The Tenancy by Eva Figes

 

First published in the UK in 1993; published by Minerva on April 25, 1994

Edith lives in a building that is getting old, hasn't been cared for, and is falling apart. The roof leaks, the plumbing doesn't work, repairs are never made. The building could be a metaphor for Edith's life: she hasn't taken care of herself, sacrificing her happiness to care for a mother who constantly criticized her, who complained that Edith didn't keep up her appearance and had lost her chance at finding a husband. Now that her mother is in a nursing home, Edith is alone and run down. Her wealthy brother, always favored by her mother, is indifferent to her; most of the other tenants in the building are a mystery to her. When the building's ownership changes hands, strange things begin to happen: a dangerous looking man with a vicious dog moves into an unoccupied apartment; workers come and take out rotting windows without replacing them. Bureaucratic building inspectors are usually impossible to reach; when they respond, they describe a remedial process that will drag on for years. The situation progresses from bad to worse.

The Tenancy, while unrelentingly depressing, is beautifully written. Figes perfectly captures the sense of malaise that infects people who are struggling against forces beyond their control. She portrays a small community of isolated people and their different approaches to adversity: some withdraw, some try to help each other, some abandon hope. Figes writes without bitterness but she offers no false hope in her story of people worn down by their environment, by their past, and by an uncaring society. With true economy of language, Figes sketches out the important moments in Edith's life, bringing her fully to life, albeit a dismal life. Fortunately, this is a short novel; it might be too depressing to handle if it went on for much longer. It isn't a novel for readers who want happy (or at least hopeful) endings. But it paints a striking picture of helplessness in gorgeous language, and it inspires thought about the fear society instills in those it neglects.

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Space Cadet by Robert Heinlein

First published in 1948

First published in 1948, Space Cadet is one of Heinlein's earliest sf juveniles. I remember loving it when I was a teenager. Those years are long past, but when I recently reread the novel, I recaptured at least some of the sense of wonder I felt when I read it as a kid. Science fiction has become more sophisticated in the intervening years (at least some of it has), but the art of storytelling never grows old, and Heinlein was a master storyteller.

Space Cadet has a tight, engaging plot that begins with Matt Dodson joining the Space Cadets and ends with an adventure on Venus. Dodson is a strong character who would be especially appealing to teens--he's able to overcome self-doubt, gains maturity, and learns (while making use of a leave to visit his parents) that "you can't go home again." The only other character in the novel with any personality is Matt's fellow cadet Tex, who likes to repeat his Uncle Bodie's tall tales, adding some humor to the story. The aliens Heinlein envisions living on Venus are credible (at least by 1948 standards, and in any event more credible than most of the lizard-like aliens that dominate sf movies), and the novel has something useful to say about prejudice against those who are outwardly different.

Space Cadet hasn't lost much of its charm in the six-plus decades since its first publication.

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Dead Skip by Joe Gores

First published in 1972

Barton Heslip has had a good day, repossessing three cars for his employer, DKA. Back at the office, he calls his friend and co-worker Larry Ballard, then steps outside to collect some paperwork from his car. Someone emerges from the shadows and hits him with a sap. Now Heslip is in a coma, having been pulled from a car that went over a cliff, and Dan Kearny, founder of DKA, has given Ballard 72 hours to find the man who tried to kill Heslip. As time begins to run out, Kearny joins the hunt.

Dead Skip is a fast-paced, carefully plotted detective story. Joe Gores has a sharp eye for the people who walk San Francisco's streets and a finely tuned ear for dialog. He writes with an economical style, providing just enough detail to give personality to his characters and authenticity to his settings. The mystery of Heslip's assailant isn't easy to guess but the resolution is credible. The process of detection, as practiced by Ballard and then by Kearny, is fascinating. Each comes to the same conclusion by independent means, a plot device that makes the story even more interesting.

It's a shame Dead Skip isn't still in print. It deserves the status of a genre classic.

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The Tears of Autumn by Charles McCarry

First published in 1975

To pursue his theory concerning the assassination of JFK, Paul Christopher resigns from the spy agency that employs him and with the tacit approval of his boss begins an investigation that takes him to Italy, France, and Vietnam, among other places. What he learns may seem a little far-fetched, but McCarry writes convincingly, and his story is a refreshing respite from the more conventional fictionalized views of the Kennedy assassination.

McCarry provides wonderful descriptions of the places to which Christopher travels; the reader can feel danger in the atmosphere as Christopher walks into a Vietnamese alley. McCarry deftly mixes politics with a stirring tale of investigatory intrigue to create a well-paced spy thriller that actually thrills.

I liked McCarry's first novel, The Miernik Dossier, slightly better, but this one is nearly as good.

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Project Pendulum by Robert Silverberg

Published by Byron Preiss in 1987

Project Pendulum is one of the Millennium series of books published by Byron Preiss. Each book dealt with a different science fiction theme. The subject of Project Pendulum is time travel. The story (really more of a novella or long short story than a novel) is reprinted in Cronos along with two more of Silverberg's time travel stories.

Eric Gabrielson is sent 5 minutes into the past while his twin brother Sean simultaneously moves 5 minutes into the future. Then Eric moves 50 minutes into the future while Sean moves 50 minutes into the past. The next swing of the pendulum sends them each 500 minutes in opposite directions; the swing after that moves them 5000 minutes, and so on. If this first experiment in time travel is successful, the brothers will explore 95 million years in each direction. Silverberg explains the basis for this time displacement in language that sounds reasonable enough to those of us who don't know a singularity from a tachyon particle. Eric doesn't understand it either; he's a paleontologist who is more interested in the past than the mechanics of the journey. Sean, on the other hand, is a physicist.

Each time jump for each brother comprises a chapter. There isn't much of a plot; the book consists of snippets of the past and future. Silverberg's depictions of the unspoiled past are rich with detail. The future scenarios are vividly described and wildly imaginative, although they aren't always explained. This makes sense, since Eric and Sean don't hang around long enough to get explanations of what they see, but it's nonetheless a source of minor frustration. The more significant drawback to telling a story through vignettes is that Eric and Sean are observers more than actors. They don't spend enough time in any era to allow a story to develop beyond their ride on the pendulum: they see this, they see that, they plunge into a sticky situation but are rescued by the next swing of the pendulum. It's an interesting ride and while there's a certain sweetness to the ending, the story is far from absorbing.

Byron Preiss (1953-2005) was known for his efforts to marry the printed text with visual art. The Millennium series furthered that ambition by pairing stories with illustrations. The black and white drawings in Project Pendulum are by the artist Moebius. They didn't excite me but I'm no art critic; all I can say is that there aren't many of them. The hardcover is printed on bright white, heavy, probably acid-free paper, so if you can find a copy, it should last a long time.

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