[Search for users] [Overall Top Noters] [List of all Conferences] [Download this site]

Conference noted::sf

Title:Arcana Caelestia
Notice:Directory listings are in topic 2
Moderator:NETRIX::thomas
Created:Thu Dec 08 1983
Last Modified:Fri Jun 06 1997
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:1300
Total number of notes:18728

1193.0. "Dibell/Morris/Gilliland" by VERGA::KLAES (Quo vadimus?) Tue Nov 16 1993 20:32

Article: 430
From: dani@netcom.com (Dani Zweig)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews
Subject: REPOST: Belated Reviews PS#25: Trilogies by Dibell/Morris/Gilliland
Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest)
Date: 16 Nov 93 04:05:43 GMT
 
	Belated Reviews PS#25: Trilogies by Dibell/Morris/Gilliland
 
Another fairly miscellaneous collection of authors.  Good trilogies from
the late seventies and early eighties, this time.  Several weekends of
relatively light reading.
 
Ansen Dibell's "Kantmorie" trilogy (sf, with a fantasy feel) consists of
"Pursuit of the Screamer" (***-), "Circle, Crescent, Star" (****-), and
"Summerfair" (***+).  (Unusually, for a trilogy, the middle book is the
strongest.  That book can also be read on its own, or before the other
two.)  The trilogy's main characters are Jannus -- a human, Poli -- a
Valde, and the Shai -- a giant sea-creature transformed into a spaceship.  
 
Long ago the Shai brought the immortal Tek and their human servants to
this world.  (The empathic Valde were the aboriginal inhabitants, later
modified by the Tek.)  For a while the Tek ruled, and then...something...
went wrong, and their kingdom of Kantmorie fell apart.  Now, centuries
later, plans begun in the time of the Tek are coming to fruition.  The
Shai is reuniting the planet, through an intermediary called Ashai, in
pursuit of its own objectives.  The institution of households -- ruled by
mildly empathic women, protected by Valde volunteers (whose motives for
volunteering nobody has asked) -- is fraying.  And Jannus gets himself and
Poli caught in the middle of these changes.
 
This starts in "Pursuit of the Screamer" when he impulsively rescues a
Screamer -- a Tek whose psychic clamor drives the Valde to hunt it down 
and kill it -- an action which leads him to the main Tek base, and to
accepting the crown of Kantmorie.  (The position is not that useful,
especially given that Kantmorie is long dead.  As King, he can still give
the Shai any order he pleases and be obeyed -- unless the Shai decides
that the order is evidence of his unworthiness for the post, in which case
Jannus dies.  It's much safer not to try.)   "Circle, Crescent, Star"
picks the story up some years later.  Jannus and Poli are living quietly
until he gives in to yet another impulse (these impulses are going to end
up killing him on day), and publicly defies Ashai in a minor matter.  
Suddenly, everyone else who's interested in defying Ashai becomes very 
interested in Jannus -- who's in no position to explain just how little 
power he really has.  "Summerfair" ties the trilogy up, with the final 
confrontation between humans, Valde, Tek, and Shai. 
 
Jannus and Poli are not hero material, but their circumstances have given
them tremendous (if precarious) leverage at a time when powerful -- but
sometimes naive -- entities are trying to reshape their world.  It is the
interplay of the two story levels -- one of ordinary people trying to live
their lives, the other of half-understood forces attempting to play god --
which gives the trilogy much of its strength.  (The relative strength of
"Circle, Crescent, Star" likely comes from the fact that it's acted out on
the smallest stage of the three -- mostly in or near their home.)
 
Janet Morris's "Dream Dancer" trilogy (***+) is excellent space opera -- a
surprisingly good piece of writing from an otherwise uninspired author who
spends most of her time in shared worlds.  The trilogy consists of "Dream
Dancer", "Cruiser Dreams", and "Earth Dreams", and has to be read in that
order.  (The actual books identify themselves as "the three part saga of
the Kerrion empire", but I've never heard them referred to as such.)  
 
In the twenty-third century, civilization is to be found among the stars,
not on back-water Earth.  Marada Kerrion, who should have known better
than to visit Earth, barely survives the experience, thanks to a local
girl named Shebat.  When he leaves, he takes her with him, and gives her
legal status through adoption.  (He doesn't expect her to be able to adapt
to high-tech civilization at her age, but the alternative seems to be to
leave her to die.)  Shebat thus becomes part of one of the most powerful
families in the galaxy -- the manufacturers of the highly intelligent space
cruisers.  When galactic politics go critical, family politics (and her
own surprising talents) give her a pivotal role in the crises which ensue. 
 
The trilogy falls into a recognizable subclass of space opera -- intrigues
in space -- and fails to transcend its genre:  It has some imaginative
and thought-provoking elements, not least of which is a generation of
spaceships just crossing the line into sentience, but those elements are
decorations on the core space opera, not signs of added depth.  That said,
the trilogy is about as good as this kind of story gets, and that can be
very good, with characters who are rich and complex enough to afford us
genuine surprises.
 
Alexis A. Gilliland's "Rosinante" trilogy (***+) consists of "The
Revolution from Rosinante", "Long Shot for Rosinante", and "The Pirates of
Rosinante".  It's an idiosyncratic combination of a light style, amusing
story elements, and a serious story.
 
The story elements come early, fast, and furious.  In a united North
America that's coming apart at the political seams, half a century from
now, the hispanic governor of Texas makes the mistake of ordering the 
Alamo torn down to make room for a housing project.  When the smoke
clears, he has several thousand political embarrassments in jail, and
rather than free them, he pulls strings to illegally ship them to the 
under-construction asteroid habitat of Rosinante.  Suddenly Rosinante goes
from being an engineering project to being a colony.  
 
Meanwhile, back on Earth, an over-reaction to the governor's actions
(okay, so someone assassinates him with a cruise missile) triggers a
political crisis that makes Rosinante an attractive haven for an odd bunch
of refugees.  There's Corporate Skashkash, for instance.  (The twenty-first
century's solution to the legals status of AIs is to incorporate them --
a corporation being a legal person.  Shashkash owns 43% of the shares in
Skashkash Inc.  His employer owns 47%.  And the woman whose assistant he is
owns 10%.)  Skashkash thinks it's a lark when he designs a new religion
for space.  Corporate Elna, however, takes it more seriously, and starts
seeking converts.  Corporate Susan thinks the whole thing is silly, and
would rather concentrate on her research in human genetics.  (She didn't
burden her hosts with the knowledge that there is a powerful Creationist
faction on Earth that wants her -- and any habitat she happens to be
sitting on -- dismantled.)  There's also a dissident faction of the North
American navy, which decides to offer Rosinante its services (rather than
stay and face charges).  Trying to keep some sort of control over this
mess is Charles Cantrell, the project manager, who finds himself playing
international politics for the habitat's survival.
 
Gilliland's quirky mix of eccentric characters, cynical power politics, and
old-style engineering-in-space hard sf works:  This trilogy is fun to read.
Its main weakness is Gilliland's tendency to bear down a bit too heavily
when satirizing politics of which he particularly disapproves.  (The middle
book, which concentrates on the Earth-side political scene, is somewhat
weaker than the other two, which focus more on Rosinante.) 
 
	"Start off by accepting that Corporate Susan Brown is
	here to stay.  It will be easier to defend her than to
	get rid of her.  Besides, she's a damned good doctor;
	you don't *want* to get rid of her."
 
	"She draws nuclear bombs and we don't want to get rid of her?"
 
	"That's the down side, Charles.  The up side is that we
	have the best health care in the Solar System."
 
Gilliland is also the author of the more recent "Wizenbeak" trilogy (***+)
consisting of "Wizenbeak", "The Shadow Shaia", and "Lord of the Troll Bats".
The two trilogies are very similar, despite the earlier one being sf and
this one being fantasy.  Both have the same odd mixture of comedy and
gravity, and both are about people who, mostly through accident of 
circumstance, find themselves holding a tiger by the tail, with a choice
of hanging on or being eaten.  (I thought the second trilogy a bit better
written, but against that, the subject matter of the first trilogy interested
me more.  If you like the one, you'll enjoy the other.)  In this trilogy the
central figure is Wizenbeak, a minor wizard in charge of a colonization 
effort in the far reaches of the kingdom.  When civil and religious strife 
break out, a number of people start gravitating to the far reaches -- *any* 
far reaches! -- and Wizenbeak finds himself having to choose between playing
politics at the highest levels or being dismissed (okay, executed) as a 
nuisance. 
 
	Right, the wizard thought.  We need to approach the little
	darling with maximum sensitivity to spare her delicate feelings.
	Only how to begin?
 
	"Well, Marjia darling," he began after the hoped-for inspiration 
	did not arrive, "we have good news and we have bad news.  The 
	good news is, you are queen of Guhland.  He waited a second to let
	that sink in.  "The bad news is, your mother is dead, your father 
	is dead, your brother is dead, and I am your husband."
 
%A  Dibell, Ansen
%S  The Kantmorie Trilogy
%T  Pursuit of the Screamer
%T  Circle, Cresecent, Star
%T  Summerfair
 
%A  Morris, Janet
%S  The Dream Dancer Trilogy
%O  (for want of a better name)
%T  Dream Dancer
%T  Cruiser Dreams
%T  Earth Dreams
 
%A  Gilliland, Alexis A.
%S  The Rosinante Trilogy
%T  The Revolution from Rosinante
%T  Long Shot for Rosinante
%T  The Pirates of Rosinante
 
%S  The Wizenbeak Trilogy
%T  Wizenbeak
%T  The Shadow Shaia
%T  Lord of the Troll Bats
	
=============================================================================
 
The postscripts to Belated Reviews cover authors of earlier decades who
didn't fit into the original format -- whether because the author seemed
an inappropriate subject, or because I was unfamiliar with too much of the
author's work, or whatever -- or sometimes just isolated works of such
authors.  The emphasis will continue to be on guiding newer readers
towards books or authors worth trying out, rather than on discussing them
comprehensively or in depth.  I'll retain the rating scheme of ****
(recommended), *** (an old favorite that hasn't aged well), ** (a solid
lesser work), and * (nothing special). 
 
-----
Dani Zweig
dani@netcom.com
 
"One of my favorite games when I was a kid was 'murder/suicide.'
 Dad would show us a photo and ask us, "Is it a murder or a suicide?"
	  --  Colleen Doran

T.RTitleUserPersonal
Name
DateLines