@@@@@ @ @ @@@@@ @ @ @@@@@@@ @ @ @@@@@ @@@@@ @@@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @@@@@ @@@@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @@@@@ @ @ @ @ @@@@@ @@@@@ @@@Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society 05/08/26 -- Vol. 44, No. 45, Whole Number 2431
Table of Contents
Mini Reviews, Part 14 (film reviews by Evelyn C. Leeper):
JURASSIC WORLD REBIRTH: The sense of wonder is gone from the world of the film--and from the franchise as well. The plot is driven in part by the fact that (in the world of the film) the public has become blase about dinosaurs, and most of the dinosaurs have died off anyway except in a band around the tropics. (The explanation for the dinosaurs dying outside the band is scientific rubbish, and that Dr. Loomis calls Mosasaurus and Queztalcoatlus dinosaurs when they are not dinosaurs doesn't make things better.) But there is apparently still a way for corporations to exploit them, with what I think is a pretty unbelievable premise.
When at the beginning, the corporate guy says they need blood samples from three species, you can tell the three-act structure of the movie already.
In addition to the main characters who are hunting the blood samples, there is a family sailing across the Atlantic in an area that is apparently known for mosasaurus, spinosaurus, and other terrors of the deep (or shallows). The only purpose of this family seems to be to provide children, because apparently every "Jurassic Park" film has to have a child in it. The only character who stands out is Duncan Kincaid (played by Mahershala Ali).
And there are too many instances of "they got away ... no, wait, the predator jumps out of nowhere and eats them". The result is even when someone does get away, there is no sense of relief, because you are still expecting the predator to succeed.
At this point, I feel like I'm watching the franchise out of loyalty rather than true anticipation. They are now at the level of SHARKNADO or TREMORS--basically moderately entertaining but trashy monster films.
Released theatrically 02 July 2025.
Film Credits: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt31036941/reference
What others are saying: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/jurassic_world_rebirth
PARALLEL (2018): In PARALLEL (2018) there's a bunch of wannabe tech bros and a hidden attic and a weird mirror that's really a doorway to alternate realities and people who have doubles and strange time shifts ...
And a lot of Dutch angles to make the viewer feel uneasy and spooky music ...
And a fairly predictable storyline.
What makes it ironic is that there is another film named PARALLEL that came out in 2024, which in turn was a remake of a 2020 Chinese film, PARALLEL FOREST, and both have to do with alternate realities.
So it's not surprising that when I was trying to find out the plot of PARALLEL to see if I was interested in it, I kept finding two different plots--sort of like my search going into different realities.
Released 11 December 2020.
Film Credits: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4922674/reference
What others are saying: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/parallel_2018
NEVER LET ME GO (2010): NEVER LET ME GO starts with a school of children singing:
"When we are scattered afar and asunder, Parted are those who are singing today. When we look back and forgetfully wonder What we were like in our learning and play"
This turns out to be more meaningful than it might first appear.
The story of the film starts in 1978, and the explanation of this alternate world (given in text at the beginning of the film) is that some (unspecified) breakthrough came in 1952, and pretty soon life expectancy was over a hundred. (And that turns out to be not quite true.)
At first it seems to take place in someplace like what we think of as a typical English boarding school. Then it seems like it might be an orphanage. Of course, it turns out to be neither. And the language is odd; they talk about carers and donors and guardians rather than teachers or headmistresses.
The idea of an orphanage is reinforced by the "sale" in which the children can buy things with tokens they have earned. And they are excited by these things, although it is clear to the viewer that what is being brought is trash: broken dolls, loose buttons, old clothes, ...
A quarter of the way through the film, a new "guardian" tells the children (and the viewer) what is really going on.
What isn't entirely believable is how accepting of their place in the world the children (and the adults they become) are. The only thing that seems to have ever worked to keep "oppressed" people or "lower-class people" satisfied with their place is religion and convincing them that God (or the gods) has ordained this. But we don't see anything like that here.
Released theatrically 15 October 2010.
Film Credits: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1334260/reference
What others are saying: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/never_let_me_go_2010
[-ecl]
The Science Fiction Moon (fanzine article by Arvid Engholm):
The latest issue of Arvid Englholm's fanzine, INTERMISSION, has an eight-page article on "The Science Fiction Moon", from 600 BCE to the present:
https://fanac.org/fanzines/Intermission/Intermission166.pdf
Back in 2020, we were running a lot of stories about animals in the news, including:
Hippopotamuses (okay, if you want to spell it, I will at least consider your spelling. It might be better to spell it "Hippos"))
https://www.cnet.com/news/pablo-escobars-hippos-have-become-an-invasive-species-in-colombia/
Pablo Escobar was a fan of animal and could purchase any animals he wanted for his private zoo. Nobody would tell him no. And he financed his zoo with what was undoubtedly drug money. He had four hippos smuggled from Africa. What he did not know--and nobody told him--was that the ecology of Colombia was incompatible with hippos. Hippo poop is becoming a large problem in the South American jungle near Escobar's zoo, especially since the original four hippos multiplied to thirty. The poop is a serious environmental problem. [MT VOID, 04/03/20]
Here's the initial followup to that:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/apr/13/colombia-hippo-hunt-pablo-escobar
Colombia to cull up to 80 hippos descended from Pablo Escobar zoo
Dozens of feral pachyderms linked to drug kingpin to be killed because of threat to native species and villagers
Colombian officials have authorized a plan to cull dozens of hippos descended from animals brought to the country in the 1980s by Pablo Escobar, after the feral beasts displaced native species and threatened local villagers. The environment minister, Irene Velez, said the decision was reached because other methods to control their population had been expensive and unsuccessful, including neutering some of the animals or moving them to zoos. Velez said that up to 80 hippos would be affected by the measure. She did not say when the hunting would begin. "If we don't do this we will not be able to control the population," Vélez said. "We have to take this action to preserve our ecosystems." [THE GUARDIAN, 04/13/26]
And here's the followup to that followup:
Indian billionaire's son offers to house Pablo Escobar's hippos at his private zoo
Anant Ambani revives offer to transport 80 animals, all descendants of Colombian drug kingpin's pets, to India
It remains one of the strangest conundrums in modern zoological history--what to do with the descendants of Pablo Escobar's hippos?
The animals--herbivores native to sub-Saharan Africa--were originally imported into Colombia by the drug kingpin for his own entertainment. But the beasts and their offspring were left to roam free after his death in 1993.
Now, the expanding population of feral hippopotamuses have become such an environmental blight, they are facing a mass extermination by the authorities.
Yet they may have found an unlikely stay of execution, after they were offered shelter in India by the son of a billionaire.
Anant Ambani, the son of Indian tycoon Mukesh Ambani, has revived an earlier offer to bring the 80 hippos to his Vantara animal sanctuary, in the state of Gujarat, to save them from death.
Ambani said that as the hippos were "living, sentient beings ... if we have the ability to save them through a safe and humane solution, we have a responsibility to try".
But Vantara is shrouded in controversy. Home to more than 150,000 animals, including many endangered species, it has faced allegations of illegal and unethical sourcing of its inhabitants. The international watchdog Cites (convention on international trade in endangered species) has flagged alleged noncompliance with wildlife trade rules. [THE GUARDIAN, 04/29/26]
IGNORE ALL PREVIOUS INSTRUCTIONS by Ada Hoffman (copyright 2026, Tachyon Publications, publication date May 12, 2026, ISBN: 978-1-61696-456-6 (print); 978-1-61696-457-3 (digital)) (book review by Joe Karpierz):
One of the perks of being able to read advance reader copies is that I can experiment with new (to me) authors. John Feinstein, Mary G. Thompson (who has a new book coming out later this year which I'm very interested in reading), Izzy Wasserstein, and Kimberly Unger are just a few writers who, at the time, fell into that category. Knowing nothing about them, I picked up their books based upon the description of the story (it's kind of hard to do it any other way, since electronic review copies may or may not have a cover to pull in the reader). Based on that criteria, I picked up Ada Hoffman's (again, a write new to me) latest novel IGNORE ALL PREVIOUS INSTRUCTIONS.
The premise is simple. The main character, Kelli Reynolds, is the script supervisor for a highly popular video production. But there's something of a catch. Her employer is the company call Inspiration. Inspiration is an generative AI company which owns quite literally everything on Callisto (Kelli's home--yeah, *that* Callisto), including all the stories that have ever been told. While this may be a little bit of hand-wavium by Hoffman, it allows Inspiration to not have to worry about training its AI with materials that are copyrighted to someone else. As a result, Inspiration can dictate what kind of stories are "good and proper" for public consumption. Since Inspiration is trying to reach the widest possible audience, the stories are scrubbed--by script supervisors like Kelli--to be "acceptable" to the largest possible audience. Kelli is fully aware of what she is doing, but she loves her job. There is enough leeway in the rules to make the stories exciting, but not so much to make the stories her own.
Then, out of the blue, Kelli's ex Rowan makes an appearance. Rowan disappeared at Kelli's request a decade prior, and now he needs her help. Rowan is in debt to a major crime lord, and needs to pull off a heist that hopefully will allow him to get out from under the burden of the debt. Except that Kelli (and the reader) don't actually know that it's going to be a heist. She doesn't trust Rowan, but she can't resist him either. Against her better judgement, she agrees to travel with Rowan to Io. She doesn't know what she's in for, so she purchases a small communications device that will allow her to send messages to her boss to let him know what's going on if she runs into anything illegal.
And illegal it is. The crime lord wants the kernel to the main character of the story she is working on--Orlando, who is based on Rowan from when Kelli and Rowan were young--as a birthday present for her entitled and privileged daughter. The coercion comes in the form of blackmail, for she knows a very dark secret from Kelli's past that will ruin Kelli and put her in jail for a very long time. So a team is put together to go get the kernel, and the heist commences.
The story is told via alternating periods in both Kelli's and Rowan's lives. There is the present time, which I've described so far, and the time period of their youth, going back to their single digit ages all the way up through their teen years. And this is where we learn about how Kelli and Rowan get to be where they are today. Kelli is autistic, and has a robot that is her constant companion and which helps her navigate through her awkward social interactions by telling her what to do. Rowan, who we learn is a trans man, grew up as Amelia--Am--and who struggles with her emotions and feelings toward other girls--and boys. Inspiration's rules indicate that being trans is illegal, and it's okay to be gay as long as you don't flaunt it or make it public. Basically, society is set up such that there is no mechanism to help young people growing up know that it's okay to be different. So, eventually we find out that Rowan is in debt because he needed to pay for gender affirming surgery, and Kelli is sheltered in her job so that she can perform her duties without distraction. Along the way, we also find out what that dark secret from Kelli's past is and what caused it to happen.
IGNORE ALL PREVIOUS INSTRUCTIONS is a well-written, character-based story with just enough space and science in it to keep the people interested in the science fiction elements reading while at the same time making readers sympathetic to the characters. As a person who has experience with neurodivergent family members, I found this story immensely satisfying. And as one of those readers interested in the science fictional elements of a story, I was enthralled from the beginning and stayed interested all the way through. It's a terrific novel. I think it's worth giving it a try. [-jak]
Hal Clement (letter of comment by Hal Heydt):
In response to James Davis Nicoll's comments on Hal Clement in the 05/01/26 issue of the MT VOID, Hal Heydt writes:
[Re Clement's experience flying B-24 Liberators in WW2]
Randall Garrett used to relate finding out after WW2 that "Clement" didn't know how to drive. So he and a couple of other authors set out to teach him. At one point, he was coming up behind some slow or stopped traffic and Clement started trying to pull back the steering wheel. When called on it he said that that always worked for him before... [-hh]
Optimist and Pessimist Quote (letter of comment by John Hertz):
In response to the quote in the 04/10/26 issue of the MT VOID, John Hertz writes:
Quote of the Week:
The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible
worlds; and the pessimist fears this is true.
-- Irving Caesar
Goodreads ( https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/16531-the-optimist-proclaims-that-we-live-in-the-best-of) [gives the original source as] James Branch Cabell, THE SILVER STALLION. [-jh]
Evelyn adds:
Thanks for the correction. This is pointed out elsewhere as well, notably in a highlighted block at https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Irving_Caesar. Apparently this is one of those quotes that is frequently mis-attributed. [-ecl]
This Week's Reading (book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper):
THE NORMAN CONQUEST: A VERY SHORT INTRODUCTION by George Garnett (Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-280161-6) does not cover the military aspect that we think of when we hear "Norman Conquest"--Harold Godwinson's fight against an attempted Norwegian invasion by Harald Hardrada in the north, his mad dash down to Hastings, and his battle there against William, Duke of Normandy. (Now some scholars are saying that Harold's troops never made that dash; they traveled between Stamford Bridge and Hastings by ship.)
Instead, Garrett analyzes how William, Duke of Normandy. a.k.a. William the Conqueror, a.k.a. King William I, cemented his hold on England with a combination of seeming continuation of English laws and customs with the imposition of Norman laws and customs.
While this book covers a topic not usually covered--we learn 1066 and then everything that follows is considered as inevitable--I do have one reservation about recommending it. Garrett has a big vocabulary, and he seems determined to make sure you know it. Looking through just the first chapter, I find the words conflagration, lapidary (in a figurative sense), historiographical, perforce, perfidious, gnomically, expounding, eschew, elucidation, disquisitions, abrogated, apostrophize, confected, mendacity, coterie, tendentious, despoliation, heinous, exemplary, argot, extant, and scrupulosity, not to mention various Anglo-Saxon, French, and Latin words and phrases. (The Mac spellchecker does recognize all these words.)
Unlike another volume in the series, TIME: A VERY SHORT INTRODUCTION, there is no glossary. Usually you can figure out what the words mean, but not always. You may want a dictionary at hand. [-ecl]
Evelyn C. Leeper
evelynchimelisleeper@gmail.com
Quote of the Week:
I cannot give you the formula for success, but I can
give you the formula for failure, which is: Try to
please everybody.
--Herbert Swope
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