[Books] Deadman's Switch & Cascade Point

[jordangreywolf]

Last year at Necronomicon, I managed to find a time slot to check out the dealer's room, and some fellow was selling a bunch of used books at ... well, I can't call them INFLATED prices, per se, but let's just say it's more than what I'm used to paying for books that old and with that much wear and tear. He had some books by Timothy Zahn, and I was inclined to read them, but he'd marked them up because they were SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR.

Oh, such a big deal. Timothy Zahn attends Necronomicon on a yearly or nearly-yearly basis (his wife bought one of my baby dragon framed originals in the art auction a decade ago) and he's quite approachable (and quite happy to sign things). But, whatever: I had a mind to buy SOMETHING, and a couple of old books by Timothy Zahn, I could put in my "stuck in the airport" book queue. I smirked when I saw the date next to the signatures: I shouldn't have been surprised if the ink wasn't even dry.

For whatever reason, I forgot to bring along a book for several trips, and I started reading and then ended up misplacing the books at some point, but recently (3 weeks of flying back and forth between here, Morristown NJ and Atlanta GA) I finally got around to finishing off both books.

Cascade Point (and Other Stories)
This is a circa 1987 collection of several short stories by Timothy Zahn, complete with retrospective segments at the end of each story where he tells a little bit about what he was thinking about when he wrote it. (It reminds me of the little notes accompanying Stephen King's stories when I attempted to make my way through "Everything's Eventual" -- but abandoned that after tiring of a disagreeable TREND I was noticing in his tales.)

Also, I have to laugh at the cover of this (and the other) as it so obviously reflects the practice I've heard about with a lot of sci-fi story publishers where they'll just maintain an arsenal of "generic sci-fi cover art," and paste it on without any real consideration for whether or not it matches the story therein. It's not that it fails to match, but rather that it fails to CONNECT in any apparent way other than that the cover screams, "Hey! This is SCI-FI!"

Some of those stories are JUST SO EARLY EIGHTIES. Computers use phones, and you have to swap out tapes, and an onboard ship's computer has a very limited amount of memory that has to be emptied out so you can free up enough space to run some new calculations, etc. Some, however, seem about as relevant today, and even the "dated" ones could probably be adapted with a few tweaks in terminology.

I was a little surprised at Zahn's tendency to employ elements I would think of as supernatural in sci-fi ... in the form of psychic powers, that is. But then, how many sci-fi RPGs are there that I've played that DID NOT have psychic abilities as an acceptable stand-in for magic?

The stories, IMHO, increase in quality toward the end of the book. They're also ALMOST in chronological order (in terms of being originally published, and I'll guess when they were written), so I guess that makes sense.

Dragon Pax is a fascinating spin on the typical "evil empire/emperor" vs. "rebellion" trope.

The Challenge is fascinating to me merely in just how amazingly dated it is. Imagine, if you will, virtual reality having remarkable complexity, but the UI is dictated by something like the mechanics of an old text adventure game, a la Infocom's Zork, and that's pretty close to what you have here.

Job Inaction is a curious exploration of a "dystopia" that isn't all THAT dystopic, and it's a little easier to imagine how one might have gotten to this point. I feel like it could be fleshed out into a bigger story with some work, but it would probably have to be a collaborative work: Zahn doesn't seem to be quite at home writing about the life of a corporate drone.

Teamwork is an interesting puzzle of a story. It only falls into place at the end. Kind of Twilight-Zone-ish.

The Final Report on the Lifeline Experiment is a surprising attempt to tackle a fraught topic such as abortion from a nominally sci-fi angle. The underlying story idea ages better than several of his others, but I can't imagine anyone being insane enough to actually attempt to adapt this to, say, TV (or without feeling obliged to put a political spin on it, one way or the other).

Cascade Point is the real gem of this collection -- as one would expect, since it won a Hugo award, and the collection is named after it. While the tech terms might need a bit of work to fit with our current expectations of computers and space travel, the heart of the story still ages well.

Overall, it was an enjoyable collection of short stories, perfect for taking my mind off of the doldrums of being stuck on an airliner or in an airport without a tablet loaded with movies or games to distract me.


Deadman Switch
Circa 1988. This book is fascinating in terms of story-craft and world-building.

Like so many of Timothy Zahn's books, the sci-fi is a little muddled by the presence of alien beings who have some form of telepathy ... but unlike certain fantasy stories, there are at least very strict LIMITS placed upon the fantastic elements, so I'm still willing to accept this as science fiction.

The future has certain dystopic elements, without being a full-blown dystopia. The story features characters with religious beliefs without being preachy (without feeling some obligation to make them Right, but also without setting them up as straw-men to be swatted away by the forces of Logic and Reason either).

It surprised me as it seemed to be setting up for certain annoying tropes of such stories ... and then veered off course. Surprise! The writer isn't going that way! But it didn't seem to be surprising JUST FOR THE SAKE of a surprise.

It features a protagonist with a remarkable "skill-magic" level of ability (i.e., his extreme perception of details to the point where he can "read" people), but it firmly places LIMITS upon his ability, and the story places him in situations where he simply cannot rely upon those strengths to pull him through.

Characters matter. It's not all just about the protagonist.

There can be adversaries without it all being Black Hat / White Hat.

There are elements of mystery where not everything is spelled out for me in excruciating detail. There are parts of the story where I might catch on as to what is happening ... but if I don't, I can still follow along with the story (and then later on finally start to fit in the pieces on what I'd missed earlier).

If I were actually a writer, this would give me an awful lot to think about when tackling how things unfold in my stories. ;)

...

Overall, this simply reinforces my already high opinion of Mr. Zahn. I hope I can think of some succinct way to sum up my favorable opinions of his stories the next time I get a chance to see him at a convention. :) (But I suppose the best way to show my thanks would be to buy some of his new books, rather than getting them all second-hand. ;) )

Comments

[tuftears]

Of his recent works I've enjoyed both his Dragonback series and his Quadrail series. And you are a writer-- you just tend to write tabletop campaigns rather than straight fiction. };)

[jordangreywolf]

I guess I've really got to check those out. :)

[rowyn]

I still fondly remember Greywolf's Rulesbreaker story! <3

[rowyn]

I read so very little these days, but I admit Deadman's Switch sounds pretty tempting. :)