CHEAP TRUTH TOP TEN

This latest edition of the CHEAP TRUTH recommended list concentrates on the fractious antics of the sophomore class -- expecially the noisy contingent.

• The "Funny Title Trilogy:"
  • FRONTERA by Lewis Shiner (Baen $2.95; Sphere L2.25) Gives the surface of Mars the unpleasant realism of the area downwind of Kiev.
  • SCHISMATRIX by Bruce Sterling (Ace $2.95; Penguin L2.50) Boils down the three-percent beer of space opera into a jolting postmodern whiskey.
  • NEUROMANCER by William Gibson (Ace $2.95; Gollancz L8.95) Fusion-powered icebreaker. Attacked for "flaws" its attackers wish they had.
• ECLIPSE by John Shirley. (Bluejay $8.95) Demented 21st century epic of gutter-level weirdness and paranoid radical politics. In eighteen months the stands will be full of stuff along these lines.
• HOMUNCULUS by James Blaylock (Ace $2.95) Latest effort in the Blaylock/Powers subgenre of West Coast Victoriana. Has the glitter of ANUBIS GATES with funnier characters and a better plot.
• THE SECRET OF LIFE by Rudy Rucker (Bluejay $14.95) The doyen of Transrealism carries his doctrine to the ultimate in this crypto-autobiography. Features bizarre alternating spasms of existential gloom and manic farce.
• FREEDOM BEACH by James Patrick Kelly and John Kessel (Bluejay $8.95) Lively and inventive fix-up by the Glimmer Twins of Humanism. Annoying metafictional noodling does not exceed the limits of tolerance.
• BLOOD MUSIC by Greg Bear (Ace $2.95; Gollancz L9.95) Now in U.S. paperback. The ne plus ultra of modern radical hard SF.
• ISAAC ASIMOV'S SCIENCE FICTION MAGAZINE, Gardner Dozois, ed. ($19.50/yr.) This periodical has made such a quantum leap in quality that it is now impossible to understand American SF in the Eighties without a subscription. The current hotbed of Postmodern innovation, since Jan 86 it has serialized Gibson's COUNT ZERO and published the best stories to date by Cadigan, Kelly, Shiner, and Shepard. Currently featuring odd rumbles of militant pacifism -- an unexpected and interestingly ominous development.