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OtherRealms Issue 22 Part 02
Electronic OtherRealms #22
Fall, 1988
Part 2
Copyright 1988
by Chuq Von Rospach
All Rights Reserved
OtherRealms may not be reproduced without written permission from Chuq
Von Rospach. The electronic edition may be distributed or reproduced
only in its entirety and only if all copyrights, author credits and
this notice, including the return addresses remain intact.
No article may be reprinted, reproduced or republished in any way
without the express permission of the author.
Behind The Scenes: The Troupe
From Sideshow to Center Ring
Gordon Linzner
Copyright 1988 by Gordon Linzner
The Troupe, which Pocket Books will publish this summer, began as an
attempt to update the 'sinister sideshow' theme. The archetype of this
tale for me will always be Charles G. Finney's The Circus of Dr. Lao.
Ray Bradbury and the late Tom Reamy (Blind Voices) now seem best known
for it. The usual sub-text of individuals' natures determining their
fates is particularly appealing to my sense of drama.
As a born-and-bred New Yorker, I never entirely related to the small
town settings common to the sub-genre. My troupe sought their victims
in cities, arriving in New York as the book opens. Given the
unlikelihood of even a small circus coming out of nowhere to set up
overnight in, say, Central Park, I opted for a more insidious infiltration.
The streets became the sideshow (as New York's are, anyway). The troupe
adopted various personae to stalk their prey: hucksters, mimes, artists,
con men, etc. So that victims could mandate their own fates, the troupe
were psychic vampires, who stimulated one's greatest fears, then fed on
the subsequent terror. The trauma usually left a lifeless husk.
The New York setting had obvious advantages, among them, the fact that
I apparently wouldn't have to do much research. Half my previous novel,
The Oni, was set in 7th century Japan; those sections had been slow
writing. I wound up doing research anyway, of course: revisiting
scenes, reviewing relevant bits of city lore and guidebooks, checking
details I thought I knew and finding, as often as not, that I didn't.
Even when memory proved correct, the city wouldn't stand still. A
wonderfully decrepit warehouse on the East River, south of 23rd Street
and convenient to the Medical Examiner's Office, was turned into a
parking lot. I had to move my bag lady to a less interesting spot
beneath the Williamsburg Bridge and gloss over a transition to the
morgue. As late as the page-proof stage, a copy editor pointed out that
Radio City Music Hall no longer showed movies on a regular basis.
Fortunately, I acquired a computer after The Oni. Adjustments could be
made relatively fast if not wholly without pain.
Even so, I fudged once or twice. Access to the old New York Central
tracks, below Eleventh Avenue, isn't as easy as it appears in the
book. To correct that meant either an excess of tedious detail, or a
switch to some far less moody location, which would have distorted the
dynamics of those scenes.
One hundred pages into the manuscript, it became obvious that the
sideshow plot, fine for slim books, wasn't enough for the market I had
to aim for. The troupe needed an opponent who could meet them on equal
footing. I chose what I hope will only seem in retrospect the most
obvious possibility. On impulse, I had this character rescue a young
man who, arguably, deserved to die. Their unlikely alliance brought a
much-needed focus to the book, and provided ambiguity (which many
people find frightening indeed!) as predator/prey relations shifted
back and forth.
The two protagonists' developing relationship contrasted with the
troupe's cold interactions. Oddly, this helped make the vampires
individuals, some quite likeable, rather than a monolithic evil force.
Finally, several possibilities for the troupe's origins were
considered. None were as satisfactory as leaving them a mystery. That
attitude usually seems a cop-out to me in this sort of book, but it
seems to work in The Troupe. The final chapter had a perfectly natural
spot in which all could be explained, yet my every attempt to do so
seemed forced.
The Dragon Never Sleeps [****]
Glen Cook
Questar/Popular Library $3.95 422pp
Reviewed by Danny Low
Copyright 1988 by Danny Low
The "dragons" of the title are the Guardships that for 4,000 years have
protected the Canon. However, the long era of peace and prosperity has
also brought about decadence and decay. Simon Tregesser, head of House
Tregesser, does not like the Guardships because they are impartial and
incorruptible which restricts his ability to make his House and himself
powerful and secure. He forms an alliance with aliens from Outside the
Canon. Simon wants a Guardship of his own so he can deal with the
Guardship fleet as an equal. The aliens want to conquer the Canon. This
plot sets in motion a chain of events that might end in the destruction
of the Canon.
There are three major storylines in this book. The first involves the
Guardship VII Gemina and its crew, who comprise the point in the fight
against the aliens. The second storyline involves Simon and his plots.
The third involves a group of fugitives caught in the middle of the
struggle. Within each major storyline, there are minor storylines. For
example, three members of VII Gemina, WarAvocat Strate, Colonel Haget
and trooper Klass all have their own storylines. The result is a very
intricate tapestry of a tale. The only major characters who do not get
much time on stage are the Outsiders, even though it is their
machinations that drives all the storylines.
All the major characters are sufficiently well-developed to be distinctive.
The plot is very intricate. In the beginning, a reader should seriously
consider taking notes. There is a tremendous amount of action. At
times, the switch to another storyline comes as a relief because the
new storyline is so much less frantic. This is one of those books that
once one starts to read it, cannot be put down until it is finished.
Ivory
Mike Resnick
Tor Books, 1988, 0-312-93093-3, 374 pp., $17.95.
Reviewed by Dean R. Lambe
Copyright 1988 by Dean R. Lambe
Founding Father Hugo Gernsback wished science fiction to play an
educational role for its readers. If Resnick opts for the sciences of
human behavior, from anthropology to political science, rather than,
say, astrophysics, I don't think Gernsback would mind. In Ivory, when
the reader is also treated to firsthand ecological history and tribal
ethnology of East Africa, old Hugo's ghost should smile.
As with earlier works in his The Book of Man universe, Resnick tells
this tale as an integrated series of vignettes that jump back and forth
in time from the end of the last century to over 7000 years in Man's
galactic future. As marks a master story teller, these individual scenarios
have plot and characters enough to have been published separately, yet
they flow together as a unified novel. And the story they tell is a
compelling mystery. Who killed the greatest land mammal that ever lived,
the Kilimanjaro Elephant, and why does Bukoba Mandaka, more than 7000
years later, insist that he must have this great beast's ivory tusks?
Unifying interludes feature Duncan Rojas, head of research for the
galactic source of big game records, as Rojas tries to locate the long-
missing 440 pounds of ivory for Mandaka, who claims to be the last
living Maasai. Scholar Rojas and his intelligent computer search
records on thousands of planets, over seven millennia, as they seek
both the lost tusks and the answer to the mystery of Mandaka himself.
Their efforts reveal the earlier histories, first in Kenya, then off
Earth, as Maasai descendants gain, then gamble away the precious ivory,
as thief and scientist, warlord and alien temporarily own the mighty
elephant's teeth.
If flaw there be in Resnick's overdue first hardcover, one might
quibble that human business 70 years hence, or 7000, is pretty much the
same, once the doors have dilated. But no "geewhiz" factor detracts
from this solid people story, which will glue you to your chair until
the final page. Like Rudyard Kipling, Resnick knows how to count the
tribal lays. Buy this one today.
A Splendid Chaos
John Shirley
Franklin Watts, 1988, 359pp, $17.95, 0-531-15065-8.
Reviewed by Neal Wilgus
Copyright 1988 by Neal Wilgus
If Zero and Bowler and Angie and Cisco had been wearing mirrorshades
when they were abducted by The Meta, we'd know for sure that A Splendid
Chaos is a cyberpunk story. But since they weren't, and since they had
no opportunity to do so after they awakened on the alien planet they
call Fool's Hope, we'll just have to put aside the genre label and
settle for the fact that this gripping novel is a first rate read,
regardless of how it's categorized. What a relief!
Zero is the hero -- or at least the main character -- of this story,
but there are plenty of other colorful and interesting people in the
crew, including Bowler, Angie and Cisco, who had been out with Zero for
a good time after college finals that night they were kidnapped. On
Fool's Hope they also encounter such desperate characters as Jamie, a
lesbian leader of the human population; Yoshio, who joins Zero and
Angie on a dangerous mission; Doggo, who stays behind to help defend
the humans -- and a strange being called Jack the Baptist who seems to
know more than anyone else about what's going on. Then there are the
bad guys -- Kelso the pimp, Bella the whore, Solus the sacrificed,
Swanee who can fly, and, the worst of the lot, Fiskle, who you know is
really bad because he was a follower of "Skinner and Social Darwinism"
long before he became a community leader on Fool's Hope.
In addition, there are thirty alien races in competition with the
humans for survival, some vaguely friendly, many openly hostile, all
deadly in one way or another. There is a trade among the various races
and some cooperation, but all are victims of the mysterious Meta, who
set the situation up and then pulled back to observe, with little or no
interference in the result. The insectoid Whorebugs, the spit-sucking
Poolsh, the bear-like Groyn, the argumentative Ki-ips are all among the
weird and worrisome aliens that Zero and his friends encounter as the
drama unfolds.
Members of two alien races, the taciturn High Clan and the territorial
Pezz, become Zero's special allies as a mission gets underway to the
Project Station, where the Meta leaves various incentives or bonuses
for whoever can get there first. This is behavior modification to the
max, Skinner unchained, and it makes the tin soldier fascism of Fiskle,
the Social Darwinist unchanged, look puny indeed -- one of the fine
ironies here, but not one Shirley hits you over the head with. What he
does hit you with is the gut-wrenching double story of Zero's party
striking out for the Project Station through a bizarre and deadly
landscape, while back at the human colony Fiskle, transformed into an
almost supernatural creature called a Twist, plots his gruesome
campaign to take over the whole planet.
Considered objectively, A Splendid Chaos has to be labeled science
fantasy, using the trapping of science fiction to tell a story of
magic, but neglecting to give any convincing science to support it. The
magical stuff Shirley calls IAMton, for instance, is just magical
stuff, like hyperspace or the franistan, enabling the action to go
forward. Similarly, the Meta are literally faceless since only their
camera eyes are present, and they have seemingly endless power -- but
their purpose and the source of their power is unknown.
And who cares? The source of Shirley's power in this powerful book is
in the vivid characters, the bizarre creatures, the colorful
environment -- the unique phrasing and outlandish ideas -- the detailed
and convincing atmosphere in which the gripping action takes place...
In short -- style, which is John Shirley's strength and what makes A
Splendid Chaos a splendid read.
Orphans of Creation [****]
Roger MacBride Allen
Baen Books, 1988. 345 pages. $3.50
Reviewed by Michael A. Banks
Copyright 1988 by Michael A. Banks.
At last -- a book that delivers what its cover blurb promises. From the
back cover of Orphan of Creation:
In the day after tomorrow, on a backwoods farm in Mississippi,
a paleontologist unearths the bones of a creature that could
never have lived in that time or place. The incredible find
brings its discoverers to the deepest forests of western
Africa, and face to face with a miracle older than Man.
Indeed, this is an accurate summary of the novel, but Orphan of
Creation delivers much more.
The novel's major plot is based in part on a proposition made by
Stephen Jay Gould in his book, The Mismeasure of Man. "Suppose," Gould
says, "that one or several species of our ancestral genus
Australopithecus had survived ... we would then have faced all the
moral dilemmas involved in treating a human species of distinctly
inferior mental capacity. What would we have done with them --
slavery? extirpation? coexistence? menial labor? zoos?"
The answer to Gould's question is presented adamantly -- and believably --
in Orphan of Creation: slavery.
The book opens at a present-day Thanksgiving reunion of a black family
at their ancestral family home in Mississippi. The major cast of
characters includes Dr. Barbara Marchando, a paleontologist who works
for the Smithsonian Institution; her cousin Livingston Jones, a
biochemistry student; and, later, Rupert Maxwell, a white co-worker in
the Smithsonian's Paleontology department.
Steeped in post-dinner boredom and drawn to relive her one of her
favorite childhood activities, Barbara visits the attic of the house
where the reunion is being held. The house is now owned by Barbara's
Aunt Josephine Jones. Ironically, Barbara's great-great- grandfather
Zebulon Jones -- a former slave -- bought it out from under his former
master during the post-Civil War Reconstruction Era.
In the attic, she finds Zebulon Jones' journal. An exciting find in
itself, the journal presents a mystery involving strange creatures that
Zebulon Jones' master had experimented with -- a bizarre group of
subhuman monsters who didn't live very long, and who the slaves would
not allow to be buried in their cemetery.
It doesn't take Barbara long to realize that there is something big
hidden on the grounds of the former plantation. After gaining her
Aunt's blessing (no mean task, as the woman is a God-fearing Baptist)
and her cousin's help, she begins a minor archaeological dig which
yields up perfectly preserved, non-fossil bones of Australopithecus --
the lost ancestor of man. Once she's certain of her find, Barbara moves
quickly to enlist the support of fellow paleontologists at the
Smithsonian, and events move rapidly from there.
But things don't go as easily as that summary might lead you to
believe. Orphan of Creation is at once a detective story and a drama of
a major scientific discovery and the social turmoil that follows. The
first few chapters deal heavily with Barbara Marchando's detective work
in moving from entries in a 120 year-old journal into the discovery of
graves containing scientific impossibilities outside a 19th-century
slave cemetery. And it is no easy task she faces, even after she
realizes what must be hidden in those graves. She must enlist the aid
of family members, suffer through the prejudice of the owner of the
small-town newspaper owner who will not grant access to old newspaper
files so desperately needed, and more.
Woven in among this are Barbara's personal struggles -- not the least
of which is fighting the conflicting emotions she has for her soon-to-
be ex-husband (an M.D. who is trying to revive their shattered marriage).
The twists and turns that lead an archaeologist and her family first to
discover the 130 year-old remains of a species thought long-extinct, and
finally to confront living members of the species, are fascinating --
and believable. And Allen neatly balances the reactions to this
discovery by individual characters with those of society and various
elements of it. (Imagine a fundamentalist evangelist faced with
incontrovertible proof of evolution?) And he does the same with the
effects of this discovery.
The book's structure is excellent. Allen sticks with the protagonist's
viewpoint throughout most of the book, slipping into that of others not
as a device to escape the difficulty of showing important information
through the eyes of the protagonist, but to allow the reader to
experience the events and background without too much filtering through
the protagonist only. (These occasional forays into the minds of other
major and supporting characters also enrich those characters, bringing
to them more life than would otherwise have been there.)
Of particular interest are the "documents" that Allen intersperses
throughout the text -- extracts from Zebulon Jones' diary, a pre-Civil
War newspaper advertisement touting the merits of a "new breed of
slave," contemporary newspaper stories, and the like. Each of these is
written in apparent exact emulation, and the technique is not overused.
The result is a tantalizing glimpse into the past as well as into the
"real" world surrounding this tale.
I at first thought the book might end with the discovery of living
members of Australopithecus, but Allen doesn't cheat; he takes the book
far beyond the simple discovery -- all the way to its logical
conclusion. The ending is slightly diluted by the fact that it points
toward a sequel, but this does not detract from the story.
Equal in interest to the novel's story and structure is the writing
itself. Allen's writing technique is a well-balanced blend of dialogue,
action, description, and narrative -- each in proper proportion to the
other. I found in Orphan of Creation a maturity of style and technique
that wasn't present in Allen's earlier works. The entire book sports
perhaps two stylistic flaws, and those may be the result of a line-edit.
(And, to be fair, the flaws are minor: the use of the same noun twice
within the same sentence where a euphemism would have been better, and
the translation of what had been a character tag in dialogue into
narrative.) The bottom line is a smoothly-flowing book with few bumps.
Overall, a fine read, and a book that would receive instant critical
and popular acclaim under the byline of one of the better-known writers
in the field. As it is, I suspect that word of mouth will bring that
same acclaim -- acclaim that is more than deserved.
Recommended, whether you're looking for a few hours' entertainment or
some thought-provoking speculation.
----
End of Part 2
