sf-lovers (07/02/82)
>From JPM@Mit-Ai Thu Jul 1 16:46:08 1982 SF-LOVERS Digest Wednesday, 30 Jun 1982 Volume 5 : Issue 75 Today's Topics: SF Books - Here's the Plot...What's the Title & Foundation IV & Ellison & News from LOCUS & HHGttG, SF Movies - Cat People & Conan the Barbarian & Firefox & ET: The Extra-Terrestrial & Revenge of the Jedi & Ford, SF Topics - Bad Scriptwriters, SF TV - HHGttG, Humor - Genderless Video Games ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 29 June 1982 1352-EDT (Tuesday) From: Mark.Sherman at CMU-10A Subject: What is title I have a plot outline but not a title or author. Can any body help me? Man is evolving both forwards and backwards. A couple has a baby born alive, but they are told it is dead. The baby is one of the "backwards" and is placed on a reservation for Neanderthals. Father discovers that baby is alive, searches for and finds baby. Father leaves baby on reservation. Doctor at reservation comments "thank god baby is not one of the other ones." Maybe a short story. Any clues? Please send replies to Sherman@CMU-10A. ------------------------------ Date: 29 Jun 1982 13:59:31-EDT From: csin!cjh at CCA-UNIX Subject: Foundation IV Working title: LIGHTNING ROD Pub. title: FOUNDATION AT RISK According to Asimov (during a talk at MIT last April) Doubleday will be releasing this in December. It's set something over 500 years through the 1000-year interregnum, but (like most of the stories) takes only a few months to happen (maybe less?). It will be a substantial book, probably three times as large as the biggest previous segment (the second half of SECOND FOUNDATION). ------------------------------ Date: 29 Jun 82 13:58-PDT From: mclure at SRI-UNIX Subject: Re: Foundation IV Yeah. Locus says twice as big as any of the previous books. I think it's called FOUNDATION'S EDGE. I typed in a big excerpt about this from a recent LOCUS but Mcgrath hasn't gotten around to distributing it. ------------------------------ Date: 30 Jun 1982 11:19:28-EDT From: csin!cjh at CCA-UNIX Subject: Re: Foundation IV In response to your message of Tue Jun 29 17:55:56 1982: Asimov said FOUNDATION AT RISK, and since LOCUS is at the far edge of the country from him I wouldn't be surprised if they were wrong. At least LOCUS isn't a yellow journalist's delight like SCIENCE FICTION CHRONICLE. ------------------------------ Date: 18 Jun 82 18:15-PDT From: mclure at SRI-UNIX Subject: July LOCUS extracts Here are some extracts from the July LOCUS. FOUNDATION series sold to Del Rey: ---------------------------------- Ballantine/Del Rey has purchased paperback rights not only to Isaac Asimov's new novel FOUNDATION's EDGE but also to the three earlier books in the series. FOUNDATION's EDGE was turned in to Doubleday recently and will be published in October. Doubleday is billing it as "the fourth book in the FOUNDATION trilogy". It is 140,000 words -- twice as long as each of the earlier books. Penthouse and Omni will both run extracts. Judy-Lynn del Rey would not reveal the amount paid for the "Foundation", package but she did not deny it was "very high". (There was a paperback floor of half a million dollars on FOUNDATION'S EDGE, according to Publisher's Weekly.) "It feels good to be the publisher of Heinlein, Asimov, and Clarke," she said. The three original books will be republished as quickly as possible. Isaac Asimov had the following comments about the series: "When I first wrote them, I thought each story would appear in Astounding then vanish forever except for the few fans that saved their back issues. Even after the FOUNDATION trilogy appeared in the early fifties, my feeling was that it would sell a few thousand copies and then vanish except for those few fans who would keep their copies. According to Doubleday, the original books have sold over 5,000,000 copies... and [they] have paid me hundreds of thousands in royalties. "Doubleday was so pleased with the manuscript when I turned it in that they promptly set up another contract with a larger advance -- $65,000 --- for an unamed science fiction novel, but I'm trying to write the third Lije Bailey book [sequel to THE CAVES OF STEEL and THE NAKED SUN]. For thirty years I said I couldn't write another "Foundation" book, but I managed it and even enjoyed it, so maybe I can even do the third robot novel." HARLAN ELLISON -------------- Harlan Ellison and his secretary, Marty Clark, escaped serious injury when his car turned over and was demolished on the San Diego Freeway. He was on his way to the airport and had to take evasive action to escape running into someone ahead of him. The car, a 1967 Camaro with 170,000 miles on it, hit the divider at 60 mph, flipped over, and was totally demolished. Ellison got out with a few bruises, pulled out his secretary, then his typewriter, and went on to a speaking engagement in Alaska. 1982 LOCUS POLL RESULTS ----------------------- nom = awards nominated for (H = Hugo, N = Nebula), votes = number of votes, 1sts = number of first place votes, points = total points based on Carr point system: 1st = 8 pts, 2nd = 7 pts, etc. Thus, a first place vote counted twice as much as a fifth place one, instead of five times as much if we had used a five, four, three, two, one, system. BEST SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL AUTHOR nom votes 1sts points 1 THE MANY-COLORED LAND Julian May H,N 184 82 1253 2 WINDHAVEN George R.R. Martin 159 45 1010 3 DOWNBELOW STATION C.J. Cherryh H 139 48 916 BEST FANTASY NOVEL 1 THE CLAW OF THE CONCILIATOR Gene Wolfe H,N 343 199 2504 2 LITTLE, BIG John Crowley H,N 198 84 1376 3 THE CHANGING LAND Roger Zelazny 164 42 1049 BEST FIRST NOVEL 1 STARSHIP & HAIKU Somtow Sucharitkul 149 77 1055 2 AT THE EYE OF THE OCEAN Hilbert Schneck 129 871 955 3 RADIX A.A. Attanasio N 130 76 947 BEST NOVELLA 1 "Blue Champagne" John Varley H 143 60 977 2 "The Saturn Game" Poul Anderson H,N 115 43 769 3 "In The Western Tradition" Phyllis Eisenstein H,N 114 38 765 BEST NOVELETTE 1 "Guardians" George R.R. Martin H 129 52 886 2 "Unicorn Variation" Roger Zelazny H 125 53 855 3 "The THermals of August" Edward Bryant H,N 87 33 585 BEST SHORT STORY 1 "The Pusher" John Varley H,N 156 55 1051 2 "Serpent's Teeth" Spider Robinson 54 26 551 3 "The Needle Men" George R.R. Martin 81 21 524 BEST ANTHOLOGY 1 SHADOWS OF SANCTUARY Robert Lynn Asprin, ed. 130 75 929 2 UNIVERSE 11 Terry Carr, ed. 125 57 863 3 THE BEST SCIENCE FICTION Terry Carr, ed. 109 47 745 OF THE YEAR #10 BEST SINGLE AUTHOR COLLECTION 1 SANDKINGS George R.R. Martin 259 94 1754 2 GENE WOLFE'S BOOK OF DAYS Gene Wolfe 135 45 881 3 SUNFALL C.J. Cherryh 131 46 867 BEST RELATED NON-FICTION BOOK 1 DANSE MACABRE Stephen King H 193 112 1405 2 ANATOMY OF WONDER Neil Barron, ed. H 125 69 843 3 THE ART OF LEO & DIANE Byron Preiss, ed. H 80 29 553 DILLON BEST ARTIST last year 1 Michael Whelan 1 H 240 114 1717 2 Don Maitz 2 H 138 65 949 3 Rowena Morrill 6 H 114 34 761 BEST MAGAZINE/FANZINE 1 F&SF 1 421 250 3043 2 Locus 2 H 387 138 2653 3 IASFM 5 204 34 1244 BEST BOOK PUBLISHER 1 Pocket/Timescape 3 417 238 3015 2 Ballantine/Del Rey 1 307 80 2022 3 DAW 4 307 79 2004 ------------------------------ Date: 27 Jun 1982 1612-PDT From: Jim McGrath <CSD.MCGRATH at SU-SCORE> Subject: capsule reveiws CAPSULE MOVIE REVIEWS By Chicago Sun-Times Reviewers (c) 1982 Chicago Sun-Times (Field News Service) Cat People - An imaginative, erotic fantasy-horror film that takes itself just seriously enough to work, and has just enough fun to be entertaining. Nastassia Kinski and Malcolm McDowell play the descendants of a race of created by black leopards mating with humans. With John Heard, Annette O'Toole and Ruby Dee; Paul Schrader directed. Rated R. 3 1/2 stars. Conan the Barbarian - Arnold Schwarzenegger plays the mythical hero battling the evil Doom (James Earl Jones - and it is disturbing to see that fine black actor pitted against a proto-Nordic avenger). Schwarzenegger and his co-star, lovely Sandahl Bergman, bring humor and a certain quiet slyness to a movie that is a triumph of production design, set decoration, special effects and makeup. It's a perfect fantasy for the alienated pre-adolescent. With Max von Sydow. Rated R. 3 stars. E.T., The Extra-terrestrial in his Adventure on Earth - E.T., a wonderful little creature from outer space, is left behind in an American suburb when its spaceship gets frightened away. After several close encounters with a search party, it is discovered by a little boy, and thus begins a story of friendship and love. This Steven Spielberg production is filled with innocence, hope and good cheer. It's also wickedly funny and exciting, and is a triumph of special effects. With Henry Thomas, Dee Wallace, Peter Coyote, Robert MacNaughton, and Drew Barrymore. Rated PG. 4 stars. Firefox - Clint Eastwood's mission in this slick, muscular thriller is to infiltrate the Soviet Union and steal the Firefox, a top-secret Russian warplane. The movie combines espionage with science fiction and works like the well-crafted machine it's about. With Freddie Jones, David Huffman, Warren Clarke, Ronald Lacey, Kenneth Colley, Stefan Schnabel. Rated R. 3 1/2 stars. ------------------------------ Date: 18 Jun 82 16:48-PDT From: mclure at SRI-UNIX Subject: Firefox The TV commercials make it appear like a royal ripoff of the Star Wars Death Star chase scenes. They even appear to have a trench. ------------------------------ Date: 26 Jun 1982 at 2233-CDT From: ables at UTEXAS-11 (King Ables) Subject: Star Wars VI Harrison Ford was interviewed on a local talk show here in Austin yesterday. He talked mostly about "Bladerunner," but he did mention that he had been finished with his part of "The Revenge of the Jedi" a couple of weeks ago. Interesting, either they are right on or ahead of schedule on filming with the actors or he has a small part (which considering he could have been frozen for most of the movie, is possible). He also said his next project would be the sequel to Raiders starting sometime next year. -ka ------------------------------ Date: 14 Jun 1982 12:53:29-EDT From: csin!cjh at CCA-UNIX Subject: Re: bad scriptwriters I was under the impression that Alan Dean Foster was responsible only for novelizations, not for shooting scripts---and some of the stuff that he's written independently is tolerable. Glen Larson, on the other hand, is the other side of the Red Shift coin. ------------------------------ Date: 29 Jun 82 16:22:08-EDT (Tue) From: Will Martin (DRXAL-FD) <wmartin@BRL> Subject: HHGTTG News Pulled this off USENET for your delectation and enlightenment... From unc!mcnc!duke!decvax!utzoo!utcsstat!geoff Mon Jun 7 02:32:47 1982 Subject: Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy news (net.humour) Newsgroups: net.misc >From the July Starlog: MORE ``HITCH-HIKER'S'' ON THE WAY --------------------------------- During his recent publicity tour to promote the U.S. release of Restaurant at the End of the Universe (Crown Publishers), Douglas Adams stopped to chat and tell STARLOG what the future holds for fans of The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Althougn (sic) fans have hoped that someone would import the six-part BBC-TV series, Adams announced that ABC-TV will be re-making the series with an American cast. ``All things going well,'' Adams reported, ``it should start going out in the fall. I met the guy who's directing it, and as far as it's possible to tell, I thought he seemed to be very, very much in tune with it-actually more in tune with it than the TV director we had in England. There are a lot of good people involved. The guy who's doing the design is Ron Cobb who did the famous bar scene in Star Wars. He's a cartoonist as well, so he'll have a sense of humor. I hadn't heard of him before, but everyone in the business says, `Oh, great! Terrific! You're onto a winner there.' '' Adams is currently finishing off the third Hitch-Hiker's book, entitled Life, the Universe and Everything, which will be released first in England this August. ``Probably the next major thing I'd work on will be a non-science-fiction humorous book, but in the meantime, I'm doing one or two other bits and pieces. Curiously enough, I'm going to go and do a magazine feature on the Coral Reefs in the Red Sea for The Observer and the Royal Wildlife Fund, which I'm looking forward to doing. I'm also probably going to be doing a serious reference book with John Lloyd, the producer of Not the 9 O'Clock News.'' ------------------------------ Date: 29 June 1982 18:07-EDT From: James M. Turner <JMTURN at MIT-AI> Subject: Genderless punsters (after I find my trusty knife...) At LMI, we are seriously considering a PacMan to be written for the Lisp Machine. It will, of course, be written in PacLisp. James ------------------------------ End of SF-LOVERS Digest ***********************