Table of Contents, August 1986
This is the scanned Table of Contents for the issue, embedded as a PDF. It is searchable and includes all of the titles reviewed in the month. These issues are not available digitally yet, but most can be ordered by contacting the Locus offices. Locus-ToC-1986-08
THE NEWSPAPER OF THE SCIENCE FICTION FIELD
ISSN-0047-4959
EDITOR & PUBLISHER
Charles N. Brown
ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Faren Miller
EDITORIAL ASSISTANT
Carolyn F. Cushman
EDITORIAL TRAINEE
Pamela Troy
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
Richard Curtis
Fritz Leiber
Debbie Notkin
Dan Chow
Locus, ISSN-0047-4959, The Newspaper of the
Science Fiction Field, is published monthly by LOCUS
PUBLICATIONS, INC. Editorial address: 34 Ridgewood
Lane, Oakland, CA 94611; telephone (415) 339-9196.
Please send all mail to Locus Publications, PO. Box
13305, Oakland, CA 94661.
Individual copies are $2.50. Individual subscriptions in
the U.S. are $24.00 for 12 issues, $45.00 for 24 issues
via second class mail. Individual subscriptions in
Canada are $27.00 for 12 issues, $51.00 for 24 issues
via second class mail. First class individual subscriptions
in the U.S. or Canada are $32.00 for 12 issues,
$61.00 for 24 issues. Individual overseas subscriptions
are $27.00 for 12 issues, $51.00 for 24 issues via
sea mail. Individual subscriptions to Europe or South
America via air mail are $45.00 for 12 issues, $85.00
for 24 issues. Individual subscriptions to Australia,
Asia, or Africa via air mail are $50.00 for 12 issues,
$95.00 for 24 issues. Institutional subscriptions are
$3.00 extra per year. Make all checks payable to
Locus Publications. All subscriptions, including
Canadian, are payable directly in U.S. funds only.
Overseas checks must be drawn on a U.S. bank and
include computer encoding numbers at bottom. When
converting from second class to first class delivery,
please convert all remaining issues on your present
subscription (75C per issue). The number after your
name on the mailing label is that of the last issue on
your present subscription. We do not send notices
when subscriptions are about to expire. If you change
your address, please notify us immediately. Second
class mail is not usually forwarded. It is either returned
or destroyed. We subtract one issue from your subscription
for each returned copy. We keep expired
addresses on file for one year, so tell us if your
subscription is a renewal or completely new.
British Subscription Agent:
Fantast (Medway) Ltd.
P.O. Box 23, Upwell
Wisbech, CAMBS PE14 9BU
Japanese Subscription Agent:
Takumi Shibano
700 Ninomiya Ninomiya-machi
Naka-gun Kanagawa-ken
259-01 Japan
Subscriptions accepted at current exchange rate.
Display advertising rates on request. Booksellers discounts
available. (415) 339-3182.
We take no responsibility for unsolicited submissions.
Contents copyright © 1986 by Locus Publications.
Second class postage paid at Oakland, California.
Postmaster: Send address changes to Locus Publications,
P.O. Box 13305, Oakland, CA 94661.
Table of Contents
Oranus Reprise…………………. p.1
Science Fiction at New Orleans ABA….1
Editorial Matters………………… 5
More Isaac Asimov Presents……….. 6
SF Ads by Ridley Scott…………….6
Gollancz Enters Mass Market………. 6
Ex SF Editor Wins $15 Million
in Lottery………………….. 6
Pendragon Opens West Coast Gallery….6
First WeaponsCon…………………. 6
Jim Baen: Profit of Honor………… 7
Stony Brook SF Library Destroyed….. 7
Bradbury Furor…………………… 7
Giger Painting Banned……………..7
The Data File……………………. 7
People & Publishing……………….8
Agent’s Corner, Richard Curtis…… 11
Moons & Stars & Stuff, Fritz Leiber..13
Locus Looks at Books, Faren Miller…15
Small Wonders, Amy Thomson………. 17
Locus Looks at More Books,
Debbie Notkin………………….19
Locus Looks at More Books, Dan Chow..21
Pictures at the ABA…………….. 24
World SF Meets in Canada………… 27
The Movie Scene, Faren Miller……. 31
Clive Barker: Hellraiser………… 32
Books Received— June……………. 35
Magazines Received— June………… 36
Classified Ads…………………..41
Bestseller Lists…………………44
Locus Letters……………………46
Around the Bookstores…………… 48
ISSUE #307 • VOL. 19, NO. 8 • AUGUST 1986 Mailing date: July 23, 1986
Index to Advertisers
Ace……………………………. 49
Andromeda………………………. 43
Avon…………………………… 38
Baen…. ……………………..16,33
Bantam Spectra………………..22,23
Berkley………………………… 20
Bluejay……………………. 4,28,29
Bridge…………………………. 45
Classified Ads…………………..41
DAW……………………………. 40
Del Rey………………………… 10
Locus………………………….. 50
NAL/Signet……………………… 12
Popular Library/Questar…………. 47
Tor………….. 2,3,18,26,30,34,37,52
Warner………….. ……………. 14
Editorial Matters
It’s summer doldrums time and we’ve
finally had to use the first of a series
of astronomical photographs on the
cover. We have a pretty good selection
to use for future covers when there are
no stories with photos. I’m looking
forward to the Jupiter reprise, the
Saturn reprise, the Mars reprise, etc.
WHY ABA?
I spent most of my time at the American
Booksellers Association Convention
talking to the same people I see in New
York each year and collecting catalogs
which publishers send us automatically
or on request. So why spend a lot of
money to go every year? First, there
are publishers we would never even
think of writing, who do one or two
books per year. The ABA is the ideal
place to gather that material. Second,
the personal contacts with executives,
editorial personnel, and salespeople
make future writing or telephoning
easier. The publishing industry still
operates mainly on person-to-person
contacts. Third, it gives a good idea
of the relative prosperity of the book
business in general and sf in particular.
You can see immediatly where
publishers are going to be spending
their dollars and efforts this coming
fall. And, most important, the ABA is
fun! The whole thing resembles a giant
carnival and circus.
BOOK SALES
The book industry looked good at the
ABA, and the various 1985 figures released
by the Association of American
Publishers confirmed this. Total book
sales in 1985 were a little under $10
billion, up 8.3% over 1984. The trade
category — adult and juvenile hardcover
plus trade paperbacks — the
largest part of book sales, was up
nearly $2 billion (up 17.3%). Mass
market paperback sales, at just over
$750 million, were up 4% — probably
not enough to cover inflation. The sf
field covers 10% to 12% of the mass
market, which is mostly fiction; and
somewhat less, I would guess 2%, of the
trade field, where the major growth has
been. Overall, sf should have a good
1986, although some publishers may end
up with a smaller slice of the pie than
they hope for.
PORNOGRAPHY
I was unnerved when I heard of the
magazine blacklist sent to various
chains by the Meese Commission. After
all, Loans had been deemed pornographic
by our ex-printer when we ran some masquerade
photos featuring bare breasts.
We apparently weren’t on the list.
Naturally, I tried to take advantage of
this by offering to let Seven-Eleven
stores stock Locus instead of Playboy,
but they didn’t seem interested.
I was fascinated to find out the
commission couldn’t define pornography,
but were sure they were agin’ it, that
they used “intuition” and “common
sense” whenever the facts didn’t support
them. It sounded just like a Gary
Trudeau script for “Doonesbury”.
FOREIGN CHECKS
Our bank has started to charge us
between $7.50 and $15.00 to cash foreign
drafts on U.S. banks if they don’t
have the U.S. bank account identification
in OCR characters at the bottom.
Their official reason is that the
checks have to be handled by somebody
more intelligent than a clerk feeding
them into an optical scanner, and
they’re rare and expensive. We changed
banks the last time this happened (when
Barclay’s U.S. bank charged us money to
cash Barclay’s U.K. money orders) but
we may not find it possible again.
Most U.S. banks no longer offer much
service. We do better with equivalent
pound cheques deposited to our
Barclay’s U.K. account. Our local post
office also refuses to cash
Japanese/U.S. postal money orders because
they’re not the same color as
other postal money orders. We have to
take them to the main post office and
see the manager in order to cash them.
We’ve had to return a number of foreign
drafts because of the silly OCR number
problem. Our apologies to the readers
who sent in perfectly good looking
foreign drafts and got them back because
of the extra charges here. We’ll
try to straighten it out or find another
bank. Meanwhile, look for the
OCR numbers on the bottom.
CORRECTIONS
I’ll bet you’re wondering why we ran
interviews with Clive Barker in both
July and August. The interview in this
issue was supposed to be the cover
story for last issue. The last-minute
(Continued on page 46)
LOCUS August 1986 / 5
ISSN-0047-4959
EDITOR & PUBLISHER
Charles N. Brown
ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Faren Miller
EDITORIAL ASSISTANT
Carolyn F. Cushman
EDITORIAL TRAINEE
Pamela Troy
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
Richard Curtis
Fritz Leiber
Debbie Notkin
Dan Chow
Locus, ISSN-0047-4959, The Newspaper of the
Science Fiction Field, is published monthly by LOCUS
PUBLICATIONS, INC. Editorial address: 34 Ridgewood
Lane, Oakland, CA 94611; telephone (415) 339-9196.
Please send all mail to Locus Publications, PO. Box
13305, Oakland, CA 94661.
Individual copies are $2.50. Individual subscriptions in
the U.S. are $24.00 for 12 issues, $45.00 for 24 issues
via second class mail. Individual subscriptions in
Canada are $27.00 for 12 issues, $51.00 for 24 issues
via second class mail. First class individual subscriptions
in the U.S. or Canada are $32.00 for 12 issues,
$61.00 for 24 issues. Individual overseas subscriptions
are $27.00 for 12 issues, $51.00 for 24 issues via
sea mail. Individual subscriptions to Europe or South
America via air mail are $45.00 for 12 issues, $85.00
for 24 issues. Individual subscriptions to Australia,
Asia, or Africa via air mail are $50.00 for 12 issues,
$95.00 for 24 issues. Institutional subscriptions are
$3.00 extra per year. Make all checks payable to
Locus Publications. All subscriptions, including
Canadian, are payable directly in U.S. funds only.
Overseas checks must be drawn on a U.S. bank and
include computer encoding numbers at bottom. When
converting from second class to first class delivery,
please convert all remaining issues on your present
subscription (75C per issue). The number after your
name on the mailing label is that of the last issue on
your present subscription. We do not send notices
when subscriptions are about to expire. If you change
your address, please notify us immediately. Second
class mail is not usually forwarded. It is either returned
or destroyed. We subtract one issue from your subscription
for each returned copy. We keep expired
addresses on file for one year, so tell us if your
subscription is a renewal or completely new.
British Subscription Agent:
Fantast (Medway) Ltd.
P.O. Box 23, Upwell
Wisbech, CAMBS PE14 9BU
Japanese Subscription Agent:
Takumi Shibano
700 Ninomiya Ninomiya-machi
Naka-gun Kanagawa-ken
259-01 Japan
Subscriptions accepted at current exchange rate.
Display advertising rates on request. Booksellers discounts
available. (415) 339-3182.
We take no responsibility for unsolicited submissions.
Contents copyright © 1986 by Locus Publications.
Second class postage paid at Oakland, California.
Postmaster: Send address changes to Locus Publications,
P.O. Box 13305, Oakland, CA 94661.
Table of Contents
Oranus Reprise…………………. p.1
Science Fiction at New Orleans ABA….1
Editorial Matters………………… 5
More Isaac Asimov Presents……….. 6
SF Ads by Ridley Scott…………….6
Gollancz Enters Mass Market………. 6
Ex SF Editor Wins $15 Million
in Lottery………………….. 6
Pendragon Opens West Coast Gallery….6
First WeaponsCon…………………. 6
Jim Baen: Profit of Honor………… 7
Stony Brook SF Library Destroyed….. 7
Bradbury Furor…………………… 7
Giger Painting Banned……………..7
The Data File……………………. 7
People & Publishing……………….8
Agent’s Corner, Richard Curtis…… 11
Moons & Stars & Stuff, Fritz Leiber..13
Locus Looks at Books, Faren Miller…15
Small Wonders, Amy Thomson………. 17
Locus Looks at More Books,
Debbie Notkin………………….19
Locus Looks at More Books, Dan Chow..21
Pictures at the ABA…………….. 24
World SF Meets in Canada………… 27
The Movie Scene, Faren Miller……. 31
Clive Barker: Hellraiser………… 32
Books Received— June……………. 35
Magazines Received— June………… 36
Classified Ads…………………..41
Bestseller Lists…………………44
Locus Letters……………………46
Around the Bookstores…………… 48
ISSUE #307 • VOL. 19, NO. 8 • AUGUST 1986 Mailing date: July 23, 1986
Index to Advertisers
Ace……………………………. 49
Andromeda………………………. 43
Avon…………………………… 38
Baen…. ……………………..16,33
Bantam Spectra………………..22,23
Berkley………………………… 20
Bluejay……………………. 4,28,29
Bridge…………………………. 45
Classified Ads…………………..41
DAW……………………………. 40
Del Rey………………………… 10
Locus………………………….. 50
NAL/Signet……………………… 12
Popular Library/Questar…………. 47
Tor………….. 2,3,18,26,30,34,37,52
Warner………….. ……………. 14
Editorial Matters
It’s summer doldrums time and we’ve
finally had to use the first of a series
of astronomical photographs on the
cover. We have a pretty good selection
to use for future covers when there are
no stories with photos. I’m looking
forward to the Jupiter reprise, the
Saturn reprise, the Mars reprise, etc.
WHY ABA?
I spent most of my time at the American
Booksellers Association Convention
talking to the same people I see in New
York each year and collecting catalogs
which publishers send us automatically
or on request. So why spend a lot of
money to go every year? First, there
are publishers we would never even
think of writing, who do one or two
books per year. The ABA is the ideal
place to gather that material. Second,
the personal contacts with executives,
editorial personnel, and salespeople
make future writing or telephoning
easier. The publishing industry still
operates mainly on person-to-person
contacts. Third, it gives a good idea
of the relative prosperity of the book
business in general and sf in particular.
You can see immediatly where
publishers are going to be spending
their dollars and efforts this coming
fall. And, most important, the ABA is
fun! The whole thing resembles a giant
carnival and circus.
BOOK SALES
The book industry looked good at the
ABA, and the various 1985 figures released
by the Association of American
Publishers confirmed this. Total book
sales in 1985 were a little under $10
billion, up 8.3% over 1984. The trade
category — adult and juvenile hardcover
plus trade paperbacks — the
largest part of book sales, was up
nearly $2 billion (up 17.3%). Mass
market paperback sales, at just over
$750 million, were up 4% — probably
not enough to cover inflation. The sf
field covers 10% to 12% of the mass
market, which is mostly fiction; and
somewhat less, I would guess 2%, of the
trade field, where the major growth has
been. Overall, sf should have a good
1986, although some publishers may end
up with a smaller slice of the pie than
they hope for.
PORNOGRAPHY
I was unnerved when I heard of the
magazine blacklist sent to various
chains by the Meese Commission. After
all, Loans had been deemed pornographic
by our ex-printer when we ran some masquerade
photos featuring bare breasts.
We apparently weren’t on the list.
Naturally, I tried to take advantage of
this by offering to let Seven-Eleven
stores stock Locus instead of Playboy,
but they didn’t seem interested.
I was fascinated to find out the
commission couldn’t define pornography,
but were sure they were agin’ it, that
they used “intuition” and “common
sense” whenever the facts didn’t support
them. It sounded just like a Gary
Trudeau script for “Doonesbury”.
FOREIGN CHECKS
Our bank has started to charge us
between $7.50 and $15.00 to cash foreign
drafts on U.S. banks if they don’t
have the U.S. bank account identification
in OCR characters at the bottom.
Their official reason is that the
checks have to be handled by somebody
more intelligent than a clerk feeding
them into an optical scanner, and
they’re rare and expensive. We changed
banks the last time this happened (when
Barclay’s U.S. bank charged us money to
cash Barclay’s U.K. money orders) but
we may not find it possible again.
Most U.S. banks no longer offer much
service. We do better with equivalent
pound cheques deposited to our
Barclay’s U.K. account. Our local post
office also refuses to cash
Japanese/U.S. postal money orders because
they’re not the same color as
other postal money orders. We have to
take them to the main post office and
see the manager in order to cash them.
We’ve had to return a number of foreign
drafts because of the silly OCR number
problem. Our apologies to the readers
who sent in perfectly good looking
foreign drafts and got them back because
of the extra charges here. We’ll
try to straighten it out or find another
bank. Meanwhile, look for the
OCR numbers on the bottom.
CORRECTIONS
I’ll bet you’re wondering why we ran
interviews with Clive Barker in both
July and August. The interview in this
issue was supposed to be the cover
story for last issue. The last-minute
(Continued on page 46)
LOCUS August 1986 / 5
