Triffids Beard 2 - The Bearded Triffid

Living in an SF Novel
Phoenixine Eighty-Four, September 1996
I've been travelling again and this month saw another visit to Sydney. I took a big thick book for the flight
-- The Year's Best Science Fiction edited by Gardner Dozois. It has 500 odd pages of short stories
(some of them very odd pages indeed) together with a masterful essay summing up the year by Dozois
himself. I've been collecting these omnibus volumes ever since number three (I missed the first two for
some reason) and I've never been disappointed. I read very little short fiction, but I always make a point
of buying the Dozois anthology -- he selects from strength and his tastes usually match mine quite
closely. This year's collection is as good as any and I recommend it highly.
Sydney was fun -- the hotel I usually stay at is called The Rest. It's in Milson's Point which is just by the
harbour bridge. I arrived there and booked myself in and half way through the week, with no warning at
all, it suddenly transformed itself from The Rest Hotel to The Duxton Hotel. I left the hotel to go to
work in the morning and when I got back in the evening it was all changed. The new name was
emblazoned in neon, there was a new logo etched on the sliding glass doors of the entrance, there was
no trace at all of the old name. Even the staff were wearing different uniforms. I began to wonder if I'd
fallen into a parallel universe...
I got up to my room (fortunately I still had a room) and all the old paraphernalia had vanished -- the
letterhead had been changed, the price list for the minibar had a new logo (and the minibar had twice as
many drinks as it had had under the old name). The soap and shampoo in the bathroom were different
brands from what they had been that morning when I showered and there was a bright yellow rubber
duck perched cheekily by the side of the wash basin; a pun on the new name of the hotel, I presume. It
really was unsettling for a minute or three. I've obviously been reading far too much SF.
The flight back turned out to be delayed -- and the delay got longer and longer. Every time I looked at
the departure board the estimated take off time got later. Eventually the plane took off, almost five
hours late. Fortunately I'd brought several books to the airport with me and I sat in a bar and read. Then
later I sat in the aeroplane and read some more.
The Widowmaker by Mike Resnick is the start of yet another series (Oh No!) which I didn't know until
after I'd bought the book. But fortunately it turns out to be complete in itself (Resnick's series books
often are) and I enjoyed it lots. It isn't anything special, just an adventure story, but what's wrong with
that? Jefferson Nighthawk, a bounty hunter and killer known as the Widowmaker is suffering from an
incurable disease and has himself frozen with instructions that he be woken only when a cure has been
found. A century or so into his long sleep a prominent politician is assassinated and a clone is made
from Jefferson Nighthawk, brought hurriedly to maturity and sent to find and eliminate the assassin. The
cloned Widowmaker has all of the original's skills, but none of his experience. He is effectively a naive,
alone on the tough frontier of the galaxy. And that is where the story really starts...
Resnick handles this nonsense very skilfully. The tension never slackens and the ending is truly
surprising. It's a rollicking good yarn.
Richard Matheson was one of the seminal writers of the 1950s (who will ever forget his Incredible
Shrinking Man and the classic film made from the book). His new book (Now You See It) is a very
peculiar novel indeed. As the title implies, it is about a magician. The Great Delacorte is a stage magician
whose career is failing. He invites several people to his home where an afternoon of magic, mystery,
madness and revenge unfolds itself in his booby trapped study. Bodies vanish, severed heads talk.
Murder is done. Or is it? Almost every chapter ends on a cliff-hanger, and the opening of the next
reveals just how well the author has hoodwinked you. Nothing is what it appears to be (as with all the
best magic tricks) and the convolutions of the plot defy belief. You can only read this book once. After
you reach the end and realise just what is really happening the magic vanishes. But while the rollercoaster
ride is in full flight it carries you away into mystery, marvel and the thrill of a lifetime. Just like a
real magic show.