelligence. It makes for good Original Anthologies and Other Magazines. WRITE : company. SFR hasn't been immune from University the feuds and petty name-calling of If that last category is too full in Microfilms other fanzines, but Geis has never practice, I'll divide it. let these become the main thrust of Each category is allowed 1000 International the magazine; he has always reserv¬ words per SFR. [But I won't need a ed space for things that might have full 1000 word coluim sample to judge your effort; just give me a few opin¬ value, and it is encouraging that readers have responded, both with ions/reviews. I'll read the stories subscriptions and with Hugo votes.) you've covered and see if I agree with you and if your writing is pro¬ ************************************ fessional level. Thus I insure the voice of SFR is the voice of 0W Geis. ] CANNED MEAT geis comient- It may be that finding a Small A SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL Orson's eventual flame-out was in Press Short Fiction reviewer will be BY RICHARD E. GEIS the cards from the beginning. Each difficult, since that person must have access to most of the material Life in a computer-run domed issue I held my breath-would he city and the failing civiliza¬ be able/willing to do one more col¬ published, a situation rare unless tion of which it is a part. umn...one more...more...? the reviewer is also a small press I'm surprised he lasted this publisher who trades with others. Roi and Eelia, two young citi¬ long. He's a remarkably dedicated, I may end up doing that category zens of the dome, two children professional, idealistic writer. I myself. of Great Mother Computer, meet thank him in behalf of all of you I'd prefer short fiction review¬ and experiment with forbidden who found his reviews of value and ers concentrate on the best fiction in their chosen category, with oc¬ interest. And I thank him personally Covers and interior illustra¬ for gracing SFR's pages. casional outrage when a Name writ¬ er (and the editor) publishes a tions by Bruce Conklin So---who's next? turd. $5. Coincident with Orson's handing ************************************ on the torch of reviewing short fic¬ Order from: tion has come a significant shrink¬ Science Fiction Review age of short sf and fantasy story POB 11408 outlets. It's fairly safe to expect Portland, OR 97211 there'll be no more (or very, very few)appearances of GALAXY, GALILEO, AMAZING [combined with FANTASTIC], ETERNITY... We find ouselves now with ANALOG, ASIMOV's, FljSF, and OMNI as monthly piblishers of sf and fantasy. Beyond these an occasional orig¬ inal anthology, an odd issue of a moribund magazine or three. And some small press efforts such as WHISPERS, WEIRDBOOK, etc. I suspect strongly that we can expect perhaps two of the four mon¬ thlies to go bimonthly in response to slack recession/depression sales. Take your pick. But who will carry on the review¬ ing chores? I have no idea. But here's how I want to present AT AST' ITS' 5ETTEP: -than \ 'he: mickey Moose') THE VMSECTOR T-HEY HAVE To I KlEAK Ol/EK is) THE j BY DARRELL SCHWEITZER Esjv(kom^EKjTal ptoLUoT ioj r v i>hpaktmemt;

FAR FUTURE CALLING mixing in with the English, the same By Olaf Stapledon way any non-Comminist Oriental city Edited by Sam Moskowitz today looks half-Western, but only Published by Oswald Train half. Box 1891, Philadelphia, PA, 19105 A radio play, from which the 1979, 275 pp., $12.00 book's title is taken, basically takes a couple of present-day char¬ Inevitably, sometime after any acters on a tour through the future, important author's death, somebody complete with colonization of Nep¬ compiles a catch-all volume of un¬ tune and species which have evolved collected material. I recently did from present-day mankind. (Yes, one for Lord Dunsany. (It's called it's an adaptation of LAST AND FIRST THE GHOSTS OF THE HEAVISIDE LAYER. NEN.) There is a distressing ten¬ among supermen, and all the more in¬ Owlswick will publish it in July, dency for the visions to end with teresting for it. Our hero, Dennis 1980, $20.00) In 1978 there was the "it was all a dream". The only Guise, is the most powerful telepath spectacular PEAKE'S PROGRESS. Vol¬ stories to really be stories are the human race has ever known. He umes of uncollected Mark TVmin were "The Man Who Became a Tree" (which was bom that way, which is the prob¬ still appearing in the 1960s. Of is almost reminiscent of Dunsany) lem. He was so bonbarded with uncon¬ course, the quality of such books and "A Modem Magician" (a rather trolled signals from the people a- varies widely, depending on such rudimentary account of the abuse of round him that he never developed factors as how hard the writer work¬ psychic powers). Also included are any personality of his own, remain¬ ed to publish everything, where his an essay, "Interplanetary Man" (in¬ ing a vegetable until he can be reputation stood late in his career, teresting, dated, sometimes unprac¬ slowly helped to piece himself to¬ tically fuzzy), and two essays by gether. I am happy to report that this Sam Moskowitz, "The Man Behind the Stapledon catch-all is quite good. Works", an informative biography, This is certainly a novel ap¬ It is also important because it and "Peace and Olaf Stapledon", proach to the old subject of tele¬ gives readers a chance to sample his about Stapledon's visit to the Unit¬ pathy, and the slow integration of writing without committing a lot of ed States in 1949. The illustra¬ Dennis, as first he learns to assume time to one of his huge novels. tions by are attrac¬ single identities (of others) and His short stories have never been tive, although sometimes inapprop¬ then distinguishes himself from collected before because he was vir¬ riate for this sort of material. those, is beautifully done. And tually forgotten when he died, and Recommended for Stapledonians, ser¬ then- simply because he wrote so few of ious students of SF, and anyone who Then there are problems. There them. Five, it seems, of which one wants to sample the author. is another plot, clever enough in its at least appears here for the first own terms, about aliens who have time (another "East is West", is un¬ created mankind for the purpose of accounted for in the introduction), transforming the Earth to suit their and another appeared first in F§SF BRIDGE OF ASHES needs. Man kills himself off with last year. By Roger Zelazny pollution and the aliens move in, Gregg Press, 1979 Stapledon was, undeniably, one you see. There is a mysterious Dark 154 pp., $10.00 of the seminal influences in SF. Man, possibly immortal, with an un¬ Similar status can be claimed for disclosed array of powers at his dis¬ I am reviewing this reprint Wells and . I really posal, who has been combatting the (first hardcover) of a 1976 novel suspect that Jules Verne has not scheme, and it seems he created or because of the amount of attention made as much a mark on modem SF. at least manipulated Dennis to prove it received when it first appeared, Readers coming to Stapledon for the to the aliens that they couldn't con¬ which is to say exactly none. There first time through this book will trol mankind anymore, so they'll was one Signet printing and the book find him a fairly polished stylist, quit and depart. All this is dealt vanished. I've met Zelazny fans but otherwise primitive. His ideas with in a very rudimentary manner, who don't even know it exists. were advanced, and it is through at the beginning and end of the book. Which is a shame because it's rath¬ them that he has exerted such vast The bulk of it has to do merely with er good. influence. His basic storytelling Dennis becoming himself, and is more method is the lecture-studded Tour BRIDGE OF ASHES is one of those interesting. The secondary plot of Wonders. For example, in "East novels which, I think, in the pers¬ seems tacked on, and as a result, is West", the protagonist finds him¬ pective of a few years, will be seen the primary one (concerning Dennis) self in an alternate world in which to have marked the transition be¬ doesn't come to much of a resolution. the Orient has moved in <5n a back¬ tween the old Zelazny and the new. It has the feel of a large fragment. ward Europe, and actually there is It is not another elaborate mytho¬ But it's a very good fragment, and no story in the sense of character logical exercise, but it does feat¬ it holds up well for its own sake, development, conflict and resolu¬ ure not one, but two Guardian/God- and is considerably better than the tion. The reader's interest is kept figures. The primary one is the more recent ROADMARKS, which is a through the very deft use of details, weakest yet, a veritable basket-case series of short fragments which don't the elements of Oriental culture 56 hold up at all. WATCHSTAR thing for your ten-year-old. E.E. Stone Age.) Science fiction had By Pamella Sargent Smith's works are only readable by sunk to a very degraded state at the Pocket Books, 1980, 238 pp., $2.25 audiences wholly innocent of real¬ time, and there didn't seem to be ism, sensibility or what critics fu- an editor on hand with the vision I'm sorry to say this one didn't tilely call "literary values". The or the know-how to do anything about work for me at all. I have enjoyed dialogue does not sound like people it. This set things up nicely, as several of Ms. Sargent's shorter talking. Descriptions don't describe. it did for Cooper, with what I call pieces, but this novel strikes me Characters are grotesque cutouts. the Audience Starvation Syndrome. as a complete washout. The charac¬ Ideas and assumptions are not examin¬ If you starve them long enough, ters in it remind me of an actress ed in any intelligent fashion, and they'll ignore the grossest fail¬ I saw once, who emoted with eyebrows. ultimately the sound and fury sig¬ ings. Smith had a spark of imagina¬ Anger, fear, love, sorrow, joy, all nifies nothing. E.E. Smith is the tion which the others lacked. He came from wiggling her eyebrows, James Fenimore Cooper of science gave the audience the stars. (Ed¬ making phony expressions and hurling fiction: outrageously bad, but he mond Hamilton did the same a little herself around the stage like a bag did something inportant, and he did earlier, but apparently the insular of cement. (She was rather heavy.) it first. Like Cooper, he is still SF fans of paleolithic times did not The actors who worked with her told read, even though standards of crafts¬ read WEIRD TALES.) The SKYLARK books me that after a while they would rec¬ manship have been raised to the point are the first important space operas. ognize the signals, but neither that if he were to start all over Basically the plot consists of Jack they nor the audience would actually today, with similar "skills", he Armstrong/Thomas Edison building a receive any sense of the emotion be¬ would be totally unpublishable. Grandiousity Machine and conquering ing conveyed. the universe with it. Some while later the same mater¬ In WATCHSTAR we know that every¬ ial fell into the hands of literate one is supposed to be feeling, but writers. Why is Smith still read? it's so much dead verbiage. The I suspect there is a huge audience characters do not come alive. Just out there that can't tell the dif¬ as bad, there is no sense that the ference, the sort of people who don't setting is actually real. It's an really read, but just skim pages for interesting setting -- Otherness, "content". To these any human sens¬ a primitive society in some ways, itivity is lost, and any character where everybody who lives to adult¬ development "gets in the way of the hood has various psi powers (specif¬ plot". Then, if adult reality never ically telepathy, telekinesis and intrudes, there are always children. levitation). Those who are bom And the nostalgic. Unfortunately I without these powers are killed at never managed to get into the latter once, and lots of people don't make category, because I didn't discover it through an Ordeal in adolescence. Smith until I was 14, by which time But this society seems to exist I had already read Ray Bradbury, in a complete vacuum. They have no Arthur Clarke and some adult Hein- history save for a brief explanation lein. It was too late. that nothing ever changes. There is no mystique about the Ordeal. You'd I found the SKYLARK books con¬ think this would be a central fact siderably more bearable than the of life, around which nuch myth and LENSMEN series, which defeated me ritual would center. No. The day- after the third volume. I was also to-day details which make something reading at seem like lived-in, concrete setting the time. He too is a top-selling just aren't there. Remenber how author, considered a literary hor¬ well LeGuin did it in the Earthsea C.M. Kombluth has adequately ror by many. But he had an ability books, THE DISPOSSESSED, and THE demonstrated (in THE SCIENCE FICTION to keep a story moving, to get his EYE OF THE HERON, to the point that NOVEL) that there is nothing in hero into at least momentarily con¬ the reader felt he/she had been these books which is congruent with vincing danger, and an overall vivid¬ there? Sargent doesn't come close. adult reality. The passions, the ness which escaped Smith, who could I confess I found WATCHSTAR rough intellectual states which real adults only pile up silly effects. (Sure going and I never finished it. I go. through while facing the conflicts enough, the SKYLARK series concludes will be interested to see what Sar¬ of this life never intrude. And with the joyous destruction of a gent does in the future, but I real¬ yet: Cooper wrote about the Ameri¬ whole galaxy of disgusting, icky, ly can't reconmend this one. can West, and heroic settlers bat¬ nasty critters devoid of redeeming There's an attractive cover by tling savage Indians, and he did it social value.) an uncredited artist. At least this when the public was craving for such, Just great for certain segments book doesn't look like everything when there also was a big demand for of the audience. Useless for the else that's being published. anything which might be called "Am¬ erican literature", no matter how bad it might be. He couldn't write. His powers of observation were nil. THE SKYLARK OF SPACE It didn't matter. The same is true SKYLARK THREE of Smith. What readers forget these THE SKYLARK OF VALERON days is that Smith's contemporaries SKYLARK DUQUESNE were fully as bad, for the most part, All by E.E. "Doc" Smith or worse. (The first three came out Berkley Books, 1980, $1.95 in 1928, 1930, and 1934. The fourth, in 1965, was a visitor from the Authentic gee-whiz science fic¬ tion, comic books in prose, just the 57 rest. These new editions have cov¬ ers featuring a very macho, curious¬ ly half-clad Richard Seaton who looks more like John Carter of Mars. The Jack Gaughan paintings for the old Pyramid versions were truer to the books, and more attractive.

THE DANCERS OF ARUN By Elizabeth Lynn Berkley-Putnam, 1979, 263 pp. $10.95 Another reviewer recently ex¬ pressed grave disappointment in this book, and warned that the author had best get her act together before praise spoils her and she becomes completely rambling and self-indulg¬ ent. The problem said the reviewer, was that she didn't pick up where she left off in WATCHTOWER and we never found out what happened to so- of suddenly widening horizons and an to work, it has to stay with the de¬ and-so. The problem, says I, is adolescent growing to understand him¬ veloping character all the time. that the reviewer is trying to re¬ self. It's an old story because Lynn has enough sense not to shift view the book he wants the author it's a valid one, and it has been away entirely (e.g. into other view¬ to write, not the one the author happening as long as mankind has ex¬ points) , but there are times when wanted to write. The subject matter isted. The neanderthal boy suddenly she seems to be losing focus. of this book held the author's inter¬ led out of the cave and taken on est enough for her to write it, and the long and exciting chase after The other characters are inter¬ if someone wanted something else, the mastodon herd would understand esting, and the death of one of them that is just too bad. it, except for the details. And is very moving, and the functional THE DANCERS OF ARUN is not a se¬ Lynn tells it beautifully, with utopianism of the chearis' way of quel to WATCHTOWER in any nomal sense: great sensitivity. She runs into life is an accomplishment in itself It takes place well after all the trouble later on when a subplot (an (as far as I'm concerned, any depic¬ characters in the first book are irresponsible cheari, blackmail by tion of a society the author seems dead, and its thematic concerns are nomad raiders who insist on being to think is ideal, which refrains different. Hie only things in com¬ taught psychic secrets) threatens from long lectures and remains an mon are the specific setting (at the to push Kerris into the background. integral part of the story, is an beginning, Tomor Keep, which we But then this subplot dovetails back acconplishment), but a little more rapidly leave and never see again) into the main one, and Kerris learns unity wouldn't have hurt. and the more general setting, the how to interact with other people on One ironic note: Kerris is tele¬ land of Arun. I suspect this book a fuller level at the same time that pathic. This is something he suffers resulted when the author wanted to he helps resolve the other conflicts. through in adolescence, something get beyond the limited range of the I suppose this book is more from within him which he fears and first book and explore a bit. like life. It doesn't follow a ready does not understand, until his broth¬ plot outline. People wander through er explains it to him, and he leams The question of belief-systems settings and events happen in their to use his talents. (Then there is (or a Belief Vacuum) which I raised lives, and gradually they are chang¬ a deep-rooted barrier of childhood in my review of WATCHTOWER, is an¬ ed, and patterns emerge, but this is trauma to be overcome.) At the same swered to some extent. We follow a a much harder sort of book to write time, the sexual mores of his society band of the martial arts dancers, the without getting boring than one which are quite different from ours. Homo¬ chearis, around, and before long get has a clear-cut action plot which is sexual relations with his brother to know how they live and how they just as clearly over when the bad¬ are no big deal, and pleasant, like perceive the world. (As a pattern, dies get theirs. IF such a book is learning to swim. with everything in its place and balance.) This is complete enough, A highlight: In the Galbareth and believable. We encounter sever¬ Fields, Kerris, who is used to the al social systems and see them inter¬ closed-in Keep and the mountains act. The picture of the world is around it, suddenly feels the mystery being filled in. and awe of the vast, silent plain around him, in a beautifully handled What else is good about this passage, which in the hands of a les¬ novel, and what isn't? There isn't ser writer might have made the place a strongly-driven plot this time, seem no more mysterious than Wiscon¬ as there was before. In WATCHTCWER sin. This is first-class writing a throne was usurped, and for all on a subtle, yet powerful level. the sidetracking, you kngw we were And there are dozens of other partic¬ going to get back to the matter soon¬ ularly vivid moments, and times when er or later. Now we follow Kerris, the characters seem particularly hu¬ a boy who lost an arm while small, man and alive in a way that fiction¬ who lives as an outcast in Tomor al characters seldom are. Keep. His long-lost brother shows up with a band of chearis to take Decidedly first class. him away, and we have the old story ************************************ ■hi ftMMMi BfttlOlBB S-F NEWS BY ELTON T. ELLIOTT mats include ONNI, which appears monthly, DESTINIES, a paperback # DEATHS REMEMBER THE ADDRESS FOR THIS from Ace, quarterly. The second is¬ George Pal, age 72: sue of ETERNITY is out. COLUMN IS: ELTON T. ELLIOTT, Noted Film-maker (SF films in¬ SFR, 1899 WIESSNER DRIVE N.E., cluded THE TINE MACHINE and THE WAR I would appreciate all informs SALEM, OR 97303. OF THE WORLDS), died of an apparent tion I can get about semi-profes¬ PHONE: (503) 390-5421 heart attack at his home in Beverly sional fiction magazines for expan¬ Hills, May 2, 1980. Forrest J. Ack¬ sion of this column's coverage of erman presented the eulogy. them. # ORYCON 80 has asked me to be Kay Tarrant, septuagenarian: their Fan Guest of Honor. The con¬ NEWS Long-time assistant to John W. vention will be November 14-16, Port¬ The Harlan Ellison/Ben Bova law¬ Campbell at ASTOUNDING/ANALOG, died land, , at the Hilton Hotel. suit against ABC-TV, Paramount and in Hoboken, New Jersey, March 23, Guest of Honor is and Terry Keegan went to the jury April 1980. Toastmaster is F.M. Busby. For more 22, 1980, the plaintiffs seeking $3 info write: Wallace West, age79: million in damages on the charges OREGON SCIENCE FICTION CONVEN¬ SF writer whose first story ap¬ of plagiarism on the story, "Brillo' TION, INC. peared in 1929, died in the Bahamas Two days later the jury ruled a set POB #14727 on March 8, 1980. His works includ¬ tlement of $337,000 in favor of the Portland, OR, 97214 ed THE BIRD OF TIME and LORDS OF AT¬ plaintiffs. Telephone: (503) 761-8768 LANTIS. Ellison and Bova agreed to a (I'll have more info next issue) Joan Thurston, age 38: settlement of $285,000. Some re¬ # CORRECTION: You know I hate it Wife of SF writer Robert Thurs¬ ports had the split being 90/10 to when things go wrong which are not ton, died on May 9, 1980, from a Mr. Ellison, but Bova in LOCUS ff254 my fault, but I get the blame -- wit¬ long-standing cancer condition. said "that won't be decided until ness the Asimov matter in SFR #34. (The above info from SF CHRONICLE) the money is actually in hand". I had intended headings for both Payment of the lawyers and court ASIMOV'S and ASINDV’s ADVENTURES, costs has been assumed by Mr. Ell i with ASIMOV listed as a monthly, ASIMOVS ADVENTURES reporting pub¬ MAGAZINES After the settlement was an¬ lication had been suspended and they nounced, a large billboard had been (Davis Publications) had previously ASIMOV'S, ANALOG, FANTASY 8 SCI¬ planned to be erected opposite Para¬ ENCE FICTION appear monthly. GALAXY a non-subscription policy. When the mount with a statement mentioning column appeared, the two items had and GALILEO are apparently still in the ramifications of the case. SI abeyance: GALAXY was scheduled to magically conbined -- with parts of CHRONICLE mentioned it could be along appear last March, then June, but as each left out -- the ASIM3V item the lines of: "WE WON! We caught of the first of July it hasn't ap¬ mentioned that they had a non-sub¬ the sob's with their hands in our peared in the Willamette Valley area scription policy. I apologize to pockets! You can fight the conglom -- GALILEO and GALAXY have not ap¬ George for not spotting the error erates and come out ahead!" The re¬ peared since late last year. immediately and making rectification port continued that the wording was in SFR #35. (I understand George's being worked out by the various law¬ irritation.) yers. LATE NEWS —FANTASTIC has been merg¬ Hey, I make mistakes, and when However, ABC/Paramount has not ed with AMAZING. The single maga¬ that happens I get ticked off at ny- yet signed an agreement not to ap¬ self; when somebody else does it and zine will be titled AMAZING with an above-logo heading that reads: Com¬ peal, presumably because of comments I get nailed, I don't become chag¬ made on the TOMORROW SHOW and in rined, I just curse a lot. Let he bined with Fantastic. The announced publishing schedule, beginning with TIME magazine by Ellison; in fact, who is perfect cast the first stone the last reports available had the or asteroid. I can't promise mis¬ the November 1980 AMAZING, will be bi-monthly. defendants contemplating a libel takes in this colum won't occur, and/or slander suit against Ellison. but I ask that if they do, you write The upshot is that Ellison may be me and I'll correct it next issue. 59 blackballed from . I tried to get the latest from # Gregory Benford's, TIMESCAPE, broadcast industry, coming out from Mr. Ellison for this column, but he has been delayed, in the British ed¬ Fawcett. He also has a novel out demurred, saying, "The only thing ition, from June until October. Gol- from Doubleday in February, 1980, A to do" was to talk to his attorney, lancz, the publisher, has asked Ben- WORLD CALLED SOLITUDE. Henry W. Holmes. I have not yet ford to revise certain references to been able to do so. the Royal Family, since it is tech¬ # The juvenile SF line from Harle¬ nically illegal in Great Britain to quin will be tested in specified COMMENT: This is a precedent- describe the Royal Family's private areas in the U.S. and Canada; the shattering verdict. All writers owe life. The law is usually not enforc¬ first test will be around 2,000 cop¬ Mr. Ellison and Mr. Bova some grat¬ ed, but Gollancz was taking no chanc¬ ies, the second of 20,000. If suc¬ itude for going to battle over their es. Benford agreed to the revision, cessful, a contract will be made for rights to protection for their stor¬ which he termed "insignificant". 24 books, with Mr. Goldin creating ies. The verdict might also help The softcover British publisher. the characters and the background A.E. Van Vogt in his talks with 20th Sphere, stuck to the American edi¬ world, but other writers invited in Century Fox over the remarkable sim¬ tion. to write individual books. Each ilarities between his stories, "Black book will be 40-45,000 words long. Destroyer" and "Discord in Scarlet", # Frank Herbert has sold Berkley This program along with several oth¬ and the film, ALIEN. two books, plus options on future er possibilities, Mr. Goldin reports, ones for a rumored sum of around shows that the "the concept of doing $750,000 --Mr. Herbert would supply SF is not dead at Harlequin". no amount. One of the books will # NEBULA AWARD WIPERS: if- Stephen Goldin and his wife Kath¬ 1980 be the fourth Dune novel, tentative¬ leen Sky are also co-authoring a Novel -- THE FOUNTAINS OF PARA¬ ly titled, SANDWORMS OF DUNE. At book on the business side of SF writ¬ DISE . Arthur C. Clarke that time he was 460 pages through ing, which grew out of the class the third and final draft. The com¬ Novella -- "" . they taught at Cal-State Northridge plete manuscript will run 550-600 . Barry B. Longyear several years ago. pages, on which he has worked two Novelette "" . years, although he took a six-month # Steve Perry, Orycon's 79s Toast¬ . George R.R. Martin hiatus to do the screenplay for the master, has sold a novel to Fawcett Short Story "Giants" . Dune movie. titled THE TULAREMIA GAMBIT -- they will be marketing it as a near-fut- . Edward Bryant He described the movie as being ure-SF-suspense-thriller. He is al¬ "on track" and Dino DeLaurentis' in¬ so working on a contemporary para¬ volvement in it as just that of a psychology novel, SHADOWDANCER. "financier"; H.R. Gieger will also WINNERS OF SF AWARDS AT THE AMERICAN be involved. Director is Ridley # Ray Nelson's Petrarchan Sonnet, BOOK AWARDS: Scott, director of ALIEN. Mr. Her¬ "The Dancing Masters", took third Best Hardcover SF -- JEM . bert is also editing the latest Neb¬ prize for serious poetry in the Cal¬ . Frederik Pohl ula Awards anthology for the SFWA. ifornia statewide annual Ina Cool- Best Paperback SF -- THE BOOK OF brith poetry contest, and will soon THE DUN COW appear in the Little Review, "Blue . Walter Wangerin, Jr. § The LAST DANGEROUS VISIONS is Unicom". scheduled for late 1981 publication. H Larry Niven will edit and Ace # L. Sprague de Camp and wife, Books will publish a fantasy anthol- Catherine, are completing work on if has received a DARK VALLEY DESTINY, a biography of $10,000 grant by the National Endow¬ Robert E. Howard. This information ment for the Arts in the year 1980. from FANTASY NEWSLETTER. Kessel, a menber of the SFWA and a published fiction writer in GALILEO, # DRAGONS OF LICHT, edited by plans for the money to enable him to Orson Scott Card, will have a unique work on several novelettes, to make format: It will match an artist to up part of his Ph.D. dissertation in each writer. The combinations in¬ English Literature at the University clude George R.R. Martin/Alicia Aus¬ of Kansas. tin, Roger Zelazny/Geoffrey Darrow, Jeffrey Carver/Clyde Caldwell, Shaw § George Zebrowski is doing a new Gardner/Gini Shurtleff, Michael Bish- novel for Harper § Row, FREE SPACE. op/Val Lakey, Stephen McDonald/Ron His novel, MACROLIFE, will be out in Miller, Jessica Amanda Salmonson/ paperback from Avon in May, 1981, Glen Edwards, /Greg Bear, with the Stembach cover that grac¬ John M. Ford/Judy King Rieniets, Al¬ ed the Harper 8 Row edition. He is lan Bruton/George Barr, Stephen Kim- also editing a collection, THE BEST mel/Tom Miller, /Don Maitz OF THOMAS N. SCORTIA for Doubleday. and Jean Stevenson/Tina Bear. He will be doing another book review column for FfjSF, was recently Guest # Terry Carr's, THE YEAR'S FINEST Speaker at Urcon II, held on the Un¬ FANTASY, has moved from Berkley to iversity of Rochester campus the Pocket where it will be retitled weekend of April 5, where over a FANTASY ANNUAL. thousand people attended.. Frederik # Jack L. Chalker has sold a four- Pohl was the Guest of Honor. volume SF series to Del Rey, LORDS # Pamela Sargent has sold a OF THE DIAMOND, each book to be in¬ 15,000-word novelette to F5SF. Her dependent but interconnected. novel, THE SUDDEN STAR, has been re¬ if Stephen Goldin has a novel, AND named THE WHITE DEATH by her British MAKE NOT YOUR MASTER, about the dream publisher, Fontana. 60 ogy set in the universe of Niven's, October: FALL TRADE SIZE PAPERBACKS: THE MAGIC GOES AWAY. Authors involv¬ Frank Herbert. DIRECT DESCENT ed include Poul Anderson, Mildred Joy Chant .GRAY MANE OF MORNING (Trade size illoed by Garcia) Downey Broxon, Robert Asprin, Dean Eric Seidman (producer).WANTED Marion Zinrner Bradley....SURVEY SHIP Ing, Steve Barnes, Fred Saberhagen, (Poster Book of alien criminals, in¬ (Trade size, illos by Stephen Fabian) Roger Zelazny and Bob Shaw. Larry volving a dozen or so artists. Orson Scott Card, Ed. ... DRAGONS OF Niven will also be penning THE DREAM Text bv Ed Naha.) .LIGHT New Eye Photography .THE STAR PARK MURDERS with Steven Barnes. (The first book of a two-part anth¬ .TREK MAPS # It has been reported that a lot ology about Dragons; contents list¬ (Maps showing the five voyages of of resistance is developing at Simon ed on Page 61.) the Enterprise) 5 Schuster over the SF line, edited Gordon R. Dickson..MASTERS OF EVERQN Bantam has purchased the paperback by Dave Hartwell, and its hardcover (First mass market edition) titles which go through Simon 5 Schu¬ Ursula K. LeGuin 5 Virginia Kidd, Ed¬ rights to LORD VALENTINE’S CASTLE by Robert Silverberg for $75,000.00. ster. itors .INTERFACES (The first mass market edition of Although the spine on Poul Ander¬ Ms. LeGuin's first anthology features son's novel, CONAN THE REBEL, indi¬ stories by Vonda N. McIntyre, James cates that it is the sixth of the BOOK NEWS Tiptree, Jr..Edward Bryant, Gene series, you haven't missed Conan #5. Wolfe, Michael G. Coney, D.G. Comp¬ Cover problems caused a rescheduling # ACE ton, Michael Bishop, John Crowley, of L. Sprague de Camp's CONAN AND August: Avram Davidson, Grania Davis and THE SPIDER GOD to December. many more.) Gordon R. Dickson.LOST DORSAI James Patrick Baen,(Ed).DESTINIES #9 THE SNAIL ON THE SLOPE by Boris 5 (Trade size, includes title story, (Fall, 1980, featuring material Arkady Strugatski was pulled from plus the novelette "", by Gregory Benford, Charles Shef¬ the bookstores, concerned that the an excerpt from his Dorsai novel- field, Jerry E. Poumelle, Frederik back cover blurb could cause the in-progress THE FINAL ENCYCLO¬ Pohl, James Gunn, Robert A. Hein- Strugatskis problems at home with PEDIA, afterword by Sandra Miesel.) lein among others) the Soviet government. The blurb Jerry E. Poumelle ...A STEP FAR1HER Andrew J. Offutt . KING DRAGON states of the Strugatskis ".... are .OCT (Illoed by Esteban Maroto) now in disfavor with the Soviet gov¬ (Non-fiction, first mass market Robert Prehoda.YOUR NEXT FIFTY YEARS ernment for the bold, outspoken ideas edition) (Non-fiction, first mass market ed.) in this novel" and goes on to des¬ Robert Asprin .TAMBU Harlan Ellison.BLOOD'S A ROVER cribe the plot as dealing with "a (First mass market edition) (Illoed by Richard Corben -- ex¬ stupid, mindless bureaucracy ..." Ellen Kushner, Editor . BASILISK panded version of A BOY 6 HIS DOG) (Fantasy by Michael Bishop, R.A. Lafferty, Ursula K. LeGuin, Joan D. ACE July listings from SFR #35 Vinge and others; illoed by Kind¬ should include THE TIME TRADERS by ling.) . FUZZY BONES by Wil¬ # BARONET liam Tuning has been removed from G. Harry Stine..THE SPACE ENTERPRISE Baronet has suspended operations, the schedule at least through Decem¬ (Non-fiction, trade size) apparently for lack of capital. ber. SCIENCE FICTION STUDIES IN Ursula K. LeGuin....ROCANNON'S WORLD Publisher and founder, Norman - FILM is now tentatively set for Aug- Robert Silveiberg. .TIME OF THE GREAT find, is making efforts at refinanc¬ .FREEZE ing and reorganization which could SPECIAL ISAAC ASIM3V PROMOTION: Upcoming titles include: ANZAI.' rescue the company -- the present by , the second novel in the outlook is bleak. Six non-fiction titles: IS ANYONE series (not connected to Baronet started by publishing two THERE, JUPITER, OF MATTERS GREAT AND the NBC TV show) by John Eric Holmes, magazines, COSMOS, an SF magazine, SMALL, ONLY A TRILLION, SCIENCE, NUM¬ a new novel in the Dracula series, A which sold fairly well, and BIJOU, a BERS, AND I and TWENTIETH CENTURY MATTER OF TASTE, by Fred Saberhagen, movie magazine, which flopped. Both DISCOVERY. and the Dorsai novel, THE FINAL EN¬ lasted less than a year, a blow from CYCLOPEDIA, by Gordon R. Dickson. Septenfcer: which Baronet never fully recovered. Ace has moved to: 51 Madison Ave., Hal Clement .THE NITROGEN FIX Next Baronet embarked on an ambit¬ New York, New York, 10010 (Trade size, illos by Janet Aulisio) ious program with ANALOG magazine Andre Norton .VOORLOPER and Ace Books, with Baronet to pub¬ (Trade size, illos by Alicia Austin) lish the trade size paper editions H. Beam Piper. THE FUZZY PAPERS of books that Ben Bova, then editor (Includes under one cover, for the # BANTAM of ANALOG, would purchase; Ace would first time in paperback, LITTLE FUZ¬ August: reprint the titles after a suitable ZY and FUZZY SAPIENS with five illos length of time, in a mass market ed¬ Thomas M. Disch.ON WINGS OF SONG by Victoria Poyser.) ition. Delays kept Baronet from M. John Harrison.THE CENTAURI DEVICE Fred Saberhagen .THORN printing all the titles before Ace (A horror novel) September: was scheduled to bring out their ed¬ Robert Sheckley (Ed.).AFTER THE FALL itions, hence some titles were print¬ David A. Kyle.WORSEL: LENSMAN ("End of the World" stories by ... ed by Ace almost a year before Bar¬ William Kotzwinkle.FATA MORGANA Philip Jose Farmer, Roger Zelazny, onet brought them out. Harry Harrison, Thomas M. Dis- October: ch, Ian Watson, William F. Nolan, CAPITOL, by Orson Scott Card, is a Robert Sheekley and more) William F. Logan.LOGAN’S SEARCH case in point, brought out by Ace in Roger Zelazny .THIS INMORTAL David Gerrold ... GALACTIC WHIRLPOOL January 1979 -- the Baronet edition Andre Norton .THE DEFIANT AGENTS (A Star Trek novel) was in November 1979. Collectors Jerry E. Poumelle.. .EXILES TO GLORY Thomas M. Disch.... FUNDAMENTAL DISCH Petr Beckmann..THE HEALTH HAZARDS OF (Edited/introduced by Samuel Delany) who would ordinarily buy a substant¬ .NOT GOING NUCLEAR ial portion of a "luxury" item as a (Non-fiction) 61 $4.95 softbound book, were turned off because it was* a second edition; av¬ Victoria Schochet 8 John Silbersack.. Philip K. Dick 8 Roger Zelazny . erage readers aren't likely to buy .THE BERKLEY SHOWCASE: NEW .DEUS IRAE a $4.95 book if a $1.95 edition is WRITINGS IN SF AND FANTASY: VOL. 2 (Cover by Richard Corben) already out on the stands -- a $3 difference had to hurt sales. I suspect a conglomeration of factors John Varley.THE BARBIE MURDERS caused the collapse, or near-col¬ .AND OTHER STORIES tt DEL REY lapse . Michael Kurland . PSI HUNT August: Gordon Eklund...THE GARDEN OF WINTER Left in the lurch were several Ursula K. LeGuin.MALAFRENA Roger Zelazny .ROADMARKS projects. Two in particular are (To be released as regular fiction) E. Hoffman Price... OPERATION MISFIT disappointments: The Lord Tedric Terry Carr (ED).... THE BEST SCIENCE series, adapted from an outline of October: . FICTION OF THE YEAR #9 E.E. "Doc" Smith's by Gordon Eklund, William Sloane...THE EDGE OF RUNNING was to be a ten-book series, also Poul Anderson..'S CHILDREN printed by Ace in the mass market Gregory Benford..THE JUPITER PROJECT .WATER Robert Silverberg.SON OF MAN edition. The first three books in (revised) Thome Smith. THE STRAY LAMB the series had been printed by Baron¬ Joseph Payne Brennan.THE SHAPES et and the fourth was scheduled for .OF MIDNIGHT this spring; Ace had printed the (Story collection) Septentoer: first two. According to Ace they Brian Daley...HAN SOLO’S LOST LEGACY have contracted to publish four Justin Leiber.BEYOND REJECTION books and no more. The second pro¬ # DAW Scott Asnin.. A GOLD WIND FROM ject concerns the second volume of Thome Smith.... RAIN IN THE DOORWAY the illustrated edition of Alfred August: Ansen Damey .A HOSTAGE FOR Bester's, THE STABS MY DESTINATION. .HAIL HIBBLER .HINTERLAND The first volume, illustrated by .LOST WORLDS Jack L. Chalker....A JUNGLE OF STARS Howard Chaykin and edited by Byron Dray Prescott.BEASTS OF ANTARES Alan Arnold. ONCE UPON A GALAXY Preiss, did not sell as well as Bar¬ (#23 in the series) (The making of THE EMPIRE STRIKES onet's two earlier illustrated books, C.J. Cherryh . SERPENT'S REACH BACK) THE ILLUSTRATED ROGER ZELAZNY and C.J. Cherryh . HUNTER OF WORLDS THE ILLUSTRATED HARLAN ELLISON. October: Around 800 advance orders were pro¬ September: Jack L. Chalker.TWILIGHT AT THE cessed for Volume TVo; the subscrib¬ Andre Norton.LORE OF THE WITCH WORLD . WELL OF SOULS ers will be offered $20 worth of Tanith Lee .KILL THE DEAD (Fifth and final Well World Book) Baronet Books in settlement in lieu . NOPELGARTH Lyndon Hardy.MASTER OF THE MAGIC of cash refunds. (A three-novella collection) Terry Carr (ED.) ...THE BEST SCIENCE A. Bertram Chandler .STAR LOOT ...FICTION NOVELLAS OF THE YEAR #2 Tanith Lee....DRINKING SAPPHIRE WINE Thome Smith .TURNABOUT William Tenn. THE SEVEN SEXES October: George 0. Smith...THE COMPLETE VENUS # BERKLEY M.A. Foster . WAVE .EQUILATERAL THE JESUS INCIDENT by Frank Herb¬ Isaac Asimov 8 Martin H. Greenberg.. DOUBLEDAY ert and Bill Ransom is in its second .ISAAC ASIMOV PRESENTS it printing, with over 300,000 copies .THE GREAT SF 4: 1942 August: already in print. THE BERKLEY SHOW¬ Brian N. Stableford .OPTIMAN Gordon R. Dickson ....THE IRON YEARS CASE, VOLUME I, sold out its first Michael Moorcock....THE GOLDEN BARGE (A story collection) printing. (First American edition) Terry Carr (Ed.).UNIVERSE 10 Due to rescheduling, the listing M.A. Foster_THE WARRIORS OF DAWN September: in SFR #35 for Berkley and Putnam was inaccurate: Fritz Leiber 5 Stuart David Schiff.. ..THE WORLD FANTASY AWARDS: VOL. 2 The updated May list featured only # DELL Thomas Monteleone .GUARDIAN MANIFEST DESTINY by Barry B. Long¬ August: year and STARFALL by David Bischoff, October: both paperbacks. The June list in¬ Philip K. Dick.DR. BLOODMONEY: Parke Godwin.FI RELORD cluded a reprint of the four "Doc" OR HOW WE GOT ALONG AFTER THE BOMB Craig Strete.ALL ELSE FAILS Smith Skylark novels. (Cover by Richard Courtney) (Story collection) Gardner Dozois,(Ed).BEST SCIENCE The July releases are A WOMAN A .. .FICTION STORIES OF THE YEAR: DAY by Philip Jose Farmer and THE tt FAWCETT GROUP: .EIGHTH ANNUAL COLLECTION LIGHT BEARER by Sam Nicholson. Al¬ (Cover by Richard Mello. Also CREST so released was GOLDEN VANITY by featured, 14 illos by Jack Gaughan) October: Rachel Pollack. September: Andre Norton .HUON OF THE HORN The reason for the schedule change was a switch in distributors. It Edgar Pangbom . A MIRROR FOR COLUMBINE was felt that the old distributor . OBSERVERS August: would not have placed enough emphasis Theodore Sturgeon . THE DREAMING on promotion of the titles. .JEWELS Robert A. Heinlein .... THE MARK OF .THE BEAST August: October: (Trade-sized paperback, illoed Elizabeth Lynn...THE DANCERS OF ARUN Spider Robinson .ANTIMONY by Richard Powers) (Second in the Chronicles of Tomor (A collection of 11 stories, plus Trilogy.) songs, cartoons and a weapons list. GOLD MEDAL Glen Larson 8 Robert Thurston . Cover by Larry Kresek.) September: . BATTLE STAR GALACTICA 4: 62 .THE YOUNG WARRIORS Hank Lopez. THE HIDDEN MAGIC OF UXMAL # POCKET" # AVON According to BUSINESS WEEK, the week¬ August: ly take-home pay of the average worker in 1967 was $90.86. In April .THE SILVER SUN Susan Coon .CASSILEE of 1979 the real pay [purchasing pow¬ (Cover by Carl Lundgren) Isaac Asimov, Martin H. Greenberg 5 er] was $89.44, and in April of 1980 Suzette Haden Elgin .... CONMJNIPATH Joseph D. Olander.100 GREAT SF it was $83.46. .WORLDS .SHORT SHORT STORIES That shrinkage has been over¬ (Collection of three shorter Coyote come by the use of credit/debt. But ST. MARTINS Jones adventures) H there's a limit to how long and how Fritz Leiber .... HEROES AND HORRORS far debt can be used, and this year Chester Anderson... THE BUTTERFLY KID the limit, with the Federal Reserve's Gary Bennett STAR SAILORS Damon Knight. THE BEST OF DAMON help, has been reached. . KNIGHT U ZEBRA People's standard of living is September: August: shrinking. Their uncommitted dispos¬ able income has shrunk, and they are Marta Randall.DANGEROUS GAMES Poul Anderson . THE GOLDEN SLAVE forced to make tough choices when Richard Lupoff.WHAT IF: #1 David C. Smith .ORON spending their money. (Anthology of Hugo runners-up) Andrew J. Offutt § Richard.THE # FINAL WORDS: Obviously, going to the movies .EYES OF SARSIS and spending money on books and maga¬ Thank you so much for your cards Dennis R. Caro. THE MAN IN THE zines is not a high priority. .DARK SUIT and lettters and especially your So publishers are now more and kind words. See you next issue. Robert Silverberg. THE BEST OF more living off their inventories of .ROBERT SILVERBERG ************************************ as yet unpublished manuscripts, and are cutting down on the number of October: new books issued each month. Fritz Leiber .THE SINFUL ONES The rest of this year, and at Joel Zoss .CHRONICLES ALIEN THOUGHTS least half of 1981 will be lean and Richard Cowper...OUT THERE WHERE THE hungry for sf, fantasy.. .all of the .BIG SHIPS GO writing and publishing world. (Story collection) BY THE EDITOR So it goes. A.E. Van Vogt . THE HOUSE THAT .STOOD STILL Andrew J. Offutt 5 Richard Lyon - .THE DEMON IN THE MIRROR

THE ROLE OF SFR... # SIGNET August: is to review not just new books, but more and more important, to re¬ Robert A. Heinlein ... .ASSIGNMENT IN view as many of the heretofore unre¬ .ETERNITY viewed (for lack of space) sf and Roger Zelazny .JACK OF SHADOWS fantasy books published during the September: just past glut of '79-80. Because sf/fantasy readers, un¬ Arthur C. Clarke....THE NINE BILLION able to afford new books and maga¬ ....NAMES OF GOD zines, will turn to the second-hand October: (No titles) bookstores for their reading material, and will need to know what's good and what's lousy about as many re¬ cently published titles as possible. if SIMON & SCHUSTER In the past three months I have received at least ten-to-twelve lin¬ July: Hie great crash is upon us, aft¬ ear feet of review books. Dozens and Gregory Benford .TIMESCAPE er the great boom. dozens and dozens of new novels, an¬ August: There is sheer panic on publish¬ thologies, collections that simply ers row in New York. Staffs are be¬ overwhelm the reader and reviewer. Suzy McKee Chamas . THE VAMPIRE During the next year I hope to ing cut to the bone, lists are being .TAPESTRY cut... Soon some publishers will be be able to make a dent in this mon¬ out of business. strous accumulation. Sales are down, of course, be¬ There seems to be an inherent limit to the number of books I have mm£TE LISTINGS cause when people are unenployed or laid off or when they've had their time to read and review during each # HARPER & ROW work hours cut (and smell possible SFR publishing cycle. So I'll need August: termination in the near future), help from the regular SFR reviewers, they cut down on non-essentials... and from new reviewers. Robert Silverberg (Ed.) .NEW Keep them as short as possible, .DIMENSIONS 10 and magazine and books are very non-essential when food and rent and and don't pull punches or praise. Ursula K. LeGuin.THE LEFT HAND Pay is a first class mail subscript¬ .’...OF DARKNESS utilities claim more and more of the money coining in. ion to SFR. The subscription de¬ # PLAYBOY For several years the real (ad¬ pends on how many of your reviews I accept. Ideally, I'd like to use August: justed for inflation) income of the American people has been declining. one review per reviewer each issue. Gene Snyder. THE OGDEN ENIGMA See you all in #37. Jayge Carr . LEVIATHAN'S DEEP 63 SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #18 In- SCIENCE FICTICTJ REVIEW #29 Inter- BACK ISSUES terview with Lester del Rey; Inter¬ views with John Brunner, Michael view with Alan Burt Akers; "Noise Moorcock and Hank Stine; "Noise THE ALIEN CRITIC Level" by John Brunner; "A Short Level" by John Brunner; SF News, SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW One for the Boys in the Back Room" -SF film reviews. .VO OTHER BACK ISSUES ARE by Barry Malzberg. AVAILABLE SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #30 Inter¬ SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW 019 In- $1.25 per copy views with Joan D. Vinge, Stephen terview with Philip K. Dick; Inter¬ R. Donaldson, and Norman Spinrad; EACH ISSUE CONTAINS MANY REVIEWS. view with Frank Kelly Freas; "The "The Awards Are Coming!" by Orson EACH ISSUE CONTAINS LETTERS FROM Notebooks of Mack Sikes" by Larry Scott Card; S-F News; Movie News. WELL-KNOWN SF 8 FANTASY WRITERS, Niven; "Angel Fear" by Freff; "The Vivisector" by Darrell Schweitzer. EDITORS, PUBLISHERS AND FANS. SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #31 Inter- view with Andrew J. Offutt; "Noise SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #20 In- THE FOLLOWING LISTINGS ARE OF Level" by John Brunner; "On the Edge terviews with Theodore Sturgeon FEATURED CONTRIBUTIONS of Futuria" by Ray Nelson. and ; "Noise Level" by John Brunner; 'The Vivisector" by THE ALIEN CRITIC #5 Interview SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #32 Inter- Darrell Schweitzer; 'The Gimlet with Fritz Leiber; 'The Literary view with Andrew J. Offutt, Part 2; Eye" by Jolin Gustafson. Dreamers" by James Blish; "Irvin Interview with Orson Scott Card; Binkin Meets H.P. Lovecraft" by "You Got No Friends in This World" Jack Chalker. SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW *21 In- by Orson Scott Card; "The Human terviews with Leigh Brackett 8 Ed¬ Hotline" by Elton T. Elliott. THE ALIEN CRITIC #6 Interview mond Hamilton, and with Tim Kirk; with R.A. Lafferrty; "The Trench¬ "The Dream Quarter" by Barry Malz¬ ant Bludgeon" by Ted White; 'Trans¬ berg' "Noise Level" by John Brunner. SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #33 Inter- lations from the Editorial" by view with ; "A Marion Z. Bradley. SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #22 In¬ Writer's Natural Enemy--Editors" terview with John Varley; "S-F and by George R.R. Martin; "Noise S-E-X" by Sam Merwin, Jr.; "After¬ Level" by John Brunner. THE ALIEN CRITIC #9 "Reading thoughts on Logan's Run" by Will¬ Heinlein Subjectively" by Alexei iam F. Nolan; "An Evolution of Con¬ SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW *34 Inter- and Cory Panshin; "Written to a sciousness" by Marion Zimner Brad¬ view with Donald A. Wollheim; "Har¬ Pulp!" by Sam Merwin, Jr.; "Noise ley." lan Ellison—a profile" by Charles Level" by John Brunner; "The* Platt; Charles Sheffield interview Shaver Papers" by Richard S. Shav- SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #23 In- Part 2; "You Got No Friends in This terviews with A. E. Van Vogt, World" by Orson Scott Card. Jack Vance, and Piers Anthony; THE ALIEN CRITIC #10 An Inter¬ "The Silverberg That Was" by Rob¬ SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #35 Inter- view with Stanislaw Lem; "A Nest ert Silverberg. views with Fred Saberhagen and Don of Strange and Wonderful Birds" Wollheim; "The Way It Is" by Barry SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #24 In- by Sam Merwin, Jr.; Robert Bloch's Malzberg; "Noise Level" by John Brun¬ terviews with Bob Shaw, David G. Guest Of Honor speech; The Hein¬ ner; "Coming Apart At The Themes" by lein Reaction. Hartwell and Algis Budrys; "On Be¬ Bob Shaw. ing a Bit of a Legend" by Algis Budrys. -BACK ISSUE ORDER FORM- SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #25 In¬ $1.25 EACH terviews with George Scithers, SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #14 In¬ Poul Anderson and Ursula K. Le Dear REG: I enclose $ terview with Philip Jose Fanner; Guin; "Flying Saucers and the Sty¬ Please send back issue(s) #5 #6 "Thoughts On Logan's Run" by Will¬ mie Factor" by Ray Palmer; ONE #8 #9 #10 #11 #14 #15 #16 iam F. Nolan; "The Gimlet Eye" by INMORTAL MAN--Part One. #17 #18 #19 #20 #21 #22 #23 John Gustafson. #24 #25 #26 #27 #28 #29 #30 SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW *26 In- #31 #32 #33 #34 #35 SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW 015 In¬ terviews with Gordon R. Dickson [Circle #'s desired] terview with L. Sprague de Camp; and Larry Niven; "Noise Level" by1 "Spec-Fic and the Perry Rhodan Science Fiction Review John Brunner; "Fee-dom Road" by Ghetto" by Donald C. Thompson; SUBSCRIPTION COUPON Richard Henry Klump; ONE INMORTAL "Uffish Thots" by Ted White. MAN--Part Two. Dear REG; Start my subscription with issue #_ SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #16 In- SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #27 Inter¬ terview with Jerry Poumelle; ''The $ ONE YEAR / $ TWO YEARS views with Ben Bova and Stephen 6,00 12.00 True and Terrible History of Sci¬ Fabian; "Should Writers Be Serfs... ence Fiction" by Barry Malzberg; Name.. r Slaves?"; SF News; SF film news; "Noise Level" by John Brunner; The Ackerman Interview; ONE IM¬ Address. 'The Literary Masochist" by Rich¬ MORTAL MAN---Part Three. ard Lupoff. City. SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #28 Inter¬ SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #17 In¬ State.Zip. view with C.J. Cherryh; "Beyond terview with George R. R. Martin; Genocide" by Damon Knight; ONF. IM¬ Interview with Robert Anton Wilson; SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW MORTAL MAN---Conclusion; SF News; "Philip K. Dick: A Parallax View" P.O. Box 11408 SF film news 8 reviews. by Terrence M. Green; "Microcos¬ Portland, OR 97211 mos" by R. Faraday Nelson.