Vector Contents Nuts & Bolts
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2 Vector Contents Nuts & Bolts 3 Front Line Dispatches The Invisible Hand just jabbed its finger on the Readers' Letters fast forward button of my life. Again. I'm in the 6 First Impressions middle of changing my work location from Derby Reviews edited by Catie Cary to St Albans (or possibly Hemel Hemstead - 15 Paperback Graffiti does it matter?) starting tomorrow morning. edited by Stephen Payne Which is soon. Did I mention this was at short notice? Of course. Editor & Hardback Reviews This means that you have in your hands an Catie Cary 224 Southway, Park Barn, emergency Vector. Basically just lemers and Guildford, Surrey, GU2 6DN reviews. And you should be thankful. Because i Phone: 0483 502349 havn't even finished packing yet. I've got to get up and go in six hours time, so I probably won't Paperback Reviews Editor find any time for sleep tonight. Again. Stephen Payne 24 Malvern Rd , Stoneygate, Long term things should be easier because this Leicester, LE2 2BH is closer to base. Meanwhile I'm getting nervous about making promises - and pretty tired. But it Magazine Reviews Editor should be a bumper issue next ti me with all the Maureen Speller 60 Bournemouth Rd, material I've hoarded. This includes the long• Folkestone, Kent, ens 5AZ promised graham Joyce interview, the Reviewers' Poll of the best of the year in 1993, Editorial Assistants and a cornucopia of articles. Alan Johnson, Camilla Pomeroy Barbed Wire Kisses is not being hoarded by me, but rested by Maureen who tells me she needs Production Assistants to 'regroup' - which sounds alarming. However Alison Sinclair, Carol Ann Green, I'm sure the result will be wonderful when it Steve Grover comes back next issue. I'll leave you with a preview listing of the top five Printed by PDC Copyprint, 11 Jefferies reviewers' choice novels from 1994. Passage, Guildford, Surrey, GU1 4AP Vurt Jeff Noon Vector is printed bimonthly by the BSFA © 1994 (Ringpull) 2 Snow Crash Neal Stephenson All opinions are those of the individual contributor and should not be taken necessarily to be those of the (Roe) Editor or the BSFA 3 The Iron Dragon's Daughter Michael Swanwick (Millennium) Contributions: Good articles are always wanted. All 4 Green Mars Kim Stanley Robinson MSS should be typed doubles spaced on one side of (Harpercollins) the page. Submissions may also be accepted as ASCII text files on IBM. Atari ST or Mac 3.5" discs. 5 The Hollowing Robert Holdstock HarperCollins) Maximum preferred length is 5000 words; exceptions can and will be made. A preliminary letter is advisable Details follow next issue! but not essential. Unsolicited MSS cannot be returned without an SAE. Please note that there is no payment for publication. Members who wish to review books should first write to the appropriate editor. Artists: Cover art. illustrations and fillers are always welcome. Remember Check the address label on your ailing to see if you need to renew your subscription. Vector 3 wneieas 1f he asked 1he whiles and lhe blacks ,,, say 'goodbye· separa1ely. pe.-haps in Eng~sh and mock-Jamaican patois. there would be ins1an1 uproar and his show would go down the lubes. We still have an aw1utly long way to go befof9 gender dillerence can ~ be seen in ii$ true tight whieh is of Sight rirvit imponance compared 10 the vastly more L~vie important lact 1ha1 we are all meffbers af the same human species ;,{_,,r n /° ,,0 ,::, {_,, Fn•n Nom,~;~ :~~ f~~n-hS1mr,m /+ l msi.eyouwereprouda1 Vector1n wt-.ctt V cJ L/V" V Wl,, cJ P ~edsupert> and had plenty al ,ntetest 11 the coments Pl'ool-reading was less etlectrve some .sen1ences begimng with lower case leners, and the odd spelling Hrelmownecr in StEIYfl Palmer's piece. YOIM' readers will I011JV8 these. and I hope lhe flu has qli!e gone away You deserve lo get )'(X6 productiofl Editor to keep up Iha high Slandatd you've se(. As tor )'OI.J' chaleoge QUOlation from Emma Tennant: I always dstrust grandiose statements like Htt1e greal days al SF are over''. The gerw-e seems to me to be as healthily exciling as it KneeJerk whal we we, dilfieull and parnlul though ii was when I firSI began reading Astounding Fmm Dr 10h11 Grihbi11, Ne11'11un.'11 may be tor some people to accep1 lhal human in the ecWly '40s, and has broadened and bemgs are not so speo.at as they would ~ke 10 developed very considerably. Sure, the I, is always m1eres11ng 10 see lhe knee-1erk believe contnbution al women writets has beefl reactlOfl ptOIIOked In cer1aln quart9fS by the lncteasingly lruirtul: a genre ~ing such word ~sociobo1ogy··. It is even more Special Talents curren1 wnters as Judith Motten. Sheri Tepper. enter1am1ng when lhe koee-jerker proceeds to From Sit'l't' Pt1l111rr, Totldi11 11.ro11 Gwyneth Jones. CJ Cherryh. SUzene H Elgin, shOOI hlrnseH m 1he IOOI, II Steve PalfTl8f had Ma,y Gen1le, Slorm Conslantine, Meissa ac:mally read the thll'd of oo, boo~. Being I think It1s abil excessive tosaythal science Scan, Suzy McKee Charnas and (a notable Human, !hat he otJtects 10 so strongly. he fiction is now best wilh women. Perhaps ~ new entrant) Helen Colkns. has a lo! to be wo uld have lc11.md that we make e~aclly the wouk:I be better to say that women have at prOUd 01, and 1hey all push the genre in same pomt that he does In th e relliew. The lasttaken theirnghtlulplaceaswntersOI crea11vely dilfe,em directions. main thrust ol our argument 1s, indeed, tha1 exceuen1 fiction. There ate some terr~ic Moreover, the menfolk are no actual mtel~gence/conSClousness enables humans to women SF writers: Mary Gentle. Gwyneth slouches either. I pick out at random; Greg overcome our genOlic inheritance. where Jones. Ursula LeGuin. Anne Gay: bul there bear. Orson Scon Card, Scephen Baxter, appropria1e. Ourargumentis1ha11h8vaIueot are also some e~ceHen1 men SF writers: lor Wll~am Gibson. Paul McAuley, Dan Simmons, sociobiology lies In understanding what !he example Gene Wolfe, Brian Aldiss. Wi lliam Paul Patk, Charles Sherfield. David Zindell. genetic inheritance is, in order to be in a betler Gibson, Jack Vance. Women as a group don't Ian Watson and Gene Wolfe. Both lists stand position to use our in!eHigence. If. !or example, now hold the torch tor SF. instead they and well up 10 comparison with earlier generations we have a gonetic pre-disposition 10 be a!ratd men are equally as good (or as bad: there are and Indeed surpass them. olloreigners, th1s1s not an excuse to Justify female Nivens. !hough. Interestingly, there More exciting slit!, science itself is wa,. but identifies an area in which educat1on seems to be no female Fanthorpe equivalent - developing rich new fields for fictional and can be used to ove,come lhose inna1e fears. - could 11 be !hat men have a special talent !or imagina1ive e~loration. and some of the And ii Steve really thinks thal " human beings ano..-ak-wea-ing, train spotting, sheer au1hors In my fist seem 10 me to be more up long ago transcended their biologically, or ridiculous naffness?) to•dale w1th the sc1ence ol 0Uf clay than 1he genetically rooted behavtour" he shOuld 1ake I 1hmk the interesting leap taken sideways so-caned"goldenage"werewilhlheirs ano1:her look al what has been happenmg in by JG Ballard is very much still wilh us. I There; I've said lheeasybit. I looktorwarcl lormer Yugoslavia. would place alongside hrm Olher aab 1001herlenerwritersg1vinglunherinsights. Oh. and by the way, In case lhose of }'OlM' mpersooatmg authors such as CIYlstopher readefs who knoW us are SIii haw,g hyslencs Pnest. and perhaps in a sligh11y dilferenl New World Story at lhe nolion of us as C8')11alis!S, lhe QUO!& "We mode, daVM:1 Zindel and Brian Slablelorcl. The From Jt1cl.. Deixhtm,, Kircku/Jy, Fife act OUI of seff-in1et8:SI " was, rn !he greal effect al the liberal saxties will be with us tradinon al rtMeWS, 1aken out of context, and perpetually; thal lesson can neve, be A, lasl a reason 10 wn1e 10 you! And llOI lhere IS no full Slop at Thal pomt. The full unlea-ned or destroyed, thank goodness. because (as I suggested a1 Mex,con m senteoce IS -We act OUI of sel•rnler8SI, but m Because of it we can read Gean Ryman and Scaborough) you've slagged off a story of mosl cases lhts 1s enlghtened sell'-rmeres1 .H TanrthLee. mine 11 pnnr. You haven't. Bui... The whole pomt of lhe paragraph lhal passage On a relaled topic, 1S111 ti mterestmg 10 see Relall. I won't QI.Jlbbie with Ian Salas's comes from 1s 10 expicitly deny thal we act how g8l10ef difference can stilt be exi>k)ned. review al Thts cs the Road' in New Worlds 3, solely out of seW-in1erest. wt.lo a sirrilar racial difference, i1 tru~ad n·s a r9Y18W81'·s job to gve an opBon - Readers n.ght like 10 ponder wh9'her if IS would be condemned lllSlanlly. Thus Chris though I lake hear"I from the tact that he said more ikely 1hal cu cl¥My and sloN as Evans' rrikly amusing snow ·0on·1 Forgec -,!there are weak stories..... (My emphasis). exposnors. so highly prarsed by StEIYfl, YOUI Tootttlrush' finds qut.e arxepiable the Where I dffer from him IS In his implied suddenty fails us afler sax chapters, or Iha! he men and women 11'1 the audience being cntlCism of the t>ooti as con1a1nrng too many of PIA his blirlkers on when he arnved at chapter exhorted 10 say •good)ye' separately ,n lhe same names as before.