NOVEMBER 1994 PROJECT OPEN BOOK OMNI'S SEARCH FOR THE REAL UFOS I — onnruiNGVhViBER 1994 EDITOR IN CHIEF & DESIGN DIRECTOR: BOB GUCCIONE PRESIDENT&C.O.O.: KATHY KEETOIM VP/EDITOR: KEITH FERRELL EXEC io MANAGING EDITOR CARCI 'ME DARK ART DIRECTOR: CATHRYN MEZZO 6 First Word Continui By David Copperfield 42 8 Let the Project Begin Communications By Pamela Weintraub 10 Project Open Book, Forum Omni's ongoing effort to By Keith Ferreli investigate UFO 12 data from around the world, Stars is underway. By Steve Nadis This month we reveal the 14 first responses Animals and the experts who'll By Jane Bosveid evaluate them. 16 52 Sounds Being There By Sieve Nadis By Erin Murphy 18 Wings of Courage, the Wheels first I MAX By Denny Atkin 3-D feature film, presented 20 enormous Mind challenges for both By Lorrin Harvey 22 director Jean- Jacques Annaud and Arts the crew. By Denise Meola 62 24 Fiction: Travel Isobel Avens By Anthony Liversidge 26 Returns to Stepney in the Spring Electronic Universe By M. John Harrison By Gregg Keizer 77 28 Interview: Waves Brian Michael Jenkins By Janei Stites 30 By Paul Bagne Thwarting terrorism Artificial Intelligence Omni's call for verifiable evidence of UFOs 85 By CalGb John Clark has generated a flood of letters to assist us as we 32 focus Antimatter an objective eye on an elusive subject. Project 112 Learning Open Book is now officially open. Cover art by Scott Morgan. Games By Lisa G. Casirtger (Additional art and photo credits, page 97) By Scot Morris Printed in U.S.A. FIRST WORD A DELICATE SLEIGHT OF HAND:. Magic and the history of illusion By David Copperfield n thai Neanderthal day, the theater's glory. But no matter part unsung outside ihe confines when cold rain ruined the stage and no matter the trick, of the brotherhood, have devoted the hunt and kept the from the vanishing pebble to the their lives to creating new illu- clan inside the shelter of the disappearing Statue of Liberty, sions, to perfecting' an arcane cave, who was that man who first magicians through the ages have sleight with the pasieboards, to picked up a pebble and, through instilled in wide-eyed children and developing a minute refinement on shaggy sleight of hand, made it even their jaded elders—genera- an existing piece of conjuring. disappear to the grunts and tions who saw men walk on the Gifted with intelligence, curiosity, squeals of an otherwise wearied moon and dinosaurs run across and imagination, one can only 7 audience And perhaps, a week cinema screens— an almost lost- wonder how the world might have later, he discovered childhood sense of changed had these conjurers cho- For David the joy of making the discovery. sen the fields of science or medi- Copperfield, pebble reappear by Whether it was a cine in which to pour their genius. magic it Is snatching out of a Dunninger reading And all of them, from Uncle than just mere neighbor's ear. We minds or a Geller Charley to the stage illusionist, the art of owe that man a debt, bending spoons, a share a common trait—they keep Illusion; it is a for he was the first Chung Ling Soo their secrets, hoarding them with way to magician, the first to catching bullets be- the fervor of a miser, not because celebrate awe, create wonder both tween his teeth, a they represent wealth or personal myslery, intimate and real. Kellar or Thurston lev- prestige, but because divulging and wonder. He was the father itating a woman, or a them to the uninitiated breaks the of the oldest of all Dante sawing a lady spell, ruins the fun, and tells the the performing arts, in half, the magicians' child inside us all not to dream. ' practiced in an un- feats have been lim- With mysteries intact, the broken succession from the priests ited only by one criterion: The ex- magic lives on. But even conjurers of the apemen to the Hindu ploit must be impossible. share one conundrum—the curi- Jadoo-Wallahs, from the Algerian And of all the performers on ous fact that of all the performing marabouts to the Indian shamans, stage, no one courts disaster no arts, magic is the only one that is and from Houdini to Uncle Charley one flirts with failure as' much as male-dominated. Women, for the with his card tricks. Magic has the magician. The juggler may most part, have been on the re- captured the passion of curious drop a bowling pin, the singer may ceiving end of the indignities: They minds everywhere, from Charles forget a lyric, the actor may fluff have been sawed in half and had Dickens to Orson Welles, from a line, and all will be forgiven; but skewers thrust through their bod- Muhammad Ali and Norman no magician is allowed to miss a ies. Is it because most magicians Schwarzkopf to Princes Philip trick and escape that moment enter the field at a young age, Charles, and from Dick Cavett when applause turns to derision. when little boys like to show off to and Johnny Carson to Dick- John Some have missed a trick, of little girls? Or is it a mystery that son Carr, course. Sometimes. Uncle Charley even magic cannot explain? Magic caters to a spirit of rev- can't find the selected card, and Or as Albert Einstein once erence and mystery, and it is the one unlucky night, Chung Ling wrote, "The fairest thing we can magician, above all other theatri- failed Soo to stop the bullet. experience is the mysterious. It is cal and performing artists, who But the art pressed on. Today, the fundamental emotion which must carry the torch of wonder. an estimated 30,000 Americans stands at the cradle of true art His art speaks to a primordial have embraced magic as a hobby. and true science. He who knows emotion inside us all. There have been more books it not and can no longer feel fictional A Merlin took magic written on card magic alone than amazement is as good as dead, from the cave to the court; a very on any other performing art. a snuffed-out candle.'DQ real Austrian, Johann Nepomuk Magic has invaded Broadway, Hofzinser, took it from the street, network television, the perform- David Copperfield has established playground of the mountebank, ing arts center, the rock concert, the International Museum and Li- to the drawing of " rooms Viennese and the urban sidewalk. It is the brary of the Conjuring Arts, which aristocracy; and Jean Robert Golden Age of Conjuring. houses one of the world's fore- Houdin, a French conjurer brought Some of the finest minds to most collections of historical doc- it from the fairground's bustle to have ever existed, for the most : .-'T'.eniation and artifacts. mm CDnnnnuruicATiofus READERS' WRITES: The face that should launch a ship, storytelling at its best, and NASA goes off Broadway About Face Every piece of fiction you print sur- I think your article [Mars Face, August passes the last. "Why Did?" [April 1994] was especially courageous. I'm 1994] is brilliant. It's of the quality one sure you knew you would incur displea- expects to find in a contemporary liter- sure from important people. I suspect ature magazine. There is no better your article is the first word that a ma- place than Omni to turn in search of jority of your readers have heard on al- fresh science fiction, fantasy, psycho- leged alien artifacts in the solar logical, political, and futuristic topics; system, a topic which has been the all well-researched, intriguingly pre- focus of furious America Online de- sented, and endlessly fascinating. bates. Thanks for allowing your readers Eva Marie Auker a chance to judge for themselves. Lititz, PA Lan Fleming Houston, TX Curtain Call for NASA? AOL: Compewter I agree wholeheartedly with Mr. Cypher [First Word, July 1994] that another re- The most important issue regarding make of "War of the Worlds" is not what the Mars "face" is that NASA et al. will bring the audience back to the the- refuse to deal with and debate the idea ater. Our new script should be one which on a scientific basis. It is the business of appeals to the largest demographic science to gather data, form hypothe- possible —the entire "home planet." ses, and test them, rather than to ac- NASA's recent reviews have been lack- cept or reject beliefs. Michael Malin's luster, at best. Whatever direction it explanation that there would have to chooses for is forced) to take, it had. be visible signs of ". roads or large better act fast. Or else it will have to ." areas that have been excavated . bring down the curtain after a disap- to prove to him that something intelli- pointing last act. gent designed and built the structures Cathy Anderson on Mars leaves me with this question: Houston, TX Couid it be possible that other life forms may not build nor transport themselves The Nature of the Beast as Mr. Malin would like? Does this mean Again we are led to think that chim- that we have to show a picture of a 1920 panzees are better than humans Chevy or a steam shovel to prove to Mr. [Beauty and the Beast, August 1994] Malin that someone was actually there because "chimps never put a human in at some point in time? a cage and humans are the ones with Robert Loveridge bullets." Chimps don't need the bullets.