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Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
Club Notice - 03/05/93 -- Vol. 11, No. 36

MEETINGS UPCOMING:

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

_D_A_T_E _T_O_P_I_C

03/10 WEST OF EDEN by Harry Harrison (Primitive Humans Vs.
Alternatively-Evolved Bio-Tech-Advanced Reptiles)
03/31 STEEL BEACH by John Varley (Near-Future Uptopias--
Or Are They?)
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)

Outside events:
The Science Fiction Association of Bergen County meets on the second
Saturday of every month in Upper Saddle River; call 201-933-2724 for
details. The New Jersey Science Fiction Society meets on the third
Saturday of every month in Belleville; call 201-432-5965 for details.

HO Chair: John Jetzt HO 1E-525 908-834-1563 hocpb!jetzt
LZ Chair: Rob Mitchell HO 1C-523 908-834-1267 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 quartet!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. Our next discussion book is Harry Harrison's _W_e_s_t _o_f _E_d_e_n, of
which longtime member John Jetzt says:

Harry Harrison's _W_e_s_t _o_f _E_d_e_n might be called an alternate pre-
history. The premise is that the dinosaurs were not made extinct

THE MT VOID Page 2

by some event 65 million years ago. Rather, they went on to evolve
into intelligent reptiles that inhabited most of the earth's
tropical regions. Meanwhile in the temperate zones humankind also
managed to evolve up to the Stone Age. Then an ice age forces the
humans to wander south. The ensuing encounter and conflict provide
the basis for a very readable story.

The fundamental idea of this novel is handled very well. The
reptiles are developed as believable beings. They are not
anthropomorphic dinosaurs with white gloves, but rather real
reptiles with a consistent biological and social dimension.
Harrison even gives the reptiles a plausible language--complete
with a reptilian glossary--that seems well researched and
linguistically believable.

Harrison's attention to details is excellent. As we gradually
learn more about the reptiles, we are presented with a fairly
complete picture of an "alien" culture on planet earth. The most
startling feature of their civilization is their achievements in,
and dependence on, biotechnology. None of their artifacts are
manufactured in the physical sense, but rather "grown" from bio-
engineered lifeforms. A pictorial "zoology" at the back of the
book provides a useful catalog for the reader.

So the reptiles have an advanced technology, and they think and act
reptilian, for want of a better term. The humans have spears, and
they think and act human, of course. The two species have inborn
disgust and loathing for each other. The conflict between them is
exciting and fun to read. If one has not had enough by the end of
the book, then be comforted to learn that this was just the first
of a trilogy.

[By the way, the Club library in MT has two copies of _W_e_s_t _o_f _E_d_e_n
available for loan. Contact Mark Leeper, 957-5619. -ecl]

2. I recently had occasion to call a funeral home to find out how
to get there. (No, I mean how to get there by car. Don't be
morbid!) I called the number given in the phone book and
discovered that the woman at the other end could not give me
directions to the place. It seems that what I had really called
was an answering service for several mortuaries. Now I had heard
of this sort of system being set up for florists. There is a
number, 1-800-FLOWERS, you call and they will take your order and
pass it to an appropriate florist. If you want to send peonies to
Peoria you call this number and some unsuspecting Peorian florist
will get an order to send the reproductive parts of some plants to
your chosen destination. I knew you could arrange to send flowers
to a funeral anywhere in the country. I didn't suspect that there
already was the beginnings of a network that will allow you to set
up a funeral anywhere in the country. Just dial 1-800-DED-FOLX.
Of course, right now all you need to worry about is that your

THE MT VOID Page 3

chosen florist is going to send the wrong kind of flowers to the
wrong house. Call 1-800-DED-FOLX and you may not even be sure it
is Uncle Charlie they buried here. But then, maybe a little
mystery in your life is a good thing.

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

We have just enough religion to make us hate, but not
enough to make us love one another.
-- Jonathan Swift

Skran's Picks for the Hugo
Copyright 1993 Dale L. Skran

Since you all still have until March 31st to postmark your Hugo
nominees, I thought I would put forward my own list of suggestions,
several of which I have reviewed in the MT VOID. Two of them, _A_n_v_i_l
_o_f _S_t_a_r_s and _A _F_i_r_e _U_p_o_n _t_h_e _D_e_e_p are now available in paperback at
Waldenbooks (and presumably elsewhere). All are available from the
Science Fiction Book Club.

And my nominees are (ta-da!):

1. _A_r_i_s_t_o_i by Walter Jon Williams

2. _S_t_e_e_l _B_e_a_c_h by John Varley

3. _A _F_i_r_e _U_p_o_n _t_h_e _D_e_e_p by Vernor Vinge

4. _A_n_v_i_l _o_f _S_t_a_r_s by Greg Bear

5. reserved for _R_e_d _M_a_r_s by Kim Stanley Robinson

The "reserved" slot is based on my expectation that when I finish
Robinson's book, I'll probably nominate it over something else I've
read. If I don't like it, nominee runners-up include:

1. _C_h_i_n_a _M_o_u_n_t_a_i_n _Z_h_a_n_g by Maureen F. McHugh

2. _T_h_e _R_e_m_a_r_k_a_b_l_e_s by Robert Reed

Overall, this has been a good year for the "regular old SF novel" of
the sort I like. I would classify all of my nominees are "hard" SF
that is well-written with interesting characters. There is some
variation of quality, and objectively, _S_t_e_e_l _B_e_a_c_h is probably the
best written and structured. _A_r_i_s_t_o_i may have the best ideas and
texture, while _A_n_v_i_l _o_f _S_t_a_r_s has the most gripping plot and _A _F_i_r_e
_o_n _t_h_e _D_e_e_p the widest scope of vision. However, I wouldn't mind
seeing any of them win the Hugo.

BABYLON 5
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1993 Mark R. Leeper

So far this year we have seen the premieres of _S_p_a_c_e _R_a_n_g_e_r_s,
_S_t_a_r _T_r_e_k: _D_e_e_p _S_p_a_c_e _9, and _T_i_m_e _T_r_a_x. For each I have written a
somewhat tongue-in-cheek review of some of the sillier aspects of
it. Unfortunately, there is a distinct shortage of silliness in
_B_a_b_y_l_o_n _5. In spite of the fact that the pacing is a little
lethargic, this is the most intelligent of the new series. I am
afraid that without the _S_t_a_r _T_r_e_k organization behind _B_a_b_y_l_o_n _5, it
probably will not succeed. Yet this is certainly the more engaging
series. Where _D_e_e_p _S_p_a_c_e _9's idea of an intriguing mystery is where
the shape-changer Odo came from, _B_a_b_y_l_o_n _5 is built around a far
more interesting mystery. It seems that humans in _B_a_b_y_l_o_n _5 are
just coming back on the rebound. Ten years earlier an unstoppable
alien race, the Nivari, had totally massacred the humans. All that
remained was the final _c_o_u_p _d_e _g_r_a_c_e and the universe would have
been less one species of ape descendents. Then suddenly the Nivari
unaccountably declared they had lost the war and surrendered to the
humans. A decade later still nobody understands the sudden
reversal.

So here is _B_a_b_y_l_o_n _5, the meeting place of hundreds of species.
Like James White's hospital ship, it has provisions for a wide
variety of alien species requiring different atmospheres at
different pressures. The ship functions as a sort of United Nations
and interplanetary hotel in space. There are five major powers as
well as many minor cultures interacting.

The look of the future is perhaps the best thing about the
series. There are no silly or gimmicky wipes between scenes. The
space effects, created with computer ("Video Toaster") graphics, ar
genuinely exciting. They take their inspiration from the
characteristic art on British science fiction paperback covers. The
effects in the "Star Trek" series seem three-dimensional and have a
sort of realism not present here. The space effects here are closer
to artists' conceptions and are much more intriguing. Ships open
and spread wondrous wings like huge moths would or grip other ships
like beetles do. The effects have a real sense of wonder, all this
reportedly at one-quarter the cost of "Star Trek"'s effects.

The first story told in _B_a_b_y_l_o_n _5 is a rather prosaic whodunit
which is even a little less suspenseful since we are told the
villain at the very beginning. The characters are not really
interesting yet, but clearly will become more three-dimensional with
future episodes.

_B_a_b_y_l_o_n _5 deserves a chance to prove itself. This is adult
science fiction with a hard edge. I will continue to watch _S_t_a_r
_T_r_e_k: _D_e_e_p _S_p_a_c_e _9, but I will actually look forward to the next
episode of _B_a_b_y_l_o_n _5. For that matter, I will trade you two
episodes of _S_t_a_r _T_r_e_k: _D_e_e_p _S_p_a_c_e _9 for every episode of _B_a_b_y_l_o_n _5 I
can get.

JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1993 Mark R. Leeper

Science fiction year on television continues unabated and now
takes a nose-dive straight down. _J_o_u_r_n_e_y _t_o _t_h_e _C_e_n_t_e_r _o_f _t_h_e _E_a_r_t_h
has absolutely no connection to the story by Jules Verne, as I am
sure the spirit of Verne would want to impress on each and every one
of us.

The plot involves an eccentric scientist (played by F. Murray
Abraham) who believes there is a world inside the Earth. He builds
a mole machine that looks like the nose of an airplane, a tank
tread, and a rocket engine. He sinks into the unknown. Ten years
later, his nephew is planning his own mole machine only to discover
that a mysterious industrialist has already built the thing. It
looks like a tube of toothpaste with rockets set backwards on some
tank treads. A crew of young hunks is chosen and the whole bunch
heads off into the inner earth. Sound silly? No, the silliness is
just beginning. I didn't even mention that the mole machine has a
holographic personality, a woman's head floating in a blue bubble.
Then there is the piece of the "Book of Knowledge" that looks like
an executive's desk decoration but which was actually spit up by
Mt. Vesuvius. One thing it does not look like is anything you could
call a book.

Now once inside the Earth--where they get by diving into an
erupting volcano--they find a rather diffident Abominable Snowman
whom they teach English in seconds using an electronic device they
happen to have in the mole machine. The scholar on the trip wants
to name the snowman Daedalus, which the scholar thinks is the name
of a Greek God (Daedalus was a mortal, not a god). Everyone else
calls the Snowman the supremely inappropriate name Dallas. Also in
the interior of the Earth are some things that look to us like manta
rays with vampire fangs. There are also prehistoric troglodytes and
a 3000-year-old mastermind living in something that looks like a
lobster shell being fed by tubes of green fluid. This is clearly a
series with more imagination than intelligence.

The look of the series varies a great deal. Initially there is
some beautiful footage of volcanic eruptions. The sets of the
interior of the Earth look very plastic. Perhaps most irritating is
the wipe between scenes and when the program goes to a commercial:
the entire picture seems to get sucked into a hole at the center of
the picture, through the miracle of morph special effects.

To make a long story short, in the battle for capturing science
fiction fans to new series, _J_o_u_r_n_e_y _t_o _t_h_e _C_e_n_t_e_r _o_f _t_h_e _E_a_r_t_h is a
non-combatant. If you missed the pilot, you missed all there is
going to be.

Capsule review: In the third "Evil Dead" film,
a man from the 20th Century unleashes war between
medieval armies of the living and an army of the
Dead. In the right hands this could be a very
exciting concept. Unfortunately, Raimi plays it off
for easy laughs and fails to make a film that comes
even close to being worthy of the concept. Rating:
low +1 (-4 to +4).

Sam Raimi's _E_v_i_l _D_e_a_d was a low-budget horror film that was
above average for its kind. It combined fluid camerawork (often
with undercranked cameras) and a fresh look at the then over-used
concept of the walking dead. It made a name for Raimi as a director
willing to do the unusual. While ostensibility the same sort of
film, _E_v_i_l _D_e_a_d _I_I picked up the pacing and increased the creativity
by a large factor. It was a wild, funhouse sort of horror film
where just about anything weird could happen. The accent was on
being strange and funny with gooseflesh becoming a low priority.
The film ended by dropping its main character through some sort of
evil vortex into medieval Europe.

Determined to play the ball where it lies, the third of the
"Evil Dead" films begins with Ash arriving in medieval Europe and
eventually gets him involved in an epic battle between the living
and the dead. _A_r_m_y _o_f _D_a_r_k_n_e_s_s is another giant leap in creativity,
but this time Raimi has gone too far. This film shows just how far
Sam Raimi has allowed his reach to exceed his grasp. _A_r_m_y _o_f
_D_a_r_k_n_e_s_s is a truly magnificent failure. The concept of an
apocalyptic battle of the powers of Darkness against the powers of
Light has been toyed with by writers from Milton to J. R. R. Tolkien
and James Blish. When Clive Barker adapted his _C_a_b_a_l into
_N_i_g_h_t_b_r_e_e_d, he also said what he wanted to do someday--and what that
film gave only an inkling ofwas such a mammoth battle of the Dead
against the Living. The Raimis (Sam co-scripted _A_r_m_y _o_f _D_a_r_k_n_e_s_s
with his brother Ivan) try to tell the story of such a battle, but
squander too much of the effect on cheap one-line jokes,
insufficient humor, and images that often don't work. The scripting
is weak and the camerawork often captures exactly the wrong mood.
The Raimis could not get their tongues out of their cheeks long
enough to realize they were squandering what could have been a
great horror fantasy classic.

Bruce Campbell recreates his role as Ash, who now finds himself
caught up in a "Connecticut Yankee" sort of plot as he prepares for
the battle. However, the Raimis do not have the writing skill of a

Army of Darkness February 28, 1993 Page 2

Mark Twain, so Ash's programmed response to problems is to use his
shotgun or his chainsaw. When Ash fouls up a mission to retrieve
the _N_e_c_r_o_n_o_m_i_c_o_n--the classic book of evil--he inadvertently looses
on the world a battalion of skeletons. The Raimis fail to build
much excitement about the ensuing battle, playing it more for
giggles than thrills. And the final sequence of the film, which
seems horribly out of keeping with the rest of the story, is
apparently an afterthought. The conclusion of the film as shown at
the Sitges Film Festival and reported in the October 19, 1992,
_V_a_r_i_e_t_y, was much bleaker but also probably much more effective than
what was shown in local theaters.

I rate _A_r_m_y _o_f _D_a_r_k_n_e_s_s a low +1 on the -4 to +4 scale, mostly
on the basis of some good ideas albeit mishandled. Maybe somebody
else will pick up the idea again.

Capsule review: Michael Douglas plays the kind
of angry, hard-hitting role his father would have
played. After being pushed and chafed by society,
one day he just decides to fight back at all the
small annoyances that degrade the quality of life.
That may make him a villain but, as with Bernard
Goetz, it is hard to condemn him. Rating: high +1
(-4 to +4).

Life is a sort of social contract. You put in your work at
school and then in your career. You pay your dues and you expect to
be paid back with a reasonable level of happiness. You expect to
reap the rewards of your work. You expect to live in a society
where the rules seem to make sense and where justice prevails. And,
of course, all those expectations are in varying degrees wrong. If
you walk places where you have a right to walk, you are very liable
to be beaten and robbed. If you go into a convenience store, you
very often find prices are just too darn high. The hamburger may
look good and juicy in the picture, but when you actually get it, it
is flat, dried out, and unsavory.

Michael Douglas plays "D-Fens," a 30-something nerd with a
crewcut who by his accounting is just not getting his fair share out
of life. His marriage has gone sour, his career has gone sour, and
life just seems to have picked him to dump on. On a hot day in Los
Angeles with traffic at a total standstill, he abandons his car and
sets off on foot to get to his daughter's birthday party and at the
same time just let everybody know that he is fed up. Today he is
going to make sure he gets satisfaction. Overcharge him, and be
prepared to have him take your store apart. Push him and he is
going to push back. Cheat him only in peril of your life. Then
there is Prendergast (played by Robert Duvall). On Prendergast's
last day of police work, he becomes fascinated by a string of
incidents that he can plot in a line on a map. Somebody is fighting
back against all the indignities of life, the same ones that
frustrate Prendergast, and Prendergast has to stop him before he
gets in serious trouble.

_F_a_l_l_i_n_g _D_o_w_n is an angry howl against the deterioration in the
quality of life we all face. Joel Schumacher directing from Ebbe
Roe Smith's script has created a villain cut from the same cloth as
Bernard Goetz. It is hard not to sympathize with Douglas's angry
man. It would be easy to identify Douglas's character with one
political wing or the other, but as he goes from venting his anger
on a Korean grocer, to Latino gang members, to a neo-Nazi, and

Falling Down February 28, 1993 Page 2

finally to rich, selfish, over-paid whites, we see Douglas as
surprisingly center-of-the-road. He is a Moderate who has run fresh
out of moderation. This is a protest film that could have been made
in the 1960s. (My wife, I, and Vincent Canby independently thought
to compare it to _T_h_e _S_w_i_m_m_e_r.) Only toward the end does _F_a_l_l_i_n_g _D_o_w_n
lose its power and become somewhat prosaic. But the film is angry
and takes chances few Hollywood films are anxious to take anymore.
I rate it a high +1 on the -4 to +4 scale.