Reviewing Dune by Frank Herbert

 

This is one of those books that is so iconic that my own opinion of it is more or less irrelevant. Still, I suppose it won't do any harm to review it here, so let's go.

If I recall correctly, I first read this book in 7th grade, which is now over thirty years ago. (You may be surprised if you watch my videos. I'm older than I look.) The main thing I remember from all that time ago was realizing, Oh, this is what politics is, that is, people maneuvering and jockeying for power, making alliances with people not because they liked them at all, but because they're useful in some fashion. I also remember liking it. I wouldn't say it was my favorite, but I did eventually read all six of the books by Frank Herbert.

So obviously part of the reason I reread this is because of the recent movies. I'm not sure if I would have reread it if it were only the movies, though. Another part of it is that I listened to an episode of Stefan Molyneux's show where he pretty much dumped on Dune for 45 minutes straight, which was amusing. So I also wanted to see if his criticisms held any weight.

So to compare it with the two recent movies: The first movie is actually fairly accurate. They cut some things for time, but that's expected. The feel and general story of the movie match fairly well, though.

The second movie, on the other hand, goes on a very different track, and mostly not a good one. The most obvious and indisputable change is the chronology. In the book, Paul Atreides and his mother are living among the Fremen for about 3 years by the conclusion. In the movie, it all takes place in less than a year. This, frankly, makes the Fremen look like children if they're willing to follow him that quickly. Also, there is no imaginable way to organize a planet-wide rebellion that quickly.

Second, the character of Chani from the books to the movie is unrecognizable. In the books, she does do some fighting (especially after being trained in the Atreides/Gesserit martial arts), but she is mostly a wife and mother. She loves and supports Paul. In the movie, she is a defiant girl-boss who is scowling something like 75% of the time. You could take the most attractive woman on earth and she would be unlikable after that treatment.

Regarding Mr. Molyneux, I must agree that the sandworms are difficult to understand. What could they possibly eat? While I'm reading the book, though, I can suspend that level of disbelief just fine for the sake of the story. Honestly, I think much of his dislike stems from his serious distrust of any kind of mysticism (with understandable reason).

My own overall opinion of the book itself? I enjoyed it. It's still worth reading, and if you haven't, I'd recommend giving it a try. If I recall correctly, the next two books are also good, but after that it kind of goes off the rails.

Reviewing After Dark by Manly Wade Wellman

 

After Dark is the second novel of Silver John by Manly Wade Wellman.  Silver John is a wandering bard in mid-twentieth century Appalachia. He also is a frequent combatant against supernatural evil of all kinds, which he once again crosses paths with in this book.

In this case, John and a few friends are facing off against the Shonokin, a clan of creatures who aren't quite human and claim to predate humanity. Using intimidation and witchcraft, they have slowly driven out the inhabitants of a small town, replacing the town with something creepy and entirely alien. In this book, their goal is to take the land (and daughter) of Ben Grey in a bid to further increase their sorcerous power.

Over the course of the book, John and Ben Grey must face down not just the monstrous Shonokins, but the cowardly and greedy human neighbors willing to collaborate with monsters for just a little profit. The last half of the book is John and his friends besieged overnight by the Shonokins and their witchcraft, facing them down with guts, guns, and a few bits of spellcraft of their own.

It's a distinctly small-scale, local story with possible implications for the whole world, which is a pretty good way to create real emotional stakes, in my opinion. No one fights to "save the world" because no one actually knows "the world." People fight to save this house, this town, this family of their own. Connecting that to a greater catastrophe down the line is fine, but the real story, the real fight, is the fight for your own home that you know and love.

Manly Wade Wellman continues to impress. Go get a copy for yourself and enjoy this tale.

Reviewing The Old Gods Waken by Manly Wade Wellman

I found this book because of Dungeons & Dragons Appendix N, which I know about thanks to Jeffro Johnson. He deserves a great deal of credit for drawing attention to these stories, so be sure to check him out as well.

The Old Gods Waken is the first novel following Silver John, whom Wellman had already written several short stories about. The story is about an Appalachian hillbilly and an American Indian facing down two English druids who were trying to raise the old god Baal in America. Appropriately for the setting, it starts off with a dispute over a property line.

In terms of plot, this is a classic adventure story in which the two heroes must overcome a variety of obstacles to rescue their friends from being sacrificed to a devil. They face several kinds of dangers, some relatively mundane and some outright supernatural. It’s a fun tale.

At least as much as the plot, though, I love the Silver John stories for the language. They are written in a backwoods Appalachian dialect that gives them a distinct flavor without ever becoming obtrusive or veering into mockery. If this were any other group of people (e.g. blacks, Hispanics, Arabs), Wellman would be celebrated for authentically capturing the voice of a people. But since they’re white, our “intelligentsia” are completely uninterested.

It's also fun watching two men face down Baal armed with, among other things, a medieval Christian prayer from Albertus Magnus.

It's a fun adventure story. It's nothing philosophically deep, but it's a good time, and, unlike most things published today, it's not spiritually toxic.

The book is somewhat difficult to get ahold of, although you might check here, if you’re really interested, you might take a look over here. (But I didn't tell you that, okay?)

Just to give you a sample, I'm going to include a couple of quotes from a scene where the two heroes are facing down a crowd of American Indian vampires called Raven Mockers.

John: "I don't rightly know if you're the meanest one in this crowd, but I reckon you're sure God the ugliest. Nobody can deny you that." And a little later: "Come ahead, and don't stop and tarry by the way. You're a-looking for trouble, and I've got a good lavish plenty of it for you, right here and now."

A lot of fun, I highly recommend. Go read 

Finishing my review of Year's Best Fantasy 3

"A Prayer for Captain La Hire" by Patrice E. Sarath - This is a story of four of the companions of Joan of Arc years after the war. It is based on real historical characters and facts about their life.

It is not just good, not just fantasy, it is a Christian story. I am stunned. It may be worth the entire rest of the slag heap to have found this. (Yes, it's not all been a slag heap, but much of it.)

"Origin of the Species" by James Van Pelt - Theoretically, this is a story about a young werewolf, but that's a paper-thin cover for a story about adolescence and romantic jealousy. For good measure, it has a nice helping of "this woman don't need no help from a stupid man" at the end.

Look, I don't mind symbolism and allegory, but I do mind the author standing over your shoulder the entire time pointing and saying, "It's a metaphor. Do you get it? It's a metaphor for [insert subject here]."

Again, a good fantasy story should take us out of our world into something strange and wonderful. This story, like a couple of others in this anthology, instead takes magic and makes it humdrum and everyday. It's just . . . *sigh*

"Tread Softly" by Brian Stableford - In England in the aftermath of World War I, a gravely-injured war medic finds a rare magical artifact that can influence dreams. This one appears to be corrupted, but he makes restoring it his mission in life. However, a series of disasters befall him and those around him and he ends up losing even that.

It's fantasy. It's not just an obvious metaphor for some other issue. It's even modern fantasy, and genuinely creative, which makes it a cut above at least half of this book.

But...

I hate the main character/narrator. He is solipsistic and self-righteous to an unbelievable degree. Possibly Stableford intended him to be unlikable, in which case, he succeeded, but I find it difficult to enjoy stories with such an unlikable main character.

For comparison, try to imagine the inside of Gollum's mind. That's about how slimy this guy feels.

Interesting premise. But, wow, what a horrible person the narrator is.

"How It Ended" by Darrell Schweitzer - A medieval lord and knight returned from the crusades is troubled by terrible dreams and discovers that his life is not what he thought it was.

At the start, I thought this was going to be "middle ages stupid, Christianity bad, crusades evil" ham-handed propaganda. We've certainly had some like that in this collection. I was mistaken. I feel a little troubled by the ending, but it's definitely not the cheap, stupid propaganda piece I had feared.

"Hide and Seek" by Nicholas Royle - A fairly short horror story. Horror, of the right variety, is a kind fantasy. Ok. The concept is a disturbing one. But for some reason, and maybe it was just my own mood, it just did not land for me. I see what he was aiming for, but it just didn't work. Maybe that was on my end, though.

"Death in Love" by R. Garcia y Robertson - It's hard to explain how obnoxious this is as a finish to the book. It took me a while to recognize it, but the main character is a hard Mary Sue. She is the ruler of an island keep guarding the straits to a sea which is an important trading zone. She is supposedly the demi-goddess of death, but that appears to be merely a title, as she has no supernatural capabilities. Everyone treats her, though, as if she is some mystical creature.

She is fantastically good at everything: She is a diplomat, a warrior, a doctor, a ruler, and great at all of them, and all men desire her. Also, literally everyone, including rulers of tribes she had only heard of three or four days ago, recognizes her on sight and respects her. Even if she was some marvelous being, this is not how the world works before modern communication methods.

The only reason this story is in this book is because it's childish feminist trash.

---

So, what's the verdict on this book as a whole?

It is a disaster. I count seven stories that are worthy of any kind of recognition. Seven out of twenty-nine. A few of the stories here are pure political poison. A lot of it is just stupid and boring. "Aren't I clever. It's a metaphor. Do you understand the metaphor?" Yes. You have all the subtlety of a two-year-old running around with a hammer.

There were a couple of bright spots. But it was like finding a diamond underneath an outhouse. You have to sort through a lot of excrement to get there.

It seriously makes me wonder how I didn't see how bad some other things published around the same time were. It's all managed by the same people. Much of it had to be the same dross.

Those people are not going to change. If we want better, we must look elsewhere, build elsewhere, and vigilantly keep them out.

As a final note, be sure to read A Prayer for Captain La Hire. It is excellent, and a gem among this trash heap.

Continuing review of Year's Best Fantasy 3 - Part 4

 "Sam" by Donald Barr - A man finds himself fading out of existence after being fired from his job and forgotten.

Fantasy? Yes, shading into a weird kind of horror, but yes. Well-written? Yeah. Good story, creepy. Not political message fic.

Although it's not presented this way, it would be easy to tweak this into terrifying horror.

"Persian Eyes" by Tanith Lee - A high-ranking Roman in the imperial period finds a new slave girl much more than he bargained for, to his destruction.

I haven't read much Tanith Lee, but I've heard high praise of her. This is a) very good and b) actually fantasy, transporting me to another world both in terms of time frame and in terms of supernatural threats. Subtle and creepy. Very good.

"Travel Agency" by Ellen Klages - Very feminine. Very self-indulgent, self-insert. Barely qualifies at fantasy at all. Makes a metaphor literal at the very end. *le sigh*

Every single time.

"A Fable of Savior and Reptile" by Steven Popkes - A talking turtle (whose special qualities were not explained as far as I had read) finds and befriends Jesus as a child. He makes it very clear that Jesus is the son of Joseph by a shotgun wedding (crossbow wedding?). John the Baptist is a teenaged sadist. I quit because I see no reason to subject myself to further abuse.

Yes, you're very brave satirizing Christians, who are the target of the monsters in power. You're so very clever telling this from the perspective of a talking turtle.

Once again. This was the "best" of this year?

"Comrade Grandmother" - From the introduction, I was expecting this to be awful. I was expecting Mary-Sue feminist bullshit. I was pleasantly surprised.

This is a story of a woman trying desperately to defend her homeland from invaders and slowly selling herself to an ancient witch to do so. In many ways, it feels like a real fairy tale. It's not easy. It's not pretty. In some ways, it may have been a terrible idea.

The only thing that makes this a little annoying is that the homeland is communist Russia and the invaders are, of course, the evilest people in all history (history history story ory), the Nazis. But, to an ordinary Russian, it was still their home, and it was still an invading army, so I can't really blame them for that.

"Familiar" by China Mieville - An urban horror story. It's never made clear exactly how different this world is from our own. A small-time witch in London summons up a familiar. He soon finds it is not remotely what he expected and is costing him far more than he bargained for.

Fantasy? Check. Intriguing, in a gross and disturbing way? Check. The best point in its favor is that it genuinely has an old-world fairy tale kind of feel: Play around with dark powers and you are going to end up somewhere you very much don't want to be. 

I can't honestly say I liked it, but I also can't say it was poorly done.

"Honeydark" by Liz Williams - A man flees a high position in politics into anonymity in a small village. He finds both a safe haven and a terrible secret.

This feels like it's part of a larger story, like there's a novel or series of stories it's connected to. It's not that it's incomplete, but the scale of the implied background seems to say there's a lot more to this world and it's not a standalone story.

Is it fantasy? Yes. Is it poisonous political propaganda? No, or if so only a bit. It reminds me just a little bit of the story of The Wicker Man. No, I haven't seen it, but I know the basic plot.

I didn't love it, but it also didn't repel me. For this collection, that's a win.

---

There are six more stories (125 more pages) left, so my next update should be the last.

It's really sobering to realize this was 20 years ago and the trajectory has been only downhill since.

It's also sobering to realize that until fairly recently, although I didn't much of this stuff, I didn't recognize how it fit in terms of a larger picture.

The people who have done this to our storytelling are evil. Flat out, no sugarcoating, no excuses. These people are evil. If you are a sane, decent Christian, they hate everything that matters to you.

We can't accept this. We have to take our storytelling back.

Continuing review of Year's Best Fantasy 3 - Part 3

"Social Dreaming of the Frin" by Ursula K. Le Guin - A quasi-sociological report on the people of the "plane" (which term is quite vague) of Frin who share one another's dreams. An actual fantasy story, and actually well-written.

There's no overt political messaging. If I didn't know previously know about it, I don't know if this would occur to me, but Le Guin was interested in Buddhism, and this does have significant Buddhist overtones. But it's not grotesque message-fic. It's a good story which also conveys the author's values. Even if I don't agree with those beliefs, I cannot say this is badly done.

"Five British Dinosaurs" by Michael Swanwick - I can't really call this a story. It's five separate tiny vignettes about dinosaurs. Some are fantasy, kind of. Some are just stories. There's barely enough in any one to actually call it a story. This seems more like a gimmick than fiction.

"The Green Word" by Jeffrey Ford - On the positive side, this is a fantasy story. On the negative side, this is ham-handed message fic. It is about mean, evil Christians in the middle ages persecuting wise, decent pagans. The pagan witch is a Mary Sue with unexplained fantastic physical abilities. The evil Christian king is literally named King Pious. He has no redeeming qualities whatsoever. He is stupid, selfish, hypocritical.

I can read well-written stories by people I disagree with, even appreciate them. This is trash which a reader will only like if he already agrees with the message.

"The Comedian" by Steve Chapman - This is an actual fantasy story about a family with a variety of psychic talents. It's not bad. It's very character focused, in a way that to me, smells a little of someone who wishes he were writing "literary" fiction but has decided that it's easier to get published in genre.

Actually fantasy, not overtly offensive. On the high side for this book.

"The Pagodas of Ciboure" by M. Shayne Bell - A very sick little boy in France (apparently leukemia, although not named most of the story) goes with his mother to the countryside to recover. While there, he meets some magical creatures called pagodas who, legend says, have healing powers. They help him and he ends up helping them, and growing up to be someone quite important.

Really good, actually. Again, no political nonsense. Almost an old school fairy tale. This may be my favorite story so far.

"From the Cradle" by Gene Wolfe - A young man who works in a book shop becomes interested in a rare book that is for sale on consignment. Although he can only see a page or two at a time, he becomes fascinated by its stories, which turn out to be a trail of breadcrumbs leading to . . . something else.

An odd mix of fairy tale and science fiction. Wolfe doesn't provide a complete picture, but a series of dots, and trusts his reader to find the whole. I'm quite certain I missed some things the first time through and should re-read this.

Excellent story.

---

So, I am currently halfway through by page count and just over halfway through counting by stories. What's the score so far?

Out of 15 stories:

Stories that are not fantasy or only maybe fantasy if you squint at it the right way: 6

Stories that are toxic political propaganda (some overlap with previous): 4

Just plain good fantasy stories? 5

Was this the best short fantasy fiction of 2002? No. I'd bet my life no. If I could still find it, I'd bet I could find stories written by nobodies on the internet from that year that were far superior to most of those published here.

It's stunning to me now, to see how far things had fallen already 20 years ago, and I hadn't even noticed it. And, as far as major publishing houses and such go, it's only been downhill since.

We can't accept this, and we can't wait for someone else to fix it. We have to create and support the culture we want.

Speaking of, you might take a look at my own book: The Mayor of Christ Mountain.

Continuing the review of Year's Best Fantasy 3 - part 2

So let's see what other wonders this book of "the best" fantasy stories of 2002 has for us.

"A Book by Its Cover" by P.D. Cacek - In Nazi Germany, shortly before the Holocaust begins in earnest, a Jewish bookshop owner finds his store, which the Nazis had raided and burned all his books, can turn people into a copy of their favorite book, from which state they can be recalled. He uses this to help Jews escape the e-e-e-evil Nazis.

I found this story annoying at first, but after a while, it was actually pretty funny. Once you've grasped that the event in question simply did not happen, the propaganda about it can be humorous. In this case, you have to accept that the Germans this boy knew, for no reason at all, became seized by an insane hatred. They are literally cartoonishly evil. The author does not have the main character's former friend, now Nazi, actually twirl his mustache while cackling maniacally, but he may as well have.

The only reason stories like this get by is because they are coasting on a huge swell of emotional manipulation. But if you're free of that, it's quite funny how empty they are.

"Somewhere in My Mind There Is a Painting Box" by Charles de Lint - Holy crap! It's an actual, unambiguous fantasy story...and there's not some wicked political message thinly disguised...and it feels like a fairy tale, with the same kind of dangers of fairy land that stories all the way back to the brothers Grimm might warn of. I'm shocked.

Good story. This is the first good unambiguous fantasy story I've seen here so far, and I'm almost a quarter of the way through the book.

"The Pyramid of Amirah" by James Patrick Kelly - Fantasy? Check. Good? It's interesting and well-written, at least. For a late-twentieth century atheist, this is a pretty good take on religion. So, yeah, it works.

"Our Friend Electricity" by Ron Wolfe - A middle-aged low-level book editor has a whirlwind romance mostly at Coney Island with a pretty twenty-ish young woman. The main character may murder someone with a skee ball. Near the end, he either has a vision of the past or travels back in time briefly for no clearly explained reason.

There are some genuinely poetic passages here, but by the end, it feels self-indulgent, writers writing about writers, for one thing. Also, the "fantasy" element enters late, and is vague and poorly integrated with the rest of the story. This is not a bad story, but it's terrible fantasy.

Again, I grow weary of being sold "It might be fantasy if you squint and look at it from a certain angle." Writers and editors, if you don't want to write fantasy or science fiction, that's fine. You don't have to. Don't write it. But please do not write mundane "literary" fiction, barely dress it up, and try to sell it to me as "fantasy."

I am now about 1/3 of the way through this book and I have found 2 stories, only 2, that are actually good, and actually fantasy. I get the impression Hartwell knows better and I can only attribute this disaster to the co-editor Kathryn Cramer.

Hmmm, Cramer? Oh, every single time.

I will soldier on and complete this review, possibly by the end of this year.