chuq@sun.uucp (Chuq Von Rospach; Lord of the OtherRealms) (08/24/86)
OtherRealms
A Fanzine for the Non-Fan
Where FIJAGH Becomes a Way of Life
Issue #8
September, 1986
Table of Contents
Part 1
Time and Again
by Barbara Jernigan
The Riftwar Saga
by Chuq Von Rospach
Visions of Techno-Disaster
by Evelyn C. Leeper
Part 2
Pico Reviews
Readers Survey
Gateway
by Dave Taylor
David Lindsay, the Arcturan Voyager
by Gary A. Allen, Jr.
Part 3
Godbody and Radio Free Albemuth
by Chuq Von Rospach
Letters to OtherRealms
OtherRealms Notes
Chuq Von Rospach
Time and Again
An illustrated novel
Jack Finney
A Fireside Book by Simon and Schuster
$9.95US,
ISBN 0-671-24295-4, 1970
[****-]
Reviewed by
Barbara Jernigan
barb@olivej.UUCP
Copyright 1986 by Barbara Jernigan
"We think the past is gone, the future hasn't yet happened, and
that only the present exists. Because the Present is all we
can see."
Imagine, just imagine, if you only believed enough, you could will
yourself back in time. This would take preparation. All the threads
that tell you when you are would have to be unwoven, replaced by the
knowing of When you want to be. Then, when the knowing is complete,
you step out one January morning into an alien world, from New York
City 1972 to New York City 1882. Simon Morley, as part of a
ultra-secret Government project, does exactly that in Jack Finney's
TIME AND AGAIN.
TIME AND AGAIN is a fascinating read. It is engagingly written so that
it seems Si Morley is in the same room with you relating his strange story.
The book opens with a disgruntled Si doing hack work for a large
advertising agency in New York City, "on an ordinary day, a Friday,
twenty minutes until lunch, five hours till quitting time and the
weekend, ten months till vacation, 37 years till retirement. Then the
phone rang."
Si little suspected that phone call would drastically change his life.
Enter Rube Prien, an Army Major who missed his calling as a used car
salesman. He sells Siand the reader solely on his own enthusiasm. Only
after Si commits to participation are the details made plain.
The Mystery Project involves time travel -- stepping across the
intervening years like the spit of sand in Danziger's metaphor. No
flashy equipment out of H.G. Wells, the only tool is the human mind.
Si's destination is New York City, January, 1882. Within the framework
of the project it is a personal mission -- to watch a man mail a letter.
This letter would result, years later, in the suicide of Andrew
Carmody, a well-known financier and political figure of 19th century
New York, later fallen on hard times.
Little is Si to know the mystery -- and danger -- he'll stumble upon in
his quest to uncover more of the circumstances around that letter.
After two months of training he is ready to make his January attempt.
His first success is almost an accident, but, with practice, he is able
to step back at will. He describes in detail the vistas of 1880
Manhattan Island, and Finney has furthered the illusion by including
tintypes and sketches by Simon Morley, bringing the panorama into
focus. Even photographs of his new 1882 friends are included.
It is an exercise, a research project, only Si is drawn deeper and
deeper into the events until they become real. The consequences of the
1882 actions become as personally important as the events of 1972,
tempting Si to interfere. One can hardly blame him, as he falls in love.
Does Si change history? Can he? Or is he merely the tiniest of twigs
dropped in the torrential river of time? Finney answers this, in
rushing plot twists and a surprise conclusion.
Admittedly, the mystery in TIME AND AGAIN wasn't very convoluted; an
attentive reader should solve it before Morley does. This is not a mark
against the book, as the mystery merely serves as the thread the events
of the book follow. The bulk of TIME AND AGAIN is description in
exquisite detail, pointing out, through Si Morley's 20th century eyes,
how much we've changed in a scant 100 years.
The book's early pace is leisurely, like a stroll through the park; but
as Si's involvement increases, so does the converging crisis with an
answer to Andrew Carmody's cryptic suicide note. The reader is thrown
in the midst of the cataclysmic events -- given a chance to breathe,
and then.... If you like a read with characters that live and breathe,
if you like the idea of stepping out of your favorite 20th Century
reading nook into a detailed portrait of Life in 1882 New York City, if
you like a fully Human protagonist who just might make a mistake, TIME
AND AGAIN is a book well worth searching out.
The Riftwar Saga
Magician [*****]
Silverthorn [****]
A Darkness at Sethanon [***+]
Raymond E. Feist
Reviewed by
Chuq Von Rospach
Copyright 1986 by Chuq Von Rospach
The Riftwar Saga is a trilogy of Fantasy by Ray Feist. These books are
classic High Fantasy works, with many of the standard archetypes. Pug
is the Orphan Boy, apprenticed to the master Mage Kulgan. His best
friend, Tomas, is the Warrior Child. This is a world populated by
Elves, Trolls, Goblins, Dwarves and Humans.
Feist, though, has not rewritten Arthurian Fantasy or ripped off
Tolkien. Rather, he has skillfully picked and chosen from the basic
familiar elements of Fantasy to build a complex tapestry that is
familiar, but at the same time unique.
The books are set on two worlds: Midkemia and Kelewan. The first half
of MAGICIAN (MAGICIAN: APPRENTICE in paperback) is set on Midkemia.
Pug is trying, with little success, to learn the ways of magic.
Strange beings are found in the forest, and evil elements are on the
loose. Battles ensue, and it turns out that a society from another
planet has opened a rift (literally, a hole in space) from their world
to Midkemia. In one raiding party, Pug is lost and feared dead (from
the title of the second paperback, it is obvious he isn't). The
remainder of MAGICIAN: APPRENTICE follows the people of Midkemia as the
fight the invaders for their homeland.
MAGICIAN: MASTER switches back to Pug, taken prisoner and made a slave
of the Tsurani, the people of Kelewan. We follow him as he survives
and is finally discovered by the Black Robes, the magic users of the
Tsurani. His slavery rescinded, he is initiated into the powers of
Kelewan and eventually becomes one of the most powerful magicians on
the planet. Pug eventually finds he way back to Midkemia and finally
closes the rift between the worlds, saving the planet from the invaders.
SILVERTHORN is a change of pace. Evil forces on Midkemia, the Dark
Elves, Goblins and others, are massing against the Kingdom. There is a
prophecy that when the protector of the west, Prince Arutha, is slain,
the forces of darkness will rule. An assassin's bolt is deflected,
though, and Arutha's love Anita is injured. The bolt is poisoned, and
she will die unless Arutha can locate the Silverthorn plant needed for
the antidote.
SILVERTHORN is a quest novel, as Arutha rides into the very clutches of
the enemy who wishes his death for the secrets of the cure. As
MAGICIAN was written to a global scale, this is a small and personal
book, focusing on one man and his loyal followers and their search for
the answers they seek.
A DARKNESS AT SETHANON is the conclusion of the series. There are a
large number of parallel plot lines developing, and to some degree the
book suffers from trying to tie up all the loose ends before the last
page is turned. Pug and Tomas are questing for information that will
help them defeat the ultimate Enemy, attracted to Midkemia by the
Rift. Arutha, still hounded by assassin, heads off on another quest
for Murmandamus, leader of the enemy forces again massing against the
Kingdom. The book interchanges between the different quests.
Everything starts coming together at Sethanon as the forces of good and
the forces of evil prepare for the final battle. The final battle is
truly climactic, with the forces of good finally succeeding in staving
off the aggressors.
This is a gross over-simplification of the series. It is a rich
tapestry of people and places, all of them real and vibrant. The world
is richly detailed throughout, and there are a large number of subplots
to keep things hopping. The series is not really a trilogy: MAGICIAN
stands alone from the other two, sharing but a common timeline and the
characters. SILVERTHORN takes up where MAGICIAN left off but doesn't
depend upon it, while A DARKNESS AT SETHANON is the logical ending for
the storyline begun in the SILVERTHORN.
MAGICIAN is, simply put, one of the best pieces of Fantasy I've read
since I discovered Tolkien. I can't recommend it highly enough. Be
aware that the split of the paperbacks is a publishing necessity, and
the books do not stand alone. Be prepared to buy and read both.
SILVERTHORN is a good quest novel. It doesn't quite match up to the
quality of MAGICIAN but is still better than a lot of the Fantasy
I've read in the last year. A DARKNESS AT SETHANON is the only book in
the series with any serious flaws, problems brought on by the
complexity of the series and the number of items Feist had to resolve.
The biggest problem with A DARKNESS AT SETHANON is that it is really
two half novels. The first half describes a quest, the second a
battle. The transition is rather abrupt, leaving the book with a
schizophrenic feel. Feist trots out the unresolved subplots and
characters and takes care of them, sometimes making it read choppy and
hurried. The final climax sputters a bit, for all the power that is
written into it, leaving the ending somewhat weak.
Despite these problems, I recommend the entire serious without
reservation. The problems, in comparison with the scope of the
universe and the skill that Feist has in pulling it all together, are
quite minor. The first book(s) is truly a classic and should be on the
must read list of anyone. Fantasy lovers will also enjoy the second
and third books.
Magician is Feist's first novel. All three books are available in
hardcover through Doubleday and through the Science Fiction Book Club.
MAGICIAN is available in paperback through Bantam books in two
volumes: MAGICIAN: APPRENTICE and MAGICIAN: MASTER. SILVERTHORN is
due out in paperback in September.
Visions of Techno-Disaster
or The Chernobyl Syndrome
Evelyn C. Leeper
ecl@mtgzy.UUCP
Copyright 1986 by Evelyn C. Leeper
[Spoiler Warning]
This has been the year of the techno-disaster (or the "year of the
jackpot," to use Pohl's phrase). We began with the Challenger explosion
on January 28, proceeded to the Titan explosion on April 18, the
Nike-Orion misfire on April 25, the Chernobyl melt-down on April 26,
and the destruction of the Delta on May 3. Science Fiction supposedly
prepares us for "future shock" and the implications of technology. How
well has it done? And, since media now dominates literature in the
eyes of most people, how has media in particular done?
The Challenger explosion was by no means the first accident in the
space program, or even the first fatal accident: the Apollo I fire
(1/27/67) killed astronauts Chaffee, Grissom, and White; the SoyuzI
parachute failure (4/24/67) killed cosmonaut Komarov; and the SoyuzXI
explosive decompression (6/29/71) killed cosmonauts Dobrovolski,
Volkov, and Patsayev. Cosmonaut Konstantin Bondarenko also apparently
died in space on 2/2/61, in what was described by the Soviets at the
time as a Sputnik.
Perhaps because of the 15 year safety record since the last deaths this
accident was a shock to many people. Space technology isn't perfect.
Did SF in general, and the media in particular, prepare us for this?
No. SF films set in space generally assume the perfection of
technology and concentrate on the failings of human beings. Now it's
true that most of them are set far enough in the future that one may
assume the basic problems inherent in space travel have been solved.
An analogy would be that films set in the present do not concentrate on
airplane crashes, but rather use airplanes as a reliable means of
transporting the characters.
The exceptions to all this matter-of-fact acceptance are mostly older
films, made before space travel, or in the early years of space
exploration. THINGS TO COME (London Films, 1936) carries the same
message: "Although we may fail this time, we will keep on trying until
we succeed." You are led to believe that they will succeed. ROCKETSHIP
X-M has a "successful" Mars exploration (it started out for the moon and
missed!) run out of fuel on the way back and crash into the Sun. THE
QUARTERMASS XPERIMENT (a.k.a. CREEPING UNKNOWN, Hammer, 1957) also ends
with a rocket crash, but to its credit, the message is not one of
despair, but rather one of the realization that failures will occur but
that we will not give up because of it.
The mission in CONQUEST OF SPACE (Paramount, 1955) is a good example of
the attitude of films toward technological problems; though there are
some uncontrollable problems (meteors), the major difficulty
encountered is the Captain, who suddenly develops an anti-technological
religious stance and sabotages the mission, first by wasting fuel in
the landing and then by draining most of the water storage tanks before
he can be stopped. There are no mechanical failures, not even those
which could be traced to human error. Films simply did not yet
recognize that people in real life might cut corners.
MAROONED (Columbia, 1969) is perhaps the best known "techno-disaster in
space" film, since it came out right before the Apollo 13 accident
(4/13/70). Although it sugar-coated its ending to some extent (the
only death is the astronaut who sacrifices himself for his crew
members), it did have one salutatory effect -- it spurred the United
States and the Soviet Union to standardize their equipment so that the
Soviet rescue shown in the film could actually happen.
The fact that MAROONED did not have an entirely happy ending is
indication that there is at least some realization of the costs of
technology; earlier films such as DESTINATION MOON has the characters
in a position similar to that in MAROONED: one must give up his life to
save the others. But just in the nick of time, they find a way out of
the dilemma.
How does this compare with recent literary treatments? A book along
similar techno-disaster lines is Lee Correy's SHUTTLE DOWN (Del Rey,
1986), which postulates a problem at launch which necessitates the
emergency landing of a shuttle on Easter Island. There are two
interesting side-notes to this book. The book was written in 1981. In
1985, NASA announced that it was negotiating with Chile the possibility
of emergency landing support in the event that a shuttle launched from
Vandenburg was forced to make an emergency landing there. Del Rey just
happened to re-issue it a month before the Challenger disaster. The
constant references to the problems of having one-quarter of our space
fleet out of commission are downright bizarre in light of subsequent
events.
Unfortunately, as soon as the shuttle lands it becomes mostly a can we
build a launch pad on Easter Island before the Russians invade sort of
story. Lee Correy is the pseudonym for G. Harry Stine, a noted
technophile, and the book is chock full of pro-space speeches, some
even more applicable today:
It's always been worth it, something told him in the back of
his mind. Did anybody ever tell you that a frontier never
claimed any lives? Did anybody ever tell you that being a
pioneer means discovering new and more horrible ways to die?
You want to sail a new ocean? How can you if you won't risk
losing sight of the shore?
Occasionally he is off the mark; a reporter asks the shuttle pilot if
he knows what caused the accident and the pilot replies: "But it
couldn't be a major glitch, not after years of development and
operations and lots of successful Shuttle flights to date."
Another area of techno-disaster is the nuclear melt-down. Again
Columbia Pictures managed to scoop reality with THE CHINA SYNDROME,
released shortly before the Three-Mile Island incident on March 28,
1979. What made THE CHINA SYNDROME particularly close was the
description of a possible disaster area "the size of the state of
Pennsylvania." Again, tragedy is averted in the film and there is reason
to believe that the problems will all be fixed before a real disaster
can occur. At least here the filmmaker deals with the "corner-cutting"
of real life which was missing from so many of the earlier movies. But
think about it. In space films and other "hard technology" films (such
as the various AIRPORT movies) there is rarely, if ever, the suggestion
of cheating on the part of the contractors or other people involved.
The problems that will be encountered will be due to unavoidable
circumstance such as a storm springing up suddenly or human weakness
(such as the pilot having a heart attack), but not to human cupidity.
Everyone involved was too noble and patriotic for that sort of thing.
On the other hand, in nuclear and biological films (those dealing with
chemicals, biological warfare, or nuclear reactors) it is almost
accepted as a given that someone will cause problems because they are
greedy and so skimp on the materials used or the time spent to check
things. "Nuclear" films seem to go with the "soft technology" of the
biological sciences here, perhaps because the aspects dwelt upon by
these films is not an explosion, but the biological after-effects of
the radiation -- not surprising, since in the techno-disaster scenarios
there must be an emphasis on the slow-acting characteristics of
radiation or there would be no characters to show. As someone once said
of THE DAY AFTER, to show an accurate nuclear war scenario takes four
steps: Introduce the characters, drop the bomb, pan the crater, roll
the credits.
Again, we should see what literature has been doing with this theme.
Although there had been previous nuclear incidents (Windscale, England
10/7/57 and Kyshtym, USSR, winter 1957 are the two largest ones), many
authors latched onto Three-Mile-Island as the archetypal nuclear
accident. In ROBOTS AND EMPIRE (Doubleday, 1985) Asimov makes it a
place that everyone avoids as being evil, even though the reason for
this is almost lost in antiquity. Of course, now that the toll at
Chernobyl has exceeded that of Three-Mile Island it is highly probable
that future generations will remember Chernobyl more than Three-Mile
Island. Asimov was being optimistic in thinking that Three-Mile Island
would be "the big one".
Michael Swanwick raised Three-Mile Island to mythical proportions, but
he does it by supposing there was a real melt-down there. In IN THE
DRIFT (Ace, 1985), the melt-down has made a swath from Three-Mile
Island northeast into New York uninhabitable. Residual fallout caused
various strange mutations, including vampires of a sort. The United
States has fallen apart because of the incident and the Mummers now run
Philadelphia. "The Drift" serves as a sort of no-man's-land between the
two states formed from the remainder of the old United States.
I haven't discussed film treatments of chemical dumping problems (FOOD
OF THE GODS), germ warfare testing (CODE NAME TRIXIE), all-out nuclear
war (TESTAMENT), or the many other problems that flesh is heir to. As
far as literary treatment of all these, Philip Wylie's END OF THE DREAM
and John Brunner's SHEEP LOOK UP are the recent definitive works in the
first two areas and everyone seems to have written a post-nuclear-holocaust
novel.
This issue is Copyright 1986, by Chuq Von Rospach
All Rights reserved
One time rights only have been acquired from the signed or credited
contributors. All rights are hereby assigned to the contributors.
Reproduction rights: Permission is given to reproduce or duplicate
OtherRealms in its entirety for non-commercial uses. Re-use,
reproduction, reprinting or republication of an individual article in
any way or on any media, printed or electronic, is forbidden without
permission of the author.
--
Chuq Von Rospach chuq%plaid@sun.COM Delphi: CHUQ
{decwrl,hplabs,ihnp4,seismo}!sun!plaid!chuq
Do not be arrogant because of your knowledge, but confer with the ignorant
man as with the learned.... Good speech is more hidden than Malachite, yet
it is found in the possession of women slaves at the millstones.
-- Ptahhotpechuq@sun.uucp (Chuq Von Rospach; Lord of the OtherRealms) (08/24/86)
OtherRealms
A Fanzine for the Non-Fan
Where FIJAGH Becomes a Way of Life
Issue #8
September, 1986
Part 2
Pico Reviews
Ratings:
[*****] A classic, must read book
[****] Well above average, don't miss
[***] A good book, probably worth reading
[**] Book has its moments, flawed
[*] Not recommended
[] A book to avoid
COILS by Roger Zelazny [*****]
COILS is an absolutely wonderful adventure story. Its main character
is a psychic computer programmer who has to rescue his girlfriend from
the bad guys. If you like computer consciousness and telepathy and all
that nice stuff, this is one of the best. Like many other things that
Zelazny has written, COILS is completely different from anything else
he has written.
--David Muir Sharnoff
muir@ucbvax
COUNT ZERO by William Gibson [***+]
Arbor House hardback, 1986, $15.95, 278 pages
Gibson's first book, NEUROMANCER, surprised everyone by deservingly
winning the Hugo, the Nebula, that the Philip K. Dick award. He's
back, and he's got another book to be proud of. COUNT ZERO is set in
the same society as NEUROMANCER, but is not a sequel. It is another
high velocity adventure into the inner venues of computers and their
jockeys. I don't think COUNT ZERO is quite as good as NEUROMANCER, but
it is still way ahead of the pack. Gibson can do no wrong, it seems.
-- chuq von rospach
DARKOVER LANDFALL by Marion Zimmer Bradley [****]
DAW Fantasy, 1972, $2.50
The beginning of Darkover, MZB tells the story of how the planet was
colonized. Good, solid SF, and a good introduction into the world of
Darkover. It, and the entire series, are highly recommended!
-- chuq von rospach
THE GAME OF EMPIRE by Poul Anderson [*]
Baen Books, 1985. Paperback, $3.50.
Heinlein's Disease claims another big name. A Dominic Flandry book.
Not much plot. Flandry and wife walk on, but do not advance the plot
at all. Main characters: D. F., a Terran; A., a devoutly religious
Wodenite; a cat-like being from a barbarian culture. (Sickeningly
familiar from his Polesotechnic League stories.) Style: talking-head
expositions frequently halt the "plot"; most are boring to readers of
other Flandry stories. One star for the settings (that's all Anderson
has left).
-- Tim McDaniel
mcdaniel@uicsrd.CSRD.UIUC.EDU
KILLASHANDRA by Anne McCaffrey [*+]
Del Rey, 1986, SFBC
A sequel to McCaffrey's CRYSTAL SINGER, this isn't SF. It is a
Harlequin, and McCaffrey seems to have taken up writing romances.
Unlike the warm and personal NERILKA'S STORY this book is plodding and
predictable. Girl Meets Boy. Girl Lays Boy. Girl Loses Boy. Girl
Gets Boy. This book has little to do with CRYSTAL SINGER and less to
recommend it.
-- chuq von rospach
LYTHANDE by Marion Zimmer Bradley [****+]
Daw Fantasy, August 1986, $3.50, 237 pages
A collection of six stories about MZB's character Lythande, the Adept
of the Blue Star. Lythande originated in THIEVES' WORLD, but after one
volume Bradley dropped out and Lythande moved into her own world.
Since then she has appeared in a couple of anthologies and in F&SF
magazine. Lythande was my favorite character in THIEVES' WORLD and I'm
happy to see her stories continue. These are all well written and
occasionally tongue-in-cheek accounts of Lythande's adventures. My
only gripe is with the cover. Lythande's Secret, the knowledge of
which would destroy her power, is that she is a woman, travelling as a
man. MZB handles this perfectly in the stories, but the person on the
cover is obviously female -- if THAT is Lythande, she doesn't stand a
chance. Another foobar from a sloppy artist.
-- chuq von rospach
THE SECRET TRADITION IN ARTHURIAN LEGEND []
by Gareth Knight
Aquarian books (UK) #5 95
A hopeless hodgepodge of pseudo-paganism, occult, and every other
weirdity you can think of tossed in, swirled around, and proven to be
part of the mystique of Britain's Great Hero. Feh.
-- chuq von rospach
SHELTER by Marty Asher [*****]
Arbor House hardback, 1986, $12.95 136 pages (sort of)
SHELTER is a weird book. It isn't SF, and it isn't Fantasy. The only
word for it is experimental. This is probably not a book you would
normally buy. It is very short, especially considering that each page
is only about half filled. The book, however, is like an early
Vonnegut without the anger. Asher is making a point and plays with the
words to help you see it. If you like Vonnegut's work, you'll love
SHELTER. Buy it, read it, enjoy it.
-- chuq von rospach
SPECIAL DELIVERANCE by Clifford D. Simak [***+]
Balantine, 1982, $2.75, 217 Pages
Special Deliverance is a fun little adventure. It eventually loses its
zest, but it concludes fairly soon after that. F&SF role play gamers
take note: the adventure and world could be adapted into a game with
very little trouble. The book is in a sense, too logical: given the
major premise (you learn it at the end) you realize that the whole book
had to be exactly what it was to fit the author's framework.
--David Muir Sharnoff
muir@ucbvax
THE SPELL SWORD by Marion Zimmer Bradley [****]
Daw Fantasy, 1974, $2.50
I'm finally getting around to reading the Darkover series. My only
comment is "Why did I wait so long?" The people of Darkover are a lost
civilization from Earth, a society that has built itself around
paranormal abilities. THE SPELL SWORD tells of the battle between the
Darkover people and a band of intelligent natives fighting to reclaim
their planet. Strong on suspense and a solid blend of SF and Fantasy.
-- chuq von rospach
THE STARCROSSED by Ben Bova [***-]
Jove/HJB, 1975, $1.75, 223 Pages
The Starcrossed is a comedy. In fact, it is a joke. Ben Bova writes a
satire of Hollywood in the future, that holds together fairly well for
most of the book. But reading the book, one gets the feeling that he
got bored towards the end and just tried to finish it off; he succeeded
by reducing the book to a one-line cliche. The hero/heroine plot
doesn't finish and neither do many other subplots. The book had the
potential to be very good, but what can I say?
--David Muir Sharnoff
muir@ucbvax
Readers Survey
It's been a while since I've run a readers survey, and since the
readership has grown significantly over the last few months, I thought
it would be appropriate to learn a little more about you and your
interests. The latest readership statistics show the subscriber base
to be somewhere around 4000. I'm not sure whether to believe that
number, and I hope that the surey will tie it down.
Please mail this to any of the addresses in the Masthead, either E-mail
or by more traditional ways. I am very interested in hearing from the
people off the beaten path -- it is easy to get feedback from USENET,
but much more difficult from the people with less direct access to me.
The feedback I get from these surveys helps me guide the direction of
the magazine. Surveys will be accepted until October 1, 1986.
1) Sex:
2) Age:
3) Profession:
4) Where did you get this copy? (e.g. USENET, ARPA,
BITNET, BBS, Hard Copy. Please name the BBS)
5) How many people read this copy of OtherRealms?
6) How many SF books do you read per month?
7) How many Fantasy books do you read per month?
8) How many hardcover (not book club) books did you buy
in the last year?
9) How many book club books did you buy in the last year?
10) What SF and Fantasy magazines do you read?
11) What Fanzines (other than OtherRealms) do you read?
12) What SF conventions do you attend?
13) What do you think are the best and worst features of
OtherRealms? What would you like to see added?
Gateway
(part one of a trilogy)
Frederic Pohl
Del Rey books, $2.95, 313 pages
[*****]
Reviewed by
Dave Taylor
taylor@hplabs.ARPA
Copyright 1986 by Dave Taylor
For all you fans who've been following my complaints about not finding
anything worth reading: good news! I've finally found a book not only
worth reading, but worth buying to be able to read again and again!
GATEWAY is the first of three books by Frederic Pohl known as the
"Heechee Saga. " The premise of the series is that as we continue
expanding our exploration of the galaxy we encounter mysterious
artifacts from an alien race that appears to have disappeared millions
of years ago. This race, for reasons unknown, are dubbed the "Heechees"
and become a road for unimaginable riches and technologies.
The first book opens some time after the initial discovery of the
"Heechee" artifacts. A corporation has been formed by all the
superpowers to exploit the artifacts and they're based in an asteroid
orbiting our Sun on an orbit considerably skewed from the plane of the
planets. This base is called Gateway and is a sort of Grand Central
Station of Heechee ships. Unfortunately, the technology to program
courses into the ships hasn't yet been worked out, so there is a group
of people called prospectors who climb into the ships and press the
start button. Some of them come back after having been to new planets,
others go to other Heechee artifacts, and some never come back at
all.
The main protagonist of the story is Robin (for Robinette) Broadhead.
Through his eyes and emotions we learn the terror of taking an
uncontrolled flights, the alien strangeness of the Heechee and the
Gateway, and the breakdown of his rationality and slow reconstruction
with the aid of a computer program he calls "Sigfrid Von Shrink.
"
The book starts with a discussion between Robin and Sigfrid, and the
chapters alternate between their discussions centered around Robin's
anguish and frustration at his condition and the events that
transpired. I found myself wishing for the book to be told in either
vein instead of both, but really wasn't that harmful to the narrative.
For those that are impressed with awards, the book has won, quite
deservingly, the Hugo and Nebula awards. I'd give it a top rating and
recommend it for anyone who likes SF!
David Lindsay,
the Arcturan Voyager
Gary A. Allen, Jr.
ESG7@DFVLROP1.BITNET
Copyright 1986 by Gary A. Allen, Jr.
David Lindsay is a unique phenomenon in Science Fiction. He was a
contemporary of Jules Verne and H.G. Wells. However, he was so far ahead
of its time that today he is widely regarded as an author without equal.
Lindsay's history as an author is both sad and interesting. Lindsay was
born on 3 March 1878 in a London suburb. Until about 1916, he worked
as an insurance clerk for Lloyd's of London and had not written a
single book. In 1916 at age 38, he married and opted to give up his
secure job as a clerk to take up writing. His first book is in the
opinion of many his greatest achievement. This book was entitled A
VOYAGE TO ARCTURUS and was published in 1920. His second book THE
HAUNTED WOMAN was published one year later. THE HAUNTED WOMAN is regarded
by some commentators as being even better than A VOYAGE TO ARCTURUS.
Both books were commercial failures and were remaindered. A VOYAGE TO
ARCTURUS sold only 596 copies from a press run of 1430 copies. The
London Times panned the book without mercy, and it was subjected to
ridicule by contemporary literary critics. It should be emphasized that
these first two books represented the commercial high point of
Lindsay's career as an author. His later books, which even by modern
standards were inferior to the first two, fared even worse in the
commercial world. By 1939 after failing to find a publisher for his
last book THE WITCH, Lindsay gave up writing and turned to running a
boarding house for a living. On 6 June 1945, David Lindsay, a broken
and despondent man, died from a tooth infection.
The writings of David Lindsay would have died a dusty death along with
their author had not Victor Gollancz, a friend, republished A VOYAGE TO
ARCTURUS in 1946, one year after Lindsay's death. Then something truly
marvelous happened: 26 years after the book had been written, it
achieved a limited popularity. Even so, it was not popular with the
general public. Instead it was an underground success with England's
literary elite.
One of Lindsay's early fans was the Christian apologist C.S. Lewis.
Lewis wrote about Lindsay in a letter to Charles Brady:
The real father of my planet books is David Lindsay's A VOYAGE
TO ARCTURUS, which you will also revel in if you don't know
it. I had grown up on Wells' stories of that kind, but it was
Lindsay who first gave me the idea that the "scientifiction"
appeal could be combined with the "supernatural" appeal.
From that time on A VOYAGE TO ARCTURUS was considered required reading
among England's literary elite, and yet his books were once again out
of print and seemed destined for obscurity. It didn't happen, as about
every 15 years a reprint would turn up. His works have never had a
wide popularity. Nevertheless, Lind-say's books have always
maint-ained a core of devoted readers that refuses to dissipate with
time. Lindsay himself realized this would occur and once commented to
Gollancz: "Somewhere in the world, someone will be reading a book of
mine every year. " Many books and articles have been written about
Lindsay and A VOYAGE TO ARCTURUS. The following are the more important
commentaries:
The Strange Genius of David Lindsay by John Baker 1970
The Haunted Man by Colin Wilson 1979
David Lindsay by Gary K. Wolfe 1982
The story of A VOYAGE TO ARCTURUS has a rather mundane beginning. By
page 39 (page references refer to the Gregg press edition which is a
reprint of the 1920 original), one is seriously thinking of flinging
the book into the trash can. In the first 39 pages all that apparently
happens is that the 3 principle characters meet and are transported
from the Earth to an alien planet which will be the scene of action.
The reader is accosted with some rather bizarre names: The three chief
characters are Maskull, Krag, and Nightspore. The alien planet is
called Tormance. If the reader had pitched the book into the trash
before reaching Tormance he would have made a big mistake. The boredom
of the first 39 pages and the funny names are all calculated for an
effect. The transition from Earth to Tormance is absolutely
breathtaking. The closest analogy I can think of is from the movie THE
WIZARD OF OZ where Dorothy walks from her house into the land of Oz,
the film changes from black and white to color, and Dorothy announces,
"You know Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore." From that point
on the reader is kept in a perpetual state of information overflow.
I'm not talking about the overflow in a low grade Fantasy Role Playing
game where the author is pouring forth zillions of proper nouns without
definition. Rather, we're speaking about concepts, symbolism and fast
paced action. David Lindsay did something that no one else in SF
achieved in that he pushed the SF literary form to its limits and had
then gone beyond. The story of A VOYAGE TO ARCTURUS could not be
expressed in any other medium.
The chief character, Maskull has discovered himself on a world where
one grows and discards new senses and awarenesses with seeming
abandon. The premise upon which the novel is based is the concept of
God as an immoral and unethical entity. The true God of Tormance is
Surtur. Surtur is a creative deity from which all life emanates.
However an anti-God, Shaping, has overthrown Surtur and dominates
Tormance. Shaping feeds on life itself by giving the life force a
physical form. Maskull is unwittingly thrown into the middle of this
cosmic struggle between these two deities. Maskull was sent to
Tormance by the personification of Surtur, Krag. However he was
literally left naked and totally ignorant of the true state of affairs
upon his arrival on Tormance. Shaping, the god of lies, has the first
crack at Maskull. From there the story unfolds as Maskull travels
through the surrealistic landscape of Tormance to his own ultimate
destruction and resurrection.
One can read A VOYAGE TO ARCTURUS for pure entertainment. There is
lots of action and interesting characters are brought in with almost
wild abandon. Lindsay creates plot devices, SF concepts, and sensual
imagery that I've seen no where else.
The real thrill to this book, however, is in its intellectual
challenge. Everything in this book has triple nested symbolism. The
name Tormance can be broken down to romance, torment, dominance. Pain
is associated with Surtur, while pleasure is associated with Shaping.
The name Maskull leads to man and skull, which symbolizes the conflict
of the spirit and the body. Everything in the story is color coded.
There are five colors on Tormance based on two color systems, which in
turn are based on the two stars of the Arcturan system. The first
color system is from the star Branchspell and uses the colors yellow,
red, and blue. The second color system is from the star Alppain and
uses the colors jale, ulfire, and blue. Branchspell is the larger star
and has associations with Shaping. Alppain is a small blue binary
companion and is associated with Surtur. The colors red and jale are
compliments and associated with feeling. The colors yellow and blue
are also compliments and associated with relation. The colors blue and
ulfire form the last compliments and are associated with existence. If
a creature appears in the plot and it is colored red and ulfire, the
reader knows that the creature has the qualities of feeling and
existence and is affected by both stars and deities. By now it should
be clear by what I mean by information overflow.
The theme of the book is a SF presentation of the philosophies of
Nietzsche and Schopenhauer. If you are not overwhelmed by the
information or the symbolism, then the philosophy will blow you away.
His works demonstrate the power of SF as a consciousness expansion aid
and a medium for abstract thinking. I strongly recommend the works of
David Lindsay.
This issue is Copyright 1986, by Chuq Von Rospach
All Rights reserved
One time rights only have been acquired from the signed or credited
contributors. All rights are hereby assigned to the contributors.
Reproduction rights: Permission is given to reproduce or duplicate
OtherRealms in its entirety for non-commercial uses. Re-use,
reproduction, reprinting or republication of an individual article in
any way or on any media, printed or electronic, is forbidden without
permission of the author.
--
Chuq Von Rospach chuq%plaid@sun.COM Delphi: CHUQ
{decwrl,hplabs,ihnp4,seismo}!sun!plaid!chuq
Do not be arrogant because of your knowledge, but confer with the ignorant
man as with the learned.... Good speech is more hidden than Malachite, yet
it is found in the possession of women slaves at the millstones.
-- Ptahhotpechuq@sun.uucp (Chuq Von Rospach; Lord of the OtherRealms) (08/24/86)
OtherRealms
A Fanzine for the Non-Fan
Where FIJAGH Becomes a Way of Life
Issue #8
September, 1986
Part 3
Godbody
Theodore Sturgeon
Donald I. Fine Books [SFBC]
[*****]
and
Radio Free Albemuth
Philip K. Dick
Arbor House [SFBC]
[**]
Reviewed by
Chuq Von Rospach
Copyright 1986 by Chuq Von Rospach
It is unfortunate that the books I am reviewing were published
posthumously. Both authors were at the forefront of the field,
constantly searching for and expanding the horizons and testing the
limits of the genre.
It interesting that both books are echoes of past works. GODBODY is
similar in feel to Sturgeon's MORE THAN HUMAN. ALBEMUTH is a new
examination of the society Dick wrote about in MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE.
Sturgeon's work is more successful. GODBODY is probably his best work,
and it is definitely his most controversial. It is not SF or Fantasy.
It could be defined as a softcore religious novel. It involves a being
called Godbody and the effect that He has on a number of people in a
small American town. Godbody is about the return of Christ, a being
that is openly hostile to the structures and hypocrisy of the Christian
religious organizations.
Sturgeon has written some very explicit sex scenes. Readers that are
bothered by this material should avoid the book. The sexual material
is not there to titillate but to open the mind of the reader and make
them see the effects of Godbody's work.
The plot is simple. Godbody enters the town, some people accept Him
and heal, some reject Him and don't. The latter eventually kill Him,
but He rises to continue His work elsewhere.
This is an intense book, driven forward by the characterization and the
emotional response it forces from the reader. It cannot be skimmed; it
forces the reader to dig in and react. You may love this book or you
may hate it, but it will not leave you unaffected. GODBODY is an
appropriate epitaph for Sturgeon. GODBODY is about what Sturgeon was
about: that LOVE is all, and that to love is everything. This is the
book I think he would have wanted to be remembered by, it does his
memory justice.
RADIO FREE ALBEMUTH, unlike GODBODY, is an older manuscript (written
around 1976) and unpublished until after the authors death.
Undiscovered manuscripts worry me because if a work is written and not
published, there is usually a good reason. Bringing it out
posthumously rarely does an author justice. So it is in this case.
ALBEMUTH is a pale cry to Dick's best works.
The book looks at a society similar to THE MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE;
unlike that other work, it is not an alternate universe, but a near
future society in which the radical conservatives have taken over
America. This work is really the first try of the novel that was
published as VALIS.
The book opens in Berkeley, portrayed as an enclave of liberal sanity
in a world gone mad. Nicholas Brady sells records in a Berkeley
store. He also hears voices. He is given a chance to join a record
company in Los Angeles, and moves into the conservative country of
Orange County so that the voices can speak to him more clearly.
Brady, with the help of the voices, is attempting to save the country
from its oppressive self, while not giving himself (or the voices) away
to the authorities. The voices (known as Valis) are really coming from
some alien satellite in orbit around the Earth.
There are a number of problems with the work. One major one is that it
is a self-referential novel. The lead character is Phil, SF author.
He is telling about his interactions with his friend Brady. He makes
comments about the story, about other novels he has written, and
generally gets in the way and confuses things. The book would have
been better off switching the point of view to Brady and tossing Phil
out.
More importantly, though, is that this work is little more than an
anti-conservative rhetoric. It doesn't explore the issues, it
postures. Unlike MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE, which looked at the
ramifications of repression, this book is so dogmatic in its views that
nothing else is given a chance to come through. It is shallow,
one-sided and not very well thought out. The book is flawed, and there
is good reason why it wasn't published before now. It can be of
interest only to Dick completists.
Letters
to
OtherRealms
--------------------------
On
Women in Fantastic
Armies
--------------------------
Courtenay notices the prevalence, in recent Fantasy literature, of
women in low-technology armies on equal footing with men. Courtenay
finds this unrealistic. I will not address all of Courtenay's points,
since many of them are valid points about writing style. Some of them,
however, seem to be based on ethnocentric assumptions.
I agree that there are unarguable differences between men and women. My
experience is that this difference is overrated by most people due to
unconscious sexism. When dealing with soldiers or martial artists, any
comparisons of the "average" man with the "average" woman are irrelevant.
A trained fighter who maintains training is NOT to be considered
average.
Courtenay mentions that men are stronger and larger than women and
therefore have a combat advantage. It is true on the average that a
stronger, quicker, or larger person is at an advantage when dealing
with a smaller, slower, or weaker person who is otherwise of
approximately equal skill. However....
A woman of normal size and weight, who has practiced with a foil,
sabre, epee, or sword, will be about as strong as the majority of men
who have undergone similar practice. The upper-body mass becomes a
significant consideration only with some men, and then only after they
reach about age 21 or so. Teenage boys will be on about the same
footing as women. In any low-tech setting, this means that the women
are on about the same footing as most of the men in the army; remember
that low technology implies other things, like a general shift
downwards in the average age.
With this consideration, looking objectively at human history and at
social forces, the presence of women in the armies becomes less of a
problem if, as in some of the early Macedonian-region city-states, a
way is found to keep the women in the armies from getting pregnant.
The real barriers, and those which keep women out of active combat
roles in modern, high technology armies, is that sexism is very much a
part of the military mindset. For various reasons, human societies in
Fantasy tend to be slightly changed versions of the late-20th century
Western society. In our society, the military mindset says that men
must protect women, who are (it claims) unable to protect themselves,
and necessary as producers of new soldiers. The modern army is very
male, very macho, and rather hidebound when it comes to changing ANY of
the rules, written or unwritten.
This overblown machismo is the reason why women are no longer accepted
as combat troops in the Israeli army: the super-macho attitude of the
Arabs they were fighting would not allow themselves to be captured by
women, who in their society were considered slightly less than
animals. They would die before they would surrender.
Societal rules partition the roles of men and women. Low-tech cultures
tend to reflect the roles which were part of the more primitive culture
from which they probably derived. If women were not hunters, then they
wouldn't be likely to be warriors, because the warrior tradition
derives from the competition between two tribes for hunting grounds.
Similarly if women were the keepers of ritual and knowledge, then they
would be likely to hold positions of leadership in armies.
Finally, my experience with several martial arts have shown me that, in
fact, women make good hand-to-hand combatants, with the advantages of a
lower center of gravity, greater flexibility and endurance, and a more
objective, less emotional and competitive attitude than most men seem
to have.
Stephen Hutchison
hutch@volkstation.GWD.TEK.COM
--------------------------
More on
Women in Fantastic Armies
--------------------------
I beg to differ with Courtenay's article on women in armies. While she
did say that it was merely for general army use, most armies in
speculative fiction are not merely handtohand. As an example, Diane
Duane's armies used Flame as well as the usual projection weapons, such
as arrow and spears and such
Very little combat is only hand to hand. In swordplay, there is no
distinct advantage to one that can sprint, do lots of pushups, and has
long arms. In fact, if one does not know exactly what one is doing
long arms can be a distinct disadvantage. Balance, flexibility,
control, and eye-hand coordination along with training are equally
important, and I would say that given two combatants, female and male,
with the same amount of training there would be no edge, as women are
generally better balanced, are better able to control reaction, and are
more flexible. The only reason that I don't see as many women in
fencing is because the prevailing attitude in the Real World is one
that says women shouldn't Fence!!
Taller is never an advantage, stronger and faster are only advantages
if one is able to control them. Anyone can learn control, however it
seems that women are more able to learn in the early stages the
patience needed for control and timing. My female fencing students are
usually the best students. So, for an ill-trained or semi-trained army
that uses only swords, perhaps women would be more feasible than
realized. I, a 5'10" female, have handily beaten 6'5" males, and have
been beaten by 4'11" females, and all of us had about similar
training. And one of the smaller ladies weighed the same that I
did...
Once you get to the higher levels of any martial art you find that
physical differences, no matter what they are, can be turned to an
advantage.
Take the featherweight boxing at the Goodwill games. There was one
boxer that I saw two rounds of. In the first, he was the taller of the
two by about four inches, he stayed back and planted punches from a
distance, making the shorter one back up, and never get into his
range. In the second contest he was the shorter by about three to four
inches, and he made a complete switch in strategy, he would go into
clinches, body blows and stay inside the distance of the taller boxer
where the taller fighter had to keep his arms back and mostly bent,
where they had the least power and control. The boxer I was watching
used his height, and even- though it was shorter, he used it to an
advantage by taking away his opponent's possible advantages...
So, I disagree with the assessment of females in speculative fiction.
From my own experience in fencing, tai-chi, tai-qwon-do, and watching
people in combat, I can say that females are just as capable of
learning how to use weapons and, perhaps, better able to learn them
quickly.
Liralen Li
li@uw-vlsi.arpa
[There are a lot of factors that complicate things. For
example, women have better stamina than men, better eye-hand
coordination, and better balance. Any man that doesn't
overwhelm a woman quickly in battle may find themselves in
trouble. Also, women make better calvary. There are many
situations where a woman could fight as well as (or better
than) a man, and if an author wants to do so, let them. They
do need to think it through, though, and many authors get
needlessly sloppy here and fall into some of the traps that
were pointed out in the article. From what I've read, the
number of books that screw it up significantly outnumber the
ones that don't. chuq]
--------------------------
Comments on #7
--------------------------
On THE SORCERY WITHIN
Chuq lists the author as Dave Smeds and then says, Feist works a number of
seemingly unrelated subplots together with great skill. Which one is it?!
[Argh! It is Dave Smeds. I think I'll start a new contest:
Screwup of the Month award. That way I'll be able to claim
that I do these things on purpose. chuq]
On FUZZIES AND OTHER PEOPLE
It seems unfair to accuse Piper of "Ewok cuteness," since he died twenty
years before RETURN OF THE JEDI. Accuse Michael Whelan, rather, of
painting covers for the new editions of the "Fuzzy" novels to look like Ewoks.
On OtherRealms Formatting
In print, the titles of novels are underlined or italicized; the titles
of short stories are enclosed in quotation marks. Electronically, the
quotation marks can still be used for short stories, but something else
needs to be done for novels. I prefer all caps, and have a distaste
for the USENET custom of preceding and following the title with a
single underscore. The underscores don't set the title apart enough
for my taste.
[I agree with you on the underline problem. Using underlines
is ugly, but with both single quote and double quote used, the
ASCII character set doesn't leave me a lot of choices. You end
up either doing something substandard or you use caps and YELL
AT PEOPLE ALL THE TIME.
I changed this starting this issue. To some degree, titles
should stand out. The readers of the hardcopy OtherRealms
don't have this problem, thanks to the wonders of the
Macintosh, but using all caps on the network makes the
electronic OtherRealms a little cleaner looking chuq]
On the "no media" rule:
I notice this was new in this issue. While I don't want to see
OtherRealms turn into another "let's-all-reviews-ALIENS-this-
month-and-wasn't-STAR-WARS-great" magazine, I think this rule may be too
harsh. The folk music group review, for example, was worth printing.
I hope that you won't be overly strict in interpreting this. I do not
think an occasional reference to film or TV, when appropriate, will do
much harm.
[The new rules are just part of my ongoing process of defining
what OtherRealms really is. When I started it I planned on
printing just about whatever came in. There are two problems
with this. First, I simply don't have the space to print
everything, so I feel that to continue publishing a good
magazine I have to specialize. Second, the interests of the
readership of this magazine tend to be pretty
specialized -- reading SF and Fantasy.
The thrust of OtherRealms is to review the field, help people
make purchasing decisions on books, discover new authors, and
learn more about SF and Fantasy. I don't feel movies fit into
this mold. Discussion of media as it relates to books would be
fine, though.
What this is is a prioritization. I did the same with the
writing oriented material. The group of people interested in
that material is a small percentage of the total readership, so
it makes sense that the limited number of pages I can print
each month go to things that most people will appreciate. If I
have the space, I'll happily run articles that range far and
away from the primary goals of the magazine. If an article is
really good, I'll make room. But given an review on a book and
an equivalently written article on wildflowers, I'll print the
book review. chuq]
Evelyn C. Leeper
(201) 957-2070
ihnp4!mtgzy!ecl
mtgzy!ecl@topaz.rutgers.edu
--------------------------
Bermuda Triangle in '88?
--------------------------
Chuq,
Just thought I'd drop you a line and let you know that Bermuda Triangle
in '88, a 1988 World Science Fiction Convention bid, can be reached at:
ihnp4!homebru!bermuda
Any and all mail will be properly appreciated Send all requests for
information to the above address.
Ben Liberman
Cruise Ship Liason
Bermuda Triangle in '88
(an out of the country bid)
OtherRealms Notes
Fiction!
OtherRealms is starting to publish fiction. I've been considering this
move for a while and trying to decide the best format to use. I've
decided to simply add a new article slot to each issue, after the Pico
reviews. If I have a story, I'll use it. If not, I'll drop in an
article of some other type. This will make OtherRealms a little
larger, but I think this is a much better method than a quarterly
supplement. Easier on my nerves, too.
Submissions should be made to the normal addresses, E-mail or
hardcopy. Works should be SF or Fantasy, or both if you can figure out
how. Works up to 10,000 words will be considered, but longer works
will be serialized over two issues.
The Swimsuit Issue
I've made a decision to take December off. Why? The month of December
is full of holidays and things get slow in the SF world. Since I don't
want to do what Sports Illustrated does (how do you get a Troll in a
bikini, anyway?) I'm just going to skip a month. The December issue
will be out the end of November, as usual, and OtherRealms will take up
again in January with the February issue.
Masthead
This issue is Copyright 1986, by Chuq Von Rospach
All Rights reserved
One time rights only have been acquired from the signed or credited
contributors. All rights are hereby assigned to the contributors.
Reproduction rights: Permission is given to reproduce or duplicate
OtherRealms in its entirety for non-commercial uses. Re-use,
reproduction, reprinting or republication of an individual article in
any way or on any media, printed or electronic, is forbidden without
permission of the author.
OtherRealms is Published monthly, except for December, by:
Chuq Von Rospach
160 Pasito Terrace #712
Sunnyvale, CA 94086
USENET: {major_node}!sun!chuq
ARPA: chuq@sun.COM
CompuServe: 73317,635
Publishers: Review copies should be sent to this address for consideration.
Submission Policy
OtherRealms publishes articles on Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror
with an emphasis on reviews. Please, no media articles. I am very
interested in the newer and lesser known authors. Anything of interest
to the serious reader of the genre is welcome.
Pico reviews are welcome from everyone. Duplicate the format used in
this issue and limit your comments to one paragraph.
OtherRealms is accepting fiction. Fiction must be previously
unpublished, under 10,000 words, and first serial rights are
requested.
Authors should include their U.S. Mail address, even if submitting by
E-mail. Bionotes are welcome. A writers guide is available. If you
want to write for OtherRealms, please ask for a copy.All letters will
be considered for publication unless requested otherwise. All published
material is subject to editing for length, content and style to conform
to OtherRealms standards.
Subscriptions
OtherRealms is available in two forms: electronic and paper. The
electronic OtherRealms is available through the newsgroup
"mod.mag.otherrealms" on the USENET network. For those on the UUCP,
ARPANET, BITNET and CSNET computer networks without access to this
group, a mailing list subscription is available. OtherRealms is also
available through the following bulletin boards:
SCI-FIDO, (415) 655-0667.
The Terraboard, Fidonet number 14/341, (612)721-8967.
Dim_Sum Fido, Fidonet number 146/5, (503) 644-6129
UNaXcess, 781-6201, log in as "bbs"
Other BBS systems are welcome to make OtherRealms available on their
systems. Either copy it from an available system or contact me. If
you do make it available, I would like to hearing about it.
The paper OtherRealms is available from the above address for $20 for
11 issues, $10 for five, or $2.00 for one. Please make checks payable
to "Chuq Von Rospach." Fanzine trading rules apply: if your article is
printed in OtherRealms or you send me your Fanzine you get a free copy.
--
Chuq Von Rospach chuq%plaid@sun.COM Delphi: CHUQ
{decwrl,hplabs,ihnp4,seismo}!sun!plaid!chuq
Do not be arrogant because of your knowledge, but confer with the ignorant
man as with the learned.... Good speech is more hidden than Malachite, yet
it is found in the possession of women slaves at the millstones.
-- Ptahhotpe