In the wake of a galactic civil war, the Jedi Knights are facing multiple problems. For one, a mysterious disease is turning responsible Jedi into raving lunatics. For another, the head of the Galactic Alliance has turned against the Jedi and is trying to reduce their influence in the government. Finally, uber-Jedi Luke Skywalker is trying to find out what turned his late nephew, Jacen Solo, to the Dark Side. Meanwhile, mad Jedi threaten Jacen's parents, better known as Han Solo and Princess Leia.
As if all this isn't enough, a long-lost tribe of the evil Sith have surfaced, using their Dark Side powers in a bid to subjugate the whole galaxy.
It's all great fun. Fair warning, though: Omen is the middle book of a trilogy, so although it comes to a satisfactory ending, don't expect every loose thread to be wrapped up.
* * * *
Vixen
Bud Sparhawk
Cosmos, 304 pages, $6.99
(mass market paperback)
ISBN: 978-0-8439-5945-1
Genres: Religious/Philosophical SF
* * * *
Sometimes you're hungry for a dish that rings changes on a familiar recipe, adding a little spice or an unexpected ingredient. If you're in a mood like that, you might want to give Vixen a try.
Take one colonization mission, the good ship Covenant, two hundred years from home with its cargo of frozen colonists. Add a planetary system with a beautiful, perfectly Earthlike planet. Awaken the crew, starting with expedition leader Tam Polat, and set them to work exploring their new home.
Stir in a moon that suddenly disappears, and then an alien ship of unimaginable power, and you have the makings of a standard new-planet-settlement, first-contact sf novel.
But this book is by Bud Sparhawk, and Sparhawk does nothing standard. This is where the spice comes in.
Covenant, and Tam Polat, are on a mission from God. No, really; the society they come from is a religious one, with social roles rigidly defined. Tam and his lieutenants are Men, superior to the Halfling worker class who tend the ship and do all the manual labor. As Hadir, or leader, Tam is divinely appointed and infallible. In this world, everyone has their proper place and their appropriate work, and all work together to accomplish the will of God.
God has sent Tam and his people to settle Meridian, the system's sole habitable world, and to prepare it for the arrival of further waves of colonists. The work will be easy; Meridian is a delightful Eden.
But every Eden has its apple, and there's the matter of that missing moon and those super-advanced aliens. God, you see, never mentioned them to Tam. And according to his crew, if God didn't mention them, then they don't exist.
Vixen is about more than colonizing a new world and meeting an alien race. It's about what happens when a person—and a whole society—is brought face-to-face with a reality that contradicts their most firmly held beliefs. And that should certainly be enough to whet your appetite.
* * * *
Open Your Eyes
Paul Jessup
Apex, 144 pages, $13.95 (trade paperback)
ISBN: 978-0-9821596-0-6
Genre: SF/Horror
* * * *
What about those times when you're in the mood for something completely exotic? New taste sensations and unfamiliar cuisines? When you're ready to take a chance on a dish that's totally unfamiliar? It could be a disaster, or it could be your new favorite food.
There are certain writers who instantly transport readers into new, unfamiliar worlds that are completely different from the universe we know. After only a few bites, the reader sits back, gasping, and reaches for the water glass. Then, eyes watering, he or she dives back in, licking the plate clean and asking for seconds. Think of Samuel R. Delany or Cordwainer Smith.
Welcome Paul Jessup to the ranks.
Open Your Eyes is billed as a cross between horror and science fiction, which is a little like describing filet mignon as a cross between cows and the laws of thermodynamics. More to the point is the publisher's description of the book as “surrealist space opera.” Suspension of disbelief? It's best to nail your belief to the ceiling for the duration.
The book opens with Ekhi, a woman alone in a spaceship watching her lover die. Her lover is a star, and in going supernova he takes whole worlds with him. But he leaves Ekhi with child, a galaxy growing in her womb.
Ekhi's ship is all but destroyed, and is boarded by scavengers who take her on board their own ship ... the Good Ship Lollipop. This crew of scavengers are easily dysfunctional enough to justify the “opera” in space opera.
The captain, Itsasu, is a little girl who's lived for over 400 years, mourning her dead husband and on a quest to find a way to bring him back. She huddles in a preservation tank near the ship's heart, sending out dolls to be her eyes and nanomachines to be her hands. Itsasu guards a secret, a hidden cargo of incredible potential ... but one that makes her ship a target to anyone who learns of its existence.
Navigator Mari is half woman, half metal. Half her face is a metal cage with silver butterflies fluttering within. She befriends Ekhi, but is also a threat.
Hodei is a sex-obsessed young man who bears the memories of a pinup girl. His brother, Sugoi, is a hulking brute who is in love with Mari. Sugoi is subject to violent rages, which he takes out on poor Hodei.
Shortly after Ekhi comes aboard and is nursed back to health, another ship appears and locks onto the Good Ship Lollipop. Invaders enter, doing damage and looting. Itsasu fears that they are after her secret cargo, but it turns out that they have come for Hodei and his hidden memories.
In this world of bone-ribbed ships and animated wax dolls, death is rarely permanent. But Ekhi and the crew of the Good Ship Lollipop have come upon a frightening force that brings final and painful death: a sapient linguistic virus that forces victims to utter phrases that kill. In the end, as Ekhi's child comes to term, creation and annihilation meet in a catastrophic coda.
By now you're either intrigued, or you think someone has lost their mind. That shows the limitations inherent in trying to describe a groundbreaking book in a few paragraphs. It's like reciting a list of unlikely ingredients to a friend instead of giving them a taste of a delicious, exotic dish. Sure, the book sounds like one absurdity piled on top of another .... but the genius of Paul Jessup is that he makes the reader believe every bit of it. The language is forceful and lyrical, the characters engaging, and after only a few pages the reader falls completely under Jessup's spell. The language of the book is as infectious as any sapient linguistic virus could ever be.
Open Your Eyes is not for everyone. But if you're ready to step outside your comfort zone and try something delicious and exotic, you just might want to give it a try.
* * * *
So there you have it, a smorgasbord of books fit for a variety of tastes. Auntie Mame famously said “Life is a banquet, and most poor SOBs are starving to death.” Don't let yourself be one of them.
* * * *
Don Sakers is the author of A Rose From Old Terra and Dance for the Ivory Madonna. For more information, visit www.scatteredworlds.com.
Copyright © 2009 Don Sakers
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Reader's Department: IN TIMES TO COME
David A. Hardy's spectacular December cover illustrates a story as hard to capture in a single image as it was to imagine in the first place: “Formidable Caress,” the latest of Stephen Baxter's “Tales of Old Earth.” Old Earth, you may remember (though you don't have to) is a most peculiar place where time is layered, running at different rates at different altitudes. That's what makes it possible to experience a drama on such a colossal scale that it would at first seem intrinsically beyond the scope of individual human lives—but both author and artist succeed admirably.
We'll also have a new entry in H. G. Stratmann's “Paradise” series (about another quite peculiar place), plus stories by Carl Frederick and (in a seasonal vein) Jerry Oltion. Richard A. Lovett's fact article, “Plate Tectonics, Goldilocks, and the Late
Heavy Bombardment” sheds new light on why the Earth isn't Mars or Venus. And G. David Nordley continues the “peculiar place” theme with the mind-stretching conclusion of To Climb a Flat Mountain.
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Reader's Department: BRASS TACKS
Dear Mr. Schmidt:
Your editorial on the ease at which we contemplate the extinction of a species is right on point.
However, there is a larger point here. It is the risk-free society. If memory serves, Larry Niven wrote a short story (I think the title was “Safe at Any Speed") to end his Known Space series. We had gotten to the point that all risk had been eliminated from society. He felt there was no reason to write any more, as it would be too boring. Our technology hasn't progressed to that point, but our attitudes are there.
We used to be content with protecting children or those things that are impossible for the public to detect, such as tainted food. Now, the thought is that anytime things go wrong, someone will bail us out. Courts have made this a get-rich lottery.
No one wants unnecessary risks. But life must have some risks to offer rewards. A few years ago, my wife and I took a trip to Nepal. We stayed at Temple Tiger for a few days. They had wild tigers roaming the grounds. After dark there were no lights. We had to walk back to our cabin with only a flashlight. To be sure, there were few tigers and they tend to shy away from humans, but there was an outside possibility that we might meet one on the path. I would not have wanted the tigers to be caged. That would have made the trip a great deal duller. We need some amount of risk in our world.
Phil Trice
Oak Park, IL
* * * *
Dear Stan Schmidt:
The July/August issue arrived yesterday, with your editorial citing the reaction to birds vs. airplanes. The afternoon when the US Airways plane landed in the Hudson River, I was in the Amtrak first-class lounge waiting to board the train for Chicago when the story unfolded on television.
Our Seattle papers didn't dwell on Canada Geese as the “offending” birds. They are pests here, and I've even seen them on the Isle of Man. A pretty good way to control them has received little publicity: bring in herding dogs like Border Collies or Shetland Sheepdogs. They will round up the geese to [the geese's] great annoyance. A few days of this treatment will persuade them to move somewhere else. The downside of this treatment is that you have to repeat the process every few weeks, as otherwise the birds will return. Probably one permanent handler with a half-dozen dogs can patrol LGA Airport, eh? Cost: around 1/4 million a year.
John Aurelius
Indianola WA
* * * *
Stan,
I read your editorial in the July/August issue, and noted that you agree with the newspapers (etc.) that the pilot of the airplane damaged by geese was a “hero.” I'm somewhat surprised; I thought you would be more discriminating in the use of that term. In my opinion, the term has been so diluted in meaning by being applied to people in all sorts of relatively ordinary situations, that it has almost lost what meaning it had, and I felt I had to speak out, to try to restore some luster to the meaning of that word. While I certainly agree that Mr. Sullenberger did a superb job of piloting his damaged aircraft down to a safe landing under almost-impossible conditions, I still have to ask: does that make him a “hero"?
If we check dictionaries for the meaning of “hero” (even online dictionaries) we find meanings like these (ignoring meanings having to do with “hero sandwiches” and the like):
1. A person noted for feats of courage or nobility of purpose, especially one who has risked or sacrificed his or her life: soldiers and nurses who were heroes in an unpopular war.
2. A man of distinguished valor or enterprise in danger, or fortitude in suffering; a prominent or central personage in any remarkable action or event; hence, a great or illustrious person.
I think those go closer to the heart of what we'd really like to think makes a person a hero, especially the second definition. Even so, by these definitions, Mr. Sullenberger's heroism is marginal.
My own definition for what I consider a hero is even more restrictive. My definition is “a person who deliberately puts himself in harm's way, for the benefit of another person.” By that definition, Mr. Sullenberger is not a hero; he is someone who suddenly found himself in a dangerous situation (i.e., the situation was thrust on him, it was not due to a deliberate action on his part), and was able to successfully deal with it. He deserves accolades, but I do not consider him a hero.
Thus, not even every soldier who is sent into battle is a hero, but a soldier who leaves cover to pull a fallen comrade into a place of safety, a fireman who goes into a burning building to rescue someone, a secret serviceman who throws himself in front of the president to take an assassin's bullet—those are heroes.
Howard Mark
Suffern, NY
* * * *
Hrm. You seem to be splitting hairs somewhat: I'd say the pilot certainly seems to fit the definitions you give—"a superb job of piloting his damaged aircraft down to a safe landing under almost-impossible conditions” parallels “a man of distinguished valor or enterprise in danger” pretty closely—and I'm not one who uses “victim” and “hero” interchangeably. After all, if the pilot was just doing his job, isn't that fireman who goes into a burning building or the secret service agent who takes a bullet simply doing the same?
—Trevor Quachri
* * * *
Dear Dr. Schmidt,
"Failure to Obey” by John G. Hemry in the July/August 2009 issue is a truly excellent story. It is tightly written: there seem to be no extraneous pieces and the pieces that are there fit together very well. The subject matter is (to the best of my knowledge) accurate: the engineering seems plausible and the courts martial procedures match what I remember of my course in the subject (with parts that were not required for the story being left out—see point 1). It is a fine, gripping piece of story telling: the court sequence is just as attention holding as the action sequence. The people are well fleshed-out (for this short a piece of work). Finally, the “moral” of the story is very well justified and is not contrived.
If you could find just one story of this quality for each issue, you would improve the already high quality of Analog. (I read the Departments and science articles first, then from shortest to longest. Therefore I haven't yet read the Hatch or Longyear stories.)
Dean Hartley
Oak Ridge, TN
* * * *
Dear Dr. Schmidt;
I just finished reading “Failure to Obey” and, as a Chief in the Navy Reserve, naturally found it very interesting. Mr. Hemry apparently had some good sources for Navy rank structure and the like, but I felt the term “Chief Petty Officer” was used a bit more often than has been my experience. Now, I don't have any experience with courts-martial (knock on wood), but in most cases, Chiefs are referred to as just that, Chief (with Senior or Master prefixed as appropriate; e.g.: Chief Sharpe). Usually, when using a longer form of address, the Chief is referenced by his or her rate (e.g.: Chief Master-at-Arms Sharpe). I understand that your authors have to write for the general audience, and certain esoteric items may get missed, watered down, or altered so as to make it more palatable for that audience. Mr. Hemry is not alone. I do the same thing to TV shows that have passageways in ships a good six (rather than, at most, four) feet wide, etc. All in all, a good yarn, well told, with interesting characters. I earnestly hope never to be examined by CDR Carr; quite a force!
Don Harrington
Maple Valley, WA
* * * *
The author replies...
Chief Harrington is correct as to routine usage and as to the reasons why I didn't always use the informal “Chief” in the story. The first time a Chief was introduced as a character, I used the full title “Chief Petty Officer” so that readers without Navy backgrounds would know the full name of his rate, and understand in subsequent references to him that Chief was shortha
nd. Most of the other uses of the full title Chief Petty Officer occur within the court-martial, where the protocol and legal requirements call for the use of formal titles. For example, in the specifications to the charges, the Uniform Code of Military Justice requires rank or rate to be spelled out precisely, along with other details, and when the specifications are read, they have to be rendered exactly as written. May I add that as a retired Navy officer myself, it's always a pleasure to have a Chief tell me that I did a good job. (Though such praise from a Chief more typically takes the form of “for an officer, you didn't screw that up too badly, sir.")
John G. Hemry
* * * *
Dear Stan,
Let us have more of Hatch. He managed to weave Luxemburg theory into his story ("Seed of Revolution,” July/August 2009) without bogging down, which I think is an accomplishment.
Good story too.
Max Stalnaker
Scio, OR n
* * * *
We welcome your letters, which should be sent to Analog, 475 Park Avenue South, Floor 11, New York, NY 10016, or e-mail to [email protected]. Space and time make it impossible to print or answer all letters, but please include your mailing address even if you use e-mail. If you don't want your address printed, put it only in the heading of your letter; if you do want it printed, please put your address under your signature. We reserve the right to shorten and copy-edit letters. The email address is for editorial correspondence only—please direct all subscription inquiries to: 6 Prowitt Street, Norwalk, CT 06855.
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Reader's Department: UPCOMING EVENTS by Anthony Lewis
13-15 November 2009
TUSCON 36 (Baja Arizona SF conference) at InnSuites Hotel, Tucson, AZ. Guest of Honor: Weston Ochse; Toastmaster: Ed Bryant. Membership: $45, one day $20/$35/$15. Info: [email protected], home.earthlink.net /~basfa/, 520-571-7180 (fax); PO Box 2528, Tucson, AZ 85702-2528
Analog SFF, November 2009 Page 22
