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by Henry Leon Lazarus

It's always struck me as interesting that for science fictions major awards, you have to pay to vote. The Hugo, named for Hugo Gernsback, the man who started fandom in an effort to raise circulation for his science fiction magazines, was invented at a Philadelphia convention in 1940. The award is voted by members of the World Science Fiction Convention (usually over Labor Day Weekend), both attending and non-attending. The Nebula Award is given by the Science Fiction Writers Association in April and is voted on by all its members; working and wannabe writers. Every year I find books so good, I think they will be nominated.

This year the spine busting (600 pp) Deepness in the Sky (hard from TOR) by Vernor Vinge fits my definition, especially since Mr. Vinge is a previous winner. It also comes very close to being a science fiction classic. Two human expedition arrive at an odd star that turns itself off for two hundred out of every two hundred and fifty years. The Traders, who use long sleep to stretch their half a millennia life span over many millennia, are looking for customers. They are quickly conquered by the Emergents who have a mastered the use of a virus that can turn ordinary people into idiot savants, focusing concentration into a speciality so deeply that the outside world ceases to have meaning. On the single planet is an intelligent species of spiders who have been hibernating through the dark years and now have the growing technology to survive the deep freeze. The Emergents have horrible plans for them, of course, and only a Peddler who has survived three thousand years and is undercover can stop them. Add a keen appreciation of what future technology might bring, and you have a book impossible to put down. Wow!!

Sarah Zettel's Playing God (hard from Aspect) should have been mentioned here in November, but I just managed to get a copy. It may show up as a Hugo nomination this year. A human corporation has been asked to remake the Dedelphia planet after centuries of war. They want to move all the aliens off the planet. Of course there are those among the Dedelphia who oppose such movement and want to keep fight, bringing other of the aliens and humans into their conflict. Background and technology is excellent, but the plot is predictable.

John Marco has a great first novel and will probably be up for The John W. Campbell Memorial Award for the Best New Writer which is voted with the Hugos. He tells an epic love story set against a well drawn fantasy war. When the dying emperor of one subcontinent is convinced that the magic of the other subcontinent can make him immortal, he sends his armies (with poison gas and flame throwers) and ships to conquer it. The Jackal of Nar (trade from Bantam Spectra), king of a small country on the landbridge between the two continents is caught in the middle, torn between his loyalities and his love. Mr. Marco has a nice handle on the horrors of war, and also of the way love can shape the fate of empires.

I've been asking my cats lately if they are wizards, the way Diane Duane's gate engineers are, but all I get is a purr and a rub in reply. I know my cats wouldn't work a nine-to-five job the way her's do, let alone go off to solve gate problems in other cities, like London. In Off to Visit The Queen (trade from Aspect), their second adventure, they have to time travel to save Queen Victoria to keep the Victorians from nuking the planet. I look forward to more adventures. R. A. Salvatore may have a better than average generic fantasy in his demon series, (now concluded in The Demon Apostle (hard from Del Rey)), but his has a strong point. It's a lot easier to kill monsters, than it is to handle internal corruption. Especially if it starts at the top, like the head of a church. I've enjoyed this trilogy and I hope Mr. Salvatore can keep his writing at this level.

Kate Forsyth's The Pool of Two Moons (paper from ROC) took a bit long for things to happen, as lovers got together and babies were born, but with solid, interesting characters. I'm sure this Scottish fantasy trilogy will have a nice ending in the final book William Forstchen ages his cadets through twenty years of civil war, only to confront alien civilizations with faster-than-light star drives and a willingness of conquer our Solar System. Prometheus (paper from Baen) is light, predictable, but it's fun.

Harry Turtledove, who modified World War II with a four book series about an alien invasion, not continues with an odd sixties and the Second Contact (hard from Del Ray) with the colonization fleet. The US, the Nazi's, and the Soviets now face hundreds of thousands lizards, and the lizards face unpredictable humans. Fans of the series won't be disappointed with the mix of historical and fictional characters. I liked the way the alien invasion has changed society with new words and ways of looking at the world.

Terry Pratchett has taken a trip to Australia and now takes the wizards of Ankh-morpork to The Last Continent (hard from Harper Prism) Most of the jokes went over my head, but the few that didn't were very funny. I just wish there was more of a plot. Gentry Lee finishes his side tale to the RAMA series in Double Full Moon Night (hard from Bantam Spectra) which the travails of the humans trapped in alien created worlds seemed too arbitrary to my taste.

Media books this month include: The Essential Guide to Droids (Trade from Del Ray) with drawings and description of one hundred of the things from the Star Wars universe; Jill Sherwin's The Quotable Star Trek (trade from Pocket) for those times when a good Star Trek quote is essential; and the multi-Volume Day of Honor (trade from Pocket) with six novels about the Klingon ritual in the various Star Trek universes.

Fans of Larry Niven will delight in a collection of his lighter fiction in Rainbow Mars (hard from TOR), as will Pat Cadigan's fans with Patterns (trade from TOR). SF authors pick My Favorite Science Fiction Story (ed by Martin H. Greenberg, paper from DAW) and tales (new and old) of odd reproduction futures are collected by Constance Ash (paper from ROC).

Paperback reprints this month include Raymond E. Feist's latest Riftworld tale, Shard of a Broken Crown (Avon Eos); J.V. Jones' tale of a magical ring and a woman from our world, The Barbed Coil (Aspect); David Weber's return of his huge hero, The War God's Own (Baen); and Terry Pratchett's look at war on Disc World, Jingo (Harper Prism).

The Nebula Award novel nominations for this year are: The Death of the Necromancer by Martha Wells, which I haven't read; Forever Peace by Joe Haldeman about a way to end war in the near future; How Few Remain by Harry Turtledove, an alternate America just after the South won the Civil War; The Last Hawk by Catherine Asaro, which puts one of her Skolians on a planet with less technology dominated by a game and my choice for the award; Moonfall by Jack McDevitt, about a comet destroying the inhabited moon a century from now; and To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis, a very funny Victorian time travel novel.

The Philadelphia Science Fiction Society will have its April meeting on Friday the 9th at 8:00 p.m. at International House. Jack McDevitt, author of many very interesting novels will be the speaker. Guests are welcome to attend this, the second oldest science fiction club in the country. Set your calendars to August 30 to September 3, 2001 when the World Science Fiction comes to Philadelphia for the first time in fifty years. It was invented here in 1936.