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May 27, 2005
Here I am brooding over whether, as a
columnist who has
appeared in every issue of SFX magazine since the mid-1995
launch, I can face the journey into London for its 10th
anniversary party tomorrow. An event which leads us, by a
transition of almost unbelievable subtlety, to ...
Publishers & Sinners. Dave Golder is shortly
to leave his position as overall editor of SFX, according
to recent 'introducing myself' e-mail from his successor David
Bradley.
Jo Fletcher of Gollancz/Orion married Ian Drury on 20 May.
Dark Doings. Oh, what larks! Here are immense
Latarnia
and Classic Horror Film Board
discussions of alleged wholesale plagiarism by the UK horror
magazine The Dark Side. The evidence is almost surreally
plentiful, and victims include not just genre reviewers but the
New York Times and the BBC. (Thanks to Stan Nicholls for
this pointer.)
Robert Sheckley:
an update
since Runcible 173;
fundraising
in the Ukraine; his
Ukrainian
medical expenses paid! He flies home to the USA today (via
Frankfurt) for further treatment in New York, and was last
reported as 'in the air'. (Moorcock
discussion board) Later: safe landing in New
York....
Mythopoeic Awards. Here are the latest fiction
shortlists:
Adult
- Kage Baker, The Anvil of the World
- Susanna Clarke, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
- Elizabeth Hand, Mortal Love
- Patricia A. McKillip, Alphabet of Thorn
- Gene Wolfe, The Wizard Knight (The Knight and
The Wizard)
Children's
- Kevin Crossley-Holland, Arthur Trilogy: The Seeing Stone,
At the Crossing Places, and King of the Middle March
- Nancy Farmer, Sea of Trolls
- Monica Furlong, trilogy comprising Wise Child, Juniper,
and Colman
- Garth Nix, The Abhorsen Trilogy: Sabriel, Lirael:
Daughter of the Clayr, and Abhorsen
- Terry Pratchett, A Hat Full of Sky
Full details here.
The Sidewise
Awards for alternate history have two unusual features
this year. The Long Form shortlist consists of one book, Philip
Roth's The Plot Against America (which could still lose to
No Award, unlikely though that seems), while the six Short Form
finalists include a graphic-novel sequence, Warren Ellis's Ministry
of Space.
R.I.P. Henry Corden (1920-2005), Canadian-born
actor who first appeared in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
(1947), and in 1972 began his long stint as the voice of Fred
Flintstone, died on 19 May aged 85.
Ed
Kelleher (1943-2005), US screenwriter, playwright and film
critic who scripted the 1972 Invasion of the Blood Farmers
and other 'cult classics' (in the Ed Wood sense) of horror cinema,
died from degenerative brain disease on 14 May. He was 61. See
Seattle
Times obituary.
Samuel H. Post (1924-2005), US editor, publisher and
anthologist responsible for many 1960s MacFadden-Bartell sf
titles, died on 20 May aged 81. See
entry
in the Ultimate SF Web Guide, co-maintained by his son
Jonathan Vos Post.
Harold Wooster (1919-2005), lifelong sf enthusiast and
father of Martin Morse Wooster, died on 20 May aged 86. Martin
writes: 'He sold one "Probability Zero" piece to Astounding
in 1943.... He co-wrote a letter with Robert Heinlein that
appeared in Science (21 July 1961) about whether or not "exobiology"
or "xenobiology" was the correct term. In the 1960s, my
father was at the Air Force Office of Scientific Research where he
was in charge of strange projects. He funded the Air Force's
official investigation of the Dean Drive.'
Pat
York, US teacher (recently retired) and author of short sf who
was a Nebula Award finalist in 2000, died on 21 May in Columbus,
Ohio, when a bus collided with the car in which she was a
passenger. Pat York was 57. See
SFWA obituary
and
Boing
Boing tribute.
Miscellany.
Star
Wars Darwin Award contenders.
Useful
ways to destroy the Earth.
Frank Key's
Hooting Yard returns with fresh esoterica after 'a
longer-than-planned break.'
Yet Another Award. The Hal Clement Award for best
young-adult sf novel of 2004 went to Balance of Trade by
Sharon Lee and Steve Miller. (Award presented by the
Golden Duck Awards.)
Thog's Science Masterclass. Revisionist Paleontology
Dept. 'The megatherium, the ichthyosaurus have paced the earth
with seven-league steps and hidden the day with cloud fast wings.'
(George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman, 1903)
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 couple of dozen Hugo awards. He continues to add
books and Hugos.
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