@@@@@ @ @ @@@@@ @ @ @@@@@@@ @ @ @@@@@ @@@@@ @@@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @@@@@ @@@@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @@@@@ @ @ @ @ @@@@@ @@@@@ @@@Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society 03/20/26 -- Vol. 44, No. 38, Whole Number 2424
Table of Contents
Mini Reviews, Part 11 (film reviews by Evelyn C. Leeper):
Three more of Mark's neglected gems:
TO THE DEVIL A DAUGHTER (1976): TO THE DEVIL A DAUGHTER seems in some ways a sequel to THE DEVIL RIDES OUT in that both were based on novels written by Dennis Wheatley, but THE DEVIL RIDES OUT was in his best-known series with the Duke de Richleau, while TO THE DEVIL A DAUGHTER was in his lesser two-book Colonel Verney series, involving anti-Communist themes. Mark wrote, "The low ethics of the hero and the idealism of the villain make this an unusual film. Denholm Elliot deserves mention for his good acting too." While this is true, there are also script problems, confusion as to timelines, and some fairly bad special effects, and the film is not helped by its comparison with the far superior THE DEVIL RIDES OUT.
Wheatley had a couple of other horror novels made into films: THE HAUNTING OF TOBY JUGG (made into THE HAUNTED AIRMAN) and UNCHARTED SEAS (made into Hammer Studio's THE LOST CONTINENT (1968)). I have not seen the former; the latter involves a lost colony of Spanish conquistadores trapped in the Sargasso Sea; there are also sea monsters. It is not a great film, but it is the sort of trashy entertainment one wants sometimes.
Released theatrically 30 July 1976.
Film Credits: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075334/reference
What others are saying: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/to_the_devil_a_daughter
THE LAST WAVE (1977): THE LAST WAVE was hailed at the time as a ground-breaking film in depicting indigenous Australians. Over the years, its luster has dimmed, though, with the lawyer being seen as too much of a "white savior" and the Aboriginal people as being at least somewhat used for horror and shock value. (For example, when someone suddenly appears such that the audience jumps, it is always an Aboriginal person, never someone white.)
(I will note that the language--using "aborigine" as a noun--in the film even by the "good" characters was common at the time, but is now considered offensive. Needless to say, the language used by the racists ("abo") is even more so.)
Technically, the film is stunning, both in sound design and in visuals. Weir knows how to use sound to send a message: early on, we see two Aboriginal people in a confrontation, and over the end of the scene we hear rhythmic drumming, which we assume is Aboriginal in nature. But what we are hearing, when the visuals for the next scene appear, is the sound of a bodhran, or Irish hand drum, at a ceilidh in a pub. Our notions of what is "Western" and what is "primitive" are jolted.
It is interesting that when Burton is given a home-grown pepper by the parking garage attendant, he says that he has never seen a yellow pepper before. Now, of course, they're all over the place.
Released theatrically 18 January 1979.
Film Credits: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076299/reference
What others are saying: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/last_wave
DRAGONSLAYER (1981): I know Mark thought DRAGONSLAYER was a great film; I didn't feel that way even back in 1981, and I don't think it has improved with age. Yes, it had Ralph Richardson as the wizard, but for only a short period of time. Peter MacNicol is a total non-entity (Mark claimed that might have been the point, but I'm not convinced). Valerian is unconvincing; surely someone would have guessed the truth. Elspeth's reaction to the truth about the lottery can best be described as a very unlikely overreaction. Neither Galen nor Valerian think of the obvious way to save Valerian.
I will admit that the dragon is impressive, or was for the time. But the rest of it is, frankly, tedious.
Released theatrically 26 June 1981.
Film Credits: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082288/reference
What others are saying: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/dragonslayer
[-ecl]
Ray Harryhausen Films, Part 06 (film comments by Evelyn C. Leeper):
SINBAD AND THE EYE OF THE TIGER (1977): Harryhausen has done three Sinbad movies, with three different actors as Sinbad, and the fidelity to the historical Baghdad (and to Islam) has decreased each time. In this film, Princess Farah is wearing barely enough for modesty by 1977 Western standards, let alone 11th century Baghdad. And there are references to wine-drinking.
Once again, Sinbad fights what are effectively skeletons-- creatures whose bones show underneath their skin. The Minoton is basically a variation of Talos. The baboon at least had a reasonable-looking head, and the fur is passable, if a bit coarse. And there are probably more different types of creatures animated in this than in any previous film. (For example, in THE VALLEY OF GWANGI, he animates seven creatures, but three are dinosaurs, and one a pteranodon.)
But the rear projection is awful, the statues in the temple initially look like they're encased in those stiff clear plastic bags, and on the whole this seems to signal a decline. (Also, having the walrus fight at night in a snowstorm makes it look as though they're trying to hide something.) And no ancestors of humans had single horns coming out of their foreheads. SINBAD AND THE EYE OF THE TIGER was not served well by being released in August 1977, while the theaters were still packing them in for a little science fiction special effects film called STAR WARS. (Harryhausen was the Guest of Honor at the Detroit Triple Fan Fair
May 28-30, 1977; STAR WARS opened on May 25. I can remember beforehand really looking forward to seeing an advance showing of SINBAD AND THE EYE OF THE TIGER, but after I saw STAR WARS a couple of days earlier, it was clear to me that there was a new ballgame.)
Released theatrically 12 August 1977.
Film Credits: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076716/reference
What others are saying: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/sinbad_and_the_eye_of_the_tiger
CLASH OF THE TITANS (1981): This was the only Harryhausen film to get a PG rating (rather than a G, or before that an "Approved"). The nudity may have been part of it: a bare female breast, and full "backal" nudity of a woman and a boy. (For what it's worth, the 1978 SUPERMAN also had a PG rating, and it had full frontal male nudity.)
This is also the only Harryhausen film that has been remade, in part because the basic story of Perseus and Andromeda is in public domain. (There was a 2000 JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS, but it was a totally different plot than the Harryhausen version.)
Harry Hamlin is totally unengaging as the hero Perseus, and in general the story is the weakest of all of Harryhausen's films (in my opinion), serving merely as a framework on which to hang the special effects. Several prestigious stars were hired for small parts to give the film more drawing power; these included Laurence Olivier, Maggie Smith, Ursula Andress, and Claire Bloom).
Again, as in SINBAD AND THE EYE OF THE TIGER, most of the animations are variations on animations in earlier movies. The Gorgon's hair is a smaller version of the hydra, the Kraken is not unlike the Ymir, Calibos is basically the troglodyte, and so on. (Calibos is only partially animated, in the sense that when we see close-ups of his head, he is played by an actor, but when we see his full body, he is animated with stop-motion.) This "re-use" would be fine in the service of a great underlying story with actors who drew you in, but unfortunately that is not the case.
Harryhausen made a final appearance in the 1998 remake of MIGHTY JOE YOUNG--quite appropriately, as he reportedly did the vast majority of the animation work in the original 1949 version. But he appears as an actor, and was not involved on the technical side.
Released theatrically 12 June 1981.
Film Credits: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082186/reference
What others are saying: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/clash_of_the_titans
So there you have it--random comments on all of the Harryhausen-Schneer collaborations. I think there is no argument that the best of these are JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS and THE 7TH VOYAGE OF SINBAD, with 20 MILLION MILES TO EARTH and THE VALLEY OF GWANGI following. [-ecl]
THE FAITH OF BEASTS by James S. A. Corey (copyright 2026, Orbit, publication date April 2026, $32.00, hardcover, 560pp, ISBN: 9780316525671) (book review by Joe Karpierz):
THE FAITH OF BEASTS, by James S.A. Corey, is a sequel to 2024's THE MERCY OF GODS, and is the second book in the "Captive's War" trilogy. The story is of a set of humans and other species captured by the Carryx, an alien race participating in an endless war against an unknown enemy. The captives are put to use by the Carryx to help them carry out their war of destruction and conquest, although, to be fair, it's not clear who the real enemy is and why the war is being fought in the first place--well, except, that the Carryx live to be at war. That's about all we know. There's nothing worse than an enemy that you know nothing about that is coming after you for no discernible reason with a ferocity and relentlessness that is unmatched anywhere in the galaxy.
And, with all that, Corey throws us a curveball. Oh sure, THE FAITH OF BEASTS expands on the war against the "deathless enemy", explores the Swarm and its importance, and continues the story of the human captives from THE MERCY OF GODS. But it is so much more than that. It is an exploration of the motives of the Swarm, the survival of the humans, and the deception that comes with attempting to foment a rebellion without letting the captors know that there is a rebellion going on. And while this might seem to be more than a bit obvious, it's much more insidious when the person leading the rebellion is also the person that is now taking point for the Carryx in the human moiety. Dafyd Alkhor, who was pretty much a nobody in his original position with the humans on Anjiin has found himself in charge of the human moiety, taking orders from the Carryx while at the same time earning the trust of the humans he must lead and command to do what the Carryx want. Meanwhile, he must work with the Swarm, who we learn not only inhabit a person's body, but as that Swarm entity moves from body to body it brings along the minds of the other bodies it has inhabited, thus creating a sort of group mind all within one person. And wouldn't you know it, one of the bodies the Swarm has inhabited is Dafyd's dead lover. So there's that.
Dafyd really is caught between a rock and a hard place. The Carryx have charged him with stopping at nothing to get the most out of the human moiety, and thus in order not to blow his cover he must employ tactics that disturb and disgust him, whether he wants to or not. The scene in which he stops a labor walkout show Dafyd at his conflicted finest, knowing that the method he is employing is one that will prove to the Carryx that he is loyal and capable of doing his job, while at the same time allowing him to hide the fact that he is trying to overthrow the Carryx. After a confrontation with another one of the humans, Dafyd is assigned a, oh, I guess a hall monitor, if you will, and a set of creatures who are there to actually do the dirty work if Dafyd is threatened. Through these and other creatures, he learns that there appears to be another rebellion in the works within those creatures. Plots within plots within plots.
To be sure, Dafyd is not the only character (or characters) we learn about as we go through the novel. There is a small group of humans on a planet some of the captives have been taken to to aid the Carryx in some work they need to be done, and this group is believed to be part of the grand plan to overthrow the Carryx. Not to be left out, we begin to learn something about the history and civilization of the Carryx, and how the structure of their society is maintained down through time.
I'm not sure that the plot of "The Captive's War" is significantly advanced in the pages of the THE FAITH OF BEASTS. In that respect, I think, it is a classic second book in a trilogy. The author needs to move the pieces around the chessboard to get them where he needs them to be to be able to tell the grand completion of the entire story arc. I don't, however, think it will be the "bad" or "worst" book in the trilogy as so many second books end up being. This is a pause, a setup, an investigation of characters and their motives, the results of which will, I suspect, lead us to the grand conclusion of the story.
It is a rare thing when it's hard to make out where the story is going. In "The Captive's War", the reader probably believes that the events of the story will end up with the humans being victorious. I'm not sure that's necessarily the case. But if it is, the joy will be in discovering how that happens. As it stands right now, it's not clear to me whether the humans will come out on top. And that's kind of the fun of it all, isn't it? I'm very interested in hanging around to find out the resolution. You should be too. [-jak]
Artemis 2 and More (comments by Gregory Frederick):
NASA's Artemis 2 SLS rocket is still targeting April 1 for the launch to the Moon. The culprit this time can be traced to an electrical harness for the flight termination system in need of a quick replacement. The work on said harness is already complete. And the rocket will be rolled back to the launch site soon.
NASA has some new improvements for future SLS rockets after the Artemis 3 launch. These improvements should lower costs and could allow NASA to have launches every ten months to the Moon increasing its cadence and reliability. This will be needed to eventually establish a Moon base. The current upper stage called the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (ICPS) will be replaced with a proven and reliable Centaur 5 upper stage. This was a good move since the ICPS is not being built anymore and the Centaur 5 is a reliable upper stage in use today on other rockets. They had planned to develop a totally new upper stage called the Exploration Upper Stage (EUS) to be built by Boeing. The EUS was facing delays and cost overruns in its development since it was a totally new design.
There were also plans to make major changes to the overall rocket design but now NASA will be keeping intact the current Block 1 design so that more frequent missions can occur. Major SLS rockets changes would create more opportunities for delays and failures of equipment on the pad. The Centaur 5 uses the same type of fuel as the SLS main booster stage making fueling the stages easier. Additionally, there is talk about making the Orion spacecraft reusable. Also, there are discussions about using Space X's Falcon heavy or the Starship to launch Orion to the Moon in future missions. I have included a link for a video about the improvements below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HluIqcwGzok
[-gf]
MOULIN ROUGE (1952) (letters of comment by Paul Dormer and Gary McGath):
In response to Evelyn's comments on MOULIN ROUGE (1952) in the 03/13/26 issue of the MT VOID, Paul Dormer writes:
I have a CD of the film music of Georges Auric, one of the group of composers known as Les Six. He also wrote the music for Cocteau's ORPHEE and that great film about post-war London, PASSPORT TO PIMLICO. [-pd]
And in a followup:
And, in case it wasn't obvious, it was Auric who wrote the music for that film. The song "It's April again" from that film became a hit with the words "Where is your Heart". [-pd]
Gary McGath asks:
Not Georges Ventric? [-gmg]
Gravity (letter of comment by Peter Trei, Paul Dormer, Hal Heydt, and an anonymous reader):
In response to various comments on gravity in the 03/13/26 issue of the MT VOID, Peter Trei writes:
[Keith F. Lynch wrote,] "To his dying day Hal Clement was apologizing for getting the shape of Mesklin wrong. But I'm not sure that he was wrong, or whether he was just implicitly using an unlikely model for its internal structure."
I think Keith is correct here.
For gravity inside the Earth, the density of different parts--mantle, core etc does make a difference. A graph showing the expected gravity level at different depths can be found at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravity_of_Earth#Depth and indeed, it's flat through the mantle, rising slightly as you approach the outer core, then falling near-linerally to zero at the center.
The nearest actual object to Mesklin I'm aware of is the Kuiper Belt object Haumea. It's a flattened (American) football shape, 2100 x 1680 x 1074 km, and rotates in a bit under 4 hours.
Gravity varies from 0.93 m/s^2 at the poles, to 0.24 m/s^2 at the longest axis--nearly a factor of 4.
Earth's gravity also varies, with it being generally lower near the equator than at the poles. It's about 1% lower in Mexico City, compared to Anchorage. [-pt]
Paul Dormer responds:
OK, my maths is not good enough to do the calculations.
I am reminded of a letter appearing the paper a few years ago. A student had just done a maths paper and a physics paper. She found it amusing that one gave the gravitational constant as 9.8 and the other as 9.81. I was not the only person writing in to tell her that the acceleration due to gravity is not the same as the gravitational constant, and that the former does vary as you move around the earth's surface. [-pd]
An anonymous reader adds:
And be sure to read the hover text. [-?]
Hal Heydt continues the discussion:
As I understand it, during the Alaska gold rush, there was much alarm that gold shipped from Alaska to San Francisco was "missing" some of the shipment. It was finally determined that the difference was due the difference in gravity, as they were measuring *weight* not *mass*. [-hh]
This Week's Reading (book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper):
Last year I wrote that the Bryn Mawr book sale was a shadow of its former self. This seems to be a permanent change. Partially it is due to the prevalence of book dealers, who apparently bought about a quarter of the books on the first day (when there is a $35 admission charge). This, combined with fewer donations, means on the second day (first public day), there are empty areas on the tables, and no boxes underneath waiting for space.
Why fewer donations? My only guess is that there was a period when people were getting rid of books (and DVDs) and that fueled a peak period, but that has passed.
Anyway, as was true last year, this year I ended up with very little. I bought two Teaching Company/Great Courses courses ("London" and "The Long 19th Century"). There were a few others, but not in categories that interested me, or that I had already seen (e.g., "Chaos", "Economics"). Someone else had already picked up a couple: in any case, there were only a dozen or so.
I also got the first two seasons of "Rumpole of the Bailey" and the third season of "Sherlock" (which I had only on VHS taped from television).
I did buy two books, or rather, three. One was two lectures by Galileo on Dante's "Inferno"--and if that wasn't peculiar enough, it was in Spanish. Yes, I know that in Spain that would not be peculiar, but here, it passes for unusual.
They also had a set of biographies of famous mathematicians, including Evariste Galois (Mark's favorite mathematician). I didn't buy this for two reasons. First, Mark isn't around to read it, and second, he didn't read Spanish.
But I did buy "A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Spanish Language with Families of Words Based on Indo-European Roots" by Edwin A. Roberts, in two volumes (hence why the question is whether I bought two books or three--do I count physical or logical books?). Each one of these is two inches inches thick, and the set weighs five and a half pounds.
That I found this was a bit of a miracle. Early on, I saw the first volume in the "Languages and Linguistics" section in one room, but didn't want just part of the work. Then about an hour later, I saw the second volume in the "Other History" section in a completely different room! I have no idea how they got separated in the first place.
So I ended up spending $17 ($6 for the set, $2 for "Rumpole", $1 each for Galileo and "Sherlock", and $7 for the two Great Courses). I can remember back in the day we would spend $40 or $50 at this sale, and leave with two bags of books. That was when books were $2 for hardbacks, and $1 for paperbacks. Now hardbacks are $4 each, large paperbacks (trade paperbacks) $3, and small paperbacks $1 (basically mass-market paperbacks, though the signs incorrectly call them "trade" paperbacks--with the quotation marks!).
I say basically mass-market paperbacks, because the Galileo counted as a small paperback because of its size, even though it is not mass-market in the sense of being "strippable".
Of course, back in the day we were busy acquiring books. Now I am in the process of down-sizing the books (and DVDs, and pretty much everything else), so I am not looking for books to "enhance the collection" (one of Mark's favorite phrases). I also passed up Norton editions of several classics, because I was not interested in the actual classics. I have no interest in re-reading and reading about JUDE THE OBSCURE; all I remember of it is that Jude wants to learn Latin, but is totally disheartened when he discovered that there is no formula to translate a word from English to Latin (unlike from English to "Pig Latin").
After a couple of hours at the sale, I proceeded to the second part of my "Bryn Mawr Sale Day" ritual; I went to Afghan Kabob and Grill in North Brunswick, where I had their terrific (and reasonably priced) lamb kabobs, with delicious spice-infused rice, flatbread, and salad. With a can of soda and tip, it came to $21--more than the books, but cheap for lamb.
And then home. [-ecl]
Evelyn C. Leeper
evelynchimelisleeper@gmail.com
Quote of the Week:
How else can one threaten, other than with death?
The interesting, the original thing, would be to
threaten someone with immortality.
--Jorge Luis Borges
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