Mimosa 25
Reviewed by Leigh Kimmel
Mimosa 25 is the latest edition of the multiple Hugo winner that is up for yet another Hugo this year. It can be obtained by sending $4 to Nicki and Richard Lynch, PO Box 3120, Gaithersburg, Maryland, 20885. It is also available on the Web at http://www.smithway.org/mimosa and their e-mail address is lynch@access.digex.net.
I enjoyed "South by Southwest, an Antipodean Adventure," both for a different view of NASFiC (which I spent largely tethered to a table in the dealers' room, alas, so it's always great to hear about what others got to), and for the account of Aussiecon, which I missed entirely. I'd originally hoped to get to it when Australia first won the Worldcon bid, but life simply refused to co-operate and I didn't get to go. Still, their account was so extensive that it was almost like being there.
Mike Resnick's "Worldcon Memories" was another fascinating visit to Worldcons I never got to attend (heck, some of them were before I even *was*, and most of the rest were from days before I started attending conventions). It's fascinating to read about those early days of the small, intimate (and inexpensive) Worldcons, especially in these days of big-budget extravaganzas where it's simply physically impossible to see and do everything (short of cloning oneself multiple times and sending one to each event that's happening at a given time). Of course, in those days a dollar was harder to come by than it is today, so the lower prices may have not represented that much more buying power.
I also enjoyed Forry Ackerman's adventures in "Shockholm" (actually in Lund, Sweden). His account of the film festival is worth a chuckle, especially the schlocky movies.
Ron Bennett's "The Greatest Show on..." is all too believable -- I've certainly had plenty of experiences of going to great lengths to do something, only to have it cancelled by events beyond anybody's control. I can imagine how frustrating it must have been to go to such lengths to see the eclipse, only to have the sky cloud over and rain moments before the eclipse.
Eve Ackerman's "How I spent my Summer Vacation" was another great look at Aussiecon and the rest of Australia. The image of the lazy kangaroos at the Healsville Sanctuary was hilarious.
The other articles were interesting as well, including Dave Kyle's story of the famous Hydra Club of New York (so named for its nine original members), and the reminiscences of the days of Irish Fandom (we seem to be losing a lot of our big names in fandom these last several years, and it doesn't seem like anyone's stepping forward to fill their shoes -- no wonder people are expressing concerns that fans are a dying breed and fandom as we know it may soon be coming to a halt).
As usual, there is a fascinating array of letters in the letcol, reflecting a wide range of responses to the past issue. I especially noted Robert Lichtman's comments on auto racing in relation to having lived through the energy crisis of the 1970's. It's interesting that we seem to be having a gas shortage again -- only instead of having gas lines stretching for blocks, we're having prices skyrocketing through the roof (they're talking about gas getting as high as two bucks a gallon by summer, which is going to make it that much harder for us to make our expenses as book dealers at conventions). It might be interesting to speculate as to the differences in economic policy that led to the two different outcomes.
I also enjoyed the closing comments, and especially the account of fandom in Slovakia and Poland. It's so neat to see the flourishing of Eastern European fandom, especially after the fall of the Iron Curtain -- and it's of especial interest to me because I studied Eastern Europe as part of my undergraduate major.