@@@@@ @ @ @@@@@ @ @ @@@@@@@ @ @ @@@@@ @@@@@ @@@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @@@@@ @@@@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @@@@@ @ @ @ @ @@@@@ @@@@@ @@@ Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society Club Notice - 09/06/91 -- Vol. 10, 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 09/18 LZ: THE FALL OF HYPERION by Dan Simmons (Hugo nominee) 10/09 LZ: THE QUIET POOLS by Michael Kube-McDowell (Hugo nominee) 10/30 LZ: MINDBRIDGE by Joe Haldeman 11/13 MT: THE RED MAGICIAN by Lisa Goldstein (Jewish SF) 11/20 LZ: EON by Greg Bear 12/11 LZ: MIRKHEIM by Poul Anderson 12/18 MT: "The Star" by Arthur C. Clarke (Christian SF) _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. 09/14 SFABC: Science Fiction Association of Bergen County: Bruce Coville (author of young adult and children's fiction) (phone 201-933-2724 for details) (Saturday) 09/15 New York Is Book Country: Booths, etc., on Fifth Avenue 09/21 NJSFS: New Jersey Science Fiction Society: TBA (phone 201-432-5965 for details) (Saturday) 09/25 Readings: Richard Curtis, Sharon Jarvis, Barry Malzberg (Barnes & Noble, Route 17, Paramus, 7:30 PM) (Wed) 10/12 Autographing: Margaret Bonanno, Michael Friedman, Janet Kagan (B. Dalton, Willowbrook Mall, Wayne, 1-5 PM) (Sat) 10/29 Readings: Michael Flynn and two other authors TBA (Barnes & Noble, Route 17, Paramus, 7:30 PM) (Tue) 11/09 Autographing: Ellen Datlow, Janet Kagan, Ellen Kushner, Melissa Scott, Jack Womack (B. Dalton, Willowbrook Mall, Wayne, 1-5 PM) (Sat) HO Chair: John Jetzt HO 1E-525 834-1563 hocpb!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: Rebecca Schoenfeld HO 2K-430 949-6122 homxb!btfsd 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. THE MT VOID Page 2 1. And the Hugo winners are: Best Novel: _T_h_e _V_o_r _G_a_m_e by Lois McMaster Bujold, Baen Books Best Novella: "The Hemingway Hoax" by Joe Haldeman, IASFM April 1990 Best Novelette: "The Manamouki" by Mike Resnick, IASFM July 1990 Best Short Story: "Bears Discover Fire" by Terry Bisson, IASFM, August 1990 Best Non-Fiction Book: _H_o_w _t_o _W_r_i_t_e _S_c_i_e_n_c_e _F_i_c_t_i_o_n _a_n_d _F_a_n_t_a_s_y by Orson Scott Card, Writer's Digest Books Best Dramatic Presentation: _E_d_w_a_r_d _S_c_i_s_s_o_r_h_a_n_d_s, 20th Century Fox Best Professional Artist: Michael Whelan Best Professional Editor: Gardner Dozois Best Semiprozine: _L_o_c_u_s, Charles Brown Best Fan Artist: Teddy Harvia Best Fan Writer: David Langford Best Fanzine: _L_a_n'_s _L_a_n_t_e_r_n, George Laskowski John W. Campbell Award: Julia Ecklar 2. I got a piece of mail from one of my readers (oops, I almost said "loyal readers"--hmmmph!) who said he liked reading my weekly comments almost as much as reading Dave Barry. I think it was intended kindly. Can you believe it? ALMOST AS MUCH AS DAVE BARRY. Jeez. Thanks for the compliment. Well, the almost a compliment. Here I sweat bullets to write these columns and what happens? I get told I am almost as good as Dave Barry. Well, let me tell you something: THE MT VOID Page 3 1. This Dave Barry is a complete unknown. I have never even heard of him. I have asked around the office and _e_v_e_r_y_b_o_d_y has heard of me. 2. Dave Barry and I both write a weekly column. But I also hold down a job as an engineer. I have to in order to keep body and soul together. I get paid not one red cent for my writing. Dave Barry writes one column a week and makes a living off of it. And a darn good living. He lives down there in Florida and has a yacht and long-legged blondes and red- heads just for doing what I give you free. 3. I am better looking than Dave Barry. And he drinks beer. 4. I have been writing my column since before anyone ever heard of Dave Barry. I have been writing this stuff for members of the science fiction club since 1978. That is a very large percentage of my life considering that I am only 24 now (and have been most of the time I have been writing). 5. What Dave Barry writes is essentially fiction; what I write is news. Barry is free to make up all sorts of garbage and put it in his writing since he is writing for a national audience who have no way of verifying the things he puts in his columns. I write for a small intimate community. Most people who read what I write work for AT&T in New Jersey. If what I say is not absolutely true, there would be a whole lot of people who would know it. I have to be absolutely honest in my column. 6. Dave Barry's humor really is my humor. He sends trucks past my house at night with these big parabolic things on the top that suck up my funny ideas while I sleep and then he uses them in his column. The police say they know he is doing it but can't do anything to stop him. Honest. Mark Leeper MT 3D-441 957-5619 ...mtgzy!leeper A man has generally the good or ill qualities which he attributes to mankind. -- William Shenstone CHRONOSEQUENCE by Hilbert Schenck Tor, 1990 (1988c), ISBN 0-812-50320-1, $3.95. A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper Copyright 1991 Evelyn C. Leeper Hilbert Schenck writes about New England and the ocean. Most of his novels deal with these two connected topics. There is usually an off-shore island, some mysterious happenings, and an explanation for all of it that goes back to some strange force present for the last two hundred years or so. The only problem is that all these stories seem to be alike after a while. In _C_h_r_o_n_o_s_e_q_u_e_n_c_e, we have the main character (a woman scientist--Schenck also uses female protagonists a lot) buying an old New England diary at an auction in London. The diary recounts strange events that happened during a storm off Massachusetts in the 19th Century. (Oh, yes, Schenck also likes storms.) Then someone tries to steal the book, other people try to finagle it from her, and a lot of other secret-agent-type stuff goes on. This part seemed to me largely unnecessary--there was a perfectly goof story without it. But that story would have been about two hundred pages instead of three hundred, and rumor has it that publishers want longer books. (Most of Schenck's earlier novels are in the two- hundred-page neighborhood.) Schenck does a reasonably good job of incorporating this material, but I think the novel would have been better, and more affecting, without it. Schenck is not an author for everyone, but his approaches to love and humanity make his books stand out from the plethora of hardware/military science fiction. And if New england and the ocean are Schenck's medium, then love and humanity are his message. Give _C_h_r_o_n_o_s_e_q_u_e_n_c_e a try. (Also recommended are such earlier works as _A_t _t_h_e _E_y_e _o_f _t_h_e _O_c_e_a_n.)