@@@@@ @ @ @@@@@ @ @ @@@@@@@ @ @ @@@@@ @@@@@ @@@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @@@@@ @@@@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @@@@@ @ @ @ @ @@@@@ @@@@@ @@@ Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society Club Notice - 6/3/88 -- Vol. 6, No. 49 MEETINGS UPCOMING: Unless otherwise stated, all meetings are on Wednesdays at noon. LZ meetings are in LZ 3A-206; MT meetings are in the cafeteria. _D_A_T_E _T_O_P_I_C 06/15 LZ: The Oz Books by Frank L. Baum (Oz) 07/06 LZ: Bookswap _D_A_T_E _E_X_T_E_R_N_A_L _M_E_E_T_I_N_G_S/_C_O_N_V_E_N_T_I_O_N_S/_E_T_C. 06/11 Science Fiction Association of Bergen County: picnic (phone 201-933-2724 for details) 06/18 New Jersey Science Fiction Society: TBA (phone 201-432-5965 for details) 09/01 NOLACON II (46th World Science Fiction Convention), New Orleans. -09/05 Info: Nolacon II, 921 Canal St., Suite 831, New Orleans LA 70112 (504) 525-6008. HO Chair: John Jetzt HO 1E-525 834-1563 mtuxo!jetzt LZ Chair: Rob Mitchell LZ 1B-306 576-6106 mtuxo!jrrt MT Chair: Mark Leeper MT 3E-433 957-5619 mtgzz!leeper HO Librarian: Tim Schroeder HO 3M-420 949-5866 homxb!tps LZ Librarian: Lance Larsen LZ 3L-312 576-6142 lzfme!lfl MT Librarian: Will Harmon MT 3C-406 957-5128 mtgzz!wch Factotum: Evelyn Leeper MT 1F-329 957-2070 mtgzy!ecl All material copyright by author unless otherwise noted. 1. It is summertime at last -- well, almost. Our next film fest will be a couple of chillers. We will be showing two of the best horror films from Hammer Films of Britain. On Thursday, June 9, at 7PM we will show at the Leeper House of Horrors: The Brides of Fisher BRIDES OF DRACULA (1960) dir. by Terence Fisher THE DEVIL'S BRIDE (1967) dir. by Terence Fisher No director of the sound era has made a more lasting contribution to the intelligent horror film than Terence Fisher. Fisher did his best work for Hammer Films and these are his two best and most THE MT VOID Page 2 interesting pieces. Hammer had killed off Dracula in HORROR OF DRACULA (a.k.a. DRACULA) but wanted to make more vampire films. This one cashes in the Dracula name, but doesn't use the character. Instead it centers on disciples of the vampire. The film is well-acted and is very probably Hammer's most intelligent vampire film. The writing has been described as "Bram Stoker meets Tennessee Williams." Along with Peter Cushing as Van Helsing are David Peel and veteran actress Martita Hunt. THE DEVIL'S BRIDE (a.k.a. THE DEVIL RIDES OUT) is my choice for the best horror film that Hammer made. Richard Matheson did a tremendous job of accurately adapting the popular British novel, THE DEVIL RIDES OUT by Dennis Wheatley. For what it is worth, the Satanism represented in the film is accurate. The pace of the film is fast and adventurous. The film stars Christopher Lee as Wheatley's continuing hero The Duc de Richlieu and Charles Gray (ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW) plays Arch-Satanist Mocata. Phil Hardy says "Fisher builds his atmosphere with uncannily precise editing, a marvellously controlled camera style and, above all, through an astonishingly sophisticated use of colour schemes, summarized in the image of the dazed [actor Nike] Arrighi standing motionless in the swirl of the sabbath, dressed in a white robe splattered with intensely red blood. Set around 1925, the attention to period detail, which extends to objects, dress, and cars, evokes a world in which [French pulp hero] Fantomas might still be active, a sense reinforced by the rigorously linear, almost serial-like structure of Matheson's script which considerably improves on Dennis Wheatley's original story." 2. I commented in the past that when our budget is low, we have to accept occasional pieces of advertising. The following is paid for. Did you know that the population of Libya is less than that of New Jersey? So why does the world fear Libya and not New Jersey? It's isn't because of the size of your population; it is all in your style. Libya is feared because it has a Line of Death, and now you can too. You too could get world attention if you had your own Line of Death. Many people you know in governments around the world, people you negotiate with every day, wouldn't feel safe without their Line of Death. Believe it or not, the cost is probably less than that outdated missile system you were planning to buy. And a Line of Death turns itself on automatically in the event of someone attempting to cross, even while you are sleeping or planning that all important Spring Offensive. So there is no fear of having a silly embarrassing incident like even some of the major powers have. No little twerp in a gunboat or a THE MT VOID Page 3 Cessna plane is going to make a monkey our of your country, believe me. But don't take my word for it. Try a test deployment yourself. See what having a Line of Death can mean to you. Your allies respect you, your enemies fear you. Yes, a Line of Death be just what you need. And we have a Line of Death in your price range and ideal to fit your needs. The economy model is more than powerful enough for that all-important sabre-rattling yet still leaves room in your budget to feed a majority of your larger voting villages. But if your people are more patriotic and willing to tighten their belts a little there is no limit to the power you can get from YOUR Line of Death. But the time to act is now. Can you afford to not have your own Line of Death when all your neighbors have theirs? Discover it for yourself. There is nothing as sexy as that feeling of power. Get a Line of Death and feel like you did THAT FIRST DAY YOU KNEW YOU WERE IN CHARGE. Need we say more? Ask your mistresses. Ask your patriots. Get a Line of Death for your country today. Five Continents Defense Systems A wholly owned subsidiary of ??? (Someone Whose Name You WILL Know.) Mark Leeper MT 3E-433 957-5619 ...mtgzz!leeper THIS PAGE INTENTIONALLY LEFT ALMOST BLANK THE ARMAGEDDON BLUES by Daniel Keys Moran Bantam Spectra, 1988, 0-553-27115-6, $3.50. A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper Copyright 1988 Evelyn C. Leeper One of the great classics of science fiction is _F_l_o_w_e_r_s _f_o_r _A_l_g_e_r_n_o_n written by Daniel Keyes. Now, probably "Daniel Keys Moran" is this author's real name, but I can't help but feel that the use of his middle name is calculated make the average bookstore-goer do a double- take when s/he sees what seems to be a new book of the author of _F_l_o_w_e_r_s _f_o_r _A_l_g_e_r_n_o_n. This apparent commercial plot is unfortunate, because it may sour readers on this book before they have a chance to give it a fair shake. Don't get me wrong--it's _n_o_t another _F_l_o_w_e_r_s _f_o_r _A_l_g_e_r_n_o_n. But Moran has come up with an interesting, if somewhat off-the-wall, concept. He takes a woman warrior from the future, an immortal from the past, and a nuclear holocaust. Georges, the immortal, is handled well throughout. Jalian, the warrior, is acceptable as a character, though the "female post-holocaust warrior" is becoming a bit of a stereotype in science fiction; if the argument is that women rule because men mucked things up so much, why give the women all the traits that made the men muck it up? But as I said, the characters in general are believable, the plot moves along, the conclusion is acceptable, and all in all, this shows promise as a first novel. MARCHING THROUGH GEORGIA by S. M. Stirling Baen, 1988, 0-671-65407-1, $3.50. A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper [**Spoilers**] Copyright 1988 Evelyn C. Leeper Let's get one thing clear straight off--when Stirling talks about "marching through Georgia," he ain't talkin' Savannah. As the tag line says, "You don't know how lucky you are, boys...." In other words, we're back in the U.S.S.R. But not the U.S.S.R. we know. No, this is (you guessed it) an alternate history in which Loyalists fleeing the United States during the American Revolution founded the Domination of the Draka in South Africa. The Draka have maintained serfdom, but achieved female equality. They have developed technology faster than we have in our universe, but then it seems to have gotten stuck so that World War II is being fought with a similar level of technology in both universes. All this seems contrived for the author's convenience, so that he can show scenes of decadent life on the estate on one page and women in combat on the next. After a few hundred pages of combat, Stirling ties in all up far too neatly and quickly. The good guys win, the pseudo-villains see the light of day, and the really bad guys are dead. Ho-hum.