03.20.04

Another revenant is about to stalk among us: Amazing Stories, founded by Hugo Gernsback in 1926, will have a July relaunch from Paizo Publishing. Editor Dave Gross, who honed his skills at Star Wars Insider, promises to transcend boring old sf with a 'cross-media gamut of sci-fi, fantasy, super heroes, and supernatural horror.'

As Others See Us. Christopher Farah's review of The Confessions of Max Tivoli (Salon.com, 8 March) is almost too classic for words: 'Andrew Sean Greer's second novel has a high-concept premise that seems perfect for one of those $3 mass-market sci-fi/fantasy paperbacks. A man lives his entire life aging in reverse [...] Of course, in a cheap sci-fi book, the main character's name would have to be something that sounds like a new brand of antidepressant medication -- and the story would be trite, gimmicky and shallow. Instead, The Confessions Of Max Tivoli is a serious work of literature ...'

Charles L. Grant, noted horror author, has been diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and for the foreseeable future will need bottled oxygen to stay alive. No health insurance, alas. Donations to a 'Fresh Air Fund' are solicited by his wife Kathryn Ptacek. Dollar checks should be made out to her at PO Box 97, Newton, NJ 07860-0097, USA; Paypal transfers to katptacek[at]yahoo.com.

George R.R. Martin received the 2004 Skylark Award from NESFA.

R.I.P. Jon White (1946-2004), US fan and book dealer whose 1962 fanzine Inside continued as Leland Sapiro's Riverside Quarterly, died on 12 March aged 57.   Paul Winfield (1941-2004), US actor whose genre films included Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan, Damnation Alley, The Terminator, and Mars Attacks!, died from a heart attack on 7 March; he was 62.

What the Papers Say. According to Gerald Jonas in the New York Times Book Review (7 March), 'Ben Bova is the last of the great pulp writers.' John Boston, who spotted this, cryptically adds: 'I'm reminded of Gibbon's comment about the Holy Roman Empire.'

2004 Hugo Nominations close on 25 March. Noreascon 4 urges people to nominate online at http://www.noreascon.org/hugos/index.html ... assuming you didn't throw away the vital PIN printed on the address label of Progress Report 5!

Thog's Masterclass. Nearly New Dept. 'They weren't human; they were a new species. Humanlike, but not like them.' (Paul Black, The Tels, 2003)

David Langford is an author and a gentleman. His newsletter, Ansible, is the essential SF-insider sourcebook of wit and incongruity. His most recent books are Different Kinds of Darkness, a new short-story collection of horror, SF, and fantasy, Up Through an Empty House of Stars: Reviews and Essays 1980-2002, 100 pieces of Langfordian genre commentary, and He Do the Time Police in Different Voices, a short-story collection that brings together, all of Dave's SF parodies and pastiches. (This is a scary thought. Are you ready to laugh that hard?)

Dave lives in Reading, England with his wife Hazel, 25,000 books, and a few dozen Hugo awards. He continues to add books and Hugos.