S F COMMENTARY 47 AUGUST 1976 S F COMMENTARY 47 August 1976 48 pages COVER Being a skilful rendition by Irene Fa- gram of the despotic power structure in the Gillespie household - with the Editor of this august journal lying collapsed from overwork, mercifully put out of his misery by a swarm of nearby bc«ks, and purred over tri­ umphantly by Flcdnap, the Absolute Ruler at 72 Carlton Street. I MUST BE TALKING TO MY FRIENDS 4 Editor Bob Tucker Leigh Edmonds Mark Mumper Neville Angove David Grigg Philip Stephensen-payne Joan Dick Eric Lindsay Marc Ortlieb Micheline Cyna-Ta'ng Buck Coulson John Millard Bert Chandler (in absentia) Lee Harding CRITICANTO 21 George Turner reviews The Jonah Kit Peter Nicholls reviews Time Enough For Love Barry Gillam reviews The Undefeated Van Ikin reviews The Wind From The Sun The Best of John W Campbell Pstalemate Derrick Ashby reviews Arrive at Easterwine Mark Mumper reviews Mixed Feelings Neville Angove reviews Mother Was a Lovely Beast Science Fiction Special 13 - Terence Green reviews The Man in the High Castle Christine McGowan reviews The Bitter Pill - Don Ashby reviews Inconstant Moon . .Bruce Gillespie THE GOOD NEUS... S F COMMENTARY IS GOING OFFSET. Well, that is my plan at the moment. The first of the new series of SFC will feature the Editor Printer Publishers long-promised Robert Silverberg Forum. Bruce Gillespie SFC welcomes new subscribers, advertisers, GPO Bex 5195AA, Melbourne and all the help it can get. The price Victoria 3001, Australia stays the same. (03) 347 8902 S F COMMENTARY now has American agents for SUBSCRIPTIONS Australia: the first time in several years. They are $1 per copy; $5 for 5 USA & Canadas $6 for 6 Hank and Lesleigh Luttrell North American agentss 525 West Main Hank and Lesleigh Luttrell Wisconsin 55705 525 V/ Main, Wisconsin 55703 Elsewhere: Send local cash Please send, all subscriptions to them, or cheque converted already marking cheques "Hank and Lesleigh into Australian currency. Luttrell", but say clearly what you are Last stencil typed paying for. 17 September 1976 I MUST BE TALKING TO MY FRIENDS * Readers of SFC have begun to expect that the Bofcon gave plenty of signs that Aussiecon was beginning of each issue will feature Bruce the beginning of an era in Australian fandom, Gillespie's ramblings through his fairly empty rather than the end of one. By the time of mind. But there's no act harder to follow than Aussiecon, we had been campaigning and organis­ oheself, and this time I won't even try. ing for about six years. After Aussiecon, we thought we could rest a bit. Carey Handfield, Not a lot has been happening to me, but a lot among others, had other ideas. Kitty Vigo (the has been happening to my friends Out There - hardest-working fringefan in Melbourne) joined either the people who send me letters or those fandom, and Lee Harding decided to do some­ I meet each Wednesday night at "the new De­ thing about a Workshop book, and Randal Flynn graves". moved to Melbourne, and... Will all you people stop being so busy! * I've just finished recovering from BOFCON the 15th Annual Australian Convention, held this The results include: year at the Palm Lake Motor Inn in salubrious uptown St Kilda, near Melbourne. It was a good * Bofcon, which awarded 1976 AUSTRALIAN S F convention. It was so good that even I enjoyed ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS: it. (I haven't really enjoyed a convention for some time, so I was relieved to find that my BEST AUSTRALIAN SCIENCE FICTION convention-celebrating days are not over.) The Big Elack Mark (A Bertram Chandler) (Hale) All the credit for its success must go to vari­ ous members of the organising team, such as BEST INTERNATIONAL SCIENCE FICTION Carey Handfield and Leigh Edmonds, and lots of 1 The Forever War (Joe Haldeman) (St Martins other people, like Paul Stevens and me, who Press; Ballantine; Crest) had jobs to do. I will give a special pat on 2 Inferno (Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle) the back to George Turner and me for being "resi­ (Galaxy; dent panelists" for a total of 7 hours or so. 3 The Shockwave raider (John Brunner) (Harper & Row; Ballantine) It's always difficult to say why one convention "Down to a Sunless Sea" (Cordwainer Smith) is exjoyable and another is not. Usually it has (Fantasy & Science Fiction) □ost to do with the mood of the convention-go­ er. But on the last day of the convention (15 BEST AUSTRALIAN.FANZINE August), I was determined to take my things back 1 Fanew Sletter (ed. Leigh Edmonds) home in a taxi between 2pm and 4pm (between two 2 Interstellar Ramjet Scoop (Bill Uright) different panels on which I was supposed to ap­ pear). Every time I was going to call a taxi WILLIAM. ATHELING AWARD FOR WRITING ABOUT SCIENCE to leave the place, somebody or other would sit FICTION me down to talk about some interesting topic or 1 "Paradigm and Pattern: Form and Meaning in other. (Mainly it was John Foyster talking The Dispossessed" (George Turner) (S F Com­ about fanzines.) Or on the first night of the mentary 41/A21* )2 3 convention different people kept inviting me 2 Alternate Worlds (James Gunn) (Prentice-Hall) to their rooms and offering me drinks and shar­ 3 "Foundation and Asimov" (Algis Budrys) (Ana­ ing chit-chat...and it was all so good. Special log) thanks tc Andrew Whitmore (whose twenty-first birthday it was) for providing just about the Other awards at Bofcon included: very best convention party I’ve ever attended. The party was still improving when I had to ART SHOW: BEST SINGLE ITEM: to Cindy Smith. leave at 2am (I'd run out of stamina). Special mentions to Greg Gates and Chris Johnson S F COMMENTARY 47 EDITOR I MUST BE TALKING TO MY FRIENDS Bofcon let go, as I say, a wave of exuberance - member of the Workshop and a’ regular visitor to with the result that somebody donated a lot of Melbourne from Tasmania, has agreed to lend me money to the winners of the money to put SFC on its feet. It's a ghastly gamble, of course. If I fail, then I'm THE S F SHORT STORY CONTEST 1976 very poor. But my big plans succeed.'.. 1 "And Eve Was Drawn From the Rib of Adam" * Norstrilia Press has given birth again. (Van Ikin) This time the squawling child, not easily ig­ 2 "The Second Coming" (John Emory) nored, is The Altered I, edited by Lee Harding, Best story by a previously unpublished writers promoted by Carey Handfield, poorfread by Rob "Sex and Violence Among the Irq-sh'lata" (Fran­ Gerrand, introduced by and containing much work cis Payne) of Ursula Le Guin, and produced by the various members of the Australian S F Writers' Workshop. Right at this moment, none of these stories has To me, this is the book about writing - not a publisher, but I'm sure the authors would let about the long years of disappointment, etc, but you see them if you were interested (that's if about how writers begin in the first place. The you are a publisher, of course). The organiser price is $A3.60 (®US4.9O), from Norstrilia Press, of this highly successful event (nearly 100 en­ GPO Box 5195AA, Melbourne, Victoria 3001, tries) was Kitty Vigo, 2 Grattan Place, Richmond, or from Our Man in America, Fred Patten, 11863 Victoria 3121. The judges were George Turner, West Jefferson Blvd, Apt 1, Culver City, Cali­ Lee Harding, and Gerald Murnane., fornia 90230. While Carey is overseas, he might arrange some further roving agents as well. (I Particular congratulations to the two people I hope to review the book at greater length as know from the winners - Van and Frank. I've soon as possible, and I hope to gain a review never met Van Ikin in person, but during recent from a more independent reviewer as well.) months he has sent me the excellent reviews I nearly forgot: the marvellous cover art and which appear in this issue of SFC. He edits his design is by Irene Pagram, and the initial fin­ own excellent fanzine, Enigma. He doesn't, it ancing comes from a whole host of people who seems, attend conventions. Maybe next year. have provided funds on long-term loans. Frank is a medical student with a ferocious * Several months ago, a group of people who met Scottish accent. He lives with other creative at the residence of Kitty and David Vigo decided people in Johnson Street, Collingwood, and he on the framework of an organisation to be called collects books and records and whatever else is THE AUSTRALIAN SCIENCE, FICTION FOUNDATION. It cheap, esoteric, and lying around. sounds suspiciously like an attempt to organise Australian fans (remember Comorg?), but it isn't. I've read all the winning stories from the comp­ The aim is that when Australian^ fans decide to etition. The winners are eminently publishable, organise an event or fund an activity which re­ although I prefer some of the non-winners. I quires the raising of large sums of money, there hope that this competitions happens again in 1977. will be an official organisation to receive such money and guarantee its proper use. The specif­ ALSO ANNOUNCED AT BOFCON... ic. event for which the Foundation has been formed is THE SECOND. AUSTRALIAN S F WRITERS' * George Turner has sold Beloved Son, that WORKSHOP, to be held for three weeks in mid-Jan- 160,000-word child.of his which has been gestat- uary at Monash University.