ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Sunday, February 4, 1996               TAG: 9602020080
SECTION: BOOKS                    PAGE: F-4  EDITION: METRO 
                                             TYPE: BOOK REVIEW 

BOOKS IN BRIEF

THE MOON BOX.

Edited by John Miller and Tim Smith. Chronicle. $29.95.

Did you think when Neil Armstrong stepped onto the surface of the moon in July 1969 he effectively demythologized that heavenly body for all time? Editors John Miller and Tim Smith suggest otherwise in their enchanting "The Moon Box."

Here, in an evocative slipcase, is an elegant collection of four small books, "Moon Lore," "The Werewolf," "The Moon Goddess" and "Somnium" (or "The Dream'). They cover everything from gardening by the moon to how to recognize a genuine werewolf. Each book is complete in itself, attractively bound, and designed and illustrated in a manner befitting its topic. Each volume concludes with acknowledgements and brief biographies of the contributors.

Authors include such writers as H.G.Wells, Cyrano de Bergerac, Bram Stoker and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. There are poems, myths, fables, spells and science fiction.

"The Moon Box" would make a fine gift for a moonstruck friend. And it would fit handily on your own bedside table.

- MARIE BEAN

IRON MAN: THE CAL RIPKEN JR. STORY.

By Harvey Rosenfeld. St. Martin's Press.

``Ninety percent of life is showing up,'' quoth Woody Allen. Cal Ripken Jr., Baltimore Orioles shortstop, has done that and more: Last year he broke Lou Gehrig's seemingly insuperable record for consecutive games played, and over his 15 American League seasons he has been a steady, sometimes brilliant, performer at baseball's most difficult position.

His feat came at an auspicious time for the game. Settlement of baseball's longest strike kept his streak intact but left a bad taste in the mouths of millions of fans. For many, Ripken's work ethic and gentlemanly deportment gave the sport at least a partial redemption.

For all that, Ripken maintains he never was out to set this record. ``People automatically believe,'' he said, ``that the Streak has become me ... I'm here simply to play ... The Streak just happened. I didn't ask for it.''

Rosenfeld is a professor of English, not a sports writer, but obviously he is a longtime follower of Ripken, giving us near-numbing detail on his career. The book was published before Ripken surpassed Gehrig, so the drama of that time is not chronicled here. Maybe in a later printing: Ripken's still going strong, scheduled to play his 2,154th consecutive game in the 1996 season opener.

- BOB WILLIS

BLADE RUNNER 2: THE EDGE OF HUMAN.

By K. W. Jeter. Bantam. $21.95.

"Blade Runner" has had a tortured history. Based on a 1968 novel by the late Philip K. Dick, it became a movie in 1982 (just in time to bring Dick posthumous fame outside the literary field). Director Ridley Scott released an altered version in 1992, raising new questions and eliminating what seemed a happy ending. Now, a sequel (the first of a series?) has been written by horror author, K. W. Jeter, who also wrote a sequel of sorts in 1979 to H. G. Wells' "The Time Machine" (1895). Jeter's best-known novel is arguably "Dr. Adder" (1984) which was long unpublished due to its violent content but praised by Dick who read it in manuscript form.

Rick Deckard, the hunter of androids masquerading as human (and played in the movie by Harrison Ford), has fallen in love with the android Rachael, but, in this story, he finds himself unable to prolong her life. He is recruited by Sarah Tyrell, the human on whom the Rachael android was modeled and who is now in control of the android-manufacturing corporation, to hunt down one more rogue android whose activities could embarrass the company.

Other characters from the movie turn up, or reasonable facsimiles of them, but this story ends up with the same question asked in Dick's novel and Scott's film: What does it mean to be human? Despite a lot of chases and activity, this book provides no answers, either.

- PAUL DELLINGER

Marie Bean is a retired college chaplain.

Bob Willis is a retired associate editor of this newspaper's editorial page.

Paul Dellinger covers Pulaski County and Southwest Virginia for The Roanoke Times.

LENGTH: Medium:   83 lines
ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO:  Cal Ripken Jr.