Hacker Chronicles 2/HACKER2.BIN/441.SF018087.TXT

Text File | 1993-02-23 | 18KB | 387 lines

SF-LOVERS Digest            Tuesday, 9 Feb 1993        Volume 18 : Issue 87

Today's Topics:

            Books - Tepper (4 msgs) & Tad Williams & Wodhams &
                    Womack (2 msgs) & Review: "The Forever King"

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Date: 8 Feb 93 22:19:00 GMT
From: [e-mail] (gp17)
Reply-to: [e-mail]
Subject: Sherri Tepper

David Jordan ([e-mail]) writes:
>I just finished GRASS by Sherri Tepper.  I liked it a lot.  Well drawn
>characters, complex universe, interesting exploration of gender issues and
>a very solid female protagonist.  I needed to get in about 50 pages before
>I got hooked, but then it was "no stopping."  If anyone else has read it,
>I'd like to hear what you thought.  If not, give it a try.

I recently read SIDESHOW, and seeing that it "shared" a common character
with GRASS, I read GRASS also.

I've had a hard time sorting out how I feel about these two books.

*** spoilers follow ***

Both novels present us with a mystery that is central to the plot. In
GRASS, it becomes obvious very quickly that there is something "wrong"
about the Hunt.  In SIDESHOW, the plot is really a series of mysteries
which are slowly revealed.  Both books are artfully enough written that I
was drawn into each book (although SIDESHOW was awfully slow going at
first) and could not put it down.  Each book was very strong on
characterization.  In these respects I enjoyed both books immensely.

Both novels were also good "world-builders".  Tolerance in particular is a
great 'dysfunctional utopia' and an example of what happens when you take
cultural relativism too far.  It is also a good example of leaving an
academic project unsupervised by the real world (and of the hubris of some
academics).  :->

The problems I had with GRASS were rather minor.  As far as "interesting
explorations of gender issues" goes, I'll stick with Le Guin.  I would have
liked the protaganist whatever its gender, and I thought the interplay
between Marjorie and her husband to be unexceptional.  The switching of
personality types in the two children was a nice touch, however.  As far as
women's roles in the autocracy were concerned, well, they were being
controlled by aliens, right?

Rather than do a whole criticque of SIDESHOW, I'll just touch on the one
thing about it that really got to me.  A thread on Stephen King some time
ago touched on the fact that so often the victims in his novels tended to
be children.  In SS, in showing what was wrong (and becoming wronger, if I
may use bad grammer), Tepper does in a lot of children.  Eaten by
predators, starved to death, offered up in ritualistic sacrifice, children
are getting it in the neck all through the book.  The description of the
toddler floating downstream who was eaten by the predator shook me so bad I
swore I wouldn't finish the book, that there was something really wrong
with Tepper to have included it (and I stayed awake thinking about it half
the night).  In the end I finished the book, but I still haven't been able
to reconcile my disgust with the graphic offing of children in the novel
with how I felt about it as a book.  I can see the point she was making
with it, as well as with the male and female dominated societies in the
book, but how much is too much?  Do you have to abuse, mutilate, and
destroy scores of people before we can see it's bad?  Anyway, if you've
read SIDESHOW, I'll leave that for you to decide.

Also, are there more novels in the GRASS/SIDESHOW universe? and are these
tied to gether within a loose framework or are they more closely knited?  I
would particularly like to know what happened to Marjorie in between GRASS
and SIDESHOW.

------------------------------

Date: 5 Feb 93 20:16:00 GMT
From: [e-mail] (Gail Wood)
Reply-to: [e-mail]
Subject: Re:  Sherri Tepper

I read GRASS by Sherri S. Tepper and loved it.  Couldn't put it down.  She
has two other books in the same universe (that I haven't read) one is
called Raising Stones and the other I cant remember.

The first book I read by her was Gate to Women's Country that I thought was
terrible and I vowed never to read anything by her again.  It was allegedly
feminist, but it was too facile and it disregarded homosexual relationships
in a same-sex society (!).  At a conference, someone recommended all her
books but that one.  GRASS is the only one I have read.  I'd like to know
what others think of her work too.

Gail
woodg@snyalfva
[e-mail]

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Date: 6 Feb 93 22:28:52 GMT
From: [e-mail] (Jim Kasprzak)
Reply-to: [e-mail]
Subject: Re:  Sherri Tepper

[e-mail] (Gail Wood) writes:
> I read GRASS by Sherri S. Tepper and loved it.  Couldn't put it down.
> She has two other books in the same universe (that I haven't read) one is
> called Raising Stones and the other I cant remember.

 _Sideshow_ is the third one. Anyone know if there are plans for that to
come out in paperback soon? I saw the hardcover more than a year ago.

 I put in my two cents' worth about _Raising the Stones_ a couple of weeks
ago. Trying not to repeat myself too much, I'll say that I found it a good
read; it held my interest all the way through. I was pleased with the way
she had all the conflicts resolved non-violently. It's a nice change from
the usual in a genre whose motto sometimes seems to be "walk softly and
carry a megawatt laser".

 I find it hard to label _Grass_ and _Raising the Stones_ as "feminist SF".
Just because a novel was written by a woman doesn't make it "feminist". And
anyways, although she makes some good points about the relationships
between the sexes, I find that these themes are secondary to the points she
brings up concerning religion. Take the Voorstoders in RTS: a caricature,
certainly, of the worst features of the patriarchal religions, but there
are times when our religions present themselves in this way. And the other
sect (I've forgotten the name) which considers it so important to "not let
anyone fool with your head": a good illustration of how strict literal
interpretation of old laws can lead to ridiculous and counterproductive
results.

Jim Kasprzak
RPI
Troy, NY, USA
[e-mail]
[e-mail]

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Date: 7 Feb 93 18:23:58 GMT
From: [e-mail] (Andrew C. Plotkin)
Reply-to: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: Sherri Tepper

Jim [e-mail] writes:
> [e-mail] (Gail Wood) writes:
>> I read GRASS by Sherri S. Tepper and loved it.  Couldn't put it down.
>> She has two other books in the same universe (that I haven't read) one
>> is called Raising Stones and the other I cant remember.
>
>  _Sideshow_ is the third one. Anyone know if there are plans for that to
> come out in paperback soon? I saw the hardcover more than a year ago.

I bought the paperback Friday. I'm halfway through it. I'm enjoying it
greatly, for much the same reasons that I enjoyed _Raising the Stones_.

(Except for the cover. Someone seems to have decided that SF fans now like
their covers to be black-and-garish-color, with irrelevant, low-res
computer graphics plastered across it. I've seen this now on Hogan's
_Entoverse_ and (the newest printing of) Banks's _The Player of Games_ ,
and _Sideshow_. I'm sick of it already.)

However, my favorite Tepper books are still the Marianne stories. :-)

------------------------------

Date: 8 Feb 93 01:07:02 GMT
From: [e-mail] (Nathan Bardsley)
Reply-to: [e-mail]
Subject: Tad Williams, TGAT Release Date

The question of just when =To Green Angel Tower= will be released was just
answered on GEnie, so thanks to Mary Frey for the info.

TGAT is scheduled for release in March, which means that you might be lucky
and see it next weekend, almost certainly by the end of the month unless
you're in a remote area or something like that.

The manuscript was about 1600 pages, which translates into about 1100 pages
in a hardcover relase.  Nobody knows whether the pb will be split into two
volumes or not, so don't bother asking.

Nathan Bardsley
[e-mail]

------------------------------

Date: 7 Feb 93 22:39:14 GMT
From: [e-mail] (Eric Lindsay)
Reply-to: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: Jack Wodhams? Christopher Anvil?

[e-mail] writes:
>Speaking of us elderly geezers, does anyone know if Jack Wodhams has
>written any full lenth novels since the sixties (he had one published in
>paperback

Jack Wodhams has written THE AUTHENTIC TOUCH, FUTURE WAR, LOOKING FOR
BLUCHER and RYN.  My database doesn't (yet) include dates.  I seem to
recall most of these were published by Void in Australia.  Don't know about
US or UK releases.

Eric Lindsay
Sch of Maths
Uni of Tech
[e-mail]

------------------------------

Date: 1 Feb 93 04:18:52 GMT
From: [e-mail] (Michael I. Lichter)
Reply-to: [e-mail]
Subject: Elvissey is out!

This may already have been mentioned, but Jack Womack's long-awaited novel
_Elvissey_ (subtitled "A Novel of Elvis Past and Elvis Future") has hit the
shelves.  I picked up my trade paperback copy (the last one!) at "Dangerous
Visions" this weekend.

_Elvissey_ is the fifth book in what I guess you would call the "Dryco
Saga", which is centered in an ultra-violent near-future New York.  It's a
noir-ish cyberpunk-ish universe whic his more interesting than the average
(my opinion) because its bizarreness goes in different directions than
Gibson and Sterling and Co.  Womack is more involved with his characters
than with technology, much more with religion than with street style.

Womack makes Elvis into the new Christ in a way that is satirical and not
silly.  This is not a book (or series) aimed for (or against) Elvis fans,
but rather who take Elvis seriously as an American cultural icon.

Womack also invents a new English for this world.  Actually, not one but
two.  There's the normal clipped argot of the day, and the poetic and
hyperbolic "Ambient" speak.  I'm not convinced that his language is totally
consistent, but it is mostly parseable and generally agreeable.  Sample:

      "Sight betroubles those who viz too clear," he said.
   "Pluck loose lying eyes, and cast skull's dry sockets over
   green, pleasant land"  [said Mister O'Malley.]  "Lookabout.
   This wicked world befuddles master and servant likeminded.
   Chaos fences tempers round.  Millions cling to dead past
   longbegone, sucking dead hosts, spending like moths in unseen
   flame."
      "Old hinders new, flying in fact's face," Judy
   translated.  "Time to move on."

and

      "John," I said, shifting him with no greater ease than if
   I'd tried pusing a mountain.  "The room's wildlifed.  Heard and
   seen, present and accounted."
      "Wildlifed," he replayed.  "Two feet or four?"
      "We're verminized," I said.  "A mouse, undertabled.  Go,
   do, please--"
      "Untouchable, Iz," he said.  "It's life."
      "It'll breed and bedcrawl," I said.  "Cruise and bruise it,
   John.  I beg... Ex it, John," I said.  "It'll warm itself with us."
      He stared bedways, considering my question even as I asked
   it.  "Impossibled, Iz.  Even with peewees.  Can't think--"

The four books are _Ambient_ (1987), _Terraplane_ (1988), _Heathern_
(1990), and now _Elvissey_ (1993).  All are narrated first-person by
different people: a white man, a black man, a white woman, a black woman.
I don't know if the variety and progression means anything in particular,
except that in extra-brutal future NY, everyone's in equally deep shit.

Anyway, I'll try to post of _Elvissey_ after I finish it.  For those of you
who haven't read any of the books, they're not so closely linked that you
couldn't start wherever you choose (in fact, the chronological order of
books 1, 2, 3, 4 is 3, 1, 2, 4, and I read them 2, 3, 1, 4).

Michael

------------------------------

Date: 2 Feb 93 00:18:41 GMT
From: [e-mail] (Michael Hall)
Reply-to: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: Elvissey is out!

[e-mail] (Patrick Nielsen-Hayden) writes:
>Thanks for the kind words.  As the editor on ELVISSEY I assure you that
>you absolutely do not need to have read HEATHERN in order to follow
>everything going on in the book.

   And as a satisfied reader who hasn't encountered Womack prior to this
last Christmas, I can assure you that once the dialect is penetrated (which
is easily done after a chapter or two) there is nothing more to puzzle over
that isn't adequately dealt with within the confines of the book.

   I am looking forward to more people reading it so I can have someone to
talk with about it.  A fine book, and one that left me thinking for weeks.

Michael Hall
[e-mail]

------------------------------

Date: 27 Jan 93 15:16:38 GMT
From: [e-mail]
Reply-to: [e-mail]
Subject: Review

Review of "The Forever King"
A novel by Molly Cochran and Warren Murphy
ISBN 0-312-85227-4
Published: June 1992, a TOR book

This fantasy thriller novel is well-written, has plenty of action and
unexpected turns, and is not as gory as some thriller fiction.

Plot summary:

When a boy named Arthur finds a mysterious object in the snow on a New York
City street, he has no way of knowing its powers and its past. But when he
brings it home to his Aunt Emily (a distracted spinster and successful
physicist), he draws the attention of some very nasty Arab fellows, who
follow him there and shoot Emily.  Quite by accident, Arthur drops the
strange object and it touches Emily, who revives and is healed without a
scar.  Clearly, this object is unique and valuable; Emily's examination of
it shows that it has properties unlike any earthly metal. "It cleaves in a
curve," she says.  Old Mr. Goldberg, Arthur's neighbor and friend, however,
says it looks like an ashtray.

Arthur has just recently learned that some property in England has come to
him by inheritance. Emily and Arthur, sure that the Arab guys are after the
mysterious object, decide to go to England to see the property rather than
wait around for the next attack on their lives.

In the meantime, a burnt-out boozing ex-FBI agent named Hal is chosen to
participate in a TV game show. Coincidences pile up when he wins the prize,
a two-week vacation in England, by answer five "random" trivia questions.
To the consternation and disappointment of the game show audience and its
host, all five randomly-chosen questions pertain to the land and history of
King Arthur of England: questions that Hal answers easily because of his
childhood fascination with the legends of King Arthur and his knights.

On a bus tour in England, the baddies attack Arthur and Emily again, but
Hal is on the same bus tour and helps them escape. Hal, Arthur, and Emily
meet an old man who reminds Arthur of Mr. Goldberg in a non-specific way,
at the site of an old castle on the property willed to Arthur.

The mysterious object is, of course, the fabulous Holy Grail, which Jesus
is supposed to have used at His last supper with his apostles. The baddies
are working for Saladin, a former owner of the Grail, who is most anxious
to regain possession of it. The Grail, which grants eternal life as well as
healing powers, has become Saladin's sole reason for existence; without it,
he will age and die like any normal man.

"The Forever King" tells how Hal discovers the meaning of his life when
Arthur is captured (without the Grail) and ransomed for the return of the
Grail.  Hal must rescue Arthur from the evil stranger despite lack of
support from local authorities. The fast-paced plot develops to an exciting
climax.  Despite the fantastic events that befall our protagonists, the
ultimate resolution of the story depends on the strength of will and spirit
of the boy Arthur and his protector, Hal.

Critique:

Readers who love the stories of King Arthur, his knights, Merlin, and the
Holy Grail, will find much to amuse them in this novel. While the
historical and geographical references are contemporary, the sites and
characterization have the ambiance of an Arthurian legend. This novel does
not attempt to proselytize, but assumes that the reader is familiar with
the motivations and goals of the characters in the legend.

I particularly enjoyed the interactions among Emily, Hal, and Arthur. I
immediately felt trust and security with Hal even though he did not feel
trustworthy.  Similarly, Emily is not all ice and science as she would have
others believe. Her basic kindness and her need to protect Arthur are
apparent from the beginning.

The boy, Arthur, is intelligent and demonstrative; by no means a precocious
or willful child, but reasonable and thoughtful. When he is captured by the
evil Arab, Saladin, I was afraid that this was one of those horror tales
where kids get cut, and worse.  It is no spoiler to tell you that the
authors of this novel control the violence. Indeed, the danger is quite
real, and some nasty things do happen in the story, but the authors wisely
chose not to rub the reader's face in it.

I recommend this novel to anyone who likes contemporary settings with
fantasy, a little magic, and a lot of realistic characters and places.  It
is a good action tale, with some mystery and some humor, with a great
ending that is neither too neat nor incomplete.

------------------------------

End of SF-LOVERS Digest
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