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OtherRealms Issue 17 Part 05
Electronic OtherRealms #17
July, 1987
Part 5
Words of Wizdom
Reviews by
Chuq Von Rospach
Copyright 1987 by Chuq Von Rospach
The Riddle of the Wren, Charles de Lint, [***+]
A Night in the Netherhells, Craig Shaw Gardner, [****]
The Pig, The Prince & The Unicorn, Karen A Brush, [***+]
Archer's Goon, Diana Wynne Jones, [**]
Beyond Wizardwall, Janet Morris, [***]
Mage, The Hero Discovered, Volume 1, Matt Wagner, [**+]
The Net, Loren J. MacGregor, [****]
The Death of King Arthur
Jackbird, Bruce Boston, [***]
She Comes when You're Leaving & Other Stories, Bruce Boston, [***]
Ascian in Rose, Charles de Lint, [***+]
It's been an interesting month. It started by being late to press with
the last issue, with some projects at work all coming due at the same
time, and a new cockatoo that decided that it was more fun to pull
books out of my hand and chew on them than let me read. Between all of
these endeavors, it was impossible to concentrate on reading anything
involved, so I decided it was a good time to work on my Fun pile. I
went looking for escapism, long a part of Science Fiction. And I'm
happy to announce that SF escapism is alive and well.
One thing I've been meaning to explain is how books get chosen for
review. I'm only going to cover what I do -- each contributor handles
their own books differently. I get books from two sources: directly
from the publisher in the form of review copies, and books that I buy.
With review copies, everything gets checked in to the Stuff Received
column, the publicity material, blurbs, cover info gets read. I
generally retire reprints because there are too many new books to
devote space to older works. First novels go into the review pile, as
do works from the authors that most people are interested in (Steven
Brust, R.A. MacAvoy, Larry Niven and Gene Wolfe as examples). Anything
else that looks interesting goes into the pile as well. Depending on
the month, 50-60% of the books I get don't make the first cut.
Each editor has favorite authors -- Alan reads Crowley, Dan'l reads
Moorcock. These are put in the appropriate places. From what's left, I
try to come up with a reading schedule for myself, usually about half a
dozen books, depending on how strong the month's titles are. The rest I
either farm off to a contributor or put on the shelf. Out of about 30
review copies a month, around 10 get scheduled.
Not all of them get reviewed. Sometimes a book goes to an person who
either hates it or finds that it isn't to their taste and they feel
they can't give it a fair review.
I also toss books I buy into my reading queue. At any time, my in-box
holds about 45 books that I want to read -- and in at least one case,
there is a book on that shelf that has been there for three years, waiting
for the right moment (it is Don Quixote). Generally, I add 6-8 books
from the review lists and a similar number from the store every month,
and I read between 10 and 15 books a month. The queue tends to grow
over time, so every so often the books that never made it out get retired.
If I have a choice between reading a "name" book and a promising or
unknown author, I tend to read the latter. I never read book two (or
three, or seventeen, or...) unless I've been following the series --
partly because I don't have time to read all the previous volumes and
partly because I don't think most multi-book series ought to be --
they're a convenience to the author and publisher, but they tend to be
crutches as well.
If you think that it's tough to get a book through the maze of my
in-box, you should see what happens to them when they come out. I'd
like to have a moment of silence for The Riddle of the Wren by Charles
de Lint (Ace Fantasy, 295 pages, $2.95). This book was unfortunate
enough to be the one being read when things went crazy -- over a period
of two weeks, it got carried around work, sat on, stuck in backpacks,
carried around Baycon, watered in the garden, roasted in the sun, and
given the worst possible reading environment. The cover is torn, half
the pages (literally) have fallen out of the binding, and the book need
to be painlessly destroyed and put out of its misery. Few books I've
read recently would fare well against this kind of neglect, but despite
the treatment it was given, I enjoyed this and it kept pulling make
back into the story until I finished it.
This is a standard High Fantasy quest story -- a fourteen year old
urchin is sent a Quest in a dream, meets Important Folk, fights Nasty
Foe, and finally wins the Great Battle for Peace and Apple Pie. There
is no original theme or action in this book, except that de Lint made
the protagonist female. Even in this, he never does anything with the
sex of the child -- she's really neuter in action.
The lack of originality isn't a problem though. De Lint is purposefully
taking a familiar story and writing it well. It kept my attention when
lesser books would have been shelved and it succeeds in what it sets
out to be. It is a Good Read, and if you're looking for a diverting and
enjoyable book, comes highly recommended.
If you're looking for Fun, you need look no further than Craig Shaw
Gardner and his Ebenezum trilogy. The third book, A Night in the
Netherhells (Ace Fantasy, 185 pages, $2.95) is just out, and it keeps
up the frenetic pace set in the first two books. Ebenezum, master
wizard with an unfortunate allergy to magic, his apprentice Wuntvor and
their entourage (Hendrek, the Conan clone; Snarks, a demon kicked out
of the Netherhells because he has to tell the truth, Norei, witch and
love-interest for Wuntvor; Alea, vaudeville singer and love-interest
for Wuntvor; and Hubert, the singing dragon) have made it to Vushta,
city of ten thousand delights, where Ebenezum can be cured.
Unfortunately Guxx Unfufadoo, the rhyming demon, has sucked Vushta down
into the Netherhells. Our intrepid explorers must go and get it back,
foiling at the same time the plot by the demons to take over the Earth.
Gardner succeeds where many authors fail -- he takes a silly premise
and keeps it silly for the entire book. Just when you think you've got
things figured out, he throws in a ferret. If one ferret isn't funny
enough, how about 60? At the same time he is telling a good story
without ever letting the jokes get in the way. Many authors in the same
situation run out of jokes before they run out of pages, and the book
falls flat. Gardner actually did a trilogy, with the final book as crisp
and silly as the first chapter. It is, shall we say, a hell of a book.
Imagine, if you will, a Tolkien clone, where Bilbo is a pig. That's the
basis of Karen A. Brush's first novel, The Pig, The Prince & the
Unicorn (Avon Fantasy, 216 pages, $2.95). The Pig is Quadroped,
straight from Charlotte's Web, chosen to be the Key Bearer when a bird
drops the Key on his nose. The Prince is Glasgerion, Prince and Bard,
who hopes to escort the Key Bearer to the Gate so it can be locked. The
Gate keeps the Black Unicorn, a nasty beast, locked in Chaos where it
can't do any harm. Unfortunately the magic of the Gate needs to be
renewed once every hundred years by the Bearer, who must re-lock the
Gate, or the Unicorn will return to reclaim his lands of Ravenor and
lay waste to the wonderful Kingdom. In Quadro's path (of course someone
has to be in his path...) are the Warlords, leaders of the Black
Unicorn's kingdom, and their friends the Pitch Fiends, the Water
Demons, the Death Wings, and the nasty Manslayers.
Almost surprisingly, this book works. I found it strange that even
though most animals couldn't talk to humans, nobody really found a
talking pig with a magic Key unusual. Quadro is allowed inside, and
brought to table to eat with the rest of the folks, carrying on
conversation all the while, without anyone seeming to realize that
they're talking to a (hopefully housebroken) pig. There are Many
Adventures, and Quadro seems to spend a lot of time saving the lives of
his protectors, and he is captured, and he escapes, and he reaches the
Gate in time. Does he lock it? I won't tell -- JBrush carefully works
in several moral questions as to whether it is the right thing to do,
and I won't ruin it for her. By doing so, she takes a Quest book and
gives it some complexity and flavor, making it a Good Story and Fun.
He was Large, Ugly, and not leaving their kitchen. He was a Wizard's
Enforcer. He was Archer's Goon. So says the blurb to Archer's Goon by
Diana Wynne Jones (Berkley Fantasy, 241 pages, $2.95). This is her
second novel, and is the least successful of the books this month.
12 year old Howard Sykes comes home one day to find Archer's Goon in
the kitchen. He won't leave until he gets the 2,000 words his father
owes. Suddenly, this normal British community is engaged in open
warfare between seven wizards and Howard's family. It seems that a
series of 2,000 words have been used by one of the seven to keep the
rest from leaving the city limits for the last 13 years, and suddenly
they all want to break the spell so they can take over the world.
A major problem: nobody seems to know how the words work, and nobody
knows which wizard is entrapping them all. So, suddenly, after 13
years, everyone tries to get the words at the same time.
Jones seems to be trying to write a satire on Government -- each wizard
owns a specific segment of the city: public works, policy, sewers,
utilities, recreation. Each uses their own power to try to bend the
will of Mr. Sykes into writing them the 2,000 words. The tear up the
street, dig ditches, turn off the power and gas, send bagpipe bands to
serenade them, and sit in their kitchen and refuse to leave.
This book, while it tries to be Fun, fails. There are many plot holes
large enough to drive trucks through that kept me from enjoying the
humor. The worst is the Haunted House syndrome that plagues many
horror books: a family is besieged by evil spirits in a house. Any
sane family would get out and then figure out how to deal with the
problem. But no, rather than leave the city and get away from all these
nasty wizards (after all, they can't leave the city -- that's what
they're trying to fix), this family cowers in its house, taking all
this abuse and going "What do I do? What do I do?" The answer is
simple: get out. But if they do, it's a forty page book. In other
words, Archer's Goon suffers from idiot plot complex -- the people
involved have to be idiots, because any rational person would have
acted in such a way that the story is over in 10 minutes.
Another problem is the wizards. Five of them show up early, and it
becomes obvious early on that once you figure out who the two missing
people are and why they're missing, you've figured out what's going. To
be fair, it isn't exactly easy to do this, but I also felt the ending
was somewhat arbitrary and patched on.
If you can read around the plot holes and enjoy the book for what it
is, I think it can be enjoyable. I couldn't.
The Thieves' World anthology series has spawned a series of novels by
author Janet Morris, who has taken the characters to the Wizardwall.
I've never been overly impressed with Morris' writing, but Beyond
Wizardwall, the third in the series (Ace Fantasy, 250 pages, $2.95) is
significantly better than its predecessors, and it shows a polish that
I haven't seen before. She takes Tempus, Niko, Randall and the various
gods and other denizens and builds up a complicated plot as everyone
vies to either grab or protect Niko's soul, save the Empire, and free
Nisibisi. This book is of interest only to folks who follow Thieves'
World, but well worth reading, even if you've skipped the first two novels.
Mage, The Hero Discovered, Volume 1 by Matt Wagner (Starblaze Graphics,
$12.95 color graphic novel) is the first five issues of the comic book
Mage issued as a color graphic novel. It's well written -- Wagner has a
dry sense of humor, and his protagonist, the savior of the people and
full of super powers, doesn't believe this is happening to him. The
graphic novel is a different format than most people are used to, and
to some degree is an acquired taste. My big problem with this volume is
that it stops at a bad point -- like most multi-volume stories the
reader is left hanging, something I find distasteful. You might want to
wait on this until future volumes are out so that you can read the
complete story.
The Net, by Loren J. MacGregor (Ace Science Fiction Special, 225 pages,
$2.95) is the first of the second series of specials edited by the late
Terry Carr, and one of the last books he bought and edited. The Special
series was designed as a showcase of the best first novels -- previous
books included William Gibson's Neuromancer and the first novels by
Lucius Shepard and Kim Stanley Robinson. A tough act to follow,
especially since this is MacGregor's first professional sale, not just
the first novel.
If this book doesn't raise the ripples of a Gibson or a Shepard, it is
because MacGregor doesn't have the short story reputation helping to
point people at the book. It's a simple plot, with complex overtones --
there are two companies in fierce competition with each other. The
protagonist runs one, having wrested control from her father -- she's
honest, works hard, plays fair. The antagonist is the son of the owner
of the other company, spoiled, brash, given to excess, trying to wrest
what he feels is due from his father.
He makes a bet. If she can steal a jewel from his museum without
getting caught, he'll cede certain businesses to her. If she loses, she
does the same. Of course, he's sure he'll win, and she's sure that she
can take him. The competition is subtle, complex, and the reactions are
real.
MacGregor has put a lot of work into building the supporting cast --
Jincluding one major character in a wheelchair; physically hindered but
not disabled by any means. This character points out a painful flaw in
much fiction these days -- few authors are willing to build a
convincing mix of characters or a complex society. Writers should read
this book and see what happens when you build real people into the
books, even in secondary roles --Jand real people don't always have
legs to walk on, or ears to hear with, or eyes to see. Too often we seem
to imply physical perfection in the people who will conquer space -- an
implication that is a subtle bias that we should work to remove.
This is a good book, not by any stretch of the imagination a Fun book
like the ones I reviewed above. It is complex and subtle, it says and
implies things that have to be thought about, and it involves the
reader at several levels. I don't think it can be recommended highly
enough, and MacGregor is definitely someone to watch in the future.
Briefly noted, and for Arthurian fans only, is The Death of King Arthur
(Penguin Classic, translated by James Cable, $5.95), an anonymous
French work from the 1200's. It's an interesting version of the classic
mythos, but not terribly accessible for people who haven't read the
field heavily.
Small Press Notes: Bruce Boston has published widely in the small press
magazines. Some of his stories, all horror oriented, have been
collected and published in two collections through the Berkeley Poets'
Workshop and Press [P.O. Box 459, Berkeley, CA 94701]. The first is
Jackbird (1976, 85 pages, $2.00), which contains six stories from
places such as New Worlds and Fiction. The other is She Comes when
You're Leaving & Other Stories (1982, 62 pages, $3.95) which contains
eight of his works. They're good, generally as good as the horror I've
seen printed in Twilight Zone, and if you like horror, well worth
tracking down.
The other small press book I want to bring to your attention is Ascian
in Rose by Charles de Lint (The Axolotl Press, 3915 1st Ave. N.E.,
Seattle, WA 98105). This is actually a novella and a sequel to de
Lint's book Moonheart, which I haven't read yet. This story stands on
its own for the most part, as an ex-Biker works to protect a young
woman from an evil enchantress who wants to sacrifice the girl. This is
a limited edition 875 copy print run, signed, and available in leather,
cloth, or perfect binding (the first 25 numbered). This book is for de
Lint fans, but a good story to read.
Alice Sheldon, An Appreciation
Alice Sheldon, who wrote under the name James Tiptree, Jr. died on May
19, 1987 of self-inflicted wounds after killing her husband and warning
her lawyer to notify police. She was 71, her husband was 84. Sheldon
was evidently depressed because of the continuing illness of her
husband, who was bed-ridden and had recently gone blind.
As Tiptree, she was a critical success and a prolific short story
writer. Her most recent work was Starry Rift, published in 1986.
It's hard for me to say much about Sheldon. I've enjoyed her works
over the years, but she stayed behind the pseudonym for most of her
writing life, which makes it hard to discuss the person. As a writer,
she was exemplary, and never got the public recognition she deserved.
But her writing lives on, and speaks for itself. There has been a lot
of pain and anguish over this death on the computer networks -- many
people have had problems accepting the fact that she killed herself.
So do I, for I shall miss the times she has shared and enriched my
life. But I can also understand, I think, about two people who love
each other enough to believe that life without each other is no life,
and to take a chance that there will be togetherness on the other
side. So I'm hurt that she chose to leave us, but I'm hopeful that she
found what she was looking for.
And when you think about it, she really isn't gone. The body has passed
beyond us, but open up any of her books, and she can rejoin your life
and bring it new warmth.
If only I could tell them how I feel inside, she thinks. So
light and free, all duties done.... And at last I know it all;
my whole life is my own.... All known. Like a child on a high
hill, like a first plane ride --I can see it all from horizon
to horizon, and think it all over.
And me ... funny, I'd forgotten myself. I suppose they count
this as tragic. Oh, if I only could tell them--all they see is
this rotting body; they don't see I'm perched in it like a bird
in an old tree. When the tree goes I'll only float away.
Maybe, when it crumbles, could I just fly away, free? Flying
to death....
But such a beautiful sunrise -- so comfortable, so radiant and
limitless! I wish they had time to enjoy. . . . When you're
dying you have time. And you don't need help to die. No
arrangements. You can just do it, all alone. Right the first
time....
Brightness Falls From The Air:
James Tiptree, Jr. (1915-1987)
Brightness Falls from the air;
Queens have died young and fair;
Dust hath closed Helen's eye.
I am sick, I must die.
Lord, have mercy on us!
-- Thomas Nashe
May you find the peace you sought, the togetherness you craved. If
there is no quality to life, is there meaning? May you be together,
wherever forever is. You leave your family behind, and we grieve, yet
you aren't gone, merely frozen in an instant of time. May we have the
strength to remember you for what you were and what you meant to us,
and may we keep your name before our eyes forever. You are missed, you
are loved, you are with us.
-- chuq von rospach
She was one hell of a writer. I hope that if there is anything after
this world, then she is being cherished and comforted with the same
amount of love that shone from her works. I hope somewhere there is
peace.
-- Fred Bals bals%nutmeg.DEC.COM
As you undoubtedly know by the time you read this sentence, Alice
Sheldon is dead by her own hand. Her husband had suffered from
Alzheimer's Disease for many years; in the end, she took his life, then
her own. All evidence leads one to believe that this was a case of
mercy-killing in both instances.
Sheldon wrote a great many stories about love, hate, and killing over
the years; two of them affected me profoundly. The first was "The
Women Men Don't See," whose appearance in F&SF shocked me out of a
great deal of what I can only describe as middle-class male
complacency. For that story, and many others in lesser degree, I am
eternally grateful to Alice Sheldon.
The other affected me in a way rather opposite to the way I believe she
intended it -- "Houston, Houston, Do You Read?" seems to me a story of
misanthropy in the feminist sense, an attitude that I have never
learned to live with.
Yet Sheldon lived with her husband, apparently happily, for many years;
she was apparently willing to take her own life to end his suffering.
Somewhere between the poles of violent antimasculinism and profound
love (the latter, also, is expressed in many Tiptree stories) lies a
human being.
And that, is what has been lost in Alice Sheldon. A human being. One
possessed by love and hate, by good and bad...and incidentally by a
talent which allowed her to change my life with one story and enrage me
with another. A human being who, like all of us, was ultimately alone,
but one who reached out to touch all of us, just a little bit. A human
being like you and me.
Rest in peace, Alice Sheldon. You are not alone.
-- Dan'l Danehy-Oakes
ptsfa!djo
OtherRealms
Reviewing the worlds of
Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror.
Editor & Publisher
Chuq Von Rospach
Associate Editor
Laurie Sefton
Contributing Editors
Dan'l Danehy-Oakes
James Brunet
Alan Wexelblat
OtherRealms #17
July, 1987
Copyright 1987 by Chuq Von Rospach.
All Rights Reserved.
One time rights have been acquired from the contributors.
All rights are hereby assigned to the contributors.
OtherRealms may be reproduced in its entirety only for
non-commercial purposes. No article may be reprinted without
the express permission of the author.
OtherRealms is published quarterly
(March, June, September, December) by:
Chuq Von Rospach
35111-F Newark Blvd.
Suite 255
Newark, CA. 94560
Usenet: chuq@sun.COM
Delphi: CHUQ
Review copies should be sent to this address for consideration.
Subscriptions
OtherRealms is available for the usual bribes & trades: a copy of your
zine, submissions, letters, comments, artwork or because I want you to
see it.
People who don't like to write can still get OtherRealms for money:
$2.50 for a single issue, or $8.50 for four issues. Folks in the
publishing industry can qualify for a free subscription. Just ask.
OtherRealms is available at Future Fantasy bookstore, Palo Alto,
California. Stores interested in OtherRealms should contact me.
Electronic OtherRealms
An electronic, text-only version of OtherRealms is available on a
number of different computer networks and bulletin board systems. On
the Arpanet, Bitnet, CSNet, and UUCP networks, send E-mail to chuq@sun.COM
to subscribe. On USENET, OtherRealms is distributed in the group
rec.mag.otherrealms.
It is also available on the Delphi timesharing service and a number of
Bulletin Board systems across the country.
Submissions
OtherRealms publishes articles about Science Fiction, Fantasy, and
Horror. The primary focus is reviews of books that otherwise might be
missed in the deluge of new titles published every year, but the
magazine is open to anything involving books.
Authors are welcome to submit articles for the Behind the Scenes
feature section, where you want to talk about the research and
background that went into your book. I'm also interested in author
interviews.
Any thing of interest to the reader of book-length fiction is welcome
at OtherRealms. We don't cover shorter lengths, media, or fannish news.
Submissions can be made on either Macintosh or MS-DOS disks (disks will
be returned), via one of the computer networks, or the old-fashioned
way if you insist. Submission deadline is the 15th of the month prior
to publication. Lettercol deadline is the first of the month of publication.
OtherRealms is always on the lookout for genre art, from small clip-
art pieces to front and back cover. Cartoons, line art, anything with
a genre flavor is welcome here!
Book Ratings in OtherRealms
All books are rated with the following guidelines. Most books receive
[***]. Ratings may be modified a half step with a + or a -, so [***-]
is somewhat better than [**+]
[*****] One of the best books of the year
[****] A very good book -- above average
[***] A good book
[**] Flawed, but has its moments
[*] Not recommended
[] Avoid at all costs
Back Issues
OtherRealm Back Issues are available. Electronic versions of the
previous two issues only are available by contacting me at the addresses
in the masthead. Hardcopy versions of the following issues are available:
E-mail format (each $1.50)
#2: Karen Joy Fowler, Wasp, Writer's Workshops
#3: Dervish Daughter, Listening to Science Fiction
#6: SF Magazines, Wizenbeak, The Sorcery Within, A Jungle of Stars
Magazine format (each $2.50)
#9: Reviewing the Reviewers, The Dream Years, Schismatrix, Fiction by
Jim Brunet
#10: The art of paperbacks, It, Dimensions of Science Fiction, fiction by
Fred Bals
#11: The Diadem, Always Coming Home, Broken Worlds, Flamesong
#12: Voice of the Visitor, Silent Tower, Little Big, Agents of
Insight, Quest of the Riddle Master, Echoes of Chaos, Children
of Flux and Anchor
#14: Time Out of Mind, Voice for Princess, The Myth Series, Living in
the Ether, No Safe Place, Borderland, The SF Book of Lists
#15: Darkchild-Bluesong-Starsilk, SF: The 100 Best Novels, The
Regiment, Adventures of Hajii Baba of Isapahan, A Door into
Ocean, With a Single Spell.
#16: Non-Western Mythology, The River of Time, The Flame Key, Liege-Killer,
Battle Circle, The Native Tongue Series, Terry Carr Appreciations.
