It seems like months ago that the last issue of Ibn Qirtaiba was released. In fact it has been; two months to be precise, breaking an eighteen-issue run of monthly releases. The reason for the unexpected break was the closure of Ibn Qirtaiba's USA Internet provider, occuring without notice days after the release of issue 38. After much searching for an appropriate new home for the magazine IQ's new International site is a well-connected Web server of Digital Media Corporation in the editor's home town of Perth, Western Australia. In a way this development has been a positive move, because having access as a system administrator to the new machine I can now provide a broader range of services to IQ's readers and members of the SF SIG. If you have any ideas for new services you would like to see provided, don't hesitate to let me know and I will do my best to oblige. With increased services inevitably come increased costs, but I hope it will be possible for these to be covered without the need to resort to advertiser sponsorship of this site.
This issue's contents begin with SF SIG member Ted Witham's second article for Ibn Qirtaiba, a thoughtful video review of the well-regarded Jody Foster movie Contact. Tony Chandler's serial Adventure of the Gaspierr Ruby winds up, and Fred Noweck reviews four more books in his regular Sci-Fi Corner column. Fred will be taking a break from this column for a while, so if you would like to submit a book review of your own during his absence, you are more than welcome to do so. Finally David Kopaska-Merkel contributes more of excellent poetry to round out the issue.
One more thing before I go - next month will be Ibn Qirtaiba's third special issue for the Sci-Fi Channel's annual SCIFI.CON on-line science fiction convention. Issue 40 and SCIFI.CON in general will be well worth a visit, so be sure to put October 31 in your diary and join in the opening night festivities.
Video review: Contact by Ted
Witham Serial: Adventure of
the Gaspierr Ruby, part 2 by Tony Chandler
At one level, this film is about the
possibility of making contact with intelligent beings beyond the human race. The story
revolves around possible withdrawal of (US) government funding for the SETI programme
(Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence) and is based on Carl Sagan's novel of the same
name.
Dr Eleanor Harroway (Jodie Foster) seeks funding from philanthropic foundations, and is finally bankrolled by a mysterious millionaire recluse (Halden) who lives in luxury on a Harrier jump jet, because he prefers to be always mobile.
David Drumlin, the President's National Science Advisor then terminates Harroway's lease on the array of radio-telescopes, but two months before Harroway's team must vacate, they succeed in picking up an intelligent signal, which includes plans for making a Machine. With co-operation from world governments, a Machine is built. As it is evidently some kind of passenger vehicle, selection is made of a suitable pilot. Drumlin is selected over Eleanor Harroway: he is prepared to state his belief in God (however insincerely), when the heroine wavers between atheism and agnosticism.
The Machine is sabotaged by a cult-leader, killing Drumlin. The eccentric millionaire Halden then reveals to Harroway that he has built a duplicate machine, and sends Harroway on a faster-than-light journey to meet the superior beings, who appear to her in the form of her dead father and her deepest dreams.
This "science fiction" level is less interesting than the other
"Contact" explored in the film: the Contact between science and religion. Jodie
Foster's earlier films like Little Man Tate are not typical Hollywood movies. They
are issue films, and the characters represent different sides of a debate. In Contact, Foster's
character Elly Harroway is Science, and Palmer Joss (Matthew McCaughey), a popularising
theologian, is Religion.
Harroway is passionate about astronomy to the point of obsession. She is driven by visions of beauty and truth. Despite all obstacles and rational objections to her work, she is a true believer. Human relationships seem to mean almost nothing. Because she was so close to her father and orphaned so young, she is completely wrapped up in her work... an absent-minded professor.
Her closest colleague is blind, and her approach to science is close to blind faith.
Despite all these qualities, which are a caricature of religious fanaticism, she actually represents a popular and romantic view of Science.
Palmer Joss, on the other hand, is a balanced and rational observer of religion; deeply committed, both to Christianity and to social justice. He reaches out, not so much for Truth, but for relationship. He is a very senior advisor to the US President, mysteriously so.
The story casts him into opposition with other representatives of religion: the cult leaders with their irrational aggression.
A considerable portion of this long film is made up of long discussions between Science and Thoughtful Religion. These discussions are not startlingly new, but they delineate real controversies in a competent way: The paradox, for example, that the Special Theory of Relativity is a central scientific theory of the space age, but cannot be proved by normal scientific criteria of proof.
The parallel paradox for theologians like Palmer Joss is their preoccupation with speaking about the transcendent in rational ways.
Both Science and Religion change as a result of Contact with the Vegan intelligence. Science (at least the Foster character) becomes more comfortable with the subjectivity of its way of knowing. Religion (the Palmer Joss character) is more able to accept Science's pursuit for truth as valid and spiritual.
Contact does not present pat answers,
however. It explores at length the current conflicts between Science and Religion. If it
has a point of view, it is a powerful argument against the need for conflict between
Science and Religion. The late Carl Sagan, a humanist Mensan, clearly lays out his view
that both Science and Religion help us know better about truth that is beyond normal human
apprehension, and they both illustrate the ways in which Science and Religion reveal our
higher nature to ourselves.
It may be that Contact is also hinting that Religion can deal much better with human relationships than can Science.
There is an ironic twist at the end of St Matthew's Gospel. Having put forward the orthodox Christian view that the empty tomb is a witness to the reality of the resurrection of Jesus, Matthew then proposes some alternative and very rational explanations of the resurrection. Maybe the body was stolen. Maybe the guards were bribed. The end of Contact reminds of the end to St Matthew's Gospel. There may be another simple and rational explanation. It just may be that the eccentric millionaire Halden has pulled a hoax on the entire human race, and that none of our knowing has any value at all. We might be all deluded.
Contact contains continually spiralling symbols of this Science-Religion motif. In the capsule that takes Harroway to Vega/Heaven/The Beyond, a restraining chair is built in, which hurts and restricts the astronomer. It turns out that the human desire to protect itself with its own knowledge is more dangerous than floating free.
Harroway's emotional closeness to her dead father might stand for Science's impassioned holding on to its intellectual antecedents in Enlightenment philosophy. Palmer Joss' surprising closeness to the President hints at the surprising connections, particularly in America between political power and religion... and so on. The film becomes almost a game in "spot the symbol". I am not convinced that this added to its power to be emotionally satisfying, and it tended to overweight the Science/Religion argument.
If you haven't yet seen Contact, it's worth borrowing from the video store to keep your mind ticking on the Science-Religion controversy.
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The story so far: Chase Broughton and accomplice Lydia are on a mission to recover the Gaspierr Ruby from a seedy bar on the planet Alzacabar. In addition to the ruby, the bar contains a variety of fierce aliens and a Staeurian prisoner in a force field. Surviving an encounter with one of these aliens, Chase meets up with pirate captain Haigeg whose ship is to be used as a base of operations for the heist. Chase, Lydia and Heigeg discuss how they are to steal the gem, replace it with a fake, and bring down the security system before escaping.
If anything, the place was louder then the previous night. Music, loud and pulsating, pummeled his ears.
Good. The atmosphere was right.
He had a blaster strapped to each hip. Across his back he carried the short military issue assault blaster. Quite illegal, but probably more at home here than in the Galactic fleet. He sauntered to the edge of the bar, ready for action.
Earlier, Lydia had vehemently disagreed with him. She had noticed that all of his weapons were set to stun. Heavy stun, but stun nonetheless. Chase didn't like to kill. After all, he wasn't a pirate, he wasn't an assassin. He would do this his way.
She had laughed strangely as their argument ended.
"What'll it be, human?" The seven foot feathered bartender asked.
"Ale, from Earth. Make it room temperature, too." Chase paused as the feathered being turned and punched in his order. He held a disc up as the alien turned around with his drink.
"What's this?"
"Earth music, late twentieth century Rock & Roll! You see," Chase leaned closer, the weapon on his back shifted slightly, "I'm going to rock this place tonight."
"We judge our music here by how many fights it starts. Any particular track?"
Chase smiled widely as he glanced at his chronometer. Three more minutes till the security system went down.
"Track Nine." Chase took a long pull of the dark liquid.
The primeval throbbing of drums were at home here, but the roaring and screaming of electric guitars caused the multitude of conversations around the bar to stop. For many of them, the raunchy and powerful sound was new to their ears, or whatever else served them for aural input.
The lyrics, automatically translated into Standard, initiated appreciative nods and smiles. Others weren't so pleased as it became known, via the consoles on their tables, that this music was from Earth. Arguments predictably began, more than the usual outbursts. Of course in this kind of place, especially under the influence of alien whiskeys, it really wasn't that surprising.
Chase ducked as the lighting dimmed further. The guitars screamed on as blaster fire started to cut the air, and some of these blasts were not set on stun by the sound of them.
Mayhem and madness were what he needed tonight. It was being eagerly delivered.
And then everything went completely dark as Lydia shut them down. Moments later the red emergency lighting took over, casting an eerie red glow over the proceedings that now got completely out of hand.
Chase had already leapt over the bar.
"Hey, you ca..."
Rolling over, Chase quickly drew his right blaster and stunned the bartender down.
He turned around as the nearby crashing of glass caught his ear. Another bartender had drawn a weapon and was about to bring it to bear on him. Chase fired off two quick blasts, sending him crashing backwards unconscious. He looked up at the ruby, still floating in the air, surrounded by its invisible force field. He waited crouched behind the bar for the signal that Lydia had shut down it's protective field. The flash of the field dropping around the ruby almost made him jump.
And jump he did as he half climbed the shelves behind the bar and leapt for the gem. As he landed on the floor, it was his.
Quickly putting it in a pocket, he reached in another and pulled out a seeming twin, the decoy. Casting a calculating eye at the empty space above him, he gently launched the fake ruby into the air. The slow arch upward was suddenly stopped as the backup system took over. It was time to leave.
Easing himself to eye level, Chase took in the red lighted room. Both exits were effectively blocked by fighting mobs as the music roared on unabated. And then new blasts lit the air around those two doorways as aliens fell. The rapid fire of assault blasters. But from the sound they were still set to stun, showing that the security guards still didn't have an idea what was happening.
Hopefully.
A door crashed open down the bar from him as an armed alien, not a security guard, looked at him. Chase sent him down with a quick shot as a blast whipped over his own head. He quickly went to the door that led behind the bar. As he got there, he found himself face to face with the Staeurian.
"I set you free Staeurian." Chase said simply, punching the keys on the base. In his mind, Chase remembered the extra coding he had secretly slipped into Lydia's lines that would bring down the security system, which had also shut off the prisoner's field. "You can come with me, or..." he shrugged toward the melee beyond the bar.
The Staeurian nodded at Chase who unlatched his left blaster and handed it to him.
"It's on stun. Keep it there."
Again the alien nodded. And they were through the door.
Twisting and turning, they both stunned some more workers as they made their way to the rear exit. But it wouldn't open. Lydia should have kept it open. Either her coding had been overridden, or...
Assault blasts laced the walls around them as they jumped to either side. Chase holstered his blaster and pulled out his own weapon over his shoulder. Seven guards poured into the room firing as they ducked for cover. The Staeurian stunned one.
"Hey, " Chase whispered loudly. "There!" He nodded at the sanitation dump station that led below ground. And then he stood, his automatic fire sending bottles, pots and pans flying as the Staeurian jumped through the swinging door.
Several guards stood and returned fire. Chase stunned three with one deadly sweep of automatic fire which also sent the others back under cover. Reaching into his waist pocket, he pulled out a small round device. He knew from his research last night that most of the guards were Lynzz. Two of the three left conscious were such. Maybe the gas from this would do something to the other. Throwing it up into the air, it exploded, sending a vaporous gas streaming outwards.
Chase leapt into the same swinging door amidst the coughing and the tracers of automatic firing as more guards suddenly burst inside.
He was sliding at a steep angle as he tried to hold the assault rifle behind him. He didn't want anyone shooting down at him in this position. This was probably more for laundry than food disposal he realized as he suddenly slammed through another swinging door and landed in a pile of soiled linens. It was surprisingly quiet down here.
The Staeurian was holding the blaster on him.
"Which way now?", he asked with a strange accent.
"This way to the fourth hallway, then right, go two more, right again and up at the next one. I've got a small hovercraft parked up there that will get us to my ship," Chase said hurriedly as he got to his feet. Looking back at the still swinging door, he could not hear any signs of pursuit for the moment. And then he pulled the S-comp from his waist. Quickly punching it's keys, Chase's brow furrowed with concern.
"But there is a YR-17 on its way to stop us." Flipping off the unit, Chase looked at his new companion. "And it knows we are here."
They ran quickly down and made the first turn. The Staeurian glanced quickly back as he spoke.
"It is almost impossible to stop a YR-17 with the weapons we have."
Chase smiled knowingly at his companion as he ran.
He stopped suddenly as the faint glow of a force field caught his eye. They were trapped.
Looking around hurriedly, Chase grabbed at his communicator as he whispered loudly into it.
"Lydia! I've got a problem."
"Go ahead, what is it," her voice answered.
"There's a force field stopping us, underground level, corridor twelve in sector B3. Get rid of it!"
"OK, OK, I'm working on it." And the comm link went out.
Chase again pulled the S-comp from his belt. The YR-17 was moving fast. Lydia wouldn't be quick enough. Clicking the short assault blaster to full power, he handed it to his furry companion.
"We don't stand a chance unless we can get past this. There's a place where we can fight it, but this is not it."
The coal black eyes gazed back at Chase as it exchanged weapons with him.
"Then our lives depend on your friend."
But Chase's mind was racing, going over the weapons he had on his person. Everything else was for the guards, in case... and then he was moving back toward the hallway they had just left, as his hand pulled out a small round object. It was another chemical bomb, but for Alesas. When it went off the thick, black fumes would put them out. Maybe, just maybe, it would disorient the robot's visuals.
As he reached the doorway, he carefully looked around the corner, and saw it.
It was silently flying down the middle of the corridor, the red visual sensor glowing ominously toward him. The twin blasters spat death as he ducked back, chewing huge chunks of the wall onto the floor at his feet. Setting the round weapon live, Chase counted.
"One thousand, two thousand."
He threw the bomb around the corner and brought his arm back as more chunks of the wall spewed away from the robot's blasters. The explosion came quickly and thick black fumes shot past the doorway and around Chase as he ran back to the barrier.
It was still there.
"Lydia. Now! Do it now!" He barked into the comm unit.
And the glow of the force field stopped.
"Go!"
Both Chase and the Staeurian were through.
"Turn it back on!" That should slow it a moment, Chase thought, until the robot sorted through the virus filled security network and reopened it.
Looking around briefly, the entrance was still filled with the black acrid fumes. But the YR-17 had not made the turn yet. They made the last right turn and ran to within ten feet of the outer door. Almost out, though Chase knew it would take a few moments for him to get past the electronic combinations that locked it. Too many moments.
Looking up, he knew this was the spot for their battle. A utility shaft went several levels above them at this spot. Chase spoke hurriedly to the Staeurian.
Taking the small tool, the alien's furry face cast a very doubtful look at him.
"You are sure of this?"
An alarm went off on the device on Chase's belt.
"It's our only shot. Go! It's almost here."
Backing against some thick pipes that ran up the side of the shaft, they barely covered Chases's body. The alien leaped and climbed easily, grabbing with both his tail and hands as he braced himself above, the tool held in his mouth.
Shrinking behind the large pipes that ran upwards, Chase waited, his finger on the miniature holographic projector on his belt.
After it had briefly retreated from the bomb and smoke screen that had blinded its sensors momentarily, the YR-17 was moving steadily down the corridor. Its visuals showed no intruders, and its heat sensors showed only heat from the piping systems that ran up the maintenance shaft. The computer stopped just short of the shaft, its electronic brain racing through the possibilities.
And then its visuals picked up a human running from behind the pipes toward the outer door. Instantly its twin blasters roared, sending chunks out of the wall as it followed the running human. The electronic brain raced with a kind of confusion. Its visuals showed that it had hit the human with a ninety-seven percent ratio of hits, yet the human ran unhindered. Also its heat sensors had not registered...and then its visuals picked up movement near the pipes again. Slowly, the unit moved forward, concentrating its resources forward.
If the YR-17 could have registered surprise, it would have, as the unseen Staeurian landed squarely on it, sending it hard to the ground. The twin blasters erupted with fury.
And then it was off at high speed.
Chase hadn't counted on that. The computer's profile had indicated that the grav-motors were not strong enough to fly with that much extra weight. But there it went, with the Staeurian hanging on for dear life, hanging on with both hands and feet wrapped around the twin arms that held the blasters. Even its tail was wrapped tight.
As the YR-17 picked up speed, it started to spin completely around, causing its rider to shift and change it's precarious hold. And then it was heading for a wall, apparently off-balance. Quickly the Staeurian shifted away, to keep from being banged off it's angry mount. And again the small robot spun him around, just barely missing first the right, and then the left wall.
It was a wild ride.
Right at the very end of the corridor they stopped suddenly, and with a burst of high speed energy, the YR-17 began to spin furiously in that one spot. As Chase watched, the metallic ball and rider became almost a blur. But still he held on. As suddenly as the spinning started, it stopped, as the robot floated and wavered.
It turned and began coming back, but now in its straight arrow flight it slowly sank towards the floor.
The sound of steel skidding against concrete announced that the rider had ridden it down. Only for a moment. As the blasters erupted now into an endless stream, sending showers of rubble all around, the drunken duo headed back towards Chase.
Evading the blaster fire coming towards him, Chase turned the corner that led to the door. He felt his heart stop as he realized he would never open it before the robot cornered him. He would have to try and jump on the robot as well, bring it down if they could, and open that access door to put it in maintenance mode. He didn't like the odds. But it was the only plan he had. He waited as the blaster fire came closer.
And then the blaster fire eating up the wall to his left abruptly stopped, just as he expected them to round the corner. Still he didn't move. Without warning the Staeurian sauntered calmly around the corner.
"Let's go, human."
Chase managed a smile.
"How'd you get the door open, hanging on so hard?"
The prehensile tail whipped from side to side.
"First I opened the access door. Then I got the tool out of mouth, after it stopped bucking and came straight at you. I inserted and turned, just like you said." Laughing, he flipped his tail and sent the small tool into Chase's quickly opened hand. "Except I did it with my tail. It was easier that way."
A few minutes later and they were outside and speeding towards the ship. At the docking bay all was quiet, Lydia's diversion of sending out a false report of his whereabouts had worked.
As they ran into the ship, the doors had barely closed as she lifted off, turned the ship ninety degrees, and sped toward the stars. Two small fighters picked her up on their screens and gave pursuit.
"Can you outrun them?" The Staeurian said, out of breath.
"I've got oversized engines in her. Both ThunderStar. We'll blow'em easy ," Chase said with confidence.
As they streaked over the housetops, the Lightning gained momentum as her engines roared to full speed. Her two wings spread out in an almost triangular fashion when viewed from above or below. About a third of the way from the blunt nose , peering out the glass view port that wrapped around the thickest part of the ship, Chase and his two companions watched the azure sky quickly turn to the black of space.
"Hands in the air, and don't make any sudden moves!"
Chase looked at the blaster leveled at him. And then he looked at the stern green eyes.
"Turn around, both of you. Slowly," Lydia ordered.
Chase's mind raced, but he had no answer for this. She had been picked by Gaspierr himself, so he had trusted her from that. Turning to the black eyed alien next to him he spoke, his voice edged with disgust.
"Never trust Earth women."
"SHUT UP!" Lydia ordered.
A single pair of binders were slung at their feet. Lydia continued, "Put them on the alien, hands behind the back. Then you get real still while I put yours on. Any moves and I nail you, and my blaster isn't set to stun."
Chase did as he was told. As he stood behind the fur covered being, the tail dropped quietly to the floor as Chase put the binders on with a snap. Stepping just to the left of the Staeurian, he put his hands behind his back for his bracelets.
"If you're doing this for yourself, you won't get far. Not many people can afford..."
He felt the blaster grind against the back of his head.
"No, not for me. Remember the private collector due here tomorrow. Well, he plays both sides of the fence, to get the best deal. On one side of the fence is the House of Gaspierr. His contacts at the Royal House informed him of this little escapade. He saw a way of maybe getting the ruby at the best price. FREE!"
Chase snarled at her laughter. And then the binders snapped together. He looked over at his fellow prisoner. Ever so slightly, he nodded at Lydia.
"You know, Lydia, you won't be able fly this ship without me. You'll.."
"I've already overridden your petty defense programs. I'll fly it easily, now move it!"
She pushed against his back with her free hand as she waved the blaster at the alien to get him to move. The tail moved with a blurring motion.
In an instant it wrapped around her hand and forced the blaster loose. As she stumbled back grabbing her bruised wrist, she faced the barrel of the blaster pointing at her.
"I hope your tail isn't trigger happy, for Lydia's sake," Chase chuckled.
Two days out and all signs of pursuit by the three pirate corsairs were no more. The corsairs had picked them up as they left the planet. But ,though fast, they had been no match for the Lightning's speed. Aaff, the Staeurian, turned to Chase.
"Why did you set me free back there. I could have been anybody?"
Chase smiled.
"It was part instinct. The other part was I found out from the pirate's security files that you were a Yizing government spy that had infiltrated one of their crews, trying to put an end to their hijackings in this quadrant. Besides, Staeurians are quite a noble race from what I've researched, not too many go in for pirating." And then Chase sighed.
Aaff twisted his head as he studied the quiet human before he spoke. "Why so down-hearted? We have escaped... we have the ruby?"
Looking back to the prisoners room, he spoke with a melancholy air.
"It seems with all my planning, all my research, I still can't figure out my own kind. Who I can trust, or if I can. I was even planning on..." Crossing his arms, Chase stood for a moment silent. He finally turned with a wry smile. "I have an especially hard time figuring out the opposite sex."
Aaff's furry mouth curled in a smile. "We have a saying among my people." Spreading his arms wide, he continued, "The ways of love are like the ways of the stars."
Chase looked at him questioningly.
"And what does that mean?"
Aaff's large smile revealed rows of pointed teeth. "The males usually discuss it's meaning over drinks."
Chase leaned back in the pilots chair, "I can relate to that. But I have one request." Casting a knowing look, he said,
"Anything but Taillen whiskey..."
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This month we will be doing things a little differently. We have a guest review and then my comments. And then a couple other books...
We've got:
First, I'll run the review that came with this book, The Mission. The management disclaims all responsibility for this review:
Flowing Water Press proudly announces the electronic publication of an exciting new UFO novel, The Mission, by Ed Benjamin, Colonel, USAF (Retired). 1stBooks Library (http://www.1stBooks.com) is currently offering The Mission for purchase via download through its Internet site.
The Mission tells the story of an UFO abduction gone wrong, complete with a super-secret government agency and an individual who does not succumb to the mind control that the alien abductors use to control their victims. There's high-tech thriller stuff involved when top-secret military units use advanced technology to attempt to down alien craft. There is a private investigator named Harry Miles who is a medically retired Air Force fighter pilot and former intelligence agent who skirts the fringes of the entire scenario. In the beginning, a car dealer hires Harry to find a missing young woman. The lady, it seems, is also the focus of a manhunt by a super-secret government agency. Will Harry and the government agents collide? Quasi-UFO investigators discover information that there's a second group of aliens who are observing the first group. It's about alien craft that get stuck in the mud, abducted people who are returned to the wrong places, alien abductions involving the vice-president of the United States, government payoffs, cover-ups and more cover-ups, and much more.
The action in the story takes place in Wichita Falls, Texas, Lawton, Oklahoma, San Antonio, Texas, Cheyenne Mountain at Colorado Springs, Colorado, Bitburg Air Base, Germany, and Sydney, Australia.
The Mission is a work that's hard to classify. Is it a science fiction mystery, a political thriller, an adventure novel or a dark comedy? The book is all of these and more. One thing is certain. The book provides the reader with a rare insight into the inner workings of high-level, super-secret government agencies. The main question that people ask about this story is "Is it real?" Some people say that truth is stranger than fiction. Read it and decide for yourself.
Now for my comments:
The Mission is science fiction only in that it includes UFO aliens in the plot line. That is its only claim to fame. The characterization is weak, the characters are never properly developed, the author introduces way too many different concepts and, as a result, develops none properly. If he had written solely about the aliens, he could have developed something like Communion. If he had written solely about the impact of various technologies on our society, he could have written something like Area 51. Then there was the sub-plot he introduced with the private eye and various super-secret government agencies. If he had developed these lines properly, the book would have been 3 or 4 times longer and have been much more entertaining. Personally, I think Benjamin should stick to children's books until he learns how to write Sci-Fi.
A brief note to the author: don't rely too heavily on spell-checkers. Get a good proof-reader to go over your manuscripts before publication.
Rimrunners by CJ Cherryh is one of the continuing saga of the Alliance and the Fleet, where spacers try to live their lives in the battle zone that the galaxy has become. Bet Yeager has been stranded on Thule Station for almost a year and she's getting to her last resources. When two creeps try to rape her and she kills them instead, she knows that she has to get off the station in any way possible. And then an unscheduled ship, Loki, comes in, claiming to be a freighter but with oversized fuel tanks, engines too large for the size of the ship, and carrying military priorities for fueling.
When Yeager signs on to Loki, she knows that she will have to walk a fine line to stay alive. Because Loki is Alliance. And Yeager was a trained Marine on the Battlecruiser Africa ..... and Africa is Fleet.
Cherryh is ever a page turner. She knows how to keep the story moving while maintaining a high state of suspense and excitement. On a scale of 1 to 10, I rate this one an 8.
The Witch Doctor, by Christopher Stasheff, is the third in the Wizard In
Rhyme series. Matthew's friend from college, Saul, after finding that Matthew is
missing, goes searching for him. And winds up himself in the land of Merovance. As
a Secular 
Humanist, he doesn't believe in
Angels. So when his own personal Guardian Angel shows up, Saul must re-assess everything
he has always thought as true. He also doesn't believe in Evil, so he wreaks havoc among
those pledged to the Devil. As a Humanist, he believes in the perfectibility of Man on
Earth, not in some Afterlife. Funny and sad in turns, Saul falls in love with the soul of
a murdered girl... and she with him. I highly recommend this one, but it reads better if
you have also read the first two in the series.
On A Pale Horse is the first in the Incarnations of Immortality series. Dealing with the Personification of Death. Have you ever wondered how Death got the job? According to Piers Anthony, Death is chosen by killing the previous Death. Heck of a way to got fired, isn't it?
This is the story of the trials and tribulations of a down and out man who finds that he must grow into the Office of Death when all he really wanted to do was commit suicide! Personally, I think this one is the best of his Immortality stories.
And now for letters:
Elaine F. writes:
I was doing a search for Instant Gold and discovered your web site. I read it as a teen-ager (my folks had a copy), and would like to get a copy for myself. I remember the title and the plot, but not the author.
So far, I've turned up a reference that there was a 1964 Science Fiction Book Club edition by Frank O'Rourke. Can you confirm whether this is the one where the guy uses Oglala Sioux as his "secret" language, and ends with a new shop selling "Instant Diamonds"?
Thanks!
Elaine
Yes, Elaine, that is the one that you are thinking of. I don't know if it ever came out in paperback. Maybe you should check out Amazon.com and see if they can find you a copy. And I agree, that was a great book!
Okay, that's all for this month. Due to the difficulties the editors of Ibn Qirtaiba are having with their web server, send any mail to me at Freddy47@aol.com. Let me know that you are out there!
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They'll clone dogs
but it won't catch on
(except among the rich)
until they breed new characteristics into them:
--ability to drive
--balance a checkbook
--sort laundry and help with homework.
When they clone cats it won't work
& no one will ever know why.
When chickens are cloned an industry will collapse
only to reappear when cloning becomes so cheap
anybody with a government farm subsidy can do it
but cloned chicken will be no different from the old-fashioned kind,
which was practically cloned anyway.
They'll clone exotic animals for food
but they'll all taste like chicken
and will never be popular
despite marketing gimmicks
like kids cartoon tri-V shows
& special promotions with big prizes.
People will be cloned constantly
but always in secret,
& soap operas will at last have
a good explanation for all those
long-lost twins.