Pollack, Rachel Books

Unquenchable Fire

Rachel Pollack

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Wow. Fantasy or SF? This book is its own thing. 5 out of 5 stars.
7 of 7 people found this review helpful.

In the medium-near future, a revolution has taken place. The forces of science and rationality have lost. The newage Founders of the new reality have loosed the forces of mysticism and the world has changed. Miracles happen routinely. Government and society have restructured themselves to accomodate this new strange reality.

A suburban woman has a strange experience during a holy day. She finds that she has been made pregnant by an unknown agent. How will she cope? How will her very suburban neighborhood cope?

My husband had been trying to get me to read this book for ages. Finally he got me when I couldn't escape and began reading this aloud to me. When he stopped after the first chapter, I demanded he hand the book to me so I could finish.

This book came from nowhere for me. I don't know of anything like it. I guess this is shamanistic fantasy. It feels SF-ish, though, in that it's a consistent future world with sensible rules. Whatever it is, it's a stunner, the kind of book that leaves me incredibly excited and optimistic about the state of SF & fantasy.

Editorial Review:

It's uncomfortable to be chosen for Great Things. A lot of fantasists admit that, but Pollack's Jennie Mazdan shows us just how uncomfortable it can be. This is suburban fantasy, reminiscent of Philip K. Dick's suburban SF, and the protagonist is a nice suburban middle-class person who, in a recognizable America informed with rational, non-Christian divine powers, copes with supernatural imposition on her life. Perfectly balancing the anchoring familiar mundanities against her brilliant, fascinating Living World---surly bureaucrats at the National Oneiric Registration Agency, tourists photographing the Founder's Urinal shrine in Poughkeepsie---Pollack tells Jennie and Valerie's story of transformation, acceptance and triumph. Potently stocked with archetypes, yet down-to-earth and even funny, this is great fiction and great fantasy.

Temporary Agency

Rachel Pollack

List Price: $10.95 By: Overlook TP Amazon Marketplace: 18 new & used starting at $0.95

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Read This Book ! 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This is a great read that blurs the line between science fiction and fantasy genres! Others have tried melding the supernatural with science fiction (such as Poul Anderson in "Operation Chaos"), but with nowhere near the success of Rachel Pollack. Unlike some other writers, she obviously understands something about magical beliefs and rituals, and does a great job of imaginatively integrating this into a high tech future and a suspenseful plot. After you read this, you may want to read "Unquenchable Fire" too, since it is set in the same futuristic world.

Wow, a great read! 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This is a wonderful book. I especially liked the scene on the NYSE. Remember, low level hacking the NetStream feed is your best entertainment value!

We Remember the Founders 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

"This is the real thing, a shot straight from the Jungian depths, and the single most gripping book I've read this year," says Michael Swanwick on the back of the book. He's perfectly right. It just comes at you, this right, slightly altered, world of a shamanic America.

This is how the book begins, perfectly mixing modern life and fantasy:

"When I was fourteen, a cousin of mine angered a Malignant One. It was a big case, a genuine scandal. Maybe you remember it. At the time, when it all ended, I just wanted to forget about the whole thing. But a couple of years have passed and I guess maybe it's time to think about it again."

"The Bright Being lived in the office building where my cousin Paul worked analyzing retail sales reports. I don't know how she got there, really. We never did find that out. I don't even know how long she was there. I mean, before Paul met her. Maybe she lived on that same spot long before the building went up. Maybe she even lived there for thousands of years, way before the Indians came. No one really knows how old the Beings are. Some people say -- I read this in a book, actually -- that the Bright Beings, the Malignant Ones and the Benign Ones, go back to the beginning of the universe. According to this Sacred Physics book, the Big Bang Story that broke open the cosmic ylem egg showered out the Beings along with all the quarks and tachyons and all the rest of them. The Beings came from a kind of impurity in the ylem, a sort of aesthetic flaw in the original story. So maybe the Ferocious One lived at that spot for millions of years, embedded in the granite of Manhattan Island, waiting for humans, for victims -- like my poor cousin Paul."

"Or maybe she never lived there at all until the building went up. Maybe the contractor summoned her, maybe her offered her space in her building in exchange for help in getting his contract bid accepted. I thought of this because of what happened later. And because of what happened with the Defense Department."

Each paragraph just keeps leading into the next. If it doesn't grab you, you're dead. It's set in the same world as Unquenchable Fire, but is not a sequel or a prequel, and is a very different book. In Temporary Agency, Ellen the narrator's cousin Paul dates a woman who turns out to be a Malignant One. The second part of the book, Benign Adjustments, is a little slower, and deals with the aftermath of what happened to Paul, and the scandal that followed.

Editorial Review:

In a fantastical tale set in the world of the critically acclaimed Unquenchable Fire, Ellen Pierson experiences a fateful, world-changing encounter with a Malignant One.

Alqua Dreams

Rachel Pollack

By: Legend paperbacks Amazon Marketplace: 4 new & used starting at $8.74

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

What is life and what is dead? The Lukai seem to know... 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

Earthman Cooper and the Lukai. A primitive tribe lives in the ruins of a magical city. The Lukai get their clothes and food from automated systems and live in their own special bizarre world. Bizarre as well are their sexual habits, not to speak of their mysterious ceremonies. They believe life is an illusion, they look like they are the living dead, and maybe that's just what they are, in a very strange and unexpected way. Cooper visits the planet of the Lukai to find minerals. According to galactic laws he has to offer the Lukai something in return. But they don't want anything: they have everything they need, and hey, what is it good for to possess anything, this is not a real life anyway, they are dead. The Lukai think he is crazy, an idiot who doesn't dare to accept that life is a lie. Cooper feels his common sense is slipping away, he falls in love with a Lukai girl, and the end of the story is even more bizarre as what leads up to it. I really love this book, read it several times, and I think it belongs to every collection that also contains Aldiss' Saliva Tree, Silverberg's Book of Skulls and LeGuin's Left Hand of Darkness.

New Dimensions 6

Rachel Pollack, George Alec Effinger, Jr. James Tiptree, Martha Randall, Barry N. Malzberg, Felix C. Gotschalk, Philip Jose Farmer, Leo Queequeg Tincrowdor, Tom Reamy

List Price: $8.95 By: Harper & Row Amazon Marketplace: 17 new & used starting at $2.99

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Tarot Tales

Various

List Price: $5.99 By: Ace Amazon Marketplace: 13 new & used starting at $3.81

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

A excellent merging of Tarot and storytelling. 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

A collection of stories inspired by that staple of New Age life, the Tarot Deck. An interesting method of generating story ideas, and the quality of the stories as a whole is fairly high. Of course, as in any collection, some stories outshine others... If you like the Tarot, or are just looking for a collection of Fantasy tales, this book is for you

Editorial Review:

A collection of medieval parodies, fantasy adventures, and new age satires includes ""Hanging the Fool"" by Michael Moorcock, ""The Lovers"" by Gwyneth Jones, and ""The Horse of Iron. . ."" by M. John Harrison.