Luttrell's Bookshelf

[MWBOOKREVW]

LUTTRELL'S BOOKSHELF

Circuit of Heaven
Dennis Danvers
Avon/Eos
0-380-97447-9 $14.00

I almost didn't start this book. I didn't know the writer's work, and the
cover blurb mentioned something about computers. My mind supplied the label
"cyberpunk," a term so outmoded and stale that the writers who popularized this
type of story deny ever writing the stuff.
This story takes place in a future where billions of people have uploaded
their personalities into a vast electronic system to live trouble-free virtual
existences. The point of the book isn't computers or technology. It is about
characters and, for me a least, literary resonances.
This is a fun book to read. Danvers' book doesn't evolve directly from
Romeo & Juliet or Rebecca, but the characters discuss literature and it has
meaning in their lives, just as it has in yours and mine. The protagonist is
nicknamed Nemo, identified by another character as the manic submarine captain
from Jules Verne. But Nemo is also called "Little Nemo" once, the fanciful
traveller from Winsor McCay's great old comic strip, "Little Nemo in
Slumberland." Clearly "The Bin," the virtual home of most of humanity, is a
kind of Slumberland, a dream world.
Another memorable character is the "construct" (a being created
artificially by cloning and downloading three personalities recorded from other
people), Lawrence the Dragon. Somehow he reminded me of Barney, since his role
was as sort of a guardian for Nemo while he was young, but much more likable. I
don't want to give away details about other characters and their relationships,
since they are complex and revealed with
considerable suspense.

COSM
Greg Benford
Avon/Eos
0-380-97435-5 $23.00

I frequently recall the ideas and emotions which originally drew me to
imaginative fiction. You know, the feeling you get on a clear night, isolated
from urban lights, when you look up into the sky and sense the millions of
stars, sisters to our Sun. Science fiction writers and readers like to call
this Sense of Wonder. Really, it involves more than just imaginative story
telling, or fantastic themes. It also means a grounding in realistic science
and involving character development; otherwise, who cares?
Long time science fiction readers may wonder, as the careers and even the
lives of the first generation of modern speculative fiction writers come to an
end, where we turn for books based on modern science, yet intellectually
thrilling. Publishers and editors sometimes seem determined that each new
fantastic book be some lame imitation medieval saga.
Greg Benford is one good answer for any reader looking for "real" science
fiction. A physicist who is a professor at the University of California/Irvine,
I'm familiar with books by Benford like Great Sky River and Across the Sea of
Suns, grand space adventures based on modern astrophysics.
Some "hard" science fiction of this type can neglect character development
and even careful writing in favor of spotlighting ideas. Benford stories are
involving because his characters are convincing. I frequently find myself
disliking Benford's protagonists, not because he intends them as irritating,
simply because he creates characters in which I believe, and with whom I don't
get along. But in COSM I like the protagonist, a black women physicist. This
isn't to say that I don't sometimes disagree with her views, or those of other
characters. Don't you almost always disagree with acquaintances over some
issues? She uses a ion collider to accidentally create a sphere which reveals
itself as a window into a newly-created universe. All of this provides a venue
for exploring human nature, the politics of scientific research and academia,
the nature of celebrity, media, religion, and, of course, the thrill that can
pass down your spine when you look into the sky and see beyond your world into
the countless beyond.

Commitment Hour
James Alan Gardner
Avon/Eos
0-380-79827-1 $5.99

It took me a while to start enjoying this second novel by Gardner (his
debut novel was Expendable, 1997). This book has a significant agenda: to study
and define the differences, or similarities, between male and female; societal,
cultural and biological. To do this the author creates a future community in
which children are able to spend time as both male and female, and then when
they come of age, at their "commitment hour" they must pick male, female or
both ("neut" -- hermaphroditic) for the rest of their lives.
At first, the book seemed so obviously a forum for the author ideas on
this topic that the story seemed forced and implausible, and the characters
extreme, stereotyped and annoying. However, as the story progressed, the
characters became less two dimensional, and the plot became engaging.
So finally I was happy that I gave the book a chance, and I hope you will
too.

Hand Of Prophecy
Severna Park
Avon/Eos
0-380-97639-0 $14.00

Science fiction novels traditionally take place in worlds where, for
instance, faster than light travel or
unicorns exist, but lesbians do not. Park's novel takes place in a far future
where one empire of slavers war with another for control of planets. Neither of
the cultures seem more or less desirable; both are oppressive. Readers will
empathize with the characters, who are diverse, believable, strong and
appealing.
The slave cultures use an unrealistic biological plot devise, a "virus"
which provides 20 years of youthful
servitude, and re-vactionation can cure virtually any injury, seemingly without
regard for conservation of energy or matter, not to mention the limits of
metabolic processes.
No matter. Park's character are believable, if melodramatic. Much of the
story takes place in an arena where
slave-gladiators provide blood-sport amusement for crowds of gamblers. Frenna
and the other slaves seek freedom from their masters, and from the biological
trap of their slavery-virus.
So despite some incredible plot elements, Park's novel, with several
lesbian characters, seems more real than many books. Park comes from a
tradition of small press genre novels which emphasize sexual content, but here
there is really only one steamy sex scene.

Ship of Magic
Robin Hobb
Bantam Spectra,
0-553-10324-5 $23.95

Many of you know the writing of Megan Lindholm. But apparently not enough
of you. The story I heard was that because of a lagging career, and on the
advise of her publishers or perhaps her agents, this writer of innovative and
critically successful fantasy and science fiction re-invented herself as Robin
Hobb, writer of ponderously long, epic fantasy trilogies. Under the Lindholm
name, her books had been mostly of a more
normal length, and the ones I've seen, stand-alone stories, not series.
Apparently, this change is what her career needed, since the Farseer Trilogy
was successful. And now we have the start of a new series, The Liveship
Traders.
At whatever length she chooses to tell her stories, Lindholm/Hobb is a
fine writer. Ship of Magic introduces us simultaneously to many stories: the
charming and dangerous pirate Kennit; a tangle of sea serpents; Althea Vestrit,
disowned daughter of a once-wealthy Trader family, who has a close relationship
to the families' live, sentient merchant ship, along with many other vividly
interesting characters, all told against a landscape which is other-worldly,
decadent, magical and yet historically resonant.
I confess I feel this book was just a tad commercially contrived. It
touches many romantic stereotypes, and uses them effectively; a young lady
masquerades as a boy to run away as a sailor; forbidden love, family intrigues
and so forth. But Lindholm/Hobb is still an inventive, imaginative, effective
writer, and I further confess I loved this book, and wait eagerly for the next.
Perhaps I wish, however, that smaller books, which
have a climax when you reach the end, were still popular.

Alien Influences
Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Bantam Spectra
0-553-56998-8 $5.99

Too frequently the most important element in a science fiction novel is
the scientific extrapolation or theory, a thrilling prediction, or some cosmic
idea. The real challenge is presenting not only an intellectually stimulating
concept, but also presenting believable, realistic characterization.
Rusch has met this challenge and more; she has created convincing human
characters, and truly alien characters as well. These aliens aren't abstract
monsters, or obtuse humans with pointy ears. These are entities which begin as
mysteries and reveal themselves through the course of the story as real beings,
not human, nor even described in ways that seek to define how they differ from
humans, but different sentient organisms.
Certainly Rusch isn't the only science fiction writer that has succeeded
in creating real alien characters. One of the pioneers in this area was Stanley
Weinbaum, a Wisconsin writer who lived most of his life in Milwaukee, and
attended the University of Wisconsin in Madison. His 1930's pulp magazine
stories transcended the limits of the field as they were understood at that
time, as the alien characters were neither the abstract menace of H.G. Wells,
or the odd looking and villainous, but basically human aliens in most other
stories of the time. I feel Rusch is in some ways a successor to Weinbaum.
Rusch also has her Wisconsin connection, she studied at the University of
Wisconsin in Madison. Readers will notice one interplanetary colony visited in
her book is an isthmus located between three lakes, an image that must have
been suggested by Madison.
Rusch's book begins as a mystery, as a series of murders which seem to
implicate the native population on a planet where human colonization threatens
the local ecology. The details of the killings soon become obvious, but the
real mysteries become more profound, as the book examines interactions between
humans, between humans and their environment, and between humans and vastly
different sentient beings.

Leap Point
Kay Kenyon
Bantam Spectra,
0-553-57682-8 $5.99

Doesn't it irritate you that most modern science fiction seems to be about
computers somehow? It always happens that one sort of story or another is
trendy; it doesn't matter much what readers like, publisher don't have a clue
about that anyway; what matters is what publishers think readers will buy.
Right now, they think that readers want cyberstuff, or virtual junk. Which
might make it hard, if you feel like I do, to pick up this book, in which an
invading alien civilization uses a virtual reality game to condition humans to
be compliant.
One of my friends, who actually knows something about computers (unlike
me. . .), mentioned that most of that virtual reality stuff you see in science
fiction is actually the purist fantasy. Kenyon's plot strikes me as more
realistic than most; but of course what really matters in any book is if the
author can make you want to believe the story. Here, the characters are strong
and convincing, well motivated, and the plot moves along forcefully to a
satisfying climax. I like a book that stands on its own, and doesn't beg or
require a sequel or have to be part of a trilogy. (Think about it. Until
Tolkien's publisher broke his Lord of the Rings into three books, no one had
even invented the fantasy trilogy, and no one knew that three was the secret
number for commercial publishing success.)
This is Kay Kenyon's second science fiction novel, after The Seeds Of
Time, and I think she has shown considerable talent. Add her name to your list
of writers for which to look.

Frank Zappa: The Negative Dialectics of Poodle Play
Ben Watson
St. Martin's Press
0-312-11918-6 $27.50 (hc) 0-312-14124-6 $17.95 (pb)

This huge book focuses on Zappa's career and on a detailed description and
analysis of his music. It does provide some details about his life, but only
the most public parts of it; for the most part it simply recognizes how private
a person he was, and doesn't attempt to provide biographic information.
Since Zappa's music was and is interesting and important, this is a
significant topic for a book, and Watson does a good job. The most interesting
details are about the players in various Zappa bands, as well as stories about
various concerts and recording sessions. An ardent socialist, some readers will
find that Watson spends too much space analyzing the music for political
content, especially as politics were not important to Zappa. A topic I would
have found more interesting would have been details about Zappa's business
dealings. There is only an outline of his falling out with Warner Brothers, and
only a mention of his private label recording career (surly one of the most
prolific and successful of any popular recording artist) and mail order
business.
This book was written without Zappa's co-operation, but he offered no
serious objections. The last section of the book is an account of Watson's
visit and interview of his subject. I found one interaction fascinating for
personal reasons. Zappa allowed that he thought one his more ambitious albums,
Thing-Fish, was like Tolkien because of a made up language, but not as good.
His biographer, who is British, objected, saying "Ah come on -- its better than
Tolkien! Maybe I'm a bit too close to Tolkien, that literary tradition, it
doesn't excite me." I found it interesting that Zappa seemed to feel he had
been influenced by Tolkien, and also that his British biographer would be so
cool to one of the 20th Century's most influential writers.
This book is has been published for some time, but at least the trade
paperback seems to be still available. The amount of music recorded and
released by Frank Zappa was enormous, so readers interested in his work will
find this book a useful and only occasionally dry introduction.

A Darker Shade of Crimson
Pamela Thomas-Graham
Simon & Schuster
0-684-84526-1 $22.00

One of the few black female administrators of Harvard is found murdered by
another rarity, a black women professor. This mystery by a first time novelist
features a whole community of characters who seem to have the motivation and
personalities to be the murderer; the community in question being that of
Harvard, driven by the ambitions and greed common to any high pressure
situation.
Part of the appeal of any good mystery is learning about appealing
characters in interesting professions and
locations. Of course this is true of many good books. Perhaps part of the
appeal of a good mystery has to do with combining well drawn characters and
interesting surroundings with the fascination of the puzzle and the urgency and
stress caused by that crucial element of the classic mystery: a murder.
This book succeeds admirable in those areas, and has much to say about the
politics and power struggles which can sometimes define academic life, as well
as the additional controversies involving race and gender.
The backgrounds and details of Harvard and Boston are always believable.
The only detail which seemed contrived involved a scene in which the characters
played war with paint guns. I'm sure you'll notice that the guns in the novel
seem to work like squirt guns, while the real things shoot little globs of
color.
Rating: very good

The Case Has Altered
Martha Grimes
Henry Holt
0-8050-5620-3 $24.00

I reject the notion that everyone reads "who-done-its" to solve the
puzzle. I don't. Usually, I couldn't care less. I don't waste a second
pondering the clues spread about in the book, I'm interested in other elements
of mystery novels. For instance, in this mystery by Martha Grimes, the latest
of her Richard Jury, CID Scotland Yard books, the main delight is the
characters, with the most important character being the landscape of
Lincolnshire, especially the wetlands known as fens. Some of these areas have
been drained for agricultural use; some few have been preserved. Wisconsin
readers who know the effect that humanity has had on our wetlands, and the
effect the wetlands have had on humanity, may find this particularly telling.
The other characters, the human ones, seem to provide a cross section of
the type you will find frequenting detective yarn: we've got Jury's
hypochondriac sergeant; a aristocrat who has denounced his title; the
aristocrat's irritating aunt by marriage -- who hails from Milwaukee; a
charming antique dealer; and even a shady book seller.
As for the mystery, all the clues are certainly on the table; the title of
the book (after one of those colorfully named British pubs) even provides a
hint about the logical approach necessary to solve the puzzle. I'm sure some
readers will delight in finding the killer before it is revealed in the text.
Some may find it too easy. For my part, I had a good time getting to know the
characters, and found their interactions with their environment fascinating,
even, dare I say, profound.

Serious Business
Stefan Kanfer
Scribner
0-684-80079-9 $27.50

Most books on animation focus on one particular creator, studio or
character. Others are organized as encyclopedias. Kanfer's book is a narrative
history, which makes it fun and useful to read.
A history of any popular culture easily becomes a cultural history of our
society. Our cartoon entertainments document what we as a people thought was
funny. It should shock no one that many cartoons use racism, misogyny and
ethnocentrism in many of the jokes.
Everyone's reaction to any art or entertainment is personal; to some
extent objective criticism is impossible. It might be that reactions to
animation are unusually personal, related in part to factors like age. It is
perfectly understandable that a book like this would be opinionated, just
underneath the veneer of historical objectivity. Some people may be surprised
to learn that many critics don't care for the beloved Hanna-Barbera cartoons,
for instance. Kanfer says that the phrase "Hannah and the Barbarians" was a
code for inferior animation. I disagree with Kanfer about "The Simpsons."
Serious Business has the common opinion that the show glorifies under
achievement. I think it is one of the most positive, humanistic shows on
television. If you look just beneath the "dysfunctional" surface, you'll see
stories about literacy, tolerance, various modern perils like substance abuse,
told with humor and irreverence.
This book is hardly comprehensive. For readers interested in animation, it
is a good place to start, or a good place to catch up. Kanfer gives careful
acknowledgment to his sources, which will provide readers who are still curious
with information on other books on the subject.

The Queen of Darkness
Miguel Conner
Aspect/Warner
0-446-60506-9 $5.99

It is surprising that this book was published. Apparently, this is a first
novel by a young man living in Texas, born in Lisbon, Portugal. Conner is
obviously a talented story teller. This book is a kinetic tale of a future in
which vampires (who call themselves Stargazers) have become the dominate
species, enslaving what is left of humanity as cattle.
Most of the details of how the vampires work is standard movie myth; they
can fly, destroyed by sunlight, are 10 times as strong as humans, can change
into mist or assume the forms of animals, and so on. Oddly, they apparently
have images in mirrors. The supernatural aspects of vampire lore, the occult
disregard of conservation of energy and mass, seem even more fantastic against
the background of the future civilization: pedantic, realistic city states in
which layers of bureaucracy and politics fuel the plot.
The story is strong, the characters dynamic, and vampires are always
popular. The reason the book must have been a problem to publish is that the
language is clumsy. Some readers will mind more than others, but to me much of
the syntax seemed just a little wrong. The choices of prepositions were
frequently confusing. The momentum of the story and the appeal of the
characters frequently pulled me right along; at other times the word choices,
the weird sentence structures, were confusing. I bet an editor put a lot of
time into this book, trying to make it into conventional English. I wonder why
they didn't finish the job. Sometimes the odd writing made the whole book seem
other-worldly; perhaps this was the intention.

Hank Luttrell
Reviewer

EDITOR'S NOTE:

The Midwest Book Review is an organization of volunteers committed to promoting
literacy, library usage, and small press publishing. We accept no funds from
authors or publishers. Full permission is given to post any of these reviews on
thematically appropriate websites, newsgroups, listserves, organizational
newsletters, or to interested individuals. Please give the Midwest Book Review
a credit line when doing so.

The Midwest Book Review publishes two monthly book review magazines, "Internet
Bookwatch" and "Children's Bookwatch". Both are available for free on the
Midwest Book Review website at http://www.execpc.com/~mbr/bookwatch/

If you would like to submit a review for inclusion in our Midwest Book Review
publications, please send an email request to m...@execpc.com for our "Reviewer
Guidelines". We invite your comments, questions and suggestions.

James A. Cox
Editor-in-Chief
Midwest Book Review
278 Orchard Drive, Oregon, WI 53575