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Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
Club Notice - 02/08/91 -- Vol. 9, No. 32

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

02/20 LZ: MARTIANS, GO HOME! by Frederic Brown (Social Satire)
03/13 LZ: TOM SWIFT by Victor Appleton II (Juvenile 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.

02/09 SFABC: Science Fiction Association of Bergen County:Lawrence
(phone 201-933-2724 for details) (Saturday)
02/16 NJSFS: New Jersey Science Fiction Society: Stanley Schmidt
(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: 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. I think it has become clear to increasing numbers of people that
something has gone wrong with Hollywood. For a long time the
American film had been evolving in some rather alarming ways and
now it seems to be mutating entirely. I think one of the nastier
trends is to take any sort of successful film and remake it by
putting a number after it. And of you put a number after it, it
had _b_e_t_t_e_r be a remake. John Boorman nearly killed his career by
not remaking _T_h_e _E_x_o_r_c_i_s_t when he made _T_h_e _E_x_o_r_c_i_s_t _I_I. Take out a
few superficial and stupid touches and _E_x_o_r_c_i_s_t _I_I is better than
the original. Get me talking about _S_t_a_r _T_r_e_k _V some time. It had
a _l_o_t of stupid touches that were all superficial. And really
stupid. Edit them out and I contend you have one of the best "Star
Trek" stories.

THE MT VOID Page 2

But more often you get a popular favorite spawning a series. How
many people remember the film _R_o_c_k_y got the Best Picture Oscar for
showing you can be down and out with no money, no talent, and no
brains, and still male a success of your life if you are willing to
try hard, work harder, and if someone pulls your name out of a hat.
I think I was ahead of my time hating the series when it was only
one film.

But _R_o_c_k_y set a precedent and even the classier films are becoming
series if they are popular. Upcoming we will be seeing (if nothing
is done to stop them) _S_t_a_n_d _a_n_d _D_e_l_i_v_e_r _I_I: _A_P _P_h_y_s_i_c_s. One
company has announced _H_e_n_r_y _V_I: _T_h_e _S_a_g_a _C_o_n_t_i_n_u_e_s, while someone
else has announced he is making _H_e_n_r_y _V_I _I_I. I guess somebody
forgot to copyright the _H_e_n_r_y _V_I name. Other sequels include _M_y
_R_i_g_h_t _F_o_o_t and _S_t_a_r _T_r_e_k _4-_1/_2: _J_u_s_t _B_e_f_o_r_e _T_h_i_n_g_s _G_o_t _S_t_u_p_i_d. It
wasn't bad enough having a black exploitation film rip-off of
_D_r_a_c_u_l_a called _B_l_a_c_u_l_a, now there is a martial arts rip-off called
_F_i_s_t_u_l_a. And finally, _T_r_i_s_k_a_d_e_k_a_p_h_o_b_i_a has a small town in
California fighting a particularly nasty and dangerous infestation
of the number thirteen.

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

Modern journalism by giving us the opinions of the uneducated,
keeps us in touch with the ignorance of the community.
-- Oscar Wilde

Yet Another Batch of Midi-Reviews
by Dale L. Skran Jr.
Copyright 1991 Dale L. Skran Jr.

_B_u_r_s_t_e_r by Michael Capobianco
Bantam Spectra

This book first came out in 1990, but I missed it. I actually read
_I_r_i_s first and was impressed enough to seek out Capobianco's earlier
work. _B_u_r_s_t_e_r is certainly a solid first novel, smoothly handled, with
many interesting ideas and characters -- not a Hugo class novel, but an
excellent first effort.

Peter Zolotin is an isolated teenager on a world-ship sent forth by
a future Asian society steeped in "Scientific Capitalism" -- obviously
derived from a Japan-dominated society. Apparently the "West" has
turned inward and used cybernetics in vaguely described but forbidden
ways to create an increasingly inhuman (to the Asians) society. The
world ship is an attempt to unite the "Eastern" nations in a meaningful
project. A few scientific bases exist on Mars, but humanity is falling
slowly into decadence.

Just as the ship arrives at Epsilon Indi, contact with the Earth is
cut off and a tremendous burst of radiation is observed coming from that
sector of space. Peter Zolotin is selected to enter "stasis" and return
to Earth in an effort to find out what has happened. There is a lot to
the plot -- scientists revolt, details of the world-ship social
structure, artificial intelligences, unusual alien worlds, and more --
enough to keep the pages turning. My major complaint is that the
technology is a little too advanced -- the stasis field especially
provides an easy way out of many situations. Directed Virtuality is
just another mumbo-jumbo space drive. Still, an excellent first effort.
Recommended.

_I_r_i_s by William Barton and Michael Capobianco
Bantam Spectra

This book caught my eye with its striking cover and a blurb from
_S_c_i_e_n_c_e _F_i_c_t_i_o_n _E_y_e describing it as "a virtually perfect blend of
diamondhard scientific extrapolation and stylistically brilliant
narrative." Having been bumped around for my glowing review of
_N_e_v_e_r_n_e_s_s I shall be more restrained. However, _I_r_i_s is a very
significant SF novel -- a bold attempt to write about real people at the
nether edge of the future that can be reasonably written about -- the
year 2097. Unlike in some other novels (_Q_u_e_e_n _o_f _A_n_g_e_l_s), the
technology for once seems to match the year -- very significantly
advanced over what we have, but not so far as to be completely magical
-- and consistent throughout. _I_r_i_s is definitely "post-Gibsonian" SF --
it fully includes the possibilities of cyberspace, but this is only a
part of its technosphere.

- 2 -

A wealthy performing artist gathers a small crew and flies toward
Neptune with the intention of founding an independent colony. I leave
to your imagination the sort of technology that is both believable and
capable of supporting this enterprise -- but the authors make the
expedition quite plausible. On the way they discover an interesting
object -- "Iris" -- which eventually turns out to conceal an ancient
secret. This rather shopworn plot is not the main point, however. The
story deals relentlessly with the efforts of the colonists to find
meaning in their lives. The prudes are warned that there are definitely
sex scenes here, even *gasp* gay sex (10% of the crew is gay -- one man
-- closely fitting the Kinsey survey), but inner space -- and outer
space -- provide the real adventure.

Unfortunately, _I_r_i_s is unlikely to find the wide audience that
_E_a_r_t_h and _Q_u_e_e_n _o_f _A_n_g_e_l_s will. In some ways it is a bit rough compared
to these two certain Hugo contenders, but it is a worthy effort.
Recommended.

_L_i_f_e_l_i_n_e by Kevin J. Anderson and Doug Beason
Bantam Spectra

I've just realized that all three of the books I'm reviewing today
are "Bantam Spectra" editions. I'm certainly going to look a lot more
closely at this line in the future. _L_i_f_e_l_i_n_e is definitely the least of
the three volumes. It takes place in a less than plausible near future
where computers and biotech are only somewhat more advanced than we have
today, but where *three* space colonies occupy cis-lunar space.
Kibalchich is Soviet (a Stanford Torus), Orbitech I American (a double
Torus), and the Philippine Aguinaldo an O'Neil Sunflower. Via fairly
unlikely circumstances the Philippines have purchased the Sunflower at
cut-rate and colonized it. Overall, I found the background
unconvincing.

A nuclear war breaks out, and *surprise* -- the colonies must learn
to overcome their differences and work together to survive. I forgot to
mention it, but there is also a mining colony on the moon. The
interesting aspect of this scenario (and it is more a scenario than a
novel) is that it illustrates quite well the difficulty of surviving an
Earth-destroying accident in the early stages of the colonization of
space. Only interstellar dispersion is likely to really up the odds of
our long-term survival. Some novel ideas of low-cost intercolony travel
are presented, but the characters are flat and the plot only mildly
interesting.

I'll be looking for future works from Anderson and Beason, but I
hope they read _I_r_i_s before they write another novel.

CROWN OF INFINITY by John M. Faucette
and
THE PRISM by Emil Petaja
A book review by Frank R. Leisti
Copyright 1991 Frank R. Leisti

_C_r_o_w_n _o_f _I_n_f_i_n_i_t_y is one half of an Ace double book. The other
story is Emil Petaja's story, _T_h_e _P_r_i_s_m. These are the wondrous books
of old, when one story was just short enough to be matched to another
and really give the reader their money's worth. Both of these stories
were published in 1968 and so reflect a growing history of science
fiction plots and character development.

In _C_r_o_w_n _o_f _I_n_f_i_n_i_t_y, we are introduced to the history of the Star
Kings. This noble and undefeated group of people, remnants of a
destroyed world -- the Earth. The story chronicles the development of
hiding methods, genetic mutations, war machine developments against the
Masters of the Universe, a ruthless race that will scorch any planet
where there are signs of intelligent life. It happens to do this just
when a new fleet from Earth is on a shakedown cruise with a new non-
detection screening of energies.

From these members of the fleet, they send out male/female pairs
with germ banks of ova to the future of the race. With each conflict,
we find the resources of the strained survivors searching for answers as
they work against the centuries to approach the science and technology
of the Masters. Each of these individual stories show times of glory or
of righting wrongs in the ceaseless struggle to emerge victorious over
the Masters of the Universe. Yet, even when wrongs are corrected, and
errors are made, the question still remains -- what force totally
destroyed the Star Kings.

The answer is embedded with the story and draws true parallels to
life and the advancement of science when faced with war and utter
destruction. The moral questions that we are able to pose in peace have
no place in a war of survival and the genetic manipulations and
deprivations that the now future Star Kings draw on are not questioned
at all.

A truly adventurous book, linking the old stage combat against a
superior foe with wile and cunning. The sacrifices that are made, the
staggering losses are lessened by a feeling of remoteness from the fact
as we skip through time and space to watch the chronicles of the Star
Kings.

While the plot is standard, the characters shine in brief glory, we
get the impression of massive changes over time, yet the people seem to
stay the same. An interesting mixture of history, war and the ultimate
outcome make a becoming story from this dated novel. I would rate it +1

Ace Double February 4, 1991 Page 2

on the Leper scale.

_T_h_e _P_r_i_s_m, the second story on the Ace Double book, brings a
completely different story to the reader. In this future world, people
have been conditioned from birth into different coloured races. There
are the black, brown, green, blue, and gold. With birth conditioning,
each race is pigmented, labeled and fixed into a permanent position in
society. The story paints a terrible picture, where the intelligent
races deliberately create disabilities in human embryos for either the
entertainment or work that the society requires.

For the chosen few, the golds, they have a life of leisure, limited
only by their position of power, yet lacking in most of the schooling
usually demanded by the top rulers of a nation or world. The real
kicker in this society is that everyone is marked and known fully in the
depths of the computer system running the world. When every action that
is taken is monitored, rebellion is difficult indeed. This story leads
us through the final steps of the rebellion -- first by recruiting a
person who does not exist in the computer.

Kor, the hero, lives as a heroic muscleman on a quest for his
Princess. By overcoming the most difficult of odds -- sacrificing
others on the way, be becomes a puppet of the star watchers. Of course,
being a hero is easy stuff -- when you might be dead the next minute.
Kor and his Princess team together to plan to bring the Prism society to
an timely end.

Manipulations and simplistic political maneuvering add colour to
this story, yet there is very little character development. In this
novel, the story is the goal, and the plot tends to be overworn with
many other examples in both fiction and real life. There is one
interesting surprise in store for the reader when encountering the ruler
of this world.

A remembrance of earlier days in science fiction, when the idea was
subtlety drawn in a backdrop of a good versus evil story, is present in
this novel. I would rate it a middle 0 on the Leeper scale.

ALICE
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1991 Mark R. Leeper

Capsule review: Rod Serling could have done a lot
more with this story in a lot less time. A
Bloomingdale's sort of woman gets magical means to
examine her life. If you think that is unbelievable,
wait until you see what she decides to do with the
knowledge! Good actors in most roles but the lead. One
of Woody Allen's worst misfires. Rating: low 0 (-4 to
+4).

Woody Allen's work is getting spotty these days. It was once true
that an Allen film could be depended on to be worth seeing. He cannot
be faulted for a _C_r_i_m_e_s _a_n_d _M_i_s_d_e_m_e_a_n_o_r_s and at least _H_a_n_n_a_h _a_n_d _H_e_r
_S_i_s_t_e_r_s was a popular success, but every once in a while one of his
films goes really wrong. It is hard to imagine Allen thought he could
make anything great out of the material in _A _M_i_d_s_u_m_m_e_r _S_e_x _C_o_m_e_d_y. It
was surprising the film was at all watchable. But _B_r_o_a_d_w_a_y _D_a_n_n_y _R_o_s_e
left one feeling more could have been done with the material. And that
feeling is a lot stronger with _A_l_i_c_e. This is a film that has an
intriguing concept and a terrific cast, yet ends up as dry and
uninteresting as its title.

The title character is played by Mia Farrow. Farrow's performances
are an acquired taste, but to the best of my knowledge Woody Allen is
the only one who has ever acquired it. Alice is the air-headed wife of
a very successful executive when she is given magical means to examine
her life, the lives of her friends, and her relationship with her
family. What she discovers is that she does not like her husband, for
good reason. She does like her sister, with whom she has had a
difficult relationship. She sort of likes a man to whom she has been
attracted (played by Joe Mantegna). Eventually her life comes together
in a hokey and stereotyped way.

And how does she get the means to examine her life? She has back
pain and goes to a mysterious doctor in Chinatown (played by Keye Luke,
who incidentally died of a stroke on January 12). Dr. Yang treats her
with opium and magic herbs that give her the power to see ghosts or
become invisible or change her personality. In spite of the fact that
Yang is benevolent, this is all Fu Manchu stuff, and Allen should be
ashamed to write it into a film.

There are, of course, a few good lines in the script to remind us
that Allen could be writing good comedy if that was what he wanted to
do. It is hard to find a good role for Bernadette Peters, but she does
have a very good comic scene in this film. And a single scene is all
that many of the name actors got in this effort. Cameo actors include
Gwen Verdon, Cybill Shepherd, Julie Kavner, Patrick O'Neal, and Bob
Balaban. Alec Baldwin has a small role as a ghost who is usually seen
in shadows. And there are a lot of shadows in this dark film--dark in
color and often in tone. I rate this one a disappointing low 0 on the
-4 to +4 scale.

Capsule review: A few interesting ideas are lost in
the mindless action and violence in this less than
stellar story of a distaff "Terminator" with a bomb in
her chest. Rating: -1 (-4 to +4).

_E_v_e _o_f _D_e_s_t_r_u_c_t_i_o_n is the sort of science fiction film that nobody
minds if you call "sci-fi." It is an action film with a poorly
thought-out science fiction premise that happens on a few nice ideas,
but generally wastes them. It seems that missiles are not a very subtle
way to place a nuclear bomb. Instead, the government is going to use a
robot who, short of surgery, cannot be distinguished from an attractive
blonde. Inside the robot's chest is a nuclear bomb about the size of a
soup can. Inside the robot's head are many of its inventor's memories,
experiences, and attitudes. In front of this head is the inventor's
face. The inventor is Dr. Eve Simmons and the robot's name is Eve VIII.
So the robot really is the Eve of Destruction (get it?). Baghdad would
know something was up if we shot a nuclear missile at them, I guess, but
would never notice anything strange if a tall, leggy blond walked into
town. Eve VIII is being tested--with full nuclear capability!--in real
world situations such as going to the bank. Suddenly she runs into the
unexpected, her temporary controller is killed, and she starts running
lose in the real world like a female Terminator. She is following
instructions programmed into her head but also enjoying new-found toys
such as Uzi machine guns. Anti-terrorist Jim McQuade (played by Gregory
Hines) and Eve Simmons (played by Renee Soutendijk) must team up to
out-fight and out-think the robot.

Nice things could still be done with this idea, but nothing really
interesting comes out of it. A little if made of the idea that the
woman and the robot will have some of the same thoughts, but mostly it
is a contrivance to make the needle a little easier to find in the
haystack and at the same time to make it a little more dangerous. Eve
VIII takes particular exception to being called "bitch" and always uses
it as a trigger to go violent. The audience knows that via repetitions,
but Dr. Simmons shows no sign of knowing it. And when late in the film,
McQuade seems to know the trigger, we can only conclude that he learned
it reading the script.

The robot is made of some material that is not greatly damaged in a
seventy-mile-per-hour impact, but still feels real in a slow breast
fondle. That's the material rocket scientists have been looking for for
years!

There is occasionally a little fun here, but overall the film is
mostly for a drive-in-style audience. I rate it a -1 on the -4 to +4
scale.

MY TOP TEN FILMS OF 1990
A film article by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1991 Mark R. Leeper

This list is made with at least a couple of qualifications. It is
relatively easy for a major critc to make a list of what he or she
considers the best of the previous year and to have such a list complete
by the middle of January. I do not see nearly so many films and many
take a long time to reach my area. Many films open to a very small
release in time for the Academy Award nominations and do not make it to
the boondocks of New Jersey for many months into the following year.
Some only make it into video stores. Some do not even make it there.
Last year I made my list at the end of January to meet Evelyn's
deadline. In February I saw _E_n_e_m_i_e_s: _A _L_o_v_e _S_t_o_r_y. It most certainly
would have made my list. Later I saw _T_r_i_u_m_p_h _o_f _t_h_e _S_p_i_r_i_t, which may
be the only film to date at all accurately to dramatize the
concentration camp experience. The accuracy of this list would be much
improved if the publication date were late February and still later
would make it more accurate. Evelyn feels, however, that readers lose
interest in the previous year's films in early February. This is not so
much my list of top ten films as it is a list of what seemed to me to be
the top ten at the of January.

A further regret, and my second qualification, is that this list
includes only theatrical films. On a previous list I included an HBO
Movie of the Month, _A _D_a_n_g_e_r_o_u_s _L_i_f_e, as the best film of its year.
However, I have nowhere near comprehensive coverage of made-for-
television and released-first-on-television films. I cannot hope to
integrate them accurately into this list, so I will not even attempt to
include in some of the few I have seen. I will, however, highly
recommend the PBS documentary _T_h_e _C_i_v_i_l _W_a_r and the "virtual film" from
the Hallmark Hall of Fame, _D_e_c_o_r_a_t_i_o_n _D_a_y. Both were moving and would
have made my top ten list, probably in the top half. The HBO film
_C_r_i_m_i_n_a_l _J_u_s_t_i_c_e would very likely have been a contender for the list.

Asterisks on the ratings below indicate they were adjusted from my
original rating after later consideration.

1. MOUNTAINS OF THE MOON -- The story of one of the great expeditions
of history--and of the controversy that surrounded it--is brought
to the screen spectacularly and intelligently. While the film
takes a few liberties with the facts, I found it a better
adventure tale than _H_u_n_t _f_o_r _R_e_d _O_c_t_o_b_e_r and give or take a fact
or two, it is all a true story. Rating: high +3*.

2. AVALON -- A loving portrait of a Jewish family in post-World-War-
II Baltimore makes _A_v_a_l_o_n one of Barry Levinson's best films to
date. Levinson has a real talent for dialogue and for creating
memorable characters. This is a film to be enjoyed more than

Top Ten of 1990 January 31, 1991 Page 2

once. Rating: +3.

3. DANCES WITH WOLVES -- Epic portrait of a Sioux tribal life as seen
through the eyes of a Civil War officer. American Indians have
rarely or never been portrayed so believably and sympathetically.
Its biggest flaw is that the White Man does not seem as
realistically portrayed. The films resembles _W_h_i_t_e _D_a_w_n and
_F_a_r_e_w_e_l_l _t_o _t_h_e _K_i_n_g in plot and spirit. Rating: +3*.

4. GOODFELLAS -- A very realistic view of organized crime follows the
life of a minor organized crime figure from 1955 to almost the
present. The structure is autobiographical at some expense to the
dramatic impact. Rating: low +3*.

5. REVERSAL OF FORTUNE -- Famous lawyer Alan Dershowitz defends Claus
von Bulow in this adaptation of Dershowitz's book. While none of
the characters is anyone you would really want to know or even
deal with, some of the re-assessment of what appears initially to
be an "open and shut" case is reminiscent of _T_w_e_l_v_e _A_n_g_r_y _M_e_n.
Rating: high +2*.

6. AWAKENINGS -- What is it like to wake up after having slept for
decades? What is it like to discover the means to wake such
people up? Robin Williams and Robert DeNiro star in one of the
most intriguing films of the year. Rating: high +2*.

7. THE GODFATHER PART III -- The Corleone saga continues in another
story of honor and revenge. This is not the Best Picture of 1990
but it is good enough that it will probably be nominated for that
honor. While it is less than totally original, major similarities
to the other parts may well go unnoticed. Rating: high +2.

8. FLATLINERS -- An original and hypnotic horror film. The music,
the acting, the photography, and the script all get very high
marks. It is a horror film with intelligent characters who do
things rather than have things done to them. Strong on atmosphere
and intriguing in ideas. Rating: high +2.

9. EDWARD SCISSORHANDS -- The worlds of John Waters and Jean Cocteau
meet in a remarkably good fantasy film from Tim Burton and the
screenwriter he has needed all along, Caroline Thompson. Rating:
+2*.

10. THE COOK, THE THIEF, HIS WIFE & HER LOVER -- HBO is hiring
established directors to do segments of its "Tales from the Crypt"
series. Peter Greenaway didn't wait to be asked. He lovingly
made a two-hour horror comic story with some hilarious detail.
Somehow it is being treated as an art film. A unique film that
certainly will not be for all audiences. Rating: +2.