author : David Langford

Hilarious and devastating SF parodies

Contents

• Xanthopsia. 1988

• Tales of the Black Scriveners. 1988

• Look At It This Way. 1985

• The Distressing Damsel. 1984

• Duel of Words. 1983

• The Thing in the Bedroom. 1984

• The Gutting. 1988

• The Mad Gods' Omelette. 1984

• Jellyfish. 1985

• Lost Event Horizon. 1984

• The Spawn of Non-Q. 1988

• Outbreak. 1985

Dave Langford has been writing wittily but scathingly about the worst excesses of SF and fandom for some time now. This volume collects some of his best reviews, reminisces, and talks at various SF cons, including:

• Seacon '84: The Dragonhiker's Guide to Battlefield Covenant at Dune's Edge: Odyssey Two (not to be confused with the book of parodies of the same title)
• Conspiracy '87: The Ansible Review of the Year
• Eastcon '90: Fun with Senseless Violence

The many essays include unflattering reviews of Famous SF Writers, of minor SF writers, and of mainstream writers who are writing what they fondly believe to be original SF. Langford illustrates plot holes of mind-boggling magnitude, and the odd deus ex machina of massive implausibility, in his inimitable erudite style that leaves me thinking 'I wish I could say things like that' (instead of that rather more obscure style and bizarre vocabulary of certain other SF critics, that leaves me instead thinking, 'huh?'). Scattered throughout the essays are choice quotations plucked from the very depths of the genre we know and love, such as the oft-quoted line from Stephen Donaldson's White Gold Wielder:

Readers of Donaldson need a dictionary as their constant companion. On the other hand, a thesaurus seems to be the constant companion of the prolific Lionel Fanthorpe, here writing as Pel Torro, one of his many pseudonyms, in Galaxy 666:

Difficult to read in a single sitting, due to excessive laughter. Highly recommended.

A collection of his SFX columns (3, 5, 7, 10, 11, 13--32), here unabridged

Langford is renowned for his learned and often devastatingly witty commentaries on science fiction, and gathered here is a collection of his book reviews, essays, and forewords written over the last couple of decades. As the author himself notes in his own forward, there is a rather noticable progression of tone:

So early on we get the caustic reviews of Niven's Ringworld Engineers, Heinlein's The Number of the Beast ---, and the like, whereas later on it's rather more lovingly detailed accounts of the individual books in a couple of Gene Wolfe's sagas. There is a short return to high blood pressure near the end, with a scathing review of Kevin J. Anderson's Hidden Empire.

The individual book reviews are interspersed with longer reviews of authors themselves, including a thoughtful look at the way Jack Vance's revenge theme has matured, and a sympathetic look at Eric Frank Russell's Fortean obsessions. It's not entirely SF: there are also some other authors covered, including G. K. Chesterton and Ernest Bramah (an author I know only through a mention on one of the Lord Peter Wimsey novels). The several prefaces for book collections are themselves cast as reviews of bodies of work, so these fit well into the overall theme of the collection.

It's quite clear that Langford rates Gene Wolfe very highly. My own opinion of Wolfe was formed by reading his short story collection The Island of Dr Death and Other Stories several decades ago, and I've never read any more of his work. I have occasionally wondered whether, maybe, that collection was atypical, or my tastes have changed. So reading Langford's reviews was doubly beneficial: not only did I enjoy the experience, but they also gave me cause to believe that my original opinion is still correct. That's precisely what a good review should do: tell you whether or not you should bother reading the book, no matter whether the reviewer liked it or not. This book is a collection of such reviews. (Has my review convinced you to read it?)