Raymond's Reviews #44

%T The Berserker Wars
%A Fred Saberhagen
%I TOR Books
%D Dec 1981
%O paperback, US$3.95
%P 399
%G 0-812-50101-2

Yet another reissue of one of SF's hardy perennials, the collected best short stories from Fred Saberhagen's `Berserker' universe. If you haven't read his classic tales of the war between human and destroyer-machine, by all means snarf a copy of this collection. It's well worth keeping.

%T Cathouse
%A Dean Ing
%I Baen Books
%D May 1990
%O paperback, US$3.95
%P 247
%G 0-671-69872-9

This book continues Baen's annoying prediliction for repackaging stuff he's already bought once under a new cover. At least this particular new wineskin is honestly labelled; the material was originally published in parts in the Man-Kzin Wars shared-universe anthologies. And the stories themselves are pretty good; Ing puts a deal of knowledge of animal ethology to work in painting a more interesting and convincing portrait of the Kzin than Niven himself ever has. So maybe this one's worth buying anyhow.

%S Demon Crown
%T Symphony of Storms
%V 3
%A Robert E. Vardeman
%I TOR Books
%D May 1990
%O paperback, US$3.95
%P 280
%G 0-812-50084-9

All right, I tried, OK? I really tried to read this wretched pile of heroic-fantasy genre cliches through. I couldn't. Like the rest of Vardeman's innumerable cookie-cutter formula pieces, this turkey is so bad it glows in the dark. Shame on TOR for publishing it, and excuse me while I ceremonially burn it.

%T Home Is The Hangman/We, In Some Strange Power's Employ...
%A Roger Zelazny/Samuel Delany
%I TOR Books
%D May 1990
%O paperback, US$3.95
%P 96/81
%G 0-812-50983-8

This is TOR Double #21, a pair of reissues from 1975 and 1968 respectively. Both are strong early works by two of SF's best prose stylists. Ignore Zelazny's nonsense about AI resurrecting vitalism and you'll find the "science" of Hangman eerily prefigures today's preoccupation with neural nets and trainable systems. We has dated a bit more but still bears rereading quite well.

%T The Dream Master
%A Roger Zelazny
%I TOR Books
%D May 1990
%O paperback, US$3.50
%P 196
%G 0-671-69874-5

Another early (1966) work by Zelazny that retains its relevance quite well -- his story of Render, the dream-engineering therapist who wanders into peril through failing to understand his own dark dreams. One of the few successful attempts at psychological SF.