University of South Florida Scholar Commons Digital Collection - Science Fiction & Fantasy Digital Collection - Science Fiction & Fantasy Publications 9-1-2004 SFRA ewN sletter 269 Science Fiction Research Association Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/scifistud_pub Part of the Fiction Commons Scholar Commons Citation Science Fiction Research Association, "SFRA eN wsletter 269 " (2004). Digital Collection - Science Fiction & Fantasy Publications. Paper 84. http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/scifistud_pub/84 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Digital Collection - Science Fiction & Fantasy at Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Digital Collection - Science Fiction & Fantasy Publications by an authorized administrator of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. #~ •• July / Aug. / Sept. J004 • Editor: Chrlistline Malins Hanaging Editor: Janice M. Bosstad Nonfiction Reriews: Ed McHnlisht Science Fiction Research Fiction Reriews: Association Phlillip Snyder The SFRAReview (ISSN III 7HIS ISSUE: 1068-395X) is published four times a year by the Science Fiction Research As­ sociation (SFRA) and distributed to SFRA Business SFRA members. Individual issues are not Editor's Message 2 for sale; however. starting with issue #256. all issues will be published to President's Message 2 SFRA's website no less than two months Minutes of the Board 3 after paper publication. For information Clareson Award 6 about the SFRA and its benefits, see the description at the back of this issue. For Pioneer Award 7 a membership application. contact SFRA Grad Student Award 0 Treasurer Dave Mead or get one from the SFRA website: <www.sfra.org>. Conference Highlight SFRA would like to thank the Univer­ sity of Wisconsin-Eau Claire for its as­ Guest of Honor Address 0 sistance in producing the Review. Non Fiction Reviews SUBMISSIONS The SFRAReview encourages all submis­ Gothic Masculinity & Reflections 14 sions, including essays. review essays that Classic and Iconoclastic I 5 cover several related texts. and inter­ views. If you would like to review non­ fiction or fiction, please contact the Fiction Reviews respective editor. Frek and the Elixir I 6 Collected Fiction of C. Cherryh 18 Christine Mains, Editor J. Box 66024 The Salt Roads 20 Calgary.AB TIN I N4 Absolution Gap 21 <[email protected]> The Confusion 22 Janice M. Bogstad. Managing Editor Iron Sunrise 24 239 Broadway St. Eau Claire WI 54703-5553 pehemoth p-Max 24 <[email protected]> Steel Helix 25 Small Press Roundup 26 Ed McKnight, Nonfiction Editor I 13 Cannon Lane Taylors SC 29687 <[email protected]> Philip Snyder, Fiction Editor 109 Northumberland Road Rochester NY 14618 <[email protected]> SFRA BUSINESS ) Editor's Messaae Christine Mains News Items: You'll all have noticed a couple of things about the front cover of this The Official Frederik Pohl website issue. First, of course, is the new logo, which actually debuted on the cover of the is looking for contributions, includ­ 2004 Directory. The second thing you'll have noticed, since the Table of Contents ing brief scholarly essays suitable for appears on the cover, is the dearth of nonfiction reviews in this issue. a wide audience, book reviews, brief Getting each issue of the SFRA Retiew into your hands requires a compli­ synopses of works by Pohl, appre­ cated dance with many partners. Reviewers have to complete their reviews, and ciations, reminiscences, .gif or .jpg submit them to either Fiction Editor Philip Snyder or Nonfiction Editor Ed (picture) files, suggested links to i\!cKnight. Then they do their bit, and send the reviews along to me. I have to do other sites I permission to link to some editing and some formatting, then transfer everything into a page layout your website, and study guides. Send program to create a printable fue, which then goes to the Managing Editor Jan suggestions, articles and permissions Bogstad. Then Jan has to co-ordinate everything with the printer, who unfortu­ to <[email protected]>. nately but understandably places a higher priority on campus-related print jobs than on the Review. Such a complicated dance requires impeccable timing, and if The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, one partner misses the beat, everything falls apart. which will move to Seattle to be­ So, eyerything starts with the reviewers. People get busy with other projects come part of the Science Fiction or, at tJ1is time of year especially, with vacations and personal stuff. So the book Museum, has announced this year's reviews slide a little lower in the to-do pile. 1'1.nd after speaking with the Reviews inductees, including Brian Aldiss, Editor for ;mother journal who informs me that sometimes, she can't get some Harry Harrison, E.E. "Doc" Smith, re\·iewers to complete the job at all, it's hard to complain when some people take and Mary Shelley. a little extra time. But it's very frustrating when we're getting down to tJ1e wire, when I'm nagging Ed and Phil .U1d they're nagging you guys, and notJ1ing's The Libertarian Society has an­ happening. This actually happens quite often, and normally it's not a big deal to nounced the finalists for the 2004 delay a few days, but sometimes, tJ1at dance requires much more precise choreog­ Prometheus Awards, to be pre­ raphy. Like tJ1is summer. This is, literally, the last second for me. Tomorrow morn­ sented at Noreascon 4, this year's ing, I'm on a plane to Britain for the conference on the Commonwealth of Science Worldcon. Best Novel: Naked Em­ Fiction hosted by Faral1l\Iendlesolu1, Andrew M. Butler, and Andy Sawyer. I'll be pire, by Terry Goodkin d; The Pixel Eye, away for two weeks. By the time I get back, Managing EditorJan Bogstad will be by Paul Levinson; Spin State, by Chris away. _\nd by tJ1e time she gets back, her printer will be hip-deep in higher priority Moriarty; Harry Potter and the Order print jobs. So either the Review goes out now, even though no one seems to be of the Phoenix, by J.K. Rowling; Sims, responding to Ed's pleas for reviews, or it waits for several weeks. by F. Paul Wilson. Hall of Fame final­ Long story short Please get those reviews completed and submitted. With­ ist 2003-2004: It Can't Happen Here, out you, we're just a bunch of wallflowers. by Sinclair Lewis; Lord of the Rings by J.R. Tolkien; The Weapon Shops of SFRA BUSINESS Isher, by A. E. Van Vogt; "The Ungov­ President's Messaae erned," byVernorVinge; The Book of Peter Brigg Merlyn, by T.H.White. SF~\ owes a real debt of gratitude to Beverly Friend and Elizabeth Anne The Fourth Annual SunburstAward Hull for hosting SF~\ Skokie. We ate, drank, socialised, held an annual meeting nominees have been announced:. and, oh yes, a flood of scholarship was on tap as well as readings by a host of Blind Lake, by Robert Charles Wil­ voices led by Guest of Honour Connie Willis, Gene Wolfe, and Fred Pohl. Ed­ son; The Bone House, by Luanne ward .I ames scooped up the Pilgrim Award, although I can feel him cringe (empa­ Armstrong; Initiation, by Virginia thy over 18,930 km) from Dublin to Christchurch at the word "scoop." Ah! well. Frances Schwartz; Oryx and Croke, by Historians are forced to exist in the same world as English professors. MargaretAtwood;A Place So Foreign At Skokie, some matters about the future emerged of general interest to and 8 More, by Cory Doctorow. you, tJ1e members of SF~\. Dave l\Iead broke some big news: Ursula K LeGuin's return to SFR.\ conferences as Guest of Honour at S~ 2005 Las Vegas, Nevada, at the Imperial Palace Hotel and Casino, June 23 - 26. See sfra.com for futher details. 'nus should be a very special conference indeed. Plan to be there. ( ) On show at Skokie were draft designs for a new logo for the Association. After listening to members' voices at the General Meeting your Executive has ( finalised a selection and you will see its first use on the cover of the 2004 Directory, which, as I write, Chrissie Mains is just about to send to Jan Bogstad for printing. It will gradually appear on stationery, the web site, SFRAR, and in the tri-fold Here are the nominees for the Side­ brochure which we hope members will request from the Executive and hand out wise Award for alternate history, to to anyone who might be a candidate to join SFRA (the brochure will be forthcom­ be presented at Noreascon 4 in Bos­ ing once the new Executive is elected). As with all such design exercises, I expect ton over Labor Day weekend. Short some objections to the change, but to please all of the individuals and ins titutions Form: "EI dfa que hicimos la on our membership list (292 was our count Dec. 31,2003, so we are up a tad) is a Transiti6n," by Ricard de la Casa and task beyond mortal undertaking. Pedro Jorge Romero. Translated by With our eye to membership matters, the General Meeting passed the Yolanda Molina-Gavilan as "The Day amendment making the Vice President of the Association responsible for recruit­ We Went Through the Transition."; ment and membership, and the meeting passed the other amendments that were "The Eyes of America," by Geoffrey proposed. You should look for these in your 2004 Directory. Landis; "The Cuban Missile Crisis: This issue is the one that gets dropped in the pool or buried in the sand. Second Holocaust," by Robert L. Enjoy your summers (I'm in midwinter in Christchurch, 25 F at night and Kiwis O'Connell; "0 One," by Chris have no inkling what central heating is) and write those wonderful papers for me, Roberson;"The Reign of Terror," by then a relaxed Past President of SFRA, to listen to at Las Vegas next June.