ARPAVAX:UNKNOWN:sf-lovers (09/14/82)
>From SFL@SRI-CSL Tue Sep 14 03:40:26 1982 SF-LOVERS Digest Wednesday, 1 Sep 1982 Volume 6 : Issue 48 Today's Topics: SF Books - Stalking the Nightmare & Lensman Series & D'Alembert Series & Robert Heinlein & Podkayne of Mars & Patricia A. McKillip & Ray Bradbury, SF Music - Leviathan, SF Movies - The Martian Chronicles & The Illustrated Man & Revenge of the Jedi, Humor - Genderless Video Games, Spoiler - The Revenge of the Jedi ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 20 Aug 82 11:36:08-EDT (Fri) From: David Axler <axler.upenn@UDel-Relay> Subject: Stalking the Nightmare Harlan Ellison's latest work, a collection of pieces spanning the breadth of his career, has just been released by Phantasia Press, a limited-edition house in (I think) Illinois. They're releasing the book in two versions, a $60 signed, numbered, and slipcased very limited edition, and a $16 "trade" version. Even the "trade" version, though, has a fairly small print run (well under 10,000 copies), which means that unless there's a major publisher that is also releasing the book, it's not going to be very available. And that's a pity, as it contains some excellent material. Harlan has re-written or modified much of the old stuff, to its benefit, and included some new or out-of-print material as well. The book is mostly fiction, but also contains four pieces of non-fiction. As always, Ellison's pen seems dipped in acid, but he seems more capable of laughing at himself than some of his recent collections have portrayed him. The intro by Stephen King, written in Ellisonic style, is a nice touch. To my mind, the book is worth owning, if only to hear Ellison tell how he worked for Disney Studios for four hours (before being fired for a reason I won't give away, but which Paul Krassner fans will especially enjoy). Also especially good are the short story "The Grail," and the new rewrite of his introduction to Bova's "The Starcrossed." ------------------------------ Date: 17 Aug 1982 1226-PDT From: Henry W. Miller <Miller at SRI-NIC> Subject: E.E. "Doc" Smith Queries 1) One printing of the Lensman series did list the "Spacehounds of the IPC" as part of that series. It is not, however, although it might fit into that timeline. 2) The "Family D'Alembert" series is still in print, to my knowledge. I seem to recall a re-printing of one of the books last fall. This series was based upon notes left by the late Doc Smith, and were adapted into novel form by writer Steve Goldin, under contract from Smith's wife and daughter. I still see these books in print here in the Bay Area. I suggest you check Sci-Fi and Comix stores: they might have them. If not, let me know, and I can probably arrange to pick them up for you. -HWM ------------------------------ Date: 16 Aug 1982 1628-PDT From: Henry W. Miller <Miller at SRI-NIC> Subject: Heinlein, the master... I'm out of PAC Puns for the time being, so I'll turn my attention to another subject. In Volume 6, issue 39, there was a good deal of discussion of both Heinlein's juveniles, and some of his more serious books. Lacking from this list are two of my favorite Heinlein books, "Glory Road" and "Starship Troopers". Plenty of action in both of them, and I would definitely not put them in the juvenile class, nor in the class with "Time Enough for Love" and "I Shall Fear No Evil". I would tend to place these books in a class of themselves. (I sat down and reread Troopers five times in a row last winter: I needed a Heinlein fix...) Another book for Heinlein fans is "Expanded Universe", which is a collection of the Master's essays and stories. Although I have not read the book from cover to cover, the skimming I have done makes me believe more firmly than ever that the man knows what he is talking about. On a slightly different topic, I'm glad to see that my mini-review on the Lensmen revival sparked so much mail. I apologize that I did indeed list the books out of order, and have received many comments on that. (I ALWAYS list them out of order...) The characters of Heinlein and Smith are very similar: larger than life heros that will not be defeated. Likewise the villains are the embodiment of evil. My own writing (I haven't published yet, will let you all know when and where the story will be) has been very much influenced by these too. I haven't got around to digging up the answers to all the questions in the Trek Trivia message I sent out a few weeks back, but will do so shortly. Thanks to all who sent messages back. Sorry for running on so much, but I find it hard to settle back into reality on Monday's... -HWM ------------------------------ Date: 16 Aug 1982 2126-EDT From: Paul Czarnecki <PZ at MIT-OZ at MIT-AI> Subject: Heinlein (SF-LOVERS Digest V6 #39) I believe that the juvenile Heinlein books are excellent for their age group and can even stand alone as reasonable books to read for "non-juveniles." "Rocket Ship Galeleo" and "Citizen of the Galaxy" were the first two SF books that that I ever read. Something must of clicked then, for I have continued to be an avid SF reader ever since. I recently re-read "Podkayne of Mars" and I have a spaceship design question. She claims that the ship has 4 concentric layers of shielding, each capable of stopping 90% of the radiation hitting hit. Each layer separates the deck form the one above it. Therefore the safest place is in the center of the ship which is VERY crowded emergency storm shelter. My first thought was, How silly, Simply put all four layers on the outside and make the whole ship equally safe. Almost immediately I realized that there would be a weight problem. But why not have one layer out at the original radius (call it 4r) and a triple layer at 2r. This should still weigh the same (if I made a silly arithmetic error, I pre-apologize). Now punt the emergency shelter of radius 1 and instead put in a 3rd class of radius 2. leave half of it empty. 1st and 2nd class passengers can stay in the middle while 3rd sits at home during the storm. Same weight and more comfort! Would there be other underlying reason why this would not be done? -pZ ------------------------------ Date: 17 August 1982 14:19 mst From: Lippard at M.PCO.LISD.HIS (James J. Lippard) Reply-to: Lippard%PCO-Multics at MIT-MULTICS Subject: Patricia A. McKillip I have read the three Riddlemaster books and The Forgotten Beasts of Eld. In my opinion, they rank up in the top 5 worst books I have ever wasted my money on. McKillip seems to care more about making up unpronounceable names than anything else. And the Riddlemaster books plodded on so slowly, I don't think anything happened worth noting in the whole trilogy, at least nothing I cared about. ------------------------------ Date: 23 Aug 1982 0:05:04 EDT (Monday) From: Winston Edmond <edmond at BBN-UNIX> Subject: Ray Bradbury >From a column by Marilyn Beck in the Sunday, August 22, paper: Master science-fiction author Ray Bradbury is turning his talents to opera -- a sci-fi opera he promises will be "sort of 'Moby Dick in Outer Space.' " "I'm writing the entire libretto and I'm searching for a composer now," he reports. He adds he created the story nearly a decade ago under the title of "Leviathan," that it was produced for the BBC, and as a local, small-theater presentation, and that the latest plan calls for the introduction of its musical adaptation by the Seattle Opera in 1984, "and then it's to be produced in Los Angeles during the Olympic games." Bradbury is also working on plans to bring his classic "The Martian Chronicles" and "The Illustrated Man" to the big screen. That latter work was the basis of a 1969 Warner Bros. movie, but, he says, "It was pretty bad. I don't think anyone at the studio knew how to read -- they certainly hadn't read the book. The script was written behind my back, without my knowledge, and was terrible." Just as terrible, he feels, was NBC's six-hour 1980 interpretation of "Chronicles" about what life might be like on Mars. But, he says, "fortunately I retained ownership to both works." -WBE ------------------------------ Date: 19 August 1982 03:24-PDT (Thursday) From: Scott M. Hinnrichs <SMH at SRI-KL> Subject: PacMan jokes What if they live on the east coast?... must they PAC it up and move to the PACific coast in order to use the PACific-TELefone? Everybody wants in on the PacMan craze... even the CARS... their new album... "PAC It Up" ...available soon on LP's, cassettes, and ATARI cartridges. (<... ------------------------------ Date: 19 Aug 1982 2220-EDT From: JHENDLER at BBNA Subject: those "genderless" puns My OED has pages and pages of words starting with the letters PAC and with other spellings pronounced the same (pach, pak, etc.) If you also include words with an embedded "pac": we start running into the hundreds and perhaps thousands. The upshot of this is that the PAC puns could go on virtually forever. I for one plea for a cessation of these unless they are some of those unspeakably clever ones that really cause a major groan. thanks, Jim Hendler ------------------------------ Date: Wednesday, September 1, 1982 10:16AM From: Jim McGrath (The Moderator) <SFL at SRI-CSL> Subject: SPOILER WARNING! SPOILER WARNING! The last message in this digest touches upon some plot details in the movie Revenge of the Jedi. Some readers may not wish to read on. ------------------------------ Date: 25 Aug 1982 1903-PDT From: Henry W. Miller <Miller at SRI-NIC> Subject: Preview of "The Revenge of the Jedi" In the current re-release of "Star Wars, Chapter 4, 'A New Hope'", there is a three minute spoiler with scenes from "The Revenge of the Jedi". These are some comments that friends at DEC-MARLBORO have forwarded to me. -HWM Date: 24 Aug 1982 2333-EDT From: Reed B. Powell <POWELL at DEC-MARLBORO> Subject: Preview of "The Revenge of the Jedi" 1. Am not sure if that is Hans with the saber or not. It occurred during the footage alloted to Luke, but did not look like Luke. Looked more like Hans. Will keep a sharp eye open next time. 2. Did you notice anything different (from EMPIRE) about Obi Wan? He is no longer an apparition, as he was there (desert scene and marsh scene). Was Yoda's famous "No, there is another" meant to mean (as has been my contention for some time) "no, there is another [hope]" which means that the "answer" is not necessarily some specific "new" person, but simply another hope. In other words, was he referring to his ability, possibly not known to Obi Wan, to revive Obi Wan from his new of my existence to reality, as it were. 3. How did you like the Princess' new clothes? Talk about shedding former images! Sort of a cross between Jane (without Tarzan) and Barbarella. Looks interesting. 4. Wonder what Lando's role in all of this is? Maybe the scenes of him in the Falcon were pre-rescue (of Hans), and he sort of drifts out of the action after Hans returns. 5. Did you see the artwork for the scenes being shot in the desert outside of Yuma? (see June 82 Fantastic Films). Interesting new vehicles and such. That's about it. What all did you catch in it? Will let you know if I pick up anything more when I see it again before the run closes. -reed ------------------------------ End of SF-LOVERS Digest ***********************