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Netsurfer Books is a bi-monthly e-zine offering short reviews of books and related items. We include listings based on recommendations from our staff and reviews from other individuals. Are we bribed to include any of these items? No. Do we receive a commission if you purchase an item through one of the links included here? Yes. Are we waiting to hear from you about what you'd like to see reviewed? Definitely.

ADMINISTRIVIA

Netsurfer Books Holiday Issue Part III

SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY

Dune

Dune
Frank Herbert
Ace Books; ISBN: 044100590X

The first, and arguably the best in the series of books about the desert planet Dune and the destiny-bound Atreides family. Frank Herbert's masterful world-building remains one of the high points of modern science fiction, blending ecology, culture, theology, and Machiavellian politics. Other books in the series extend the story of Paul Atreides and his progeny: Dune Messiah, Children of Dune, God Emperor of Dune, Heretics of Dune, Chapterhouse: Dune, and the recent prequel to the whole epic, House Atreides, pen by Herbert's son, who collaborated periodically with his father.

The Museum at Purgatory

The Museum at Purgatory
Nick Bantock
HarperCollins; ISBN: 0067575463

More mystically tinged eye candy from the author of "Griffin and Sabine" and "The Forgetting Room" . Non, the Curator of the museum, whose responsibility it is to "act as [collectors'] souls' guardian, as well as preserver of their accumulated treasures" offers descriptions of weird exhibits and reveals a bit about himself. One review calls it "pretty and vacuous" with "a saccharine conclusion". Another review sees the conclusion as confirmation that "we are all in purgatory". We bet you know just the perfect person to give this to.

The Lord of the Rings

The Lord of the Rings
J. R. R. Tolkien (Illustrator), Alan Lee (Illustrator)
Houghton Mifflin Co (Trd); ISBN: 0395595118

We've only just mentioned this set to you recently, but with the escalating hype - coming mostly from Tolkien devotees - surrounding the film currently in production in New Zealand, we think it's only smart to remind you that there's probably someone on your gift list who would appreciate this trilogy, graced as it is by Tolkien's own drawings. We don't know that Crash Bandicoot has ever read Tolkien, but we're absolutely sure that just about every other questing game owes a debt of gratitude to this man's astounding vision.

A Canticle for Leibowitz

A Canticle for Leibowitz
Walter M. Miller, Jr.
Bantam Books; ISBN: 0553379267

In this most postmodern of postmodern tales, a relic of the sainted Leibowitz has attained the significance our time's Dead Sea Scrolls. "Pound pastrami, can kraut, six bagels--bring home for Emma." Hundreds of years from now, after the atomic holocaust that brings on the Simplification, scholars pore over the words, plumbing the depths of their true meaning for direction in a world renewing itself. It's an audacious mix of black humor, acute cultural observation, and razor-edged religious satire. (If the cult of Christianity has changed so much in 2000 years, how will it transform in another thousand?) The premise perhaps had more immediate resonance 40 years ago near the apogee of the Cold War, but its themes are too universal and its seeds too enduring in science fiction for this classic to fade. Highly recommended.

Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
Gregory Maguire, Douglas Smith (Illustrator)
HarperCollins (paper); ISBN: 0060987103

There was a time when every Christmas, television rolled out "The Wizard of Oz", regular as clockwork. And, just as certainly, we knew the story of the virtuous Dorothy's accidental triumph over evil. Lest we forget, though, she and her cohorts were breaking into the witch's castle to steal her broom when the fatal dampening occurred. Here's Gregory Maguire's imaginative retelling of the tale, from the perspective of the reviled Wicked Witch of the West. We'd at first thought that Maguire was returning fairy tales to their dark origins. But, no. He isn't setting the historical record straight, and this isn't merely moral relativism or political correctness. In Maguire's telling, we just plain got the story all wrong. Wicked is his 1996 debut novel. This Christmas he's offered up the story of Cinderella as told by an insider in Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister.

SUSPENSE AND MYSTERY

Day of the Jackal

Day of the Jackal
Frederick Forsyth
Bantam Books; ISBN: 0553266306

Long before Tom Clancy gained a stranglehold on the political thriller market Frederick Forsyth redefined the genre with this utterly engrossing assassin-on-the-loose classic. Brimming with tradecraft details, perfectly paced, and with unforgettable characters ("A tall, blond Englishman with opaque, gray eyes") this is one of those books you'll be tempted to read in one sitting. Don't let the laughably awful supposed remake of the tense 1973 "Day of the Jackal" put you off, either. If you know a Clancy addict, toss them this gem and tell 'em this is how it should be written.

A Sight for Sore Eyes

A Sight for Sore Eyes
Ruth Rendell
Crown Pub; ISBN: 0609604171

Ruth Rendell's stories are dark and complex, often marked by separate storylines that seem irresolvable until the end of the book. They require your attention and patience, and reward you amply for your time and effort. A Sight for Sore Eyes lets us in on a murder before it happens, but doesn't give us enough information to allay our fears about just what's going to happen. You'll recognize Rendell as the creator of Inspector Rex Wexford, the cranky copper who sorts out complex crimes. As rich and unsentimental as Wexford's stories are, outside Kingsmarkham Rendell writes even darker, even more complex stories. A Sight for Sore Eyes is one of them.

Cold Shoulder

Cold Shoulder
Lynda La Plante
Jove Pubns; ISBN: 0515121282

No one can accuse Lynda La Plante, creator of the powerful Prime Suspect series, of mawkishness. In Cold Shoulder she gives us the American version of the flinty and keen-minded Jane Tennison, Lorraine Page, drawn into and perhaps saved by her pursuit of a serial killer stalking Los Angeles. Michelle Pfeiffer has bought the film rights to the book and intends to play the part of Lorraine herself. This will not be a flattering role for her - alcoholic, self-pitying, complex. As always, La Plante makes it a toss-up: Is this an ongoing character study or a thriller? Who cares? This is good stuff.

HUMOR AND NOVELTY

The Pop-Up Book of Phobias

The Pop-Up Book of Phobias
Gary Greenberg, Balvis Rubess (Illustrator), Matthew Reinhardt (sculptor)
Rob Weisbach Book; ISBN: 0688171958

Ah! The Pop-Up Book of Phobias is a wickedly creative sendup of common phobias with some great macabre artwork literally leaping at you from the page. Fear of flying, fear of the dentist, fear of being buried alive, fear of spiders - it's all here in an irreverent volume of crafty paper architecture. We'd love to see this little gem on a table in a psychiatrist's waiting room. Great gift for doctors, patients, and the terminally nervous.

Pure Drivel

Pure Drivel
Steve Martin
Hyperion (P); ISBN: 078688505X

Other smart comics stitch their sharpest humor from social commentary and universal dysfunction. Steve Martin, certainly among the smartest of the lot, mines the existential and the absurd for his laughs. In his accurately titled slim volume, he collects several short essays, some of them already published in The New Yorker. There are plenty of laughs, but they're neither sustained nor violent - because the pieces are so sweetly short. Mostly he offers those flights of fancy on which we sometimes embark. Consider, for example, his recommendations to authors who've run smack up against the critical shortage of periods to end sentences in the Times Roman font. Not only is Martin funny for what he encounters on his flights, but he's also funny for the cadences and rhythms of his retelling of those flights. No, Mr. Martin, we enjoy your company too much to excuse you.

Treks Not Taken: What If Stephen King, Anne Rice, Kurt Vonnegut, and Other Literary Greats Had Written Episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation?

Treks Not Taken: What If Stephen King, Anne Rice, Kurt Vonnegut, and Other Literary Greats Had Written Episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation?
Steven R. Boyett
Harpercollins; ISBN: 0060952768

Boyett's book is a droll little trifle, gently mocking two birds with one stone in each of his 20 chapters. Constant, though, is the Next Generation universe ... sort of. In Anne Rice's chapter, the Chief Engineer doubles as the Vampire LaForge. In Herman Melville's universe, Captain Piquod commands. In Tom Clancy's world, Doodad yearns to be human. In the Vonnegut galaxy, the crew kicks back in Holodeck-5. And, only Hemingway could be more succinct than "Make it so". Some of the styles may be a bit obscure for a few readers; do Ken Kesey and Ayn Rand really make anyone's summer reading list these days? Still, if the Trekhead on your list has a literary bent, this should earn a couple really fine laughs.

HISTORICAL AND TRAVEL FICTION

Galileo's Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith, and Love

Galileo's Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith, and Love
Dava Sobel
Walker & Co; ISBN: 0802713432

Galileo's family can hardly be called nuclear. He legitimized his son - through channels - but both daughters entered convents because their illegitimacy made prospects of marriage doubtful. His elder daughter, born Virginia but wed to Christ as Suor Maria Celeste, possessed her father's sharp intellect and was described by him as "a woman of exquisite mind, singular goodness, and most tenderly attached to me". They maintained a regular and affectionate correspondence for many years. Sobel has used the surviving letters of that correspondence on which to hang her novel of the drama surrounding Florentine society, the power of the Roman Church, and Galileo, who risked excommunication and execution - and endured years of house arrest in old age - for his heretical belief that the Earth revolved around the Sun.

Cryptonomicon

Cryptonomicon
Neal Stephenson
Avon Books (Trd); ISBN: 0380973464

It's a tough call about whether to recommend this book as a holiday gift, or Neal Stephenson's colorful first novel Snow Crash. We'll go with this epic mostly because Stephenson has evolved impressively as a writer to produce a genuine work of literature. Don't be fooled; this is not a sci-fi book as some store bookshelves would have you believe. Instead, it's a multi-faceted epic jumping back and forth in time to follow the intertwined stories of WWII and contemporary protagonists dancing on the fields of cryptography. It's got comedy, drama, pathos, horror, and enough technical savvy to satisfy the most jaded bithead, all expressed with a mastery of language and plotting. A long, thoroughly satisfying read, even for non-techies.

Midnight's Children

Midnight's Children
Salman Rushdie
Penguin USA (Paper); ISBN: 0140132708

Midnight's Children is Salman Rushdie's Booker Prize-winning 1980 novel, a taste of the author before he became the man living under a fatwah. It's a political allegory, reminiscent of the works of Grass and Marquez, in which 1001 extraordinarily gifted children, born at the hour of India's birth as a nation, hold the key to the country's survival. The book's narrator, Saleem, switched at birth with his cultural and social opposite, has determined to find the grown children and bring them together. But he's running out of time, because Saleem's gift is causing him to fall to pieces - literally. The book marked by the familiar Rushdie - spiralling language, horror liberally laced with high comedy, and sharp political comment. If your friends haven't read early Rushdie, now's the time to remedy the oversight.

Of Love and Other Demons

Of Love and Other Demons
Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Knopf; ISBN: 067943853X

The plots of Marquez novels are so deceptively simple that it's impossible to savor the richness of his books in some cursory summary. The reason to read Nobelist Marquez is that he represents magical realism and historical allegory at its finest - hypnotically graceful and harrowingly unsentimental. Don't concern yourself with which title to read. Just pick one: Love in the Time of Cholera, One Hundred Years of Solitude, The General in His Labyrinth or Chronicle of a Death Foretold.

Dr. Seuss Goes to War: The World War II Editorial Cartoons of Theodor Seuss Geisel

Dr. Seuss Goes to War: The World War II Editorial Cartoons of Theodor Seuss Geisel
Richard H. Minear, Art Spiegelman (Introduction), Dr. Seuss
New Press; ISBN: 156584565X

Who knew? Before Theodor Geisel brought us The Cat in the Hat and Horton hearing a Who, he was an editorial cartoonist for a New York newspaper. Not only that, but he held the job for two years in the early 1940s, as America teetered on the edge of entering the war and social ills like isolationism and racism plagued the country. Well, Dr. Seuss took 'em on in one hard-hitting editorial cartoon after another. The cartoons are fascinating artifacts, the style so familiar, the content so utterly unfamiliar. They're interesting artifacts, too, for the way in which Geisel both reflects and savages the sensibilities of the day. And, don't be surprised if Uncle Sam reminds you of another familiar character in a chapeau.

Winnetou

Winnetou
David Koblick (Translator), Karl Friedrich May, Richard H. Cracroft
Washington State Univ Pr; ISBN: 087422179X

It's a pity that Karl Friedrich May is not better known in this country, in view of all the wonderful stories he wrote about the West. This, his finest work, written in 1893, is the story of an Indian Chief called Winnetou and his friend, a European immigrant and authentic "greenhorn" known as Old Shatterhand. It's a wonderful adventure story of the Wild West, with serious overtones and underlying pathos written in a time when the West was dying, by a man who was there. Don't let this fool you into thinking that this is simply some gloomy morality tale; on the contrary for years it's been a favorite childhood adventure story for kids of all ages all over the world. Great story, great writer, great Wild West adventure more authentic than any recent work.

GENERAL

The Green Mile: The Complete Serial Novel

The Green Mile: The Complete Serial Novel
Stephen King
Pocket Books; ISBN: 0671032658

It seems that the current film release is downplaying its origins in a Stephen King serialized novel, perhaps because the studio doesn't want the story pigeon-holed with the likes of "Cujo" or "The Shining". And rightly so. This is one of King's most graceful works, drawing closer to allegory than horror, nearer to fantasy than thriller. Originally published as six shorter novels, the work is collected here in an evocative tale of destiny and redemption. You should be aware that even if this isn't a work in King's horror mold, it's still an intense work touching on death, capital punishment, guilt, and extraordinary punishment.

The Dictionary of Imaginary Places

The Dictionary of Imaginary Places
Alberto Manguel, Gianni Guadalupi
Harcourt Brace; ISBN: 0151005419

Forget Michelin travel guides. This is the book you need should you ever find yourself lost in the wilds of Narnia, Middle-Earth, Oz, Brobdingnag, the Slough of Despond, Never-Neverland, or any other fantasy or literary land. It's no Liliput on $5 a Day, but it is a delightful map to all things magical - and not so magical. It's not strictly for fantasy fans, mind, but the preponderance of the locales do lean to the fantastic. Bloom's Dublin isn't quite imaginary enough, but you can hit all the high points in Pilgrim's Progress and Smaug's luxuriously appointed, if under-decorated, retreat. For those of us who actually get off on reading dictionaries and perusing encylopedias.

The Erotic Anime Movie Guide

The Erotic Anime Movie Guide
Helen McCarthy, Jonathan Clements
Overlook Press; ISBN: 0879517050

Anime fans on your gift list might have hesitated to investigate this book because of its title, and more's the pity. In fact, it covers a lot of anime territory outside the erotic subgenre. Then, of course, there's that eroticism - cartoons that are in many ways more truly erotic than many live action films. The dialogue is cryptic but not dumb, and there are often actual plots - 'though we admit that we sometimes can't follow them. Here's the world of the impossibly wide-eyed, implausibly proportioned, and improbably cantilevered. This is a must-have for serious fans of anime.

CORRECTIONS AND UPDATES

"Stoked": Sold Out, but Still Available