Raymond's Reviews #54

%T The Pellucidar Cycle (in six volumes)
%A Edgar Rice Burroughs
%I Ballantine/Del Rey
%D May 1990
%O paperback, US$3.95 each.
%P 181/182/229/230/186/231
%G 0-345-366{68-9,69-7,70-0,71-9,72-7,73-5}

Oh, boy. This is pure-dee thud-and-blunder from the most consummate hack the SF/fantasy field has ever produced -- Edgar Rice Burroughs. Though less-known than his Tarzan or John-Carter-of-Mars books, these contains all the archetypal elements and slam-bang page-turning storytelling drive that have made ERB a perennial favorite. Read them for the high-camp retro sizzle as studly All-American Boy David Innes confronts savages, dinosaurs and sultry barbarian queens in the hollow interior of the Earth. They don't write 'em any badder than this.

%T The Undesired Princess & The Enchanted Bunny
%A L. Sprague DeCamp & David Drake
%I Baen
%D May 1990
%O paperback, US$3.95
%P 263
%G 0-671-69875-3

This package marries about 3/4s 1950-vintage humorous fantasy by L. Sprague deCamp to 1/4 `tribute' in the same style by David Drake. No points for guessing which one is worth taking home and keeping.

%T The Honorable Barbarian
%A L. Sprague DeCamp
%I Del Rey
%D May 1990
%O paperback, US$4.95
%P 201
%G 0-345-36652-2

This sequel to The Unbeheaded King is more of the expected from deCamp; a gentle, funny, spoofy fantasy that pokes ironic fun at the conventions of the genre. This time it's Jorian's kid brother Kerin that's up to his ears in trouble thanks to hot-blooded Princess Adeliza and a comedy of increasing errors. I give it the Raymond's Reviews Rubber Ducky award for Superior Bathtub-And-Bedtime reading. Enjoy!

%S Robots and Aliens Alliance
%T Alliance
%V #4
%A Jerry Oltion
%I Berkeley/Ace
%D May 1990
%O paperback, US$3.95
%P 168
%G 0-441-73130-9

Jerry Oltion has written good stuff for Analog in the past, but I found this series installment unreadable. I don't think that's his fault; the problem is that the series is relentlessly juvenile and `cute' and the premises has stellar-sized holes in them. Your kids (assuming you have some and they aren't into adult SF already) might like it.