Conference noted::sf

1000.0. "Stephen Leigh" by TECRUS::REDFORD (Entropy isn't what it used to be) Wed Jul 17 1991 23:27

"Alien Tongue"
by Stephen Leigh
with essays by Isaac Asimov and Rudy Rucker
Bantam Spectra - Next Wave series, Book 2
1991

A story of alien contact that would have been stale in the fifties. 
Not a good sign for a series that calls itself "The Next Wave".

A black hole has been discovered beyond Pluto, apparently built by an
advanced race of aliens.  A manned probe was sent down it to see what
was on the other side.  It reported coming out in a normal solar
system with intelligent life, but then lost contact.  The probe was
crewed by Kaitlin Turek, the lover of the protagonist, Patrick
Machaffey.  He is heading the second expedition, which also contains a
Russian and a Japanese.  They come through successfully, and meet with
an extremely bird-like race of aliens, whom they dub the Avia, and who
are in a near-space phase of technology. 

One hardly knows where to start, but first off, manned probes?  To
Pluto?  You would send a hundred unmanned ships out there before
going to the expense and risk of a manned expedition.  Did Leigh stop
following the space program with "Destination Moon"?  

Secondly, aliens with similar technology?  Look, when the Spanish came
upon the Aztecs in Mexico, there was already a 2500 year gap in
technology between them.  The Aztecs were at about the stage of Egypt
in the New Kingdom, i.e. 1000 BCE.  They didn't have the wheel or
iron, but did have the calendar and irrigation. That's two cultures of
the same species only 3000 miles apart.  There was an even bigger gap
between the  British and the aborigines in Australia, one of maybe
10,000 years. To think that we'll meet aliens at a similar level is
ludicrous.

The essays by Asimov and Rucker are more interesting, but still are
not adding much new.  Asimov doesn't seem to realize that he's
writing for an SF audience, not mundanes, and so goes through the
usual arguments about the Fermi Paradox.  Rucker throws out some
interesting ideas, including a proposal for a network of amateur SETI
listeners based on satellite TV receivers and home computers.  His
main idea, though, about alien communication via AI software, was
already done in Fred Hoyle's "A for Andromeda".  

I guess this is a tough area to say anything new in.  You would
think, though, that with three separate authors; one new, one with a
few books behind him, and one a grandmaster; that there should be
something new to add.    Maybe it has to come from a new direction,
an alternative to the tired old space aliens.  I'm thinking of Ursula
LeGuin's short story "The Author of the Acacia Seeds", which has more
to say about alien communication in 12 pages than this entire book.
Let's not fixate on hundred-year-old SF cliches, but look at what
real science is doing.

/jlr

    I attempted to read this, and can only heartily confirm the review's
    critique as being directly on target on every account. Further, can
    anyone point out a single "Grandmaster-neophyte" combination book as
    being worth reading?  This seems to be a new marketing ploy: take an
    old, well respected author who is too tired to write anymore, buy his
    name from him, and slap it on a piece of dreck from some unknown
    fanzine writer.
    
    I avoid these like the plague. Am I being too hasty?
    
    -M