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************************************************************** * * * R E A D I N G F O R P L E A S U R E * * * * Issue #16 * * * * * * * * Editor: Cindy Bartorillo * * * * Reviews by: Travis Adkins, Cindy Bartorillo, Drew * * Bartorillo, Howard Frye, Peter de Jager, Darryl * * Kenning, Robert A. Pittman, Peter Quint, Carol * * Sheffert, Annie Wilkes * * * * Featured Author: Raymond Chandler * * * ************************************************************** CONTACT US AT: Reading For Pleasure, 103 Baughman's Lane, Suite 303, Frederick, MD 21702; or on CompuServe leave a message to 74766,1206; or on GEnie leave mail to C.BARTORILLO; or call our BBS, the BAUDLINE II at 301-694-7108, 1200-9600 HST. NOTICE: Reading For Pleasure is not copyrighted. You may copy freely, but please give us credit if you extract portions to use somewhere else. Sample copies of our print edition are available upon request. We ask for a donation of $2 each to cover the printing and mailing costs. *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* DISTRIBUTION DIRECTORY Here are a few bulletin boards where you should be able to pick up the latest issue of READING FOR PLEASURE. See masthead for where to send additions and corrections to this list. ????? Omaha, NE Pete Hartman 402-498-9723 Academia Pomono, NJ Ken Tompkins 609-652-4914 Accolade! BBS Round Rock,TX Jack Moore 512-388-1445 Ad Lib Monroeville,PA John Williams 412-327-9209 The Annex Dayton,OH John Cooper 513-274-0821 Beginnings BBS Levittown,NY Mike Coticchio 516-796-7296 Blcksbg Info Serv Blacksburg,VA Fred Drake 703-951-2920 Boot Strap OnLine Yuma, AZ Daryl Stogner 602-343-0878 Byrd's Nest Arlington,VA Debbie&Alan Byrd 703-671-8923 Checkpoint El Cajon,CA 619-442-3595 Chevy Chase Board Alexandria,VA Larkins/Carlson 703-549-5574 Computer Co-Op Voorhees,NJ Ted Hare 609-784-9404 Daily Planet Owosso,MI Jay Stark 517-723-4613 Death Star Oxon Hill,MD Lee Pollard 301-839-0705 Del Ches Systems Exton,PA Peter Rucci 215-363-6625 Diversified Prog PacPalisadesCA Jean-Pierre Denis 213-459-6053 Dorsai Diplomatic Mission NYC Jack Brooks 212-431-1944 Futzer Avenue Issaquah,WA Stan Symms 206-391-2339 GEnieUs GEnie Library #8 Humanware BBS New York Jim Freund 212-980-3128 IBMNew CompuServe Library #0 Inn on the Park Scottsdale,AZ Jim Jusko 602-957-0631 Invention Factory New York,NY Mike Sussell 212-431-1273 Ivory Tower Manchester,CT Karl Hakmiller 203-649-5611 KCSS BBS Seattle,WA Bob Neddo 206-296-5277 ()Lensman() BBS Denver,CO Greg Bradt 303-979-8953 Litforum CompuServe Library #12 Lost Paradise Mike King 703-370-7795 Magnetic Bottle Pennsylvania Bill Mertens 814-231-1345 Magpie HQ New York,NY Steve Manes 212-420-0527 MoonDog BBS Brooklyn,NY Don Barba 718-692-2498 MSU Library BBS St. Paul,MN Dana Noonan 612-722-9257 Over My Dead Body Oakland,CA Cherie Jung 415-465-7739 Port of Call BBS Indiana Brian Cload 219-763-4908 Poverty Rock PCB Mercer Is.,WA Rick Kunz 206-232-1763 Round Table BBS Chicago,IL Kevin Keyser 312-777-9480 Sabaline Don Saba 619-692-1961 Science Fiction GEnie Library #3 SF & Fantasy CIS Hom-9 Library #5 SMOF-BBS Austin,TX Earl Cooley 512-467-7317 SoftServ Long Beach,CA J. Neil Schulman 213-957-1176 Sunwise Sun City W.,AZ Keith Slater 602-584-7395 Technoids Anon. Chandler,AZ David Cantere 602-899-4876 Writers Happy Hr Seattle,WA Walter Scott 206-364-2139 Writers' RT GEnie Library #1 Xevious Framingham,MA Nels Anderson 508-875-3618 Your Place Fairfax,VA Ken Goosens 703-978-6360 RFP Home Board (all issues available all the time): Baudline II Frederick,MD the Bartorillo's 301-694-7108 (RFPs downloadable on first call; 9600 HST) Any board that participates in the RelayNet (tm) email system can request RFPs from BAUDLINE. NOTE: Back issues on CompuServe may have been moved to a different library. *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* TABLE OF CONTENTS Line # Editorial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120 What's News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157 Awards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249 Lost Stories by Peter de Jager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323 Cowboys of the Americas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 421 Top 25 Fiction/Nonfiction Bestsellers of 1990 . . . . . . . 573 Gallup Poll . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 902 Books About the Persian Gulf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1256 Computer Corner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1658 Genre Sections: Murder By the Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1737 Frightful Fiction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3056 Loosen Your Grip On Reality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4001 Back Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5021 *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* EDITORIAL As I type this, it finally looks like we might get a little spring weather here in Maryland. We've been trying to get some gardening done around RFP Central, but so far it's either been freezing cold, raining, or both. Hope it's nice where you are. I've been meaning to say something about the authorship of the text included in RFP. Whenever you see uncredited text about a book, the chances are that it has been written either by the author or by the publisher. As a free publication we have more-than-usually finite resources here; most notable is our lack of personnel and time. So we can't always give every book that comes our way the attention it really deserves. But nothing is in any issue of RFP because someone paid us to put it in, it's there because we thought you'd be interested in reading it. Many books, catalogues, and Press Releases come our way; we pass along only those that look the most promising. Our next issue, #17, will be released on June 1, 1991, and is our 2nd Anniversary Issue. We already have a number of great books lined up to tell you about, some of which you'll see mentions of in this issue. We also have two new columns that will debut in #17: a column about mysteries you might miss that will be written by Jack Curtin, and a regular piece about good reading for adults that can be found in the children's literature section written by Janet Peters. I want to thank all the writers who have taken the time to get in touch with me about their work--we appreciate getting the information and so do our readers. If you have any book-related news that you'd like to share with RFP, just stuff it in the mail or send us an electronic message. Our addresses can be found under the masthead on the first page/screen. ^*^ Cindy *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* WHAT'S NEWS * Warner has finally set a date for the release of Alexandra Ripley's sequel to Margaret Mitchell's GONE WITH THE WIND. Warner Books will release SCARLETT on September 25, 1991. * The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) has wisely decided to drop the controversial anti-obscenity pledge that artists were being forced to sign in order to receive federal grants. * Most people don't realize that filmmaker John Sayles (RETURN OF THE SECAUCUS 7, EIGHT MEN OUT, etc.) started out as a writer. His first novel, PRIDE OF THE BIMBOS, came out in 1975, and his latest, LOS GUSANOS, will be released by HarperCollins this June. It's about the history of Cuba, focusing on one family from the 1930s through 1981. And, as the author says, "...it is also a book about information, about free will and responsibility--and my feeling that if you are going to hold people responsible and expect them to exercise free will, the thing they have to have, and never do, is information." * This could turn out to be a Don DeLillo year. Not only will his latest novel, MAO II, be released by Viking this June, but three more DeLillo novels could show up in theaters this year: LIBRA, WHITE NOISE, and RUNNING DOG. * Two years ago, Lyle Stuart sold his publishing business and all of its imprints (Lyle Stuart, Citadel Press, and University Books) to Steven Schragis. Now Stuart is starting a new publishing house called Barricade Books Inc. (PO Box 1401, Secaucus, NJ 07096). The new company will emphasize controversial books, and begins operations already owning two. One is THE ANARCHIST COOKBOOK by William Powell, a book about all kinds of weapons, that Lyle Stuart had published before and was the only Stuart title that Schragis didn't want (Stuart bought the rights back for $75,000). The other is ISRAEL: REVOLUTION OR REFERENDUM by Rabbi Meir Kahane. Kahane was assassinated several days after meeting with Stuart to discuss publicity. New titles that are on Barricade's first list, coming this fall, are: POISON PEN by George Carpozi Jr., a biography of Kitty Kelley; an "unusual" novel by Gregory ("Fletch") McDonald; and the autobiography of Eartha Kitt. * BURDEN OF PROOF, Scott Turow's sort-of-sequel to PRESUMED INNOCENT, appears destined to be a made-for-TV movie or mini-series, rather than a theatrical feature like the first. * Eugene Fodor, founder of Fodor's Travel Guides, died February 18, 1991, at the age of 85. Fodor's famous series of travel books began with one book: 1936 ON THE CONTINENT, which was the very first guidebook ever published with the year in the title to ensure timeliness. Fodor's Travel Guides are now published by Random House. * Coming this September is the autobiography of Brian Wilson, the lead songwriter and producer for the Beach Boys. The book will be called WOULDN'T IT BE NICE? and publisher HarperCollins says it's "searingly candid". It will tell about Wilson's complete psychological collapse in the 1970's, violent abuse as a child, his unusual sex life, his weight problem (he weighed 350 pounds at one point), and his 20 years spent as a recluse. * Roald Dahl, master of the macabre as well as a renowned children's author, died on November 23, 1990 at the age of 74. His adult writing includes the novel MY UNCLE OSWALD as well as collections of short stories: SOMEONE LIKE YOU; KISS, KISS; and SWITCH BITCH. Some of his stories were adapted for the Alfred Hitchcock TV series, and Dahl himself wrote screenplays for the short-lived-but-highly-acclaimed WAY OUT. He also wrote screenplays for YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE and CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG. His stories for children include JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH, THE MAGIC FINGER, and the famous CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY (filmed as WILLIE WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY). * I mentioned in RFP #15 that Jonathan Carroll's BLACK COCKTAIL would be published someday in the U.S. (my review was based on my British copy). Well here it is: BLACK COCKTAIL is due to be released by St. Martin's as a trade paperback in September 1991. * Attention Vonnegut fans! FATES WORSE THAN DEATH (nonfiction), is due in hardcover from Putnam in August 1991, and a paperback reprint of HOCUS POCUS is on Berkley's schedule for November 1991. * Michael Bishop's novella, BRITTLE INNINGS, is about Dr. Frankenstein's monster coming back to earth during World War II disguised as an outfielder for a minor league baseball team. His secret is uncovered by his roommate, a mute shortstop, largely because of his ornate Victorian speech. The story has been optioned for theatrical development by producer Robert Laurence and 20th Century-Fox. Can't you just picture Schwarzenegger as the monster? * Anya Seton died on November 8, 1990, at the age of 86. She was the author of novels such as THE WINTHROP WOMAN, GREEN DARKNESS, and DRAGONWYCK. *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* AWARDS Awards given by the Association for Library Service to Children division of the American Library Association: 1991 Randolph Caldecott Medal: BLACK AND WHITE by David Macaulay 1991 John Newbery Medal: MANIAC MAGEE by Jerry Spinelli NATIONAL BOOK AWARDS Fiction: THE MIDDLE PASSAGE by Charles Johnson (Atheneum) Nonfiction: THE HOUSE OF MORGAN: AN AMERICAN BANKING DYNASTY AND THE RISE OF MODERN FINANCE by Ron Chernow (Atlantic Monthly Press) Distinguished Contribution to American Letters: Saul Bellow NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARDS Biography/Autobiography: MEANS OF ASCENT: THE YEARS OF LYNDON JOHNSON by Robert A. Caro (Knopf) Criticism: ENCOUNTERS AND REFLECTIONS: ART IN THE HISTORICAL PRESENT by Arthur Danto (FSG) Fiction: RABBIT AT REST by John Updike (Knopf) General Nonfiction: THE CONTENT OF OUR CHARACTER by Shelby Steele (St. Martin's) Poetry: BITTER ANGEL by Amy Gerstler (North Point) NOBEL PRIZE FOR LITERATURE Octavio Paz PULITZER PRIZES Biography: MACHIAVELLI IN HELL by Sebastian de Grazia (Princeton) Fiction: THE MAMBO KINGS PLAY SONGS OF LOVE by Oscar Hijuelos (FSG) General Nonfiction: AND THEIR CHILDREN AFTER THEM by Dale Maharidge & Michael Williamson (Pantheon) History: IN OUR IMAGE: AMERICA'S EMPIRE IN THE PHILIPPINES by Stanley Karnow (Random House) Poetry: THE WORLD DOESN'T END by Charles Simic (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich) ROMANCE WRITERS OF AMERICA Best Traditional Novel: RHAPSODY IN BLOOM by Wendela P. Kilmer (Silhouette) Best Long Contemporary Novel: THE ICE CREAM MAN by Eileen Dreyer (Silhouette) Best Short Contemporary Novel: NIGHT OF THE HUNTER by Alison Hart (Silhouette) Best Young Adult Novel: RENEE by Vivian Schurfranz (Scholastic) Best Single Title Contemporary: PRIVATE RELATIONS by Diane Chamberlain (Berkley/Jove) Best Series Historical: SILVER NOOSE by Patricia Gardner Evans (Harlequin) Best Single Title Historical: THE BRIDE by Julie Garwood (Pocket) Best Regency: THE RAKE AND THE REFORMER by Mary Jo Putney (NAL Signet) Best Romantic Suspense: PERCHANCE TO DREAM by Eileen Dreyer (Silhouette) Best First Book: OUT OF THE BLUE by Alaina Richardson (Silhouette) Golden Choice Award: MORNING GLORY by LaVyrle Spencer (Putnam) L.L. Winship Award: AMONG SCHOOLCHILDREN by Tracy Kidder (Houghton Mifflin) *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* _______________________ < > < LOST STORIES > < by Peter de Jager > <_______________________> This issue we take a look at two very different stories with a subtle common element. They focus on what we as individuals can achieve when we set our minds to the task. All too often we take the attitude that an individual has little, if any, impact on our society. These stories will entice you to rethink that attitude. The setting for the first is our recent history, the other a possible future. A MESSAGE TO GARCIA by Elbert Hubbard (1856-1915) Written: February 22nd 1899, The Roycroft Shop (Available through Peter Pauper Press ISBN 0-88988-434-7) This review could easily be longer than the story! 'A Message to Garcia' is a tiny piece, less than 1,600 words. By 1913, governments and companies had printed more than 40,000,000 copies worldwide in all written languages. It is impossible to estimate how many copies exist today. I read it about ten years ago. It has stuck in my mind ever since. It is not a 'story' in a traditional sense, more a description of an incident during the Cuban War. When the Spanish-American War broke out, President McKinley needed to get a message to General Garcia. Nobody knew where he was. The closest thing to a mailing address was 'somewhere in the Cuban mountains'. Colonel Andrew Summers Rowan was the messenger. He delivered the message. What is it about the piece that is so compelling? It does not contain any detailed character descriptions of Garcia or Rowan. There is no battle between good or evil, no violence, no sex, no examples of great prose. What is there about this piece that has prompted people to print it more than 40 million times? It is 'just' a description of someone taking responsibility for a task and following the task through to completion. This type of responsibility was obviously rare in the 1890's. How common is it today? Several thoughts cross your mind when you read this piece. Firstly you wish that all people were as reliable as Rowan... and then you ask yourself a soul searching question. 'Are you as reliable as Rowan?' 'A Message to Garcia' has motivational impact. If you want to feel hopeful about people, if you want to have a role model in a time when role models are hard to find...perhaps even passe...then read 'A Message to Garcia', it will only take about ten minutes, but the impact will last a lifetime. WASP Eric Frank Russell (1905-1978) Written 1957 Has a wasp ever got into your car while you were driving? If so, then you understand the basic premise of WASP. A small irritant can have an effect larger than it deserves. Russell takes this idea and weaves a superb spy story around it. He drops a single spy on an enemy planet way behind the front lines. Supplies him with a bag of relatively simple tricks and leaves him to irritate the enemy. The effect is wonderful and a joy to behold. The tricks do not include mass mayhem and destruction, that would be too obvious. Instead, the Wasp does little things. Messages on windows, taking credit for accidents, creative use of the press and misdirection of all sorts. The authorities begin to believe a huge underground is operating against them. To combat this, they start rounding up suspects (thus creating discontent in the populace). They overreact to the situation, never suspecting that a single individual is responsible for their problems. Russell writes a simple story. No sub-plots, no complexities, no hi-tech, just plain words and a wry sense of humor. WASP is a perfect example of his style. He brings chaos to an entire planet with only a few strategically scrawled messages. He could have given the hero a huge selection of high tech weapons and gadgets, instead he chooses items that most of us could get our hands on... This of course is part of the attraction in WASP. It becomes a game, what else could he be doing to annoy the government? You don't just read WASP, you get involved and cheer for the ultimate underdog, one man against a planet. WASP is not a serious novel. There are no hidden meanings, it is just an example of one person winning against great odds. So, next time the government or the authorities have got you down, pick up WASP and read about an individual getting the upper hand for once. *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* COWBOYS OF THE AMERICAS by Richard W. Slatta (1990, Yale University Press, $35 plus $2.75 shipping) Here's what people are saying about COWBOYS OF THE AMERICAS: "This is an outstanding work. Abundantly illustrated, superbly organized...It is factual without being pedantic, yet has just enough wistfulness to make us dream." (William Dieter, renowned Western novelist, in SMITHSONIAN, Nov. 1990) "This unique panoramic history is an absolute delight to read." (Howard R. Lamar, historian of the West, Yale University) RFP found Dr. Slatta in his office in the History Department of North Carolina State University and persuaded him to talk to us about his favorite subject. RFP: COWBOYS OF THE AMERICAS is not just another examination of our national Hollywood stereotype. Can you tell us a little about your book and what makes it so special? Dr. Slatta: Cindy, thanks for taking on interest in COWBOYS OF THE AMERICAS. You are right. I did not set out to write just another cowboy book. I chose to work on a very large canvas. I compare the history and mythology of North and South American cowboys. The effort seems be be paying off. Most reviews have been quite favorable. The National Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City has honored the book with its Western Heritage Award for nonfiction. This is a work of social history, so the focus is on people, working ranch hands, and how they lived their lives. I examine cowboys of Alberta, Canada and the American West, Hawaii's "paniolo," Mexico's "vaquero," Venezuela's "llanero," Chile's "huaso," and Argentina's "gaucho." I tried to structure the book somewhat like an old Western film. It opens with quick vignettes that highlight the various cowboy types. Flashbacks reveal the remote origins of the cowboy as a wild-cattle hunter. The cowboy hero rides onto the plains. Close-ups show his appearance, character and values. The camera then draws back for a sweeping shot of the range rider's environment--the great plains stretching toward an infinite horizon. In the heart of the book, I try to evoke the dust, smoke, and sweat of life on the range. The reader rides along on roundups and trail drives and eats a meal by a campfire. I take the reader with the fun-loving cowboy to horse races, saloons, and houses of ill repute. But I also reveal the harsh reality of frontier racial conflict and Indian wars. As the movie nears its end, we see rapid changes engulfing the cowboy. Farmers, foreigners, and new technology push across the open range and largely end the cowboy's old way of life in the saddle. The cowboy rides off into the brilliant desert sunset, but his image and memory live on in myth and popular culture. I wrote the book for both general readers and specialized, professional scholars interested in cowboys and frontier life. Many readers will not be familiar with all the different cowboy types. The book includes seven photo-essays with nearly 140 illustrations to show the reader these fascinating characters. I trust that general readers will find stirring, sometimes humorous references to cowboys in mythology, literature, and popular culture. But the book also challenges comfortable assumptions about the "uniqueness" of US history by presenting evidence of historical similarities in North and South America. I try to address several important questions concerning frontier history. One area of concern is the century-long critique of Frederick Jackson Turner's frontier thesis. The book does not reject entirely Turner's thesis. Rather, it modifies it along lines suggested by David M. Potter ("People of Plenty") by examining the role of relative natural abundance in shaping cowboy character. I analyze and compare the contradictory images of plains regions everywhere as desert and garden. COWBOYS OF THE AMERICAS challenges the "cowpens" theory of Terry Jordan (see his TRAILS TO TEXAS) and many others that trace the roots of western ranching in the colonial Carolinas. My evidence indicates that the meager cultural trickle from the Carolina Piedmont through the Old South to the coast of east Texas was a minor sideshow in the development of the Western ranching industry. Spanish influence from Mexico dominated and shaped the Western cattle culture. The Anglo-American cowboy, in my view, learned his trade from Mexico's vaquero. Spanish terms, equipment, and technique spread from Texas and California throughout the Western United States, Canada, and Hawaii. In sum, this book is not a micro-study. It uses a broad, comparative perspective along lines called for by Spanish Borderlands scholar Herbert Eugene Bolton in the 1930s. Narrow, regional works can make important contributions, but broad comparisons enrich our understanding of history. RFP: GAUCHOS AND THE VANISHING FRONTIER (1983) and now COWBOYS OF THE AMERICAS (1990)--obviously this is more than just a passing fancy for you. How did you come by your abiding interest? Dr. Slatta: First, Cindy, my present location notwithstanding (North Carolina), I am a Westerner. I grew up in small towns in North Dakota, Wyoming, California, Oregon, and Washington. I still call Oregon home. I later studied and taught history in Texas and Colorado. As an undergraduate, I studied western history and loved it. I still travel to and explore the West when I get a chance. For example, I hosted some sessions at the 7th Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, Nevada, in late January. I'm helping plan the 1992 program, which will highlight the Spanish heritage of the West. I joined the Peace Corps in 1969, trained in the mountains of Puerto Rico, and worked with residents of a squatter settlement near Panama City. Work in Panama and travel throughout Central and South America convinced me that I wanted to learn more about that beautiful but troubled region. After an undistinguished two-year stint in the Army, I earned a Master's Degree in Latin American history from Portland State University. I continued with doctoral studies at the University of Texas at Austin. I am a social historian. I focus on how ordinary people lived, worked, and played. As a work of new social history, COWBOYS OF THE AMERICAS reveals the real lives of a rural underclass--working ranch hands who tended cattle in ranching frontiers of North and South America. I tried to combine social with intellectual and culture history by comparing the social reality of historical cowboys with later images in political and popular culture. RFP: We've heard that there is another book in the works. Can you tell us just a little about it? Americans and people around the world identify the cowboy as a national symbol. COWBOYS OF THE AMERICAS focuses mainly on the cowboy as a historical figure in the 19th century. I do trace later cultural images attached to the cowboy in the final two chapters. My next book, THE COWBOYING OF AMERICA, takes up the growing cultural significance of the cowboy in the twentieth century. I'll explore how the cowboy (and related frontier symbols) have become an integral part of US political rhetoric, advertising, and popular culture. I believe that romanticized cowboy virtues and values become embedded in the fabric of American culture. As with the COWBOYS book, I hope to provide many illustrations to help readers visualize what I am talking about. I believe that this examination will be fun and colorful. I think that it will illuminate twentieth-century U.S. values. Am I overrating the cowboy's influence? I don't think so. I will argue that much of Ronald Reagan's immense popularity stems from his skillful mobilization and manipulation of what the public perceives as traditional cowboy virtues. Advertisers and filmmakers have long recognized and cashed in on the cowboy's appeal to children and adults. And, of course, I'll delve into popular western literature. Thanks for taking an interest in my work on cowboys, Cindy. Adios and happy trails. *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* THE TOP 25 FICTION BESTSELLERS OF 1990 (according to Publishers Weekly) 1. The Plains of Passage by Jean M. Auel 2. Four Past Midnight by Stephen King 3. The Burden of Proof by Scott Turow 4. Memories of Midnight by Sidney Sheldon 5. Message From Nam by Danielle Steel 6. The Bourne Ultimatum by Robert Ludlum 7. The Stand: The Complete & Uncut Edition by Stephen King 8. Lady Boss by Jackie Collins 9. The Witching Hour by Anne Rice 10. September by Rosamunde Pilcher 11. Dazzle by Judith Krantz 12. The Bad Place by Dean R. Koontz 13. The Women In His Life by Barbara Taylor Bradford 14. The First Man in Rome by Colleen McCullough 15. Dragon by Clive Cussler 16. Longshot by Dick Francis 17. Under Siege by Stephen Coonts 18. Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton 19. Buffalo Girls by Larry McMurtry 20. A Ruling Passion by Judith Michael 21. Sullivan's Sting by Lawrence Sanders 22. The Golden Orange by Joseph Wambaugh 23. Vital Signs by Robin Cook 24. Bittersweet by LaVyrle Spencer 25. Coyote Waits by Tony Hillerman THE TOP 25 NONFICTION BESTSELLERS OF 1990 (according to Publishers Weekly) 1. A Life on the Road by Charles Kuralt 2. The Civil War by Geoffrey C. Ward with Ric Burns & Ken Burns 3. The Frugal Gourmet on Our Immigrant Heritage by Jeff Smith 4. Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book 5. Financial Self-Defense: How to Win the Fight for Financial Freedom by Charles J. Givens 6. Homecoming: Reclaiming and Championing Your Inner Child by John Bradshaw 7. Wealth Without Risk by Charles J. Givens 8. Bo Knows Bo by Bo Jackson and Dick Schaap 9. An American Life: An Autobiography by Ronald Reagan 10. Megatrends 2000: Ten New Directions for the 1990s by John Naisbitt & Patricia Aburdene 11. By Way of Deception: The Making and Unmaking of a Mossad Officer by Victor Ostrovsky & Claire Hoy 12. Get to the Heart: My Story by Barbara Mandrell & George Vecsey 13. Millie's Book: As Dictated to Barbara Bush by Mildred Kerr Bush 14. Men At Work: The Craft of Baseball by George F. Will 15. The Cat and the Curmudgeon by Cleveland Amory 16. Don't Shoot, It's Only Me by Bob Hope with Melville Shavelson 17. Trump: Surviving at the Top by Donald Trump with Charles Leerhsen 18. Beware the Naked Man Who Offers You His Shirt by Harvey Mackay 19. You Just Don't Understand by Deborah Tannen 20. Powershift by Alvin Toffler 21. Barbarians at the Gate by Bryan Burrough & John Helyar 22. Dave Barry Turns 40 by Dave Barry 23. Secrets About Men Every Woman Should Know by Barbara DeAngelis 24. Martha Stewart's Christmas by Martha Stewart 25. The Wreath Book by Rob Pulleyn *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* HOW TO MAKE AN AMERICAN QUILT by Whitney Otto (Villard Books, 1991) review by Cindy Bartorillo This imaginative and unconventional novel provides insight into the passages of women's lives through the eight women of the Grasse Quilting Circle, and metaphorically with seven sets of historical quilting instructions. The circle includes one woman whose dreams are pushed aside by marriage and motherhood; two sisters whose love for each other ultimately transcends betrayal; a quiet, detached woman who follows her own path despite town talk; a wife who forgives her husband's numerous affairs; and a half-black, half-white woman and her daughter who must come to terms with their heritage. I don't believe it's possible to give you an accurate idea of the joy, the pain, the vibrant life that is contained in this one short book. The stories of these women are not just about marriage and family, they touch on independence, prejudice, the economics of gender, and war. First-time author Otto shows that a woman's life doesn't always turn out as advertised, and yet happiness, fulfillment, and peace can still be patched together from the scraps of her life. HOW TO MAKE AN AMERICAN QUILT is simply luminous prose--not to be missed. *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* MAGIC HOUR by Susan Isaacs (HarperCollins, 1991) review by Cindy Bartorillo Magic Hour is the name given by Hollywood to that time just around dawn, and again around twilight, when the lighting is perfect, and this image underscores this entire story, illuminating the ways in which life can be--but seldom is--perfect. Stephen Brady, a native of Long Island's the Hamptons, went to Vietnam and came home with a major drug habit which over the course of years mutated into alcoholism. His drinking got him a demotion in his career as a homicide cop, but now he's sober and has a girlfriend he's going to marry. Everything is perfect, except it isn't. For one thing, he loves his girlfriend, he respects her, he feels a need for her, but he just doesn't have any FUN with her. For another thing, big-time movie producer Sy Spencer, in town making his latest film, gets himself murdered and Brady has to solve this very touchy, newsworthy case side-by-side with the tiresomely dense and dangerously ambitious Robby Kurz. And to top everything, Brady finds himself falling in love with the prime suspect, Sy's former wife Bonnie. Brady, no more logical than any of the rest of us, reacts with anger to his obsession with Bonnie and initially works hard to develop the case against her. Then, once he's got everyone else on the force convinced of her guilt, he changes his mind and starts to look for other suspects. But the case proceeds regardless of Brady's orientation, and the clues pile up, mostly pointing toward Bonnie. Following the twin threads of MAGIC HOUR--the labyrinth of Brady's relationship with Bonnie and solving Sy's murder--is a joy from start to finish. Isaacs' portrait of the movie types is hilarious as well. (Could this part of the story come from the experience of filming her first book, COMPROMISING POSITIONS? What happened to that movie, anyway? The story was so good, and the cast was so talented; why was the film so lackluster?) Isaacs has a lot to say in MAGIC HOUR, about addictions and obsessions, about natives versus "summer people", about class divisions and pretensions, about the Hollywood power hierarchy, about what you need versus what will make you truly happy. It's a great story filled with interesting characters, and I recommend it to everyone. (I also recommend COMPROMISING POSITIONS, which is not quite as ambitious as MAGIC HOUR, but is laugh-out-loud funnier.) *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* HENRY FIELDING by Donald Thomas (St. Martin's, 1991) Henry Fielding is best known as the father of the English novel, author of TOM JONES and JOSEPH ANDREWS. In fact, he was a man of many careers. He was a popular playwright, a political and social essayist, and his legal career culminated in his becoming a magistrate and one of the founders of the Bow Street Runners, the earliest police force. Within Fielding lay a powerful intelligence that sought nothing less than a revolution in English society. Beneath the generous and good-natured panorama of JOSEPH ANDREWS and TOM JONES lay a vigorous impetus for change. Scorned for the "indecency" of his writing and, as a magistrate, for dabbling in "the sinks of vice and misery", Fielding dealt almost singlehandedly with the great crime wave of the 18th century in his final years. From little-known legal documents and unpublished correspondence, Donald Thomas brings evidence of family feuds and personal tragedy. He shows Fielding as both the last of an old order and the precursor of revolution; as the man whose plays brought censorship on the English stage yet who worked for the overthrow of social corruption; as a novelist condemned for indecency who was to emerge as a giant of fiction and morality. And he reveals how the winning and losing of one woman was the greatest drama of Fielding's life. (Good, readable material about Henry Fielding is tough to come by, making this biography essential for any reader interested in the English Novel. --Cindy) *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* A HISTORY OF KNOWLEDGE: Past, Present, and Future by Charles Van Doren (Birch Lane Press, 1991) review by Cindy Bartorillo Representing a lifetime of learning, A HISTORY OF KNOWLEDGE is a one-volume examination of every major step in the progress of human knowledge (although not all steps were in a forward direction). In fifteen chapters, from "Wisdom of the Ancients", through "The Middle Ages: The Great Experiment", "What Was Reborn in the Renaissance?", and "The Twentieth Century: Art and the Media", to "The Next Hundred Years", Charles Van Doren tells the story of the human thirst for understanding, and in the last chapter he uses what has gone before to predict where we are headed in the immediate future. For the autodidact, the lifetime student, A HISTORY OF KNOWLEDGE is indispensable. In addition to providing the grand scope of human endeavor, this volume makes a wonderful catalogue of pockets of knowledge. You may find yourself intrigued by Descartes, or the Industrial Revolution, or the caste system in India. A HISTORY OF KNOWLEDGE, and a library card, could just be the beginning of the best learning experience of your life. Charles Van Doren is the former editorial director of the ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA, the author of THE JOY OF READING, and the co-author of HOW TO READ A BOOK (all of which are in the top ten of my Most Read reference books). A new Charles Van Doren book is a very special occasion--be sure not to miss A HISTORY OF KNOWLEDGE. If you local store doesn't have it, ask them to special order it for you. NOTE: For another perspective on the same general subject, try THE DAY THE UNIVERSE CHANGED by James Burke. Not as comprehensive, or as disciplined, as A HISTORY OF KNOWLEDGE, but Burke's charm and wry humor make the book a delight. *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* IN THE COMPANY OF WRITERS: A Life In Publishing by Charles Scribner, Jr. based on the Oral History by Joel R. Gardner (Scribner's, 1990) review by Cindy Bartorillo You will have a difficult time finding a more charming and interesting volume of bookish memoirs. Charles Scribner was born into the publishing firm that was founded by his grandfather in 1846 and whose stable of authors has included F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Thomas Wolfe, James Jones, Edith Wharton, and many others. When Scribner first went to work at Scribner's, it was the old world of publishing, where agents were practically unheard of and where the corner office of their fifth floor was the home of the legendary editor Maxwell Perkins, ruling the world of belles lettres with a sure hand. Perhaps most astonishing of all is Scribner's objectivity. An expert in the field of Science History, his intellectual grounding has enabled him to achieve a remarkably detached perspective. He speaks at length, and with obvious affection, of Ernest Hemingway, and later segues into a description of James Jones, none of which is flattering. And yet when he mentions that Hemingway didn't like Jones either, he points out with insight and honesty that Hemingway's animosity was more likely due to jealousy over Jones' success with FROM HERE TO ETERNITY rather than to the personality defects that irritated Scribner. There are delightful anecdotes on every page, and with Joel R. Gardner's careful handling you can actually HEAR Scribner speaking. Here's a small sample of Scribner on several authors: On Hemingway: "Working with Hemingway was rather like being strapped in an electric chair. All the electrodes were always in place, and it would need just the flicking of a switch to ruin me." On James Jones: "Here was a young man who had a real gift and didn't know exactly what it was for and how best to develop it." On Charles Lindbergh: "He was the most fussy of authors, living or dead...To him, every detail in the book had as much significance as if it were a moving part in his airplane." On Alan Paton: "He thought of himself as I thought of him--as a genius." On P.D. James: "We hit it off immediately...Conversation with her was entertainment in itself." IN THE COMPANY OF WRITERS is a delight from the first page to the last. Highly recommended. *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* CHEERLEADERS CAN'T AFFORD TO BE NICE by Susan Sullivan Saiter (Donald I. Fine, 1991) CHEERLEADERS CAN'T AFFORD TO BE NICE, the fiction debut of Susan Sullivan Saiter, is a poignant, humorous and at times heart-rending evocation of growing up midwestern during the 1950s. Blending irony with real warmth, Saiter explores familial love and betrayal and the often illusory promises of the American Dream as she recounts the antics and aspirations of the Rawson family: Crosby Rawson, the book's narrator and the pretty and smart daughter who is wise beyond her years; Ben, Croz' younger brother, who might be a lunatic or a genius, but is definitely a certified pain in the neck; their father, a tire salesman who makes Willy Loman's life look secure; and their earthy, chain-smoking mother who never quite manages to redecorate and wears too much "Cherries in the Snow" lipstick. These reminiscences of midwestern youth alternate with the complexities of Croz's adult life in California, which is dramatically interrupted when brother Ben disappears in New York City and it is up to Crosby to find him. With an unforgettable array of characters, always striving for happiness, success, and a truly American lifestyle, CHEERLEADERS CAN'T AFFORD TO BE NICE is a remarkable story about America's heartland that introduces a sparkling new talent. Susan Sullivan Saiter is a former reporter for the Chicago SUN-TIMES and a stringer for the Chicago bureau of the New York TIMES. At work on her second novel, she is the mother of two daughters and makes her home with her husband, author N.R. (Sonny) Kleinfield, in New York City. *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* COUNTER STRIKE by Sean Flannery (William Morrow and Company, 1990) review by Robert A. Pittman It is somewhat surprising but always gratifying how often good writers anticipate and describe change. Sean Flannery has done this in his new thriller COUNTER STRIKE. His platform is the story of an assassination attempt on USSR President Gorbachev. It is to be carried out by a hired assassin who is an American and is also a veteran of Vietnam, a sociopath and a holder of the medal of honor. The assassination is planned and ordered by a high level dissident group in the Soviet military and is to take place at an international meeting where the President of the United States will also be present. The plot is discovered by the Moscow home militia, which is supportive of Gorbachev, and the race is then on to prevent the killing and to capture the assassin. The contest pits the "good Russians" and the "good Americans" against the "bad Russians" and the "bad American." The attitudes, backgrounds and interests of the various characters give the author the means of creating situations which express many representations of change that is currently occurring between the USSR and the USA. Trust, for example; when the Russian police inspector and the American detective need to cooperate and share information, they do not do so easily. They test and probe each other and very tentatively arrive at a state of harmony in which they can proceed with their common job. This does not mean to imply that the book offers a lesson in psychology or drifts into any type of deep message. It is just a good thriller that sits comfortably in today's environment of political change between two great world powers. *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* GALLUP POLL OF READERS Some results of a recent Gallup Poll about readers and their reading material: Favorite Author Living or Dead: #1---Stephen King #2---Danielle Steel #3---(tie) Louis L'Amour, Sidney Sheldon #4---(tie) James Michener, V.C. Andrews #5---(tie) Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck, William Shakespeare, Tom Clancy #6---(tie) Robert Ludlum, Isaac Asimov, J.R.R. Tolkien, Dick Francis, Alex Haley Favorite Living Author: #1---Stephen King #2---(tie) Danielle Steel, James Michener #3---Tom Clancy Percentage Who Have Read A Book By...: Mark Twain---86% Stephen King---43% Herman Melville---24% Leo Tolstoy---21% James Joyce---16% John Updike---12% Saul Bellow---6% Gustave Flaubert---3% 48% of Americans read fewer than 5 books in 1990 16% of Americans did not finish even 1 book in 1990 45% of Americans say they "expect to read more in the future" THE STORY GETS WORSE: Bookstore sales for December 1990 were terrible. Compared to December 1989, this past December was down 25% for hardcovers, 21% for trade paperbacks, and 19% for mass-market paperbacks. *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* THE PERPIGNON EXCHANGE by Warren Kiefer (Donald I. Fine, 1990, $19.95, ISBN 1-55611-227-0) review by Travis Adkins Dahoud El Beida, alias David Perpignon, is a half-Palestinian, half-French, self-taught computer expert and con man. Nearing forty and having spent the better part of his existence hustling a living around Europe and the Middle East--pleasantly battling his weakness for beautiful women and Viennese pastry--Perpignon/El Beida is ready to bury his Arab identity and live out the rest of his life as a Frenchman. Far from a major criminal, but always trying to stay one step ahead of the law, he boards a flight to Athens--only to find himself in the midst of a hijacking. After a week-long odyssey of fear and fatigue, the plane lands in Libya, where he is mistaken for the mastermind of the hijacking and is embraced (all-too-tightly) by Qaddafi-backed terrorists. At the same time, he is recruited as a double agent by an international coalition plotting a rescue operation. Boxed in on all sides, needing to find a way to save his own life, as well as those of his fellow passengers, the resourceful El Beida/Perpignon gambles on a chance to emerge as the hero--and get the swag. Though the story is a little far-fetched and at times borders on the unbelievable, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I particularly enjoyed Perpignon/El Beida's uncanny ability to get into precarious situations and come away unscathed. The story is well paced and very difficult to put down. On a scale of 1 to 10, I give this book an 8. *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* Horace Bent's award for the oddest title of 1990 (in The Bookseller magazine) went to THE LESBIAN SADOMASOCHISM SAFETY MANUAL. Runners up included: KNIFETHROWING: A PRACTICAL GUIDE, WHAT BIRD DID THAT?, ITALIAN WITHOUT WORDS, and THE TEACH YOUR CHICKEN TO FLY TRAINING MANUAL. Wow, I'm just not going to the right bookstores. *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* DICKENS by Peter Ackroyd (HarperCollins, 1990) review by Cindy Bartorillo "The danger, in outlining the characters of those who make up this history, is that in some sense we place them within the context of our own period. In fact everything has changed to such an extent that the social and economic relations between individuals are not easily to be recaptured. Nor is the atmosphere and quality of the world in which they moved--we must think of it as a less secure, a more invidious, a more ANGULAR, world. If a late twentieth-century person were suddenly to find himself in a tavern or house of the period, he would be literally sick--sick with the smells, sick with the food, sick with the atmosphere around him. It is an unimaginable journey we must take, therefore, a journey back through time." ---from DICKENS Charles Dickens is without doubt the most beloved writer in the English language, and he has created more enduring characters than anyone except possibly Shakespeare. Now the acclaimed novelist, poet, and biographer, Peter Ackroyd, has given us what is already being acknowledged as the definitive biography of this consummate creative artist. The story reads much like one of Dickens own novels, with more dark corners than most readers will anticipate. Ackroyd has studied original sources and brings together all the people that made up the private Charles Dickens: the guilty and lonely child, the already-famous writer in his youth, the social critic, the performer, and the burnt-out middle-aged man. You'll discover in these pages a character more fascinating than any he put in the pages of his stories, and with Ackroyd's careful and energetic prose you'll enjoy every page. Peter Ackroyd has written an earlier biography (T.S. ELIOT), a volume of poetry (THE DIVERSIONS OF POETRY), criticism (NOTES FOR A NEW CULTURE), and some absolutely wonderful fiction (THE GREAT FIRE OF LONDON, THE LAST TESTAMENT OF OSCAR WILDE, HAWKSMOOR, CHATTERTON, and the recent FIRST LIGHT). His HAWKSMOOR was reviewed in RFP #11. *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* THE MISSION by Jerome Tuccille and Philip Sayetta Jacobs (Donald I. Fine, 1991, $18.95, ISBN 1-55611-199-1) review by Travis Adkins Nearly fifty years have passed since Rudolf Hess, Deputy Fuhrer of the Third Reich, crash-landed in the Scottish countryside. He spent the remainder of his life in Berlin's Spandau prison, a lasting symbol of Hitler's ravages. To this day, the reasons for Hess' clandestine mission have not been revealed. Now, in a tense espionage thriller reminiscent of Ken Follet's EYE OF THE NEEDLE, authors Jerome Tuccille and Philip Sayetta Jacobs dramatically uncover the secret behind the mysterious flight of Rudolf Hess: Journalist Philip Renfield suspects the true identity of the downed German pilot who has been recently apprehended. Determined to locate and approach the man he believes is really Rudolf Hess, Renfield begins to put together the pieces of the puzzle. Rudolf Hess is locked in the Tower of London...but what about the man Renfield saw being spirited away to an out-of-the-way safehouse? Renfield finds he's become a pawn in a high-level contest of secret diplomacy between Nazi Germany and Churchill's strife-torn government. As the novel races toward its climax--and its ultimately shocking revelation--Renfield realizes he's no longer pursuing a story, he's trying to save his life, as well as that of the woman he loves. As a general rule, I try to avoid fictionalized histories because I do not like the idea of adapting an historical event into something it was not. However, much to my surprise, THE MISSION did not completely adulterate history as I feared it would. Nevertheless, I would rate it only a five on a scale of one to ten. The book was slow-paced and left me waiting for a climax that never really occurred. The historical background was quite intriguing and did provide an interesting foundation upon which the story was built. *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* RED OAKS AND BLACK BIRCHES The Science and Lore of Trees by Rebecca Rupp (Garden Way Publishing, 1990, $10.95, ISBN 0-88266-620-7) review by Darryl Kenning RED OAKS AND BLACK BIRCHES is not a title that would inspire me to pick this book up for almost any kind of reading that I habitually do. Nonetheless, I found this an incredible fascinating, and well written, potpourri of the science and folklore of trees. With a wealth of information covering 20 varieties of trees, this book should satisfy even the most ravenous seeker of information. Included are types of trees from the mighty oak, one of whose uses is to produce corks, to the towering redwoods. A nicely prosaic description of each--in non-technical terms--is included. A slice of intriguing historical data is also included and a dash of seasoning in the form of less often remembered facts has been stirred in. The nutritional composition of nuts was fascinating, as was the BTU content from various trees when used in the stove or fireplace. Occasionally we are treated to a colonial recipe for pickled walnuts or sycamore wine, reminding us of how much better our ancestors used the natural environment available to them than we care to. I do recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in trees, to anyone who enjoys a well written book, and especially to anyone who is a collector of forgotten facts and folklore. It will find a permanent place on your bookshelf and you will find yourself picking it up over and over again. I for one am looking forward to seeing more by Rebecca Rupp. This books rates a 5 on my scale of readability 0 = Ugh 5 = A real keeper *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* HEART'S DESIRES by Katharine Marlowe (Donald I. Fine, 1991) "At random moments, often when she was happiest, she'd have a sudden viewing of that scene. Like a full color slide from someone else's collection slipped mistakenly into the midst of her own, it would click into focus and she'd gaze at the carnage, breath held, eyes gone wide. She'd study the image then force it away, shaking her head to clear it of those lives, that long-gone horror..." In HEART'S DESIRES, the literary debut of Katharine Marlowe, childhood traumas reverberate through the life of a woman who is successful and happily married with children, but who is unable to fully escape the dark memories of her past. Growing up in 1950s Manhattan, the daughter of divorced parents and a mother who is "ahead of her time", Aly is used to her mom's special overnight friends--most of them married--but takes an immediate, inexplicable dislike to one very eligible bachelor, a plainclothes detective with the NYPD. Left alone with him one evening, Aly's worst fears are realized. When her mother dismisses Aly's accusation of abuse as a figment of her young imagination, Aly decides to move in with her father. Shortly thereafter, a tragic act of unspeakable violence shatters her life. The memory of this horror haunts Aly throughout adulthood, affecting her choice of career and men--and distorting her perception of herself--until she finally confronts the subconscious truths controlling all she feels and does. *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* FORBIDDEN CHANNELS The Truth They Hide From TV GUIDE by Penny Stallings (HarperPerennial, 1991) review by Cindy Bartorillo Normally, as you know, we maintain a <ahem> high level of dignity and taste here in RFP. Now, however, the time has come to throw off the shackles of good breeding and dish some dirt. As the unbridled (but accurate) cover text says: "FORBIDDEN CHANNELS blows the lid off the rumors, the scandals, and the deepest, darkest secrets of your favorite small-screen stars". What you have here is the NATIONAL ENQUIRER for college graduates. Who could resist reading about what the TV stars are like when the cameras aren't rolling--the feuds, the secret pasts, the plastic surgery. FORBIDDEN CHANNELS has the answers to these fascinating questions: What did Eva (GREEN ACRES) Gabor wear under her wigs? (Hint: It involves advanced engineering.) What really went on between takes on the set of HOWDY DOODY? What was it that Oscar Levant said that got his show canceled? Who did they originally want to play STAR TREK's Mr. Spock? Who was originally cast as DALLAS' Bobby Ewing? Pam? What really went on between Desi and Lucy, Sonny and Cher, Bruce and Cybill? How did Steve McQueen get off WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE? Did Flipper really commit suicide? Did you know that these actors used to appear on daytime soap operas: Ellen Burstyn, Armand Assante, Kathleen Turner, Ted Danson, Sigourney Weaver, Roy Scheider, Robert De Niro, Dustin Hoffman, Martin Sheen, Jack Lemmon, James Earl Jones, Hal Linden, Eva Marie Saint? Did you know that Dustin Hoffman made TV commercials for Volkswagen? And the pictures are wonderful. Familiar stars caught in unfamiliar roles, or as babies or children. Old, old photographs from long forgotten episodes of live television with familiar faces in them. FORBIDDEN CHANNELS is the guilty pleasure of Spring 1991, and also makes a dandy photograph album for all of us who grew up in front of a television set. Author Penny Stallings is a pop-culture essayist on THE MacNEIL/LEHRER NEWS HOUR, author of FLESH & FANTASY and ROCK AND ROLL CONFIDENTIAL, and managing editor of TITTERS: THE FIRST ANTHOLOGY OF HUMOR BY WOMEN. *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* RUPERT MURDOCH by Jerome Tuccille (Donald I. Fine, 1991) Now available in paperback, with new and updated information, RUPERT MURDOCH, by Jerome Tuccille, is the most complete and objective look at the man many observers call the "Citizen Kane" of his time. While other Murdoch biographies have been predominantly critical works, Tuccille, a veteran investigative financial journalist, focuses on the facts--the hows and whys of Murdoch's deals--and leaves critical judgement to the reader. Through interviews with numerous sources both inside and outside the Murdoch media empire, including a rare session with Murdoch himself, the author reveals little-known facts about the man behind the public face, and explores how--in spite of skeptics who claim he is overextending himself--he manages his widespread international operations in a remarkably hands-on manner, while continuing to add to his unprecedented string of successful acquisitions. *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* WORD WATCHER'S HANDBOOK (Third Edition) A Deletionary of the Most Abused and Misused Words by Phyllis Martin (St. Martin's, 1991) review by Howard Frye "All our lives we've been urged to add words to our vocabularies. Isn't it time we were encouraged to delete feeble phrases and abused or misused words from our speech and writing?" ---from WORD WATCHER'S HANDBOOK Going through the pages of WORD WATCHER'S HANDBOOK is by turns educational (when you pick up new information), embarrassing (when author Martin condemns one of your long-standing speech habits), and provoking (when you disagree with Martin's insistence on conservative and formal word usage). In the "Deletionary" section, containing words and phrases that should be removed from your speech, I winced to be reminded that my beloved "hopefully", and "curiously enough" are ungainly and make many listeners gag. But I think that replacing the often-heard "aren't I?" with the correct "am I not?" is going to make most people think you're quoting Victorian poetry. In the chapter on usage, I was happy to see that Martin confirms the plural status of "scissors". I've heard several speakers recently use the word in the singular, even catching one character in a television show asking for "a scissors". On the other hand, it seems odd to insist on an old definition of "decimate", to "select by lot and kill one in every ten". In my vocabulary "decimate" has been modernized to refer to a more contemporary form of destruction. My favorite sections of WORD WATCHER'S HANDBOOK are the pronunciation guides. I don't know about you, but I bet I have hundreds of words stored away in some corner of my brain, words that I know the meanings of but I can't use because I don't know how to say them. For instance, we all know that a wine gets aged (one syllable, long a). But when referring to an elderly individual is it really correct to say AY-jed? (Yes.) Do you really pronounce the "k" in knish? (Yes.) Also, lately I've heard "species" pronounced on TV more often as SPEE-sees, rather than the SPEE-sheez that I've always said. Who's right? (I am.) And is "schism" pronounced SKIZ-em or SHIZ-em? (Neither--it's SIZ-em.) There are also pronunciation guides to French and Italian menu items as well as place names. For instance: is it New OR-lee-anz or New or-LEENZ? (New OR-lee-anz.) With many examples, exercises, and lots of good advice, WORD WATCHER'S HANDBOOK is just the thing for cleaning up the words and phrases you use now, and for getting the rest of your vocabulary out of the closet and into your conversation. Phyllis Martin is also the author of MARTIN'S MAGIC FORMULA FOR GETTING THE RIGHT JOB. *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* BOOKS ABOUT THE PERSIAN GULF This list of recommended reading on the Persian Gulf was broadcast on National Public Radio and has been very popular. A Peace to End All Peace: Creating the Modern Middle East by David Fromkin (Holt, Avon paper) The Rape of Kuwait by Jean P. Sasson (Knightsbridge, paper) Republic of Fear by Samir al-Khalil (Univ. of Calif., Pantheon paper) The Modern History of Iraq by Phebe Marr (Westview) Iraq: Eastern Flank of the Arab World by Christine M. Helms (Brookings) The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money & Power by Daniel Yergin (Simon & Schuster) Saddam Hussein and the Crisis in the Gulf by Judith Miller & Laurie Mylroie (Times Books, paper) From Beirut to Jerusalem by Thomas Friedman (Anchor, paper) Middle East and the West by Bernard Lewis (HarperCollins) The Future Battlefield: The Arab-Israeli Conflict by Hirsh Goodman & W. Seth Carus (Transaction) The Persian Gulf and the West: The Dilemmas of Security by Charles A. Kupchan (Unwin & Hyman) Arms & Oil: U.S. Military Strategy & The Persian Gulf by Thomas L. McNaugher (Brookings) The High Walls of Jerusalem: A History of the Balfour Declaration & The Birth of the British Mandate for Palestine by Ronald Sanders (Holt) Arabia, the Gulf, & the West: A Critical View of Arabs & Their Oil Policy by John B. Kelly (Basic) The Vanished Imam: Musa Al Sadr & the Shia of Lebanon by Fouad Ajami (Cornell Univ.) Lessons of Modern War, Vol. 2: The Iran-Iraq War by Anthony H. Cordesman & Abraham R. Wagner (Westview) If War Comes: How to Defeat Saddam Hussein by Trevor Dupuy (Dupuy) *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* WHERE ON EARTH? A Refreshing View of Geography by Donnat V. Grillet (Prentice Hall, 1991) review by Cindy Bartorillo "Many people say that geography is their favorite subject. Yet about half of the American young people polled couldn't locate the United States on a map. Many said that Washington, D.C., is in the state of Washington or IS the state of Washington. More than a quarter of young Texans could not name the country that lies "south of the border, down Mexico way." Furthermore, as author Grillet points out, this ignorance has some very real consequences: "The Dust Bowl of the 1930s reflected a general ignorance of topography and climate. The killer air-pollution attack on Donora, Pennsylvania, in 1948 reflected a lack of environmental knowledge. The discharge of liquid waste in a disposal well near Denver, Colorado, between 1962 and 1965 led to earthquakes, further demonstrating our lack of understanding of geology. Building structures on unstable ground contributed to devastation in the 1964 quake in Alaska." "Other recent geographically influenced events included the dust storm in the Iranian desert that aborted arguably the most important US military mission since Vietnam...the deaths near Mount Saint Helens's eruptions...the numerous landslides and mudslides and floods in California...the ongoing fight to clean up toxic waste and air pollution." Several groups, notably the National Geographic Society, have decided to do something about our most overlooked academic discipline. One example of this push is the National Geography Bee, sponsored nationwide by the NGS. This book of 14 multiple choice quizzes and 50 map quizzes will help youngsters study for the Geography Bee, and help adults shore up some gaps in their education. The quizzes cover such areas as: Agriculture/Food, Animals, Cities, Climate, Continents, Countries, The Planet Earth, Islands, Landmarks, Mountains, Natural Resources, People, The United States, and Waters of the World. In addition, there is a Geographic Dictionary to define words like biome, equinox, karst, loess, moraine, taiga, etc. And sprinkled throughout there are pages of "Oddish Facts" such as, "The western tip of Virginia is 25 miles west of Detroit, Michigan." Between the multiple choices and the map quizzes, there are about 660 questions in all. I decided to go through the book's tests, and give my score as representative of the average American citizen who has had a normal public school education and a little college, and who has received high grades throughout. I had 327 correct answers, which author Grillet judged "Very good. You have more than a passing knowledge of the world." Please notice, however, that I still scored a bit under 50%, which would have been a flunking grade in any of the schools I ever attended. (When did they put Suriname in South America?) I'm planning a trip to the bookstore to buy an atlas tomorrow, and vow that WHERE ON EARTH? is soon to become one of the most-thumbed volumes on my shelf. *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* WRITER'S NOTEBOOK PRESS Writer's Notebook Press is the nonfiction imprint of Pulphouse Publishing. There are two periodicals being produced by them that you might be interested in: THE REPORT: A writer's magazine, filled with writers talking about all aspects of writing. Digest-sized, over 60 pages, it is full of the most recent market information, how-to-write articles, business articles, and lots of fun and controversy. It's $2.95 each, $10 for four, and $30 for 12 monthly issues. MONAD: A Journal of Science Fiction Criticism edited by Damon Knight. This is irregular, and only one issue has appeared so far. It's $5 for trade paper, $15 for the limited cloth, and $18 for a four-issue subscription. Send orders to: Pulphouse Publishing, Box 1227, Eugene, OR 97440. *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* LOVESICK: THE MARILYN SYNDROME by Elizabeth Macavoy, Ph.D. and Susan Israelson (Donald I. Fine, 1991) Marilyn Monroe suffered from it. Millions of women ignore its symptoms every day and face the consequences of ill-fated romances and devastating "fatal attractions". LOVESICK: THE MARILYN SYNDROME, which DIF published on February 15, 1991, is a book for women who didn't find the valentine of their dreams because of this destructive, emotional illness that affects those who don't love themselves and can't accept love from others. Written by Dr. Elizabeth Macavoy, a psychologist who runs "Women Who Love Too Much" workshops, and Susan Israelson, one of her recovered patients, LOVESICK rises above the pack of relationship books by not only diagnosing the symptoms of this illness, but also providing a step-by-step recovery plan. Similar to the philosophy behind Alcoholics' Anonymous, LOVESICK concludes that sufferers will be lovesick for life, BUT, with preemptive measures, they can spot the warning signs, avoid the pitfalls of unhealthy romances and even find true love. LOVESICK also traces the roots of this affliction--it is often a product of growing up in a dysfunctional family--as well as some of the side-effects (such as substance abuse), instructing readers how to achieve not only healthy love lives, but balanced professional and familial relationships too. *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* MM II: THE RETURN OF MARILYN MONROE by Sam Staggs (Donald I. Fine, 1991) In his novel MM II: THE RETURN OF MARILYN MONROE, Sam Staggs combines intensive research with bold imagination to explore the provocative, and--as rendered here--startlingly plausible scenario that Marilyn Monroe is alive and well and living in New York. Almost eerily capturing her voice and the soft-spoken, smoldering sexuality that catapulted her to stardom, as well as her often-suppressed witty sense of humor, Staggs' novel--a lovely "what if"--supposes that Marilyn's 1962 "suicide" was orchestrated by the powers-that-were to prevent her from making good on her threat to go public about her relationship with John F. Kennedy. An emotionally fragile alcoholic, Marilyn is abducted to a small mining town in Colorado. But under the strain of captivity, Marilyn surprises everyone, including herself, by summoning the strength of the woman she kept hidden inside--Norma Jean. She escapes to New York and, disguised as a redhead, pursues a serious acting and singing career under an alias, supporting herself with odd jobs, including waitressing and clerking at Doubleday's flagship bookstore on Fifth Avenue and 57th Street... Until a suspicious former colleague appears and a talent search is launched for the "real" Marilyn Monroe as we might know her today. AUTHOR SAM STAGGS DISCUSSES THE MARILYN MYTH: "Many others have attempted to solve the mystery of what really happened in August 1962 in Marilyn Monroe's house in Brentwood. But because I'm writing fiction, not biography or history, I am permitted to step across the usual boundaries and meet a very different Marilyn Monroe, one who goes on living into 1963, 1964, 1965... Have I started something? Is this the next phase of the Marilyn Monroe myth? No one really wants to relinquish Marilyn. That's why her image is alive everywhere today--on magazine covers, in advertisements, in the shop windows of Hollywood, New York and countless other cities. So in a very real sense Marilyn is alive; certainly her glamour and her unforgettable image are alive. Every time I walk on Fifth Avenue near 57th Street, I half expect to see a woman in a red wig, with an unmistakable figure and a dazzling smile, rushing into Doubleday, late as usual, but pausing just enough to whisper 'Sorry' in that classic breathy voice and then laugh, mostly to herself." *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* THE BARNHART DICTIONARY COMPANION A Quarterly to Update General Dictionaries David K. Barnhart, Editor (Springer-Verlag, 1991) As the pursuit of knowledge advances, a new language is created to express new ideas, concepts and discoveries. The revised editions of dictionaries cannot keep up with the avalanche of new terminology. On the leading edge of scientific research, Springer-Verlag expands its boundaries to include the science of language with THE BARNHART DICTIONARY COMPANION. The only publication of its kind in the world devoted to updating general dictionaries, THE BARNHART DICTIONARY COMPANION has recorded nearly 4,000 new terms and expressions recently added to the English language. An essential addition to the modern library, the dictionary covers: science and technology; the social sciences; business, economics and finance; the arts; contemporary lifestyle; sports; and common vocabulary. Pioneering the classification of knowledge, THE BARNHART DICTIONARY COMPANION features: * new words and meanings not in current dictionaries * word usage and commentary * explanations of word formation * variation in forms of entry word * comprehensive classification of usage features * word origins explained with attention to related and earlier forms * quotations from a wide range of literary, scientific, and general news sources ...and much more! Send $49 ($60 Institutional Rate) for a 1991 subscription to Volume 6 (4 quarterly issues) to: Springer-Verlag New York, Inc., Attn: Dean Smith, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Or you can charge it by calling 1-800-SPRINGER. *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* OFF TO A GOOD START by Mary Ann Bartusis, M.D. (1991, Donald I. Fine, $18.95, ISBN 1-55611-186-X) review by Travis Adkins Getting married should be one of the happiest times in a person's life. But there are all kinds of hidden pressures that arise in planning a wedding and honeymoon that can strain even the truest of loves. To help engaged couples avoid the pitfalls and perfect their wedding, marriage therapist and psychiatrist Mary Ann Bartusis has written Off TO A GOOD START: A Guide For Engaged Couples and Newlyweds Of All Ages. Whether you're marrying your first love or your fourth spouse, whether you are young or middle-aged, starting out with anyone new is always a new start. Now, for the first time, Mary Ann Bartusis guides couples through the many concerns of the newly married, including easy to identify trouble spots such as: * money questions * lifestyle expectations * pressure from parents, in-laws and other family members * attitudes toward work and education * career choices * conflicting work schedules. As a newlywed myself I was particularly interested in OFF TO A GOOD START, hoping that it might reveal the secrets of a successful marriage. Although it didn't reveal any secrets, it did provide common-sense solutions to problems that couples typically face in their new life together. I recommend this book not so much for the advice that it gives, but for the issues it raises. *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* THE WORLD BOOK RUSH-PRESBYTERIAN-ST. LUKE'S MEDICAL CENTER MEDICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA Your Guide to Good Health (World Book Inc., 1991) review by Howard Frye A comprehensive, understandable, and practical encyclopedia of over 4,500 alphabetically-arranged entries (over 1,000 pages) that explain parts of the body, medical terms, pharmaceuticals, medical procedures, diseases, seemingly everything anyone would need to know about their health and its care. Copiously illustrated, with photographs, charts, and drawings, this MEDICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA is easy and quick to use. Many first aid procedures are explained with a series of illustrations, making them particularly easy to put to practical use. Extra sections in the back give you help in accessing entries by symptom--useful when you don't know exactly what to look up. Other sections discuss health care issues by age group and cover nutrition and exercise. THE WORLD BOOK RUSH-PRESBYTERIAN-ST. LUKE'S MEDICAL CENTER MEDICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA is a one-volume health care reference book that will serve the entire family. Highly recommended, particularly for its readability. *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* ACES by Robert Denny (Donald I. Fine, 1991, ISBN 1-55611-225-4) review by Darryl Kenning ACES is a story about the bomber crews that went into German territory, day after day from 1942 until the end of the second World War. To a lesser extent it is a story of the dwindling German resources as well. Mr. Denny, with some discipline, stuck to his original story throughout the book and was able to keep the reader's attention well focused. In a way that's too bad, because a number of comparatively minor incidents and personalities would certainly be worth additional time and space (perhaps another book?). In many ways the author seems to have captured the story of the events taking place on one narrow strip of the broad canvas of the war. The personalities might have been a bit more defined. It is clearly a difficult task to write a novel about such a momentous slice of history with a lot of the heroes still looking down at your typewriter. In fact the very writing makes it clear that the author participated in the historic events of that time and place. Aficionados of this period won't want to miss this one. *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* FILMED BOOKS AND PLAYS A List of Books and Plays from Which Films Have Been Made 1928-1986 by A.G.S. Enser ($59.95, Gower Publishing) FILMED BOOKS AND PLAYS is a unique and valuable reference work, containing a list of books and plays from which English language films have been made between the years 1928 and 1986. The commencing date of 1928 was chosen because from that year on most films produced for public viewing were talking pictures. This edition brings it right up-to-date and includes films made especially for TV and indicates which filmed books and plays are available for home video viewing. Add 3% for postage and handling and send to: Gower Publishing Company, Old Post Road, Brookfield, VT 05036. For fastest service, call 1-800-535-9544 (orders only) or FAX 802-276-3837. *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* CASTING THE CIRCLE A Women's Book of Ritual by Diane Stein (The Crossing Press, 1990) review by Cindy Bartorillo I was brought up with the rule that it is generally impolite to talk about sex, religion, or politics in polite society, mostly because emotions tend to run rather high in these areas. I quickly realized, however, that banning these three fascinating topics leaves one with not much more than the weather and baseball statistics as conversational pivots, and my generation has suffered because of this popular rule of etiquette. Many of us find ourselves in lives that have no visible purpose, and no worthwhile foundation. And some of us, particularly if we are women, find that the popular western religions seem foreign to our nature, not the fundamental spiritual base that we need. CASTING THE CIRCLE addresses just this problem. Women's Spirituality is a fairly new subject for several reasons. To begin with, it's only recently that women have had the social and economic clout to get books by and about women published. And it's only recently that archaeological evidence has emerged that indicates that civilization was not always the patriarchy we have grown accustomed to, nor was God always a Him. CASTING THE CIRCLE is a book for women who feel a need for spiritual sustenance in their lives, a spirituality that doesn't punish and demote them for their gender, but rather celebrates the creativity and nurturing that are the distinctive features of women everywhere. CASTING THE CIRCLE gives women a foundation of historical spirituality upon which they can base their own religious lives. The reader will discover what is known about the ancient goddesses and the ways in which women have traditionally manifested their spiritual selves. The largest part of the book is devoted to women's natural relationship with the moon and its phases, and to the important spokes of the Neverending Wheel of the Year and the rituals common to them. Each ritual is given with specific ideas for songs, words, music, and symbolic talismans, but Diane Stein always reminds the reader that each element should be personalized to the needs of the woman, or women, involved. This is one of the chief attractions of Women's Spirituality, as I see it---it's willingness to encompass the individual nature of its practitioners. Where many religions attempt to mold each person into a single form, Women's Spirituality encourages each woman to seek what she needs in her own way. It should be noted that CASTING THE CIRCLE is not the only book available concerning Women's Spirituality, but it is an excellent volume to begin with. Diane Stein is the author of a number of other related books: THE WOMEN'S SPIRITUALITY BOOK, THE GODDESS BOOK OF DAYS, etc. And there is a bibliography in the back of CASTING THE CIRCLE that will give the reader many other interesting titles. I recommended CASTING THE CIRCLE highly, and is best thought of as a gift---for yourself or for a female friend. *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* ******************* * COMPUTER CORNER * ******************* COMPLETE GUIDE TO VENTURA PUBLISHER by G. Keith Gurganus & Gary Katz (ScottForesman Professional Books, 1991, $21.95) review by Drew Bartorillo Learning to use Xerox's Ventura Publisher can be very challenging. The documentation that comes with the Ventura Publisher software package is very cumbersome and confusing to use. Even after a couple of years of experience using Ventura Publisher and its documentation, I find it usually easier to learn a new feature by trial and error than to look it up in the documentation. COMPETE GUIDE TO VENTURA PUBLISHER shows you how to use the Ventura Publisher desktop publishing system. It assumes only a basic knowledge of computers and requires no previous experience using Ventura Publisher. Step-by-step tutorials logically introduce you to Ventura Publisher's commands while showing you how to produce a publication. After the tutorials, the book discusses advanced Ventura Publisher topics and continues with a complete reference section to all the Ventura Publisher commands. Following is a breakdown of the chapters in the book: o Chapter 1: Preparing for Desktop Publishing o Chapter 2: How Ventura Publisher Works o Chapter 3: Basic Layout with Ventura Publisher o Chapter 4: Creating Large Documents with Ventura Publisher o Chapter 5: Using Ventura Publisher's Built-in Graphic Tools o Chapter 6: Importing Graphics into Ventura Publisher o Chapter 7: Ventura Publisher's Menus and Commands Appendixes A through E include important information about installing Ventura Publisher, the Ventura Publisher character set, text attributes for importing word processed documents, third-party software utilities for Ventura Publisher, and a printout of Ventura Publisher sample chapters. All-in-all, I found COMPETE GUIDE TO VENTURA PUBLISHER to be very easy to use and a valuable addition to the suite of tools necessary to master Ventura Publisher. I especially liked the simple graphic and text explanation that was given to each of the pull-down menus and each command that is available within each of those menus. Even after having used Ventura Publisher for a couple of years I found I still had a few tricks to learn. Appendix D, listing third-party software utilities available for Ventura Publisher, is extremely valuable for a source of software that can make creating Ventura Publisher documents a little less painful. The name of the vendor that produces each of the add-on utilities is listed. It would have been very helpful if their addresses would have been listed also. One serious omission from COMPETE GUIDE TO VENTURA PUBLISHER is any discussion whatsoever of the features available with the Ventura Publisher Professional Extension add-on. The VERY powerful tabling feature is included in this extension along with vertical justification and others. Mention is made in the front of the book that the Professional Extension exists, but that is the last time it is ever mentioned. A TRUE complete guide to Ventura Publisher would also have included this valuable extension package. The new Gold versions of Ventura Publisher include the Professional Extension as part of the basic package. COMPETE GUIDE TO VENTURA PUBLISHER could have been easily used with the latest version of Ventura Publisher also if this information would have been included. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Coming in Reading For Pleasure #17, The Anniversary Issue, I will be reviewing two computer user guides written by Richard Maran (both from Hypergraphics Inc. in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada): Simplified User Guide for Microsoft Windows 3.0 and MS DOS Simplified User Guide *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* #:#:#:#:#:#:#:#:#:#:#:#:# # MURDER BY THE BOOK # #:#:#:#:#:#:#:#:#:#:#:#:# editor: Cindy Bartorillo --------------------------------------------------------------------- Murder By The Book is a division of Reading For Pleasure, published bimonthly. This material is NOT COPYRIGHTED and may be used freely by all. Catalogs, news releases, review copies, or donated reviews should be sent to: Reading For Pleasure, 103 Baughman's Lane, Suite 303, Frederick, MD 21702. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Featured Author: RAYMOND CHANDLER (1888-1959) article and reviews by Howard Frye "If being in revolt against a corrupt society constitutes being immature, then Philip Marlowe is extremely immature. If seeing dirt where there is dirt constitutes an inadequate social adjustment, then Philip Marlowe has inadequate social adjustment. Of course Marlowe is a failure and he knows it. He is a failure because he hasn't any money. A man who, without physical handicaps, cannot make a decent living is always a failure and usually a moral failure. But a lot of very good men have been failures because their particular talents did not suit their time and place. In the long run I guess we are all failures or we wouldn't have the kind of world we have." ---Raymond Chandler (RAYMOND CHANDLER SPEAKING, 1962) Born into a well-to-do family in Chicago, Raymond Chandler's mother took him to England when he was a boy and he received a classical education at Dulwich College in London, later attending a business college in Paris. He worked as a teacher and a freelance journalist before returning to the United States, and during World War I he served with the Canadian Gordon Highlanders in France and won two medals. After the war Chandler lived in Los Angeles, briefly working as a reporter, then as an accountant, finally becoming a very successful executive with several oil companies. He married Pearl Cecily Bowen, 17 years his senior, in 1924, and was devoted to her until her death in 1954. (Deteriorating health and alcoholism, possibly caused by depression over his wife's death, took his life only 5 years later.) It wasn't until the Depression, when he found himself broke and out of work, that he took up writing, selling his first story to the pulps (BLACK MASK) in 1933 ("Blackmailers Don't Shoot"). Chandler wrote 20 novelettes for the pulps, in which the hero was occasionally nameless, occasionally Carmody, Dalmas, Malvern, Mallory, and finally became Philip Marlowe. His stories added weight to the new, more realistic form of "hard-boiled" detective fiction. One of Chandler's most famous pieces of writing was an essay called "The Simple Art of Murder", published in the ATLANTIC MONTHLY in December of 1944. In this essay you will find one of Chandler's most famous lines: "Down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid. The detective in this kind of story must be such a man. He is the hero, he is everything. He must be a complete man and a common man and yet an unusual man. He must be, to use a rather weathered phrase, a man of honor, by instinct, by inevitability, without thought of it, and certainly without saying it." Another insight into Marlowe's character is provided by Robert B. Parker, whose name appears more prominently later in this article: "The hard-boiled hero belongs, therefore, not to the Marxist but to the chivalric tradition--a tradition he shares in this country with the Westerner. He is not of the people; he is alone. His adventures are solitary statements. His commitment is to a private moral code without which no other code makes any sense to him. He regularly reaffirms the code on behalf of people who don't have one." ---Robert B. Parker ("The American Tough Guy" in MURDER INK by Dilys Winn) You will find that one of Chandler's chief themes was the class system in America. By keeping Marlowe lower-middle class and having him rub shoulders with the wealthy, Chandler was able to play the social critic by highlighting the pros and cons of being wealthy or poor in a capitalist system. Like Hammett and Hemingway, Chandler wrote about an unpleasant world in a realistic fashion, creating detective stories that, while enjoyable, certainly are not escapism. THE FILE ON PHILIP MARLOWE: Philip Marlowe was born in 1906 in Santa Rosa, California, and attended two years of college in Oregon. He began work as an insurance investigator, eventually winding up working in the L.A. County DA's office as an investigator, at least until he was fired for insubordination. * He's an unmarried white male just over 6 feet tall, 190 pounds, with dark hair and brown eyes. * He can most often be found wearing a hat, a trench coat, and horn-rimmed sunglasses. * He smokes quite a lot--usually Camels, but a pipe helps him figure out tough cases when he's in his office. * He drinks quite a lot, and keeps a bottle in the bottom drawer of his desk. * His office is 1-1/2 rooms on the 6th floor of the Cahuenga Building on Hollywood Boulevard. He has no secretary, nor does he have an answering service. (His phone number, by the way, is GLenview 7537.) * His apartment is also on the 6th floor--$60 a month buys him 3-1/2 rooms. * He drives a Chrysler and carries a gun in a shoulder holster. * For fun he works on chess problems and goes to the movies. * He gets $25 a day plus expenses ("mostly gasoline and whiskey"), and he doesn't do divorce work. TRIVIA: Raymond Chandler's London solicitor was a colleague: mystery writer Michael Gilbert. THE BIG SLEEP (1939) "I'm on a case. I'm selling what I have to sell to make a living. What little guts and intelligence the Lord gave me and a willingness to get pushed around in order to protect a client." ---from THE BIG SLEEP "Neither of the two people in the room paid any attention to the way I came in, although only one of them was dead." ---from THE BIG SLEEP As soon as I got PERCHANCE TO DREAM, Robert B. Parker's new sequel to THE BIG SLEEP (see review below), I sat down and reread the original novel to refresh my memory. You remember THE BIG SLEEP. General Sternwood, old, sick, and very rich, hires Philip Marlowe to take care of a blackmail threat for him. Who could forget that first meeting between the two men in the Sternwood greenhouse? Marlowe sweating in his shirt sleeves and drinking the General's fine brandy, while the General sits nearly immobile in his wheelchair. Marlowe likes the General, which is the start of (now) two books' worth of trouble. The General tells Marlowe about his family. There's oldest daughter Vivian, painted as predatory and hard as nails. And there's her most recent husband, Rusty Regan: a former bootlegger who became fast friends with the General and disappeared about a month ago. And then there's the youngest daughter Carmen, who giggles a lot and spreads trouble wherever she goes. Now the General has received several gambling IOUs from a man named Geiger, apparently signed by Carmen. Marlowe figures that there's a hidden agenda here--not only does the General want the blackmail taken care of, he wants to be reassured that Rusty doesn't have anything to do with it. Almost immediately people assume that Marlowe has been hired to find the missing Rusty, which seems to upset everyone. Despite his initial decision to stick to the blackmail, Marlowe gets caught up in the mystery of what happened to Rusty. THE BIG SLEEP successfully juggles these two main plotlines, making it a more complex, and more interesting, mystery. TRIVIA: THE BIG SLEEP was an created, in part, from two of his early pulp stories: "Killer in the Rain" (1935) and "The Curtain" (1936). FAREWELL, MY LOVELY (1940) Moose Malloy, "a big man but not more than six feet five inches tall and not wider than a beer truck", wants to find his girlfriend Velma, who disappeared while he was in prison. Reluctantly, Marlowe begins to look for Velma, and his search will turn up a blackmailer, an elderly alcoholic with a secret, an Indian, a phony psychic, a crooked doctor managing a psychiatric clinic, a gambling ship, crooked cops, and women of loose virtue. But will he ever find Velma? And will he ever housetrain Moose Malloy? TRIVIA: FAREWELL, MY LOVELY makes use of three earlier pulp stories: "The Man Who Like Dogs" (1936), "Try the Girl" (1937), and "Mandarin's Jade" (1937). THE HIGH WINDOW (1942) A rare coin worth $10,000 is missing--stolen, according to Marlowe's client Mrs. Murdock, by her son's wife. Marlowe has only to get the coin back and arrange for a quiet divorce for the young Murdock. Sounded pretty simple, that is until the bodies started piling up. THE LADY IN THE LAKE (1943) Once again we have a missing female: Derace Kingsley, an executive at a perfume company, hires Marlowe to find his wife, Crystal. In this case Marlowe will do much traveling, and will even find another man whose wife is missing. Chandler often seems fascinated by unlikely and unsuccessful marriages. TRIVIA: THE LADY IN THE LAKE makes use of three earlier pulp stories: "Bay City Blues" (1937), "The Lady in the Lake" (1939), and "No Crime in the Mountains" (1941). THE LITTLE SISTER (1949) The title character wants to find her missing brother, and Marlowe explores the seamy side of Hollywood uncovering drugs, blackmail, and murder. In this book you will find the evidence of Chandler's increasing dislike of Los Angeles, which Marlowe characterizes as having "no more personality than a paper cup". It is possible that this antagonism was caused by his experiences as a screenwriter. (While we're on the subject, you can read more about the horrors of screenwriting in Harlan Ellison's THE GLASS TEAT, about television, and in William Goldman's ADVENTURES IN THE SCREEN TRADE. Both are fascinating reading.) Chandler received Oscar nominations for the screenplay for DOUBLE INDEMNITY (1944), written with Bill Wilder, and THE BLUE DAHLIA (1946) THE SIMPLE ART OF MURDER (1950) This collection includes his famous essay, "The Simple Art of Murder" (originally published in the ATLANTIC MONTHLY), a story originally published in the SATURDAY EVENING POST ("I'll Be Waiting"), and eleven stories from the pulps: "Red Wind", "Finger Man", "Goldfish", "Trouble Is My Business", "Smart-Aleck Kill", "Guns at Cyrano's", "Pearls Are a Nuisance", "Nevada Gas", "Spanish Blood", "The King in Yellow", and "Pick-Up on Noon Street". THE LONG GOODBYE (1953) Marlowe befriends Terry Lennox, an alcoholic living the high life. When Terry's ex-wife gets herself killed, he flees to Mexico, where it is said that he wrote a confession and shot himself in a hotel room. Marlowe senses a cover-up and his sense of honor forces him to discover what really happened to his troublesome friend. PLAYBACK (1958) I haven't been able to locate a copy of this novel, and the only information available from my references is that the book is not very good. Whether that's "not very good" for Chandler, or just "not very good" in general, I don't know. TRIVIA: Chandler wrote a screenplay called PLAYBACK, published by Mysterious Press in 1985. KILLER IN THE RAIN (1964) This collection contains the other 8 novelettes, which had been "cannibalized"--Chandler's term--becoming parts of THE BIG SLEEP, FAREWELL, MY LOVELY, and THE LADY IN THE LAKE. THE SMELL OF FEAR (1965) This is a short story collection published after Chandler's death that contains the only story originally written about Philip Marlowe, "The Pencil". POODLE SPRINGS (1989) See the review in RFP #14. PERCHANCE TO DREAM by Robert B. Parker (1991, Putnam, $18.95) "How you been, Marlowe?" he said. "Nobody's hit me with a sap this month," I said. "Surprising," Gregory said. "Month's not over yet," I said. ---from PERCHANCE TO DREAM We all knew that Robert B. Parker could mimic the style of Chandler when he finished the four chapters Chandler left at his death and it was published as POODLE SPRINGS (see the review in RFP #14). Now he not only borrows Chandler's style, his characters, and even one of his old plots in this sequel to THE BIG SLEEP. In PERCHANCE TO DREAM we're back with the Sternwoods--the General is gone, but Vivian is still around, and still just as attracted to Marlowe. Morris the butler is still there, Bernie Ohls is still in the DA's office, Captain Gregory is still at the Missing Persons Bureau, and Carmen is still causing trouble. And casino owner Eddie Mars is back, this time more of an ally than an adversary. This time Carmen has disappeared from the sanatarium where she was getting treatment. According to who you talk talk to, she's either escaped, been kidnapped, been released normally, or is still there and just not well enough to receive visitors. Usually the Sternwood money would be enough to open any doors, but it seems that Dr. Bonsentir, the man who runs the clinic, has even bigger connections, connections that have the power to affect even the police. But Marlowe has been given $1 by Morris to find Carmen Sternwood, so no amount of money or political pull will scare him off the case. During the course of this new Carmen Sternwood case, Marlowe will deal with fraud, police corruption, sexual kinks, and drugs. He'll also find out about what water rights mean in the western part of the U.S., and what they're worth. And Vivian still looks awfully good, and Carmen is still nothing but trouble. I liked PERCHANCE TO DREAM even better than POODLE SPRINGS. Parker has captured the character of Marlowe to perfection, and that's the core of all the Marlowe stories. Phillip Marlowe is an amazing character. For one thing, he's enormously self-assured--most insults are responded to with gentle humor, not defensive anger. And Marlowe's smart. Not just in the way he is able to solve the mysteries, but in the way he handles himself and others. He often gets into jams, but never out of ignorance, it's just that his job requires him to take calculated risks with some frequency. The only exception to his understanding of human behavior is in his own relationship with women; he either sees his own sexual/romantic responses imperfectly, or he's not sharing his insights with us. *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* "The private eye could only have happened first in those years after World War I, the years of Prohibition. There had always been aggressive, straight-shooting fiction heroes. But it took the mood of the twenties to add cynicism, detachment, a kind of guarded romanticism and a compulsion towards action. The disillusionment that followed the war, the frustration over the mushrooming gangster control of the cities, affected the detective story as much as it did mainstream fiction." ---Ron Goulart (in AN INFORMAL HISTORY OF THE PULP MAGAZINES) "It has been said, and with some justification I think, that the reason why the pulp detectives were so popular was that the average American had lost faith in the society in which he or she lived, and therefore needed heroes who cared about real values--even if they were only in the pages of magazines." ---Peter Haining (in MYSTERY! AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF CRIME & DETECTIVE FICTION) "The English may not be the best writers in the world but they are incomparably the best dull writers." ---Raymond Chandler "Best character and suspense writer for consistent but not large production, Elisabeth Holding. Best plodding detail man, Freeman Wills Crofts. Best Latin and Greek quoter, Dorothy Sayers. Writer with best natural charm, Philip Macdonald. Best scary writer: none, they don't scare me. But Dorothy Hughes does it the most. Most intriguing character I can think of offhand, the M.C. in Margaret Millar's WALL OF EYES. Best idea man: Cornell Woolrich." ---Raymond Chandler, in a letter to Alex Barris, April 16, 1949 *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* MYSTERY POSTER NOW AVAILABLE Want to know what Sara Paretsky's hot-shot private eye, V.I. Warshawski is up to? Just take a look at SISTERS IN CRIME'S stunning addition to every mystery lover's 'must have' list--a POSTER! Full color--Unique--Frameable--20"x30" size. With its rich, glossy black background, elegant red Sisters In Crime logo, a map of the United States provides the framework for "Solving Mysteries Coast-to-Coast" with 44 of mystery's most Lethal Ladies. Clever, colored artwork gives an intriquing glimpse into the novels and series characters created by members of Sisters in Crime--many of whom have won Agatha, Anthony, Edgar and Macavity awards. How will Annie Laurance Darling, Carolyn G. Hart's sleuth, meet murder in THE CHRISTIE CAPER? Will Barbara D'Amato's Cat Marsala survive being thrown overboard in HARDBALL? What's the latest with: Susan Dunlap, Charlotte MacLeod, Lia Matera, Nancy Pickard, Sharyn McCrumb and some hot new authors--44 of your favorite or soon-to-be favorite authors in all. This collector's edition is available for $8 from Sisters in Crime, PO Box 10111, Blacksburg, VA 24062-0111, or for multiple orders at a discount contact: Murder One at 800-522-5833. *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* WHO WROTE THE ELLERY QUEEN BOOKS? Most mystery readers know that the byline "Ellery Queen" was actually a collaboration between Manfred Lee and Frederic Dannay. It has been revealed recently that in later years a number of their novels were ghostwritten by others, sometimes by writers well-known in their own right. As rumors fly about which novels were written by who, and how much was Lee/Dannay material, Douglas Dannay and Richard Dannay recently decided to set the record clear about three particular novels. The following is excerpted from a letter that was printed in THE ARMCHAIR DETECTIVE (Winter 1991, Volume 24, Number 1): "THE PLAYER ON THE OTHER SIDE was NOT completely ghostwritten by Theodore Sturgeon. Frederic Dannay prepared/created a 42-page outline of the book, and Sturgeon wrote the novel based on the outline. Manfred Lee then extensively revised the Sturgeon manuscript. There were also other revisions by Frederic Dannay. "AND ON THE EIGHTH DAY... was also written from an outline prepared/created by Frederic Dannay, an outline of 66 pages. Avram Davidson wrote the novel based on this outline, and the novel was then extensively revised by Dannay and Lee. "THE FOURTH SIDE OF THE TRIANGLE was again written from a Frederic Dannay outline, this time of 71 pages. Again it was Davidson who finished the novel, and he based his work on the outline. The book was revised by Lee and Dannay." ---Douglas Dannay & Richard Dannay *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* STEFANIE MATTESON article by Cindy Bartorillo There's a new detective now available at your local bookstore---her name is Charlotte Graham. She's an aging movie star with four Academy Awards on her mantel and four marriages in her past, or as she describes herself, "an over-the-hill movie star with a weakness for manhattans and marzipan". In her early sixties, she's smart, a bit cynical, and wants nothing more out of life than a good play or film script. She was first noticed in bookstores in the pages of MURDER AT THE SPA (Charter/Diamond, 1990) in which she helps her old friend, Paulina Langenberg, head of a large company of beauty products and health spas. Someone seems to be trying to sabotage her spa in upstate New York with rumors about the radium levels of the mineral waters the High Rock Springs Spa is famous for. Soon after Charlotte checks into the spa for the 10-day Rejuvenating Plan a woman dies in her mineral water bath. The woman was a pill junkie, so death is easily passed off as heart failure despite the odd arrangement of the body--head underwater and legs dangling over the end. When another guest dies in their mineral bath shortly after, with the body in the same position, we know something is very wrong at High Rock Springs. Is it Paulina's wastrel son? Or maybe her ambitious nephew? Or is it part of a corporate takeover by her business neighbor who sells the bottled mineral water? Even more suspicious is the charming "doctor" who has no medical license and sells worthless, and very illegal, injection "treatments" to ward off the effects of aging. Then again, maybe one of the spa's other employees is dissatisfied or crazy, or it could even be a psychotic guest. MURDER AT THE SPA is a terrific mystery, worthy of the Golden Age when plots were more carefully constructed than is now the norm. There is little violence, making this a decidedly "soft-boiled" story. (Have you ever wondered why the hard-boiled stories, with their weaponry, violence, and cynical plots, are called "realistic"? How many people do you know who carry guns? How often do you get beat up? I don't think I want to meet anyone who lives in that kind of reality.) MURDER AT THE SPA has it all: intricate and interesting plot, recognizable characters, and a well-drawn setting. Just the book for readers who want a good think and an cheerful tone. Charlotte Graham's next case is MURDER AT TEATIME (Diamond, March 1991), in which she takes a vacation after two years on Broadway and stays with friends on a small island off the Maine coast. No sooner does she arrive on the island than she discovers a dog who has apparently been poisoned. The dog's owner is Dr. Thornhill, a botanist and collector of rare botanical books. Thornhill has been the victim of various hostile pranks lately, because of his refusal to sell his land to the Chartwell Company, who want to turn the island into a vacation resort. Was the dog killed as a warning to Thornhill to sell his land? When Thornhill himself is later poisoned, the question becomes even more important. Who poisoned Dr. Thornhill's tea? Was it his boozy housekeeper, jealous of his upcoming marriage? Or his niece, who believed the new wife would turn her out of her home? Or his daughter and her hot-tempered husband, afraid that Thornhill would change his will? It could have been the bookseller Felix Mayer, who stands to make a great deal of money on Thornhill's death, and who desperately needs it. Or could it have been Gilley, the destitute lobsterman whose ancestors gave Gilley Island its name? Once again, Charlotte solves the crimes, giving a Fourth of July performance that makes a thrilling climax for the story. MURDER AT TEATIME becomes Charlotte's (and author Matteson's) second big success. NOTE: In addition to the great story, characters, and setting, Matteson's Charlotte Graham novels also are very educational. In MURDER AT THE SPA you'll learn about mineral water and what it's like to go to, and run, a health spa. In MURDER AT TEATIME you can pick up a few details about lobstering, and quite a bit of information and folklore about herbs. And both books are punctuated with quotes from plays. MURDER AT THE SPA reminds Charlotte of Henrik Ibsen's AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE (a wonderful play to read, by the way, just as bitingly funny as it was when it was written), while MURDER AT TEATIME sticks to Shakespeare, mostly MACBETH (another great play to read). Fans of Charlotte Graham will have to wait until this fall (November 1991) for her next case---MURDER ON THE CLIFF, set in Newport, Rhode Island, the summer social capital of the Gilded Age. The fourth Charlotte Graham mystery will be set in western China and is tentatively titled MURDER ON THE SILK ROAD. RFP managed to catch Charlotte Graham's creator, Stefanie Matteson, between chapters, and we asked her to tell us about our favorite new amateur detective. Here's what she had to say: "Charlotte Graham is a world-famous movie star who turned to Broadway when her age resulted in a dearth of movie roles. Her career in the movies and on Broadway has spanned fifty years. Having made her first movie in 1939, she is a composite of the great actresses of the forties. I chose Charlotte because I wanted a woman and I wanted an amateur. But amateur female sleuths who meddle in police affairs seem to me to have an insignificance that strains the reader's credibility. In order for a woman to meddle believably in murder, I thought, she ought to have some kind of distinction, and, distinction, I concluded, is conferred on women in our society only by age, money, power, or beauty. (Sad to say, brains don't count, though Charlotte has plenty.) I chose a legendary movie star because such a character possesses all of these attributes, plus an appealing dose of glamor. Another reason I chose Charlotte is the modernity of her life story: although she belongs to the older generation, her life was shaped by the major women's issue of today: the conflict between career and family. Married four times, and with no children (by the time she was confident enough to stand up to the studios on this issue, it was too late), she--like many successful career women in other fields--has ended up facing life entirely on her own. Finally, I chose Charlotte because of her versatility. As well-known (and as beloved) to several generations of Americans as a member of their own family, she can be planted by the author in almost any kind of situation and still retain the reader's credibility. "As for my relationship with her, she's a much tougher cookie than I am. Though she is outwardly gracious and refined, the circumstances of her turbulent personal life have resulted in extraordinary inner strength. But at a cost: although she is independent and resourceful, she is also often lonely and sometimes sad. Also, she is far more adventurous than I. In the 1930s, my mother, who as a young woman was beautiful and glamorous, used to fly airplanes as a hobby; I suppose Charlotte is the fulfillment of my mother's fantasies of what her life might have become had it taken a less conventional turn. The same might be said of myself, and probably of my readers as well." *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* Here's four more women of mystery you should know about: Linda Paulson, Joyce Morden, Jo Davies, and Barb Adams. Collectively they run Death At Your Door: Mail Order Mysteries, selling mystery books, audio cassettes, and mystery-related gift items. As they describe it, "For those of you who are new to our catalogue, we feature women authors/protagonists and Northwest mystery writers and locales. Our books tend to fall at the 'cozy' end of the mystery spectrum; we try to stay away from books with graphic or gratuitous violence and exploitative sex." They also accept special orders and sell gift certificates. Write for a catalogue (and I'd enclose a couple of dollars to be polite) to: Death At Your Door, PO Box 2452, Sequim, WA 98382-2452. They take checks, money orders, VISA, and MasterCard. *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* THE DOUBLEDAY MYSTERY GUILD AWARDS Book of the Year: "F" IS FOR FUGITIVE by Sue Grafton Second Place: THE CAT WHO WENT UNDERGROUND by Lillian Jackson Braun Third Place: THE OLD SILENT by Martha Grimes *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* A LITTLE GENTLE SLEUTHING by Betty Rowlands (Walker, 1990) review by Carol Sheffert Melissa Craig, better known to her readers as crime novelist Mel Craig, has just moved into a small cottage in the Cotswolds. This is a first, tentative stab at independence for the fortysomething woman, from her overprotective boyfriend and her domineering agent. Now out in the country, the only near neighbor is the cottage next door, inhabited by Iris, a colorful vegetarian artist, and her cat Binkie. An abandoned shepherd's hut gives Melissa the idea for a new novel, and soon she's settled into a comfortable routine, interrupted only by mysterious phone calls for a "Babs", from a young man who sounds very distraught. The young man desperately wants to meet Babs at "the usual place". Who is Babs, and why does the man never wait to hear Melissa tell him he's got the wrong number? Thinking about these calls and the possible explanations gives Melissa some more ideas for her novel, and working out the plot of her novel is giving her more ideas about what is happening in reality. When Iris finds a long-dead body in the woods, Melissa is soon wondering if it could be the missing Babs, who disappeared almost a year ago. The tangling and untangling of real events and the plot of Melissa's new novel is just one of the pleasures provided by Betty Rowlands first full-length novel. Another is watching the development of Melissa, from the uncertainty she displays in the first few pages to the confident and independent woman she has become by the last chapter. The language is a delight as well. I have no idea if it's authentic or not--but if it isn't, it should be. The only indication of this being a first effort is the pacing, which is a bit slow, even for a "cozy" mystery. The characters and the plot are all interesting enough, but the element of suspense could have been turned up a notch. In any case though, this is a most promising first novel and readers will surely look forward to many more mysteries from Betty Rowlands. I know I'd love to read some more about Melissa Craig (and of course the cantankerous Iris). Recommended. *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* THE OLD CONTEMPTIBLES by Martha Grimes (Little, Brown, 1991) review by Cindy Bartorillo This is Martha Grimes' eleventh novel featuring Superintendent Richard Jury of Scotland Yard and his wealthy friend Melrose Plant. This time there's a new twist--Richard Jury is under suspicion himself in the death of Jane Holdsworth, who died from an overdose of sleeping pills. Jury had not only been dating her, but had even purchased a ring to give to her as a token of the seriousness of their relationship. Jane's teenaged son Alex is the one to find the body, and he refuses to believe that his mother committed suicide. He is also worried about being shipped to Tarn House, where his dead father's greedy family lives. Alex likes his great-grandfather Adam, but can't stand any of the others. Apparently Adam Holdsworth doesn't like his family any better, because he now voluntarily lives at a nearby rest home, where he meets the delightful, wealthy kleptomaniac Lady Cray. After Jane's death, attention shifts to the remainder of the Holdsworth family, a family that has suffered more than their share of "accidental" deaths and suicides. To find out who killed Jane, and possibly others, Jury sends Melrose Plant to Tarn House to be a librarian for the boringly pretentious Crabbe Holdsworth. It takes Jury, Plant, Alex, Adam, Lady Cray, and the delightfully precocious 11-year-old Millie to solve the curse of the Holdsworth family, and Martha Grimes' prose style makes getting there at least half the fun. After an initial detour with an unnecessary plot thread concerning Melrose Plant and his friends, THE OLD CONTEMPTIBLES settles into top notch form, adding another success to Martha Grimes' career. Highly recommended. THE NOVELS OF MARTHA GRIMES (All named after real-life English pubs) The Man With a Load of Mischief The Old Fox Deceiv'd The Anodyne Necklace The Dirty Duck Jerusalem Inn Help the Poor Struggler The Deer Leap I Am the Only Running Footman Five Bells and Bladebone The Old Silent The Old Contemptibles *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* The killer was too clever to be caught. Charlie was too smart for her own good. She knows how to find him. HE knows where she lives. Playing with fire, it's easy to get burned. MOTH TO THE FLAME by Kathleen Dougherty A Shattering Novel of Psychological Suspense coming in April The Berkley Publishing Group, Diamond imprint $4.50 "Terrifying and riveting, Kathleen Dougherty has created that rarest of entities: a finely-written, ORIGINAL thriller. The most intriguing blend of crime fiction, sci-fi and horror since FALLING ANGEL." ---Jonathan Kellerman *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* THE IRISHMAN'S HORSE by Michael Collins (1991, Donald I. Fine, $18.95, ISBN 1-55611-185-1) review by Travis Adkins Hired by the wife of an earnest young diplomat to find her husband, who has just disappeared from the U.S. Embassy in Guatemala City, Fortune stumbles upon a murder at a warehouse that appears to be a front for a drug-smuggling operation. He is rescued from the ensuing shoot-out by a suave, enigmatic stranger--the Irishman--who soon draws him into an international scandal involving the CIA and a Columbian drug cartel. Fortune's search takes him through the sultry Guatemalan jungle and builds into a frantic climax in Mexico City. I must admit when I read the inside cover of this book and found out Dan Fortune was a one-armed private eye living in Santa Barbara, I harbored some doubts. The description of Dan Fortune didn't coincide at all with my idea of a private investigator. Fortunately, I didn't let my narrow-mindedness keep me from reading this very entertaining mystery novel. Though this was my first "Dan Fortune" novel, it certainly will not be my last. *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* KILL THE MESSENGER by Elizabeth Daniels Squire was a March 1991 paperback release from St. Martin's. Hope you haven't missed it. *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* In any of the Sara Paretsky novels you've read, did you ever picture private detective V.I. Warshawski as Kathleen Turner? Neither have I. Guess we'll just have to wait and see how that works out in the upcoming movie, WARSHAWSKI, directed by Jeff Kanew, screenplay by David Aaron Cohen. *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* ONE MAN'S POISON by John R. Riggs (1991, Dembner Books) review by Carol Sheffert This was my first Garth Ryland mystery, and I sure hope it won't be my last. ONE MAN'S POISON allows us to spend a short time in Oakalla, Wisconsin, where Garth Ryland owns/publishes/edits the town's weekly newspaper, and throughout the novel, the focus remains on the town of Oakalla and it's varied inhabitants. As the story begins, a mild earthquake shakes up the town, and several days later everyone's water tastes like rotten eggs. Simultaneously, Rowena Parker reports that her ex-husband Jimmy hasn't returned her son (little Jimmy) after his scheduled weekend custody. Sheriff Roberts isn't feeling well and asks Garth Ryland to help out in finding the little boy. Garth manages to find little Jimmy all right, but not big Jimmy. And when he finds the body of Oakalla's most prominent citizen, now-retired Judge Glick, stuffed into a toxic-waste barrel, the mystery deepens. What do the toxic-waste barrels have to do with Oakalla's tainted water? What is in the cave in the Barrens, and who is it that's hanging around there? Why did Judge Glick all of a sudden kick his sister out of his house and then retire from the bench five years ago? Is big Jimmy really little Jimmy's father? Who is the strange Indian that is following Garth? Garth will need the answers to all of these questions, and a few more besides, to get life back onto an even keel in the small town. The mysteries are interesting, but not as fascinating as the residents of Oakalla, and Riggs focuses ONE MAN'S POISON on the characters and their reactions to the various conflicts and questions. A thoroughly enjoyable story from beginning to end, my only complaint is that the story wasn't longer. The characters and plot threads could well have borne the weight of an extra hundred pages (over the given 220), and some of the plot sped by a bit faster than I would have preferred. I guess I'll just have to wait for the next Garth Ryland mystery to get some more insight into the citizens of Oakalla, Wisconsin. *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* JUROR by Parnell Hall (reviewed in RFP #15) has been optioned for film development by Joel Silver at Warner Brothers. Parnell Hall himself has been hired to write the screenplay *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* HARDBALL by Barbara D'Amato was a February 1991 release in paperback from Worldwide Library. Hope you didn't miss it. *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* IMMACULATE DECEPTION by Warren Adler (1991, Donald I. Fine) review by Cindy Bartorillo "The primary mission of the MPD, was to protect the politicians, the bureaucrats and diplomats in the nation's capital, protect their lives and property and their ability to function. The system was politicized, top to bottom." --from IMMACULATE DECEPTION (Chapter 14) IMMACULATE DECEPTION is the latest installment in Warren Adler's police procedural series featuring Washington, D.C. homicide detective Fiona FitzGerald. The first of the series, AMERICAN QUARTET, was named as one of 1982's ten best crime novels by the New York TIMES BOOK REVIEW. AMERICAN SEXTET is the only other Fiona FitzGerald novel. The mystery this time surrounds the death of Congresswoman Frances ("Frankie") McGuire, a right-to-lifer found siting in bed with a glass of wine spiced with cyanide. An autopsy finds that, despite her long-standing lack of marital relations with her husband, she was six weeks pregnant. A case of Immaculate Conception, or is it more likely deception? Fiona's boss, oddly nicknamed the Eggplant, immediately declares that his instincts all point to murder, but just about everyone else is hoping it's simply a suicide. One of the most fascinating aspects of IMMACULATE DECEPTION is the working out of the political strands involved in the case. We come to realize that despite our moral insistance that a human life has ended and justice must be done, this death is undeniably a political event. On one level, the police must determine who brought about the death and prosecute the guilty party if such person is still around. On another level, the pro-lifers and the pro-choicers are going to have to deal with whatever happens, minimizing bad press and exploiting the positive aspects. On yet another level, the Congresswoman's death has left a vacant seat that some lucky politician will get to fill and several unlucky ones won't. We come to realize that separating politics from a death is impossible when that life was devoted to politics. Continuing the wheels-within-wheels structure of this story, Fiona has decided to conceive a child by her current lover without his consent or knowledge. This gives the McGuire case a particular resonance to Fiona as she shares in many of the conception/deception issues. Indeed, the depth of Fiona's character lifts a mundane mystery into more rarefied territory as she constantly surprises and engages us with her many strengths and weaknesses. IMMACULATE DECEPTION is not for the ethically squeamish, but is highly recommended reading for the rest of us. Warren Adler, by the way, is the author of THE WAR OF THE ROSES, the novel from which the film was made. He is also adapting his forthcoming novel PRIVATE LIES for a Tristar Pictures 1991 release, and is currently at work on the next Fiona FitzGerald novel, SENATOR LOVE, to be published in August 1991 by Donald I. Fine, Inc. *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* BY SUSAN DUNLAP: PIOUS DECEPTION (a Kiernan O'Shaughnessy story) is in Villard hardcover and Dell paperback; TOO CLOSE TO THE EDGE (a Jill Smith story) is a Dell paperback; A DINNER TO DIE FOR (Jill Smith) is a Dell paperback; DIAMOND IN THE BUFF (Jill Smith) is a May 1991 paperback release from Dell; and ROGUE WAVE (Kiernan O'Shaughnessy) is a June 1991 hardcover release from Villard. *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* THE ADVENTURES OF PAUL PRY by Erle Stanley Gardner (1989, Mysterious Press) review by Carol Sheffert Erle Stanley Gardner is best known as the creator of America's most famous criminal lawyer--Perry Mason. Relatively few know that before his long series of PM novels, he had an illustrious career writing for the pulps, side by side with Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler (and many, many others). This book collects a few of his stories about Paul Pry, all originally published between 1930 and 1933, and all appearing in book form for the first time. Series sleuth Paul Pry is a professional opportunist who preys on criminals, assisted by Mugs Magoo, an alcoholic one-armed ex-cop with a photographic memory for faces. Mugs' downfall from the police force is described with typical economy: "A political shake-up forced him out. An accident took off his right arm at the shoulder. Booze had done the rest." Mugs sells pencils on a street corner and fingers big-time crooks for Paul Pry, who then follows them to see what they're up to. Paul Pry's genius is such that he not only figures out what the bad guys are going to do and exactly how they're going to do it, he also foils their plans and puts himself in line for a large reward. But we're not done with Pry's idiosyncrasies quite yet. He dresses like a dandy and carries a sword-cane, which he apparently knows how to use. And he relaxes by playing one of his extensive collection of American Indian drums, an odd practice but one that helps him solve many perplexing mysteries of the underworld. The Paul Pry stories won't make anyone forget Perry Mason, but they show earlier stages of Gardner's career and are an interesting peculiarity in their own right. *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* "I figured out long ago that a negative review meant one of two things: either the critic doesn't like the kind of thing I do, in which case I figure who can argue with taste? or the critic didn't UNDERSTAND what I was trying to do, in which case I say, who cares what an idiot thinks?" ---William L. DeAndrea *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* THE BLONDE IN LOWER SIX: Plus 3 Short Novels by Erle Stanley Gardner (1990, Carroll & Graf) review by Carol Sheffert If you don't think that fiction has to be brand new to be interesting, you should always keep an eye on what Carroll & Graf are publishing. They are first rate at finding older material that's out of print and shouldn't be. Like some of the little-known non-Perry Mason material written by Erle Stanley Gardner. THE BLONDE IN LOWER SIX, like DEAD MEN'S LETTERS, brings back a handful of Gardner's stories about Ed Jenkins, "The Phantom Crook", misunderstood friend of the underworld and all-around righter of wrongs. The major offering here is the title novel, an elaborate and sometimes confusing mystery about mistaken identities and corporate shenanigans. Ed Jenkins is found in his usual habitat, San Francisco's Chinatown, as he accepts a job from the head of the Chinese underground, Soo Hoo Duck. It seems that a woman named Betty Crofath has important information about about the Japanese military, information that would be very useful to the Chinese. She is taking a train from New Orleans to San Francisco and Ed must join the train at Tucson and keep an eye on her. She'll be easy to find, she's "the blonde in Lower Six". Unfortunately, the first time Ed catches sight of the blonde in Lower Six, she's dead. But is it really Betty Crofath or an impostor? Why do the newspapers say that the dead woman is Daphne Strate, a woman suspected of embezzling from the chemical company she worked for in New Orleans? Ed Jenkins must straighten out this situation, keeping one step ahead of both the bad guys and the police, and along the way explaining the American legal system from his personal perspective (a much more cynical explanation than we get from Gardner's more famous character, Perry Mason). It's all good fun, as are the other stories ("The Wax Dragon", "Grinning Gods", "Yellow Shadows"), making it obvious why Gardner was one of the kings of the pulps. And thanks go once again to Carroll & Graf for rescuing some more good reading from oblivion. *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* THE NOSTALGIA DEPARTMENT AT HARPER PERENNIAL Remember Race Williams? He was a very popular hard-boiled fictional detective (actually I think he might have been the FIRST hard-boiled fictional detective) created by Carroll John Daly, and he appeared often in BLACK MASK magazine and in novels in the late 1920s and in the 1930s. Harper Perennial has bought the reprint rights to the first two Race Williams novels, THE HIDDEN HAND and THE SNARL OF THE BEAST, which will appear in bookstores early in 1992. Now I *know* you remember Ellery Queen, the cerebral amateur detective created by Frederic Dannay and Manfred B. Lee. Harper Perennial is planning a major reprint program, starting later this year with CALAMITY TOWN, THE ORIGIN OF EVIL, THERE WAS AN OLD WOMAN, and FACE TO FACE. *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* THE VIG by John T. Lescroart (Donald I. Fine, 1991) With DEAD IRISH (Donald I. Fine, 1989), John T. Lescroart won widespread critical acclaim for his ability to invest characters and settings with a complex layering of depth and detail, using the detective story as a means through which to explore the lower depths of human emotion. Now, in THE VIG, Lescroart's ex-cop, part-time investigator and sometime bartender Dismas Hardy returns in a major novel of revenge and betrayal that delves into the murky shadows surrounding the fine line between appearance and reality. "Louis Baker gets out of jail today and he's going to kill us both," former prosecutor Rusty Ingraham warns his old friend, Hardy. When Hardy finds the remains of a bloodbath on Rusty's barge in San Francisco's China basin, he sets out to prove the "obvious"--that Ingraham was, indeed, murdered by the ex-con. But instead of formulating a clear-cut case, Hardy stumbles into a convoluted series of deceptions--as the key suspect becomes a killer's target, the police react with startling apathy, and Ingraham's body is nowhere to be found. *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* THE REMARKABLE CASE OF DOROTHY L. SAYERS by Catherine Kenney (1990, Kent State Univ. Press) review by Cindy Bartorillo Dorothy L. Sayers, perhaps more successfully than any other writer, combined the detective novel and the more literary, "real" novel in one volume. She is not only the favorite mystery writer of many demanding readers, but is the ONLY mystery writer enjoyed by many who otherwise wouldn't be caught with a detective story on their shelves. Catherine Kenney's highly readable assessment of DLS's literary output, THE REMARKABLE CASE OF DOROTHY L. SAYERS, fills a longstanding need for extended consideration of this eminent writer. This is not a biography, but an examination of one writer's work. Kenney's book is divided into three sections. In the first she takes a long look at Sayers' detective fiction, and spends some enjoyable time on the question of why scholars and detective stories seem so inseparable: "A good detective story IS entertaining, but its peculiar pleasures are much like those provided by university debating societies, the rough and tumble of scholarly investigation, the invigorating rigors of the tutorial and the examination." Attention is also paid to the critical essays that Sayers wrote about other authors' work, and all is put in the context of Sayers entire life, the later years of which she would spend translating Dante and writing religious drama. "She once remarked, vis-a-vis her monumental study of Dante, that there are really only two questions at the foundation of all good criticism: What is the writer trying to tell us? and What does this statement mean to us today?" Ultimately, Kenney concludes that Sayers' influence on the history of the detective story was considerable, and interprets the stories, and other critics' evaluations, from her own well-argued perspective: "At her best, Sayers has no peer as a detective story writer who is also a genuine novelist...THE NINE TAILORS, GAUDY NIGHT, and just below them, THE DOCUMENTS IN THE CASE and BUSMAN'S HONEYMOON, are truly great mystery stories, the classics of their kind." "By the time she wrote GAUDY NIGHT and BUSMAN'S HONEYMOON, the element of detection was so subordinated to other novelistic considerations, including theme and character development, that some readers felt she had abandoned the genre. I would suggest that she had redefined it." Early in the book, Kenney discusses the appeal of Lord Peter Wimsey, particularly as he appeared in the beginning in WHOSE BODY?--a stereotypical English gentleman, without being foppish or overly pompous. "In Wimsey, ambivalent colonials can have their aristocrat and like him, too." In the second section, Kenney studies Sayers as Feminist, not only looking at her delightful essay, "Are Women Human?", but taking stock of what her fiction reveals about her sexual politics. "I am occasionally desired by congenital imbeciles and the editors of magazines to say something about the writing of detective fiction 'from the woman's point of view.' To such demands, one can only say, 'Go away and don't be silly. You might as well ask what is the female angle on an equilateral triangle.'" ---Dorothy L. Sayers, in "Are Women Human?", quoted on p. 123 And from Kenney we hear: "Harriet Vane's search for a relationship based upon equality, honesty, and mutual respect is the compelling story of achieving a precarious, hard-won balance between opposing forces that goes beyond the simple solution of a detective story." "In its scathing portrait of the Vane-Boyes liaison, the novel [STRONG POISON] underscores how so-called sexual liberation has tended to exact a higher toll on women than on men." "The Vane-Wimsey quartet, especially in its last two books, remains Sayers's most serious and subtle treatment of sexual politics and the predicament of modern woman." And finally, in the last section of THE REMARKABLE CASE OF DOROTHY L. SAYERS, Kenney examines Sayers' contribution to Christianity, the major focus of her later years. "THE DOCUMENTS IN THE CASE dramatizes what she would later argue: that belief is enhanced by knowledge and rational questioning, and that all the disciplines, when properly employed, can help make sense of an often forbidding and mysterious universe." "[MURDER MUST ADVERTISE] asks implicitly whether pleasure, physical comfort, and entertainment are the proper goals of human experience, and suggests that the value of human activity must be judged by some standard outside the human being." The appeal of Kenney's book, like that of Sayers' detective stories, lies in its combination of intellectual sustenance, plain speaking, and appeal to common feelings. This is not the desiccated autopsy that literary criticism has made famous, if not popular, over many years. THE REMARKABLE CASE OF DOROTHY L. SAYERS is an absorbing study of a talented writer, and is written with great charm and good sense. "Wide appeal does not necessarily prove artistic merit, of course, but the common modern contempt for writers who have such appeal does not prove the opposite, either." At the end of all her ruminations, Kenney decides, as the reader will, that the trip was worth it: "Novelist, essayist, dramatist, scholar, critic, translator, poet--Dorothy L. Sayers may properly be awarded the title few have earned: woman of letters." THE REMARKABLE CASE OF DOROTHY L. SAYERS is highly recommended. *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* "Life is like an Italian sausage. You don't want to examine it too closely and find out what it's made of. It might be awful stuff like pig's farts and cow dung. Just eat it and if it tastes good, count yourself lucky." ---from NEWSPAPER MURDERS by Joe Gash (pseudonym of Bill Granger) *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* MURDER IMPOSSIBLE An Extravaganza of Miraculous Murders, Fantastic Felonies & Incredible Criminals edited by Jack Adrian & Robert Adey (1990, Carroll & Graf) review by Cindy Bartorillo It's impossible to read very widely in the mystery field without coming across the subgenre of Impossible Crimes, a particularly intellectual, puzzle-oriented form of the classic detective story. As the editors point out in their introduction, plot is all important here, with characterization and other literary niceties becoming mostly irrelevant. To an Impossible Crime fan, the physical problem and its logical solution is everything. Of course, not everyone likes Impossible Crime literature. I think, like an appreciation of Agatha Christie's THE MURDER OF ROGER ACKROYD, it depends on your tolerance for being stumped (and occasionally tricked). As an example, take the first story in this impressive anthology: "The House in Goblin Wood" by John Dickson Carr, generally acknowledged to be the Grand Master of the Impossible Crime story. With hindsight, I can see that Carr announces his intention at the very beginning of the story, he actually told me what was going to happen, and yet I was STILL fooled. (I was also amazed at the grisly nature of this 1947 story.) Not to imply that I'm particularly difficult to hoodwink, but it still astounds and delights me to find writers with this much narrative power. MURDER IMPOSSIBLE contains a varied selection of criminous stories, some you'll like more than others. I thought W. Hope Hodgson's "Bullion!" was too complicated, and I didn't believe the science of Jacques Futrelle's "An Absence of Air", but I thought Bill Pronzini's "Proof of Guilt" was wonderful. Pronzini's deceptively simple writing style highlights the theme without getting in its way. "The Impossible Theft" by John F. Suter charmed me by being the only story that I figured out immediately. In "It's a Dog's Life", by John Lutz, the private detective's sidekick is a neutered female dog named Samantha, or Sam for short or--wait for it--Sam Spayed. If you like old-fashioned mysteries with locked train compartments and exotic poisons, you'll enjoy Sax Rohmer's "The Death of Cyrus Pettigrew". Sax Rohmer, of course, is best known for his stories featuring Dr. Fu Manchu. I thought "Ghost in the Gallery" by Joseph Cummings was a better story than a mystery, while Edgar Wallace's "The Missing Romney" and Gerald Findler's "The House of Screams" didn't particularly stand out as either. All was forgiven, however, for Edward D. Hoch's "The Impossible Murder", where the crime has occurred in bumper-to-bumper traffic. George Locke's parody, "A Nineteenth Century Debacle" is fun; John Dickson Carr's radio play, "A Razor in Fleet Street", is better; and "Dinner at Garibaldi's" by Leonard Pruyn is better still. The longest piece in the book, Joel Townsley Rogers' novella, "The Hanging Rope", reminds me of the clever misdirection of Agatha Christie at her best, keeping the answer from you by holding it too close to your nose for you to focus on. Like the purloined letter hidden in the letter rack, facts become part of the landscape before you've had a chance to analyze them in the light of the mystery. One of my favorite's in MURDER IMPOSSIBLE is "Now You See Her" by Jeffrey Wallmann, which was as educational as it was entertaining. This is the kind of information that you want to keep in the back of your mind, just in case someone in your life becomes more troublesome than they're worth... MURDER IMPOSSIBLE finishes up with Barry Perowne's captivating "The Blind Spot", and the very best parody I've ever read--"Chapter the Last: Merriman Explains" by Alex Atkinson (having some fun with John Dickson Carr and his series character Sir Henry Merrivale). One important note about MURDER IMPOSSIBLE: To any fan of a particular type of story, anthologies are more often disappointing than not. Given a finite pool of literature to fish in, fans exhaust the common stories easily and early, and the common examples of a subgenre tend to show up in anthology after anthology with irritating regularity. MURDER IMPOSSIBLE doesn't have that problem, as almost all of the stories appear in book form for the very first time, a refreshing change of pace for the weary short story collector. MURDER IMPOSSIBLE packs a lot of reading enjoyment between its covers, and is recommended to all. *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* TWO BY WILLIAM F. LOVE Love's mysteries are set in New York City and feature an unlikely detective duo: wheelchair-bound Auxiliary Bishop Francis X. Regan, an amateur sleuth with an IQ of 220, and his Special Assistant, Davey Goldman, a Jewish New York City cop-turned-private-eye. THE CHARTREUSE CLUE (Donald I. Fine, 1990) A priest awakens one morning in a locked apartment to find his ladyfriend murdered. The challenge for Regan and Goldman is to find the murderer before the police find the priest. THE FUNDAMENTALS OF MURDER (Donald I. Fine, June 1991) Jerry Fanning, a young Fundamentalist preacher, arrives in New York convinced that the Lord has sent him to convert the entire city to Jesus. But before he can complete his mission, the police uncover clues pointing to him as the murderer of four prostitutes and he finds himself behind bars. Luckily for him, he had met Bishop Regan before his incarceration. After reviewing the facts, Regan is determined to prove the man innocent. His razor-sharp mind delves into areas the police never thought of, and using Davey's contacts, street smarts and legwork, he sets out to reveal and apprehend the true killer. Author William F. Love, born and raised in Oklahoma, was a Catholic priest from 1958 to 1969. Following his resignation from the priesthood, he married, moved to Chicago and became a banker. He worked at three banks over the next fourteen years, then from 1984 to 1988 he was a private consultant. In 1988 he began writing THE CHARTREUSE CLUE, and is now a full-time novelist. *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* RECENT RELEASES AND FORTHCOMING GOODIES WHO IS JOE MERCHANT? by Jimmy Buffett (a comic mystery coming from HBJ in the fall) KAT'S CRADLE by Karen Kijewski (the third Kat Colorado novel) ROMAN BLOOD by Steven Saylor (historical mystery set in ancient Rome, coming from St. Martin's) DEAD ON THE ISLAND by Bill Crider (a Truman Smith mystery, from Walker) SWEET WOMEN LIE by Loren Estleman (an Amos Walker mystery, coming from Houghton Mifflin) BREAKDOWN by Bill Pronzini (a Nameless mystery, from Delacorte) *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* COMING IN JUNE (OUR 2nd ANNIVERSARY ISSUE)!! Reviews of: CHAMELEON by William X. Kienzle When a prostitute is murdered after midnight on the mean streets of Detroit, it usually isn't front-page news. But when the prostitute's body is found dressed in a nun's habit outside one of Detroit's oldest--and at one time most prestigious--Catholic churches, it strikes the interest of the curious-minded. And when that prostitute is Helen Donovan, a call girl who numbered among her clientele some of the city's most powerful figures, and whose sister is the most influential nun in the Detroit archdiocese, the prostitute's death takes on a significance that no one can ignore. Helen's death becomes Father Koesler's thirteenth mystery. SEA OF TROUBLES by Janet Smith (Perseverance Press) When young Seattle attorney Annie MacPherson boards the ferry for the San Juan Islands, she has no idea that she's embarking on a sea of troubles. Her investigation at a luxury resort soon broadens from real estate legalities to kidnapping and murder. Whether to unravel the past's tangled secrets, or to sport with kayaks and killer whales in the deadly straits, that is the question. But it's in suffering love's slings and arrows that Annie ultimately discovers her outrageous fortune. THE LAST PAGE by Bob Fenster (Perseverance Press) A mystery editor is found slumped across her desk, with a rejection note stapled to her sleeve and a bullet hole through her heart--for the second time. Does the murder have a personal motive, or is it just a frustrated writer who can't deal with rejection? The New York City police captain vetoes an investigation of thousands of suspects, so Detective Brian Skiles and editor Anne Baker must set a deadly trap to catch the killer, and to prove the pen is mightier than the sword. EVERYTHING YOU HAVE IS MINE by Sandra Scoppettone (Little, Brown, 1991) In EVERYTHING YOU HAVE IS MINE, veteran mystery writer Sandra Scoppettone introduces Lauren Laurano, a savvy, street-smart, and socially conscious private detective who is sure to intrigue and entertain readers from page 1. Not your average hard-bitten toughie, Lauren is terrified of insects and blood, and addicted to the chocolate torte at her favorite pastry shop in New York City's Greenwich Village. She's pretty, funny, fashionable, financially secure, and lesbian. With the support of her beautiful psychotherapist lover, Kip, Lauren must solve the grisly murder of a wealthy young woman--the incongruously named Lake Huron--who made one too many connections through a computer dating service. This case is every bit a product of the high-tech nineties, and Lauren must overcome her computer phobia in order to follow a trail of clues left via modem and floppy disk. Matters are complicated still further by the fact that Lake's supposedly bereaved family is not quite what it seems, and Lauren soon finds herself involved with a type of violence that is even more heinous, perhaps, than murder. In dealing with this complex amalgam of confused family relationships, greed, and betrayal, Lauren is forced to confront her limits as a woman, a detective, and a member of a society in which the value of human life seems to be decreasing at an alarming rate. Yet through it all, she employs her own brand of zany yet down-to-earth sleuthing and keeps her sense of humor. In EVERYTHING YOU HAVE IS MINE, Sandra Scoppettone, an Edgar Award nominee, serves up a story that is not only suspenseful but also full of sly commentary on the crazy, hip denizens of New York City and the central issues of modern urban life. ...And Maybe Even A Few Surprises! *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* * * * FRIGHTFUL FICTION * * * *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* Editor: Annie Wilkes --------------------------------------------------------------------- Frightful Fiction is a division of Reading For Pleasure, published bimonthly. This material is NOT COPYRIGHTED and may be used freely by all. Catalogs, news releases, review copies, or donated reviews should be sent to: Reading For Pleasure, 103 Baughman's Lane, Suite 303, Frederick, MD 21702. --------------------------------------------------------------------- SLEEPWALKER by Michael Cadnum (St. Martin's, 1991) ISBN 0-312-04995-1 $15.95 review by Cindy Bartorillo "Michael Cadnum writes with a poet's economy of prose and an intensity of characterization that would grace the work of far better known writers in the field. SLEEPWALKER is genuinely chilling, for it is more than a horror novel--it is an examination of the greatest of mysteries, death, and the aim of Cadnum's unflinching eye is always true." ---Chet Williamson (author of ASH WEDNESDAY, REIGN, etc.) Michael Cadnum is an award-winning poet, which is apparent in both of his novels, last year's wonderful NIGHTLIGHT and now SLEEPWALKER. Both are spare, lyrical tales of the dark corners of human existence. The author wields the tools of the horror novel like an experienced dream-stalker, while expressing his own thoughts and feelings about darkness, fear, and death. If you appreciate fine literature, whatever the genre, both of Cadnum's novels are essential reading. In SLEEPWALKER, Cadnum tells us about archaeologist Davis Lowry, tormented by nightmares about his wife who recently died, nightmares in which he walks in his sleep to the point of endangering his life. Realizing that a change is necessary, he accepts a job from his mentor Dr. Higg to take over at a troubled dig in Yorkshire, England. Another old friend, Peter Chambers, has been in charge so far, but Peter's questionable psychological health, as well as the deteriorating morale at the site, which is said to be haunted, encourage his superiors to ask Davis to lend a hand. It's immediately apparent that this isn't the average dig. Not only do tools rearrange themselves during the night and accidents happen regularly, they have discovered a 1200-year-old bog man, remarkably well-preserved by the tannic acids in the Yorkshire soil. They call him Skeldergate Man, and he has apparently had his throat cut, adding yet another mystery to the amazing discovery. Davis Lowry's presence does little to help the situation. The accidents continue, the tools keep moving, and Peter Chambers has several dark secrets that will soon threaten several people. And, contrary to expectations, scientific Davis Lowry is as disturbed by Skeldergate Man as the others are. For one thing, even though he is securely locked in an underground laboratory, the corpse is repeatedly found on the floor next to the table he was left on, as if he has been trying to leave the room. Running underneath the story of Davis Lowry and Peter Chambers is the major theme of SLEEPWALKER: death. The archaeological setting allows Cadnum to talk about death from the perspective of people who make their living amongst the dead, and the scientific nature of the archaeologist's pursuit is seen to be of no help in dealing with basic cosmic issues. Another level of insight is provided by the setting: in contrast to the common concern over the destruction of ancient sites by incompetent archaeologists, SLEEPWALKER allows us to see that the dead are more of a threat to the living than the other way around. In the end, Davis Lowry must lay his ghosts, both psychologically and physically. SLEEPWALKER is exciting, disturbing, and though-provoking. Highly recommended. *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* THE DARK TOWER III: THE WASTE LANDS by Stephen King This long-awaited third installment in the Dark Tower series is close to being released. Close enough that if you haven't reserved a copy yet, you'd better do so RIGHT NOW! It is supposed to be about 25% longer than THE DARK TOWER II: THE DRAWING OF THE THREE, and contains 12 full color illustrations, including 10 double-page spreads, by artist Ned Dameron. There is a deluxe edition, limited to 1200 copies, signed by both King and Dameron, beautifully bound, slipcased, and numbered....but the method of getting it is so complicated that I won't go into it here. It's $120, plus $5 postage, handling, and insurance, and if you really care, get in touch with Donald Grant. The regular trade edition for people like me is $38 plus $3 for postage, handing, and insurance, and like I said, if you haven't reserved a copy yet, you'd better send a check for $41 to Donald Grant TODAY! Don't waste time asking questions, just send the check. If you're too late, your money will be refunded. Donald M. Grant, Publisher, Inc. PO Box 187, Hampton Falls, NH 03844 *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* MORE KOONTZ FROM BERKLEY Berkley Books continues to reprint the works of Dean R. Koontz. Here is the 1991 schedule, to the best of my knowledge: Mar: The Vision Apr: Lightning The Mask Jun: Midnight Jul: Shattered The Voice of the Night Aug: Phantoms Sep: Whispers Oct: Night Chills Nov: Strangers Dec: Cold Fire Twilight Eyes *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* PSYCHO-PATHS edited by Robert Bloch (Tor, 1991) review by Annie Wilkes "If there's any pattern to these tales, their purpose is to explore the RATIONALE and IRRATIONALE of violent behavior. This anthology was not meant to demonstrate that if you build a grosser gross-out than your neighbor, the world will beat a path to your door." ---Robert Bloch, Introduction You will have noticed that this anthology is edited by a Famous Writer editor, not an Editor editor. Robert Bloch is the author of PSYCHO (the original novel, not the Hitchcock screenplay), for which he will always be remembered, despite the hundreds of other terrific novels and short stories he has perpetrated in his long career. (Speaking of his long career, did you realize that he was originally a protege of H.P. Lovecraft?) In any case, Robert Bloch has been one of our finest writers of Psychotic-Person Fiction, a notable subgenre of Horror. As he says in the Introduction to PSYCHO-PATHS: "Properly presented amidst commonplace but convincing everyday surroundings, real horrors can be far more frightening than the fantastic. The credible is always a greater menace than the incredible, merely because we know it CAN happen and--even worse--it can happen to US." But Bloch distances himself from the current trend towards the excessively violent "splatter" movies and fiction: "If the intention is merely to shock and nauseate, why write screenplays when you can run newsreels?" "One of the apparent misconceptions of the writers [of 'splatter' fiction] is that describing the infliction of pain or the throes of death makes their stories realistic. All it does, actually, is demonstrate that they've been seeing too many movies." Having outlined his position, Editor Bloch then gives a practical demonstration with the 17 short stories in this volume. And what terrific reading this is! All new stories by some of the most famous names in Horror and a few newer bylines as well. PSYCHO-PATHS gets off to a humorous start with Gahan Wilson's "Them Bleaks", a roman a clef obviously written specifically for Robert Bloch. That's the only funny story, alas, but the other 16 tales are wonderful nonetheless. Several deal with the theme of Psycho Meets Psycho, or, no matter how big and mean you are, somebody somewhere is bigger and meaner: "A Determined Woman" by Billie Sue Mosiman, "Kessel's Party" by Michael Berry, William F. Nolan's "Him, Her, Them", "Kin" by Charles L. Grant, and David J. Schow's "Pick Me Up". Another popular theme is the Hidden Psycho; twisted people who wear a mask of sanity in public: "No Love Lost" by J.N. Williamson, "Clutter" by Brad Linaweaver, "Dreaming in Black and White" by Susan Shwartz, and Kathleen Buckley's "Waste". A sweet little girl preys upon sympathetic men in Dennis Etchison's "Call Home", and "Confession of a Madman" by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro demonstrates that it's not a good idea to be TOO ahead of your time. PSYCHO-PATHS also includes David Morrell's "Remains to Be Seen", in which fanatic loyalty slides into psychosis; a teenage prank backfires in "Red Devils" by Hugh B. Cave; and a paranoid artist creates "nuclear art" in Robert E. Vardeman's "Enduring Art". Edward D. Hoch's "The Secret Blade" speaks to us about state-sanctioned brutality, and "Jesse" by Steve Rasnic Tem weaves an impressionistic tale of a psychotic version of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn. Seventeen stories, and not a clunker in the bunch. PSYCHO-PATHS is the must-have anthology of Spring 1991. You won't be disappointed. *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* RECENTLY RELEASED BY MARK V. ZIESING COLD BLOOD: New Tales of Mystery and Horror edited by Richard T. Chizmar With COLD BLOOD, the World Fantasy Award-nominated editor of CEMETERY DANCE magazine has gathered a landmark anthology of eclectic stories meant to reshape the reader's perception of the Horror Genre. Dark visions abound, to be sure: fear and terror stalk the pages of this book of previously unpublished stories. But there's a difference. COLD BLOOD pulses with a sense of dread and mounting suspense, with mystery and intrigue, with a brooding pace that's refreshingly at odds with the '80s' in-your-face splatter trend. Featuring 25 excursions into the blackest part of our souls by F. Paul Wilson, Chet Williamson, Ronald Kelly, Joe R. Lansdale, John Shirley, Bentley Little, Brian Hodge, Barry Hoffman, Thomas F. Monteleone, Ardath Mayhar, Rex Miller, Roman A. Ranieri, James Kisner, J.N. Williamson, Paul F. Olson, Nancy A. Collins, William F. Nolan, Rick Hautala, Ed Gorman, Richard Laymon, William Relling Jr., Andrew Vachss, David B. Silva, Tom Elliot, and including an excerpt from the new novel by Ramsey Campbell. Introduction by Douglas E. Winter. Full cloth hardcover binding; full color jacket art by Nancy Niles. A 500-copy slipcased limited edition, signed by all contributors, is $75 (if there are any left), and the regular trade edition is $25. Send check to: Mark V. Ziesing, PO Box 76, Shingletown, CA 96088. *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* TERROR ARRIVES BY SPECIAL DELIVERY IN THE MAILMAN (from Roc SF Advance) Bentley Little's THE REVELATION was greeted with an enthusiasm almost unprecedented for a first novelist. "A fantastic read," wrote Rick Hautala, author of WINTER WAKE. "Once you start reading this book, you'll be up until dawn with your eyes glued to the pages." The reviewers were equally impressed. "A vigorous first novel," opined the usually dour Kirkus Reviews, "with style to please horror fans and to let them look forward to Little's next." Little's next is here. THE MAILMAN (ONYX, Feb. 1991) is a shrewdly crafted tale of terror guaranteed to increase Little's already stellar reputation. A small town nightmare in the mode of GREMLINS or TREMORS--black humor and all--THE MAILMAN is about a postman who is dedicated to his job; who is not stopped by rain, nor sleet, nor hail-- Nor Hell. (For more information about Roc SF Advance, write to: NAL, Science Fiction Department, 375 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014.) *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* DOWN WILL COME BABY by Gloria Murphy (Donald I. Fine, 1991) "[A] tightly woven tale, which will keep readers turning pages in breathtaking, fascinated horror. Recommended and likely to enjoy brisk circulation." ---Library Journal "Murphy shows growing skill...choice creepy material." ---Kirkus Reviews In the tradition of Mary Higgins Clark and V.C. Andrews, DOWN WILL COME BABY is a spine-tingling tale of horror lurking beneath a mundane veneer of domesticity. Twelve-year-old Robin Garr witnesses the nighttime drowning of her best friend at summer camp, a fatal accident for which she is not entirely blameless. Back at home, she is plagued by nightmares and hears her friend's voice whispering eerily in her ear. Despite the best efforts of her father and of a well-meaning but prying downstairs neighbor, Robin cannot recover from the trauma. When it turns out that the neighbor has an ulterior motive for wanting to get close to Robin, it becomes clear that the real nightmare has just begun... Gloria Murphy is the author of THE PLAYROOM, BLOODTIES and NIGHTSHADE (all published by Donald I. Fine). Publishers Weekly described THE PLAYROOM as "speedy, direct and engrossing". BLOODTIES was hailed by The Bookwatch as "a remarkable, fast-paced story...a powerful tale" and Rave Reviews called NIGHTSHADE "a terrifying journey of murder, abuse and betrayal. An exciting read." In addition to writing novels, Murphy has also worked as a public relations writer, consumer-protection advocate and free lance newspaper columnist. She makes her home in Ringwood, New Jersey. *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* THE CIPHER by Kathe Koja (1991, Dell Abyss) review by Annie Wilkes This is the first novel in Dell's new horror line--Abyss, which is a genuine publishing event because the horror boom is long since over, and most publishers are discontinuing horror lines, not starting them. Also unusual is the philosophy behind Dell's new Abyss line. Back when horror was "in", publishers would print just about anything, which not only meant that, as usual, we got a lot of garbage, but they were very open to the new, the bizarre, the experimental. This provided the horror fan with the occasional rare jewel amongst the glass chips. Nowadays, however, the horror boom is just a memory and most publishers are unwilling to take a chance on anything but another King, Koontz, or McCammon clone. It is to the audience that is most distressed by this trend that Dell addresses their new line. Abyss books are for the more literate reader, the reader who is willing to take a few chances on a new voice, a new style, a new perspective. And they couldn't have set the tone better than with the release of Kathe Koja's hauntingly surreal THE CIPHER. Told entirely in normal English words, and yet refusing to be restricted by them, THE CIPHER tells of a black hole, possibly a hole in our world, possibly a hole in one man's mind. It all starts with Nicholas, who finds the blackness in a storage room in his run-down apartment building. He shares the find with his girlfriend, the unattractive and cruel Nakota, who is soon even more obsessed with the "Funhole" than Nicholas is. But the blackness and Nicholas have a special relationship. Nicholas has been "kissed too hard by the dark", and his destiny will be determined by a consuming blackness that has been reserved for him alone. The author, Kathe Koja, is described as having been "a bonsai lumberjack, an oyster cowboy, and a freelance criminologist", none of which explains the origin of this disturbingly unforgettable tale. THE CIPHER is easily the most exciting thing that's happened in horror fiction in the past few years. *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* RECENTLY RELEASED BY DARK HARVEST OBSESSIONS: Chilling Tales of Terror and Suspense edited by Gary Raisor Including fiction by: Dean R. Koontz, Joe R. Lansdale, Thomas F. Monteleone, John Shirley, Nicholas Royle, Scott A. Cupp, Lori Perkins, Bill Crider, Edward Gorman, Stanley Wiater, Richard Christian Matheson, L. Bradley Law, Nancy Holder, C.J. Henderson, Glen Vasey, F. Paul Wilson, Chet Williamson, Charles L. Grant, Dean Wesley Smith, Al Sarrantonio, Rick Hautala, Darrell Schweitzer, Edward Bryant, Kevin J. Anderson, A.R. Morlan, Elizabeth Massie, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, David B. Silva, and Dan Simmons. Illustrated by Roger Gerberding A limited edition of 500 copies, slipcased and signed by all 30 contributors, is $55 (if there are any left), and the regular trade edition is $20.95. Add $1 per book for postage and send to: Dark Harvest, PO Box 941, Arlington Heights, IL 60006 *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* PETER STRAUB TALKS ABOUT CRIME, HORROR, ROMANCE AND OTHER LITERARY TOPICS (from Roc SF Advance) People ask if I'm "moving away from horror." I don't really know how to answer that. I think if I wrote a straight romance, they would call it horror. Yet I've never really thought of myself as part of a genre or a category. I hate to be reviewed or discussed as a "horror" writer. It means people don't THINK much about what you are doing. In KOKO I wrote with no trace of what is usually found in a conventional Horror novel. The conventions had been left out (except when they were deliberately put in). MYSTERY, on the other hand, LOOKS very much like a category crime novel. Yet when it's been given to traditional crime reviewers, they usually been baffled and annoyed. They say it's too long. There's stuff in it that a crime novel doesn't need. It's too fat. This is because it's a work on its own terms; it's something else, something OTHER THAN a category novel. There's a lot going on in MYSTERY that's not necessarily found in the crime novel. Not that I don't like crime novels; I do. In fact, I set out quite deliberately to write a novel with a detective at the center. But I wanted to question why he was there. What does it mean when your life is about asking questions? How does it happen? These questions don't often get asked anymore. Since Raymond Chandler, they are sort of in our bloodstream. The detective himself is taken for granted. But I wanted to ask these questions again. So in MYSTERY my approach was more psychological. I assumed that if you were a detective, you were born with a question mark over your head. In MYSTERY Tom Passmore becomes a detective to try to unravel certain mysteries in his own life. And in the end he actually does. On that level, the book is about the mysteries of identity and society. On another level, it's about a deeper, almost religious mystery, in the sense of the medieval "mystery plays." It's about the mystery of what life is really like. Passmore has these moments of mystic clarity that dog him all through the book. He has to figure out what they mean. And in the end, he figures that mystery out too. I wrote the book in a year. I worked harder than I've ever worked before. I wanted the book to come out in the year after KOKO, and I figured that to do that I would have to average ten pages a day, seven days a week for eight months. And that's what I did. It was a great experience because I didn't have time to get in my own way. It just rolled. I realized at a certain point that I knew the answer even if I wasn't AWARE of it yet. KOKO was a breakthrough book for me. I felt it raised the level of my game; I'm proud of it. It sold well in both hard and soft covers, and I got letters from Vietnam vets who said that in the main I'd gotten it right. SHADOWLAND was a real adventure. I wanted to write a story that was ABOUT stories. I was telling a lot of stories to my young son, fairy tales; I was just making them up. I realized at a certain point that unless I wrote them down they would be lost forever. SHADOWLAND was also, of course, about magic. I wanted to develop what I'd begun in GHOST STORY. I wanted to work on that point where reality and fantasy come together, and widen that crack a little. I did some of the same thing in FLOATING DRAGON; that is, I tried to make the real world look like an hallucination or a fantasy. I think I succeeded a little better in SHADOWLAND. Working with Stephen King was great. He's an amazingly strong and imaginative writer. I've always cherished his work and we are friends. I found him insightful, tolerant, and patient. He's amazing because when he sits down to work, this whole world just jumps into life. At the end, we were actually writing side by side. It was the only time I've ever actually written something WITH someone. The book took a long time, though. It was a tough book and I think we were both glad when it was finished. Right now I'm working on a novel called THE THROAT. It follows naturally from KOKO and MYSTERY, and some of the same characters appear in it. In a sense it's their completion. All three novels form a trilogy called THE BLUE ROSE TRILOGY. Horror? Mystery? I don't know. I've always seen myself as inventing Peter Straub novels. I think this is what any good writer does. Updike writes Updike novels, Raymond Chandler writes Raymond Chandler novels. Book by book I try to work out the way I think and the way I see things. I get closer and closer to it. One day, who knows, maybe I'll get it exactly right! (For more information about Roc SF Advance, write to: NAL, Science Fiction Department, 375 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014. The book that Peter Straub was talking about, the one he wrote with Stephen King was, of course, THE TALISMAN.) *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* _____________________________________ [ ] [ PETER QUINT READS THE MAGAZINES ] [_____________________________________] MIDNIGHT GRAFFITI Winter 90/91 "Apocalypso" Issue edited by Jessica Horsting & James Van Hise MIDNIGHT GRAFFITI is not just another horror fiction magazine; the editors manage to give MG a tone, a flavor maybe, all its own. MG neither tries to absolve horror by being pretentiously high brow, nor by being self-consciously low-brow with a Whatthehell kind of attitude. No, MIDNIGHT GRAFFITI takes it for granted that The Dark Side, the Weird, the Gruesome, is of interest to sensible adult people, without breast-beating or apology. The theme of this issue is the end of civilization, the Apocalypse. Several writers give their personal fictional take on this subject: Gregory Hyde gives us "Diary of the Damned", telling us that surviving a holocaust might be worse than not; J.S. Russell contributes the incredibly gross "City of Angels", and Neil Gaiman is represented by "Cold Colours", a longish poem about the "dark magic of technology". While on the subject of MG's fiction, there is also an excerpt from S.P. Somtow's upcoming Avon novel, DARK RIVER. I don't know how you feel about this "novel excerpt" business, but I don't much care for it. It's all well and good to allow publishers a multi-page "ad" for one of their books, but readers who begin a tale, whether it be in a book or a magazine, expect closure, an ending. Excerpts are maddening. That said, I read a paragraph of Somtow's story by accident, and before I knew it I'd finished the whole (really rather long) excerpt. There's something about Somtow's prose, the way every sentence lures you on, that's irresistible. I was particularly caught by Theo's: "I guess I'm getting too imaginative again. Like in school sometimes during finals when I drift away for what seems like a ninety minute action adventure comedy drama but when I drift back again only a minute as passed and I'm still trying to answer the same true or false question." Remember doing that? S.P. Somtow is as good as Stephen King at creating recognizable characters that you instantly care about. So you should probably just save yourself some hassle and go out and buy DARK RIVER before you start MIDNIGHT GRAFFITI. You won't be able to resist the excerpt. But the fiction is outweighed in this issue by the nonfiction. Two writers give their perspective of a tour through the Alcor Life Extension Foundation, a cryonics company. You'll found out probably more than you wanted to know about being frozen, as well as learning the source behind an episode of L.A. LAW. But the very best offering of this issue is David Gerrold's essay, "Death of Tomorrow", in which he compares human civilization to that of the ancient dinosaurs, makes many strikingly logical points, and finally arrives at an understanding of not only where the dinosaurs went, but where we're going as well. It's not pretty. Alongside all this good stuff, there's the usual good stuff. There's an interview with Dan Simmons, a guide to apocalypse on videotape, book news, and depressing news about frogs and British cows. Terrific reading, not to be missed. (To subscribe, send $19.95 for four quarterly issues to: Midnight Graffiti, 13101 Sudan Road, Poway, CA 92064.) ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: CEMETERY DANCE edited by Richard T. Chizmar Winter 1991 Joe R. Lansdale Special First the fiction: "Layover" is a nice little morality piece by Ed Gorman. "The Laughing Man" by Gary Raisor presents his solution to the divorce problem, but is not one of Raisor's best stories. Andrew Vachss wrote a short-short for CD called "Joyride", violent and surprisingly intense for it's length. "Julian's Hand" by Gary Brandner is another anatomical horror piece, but much better than those kinds of stories usually are. Joe R. Lansdale has two pieces here: "Drive-In Date", a nasty play made from an even nastier short story (said story to be found in NIGHT VISIONS 8 from Dark Harvest); and "Bestsellers Guaranteed", about what desperate writers would do for success. "Pig's Dinner" by Graham Masterton wins the Gross-Out Award for this issue, although Bentley Little's "The Town" comes a close second. Bill Pronzini relates the making of a vampire in "Thirst", and Ronald Kelly's novelette, "The Winds Within" gives us a serial killer with an obscure motive. There are also excerpts: one from DARK TWILIGHT by Joseph A. Citro, and several small ones from HOTTER BLOOD edited by Jeff Gelb and Michael Garrett. There are three interviews: Part 1 of a two-parter with Peter Straub, one with Joe R. Lansdale, and one with Joseph W. Zarzynski, monster hunter. There are also columns from Ed Gorman, Matthew J. Costello, Paul Sammon, a very difficult trivia quiz by A.R. Morlan, and review columns by Ed Bryant and Lori Perkins. All in all, another fine issue from CEMETERY DANCE, but not *quite* as great as the last one was. Treat yourself to a CD subscription by sending a check payable to Richard T. Chizmar for $15 (four quarterly issues) or $25 (8 quarterly issues) to: Cemetery Dance, PO Box 16372, Baltimore, MD 21210. ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: HAUNTS edited by Joseph K. Cherkes Fall/Winter 1990 This issue of Haunts contains their usual fine assortment of horror fiction and poetry, as well as a few short nonfiction pieces, but this time I want to focus on just one author's material. The first three short stories in this Fall/Winter 1990 issue constitute a trilogy by Anthony Gael Moral. Remember that name, because this is one great horror writer. In his hands the ghost story is revitalized and given an immediacy that I haven't felt since I read my first examples as a child. The first installment is "Call FOrdham 5-7197", which introduces world-class photographer Michael Drawbore, his fiance Margaret, and his long-dead grandmother, Wilderleigh Drawbore, who raised Michael. During the process of moving, Michael discovers an old 1944 dime that he had saved from his childhood--the dime his grandmother had given him to keep so that he could always call her when he was in trouble. As Rod Serling would say, that dime becomes Michael's personal door into the Twilight Zone. The next story is called "Dark Eyes", about Margaret's encounter with nonliving beings, and "Sad Songs" finishes the trilogy and the story of all three of our major characters. Although the material works well as a trilogy of short stories, I can easily imagine it being turned into a fine novel. THE DRAWBORE TRILOGY is a chilling read, and is worth getting as a Back Issue if you missed this particular HAUNTS. Send $4.95 (the $3.95 cover price plus $1 postage) to: Nightshade Publications, PO Box 3342, Providence, RI 02906-0742. You can save yourself some hassle by sending another $13 for a subscription for the next four issues. HAUNTS is one of the best creepy fiction magazines around today. ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: SKELETON CREW November 1990 issue Liberally laced with death metaphors and wordplay (column and article titles like "Deaditorial", "Killing Note", "Last Writes", etc.), SKELETON CREW is a thin, slick magazine of horror fiction, interviews and miscellaneous verbiage from England. The first column was by their U.S. correspondent Phil Nutman, and was about Frank Miller and his involvement in the movie ROBOCOP 2. I thought the article was overlong and it gave more consideration to the ROBOCOP saga than most adults would say it deserved. The next piece was a very long interview with writer Neil Gaiman, the theme of which was: What artifacts would you take into the Afterlife with you? I didn't have much faith in this as an interesting subject, but Neil Gaiman's conversation proved me wrong. In addition to generally interesting discussions of various cultural subjects, Gaiman also threw off the occasional quotable quote: "On a gut level I don't believe I'll ever die. This is probably sheer ego, but I don't actually have any plans to die and I think it would be a very bad idea." "Actually life as a kid was a desperate battle to avoid being taken to see THE SOUND OF MUSIC...How could anyone inflict that on a child?" "Stephen Sondheim is someone for whom I have infinite respect. He's not only a terrific song writer, but he's a man who can make words sit up and beg." The first sample of "Crewci-Fiction" in this issue of SKELETON CREW was "Those of Rhenea" by David Sutton, an atmospheric Lovecraftian tale of old gods who are still active on the Greek island of Delos. This was followed by an article by Stan Nicholls about Iain Banks, author of THE WASP FACTORY and the recent USE OF WEAPONS, in which Banks describes his artistic background and working methods. "Portfolio" reproduces artwork by Dean Ormston that is not quite as misty as Dave McKean's, not quite as stark as Clive Barker's--a couple of the pieces have real power. "Clean" by Richard Holland is a crawly story about obsession, "Tiff" by Des Lewis is a haunting short-short about the desperate lives being lived behind the facades of an average small town, and "Amorph" by Stuart Palmer tells of the blobish nightmare of a scarred veteran. The remaining articles: "Picking the Bones" by Di Wathen looks at the horrific in children's literature, Dave Reeder's "Film Crew" takes an appreciative look at FRANKENHOOKER, "Apocalyptic Thinking" records Dr. Christian Lehmann's conversation with Alan Moore, "Dead Write" is a cantankerous essay about horror from Joel Lane, and "Dicing With Death" contains advice for the novice role-playing gamer from Liz Holliday. The coverage in SKELETON CREW is slanted just a tad toward the teenager, but the material is interesting and it's always nice to get articles and fiction drawn from a different pool. If all you've read are American magazines, you need to expand your horizons a little, and SKELETON CREW is not a bad place to start. Subscriptions are currently $54 U.S. for 12 issues, to be sent to the U.S. Subscription Agent: Wise Owl Worldwide Publications, 4314 West 238th Street, Torrance, CA 90505. *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* A ROBERT R. McCAMMON UPDATE May 1991: Pocket Books will publish his last novel, MINE, in paperback. It's about the search for a kidnapped baby, and will retail for $5.95. August 1991: Pocket Books will publish UNDER THE FANG, the first Horror Writers of America anthology, edited by McCammon and Martin Greenberg. August 1991: Pocket Books will publish his new novel, BOY'S LIFE, in hardcover. This is a non-supernatural thriller about a 12-year-old boy's life in 1964. *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* CHRISTOPHER MOORE Christopher Moore's first novel, PRACTICAL DEMONKEEPING, is about a man who looks 20 but is really 70, and has spent the last 50 years traveling around the United States trying to find an incantation that will get rid of a people-eating demon who's been with him the whole time. The book was sold for movie development even before it was bought by a publisher--Disney Studios' Hollywood Pictures will make the movie and St. Martin's Press will publish the book. Moore wrote an "author's bio" for St. Martin's, part of which was printed in Leonore Fleischer's "Talk of the Trade" column in Publishers Weekly, and which we reproduce here: "I wrote the entire first draft of PRACTICAL DEMONKEEPING at the counter of a local coffee shop while wearing a pair of deck shoes that I bought from a Cuban in Key West who swore on his sister's virginity that they belonged to Ernest Hemingway. I am currently working on my second book, COYOTE BLUES, which is the story of an American Indian businessman who is visited by the trickster god, Coyote. I am also working on a science-fiction (cyberpunk) screenplay entitled NECROPOLIS, which is being done purely to take my mind off the hype I am getting from people in Hollywood. (Hype is California's main export, you know.) I am taller than Jay McInerney, I wear less makeup than Tama Janowitz, and if I had to, I could probably tear the shit out of Saul Bellow. I do not have a drug or alcohol problem but I am willing to develop one if you think it will help in marketing. Although I am thirty-three, I can pass for twenty-five if you need to do the 'hot young writer' pitch to someone." *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* AN INTERVIEW WITH NANCY COLLINS (courtesy of Roc SF Advance) Q: When did you decide to become a writer? A: That makes it sound like I had a choice in the matter. I'm convinced that just before I was born, Nature sat me down and said, "You'll be REALLY good at telling stories, but not a heck of a lot else, kid." As far back as I can remember, I was always writing for my own amusement. My mother has a story I drew when I was three--before I was literate--depicting the unrequited love of a taxi for a bus. I always assumed I'd end up being a writer, although I had a couple of childhood flirtations with wanting to be a cowgirl and a disc jockey. Not at the same time, mind you. I actually WAS a DJ for a while, on a community radio station in Memphis. (I was also a DJ at the college radio station where I attended university for two years, but that doesn't count, since it was probably the ONLY campus radio station that broadcast nothing but E-Z Listening.) I've held a number of low-paying menial jobs over the past twelve years, and I'm glad I've finally attained my true station in life because I'd probably have become more depressed than I was already. Q: Who are your favorite writers and who was the biggest influence on you? A: I'd have to break that down into two or three categories, since I don't have the same tastes now I had as a kid (thank goodness). My EARLIEST influences were Dr. Seuss, Madeline L'Engle, L. Frank Baum, and whoever it was that wrote the original "Raggedy Anne" stories. When I was in Junior High, I started getting into Zenna Henderson, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Robert E. Howard, Harlan Ellison, and Robert Anton Wilson. When I was in college, during the late 70s and early 80s, I started reading Michael Moorcock, Robert Bloch, Stephen King, Richard Matheson, and Shirley Jackson. Lovecraft was also a big influence, but I didn't discover him until fairly late--around my mid-twenties. Now I read a lot of J.G. Ballard, Flannery O'Connor, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, William S. Burroughs, and William Kotzwinkle. As to who was the biggest influence on me, I'd have to say John Shirley, since he's the one responsible for tutoring me in the "do's" and "don'ts" of professional writing. I learned a lot from him in terms of style and aesthetics. Q: Who do you consider some of the most under-appreciated writers currently working in the field? A: I'd say John Shirley, right off the bat. He's written some outrageously original novels over the years, in both the SF and horror genres. K.W. Jeter is another outstanding writer I don't think gets the kind of recognition he deserves. Michael McDowell has produced some of the finest postmodern Southern Gothic novels published during this half of the century, although he's best known for scripting BEETLEJUICE. And I stand in absolute awe of Bruce Sterling, who should win every Hugo and Nebula he's up for. Q: What about yourself? How do you go about "being a writer"? A: Whenever I hear fellow writers talk about how they get up with the chickens and work six hours every day, seven days a week, I feel ashamed of myself for not being more organized. I'm a lazy gal and tend to have an erratic work schedule. But then, I come from a long line of people who worked for themselves without a boss hanging over their shoulder, so I guess I'm upholding something of a family tradition. Q: How do you like living and working in New Orleans? A: TEMPTER is set in New Orleans, my adopted home, and I hope I can work both it and Arkansas, where I was born and raised, into future works. I feel that calling on personal knowledge of a region you're familiar with lends an air of authenticity to whatever it is you're doing. New Orleans is one of a handful of cities in this country that has its own peculiar mystique. There's a romantic glamour that surrounds the city, with its voodoo, antebellum splendor, and exotic Carnival traditions, that lends itself to fiction. But then there's also the REAL New Orleans, with its equally long history of racial tension, social injustice and political malfeasance. How could a horror writer live here and NOT be inspired? (For more information about receiving Roc SF Advance, write to: NAL, Science Fiction Department, 375 Hudson St., New York, NY 10014.) *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* PET PEEVES by Annie Wilkes Why must authors and critics assume that any genre designation is an insult? I realize that each writer would like to believe that their work is completely original, like nothing else every printed, but that makes finding a book in a bookstore kind of tough, not to mention wading through my collection here in my home. I have put my copy of Michael Cadnum's SLEEPWALKER in my own personal Horror section, not because it's lousy, and not because it's content is similar to that of any other book I own. I shelve it where I do because my mind, like everyone else's, is naturally adept at pattern recognition, and because general categories help me find my way around the thousands of books in this house. I will grant that some people use genre designations as a shortcut for thinking, and that for some people (notably authors and critics) genres are, and will always be, literary ghettos. But stupidity exists everywhere, and I refuse to be tarred with the same brush. Another thing: Why will critics continually criticize a book for not playing the game correctly, for a song out of tune? This could be a facet of the Genre Designation Stupidity mentioned above, where a critic will demand that a book shelved in the horror section resemble their idea of a Horror Novel. Once again, this is just garden-variety stupidity, and genres can't be expected to pay for a few morons with typewriters. Thank you for your attention; you may now return to whatever it was you were doing. *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* ALL THE NEWS OF GRUES * Andrew Neiderman has yet another book in film development--THE NEED, a Jekyll-Hyde tale involving a female-male metamorphosis. His next book is THE IMMORTALS, which imagines what would have happened if Ponce de Leon had found the Fountain of Youth he was looking for. It's coming sometime soon from Pocket Books. * WHISPER...HE MIGHT HEAR YOU by William Appel, reviewed in RFP #15, has been optioned for a "theatrical feature" (a movie). * I hear that Stephen King's short story, "Sometimes They Come Back" (from NIGHT SHIFT) is being made into a TV movie starring Tim Matheson. * MASTERS OF DARKNESS III, edited by Dennis Etchison, is due from Tor in June, and Underwood/Miller (708 Westover Drive, Lancaster, PA 17601) will be releasing an omnibus volume containing all three MofD. * Next time you're in England, you might want to check out the Chessington World of Adventures. The amusement park has a horror theme, with such attractions as the Black Forest Chateau, the Transylvania Village, and an overhead rollercoaster called The Vampire (the cars all look like flying bats). * Forthcoming: Dean Ing's techno-thriller, THE NEMESIS MISSION, and Nick Pollotta's military horror novel, DOOMSDAY EXAM. * AFRAID, The Newsletter for the Horror Professional, has died. * LITERARY BOOGEYMAN: THE STORY OF STEPHEN KING is an unauthorized biography written by George Beahm, author of THE STEPHEN KING COMPANION. The new biography will probably be released sometime this fall (1991) by Andrews & McMeel. * Coming soon is the movie version of Stephen King's THE DARK HALF. I don't have a release date, but I've heard that it was written and directed by George Romero and the stars are Timothy Hutton, Amy Madigan, Michael Rooker, and Julie Harris. *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* SOME 1991 HORROR HIGHLIGHTS: CAFE PURGATORIUM by Dana Anderson, Ray Garton, & Charles de Lint (Tor Jul hardcover) THE VAMPIRE'S APPRENTICE by Richard Lee Byers (Zebra/Pinnacle) SAINT PETER'S WOLF by Michael Cadnum (Carroll & Graf, Jun) WAKING NIGHTMARES by Ramsey Campbell (Tor Nov hardcover) HOME by Matthew Costello (Jove) WALLS OF FEAR edited by Kathryn Cramer (Avon Oct reprint) THE YEAR'S BEST FANTASY AND HORROR: FOURTH ANNUAL COLLECTION edited by Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling (St. Martin's Jul) A WHISPER OF BLOOD edited by Ellen Datlow (Morrow Nov) SPECTERS by J.M. Dillard (Dell Abyss May) MASTERS OF DARKNESS III edited by Dennis Etchison (Tor May) METAHORROR edited by Dennis Etchison (Dell Abyss) DOWN RIVER by Stephen Gallagher (Tor Nov reprint) LOT LIZARDS by Ray Garton (Mark Ziesing, summer) FINAL SHADOWS edited by Charles L. Grant (Doubleday Foundation, Sep hardcover & trade paperback) FIRE MASK by Charles L. Grant (Bantam Young Adult, Apr hardcover) SOMETHING STIRS by Charles L. Grant (Tor Oct hardcover) NIGHT ANGEL by Kate Green (Dell Apr reprint) MADLANDS by K.W. Jeter (St. Martin's Oct hardcover) BEST NEW HORROR 2 edited by Stephen Jones & Ramsey Campbell (Carroll & Graf, Sep hardcover) FOUR PAST MIDNIGHT by Stephen King (Penguin/Signet Sep reprint) THE STAND by Stephen King (Penguin/Signet Apr reprint) BY BIZARRE HANDS by Joe R. Lansdale (Avon Sep) EVIL DEEDS by Bentley Little (Penguin) THE WATCHERS OUT OF TIME by H.P. Lovecraft (Carroll & Graf Sep) BOY'S LIFE by Robert R. McCammon (Pocket Aug hardcover) MINE by Robert R. McCammon (Pocket Jun reprint) UNDER THE FANG edited by Robert R. McCammon (Pocket Aug) TOPLIN by Michael McDowell (Dell Abyss Aug) THE BURNING by Graham Masterton (Tor Apr hardcover) CREATED BY by Richard Christian Matheson (Bantam) BORDERLANDS 2 edited by Thomas F. Monteleone (Avon Dec) THE IMMORTALS by Andrew Neiderman (Pocket Jul) BAD DREAMS by Kim Newman (Carroll & Graf Sep hardcover) HELLTRACKS by William F. Nolan (Avon Nov) DEAD END: CITY LIMITS edited by Paul F. Olson & David B. Silva (St. Martin's Nov hardcover) THE MAN UPSTAIRS by T.L. Parkinson (Dutton) DINNER AT DEVIANT'S PALACE by Tim Powers (Ace May reprint) LAST CALL by Tim Powers (contemporary occult thriller) THE STRESS OF HER REGARD by Tim Powers (Ace Jun reprint) OBSESSED by Rick Reed (Dell Abyss Jul) NIGHT by Alan Rodgers (Bantam Nov) SONG OF KALI by Dan Simmons (Tor Oct reprint) THE BRIDGE by John Skipp & Craig Spector (Bantam Oct) CUTTHROAT by Michael Slade (Roc) I SHUDDER AT YOUR TOUCH edited by Michele Slung (Penguin/Roc Jun hardcover) HOUSES WITHOUT DOORS by Peter Straub (Penguin/Signet Nov) THE YEAR'S BEST HORROR STORIES XIX edited by Karl Edward Wagner (DAW Oct) MASTERY by Kelley Wilde (Dell Abyss Sep) HELLHOUNDS by Sidney Williams (Zebra) REPRISALS by F. Paul Wilson (Jove Nov) *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* COMING IN JUNE (OUR 2nd ANNIVERSARY ISSUE)!! a review of: HOLLYWOOD GHOSTS Haunting, Spine-chilling Stories from America's Film Capital edited by Frank D. McSherry, Jr., Charles G. Waugh, & Martin H. Greenberg (Rutledge Hill Press, 1991) And Anything Else We Can Get Our Hands On! *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* <-*->:<-*->:<-*->:<-*->:<-*->:<-*-> < > < LOOSEN YOUR GRIP ON REALITY > < > <-*->:<-*->:<-*->:<-*->:<-*->:<-*-> << Editor: Darryl Kenning >> --------------------------------------------------------------------- Loosen Your Grip On Reality is a division of Reading For Pleasure, published bimonthly. This material is NOT COPYRIGHTED and may be used freely by all. Contributions of information, reviews, etc. should be sent to: Darryl Kenning CompuServe: 76337,740 6331 Marshall Rd. or GEnie: D.Kenning Centerville, Ohio 45459 The Annex BBS 513-274-0821 --------------------------------------------------------------------- THE KENNING QUOTIENT (KQ) is a rating applied to books read by the editor in this section, a number ranging from 0 (which means the book is an unredeemable stinker) to 5 (meaning the book is not to be missed.) --------------------------------------------------------------------- RANDOM ACCESS One of the very nice things that is unique to SCIENCE FICTION from early on in its short life span has been the CONvention. A CON (convention) is a gathering of fen (Plural of SF Fans) for either a special purpose Science Fiction related subject, such as SF folk singing (called for some inexplicable reason FILK singing), SF weaponry, Star Trek, or almost anything else one can imagine; or a general purpose CON that is likely to be covering a wide variety of Science Fiction, Science, and related issues. At almost every one of these things at least a few professional authors will gather to be on panels, to autograph books, and mingle with the other attendees. Now I must admit that I have thus far not made it to a WorldCON, but have been to a couple of pretty good sized regional Cons. One of the things that impresses me was the interaction between authors and the rest of us. As far as I know this is the only literary genre in which this occurs, and the authors that I know all tell me that they get a lot of outstanding feedback. From my end, I've learned a lot about writing, a lot about the frustrations writers have, and who some of the "respectable" authors are who wrote dirty books to keep body and soul together in their beginning years. Quite often the technical aspects of writing SF and writing in general get pretty good coverage. Booksellers and indeed sellers of all sorts of things frequent CONs so there always seems ample opportunity to spend your hard earned dollars. Typically an art show is included with everything from amateur to pro art--and auctions are part of the art show, with proceeds ofttimes going to special charities. The best part of this menagerie however is the other fans who appear, from very young to very old, all eager to share their love of Science Fiction with anyone who will slow down for even a second. If you haven't gone to a SF CON I highly recommend the experience. Find someone else who likes SF and just GO. If you don't know where one is located, both CompuServe and GEnie have areas in the SF sections where postings are made, the magazine LOCUS has a very good listing as do several of the popular SF magazines. Local bookstores that specialize in SF often know about local CONS. In a pinch, drop me a note and I'll get some info to you. If enough of you indicate an interest, I'll include some info on CONs in LYGOR in the future. Try one--you'll likely get hooked and soon be a SMOF (Secret Master of Fandom). Above all--enjoy. As always, your comments, questions, or observations about RANDOM ACCESS or anything else in LYGOR are welcome. Just get them to me at any of the addresses listed on the masthead. dkk *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* LOOSE NEWS * CANTICLE UPDATE: Locus magazine reports that Walter Miller has turned in the first 300 pages of his sort-of sequel to A CANTICLE FOR LEIBOWITZ. * The Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society has created a "Recommended Reading List for Ages 9-12" and you can get a copy by sending a Self-Addressed, Stamped Envelope (SASE) to: LASFS, 11513 Burbank Blvd., North Hollywood, CA 91601. * It looks like the SCI-FI CHANNEL has made it. They are due to begin broadcasting sometime this summer, and will be distributed to the home satellite market by Netlink. * Geoff Ryman, a British fantasy writer, has written a story about what happened to Dorothy before and after the events in L. Frank Baum's THE WIZARD OF OZ. It's called WAS, and Knopf will be publishing it in the U.S. within the next year. *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* AWARDS: THE BARRY R. LEVIN COLLECTORS AWARDS 1990 Most Collectable Author of the Year: Stephen King Most Collectable Book of the Year: The limited edition of THE STAND: THE COMPLETE & UNCUT EDITION by Stephen King (Doubleday) Lifetime Collectors Award: Lloyd Arthur Eshbach for "his unique contribution to collectable science fiction and fantasy as author and publisher" THE SCIENCE FICTION BOOK CLUB AWARDS Voted on by approximately 14,000 members of the Doubleday Science Fiction Book Club: Book of the Year: DRAGONSDAWN by Anne McCaffrey Second Place: THE DRAGONBONE CHAIR by Tad Williams Third Place: HATRACK RIVER by Orson Scott Card (omnibus containing SEVENTH SON, RED PROPHET, and PRENTICE ALVIN) SCIENCE FICTION WRITERS OF AMERICA NEBULA AWARD FOR BEST SF NOVEL Final Ballot (Awards will be announced at the annual banquet on April 27.) Best Novel: TEHANU by Ursula LeGuin (Bantam Spectra, $4.95) MARY REILLY by Valerie Martin (Doubleday, $18.95) ONLY BEGOTTEN DAUGHTER by James Morrow (Morrow, $19.95) THE FALL OF HYPERION by Dan Simmons (Bantam Spectra, $5.95) REDSHIFT RENDEZVOUS by John E. Stith (Ace Books, $3.95) WHITE JENNA by Jane Yolen (Tor, $3.95) Best Novella: "Weatherman" by Lois McMaster Bujold (Analog 2/90) "Fool to Believe" by Pat Cadigan (Asimov's 2/90) "The Hemingway Hoax" by Joe Haldeman (Asimov's 4/90) "Mr. Boy" by James Patrick Kelly (Asimov's 6/90) "Bones" by Pat Murphy (Asimov's 5/90) Best Novelette: "Tower of Babylon" by Ted Chiang (Omni 11/90) "The Coon Rolled Down and Ruptured His Larinks, A Squeezed Novel by Mr. Skunk" by Dafydd ab Hugh (Asimov's 8/90) "The Shobies' Story" by Ursula K. LeGuin (UNIVERSE 1) "1/72nd Scale" by Ian MacLeod (Weird Tales Fall/90) "The Manamouki" by Mike Resnick (Asimov's 7/90) "A Time for Every Purpose" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch (Amazing 5/90) "Loose Cannon" by Susan Shwartz (WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN VOL. 2) "Over the Long Haul" by Martha Soukup (Amazing 3/90) Short Stories: "Bears Discover Fire" by Terry Bisson (Asimov's 8/90) "The Power and the Passion" by Pat Cadigan (PATTERNS; Omni 3/90) "Lieserl" by Karen Joy Fowler (ACM #6: PERIPHERAL VISION; Asimov's 7/90) "Love and Sex Among the Invertebrates" by Pat Murphy (ALIEN SEX) "Before I Wake" by Kim Stanley Robinson (Interzone 27; Asimov's 4/90) "Story Child" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch (Aboriginal SF 10/90) 1990 PHILIP K. DICK AWARD NOMINEES (For the best SF paperback original of 1990.) THE OXYGEN BARONS by Gregory Feeley (Ace) WINTERLONG by Elizabeth Hand (Bantam Spectra) THE SCHIZOGENIC MAN by Raymond Harris (Ace) POINTS OF DEPARTURE by Pat Murphy (Bantam Spectra) CLARKE COUNTY, SPACE by Alan Steele (Ace) ARTHUR C. CLARKE AWARD NOMINEES (For the best SF novel published in Britain in 1990.) USE OF WEAPONS by Iain M. Banks (Macdonald) RATS AND GARGOYLES by Mary Gentle (Bantam UK) TAKE BACK PLENTY by Colin Greenland (Unwin) FAREWELL, HORIZONTAL by K.W. Jeter (Grafton) RED SPIDER, WHITE WEB by Misha (Morrigan) THE CITY, NOT LONG AFTER by Pat Murphy (Pan) 1991 BRITISH SCIENCE FICTION AWARDS Best Novel: USE OF WEAPONS by Iain M. Banks (Macdonald) RATS AND GARGOYLES by Mary Gentle (Bantam UK) THE DIFFERENCE ENGINE by William Gibson & Bruce Sterling (Gollancz) TAKE BACK PLENTY by Colin Greenland (Unwin) HYPERION by Dan Simmons (Headline) Best Short Fiction: "The Death of Cassandra Quebec" by Eric Brown (ZENITH 2) "The Phargean Effect" by Eric Brown (Interzone 41) "Axiomatic" by Greg Egan (Interzone 41) "Learning to Be Me" by Greg Egan (Interzone 37) "Winning" by Ian McDonald (ZENITH 2) "The Original Dr. Shade" by Kim Newman (Interzone 36) Best Dramatic Presentation: FLATLINERS STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION TOTAL RECALL TWIN PEAKS Best Artwork: Iain Byers (for "The Phargean Effect", Interzone 41) Dave McKean (cover for THE NIGHT MAYOR, NEL) Ian Miller (cover for THE DIFFERENCE ENGINE, Gollancz) 1990 WORLD FANTASY AWARDS Best Novel: LYONESSE: MADOUC by Jack Vance (Underwood-Miller) Best Novella: "Great Work of Time" by John Crowley (from NOVELTY) Best Short Fiction: "The Illusionist" by Steven Millhauser (from Esquire 12/89) Best Anthology: THE YEAR'S BEST FANTASY: SECOND ANNUAL COLLECTION edited by Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling (St. Martin's) Best Collection: COLLECTED STORIES by Richard Matheson (Scream/Press) Special Award, Professional: Mark V. Ziesing Publications Special Award, Non-Pro: Peggy Nadramia (GRUE magazine) Best Artist: Thomas Canty *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO SCIENCE FICTION by David Pringle (Pharos Books, 1991) Hardcover--$24.95 Trade paperback--$14.95 review by Cindy Bartorillo THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO SCIENCE FICTION, while rather immodestly titled, does feature over 3,000 entries containing brief descriptions and reviews, as well as a rating (0-4 asterisks). The entries are by author Pringle and his "helper" Ken Brown, although it is acknowledged that the opinions of critics John Clute and Brian Stableford were influential. Pringle says in his Introduction that he has included "all the masterpieces--and quite a few of the stinkers". Here's a sample entry of each: "STAR MAKER (1937) **** Novel by Olaf Stapledon (UK). A man, contemplating life from a hill top, is whisked away into space in disembodied fashion and commences a grand cosmic journey which is awe-inspiring in its scope. This work, which attempts to portray the progress of all intelligent life in the universe, over a period of billions of years, is even grander in scale than the author's LAST AND FIRST MEN. It lacks plot, dialogue and the other virtues of good fiction, but it's the ultimate vision of the end of all things. An essential work. 'The one great grey holy book of science fiction' -- Brian Aldiss, BILLION YEAR SPREE. An earlier version was published posthumously as NEBULA MAKER (1976)." "COSMIC ENGINEERS (1950) Novel by Clifford D. Simak (USA), first serialized in 1939. Buddy heroes encounter a robotic civilization and a girl who has been refining her intellect during 1000 years of suspended animation, in this amusingly inept space opera. Its author's first novel, it bears no resemblance to his later excellent work. Best left buried." I picked these examples because I thought they were interesting, but you shouldn't now assume that most entries are of books this old (indeed, I specifically hunted out these two older books that RFP readers may not have heard of). Nor should you assume that the opinions in THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO SCIENCE FICTION are biased in favor of the British at the expense of the Americans. I was able to find no apparent national bias at all; Pringle has a definite leaning toward certain authors, but no favorite country of origin. THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO SCIENCE FICTION contains comprehensive coverage of the biggies: H.G. Wells, Jules Verne, C.S. Lewis, Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Arthur C. Clarke, Clifford D. Simak, Phillip K. Dick, Robert A. Heinlein, Theodore Sturgeon, Ursula LeGuin, J.G. Ballard, Harlan Ellison, and William Gibson. You will also find many examples of the various subgenres of SF like: disaster novels, alternative world stories, near-future dystopias, prehistoric novels, New Wave trips to "inner space", cyberpunk tales of "means streets and microchips", space operas, and planetary romances. How about what ISN'T included? In his Introduction, Pringle says that he (mostly) ignored: fantasy, children's fiction, non-English language sf, borderline sf ("scientific romances" and "slipstream" fiction), sf published before 1970 and not reprinted since, lesser work of lesser writers, novelizations and other "spin-off" sf. He does, however, hint at future editions that will not only bring THE ULTIMATE GUIDE up to date, but will be enlarged with elements from these categories that were originally left out. One important category that IS covered is volumes of short stories, both anthologies and single-author collections. Many critics avoid short stories as if they were small insects that, once let into the house, will reproduce by the thousands and overwhelm everything else. Being a magazine editor himself, Pringle is obviously closer to the short story scene than most, and is to be congratulated for giving many fine collections and anthologies some well-deserved attention. Pringle seems to assume that most readers are title-oriented, and has arranged all the entries by title. Unfortunately, I am author-oriented and often forget titles. This caused some consternation until I found the Author Index in the back, which is an alphabetical listing of all included authors, with a list of all their books that have accompanying entries. This allows me to use the book both as a reference tool, to access any book's entry quickly and easily, and as a reader's guide to further enjoyments, by browsing through titles at random. (NOTE: I only had the paperback to look at, but for a reference book I would generally recommend a hardcover. The paperback is sturdy enough, but as is usual with sturdy and large paperbacks, it's uncomfortably stiff to browse through.) Author David Pringle is the owner and publisher of the critically acclaimed British magazine, INTERZONE, as well as the former editor (1980-1986) of FOUNDATION: The Review of Science Fiction, an SF journal. Most important around my house is that he is the author of Carroll & Graf's SCIENCE FICTION: THE 100 BEST NOVELS, in which the best of the best is covered in much more depth than in the THE ULTIMATE GUIDE. I see by his bio that he is also the author of the delectable-sounding IMAGINARY PEOPLE: A WHO'S WHO OF MODERN FICTIONAL CHARACTERS and a companion volume to the book I own called MODERN FANTASY: THE 100 BEST NOVELS. THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO SCIENCE FICTION is an important addition to any SF-reader's bookshelf. Highly recommended. (Also highly recommended is his previous volume SCIENCE FICTION: THE 100 BEST NOVELS.) *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* THE PAPERBACK BOOKSHELF: THE GENERAL: Book 1 - THE FORGE by David Drake & S.M. Stirling Baen Books---February, 1991---$4.95---ISBN 671-720376-6 review by Darryl Kenning In spite of a rather hokey beginning that sets the stage for the computer assistance the hero gets during the story, a little persistence will pay good dividends for the reader. If you like military science fiction, if you like interesting social settings, if you like rousing adventure, then you will enjoy this book. Set on a planet that has lost its science but is struggling to retain "civilization", the religion of the main country is based upon the computer. That means that certain computerese that we recognize becomes important to the societal backdrop and provides a bit of "in" humor for at least some of us. A fascinating blend of cultures (the result of the original colonial patterns) has been skillfully woven into a bright tapestry that almost comes alive in the hands of the master storytellers in this novel. And when all the good fun has gone, some quiet reflection will show the real story in human terms and its lessons for our times. I enjoyed this book as much as any by Drake and the collaboration goes very nicely. It has been set up as a series, and since it works so well I hardly resented that at all. This one is definitely worth a special trip to your bookstore. KQ........4 *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* IN THE COUNTRY OF THE BLIND by Michael Flynn Baen Books---July, 1990---$3.95---ISBN 671-69886-9 review by Darryl Kenning Take an extraordinary premise: What if Charles Babbage's invention of a mechanical computer about 100 years ago worked very, very well; and what if a number of people of that time formed a secret society to use that knowledge to run the world; and just suppose they are incompetent! Michael Flynn has taken these elements, mixed them up with a highly plausible scenario set in today's world, and covered this mixture with a writing style that works very well in this book for this premise. Whether or not you are a computer buff, this story is so plausible, the plot so devious, and the results so credible, that you can't help wondering if there isn't a basis of truth in all this--what if it IS all a plot! I don't want to beat this to death, and I certainly don't want to spoil any of the story by any plot revelations. This book is outstanding. Get it today--start reading immediately--and then let me know if you could put it down. KQ........5 *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* BOX SCORES ..................................... /: : : : Title Author(s) KQ : : : --------------------------------- : : : STRANDED, W Norwood & M Odom....2 : : : BOAT OF A MILLION YEARS : : : Poul Anderson............3 : : : RETURN OF THE EMPEROR : : : A Cole & C Bunch......3 : : : NICOJI, M.S. Bell...............3 : : : TIME OF THE FOX, M Costello.....2 : : : CHICAGO RED, R M Meluch.........2 : : : DEATH'S HEAD REBELLION : : : J. Pournelle (creator)...3 : : : CLARKE COUNTY, SPACE : : : Allen Steele..........4 : : : REACH, Edward Gibson............3 : : : GENERATION WARRIORS : : : A. McCaffrey & Moon, E...3 : : : MATRIX MAN, William Dietz.......2 : : : SURFACE ACTION, David Drake.....2 : : : CRISIS, Edited by : : : D. Drake & W. Fawcett......4 : : : THE SIEGE OF ARTISTA : : : Edited by W. Fawcett.....3 : : : : : : by darryl kenning : : :...................................: :..................................../ *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* THE AUTHOR AS SIDESHOW We hear that Harlan Ellison has been up to his old tricks again--he wrote a story while sitting in the window of the Los Angeles bookstore Dangerous Visions. Wouldn't it be great if you could get somebody to pay you to sit in a window and read? While we're on the subject of Ellison-as-performer, he also gave a live stage performance, at the Georgia Fantasy Convention, of "The Rats in the Walls" by H.P. Lovecraft, which must have been wonderful. They taped it and we hear that Centauri Express will be releasing it as an audio tape. And there's still more Ellison news. Borderlands Press has announced the first title in its special series of never-before-in-hardcover books: NO DOORS, NO WINDOWS by Harlan Ellison. There is a signed, limited edition of 1000 copies, slipcased with dust jacket, for $65 (plus $3 shipping and handling per book). Send your check to: Borderlands Press, PO Box 32333, Baltimore, MD 21208. *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* BLURRING THE BOUNDARIES by Mark Mueller CYBER WAY by Alan Dean Foster (Ace, 1990, 226pp) EYE OF CAT by Roger Zelazny (Timescape [Pocket Books],1982,188pp) CYBER WAY is the first book by Alan Dean Foster that I have read. I have seen his works before on the book shelves, but they have always had that air of - I don't know - "marketing" about them. You know what I mean - "You've seen the movie; now read the book!"-type of thing. This doesn't necessarily mean that he is a bad writer or that he has "sold out" - it's just been my impression that while he may be glib enough, I'm not likely to find much originality in his work. I picked up CYBER WAY because it was advertised as "a science-fiction mystery" - just the thing to review for this column! Well, it is - and it isn't. This might be as good a time as any to dwell on the nature of mystery and why it is possible for good mysteries to exist in so many different genres. All mysteries are puzzles in one form or another and cause us to seek answers to the questions "who," "what," "why" or "how." Often, these answers are interdependent; solve one and you solve all. The key thing is the structure, the parceling out of clues that allows us to supply our own answers and try them out against the problem-solver in the story. Sometimes the mystery is the only worthwhile part of package - the puzzle (and its solution) are the only thing that keeps the reader turning the pages. Other times, the puzzle is transparent, but the characters are so interesting that we want to be with them as long as the novel will allow. Alas, neither is the case with CYBER WAY. The story opens with an Amerindian confronting a wealthy Florida industrialist, demanding that he sell a Navajo sandpainting. The next chapter introduces Detective Vernon Moody who has been called in to investigate the murder of the same wealthy Florida industrialist and his housekeeper, the only clues being the destruction of a Navajo sandpainting and the report of the security guards that an Indian had been arguing with the victim about that very painting. Oh, I almost forgot - the victims had been killed in a very strange manner; two holes were burned into each of their bodies, but they had died not from the wounds, but from shock. The police are baffled, so they do what police always do when they are baffled - they do something that makes no sense whatsoever. Okay, we've got an Indian and a sandpainting...let me see, where else in the world do they have Indians and sandpaintings...wait, I've got it! Let's send our Florida cop to Arizona! He's black, big and somewhat fat (but with surprising quickness, of course); he should fit right in when he shows up in the Navajo Territory. Right. Does all this sound somewhat contrived to you? What Foster has done is to set up a "buddy" movie and then written the book for it. This is "48 Hours," "Lethal Weapon," "Midnight Run" - take your pick. I guess the main thrust of this book is supposed to be the interplay between the city cop and the Navajo cop. The mystery elements take a back seat; we already know who the killer is - we've known it since the second page of the first chapter. The only questions remaining are how did he kill his victims and why did he destroy the sandpainting? Are they enough to sustain the novel? Are the characters sufficiently interesting enough to carry the book? No. If you like Tony Hillerman, don't bother with this book. Reading CYBER WAY is like drinking light beer. On the other hand...my daddy (who's going to be 70 years old in a couple of weeks!) taught me that "if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all." So, here's the positive thing I can say about CYBER WAY: all the time I was reading it, I kept remembering that I'd read a science fiction book about a Navajo set in the far future, and that if I hadn't read CYBER WAY, I probably wouldn't have reread EYE OF CAT by Roger Zelazny. The plot of EYE OF CAT is fairly straightforward - William Blackhorse Singer has chosen to travel among the stars, capturing rare creatures for the Interstellar Life Institute. In doing so, he has outlived all the rest of his clan - he has become the last Navajo. Now he is asked to come out of retirement to thwart a political assassination by an alien creature that can not only change shape at will, but also has the ability to walk through walls. The shapeshifting ability strikes a chord in Billy's mind and he returns to the ILI to confront a shapeshifting creature he captured many years ago to determine if it might be sentient. It is, and has learned many things in the fifty years of its imprisonment. Cat has learned how to communicate with humans, that it too is the last of its kind (the sun of its homeworld had gone nova) and that its sole reason for living is hate - a burning desire to track Billy down and kill him. Billy realizes that he cannot stop the assassin by himself and agrees to Cat's terms. What lifts EYE OF CAT out of the ordinary is Zelazny's ability to constantly shift the shape of the novel as it progresses. Just when you think you know what the book is about, he illuminates it from a slightly different angle and the thing you felt was important two pages ago suddenly loses its luster while something else begins to command your attention. This book is charged with striking imagery and poetry - the impression it makes lingers on long after closing the cover. Zelazny isn't shy about his influences, either; the book is dedicated to Joe Leaphorn, Jimmy Chee and Tony Hillerman. Fortunately, he is artist enough to create a world that doesn't pale in comparison with theirs. *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* FROM THE ARCHIVES: Every issue or so I am going to pull something off the bookshelf that I haven't looked at in a long time, but that I remember as being worth rereading and provide a short report for you. Most of this stuff will probably be out of print but should still be findable as you browse your local used bookstore or library. A SPACESHIP FOR THE KING by Jerry Pournelle (DAW, February, 1973, No. 42, U01042) review by Darryl Kenning This was first seen serialized in ANALOG in 1972. It was also the first time I read a Jerry Pournelle book. In some ways it is the classic story of colonization (or recolonization), with the benefits to go to the Colonial Power, never the colony. Using a skillful blend of high tech and 17th century technology, he infuses the heroes with the kind of mutual respect between professionals that has become his trademark in later novels. He manages to provide a credible society for the colony, the empire, and the barbarian world, even to the beginnings of liberation for women in a feudal society. While courage and battle planning provides the action elements, even the bad guys have depth of character, and it is hard not to empathize with most of the individuals in the story. The real treat, real message I suppose, is that technological level has little to do with brains and ability. Something we do tend to forget in our world too, and it is great fun to watch the low techies outmatch the high techies. In short, I liked this book very much. Picking it up after several readings some years ago, it still keep my interest and I didn't want to put it down until I had devoured every last morsel of the plot and characterizations. I also found myself rolling around the basic premise in my mind days later, and that is, for me at any rate, when I KNOW I've found a winner. This one is worth the hunt. *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* QUOTES 'N' STUFF: If you explain so clearly that no one can misunderstand,] somebody will. Calm down. It's only ones and zeros. The first sign of a nervous breakdown is when you start thinking your work is terribly important. Whenever I feel like exercise, I lie down until the feeling passes. Teenage Hell: a parent who's into BBSing *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* SF WRITER AND JIM MORRISON Patricia Kennealy, an SF writer currently being published by NAL/Roc, was once married in a pagan ceremony to Jim Morrison, lead singer for The Doors. As a matter of fact, she appears in Oliver Stone's recent movie, THE DOORS, both figuratively and literally. The ceremony that was performed in an East Village apartment appears in the movie, and Patricia Kennealy herself is in the scene. Note, however, that Kennealy plays the priestess that performed the ceremony, while actress Kathleen Quinlan plays Patricia Kennealy's character. Did I get that out right? The real-life writer Patricia Kennealy plays the movie characterization of the real-life priestess, while real-life actress Kathleen Quinlan plays the movie characterization of the real-life Patricia Kennealy. *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* ASK UNCLE HAL 9001 Test the enormous RAM database of UNCLE HAL, the new and improved model 9001 beta. Q. Who wrote PETER PAN? A. James M. Barrie (1860-1937). Barrie donated all the royalties in perpetuity to a children's hospital. Q. Who wrote the original book THE BODY SNATCHERS? A. Jack Finney, who also wrote the outstanding novel TIME AND TIME AGAIN wrote THE BODY SNATCHERS in 1955. *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* TREKOLOGY WP BW247 FEB 20,1991 15:50 PACIFIC 18:50 EASTERN ( EW)(PARAMOUNT-MOTION-PICTURE) "Star Trek VI" begins principal photography Entertainment Editors & Film Writers HOLLYWOOD--(ENTERTAINMENT WIRE)--"Star Trek VI" will begin principal photography this spring. The film was written by Nicholas Meyer and Denny Martin Flynn and will be directed by Meyer, the director of "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn" and co-screenwriter of "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home," the two most successful "Star Trek" motion pictures. Steven-Charles Jaffe and Ralph Winter are producing and Leonard Nimoy is the executive producer of the film. A presentation of the Motion Picture Group of Paramount Pictures, it was announced Wednesday by Gary Lucchesi, president of production. "Star Trek VI" will reunite original "Star Trek" stars William Shatner (Captain James T. Kirk), Nimoy (Mr. Spock), DeForest Kelley (Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy), James Doohan (Scotty), Walter Koenig (Chekov), Nichelle Nichols (Uhura) and George Takei (Sulu). The screenplay is based upon "Star Trek" created by Gene Roddenberry, who will serve as executive consultant to the production. "We are excited to commemorate the 25th anniversary of 'Star Trek' with the start of production of a movie that reunites the entire original cast with the filmmakers who have been instrumental in the creation of the best of the "Star Trek" motion picture series," said Lucchesi. "Star Trek" premiered as a weekly hour-long television adventure series in 1966. Canceled by NBC after three seasons, the show's fans would not let the show be forgotten. "Star Trek" conventions began to be held worldwide and by 1972 the series was being rerun in more than 170 syndicated television markets. In 1979 the unprecedented "Star Trek" phenomenon reached a new height with the premiere of Paramount's "Star Trek -- The Motion Picture." The film set an industry record at the time of its release with the highest-grossing week in box-office history. "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home" has the distinction of being the highest-grossing "Star Trek" movie with a domestic gross of $110 million. In addition to his work on the second and fourth "Star Trek" films, Meyer is the director/screenwriter of "Time After Time" and directed "Volunteers" and "The Deceivers." He received a best adapted screenplay Academy Award nomination for "The Seven Per-cent Solution" and is a two-time Emmy nominee for directing "The Day After" and co-writing "The Night That Panicked America." Producer Jaffe is the executive producer of "Ghost" and produced "The Fly II," "Near Dark" and "Those Lips, Those Eyes." He was the associate producer of "Demon Seed" and "Time After Time." He collaborated with his partner Meyer on the acclaimed telefilm "The Day After" and their upcoming feature films include "Company Business" and "Don Quixote." Producer Winter is the executive producer of "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home" and "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier." He associate produced "Star Trek III: The Search for Spock" and served as post-production coordinator for "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn." His other films include Paramount's "Flight of the Intruder" and the upcoming "The Perfect Weapon." Executive Producer Nimoy is the director of "Funny About Love," "The Good Mother," "Three Men and a Baby," "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home" and "Star Trek III: The Search for Spock." As an actor, Nimoy has received four Emmy nominations: three for his role as Mr. Spock in the series "Star Trek" and one for his performance in the telefilm "A Woman Called Golda." Paramount Pictures is a Paramount Communications company. *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION Season Four Schedule Updated : 3/6/91 Week Of Prod. # Stardate Title -------- ------ --------- ---------------------------- 9/24/90 175 44001.4 Best of Both Worlds Part II 10/01/90 178 44012.3 Family 10/08/90 177 44085.7 Brothers 10/15/90 176 44143.7 Suddenly Human 10/22/90 179 44161.2 Remember Me 10/29/90 180 44215.2 Legacy 11/05/90 181 44246.3 Reunion 11/12/90 182 44286.5 Future Imperfect 11/19/90 183 44307.3 Final Mission 11/26/90 175R 44001.4 Best of Both Worlds Part II 12/03/90 178R 44012.3 Family 12/10/90 177R 44085.7 Brothers 12/17/90 176R 44143.7 Suddenly Human 12/24/90 179R 44161.2 Remember Me 12/31/90 184 44356.9 The Loss 1/07/91 185 44390.1 Data's Day 1/14/91 180R 44215.2 Legacy 1/21/91 181R 44246.3 Reunion 1/28/91 186 44429.6 The Wounded 2/04/91 187 44474.5 Devil's Due 2/11/91 188 44502.7 Clues 2/18/91 189 Not Given First Contact 2/25/91 182R 44286.5 Future Imperfect 3/04/91 183R 44307.3 Final Mission 3/11/91 190 Galaxy's Child 3/18/91 191 Night Terrors 3/25/91 192 Identity Crisis 4/01/91 193 The Nth Degree 4/08/91 184R 44356.9 The Loss 4/15/91 185R 44390.1 Data's Day 4/22/91 194 Q-pid 4/29/91 195 Drumhead 5/06/91 196 Civil Wars 5/13/91 197 The Host 5/20/91 186R 44429.6 The Wounded 5/27/91 187R 44474.5 Devil's Due 6/03/91 198 [Data Story] 6/10/91 199 6/17/91 188R 44502.7 Clues 6/24/91 200 [Season Finale] 7/01/91 189R First Contact 7/08/91 190R Galaxy's Child 7/15/91 191R Night Terrors 7/22/91 192R Identity Crisis 7/29/91 193R The Nth Degree 8/05/91 194R Q-pid 8/12/91 195R Drumhead 8/19/91 196R Civil Wars 8/26/91 197R The Host 9/02/91 198R [Data Story] 9/09/91 199R 9/16/91 200R [Season Finale] Schedule of new episodes past April is subject to change. "Week Of" is the official Paramount Monday "week of" airdate. Satellite feeds of the episodes are two days earlier (Saturday). *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* THE BOOK THAT NEVER WAS: What Really Happened to A FLAG FULL OF STARS by Brad Ferguson Soon, now, there will appear the umpety-umpth novel in the Star Trek series, A FLAG FULL OF STARS. (As of this writing, it has already appeared in some areas.) My name is on the cover, which might lead you to think that it's my book. Well, it is and it isn't. Mostly, it isn't. I first proposed AFFoS to Pocket in 1986, soon after my first Trek novel, CRISIS ON CENTAURUS, appeared. I wanted to do a Trek book set on Earth during the three hundredth anniversary of the first manned lunar landing. That original proposal, which was for a first-generation book, had Captain Kirk and a refugee Klingon scientist defeating an Imperial spy ring that had gained knowledge of an important new source of freely available energy discovered by the scientist. On December 13, 1987, there was a meeting at Pocket Books to discuss an ambitious plan: the creation of a series of novels set in the "lost years" between the end of the five-year mission and the first film. Editor Dave Stern thought that, with a little tweaking, AFFoS might work as the second book of the proposed three-novel series. Present at the meeting were Dave, Bob Greenberger (who came up with the idea for the series), and writers Jeanne Dillard, Irene Kress and myself. We all got along very well and got a great deal of planning done. The books were to come out, one right after the other, in early 1989. Too bad it was all for nothing. Gene Roddenberry himself soon enough let it be known that he didn't think the "lost years" should be written about, although I've never been told why. Irene's book was cancelled after it was finished, and it was stated that only two "lost years" books would be produced--mine and Jeanne Dillard's. I myself added to the problems: I was terribly late in delivering my own book, thanks mainly to ill health, but also thanks more than a little to being stuck on dead center because of an ever-increasing number of restraints on what I could and could not do in the book. ST:TNG had come along, you see, and that meant the Star Trek office at Paramount was giving the novels a great deal of attention. The preliminary manuscript of AFFoS, due in August 1988, was (finally!) delivered by me to new editor Kevin Ryan at Pocket Books on March 31, 1989. That wasn't the end of it, though, because there then followed a raft of revisions. Some of the revising did indeed have to do with story problems, which is normal and expected....but most of it had to do with satisfying anticipated objections from the Star Trek office at Paramount--that is, objections from Gene Roddenberry's assistant, Richard Arnold. Without exception, those pre-emptive revisions weakened the story I was interested in telling. Each revision, by my lights, made the story less special and more bland. I revised AFFoS from stem to stern fully four times between April 1989 and August 1990--and, in the end, it was not enough. Kevin said he was disappointed at the final result and told me that AFFoS had been turned over to Jeanne Dillard for a fifth revision. I was disappointed at that, and perhaps a little surprised, but not angry. To tell the truth, I was relieved; I did not want to have to take yet another whack at the book, and said as much at the time--and more than once--on the GEnie computer net. I suggested to Kevin that Jeanne might deserve a byline on the book, but was assured that she would not be doing all that extensive a job. To quote what Kevin told me more than once, it would still be my book. (I never talked to Jeanne about this myself. Perhaps I should have done so. Live and learn.) I assure you that it is not my book. If AFFoS were a movie, you could perhaps give me a "from a concept by" credit, but that's about all. I finally received the revised manuscript just a month before publication, and quickly saw the book for what it had become: a hastily produced and clumsily edited cut 'n' paste of my stuff mixed with some reasonably good stuff grafted on by Jeanne. Unfortunately, the scars of those grafts clearly show: Our writing styles are vastly different, and AFFoS indicates that they don't mix very well. The book desperately needs some smoothing, and it wouldn't have taken long to do, but there was no time left for it. (I know. I volunteered.) There are other problems, too. For example, one major character is introduced twice, ten manuscript pages apart--once by me and once by Jeanne. There are sometimes drastic, and occasionally bizarre, inconsistencies in characterization. Futuristic terminology is awkward: my "viddycams" have been replaced by mundane "cameras," but "watches" have become mysterious "chronos." There are also sentence fragments strewn all over the landscape like slats from a barn after a tornado. Worst of all--at least, as I see it--the ending of the book, fairly downbeat in the original, has been revised drastically and is now "happy." There may no longer be room in the Star Trek universe for anything more thoughtful than a happy ending. The people who license and publish the Trek books may have come to believe that their readers can't handle an ending that isn't "happy." Could be, could be. The folks who produce those romance novels you see in the supermarket think that way, too. Kevin Ryan tried--briefly--to convince me that it's a good book, but I am realistic enough to know better, and he is honest enough not to have tried too hard. It is poorly handled and, in the final analysis, it is not about very much at all. I am stuck with this two-headed yet brainless mutant child who bears my name, and I do not like it. Not at all. [Copyright (c) 1991 by Brad Ferguson. No changes or deletions can be made without the written permission of the author. Permission to distribute by written and electronic means is hereby granted.] *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* RECENT & UPCOMING BOOKS FRACTAL MODE by Piers Anthony (sequel to VIRTUAL MODE) BARRIYAR by Lois McMaster Bujold a new "CHANUR" novel by C.J. Cherryh (DAW hardcover) THE GARDEN OF RAMA by Arthur C. Clarke & Gentry Lee (this year) RAMA REVEALED by Arthur C. Clarke & Gentry Lee (next year) THE GREAT WORK OF TIME by John Crowley (Bantam Spectra Aug 91) CUP OF CLAY by Carole Nelson Douglas (first of a trilogy) THE SEERESS OF KELL by David Eddings (Book Five of "The Malloreon", a Del Rey hardcover in May) KENT MONTANA AND THE ONCE AND FUTURE THING by Lionel Fenn (Ace Aug 91) CAMELOT TITANIA by Robert Forward (Tor) TIMEMASTER by Robert Forward (Tor) THE MAN WHO FOLDED HIMSELF by David Gerrold (Bantam Spectra Apr 91) SHERWOOD by Parke Godwin (a Robin Hood fantasy, from Morrow/Avon) WORLD OF THE NIGHT WIND by Geary Gravel (a "Fading Worlds" novel) THE WARLORD OF KANSAS by Geary Gravel (a "Fading Worlds" novel) PRINCE OF THE SHAPESHIFTERS by Sharon Green THE SOUL THIEF by Sharon Green SEE ME, FEEL ME, TOUCH ME by F. Gwynplaine SHADOW LEADER by Tara K. Harper TRAMP ROYALE by Robert A. Heinlein (nonfiction travelogue) WHERE WOLF by Tanya Huff (sequel to BLOOD PRICE) DUST TO DUST by Tanya Huff (another sequel to BLOOD PRICE) BARDIC VOICES by Mercedes Lackey SUCCUBI by Edward Lee (pseudonym of Lee Seymour) THE LONG HUNT by James D. MacDonald & Debra Doyle (first of a trilogy) EXPEDITION by Vonda N. McIntyre (sequel to TRANSITION) WILD CARDS XI: JOKERTOWN SHUFFLE edited by George R.R. Martin (Bantam Spectra Sep 91) SHADOW OF THE CROWN by Craig Mills GLASS HOUSES by Laura Mixon BLACK TRILLIUM by Andre Norton (all by herself) THE GATES OF AMBERMERE by James Pierce BY CHAOS CURSED by Mickey Zucker Reichert (fifth and last book in the "Bifrost Guardians" series) LAST OF THE RENSHAI by Mickey Zucker Reichert THE WESTERN WIZARD by Mickey Zucker Reichert CHILD OF THUNDER by Mickey Zucker Reichert ALTERNATE PRESIDENTS edited by Mike Resnick & Martin H. Greenberg THE SACRILEGE by John Maddox Roberts (Vol. III of "SPQR" series) THE TEMPLE OF THE MUSES by John Maddox Roberts (Vol. IV of "SPQR" series) HEART READERS by Kristine Kathryn Rusch (who is the new editor of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction) DESTROYING ANGEL by Richard Paul Russo (Ace) RULER OF THE SKY by Pamela Sargent (Historical novel about Genghis Khan) REEFSONG by Carol Severance THE WIZARD AT MECQ by Rick Shelley LUNAR DESCENT by Alan Steele (Ace) THE WEAPON MASTERS OF ISHER by A.E. Van Vogt THE WEIGHER by Eric Vinicoff & Marcia Martin (an expansion of their short story) STRANGE MONSTERS OF THE RECENT PAST by Howard Waldrop (Ace Jul 91) THE GENOCIDAL HEALER by James White (a "Sector General" novel from Del Rey) DEATH QUALIFIED by Kate Wilhelm *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* COMING IN JUNE (OUR 2ND ANNIVERSARY ISSUE)!! Articles about: THE DIFFERENCE ENGINE by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling Publishing Date: March 15, 1991 by Bantam Books ISBN 0-553-07028-2, 429 pages, $19.95 "It is a sure Hugo and Nebula contender, and could well be the most fun you'll have reading science fiction this year!" ---RAVE REVIEWS "Convincing and colorful--a fast, suspenseful ride through a Victorian London that would have given Sherlock Holmes a nervous breakdown. A terrific book!" ---Tim Powers, author of THE ANUBIS GATES "A revelation: an action-packed historical thriller that illuminates the peculiar dilemmas of the late 20th century information explosion. It's also terrific fun." ---Steven Levy, author of HACKERS GURPS CYBERPUNK High-Tech Low-Life Roleplaying by Loyd Blankenship (Steve Jackson Games, 1991) The game/book that was seized by the U.S. Secret Service! "On March 1, the SJ Games offices, and the home of the GURPS Cyberpunk writer, were raided by the U.S. Secret Service as part of a nationwide investigation of data piracy. A large amount of equipment was seized, including four computers, two laser printers, some loose hard disks and a great deal of assorted hardware. One of the computers was the one running the Illuminati BBS. "The only computers taken were those with the GURPS Cyberpunk files; other systems were left in place. In their diligent search for evidence, the agents also cut off locks, forced open footlockers, tore up dozens of boxes in the warehouse, and bent two of our letter openers in an attempt to pick the lock on a file cabinet." ---from page 4 of GURPS CYBERPUNK Featured Author for June: Arthur C. Clarke *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* BACK ISSUES ELECTRONIC EDITION: Check the BBSs in the Distribution Directory first. If what you want isn't available, you can get any (or all) issues directly from RFP. Disks you get from us will be formatted using PC/MS-DOS (for IBM clones). Specify 3-1/2" or 5-1/4" floppy, high or low density. Send $5 for one disk's worth (4 issues on low density, almost all issues on high density), and add $2.50 for each additional disk. PRINT EDITION: We have print copies of all issues except #1 and #2. Send $2 for each issue. Checks: Make checks payable to Cindy Bartorillo. Address: Reading For Pleasure, 103 Baughman's Lane, Suite 303, Frederick, MD 21702. On CompuServe leave a message to 74766,1206. On GEnie leave a message to C.BARTORILLO. Best of all, call our BBS, The Baudline II at 301-694-7108 (1200-9600 baud HST) where all RFPs are available for downloading on your first call. Also Available (on the BAUDLINE II only): RFP-BB.ZIP Baseball Books of Spring 1990 RFP-SC.ZIP Sisters in Crime Catalogue (mysteries by women) RFPINDEX.ZIP An Index To All Issues (updated each issue) *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* COMING JUNE 1 --- OUR 2nd ANNIVERSARY ISSUE *** Feature Article: Living the Good Life *** *** Featured Author: Arthur C. Clarke *** Plus, reviews of great books like these: SUPERSTARS AND SCREWBALLS: 100 YEARS OF BROOKLYN BASEBALL by Richard Goldstein (E.P. Dutton, 1991) Brooklyn is rich in the tradition of the national pastime. From some of the earliest organized teams in the country to the legendary Brooklyn Dodgers, baseball flourished in the "city of churches" for over a century, until the dark day in 1957 when the Dodgers moved West. A NEW YORK TIMES sports editor, Richard Goldstein traces this lively, colorful history in SUPERSTARS AND SCREWBALLS: 100 YEARS OF BROOKLYN BASEBALL. REGIMENT OF WOMEN by Thomas Berger (Little, Brown, 1991) The time is the 21st century. In New York City the worst fears of "future shock" have become daily realities for its inhabitants. Gas masks are required for the frequent pollution alerts, rent is exorbitant, and detention centers are located throughout the city. All that was once familiar is no longer: the George Washington Bridge is in ruins; Rockefeller Center is an underground penitentiary; but most important of all, the aspirations of the most extreme feminists have finally been realized. Georgie Cornell, a 29-year-old secretary with the publishing house of Philby, Osgood & Huff, goes to work neatly attired in a white tailored blouse and pleated, kelly-green skirt, with beige pumps and matching purse. Georgie spends the day dodging the advances of a lecherous senior executive, deciphering dictation, visiting the analyst, repairing makeup--as do many secretaries of the day. But there is one significant difference: Georgie Cornell is a man. CHAPTERS AND VERSE by Joel Barr (Gibbs Smith, 1991) CHAPTERS AND VERSE is the name of the bookstore at the heart of this magical novel. When its owner, the eccentric and elderly E Baker, decides to retire and travel the world, she hand-picks necktie salesman Matthew Mason to take over her business. Once behind the counter of his new enterprise, Matthew begins to witness a colorful and constant parade of customers, all with their own unique and intriguing stories. Caught up in the store's crazy rhythms and endless miscellany, Matthew comes to realize why E Baker cannot get the bookstore out of her soul; why she continues, during her far-flung travels, to write him letters of guidance and support, which for Matthew are a welcome source of comic relief in his new venture. Like 84 CHARING CROSS ROAD, this is a novel for anyone who loves books and bookstores. Also, In RFP #17, Janet Peters will begin a new series discussing good reading that can be found in the Children's Literature section. The first installment will talk about SOROTCHINTZY FAIR by Nikolai Gogol, illustrated by Gennadij Spirin (David R. Godine, 1991) At the Sorotchintzy Fair--an annual tumult of marvelous goods--the beautiful Paraska meets a young man in a white coat who asks for her hand. But complications arise--the mysterious creature in a Red Coat appears, a mare disappears, and in the end, only the help of gypsies sets everything right. *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*