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Picked this one up on a whim, based on cover blurbs & laudatory comments here. Has moments, and the descriptions of Peru in the 50's are interesting -- but the characters are thin, and the dialogue is just awful -- one bad cliche' after another. I can't say if the cliche's are the author's or the translators, but this one wasn't for me. I gave up about halfway through. Caveat lector....

Cheers -- Pete Tillman

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I thought the Chumash characters were particularly well done, very
*California* -- one of the the Humashup tycoons even has a
personal shaman. I don't know enough about the Chumash --
indeed, almost nothing -- to judge Baker's fidelity-to-history, but I
expect she's a trustworthy guide -- (but I do recall picking up
some very odd notions about science and history from voraciously
naive childhood reading, so comments from the Chumash-history

literate are welcome.) I'm pretty sure coastal California culture has
featured wealth, ostentation, flash & showmanship for at least a
thousand years.... and, yes, there weren't many more clear, smog-free
days in the LA Basin even back when the dire wolves were
unwisely leaping onto prey mired in the La Brea tar pits....

Anyway. I have a definite weakness for anthropological SF. "Sky
Coyote" might not be up to the best of Le Guin or Arnason, but it has
some very fine moments. We were out to the Central Coast (the
Chumash, and Baker's, homeland) a few months back, and it is
lovely country, lovingly portrayed here. And Baker has a nice
command of the tragedy:farce, dark:light transition? mood-swing? --
not quite the words I'm looking for, but she plays the reader's
emotions skillfully. Really quite an impressive writer.

You should probably read "Garden" first (also highly recommended), but "Sky Coyote" would do fine as
a stand-alone.

Happy reading!
Pete Tillman

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EVIL , the ninth Joe Grey, is readable, but weak and implausible. As in many long-running series, my willing suspension of disbelief suffered from the shear quantity of mayhem that happens to Our Heroes and their pals. Plus this one has a confused mishmash of plotlines. Has moments, but Murphy needs a fresh start, I guess.

Note that the first 4 or 5 Joe Greys are delightful. Just don't start here.

Happy reading!
Pete Tillman

Baen's reprint program is praiseworthy, but I'm afraid this reprint isn't going to be of much interest to adults, beyond "The Cold Equations", which isn't hard to find elsewhere.

The first 143 pages is Godwin's 1958 novel The Survivors, supposedly his best. It's readable, but pulpy YA (at best): stalwart heros with short WASP names (Gene Taylor, George Ord, John Prentiss), sneering villains, and the usual 50's can't-keep-humanity-down plot. Here, Earth's first colony-starship is captured by Gern meanies, who dump 4,000 of the colonists on Ragnarok, a decidedly inhospitable planet. Ragnarok is the most interesting part of the novel, really -- Godwin went to some effort to design a (fairly) plausible barely-inhabitable planet.

I'll put a **SPOILER WARNING** here, but no real surprises follow, either here or in the novel. The unhappy colonists are mown down by hostile wildlife, plagues, food shortages etc, but a few survive, and they are tough, mean SOBs, determined to get back at those bad, bad Gern. Their efforts to do so are hampered by their numbers dropping to about 75 (ims) at the low point, and by the area around their camp being almost metal-free.

But those plucky humans persevere, and 200(!) years later, they're up to 2,000 tough, hardy Ragnarokian SOBs, including an engineer-hero who builds a subspace transmitter from old rifle-barrels, knife-blades, transistor-radios etc. They transmit a taunting message to Gern HQ, a Gern cruiser filled with slavering slavers duly appears, and -- surprise! -- the humans capture the cruiser. After that, it's KO to a Gern battleship, their fleet, and the entire Gern Empire. The End.

I see I didn't mention the great, gaping plot-holes, scientific absurdities, paper-thin characters, an acute shortage of common-sense, and other problems.

The couple other stories I read or scanned are more of the same, competent, pulpy stories of engineer-heroes overcoming, well, whatever problems Godwin throws at them.

Except for "The Cold Equations", of course, which truly is a classic. If anyone here hasn't read it, well, you should. Google Groups (rec.arts.sf.written) for a number of interesting (if interminable) discussions [CAUTION: SPOILERS], over the years. Anyway, it's clear to me that Godwin's other work is justly obscure, but who knows, that fur-bikini might lure in a new SF reader or two...

Happy reading!
Pete Tillman

My first Roberts read, and it's a winner. Structured as three linked novellas, Polystom is set in an Edwardian analog to Garfinkle's CELESTIAL MATTERS, but with an information-age "what is reality?" twist. And I'm a sucker for the old "Ms. found in a [weird place]" device. An unusual, and well-written, science-fantasy.

Best review online is Paul Di Filippo's at scifi.com [google]:

In one strange corner of the universe, six worlds and their several moons orbit tightly around their odd sun, which operates not only by fusion, but by simple oxidation... [end quote]

Pete Tillman, sighing at the work-arounds needed for Amazon's review-posting system. Will this one 'take' on the first try? Second?

An unexpectedly sweet and moving examination of folk-music, young love, life on the road, and the Meaning of Life inside a standard, rather pro-forma sci-fi time-travel adventure. I liked it quite a bit. FENG is a pleasant and entertaining way to pass a few hours. "B+"

Note that the very cool cover (by James Gurney) is a bit misleading as to the actual *contents* (revealing why would be a spoiler), but it did induce me to pick up the book, and it's really neat art, so Gurney (& Tor) get points for doing their jobs right. Whoever is the art director there gets a vote of thanks from me, as even minor Tor authors usually get tasteful, attractive, relevant covers. Not to mention clean and attractive interior layouts. Bravo!

Brust's comment on FENG: "Not one of my better efforts, I think, but there are bits of it I like. It started out to be funny, developed a serious side, and I was never able to get the elements to blend the way I wanted them to. Grumble grumble. It's always pleasent to run into someone who liked this book; it means that I can still do all right when I'm not on my game." --from dreamcafe.com

Happy reading!
Pete Tillman

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Kage Baker's first venture into book-length fantasy is out, and it's a winner.

The setup: three linked novellas, opening with "The Caravan From Troon" (Asimov's, 8-01) [note 1].

The scene: a fantasy-California (more or less).

The star: "Smith", an assassin who's trying to change careers.

The supporting cast:
Lord Emenwyr, a sickly demigod, half- (or is it a quarter?) demon.
Nurse Balnshik, Emenwyr's minder, 100% demon, but *glamorous*:
"Do you know any other midwife who can also tear apart armored warriors with her bare, er, hands? Lovely *and* versatile".

Mrs. Smith (no relation, note 2), two-time winner of the Troon Municipal Bakeoff, caravan cook and, later, co-owner of the Hotel Grandview, Salesh-by-the-Sea.

-- and a host of Keymen, Runners, more Smiths, Yendri, bandits, barmen, demons, gods, parents, siblings.... Plus one yellow journalist, recently deceased. And a really, really dumb real-estate developer

The preview:
On the fifth day, they ran aground.

Smith had relinquished the helm to Cutt while he downed a stealthy post-breakfast filler of pickled eel. He swore through a full mouth as he felt the first grind under the keel, and then the full-on shuddering slam that meant they were stuck.

He scrambled to his feet and ran forward.

"The boat has stopped, Child of the Sun," said Cutt.

"That's because you ran it onto a sandbank!" Smith told him, fuming. "Didn't you see the damned thing?"

"No, Child of the Sun."

"What's this?" Lord Ermenwyr ran up on deck, dabbing at his lips with a napkin. "We're slightly tilty, aren't we? And why aren't we moving?"
...
"You have hyacinth jam in your beard, my lord," Willowspear informed Lord Ermenwyr.

"Do I?" The lordling flicked it away hastily. "Imagine that. Are we in trouble, Smith?"

"Could be worse," Smith admitted grumpily. He looked across at the opposite bank. "We can throw a cable around that tree trunk and warp ourselves off. She's got a shallow draft."

"Capital." Lord Ermenwyr clapped once, authoritatively. "Boys! Hop to it and warp yourselves."

The inspiration:
"The author would be remiss in not thanking the shades of Thorne Smith, Fritz Leiber, L. Sprague De Camp and Noel Coward for their inspiration; but primarily this world owes its existence to stories made up in preliterate childhood, when the author peered at Maxfield Parrish's fantasy illustrations and tried to imagine what they represented..." P>I should add that ANVIL reads something like a Pratchett novel, if Pterry were a native Californian and had a Vancian knack for lush description. The wide-screen plot and wiseass characters are Baker originals. Not to mention Lord Ermenwyr's verbal-abuse death-duel....

Do give the book a chance to get moving, as the introduction is largely scene-setting, and it's a bit slow-moving. And the episodic, "fix-up" structure has annoyed some readers (not me). Otherwise, it's a near-perfect light fantasy: cinematic, witty, funny, amiable, rambling, baroque, romantic, and fun. If you've liked earlier Kage Baker books, what are you waiting for? And if you haven't tried her yet, ANVIL would be a fine place to start -- especially if you prefer fantasy to SF.

Happy reading!
Pete Tillman
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Note 1.) The rest of the book is first published here.

Note 2.) -- and at least five other minor, unrelated characters named Smith, all distinct. A bit of an authorial showoff, and a play on Thorne, but a welcome contrast to books with characters who have different names but all sound alike...

BLACKLIST is Parestsky's very fine homage to the late Ross Macdonald. VI Warshawski's investigation of a reporter's murder uncovers a cesspool of fifty-year-old family troubles: infidelities, intrigues, backstabbing, betrayal and general rich-folk cussedness -- but the book is marred by ham-fisted political "messages". But ride over that -- otherwise this is as good a tale as Paretsky has ever told. Which is to say, very, very good.

Happy reading!
Pete Tillman

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Just a quick note recommending this short book. Epstein, who spent most of his career at Random House, remarks on how publishing has changed over the years, with plenty of juicy anecdotes. Forex, the Dickens:

As you may know, the US was a book-pirate haven in the 19th century, and Harper Bros. grew to be the nation's largest publisher by pirating Dickens, Thackeray, the Brontes, Macauley -- really, the entire roster of bestselling British authors. Macauley's (pirated) History of England sold a remarkable 400,000 copies here.

Charles Dickens, who kept a close eye on revenues, made a trip to the US in the 1840's, to protest the theft of his work. His plea was ignored, and he didn't much like the country, either. He wrote a short, glum account of his visit, _American Notes_, which Harpers promptly pirated.
Dickens recounts a train trip from Washington to Philadelphia through what he thought was a storm of feathers, but which proved to be spittle from passengers in the forward coached. He also reported that US Senators spit so wide of the cuspidors that the carpets were "like swamps".

WH Auden, Epstein reports, had the disconcerting habit of showing up an hour or so early for parties and dinner invitations, so he could be home in bed by 9 PM.

Epstein was the first to publish a line of quality paperbacks (Doubleday Anchor) in 1952, and was a founder of the NY Review of Books. From his memoir, I'd say he had an interesting and fun career in publishing .

Happy reading!
Pete Tillman

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Robot begins quietly enough, with a pithy reprise of the history of
robotics and artificial intelligence, and some nifty short-term
projections: robot cooks and houseboys, coming soon! Then it turns
to a strange, cool, unblinking vision of a future where ordinary
biologic humans are confined to a reservation/retirement home on
cozy old Earth, while their "mind children", advanced machine
intelligences, go out to conquer the Universe in a "bubble of Mind
expanding at near-lightspeed."

Moravec's mind-bubble will absorb and digest every physical entity in
its path, from ancient Voyager spacecraft to entire alien biospheres.
("I am vast. I contain multitudes.") These absorbed entities, he says,
"may continue to live and grow as if nothing had happened, oblivious
to their new status as simulations in cyberspace." Data-storage
capacity won't be a problem -- the atoms that make up your body,
Moravec tells us, "could contain the efficiently encoded biospheres of
a thousand galaxies."

With the entire cosmos transformed into cyberspace, it would be
possible for not just our "original versions," but every variation on
them, to "live" as massively-parallel simulations, playing out all of
the possibilities of Alternate History, perhaps as entertainment for
the vast, cool Intellects that have supplanted us. As Moravec notes,
we could already be living as simulations: We might well wonder
whether we're the "true" original, or just one of many reruns. "There
is no way to tell for sure," he writes, and since we can never know,
"the suspicion that we are someone else's thought does not free us
from the burdens of life."

And Moravec's not done. Now things gets *really* weird, as he
moves into a"what is reality?" windup that invokes Frank Tipler's
Omega Point, anthropic cosmology, parallel universes, and life after
death. He does get a little flaky here [note 2], but what a grand
Stapledonian blowoff!

Science fiction readers will recognize concepts from many of the
finest hard-SF novels of the past few decades: Gregory Benford's
universe-conquering machine intelligences, Greg Egan's lives-as-
simulations, Vernor Vinge's Singularity, Robert Forward's fractal-
bush robots. Robert Charles Wilson's current Darwinia
could almost be a novelization of Robots. Moravec's book is an
excellent guide to the science behind a lot of recent SF -- and an
exciting (if disturbing) preview of what's next.

These connections to SF are no accident: Moravec, who co-founded
the robotics program at Carnegie-Mellon University, grew up reading
science fiction, built two robots for high-school science-fair projects,
and first published his robot/AI speculations in an Analog essay in
1978, while a student at Stanford. He expanded that piece into a
popular-science book, Mind Children (1988, also excellent), which the

present book extends and updates. (He promises the next update in
2008.) Moravec has also written Omni articles with Robert Forward
on space elevators (1981), and with Frederik Pohl on uploading
people to computers (1993). Plus he's been a Hollywood consultant
for science-fiction movie-makers. Reading through his CV, I wonder,
does the man ever sleep?

Robot is among the few truly first-rate books of speculative science --
books in which respected scientists extrapolate their ideas into
the future with some rigor. Other such books include K. Eric
Drexler's Engines of Creation (1986), and Freeman Dyson's
Disturbing the Universe (1979), Infinite in All Directions (1989), and
From Eros to Gaia (1992). Books such as these provide a sense of awe
and wonder equal to the very best of science fiction -- perhaps the
more wondrous for being, quite possibly, true.

Interested readers can find much more information at Moravec's
excellent website: [google]

__________
1) -- if for no other reason than to supply empathetic characters for
hard-SF set in the far future -- a challenge that's tough enough
without using a Moravecian ultimate-AI for a protagonist...

2) To his credit, Moravec recognizes that this chapter has problems.
He's promised (and has started) a rewrite on his website.

review copyright 1999 Peter D. Tillman