The Tomorrow Prize and The Green Feather Award winners were revealed at the Celebrity Readings & Honors ceremony at Vroman’s Bookstore in Pasadena on May 11.
The Tomorrow Prize recognizes outstanding new works of science fiction written by Los Angeles County high school students. First, Second, and Third place Tomorrow Prize winners receive $250, $150, and $100 USD cash prizes. The first place Tomorrow Prize winner is published in L.A. Parent Magazine.
The Green Feather Award is an additional special prize category for an environmentally focused sci-fi story. The winner receives $250 and online publication by the Nature Nexus Institute.
Ariel Preston. Photo by Steven Edward Calcote.
THE TOMORROW PRIZE
1st Place
ARIEL PRESTON (Port of Los Angeles High School) for “‘Goodbye,’ Said the Machine”
2nd Place
AVERY WATSON (West Ranch High School) for “My Nellhan”
3rd Place — The Tomorrow Prize:
STEVEN ORTEGA (Orthopedic Medical Magnet High School) for “Pandemonium Porcellus”
Tomorrow Prize Finalists
ISABEL CEBALLOS (Port of Los Angeles High School) for “Our Blue Sky”
SHAJID ISLAM (Downtown Magnets Highschool) for “Stardust”
THE GREEN FEATHER AWARD
Winner
EVELYN MANN (Hollywood High School) for “The Aquaccelerator”
(1) AND THE WINNING NAME IS… You weren’t holding your breath waiting for them to quit kidding around and reveal the final title, were you? Well, if you were, inhale! Variety has it: “’Agatha All Along’ Sets September Premiere Date on Disney+”.
…The “WandaVision” spinoff “Agatha All Along” has set its Disney+ premiere date.
The series will debut with two episodes on Sept.. 18. The announcement was made during the Disney upfront presentation to advertisers in New York on Tuesday.
Series star Kathryn Hahn took the stage with co-stars Joe Locke and Patti LuPone, who confirmed the series’ title after a number of changes. The show was first called “Agatha: House of Harkness.” The title appeared to change to “Agatha: Coven of Chaos” by July 2022, and then to “Agatha: Darkhold Diaries” in September 2023….
The first trailer for the much-anticipated TV prequel to the recent Dune movies promises a female-fronted look at life 10,000 years before.
Dune: Prophecy will follow the roots of the Bene Gesserit sisterhood led by the Harkonnen siblings, played by Emily Watson and Olivia Williams. Later members of the sect are played by Rebecca Ferguson and Charlotte Rampling on the big screen.
It is inspired by the novel Sisterhood of Dune, written by Kevin J Anderson and Brian Herbert, the elder son of Frank Herbert, who wrote the original Dune novels….
“From now on, I will not trust anyone who isn’t angry.” The science-fiction writer Joanna Russ set down those words in 1984. They might have been Russ’s motto. From her 1968 novel Picnic on Paradise, about a time-traveling, take-no-prisoners female assassin named Alyx, to her 1975 pathbreaking lesbian and feminist novel The Female Man, to her collection of essays on feminism, What Are We Fighting For?, in 1997, Russ wrote unsparingly, if also elegantly, against those elements in society that keep women, especially lesbians, from becoming our best selves. Her novels and essays sometimes cut themselves short; other times, they cut to the bone. They could make room for hope, and for solidarity, and for erotic joy. Russ saw what was wrong with the world we know, how much needless pain it contains on account of gender roles—and she let herself stay angry about it, too.
Divisive in her lifetime, admired within the world of science fiction then and now, Russ has recently become the seventh sci-fi writer, and the third female one (after Octavia Butler and Ursula K. Le Guin), to get a whole Library of America volume. Assembling four novels (Picnic on Paradise, The Female Man, On Strike Against God, and We Who Are About To…) along with shorter stories, the Library of America volume helps the reader understand the scale and scope of her talents as a prose stylist and a writer of metafiction. And it lets readers see—in Russ, and in the 1970s feminism that nurtured her—not only the rage but also the hope that her astringent imagination found…
There’s a moment where the Doctor uses his Sonic Screwdriver to enable Ruby’s (the Doctor’s companion, played by Millie Gibson) phone to call her mum, even though they are thousands of years apart. That’s a lovely callback to your 2005 episode “The End of the World,” where the Ninth Doctor (Eccleston) did the very same thing for his companion Rose.
Yes, it is. It’s what he’d do. I remember sitting writing that thinking, “Oh gosh, I did that. I’ve done that before.” And then I thought, “Well, I did it 19 years ago and this is a brand new audience. But it’s very important that she doesn’t feel separated and abandoned from her family.” So there’s no way he couldn’t do it again, because it’s a good scene. It’s what he’d do, it needs reminding.
This time, when Ruby gets her phone zapped, she says, “How much did that cost?” Rose wouldn’t have thought of that. There’s something a lot more savvy about it. Ruby’s very aware of that 50 quid she got for a gig last night. And that’s her first question, “What does that cost?” I like that.
(7) ELENA STEIER (1958-2024). Comics creator Elena Steier died March 1 of cancer. The family obituary is in the Hartford Courant.
…An accomplished illustrator, author, and cartoonist, Steier created several comics and strips, such as The Ramp Rats (for the Detroit Metropolitan News), The Goth Scouts (for The South Shore Monthly Newspaper) and The Vampire Bed and Breakfast (a self-published comic book)….
Born May 15, 1909 – James Mason. (Died 1984.) I do believe the first time I saw James Mason acting was in Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest where he had the role of Phillip Vandamm, a Cold War spy. Three years after this, he’d be on the Alfred Hitchcock Hour as Warren Barrow in the “Captive Audience” episode.
James Mason as Captain Nemo driving the getaway submarine.
Now let’s turn to what he did as genre roles. The one you most likely remember him from is 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea where he was Captain Nemo. Surely you remember his fight with the squid? The film was personally produced by Walt Disney, something he rarely did.
He’s Hendrik van der Zee in Pandora and the Flying Dutchman, based off that story. He may or may not be the Flying Dutchman. Let’s say the film is ambiguous. Deliberately.
He was Rupert of Hentzau in The Prisoner of Zenda which is at least genre adjacent, isn’t it? Well I think it is. Truly great silly film, and an amusing role for him.
In Journey to the Center of the Earth, he was Sir Oliver S. Lindenbrook, a professor. He was not the first choice here as Clifton Webb had been cast but turned it down as he said he could not play the part because it was such a physical part. Mason said later that he delighted in doing his stunts here.
He played Polidori in the Frankenstein: The True Story, a thirteen-episode series. Now let’s recall that Dr. Polidori did not appear in the original novel, but was rather based on the character of Dr. Pretorius from Universal Pictures’ Bride of Frankenstein, but named after John Polidori, an acquaintance of author Mary Shelley.
Finally he’s in Salem’s Lot as Richard K. Straker.
“3 Body Problem” has been renewed for at least one more season at Netflix — the streamer says that the number of seasons and episodes will be announced at a later date.
It appears that the greenlight will take the series to its finale, as creators David Benioff, D.B. Weiss and Alexander Woo noted in a statement that they “get to tell this story through to its epic conclusion.” In an April interview with Collider, Benioff said the team would “need at least three, maybe four seasons to tell the whole story.”
Based on the novels by Liu Cixin, “3 Body Problem” follows how a decision made by a young woman in 1960s China reverberates across space and time into the present day, driving a group of scientists to join forces with an unorthodox detective to confront a major threat to humanity.
(11) A SONG OF ICE OR FIRE. While some think the new portrait of King Charles makes it look like he’s trapped in flames or swimming in blood, Filer Carl says the portrait of King Charles looks a bit like Han Solo frozen in carbonite. You decide!
Portrait of Britain’s King Charles by artist Jonathan Yeo.
[Thanks to Mike Kennedy, Andrew Porter, John King Tarpinian, Todd Mason, Carl, Daniel Dern, Danny Sichel, Chris Barkley, Cat Eldridge, SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Steven French, Teddy Harvia, and Kathy Sullivan for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Bonnie McDaniel.]
The year 2024 marks the beginning of the critical dystopian future Octavia E. Butler (1947–2006) envisioned in her groundbreaking novel Parable of the Sower. Her fiction and the story of her life compel us to reckon with power, leadership, creativity, the Earth, human relationships, and the unknown possibilities that await us in the stars. Now, intellectuals from different communities will gather to contemplate her legacy. This conference asks how we have learned from Butler’s writing and what her archive at The Huntington—a short distance from where the author spent her formative years in Pasadena, California—can help future generations discover.
One of the panels will feature well-known sff creators.
Session 1: Creativity as Praxis
Moderator: Sage Ni’Ja Whitson Queer & Trans anti-disciplinary artist and writer, Department of Dance and Department of Black Study at UC Riverside
Damian Duffy Author of the graphic novel adaptations of Kindred and Parable of the Sower
Steven Barnes Author of The Eightfold Path, Marvel’s Black Panther: Sins of the King podcast series, and Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror on Shudder
Sheree Renée Thomas Editor of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction and the Dark Matter anthologies, poet, author of Nine Bar Blues: Stories from an Ancient Future
Tickets for the two-day conference are available here. General: $25 (Students free). Optional lunch: $20 (each day)
Ahead of its world premiere here at Cannes, Francis Ford Coppola has dropped a teaser trailer for his master epic Meglopolis. While the first trailer showed Adam Driver’s ambitious architectural idealist Cesar attempting suicide atop a skyscraper, yet stopping time, here we see a montage of the pic’s action: a devastated city indulged in neon and noir infused Bacchanal.
Coppola’s latest is billed as a Roman Epic fable set in an imagined Modern America. The City of New Rome must change, causing conflict between Cesar Catilina (Driver), a genius artist who seeks to leap into a utopian, idealistic future, and his opposition, Mayor Franklyn Cicero (Giancarlo Esposito), who remains committed to a regressive status quo, perpetuating greed, special interests, and partisan warfare. Torn between them is socialite Julia Cicero (Nathalie Emmanuel), the mayor’s daughter, whose love for Cesar has divided her loyalties, forcing her to discover what she truly believes humanity deserves.
Early reactions to Megalopolis have been mixed. After a private screening in Los Angeles last month, one executive described it as “batshit crazy”….
…Others, however, were fulsome in their praise. “I feel I was a part of history. Megalopolis is a brilliant, visionary masterpiece,” said the director Gregory Nava after the screening. “I was so overwhelmed that I couldn’t do anything for the rest of the day.” An anonymous viewer at a London screening went even further: “This film is like Einstein and relativity in 1905, Picasso and Guernica in 1937 – it’s a date in the history of cinema.”…
(4) CAROL SHIELDS PRIZE. The 2024 Carol Shields Prize for Fiction, which provides $150,000USD to the winner, is the largest English-language literary prize in the world for women and non-binary authors. So the announcement of the winner may be of interest to you even if the book is not genre.
V. V. Ganeshananthan has been named the winner for her novel Brotherless Night, published by Random House.
(5) COMPUSERVE GETS A PLAQUE. It didn’t take as long as you might have expected for one of the building blocks of personal computing to earn its own historic marker. Alex Krislov shared a photo of Ohio’s salute to CompuServe.
…To say Clifton’s is kitschy doesn’t begin to capture it. It’s more like if uber-kitschy, ur-kitschy and mondo-kitschy had a baby….
We’re interested because LASFS used to meet at Clifton’s in the late 1930s. And consequently, Discover Los Angeles’ article “Clifton’s Republic: The Story of an LA Icon” has the tidbit of greatest interest to fans:
…The third floor is home to the Gothic Bar, which features a booth named after sci-fi writer Ray Bradbury, a patron of the original Clifton’s who became a pal of Meieran’s. The back bar is a repurposed 19th-century gothic altar. The third floor also features Clinton Hall, a live performance and private event space, and lots of taxidermy dioramas created in consultation with experts from the Natural History Museum….
(7) HE’S ON THE COVER. Fantasy author Lev Grossman in on the front of Publishers Weekly.
Scavengers Reign, the remarkable but underseen sci-fi series that premiered on Max in late 2023. Scavengers Reign was widely regarded as one of the year’s best shows, and one of many projects that heralded a golden age for indie animation. Unfortunately, the series was canceled on May 10… but that development has a silver lining.
Per Variety, Scavengers Reign will remain on Max (a rare concession for WB’s canceled shows), but its first season will also stream on Netflix. The rival streamer is reportedly interested in picking up the show for more seasons, but continuation is contingent on Scavengers’ success on the platform.
… Given Netflix’s growing interest in adult animation, the streamer might be an ideal destination. Scavengers Reign follows the crew of a deep space freighter after they crash on a hostile alien planet. Across 12 episodes, the crew works to find their way back to their ship, and survive a world trying to annihilate them. The series doesn’t shy away from dark themes, so it should feel at home alongside Netflix originals like Blue Eyed Samurai….
(9) TEDDY HARVIA CARTOON.
(10) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY.
[Written by Cat Eldridge.]
Born May 14, 1944 — George Lucas, 80. I can say without doubt George Lucas was a director whose first work I encountered was THX 1138. What a damn strange film that is. Upon rewatching it twenty or so years later, the Suck Fairy wasn’t pleased by it as I’ll say she holds that it just feels really dated now which I agree with her.
Ahhh but then was Star Wars, and no I won’t accept the renaming it. Simply didn’t happen. The film itself which I’ve seen at the theater and watched a number of times since is extraordinary. That it garnered a Hugo at IguanaCon II shouldn’t surprise anyone here.
George Lucas in 2009.
Confession time. I’ve not watched any of Star Wars films past the first three. I adore The Empire Strikes Back, a Hugo winner at Denvention Two, actually my favorite of the first three films. I don’t dislike the final film, Return of the Jedi, Hugo of course, this time at L.A. Con II, but I really do think the story is better in The Empire Strikes Back. Also, Lucas gave his screenwriting credit to Leigh Brackett for that film after her death from cancer.
So, what’s my next film that he did that I really like? Oh guess. It was when he was story writer and executive producer on the first four Indiana Jones films, which his colleague and good friend Steven Spielberg directed, so it is Raiders of The Lost Ark is my favorite film here (with Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom being almost as good), and the last should been not have been done. So not surprisingly Raiders of The Lost Ark would win him and Spielberg a Hugo, this time at Chicon IV.
Need I say that The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles was wonderful? Yes, it stretched probability to the breaking point and way beyond continuously in terms of who young Indy met, but that was the sheer fun of the series. No Hugo nomination, why, oh why?
Did you know he wrote the story for Willow? (Not the screenplay.) Well, he did. Cool. I mean really cool. Noreascon 3 nominated it for a Hugo but a rabbit from Toon Town won that year. Speaking of really cool films, he was executive producer and co-edited Labyrinth with director Jim Henson. Yes, you nominated it for a Hugo, this time at Conspiracy ’87.
He produced Howard the Duck, which the French had the gall to name on the one-sheets Howard Une nouvelle race de héros (Howard: A New Breed of Hero) was considered his worst film by far. It’s not a film I like but I feel that it should be noted here. No, you did not nominate Howard Une nouvelle race de héros for a Hugo. Nor did French give it any Awards either.
Finally for me, he also was the creator and executive producer of the Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated series which premiered with a feature film of the same name that aired just before its first episode.
I know he’s done a lot more including some new material now on Disney+ but I’m not taking that streaming service now. At some point, I’ll gorge myself over there but not yet.
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away began George Lucas’ epic space opera tale that eventually grew into the pop culture phenomenon we know today as Star Wars. The original trilogy of films Lucas made during the 70s and 80s, became beloved across the globe, but the theatrical cuts of the movies have neared the brink of extinction following Lucas’ special edition re-releases.
As a result, a group of rebel Star Wars fans have taken it upon themselves to not only preserve but also digitally restore the original cuts so that the fanbase can enjoy the version of the films they first fell in love with. However, the group’s activities directly clash with Lucas’ vision for his franchise and border on a legal grey area. Here is why George Lucas won’t be happy with the rebel fans trying to preserve the original cuts of the original trilogy.
The original trilogy of Star Wars films, spearheaded by George Lucas were critical and commercial successes. However, in 1997 Lucas released the “Special Edition” of the films for the trilogy’s 20th anniversary, which featured extensive changes to the original theatrical cuts.
The original cuts have since become scarce. However, a group of Star Wars fans, known as Team Negative One have reportedly almost completely digitally restored the original cuts in 4K using 35-millimeter prints of the original trilogy….
To show how serious Lucas is about his later cuts —
…Similarly, when the National Film Registry aimed to preserve 1977’s Star Wars (later retitled Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope), Lucas reportedly refused to provide them with a copy of the original theatrical release…
(13) Q&A ABOUT FUNDRAISING ANTHOLOGY. Broken Olive Branches is a charity anthology; over 30 authors in the horror community donated stories to help the civilians of Palestine. The proceeds from the anthology go to ANERA and the Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund. Roseanna interviews the editor and some of the authors involved in “Roundtable Interview: Broken Olive Branches” at Nerds of a Feather.
In late April, Senator Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina) began his testimony before a Senate subcommittee hearing by doing something unusual for a stuffy institution like Congress: He played a new song from the rapper Drake.
But it wasn’t Drake’s rap verse that Tillis felt was important for Congress to hear. Rather it was a verse in the song featuring the voice of the legendary — and long dead — rapper Tupac Shakur.
In a kind of uniquely modern sorcery, the song uses artificial intelligence to resurrect Tupac from the dead and manufacture a completely new — and synthetic — verse delivered in the late rapper’s voice. The song, titled “Taylor Made Freestyle,” is one in a barrage of brutal diss tracks exchanged between Drake and Kendrick Lamar in a chart-topping rap battle. Kendrick is from California, where Tupac is like a god among rap fans, so weaponizing the West Coast rap legend’s voice in the feud had some strategic value for Drake, who is from Toronto.
Drake, apparently, thought it’d be okay to use Tupac’s synthetic voice in his song without asking permission from the late rapper’s estate. But, soon after the song’s release, Tupac’s estate sent a cease-and-desist letter demanding that Drake take the song down, which he did. However — given the murky legal landscape regulating AI creations — it’s unclear whether Tupac’s estate actually has the law on their side.
And so the beef between Drake and Kendrick Lamar has become not only one of the most brilliant — and most vicious — battles in the history of rap. It’s also become a historic flashpoint for the issues posed by what you might call AI necromancy — resurrecting traits of the dead using AI technology.
We’ve entered a new world where anyone can conjure the voice or visual likeness of a dead celebrity — or really anyone, dead or alive — with a few clicks using AI software.
(15) JEOPARDY! SFF. [Item by David Goldfarb.] Catching up on Jeopardy Masters and also watching tonight’s episode, here’s the SFF content I saw:
Jeopardy Masters, Wednesday 5/8/2024
Game 1:
Literature: Who Said It? $2000: “I freewheel a lot…I reckon I’ll become president of the galaxy, and it just happens, it’s easy”
Matt Amodio got the right book but the wrong character: “What’s Dent?”
(One of his quirks is that he never bothers to change his question words but just always says “What’s…?”)
Amy Schneider gave us, “Who is Beeblebrox?”
Most Filers I assume know this, but just in case I’ll fill in that the book was The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and the characters Arthur Dent and Zaphod Beeblebrox.
Literature: Who Said It? $1600: “For if he is still with the quick un-dead, your death would make you even as he is. No, you must live!”
Yogesh Raut knew or correctly guessed, “Who is Van Helsing?”
Literature: Who Said It? $1200: A Daily Double for Yogesh, who wagered all of his 15,400 points. “She betrayed you, Winston. Immediately — unreservedly. I have seldom seen anyone come over to us so promptly”.
Yogesh hesitated a bit, then tried, “Who is…O’Brien?” And this was correct, the inquisitor from 1984.
Literature: Who Said It? $400: “What’s taters, precious, eh, what’s taters?”
Matt got it: “What’s Gollum?”
Game 2:
On the Director’s Résumé, $2000: He spoke the silent language of horror in 1922’s “Nosferatu”
Victoria Groce got it: “Who is Murnau?”
Regular Jeopardy!, Monday 5/13/2024
In the Double Jeopardy round:
TV’s Fantastical Places, $1200: This undersea abode of cartoon fame is based on an actual atoll used for atomic testing between 1946 and 1958
Michael Richter tried, “What is SpongeBob Squarepants?” but this was the name of the show, not the place.
Returning champ Will Stewart knew, “What is Bikini Bottom?”
TV’s Fantastical Places, $2000: First seen in 1969, this planet on “Doctor Who” was caught up in a time war with the Daleks
Will knew it: “What is Gallifrey?”
Literary Title Occupations, $800: In a special edition, J.K. Rowling did her own illustrations for the story collection title “The Tales of Beedle the” this
Michael got it: “What is a bard?”
Literary Title Occupations, $400: Emily Chambers is one of these spiritual intermediaries in a C.J. Archer novel, hunting a demon & talking to a ghost
Will: “What is a medium?”
Literary Title Occupations, $1200: In “The Magician’s Nephew”, animals talk like humans & Jadis, an evil witch, flees from Charn & reaches this fantasy land
Will got this one too: “What is Narnia?”
TV’s Fantastical Places, $800: This castle was the ancestral home of Ned Stark & family on “Game of Thrones”
Will, evidently an SFF watcher, knew “What is Winterfell?”
TV’s Fantastical Places, $800: Mystic Falls is the locale for blood-sucking brothers Damon & Stefan on this long-running CW show
Joyce Yang got in for “What’s The Vampire Diaries?”
Jeopardy Masters, Friday 5/10/2024
Game 1, Double Jeopardy round:
Oscars for Makeup & Hairstyling, $1600: For this 2015 film, Lesley Vanderwalt got the idea for Furiosa’s look from an image of a girl with clay across her forehead
Mattea Roach got it: “What’s Mad Max: Fury Road?”
Oscars for Makeup & Hairstyling, $1200: This man has won 7 Academy Awards for makeup, including one for his work on “An American Werewolf in London”
Amy Schneider responded, “Who is Baker?” And Rick Baker was correct.
Oscars for Makeup & Hairstyling, $400: Makeup artist Ve Neill used moss to make Michael Keaton look like he crawled out from underneath a rock for this 1988 film.
Mattea asked us, “What’s ‘Beetlejuice’?”
Game 2, Single Jeopardy round
A Literary Tipple, $600: It takes a lot of flowers (weeds, some say) to make a batch of this stuff, the title of a Ray Bradbury novel
James Holzhauer knew it was dandelion wine.
Made You Say It, $1000: Compelled by his people’s naiveté, this Trojan said, “Don’t trust the horse…even when they bring gifts, I fear the Greeks”
Because it was a Sci-Fi Sunday episode, Isaac assumed some sort of FTL travel but not instantaneous communication. He takes a (he himself says) simple assumption of all civilizations arising together and expanding their sphere of influence, which in 3-dimensions would give each 12 neighbors.
With regards to SF, he draws mainly on cinema and TV looking at embassies Babylon V, Star Trek and Stargate. However Niven and Pournelle’s A Mote in God’s Eye, and Dune do get a look in.
He also points to flaws in many SF shows’ plot arising out of mis-understandings making a fairly plausible case against such actually taking place.
He opines that the embassy would be in space for control biological contaminants (both ways) and here, it is bacteria rather than viruses are the major problem. He also notes that assuming an advanced planetary system might be colonized out to the equivalent of it Kuiper belt, such is the distance between stars that any traveler passing through a stellar empire would likely come no closer than many thousands of times the Kuiper orbit distance to a single star’s civilization and so no need or practicality to control travelers simply passing through.
“We often imagine encountering many alien civilizations, and establishing trade and relationships with them, but what would being an alien ambassador be like?”
35-minute episode below…
[Thanks to Kathy Sullivan, Mike Kennedy, Andrew Porter, David Goldfarb, John King Tarpinian, Chris Barkley, Cat Eldridge, SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Steven French, and Teddy Harvia for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Joe H.]
The winner of the 2024 Tähtivaeltaja (“Star Rover”) Award was announced on May 14. Sponsored by the Helsinki Science Fiction Society, the award goes to the best science fiction book published in Finland in the previous year. The winner is:
Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone: Tällä tavalla hävitään aikasota (This Is How You Lose the Time War, translated to Finnish by Kaisa Ranta; Hertta)
The winner was selected by a jury composed of journalist Hannu Blommila, editor Toni Jerrman, and critic Elli Leppä.
[Introduction: Melanie Stormm continues her humorous series of posts about the misdirected emails she’s been getting. Stormm is a multiracial writer who writes fiction, poetry, and audio theatre. Her novella, Last Poet of Wyrld’s End is available through Candlemark & Gleam. She is currently the editor at the SPECk, a monthly publication on speculative poetry by the SFPA.]
YOU CAN NEVER GET AHEAD OF TIME
Hello, All! Melanie here.
I was a little worried when we hadn’t heard from X the week before last. Now, I know she’s occasionally gone silent when things get busy, or she’s been thrown in jail, but this time felt a little different.
We would have to go without another update this week until this email from Tod Boadkins came in at the last minute, so pardon the late post.
If you’re new to Writer X or haven’t been following her recently, X has been promoting the music career of her best friend and demon, Tryxy, to varying degrees of disaster and success. Sometimes, the two are indistinguishable.
The silence of the last week was due to a serious injury. X’s boyfriend, award-nominated fantasy writer Tod Boadkins, writes on her behalf.
Without further ado…
Subject: Hi
Hi Gladys,
I’m not sure you heard the news after the lightning storms of this last week, but X has broken both her hands. She’s requested that I write you on her behalf. For some reason, X is convinced that if you don’t receive at least one email from her weekly, something cataclysmic could occur. You’ll receive at least one email from me on her behalf over the next 3-4 weeks as she heals lest the world crack in two.
I could use your help, namely with X and Tryxy.
They’re very close. I’ve heard a lot about BFF relationships between writers and demons.
Hemingway’s relationship with an unnamed demon summoned by absinthe and champagne is famous. The speculation about J.K. Rowling is more recent. Everyone knows about Neil Gaiman’s demon bestie Crowley, who inspired much of his work. In these examples, I note two things:
1.) The demon BFF relationship has a moral gray area that may or may not contribute to excellent writing.
2.) The relationships are examples of writers and demons who ACTUALLY get writing in as opposed to—well, we both love her, Gladys—but as opposed to what X does.
What happens when you have a young demon with a love for hot Cheetos, cats, and Lil’ Nas X and a writer with a passion for hot pink, Brandon Sanderson, and destruction? Whatever damage that can happen is mitigated by TIME. If said demon is currently enrolled full-time at Miskatonic Online University and working on their music career, and said writer is writing, there’s only so much trouble the two have the TIME to get into.
But suppose said writer writes as rarely as the solar eclipse totality we witnessed last month, and said demon is FREAKING OUT about their upcoming festival performance and unwritten songs. In that case, that leaves both with a surplus of TIME, and the sky is generally the limit to how mad things can become.
And the sky is also a terrible place to fall from. One would be lucky to fall from the sky and survive, having only broken both their hands.
I digress.
Where I need your help concerns art, time, and X and Tryxy’s latest plot.
We all know that X thinks of herself as “the next big epic fantasy writer of all time” and I am envious of this belief in oneself. As it so happens, many (but not all) of the “next big epic fantasy writers of all time” also thought this of themselves, and I fear—deep within my anxious soul—that there is a correlation between this belief and that outcome.
However, X appears challenged in understanding the correlation between actually writing and becoming the next big epic fantasy writer of all time.
Tryxy also seems similarly challenged in his own artistic pursuits. He’s had some songwriting success. Everyone knows “Ninevah Burns In My Soul” is the quintessential summer bop. And yet, now that DemonKitty is getting booked for shows, Tryxy seems to have a bit of the old once bitten/twice shy about writing enough original material to fill an hour-long show. DemonKitty is set to perform at a festival at the end of May, but they still have fewer than five songs.
Maybe “once bitten/twice shy” isn’t appropriate, as I’m not sure what he was actually bitten by. “Fear of the blank page” is better. If you’re not familiar with the phenomenon, it’s when a writer wants to write, but when they try to start, they become overwhelmed by expectations of having to write something brilliant, so they fail to start.
In fact, fear of the blank page is going around this house with all of its terrifying symptoms, including a total lapse of reason. I’m afraid I’m coming down with it, too.
With the festival clipping nearer and nothing written, X and Tryxy hatched a plan to get their hands on another time machine and jump into the future when DemonKitty is presumably successful and on world tour. Then, they could watch Future DemonKitty perform and know what songs to write.
People who are new to writing and haven’t written at all tend to place a great deal of weight on ideas. They believe that great writing consists of great ideas and fail to understand that writing is simply a craft like table making but with words. Ideas don’t make stories; the act of story writing develops ideas.
To build a table, you have to show up and do the work. That’s where the genius happens. It’s no different for writing. Sure, ideas are a part of it, but they’re a small part. You can’t wait for inspiration to write; if it strikes, you won’t have the craft to make it come together and truly develop it.
Writing under the auspices of inspiration is likened to being struck by lightning. You can’t wait for lightning to strike; you have to go out day by day, climb the lightning rod, and wave down the lightning.
Which leads us to X’s injuries. The librarians won’t loan Tryxy the time machine as the last one he borrowed is in the Seine of 1789. So X and Tryxy got to ordering time machine parts online and spent the last week or so piecing a time machine together rather than actually writing. Then, they needed to power it up with a lightning strike because “that’s what the movie clearly said” and…
Lightning struck.
While X had shimmied to the top of the lightning rod on the town clock tower. And while the lightning struck a quarter mile away, the sonic boom gave X a good startle and she went rolling off the lightning rod and slid down the roof, over the gutters, and plunged headfirst into a dogwood tree, breaking both metacarpals.
But we still have this damned time machine and two artists, one who actually has a valid excuse for not writing for the first time in her life and the other who has invested two weeks into solving his problems with time travel and is knee-deep in sunk cost fallacy.
Now they’re talking of using the ghost time machine to first travel back in time and prevent X from falling off the roof, and then forward in time to DemonKitty’s first world tour.
And X’s casts are itching her so badly that I’m starting to think I should let them.
I should go. I have to get X some dinner, and then I’m off to a weekly meeting with the Ink Black Coffee Club Critique Group. Following that, I’m going to pop in and say hi to Ursula Le Guin.
Regards,
TB
P.S. X wants to say something to you and insists on typing it with her tongue. Gah. This is her from her writing from here out.
i t’s f i ne ga ldsy
w et key boar d
P.P.S. Not to mention, how can you ever become famous in the future if you never write in the present? God, this keyboard is GROSS.
CrimeFest, a British crime fiction convention in Bristol, presented the 2024 CrimeFest Awards on May 11 16. These prizes “honour the best crime books released in 2023 in the UK.”
SPECSAVERS DEBUT CRIME NOVEL AWARD
In association with headline sponsor, the Specsavers Debut Crime Novel Award is for debut authors first published in the United Kingdom in 2023. The winning author receives a £1,000 prize.
Death Under a Little Sky by Stig Abell (Hemlock Press/HarperCollins)
H.R.F. KEATING AWARD
The H.R.F. Keating Award is for the best biographical or critical book related to crime fiction first published in the United Kingdom in 2023. The award is named after H.R.F. ‘Harry’ Keating, one of Britain’s most esteemed crime novelists, crime reviewers and writer of books about crime fiction.
The Secret Life of John Le Carré by Adam Sisman (Profile Books)
LAST LAUGH AWARD
The Last Laugh Award is for the best humorous crime novel first published in the United Kingdom in 2023.
The Secret Hours by Mick Herron (Baskerville)
eDUNNIT AWARD
For the best crime fiction ebook first published in both hardcopy and in electronic format in the United Kingdom in 2023.
Prom Mom by Laura Lippman (Faber & Faber)
BEST CRIME FICTION NOVEL FOR CHILDREN
This award is for the best crime novel for children (aged 8-12) first published in the United Kingdom in 2023.
The Lizzie and Belle Mysteries: Portraits and Poison by J.T. Williams (illustrated by Simone Douglas) (Farshore)
BEST CRIME FICTION NOVEL FOR YOUNG ADULTS
This award is for the best crime novel for young adults (aged 12-16) first published in the United Kingdom in 2023.
Stateless by Elizabeth Wein (Bloomsbury YA)
THALIA PROCTOR MEMORIAL AWARD FOR BEST ADAPTED TV CRIME DRAMA
This award is for the best television crime drama based on a book, and first screened in the UK in 2023.
Slow Horses (series 3), based on the Slough House books by Mick Herron (Apple)
The recipients of the Premio Vegetti for 2024 were announced April 20, chosen by the members of World SF Italia.
World SF Italia, Italy’s professional association for sff writers, is a vestige of the World SF organization once led by Harry Harrison. The award is their counterpart to the Nebula.
The members of the award jury for each category are shown below.
ROMANZO DI FANTASCIENZA / SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL
Winner:I giganti immortali by Stefano Carducci, Alessandro Fambrini and Ugo Malaguti (Elara, 2022)
Finalists
Daimones by Giancarlo Giuliani (Tabula Fati, 2022)
Eva dei sette mondi by Max Gobbo (Elara, 2023)
Jury: Matteo Vegetti (President), Jurors: N. Catellani, F. Conforti, R. Del Piano
SAGGIO DI FANTASCIENZA / SCIENCE FICTION ESSAY
Winner: Mondi sotterranei by Franco Piccinini (Scudo, 2023)
Finalists
Astronavi. Le storie dei vascelli spaziali nella narrativa e nel cinema by Michele Tetro and Roberto Azzara (Odoya, 2022)
Batman. Le origini, il mito by Riccardo Rosati and Renzo Giorgetti (Tabula Fati, 2022)
Fantascienza, un genere (femminile) by Laura Coci (Delos Digital, 2023)
Gli scrittori di Urania by Davide Arecco, Roberto Chiavini, Luca Ortino and Franco Piccinini (Profondo Rosso 2022)
Jury: Matteo Vegetti (Preisdent). Jurors: T. Bologna, A. M. Bonavoglia, G. Miserville
ANTOLOGIA DI FANTASCIENZA / SCIENCE FICTION ANTHOLOGY
Winner:Venezia Sci-Fi edited by Piero Giorgi (Scudo, 2023)
Finalists
Slava Ukraïni! 9 penne contro l’Orco edited by Pierfrancesco Prosperi (Tabula Fati, 2022)
Tempesta dal nulla edited by Luca Ortino and Carmine Treanni (Delos Digital, 2023)
Jury: Matteo Vegetti (President). Jurors: F. Calabrese, B. de Filippis, F. Radogna
RACCONTO DI FANTASCIENZA / SCIENCE FICTION STORY
Winner: Attenti al lupo by Sandra Moretti (World SF Italia Magazine n. 6, Scudo, 2023)
Finalists
Ammazzate Dino Da Ponza by A.M. Miglieruolo and L. Ortino (World SF Italia Magazine n. 6, Ed. Scudo, 2023)
I bei tempi andati by Franco Piccinini (Tempesta dal nulla, Ed. Delos Digital, 2023)
Il cucciolo by Daniela Piegai (Robot 97, Ed. Delos Digital, 2023)
Psicosfera per Solaris by Carlo Menzinger (IF n°28, Ed. Odoya, 2022)
Terraforming by Emanuele Manco (Trinacria Station, Ed. Delos Digital, 2022)
Jury: Matteo Vegetti (President) Jurors: C. F. Dozière, E. Gastaldi, E. G. Venanzoni
…So, Thomas More and Peter Gillis are in this private home, avoiding actual work. They enjoy many free-wheeling, private, intellectual discussions, which are all about law, and justice, and business, and economics, and politics, and the general state of the world.
These two intellectuals agree that the state of the world is pretty terrible. Clearly the real world is quite bad, it’s not a Utopia at all. In fact the first part of the book “Utopia” is pretty much all dystopia. It’s about how bad things are in Europe, and it’s rather realistic too — these are grim assessments.
So, Thomas More and Peter Gillis, while discussing the world together, decide to invent this wandering scholar named Raphael Hythlodaeus. The wise and learned Raphael can speak Latin and Greek, just like they do — but Raphael has been to a country where everything works.
Peter Gillis even invents a Utopian alphabet, and he writes some poetry in the language of Utopia — just to demonstrate that he can play this fun Utopian game with his guest Thomas More.
Peter Gillis is willing to cooperate. He even pretends to personally introduce Thomas More to Raphael Hythlodaeus.
In the book, Raphael appears, and he starts talking. He recites the entire story of Utopia. Raphael speaks the book “Utopia,” aloud. It’s 30,000 words of text, so Raphael recites this book in one long afternoon. It’s a three and a half hour lecture, and Thomas More writes it all down.
However, it’s somehow not boring. It’s a brilliant, world-class lecture, because Raphael Hythlodaeus is quite an amazing guy. Raphael doesn’t look rich or famous. Basically, he looks like a sailor. He’s got a long beard, and he’s kind of weatherbeaten. He’s a long-haired wanderer in beat-up old clothes…
(2) WHO FELL? [Item by SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie.] BBC Radio 4 has aired a dramatisation of a mid-twentieth century classic The Man Who Fell to Earth (1963) by Walter Tevis. This was made famous beyond the SF book-reading community with the 1976 UK film starring starman David Bowie as the man himself from a dying world who comes to Earth for help and who uses his knowledge to create a techno-industry to fund his own space mission home, but whom the authorities rumble and capture…
This 1-hour radio play co-stars Doctor Who’s northern incarnation, Christopher Eccleston (also known for the apocalyptic 28 Days Later and a bit-part in the US series Heroes among much else) as Bryce. Harry Treadaway stars as Thomas Newton.
Prior to the radio play there was a separate introductory programme that most interestingly includes an audio clip of an interview with Tevis himself. This reveals that the story is as much about alcoholism: a man struggling to cope in a strange, hostile world, separated from his family.
“The Man Who Fell to Earth by American writer Walter Tevis was published in 1963. Unlike most sci-fi of its time, it’s not about space, far-off galaxies or a distant future, but set only a decade or so from the time of writing.”
I was unaware that a few years later Tevis modified the novel to include a reference to ‘Watergate’ but that (apparently (I’ve not read it)) this was unnecessary for the core of the story. Here’s the BBC descriptor for the play…
“The classic novel that spawned the acclaimed film starring David Bowie, from the writer of The Queen’s Gambit and The Hustler.
An alien arrives in Kentucky with five years to save the handful of survivors of his dying planet, and to save humanity from itself. Calling himself Thomas Newton, his plan is to use his race’s advanced technology to make millions, and then build a spaceship to bring the last of his people to live on Earth.
But Newton begins to doubt his purpose, and finds himself unable to cope with the emotional weight of being human. He finds solace with two fellow outsiders – cheery functioning alcoholic Betty-Jo, who falls quietly in love with him, and widowed scientist Nathan Bryce, who tracks him down after recognising his tech as impossible.
Little do they realise that the Government are watching…”
The Ibero-American Animation Quirino Awards closed its seventh edition with the awards ceremony on Saturday. Streamed worldwide, the Tenerife event was swept by animation from Spain, which won five of the 10 awards….
7th Quirino Awards Winners
Best Feature Film – Robot Dreams by Pablo Berger. Arcadia Motion Pictures, Lokiz Films, Noodles Prod., Les films du Worso (Spain, France).
Best Series – Jasmine & Jambo – Season 2 by Sílvia Cortés. Teidees Audiovisuals, Corporació Catalana de Mitjans Audiovisuals, with the participation of IB3 (Televisió de les illes Balears), Institut Català de les Empreses Culturals (Spain).
Best Short Film –Lulina and the Moo by Marcus Vinicius Vasconcelos and Alois Di Leo. Estudio Teremim (Brazil).
Best Animation School Short Film – The Leak by Paola Cubillos. KASK & Conservatorium Hogeschool Gent, Vrije Universiteit Brussels (Belgium, Colombia).
Best Commissioned Animation – In the Stars by Gabriel Osorio. Punkrobot Studio, Lucasfilm (Chile, US).
Best Music Video – SIAMÉS “All the Best” by Pablo Roldán. Rudo Company (Argentina).
Best Video Game Animation – The Many Pieces of Mr Coo directed by Nacho Rodríguez. Developed by Gammera Nest (Spain).
Best Visual Development – Sultana’s Dream by Isabel Herguera. Abano Producións, El Gatoverde Producciones, UniKo Estudio Creativo, Sultana Films, Fabian&Fred (Spain, Germany).
Best Animation Design –Cold Soup by Marta Monteiro. Animais AVPL, La Clairière Ouest (Portugal, France).
Best Sound Design and Original Music – Robot Dreams by Pablo Berger. Arcadia Motion Pictures, Lokiz Films, Noodles Production, Les films du Worso (Spain, France).
This talk is hosted by the fantastic Dr. David “Spottacus” Benaron! Spottacus is an inventor, entrepreneur, biochemist, a founding editorial board member of the Journal of Biomedical Optics, and a former professor at Stanford University. Among his achievements are the invention of the green light heart sensor, the first in vivo imaging of light-emitting genes, and the multispectral wearable optical sensor for tracking hemoglobin and hydration levels. Last year, Spottacus won a lifetime achievement award in biomedical optical physics from the International Society for Optics and Photonics. Spottacus is also a furry; a member of a community based upon the appreciation of anthropomorphic animals, featuring all kinds of creative self-expression. While furry has long been the target of misinterpretation and vitriol, folks like Spottacus show that fandom engagement and living outside the box can be boons rather than limitations. Spottacus’ talk explores his personal experiences with; as well as the intersections between; his career in STEM, the furry fandom, and neurodivergence.
Celebrity astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson has never been shy about expressing his opinion about movies on X/Twitter — and, specifically, weighing in as to whether they got the scientific elements right or not. On a recent episode of his show StarTalk, meanwhile, he decided to actually share a detailed list of the sci-fi movies that he thinks are the best of the best, detailing what they got right, what they missed the mark on, and why some of them are so good that they deserve a “hall pass” for any errors….
These are two of the films on his list:
The Martian (2015): Tyson describes this one, starring Matt Damon as an astronaut who gets stranded on Mars, as “the most scientifically accurate movie I’ve ever witnessed.”
The Blob (1958): Reaching deep into the past for this one, Tyson gives this old-school creature feature high marks because of the way it imagines aliens looking amoeba-like — totally different, in other words, from almost every other movie in which you see an alien depicted as something like a little green man.
(7) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY.
[Written by Paul Weimer.]
Born May 13, 1937 – Roger Zelazny. (Died 1995.)
By Paul Weimer: The author that got me into Science Fiction and Fantasy? Maybe. My first science fiction and fantasy was Asimov (I,Robot), Bradbury (The Martian Chronicles) and Tolkien (The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings). But it was Roger Zelazny who really made it stick. Sure, I read more of Asimov, and I tried to read The Silmarillion and failed, but it was reading Nine Princes in Amber and its sequels that really convinced me to get on the endless road through shadow to seek out other science fiction and fantasy.
It is ironic that for a writer best known for his short stories that I started with, and for a while stuck with, Zelazny’s novels. After Amber came Jack of Shadows, Deus Irae, Dilvish the Damned, Lord of Light and others.
Roger Zelazny
If I had to point a single novel at a reader for Zelazny, I would go with Jack of Shadows. Jack of Shadows does a lot of things that the second Amber series tries to do (and not always successfully) . And I have mentioned before and elsewhere science fantasy IS my jam. How can I resist a novel where the dayside of the Earth is run on science, and the darkside is run on magic?
It took me a while to actually find and delve into the short fiction that everyone had raved about. The Last Defender of Camelot was the first collection of his I read, and then I started hunting his stories in “Best of” collections and other anthologies, and started filling in hjs oeuvre and trying to read all of his work.
This is a process that continues to this day.
Reading the NESFA collections of Roger Zelazny, which I have been reviewing here at File 770, I have realized how much of the Zelazny stories I have missed, and how much, for even the author that got me into SF and Fantasy, I still have a lot to learn about. My love for Roger Zelazny and his work is a lifelong journey. I suppose in theory there will come a day where I can say I have read all of Zelazny’s work. Someday.
There are always surprises. I remember reading and liking a story in an old anthology of “best stories” that, much to my surprise, I only recently learned was a Zelazny story. (“The Game of Blood and Dust”). Zelazny continues to delight me.
But why do I like Zelazny’s work in the first place? Even long before I picked up a camera, I’ve always been interested in imagery, in capturing moments. Zelazny captures these moments, that imagery, those scenes that resonate in my mind. Those moments captured, that lovely writing demands my attention. From Corwin walking down the stairs to Rebma, to Jack coming back from the death at the eastern pole of the world, to the Tristan and Isolde imagery of The Dream Master, to Hellwell in Lord of Light. And on, and on, and on.
And such well drawn characters in often very limited space. They are often driven, and yes, the women very often have green eyes and red hair. (Zelazny had a type, you see) but I see that as feature, not bug. And yes, too many of them smoked, and that helped take him from us way way too soon. I never got to meet him, much to my sorrow. (He, Pratchett and Banks are three of my regrets in that regard). Dilvish the Damned, particularly comes across as a character we learn in bursts, in small bits of backstory and worldbuilding. (Also a lot of Zelazny’s characters are driven, almost to obsession. They are passionate and seize things by the horns, and sometimes get the horns as a result.
But, finally, what other SFF author has written properties that I’ve mined and run roleplaying games out of for three decades, after all? Long live the work of Roger Zelazny.
(8) COMICS SECTION.
Nancy shows Sluggo’s dedication to reading widely.
Brendan has talked about doing some of his own stunts, during which he endured some bumps and scrapes.
We had a great stunt team, but Brendan [Fraser] is a big, tough guy, and he was younger back then. We kind of beat the crap out of him. Everybody talks about the scene when he gets hung. Usually when somebody gets hung, it’s a dummy, and that’s why they put bags over people’s heads. Brendan was always gung-ho, and he was like, “Make the noose really tight on me.” Then he decided to let his knees sag a little bit. But what he forgot is that the minute you put that much pressure on your carotid arteries, it knocks you out. We all looked, and he’s completely unconscious. It was fine, and he recovered in 10 seconds. But he woke up like, “What happened?”
The fact that a show about a devious witch has us so confused feels completely on brand. It started back in late 2021 when Marvel revealed it was working on a WandaVision spinoff series focused on Kathryn Hahn’s breakout character, Agatha Harkness. Since then, the show has had at least four publicly announced titles, with a possible fifth revealed in the most Agatha of ways. All of which (witch?) is to say, what the heck is happening?
The first title revealed back in 2021 was Agatha:House of Harkness. A few months later, at Comic-Con 2022, that was changed to Agatha: Coven of Chaos. A year or so after that, it became Agatha: Darkhold Diaries. Finally, earlier this year, it became just plain Agatha. You’d imagine it couldn’t change again (unless, of course, Marvel finally goes with the always-best choice Agatha All Along) but that may not be the case. Monday morning, the official Marvel Studios account tweeted a new Agatha title which was deleted only minutes later. The title was Agatha: The Lying Witch With Great Wardrobe….
…Potential applications of space-mined material abound: Asteroids contain metals like platinum and cobalt, which are used in electronics and electric vehicle batteries, respectively. Although there are plenty of these materials on Earth, they can be more concentrated on asteroids than mountainsides, making them easier to scrape out. And scraping in space, advocates say, could cut down on the damaging impacts that mining has on this planet. Space-resource advocates also want to explore the potential of other substances. What if space ice could be used for spacecraft and rocket propellant? Space dirt for housing structures for astronauts and radiation shielding?…
… To further the company’s goals, AstroForge’s initial mission was loaded with simulated asteroid material and a refinery system designed to extract platinum from the simulant, to show that metal-processing could happen in space.
Things didn’t go exactly as planned. After the small craft got to orbit, it was hard to identify and communicate with among the dozens of other newly launched satellites. The solar panels, which provide the spacecraft with power, wouldn’t deploy at first. And the satellite was initially beset with a wobble that prevented communication. They have not been able to do the simulated extraction.
The company will soon embark on a second mission, with a different goal: to slingshot to an asteroid and take a picture — a surveying project which may help the company understand which valuable materials exist on a particular asteroid….
(12) TO AIR IS HUMAN. [Item by SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie.] This Earth-like exoplanet is the first confirmed to have an atmosphere. “‘Milestone’ discovery as JWST confirms atmosphere on an Earth-like exoplanet” in Nature. This is an important milestone in exo-planet astronomy. 55 Cancri e is too hot to support life as we know it, but could provide clues about Earth’s formation.
Astronomers say that they have used the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to detect for the first time an atmosphere surrounding a rocky planet outside the Solar System1. Although this planet cannot support life as we know it, in part because it is probably covered by a magma ocean, scientists might learn something from it about the early history of Earth — which is also a rocky planet and was once molten.
Finding a gaseous envelope around an Earth-like planet is a big milestone in exoplanet research, says Sara Seager, a planetary scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge who was not involved with the research. Earth’s thin atmosphere is crucial for sustaining life, and being able to spot atmospheres on similar terrestrial planets is an important step in the search for life beyond the Solar System.
Primary research here (abstract only as rest is behind a pay wall).
(13) VIDEO OF THE DAY. [Item by SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie.] Moid Moidelhoff over at the Media Death Cult YouTube channel has had a look at a book by Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle, who was married to the Duke William Cavendish. One of her books inspired Alan Moore…
[Thanks to Teddy Harvia, Kathy Sullivan, Mike Kennedy, Andrew Porter, John King Tarpinian, Chris Barkley, Cat Eldridge, SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, and Steven French for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Cat Eldridge.]
The Ten Percent Thief— Lavanya Lakshminarayan (Solaris)
In Ascension— Martin MacInnes (Atlantic Books)
The Mountain in the Sea— Ray Nayler (Weidenfeld & Nicholson)
Some Desperate Glory — Emily Tesh (Orbit)
Corey Fah Does Social Mobility— Isabel Waidner (Hamish Hamilton)
Award Director Tom Hunter said this year they received submissions from a record-breaking 50 eligible publishing imprints. This year’s winner will be announced on July 24.
The winner will receive a trophy in the form of a commemorative engraved bookend and prize money to the value of £2024.00; a tradition that sees the annual prize money rise incrementally by year from the year 2001 in memory of Sir Arthur C. Clarke.
The judging panel for the Arthur C. Clarke Award 2024 are: Dolly Garland and Stark Holborn for the British Science Fiction Association; Nic Clarke and Tom Dillon for the Science Fiction Foundation; Glyn Morgan for the SCI-FI-LONDON film festival; Dr. Andrew M. Butler represented the Arthur C. Clarke Award directors in a non-voting role as the Chair of the Judges.
By Daniel Dern. Item 10 of the May 9 Pixel Scroll, “Glimpse The Next Chapter Of Neil Gaiman And Mark Buckingham’s Groundbreaking Miracleman Saga”, brought good news for us long-time MiracleMan fans. I’ve read one or two of the issues, but decided to wait for the seven-issue run to be collected into book format, and having learned that that’s happened, have just library-reserved it.
For new-to-MiracleMan Filers looking to learn more (as in, read) about What Has Gone Before (which helps you understand the who’s-who along with what-has-gone-before), good news: everything previous (or just about) is easily available, to buy, e-buy, or e-borrow.
This article is mostly WHERE TO FIND IT. I’ll leave “about MiracleMan” info and discussions to others, his Wikipedia page, and other online info. (I’ve included a few links at the bottom, to speed that.)
A BRIEFISH DIGRESSION: HOW I FOUND OUT ABOUT MIRACLEMAN. Back in the mid-80’s, I was working at a place which had Usenet access, and was a regular (mostly reading, occasionally posting) on the rec.arts sf and comics groups, so when Eclipse Comics began printing MiracleMan in 1985 (to oversimplify a bit), I began getting it (via my still-local comics shop, The Outer Limits).
My MiracleMan stash/collection consists of the (I think) full run of the Eclipse comics (and a handful of duplicates), plus four trade paperbacks collecting them:
Miracleman Book 1: A Dream of Flying
Miracleman Book 2: The Red King Syndrome
Miracleman Book 3: Olympus
Miracleman Book 4: The Golden Age
(Plus Kimota! The Miracleman Companion, by George Khoury and Alan Moore) (Aha! I see there’s a newer – 2010/2011 vs 2001 – edition, with new material doubling the original’s 100-ish pages.)
As I’ve learned over the past few years, this doesn’t include stuff from Warrior (with MiracleMan and/or WarpSmiths and other “Miracle-verse” stuff). My remedy for that, conveniently, was e-borrowing; I don’t feel the need to get/own ’em all.
ONE BUY/BORROW TO GET (NEARLY) ‘EM ALL. Conveniently, close to the full MiracleMan opus (prior to the new Gaiman Silver Age) is available, not just in individual comics and modest-length book collections, but also in a single large volume, going under the names: Miracleman: The Original Epic and Miracleman Omnibus.
Hardcover book: MIRACLEMAN OMNIBUS. (Finding this as a physical book on Marvel.com is too complicated). Pub: Marvel Universe (October 25, 2022)? 808 pages
“Collects Miracleman Books One Through Three, complete with a massive trove of covers, original artwork and rare features. Collecting Miracleman (1985) #1, #3 and #6-16; Miracleman Special #1 and material from A1 (1989) #1 and WARRIOR #1-18 and #20-21 [as presented in Miracleman (2014) #1-16] – plus ALL-NEW MIRACLEMAN ANNUAL #1.”
This edition collects the complete original epic (A Dream of Flying, The Red King Syndrome and Olympus) — plus tales of the Warpsmiths and rare Miracleman stories! Collecting MIRACLEMAN (1985) #1, #3 and #6-16; and material from WARRIOR #1-18 and #20-21; MARVELMAN SPECIAL #1 and A1 (1989) #1 [as presented in MIRACLEMAN (2014) #1-16] – plus ALL-NEW MIRACLEMAN ANNUAL #1.
Your public library system may have a physical copy (mine does); they may also have copies of the individual volumes.
Libby (libbyapp.org by app, libbyapp.com via desktop browser) – Maybe; depends on whether your library’s eholdings include it
Given the near-identical list of contents, it’s not clear why the hardcover is >300 pages longer. Perhaps “a massive trove of covers, original artwork and rare features.”
A FEW MARVEL SINGLE-ISSUES. Here’s the ones I’m aware of:
MiracleMan #0 (Marvel)
Worth it, particular for the page of Ty Templeton’s Sunday-Funnies-style parodies: “Doomed. Buried”, “Bates In Hell”, Big Ben In Sleeplyland” and “Kimota Kat”. (Click for larger image.)
Miracleman: Marvel Tales (2023) #1. April 26, 2023
“…classic British tales from MIRACLEMAN (1985) #1, WARRIOR #1-11, MARVELMAN SPECIAL #1 and A1 (1989) #1 — restored and refreshed in the pages of MIRACLEMAN (2014) #1-4”
CAMEOS AND MORE. I’ve spotted at least two) cameos in Marvel, as in, the Marvel Comics universe (yes, I know that’s not specific enough.)
There’s one reference — MiracleMan’s MM costume logo — at the end of Timeless #1 (2021) and it feels like I saw M-Man as part of a group-of-heroes-at-a-funeral panel within the past year.
