Christopher Priest
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~®dl • Winter 2010 LL.~ Editors Karen Hellekson U) 16 Rolling Rdg. A publication of the-~· Science Fiction Research Association Jay, ME 04239 [email protected] [email protected] Craig Jacobsen SFRA Review Business English Department More Books, Please 2 Mesa Community College SFRA Business 1833 West Southern Ave. Ruling Metaphors 2 Mesa, AZ 85202 Call for Executive Committee Candidates [email protected] 3 Minutes of the SFRA Board Meeting, January 23, 2010 [email protected] 3 Report for the Year 2009 5 Call for New SFRA Review Editor 5 Managing Editor Start Fresh on the Frontier 5 Janice M. Bogstad Mcintyre Library-CO Features University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire New Weird 101 6 105 Garfield Ave. Christopher Priest 9 Eau Claire, WI 54702-5010 Nonfiction Reviews [email protected] Frankenstein: Icon of Modern Culture 13 Keep Watching the Skies! 14 Nonfiction Editor From Wollstonecraft: to Stoker 15 Ed McKnight 113 Cannon Lane Fiction Reviews Taylors, SC 29687 Elegy Beach 16 [email protected] Puttering About in a Small Land 17 Gardens of the Sun 18 Fiction Editor Leviathan 19 Edward Carmien Media Reviews 29 Sterling Rd. Prince Valiant Vol. 1: 1937-1938 20 Princeton, NJ 08540 The Twilight Saga: New Moon 21 [email protected] 9 22 Zombie/and 23 Media Editor Planet 51 23 Ritch Calvin Astro Boy 24 16A Erland Rd. Surrogates 25 Stony Brook, NY 11790-1114 The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya 26 [email protected] Defying Gravity 27 The SFRA Review (ISSN 1068-39SX) is Warehouse 13 28 published four times a year by the Science The Book of Genesis Illustrated 29 Fiction Research Association (SFRA), and Planetary 30 distributed to SFRA members. Individual is Mouse Guard: Fall1152 31 sues are not for sale; however, all issues after 256 are published to SFRA's Web site (http:// Batman: Arkham Asylum 32 www.sfra.org/) no fewer than 10 weeks after paper publication. For infurmation about Announcements SFRA and membership, see the back cover. Calls for Papers 33 SFRA thanks the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire for its assistance in Errata producing the SFRA Review. Corrections to the 2009 Directory 35 SUBMISSIONS The SFRA Review encourages submissions of reviews, review essays that cover several related texts, interviews, and feature articles. Submis sion guidelines are available at http://www.sfra.org/ or by inquiry to the appropriate editor. Contact the Editors for other submissions or for cor respondence. literariness and think about fun things such as sparkling tiaras and ponies. And so Karen, this one is for you ... Like a fine pony, the SFRA is off to a running start this year! DODD During our executive committee phone meeting last weekend, treasurer Mack Hassler informed us that we reached an all-time high of 360 members last year, and that nearly 200 people have already joined or renewed for 2010. As many of you already know, Shelley Rodrigo bad to resign from her position as SFRA EDITORS' MESSAGE secretary for health reasons at the end of2009, but she made a More Books, Please heroic effort to get all first-round renewal letters out before do ing so. If you have not already renewed your membership yet, I Ka ren Hellekson and Craig Jacobsen urge you to show your appreciation for all of Shelley's bard work by doing so soon. And if you can't find your renewal letter in the Read more books. Write more reviews of them. Send them to postwinter holiday debris, fear not! Our new SFRA secretary, our reviews editors. Patrick Sharp, will have second-round renewal letters in the mail Even a quick glance at this issue's table of contents reveals by the end of February. If you receive one of these letters but that our newest category of reviews, "media" reviews, has have already renewed, I hope you will consider passing on the become our largest. Not that there's anything wrong with that. good word to friends and colleagues who might be interested in It's a big category (probably too big), and covers a substantial joining our organization. percentage of the contemporary production of science fiction. Speaking of potential new SFRA members ...during the We couldn't be happier that it has become an important part of January meeting our immediate past president, Adam Frisch, the quarterly's content, reflecting growing interest from the as proposed that we might step up recruitment by both telling and sociation's membership. Our own research interests have led us showing people what we do. To that end, this year the executive to spend less time in print science fiction than we once did. committee plans to develop a new recruitment brochure and But we would really like to see more book reviews in our an image archive for the SFRA Web site. If you have photos or submission inboxes. videos of SFRA members in action- presenting papers, read Important and interesting books continue to be written and ing stories, teaching classes, or even doing research- that you published, even as the non-print production and distribution of are willing to share, please contact vice president Ritch Calvin primary and secondary texts explodes. There are plenty of places (vicepresident AT sfra.org). to read reviews of science fiction novels, but only a handful I'm personally excited about the creation of an SFRA im- of venues for the kinds of reviews scholars need to help them age archive because it will give us a way to commemorate what decide what is worthy of their precious reading time. Even fewer looks to be a fantastic set of future SFRA conferences. The 2010 venues exist for thoughtful reviews of secondary texts. Of course conference theme, "Far Stars and Tin Stars: Science Fiction and the journals in our field continue to publish such reviews, but as the Frontier," reflects the conference's venue in the high desert the definition of"our field" expands and fragments, the number of Carefree, Arizona, north of Phoenix. Conference organizer of important and relevant studies increases beyond the ability of Craig Jacobsen tells us that be has already received a number a few quarterlies to sift through. We can try, though. of proposals and that be will actively recruit conference partici So tum of that television and write more book reviews. pants by e-mail and in person at other conferences that he at tends this spring. If you haven't already done so, I encourage you to check out the conference Web site (http://sfra20IO.ning.com/). The site includes links to the Carefree Resort online reservation system, spaces in which to organize your own panel sessions and information about two special preconference events, which I'm not going to tell you about here on the assumption that you will DODD have more fun looking them up yourself. Plans are also well in place for our triannual international conference, to be hosted by Pawel Frelik in Lublin, Poland, in 2011. Many of us were disappointed by the economic situa- PRESIDENT'S REPORT tion that prevented us from holding the 2008 SFRA conference Ruling Metaphors in Dublin, Ireland, and so your executive committee hopes to prevent this from happening again by investing SFRA money in Lisa Yaszek the EC now. We will also explore how we might make the Lublin conference more affordable for American scholars by reserving One of the most challenging aspects ofleading the SFRA blocks of airplane seats and tour packages. I hope you will all is finding a good ruling metaphor with which to frame each join me in thanking Adam Frisch for volunteering to take point president's column-after all, I know I'm writing to a group of on this initiative. highly trained literary and media scholars, so expectations must Having spoken of ponies, it's time to move on to the sec be high. When I mentioned this to our fearless Review editors, ond of my two ruling metaphors. While continuing its regular Karen Hellekson promptly suggested that I stop worrying about recruitment and conference support work, your SFRA execu- 2 SFRA Review 291 Winter 2010 tive committee also hopes to build a future that is every bit as SECRETARY'S REPORT bright and dazzling as a sparkling tiara! When we first met as Minutes of the SFRA Board a group at this time last year, Adam, Mack, Shelley, Ritch. and I determined that we were a transitional executive committee Meeting, January 23, 2010 that should dedicate itself to preserving the best of the SFRA's Patrick Sharp past while moving the organization into the future. Much of our efforts in this respect have been devoted to the creation of a Meeting called to order at 1:02 PM (EST) new and better organizational Web site. With the help of Karen Meeting adjourned at 2:30 PM (EST) Hellekson, Len Hatfield, Jason Ellis, and Matthew Holtmeier, we've taken significant steps in that direction, migrating content In attendance (via conference call): from the old Web site to a new server and then taking advantage Lisa Yaszek, President of our new space to add blogs, discussion forums, and an SFRA Ritch Calvin, Vice President storefront This year we plan to add the aforementioned image Mack Hassler, Treasurer archive as well as a members-only, password-protected area • Patrick Sharp, Secretary including a membership database and an automated renewal Adam Frisch. Immediate Past President system. A dazzling plan indeed, ifl do say so myself. I. Officer Updates (report of 2009 ac And last but certainly not least, this executive committee will tivities and setting of 2010 goals) contribute to our organization's bright and dazzling future by A.