Vol. 18 No. 2 April 2019 ALEXIAD (!7+=3!G) $2.00 I recently read a very good book, titled The Girl Who Wrote in Silk The 145th Running of the Kentucky Derby will be May 4, 2019. by Kelli Estes. It is the story of Mei Lien, an American girl of The 144th Running of the Preakness Stakes will be May 18, 2019. Chinese descent in the early days of Chinese descent who lived at The 150th Running of the Belmont Stakes will be June 8, 2019, 14. a time when being such made her a target of mob violence and a modern young white woman named Inara. Their stories are told in alternating chapters. This is normally not something I like, because Printed on April 15, 2019 it requires real talent to carry it off. Estes is very good with descrip- Deadline is June 9, 2019 tion. More importantly she is talented at storytelling. From the first page I was drawn into the story. Reviewer’s Notes — Lisa I wonder if TAFF (Trans-Atlantic Fan Fund) has outlived its usefulness. Its ancestor was WAW With the Crew, the fund to bring Table of Contents famous Irish Fan Walter A. Willis to the United States for the 1952 Editorial. 1 Worldcon, Chicon II. But this was for someone whose fame exceeded Reviewer’s Notes . 1 his purse. TAFF nearly sank with scandals, from the problem over Samanda “Doc”: The Rape of the Town of Lovell . 4 b Jeude’s campaign to the bizarre defalcation of Abi Frost. Yet it Derby News. 7 seems to have recovered, structurally. Yet, from seeing fund-raising Eclipse News. 6 descriptions, it seems to cost as much to raise the money for the next Free Expression at Tor.com . 9 candidate as to go. Health News . 6 It has created like funds, DUFF (Down Under Fan Fund, between Hugo Awards. 11 the Americas and Australia-New Zealand) and GUFF (Get Up and The Joy of High Tech . 7 Over Fan Fund, between Europe and ANZAC), and others. Yet these Nebula Awards . 10 bridge a significant distance. Trans-Atlantic air fares are lower now. Solar Lottery . 2 My baby book has a page with check boxes for measles, mumps, Book Reviews chicken pox, and other diseases. It was considered normal for children to contract such illnesses. JTM Benford, Rewrite . 5 The legacy of deaf, sterile, crippled, even dead children was thought JTM Carr, Typewriter Killer. 6 to be a fact of life. Just as polio was; I know two fans who suffered JTM Coniam, The Annotated Marx Brothers. 6 polio, and were left less than whole as a result. JTM Lupus, An Extra Knot . 6 Now, it seems, the prevention against such diseases is considered JTM Turtledove, Through Darkest Europe . 5 worse than the diseases; it causes mental problems, or is against the will of God, or is an expensive and painful treatment for a problem that Random Jottings . 2 isn’t worth considering. Those who oppose immunizations have their own elaborate Letters . 14 community, with its own apparently authoritative studies. For all that Sue Burke, Lloyd Daub, Robert S. Kennedy, Timothy Lane, Lloyd the skeptic community focuses on those ignorant redigulous antivax- Penney, AL du Pisani, George W. Price, Joy V. Smith, Taras xers, there are far more progressive enlightened families who explain Wolansky about mercury and aluminium and more poisonous chemicals; who flaunt natural cures, herbs, crystals, and homeopathic treatments. Comments are by JTM or LTM They talk about the terrors of autism. I just remember my mother telling me how she had held me as I suffered mumps, three years old, Trivia: . 18 saying, “I feel so bod.” Art: Speaking of health, I appreciate all those who expressed concern Sheryl Birkhead . 11, 14, 19 over my ill-health. I am trying to do something about it, but it seems Paul Gadzikowski . 20 that one problem causes another, and the resolution requires solving Alexis A. Gilliland. 3, 5, 7, 9, 15, 17 everything at once. Trinlay Khadro . 2 Marc Schirmeister . 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 16, 18 — Joe Pascha is April 28, 2019. Page 2 April 2019 Alexiad complete agreement upon Mr. RANDOM JOTTINGS OBITS Dick as a singularly satisfactory by Joe contributor. We regret to report the death of Janet O. Entering and leaving as he does by Jeppson Asimov on February 25, 2019. Born so many doors at once, Dick creates a August 6, 1926, she studied at Stanford and blurred impression of pleasant, small New York University Medical School, practic- literary gifts, coupled with a near- ing as a psychiatrist and psychoanalist and sighted canniness about the market — writing several papers on various relevant he writes the trivial, short, bland sort of topics. story that amuses without exciting, is She met Isaac Asimov in 1970 and they got instantly saleable and instantly forgetta- married November 30, 1973, remaining married ble. until his death in 1992. She wrote several chil- The surprise of a book like Solar dren’s novels under her own name and in Lottery from such an author is more collabration with her husband. than considerable. — Damon Knight, In Search of Wonder We regret to report the death of Vonda N. Buy my books. (All available on McIntyre on April 1, 2019 in Seattle. Born in Such a categorical statement, given the Amazon.com for quite reasonable prices, Louisville on August 2, 1948, she moved legacy of Dick’s writings, nowadays seems to except the Hugo-nominated Heinlein’s Chil- around the world in her childhood, eventually be absurd if not ignorant. Yet this is a contem- dren, which can be bought from NESFA for a earning a BS in biology from the University of porary reference to his first novel, so such reasonable price.) Washington. astonishment is quite plausible. — Advt. She became famous when she received the The Solar System is quite thoroughly set- Nebula Award in 1973 for her novelette “Of tled in the twenty-third century; all nine planets Valery Fydorovich Bykovsky (Валеìрий Mist, and Grass, and Sand”, which became part (there were nine planets in 1955, understand) Фёдорович Быкоìвский), call sign Ястреб of her Hugo and Nebula Award winning novel have inhabitants (or at least their satellites do), (“Hawk”) died on March 27, 2019. Born Dreamsnake (1978). though Earth is still the center of humanity. August 2, 1934, Bykovsky became a fighter And this vast domain is in the grip of omens pilot in the Soviet Air Force and entered the and portents, incidents foreboding some vast cosmonaut program in 1960. His first flight MONARCHICAL NEWS upheaval. was Vostok 5, June 14-19, 1963, which set a From the Solar System capital of Batavia record which still stands for solo orbital flight. On the day after the thirtieth day of the (er, that’s Jakarta) the Quizmaster holds sway He also flew on Soyuz 22 (September 15-23, fourth month of the thirty-first year of Heisei over this world-spanning dominion. And how 1976) and went to the Salyut 6 space station in (April 30, 2019), the Tennō will retire and be did this mighty monarch rise to his pedestal of 1978. He was a Hero of the Soviet Union. titled Daijō Tennō (“retired emperor), abbrevi- power? At the time of his death he was the Senior ated to Jōkō. The new Tennō will be his son Through a random-choice process. A Person in Space. The Senior Person in Space Naruhito. The new regnal era will be Reiwa, random-number generator, styled “the bottle”, is now Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova which term is taken from the eighth-century acts at unpredictable intervals to name one of (Валентиìна Владимì ировна Терешкоìва),call Nara era poetic anthology Man'yōshū. The the six billion inhabitants of the solar system as sign Чаìйка (“Seagull”), who flew on Vostok word is written with the two characters for Quizmaster. 6 on June 16-19, 1963. Valentina Vladimir- “good” and “harmony”, and means “beautiful Well, maybe not. The bottle picks an ovna was born March 6, 1937 in Maslenni- harmony”. individual based on his (or her) “p-card”, an kovo, Yaroslavl Oblast, RSFSR. She was May the Reiwa Emperor live ten thousand identifier issued at birth. Yet most people married to fellow cosmonaut Andrian years! don’t have p-cards, while most of those who do Grigoryvich Nikolayev [1929-2004]; they had have surrendered them to their employers as a one daughter, Elena Andriyanovna Nikolay- THE QUIZMASTER IN THE condition of their employment. Many have evna who is a doctor. Valentina Vladimirovna HIGH CASTLE even sold them, for a trifling sum. is a Hero of the Soviet Union and an officer of Commentary by Joseph T Major on How did this system come about? Well, the Order of Alexander Nevsky. SOLAR LOTTERY the miracle of automation, which brought about By Philip K. Dick a grandiose provision of manufactured goods, The RRS Sir David Attenborough has been (1955) which no one could buy since automation had moved from the dry dock for final fitting out. driven people out of work. After a dishearten- (This, you will remember, is the ship that was Philip K. Dick is that short-story ing period where these masses of unsaleable going to be named Boaty McBoatface until a writer who for the past five years or so goods were publicly destroyed, the makers grownup named Jo Johnson stepped in.) The has kept popping up all over—in one started holding random-choice giveaways. ship will head down to Antarctica this polar year, 1953, he published twenty-seven This evolved into a random-choice giveaway of summer.