The Letters to the Editor department is intended to be a forum for our readers to express their own opinions and ideas. While we appreciate the many complimentary letters we receive each day, you won't find them on this page. Instead, you will find letters that go beyond or even contradict what we have written, letters that offer a different perspective and provide a different view of science fiction. If you would like to submit a letter, please use our feedback form or send a message to scifiweekly@scifi.com.
-- Craig E. Engler, Editor
The Pros And Cons Of Stephen Baxter
was surprised that the review for Steven Baxter's collection of short stories, Vacuum Diagrams, got an A+. This despite the fact that I am a big Baxter fan and that I have, in fact, gone to some lengths to make a complete set of Xeelee novels.
I think that this collection represents the very best and the very worst that SF has to offer. On the plus side, Baxter is a master of the "Grand Vision." I can only think of a few other authors who are capable of painting such vivid images on such a vast canvas (Heinlein, Niven and Egan come to mind). There is no doubt that Baxter is a creative and original thinker, and the backgrounds for the individual stories in the Xeelee epic (as well as the whole of the epic itself) attest to this.
Alas, for all that Baxter is capable of great ideas when it comes to plot ideas, he does not deal with characterization well. Almost all of his characters are flat and uninteresting, and nearly every solution to a problem is nothing more or less than a quick tech fix. Unfortunately this lack even leeches from the grand vista. One good example is his solutions to the problems of humanity's virtual enslavement by aliens not once, but twice in his future history. This, I submit, is a bold concept (many authors refuse to even suggest that humanity is potentially prone to such a thing). But, in each case, the yoke is removed from humanity's shoulders by a single piece of technology and the cliched gung-ho efforts of a single person. Such things detract from the feel of a story.
I think that Baxter serves as a simultaneous example of what authors should strive for as well as what they should avoid. It can be a difficult rope to walk, but when the effort is accomplished, the results never fade from memory.
Andrew Lias
anrwlias@hotmail.com
Stephen Baxter Says 'Thanks'
s the author, I just want to say thanks for that wonderful--and
perceptive--review of Vacuum Diagrams! Feedback like that makes it all
worthwhile.
Stephen Baxter
The Puppet Masters Is A Trifle
was very interested to see how Mark Wilson would review Heinlein's The Puppet Masters as I had just finished re-reading it. As a long time Heinlein fan I always come away from this book a bit disappointed. Wilson does hit one of the main objections, the ridiculous portrayal of women. But that really only scratches the surface of what's wrong with this trifle from the master.
I've always tried to explain away the shallow characters and adolescent story line as an attempt to write some SF "pulp" fiction. The paranoia of the super secret government organization may be coming back into vogue, but it screams of the '50s mentality. And it's all rather comic book style.
The truly unfortunate part of all of this is the one piece of really fine writing in the book (when Sam is being "ridden"), and the concept itself. Heinlein offers us much better stories, characters and writing almost everywhere else. Perhaps Mark chose to chide the master lightly on this one?
Jay Phillippi
jdrp@cecomet.net
The Puppet Masters Is Just Right
he Puppet Masters is on everyone's list of the best science fiction novels ever written, and for good reason. It is one of the very few novels Heinlein ever wrote that was the "right" length--almost everything else he wrote was either cut to fit magazine production sizes or was (in his later years) massively under-edited. This one is just right.
It is also a political novel, Heinlein's take on Communism and freedom, something even more apparent in the current edition (which restores cuts made in the original version). Mind you, it makes no more sense than any of the rest of Heinlein's politics, but it has to be read that way and it gets its force that way. To treat it as an adventure story misses the point.
One also should make note of the deep and nasty psychological underpinnings of the novel. The father/son relationship is odd, even for Heinlein, and what your reviewer calls sexism is really an odd form of misogyny that is consistent with that father/son relationship.
In short, this is a better and more complex story than you have realized. Please, go back and read it again.
Alan Kornheiser
ASKornheiser@prodigy.net
SF Isn't A Gender Thing
ey! Listen up! I am a 52-year-old woman who can't get enough of science
fiction! My husband and I have raised our children right, too. Our three
children are addicted to the genre as well--everything from our extensive
library, computer games, videos, conventions; you name it.
My husband cut his SF teeth on Heinlein, and I awoke to SF with the
Foundation series. Being an ex-Army brat, I think I own everything
Pournelle has written--Bova too. I've entered The Way and Thistledown with
Greg Bear, and gone through wormholes with Stephen Baxter. I've helped
factions terraform Mars from red to green, and I've done the "Red Planet
Run" and spaced a few disgusting types with Star Svensdotter. I've helped
Honor Harrington (although the books covers on any but On Basilisk
Station make her look too wimpy). I've been to Rocheworld with Robert
Forward, and traveled to the Well of Souls with Nathan Brazil. I've been
through the Coalsack to Mote Prime. I took that long journey to Tiber and
enjoyed the description of the Mars "'cycler." I've played mind games with
Bat on Ganymede and have been fascinated by Sheffield's journey through time
offered to us in Tomorrow and Tomorrow.
I don't care much for "fantasy" (dragons, trolls and wizards). In fact, my
opinion of fantasy is exactly the same as in that wonderful fan spoof,
Fallen Angels by Niven, Pournelle, and Flynn. (Read it!)
I also love Babylon 5! The Great Maker (Straczynski) is a creative genius. I have a life. I am an avid amateur astronomer. I read science books and the New York Times too!
And I know many, many women who are into "hard" SF. It's not a gender
thing. Thanks. I feel much better now.
Mary K. Singer
dsinger@cet.com
Adventure On Ladies!
was thinking through all these letters that I read this morning, and I kept coming back to Miss Pawley's over and over. I decided that I had to respond. I, too, was introduced to SF and fantasy through Asimov. To my father, that was bedtime reading, and I thank him every day of my adult life (don't tell him this, or he'll get a big head!). You see, while other kids were dealing with little blue engines, I was experiencing space and wonder. They were Earthbound, I was encouraged with every tale to expand my horizons.
I got a lot of flack about it in school. I remember crying after my birthday party in sixth grade because every single girl had given me Sweet Valley High books to read. You see, I couldn't understand why people were shoving these "young adult" soap opera books at me in this time when I'm supposed to be learning about real human interaction. My father made it better though; he took me to the used book store and we paid for Madeline L'Engle, C.S. Lewis, and Tolkien with those annoyingly whiny twins from Sweet Valley.
I guess the point of this is to help you see the light at the end of the tunnel, Jennifer. This adventuresome spirit that my father kindled in me has helped me get through everything that's been thrown at me. I'm just finishing a biology degree, and I intend to go on to my love, marine biology, instead of getting a job at an anonymous lab somewhere, like they all want me to. I couldn't go to space, so I went to our other unexplored frontier, the ocean. It's dark and dangerous, but I'll always have Bilbo, Charles Wallace and, in later days, Sassenach, Honor Harrington and Miles Vorkosigan to keep me company.
Adventure on ladies! Don't listen to what "they" tell you. SF is for whoever is brave enough to dream, and anyone who tells you otherwise doesn't understand the truth.
C. H. Mullenweg
charleen@texas.net
Good SF Is Universal
am a college student at Bryn Mawr college, but when I was in high school, all my friends who read science fiction were male. I think that the current perception of science fiction as a genre and as entertainment is that it feeds the "macho image" of space battles, etc.
I think that in some cases, this is true.
But in the better science fiction, the messages are so universal that both men and women can enjoy reading them.
Irina Ruden
iruden@brynmawr.edu
Blessed By SF
ou know, now that I've had time to think about it, I'm feeling remarkably blessed. Unlike the woman who was discouraged from reading SF by teachers, I was encouraged. I discovered Kurt Vonnegut and Franz Kafka when my tenth grade English teacher (female!) handed me a book of short SF, because she knew I would enjoy, and appreciate, it. I discovered Aldous Huxley in a college English class. School librarians tended to adore me because I read for reading's sake, not because I had to, and they would suggest books they liked.
About the only time I was discouraged from reading something was when I ran out of books in the children's section in third grade and tried to get books from the "grownup" bookshelves, not that that stopped me! And both of my parents read, and watched, SF and they both encouraged me to do the same.
If I ever get an entire book finished it'll probably be some form of science fiction. That's where I feel most comfortable. And the ultimate honor would be for Andre Norton to enjoy it even a tenth as much as I have enjoyed hers. Between Andre Norton and Isaac Asimov my fate as an SF "junkie" was sealed...by the stories, not the "science," though that has influenced my interests as well.
C.L. Hight
hudsons_babe@yahoo.com
UPN Deserves Some Credit
just read issue No. 94 and was saddened to see Brimstone being canceled. It's a dark witty and imaginative show with great writing and a very talented cast. Maybe it would have been more "Foxable" if it had been a cartoon.
I also have to praise UPN for some of their programming. They have had some great shows over the years, and have tried to keep SF a large part of the network. With the demise of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine on the horizon Voyager will be the only ST franchise left. Maybe after 12 years it's time to give ST a rest, but I for one would miss one of the best SF series on TV today. As for other UPN programming, why hasn't anyone commented on their Thursday night movie? Made up of mostly SF with some horror, they are for the most part entertaining and usually star a well-known actor. I don't see many other networks churning out these types of films on a regular basis. I'm especially looking forward to the movie Roswell, that yet again goes where we all have been before, but the effects and the story look to be first rate from the previews I've seen.
Craig Tremblay
craigt@nbnet.nb.ca
