The Here And Now

“The Online Exhibit

This online exhibit is organized based on type of work, such as art, needlework, other crafts, or publications. Given with each item’s photograph(s) is the 4-digit University of Iowa Special Collection number (MsC xxxx) that refers to the named collection in which the item located.

Original Art Work Housed in the Special Collections

Kwa Heri, Hadiya: Original art by Leslie Fish for Trinette Kern’s story “Kwa Heri, Hadiya” in The Other Side of Paradise #2 along with scans of the published story’s title page and the page with illo.(MsC …) 

Source

Here is my personal story about the fanart. I came across the mounted pencil drawing at a fan event. It was left on the charity swap table ( table where fans recycle fan-related material. You then place cash in the charity donation paper cup.). It was near the end of the event and the art clearly had not found a home. We had no idea about the origins of the art, what story it was related to…or even if it had ever been used in a fanzine.

Fast forward to a few years later when I received a copy of the fanzine “The Other Side of Paradise #2” and was idly leafing through the pages and found the story and the art. What fascinated me was how they had transferred the art to the zine in an era (1977) when photocopying was not cheap or easy. The image transfer had also been reduced to fit the zine page. Before the area of word processing or computers, fanzines were typed up manually on typewriters and the art was then copied, cut and glued onto the pages. Then each page with art was copied and then those pages were copied to make the zine. No wonder zines had limited print runs. 400 copies of “The Other Side of Paradise” #2 were published and two weeks after it was published, it was out-of-print.

Here is a review from  The Halkan Council #24 in April 1977

“Unquestionably, we have entered the era of value of money in Trekzines. TOSOP #2 may be the best bargain available at this particular moment, for quantity of high-quality work. It looks good and reads well, and it offers a variety of types of stories, articles, artwork and poetry; moreover, it provides the unexpected in the form of an unabashedly romantic vignette by Paula Smith and a Star Trek story by Marion Zimmer Bradley. Bradley further proves her versatility by providing, with the help of Walter Breen, an eminently logical ‘Vulcan Valentine.’… 

There are two quibbles to be made about the construction of this zine. The reduction on most of the type is 1/3, which is still readable to me when I’m wearing my glasses instead of contacts. On pages with illustrations, however, the type has been further reduced, until is it too small for comfortable reading by those of us not blessed with 20/20 vision. The other problem is that this is the third zine in which Leslie Fish’s filksongs have appeared. Too many of us have already seen them, delightful as they are. The table of contents lists twenty-three separate items; rarely does even so large a zine provide that kind of variety. Those looking for fantasy (this is a combined fantasy/Trek zine) may be disappointed to find that the fantasy is confined almost entirely to the artwork; all the major stories and poems are ST. Most of them range from good to excellent, and there is simply not space to comment on all of them. 

There is a plethora of fine style here; not a single story suffers from awkwardness. Genius Loci’ by Connie Faddis is the KIND of story that made the best Trek episodes, yet it finds a new and acceptable twist for putting the terrific trio through their paces. The Bradley story mentioned above shows us Kirk’s first few days aboard the Enterprise, when Spock and McCoy were strangers. There are two stories by Mandi Schultz and Cheryl Rice from their Diamonds and Rustseries, interesting, but suffering from rather obviously setting the readers up for information to be revealed in future stories. By the end of the second story, one is a bit peeved to still not know for whom Chantal IS working. Trinette Kern’s story has her hallmarks: one of the most readable styles in fandom, and pain. This time it is Spock and Uhura she’s getting. Unfortunately, to set up the circumstances for 'Kwa Heri, Hadiya.’ she completely distorts the character of Uhura – not to mention Spock! The most moving story in the collection is ’T'Uriamne’s Victory,’ one of Eileen Roy’s alternate-Kraith stories. As the title suggests, it is a parallel to 'Spock’s Argument,’ only this time there is not a tie –T'Uriamne wins. Amanda, and all the other offworlders must leave Vulcan. What an Amanda we have here, strong, proud, independent, competent, intelligent! Roy twists us with wondering what Sarek will do, at the same time she is poking delightful fun at Kraith Vulcans – imagine a drunken Vulcan named Slieez! Indeed, there is much more, in this story, and in the zine as a whole. Buy it.  “

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Martha Wells’ Murderbot Diaries series of novellas has caught the world by storm! Not only is it a New York Times and USA Today bestseller, not only has it won a Hugo, a Nebula (and currently nominated for another!), an Alex Award and Locus Award, and been nominated for a Philip K Dick Award, RT Reviewers’ Choice Award and a British Science Fiction Award, its story of a self-aware security bot has touched many and when we announced we’d commissioned Martha to write a full length Murderbot novel, you could hear the fans squee across continents!

And now, as the writing of the novel enters the final stages, Martha has told us what the novel will be called, so we thought we’d share it with you.

 

In May 2020, prepare yourself for The Murderbot Diaries: Network Effect.