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Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
Club Notice - 06/30/00 -- Vol. 18, No. 53
Chair/Librarian: Mark Leeper, 732-817-5619, mleeper@lucent.com
Factotum: Evelyn Leeper, 732-332-6218, eleeper@lucent.com
Distinguished Heinlein Apologist: Rob Mitchell, robmitchell@lucent.com
HO Chair Emeritus: John Jetzt, jetzt@lucent.com
HO Librarian Emeritus: Nick Sauer, njs@lucent.com
Back issues at http://www.geocities.com/evelynleeper
All material copyright by author unless otherwise noted.
The Science Fiction Association of Bergen County meets on the
second Saturday of every month in Upper Saddle River; call
201-447-3652 for details. The Denver Area Science Fiction
Association meets 7:30 PM on the third Saturday of every month at
Southwest State Bank, 1380 S. Federal Blvd.
===================================================================
1. I have a little game I play with people. I ask them to make
some estimates. I have three standard questions.
Do not do any arithmetic. What is your gut feeling of the answer
to these questions?
1. Egypt used to be a major world power in ancient times.
From its rise to power to today, what percent of the time
was it a (or the) major world power. Gut feeling,
remember.
2. Similar to the Egypt question. From the rise of the
dinosaurs to the present, what percent of the time did
dinosaurs rule the earth.
3. We have some idea what an average human life span
feels like. Say it is 70 years. Let that be your unit.
How many units back to the time of Christ?
I find people who just trust their feelings and use the Force, even
some very knowledgeable people, discover that their gut feelings
are very inaccurate. This editorial will continue later in this
issue (just so the answers do not show up on this page). [-mrl]
===================================================================
2. DARWIN'S RADIO by Greg Bear (Del Rey/Ballantine Books, 1999,
hardcover, $24.00, 430pp, ISBN 0-345-42333-X) (a book review by Joe
Karpierz):
I found it a very interesting coincidence that I finished reading
DARWIN'S RADIO the same day that it was announced that the human
genome had been mapped. Just one of those things that make you
want to go hmmmm. . . .
That's only the first odd thing about my whole DARWIN'S RADIO
experience (now *that* sounds like a Jimmi Hendrix album, but I
digress). A friend of mine recently asked me how many of this
year's Hugo nominees were part of a series or set in an already
existing universe. Well, let's see. CRYPTONOMICON, book one of a
series; A CIVIL CAMPAIGN, book 357 in the Miles Vorkosigan
universe; HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN, book three in
a particular universe; A DEEPNESS IN THE SKY, a prequel of sorts
to A Fire Upon the Deep; and DARWIN'S RADIO, a standalone.
Sheesh. Five nominees, four can't even be standalone.
Yep, DARWIN'S RADIO is the only (currently) standalone novel among
this year's Hugo nominees. And of the three novels that I've read
to this point (with A DEEPNESS IN THE SKY now in progress), it's
the best.
The beginning of the novel follows events on two fronts. One, in
Austria, where the mummified remains of ancient Neandertals are
discovered, and the other, near a mass grave in Russia. The
Neandertals were a family of three, but the child was different,
and the mother was injured. In Russia, the local government wants
nothing to do with the UN force that is sent to help. They claim
that the grave falls under local jurisdiction, and outsiders are
not wanted. In the Alps, we meet Mitch Rafelson, an anthropologist
of shaky and shady background, who is helping another couple find
the mummies. In Russia, we meet molecular biologist Kaye Lang, who
specializes in retroviruses, and Christopher Dicken, who works as a
virus hunter for the CDC. Dicken is hunting for what Lang has
theorized--a virus, hidden for thousands of years, that can come
back to life and wreak havoc with the human race. All three will
become intertwined in one of the better sf thrillers I've read in a
while.
There is a link between the mummies and the mass graves. And there
have been other occurrences recently of people being thrown out of
their towns, shunned, and maybe even killed. It seems that many
mothers are miscarrying baby girls, only to get pregnant again
within a month--without having sex. And the miscarried fetuses are
malformed--they are mostly unrecognizable as human beings.
Think about all the ramifications of that one, folks. Virgin
births; husbands and boyfriends beating up or throwing out their
wives and girlfriends, accusing them of cheating; women blaming men
for their plight.
Two sides take shape. The government, led by Mark Augustine, who
believes that the virus is a disease that's going to wipe out the
next generation of children; and a small band of scientists,
scoffed at by the scientific establishment, that believes that what
is occurring is the next step in human evolution. That instead of
gradual evolution, we're seeing great leaps of evolution in one
step. For that's what the Neandertal mummies showed. And that is
what appears to be happening with those who are giving birth to
live, "second stage" SHEVA babies (SHEVA is the name given to the
virus in question).
[WARNING: SPOILERS IN THE NEXT PARAGRAPH]
This is really a good story. However, I do have some problems with
it. There's lots of cool, neat scientific stuff going on. Lang is
a strong character, who does have some weaknesses based on her now
dead husband's behavior patterns. But by the end of the novel,
we're no longer concerned about her advancement of the scientific
theory behind all this--we've lost it to the fact that she's
pregnant with a SHEVA baby. And Bear only gives cursory mention of
the fact that she was doing science while she was pregnant. The
story had changed direction in midstream, and I was blindsided by
it when I finally realized what had happened. Additionally, the
conflict with her nemesis Mark Augustine goes largely unresolved.
There's a curious chapter thrown in near the end where Augustine
hears that Lang has had her SHEVA baby. But *nothing* is resolved
with that.
While I liked the novel overall, I don't really care for the way
the story ended. If I were to vote right now, having read only
three of the nominees, this would get my top vote, but it's still
lacking.
There should be something better out there.
Onward. [-jak]
===================================================================
3. Continuing with this week's editorial...
Some of you may have actually done the calculation. Well... that's
cheating and your Karma will git ya. As for the rest of you, here
are the answers.
1. At least 63%. You would probably say that the
Egyptian Empire rose to world prominence about 3500 BC if
not earlier. It fell from that position about 2000 years
ago. Most of us in school learned a little about Ancient
Egypt. You study it briefly before you get on to Greece
and then Rome. When it fell as a world power it had been
pretty much the major power in the world for 3500 years.
Go back 3500 years from today and we would have the first
peoples settling in the Fertile Crescent. Britain would
be making the transition form Stone Age to the first
Celtic hill forts. By rights most of Western History
should be about Egypt. We are living in the short period
following the fall of Egypt.
2. The answer is again about 63%. We are also living in
the short period after the fall of the dinosaurs. They
went from about 200,000,000 BC to about 70,000,000 BC.
3. Well if you divide 2000 years by 70 you get a little
under 29. Most people think that it would be a lot more.
I have had people guess it would be about 200. In fact,
compared to things like the duration of the Egyptian
Empire, Biblical times are really rather recent. I have
been corresponding with Carl Eichenlaub who made the
following list of 29 famous people, each of whom was
alive when the previous one died (at least according to
the best we can calculate). The first was alive when
Christ was and the last is alive today.
1. Tiberius (Tiberius Claudius Nero Caesar
Augustus): Roman emperor 014-037 and general
(42 B.C.E.-37 C.E.)
2. Agricola, Gnaeus Julius: Roman general (40-
93)
3. Antoninus Pius: Roman ruler; emperor of Rome
138-161 (86-161)
4. Severus, Lucius Septimius: Roman emperor
193-211 (146-211)
5. Plotinus: Roman philosopher; founder of
Neoplatonism; wrote "Enneads" (205?-270)
6. Anthony: Egyptian anchorite, ascetic, monk,
and saint; founder of Christian monasticism
(250?-355)
7. Augustine of Hippo (also Aurelius
Augustinus): Carthaginian author, saint, and
church father; bishop of Hippo 396-430;
opponent of Pelagian heresy; wrote "The City of
God"; principal feast day August 28 (354-430)
8. Zeno (also Zenon) Isaurian: Roman emperor of
the East 474-491 (426-491)
9. Justinian I (Justinian the Great; Flavius
Petrus Sabbatius Justinianus; orig. Petrus
Sabbatius): Byzantine lawgiver and ruler;
Byzantine emperor 527-565; issuer and eponym of
Justinian code, compiled from Roman law (483-
565)
10. Ethelbert (also Aethelbert): English
Kentish ruler; king of Kent 560-616 (552?-616)
11. Ayesha (also Aishah, Aisha, A'isha; Mother
of the Faithful): Arab favorite wife of
Muhammad; daughter of Abu Bakr (611?-678)
12. Bede (the Venerable Bede): English
historian, saint, and scholar; originated
dating of events anno domini (A.D.); wrote
history "An Ecclesiastical History of the
English People" 731; father of English history;
canonized 1899 (673?-735)
13. Alcuin of York (also Albinus, Ealhwine;
later Albinus Flaccus): English Anglo-Saxon
clergyman, mathematician, and scholar; teacher
of Charlemagne (732?-804)
14. Adrian II (also Hadrian II): Italian pope
867-872 (792-872)
15. Battani, abu-'Abdullah Muhammad ibn-Jabir
al- (also Albategni, Albategnius, Albatenius):
Arab astronomer; made precise astronomic
measurements (858?-929)
16. Otto I (Otto the Great): German ruler; king
of Germany 936-973; Holy Roman emperor 962-973
(912-973)
17. Robert II (Robert the Wise, Robert the
Pious): French ruler; king of France 996-1031;
son of Hugh Capet (971?-1031)
18. Clement III (orig. Guibert): Italian
antipope 1080, 1084-1100 (1025?-1100)
19. Hildegard of Bingen (also Hildegard von
Bingen; the Sibyl of the Rhine): German abbess,
mystic, and saint; wrote visionary work
"Scivias" 1141-1152; feast day September 17
(1098-1179)
20. Sylvester Gozzolini: Italian Catholic
abbot, religious leader, and saint; founded
Sylvestrian Order 1231 (recognized by Vatican
1247) (1177-1267)
21. Osman I (Osman al-Ghazi, Osman the
Conqueror; also Othman I): Turkish conqueror
and ruler; sultan of Turkey 1288-1326; founder
of Ottoman empire (1259-1326)
22. Wickham, William of (also William of
Wykeham): English clergyman and politician;
English lord chancellor 1368-1371 (1324-1404)
23. Della Robbia, Luca: Italian Florentine
sculptor (1399?-1482)
24. Grolier [de Servieres], Jean (Vicomte
d'Aguisy): French bibliophile and scholar
(1479-1565)
25. Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)
26. Mather, Increase: American author and
clergyman; president of Harvard University
1685-1701 (1639-1723)
27. Parker, Peter, Sir: British admiral (1721-
1811)
28. Pope Leo XIII (orig. Gioacchino Vincenzo
Raffaele Luigi Pecci): (1810-1903)
29. Adler, Mortimer (1902-present)
[-mrl]
Mark Leeper
HO 1K-644 732-817-5619
mleeper@lucent.com
The world is divided into people who do things and people who get the credit.
-- Dwight Morrow