NEWSLETTER OF THE IRISH SCIENCE FICTION ASSOCIATION INTERVIEWS: GREG BEAR & NICHOLAS MEYER SPIELBERG'S 'HOOK' REVIEWED LATEST BOOK AND COMIC NEWS ASIMOVTRIBUTES CONTENTS EDITORIAL EDITORIAL 2 NEWS 3 The ISFA is in Its fourth year since Nebula Award Nominations being reformed. When we started MEDIA NEWS 5 in 1988 we decided to keep it small Brussels SF Film Festival and gradually grow, depending on Video preview the resources we had available. 'Hook' reviewed ISFA NEWS 8 We decided to essentially adopt CONVENTIONS 10 the aims of the old Association, CLUBS 11 namely promoting interest in sci­ INTERVIEW: 12 ence fiction and Its related gen­ Face to Face with Nicholas Meyer res. This was to be achieved LETTERS 15 through regular meetings, work­ Asimov Tributes shops and publications. FTL was UPCOMING BOOKS 20 the first publication, appearing in INTERVIEW: 21 A5 format and edited by John Greg Bear Kenny for issues 1 and 2. Its aims were to provide a platform for Irish REVIEWS 24 writers of fiction and articles, inter­ JUST FINISHED 32 views and reviews. Artists, both THE COMICS COLUMN 32 illustrative and comic were to be OUT OF GAFIA 35 showcased. With the advent of the fully printed version last year the possibilities for expanding in­ terest in science fiction, especially in the art field, grew hugely. The second publication, the Newslet­ ter, appeared in 1990 and basi­ cally deals with reviews, news and, PRODUCTION recently, interviews. EDITOR: BRENDAN RYDER However the printed version of FTL COLLATING: ISFA COMMITTEE takes up a. lot of our resources, financial and people. The delays with the current issue have been a PUBIJSHEDBY:TI IE IRISHSCIENCE mixture of both of these. Three MCllON ASSOCIATION,30 BEVERLY professional advertising agents DOWNS.KNOCKLYONROAD, who were to seek advertising for TEMPLEOGUE.DUBUN16. FURTHER the magazine have withdrawn for INFORMATION FROM THE ABOVE a variety of reasons; problems with ADDRESS OR RING 934712 the design also contributed to the delay. What has happened over the past six months is that the commitment by those involved in the magazine has hardened - FTL 12 will appear, and will be the launch of a strong presence by Irish writers and artists on the do­ mestic and international scene. It will feature more pages, more art PAGE 2 ISFA NEWSLETTER and a more readable layout. Your SF field have fallen in the last dec­ support and understanding will be ade but seem to be bottoming out very gratefully received, as well as - both Asimov's and Analog sell in your letters and comments once the region of 75,000 copies you see the magazine. Don't grum­ monthly, while the market leader ble to yourself if you're not happy - OMNI, sells some 850,000. write or talk to us! Nobody will lose out on any issues either as we PHILIP K. DICK AWARD hope to get back to our original schedule eventually. NOMINATIONS The ISFA, following the hectic This award, first announced in period after Octocon last year, is 1982, honours the Best American also reexamining its roots. The Original Paperback Book of the Questionnaire last year, together year. Some previous winners have with comments at the AGM and been Neuromancer by William elsewhere, have all been consid­ Gibson, Strange Toys by Patricia ered. Following the open commit­ Geary, Wetware by Rudy Rucker tee meeting that was held at SfEx and The Anubis Gates by Tim Pow­ and ordinary committee meetings ers. The final result was announced we expect to announce our plans at Norwescon at the end of March shortly for the next year. So have - I hope to have it for the next no doubts - we are working, and Newsletter. In the meantime the hard, on your behalf. nominations are: Brendan Ryder, Chairman, ISFA MOJO AND THE PICKLE JAR - DOUGLAS BELL NOTE: THE OPINIONS EX­ BONE DANCE - EMMA PRESSED IN THIS PUBLICA­ BULL TION ARE THOSE OF THE INDI­ THE CIPHER - KATHE VIDUAL CONTRIBUTORS AND KOJA DO NOT REPRESENT THOSE OF THE ISFA, EXCEPT WHERE KING OF MORNING, STATED. QUEEN OF DAY - IAN MCDONALD BRIDGE OF YEARS NEWS ROBERT CHARLES WILSON The winner will receive $1,000, ASIMOV’S & ANALOG TO second will receive $500. BE PUBLISHED BY DELL Top US magazines 'Isaac ABORIGINAL SF Asimov’s Science Fiction Maga­ MAGAZINE NOW zine' and 'Analog Science Fiction/ Science Fact' have been sold by QUARTERLY Davis Publications to Dell Maga­ Charles Ryan has been forced to zines. All editorial staff are to be move to a quarterly schedule, retained in the move, which should though future issues will be 116 mean that there will be few, if any pages instead of the 'normal' 68 changes to the magazines in the pages. He is also polling his read­ near future. Magazine sales in the ers on the continuation of colour ISFA NEWSLETTER PAGE 3 illustrations inside the magazine, Mr Xcitement and his assistant the most obvious difference be­ Grainne Waile are called on to tween AbSF and its competitors. solve the problem." Listen out on Mondays, Wednes­ ‘OZ’ THEME PARK days and Fridays on the Sean Ashmore Drive Time programme PLANNED at 5.10 p.m. on East Coast Radio Forget Eurodisney - Kansas City (95 FM - Dublin and 103 FM - plans to open a $300 million park Wicklow). based on the film version of Frank L. Baum's classic in 1995 or 1996. UNDERGROUND BUNKER BUZZ ALDRIN, TO HOUSE THE WORKS OF ASTRONAUT, TO WRITE SF L. RON HUBBARD A related group to The Church of NOVEL? Scientology has built the vast com­ According to SF Chronicle the plex, which cost in the region of second man on the moon now has $7,000,000, in Northern Califor­ some ideas for an sf novel and is nia. It is designed to withstand seeking a collaborator. Only experi­ nuclear attack or natural disaster, enced authors need apply! and officials expect the work to survive for a millienium. NEBULA AWARD NOMINATIONS NATIONAL ART GALLERY Best Novel: STOCKS FANTASY! ORBITAL RESONANCE Well, at least one painting could - JOHN BARNES; be considered for SfEx ’93 - have BARRAYAR - LOIS a look at A Fantasy by Domenicus MCMASTER ' BUJOLD; van Wynen, known as 'Ascanius'. BONE DANCE - EMMA It can be found in the Dutch school, BULL; Room XIX. SYNNERS - PAT CADIGAN; THE DIFFERENCE EN­ ISFA MEMBER ON TOUR! J.O.E.L. de Rouelle Biget, whose GINE - BRUCE STERLING massive cold cast bronze statue & WILLIAM GIBSON; of Sagittarius stole the show at STATIONS OF THE TIDE last year's SfEx, is to tour the US - MICHAEL SWANWICK. with a collection of his work during The results were to have been the summer. announced at the end of April - we may have the winner by next issue. NEW MAGAZINE ‘SCIENCE FICTION AGE’ MR XCITEMENT HITS THE To be published bimonthly start­ AIRWAVES! ing in August SF Age will have an “Someone or something is pump­ initial print run of 40,000 - 60,000. ing yellow toxic waste into the River Stories by Thomas Disch and Liffey, making people see things Barry Malzberg have already been that are not there! bought, and Ron Goulart, Craig PAGE 4 ISFA NEWSLETTER Shaw Gardner, Geoffrey Landis, who had attended all the films in Gregory Benford and Charles the competition. The film received Sheffield will also be involved regu­ the Pegasus Award. Second place larly. Submissions and SASE's to went to TIMESCAPE and third to Scott Edelman, Science Fiction DROP DEAD FRED by Alec de Age, Box 369, Damascus, MD Jong and starring Phoebe Cates 20872-0369, USA; payment will and Rik Mayall. be 4-8e on publication. Response The festival also featured a short time is 4-6 weeks. films competition. The jury for this was composed of representatives from eight TV stations across Eu­ MEDIA NEWS rope, including RTE. The winner BRUSSELS SF FILM L'ENCADRE, by Manuel Gomez - FESTIVAL who coincidentally designed the The Raven for best film at the 10th Pegasus Award mentioned above Brussels Festival of Fantasy, - will be shown on each of the Thriller and Science Fiction Film participating stations. was awarded to TIMESCAPE, di­ The public also got a chance to rected by David N. Twohy and star­ vote for their favourite short and ring Jeff Daniels. Based on the chose IMPACTS. Director Remy classic story "Vintage Season" by Giordano wins 20,000 BF and has Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore, it the films subtitled in either Eng­ tells of the story of an innkeeper lish, Dutch or Spanish. (Daniels) who receives some very DAVID STEWART unusual guests. The jury, consisting of Lewis Gilbert RTE BANS STAR TREK’S (Chairman), David Blyth and Stijn ‘THE HIGH GROUND’ Coninx, awarded two special Because of an indirect reference prizes. The first went to Bruce to the IRA in episode dealing with McDonald as best director for terrorism RTE have banned it, say­ HIGHWAY 61 and the second was ing it was unsuitable to the largely awarded for special effects to young audience. To the best of my Japanese film TETSUO II - THE knowledge this is the first episode BODY HAMMER, directed by of Star Trek RTE have banned - all Shinya Tsukamoto. Lewis Gilbert original 79 episodes were shown praised the film for its innovative when it first appeared, which can­ character and remarkable force. not be said for the BBC who Honourable mentions were also banned four. given to THE JOHNSONS, a Dutch horror film by Rudolf Van Den Berg, and Wes Craven's lat­ ‘THE PRISONER’ ON est shocker THE PEOPLE UN­ CHANNEL 4 DER THE STAIRS, which received It appears that from October 10th its European premiere at the fes­ Britain's Channel 4 will show all 17 tival.