Resnick, Mike - A Blonde in Africa.pdf - Mike Resnick - przemosta

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A Blonde in Africa-an introduction

by Mike Resnick

Africa can cast a spell that makes Merlin look like an

amateur. It can grab you from half a world away, pull you to its

bosom, and as you spend your last night there prior to going home

you find that you miss it already. It has a way of simplifying

things, of making you realize what's really important to you; and

it can convince you that the very best part of yourself will

remain there, waiting for you to return and redeem it.

It can also drive you crazy, and break your heart again and

again.

It can show you beauties undreamed of, and horrors equally

unimagined. It is vibrant with life, both human and animal, yet no

continent presents such a constant and uncaring display of death.

It is also a place of inspiration. People who would never

have considered writing under other circumstances have taken years

out of their lives to put their African experiences down on paper.

And when a _real_ writer comes face to face with Africa, you

get such masterpieces as Ruark's _Horn of the Hunter_, Hemingway's

_The Green Hills of Africa_, Blixen's _Out of Africa_, Markham's

_West With the Night_, and Huxley's _The Flame Trees of Thika_.

Hunters get that urge, too, and have produced such memorable

volumes as Lake's _Killers in Africa_ and _Hunter's Choice_,

Jordan's _Elephants and Ivory_, Bell's _Karamojo Safari_, the

works of Selous and Boyes and Lyell and Stigand and Percival, and

many, many more.

It even affects writers of category fiction. I've written 9

science fiction novels and 22 short stories set in Africa. Other

science fiction writers such as George Alec Effinger, Robert

Silverberg, John Crowley, and Gregory Benford have recently set

stories there. Nor has it escaped the attention of mystery writers

such as M. M. Kaye, Elspeth Huxley, and Karin McQuillan, and

adventure writers from Edgar Rice Burroughs and H. Rider Haggard

right up to Michael Crichton.

What you now hold in your hands is a book by an award-winning

romance and science fiction writer, who found Africa just as

fascinating as all those who went before her. I know her a little

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better than those other writers who came under Africa's spell. I

ought to: I'm her father.

Laura Resnick has always been a traveler. She went to Sweden

when she was 16. She majored in French and minored in Italian at

Georgetown University, the better to make her way through the non-

English-speaking world. By the time she was 25 she had lived in

England, France, Sicily, and an Israeli _kibbutz_, and had visited

close to a dozen other countries.

Then it became time to make a living. Writing wasn't her

first choice, but when you've got the touch it's hard to ignore

it, and she quickly became a successful romance writer, winning an

award as Best New Series Writer.

Before long she had expanded into science fiction and fantasy

as well, and in August, 1993, while she herself was evading

pachyderms in South Africa's Addo Elephant Park, I accepted the

Campbell Award, science fiction's "Rookie of the Year" award, for

her. This came a month after one of her romance novels won a major

award. (I think she was busy drowning in the Zambezi at that very

moment.)

Laura chose to see Africa not as a hunter (almost impossible

these days, unless you want only to see tiny portions of Botswana,

Zimbabwe, and Tanzania), and not as a luxury tourist. Instead, she

chose to become an Overlander, a hardy and not-all-that-rare breed

of traveler which one constantly encounters in the most out-of-

the-way places in the Third World.

This is the first book in the _Resnick Library of African

Adventure_, either here at Alexander Books or in its previous

incarnation at St. Martin's Press, that does not involve hunting.

I chose to run it because, while there have been many accounts of

people traveling across Africa in less than sumptuous style, there

has yet to be a book that gives you a true picture of an

Overlander's daily life.

Overland vehicles set out to tour obscure lands hundreds of

times each year; they are becoming increasingly popular not only

for students, but for retired men and women living on fixed

incomes who nonetheless have a hunger to see the world. Well,

there's one thing I can promise you: if you're considering

becoming an Overlander, once you finish reading this book you'll

know _exactly_ what to expect.

For instance:

You'll learn just how many diseases you can catch in eight

months, despite your innoculations.

You'll learn what it feels like to have an entire village go

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suddenly berserk and attack your party in the middle of the night.

You'll learn why it's a bad idea to pitch your tent where the

previous party had been baiting lions.

You'll learn what it's like to join a pygmy tribe during a

hunt.

You'll learn just how many times you have to bribe border

guards to do precisely what they are paid to do in the first

place.

You'll learn what it's like to be arrested in a Third World

country. In quite a few of them, in fact.

You'll learn Tanzanian economics, and why bread comes from

Arusha on Thursdays.

You'll experience the thrill of having baby gorillas playing

right in front of you.

You'll see an ancient ceremony in which the men of a West

African village willingly plunge knives into their own bellies.

You'll travel a dirt road that wends its way through hundreds

of live mines.

You'll plunge through the Zambezi's rapids and suddenly find

yourself beneath the surface, looking desperately for your boat

while downstream the crocs are looking just as desperately for an

appetizer.

And you'll have no trouble understanding why, despite all

this, there's a bonus section featuring Laura's return trip barely

a year later.

Speaking as an editor and not a blood relative (another

circumstance you'll never find in Africa), I think you'll find

that this is a book filled not only with adventure, but with

charm, wit, and insight.

Enjoy.

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Resnick, Mike - A Blonde in Africa.pdf

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