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From: donn@sdchema.UUCP (Donn Seeley)
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers
Subject: Book Reviews (III)
Message-ID: <833@sdchema.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 28-Aug-83 05:59:35 EDT
Article-I.D.: sdchema.833
Posted: Sun Aug 28 05:59:35 1983
Date-Received: Wed, 31-Aug-83 07:37:06 EDT
Organization: UC San Diego Chemistry Dept. NIH Research Resource
Lines: 129

Some reviews of my recent reading.  Stars next to titles indicate
collections or anthologies.  All the books are paperbacks, with the
publisher or series title shown.  Ratings are 0-10: 0 = 'I don't know
why I bought this trash,' 5 = 'Readable but disappointing,' 7.5 = 'I
liked it (but I don't know about other people),' 10 = 'Kill for this
book.'

THE WAR HOUND AND THE WORLD'S PAIN.  Michael Moorcock.  Timescape.
This book comes with some pretty heavy recommendations from the major
magazines, and I was interested to see if it could overcome my
prejudices, because I believe that the last word in science fiction
novels about Hell was James Blish's peculiar bipartite novel, BLACK
EASTER/THE DAY AFTER JUDGEMENT.  (Yes, I know what the dictionary says,
but my [British] edition consistently spells it 'judgement'.) I am
happy to say that WAR HOUND is very good and rather than diminishing
each other, the Blish and Moorcock works actually complement each
other.  WAR HOUND takes place in the year 1631 in Germany and various
other places on and off this world, including both Heaven and Hell.
Europe lies in a chaotic, burning shambles, torn by religious war,
factionalism and banditry; a certain captain of mercenary soldiers,
named Elric -- I mean Ulrich -- von Bek, escapes a burning city only to
wander into the precincts of Hell.  There he is accosted by Lucifer and
charged with an arduous task, in return for which he will receive his
soul:  find and bring back the Holy Grail, which is the Cure for the
World's Pain.  Lucifer believes that if He recovers the Grail He will
be rewarded by God with the restoration of His position in Heaven
before the Fall.  Although the adventures of von Bek on his quest are
interesting and fun, more interesting is what happens when his quest is
resolved.  Recommended.  (9.0)

*DREAM MAKERS, v. 1 & 2.  Charles Platt.  Berkley.  These two books are
collections of interviews with science fiction writers.  There are a
total of 57 interviews with an entire spectrum of writers, and although
Platt states that he will not interview writers whose work he hates or
who write fantasy, he manages to cover a broad part of the field.  He
goes from Jerry Pournelle and Keith Laumer to Tom Disch and Joanna
Russ, not forgetting classic writers like Asimov, Clarke, Sturgeon,
Pohl, Anderson and (almost unbelievably) your friend and mine, L. Ron
Hubbard.  Platt is not a particularly great interviewer but he
frequently has help (and not infrequently, trouble) from the writers
themselves.  Some of the interviews are really amazing, and if you just
pick one of the books up off the rack I suggest you peruse them:  James
Tiptree, Jr., also known as Alice Sheldon, who tells an incredible and
maybe even true story about her life and work; Phil Dick, who discusses
his strange experience of epiphany; Stephen King, who has a hilarious
way of deprecating his tastes in literature and movies; L. Ron Hubbard,
who is a science-fictional Howard Hughes.  (There is a picture of James
Tiptree, Jr. on the back of v. 2 -- try to identify it without
cheating!) I should warn you that while the first book is just $2.75,
the second one was made a trade paperback for no good reason and it
costs $6.95.  I like the books, though others may be less interested.
(7.5)

*AN INFINITE SUMMER.  Christopher Priest.  Dell.  I thought that
Christopher Priest's last collection, REAL-TIME WORLD, was fairly weak,
but this collection more than makes up for it.  The Dream Archipelago
is located on a planet that is both like and unlike Earth, and it
serves as the setting for several stories by Priest, including in this
volume 'Whores', which is a rather vicious horror story about
psychedelic warfare; 'The Negation', which is about an encounter of a
soldier and the author of his favorite book (named, naturally, THE
AFFIRMATION); and 'The Watched', an extremely paranoid story about a
mysterious native tribe called the Qataari and a man who cannot resist
secretly observing their strange rites.  The other two novelettes deal
with Earth in a quasi-Victorian style reminiscent of Wells.  The
excellent title story is about a man who falls victim to a peculiar art
form associated with time travel.  The equally excellent 'Palely
Loitering' is about a man who crosses the Tomorrow Bridge in Flux
Channel Park and meets a beautiful woman and her peculiar suitors.
These stories exhibit both strong writing and good science fictional
ideas. (8.5)

[Note:  Priest has apparently written a novel about the Dream
Archipelago called, naturally, THE AFFIRMATION.  Has anyone seen any
editions of this in the US? I would love to get a hold of one.]

INVERTED WORLD.  Christopher Priest.  Pan.  This novel was actually
written some time ago (1974); I re-read it this summer when I bought my
fourth copy of it (the previous three copies having disappeared due to
my lending them out...  sigh).  The novel has one incredible
supposition, namely that there exists a planet which is not a sphere
but instead a hyperboloid with infinitely long spires (the 'north' and
'south' poles) and an infinite circumference (the 'equator').  Across
this curious surface there moves a city called Earth, and the novel is
the story of one of its citizens, Helward Mann, who comes of age in the
guild of Future Surveyors and makes a discovery that could mean the end
of Earth's long wanderings.  The consequences of the unique shape of
the planet are worked out in fantastic detail, and at the end of the
novel the whole crazy thing fits together.  A delightful novel; at
least as good as his well-executed previous novel FUGUE FOR A DARKENING
ISLAND, and much less depressing.  (For some reason this Pan edition
leaves out the acknowledgement in the NEL edition which describes
Priest's debt to a computer model...  Pity.) (8.5)

*THE 57TH FRANZ KAFKA.  Rudy Rucker.  Ace.  Rudy Rucker is an insane
mathematics professor who writes drug-crazed science fiction in order
to pervert the young people of this nation.  With this excellent
recommendation you should be prepared for some very good stories, and
there are several in this book.  We get: 'A New Golden Age', about a
mathematician who invents a machine that can play mathematical theorems
as musical melodies, with the intent that this will allow laymen to
appreciate the beauty of mathematics; 'Jumpin' Jack Flash', INVASION
OF THE BODY SNATCHERS seen from the snatcher's point of view; 'The
Indian Rope Trick Explained' where Charlie Raumer escapes his testy
wife and vile children by climbing up the ether; 'Tales of Houdini', in
which we discover that Houdini never showed us his best tricks;
'Inertia', in which Harry and Fletch invent a machine that absorbs
inertia and set off for interstellar space in a converted Ford station
wagon; 'Message Found in a Copy of FLATLAND', in which we learn just
how Edwin Abbott was inspired to write his book; and best of all, the
deranged 'Pac-Man', in which someone REALLY wins the infamous video
game... (8.5)

SOFTWARE.  Rudy Rucker.  Ace (?).  This is an interesting book.  It's
not quite satisfying, but I say that not because it lacks substance; in
fact it is jam-packed with humor, adventure, suspense and even
philosophy...  the book never relaxes, almost like one of Alfred
Bester's old novels.  The novel takes place sometime in the next
century; many years ago the robots sent to mine the Moon became
sentient and revolted, and currently Earth lives in uneasy peace with
the 'boppers', as the robots call themselves.  Reading over my last
draft of this review I realize that the plot of the novel is almost
unexplainable, but I will say that a significant fraction of the story
deals with an attempt by the 'big' boppers to take over by absorbing
little boppers' software and turning their 'bodies' into remote
manipulators...  The writing is a bit uneven and the end of the book
doesn't really resolve the plot (perhaps a sequel is in the works?) but
the book is a lot of fun, and quite readable.  An excerpt from SOFTWARE
is reprinted in Hofstadter and Dennett's THE MIND'S I. (8.0)