chuqui@nsc.UUCP (Chuq Von Rospach) (09/09/85)
For some reason, I finally seem to be catching up on my backlist of things
I've bought without quite finding the time to read.
Ratings:
***** - a classic work (Shadow of the Torturer)
**** - a Must Buy (Peace War)
*** - an average work, you may or may not like it (Ringworld)
** - doesn't live up to its expectations (Trumps of Doom)
* - avoid at all costs (Bearing an Hourglass)
The Peace War by Vernor Vinge (Baen Books, $3.50). Rating: ****+
This book lost to Neuromancer for the 1985 Hugo, which means that
Neuromancer must be one heck of a book. The 'Peace Authority' has ended all
war with accidently discovered technology - the ability to surround
anything with a 'bobble,' an impervious shield. They have also succeeded in
setting up a new government that is at least as oppressive and bloodthirsty
as the old governments it replaced (isn't that always the case?) The story
is that of the fight by the Tinkers, a group of high tech types, who are
trying to get rid of the Peace Authority.
This book works well at a number of levels. It is a strong hard-SF book
with good characters, a quickly moving and interesting plot, and enough
complexity to keep you around to the end. It also works as a latter day
fairy tail, a pro-hacker fantasy where the evil king is overturned by the
altruistic knighthood of techologists (the knighthood, realistically
enough, also has its black knights, especially in the bioscience industry).
With all the anti-technology and anti-hacker stuff in the medias, I found
the Peace War to be a breath of fresh air. Vinge doesn't even attempt to
say that technology is wonderful -- the premise of the book is the
mis-application of technology -- but he does make a good case that
technology is simply as good or bad as the applications. Well worth
reading, go out and get it.
--- (spoiler warning!)
Trumps of Doom, by Roger Zelazny (SFBook Club) Rating: **
Zelazny has come out with a new Amber book, the first in a new series
revolving around Corwin's son Merlin. It opens with someone trying to kill
Merlin, and it closes with someone imprisoning Merlin so that someone can
rescue him in the next book. Corwin is either dead or crazy and hiding in
shadows, and never makes an appearance.
The book has a lot of problems. The biggest problem is that there isn't a
single character in the book that you can like. All of the Amberites are
come across as petty and small except Random, the new ruler (in a walk-on
part lasting just long enough to remind you he's there). Merlin, well, the
only word for Merlin is dense.
Take, for example, the opening sequence. Someone is trying to kill Merlin.
In fact, someone has tried to kill Merlin each April 30th for the last
seven years, and Merlin is beginning to suspect that someone doesn't like
him. He fumbles around, a close friend is killed, people pop in, ask silly
questions, take shots at him, and disappear again.
Not quick on the uptake. As a matter of fact, Zelazny tries very hard to
convince the reader that Merlin doesn't know about Amber and his history.
He can walk Shadow and has rather outrageous physical power, but for the
first half of the book he is just a normal college kid (well, mostly).
Halfway through the book, though, he goes and visits his fathers neighbor,
Bill, the family lawyer (literally -- Random has used Bill for various
pieces of legal work over the years). They sit and talk about Amber at
great length. It is almost as if Zelazny started out with Merlin not
knowing his background and finding out he couldn't get through the plot
that way. Rather than go back and rewrite, he just shifted gears, and all
of a sudden we have someone who knew all about the history of Amber, who
had had repeated attempts on his life, and didn't even wonder if they might
have something to do with each other (I mean, really. With the loving
history of the Amber family, isn't it conceivable that he might have ONCE
thought that it was an amberite after him? nahhhhhhhh). If Zelazny had even
once mentioned that Merlin knew about Amber, the entire first half of the
book becomes non-sensical. Instead, he plays with mirrors and fools the
reader, and I, for one, came out feeling ripped off.
Attached to this farce is his good college chum Luke. Amberites have much
better physical prowess than regular earthlings, yet when Merlin runs into
one person at the same college (the same place that someone is trying to
kill him, remember?) he doesn't think much about it. In fact, he once
explains it away as thinking that Luke was simply in very good shape.
Right. This works only as long as you believe that Merline doesn't know
about Amber. Once you shatter that fantasy and realize that he knew about
the physical superiority of Amberites and their bloody history, the only
reason left that keeps Merlin from putting 1+1+1 (Amber history + Luke's
physical strength + someone trying to kill him) and realizing that (1) Luke
is from amber and (2) Luke is either trying to kill him or watching him for
the person who is (who is, of course, from Amber). All of which turns out
to be true. Merlin is either too stupid to care about, or Zelazny is
severely underestimating (and insulting) the intelligence of the readers.
The book ends, of course, in a cliffhanger. As poorly written and plotted
as this book is, it isn't even a good cliffhanger. There is no climax, it
is as though Zelazny came to the end of chapter, realized that he had hit
is word count, and turned it in. "Stay tuned for part TWO of this
continuing saga...." and all that.
Merlin is a very uninteresting failure of a character, and this book is a
much worse book than Zelazny is capable of. The only reason to recommend it
at all is that it is an Amber book, and you'll have to read it someday to
continue the series. I hope Zelazny is smart enough to can Merlin and bring
back Corwin, or at least add some common sense next time. Until then, try
to wait until the paperback comes out. Better yet, borrow it from a friend.
Three or four people on a single book would probably break out just about
even -- we cheat Zelazny of some royalties, just like he cheated us with
his sloppy writing.
--
Chuq Von Rospach nsc!chuqui@decwrl.ARPA {decwrl,hplabs,ihnp4}!nsc!chuqui
An uninformed opinion is no opinion at all. If you dont know what you're
talking about, please try to do it quietly.chris@ICO.UUCP (09/11/85)
Slight Spoiler Warning I give TOD a higher rating for one reason. I think Zelazny is trying to learn how to write about more normal people. A good chunk of his protagonists are superhuman if mortal. They also talk alike. (read the Avalon section of amber,The Last Defender of Camelot, This Immortal (the duel with slings) and any of the world sculptor stories close together) This has bothered me somewhat over the years. I think TOD comes in as a partially failed attempt to write about someone who isn't hypercompetent. The problem is he picked a member of the Courts of Chaos to do it. Having someone who grew up there be naive is hard to credit. I think it would have worked better if Merl had grown up on shadow Earth and was largely ignorant of his powers over shadow. What i would really like to know is what home life at the Courts was like. Calling Dara (in her normal form) "Mother" must have had it's moments. chris Chris Kostanick decvax!vortex!ism780!ico!chris ucbvax!ucla-cs!ism780!ico!chris "At the Amber Relays could you run the 100 meter shadow high hurdles?"
hutch@shark.UUCP (Stephen Hutchison) (09/19/85)
*** SPOILER WARNING *** I disagree somewhat with the notion that Merlin "had" to be paranoid because he "was an Amberite". This is patently false. Merlin was raised in the Courts of Chaos. If one looks back at "The Courts of Chaos" one discovers that the Princes of Amber are all extremely chaotic in their personal behaviour, almost classically so. They manoeuver for power, they kill one another, they manipulate, connive, and most things are at the whim of the moment. The society in the Courts, on the other hand, is the core of Law at the heart of Chaos. They are extremely honorable, chivalric, having invented and holding to incredibly complex codes of honor. Merlin was raised in the midst of this. OF COURSE he is naive. Even his exposure to Amber was only enough to make him realize that he might have to worry about his assailant being one of the family. It took the Princes of Amber years to learn the paranoia they needed to recognise plots under every bushel. Merlin is just a child yet, by comparison. Also, Merlin is a Nerd. He focusses so intensely on the accomplishment of his interests that he completely fails to consider their consequences. This is possibly a family trait. It isn't completely believable that he is a nerd, but he DOES fit the profile. I WAS rather bothered by the "cute" way that it took so long to make it clear that Frakir is a strangling-cord. That was annoying, and clumsily handled. One other thing bothering me. If Amberite physiology makes one strong enough to heft and throw around casually, items weighing ~150 lbs, then it would make one MUCH faster than the "olympic class" athletics which Merlin and Luke engaged in through school. Otherwise, not a bad book, but I want to know where the "green crystal cave" came from. If it was one of those islands of reality which was swept up by the Pattern, then I can sort of see it. If it is in Primal Amber or in Chaos, then why cannot standard magic work there? And if it is in Shadow, then the Logres ought to be able to get around it. Hutch