To begin with, Lea is helping Jack turn a large abandoned showroom into what he calls a spaceship—but a very odd one, indeed. The ceiling is covered with gold leaf. One wall is covered with identical photos of the great pyramid; another is a “light sponge,” darkened and roughened to reflect nothing. Still another is covered with Playboy centerfolds. Behind the light sponge is a Sears Roebuck store, which nominally owns the space that Jack is using to build his spaceship.
Jack's explanation for all this activity—which, considering the amount of gold leaf it takes to cover the ceiling of a Sears showroom, is as expensive as it is time-consuming—is simple. If he manipulates the cabalistic symbols that make up his spaceship correctly, he will open a door into another world, and allow a chosen few to escape this corrupted planet.
Lea, despite her street toughness, is curiously naive, and takes Jack's explanations of his odd obsession at face value. At the same time, she is aware of dangers he seems oblivious of, in the form of gangsters and street toughs who aren't impressed by Jack's mystical vision of a better world. As the project moves ahead, a motley group of characters appear; Jack recruits some of them as helpers, including a few who appear at first to be enemies.
In the end, Jack's plans work out—although with enough twists to surprise even those who think they see what's coming. Fintushel's use of a body of lore with which most readers are not likely to be intimately familiar gives the whole story an appealing exoticism. At the same time, he manages to subvert several currently fashionable SF clichés, without making any great fuss about it. A very deft and highly original performance.
* * * *
RENEGADE
By L. Timmel Duchamp
Aqueduct Press, $19.00 (tp)
ISBN: 1-933500-04-2
The second in Duchamp's “Marq'ssan Cycle” continues the story of a corporate society undercut by what amounts to an extraterrestrial coup. As in the previous book, the focus is on the women of that society, many of whom find themselves for the first time free to run their own lives.
The major action of this book revolves around Kay Zeldin, who at the end of the previous book, Alanya to Alanya, broke away from the government's head of security, who had recruited her to infiltrate the aliens’ headquarters where a group of human women are being trained to build cooperative, non-hierarchical societies. Here, Duchamp gives us a look at some of the growing pains of such a society in the Pacific Northwest, the Free Zone, and the attempts of the old corporate society to regain hegemony.
A large number of scientists, including Kay's husband, have gone missing, apparently at the hands of the former government. Hoping to find word of her husband, Kay leaves the Free Zone to search for clues to the disappearance. By sheer coincidence, in an unguarded moment, she falls into the hands of her former government superior's private assistant, Elizabeth Weatherall, who is now effectively in charge of the state security apparatus.
Kay is taken to the Rock, a top-security government base built into a Colorado mountain, where Elizabeth begins a program to make her submit again to authority. Elizabeth eventually hands over much of the job of tending to Kay to her own assistant, Allison—a bright young woman who takes for granted the privileges she gets as a cog in the authoritarian regime. But watching Elizabeth's handling—or rather, mishandling—of Kay has an unintended effect: Allison is gradually radicalized both by Kay's resistance and by her growing awareness of the plight of the working-class women around her.
By the end of the book, Allison is on her way to becoming as strong a renegade as Kay—and the corporate society has again demonstrated its fundamental flaws. Even so, the book concludes with the oppressive forces seemingly on the comeback. Duchamp resists the temptation to give the reader a feel-good ending, focusing instead on the struggle against oppression. She also keeps the sfnal elements in the background, giving the aliens only a few brief appearances. Liberation will not be achieved by a resounding blow delivered by a superior outside power but by a long, uphill struggle on the part of the victims themselves.
Not an easy or reassuring book, but a very intense one. Well worth seeking out.
* * * *
THE GAME
By Diana Wynne Jones
Firebird, $11.99 (TP)
ISBN: 0-14-240718-9
Jones's title works two ways; not only do her characters play a fascinating game that spans entire universes, but she herself is playing a game with modern characters who play roles defined for them by classical mythology.
We meet the protagonist, Hayley, as she is being packed up for a trip to an out-of-town relative. A number of other young family members are expected to be there, many from her generation. Surprisingly, she has not previously met any of them, having been brought up in a home isolated from the outside world and governed by strict grandparents. In fact, Hayley has been sent to the big house in Ireland because of her involvement with a couple of characters of whom her grandmother disapproves, Flute and Fiddle, who apparently have magical powers.
But if her grandparents think that a trip to Ireland will remove Hayley from bad influences, they are mistaken. Almost at once, she is given clothes more suitable for rough outdoor play than the flowered dresses her grandmother has packed. And the other children—all her relatives—involve her at once in a curious game, a sort of scavenger hunt that spreads beyond the ordinary confines of space and time into what the children call the mythosphere.
Hayley is at first timid—she has spent very little time with other children, let alone anyone quite as uninhibited as most of her cousins appear to be. It's clear that the game is in some sense forbidden; her cousin Tollie keeps threatening to tell the adults on them, although he takes part in the game once they all begin.
It quickly becomes apparent to the reader that the objects of the scavenger hunt are rooted in lore that ranges from fairy tales to classical mythology. Hayley's first quest is for a scale from the dragon in the zodiac; another character is sent to fetch one of Cinderella's slippers. The children return to the game day after day, until a crisis arises in the form of Uncle Jolyon, a formidable elder who evidently frowns on the children stepping beyond the mundane world.
In the end, Hayley finds her own place in the mythosphere, while defusing Uncle Jolyon's attempts to end the game. Jones smoothly blends mythology with the convincingly recreated world of children at play when the adults aren't looking over their shoulders. The result is a story that, while aimed at a YA audience, will strike a note with many adult readers as well.
* * * *
AN UNEXPECTED APPRENTICE
By Jody Lynn Nye
Tor, $25.95 (hc)
ISBN: 0-765-31433-9
Nye, a veteran writer who's touched most of the bases in our genre, offers a fantasy that pays tribute to the usual models, but marks out a territory very much her own.
The story begins traditionally, in a pastoral setting that will undoubtedly evoke many others in fantasy—the Shire is probably the most famous example. The protagonist, Tildi Summerbee, is a young woman of a race that is human in form and abilities, but of small stature.
As the story opens, Tildi is in the kitchen of the family home, preparing a meal for her brothers, who are out working in the fields. Out of the blue, the workers are attacked by thraiks, demon-like flying creatures, and her brothers are killed or carried off. This is the second time her family has fallen victim to the thraiks, her parents having been killed some years before.
Tildi quickly realizes that the traditional society of her village has no way to accommodate an orphaned female with a large inheritance except to find her a husband, whether she wants one or not. So she sets off to claim another kind of inheritance: the apprenticeship to the great wizard Olen that her brother had earned. Perhaps by impersonating him, she can help fulfill his destiny. And after all, she has some small magical talent of her own.
The journey to Olen's home in the human city of Overhill takes Tildi through several adventures. But the wonders begin upo
n her arrival, when the wizard accepts her and begins training her. Before she has gotten far along, a crisis arises, which brings together ambassadors from many parts of the world. An important magical item has been taken from where it has been hidden to prevent its misuse. A book that gives the exact magical name for everything in the world, it allows the user to manipulate reality by changing those names. A company must be assembled to find the book and return it to safety.
Not surprisingly, Tildi—who has come into possession of a leaf copied from the book and seems attuned to its use—is one of the chosen. With her go several others: a pair of wizards, mother and daughter; a pair of warriors; and several others who know the lands and peoples among whom they are to travel. Interestingly, only one of them—one of the warriors—is male, and he is severely handicapped, apparently by the trauma of an earlier magical battle.
The quest that follows, and the various ordeals the company goes through, are well paced and sufficiently original to distinguish this epic fantasy from what has become an extremely large subgenre. Nye manages to make her characters something more than variations on familiar types, and she has a nice sense of humor—a welcome antidote to the tendency of much fantasy to take itself too seriously.
In fact, there is an air of geniality about much of the book, even though a lot of the plot places the characters in decidedly unpleasant circumstances. Tildi, like Sam Gamgee, is a down to earth character in spite of her magical talent and tragic loss. This gives her a sense of inner strength that is only occasionally challenged by her doubts about whether she is really worthy to take on the magical role her brother should have had.
Most readers will have figured out before the end of this book that it is the first in a series, and that a lot more will have to happen before the major plot problems are laid to rest. But Nye delivers a satisfactory climax to this segment of the plot, and leaves the characters in a sufficiently interesting situation that a lot of readers will want to see what happens in the next installment.
* * * *
THE NEW TIME TRAVELERS
A Journey to the Frontiers of Physics
By David Toomey
W.W. Norton, $25.95 (hc)
0-393-06013-3
Nowadays, physicists are taking time travel seriously. About time, a veteran SF reader might grumble. For one example, see Time Traveler by Dr. Ronald L. Mallet, reviewed in this space several months ago.
Toomey's book is another sign of the trend: a survey of the ways several eminent modern physicists have devised to make the dream of time travel at least a theoretical reality. Interestingly, Mallet's work doesn't figure in this book—so the field is even wider than Toomey's treatment indicates.
After paying tribute to fictional treatments of time travel, Toomey zeros in on its scientific pedigree. Not surprisingly, much of current theory arises from Einstein's relativity theories, in particular the effects of rapid travel or strong gravitational fields in slowing the passage of time for those who experience them. This obviously allows one sort of time travel, to the distant future—well beyond the life expectancy of the time traveler. But that's just an accelerated version of what each of us is already experiencing. And since it's a one-way trip, there's no chance to go find out who wins next year's Kentucky Derby, or what Microsoft will be selling for in fifteen years, and then come home to cash in on the knowledge. On the other hand, it might allow someone with a terminal illness to reach an era when effective treatments have been discovered, which would certainly be attractive to many people.
Other types of theoretically possible time travel fail on the ground of being “unphysical:” i.e., they violate some property of physics. For example, the Dutch physicist Willem Jacob van Stockum, who died in World War II, came up with a time travel device involving a rotating cylinder of infinite length. Most interestingly, such a device would allow travel into the past—which would let the traveler benefit from knowledge of things to come. But while the math checks out just fine, the infinite cylinder can't exist in the universe we know.
In the absence of infinite cylinders, some physicists have tried to find more plausible engines to drive their time machines. One of the best-known examples was developed when Carl Sagan, writing his novel Contact, wanted to come up with a plausible mechanism for time travel. He asked Caltech physicist Kip Thorne for suggestions. Sagan had thought of using a black hole, but Thorne told him that a black hole could only offer a one-way trip: not what Sagan wanted. Instead, he suggested a wormhole, a shortcut through space that can be deduced from general relativity (although nobody has ever detected one). A paper published in 1988 summarized his conclusions, although Thorne is reportedly reluctant to talk about the subject because of the sensational publicity it has generated.
Toomey goes on to examine time travel explorations by a number of highly respected physicists, among them Stephen Hawking. The list is long, and includes visits to such esoteric theoretical ground as string theory, the “many worlds” interpretation of quantum theory, and the anthropic principle. Two especially interesting chapters conclude the book: one advancing explanations for the apparent absence of time travelers in the present day, the other exploring whether far-future time machines might be used to escape the heat death of the universe.
One apparent limitation of time travel is that no theoretical mechanism seems to exist for travel to a time before the machine is turned on. Since no working time machine is known to exist in the present day, that would eliminate some of the most interesting fictional uses of the time travel phenomenon, such as preventing Hitler's rise to power, or giving your younger self advice that would have changed your life. But Toomey points out an obvious loophole: that all that's really necessary is for some society elsewhere in the universe to have developed time travel at a sufficiently early time. Then the problem switches to overcoming the light speed limitation on how fast someone from Earth can get there to use it.
A solid dose of physical theory, recommended for anyone who'd like to use time machines in fiction without violating the known principles of science.
Copyright (c) 2007 Peter Heck
[Back to Table of Contents]
* * *
SF CONVENTIONAL CALENDAR
by Erwin S. Strauss
The climax of the fall convention season comes in October and November, with weekend events from coast to coast. Plan now for social weekends with your favorite SF authors, editors, artists, and fellow fans. For an explanation of con(vention)s, a sample of SF folksongs, and info on fanzines and clubs, send me an SASE (self-addressed, stamped #10 [business] envelope) at 10 Hill #22-L, Newark NJ 07102. The hot line is (973) 242-5999. If a machine answers (with a list of the week's cons), leave a message and I'll call back on my nickel. When writing cons, send an SASE. For free listings, tell me of your con 6 months out. Look for me at cons behind the Filthy Pierre badge, playing a musical keyboard.—Erwin S. Strauss
* * * *
OCTOBER 2007
12-14—AngliCon. For info, write: Box 75536, Seattle WA 98175. Or phone: (206) 789-2748 (10 AM to 10 PM, not collect). (Web) anglicon.com. (E-mail) [email protected]. Con will be held in: Seattle WA (if city omitted, same as in address) at the SeaTac Hilton. Guests will include: none announced at press time. British media SF and fantasy.
12-14—CapClave. capclave.org. Hilton, Silver Spring MD (Washington DC). Author Jeffrey Ford, editor Ellen Datlow.
12-14—ConStellation. con-stellation.org/constell. Holiday Inn, Huntsville AL. A general SF and fantasy convention.
12-14—ICon. mindbridge.org/icon. Clarion, Cedar Rapids IA. Author C. S. Friedman, artist Larry Price. SF/fantasy.
12-14—ValleyCon. valleycon.com. Best Western Doublewood, Fargo ND. W. Shatner, Duane & Morwood, Wurtz, Maitz.
12-14—ConCept. conceptsff.ca. Days Hotel, Guy St., Montreal QE. Huff, Weber. Programming in French and English.
13-14—Ireland National SF & Fantasy Convention. octocon.com. In Ireland, probably in the greater Dublin area.
/>
19-21—BakuretsuCon. bakuretsucon.org. Burlington VT. For anime fans.
19-21—Ohio Valley Filk Fest. [email protected]. North Dublin OH. SF and fantasy folksinging ("filksinging").
26-28—MileHiCon, Box 487, Westminster CO 80036. milehicon.org. Hyatt Tech Center, Denver CO. General SF/fantasy.
26-28—NecronomiCon, Box 2213, Plant City FL 33564. stonehill.org. Hyatt Downtown, Tampa FL. General SF/fantasy.
26-28—HallowCon, c/o 395 Stancil Rd., Rossville GA 30741. hallowcon.com. Chattanooga TN.
26-28—Cult TV, Box 1701, Wolverhampton WV4 4WT, UK. (+44) 01733-205009. [email protected]. Birmingham UK.
* * * *
NOVEMBER 2007
1-4—World Fantasy Con, Box 1086, Schenectady NY 12301. lastsfa.org. Saratoga Springs NY. Newman, Emshwiller.
1-4—Con on the Cob, 372 Alpha Ave., Akron OH 44312. andhopp.com. Quality Inn, Kent OH. Adventure, SF, fantasy.
9-11—PhilCon, Box 8303, Philadelphia PA 19101. philcon.org. Sheraton City Center. Eric Flint. World's oldest SF con.
9-11—WindyCon, Box 184, Palatine IL 60078. (847) 310-0725. windycon.org. Rosemont (Chicago) IL. Huff, Weiskopf.
9-11—TusCon, Box 2528, Tucson AZ 85702. (520) 571-7180 (fax). home.earthlink.net/~basfa. InnSuites. SF/fantasy.
9-11—AstronomiCon, Box 31701, Rochester NY 14603. (585) 342-4697. astronomicon.info. SF/fantasy convention.
9-11—Eastern Media Con, Box 60623, Staten Island NY 13106. easternmediacon.com. Airport Ramada, Newark NJ.
9-11—NovaCon, c/o 379 Myrtle Rd., Sheffield S2 3HQ, UK. (0114) 281-1572. novacon.org. Quality, Bentley, Walsall.
9-11—ArmadaCon, 4 Gleneagle Ave., Mannamead PL3 5HL, UK. (44 0 1752) 267-873. armadacon.org. Plymouth.
16-18—OryCon, Box 5464, Portland OR 97228. orycon.org. Waterfront Marriott, Portland OR. R.C. Wilson. SF/fantasy.
16-18—Anime USA, Box 1073, Herndon VA 20172. animeusa.org. Sheraton, Tysons Corner VA (DC area).
Asimov's SF, December 2007 Page 22