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Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
Club Notice - 05/25/90 -- Vol. 8, No. 47

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

05/30 LZ: L. RON HUBBARD PRESENTS WRITERS OF THE FUTURE #5 (New authors)

_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.

05/19 NJSFS: New Jersey Science Fiction Society: Saul Jaffe (editor of
SF-LOVERS DIGEST (phone 201-432-5965 for details) (Saturday)
06/09 SFABC: Science Fiction Association of Bergen County: picnic
(phone 201-933-2724 for details) (Saturday)

HO Chair: John Jetzt HO 1E-525 834-1563 hocpa!jetzt
LZ Chair: Rob Mitchell LZ 1B-306 576-6106 mtuxo!jrrt
MT Chair: Mark Leeper MT 3D-441 957-5619 mtgzx!leeper
HO Librarian: Tim Schroeder HO 3D-225A 949-5866 homxa!tps
LZ Librarian: Lance Larsen LZ 3L-312 576-3346 lzfme!lfl
MT Librarian: Evelyn Leeper MT 1F-329 957-2070 mtgzy!ecl
Factotum: Evelyn Leeper MT 1F-329 957-2070 mtgzy!ecl
All material copyright by author unless otherwise noted.

1. At its May 30 meeting the LZ SF Club will have for the first
time ever a Pro Guest of Honor. Charlie Harris provides this
background:

I don't read much sf any more. That's because I don't read many
books of any kind any more. One thing I do read regularly, though,
is "Together in Monmouth," a freebie ads-'n'-tv-listings pamphlet
that shows up at local supermarkets every two weeks. Actually, I
don't exactly *read* it, but I do make sure to pick up a copy each
fortnight, because inside the front cover there are always Roy
Rogers discount coupons.

A few weeks ago, as I was clipping the newest coupons, a phrase
caught my eye in the editorial column that filled the free space
around the ad: "science fiction." The column reported that awards
for the best science fiction stories by hitherto unpublished

THE MT VOID Page 2

writers were going to be presented in a ceremony held in the United
Nations Building. Noted sf author and editor Algis Budrys would be
the presenter. The winning stories would later be published as
part of a series of books that has become the best-selling sf
anthologies ever. The most recent volume is called L. RON HUBBARD
PRESENTS WRITERS OF THE FUTURE 5.

I was perplexed. How come I had never heard of or seen any of the
five best-selling sf anthologies ever? Why the U.N. Building--some
bizarre publicity stunt? Why would Algis Budrys, a respectable
writer, let himself get mixed up in this? And finally, although I
have steeled myself to seeing Isaac Asimov or Arthur C. Clarke or
Steven Spielberg "present" works that they had little or nothing to
do with, L. Ron Hubbard is, like, *dead*. As far as I knew, even
when he was alive his major efforts went into creating fictional
science (Dianetics) rather than science fiction.

At the next LZ meeting, I raised these questions and was surprised
to learn that L. Ron Hubbard did write some well-regarded sf, that
he did found and fund a quarterly contest for new and amateur
writers, that the judges are prominent professional authors, and
that the resulting anthologies have indeed sold very well.

The next time I visited a used book store, of course, there they
were staring at me from the shelf. I picked up volumes 1, 2, and
5.

The first thing I read was "About the Editor" in vol. 1, because
the editor, Algis Budrys, was mentor and contributor to the fanzine
I put out as a teenager. At that time we both were living in the
same town, and he had just made the transition from writing letters
to the editor of Planet Stories to selling fiction to Astounding.
(In fact, he used my fanzine's name, Infinity, in one of his
Astounding stories.)

Curiosity about my erstwhile friend satisfied, I moved on to the
first "About the Author," introducing Michael D. Miller. "Miller
has a degree in philosophy," it said, "but has always been
intrigued by writing. He has worked for AT&T the past eight
years." How about that! "For almost two years, he has been a
writer in the public relations department at Bell Laboratories [!],
where SF over the years has been a major interest of many.
(Retired director John R. Pierce was known as `J. J. Coupling' to
readers of Astounding Science Fiction magazine during the Golden
Age.)"

Sure enough, Michael Miller is still with AT&T, right here in Red
Hill. He has graciously agreed to attend our May 30 meeting and
answer any questions about writing sf. Here's your chance!

THE MT VOID Page 3

Now just a few words about the book that will provide the focus for
discussion at that meeting, L. RON HUBBARD PRESENTS WRITERS OF THE
FUTURE 5: It consists of 14 stories, illustrated by young artists,
plus five essays on various aspects of writing sf, by professionals
such as Hal Clement, Algis Budrys, Marta Randall and the
imperishable L. Ron Hubbard.

The stories are uniformly well-written, with only occasional lapses
from a fully professional level. There's plenty of diversity in
subject matter, approach, style, setting, and plot. Overall, I'd
say this collection is about as enjoyable and worth reading as a
typical Best of the Year, though perhaps lacking the one or two
really outstanding items that I usually find in the professionals'
books. My favorite here was "The Disambiguation of Captain Shroud"
by Gary Shockley (no mention of whether he's related to Bell Labs'
Shockley), a slyly amusing millisecond-by-millisecond first-person
account by a shipboard computer dealing with a crisis. My least
favorite was Marc Matz's "Despite and Still," which managed to
combine all the attributes of prince-on-a-quest fantasy that make
me dislike most of that genre. (The contest rules originally
specified science fiction, but have been amended to include
fantasy, perhaps because it's sometimes hard to draw a line between
the two, as with several stories in these collections.)

The essays in WOTF 5 were more informative than those in previous
volumes, offering some solid advice to aspiring writers rather than
just cheerleading ("Write! Write! Write! And be true to your own
unique vision!"). In particular, Hal Clement gives a good rundown
on acquiring the hard-science background, and Jane Yolen on writing
sf for younger readers ("Do not ever ever refer to any of these
books as Juveniles....[If you do, I will] tell the world you are a
writer of Seniles!").

2. Every once in a while I like to go back and read some children's
literature. Lang's fairy tales are nice, for example. I recommend
this to anyone because they are entertaining and well-written.
They have a realism missing from adult literature. Children have a
realism that is sort of lost along the way when they grow up.

"What's that?" I hear you say out there. You are saying I got that
backwards. You are saying that fairy tales are unrealistic and the
adult stuff is realistic. Wrongo! Fundamentally there is more
realism in fairy tales than there is in the _N_e_w _Y_o_r_k _T_i_m_e_s. In
fairy tales there are evil people and wicked witches; there is a
Big _B_a_d Wolf. (Well, I have to say I am unconvinced that there are
bad wolves. Evil requires something that goes beyond a wolf's
mind.) But of course as all we adults _k_n_o_w, there are no evil
people. Right. So we get verdicts like we got in this Bensonhurst
killing. The person has "depraved indifference to human life."
Now I don't object to the last four words. I mean "indifference to
human life" is probably a very good description of what this guy

THE MT VOID Page 4

has. That says it succinctly. Then they had to ruin it by saying
it was depraved. That says to me that it is a psychological
condition. The guy has a sort of mental kink.

I put this in the same category of the commonly held belief that
Adolf Hitler was insane. Now I don't doubt, number one, that
Hitler had some pretty weird ideas about how the world is glued
together. He wanted to run a war with astrology and made command
decisions based on dreams. That is weird but if you think it is
insane you ought to look around you. Millions of other people seem
to believe in astrology and dreams--perhaps even U.S. presidents.
That is not a psychological condition; they are just sadly deluding
themselves.

But people take the combination of these arcane beliefs and
Hitler's nastiness and conclude Hitler was insane. Hitler was
supremely selfish, supremely callous to the harm he did others, and
supremely vicious. At least to me those traits come pretty close
to being the character of human "evil" and are a long way from
anything I would call insanity. Hitler didn't just go "a little
funny in the head"; that is going too easy on him. Words like
"depraved" and "insane" applied in many cases to many people
reflect pop-psychology-based false explanations excusing actions
that really _a_r_e evil.

Mark Leeper
MT 3D-441 957-5619
...mtgzx!leeper

Our civilization is still in a middle state, scarcely
beast in that it is no longer wholly guided by
instinct, scarcely human in that it is not yet guided
by reason.
-- Theodore Dreiser

"Vintage Season" by C. L. Moore
"In Another Country" by Robert Silverberg
Tor Double #18, 1990 ("Vintage Season" copyright 1946, 1973),
ISBN 0-812-50193-4, $3.50.
A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper
Copyright 1990 Evelyn C. Leeper

When I recently reviewed Tor Double #20, "The Wheels of If" by
L. Sprague de Camp and "The Pugnacious Peacemaker" by Harry Turtledove,
I said that to the best of my knowledge this was the first of the
doubles in which the two halves were connected. Well, it was pointed
out that there were at least seven Ace doubles for which this was true,
and even one Tor Double--namely #18, in which Robert Silverberg wrote a
companion piece for C. L. Moore's "Vintage Season." So I immediately
(well, two days later) ran out and bought this one also.

Again, these are more properly called novellas than novels. And
again, the newer author gets top billing, though in this case it makes
more sense, since the newer piece is not a sequel but a parallel work.
Unfortunately, the back blurb on this book for the Silverberg piece
contains a spoiler for the Moore work, so don't read it until _a_f_t_e_r
you've read "Vintage Season."

Reading "Vintage Season" was like going back to my youth, when
stories took place in the present and everything was very normal, except
for these strange visitors who somehow didn't quite fit in.... Who were
they? Where did they come from? It's the sort of thing that was
popular on _T_h_e _T_w_i_l_i_g_h_t _Z_o_n_e, probably because the sets and costumes
were so easy and cheap to get. But these stories managed to give
readers a feel for how the mysterious and magical could be waiting for
them just around the corner. You didn't need to have a spaceship, or be
hooked into a worldwide cyberspace network, or even leave your home
town. The next person to come through the door of your store, or pull
up to your gas pump, or ask for directions might be "not of this world."

"Vintage Season" is told from the point of view of someone in and
from our world. "In Another Country" is told from the point of view of
the visitor, and takes place contemporaneously with "Vintage Season" and
includes the same cast of characters, though with the main characters of
one being the background characters of the other and vice versa.
Perhaps the denouement is predictable, especially in the context of some
of Silverberg's other works, but getting there is what this story is all
about, rather than the "there" itself.

An added bonus is Silverberg's introduction, in which he talks
about his admiration for Moore's work and how he went about writing his
companion to it. Personally, I would suggest reading this _b_e_t_w_e_e_n the
two stories rather than before Moore's story for the same reason that I
suggest avoiding the back blurbs: it may give too much away. (I have

Vintage Season May 17, 1990 Page 2

tried desperately in this review to avoid giving anything away, and as a
result I have been slightly misleading in another direction.) As with
the previous Tor Double, I recommend this highly. If you haven't read
the Moore, you will certainly want this volume, but even if you have,
and even if you have the magazine in which Silverberg's story appeared,
the pairing makes this a volume to buy.

[Jim Mann reports that Patrick Nielsen Hayden (the editor of the
Tor Doubles) says after the next couple (which are already in the
works), all Tor Doubles will be formatted with both halves facing front
rather than back to back. "Apparently, several of the major book chains
can't figure out what to do with these back-to-back books," Jim says. I
agree with Jim that I will miss the old style, but agree also that it's
a good thing that there will be more doubles. Personally, I will
continue to file them with my Ace Doubles, Belmont Doubles, Dell Double
Stars, and other Tor Doubles, whether or not they are back-to-back. For
a discussion of some of the problems faced by Ace Doubles when they
first came out, read James A. Corrick's _D_o_u_b_l_e _Y_o_u_r _P_l_e_a_s_u_r_e: _A_c_e _S_F
_D_o_u_b_l_e_s (Gryphon Books, P. O. Box 209, Brooklyn NY 11228; ISBN 0-
936071-13-3; $5.95).]

Yet Another Batch of Skran Mini-Reviews
by Dale L. Skran Jr.
Copyright 1990 Dale L. Skran Jr.

_W_i_l_d _C_a_r_d_s _V_o_l_u_m_e _V_I: _A_c_e _i_n _t_h_e _H_o_l_e
edited by George R. R. Martin

This book is in strong competition for being one of the worst of
the series. It has a lot (and I mean a lot!) of characters going to the
Democratic convention in Atlanta as Gregg Hartmann, a.k.a. "Puppetman"
makes his run for the Presidency. Some aces work for him, some against
him, and some for themselves. The story starts slowly, but builds to a
complex and violent conclusion which (it appears) ends forever the
menace of Demise and Puppetman.

George R. R. Martin does an excellent job keeping the whole multi-
author effort afloat, but the overall concept is getting tired.

_M_a_n_f_a_c
by Martin Caidin

Poor authors tend to write the same book over and over from
different angles. Here Caidin trys to re-create the magic of _C_y_b_o_r_g
(a.k.a. "The Six Million Dollar Man") with _M_a_n_f_a_c, a powered suit with a
man-like exterior worn by a hopeless cripple. I couldn't get past page
180 -- just lost interest.

_F_a_r_e_w_e_l_l _H_o_r_i_z_o_n_t_a_l
by K. W. Jeter

This is the first book by Jeter I've read, having missed _D_r. _A_d_d_e_r,
_T_h_e _G_l_a_s_s _H_a_m_m_e_r, _I_n_f_e_r_n_a_l _D_e_v_i_c_e_s, and _T_h_e _L_a_n_d _o_f _t_h_e _D_e_a_d. Jeter is
by reputation a cyber-punk writer with a fixation on the grotesque. To
my surprise, _F_a_r_e_w_e_l_l _H_o_r_i_z_o_n_t_a_l is a more or less normal hard-SF story
about a culture that exists on the sides of an immense arcology.

The major flaws of the book, which is definitely above average, lie
in the weakness of the premise (Why was the building constructed? Are
there other buildings?) and the weakness of the ending (just not all
that convincing). However, if you want to try a new writer, this is a
good place to start.

_D_e_a_d_s_p_e_a_k
by Brian Lumley

Here Lumley continues the "Necroscope" series, following the
adventures of one Harry Keogh, Necroscope, as he battles Vampires across

Skran Reviews May 18, 1990 Page 2

time and space. Lumley has solved the problem of Harry being overly
powerful (he could speak to the dead, have the abilities of anyone who
has died, raise the dead, _a_n_d teleport!) by having his vampire son
hypnotize him into forgetting how to use his powers. This expedient
allows another 500 pages of action as he struggles against Janos
Ferenczy, a vampire with a magical technique that allows him also to
raise the dead. By the end of the novel, Harry has recovered his powers
at the cost of apparent vampiritic contamination. Janos foresaw that
"the most powerful vampire of all" would survive his confrontation with
Keogh, but apparently forgot that he was making certain assumptions
about who was -- and who wasn't -- a vampire. It appears that Volume V
will feature vampire Harry versus vampire Harry Jr., winner takes the
universe.

Lumley write a fair pot-boiler/page turner, but his confused
notions of Romanian peasant life and Romanian history should be ignored.
Also, this volume lacks the striking color inner cover of the first
three volumes.

_B_l_a_c_k _S_n_o_w _D_a_y_s
by Claudia O'Keefe

This book has the rare distinction of being one of the few that
Evelyn Leeper and I both agree is not very good. I stopped reading this
unreadable experiment in "thinking cyberpunk" about page 116. It this
is the best Damon Knight can do as editor of the Ace Specials series, he
should quit before he alienates more readers.

Not recommended at all.

_D_r_e_a_m_s _o_f _S_t_e_e_l
by Glen Cook
The Fifth Book of the Black Company

At last we get to see if the Lady survived the battle at the end of
_S_h_a_d_o_w _G_a_m_e_s. She did, and thinking Croaker is dead, decides it is up
to her to restore the Black Company and avenge Croaker's death. Cook
keeps the kettle boiling with twists aplenty, and the next book promise
a battle royal. I keep expecting to get bored with the same series, but
I don't. Cook is really a very inventive fellow. Recommended to those
following the series and those who like dark fantasy/fantasy war.

_S_u_n_g _i_n _B_l_o_o_d
By Glen Cook
Boskone XXVII Book

This book is a not very good, not very interesting Doc Savage
pastiche with a magician playing the role of Doc. Glen must have

Skran Reviews May 18, 1990 Page 3

written this a looong time ago, and _i_t _s_h_o_w_s. _N_o_t recommended.

_T_o_o_l _o_f _t_h_e _T_r_a_d_e
by Joe Haldeman

This is a fairly well thought out suspense story with one SF idea
-- a watch that allows the wearer to control anyone who can hear the
wearer's commands. Not Hugo material, but a good read. The story makes
more sense than my brief description of it, as would be expected from
Joe Haldeman.

_H_y_p_e_r_i_o_n
by Dan Simmons

This Hugo nominee is well worth the time to read its 481 pages.
Without giving anything away, I can state that Simmons displays truly
impressive writing skills, giving us some of the best characterization
in recent years combined with a genuine sense-of-wonder SF story. I
will probably vote _H_y_p_e_r_i_o_n first or second on my Hugo ballot.

_T_h_e _E_x_p_e_d_i_t_e_r
by J. Brian Clarke

This fundamentally unbelievable story of first contact could have
been written in the 1940s or 1950s, as the author is innocent of all
technological and literary innovations since that time. Not the worst
book I've read (I did finish it), but not recommended!

_E_l_y_s_i_a
_T_h_e _C_o_m_i_n_g _o_f _C_t_h_u_l_h_u
by Brian Lumley
illustrated by Fabian

I was very excited when I saw this book, being a semi-Lovecraftian,
and having enjoyed Lumley's Necroscope series greatly. Alas, I found
_E_l_y_s_i_a not to my liking. First, the book has some of Fabian's worst
work, lacking the detail and sparkle I find attractive in Fabian.
Second, the lack of type-setting makes reading difficult. Third, the
story is mechanical and uninteresting, a pastiche of every old cliche
you've ever seen in fantasy, including the "endless cycle" ending. Not
recommended.

Skran Reviews May 18, 1990 Page 4

_T_h_e _F_o_r_t_r_e_s_s _o_f _t_h_e _P_e_a_r_l
by Michael Moorcock
An all-new novel of Elric

_T_h_e _F_o_r_t_r_e_s_s _o_f _t_h_e _P_e_a_r_l is a competent but not brilliant reprise
of Elric. In it, Elric must journey into the land of dreams to find the
"Fortress of the Pearl" before a poison administered by an enemy kills
him. Along the way he learns some important lessons from a fellow
dream-thief in a series of bizarre encounters reminiscent of those in
_I_n_f_e_r_n_o. Recommended for Elric fans and S&S fans.

_N_o_r_t_h_w_o_r_l_d
by David Drake

I have been a moderate Drake fan for some time, and consider his
"Lacy" stories quite good. However, it appeared that as time went on,
Drake narrowed his focus more and more tightly on small-unit combat to
the expense of everything else. In _N_o_r_t_h_w_o_r_l_d Drake gets away from
small-unit combat for the most part, but unfortunately creates a
Chalkeresque adventure that takes place in a variety of unusual pocket
universes controlled by god-like beings. Readable, but not especially
recommended.

_D_r_e_a_d _B_r_a_s_s _S_h_a_d_o_w_s
by Glen Cook

This is the fifth book in Cooks "fantasy-detective" series,
featuring hard-boiled Garrett in a magical land. These books are all
interesting to read and fairly plausible, but once I'm finished they
don't stick in my mind very well. This one deals with a lot of hard
characters who are seeking a "Book of Shadows" which will allow its
holder to take on a different form for each page of the book. As you
might expect, the book is destroyed and the hard characters all meet
untimely ends. Recommended for Cook fans.

Capsule review: One of the great stories of world
literature--fifteen times the length of the _B_i_b_l_e--comes
to the screen in a supremely boiled-down _C_l_a_s_s_i_c_s
_I_l_l_u_s_t_r_a_t_e_d format. Rating: low +1.

One of the great classics of Western literature is the _I_l_i_a_d, an
account told in poetry of a great war in which the gods participated.
The telling has deep mythic meanings. Virtually the same description
applies to the great classic of Indian literature, the _M_a_h_a_b_h_a_r_a_t_a. The
mammoth poem of 90,000 couplets is told in eighteen volumes and is
fifteen times as long as the _B_i_b_l_e. It was written roughly around the
time the _N_e_w _T_e_s_t_a_m_e_n_t was. The story traces the causes and fighting of
a civil war in the land of Kurus. The land was captured by the blind
man Dhrtarastra. Being blind, he was considered unfit to rule and gave
the kingdom to his younger brother Pandu, who ruled for only a short
time before returning Kurus to his brother. Each of the brothers had
sons, each by supernatural means, and the two sets of cousins grew up
together. Each group of cousins eventually claims Kurus. The two
groups go to war with each other in spite of the reluctance of Arjuna,
the leader of the sons of Pandu, to make war on members of his own
family. Sound familiar? Right. This is the war that was the setting
for the _B_h_a_g_a_v_a_d-_G_i_t_a. In fact, the _G_i_t_a was adapted into the
_M_a_h_a_b_h_a_r_a_t_a. (Hey, I'm impressed you picked up on that. You must be a
whole bunch more erudite than you look!)

Peter Brook produced _T_h_e _M_a_h_a_b_h_a_r_a_t_a as a nine-hour play and as two
films, a 321-minute version for television and a 171-minute version
theatrical version. Brook's work in film is perhaps a little too
similar to his stage work. This is a story that really cries out for
spectacle as giant armies fight. Instead Brook puts his camera right
into the action so we never see more than a tiny piece of the action.

Doing a story fifteen _B_i_b_l_es long in a film, even a film almost
three hours, is a feat that is just barely possible and perhaps just a
tad misguided. I knew the basic story going into the theater and I
still found myself at a loss to remember all the important characters
and relationships. Perhaps the proper medium for this film is on
videotape that can be stopped and replayed, allowing the viewer to make
notes.

This film was funded by an incredible list of organizations
including Finnish public television, American public television.
Britain's Channel 4, and a bunch more I either did not recognize or
cannot remember. Perhaps it was for that reason that Brook has the very
odd racial mixture he has in the casting. Presumably the story should

Mahabharata May 19, 1990 Page 2

be told mostly with Indians. Instead it is told with Indians, Chinese,
Blacks, Americans, British, Italians, and probably several more. With
most of the characters coming from one family, this is a distraction at
best and occasionally adds confusion. And confusion is one thing this
telling has in more than sufficient quantities.

It is somehow understating the case to call _T_h_e _M_a_h_a_b_h_a_r_a_t_a an
ambitious failure. To bring a great work of such length to the screen
you must cut very, very much more than you leave in. What remains you
have to force-feed your audience at a rate faster than most can
assimilate it. Many in my audience gave up and there was a notable rash
of watch-checking. It is a good introduction to one of the great works
of world literature but it is scarcely more than an introduction. The
adaptation, written by Jean-Claude Carriere, gives us at once not enough
and far too much. As a mix of very good, mediocre, and misguided, I
would prefer not to rate it, but if I must, I would give it a low +1.