ecl@mtgzz.UUCP (e.c.leeper) (06/20/85)
COUNTDOWN TO MIDNIGHT edited by H. Bruce Franklin
DAW, 1985, $2.95.
A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper
You can tell this is edited by an academic--many of the stories are
interesting from an academic viewpoint, but boring to the average reader.
How can stories about nuclear warfare be boring? Well, here's how...
"To Still the Drums" by Chandler Davis is acceptable, but the war he
talks about could be any war; it doesn't have to be atomic. "Thunder and
Roses" by Theodore Sturgeon is probably the best of the bunch (well, after
all, it is STURGEON). "Lot" by Ward Moore is of interest only as the basis
of PANIC IN THE YEAR ZERO; the ideas in it have become trite from overuse
since its writing. It may very well have been then--how many times have you
read the "survivalist" story in which there is one character (always female)
who is busy packing her make-up and nylons in her survival kit? "That Only
a Mother" by Judith Merril has nothing to do with nuclear war (though one
supposedly forms the background of the story). "I Kill Myself" by Julian
Kawalec is "literate" but not very engrossing. "The Neutrino Bomb" by Ralph
S. Cooper is cute, but trivial. "Akua Nuten (The South Wind)" by Yves
Theriault is told from an interesting perspective, but too shallow. "I Have
No Mouth and I Must Scream" by Harlan Ellison didn't appeal to me when I
read it fourteen years ago, and I didn't bother to re-read it here.
"Countdown" by Kate Wilhelm attempts to touch an emotional chord, but
doesn't quite succeed. "The Big Flash" by Norman Spinrad is too punkish for
my tastes. "Everything But Love" by Mikhail Yemstev and Eremei Parnov was
unreadable; I tried, but couldn't force my way through it. "To Howard
Hughes: A Modest Proposal" by Joe Haldeman showed the most imagination, but
was ultimately unconvincing.
Perhaps the problem is that the scope of nuclear war does not lend
itself to being reduced to a short story. Certainly many of these stories,
written before nuclear winter was discovered, no longer ring true as
depictions of a nuclear war. They are interesting from an historical
perspective, perhaps, but do not expect engrossing, convincing portrayals of
a modern nuclear war.
Evelyn C. Leeper
...ihnp4!mtgzz!ecl