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Science Fiction for April 1998 by Henry Leon Lazarus Life, death, man, woman, infinity. These are the symbols I remember from an old television program. In this season of rebirth and spring, they might as well represent the themes of the science fiction and fantasy novels that are available. The best of the month is John Barnes's Earth Made of Glass (hard from Tor) which returns to the Interstellar Thousand Cultures that are being combined by Springers, doors which instantly transfer a person from one world to another. This time the problem is two artificial cultures, a poetic culture of ancient India, and the Mayan culture, which involuntarily have begun to share the same harsh planet. Ireland and Jerusalem of today are mild compared to the growing hatred that our middle aged, married ambassadors have to contend with. As usual John Barnes blends odd, but very real cultures, with an exciting plot that is sure to be an award nominee. Matthew Woodring Stover assumes all the Gods of Canaan are very real, two centuries before King David. Jericho Moon (Trade from Roc) is a well researched and fun tale (the best kind) that is not for believers, because the villain is the God of the Old Testament. The axe wielding Dara and her two friends have to save Jerusalem from Joshua and the lightening bolts of God. Harry Turtledove tackles pre-history with living gods in Between the Rivers (hard from Tor). One city has a lazy God who lets his people think for themselves. The other Gods fear this heresy. This is the first of a series that will tell of human liberation. In Ship of Magic (hard from Bantam Spectra) Robin Hobb begins a new series about the trader families and their "live ships" just down the coast from where her last Farseer series took place. These ships actually talk and have self control after three generations of a trading family die on their decks. This is a fun world filled with slavers and pirates and I look forward to the next. I especially liked the mad, beached, and blinded ship who murdered its crew. In Orson Scott Card's Homebody (hard from HarperCollins) a renovator, rebuilding not only a house but his life, finds that the antebellum building has a ghost and corpse for him to find. The ending was a bit too silly for me. Consolidation (paper from Aspect and the first half of The Neutronium Alchemist) continues Peter F. Hamilton's tale of the high tech future invaded by souls of the dead who posess the living. A noted new character is Al Capone, who takes over a whole system, and Fletcher Christian who helps some young girls escape the predatory possessed. There's a third book to be broken in two parts next year and I'm already losing track of the major characters. The Demon King (trade from Aspect by Chris Bunch) brings to life a variation of one of Napoleon's famous campaigns as the general from The Seer King (paper) tells the tale of his country's invasion of a neighbor. As usual the sex scenes alternate with the battle scenes for a raunchy, fun tale. Three teen age novels. Tobor Cove is a by-water in the by-water Earth of the twenty- fifth century. Fullin is facing his Commitment Hour (paper from Avon Eos by James Alan Gardner) where he must chose his permanent gender after switching every summer since he was a baby. With a murder, and the return of his exiled mother, things are a bit more exciting than this normal choice for the twenty-year-old. It was a fascinating tale of teen age angst with gender adaption thrown in. Steven Gould tells the tale of Leland, a young boy who scales the basalt needle and puts the Helm (hard from Tor), the last imprinter on the planet, on his head. With the bubbling memory of aikido and generalship overwhelming him, he has to find a way to stop the invader of his province on the newly settled colony planet. I just wish the ending hadn't been borrowed from the recent movie, Robin Hood. Charles Sheffield puts a rich kid between the miners of the far frontier, and Earth which is trying to control their territory in The Cyborg from Earth (hard from Tor). This is great reading for a young teen, but not for an adult, because of its simplicity. To top of next column QuickLooks Archives	Continuing two long series, there's Raymond E. Feist's Shards of a Broken Crown (hard from Avon Eos) which concludes the Serpent War segment of his long rift world books. Here the kingdom takes back its lands from the scattered remnants of the invading army and finds new demons to fight. It was fun. Barbara Hambly returns to her Darwath series and tells of Icefalcon's Quest (hard from Del Rey) after a kidnaped prince that takes him onto the ice covered lands he was born in and deep into a lost keep watched over by ghosts. I tended to skim it, finding the lost magical technology of the ancients too arbitrary and convenient. Now for three ultimate disaster novels. Jack McDevitt throws a comet at the moon big and fast enough to crack it. There are great scenes from the evacuation of the moon base and the attempt to keep chunks of the moon ÿfrom hitting the Earth in Moonfall (hard from HarperPrism). Charles Pellegrino shows what happens when all the insects on Earth die into Dust (hard from Avon Eos), proving how much our lives depend on them. Finally, Miguel Conner shows us life after the vampires wiped out civilization with a nuclear holocaust and then proceeded to farm the survivors in The Queen of Darkness (paper from Aspect), which is not gruesome as it sounds, in spite of having a vampire hero. Then there are two Tor trade reprints that I missed in hard cover. Both have mundane plots with science fictional backgrounds. Jack Vance's Night Lamp is an eighteenth century tale of an orphan with a mystery hidden in his lost past. It's set against the glitter of a galactic civilization with unusual and odd customs. John Kessel's Corrupting Dr. Nice is a 30's screwball comedy/love story about a very rich paleontologist and a con lady set in a twenty-first century with the ability to steal from individual moments in time, thus creating alternate tracks. You should see the Hilton in first century Jerusalem, and its effect on the population. Collections include The Fantasy Hall of Fame (trade from HarperPrism by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America and edited by Robert Silverberg) is something every serious collector should own, and one that has one of my favorite stories in it. Michael Flynn has a collection of his stories in The Forest of Night (trade from Tor). Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois have collected tales of Clones (paper from Ace) Nominations for the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Nebula Award are: A Game of Thrones, by George R.R. Martin (paper from Bantam), Ancient Shores, by Jack McDevitt (paper from HarperPrism), Bellwether, by Connie Willis (paper from Bantam), City on Fire, by Walter Jon Williams (paper from HarperPrism), King's Dragon, by Kate Elliott (paper from DAW), Memory, by Lois McMaster Bujold (paper from Baen), and The Moon and the Sun, by Vonda McIntyre (hard from Pocket). Trade paperback reprints worth noting include A. E. Van Vogt's classic Slan (Orb), one of the original novels about telepaths, Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's tale of a comet hitting earth, Lucifer's Hammer (Del Rey), and Robert Reed's odd Exaltation of Larks (Tor) about beings from the end of time reshaping the present. Paperback reprints include Chris Claremont and George Lucas's second tale of Elora now coming of age Shadow Dawn (Bantam Spectra), R. A. Salvatore's fun and complete tale of heros and demons, The Demon Awakens (Del Rey), Eric S. Nylund's tale of psychic mystery and strange powers in the present southwest, Dry Water (Avon Eos), and the weak ending to the series, Arthur C. Clarke's 3001: The Final Odyssey (Del Rey). The Philadelphia Science Fiction Society will have its April meeting on Friday the 17th  at 8:00 p.m. at International House. Catherine Asaro, a up and coming writer who has published three novels under the Tor imprint, will speak. 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: Earth Made of Glass, by John Barnes Jericho Moon, by Matthew Woodring Stover Ship of Magic, by Robin Hobb Consolidation, by Peter F. Hamilton Night Lamp, by Jack Vance