Letters, News, and Notes

According to several news reports, Kazakhstan, one of the former Soviet Union's successor states in central Asia, has acquired a new persecuted minority: Tolkienians. The translation of The Lord of the Rings into Russian in 1988 gained numerous admirers for Tolkien's work, some of whom began holding conventions, wearing costumes, and re-enacting scenes from the novel. The police in Kazakhstan have harassed and detained Tolkienians, apparently because they are regarded as cultural dissidents, along with religious minorities, gays and lesbians—and anarchists. Some reports assert that Tolkienians have been subjected to torture.

Tor Books has announced intended publication of True Names and the Opening of the Cyberspace Frontier, a collection of fiction and nonfiction by computer scientists; it will include Vernor Vinge's classic novella "True Names." The book is tentatively scheduled for December 2001.