Lincroft-Holmdel Science Fiction Club Club Notice - 3/4/87 -- Vol. 5, No. 34 MEETINGS UPCOMING: Unless otherwise stated, all meetings are on Wednesdays at noon. LZ meetings are in LZ 3A-206; MT meetings are in MT 4A-235. _D_A_T_E _T_O_P_I_C 03/11 LZ: THE DREAMING JEWELS by Ted Sturgeon Children (and Child-raising) 03/18 MT: BABEL-17 by Samuel R. Delaney Linguistics and SF 04/01 LZ: STAR WARS by George Lucas Literary Masterpieces 04/22 LZ: MURMURS OF EARTH by Carl Sagan SF-related Non-Fiction 05/13 LZ: TO YOUR SCATTERED BODIES GO by Reincarnation Phillip Jose Farmer HO Chair: John Jetzt HO 1E-525 834-1563 LZ Chair: Rob Mitchell LZ 1B-306 576-6106 MT Chair: Mark Leeper MT 3E-433 957-5619 HO Librarian: Tim Schroeder HO 3M-420 949-5866 LZ Librarian: Lance Larsen LZ 1C-117 576-2068 MT Librarian: Bruce Szablak MT 4C-418 957-5868 Jill-of-all-trades: Evelyn Leeper MT 1F-329 957-2070 All material copyright by author unless otherwise noted. 1. Charlie Harris sends us the following description of Sturgeon's THE DREAMING JEWELS: "Horty Bluett ate ants." Ever since I read Sturgeon's THE DREAMING JEWELS (a.k.a. THE SYNTHETIC MAN) many years ago (during the Golden Age of SF; i.e. when I was a teenager), that has been my favorite opening line for an SF novel. Concise, vivid, combining the familiar and the strange, it makes you wonder why. Only, it turns out that's *not* the opening line of THE DREAMING JEWELS. The real opening line is: "They caught the kid doing something disgusting out under the bleachers at the high- school stadium, and he was sent home from the grammar school across the street." Not nearly as concise, and with no element of the strange--just a smirk. My favorite line must have come from the dust-jacket blurb. Sigh. The book itself holds up well on re-reading. It's typical Sturgeon in revolving around biologically unusual people in exaggeratedly usual situations (starting in this case with child abuse and progressing to the freak show of an itinerant circus), punctuated with unexpected bizarre events that are explained later. The explanation of *why* Horty Bluett ate - 2 - ants falls a bit flat, but the rest of the book is engrossing SF. The book itself holds up well on re-reading. It's typical Sturgeon in revolving around biologically unusual people in exaggeratedly usual situations (starting in this case with child abuse and progressing to the freak show of an itinerant circus), punctuated with unexpected bizarre events that are explained later. The explanation of *why* Horty Bluett ate ants falls a bit flat, but the rest of the book is engrossing SF. THE DREAMING JEWELS and other stories about children and childhood are next Wednesday's topic at the LZ Club meeting. So like Jack Lord says: "Be there. Aloha!" [-ecl] 2. You know, I am not really sure what is the connecting theme between the next two films in our film festival. They are good films, they star Peter O'Toole, and they are about the entertainment industry, but clearly these do not qualify as a connecting theme. On Thursday, March 12, at 7 PM the Leeperhouse film festival will show: Films Evelyn Leeper Wanted to See Again Directed by Richards ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN MARVEL, Pt. 3 THE STUNT MAN (1980) dir. by Richard Rush MY FAVORITE YEAR (1982) dir. by Richard Benjamin Leonard Maltin give STUNT MAN a full four stars -- his highest rating. This is a great film about the nature of reality and illusion. A fugitive from the law joins a film production company to hide. Soon he finds himself in "a world where nothing is what it seems." Sounds arty doesn't it? See it. This is one of those films that just about everyone who sees it likes it. Most like it a lot! Live one week in 1953 (MY FAVORITE YEAR) during the life of Benjie Stone, comedy writer for the King Kaisar comedy show. Benjie is in a bit of a pickle. He recommended swashbuckling actor Alan Swann for a part in the show, and now he must keep Swann sober and punctual, a nearly impossible task. Good film too. 3. Starting next week, the Holmdel-Lincroft Science Fiction Club Notice will be published on Fridays instead of Wednesdays. This is being done to make the announcement of meetings fall closer to the actual meeting date. If anyone in the Lincroft-Middletown area (i.e. close enough to attend meetings) starts getting their Notices too late, please let us know. [-ecl] Mark Leeper MT 3E-433 957-5619 ...mtgzz!leeper Lethal Weapon A movie review by Dale Skran First there was _R_a_m_b_o, then _C_o_m_m_a_n_d_o, _D_e_a_t_h _W_i_s_h _I_I_I, _R_a_m_b_e_t_t_e (also known as _A_l_i_e_n_s), _N_o _M_e_r_c_y, and most recently _W_a_n_t_e_d _D_e_a_d _o_r _A_l_i_v_e. All feature a fairly well-known star blowing away the gooks at a rapid rate. All share a love of high-tech weaponry. Unlike an earlier generation of films that focused on either the bizarre violence of psychotics or the futility of force, these movies make no apologies. The bad guys are better off dead, and the lead character knows it perfectly well. Not be be left out of the wave, Mel Gibson appears in _L_e_t_h_a_l _W_e_a_p_o_n as a special forces assassin turned cop. He is a "Lethal Weapon," trained to kill with whatever is available in the blink of an eye. An entertaining, well-written script sets this film apart from most of its predecessors. For much of the first part of the film, I was constantly amazed at how funny Gibson could be, and how witty the movie was. Unfortunately, the plot lacks a sense of reality. Although not as ridiculous as the final battle scenes of _C_o_m_m_a_n_d_o where the title character can apparently kill about 10 people with each burst from his machine gun, the final hand-to-hand in _L_e_t_h_a_l _W_e_a_p_o_n leaves a lot to be desired. Beside being totally gratuitous, it is also filmed in smoke and under spot-lights to conceal that fact that although Mel Gibson looks pretty while being hung up and tortured in an earlier scene, he is not actually a martial artist. _L_e_t_h_a_l _W_e_a_p_o_n carries one of the trends in the earlier films to its logical conclusion. Not only are bystanders and relatives of the hero/heroine helpless to defend themselves, but so is everyone else, including the police. Against the well-trained, well-armed enemy, the corner cop is about as useful as your 90-year-old Aunt Tildy. Only someone with years of weapons and martial arts training, as well as extensive combat experience, can even hope to survive. The "Rambo" films are the spiritual descendents of the Western, featuring a sharp distinction between good and evil, and a love affair with the gun in its modern (or future) incarnations. Also, like the Western, they provide a kind of release from the constraints of modern society, where the very power of our weapons forces us to keep them under tight control, and where the perception is widespread that our government will not use force to protect the citizens of this country. Rate this a (0) on the Leeper scale. THE IVANHOE GAMBIT by Simon Hawke Ace, 1984, $2.95. A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper Copyright 1987 Evelyn C. Leeper This is the first of a series of time travel adventures entitled, collectively, "Time Wars." The U. S. Army Temporal Corps is busy trying to prevent people from going back and disturbing history. Not a very original idea, but Hawke does put some spin on the ball--the history that people go back to centers around fictional characters and events. If a _r_o_m_a_n _a _c_l_e_f is a novel in which real characters appear, thinly disguised, then what is the term for a novel in which someone else's literary creations are appear as real characters? My friendly literary reference person says she knows of no such term, but certainly there have been many such novels; I suspect the most prolific are those involving Sherlock Holmes. But back to _T_h_e _I_v_a_n_h_o_e _G_a_m_b_i_t. In this novel, as you may have guessed, Sergeant Major Lucas Priest travels back to the time of Robin Hood, Maid Marion, Ivanhoe, Isaac of York, Rebecca, and the whole schmeer. The army and the military characters seem to be patterned after Heinlein, and offer not much in the way of surprises. The other characters, in case you couldn't guess, are patterned after Scott, though there is some variation from Scott's characterization. The story is straight-forward adventure with a few twists, and while it won't set the world on fire, it's a pleasant enough way to spend an evening. I expect to read the sequels (_T_h_e _T_i_m_e_k_e_e_p_e_r _C_o_n_s_p_i_r_a_c_y, _T_h_e _P_i_m_p_e_r_n_e_l _P_l_o_t, _T_h_e _Z_e_n_d_a _V_e_n_d_e_t_t_a, _T_h_e _N_a_u_t_i_l_u_s _S_a_n_c_t_i_o_n, and _T_h_e _K_h_y_b_e_r _C_o_n_n_e_c_t_i_o_n) in the not-too-distant future. At least I know they've been released; I'm still waiting for Leo Frankowski's continuation of _T_h_e _C_r_o_s_s-_T_i_m_e _E_n_g_i_n_e_e_r. (I just know someone will tell me they've already been released and are now out of print!)