To match last month's book review, I have an interview
with Science Fiction writer Spider Robinson.
He's a great guy (as well as a helluva writer). Still haven't figured
out if those little men from outer space (in The Free Lunch) are
supposed to be green.
Additionally, I have a review of C. J. Cherryh's new book Hammerfall.
And because I'm not allowed to enter the Contest, I'll
offer this joke for anyone who needs it:
A woman, 5 cats and a parrot walk into a bar . . .
The bartender, pointing towards the woman with the parrot on her shoulder says,
"Where'd ya get that ugly thing?"
"Would you believe," the parrot asks, "It started out as a
wart on my ass and just kept growing?"
As some of you are well aware, I can never get enough of Ms. Cherryh's
work. If this is indeed the start of a new story arc written in a new
fictional universe, then it is an auspicous beginning.
The setting for Hammerfall is far more primative than most of
Ms. Cherryh's work. Although this is the tale of a desert civilization,
it is not at all like her seminal "Faded Sun" series. None of
the (visible) action happens in space. Indeed, there is very little
advanced technology at all. Not that there isn't technology, there is.
(Technology after all, doesn't just mean machines, whatever today's
view of it might be.) The technology she imagines for this desert planet
is simple, functional, and seemingly-primative.
The story is almost like something out of the Arabian Nights. Caravans
across the sand . . . a quest . . . and perhaps, the redemption of a life
assumed lost from page one of the novel. This is yet another novel of hers
which has been written in the Epic Tradition.
If this analysis sounds a little too much like something your school
teacher would have written, then just pick up the book and get lost in her
wonderful prose. You know she can do it!
The meancing background universe promises some rousing tales in the
future, too. I can't wait to see more!
