Xmas Best
01/12/2000 . Source: Geoff Willmetts 

Six SFF book reviews for Christmas a-leaping!

1.) The Telling by Ursula K. Le Guin

Pub: Harcourt, Brace and Company, NY. 264 pages. Price: $24 - USA hardback release. ISBN: 0-15-100567-2

A Le Guin story described in the preface as part of her Hainish cycle. I ended up checking her biography to see which books of hers that I’ve read dealing with this reality. Only a couple of them and I wasn’t really aware they were part of an on-going reality. This never bides well with me when it comes to having a cohesive feel for a reality when the characters and settings change from book to book.

The only common thread is the background hint of an alien government bureaucracy and technology like the Ansible communication device. All this is put firmly out of the way as Le Guin takes us on a tour of a planet who is hiding from its own religious background with the belief that this is the best way to appease the aliens.

As there is no difference between the inhabitants and the aliens, all being baseline humans, one can only assume this is yet another lost colony. The title itself refers to the passing of parables from generation to generation with the observer Sutty out to discover how this knowledge was kept.

Sutty herself seems almost to be a contemporary human judging by the depiction of her history. Observers no doubt aren’t supposed to have dominant personalities but have to be chameleon enough to get the trust of the natives so they see things that would otherwise be hidden. The problem is that Sutty invariably becomes a cipher herself and it isn’t until much later we learn of her Indian upbringing.

In many respects, I found this book superficial in places because large chunks of the book dwell in reporting events than really getting a strong feel for the situation. Considering the intensity felt from ‘The Left Hand Of Darkness’ and ‘The Lathe Of Heaven’, this is a strongly marked contrast from what I expect from a Le Guin novel.

The one thing in its favour is the small page size. It is nice to see that novels don’t have to be a massive size and hope other publishers take note.

The last chapters of the novel are the real meat of the story and the real Le Guin fan won’t be that disappointed with the treatment given here.

Being critical - it comes with my job title - I think Le Guin is probably centring on areas of interest away from where the decisions are being made. I’d love to see a story focused on the problems of the Ekumen themselves who appear to be a little too perfect in the background. No doubt someone will tell me she’s done one that I’ve missed along the way. Having a reality for a foundation for the stories Le Guin really wants to write is one thing but it would be nice to see something more relating to their policies and sending humans in to sort out problems.

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2.) Greetings From Earth: The Art Of Bob Eggleton. (Text by Nigel Suckling)

Pub: Paper Tiger, UK. 112 pages. Price: £14.99 (UK)/$21.95 (USA). ISBN: 1-85585-662-X

Another fantasy art book from Paper Tiger and the second to really show Bob Eggleton’s range of subjects. Perhaps he’s not as popularly recognised as the Jim Burns and Michael Whelans of this world, but he’s got five Hugo Awards to his name.

He’s also an artist who prefers to rely on the brush than the air-brush and this technique gives a raw effect to his work. There is a developing preference for landscape amongst these pieces of work and if you’re really into the elements, you’re going to love them.

As for the rest of you, there is also a selection of spaceships, dragons, dinosaurs and exotic aliens. If anything, it is Eggleton’s diversity of subject matter that probably stretches him away from just being an SF artist into horror and fantasy. Something for everyone.

Presentation wise, most of the pictures are set to a single page. Those that stretch across two pages aren’t that badly distorted. Reproduction is on par with all of Paper Tiger’s presentations. If you’re into fantastic paintings, then you’ll already have this book in your collection.

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3.) Soulsaver by James Stevens-Arce

Pub: Harcourt, Brace and Company, NY. 264 pages. Price: $24 - USA hardback release. ISBN: 0-15-100472-2

Now if you’re into alternative realities, this book is really for you. It’s what happened to our world if an Evangelistic Christianity religion held the reins in a few decades time. Death is outlawed and anyone committing suicide, short of destroying a large proportion of your body in the process, can be brought back at the Resurrection Centres. God saves with a little help from modern science.

It’s only when recruit Juan Bautista Lorca to the Suicide Prevention Corps of America’s soulsavers who pick up the sucides in their FreezVan begins to have doubts about their mission and being manipulated by his own people as a double-agent infiltrator of the opposition that he gets a clearer picture of just who is really pulling the strings. Things are not so Peter Perfect as he imagined.

How much can I say about this novel without giving the plot away? Not a lot. Although this novel is about religion it isn’t targeting those who love religion. The author recognises how religion is used to manipulate the masses and takes it to an extreme level.

This is what Science Fiction is capable of doing when given a free rein. It is a powerful cynical observation that will keep you spellbound to the last page. For a novelist on his first outing out, this book should firmly place James Steven-Arce firmly on the map. It deserves to be read with a wry chuckle.

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4.) Alien Horizons: The Fantastic Art Of Bob Eggleton. (Text by Nigel Suckling)

Pub: Paper Tiger, UK. 128 pages. Price: £14.99 (UK)/$21.95 (USA).

ISBN: 1-85028-336-2

Oddly enough, I ordered this book before receiving Eggleton’s second book, ‘Greetings From Earth’, but the distributors took longer to locate this one. If in doubt, always give your friendly bookshop the ISBN code as there’s a fair bet that it doesn’t match the book title at the distributors.

It’s hard to say where the distributors are going wrong, cos this has happened with several books I’ve been trying to locate terrestrially, but it might be a fair bet that their people don’t put in a partial word search in their title column! Considering the length of this title, it’s hardly surprising it doesn’t get recognised. [Before anyone e-mails me about buying books through the Net cos it’s cheaper. I do on occasions but also believe that real-time bookshops need support as well, OK?!]

Generally, I tend to prefer to see art books in the order of publication, especially if they are released so closely together. I must have missed the 1995 release and this edition is a second 1996 reprint. Even a five year gap is often too close to accumulate sufficient material for a further book so soon.

As the first book, ‘Alien Horizons’, shows a much wider breadth of Eggleton’s earlier work ranging from spaceships and aliens in SF, to dragons in fantasy to the skulls amongst his horror covers. True, there is a similar range in the second book but this one is more likely to appear to the hardware and alienisque SF fans, especially is scenery isn’t your forte. All the pictures show an impressive display of range and versatility.

The added bonus here is we also see Eggleton’s construction illustrations with his own notes indicating the differences made between them and the final pictures which would be of use to budding artists amongst you. In such books, prose writer Nigel Suckling tend to be neglected in favour of the art. Eggleton however does give more information his technique assuming he wasn’t just being quoted and is an extremely nice touch and should be encouraged as it gives a greater insight into what and how they see their own designs.

If you had to choose between them to buy, I would probably go for this one. The main reason is that there are fewer pictures that are spread over the centrefold and with much of the detail lost in the centre crease. It’s a worthwhile edition to any SF fan’s picture art collection.

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5.) The Complete Book Of Thunderbirds by Chris Bentley.

Pub: Carlton Books, UK. 128 pages. Price: £12.99 (UK). ISBN: 1-84222-092-6.

This is one of a bunch of books released by Carlton to tie in with the re-showing of the Gerry Anderson puppet series ‘Thunderbirds’ in the UK. In this particular case, the book is aimed more for older teenager to adult market.

It’s also a lot more text heavy than the previous Boxtree edition. It’s a bit of a swings and roundabouts situation really. Fans of the series want lots of textual information which this book does carry but they’d also like to see a lot of photos too. Sadly, far too many of the photos here are the size of matchboxes.

What does make this of special interest is that we do have a selection of photos showing the faces behind the voices. Quite why the 1966 ‘Thunderbirds Are Go!’ filmbook wasn’t pilfered for some of them beats me but it’s a useful edition.

There’s the statutory real and fictional history behind the series plus a more in-depth episode guide that doesn’t neglect the endings. The in-depth look at the merchandise over the years could have been expanded upon but it did cover pertinent details of Century 21 EP records that the more ardent fan would love to own. I also discovered one that I don’t actually own! It would make an interesting book to cover all the Anderson series merchandise in one volume.

Some of the nicer touches was reminding everyone of the various efforts of the film crew. Co-producer Reg Hill’s contribution has sorely been neglected in previous books. Despite Gerry Anderson’s bad feelings about his ex-wife, Sylvia, it was also nice to see her work also acknowledged here even if there are no direct quotes.

Too often authors are prone to fall into a trap of only acknowledging the efforts of the people at the top than everyone else that ensures creativity and production runs smoothly. Although head of Fanderson - the Gerry Anderson Fan Club - Bentley has ensured that everything has been balanced out.

With books of this sort, it is obvious that it is targeted at a ready-made audience. There is a certain renal retentive property with pointing out the errors in the episodes. Back in 1966-67, I doubt if anyone thought that the series would be put under such scrutiny for errors.

Considering that there were two puppet crews and two special effects crews working on various shots and episodes, it’s amazing there weren’t more such errors. It also highlights the importance of a ‘continuity supervisor’ in today’s TV/film industry. Although the episodes were placed in showing order, the reference to odd history continuity errors clearly indicates that a listing of event order wouldn’t have been too far out of order to help viewers watch their videos in a more chronological order.

Is it complete? Well, it does raise interesting question marks as to what they can add in future volumes, so if you want a reference guide on the series to add to your book collection, then this is a worthy edition...at least until someone gets around to translating the 20-year-old Japanese ‘Thunderbirds Complete Visual Guide’ book.

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6.) The Mammoth Book Of Best New SF 13 edited by Garner Dozois.

Pub: Robinson, UK. 678 pages. Price: £ 9.99 (UK). ISBN: 1-84119-168-X

As those who’ve been through my editorial hands know, I like anthologies. All new writers tend to think that all they have to do is sit down and write a best-selling novel, forgetting that the majority if not all SF writers got their grounding in short stories and novelettes first.

As such, anthologies like this should be on your shopping list. Although I have a preference for the older anthologies, it is also important to see what was considered the best of 1999. In that respect, this book is a useful asset.

Apart from short stories, editor Dozois also provides a useful rundown of what has been going on in SF in the past year. This ranges from the publishing houses and editorial changes to the Net. As this copy was sent to me from the publishers (thanks guys. The Horror book gets read for the next Reviews update), I imagine we’ll get some recognition ourselves some day.

Information that is useful is the addresses and subscriptions for a lot of publications from around the world. There is also a listing of the Hugo and Nebula awards. If you feel you’ve missed out on anything, then this section will be like a bible for you and no doubt encourage buying each and every edition of this book as they come out.

As this is an anthology, what did I make of the stories?? The majority of the 28 stories are more novelette size than truly short stories.

The writers are a who’s who of current SF ranging from old masters like Fred Pohl, Hal Clement and Bob Silverberg (of which only one is noted on the cover) to well, anyone else significant on the shelves today. The range is sufficient for any SF fan to find more than enough stories they’re likely to enjoy. For my own part, I especially enjoyed Michael Swanwick’s ‘Scherzo With Tyrannosaur’ and Sean Williams’ ‘Evermore’. This isn’t besmirching the other stories just hitting on a couple that really struck home.

This book lives up to its title. It’s certainly a mammoth and long read. Under non-review circumstances, I wouldn’t read this book straight through. A change of reading every whip’s while would keep the head fresher. Something I intend to do with the Mammoth Book Of Best New Horror 2000. If you’re fearful that the binding will give way or keeping the pages open will mean reading into the fold of the book, don’t worry as both open out well. From my read-through, I barely creased the spine label.

From a critical POV, several of the stories fizzle out slightly towards the end. You expect some sort of revelation from the build-up and then it doesn’t give the extra lift at the end. I hope this isn’t a reflection of what the various magazine editors want these days. If it’s purely from the writer’s perspective, then the various editors need to remember what their jobs are.

Of most concern is the fact that all the authors here are established writers. OK, this has to be done to some extent to ensure sales but is less encouraging for new writers on the way up to break into such books. No doubt at some point, publishers Robinson might attempt to do a Mammoth Book Of New SF Writers but until then, this will have to do.

At the price and size, this book won’t damage your budget and should find lots here to enjoy.

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(c) copyright GF Willmetts. November 2000