Walkers on the Sky

Richard Hescox

Author:  David J. Lake

First Publication:  December 1976

Publisher:  DAW Books

Source:  Used book store

Cover #1:  Richard Hescox
Cover #2:  Roy Ellsworth

Series:  Book 1 of the "Breakout" series.

Challenges:
The 2015 Sci-Fi Experience
2015 Vintage Sci-Fi Challenge
42 Challenge 2015

From the back cover:  

Sometimes the sky held only clouds, but at other times it could get quite busy.  It could be full of sailing ships or bands of mounted warriors or even single figures strolling carefully across the empty air.

From the viewpoint of those below they were either apparitions or gods, but in any case to be ignored.

From the viewpoint of the sky walkers, those below were neither phantoms nor gods, yet certainly always beneath their notice.

Both viewpoints were wrong.

Because the time had come when one of the sky walkers was going to do the incredible-fall through.  And when that happened, all hell was going to break loose.  And did!

It's not fantasy.  It's science fiction, and you never read another novel like it!

Why did I read this book?

I am a fan of the old DAW yellow spined books.  Donald Wollheim was one of the first editors I started following.  He seemed to find and publish many authors I enjoyed.  He was the first book publisher to print the works of C. J. Cherryh among many other favorites.

35. We Who Are About To... by Joanna Russ

Writer:  Joanna Russ

First Publication:  Galaxy SF Magazine, January and February 1976

In keeping with an unofficial theme for this month, I have been reading authors or stories I originally read in the seventies.  I first read Joanna Russ’ “We Who Are About To…” when it was serialized in Galaxy when it was edited by Jim Baen.  Baen's  tenure produced one of my favorite science fiction magazines.  

The first part of the story (January 1976) had a Rick Sternbach cover for an essay by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle.  They explained some of the process of “Building The Mote in God’s Eye”.  The second half of the serial appeared in the February issue.  Once again Larry Niven was featured on the cover for the novelette “Down and Out”.  “Down and Out” was later incorporated into the novel “A World Out of Time”.  

Russ’ novel stood out at the time.  The main character was a woman.  At that time it was still the exception to have a female lead character.  I have not read it anywhere but I believe the story was inspired by Tom Godwin’s “The Cold Equations”.  At the start of the story, we find out that she is on a small vessel that is damaged and has to land on a different planet.  No other ships are close to them and none would be able to make it in time to pick them up.  They are basically doomed to die on a planet without the resources to survive.  The comparison to theme of “The Cold Equations” is only to the basic idea of there being no way to beat the odds.  As you can tell by that short description, it is not a happy go lucky, feel good story.  

This is truly an exploration of the Kobayashi Maru from Star Trek.  It is the famous no win test that Kirk was able to beat (he cheated).  Fortunately, as was common at the time it was written, “We Who Are About To…” is a short novel.  If it appeared today as a 500+ page novel, I don’t know if I would have finished it.  As it is, it makes a powerful story that has stuck with me since the first time I read it.  It is not a book that I would say I enjoyed but it is a somewhat more realistic take on the classic science fiction story about explorers crash landing on an alien planet.  

If you are interested in a different type of story, read it.  But if you are looking for a light-hearted escapist book, avoid at all costs.

"Ghost Seas" by Steven Utley

Story:  Ghost Seas
Author:  Steven Utley
First Publication:  Lone Star Universe, 1976
Cover:  Joseph Troffimoff

On January 12, 2013 the world lost another writer.  Steven Utley was once called the most under-rated sf writer in the world by Gardner Dozois.  The collection "Ghost Seas" is an excellent one to read whether you are familiar with him or not.  In honor of his passing, I plan on reviewing the stories from this collection over the next few weeks.

Synopsis:  A man and his new wife go to the Texas desert to visit his wealthy old uncle.  What is unusual about that?  Nothing.  Then the uncle starts talking about the waves from the ocean  coming up to his back porch at night time...

The Hand of Oberon by Roger Zelazny

Book four of The Chronicles of Amber features Corwin on a trip to the true Amber.  He discovers the source of the Black Road and finds out what it will take to repair it.  He also determines that his father (Oberon) is still a master strategist.  His hand is guiding the pieces into place for the final battle.  The final page had a big revelation that had me anxious to read the next book when I first read it.

Rick Sternbach supplied the cover to the May 1976 of Galaxy Science Fiction that featured part 1 (of 3) of the serial.  One of the many reasons I loved Jim Baen's time as editor of Galaxy was because he published "Sign of the Unicorn", "The Hand of Oberon", and "The Courts of Chaos".  This is not the kind of story you would expect Sternbach to draw the cover for but it is a fascinating different type of cover for him.

The first five books of the original Amber series remains one of my favorite series.  It is hard to discuss events from this book without revealing too much.

The author appears as "Roger" a pipe smoking guard in the dungeons of Amber.  The guard is writing "philosophical romance shot through with elements of horror and morbidity."  This is fitting since one of the main themes is the true nature of reality.

All I will say is that Zelazny plays fair with the big final revelation.  When re-reading the series you can see where he planted the clues to this one.  Like all good mystery writers, he gave the reader a chance to solve the puzzle.

Anyone who likes fantasy epics, parallel worlds, hard boiled main characters, and great mysteries will love this series.  I can not recommend the first five books too highly.  The second five are still good but are a step down from the original five.

Anatomy of Wonder by Neil Barron

 In addition to reading science fiction, I love reading non-fiction books about the field.  This includes various histories of the field (such as Mike Ashley's histories of the sf magazines), biographies (Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, and others), interviews (Charles Platt's Dreammakers) and overview/reviews books like Neil Barron's seminal work-Anatomy of Wonder.


Is Barron's book worth tracking down?  Let's take a look and see.

Short Story Sunday - Feb.. 13, 2011

 With Valentine's Day being tomorrow, I thought I would devote today's short story reviews to ones dealing with love.

The two stories I am reviewing today are similar in many ways.  The authors are experts when it comes to crafting stories about love, loss, loneliness, death, and the thin line between science and fantasy.  Roger Zelazny and George R. R. Martin have written some of my all time favorite stories.  The two I am reviewing today are good examples of why I like both authors.

1.  "The Man Who Loved the Faoli" by Roger Zelazny

First Printing:  Galaxy, June 1967

It is the story of John Auden and the Faioli, and no one knows it better than I. Listen -- 

It happened on that evening, as he strolled (for there was no reason not to stroll) in his favorite places in the whole world, that he saw the Faioli near the Canyon of the Dead, seated on a rock, her wings of light flickering, flickering, flickering and then gone, until it appeared that a human girl was sitting there, dressed all in white and weeping, with long black tresses coiled about her waist. 

He approached her through the terrible light from the dying, half-dead sun, in which human eyes could not distinguish distances nor grasp perspectives properly (though his could), and he lay his right hand upon her shoulder and spoke a word of greeting and of comfort. 

It was as if he did not exist, however. She continued to weep, streaking with silver her cheeks the color of snow or a bone. Her almond eyes looked forward as though they saw through him, and her long fingernails dug into the flesh of her palms, though no blood was drawn. 

Then he knew that it was true, the things that are said of the Faioli -- that they see only the living and never the dead, and that they are formed into the loveliest women in the entire universe. Being dead himself, John Auden debated the consequences of becoming a living man once again, for a time. 

The Faioli were known to come to a man the month before his death -- those rare men who still died -- and to live with such a man for that final month of his existence, rendering to him every pleasure that it is possible for a human being to know, so that on the day when the kiss of death is delivered, which sucks the remaining life from his body, that man accepts it -- no, seeks it! -- with desire and with grace. For such is the power of the Faioli among all creatures that there is nothing more to be desired after such knowledge.

Once again, Zelazny proves to be a master story teller.  "The Man Who Loved the Faoli" is one of many examples why Galaxy was one of my favorite magazines.  The same issue also had stories by Poul Anderson, R. A. Lafferty, and Larry Niven.


Zelazny gives an answer to the question of what would a man give up for love and knowledge.  It seems like they would have different answers but read this story before you answer.


Now for another look at a similar theme...

2.  "The Lonely Songs of Laren Dorr" by George R. R. Martin
First Printing:  Fantastic, May 1976

 There is a girl who goes between worlds.

She is grey-eyed and pale of skin, or so the story goes, and her hair is a coal-black waterfall with half-seen hints of red.  She wears about her brow a circlet of burnished metal, a dark crown that holds her hair in place and sometimes puts shadows in her eyes.  Her name is Sharra:  she knows the gates.  

The beginning of her story is lost to us, with the memory of the world from which she sprang.  The end?  The end is not yet, and when it comes we shall not know it.

We have only the middle, or rather a piece of that middle, the smallest part of the legend, a mere fragment of the quest.  A small tale within the greater, of one world where Sharra paused, and of the lonely singer Laren Dorr and how they briefly touched.

Another classic Martin short story.  A guardian awaits Sharra at each of the worlds she travels to.  At each one they try to keep her from moving on.  This stop along the way is different in that she finds the minstrel-Laren Dorr.  This short story tells about their time together.

Once again, Martin deals with loneliness and loss set against the background of a castle.  Martin loves writing about ancient places.  Fortunately he is a master at creating mood and establishing an atmosphere with his style of writing.  


If you have not read this story, what are you waiting for?  Rush out and buy it.


Both stories get a high recommendation.

Final Circle of Paradise by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky

Before I review this book, I should explain my reading habits.  Back in the early days of my science fiction and fantasy reading (around 1971), I would devour any book I got my hands on.  Granted back then the books were closer the novella length but I would read a 150 page book in 2 days maximum.  If a book did not appeal to me, I did not worry about it.  I would be moving on to another book shortly.  Eventually, I started to build my personnel collection through used book stores and trips to the local newsstand.  Thus my first to be read stack was built.  Then I reached a dilemma.  I wanted to read all of them at the same time.  My solution became reading multiple books at the same time.  I would break from reading novels when the new magazines arrived.  I regularly read Galaxy, Analog, F&SF, and Amazing.  Later, I would add that new magazine-Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine (and for a short time the Adventure magazine from Asimov’s) to my magazine stack.  So this normally amounted to reading 3 novels plus assorted magazines at the same time.  When a story started to loose my interest, I would put the book down and go to the next one.  At some point I would pick the book back up and finish it.  This has worked well for me.  Some people say they would be confused if they bounce between multiple books but I always thought of my reading habit as being similar to watching television or reading comic books.  I never had a problem keeping the characters and events straight with other media so why would I have a problem with reading books the same way.  Let’s be honest here.  How many people have followed Star Trek through all of the various incarnations?  Do the fans of the original series still recall the stories they watched in the 70s?

Flash forward to 2010.  I am now approaching the half century mark.  My reading habits still include reading about 3 books at the same time.  I still break for the new magazines when I pick them up.  My to be read stack has exploded over the years.  It is now around (I have not counted lately) 300 to 400 books.  New books are constantly trying to fight their way into my book cases.  Realistically speaking, I am never going to read all of the books I would like to.  If I stopped picking up new and used books, I could get caught up.  I don’t plan on that so I have one other alternative.  I am being more discriminating on what I am reading.  If I reach the third to half way point and a story has not caught my attention, I will stop reading it.  In some cases I might be missing out on a good ending but I think my reading time is better spent moving on to another book.

Now I finally get to “Final Circle of Paradise” by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky.  I remember seeing the DAW Books ads for various Strugatsky books.  Somehow, I never found them.  “Final Circle of Paradise” was the first one I found in a used book store.  Non-english science fiction has always fascinated me.  Based on what I have heard, the Strugatsky's are some of Russia's top sf authors.  The risk with translated novels is the quality of the translation.  Since I don't read Russian, I have to assume that the translator did a good job.

Unfortunately, this read as a very boring travelogue for the first half.  The protagonist wanders around the city.  That is the main plot of the first half.  He does not do anything except visit different parts of the city.  This can be alright if the environment is unique or fascinating.  This one is neither.  It ruined the story for me.  When I am a third of the way through a novel and it has done nothing to catch my attention, it rarely gets a good review.  Unless you are a have to read every Strugatsky novel, I would avoid this one.  I will not write them off based on this one book.  I think the next one I read by them will be "Roadside Picnic".  I have heard many good comments on it. 

Gate of Ivrel by C. J. Cherryh

Re-reading this book falls under revisiting my early years of science fiction and fantasy reading. This book hooked me on C. J. Cherryh back when I was 15 years old. So I thought it would be fun to go back and see how it holds up.

The gates were scattered throughout time and space by a vanished alien race. When someone used the gates to travel backwards in time, disaster occurred. The last remaining members of the race takes on a mission to close the gates. It is a one way mission. Morgaine is one of the alien's assigned to close the gates. On her journey to Ivrel, she teams up with a native named Vayne. Everywhere they go, disaster follows. In spite of everything, Vayne is committed to following Morgaine.

I enjoy a good science fantasy story. Writers like Andre Norton, C. L. Moore, Leigh Brackett, Roger Zelazny, and Mark Geston (with the ultimate war between science and magic-Siege of Wonder) have given me many hours of reading pleasure. At the time, I was captivated by this book. Now it is a different experience.

This is, I believe, Cherryh's first book and it shows. The language is very convoluted. It is a struggle to read the sentences in this story. I believe this sold on the strength of the story. The idea is interesting. I can see where Cherryh showed signs of promise based on her ideas. Unfortunately her sentence building was not equal to her ideas.

The other thing I did not remember was the overwhelming sense of depression. This is a dark story. Maybe the later books influenced my memories of this one, but I did not remember this being such a bleak book.

I would pass on this one unless you are a devote Cherryh fan.

Very Far Away from Anywhere Else by Ursula K. Le Guin

Synopsis:
Owen and Natalie are different from the average teenagers. Both are very intelligent in their own ways. Owen dreams of being a scientist. Natalie is a very talented musician. Neither wants to be normal or a part of the crowd. Owen just wants to be left alone. In an effort to make him fit in, his father buys him a car. Owen resents it until the day he notices that Natalie is different from the other girls. This is the touching story of friendship and love between two outsiders.

I picked this up because it was written by Ursula K. Le Guin. Everything I have read by her was either science fiction or fantasy. I liked her collection The Wind's Twelve Quarters and her novel Rocannon's World. When I grabbed this off the shelf at a used book store, I did not realize it was a contemporary young adult novel. It turned out to be an excellent story that would hit home with a lot of science fiction and fantasy readers. Many sf and f readers know what it feels like to be an outsider. Le Guin shows that it is okay to be different. Not everyone needs to fit in. Sometimes a person is happier when left to themselves. But it is nice to have someone you can relate too.

If you are looking for science fiction or fantasy, avoid this book. If you are looking for a novel that will remind you of the television show, The Wonder Years, this is the book for you.

Rating: 4 out of 5