Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
04/10/20 -- Vol. 38, No. 41, Whole Number 2114
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Topics:
Hugo, Retro Hugo, Lodestar, and Astounding Awards Finalists
Interpreting Science (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS by H. P. Lovecraft (audiobook
review by Joe Karpierz)
Day of the Animals (letters of comment by Ash Marie
and Peter Trei)
Dogs and Cats (letter of comment by Dorothy J. Heydt)
This Week's Reading (THE DECAMERON, WHAT TO THINK ABOUT
MACHINES THAT THINK, BOUND TO PLEASE, WHAT DOES IT ALL
MEAN?, FOUNDATION'S TRIUMPH, EUROPE IN AUTUMN, and
TRUE HISTORY) (book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
===================================================================
TOPIC: Hugo, Retro Hugo, Lodestar, and Astounding Awards Finalists
The lists of Hugo, Retro Hugo, Lodestar, and Astounding Award
Finalists are at the end of this issue.
===================================================================
TOPIC: Interpreting Science (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
A friend sent me a quote from pundit Ben Shapiro.:
"One thing is certain: Things cannot continue as they have been.
Americans are not going to stay home for months on end, and they
certainly will not do so on the basis of ever-evolving models,
especially as statistics roll in that look like the lower-end model
estimates in terms of death and the upper-end estimates in terms of
economic damage. We need transparency and honesty from our
scientific experts--we need to know what they know, what they
don't, and when they hope to know what they don't. We're grown-
ups, and we're willing to follow their advice. But they need to
start answering serious questions, or they will fall prey to the
same lack of institutional faith to which all other American
institutions seem deeply prone."
https://www.cnsnews.com/commentary/ben-shapiro/ben-shapiro-threehttps://www.cnsnews.com/commentary/ben-shapiro/ben-shapiro-threehttps://www.cnsnews.com/commentary/ben-shapiro/ben-shapiro-three<*https://www.cnsnews.com/commentary/ben-shapiro/ben-shapiro-three">https://www.cnsnews.com/commentary/ben-shapiro/ben-shapiro-three">https://www.cnsnews.com/commentary/ben-shapiro/ben-shapiro-three<*https://www.cnsnews.com/commentary/ben-shapiro/ben-shapiro-three
https://www.cnsnews.com/commentary/ben-shapiro/ben-shapiro-three*-
big-questions-nobody-answering]
I think he is saying that there is a solution to our problem out
there and it is a failing of the medical community to not find it.
I keep asking myself, what if a cure takes years to find or if we
never find one?
I think that the US public is coming into this crisis with too many
people thinking you can interpret the science however it is
convenient to interpret it. Too many people did that with climate
change. Now they are saying that with the virus. They think we
can demand the problem to go away. I am frustrated with the slow
progress on the problem, but it may come down to a genuine
existential threat. Blaming the people who are working on the
problem could well be totally useless and only making things worse.
It is like being in a traffic jam and trying to fix the problem by
honking your horn. [-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS by H. P. Lovecraft (copyright
1936, 2013 Blackstone Audio, narrated by Edward Herrmann)
(audiobook review by Joe Karpierz)
Since I was young, I've been interested in Gothic horror. Like
many people my age, I would run home from school every day to catch
the latest episode of Gothic horror soap opera Dark Shadows. That
show is what hooked me on that particular sub-genre. However, once
Dark Shadows was cancelled, for some reason I lost interest. I had
the vague notion in the back of my mind that I like ghost stories,
vampires, monsters, and psychological terror. I was never
interested in the graphic, bloody, splatterpunk type of story.
Atmospheric stories were the ones I liked; I immensely enjoyed the
movie THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT, with all of the scary stuff
happening just off-screen.
Somewhere between Dark Shadows and Blair Witch I finally heard of
H. P. Lovecraft. I expect that it was in college, when I first
started playing Dungeons and Dragons; our dungeon master was
referring to some entity called Cthulhu. I was curious, but never
enough to pick up anything by Lovecraft. At either the Toronto or
Denver Worldcon I finally gave in to my curiosity and bought a copy
of the massive Lovecraft story collection Necronomicon (a
reference, of course, to a famous book within his mythology).
Seeing that I had a copy in my hands at the dealer and waiting to
pay for it, writer Charles Stross pointed at it and said something
like "now THAT is going to warp your mind".
I never got around to reading it.
Sometime within the last year I was able to get an inexpensive copy
of an audiobook of AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS. Looking for
something short to listen to before this year's Hugo finalists were
announced (which will be happening 3 days after I write this), I
decided to give it a listen (Side note--good thing I did. I was
most of the way through it when the shelter in place order came
from the governor of Illinois because of COVID-19 and I stopped
commuting to work, which is when I listened to audiobooks).
I have mixed feelings about it.
Most folks steeped in genre tradition know the story. It is of an
expedition to the Antarctic, where the narrator and his companion
discover a lost city of an ancient civilization that came to Earth
long ago--not long after the time the Moon was formed--and the
horrors that surround that civilization. They discover the
civilization after an advance scouting party went mysteriously
silent. When the narrator and his companion came to investigate,
they discovered the remains of most of the advance party as well as
the remains of some strange creatures. Via aeroplane, they
traverse a mountain range higher than any other known to man, and
discover the civilization of the Elder Things, and the horrors that
they encountered.
The narrator and his companion uncover the story by reading
carvings and hieroglyphs, which tells of the coming of the Old Ones
and their created slaves, the shoggoths. This all happened tens of
millions of years in the past. The eventually flee in terror, and
see what they believe as a shoggoth. The narrator is documenting
all of this in the hopes of persuading a much more well-documented
expedition from even attempting to go to the Antarctic.
I know this story is considered by many to be quintessential
Lovecraft. I was ... unimpressed. I found some of the things
deduced by the narrator somewhat unbelievable--I had no idea how he
came to certain conclusions. And it was not frightening to say the
least. Maybe I'm old and jaded, but then again I find the audio
narration of Bram Stoker's Dracula more terrifying than this, and
it was written in a much earlier time frame. Will I consume more
Lovecraft? Oh, probably. I'll just be coming at it from a
different perspective than I did this time.
Edward Herrmann, the narrator, did well enough. Given that this
was a first person account, he didn't have to perform multiple
voices. He did his best to give great weight and atmosphere to the
story, and I think he did fine, and in my opinion he did the best
he could with the material he had to work with.
I've been gravitating to shorter fiction these days, as I've gotten
tired of the long format novels. Maybe it's time to pick up
Necronomicon and getter a better taste of Lovecraft's fiction.
[-jak]
===================================================================
TOPIC: Day of the Animals (letters of comment by Ash Marie and
Peter Trei)
In response to Mark's comments on hippos in the 04/03/20 issue of
the MT VOID, Ash Marie writes:
This list of plagues made my morning. Notably:
Two months after the terrifying sentence "hippos have become an
invasive species," we get this second, unparalleled headline
https://www.cnet.com/news/pablo-escobars-cocaine-hippos-mayhttps://www.cnet.com/news/pablo-escobars-cocaine-hippos-mayhttps://www.cnet.com/news/pablo-escobars-cocaine-hippos-may<*https://www.cnet.com/news/pablo-escobars-cocaine-hippos-may">https://www.cnet.com/news/pablo-escobars-cocaine-hippos-may">https://www.cnet.com/news/pablo-escobars-cocaine-hippos-may<*https://www.cnet.com/news/pablo-escobars-cocaine-hippos-may
https://www.cnet.com/news/pablo-escobars-cocaine-hippos-may*-
benefit-colombias-ecosystem/]:
"Pablo Escobar's 'cocaine hippos' may benefit Colombia's
environment"
It includes such jewels as describing hippos as "difficult to catch
and dangerous to confront" (well, yes, notoriously); this really
indescribable quote:
"Shurin says the hippos in Colombia should still be removed or
contained and their effects on the native biodiversity are still
unknown. 'Like other plagues recently in the news, they can be
controlled more cheaply, effectively and humanely early on when
they're rare, rather than later when they're everywhere,' he says."
...and asking, perhaps rhetorically, what effect thousands of
hippos in the next twenty years would have on the landscape of
Colombia.
My roommate has suggested relocating them to Florida and pitting
them against the unstoppable python menace. Truly a joyful Friday
morning in this house. [-am]
In response to Mark's comments on animals in general in that issue,
Peter Trei writes:
There's also the 2015 TV series 'Zoo', which has exactly this trope--
animals all over the world start attacking humans. Somehow, this was
spun out to three seasons.
[And regarding hippos specifically:]
This was the topic of a recent Science Friday segment on NPR.
*https://www.sciencefriday.com/segments/pablo-escobar-columbia
https://www.sciencefriday.com/segments/pablo-escobar-columbia*-
hippos/
There's debate over getting rid of them, with some scientists
pointing out that they are filling an ecological niche left vacant
when hunters from Asia at the end of the last Ice Age exterminated
the native megafauna. [-pt]
===================================================================
TOPIC: Dogs and Cats (letter of comment by Dorothy J. Heydt)
In response to John Purcell's comments on dogs and cats in the
04/03/20 issue of the MT VOID, Dorothy J. Heydt writes:
There are many, many examples of dogs and cats being best buddies
(and napmates) on
*https://icanhas.cheezburger.com/lolcats
https://icanhas.cheezburger.com/lolcats*
and its parent site,
*https://icanhas.cheezburger.com/ https://icanhas.cheezburger.com/*
It reminds me of a passage in, I think, C. S. Lewis's THE FOUR
LOVES where somebody says, "You'd be surprised how often dogs and
cats get along together," and the other guy says, "Yeah, but I bet
the dog never admits it to the other dogs."
"Done deal now. Take care of yourselves during the current
apocalypse--collect the whole series!--and remember the words of
that great Canadian philosopher, Red Green, "We're all in this
together. I'm pulling for ya." [-jp]
I'll go along with that. [-djh]
===================================================================
TOPIC: This Week's Reading (book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
[Comments on the Hugo Award, Retro Hugo Award, and other award
finalists will appear next week.]
I find myself without a complete review this week. This doesn't
mean I am not reading; it means I'm in the middle of a lot of
books. I'm reading Boccaccio's DECAMERON along with the "Classical
Stuff You Should Know" podcast, but at a story a day, it will be
over three months before I am finished.
I have already said something about John Brockman's WHAT TO THINK
ABOUT MACHINES THAT THINK, but I'm still reading that at only a
couple of articles a day.
The same process is true of Michael Dirda's BOUND TO PLEASE, a
collection of dozens of essays and book reviews of classics,
biographies, and historical non-fiction. One cannot just plow
through a book like this.
Other books I have finished but have little to comment on.
Thomas Nagel's WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN? covers many of the basic
questions of philosophy (e.g., how do you know anything?), but at a
fairly elementary level.
I read David Brin's FOUNDATION'S TRIUMPH, but find I have nothing
to say about it.
Dave Hutchinson's EUROPE IN AUTUMN is the first book of a
tetralogy, and what I think is the central premise of the series is
not even revealed until the last quarter of the book.
Lucian of Samosata's TRUE HISTORY was recommended in the Dirda book
above, but I found it not very engaging. It's sort of Homer's
"Odyssey" crossed with Swift's GULLIVER'S TRAVELS, but not up to
either. [-ecl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: Hugo, Retro Hugo, Lodestar, and Astounding Awards Finalists
Finalists for the Hugo, Retro Hugo, Lodestar, and Astounding Awards.
Hugo Awards
Best Novel
The City in the Middle of the Night, Charlie Jane Anders
The Ten Thousand Doors of January, Alix E. Harrow
The Light Brigade, Kameron Hurley
A Memory Called Empire, Arkady Martine
Middlegame, Seanan McGuire
Gideon the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir
Best Novella
To Be Taught, If Fortunate, Becky Chambers
"Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom", Ted Chiang (Exhalation)
The Haunting of Tram Car 015, P. Djeli Clark
This Is How You Lose the Time War, Amal El-Mohtar &
Max Gladstone (Saga)
In an Absent Dream, Seanan McGuire
The Deep, Rivers Solomon, with Daveed Diggs,
William Hutson & Jonathan Snipes
Best Novelette
"For He Can Creep", Siobhan Carroll (Tor.com 7/10/19)
"Omphalos", Ted Chiang (Exhalation)
"Away with the Wolves", Sarah Gailey (Uncanny 9-10/19)
"Emergency Skin", N.K. Jemisin (Forward)
"The Blur in the Corner of Your Eye", Sarah Pinsker
(Uncanny 7-8/19)
"The Archronology of Love", Caroline M. Yoachim
(Lightspeed 4/19)
Best Short Story
"Do Not Look Back, My Lion", Alix E. Harrow
(Beneath Ceaseless Skies 1/31/19)
"As the Last I May Know", S.L. Huang (Tor.com 10/23/19)
"And Now His Lordship Is Laughing", Shiv Ramdas
(Strange Horizons 9/9/19)
"Ten Excerpts from an Annotated Bibliography on the
Cannibal Women of Ratnabar Island", Nibedita Sen
(Nightmare 5/19)
"Blood Is Another Word for Hunger", Rivers Solomon
(Tor.com 7/24/19)
"A Catalog of Storms", Fran Wilde (Uncanny 1-2/19)
Best Series
Winternight, Katherine Arden
The Expanse, James S.A. Corey
Luna, Ian McDonald
InCryptid, Seanan McGuire
Planetfall, Emma Newman
Wormwood, Tade Thompson
Best Related Work
Joanna Russ, Gwyneth Jones
The Pleasant Profession of Robert A Heinlein,
Farah Mendlesohn
"2019 John W. Campbell Award Acceptance Speech",
Jeannette Ng
The Lady from the Black Lagoon: Hollywood Monsters and
the Lost Legacy of Milicent Patrick, Mallory O'Meara
Becoming Superman: My Journey From Poverty to Hollywood,
J. Michael Straczynski
Worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin
Best Graphic Story or Comic
Die, Volume 1: Fantasy Heartbreaker, Kieron Gillen,
illustrated by Stephanie Hans (Image)
The Wicked + The Divine, Volume 9: Okay, Kieron Gillen,
illustrated by Jamie McKelvie & Matt Wilson
(Image Comics)
Monstress, Volume 4: The Chosen, Marjorie Liu,
illustrated by Sana Takeda (Image)
LaGuardia, Nnedi Okorafor, illustrated by Tana Ford,
colours by James Devlin (Berger Books/Dark Horse)
Paper Girls, Volume 6, Brian K. Vaughan, illustrated
by Cliff Chiang & Matt Wilson (Image)
Mooncakes, Wendy Xu & Suzanne Walker (Oni Press;
Lion Forge)
Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form
Avengers: Endgame
Captain Marvel
Good Omens
Russian Doll, Season One
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
Us
Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form
Doctor Who: "Resolution"
The Expanse: "Cibola Burn"
The Good Place: "The Answer"
The Mandalorian: "Redemption"
Watchmen: "A God Walks into Abar"
Watchmen: "This Extraordinary Being"
Best Editor, Short Form
Neil Clarke
Ellen Datlow
C.C. Finlay
Jonathan Strahan
Lynne M. Thomas & Michael Damian Thomas
Sheila Williams
Best Editor, Long Form
Sheila Gilbert
Brit Hvide
Diana M. Pho
Devi Pillai
Miriam Weinberg
Navah Wolfe
Best Professional Artist
Tommy Arnold
Rovina Cai
Galen Dara
John Picacio
Yuko Shimizu
Alyssa Winans
Best Semiprozine
Beneath Ceaseless Skies
Escape Pod
Fireside
FIYAH
Strange Horizons
Uncanny
Best Fanzine
The Book Smugglers
Galactic Journey
Journey Planet
nerds of a feather, flock together
Quick Sip Reviews
The Rec Center
Best Fancast
Be the Serpent
The Coode Street Podcast
Galactic Suburbia
Our Opinions Are Correct
Claire Rousseau's YouTube channel
The Skiffy and Fanty Show
Best Fan Writer
Cora Buhlert
James Davis Nicoll
Alasdair Stuart
Bogi Takacs
Paul Weimer
Adam Whitehead
Best Fan Artist
Iain Clark
Sara Felix
Grace P. Fong
Meg Frank
Ariela Housman
Elise Matthesen
Lodestar for Best Young Adult Book (Not a Hugo)
The Wicked King, Holly Black
Deeplight, Frances Hardinge
Minor Mage, T. Kingfisher
Catfishing on CatNet, Naomi Kritzer
Dragon Pearl, Yoon Ha Lee
Riverland, Fran Wilde
Astounding Award for Best New Writer (Not a Hugo)
Sam Hawke*
R.F. Kuang*
Jenn Lyons
Nibedita Sen*
Tasha Suri*
Emily Tesh
*Second year of eligibility
1945 Retro Hugo Awards
Best Novel
"Shadow Over Mars", Leigh Brackett (Startling Stories Fall '44)
Land of Terror, Edgar Rice Burroughs
The Golden Fleece, Robert Graves
"The Winged Man", E. Mayne Hull & A.E. Van Vogt
(Astounding Science Fiction 5-6/44)
The Wind on the Moon, Eric Linklater
Sirius, Olaf Stapledon
Best Novella
"The Jewel of Bas", Leigh Brackett (Planet Stories Spring '44)
"A God Named Kroo", Henry Kuttner
(Thrilling Wonder Stories Winter '44)
"Trog", Murray Leinster (Astounding Science Fiction 6/44)
"Intruders from the Stars", Ross Rocklynne
(Amazing Stories 1/44)
"Killdozer!", Theodore Sturgeon
(Astounding Science Fiction 11/44)
"The Changeling", A.E. van Vogt
(Astounding Science Fiction 4/44)
Best Novelette
"The Big and the Little", Isaac Asimov (Astounding 8/44)
"Arena", Fredric Brown (Astounding 6/44)
"No Woman Born", C.L. Moore (Astounding 12/44)
"The Children's Hour", Lawrence O'Donnell (C.L. Moore &
Henry Kuttner) (Astounding 3/44)
"When the Bough Breaks", Lewis Padgett (C.L. Moore &
Henry Kuttner) (Astounding 11/44)
"City", Clifford D. Simak (Astounding 5/44)
Best Short Story
"The Wedge", Isaac Asimov (Astounding 10/44)
"I, Rocket", Ray Bradbury (Amazing Stories 5/44)
"And the Gods Laughed", Fredric Brown (Planet Stories
Spring '44)
"Desertion", Clifford D. Simak (Astounding 11/44)
"Huddling Place", Clifford D. Simak (Astounding 7/44)
"Far Centaurus", A.E. van Vogt (Astounding 1/44)
Best Series
Pellucidar, Edgar Rice Burroughs
Jules de Grandin, Seabury Quinn
The Shadow, Maxwell Gibson (Walter B. Grant)
Captain Future, Brett Sterling
Doc Savage, Kenneth Robeson/Lester Dent
Cthulhu Mythos, H.P. Lovecraft, August Derleth, and others
Best Related Work
"The Science-Fiction Field", Leigh Brackett
(Writer's Digest 7/44)
Mr. Tompkins Explores the Atom, George Gamow
"The Works of H.P. Lovecraft: Suggestions for a Critical
Appraisal", Fritz Leiber (The Acolyte Fall '44)
Rockets: The Future of Travel Beyond the Stratosphere, Willy Ley
Fancyclopedia, Jack Speer (Forrest J Ackerman)
'42 To '44: A Contemporary Memoir Upon Human Behavior During
the Crisis of the World Revolution, H.G. Wells
Best Graphic Story or Comic
Donald Duck: "The Mad Chemist", Carl Barks (Dell Comics)
Buck Rogers: "Hollow Planetoid", Dick Calkins
(National Newspaper Service)
Flash Gordon: "Battle for Tropica", Alex Raymond
(King Features Syndicate)
Flash Gordon: "Triumph in Tropica", Alex Raymond
(Kings Features Syndicate)
Superman: "The Mysterious Mr. Mxyztplk", Jerry Siegel &
Joe Shuster (DC)
The Spirit: "For the Love of Clara Defoe", Manly Wade Wellman,
Lou Fine, and Don Komisarow
Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form
The Canterville Ghost
The Curse of the Cat People
Donovan's Brain
House of Frankenstein
The Invisible Man's Revenge
It Happened Tomorrow
Best Professional Editor, Short Form
John W. Campbell, Jr.
Oscar J. Friend
Mary Gnaedinger
Dorothy McIlwraith
Raymond A. Palmer
W. Scott Peacock
Best Professional Artist
Earle Bergey
Margaret Brundage
Boris Dolgov
Matt Fox
Paul Orban
William Timmins
Best Fanzine
The Acolyte
Diablerie
Futurian War Digest
Shangri L'Affaires
Voice of the Imagi-Nation
Le Zombie
Best Fan Writer
Fritz Leiber, Jr.
Morojo (Myrtle R. Douglas)
J. Michael Rosenblum
Jack Speer
Bob Tucker
Harry Warner, Jr.
===================================================================
Mark Leeper
*mleeper@optonline.net *
In the future, you're going to get computers as prizes
in breakfast cereals. You'll throw them out because
your house will be littered with them.
-- Robert Lucky