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Is Santa Claus (a.k.a. Saint Nick and Sinterklass etc.) a religious icon or a cultural icon? Most folks don't worry much about this question, but some people can get quite worked up over it, seeing the Big Guy in Red as a distraction from the main event, even with malign intent (since Santa is an anagram of Satan, he just has to be a snare and a delusion, right?).
In A War of Gifts, Orson Scott Card looks at the question through the lens of his Ender world. Zeck Morgan is the son of a Bible-thumper who rants that Santa equals Satan. He takes Daddy's messages seriously, despite the scars he bears of Daddy's switch, and when he gets drafted to Battle School, he refuses to play war. Peace is his game. And when one Dutch kid puts out his shoes for Sinterklass and another puts a silly poem in one according to Dutch custom, he rats them out as violating the School's ban on religious observances. This leads to considerable ill feeling, rebellious exchanges of small gifts, and exposition of Santa as cultural icon and not religious, until in the end Ender brings adult-level insight to the problem.
A nice warm fuzzy. It was published for Card's fans in fall of 2007, but fall 2008 is coming up fast, and if you want a Christmas story for the kids, this could do nicely.
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I didn't read Paul Park's A Princess of Roumania, The White Tyger, and The Tourmaline, so the concluding volume of the series, The Hidden World, really needs the bits of recap Park offers. Here's the gist: Miranda is a young lady of Massachusetts until the world takes a magical turn and she and her best friends, Peter and Andromeda, find themselves in a Roumania where Miranda is a princess of the old regime. The old regime itself has been supplanted by puppets of the Germans, and the Turks, aided by African technology, are battering at the borders. Miranda also turns out to be an incarnation or avatar of the mythical white tyger that appears at need to defend the realm, so she has a way of shedding blood in considerable quantities. One of her victims is Nicola Ceausescu.
As The Hidden World opens, Peter is in the trenches, fighting the Turks. Andromeda is meeting with the wife of the dictator, Bocu, and—alas for the wife—they are about to be caught. Miranda is in a mountain refuge with her mother, Peter's mother, and the Condesa De Rougemont, one of the roots of the magic that has afflicted her and brought her to the aid of Roumania. She is also contemplating the magical tourmaline that lets her pass back and forth between the living world and the hidden world that lies hard by the land of the dead. She is unaware that Bocu has sent a squad of thugs to assassinate or arrest the women, though when they arrive the white tyger sees to it that they retreat in disarray. Afterwards, however, Miranda goes to the hidden world and loses her tourmaline, without which she cannot return to her body. Alas, the jewel has been seized by the spirit of Nicola Ceausescu, who can now reanimate in Miranda's flesh. Miranda must hope that her late Aunt Aegypta Schenck can recover the stone, even as she in the hidden world and Peter in the real world both pursue an African superweapon that has been lost in a train wreck near the village of Chiselet. Since the weapon sounds a lot like an Ebola dispenser, their mission is urgent. However, there are serious obstacles to overcome in both worlds, one of which involves getting Nicola Ceausescu to let go her grip on Miranda's body.
In this series, Park offers a rare, rich blend of reality with magic with alternate history. Lovers of Avram Davidson, R. A. Lafferty, and John Crowley will enjoy themselves immensely.
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Kendall Evans’ In Deepspace Shadows: A Dramatic Poem in Two Acts is a brief oddity that is interesting enough to warrant a brief review. As the title says, it's a two-act play in verse, with stage directions. And it could only be SF, if only because the two acts are separated by more than a dozen millennia! The scene is the sail-powered starship The TransAtlantic Tortoise, whose robot crew, captained by Gael-All-of-Metal, has been programmed to search for new habitable worlds. However, the captain has other ideas, while the crew wants to go home. Mutiny is in the offing, even as the ship approaches a mysterious dark-matter structure, a maelstrom.
The dialog is a bit heavy on dramatic posturing for my taste. Since I say the same thing about most modern drama, it may suit you fine. The plot is nicely structured, and as a whole the tale is a marvel of conciseness. If you like poetry, order a copy.
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In Different Engines: How Science Drives Fiction and Fiction Drives Science, Mark Brake and Reverend Neil Hook fail to prove their title case. Using an annoyingly breezy style (perhaps because Brake, though he is a professor of science communication, has experience writing for TV and radio), they make it clear that science—sometimes in the form of the speculations and dreams of scientists—influences the form, content, and message of science fiction, some of which is of course written by the same scientists. But when they try to say that science fiction precedes the actual science, it doesn't wash. True, some scientists have been turned on to science, even particular areas of science, by childhood exposure to science fiction. But they do not hold up for inspection a single example of something begun only in science fiction leading to actual science or technology. If science leads to science fiction, which later leads to more science, the link is really from science to science, through an intermediary that gets the word out. That intermediary they recognize as science communicators, among whom they count Jules Verne, H. G. Wells, and many more.
If we call this a fault of the title more than of the text, there is much to admire here, for they provide a history of science fiction set in a context of the development of modern science. The two have indeed grown up together, to the point that we may indeed suggest, as do Brake and Hook, that SF is the soul of science. Unfortunately, as they see that soul, it is riddled with guilt and alarmism. When they discuss biology, they see that “a history can be told of the hopes and fears for biology; a story that spans all ages, from the Age of Discovery [1500-1800] to the Frankenstein century [the current period]. It is a story of the ongoing relationship between science and the cultural skepticism of its fiction” (p. 218). That is certainly true of much SF, but not of all, for there is a component of the field that deals more with “cultural celebration.” And though they do hint that that component exists, they pay it very little attention.
One valuable use for this book might be in the teaching of high school science. Because of its approach, it links classic SF to scientific ideas, and it often names movies or TV shows that could be used to illuminate lessons.
Copyright (c) 2008 Tom Easton
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Reader's Department: ANALYTICAL LABORATORY RESULTS
It's time again to thank everyone who voted in our annual poll on the previous year's issues. Your votes help your favorite writers and artists by rewarding them directly and concretely for outstanding work. They help you by giving us a better feel for what you like and don't like—which helps us know what to give you in the future.
We have five categories: novellas, novelettes, short stories, fact articles, and covers. In each category, we asked you to list your three favorite items, in descending order of preference. Each first place vote counts as three points, second place two, and third place one. The total number of points for each item is divided by the maximum it could have received (if everyone had ranked it 1) and multiplied by 10. The result is the score listed below, on a scale of 0 (nobody voted for it) to 10 (everybody ranked it first). In practice, scores run lower in categories with many entries than in those with only a few. For comparison, the number in parentheses at the head of each category is the score every item would
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NOVELLAS (1.54)
1. “Murder in Parliament Street,” Barry B. Longyear (2.95)
2. “Numerous Citations,” E. Mark Mitchell (2.74)
3. “The Sands of Titan,” Richard A. Lovett (2.68)
4. “Emerald River, Pearl Sky,” Rajnar Vajra (1.85)
5. “Reunion,” David W. Goldman (1.49)
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NOVELE
TTES (1.18)
1. “Quaestiones Super Caelo et Mundo,” Michael F. Flynn (2.25)
2. “The Hangingstone Rat,” Barry B. Longyear (2.22)
3. “El Dorado,” Tom Ligon (1.92)
4. “A Time for Lawsuits,” Amy Bechtel (1.77)
5. “Kukulcan,” Sarah K. Castle (1.65)
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SHORT STORIES (0.67)
1. “The Astronaut,” Brian Plante (1.76)
2. “Trucks,” Amy Bechtel (1.35)
3 (tie). “The Face of Hate,” Stephen L. Burns (1.29)
“Yearning for the White Avenger,” Carl Frederick (1.29)
4 (tie). “Salvation,” Jerry Oltion (0.88)
“The Suit,” Bud Sparhawk (0.88)
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FACT ARTICLES (1.82)
1. “The Ice Age That Wasn't,” Richard A. Lovett (2.86)
2. “De Revolutione Scientiarum in ‘Media Tempestas,'” Michael F. Flynn (2.28)
3. “After Gas: Are We Ready for the End of Oil?” Richard A. Lovett (2.21)
4. “The Search for the World's First Equestrians,” Richard A. Lovett (2.14)
5. “Beyond This Point Be RFIDs,” Edward M. Lerner (2.07)
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COVER (2.00)
1. April, by David A. Hardy (3.22)
2. June (for “The Sands of Titan"), by David A. Hardy (2.64)
3. January/February (for “Emerald River, Pearl Sky"), by Bob Eggleton
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All categories had clear winners, but there were as usual some interesting patterns among the contenders. Barry B. Longyear's “Jaggers and Shad” stories are still doing well, with first place in one category and second in another. Richard A. Lovett captured three of the top spots in fact articles and also had a novella in the winners’ circle; David A. Hardy won three of the top five cover slots. We had not one but two ties among short stories, and a couple of newcomers made strong showings. Long-time favorite Michael F. Flynn scored very high with both a highly unusual novelette and the equally unusual fact article that complemented it.
One of the most interesting patterns was one that you can't see in these numbers, but Ben Bova warned me about when he was turning over the reins: strong stories and articles tend to polarize people. Pieces that don't generate any hate don't generate much love, either. True to his predictions, some of this year's most popular stories and articles also drew some of the most vehement criticism. Moral: Please remember that plenty of others may love what you hate, and vice versa. As for us, we'll just keep trying to please most of you most of the time.
Since AnLab votes are so important to that goal, we hope to get even more next time. Use our online ballot, e-mail, or “snail mail,” whichever you prefer, but please vote! (Please be careful to vote in the right category, as listed in the annual Index. Sometimes a few votes are wasted by being cast in the wrong category, and those simply can't be counted. We recommend voting online at our website; it makes that problem virtually impossible!)
[Back to Table of Contents]
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Reader's Department: BRASS TACKS
Stan,
Interesting take on the situation, in your Jan/Feb 2008 editorial, “Attention.” I've thought of some other, possibly more charitable, explanations.
First is the somewhat special case of the classical music station. I haven't listened to it so I can't say for sure that this is the case, but it seems most unlikely to me that they'd interrupt a selection in the middle to run commercials. That being the case (at least for the sake of argument), then the classical music station has a fundamental difference with other types of entertainment shows. The difference is that in other shows, the play (or whatever entertainment is being broadcast) is generally one continuous piece, so that the audience can extrapolate from what he's heard to what he can expect in the next segment. In the case of classical music, that's not true; after the commercial break, an entirely different selection will be presented. Under those circumstances, it is not at all unreasonable for the station to inform the audience what the next selection (or even the next few selections) will be. Even if the underlying motive is to keep them glued to their chairs through the break so that they will not miss the opening bars of the next piece. (And not coincidentally, to not miss the commercial!)
Next is the more general case of the recap after the commercial break. Given that, except for the special case I mention above, the station managers are aware that some portion of their audience does leave the vicinity of the TV or radio to attend to other matters during the break (getting snacks, etc.), the recap serves a distinct purpose. That purpose (in this view, at least) is not so much to remind the audience of what happened, as it is to notify them that the show is about to start again, and to give them a few seconds warning to come back to their chair so as not to miss the beginning of the next segment.
To some extent this encourages the audience to leave the TV at just the time when the sponsors want them glued in front of it, but the station could justify it as “public service.”
Howard Mark
Suffern, NY
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No doubt some of them do, and probably some of the customers even see it as such; everything is liked by some and disliked by others. The fact remains that this gimmick means they're delivering less actual product than they claim—and the “warning” excuse is less relevant than ever in a time when many viewers time-shift most shows via VCR or TiVo and skip the commercials anyway.
The classical music station's main offense is not previews or recaps, but a strong tendency to play only short “pieces"—often single movements yanked from a large piece containing several movements that were meant to be played as a unified whole.
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Dear Analog Editor,
I have read Astounding/Analog from the first issues, and my unbroken subscription runs from 1946, to numerous addresses in England and Canada (I am not yet quite as old as Jack Williamson was).I could have written many, many times with praise for your selection of stories, so it pains me to say that Barry Longyear's story in the Jan/Feb issue seems to me to be incoherent, incomprehensible, excruciatingbalderdash.The earlier stories in this series werebarely bearable crude pastiches.The references to English place-names and characters may seem amusing to American ideas of English manners, but they are pitifully unfunny to anyone who knows better.
I have understood from your editorials that you do not expect to please everybody.However, I hope that we shall not have to suffer through further episodes of this sort of rubbish.You must have something better in your slush pile.
Yours truly,
Donald McCormick
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Hi,
I'm a longtime subscriber to both Analog and Asimov's and have enjoyed them both greatly over the years. Asimov's has undergone a change in the types of stories they publish and I find fewer and fewer that I like. I may let my subscription to Asimov's lapse next time around. I really depend on Analog for the hard sci fi and space opera type of stories I enjoy. A story like “The Spacetime Pool” (March 2008) is just the kind of fuzzy, romantic, claptrap I expect to find in Asimov's, not Analog. I checked the front of the magazine to be sure I was reading Analog. Sorry to have my first letter be critical, but I just hate that kind of story. Can't you send that stuff their way instead?
Thanks for listening.
Jessica Koenig
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Dear Dr. Schmidt,
First let me say that I lived in Mexico for twenty years, returning just two years ago. I found the country and the people most agreeable.
I said the above in hope that you would not mistake what I am about to point out: The theme of the March 2008 editorial can easily be applied to human immigration to the U.S.A.The parallels are clear, I think.
As a child I learned we were the melting pot, where immigrants came to become Americans. As a resident in Mexico, I joined the local chapter of the Junior Chamber International, became a member
of the local Lions Club, reallylearned the language, learned some of the Himno Nacional, and came to feel almost a Mexican. I would like to see those who come here do something similar, and not be like kudzu vine (I recall watching it grow before my eyes in South Carolina in 1940.) and the other non-native species we now find here in America.
I've been reading Astounding and Analog since 1939, and I don't think I have missed an issue.
Yours truly,
and keep up the good work,
William (Bill) F. Steagall, Sr.
El Segundo, CA
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Dr. Schmidt,
I would just like to add a few words to your March editorial, “Which Stitch in Time?” Humans have been slow to understand the full implications of introducing alien species to new habitats. We never received a “User's Manual for Planet Earth” and have had to piece the knowledge together for ourselves.
Some US states and countries do have strict laws about importing species, and the laws are enforced. California, Hawaii, Australia, and New Zealand all have an extensive list of what can and cannot be brought across the borders. Back in the early 1990s, a university in Auckland wanted to do some research on spider silk and tried to import some black widows. But the New Zealand government blocked it. Spiders and snakes cannot be imported for any reason. New Zealand has no native snakes.
The United States bans completely the importation of an Asian animal known as the Raccoon Dog (Nyctereutes procyonoides). In some European countries it was intentionally introduced as a fur-bearer or it escaped from fur farms. In either case, it is now established and is considered a pest in most places. The US is trying to not make the same mistake.
These examples are all fine and good, but the real problem seems to be the hitchhikers who travel on people of in containers on ships. Insects and fungus can easily ride over on pallet wood from China to some warehouse in the US if proper fumigation procedures are not followed. With the growth in Chinese exports and the lax reputation China has in enforcing such procedures, it is little wonder we don't have more pests munching our crops or fungi killing our forests.
Analog SFF, July-August 2008 Page 43