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1 8 Vector 8 THE CRITICAL JOURNAL OF THE BSFA £2.25 August 1996 Bob Shaw 1931-1996 also, Books of the Vear - 1995 & The Science of The Time Machine EDITORIAL INVECTIVE Before the modern era of semi-mainstream acceptance, which is to say before Star Wa n, things were simple. Bookshops were stocked with, in random orde r, Asimov, Ellison, Heinlein, Clarke, Watson, Cowpcr, Priest, Roberts, Coney, Holdstock, Moorcock, Simak, Wyndham, Farmer, Shcc klcy, Bester, Anckrson [Poul], Bradbury, Ballard, Delany, Contents LcGuin, We ll s, Blish, Dick, Zclazny. The only fantasy not in the 3 Bob Shaw 193 1-1996 Children's section was The l...lJrd of the Rings and a few titles in the BoSh remembered and apprcciatc-d by Ballantine Adult Fantasy se ri es. [not what it means today.] Dave Langford, Andy Sawyer, Post-Star Wan everything changed Skl r Trtk returned. D1m,geons and Brian Stableford, and J ames White Dragons spawned an industry, created a new hobby and, eventually, a publishing catagory. Media novelisations went nova, and an entire Year- 1995 Books of the genre, High Fantasy, was born from the continuing enthusiasm for Vector Reviewers pick their favourites, one book: the aforementioned l...lJrd of/he Rings. edited by Paul Kincaid Today many of the above writers have vanished from the shops. Some 12 Cognitive Mapping 3: Aliens as part of the process of the old making way for the new, but others by Paul Kincaid because of the demand for shelf space created by the new forms of publishing- the book of the calendar of the T-shirt of the recipe book 14 WIid Extravagant Theories of the CD-ROM of the RPG of the video of the Theatrical Motion The Science of Tlu Time Machine, by Picture of the 1V show of the comic book, etc. Stephen Ba:1;:tcr Now at the risk of being lynched, I will reveal a personal prcdjudice. I detest high fantasy as a genre, whi le accepting the exceptions which Cow, Art by Sue t-fawn from the cove, of.ti UJdo/0/.d&n!and prove the rule. I also loathe novelisations and spinoffcry in all its courtc1yofBeccon Publiutioru:mdtManist ThebooklctA I.M4of Old &ii, i1 a colltction of wmc of Bob Shaw's 'Serious Scientific Talh' multivarious forms. This may be a sign of my age, but to me these from 1<174 to 1988 and was producrd by Beccon Publications for things have as little to do with SF as the telephone directory has to do Confabulation, the 1995 British Natrona! SF Conwntion. The booklet is with Shakespeare. However, judging by the stock of any bookshop, I 1till available flom Bcccon Pub lications al 73 Rosslyn Avenue, Huold am clearl y of a minority opinion. Therefore, as a reactionary bigot Wood, E.lsn RM3 0RG and is priced £5.50. All p1ofil$ f,om the ule arc donmd to the RNIB Talking Book. fund trying to do my task impartially I would like to know what you, the rcack r, would like to sec in Veaor. Which authors mean something to you? Perhaps more importantly, Publishcd by the BSFA C 1996. All opinion, a,e ue those of the should we be elitist and concentrate only on 'proper' written SF, or N taken as th e views individual eontribu!Ofl ;ind ,hould not necessarily should there be equal room for High Fantasy, non-generic fantasy, ofthecdito, ortheBSFA. EDITOR horror fiction, 'slipstream', surrealism, spin-off novels, media rel ated Tony C ullen 16 Weave1's Way, Camden, pieces, RPGs, computer games, filk, comics and graphic novels, animc, London NW\ OXE Email: g,,_itchhly•.•vn•t.co.uk Hollywood movies ... or arc these things not relevant, or already Fl! AT UJI.F.J EDITORS covered sufficie ntly in other, glossy, magazines? And,"' Butlu - Flat 3. 28 Louis Street, Hull, HU3 !LY Eniibl. A.K.BuU.rhnglish. hull . ac.ut And if you would like to write about any of the above for Vtdor, Gary D•lkin - S Lydford Rend. Bournemouth, DorKt. please write and tell us. We can't promise to print unsolicited articles, RH118SN HARDBACK REVIEWS EDITOR but if you have something interesting to say we will try to fi nd the Pnl ki..c:aid 60 Bournemouth R~ FollcestoM, space for you to say it, regardless of profoundly ingrained, Kenl CT\9 SAZ Enui~ .U_pttcix.ecapulint.co.u\ pathologically illogical editorial prejudices ... PAPERBAC K R EV IEWS EDITOR T• ny• Br-n E7J DuCaMCourt. Balham High Road, So send your abuse to the address below. London, SWJ7 7JL Email ... ,anUthyh.•vn•t-co.ut hy Gary Daikin PRINTED llY! PDC Copyprint. 11 Jeffries Pm;ige Guildford, Suney GUI 4AP 5 Lyclford Road, Bournemouth, Dorset BH 11 SSN Iilfil lffitt111-ilt#tttl iNmftl·t\MiHi /Mi• Ib Orbiter, - Ca rol Ann Green, 5 Ragl an Aven ue, Hui!, HUS 2JB Limircd by guanntec. Company No. 921500. Aw-.rd1 - Ktv McVeigh, 37 Fiu Road, Milnthorpc, Cumbria, U.7 7Qf P11blicity/Promotion1 - 01i1e B1i11lcy, 26 Northampton Road, ,~ffl'f ~jjt#ffiWilni:ummouth Road, Folkestone, Kcnl CT19 5AZ C1oydon, Surrey, CR0 7HA & M11k Pl ummn. 14 Nonliway Road. UK RcJi<knu: £18 or £9 for unw cd I cu. Please en ui1e for oversea. U!CS Croydon, Surrey CR0 6JE London Meetin1 Coordinator - Paul Hood, 27 St11wbcuy Unc, Tipt,ee, R l!NEWAU AND N l!W M l!MBl!RS- PAUL BIi.LiNGER, 82 KELVIN E.!.KxCOS0KX R OAD, NEW CUIJIJINGTON, L EAMINGTON SPA CVJZ 7TQ_ Fon-i1n Liai10n - Bridget Wilkinson, 17 Mimou, 29 Avenue Road, London N\5 ,~;t,iOiiNLit Cf Chauvin, 14248 Wilrml Street, Dc:troit, MI 48.21 3 USA iOIH#IOSi·lktiht®"t'!b Admini1tra1or - Maureen Kincaid Spelle1. 60 Bournemouth Road, FolkeJtonc, Foc,• 1 Ca rol Ann Green, S Raglan Avenue, Hull, HUS 2JB Kent CT\O 5AZ Email: mk,_pkOcu:.compulinluco.uk Julie Venner, 42 Walg11vc Street, Newland Avenue., Hui!, HUS 2LT Treasun,r - Eliubeth Billinger 82 Kelvin R0,1d. New Cubbington, M• tri• Chris Temn, 9 Beechwood Court, Back Beechwood Giove, Leeds, West Leamington Spa CV32 TTQ York1hirc LS42HS Publiu tion1 Manaa:er - S\('VC Jeffery, 44 White Way, Kidlington, Oxon. OX5 2XA Vector 188 • August 1996 Bob Shaw 1931-1996 Wreath of Stars by Dave Langford It's still hard to believe and harder to write: Bob Shaw died discovers an eerie way to sec through others' eyes by on 12 February 1996. The shockwaves of dismay that raced c:lccuonically reading the activity of their optic nerves ... around the sf world (bad news uavcls too fast by Internet) I conducted a fanzi ne interview with Bob in the mid­ signalled the hugeness of the loss. Bob was such a pillar of 70s, and questioned him rather inept.ly about the s~cial our universe, as a lifelong sf fa n, admired writer, popular emotional charge attaching to eyes and vision in his work. s~akc:r, unflappably genial convmation-alist and al l-round It wasn't just that he once suffered a sight-threatening eye good buy, that somehow we never thought he could leave disease (which occasionally flared up again; he would appear the fannish party. Indeed, unless Barry Malzbcrg is still in some hotd bar wearing; dark glasses and obmv~ chafing a bit at Bob's negative: review of &yond Apo& in puzzling fans until the penny dropped, "I take a dim view 1975, it's impossible: to imagine anyone in fandom not of this convention.•). The nasty incident in his novel liking him. Gro1111d ll7TJ Man alias Tht l't4a Mdi11L, where a chap's eye Bob was born in Northern IIdand in 1931; by the end is taken out by a sted reinforcing bar and he cradles it of the decade he'd fallen in love with sf as, he said, an pathetically in his hand, actualJy happened to a boyhood escape from the dullness of suburban BdfuL In 1950 he friend and stuck in Bob's imagination all his life. The discovered fandom and fanzines, and was soon £:a.mow in migraine-induced visual disturbances which I'd found so these in ner circles - the Wheds of IF or Irish Fandom - as fascinating; in The TtH-Timm were part of routine existence 'BoSh'. As every fanzine tin knows, he and Walt Willis for Bob, who went through this subjective: light-show wrote 77,e Enchanted DMpliulor ~ -----------7 (banicf11.11ia si,re do/ore) about twice (1954), which is the Pi/pim's Newcomers would be a year. I've never bttn so gr.ucful ~~ 0 nd !r: ;u~~~ ~~:n, al~ mystified as the bars !~ ~eb 1::d8~ t s~:~:fg:~ti:~c:it ~r:a~~:nak ~~s;lasbu~~f!~~ j:~ emptied and the entire ;~i~\~ndre:;~i;;c~f;0 :a:bj;; :~;ti1~~:;;erb%~u~t1~'.msc:lf at membership crowded to !:~:~1:ri~;~non about which colu:nis(a ~;;le ~j~~;pbe~ai!: hear a presentation and l~rt;r E~;:1o;~l: ~/:f;f:~ its first iss ue) was called 'The Glass called, say, 'The you all the facts; the inventor of ::~~~·c ;::s;, tiintimh}~ Bermondsey Triangle ::: ~::; fa:!i~~r t t:U:!co} !~ w;:e:~~nlr0 kt!~ft~sh11~ MyStery' t:,;t;;,u~trt~o a a~~t::1e":'r"'/i!ut under. These arc still good funny even if he'd bttn a recluse living in columns, all the funnier because they're not afraid to be a cave. But Bob still moved happily bctwttn sfs serious ... it was Bob who advised aspiring f.i.nwriters that if professional and fan ci rcles, in a way that denied tha1 they they wished to raise a laugh they should write in mcrcilw are really different circles or that one outranks the other.
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