@@@@@ @ @ @@@@@ @ @ @@@@@@@ @ @ @@@@@ @@@@@ @@@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @@@@@ @@@@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @@@@@ @ @ @ @ @@@@@ @@@@@ @@@ Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society Club Notice - 9/1/88 -- Vol. 7, No. 10 MEETINGS UPCOMING: Unless otherwise stated, all meetings are on Wednesdays at noon. LZ meetings are in LZ 2R-158; MT meetings are in the cafeteria. _D_A_T_E _T_O_P_I_C 09/07 LZ: THE FORGE OF GOD by Greg Bear (Hugo nominee) 09/14 MT: Latin American Fantasy (MT 4A-229) 09/28 LZ: WHEN GRAVITY FAILS by George Alec Effinger (Hugo nominee) 10/19 LZ: TO SAIL BEYOND THE SUNSET by Robert Heinlein (A Heinlein retrospective) _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. 09/10 Science Fiction Association of Bergen County: Christopher Rowley (phone 201-933-2724 for details) 09/17 New Jersey Science Fiction Society: TBA (phone 201-432-5965 for details) 05/05/89 CONTRAPTION. MI. GoH: Mike Resnick; FGoHs: Mark & Evelyn Leeper. Info: -05/07/89 Contraption, 1758 N. Lapeer Road, Lapeer MI 48446. 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. For our next couple of film festivals we will be looking south a little way. In three weeks we will be doing two films set in South Africa. On Thursday, September 8, at 7 PM, we will be concentrating on the Western Hemisphere with: Jungle Utopias THE MISSION (1986) dir. by Roland Joffee MOSQUITO COAST (1986) dir. by Peter Weir Robert Bolt, who wrote _A _M_a_n _f_o_r _A_l_l _S_e_a_s_o_n_s and _L_a_w_r_e_n_c_e _o_f _A_r_a_b_i_a, also wrote THE MISSION, a beautifully filmed account of a THE MT VOID Page 2 conflict of religion and politics in 18th-century Brazil. The issue is whether a Jesuit mission that stands in the way of slave traders will survive when even the Church itself is siding with the slave traders. Jeremy Irons and Robert DeNiro star. Peter Weir (_T_h_e _L_a_s_t _W_a_v_e, _G_a_l_l_i_p_o_l_i, and _W_i_t_n_e_s_s) directed _M_o_s_q_u_i_t_o _C_o_a_s_t. The story is of a mechanical genius who is disillusioned with the United States and takes his family to the jungle to build his envisioned ideal society. Harrison Ford, Helen Mirren, River Phoenix, and Andre Gregory star in this adaptation of Paul Theroux's novel. Mark Leeper MT 3E-433 957-5619 ...mtgzz!leeper CROCODILE AND THE SANDBANK by Elizabeth Peters Mysterious Press, 1975, ISBN 0-445-40651-8, $3.95. THE CURSE OF THE PHARAOHS by Elizabeth Peters Mysterious Press, 1981, ISBN 0-445-40648-8, $3.95. THE MUMMY CASE by Elizabeth Peters Tor, 1988, ISBN 0-8125-0760-6, $3.50. Book reviews by Evelyn C. Leeper Copyright 1988 Evelyn C. Leeper Amelia (Peabody) Emerson is an "emancipated woman" of the late 19th Century. She is also one of the most aggravating heroines I have encountered in fiction. This is not, as might appear, a sexist remark. Amelia's husband has precisely the same set of faults she has-- overbearing manner, abruptness, temper, refusal to admit even the possibility that s/he is in error--and she regularly castigates him for them, in her writing (the books are told in the first person) and in her conversations with him. In _C_r_o_c_o_d_i_l_e _a_n_d _t_h_e _S_a_n_d_b_a_n_k, Amelia first meets her husband, Radcliffe Emerson, in Egypt while he is excavating a tomb and she is cruising on the Nile. There they are confronted by an ancient Egyptian curse--or are they? Of course they aren't, and the reader knows this, so the question is who the villain is. The whole situation is fairly obvious, although the abrupt introduction of accomplices to explain inconsistencies is annoying. The same basic situation--and flaws--can be found in _T_h_e _C_u_r_s_e _o_f _t_h_e _P_h_a_r_a_o_h_s and _T_h_e _M_u_m_m_y _C_a_s_e, though Peters does abandon the "curse" motif in the latter and make it a straight case of figuring out who the smugglers are and what they want. However, she makes up for this improvement by introducing the Emersons' incredibly obnoxious son--the most nauseating toddler since the child in _S_o_n _o_f _F_r_a_n_k_e_n_s_t_e_i_n (Well, he comes by it naturally--a chip off the old blocks.) At four (so far as I can tell) he's reading hieroglyphics and arguing archaeological theory. In spite of their flaws, though, I enjoyed the books. Maybe it was because of the Victorian writing style. Maybe it was because Peters can write an obnoxious first-person character that the reader can tell is obnoxious without the character ever realizing it (sort of a tongue-in- cheek obnoxiousness, if you wish). The mysteries themselves are reminiscent of Agatha Christie plots, at least to me, and I would imagine your reaction to Peters would be similar to your reaction to Christie. (I admit a certain extra interest in this series, since I expect to be visiting Egypt soon. In fact, I am now reading Christie's mystery set in ancient Egypt, _D_e_a_t_h _C_o_m_e_s _a_s _a_n _E_n_d, and will probably comment on that in a couple of weeks.) THIS PAGE INTENTIONALLY LEFT ALMOST BLANK