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Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
Club Notice - 02/25/94 -- Vol. 12, No. 35
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. I wrote the piece on Taro around Christmas time. There are some
delays between when I write the pieces and when they actually get
published. Coincidentally, Taro just made the news the day after
the piece actually ran. Governor Whitman has apparently shown
clemency toward Taro, the Akita who became the center of an
international political storm. Taro's death sentence for attacking
a member of another species has been commuted to transportation for
life. Taro has been told he must leave New Jersey for life in
addition to the three years that he has already served behind bars.
One wonders if he does return under an assumed name, say Jiro, if
anyone will be able to prove he is breaking parole. Are mechanisms
in place to recognize and track paw prints? I know a lot of Akitas
look a lot alike to me. If Taro returned to terrorize New Jersey,
could anyone prove that this is the return of the real Taro. Worse
yet, suppose some other Akita is accused of being Taro, how could
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he ever prove his innocence? If I were an Akita, I would be taking
to lawyers. Actually, animals don't do real well in New Jersey.
We have our share of thrill killers going around shooting deer.
Our fishermen come in two varieties. There are those who actually
kill the fish, and the good sportspeople who let them go. I guess
that latter are decent enough people and probably should be allowed
to do what they do as long as they sign a waiver agreeing in
advance that they themselves don't mind if in the name of sport
they themselves are kidnapped and maimed as long as they are
eventually released. Turnabout is, after all just sporting fair
play. HA-HA-HA! I had you going there. Didn't I? See? I was
only joking. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE don't turn me in to the NRA.
Hey you don't really think I'd side with those dirty, godless,
antler-headed gooks who pillage our cornfields and would rape our
women if they could. Hey, tell the NRA I support them defending
American Liberty from those lousy, un-American commie pinko deer,
those nasty, drug-running geese and ducks, and the occasional
Iraq-sympathizing cow.
===================================================================
2. ISAAC ASIMOV'S ROBOTS IN TIME: PREDATOR by William F. Wu
(AvoNova, ISBN 0-380-76510-1, April 1993, 244pp, US$4.99); ISAAC
ASIMOV'S ROBOTS IN TIME: MARAUDER by William F. Wu (AvoNova, ISBN
0-380-76511-X, July 1993, 243pp, US$4.99); ISAAC ASIMOV'S ROBOTS IN
TIME: WARRIOR by William F. Wu (AvoNova, ISBN 0-380-76512-8, 1993,
243pp, US$4.99); ISAAC ASIMOV'S ROBOTS IN TIME: DICTATOR by William
F. Wu (AvoNova, ISBN 0-380-76514-4, Feb 1994, 230pp, US$4.99) (book
reviews by Evelyn C. Leeper):
These are the first four of a (probably) six-book series. The
basic premise (revealed in detail in the first book and recapped in
a briefing to the main characters at the beginning of each of the
subsequent volumes) is that a scientist has created a "gestalt
robot" made up of six component robots which somehow merge to form
one "super-robot." This robot starts having problems related to
the interaction of its gestalt parts. After several of these
robots fail, one decides it must shut itself down to prevent harm
from coming to humans because of its problems. It gets a scientist
to split it into its six component parts (each a completely
functional robot) and sends these parts back in time, miniaturizing
them as part of the process. (How? Well, there is some attempt at
explaining this in the first volume, but let's just say it's
technobabble.) The first part went to the Cretaceous; the team
sent back to recover it to try to solve the malfunction doesn't
find out until the end of the book that the other parts went to
different times and places. (This is not exactly a spoiler, since
the reader knows there are more volumes to come.) The second went
to 1600's Jamaica during the time of Sir Henry Morgan, the third
went to Roman Germany during the First or Second Century, and the
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fourth went to Moscow in 1941. After a while, though, the
miniaturization wears off and the component robots regain their
full size. Then their programming forces them to act in accordance
with Asimov's Three Laws, trying to protect humans from harm and
therefore changing history. What's more, if they survive back to
the time of their departure, they explode "with nuclear force"
(more technobabble).
In _D_i_c_t_a_t_o_r, for example, our team hears of a nuclear explosion in
Moscow (why haven't all the explosions already happened, and why is
everything unchanged?) and goes back to retrieve number four from
World War II Moscow. They have adventures, accomplish their
mission (this is a surprise?), give a moralizing little speech
about learning from history, and are told to go to Kubali Khan's
China for number five. Definitely a popcorn book, requiring no
intellectual investment or offering much beyond "time travelers
coping with another age." (The questions I mentioned a couple of
sentences ago are not dealt with at all.) If you like this sort of
thing, this is the sort of thing you will like.
Oh, this book also "features a database of fantastic illustrations
by award-winning computer artist Matt Elson." I assume that
"fantastic" hears means "containing fantasy elements" rather than
"extraordinary," since I found them fairly uninspired computer art.
The whole thing is packaged by Byron Preiss Publications, which
explains why the books seem more "product" than "book"--a share-
cropped world in a series.
===================================================================
3. THE LOST CONTINENT by Bill Bryson (Harper Perennial, ISBN 0-06-
092008-4, 1990 (1989c), 314pp, US$11) (a book review by Evelyn C.
Leeper):
This is the funniest book I have read since Joe Keenan's _P_u_t_t_i_n_g _o_n
_t_h_e _R_i_t_z, and the funniest non-fiction book since I don't know
when. Bryson, a native Iowan now living in England, returns to
America to tour its small towns and its big cities. Covering
38,000 miles and thirty-eight states, Bryson reminisces about his
childhood (his father would go only to free vacation attractions,
and stopped at every historical marker), the transition of small-
town America into strip malls, and his quest for a baseball cap
with a plastic turd on the brim.
As with most humor books, a sample is the best recommendation:
"Nevada has the highest crime rate of any state, the highest rape
rate, the second highest violent crime rate, the highest highway
fatality rate, the second highest rate of gonorrhea, ..., and the
highest proportion of transients. .... It has more prostitutes
than any other state in America. It has a long history of
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corruption and strong links with organized crime. And its most
popular entertainer is Wayne Newton. So you may understand why I
crossed the border from Utah with a certain disquiet."
(Particularly since he also says that Utah is the only place on the
face of the earth where Mormons will not come up to you and try to
convert you--because they figure everyone in Utah already is one.)
Though Bryson loves to attack the mediocre, he is also ready to
praise the praiseworthy, be it a town or a meal or an attitude. I
highly recommend this nostalgic, funny, and thoroughly enjoyable
travelogue.
Mark Leeper
MT 3D-441 908-957-5619
leeper@mtgzfs3.att.com
This life is a hospital in which every patient is
possessed with a desire to change his bed.
-- Charles Baudelaire