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Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
Club Notice - 12/24/93 -- Vol. 12, No. 26
MEETINGS UPCOMING:
Unless otherwise stated, all meetings are in Middletown 1R-400C
Wednesdays at noon.
_D_A_T_E _T_O_P_I_C
01/05 A MILLION OPEN DOORS by John Barnes (Nebula Nominee)
01/26 Bookswap
02/16 Demo of Electronic Hugo and Nebula Anthology (MT 3D-441)
03/09 A CANTICLE FOR LEIBOWITZ by Walter M. Miller (Vividly Memorable SF)
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 MT 2G-432 908-957-5087 holly!jetzt
LZ Chair: Rob Mitchell HO 1C-523 908-834-1267 holly!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 HO 2C-318 908-949-4156 quartet!lfl
MT Librarian: Mark Leeper MT 3D-441 908-957-5619 mtgzfs3!leeper
Factotum: Evelyn Leeper MT 1F-329 908-957-2070 mtgpfs1!ecl
All material copyright by author unless otherwise noted.
1. Carl Aveyard wrote with the following request regarding meetings
at other locations: "Well, what about good ol' Leeds? Convenient
for all major roads, rail and airport to boot (don't ask where boot
is)!"
I'm sorry. I have to exercise Power somehow or there is no point
in being Chairperson. Let me be arbitrary and capricious and say
no, you cannot have meetings in Leeds. Well, not the Southern part
of Leeds. That is unless you can get some people who are willing
to meet in the Southern part of Leeds. If you can let me know and
I will change my mandate to not the Northern part of Leeds. Well,
unless you think you can get people to meet both places. Ah, let
me amend that. You can meet anywhere in Leeds, but absolutely not
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in North Yorkshire. Unless you think you might.
I don't know. I think I may not have the hang of this Power thing
just yet.
===================================================================
2. PASSION PLAY by Sean Stewart (Ace, ISBN 0-441-65241-7, 1993,
US$4.50) (a book review by Evelyn C. Leeper):
I find science fictional looks at religion intriguing, and in that
category I would include future theocracies. _P_a_s_s_i_o_n _P_l_a_y is about
a near-future America that is a theocracy, having been taken over
by the Redemptionists. The "reds" (as they are somewhat
confusingly called) have taken over the entertainment media as
well, and everything is now instructive or uplifting. The Reds
seem to have some idea of art--though movies and such financed by
religious groups now don't seem to show much evidence of this--and
it is during the production of a version of _F_a_u_s_t that the murder
which forms the core of the book's plot occurs. The story is told
in the first person by an independent investigator (who has some
semi-psychic powers which are never explained).
Reading the book, I felt like a stone skipping over the surface of
a lake. There's too much "stuff" in this short book to have any of
it examined in depth. The Redemptionist government, the religious
structure (what happened to all the non-Christians in the new
United States?), new uses of the media (along with a distrust in
technology approaching the neo-Luddite level--how do these
contradictory ideas get resolved?), puritanism (along with drugs
and sex)--all these are touched on, but never examined or even made
consistent. And wrapping all this around a murder mystery confuses
the issue. There's too much the reader is trying to figure out
about the background to give him or her a fair chance at figuring
out the crime. (Yes, I know a murder mystery is not necessarily a
puzzle. Still, it does seem as though the science fiction nature
of this merely mystifies the reader further.)
_P_a_s_s_i_o_n _P_l_a_y suffers from a super-abundance of aspects. I rarely
find myself complaining that a book is too short, but Stewart
needed either to lengthen the book or cut back on the various
changes introduced. (It's also possible that an "expository lump"
explaining some of what was going on might have made the rest less
confusing.) _P_a_s_s_i_o_n _P_l_a_y is an intriguing novel, but ultimately
disappointing. (In fairness, I show note that many people have
liked it more than I, and it did win the Aurora Award for Best
Canadian Science Fiction Novel in English. But my reaction was
that it showed a lot of promise, but didn't deliver on it.)
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===================================================================
3. The 1993 Skran "Batch Review" (book reviews by Dale L. Skran):
Periodically, I write a "batch review" of books I have read, but
didn't like enough to write a full-length review. In some cases, I
just want to warn people that the book should be avoided. Since I
moved in the fall of 1992, I have had my hands full with "house
chores" and work, and thus have fallen _r_e_a_l_l_y behind on the little
reviews. However, at long last I am attempting to catch up.
_D_a_r_k _S_k_y _L_e_g_i_o_n by William Barton:
Barton is one of the authors of IRIS, a book I previously reviewed
and liked a good bit. Dark Sky Legion has as its premise a
galactic empire ruled by Earth using light-speed-limited ships.
This empire (the MetaStable Order) is controlled by Televoxes (Far
Voices) for the Order. The Order has an extremely advanced
technology (which the far-flung planets generally lack), including
a limited range "Star Trek" type transporter, which is actually a
copying machine. The Televox is stored as a pattern during the
long, slow intersteller voyages, and then created anew at each
planet he/she inspects. The Televox's job is to assess how far the
planet has drifted from the MetaStable Order, and to take
corrective action, up to and including obliterating the planet.
Note that this system assures the Order that the Televox changes
very little from the person that originally left Earth many
thousands of years ago. If the Televox is killed on a planet,
another one is created from the pattern and continues the mission.
_D_a_r_k _S_k_y _L_e_g_i_o_n follows Maaron Denthurion as he judges Olam and its
inhabitants. The result is an original, thought provoking tale
that does not duplicate previous science fiction efforts on
"Galactic Empires." A brief look at the appendix is helpful in
understanding the special terminology of the MetaStable Order.
Recommended to fans of space opera, galactic empires, and thought-
provoking SF.
_T_h_e _R_e_m_a_r_k_a_b_l_e_s by Robert Reed
Reed wrote _D_o_w_n _t_h_e _B_r_i_g_h_t _W_a_y, which I enjoyed greatly, and have
previously reviewed in these pages. I liked it so much that I
started reading his other books, including _T_h_e _R_e_m_a_r_k_a_b_l_e_s. _T_h_e
_R_e_m_a_r_k_a_b_l_e_s is a "little story" in the sense it is not about the
clash of empires or the fate of the universe. It concerns a man
with a secret (Ranier Lu) who joins in a dangerous expedition on
the only planet ever found that contains non-human intelligent
life. There is a bit of a plot, but mainly the story concerns the
relationship of the travelers to each other, and to the aliens (the
THE MT VOID Page 4
Remarkables).
I did read the whole story, and although it isn't quite my cup of
tea, I came away with more respect for Mr. Reed's writing talents.
Recommended to fans of SF character stories, encounters with
aliens, and out-of-doors adventures.
_B_l_a_c_k _M_i_l_k by Robert Reed
_B_l_a_c_k _M_i_l_k jumbles together too many elements to make a good story.
Much of the tale concerns a Dr. Florida and the genetically
engineered children he has created. This part of the story is
pretty interesting, but Reed tacks on a world shattering threat or
two, and a plot more suited to Marvel Comics at the end. In truth,
I didn't get past page 161. However, Reed's talent is visible even
in this earlier work, and I hope to see better stuff from him in
the future
_B_l_a_c_k _M_i_l_k was written before _D_o_w_n _t_h_e _B_r_i_g_h_t _W_a_y and _T_h_e
_R_e_m_a_r_k_a_b_l_e_s, and it shows, oddly enough, not in the writing (which
is very good), but in the poorly cobbled-together plot.
Recommended to fans of mutant children, genetic engineering, and
Reed completists.
_R_a_f_t by Stephen Baxter
This novel got tremendous hype from people like Clarke and Niven,
and indeed, it resembles their styles to a large extent. It
concerns what happens when a spaceship from our universe ends up in
a universe where the force of gravity is a billion times stronger
than in our universe. The "one speculation" granted Baxter is that
everyone doesn't die right away, and indeed they set up a
struggling colony.
Five centuries later "Rees" begins to wonder about the odd limits
of his rather brutal life, and begins explore and generally get
into trouble in the best SF fashion. What follows is traditional
exploration SF that reminds the reader of a Heinlein young adult
novel with just a touch of sex, or of the adult Heinlein generation
ship story. I like this better than a lot of recent Niven/Forward
books--Baxter seem less tired and more interesting then
Niven/Forward's recent works. For a first novel, Baxter writes with
excellent control, and once you get used to the single grand and
unlikely premise, the story rips right along.
Recommended to fans of Hard SF, "sense of wonder" SF, Heinlein,
Clarke, Niven, and Sheffield. Warning: There is some sex and a few
THE MT VOID Page 5
gross scenes with a primitive tribe.
_T_i_m_e_l_i_k_e _I_n_f_i_n_i_t_y by Stephen Baxter
I jumped into Baxter's second novel with great eagerness, and was
rewarded (at least initially) with a complex time-travel plot.
Humans from the future seek to return to the past to prevent the
alien Qax from enslaving the Earth. The story ends with a rock-
'em-sock-'em super-science battle that would do Larry Niven or Doc
Smith proud. Unfortunately, an extremely promising novel ends
abruptly and in an unsatisfactory and confusing fashion, leading
the reader to suspect an artificial page limit, or, worse,
sequelitus. Perhaps, I am just too dense to appreciate the ending,
but read it yourself and make your own decision. However, even
with this complaint, there are many worse books than _T_i_m_e_l_i_k_e
_I_n_f_i_n_i_t_y (see the review to come!).
Recommended to fans of Hard SF, "sense of wonder!!" SF, Clarke,
Niven, Sheffield, Forward, time travel stories, and the end of IT
ALL.
Mark Leeper
MT 3D-441 908-957-5619
leeper@mtgzfs3.att.com
To know, to think, to dream. That is everything.
-- Victor Hugo
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