SFL Archives Volume 21a
5.0 mb raw text file
100% completion, 312 bookmarks
Movies, television shows, etc referenced: FOREVER KNIGHT (tv-series), CITY OF LOST CHILDREN, BATMAN AND ROBIN, SCREAMERS, SEAQUEST DSV (tv-series), EARTH 2 (tv-series), HYPERNAUTS (tv-series), BABYLON 5 (tv-series), SPACE ABOVE AND BEYOND (tv-series), AMERICAN GOTHIC (tv-series), HIGHLANDER THE TV SERIES, THE SENTINEL (tv-series), LAWNMOWER MAN 2, STARSHIP TROOPERS 1, 12 MONKEYS, GENERATION X, SPELLBINDER, SPACE CASES (tv-series), CONTACT, THE OUTER LIMITS (tv-series), NOWHERE MAN (tv-series), STAR COMMAND, SLIDERS (tv-series), THE WANDERER (tv-series), THE SECRET WORLD OF ALEX MACK (tv-series), MARY REILLY, MUPPET TREASURE ISLAND, GHOST IN THE SHELL, LIQUID SKY, ALIENS IN THE FAMILY (tv-series), JOURNEY TO MARS, INDEPENDENCE DAY, STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE (tv-series), STAR TREK: VOYAGER (tv-series), KINDRED: THE EMBRACED (tv-series), THE OSIRIS CHRONICLES, HACKERS, POLTERGEIST THE TV SERIES, HYPERNAUTS (tv-series), THE ODYSSEY (tv-series), PETER JACKSON'S KING KONG, A.P.E.X., WITHOUT WARNING, ALIEN 4 RESURRECTION, COAST TO COAST (radio), SALVAGE ONE (tv-series), SUPERNOVA, THE CRAFT, BARB WIRE, CASABLANCA, DRAGONHEART, MARS ATTACKS!, DOCTOR WHO: THE TELEVISION MOVIE, MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000: THE MOVIE, THE WIND OF AMNESIA, MISSION IMPOSSIBLE 1996, THE ARRIVAL, DARK SKIES (tv-series), THE PRETENDER (tv-series), ANNIHILATOR, CRASH, JAG (tv-series), PRISONERS OF GRAVITY (tv-series), ISLAND OF DR MOREAU, THE PHANTOM, UFO (tv-series), BLAKES 7 (tv-series), RED DWARF (tv-series), LA JETTE.
SF&F stories referenced: CETAGANDA, STONE OF TEARS, THE REALITY DISJUNCTION, SAGA OF RECLUSE, THE BLOODY RED BARON, PROTEKTOR, SEA WITHOUT A SHORE, FIRE UPON THE DEEP, THE KILLING STAR,SFBC SFF ENCYCLOPEDIA, THE SHEEP LOOK UP, DJINN RUMMY, HEADCRASH, SONG OF GAMBLER PHAID, THE PSALMS OF HEROD, THE MURDERED SUN, THE ETERNAL MERCENARY, EXCESSION, USE OF WEAPONS, DISTRESS, REPLAY,ASSASSINS APPRENTICE, ROSE MADDER, MAGNIFICAT, THE LIGHT OF OTHER DAYS, SWORD OF BHELEU, QUEEN OF ANGELS, STARTIDE RISING, MIDSHIPMANS HOPE, OATHS AND MIRACLES, ANUBIS GATES, BLUE MARS, ASHES OF EDEN, THE DIAMOND AGE, INTERFACE, CLIPJOINT CONFUSION, LOST WORLD, BRANCH POINT, WHEN HEAVEN FELL, TWO CROWNS FOR AMERICA, THE DISPOSSESSED, GUN WITH OCCASIONAL MUSIC, THE DAY IS NIGHT, STATUS QUOTIENT: THE CARRIER, WEREWOLVES OF LONDON, MR ADAM, HOLE IN THE HOLE, HALF THE DAY IS NIGHT, CHINA MOUNTAIN ZHANG, THRESHOLD, THE BLUE STAR, RESURRECTION MAN, DRAKON, DRAKA, REUNION ON NEVEREND, AMTRAK WARS, SALMON OF DOUBT, FIREFLY, GLORY, GOD-MAN, GLITTERING STONE, THE MACE OF SOULS, RICHTER 10, WIZARDRY UESTED, WILDSIDE, THE STAR FRACTION, A CANTICLE FOR LEIBOWITZ, FORAGERS, THE FACES OF SCIENCE FICTION, PRIMARY INVERSION, ORCA, GREEN EYES, ENDYMION, PROCESSING THE SIMILACRA FOR FUN AND PROFIT, STRIKING THE BALANCE, DOOMSDAY BOOK, THE MOONHARE, A MAN BETRAYED, BEGGARS AND CHOOSERS, INFERNO, SECRETS OF THE WITCH WORLD, KILLER STAR, THE TWO GEORGES, REMNANT POPULATION, THIS IS THE WAY THE WORLD ENDS, THE WINE OF VIOLENCE, KEEPERS OF THE HIDDEN WAYS, THE HACKER AND THE ANTS, HOT SKY AT MIDNIGHT, MISTRESS OF MISTRESSES, TIGANA, VIDEO STAR, OF THUD AND BLUNDER, GRAVITY, HARM'S WAY, DRASTIC DRAGON OF DRACO TEXAS, MARTIAN DEATHTRAP, ASSEMBLERS OF INFINITY, ENCOUNTER WITH TIBER, HONOR AMONG ENEMIES, CONSIDER PHLEBAS, CITIES IN FLIGHT, MERIDIAN DAYS, RINGWORLD THRONE, RESUME WITH MONSTERS, THE TIME SHIPS, CELESTIAL MATTERS, LEFT TO HIS OWN DEVICES, HISTORICAL CRISIS, THE TERMINAL EXPERIMENT, WITCHES OF KARRES, GENETIC SOLDIER, DEMON IN THE SKULL, PIRATES OF THE UNIVERSE, MUSHROOM PLANET, THE GUNSLINGER, NIFFT THE LEAN, THE CHOSEN, EYE OF ARGON, THE UPLIFT WAR, THE FORTUNATE FALL, JUSTICE CITY, EDGEWORKS: THE COLLECTED ELLISON VOL 01, PANDA RAY, THE LITTLE COUNTRY, ALWAYS COMING HOME, THE GREAT DIVORCE.
Pop culture references: a pre-Internet fame Harry Knowles starts posting to the SFL Archives, a pre-Internet fame Mr Skin starts posting to the SFL Archives, Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine, Compuserve Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature Forum, the Del Rey Internet Newsletter, the Slim Jim Racing Team, Society of Combustion Engineers, the alternative convention newsletter WRATH OF GHU at Evolution Con 1996, Milli Vanilli lip-synching at concerts, the New Hackers Dictionary, Lurkers Guide to Babylon 5, listening to Art Bell's COAST TO COAST, as "accurate as a SCUD missile".
Technology callbacks: Solaris 2.5,USEnet newsgroups, Ziff Davis Net, GEnie, multi-user HERETIC + DOOM + WING COMMANDER 4, RealAudio, the Nintendo 64 version of STAR WARS: SHADOW OF THE EMPIRE, Windows 3.1, Casio QV-10 digital camera, Laser Printers, Microsoft Access, whatever a "salami scam" is in the novelization of the 1995 movie HACKERS, the various Rainbow cover colored publications of the NSA & the DOD, Altavista Internet search engine and DejaNews, book publishers saving money by using huge oversized type fonts for Hardcover editions of SFF novels so the same printing films can be reused for the paperback editions.
1996 Death notices: Walter Michael Miller Jr, SFF author. Brian Daley, SFF author. Bob Shaw, SFF author. Elsie Wollheim, co-founder of DAW Books and SFF Futurian founding member. Jon Pertwee, film/stage/tv/radio/3rd DOCTOR WHO actor.
SFL requests/discussion topics:
> Not for Kids! (SFF material)
> 1996 Hugo Award nominations
> Re: Gordon R. Dickson
> Re: Foundation series - so what's the big deal?
> Re: Whatever happened to author "Steven Boyett"?
> Chapter House Dune: anyone understand it?
> Re: Heinlein's books
> Drakon (Stirling) question--extremely minor spoilers
> Re: Firefly (P. Anthony)
> Re: Banks: Mandate for SC?
> Re: Darkover novels
> Re: 12 Monkeys Ending (Spoiler) "insurance"?
> Re: A Canticle for Leibowitz
> Re: H. Beam Piper stories
> Re: Donaldson: Thomas Covenant Series
> WHY THIS WILL BE MY LAST MINICON
> MINICON 1996 Drama
> EVOLUTION CON 1996
> Roland Castle vs the World
> Re: Metropolitan magic (was Re: Walter Jon Williams)
> Glen Cook Black Company: questions about the Taken
> Re: What is it about Tigana?
> Re: Voyager shuttles fleet!
> Re: Con trends
> MAY: A list of Current Fanzines
> Re: Maureen Birnbaum
> George Alec Effinger on why his novel GRAVITY hides it's New Orleans setting.
> Re: [FANHIST} Changes in Fannish Culture
> Re: Banks Consider Phlebas -- what does the title mean
> Boulle's Other Books?
> Re: What the hell happened to Barry Malzberg?
> Re: Alfred Bester: His later books
> Re: (C.S.) Lewis redux
> Re: Tarzan(?!?) of Mars
-First mention of DOOM the 1993 FPS game having a movie adaptation in the works.
(2021 note: The DOOM movie would eventually come out in 2005.)
-<U616@wvnwm.wvnet.edu> makes a joking not joking plea for the UNABOMBER to bomb the NBC Studios buildings in California for the terrible crime of NBC having greenlit and aired episodes of SEAQUEST DSV, and EARTH 2.
-SFF magazines ANALOG & ASIMOV's SCIFI along with Alfred Hitchock Mysteries, Ellery Queen Mysteries and every other magazine published by Dell gets sold to a holding company called Penny Press.
-Multiple conflicting reviews of Magnum Opus Con 10a. Some people attended it just for the raves and house parties and the extreme adults only content, others attended MOC10a for the SFF convention elements.
(2021 note: I looked up MOC10a because it was full of extreme drama and skeeviness. MOC10a's organizer had a Donald Trump addiction to attention and had a death grudge vs Ed Kramer and vs DragonCon. Fancyclopedia has informed me that Ed Kramer, one of the founders of DragonCon, has been a convicted sex offender since 2000.)
-A tv movie called SPACE COMMAND produced by Melinda Snodgrass, and virtually everyone in the SFL Archives busts on the many manyterrible bits in it like the hackneyed dialogue and the good/evil color coding setup, and oh yeah a really badly miscast Morgan Fairchild who was mainly notable in STAR COMMAND for her skintight clothing and multiple outfit changes.
-A very very special SFLer re-posts George RR Martin's comments on SLIDERS the tv-series vs GRRM's never-picked up tv-series pilot DOORWAYS from GEnie. tldr version: GRRM is extremely not-mad about SLIDERS existence and is considering lawsuits.
(2021 note: GRRM was extremely mad about SLIDERS existence and I will repost GRRM's comments in a standalone post. The SFLer who reposted GRRM's comments is Gharlane of Eddore, a "get off my SFF lawn/screamer at clouds" contrarian who loves GRRM so much I have now started thinking Gharlane is a sock-puppet account of GRRM or that Gharlane is Chip Hitchcock, the SFL Archives first Internet troll-village idiot, posting under a new name to avoid backlash over their management of BOSKONE 24.)
-Forrest J Ackerman gives his side of the story about losing control of the FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND SFF-Horror magazine. FJ Ackerman is extremely mad about losing control and madder about their articles in that magazine being rewritten by people who weren't even born when Ackerman was a SFF-Horror fan.
-"this is a typical cycle - male author gets old and writes bizarre sex ramblings"
-STAR WARS REMASTERED, the first clips of STAR WARS 1977 "The way George Lucas always intended it to look" start coming out and STAR WARS deprived fans are beyond happy.
(2021 note: The infamous re-cut of HAN SOLO SHOT FIRST is not included in the teaser clips LucasFilms has been showing to journalists or big-name STAR WARS fandom publications.)
-Lots of 1996 Convention discussion. MOC10a had the most drama and drama-causing people, MINICON 1996 had major issues, Evolution 1996 seemed chill. The surprisingly deep decisions involved in making SFF Convention badges got discussed, libertarian SFLers want all info shared including hotel name + hotel room numbers (very skeevy and worrying for female SFF fandom), others want fields for SFF names, etc. Best font sizes for badges, good long test names for badge fonts, etc. SFF guidelines for little (5 yrs old or less) at SFF conventions, Security guards being assholes and hassling SFF convention attendees, COSPLAY costume drama, etc. ROC of AGES 1996 was notable for being a entirely new SFF convention 100% funded by a SFF fan that won the lottery and featured Roland Castle throwing multiple attention seeking hissy fits.
-Establishment of the SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY HALL OF FAME, hosted at the University of Kansas, USA.
-First mention of Peter Jackson's KING KONG being in production.
-DHALGREN fans being instantly identifiable at SFF Conventions by their orchids and "other adornments".
-NO PERSON WHO GREW UP IN CANADA HAD EVER WON A HUGO OR NEBULA AWARD UNTIL THE 1995 NEBULA AWARDS.
-The flip-book animation of a spaceship exploding inside hardcover printings of HONOR AMONG ENEMIES.
-SFLer's discuss the overt references to CASABLANCA in the Pamela Anderson movie BARB WIRE.
-Extremely deep discussion of the 1996 Charlie Sheen movie THE ARRIVAL. The SFLers who hate it find fault with the technology used in it, especially the crowd-sourced satellite dish antennas, while the portion of SFLers who know radio astronomy actually liked the film and found the technology feasible and real, especially the crowd-sourced satellite dish antennas.
-David Drake delivers an ice-burn regarding SM Stirling's writing when discussing THE CHOSEN, a book co-written by Stirling and David Drake..."the point of the book was to teach Stirling how to write a book in which the bad guys *lose*", and the resemblance to the Draka was fully intentional on his part(Drake did a 20k word outline that Stirling expanded out into a novel).
-Periodic Daniel Keys Moran discussion. Star Trek Voyager allegedly ripping off a DKM submitted spec-script. Daniel Keys Moran's literary agent that is in talks with Bantam Books suddenly switches to "Daniel Keys Moran has no relationship with Bantam Books anymore", no explanation given. Daniel Keys Moran claims to have two new CONTINUING TIME series books ready for publishing with minimal delay.
(2021 note: It would take over a decade for the next CONTINUING TIME book to be published.)
-And finally thought I would just re-quote the following posts in full:
------------------------------
Date: 27 May 1996 19:40:53 GMT
From: djheydt@uclink.berkeley.edu (Dorothy J Heydt)
Reply-to: sf-lovers-written@Rutgers.Edu
Subject: Re: Banks' Consider Phlebas -- what does the title mean?
Dean K Rizer <rizer001@maroon.tc.umn.edu> wrote:
>- What does the title _Consider Phlebas_ allude to? ...
It's part of T. S. Eliot's _The Waste Land_ (1922). Since no one else has
quoted the section, I shall:
IV. Death by Water
Phlebas the Phoenician, a fortnight dead,
Forgot the cry of gulls and the deep sea swell
And the profit and loss.
A current under sea
Picked his bones in whispers. As he rose and fell
He passed the stages of his age and youth
Entering the whirlpool.
Gentile or Jew
O you who turn the wheel and look to windward,
Consider Phlebas, who was once handsome and tall as you.
_The Waste Land,_ which is rife with explanatory footnotes, gives none for
this section. It is foreshadowed, however, in a passage in Section I where
a clairvoyant gives a Tarot reading saying, "Here is your card, the drowned
Phoenician Sailor, (Those are pearls that were his eyes. Look!) ... Fear
death by water.")
Now you know as much as I do; nay, rather, you know more, since I have
never been able to read Mr. Banks.
Dorothy J. Heydt
University of California
Berkeley
djheydt@uclink.berkeley.edu
------------------------------
------------------------------
Date: 19 Jun 1996 13:47:48 -0400
From: daa@seachang.demon.co.uk (David Allsopp)
Reply-to: sf-lovers-written@Rutgers.Edu
Subject: Iain Banks -- Excession
My, I haven't felt so smug since last year's Babylon 5 series' final
episodes were shown here first.
I've just come back from having my copy of "Excession" signed by the
author, and I even managed time for a brief chat. Contents of chat follow,
spoilers/comments for the book itself to follow when I've read it - a
couple of days at most. I'm paraphrasing the conversation of course, but
I'm pretty sure I'm not misinterpreting.
Me: "Given that the typical Culture citizen (hah! now *that's* an oxymoron;
Ed.) lives about 400 years, with death being regarded as something
that gives meaning to life (see "A FEW NOTES ON THE CULTURE",
sf-lovers archives), how does this apply to Minds? And drones of
course."
IMB: "I feel that they're beings with a much longer lifespan. I'd expect
Minds to go away, or disappear up their own beatitude, or something,
after about 20,000 years. Of course, the Culture's only been around
for about 10,000 years..."
Me: "Will we have to wait another 4 years for the next Culture book?"
IMB: "I have a contract for 2 mainstream and 2 SF, but what the SF will be
depends on how the ideas come. Both, one or neither could be Culture
books. I do find the big ships, big laser cannons and so of the
Culture very appealing though."
Me: "Do we meet any old friends in _Excession_?"
IMB: "No, but there's always a wee reference somewhere to things that have
appeared in other books."
Er, that's it. The photographer arrived, and I thought of another 500
questions on the way back :-(. Oh well, at least I get to read the book.
David Allsopp
Aran Ltd.
daa@seachang.demon.co.uk
------------------------------
