SFL Archives Volume 21a readthrough

 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

------------------------------

SFL Archives Volume 20b readthrough

 SFL Archives Volume 20b

4.6 mb raw text file

100% completion, 206 bookmarks

Movies, television shows referenced: JUDGE DREDD, SPECIES 1, DARKMAN 2, WATERWORLD, STANLEY KUBRICKS A.I., LORD OF ILLUSIONS, AFTERSHOCKS, VIRTUOSITY, THE NET, SPEED 1, HELLRAISER 4, HIDEAWAY, THE AMAZING PANDA ADVENTURE, OUTER LIMITS (1990s), DOCTOR WHO, DEADLY GAMES, STRANGE LUCK, SPACE ABOVE AND BEYOND (tv series), LEGENDARY JOURNEYS OF HERCULES, XENA WARRIOR PRINCESS, TOP COPS, NOWHERE MAN (tv series), LOIS AND CLARK, SEAQUEST DSV, THE X-FILES, AMERICAN GOTHIC, W.E.I.R.D. WORLD, ALIEN NATION: BODY AND SOUL, STRANGE DAYS, HALLOWEEN 6, FROM DUSK TILL DAWN, SHOWGIRLS, STARSHIP TROOPERS 1, POWDER, GODZILLA VS THE SMOG MONSTER, INVADERS (tv series), WING COMMANDER: THE MOVIE, SCREAMERS. 

SF&F stories referenced: KALIEDOSCOPE CENTURY, WIZARDS SHADOW, SOUL OF THE LION, FAMOUS MONSTERS, INITIATE BROTHER, GATHERER OF CLOUDS, EVOLUTION, RESURRECTION MAN, STEEL BEACH, THE MOHOLE MENACE, OUT OF THIS WORLDS, HOMECOMING, RING OF SWORDS, SKIN, FATHERLAND, FLIES FROM THE AMBER, COELISTIS, DEAD MR MOZART, ROBOT CITY (book series), DHALGREN, AXIOMATIC, GREATWINTER SAGA (book series), 1945 (novel), BUTCHER BIRD, THE BASTARD PRINCE, PURAGTORY, THE BIG U, ZAP GUN, A SORCEROR AND A GENTLEMAN, THE ARMLESS MAIDEN, THE AVATAR, NEW LEGENDS, THE LAST STARSHIP FROM EARTH, SECRET IMMORTALS, LOVELOCK, GENELIAN: PLANETFALL, HITLER VICTORIOUS, RATS AND GARGOYLES, KING AND RAVEN, COMING HOME, WELL AT WORLDS END, A BREACH IN THE WATERSHED, THE RUINS OF AMBRAI, ICEWIND DALE TRILOGY (book series), PASTEL CITY, DYING INSIDE, SHOTGUN CURE, THE WEREWOLF PRINCIPLE, FIFTH HEAD OF CEREBUS, THE KO CONSPIRACY, VAMPIRE$, CINNABAR, PRISONERS HOPE, WOMAN WITHOUT A SHADOW, GUILTY PLEASURES, ISOBEL AVENS RETURNS TO STEPHNEY IN THE SPRING, MILLENIUM, THE BIG TIME, THIS PERFECT DAY, WINTER ROSE, THE SARDONYX NET, THE DEATH OF CHAOS, GRYPHON FEATHER, THE STOLEN GODDESS, THE MIRROR OF HELEN, THE PRESTIGE, CLARKE COUNTY SPACE, HUNTING WABBIT, THE AMTRACK WARS (book series), THE MISPLACED LEGION, I ASIMOV, BRIGHTNESS REEF, THE POSTMAN, EREHWON, WRACK AND ROLL, WIZARDS FIRST RULE, AMMONITE, THE LAST OF THE WINE, THE STAR FRACTION, TERMINAL FREEDOM, SPECULATIONS INC, THE GOLDEN NINETIES, D-99, FOOTFALL, IROSHI, ISLANDS IN THE NET, YOU CAN GO HOME AGAIN, STAR OF THE GUARDIAN, CITY OF BONES, ELEMENT OF FIRE, SHRODINGERS CAT TRILOGY (book series), FREE LIVE FREE, CONSIDER PHEBLAS, HEADCRASH, QUASAR, THE WITCHES OF KARRES, THE COLOR OF DISTANCE, WHAT MAD UNIVERSE?, CHICKS IN CHAINMAIL, THE GOD-FEARER, EVOLUTIONS SHORE, PHOENIX AND MIRROR, BAKERS BOY, THE BLOODY RED BARON, SHADOWS END, A FIRE UPON THE DEEP, TRUE NAMES AND THE OPENING OF THE CYBERSPACE FRONTIER, HEIRS OF EMPIRE, HISTORY OF FANNISH ART, ENDYMION, MASKERADE, FREEZE FRAMES, HOT TIME IN OLD TOWN, GATE TO WOMENS COUNTRY, BELGARATH, THE CRYSTAL STAR, CANDLELIGHT, EXILES, HISTORICAL GAMES, A SONG CALLED YOUTH. 

Pop culture references: "..our culture's Madonna-whore complex" (from a SFLer review of SPECIES 1), alt.sex.stories, a whole field of metaphysics devoted to the study of memes, the VOYNICH MANUSCRIPT, 1990's pop culture's fixation on the 1960s, BORDERS bookstores, the standard price of a paperback SFF novel being $5.99, "Minneapolis-based gothic folk-duo THE FLASH GIRLS, "van Dannikin-style cults", the Carnegie Mellon Tartan college newspaper, a cancelled 1995 (OJ) Simpson interview on NBC, GODZILLA BATTLES GAMERA IN OSAKA.

Technology callbacks: a virus protection program called GateKeeper being referenced in the 1995 movie THE NET, floppy disks, Video Toaster CGI rendering, BITNET networking, David Wingrove of Chung Kuo series co-authoring a MYST the CDROM game novelization, AOL.COM SFF web portals, the etaoin shrdlu keyboards on Linotype machines, the Martian Chronicles CDROM game. 

1995 Death notices: John Brunner, SFF author. Jack Finney, SFF author & SFF-Horror scriptwriter.

SFL requests/discussion topics:

> Baudino: series

> Roger Zelazny

> Sex in Mercedes Lackey Novels

> The amazingly weird plotlines in the JUDGE DREDD comics

> The publishing ethics of Larry Niven, Piers Anthony, etc

> L. Ron Hubbard

> Dan Simmons HYPERION series 

> David Weber/Honor Harrington

> David Wingrove/Chu Kuo defense squad posting

> SF adapted to comicbook format

> Gregory Benford works

> ???Piers Anthony??? Good Books?

> L'Engle's books banned??

> Computer Sentience

> Philip K. Dick and why's he so great?

> Nicola Griffith's AMMONITE

> What Happened to John Norman and the Gor Books

> (Larry) Niven Starter Request

> Martha Wells books

> Gene Wolfe discussion

> Harlan Ellison Vapor-books

> Sime/Gen series

> (Greg) Bear Does Not Suck 

-People start commenting on how extremely messed up John Barnes KALIEDOSCOPE CENTURY is. When the iron-gutted people of SFL Archives 1995 think a SFF story is deeply messed up, it is going to be extremely beyond deeply heavily messed up by 2021 SFF standards.

-The six dreaded words that doom many reading attempts in fiction: "I DIDN'T CARE ABOUT THESE PEOPLE".

-Throughout the history of the SFL Archives, this question has been asked more times than anything STAR WARS or STAR TREK or BABYLON 5 related.......Does anyone know what happened to David Palmer, author of EMERGENCE/Did David Palmer write a sequel to EMERGENCE?

-Periodic HONOR HARRINGTON book series discussion. Mostly notable for 3rd party hearsay of Weber having signed a 16 book contract with BAEN BOOKS sometime in late 1995, and the existence of the "DO NOT KILL LIST" for certain Honorverse side characters.

-Russian SF: A Candid Recent History explaining why most of the Russian SFF published during the 1990s is reprintings of Russian samizdat era SFF.

-DRAGON-CON 1995 & the 1995 NASFIC conventions were scheduled together to run at the same time and same site in Atlanta Georgia USA. SFLer NASFIC attendees were not prepared for the amount of games & comics at DragonCons & the lack of handicapped access, and most everyone noted the bad culture between DragonCon managed panels/artwork sales vs NASFIC managed panels/artworks. Some of the more hysterical NASFIC SFLer's swear they witnessed pornstars giving autographs in the dealers room/saw hardcore porn being sold in the dealers room. Other more stable SFLer's noted the alleged "pornstars giving autographs" were B-Movie stars and the tapes were B-Movies.

-LYONESSE aka Ermonie aka Parmenia being the legendary lost land between Cornwall UK and the Scilly Isles in lots of UK folklore & myths, which many SFF authors have implemented in their own stories. 

-WORLDCON 1995 aka INTERSECTION 1995 happens and no-one who attended it was happy. The site choosen for Intersection 1995 was a massive compromise/test to see if the bid committee behind Intersection 1995 could actually reserve a site of such a size, the site was massively handicapped unfriendly at all levels, beyond terrible Worldcon event scheduling, ultra beyond terrible placement of Worldcon events, unfriendly convention venue staff. Unfriendly security guards, hotels blocks apart, hotel party corkage fees, and the disconnect between USA style convention parties with free food and the EU/UK convention goer reactions to "free food" convention parties (hoard of vultures descending and elbows being thrown like being in a rugby match at the free food tables got mentioned hard). Finally, the Intersection 1995 management people tried shaming local aka "living in the UK" convention attendees into volunteering extremely hard during convention id signins, demotivating many casual UK SFF fans while managing to piss off a bunch of dedicated hardcore UK SFF fans. Plus something about the filk room having a superb rendition of the American Princess Cat Song.

-SPACE ABOVE AND BEYOND premieres and many SFLers post about it. SAAB is one of the vaguely remembered SFF tv-series that I have been waiting to see appear in the SFL Archives. Many SFLers tear apart the pilot episode & first two normal episodes of SAAB, pointing out various things that don't make sense. (The F-18's, non USMC haircuts, the short boot camp for pilot-commandos, the tankee clone underpeople, the viewpoint character being a massive fuckup, et). Some SFLers gradually warm up to SAAB over the fall/winter of 1995, while others continue to rip it apart. 

-Neil Gaiman headlining a COMIC BOOK LEGAL DEFENSE FUND event to fight censorship at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco CA USA  on Halloween 1955.

-Notes on the 1995 WSFS Business Meeting Report.

-First mention of the upcoming 1996 Olympic Games to be held in Atlanta Georgia USA. 

(2021 note: Distant echoing horns played in my mind when the 1996 Olympic Games got mentioned. Wondering what the SFL Archives reaction will be to the domestic terrorist bombing of the 1996 Olympic Games and the heroization then demonization of Richard Jewell by CNN.)

-David Feintuch returns to the SFL Archives to respond to various SFLers comments on his SEAFORT SAGA series. Turns out Feintuch was massively depressed when he originally wrote the series, so he wrote what he knew and and made the main character in his SEAFORT SAGA series a massively unstable person that kept screaming at people wanting to help/stopping people from doing basic spaceship safety related things, then always pulling a "IF ONLY I HAD KNOWN!! (not to scream at people wanting to do their spacejobs)" later on. Supposedly Feintuch wrote all 4 Seafort stories at once before getting a publishing contract, and alleged Seafort was much much worse/way more unstable in the original versions of the SEAFORT SAGA stories that Feintuch wrote.

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 22 Sep 95 03:39:33 -0500

From: Dave Feintuch <midave@delphi.com>

Reply-to: sf-lovers-written@Rutgers.Edu

Subject: Re: Prisoner's Hope by David Feintuch

Don Croyle <croyle@fwi.com> writes:

>Yes.  The foreshadowing is more heavy handed and Seafort is still having

>major self esteem problems.

 

   Seafort's self-esteem problems were so much a part of the original

writing (remember all four books were completed before the series was

bought) that it was impossible to remove it completely, even though by the

time Prisoner came out, I had toned it down considerably.

 

>One nice thing is that it's set mainly on a planet so we see more of the

>background society in general.  Looks to me like even in this world

>Seafort is considered to have an overdeveloped sense of responsibility.

 

   Absolutely.  But I never claimed he hadn't...  :) It is one of his flaws

that he can;t seem to do much about.

 

   Hope you liked it.

 

Dave Feintuch

MIDAVE@DELPHI.COM

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 22 Sep 95 03:46:33 -0500

From: Dave Feintuch <midave@delphi.com>

Reply-to: sf-lovers-written@Rutgers.Edu

Subject: Re: Prisoner's Hope by David Feintuch

John Peterson <jpeterso@panix.com> writes:

>I don't know what it is about these books.  The last two have been real

>depressing, but I just couldn't put them down.  Am I alone in this?

 

   Interesting... Things were not going all that well in my life when I

wrote this.  (See the preface to the Science Fiction Book Club edition for

elaboration.)  The depression, which fits in with the story, seemed quite

natural to me at the time.

 

>I think Seafort makes Thomas Covenant look like Mr. Self Esteem.

 

   Hehe.  As I've mentioned elsewhere, I DID tune down the lack of self

esteem considerably from the early versions.  He was a complete basket

case, as originaly written.  I think, though, that you'll see where all

this is headed when you read the final novel, FISHERMAN'S HOPE.  There is,

believe it or not, a reason for his feeling as he does.

 

Dave Feintuch

MIDAVE@DELPHI.COM

------------------------------

-Slight weirdness over who originally published the M John Harrison story ISOBEL AVENS RETURNS TO STEPHNEY IN THE SPRING, with Ellen Datlow offering corrections on it's published history.

-Rutgers University, hosting site of the SFL Archives mailing disables BITNET networking support.

(2021 note: BITNET was a 1980's New England regional computer network.)

-Weirdness about Allen Steele writing HUNTING WABBIT in response to fanzine criticism, and the best way to annoy Allen Steele at SFF conventions

(2021 note: Call Steele Jonathan Frakes/ask for Frakes autograph or point behind him and yell "It's Steve Brown and he's GOT A GUN!")

-XENA WARRIOR PRINCESS the TV series continues to win over SFLers initially doubtful over it. The horniness factor for Lucy Lawless keeps coming up.

-I ASIMOV revealing that Isaac Asimov and Robert Heinlein loathed each other personally, but kept it professional and never discussed their personal views at SFF events.

-SFL Archives reviews of David Brin's BRIGHTNESS reef bringing up references to "van Dannikin-style cults" ??

-Heavy discussion of Nicola Griffith's AMMONITE and gender roles and sexuality, etc.

-What Happened to John Norman and the Gor Books? brings up that John Norman alleged had a No Editing clause on his books published by DAW Books up until new upper management came in at DAW Books.

-"The rastafarian who becomes a death machine by eating yogurt" in Bruce Sterling's ISLANDS IN THE NET.

-Absolutely no-one being able to predict the ending in Gene Wolfe's FREE LIVE FREE from it's opening chapters.

(2021 note: I have never read FREE LIVE FREE so the mention of it's ending involving "giant secret plywood propeller-driven airplanes that have been cruising around in the upper atmosphere since World War 2" sounds utterly insane.)

-An Iain Banks interview where Iain describes the inspiration for the title and plot of CONSIDER PHLEBLAS sounds amazing, but the original link at Iain Banks website shared to the SFL Archives is long-dead.

(2021 note: Think I found the interview:  https://synergetics.io/phlebas/text/banksint02.html )

"Phelbas is the drowned Phoenician sailor in T.S. Elliot's `The Waste Land' which is my favorite poem, if you exclude Shakespeare. Not that I like what Elliot stood for, but he was a genius and `The Waste Land' is his masterpiece. Well, his and Pound's, also of iffy political leanings. I just always like the words, `Consider Phlebas'. They looked good, they sounded good. They just looked like a title somehow. I tried all sorts of titles for the story before I settled on Consider Phelbas, but they all sounded too much like Star Wars. I knew it was a weird title but I though well, if it works it'll just become right for the book. I put in the bit about the sea-change - when Horza is undergoing a Calvin-like transmogrification on top of the crashed, awash shuttle - and in a sense, the whole book is just a yarn about a shipwrecked sailor who falls in with a gang of pirates and goes in search of buried treasure, so the quote-cum-title seemed to fit, and the idea was to hint at a tragic stature to Horza and at a kind of futility." 

-Possible hearsay about Fredric Brown allegedly typing a bunch of his stories on a Linotype machine versus a normal typewriter, because allegedly that's what he was most familiar with due to his early career as a Linotype typesetter.

-SFLers start discussing THE WITCHES OF KARRES stories, and no lie, the Witches of Karres books sounds like one of the rare mil-scifi story series that aged gracefully in the decades since they first came out.

-The Ted White edited issues of Amazing and Fantastic being house-fire disasters/massively entertaining.

(2021 note: I have no damn idea.)

-GODZILLA BATTLES GAMERA IN OSAKA which is a anecdote of the body-actors wearing the GODZILLA & GAMERA kaiju suits cage-fighting during a Osaka Expo convention around the time GODZILLA VS THE SMOG MONSTER came out.  

(2021 note: GAMERA came on strong but GODZILLA won...something about the Gamera kaiju suit being really damn heavy.)

-BucConeer convention aka "Baltimore WorldCon in 1998 Inc." officially becomes a 501c(3) non-profit educational organization.

-Something about D West's (SFF artist) HISTORY OF FANNISH ART article being so outrageous that LAGOON 7 (a fanzine) spent half it's space defending/explaining the HISTORY OF FANNISH ART article.

-Organizers of the ConCom 1995 convention issue a alert to be aware of the wording in your contracts with hotels hosting SFF conventions/SFF convention venues. Aim for "24 hour use", not "24 hour access" in your contracts. ConCom 1995 also had Filksong drama.

(2021 note: My hatred of filksong & filksong chat remains strong.)

-Being published by ZEBRA BOOKS apparently being a scarlett letter situation.

-Daniel Keys Moran and his always moving goalposts of bullshit excuses. As of September 1995, DKM claimed his latest novel, PLAYERS: THE AI WARS has 30 edit notes left and expects it to be published in 1996.

(2021 note: It took until 2011 for THE AI WARS part 1 to be self-published by DKM.)

Then later on when asked why EMERALD EYES, THE LONG RUN, and THE LAST DANCER haven't been reprinted by Bantam Spectra like he said they would be, DKM moves his bullshit excuse goalposts again to now claim that Bantam Spectra is waiting until they have THE AI WARS manuscript in-hand before doing reprints, and that his literary agent is waiting to hear back from Bantam Spectra.

(2021 note: Half expecting it to turn out that DKM's wife was also his literary agent in addition to her previous jobs as a Bantam Spectra talent scout/Bantam Spectra contract negotiator/Bantam Spectra book editor.)

SFL Archives Vol 19b readthrough 01

 SFL Archives 19b

7.8mb raw text file

100% completion, 240 bookmarks

Movies, television shows referenced: THE SHADOW (movie), WAR AMERICAN STYLE, PLANET OF THE VAMPIRES, TIMECOP, ADDAMS FAMILY VALUES, STARGATE (movie), STANLEY KUBRICK'S AI, ILL MET BY MOONLIGHT, ROBERT ANSON HEINLEINS THE PUPPET MASTERS (movie), SOLARIS 1972 (movie), JURASSIC PARK 2, THE HIDDEN 2, INTERVIEW WITH A VAMPIRE (movie), SPECIES 1, ROGER CORMANS FANTASTIC FOUR, ED WOOD, WATERWORLD, JURASSIC PARK 1, ELM STREET 7: A NEW NIGHTMARE, NEAR DARK, VAMPIRE CIRCUS, WITHOUT WARNING, PHANTOM 2040, MARY SHELLYS FRANKENSTEIN, EARTH 2, ALIEN NATION (tv series), M.A.N.T.I.S. (tv-series), SEAQUEST DSV, X-FILES (tv-series), GARGOYLES, SPACE PRECINCT, DARKROOM (tv-series),TIME TRAX, THE INVADERS (tv-series), MIGHTY MORPHIN POWER RANGERS, RED DWARF, THE TOWER OF INVERNESS (radio), LOIS AND CLARK, LOST IN SPACE (tv-series), STAR TREK GENERATIONS, SLIDERS (tv-series), BIONIC EVER AFTER?, THE THING (cartoon), CARL SAGANS CONTACT, THE GREEN SLIME, TEKWAR (tv-series), RUBY: THE ADVENTURES OF A GALACTIC GUMSHOE (radio), JOHNNY MNEMONIC.

SF&F stories referenced: RIFTWAR series, MISTWALKER, DEERSKIN, THE FIRES OF PARATIME, SERPENTS EGG, IRON DRAGONS DAUGHTER, HOMECOMING, A PLAGUE OF ANGELS, A COLLEGE OF MAGICS, 300 YEARS LATER, THE VOYAGE, THE GATE TO WOMENS COUNTRY, CADBURY THE BEAVER WHO LACKED, CHINA MOUNTAIN ZHANG, THE DRACULA TAPES, MALLWORLD, AURIAN, A NEOFANS GUIDE TO CONFUSION (non-fiction?), THE JAGUAR PRINCESS, TERMINAL COMPROMISE, SILICON MAN, BORRIBLES: ACROSS A DARK METROPOLIS, THE FERMATA, GLORY SEASON, A PRINCE AMONG MEN, WARPATH, CITY OF THE IRON FISH, PRINCE OMBRA, UNDER THE MOONS OF MARS, REVENGE OF THE ROSE, ONLY FORWARD, HEAVY WEATHER, GROWING UP WEIGHTLESS, REPLAY, WAY OF THE CLANS, FIELD OF DISHONOR, GODS OF THE WELL WORLD, THE MOUSER GOES BELOW, INVERTED WORLD, WORLDWAR: IN THE BALANCE, LOVE AND SLEEP, TROUBLE AND HER FRIENDS, PARIS IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY, THE WELL FAVORED MAN, THE BROKEN GOD, THE SHATTERED SPHERE, FALLEN ANGELS, DOWN IN FLAMES, DIAMOND AGE, USE OF WEAPONS, TAM LIN, THE WATERWORKS, FLYING TO VALHALLA, THE TOJO VIRUS, INTERSTELLAR PIG, MAGEWORLD series, GREENTHIEVES, NOT FOR ALL THE GOLD IN IRELAND, THE HANDS OF LYR, GRAVITYS RAINBOW, DANNY DUNN series, MARTIAN TIME SLIP, LONG SHOT FOR ROSINANTE, BROTHER TO DRAGONS COMPANION TO OWLS, MINERVA WAKES, MOTHER OF STORMS, BEGGARS AND CHOOSERS, CHILD OF AN ANCIENT CITY, RED PROPHET, WHAT IF? 1. 

Pop culture references: TEKMUMEL RPG, TRAVELLER RPG, PARANOIA RPG, GURPS UPLIFT, MAGIC: THE GATHERING card game, Geraldo breaking into Al Capone's vault, River Phoenix being cast in BROKEN DREAMS (in-development movie) before overdosing, doing CD-ROM movie projects, Dave Thomas of the WENDY'S food chain appearing in BIONIC EVER AFTER?.

Technology callbacks: a True Type font-set used to print artist Real Musgrave's runes on computers, the CERN WWW Virtual Library Subject Index, the Jack Vance World Wide Web Archive, "nootropics and a file of brain-stimulating VR", files being available in ASCII LaTEX and PostScript versions, extended ellipses breaking Macintosh word-processing software, the 2nd Conference On Computers Freedom And Privacy, owning a notebook computer with a pen interface and 250mb of disk, radio shows using the Neumann Ku81 Kunstkopf "dummy head" to produce binaural audio, the JPL and High Altitude Observatory reporting that when the Pioneer probe broke the speed of sound it registered the bow-shock of a sonic boom "while in space", "BOO programs" which were utilities for converting binary files into a format that was only printable characters, the SMOFBase Project, "sail" the multiplayer sailing game that used to come with BSD systems.

1994 Death notices: Robert Lansing, TV and movie actor. Robert Bloch, SFF & Horror author.

SFL requests/discussion topics:

>Crossover Fantasies & Multi-volume books

>the golden art of creating a conspiracy/hundred+ year plots to dominate humankind stories

>Wide World Web SF/F/Horror Links

>Significant inventions predicted in SF

>Dated Science Fiction

>Science Fiction with Specific Dates

>SF for Children

>Is Kurt Vonnegut considered SF?

>Libertarian SF

>Russian SF is the best!

>First SF Heroine of Color

-SFL Archives Vol 19b starts off with a mea culpa about extended SF-LOVERS mailing list downtime. Server hardware failures, mailing list problems, 8k backlog of email messages to go through, etc.

-Extreme amounts of BABYLON 5 content. JMS started posting to the SFL Archives heavily in SFL Archives Vol 19b, so there was a overwhelming amount of Babylon 5 content in Vol 19b, even after drastic pruning out of redundant messages by the SF-LOVERS mailing list moderator. So extreme, the mailing list moderator was getting 5000 emails a week about BABYLON 5, which is insane numbers considering how limited access the Internet was/the small amount of Internet users in 1994. Each new episode of Babylon 5 airing on TV resulted in 4-5 enormous dedicated Babylon 5 SFL Digests as SFLers live-posted their reactions and theories. 

JMS posting directly to the SFL Archives & GEnie online service in 1994 was good and bad from a historic viewpoint. JMS was extremely online even by 2021 standards, and JMS got very involved in responding/posting/debunking/bragging about Babylon 5 in the SFL Archives.

(2021 note: The amount of BABYLON 5 content in 1994 Volumes 19a & 19b burned me out on BABYLON 5 fandom. I started skipping & heavily skimming B5 SFL Digests around September 1994 the same way I skim & skip reading X-Files, SeaQuest DSV, or Earth 2 dedicated SFL Digests.) 

-The internet troll obsessed with hating on Raymond Feist's RIFTWAR series ripping off the Tekumel RPG returns to the SFL Archives. No mentions of their having a 300+ bullet point comparison list of "similarities" between Tekumel RPG & the much later Riftwar books this time though.

-Discussion of the deepness & multi-layered-ness of Samuel R Delany's writing happens sporadically throughout Vol 19b. Delany's tenure as a college professor comes up a few times,as well as a few anecdotes from Delany interviews/personal appearances at events worldwide.

-High level summary of the Hugo WSFS 1994 Business meeting: A bunch of new proposed amendment changes for future Hugo Award categories & nominations: example, should the Hugo's acknowledge the differences between electronic SFF fanzines vs physical SFF fanzines?

-READERCON convention going on hiatus due to organizer burnout, drama and vandalism problems at MINICON 1994. Most 1994 convention drama hinges on the subject of convention "party rooms" and whether or not those "party rooms" should be dry/serve alcohol or allow smoking or card people for admittance. Anti-ghost reservation policies being implemented by hotels. "The Adam's Mark Hotel will not permit any guest to cook in their room." A smaller part of 1994 convention discussion is about Accessible services for disabled patrons, and how most hotel-convention venues fail to implement even the most basic measures for disabled patron access.

(2021 note: From a 2021 perspective, most of these arguments and emotional rebuttals are extremely "WTF -stares intently." tldr: Basic things that would never fly in the modern era of social media kept flying with malicious intent in SFF conventions & events of the 1930s - 1990s.)  

-TSR's brilliant business plan that would lead to bankruptcy within 6 yrs starts delivering dividends: SFLer's start off-handedly mentioning encountering piles of TSR Dragonlance books every time they visit bookstores.

-"Most of the incidents involve far more blood-letting than the law of averages would require, but I suppose that's why carnophiles read carnography" -from a review of David Drake's 1994 novel THE VOYAGE.

-The KIRK POLAND BAD PROSE COMPETITION at READERCON conventions. Essentially EYE OF ARGON readthroughs 2.0 with the same mean-toned malicious established authors "punching down" intent.

-Daniel Keys Moran discussion: The Last Dancer, The Long Run, why hasn't Bantam Books re-published any of DKM's work. Near the end of 1994, DKM posts a 1994 status update to the internet, and it is notable mostly for things that failed to happen/things that DKM failed to write/DKM being in absolute denial about Bantam Book's total done-ness with him.

-The weirdness of Philip K Dick stories. If a ending in a PKD story has a coherent ending, you can tell it wasn't written by PKD. CADBURY THE BEAVER WHO LACKED gets brought up. 

-CHUNG KUO series fixation on fake/historical/futuristic/imaginary Chinese culture, and extreme torture-muderporn elements. Anyone who is a Chung Kuo series fan invariably defends the extreme torture-murderporn elements in it as being a core storytelling piece of the setting.

-TRAVELLER RPG plot device of humans on many worlds referenced in relation to Iain Banks Culture series. TRAVELLER RPG also mentioned during discussion of Cherryh's CHANUR series (the TRAVELLER Aslan race being eeriely similar to the Cherryh's hani race.)

-One of Tanith Lee's stories undoing a beheading by talking to a magic sword and convincing it that it had never killed anybody.

-"Did Herbert write any notes for a new Dune book before he died? If so, I would have thought that one of his children (Brian, maybe) would have tried to publish the material by now."

(2021 note: Extreme laughter.)

-A brief appearance of Battletech novel pre-Clan invasion meta-plot discussion.

-Periodic discussion of L Ron Hubbard and his SFF work & his legacy throughout Vol 19b. It was very rare for more than one to four L Ron Hubbard related messages to appear in a month.    

-S.P. Somtow's 1981 short story collection MALLWORLD having references to a space station described as the most fashion and trend oriented spot in the Solar System. That space station: BABYLON 5.

(2021 note: JMS, creator of the BABYLON 5 tv-series, had a "WTF?" response to this message).

-SF author Ken MacLeod appears for the first time in the SFL Archives to post Iain Banks explaining his Culture setting for people unfamiliar with the Culture setting or who wanted technical details behind the Culture settings.

(2021 note: These notes can be found in full at http://www.vavatch.co.uk/books/banks/cultnote.htm )

-More discussions of SFF professional authors vs fandom interaction, SFF professional authors vs newbie authors, SFF professionals being utter assholes or amazing people depending on when/where/how you interacted with them.

-Artificial womb technology in SFF discussion which started off heavily in Bujold SFF territory peaks with Jo Walton deciding to post her views on pregnancy.

-Mike Resnick starts posting to SFL Archives, and from a 2021 perspective, Resnick's posts to the SFL Archives are mostly humble-bragging about being a editor-author and the strict guidelines he follows (laughs). Katherine Kerr, Jo Walton, Vonda McIntyre, and Peter David also periodically post to the SFL Archives but are way more tolerable. Lev Grossman, author of the Magicians book series also appears to have started posting to the SFL Archives.

-STARGATE 1994 movie discussion, from marketing of the movie to release. Most SFLer's liked the look & gobs of money obviously spent on the production, but hated the actual movie and wanted 100% accurate answers as to how all the technology in the movie worked asap.

(2021 note: The SFL Archives reaction to STARGATE 1994 was one of the things I have been waiting for. Their reactions are funny in retrospect, since everything they wanted answered and more got answered by over 147 hrs of tv-content just counting Stargate SG-1.)

-Periodic discussion of the DEATH GATE CYCLE book series, periodic discussion of David Eddings stories, periodic discussions of Stephen Donaldson, periodic discussions of Brust's Taltos series, periodic discussion of Cherryh stories, and Bujold and Tad Williams, and Neal Stephenson, and Orson Scott Card, and etc, etc.

-Stenn Sigurdsson returns to post another forwarded statement from David Brin to the SF-LOVERS mailing list. This time David Brin talks about his latest novel GLORY SEASON and teases more Uplift series fiction.

(2021 note: I have only noticed Stenn Sigurdsson appearing in the SFL Archives to post forwarded David Brin messages, which is why I referred to Stenn Sigurdsson as a "friendly David Brin sock puppet account" in my past SFL Archives readthrough posts.)

-Robert Anson Heinlein discussion part 43439: Heinlein's legacy, Heinlein's influence, Heinlein writing his wife Virginia into 95% of his later stories, the differences between the RAH Puppet Masters 1994 movie vs the published book versions, etc. Even the most ardent Heinlein Defense Squad poster vehement about defending Heinlein's writing never brings up I WILL FEAR NO EVIL, and IWFNE never gets mentioned in recommended Heinlein reading lists. 

-White Wolf Publishing now owning the rights to Michael Moorcock omnibus reprints.

-PARIS IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY, Jules Verne's "lost novel" is finally published. SFLers read it, try to tear apart the predictions Verne made, but mostly wonder if the novel is fake similar to Clifford Irving's fake autobiography of Howard Hughes.

-Sime/Gen callbacks. Interdependency of the two mutated races, the math being way way off if the parastic race doesn't immediately kill off the victim race, etc.

-More David Weber & Honor Harrington series chat. There is a few dedicated SFL Digests exclusively about Honor Harrington near the very end of December 1994.

-More feedback over FALLEN ANGELS, the terrible in every way SF book about how SFF fandom saves the day in a terrible future world where liberals have taken over the world and dumpstered funding of all hard-sciences to instead fight global warming & racism through prayer and telethons. 

-A brief resurgence of Larry Niven KNOWN SPACE chat, mostly focused on the Kzin and the various what-if elements brought up by other authors and Niven's abandoned DOWN IN FLAMES. 

-Discussion of the JURASSIC PARK movie and the various bloopers that made it into the final theatrical cut. Plus SFLers debate which scenes were CGI or physical dinosaur models

-Iain Banks story discussion. Recaps of earlier Banks interviews, heavy discussion of who was who in USE OF WEAPONS, comparisons of Banks non-SF stories, various discussion of Banks Culture stories along with that previously mentioned A FEW NOTES ON THE CULTURE link provided by Ken MacLeod.  

-ROBERT ANSON HEINLEINS THE PUPPET MASTERS comes out and 99.999% of the SFLers who saw it loved it. Only issues they had was that the female lead in it was NOT a Heinlein-ian busty redhead, and that there was not enough nudity in the movie, even though it was a perfect opportunity. Lack of nudity in RAH's PUPPET MASTERS was a subject brought up repeatedly and mentioned more than actual discussion of the movies plot or the twist of exactly when the older scientist character got puppet mastered in the film. 

-The weird background of A.E. Van Vogt including a brief stint of Van Vogt promoting NULL-A, the other-other non-religion religion founded by SFF writers of the 1930s-1950s?

-WITHOUT WARNING, a end-of-the-world tv-movie aired without promotion that invoked WAR OF THE WORLD vibes from people. SFLers tear apart the inaccuracies in it while liking the concept and wishing more types of that series happened.

-THE TOJO VIRUS rivalling Winn Schwartau TERMINAL COMPROMISE in datedness (by 1994 terms) in computer technology, and racism, and Japanophobia. 

(2021 note: Schwartau's TERMINAL COMPROMISE was extremely terrible on all levels. If even 1994 SFLers called it dated and bad, you know THE TOJO VIRUS is something truly terrible.)

-EARTH 2 premieres, and SFL reaction to it is mixed. The plot grabs some, others want hard technical details on everything, others hate/love certain actors, and a few wonder why Steven Spielberg choose Earth 2 versus other more worthy seeming SF tv series.  

-MIGHTY MORPHIN POWER RANGERS. Why certain characters got recast, why the white ranger appears solo, why the robots do things, how the 3 different Japanese series MMPR pulls from do things better or different.

-RED DWARF actor Craig Charles arrested in the UK. 

-STAR WARS chat returns thanks to George Lucas promoting the Star Wars Episodes 1 through 3 movies he is currently scripting out and doing pre-production work for. BANTHA TRACKS makes it's first reappearance in the SFL Archives since long ago in SFL Archives Vol 01.

-In another callback to SFL Archives Vol 01, Dr. Robert Forward the SF author starts getting discussed. And SFLer's find that their views on Robert Forwards work from way back in 1980 haven't held up, and that Forward is/was laughably terrible at writing people/narratives and only so-so on technology physics/hard science that he's written.

-STAR TREK GENERATIONS comes out and everyone rips it apart. The TOS inclusions seem half-baked, the TNG character work is half-assed and terrible, the plot makes no sense, the Enterprise saucer recovery destroys the no pre-warp contact rule, there should be two or three versions of Picard & Kirk showing up at the finale, and finally the plot makes no sense x30 is the consesus SFL Archives review of GENERATIONS

-SLIDERS the tv-series gets announced and many SFLers wonder if it's based on the similar sounding George RR Martin tv-pilot Portals.

-The SMOFBase Project, a proposed way for SFF fandom to share contact links & convention information via one internet website. The SMOFBase Project is totally not a purity test or way of measuring who has the most SFF fandom contacts. 

(2021 note: Yes, the SMOFBase Project totally sounded like purity test way of measuring who has the most SFF fandom contacts.)

-Winners list for the THE BALROG AWARD gets posted to the SFL Archives.

-Orson Scott Card making a tone-deaf dedication to his grandfather in his Alvin the Maker novel RED PROPHET.

(2021 note: Essentially OSC's great-grandfather illegally colonized the Kainai Nation reservation lands while the Kainai Nation was suffering from a smallpox epidemic that OSC's great-grandfather probably kicked off on them.)  

SFL Archives Vol 18b readthrough update

 SFL Archives Vol 18b is a 7.3mb raw text file

100% completion, 189 bookmarks

Did not expect to hate almost everything that came up in SFL Archives Vol 18b.

SF&F movie & tv-series mentioned:  SEAQUEST DSV, LOIS & CLARK, ARE YOU AFRAID OF THE DARK, POPE OF UTAH, TIME RUNNER, ROBINSON CRUSOE ON MARS, THEM, 12:01, FORBIDDEN PLANET 1956, THE OSCAR, CONEHEADS, PRISONERS OF GRAVITY, BLACK RAIN, FORTRESS, MIGHTY MORPHIN POWER RANGERS, HIGHLANDER (tv-series), BRISCO COUNTY JR, CARNOSAUR, DEMOLITION MAN, MISFITS OF SCIENCE, TRANCERS 4, FIREBALL XL5, STAR TREK VOYAGER, SPACE GIANTS (anime), JOHNNY NEMONIC, ROBOCOP 3, JOSH AND S.A.M., MAN'S BEST FRIEND, MOTORAMA, STARGATE, EARTH TWO (tv-series), VIPER (tv-series), 

SF&F story mentions: THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY, A FIRE UPON THE DEEP, FORBIDDEN PLANET 1956, RAFT, THE FOREVER WAR, HARVEST, SYSTEMIC SHOCK, ELEMENT OF FIRE, DUNN'SCONUNDRUM, THE GOD PROJECT, ARCHITECT OF SLEEP, WHITE QUEEN, THE VISUAL GUIDE TO AMBER, COLD ALLIES, WHEN TRUE NIGHT FALLS, VIRTUAL GIRL, THE CYGNET AND THE FIREBIRD, GROUNDTIES, BLACK SKY, LIEGE-KILLER, ARISTOI, THE FLYING SORCEROR, SONGS OF CHAOS, EVENT HORIZON, ARTIFACT OF THE SYSTEM, THE STARS SHALL ABIDE, FOLK OF THE AIR, T.H.E.M., ALIEN ISLAND, THE WORLD ASSUNDER, THE JADE ENCHANTRESS, WORLDWAR: IN THE BALANCE, EVERVILLE, SEEKERS MASK, THE COLD EQUATIONS, PALIMPSETS, PASSION PLAY, A NIGHT IN LONESOME OCTOBER, BEST OF HENRY KUTTNER, THE CASE OF THE TOXIC SPELL DUMP, DOOMSDAY BOOK, ONLY YOU CAN SAVE MANKIND, SECOND CONTACT,

Pop Culture: xrefs in texts, Lord Haw-Haw the war criminal, "power gamers", Titanaide cosplay at Conadian, reverse Kafka stories, Toaster video animation/CGI, Filksongs getting mentioned in the Wall Street Journal, EPI-LOG Winter Special #1, the "rn" Unix newsreader, the early Bladerunner 1982 script that was a comedy before Ridley Scott got involved, the various computer technology items featured in a 1993 Aerosmith music video,

SFL requests/discussion topics

>nuclear war movies

>Libertianism in SF

>where's the technology (in SF stories)

>Is the New Wave dead

>sexy movies

>dystopian future movies

>author pseudonyms

>galactic societies in conflict

>best deacidification methods for books/newspapers/comics

>Science Fiction --?-->Science Fact

>is thiotimoline real?

>SF cultural literacy

>Niven (Larry) Universes

>Vampires and/or Lycanthropy

>Heinlein/Race

>first mention of cybernetics

>Shakespeare in SF

>favorite obscure author

>books on tape (for the visually impaired)

>obscure books

-An interview with the SFL Archives mailing list moderator Saul Jaffe gets posted to the SFL Archives. 

-The mechanics behind organizing a convention: Advice & examples on how make years-future facilities reservations using no-cash bids/actual cash bids. Food & Drinks budget planning.

-The TOR Books editors that started posting in the SFL Archives in 1993 remain total assholes when responding to people throughout 1993, while the Del Rey Books editor posted extremely informative behind the scenes newsletters and remained extremely chill when questioned about Del Rey Books publishing choices.

(2021 note: Totally did not expect to have opinions on Book Publishing houses going into SFL Archives 1993, however now I do. <shrugs>.)

-One SFLer notes the similarities between the 1954 SciFi movie THEM and James Cameron's ALIENS.

-YNGVI IS A LOUSE! discusion crops up again.

(2021 note:Sadly 1993 SFLers are just as clueless about origins of YNGVI as the first time YNGVI IS A LOUSE! came up in the SFL Archives.)

-Annotated version of Vernor Vinge's A FIRE UPON THE DEEP complete with author notes which can be found on the Hugo & Nebula Anthology 1993 CDROM.

(2021 note: Someone uploaded a copy of that CDROM to the The internet archive project (archive dot org) a few years ago.)   

-Thiotimoline, Isaac Asimov's fake chemical compound gets discussed again, complete with the anecodote of thiotimoline coming up during Asimov's final PHD defense review.

-A unique interview with William Gibson about VIRTUAL LIGHT during a VIRTUAL LIGHT book press tour in Dublin Ireland is re-posted to the SFL Archives.

(2021 note: The full interview can be found here: https://nothing2seeherepleasedisperse.blogspot.com/2021/02/sfl-archives-1993-virtual-light-press.html )

-Another periodic mention of John Norman & the GOR book series. This time someone brings up a Seattle WA bookstore with "No GOR" signs everywhere similar to the Slimer/Ghostbusters movie signs. 

-Yet another attempt by SFLer Jeremy York to drum up interest in a comic book series called BEANWORLD.

-First mention of SF&F actor Jeffrey Combs in the SFL Archives, along with why Combs's presence can be worth watching utterly terrible tv-shows or movies.

-The reason why no sequels or followups to Steven Boyett's ARCHITECT OF SLEEP have come out so far in 1993.

(2021 note: The tldr summary is poor publisher marketing, poor editing/editor turnover, poor sales, trapped in limbo while Boyett tries to buy back rights to it).

-George Adamski & Richard Shaver being the driving force behind many early UFO conspiracy theory stories.

-The running theme of WorldCon 1993 aka ConFrancisco 1993 was 120% failure dealing with mailing lists or sending out mail/email/convention paperwork.

-Steven Spielberg giving up on SEAQUEST DSV to focus on a new tv-series called EARTH TWO.

-WORLDCON COMMITTE DECLARES BATMAN NOT FICTIONAL.

-Martha Wells gets mentioned for the first in the SFL Archives when someone asks for feedback reviews on her debut novel ELEMENT OF FIRE.

-Project Gutenberg sends out a press release regarding digitizing the first 4 Edgar Rice Burroughs Mars books, marking one of the earliest mentions of Project Gutenberg in the SFL Archives.

-Much discussion of LeGuin's Tehanu setting, much discussion of Tim Powers, much discussion of Mercedes Lackey, much discussion of Iain Banks, and other authors I refuse to mention.

-The May 1989 Iain Banks interview with JOURNAL WIRED comes up again, complete with the list of all stories Iain Banks had written/worked on up to the point of that 1989 interview.

(2021 note: Bank's Culture books being published in reversed written order is always vastly amusing to me, given how divise CONSIDER PHELBAS is amongst Iain Banks fans.)

-More HIGHLANDER tv-series discussion. Killing off of the female love interest, introduction of the Watchers/Hunters, Richie becoming immortal for real. The overload of immortal femme fatales especially Elizabeth Gracen

-SFLers note how Elizabeth Moon's fiction tends to be unattributed Dungeons & Dragons adventure modules, complete with notRangers, notPaladins, notThiefs, notWizards, notClerics, etc.

-Charles Stross starts re-posting the latest issues of the UK SF&F newsletter ANSIBLE to the SFL Archives.

(2021 note: The Ansible newsletters are always pretty interesting. Seriously considering dumping the detailed SFL Archives readthrough to just check the future SFL Volumes for Del Rey newsletters, and start reading the back-catalogue of Ansible newsletters directly from the source.)

-Dave Langford, the SF author Charles Stross recommended the rest of the SFL Archives check out, starts posting to the SFL Archives. 

(2021 note: Noticed this when Langford posted ANSIBLE 77 to the SFL Archives instead of Charles Stross. Langford maintained/ran the Ansible newsletter as of 1993, unsure who currently manages ANSIBLE).

-First mention & review of the childrens tv-series MIGHTY MORPHIN POWER RANGERS in SFL Archives. Funnily the first person to mention it predicts a swift cancellation before the 1st season of the show airs.

-BRISCO COUNTY JR tv-series discussion. SFLer's like the running joke about Socrates and commonplace future technology being unfeasible or insane sounding.

-Locus Magazine finally not winning a Hugo Award is much discussed.

(2021 note: Locus Magazine has won the Hugo Award many many many many times as of 1993) 

-THE VISUAL GUIDE TO AMBER having a callback to Monty Pythons Lumberjack song in one of the character portraits.

-X Files tv-series premieres in fall 1993. SFL reaction is positive. Lots and lots of X-Files series discussion & speculation. 

(2021 note: Sadly I really don't care about the X-Files tv-series & find X-Files discussion more boring than convention or Hugo/Nebula Award discussion.)

-SEAQUEST DSV premieres and almost everyone hates it. The technology leaps in 30 yrs seems too unreal, the notWesley character annoys people more than Darwin the dolphin, etc. One SFLer is very angry that current to 1993 US Navy regs & submarine specs are not religiously being followed by a SF series set 30+ yrs in the future.

-LOIS & CLARK premieres No lies, L&C got 100% favorable reviews, even the people who tuned in to the show to hate-watch it end up loving the show. Everyone enjoys the eye-candy factor of Dean Cain, Teri Hatcher & Tracey Scoggins. And especially like how Clark is learning how to be Superman publically on the fly & how closely the L&C tv-series matches current-as-of-1993 Superman comics continuity.

-The person with the 30+ modular wizard staff has strong strong strongest opinions on BABYLON 5 & Star Trek.

-EYE OF ARAGON discussion makes a brief comeback along with a 600 page novel submitted to Baen Books called EYE OF HEAVEN that even, allegedly, Baen Books iron-stomached editors couldn't get through.

-Did Heinlein include a Bonsai tree in the CAT WHO WALKS THROUGH WALLS because of Theodore Sturgeon's SLOW SCULPTURE

-"what is Libertarianism in SF" leads to all sorts of classifications and recommended reading lists, with everyone involved in the libertarianism discussion threads becoming deadly serious & jumping to counter-correct other posters. A huge majority of SFL Archives posters self-identify themselves as libertarians.

-First mention of STAR TREK VOYAGER in SFL Archives, with the bonus of Paramount Studios heavily ripping of RED DWARF tv-series for the VOYAGER intial series pitch. 

SFL Archives Vol 14 readthrough update 02

SFL Archives Vol 14

7.5 mb raw text file

100% completion, 104 book marks

-The 1989 Aprils Fool gimmick for the SFL Archives was that there was SFL Digests sent out the week leading up to  April Fools 1989 and for a few days after. AKA No April Fools jok posts allowed in the SF-LOVERS mailing list for 1989.

1989 technology references: Vacuum welding and the real-world feasiblity of Larry Niven Known Space style mono-molecule weapons/devices.

-STAR TREK 5, BATMAN 1989 & James Cameron's THE ABYSS come out. Batman 1989 & The Abyss break brains across the SFL, while ST5 is mostly discussed for the climbing anti-gravity boots & most of the TOS cast acting out-of-character. Peter Jackson's 1989 movie BAD TASTE also gets briefly discussed.

-BATMAN 1989 breaks SFL brains by being unlike the Adam West tv series, unlike the Frank Miller Dark Knight comic series, and by starring Michael Keaton, and Jack Nicholson. The Batcave and how it exists, the Batmobile and Batplane, the heavily armored Batsuit, Bruce Wayne acting weird, The Joker's murderous gadgets,and Batman being a Ninja.

(2020 note: One SFLer made a series of posts so angry and detailed and emphatic about Batman being a Ninja that I now refer to them as NinjaExpert)

-James Cameron's THE ABYSS breaks brains in a more technical way, every third SFL Digest sent between July 1989 - early August 1989 was dedicated to the ABYSS discussion. SFLer hating the various actors, anger at SEALs not doing that in real life, Inconsistencies between the movie and the novelization, aliens, alien cities, scuba, deep sea O2 breathing mixes, and ASCII flowcharts of how diving regulators work, and a whole bunch more. 

-First mention of Iain M Banks CONSIDER PHLEBAS, then discussion of Iain Banks non SF books like WASP FACTORY, etc.

-First appearance of STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION BORG chat.

-Sting the musician-actor's non-DUNE movie acting work.

-One or two SFLer's think John Brunner borrowed the framing device of STAND On ZANZIBAR from John Dos Passos trilogy "USA".

-First rumors of a live action JUDGE DREDD movie, with Sylvester Stallone rumored to be in the Judge Dredd role. 

(2020 note: 1989 SFLer's scoff at that idea, but....yeah. It was real, all of it.)

-Novelization of the Infocom game PLANETFALL gets one positive review.

-The Heinlein Defense Squad tries comparing Robert Anson Heinlein positively to Sir James Burton, but no-one takes the bait.

-The SFWA white knight SFL poster finally and conclusively outs themselves as editor of the fanzine OTHER REALMS, which now explains all the sucking up/worshipful references to SF&F authors, and snitching on any negative to the SFWA/anyone with editorship roles in the SF&F genres. 

-Franchised out SF universes, such as Asimov's Robot City and Roger Zelazny's "Clypsis" series, all of which SFLers are certain will still be discussed/still be published 20 years down the road.

(2020 note: Yeah, that didn't happen. I think 99% of the mentioned franchised out SF universes died out within 18 months of SFL this discussion.)

-A 1989 READERCON flyer describes Samuel R Delany as the "Woody Allen of SF". This comparison aged extremely badly or extremely well depending on how you view Woody Allen & Samuel R Delany.

-A SFLer outs their fetish, TWICE, for Jack Chalker type fantasies where shape changing/physical transformation  and body swapping are key parts of the story.

-SFLer's appreciating when authors put in the work to research the topics they write about in their stories (William R. Forstchen being part of a medieval reenactment catapult crew gets mentioned).

-SFLer's discuss the Penny Farthing bicycle explanation that only happened in the "lost" THE PRISONER episode

-Bad Technology in SF story discussion (Battlestar Galactica, Star Trek, Niven Known Space, etc).

-News that 1980's TV series BEAUTY & THE BEAST starring Linda Hamilton & Ron Perlman is cancelled/not getting renewed on CBS. Meanwhile the ALIEN NATION tv series & QUANTUM LEAP both premiere to mostly positive SFL reaction, and FRIDAY THE 13TH: THE TV series finally gets discussed as the final episodes of it air.

-WorldCon 1989 happens, all of the extended drama over 1989 Hugo Award illegal vote counting is quickly ignored once the physical awards come out.

-Arthurian Mythos discussion crops up again for 6 or so SFL Digests. More reference materials & lists of Arthurian Mythos works get posted.

-Daniel Keys Moran and his threatened thirty three novel series TALES OF THE CONTINUING TIME discussion.

-The Suicide of a West German Hacker involved in hacking a bunch of US government servers/sites gets a brief mention.

(2020 note: The dead hacker, Karl Koch, was one of "stars" or featured people in Cliff Stohl's mostly non-fictional CUCKOOS EGG which discussed how the hackers were detected and how the hackers were eventually arrested.)

-Portage cost for open parties at the Worldcon 1989 hotels got some SFL outrage. So did the SF-LOVERS mailing list getting a unofficial WorldCon (non-Hugo Award), however the biggest thing was very negative reactions to a female author only award being announced/premiered during the 1989 Hugo Awards ceremony.  

-The Willimantic CT book publisher (Zeiss Press?)  that specialized in Gene Wolfe small press runs moves across country to California in July 1989

-The Denver Post newspaper announces a  new Science Fiction themed cable network television channel, to be called the SCI-FI CHANNEL

-An SFLer with way too much time on their hands did a A-Z index listing for everything in the (as of 1989) 4 book series HITCHHIKERS GUIDE TO THE GALAXY by Douglas Adams.

-Another year passes and another solitary SFL question asking if anyone, anyone at all knows if MORIGU: THE DESECRATION by Mark C Perry has a sequel. 

-Dan Simmon's HYPERION, 1st book of William Shatner's TEKWAR series, WAITING FOR THE GALACTIC BUS & it's sequel THE SNAKE OIL WARS, WARDAY, THE ETERNITY BRIGADE, COLD COMFORT FARM, and ACROSS THE COSMOS being supposedly being plagiarized twice by the same person/sold to two different publishers.

-The 1989 version of BACK TO THE FUTURE series discussion focuses on Biff, and the Biff's various timelines, and BACK TO THE FUTURE 3.

-TOR Books doing a total recall & replace on Walter Jon Williams novel ANGEL STATION because of non-existent quality control.

-Fantasy and Science Fiction stories with music or musicians as core pieces of the story.

-Pop Culture Vampire & Werewolf Lore, and how to stop/cause Vampire & Werewolf outbreaks discussion.

-Request for advice on long term storage of Books in a warehouse/self-storage facility.

-1989 version of Matter transportation discussion: What is the Earliest Matter Transportation story in existence?

-A DIANE DUANE identity thief-impersonator-imposter has re-appeared and is active in the U.S.A. after a decade long break/prison time.

-The very first SFL Archives mention of BABYLON 5,the tv series about 2 years before I expected it.

------------------------------

Date: 3 Oct 89 19:56:57 GMT

From: jas@isi.edu (Jeff Sullivan)

Subject: Re: ALIEN NATION - Just another cop series.

J. Michael Straczynski is trying to package a SF series of his called

"Babylon 5."  He says that it will do for SF on TV what Hill Street did for

Cop stories.

We'll see.  He says the financing is almost locked, and it should air next

fall.

Jeffrey A. Sullivan

Senior Systems Programmer

Information Sciences Institute

University of Southern California

jas@venera.isi.edu

jas@isi.edu

------------------------------

SFL Archives Vol 11 readthrough update 11

 100% completion, 180 ruthlessly curated bookmarks.

-The SIME/GEN stuff I was wondering about way back in SFL Vol 11 update 02 gets clarified. Sime/Gen is post-apocalypse style S&M co-dependency. Fans of Dungeons and Dragons fans, think of mind-flayers and their "protected client" races.

-SFLer's start compiling list of stories with sentient computers in them, lists of post-Apocalypse stories, and lists of exactly what items SFLer's would bring to the past if subjected to time-travel with moderate advanced warning.

(2020 note: This is where fear of Japan's sudden rise as a unstoppable economic superpower in the 1980's starts making it way into SF stories, with Japan's upcoming "5th generation" of computer systems that would change everything (computer-related) ending up as the boogie-man of more than a few 1980's post-apocalypse novels. 1980's Japan's rise to economic superpower status being built on skyscrapers full of deferred debt plus the "5th generation" of computer systems being 110% vaporware weren't understood until the Japanese economic Bubble burst in the mid 1990's.) 

-Society for Creative Anachronism SFLers chime in on the "weapons policies at conventions" discussion thread, giving examples of how the SCA deals with them in "normal" SCA situations, and anecdotes of real-life PVP combat arena weapons usage.

-One of the sentient computer stories consistently getting mentioned is D.F. Jones 1960's COLOSSUS novels, which did ground-work on the "computer AI takes over the world, thinks Humans massively suck" trope that James Cameron's TERMINATOR movies would make famous.

-Jean Auel's CLAN OF THE CAVE BEAR gets mentioned as being her first novel and having mind-breaking huge sales numbers. Which is why the paperback version of Auel's MAMMOTH HUNTERS will have a 2,000,000 copy first printing. The only modern equivalent I can think of regarding those numbers is JK Rowling and the HARRY POTTER series.

-Larry Niven's KNOWN SPACE/RINGWORLD chat derails intense AMBER series slash Roger Zelazny trivia chat. The Winter 1986 version of Niven chat is about the technology of the Known Space/Ringworld settings and some anecdotes of Niven being bad at math in the Ringworld books.

-HITCHHIKERS GUIDE TO THE GALAXY discussion kicks off with wondering about Zaphod B.'s extra body parts/anecdotes of Douglas Adams having a hard time being identified as THAT Douglas Adams IRL.

-STAR WARS fans start trying to figure out what eras the upcoming prequel & sequel trilogies will focus on.

-Death notices for Ian Marter (DOCTOR WHO series actor) and Roger C. Carmel (original actor of STAR TREK character Harry Mudd). 

-Iain Banks WALKING ON GLASS gets recommended, which marks the first appearance (I think) of Iain (M) Banks in the SF-LOVERS mailing list. 

-1986 SciFi personality David Gerrold talks about what he knows about/what will happen with the upcoming STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION tv-series at the 1986 LosCon.

-Two books that share a theme of first contact with alien intelligence manage to come out within months of each other. The books are CONTACT by Carl Sagan and THE HERCULES TEXT by Jack McDevitt. Diane Duane's SO YOU WANT TO BE A WIZARD has been out in hardcover for a while.

-Colin Baker retires as the 6th DOCTOR WHO actor in December 1986.

-The 1980's version of TWILIGHT ZONE series is cancelled by CBS in December 1986, and the BBC's TV adaptation of the TRIPODS by John Christopher also gets cancelled.

-STAR TREK 4 comes out and SFL reaction is mostly positive but confused by the small amounts of normal Star Trek content in it. So SFLer's focus on what Starfleet spaceships got murked by the Alien probe, which Starfleet spaceship was deploying a (Solar) Sail, why that SF Golden Gate park trash-can didn't blow away when the cloaked Bounty landed, why ionization made the Klingon transporters on the Bounty fail, why/how the 20th century engineer knew 6 inch thick plasteel slabs were needed to hold back that specific amount of water, time-loops, and which of the many Constitution class Starfleet vessels murked by the Alien probe got rebranded as Enterprise NCC-1701-A

-Women constituting 90 percent of the fanzine writing/publishing population in Star Trek fandom is brought up and confirmed by people deep into Star Trek fanzine lore.

-Camille Bacon-Smith's moderately deep dive into Star Trek fanzine culture, Spock Among the Women, is transcribed and shared for educational purposes to the SF-LOVERS mailing list (Spock Among the Women originally appeared in the November 16th 1986 Sunday edition of the New York Times newspaper).