@@@@@ @ @ @@@@@ @ @ @@@@@@@ @ @ @@@@@ @@@@@ @@@
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @
@ @@@@@ @@@@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @
@ @ @ @@@@@ @ @ @ @ @@@@@ @@@@@ @@@

Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
Club Notice - 05/15/92 -- Vol. 10, No. 46

MEETINGS UPCOMING:

Unless otherwise stated, all meetings are on Wednesdays at noon.
LZ meetings are in LZ 2R-158.

_D_A_T_E _T_O_P_I_C

06/03 HO: THRICE UPON A TIME by James Hogan (Time Travel) (HO 1N-310)
06/24 HO: RAFT by Stephen Baxter (Gravity)
07/15 LZ: THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO SCIENCE FICTION by David Pringle (SF
reference books)
08/05 LZ: THE SILMARILLION by J.R.R. Tolkien (Alternate Mythologies)
08/26 LZ: BONE DANCE by Emma Bull (Hugo nominee)

_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.
05/16 NJSFS: New Jersey Science Fiction Society: TBA
(phone 201-432-5965 for details) (Saturday)
06/13 SFABC: Science Fiction Association of Bergen County: Trip
to Library of NASA in Manhattan (phone
201-933-2724 for details) (Saturday)

HO Chair: John Jetzt HO 1E-525 908-834-1563 hocpb!jetzt
LZ Chair: Rob Mitchell HO 1D-505A 908-834-1267 mtuxo!jrrt
MT Chair: Mark Leeper MT 3D-441 908-957-5619 mtgzy!leeper
HO Librarian: Nick Sauer HO 4F-427 908-949-7076 homxc!11366ns
LZ Librarian: Lance Larsen LZ 3L-312 908-576-3346 mtfme!lfl
MT Librarian: Mark Leeper MT 3D-441 908-957-5619 mtgzy!leeper
Factotum: Evelyn Leeper MT 1F-329 908-957-2070 mtgzy!ecl
All material copyright by author unless otherwise noted.

1. At the risk of monotony I will point out that once again the
fine writing that you get free in the MT VOID has been acknowledged
to be among the best in science fiction fandom. Yes, once again
Evelyn Leeper has been chosen as being one of the top six science
fiction fan writers in the world. For the third straight year
Evelyn has been nominated for a Hugo award. This is particularly
gratifying to me for having recognized promise in Evelyn when the
rest of the world laughed at her. I had faith in Evelyn when she
could not even put three words together to make a coherent
sentence. And I have to hand it to Evelyn that she was willing to
take me, a man a bit less than ten years her junior, and make me

THE MT VOID Page 2

her inspiration, to emulate my style, to write in the fanzine I
founded and to use it as a springboard to fame. There have been
those who have asked don't I find bitter irony in Evelyn getting
the recognition when it is clear to them I was the more talented.
And the answer is "no." I love Evelyn and she is welcome to every
idea she has ever borrowed from me. If she wins I intend to give
almost all of the credit to her in my acceptance speech. Because I
think that in a funny way this nomination is her honor also.

2. Attached is the list of this year's Hugo nominees. I note with
some distress a pattern developing in the novel category: series
nominations. Of the six nominees, four are in series, each of
which already contains at least one Hugo winner (though the
McCaffrey Hugo was for a novella rather than for a novel).

About Mark's comments above, I will merely observe that these come
from a man who (can you believe it?) still doesn't use the
subjunctive correctly. [-ecl]

3. And speaking of typing things in, a slip of the macros last week
resulted in the loss of a few characters in the last couple of
paragraphs of the fiction piece, which should have read:

"Oh, I see," said Pete. Wilson turned that faltering smile on
Pete, but Pete did not react. He had an answer for every question,
but he stammered more and more and stared at the floor. The
minutes passed slowly as Pete asked question after question.
Finally Wilson just stared wide-eyed at the floor. Then he was up
on his feet. His answers became more and more elaborate. Pete's
questioning seemed to touch a nerve. Wilson began lapsing into
incoherence. His words made no sense at all. Then with a shriek
he said, "Villains, dissemble no more! I admit the deed!--Tear up
the planks!--here, here!--it is the beating of his hideous heart!"

Well, that was it then. We picked up the floorboards and found the
old man's body. It probably wasn't there more than a couple of
hours. Pete said, "Well, one of us should probably go up and tell
Mrs. Lee she was right. Can't blame Wilson for going crazy. The
sound of her damn rocking chair was driving me crazy too."

Mark Leeper
MT 3D-441 908-957-5619
...mtgzy!leeper

Virtue is more to be feared than vice, because its
excesses are not subject to the regulation of
conscience.
-- Adam Smith

Hugo Nominations

- Best Novel

Lois McMaster Bujold, _B_a_r_r_a_y_a_r (Baen)
Emma Bull, _B_o_n_e _D_a_n_c_e (Ace)
Orson Scott Card, _X_e_n_o_c_i_d_e (Tor)
Anne McCaffrey, _A_l_l _t_h_e _W_e_y_r_s _o_f _P_e_r_n (Del Rey, Bantam U.K.)
Michael Swanwick, _S_t_a_t_i_o_n_s _o_f _t_h_e _T_i_d_e (Morrow), serialized in
IASFM Mid-December 1990 and January 1991
Joan D. Vinge, _T_h_e _S_u_m_m_e_r _Q_u_e_e_n (Warner/Questar)

- Best Novella

Nancy Kress, "And Wild For To Hold," _A_l_t_e_r_n_a_t_e _W_a_r_s (Bantam
Spectra) and IASFM, July 1991
Nancy Kress, "Beggars in Spain," IASFM, April 1991 (also
published by Axolotl Press)
Kristine Kathryn Rusch, "The Gallery of His Dreams," IASFM,
September 1991 (also published by Axolotl Press)
Michael Swanwick, "Griffin's Egg" (St. Martin's, Legend)
Connie Willis, "Jack," IASFM, October 1991

- Best Novelette

Isaac Asimov, "Gold," _A_n_a_l_o_g, September 1991
Pat Cadigan, "Dispatches from the Revolution," IASFM, July
1991
Ted Chiang, "Understand," IASFM, August 1991
Howard Waldrop, "Fin de Cycle," _N_i_g_h_t _o_f _t_h_e _C_o_o_t_e_r_s (Ursus
Press) and IASFM, Mid-December 1991
Connie Willis, "Miracle," IASFM, December 1991

- Best Short Story

Terry Bisson, "Press Ann," IASFM, August 1991
John Kessel, "Buffalo," F&SF, January 1991
Geoffrey A. Landis, "A Walk in the Sun," IASFM, October 1991
Mike Resnick, "One Perfect Morning, With Jackals," IASFM,
March 1991
Mike Resnick, "Winter Solstice," F&SF, October/November 1991
Martha Soukup, "Dog's Life," _A_m_a_z_i_n_g, March 1991
Connie Willis, "In the Late Cretaceous," IASFM, Mid-December
1991

Hugo Nominations 1992 May 10, 1992 Page 2

- Best Non-Fiction Book

Charles Addams, _T_h_e _W_o_r_l_d _o_f _C_h_a_r_l_e_s _A_d_d_a_m_s (Knopf)
Everett Bleiler, _S_c_i_e_n_c_e _F_i_c_t_i_o_n: _T_h_e _E_a_r_l_y _Y_e_a_r_s (Kent State
University Press)
Jack L. Chalker and Mark Owings, _T_h_e _S_c_i_e_n_c_e _F_a_n_t_a_s_y
_P_u_b_l_i_s_h_e_r_s: _A _C_r_i_t_i_c_a_l _a_n_d _B_i_b_l_i_o_g_r_a_p_h_i_c _H_i_s_t_o_r_y, 3rd ed.
(Mirage Press)
Jeanne Gomoll, Diane Martin et al., _T_h_e _B_a_k_e_r_y _M_e_n _D_o_n'_t _S_e_e
_C_o_o_k_b_o_o_k (SF3)
Stephen Jones, _C_l_i_v_e _B_a_r_k_e_r'_s _S_h_a_d_o_w_s _i_n _E_d_e_n
(Underwood/Miller)

- Best Original Artwork

Tom Canty, cover of _W_h_i_t_e _M_i_s_t_s _o_f _P_o_w_e_r (Roc Fantasy)
Bob Eggleton, cover of _L_u_n_a_r _D_e_s_c_e_n_t (Ace)
Bob Eggleton, cover of IASFM, January 1991 (illus. "Stations
of the Tide")
Don Maitz, cover of _H_e_a_v_y _T_i_m_e (Warner/Questar)
Michael Whelan, cover of _T_h_e _S_u_m_m_e_r _Q_u_e_e_n (Warner/Questar)

- Best Dramatic Presentation

_T_h_e _A_d_d_a_m_s _F_a_m_i_l_y (Paramount)
_B_e_a_u_t_y _a_n_d _t_h_e _B_e_a_s_t (Disney)
_T_h_e _R_o_c_k_e_t_e_e_r (Disney)
_S_t_a_r _T_r_e_k _V_I: _T_h_e _U_n_d_i_s_c_o_v_e_r_e_d _C_o_u_n_t_r_y (Paramount)
_T_e_r_m_i_n_a_t_o_r _2 (Carolco)

- Best Professional Editor

Ellen Datlow
Gardner Dozois
Edward L. Ferman
Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Stanley Schmidt

- Best Professional Artist

Tom Canty
David Cherry
Bob Eggleton
Don Maitz
Michael Whelan

- Best Fanzine

File 770, Mike Glyer
Fosfax, Janice Moore and Timothy Lane
Lan's Lantern, George ("Lan") Laskowski
Mimosa, Dick and Nicki Lynch
Trapdoor, Robert Lichtman

Hugo Nominations 1992 May 10, 1992 Page 3

- Best Semiprozine
Interzone, David Pringle
Locus, Charles Brown
New York Review of Science Fiction, David G. Hartwell, Kathryn
Kramer, Gordon van Gelder
Pulphouse, Dean Wesley Smith
Science Fiction Chronicle, Andrew I. Porter

- Best Fan Writer

Avedon Carol
Mike Glyer
Andrew Hooper
Dave Langford
Evelyn Leeper
Harry Warner, Jr.

- Best Fan Artist

Brad Foster
Diana Harlan Stein
Teddy Harvia
Peggy Ranson
Stu Shiffman

- John W. Campbell Award

Ted Chiang
Barbara Delaplace
Greer Gillman
Laura Resnick
Michelle Sagara

Capsule review: During World War II, eight
Italian soldiers are sent to secure a Greek island.
Cut off from their commanders, they turn the island
occupation into a three-year vacation and find they
are becoming Greek in the process. This film is a
short vacation in itself, even if the story and
situations are much cliched. Rating: +1 (-4 to +4).

It's an old story really. The conqueror conquers the land,
stays, and then the land conquers the conqueror. It happened many
times in Chinese history. It is really what _L_o_c_a_l _H_e_r_o and _D_a_n_c_e_s
_w_i_t_h _W_o_l_v_e_s were about. There are references to it happening in
James Michener's _H_a_w_a_i_i (There are probably better examples.) In
_M_e_d_i_t_e_r_r_a_n_e_o, set during World War II, eight fairly incompetent
Italian soldiers are sent to secure a small Greek island. An enemy
attack destroys their boat and incompetence destroys the radio.
There is nothing they can do but secure the island for Italy and
wait out the war with almost no responsibility. Over the course of
three years they become more Greek than Italian.

This is an amiable and likable comedy that won the Academy
Award for Best Foreign-Language Film of 1991. While many of the
situations are cliched, the film never appears to be trying to be
more than it actually is. The Italians are led by Lt. Montini
(played by Claudio Bigagli), who wants to make art, not war.
Considerably more aggressive is Sgt. Lo Russo (played by Diego
Abatantuono), who is anxious to get on with the war but will settle
for soccer. If the film has any message it is that people can learn
to adapt to good climate, beautiful scenery, dance, easy sex,
soccer, drugs, and no responsibility.

One place the film does have a problem is in the passage of
time. What seems to the viewer to be a couple of months the
dialogue tells us is three years. Then again, good climate,
beautiful scenery, dance, easy sex, soccer, drugs, and no
responsibility might easily make three years feel like two months.
_M_e_d_i_t_e_r_r_a_n_e_o is directed by Gabriele Salvatores, who previously
directed _M_a_r_r_a_k_e_c_h _E_x_p_r_e_s_s and _T_u_r_n_e. This one is guaranteed to
lower your blood pressure. I rate it a +1 on the -4 to +4 scale.

TRAMP ROYALE by Robert A. Heinlein
Ace, 1992, ISBN 0-441-82184-7, $18.95.
A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper
Copyright 1992 Evelyn C. Leeper

These days even death doesn't slow an author down much. This
is Heinlein's second post-mortem book (the first being _G_r_u_m_b_l_e_s _f_r_o_m
_t_h_e _G_r_a_v_e), there was also _R_e_q_u_i_e_m (which was mostly tributes from
other people, though he was listed as the primary author), and I
wouldn't doubt that there are more coming. But this volume has
little to recommend it except Heinlein's name.

As a travelogue it can most charitably be termed "of historical
interest." The trip described was taken in 1953 and 1954 (and the
manuscript written then), so conditions were very different than
now. Anyone reading this as current--as one is apt to do with such
a new book--will get a very out-dated view of the world.
Unfortunately, even keeping in mind that this is forty years old,
one can't help but carry away misimpressions. Heinlein's
excoriation of New Zealand, for example, was probably unfair even
then, is certainly inaccurate today, and yet still leaves a negative
impression on the reader.

Everything people love or hate about Heinlein is here. Either
he patterned all his fictional characters' dialogue after the way he
and his wife Virginia talked, or (more likely) when he writes up
dialogue that supposedly took place, he remembers it as being the
way his characters would speak. In any case, Robert and Virginia
Heinlein sound just like two characters out of one of his novels,
complete with his patronizing and condescending attitude toward her.
(Yes, it's her business if she wants to put up with it, but when he
puts it in a book, the reader gets to object to it as well.)

Heinlein's politics also come roaring through. McCarthyism
wasn't all that bad, he says, because they were after Communists and
because, after all, no one was thrown in jail after they testified.
(Failure to testify led to being cited as in contempt of Congress,
which at that time did result in jail. Now, of course, it's the
feeling of the average citizen.) I wonder if he would have defended
Meese's intimidation of the distributors of _P_l_a_y_b_o_y et al the same
way--after all, there was really no force of law behind those
letters that his office sent to the stores saying that they might be
guilty of marketing pornography. When Heinlein asked to be taken to
the slums of Buenos Aires, he found them remarkably clean. The
possibility that he might have been taken to someplace other than
the worst slums did apparently occur to him, but he seems perfectly
willing to accept the driver's statement that these were the worst
slums. His judgements on the various governments are equally naive,
and his opposition to apartheid seems to focus rather more on how

Tramp Royale May 6, 1992 Page 2

difficult it makes it for a black man to buy a wife than on its
obvious faults. (But then his objection to the Aztec custom of
sacrificing virgins seemed to be more than they wasted a natural
resource that way than that human sacrifice was a bad thing.)

In the introduction it is claimed that this manuscript didn't
sell at the time because of the depressed publishing industry.
(Depressed because all the best people left because of McCarthyism?
Sorry, that was a cheap shot.) But I suspect it wouldn't have sold
in any case. It lacks the insight of the timeless travel journals
(such as Charles Darwin's _V_o_y_a_g_e _o_f _t_h_e _B_e_a_g_l_e, Cabeza de Vaca's
_A_d_v_e_n_t_u_r_e_s _i_n _I_n_t_e_r_i_o_r _A_m_e_r_i_c_a, or John L. Stephens' _I_n_c_i_d_e_n_t_s _o_f
_T_r_a_v_e_l _i_n _t_h_e _Y_u_c_a_t_a_n, or even some recent works such as James
Michener's _I_b_e_r_i_a, Vikram Seth's _F_r_o_m _H_e_a_v_e_n _L_a_k_e, or Ronald
Wright's _C_u_t _S_t_o_n_e_s _a_n_d _C_r_o_s_s_r_o_a_d_s. and consists more of complaints
about small ship cabins, bad food, and unfriendly customs agents.
I've seen better travelogues on Usenet. (Before anyone points this
out, yes, my travelogues are filled with minutiae as well. But they
are written primarily for family and friends who care about such
things. I would never expect anyone to publish, nor would I expect
readers to pay $18.95 for one.) _T_r_a_m_p _R_o_y_a_l_e was published now only
because there is perceived to be a large audience for anything
Heinlein wrote or was connected with. If you're in this audience
nothing I say will deter you, but for everyone else, skip this book.