The Event Horizon

1. Editorial: The Year that Was?

Okay, other people have had a go at looking back at the events in 1997. Now, it's my turn to do so. But I'll try to keep it short. Whether it will be sweet or not is up to you.

1997 had its ups and downs. Among the ups include the opening of Borders Bookstore at the end of the year, signalling a change in the local book market. Among the downs was the closing of the Stanford Road Library (officially reopened on 19 January, 1998), causing some acute withdrawal syndrome in at least one frequent visitor to the library (no names will be mentioned).

It was also the year ``when everything changed''. The fourth season of Babylon 5 came, was abruptly stopped, then continued at a new time slot, causing frantic adjustments in weekend schedules, before closing with a bang. Now, those who watch the show wait with baited breath as to whether the fifth season will be picked up and shown.

Life also changed, personally, when I got a USRobotics (now 3Com) PalmPilot Professional, a PDA (personal digital assistant) that did wonders in organising a hectic life. It also opened up a new world in allowing text to be stored electronically in it, allowing easy access to reading material while in all kinds of places (like on a bus). In the six months I've had the PalmPilot, I've downloaded and read ``Gulliver's Travels'', ``The Secret Garden'', ``Sylvie and Bruno'', ``Hamlet'' and now I'm plowing through ``Les Miserables''. Sure, the screen isn't very big and text can be hard to read under some lighting conditions, but as a precursor of electronic books to come, it showed the way.

In science, the two ``big bangs'' were Dolly and the Mars Pathfinder Mission. Dolly was a huge scientific bang but I think in terms of SF, all I can say is, ``What took so long?'' As for Pathfinder, it's landing (or rather, `bumping') on Mars signalled the start of a new series of Mars explorations. The arrival of the Mars Global Surveyor probably has the more `conspiracy' minded people waiting for the first pictures of the Face on Mars to be returned.

On the book front, too many good books by too many well known and first time authors hit the market for me to keep up, as usual. Even with the help of on-line databases (like SF Site) and print publications (like Locus), it is becoming increasingly harder and harder to find the golden needle in the haystack of hacked books. Fortunately, the anthology market was really opened up by Borders so at least I have a chance to catch up on short stories by up and coming writers.

(Personal Plug: I've set up a personal home page, mostly filled with reviews of books, short stories and movies that I've read or seen. Hopefully, it can be of help to those who are wondering about whether to read a certain book or not. If you have a personal home page, send me the URL and I'll include it in a future issue of EH.)

In movies, it has been both a good and bad year, with ``Contact'' being a high point and ``Starship Troopers'' being a low point (personally) with ``Men in Black'' providing a lot of fun in between. This year, we may yet see Brin's ``The Postman'' but it has already had a disappointing opening in the US.

Finally, on the economic front (you knew this was coming, right?), it is interesting to note that, as far as I know, no Science Fiction story has ever been written about the collapse of South-East Asian markets. Of course this is to be expected since SF is not in the prediction field (makes me wonder whether any of the `psychics' predicted it) although occasional `predictions' have come true. I wonder what authors like William Gibson, Neal Stephenson and Bruce Sterling are making of the whole thing since in their fiction, they have the Japanese or Asians being the dominant economic power in the world. But, as Real Life(TM) shows, the world is a very complicated place!

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