Foundation's Fear
A legendary interstellar saga continues
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Foundation's Fear
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By Gregory Benford
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HarperPrism
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$23.00/$32.50 Canada
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Hardcover, March 1997
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ISBN 0-06-105243-4
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Review by Curt Wohleber
 saac Asimov began the Foundation series in the early 1940s, working on the saga on-and-off until shortly before his death in 1992. In the process he created one of the most popular series in all of science fiction.. With the blessing of the Asimov estate, Gregory Benford has written a new Foundation novel, the first of what's being billed as "The Second Foundation Trilogy." (The second and third installments will be by Greg Bear and David Brin.)
Foundation's Fear returns to the saga's central figure: scientist Hari Seldon. In the first Foundation trilogy, Seldon used the theorems of "psychohistory" to predict the inevitable fall of the mighty Galactic Empire. His calculations revealed that the empire's collapse would plunge humanity into 30,000 years of warfare, misery and chaos. To shorten the interval of galactic anarchy, Seldon established the Foundation, a society organized on psychohistorical principles.
Foundation's Fear looks back at Seldon when he was still struggling to develop his psychohistorical equations. The brilliant young scientist commands vast knowledge of mathematics and economics, and his wife is an accomplished historian. But living the sheltered life of an academic, Seldon still has much to learn about human nature. He undergoes an intense, nearly fatal education in the subject when he finds himself the target of a powerful and ruthless political rival.
Benford also gives readers a cyberpunkish subplot about two illegal artificial intelligences: simulations of the minds of St. Joan of Arc and the French philosopher Voltaire. Joan and Voltaire boot up to debate age-old topics of Faith vs. Reason and Free Will vs. Predestination. Then, to escape deletion, they escape into the Empire's computer network, which harbors strange digital intelligences with terminally bad attitudes toward humanity.
A solid Foundation
Many stories set in "shared universes" tend to be unimaginative hack work. An unfortunate example is the "Isaac Asimov's Robot City" series, which is set in the distant prehistory of the Foundation universe. Happily, Foundation's Fear recaptures the fascination of the original series while adding a fresh perspective on characters, settings and ideas that have been around for more than 50 years. Without straying very far from the spirit or letter of the original, Benford refurbishes some of the Foundation universe's musty, 1940s pulp-magazine trappings and brings in some snazzy new furniture and hardware.
As a practicing scientist, Benford lends a large measure of realism to his portrayal of Hari Seldon's research, though he lapses at times into a distracting and self-serving satire of 1990s academic politics. While Benford has never been known for style, his writing is positively lyrical compared to Asimov's plain but functional wordcraft. And with a few notable exceptions, Asimov wasn't one for creating complex, compelling characters.
To his credit, Benford doesn't try to turn this around and turn Hari Seldon into, say, a moody, scientific messiah compensating for a dysfunctional childhood, but Seldon is a lot less cardboard in Foundation's Fear. And Benford lets Seldon get out more. He jacks into cyberspace and into the mind of an insect-eating, club-wielding primate. He scales an elevator shaft while assassins are in hot pursuit, and manually pilots a starship through a narrow wormhole. This is definitely not Asimov, but that's not such a bad thing.
I can't wait for the next one, when Greg Bear is set loose in the Foundation universe. --Curt
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Otherland: City of Golden Shadow
A golden city offers life and death
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Otherland: City of Golden Shadow
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By Tad Williams
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DAW Books
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$24.95/$29.99 Canada
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Hardcover, Jan. 1997
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ISBN 0-886-77710-0
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Review by Susan Dunman
 enie Sulaweyo supports her family by teaching networking at the local polytechnic university in near-future South Africa, where the legacy of apartheid means most African citizens can access the ever-popular network only with cheap equipment, visiting inexpensive sites. But Renie's position at the university allows her to use sophisticated virtual reality gear, and she agrees to tutor !Xabbu, a Bushman who has come from the Kalahari Desert, in the use of VR.
When Renie's 11-year-old brother Stephen tries to hack into the exclusive Inner District, he mysteriously falls into a coma. Renie enlists the aid of !Xabbu to discover why her brother and many others are suffering from an inexplicable mental illness associated with use of the network. Retracing Stephen's virtual steps, Renie and !Xabbu encounter a sinister establishment called Mr. J's, where any virtual wish is granted. It also appears to be a prison to keep unsuspecting teenagers from returning to the real world.
Unfortunately, Mr. J's is only one piece of an increasingly complex puzzle. There is also the vision of an incredible golden city which appears in the data files of selected individuals, only to disappear once the files are opened. Finding the golden city becomes an obsession and also a life-threatening occupation for any who dare continue their search.
While Renie and !Xabbu are soon forced to run for their lives, others begin scouting out a way to locate the city, including a terminally ill teenage netboy and an aging recluse imprisoned on a secret military base. Divergent paths all lead toward the city in Otherland, where it becomes painfully clear that politics, power and wealth are as much a part of virtual realty as any real place on earth.
A story without end
Acclaimed fantasy author Tad Williams starts his science fiction debut in a big way, literally. The first in a planned four-book series, this beginning title weighs in at over two pounds and 770 pages. Though this may seem rather daunting, the narrative moves at a fast clip, and it is a testimony to Williams's writing skills that mental fatigue never sets in.
Quite the contrary, there is a surprise around every bend as readers are introduced to a conglomeration of characters and subplots within the main story line. Visions of VR are described with a clarity that quicky draws readers in, but it is the characters which will keep folks coming back for more. Of particular interest are Renie and !Xabbu, two Africans brought up in completely different societies who must learn to share the wisdom of the other's culture in order to survive.
The variety of characters and subplots keeps interest levels high, but may also prove frustrating to those with little tolerance for ambiguity or those with little patience. Also, the sheer volume of text promises a spectacular conclusion, yet this book simply ends mid-stride, forcing dedicated readers to wait for the second installment without gaining the satisfaction of having completed a story within a story.
Still, those who have enjoyed Williams's previous work will have no difficulty appreciating his exploration of science fiction, especially as his vision is no less mythical here than in the realms of fantasy. There is also the extreme likelihood that the author will gain a whole new following as science fiction readers are introduced to this powerful storyteller.
Although the ending was anticlimactic, I'm ready for the next installment as soon as it's published! -- Susan
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Flowerdust
A rebel leader struggles to stop a rebellion
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Flowerdust
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By Gwyneth Jones
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Tor Books
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$11.95/$21.95 Canada
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Paperback, Feb. 1997
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ISBN 0-312-86292-X
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Review by L.R.C. Munro
n this sequel to Divine Endurance, Derveet Garuda is a failed woman, a bandit and one of the "wrong-colored," but she is also a royal rebel and the only hope for the subjugated people of a shattered future Malaysia. In this world, a mysterious catastrophe has claimed all knowledge of the great civilizations that once flourished. There is little technology; what remains is held in secret by the mysterious Rulers who live on an island off the coast. The Peninsulans themselves are a matriarchal society, bound to complex traditions of "hearth magic" and strict gender roles. They live under the thumb of the Rulers, whose Koperasi soldiers have imposed oppressive martial law on the land.
The origins of Derveet's rebellion are told in Divine Endurance, where author Gwyneth Jones also introduced Derveet's companion, Cho -- a bio-machine from the past -- and the mechanical guardian cat that accompanies her. Described as a companion book to Divine Endurance, Flowerdust takes place shortly after the seeds of Derveet's rebellion have been sown, but before she is ready to undertake a full scale revolution.
In Flowerdust, Derveet comes to the tiny island of Ranganar to find out what is causing trouble in the refugee camps -- trouble that threatens to explode, too early, into a rebellion that could easily be crushed. In Ranganar, with the help of Cho and a motley collection of allies and enemies, Derveet tracks the trouble to the sudden surfacing of the drug, flowerdust. The trail will lead her and her companions deep into enemy territory, possibly to the secret heart of the Rulers' plans.
Good action adventure but a slow to start
As a stand-alone companion piece to an earlier book, Flowerdust suffers from a number of built-in disadvantages. One is the need to explain everything that's gone before -- from the life story of the main characters to the history and social structure of the Peninsular culture. In the case of this world, it turns out, there is so much to explain that the characters do little but wait for the first 100 pages or so while readers absorb the necessary background. The background itself is not uninteresting, but this actually creates another problem: the story of Derveet's original rebellion, told in bits and pieces through the memories of the characters, sounds so full of action, adventure and emotional interaction, that the passive story at hand begins to pale in comparison.
Those who have read and enjoyed the first book might find suspense in the subtle tensions between characters, but readers coming cold to Flowerdust may find the unspoken interplay frustrating and the condensed social history confusing and hard to follow.
Once the back-filling is completed, though, the story suddenly gets better. The pacing picks up and the book takes on the energy hinted at in reminiscences of the previous story. Certainly the book's other good qualities suddenly leap into view. The writing itself is fine, and the story is enjoyable action adventure. Derveet and her companions are appealing characters and the world itself is an exotic and intriguing twist on a post-apocalyptic, post-technology future.
When it really gets started, Flowerdust is above-average action-adventure science fiction, but readers who've read the first book might enjoy it more than those who haven't.
The writing was good enough that I would be interested in tracking down Divine Endurance. -- LRC
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