Subject: Fantasy Recommendation

From: [email-masked]
Date: 20 Jan 88 00:46:00 GMT

Okay, so I'm always one step behind the current topics.  Blame this on the
computer services people at my humble place of employment who refuse to set
us up as a USENET host.  Were it not for the efforts of the good folk at
SF-LOVERS Digest, I'd be completely in the dark.

   Anyway, I just got an SF-LOVERS full of fantasy recommendations and I just
have to add my two cents;

          _The Infinity Concerto_
          _The Serpent Mage_
                              both by Greg Bear

   Why do I wake from my ancient slumber to recommend these books? Well, 
they're good of course, but there's something else.  I have been reading
fantasy and science fiction for over 18 years (I count Dr. Seuss), and for
the past decade of that time I have been trying to recapture some of the
"Gosh, Wow! Sense of Wonder!"  I got from reading books in the first eight
years (all books, even the lousy ones).  These two books have shaken my
jaded sensibilities out of their stupor and sent me daydreaming again.
They are not Tolkien-style.  They are not Zelazny-style. They are not
LeGuin style. Not Donaldson. Not Moorcock, Eddings, Brust,Vance,... They are
like nothing else I've read (and I've read alot).
   The plot centers around a young (15 or so) self proclaimed poet who leaves 
our world for the surreal world of the Sidhe.  (Aside: I had avoided reading
the book for months because the blurb made me think it was just another
damned Celtic mythos elf-lover book. Wrong.) Aeons ago there was a 
cataclysmic conflict in which the humans destroyed(or stole) the souls of
the Sidhe, and in retaliation the Sidhe managed to de-evolve us into small
furry tree-dwelling primates.  Later the Sidhe left, finally settling into
their own pocket universe.  Is our universe a pocket universe? well, yes
and no; it was, but now it isn't... to say more would be spoiling.  Anyway,
the protagonist goes there, goes through a "boot camp of life" (quick coming
of age stuff; The World Is Not Fair, The Good Thing And The Right Thing Are
Not Always The Same, etc.) and proceeds to be manipulated by everybody and
his brother.  As he learns the nature of things (as well as the fact that he
has something everyone else wants) he takes control of what he can, but never
completely and certainly never perfectly.  In most fantasy he would 
eventually find that he is the wielder of the Great Sceptre of Wazoo and 
proceed to smite the bad guys and re-instate utopia.  In most adult fantasy,
he would discover that waving the Great Sceptre of Wazoo doesn't solve 
anything.  In this case there is a Great Sceptre of Wazoo(sort of), but
neither of the previous things happens.
   I guess the real miracle of this book is that it made me, a gruff engineer
who (wrongly) deplores art as effete and self-serving, feel I understood this
poet (my Italian grandmother would use the word "sympatico").  The same goes
for all the characters; their actions are logical and uncontrived.  This
is saying alot for most fantasy, even so-called "adult" fantasy.
   Okay, enough.  Note that these two books are not independant.  As usual,
it is one big book in two volumes.  Since I don't have direct access to
postings, you may flame me directly at:

[email-masked]