Anthology: The Big Baen Book of Monsters

I read The Big Baen Book of Monsters, edited by Hank Davis, because it contains the Hugo-nominated story "A Single Samurai" by Steven Diamond. It was part of the Hugo voters package, and as both the premise and the table of contents looked interesting, I decided to read the entire anthology. After all, monsters have always been a big part of science fiction, especially during the years of the pulps. We can speculate on just what these horrifying creatures represent, from the Communist Menace to an angry planet taking back control - but the frisson of fear, the element of awe, that we experience in reading such tales can be great fun, as long as we're safe at home when we read about them.

The opening story was one by Arthur C. Clarke that was new to me, "The Shining Ones," in which a deepsea engineer encounters something unexpected and vast - and deadly. Good, but what else does one expect from Clarke?

In Howard Waldrop's "All About Strange Monsters of the Recent Past," the Earth is overwhelmed by all the monsters from every '50s sci-fi film (Martian invaders, giant lizards and grasshoppers and everything else that was ever put on film in that decade, and one of the few remaining humans heads to New Mexico for a showdown from one of the first films of the genre, Them! Fun reading.

"The Monster-God of Mamurth" by Edmond Hamilton, in which some travellers in North Africa find a dying archaeologist who has discovered an ancient city, an invisible temple and a horrifying monster-god. Nicely Lovecraftesque.

"Talent," by Robert Bloch, is the story of a very odd child with a remarkable talent for mimicry and an obsession with watching and imitating the villains from the movies. A showcase for Bloch's remarkable talent for horror.

David Drake's "The End of the Hunt" could best be described as a far future "Leiningen Versus the Ants" - with a genetically engineered symbiote as Leiningen facing off against some extremely mutated ants. An interesting idea, but the telling is a bit disjointed.

Anthony Melville Rud's "Ooze," first published in 1923, is a tale set in a "sinister" southern Alabama swamp, home to "darkys" and "queer, half-wild" Cajans who are notable for distilling and selling illicit "shinny." Setting aside as best one can the casual racism of the time, the next bit that made me a tad uncomfortable was learning that the protagonist is raising the daughter of deceased friends Lee and Peggy - having had a crush on Peggy, he now hopes the four-year-old Elsie will come to love him as more than a foster father. Oh well, on to the story. The protagonist has come to Alabama to find out whether, as is believed, Lee's scientist father John, who had been conducting research in the swamp, went mad and killed his son and daughter-in-law. As one would expect from the title and the set-up, the answer is no, it wasn't dear old dad, but rather a scientific experiment he'd been cooking up back in the swamp. The story is very much in the same vein as Lovecraft's work, though perhaps a bit less florid, but lacks the intensity and focus of the best of Lovecraft.

Robert E. Howard's "Valley of the Worm" begins with an unfortunate paean to the glory of the blond-haired, blue-eyed Aryan race, into which the narrator has been born throughout thousands of incarnations - one of which being the iron-thewed warrior Niord whose doings the story celebrates. Niord's nomadic tribe of Nordheimers has wandered far, ending up in a jungle, where they meet savage Picts, capturing in battle a warrior named Grom who is described as "grinning broadly and showing tusk-like teeth, his beady eyes glittering from under the tangled black mane that fell over his low forehead. His limbs were almost apelike in their thickness." After that, the Nordheimers and Picts live peaceably, until a group of young Nordheimers decide to settle in a valley feared by the Picts. You can probably tell the story yourself from here. A classic Howard story, with mighty sword-wielding heroes, a ghastly monster, and all the subtlety of a Mack truck.

In Wen Spencer's "Whoever Fights Monsters," a mild-mannered insurance adjustor deals with some very strange damage claims, two laconic government agents obsessed with food, and a lake monster hunting for its stolen eggs. A monster story with a light touch.

In Steven Utley's "Deviations from a Theme," we encounter a species of god-like creatures from outside the time-space continuum as we know it, whose favoured pastime is creating universes. But when a teacher allows an inept student of the art to practice on their own creation, the consequences are quote deadly.

"The Eggs from Lake Tanganyika" by Curt Siodmak is one of those cautionary tales about Western natural scientists who think they know better than the inhabitants of the area they are studying. In this case, an entomologist brings home four gigantic eggs that terrified his African hosts. Hatching ensues, but the ending is too facile to work effectively.

And what collection of monster tales would be complete without something from one of the early masters of monstrous horror, H. P. Lovecraft? "The Dunwich Horror" unfolds in its elliptical, italicized and adjective-laden manner, building up to the final revelation concerning the children of Lavinia Whateley.

In Sarah A. Hoyt's "From Out the Fire," a squad of mage-soldiers take on the threat of 50-foot fire snails that could trigger the Yellowstone caldera to erupt. Some nice twists and turns.

"Beauty and the Beast," by Golden Age master Henry Kuttner, begins with the crash landing on Earth of a spaceship sent out just a few months before to explore Venus. The man who finds the wreck also finds its pilot dead, with notes on the ruins of an ancient Venusian civilisation, some seeds, and a great jewel-like egg. Naturally, our protagonist plants the seeds and hatches the egg - but which is the beauty and which the beast?

William Hope Hodgson's "The Island of the Ud" is a rip-roaring seaman's tale about ship captains and treasure hunting and wild devil women and sea monsters, by one of the early masters of modern fantasy.

Steven Diamond's "A Single Samurai was something of a disappointment. An interesting idea - a mountain-sized kaiju awakens and begins to destroy the countryside, and one samurai tries to stop it - but rather blandly executed, and with a climax that stretches one's suspension of belief.

In "Planet of Dread," a novelette by classic sf pulp writer Murray Leinster, a group of fugitives battle giant insects and internal conflicts on a planet where terrafoming went seriously wrong. Good pulpy fun.

Philip Wylie's "Letter to the Thessalonians" is actually an excerpt from a novel, but stands alone because it is a short story written by the main character. In this tale, a thousand-mile high giant sets down on earth, its feet in the Atlantic Ocean, its head well above the atmosphere. As sea levels rise, and panic spreads, Wylie deftly satirises all the standard responses of humans to crisis.

In Wardon Allan Curtis' " The Monster of Lake Lametrie," published in 1899, a scientist and his companion explore the area around a remote lake in the mountains of Wyoming, where they encounter an elasmosaurus, and very peculiar things happen.

The cast of Hank Davis' "The Giant Cat of Sumatra" includes several members of the ancient Egyptian pantheon including two immortal cat-goddesses who can assume human form, Sherlock Holmes, and of course, the Giant Rat of Sumatra. It's a fun read.

In "Greenface" by James H. Schmitz, a strange green gelatinous creature terrorises the guests at a fishing camp, growing larger as time passes.

The final story in the anthology is "Tokyo Raider" by Larry Correia. In an alternate Earth, where people have powers that enable them to manipulate forces such as fire, ice and gravity, an American soldier-mage uses his powers to control a giant Japanese-made robot in an attack on an enormous city-destroying Russian demon that seems remarkably like Godzilla.

All in all some great stories, some decent stories, a few disappointments - about par for any anthology - and lots of very cool monsters.



* This anthology contains 21 stories, two of which are identifiable as being written by women.

Marion Zimmer Bradley and Adrienne Martine-Barnes: Exile's Song and The Shadow Matrix

What I call the Marja and Mikhail trilogy - Exile's Song (pub. 1996), The Shadow Matrix (pub. 1997) and Traitor's Sun (pub. 1998) - was originally credited to Marion Zimmer Bradley when first published, although Adrienne Martine-Barnes was mentioned as having worked on the books with Bradley. In later editions, however, and on the MZB Literary Trust website, Martine-Barnes is now listed as the author of all three books, suggesting that Bradley's contribution was limited, due no doubt to her ill health.

The first two novels - Exile's Song and The Shadow Matrix - are essentially parts one and two of the same story. They deal with the return of Margaret Alton - the daughter of Lew Alton and part-chieri Thyra Darriel - to Darkover, and her relationship with Mikhail Lanart-Hastur, son of Gabriel Lanart-Alton and Javanne Hastur, and Regis Hastur's adopted heir.

In Exile's Song, Margaret Alton (also known as Marja or Marguerida), comes home to Darkover. Estranged from her father since she left her home on the planet Thetis to attend University, Margaret is a musicologist. Together with her mentor, Ivor Davidson, she has come to survey Darkover's musical traditions. Sadly, just days after they arrive, Ivor dies suddenly of a heart attack, and Margaret is left to continue his research alone - if she can, on a planet as relentlessly patriarchal as Darkover.

From the moment she lands, Margaret finds parts of her long-suppressed childhood surfacing, often with unexpected consequences. She is also thrown headlong into the complex politics of Darkover, since she is the heiress to the powerful Alton Domain, which has been under the Wardenship of Gabriel Lanart-Alton since her father Lew's departure from Darkover - and Gabriel is loathe to relinquish his position and power.

Travelling in the Hellers with a Renunciate guide, Margaret is struck down with a severe case of threshold fever as her long-dormant laran awakens. Rafaella takes her to the nearby Ardais estate. While struggling with her new abilities, Margaret realises that as a child she was overshadowed by the long-dead Keeper Ashara; she confronts Ashara in a psychic battle in the Overworld, and destroys Ashara's tower there, breaking the ancient leronis' power over her - but in doing so, the patterns within the great matrix at the heart of Ashara's Tower are branded into the flesh of her hand. While recovering from her illness, Margaret meets - and is deeply attracted to - Mikhail, who currently serves as young Dyan Ardais' paxman.

When Margaret's kinsman Gabriel arrives and demands that she return to Armida, she is at first inclined to ignore him and leave Darkover, when her father urges her telepathically to go to Armida.

While fending off pressure from Gabriel and his wife Javanne to accept a proposal from one of their older sons, Margaret discovers just how powerful and dangerous her laran is - woken by one of Gabriel's grandchildren, she accidentally uses the Alton Voice and sends the child's spirit into the Overworld. She also discovers that she has the Alderan gift of seeing the future, when she sees danger ahead for another of the children - which so distresses the child's mother that she insists on leaving Armida with her husband and family in the face of a growing storm. The child is gravely wounded in a carriage accident.

In the midst of this turmoil, Lew arrives at Armida, having given up his Senate seat and returned to Darkover with his dying wife, Diotima Ridenow, and brings Margaret back with him to Thendara.

The novel ends with Regis Hastur announcing that he is reforming the Comyn Council, and appointing Mikhail Regent of Elhalyn, in the absence of any suitable heirs.

The Shadow Matrix begins shortly after the conclusion of Exile's Song. Marguerida - as Margaret Alton is now called - is at Arilinn, but her training is not going well. Unable to tolerate the high-level matrices for long periods of time, she is living in a guest-house. An adult of a decidedly independent and questioning nature, she is surrounded by other trainees who mistrust and fear her, and teachers who have no idea of how to deal with her. Thanks to Lew, she is able to go instead to Neskaya, where Istvana, the leronis who helped her during her threshold sickness, is Keeper.

Meanwhile, Mikhail has been sent to test the laran potential of the last of the Elhalyn line; he discovers their mother deranged and in the thrall of an unethical leronis, her children neglected and emotionally damaged. Temporarily enthralled himself, he finally confronts the leronis, freeing the children, although their mother dies. He returns to Thendara with the children, but must report to Regis that none of the boys are capable of assuming the Elhalyn kingship - the two oldest are damaged too severely from their experiences, and Emun, the youngest, is frail and without laran. The girls, however, have better chances for a future, as Valenta has considerable laran, and Miralys has already attracted the attentions of Dani Hastur, Regis' son.

Regis has been matchmaking for political gain - he has invited Lord Damon Aldaran and his daughter Gisela to Thendara, hoping that Mikhail can be persuaded to marry her, an alliance that would bring Aldaran back into the Comyn Domains. Mikhail suggests to Regis that one of his older brothers would be a better match.

Both Mikhail and Marguerida - who have been in frequent telepathic content throughout these events - have been hearing a strange voice calling to them, speaking of Hali and Midwinter, underlying the eerie portent of the time they both saw the Tower of Hali, undamaged, on their journey together from Armida to Thendara.

Marguerida comes to Thendara for Midwinter, and on the night of the Ball in Comyn Castle, the voice commands them to go to Hali immediately, while some unknown force holds the others motionless and unable to prevent their departure. Racing to Hali, they find the Tower seemingly undamaged again, and entering it, are drawn into the past, to the time of Varzil - and Ashara.

Varzil is dying, and he dares not allow his matrix - which is both powerful and enhanced - to fall into Ashara's hands. He has called Marguerida and Mikhail into the past because they are in some way similar to the people who would have been his allies and successors, had they lived. Instead, it is Mikhail who receives Varzil's matrix, in a ceremony in which he and Marguerida are married di catenas.

After the wedding, Varzil vanishes, after giving Mikhail a final message to they must return to the rhu fead, the repository of powerful artefacts at Hali, in forty days. After foiling the plan of a local lord to start a nuclear war with laran-refined uranium, they flee to Hali, plunging into the strange substance that fills the lake there in order to escape pursuit. When they emerge, they find Ashara there, but they enter the rhu fead and return to their own time, to learn that only hours have passed.

With their marriage an established fact - and with Marguerida a month into a pregnancy that did not exist the day before - most of the Comyn eventually accept their account of what happened. When Dani Hastur, Regis' son, declares his love for Miralys and his opposition to being his father's heir, Regis declares him the heir to Elhalyn, and appoints Mikhail his heir. Marguerida renounces her claim to the Alton Domain in favour of her kinsman Gabriel, and it is decided that Istvana of Neskaya will come to Thendara to reform a Keeper's circle there, and to train Marguerida and Mikhail. And using her new understanding of her powers, Marguerida is able to partially cure her step-mother Diotima, giving her parents a few more years together.

And thus the new generation - Mikhail and Marguerida, Dani and Miralys, and other young Comyn - is set in place to begin the next phase of Darkover's history.

These two books are significant in the story of Darkover because they signal the coming end (at least for now - who knows what might happen if the series continues to grow in other hands) of the period of contact between the Terrans and the people of Darkover. Looked at in order by internal chronology, the relationship has seen many changes between the events of Rediscovery and those of Exile's Song and The Shadow Matrix. On the Terran side, there was a tension for many years between a policy of allowing planets like Darkover to choose the nature and extent of their ties to the Terran Empire, and a desire to exploit whatever the planet might have to offer, for profit, or for the use of the Empire. On the Darkovan side, the predominant response to the presence of the Terrans - held to firmly by successive generations of Hasturs - has been a desire to minimise contact and preserve Darkovan culture, while at the same time selectively and cautiously incorporating certain technologies and perspectives that will benefit the people of Darkover - though there has always been a faction that sought to fully embrace Terran technology and culture.

As Exile's Song begins, the Terran Empire is in difficulty. Most of the easily habitable planets within the sphere of the Empire's galactic reach have been discovered and colonised. Population pressure continues to push for new colonies, but unclaimed real estate is becoming hard to find and expensive to develop. The Expansionist Party is pushing for austerity on the one hand, and opening up to new settlements and development the various protected worlds - such as Darkover. As Lew Alton explains in Exile's Song:

"There are a number of parties in the Federation at present, but the largest are the Expansionist Party and the Liberals. For the past several decades, the Liberals, who believe that planets should choose the sort of government they wish, have been the majority in both houses. Now this has changed. There are just barely enough votes in the Senate to prevent the Expansionists from changing policy so that the needs of the Federation take precedence over the wishes of any individual planet. If the Expansionists have their way, no world will be safe from the greed of the Terrans."

By the time of the events of The Shadow Matrix, the Terran Federation is clearly having problems. Marguerida learns from Ida Davidson, who has come to Darkover to retrieve her husband's body, that grant and positions are being cut at the University, and that travel in the Federation, especially to Protected worlds such as Darkover, has become difficult to arrange and uncomfortable to experience. Even more troubling, when she goes to the spaceport to meet Ida, she finds security has been tightened in response to an uprising on another Protected planet. When she discusses these things with Lew, he responds:

"The Federation is starting to crack, Marguerida. It is too large to govern, and those who imagine they can run it are deluded. What is needed is not a return to the greedy policies of the past, but instead a whole new form of government, instead of the muddle we have now, a patchwork of agreements that no longer serve. Only the vision is lacking. The Terranan have expanded their horizons without enlarging their imaginations."

Later, Rafe Scott - Marguerida's uncle, and a Captain in the Terran spaceforce, talks about the changes he is seeing in attitudes toward the Protected worlds:

"The Federation does not like having protected planets that it cannot order about, and there are rumors that all the Protectorates will be changed soon. It is a ploy to force places like Darkover to give up their status and become full members, and they can do it, too. ... Quite simple, really. Stop trade, ruin the economy for a generation, and then come in and take over."

Meanwhile, running through the books is a hint that there is growing discontent among the people of Darkover, most notably in the growing presence of the Travellers - itinerant entertainers whose offerings increasingly include satire.

They came to Thendara during the Midsummer and Midwinter Festivals, and the rest of the time they drove around the countryside, offering their entertainments in the smaller cities, and at places like Armida. His father did not approve of them, saying quite truthfully, that they were not respectable folk. But Mikhail found their little plays, which satirized lord and farmer with equal generosity, very amusing. He had wondered about them a few times, since they were a relatively recent development.

These glimpses into the larger state of things, embedded as they are in what is otherwise a highly personal and largely character-driven narrative, set up the dramatic changes to come in the next novel, TheTraitor's Sun.