@@@@@ @ @ @@@@@ @ @ @@@@@@@ @ @ @@@@@ @@@@@ @@@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @@@@@ @@@@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @@@@@ @ @ @ @ @@@@@ @@@@@ @@@Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society 11/21/25 -- Vol. 44, No. 21, Whole Number 2407
Table of Contents
I have dropped my landline and people who want to call or text me should use my cellphone number, which I am not going to put here (since the MT VOID gets posted and archived all over the place, and I don't want to get the quantity of junk calls my landline was getting). If you want/need it and don't have it already, email me for it. [-ecl]
Mini Reviews, Part 28 (film reviews by Evelyn C. Leeper):
THE BIG SLEEP (1946):
You can see the effects of the production code on this version--or rather not see them. Carmen is fully dressed when Geiger is taking his photos (which kind of defeats the purpose of the photos), and there are no hypodermic needles lying around. (She doesn't show up in Marlowe's bed either.) All references to homosexuality are removed, and the pornographic book business is merely hinted at. The older Sternwood daughter had not married Regan, leaving his position in the story a bit vague.
There are actually two extant versions of this film. The original cut (a.k.a. pre-release cut) (1945) was released in 1997. By the time it was finished, TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT, also with Bogart and Bacall, had been released and they were a dynamite hit, so the studio decided to add more of Bacall (including the musical number), which also meant some other scenes were cut to maintain a reasonable running time for the era. In the process the scenes with Mona Mars were deleted, but a new scene added with a different actress because the first was unavailable, and some scenes were overdubbed to account for changes elsewhere.
Released theatrically 31 August 1946.
Film Credits: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0038355/reference
What others are saying: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1002352-big_sleep
THE BIG SLEEP (1978): This version is in general more accurate to the novel, except ... Except that they moved the whole thing to London for some reason. And then they made Marlowe and the Sternwoods all Americans living in England anyway. What was the point of all that?
In this version Camilla (Carmen, but if she's American, why rename her with a more British name?) is naked, and there is plenty of drug paraphernalia lying around. Lundgren (Karl here, not Carol, probably because Carol is now considered exclusively a woman's name) is clearly in a gay relationship with Geiger, and the pornographic book business is explicitly shown. (Rounding out the name changes, Vivian is now Charlotte,) And the ending is changed.
But a lot more is preserved from the novel than in the earlier version, and less was added.
Released theatrically 13 March 1978.
Film Credits: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077234/reference
What others are saying: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1002353-big_sleep
[-ecl]
THE DOWNLOADED 2: GHOSTS IN THE MACHINE by Robert J. Sawyer (copyright 2025, an Audible Original, 7 hours and 16 minutes, ASIN: B0FNRXX13N, narrated by Brendan Fraser, Vanessa Sears, Lior Maharjan, and Cerise Handspiker) (audio book review by Joe Karpierz)
Robert J. Sawyer has been around a while. His first novel, GOLDEN FLEECE, was published in 1990. In the intervening thirty five years Sawyer has explored a wide range of subjects, such as consciousness, the relationship between science and religion, morality, genetics, quantum physics, psychology, parallel universes, sentience in a computer (there's probably a better way of saying that, but I digress), and a whole list of other things. His 26th and latest book, THE DOWNLOADED 2: GHOSTS IN THE MACHINE, continues and adds on to the story begun in 2023's Audible Original THE DOWNLOADED. We'll get to the narration in a bit, but let's start with the story.
When last we left our protagonists--Letitia Garvey, leader of the first group of humans that would explore interstellar space; and Roscoe Koudoulian, ex-convict and now mayor of the town of Waterloo-- there was a bit of a problem. An asteroid was on a collision course with Earth. With the aid of the Martians, Garvey's crew would still head on out to interstellar space, and the townspeople of Waterloo would be relocated to Mars. All well and good.
As these things go, however, all was not to be well and good for very long. While searching for a missing child just hours before departure to Mars, tragedy struck Roscoe, resulting in him having to be uploaded. And that's where things go awry. Back in their cryogenic silos, both groups of people (those going on the interstellar voyage and those going to Mars) encounter digital duplicates of themselves, which because of the nature of the quantum computers that house the consciousnesses are a danger to all those uploaded individuals. So, it's a race to not only determine a solution for dealing with the duplicates, but to implement that solution as well.
Anyone who has read any number of Sawyer's novels knows that there's always more than one plot thread in his novels, and it's always more involved and thought-provoking than what appears to be the main storyline. THE DOWNLOADED 2 is no different, and this is where the subtitle GHOSTS IN THE MACHINE comes in. To be fair, the digital duplicates are the ghosts in the machine, but the relationships between the originals and ghosts is what gives this novel its meat and heft. While I don't want to give away anything about the interactions between the characters and their duplicates (and while that doesn't quite cover the all the situations, I'll just leave it that way) I think it's probably no great surprise that the most interesting and involved story involves Roscoe.
As with his other novels, Sawyer does not disappoint when it comes to scientific and technical accuracy, morality, character relationships, and inclusivity. The transgender character from the THE DOWNLOADED, Valentina, plays a prominent role in the story, and I expect and hope that will continue if there is a DOWNLOADED 3 (which I also hope will happen because the story is not quite finished yet. This novel is also about family and its importance, no matter who that family is and how they manifest themself (there, that ought to pique your interest). Not only isthe book well written, it is tightly plotted with no waste or padding. All of which is to say that THE DOWNLOADED 2: GHOSTS IN THE MACHINE is yet another terrific entry in Sawyer's catalogue. He continues to turn out excellent books that play with your emotions and make you think about the implications of everything you've read.
THE DOWNLOADED 2: GHOSTS IN THE MACHINE is, like its predecessor (although I might point out there was a print edition of that book published, as there will be of this one), an Audible Original, and to my delight the cast from the first book returned for this one. That means Brendan Fraser is back as Roscoe, and Vanessa Sears is back as Letitia. Not only does that provide continuity from one book to the next, it allows us to hear their excellent narration (as well as other actors') all over again. The full cast audio narration of this book is outstanding, and I hope that if there is a DOWNLOADED 3 the cast will return.
This is a fantastic book all the way around. If I have a gripe, is that it's too short (which means, of course, that I'm potentially contradicting what I said earlier about no waste or padding). One way or another, this novel is well worth your time, from both story and narration standpoints. [-jak]
Codes of Conduct (and Internet Searches) (comments by Evelyn C. Leeper):
I asked Duck.ai, "What was the first World Science Fiction Convention to have an official code of conduct?" and it gave me a bunch of information about the first World Science Fiction Convention in 1939, and completely ignored the part about a code of conduct.
But asking it, "When did World Science Fiction Conventions start having an official code of conduct?" did give me better information, but it still interpreted this as science fiction conventions throughout the world.
"When did Worldcon start having an official code of conduct?" actually got me an answer. Or rather two answers. The first block of text said, "Worldcon began implementing an official code of conduct in 2015", while if you asked for more, it said, "Worldcon, the World Science Fiction Convention, began implementing an official Code of Conduct in 2011."
Google's AI did better, giving me a precise answer to the first question. Of course, it differed from what Duck.ai told me (Google said 2017, Duck said 2015). And one of the following links turned up this from the 1955 Worldcon:
"The Convention Committee reserves the right to revoke the membership and its attendant privileges of any person or persons who conduct themselves in such a way as to reflect unfavorably or to bring discredit to the Convention."
That is arguably the first Code of Conduct found, though not labeled as such. For what it's worth, Duck.ai is in one sense more correct: the 2015 Worldcon did have a Code of Conduct, so the 2017 Worldcon was not the first. I cannot find one for the 2011 Worldcon.
All of which indicates that phraseology is important, but getting the correct answer can only be approached asymtotically.
And that Codes of Conduct expand to fill the space available. The 1955 Worldcon Code of Conduct is 37 words. Philcon 2025's Code of Conduct is 873 words. LACon's is 1573 words. [-ecl]
Blue Origin (comments by Gregory Frederick):
Blue Origin's latest rocket could get us to the Moon before China.
Blue Origin had a very successful launch of their New Glenn rocket. It is a very large rocket; larger than SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket, and it is reusable. It could launch a Blue Origin lunar lander to orbit the Moon for NASA's Orion space ship to rendezvous with at the Moon while it orbits the Moon. The lander would be boarded by NASA astronauts who would then land on the Moon with it. See details at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyi1V4oMDHc
[-gf]
Seconday Characters (letter of comment by Gary McGath):
In response to Evelyn's comments on secondary characters being more interesting than the main characters in the 11/14/25 issue of the MT VOID, Gary McGath writes:
The main characters listed here [Kirk, Solo, Sheridan, Delenn, Londo] are all leaders. That gives them fewer options than their subordinates. Leaders can turn rebel (Sheridan certainly does), but more often the leader gives stability to the story while the others can play more against the norm.
However, I would dispute Londo's being less interesting than Vir. [-gmg]
QUEST FOR LOVE (letter of comment by Paul Dormer):
In response to Evelyn's comments on QUEST FOR LOVE in the 11/14/25 issue of the MT VOID, Paul Dormer writes:
I first came across the Wyndham story in the BBC anthology series OUT OF THE UNKNOWN in 1969. There was also a BBC version in 2006.
There was one interesting change to the original story in QUEST FOR LOVE. In the story, it turns out that Ottilie was actually the daughter of a racing driver killed before the war and her mother married another man whilst pregnant and therefore Ottilie had the surname of the husband, and the pregnancy out of wedlock was not known. Similarly, in the first BBC version, the father was an RAF pilot killed in the war, again a new husband. In the film, Ottilie survived an air raid as a new born and was assumed to be the child of another family that was wiped out. No suggestion of illegitimacy. [-pd]
This Week's Reading (book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper):
I am catching up on Christopher Priest's works, which is trickier than it sounds. Most of his later works were published only in Great Britain, or only in small press editions, or both. And reviews of his work were not featured in a lot of mainstream publications, nor did he show up on podcasts and such, promoting his latest book. So basically one had to remember to keep checking the ISFDb to see if he had a new book since you last checked, and then you had to find it. These days that is not necessarily difficult, but often the books, or the shipping, or both, are expensive. I have the same issues with works by Jeffrey E. Barlough, and Baoshu. And the problem with the latter is that a lot of what he writes is short fiction in hard-to-find periodicals or anthologies. But I digress.
EXPECT ME TOMORROW by Christopher Priest (Gollancz, ISBN 978-11-4732-3514-4) was published in 2023, and is part of that subgenre sometimes called (for better or worse) "cli-fi"--"climate fiction", or science fiction set in the future during or after serious climatic disruption. For some reason, prehistoric fiction set in an Ice Age, or space fiction set on a harsh planet (I'm looking at you, SPACE PRISON), isn't included.
But EXPECT ME TOMORROW is more than that. It has four threads that take place during the 1850s, the 1870s, the 1890s, and the 2050s. These threads interweave in ways that, I must warn you, are not entirely explained. And one of the threads is almost straight history except for its connection to one of the other threads.
(Priest also did multiple threads in time in other novels, notably THE PRESTIGE.)
The climate part reminded me of Robert Frost's poem, "Fire and Ice":
Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.
I doubt Priest was inspired by this, since in any case science seems (or seemed) to support his characters' beliefs and actions.
Of course I recommend this, because I recommend all of Priest's work. [-ecl]
Evelyn C. Leeper
evelynchimelisleeper@gmail.com
Quote of the Week:
Don't worry about things that you have no control over,
because you have no control over them. Don't worry
about things that you have control over, because you
have control over them.
--Mickey Rivers
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