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Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
Club Notice - 02/18/94 -- Vol. 12, No. 34
MEETINGS UPCOMING:
Unless otherwise stated, all meetings are in Middletown 1R-400C
Wednesdays at noon.
_D_A_T_E _T_O_P_I_C
03/09 A CANTICLE FOR LEIBOWITZ by Walter M. Miller (Vividly Memorable SF)
03/30 THE MIND PARASITES by Colin Wilson (tentative)
04/20 VALIS by Philip K. Dick (tentative)
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. There is a popular old song that goes "I want to go where the
wild goose goes." I never knew what that was all about. Do wild
geese know the best restaurants? No. At least I don't think they
do. They certainly don't eat there. Do you know what a wild goose
eats? Let me tell you something. You don't want to know. Let's
say a wild goose is not the cleanest or most charming of the
world's animals. No, you definitely don't want to be around when
a wild goose is eating. They aren't really big on art either.
Wild geese don't go to movies, they don't frequent nightclubs. Let
me tell you. A wild goose sleeps at night from sunset to sunrise.
They eat worms and they eat dreck and they make their own dreck and
they fly around. And for a wild goose that is what life is all
about. I want to give you the picture that we are not talking
about the world's brightest animal here. If geese gave Nobel
Prizes to other geese it would be for not being dumber than a bent
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nail. And most years the prize would go to "No Award."
Some modern cut-up sang the same song to "I won't go where the wild
geese go 'cause I know more than a wild goose knows." But you
know, this year the geese might have proven me wrong. It may be
the geese are smarter than I usually give them credit for being and
they may show that not in where they go but when. I have it on
good authority that the wild geese flew south a month early this
winter. I am told that when the geese go south for the winter
early, you could do a lot worse than to go with them. Let's face
it, this would have been not such a bad winter to miss. There are
aspects of this winter I could have done without. That's not even
mentioning my theory that the tectonic plates got cold and
contracted and the rest is Los Angeles history. But this was the
year I had a crisis of faith over whether THE FORCE is protecting
our driveway from the ravages of winter. Longtime readers of these
ravings will remember my grousing that once Evelyn was put in
charge of deciding when the driveway got done the Powers That Be
started protecting our driveway. We got either no snow or a
powdered sugar sort of dusting while people around us got the same
or considerably worse. It suddenly became unnecessary to do the
driveway so often. Most everybody noticed we had a bunch of warm
winters. In five or six years I did the driveway once and once we
paid someone to do it. That is nothing like how often I usually do
it. But this year was the acid test. This year was the year that
the heavens threw everything at our driveway they could manage. So
far I had to shovel once a light snow that was gone in two days.
We probably could have gotten away not doing it, but I had this
Crisis of Faith. I was wrong. Evelyn really does have some sort
of agreement with the Dark Powers. I am afraid to say any more at
this point because I am afraid if I say more she will turn me into
a wild goose.
[Note: Guess what? Since I wrote this we got hit again. And guess
who had to do the driveway? Evelyn remained protected; it just
didn't apply to me.]
===================================================================
2. BEARS DISCOVER FIRE by Terry Bisson (Tor, ISBN 0-312-85411-0,
1993, 254pp, US$19.95) (book review by Evelyn C. Leeper):
Many authors have an interchangeable style. Maybe they learn it in
writing workshops or something. Some do more with it than others,
but if you took a random paragraph from one, you'd never be able to
identify the author.
Not so with Bisson. When you read, "For the first two hours out of
Hazard it's nothing but clouds. Flat Mountain's not flat yet and
you're riding an 8-percent switchback patched together out of old
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highways," you _k_n_o_w it's Terry Bisson's writing. Bisson writes
about trucks and guns and cars and Kentucky. Given today's jargon,
I wouldn't be surprised to hear it described as redneckpunk. (Not
that there's anything punk about it, but that wouldn't stop
anyone.) Many of Bisson's stories are set in Kentucky or environs,
and even those that aren't seem to be populated by Kentuckians--
even, God help us, "England Underway."
The nineteen stories here range from science fiction to fantasy to
horror. Many of Bisson's science fiction stories are in a non-
realistic future in which some trend has been exaggerated beyond
belief ("Next," "The Toxic Donut," "Partial People," "By Permit
Only," and even perhaps "Carl's Lawn & Garden"). These stories are
oddly similar to some of Connie Willis's humorous "if-this-goes-on"
pieces, and they may be the two leading practitioners of this
artform today. Others assume some totally unlikely development
("The Two Janets," "Over Flat Mountain," "Are There Any Questions,"
"England Underway," and of course the title story "Bears Discover
Fire"). And maybe it's just my background, but I see a certain
"Twilight Zone" influence in "The Coon Suit," "The Message," "Two
Guys from the Future," "Necronauts," and "Press Ann."
I've had the opportunity to hear Bisson read several of these on
WBAI radio, and so when I read these stories, it's as if I am
hearing him read them, with his slow Kentucky cadences and accent.
That's the best way, but even without that I'd recommend this book.
===================================================================
3. THE GUIDE TO LARRY NIVEN'S RINGWORLD by Kevin Stein (Baen, ISBN
0-671-72205-0, 1994, 188pp, US$14) (a book review by Evelyn C.
Leeper):
This would more accurately be titled _T_h_e _G_u_i_d_e _t_o _L_a_r_r_y _N_i_v_e_n'_s
_K_n_o_w_n _S_p_a_c_e, since it covers all of Known Space, not just the
Ringworld. Unlike the recent guide to Anne Rice's "universe," this
is not arranged encyclopedically. Instead, there are chapters such
as "History of Known Space," "Major Races of Known Space," "Aliens
of Known Space" (I would think this would have included the
preceding chapter), "The Ringworld," "Races of Ringworld,"
"Psionics," "Equipment," and "Glossary."
This is not designed as a reference book in which to look up
things. For example, the glossary gives a two-sentence definition
of Kzinti with no reference or pointer to the fourteen pages of
text on the Kzinti. Instead it appears to be a book for fans of
Known Space to leaf through. The best part may be the
illustrations by Todd Hamilton and James Clouse. Of course, I am
not especially a fan of Known Space and would prefer to get my
series information from the author directly. But even for a fan, I
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suspect the approach taken here is too diffuse. Working by
analogy, I ask myself what my reaction to a similarly constructed
book about Sherlock Holmes would be, and I have to say I would find
it of minor interest.
===================================================================
4. There were a couple of errors in the first paragraph of the
review of Nancy Kress's _A_l_i_e_n_s _o_f _E_a_r_t_h last week. It should have
read:
This book of eighteen stories is Nancy Kress's second collection.
(The first, _T_r_i_n_i_t_y _a_n_d _O_t_h_e_r _S_t_o_r_i_e_s, was published in 1985 by
Bluejay and is out of print.) This one includes the two Hugo-
nominated stories "And Wild for to Hold" and "The Mountain to
Mohammed." ("And Wild for to Hold" was competing with Kress's
"Beggars in Spain" in its year, and when the latter won, Kress was
presented with a button that read, "I lost the Hugo to Nancy
Kress.")
Mark Leeper
MT 3D-441 908-957-5619
leeper@mtgzfs3.att.com
The best government rests on the people, and not on
the few, on persons and not on property, on the free
development of public opinion and not on authority.
-- George Bancroft