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%T Wild Card's VII: Dead Man's Hand
%A George R. R. Martin & John J. Miller
%I Bantam Spectra
%D September 1990
%O paperback, US$4.50
%P 328
%G 0-553-28569-6
Despite its grand-guignol excesses, the Wild Cards books are
still the best shared-world series I've read anything of. This novel
interlocks with Book VI, as Popinjay and the Yeoman team up to solve the
brutal murder of Chrysalis. In the ensuing mayhem, one truly major badguy
bites the dust -- but the identity and motive of the murderer is the real
surprise.
%T Enemy Unseen (Star Trek #51)
%A V. E. Mitchell
%I Pocket Books
%D September 1990
%O paperback, US$4.50
%P 279
%G 0-671-68403-5
Well, Mitchell isn't Diane Duane but this particular bit of trekfic
is a big improvement on the last one I reviewed (RR#86) -- it's at least not embarrassingly
bad. A routine diplomatic mission goes awry as Kirk must deal with a
conniving ex-girlfriend and an alien shapeshifter, both bent on
disrupting negotiations. A pleasant, lightweight read-once for
trekfans.
%T The Whole Man
%A John Brunner
%I: Collier Nucleus
%O paperback, US$4.95
%P 188
%G 0-02-030275-4
This reprint of Brunner's groundbreaking 1964 novel has dated not at
all; indeed, his portrayal of a world of local uprisings and low-intensity
wars pacified by multinational forces of U.N. troops seems more plausible
in today's post-perestroika world than it could have at the height of the
Cold War. He gives us the story of the crippled perojective telepath Gerald
Howson. He begins life as an orphaned hemophiliac leading a cheerless and
impoverished existence, relieved only by his fantasies of becoming one of
the U.N.'s idealized telepathist heroes. When the fantasy comes true he
plunges himself into the work of healing diseased minds; but his own inner
conflict remains unresolved, and he is tempted to retreat into a world of
fantasies reflected off the minds of others. He eventually finds a chance
for wholeness through the creation of a new art form, in a resolution which
stirs as much for its affirmation of the moral value of human creativity as
for the prospect of a happy ending. Treat yourself to this one!
Up to Eric's Home Page | To Index | Mon Sep 17 12:32:37 EDT 1990 |
Eric S. Raymond <esr@snark.thyrsus.com>