Lincroft-Holmdel Science Fiction Club Club Notice - 5/7/86 -- Vol. 4, No. 42 MEETINGS UPCOMING: Unless otherwise stated, all meetings are on Wednesdays at noon. LZ meetings are in LZ 3A-206; HO meetings are in HO 2N-523. _D_A_T_E _T_O_P_I_C 05/14 LZ: THE WEREWOLF PRINCIPLE by Clifford Simak (Biological Constructs) 05/21 HO: Is DR. WHO science fiction? (Specific discussion of THE CLAWS OF AXOS) 06/04 LZ: THIS PERFECT DAY by Ira Levin ("Utopias") 06/11 HO: ? 06/25 LZ: STAR GUARD by Andre Norton (Humans as underdogs) 07/16 LZ: SHADRACH IN THE FURNACE by Robert Silverberg (Ethics) 08/06 LZ: TUNNEL IN THE SKY by Robert Heinlein (Faster-Than-Light Travel) HO Chair is John Jetzt, HO 4F-528A (834-1563). LZ Chair is Rob Mitchell, LZ 1B-306 (576-6106). MT Chair is Mark Leeper, MT 3G-434 (957-5619). HO Librarian is Tim Schroeder, HO 2G-427A (949-5866). LZ Librarian is Lance Larsen, LZ 3C-219 (576-2668). Jill-of-all-trades is Evelyn Leeper, MT 1F-329 (957-2070). 1. Andrew Blake returns to Earth after two centuries of supended animation in space. Earth is very different, but then so is Andrew. He has two aliens sharing his body. The Lincroft branch of the club will be discussing Clifford Simak's 1967 book THE WEREWOLF PRINCIPLE on Wednesday, May 14. Have fun reading science fiction again. Read Simak's book and discuss it with Ramblin' Rob on Wednesday next. 2. Well, this has been the kind of week that couldn't really happen, but it would make good reading in a science fiction book. This was the week it was discovered that technology really doesn't work and we are all going back to stone clubs (er, sorry, bare hands) on the plains of Africa. Weeeellll..., maybe technology works a little better than that. I did hear an editorial on the radio talking about the martyrs to science in the space shuttle and at Chernobyl. And the commentator probably has even more fuel for his argument with the more recent launch problems. Perhaps the commentator is right. Perhaps the time has come to stop risking lives and play it safe. Maybe we should forget about space and content ourselves with life here on Earth with what we already have. Space is too far away, too tough to get to. Maybe we should content ourselves with feeding ourselves here on Earth for what time is left before we over-populate ourselves to the - 2 - point where we are sucking this planet dry and polluting ourselves out of existence. Maybe we have hit the magic point where science should go no further. You know, the magic point aimed at by all the people who developed a hundred million inventions that we use each day that make our way of living different from the short, painful, dangerous lives of our prehistoric ancestors. But of course I am being purposely dense. We all know that there is good science and bad science. The people who developed the atom bomb were dabbling in bad science. They were using it to avoid an invasion of Japan that would have left hundreds of thousands dead and they let that blind them horrible world that they were creating: one in which there has not been an all-out world war for forty years. Bad science is the stuff that can be used for evil purposes. You know, nuclear technology that can be used for bombs, biological research that can be used for warfare or can make vaccines that can protect people from disease while leaving the Enemy vulnerable. Then there is evil science that develops computer processing power and communications that make it easier for governments to keep tabs on people and create an Orwellian state. And this space technology that makes rockets and missiles that we can use against each other. Then there is other bad science. There is the physics that makes possible artillery, chemistry that makes dynamite, paleontology and geology that shake our faith in our holy writings. How about architecture that allows people to build safe fortifications to retreat to after committing all sorts of nasty crimes against each other? Also those people who discovered how to domesticate animals and gave rise to warfare on horseback; surely we can do without the fruits of their science. And of course these armies on horseback could hardly be such efficient killers if they had to hunt as they went. They can be deadly because they carry with them food in the form of grown plant products, grown by the evil, uncaring experimenters who developed agriculture. The time has come to say no to evil science that can be used against good people and the ill-gotten fruits of that science. 3. The Nebula winners are: Novel: ENDER'S GAME by Orson Scott Card (Tor Books) Novella: "Sailing to Byzantium" by Robert Silverberg (IASFM, February 1985) Novelette: "Portraits of His Children" by George R.R. Martin (IASFM, Novemeber 1985) Short Story: "Out of All Them Bright Stars" by Nancy Kress (F&SF, March 1985) Grand Master: Arthur C. Clarke Mark Leeper MT 3G-434 957-5619 ...mtgzz!leeper _N_O_T_E_S _F_R_O_M _T_H_E _N_E_T --------------------------------------- Subject: Moorcock Chronology Path: mtuxo!houxm!ihnp4!ihuxl!gandalf Date: Tue, 29-Apr-86 22:42:42 EST All of Moorcock books are related to some extent, but those tied most closely to the Eternal Champion concept involve the characters of Elric, Corum, Hawkmoon, and Erekose. Much of Moorcocks work appeared first in magazines and was later collected into books. For exampe _Stormbringer_ is a novelization of the four short stories _Black Sword's Brother_, _Dead God's Homecomming_, _Doomed Lord's Passing_, and _Sad Giant's Shield_. The contents of the British and American editions differ in some cases. As if that wasn't enough Moorcock made some heavy revisions to the editions that appeared in the late 70s, to make the cycle more consistent. Now is a good time to be reading these books because Berkeley is reissuing almost all of them. (The last 3 Hawkmoon book have been notoriously hard to find) Anyhow - here's the list... The ELRIC novels (in order) --------------------------- 1. Elric of Melnibone (British: The Dreaming City) 2. A Sailor on the Seas of Fate 3. Weird of the White Wolf (British: The Stealer of Souls) 4. The Vanishing Tower (British: The Sleeping Sorceress) 5. The Bane of the Black Sword 6. Stormbringer 7. Elric at the End of Time (A short story found in the collection of the same name) The CORUM novels (in order) --------------------------- 1. The Knight of the Swords 2. The Queen of the Swords 3. The King of the Swords 1,2,&3 collected as The Swords Trilogy 4. The Bull and the Spear 5. The Oak and the Ram 6. The Sword and the Stallion 4,5,&6 collected as The Chronicles of Corum The HAWKMOON novels (in order) ------------------------------ 1. The Jewel in the Skull 2. The Mad God's Amulet (British: Sorcerer's Amulet) 3. The Sword of the Dawn - 2 - 4. The Runestaff (British: The Secret of the Runestaff) 5. Count Brass 6. The Champion of Garathorm (Can also be read as Erekose #3) 7. The Quest for Tanelorn (Can also be read as Erekose #4) Erekose ----------------------------- 1. The Eternal Champion 2. The Silver Warriors (British: Phoenix in Obsidian) Incarnations of the E.C. in more modern times include Jerry Corneilus and Oswald Bastable. The JERRY CORNELIUS novels (in order) ------------------------------------- 1. The Final Program 2. A Cure for Cancer 3. The English Assassin 4. The Condition of Muzak 1,2,3,&4 collected as The Cornelius Cronicles 5. The Lives (sic) and Times of Jerry Cornelius 6. The Adventures of Una Persson and Catherine Cornelius in the 20th Century The OSWALD BASTABLE novels (in order) ------------------------------------- 1. The Warlord of the Air 2. The Land Leviathan 3. The Steel Tsar There are others, including Michael Kane and Karl Glogauer, but my fingers are getting tired. Try getting a copy of _A Reader's Guide to Fantasy_ by Searles, Meacham, & Franklin (C 1981 from Avon), or better still _The Tanelorn Archives_ by Richard Bilyeu (C 1982 from Pandora's Books) The Elric, Corum, Hawkmoon, and Erekose stories are some of the best swords & sorcery fiction around. Moorcock practically defined the (S&S) genre when he wrote them. I recommend them highly. .XS Ralph Schurman --------------------------------------- Subject: Review of the Zen Gun Path: mtuxo!houxm!ihnp4!ucbvax!nike!caip!daemon Date: Tue, 29-Apr-86 14:04:09 EST I saw a mention of THE ZEN GUN by Barrington Bailey in issue 87 of SF-L. I thought that I'd write this and warn people away from this book. - 3 - Micro Review: !!YUCK!! Mini Review: On the proverbial -4 to +4 scale, this one gets a -4. I found the book to be predictable, repititive and in some cases even sadistic. The writing style is slow, and the characters one dimensional. *slight spoiler follows, but the book isn't good enough to read anyway* About a month ago, I picked this book up and started readng it. The story is set in a crumbling galactic empire. Biological engineering has advanced to where humans have cross bred with animals for centuries. Pure humans still occupy the highest places in society, but there are fewer and fewer pure humans. The story opens with a (yes, you guessed it) an EVIL MAD SCIENTIST doing sadistic things to the animals he has given intelligence. One of these animals escapes and finds an old armory, where he picks up, the ZEN GUN. Well, the story rapidly deteriorates from here. The motto of the ZEN GUN is _c_a_nmaim,_a_n_dI_c_a_nkill,Icanbe effect. See, the gun has a sort of intelligence of its own. Basically, the escaped animal uses this gun to first kill the mad scientist, and in one horribly sadistic scene, to torture for it's own pleasure. Of course, there are other elements to the plot, and the author has used the humans-mixed-with-animals as an excuse to give us one dimensional characters (pig descendants that love being officious, etc.) In summation, I didn't like the book. Not only didn't I like it, I was offended by it, and this is the first time that's happened to me. I kept trying to see it as a parody in an effort to give it some credit, and in a minor sense, it does parody some of the space operas, but it does this *very* clumsily. Joe Herman --------------------------------------- Subject: CLOUD WARRIOR by Patrick Tilley (mild spoiler) Path: ihnp4!hplabs!hao!noao!terak!anasazi!duane Date: Tue, 29-Apr-86 14:31:03 EST The jacket reads: "The Talisman Prophecy promised victory -- but for which side? - 4 - For the Federation -- Steve Brickman. Reared deep underground in a Federation fortress, he was the hottest pilot ever to graduate from the Academy. His assignment: wing man to the surface-train LADY FROM LOUISIANA, vulnerable keystone of the army sent to reconquer the Blue Sky World. For the Mutes -- Cadillac M'Call. Tall and smooth-skinned, Cadillac looked more like a Federation man than one of his radiation-changed clan brothers. His encyclopedic knowledge set Cadillac apart from the Mutes as well...as did his belief in a prophecy that forecast a far different Blue Sky World. The Talisman Prophecy drew them together...and the prophecy would decide which would live, and whose world would prevail." The front cover shows men in flight suits fighting what appears to be Plains Indians. I wouldn't have purchased the book based on the cover, but I didn't have to: a friend highly recommended it and loaned me his copy. I'm glad he did. The scenario is Earth hundreds of years in the future, long after an atomic war has divided the inhabitants of America into two opposing groups, one above ground (technologically backward, biologically scarred by radiation, with some members gifted with extrasensory powers), and the other below ground (technological, regimented, short-lived). Interestingly enough, the 'backward' group comes across as being more fully human than the others. The two main characters are on a collision course, and the story hops back and forth between the two until they meet. It's a smooth transition, and the story is exciting and enjoyable throughout. There's just enough background about the two cultures to make the reader feel that he understands them as well as Brickman, who himself is learning about the Mutes. The technology of the Federation is explained and seems reasonable, and the actions and activities of the Mutes seems natural. All of the characters are interesting, and the two cultures are cleverly developed. I give this book 3.5 stars out of 4.0 (very, very good). Warning: this is the first book of a series, though this isn't stated anywhere in the book. Duane Morse ...!noao!{mot|terak}!anasazi!duane