THE MT VOID
Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
10/15/21 -- Vol. 40, No. 16, Whole Number 2193

Co-Editor: Mark Leeper, mleeper@optonline.net
Co-Editor: Evelyn Leeper, eleeper@optonline.net
Sending Address: evelynchimelisleeper@gmail.com
All material is the opinion of the author and is copyrighted by the
author unless otherwise noted.
All comments sent or posted will be assumed authorized for
inclusion unless otherwise noted.

To subscribe or unsubscribe, send mail to eleeper@optonline.net
The latest issue is at <http://www.leepers.us/mtvoid/latest.htm>.
An index with links to the issues of the MT VOID since 1986 is at <http://leepers.us/mtvoid/back_issues.htm>.

Topics:
Bond Songs (Part 5) (OCTOPUSSY ("All Time High"),
A VIEW TO A KILL ("Dance into the Fire"),
THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS) (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
BLACK SUN by Rebecca Roanhorse (audio book review
by Joe Karpierz)
"The Boscombe Valley Mystery" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
(comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
THE FLY (1958) (letters of comment by Art Stadlin
and Gary McGath)
This Week's Reading (Lodestar Award finalists)
(book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)

===================================================================

TOPIC: Bond Songs (Part 5) (OCTOPUSSY ("All Time High"), A VIEW TO
A KILL ("Dance into the Fire"), THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS) (comments by
Mark R. Leeper)

OCTOPUSSY is another James Bond film not generally likely to
engender warm feelings from the series fans. It starts with a spy
made up as a circus clown. Oddly, John LeCarre also refers to his
agent's section as The Circus. He does it without vulgar
references in his stories. Interesting that each should use the
same metaphor. In any case, the songwriter apparently did not feel
he could get away working the film title into the song. The song
goes thus...

All I wanted was a sweet distraction for an hour or two

{Buy yourself a cake.}

Had no intention to do the things we've done

{I wish I was a fly on the wall.}

Funny how it always goes with love, when you don't look, you find
But then we're two of a kind, we move as one

{Didn't I see this in a Marx Brothers film with a mirror?}

We're an all time high.

{That is a bad habit. You will end up ODing.}

We'll change all that's gone before
Doing so much more than falling in love

{You will end up in the gutter. Offering a high that will be
all-consuming sounds pretty creepy to me.}

On an all time high
We'll take on the world and win
So hold on tight, let the flight begin
I don't want to waste a waking moment; I don't want to sleep

{You'll end dead in an alley someplace.}

I'm in so strong and so deep, and so are you.

{Leave me out of this.}

In my time I've said these words before, but now I realize
My heart was telling me lies, for you they're true

{That's called projection.}

We're an all time high
We'll change all that's gone before
Doing so much more than falling in love

{Like what? No, wait. Leave me out.

On an all time high
We'll take on the world and win
So hold on tight, let the flight begin
So hold on tight, let the flight begin
We're an all time high.

A VIEW TO A KILL is the next Bond film. The song is also known as
"Dance into the Fire".

{Did he say "Dance into the Fire?" Kiddies, do NOT try this
at home. STAY OUT of fires!}

Meeting you with a view to a kill

{Other than that, the opening is product of a schizophrenic
mind.}

Face to faces, secret places, feel the chill
Night fall covers me

{I can't poke fun at the song. It is very bad taste.
Schizophrenia is such a sad disease.}

But you know the plans I'm making
Still overseas,
Could it be the whole lot opening wide
A sacred why
A mystery gaping inside
A week is why
Until we dance into the fire
That fatal kiss is all we need
Dance into the fire
To fatal sounds of broken dreams
Dance into the fire
That fatal kiss is all we need
Dance into the fire
The choice for you is the view to a kill
Between the shades assassination standing still
First crystal tears,
Fallen of snowflakes on your body
First time in years
To drench you skin of lover's rosy stain
A chance to find the phoenix for the flame
A chance to die
But can we dance into the fire
That fatal kiss is all we need
Dance into the fire
To fatal sounds of broken dreams
Dance into the fire
That fatal kiss is all we needDance into the fire
When all we see is the view to a kill.

{I can't do much with this song. The lyrics sound like the
song was written on the planet Tzork...}

THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS is next, and what can I say? Again not one
word of the lyrics makes any coherent sense. At least in A VIEW TO
A KILL an occasional line made sense. In the song "The Living
Daylights" not even the phrases make sense. This song's lyric is
verbal fruit cocktail:

Hey driver, where we going?
I swear my nerves are showing
Set your hopes up way too high
The living's in the way we die
Comes the morning and the headlights fade away
Hundred thousand people, I'm the one they blame
I've been waiting long for one of us to say
"Save the darkness, let it never fade away"
Oh, the living daylights
Oh, the living daylights
All right, hold on tight now
It's down, down to the wire
Set your hopes up way too high
The living's in the way we die
Comes the morning and the headlights fade away
Hundred thousand changes, everything's the same
I've been waiting long for one of us to say
"Save the darkness, let it never fade away"
Oh, the living daylights
Oh, the living daylights
Oh, the living daylights
Get away
Comes the morning and the headlights fade away
Hundred thousand people, I'm the one they frame
Oh, the living daylights
Oh, the living daylights
Oh, the living daylights
You may run
Set your hopes up way too high
The living's in the way we die
Set your hopes up way too high
The living's in the way we die
Set your hopes up way too high
The living's in the way we die
Set your hopes up way too high
The living's in the way we die.

[-mrl]

===================================================================

TOPIC: BLACK SUN by Rebecca Roanhorse (copyright 2020, Simon and
Schuster Audio, 12 hours and 47 minutes, ASIN B084HN579M, narrated
by Cara Gee, Nicole Lewis, Kaipo Schwab, and Shaun Taylor-Corbett)
(audio book review by Joe Karpierz)

BLACK SUN, Rebecca Roanhorse's latest novel and a Hugo finalist, is
for me a mixed bag. It is a very well-written novel, intricately
weaving four point of view characters to tell the tale of the
return of the Crow god to the city of Tova to exact revenge on the
Watchers, the people who slaughtered the Crow clan in the Night of
Knives many years prior to the story. The four POV characters are
well-written and developed, and their stories come together to
contribute nicely to the novel as a whole. It is a diverse cast of
characters, which has been one of the main topics of conversation
about the novel in the speculative fiction community.

And yet, to me the story is uneven. Maybe that's the nature of the
beast when you have four POV characters to deal with. To me, the
most interesting is Xiala, a member of the Teek, whose Song is a
form of sea magic, and who is more powerful in the magic than she
realizes. I found myself being more interested in the novel when
her chapters were being read. Serapio, the vessel of the Crow god,
is nearly as interesting as a character as Xiala but whose back
story is more fascinating, beginning with the (admittedly
disturbing) opening chapter. The politics that Naranapa the Sun
Priest is involved in slow the story down for me, and I really
wasn't very interested in her story at all. Finally, I can't help
but think that Okoa, a young member of the Crow clan, will have a
bigger part to play in the next book in the series, FEVERED STAR,
which will be out in April of 2022.

The thirty thousand foot summary of the story is that a group of
people - the Crow clan--have been wronged by the Watchers--a group
of priests in Tova, and are thirsting for revenge. Revenge will be
aided by the return of the Crow god, which will occur at a very
rare confluence of an eclipse and the winter solstice. The novel
tells the story of the four characters leading up to that event,
and then, of course, the event doesn't quite go as it's supposed
to.

Of course, the story is more intricate than that, with politics,
betrayal, and traitorous events all the way around. Xiala is
commissioned to take a cargo to Tova, for example, and her crew
turns mutinous after a particularly rough storm and some magic they
were unhappy with. Naranapa, being the Sun Priest, is in the
middle of a couple of different conflicts. All fairly standard
stuff.

And that's the point, I guess. This is fairly standard stuff. As
I wrote earlier, the characters are really well done, but the story
is lacking. A wronged people seeking revenge and aided by a god
whose return on a particular date in nature is nothing new. The
way Roanhorse gets there may be new, and the vessels of the story
may be different, but we've been here before in fantasy before.

The narration for this book was nothing short of outstanding, and
it had to be with the story jumping back and forth in time to get
where we are by the end of the novel. All the narrators were
outstanding in the portrayal of the characters they were assigned.
Especially good was Cara Gee, and in retrospect it should have not
been a surprise. While television acting is different from voice
narration (Gee portrays Drummer on the TV series THE EXPANSE), it
is clear that she is just as good at this job as she is at
television acting.

I'm not saying this is a bad book. It's not. But it's not my cup
of tea. It may be yours. Take a sip and find out. [-jak]

===================================================================

TOPIC: "The Boscombe Valley Mystery" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
(comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)

Continuing my occasional comments on Sherlock Holmes stories:

1) If McCarthy was killed by "repeated blows" of his son's gun,
wouldn't the gun have blood all over it?

2) Holmes says that in Watson's bedroom "the window is upon the
right-hand side." The right-hand side of what? If he means to the
right of the door, he seems to be assuming the washstand and mirror
are on the wall opposite the door. But couldn't they be on the
same wall as the door?

3) Does everyone who has been in Australia use "Cooee" as a call-
out? (We see someone in Agatha Christie's PERIL AT END HOUSE do so
in what turns out to be over-acting.)

4) For that matter Doyle re-uses the idea of transportees returning
from transport to Australia in at least one other story, "The
Adventure of the Gloria Scott." And Australia is also the origin
of characters (not all criminals) in several other stories.

5) Watson may be married but that doesn't stop him from describing
the loveliness of all the women in need of help. (Apparently plain
women do not consult Sherlock Holmes.)

6) It seems more likely that the beginning syllables of "Ballarat"
would be audible than the ending ones.

7) How convenient it is that McCarthy finds out he is not really
married after all.

8) If Watson is publishing the details of this case, one has to
assume that Alice Turner will hear of it and thus find out her
father's secret, even though Holmes had promised not to reveal it.

[-ecl]

===================================================================

TOPIC: THE FLY (1958) (letters of comment by Art Stadlin and Gary
McGath)

In response to Mark's comments on THE FLY in the 10/08/21 issue of
the MT VOID, Art Stadlin writes:

[Mark writes,] "Helene, ever the optimist, pulls the cloth from his
head and finds herself looking at a human-sized fly head. ... Andre
sees Helene's screaming face through compound eyes in one of the
most horrific scenes of any film ever." [-mrl]

Have to agree, that was one world-class horrific scene! I'd also
include seeing the "human" fly caught in the spider web, so
positively helpless. Thankfully, that scene is cut short by the
mercy killing of both spider and fly.

[Mark writes,] "It is interesting to note that this is a film with
no human--or even non-human--villains. Essentially, everybody wants
the best for everybody else. It is basically people after a
disastrous mistake struggling to put things right again." [-mrl]

How civil! Couldn't help but reflect on our modern-day situation
with the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead of civility and unity in
fighting the virus, the scientists are turned into the villains!
[-as]

Gary McGath writes:

As far as I can remember, "The Fly" was the first horror movie I
ever saw. What was creepiest to me and stuck most in my mind was
the fly with the human head calling "Help me!" and then getting
killed. [-gmg]

===================================================================

TOPIC: This Week's Reading (book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)

This week I'll talk about the finalists for the "Lodestar Award for
Best Young Adult Book (presented by the World Science Fiction
Society)". This is specifically *not* a Hugo Award, but is voted
on and given by the same people and in the same fashion.

CEMETERY BOYS by Aiden Thomas: This is a fantasy based on the
indigenous beliefs and magic of Latin America, primarily of Mexico,
and is set in the Latinx community of Los Angeles. I get the use
of "Latinx" as gender-neutral, but I really wish whoever coined it
had used "Latini" instead, because there is *no* good way to
pronounce the parallel construction "brujx". I get the name thing.
And I can even get that there is a Puerto Rican/Haitian family that
plays a major role (though only 1% of Latinx population in Los
Angeles is Puerto Rican, and Haiti). But having the Puerto Rican
aunt's signature dish being tamales is just "off". (I would say
that Dia de Muertos was not observed by Puerto Ricans, but
apparently it has been somewhat adopted throughout Latin America
from Mexico.) In addition, I have to say that subtlety is not this
book's strong suit, there is a lot of infodump, and I often had the
feeling that Thomas was working to make sure they checked all the
diversity boxes. Even with all that, and with the caveat that for
many readers, a Spanish-English dictionary might be helpful, I
still recommend this book. (Thomas uses a few Spanish words in
narrative, e.g., "bruj[aox]", and has the occasional sentence or
two of dialogue in Spanish.)

A DEADLY EDUCATION by Naomi Novik: This is the first of a series
and any resemblance to Harry Potter is purely intentional. But
this is the darker side of Harry Potter--which many would claim was
already dark enough. While in Harry Potter, the school was
designed to train wizards how to protect themselves, and how to use
their powers for good, in A DEADLY EDUCATION the school's motto
seems to be "what does not kill you makes you stronger," and if
that means killing a quarter of the students, well, it's a wizard-
eat-wizard world out these. Students have only two goals: survive
the school, and get chosen for an enclave (think of it as a
wizardly version of a big financial institution). It's engaging
enough, if a bit dark and depressing.

ELATSOE by Darcie Little Badger: This is another one (see
LEGENDBORN) that makes the tropes of fairy tales/folk tales more
obvious. Maybe it's Hugo/Lodestar fatigue (this was the last of
the Lodestar finalists I read), but I could not get invested in the
characters.

LEGENDBORN by Tracy Deonn: This was the first of this category I
read, and it made me think that one thing that may help distinguish
young adult novels is a more obvious use of the standard tropes of
fairy tales/folk tales. We have the loss of a parent, the journey
away from home, the discovery of powers, the hidden king, and so
on. (See also Vladimir Propp's thirty-one functions of folk
tales.) Maybe I'm completely wrong here; I'll see what the other
young adult books are like. Deonn sets this at the University of
North Carolina in the present, complete with current issues about
race and gender, but they are integrated into the novel, not
looking as if they were slapped on to make the novel more
"relevant".

RAYBEARER by Jordan Ifueko: I read the first quarter of this and
skimmed the last three-quarters. It just seemed the same-old,
same-old palace intrigue in a fantasy world. The world seemed like
a copy of ours, shrunk to a smaller landmass and with the names of
the countries changed a bit (Mexico is now Quetzala, for example).
Maybe I'm not the target audience--I'm not a young adult, and I am
not a big fan of this sort of fantasy. Obviously, *someone* liked
it enough to make it a Hugo finalist, so if you do like this sort
of thing, it is probably worth a shot.

A WIZARD'S GUIDE TO DEFENSIVE BAKING by T. Kingfisher: I definitely
liked this one. The first-person narration was engaging, the
concepts of the different kinds of magic seemed new (at least to
me), and the other characters are not the standard fantasy
characters that I have seen all too often. Okay, Spindle may be
your standard street urchin, but Knackering Molly is certainly
different. Highly recommended.

Ranking: A WIZARD'S GUIDE TO DEFENSIVE BAKING, LEGENDBORN, CEMETERY
BOYS, A DEADLY EDUCATION, no award, ELATSOE, RAYBEARER

[-ecl]

===================================================================

Mark Leeper
mleeper@optonline.net


There are only two phases of a weapons program:
"Too early to tell" and "Too late to stop".
--USAF Financial Analyst
A. Ernest Fitzgerald

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)