Soldiers
Continued from Page 11
junior junkies. There aren’t any su
per-genius teens — the writers just
allow these teens to be relatively
normal.
On the bad side, the writers have
too many plot errors. For example,
after the kidnapper has control of the
school he lets the kids go outside and
play all day in the courtyard. Get real
— most kidnappers would probably
keep the kids confined and hidden
somewhere. Also, when the FBI fi
nally decides to storm the school,
they cut off the power and phone
lines. When the kidnapper realizes
this, he just insists that they turn them
back on. Anyone with half a brain
could see that the FBI is planning
something when they cut off your
communications. How could a man
so dumb not to see this be able to plan
a successful takeover of an entire
school?
Some of the attention to detail was
also lacking. In one scene Tepper
leaves a trail of wet clothing down a
hallway leading to the kidnappers.
When the kidnappers left the room,
the clothes were gone. Oops. The
film is filled with these sorts of little
things.
But, the special effects in this film
were exceptional. They were very
realistic without being disgusting or
gory. As tastefully as one can show
someone being demolished by an
Apache helicopter, they did it.
“Toy Soldiers” is playing at the
Plaza 4 Theatres, 12th and P streets.
Stewart
Continued from Page 11
will consist of reused junk.
The only other songs worth both
ering with on “Vagabond Heart” are
“You Are Everything,” a pleasant but
not distinctive ballad, and “If Only,”
a slow song. The violin on “You are
Everything” is particularly nice. Nei
ther song has hit potential, but they’re
listenable.
Stewart teams up with Tina Turner
on “It Takes Two’* and with the
Tcmptationson “The Motown Song.”
Stewart rhapsodizes in the liner
notes about the experience: “Thanks
to Tina Turner and to the Tempta
tions — how marvelous it is to vocal
ize with such luminaries.” He dedi
cates the album to his father, who
died last year, and to his wife.
Stewart also takes the opportunity
to complain on his liner notes. He
says that “many foolish and hurtful
things have been written about my
self in the press over the years.” He
contends that most are “severely
embroidered hall-truths” and says some
are “out-and-out lies.” Still, he says,
“I’m not complaining, just stating a
fact.” He chalks it up to the business
he’s in.
The most pathetic moment is when
Stewart states that “those who scribble
with crooked nib will have to one day
answer to the great editor in the sky
himself, and will be judged guilty of
possessing twisted longues and bent
pencils.”
Besides being overly melodramatic,
the statement fails to realize a very
important point: Some of the great
editors in the sky might just be women.
Save your money on this album;
do buy the cassette single for “Rhythm
of Mv Heart.”
Science-fiction novel recreates
computers and world history
By Bryan Peterson
Staff Reporter
The Difference Engine
William Gibson and Bruce
Sterling
Bantam Books (Spectra)
“How much better it is to be a
Royal bastard than a philosopher
in England at present. But a mighty
change is at hand.”
-Gibson and Sterling, “The
Difference Engine”
“The Difference Engine” repre
sents an enigma both to history and
to the reader — a “what-if” sce
nario in the best science-fiction
tradition and a radical departure
from the style of previous works by
the two authors.
William Gibson broke into s-f
circles with characteristic cyberpunk
flash when his first novel, Neuro
mancer, won s-f s triple crown—a
Hugo award, a Nebula award and a
Philip K. Dick award.
Gibson’s name is fused with
that of Bruce Sterling as co-creator
of the hard-hitting prose of cy
berpunk 'hat featured dismal worlds
full of people directly interfacing
with computers—the “new wave”
that turned s-f on its head.
Sterling himself has authored
several cyberpunk works of his own,
as well as a short story written with
Gibson.
Now, in their first collaborative
novel, Gibson and Sterling have
departed from the cyberpunk style
that has characterized their work
so far.
The pair has moved from a
gloomy world of computers and
societal decline to a Victorian
London quite different from the
one familiar to readers of Dickens.
The crucial difference stems from
the development and widespread
Bruce Sterling (left) and William Gibson, authors of “The Dif
ference Engine.”
use of ihe Analytical Engine postu
lated by Charles Babbage in the
1830s.
Babbage was limited by the
technology of his day and thus only
was able to produce a small model
of the steam-driven precursor to
the modem computer that he envi
sioned.
In Gibson and Sterling’s Lon
don, Babbage was able to produce
his machine, and the entire course
of English and world history sub
sequently was changed.
This is no “what if Hitler had
won the war?” business; Gibson
and Sterling carefully have recre
ated and slightly altered the Lon
don of the times, reflecting the
changes initiated by the presence
of the Analytical Machine more
than a century before computers
became widespread.
More importantly, the book’s
emphasis is upon the lives of the
characters rather than technologi
cal advances. For all the changes
brought by the early advent of
computerlike technology, the in
trigues of individual lives remain
much the same.
The familiar themes all can be
found in this work: love, sex,
ambition, progress, regression,
See DIFFERENT on 13
■ nr fc
Grand Opening Sale!
New store at 56th & Hwy 2
(in front of the Edgewood Theatres)