SF-LOVERS Digest          Wednesday, 13 Jan 1993       Volume 18 : Issue 29
 
Today's Topics:
 
                 Books - Baum & Brust & Drake & Gerrold &
                         Lackey & McCaffrey (6 msgs)
 
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Date: 12 Jan 93 16:40:23 GMT
From: johns@bounty.slb.com (John R Schectman)
Reply-to: sf-lovers-written@Rutgers.Edu
Subject: Re: OZ books?
 
While not exactly about OZ books, has anyone run across another Frank L.
Baum book, _The_Magical_Monarch_of_Mo_, it's a bunch of short stories
about, what else, the land of Mo.  I had a copy when I was MUCH younger
(20years ago?), and I don't think I've ever seen it in any bookstore (new
or used).
 
johns@mailhost.billerica.applicon.slb.com
 
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Date: 12 Jan 93 18:37:32 GMT
From: pnh@panix.com (Patrick Nielsen-Hayden)
Reply-to: sf-lovers-written@Rutgers.Edu
Subject: Re: The Viscount of Adrilankha
 
dani@netcom.com (Dani Zweig) writes:
>Brust's sequel to "The Phoenix Guards" has been turned in - "The Viscount
>of Adrilankha".  (Actually, from what I understand, the sequel to TPG is
>"Five Hundred Years After" - I still say it ought to be either 170 years
>or 20 decades which tells of Adron's Oops, so Viscount will probably be
>third.  It needn't be last, there are lots more three-musketeer titles to
>plunder.)
>
>Now who would the Viscount be?  I take it that Khaavren corresponds to
>Dartagnan, that Tazendra corresponds to Porthos, and that the Viscount is
>the son of either Pel or Aerich which corresponds to Athos.  But I
>can't decide which: Both have Athos-type backgrounds and Aramis-type
>behavior.  Or am I missing something obvious?
 
You're confused.  The sequel to THE PHOENIX GUARDS will be FIVE HUNDRED
YEARS AFTER.  The _next_ book in the trilogy will be THE VISCOUNT OF
ADILANKHA, which will itself be a three-decker.
 
FIVE HUNDRED YEARS AFTER has been under contract for some time, and Steve
is finishing it right now.  I just bought THE VISCOUNT OF ADRLINKHA last
month, but don't expect to see it for a long time to come; Steve has other
books (for us and Ace alike) to write before he essays that one.
 
As to your worthy questions, I'm going to invoke publisher privilege and
say Wait And See.  <g>
 
Patrick Nielsen Hayden
senior editor
Tor Books
pnh@panix.com
 
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Date: 13 Jan 93 07:54:54 GMT
From: kim@lclark.edu (John Kim)
Reply-to: sf-lovers-written@Rutgers.Edu
Subject: Drake
 
   I'm a big fan of military sci fi and was wondering when David Drake
would be coming out with a new Hammer's Slammers or any other mercenary
sci fi novel in the near future.
 
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Date: 12 Jan 93 20:36:28 GMT
From: gmills@watserv1.uwaterloo.ca (MILLS G - CHEMICAL ENG.)
Reply-to: sf-lovers-written@Rutgers.Edu
Subject: A Season for Slaughter question
 
 
I finished _A Season for Slaughter_ a little while ago, and I've been
wondering about something towards the end.  McCarthy says he concludes the
Temp Corps are watching the mission through Dwan (the electric potatohead)
because she calls him _Jimbo_ at some point.  I tried to find this
occurrence in the text and all I can find is the scene where they're
lifting him into the tree to the hospital (approximately 20 pages earlier).
It seems pretty clear that it's Shawn (the cabinboy) who uses the name.
Any clarifications?
 
Greg Mills
 
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Date: 13 Jan 93 00:56:49 GMT
From: Janet_Tait@ucsdlibrary.ucsd.edu
Reply-to: sf-lovers-written@Rutgers.Edu
Subject: Lisle and Lackey
 
dani@netcom.com (Dani Zweig) writes:
>Someone please let me know if Holly Lisle's single-author books are any
>good.  This book hasn't inspired me to find out the hard way.
 
Although I agree with your assessment of Lackey's solo books vs. her
co-authored books, Holly Lisle is actually a pretty decent writer. Her
first novel, _Fire in the Mist_, is an above average fantasy that's doing
surprisingly well on the _Locus_ bestseller list. The sequel, which I think
is called _Bones of the Past_, should be out soon. I heard her read from it
at Worldcon and was impressed.
 
I do wish Lackey would quit doing these lackluster co-authored books and
concentrate on her solo Diana Tregarde and Valdemar series. As a Darkover
fan I dread what Rediscovery_ will be like when it comes out in a few
months, although her collaborations with more established authors seem a
bit better than the ones with the junior authors. I certainly understand
Lackey's desire to make a living, but her audience may desert her if her
quality doesn't improve (then again, look at Piers Anthony...:) )
 
Janet Tait
jtait@ucsd.edu
 
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Date: 12 Jan 93 19:09:55 GMT
From: cmeadows@nyx.cs.du.edu (Chris Meadows)
Reply-to: sf-lovers-written@Rutgers.Edu
Subject: Pern Dates vs. AD Dates
 
Many of Anne McCaffrey's stories (Pern, Crystal Singer, Planet Pirates)
seem to be set in the same universe, the one with the Federated Sentient
Planets and coldsleep.  However, for Pern, the operative question is when?
There are some clues in DRAGONSDAWN.
 
The Federated Sentient Planets is around.  Of course, it was around long
before humanity joined it (unless I misread Planet Pirates), but what is
significant is that humanity is a member.
 
Humanity has slow FTL travel.  Slow, because it took 15 years to get from
where they started (was it First Centauri, or was that just a battle in the
previous war?  Haven't read DD in too long; will do so shortly.  Even the
FTL message capsules, which, it can be assumed, are much faster than the
big colony ships, take five years to reach FSP HQ.  But in Planet Pirates,
it never takes more than a few months (I believe) to get anywhere.
 
The EEC (Exploration and Evaluation Corps) mentioned in Planet Pirates was
around two hundred years prior to colonization of Pern.  This is
significant because we now know that FTL travel has been around for at
least that long.
 
The human colonists have no moral qualms about eating meat.  This is VERY
significant, since the rejection of meat-eating as "part of humanity's
barbaric past" played a major part in Planet Pirates.  This, and the slower
FTL speeds, help to place Pern's colonization BEFORE Planet Pirates.
 
Those are the major factors that have helped me date Pern's colonization.
As for when it might be, I would estimate probably somewhere around 2400 to
2600 A.D.  Planet Pirates takes place mostly in the 2800s, I think.  This
would give humanity a good amount of time to stop eating meat, and would
allow a pretty good leeway for man to have discovered FTL travel sometime
between now and the 2200s.
 
I really would like to know just which of McCaffrey's works fit into this
future universe she's created.  The "Pegasus in Flight" and "Decision at
Doona" books, for example, and how about "The Ship Who Sang"?  Does anyone
have an official chronology (like that of Heinlein) for when all the
stories that DO fit together took place?  I would LOVE to see such a thing,
or a historical essay, by Anne McCaffrey.  It would help the books fit
together, in my mind, and would perhaps shed some light on what will happen
to Pern in the years to come after ALL THE WEYRS OF PERN concludes.
 
That chain of thought, by the way, brings to light some interesting
questions.  How could Pern have been entirely and completely forgotten
about?  Perhaps I'll find out in RESCUE FLIGHT.  Perhaps the question of
the chronology will be answered then, too.  It's too bad that Lunzie or
Sassinak couldn't come to Pern...it would be interesting to see Lunzie's
reaction to the dragons.  Unfortunately, however, I don't think that anyone
could survive a thousand-year deepsleep, and even if they could, there'd be
no reason for taking one.  *shrug* Oh, well, it probably wouldn't work out
anyway.
 
What must technology be like in the rest of the galaxy at the time AtWoP is
taking place?  That's hundreds of years after Lunzie's time.  We'll
probably never know, I guess.
 
Enough babbling...now to send this message and wait for replies...
 
Chris Meadows
CHM173S@SMSVMA
CHM173S@VMA.SMSU.EDU
CMEADOWS@NYX.CS.DU.EDU
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 12 Jan 93 20:35:37 GMT
From: agc@bmdhh286.bnr.ca (Alan Carter)
Reply-to: sf-lovers-written@Rutgers.Edu
Subject: Re: Questions about Pern, _Rescue_Flight_
 
cmeadows@nyx.cs.du.edu (Chris Meadows) writes:
> First, in the latest Science-Fiction Book Club catalog/pamphlet, I
> noticed a new Pern novella, called _Rescue_Flight_, taking place 49 years
> after _Dragonsdawn_.  Since it's only $7.00 and I'm a Pern fanatic, I'm
> ordering it.  I really hope it explains how Pern could remain lost for
> thousands of years after colonization.  I really do hope Anne McCaffrey
> doesn't resort to a "quarantine."  That idea is so OLD...
 
This appeared in magazine form a couple of years ago. I won't include
spoilers but the reason Pern remains lost will be permanent according to
what Anne McCaffrey told me last summer.
 
> A dragon's tissue is different from ours.  For example, they have
> copper-based blood while we have iron-based blood.  Fire lizards,
> wherries, whers, and whersports presumably have the same blood types.
> So, how can dragons (with their copper-based blood) eat herdbeasts (with
> their presumably iron-based blood), and how can humans eat whersports and
> wherries?  'Twould seem to me to be a lot of incompatibility there.
 
Good questions. Is that chap who is a biologist at Aston (?) who does the
creatures on this group?
 
> Another thing: It should be possible, by taking it in steps, to go
> BETWEEN time thousands of years back, to when the colonists first landed,
> etc.  After all, Jaxom went back several hundred years in
> _All_the_Weyrs_of_Pern_...why couldn't some other dragonrider do it?  Be
> kind of interesting to see...
 
Don't forget Ruth's ability to know *when* he is, is a talent not shared by
other dragons. Lessa could only navigate with the help of the tapestry and
the Question Song. Perhaps this intensity of dragon-ness is why the big
dragons are so fond of him. With Ruth navigating All The Weyrs Of Pern
could do it, causing the Intervals. Perhaps this will be explored in other
books but don't forget that Pern seems to be a single-timeline no-paradox
reality like Heinlein's. We can't have fully developed dragons flying
around Landing so blatantly that Benden and crew spot them, because they
didn't.
 
Alan
 
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Date: 12 Jan 93 14:39:56 GMT
From: johnmc@pp711
Reply-to: sf-lovers-written@Rutgers.Edu
Subject: Re: Questions about Pern, _Rescue_Flight_
 
cmeadows@nyx.cs.du.edu (Chris Meadows) writes:
> A dragon's tissue is different from ours.  For example, they have
> copper-based blood while we have iron-based blood.  Fire lizards,
> wherries, whers, and whersports presumably have the same blood types.
> So, how can dragons (with their copper-based blood) eat herdbeasts (with
> their presumably iron-based blood), and how can humans eat whersports and
> wherries?  'Twould seem to me to be a lot of incom- patibility there.
 
Ever eat lobster? They have cyanide based blood (as I remember). They use
cyanoglobin instead of hemoglobin as their blood's oxygen carrier.
 
John McCash
johnmc@comm.mot.com
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 13 Jan 93 01:46:49 GMT
From: cmeadows@nyx.cs.du.edu (Chris Meadows)
Reply-to: sf-lovers-written@Rutgers.Edu
Subject: Re: Questions about Pern, _Rescue_Flight_
 
I wonder how a planet could be lost "permanently."  I mean, surely the EEC
or SOMEONE would get around to it after a while.  Or some- one would run
across an old reference to it in FSP's records.  Don't they check up on old
colonies now and again?  I really hope that Pern isn't sealed off from the
rest of the galaxy forever.  It's kind of fun to imagine a meeting between
Pernians and FSP citizens (if the Federation of Sentient Planets is still
around).  Leads to some interesting speculation, such as wondering how the
non-meat-eating FSP humans would react to the omnivorous Pern residents,
and vice versa.  (I strongly suspect that Jaxom, F'lar, or whoever was "in
charge" of Pern at the time would tell the spacers what they could do with
their "enlightened vegetarianism," in no uncertain terms! :) Also, I wonder
if dragons could go "between" to planets in other systems.  It would
probably be rather like going "between" long periods of time...
 
Actually, though, I think that any meeting of Pernians with FSPers would
result in a permanent parting of the ways (well, perhaps ships would drop
by now and then, but...).  Pern couldn't survive an onslaught of
high-technology items (they're better off without them, in fact), and
unless the FSP has abandoned vegetarianism, they would never be able to
accept Pern.
 
And another thing...exactly which issue of whatever magazine (was it
Analog?) did RESCUE FLIGHT appear in?  A local out-of-print bookshop has a
few old issues lying around, and I am so impatient to read it now that I
would go up there and buy it if they have it.  Incidentally, have any other
new Pern stories appeared in any magazines?
 
It's funny, I had thought that Anne wasn't going to write any more Pern
stories.  However, I could have predicted it, since many of the authors I
read feel and succumb to the urge to go back and write more stories in
universes they'd thought were now "closed."  In fact, it's rather what I'd
hoped.
 
If I have more ideas about Pern, they'll appear in a different message.
Right now, though, Pern is my favorite SF series of all time (right up
there with Zelazny's AMBER).
 
And if you talked with Anne McCaffrey, GOD I envy you.
 
Chris Meadows
CHM173S@SMSVMA
CHM173S@VMA.SMSU.EDU
CMEADOWS@NYX.CS.DU.EDU
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 13 Jan 93 12:28:00 GMT
From: IRH%A1%UTRC@mrgate.utc.com ("Irene R. Harrison  727-7415", 203)
Reply-to: sf-lovers-written@Rutgers.Edu
Subject: Pern Answers
 
Chris Meadows had a few questions about Pern.
 
I believe that the Science Fiction Book Club had the correct title of
RESCUE RUN, by Anne McCaffrey.
 
RESCUE RUN, is a novella length book originally published by Wildside
Press, in 1991.  (Written by Anne McCaffrey, illustrated by Pat Morrissey,
numbered and signed.) SFBC edition will have a dust jacket also by Pat
Morrissey.
 
The book attempts to cover a couple of points that both you and the fans
have remarked on.  1.) What happened to the Emergency beacon that had been
sent back to Earth (DRAGONSDAWN) and 2.) Why had there been no Earth
contact for thousands of years after colonization.
 
**Spoilers** These two points are covered in the text.
 
I'm afraid that the planet is "quarantined" because of thread, or more
importantly because the rescuers think that everyone else must be already
dead on a planet not viable for future colonization.
 
**End Spoilers**
 
>Another thing: it should be possible, by taking it in steps, to go BETWEEN
>time thousands of years back, to when the colonists first landed, etc.
>After all, Jaxom went back several hundred years in
>_All_the_Weyrs_of_Pern_ ... why couldn't some other dragonrider do it? Be
>Be kind of interesting to see...
 
Anne McCaffrey has explained this twice. The first time one of her
characters goes time traveling, Lessa is almost asphyxiated during her
QUEST back 200 years.  In ALL THE WEYRS OF PERN Jaxom and the AI computer
tested how long dragons could stay between, and determined how long between
times they could safely travel. Time travel is a closely guarded dragon
rider secret, and only Ruth has the ability to safely travel in time. BUT
this does not say there would be any reason to go back to when the
colonists first landed.
 
Anne McCaffrey has said that there will be no more Pern books. (I bet some
readers out there are cheering.)  There is one anthology scheduled, (DELL
0-345-36898-3, no publication date as yet) which will include "Rescue Run"
and "The Girl Who Heard Dragons".  There is also a "book about the
dolphins", mentioned during an open session at World Fantasy'92, that will
be written with Jack Cohn. My assumption is that the dolphins referred to
are the dolphins brought to Pern by the colonists.  Anne writes the outline
and the co-author writes the text. Jack Cohn is currently Anne's science
advisor.
 
Irene Harrison
IRH@UTRC.UTC.COM
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 13 Jan 93 03:29:32 GMT
From: kogoma@triton.unm.edu (Taki Kogoma)
Reply-to: sf-lovers-written@Rutgers.Edu
Subject: Re: Questions about Pern, _Rescue_Flight_
 
cmeadows@nyx.cs.du.edu (Chris Meadows) writes:
>And another thing...exactly which issue of whatever magazine (was it
>Analog?) did RESCUE FLIGHT appear in?  A local out-of-print bookshop has a
>few old issues lying around, and I am so impatient to read it now that I
>would go up there and buy it if they have it.  Incidentally, have any
>other new Pern stories appeared in any magazines?
 
"Rescue Run" - _Analog_, August 1991.  (Also available in hardcover from
Wildfire Press according to the latest flier from the SF book club.)
 
>It's funny, I had thought that Anne wasn't going to write any more Pern
>stories.  However, I could have predicted it, since many of the authors I
>read feel and succumb to the urge to go back and write more stories in
>universes they'd thought were now "closed."  In fact, it's rather what I'd
>hoped.
 
Unless Ms. McCaffrey has changed her mind, _All the Weyrs of Pern_ is the
last Pern book.  Of course, we all know how solid such a promise is. ;-)
 
Taki Kogoma
kogoma@triton.unm.edu
 
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End of SF-LOVERS Digest
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