Asimov's SF, February 2007
Page 22
While Tiptree's ultimate monument is her published work, Julie Phillips's biography stands as a significant door to understanding the person who created that work. If for some reason you haven't yet read Tiptree, here's a good excuse to catch up. While she wrote two novels, she made her real impact with short fiction. Her Smoke Rose Up Forever (Tachyon Books) is one good collection, including such classics as “Houston, Houston, Do You Read?” and “The Women Men Don't See.” Read Tiptree's stories; then read this wonderful biography—one of the very best on any figure in the field.
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THE PRIVILEGE OF THE SWORD
by Ellen Kushner
Bantam, $14.00 (tp)
ISBN: 0-553-38268-6
Ellen Kushner has mapped out a distinctive personal territory that isn't quite fantasy—at least, if you believe that genre has to have some element of the magical or supernatural in it. The world of Swordspoint, in which this new novel is based, is one in which decayed noble houses, ancient buildings, and a very active class structure are at work—very much like the settings of many swashbuckling adventure stories. The book has all the feel of fantasy, even without magic. A reader can easily believe that magic is lurking somewhere around the next corner of the nameless city in which the stories are set.
The social life of the city is divided between a marriage market, in which respectable young ladies are introduced to the eligible young men of an appropriate class, and a brawling demimonde that flouts all the pretensions of upper-class society. Naturally, many powerful men spend time in both halves of this Jekyll-and-Hyde world. A class of professional swordfighters has arisen to deal with the contradictions that sometimes arise from the coexistence of these two worlds within one city.
Kushner's twist in this new novel is an inversion of a traditional Regency romance plot: A young country girl of good family, Katherine Talbert, is introduced to the social whirl of the city—not in the expected role as a debutante, but as a swordsman in training. This social aberration is engineered by her uncle, the Mad Duke Tremontaine, whose wealth and position allow him to flout all rules. As the story progresses, we watch Katherine at first rebel against her odd fate, then find satisfaction in her training, and finally take on the cause of a wronged young woman—one from the set that her own social status would have made her a member of—and right it by her swordplay.
But the city is a dangerous place, and the Mad Duke has enemies. Despite Katherine's growing skill, the Duke himself must cut through the complications before everything is sorted out. As with Kushner's earlier books, the story refuses to stick to any one genre: the reader who pays attention will find herself reading at one point a swashbuckler, at another a romance, and at almost every point, a comedy of manners.
Kushner's long-awaited return to the world of Swordspoint will please the many fans of that novel, especially since it involves the return of several of the characters of that book. (Her novel The Fall of the Kings, in collaboration with Delia Sherman, also took place in the city. But Privilege of the Sword definitely stands on its own feet, and there's no need to hunt down the earlier books other than to enjoy them for their own sake.
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THE DEMON AND THE CITY
by Liz Williams
Night Shade Books, $24.95 (hc)
ISBN: 1-56780-045-7
Another writer working to expand fantasy beyond the elves-and-dragons model is Liz Williams. This book, the second in a series, is a deliciously humorous detective story set in a universe ruled by the gods of Chinese mythology. As with all good fantasy, the mythology is basic to the story; in fact, one of the major characters is Zhu Irzh, a demon from the Chinese hell, on loan as a vice detective to the police force of Singapore 3.
As this book begins, Zhu Irzh investigates the murder of a young woman in a bad section of town. As it turns out, the victim was a valued employee of one of Singapore's wealthiest businesses, Paugeng Enterprises, owned by the rich (and very beautiful) Jah Tersai. At the same time, the book picks up the story of another Paugeng employee: Robin Yuan, who turns out to have been the victim's lover.
Zhu Irzh is, predictably, a bit of a rough customer, unfettered by conventional morality. And with his human partner, Detective Inspector Chen, on vacation, Irzh has fewer constraints on him than usual. So it isn't particularly surprising when he finds himself sexually entangled with one of the chief suspects in the case. This in spite of the fact that he is not normally attracted to human women....
Meanwhile, Robin, the murder victim's former lover, has become involved in a different way, with an experimental subject to whom she has been assigned. The subject appears to be a humanoid male, but his exact nature is at first uncertain; possibly he is a demon, and may have information concerning a significant threat to the humans of Singapore by the denizens of whatever Hell he has come from. After all, that is the normal business of demons—given occasional exceptions such as Irzh. So when the subject escapes, both Robin's job and the safety of the entire city are apparently at risk.
In the course of the plot, Williams uses the framework of Chinese mythology—mixed in with several other Asian mythological flavors, all highly exotic to most westerners—as a springboard for elaborate games of allusion and culture clash. For example, the demon detective Irzh comes across as a slightly skewed version of a stock hardboiled character—jaded, cynical, corrupt in small ways. But every now and then, his demonic nature flashes through—usually with comic effect.
Dark, irreverent, edgy, and unpredictable—if you like fiction that refuses to be tucked into neat pigeonholes, you should run out and find this one.
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EARTH ABIDES
by George R. Stewart
Del Rey, $13.95 (tp)
ISBN: 0-345-48713-3
Here's the latest in Del Rey's strong program of reissued classics. Like Edgar Pangborn's Davy, Earth Abides falls in the broad subgenre of post-catastrophe SF—books in which the human race has suffered near-extinction, with the survivors trying to rebuild civilization from scratch.
First published in 1948, Earth Abides postulates a flu-like plague that kills off the human race. The protagonist Ish, a geology student out on a field trip, apparently gains some immunity from the disease by being bitten by a rattlesnake. When he recovers from the immediate reaction, he travels home to San Francisco. But long before he arrives, he has learned that all but a handful of his fellow humans are dead.
He finds his parents’ home—deserted—and moves in. The electricity and plumbing still work, and he scavenges canned food from grocery stores. After a while, he finds a working car and takes off cross-country. He touches base with isolated groups of survivors, and recognizes that many don't have the will to face their new reality. Others are starting to cope, but don't need another mouth to feed; so Ish moves on. Already he sees signs of nature taking back its own.
He returns to San Francisco, where he eventually begins to connect up with other survivors—in particular Emma, a woman who becomes his life partner and bears his children. (We find out later that she is Black—a fact neither Ish nor Stewart makes any great issue of.) Stewart follows them over the years, as they begin to build a community, still scavenging from the built-up stores of the now-dead civilization. Finally, when the power and water supply begin to fail, the survivors have to switch to a new mode of existence.
Stewart's characters have no special powers, none of the Robinson Crusoe survival skills or technical expertise we have seen in so many other stories. That, in a sense, is part of the charm of the book. Ish survives not because he is special, but because he is lucky, and because the structure of his civilization—that of the late 1940s, remember—is robust enough to keep him and his friends supplied with the basics of life. One wonders how well the more sophisticated infrastructure of today would last if its handlers and mechanics were no longer on hand to tend it.
The author shares more of the social assumptions of his time than he probably realized, especially concernin
g gender roles. (On the other hand, the interracial union of Ish and Emma, far ahead of its time for popular fiction, is presented matter-of-factly, as are other questions of race and nationality.) He doesn't explore the consequences of his ideas as rigorously as some later writers in the same subgenre. But Stewart certainly deserves credit for helping to establish one of the most fruitful lines of science fiction. Even more to the point, he wrote a powerful and moving novel that stands up very well over fifty years later. If you first read it years ago, you'll find it well worth rereading. And if the book is new to you—you're in for a treat.
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THE SURVIVAL IMPERATIVE
by William E. Burrows
Forge, $24.95 (hc)
ISBN: 0-765-31114-3
This non-fiction book begins with a fictional meteor cluster striking Earth. Widespread destruction is topped off by a nuclear war between Asian powers that mistake the impacts for an enemy attack. Combined with the atmospheric detritus of the meteor strikes, the fallout reduces human population to a pitiful band of survivors, faced with an uphill battle to rebuild civilization—with the alternative being outright extinction. Sound familiar? It ought to—except, this time, it's the lead-in not to another post-catastrophe novel, but to a fervent non-fiction plea for a revival and repurposing of the space program.
If you look at things on a geological time scale, large meteor and comet collisions with our planet occur regularly. Most of us know the theory—now widely accepted—that an impact near present-day Yucatan caused the extinction of the dinosaurs sixty-five million years ago. Even so, the impact scenario that Burrows sketches isn't necessarily inevitable. A SpaceWatch program is already looking for Near Earth Objects (NEOs) whose orbits make them candidates to strike our planet, and whose size would cause major damage.
Unfortunately, if SpaceWatch does discover a threat, there is no current plan to deal with it. Nuking the pro-spective impactor as it approaches —a scenario popular in the movies—would only break the object into smaller pieces, spreading the destruction over a far wider area. Even if that weren't a problem, NEOs often are discovered far too late for any effective action, if they did turn out to be on a collision course. Burrows argues that establishing significant human colonies off-planet—whether in orbit or on the Moon—is the only strategy with a long-term chance of preventing the extinction of our species.
Space flight advocates were looking at this idea as long ago as Tsiliovsky, the late nineteenth century Russian rocket pioneer. In the 1960s, Gerard O'Neill, who founded the Space Studies Institute at Princeton, did extensive research on building large space stations as human habitats. Burrows thinks a simpler answer would be to build permanent bases on the moon, where at least some raw materials are already available. Here again, a fair amount of the preliminary planning has been done; what's lacking is a real committment to the project.
Burrows has no illusions that today's NASA is up to the job. His summary of how political expediency sapped NASA's momentum after Apollo is sobering. NASA's current program, based on the lame-duck space shuttle, primarily benefits the aerospace industry that maintains and supplies the aging vehicles. And while the Bush administration has announced plans for a return to the moon and a voyage to Mars, there has been no money put into those projects. The funding has been left for future administrations to carry out, if they're interested—and have the money.
On the other hand, China has announced its own moon program—and while that nation's immediate motives may be as short-sightedly political as ours were (once we'd beaten the Russkies to the moon, Washington lost interest in space), the fact that they are making the attempt at least raises the possibility that they will follow it through. Unlike Western nations driven by the next election or quarterly business cycle, China does have a history of effective long-range planning of projects that carry successfully over generations, from the Great Wall right down to the recent Yangtze dam project.
Burrows concludes with an impassioned plea for the establishment of a permanent international moon colony, large enough to preserve a significant human population—and just as important, the records of our civilization. While it's not always as tightly focused as one might like, this book ought to be required reading for anybody who wants a rationale for the space program that might convince those not already onboard.
Copyright (c) 2006 Peter Heck
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SF CONVENTIONAL CALENDAR
With the holidays behind us, it's time to think about getting out and about. Plan now for social weekends with your favorite SF authors, editors, artists, and fellow fans. For an explanation of con(vention)s, a sample of SF folksongs, info on fanzines and clubs, and how to get a later, longer list of cons, send me an SASE (self-addressed, stamped #10 [business] envelope) at 10 Hill #22-L, Newark NJ 07102. The hot line is (973) 242-5999. If a machine answers (with a list of the week's cons), leave a message and I'll call back on my nickel. When writing cons, send an SASE. For free listings, tell me of your con 6 months out. Look for me at cons behind the Filthy Pierre badge, playing a musical keyboard.—Erwin S. Strauss
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JANUARY 2007
5-7—GAFilk. For info, write: 890-F Atlanta #150, Roswell GA 30075. Or phone: (973) 242-5999 (10 AM to 10 PM, not collect). (Web) gafilk.org.(E-mail) info@gafilk.org. Con will be held in: Atlanta GA (if city omitted, same as in address) at the Airport Ramada. Guests will include: musicians Urban Tapestry. Science fiction and fantasy folksinging.
12-14—Arisia, Bldg. 600, #322, 1 Kendall Sq., Cambridge MA 02139. arisia.org. Hyatt, Cambridge MA. Big SF/fantasy con.
12-14—RustyCon, Box 27075, Seattle WA 98188. rustycon.com. Airport Radisson. T. Bisson, R. Alexander
19-21—ConFusion, Box 8284, Ann Arbor MI 48107. stilyagi.org. Marriott, Troy MI. General SF/fantasy convention.
19-21—ChattaCon, Box 23908, Chattanooga TN 37422. chattacon.org. Chattanooga TN. E. Moon, H. Waldrop, B. Higgins.
26-28—VeriCon, Harvard/Radcliffe SF Assn., 4 Univ. Hall, Cambridge MA 02138. vericon.org. Harvard Univ. G.G. Kay
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FEBRUARY 2007
8-11—CapriCon, Box 2862, Chicago IL 60690. capricon.org. Sheraton, Arlington Heights (Chicago) IL. SF/fantasy.
9-11—Nullus Anxietas. ausdwcon.org. Carlton Crest Hotel & Conf. Centre, Melbourne. Australian nat'l. Discworld con.
16-18—Farpoint, 11708 Troy Ct., Waldorf MD 20601. farpoint.com. Marriott, Hunt Valley (Baltimore) MD. Media SF.
16-18—Boskone, Box 809, Framingham MA 01701. (617) 625-2311. boskone.org. Westin Waterfront, Boston MA. SF.
16-18—Life, the Universe, & Everything, 3146 JKHB, Provo UT 84602. ltue.byu.edu. BYU campus. SF & fantasy.
16-18—RadCon, 2527 W. Kennewick Ave. #162, Kennewick WA 99336. shawn-pack@yahoo.com. Pasco WA. SF con.
16-18—VisionCon, Box 1415, Springfield MO 65801. (417) 886-7219. visioncon.net. Media, gaming, SF and fantasy.
16-18—Gallifrey, Box 3021, North Hollywood CA 91609. gallifreyone.com. LAX Airport Marriott. Big Dr. Who con.
16-18—KatsuCon, Box 7064, Silver Spring MD 20907. katsucon.org. Omni Shoreham Hotel, Washington DC. Anime.
16-18—StellarCon, c/o SF3, Box I-1, EUC, UNCG, Greensboro NC 27412. stellarcon.org. Radisson, High Point NC.
23-25—SheVaCon, Box 416, Verona VA 24482. shevacon.org. Roanoke VA. Science fiction and fantasy convention.
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MARCH 2007
2-4—CoastCon, Box 1423, Biloxi MS 39533. (228) 435-5217. A general SF and fantasy convention.
2-4—NonCon, Box 3817, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie NY 12604. noncon.net. On campus. Gaming and SF.
9-11—Potlatch, c/o Box 5464, Portland OR 97228. potlatch@gmail.com. Written science fiction and fantasy.
16-18—LunaCon, Box 432, Bronx NY 10465. lunacon.org. Hilton, Rye NY. A general SF and fantasy convention.
16-18—MillenniCon, 5818 Wilmington Pike #122, Centerville OH 45459. millennicon.org.
Dayton OH area. SF/fantasy.
23-25—ICon, Box 550, Stony Brook NY 11790. iconsf.org. State University of New York at Stony Brook. SF/fantasy.
29-Apr. 1—World Horror Con. whc2007.org. Toronto ON. Michael Marshall Smith, Nancy Kilpatrick, John Picacio.
29-Apr. 2—CostumeCon, c/o Mai, 7835 Milan, St. Louis MO 63130. cc25.net. Masqueraders’ big annual meet.
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AUGUST 2007
2-5—Archon, Box 8387, St. Louis MO 63132. archonstl.org. Collinsville IL. 2007 North American SF Convention. $90.
30-Sep. 3—Nippon 2007, Box 314, Annapolis Jct. MD 20701. nippon2007.org. Yokohama Japan. WorldCon. $220.
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AUGUST 2008
6-10—DenVention 3, 1245 Allegheny Dr., Colorado Springs, CO 80919. denver2008.com. Denver CO. WorldCon. $100
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NEXT ISSUE
MARCH ISSUE: Acclaimed British writer Brian Stableford returns with a sequel to his visionary novella “The Plurality of Worlds,” which ran in the August issue. This time, Sir Francis Drake, but lately returned from a voyage to the Moon in John Dee's ethership, sets out on a seemingly more mundane journey across earthly seas in search of the unknown islands of the South Pacific—but what he finds there, including giant spiders, talking birds, and strangely mutated people is hardly less fantastical than a journey to the Moon, and Drake soon finds himself battling a sinister alien conspiracy that could determine the fate of the human race itself. “Dr. Muffet's Island” is inventive, fanciful, and highly entertaining, so don't miss it!
ALSO IN MARCH: Mary Rosenblum, one of our most popular and prolific contributors, returns with the compelling story of a young man beginning a new life in space who faces challenges and opportunities he never even dreamed of before he turned his face to the “Breeze from the Stars"; Jim Grimsley shows us that sometimes it's better not to remember what you've forgotten, in the disquieting story of “The Sanguine"; new writer Deborah Coates shows us the price of living so that you always have a “Chainsaw on Hand"; British writer Colin P. Davies teaches us the value of words in a status-conscious future society, in “Babel 3000"; Bruce McAllister, one of the most critically acclaimed writers of the eighties, demonstrates that he hasn't lost his touch by deftly relating the tale of a man who must spend his life wrestling with “The Lion"; and new writer Matthew Johnson takes us sideways in time to an evocative alternate world where Unreason wrestles with Reason itself over an issue of “Public Safety."