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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.)