order masqueALIEN COMMUNIQUE #070498A
SPOOZE!! It is with great joy that we grasp this opportunity with all pseudopods and tenstacles. As a culturally and technologically advanced race we are sure you are eager for our input. We intend to put our full resources behind this effort, well, at least those not used to maintain our anonymity on this wonderfully backward planet you are slowly destroying.
Masque, F. Paul Wilson and Matthew J. Costello, Warner Hardcover, ISBN 0-446-51977-4, $23.00 ($28.00 Canada), 341 pgs.
Collaborations can be funny things. Sometimes it’s follow the leader and sometimes it’s a battle of wits. The best ones--Pohl/Kornbluth, Stirling/Drake, Niven/Pournelle--create something that is more than a sum of the parts. This can be a hard thing to pick up on unless one is well versed in the writings of each individual. It’s hard to say for sure whether there is synergy operating here or not. It’s not hard to say that Costello and Wilson have combined to create an unusual future world. This is a world that many will recognize with aspects of traditional SF as well as some cyberpunk flavorings. This should also be considered an SF thriller as the entire plot is wrapped around a mystery and a quest.
The basic idea is that in the future the world has become very corporate and these corporations battle each other for supremecy. One of the main tools used in these arenas are mimes, or individuals who can take on not only the persona of another individual but the body as well. Consider them almost human computers that you insert a disk into and they transform into whomever you want, or whomever you have a disk for. Tristan is one of these mimes and he is sent on an espionage mission to a rival corporation to steal some technology. The promise to Tristan is selfhood which nearly all mimes want because after a certain amount of changing you start getting corrupted and become somewhat of a mutant. There’s more of course including a mime freedom movement, a love angle, parenthood, issues of trust and hope and the fate of the world. SF is nothing if not big in concept.
The novel is well written and takes place at a fairly fast pace. The characters are somewhat lacking in depth and more lacking the further away form the protagonist you get. This is not actually a problem, we just point it out in case you were looking for a character study. Consider this comparable to a James Bond film where Bond has character but three layers removed the individuals become tokens and targets. That’s what happens here.
Costello and Wilson have created an unusual world and although the characters move through only a small part of it, there is enough there to keep you intrigued. We enjoyed the book, nearly every one of us. Enough so to have no compunctions about either recommending it for a beach read or those long hauls out to Arcturus. We’ll be looking for the next book from this duo.
Most Tenstacles raised!
Nebula Awards 32, Jack Dann, ed., A Harvest Original/Harcourt, Brace trade paperback, ISBN 0-15-600552-2, $13.00 ($18.00 Canada, 326 pgs.
This is more than just another awards anthology and we write this to those of you who do not already know this. If you know then you are reading this merely because you are captivated by our superior word smithing abilities. Those of you not yet so enamored should know that the Nebula Awards are given by the members of the Science Fiction Writers of America in an arcane voting style and manner held secret since the middle ages. We know of course, but we won’t tell.
This anthology is considered the seminal ‘year’s best.’ These are novels, stories, and poems which have been read by the membership and nominated for the award. These nominations, after a difficult and tedious degree of qualification are then voted upon by the members. The results are announced and a banquet is held. Everyone eats, drinks and spoozes and all are happy. A short while later an anthology pops out. Say, this is sort of like that sex thing you people do, isn’t it?
This version contains not only the award winners by Harry Turtledove, Dean Wesley Smith, Jack Dann, Esther Friesner, Paul Levinson, Nicola Griffith, Jonathan Lethem, Bruce Holland Rogers, but 9 additional essays as well. There are previous award winners listed, discussion of film, discussion of the field in general and discussion of the changes feared and found. Interesting stuff.
The major portion however has to be the fiction, including work by Jack Vance who got the Grandmaster award. We know it is always questionable to argue about whether or not something is best over something else, so perhaps it is best just to say that this anthology is a benchmark, produced on a yearly basis, of what is right with the field of Science Fiction. As each year passes things do change and plot devices move. Sub genres ebb and flow. Magazines rise and fall. Authors die and are published for the first time. We take naps. By the end of the year there is always a select group of stories, novels and poems that have risen to the top, that deserve more recognition than just singular publication, that look to be perhaps turning points but definitely markers on the road to the future. They are things we can look back on and remember.
This is an anthology that we suggest you hand to anyone who wants to know what’s best about SF. It has answers and in the essays and lists it contains directions and recipes for more. A definite keeper in terms of content and quality.
Full Tenstacles raised.
The Forest Of Time And Other Stories, Michael Flynn, Tor Paperback, ISBN 0-312-86587-2, $13.95/$19.95 Canada, 381 pgs.
This is a collection of 10 short stories all of which appeared in Analog. Needless to say these are hard science fiction short stories. What does need to be said though is that these are hard science fiction stories with character. Flynn is an excellent writer, able to delve into technological detail without forgetting that all the tech in the world is pointless if it is not used by people. Within these pages are nanotech bugs and the men who must wrestle with the decisions inherent in the design of such. Within these pages are time travelers and the difficulties that such beings create for those caught in the middle of civil war. Within these pages are story after story where the people are caught up in a moment of time where the science and the humanity cross paths. Flynn does an excellent job making sure we understand not only why the paths have crossed and the significance of the crossing but what the consequences of such might be on both. An excellent introduction to hard SF for those who might not have partaken and a couple of days of great enjoyment for those who yearn for all that SF should be--tight writing, interesting people and scientific extrapolation done in logical and meaningful ways. Incredibly interesting stuff.
We loved it without doubt. We recommend it without fail.
All Tenstacles raised!
The Demon Awakens, R. A. Salvatore, Del Rey Paperback, ISBN 0-345-42162-2, $6.99 /$8.99 Canada, 606 pgs.
This begins a new series for Salvatore and it may be one of his best yet. The story opens with children and with the coming of Goblins and the destruction of a small, mountain town. Behind this destruction is a powerful force known as the Dactyl. Only a few children survive the assault on the town. The dactyl will regret this.
This is the story of a young girl who loses her memory, a young man chosen by the elves to be a ranger, a different young man chosen by be a monk assigned to millennial duties and yet a fourth young man chosen and corrupted.
Salvatore takes these four and weaves a complex tale about them. This is a complete book in that it begins, complicates, and then ends with a final confrontation. If at times a vague unease tugs at your mind as if parts are faintly remembered it’s to be expected since Salvatore is writing the Quest Fantasy which has been done so many times before and he is using characters known to us, at least in general terms--goblins, elves, rangers, monks. But it is not so much what Salvatore has used but the way in which he creates the situations and then moves his characters through those situations that makes this book worth picking up and devouring.
Another keeper and another one we'll look for more of in the future.
Tenstacles Fully uplifted.
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