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Science Fiction for March 1998  by Henry Leon Lazarus  Characters have history in mundane fiction. In Science Fiction and Fantasy the background, whether our own or invented, can have history too. The writer can use that history to follow a future or to invent a past that can seem very unreal, but real to the characters in the story. Consider Charles de Lint's Someplace to be Flying (hard from Tor), a truly wonderful book that assumes that American Indian myth figures like the tale teller Jack Daw, the impetuous Crow Girls, and the evil Cuckoos have always walked among us. In modern, urban America trouble starts when Coyote tries to get Raven's pot (something like the holy grail) and leads some of the killer Cuckoos (mob killers) into the chase. Mr. De Lint makes the reader believe in this odd past and adds odd and interesting characters for solid interest. Steven Barnes uses real magic to create twins with magical powers who have created a sex cult in modern Los Angeles. Cat and her huge partner Jax are hired to find a missing heir caught in the middle of this cult in Iron Shadows (hard from Tor). This was fun and exciting, but not as believable. Elliot S. Maggin assumes super heroes are real in Kingdom Come (hard from Aspect). Their rumbles are truly dangerous to passerbys and when they fight in a war against one another, even the Earth may not be safe. Mr. Maggin kept this odd assumption believable, but the enumerable comic characters made following them a challenge. Greg Bear assumes that Professor Challenger's Lost World (Arthur Conan Doyle) really happened. A boy and his father help return circus dinosaurs to the plateau in South America in 1947 in a tremendous boy's adventure, Dinosaur Summer (hard from Warner). Larry Segriff continues his tale of Tom Jenkins, now in the Space Patrol, in Alien Dreams (paper from Baen) as his ship fights pirates and investigates aliens. Its fun to watch Tom grow up. For some light fantasies there is Daniel Hood's Scales of Justice (paper from Ace) in which Liam has to solve a murder while serving as investigator on a circuit court. I can't wait for the next mystery in this series. Anne McCaffrey tells of the early life of Robinton, The Master Harper of Pern (hard from Del Rey), filling in a gap in the history of the dragon planet. It was very neat to see familiar characters arrive and find their places where they would be found in earlier written, but future books. James A. Halperin posits an best-case scenario for cryogenic freezing by following the life of Benjamin Smith, born in 1914 and frozen for ninety one years after his death in 1985. Eventually he becomes The First Immortal (hard from Del Rey) and lives happily every after. Mr. Halperin makes a compelling argument for freezing, but I still wonder. Greg Egan looks at technology for moving humans inside software universes. I've never seen the concept handled better. Eventually copies of these computers are sent out through out the galaxy searching for life in a Diaspora (hard from HarperPrism). Discovering extinction ahead they dive through numerous dimensions (using very complicated and difficult physics) to find the truth about that prediction. To top of next column QuickLooks Archives	S. M. Stirling puts Nantucket Island in the Sea of Time (paper from ROC) by sending it back to the Bronze age. With Coast Guard Sailing vessels along, they bring industrial revolution and war to England in this first book of a trilogy that's already exciting the internet. It's a lot of fun. So is Ben Bova's continuation of a tale of a lunar colony surviving by nanotechnology started in Moon Rise (paper from Avon Eos).  The two thousand colonists have to defend themselves from U.N. Peace Keeping forces determined to shut them down. They have only their wits and the harsh lunar environment to protect them in this Moon War (hard). Bernard Werber looks at intelligent insects in Empire of the Ants (hard from Bantam). We see ant life through a worker, a male, a soldier, and a Queen. Also there's a house with a cellar that people never return from. Very odd. Michael Kanaly considers intelligent Virus Clans (trade from Ace), and the effect these minuscule beings might have in modifying human beings. Vivian Vande Velde tells an intense tale of a witch who turns animals into her soldiers and a boy who has to follow her evil orders to avoid turning back into wolf in The Changeling Prince (paper from HarperPrism). I couldn't keep my eyes off the page. I don't know if Isaac Asimov would have approved, but three modern writers have been commissioned to finish his famous Foundation series. Greg Benford started with Foundation's Fear (paper from HarperPrism) which started midpoint in Hari Seldon's life.  Foundation and Chaos (hard) is Greg Bear's turn to tell of Robots feuding behind the scenes during the famous trial of Hari Seldon that will lead to the establishment of the Foundation on Terminous. Media books include Star Trek Science Logs (trade from Pocket) by the science advisor to the series, Andre Bormanis. He tries to explain the science behind famous episodes. Peter David has novelized the recent In the Beginning (paper from Del Rey) which sets up Babylon 5 and recently played on TNT. There's a new collection about Chicks in Chain Mail, Did You Say Chicks?! (paper from Baen and edited by Esther Friesner) which is just as much fun as the first. Spider Robinson has collected some of his stories and essays in User Friendly (paper from Baen). Finally, classic H. G. Wells tales are available in Thirty Strange Stories (Trade from Caroll and Graf). TOR has released Lisa Goldstein's Walking the Labyrinth about a magical circus family in trade paperback. Also new to paperback are: Anne McCaffrey's tale of early Pern, Dragonseye (Del Rey), Roger McBride Allen's second Robot mystery, Inferno (Ace); Jerry Jay Carroll's odd tale of a stock broker turned into a dog in a fantasy world, Top Dog (Ace); Jack L. Chalker's conclusion to his Wonderland Gambit series, The Hot Wired Dodo (Del Rey); S. M. Stirling's fun tale in the brain universe, The Ship Avenged (Baen); Ian M. Banks tale of a funny response to a galactic invasion, Excession (Bantam Spectra) and Steve Perry's fun tale of a single invading alien to our time, Target Earth (Aspect) The Philadelphia Science Fiction Society meets monthly, with a guest speaker for each meeting. Guests are welcome to attend this, the second oldest science fiction club in the country. Return to the SF Literature Forum Page
Many of the books in this column are available through the SF Literature Forum's bookstore. in association with Amazon.com. Some even right here...	Currently Featured in the SF Literature Forum's Bookstore: Somewhere to be Flying by Charles De Lint  Dinosaur Summer, by Greg Bear Diaspora: A Novel, by Greg Egan  Island in the Sea of Time, by S.M. Stirling  Did You Say Chicks?!, edited by Esther Friesner