@@@@@ @ @ @@@@@ @ @ @@@@@@@ @ @ @@@@@ @@@@@ @@@
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @
@ @@@@@ @@@@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @
@ @ @ @@@@@ @ @ @ @ @@@@@ @@@@@ @@@
Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
Club Notice - 5/6/94 -- Vol. 12, No. 45
MEETINGS UPCOMING:
Unless otherwise stated, all meetings are in Middletown 1R-400C
Wednesdays at noon.
_D_A_T_E _T_O_P_I_C
05/11 BEGGARS IN SPAIN by Nancy Kress (Hugo Nominee)
06/01 GREEN MARS by Kim Stanley Robinson (Hugo Nominee)
06/22 Hugo-nominated short stories
07/13 MOVING MARS by Greg Bear (Hugo Nominee)
08/03 GLORY SEASON by David Brin (Hugo Nominee)
08/24 VIRTUAL LIGHT by William Gibson (Hugo Nominee)
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 j.j.jetzt@att.com
LZ Chair: Rob Mitchell HO 1C-523 908-834-1267 j.j.jetzt@att.com
MT Chair: Mark Leeper MT 3D-441 908-957-5619 m.r.leeper@att.com
HO Librarian: Nick Sauer HO 4F-427 908-949-7076 n.j.sauer@att.com
LZ Librarian: Lance Larsen HO 2C-318 908-949-4156 l.f.larsen@att.com
MT Librarian: Mark Leeper MT 3D-441 908-957-5619 m.r.leeper@att.com
Factotum: Evelyn Leeper MT 1F-329 908-957-2070 e.c.leeper@att.com
All material copyright by author unless otherwise noted.
1. With the next discussion book we start our annual cycle of Hugo
nominees. This year we begin with Nancy Kress's _B_e_g_g_a_r_s _i_n _S_p_a_i_n,
expanded from the Hugo-winning novella of the same name. The
premise is quite simple: what if we could produce a genetic
mutation that would mean the carriers of it never needed to sleep?
What could _y_o_u do with those extra eight hours a day? (Well, for
one thing, you would have time to read all the discussion books we
pick!)
_B_e_g_g_a_r_s _i_n _S_p_a_i_n is available in mass-market paperback, as well as
in the Monmouth County Library in Manalapan and the Old Bridge
THE MT VOID Page 2
Library. [-ecl]
===================================================================
2. Well, I guess it is time for me to play the curmudgeon again.
Society needs its curmudgeons to point out what a stupid silly mess
we have gotten ourselves into. Without my little weekly columns my
poor benighted readers would not realize all that is wrong with the
world. And you know what would happen then? You might just fall
into the trap of thinking that life is good. We get a constant
barrage from society telling us everything from "life is just a
bowl of cherries" to news programs telling you that your lifestyle
is really better and more pleasant that of lots of people in the
world. They try to tell you that we actually have a good form of
government here because politicians have to keep the people happy
and cannot decree we all have to wear the same funny hats or that
everybody has to go off and live on a farm for five years to find
out how farmers live. We don't have to get up, denounce our former
ways of thinking, and take on an imposed set of values. (At least
the U.S. Government can't force you to do that. I won't say there
aren't cases where corporations have decided that is a nifty
innovative management technique.) Without people to point out the
negatives in life, we might fall into mistaken, Pollyanna-ish
philosophies. A slight digression about another curmudgeon. I
loved it when a commentator on the local very-left-wing radio
station--supposedly dedicated to opposing tyranny--complained that
the government was wrong in wanting to revoke China's most-
favored-nation status over the issue of human rights. He said we
shouldn't try to impose our values on them. He usually is railing
against the Government and its tyranny, but when it comes to a
choice of siding with the Government or with tyranny, I see which
side he picks. One of the things I am curmudgeonly about is the
poor class of curmudgeons we are getting today. I miss Dorothy
Parker and H. L. Menken, even if they were before my time. Of
course the greatest American curmudgeon of all was the great Mark
Twain. He belongs right up there with Samuel Clemens!]
But I wonder what has turned me into a curmudgeon. I wasn't always
a curmudgeon, you know. I have not been always what you see in me
today. Years ago I was just an Angry Young Man. Somehow he
evolved out of a peeved teenager. I suppose I should have
considered a career as a curmudgeon back when I an adolescent prone
to snits. I may have even been an uncooperative toddler, but I
will tell you, I was one _t_e_r_r_i_f_i_c baby. Nobody noticed.
Well, that's not true. My Aunt Rose noticed. But she was a
cheek-pincher, so who cared what she thought. "Oh, you're so
cute!" she would say as she grabbed a hunk of loose flesh on the
side of my face and compressed it to the size of a small lozenge.
Ah, but she was a woman ahead of her time. First, she could see
THE MT VOID Page 3
qualities in me that remain true my entire life. I was cute and I
am still. Nobody notices. My other memory of her was that in
addition to great taste she also had this TV with a little four-
inch screen. This was from forty years before the Japanese started
making their little personal TVs.
Well, I was going to talk about something else, but you kept me
talking for so long about myself I just didn't get to it. Next
week maybe.
===================================================================
3. Don Blosser offers the following information:
"Star Wars" is Alive and Well in Saturday Morning Cartoons!!
I may have missed this review already, but if not, here goes.
It just struck me last night, "Star Wars" is alive and well.
Tune in to Channel 5 (7?) on Saturday mornings from 8 to 9 , or 9
to 10. I'm not too certain about the time or channel. At that
time, I'm half-awake and wrestling with my daughter trying to get
her fed, dressed, washed, and pottied so she can go skating in
Jackson.
Anyhow, "Star Wars" is alive and well. It's not called "Star Wars"
though, but "The Adventures of Sonic the Hedge Hog." For those of
you familiar with the Weekday morning series that shows from 7:00
to 7:30 on channel 5 (7?, see above remarks), the difference is
night and day. The weekday versions are humorous and light-hearted
cartoonish. The villains are comic and the comedy is slapstick.
The Saturday morning version features the same major characters:
Dr. Ivo Robotnik and Sonic the Hedgehog. But with a somber and
sinister mood. Robotnik is not bumbling, nor are his robots.
Sonic has a cast of supporting characters calling themselves the
"Freedom Fighters." As in the weekday series, Robotnik is out to
conquer Sonic's home planet Mobius.
Saturday Morning's Robotnik speaks with a menacing tone, one arm is
mechanical. His domain is the great machine, be it a tank, plane,
or industrial park. Robotnik's goal is to conquer Mobius and turn
it into a giant toxic dump surrounded by vile polluting factories
making who knows what. He has one living sycophant, Snively, a
pipsqueak nerd. The rest of Robotnik's minions are robots who look
a lot like Darth Vader's and the Emperor's Star Troopers. Any of
Mobius citizen's, mostly furry forest creatures, that Robotnik
captures, he transforms into robot slaves with no memory of their
past. Robotnik comes across as a combination of Darth Vader and
THE MT VOID Page 4
the Emperor. Snively is a cartoon equivalent of the Empire's
scientists and lackeys.
Sonic is "built for speed" and his favorite expression before he
speeds off leaving a blazing trail is "let's juice." Sonic
combines Han Solo and Luke Skywalker. His main buddy is "Tails" a
4-year-old fox with two tails. Tails counter-rotates his tails
allowing him to take off and fly. Yoda and Obi Wan are represented
by Sonic's Uncle Chuck, who was robotized by Robotnik. Uncle Chuck
"foresaw" the struggles against Robotnik and created golden "Power
Rings" to aid Sonic. A "Power Ring" appears once every 24-hours in
a forest pool and can only be used by Sonic to multiply his powers.
In one episode Robotnik got a "Power Ring" and used it to power a
"Hedge Hog Detector" to locate and track Sonic moving at super-
sonic speed. The "Freedom Fighters" are various forest creatures
including an opossum (Princess Sally, the brains and an electronic
and mechanical genius), a half-rabbit half-robot (Bunny, the
strong-armed strong woman), a Frenchified squirrel (Francois, a
sniveler who needs constant encouragement to continue the
struggle), and a walrus-like (???) character (???, the general
handy-man and genial all around supporting character), and Tails.
If you have kids and they're under eight, then you've probably seen
and heard both weekday and weekend versions of Sonic. You don't
need to be reminded of all this. For those of you without, I just
thought you'd like to know that "Star Wars" is alive and well on
Saturday morning. [-db]
===================================================================
4. HOTEL ANDROMEDA by Jack Chalker (Ace, ISBN 0-441-00010-X, 1994,
248pp, US$4.99) (a book review by Evelyn C. Leeper):
If this is the kind of book you like, then you will like this book.
Jack Chalker collects (has commissioned, one suspects) twelve
stories of alien goings-on in an intergalactic hotel. There may be
a serious story in here, but the ones I sampled seemed of the
variety that plays better as a Marx Brothers comedy on screen than
on the printed page. The most prestigious author included is
Kristine Kathryn Rusch; other well-known contributors include
Esther M. Friesner and Janet Kagan. The goal, so far as I can
tell, is entertainment without concern for content, or even a plot,
but it didn't grab me enough to make me plow through it. It is, of
course, remotely conceivable that picking this up immediately after
finishing _J_a_n_e _E_y_r_e was too much of a shock to my system, but it
didn't seem to deliver the sort of _G_r_a_n_d _H_o_t_e_l story I was
expecting.
THE MT VOID Page 5
Then again, I don't read Terry Pratchett either.
===================================================================
5. BELLE EPOQUE (a film review by Mark R. Leeper):
Capsule review: If one understands Spanish and the
Spanish Civil War, there might be more substance to
this film than there initially appears. But United
States audiences will find this a feather-light
situation comedy about an army deserter who gets
involved with a family with four sexy daughters.
Rating: +1 (-4 to +4).
This year's Academy Award for best foreign film went to the Spanish
film _B_e_l_l_e _E_p_o_q_u_e. In competition with films of much weightier
content, the film that won was a little flip of a movie, little
more than an extended "Farmer's Daughter" story set in rural Spain
during the early 1930s. In a time when three factions, the
Carlists, the Monarchists, and the Republicans are fighting each
other for possession of the country, Fernando (played by young
Jorge Sanz), a handsome young soldier, deserts his company. As the
film opens he is arrested by two rather odd Civil Guardsmen whose
disagreement over what to do with him leaves him free again. Then
he comes to a village where a free-thinking villager Manolo
(Fernando Fernan Gomez) offers him a place to stay for the night.
In the morning Fernando plans to head for Madrid until he sees the
arrival by train of Manolo's four beautiful daughters. Fernando
decides to stay around to enjoy more hospitality and to get to know
the four daughters a little better. What follows is a pleasant
little tale of romantic entanglements with each of the four
daughters.
There are few surprises for American audiences in this film.
Though it has been said that the liberal attitudes the family has
is very atypical of the Spanish in the 30s, they are much less
shocking to Americans in the 90s so this film conceivably had more
impact in its native country than it will have in the United
States. What we see as a background to the story as just a village
of moderately interesting characters perhaps might have shocked the
Spanish audiences. For example there is a woman who has decided to
dress and behave like a man. Not so shocking to us, but it
reportedly was considered outrageous behavior in Spain. One man
seems content to share his wife with her lover, with whom he
remains on good terms. Again not common in the United States but
not shocking either.
There also seems to be some political undercurrent to what is going
on, though it is not well explained. One character's suicide may
be related to the war, though it is not sufficiently explained by
THE MT VOID Page 6
the subtitles. An alert ear will note that there are some
differences between what is being said in Spanish and the subtitle
translation.
Fernando Trueba directed this story with touches that are a little
reminiscent of both _S_i_r_e_n_s and any number of pleasant countryside
films, mostly from France. _B_e_l_l_e _E_p_o_q_u_e has a feel of being close
to nature in an idyllic small rural village. While it is pleasant
enough for an hour or so, it is an odd choice for best foreign
language film of 1993. For those who enjoy light French pastoral
comedies, I would rate it a +1 on the -4 to +4 scale.
===================================================================
6. Lunacon '94 (part 1 of 3) (an abbreviated con report by Evelyn
C. Leeper):
This is an abbreviated con report, since we attended Lunacon only
on Saturday. As a result, I'm not sure what the attendance was,
etc. I _a_m sure that no one but I would call a 10,000-word
convention abbreviated!
_H_o_t_e_l
The hotel this year was the Rye Brook Hilton. It _s_t_i_l_l seems as
though Lunacon moves every few years or so. This "New York"
convention hasn't been in New York City for quite a while, and has
often left the state as well. The space was adequate, but the
hotel layout was so confusing that it took me a while just to find
registration!
_D_e_a_l_e_r_s' _R_o_o_m_s
There were two dealers rooms across the hall from each other.
There were also additional guest rooms used for dealers rooms
("Dealers Row") on an adjoining corridor. (This was also true in
1991, in a completely different hotel.) There was more non-book
stuff than _I was interested in, but even though I had just been to
Boskone last month, I did find a few books I was looking for.
_A_r_t _S_h_o_w
There was an art show; I didn't get to it.
_P_r_o_g_r_a_m_m_i_n_g
I feel like I was in a whirlwind--in eight hours I did three panels
and attended three others. There was certainly no lack of good
panels during the day, though the evening looked somewhat sparse if
THE MT VOID Page 7
you weren't interested in the masquerade. There were some Sunday
panels I wish I could have attended as well.
_H_y_p_e_r_c_r_i_t_i_c_a_l: _N_e_w _a_n_d _N_o_t_e_w_o_r_t_h_y (_a_n_d _N_o_t _W_o_r_t_h_y)
Saturday, 10 AM
Marvin Kaye (mod), Keith De Candido, Elisa De Carlo,
Evelyn Leeper, Gordon Van Gelder
The panel began with introductions. Keith De Candido is connected
with the Manhattan cable show "The Chronic Rift." Elisa De Carlo
wrote _T_h_e _D_e_v_i_l _Y_o_u _S_a_y and _S_t_r_o_n_g _S_p_i_r_i_t_s (which I recommended).
Marvin Kaye mentioned the latest book he edited, _T_h_e _G_a_m_e _I_s _A_f_o_o_t
(of Sherlock Holmes pastiches), and his next, _T_h_e _H_i_s_t_r_i_o_n_i_c
_H_o_l_m_e_s. I introduced myself as well, but you all know me.
Kaye began by saying that he did most of his science fiction,
fantasy, and horror reading for the column he writes for a horror
magazine (_B_l_e_a_k _H_o_u_s_e?). He reads more mysteries than science
fiction because he reads mysteries to judge the Nero Wolfe award in
that field. He did recommend Morgan Llywelyn's _E_l_e_m_e_n_t_a_l_s and
Paula Volsky's _W_o_l_f _o_f _W_i_n_t_e_r, as well as Patricia Mullen's _S_t_o_n_e
_M_o_v_e_r_s, which described as "an extensive epic."
De Carlo liked the latest "Star Trek" novel (which she couldn't
remember the title of), and didn't like _Z_e_u_s _a_n_d _C_o_m_p_a_n_y, even
though it was from her own publisher. She then drifted somewhat
off-topic by noting that her publisher refused to put good reviews
for _S_t_r_o_n_g _S_p_i_r_i_t_s on the first page of _T_h_e _D_e_v_i_l _Y_o_u _S_a_y.
I strongly recommended Michael Bishop's _B_r_i_t_t_l_e _I_n_n_i_n_g_s, and also
Norman Spinrad's _D_e_u_s _X, Harry Turtledove's _G_u_n_s _o_f _t_h_e _S_o_u_t_h, Alan
Lightman's _E_i_n_s_t_e_i_n'_s _D_r_e_a_m_s, Jack Womack's _E_l_v_i_s_s_e_y, and Kim
Stanley Robinson's _R_e_d _M_a_r_s. My biggest disappointment of the past
year was Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's _G_r_i_p_p_i_n_g _H_a_n_d. De
Candido said that book had been commissioned by Pocket Books rather
than being something they wanted to write on their own. I pointed
out that in "Niven's Laws" Larry Niven says, "It is a sin to waste
the reader's time," and that in those terms I would call this book
a sin.
De Candido then promoted "Brian Froud's Faerielands," a four-book
series that he is producing for Bantam, with artwork by Froud and
stories by Charles De Lint (_T_h_e _W_i_l_d _W_o_o_d), Patricia McKillip,
Midori Snyder, and Terri Windling. I didn't like the first book
very much--it was beautifully produced, but the story was weak--but
decided it would not be tactful to say so. I did say that it was
enjoyable to hold a well-made book (and that is certainly true).
Kaye asked what impact reviews and critics had on the sales of
books (taking the panel into the almost inevitable marketing
direction rather than doing more recommendations, in part because
THE MT VOID Page 8
most of the panelists had forgotten to bring their lists). He
began by saying that the best novel he wrote last year was reviewed
by _K_i_r_k_u_s and "they weren't even snotty." He didn't say what
effect this had, making it a somewhat random comment. De Candido
said that many magazines (such as the _L_i_b_r_a_r_y _J_o_u_r_n_a_l) are read by
a very small segment of the population, and even those magazines
ignore a large number of books, especially original paperback
publications. (_P_u_b_l_i_s_h_e_r_s _W_e_e_k_l_y does review them, but in a
separate section.) On the other hand, a review in the newspaper of
the home town of the author can make a substantial difference in
sales there, because of the "local" factor. Similarly, reviews in
small press magazines that specialize in the area of the book can
be very valuable.
Leo Duroshenko in the audience said that _L_o_c_u_s seemed to like
everything it reviewed. De Candido disputed this, saying it
depended on circumstances. _A_n_s_i_b_l_e _8_0 reported that at the 1993
World Fantasy Con "[David Drake] liked the panel 'in which David
Hartwell and Charlie Brown proved that the reviews in _L_o_c_u_s are
worthless to the general reader by Charlie's intent rather than his
ineptitude. I suppose watching someone burn himself alive could be
interesting in the same fashion.'" I don't know the details, but
would love to hear them!
I mentioned the statistic quoted by Mark Olson at the Boskone
"Small Press" panel, which was that a good review increases sales
only about five or six percent. (That's for a small press book,
where the clientele is probably more knowledgeable. For a mass-
market book, it would probably be an even smaller percentage,
unless the review appears in the _N_e_w _Y_o_r_k _T_i_m_e_s _B_o_o_k _R_e_v_i_e_w or
someplace similar.)
Kaye said that he would rather have a review that hated the book
but understood what he was trying to do than a review that liked
the book but missed the point. (I suspect many authors would have
a different opinion.) I noted that even a negative review can sell
a book, as I have had people tell me that they know if I dislike a
book, they will like it, and vice versa. If nothing else, a
negative review does tell the reader that the book is out there,
and if it is in a specialty niche (for example, a Sherlock Holmes
pastiche or an alternate history), then that knowledge can often
outweigh the negativeness of the review. And of course if the
reviews are very short (as they are in _S_c_i_e_n_c_e _F_i_c_t_i_o_n _C_h_r_o_n_i_c_l_e
and some other magazines) then there is little room for more than a
bare-bones description anyway.
De Candido said that part of the problem is the volume of books out
there; some books just get lost. He is particularly irked when a
reviewer doesn't review the new book in a series, saying "We've
reviewed this series already." (Of course, often the series is
more a product than a book, and there is little point to using
THE MT VOID Page 9
space to review the fourth book which is pretty much like the first
three, when there are new and different books to review.) De
Candido has some personal interest in having reviewers review each
book in a series, because he is involved in producing many series
for Byron Preiss, including the aforementioned "Faerielands"
series, the "Robots in Time" series I have recently reviewed, and
the "Dinosaurs in Time" series. De Candido said that they get a
lot of letters from children who love the latter series: whole
classes read it, they send pictures they've drawn of the dinosaurs,
and so on. Still, the series phenomenon is not one I am greatly
enamored of. When I receive review copies, I often get half a
dozen books at one time that are all of the sort "book 4 of the
Ring of Time series" or "the first of the exciting new Cauldron of
Fear series." I see this as an infinity of mirrors, stretching
off, and have little desire to launch myself into the middle of a
series, or to start what could be a life-long commitment. (Kaye
says that every time he tries to read anything Michael Moorcock, he
emerges half a dozen books later to discover he still hasn't caught
up.) Though De Candido says that some series try to make each book
self-contained, most do not, and this leads to dilemmas for
reviewers. I mean, I liked Harry Turtledove's _W_o_r_l_d_w_a_r: _I_n _t_h_e
_B_a_l_a_n_c_e but it's the first quarter of a story that was chopped into
four pieces to be sold as four books, and I can't honestly
recommend to readers that they spend $84 for this story. And De
Candido said that Byron Preiss would be doing anthologies and
novels of Marvel superheroes, including a Spiderman novel by Diane
Duane. (Pardon me if I don't get all excited.) De Carlo said that
rumor has been going around for a while that the ultimate best-
selling book would be titled _T_h_e _D_r_a_g_o_n, _t_h_e _U_n_i_c_o_r_n, _a_n_d _t_h_e
_V_a_m_p_i_r_e, and Van Gelder said that the Science Fiction Book Club
would buy it.
There was a lot of discussion off-topic having to do with promoting
and selling books. De Carlo said that she had to do her own
publicity tour for her first book, for which she was not
reimbursed, because the publishers tend to promote the bigger
(thicker) books. She also noted it was ignored by _P_u_b_l_i_s_h_e_r_s
_W_e_e_k_l_y, to which De Candido responded that they split their reviews
at that magazine, and there's a shortage of people who can do
intelligent reviews of science fiction. De Carlo also complained
about her books not being put on display at conventions, not being
able to do readings at large stores (they say, "We don't do
readings of little paperbacks"), having to ask to be assigned a
publicist, and having to photocopy her own reviewer's galleys to
get them sent out. I observed that perhaps one way to choose good
book was to choose small (thin) books: since everyone has such a
bias towards thick books, if a thin book actually does get
published, it really must be good. In particular, I recommended
the Bantam Spectra novella series (such as Spinrad's _D_e_u_s _X which I
had mentioned earlier). De Candido said that shorter novels are
often aimed towards teenagers but can be charming for adults. Kaye
THE MT VOID Page 10
seconded that and recommended in particular Caroline Stevermer's
_C_o_l_l_e_g_e _o_f _M_a_g_i_c_k_s and the works of Teddy Slater, Daniel Pinkwater,
and John Bellairs. (I read very little "young adult" science
fiction; I started out by reading adult science fiction short
stories.)
Since publishers seem to prefer thicker books, it was suggested
that authors should request wide margins and thick paper. An
audience member said that a larger point size would also be a good
idea, especially for readers with less than perfect eyesight. Even
now publishers use different sizes of type, though they tend to be
within a small range. In my experience, only very thick classic
novels (such as _M_o_b_y _D_i_c_k) use a noticeably smaller point size, but
even something not obvious to the average reader could make a
difference to people with poor eyesight.
The authors on the panel talked more about promotional tours. Kaye
said he was scheduled to do two readings in Barnes & Nobles. He
complained that these were not in the one nearest him on the Upper
West Side, even though at that one they did have three other
novelists scheduled, including one who is "terrible." (But he did
say they have good coffee.) He said that one of the things you
learn in publishing and writing seminars is how to get the
publishers take over after you've finished writing. Some
publishers are good at promoting novels; others are not. De
Candido said that Tor was very good at promoting, in part because
they started as a "labor of love" and needed to promote. In any
case, authors have some influence in whom publishers send review
copies to (at least in my experience) and should encourage them to
send to some of the "smaller" magazines that the publisher might
not think of automatically. (I noted that the readership of
_r_e_c._a_r_t_s._s_f._r_e_v_i_e_w_s on Usenet is 54,000 and of _r_e_c._a_r_t_s._b_o_o_k_s
120,000, giving them considerably wider distribution than _L_o_c_u_s,
for example.) Kaye said that the winner of the Nero Award last
year was a novel the publisher didn't want to bother to submit, and
that the publisher had to be asked several times.
There was also a brief listing of authors who live in Ireland--this
was clearly a panel that could not stay on-topic.
There were other recommendations given toward the end. De Candido
recommended Emma Bull's _F_i_n_d_e_r as a rock and roll urban fantasy,
which led Kaye to say that his most recent book, _F_a_n_t_a_s_t_i_q_u_e,
patterned on Berlioz's "Symphony Fantastique," down to the lengths
of the chapters corresponding to the lengths of the movements. (I
observed that if this was the case, he shouldn't be surprised if
reviewers didn't realize what he was doing, but he said there was a
prefatory note explaining it.) The various books in the "Fairy
Tale" series were recommended; I especially liked the most recent,
_B_r_i_a_r _R_o_s_e by Jane Yolen, and also recommended _S_n_o_w _W_h_i_t_e, _B_l_o_o_d
_R_e_d edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling. While not
THE MT VOID Page 11
officially in the series, it is similarly thematically and has a
similar Tom Canty cover. Also mentioned was _D_r_i_n_k _D_o_w_n _t_h_e _M_o_o_n,
de Lint's sequel to his _J_a_c_k _t_h_e _G_i_a_n_t _K_i_l_l_e_r. Van Gelder
recommended _T_h_e _W_e_l_l-_F_a_v_o_r_e_d _M_a_n by Elizabeth Willey and _T_h_e
_E_l_e_m_e_n_t _o_f _F_i_r_e by Martha Wells. Kaye said that _T_h_e _E_n_e_m_y _W_i_t_h_i_n
in the "Ravenoff" series by Christy Golden was better done than he
generally encounters. De Candido suggested Rosemary Edgehill's
_S_p_e_a_k _D_a_g_g_e_r_s _t_o _H_e_r. (Rosemary Edgehill is also known as Eluki
bes Shahar.) Another recommendation was _T_h_e _G_o_l_d_e_n by Lucius
Shepard.
[End of Part 1]
Mark Leeper
MT 3D-441 908-957-5619
m.r.leeper@att.com
The world is a comedy for those who think and a
tragedy for those who feel.
-- Horace Walpole
THIS PAGE INTENTIONALLY LEFT ALMOST BLANK