Matrix 104 The Newsletter of the British Science Fiction Association £1.25 February-March 1993 Information & IIn& Out Contacts Change of Address BSFA Membership Slles, Ian; 120 Terry Rd; Co\'entry CVl 2BA Tnoish, &rryC; Fbt 01..2,; 51 Mirk's F'I.II5;St Now cosb £15 tEO. Muse mquire for Mark's ~ L..eed5152 9EL. BbU)', Ronak!; There i111' wveraJ artJrlZfs 10 scrani>le Ihrwgh OV_i15fi1les. 46A Regent St; Gh't'nock PAI64NP; first: sales al1' divided into home i1nc! export. New Members Scotland.Steel.Jim;160iikfitoldAv~. avoiding lhe possibility of ful1'ign editions Hillheold;GLtsgowGI28JE. Kinnear, bring mort' eilSily KCessibll' and lhe actual 10 binto, 29 Thomvilll' Rd, Hartlepool, M.drolm H; n/9 Cnoighouse CdR$; figures are given regardk:ss of the month of Clenland TS26 SEW Mominpidf'; Edinburgh EHIO SUN. publkation, 50 it may give one paperbick an Membership Renewals Dohmy. Eugene M C; 110 North PaDde; advantav to be published in Febtua.ry rather Ormeau Rd; Belf.ul 817 2CJN. l",bOO. than October. Keith Ft'ftmAn. 209 Wykeham Rd, Ruding Wignall. Brendan J; Capilano; Penslone RC6IPL College; Denslone; Ullo_eler; S4:,lIffs. ST14 The paperbacks are arbitrarily dlvkled by 5HL. COX, Andy J; 5 Martins Lane;Witcham; USA Memberships genre: thriller, romance, humour, fantasy, nr Ely; Cambs. CB6 21,8. Swifl,Jennifer. science fiction - with the more g~neral novel, Cy Chauvin, 14248 Wilfred Street, Detroit, Sivagnanam, Nesa. Butler, Andrew M. stories and saga definitions when the MI48213,USA Vermaas, Richilrd. statisticians' imagination failed them. Matrix New and Rejoined Members Finally, the important column quile Jenny &: Slt'v!' Glover, 16 Aviary PLJ,ce, Leeds understandably for a readership designed to LS12 2NP {tel: 0532 7912(4) Haines, Nick D A; 285 Mill Ret c.mbridge be booksellers i1nd sympatlUz.ers, is the CBI3DF. HlI'ris,Jeff;C PO Bo.. 288; Marden (product (shorthand, bul this particul.lIr code Media 5070; Australia. Mulbln. uroline; 'Asylum'; 9 is easy enough to unravel). This does IHd 10 bin MundelL 21 Radford House, I Crilh.1Im Rd; WNldstoM; Harrow HAJ 5RP. iI few anomalil's whl're o..l.i.I Smith's ~ndilkervn. Perrbridge c"rdens. Notting HiU Cate, Lyshol, Hridi; 81; 0483 Oslo; CCffIpltlt Cooktry Covrst (DBO seUing al f'J.99 london W2 .. EE Norwily. Caughey, Oorolyn. raisn £1,111,467 and is placed in positiOn 76 whel"tilS thl' SllptrHoro«opts 1993, rl'tailing Competitions Departed Members It I modest 0.99, produced only £463,814 Roger Robtnson. 75 Rosslyn Avenue, Hilrold fur Arrow, butl"05e 10 position 73. Wood, £tip RM30RC Highton, ID'lI'Ida M. Crunwell, Paul M. Browne, Roisin. Blakeborough. Peter. Having made all thO1St' concessions to ratify Information Calven, John. Brock. Orisrina. Cook,. Alisbir thl' figures. the eye instantly lelpt; to Phil Nichols. 17 A1bops Cklse, Rowley Regis, 5 P. AlLan. Neil EVilM, Rich.1lrd C. Bus, mentions of Science FICtion in thl' gelln list. Wildey, West MkiLands 8658JA8 ~ryl C. Helsinki Univ.SrOub (HYSFK). The eye looks, i1nd looks apin. There's not. Crane, M5 Ven V. Clover, Wendy A. Dublin precisely many mentions. There is one Vector Univ SF Society. Edwards,J.M. Orin. mention.. and It's down In po6lt1on .58: Alan Editor: Catie Cary, 224 SouthWily, Piirk Bam, Michal'IJ. Blissel:t, Mirhael K. Clantar, ONn Foster's Itlit" J (Warner). Widening the Cuildford, Surrey CU2 6DN D.1niel. StilCt'y, Marga1"fl A. Hill, Roy M. definition to include Fantasy, Terry Pntchetl lNps Into prominenCt' at position 29 with Focus Wi/chts Itbroud (Curgi; published In Carol Ann Creen, 5 Raglan Avenue, Raglan Artwork November, 224,321 lotal copies solei) and Str~t, I Hull HU5 2JAB or Julie Venner, 42 [an Cunn, PO 60.. 567, Blackburn, Vktona David Eddings ocrupil'S position 44 with WalgTilve Street, Newland Avenue, Hull 3lJOAustraliil. SRpphiu ReM (Crafton, September, tool sales HU52LT 168,M8) clowly followed by CUve 5arker one place down with !mojo bringing in 163,599 BSFA Officials totll sales for Fonlanil. Widening thl' Deadline definition into horror, the position seems Treasurer more hopeful. Stephen KIng takes 9th place! Elizabeth BIUinger, 82 Kelvin Rc.d, New with Nmlfwl Thi,.gs,wlling 513,188 copies for CUbbington, Leamington Spa CV32 7TQ March 10th 1993 New English Ubrary. Coordinator Irs Iibly that ttle figures will be more Kev McVeigh. 37 Firs Road, Milnthorpe, positive for 1993, with the paperbilck Cumbrill LA7 7QF (11'1: 05J95 62883) publicaUon of CAoff Ryman's ~_ i1nd Kim Brilish Science Flction A.s.!oci.iltion Ltd. Orbiters Stlnley Robinson's R.d A.1A'n. Thilt is tM Company No. 921500. theory al i1ny rate: publishers Ire fighting Carol Ann Creen. bgLan Avenue, bgLan ~i&tered 5 AddnilliS: 60 8ounwmoulh hard for sal" with mu5ive promotions Street, Hull HU52j8 Rd, Folkestone, Kent cn9 5AZ, designed to Ciltch the eye of i111 CilSUiII ReKistered in El\Rtand. Limited by window shoppers, author tours i1re regular BSFA Awards Guarantee. commitments Ind then! are ambitious plans Nicholas Milhoney, 276 Lonsdale Avenue, Printed by: POC Copyprint, 11 Jeffries for new llnes of graphic noYl'ls (1I'lOll! detiUs Intake, Doncaster DN2 6HJ Passage, Guildford. Surrey GUI 4AP. in the news column). But the position for Copyright e BSFA 1993 Individual Science Fiction promoters looks I1'WJre bleak. Foreign Liaison The top five bestseUers are: lilly Cooper's copyrights are the property of the Bridget Wilkinson, 17 Mimosa, 29 Avenue Polo (801.850 rllpies sold for Corgi), Jeffrey authors and editors. Road, London NI5 Archer'S As the Crow Flits (757,851 copies ISSN: 0307 3335. sold for Coronet), Wilbur Smith's £ltphllllt ·- Sof!g(7SS.11OropiessoldkwP.J.n),Frederick roots. another bW-.Jk U"01 wht~ the Jtovt'l of ronrlm'lINoI ilIudio-visuiJl med!.l illY fu more Forsyth's Tht Dtcdvn 010,966 copies sold for childhood literacy is diminishing in ratio 10 important to them INn books. A reefnl Corgi) And Barbara T Bradford's RmronNr tbe numbl-r of times Ihe Nationilll survey showed tlult four from every ten (596,940 COpi" sold for Grafton). To Curriculum 15 altered in response 10 the readers had a bias i18<11ns! rt'iIIding books, on speculate whether the reader who buys a num~r of despairing ministerial directive the grounds that it was "too slow"; and an JUly Cooper would also buy ill Ct'Off Ryman l'\'ll'n more worrying survey suggested that oil or whelh., ill Wilbur Smith ",..(h·T would Not even the tochers an fOl'fleU whether ill sizellble minority would not give up tv. even '-'so .. pprecWite Kim St.1n1ey Robinson coWd tv-driven generation can be Lrd into IilerKy for d million pounds. Given IMl a mllUon be u fuciNting ~ il is futUr. To invetigate for p/Nsu1Y Ihrough film I'IOvelisations. p;1"lnds is ~h.lps nolllS gre.u an mtamenl IIw possibility of attracting nl'W lY~ers wiU Besides which, the chUd~ lNy weU as it could be. Ihis news ~ wOlTy1ng probably ffiN,n going right bilck 10 gr<ISS impliCOItions. The Shock of the New INews I ~Ii:sh Sen Bov.., whl;l&e new novel MIllS arne hom New Libury in From: Briu W AldiN,. 5imoA BiMoA. GMff Oookee, O.vid GUtlett,. J.. nuary, will Midres5 the Edinbwgh Inlenv.Uonal Scimce Festival in J B Btalldt, 5t_ Grover, uurie M£n"- Steve Jtffery, ' ..rnn White, April on TN Sdtnct bf Sdt1tct Fidiorl. (Thn-e lNy al50 be In event at Otbonh WIriM,. Oo1vid V Bumt,. Gwyneth Jonn.l~ M,,"dell, Peter Forbidden Pl.anet In London the week leMiing up to Elster), He Tmnant, Teny Pr.tcht'tt, Scott H M"eUtllItId yo"redllofl" describes ",me of his feelings writing MIlrr. Arthur C Clarke Award Shortlist "II'S about the first people to land and begin exploring it. The The shortlJst for the seventh Arthur C Clarke Aw..rd ror the best protagonist is an Atneric<ln geologist who is part Navaho. For years Scimce FJction novel published in the UK in 1992,. in ..lphabetk.J1 order I've been going out to New Mexico and AriZON, and it simek me long before I 5tarted the novel, that particularly the lrea of the big Navaho re$ft'Vatlon looks an awful 101 Uke parts oJ M.an. So we Iw;ve .. In"' McDoNId HtArls, lUgs a"d Voial (Colil:ncz) ,harKtrr who's gt'Iting almost mysrical ,,"ve~ratM:Jns. M.ars looks so MUle Pietty B«IyofGJat (MIc....elJOHphl mIXh like hil' ancnt""l honw, he begins to _ bits and plKft of Kim SUnJey Robinson Rd M1" UurperCo\lln5) evidence that t~'J not only life but l.l5ed 10 be intelligent life on Rkh.ud Pilu1 RU$5lJ [)aIToying Artgd (Hudlind M.~ Michael SWlnwlck Slalions of tilt Tidl (Legend) Sue Thomas COrTespornltlla ('The Women's Press) "["vespent two years on this novel. USUillly I'U spend year50n a sub;ect Usa Tunle Lo6t FItIItTt$ (Grafton) preparing to write, and then the writing will take nine or len months, Connie Willis DoomsdilY Book (New English Library). but this Mars novel is very big and, I think, very deep, IThe Mars mission) is an intel'Nltional program with btg participation by thl!' The judgn Ilso pve an honourablot mention 10 the following titles European communily ..nd J.apan. n well u thl!' United Slates ..00 tJ'Il!' which.aftermuch~ we~ronsidered not lobe eligib!e (or the Sov1et Union. It's done for political reasons. so it's pretty much a flags­ .ward: .. nd-fuotprmt mis$ion. Thry'n> only al M<ln for about seven wHks, 50 the scientists"n> unhappy .bout that.