From archive (archive) Subject: The Dark Lady by Mike Resnick From: throopw@xyzzy.UUCP (Wayne A. Throop) Organization: Data General, RTP NC. Date: 24 Oct 87 20:58:51 GMT Subtitled "A romance of the far future", which captures something of it, I suppose. I was captured by the cover, which shows a woman holding a painting of a woman holding a painting of a woman etc, etc, etc. In each case it is clearly the same woman, but the dress, haircut, and background are all different. But the woman and her pose and expression are identical in all the nested paintings. The story follows "Leonardo", an alien apprentice art dealer who becomes involved with several men who are obsessed (for different reasons) with an art mystery. Art objects of various types (paintings, sculptures, holograms, etc.) painted at drastically different times (spanning eight thousand years or more) all portray the same model. She is always wearing black, is stunningly beautiful, has the same expression of sadness in each depiction, and is always captured by artists that are not well known. It becomes Leonardo's job to find out what the common link (other than the model, of course) is between all these artworks, in the hopes of tracking down a) more of them b) the model and c) the explanation of how a single model could have posed for so many little-known artists over such a long span of time. So far, so good. (***+ or so, so far) I was well pleased, and Resnick does a pretty good job of telling things from Leonardo's point of view, and paints a nice background for the story by incidental happenings along the way. But... we never find out anything about the DL. Now, leaving a certain amount to the imagination seems ok to me, and I can certainly come up with an ample supply of scenarios to "explain" things. But to resolve the ending, she simply appears and acts differently in her final appearance, with no foreshadowing at all, and evaporates in a puff of anticlimax at the end of the book. Sigh. But even with the let-down of an ending, I guess it deserves about **+ on the OtherRealms scale. -- She has no name, no past, no future. She wears only black, and though she has been seen by many men, she is known only to a handful of them. You'll see her -- if you see her at all -- just after you've taken y our last breath. Then, before you exhale for the final time, she'll appear, silent and sad-eyed, and beckon to you. She is the Dark Lady, and this is her story. -- Wayne Throop !mcnc!rti!xyzzy!throopw From archive (archive) Subject: Re: Best satires and parodies of SF & F From: jgreely@oz.cis.ohio-state.edu (J Greely) Organization: Ohio State University Computer and Information Science Date: 9 Aug 89 16:49:29 GMT In article <468@v7fs1.UUCP> mvp@v7fs1.UUCP (Mike Van Pelt) writes: >In article <567@anasaz.UUCP> duane@anasaz.UUCP (Duane Morse) writes: >>Anyone out there have other recommendations? >Check out Randall Garrett's "Take-Off!" anthology. It contained such >classic send-ups as "Backstage Lensman". And, if you can find it, pick up "Shaggy B.E.M. Stories", edited by Mike Resnick, and published by Nolacon. It contains 30 great stories, including "Backstage Lensman", R. C. Walker's brilliant Gor parody "Queen of Borr", and *too* much more. A few tables down, they were selling pro relics. She deliberated over a seldom-used editing pencil of Lin Carter's and a key from Michael Moorecock's thousandth typewriter. Finally, she bought a scrap of blank paper that Isaac Asimov was said to have thought of writing on but decided not to. "Anything that rare would have to increase in value," she muttered to herself. -=- J Greely (jgreely@cis.ohio-state.edu; osu-cis!jgreely) From archive (archive) Subject: The "Kirinyaga" Stories by Mike Resnick From: ecl@cbnewsj.ATT.COM (Evelyn C. Leeper) Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories Date: 3 Jan 90 22:12:08 GMT The "Kirinyaga" Stories by Mike Resnick Comments by Evelyn C. Leeper There have been (to the best of my knowledge) three "Kirinyaga" stories by Mike Resnick: "Kirinyaga" (F&SF, November 1988), "For I Have Touched the Sky" (F&SF, December 1989), and "Bwana" (ASIMOV'S, January 1990). While they are undeniably thought-provoking--not a characteristic to be dismissed lightly these days--the conclusions one draws from them are disturbing. Or, to be more accurate and perhaps more fair, the message that I see them sending is disturbing. In "Kirinyaga," we are shown a Kikuyu society in a space station, isolated from the rest of humankind, and allowed to live according to its own laws, with the proviso that anyone who wants to must be permitted to leave. This seems reasonable to all concerned until a woman in Kirinyaga gives birth to twins. Under Kikuyu tradition, one twin is not human but a demon and so much be destroyed. This of course leads to a conflict, in which the Kikuyu mundumugu (witch doctor) defends the right of the Kikuyu to live according to their own ways. One could draw all sorts of parallels to the pro-choice movement (the Kikuyu claim that they are not murdering an infant because the twin is a demon, not a human). Whether the story takes a stand for or against cultural relativism is a matter of interpretation. In "For I Have Touched the Sky" a young girl learns to read, in violation of Kikuyu tradition and law. Koriba, the mundumugu, tells many fables to show how it is wrong for people to go against their customs and bring in alien ways. She could leave, but Koriba has blocked any way for her to find out about the outside, so how is she to make an informed decision? Of course, while he is doing this he also using a computer to call up Maintenance and ask for orbital adjustments to improve the climate of Kirinyaga. True, at the end, he says that a mundumugu must live with his decisions. But still, I find the message of isolationism and cultural integrity at any price verging on fanaticism. In "Bwana" the message becomes overt: it is wrong to bring in outside culture or technology. A hunter brought in to kill some hyena also brings in new ideas and new technology and these have an extremely negative effect on the Kikuyu. Koriba tells his people that it is because they cannot expect to take just some of the outsider's culture--they will have to take all the bad effects as well as the good. So medicine must be refused because that would upset the balance of Kikuyu life, etc. Koriba says the problems in Kenya began when the Kikuyu took the European's technology. And here is the crux of my problem--the "Europeans" were not originally a homogeneous group. They started as many tribes, but an interchange of ideas, goods, and technology made them what they are today. Koriba (Resnick?) does not say how bad the Picts were for taking anything from the Celts, or how the Romans should never have used Greek technology or Egyptian medicine, or how the Italians should have thrown Marco Polo out when he tried to bring back umbrellas and pasta. The history of civilization is the story of borrowing from other cultures. Sometimes it's good, sometimes it's bad, but it's inevitable. If the Japanese find a cure for AIDS, should Americans reject it because it wasn't part of our culture? For that matter, by Koriba's reasoning the whole melting-pot of America is a disaster. Some may believe that, but I do not, and to find a popular series that seems to be espousing this view is disappointing. [After writing this, I was told by someone that Resnick specifically made Koriba a fanatic to show how dangerous fanaticism is. I can reconcile this with the first two stories, but I still have difficulty making this fit with the third. I would love to hear from anyone who has opinions or theories on this; facts would be nice too, but I've come to believe facts are in short supply on Usenet. :-)] Evelyn C. Leeper | +1 201-957-2070 | att!mtgzy!ecl or ecl@mtgzy.att.com From archive (archive) Path: sssab.se!isy!liuida!sunic!mcsun!uunet!jarthur!usc!cs.utexas.edu!rutgers!uottawa.bitnet!469486 From: 469486@uottawa.BITNET (Jean-Louis Trudel) Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf-lovers Subject: Book Review Message-ID: <90May8.212257edt.57485@ugw.utcs.utoronto.ca> Date: 9 May 90 01:20:04 GMT Sender: nobody@rutgers.rutgers.edu Lines: 40 ~Title: Second Contact (Uncorrected Proof) Author: Mike Resnick Publisher: TOR Books Format: 277 pages There really isn't much to say about this book. It has a standard "Three Days of the Condor" (Jack Grady, I believe) plot, where our hero, twenty-first century Pentagon lawyer Max Becker, is assigned to a case and slowly starts to suspect there is more to it than meets the eye. He winds up on the run from his employers and survives with the help of a young, black, female computer hacker. As story-telling, it's as good as it gets. You may know the ending, but you won't put it down, especially if your mind runs to somewhat convoluted reasoning. In addition to the question of Max Becker's survival (well, not much of a question...), there is also the mystery of what exactly happened aboard the starship "Teddy Roosevelt"... There is also some lively dialogue and humour thrown in to leaven the action. I didn't mention the word science-fiction till now, did I? There's a reason for this. This is all supposed to be happening in 2065, that is 75 years from now. In that interval, a FTL drive has been developed, as well as a whole other branch of technology that is crucial to the story's denouement. Yet, I had to remind myself from time to time that this was the twenty-first century---apart from minor details plus the main secret, everything could be set in late twentieth-century America. It's foolish to try to say that the future will be this way or that way, but I cannot believe that it will be virtually the same as today. Consider the differences between the United States of 1915 and 1990... And I also have a hard time believing that FTL technology alone would not impinge on the workings of this society (the FTL drive has supposedly been developed in 2032): FTL implies a lot (!) of new science that should have an impact. In terms of the United States norm, the ending may appear cynical. Resnick avoids the easy, successful climax of so many "rebellion" stories. However, he does not rob his hero of all hope a la Orwell. As a result, the unshaken loyalty of Max Becker and his reward have their disquieting aspects, but also ring truer than many more "satisfying" novels of intrigue in this mold. From archive (archive) Path: sssab.se!isy!liuida!sunic!mcsun!uunet!clyde.concordia.ca!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!umich!umeecs!jherbers@dip.eecs.umich.edu From: jherbers@dip.eecs.umich.edu (Joseph Edward Herbers) Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf-lovers Subject: SANTIAGO (review) Keywords: Mike Resnick Message-ID: <2466@zipeecs.umich.edu> Date: 31 May 90 05:10:46 GMT Sender: news@zip.eecs.umich.edu Organization: University of Michigan EECS Dept, Ann Arbor, MI Lines: 43 Ok, here's the latest book I have read. It's by Mike Resnick who has lived in my home town of Cincinnati. I have autographed copies of several of his books including the "The Tales of the Velvet Comet" series. I've enjoyed all of them. SANTIAGO: A Myth of the Far Future by Mike Resnick Tor: 1986 $3.50 376 pages SUMMARY: The old west meets the outer frontier in a tale of bounty hunters looking for the ultimate score. A good story. The subtitle gives a good indication of the novel. It is a tale set in the outer reaches of Man's spread across the galaxy. However, it has many mythical qualities that give it a feel of an old western (sort of). Many of the characters are bounty hunters, one even using a gun with actual bullets. Most of them are searching for a mystical criminal of legendary status. Each chapter opens with a couple of verses from a 200,000 word epic poem, written by an interstellar bard about the colorful characters that he has encountered, and that we are introduced to. And colorful they are, with such names as ManMountain Bates, the Angel, Songbird, Jolly Swagman, and Moonripple. The characters are often bigger than life as their names imply. That's kind of a problem that I had with the book. The characters' actions, reactions, words, etc. were not always very believable (/consistent). I guess that's to be expected to some extent since the story has such a bigger than life feel to it. Still it was kind of distracting. All in all, I liked it. The characters were pretty original, the story interesting, plenty of shoot-em-outs to keep things moving, and a decent ending. While the characters were not always believable, they were always colorful. I think Resnick is a very good writer and I would recommend this book to anyone looking for SF of a more western variety (not much high tech stuff at all - opposite of, say, cyberpunk). Have the rets of you read much of Resnick's stuff? What did you think? Well, I think I'm going to embark on something a little longer and darker, next...McCammon's SWAN SONG, I think. Tell you about it 900+ pages from now. Joe "read Liege-Killer" Herbers From archive (archive) Path: sssab.se!isy!liuida!sunic!mcsun!uunet!samsung!usc!rutgers!stl-06sima.army.mil!wmartin From: wmartin@STL-06SIMA.ARMY.MIL (Will Martin) Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf-lovers Subject: Mike Resnick, SECOND CONTACT Message-ID: <9006181627.AA06806@rutgers.edu> Date: 18 Jun 90 14:19:12 GMT Sender: nobody@rutgers.rutgers.edu Lines: 109 Herewith a mini-review of the subject book, plus a bunch of picked nits: SECOND CONTACT, by Mike Resnick (A TOR Book, A Tom Doherty Associates Book, New York, March, 1990, ISBN 0-312-85021-0, $17.95 hardback) Since there was some recent net traffic about Resnick, I think it is appropriate that I post these comments, based on just finding this book at the St. Louis Public Library and reading it in an evening. On the whole, this book really isn't SF. It is set in the future, has spaceships and references to aliens, etc., but it is really a short version of a Ludlum-type "thriller" or whatever those kinds of books are called. If you liked THE BOURNE IDENTITY, this will fit right in, and, since it is so much shorter than the stuff Ludlum writes, you can consider it an appetizer... :-) It was an enjoyable quick read, but not very satisfying. Maybe I was put off by the stuff on page 1 that annoyed me (see below), but, if the book itself had been more engrossing, I think I could have suppressed those annoyances more. As it is, they continue to fester in the background. These points are not spoilers, since they occur in the first three pages of the book: The first sentence of the Prologue reads: "The Menninger/Klipstein Tachyon Drive, without which Man would never have been physically able to explore his Galaxy, was theorized in 2029 AD, created in 2032, and successfully field-tested in 2037 after a number of minor mishaps." What's wrong with this? (Besides the capitalization of "Man", which is arguable from a philosophical/religious viewpoint, so I'll let it pass... :-) The dates. They are too close together. We live in a world where it takes decades to put together a relatively minor planetary probe mission. Here we have a stardrive going from ideas on paper to hardware in 3-4 years? If that is possible, the 5 years before succesful testing would be too long, but in any case, it would have read so much more believeably if the timeframe had been stretched out. It wouldn't have cost anything to do it -- just different numbers typed on the page! The next paragraph describes a disastrous first contact with aliens. The passage reads: "Nobody knows what precipitated the events that followed, nor in what order they occurred, but this much _is_ known: within a mater of minutes both the Earth starship _Excelsior_ and the alien ship, name and class unknown, had completely destroyed each other. To this day no one knows which ship fired first. There is no record of any action by either side that might have invited such a reaction. No messages were sent back to base during the ensuing battle. Neither ship tried to escape once the conflict began. There were no survivors." In the ensuing novel, this is an important factor. But, to me, this is *ridiculous*! The author carefully described the situation as one in which no information got back about this event. SO WE CAN'T KNOW THE EVENT TOOK PLACE! All the records of the _Excelsior_ should show are "Missing -- cause unknown"; if we knew the alien contact had been made, we would have *had* to know more than the author says we know. Another nit is on page 3: the protagonist is walking down a hall, "past a row of holographs of former chiefs of staff". The use of "holograph" instead of "hologram" disturbed me, but I will be flexible about this point. I did spend some time checking various technical and general dictionaries, and they all seem to indicate that "holograph" still only means "a hand-written document". While "holography" is the science of making laser-generated 3D images, they are still called "holograms" and not "holographs". Maybe this is a case of evolving language and the reference works lagging behind; I won't be surprised if people began using "holograph" and "hologram" interchangeably, thus changing the former's meaning. But it still nagged at me. General comments (again, not spoilers, except in the most general sense): This book is supposed to take place in 2065. But you can't tell it from the action or events in the book, except for sort of "glued-on" quasi-sf bits here and there. The characters drive ordinary-seeming automobiles between ordinary-seeming buildings, board ordinary aircraft at ordinary airports, use ordinary ATM cards at ordinary teller machines, etc. Now and then you get a reference to stuff like "airlifts" instead of elevators, "sensors" on doors for security, voice-activated washbasins and moving corridors, but they are not central to the story and could be edited out invisibly, leaving this a here-and-now tale. There doesn't even seem to have been any inflation -- in one instance, the hero offers a kid a dollar to perform a trivial task, and eventually gives him $5 plus a $1 tip. Contemporary values. Everybody seems to smoke, which certainly isn't an extrapolation of current trends. The book uses the "deus ex machina" of the wily computer hacker/cracker who can do anything. Computer terms are thrown in with little relevance and are used like magic incantations. This might be the most irritating factor for computer-literate readers. However, this slapdash use of the hacker as the way around any plot difficulty has become so common that the reader today might just let it slide by. The dustjacket illustration has absolutely nothing to do with the book. It shows two contemporary-appearing spacecraft with NASA and ESA markings; but NASA doesn't exist in the book, or isn't mentioned -- it is specifically stated that the military has taken over all spacefaring. It appears the publishers just grabbed whatever "spacey" illustration was on the top of the stack of "stock artwork". (Nothing wrong with the cover art; it just doesn't go with the book its on... :-) Completely off-the-wall comment: There is a dustjacket photo of Resnick in which I can best describe him as looking like "a youngish Isaac Asimov as a member of the Teamsters". The bio info mentions that he and his wife "own and operate one of the largest grooming kennels in the United States." Hmmm... If I was being smart-mouthed, I'd mention that its good he has something to fall back on, based on this book... But I won't say that.. :-) Regards, Will From rec.arts.sf-reviews Tue Nov 5 10:49:39 1991 Path: herkules.sssab.se!isy!liuida!sunic!seunet!mcsun!uunet!indetech!pacbell!pbhyc!djdaneh From: throopw@sheol0g-rtp.dg.com (Wayne Throop) Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf-reviews Subject: REVIEW: Soothsayer by Mike Resnick Message-ID: <1991Nov4.184933.4743@pbhyc.PacBell.COM> Date: 4 Nov 91 18:49:33 GMT Sender: djdaneh@pbhyc.PacBell.COM (Dan'l DanehyOakes) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf-lovers Organization: Pacific * Bell Lines: 70 Approved: djdaneh@pbhyc.pacbell.com You like the Galaxy Rangers animation? You'll probably like _Soothsayer_. Both are space opera, not of the "Lensman" or "Skylark" kind, but of the "substitute a laser for a sixgun" kind. The setting is the far future. A far future somewhat like that in Resnick's _The_Dark_Lady_, but with a "frontierland" twist. In fact, the expansion inward along the spiral arm of the galaxy is called the "inner frontier", and outward towards the rim the "outer frontier" in this book. The inner frontier is the wild wild west, the west of mythic outlaw figures. From Resnick's prologue: It was a time of Giants. [...] There was Backbreaker Ben Ami, who wrestled aliens for money and killed men for pleasure. There was the Marquis of Queensbury, who fought by no rules at all, and the White Knight, albino killer of fifty men, and Sally the Blade, and the Forever Kid, who reached the age of nineteen and just stopped growing for the next two centuries, and Catastrophe Baker, who made whole planets shake beneath his feet, and the exotic Pearl of Maracaibo, and the Scarlet Queen, whose sins were condemned by every race in the galaxy, and Father Christmas, and the One-Armed Bandit with his deadly prosthetic arm, and the Earth Mother, and Lizard Malloy, and the deceptively mild-mannered Cemetary Smith. Giants all. Yet there was one giant who was destined to tower over all of the others, to juggle the lives of men and worlds as if they were so many toys, to rewrite the history of the Inner Frontier, and the Outer Frontier, and the Spiral Arm, and even the all-powerful Democracy itself. This giant is the title character, the Soothsayer. (As an aside, I've always been a sucker for the list-of-neat-stuff style Resnick uses in the above excerpt, whether used by Ellison in "Repent Harlequin"... or by Moran in the Continuing Time books.) Now in this case, as with the Galaxy Rangers, prepare to check your brain in at the door. Don't fret your head about why people with such a high technology would be running around having shootouts, and macho pseudo-cowboy bluster, and all that. Just sit back and enjoy. And it *is* very enjoyable. And yet....... while you have to numb your brain down about some of the sociological background details, you end up soaking in some pretty heavy philosophy. The Soothsayer can tell the future (or at least, see the many possible futures, and know definitely the consequences of actions taken). Shades of Foster's _The_Morphodite_ and sequels. In fact, shades of many different works; old themes handled well. This incarnation of these ideas has one (if one is at all like me) thinking about things like the Newcomb Paradox, and other deep(ish) stuff. And it is handled in such a gritty, down-to-earth way that some of the background messages sneak up on you. The "who can control a child with such superpowers", and many others. When I first read the ending, I was surprised, and thought that the groundwork for it had not been laid by the preceeding story. But after a little thought, I don't know... Was it a "cautionary tale" ending, or a "lady and the tiger" thing, or is he just setting up a sequel? You better decide for yourself. %A Mike Resnick %C New York %D November 1991 %G ISBN 0-441-77285-4 %I Ace %P 279 %T Soothsayer From rec.arts.sf.reviews Sun Feb 9 23:37:36 1992 Xref: herkules.sssab.se rec.arts.sf.reviews:44 soc.history:420 Path: herkules.sssab.se!isy!liuida!sunic!news.funet.fi!fuug!mcsun!uunet!wupost!uwm.edu!bionet!raven.alaska.edu!dont-reply-to-path-lines From: ecl@mtgzy.att.com (Evelyn C Leeper +1 908 957 2070) Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews,soc.history Subject: ALTERNATE PRESIDENTS edited by Mike Resnick Message-ID: <1992Feb6.195754.2434@raven.alaska.edu> Date: 6 Feb 92 19:57:54 GMT Sender: wisner@raven.alaska.edu (Bill Wisner) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Organization: University of Alaska Computer Network Lines: 431 Approved: wisner@ims.alaska.edu [Crossposted to rec.arts.sf.reviews and soc.history; followups directed to rec.arts.sf.written. -w., rec.arts.sf.reviews moderator] ALTERNATE PRESIDENTS edited by Mike Resnick A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper Copyright 1992 Evelyn C. Leeper (This is a very long review. If you'd rather skip the commentary on each individual story, just read the first three paragraphs and then skip to the summary in the last two. The same is true if you want to avoid any possible spoilers.) Now that alternate histories are experiencing a resurgence (or can you have a resurgence without a previous period of great interest?) and now that it's a Presidential election year, it's not surprising that we have ALTERNATE PRESIDENTS. What is moderately surprising is that it is not edited by Gregory Benford and Martin H. Greenberg (who edit the WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN series), but by Mike Resnick. Resnick also has ALTERNATE KENNEDYS in production, leading one to believe in a division of focus here--Benford and Greenberg do the international anthologies and Resnick does the ones with a United States focus. This may be accidental, of course; only time will tell. In his introduction Resnick says these stories were all written for this anthology, and they all bear a 1992 copyright date. Yet I know that at least four (the Cadigan, the Gunn, the Moffett, and the Resnick) appeared in magazines in 1991. Maybe I just don't understand copyright. For whatever reason, Resnick didn't or couldn't collect one story for each President (is there anything interesting to be done with James Polk or Franklin Pierce?), so we have twenty-eight stories arranged chronologically by election year. (Some occur many years after the change, so the stories are not in strictly chronological order.) There are two 18th Century, ten 19th Century, and sixteen 20th Century--not surprisingly, these are heavily skewed to the most recent elections. This is probably for the best, because (for whatever reason) the earlier stories are not as involving. Whether this is due to the reader (or the author) being less personally involved in the events, or whether the reader has less knowledge of the earlier events (and this is of course related to the first possibility), I don't know. But I do find alternate histories set in ancient Persia or Byzantium involving, so it could also be that the United States' early history is not inherently interesting. (And how well will this anthology sell in other countries, one wonders?) "The Father of His Country" (1789) by Jody Lynn Nye, for example, looks at what might have happened if Benjamin Franklin had been chosen as the first President instead of George Washington. Told in the form of letters from John Adams to his wife, everything is seen from a distance rather than in direct narration and, though great change is implied, little is shown. "The War of '07" (1800) by Jayge Carr puts Aaron Burr in the White House instead of Thomas Jefferson in 1800. Burr's more imperialistic tendencies effect some changes, though not always in the direction one might expect. But again, the use of short episodes keeps the reader from getting pulled into the story. This changes with Thomas A. Easton's "Black Earth and Destiny" (1824). Though the change-point here is the 1824 election, the story takes place seventy-two years later, in a United States more technological (at least in the biological sciences), but otherwise little changed. Here at least we get to see a fully developed character in the person of George Washington Carver as he struggles between the desire for prestige and the desire to help his people. I have a minor nit: Easton may carry this too far--he implies that Carver's bachelorhood was due to his dedication to his work, but it was certainly partially a result of his homosexuality. Still, the description of Carver's background and how it affects his decision at last give the reader something to grab on to. Easton puts Jackson in the Presidency four years early. By contrast Judith Moffett's "Chickasaw Slave" (1828) assumes he *never* gets in. Instead, Davy Crockett becomes President, and his land reforms have unforeseeable--and far-reaching--consequences. The story embodies the concept "tall oaks from little acorns grow," though I find the number of coincidences required dissatisfying. Here, though, the main story is told on a small scale--the big changes effected are almost all background, and so perhaps the coincidences are forgivable. (This story first appeared in the September 1991 ISAAC ASIMOV'S SCIENCE FICTION MAGAZINE.) "How the South Preserved the Union" (1848) by Ralph Roberts is a look at the different path North-South relations might have taken had Millard Fillmore died at the same time as Zachary Taylor, leaving David R. Atchison as President. (Resnick's claim that Atchison, as President pro tem of the Senate, was actually President for one day, when Zachary Taylor refused to take the oath on the Sabbath, is open to dispute. One could equally claim that James Polk remained President or that taking the oath is not required and Taylor WAS President.) Atchison, being less amenable to compromise, would have accelerated the North-South rift--but with surprising results. The story is unfortunately flawed by the first-person narrator's interspersing comments about a cheap dime novel he is reading which turns out to be an alternate history in his world that actually describes our world. After a while, his comments on the ridiculousness of it start to wear thin--Philip K. Dick may have been able to pull it off in THE MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE, but while Reed is a competent author, he is no Philip K. Dick. A more basic flaw, I think, was that the Civil War was fought over states' rights as much as over economic issues, and the events Reed postulates ignore that, and so in the end fail to convince me. (Okay, so now I sound like the narrator talking about his cheap dime novel. Do as I say, not as I do.) When I first saw that not every President would be covered, I tried to guess which were skipped. The first one who came to mind was Millard Fillmore so it was with some surprise that I discovered that not one, but TWO, stories centered on Fillmore: Roberts's story and Jack L. Chalker's "Now Falls the Cold, Cold Night" (1856). Roberts assumes Fillmore never became President; Chalker assumes not only that he did but also that he won election in his own right in 1856. Sweet irony, then, that they both postulate very similar results from very opposite premises. Chalker has the better characterization and avoids the states' rights problem that Roberts has, but leaves the reader up in the air at the end. Abraham Lincoln won the Presidency in part because of his success in the debates with Stephen Douglas. What if these debates hadn't taken place? (Shades of 1960?) Bill Fawcett looks at this in "Lincoln's Charge" (1860) and concludes that some things never change: feelings, responsibilities, destiny. The story has three weak points, though--one major and two minor. The major one is that the debates did NOT take place during the Presidential campaign of 1860 as indicated in the story, but in 1858 during the Illinois senatorial campaign--an election which Lincoln lost. The debates brought him into national prominence, true, and he did run again against Douglas, but Fawcett clearly places the debates in the 1860 Presidential campaign and this is wrong. Beyond this, however, one minor problem is the story's heavy emphasis on troop movements, common in alternate history Civil War stories, but confusing to those of us who are not Civil War buffs (even if we have seen the entire PBS series). The other is the multiple points of view, manageable in a novel, but distracting in a 7,000-word story. These aside, though, "Lincoln's Charge" spends its time on the human price of history, which makes it worthwhile as a story, and in fact more so than as an intellectual exercise in historical speculation, given its error. (It's ironic, because the same story could have been written with the facts correct--by not debating in 1858, Lincoln wouldn't be well-known to the national electorate and, assuming one can find a rationale for his retaining the 1860 Republican nomination, he probably would have lost.) "We Are Not Amused" (1872) by Laura Resnick takes as its extremely unlikely premise the election of Victoria Claflin Woodhull in 1872. Even if this had occurred, getting Congress to pass all the laws Laura Resnick postulates and approve all the Cabinet appointments mentioned is beyond the realm of possibility. I suppose this is being picky in a story meant humorously, but these, combined with the *very* stereotypical portrayal of Queen Victoria and the inclusion of a few too many anachronistic references intended as humor (the Commissioner of Indian Affairs is named Talks Too Much Woman, for example) kept me from enjoying this. I wasn't wild about Howard Waldrop's "Ike at the Mike" either, so maybe I just want more realistic alternate history, and need the "intellectual exercise" part as well. I'm afraid that my reaction to "We Are Not Amused" is that it is aptly named. Just as Millard Fillmore figures in two stories, so does Samuel Tilden. In Tappan King's "Patriot's Dream" (1876) Tilden manages to avoid having the 1876 election stolen from him, but the story deals more with his dreams, nightmares, and feelings than with the results of such a change. In Michael P. Kube-McDowell's "I Shall Have a Flight to Glory" (1880) Tilden loses the 1876 election but gets his revenge in 1880. Some of the impact of the latter was telegraphed to me because of a recent musical work which I suspect is unfamiliar to most readers, but even so I found it one of the more thought-provoking pieces in the book. (Kube-McDowell is one of the few authors here who has written alternate history previously--in his case, the novel ALTERNITIES.) I guess it's politically correct to include a couple of stories in which women become President, but Janet Kagan's "Love Our Lockwood" (1888) suffers from the same fault as Laura Resnick's "We Are Not Amused"--it's just not very likely. To take a candidate who received a fraction of a percent of the vote (less than 150,000 out of 10,5000,000 cast) and say, "What if this candidate had won?" may be temporarily amusing but it is ultimately unsatisfying. This is not to say that Kagan point is not a good one, but a more likely scenario would have been preferable (at least to me). "Plowshare" (1896) by Martha Soukup deals with women in politics in a much more realistic fashion. William Jennings Bryan's support of universal suffrage is well documented and figures strongly here, as does his "anti- imperialist" position. But this story, and others, also provides a counter-point to many alternate histories by saying that frequently external forces can overcome a local change, and international politics may not be swayed by the choice of this leader over that. Mike Resnick has written several alternate history stories, all centered around Theodore Roosevelt and all mutually contradictory. The ones I know of are "Bully!" (in the September 1991 issue of ISAAC ASIMOV'S SCIENCE FICTION MAGAZINE and BWANA & BULLY! (Tor SF Double #33)), "Over There" (in the April 1991 issue of ISAAC ASIMOV'S SCIENCE FICTION MAGAZINE and WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN 3: ALTERNATE WARS edited by Benford and Greenberg), and the one which appears here, "The Bull Moose at Bay" (also in the November 1991 issue of ISAAC ASIMOV'S SCIENCE FICTION MAGAZINE). This one assumes that Theodore Roosevelt was not injured during the 1912 campaign and went on to victory. And once again, universal suffrage is the focus. Alas, Resnick--who has written many stories that make a point without having the characters make long speeches about it--has turned this into a series of declamations from Theodore Roosevelt on why universal suffrage is right. And his "surprise" ending was not a surprise to me. But that may be because... ...I know more about history than Resnick expects. In his introduction to "A Fireside Chat" (1920) by Jack Nimersheim, Resnick asks, "But how many of you know that [Franklin Delano] Roosevelt was the defeated vice presidential candidate in 1920?" That hand madly waving in the back of the room? That's me. But what if he had won, or rather James Cox had won (because Warren G. Harding died shortly before the election instead of after it) and then Cox was assassinated by an isolationist, having the dual result of making Roosevelt President and pushing the United States into the League of Nations and a stronger international role in the 1920s? For better or worse, Nimersheim leaves the ultimate results up in the air, though historical parallels (and the story's closing line) seem to indicate which direction Nimersheim thinks events will take. (Obligatory nitpick: In our world Roosevelt got polio in August 1921. So too did he in Nimersheim's, but I would claim that being President would have changed the course of his life enough that this would be unlikely--he would be going different places, meeting different people, and doing different things.) Kristine Kathryn Rusch's "Fighting Bob" (1924) assumes the Progressive Party candidate in 1924, Robert La Follette, won (somehow--he did get a fair number of votes but still placed a distant third in the popular vote and got few electoral votes). In Rusch's world he still dies in 1925 (as in ours) but her story is *not* about President Burton K. Wheeler, but about how politicians in 1931 are trying to use La Follette's name and reputation to get their candidates elected--even if their philosophies are diametrically opposed. It's a cautionary tale on how politics does indeed make strange bedfellows, and a warning to us all that one must look behind the mask (in more ways than one!) to see the real candidate. Many of the stories here have a point to make; Rusch's may be the most immediately relevant. (Note: The Joe Stanislawski they are trying to elect as Senator from Wisconsin is NOT Joseph McCarthy--he was only 25 years old and not eligible to run for the Senate for another five years. I mention this because he's the first person I think of when I hear of a Senator named Joe from Wisconsin.) "Truth, Justice, and the American Way" (1928) by Lawrence Watt-Evans made me think a lot. Though in the end I disagreed with his conclusions, I have to say he puts forth an interesting idea. Briefly, the premise is that Franklin Roosevelt did not defeat Herbert Hoover in 1932. Watt-Evans proposes that a Republican victory would have led to our involvement in the war in Asia in the 1930s. Japan's defeat would have served as a warning to Germany's expansionist faction, resulting in the elimination of Hitler by more "moderate" elements. Without a war to keep the people in line, Stalin would also be removed. Sounds idyllic, right? Well, if you don't want the gist of the story revealed, skip to the next paragraph. Here goes. In this new world, the Holocaust never happens. But in 1953, the Nuremberg Laws are still in effect in Germany, and the whole world is as anti-Semitic as it ever was. Without the collective guilt brought on by the death camps, no one reconsiders their anti-Semitism or even feels guilty about it. The President has a candidate for a diplomatic post--but he's Jewish. The Japanese refuse to accept him as an ambassador. So where to send him? The President and the Secretary of State eliminate a lot of countries based on the countries' purported anti-Semitism. But would England really be that anti-Semitic, even with Zionist rebellion in Palestine? After all, until the Holocaust the idea of a Jewish state in Palestine hadn't been a universal Jewish agenda. (Come to that, it isn't even now.) Other countries he lists are also questionable. But worse, he skips a whole collection of possibilities: the Netherlands, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Greece, Thailand, China, Korea, .... But even with these complaints, I think this story is one that will stay with me for a long time. I have said in the past that everyone who writes a "what if World War II never happened?" assumes things would be better; I wanted to see it done with things being worse. Watt-Evans doesn't quite do that, but he does suggest that World War II and the Holocaust forced people to face their own bigotry and prejudice, and that without those events, bigotry would proceed unchecked. Watt-Evans is *not* saying that given a choice we should *choose* Holocaust and adjustment, but that given the Holocaust, maybe we've learned something from it. Have we? As I write this, the legislature of New Jersey if fighting over whether to guarantee gays and lesbians the right to work and live in peace and security. Will we use the lessons of the past or not? (Watt-Evans has also written several crosstime stories; this seems to be his first alternate history.) [Note: The bill did in fact pass and has been signed into law. Perhaps there is hope for the future after all.] The first of Barry N. Malzberg's two stories in this volume is "Kingfish" (1936). What if Huey Long had survived the attempt to assassinate him in 1935 and had succeeded in displacing Franklin Roosevelt as the Democratic candidate in 1936. What would his down-home, common-sense philosophy have wrought? Malzberg's conclusions are believable, but don't leave the reader with a feeling of any real change. (Malzberg has written several previous alternate histories, including two about other "alternate Presidents": "All Assassins" in WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN 1: ALTERNATE EMPIRES edited by Benford and Greenberg and "January 1975" in the January 1975 issue of ANALOG.) Barbara Delaplace's "No Other Choice" (1944) puts the decision of whether or not to bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Thomas E. Dewey's hands instead of Harry Truman's. But the real change is not the person deciding, but what is decided, and why, and what it leads to. For those who blame Truman for his decision, this story provides some additional food for thought. "The More Things Change ..." (1948) by Glen E. Cox is a fluff piece whose entire point is revealed by the cover art. No great historical changes are wrought. Yes, they might be in the future, but an alternate history is supposed to give some answer to the question "What if A happened instead of B?" not just ask it. Explaining how A might have happened instead of B is interesting, but more is needed. How Napoleon might have won at Waterloo makes the background for an alternate history story; what happens after he wins is the story. "The Impeachment of Adlai Stevenson" (1952) by David Gerrold suggests that even if Stevenson had won in 1952, the tenor of the country would have eventually brought about his downfall. Here at least there is some indication of on-going change, but I disagree with what Gerrold seems to say would happen, or at least what his characters believe. Then again, that may be Gerrold's intent--that we cannot truly predict the results of our actions. It's not that "the best laid schemes o' mice and men gang aft a- gley," but that even when they don't "gang aft a-gley" we don't get what we expect. (Gerrold has previously written one "changing the past" story.) Barry N. Malzberg's second story here is "Heavy Metal" (1960). (I have no idea what the title means in this context.) This suffers to some extent from the same problem that Cox's story had: it tells the how of the change rather than the what then. But Malzberg's look at the machinations behind the election are more serious than Cox's and provide more insight into his characters. I'm not claiming, mind you, that Malzberg's characters are completely accurate representations of their historical parallels. After all, this is fiction. But they are deeper, more three-dimensional characters than those in "The More Things Change ...." And Malzberg has always cultivated a more interesting writing style than others, so stylistically "Heavy Metal" stands out as well. What if Goldwater had won in 1964 and Richard Nixon became a talk show host? "Fellow Americans" (1964) by Eileen Gunn (which first appeared in the December 1991 issue of ISAAC ASIMOV'S SCIENCE FICTION MAGAZINE) goes off in this highly unlikely direction. I mean, if Nixon had any television charisma he would have won in 1960, right? There are some cute parts here, but I can't say that scenes of the Nixons and the Quayles in a hot tub are what I read alternate histories for. Pat Cadigan follows an alternate path of history from the campaign of 1968 in "Dispatches from the Revolution" (1968) (which originally appeared in the July 1991 issue of ISAAC ASIMOV'S SCIENCE FICTION MAGAZINE). Her technique in this, one of the last stories in the book, is reminiscent of the first. That was a series of letters; this is a series of excerpts from diaries, letters, and other documents. The style makes the reader work a little harder at piecing it all together, but the richness of the mosaic formed makes it worthwhile. The topic may be Presidents, but no anthology of American alternate histories could avoid the Vietnam War. In "Suppose They Gave a Peace ..." (1972), Susan Shwartz suggests that nothing is as simple as people want to make it. As many of the stories suggest, so this one too says that there is an inertia to history that may be difficult to overcome. 1972 is the only Presidential election year which has two stories. The first dealt with Vietnam; the second, Brian Thomsen's "Paper Trail" (1972), deals with the other major event of the time: Watergate. What if the break-in and other events had been revealed *before* the election. Unfortunately, the resulting changes are hardly surprising (though admittedly it could have gone differently) and in this case, the use of memos and headlines to unfold the story results in a choppy, disjointed style and a somewhat unclear description of the resulting events. Both Cadigan and Nye used extended segments in clear prose, but Thomsen uses rapid-fire headlines and brief memos, which give flavor but at the expense of clarity. Gerald Ford was not the President with the shortest term of office, but he was the President with the shortest term in living memory. Even so, Alexis A. Gilliland uses the idea of a victory by him in 1976 as the beginning of the story "Demarche to Iran" (1976). Gilliland's contention here--that Ford could have done better with bumbling than with diplomacy--is not even very original. Many humorous stories attribute success to luck, even the luck of incompetents, rather than brains. But in those at least you get the humor of the pratfalls. Now in our timeline Ford had his share of pratfalls, but in this story even that is missing. (I suppose this falls in the category of ironical humor, but it didn't do much for me.) Moving right along (have faith--we're nearing the end), "Huddled Masses" (1984) by Laurence Person assumes that Walter Mondale won in 1984. This apparently leads to changes in Central America and Mexico, but Person never explains them or what decisions or policies led to them. (Person has previously written one crosstime story.) And finally we have "Dukakis and the Aliens" (1988) by Robert Sheckley, a grand master of off-beat science fiction who delivers here a prime example to end this volume on a light-hearted note. (Sheckley has done one previous "changing the past" story.) Okay, there we have it. Twenty-eight stories covering almost all the Presidents as either primary or secondary characters. (Missing were Madison, Monroe, Van Buren, William Henry Harrison, Tyler, Polk, Pierce, Johnson, Arthur, McKinley, Wilson, and Coolidge.) What I find most surprising is the absence of the obvious turning points. No one wrote about Lincoln, McKinley, or Kennedy *not* being assassinated (any stories on the last may be being held for ALTERNATE KENNEDYS), Franklin Roosevelt *being* assassinated by Zangara, William Henry Harrison not catching pneumonia at his inauguration (his three-hour speech in the cold rain didn't help--a warning to speech-makers) and dying a month later, and so on. Whether this was a conscious effort on everyone's part, or just coincidence I don't know, but it means the stories don't seem stale. Of the stories, the best (in my opinion) are "Black Earth and Destiny," "Lincoln's Charge," "I Shall Have a Flight to Glory," "Love Our Lockwood," "Truth, Justice, and the American Way," "Dispatches from the Revolution," and "Dukakis and the Aliens." The others range from good to fair to so-so- -there are no stinkers (which is more than can be said of Presidents or Presidential candidates). Obviously, this is a must-buy for alternate history fans, but worthwhile even for the reader just looking for good stories. Some knowledge of United States (and world) history is strongly recommended. %B Alternate Presidents %E Mike Resnick %C New York %D February 1992 %I Tor %O paperback, US$4.99 %G ISBN 0-812-51192 %P 466pp %T "The Father of His Country" by Jody Lynn Nye %T "The War of '07" by Jayge Carr %T "Black Earth and Destiny" by Thomas A. Easton %T "Chickasaw Slave" by Judith Moffett %T "How the South Preserved the Union" by Ralph Roberts %T "Now Falls the Cold, Cold Night" by Jack L. Chalker %T "Lincoln's Charge" by Bill Fawcett %T "We Are Not Amused" by Laura Resnick %T "Patriot's Dream" by Tappan King %T "I Shall Have a Flight to Glory" by Michael P. Kube-McDowell %T "Love Our Lockwood" by Janet Kagan %T "Plowshare" by Martha Soukup %T "The Bull Moose at Bay" by Mike Resnick %T "A Fireside Chat" by Jack Nimersheim %T "Fighting Bob" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch %T "Truth, Justice, and the American Way" by Lawrence Watt-Evans %T "Kingfish" by Barry N. Malzberg %T "No Other Choice" by Barbara Delaplace %T "The More Things Change ..." by Glen E. Cox %T "The Impeachment of Adlai Stevenson" by David Gerrold %T "Heavy Metal" by Barry N. Malzberg %T "Fellow Americans" by Eileen Gunn %T "Dispatches from the Revolution" by Pat Cadigan %T "Suppose They Gave a Peace ..." by Susan Shwartz %T "Paper Trail" by Brian Thomsen %T "Demarche to Iran" by Alexis A. Gilliland %T "Huddled Masses" by Laurence Person %T "Dukakis and the Aliens" by Robert Sheckley Evelyn C. Leeper | +1 908 957 2070 | att!mtgzy!ecl or ecl@mtgzy.att.com From rec.arts.sf.reviews Thu Jul 9 13:17:59 1992 Xref: herkules.sssab.se rec.arts.sf.reviews:100 soc.history:1418 Path: herkules.sssab.se!isy!liuida!sunic!mcsun!uunet!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!ames!ig!mtgzy.att.com From: ecl@mtgzy.att.com (Evelyn C Leeper +1 908 957 2070) Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews,soc.history Subject: ALTERNATE KENNEDYS edited by Mike Resnick Message-ID: <9207081503.AA28132@presto.ig.com> Date: 8 Jul 92 21:30:38 GMT Sender: mcb@presto.ig.com Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Lines: 442 Approved: mcb@presto.ig.com (rec.arts.sf.reviews moderator) [Followups are directed to rec.arts.sf.written.] ALTERNATE KENNEDYS edited by Mike Resnick Tor, 1992, ISBN 0-812-51955-8, $4.99. A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper Copyright 1992 Evelyn C. Leeper (This is a very long review. If you'd rather skip the commentary on each individual story, just read the first three paragraphs and then skip to the summary in the last four. The same is true if you want to avoid any possible spoilers. In addition, there is an overview of the Kennedy family at the end to help you keep track of who's who.) It's an ever-tightening spiral. First we had alternate history stories appearing in general anthologies. Then we had general alternate history anthologies (e.g., ROBERT ADAMS' BOOK OF ALTERNATE WORLDS). Then came Benford et al's ALTERNATE EMPIRES and ALTERNATE HEROES. Then we had Resnick's ALTERNATE PRESIDENTS. And now we have ALTERNATE KENNEDYS. What next? (Actually, from Resnick I would expect ALTERNATE TEDDYS, as he's written several mutually-contradictory alternate Theodore Roosevelt stories.) But even ALTERNATE KENNEDYS may be too narrow a focus. The twenty- seven authors seem to have realized this, and have done their best to choose original premises for their stories, so we are spared twenty-seven what-if- JFK-hadn't-been-killed-in-Dallas stories, but even so.... (By the way, the cover blurb says "Twenty-five speculations" when there are actually twenty- seven. And what odd computer font glitch turned almost every "?" in the introductions and afterwords to "/"s?) This anthology relies on the "Kennedy mystique," and I suppose I should state up front that I find that my interest in the Kennedys as a whole is no more than the sum of my interest in the individuals and possibly less. And "Camelot" lost its luster long ago when someone pointed out that "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country" is as applicable to the Third Reich as to an American democracy--or perhaps even more so. So now that you have some idea of the attitudes I brought to this anthology, let us proceed with my usual interminable, story-by-story analysis. Those desiring the short version of this review should skip to the fourth paragraph from the end. The first piece (after Resnick's introduction) is a poem by Jane Yolen, "Camelot Redux or, Jack Kennedy Seen as an Alternating Current." Alternating current, perhaps, but not an alternate Kennedy in the usual sense of the phrase. (In his introduction, Resnick said that he told Yolen if she didn't have time for a story he'd take a poem. One suspects poets might take umbrage at the implication here.) Returning to the more traditional prose form, we have "A Fleeting Wisp of Glory" by Laura Resnick. This too is not a standard alternate Kennedy (although that element is there), but a story of the far future, after generations of tale-spinners had managed to merge Camelot (1) and Camelot (2). This particular story follows the Kennedy theme, but the idea that future generations will garble our history is not new to science fiction. Either Barry N. Malzberg's writing is changing, or my tastes are changing, but I find that I am coming to like most of his work that I'm reading these days, and "In the Stone House" is no exception. In this novelette, Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr., did not die in World War II and instead became President in 1952, but the real controlling force behind him, and John, and Robert, and Edward, was Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr.--"the Ambassador." "In the Stone House" looks at power and its effects on the controller and the controlled in a very satisfying work. (Many of the stories will return to this theme of control by the senior Kennedy.) "The Kennedy Enterprise" by David Gerrold is one of that sub-genre of alternate histories which ask the question, "What if a famous world leader went into the entertainment industry instead?" You wouldn't think there would be enough of these to form a sub-genre, but after Howard Waldrop's "Ike at the Mike," it's become a popular concept. (With ex-actors becoming President and Presidential candidates playing saxophone on "The Arsenio Hall Show," I admit the alternate history scenario resembles reality more each day.) In this case, the leader is again Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr., who decides to stay in Hollywood with Gloria Swanson instead of moving into politics. Given Gerrold's background, "The Kennedy Enterprise" is predictable but, like Gerrold's best-known work ("The Trouble with Tribbles"), fun while it lasts. In "The Best and the Brightest" Kristine Kathryn Rusch gets away from both Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr., and JFK altogether and gives us an alternate Robert Fitzgerald Kennedy. But though RFK is central to the story, he is also "off-camera" for most of it, providing a welcome break from the seemingly endless march of Kennedys across the pages. Rusch also brings in the one major non-Kennedy icon of the times, Martin Luther King, in a story with multiple layers of "what might have been"--what might have been on a national/global scale, and what might have been for one individual based on the choices he makes. In doing so, she highlights better than any of the other authors how everything we do, every decision we make, every "road not taken," leads to one alternate history or another. I can't help but think of the old line, "One person can change the world." You don't have to be a Kennedy to do it. Once you have the title of Jack C. Haldeman II's story, you know what's coming: "The 1960 Presidential Campaign, Considered as a World Wrestling Federation Steel Cage Match or Short Count in Chicago." (However, both the table of contents and the page headers settle for "Short Count in Chicago.") It's the Hyannis Kid versus The Trickster, with refereeing by Chicago Dick. Twenty-five years ago, J. G. Ballard wrote "The Assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy Considered as a Downhill Motor Race." Coming only four years after the assassination, Ballard's story was considered in poor taste by many and was not widely available. So some readers may think this story original; I see it as an updated allusion, or perhaps homage, to the Ballard. Susan Shwartz's "Siren Song" combines a legend of a sailor from thousands of years ago with one of a sailor from our own time, with JFK meeting a mermaid after his PT-109 crash. But this siren gives him a choice.... A bit too much time was spent on the love story for my tastes, and the whole idea of JFK and a mermaid is not my cup of tea in any case. Judith Tarr's "Them Old Hyannis Blues" is yet another "entertainers" story--the four Kennedy brothers become the world's biggest rock sensation, Elvis Presley is President, Marilyn Monroe is a lawyer, and John Lennon is secretary of State. There are other well-known personalities in unlikely positions, but on the whole this offers nothing new over Waldrop's "Ike at the Mike," and the Waldrop story was *widely* seen. "Rosemary: Scrambled Eggs on a Blue Plate," on the other hand, *is* original. Co-authored by Alan Rodgers and James D. MacDonald, this is probably more accurately categorized as a secret history than as an alternate history (or alternate Kennedy). (The same can be said for other works in this volume as well, but to say which ones might be to give something away.) The distinction is that an alternate history relies on facts contrary to our reality (e.g., JFK ducks the bullet in Dallas and goes on to win a second term), but a secret history gives a new interpretation to events and is not contradictory to events in our world (e.g., JFK was actually an immortal who staged his assassination to allow himself to move onto a different identity). This story is told from the point of view of Rosemary Kennedy, the retarded sister who had a lobotomy in 1941. Rodgers and MacDonald propose an explanation for her condition, and for a lot of other things as well, thought some readers may find the story disturbing--as I'm sure the authors intended. Brian M. Thomsen has two stories in this anthology. The first, "The Missing 35th President," is in some ways similar to Laura Resnick's "Fleeting Wisp of Glory," though here the sources for the "history" are the supermarket tabloids rather than the village story-teller. It's amusing, but insubstantial. Barbara Delaplace's "Freedom" examines the same issues of power as Malzberg's "In the Stone House" albeit in a much shorter form. Were it not for the presence of Richard Nixon, this could be a secret history of Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr., and perhaps it would have been better that way. As it is, it's too easy to dismiss this as fiction instead of thinking about whether there might be some element of truth to what Delaplace describes, and what it means in terms of how parents and children relate to each other. "A Massachusetts Yankee in King Arthur's Court" by Harry Turtledove is another non-alternate-history, a straight time-travel story: what if druids sent JFK back to the *real* Camelot? JFK may be a bit overdone as a womanizer here (but maybe not; Turtledove usually does his homework well), but Turtledove can always be counted on for a good story with a well-researched background, and if the Kennedy aspect is just the McGuffin that gets it in this anthology, so be it. But it could just as easily have been Joseph Francis Kropinski who was sent back. In Mark Aronson's "President-Elect," Richard M. Nixon becomes the 37th President in 1968. If this sounds like exactly what really happened--well, read the story. Aronson takes you on a roller-coaster to get there, and is convincing (at least on first reading--there may be some slips, but I didn't find any). Aronson has won a lot of awards for creative advertising, and I can see why. Pat Cadigan had a tough act to follow. Her "Dispatches from the Revolution" in Resnick's ALTERNATE PRESIDENTS was the best in that volume (it was nominated for a Hugo and stands a good chance of winning) and was already an alternate Kennedy story. So I wondered if she could live up to that reputation here. She does, with "No Prisoners," which is once again the best work in the anthology. (The title phrase in this context comes from a supposed campaign slogan: "No quarter given, no compromise, and no prisoners," which describes Cadigan's writing as well.) Many of the stories here are alternate Kennedy (singular); Cadigan takes the plural to heart in this story centering around two of the siblings, Eunice and Robert, with guest appearances by several other alternate Kennedys. Like so many of the stories, this one also looks at the control Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr., exercised over his children, but Cadigan finds new ways for them to escape it. Robert goes to the one organization his father can't control--the Roman Catholic Church--and becomes an activist priest. Eunice (and Patricia to a lesser extent) escape by becoming politicians in their own right instead of the wives of politicians. If at times the number of Kennedys and Kennedy wannabes in "No Prisoners" threatens to overwhelm the reader, that's a very minor flaw in another excellent work by Cadigan. Look for this one at Hugo time next year. Speaking of Kennedy wannabes, Mike Resnick's "Lady in Waiting" is not about any alternate Kennedys per se, but about an alternate Marilyn Monroe, a waitress named Norma Jean Baker. We've all known someone like Resnick's Norma Jean, someone who doesn't quite understand how it all works and who lives in a fantasy world. That's probably why this story is so affecting-- at first I felt it was out of place in an alternate Kennedy anthology (and so it may be), but it grows on you and stays with you long after most of the other stories fade away. "The Inga-Binga Affair" by Michael P. Kube-McDowell may be based on well-documented fact, but it still didn't do anything for me. The story implies that events in its world will proceed differently from those in ours, but never actually shows us this, and I was surprisingly disinterested that a young JFK was boinking a suspected Nazi spy. Rick Katze's "Bobbygate" puts the break-in to National Headquarters in the 1964 campaign instead of the 1972 and had it be the Democrats doing the breaking in. Oh, yes, and JFK was still President--no mention of how that came about. Once again, it's Joseph Patrick Kennedy, Sr., running everything, and somewhat better than Nixon et al did in our world. But the story doesn't go anywhere--it basically gives the reader the premise, fleshes it out a bit, and then stops. But even emptier of content is "Now And in the Hour of Our Death" by Debra Doyle and James D. MacDonald. What if Kathleen Kennedy had not died in a plane crash in 1948, but had survived and retreated from the world to a convent under an assumed name? That's it; that's the whole story. I think it might have worked in a non-specific anthology, since it seems to lead up to the big surprise at the end that the Sister is actually Kathleen Kennedy, but Resnick's introduction removes any lingering surprise that might have been there. (By the way, Resnick claims Kathleen divorced her husband, but all other sources I checked say that he died four years before she did and don't mention any divorce. In fact, she was buried in his family plot.) Nancy Kress's "Eoghan" (pronounced "Owen," and in fact the "Eoghan Ruadh O'Neill" of the opening poem is frequently seen as "Owen Roe O'Neill") is a fantasy explanation of how a family so favored could become a family so cursed. The story begins in Ireland with Patrick Kennedy, Joseph Patrick Kennedy, Sr.'s grandfather, preparing to leave Ireland during the Great Potato Famine of 1848. Walking home one night he meets one of the "aes sidi" and gets from her a magical guinea. But its magic is as much in the obligation it carries as in any gift it brings; for as the old woman tells him, "Good fortune in yers, and yer sons', and yer sons' sons', so long as ye use yer power to the good of the people who look to ye. If not--." The rest of the story is mostly the story of Patrick's journey to America, and his life there, and his son's life, and on to his great-grandson John Fitzgerald Kennedy and his encounter with the magical guinea. Kress is a consistently good author (and is also nominated for a Hugo this year), and "Eoghan" is worthy of her. "'Til Death Do Us Part" by Charles Von Rospach (Better known to Usenetters as Chuq) is another Marilyn Monroe story, but with a touch of John Collier. Anyone familiar with John Collier's work will understand this statement; everyone else should go read some immediately. My enjoyment of this story was lessened by two factors: 1) I am female and it seems a story written much more from and for a male viewpoint (much as Connie Willis's "Even the Queen" would seem to be from and for the female viewpoint), and 2) by this point in the book, JFK's sexual escapades in general and trysts with Marilyn Monroe in particular were getting boring. Still, some clever ideas keep this story afloat and amusing. Brian M. Thomsen's second story in this volume is "Gloria Remembers," a deal-with-the-devil story involving Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr., and remembered by Gloria Swanson. Swanson is totally unnecessary to the story--she serves only to relate events which could have been told by any third person, or even as third-person omniscient. The idea here is the same as in numerous deal-with-the-devil stories (it is perhaps best done in the film BEDAZZLED), and this is one of the weakest of the stories in this volume. Esther M. Friesner, on the other hand, takes almost precisely the same idea and turns it into a wonderfully humorous tale in "Told You So." You may see the climax coming before it hits you, but that just makes it better, like watching the peak of a roller coaster approach as you climb makes hurtling over the top more exciting. And Friesner gives the reader a little bit extra after the climax as well. Not earth-shaking, perhaps, but a wonderful bit of comic relief. Ginjer Buchanan is a very good editor, but "The End of the Summer, by the Great Sea" does not mark an auspicious start for her as a writer. I *think* it says all the misfortunes of the Kennedys are caused by their being objects in a treasure hunt by children from another dimension. If this is the case, that makes this a horror story to me and not the "very young, very enthusiastic alternative" Resnick's introduction describes it as. "As flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods; They kill us for their sport" (KING LEAR, Act IV, Scene 1) was not intended to be amusing. It's possible that Buchanan *intended* this as a horror story, but if so the tone is all wrong-- at least for me. George Alec Effinger writes about "Prince Pat," Patrick Bouvier Kennedy. (I actually remember Patrick Bouvier Kennedy, which gives you some indication of my age.) At first glance, Effinger has chosen 1963 as the turning point, but no, he has actually gone back to a much earlier point (1941 is my guess) because only one of the cousins Patrick Bouvier Kennedy relies on in his Presidential campaign exists in our world, and for "Aunt Rosemary" to have had children, her operation in 1941 would have had to have turned out very differently. It's always dangerous to try to attribute motives to a writer, but I wonder if the idea of the sickly baby battling his way to health and success didn't have a special meaning for Effinger, who has himself had serious medical problems. Robert Sheckley, whose story in ALTERNATE PRESIDENTS had Michael Dukakis meeting aliens from outer space, now gives us "The Disorder and Early Sorrow of Edward Moore Kennedy, Homunculus," in which the eponymous character meets the Martians. Sheckley's stories all seem to have a manic paranoia to them, making them somewhat Dickian (no, not Dickensian), but they also frequently seem to have no point. Rosemary Kennedy appears in more stories than you might at first expect, but she is clearly the best example of how close some of our alternate worlds are. A few millimeters in one direction or another during her operation and she might have become a force to be reckoned with, as she is here in "Rosemary's Brain" by Martha Soukup. And finally, we have "Winterberry" by Nicholas A. DiChario. This, I believe, is a fitting closing to this anthology. I found it affecting (as have others), although some level of me also found it somewhat manipulative. Read it and judge for yourself. One problem with ALTERNATE KENNEDYS that surfaced somewhere around story number six or so is that reading story after story about the Kennedys can get pretty tiring. I would strongly suggest that anyone reading this anthology try to do it in pieces, and read other things between stories. (I, of course, had a review to get out, and no will power, so I did not take this advice.) Another slight stumbling block I had was that I was expecting something different from what I got. As you may have noted, I frequently comment on a story, "This isn't a real alternate history." This is *not* a negative comment: one of the stories I liked best, "Eoghan," was not an alternate history, and another, "Lady in Waiting," is just barely alternate history. But since the title ALTERNATE KENNEDYS led me to expect alternate history stories, I note when the story is not one. I had said in my review if ALTERNATE PRESIDENTS (also edited by Mike Resnick) that "most surprising is the absence of the obvious turning points. No one wrote about ... [John F.] Kennedy *not* being assassinated (any stories on the last may be being held for ALTERNATE KENNEDYS)." Well, they weren't. There have been some stories along this line already, of which the strangest is probably NATIONAL LAMPOON's "Grand Fifth Term Inaugural Issue: JFK's First 6,000 Days" (February 1977) in which Jackie Kennedy died in Dallas instead of JFK. (But there seem to have about as many with *Robert* Kennedy surviving his assassination attempt, including Pat Cadigan's "Dispatches from the Revolution," Nelson W. Polsby's "What if Robert Kennedy had not been assassinated (1968)," and William F. Nolan's "The Worlds of Monty Wilson.") On the whole this anthology is not nearly as strong as ALTERNATE PRESIDENTS. I can recommend the Cadigan, the Rusch, the Kress, the Mike Resnick, and the Malzberg, with the Gerrold and the Friesner as being fairly amusing as well. Some of the others have their points as well, but do not try to read too many at one time. Think of it as a box of candy and have only a piece or two at a time. Kennedy Family Overview They say you can't tell the players without a scorecard, so here's a quick summary of the Kennedy family: Joseph Patrick Kennedy (09/06/88--11/18/69) was married in 1914 to Rose Fitzgerald (b. 07/22/90). He was ambassador to Great Britain from 1937 to 1940. They had nine children: 1. Joseph Patrick Kennedy, Jr. (1915--08/12/44) was killed in combat. 2. Rosemary Kennedy (b. 1918) was diagnosed as mentally retarded and was lobotomized in 1941. What was supposed to have helped her instead turned her mild retardation into severe retardation. 3. John Fitzgerald Kennedy (05/29/17--11/22/63) was almost killed when his PT boat (PT-109) was sunk in 1943, but survived. He married Jacqueline Bouvier (b. 07/28/29) on 9/12/53. JFK was elected President in 1960 and assassinated on 11/22/63. They had three children: Caroline Bouvier (b. 11/27/57), John Fitzgerald Jr. (b. 11/25/60), and Patrick Bouvier who died in infancy in August 1963. (Jacqueline Kennedy married Aristotle Onassis in 1968; he died in 1975.) 4. Kathleen Kennedy (1920--1948) married the William Cavendish, the Marquess of Hartington (who died in 1944) and was killed in a plane crash. 5. Eunice Mary Kennedy (b. 1921) married R. Sargent Shriver (on 05/23/53); he was active in politics and was the Democratic vice- presidential candidate in 1972. They have five children: Robert Sargent III (b. 1954), Maria Ownings (b. 11/06/55, who married Arnold Schwarzenegger on 04/26/86), Timothy Perry (b. 1959), Mark Kennedy (b. 1964), and Anthony Paul (b. 1965). 6. Robert Francis Kennedy (11/20/25-06/06/68) married Ethel Skakel in 1950. He served as Attorney General while his brother was President and then as a Senator from New York. He was running for the Presidential nomination when he was assassinated on 06/06/68. They had eleven children: Kathleen Hartington (b. 1951), Joseph Patrick II (b. 1952), Robert Francis Jr. (b. 1954), David Anthony (1955-1984, of multiple-drug ingestion), Mary Courtney (b. 1956), Michael LeMoyne (b. 1958), Mary Kerry (b. 1959), Christopher George (b. 1963), Matthew Maxwell Taylor (b. 1965), Douglas Harriman (b. 1967), and Rory Elizabeth Katherine (b. 1968). 7. Patricia Kennedy (b. 1924) was married to the actor Peter Lawford in 1954 and divorced in 1966. They have four children: Christopher (b. 1955), Sydney Maleia (b. 1956), Victoria (b. 1958), and Robin (b. 1961). 8. Jean Ann Kennedy (b. 1928) married businessman Stephen Smith in 1956. They have five children: Stephen Edward Jr. (b. 1957), William Kennedy (b. 1960, who was recently acquitted of rape in Florida), Amanda Mary (b. 1967), and Kym Maria (b. 1972). 9. Edward Moore Kennedy (b. 02/22/32) married Virginia Joan Bennett in 1958; they were divorced in 1983. He was elected to the Senate in 1962. On 06/19/64, he was in a plane crash in which his back was broken. On 07/18/69, he drove his car off a bridge on Chappaquiddick Island, killing Mary Jo Kopechne. He staged an unsuccessful bid for the Presidential nomination in 1980, but remains a senator from Massachusetts. They have three children: Kara Anne (b. 1960), Edward Moore, Jr. (b. 1961, who lost a leg to bone cancer in 1973), and Patrick Joseph (b. 1967). (Note: shortly after I finished this, Kennedy remarried, this time to Victoria Anne Reggie on 07/03/92.) %B Alternate Kennedys %E Mike Resnick %C New York %D July 1992 %I Tor %O paperback, US$4.99 %G ISBN 0-812-51955-8 %P 398pp %T "Camelot Redux or, Jack Kennedy Seen as an Alternating Current" by Jane Yolen %T "A Fleeting Wisp of Glory" by Laura Resnick %T "In the Stone House" by Barry N. Malzberg %T "The Kennedy Enterprise" by David Gerrold %T "The Best and the Brightest" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch %T "The 1960 Presidential Campaign, Considered as a World Wrestling Federation Steel Cage Match or Short Count in Chicago" by Jack C. Haldeman II %T "Siren Song" by Susan Shwartz %T "Them Old Hyannis Blues" by Judith Tarr %T "Rosemary: Scrambled Eggs on a Blue Plate" by Alan Rodgers and James D. MacDonald %T "The Missing 35th President" by Brian M. Thomsen %T "Freedom" by Barbara Delaplace %T "A Massachusetts Yankee in King Arthur's Court" by Harry Turtledove %T "President-Elect" by Mark Aronson %T "No Prisoners" by Pat Cadigan %T "Lady in Waiting" by Mike Resnick %T "The Inga-Binga Affair" by Michael P. Kube-McDowell %T "Bobbygate" by Rick Katze %T "Now And in the Hour of Our Death" by Debra Doyle and James D. MacDonald %T "Eoghan" by Nancy Kress %T "'Til Death Do Us Part" by Charles Von Rospach %T "Gloria Remembers" by Brian M. Thomsen %T "Told You So" by Esther M. Friesner %T "The End of the Summer, by the Great Sea" by Ginjer Buchanan %T "Prince Pat" by George Alec Effinger %T "The Disorder and Early Sorrow of Edward Moore Kennedy, Homunculus" by Robert Sheckley %T "Rosemary's Brain" by Martha Soukup %T "Winterberry" by Nicholas A. DiChario Evelyn C. Leeper | +1 908 957 2070 | att!mtgzy!ecl or ecl@mtgzy.att.com From archive (archive) From: jcc@MIMSY.UMD.EDU (John Cherniavsky) Subject: Review of Ivory. M.Resnick. Small spoilers. Date: 7 Sep 88 18:21:10 GMT Ivory Mike Resnick Tor Books $17.95 A Review by John Cherniavsky. Copyright 1988. This is the newest Mike Resnick novel and contains elements that are different and elements that are similar to much of his previ- ous work. It appears to be set in a universe similar to the universe of the Velvet Comet, Galactic Sideshow, Dark Lady, etc. but with no explicit references to characters that appear in these previous novels (as opposed to his earlier work). His writing style is much like that of his recent novels, but with more care taken to narrate his story in fewer words. This is par- tially due to the structure of the novel, but Resnick also seems to have spent a fair amount of time researching this novel and perhaps spent more time on writing and revising the novel. The basic plot of the novel is a search for a pair of tusks by the last Masai assisted by a museum authenticator. The tusks came from a giant elephant known as the "Kilimanjaro Elephant" and the story line alternates between the elephant's thoughts as he trudges towards his death on Mt. Kilimanjaro, the search, and the history of the tusk ownership (told through vignettes the length of a short story). Masai life is described in great detail along with descriptions of the Masai vis-a-vis other African tribes and African nation states (particularly Kenya). The reason for the last Masai's quest is kept secret until the end of the novel; I'm not going to reveal it here, read the book yourself. I found the writing to be very good, the descriptions accurate (up to my lev- el of knowledge, I'm neither an anthropologist nor a sociolo- gist), and the story engrossing. The tusks of the "Kilimanjaro Elephant" actually exist in the British Museum. A photograph (circa 1898) of the tusks is included in the book. I highly recommend this book. All who like Resnick's writing will enjoy this novel. Those turned off by his earlier efforts should also enjoy it. One quibble. On the jacket, the novel is described as Resnick's first hardcover publication. Since I own two hardcovers of the Velvet Comet series, I found this claim jarring. From uucp Tue May 2 03:36 SST 1989 >From matoh Tue May 2 03:36:24 1989 remote from majestix.ida.liu.se Received: by sssab.se (smail2.5) id AA05916; 2 May 89 03:36:24 SST (Tue) Received: from majestix.ida.liu.se by sunic.sunet.se (5.61+IDA/KTH/LTH/1.44) id AAsunic26990; Mon, 1 May 89 03:54:55 +0200 Received: by majestix.ida.liu.se; Mon, 1 May 89 03:53:47 +0200 Date: Mon, 1 May 89 03:53:47 +0200 From: Mats Ohrman Message-Id: <8905010153.AA22791@majestix.ida.liu.se> To: matoh@sssab.se Status: RO Path: liuida!sunic!kth!mcvax!uunet!husc6!rutgers!att!mtuxo!mtgzx!leeper From: leeper@mtgzx.att.com (Mark R. Leeper) Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf-lovers,rec.arts.books Subject: IVORY by Mike Resnick Message-ID: <5008@mtgzx.att.com> Date: 28 Apr 89 00:58:15 GMT Organization: AT&T, Middletown NJ Lines: 46 Xref: liuida rec.arts.sf-lovers:20540 rec.arts.books:1138 IVORY by Mike Resnick Tor, 1988, ISBN 0-312-93093-3, $17.95. A book review by Mark R. Leeper There is a 1942 movie called TALES OF MANHATTAN that is a set of short stories--nearly unrelated--that follows a single dress shirt into and out of several people's lives. I think there was a made-for-television film that did the same thing with a handgun. Mike Resnick's 1988 novel IVORY is a collection of what are, for the most part, unrelated short stories tracking the history of one of the great game trophies of all time, a pair of huge tusks taken from what has come to be known as "The Kilimanjaro Elephant." There are about ten short stories and one connecting story about a computer researcher hired to track down the tusks by finding historical references to them. Resnick seems to have been consciously writing in the style of Asimov's "Foundation" trilogy. Asimov sectioned his trilogy into stories with titles such as "The Encyclopedists," "The General," and "The Mule." Resnick's stories have titles such as "The Gambler," "The Warlord," "The Thief," and "The Hunter." Further, like Asimov, Resnick tells his stories primarily through dialogue. Particularly in the earlier stories you experience the action through someone talking about it. Resnick gets off on the wrong foot by having the first story be an unimaginative game of poker--or some future equivalent of poker--with the tusks as stakes. This is very possibly the most unimaginative story one could think of of how the tusks might change hands. Have faith however, reader, the stories do get better--never good enough to really stand on their own, but the whole of IVORY is better than the sum of its parts. Resnick does have a disturbing habit of reusing names from the last fifty years of African history over a span of at least the next 6000 years. How many road names do we have today named for Egyptian pharaohs or buildings named for Babylonian kings? Also, there are many references and allusions to the last fifty years of African history but apparently none for the fifty years from 3000 to 3500 A.D. It's like the old STAR TREK series constantly referring to the 20th Century and rarely to the 21st. IVORY is not a book you will long remember having read. It is at best diverting. It is one of those mid-range books that will be quickly forgotten and that do not lead to very positive or very negative reviews. Mark R. Leeper att!mtgzz!leeper leeper@mtgzz.att.com Copyright 1989 Mark R. Leeper From rec.arts.sf.reviews Thu Sep 10 14:10:20 1992 Xref: herkules.sssab.se rec.arts.sf.reviews:125 rec.arts.sf.written:11009 Path: herkules.sssab.se!isy!liuida!sunic!mcsun!uunet!sun-barr!ames!ig!dont-reply-to-paths From: sef@kithrup.com (Sean Eric Fagan) Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.sf.written Subject: _Oracle_, by Mike Resnick (no spoilers!) Message-ID: <1992Sep08.100055.1177@kithrup.COM> Date: 9 Sep 92 18:08:28 GMT Sender: mcb@presto.ig.com Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Organization: Kithrup Enterprises, Ltd. Lines: 55 Approved: mcb@presto.ig.com (rec.arts.sf.reviews moderator) I picked up _Soothsayer_ in Safeway, a couple of months ago. Frankly, I didn't expect much. I mean, a book that I bought at a *supermarket*? But I had no other unread books, and I'd just had someone tell me Resnick was good, so... _Soothsayer_ shocked me. It was *good*. While the story and writing did have problems, they were small enough that I was quite willing to ignore them, especially since the *subject*, and how Resnick handled it, as well as the complications and the like, was so fascinating and well done. _Oracle_ is, obviously, the sequel to _Soothsayer_. It's a very different story, and told very differently, and, for most of the book, was *very* good. I was happy to see that it was out, and was not disappointed (much, at least; see below) after I finished reading it. I mentioned being somewhat disappointed. First of all, this is book two of what seems to be a trilogy (this is hinted at, very strongly, in the prologue, so I don't feel it's a spoiler). My second disappointment is caused by, or related to, the first: because he wants a third book, the ending to this story needs to be different from the way it *should* have ended. _Soothsayer_ pleased me a lot by not having an ending I would have predicted; although this has a different ending than I would have predicted, it is still a predictable ending. My last, and major, gripe with it is: THE ENDING SHOULD NOT HAVE HAPPENED! Given the abilities of the title character, what happened at the end is..., well, almost inconceivable. I felt cheated when I read that part of it, if, for no other reason, it was over in a few seconds of story-time (about two paragraphs or so). Despite that, I must say that I *liked* reading the book. I will probably reread it, as well as _Soothsayer_. However, I'm more likely to reread _Oracle_ than _Soothsayer_, because I think the actual story (up until that ending) is better. In any event, the book is recommended. The third book, which I assume will be called _Prophet_, will probably end up being what this book should have been, and also will probably be recommended. %A Mike Resnick %T Oracle %I Ace Science Fiction %C New York %D October 1992 %G ISBN 0-441-58694-5 %O paperback, US$4.99 ($5.99 CDN) %P 244 pp. -- Sean Eric Fagan | "You can't get lost in one room, no matter how sef@kithrup.COM | little effort you make to learn your way around." -----------------+ -- William E Davidsen (william@crd.GE.COM) Any opinions expressed are my own, and generally unpopular with others. From rec.arts.sf.reviews Thu Apr 29 16:39:26 1993 Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews Path: lysator.liu.se!isy!liuida!sunic!uunet!gumby!wupost!uhog.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!nobody From: Rex Croft Subject: "Lucifer Jones" by Mike Resnick Message-ID: <9304282105.AA28339@presto.ig.com> Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Sender: news@news.media.mit.edu (USENET News System) Organization: Date: Wed, 28 Apr 1993 22:45:57 GMT Approved: wex@media.mit.edu (Alan Wexelblat) Lines: 37 "Lucifer Jones" by Mike Resnick - reviewed by Rex Croft ccc_rex@waikato.ac.nz Mike Resnick's SciFi books are very good. With this book he has written a humourous fantasy set in a slightly altered Earth during the years 1926- 1934. The additions to the world include a dragon and a were-wolf. The "Cast of Characters" at the beginning of the book says: "And our narrator, the Right Reverend Honorable Doctor Lucifer Jones, a handsome, noble, and resourceful Christian gentleman who has certain unresolved differences with eighteen separate Asian and European governments over the finer points of the law." The novel is made of many short stories detailing Lucifer Jones' travels arround the world as he is evicted from each continent in turn. His attitude is that running a brothel is a good idea because then he would have a handy source of sinners to attend his services!! As Alan Dean Foster says, "Mike Resnick delivers pure entertainment and a rollicking good time." Highly recommended. PS: If someone could tell Nurse Jones that this should appeal to her sense of humour. %A Mike Resnick %T Lucifer Jones %I Questar Fantasy - Warner books. %C New York %D November 1992 %O paperback, US$4.99 %P 309 pp. %O ISBN 0-446-36319-7 %O Cover designed by Don Puckey, illustrated by Darrell Sweet From rec.arts.sf.reviews Wed Jun 16 14:57:32 1993 Path: lysator.liu.se!isy!liuida!sunic!mcsun!uunet!europa.eng.gtefsd.com!howland.reston.ans.net!agate!ames!pacbell.com!iggy.GW.Vitalink.COM!wetware!spunky.RedBrick.COM!psinntp!psinntp!dg-rtp!sheol!dont-reply-to-paths From: ccc_rex@waikato.ac.nz (Rex Croft) Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Subject: "Prophet" by Mike Resnick Approved: sfr%sheol@concert.net (rec.arts.sf.reviews moderator) Organization: University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand Message-ID: <1993Jun15.161148.17300@waikato.ac.nz> Date: 16 Jun 93 01:05:21 GMT Lines: 39 "Prophet" by Mike Resnick - reviewed by Rex Croft ccc_rex@waikato.ac.nz "Prophet" is the last in the trilogy started by "Soothsayer" and "Oracle" . They are all about the girl and then the woman Penelope who has the psychic ability to see the multitude of possible futures and select whichever one she wants. You should at least read "Soothsayer" before this one. These books are set in the same Universe as several other of Resnick's works. It is the far future and features people who have made their names famous - or infamous. It is like a western with shoot-outs in bars but transplanted into the future. Those that are lawless have bounties put on their head and the job of bounty hunter was created to hunt them down. The frontier of space is just so vast that the Democracy finds it cost effective to use bounty hunters. I assume most people are aware of Mike Resnick's excellent stories set in this millieu. This book is again about Iceman trying to find Penelope, because he believes her to be the most dangerous person. The science is all assumed. Spaceships exist and quickly take one anywhere. The books depend on the character's interactions, not on any technology. I have enjoyed all of the books set in this Universe and recommend them. %A Mike Resnick %T Prophet %I Ace %C New York %D June 1993 %O paperback, US$4.99 %P 243 pp. %G ISBN 0-441-68329-0 %S Soothsayer %V 3 %O Cover art by Keith Birdsong From rec.arts.sf.reviews Thu Oct 7 11:16:18 1993 Path: liuida!sunic!mcsun!uunet!spool.mu.edu!darwin.sura.net!udel!news.sprintlink.net!dg-rtp!sheol!dont-reply-to-paths From: Evelyn.Chimelis.Leeper@att.com Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Subject: ALTERNATE WARRIORS edited by Mike Resnick Approved: sfr%sheol@concert.net (rec.arts.sf.reviews moderator) Message-ID: <9310052309.ZM9917@mtgpfs1.mt.att.com> Date: 06 Oct 93 22:25:30 GMT Lines: 145 ALTERNATE WARRIORS edited by Mike Resnick A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper Copyright 1993 Evelyn C. Leeper Well, it's another Mike Resnick alternate history extravaganza. While I enjoyed the first two (ALTERNATE PRESIDENTS and ALTERNATE KENNEDYS), I found this one a disappointment. Maybe it's the focus. There seems to be a subgenre of science fiction these days that concentrates on the military, the bellicose, and the violent. Some of it is well-written, I know (Lois McMaster Bujold does a good job), but on the whole the category leaves me cold. (The claim has been made that this category is aimed at adolescent boys of all ages, so I'm sure some will say that's why I find it usually dull and often offensive in its glorification of battle, but there you have it.) Only the alternate history aspect of this anthology made it intriguing to me, and I found that part was often a let-down. Why? Well, let's see. First, though, let me talk about the *best* stories. "The Arrival of Truth" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch is told in the first person by a slave in an alternate antebellum South in which one could take literally the saying, "And ye shall know the Truth, and the Truth shall make you free." It's a human story, full of love and pain, and as the final story, a fitting cap to the theme. Beth Meacham's "One by One" is a tale of an alternate America where Tecumseh helped the British win the Battle of Detroit and the result was that the Shawnee held out successfully against the white incursion. Now a divided United States finds itself in a race war. Meacham does an excellent job of showing the conflicts between the Shawnee and the white people in a country where neither side could claim its complete superiority by conquest. And Barry N. Malzberg's "Fugato" is a very unusual--and compellinglook into an alternate Leonard Bernstein finding in France during World War II. The most complex piece in the book, it demands more attention than the stories around it, and may catch you off-guard if you don't expect it--sort of like jumping six-inch hurdles and suddenly coming up on a two- footer. Some of the stories don't seem to be real alternate histories in a strict sense. Resnick's own "Mwalimu in the Squared Circle" is an interesting character study, but there is no hint of anything changing in the world because of Nyerere's decision. Kathe Koja's "Ballad of the Spanish Civil Guard" doesn't even seem to be alternate history (at least based on everything I've read about Garcia Lorca). "The Battle of All Mothers" by Jack Nimersheim is an unlikely future for Mother Teresa but not an alternate history, and his "Mind over Matter" is similarly an unlikely future for Stephen Hawking. "The Cold Warrior" by Jack C. Haldeman II is a secret history of Marilyn Monroe rather than an alternate history. Other stories are clearly intended to be just plain silly: George Alec Effinger's "Albert Schweitzer and the Treasures of Atlantis," Lea Hernandez's "Al Einstein--Nazi Smasher!," Josepha Sherman's "Monsieur Verne and the Martian Invasion, and David Gerrold's "The Firebringers." They were, in their own way, entertaining enough, but there's been too many of this sort of silly alternate history story lately, and these lack that spark that would make them stand out. Some figures are more popular than others. Martin Luther King, Jr., for example, shows up in both "Taking Action" by Lawrence Schimel (which has an interesting interpretation of affirmative action) and "Death of a Dream" by Jack C. Haldeman II (a more serious look at "what if?"). Popes also show up twice, in "The Vatican Outfit" by Laura Resnick (which maybe should have been in the silly category above) and "The Mark of the Angel" by Tappan King (this one is actually more a secret history than an alternate history as well). Other religious figures abound: Francis of Assisi in "...But the Sword!" by Anthony R. Lewis (interesting idea but told too much as a history lesson full of dates and battles than as a story with a character), Moses in Bill Fawcett's "Zealot," Thomas Becket (rendered variously as "Thomas Beket" and "Thomas Beckett" in the book, neither correct) in Michelle Sagara's "For Love of God," and (naturally) Jesus in Brad Linaweaver's "Unmerited Favor." It may be because the stories had to be about "warriors," but all these seem to concentrate more on the fighting than on the religious or philosophical ideas inherent in the concepts. I enjoy religious alternate histories the best of all, because there is where one sees the most philosophy, but these lack that. The remaining stories are less easily categorized. "Jane's Fighting Ships" by Esther M. Friesner has a cute idea (Jane Austen and Davey Crockett against Napoleon), but left me saying, "So what?" Or rather, thinking what an unlikely and unconvincing premise this was. In Michael P. Kube- McDowell's "Because Thou Lovest the Burning-Ground," Mohandas Gandhi takes another path (though not the rocket-launcher and Rambo look on the rather annoying cover--nor is the name "Mahatma" on the back-cover blurb accurate), and does have some interesting and accurate Indian history in it. (But then, Kube-McDowell usually does his research well.) I don't know my Egyptian history well enough to appreciate "Tut's Wife" by Maureen F. McHugh, and "Queen of Asia" by Judith Tarr similarly escapes me, though to a lesser degree. After "The Winterberry" in ALTERNATE KENNEDYS, I found Nicholas A. DiChario's "Extreme Feminism" disappointing and predictable. In "Jihad" by Mercedes Lackey, T. E. Lawrence becomes a different kind of warrior, but the story didn't make me care about any of it. Similarly, "A Sense of Loyalty, a Sense of Betrayal" by Brian Thomsen does nothing for me. If you are more interested in Sidney Reilley ("Ace of Spies"), you will probably enjoy it more. "Sam Clemens and the Notable Mare" by Mel. White borders on the silly. Barbara Delaplace"s "Standing Firm" has Neville Chamberlain and Winston Churchill debating the Sudetenland; it's an alternate history, so we know what happens--but then the story ends. I want to see the effects of the change, not just the change itself. (This flaw occurs in other stories as well, but is the most obvious here.) So there are three excellent stories (the Malzberg, the Rusch, and the Meacham) and several that are enjoyable enough for the moment. But ALTERNATE WARRIORS is definitely not up to ALTERNATE PRESIDENTS or ALTERNATE KENNEDYS. (On the other hand, those two anthologies had three Hugo nominees between them, so this third volume had quite a reputation to try to live up to.) We'll have to see if Resnick's next alternate history anthology (either ALTERNATE OUTLAWS or BY ANY OTHER FAME) is an improvement. %B Alternate Warriors %E Mike Resnick %C New York City %D September 1993 %I Tor %O paperback, US$4.99 %G ISBN 0-812-52346-6 %P 434pp %T "Standing Firm" by Barbara Delaplace %T "Extreme Feminism" by Nicholas A. DiChario %T "Albert Schweitzer and the Treasures of Atlantis" by George Alec Effinger %T "Zealot" by Bill Fawcett %T "Jane's Fighting Ships" by Esther M. Friesner %T "The Firebringers" by David Gerrold %T "The Cold Warrior" by Jack C. Haldeman II %T "Death of a Dream" by Jack C. Haldeman II %T "Al Einstein--Nazi Smasher!" by Lea Hernandez %T "The Mark of the Angel" by Tappan King %T "Ballad of the Spanish Civil Guard" by Kathy Koja %T "Because Thou Lovest the Burning-Ground" by Michael P. Kube-McDowell %T "Jihad" by Mercedes Lackey %T "...But the Sword!" by Anthony R. Lewis %T "Unmerited Favor" by Brad Linaweaver %T "Tut's Wife" by Maureen F. McHugh %T "Fugato" by Barry N. Malzberg %T "One by One" by Beth Meacham %T "The Battle of All Mothers" by Jack Nimersheim %T "Mind over Matter" by Jack Nimersheim %T "The Vatican Outfit" by Laura Resnick %T "Mwalimu in the Squared Circle" by Mike Resnick %T "The Arrival of Truth" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch %T "For Love of God" by Michelle Sagara %T "Taking Action" by Lawrence Schimel %T "Monsieur Verne and the Martian Invasion" by Josepha Sherman %T "Queen of Asia" by Judith Tarr %T "A Sense of Loyalty, a Sense of Betrayal" by Brian Thomsen %T "Sam Clemens and the Notable Mare" by Mel. White -- Evelyn C. Leeper | +1 908 957 2070 | ecl@mtgpfs1.att.com / Evelyn.Leeper@att.com From rec.arts.sf.reviews Wed Jan 12 13:00:15 1994 Xref: liuida rec.arts.sf.reviews:461 alt.history.what-if:3118 rec.arts.books:73690 alt.books.reviews:1975 Path: liuida!sunic!pipex!howland.reston.ans.net!gatech!udel!news.sprintlink.net!dg-rtp!sheol!dont-reply-to-paths From: Evelyn.Chimelis.Leeper@att.com Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews,alt.history.what-if,rec.arts.books,alt.books.reviews Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Subject: BY ANY OTHER FAME edited by Mike Resnick and Martin H. Greenberg Approved: sfr%sheol@concert.net (rec.arts.sf.reviews moderator) Message-ID: <9401091057.ZM643@mtgpfs1.mt.att.com> Date: 10 Jan 94 02:55:50 GMT Lines: 95 BY ANY OTHER FAME edited by Mike Resnick and Martin H. Greenberg DAW, ISBN 0-88677-594-9, 1994, US$4.99. A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper Copyright 1993 Evelyn C. Leeper I like to read alternate histories. Many people use the terms "alternate history," "alternate universe/world," and "parallel universe/world" interchangeably, but they are not the same. Alternate histories are about history. Maybe I'm just being contentious, but a re- telling of THE MALTESE FALCON with Gypsy Rose Lee as the detective is not, to my mind, about history. Now to be fair, I should say that BY ANY OTHER FAME is not billed as an anthology of alternate history stories. It's billed as an anthology of "23 alternate futures of the world's most famous and infamous celebrities"--a description equally inaccurate, since almost all of the stories are set in the past. DAW's back-cover label of them as "What if?" stories is more accurate, though the fact that Golda Meir's name is misspelled in the blurb suggests that accuracy is not a high priority there in any case. Given, therefore, that I read alternate history stories for the historical content, I have to say that I found BY ANY OTHER FAME disappointing. The best story--and perhaps even the only good story--is Kristine Katheryn Rusch's "Sinner-Saints," about Lillian Hellman, Dashiell Hammett, and the House Un-American Activities Committee with-hunts of the 1950s. There's history, there's characterization, there's meat--all missing from most of the other stories. The only other story I enjoyed was "A Bubble for a Minute" by Dean Wesley Smith, in which the main character discovers that history may not be what it seems, and that it's far from dead. It uses an old idea, but Smith executes it well. (The same idea is used by Janet Kagan in "Space Cadet," which immediately follows "A Bubble for a Minute"--very poor placement in my opinion, since it forces the reader to compare the two. Kagan's piece also strikes me as derivative of Pamela Sargent's "Danny Goes to Mars" and has the same mean-spiritedness of the latter. I am no fan of the main character of these stories, but I still see the stories as somewhat childish attacks.) Twelve stories--more than half the stories in the book--center around Hollywood stars or other figures in the entertainment industry. And too many of them have not just one person following a different path, but several, and for apparently unrelated causes. Where is Occam's Razor when you need it? Also too prevalent are familiar stories retold with other participants (e.g., Gypsy Rose Lee in "The Fifteen-Minute Falcon" and Amelia Earhart in "The DEFIANT Disaster"). Laura Resnick's "Under a Sky More Fiercely Blue" has at least some relation to history, as does Michelle Sagara's "Four Attempts at a Letter" (though this is more musings on an alternate event than the possible outcomes of it) and Barry N. Malzberg's "Hitler at Nuremburg." I suppose the cover illustration (Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley, Humphrey Bogart, and film sprockets) should have given me a clue, but I have to say I found this a disappointing anthology and hope that Resnick's future "alternate" anthologies go back to the history part. When they focus on history, they're some of the best around. (It's also true that his more historical ones seem to have been done for Tor, so it may be that he has different types of anthologies for different publishers. It is true that Resnick seems to have suggested topics to the authors for many of the stories, so perhaps he was aiming for something less historical here.) %B By Any Other Fame %E Mike Resnick %E Martin H. Greenberg %C New York %D January 1994 %I DAW %O paperback, US$4.99 %G ISBN 0-88677-594-9 %P 316pp %T "Farewell, My Buddy" by Barbara Delaplace %T "A Night on the Plantation" by Brian Thomsen %T "Allegro Marcato" by Barry N. Malzberg %T "Four Attempts at a Letter" by Michelle Sagara %T "The Fifteen-Minute Falcon" by George Alec Effinger %T "Dance Track" by MercedesLackey & Larry Dixon %T "Would He Do Woody?" by Nicholas A. DiChario %T "The Wages of Sin" by Jack Nimersheim %T "Franz Kafka--Superhero!" by David Gerrold %T "If Horses Were Wishes..." by Ginjer Buchanan %T "Ars Longa" by Nancy Kress %T "A Dream Can Make a Difference" by Beth Meacham %T "Under a Sky More Fiercely Blue" by Laura Resnick %T "Sinner-Saints" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch %T "Out of Sight" by Janni Simner %T "Mother, Mae I?" by Lawrence Schimel %T "The DEFIANT Disaster" by Kate Daniel %T "South of Eden, Somewhere Near Salinas" by Jack C. Haldeman II %T "Clem, the Little Copper" by Tom Easton %T "A Bubble for a Minute" by Dean Wesley Smith %T "Space Cadet" by Janet Kagan %T "Hitler at Nuremburg" by Barry N. Malzberg %T "Elvis Invictus" by Judith Tarr -- Evelyn C. Leeper | +1 908 957 2070 | ecl@mtgpfs1.att.com / Evelyn.Leeper@att.com From rec.arts.sf.reviews Sat Aug 28 11:52:10 1993 Path: liuida!sunic!mcsun!uunet!psinntp!dg-rtp!sheol!dont-reply-to-paths From: pcrxs@nasagiss.giss.nasa.gov (R.B. Schmunk) Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Subject: Review: Resnick's ALTERNATE WARRIORS Approved: sfr%sheol@concert.net (rec.arts.sf.reviews moderator) Message-ID: <9308261703.AA27417@presto.ig.com> Date: 26 Aug 93 21:37:09 GMT Lines: 205 ALTERNATE WARRIORS Edited by Mike Resnick A book review by R.B. Schmunk (Copyright 1993) Another year, another alternate history anthology. Over the last four years, six previous anthologies have appeared, edited either by Greg Benford & Martin Greenberg (the "What Might Have Been" series) or by Mike Resnick. Just published is number seven, ALTERNATE WARRIORS, which is Resnick's third entry in the apparent competition. The quality of the various volumes has varied; for example, Resnick's ALTERNATE PRESIDENTS was very good and his ALTERNATE KENNEDYS was hit-and-miss. It seems to be my sad duty to report that ALTERNATE WARRIORS is somewhat closer to the latter. While I found no stories in this new book to be outright turkeys, I also found very few to be really gripping. The premise of ALTERNATE WARRIORS is one that seems to have been slowly taking over the genre in the last year or two. Rather than chart the rise and fall of alternate empires, to examine how a battle might have gone the other way, the stories in ALTERNATE WARRIORS examine how some historical person, usually well- known, might have lived a different life. As the title suggests, the stories in this particular volume generally focus on that life involving a more war-like direction. Its cover demonstrates the extreme to which the idea might be pushed, showing Mohandas Gandhi carrying a rocket-launcher, a scene obviously derived from one of the RAMBO movie posters. The alternate-life focus of ALTERNATE WARRIORS unfortunately carries with it a major burden. By focusing on the life of a single person, the bulk of the stories also ignore the historical consequences which necessarily flow from that life. Perhaps writers feel it is sufficient to only show how history might have changed, but one suspects that many just don't want to think through the numerous possible results of the change they inflict. In any event, by ignoring the sweep of history, an alternate history writer *must* make the character(s) come alive in order for his story to be interesting. (Many alternate histories partially escape this requirement by presenting an intriguing history, all be it at the expense of an interesting story.) If the quality of writing is at best average, then the reader is often left to ask "So what?" After too many of the stories in ALTERNATE WARRIORS, I found myself asking that question. A number of the tales in ALTERNATE WARRIORS convert great pacifists into fighters. Michael P. Kube-McDowell's "Because Thou Lovest the Burning-Ground" is the cover story, and in it Gandhi becomes a Thuggee cultist. In Brad Linaweaver's "Unmerited Favor", Jesus preaches a more militant line and hands out swords to his followers. The life of Martin Luther King, Jr. receives the attentions of two authors: Jack C. Haldeman in "Death of a Dream" and Lawrence Schimel in "Taking Action". In the former King is smeared with scandal by J. Edgar Hoover before he can deliver the "I Have a Dream" speech, thus derailing the civil rights movement and eventually leading to an oppressive law-and-order president; in the latter, King is haunted by precognition of such events as the Rodney King beating and his tactics take a violent bent from the start. The last such tale is Anthony R. Lewis's "...But the Sword!", in which Francis Bernardone of Assisi becomes a crusader rather than a priest. This story perhaps hews closest to the standard alternate history tale, in which describes a series of historical events over a period of several years, but that seems to be about all it does. Of these five stories, Haldeman's "Death of a Dream" is the only one I found of any interest, but it was marred by what I assume to be an editor or proofreader's error. A close reading reveals that the story could not occur any earlier than 1977, but the beginning of the story clearly states that it is St. Patrick's Day 1975. A second group of stories also involve people who achieved success in a non- violent manner, but who are perhaps not so well-known for their pacifism. Mike Resnick's "Mwalimu in the Squared Circle" (which previously appeared in the March 1993 issue of Asimov's) examines what the fight would have been like if Julius Nyrere accepted Idi Amin's challenge to a boxing match in order to end the Tanzania-Uganda war of 1980 before it bankrupts his country. In Kristine Kathryn Rusch's "The Arrival of Truth", Sojourner Truth is marching through the South telling the slaves to take what is theirs and the slaves at one Virginia plantation are eagerly await her coming. Michelle Sagara takes a look at the relationship between Thomas a Beket and Henry II in "For Love of God", and wonders what if Beket had fled England before Henry could cry out "Who will rid me of this turbulent priest?". In Nicholas A. DiChario "Extreme Feminism", Susan B. Anthony's struggle for women's suffrage takes an unfortunate turn. Tappan King drops an amnesiac Angelo Roncalli, later Pope John XXIII, into the middle of France's World War II Resistance. And in Bill Fawcett's "Zealot", Moses has led his people into guerrilla warfare, and they are besieged within one of pharaoh's palaces. Happily, of these stories, I only found DiChario's to be less than interesting. Fawcett's story had a stunning conclusion, though in retrospect, I admit that I should have seen it coming. And while the he may not have been a real pacifist, one story takes a look at a man whose name is not fondly remembered for trying to avoid war. In Barbara Delaplace's "Standing Firm", Neville Chamberlain is debating with himself what course to take when meeting Hitler at Munich, even going so far as to meet with that notorious proponent of appeasement, Winston Churchill. From the start, though, it is obvious what direction Delaplace is leading Chamberlain, and the story ends much too soon. In three tales, artists are made warriors. Esther Friesner wonders what if author Jane Austen had met Davey Crockett in 1811 England, 13 years after that country had been invaded and conquered by Napoleon, in "Jane's Fighting Ships". Mark Twain makes an appearance in Mel. White's "Sam Clemens and the Notable Mare", but it could be said that his horse is more of a warrior than he is. The third such tale, Barry N. Malzberg's "Fugato", is my choice for the best story in the book. It is set in a 1944 Ardennes farmhouse, where infantryman Leonard Bernstein is looking back on the road that led him from the conductor's podium to confrontation with death. Like a number of Malzberg's previous alternate histories (e.g., "Heavy Metal" and "In the Stone House"), "Fugato" is told in a mild stream-of-consciousness manner, which sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. This time it succeeds, admirably. Warriors who actually were take on different characteristics in three other stories. Mercedes Lackey's gives T.E. Lawrence a Saul-like transformation in "Jihad"; Brian Thomsen has Reilly, ace of spies, plotting in Bolshevik Russia; and Beth Meacham has Tecumseh saving the British at the Battle of the Thames (Detroit). This last title is an oddity in this particular anthology, as its alternate warrior makes no appearance in the story. Its setting, 175 years or so after the divergence in an "Indiana" torn by political violence, renders it more akin to the standard alternate history story. In any event, I found the Meacham to be the only story of interest in this group. Two tales involve women of ancient times, and if they are not made warriors, they at least strive for power. Maureen F. McHugh's "Tut's Wife" takes a look at the young widow of Tutankhamen, who simultaneously is trying to promote the monotheistic faith of Aten and to maintain her future safety. More interesting, though, is Judith Tarr's "Queen of Asia", in which Sisygambis is so dismayed by the cowardice of her son Darius that she has him killed and then assumes the regency of Persia. "Queen of Asia" might also be considered a double-edged tale of alternate warriors, since a warrior we all have heard of, Alexander the Great of Macedon, is cast here in a roll which he never had to assume in our history. A few of the stories in ALTERNATE WARRIORS might be thought of as humors for their varying degrees of levity. Perhaps the least tongue-in-cheek is David Gerrold's "The Firebringers", which argues the morality of dropping an atomic bomb on a civilian target by taking men we remember as famous Hollywood stars and making them members of a bomber crew. Josepha Sherman's "Monsieur Verne and the Martian Invasion" is set in a steampunkish 19th century, and here the great inventor Jules Verne discovers and fights a creature from outer space. In "The Vatican Outfit", Laura Resnick has Pope John Paul I saved from his alleged assassination by Mafiosi and then gradually converted to their management techniques. Finally, Lea Hernandez turns Albert Einstein in a Bond-esque secret agent in "Al Einstein--Nazi Smasher!" The Gerrold tale is the only story in this bunch which I found of any interest, presumably because the humor in the others was not of a type that I have ever cared for, but because it treads the same ground as did Kim Stanley Robinson in his classic "The Lucky Strike", my interest was not greatly piqued. As always seem to happen in any alternate history anthology, ALTERNATE WARRIORS includes a few stories which are not really alternate history. George Alec Effinger's "Albert Schweitzer and the Treasures of Atlantis" is a bit of a tribute to a certain tree-swinging hero, and Jack C. Haldeman, II's tale of Marilyn Monroe, "The Cold Warrior", is actually a secret history about the Cuban missile crisis. Jack Nimersheim's two stories, "The Battle of All Mothers" and "Mind over Matter", about Mother Theresa and Stephen Hawking respectively, are set in near futures. Finally, there is Kathy Koja's "Ballad of the Spanish Civil Guard", an interesting mood piece about the arrest of Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca by the Fascists. (There is a possibility that "Ballad" really is an alternate history, but my extremely limited knowledge about Garcia says that is not.) Of these four stories, "Mind over Matter" is perhaps the most interesting, but its theme of scientific responsibility is one I have encountered in many, many stories before (e.g., Michael Crichton's SPHERE and JURASSIC PARK). Thus, among ALTERNATE WARRIORS' 29 stories, the Malzberg is the only one I greatly recommend. Others that are highly readable are the Fawcett, Meacham, Mike Resnick, Rusch, Sagara, and Tarr and Haldeman's "Death of a Dream". Alternate history fans will, of course, want a copy of the book fore completeness if nothing else. I cannot recommend it to other readers unless they feel that the . cover price is reasonable for nine decent stories. %A Mike Resnick (ed) %B ALTERNATE WARRIORS %I Tor %C New York City %D 1993 %G ISBN 0-812-52346-6 %O paperback, US$4.99 %T "A Sense of Loyalty, a Sense of Betrayal" (Thomsen, Brian) %T "Al Einstein--Nazi Smasher!" (Hernandez, Lea) %T "Albert Schweitzer and the Treasures of Atlantis" (Effinger, George Alec) %T "The Arrival of Truth" (Rusch, Kristine Kathryn) %T "Ballad of the Spanish Civil Guard" (Koja, Kathy) %T "The Battle of All Mothers" (Nimersheim, Jack) %T "Because Thou Lovest the Burning-Ground" (Kube-McDowell, Michael P.) %T "...But the Sword!" (Lewis, Anthony R.) %T "The Cold Warrior" (Haldeman, Jack C., II) %T "Death of a Dream" (Haldeman, Jack C., II) %T "Extreme Feminism" (DiChario, Nicholas A.) %T "The Firebringers" (Gerrold, David) %T "For Love of God" (Sagara, Michelle) %T "Fugato" (Malzberg, Barry N.) %T "Jane's Fighting Ships" (Friesner, Esther M.) %T "Jihad" (Lackey, Mercedes) %T "The Mark of the Angel" (King, Tappan) %T "Mind over Matter" (Nimersheim, Jack) %T "Monsieur Verne and the Martian Invasion" (Sherman, Josepha) %T "Mwalimu in the Squared Circle" (Resnick, Mike) %T "One by One" (Meacham, Beth) %T "Queen of Asia" (Tarr, Judith) %T "Sam Clemens and the Notable Mare" (White, Mel.) %T "Standing Firm" (Delaplace, Barbara) %T "Taking Action" (Schimel, Lawrence) %T "Tut's Wife" (McHugh, Maureen F.) %T "Unmerited Favor" (Linaweaver, Brad) %T "The Vatican Outfit" (Resnick, Laura) %T "Zealot" (Fawcett, Bill) -- R.B. Schmunk NASA/Goddard Institute, 2880 Broadway, New York, NY 10025 USA From rec.arts.sf.written Mon Nov 29 14:10:15 1993 Path: liuida!sunic!pipex!howland.reston.ans.net!cs.utexas.edu!not-for-mail From: roberts@decus.arc.ab.ca (Rob Slade, Ed. DECrypt & ComNet, VARUG rep, 604-984-4067) Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written Subject: Second Contact by Resnick Date: 28 Nov 1993 22:14:40 -0600 Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway Lines: 56 Sender: daemon@cs.utexas.edu Message-ID: <9311290421.AA16534@eureka.arc.ab.ca> NNTP-Posting-Host: news.cs.utexas.edu BK2NDCNT.RVW 931014 Tor Books 49 West 24th Street New York, NY 10010 "Second Contact", Resnick, 1990, U$3.95/C$4.95 The jacket blurb states that this book is a treat for anyone who likes "computers, science fiction, or just a plain good read." The "good read" part is going to depend on personal preference: the science fiction part seems to be almost a side issue. The computer enthusiasts will be presented alternately with ideas and giggles. The book is set seventy-five years into the future. Neither politics nor technology appears to have advanced very far and, with a publication date just before the "Seven Days That Shook the World" (as CNN would have it), the major national security concern of the US is still "Russian spies". (Interestingly, the book lists the US, Russia, China and Brazil as spacefaring nations, while the cover shows a clear shot of a "NASA/ESA" logo on a rocket-like device.) Computers equipped with voice recognition still cannot deal with more than one speaker. At one point a computer retailer tells one character that if the modem (what happened to ISDN?) she is trying isn't fast enough, they have one that will transmit at "38,400 baud." (If the author isn't just confusing baud and "bits per second" this indicates some improvement over "voice grade" lines, but hardly enough for the seemingly ubiquitous "vidphones" unless trellis coding has gotten *really* sophisticated.) None of the data security or communication issues raised are terribly sophisticated. The author has apparently never heard of telnet capabilities or the like. As usual in fictional accounts, the "hacker" is not only skilled with computers, but is a phone phreak as well. Two of the security topics are of some interest. One is the account of files being secured by "moving". The concept of "security by obscurity" is justifiably condemned, but it is true that leaving "standard" accounts open or having "standard" directory and file structures is, to a certain extent, a potential security loophole. The next logical step, beyond putting files in a non-standard location, is to keep moving the files. Unfortunately, there must be a way to retrieve the files, so somewhere there must be a pointer to them. The other point regards database security. At one stage of the plot, the heroes are trying to track the identity of an individual who is "classified to the max." By using the database inference problem, they are able to pinpoint his location. The example is somewhat simplistic, but involves generating a number of queries and discarding the ones the computer does *not* reject as classified. The topic of alien contact, suggested by the title, is really of relatively minor importance. A computer security whimsy in sf clothing. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1993 BK2NDCNT.RVW 931014 Permission granted to distribute with unedited copies of the Digest ====================== DECUS Canada Communications, Desktop, Education and Security group newsletters Editor and/or reviewer ROBERTS@decus.ca, RSlade@sfu.ca, Rob Slade at 1:153/733 DECUS Symposium '94, Vancouver, BC, Mar 1-3, 1994, contact: rulag@decus.ca From rec.arts.sf.reviews Wed Apr 6 17:43:24 1994 Path: lysator-ifm-isy.liu.se!lysator.liu.se!news.kth.se!sunic!pipex!bnr.co.uk!corpgate!news.utdallas.edu!rdxsunhost.aud.alcatel.com!aur.alcatel.com!news From: aaron@amisk.cs.ualberta.ca (Humphrey Aaron V) Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Prograde Reviews--Mike Resnick:Purgatory Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Date: Sun, 27 Mar 1994 15:18:35 GMT Organization: not specified Lines: 53 Approved: sfr%sheol@concert.net (rec.arts.sf.reviews moderator) Message-ID: <94Mar25.183516-0700.138602@amisk.cs.ualberta.ca> NNTP-Posting-Host: aursag.aur.alcatel.com Mike Resnick:Purgatory A Prograde Review by Aaron V. Humphrey When I looked at the author photo on the dust jacket of _Purgatory_, I was mildly surprised to find out that Mike Resnick is not black. This is, I think, a compliment. Having read a few of his Kirinyaga stories in Asimov's, and now this book, I find it clear that Resnick has an abiding interest in Africa, at least, and a very good voice for talking about it. The subtitle proclaims that the book has to do with a distant world. Resnick, in his Foreword, notes that this book is about the alien world of Karimon, certainly not the African nation of Zimbabwe. Methinks he doth protest too much. The book clearly _is_ about Zimbabwe, and Resnick is indirectly apprising us of this fact. I don't claim to be an expert on the history of Zimbabwe, and I suspect that Resnick might have mixed in some other elements of African history. One section of the book, "Wilcock's Castle", which deals with the discovery of a buried structure, which archaeologists conclude could _never_ have been built by these _primitive_ Karimoni, is obviously about the ruins of Zimbabwe itself. That said, it's still an engaging story, though I hope anyone who reads it shakes their head, or something stronger, at the actions of most of the humans with regard to Karimon and its inhabitants. "Earthman's Burden" indeed. It has been often quoted that if we ever meet a primitive alien race, it will suffer the same fate as did the African tribes, or Amerinds. This is the clearest depiction of it I've seen, although that may be because it's based on a real-life example in such detail... It disturbed me and made me vaguely guilty. And that, I imagine, is what Resnick was aiming for. %A Resnick, Mike %T Purgatory: A Chronicle of A Distant World %I Tor %C New York %D March 1993 %G ISBN 0-312-85275-4 %P 320 pp. %O Hardcover -- --Alfvaen(Editor of Communique) Current Album--Neil Diamond:Stones Current Read--Robert Reed:The Remarkables "curious george swung down the gorge/the ants took him apart" --billbill From rec.arts.sf.reviews Sun May 8 03:35:11 1994 Xref: liuida rec.arts.sf.reviews:569 rec.arts.books:85351 alt.books.reviews:3288 Path: liuida!sunic!EU.net!howland.reston.ans.net!agate!postmodern.com!not-for-mail From: Evelyn.Chimelis.Leeper@att.com (Evelyn C Leeper) Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.books,alt.books.reviews Subject: WILL THE LAST PERSON TO LEAVE THE PLANET PLEASE SHUT OFF THE SUN? Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Date: 7 May 1994 23:13:45 GMT Organization: University of California, Berkeley Lines: 71 Approved: mcb@postmodern.com (rec.arts.sf.reviews moderator) Message-ID: <9405021518.ZM6824@mtgpfs1.mt.att.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: remarque.berkeley.edu Originator: mcb@remarque.berkeley.edu WILL THE LAST PERSON TO LEAVE THE PLANET PLEASE SHUT OFF THE SUN? by Mike Resnick Tor, ISBN 0-312-85276-2, 1992, 353pp, US$19.95. A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper Copyright 1994 Evelyn C. Leeper This collection contains twenty-eight of Mike Resnick's short stories, including several Hugo- and Nebula-award nominated (and winning) stories. And it has all the pluses of many of Resnick's anthologies (for which I might note he was just nominated for another Hugo, this time as Best Pro Editor)--and all the minuses. On the plus side there are some outstanding stories, including "Kirinyaga" (winner of the Hugo for Best Short Story, and nominated for the Nebula for Best Novelette--don't ask me to explain the rules!), "For I Have Touched the Sky" (nominated for both the Nebula and the Hugo for Best Novelette), "Winter Solstice," (nominated for the Hugo for Best Short Story), and "The Light That Blinds, the Claws That Catch," and "Winter Solstice." The first two are stories in resnick's "Kirinyaga" cycle--and one hopes the entire series will be collected in a single volume. (The latest, "A Little Knowledge," is in the April issue of ASIMOV'S SCIENCE FICTION, and is already on my list of stories to nominate for the Hugo next year.) "Winter Solstice" won the "Alexander" (the award of the Science Fiction Club at AT&T--named for Alexander Graham Bell, of course). "The Light That Blinds, the Claws That Catch" is an alternate history of what might have happened if Theodore Roosevelt's wife had not died in childbirth in 1884. Resnick has written several alternate Teddy Roosevelt stories, but unlike his "Kirinyaga" stories, these are mutually exclusive rather than connected. On the minus side is the sheer volume of stories, which means that it's almost inevitable that some will be primarily filler material. Whether it's better to get more stories or a higher percentage of great stories is a matter for debate, I suppose, but the lower quality of some of the pieces tends to bring the overall rating of the collection down. And Resnick's introductions to the stories, while frequently enlightening, can also be irritating. No one can introduce twenty-eight of their own pieces in a row without beginning to sound just a little self-aggrandizing, so I suppose this may be inevitable. On the other hand, reading this book a bit at a time instead of straight through would probably solve this problem, and Resnick doesn't give away any surprises in them (an occasional failing elsewhere). If nothing else, his introduction to "Kirinyaga" serves to remind us that there's probably some *great* stuff buried in LAST DANGEROUS VISIONS. On balance, I recommend this collection. It *is* the definitive collection of the short fiction of an author who has, in spite, of his own intentions otherwise, found himself one of the leading short story writers of the last decade, and provides a wide sample of his work. [Resnick has again been nominated for the Hugo for Best Short Story this year for "Mwalimu in the Squared Circle" in addition to his nomination as Best Pro Editor. This makes eight Hugo nominations with two wins for his writing, and six Nebula nominations, not counting this year's Nebulas, which I don't seem to have anywhere.] %A Resnick, Mike %B Will the Last Person to Leave the Planet Please Shut Off the Sun? %I Tor %C New York %D August 1992 %G ISBN 0-312-85276-2 %O US$19.95 %P 353pp, hc -- Evelyn C. Leeper | +1 908 957 2070 | Evelyn.Leeper@att.com "The Internet is already an information superhighway, except that ... it is like driving a car through a blizzard without windshield wipers or lights, and all of the road signs are written upside down and backwards." --Dave Barry Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.books,alt.books.reviews,alt.history.what-if Path: news.ifm.liu.se!liuida!sunic!pipex!howland.reston.ans.net!ix.netcom.com!netcom.com!postmodern.com!not-for-mail From: ecl@mtgpfs1.mt.att.com (Evelyn C Leeper) Subject: ALTERNATE OUTLAWS edited by Mike Resnick Message-ID: <9410311355.ZM10384@mtgpfs1.mt.att.com> Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Sender: mcb@postmodern.com (Michael C. Berch) Organization: The Internet Date: Mon, 7 Nov 1994 18:41:03 GMT Approved: mcb@postmodern.com (rec.arts.sf.reviews moderator) Lines: 114 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.sf.reviews:656 rec.arts.books:100851 alt.books.reviews:5966 alt.history.what-if:8941 ALTERNATE OUTLAWS edited by Mike Resnick Tor, ISBN 0-812-53344-5, 1994, 402pp, $4.99 A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper Copyright 1994 Evelyn C. Leeper I like alternate history stories. I like the game of saying, "Well, what might have happened if John Wilkes Booth's gun has misfired, or if the Nazis had developed an atomic bomb, or even if Fidel Castro had pursued a career in baseball?" But just saying, "Hey, let's take a bunch of famous people and make them all outlaws, regardless of likelihood, or even of time or place" is not something that does a whole lot for me. And this is probably why I enjoyed Resnick's ALTERNATE PRESIDENTS and ALTERNATE KENNEDYS more than his ALTERNATE WARRIORS or ALTERNATE OUTLAWS. In the first two, usually the stories were about what made the people famous; in the last two, frequently all that remains of the celebrity is the name. Certainly this is the case in the first story in this anthology, "Ma Teresa and the Hole-in-the-Wall Gang" by Jack C. Haldeman II. While clearly intended as a humorous story (witness some of the puns contained therein), this tale of Mother Teresa, Albert Einstein, and Albert Schweitzer as bandits in the Wild West just throws famous people from different eras together in yet another era with no explanation given. At least Robert Sheckley's "Miranda" and Brian M. Thomsen's "Bigger Than U.S. Steel" each stay within a single era and region, but still don't do much for me. That is not to say there aren't good alternate history stories here in the "classic" tradition. "A Spark in the Darkness" by Beth Meacham is a genuine alternate history, and a very well-written one too, about another path that Helen Keller's life might have taken. The "gimmick" in David Gerrold's "What Goes Around" is not exactly new, and the irony is that the story didn't have to be an alternate history and the alternate history aspect may actually detract from it. Even so, it is one of the strongest stories in the book. Also strong is Barbara Delaplace's "Building Bridges," about the power of art, and especially meaningful if you know about the "Exhibit of Degenerative Art" in the 1930s. Kristine Kathryn Rusch's "Common Sense" also has least as some basis in historical reality. "The Crimson Rose" by Tappan King may be the most elaborate alternate history in the book, but I find it unlikely. (Of course, the same is true of many of the other stories, but this is written on a more serious level than most.) "The Ballad of Ritchie Valenzuela" by Maureen McHugh is well- written, but its "punchline" is hardly original in alternate stories. Allen Steele's "Riders in the Sky" is an average Western outlaw story. Jack Nimersheim's "#2, With a Bullet" is an unremarkable alternate Kennedy story. (Even in this non-Kennedy, non-President volume, there are multiple Kennedy stories.) Janni Lee Simmer's "Learning Magic" looks at the somewhat obvious possibilities of a master lock-picker taking the criminal road. George Alec Effinger's "Shootout at Gower Gulch" is another competent Wild West outlaw story. "Literary Lives" by Kathe Koja and Barry N. Malzberg is, perhaps, too literary for its neighbors here. I can't help but feel that most readers will be more mystified than enlightened by this story of famous literary figures. Judith Tarr's "Cowards Die: A Tragicomedy in Several Fits," Nicholas A. DiChario's "Giving Head," and David Gerrold's "Satan Claus" were other stories whose style didn't appeal to me for one reason or another, and which I only skimmed. (Naturally, your mileage may very.) Speaking of style, Laura Resnick's "Saint Frankie" is very similar to her "The Vatican Outfit" in the earlier ALTERNATE WARRIORS. And Martha Soukup must have a thing about dogs: first there was "A Dog's Life" and now there is "Good Girl, Bad Dog." I'm sure that I've reada story very similar in premise to Dean Wesley Smith's "Black Betsy" recently (with a jukebox as time machine); I assume it was another by him and there may eventually be a whole series. Walter John Williams's "Red Elvis" is a bit of a cheat, and I'm usually not thrilled with alternate Elvis stories anyway. (My answer to Resnick's question in the introduction to this--"What would an alternate anthology be without an alternate Elvis Presley story?"--is, "In general, probably better.") "A Quiet Evening by Gaslight" fails to be alternate history on the grounds that it does not deal with historical personages. Gregory Feeley's "My Tongue in Thy Tale" probably requires a greater familiarity with Shakespeare than I have to get all the references, but I think I can safely say that it is not an alternate history either, but a secret history. "Comrade Bill" by John E. Johnston III is also a secret history, and has only one minor cute gimmick. Katharine Kerr's "Cui Bono?" is another secret history, but a bit more serious, as is Michelle Sagara's "What She Won't Remember." But Alan Rodgers and James D. MacDonald's "Souvenirs" is by far the most downbeat secret history of the lot. It is possible that the lode of alternate history stories has been tapped out. (Is that mixing a metaphor?) Or perhaps more accurately, the field needs to lie fallow for a couple of years, because the soil is exhausted. There are good stories here, notably the Meacham, the Gerrold, and the Delaplace. But the general level of these anthologies seems to be going downhill and perhaps a rest is needed. %E Resnick, Mike %B Alternate Outlaws %I Tor %C New York %D October 1994 %G ISBN 0-812-53344-5 %P 402pp %O paperback, $4.99 -- Evelyn C. Leeper | +1 908 957 2070 | Evelyn.Leeper@att.com "The pursuit of knowledge for its own sake, an almost fanatical love of justice, and the desire for personal independence--these are the features of the Jewish tradition which make me thank my stars that I belong to it." --Albert Einstein Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.books.reviews,rec.arts.books,alt.books.reviews Path: news.ifm.liu.se!liuida!sunic!pipex!howland.reston.ans.net!ix.netcom.com!netcom.com!postmodern.com!not-for-mail From: ecl@mtgpfs1.mt.att.com (Evelyn C Leeper) Subject: DEALS WITH THE DEVIL edited by Mike Resnick et al Message-ID: <9412011509.ZM2220@mtgpfs1.mt.att.com> Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Sender: mcb@postmodern.com (Michael C. Berch) Organization: The Internet Date: Wed, 7 Dec 1994 22:18:51 GMT Approved: mcb@postmodern.com (rec.arts.sf.reviews moderator) Lines: 67 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.sf.reviews:692 rec.arts.books.reviews:89 rec.arts.books:104521 alt.books.reviews:6575 DEALS WITH THE DEVIL edited by Mike Resnick, Martin H. Greenberg, and Oren D. Estleman DAW, ISBN 0-88677-623-6, 1994, 362pp, $4.99 A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper Copyright 1994 Evelyn C. Leeper In his introduction, Mike Resnick talks about how there haven't been any deals-with-the-devil anthologies since the 1950s, when publishers yelled, "Enough already!" I can understand why: I like reading them, but even so, thirty-six in a single volume is a bit like an entire cake made of frosting. (Whether this number is a reference to the Lamed Vuv of the Dann story I leave to the reader to decide.) Of course, part of this is a function of the reviewer's curse: the average reader can decide to read a story a day, or one a week, or whatever. Not that she's likely to, but she can. A reviewer, however, has some time constraints; people prefer to see the reviews *before* the book goes out of print. There are some good stories here, as there always are in a Resnick anthology. The problem is that to find them you have to read a lot of stories that all start to look alike after while, even more so than alternate outlaws. Groundhog Day, anyone? The result is that such fine stories as Michelle Sagara's "Winter" may go unnoticed (though its number two spot may get it read before people over-dose). And to a great extent "Winter" is good in ways independent of its being a deal-with-the-devil story, much the same as David Gerrold's "What Goes Around" (in ALTERNATE OUTLAWS) is good in ways orthogonal to the purported premise. David Gerrold also turns in a good story here, "The Seminar from Hell," which will strike a chord with anyone who has seminar experience. The rest of the stories range from competent to mediocre, without a lot of originality or individual character. There are a few that make use of the idea that so many people are going to Hell on their own that the Devil doesn't need to work at getting souls. There are a few that play with definitions of Hell. There are a few that work on the precise wording of the deal itself. And so on ... most of the core "gimmicks" have been used before. They're wrapped in new paper, but they're still pretty much the same package. Individually, in a magazine or a more general anthology (which apparently has almost completely disappeared as a form), these would have been amusing, diverting, clever, or whatever the author was trying for. Here, alas, they are swamped by each other. I can recommend this anthology, but only with the proviso that you space out your reading of the stories. %E Resnick, Mike %E Greenberg, Martin H. %E Estleman, Loren D. %B Deals with the Devil %I DAW %C New York %D October 1994 %G ISBN 0-88677-623-6 %P 362pp %O pb, $4.99 -- Evelyn C. Leeper | +1 908 957 2070 | Evelyn.Leeper@att.com There's always an easy solution to every human problem - neat, plausible, and wrong. -- H.L. Mencken Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.books.reviews,alt.fan.holmes Path: news.ifm.liu.se!liuida!sunic!trane.uninett.no!eunet.no!nuug!Norway.EU.net!dkuug!EU.net!howland.reston.ans.net!ix.netcom.com!netcom.com!postmodern.com!not-for-mail From: ecl@mtgpfs1.mt.att.com (Evelyn C Leeper) Subject: SHERLOCK HOLMES IN ORBIT edited by Mike Resnick and Martin H. Greenberg Message-ID: <9502131218.ZM11583@mtgpfs1.mt.att.com> Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Sender: mcb@netcom21.netcom.com Organization: The Internet Date: Fri, 24 Feb 1995 02:08:59 GMT Approved: mcb@postmodern.com (rec.arts.sf.reviews moderator) Lines: 214 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.sf.reviews:726 rec.arts.books.reviews:343 alt.fan.holmes:3786 SHERLOCK HOLMES IN ORBIT by Mike Resnick and Martin H. Greenberg DAW, ISBN 0-88677-636-8, 1995, 374pp, US$5.50 A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper Copyright 1995 Evelyn C. Leeper In his introduction, Resnick says that Holmes is the world's most long-lived fictional character, and compares him to who Resnick says is the only other contender, Tarzan. (I don't know--I would say that Dracula--the fictional character, not the historical one--is certainly giving them some competition.) In any case, Resnick says that there has been only one non-Burroughs Tarzan story: Fritz Leiber's TARZAN AND THE VALLEY OF GOLD. Well, no. Barton Werper wrote five Tarzan novels before the Burroughs estate cracked down on him, and Philip Jose Farmer's LORD OF THE TREES and other works are certainly Tarzan stories; in fact, Farmer's ADVENTURE OF THE PEERLESS PEER has both Tarzan and Holmes, and Resnick even mentions it later! And I have a copy of TARZANI SEIKLUSED TALLINNAS (TARZAN'S ADVENTURES IN TALLINN) "by Edgar Rice Burroughs and Toomas Raudam." It's in Estonian, so I can't be sure, but I suspect that Burroughs had very little input, especially as it was written several years after his death. But this of course has little to do with Sherlock Holmes, except perhaps to illustrate his axiom, "It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data." Resnick may have overstated some of the details, but the gist of his claim is correct: Sherlock Holmes *is* the most recognized fictional character in the world. In my various travels, I have rarely failed to find Holmes in whatever the language of the country is. It's true that there didn't seem to be a Latvian translation when I was there, but I did find him in Lithuanian, Estonian, Finnish, and Swedish. And I even found him in China in 1982 in comic-book form! So the appearance of a new Sherlock Holmes anthology, while certainly welcome, can hardly be termed a surprise. Even the combination of Sherlock Holmes and science fiction is not new, dating back to Robert C. Peterson's SCIENCE FICTIONAL SHERLOCK HOLMES and continuing through Isaac Asimov, Charles Waugh, and Martin H. Greenberg's SHERLOCK HOLMES THROUGH TIME AND SPACE, as well as many individual pieces. So here we have twenty-six new Holmes stories, arranged chronologically into four sections: Holmes in the Past, Holmes in the Present, Holmes in the Future, and Holmes After Death. Reading these, I am struck by how Conan Doyle managed to write fascinating stories without dragging in any famous authors, artists, or events, while his imitators seem to insist upon it. So Holmes has dealings with Fu Manchu, H. G. Wells (twice), Lewis Carroll (twice), Charles Babbage, and even Conan Doyle himself (three times--at least two of these must be in an alternate universe where Holmes's exploits were not published by Doyle). When I first started reading this sort of story, I found it amusing, but after a while the novelty pales, and one gets tired of being able to guess the big surprise from a key phrase or two--when a character says he's sailing for New York in April of 1912, you *know* he's going to be on the Titanic. (Note: that story is not one of the ones in this book, though there is a Titanic story here.) A few of the stories are not science fiction or fantasy; they have a science fiction or fantasy element, but it is proved false by the end (much as Doyle's own "Sussex Vampire" story). By the way, if you want to read an "original" science fictional Holmes story, Doyle's "Adventure of the Creeping Man" qualifies. As for the stories themselves, they are a varied bunch. (If my comments on some seem brief or cryptic, it may be because many of the stories rely on some surprise twist that I am trying to avoid revealing.) "The Musgrave Version" by George Alec Effinger is not so much a story as a vignette, suggesting much more than it delivers. "The Case of the Detective's Smile" by Mark Bourne is a bit too predictable. On the other hand, although also somewhat predictable, "The Adventure of the Russian Grave" by William Barton and Michael Capobianco does have a nice twist to it. (It also assumes more of a knowledge of Russian calendar reform than many readers will have, I fear.) Vonda N. McIntyre's "Adventure of the Field Theorems," Brian M. Thomsen's "Mouse and the Master," and Janni Lee Simner's "Illusions" all use Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and his interest in spiritualism; although they use different approaches, it may still be overkill. "The Adventure of the Missing Coffin" by Laura Resnick, combined with her stories in earlier anthologies, makes me think she has a thing about writing about Italians and Italy the way her father has about Africa. "The Adventure of the Second Scarf" by Mark Aronson is the "hardest SF" story in the first section of the book (most of the science fictional elements in the other stories are matter duplicators, time machines, and the like). "The Adventure of the Barbary Coast" by Frank M. Robinson uses Irene Adler's sister. I once noted if I never saw another story about Irene Adler, it would be too soon, and though Carole Nelson Douglas's books have made me reconsider that statement, Irene's connection to this story seems totally unnecessary to me, and she needn't have been involved at all. Dean Wesley Smith's "Two Roads, No Choices" is one of the better stories in the book, though the fact that it is an alternate history may be influencing me here. "The Richmond Enigma" by John DeChancie is another alternate history of sorts, with yet another famous character for Holmes to interact with. "A Study in Sussex" by Leah A. Zeldes refers not to "The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire," but to Holmes's retirement. While some stories suffer from a deus ex machina, "The Holmes Team Advantage" by Gary Alan Ruse has what might be termed a "nihil ex machina" ending. Susan Casper's "Holmes Ex Machina," on the other hand, doesn't attempt to be more than it is, and works within the boundaries Casper sets, quite nicely. (Though I think Resnick errs in placing this in the present: it seems to be the future, albeit perhaps the near future.) Lawrence Schimel's "Alimentary, My Dear Watson" ends in the title pun, takes its main idea from a well- known science fiction film, and is arguably unfair to its most historical character, whose faults are generally believed to be of a much more non-participatory nature. And "The Future Engine" by Byron Tetrick could have been a great steampunk story, but shied away from following up on its premise. Moving on to "Sherlock Holmes in the Present," "The Sherlock Solution" by Craig Shaw Gardner seems to serve mostly as an example of why science fictional Sherlock Holmes stories set in the present are hard to write--it's just not very convincing as science fiction. Similarly, "The Man Who Molded Himself" by David Gerrold is only technically set in the present, in that it is a manuscript being read by somebody in the present, but the main action takes place in the past. Not surprisingly, Kristine Kathryn Rusch turns in the best story in this section in the form of "Second Fiddle," though again I would dispute calling this the present--last time I checked we did not have time travel, though I admit that the pressures of work may have made me overlook the news. Jack Nimersheim's "Moriarty by Modem" is yet another hacker/computer virus story, with Holmes and Moriarty only secondary considerations. (What makes Casper's story present-day and this future, one wonders?) "The Greatest Detective of All Time" by Ralph Roberts was a bit convoluted to follow and I'm not sure didn't have major problems, but it *was* science fiction. "The Case of the Purloined L'Isitek" by Josepha Sherman seems like the sort of thing Isaac Asimov would have written, complete with the awful pun at the end. (I don't think I'm spoiling the surprise; when we are told in the first paragraph that the aliens have a love of puns, what else could we expect?) "The Adventure of the Illegal Alien" by Anthony R. Lewis is yet another Holmes in a computer. I have yet to figure out what Barry N. Malzberg is doing in these anthologies. His stories usually blow all the others away in terms of style, literary value, and philosophical content, and "Dogs, Masques, Love, Death: Flowers" is no exception. Robert J. Sawyer's "You See But You Do Not Observe" is an original view of the idea of Schroedinger's Cat as applied to Sherlock Holmes: it may not be great literature, but it is an intriguing philosophical idea. And finally, Mike Resnick ends the anthology with his own "The Adventure of the Pearly Gate," one of the better stories, adding a touch of George Bernard Shaw to the detecting involved. I had saved up this book as a treat for a day when I had a three- hour bus trip, and even in spite of my various quibbles I found it enjoyable and varied. Sherlock Holmes fans who are not science fiction fans may find a few of the stories too science-fictional for their tastes, but on the whole this shouldn't be a problem. Science fiction fans who don't like Sherlock Holmes (if any such peculiar creatures exist) would probably be less enthralled, but for Holmes fans this is recommended. (Proof-readers are starting to add more typos than they delete: For example, I am sure that Resnick wrote that Robert L. Fish wrote parodies featuring "Schlock Homes," and then some proof-reader decided to "fix" this to say that Fish's parodies featured "Sherlock Holmes," and likewise that Frank M. Robinson typed "Semiramide," not "Semirande." For this and other typos blame a very tight schedule, which resulted in the editors not actually receiving the galleys until after the deadline for changes. I'm all for faster publication, but I'd rather wait an extra couple of weeks for a book that's more accurate. Publishers, take note.) %E Resnick, Mike %E Greenberg, Martin H. %B Sherlock Holmes in Orbit %T "The Musgrave Version" by George Alec Effinger %T "The Case of the Detective's Smile" by Mark Bourne %T "The Adventure of the Russian Grave" by W. Barton and M. Capobianco %T "The Adventure of the Field Theorems" by Vonda N. McIntyre %T "The Adventure of the Missing Coffin" by Laura Resnick %T "The Adventure of the Second Scarf" by Mark Aronson %T "The Adventure of the Barbary Coast" by Frank M. Robinson %T "Mouse and the Master" by Brian M. Thomsen %T "Two Roads, No Choices" by Dean Wesley Smith %T "The Richmond Enigma" by John DeChancie %T "A Study in Sussex" by Leah A. Zeldes %T "The Holmes Team Advantage" by Gary Alan Ruse %T "Alimentary, My Dear Watson" by Lawrence Schimel %T "The Future Engine" by Byron Tetrick %T "Holmes Ex Machina" by Susan Casper %T "The Sherlock Solution" by Craig Shaw Gardner %T "The Man Who Molded Himself" by David Gerrold %T "Second Fiddle" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch %T "Moriarty by Modem" by Jack Nimersheim %T "The Greatest Detective of All Time" by Ralph Roberts %T "The Case of the Purloined L'Isitek" by Josepha Sherman %T "The Adventure of the Illegal Alien" by Anthony R. Lewis %T "Dogs, Masques, Love, Death: Flowers" by Barry N.$Malzberg %T "You See But You Do Not Observe" by Robert J. Sawyer %T "Illusions" by Janni Lee Simner %T "The Adventure of the Pearly Gate" by Mike Resnick %I DAW %C New York %D February 1995 %G ISBN 0-88677-636-8 %P 374pp %O paperback, US$5.50 %S Sherlock Holmes -- Evelyn C. Leeper | +1 908 957 2070 | Evelyn.Leeper@att.com "No one is ever fanatically devoted to something they have complete confidence in. No one is fanatically shouting that the sun is going to rise tomorrow. They *know* it is. Whenever someone is fanatically devoted to a set of beliefs or dogmas or goals, it is only because those beliefs or goals are in doubt." --Robert M. Pirsig Path: news.ifm.liu.se!solace!news.stealth.net!www.nntp.primenet.com!nntp.primenet.com!news.texas.net!news.kei.com!uhog.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!usenet From: "Evelyn C Leeper" Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.sf.fandom,rec.arts.books.reviews,soc.history.what-if Subject: Reviews: ALTERNATE WORLDCONS and AGAIN, ALTERNATE WORLDCONS edited by Mike Resnick Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Date: 30 Sep 1996 14:51:44 -0400 Organization: Intelligent Agents Group Lines: 78 Sender: wex@tinbergen.media.mit.edu (Graystreak) Approved: wex@media.mit.edu Message-ID: NNTP-Posting-Host: tinbergen.media.mit.edu Keywords: author=Evelyn C Leeper X-Newsreader: (ding) Gnus v0.94 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.sf.reviews:1100 rec.arts.sf.fandom:41250 rec.arts.books.reviews:2017 soc.history.what-if:15893 ALTERNATE WORLDCONS and AGAIN, ALTERNATE WORLDCONS edited by Mike Resnick A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper Copyright 1996 Evelyn C. Leeper This omnibus book contains both ALTERNATE WORLDCONS, with seventeen stories, and AGAIN, ALTERNATE WORLDCONS, with eleven stories. ALTERNATE WORLDCONS was conceived at ConFrancisco in 1993 and appeared at ConAdian in 19994; AGAIN, ALTERNATE WORLDCONS is new this year. A third volume is a possibility. Quel surprise. As a fan of alternate histories and an attendee of Worldcons -- so far, twenty-one of them -- this would seem to be right up my alley. But these are not, on the whole, serious alternate histories. They are very "fannish," often dealing with people or events not known to most readers. Strangely enough, Mike Resnick is a character in many of these. There are a few that stand out, though. "ApocalypseCon" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch is a poem rather than a story and could hold its own in a "regular" anthology. While it's true that its subject matter is a bit specialized, I hope it does make a more visible appearance somewhere. The other notable serious work is "Letters in the Wall" by Barry N. Malzberg and Batya Swift Yasgur. Malzberg appears frequently in alternate history anthologies, and usually blows away the rest of the stories. For some reason I don't see him in magazines as much, but for the life of me can't figure out why. The third story of note is "The Men Who Corflued Mohammed" by Mike Glyer, a well-done fannish homage to Alfred Bester's "Men Who Murdered Mohammed." But most of the stories require some knowledge of fannish personalities, Worldcon business meeting minutiae, and so on. Of course, the book will probably be found only at conventions or in very specialized stores, so it is targeted at its audience. If you have all the prerequisites, you may find this volume of interest. If so, and you can't find it locally, you can order it from Old Earth Books, P. O. Box 19951, Baltimore MD 21211-0951, or Blue Moon Books, Ltd., 360 West First Avenue, Eugene OR 97401, http://www.teleport.com/~hypatia, hypatia@teleport.com or BlueMoonBk@aol.com. %B Alternate Worldcons %T Lewis, Anthony R., "In the Beginning" (1939) %T Aronson, Mark, "Gemutlichkon" (1943) %T Spelman, Dick, "The Forgotten Worldcon of '45" (1945) %T McGarry, Terry, "The Best Little Worldcon in ..." (1964) %T DeWeese, Gene and Coulson, Robert, "Queen of the Times" (1966) %T Robinson, Frank M., "Hail, Hail, Rock and Roll" (1969) %T Haldeman, Jack C., II, "The Case of the Stuffed Simian" (1974) %T Lewis, Anthony R., "Keep Watching the Skies" (1976) %T Thompsen, Brian M., "Iguanacon, Too" (1978) %T Gilliam, Richard, "Jeremiah Phipps" (1983) %T Rowder, Louise, "CruiseCon" (1988) %T Glyer, Mike, "The Man Who Corflued Mohammed" (1992) %T Rusch, Kristine Atherine, "ApocalypseCon" (1993) %T Katze, Rick, "Worldcon Blue" (1994) %T Resnick, Mike, "How Jerry Phipps Won His Hugo" (1999) %T Zeldes, Leah A., "A Proud and Lonely Things" (2082) %T Schimel, Lawrence, "Forward the Nomination" (2107) %B Again, Alternate Worldcons %T Zeldes, Leah A., "Yesterday's Stormy Fable" (1939) %T Delaplace, Barbara, "ApeCon" (1945) %T Pelz, Bruce, "Cold Service" (1964) %T Malzberg, Barry and Yasgur, Batya Swift, "Letters in the Wall" (1967) %T Sim, Roger, "An Old-Fashioned Worldcon" (1982) %T Levine, David D., "The Worldcon That Wasn't" (1992) %T Standlee, Kevin, "The Bridge at Wakiki" (1993) %T Veal, Tom, "Moskva 1995: Igor's Campaign" (1994) %T Spelman, Dick, "The Worldcon of 2001" (2001) %T Fesselmeyer, Bill, "The Grinch Who Stole Worldcon" (????) %E Mike Resnick %C Baltimore, Maryland, and Eugene, Oregon %D August 1996 %I WC Books %O trade paperback, US$15 %G no ISBN %P 262pp Evelyn C. Leeper | eleeper@lucent.com +1 908 957 2070 | http://www.geocities.com/Athens/4824 "El sueno de la razon produce monstruos." --caption to plate 43 of Goya's "Caprichios" Path: news.ifm.liu.se!svgotcha.ubs.net!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!news.grnet.gr!btnet-feed3!unlisys!fu-berlin.de!newsfeed.nacamar.de!su-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!cpk-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.bbnplanet.com!newsfeed.internetmci.com!news.kei.com!uhog.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!news!wex From: "Evelyn C Leeper" Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews,soc.history.what-if Subject: REVIEW: ALTERNATE TYRANTS edited by Mike Resnick Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Date: 02 Jun 1997 16:27:22 GMT Organization: Software Agents Group Lines: 68 Approved: wex@media.mit.edu Message-ID: NNTP-Posting-Host: tinbergen.media.mit.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.sf.reviews:1322 soc.history.what-if:31390 ALTERNATE TYRANTS edited by Mike Resnick Tor, ISBN 0-812-54835-3, 1997, 337pp, US$11.99 A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper Copyright 1997 Evelyn C. Leeper I'm a big fan of alternate history, but even I have my limits, and I think I've reached them. In fact, I have problems with this book on two levels: its contents and its format. Since in general people care more about the content, I'll start there. The first two Resnick alternate history anthologies (ALTERNATE PRESIDENTS and ALTERNATE KENNEDYS) were quite good and their stories garnered several award nominations. The third book (ALTERNATE WARRIORS) was passable but definitely a step down. ALTERNATE TYRANTS is still more disappointing. Of the twenty stories, only the Maureen McHugh ("The Lincoln Train") is noteworthy. It was, in fact, a Hugo nominee. I found the rest surprisingly unengaging, even the entries from Kathe Koja and Barry N. Malzberg, who can usually be relied upon. But stories of rock stars as President (shades of "Ike at the Mike"?), gangsters as President, Einstein as the leader of Israel, and so on, while they *sound* promising, decline rapidly into cliche and predictability. For example: "Jubilee," by Jack C. Haldeman II and Barbara Delaplace, is set in a 957 C.E. in which the turning point was the failed assassination of Julius Caesar. The characters speculate about what might have happened had the assassination succeeded. Okay, it is the millenial celebration, but why have a millenial celebration of a failed assassination anyway? And why have a spaceship called a spatiumnavis, when other vehicles are called freighters and vans? Realizing that it is a capital mistake to theorize without data, I suspect the method of constructing this anthology may be partially to blame. It appears from the introductory notes that in many cases writers were given scenarios, or at least premises, to develop into stories. It is of course possible to write to spec -- television writers do it all the time -- but I can't help but feel that it is not the way to get the most creative results from fiction writers. The fact that the stories are all copyrighted 1996 even though the anthology didn't appear until April of 1997 makes me wonder if perhaps it was decided to give the authors a chance to sell the first publication rights elsewhere first. This is okay, but the reference to "new stories" leads one to think this is an original anthology, while the copyright dates indicate perhaps not. As for the format, this book has the worst of both the trade paperback and the mass market paperback formats. It is, technically, a mass market paperback. It has the higher price and larger, more- difficult-to-store size of a traditional trade paperback, but the cheap paper and environmentally unsound strippability of a mass market paperback. When I spend $12 for a book, I don't want it to feel like paper toweling. In summary, much as I wanted to like this book, I cannot recommend it. %B Alternate Tyrants %E Mike Resnick %C New York %D April 1997 %I Tor %O paperback, US$11.99 %G ISBN 0-812-54835-3 %P 337pp %S Alternate %V 4 Evelyn C. Leeper | eleeper@lucent.com +1 908 957 2070 | http://www.geocities.com/Athens/4824 "For there is a truth which cannot be bought or sold, imposed by force, resisted or escaped." --Muteba Kazadi