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 
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 
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. 