ALEXIAD (!7+=3!G) $2.00 I Have Been Remiss in Staying Active and in Late January the 145Th Running of the Preakness Stakes Will Be at a Later Date
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Vol. 19 No. 2 April 2020 ALEXIAD (!7+=3!G) $2.00 I have been remiss in staying active and in late January The 145th Running of the Preakness Stakes will be at a later date. resumed exercising because my clothes were starting to get The 151st Running of the Belmont Stakes will be June 6, 2020. tight. I have worked too hard to lose the weight just to gain it back again and so I have resumed walking. I started with four blocks and set myself the goal of adding four blocks every January 28, 2020 marked the anniversary of the Chal- month. It is March and I have just added a third lap of four lenger explosion and the death of all her crew. blocks each. This third lap is requiring no little discipline to keep putting one foot in front of the other. I have set myself April 4, 2020 marks the anniversary of the sinking of my the ultimate goal of walking the more than two mile pedes- father’s ship, U.S.S. Bush. trian bridge separating Louisville from Indiana. Truly — LTM ultimate crazy goal, the Appalachian Trail. I am also bent on losing fourteen pounds this year. It seems unlikely to me that Trivia: . 20 I will see the scales say 149. something on January 1, 2021 but then I never thought I could lose nearly fifty pounds Art: either. Sheryl Birkhead . 13 — Lisa Alexis A. Gilliland. 7 Trinlay Khadro . 2, 14 Table of Contents Marc Schirmeister . 15 Editorial. 1 Reviewer’s Notes . 1 Printed on April 10, 2020 Deadline is June 7, 2020 The Bulge Remembered . 6 Evicting a Tenant . 6 Reviewer’s Notes Horse News . 7 Hugo News . 11 Well, the Hugo nominees are out. And what is the most common Isaac Asimov Signs an Autograph. 9 comment? The Joy of High Tech . 7 “Who are these people?” Nebula News . 10 Darrell Schweitzer pointed out how “Vox Day” had set out to leave Pets . 7 a smoking hole where the Hugos had been. This began, though, as an The Pursuit of the Pankera . 2 effort to promote books that were not being considered — not “Vox Rogue Moon . 9 Day’s” Rabid Puppies, but the “Sad Puppies”, which died eventually. The Unicorn’s Secret. 3 I think no one was looking at their books, and the presumed association was not beneficial. Book Reviews Now influence had happened before: there was the trick by Caz JTM West/Roberts, SNOW. 6 Cazedessus that got ERB-dom the Best Fanzine Hugo (he printed a JTM Cambias, The Initiate. 4 ballot in the zine). Then the author of Battlefield Earth, unable to buy JTM Jenne, Blue Darker than Black . 5 himself a Nobel Peace Prize, tried to get a Hugo Award. That didn’t JTM Jenne, Blue Gemini . 5 work. And then there was the unfortunate event of 1989, complete with JTM Jenne, Pale Blue. 5 implausible explanation (what con would let twenty-five non-members JTM Parker, Humble Pi . 6 into its Art Show?). But “Vox Day” managed to get his list nominated. This provoked Random Jottings . 2 a reaction, which provoked a counter-reaction, down to a Rabid Puppies list that included a gay dinosaur porn story (don’t ask). And Letters . 14 now the nominees have shifted, though I think that part of it is that Sue Burke, Lloyd G. Daub, John Hertz, Robert S. Kennedy, Trinlay book editors aren’t SF people any more, but English Lit grads, who buy Khadro, Timothy Lane, Lloyd Penney, George W. Price, John what they read, and what is read is what is nominated. Purcell, Joy V. Smith Add to this that often, the “Hugo Award Winning Author” got the award for a blog, and we have a devaluation of the award. Perhaps it’s Comments are by JTM or LTM another phase of the fall. Cyril Kornbluth said it: Pascha is April 19, 2020. We do not come again. We do not come. Ever again. The 146th Running of the Kentucky Derby will be September 5, 2020. — Joe Page 2 April 2020 Alexiad January 2021. Written submissions must be 1962. More recently he published eI (available RANDOM JOTTINGS sent electronically, in MSWord format, to: on efanzines.com), with historical items about by Joe SF and fandom, including a reissue of Who [email protected] Killed Science Fiction?. Outside the field, Earl was a publisher of Items for review should be sent to: porno novels, climaxing er ending with an illustrated version of the Presidential Report of The Sherlock Holmes Review the Commission on Obscenity and Pornogra- Attn: Steven Doyle phy, which got him a jail term. 9 Calumet Court He was an eager and enthusiastic recipient Zionsville, IN 46077-1934 and a historic figure in fannish history, and we will miss him. Hugh Lupus has published An Extra Knot Part V (2020, APS Books, ISBN 978- 1789961485; $9.99; Amazon.com Services MONARCHICAL NEWS (Kindle); $4.99), the latest episode in his alter- nate World War II. The Hood goes in for a refit The Prince of Wales has tested positive for in the Boston Navy Yard, having a chat with the coronavirus, and is remaining in isolation. USS Constitution; the latest Rifleman Dodd Reports further indicate that neither the Queen Buy my books. (All available on goes into action in Greece (dealing Death to the nor the Duchess of Cornwall is so infected. Amazon.com for quite reasonable prices, Germans, no doubt), and an agent traverses Prince Albert II of Monaco is also in- except the Hugo-nominated Heinlein’s Chil- Vichy France on a covert rescue mission. The fected. dren, which can be bought from NESFA for a war goes on in different ways. Also infected are Archduke Karl of Aus- reasonable price.) tria, Prince Antonio of Orleans-Bragança, The Arctic cruise ship RCGS Resolute was Prince Francicso of Orleans-Bragança, https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B01BMIC4M at sea off the coast of Venezuela on March 30, Prince Pedro de Alcâtra of Orleans- U?ref_=pe_1724030_132998070 2020 when the Bolivaran Navy of Venezuela Bragança, his wife Princess Maria da Fá- — Advt. coast guard ship GC-23 Naiguatá ordered her to tima of Orleans-Bragança, Prince Alberto of stop, fired a warning shot, and then attempted to Orleans-Bragança, and his wife Princess Sony Pictures Television has announced divert the ship into Venezuelan waters. The Maritza of Orleans-Bragança. that they are bringing out a Doc Savage series, Venezuelans said the ship was engaged in Princess Marie-Thérèse Cécile Zita based on the popular pulp novels by “Kenneth “terrorism and piracy” and was transporting Charlotte of Bourbon-Parma died of Robeson” (Lester Dent, mostly), about a mercenaries. When the Naiguatá rammed the coronavirus at Paris on March 26, 2020. She super-talented, trained from birth, scientific Resolute, the coast guard patrol vessel capsized had been born there on July 28, 1933 to Prince crime fighter. If they keep it a period piece and sank. Xavier of Bourbon-Parma and Madeline de (the books were of the thirties) and stay away The Naiguatá was a Guaicamacuto-class Bourbon-Busset (i.e. she was a descendant of from “this is all kiddy stuff” and “let’s show littoral surveillance ship (Buque de Vigilancia Cesare Borgia!), and studied philosphy at his relationships to all the other pulp heroes” de Litoral), with a displacement of 1453 tons, a Oxford and political science at the Sorbonne. it might be interesting. top speed of 22 knots, armed with one 76-mm Because of her liberal political ideas, she was gun, one 35-mm gun, and two 12.7-mm guns, known as the “Red Princess”. As a follow-up to the The Man In the High with a crew of 34. The Resolute displaces 8378 Castle series, HBO is adapting The Plot tons and has a maximum speed of 15 knots. ¿ÄÅ ¹ ÓÏØÉÁ ÅGÔÉÍ Against America as a mini-series. (Reading And an ice-strengthened hull. [HERE IS WISDOM] the cast list, I notice by its absence the name Commentary by Joseph T Major on of “William S. Stephenson”.) We regret to report the death of Alfred THE PURSUIT OF THE PANKERA: Merrill “Al” Worden on March 18, 2020. A Parallel Novel About Parallel Universes https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9308346/ Born February 7, 1932, Al was a pilot in the by Robert A. Heinlein (NHOL G.183) U.S. Air Force, being selected in NASA Astro- (2020; CAEZIK SF & Fantasy; Martin Morse Wooster calls our attention naut Group 5 in 1966. He was Command ISBN 978-1647100018; $26.99; to the publication of the first of a set of ad- Module Pilot for the Apollo 15 mission, orbiting CAEZIK SF & Fantasy (Kindle); $9.99) ventures of a mild-mannered customs agent the moon in the Endeavour while Dave Scott who in midlife becomes a daring action hero: and James Irwin landed in the LM Falcon. Heinlein had an idea for a novel. He wrote Matthew Henson and the Ice Temple of He is survived by his daughters Tamara, a first draft, but his first reader, Virginia, Harlem by Gary Phillips (2020; Agora Books; Merrill, and Alison. Another moon mission thought it was less than his best, and so he laid ISBN 978-1947993860; $15.00). Anauakaq veteran has passed away. All too soon there it aside. This was during one of his less heal- would be proud of his daddy. will be none left, and those who believe it was thy periods, and indeed he had a Transient all a hoax will be more empowered.