Lincroft-Holmdel Science Fiction Club Club Notice - 9/26/84 -- Vol. 3, No. 11 MEETINGS UPCOMING: Unless otherwise stated, all Lincroft meetings are on Wednesdays in LZ 3A-206 (HO meetings temporarily suspended) at noon. _D_A_T_E _T_O_P_I_C 10/03 CIRCUS WORLD by Barry Longyear 10/23 Video meeting 10/24 Video meeting 11/14 THE TOMBS OF ATUAN by Ursula K. LeGuin 01/02 THE CIRCUS OF DR. LAO by Charles G. Finney 02/13 SLAN by A. E. Van Vogt LZ's library and librarian Lance Larsen (576-2668) are in LZ 3C-219. Mark Leeper (576-2571, LZ 3E-215) and Evelyn Leeper (834-4674, HO 1B-437A) are co-chairpeople. HO's library and librarian Tim Schroeder (949-5866) are in HO 2G-432. John Jetzt (577-5316) is HO-chairperson. 1. The next Leeper "film" festival will be Thursday, October 4, at 7:30PM and will be DRACULA (the Mercury Theater version) dir. by Orson Welles COUNT DRACULA (1978 the BBC version) dir. by Philip Seville We are going to try something a little different this time. DRACULA is a long novel and hence it has almost never been done accurately in dramatic presentations. We are going to have the two most accurate dramatic versions of Bram Stoker's famous novel. Still, they are very different approaches and go very well together. The first version is the first broadcast of Orson Welles's Mercury Theater on radio. This was a few weeks before the same production company did the famous broadcast of WAR OF THE WORLDS. This is a very good version of the story, packing an amazing amount of the plot in because as radio drama it is not slowed down by having to create visual images. It is much faster to describe a scene in visual terms than to show it on film. This is probably the best hour of radio horror I have ever heard. Weighing in at two and a half hours COUNT DRACULA is THE MOST FAITHFUL version of the novel ever done. Louis Jordan is not one of the first names I would have thought of to play the role of Dracula but he gives the role a sensual dimension and a mysterious feel. 2. On Wednesday, October 3, the Lincroft members will have the chance to discuss Barry Longyear's CIRCUS WORLD. - 2 - 3. This Notice contains reviews of Disney's EPCOT Center and the Kennedy Space Center. 4. I finally got a chance to see the closing ceremony of the Olympics. I had been told about it, with its flying saucer and its alien, and had been curious, but I had not seen it until just the other night. I have some comments to make on what I saw. First of all, I suppose this is the sort of thing you expect in Los Angeles, as I said in last week's con report. Los Angeles is movie crazy and assumes the rest of the world is also. That is how they came to put a little piece of science fiction film tradition into the Olympics. To the mind of an Angeleno, there was nothing out of place about putting a little piece of CLOSE ENCOUNTERS and DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL into the ceremonies. What I found interesting, however, is one line that the alien said. He said the Olympics represent the best that is human. My first observation is that one species cannot judge what is best in another. I haven't the foggiest idea what is the best in armadillo-kind. Only an armadillo has a right to decide that. It strikes me however that it was a human inside the suit and a human who wrote the lines. I object to the statement that the Olympics represent what is best in humankind. Olympic endeavor, impressive as it is, is very physical-intensive and mental-nonintensive. To judge that this muscle-flexing championship is what is best in humans is much akin to the Miss America philosophy that looking good in a swimsuit and high heels and having a minimal but patriotic mind is the ideal of American femininity. The Olympic athlete is a long way from my idea of an ideal person, particularly since the few I have seen interviewed have shown less than high mental powers. In fact, to be a successful Miss America probably requires more of an intellect than winning gold medals does since there are minimal mental requirements on being chosen Miss America. In this country we have gotten used to a policy of letting our schools deteriorate through apathy, but we turn out in droves to see our high school football team play. We distrust and misunderstand intellectual achievement, and we have decided to call physical perfection the best that is human. I don't know what the best that is human is, but I am pretty sure Mahatma Gandhi or Albert Einstein is a lot closer to it than anyone who ever won an Olympic medal. If what you say is what you believe, Mr. Alien, maybe that is why you need that heavy cable to hold up your saucer. Mark Leeper LZ 3E-215 x2571 ...{houxn,hogpd,hocse}!lznv!mrl Mercury Capsules - September 26, 1984 "Mercury Capsules": SF review column, edited by Paul S R Chisholm. Appears in the "Lincroft-Holmdel SF Club Notice". A medium for quick reviews of anything of interest in the world of science fiction. I'll pass along anything (not slanderous or scatological) without nasty comments. I prefer to get reviews by electronic mail: send to wi!psc from the AT&T-IS ENS systems in Lincroft; hocse!lznv!psc, houxn!lznv!psc, or hogpd!lznv!psc from everywhere else. If that's impossible, I'm at LZ 1D-212, 576-2374. o+ _D_a_r_k_e_r _T_h_a_n _Y_o_u _T_h_i_n_k: novel, Jack Williamson. All the bad news about this book (in the Blue Jay Books edition) concerns the cover: it is out of keeping with the syle of the rest of the book, it cannot be carried around in polite society (or even at work), it curls, and it bears the price of $8.95 for a novel that has been around 36 years and is not particularly rare. The good news is that once you get past the cover, the book is a sheer joy. David Klein did all the art and his interior illustrations deserve awards. The book is profusely illustrated with marvelous scratchpad art that captures the feel of the Forties and the dark menace of the novel. Williamson is best known for SF and when you come right down to it, this is a decent SF novel with engaging "what-if" ideas. But over that is layered a horror-fantasy in the best traditions of A. E. Merritt. For years I've enjoyed attempts to explain traditional supernatural creatures in scientific terms. This is one of the three stories I've recommended (along with Matheson's _I _A_m _L_e_g_e_n_d and Kneale's _Q_u_a_t_e_r_m_a_s_s _a_n_d _t_h_e _P_i_t). I particularly recommend it in this edition. You can't tell a book by it's cover. Mark R Leeper o+ Over the past three years, Doris Lessing wrote two books under the pseudonym Joan (I believe) Sommer. Knopf will be publishing them both in one volume soon. (Both books, by the way, are not SF.) Lessing said she did it because she wanted to see how her works were treated when her famous name was not associated with them. (For those of you who'd like to know, the books were more ignored than either panned or praised.) Interestingly, she sent the manuscripts to her normal publishers under her pseudonym. The American publisher, Knopf, recognized her style immediately. The French publisher accepted the manuscript, and then called Lessing to ask her if she had been tutoring the young woman who wrote the material. But the British publisher simply rejected the works. The woman who was interviewing Lessing (Susan Stamberg) asked her _w_h_y - 2 - she did it. Lessing said that the problem with becoming an established literary figure was that the critics and scholars began to feel as if they owned one and that one could not seriously deviate from the kinds of works one had done before without the critics complaining. (Even though some of those "owners" couldn't recognize her work.) That happened to her when she began writing SF -- her older readers especially began wailing for the realistic stuff. I wonder if that's how poor Woody Allen felt when he made his serious films -- that people wouldn't let him unlock himself from his comedic image? Lessing spoke of her fantasy writing (she called it "space fiction") as a genre, BUT in a way consistent with the standard academic use of the word. She basically saw space fiction/fantasy as a different form -- she spoke of the form/genre evolving from the myths and fables of long ago and didn't see fantasy writing as a different kind of novel, but as a genre all its own. She also said that she thought her younger readers enjoyed her fantasy works better than the older ones because younger people were more acclimated to the idea of people being in outer space -- for the older people, she said, it was too alien a concept. Her readers (both old and young) were too intent, she thought, on trying to make sharp distinctions between her realistic works and her space fiction works -- she herself saw the ideas expressed in each as naturally belonging to their genres. I got the impression that she saw her works as musical scales -- the realistic kind presented one type of scale; the space fiction a second, and whatever her new (she said more realistic) books are a third. She also spoke some about her life. She dropped out of school when she was 14. Stamberg asked her if she had planned to do that or if she just decided to drop out of school one day. Lessing said that she was behaving neurotically (that is, she made no claim to any kind of artistic inspiration or precociousness) but in retrospect, she thought it was a good idea because she had avoided being culturally brainwashed by getting out early. (She grew up in Rhodesia.) She also said that she enjoyed being older because young women were always on display and now she was more invisible, so she could observe more. Stamberg pointed out that someone had once called Lessing one of the most original minds who had chosen to express itself in the 20th Century. Lessing replied that that wasn't true. One of her great concerns was that writers are disproportionately well known in comparison to scientists. She thinks that scientists express the same ideas in our age -- albeit in a different way -- as authors do and that authors tend to get all the credit. Carol E Jackson - 30 - EPCOT Center A theme park(!) review by Mark R. Leeper I guess I'll review just about anything and everything. Walt Disney's "Apricot Center" (as I like to call it) had been recommended to me for quite some time and I have finally visited this popular attraction. Actually, of all of Disney's theme parks, this one sounded the most interesting. When I was growing up and watched Disney on TV, I waited with my heart in my mouth as the announcer told you which part of Disneyland the show was from. If he said "from Frontierland..." my heart would sink. "From Adventureland..." (Yuk!) "From Main Street, USA..." (I think I'll go do my homework.) "From Fantasyland..." (Well, maybe.) I remember the lottery paying off only once. Once he said "From Tomorrowland..." (Wow! Oh-boy-oh-boy!) Old Walt was pretty sharp, but it took him a long time to realize that Tomorrowland was most everybody's favorite. Toward the end of his career, most of what he did was science or science fiction related. The "Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow" was apparently Tomorrowland-park. If this really is a prototype community of tomorrow, we have a pretty weird future ahead of us! After working all day under a beautiful dome--where your job is sitting on a sort of open train listening to some industrial giant tell you everything it's doing for you, you'll return home to your modest half-scale mock-up of China's Temple of Heaven, pick up the spouse and kiddees, go out for some really bad Japanese food, and take in a show about the wonders of Canada that will completely surround you, but you will have to stand up through. George Orwell in his worst nightmare never... Well, you get the idea. Actually, EPCOT Center is two parks, "World Showcase" and "Futureworld". In World Showcase, ten countries of the world smile and say, "Come, visit us, see our wonders, and bring YANKEE DOLLARS, you rich, stupid materialists." In Futureworld, industrial giants tell you, "There's a big, bright, beautiful future opening up. When you think of it, think of us bringing it to you and making BIG BUCKS." And like any Disney theme park, admission is a long way from cheap. Working for AT&T, I got a special discount, which as it turned out, just covered the cost of parking. Monetary cynicism aside, what is there to see at the Apricot Center? We visited Futureworld first: SPACESHIP EARTH: The old AT&T seems to have been a major patron and contributor to Apricot. Their touch-screen information booths are all around and are pretty darn impressive. Their ride is the centerpiece of Futureworld and can be seen from all over the park. It is a giant sphere 18 stories high. Inside is a tram ride through the interior of the sphere showing the history and future of communication. [One side note: these rides now use olfactory techniques as well as sight and sound. You could SMELL the burning of Rome in this one, and the jungle in one of the others. -ecl] It isn't great, but it is enjoyable. - 2 - COMMUNICORE EAST is Sperry's contribution. Somebody figured that as long as computers run the show, they should be made part of the show. You actually see the computer center and through the magic of semi-reflective glass you see a lecturer and a cartoon figure called I/O apparently walking around on the computers explaining what they do. Clever idea. UNIVERSE OF ENERGY by Exxon gives you a lecture on where energy comes from and what is being done to harvest this energy. The high point is the full-size dinosaur models that are nearly convincing. They put a lot of money into them and they look very good. After that, the lecture continues on a wraparound screen showing some impressive machinery for pulling energy from the earth in hostile parts of the world. In spite of myself I find these block-long monsters that chew the heck out of nature in the icy North Sea or the frozen tundra real jawdroppers that go a long way to upstage the dinosaurs. The theater is in six sections, each of which is a giant car guided by cables in the floor [and partially powered by solar energy --ecl]. HORIZONS is General Electric's successor to its World's Fair Carousel of Progress, though it pushes GE a lot less and a lot more subliminally. It is a tram ride that shows you historic views of the future, how silly they were, and our current view now that we really know what the future will be like. This is one of the better attractions. COMMUNICORE WEST is AT&T with more of those touchscreens and some videogames like _P_a_c_k_e_t _S_w_i_t_c_h. Still, isn't much of an attraction. THE LAND, sponsored by Kraft, is the least worthwhile of the major attractions of Futureworld. It has the longest wait due to inadequate crowd control. The main attraction is a water-tram ride through a greenhouse where you can see real vegetables being grown. There are also is a restaurant featuring talking vegetables and mayonnaise jars. Yes, it does. JOURNEY INTO IMAGINATION is Kodak's unimaginative tram ride through the various fruits of imagination. Your host is a bearded man and a small purple dragon named "Figment." He looks a lot like Pete's Dragon. Afterwards there is a sort of participation light show. It features pinboards and an orchestra you conduct by how close your hands are to lights. By far the best feature is a 3-D demonstration film. Most of us have seen 3-D films in theaters and this is the same technology using polarized light. The sad fact is that most filmmakers who do 3-D films do not understand the limitations and capabilities of the process. Even if they do the projectionist must do extensive fine tuning to get the image right and few commercial exhibitors know or care how to fine tune their projection system. Kodak is in the business of making 3-D look good and they know what to do. Early in the film they bring a bird-shaped kite, perfectly focused, a foot or two from the viewer's face. It was the best 3-D effect I've ever seen. Of course they were able to start with the object at some distance and move it slowly forward so the viewer's eyes could focus. A commercial might not allow such self-indulgence just for a good 3-D effect. After the first time the audience's eyes were "educated" and through the rest of the film they could use the effect freely. - 3 - I won't go pavilion-by-pavilion for World Showcase, but I will give some general impressions. Back in the Thirties, filmmakers used to do documentaries about other countries. They described the citizens of these countries as being happy, doll-like people with quaint customs. These days we know better. That image is demeaning and inaccurate. But it is an image that is good for tourism, so the myth of the happy peasant is alive and well at the Apricot Center. Mexico is portrayed as a border-to-border fiesta, the French as a happy people who love Americans. It ain't so. I've been to five of the ten countries who have pavilions here (Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Morocco, Japan, the United States, Italy, Germany, China, and Mexico). Only in one did I feel they really liked Americans (that includes America). China did not play up the people's curiosity about, and apparent love for, Americans. That is kind of a pity because China is the only country I've ever visited where the people seemed genuinely pleased that Americans had come visiting. The main attractions of the various countries were shops and restaurants, both overpriced. And to get into any but a fast-food restaurant requires reservations by mid-morning. We didn't even try for reservations. Instead we had lunch at a Japanese restaurant that did a terrible job on yakitori, and had dinner at a place in Orlando's called Luther's Barbecue. I love exotic foreign food, as many of you know me already know. As far as I am concerned, authentic Southern smokehouse barbecue is more exotic than Chinese in the Northeast. I can drive an hour or so and get to a really good Chinese or Mexican or Japanese restaurant. Good smokehouse barbecue is not to be found in the whole New York-New Jersey area. In Orlando I can also heartily recommend the local Po' Folks restaurant. The Apricot Center is really no place to eat. I had been told to allow two days for the Apricot Center. Going in late September, I found the lines were short and I covered it in one day with time left on my hands. Well, so much for the first, and probably last, travel report for this Notice. Kennedy Space Center A review by Evelyn C. Leeper Seven years ago, we went to the Kennedy Space Center. At the time the Apollo program was over and the STS (a.k.a. space shuttle) program had not yet caught the public's imagination. So, although there were some tourists there, it was fairly low-key and empty. No more. Where before there was one building for tourists (and I believe that was shared with tourism administrative offices), there are now 6: an information center, the Gallery of Spaceflight, the Gift Gantry, an IMAX theater, and a cafeteria AND a restaurant. In addition, the tourism administrative offices are in a separate building and there is a separate kiosk for buying tickets for the bus tours and the IMAX presentation (_H_a_i_l, _C_o_l_u_m_b_i_a!). If you want one of the two bus tours offered, sign up early-- later in the day, there can be as much as a two-hour wait for a two-hour tour. The place, far from being empty, was mobbed. Space, it seems, has caught on. The main atractions here (in my opinion) are the bus tours. There are two--a Blue Tour and a Red Tour. Each costs $4 ($1.75 for children, I think). The Blue Tour consists of the Kennedy Space Center itself, including some of the astronaut training facilities, the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB), and launch pads 39A and 39B, from which the shuttle is launched. Seven years ago, we got to go inside the VAB--it wasn't being used. Now you can see only the outside because of safety restrictions-- rocket fuel is tricky stuff. As the bus drives around, you also get to see the crawlers they use to carry the spaceships (well, they are, aren't they?) from the VAB to the launch pads. We were particularly lucky in that Challenger was on the launch pad being prepared for its October 5 launch. While the bus was not allowed to stop by the pad (safety reasons again), the driver did make a very slow U-turn to give everyone a chance to see it and take pictures. Most of the orbiter was obscured by the gantry, but we did get a good view of the solid rocket boosters (SRB's) and the fuel tank. (By the way, the fuel tank used to be painted white to match the rest of the shuttle. Then they discovered by not painting it they saved 600 pounds which could be used for payload instead. Now it's left the original orange color.) The "shuttle," by the way, consists of the orbiter (that's the part that everyone thinks of as the shuttle--it looks like a fat airplane), the external fuel tank (the fat orange rocket-shaped thing "under" the orbiter which is used as a second-stage booster), and the SRB's (two smaller tubes on either side of the external fuel tank which provide the initial thrust). The SRB's parachute into the Atlantic shortly after take-off and are recovered and re-used. The external fuel tank is jettisoned somewhere over the Indian Ocean and is the only part of the shuttle not reused. Anyway, back to the tours themselves. The Red Tour covers the further reaches of the Kennedy Space Center, in particular, the Cape Canaveral Air Station, site of the earlier Mercury and Gemini missions. (We didn't have - 2 - time for this tour, so I can't provide any more details.) Back at the visitor's area, there's still a lot to do and see. The Information Center, in addition to providing information, contains a display area dealing with the shuttle and how it works. There are free 30-minute guided tours of this area. This building also houses two theaters, one showing NASA films and videotapes (of the sort the Astronomy and Space Club in Holmdel shows regularly), the other having 45-minute live demonstrations of aerospace concepts. For example, in order to demonstrate how liquid oxygen takes up so much less room than gaseous oxygen, the demonstrator placed an inflated balloon into liquid nitrogen to liquefy the air inside. The balloon promptly shrinks down practically to its uninflated size, only to return to its inflated state when removed. She also demonstrated how the tiles on the orbiter shed heat very quickly. The Gallery of Spaceflight is a museum containing objects covering the history of the space program (from the Mercury flights on). There are capsules (sorry, spacecraft), suits, a moon rock, a mock-up of the Mars Lander, etc. Short videotapes augment the exhibits. For example, next to the exhibit of "space food" there is a tape running showing astronauts eating in space. There is also a "Rocket Garden," an outside exhibit area showing various rockets used throughout the space program. All are well-labeled (as is almost everything at the Center--the only lack was that they didn't identify _w_h_i_c_h Mercury spacecraft was on display). In addition to the rockets, there were antennae, a LEM mock-up, and an access arm. (A much smaller version of this existed seven years ago.) The IMAX presentation was _H_a_i_l, _C_o_l_u_m_b_i_a!, a documentary on the first shuttle flight. Again, lack of time kept us from seeing this. (I forget the exact cost--I think it was about $3.) Service buildings include a cafeteria (reasonably priced) and a restaurant (which we didn't try). The restaurant also had an outside beverage and ice cream stand. You won't starve at the Center. (And, no, I didn't see any Tang offered.) The Gift Gantry is perhaps the best example of how the public's attitude toward the space program has changed over the last seven years. Seven years ago, the gift shop was a room about 10' by 20' which sold primarily medallions and patches for the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo flights. Oh, there were a few coffee mugs and souvenir spoons, and of course some postcards, but that was about it. Now the Gift Gantry (how cute can you get!) is a building unto itself, with the store part occupying an area approximately 40' by 80'. (That's sixteen times as large, for non- mathematicians out there.) You can get clothes (dozens of different t- shirts, shorts, hats, jackets, dresses), jewelry, household goods (cups, glasses, spoons, towels, placemats, napkins), toys (models to put together, models already put together, puzzles), office supplies (pens, pencils, stationary, postcards, rulers, pencil sharpeners)--well, you get the idea. - 3 - This gift shop (and the charges for the bus tours and the IMAX theater) cover all costs of the Visitor's Center--nothing comes out of tax money. The Kennedy Space Center is well worth the time it takes. We had only about five and a half hours there; it wasn't enough. The Center opens early (8:15?) and tours run until 5PM (so the center must be open until 7PM). Count on spending the whole day. It's about a 90-minute drive from Disneyworld and beats heck out of spending yet another day on roller coasters. (When my ex-officemate told me he was taking his kids to Florida/Disneyworld for a week, I told him he really should take a day to see the Kennedy Space Center. He didn't sound too keen on the idea, but he did it anyway, and came back saying it was the best day they had in Florida.) By the way, if you're not going to Florida, but are going to the Baltimore/Washington D.C. area, you might stop by the Godard Space Center in Maryland (just north of D.C., if I recall correctly). It's not Canaveral, but it's not bad. _N_O_T_E_S _F_R_O_M _T_H_E _N_E_T Contributed by Rob Mitchell & Dale Skran --------------------------------------- Subject: Re: Re: Job: A Comedy of Justice - (nf) Path: ihnp4!decwrl!decvax!cwruecmp!atvax!ncoast!bsa Date: Sun, 16-Sep-84 21:52:25 EDT From: mwm@ea.UUCP He also displayed his sexist streak again - the female protagonist was (smarter, more tolerant, less argumentative, more flexible) than the male protagonist. Has anyone else noticed that he started writing about intelligent (redheaded) females at about the time he met one? Maybe she "hit him with an anvil"? :-) --bsa Subject: re: Re: Looking for a SF book (Russell Hoban) Path: ihnp4!hocsj!ecl Date: Fri, 21-Sep-84 08:38:54 EDT This sounds like "Riddley Walker". I forget the author's name. He doesn't normally write science fiction. In fact, his next book was about a jewish eunuch who gets caught up in one of the crusades. (Perhaps his name is Hoban? or something like it) The author of RIDDLEY WALKER is indeed Russell Hoban; his latest (refered to above) is PILGERMANN, in which the main character is castrated at the beginning of the book by a Christian mob in Germany during one of the Crusades. It is *very* good. A couple of samples: ...the fundamental flaw in God is that He will say that He requires the sacrifice of Isaac/Isma'il; the fundamental flaw in man is that he takes his knife in hand to do God's bidding. and Time after time had violent men sharpened the cross into a sword and made their silken vestments into banners; time after time had they spat out the wafer and the wine and shouted for real blood and real bodies. Hoban started out writing children's books (THE MOUSE AND HIS CHILD, among others) but has recently switched to adult fiction, generally with some sort of fantastic (in the sense of fantasy/SF) theme. His first along these lines was THE LION OF BOAZ-JACHIN AND JACHIN-BOAZ--not a great novel, but - 2 - interesting. He has also written KLEINZEIT and THE TURTLE DIARY, which I haven't read yet (they're on my shelf). I would recommend starting with PILGERMANN. RIDDLEY WALKER is written in first-person dialect which some may find off-putting, but if you're up to it, go for it. Evelyn C. Leeper --------------------------------------- Subject: Re: Trying to find an SF book.... Path: ihnp4!tektronix!hplabs!sri-unix!OC.TREI%CU20B@COLUMBIA Date: Thu, 27-Sep-84 00:17:54 EDT I'm trying to locate a science fiction book. I read part of it a couple of years ago and returned it to the library. Since then, I've been unable to find it again because I forgot both the author and the title. It is set in the post-nuclear-war future in Great Britain. Civilization and science have degenerated. Representatives of the government (called "the ram") travel around giving a puppet show with propagandistic overtones. A principal character in the show ie "Eusa" or something like that. From the context it seems like a misspelling of USA. There are a number of ritual sites located in a circular pattern around the country. In fact, the title way well include something like "circle" or "ring" or something like that. The main character teams up with a mutant of some sort. That's about all I remember. Any leads to the book - title, author or anything else would be greatly appreciated. Thank you. Doug Anderson There is no doubt in my mind that you were reading RIDDLEY WALKER, by Russel Hoban (1980 Summit Books $12.95, ISBN 0-671-42147-6). One of the major points of interest of RW was its writing style, which I can best show by entering the first paragraph: On my naming day when I come 12 I gone front spear and kilt a wyld boar he parbly ben the las wyld pig on the Bundel Downs any how there hadnt been none for a long time befor him nor I aint looking to see none agen. He dint make the groun shake nor nothing like that when he come on to my spear he wernt all that big plus he lookit poorly. He done the reqwryt he ternt and stood and clattert hes teef and made his rush and there we were then. Him on 1 end of the spear kicking his life out and me on the other end watching him dy. I said, 'Your tern now my tern later.' The other spears gone in then and he were dead and the steam coming up off him in the rain and we all yelt, 'Offert!'. - 3 - The entire book (220 pages) is written in this style; after a remarkably short time you cease to notice it. Back when it first came out, RW has highly praised by many critics outside the SF field; I cant remember, but I think it won the Pulitzer Prize. (??) It is definitely worth going to some trouble to find. Peter Trei --------------------------------------- Subject: Which Book Was It? Path: ihnp4!zehntel!hplabs!sri-unix!AXLER%upenn-1100.csnet@csnet-relay.arpa Date: Fri, 21-Sep-84 12:03:24 EDT The book set in a post-holocaust future which mentions "Eusa" is, I believe, Russell Hoban's novel "Riddley Walker". This book, which won some awards and was a close runner-up for others (including the Hugo), was one of my own favorites of last year. It's not an easy read, because Hoban has very carefully worked out all the details of the dialect spoken by the characters (who, since they're descended from the present-day residents of the English countryside, would be a bit hard to understand even now . . .), and has written the entire book in this dialect. Nevertheless, it's worth it. Hoban's other works, many of which are worth noting, include a number of children's books (esp. "The Mouse and His Child"), the intriguing fantasy novel "The Lion of Boaz-Jachin and Jachin-Boaz", and the recent "Pilgermann". Overall, an important present-day author of several varieties of fiction. --Dave Axler --------------------------------------- Subject: ZAN Path: ihnp4!decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-katadn!bottom Date: Wed, 19-Sep-84 12:02:59 EDT Has anybody out there read 'The Game players of Zan'? This book comes complete with two sequels that don't quite stand up to the original effort. The basic storyline is that the aliens are not from outerspace but genetically engineered by humans. After a look around the Ler as they are called then move to a reservation and develop their own culture. Humanity is in a sorry state at the time due to population etc. One Ler caught comitting a crime outside the reservation disminds herself to keep from revealing a vital secret....to go on would ruin the book for those who haven't read it yet. Can anybody tell me the name od the second gateway novel? I didn't know there was one until a few days ago when it was mentioned on the net. - 4 - --------------------------------------- Subject: Re: Jhereg: review, no spoilers - (nf) Path: hocsl!hogpc!houxm!ihnp4!inuxc!pur-ee!uiucdcs!uokvax!lmaher Date: Wed, 19-Sep-84 20:48:00 EDT This is an enthusiastic endorsement of dartvax!betsy's recommendation of _Jhereg_ and _Yendi_, written by Steven Brust. Note that the events in _Yendi_ (the second book) occur *before* the events in Jhereg, and it's better to read it first. I'm hoping Brust will see fit to complete the cycle with 15 more. Carl --------------------------------------- Subject: Samurai Cat (very mild spoiler) Path: ihnp4!tektronix!hplabs!hp-pcd!hpfclk!fritz Date: Tue, 18-Sep-84 17:55:00 EDT If you're looking for a healthy dose of excessive silliness, you might want to check out *The Adventures of Samurai Cat*, by Mark E. Rogers. This oversized, illustrated book chronicles the exploits of the great feline samurai, Miaowara Tomokato, as he seeks to revenge the murder of his daimyo (lord). Tomokato is a *mean* mother (bystanders are wont to utter "What a stud!"), but is also the picture of *bushido* (samurai chivalry), and takes on everything from armies of Porks (orcs) to Fenrir Wolf, the Midgard Serpent, and Surtur the Fire-Giant with aplomb. His venegance takes him through several adventures in strangely-familiar-sounding places: Catzad-Dum (^ over the u), where he meets up with an old greybeard with a blue light on his staff and a retinue of 8 elves, dwarves, humans, and short guys with furry feet, and battles disgusting Porks and the fearsome B'aalhop ("Give us a tip, my love") The Book of the Dunwich Cow, where he meets the Real Old God K'Chu (Cthulhu) and his sidekick Bl'syu The Pictish woods, where he and Con-Ed the Barbarian defeat the Porka Picts (th-th-th-that's all, folks!) and the evil wizard Thpageti-Thoth You get the idea. The book is full of punny names, in-jokes, and sight- gags, and is a good time for light entertainment. The illustrations are almost as hilarious as the text. Just don't expect any literary classics! Gary Fritz --------------------------------------- - 5 - Subject: re: Fantasy Role-Playing books Path: ihnp4!zehntel!dual!decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-akov68!boyajian Date: Fri, 21-Sep-84 11:33:56 EDT The first series of games like this I saw was called "Choose Your Own Adventure" published by Bantam books.... Bantam gets all its credit for the idea... Mark R. Leeper ...ihnp4!lznv!mrl The "Choose Your Own Adventure" series is published by Pocket Books, not Bantam Books. Bantam's series is the "Which Way" series. Without checking out my book collection, I can't be sure which of those two series is actually the first. They both started at pretty close to the same time, though. Some might consider this a picayune point, but if you're going to say that "X gets all the credit...", then you should get the right "X". It might be of interest to sf fans that there is a series of (so far) 4 Indiana Jones books of this ilk, from Ballantine. There is also a book in the "Choose Your Own Adventure" series (#15, to be specific) that is a Star Trek story. Wanderer Books, a trade-size paperback arm of Simon & Schuster (who also own Pocket Books), have yet another series, called "Plot-Your- Own-Stories", with entries in that series being multi-path adventures of the various series characters published by Wanderer, such as the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew. Two of the books in this series are Star Trek, one as a tie-in to THE WRATH OF KHAN, and one to THE SEARCH FOR SPOCK. --- jayembee (Jerry Boyajian, DEC, Maynard, MA) --------------------------------------- Subject: re: Fantasy Role-Playing Books Path: ihnp4!zehntel!dual!decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-akov68!boyajian Date: Sat, 22-Sep-84 17:22:29 EDT It seems that I owe Mark Leeper an apology. In a recent posting about the various "multi-path adventure" books, he mentioned that Bantam Books started the idea with its "Choose Your Own Adventure" series. I responded with a comment that it was Pocket Books, not Bantam, that had done the "CYOA" books, and that Bantam had the "Which Way" series, I also said that I wasn't sure which series was actually first without consulting my collection. Well, I did consult my collection, and much to my embarrassment, I found that Mark was right and I was wrong. The "CYOA" books were indeed published by Bantam, and they were the first. Pocket published the "Which Way" series. This is the second time that I've managed to stick my foot in my mouth in SFL, and its a trend I don't like. Of course, it's not a bad overall record, when you consider all the times I've been right. :-) Oh, well, next time I'll check my "facts" *before* I post them. - 6 - --- jayembee (Jerry Boyajian, DEC, Maynard, MA) <"Bibliography is SUPPOSED TO BE my business"> --------------------------------------- Subject: Re: Piers Anthony - MACROSCOPE - (nf) Path: ihnp4!inuxc!pur-ee!ecn-ee!hsut Date: Mon, 24-Sep-84 13:34:48 EDT I agree. Macroscope is probably the best thing Piers Anthony has ever written (what has he put out since then that's even close?) I, too, read it several years ago and can only remember the intriguing split personality sequences and the hallucinatory battle scenes near the end which compare well with Zelazny. Anthony also wrote a nice story for Harlan Ellison's "Again, Dangerous Visions" called In The Barn, which is definitely worth reading. I haven't been impressed with his recent stuff. Looks like a classic case of a promising young talent's degeneration into hackhood... Bill Hsu --------------------------------------- Subject: the brother from another planet Path: ihnp4!decwrl!decvax!wivax!masscomp!trb Date: Thu, 20-Sep-84 19:00:06 EDT I saw the movie "The Brother from Another Planet" last Tuesday night in NYC at a theater around 73rd and Amsterdam. I forget the name of the theater, but there was no air conditioning in it. What there was in it, was lots of people, and a fantastic movie. TBfAP features Joe Morton (?) as a black alien who lands on earth and ends up going to Harlem. I don't want to give any more away, but the movie is wonderful: charming, intelligent, hilarious, suspenseful, novel. The movie is directed and written by John Sayles, who plays one of the "men in black" (don't ask, just go see it). By the way, before this movie, there was a political advertisement which turned out to be a hoax, the audience booed and hissed first, and laughed quite a bit when we finally realized what was going on. The premise was a typical waspy looking politician promoting himself, in an ad that turned into something out of a men's fashion magazine. I forgot what it was called, "Political Advertisement" or something. Andy Tannenbaum Masscomp Inc Westford MA (617) 692-6200 x274 --------------------------------------- Subject: Release dates of upcoming SF and fantasy movies Path: hocsl!hogpc!houxm!vax135!cornell!uw-beaver!tektronix!orca!davidl Date: Fri, 21-Sep-84 13:43:25 EDT - 7 - This information paraphrased from an article by Ted Mahar in the (Portland) Oregonian. Thought you might be interested. Sept. 21: "All of Me" - Lily Tomlin's soul occupies half of Steve Martin Sept. 28: "Impulse" - People suddenly can't resist their impulses "Repo Man" - A man reposesses a car with four ET's in the trunk Oct. 5: "Amadeus" - Psychofantasy about Mozart, based on Broadway play Oct. 26: "The Terminator" - Arnold Schwarzenegger as robot assasin Nov. 9: "Oh, God! You Devil!" - George Burns returns as God Nov. 21: "Supergirl" - Faye Dunaway and Peter O'Toole Dec. 7: "2010" - sequel to "2001" "Starman" - Jeff Bridges, Karen Allen, Charles Martin Smith Dec. 14: "Dune" - Frank Herbert's epic finally comes to the screen Dec. 21: "Pinocchio" - Disney's animated classic These dates are not cast in stone for all of these. A quote from the same article: "...a few other films will drop in unexpectedly; some of the above may not show up. Among those that probably will play here, perhaps in late September, is W.D. Richter's 'The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai,' a big science fantasy film that attracted a lot of critical attention, some of it very critical, and opened to small audiences in several engagements." Some personal notes: I'm not sure whether "Amadeus" and "Starman" belong on this list... I haven't seen "Amadeus," although friends who saw it on Broadway waxed ecstatic about it, and I'd never heard of "Starman" before reading this article. "Supergirl" is also something of an unknown quantity. "2010" looks very good from the previews I saw at the World Science Fiction Convention. At the same convention, Frank Herbert said he really liked the "Dune" movie, but I'm withholding judgement. The marketing people don't seem to know how to sell it, which is always a sign of confusion in high places. Another movie that the marketing people don't seem to know how to sell is "Buckaroo Banzai," which has still acheived only limited release. Sandworm 1: "I hear they're making a movie out of 'Dune.'" Sandworm 2: "Really? Is Alan Dean Foster doing the novelizaton?" David D. Levine (...decvax!tektronix!tekecs!davidl) [UUCP] --------------------------------------- Subject: Repo Man Path: ihnp4!!tektronix!tekchips!vice!keithl Date: Sat, 22-Sep-84 04:30:09 EDT REPO MAN reaches Portland, Oregon! GONZO CINEMA strikes again! If you are the type of person that enjoyed Buckaroo Bonzai or Liquid Sky, you'll probably like REPO MAN. This is mostly the - 8 - story of Otto, a new wave young man who learns to repossess cars, a Repo Man. It is also the story of a battered brown Chevy, with radioactive dead aliens in the trunk, and the legion of blond government agents trying to capture it. The film has TV evangelists, car chases in the Los Angeles river, armed robberies, punks, and odd coincidences. All the food and drink shown (including 3 different stores) is generic "FOOD", "BEER", and "DRINK". Fast paced, weird, and funny. Violence. Rated PS - for partially sane people only. Keith Lofstrom