Argentuscon Had Four Panelists Piece, on December 17
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Matthew Appleton Georges Dodds Richard Horton Sheryl Birkhead Howard Andrew Jones Brad Foster Fred Lerner Deb Kosiba James D. Nicoll Rotsler John O’Neill Taral Wayne Mike Resnick Peter Sands Steven H Silver Allen Steele Michael D. Thomas Fred Lerner takes us on a literary journey to Portugal, From the Mine as he prepared for his own journey to the old Roman province of Lusitania. He looks at the writing of two ast year’s issue was published on Christmas Eve. Portuguese authors who are practically unknown to the This year, it looks like I’ll get it out earlier, but not Anglophonic world. L by much since I’m writing this, which is the last And just as the ArgentusCon had four panelists piece, on December 17. discussing a single topic, the first four articles are also on What isn’t in this issue is the mock section. It has the same topic, although the authors tackled them always been the most difficult section to put together and separately (mostly). I asked Rich Horton, John O’Neill, I just couldn’t get enough pieces to Georges Dodds, and Howard Andrew Jones make it happen this issue. All my to compile of list of ten books each that are fault, not the fault of those who sent out of print and should be brought back into me submissions. The mock section print. When I asked, knowing something of may return in the 2008 issue, or it may their proclivities, I had a feeling I’d know not. I have found something else I what types of books would show up, if not think might be its replacement, which the specifics. I had several surprises in store appears before the letter column rather for me. And if these writers didn’t always than after it. stick strictly within the guidelines I sent That something is ArgentusCon. them, well, that’s what writers do. This is a panel discussion held via e- mail between a variety of participants, This year, I wound up changing jobs. I much like a science fiction panel, had been working for my old employer for although without the audience to ask questions. The topic just over seven years, but was getting less and less happy for the first issue was a look at utopian and dystopian about it. I enjoyed the company and most of my co- literature over the last decade. The panelists included workers, but I had been hired to work as a technical Matthew Appleton, James Nicoll, Peter Sands, and Allen writer. Two years ago, they decided they didn’t need Steele. As moderator, my task was to launch the technical writers so they had me testing software, which is discussion and later edit all the e-mails into a readable not what I wanted to do. I’m now working for a different form, often when the discussions were anything but company (from home), where I am writing proactive bid linear. proposals. My team at the company is brand new and I Since I started from the last item in the issue, I’ll work was the first person on-board after my manager. my way forward. And so we end 2007 in a very different place that it Mike Resnick offered me an article detailing his run in was begun and looking forward to what 2008 will bring. with one of the more interesting cult leaders of the late twentieth century…Anton LaVey, who founded the Church of Satan, getting many into a tizzy. Table of Contents Michael Thomas takes a look at some of the many continuity problems which resulted by more than three From the Mine ...................................................................... 1 decades of producing Doctor Who, many of which were Table of Contents.................................................................. 1 done without the writers being fully cognizant of an The Top Ten Out-of-Print SF & Fantasy Books ................... 2 overarching background that hadn’t been created yet. Of Five Neglected Works of Imaginative Fiction ...................... 4 course, even today, Doctor Who tends to ignore The Top Ten Out-of-Print SF & Fantasy Books ................... 9 continuity in favor of a story idea. Ten Forgotten Tales ............................................................ 12 Sagas From the Portuguese ................................................. 16 James Nicoll make two appearances in Argentus, as First Appearances................................................................ 17 mentioned above, as part of ArgentusCon, but also as he 1963 and All That: A Look at Doctor Who Continuity....... 18 looks at how an author’s personal beliefs can affect his My Reactions to Writer’s Politics ....................................... 21 reading of their work, or his desire to read their work. Me and The High Priest ...................................................... 22 Lately, the Chicago Tribune has begun running a ArgentusCon: Panel Discussion: Dystopia v. Utopia.......... 23 small feature on Sundays in which they find the earliest Letters of Comment ............................................................ 33 reference to something in their pages and write about it. I decided to follow suit, looking up earliest references to Art: some science fictional terms and authors. Although the Sheryl Birkhead: 30, 36, 38 phrase “science fiction” turns up as early as 1900, it Brad Foster: 1, 18, 28 wasn’t until 1943 that it actually appears as a reference to Deb Kosiba: Cover science fiction (as opposed to the words science and Rotsler: 19, 38 fiction separated by commas in a list). It is possible that Taral Wayne: 31, 33 I’ll be lengthening this article for publication elsewhere at some point. 1 The Top Ten Out-of-Print SF & were to remain intact to create a gigantic SF theme park in Denver. Fantasy Books Never happened. And I know you’re somehow to or blame for that too. You can’t hide from me. Bertelsmann, Ye Have Much to Answer For John O’Neill 2) Carrion Comfort, Dan Simmons (1989, Bram t used to be easy to assign blame when treasured Stoker Award). This is the classics went out of print. Come on, we all knew who book that really cemented I was responsible: evil Publishers. Soulless computers Dan Simmons’ reputation, deep in the catacombs of Bertelsmann corporation— proving Song of Kali, his owner of Random House, Doubleday, the Book of the World Fantasy Award Month Club, Del Rey, BMG music, Napster, and God winning first novel, wasn’t knows what else—ticked over the quarterly sales just a flash in the pan. It’s a numbers, and wham. All the remaining copies of Bridge massive and ambitious of Birds are pulled and pulped, and suddenly my favorite horror novel of the kind that fantasy novel is out of print. only Stephen King seemed But then I became a publisher, and discovered a really capable of—at least horrifying fact: publishers aren’t malicious. We’re just until Simmons showed up. It features vampires, Nazis, idiots. We make huge mistakes. We buy the wrong book Hollywood producers, the Israeli Secret Police, and a while recovering from a hangover, and when we can’t whole lot more. break the contract we publish it with no marketing budget How can any book with vampires and Nazis be out of and a horrible cover, and hope no one notices it. And then print? I’m telling you, there’s something seriously wrong it’s met with rave reviews and huge sales, while the with this country. brilliant masterwork we’ve been lovingly shepherding to market for the last six months lands with a thud and 3) Stand on Zanzibar, quickly dies. John Brunner (1968; 1969 The chilling truth? It’s not out fault. It’s the buying Hugo winner). This is the public’s fault. Books go out of print because people don’t book that first demonstrated buy them. to me that there’s more to It’s your fault. No, I’m not speaking in the abstract. I literature than just plot, mean you personally. What were you thinking? theme, and the other So here’s my Top Ten reasons for you to lose sleep. elements of the literary food Ten dark sins on your immortal soul. While you should pyramid taught in high have been buying and talking about these books, you were school. There’s also, say, sitting on your couch, engrossed in The Secret. The $40 setting and structure. And limited hardcover. Dude, you suck. when you’re as brilliantly innovative as Brunner was in 1) Lord of Light, Roger Zelazny (originally published Stand on Zanzibar, structure 1967; 1968 Hugo Award can elevate your work to the winner). Might as well get rank of masterpiece. the big one out of the way Zanzibar tells two parallel but separate near-future first. This is my favorite tales in alternating chapters: Norman House, 26-year-old novel, a wholly original Vice President at General Technics, is blackmailed to science fantasy about an epic smuggle seeds of a new strain of legal marijuana out of battle between the gods of his labs, while spy Donald Hogan is struggling to uncover the Hindu pantheon on a far- the secrets behind the odd behavior of an A.I. tasked with future planet…or more African re-development. Between these chapters we’re accurately, the survivors and treated to a rich series of unrelated vignettes and news descendants of a colony ship stories. While the plot is fascinating, it’s these that give who have set themselves up the novel its mesmerizing power, as they gradually paint a as gods, suppressing detailed and frequently chilling portrait of a world being technology and ruling the slowly choked by overpopulation. rest of the populace as it slowly sinks into a new dark age. Oh, and its set in 2010.