Austin American-Statesman from Austin, Texas • 83

This section is recyclable Sunday, September 27, 1992 Austin American-Statesman E7 Docks Bookmsrfcs 'Reality Studio' examines cyberpunk genre Photographer Maggie Steber will talk about her new book Dancing on Fire, a look at the social turmoil in Haiti, and sign copies at Tesoros Trading Company, 209 Congress from 4 to 7:30 p.m. Saturday. An Austin scion and University of Texas graduate, Steber has published photographs in Life, the New York Times and Conde Nast Traveler, and is currently working on a project on the Cherokee tribe for National Geographic. Oregon writer Susan Lloyd is signing copies of her new memoir, Processione: a Sicilian Easter, at Bookpeople from 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday.

Lloyd is also showing a half-hour documentary film, No Pictures in My Grave, involving her search for her roots in Sicily where she uncovered the remains of paganism in contemporary Easter ritual By Michael Point Special to the American-Statesman You know the literary wave, new or otherwise, has washed ashore and returned to the sea any time the academic tomes start providing expert analysis on just what it all is supposed to mean. Such is the case with the high-tech, down and dirty future scenarios of the cyberpunk world. Storming the Reality Studio (387 pp. Duke University Press. subtitled A Casebook of Cyberpunk and Postmodern Fiction, attempts to explain the most vital and volatile SF style of the '80s.

Of course, it is now the '90s and that fact in itself explains a lot about this book's failings. Storming the Reality Studio, edited by Larry McCaffery, combines representative examples of fiction to which the cyberpunk label has been attached, rightly or not, with a series of non-fiction essays. The best part of the book is, not surprisingly, the excerpts from various and sundry seminal cyberpunk sources. The pieces, pulled out of their original context and randomly rearranged, achieve a sort of inadvertent cut-and-paste essentially one that says science fiction finally discovered and embraced sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll in a high-tech setting, eventually communicates itself. The interviews and academic explorations are interesting even when arguable, but Bruce Sterling's preface from the definitive cyberpunk anthology Mirrorshades probably says all that needs to be said about the phenomenon and its significance for the future.

It's almost that time again. Austin's home-grown science fiction celebration, ArmadilloCon, now in its 14th year, is scheduled for Oct. 9-11 at the Wyndham Southpark Hotel. The convention, lively, literate and unpredictable, is the single most significant SF event in the Southwest, but that has never prevented it from also being one of the most entertaining happenings to hit town. Multitudes of well-known authors, editors and illustrators are, as usual, expected to attend the convention and participate in panel discussions, readings and the general merriment.

While Austin's reputation as a laid-back entertainment mecca, not to mention our justifiable renown as a prime source of barbecue and Tex-Mex food, has a lot to do with the large attendance, the major sales point is the convention's unique set of SF sensibilities. Cutting-edge concerns are dealt with, but there is usually a lack of the corresponding ego self-gratification that marks most progressive conclaves. A good example is the cyberpunk craze, one which was born, nurtured, laid to rest, and autopsied at past ArmadilloCons. The attitudes, an obligatory component of the style in its early days, have long been discarded and it's probable cyberpunk won't be mentioned, except, perhaps, in humorous asides. Author Neal Barrett Jr.

will be guest of honor, Gardner Dozois will serve a similar role as the honored guest editor, and Kim Stanley Robinson will unleash his wit and wisdom in live action as toastmas-ter. Among the most conspicuous convention attendees this year are authors Karen Joy Fowler, John J. Kessell, Pat Cadigan, Walter Jon Williams and L. Sprague de Camp, to name only a few of the dozens scheduled to appear. In addition, the usual contingent of hometown heroes, such as Bruce Sterling, Chad Oliver, Bradley Denton and Howard Waldrop, will be front and center.

Major editorial figures such as Ellen Datlow and Beth Mea-cham, a wide assortment of artists and illustrators, and numerous publishing and electronic media movers and shakers will provide a more diverse perspective to the proceedings. Daily tickets will be available at the convention, but the only way to undergo the full-scale experience is to spring for a complete convention pass. Pre-convention memberships are only $25 for the full three days (and nights) of activities, a genuine bargain considering the wide variety of events. Act fast, however, because the price will increase at the end of September as the full fee kicks in. You can get more information by writing to ArmadilloCon 14, P.O.

Box 9612, Austin, 78766-9612, and enclosing a self-addressed, stamped envelope. You can also call 453-2199. Michael Point is a member of the Science Fiction Writers of America. A new book surveying the Benson Latin American Collection at the University of Texas, Nahuatl to The Latin American Collection at Texas, has been published by UT's General Libraries and the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center. The book contains essays by eminent scholars spanning four centuries, as well as color and black-and-white illustrations and reproductions of maps, artworks and manuscript pages.

Call 471-8944 for more information Fantasy novelist R.A. Salvatore will sign copies of his new book, The Legacy, at Waldenbooks in Killeen from noon to 1 p.m. Monday. Authors chronicle daytrip tips for Austin, San Antonio Scienco fiction cyberpostmod status. Science fiction fellow travelers are well represented as William S.

Burroughs' The Wild Boys, Don DeLillo's White Noise, Thomas Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49, and Ted Mooney's Easy Travel to Other Planets are mixed in the collection. More identifiable cyberpunk selections, such as Lucius Shepard's searing masterpiece Life During Wartime and Rudy Rucker's maliciously twisted Software, also surface, as do pieces by John Shirley, Bruce Sterling and, naturally, the obligatory passage from William Gibson's Neuro-mancer. Noticeably absent is James Tiptree The Girl Who Was Plugged In, an influential forerunner of the mini-genre. The volume's non-fiction explorations are alternately illuminating and exasperating as they combine critiques and commentaries by well-meaning but misinformed experts with more effective explanations from less creden-tialled sources. The basic precept, Texana Mike Cox highway patrol trooper.

All this in mind, an ideal book to get is Day Trips From San Antonio and Austin by Paris Permenter and John Bigley. Published by Two Lane Press (P.O. Box 5862, Kansas City, 64111), the 159-page book sells for $8.95. Using either Austin or San Antonio as a base, an amazingly large hunk of Texas lies within two hours drive time. From Austin, that includes Waco on the north, below San Antonio to the south, Mason to the west and Washing-ton-on-the-Brazos to the east.

From San Antonio, stretching the two-hour limit a bit, the Mexican Monday, Sept. 28 religious holiday. JEWELERS consideration ARBORETUM 10,000 Research 343-7171 enough to fit into your vehicle's glove compartment. Free-lance writer Mike Cox is the author of six Texas-related books and a collector of Texana. Biggest Portrait Value Ever! 1 icssiw 1 mMirimitrwmU: I border or the middle Gulf Coast are in easy day-trip range.

The authors, a husband-wife travel writing team who live near Lake Travis, divided their book into 17 San Antonio-based day trips and 15 trips from Austin each covering different territory. The Austin-based trips range from a simple excursion to Buda and San Marcos to a Hill Country drive to Mason, 100 miles west. Each trip recommended by the authors lists the towns along the route with suggestions on where to go, where to shop, where to eat and where to stay. Not every town, of course, offers possibilities in all categories. For instance, one does not go to Lockhart to stroll through trendy shops.

That happens in Salado. A person goes to Lockhart for one main reason: To ingest barbecue. The authors politely list both Lockhart barbecue giants, Kreuz established in 1962 The three out of five torrid months Texans choose to call summer for sentimental reasons we call May "spring" and September "fall" are traditionally considered the prime time for travel. The kids are out of school, the pace of life seems to slow, things are quieter at the office and, well, everyone knows summer is vacation time. Of course, it is harder for people to get the time to travel in True Fall, when there is a slight hint of crispness in the air, or in True Spring, that short period of time in which wildflowers proliferate and the daytime temperature stays below 90.

One way to make it easier to travel is to stick close to home, say two hours. To abide by the law, two hours equals about 100 miles. If you can make it much farther than that in 120 minutes, your trip could be delayed by a roadside visit with a We will be closed in observance of a 1 it irwti yrf1 I Market and Black's Barbeque. As they point out, the Lockhart trip is not an adventure for vegetarians. If the authors have already explored a community in one section of their book, they cross reference that entry in an subsequent day trip.

Day Trips from San Antonio and Austin will be useful to visitors and new residents as well as folks who have been in Central Texas for a while. Even a long-time Texan would have to stay on the road all the time to keep up with every new attraction, particularly restaurants and places to shop. The book also includes general Texas travel information, tips on entering Mexico, shopping in Mexico, a list of local Chambers of Commerce and, perhaps most useful, a list of the various annual festivals held in the day-trip destinations in the book. Finally, Day Trips is small Sat. 9 n.m.

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