LOC for Perryscope #21

The following is a letter of comment sent to Perry Middlemiss, editor of Perryscope, commenting on #21.

Dear Mr. Middlemiss:

I’m glad to see that ANZAPA is still active! I included the apa in my Blue Moon Special directory of apae back in 2009 (mayhaps it’s time for another update; I gafiated from apahacking for about 12 years), and it’s inspiring that ANZAPA is still thriving. It has quite an impressive history dating back to 1968. I consider myself lucky to have received Perryscope #21, my first introduction to your perzine. I’ll have to check out The Alien Review, your genzine, as well. 80 pages is an impressive page count; how often do you publish issues of TAR? That page count might even qualify as a BFF, per recent discussion in the letter column of Nic Farey’s This Here… #51. It’s been a long time since I’ve published anything close to a BFF.

While I’m sorry to hear about the 2020 death of your father, the recent ceremony and family gathering sounds worthwhile and meaningful. The remains of my grandparents and other relatives of their and previous generations are scattered throughout various cemeteries in the Midwest, but my parents, my wife, and I plan to be cremated. (My wife’s father donated his body to a local university to be used for scientific research.) My wife and I have an estate plan in place, but I haven’t given any thought to what to do with my ashes at all whatsoever—and I should check in with my parents to learn their wishes, too. They’re pretty well organized as they approach 80, so I’d be surprised if it wasn’t already documented. Oh, the plans we make! I’ll also have to explore C.J. Dennis’s The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke. I belatedly condole with you and your family, though we haven’t met.

I thoroughly enjoyed your book reviews, a serious highlight of the issue. Becky Chambers’s A Psalm for the Wild-Built has popped up in a number of places, so I was familiar with the cover, at least. Otherwise, Peter F. Hamilton and Gareth L. Powell’s Light Chaser, Roger Zelazny’s Lord of Light, E. Catherine Tobler’s The Necessity of Stars, and Samuel R. Delaney’s The Einstein Intersection seem most promising based on my current tastes—even with your relatively negative reviews of the Zelazny and Delaney titles. In recent months, I’ve returned to contributing to the National Fantasy Fan Federation’s reviewzine, The N3F Review of Books. (You can browse recent issues at https://tinyurl.com/N3FReview.) We’re currently looking for new reviewers for the zine, and based on your book reviews, I’m curious whether you’d be open to some of your Perryscope reviews being reprinted in the N3F Review. We’d welcome the fresh eyes and mind, and it’d help us move beyond the borders of the United States in terms of contributors. Let me know what you think of the idea, and we can discuss.

Your exchange with John Hertz about Isaac Asimov’s writing style in the letter column gave me light food for thought. I’m currently reading Foundation—for the first time!—and will pay more attention to his writing to determine on which side of the debate I fall. I’m also somewhat into Lee Gold’s Valhalla: Absent Without Leave, so it was fun to see her book mentioned. (That reminds me; I need to swing by her house to pick up an apa!)

Thank you for contributing your perzine to ANZAPA and eFanzines. I look forward to future issues—as well as The Alien Review.