December-January 1989-90 95p Issue 153
The Critical Journal of the British Science Fiction Association
• Broken Bubbles: the fiction of Philip K Dick • • Lewis Shiner & Greg Bear Interviewed • • Who Remembers ... Patrick Moore's SF • Vector Issue 153 • Dec/Jan 89/90 ISSN 0505-1448
Contents Cover pbotognipb otPbUlp K Dick, c:ourtuy ol Victor Goltaocz Ltd.
Photognph or IAwis Sblner OD 3 Editorial page 11, c:ourt,esy ol l...uris Shiner. 4 Letters Photgr-aph ol Grq Bear on page 9, 6 Broken Bubbles c:ourtc5J ol Vktor- Gollancz Ltd. Paul Kincaid looks at the progress of Philip K Dick from his mains1reamfiction through to his SF 8 Interview: Lewis Shiner and Greg Bear Charles Scross talks co two major writers from the US 13 Who Remembers Bruce Talbot and Maurice Gray ...? Fay Symes looks back on the juvenile fiction of Patrick Moore 16 Book Reviews 16 Nemesls - /saacAsimov The Mammoth Book of Golden Age Science Fiction Shon Novels of the 1940s - /SIJ/Jc Asimov, Marrin H Greefl«rg & Charles G Waugh (Eds) Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror: 1987 . Char~s N Brown & William G Contento (Eds) The New Encyclopedla of Science Fiction . J~s GuM (£d) 17 The Black Reaper - BunardCa~s Stories In the Dark - Hugh Lamb (Ed) Bone to His Bone - EG Swain 18 Red Prophet - OrsonScou Card A Child Across the Sky - Jonathon Carroll lnterzone: the 4th Anthology - John Clute. David Pringle&: Simon Ounsley (Eds) 20 Dracula's Brood - Richard Dalby (Ed) Winter In Aphelion - Chris Dixon The Best ol Modern Horror - Edward L Ferman&: Anne Jordan (Eds) Dark Fantasies - Chris Morgan (Ed) Zenith - David S Garnell (Ed) 22 Angel Fire - Andrew M Greeley 23 The Total Devotion Machine - Rosaleen Love The Warlord's Domain . Peler Morwood Jane Saint and the Backlash - Josephine Saxton 24 KIiier Planet - Bob Shaw Plague 99 - Jean Ure The Network - Laurence Staig Dark Toys and Consumer Goods . Laurence Sraig Dig Ital Vampires - Laurence Swig Them Bones - I/award Waldrop
Co-Editors Boyd Pa,kinM>n 11 Minh Street, Barrow-in--Fi.mess, Cwibria. L.Al-4 2AE Tetephone 0229-32807 Kev McVeigh 37 Ftn Road, Milnlhorpe, Cumbria, LA7 70F Telephone 05395-62883 Revl-• Edilor Paul Kneaid Production Anl1lllnl1 Chris Amies, Paul Macaulay, Catie Cary Production Con1ult11nl Barry Pariunson Typeset by PCG, 61 SchoolStreet, Barrow-in-Furness. Cumbrial.Al-4 t EW. Tel: ~957 PMted by PDC Cop)'pmt, 11 Jeffries Passage, Guidford. S!ney. GU I -iAP Veclor rs published bimonlhly by h BSFA, copyright 1989. Al opinions expressed in Veclor are thow of lhe individual cootributoni and must not be taken to represent !hose of lhe Ech>rs or lhe BSFA except where explicitly staled. Contribulors Good .ricies a-e aways wanted. Al MSS must be r-,ped double-spaced on one side ol lhe paper. Ma.unum preferred length is 3500 WOfds : excepcions can andwil be made. A preliminruy letter is useful but not euenliai. UniOicited MSS cannot be returned witholJt an SAE. Please noie Iha! there is no payment for publication. Members who wish 10 review boob mull lirll wrile lo hi Editors. Art Covel" art, ilk.lstratiorls and Mets are •ays welcome. Volunteer• Typists partiwlar1y (Alai ST or IBM PC) waned. Contact Boyd Pa-bisor1-.. Adverlf1lng Al adwtnising copy must be sibnined as blw canera-ntady artwortt wi1h al necessary halftones. All enquiries on ram, sizes, et. to the Pubicir-, Manager: Dave Wood, 1 Friary Close, Mame Hil.Clewdon, Avon BS21 7~ Tt,,,a..l.lt$domit""""'"-u,1 • ~.._IIJO--• ~s..t:z:1JOO • ...... •e..t-• L&.....i__,11,o..1,,11s-.,-,Kam cno1ES ek:ometo thclastVectorofthc W I 980s .... And where doe$ that leave us? In the 90s how will we remember lhe 80s'! To see lhat. we need to sec where we are now, at the very end of the decade, to see the platforms Ula1 might be EDITORIAL built upon in the next few years. As I see it. the 80s have been too king to be considered By Kev McVeigh u a perfect whole. bui lhcrc have been features recently which offer clues about the future. We have been through a period of hype based a.round one novel, Neuromaocu, but in the main all that cyberpWU: has left us with in the UK is the concept of "William Gibson - Supc!'star", the disturbing news that John Shirley may be quining the genre, and Charles Stros.s telling all who will listen about a soi-disanJ "Tcchnogoth .. movement in Britain. And yet, I'm not entirely opposed to this hype because it ha.s brought some very interesting writen to my attention. These arc writ£rs who have been Jinked with cyber punk, but in ge=al are so much more lhan that. who don't fit categories easily. In lhe 90s I expect grc:11 things from Uwis Shiner. P11 Cadigan, Paul Difillipo, Rich.rd Kad rey, and Marc Laidlaw. They are writing hard SF, Horror, Fantasy, mairu1ream... and making it exciting again. In Brita.in we have a range of emerging writers who are well-versed in literature, and who are ta.king their SF and FIUlla5y away from the established formulae.. Not only are they produc ing alternatives to the American traditions, but they are also developing new British styles, so that there is very little pre dict.able about the next few years for these authors getting short story collections publi devoted to developing skills nec.::essary for writers: Colin Greenland. Garry Kilworth, shed. particularly in the USA, from where I writing non-fic1iorL So far there arc two Gwyneth Jones, Geoff Ryman, Storm rec.::ently acquired collections by John Shir people interested besides myself. which is Constantine, Ian McDonald, Iain Banks, ley, Connie Willis, Karen Joy Fowler, Pat disappointing. To work properly, at least one Mary Gentle and Paul J McAuley (to name Cadigan and Ian McDonald; whilsl in Britain more member is nec.::essary, so please write but a few), except that they will be worth our Mary Gentle, Scou Bradfield, Lucius Shep to me for details. Hopefully this will lead to considerable attention. Even further from the ard, Leigh Kennedy, Howard Waldrop and a better &landard for Vei.:tOJ" in the future. British "norm" are a oouple of writen I came Tanith Lee add 10 the list. So far the response to the Parkinson across recently: Martin Millllf and Jeremy You will see then, thal there a lo1ofwrilefs McVeigh Vector has been very good. It C larke are bolh published by 41h E.state and I believe will help to maintain a healthy seems that most people like the new look, write bizUTe novels aboul • crazy low-life genre over the nex1 few years, and there are with only a couple of dissenters who don't which takes in fragmenlS from al) directions others I have yet to reacl. 1nere are bad signs actually CJ1:plain wh.a1 we are doing wrong for and throws out vivid whole images which too: the failings or Intenone u mentioned them, and so Boyd and I will continue u we might be ourselves in a magic mirror. above; the pt1liferation of 1rilogies, lCUll]. have begun, making improvements as we I nOle also the resurgence of the short ogies, intcnninologiei... mosl or whlch take see the need and/or develop the skills form. It hu been said for ycan that collec seven volumes ID say lw than would fit on a necessary. tions and anthologies don't sell; yet now post.age stamp (though Samuel R Delany, The material is coming in steadily and I they are everywhere. Until recently the only Gene Wolfe and a few others have produced am panicularly pleased ID be able to use outlet for short stories in the UK was Inter worthwhile series); the fonnulaic nature of articles by writers who have not featured in zoot, a m agazine whlch I personally believe the majority or the paperbacks in WH Smith, the pages of Vector before, as well as by has lost all the intere s1 it once had. I think etc; lhe ludicrous amounlS some publishers established novelists, reviewers and critics. back to the memorable stories by Richard will pay for crap Fantasy such u The Hopefully we can continue to give new Kadrey, Pwl J McAuley, David Langford, Dragon boot Chair, th11 they then print in writers their first tastes of fame and fortune Eric Brown, Geoff Ryman, Ian Watson, some biz.arre size thal fi ts no known book (though no money, sadly!). In the next few John Shirley, and a few olhers. to realise that shelf at a price equivelent to the GNP of issues we hope to have articles by or about the most recent of thei;e was over two years Bolivia because they spent too much in the Colin Greenland, Kirn Newman, Mary ago, a dozen issues back. MoSI go back to first place (and again, there is still good Gentle, Paul J McAuley, Michael Moorcock issues in the early teens. Recently the most Fantasy from Tim Powers, Megan Lindholm, and others. There is such a wealth of talent radical things appearing have been David Storm Constantine etc); the absence of good in British SF that, if Boyd and I can keep up Brin and Terry Pratchell, and most issues are quality criticism outside of John Clute, Colin what feels to me an amazing success (I Willi an effort to reacl. I speak to too many people Greenland and a couple of others. terrified about the first issue). then Vector who read John Clute's reviews and Charles This last point is something which has co will be the magazine to read in the 1990s. Plau's columns, and then, unless there is a ncerned me for a while; I believe that a thri Thanks IO all those who have helped, or story by a particularly favoured author, they ving critical body is essential to a healthy offered encouragement or articles etc, this put it back on the shelf. genre, hence the ad in our last issue regard looks possible. If you are interested in SF's The other side of this is the number of ing the sening up of an Orbiter-type group progress through the 90s. stick around. •
VECTOR 153 e 3 LETTERS
Write to: Vector 11 Marsh Street Barrow-in-Furness Cumbria LA14 2AE
Firstly, Mld ovu from UJSt issue .... the "Divine Human Imagination" and Trah however and whatever definitions argued, eme the "Inward Work", lhey conjured up consensus would I suppose allot them hono Tree of Lile.. .. perspectives aitained by the e xercise of ured places at appropriate points along the "tree-top" or "mountain-top" faculties. In SF speclTUm. They all read admirably, and J udith Hanna's critique of PamelaZolinc the light of what is some1imes termed "cos they all diroct imagination and though1 (Vl SI) wu a delight. no! only for its ima mic consciousness", apprehensions of space towards areas where various sciences other gery and met.aphOf (from billiards through and time may become radically altered. than applied science are either central or hail-storms IO pastOl"al), but for its clever Blake wrote of being raised "Upon the peripheral. But !here is also imaginative analogic strucruring which moved the essay chiuiots of the morning, Contrac1ing or energy of a high order operative in many from ordered appraisal 10 ethical comment Expanding Time." Traherne wrote tha1 " .. .in novels where extrapola1ions from current and then on to an " entropically" disordered the Mind an endless Space/ Doth nat'rally applications of science • tochnologKaJ. pol conclusion. her text disintegrating inlO displace its race". Our own familiar "sense itical. military - we thcmarica11y dominant "scribbled hints". of wonder.. can on oocasion II lcast claim and realistically treated, even though there It's worth pawing, however, on this Tree cousinship. may be other levels of symbolism or meta of Life iropc. In her essay, as in Zoline's Two particularly striking employments of phor present in them. rm thinking of such story, the Tree is regarded chiefly in its gen the Tree archetypes in contexts o f elevated novels as Pohl's Man Plus, Dick's T he etic aspect - genes, like sub-nuclear panicl consciousness are Barrington Bayley's story Penultimate Truth, or Brunncr's The es, playing a kind of Russian rouleue in a "The Ur-plant" (Goethe 's urpjlallle), in Shockwave Rider. no-man's land lying between causality and which, as the arboretic, dentritic, multiple Cecil Nurse writes (for me acceptably): chaos. So viewed lhe Tree, producing "off appearences of the Plant are made to bloom, "Science fiction is about the imagination. spring of compounded improbabilities", "the machine bee~ :, what it secs • and it and imagination is real ... Our imaginations may for a time exhibit buds of unusual saw a god!". Whal then falls from far above shape the world.. . '' In arguing against neg order, but such a "vanishing improbability" is not "eddies of dust" but "a gift", a "fecu atively-aspected fragmentation of the image is not worth betting on. There is ye1 no ndation", a "golden, fermenting haze". In of what, in the dictionary's prime meaning certain exemption. as Shelley wrote, "From Robert HoldslOCk's Zenith anthology story of the word, is a cothclic genre, I take the chance, and death, and mutability"; or from "Time of the Tree" (a variation on a time liberty of both remoulding and expanding what Gerard Manley Hopkins described as a illusory/metam01phic cpiJode in Lavondyss) lh.at message. Science fiction mar11f~sts the Heraclitean Fire in which "million fueled, the arboreal perception is that of "some imagination specifically yet diversely or~ nature's bonfire bums on" until "world's slumbering god" . In both of these instances nled, and imagination is real ... Our imagin wildfi.re leave but ash", there is an imaginal and anatomical coin ations shape the world - to say nothing of the On lhc other hand, a near-universal fram cidence of Tree a.nd Man, exemplifying lhc universe, as some physicists and melllph- ing icon common to shamans and mystics, Goelhean concept that every creature "is sicians appear now to suppose. poets and painters, is the Tree of Life as only a tone or shade in one great harmony"; KV Balley image and symbol o f a strucnn-ed and end e:,i;ernplifying also the fact th at a great dcaJ of 1 Val de Mer, Alderney, Cl uring renascence - enduring (anomalous very interesting SF and Fan1asy currently co word) perhaps aternporally in defiance of ncerns itself with holistic (man-inclusive and what may in the processes of time come man-inreractive) a.nd even trans-temporal Imago Imagery "spiralling down like eddies of dust". In images of the universe. or universes. religious literature there is the Tree standing A "closed" mochanistic universe is ultim Stopping momentarily to deprecate Dave etemally in the New Jerusalem at lhe apoca ately imprisoning and possesses only the Langford's unkind demolition of Philip E lyptic end o f time; and in gcnetic/mytho catainty of a final state of disorder. Varictie5 High (literary overlcill - the poor chap's quite poeic vein !here is the Tree of Jesse, sprung of "open,. and multidimensional models in harmless, it's merely Boy's Own Paper SF), from ancestral sleeping loins, but crowned in which mind is an integral and operative com I would like to thank U Hurst for opening a lheophany. Hopkins transfigures "ash" ponent are e:,i;p\ored in such books as David my eyes to a whole new vision of Octavia and "matchwood" to "immortal diamond", Bohm's Wholeness a nd t he Implicate Ord Butler's Xenogenesis trilogy. and sees through his "Ash-boughs" a regen er and are reflected in science fictional ima I too received Imago for review (for Crll• erative no w between "heaven" and "earlh". ginings as varied as James Blish's approach lea\ Wave) and viewed it as I did the ftrst From mundane base to crown the ascent (apocalyptic) in A C lash or Cymbals, Ian two parts of the story: as the fascinating un of the Tree symbolises passage from " e arth" Watson's (fantastical) in Q ueen Magic, folding of a new and superior lifefonn subs to "heaven", Climbing the Tree (or its ana King Magic, and Brian Aldiss's (wittily uming, absorbing and replacing humankind. logues . Pillar, Ladder, Cosmic Mountain) in acerbic) in such stories as "Oh for a Closer Hurs1 is right in a way: so skillfully docs many mylhologies represents substirution of Brush with God". Butler tell her tale through Oankali eyes tha1 one mode of conciousness for anothCT. Con All this is not only apposite to Tree of Life one can be blinded to the sub-plot - the scioumess related to the Tree's crown and symbology, but leads me up to take up, more heedless destruction of humankind by a race manifesting an ac tive and often intense awa or less supportively, one thread of argument which, though different. is still a usurper and reness may perceive a "reality" diffaent in Cocil Nurse's article in V15t. None of the a destroyer. from th.at which is perceived at its roots. fictions I have just cited are likely to advance Hurst, however, pussyfoots out of direct When such poets as Blake and Traheme thought or debate on how applied science accusation by using the (s trictly correct in wrote out of e 11.pcricnce of what Blake called migh1 make or mar our planet's future. Yet. that the Oankali arc not humans) term "mis-
4 • VECTOR 153 LETTER S
anthropy" 10 define Butler's heedless esp wilh 50fflC of thc new American SF novels u Internal Consistency ousal ofOantali philosophy. To bclw:Jnesl. Ibey come out? It's p:,uiblc now, particu Bull.a is pr-=hinJ racism in it's most virul l•ly u the spccialiu. boouhopl sUx:t many Perhaps ..internally Olm5istcnt" is bcuer cnt. Hitlcri&n fonn - lhcc:nslav:ing. newring of lhcm.. Jt's Ibo ludicnKU thll every review than Ken Lake's "believable" as I rcquir• and conccntratiQll-camping. and ultim.aldy ahoukl be 300 wonb k>ng. The alalCC of emen1 of SF. Who said fiction had to be thc.tot.lldcslJ'UCbonoriransporution10an works by wrileR like Lucius Shepard can'1 bc~able7 Certainly not my dictionary. other planet. of the entire human r.ce.. begolatin300w«ds. Okay, so much SF is plausible.. but there's• Trus, or 00W$C, poses a mm1 intaesting Besidcswhich,l am0thinkjuslif111bly) IOI which isn't and doesn't prct£nd IO be. question,forO:laviaBuLlerisbltck;isshe annoyed lhal Paul Kincaid should run thc Surely what m.llleR is the reader's willing recapitulating her African peoples· tteaunau Lake piece. II isn't a review. If Ken Lake neu to swpcnd his or her disbelief and this by prc-Wilbcrforcian whi1£.S, or i.s she prea wants io sound off about the PR behind can best be achieved by the wriier's work ching IOfflC black revenge upon posl• Chung Kuo (which he's perfectly justified being in1.emally consistenL Nor does fiction Wi!bcrlofcian wh.iics? in doing) he should do 10 in a \cua: in have to be lileraie or structured • good Without considering the genesis oflmago MatriI or an anicle there. But the fault lies fiction. yes. but fic1ion doesn't have to be - that is. the prec.cding novcb Dawn and squarely wilh Paul. He should know bcuer. good. Having said this, I did like ~ distin Adulthood Rius - one may be lc£t facing Ken Lalr:c should try working out some ction Ken makes between ordinary fiction this dichotomy. It is, however, my belief lhat time how much it would am for four people and SF. Obviously, though, the ne.u ques the munge they give us is that whai is bei (me, my wife, and my two children) to travel tion is how different does something have to ng told here ia the \D\avoidablc clash of two about China for several months. particularly be classed IS SF7 totally dissimilar races - neither of them when one would h•ve to give up their job APMll ls inhercntlysupcriororinferKlr.Butlergives and when both had huge overdrafts aftu 20 l..ulOn Rd, Hull, N. Humberside. HUS 5AJ her Oank.ali I racial-preser,ation drive str converting an old Victorian house, Bw that's onga than dw of her versioru; of humanity • really io miss the point. When did anyone and here irdccd I quancl wilh her, for I ever complain that I writer hadn't travelled &ti agOUf.,from KV Bailey.... cannot bclivc dw we would in fact crumble in time, hadn't been to other planets, hadn'I and degencra1e in the 911y me de:picu. been President Lincoln in another inc.am• Corrections To be oonotll. I found Xeoogcoesis grip ation, hadn'1 murder-cd anyone. hadn't lived ping u 11tory - laking it, in other words., a1 in thc !Ith ecnn.y? . to give bul a few ins• I thought David Pringle's piccc on the orig face value. Digging below the surface, Hunt 1mCC:S.None!hclcuit'1still lhconcqucstion ins of IZ a wliquc contribution io the docu· gives me a new slant. but following it up I I gea ~ ~gul•ly. So uke'1 .. Don't mcr1tation or British initillivc and achie reach different eoncl11Sions from him. I think confuse me with flcil" is a nonscrue. vement in SF publishing, and Veclor is 10 be she has dc.libc:ratcly, or from 50me shon Ohyes.mdthcrcismcSFnovd in which complemcnta:1. on making it 1vailab1t. ooming in her own psyche. sold humanity the Chinese hive taken over America (nol lliketheillustn.tionstomyDantcartick. short: so enamoured is she of her own the world) and tha1'1 Fred Poh1's rc«nl Bla while indeed not quite sure. how awropriale OankaliinvcnlionthatlheCC1'tbear10sce ck Star Rlsmg (1985). But try finding any they were; but why did I have such I strong lhembcs1cd thing truly Chinese in the book. Ken Lake sense of tUja v117 Could I possibly hive see:n Perhaps U Hunt can be prevaHed upon lo mighltrybackin.g up his .,(IIOt17•J" with them, particularly the heading one, 10me give U5 ''The Altemllc Xeno~is", in solid fact. Even the Chinese novelist Lin wherc before? Mike Rollins is a truly taJen. which the hwnans either come ow on IOp, or Yutang when he wrote his one SF novel u:danistandthercpriseofhisdrawingfrom reach an acceptable modus vivendi wilh the Tht Unupccttd Island (William Heine V15 1 for the page in Vl52 devoted to David Oankali, or end up exiling them to Mm. Or, man, 1955) chose io write about Grcecc &fter Wingrove's novel WIS a nice u:.c ofgr11We perhaps, we hive IO face it: mankind really Work!Warlll. motif. is inferior, Butler is right, we arc blinkered David Wingrove I do have one small worry about my Dante by our own shortcomings and some 47 Farleigh Road, Stoke Newington, article. The last sentence, which is important Supcrmankind • alien or mutated right here • London, Nl6 'TJ'D inlha1itpullstogetherandfinalise1s1randt will come along and simply displace us. of argument and evidence. had somehow got Meanwhile lhc debate is thrown open: how so misprinted that. its omissions and addit ihould we read Butler'? Km'srl!Viewin VJ51 islOOmMClt ions deprived it of any meaning. On the Kea Lake PaiJ's upartmov, MJ J diHt'1 fed qua copy sent. io you thc Jtr1tcnce reads. u it llSM11k.houseAvenuc.Londcn El78AY UfioJ loreplylO INS. As/or 1M fasgrlt should have been printed: o{IM r~sand llwir sllhj«t ll'tOllu: flVVr1 SF rmMTs art also iNuaud in h indicalel also that lit.crary and im1gin Reviews FanlQSJ and Horror . 1M ,ave bowl llive lines lhou&}II by CS Lewis IO have dariaare~ blwnd anJW'l'J. l/'JQM bccome.inthrirdc.sccltfromDantc. I apprecllie the 1uenlion I'm given in VISl, loot1Jvo.gkW Reviews.rw:tioft..J(Jfl'U irreconcilably divcrient do continue to but surc.ly lhis mus! be lhc first time Vector rncre tNvt UUly fuvl Uta/ ii is 1mually find SF and fanwy many imovllive has ever run• review of advertising m.11 - tw!:ll• balanud aJang tlwe littU, Uta/ mtf"gings a:nd meeting places. e:rial. Wh11 the hugely erudite Ken Lake eaclt boot wndu rfflN' is of some (pl8. Vl52J makes of me« my work l'vclitllc inierest inltf"f!SI to an OMliiutu will! a c""'"°" in. parricularly u he deigns IO think he can Je1voriedta.stt. Alno"icat1impor,Swt Pity • but partly my raulL The punctuation judge I work noc. even by its cova: bu1 by ill wollld. luriJt lo b111, piulwig ow b.dgtt in my original (as lbove) wasnol immaculate as.soclltedm1tcrial. fartN:r tNvt we canfuvl a«tptablL If and could have led to confusion. I guess. I know any nwnber of people have com wt ca,i gtt American pMbiisMrs 10 serid however, rcadc:n who read as far as that may mented bcrorc, but it is • lovely k>olcing II.I' rt11iew copia, we' U gladly NSt 11stm. have been abk IO consuue what was meant. Vector. My only long-running gripe is with And we wOMld gladly ltave longer K VBallty the Reviews 1«tion, which, as ever, seems rt11iews(il's400 word.t. 11()1 JO(), by 1M IO run • one-third SF IO two-thirds HorTOr/ way), bw11hi.s wo11ld tlit,i mean Jiavi,ig A.pologiu • bl.II I mu.sr admit somt! Fantasy diet. Th11 doesn't "open up" the more pages, whiclt we can't afford 10 ro,ifusiol'I wilh 11it pwactuaJW,i. I boundaries of SF. il merely ropes in 1wo do, or cunUlg 1M 1/orrorfFanlasy should laavt discussed this with you, more genres and ignores the fact that it is the COllltril, wliich wt don't Wan/ to do arad and thus tM/ault lies sqwarely wilh me. British Science Fiction Association. I won wollld pl.II W5 in 1/ie silua1io11 of havi"& A.pologiaalso to ErwUI F BlonJc, Jim der if anyone has ever asked how m1ny to actually define SF. £,iglaNJ, flN1 Robot Gib= . too mo.,iy people leave the BSFA because they find IOO And 1alking of deflllitioM .... letters arad /'IOI enough space! often it isn't dealing with SF? Why noc. deal - BP - BP
VECTOR 153 • 5 Broken Bubbles
Paul Kincaid examines the progress of Philip K Dick from mainstream to SF
n rctn»peel. it is n01 lhat difficul1 to see way I.he influence of lhe mainsueam fiction Iwhy Philip K Dick's mainstream novels. SD"elchcd inlO lhc science. fiction. wrincn in the 1950s:, were not published The Broken Bubble may have been am 11 thc time. They use wonk like " fuck": they ong his earl~ writings, but I consider it as cu.mine suual Rlatioruhips, often between one or the best books he ever wrou. along couplc5 whose liai.soN would have been side Mary and the Giant Perhaps bccau5e. social anathuna at the time anyway, between lilte Mary. and the best ofhd SF, such u A bl.ad: and whitc, bccwccn difrc:rcnt age gro Scanner Darkly, it confronts issues and ups; lhcy question and condemn the social obsessions head on. coda or the lime. No. it would lake I decade This novel WIS originally called "The or more for these boob 10 become publish Broken Bubble of Thisbc Holl", drawing able. but by lhcn !hey were pushed into a aucntion 10 a very minor sub-plot. but one bottom drawer and Dick hid become catcgo which provides the symbol for the real or the and ends up calling for Brislin to come and risa:l as I science fiction wriicr, and in lhc book. Holl. a would-be cntcnaincr, climbs 1ak.e her home. Jim and Rachel. meanwhile. SU.ties and seventies it was difficult if not naked in10 a clear plaslic ball 10 be pushed circle each olher endlessly, but while Rachel impouibJe for an SF wrilcr to escape lhc around by businc5smcn kuing their hair is a strong-willed individual who cannot ab ghetto '1KI be recognised u a mairnrream down after a convention. It is a hwniliating ide any nonsense. Jim is unable to brcalr: wriicr. We shoud be grateful that Dick. did action. which arouses the businessmen in through the sociaJ and moraJ tics that bind rum 10 SF, however, not only because he was ways she will not later ulisfy. ln a childish him. ll is a ootable feature of this book that so bloody good at it, bul also because the moYe lo sublimate thcir lusts (and Dick often the IWo female leads arc far more strongly populariry and aitical acclaim he acquired 1S50ciatcs lusr with childishncs.s), the and sympalhelically drawn than in practic has allowed the subsequent exhumation of businessmen subsequently fiU the bubble ally all of Dick's science fiction. these novels. with garbage and push il OUl of the window Moving from the oppressive, sharply The lucu to appear, The Broken Bubble, of their hotel room, an even\ which hu delineated world of California in the early along with the first British hardback edition consequences for the other characters in the fifli cs to the future where earth is ruled by a of one of his SF noveb from the fag-end of main plot. But essentially this is a s!Ory of diclltorship of New Men with incredibly one of his most prolific periods, lhc mid bubbles of desire and humilialion. bubbles more powerful brains and Unusuals with psi to- latc sixties, Our Fdt nds from Frolb: 8, which are all broken during the course of the powers, and where help for the downtrodden provide an ideal oppurtunity to look at the story. Old Men is coming in the shape of alien~ Jim Briskin is a DJ on a local radio slltion from Frolix 8 led by the military adventurer in California during the early 50. who is Thors Provoni might seem an astonishing suspended for refusing to play a wtcless ad leap. In fac1 reading the 1wo books together vcn for a used car dealer. During the period rcvcab an unexpected con1inuity. of his suspension Brisk.in. and his ex-wife, Our Friends from FroliJ: 8 is not one of Patricia, become involved with a young mar• Dick's bes! novels. Fast published in 1970, riod couple Art and Rachel Emmanuel, still it came when his work wu trailing off from in their teens and suffering the curfeW5 and the mid-six1ics heights of Martian Time social disadvanllgcs that young people suf. Slip, Do Androids Dream of Eiectrk fered in lhat place at that time. It is outrage Sheep and Ublk. It came in thc same year u at these restrictions that first pul15 Brisk.in the distinctly lacklustre A Mau Of Death , in10 lhe orbit of the Emmanucl.5, and he and the only book IO follow it W IS lhc "'f!rf draws Patricia in wilh him. But Brisk.in is disappointing We Cao Buikl You lwo ycan attrlCled IO the plain but oool and knowing later. before thc late Dowering of his work Rachel wtule Patricia gets involved in an WIS hcnldcd in 1974 by Row- My Tears, affair wilh An 1h11 is II fin:1 passK>natc and The Poll«man Said. In other words. Frolb: then violeru. Th11 their actions jeopardise 8 come, from a time when he WIS winding both the growing reunion beiwecn Jim and down. and frankly the book shows a laclr: of Patricia and lhc new but fragile marriage of the old ~ve 1parL Not that it is a had An and Rachel is known 10 all four ofthcm. book. just not up 10 his usual standard. but it is beyond their power 10 control their Though for that very reason it hclps 10 display lhe mechanics of his creativity. "'"°"'The novel· is a very powcdul and effective f suppose in common wilh j!JSI: aboul ever blend of social comedy and social criticism. yone who grew up with the scic:ncc fiction of Patricia and Art's madcap escape. meant to Philip K Dick I quicldy lcanxd 10 SJX>1 his be a sexually charged uperimce, finishcs obsessions. Reality, that WIS the key to his with Art., still a chikl-man. spending a night work. Everything was abour on10logical do out with the lads at a bowling alley while ubt" drugs, lwists in time. simulaa. m,,dnc.ss Patricia languishes in a dingy moicl room all changed the world u we sec iL We arc
6 • VECTOR153 B ROK EN BUBB L E S ltrt desperately ttying 10 make sense 0£ a able if we are to accept the premise or the writing abouL The characteristic shifts in world which is li able to change at the drop suwc,sed setting: Gram would not allow reality that decorate Appleton's story arc of1haL Appleton such leeway, Appleton would not there to establish the reasons for his All of that is in Frolh: 8. There is a social regard Gram so insouciantly. But in icrms of breaking of lhe rules, and to throw those invcr5ion of the world we know, drugs are a discussion about the social and moral uansgressions into sharp dramatic relief. To freely available at bars but alcohol is prosc concerns of the novel, a confrontation bet make a strong story out of them by making it ribed. There are the shifts in perspective ween Old Man and Unusual, it works with all extreme. And looking back through all brought about by use of alcohol. There are considerable dramatic power. Yet if this his work, whether it's Phil in VALIS or the differing world views that result from !he scene is pivotal, if indeed it deserves this Fred/Bob in A Scanner Darkly, Ragle extraordinary scientific and mathematical dramatic power, it is because the key to the Gwnm in T ime O ut of Joint or Rick leaP5 made by the New Men. And there arc novel is Dick's social and moral concerns. Dekard in Do Androids Dream or Electrk the aliens who come along at the end of the What he is doing is foll owing up on the Sheep, what is central is that the character is book and literally change the world. But is subjects that were at the heart of his early forced to question or tr1111Sgress the rules, to that truly the COTC of what Dick is saying? mainstream books: people forced to the edge question or transgress the "real" world. After returning to his science fiction after by the rules of the society they inhabit, If we take reality as normality, a consen reading the non-SF which predates it, I have people who trarugres.1 because being true to sus view of the world armmd us, as the set of started to change my mind about what is the their own humanity must take precedence rules by which we define our world, then the key to his work. over the rules they break. There are consequ link between lhc two theses might be more In this fumre world, the domestic life of ences incUITed, bubbldl a.re indeed broken, clearly seen. In the social novels his char Nick Appleton and his wife, or later the but if they had failed to follow their nature, acters are pushed to lhe edge and break the scene when Nick and Charley watch the if thay had not slCpped beyond the rules which hold lhe social world together. return of Provoni on TV at the aparlmenl of borderline, then the consequences, at least in In lhe science fic1ion novels his characters Ed and Elka Woodman. could come straight terms of their own humanity would have are forced to lhe edge and break the rules out of California in the 1950's. Appleton's been worse. Thus lhe qua-lCI of Briskin. which hold the real world together. And it is break-up with his wife to go chasing after Patricia. Ari and Rachel all tr.ragress, and the science fiction which has grown out of the younger Charley is very much a refle pa:y lhe price, bu1 by lhc end of the book they themainstream. • ction of lhc affair between Patricia and An are better of£ for iL Thus Nick Appleton in The Broken Bubble, and despite the needs to assert his humanity by transgressing future setting would seem to seen in elliactly the rules, cha.sing after Charley in a moral Tha Broken Bubble - Philip K Dick the Sllne moral light as that relationship framework, becoming ISSOCiated with the {Gollanci. 1989, 246pp. ll2.95J from the fifties. outlawed Under Men in a political hame Our Friends From Fralix 8 worlc. taking alcohol on a pcnonal levcl. The scene in which Appleton is brought - PhilipKDick before the all -powerful political leader and Oh, the questioning of reality is still there, /Ki,vie/1, 1989, 21 lpp, ll J .95/ telepath Willis Gr11n is simply unbelieve- but it is lhe tool he uses, not the subject he is
The British FOUMDATIOM Science Fiction THE REV IEW OF SCI EN CE FIC TI ON
Association In 111 f1f1«n years ofpubhca1ion , FOUNDATION ha, e1,ubli1hod a :,~~~1""1 a> p,obably tho be,, critical journal ofsci n,J~n•al r•b,.r,p110" ,~,,, a ..: [ll.50/UK a•J /,1/J..J);£9.00ii,,Jaa Artists! ,na,I ro a,.,."'"""'" ([IJ,5() air mJ1/); US J/7.()I} ,,.,jl>rt "'ail (US 12/.()l}a,r "'"'/) 1<1 USA o..JO,noda. l•dwodwo/ iu•" a,,£2.95 (US J6) P,<"1 Jr,r. T ron,atil>n1i< ,ubu, ihm pJ,.,., ,.,,Jd JI 1/ payi"l by Good artwOt'k, black-and-white line preferably, Is always d VECTOR 153 e 7 Interview with Lewis Shiner and Greg Bear In luM of this year Leeds University hosted a conference entitled "Fiction 2000", al which several noted critics including Professor Tom Shippey, Eric Rabkin, Van /kin and George Slusser presenled papers relating in the main to the cyberpunk phenomena, and in specific. to William Gibson's Neuromancer. Amongst the authors present were Geoff Ryman, Harry Harrison , Gregory Benford. Greg Bear and Lewis Shiner. After the fin.al session Charles Stross spoke to both Lewis Shiner and Greg Bear. two writers who came to prominence in the 1980s. Can you give me some background details common: like believing in extrapolation. in to each other, they can workshop each other, aboutyourcareersaswriters? near-furure stories, the importance of taking they can help each other. I never liked work technology seriously, looking on the positive shops, but I'm doing it more now because I BEAR: I sold my first story when I was 15, it side of technology • what it can do for us, see all these enormous resources out there, was published when I was 16. I didn't sell how it can be addressed by real people - the people with incredible critical faculties who anything for 5 years, then I started writing business of using what I call the edges of can firm up the writing. But I've always good stuff about 5 years after thaL.. first ideas, which is how technology and sruff like been a lone wolf, never liked joining even novel published in 1979: Hegira. I've wan that affects real people. gets into their daily lheboyscouts. ted to be a writer since I was about 7 or 8 lives; not just the idea of television but how In my 1eens I got picked up by people like years old; basically, I jus1 never had a choice we have video rent.al.s on every corner: the Bjo Trimble - I was an illustrator, as much as to what I was going to be. And it was everyday details that fall out of ideas. Bill as a writer, back then and got involved with always going to be science fiction. Gibson came to Austin in 1982, and at that certain groups of people in film and so on. I point there was a sense that we were all in really wanted to be a special effects artist. And what do you do apart from write? this together. and then I found out that was terribly hard Another aspect of it is that Bruce is a very work and I wasn't as good a sculptor as I BEAR: Nothing, just be a daddy and live a canny marketing intelligence that was able thought, so I went off into what I'd always normal life. use things like Cheap Tr uth to promote the been primarily associated with - the story Movemen,. to advertise for all of us, and I telling - but I did have association with peo SHINER: And be president of the SFWA. think that I enjoy writing criticism and ple who were mentors, and there's quite a Cheap Truth was an outlel for lhaL In lhe few of them out there, though I wouldn't say BEAR: That's not a normal life. years lhat have passed I've come to realise they were literary mentors; but they helped that the little work I did for Cheap Truth me get into different things, go places and SHINER: I'm actually pretty similar in terms was preny much irrelevant; ii was largely meet different people. of background. I s1arted reading at 3, started overshadowed by the revolution that I gol writing about that same time. I started my involved in with Bruce. Can I ask the two of you how the tecb nic• first novel when I was 7, and started actually al underpinning of your writing manifests submitting stories to magazines when I was Did you [Bear ) find that your writing gr itsel f, how the hard SF tropes underlie It? 12. Got my first sale when I was 26, and ew up In Isolation, or were you part of any I 've noticed Lew, for example, ln the begi since then 50 shon stories and 3 novels sold. movement? nning or Dtstrttd Cilies of tht Heart you cite a rair amount of ttthnkal research, You've [Shiner) been cited as being invol BEAR: I went to my first convention when I particularly on helicopters; while It seems \'ed In lhe Movement from very early was 16, and like a good many SF writers I've obvlous, Greg, that most of your novels days, contributing to Ch~op Truth under been heavily associated with fandom, althou fall within the category of har d SF to the the name Sue Denim, until Charles Plan gh more literary fandom than media fandom. extent that most of them have a fair ripped it ofr. Have you any thoughts on amount or hard science underlying them. the matter? Were you associated with the Did you have any sense of being part of a Can I ask you how that te<:hnlcal under• Movement from Its nr:y beginnings oc movement? Were there any contem)lOl'ary pinning developed Into the fiction? Was It ~·ere you dragged in by Bruce Sterling? writers you were wocklng with? there from the start? SHINER: This is part of the paper I gave BEAR: No, I was part of a tradition that went SHIN ER: I think, based on what I think here. In brief what I said was that yes, there back at least 50 years. That was the tradition you're asking ... that lhe fiction comes to me was a sense of a movement going on. I was of hard SF; and also a lot of Fantasy, a lot of in tenns of scenes; generally the first scuff I in ii in the sense that I've been in cont.act Horror. I've loved all of these things and see is interaction between characters. The with Bruce in Austin since 1979, and been in I've tried to write Horror and science fiction. characters then develop more and more as I workshops with him. Bruce was already in The first novel I finished was a fan1asy, it see the relationships between those chara contact with John Shirley and Bill Gibson by might even be called Magic Realism today. cters. From those realationships develop mail, and they'd been exchanging arguments I rebel against the notion of movements, actions, from those actions develops a plot. and ideas and so forth. I don't know 10 what because I feel that every writer is a private from which develops a novel. However, I extent I've really been part of the MovemenL individual who has to work wilhin their own feel that anything that plot touches which is I know I've argued with all those writers, soul. That's lonely, and there is a real urge verifiable, I will try to verify. I will do and Rudy Rucker is also included. We've amongst writers to get together in groups; immense amow1ts of research, bur I enjoy hammered out certain things we hold in there are some benefits to this - they can talk doing that; that is almost the reason why this 8 e VECTOR 153 INTERVIEW is the profession that I've chosen, tha1 I will somewhat more intellectually convincing still have to play by the rules. Any Fantasy sometimes get into the plots something I than Fantasy; it's going to be more !IOCially writer will tell you that internal consistency want to learn more abouL I will pursue a important, I think. I take the most important, isasimp::,rtan1inFan1.asyasinSF. particular area of research for a novel be not personal, but social themes that I can see, causethat increascs its intrinsic interesL things that I see happening in society, and try BEAR: But Fantasy has an element of the I wanted to learn a little bit more about to feed ii back into society in tesms of hard dream-like, and the dream can play a role. quantum physics, so I put a lot of quantum science fiction. while deep personal things I Now I'm not either liberated enough or fool physics in Frontera. I read a fair amount will put in terms of Fani.asy. Sometimes the ish enough - I'm not sure which - to allow about it and I tried to be very selective about two will oveslap. But very seldom will I try the dream element IO take charge, so I don't what I chose to use and what I didn't choose to make a major social statement in 1erms or want to end up doing anything like David to use. It's a very controversial area: you get Fantasy: I think Fantasy is there for the joy Lindsay. These are real visionaries, and my somebody like Heinz Pegells who is ab ofplaying,fortheliteraryartistry,formyth Fantasy will only have moments of vision. solutely dismissive about some theorems. ological statements. When I do the hard SF, I research. Bui to get back to the Movemenl, and BEAR: There are some very interesting cyberpunk .•. theories and I wouldn't just dismiss them. And yet ii looked as though there were some hard science Ideas, In the shape of SHINER; 1be whole business of movements SHINER: Yeah, and I found it interesting but quantum mechaolcs, lo Tiu lnf111ity Conc is just a marketing handle, but I don't really I wasn't going to go all the way. I had to erto and T~ Serpent Mage. want to talk about tha1. 1be last people you We into account that if I was going to listen should be talking to about the Movement are to somebody like Fritjof Capra. then on the the people who are said, or thought IO be, in other hand I have to listen to what Pegells such a movement. You want to ralk to me hasto~ytorefutehim. and Greg aOOut cyberpwik, but we were both on the periphery of it; this is one of the So your writing Is character driven: the arguments I' ve had with Sterling. Sterling science speaks through them afterwan:ls? has the real detennination to try and control the Movement as perceived, and in fact the SHINER: I think !hat any time you have genuine literary movement, which somehow characters set in a real world, to make that th.is seems to have become out of Sterling's real world convincing you have to do some attempt to create one, has to come with the research; if that real world involves science, perception of !he outside. You canno1 con you will have to do some science, and you trol that perception from outside; they wil! have to understand not just the nuts-and• decide what to make of you, and a compl• bolts of theorems and mathematics and so etely artificial attempt at th.is is going to fail forth. I think one of the passages in Fron unless it somehow manages to pursuade peo tera that struck me as best, that I felt worked ple on the outside to take it seriously. At that well, that got acro55 a particular mood, was point, Sterling loses control of it, and Ster one of the characters doing some math on ling can no longer say what cyberpunk is, the computer. and ralking about physical which is why what happened in cyberpwik beauty- fromthatcharaclef'sperspectivc - of inmanywaysisgoingtoexcludeStcrling. the way these equations were Conned. If you don't appreciate the fact that a mathemat BEAR: Sterling lost control when TSR came ician gets off on the actual ec:iuations them "We've had some to him and said: ··we want 10 do a game selves, can look at those equations and see called 'Cyberpunk'." beauty in it - in facl you will hear math very good writers and ematicians ralking about the fact lhat if SHINER: He had the chance then to esrablish there's not an eloquence IO the way that eq lost them, because a precedent. If he had then taken money uations arc written our, then there's probably from TSR, he would have had some kind of something wrong with the theory - getting science fiction eats real control over the word. But he stumbled into that kind of head. the head of the overthevisionofit. mathematician.makesthcstorywork. its authors." -Greg Bear BEAR: Well I gave him an option which I So technology Is manifest In feedback from thought was politically defensible, which the "edge ofldeas" into the characters? wasthathctalce.sthemoney,keepshalfofit. BEAR: The weirdest stuff in quantum mech and gives half of it to the SFW A Emergency SHINER: Yes, and it all comes back down to anics is far weirder than the strange.st stuff I Medical Fund; that way he's distributed it IO the characters. 1n order lo portray 11. scientist could invent in Fantasy. The Serpent Mage charity, has got some kind of control over convincingly you have to read science. and The Infinity Concer to are arguably SF th.is game they're going to do, and Sterling but may no! be in our personal universe. says "!hat's a brilliant idea!"' - but he still BEAR: I've wrinen all kinds of stuff, and to couldn't come roWld to doing it. be classified as a hard science fiction writer SHINER: To take the owcsite these, for exa is a reduction in tenns of whateves evolution mple. Frontera is equivclent to some of the And so be k)st control or even the market I'm undergoing. I started out writing Fantasy Fantasy stuff in which quantum mechanics is ing concept? and all sorts, and also a little SF: I read a bit the magical sys1em. If you are going to write of hard SF, and now I write a bit of hard SF. about Mexico, you need to undenand what S HINER : I would basically say that infant I've got a number of litesary fathers in scie to them constitutes their system, what are asy TSR had done a trademark on the name; nce fiction - Ray Bradbury is one - but I've their rules: and likewise, if you start to think the closest they could find was the title of alwaysfluctuatebackandforth. of quantum mechanics as a magical system, Mirrorshades, the anthology sub-title. Tha1 When I write in the Fantasy mode, I try to these are rules that those shamen operate gave Broce some kind of tenrative court· do the mosl rigorous kind of mythological or under, and thal's how I approach it. room status. Whal Bruce could have done is myth-making and self-conscious stimulating There's a certain irony to that; I consider trademarked the term early on, but• kind of Fanwy. When I write hud science everything I've ever wrinen to be fanwy, fiction it too comes from similar sources, but everything in the Fantasy and SF genre is There was originally a story called "Cyb it's going IO have an lD'lderpinning that's fantasy, but if you stan to write Fantasy, you upunk" , wasn't there? VECTOR 153 e 9 INTERVIEW SHINER: By Bruc::e Belh.ke, which came out I'm thoroughly convinced that a good sto ic:ncc; bul I've seen good stories go across early in '83. True. Bethke could haYe come ry is no longer enough 10 get you broken into his desk and gel rejected. OUI and made himself I coun case, bul the SF; I see frialCis writing sroria !hat I know Caci wu that by appearing on Mlrrorshades arc very good work and they can't get the BEAR: Even Ellen Datlow has rejected stor it obviously belonged to the Movement. As a atkntionofthe editors. (I'd like to see this in iu sometimes, to her regret. And Ellen is matter of fact there's a TSR cyberpunk game. print because I'm oow on the olhcr side, al50 looking for good new authors. out. and their moduJcs are by W allef Jon whc:R I have to dectde whether a 5ll.xy is WiUi.ams, _ the thing is that the ..,-iten lhcm good enough to sell. because cditon IR:rt·t SHINER: All lhesc editors tell themselves sclvcs need tO forget about lhat kind of stufr going to do that for me.) The fint time an 1h11 they're looking for sun:ics by new andju.stgobad::towriting. ediror sees a genuinely good story they will writers, bul they read new wrilen diffcrenlly 11$$\llJlC il's an accidenL The second time to5t.oriesbyestablishedaulhors. BEAR: Bill (Gibson) has gOl lhis to over lhey may notice. and the third time they may come; and it happens that science fiction re rum il down with regms, and on the fourth BEAR: Of course they do. They're only aders and a-ilics sometimes cat their young. really good story they see they might actu h=~ They adore the ruu few worb of an 1uthor, ally buy. It takes that k>ng. and that much and lhatcan almost destroy the author. pcnistenc:c. for somebody to break in. SHINER: This is my point: these editors may be making al l these claims about wanting to SHINER: Orson Scott Card. BEAR: lbac's Jietty common with my bring on new talent, and they may be sin experience. I started out before you did, but cere, but it's also a politically correc::t th ing BEAR : Yes. You know what happened to my novel took four years to sell . That was to HY, because SF guys have this tradition him! He went 10 a peak of suddenly making because there was an awful lot of resistance of doing it; Md maybe they IJC. maybe tens of thousands of dollars for books and to a basically not terrible novel. Michael they're no1. Surely it is a good thing to do, then having them fail for reasons not nec Bishop said of that fact that this novel didn't evenruallythcoldmaster:s 1Je, and lei's face cssllfilyofhisownmaking. sell forthrccorfo\D'yearsthatthiswasa real it. quickly dying off. HeinJein has gone. Her shock in lhis field. because there wu much bert hu gone. Clarke is in shaky health, and SHINER: Look at BIIJJ)' Longycar, who hJd worse 5tuff being published. I'm not sure everybody gets to move up IS these guys go. tO go and dry out &om severe alcoholism how you explain thaL which was c:ucerbaled by the SF. BEAR: It's very much like the Chinese bure SHINER: Well. fos1 of all lei me take exi;;q, aucracy. cxccpc. in this case i1's balevolc:nL BEAR : The wont thing th,.t this amorphous lion to the use of "worse $0.Jfr'. The fact is We revere our older people; we may criticise rnonsier can do is say lhat an aulhor is the th.al alolof$l1Jfftha,: you and I despise will them, say they•re nol writing IS well as they new Robert Heinlein; il's the kin of dealh. stillsell welldespitelhefac1thatit'1cn.p. used 10, but we still owe a lot to them, and Look al Joe Haldeman; it hun him. Spwkr we're scmy to see them go. Nevertheless Robi.nson still hasn't ovcrrome it. David BEAR: It might not be cn.p. We might be lhcre is an ecological truth about this, when Palmer and other pMple... thal's also wha1 ~.. they pay Heinlein Sim and promote it with they did to Ted Srurgcon. They adored Stw another SJm. and it sells about $500,000 geon so much in lhc SOs and early (J(k !hat SHINER : Bui that's lhe point; we·re not worth; that is an enormous ecological niche he just wem off.•. his whole carea rel! apart. wrong. It's just a question of tute. lhat's all and it is taking tha.t chance away from We've had some very good wriien and Ion anotherwriter. them,becauscscic:ncefictioneatsitsaulhors. BEAR : 1t•s the publiffltrl' fault; the field is glutted. wc·vc been through a couple of SHINER: Only in a ushflow sense, in the And Gibson's In danger of being a victim gluts- Jongron. of his own success'? SHINER: And there arc enormous numbers BEAR: In the Jong nm lhey may get the BEAR: I do n't lhink so; he's pretty well con of people who want to Stlll"t writing, and so money back, but in the immediate furure it trolled. He started out preny old. He's go1 a many writers who arc established in ways crimpsthecashflow alot. family. Md shows no signs of being terribly that have nothing to do with their literary impressed by all !his i;;rap. But it's irrit1ting. abilities. but publishers know can deliver the Staying with ecological okhes, do you same SOr1 of producl year after yea.-. These think that tht burgeoning development or Now that was a n Interesting ftaturt ol lht arc people who will work for the same Fantasy slnct lh, 1960s has bttn at the Movement: In the pll"it, In lhe 50s and 60s, advanc.e for book after book. And SF pub trptnst ol sdtnct rktion, Of'" bas It actual• It was certainly oonnal roc SF writers to lishing comparucl love this son of wrilef. ly upandtd lht market? ~In breaking through Into prinl at a They never have to take any chances. They comparallvtly young age. You, Greg, say pay the same advance. they get the same SHINER: As far u I can tell, it seems to be a thal you sold ,-our first slory al 15; returns. and sell to the same audience who different audic:nce.. I hope this doesn't sound Michael Moorwd: sold his nrst novel al buy1 the book over and over. And lhis kind too SCJ.ist. but 11 SF cons when I fmt started 18 or 19. Theo during the 70s, cer1aloly In of thing occupies so much of a publisher's going. there w~ neve:r any women lhere. tht UK, there was a ttodtocy fOf'" wr-ittts lcliedule that il's very diffia.dt for a new You have a much larger female audience lo bt older when lhey hroke th rough. I've writer to bru.k through that. because every now. partly bocausc Fantasy has brought nollctd that members of lhe Movemenl do time you lake on a new writer. you have to them in. sottm to bt older than their prtdttessors lake a chance. h means !here·s M:1me other when they achieve breakthrough. cst.ablished name that you•~ not going to BEAR: Thal really swted with Siar Trtk. buy, 10 put this new guy in. SHINER : That's more common throughout SHINER: That's as maybe. but I think you !ht (icld. There's a statistical survey out nut Can you account for th, fact that In the do have a different audience, and il's not an month in the New York Review, and they UK now w, ha v, pu.bl~h,rs and a couple us or them siruation. The increased lmOID'II try to put the statistics down confinned that of magazi nes who art utirdJ searching of FanllS}' has just brought an increased theaveragcageforthefirstsaleisgetting oul new authors to print? readersl'lip. older and thcaverageageorfirstnovel sales is getting older still, and my number one SHINER: You hear a lot of this; yo u also BEAR: Personally. I'm bored with mediocre reason is simply that there's no room at the hear a lot of publishers claiming they like to Fantasy, but I don 't see it eating into my top; there's only a limited number of niches, print new writers and sometimes they •do. readership bocause I don't think th at people and it takes much longer for someone to get Gardner Domis was li51ening to anything who read mediocre Fantasy arc all that the .itcntion of an editor and break in. from new writen. from my personal exper- interested in real hlll"d SF. They're no1 even 10 e VECTOR 153 INTERVIEW terribly interested in my Fantasy, lhey want ance to anything !hat will shock. When I talk stimulate or lnfluen~ your lktion? lhe same thing as I mystery reader or a rom IO people abou1 this, and 50fT\e of my best fri ance reader: they want genre. They want ends ue this way, !hey say I come home from SHINER: Yeah, this is a major concern for stuff that gives them the feeling of what 1 hard day's work. I want something I don't me. I want my books IO gel in people's they've read before. They're not 50phistical have to pay any real attention to. I can rum faces. I want them to shake and assault them. ed enough readers in any sense of the word. my mind off. To me !hat isn't relaxation. BEAR: And there must be an audience to ap It's a genre based on symbols nthu than BEAR: You're a differenl type, you see. The preciate lhem or else Greg Benford, or my on ideas. person who goes out IO do a hard day's work self, or you wouldn't make as much money. is so exhausted by !he time they come home, BEAR: That doesn't matter. It's a genre bas they've exerted all !heir menlll. efforts on si SHINER: lbere's no question in my mind ed on pure emotions, and they want those mply keeping a job and doing it well enough. that Greg [Benford] is after the same thing. emotions to be aroused again and again. There's no complacency in Greg's work at SHINER: Yes, I've done thaL I've worked all, or he wouldn '1 write the stuff thal in SHINER: A reader of Carole Nelson Douglas construction for years. some places is openly offensive IO people's or someone else who's writing that kind of ideas. And more power to him. Fantasy probably wouldn't want to read one BEAR: You're not I nonnal indivklual in of my books. that sense. And when you worked constr BEAR: Well, !hat's what I want to do, but uction, you weren't e~pending you're entire offend them in a traditional way. BEAR: Sometimes they'll cross over. I do get lettcrs from Fantasy readers who say that So we have a paradox, lo that both or you they just dipped into The Infinity Concerto are fighting on the same side of the barri and sometimes they're quite astonished. But cades, In writing challenging, Innovative I don't think they go out looking for weird lktion, and yet you've both come to it original Fantasy, because there's very little from vlrtually opposite directions. Greg Is of it out there. They're also not going IO go a kind of loner In the tradition or hard SF, out and look for the greats of the past, the and Lew is a sensibly peripheral member adult Fantasy series that Ballantine put out or the Movement. years ago sold very fowcopies. lbey're much sought after now, but lhey sold poorly then. BEAR: No, I ~of,,~d into hard SF: I started writing Fantasy. I made a commercial dec So they're Just going to take the Lord of ision to finely tune a variety of different tit~ Rings clones? enthusiasms into the area that I felt I could most express myself in. And that's a difficult BEAR: It isn't even Lord of the Rings philosophy. I could be a Horror writer right clones. There's such a diffusion down from now, but I wouldn't enjoy it nearly as much, Tolkien that we've ended up with quest it's not newly as inte\lecrually stimulating. I novels. They should jun call them "Quest" wrote one Horror novel, and it was consider novels instead of Fantasy: the-ymmg ed science fiction and so !hat told me some apprentice-meets-up-with-the-old-wizard thing: "You probably are best suited to SF." gets-told-10-make-lh.is-mysterious-trek-and -you-will-achieve-knowledge. SHINER: I see an attempt in your question to Joseph Campbell could have explained " I'm thoroughly show Greg as a Lone Wolf and me as part of that very easily. the Movement, as if the Movement had been convinced that a good !here all my life. tha1 I was born and bred SHINER: It's called the Plot Coupon system. and came out of ii. I'd been writing actively I forge! who said that. it wasn 't Langford, story is no longer for ye&TS before I got involved with Sterling but it was someone in one of Langford's and those people. 'zincs who came up with lhat brilliant line. enough to get you BEAR: ll's an insult IO refer IO someone like BEAR: 1be fact is, that if you look at this broken into SF" Lew as a sideline of cyberpunk, as if their from a really high level, it's just how all my - Lewis Shiner career depended upon it. ths were made. 1be old story-teller would sit down, and tell the same old siories again and SHINER: I'd already sold stories IO major again IO different audiences, because they mental effort on the job. markets before I got involved with Broce, had learnt IO blow what would get lhern a before there was a Movement. I had stories better meal. You can bet that The Odyssey SHINER: ~e are plenty of people who are inF&SF. was hashed out over several hundred yews not working construction. who are intelle a1 least and several different slOry-tellers ctual, but they still don't want IO read any BEAR: Cyberpunk was an attempt to des probably picked it up and passed it on in thing challenging. cribe something lhat was already happening, their own way. 1ne only difference is that from a group of people who did not grow up these books get pulped, they don't have a BEAR: Well, that is despicable. If lhey're not together and did no1 suck from the same teat. chance to go on. There's no on! tradition digging in the dir1, lhey're slogging through Cyberpunk fails as an active description of anymore. ii all gets more and more diffuse office politics or whatever. what's happening really. It only accUlatcly and fades out like a river coming to groWld. describes one book. SHINER: Yes, but what I'm saying is that It's the appeal of the familiar then, there's an anitude that escapism comes from SHINER : Which is why, at a cyberpunk against the new. stuff that nwnbs you're brain. The only lhing conference, Neuromancer was so much in th&l allows me IO escape is something !hat discussion. If your sitting down to write a BEAR: Yes, people don't like the new. They challenges because my synapses have to be paper on the cyberpunk idea, you ask what's activelyresentiL stimulated for me lO get involved with a lhe canon. Neuromancer is it. Which is lhing.lcan'twatchnetworktelevision. why, in my paper I felt I had to draw a dis SHINER: That's common everywhere. Look tinction between what I feel is a legitimate at network television: there's a strong resist- Dots this aim for a challenge directly literary movement, and cyberpunk. and then VECTOR 153 e 11 INTERVIEW from the terms or "Fiction 2000". 1ney'rc Can I ask you lhtn, lf you have any ob BEAR: Britain and Europe? What's happen three different !Opia. .wrvatloos on 1be c:u.rnnt Brllish SF s«· ins is thll the British publishcn have sud ne? Partkularly the ,ray that cyberpunk denly SWtCd being c.xucmcly agrcuivc in BEAR : I have been charackriscd fu too of setmli to have entlrely passed the UK? the world marli:eL 1herc arc great sums of ten in recen1 years, u one of lhc aspiring money flowing out of Britain 10 America. If dinosaurs. I'm not here to make anybody SHINER: Thank God for thatl thcy divert some 10 the English writen. ii complacent, least of all literary critics, I'm will be a really healthy thing. here to blow people away if I can possibly BEAR: There's a Jot of good writers here do,o. who I hope arc going to be able IO find a SHINER : If the EEC docs really happen i1 market and then be able to sell in the USA. will be interesting 10 sec it in lc:rms of SHINER: And if you want to talk about a h's a crying shame that you have some very writing because you've got these monsuous congruency of ambitions. you and Sterling fine writers who simply haven't made it in J)foblcms of uan.slation. arc ama.Uy Ytry similu writcn. You're Am SHINER: And in SF. Ellison sUTYivcs. SHINER : I hadn'1 lhoughl of it like that.his SHINER: h can be hard lo figure ou1 how very 10ugh; obviously things are changing England won the war and still ha.s nol BEAR : Well, Elli.ron WIS a nllural. bul other with The Gate and some othCI 'zincs that recovered. whilst Germany hu done well. people took a stance following him which are going to liven things up. For a while, There is the same irony about Japan losing hurt their careers a little bit. Ellison wu not lnlerzone wa.s the only British SF 'zinc. and the war and still becoming a major power. 1 poseur in the same sen.se that a lot of cyb it had a very stricl agenda. So there's no erpunk people have been. Ellison wu jusl an room II the top. and the AmerK:an magazines BEAR: 1984 is really 1948 from an extreme 1bsolu1e bundle of IOtal energy trying to find rarely take them. ly dtrl,; perspecLiYe. Now I enjoy dark vis a direction, and then he found iL tonS like thmc. but commercially speaking BEAR : Ian WalSOn and one Of two other fans it's a sure death in the Swes. I hope this is SHINER: h didn'1 slop him from striking h.avc wkl to Aslmov'L changing, because America isn't the only po,u. country with a voice. • SHINER: Bill not !heir entire output; if it gets BEAR: Bet:ausc that WIS the n.atural lhing too British then there is no intc:rC51 in it. W11- for him to do. but I don·t lhink it's naturaJ son's novel The Power ham·t been able lo I.Awls Sltinu is the author of Frontera for Bruce lo strike poses. I think Bruce - if sell in the Slates because it's specifically a and Deserted Cities or the Heart. His we are to ta1k about "Chairman Bruce" here Horror novel concerned with American latest novel Slam will be published next - isbuically afairlyc:onservaliveindividua1 military bases in Brillin. You can't sell th.at summer in the US, though he ha.s been with an enormous amount of energy that in the US. unable 10 find a British publisher for it somelimes canno1 be channeled away. And uycl Herec:enllycditcdananti-war anlhoklgy, When lhe Muslc:'11 Over. he's also frusuatbd u nearly all beginning BEAR: Well I can't sell Psycblone in Japan, writers arc. because their careen haven't because it dcall with ghom from Hiroshim.a Gr,r B~tu is the author of a variety of elmlld them enough lo live on. It 's fnis. and lb.at 50rt of stuff. An AmcrK:an writing novels, of which Blood Music: and Eoo 1111ing getting Lhc suckers IO listen IO you, so about that is going 10 have difficulty no have been compared favourably to Ar grab lhem by the shouk!.eo and say: " Hey miller how deeply fell and thought out ii is. thur C Oarkc, whilst Psyc:hJone and sonuvabitch, listen IO me! rm talking 1o A kil of British wrilcrs have taken slanCCS The lnnnlty Conc:er lo show his ability you! rm in)'OUf face!"This is true of all of which rcOcc1 thc end of cmplR-. or the Ille 10 vary his wort IO great effect. us, wcjustcxprcssitdiffcrently. twilight c:onditiorui of a countty in coonomK: Cit arks Srrou is one of the hardest trouble. Toil's not what most American SF working and vociferous ofwh11 might SHINER: That was certainly one of the rcadcrswan110read. be called the "lnterzonegcncration" of major motivations for Sue Denim. h was just new British writers. I am informed that the frusuation I felt 11 not being heard. So whal Is going to come out of a n.atlon several publishers are looking II his Whereas now th11 my career is doing beuer. c:onverglng with one or the g reilt economic novels. and I can sell wh11 I like. then I can express superpowers or the list Century, which ill -KM myself through the fic tion. npldly being idcologka11y pola rised? 12 e VECTOR 153 Who Remembers Bruce Talbot and Maurice Gray? Fay Symes taJzs a trip down ~mory lant" to wMn ~n wt'Tt" spoct-catku, and wo~n math stt"ak-ond-1:idney puddillg; whLn. spaa-shi.ps lurch-juhd. CJ/Id ad~nturt lay in ~ry moon-crater.... y husband and I once. took I suilCUC rCSC\2S from monsters and disaster which no juvenile novels. My favourites were Maurice M full of Patrick Moore·s old fim boy's adventw'C can be wilhouL and Bruce from lhc Mars series, starting out editions alcng 10 a book-signing aged sixteen and eighteen in to MtJJUiasalwjaw ...Ga/NS WO yow Mission scs.sion for one of his non-fiction Mars, and ending aged over forty in new, Mad Bruer. rm no, itaving yo,, Mu, publ.icatK>ns. His publisher looked 11 Ill u if RaldersofMars, still,naturally,talkinglikc and 1Ml'sf111Di.fl'sbolli ornrilhu." we'd produced a lo.cl of IOilet paper (which sd.oolboys. Our heroes never grow up. in her opinion WU all lhey Wei"C fit for). bul He succeeds of course, and won'1 aa:epl lntimid11cd by such aging stars, Moore Patrick was delighted. He said he Mdn'1 any thanb. All such rescues arc received introduced Rick Rawn aged sixteen to the sun JOmC of them for 10 k>ng he'd even withaterriblyBritishTC5Cl'Ye; series in Peril on Mars, who likes ova thc forgotten he'd written them. You could sec wk of heroic life-saving. "/ won.'r anbarrass Jotl by 1,ying 10 his eyes light up as he u:,olc lhcm one by one An interesling dcparrurc from the norm is thanJ:y VECTOR 153 e 13 WHO REMEMBERS ? allowed 10 display reelinp that their twelvc of prolonged torture in Invader from Space. or his peers until a bn.vesacri.(joc saves year--old ruda"s might be expeclul IO share. 1ne aging Charters is subjected IO agonising someone's life. and suddcn:ly he's every They're often terrified; "Sweat wu nmning rMliation in an attempt io aae a mutaled one's best friend: dolllfl h.is face: never before had he known infect~n. His friends watch in helpless hor TM rucu.e of Bruce made a such ghastly fear." (And lhis wu only the ror as he writhes about in agony for several lreme.ndou.s dijferMCe lo his quicksand) Or: " He screamed and wondttod pages. •• ' It's murder: whispered Rex. 'It's companioru' a11ilwde lowards Maurice. dimly whether he would live long enough to murder I tell you. Make lhem stop for For-rfy they regarded him as a feel the bwning heat melting the IOUgh vac Heaven's sake!' " But they can•t. and the had. boy who was wilh them becaJI.Se M was uum suiL..." Although there scc1111 lO be genentors go on whining. pumping de.Mlly small and lighl; now M was accepted some confusion between abject fear and rays inio his body. He's cured, of course, bu1 oneqlllliterm.s. indigestion: " 'I fed all funny Wide.,' ad ii docsn.•1 really excuse the glee wilh which miuat Nigel. 'Rathcf like the feeling you get this passage app,ears IO have been wrinen. Maurice. swted out like this in the Mars afw-eai.inglOOmuch.'" Perhap1 50me modem readers woukl find series, u did Rex in the Moon advenrures, Reactions 10 their heroics and harrowing some meat here af1.er all. and yea.rs Iller 50 did Scou Saundcn. Not escapes has than falling around like nine vtty original, but how else can the young pins in a manner which would disgust even a whippennappcr get IO be hero in the first modem twelve-year-old. " Bany gulped; ii Comparisons can be misleading, but for me chapter. WU no good - he WU going IO faint. and Moore's characters hsve lhe edge over the Then of course. there are lhe obligatory there was nothing he could do about iL" Or pedestrian blandness of WE Johru' space simple science lessons for the supposedly they freely admit: " 'Sorry, I wasn't hurt, I adventures. lbey aren't quite as sill y as ignorant reader. "Woukln't the Moon •ttrllct passed out from sheer funk I reckon: " And KemJo, who Ooats aro1md in space without a the rocket and pull it down like a whacking although no ooe actually weeps openly, lhcy suit, and come much closa to home and great magnet?" Burbled the idiot no one do come close to it: " 'Hang ii all, I never reality than Tom Corbett on Mn or Martin would warll IO identify with. 1ne worst felt quite so much like making an idiot of Ml&JlUS on Venus. In fact only Mey examples are in Dt'sllnation Luna, where myself.' " admits Gregory. The rocky hero Pr11cheu SlUJ)USCS MOOJe in charack:raation the ac:tinous hero hasn't the faintut tdea es become quite uns1eady when f,ced with • and being a woman wri1er, I'm afr.id that's about space travel or anything else. lhe imminent death of thc. SWutory juvenile only IO beapected. "Going .... " Derd. blinud. in lead, or 1hcir best friend: ··Jock's tongue One or the grCI! delights of M00Je'1 wor amaieme,u. "Do you mean you·re seemed LO be glued to lhe roof of his mouth. ts 1.11:l the onom11opoeic aclam.atioru given going right ou.tside 1/se LWlll sir? 'ls he - all right?' " Aged professors lose by his chlBClers. More fitting perhaps for a Bw .... " Dud stanvnered. "Look hue lheirb\usu,-; Batman comic, but nonetheless indispen sir, we're whipping along al six or sible. It's almost impossible to actually say: KVen hun.d.red miles second aren't "Dear - Stanford, ii is an i-rut: "Woof! Oufl Ugh! Poon Wh-oofl Poo-oon" a rdief to su you a/iw: ond. well • dtor we? Well, han.g all,yow'lljust W left or "Ph-oof! .. , bul lhe books abound with ii blew his IIOSe viok,ufy. " I behind." me ya." lie them ... 'Ph-oon. Maurice splllltcred..... and • I have been most di.s1u.rbed on yow " 'Ph-cw! My sian:r •• says almOll everyone ~ is so much more like this, lhe book accoun1.'' else. Wonderlul convention twtey readinp is barely readable. The copy in my library And CYcn lhe hardy spaoeman Quest is can be made from this material if anyone wu indelibly in.scribed: MPatrick Moore is qui~ overcome when young Nigel recovers feels brave enough. Strongtt ex.pl.etives wtte foolish.. Smely he hu the SoCrl$e to know th.al from his dose of deadly radiation: of course mtirely forbidden. and llx>se Derek would have more knowledge of allowed are of lhe "Oh my gosh!" variety, astronomical details? I knew 1T10JC than he. Gregory half rou ond. pile Md fo,-ward. the most ravoured by many characten being did and I'm only twelve ... Good for you kid, overwMltMd him, ard for IM Relief "Oh my stars! ", wilh .. Phew! Confound it!" wherever you are now. first time in his life his co,uciousnus and the occasional "By Jove!" and "Oh my "All Incidental Astronomical lnfonnaLion slipped from him in a l'IOlural feinJ. Aunt! .. thrown in for good meuuze. Is Accurate", proudly boast the cover blur Nomenofs1ce.l hcre. The advcnrures follow well-worn pauems. bs. And in keeping with his own astron "Nit,cl f1115hed with pleasUJe and relu:ed Either two friends come upon the imminent omical knowledge, Moore never hMl his on his coucli .... " But no, let's not cncowage space launch in some way that make& them characi.cn Do.a.tin& around in space with no any Batman and Robin smeau agairut lhesc .x:epc.able J)AU{!l\ger,., er the youngstu i5 a 1uits, exploring solar system planeu with wholesome boys. l£ m hinl or homosexual newcomer to the b-. pimarily there lo find breathable atmospheres. wandering on Ven ity wu implied or intended lhen, ii shouldn't a missing relative. In this ICCIWlO the new us in an Amazonian jlmgk, or whizzing off be m::ognised now. This wu an age of inno toc:ruit is nol acceplCd by eithier his superion throu&}l hyperspace to distant galuies.. 'They cenc:c, whm no reader and no wriia would have entertained such a thoughL TheK are all &y's Own advenrurers, fixed fumly in lhe 1afe and optimstic pos1-war years, hav ing what used IO be known u good clean fun. (Does it still exist in this fotW'C of glue-sniffers and muggers?) Long before the dawnil'lg of sexual swarcncss. We're follow ing firmly in lhe Aeps of Henty and Rider Haggud when you saw only what you read: Kil and Dovid scrombkd "P red-fo«d arid shu:pi.sA. Playful wralli"I was hardly suitable for two commisioMd off1u.rs of Space COfMlallti, CVa1 if 1hey Wt!!re only nineteen. There were no girls either, (Wh11, girls? Yuk!) apart from lhe occasional kindly housekeeper back on Earth, hovering well in the background to provide steak and kidney pudding and apple-pie. The on1y disturbing inc;dcnt is • sequence 14 e VECTOR 153 WHO R E M E M B E R S . ? were certainly the most realistic of all the their ship fall.s through a aater and they 'You don'! mean Iha.I. - that your one of juveniles of that period, re.lying on the won discover the Moon's inl.erior to have air and them?' " (No, sorry. he's only a traitor.) der of what the planct.s mighl really be like, water, plus giant spiders and two species of " Scott was almost beyond speech. 'You - and how space lravel might foel. Descri aliens. Little green men with spindly bodies, you rat,· he breathed at last. 'If I ever get ptions of the moon and other planets arc double-jointed amu, three fingers, no hair hold of you... I'll... .' " And fortunately per based on what information was available al and flattened f.ces, who speak in squeaks. haps, words fail him. the time, with very linle artistic licence. At least some improvement on the beautiful Restrained by modem scientific knowle Along with !he gung-ho frolics there's the golden supermen in vogue at the time. dge. the plots can only revolve around espio occasional hint of something better. After these realms of fantasy, Moore nage on the Moon and runaway asteroids, li1eraly comes down to Earth. The Island or plus the odd black hole wh ich transports our Maurit:e Jdchd at the dry moss with his Fear is a sequel set in lhe A.relic, where heroes for a short time into a completely fool, and distwbed a cloud of dust that Jock, Noel and the professors have dcc:ided black and boring o!hcr universe, populated cl1111g in the ~ seconds bef air for life will be safer. No such luck. They find a by some indescribable evil which they may ore set/Ung again. lost island populated by da.stardly Huns, never actually encounter. Scott's adventures All of a sudden Mllrll feels real. Cavern Men and dinosaurs. seem tame wilh no monsters or ray-guns. Quest of the Spaceways had a virulent But good heavens, what's this. a woman? Sorrell relight~d his pipe. 'Well yow plant life on Callisto, which ate Madame Yang, Chinese commander of Space creeping luNe the dou.btfwl konowr of being the bolh yoursuit and your spaceship. and there Station Six. She appears briefly on one page only Englishman ever to luNe been of lowCf animals in all of and then conveniently vanishes into her are Yaried sp«:ies scratc~d by a pterodactyl!" the other novels. WithoUI exception they are office and is never seen again. Times had all "Confounded ugly brutes", bent on The Frozen Planet (1954) is a real changed, but Patrick hadn't, and that was the mindlessly attacking humam with claws, gosher, shades of Lionel Fanthorpe where end of his career in fiction. When I asked stings, fangs or slime, but these are the limits space-madness is beamed from a satellite of him about ii recently, he said regretfully that of the monsien he allowed. Neprune in the Twenty-Third Century. Then publishers would think his books too old As for the space hudwue, the ships have came Destination Luna. better known as fashioned now. and I'm afraid he's right the feel of Julu Vcme. Dying tlvough the Derek's science lesson, wilh a tedious Moon imagination in gothic splendour with their jaunt and worse writing. rivets brightly gleaming. The earlier ones arc 1955 saw lhe beginning of his better work. Let's make no mistake about it, I pa.s.scd my fflapcd like true fictional rockclS, but later Mission to Mars - first of the five Mars first childhood a few years ago, but I can they evolve into ungainJy collections of books, and Quest or the Spaceways. Bet still skip through lhem wi!h pleasure, recal• cylinders and Lunar Module fflapcd vehi ween these in 1956 came Wheel lo Space, ling the scenes they painted for me at a cles, according to real advances in techno another pseudo science lesson, almost as tender age. logy. Some bear proud mylhical names like boring as Derek's, about sabotage attempts It seems a pity that only one edilion has "Canopus", "Ares" and "Elektra", while against lhc first space stalion, and then ever existed of most of these books, and they others arc nicknamed "Liu.ic" and "Mabel". Quest's sequel, World of Mists. with a not are long out of print. Bui would today's Without exception they arc all powered by too accura1e Venus. blase juveniles fed on Judge Dredd and the ubiquitous atomic engine, beloved of the The Mars series continued with Domes or The Living Dead find any meat in them? I scicnce,loving fifties. The atom is a friend Mars, Vokes or Mars, Peril on Mars and doubt it There's probably not enough blood here. and even in its worst scenario, acci Raiders of Mars. He abandoned Maurice and gore in !he whole lot to match one page dental radiation poisoning can be cwed by and Bruce in lheir Conies in Raiders, and of 2000AD. The old values and the optim one injection. While a quick tug to remove began again wilh a new pair of seventcen ism arc eroding into dust, and it seems the fflields makes them very handy for fry• year-olds in the five books about Rex and somehow a warning of some basic decline in ing nasty alien lifeforms. The spacecraft are Robin: Captives or the Moon, Wanderer lo thcqualityoflife. also prone to bad landings and mechanical Space, Crater or Fear, I nvader rrom Space Nostalgia remains however, for those who failure, there's rather a lot of "Thud - jerk - (m asteroid called Percy made of anli can suspend disbelief Jong enough to re thud!" or alternatively: "Lurch-jolt!" as in: mauer) and Caverns or tht Moon. Solid ad enter their first childhood. Sniff the scent of ventures all set on or around the Moon, wilh one of those musty pages and the years roll TM spac~ship pilcMd wildly, whit~ tM as much realistK: detail a.she could describe. b.cl<. c/Lctronic g~nLralors scr~Dml!d and Moore's last book of the mMklle period is warning lights flashed on the cOlllrol "Derd:. grinned happily. There was Planet or Fire ( 1969). where a new sixtcen panLl, Lurch -ferlc.! nothing mor~ to~ said." year-old motor cyclist is taken along on the At least one spaceship crashes in every first rocket to Venus. A delightful place of Bibliographyol.JwrmieFtclion: Jav a like crimson porridge. where book, and hu its buckled legs or warped boiling Mas1erofthe Moon !Museum Press 19S21 panels repaired - d~peratdy - by lhe adven they stagger around in metal pressure JUilS. n. Island ol Fear Museum Presa 1954 turcn in the nick of time to eS<:ape their Ii:'sii.:: r~: l~u=:~~r impending doom. Ount of the Spac-aye Video links were unthought of, and all Leaving juvenile fiction to pursue his career FredericllMulllitl' 1955) communication is made by morse code (whi in television and as a straight science writer, ~!!~n1~:.~.- I~i~~l1956J ch all the heroes have been fortunately Moore put his heroes back in their box; but Wortdol Mi •t• Frederick Mulllitl' 1956) taught at school) with a great deal of "Hiss - when he dusted !hem off again, eight years The OomHofM1re18urke 19561 crackle" hindering the process. But there's later, things had changed. Gone were lhe The VolcH ol Mare Burke 1957 always a reasonable delay in transmission days of the gosh and tally-ho frolics. Fact ~:1:.~ :•M.,.. m~~ !~~ between Earth and Moon, or Earth and was catching up with fiction, and he had to CaptlvH ol the Moon [Burke 1960] Mars, which adds to the reality. try to adapt. "'g:_i;:;~j~;_~pace 1:~~ ::;1 The Scott Saunders novels published in Invader from Space [Burke 1963] paperback from 1977 to 1980 attempt to be Caverns oftha MOO!'I {Burke 1964) Moore's fast published fiction was Master Jess gosher in style, and suffer for it. They Planet of Fire (Worlds Work 1969] or the Moon (1952). Two seventeen year lack blood and bone1 compared to the Fifties Scorr Saunders AOW VECTOR 153 e 15 sl/Jrics rar outweighed short novels in both number and significance). However, U\c majority or people buying this book require Book Reviews more Ulan an insight into what 1oday's stor ies and styles hive grown out of - reading lhese slories purely for crijoymcnl I found Edited by Paul Kincaid themhardgoing.MOS1ofthc11Jlhoniarc well known and lhno1t all wmr. on lo pro duoe stories that •c bctll:r Ihm these. No mattc:r how the final choices were made - we can on! y read and comment on these 10 items: ''Time Wants I Skeleton" by Ross Rocklynne (194 1); ''The Weapon Shops of Ishcr" by AE van Vogt (1942); "Nerves" Nemesis His ghastly Author's Note says it all: by Lcs1cr dcl Rey (1942); "Daymare" by l5UCAsimoY I NN~ giwn up all UIDMghl ofwrili,tg Frcdric8rown(I943); "Killdour!"by Dol'bfWJy, 1989. J64pp, ll2.95 p«1ically or s,mbolically or o:puim Theodore Sturgeon (1944); "No Woman e,11aily ... / WOMld wrik1Mrdyc1Larly Born" by CL Moore (1944); "The Big and TU:c the ,ulhor'snamc(luac Asimov). the andUl1Jiirwayestabli.sha warmrdDl the Little" by Isuc Asimov (1944); "Giant somewhat uncharacterislically punchy title Killer" by A Bcnnm Chandler(l945); "E (N,mesls), Ute length (364 pages), lhc date ionslup belwem myulfand my readLrs, and rM profeSSU>N/ crilics- W~ JJ;Jiq for E£fort" by TL Sherred (1947); "Wilh of publication (1989), and the fact that this is can do whalever rh.ey wish. Folded Hands" by Jack Willianuon (1947). not part of the Foundation. Robot, or Empire Thus it is revealed that lhc stories come series (yet), and you'll have a fairly good idea Think about it. Does writing "merely from, ciscntially, the early 40s and lhe whether you'll like lh.is book. Me. my heart clearly" excuse writing unrcflectively, dis Rocklynnc story struc.k me as very much 1 sank when I received it, having read a reamt playing I range of attitudes that seem lo have 30's one in style and c.ontenl - Ultcmal in Asimov (I forget which now) and hated iL fou.ifucdinthclhirtyyearssincehcfirst consislenecs janed and all cluracters were But I set aside my prcjudioes.. rev"cd up my u1:n:sscd them? cardboard stcrotypu! CfflPf,thy molOI", and gave it my full attention. Professional critics? Doc:s he pcrdlancc Perhaps it's a pity the first impression is I wish I hadn'L The book wasn't as bad as I mean people who discovered and loved bad, for !he stories do get more accept.able IS feared, bul I don't trusl Asimov any more. FoundaUon, I , Robot., and The Caves of their copyright date gct.s l1tcrlhough SfW'g Ul was in my early teens I lhinkl would Steel mmy years 1go and cannot disguise con's .. Killdoz.er!" is probably irrcparal>ly have enjoyed it wholcheUledly. It has a you I.heir disappoUltment with his later work? It spoilt for any reader who saw the appalling ng, ugly-duckling, misunderstood, intelligent may sound like humility to you, but to me it film made from ii. and talented heroine (and her senselessly sounds like a bad conscience: somewhere in K ellh Freeman unm:zptivc but " loving" mother). a number amongst his 400 books his evolution u 1 of OlheJ iruclligeru but ugly adults who have writer/thinker came 1/J an end. and he knows h1ppy endings., and a suaig.hlforward (i.e. iL A new gcncmion or YOWi& readers will Science Fiction, Fantasy & physical, non-moral) threat 1h11 evmtually no doubt like thil book, an£ lhcre is enough provcsavertabl.c, lhanb to Man's i«hnolo in it lo repay some rigourous textual anal Horror: 1987 gical ingenuity. The plot moves along two ysis, bu! I 'm not II Ill SUIC I can forgive Charles N Brown &. William G ContenlO stn.nd., (one on Earth. the other on Ro10r: wha1 .mounts lo I white lie al the heart or Lociu PresslMt:dlu, 1989, 417pp, l34.00 lhc escaped Settlement orbiting the invading science fiction. star Nemesis) to a convcrgence:/c\imu; a Cecil Nurse The New Encyclopedia Of challengingstructureif l wassevenyears Science Fiction old bu1 apparcru.ly wonh an apology and James GW11\ (Ed) forcwaminginthcAuthor'sNotc. The Mammoth Book of Vi.ti"8, 1989, 5Upp. l/7.95 The emotional landscape is deeply child ish: pique, obstinacy, and the tmilaltta)/ Golden Age Science Fiction 'These 1wo books represent thc right way, 1ut1XJatic wielding of power at the fordroot., Short Novels of the 1940s and thc wrong way, of producing a won. 0£ adults oricn characlefised as obsessive and lsuc Asimov, Martin H Greenberg reference. small-minded, a prooccupa!ion wiU\ attract &. Ch1rle.s G Waugh (Eds) The right way is rcpreacr!.lcd by the Brown iveness vis-a-vis appcarance/mtclligcnc.e, RobU&SOn, 1989, 504pp, £499 and Contenlo bibliography. It's subtitled "A and an unquestioned vision of the world as Comprehensive Bibliography or Books and a plac.e where mutual diswtc and secrecy The edi1ors have given U\cmselves a hard Short Fiction Published in U\e. English Lan rules. All of which I would have swallowed wk - lo justify and establish with I0shon guage". it is prccisely thaL a painstakingly wilh ou1 an aftcnastc. I wouln't have noticed novclJ whal Asimov, in his introduction., compiled list of just about every book and thcrepctitioru/rccapitulacion5norcrnertaincd calls "The Age o£Campbcll" and "'the fou story tJw •we-red in Britain and the US in the suspicion U\atlhcywe:rethcrc as much ndations forqualityscimcefiction''. This 1987. There maybe the odd omission. tho for the author's benefit u my own. Nor wou task ii. made h.uder. as again mentioned in ugh I didn'1 notice. any b1at.aru errors, in flCI ld I have come IO the conclusion lhat it has the introduction. by !he £act that 50ITIC choic the only irrillting thing about lhis otherwise an idiot plot. rigged IO allow a magical teeh es were omitted bcc.ause o r " diff1CU!tics over solid and workmanlike IOOI is U\e lendcnc:y 1/J nologic1l solution at the upensc of any fai U\ pennissxms·• or because an author was, in irK:lude interviews in with shon fiction. Still, in humanity, 1 solution U\aI docs not solve the 1940s, writing only shon stories. that is a minor irritation compared 10 U\at U\e p-oblem so much as eruc it entirely. This Tastes change. styles change. even storici engendered by the GUM encyclopediL isn ·1 about how fufW'e technology will affect regazdcd today u classics were no1 always From the title, it is presumably intended to society, this is about how technology will thought so good (and. indeed. may nol be serve u I rcplaocmcru for !he Nicholls mcy run interference for thc Earth-child like 111)' considered as such in a £ew ye.an time). This dopcdi1 - do DOI be fooled. This is I book responsible protective parent ,hould. 1bcre book can be reg11dcd as worthwhile in thc with many virtues, no book Wro5C amtn"bul arc lapses in logic which I don't have thc sp hislOrical, not literary. sense - aimed 11 lhe ors include Muim JakuboWW, Richmt ace to enumcrale., none of which would have SF reader who wants 1/J understand what's Dalby, Edward James and Brian Stableford bolheredmc. Twenty ycanoo I've grownup. happening today by looking It what it's de among I slew or equally respected American bu! what on earth has happened lo Asimov? scended from (with the proviso thaI short critics cm be all bad. Bui you have lo p1.y 16 e VECTOR 153 REV I EW S very cvcful attention IO lhc wri1a or each more visionary moments of WH Hodgson's ries wriucn by two of his friends •nd fellow article, because lhcy arc no1 all wriucn with Tbe: House Oa The Bordttland, which ii magui:ne-writcn. Pain's stnngc slOric:s and lhe1a1ne level of knowledge andca:re. prc.--dates by IOfflC ye.an) bul in some CUC5 Ban's plots •nd lwiw uc: well worth disc But herein Jiu the fint problem. There vc imagination is clogged by lhen-conventional ov~g. panicularly Pain's .. Smealh'". eight pagu listing a,ntribu10n,. but one of lilenry posa and rums of phrDe. Still. "An about I hypnotiH•and-dUl'Voyant partner· lhos.e pagu is repeated. and one page U Eddy on the Floor" is one of the bi11erc:s1 ship; and Barr's H Alpine: Divorce" in which missing. An act or gross carclcssncu lhat is talcsof(self.?)loalhin&l'veread. a murder plan goes wrong. or is it righl? made all the more uiowxfin& by the fact that ll'sDOlquiteuswprisingu •II Iha! to Most c:agerly awaited volume, I'd imag c.uctlythesamc.crror wasperpetratcdinlhc discover tlw Jerome: K Jerome wrote weird ine:. would be lhe repinl ofSwlm's Stoot original American cdilion or this boot. facticn: horror is often allied 10 humour and ground Tiles, ..-ri11c:n undc:J lhe influence When rnistake1 iUCh as that arc commiuecl. the ending of ''The Snake" ii •c1ually pretty •nd friendship of. and dedicated 10. M R one can have very liuJc faith in cilhcr lhe fwmy in • aucl .son o f way, and '1be Haun- James. In Fact. lhese entertaining tales of 1 editor or the publisher. 1ed Mill" comes with 111 iniroduction which coW1lr}' parson's cncowi1ers with spooks Moving on to the an.ides th~lvu. 1ne is beautifully urbane parody. Bui u a wlKllc:. rarely reach the levels of terror implicil in page and I half devoted IO the Brian Akliss lhc: urbanity of his humou, is oot I fe11.1.11e of James (though lhc: title: story has some very manages 10 list Life In the" West twice; once Jerome's chillers: "Silhouc1tc:s"is1quitc: chilling moments) replacing it with some dated 1980, and once dated 1964. The same excraon:linary(per.sonal7) n11Tlliveordark finally.drawn ch1r1c1tt study or lhe llltiq articlcmanagcs1Ddcvotcaparagraphof and brooding childhood visions. Jerome's uarian Reverend Bstchcll, or which his what passes for critical ancntion to his non tales u e aa;ompanied by 1 1e\ection or 110-- cncowitc:r with the seductive: " Lubrictts" i5 SF Horatio Stubbs no vels, but only lists Greybtard, Barefoot I.II the Hud, The Malada Tapestry and Hothouse. Somewh ere there hu been an odd lapse of judcmenL IF YOU FOUND A COOL £MILLION Presumably the umc ,on o f lapse which. for allhisqu.alities, allotslohn 8runn£r twice EVERY lOTO 12 YEARS, YOU thcspacealloca110JG Ballard.KeithRobcrts rllU cuctly the same amount of space u COULD REMAIN YOUNG AND Ker-ncth Robeson ff S~ Robinett. and ralhcr less than Frank Robiruon or Kim HEALTHY FOREVER-ONLY St.anley Robinson (and less than half lhar. dcvoet.d IO Jack Chalkc:r, who slangcly hap SOMEONE WANTED TO pens IO be a ccwitnDUtar). An example, one fcelJ tempted IO suggest. of a distinctive pro-+ TERMINATE THE ARRANGEMENT ... American biu throughout the book. Yel 1gains1 lhai one musl SCI shon bul inf onn• tive and rigoro111 anides on such broad subjects u f.cology, Scientists and Science Fiction, and Cataclysm and CIWtrophc. In lhon, it UI I curale's egg, enter wilh care. P aul Kincaid The Black Reaper Bcmard C1pc1 £qua1ian, 1989, J92pp, £350 Stories In The Dark Hugh Lamb (Ed) Equal ion, /989, 22Jpp, £350 Bone To His Bone E0Swain &{lllltion, 1989, J91pp, £150 Three more of lhe always in1ercsting and o r1en supcrlaiive .. O.ilJc:rs" from Thorsons. which maintain lhc:standard sci by lhosc: I rcvciwcd in Vtttor- 149. h 's a shame thai the publishers 1ppeu to be discontinuing !his line. All three: booU deserve purchase by 111yone intc:rc:sted in weird fiction and gho,s111miu. Like M 1 Burrage. Bernard Capes is 1 forgotten "muter" of the c:&Jly 1900s, but wilike BUJJagc he lacks; lhe unerring touch whish illuminstc:s what WOllkl otherwise be simply good melodramL Hugh Lamb', en• HIS FIRST FULL-LENGTH lh usiutic incroduction gives 111 intriguing picrure o f an unhappy failure who fowid 1 mcuure of success, if not fullfillmcnt, in lhe NOVEL IN FIVE YEARS! literary 1radc:. T he Black Reaper is a varied collection of macabre storks, certainly inve ntive in I disillusionedly SIJJ'Teal way ("lbe Moon Stricken" reminded me of some of the VECTOR 153 e 17 REVIEW S the most rcvealling example.. Very wckomc in the finlt volwnc. The Prophet's brolhcr, would change to dull reality." C11TI>ll's eve are six further stories from .. SIOnCground": Ta-Kum.saw - oncora numbtrohul histori ryday rcaliiy is never dull It abounds with David RowlandJ 0 additions lO lhccanon uc cal characters DI the boot. favoun a military sensuous vitality. You cxpcriencc ii opcn. notable for lhc ouuc ghost in "One Man solutioo to the probkm of the White mm. cyod; bu1 11 any momcn.t. justifying~ Wen! to Mow", a convincing rcrumoftwo The book ends in his defeat.. and that of a Tulllc, Pinslecpcmay show up, or a mongo Catholic shades first encountered in Swain's French army from Canada al one stage led loid st:recl-~ uaru:form 10 tree-top angel 1bePl.ceofSafety... and thekdlcrous by Napoleon Bonaparte, a1 the hands of the ( .. a child acrou the sky"). One effective, hauod: in "Providing a Foobioie". Rowla 5Cltlers. En route is a m&SHa'c of lhousands tmugh sparingly employed, device is the nds eapcW'es the. inventive and 1Ubtlc. almost of peaceable Indians, who - led by the cine-like ledutiquc of montage - in~ting whimsical U of the originals perfectly. and s10ries,usingdifferingiype.fac;::uforthesc, the entire boolr: is I dcligh1 to read. Another of Card's strcnglhJ is to 1how for taped communicalions. for crcscendos or AndySawyu how fundamc:ntally dcccnl people, with dialogue. On the mundane front the book is dcccnl ideals, can be lod in10 evil. and how elcarically alive: on the metaphysical. it is -those ideals, while decent. can be entirely in sodue1ively obscure. Faustll5. Zoroaster, Red Prophet opposition to each other. Hieronymus Bosch. and the angels and gho Orson Scott Card I praisod Seventh Son, the first book, for sts o f Rainer Maria Rilke arc its presiding Ugmi, 1989, 31/pp. £/1.95 iu originality, in a field no~ for anything guest-geniuses,allusivelyprovidingprcced buL It lhcrdorc seems churlish to lake Card enlS and clues. This is the second volume in th e Tales of to task for providing more of !he same. But a K VBalley Alvin Maker, set in Card's version of the little more acceleration would be appreciated emerging Mid Wesiem states of the US at next time around. the stan of the 19th century. The cyelccon Martin Waner lnterzone: The 4th Anthology tinucs, therefore. but some of Ute gcau ue John Clute, David Pringle slowing down. & Simon OuNlcy (Eds) By the end of this volwne, which lugcly A Child Across The Sky Simon & Schu.su:r, /989, 208pp, ll2.95 deals wilh an abortive: Indian rising. Alvin, Jonathon Carroll the qx,nymous hero, is still not ink> his I.CetlSo leguuJ, /989, 2fJ8pp, ll J.95, l5.95pb I have to confess that I do not anticipate the The action in Red Prophet hardly advanc:cs arrival of lnten.onc with eagerness. I do no1 the cycle; at its start Alvin is on his way IO Philip Strayhorn. crcaior of and actor in the find it wck:oming, even if. OJ1CC opened, the ha apprenticeship. byitsfinish,afteravtol increasingly formulaic, bUI. highly success magnine always provides iu fair share of ent iruenuption, he is about lO set off again. ful, .scquenocof "Midnight" honor films. rewards. I did not understand my attitude The book is published u Fantasy, under disobeys a supcrnarural. (7) command'° stop; until I read th.is volume. this distillalloo of a the Legend imprinL Inevitably. and mercif runs on Dito a cul-de-sac or life; puu gun to yc.'s publication. Forget the nonsense ully, lhcff is nary an elf or a hobbit to be mouth and ends it. Unlovod evil has appa,en about lntenone being a IOT1;h bearer for the seen. the only easy comparison to its Ameri tly been let loose. From beyond the grave, by longsinccdis.sipaled NcwWavc,orthc can putoral JCtling perhaps being lhc. post means o f strangely mlllipula~ lapel, with putative vehicle for any Nc:a:L Wave. Holoea1m Pelbar cycle by Paul O Williams., on-the-spotassistancefromPinslecpc.an Alicnalion may be the theme of our age but with iu similar underpinning Amerindian cighl year old pcgnant angel (or cilolon), ii can be heavy going. however -11 influences. Phil dirccu his friend Weber... qualiiy" film cxccutcd. And w:,ries in l nterzone are Card, however, coats the book with an producer and poet. to reverse the malcric sit always well cxccu~. serious liLCralure. all-enveloping mysticism !hat is one of its uation by complcting redempcivcly the last But WC Ill knew that.. didn't WC. Which is wealcncssess. His ideas hinge around lha1 of unfinished " Midnight" film. an act wh.ich anotherclcmcn.tinitsinlimidating facade. the Noble Savage, whose "pwe" culture, also miraculously save Suayhom's pregnan1 There arcn'1 many laughs here at lhe border• attuned tohisenviroment,isunderthreat mistress and their common friend, the TV line . .John Sladek contribut£s "Stop from the white man. This has always struck clown "Finky Linky", fromcancerousfat£s. Evolution in Its T racb". a thoroughly me as a very dubious notion; life among the This he docs, using artistically superb bu1 obvious one- liner and no! to my taste. Kim American plains uibcs, for example, involv morallyrepellcntoditinginscrutomakcthc Newman's "Famous Moruters", though, is ing regular if low-level warfare, disease, film'svicwers"lovcevil". an cxpen jiving his passion, and doing it povcny and the like, was undoubtedly far With wch a work of considerable psychol wonderfully. more nas1y and brutish than anything avail ogical complexity and metaphysical density. Two light-hcanod stories out of fifteen. able in Europe al !he same time. Civilisation any plot swnmuy courts absurdity. What Hm. docshaveiuadvantagcs-suchastheprint was meant as mc11phor or archetype will David Langford conlribules a snappy ing press, Mr Card please nole. appear as Q"Udcly literal. Neverthcks.s, even vignc1LC of lt!l'Torism tomorrow in his fractal Thal said., Card does stale his cue well. whilec:a:pericncing the novel fully. rudcrs "BlitM, thenearClllOa uhard" SFsioryhcre. whkhisforacivilliationlinlc.ingthebestin may oficn wish thar Carroll would affirm the Funny it isn'L Richard Caldcr'1 '"Toxinc." is the European and Amerindian cuiNfCS. and nature.of his "reality". If the author can be a cwiously oki fashioned nasty which the altcmative is graphically displayed in the ci..cuscd ambiguities, i1 is bo::auK he has co alienated me by its thoroughly an:h idiom form of a vision: nlrivod a potcrit. yet fragile, fictional "mag dcspi1c a new twist on Frankenstein. Lisa ic .. which oven commitmcn.l might easily Goldstein's ..City of Puce.. uses Jerusalem ... the Red -n dwindled, con[IMll 10 ti destroy.Carroll is adepeatrcvcalinglargely as a metaphor for fuwre relations with aliens "-1 presavu ofdcsolaJc land, IUSSil tlte by concealing. This is cpilOmiscd in his and confirmed my view of her as being whole land war WAitc, and tMTeforc trCllmQll.ofb:m-orelcmcriuinthc "Midni someone who doesn't quite get lhcre now, br111a~d into swbmwion. stripped ght'' fibns. He intcru;ifies them not by gory bul one of these days she will gel it all and CIII and ravi.shcd, giving YaJI' am detail. bu1 by dcscriptK>TI of the ccnual together spectacularly. OfUIIS offood /Ml wasonJy a,a imitation figure, Bloodsionc, ever shadowy and amor My favourites in th.is collection arc those of /lie true NJr"WSI, poisoned into 6/c by phous save for his child-like fingers. With no which ring emotional bells. Rachel Pollaclc's ald,cmical trickery. Ewrt the White nails. '"The Bead Woman" is state of the art femi mart suffered. .. Lisa Tuttle isqUOlodon the book's cover nist S F but it did not touch me. Eric Brown's At the start of the book Alvin and his bro saying that " reading Jonllhon Canoll is like ''The Time-Lapsed Man", to my mind. de ther arc kidnapped by hostile Reds sent by dreaming wilh your eyes open". And when fines tllc "lnlerzonc Story" and I advise lhctokcnbacddy tostirupthcscnleuagainst 11 !he end ofhiJ pseudonymous namesake's everyone to watch this man. He's good. lhc lndiaru. Alvin falls in with and is influe Wonderla nd the dreamer's sister doses her Greg Egan's "TheCutie" is about nced by the Red Prophet.. a former whisky eyes and re-dreams Alice's dream. "she knew technology and parenthood and, as a parent, Indian who is his 1cachcr, the Golden Man, that she had bu1 to open tllcm again. and all had me in tears. Which leaves JG Ballard and 18 • VECTOR 153 ISAAC ASIMOV PRELUDE TO FOUNDATION The long owoited first chapter of his classic Foundation sogo. 'One of the most staggering achievements in modern SF.' The Times ' Mogisteriolly detailed ••• captures the style ond mood of SF classics he wrote nearly holf o century ogo.' New York Times Book Re view AGrafton Paperback £3. 99 RAYMOND E. FEIST PRINCE OF THE BLOOD Set twenty years ofter the events in the A Darkness at Sethanon, a spellbinding new epic of courage, intrigue ond treachery. £12.95 Hardback £7 .95 (trade paperback) FOSS POSTER PORTFOLIO , From the world's number one SF illustrator come ten stunning huge poster-size pieces of artwork, I displaying his unique talent. I AGrafton Paperback £9.99 {inc. VAT) -,; c-. II ,. THE SHAPE OF SF AND FANTASY TO COME GRAFTON BOOKS REVIEW S "The Enormous Spaoc". rear and loalhing in Ice W m:ion had been going on for so long lion relying 10 relentlc:s.sly on one thematic dotpcs1 SUJbilOn. Some of the details don'1 that peace had become a myth. Myth, 5adly, note, I soon came lO feel tlw each SUCCCS• quite. ring true (driving in.10 lhc Ci1y? Where U ml really given much semblance., here: it's sive story wu IJ'Undling e£ficienl1y down the would our hero puk?) bu1 they don't matter. reponed, in a Slage-managcd half-page tnm 1JICU towartb ias ending, when. Rod Thisis1J10lhero£those51orieswhichisthc stories, lalt not felL Which is a.pity, for Serling woukl be waiting to wrap ii up wilh 1w word. in lhis case about the alienation or much feeling for the rugged inhospiuble a neat Jiu.Jc homily, and longed for a couple a suwrban salary man. As wilh 1bc Cutie", mountainous land is conveyed: Dixon tw .n of ichorous elder gods to vary the pace. this one h.it me hard. affinitywiththeland. Bu1itisnotsufficient To be fair, the fact that I was reading lhis Good short stories defy IDW.ysis in any 10 carry a slOry and chancten which in to ~view, and to a deadline, mea.nt I hurried lhlng !cu than their own lenglh, IUld lhese c:ontnst~flat. W ough ii faster than I would Olhcrwise have arc all good in their own ways. The volume AdvenllD'es, rno5t)y journeying and wk done; wilh more of a gap between the $l0r• is recommerKled. if nol required ing, take SUIT)' to a. number of cities and ies. each would probably have more imp,cL Martyn Taylor towns. to meet eoccnlric and voilent people: As ii wu., with only a few exceptions. I fo swprisingly, he ends up being presented with und myself admiring the writing techniques, myslerious stones, to join the one around his ralher tha.n being drawn into !he tales them Dracula's Brood neck whlch he often sucks when thinking. I selves. Richard Dalby (Ed) found this pan ludicrous: I don't normally On the whole, I found The Best of Mod· Equa1ion, 1989, 348pp, £3.99 quoll: from lhe end of a book, but the lut ern Horror a somewhat grandiose title for a page reads - "Then he felt the weight of his collection culled from only one magazine, This volume follows hard on the heels of stones (round his neck!) as though for the far more satisfying in this respecL As lhe The Ptnguln Book of Vampire Stories. first time and it drew his gaz.e once more subtitle makes clear, this is a nostalgic retro• However, the two should be regarded as downwar& ... " The end isn't far ofTwhen: spective selection from 30 years' wonh of complementary to one another, particularly F&SF, and. as such, it has lhe confidenc.e He 1houglll ef tM suffering ef peop~. of as only one story is duplicated, and only two not to be coy about its own coruents. lns1ead the alllluruoftheworld. of the land authors arc represented in both collections. of Dark Fantaslts's National Trust ruin ilself benealh the weighry tread of men While the Penguin collection offered a broad against the setting sun, the cover gives us a yet in tltaJ 1M joy surpassed al/ hisiorieal perspective of the genre, Richard """"'°" grouy painting or chez Bates illuminated by this and bWW it tumbling away and M Dalby's intention is loc::i;plore the wide a. vomit green lightning Ouh. the title being co,,ld ON] lmigh and that roar with ViclOrian interest in vampire lilenturcpri.i:v rc:nde:red in lhe typeface made. famous by a Fddu rearing and wlwvleJing bui.k to lhc publication of Stoker's Dracula, tnd thousand low budget movie po:uas. Aim and of iluiftM ~ took.on abo 10 demostrate the effect of lhis novel on Being reprints, mmy of the~ were the genre in the early pan of the tweruieut 1- already familiar to me, either from p-evious ca1rury. To do lhis he. has as.scmblcd an There ~ plenty of semenca lilce tlw; the anthologies o:r &om the magazine itself. CAcellenteollection ofrm-e er liulc-kno""fl author's intentions ca.nno1 be faulted, but the Nevertheless. fcmoreofthem., evm wheni1 storia, one previously unpublished. feanu uecution. I'm llfnid. is wanting. was the second or third reading, still had the ing a variety of vampires, including lWO I wanta:J very much 10 Jilce lhis book. a power 10 spark lhe tingle of unea.se I read man-eating plants as weD as the more usual f11st novel • after all, many of us would one horrol" s!Orics for. Onlheolherhand,this bau and beautiful )'OW\g women, all of them day like LO see our fvst noveb in prinL.. Bu.1 wu balanced by a much greater p-oportion I far removed from the cliche expectations of I found the potential wuled; a blind girl. a found uch., contrived. or just plain naff. In b.-i vampire movies. Each story is accompa• love-interest squandered; Skarry'sreactive sum, then. both oollec:tions ~ well worth a nied by a scholarly noll:. drawing attcnlion stanoc- things happen around him. are done look, but I'd rcc:ommcnd saving your pen to any connection wilh Sloker as approp-• to him, he hardly ever acts ... It could be nies for the mau market paperbacks. iate.andthewholeis prefacedbyavr:ry considered a pastoral fantasy, of course, but I Alex Stewart readable inuoduction. Indeed the entire feel it fails because I had no feelings for any volume is very readable and, afteJ its own of lhe characters. If you must read this f11s1 fashion, enterlaining, should your la.Uc be novel, wait for the cheaper edition. Zenith forweirdandfanwticliterarure.Myone Nik Morton David S Garnett (Ed) regre1 is that the Equation imprint is 10 be Sphere. 1989, 298pp. l350 closed down. This book is typical of the standard of its outpul. and the imprint will The Best of Modern Horror Any form of an or writing prospers by beg:reatlymissed. Edward L Fenn an&. Anne Jordan (Em) attracting new adherents, and an anthology Maurttn Porter Vi.ting, /989,40Jpp. l/4.9l is the ideal "way in" for !hose who would not ncoesSfflly read a whole novd in m Dark Fantasies unfamiliar genre. Perennially. !he non Winter In Aphelion Chris Morgan(Ed) reader of science fiction has argued that its ChrisDuon Legend, J989, J/9pp, l/l.9l, l5.95 pl,« writ.en seem in love with the ideas and e,:. Unwin, /989, 220pp, [6.99 pe,ct this to e11.cmc. a lack of attention to their Modem HOffOI" fiction seems to be going writing. In Zmlth. im- 5lories keep bolh This has been aycu of hype, wilh the Bat• througha.crisisof.sdfconfidcnce.,themost qualities in ba.11J1Ce. Others uhibit one or man movie and The Abyss, among othen. vist1,le sympcoms of which are its adoption the olher. sometimes to a. very high degree. Books have been at it for yun. though. so I oflhe label Dart Fantasy, and tn 01tenta It will come as no swprise lo m.ny people shoukln't be surprised when I am disap lious disdain for what it seems 10 believe are lha.l " White Noise" by Garry Kilworth is pointed in a book whose bl1.11b proclaims; the tropes most easily rccogniscd and des definill:I)' lhe o utswlding swry. lt is avuy "World First Publication. A brilliant work pised by people who never read lhe sniff neat commcnwy upon the way that Ille twe offan1asy by a yotmg British writer". Chris anyway. This trend is epitomised by lheedi ntieth cmrury man hu allowed technology Dixon lives on the land in Nonh Wales wilh LOrial lO Dark Fanm~ which promises to explain the world for him. In this particu his wife and son. raising crops and livestock; ~No Slime, No Chainsaws.~ but which might lar instance, ii is tha.t vuy technology which this is his first novel and "reflects his strong u well be titled "No Tension, Not Much brings him face lo race wilhOldTestament concern for lhe enviromeru and lhe future o f Horror~. Although none of the 16 origina.I reality in a way which is quile a shock. our planet". stories collected here fails in what it Sci$ out In "Ferninopolis" by Elizabelh Sourbut Skany is a fairly simple chap, tending 10 do, virtually all of lhem set out lo do the creates a human society in which lhe males sheep and goats, though he h.-i always year same thing: dismantle the pet it bourgt:0is are nonseniienL Visitors are scmdalised by ned to be a hero. Heroes cropped up a lo1, lifestyle of the main protagonist by an erup- the ueatment the males roceive, and attcmpi because lhe wars between his tribe and the 1ion of lhe irrational. Wilh !he whole collec• to (in lheir te.rms) rectify the situation. This 20 • VECTOR 153 ARTHUR C. CIARKE"S GIANTS OF SF The master al science fiction has selected his own personal ,hio,e of the world's lop ten SF titles. See them all in a spe GRAFTON BOOKS REVIEWS could be I very devcr warning of lhe dangers mirroring lhe over-technical approach of 1 suiled ID the ru1 paced humour he affects. of the. oYer-cnthusiutic promotion of femin composer who tries IO let technique cmy However, I soon got lircd of pages of one ism, bu1 it achieves iu: effect by challenging him when he hu, in fact, nothing ID uy. line paragraphs inlended ID move !he reader oncoflhe simplc5l as.sumptionl ofhwna:n.i M.khatlFearn qWClcly along. and he has the IIDV)ying habit ty. The simplest ideas arc usually the best. of luily repelling de$criptions (11 lea.st four It quite oflCn scans in modem IOCicty that ~"1ig.hcduifhewcrelbouf.to anything is aplicableor excusable if one can Angel Fire experience~ asthma lllldt"). ucribe IO ii I label in cithi=- a foreign lang Andrew M Greeley The theological qtJe$tXmS, Gredey raises: uage or in 50Ciologica] jargon. MCin6n1 Legatd, /9119,J0Jpp.Ill.9S (he U also • Roman Cllholic prim) me AltcrC" by Andrew Slephenson prcs,en1S us never seriously pursued. They simply pro with a morally queslion&blc way of making Greeley's quick-fire humorous style makes vide additional opportunities for (admittedly a film. This is IO acate a disasll:r on an altcr Angel Fire an easy book ID re1cl. However, witty) ono-linc:n and I series of hackneyed nllc time-1raclt. Thus a real disuicr is filmed it relies too much nn ati..ckneyed idea - von Danilccn-1tyk. reinterpetations of and lhc "home" reality unchmged. aliens IS biblical "uigels" - and fails ID bui Judat.0-Christian m)'IOOlogy. 1ne effect is Sionn Constantine and Christopher Evans ld any more than I Iightweigh1 story on this lightweighL contribute stories which arc very clever and unpromising foundation. More seriously. Gabrielli is an. idealised whose standard of writing is high. but they The book revolves around the relationship male f1ntuy 6gwe: a beautiful, intelligent do not have the immediate appeal of the between Professor Sean Seamus Desmond, woman bu1 appealingly vulnerable. She 1w above. The ideas behind the stories of Lin Nobel winning biologist and bogus lrishrmrn, a mind or her own but bows lo what the mM Tuttle and Barrington J Bayley appeal, but I and Gabrielli Llghl, higher alien life-fonn wsnts, and never makes him feel guilty about suspcc1 that they may have suffered, in com and (literally) Desmond's guardian angel. his alcoholic snd sexual U-11J1Sgressions. mon with some of the other stories, &om "Gaby", aniving apparently out of nowhere. The racism is pretty hard ID swallow too. what SCCfM 10 be slightly unhelpful editing. emp1oy1 her angelic powers ID pro!ect Prof The lrish se loveable rogues, the Eng!Uih This is somewhat unfair on lhc authors who essor Oe$rnond from vlrio\U threats to his snobs. the Swedes boring and the Genn11JU1 would hope to aunct new rcaden by being life.ln£1tt,sheisalsousinghimubaitto Nazis. Titere is I hefly side swipe 11 Thaich• anthologised. inp some evil ex-Nu.is who .e lltempting cr'a Britain, neatly balanced with some David Garnett stale.S in his rather coyly to control all "angel-lrind" and. incidenlllly, crude anti-communist drivd. titled "Forev.-ont .nd f or,vard" that he hu 10 subvert lhe ne,i:t stage of ffllll'1 e¥olution- Read IS sllire it almost works, but lacks lried10sek.ct"storiesforthene.x1milkn uy dcvelopmenL the cutting edge. There U I competent, intel nium." He has succeeded in a way which Everything comes right in the. end, u you ligent wri1a hen who hu unfonwwely would make lhedozen storiea: featllfcd an always knew it would. The goodies se Ill nancdtoSFu1rcs:tfromhlving1othink indispcnsibk part of lhc IIbrvy of the. afici good. the badd.c:s Ill bad. and thc. guy gets Kriously and wort hard 11 his ...-riling. He is onado. To what c1tcn1 it would alU'IC:t new thegirl(sortof)inthefinalcluipter.lt's• using SF u a light-hearted break and he readers i.sdcbwbk. AllhcirWOrslJOmCOf litlletoosickly1wcetformyt11te. does neither himself nor the genre justice. thc. offerings ve annoyingly s.e.lf- referential. Gree1ey'1slightlybrellhlcs:1styleiswcll Neale Vickery from the bestselling author of The lleavenly 11~m the Outermost West piperotth_ Gotesof .~.. Down · ~, "': .,,.,,,,-. ·~ for all those who love horse. and ~~n those who doft - ·the magical sequel to • . _ the epic quest to savtt a.,,, ,.._,~ _ sacred breed from extinction .. • • , i • i •• • 22 • VECTOR 153 R E VIEW S The Total Devotion Machine attacked by incompetent professional ass85- isolated. Taken as a whole, the poor pacing, Rosaleen Love sins, perform an emergency appendectomy, plotting and charactcrisllion combine to Women'i Puss, 1989, 167pp, £450 and after changing their minds about relrie give a misleading impression of depth and ving the magical jewel Voord possesses, are originality to what is the literary equivalent If the tag "feminist SF" means anything, captured by tum. of a cored and half-digested apple. it defines a style of writing as far from the The book fails to hang together on almost The fact that Morwood is prepared to ring Gemsback continuum as possible. It occup every level.his poorly written, edited, pac some changes on a well-worn theme does ies some indefinable terrain between SF and ed and plotted. In the first chapter. for exam him grell credit, though I do wish he hadn't Fantasy, and foregrounds human conditions ple. a series of melodramatic and cliched rushed it so much. against a background of I changed and cha scenes shift too quickly for any depth, and Terry Broome nging wtivcrse. end on familiar cliffhangers, the construction The stories in Love's Th, Total Devotion of which, in narrative lcnrui, seems nonsens- Machine range from virtually hard SF lO Jane Saini and the Backlash outright Fantasy. Herc are hard and soft Josephine Saxton sciences, magic and realism in collision, and W()ml!n's Press, 1989, J67pp, £4.95 sometimes in collusion. The style is witty, concise. stream-of-conscioumess at times, In 1969 Josephine Saxton's novel The and always flowing, easy to read. H lerc>S Gamos or Sam a nd An Smith was Her characters are constantly on the verge published, and in 1980 there came her of changing, and of changing sides. Tired of novella The Travails or Jane Saint (later living in a man-dominated world. her wom reprinted as the title story of a collection). 11 en join the other, non-destructive, side of years separates the books, but they are lin creation, be it machine, whale, or dolphin. or ked by this slim volume. Here we fiOO a even something quite new. In "Bat Mania" novelette, "The Consciousness Machine,., a middle-aged woman, known as "the old which sprang from and made use of themes bat", becomes literally that, and the world is and elements in The Hieros Gamos; and a better for it: "bat "a.lues of =mpanionship... novella, "Jane Saint and the Backlash", will spread more widely throughout the which is a direct sequel to The Travails, human population." Stella, the narrator of and both. we are informed in the introduc "The Invisible Woman". subvens her own tory essay, are linked because !hey employ in subservience to men by reOecting them and coocrete terms the Jungian idea of lhe showing !hem as they really are. Collective Unconscioll5. lnthetitlestory,whenMaryBethsetsoff That, quite frankly, does not come as a to Oy the solar wind to Mars, she leaves her startling revelation. Even someone who had children in the care of the Total Devotion only heard of Jung by reput.ation would have Machine which proves more capable than nol the slightest difficulty working out that human parents, at child care and parent care such an idea underlies these stories, and as well. Technology can be nurturing, or as indeed just about all of Josephine Sax1on's in "Power Play" and ..Tanami Drift". the work. h explains lhe rather bare backcloths soun:eofdisaster. "You are free. Fly1othe and bizarre shifts and coincidences that are a ends of your knowledge, though your know Cover'°" The TOhal De~Olio11 Machi11e feature of her work. It also explains why her ledge may end ll5 all.., his one of many b:, R-ieen Love works gel classified as science fiction. background forces controlling human rela [TheWomm'sPte,s, m,,£4.501 though they really only qualify because they tionships, playing uicks on humankind and don't fit into any other category. forcingll5tore--evaluatelheWliverse. But that quibble .11.side. ii.ti}' new lxxJk by This is a constaru lherne: alien-conuolled ical. In the second chapter the scenes are Josephine Saxton is an event worthy of electric fish in "Where Are They?", a pre longer, but also lend to end on cliffhangers. celebration, and this is no exception. "The historic skull in "Trickster", a peculiar And from there on each chapter contains Consciousness Machine" is I fascinating ex macro-economic vision in ''The Bonomless some thrilling action, ploddingly delivered, amination of a device used by psychiatrists Pit", all coruribu1e to shifting the sands of thll docs little to advance lhe story. to projccl scenes from lhe unconscious of consciousness. sliding panels so that the new The characterisation is inconsistent and lhe patient which, in this instance, is used to reality seems as real as the old and who is to misleading. The king who betrayed Aldric in explore the expanded consciousness of one say which is better? "So human life retreats the previous volume is presented as a form of the psychiatrists. While "Jane Saint and and consciousness moves on, sometimes idable enemy on page 16, but by page 36 he the Backlash" reintroduces her mos I recent down the Jong tunnel to an afterlife. and is killed off. An assassin is described in his heroine, who discovers so\utioru to the prob sometimes a sideways move across the spe first scene as an exlremely cunning and com lems of sexual equality by exploring the sur cies barrier. ., The world rearranges itself, petem character, but 68 pages Iller, when he real realms of the collective unconscious. and moves on. next speaks. he is a defe11ed man who gladly This lime !here has been a backlash to the Rosaleen Love is a confident, Ouent writer accepts I fatal poison. The intelligent char refonns produced by her previoll5 adventure, with plenty of imagin11ion. This is her first acters life stupid and lhe stupid characters are so she returns with M r Rochester the cat, collection of stories and it is well wonh complete morons. Mcrleau-Ponty the dog, Zilp the demon, and reading. I suspect thll Morwood's aim was to paint the various witches and alchemists and unu Christopher Amies Voord as a villain with virtues, bul because sual characters to find a more lasting solut he provides insufficient depth and mo1iva ion. As ever, the characters and situations tion for !he Grand Warlord's personality and she encounters are archetypes, and no logic The Warlord's Domain actions, Voord is an embarrassing crea1ion controls lhe escapades that make up this PeterMorwood whose inconsistencies lie less with his in very episodic tale, but that doesn't disguise Ug~nd. 1989, 283pp, £J J.95, £5 .95 pblc sanity !han with the author's inability to the vividness and vivacity oflhe charact create a character who is more than a cob erisation, and the sheer exubc::rant fun of the Fourth volume in another ongoing fantasy bling together of disparate elements. writing. This is very much a book to be rel series: the heroic Aldric Talvalin and his Individual scenes give a novel veneer, as ished, and it is only when you reach the end lover, Kyrin. make their way to Drakkesborg when Voord figura1ively and almost literally that you realise it has planted the seeds for to confront Voord, lhe Drusaian Empire's spills his guts to his doctor, Giorl. who is al some very serious th.oughts in the process. new Grand Warlord Along the way they are so a torturer; but they only make sense when Paul Kincaid VECTOR 153 • 23 REVIEW S Killer Planet The Network Them Bones Bob Shaw LaurcnceStaig HowardWal 24 e VECTOR 153