@@@@@ @ @ @@@@@ @ @ @@@@@@@ @ @ @@@@@ @@@@@ @@@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @@@@@ @@@@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @@@@@ @ @ @ @ @@@@@ @@@@@ @@@ Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society Club Notice - 06/21/91 -- Vol. 9, No. 51 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 06/26 LZ: ALTERNATE WORLDS by Robert Adams ("What If Things Were Different?") _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. 07/13 SFABC: Science Fiction Association of Bergen County: TBA (phone 201-933-2724 for details) (Saturday) 07/22 NJSFS: New Jersey Science Fiction Society: TBA (phone 201-432-5965 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 mtgzy!leeper HO Librarian: Tim Schroeder HO 3B-301 949-4488 hotsc!tps LZ Librarian: Lance Larsen LZ 3L-312 576-3346 mtunq!lfl MT Librarian: Mark Leeper MT 3D-441 957-5619 mtgzy!leeper Factotum: Evelyn Leeper MT 1F-329 957-2070 mtgzy!ecl All material copyright by author unless otherwise noted. 1. This week discussion book in Lincroft is Roberts Adams' _B_o_o_k _o_f _A_l_t_e_r_n_a_t_e _W_o_r_l_d_s. (Actually Adams co-edited it with Pamela Crippen Adams and Martin H. Greenberg, thereby satisfying the rule that every anthology has to have Martin H. Greenberg's name on it somewhere.) Time being short, I will content myself with reprinting my 1987 review of this book later in this issue instead of writing a fresh blurb. That's because as you read this, I am touring Yugoslavia. This was actually written over a month ago, but through the magic of electronic publishing (and a little help from our friends), you continue to receive the MT VOID even while we're off on vacation. In fact, we might even be dead at this point. (But the discussion will happen June 26 even if we are.) [-ecl] 2. Let me get the trivia from the last issue out of the way first. There may be other films that involve food science but the three THE MT VOID Page 2 post-1950 films I was driving at were _E_n_e_m_y _f_r_o_m _S_p_a_c_e (a.k.a _Q_u_a_t_e_r_m_a_s_s _I_I) in which a government project to make artificial food is doing just that, but it is food for aliens. A human who comes in contact with the stuff is horribly burned. Come to think of it, wouldn't that happen with Tabasco? The second is _T_h_e _S_t_u_f_f, which is a paranoia film that was, I suspect, inspired by the Dannon Yogurt ads where they tell you that you are eating live bacteria cultures in Dannon and that is supposed to be a _g_o_o_d thing. In this film there is a new dessert that is better-tasting than ice cream that turns out to be 1) addictive, and 2) an organism that is assimilating the people who eat it. _S_o_y_l_e_n_t _G_r_e_e_n gave new meaning to the phrase "You are what you eat." _F_o_o_d _o_f _t_h_e _G_o_d_s (I and II) could arguably be included also. The film prior to 1950 that was really food science fiction is _T_h_e _I_n_v_i_s_i_b_l_e _M_a_n. The scientists in this film are food scientists. You have Dr. Cranley (played by Henry Travers, who went on to play Clarence the Angel in _I_t'_s _a _W_o_n_d_e_r_f_u_l _L_i_f_e) explaining that food science is not glamorous, but it prevents hundreds of deaths and thousands of stomach aches each year. The of course it turns out that Jack Griffin had been working with a dangerous food additive, monocaine. But my point from last time is that food science has taken a nasty turn, perhaps because the science of making food preservatives has gotten so much bad press. Its new aim is to find ways to fool the consumer. They want to make artificial foods that taste and seem natural. About a year ago there apparently was some real trouble with cookie manufacturers sending spies to do food espionage. Fresh, home-baked cookies dry out on the outside but stay moist inside for a few days. That probably has become prized in cookie aesthetics. One manufacturer found a way to make cookies that had the duality of texture and what's more they were "better than natural cookies" in that they retained that texture longer. Well, another manufacturer wanted to find out why and sent spies to steal samples of cookie dough. They got the secret, but by then it had become public knowledge. You use two different doughs, a dry one for the outside of the cookie and a wetter one for the inside. Apparently you can't tell that there are sharp edges between the crisp part of the cookie and the soft center. Fooled you, didn't they? And so science marches on, making new materials more enjoyable to eat than food. Mark Leeper MT 3D-441 957-5619 ...mtgzy!leeper A fact never went into partnership with a miracle. Truth scorns the assistance of wonders. A fact will fit every other fact in the universe, and that is how you can tell whether it is or is not a fact. A lie will not fit anything except another lie. -- Robert G. Ingersoll Robert Adams' BOOK OF ALTERNATE WORLDS edited by Robert Adams, Martin H. Greenberg, & Pamela Crippen Adams Signet, 1987, ISBN 0-451-14894-0, $3.95. A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper Copyright 1987 Evelyn C. Leeper When I first looked at the table of contents of this book, I noticed that the stories were novelettes or even novellas rather than the usual assortment of short stories. And the editors have managed to avoid the usual over-anthologized stories for some less well-known ones. In his brief introduction, Adams says the two are connected: the better alternate-history stories run to longer lengths and hence are usually left out of anthologies, whose goal (it often seems) is to have the longest table of contents possible. The nine stories included here average fifty pages in length. Murray Leinster's "The Other World" is the story of what might happen if the ancient Egyptian magicians had found a way to travel through portals to a parallel, uninhabited world and then sustain themselves there by looting our own world. It's old-fashioned science fiction, and written with such vibrant images that I couldn't help but think it would make a great movie. Subtitled "The Role of the Air Force Four-Door Hardtop," George Alec Effinger's "Target: Berlin!" is typically bizarre Effinger, applying what Darrell Schweitzer has called the "silly factor" in alternate histories. In this case, the silly factor seems to be that in this alternate world, the aircraft of World War II were all modified cars: the Americans flew Mustangs, the Germans flew Volkswagens, and the Japanese flew Toyotas. No, that not an anachronism; World War II was delayed by agreement of all concerned (maybe to give them time to develop cruise control?). This may be some people's cup of tea, but frankly it doesn't do it for me. Fritz Leiber's "Adept's Gambit" seems mostly an excuse to put Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser into our own world. After a few pages, I decided I didn't care what world they were in, or what happened to them. H. Beam Piper's "Last Enemy" I had read before and found fairly mundane then, so did not re-read and cannot comment in detail on. L. Sprague de Camp's "Aristotle and the Gun" is "Alternate History Plot #2A": man goes back in time and tries to change things for the better; things don't work out the way he planned. (For the curious, Plot #1 is "things just happen to turn out differently," and Plot #2B is that "man goes back in time and tries to change things for the better; things do work out the way he planned." Plot #2B makes for a fairly dull story and is not often used.) Since de Camp knows something about history--a requirement that many alternate history authors seem to overlook--the story has a very authentic feel to it and is one of the Alternate Worlds July 20, 1987 Page 2 better ones in this anthology. Larry Niven's "There's a Werewolf in My Time Machine" is one of the many stories in which Svetz goes back in time to get some historical animal and ends up picking up some fantastical parallel in a parallel world instead. His time machine, like Dr. Who's Tardis, seems to have some sort of permanent glitch. Robert Silverberg's "Many Mansions" has so many parallel threads that it's almost impossible to keep track of them all. Silverberg even uses the old hackneyed Plot #2C: man goes back in time, kills grandfather (either his own or someone else's, it doesn't seem to matter), and things may or may not change. Silverberg, as usual, makes even this old plot new. T. R. Fehrenbech's "Remember the Alamo!" is a combination of Plot #1 and Plot #2B. Normally, it would be a strong story, but it has too much to compete with here. It does have the advantage of dealing with alternate American histories, while most authors in the genre still seem to prefer fooling around with European history. Jerome Bixby's "One Way Street" is another common plot (okay, Plot #3, if you want a number): man has an accident and finds himself in a world similar to, but not exactly like, our own. Bixby is best known for his story "It's a _G_o_o_d Life," adapted for _T_h_e _T_w_i_l_i_g_h_t _Z_o_n_e. This story will remind the reader of another _T_w_i_l_i_g_h_t _Z_o_n_e story, "The Parallel." Though not all the stories are great, the assortment provides something for everyone and a good look at some of the better alternate history stories that you may have missed until now.