The Dark Path,
Walter H. Hunt, TOR, $27.95, 413 pp. (ISBN: 0765306069).
|
In May 2002, I said of Walter Hunt’s first novel, The Dark Wing, that it was well worth attention. Humanity’s space empire had met a thoroughly antipathetic enemy in the zor, and only when Admiral Marais hied off to trounce them thoroughly–"fair play" be damned!–and thereby earn admission into the zor scheme of things was there peace. Hunt’s space navy I called a bit too Hornblowerish, but since that is almost traditional in the genre, what the hey. The novel succeeded, did well, and now proves to be the first installment in a quest that may well prove science fiction’s version of The Lord of the Rings.
Really? If you recall, Admiral Marais had a mysterious aide, Captain Stone, who proved out to make everything go wrong. Found out, he vanished without a trace, and a bit later there was a rather cryptic conversation between off-stage aliens who clearly wanted both humans and zors destroyed.
Who were those aliens? Hunt didn’t say, but the zor civilization was ruled by precognitive dreamers who saw everything in terms of a mythology phrased in terms of bright and dark, with Admiral Marais coming to personify the dark, the forces of destruction. Yet in the end Marais clearly represented only the dark side of god, esLi. The aliens must be esGa’uYal, the Destroyer.
The Dark Path opens eighty years after Wing. Sergei Torrijos, once aide to Admiral Marais, later absorbed into zor culture as the Gyaryu’har, bearer of the ancient sword of state, the gyaryu, used in the time before time to defeat esGa’uyal, has accompanied Admiral Tolliver and his squadron of six ships to Cicero to investigate the disappearance of two exploratory ships. The Cicero base is commanded by Jacqueline (Jackie) Laperriere, who with her aide, Ch’k’te, a zor Sensitive, experiences an inimical mind-touch. Torrijos adds as an omen that the zor High Lord has dreamed of threats. But Tolliver pooh-poohs all warnings and hies off to the system last visited by the missing ships.
One ship makes it home, and soon shape-shifting, mind-controlling aliens have seized control of Cicero. Jackie Laperriere manages to regain control long enough to evacuate the base, but the gyaryu is lost. So, it seems, is Jackie’s career, for she soon faces an investigation into her failure of duty–a naval officer is not supposed to turn tail! Fortunately, the zor demand her services: She must pursue the gyaryu across the Plain of Despite, climb the Icewall, and defeat the foe. The images are from the zor mythology and the world of the High Lord’s dreaming. All creation is threatened, and her role is that of the ancient hero Qu’u, who was long, long ago summoned by esLi to combat the esGa’uYal. She has a quest that has already begun to parallel the ancient Legend of Qu’u. She has the necessary spirit guide, Th’an’ya, ghost of her aide’s late mate, the Icewall stands before her, and the aliens even call her Qu’u.
Come on! she cries. But events are oddly persuasive, and . . .
Meanwhile, though only one of Tolliver’s ships returned, the rest were not all destroyed. Their crews were captured and enslaved. All but one, Owen Garrett, who can see through alien disguises. He is soon mounting a rebellion behind the foe’s lines and discovering that there seems to be still another player in the game.
There has to be at least one more book in the series, for the quest is nowhere near its culmination. Jackie–or Qu’u–must reach Mount Doom and defy Sauron himself. Presumably Garrett’s efforts will help, and then there is that other player . . .
If you enjoyed Wing, you’ll love Path.
Catherine Asaro’s "Saga of the Skolian Empire" began with Primary Inversion (reviewed here in July 1995). The long, long backstory began some six millennia in our past, when aliens transplanted humans to the distant world of Raylicon. In due time, the Skolian Empire arose, led by the Ruby Dynasty of Rhons, gifted "projective empaths" who are the only ones who can operate the star-spanning mental network or psiberweb that coordinates the Empire. Then they genetically engineered a variant of themselves that became the evil Traders whose empathy is twisted so that when they torture projective empaths, the empaths’ pain fills them with transcendent joy.
Asaro’s Saga began with an unlikely love affair between Sauscony (Soz) Valdoria and Jaibriol II, heir to the Trader Empire. Later volumes gave us the affairs of other members of the clan, always deeply embedded in galactic and imperial intrigues, until the Radiance War trashed the Traders, killed their emperor, all but exhausted the Skolians, and destroyed the psiberweb. The most recent installment, Spherical Harmonic (reviewed here in April 2002), saw some of the pieces beginning to come back together and posed the question of whether peace could be attained at last. After all, if Skolian and Trader could love each other . . .
Now we have The Moon's Shadow, which opens with the exchange of Eldrin, husband of Dyhianna Selei, Ruby Pharaoh and supreme leader of the Skolians, for a new Trader emperor, the seventeen-year-old Jaibriol III, late of Earth and the child of Soz and Jaibriol II. Eldrin has been tormented; it will be awhile before his mind is once more his own. Jai, thanks to his hybrid genetics, is as much a projective empath as any Skolian Rhon; surrounded by Traders, his mind is under constant threat, and he must struggle not to reveal himself as a "provider." Fortunately, a very few of the Traders have renounced their nature and made changes in their brains so that they cannot feed off others’ pain. One such is Corbal Xir, who fancies himself as a power behind the throne. Another is the Empire’s finance minister, Tarquine Iquar, who may be well over a century old but still looks good.
Jai is young, but he catches on fast to the business of being an emperor. He’s also lucky. Tarquine paid an exorbitant sum for a Skolian slave (remember Kelric of The Last Hawk, reviewed here April 1998?) who turned out to be ill and promptly escaped. The subsequent lawsuit involves her, the insurance companies that reimbursed her loss, and the man from whom she bought the slave, and Jai gets trapped into coming up with a decision that must satisfy everyone without making too many enemies. He manages it in part by saying to Tarquine: "You will be my empress."
"Teenager Marries Centenarian" may sound like a headline worthy of the Enquirer, but it works out. Tarquine has all the political savvy and ruthlessness that Jai lacks, and when he pushes hard for peace talks between Skolians and Traders, she makes them work.
Will there be peace? The first steps are taken, but the destination lies still in the distance. We can be sure that Asaro has more to say.
And is this one any good? Well, when I gave a copy to my fiancée, I lost her for the weekend.
Wondrous Beginnings,
Steven H. Silver
and
Martin H. Greenberg,
DAW, $6.99, 316 pp.
(ISBN: 0756400988).
|
Interested in what Catherine Asaro’s first published story looked like? It was "Dance in Blue," and you’ll find it in Wondrous Beginnings, an anthology of firsts for the greats, both old and new. Besides Asaro, you’ll find L. Sprague de Camp, Anne McCaffrey, Arthur C. Clarke, Hal Clement, Gene Wolfe, Barry Malzberg, George R. R. Martin, Orson Scott Card, Lois McMaster Bujold, Jack McDevitt, and half a dozen more.
Readers of this magazine may be interested in one brief statistic: Of the seventeen stories in this book, six came from Astounding/Analog. That may just be because the mag’s been around for so long (over seventy years!), but it really has introduced a lot of new writers to the readers.
Cretaceous Sea,
Will Hubbell,
Ace, $6.50, 341 pp. (ISBN: 0441009891).
.
|
Will Hubbell is a writer and illustrator whose children’s picture book, Pumpkin Jack, appeared in 2000. Now he tries his hand at SF with mixed success in Cretaceous Sea.
Begin with a poor little rich girl named Con (for Constance) whose Papa shows up one day with a mega-birthday present: She will accompany him and his fiancée Sara on an experimental jaunt into the days of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.
Wow! What fun! If only Papa weren’t such a prick, and Sara weren’t such a mindless gold-digger, and time-travel impresario Peter Smith weren’t such a slime-ball scumbag. On the other hand, there’s Rick, a paleontology grad student hired as guide and gofer for the rest of the crew, once of the late African safari scene ("late" because the African wildlife is all gone). And they’re off in a time machine that looks rather like a flying saucer with pasted-on labels all over the control board. When the destination, Montana Isle, proves to have an elaborate array of rooms carved out of the rock, the Astute Reader promptly begins to wonder where Peter Smith got his time-travel machine. Pretty soon Rick is wondering the same thing, and Con is discovering hidden tunnels and a room full of consoles.
Sixty-five million years ago? Just before the Chicxulub impact event that wiped out the dinosaurs? What’s on that screen over there? A big rock in space? And don’t those cryptic displays look suspiciously like count-down clocks? "Just before?" How "just?" Like maybe hours?
So Papa and Peter bug out, leaving the rest to fend for themselves. The rest of the novel–over half–becomes a post-catastrophe wilderness survival tale with, of course, a happy ending.
If you want an undemanding, pleasant read, this one won’t make you feel you wasted the price of a paperback. Hubbell has a talent for invention and pace, so his tale has some charms, but it is, alas, far too predictable in everything but the exact nature of that happy ending.
Dragonhenge,
Bob Eggleton
and
John Grant,
Paper Tiger (distributed by Sterling),
$29.95, 128 pp.
(ISBN: 1855859726.).
|
Dragons have a remarkable hold on the human psyche. They appear in the myths and legends of many lands, and they have become a fixture of fantasy fiction. Were the myths inspired by the discovery of great fanged skulls in the rocks of mountains, remnants of an age long, long gone? That would make sense, but to say such a thing is mere speculation.
It is not surprising that the minds of some writers should look at dragons from a somewhat different angle, as beings with a biology and history of their own. Two decades ago, we saw Paul and Karin Johnsgard’s Dragons and Unicorns: A Natural History (reviewed here in July 1993 as "a fascinating example of . . . the academic mind at play"). Now, Hugo Award and World Fantasy Award (etc.) winner John Grant has penned the creation myths of dragonkind in Dragonhenge, sumptuously illustrated by six-time Hugo (etc.) winner Bob Eggleton.
Millions of years before humans arrived on the scene, "In the beginning there was nothing in the Void except the First Dragon, who was called Qinmeartha and had no substance, but who possessed the Principles of Water, Fire, Earth and Air, and was those Principles. . . ." To fill the Void, Qinmeartha turned his essence into water, fire, earth, and air, and thus created the universe. Later Syor brought color, Joli discovered the knowledge of life, LoChi discovered song and laughter, and Angrboda found love. Then came the Ice Dragons and war and finally, in the last days, the construction of Dragonhenge, a mighty monument to all that was.
Grant successfully echoes the phrasings and rhythms of myth, while Eggleton fills the pages with awesome wings, fearsome claws, fangs, and scales, and graceful flights; with starscapes and landscapes; with vibrant color and vision. If you’re a fantasy fan, or if you just like dragons, you’ll love this one.
The Hundred- Acre Spaceship,
Ralph Roberts, Farthest Star Science Fiction (distr. by Midpoint Trade Books, 27 West 20th Street, New York, NY 10011, 212-727-0190),
$14.99, 352 pp. (ISBN: 1570901864.).
|
In his Foreword, Mike Resnick reveals that Ralph Roberts wrote The Hundred- Acre Spaceship some thirty years ago, but "the publisher went belly-up, and Ralph . . . became a publisher himself." In due time, Ralph remembered his novel and well, here it is, with Ralph as author, publisher, and even cover artist.
Just another self-published mantel ornament? Not at all. Granted the book could have used slightly more careful editing, but if you remember fondly the good old days of basement scientists and backyard spaceships, not to mention the ogling Papa Schimmelhorn and his delightful accent, you’ll love it. Uncle Nired is a rich Russian immigrant, master of an industrial empire in the old American mold. His nephew Henry is a genius who flunked out of MIT from reading too much SF. But he’s a genius, you understand, and, "Look, Uncle. This is my latest invention. It’s a disruptor beam, and look at the holes it punches in yon tree. And into the dirt, and out of the Pacific Ocean on the other side of the planet, and . . ." The Australian jet? "Sorry about that."
Pretty soon Henry has a gadget that can float Uncle Nired’s hundred-acre estate into the air (remember the spindizzy?), and that’s when the CIA and the Marines show up to take it all away–the CIA director wants to use the new tech to rule the world, and the chicken-plucker president is powerless to intervene. Fortunately, Uncle Nired has a faithful retainer in the person of 85-year-old Fergus MacTavish, veteran of the Black Watch regiment, who is perfectly willing–between sips of scotch–to show the Marines how it’s really done. And when the crunch comes . . . "‘They are in the big trouble,’ Uncle Nired said delighted, returning her hug. ‘They will haf us surrounded, the poor bastards. They will haf not any way to escape.’"
Up, up, and away! But the resurgent USSR has a squadron of Soyuzes ready to attack while on their way to seize Mars for the Hammer and Sickle, NASA has some shuttles to join the race, and so do China, Japan, Israel, and a few more. As soon as Uncle Nired fights off the barbarian hordes, they’ll join the race too.
The upshot? You know who wins, who saves the day, who gets the girl (remember Papa Schimmelhorn?). What you don’t know is that despite all the death rays and tractor beams whizzing around, no one gets hurt!
Good old-fashioned fun.
|
No Cover Available.
With a Little Help from My Friends, Mike Resnick, Farthest Star Science Fiction
(distr. by Midpoint Trade Books, 27 West 20th Street, New York, NY 10011, 212-727-0190),
$16.99, 384 pp.
(ISBN: 1570901937).
No Cover Available.
The Science Fiction Professional–Seven Years of "Ask Bwana" Columns, Mike Resnick, Farthest Star Science Fiction
(distr. by Midpoint Trade Books, 27 West 20th Street, New York, NY 10011, 212-727-0190), $16.99, 352 pp. (ISBN: 1570901996).
|
Ralph Roberts’ Farthest Star outfit has been mentioned here before for its reissues of Mike Resnick’s books (e.g., the Velvet Comet series). In the same package as Hundred-Acre Spaceship, there arrived With a Little Help from My Friends and The Science Fiction Professional–Seven Years of "Ask Bwana" Columns. The former is a collection of 25 short stories Mike has written with such collaborators as Catherine Asaro, Barry Malzberg, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Michael Burstein, and many more, with an introduction by his daughter Laura (who refuses–repeat: REFUSES–to collaborate on a story with him). The latter is drawn from his long-running Q&A column in Speculations (www.speculations.com), where as the consummate professional he offers a wealth of useful advice. People keep asking him about how he writes and where he gets his ideas, but the real meat is what he has to say on what comes after the writing–from contracts to promotion.
Was Frank Herbert’s Dune the finest SF novel of all time? Some people think so, while others might argue for something by Gene Wolfe or Neal Stephenson or Iain Banks or any of many other writers. Be that as it may, Dune came along just as ecological consciousness was reaching the general public, it struck a chord, and it and its several sequels sold zillions of copies, making Herbert a great deal of money.
Yet that success did not come easily. Herbert endured years of relative poverty in journalism and speech-writing–exacerbated by miserable money-management skills–while he struggled to find his voice. Fortunately, his wife Beverly was endlessly supportive, even giving up her own prospect of a career as a creative writer to keep food on the table. The children just endured, for Herbert was the sort of dad who would strap his kids into a lie detector.
Brian Herbert tells it all in Dreamer of Dune: The Biography of Frank Herbert. But he is not out to condemn his Dad: In time he came to understand and accept, and as adults the two had a good relationship. His brother Bruce fared less happily. His mother came into her own as Frank Herbert’s business manager, and her lung cancer and heart troubles brought out a side of Frank–loving, tender, supportive, utterly dependent–that had not earlier shown.
Brian Herbert’s approach in showing this is fairly standard–Frank’s childhood and parents, early years, first wife, second wife, struggle on struggle, eventual success, illness and loss, third wife, more illness. Yet he is not only showing his father’s life; he, as the son, is an essential part of that life, and when he turns to his own thoughts and reactions, his developing rapprochement, relationship, and eventual collaboration, he is providing his own autobiography as well. Since Brian is a writer of some renown himself, this adds interest for fans of either man. It also casts additional light on Frank.
A very nice job.
At the 2002 Arisia I shared a panel with Joe Lazzaro, director of the Adaptive Technology Program at the Massachusetts Commission for the Blind in Boston. Later he offered me a copy of his latest book, the second edition of Adaptive Technologies for Learning & Work Environments.
He himself is way ahead of his own book, for he is, he tells me, in line to receive the Dobelle Institute’s artificial vision system (http://www.artificialvision.com/vision/index.html). The book focuses on the many ways modern computer technology can help with visual, aural, speech, motor, and learning disabilities, beginning with the accessibility options available with Windows and other operating systems. (Do you know about Windows’ StickyKeys for folks who have trouble with hitting two or more keys at once? FilterKeys? MouseKeys? Look under Settings-Control Panel-Accessibility Options.) It also discusses a multitude of hardware and software products, including screen readers, screen magnifiers, Braille printers and displays, scanners, voice command and dictation systems, alternative input systems, TTYs, on-screen keyboards, alternative communication systems, word predictors, and more. Appendices list sources, helpful agencies and organizations, and funders, and summarize disability law. This book is a great resource not only for the disabled, but also for those who live with or assist the disabled, as well as for human resources departments, schools, and social service agencies.
There are even tidbits for the rest of us–shortcuts, of course, but also a brief description of Baudot coding, a five-bit binary system once used for enhancing telegraph transmission and still used as one option for text telephones. The term looked suspiciously similar to baud, so I Googled a bit and quickly discovered that the baud was named after Baudot’s creator, Emile Baudot, as a unit of transmission speed (one Morse code dot per second, originally).
Why didn’t Joe tell us that? He had a different mission in mind–Just the facts, please, with very few digressions and blessed by a lean, direct style that makes a large amount of information very accessible.
|
