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From: eric@snark.uu.net (Eric S. Raymond)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf-lovers,genie.sfrt.s2.t48
Subject: Raymond's Reviews #22: short takes
Message-ID: <1VsbNJ#9ttvvv0FfzBH2QgKXB5BdXOO=eric@snark.uu.net>
Date: 23 Mar 90 07:36:08 GMT
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This is Raymond's Reviews #22 (short takes)

~Title: Cat's Gambit
By: Leslie Gadallah
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine (March 1990)
Format: pb, 247pp, $3.95
ISBN: 0-345-36478-3

This book is a competent sequel to Gadallah's earlier _Cat's_Pawn_. The
insectoid Kazi have triumphed, subjugating humanity and nearly exterminating
the catlike Oriani. Talan's daughter, grief-stricken over her stillborn cubs,
links up with the raffish human smuggler MacDonald for a final strike at the
heart of the Kazi empire. For all the melodramatic plot, the style is quiet,
well textured and often wryly humorous, and the characters made quite
believable. Gadallah is a writer to watch; I think, with a little more
maturity, she might produce excellent work.

~Title: The Hand of Zei
By: L. Sprague deCamp
Publisher: Baen Books (March 1990)
Format: pb, 276pp, $3.50
ISBN: 0-671-69865-6

There aren't too many reissues from 1950 that wear their age as well as this
one. De Camp's lusty, funny tale of the reluctant hero Dirk Barnevelt's adven-
tures on primitive Krishna is a delight, whether read as straight adventure or
as wry parody of a subgenre that was foundering under the weight of its own
cliches even forty years ago. For an extra treat, this edition even includes
the serial's original interior illos in-line with the text. It's a bit of a
mystery why Baen labelled this `Fantasy', but what the heck. Recommended.

~Title: The Scions of Shannara
By: Terry Brooks
Publisher: Ballantine/Del Rey (March 1990)
Format: hb, 465pp, price missing
ISBN: 0-345-35695-0

If you liked the previous Shannara books, you'll probably like this one. I
think they're mind-numbingly stupid and derivative myself and couldn't force
myself to more than dip into this one, but I'm just a reviewer. Chacun a son
gout.

~Title: Carmen Miranda's Ghost is Haunting Space Station Three
By: Don Sakers (editor)
Publisher: Baen Books (March 1990)
Format: pb, 306pp, $3.95
ISBN: 0-671-69864-8

This mere *blurb* on this theme anthology reduced me to a state of uncon-
trollable gigglement. Leslie Fish started it all with an extremely silly filk-
song. Don Sakers became obsessed with the idea, Toni Weisskopf at Baen was
crazed enough to get it bought, many writers contributed while still in a state
of amazement that the idea was being done at all, and the results are a
collective masterpiece of loony camp inventiveness. For one book like this I'll
cheerfully forgive a couple of Sassinaks (see RR #21).

SMALL TALK:

Toni Weisskopf at Baen informs me that Elizabeth Moon has a prequel to the
Paksenarrion books in the pipeline -- the life of the warrior-saint Gird,
founder of the Order of Paladins.

One of the GEnie SFRT people informs me that the Collier _Traveller_In_Black_
I reviewed in RR#11 is a essentially a reprint of a mid-80s edition by Bluejay
Books.