Article-I.D.: ucbvax.8490
Posted: Tue Sep 14 04:03:30 1982
Received: Fri Sep 17 02:13:40 1982

>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 
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 
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 
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 
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 
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  
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) 
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 
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 
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

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End of SF-LOVERS Digest
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