Letters to the Editor

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

The Letters to the Editor department is intended to be a forum for our readers to express their own opinions and ideas. While we appreciate the many complimentary letters we receive each day, you won't find them on this page. Instead, you will find letters that go beyond or even contradict what we have written, letters that offer a different perspective and provide a different view of science fiction. If you would like to submit a letter, please use our comments form or send a message to scifiweekly@scifi.com.

-- Craig E. Engler, Editor

Definitions are important

agree with another reader that the definition of science fiction is important. I enjoy fantasy too, but would never apply the word science to most of the stuff that falls under its label these days. To me, science fiction is fiction about feasible science, and by that I mean a scientific theme that can't currently be proven impossible.

Contrary to theory, that still leaves space travel, time machines, genetic mutants, telekinesis, telepathy and a host of non-magic themes to work with. As an engineer, nothing turns me off quicker that a show like Star Trek: The Next Generation and the other stuff labeled as science fiction. I think a lot of "hard" science fiction enthusiasts would love to see a TV series based on something by Clarke or Asimov. Something like the Red Mars-Green Mars trilogy, with real science in it. Not only could it be entertaining, it could be educational. It's no wonder that kids growing up today have a hard time making important decisions about life -- they have grown up on television pap and have no idea what reality is. Anyway, for my two cents, science fiction should be about real scientific possibilities, extrapolated into the future.

Lee Fellows
frg@io.com

Editor: Hmm...let's see what our readers have to say about that.

Sub-genres can help define SF

efining SF seems to be rather difficult today. I work in a library and have introduced several people to SF by recommending a particular author or type of SF. There are now many sub-genre's within SF, and it can occasionally be difficult to find that which fits your particular taste. Some of the sub-genres are SF-horror, SF-fantasy, SF-D&D type fantasy, SF-Space opera/epics, and SF-adventure.

A coherent list of the major sub-genres would help in choosing books that would be enjoyed by a wider variety of people, and would also help remove the "comic book" reputation some SF currently has.

Sharon Custer
jcuster@alpha.clarion-net.com

Editor: Trying to pin down all the sub-genres of SF might be something of a Sisyphean task, but it would also be a valuable endeavor.

If you don't like it, don't watch

hy do so many people pick on Star Trek? We aren't asking you to like it when we have millions that do. I don't say that Babylon 5 is stupid do I? I haven't even seen it so I wouldn't say that anyways. Yes, of course not every episode is fantastic, no television show can claim that. Just please stop picking on it. If you don't like it don't watch it and bypass anything that says Star Trek. That way you won't have anything to bitch about.

Jennifer Reichow
ai820@freenet.hamilton.on.ca

Editor: Last issue the B5ivers complained, this issue it's Star Trek. Shhh...nobody mention Space: Above & Beyond...

Delving further into Armored Trooper VOTOMS

just read the review for Armored Trooper VOTOMS and thought I'd provide some additional information you may be able to use in a later review. First, something about the structure of the series; it was originally broadcast on Japanese TV from 1983-84, and was on for a full year (52 episodes).

US Manga Corps will be releasing the entire series on VHS in four boxed sets; Uoodo City is set 1 of 4. As your reviewer properly observes, there's a lot of material to come, for which Uoodo City lays the groundwork. Chirico is an intentionally stiff character; that's what the whole series is about -- he's a young man who simply does not know how to behave as a civilian, because he's only been trained to fight. That's why he comes across as kind of a mental zero whenever he's not in a combat situation, and this is touched on many times throughout the show; other characters berate him from time to time for acting and thinking like a machine rather than a human being. It is his attachment to the major female character that becomes the catalyst to "humanizing" him in an inhuman galaxy. When the creator of the series picked his main theme, he wanted to do something about the "rehabilitation" of a soldier after his war ends. (But, of course, this becomes difficult when his personal war begins.)

I can provide plenty more information about this fascinating series if you're interested; I recently completed work on a graphic novel for US Manga Corps, which will be out in December. It's called Armored Trooper VOTOMS: Supreme Survivor, and it is set before the events in Uoodo City -- it provides a lot of background that helps flesh out the characters and explains "How things came to be this way" in the galaxy they live in.

Tim Eldred
aEldredkane@Earthlink.net

Editor: Thank you for the additional information, Tim, and good luck with the graphic novel.

Likes a grittier DS9

I don't object to the gritter version of DS9 that is on now. Granted, the klingons weren't that unusually convincing as heroic types, but they looked as if they could eat you. Now I know that I may be in a bit of hot water with some other ST:DS9 fans , but you have to take the bad with the good sometimes.

Teresa
tk34@hotmail.com

Editor: Personally I'm looking forward to Trials and Tribble-ations.

Callahan getting stale

asha's review of the latest Spider Robinson Callahan's incarnation were quite on target. I've enjoyed Spider's human touch in all of his writing, but the forever present quest for the perfect (fill in the blank) gets stale. The recent Callahan's stories seem more to be second growth from from earlier inspiration rather than truely fresh material. The Callahan's series seems to be pointed down the same path as Asprin's Thieves World series, namely stock characters drawn into predictable outcomes. I hold out hope that I am proved wrong.

Tim
Grolsch@aol.com

Editor: Tasha says "thank you."

Necronomicon was first

irst SF convention online -- the honors go to Necronomicon '96. Our 15th annual convention was held in Tampa, Fla., Oct. 11-13 and was online as well. We had panels, a chat with J. Michael Straczynski, masquerade, Creatures of the Night, information, etc., and general con craziness live on the Internet during the entire convention.

Lauren Podolak
milieux@digital.net

Editor: Many cons have had on-line activities, but none that we know of were exclusively on-line cons. The Sci-Fi Channel guys stand behind their assertation that SCIFI.CON was the "world's first on-line convention." We at SFW remain neutral, always being wary of claims that something is the first anything.

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