@@@@@ @ @ @@@@@ @ @ @@@@@@@ @ @ @@@@@ @@@@@ @@@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @@@@@ @@@@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @@@@@ @ @ @ @ @@@@@ @@@@@ @@@Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society 01/30/26 -- Vol. 44, No. 31, Whole Number 2417
Table of Contents
Middletown (NJ) Public Library Science Fiction Discussion Group:
Feb 5, 2026: HEART OF A DOG (1988) & novella by Mikhail Bulgakov https://www.hoopladigital.com/ebook/a-dogs-heart-michael-bulgaria/13640560
[Yes, I know the author's name is misspelled. Apparently enough people have autocorrect change it to this that Hoopla has decided to have a redirect from it. The correct spelling also works:
https://www.hoopladigital.com/ebook/a-dogs-heart-mikhail-bulgakov/13640560
[-ecl]
Picks for Turner Classic Movies for February (comments by Evelyn C. Leeper):
I will recommend one of my favorite Woody Allen movies (directed by him, but without him as an actor), MIDNIGHT IN PARIS. The TCM description is, "While on a trip to Paris with his fiancee's family, a nostalgic screenwriter finds himself mysteriously going back to the 1920s every day at midnight." So obviously it's fantasy. The screenplay won an Oscar, and the film was also was nominated for art direction, as well as for the Oscars for Best Picture and Best Director, and for the SFWA Bradbury Award for Best Screenplay.
For those reading this who claim not to like fantasy (or science fiction--you know who you are), I will say this is more along the lines of COCOON than of LORD OF THE RINGS. Just as in mysteries there are such things as "cozies", this is the fantasy equivalent. (This is actually the sort of thing that almost all fantasies were back in the day: IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE, THE GHOST AND MRS. MUIR, the "Topper" films, ... The list goes on.)
It features all the 1920s characters you want to see, including Salvador Dali and Luis Bunuel. It has Marion Cotillard, Kathy Bates, Tom Hiddleston, Lea Seydoux, and a lot more excellent actors.
And the art and set design *is* gorgeous.
[MIDNIGHT IN PARIS (2011), Saturday, February 14, 2:00 PM]
TCM is also showing a boatload of Chuck Jones cartoons, many of them science fiction (e.g., "Haredevil Hare", "The Hasty Hare", and "Hare-way to the Stars", all with Marvin the Martian).
Other films of interest:
MONDAY, February 2
6:45 AM Bomba, the Jungle Boy (1949)
8:00 AM Bomba on Panther Island (1949)
9:30 AM The Lost Volcano (1950)
11:00 AM The Hidden City (1950)
12:15 PM The Lion Hunters (1951)
1:45 PM Elephant Stampede (1951)
3:15 PM African Treasure (1952)
4:30 PM Bomba and the Jungle Girl (1952)
6:00 PM Safari Drums (1953)
TUESDAY, February 3
1:30 AM King Kong (1933)
3:30 AM Mighty Joe Young (1949)
WEDNESDAY, February 4
1:30 AM Frankenstein (1931)
3:00 AM The Curse of Frankenstein (1957)
4:30 AM Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed (1969)
6:15 PM Westworld (1973)
8:00 PM Haredevil Hare (1948)
8:10 PM The Hasty Hare (1952)
8:20 PM Hare-way to the Stars (1958)
8:30 PM Invaders from Mars (1953)
10:30 PM Bugs and Thugs (1954)
FRIDAY, February 6
1:20 AM A Witch's Tangled Hare (1959)
1:30 AM Hamlet (1948)
4:15 AM Romeo and Juliet (1936)
10:00 AM It! (1967)
SATURDAY, February 7
3:00 AM The Glass Slipper (1955)
5:00 AM Tom Thumb (1958)
10:00 AM Tarzan's Peril (1951)
1:45 PM Seance on a Wet Afternoon (1964)
SUNDAY, February 8
3:45 AM The Omega Man (1971)
2:45 PM The Importance of Being Earnest (1952)
8:00 PM The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939)
10:00 PM Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
11:30 PM The Enchanted Cottage (1945)
WEDNESDAY, February 11
3:30 AM The Haunting (1963)
THURSDAY, February 12
7:30 AM Blithe Spirit (1945)
9:30 AM The Importance of Being Earnest (1952)
FRIDAY, February 13
6:00 AM Cabin in the Sky (1943)
7:45 AM The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm (1962)
10:15 AM The Thief of Bagdad (1940)
4:15 PM 7 Faces of Dr. Lao (1964)
6:00 PM Brigadoon (1954)
SATURDAY, February 14
8:00 AM The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939)
2:00 PM Midnight in Paris (2011)
SUNDAY, February 15
12:15 AM Amélie (2001)
TUESDAY, February 17
6:15 PM Them! (1954)
8:00 PM On the Beach (1959)
10:30 PM The China Syndrome (1979)
WEDNESDAY, February 18
12:45 AM Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying
and Love the Bomb (1964)
2:30 AM Seven Days to Noon (1950)
FRIDAY, February 20
6:45 AM Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1932)
8:30 AM Dr. Cyclops (1940)
10:00 AM The Time Machine (1960)
SATURDAY, February 21
7:30 AM Ben-Hur (1959)
MONDAY, February 23
11:15 AM Gulliver's Travels (1939)
WEDNESDAY, February 25
4:00 PM Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941)
[-ecl]
The James Bond Films That Never Get Any Love (comments by Evelyn C. Leeper):
Netflix is advertising:
Stream every James Bond film on Netflix now.
The Ultimate James Bond Movie Marathon
From DR. NO to NO TIME TO DIE, Netflix is streaming all the
007 films for the first time.
Wrong.
While I will grant them that the hour-long 1954 version of CASINO ROYALE on "Climax!", starring Barry Nelson and Peter Lorre is not technically a film, they are still ignoring the 1967 spoof CASINO ROYALE (starring David Niven and Woody Allen), and the 1983 NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN (starring Sean Connery). [-ecl]
Another National Riddle (riddle by Keith F. Lynch):
Here's a new national trivia question: What do these nations all have in common? Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Leichtenstein, South Africa, Tanzania, Turkiye, the United Kingdom, and Zambia? [-kfl]
WHERE THE AXE IS BURIED by Ray Nayler (copyright 2025, Macmillan Audio, 9 hours and 9 minutes, ASIN: B0D3QK5Q1P, narrated by Eunice Wong) (audio book review by Joe Karpierz):
Apparently, I've come very late to the Ray Nayler party. I first encountered his writing, like many people did, with 2022's THE MOUNTAIN IN THE SEA, which was a finalist for the Best Novel Hugo in 2023. Next came 2024's "The Tusks of Extinction", which won the Best Novella Hugo in 2025. Little did I know that Nayler was a writer who paid his dues, publishing short fiction and poetry going back to 1996 (according to the bibliography on his website). He's still writing short fiction, much of which is being published in ASIMOV'S. But he's starting to garner attention with his longer works, the latest of which is 2025's WHERE THE AXE IS BURIED.
The story takes place in what appears to be the near future. The year isn't important, and Nayler never gives us that piece of information. What *is* important is that it is a glimpse of what certainly could be happening not too long from now. The novel is a political dystopian thriller. And while the term post-apocalyptic doesn't apply here, it really feels like it does. Part of the story takes place in an authoritarian dystopia. Another takes place under the rule of AI Prime Ministers, whose mandate--from the masses--is to enforce "rationalization", where everything is designed to make everyone's life better using algorithmic calculations. And yet a third takes place in the West--England, to be specific--which will end up crumbling before the reader's eyes. If you think this is bleak, you'd be correct.
The centerpiece character of the story is the brilliant scientist Lilia, who has managed to leave the authoritarian state (and you don't even have to squint too hard to feel that Nayler is talking about Russia) where people are monitored everywhere and have a social score which indicates freedom of movement, comes back to visit her father, a famous broken down dissident who is just trying to survive, and gets arrested and trapped in the Federation again. The Federation is run by a president who uses technology to move from one body to the next in order to stay in power. Lilia has created a technology based on quantum entanglement, so naturally everyone wants a piece of her and her technology.
The action of the novel is taking place on several fronts involving different characters. One Republic, not far from the Federation borders, which is run by an AI which is making erratic decisions that cause an energy crisis and riots. Zoya is the exiled author of a banned book, The Forever Argument, who has a huge part to play in the downfall of the world political scene that exists in the novel. Nikolai is the physician to the President in the Federation, who just wants to leave for the West and no longer have to deal with what he's seeing there. Krotov heads up the Federation's security forces, to whom Nikolai must report, and who knows more than he lets on for most of the book. These and others are part of the larger story here--that of revolution and the overturning of the way the world works, hopefully for something better.
The dedication of the book is simple, but powerful: "For everyone who has lost a country". This feels like a dedication and a story that is perfect for our current time and place. Nayler worked in Russia for a period of time, and it feels like his experiences there may have contributed greatly to the novel. WHERE THE AXE IS BURIED is a story of desperate people doing desperate things in order to extricate themselves from the situations they find themselves in. Those people living in the Federation are certainly under an authoritarian thumb. Those in the various republics under rationalization have everything they need, except happiness. While we don't know too much about the situation in England, the reader gets the feeling that things aren't going too well there.
There really isn't a lot of genre content here, in my mind. Lilia's quantum entanglement technology--a way to look into people's minds, in this case--is really a device to move the plot along--it's not there to be examined, dissected, and explained. And the idea of AI running countries, or transferring consciousness from one body to another doesn't really need to be examined in great deal either. Those ideas are there to move things along as well. This is a story of rebellion, of people trying to survive in a system that is designed to grind them down. But there is also a ray of hope at the end of the book. Nothing is guaranteed, and nothing is solved. Nayler doesn't give us the answers. He just gives us a great novel. [-jak]
George Orwell's Essays (letter of comment by Dale Skran):
In response to Evelyn's comments on George Orwell's essays in the 01/23/26 issue of the MT VOID, Dale Skran writes:
It is interesting how the great prophet Orwell made some many howlers in terms of predictions about India and WW2. It was logical to think the Indians would turn against the English language, yet that did not happen.
Although taxes in the US were very high during WW2, and I suspect in England as well, that worked as long as the war was on, but drifted away afterwards.
Orwell was a strong socialist, so I think he confused what he wanted with what might actually happen. H. G. Wells suffered from the same problem, although I think he did a lot better on the prediction front. [-dls]
THE SILENT STAR and Agfa (letter of comment by Scott Dorsey):
In response to Evelyn's comments on THE SILENT STAR in the 01/23/26 issue of the MT VOID, Scott Dorsey writes:
[Evelyn writes,] "But the original is better (in spite of the fact that I go on to list a lot of its flaws). The restoration done by DEFA brings out the vivid colors, which seemed to be a pan-European thing at the time: Italian films of that era also had those intense primary colors." [-ecl]
That's Agfa process. In the case of Italian films it was Agfa process under license to Ferrania most of the time. In the case of the DEFA films it was film from what is now ORWO, the old Agfa plant in Wolfen.
There are a lot of Soviet films in Sovcolor which is basically Agfa process. After the war the Soviets packed up one of the Agfa manufacturing plants and brought it back to Ukraine where they kept making 1930s-style Agfa stock under the Svema name until the late 1990s.
The Agfa process uses completely different color chemistry than Eastman process, and if it's processed properly it is extremely stable and does not fade. (Unfortunately it took a while for people to figure out that the wash water pH had to be within a pretty narrow range for the film to be stable but once they did things were okay.)
The film prints of FIRST SPACESHIP ON VENUS that we got in the west (and Boskone owns a 35mm print still) were the cheapest possible Eastman prints and faded pretty badly. American International Pictures didn't keep much in the way of archives or rights paperwork so video versions of that film which you see today are invariably transferred from a faded print. [-sd]
Audiobooks (letters of comment by Jay Morris and Steve Coltrin):
In response to Evelyn's comments and the article mentioned about audiobooks in the 01/23/26 issue of the MT VOID, Jay Morris writes:
When listening to audio books, podcasts, TV/Movies, lectures (which was a problem in college) my mind sometimes tends to wander off for a while, even if I am interested. I'm lucky there's a 30-second rewind on my podcast app. Doesn't happen when I'm reading. [-jm]
Steve Coltrin notes:
Ook.
And it's pretty damn hard to use a highlighter on an audiobook. [-sc]
Evelyn adds:
And maybe it's age, but I'm even worse--if I'm just sitting while listening (e.g., not driving), I tend to fall asleep and totally lose my place. [-ecl]
This Week's Reading (book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper):
THE HISTORY OF TIME: A VERY SHORT INTRODUCTION by Leofranc Holland-Strevens (Oxford, ISBN 978-0-19-280499-5) is very short only of you don't take the time to understand and follow arcane and the complicated calculations for hours, days, weeks, months, seasons, years, and holidays (Easter being the main example).
There's a two-page glossary of several dozen words such as embolism, feria, luna, and indiction, that are used liberally in the text.
ATHEISM: A VERY SHORT INTRODUCTION by Julian Baggini (Oxford, ISBN 978-0-19-280424-2) is a sort of outlier in the "Very Short Introduction" series, at least of the dozen I have read so far. All the rest were histories of one sort or another, though this was probably due as much to the topics as to the approach chosen. ATHEISM is basically an apologetic (in the sense of a formal defense rather than an apology). There is a bit of the history of atheism, but the book basically looks at the arguments for and against atheism itself.
At one point, in talking about the current debunking of the Enlightenment (in 2003, anyway), Baggini writes, "And although some may think that we have gone too far in our disrespect of authority, few seriously believe that we should go back to a time when office was inherited, when only the male middle classes were enfranchised, or when leading clerics wielded strong political power."
If only.
(And those not-so-few would add "white" in front of "male".) [-ecl]
Evelyn C. Leeper
evelynchimelisleeper@gmail.com
Quote of the Week:
For a successful technology, reality must take
precedence over public relations, for nature
cannot be fooled.
--Richard Feynman
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