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by Henry Leon Lazarus

There are three elements to a great fantasy novel; background, plot, and, of course, characters. If the hero stands out, he (or she) can make even the most generic background or basic plot work. I find I like heroic; people who are superior but with a major problem weighing them down. The problem gives me something to identify with, and the superior skills, something to admire. I look for great characters.

Consider Matthew Woodring Stover's Caine. He was born into a caste-ridden version of our own with its business men, administrators, professionals, and workers locked into their own levels. Actors have chips in their brains that allow their movements, what they see, and even their subject thoughts to be broadcast and taped. They create characters for themselves on an alternate plane, Ankhana, and go and have adventures which are then packaged. Hari Michaelson is Caine, an unstoppable assassin. His producer as locked him into a contract to kill the unkillable god-emperor when he need to rescue his exwife. Hari knows that Heroes Die (trade from Del Rey) but he has no choice. This is unbelievable action and absolutely unthralling. David Drake uses alternate planes of existence to provide extra difficulty for his four characters as they work to make Garric the first Lord of the Isles in a thousand years. The main problem is a god from another plane, the beast, and the Queen of Demons (hard from Tor). With four characters, one is always close to dying in this sequel to The Lord of the Isles (paper) and I liked much more than the first.

Alice Borchardt takes a well drawn picture of Rome in 762 nearly conquered by the Lombards and just before Charlemagne will rescue it in his first campaign. Regeane is of moneyless aristocracy, but a distant relative and, because of that, is betrothed to a Lord who controls one of the passes that Charlemagne will want to use. Abused and feared by her uncles because she is a werewolf. Her alternate personality, The Silver Wolf (hard from Del Rey and which I had to get from the library) is the only thing that can save Pope Hadrian, his mistress and their sons. I look forward to sequels. Laura Resnick's character Tansen, a shatai swordsmaster and returned exile to the island of Silaria. In Legend Born (hard from Tor) tells of his and the fire witch Mirabar's tale as they work to free their island nation from its alien rulers. Intricately plotted, it was a lot of fun and I want to read sequels of it also.

I also had a lot of fun with Peter Jurasik and William H. Keith's Diplomatic Act (hard from Baen). Mr. Jurasik (who plays the Centauri Ambassador from Babylon 5) knows the politics of television and Mr. Keith is very good at creating realistic aliens. So when the actor, Richard Faraday is abducted to intercede in a galactic war and a telepathic aliens poses as him, eve rything is absolutely hilarious. It was especially fitting that the villains are the supermarket tabloid aliens. My side is still hurting from this. Dan Craig and David Sherman have another of their Marines in Space in Starfist: School of Fire (paper from Del Rey) in which the marines learn that politics in an oligarchy can be complicated and sometimes your friend can really be your enemy. Light fun without much killing.

David Weber readers should look outside of the Science Fiction section for James H. Cobb's near future military tales of Amanda Garrett and her stealth destroyer. In Sea Strike (hard from Putnam) the USS Cunningham is at the forefront of destroying a Chinese nuclear missile submarine before it can turn a 21st century Chinese civil war into total destruction. Heart stopping and taut, it is impossible to put down. If hot, mystery writer Elmore Leonard were writing SF, than it might be like the latest by Alexander Jablokov. Four minor, and excentric criminals of the future are on a hunt for the ultimate object, a Deepdrive (hard from Avon Eos), a faster than light drive used by any one of the aliens who are reshaping the solar system and who haven't given the secret of these drives to us humans.

Present day fantasy can be difficult because it is harder to get the reader to suspend belief. Sean Stewart writes of Toni Beauchamp tells of how her mother was ridden by six different small gods and at her death, Toni was given a tonic of Mockingbird (hard from Ace) Cordial that inflicts her with those same gods. Terry Brooks returns to the world of Running with the Demon (paper) with a new tale of John Ross, A Knight of the World (hard from Del Rey). John has lost his faith and in modern San Francisco is being seduced by a demon out to turn John to evil. Only the girl he saved in the first book, Nest, can save him.

Chet Williamson must have been frustrated by the X-files so he puts some deadly CIA agents on the trail of a real supernatural plot in The Searchers. The first book is City of Iron (paper from Avon Eos) and is about an immortal being who uses a sculpture to create a metal map of New York City showing where he is locked up, hoping the being can be rescued. Alan Dean Foster saw too many Slider episodes and so in Parallelities (paper from Del Rey) he has a tabloid reporter become a gate to parallel worlds – becoming weirder and wilder with every passing page. While the television show would never have gone as far as a whole world with only copies of one person, the television show at least had a point.

Scott Westerfield's Fine Prey (paper from Roc) is an odd tale of alien encounter. The Aya's have conquered Earth and Spider is one of the students at the school teaching their unearthy language. During the summers she rides (electronically) the beasts that hunt -- mixing in with the gamblers that inhabit the world of this new sport. This is a fascinating look at how language shapes people and the reverse and also of a young woman discovering the adult within her. Camille Bacon-Smith has a second tale (I never read the first) about Demons who, in earthly form, run an art detective agency. The demons are well defined, but the magic of the stolen objects, the Eyes of the Empress (paper from DAW) seem designed to fit the story needs, rather shaping the story.

The best media book is the Babylon 5 Security Manual (compiled by Jim Mortimore, trade from Del Rey) which tells you how to get around the huge station. There's also Star Wars: The Essential Guide to Planets and Moons (trade from Del Rey); a tape of The Invisible Man staring Leonard Nimoy and John de Lancie (Simon and Schuster Audio); Peter David's novelization of the Babylon 5 movie for TNT, Thirdspace (paper from Del Rey); Lloyd Kaufman and James Gunn's tale of Troma studios, All I need to know about Filmmaking I learned from The Toxic Avenger (trade from Berkeley Boulevard Books); and Steven R. Boyett's parody, Treks not Taken (Trade from HarperPerennial) which mocks famous writers as well as Star Trek.

The best collection this month is Lord of the Fantastic (ed. Martin H. Greenberg, trade from Avon Eos) which are new tales in honor of the late Roger Zelazny. Then we also have Canadian SF, Northern Stars (ed. David G. Hartwell and Glenn Grant, trade from Tor); new stories from the fantasy creation Bordertown, The Essential Bordertown (ed. by Terri Windling and Delia Sherman, hard from Tor); short stories that were made into movies, The Reel Stuff (paper from DAW); a collection of Ben Bova tales, Twice Seven (paper from Avon Eos); Isaac Asimov's Detectives (tales from the magazine, paper from Ace); tales from a world designed by R. A. Salvatore, Tales from Tethedril (ed. Scottt Siegel, paper from Del Rey); and Alternate Generals (ed. Harry Turtledove, paper from Baen). Forever Peace by Joe Haldeman won the Hugo Award this year.

Michael Swanwick's Faust (Avon Eos) about aliens introducing technology to the fifteenth century has been reprinted in Trade. The paperback reprints include: Roger Zelazny and Jane Lindskold's Donnerjack (Avon Eos) about a very fantastic cyberspace that is real in its own way; Sean Russell's first book in his current duology, Beneath the Vaulted Hills (DAW); Paula Volsky's fantasy version of the inquistion, The White Tribunal (Bantam Spectra); Robert Silverberg's The Sorcerers of Majipoor (Bantam Spectra); Anne McCaffrey's fun tale of King Arthur's farrier, Black Horses for the King (Del Rey); and the current Nebula winner Vonda N. McIntyre's The Moon and the Sun (Pocket) about a mermaid captured and brought to Louis XIV's court.

The Philadelphia Science Fiction Society will have its September meeting on Friday the 11th at 8:00 p.m. at International House. Award winning author, Alan Steele, will speak. Guests are welcome to attend this, the second oldest science fiction club in the country. The club's annual convention will be at the Adam's Mark Hotel on November 13th. Finally, 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.