Reviews – Page 78

Review of “Turjan of Miir” by Jack Vance

Monday, March 15, 2010Monday, March 15, 2010 Scott D.

SFFaudio Review

We forgot to mention that this short review is part of the 7th Anniversary SFFaudio Reviewapalooza! Those responsible have been sacked.

“Turjan of Miir”
Contained in The Dying Earth
By Jack Vance; Read by Arthur Morey
42 Minutes – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Brilliance Audio
Published: 2010
Themes: / Science Fantasy / Spells / Mathematics / Artificial Life /

“Turjan of Miir” is the first story in Jack Vance’s The Dying Earth. It’s a densely rich story – when my mind wandered, I had to stop and back up the audio because each and every word is important and very much worth hearing. And a pleasure to hear, too – kudos to Arthur Morey for the fine narration.

The story opens with Turjan trying to feed his latest creation.

Turjan sat in his workroom, legs sprawled out from the stool, back against and elbows on the bench. Across the room was a cage. Into this, Turjan gazed with rueful vexation. The creature in the cage returned the gaze with emotions beyond conjecture. It was a thing to arouse pity.

The creature won’t eat, though, and dies in front of him. Out of frustration (for he’s attempted to create life many times before), he decides to visit an otherworld where a man (or ex-man) named Pandalume will be able to help him stabilize the pattern he needs to successfully make life.

Vance is luxurious with detail. In very little space, he tells us how Turjan can only carry four spells at a time, so for the trip to the otherworld he takes “three spells of general application”. The Excellent Prismatic Spray, Fandale’s Mantle of Stealth, and the Spell of the Slow Hour. It’s marvelous. There are many descriptive gems here.

I immediately see how The Dying Earth spawned an RPG, and I can also see that Wolfe, Zelazny, and Gaiman were all influenced by Vance.

Posted by Scott D. Danielson

Review of The Game of Rat and Dragon by Cordwainer Smith

Friday, March 12, 2010 Scott D.

SFFaudio Review

Gathering, shindig, or hootenanny? You decide!

The Game of Rat and Dragon
By Cordwainer Smith; Read by Matthew Wayne Selznick
32 Minutes – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Wonder Audio
Published: 2007
Themes: / Science Fiction / Space Travel / Telepathy / Cats /

Cordwainer Smith (Paul Linebarger) was an interesting guy who wrote very interesting fiction. He was an American intelligence officer during World War II, he traveled the world, and was an advisor to President Kennedy. In science fiction, his most famous work is probably the only novel he ever published: Norstilia. His short fiction is rich and creative.

“The Game of Rat and Dragon” was written in one sitting in 1956, according to J.J. Pierce (writing in another one of those Ballantine Best Of’s). Long distance space travel in this future occurs with the help of telepaths, but there’s a catch. Once a telepath is “out there” skipping along toward a destination, or “planoforming”, the telepath is in danger of being touched by entities called dragons – insanity is the usual result. The solution? Partners. Partners fly alongside ships in football-sized ships of their own, telepathically connected to the pilot. They are quicker than humans, and are able to destroy dragons before they make contact with ships – almost every time. Who are these partners? Purr.

The idea that there’s baddies living in some kind of hyperspacial plane has been visited often. Babylon 5 leaps to mind as a recent example. But Smith’s descriptions of “pinlighting” are poetic and uncommon. There’s not a heck of a lot of conversation in this one, but Matthew Wayne Selznick is up to the narrating challenge. The combination of Smith’s prose and Matthew Wayne Selznick’s voice worked very well – never a dull moment!

Wonder Audio (along with all their audio short stories) can be found: |HERE|

If you want to buy these stories on Audible (this one costs only $2.37), find the whole catalog |HERE|

Want to see the cover of The Best of Cordwainer Smith? Me too!

Posted by Scott D. Danielson

Review of The Scarecrow’s Boy by Michael Swanwick

Thursday, March 11, 2010 Scott D.

SFFaudio Review

7th Anniversary Festivus! For the rest of us.

“The Scarecrow’s Boy”
Contained in We, Robots, edited by Allan Kaster
By Michael Swanwick; Read by J.P. Linton
19 Minutes – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Infinivox
Published: 2010
Themes: / Science Fiction / Robots /

When a robot spends too much time alone, like the Scarecrow in this story, it asks questions like: “Do you think good and evil are hardwired into the universe?” If you are a veteran reader of robot stories, you know that when a robot starts to ask such questions, it’s about to buck its programming. A nice addition to the robot subgenre, and well narrated to boot.

“The Scarecrow’s Boy” is the first story is the almost-available We, Robots collection from Infinivox, edited by Allan Kaster! It will be released on March 23, and be assured that we’ll remind you on release day.

Infinivox releases excellent short fiction. Some of the latest:
“Guest Law” by John C Wright – |REVIEW|
Aliens Rule, edited by Allan Kaster – |REVIEW|
The Year’s Top Ten Tales of Science Fiction, edited by Allan Kaster – |SFFaudio Podcast #036, in which we discuss all the stories with Allan Kaster|

Posted by Scott D. Danielson

Review of “Pop Art” by Joe Hill

Wednesday, March 10, 2010Wednesday, March 10, 2010 Scott D.

SFFaudio Review

Take THAT, Reviewapalooza!

“Pop Art”
Contained in 20th Century Ghosts
By Joe Hill; Read by David Ledoux
12 Hours, 14 Mins – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Harper Audio
Published: 2007
Themes: / Fantasy / School / Mortality /

My best friend when I was twelve was inflatable.

This is a wonderful story. If I describe it you, it sounds absurd, and I guess it is. But through the absurdity, Joe Hill tells a poignant story. Arthur Roth is inflatable. Being inflatable means almost dying a dozen times by age 12. It means staying away from sharp things, including pens and pencils. Best to stick with crayons. Being inflatable also means that you are going to be picked on at school, because the bullies enjoy tossing you in the air like a balloon. None of this keeps Art from thinking big thoughts.

But then Art meets a friend who shares his bizarre life, and he lives fairly normally, except that death is always one puncture away.

Often science fiction uses aliens as a way to shine a spotlight on some aspect of humanity that the author wants to examine. This is fantasy, certainly, but the inflatable boy does the same sort of thing. He’s more vulnerable than the rest of us, but lives in the same cruel world. That the way he’s treated rings true lets us look at humanity from a slightly different angle than we would if the characters were all human. His finding a good friend rings just as true, and is perhaps the best thing the story gives us.

“Pop Art” stands out in a very good collection called 20th Century Ghosts by Joe Hill. It’s read by David Ledoux. You can buy the whole collection at Audible, or you can buy just this story.

This was made into a short film. I found it |HERE| but I’m getting the old “not available in your area” block. Anyone know where I could watch that?

Posted by Scott D. Danielson

Review of Sinner, Baker, Fabulist, Priest; Red Mask, Black Mask, Gentleman, Beast by Eugie Foster

Tuesday, March 9, 2010 Scott D.

SFFaudio Review

Another entry in the 7th Anniversary Reviewathon!

“Sinner, Baker, Fabulist, Priest; Red Mask, Black Mask, Gentleman, Beast”
By Eugie Foster; Read by Lawrence Santoro
57 minutes – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Escape Pod (Ep. 214)
Published: Sep. 2009
Themes: / Science Fiction / Masks / Sex / Passions / Society /

Each morning is a decision. Should I put on the brown mask or the blue? Should I be a tradesman or an assassin today?

Whatever the queen demands, of course, I am. But so often she ignores me, and I am left to figure out for myself who to be.

We all wear masks every day, presenting different faces to the different groups of people we interact with. But what if those masks were literal objects? Eugie Foster presents us with such a society in this intense Nebula-nominated novelette. Each morning, citizens select a mask to wear before moving about among other people – the mask they select determines who they will be that day.

Wearing the masks arouses passions in the wearer, and each section of the story is a heightened emotional experience. The intensity of this story was spectacularly captured by Lawrence Santoro, who narrated in a dramatic manner that reminds me of Harlan Ellison. Bravo to author and narrator – a perfect match. A great story, truly worthy of a Nebula.

This story can be found over at Escape Pod – it’s |Episode 214|.
You can find more Eugie Foster audio |HERE|.

Posted by Scott D. Danielson

Review of “The Eternal Wall” by Raymond Z. Gallun

Monday, March 8, 2010Monday, March 8, 2010 Scott D.

SFFaudio Review

SFFaudio’s 7th Anniversary World Tour continues – we’ll have you know that no hotel rooms have been trashed to date. But there’s still time…

“The Eternal Wall”
By Raymond Z. Gallun; Read by Gregg Margarite
26 Minutes – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Librivox
Published: 2009
Themes: / Science Fiction / Time Travel / Evolution / Time /

This story was published in November, 1942 in Amazing Stories magazine. It’s the first story by Raymond Z. Gallun that I’ve read. I was happy to come across it, since I recently ordered the Del Rey The Best of Raymond Z. Gallun paperback. Love those books.

“The Eternal Wall” is not included in that collection, which raises my expectations of the stories that were included, because this is a very good story. It starts with a guy driving a car quickly down the road. He’s late for a date with his girlfriend, so he pushes it too far and ends up flying off a cliff into deep alkali-rich water. Now pick up the story a few million years later. Humans have long since left the Earth, and the next phase of evolution has resulted in a race of prairie dog-like intelligent creatures that find a mummified body at an archaeological dig. Their technology is great, so they figure out how to re-animate the well-preserved body.

The end of the story didn’t ring true to me, but it contained the point of the story, or at least the reason the story was titled “The Eternal Wall”. The wall is time – the main character can’t go back in time, and the new intelligent life on Earth, despite their advanced technology, can’t do it either. It can easily be seen as a response to the time travel stories that permeated science fiction in the 40’s – a dose of scientific realism, perhaps?

But it’s not the view of time presented in the story that doesn’t ring true – it’s the reaction of the man after being re-animated. Oh, the drama! I wanted to slap him.

Gregg Margarite performs the story, hysterical re-animated man and all, and I’ll be looking for more from him. Thanks to Gregg, and thanks to Librivox for making it available!

A reminder – Librivox is looking for your help!

Posted by Scott D. Danielson