The Science Fiction Book Club Reviews Revisited: 1991 (second quarter)

[james_davis_nicoll]

Lists courtesy of Andrew Wheeler.

Contents for anthologies and omnibuses from the Locus Index
to Science Fiction www.locusmag.com/index/

April

HE LITTLE COUNTRY by Charles de Lint

Missed this. I stopped reading de Lint around the time Svaha came out, whenever that was.

[I was sent later de Lints for review and do not regret my decision to avoid his books]


THE SINGERS OF TIME by Frederik Pohl and Jack Williamson

As I recall, Earth has been conquered by strange aliens. When the homeworld of the aliens goes pfft, a small mixed group of humans and aliens have to travel through time and space to find a solution.

I remember this as very minor Pohl & Williamson.


THE GHOST FROM THE GRAND BANKS by Arthur C. Clarke (Alternate)

I read this. I have no idea what, if anything, actually happened.


CHERNEVOG by C.J. Cherryh (Alternate)

Missed this.


May

THE LOST SWORDS: THE SECOND TRIAD (3-in-1 of FARSLAYER'S STORY,
COINSPINNER'S STORY and MINDSWORD'S STORY) by Fred Saberhagen

Avoided this.


BRAIN CHILD by George Turner

One of Turner's skillfully crafted but moody books, this involves an investigation into three groups of humans whose intelligence was enhanced using genetic engineering. One of the points of the book is that
intelligence is not simply one thing: each set is distinct from the next in way their intelligence was heightened.

Recommended but don't expect to be happy as a result of reading this.


GENERATION WARRIORS by Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Moon (Alternate)

Missed this.


Smart Dragons, Foolish Elves ed. Alan Dean Foster & Martin H.
Greenberg (Ace 0-441-18481-2, Apr '91 [Mar '91], $4.95, 340pp,
pb, cover by Robert Grace); Anthology of 18 humorous fantasy
stories with an introduction and an afterword by Foster.

+ ix o Introduction o Alan Dean Foster o in
+ 1 o As Is o Robert Silverberg o nv Worlds of Fantasy #1 '68
+ 21 o The Same to You Doubled o Robert Sheckley o ss Playboy
Mar '70
+ 33 o The Egg of the Glak o Harvey Jacobs o nv F&SF Mar '68
+ 81 o Beibermann's Soul o Mike Resnick o ss F&SF Aug '88
+ 87 o Thimgs o Theodore R. Cogswell o ss F&SF May '58
+ 103 o Ms. Lipshutz and the Goblin o Marvin Kaye o ss
Fantastic Oct '78
+ 111 o Unferno o George Alec Effinger o nv IASFM Jul '85
+ 137 o Unicorn Variation o Roger Zelazny o nv IASFM Apr 13 '81
+ 166 o Yes Sir, That's My o Daniel P. Dern o ss New Dimensions
8, ed. Robert Silverberg, Harper & Row, 1978
+ 179 o Please Stand By [Max Kearny] o Ron Goulart o nv F&SF
Jan '62
+ 205 o Bottle Party o John Collier o ss, 1939
+ 215 o My Mother Was a Witch o William Tenn o nf P.S. Aug '66
+ 223 o Djinn, No Chaser o Harlan Ellison o nv Twilight Zone
Apr '82
+ 246 o Up the Wall o Esther M. Friesner o nv IASFM Apr '90
+ 276 o Trouble with Water o Horace L. Gold o ss Unknown Mar
'39
+ 301 o Savage Breasts o Nina Kiriki Hoffman o ss Pulphouse:
The Hardback Magazine: Issue Two, ed. Kristine Kathryn Rusch,
Pulphouse, 1988
+ 310 o Or the Grasses Grow o Avram Davidson o ss F&SF Nov '58
+ 321 o Snulbug o Anthony Boucher o ss Unknown Dec '41; F&SF
May '53
+ 340 o Afterword o Alan Dean Foster o aw

Aside from the Tenn (which is good) I missed most of these.


June

THE WINGS OF PEGASUS (2-kin-1 of TO RIDE PEGASUS and PEGASUS IN FLIGHT) by Anne McCaffrey

Missed this.


HEAVY TIME by C.J. Cherryh

I bounced off this about a quarter of the way through and have gotten headaches every time I tried to read Cherryh ever since.

[I no longer get headaches, although I cannot say I am all that interested in atevi internal politics]


STAR TREK: GHOST WALKER by Barbara Hambly (Alternate)

Missed this.


D'SHAI by Joel Rosenberg (Alternate)

And this.

Summer

THE SECRET BOOKS OF PARADYS: I & II (2-in-1 of THE BOOK OF THE DAMNED
and THE BOOK OF THE BEAST) by Tanith Lee

Own them but have not gotten around to reading them.

[I did read them when they were assigned to me. Didn't care for The Book of the Damned; For me, a little bit of decadent languishing while waiting to expire of jaded ennui goes a long way. The Book of the Beast involves a struggle with a demon and was more to my taste.

STAR WARS: HEIR TO THE EMPIRE by Timothy Zahn

Missed this.


THE ILLEGAL REBIRTH OF BILLY THE KID by Rebecca Ore (Alternate)

I own this and have read it but couldn't tell you what it was about.


THE PAPER GRAIL by James P. Blaylock (Alternate)

Missed this.

[I always feel like I should be more enthusiastic about Blaylock than I am]

Comments

[oh6]

I read "As Is" out of Magic for Sale, and it involves someone buying an abandoned VW with a mysterious, welded-shut trunk, which has not been abandoned, after all. Pretty light and whimsical, but I like it.

"The Same to You Doubled" is a sort of puzzle story with a resolution that fits quite well with Playboy's overall theme.

"Beibermann's Soul" involves a writer whose soul goes missing, who eventually decides that he doesn't miss it.

I also read "Bottle Party" out of Magic For Sale, and it involves someone who comes across a genie that grants wishes, and eventually succumbs to discontent.

I've read "Or the Grasses Grow" and do not understand why this story of some native Americans forcing the fulfillment of a supposedly merely poetic condition for the expropriation of their land is in a humour collection. It's a good story, but I think one would have to really hate the antagonist and believe that their comeuppance applies only to them to find it funny.

[jeriendhal.livejournal.com]

THE GHOST FROM THE GRAND BANKS

Not much of anything happened. It's the Great Engineering Feat equivalent of running in place, though the method of raising the ship is at least slightly more plausible than the one in Raise the Titanic.


HEAVY TIME was a minor CJC at best.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

As I recall, in Ghost from the Grand Banks somebody makes his fortune by writing a computer virus that fixes the Y2K bug, then tries to make windshield wipers obsolete by having the windshields vibrate relentlessly instead. Later, the Earth dries up and aliens are impressed with the wreckage of the Titanic. I think I made that up. Also, somebody has a swimming pool shaped like the Mandelbrot set.

[seawasp]

_Heir to the Empire_ and its two companion books are generally regarded as some of the best of the Star Wars books ever written.

[(Anonymous)]

Agreed. If you want to read a Star Wars novel, Heir to the Empire is the way to go.

[jeriendhal.livejournal.com]

Given how little the first book failed to grab me in the first fifty pages (before I gave up) that makes the rest of them sound pretty dire. Though I really ought to give Alston's books a chance out of respect for his RPG work.

[seawasp]

How do you feel about Barbara Hambly? She did a couple good ones too.

[jeriendhal.livejournal.com]

I read Those Who Hunt the Night some years back, and failed to finish the sequel. Nothing on her writing style, it's more that vampires Aren't My Thing.

Honestly, the Expanded Universe is so large at this point I think I'd rather just stick to the occasional re-read of Daley's Han Solo trilogy.

[erikagillian.livejournal.com]

My favorite Hambly is Bride of the Rat God. Takes place in '20s Hollywood.

I liked the first two vampire books a lot, especially since she didn't try to make the vampires not the serial killers they are. The third one, written very recently was awful.

[peter-erwin.livejournal.com]

The first four "X-wing" novels by Allston were probably the most enjoyable of the twenty or so Star Wars books I've read (I haven't yet read the fifth one, which appeared very recently). His two-book "Enemy Lines" series was OK, but not as fun.

I haven't read any of his other Star Wars books, mostly because they're parts of larger series where the intervening books are written by other authors.

(Zahn's more recent novel Allegiance was a lot of fun, and an interesting example of an action-adventure/espionage/thriller story which uses the plot mechanics of romantic farce.)

[(Anonymous)]

Minor Pohl/Williamson is still rather fun; more fun than the tedious Clarke was. The Clarke used this SAT test error http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=NilGAAAAIBAJ&sjid=8NAMAAAAIBAJ&pg=2837,1342997&dq=sat+test+geometry&hl=en as part of the plot, by the way.

[carbonel]

D'Shai was the first of Joel Rosenberg's fantasy series. The main character was a juggler who solved crimes. I liked them.

[nathan helfinstine (from livejournal.com)]

I thought it sounded familiar! I recall enjoying it too.

As a quibble, it was first in one of his fantasy series. He'd written something like five other books in a series before D'Shai.

[chrysostom476.livejournal.com]

The Guardians of the Flame series. Role players get sucked into a real fantasy world, you could hear the dice rolling in the background.

[carbonel]

Yes, words left out. A later fantasy series. The second one was Hour of the Octopus. There's an unpublished third one that I think I read in manuscript long ago, but don't remember anything about.

[dbdatvic.livejournal.com]

I also like them a lot, and have recently reread them. I would recommend adding them to one of James' higher-level "to be read" piles if possible.

--Dave, he needs to have something to distract him from crapsack dystopias and Dark Manly Stereotype Crime-Half-Fighters

[(Anonymous)]

My take on Blaylock is that about twelve years ago he switched to a more accessible style, though still with some of the same flavor. From his earlier period "The Last Coin" may be the most fun. I like both styles.

For a number of years in the 90s I was reading very little in the genre. I'd stop by the SF racks and look up Powers, Blaylock, and Pohl. Nobody else.

William Hyde

[seth ellis (from livejournal.com)]

I hadn't read de Lint for years, until about ten years ago a friend of mine turned out to be a big fan, so I gave one of his books a shot. SpiritWoodsGhostWalk, I think it was. Not only didn't I like it, it actually made me furious, and I haven't tried him again since.

[tekalynn.livejournal.com]

The Pegasus books have nothing to do with mythological winged horses. The characters are all Talents/Talented, the series name for people with psi powers. They range from a precog who made it big as a stockbroker to a Shirley Temple-esque toddler who...I forget what she does, acts as a catalyst, maybe. Probably the most interesting character is Daffydd op Owen, a law enforcement officer who Solves Crime Through Pscience.