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Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
Club Notice - 01/15/93 -- Vol. 11, No. 29

MEETINGS UPCOMING:

Unless otherwise stated, all meetings are in Holmdel 4N-509
Wednesdays at noon.

_D_A_T_E _T_O_P_I_C

01/27 THE ENGINES OF CREATION by K. Eric Drexler (The Final Tool)
02/17 ENTOVERSE by James P. Hogan
03/10 STEEL BEACH by John Varley
03/31 WEST OF EDEN by Harry Harrison (Primitive Humans Vs.
Alternatively-Evolved Bio-Tech-Advanced Reptiles)
03/31 Deadline for Hugo Nominations
04/21 ARISTOI by Walter Jon Williams
(If This--AI, Virtual Reality, Nanotech--Goes On)
05/12 THOMAS THE RHYMER by Ellen Kushner (Fantasy in a Modern Vein)
06/02 WORLD AT THE END OF TIME by Frederik Pohl
(Modern Stapledonian Fiction)
06/23 CONSIDER PHLEBAS by Iain Banks
(Space Opera with a Knife Twist)
07/14 SIGHT OF PROTEUS by Charles Sheffield (Human Metamorphosis)

HO Chair: John Jetzt HO 1E-525 908-834-1563 hocpb!jetzt
LZ Chair: Rob Mitchell HO 1D-505A 908-834-1267 hocpb!jrrt
MT Chair: Mark Leeper MT 3D-441 908-957-5619 mtgzfs3!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 mtgzfs3!leeper
Factotum: Evelyn Leeper MT 1F-329 908-957-2070 mtgzy!ecl
All material copyright by author unless otherwise noted.

1. During the last election there was a good deal said about the
loss of traditional family values in America. But neither party
showed any real understanding about where it all started. In fact,
nobody has recognized the core of the loss of values issue. The
real problem is that America has lost faith in what I call the
"Sidewalk Ethic." America has lost its "Sidewalk Values." What
are "Sidewalk Values"? They are valuing sidewalks.

What characterizes suburbia more than good safe sidewalks? Every
morning when I drive to work I have to dodge contingents of

THE MT VOID Page 2

housewives walking for their health, but who refuse to do their
walking on the sidewalk. Nor do they seem to care about the
traffic problems. They just seem to watch with the half-closed
eye-lids of their chubby complacency as cars struggle to avoid
them. Nobody uses the sidewalks any more. The street seems to be
where everyone walks. Kids no longer seem to know what sidewalks
are for. In my neighborhood, the kids just use the sidewalk to
break beer bottles. Maybe the idea is that sidewalks are for
people who don't have the courage to face real traffic. Real kids
skateboard in the roads. Realer kids rollerskate in busy traffic.
Super-real kids rollerblade on major arteries. The only way you
can be realer than that is to hot-wire a car. And we get those too
in our neighborhood.

So this is my newest campaign. I am going to write to the heads of
all the major parties and tell them there is grass roots support
for sidewalks. Sidewalks made America great. Be they sidewalks on
the poorest dirt road in Mississippi or the sidewalks of New York,
those great white ways are what made America great. Improve our
sidewalks to make a concrete contribution to our society.

Mark Leeper
MT 3D-441 908-957-5619
...mtgzfs3!leeper

The idea of a good society is something you do not
need a religion and eternal punishment to buttress;
you need a religion if you are terrified of death.
-- Gore Vidal

DEEP SPACE NINE: "The Emissary"
A television review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1993 Mark R. Leeper

Newton and Leibnitz each developed calculus independently at
the same time. When a culture is ready for calculus, somebody will
develop it. Often many minds can come up with the same idea at the
same time. This year the idea that a lot of television executives
came up with was that the time was right to launch a major science
fiction series. There are at least five new series starting this
year set in the future. But none is more eagerly anticipated by the
fans than _D_e_e_p _S_p_a_c_e _N_i_n_e, the third generation of _S_t_a_r _T_r_e_k.

The concept was rumored to be much opposed by Gene Roddenberry
while he lived. Roddenberry did not want his characters at a fixed
location since he thought it would limit plot ideas. Better it was
to be out exploring where no man/one has gone before. The new
series occurs at a captured enemy space station near a stable
wormhole. (This is supposedly a very up-to-date physics concept,
but it seems to me we had the same physical mechanism in the board
game "Clue.") On this station we have a large mix of aliens, mostly
species familiar from _S_t_a_r _T_r_e_k: _T_h_e _N_e_x_t _g_e_n_e_r_a_t_i_o_n, the only major
addition being a very versatile shape-changer played by the
venerable Rene Auberjonois. The feel you get is that of a space-
going Tijuana.

The new series centers on Ben Sisko (played by Avery Brooks),
who is the new commander of the station. Apparently the station was
captured from the Cardassians (tall thin men with bony ridges in
their faces and weak powers of observation). In sixty years they
never noticed anything peculiar about the station's locale, like
there was a nearby wormhole. They did happen to notice the presence
of something called orbs. These have very peculiar properties.
They may be the only orbs in the universe that are not even vaguely
spherical. Actually, they look like hour-glasses from the comics'
Bizarro world film as if they were holy grails. The orbs are
connected with something the new series has in abundance, gratuitous
mysticism. The orbs may be an artifact of some new super-species
who live outside of time. And, of course, the humans end up having
to explain and defend their existence to the new species just as
they had to do with Q in the super two-hour opener of _S_t_a_r _T_r_e_k: _T_h_e
_N_e_x_t _G_e_n_e_r_a_t_i_o_n. Of course, you know and I know, that living
linearly in time is the best of all possible lifestyles. But it
does have to be explained to any god-like aliens that humans run
into. And on the subject of self-congratulation we, of course, have
another case of a human, this time Chief O'Brien, proving he is
smarter than a computer. Rest assured that in battles or when
confronted with aliens, the writers of the new series will always
have a healthy conviction that human is what it is best to be. Even

Deep Space Nine January 10, 1993 Page 2

if being human you run the risk of being Geraldo Rivera.

Actually, if the plot seems a little trite and familiar,
recognize that it has requirements many other stories do not have.
Usually it suffices for a story to have a beginning, a middle, and
an end. This story needed to have about eight beginnings that it
could leave for other episodes to resolve. There is the shape-
shifter's origin; there is the existence of some sort of celestial
temple; there is unfinished business with a blackmailed Ferengi; and
on and on. I will point out that the blackmailed Ferengi is not
quite the same as those in the previous series. Quark is what the
others would be like if they had decent writers.

And decent writing is probably what will attract viewers to
this program. Certainly it is better writing than _S_p_a_c_e _R_a_n_g_e_r_s.
And, of course, there is a much better race- and gender-balanced
crew in keeping with a 1990's 26th Century rather than a 1960's 25th
Century. None of this is deathless prose, you understand, except
among the true Star Trek worshippers, but it is on a less insulting
level than something like _T_h_e _D_u_k_e_s _o_f _H_a_z_a_r_d.

STEEL BEACH by John Varley
1992, (hardback + SFBC)
Reviewed by Dale L. Skran, Jr.
Copyright 1993 Dale L. Skran, Jr.

After people read science fiction for a while, it is fairly
common to observe the "older, funnier" phenomenon that Woody Allen
had to live with. Readers begin harking back to the "good old
days." For some, this was the 50s when writers like Asimov and
Heinlein were pumping out their best stuff. For others, it was the
60s and burning stars like J. G. Ballard and Thomas Disch. For
people like myself (born in 1958), the 70s with Ben Bova at the helm
of _A_n_a_l_o_g and writers like George R. R. Martin and Larry Niven looms
as the Golden Age. However, my personal guess is that this "effect"
derives in part from the tendency of readers to keep following "old
favorites" and not looking at new talent. Objectively, I believe SF
today is as strong or stronger than in any of these previous epochs,
even in areas such as "hard SF." Some are willing to allow that
writing today is better, and certainly much is published, but the
complaint is that the "sense of wonder" is gone, and fantasy has
overtaken hard SF. By sheer weight, this is surely true, but if you
look there is some tremendous hard SF out there. Recently, I have
reviewed _A_r_i_s_t_o_i by Walter Jon Williams, and _A _F_i_r_e _o_n _t_h_e _D_e_e_p by
Vernor Vinge. I hope they both get the Hugo nominations they
deserve. However, they are not alone in 1992. Two other equally
strong novels appeared, and we'll take up one of them now.

John Varley was one of the blazing stars of my Golden Age in
the 70s. He swept in to the SF world with a series of intensely
written short stories dealing with complex issues of gender and
human transformation, well before the cyberpunk revolution.
Unfortunately, it became clear that his command of the novel was
limited, and his steadfast refusal to have believable (or appealing)
male characters became annoying. He also became involved in a
long-term book contract deal for the Titan - Wizard - Demon series
that seemed to keep him in a creative rut. He emerged periodically,
sometimes winning the Hugo, but always as a less than dominant
figure. Now he returns with a major achievement - _S_t_e_e_l _B_e_a_c_h.

Although not strictly part of the "Worlds" universe he used for
most of his short stories, for all practical purposes it is the
same universe. Unknown aliens have wiped humanity off the Earth,
apparently without any recognition that we are even intelligent.
Their attentions are instead focused on whales, the Earth's only
important species. For about 100 years humans survive on the moon
and in a few space colonies on a military footing, but this has
started to relax by the time of _S_t_e_e_l _B_e_a_c_h.

- 2 -

_S_t_e_e_l _B_e_a_c_h follows Hildy Johnson, a reporter at a tabloid
newspaper on the moon through sex changes, a dinosaur farm, the
deification of a gigastar, life in an imitation of the old West, and
a revolution a la _T_h_e _M_o_o_n _i_s _a _H_a_r_s_h _M_i_s_t_r_e_s_s. The technology is
plausible, the backgrounds interesting, and the lurking menace all
too believable. For once, Varley has succeeded in making sex
changes a natural and believable part of the story, and avoided
having all male characters being moronic ciphers.

In many ways, the book is a homage to the best of Heinlein and
the L5 Society, which ends up (oddly enough) playing a significant
(and plausible, mind you) role in things. For insiders only - try
to figure out which character is really Jerry Pournelle! This
paragraph makes _S_t_e_e_l _B_e_a_c_h sound like bad fan fiction, which it
isn't. It's a thoughtful, interesting story about the stress that
powerful technology might place on the idea of being human. A
"steel beach" is Varley's apt analogy for what we live on now. Just
as the fish came out onto a sandy beach to be reptiles and mammals,
we are crawling out onto a steel beach to become something else.
This is a time of huge choices and awesome responsibilities, ranging
from nuclear power to genetic engineering to protecting the
ecosystem. It has never been more exciting, or more dangerous, to
be human. Heinlein had an abiding faith that we would survive, just
barely, and so does Varley. We need all the help, and all the tools
we can lay our hands on. _S_t_e_e_l _B_e_a_c_h may be one of those tools.

Highly recommended to fans of Varley, Heinlein, hard SF,
gender-bender SF, and human transformation. Sexual situations and
ideas may disturb some. Likely Hugo nominee from 1992.

ARISTOI by Walter Jon Williams
TOR Books, 1992, $22.95 (hardback)
Reviewed by Dale L. Skran, Jr.
Copyright 1993 Dale L. Skran, Jr.

I've been watching Walter Jon Williams ever since I read his
first novel, _H_a_r_d_w_i_r_e_d. Dismissed by many as mere imitation cyber-
punk, _H_a_r_d_w_i_r_e_d seemed to me a readable and interesting near-future
piece of SF, albeit a bit derivative of Gibson. Later novels,
including _V_o_i_c_e _o_f _t_h_e _W_h_i_r_l_w_i_n_d and _A_n_g_e_l _S_t_a_t_i_o_n showed William's
development as a writer and a storyteller, but did not win him any
great accolades.

At last, in _A_r_i_s_t_o_i Williams has made what may come to be
recognized as a major contribution to SF. Here, he goes beyond
imitation or extension, and creates his own, wonderfully visualized
future world where progress in AI, virtual reality, and nanotech
have been carried to all-too-reasonable conclusions. Structurally
similar in Varley's _S_t_e_e_l _B_e_a_c_h in that both are based in a future
where the Earth has been destroyed, Williams creates a texture for
his world that is unique. Unlike many SF writers who seem
uncomfortable or unfamiliar with non-scientific fields, he seems
equally at home with art, science, history, or psychology. In
_A_r_i_s_t_o_i Williams writes believably of the artistic side of several
characters, creating grand and wonderful speculations of just what
we might do with ourselves "if this goes on." The layered and
subtle descriptions of artistic works and activities are all too
rare in science fiction. Among other things, the main character,
Gabriel, spends a fair part of the story composing an opera - while
working on a half dozen other projects.

Initially the reader may have to struggle at bit to find their
bearings in the strange new world of the Aristoi (what, after all,
is an "oneirochronon" or a "skiagenos"?), but soon the neatly
developed ideas become clear, and you are immersed in a world where
people deliberately split their personalities to perform multiple
tasks, where the virtual world is always overlaid on the natural
world, and where control of the physical almost equals control of
the virtual.

Combine this with interesting characters (the self-confident
Gabriel, the shy Clancy, and the mysterious, alluring Zhenling), add
in sexual relationships that almost necessitate diagramming, and a
rousing mystery in space in the grand tradition (a planet full of
people that shouldn't exist) combined with a mysterious death, and
you have an enormously engaging tale of a truly multi-dimensional
character (this means more than you may realize!) engaged in a
dangerous struggle.

I'm not going to say this should be nominated for the Hugo,
since if I do, that'll be the kiss of death. Just read it.

P.S.: The jacket art by Jim Burns is excellent, both as art and
as an evocation of the story!

Capsule review: _S_c_e_n_t _o_f _a _W_o_m_a_n is slick and
well-made, making 157 minutes seem like a lot less.
It makes the audience feel all the right emotions at
the right turns. But ultimately there is less here
than meets the eye. While the last fifteen minutes
will please some, the same segment will strike others
as pat and contrived. Rating: high +1 (-4 to +4).

Curiously, _S_c_e_n_t _o_f _a _W_o_m_a_n is a film of a man's journey from
childhood to adulthood. Charlie Simms (played by Chris O'Donnell)
goes to a very upper-class private prep school where the nicest kids
are super-snobs and most others are worse. Charlie has two problems
over Thanksgiving weekend. In the days just before Thanksgiving he
saw some students setting up a prank that went very wrong. Now the
administration is using both a big carrot and a big stick to pry out
what Charlie knows. His other problem is Lt. Colonel Frank Slade
(played by Al Pacino). Charlie has been hired to care for Slade
over the weekend. Slade is very much like the Jack Nicholson
character in _A _F_e_w _G_o_o_d _M_e_n, but now a blind alcoholic who hates the
world. What makes the story curious is that it is Slade who must
make the journey to adulthood. Charlie learns a different lesson,
that of seizing opportunity.

Charlie's job is just simple baby-sitting, but Slade has other
ideas. He drags Charlie to New York City on a mission of Slade's
own planning. As you could predict, the two men who start by hating
each other have adventures together and learn to respect and admire
each other. Their togetherness is just what each turns out to need,
to nobody's surprise.

Much has been said about how good Pacino's acting is in _S_c_e_n_t
_o_f _a _W_o_m_a_n, but in fact he seems to overpower every sentence he
speaks. Like his character, he forces himself to be the center of
attention in every scene where he appears. If Chris O'Donnell is
remembered for the film, it is for the scenes where Pacino did not
appear. Incidentally, this film also exploits the myth that blind
people seem to develop their other senses to super-human levels.
Pacino's Slade can judge the quality of a salute without actually
seeing it. He also can identify the perfume and even the soap a
woman uses, hence the title of the film. Bo Goldman's screenplay
has good dialogue but ultimately falls into the not uncommon
cinematic irony of pulling all the familiar strings and pushing all
the familiar buttons to tell the audience not to let themselves be
manipulated nor should they manipulate others. I give this _S_c_e_n_t _o_f
_a _W_o_m_a_n high +1 on the -4 to +4 scale.