The provisional list of finalists for the Premio Ignotus 2024 (2024 Ignotus Awards) has been announced by Spain’s Asociación Española de Fantasía, Ciencia Ficción y Terror.
The winners will be announced at Hispacón de Isla to be held November 8-10.
Novela / Best Novel
Chiaroscuro, by Elio Quiroga (Published by Dolmen Editorial)
El lugar invisible, by Lola Llatas (Published by Obscura Editorial)
Intermnemosis, by Celia Corral-Vázquez (Published by Crononauta)
Regreso a Gaozu, by Isa J. González (Published by Crononauta)
Teseo en llamas, by Beatriz Alcaná (Published by Ediciones del Viento)
Novela Corta / Best Novella
Banti, by Pablo Rodríguez (Published by Con Pluma y Píxel)
Echidna, by Beatriz Alcaná (self-published)
Piel de sapo, by Eduardo Norte (Published by Editorial Cerbero)
Puedes llamarme Espátula, by Celia Corral-Vázquez (Published by Droids & Druids)
Tras la muerte, al fin, paz, by Virginia Orive de la Rosa (Published by Editorial Cerbero)
Cuento / Best Short Story
A Halloween Ending, by Tamara López (self-published)
“Calabaza”, by Victoria F. Leffingwell (in Terrores cotidianos, self-published)
“El cubo infernal”, by Daniel Canals (in Historias Pulp nº 7: Evil Dead)
“La casa en la cima de la colina”, by Eryn Novak (on the Chica Sombra website)
“Mi Primera Ouija TM”, by Ana Saiz (in Droids & Druids nº 7: Comunicaciones)
“Prometheus”, by Martín Moreno Oliván (in Extraños mundos, self-published)
Antologia / Best Anthology / Collection
Atlas 10, by multiple authors (Published by Akane Editorial)
Huellas, by multiple authors (self-published)
Noches de Navidad, by multiple authors (Published by Duermevela)
Orgullo zombi 4, by multiple authors (self-published)
Tierra de Meigas, by Amparo Montejano (Published by Numak)
Libro de ensayo / Best related Book
Breve viaje por la España de las brujas, by Clara Dies Valls y Javier Prado Coronel (self-published)
Editoras de lo extraño, by Amparo Montejano y Jose R. Montejano (Published by Dilatando Mentes Editorial)
¡Madre mía!, by Alicia Pérez Gil (Published by Dilatando Mentes Editorial)
Mundo Zombi: El cine de muertos vivientes, by Ramón Monedero (Published by Almuzara)
Ocurrió en Texas, by Andrés R. Paredes (Published by Applehead Team)
Articulo / Best related work
“Diez cómics ideales para Halloween”, by Yago Lago (on the website Meristation)
“El Eternauta, un icono igual a Perón, Maradona o El Ché”, by Rodrigo Bastidas Pérez (on the website La rueda suelta)
“Heather Langenkamp: Guerrera del sueño”, by Manuel Lendínez Gallego (in El tren de la bruja nº 3: Especial Final Girls)
“Hopepunk: Cuando la bondad es rebeldía”, by Aitor Aráez (on the website Droids & Druids)
“Medio Siglo de posesiones”, by Tony Jiménez (on the website La rueda suelta)
Ilustración / Best Cover
Cover of Acércate, by Rafael Martín Coronel (Published by La biblioteca de Carfax)
Cover of Breve viaje por la España de las brujas, by Clara Dies Valls y Javier Prado Coronel (autoeditado)
Cover of El tren de la bruja #3: Especial Final Girls, by Juan Carlos Quesada Garrido (Published by The Horror Collector)
Cover of Mi corazón es una motosierra, by Rafael Martín Coronel (Published by La biblioteca de Carfax)
Cover of Piel de sapo, by Juan Alberto Hernández (Published by Editorial Cerbero)
Cover of Regreso a Gaozu, by Marina Vidal (Published by Crononauta)
Producción audiovisual / Audiovisual production
A grito pelao, pódcast by Chris T. Nash
Droids & Druids, pódcast by Amanda Iniesta, Elena Torró and Inés Galiano
Furia en la librería, pódcast by Carla Plumed and Inés Galiano
Los supervivientes del Indianápolis, podcast by Daniel Robles Montiel
Lumak, pódcast by Ander Mombiela and Eleazar Herrera
Tebeo / Comics
Decreepyt, by multiple authors (Published by Suseya Ediciones)
El pájaro y la serpiente, by Borja González (Published by Reservoir Books)
La taza medio llena, by Laurielle (autoeditado)
Lightbringer, by Nixarim (auteditado)
Pussy Punk, by Samir Karimo (autoeditado)
Revista / Magazine
Círculo de Lovecraft, by Amparo Montejano and José R. Montejano
Droids & Druids, by Amanda Iniesta, Inés Galiano, María Dolores Martínez and Elena Torró
Pulporama, by Rocío Stevenson and Lucina Adamzcyk
Tentacle Pulp, by Francisco Javier Giménez Carrero
Windumanoth, by Álex Sebastián, David Tourón and Víctor Blanco
Novela extranjera / Foreign Novel
Ascensión, by Nicholas Binge (Published by Minotauro and translated by Gemma Benavent)
Hermana Roja, by Mark Lawrence (Published by Red Key Books and translated by Natalia Cervera)
Las lobas, by John Ajvide Lindqvist (Published by Almuzara Libros and translated by Miguel Trujillo Fernández)
Legado de jade, by Fonda Lee (Published by Insólita Editorial and translated by Antonio Rivas)
Mi corazón es una motosierra, by Stephen Graham Jones (Published by Biblioteca de Carfax and translated by Manuel de los Reyes)
Novela Corta Extranjera / Foreign Novella
Acércate, by Sara Gran (Published by Biblioteca de Carfax and translated by María Pérez de San Román)
La imitación de exitos ya conocidos, by Malka Older (Published by Crononauta and translated by Carla Bataller Estruch y Malka Older)
Light Chaser / Cercallums, by Peter F. Hamilton y Gareth L. Powell (Published in Castillian by Red Key Books and translated by Jesús Jiménez Cañadas / Published in Catalán by Editorial Chronos and translated by Lluís Delgado)
Los Tambores del Dios Negro, by P. Djèlí Clark (Published by Obscura and translated by Raúl García Campos)
“Plegaria por la timidez de los árboles” / Pregària per als tímids com els arbres, by Becky Chambers (Published in Castillian by Crononauta in Monje y robot and translated by Carla Bataller Estruch / Published in Catalán by Mai Més and translated by Anna Llisterri)
Cuento extranjera / Foreign story
“Coiffeur 7”, by Kiran Kaur Saini (Published by Crononauta in Aanuk and translated by María Albaladejo)
“El mirador de las viudas”, by Angela Slatter (Published by Voces de lo Insólito and translated by Carla Bataller Estruch)
“El test de la coneja”, by Samantha Mills (Published by Crononauta in Aanuk and translated by María Albaladejo)
“La Marca del Diablo”, by Harriet Parr (Published by La Nave Invisible: La revista nº 1 and translated by Virginia Buedo)
“Lluvias, las justas”, by P. H. Lee (Published by Crononauta in Aanuk and translated by María Albaladejo)
Conejo maldito, by Bora Chung (Published by Alpha Decay and translated by Álvaro Trigo Maldonado)
Cuentos para Algernon: Año XI, by multiple authors (in Cuentos para Algernon and translated by Marcheto)
Gertrude M Barrows: antología de relatos. Señoras invisibles 1, by Gertrude M. Barrows (Published by Droids & Druids and translated by Inés Galiano y Mariado Martínez).
Tebeo extranjero / Foreign Comic
Cosmoknights, by Hannah Templer (Published by Astronave and translated by Laura Obradors Noguera)
Expediente Warren: La amante, by Scott Snyder and Dave Johnson (Published by ECC Ediciones)
¿Habéis oído lo que ha hecho Eddie Gein?, by Harold Schechter and Eric Powell (Published by Panini)
Night Club, by Juanan Ramírez y Mark Millar (Published by Panini)
Tragones y Mazmorras, by Ryôko Kui (Published by Milky Way and translated by Marc Bernabé)
(1) SHERYL BIRKHEAD’S FANZINE COLLECTION. [Item by Rich Lynch.] I’m sad to report that my friend Sheryl Birkhead unfortunately is now in the midst of severe vascular dementia. This is resulting in her being relocated from her house into an assisted living situation. As a result, her house (in Montgomery County, MD) will be put up for sale soon, and in the near future there will need to be a disposition of her extensive collection of fanzines, many of which are historically valuable.
So, on her behalf, I am looking for indications of interest from university libraries which have existing collections of fanzines. Sheryl’s collection will be a significant and valuable addition to one of these library collections.
If you have a contact with a university library fanzine collection curator, please pass this information on to him/her. I am the point of contact and I can be reached at [email protected]
Your assistance is appreciated in helping to preserve this valuable collection.
Frankenstein was published in three volumes on January 1, 1818, by a small London publishing house, Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor & Jones, with a small print run of 500 copies. The first edition appeared anonymously, and featured an unsigned preface by Percy Shelley, and a dedication to Mary’s father, philosopher William Godwin. Mary Shelley didn’t publicly claim her novel until four years later, when her novel was adapted into a popular play.
Bidders also fought over a first edition presentation copy of Tolkien’s 1937 The Hobbit, featuring a dust jacket — likewise the creation of Tolkien — so brilliant-bright its snow-capped mountains seem to burst out of its famously verdant landscape. Tolkien gifted this copy to dear friends, writing inside, “Charles & Dorothy Moore / from. / J.R.R.T / with love / September 1937.”
…Science is our most effective tool or process for discovering and understanding reality. It also enables us to create technologies with godlike powers. Unfortunately, this comes with the risk of placing too much trust in scientists and too much reliance on technology. The question of who gets to control and benefit most from deadly, invasive, or dehumanizing technology is a common science-fiction theme.
“When a population is dependent on a machine, they are hostages of the men who tend the machines.” — Robert A. Heinlein, “The Roads Must Roll,” 1940 short story
“Aren’t these the people who taught us how to annihilate ourselves? I tell you, my friends, science is too important to be left to the scientists.” — Carl Sagan, Contact, 1985 novel
“It has undoubtedly occurred to you, as to all thinking people of your day, that the scientists have done a particularly abominable job of dispensing the tools they have devised. Like careless and indifferent workmen they have tossed the products of their craft to gibbering apes and baboons.” — Raymond F. Jones, This Island Earth, 1952 novel
On the other hand, prominent astronomer Fred Hoyle wrote a science-fiction novel in the 1950s that contained the suggestion that scientists don’t have enough power.
“Has it ever occurred to you, Geoff, that in spite of all the changes wrought by science—by our control over inanimate energy, that is to say—we still preserve the same old social order of precedence? Politicians at the top, then the military, and the real brains at the bottom.” — Fred Hoyle, The Black Cloud, 1957 novel…
…All of the websites targeted for Fullers’ link suggestions include resource pages or otherwise offer lists of outbound links, and each suggested link is seeded across multiple recipient sites: for example, a websearch on the rain garden article yields six pages of results, with many different “student” names supposedly responsible for recommending it. The articles are, for the most part, like Nora’s: superficial but not overtly bogus, just the kind of thing that you could believe an enthusiastic young student might find helpful.
As for the sites to which the suggested links direct, in some cases they are a semi-plausible match for the articles they host (for example, an article on paper bag crafts hosted at a printing company, and an article on pickleball hosted at a playground equipment vendor), but more often it’s like the examples above: the article has zero relevance to its host, and isn’t accessible from the host menu. Many of these hosts–some of which are pretty shady-seeming–are home to multiple Fullers-recommended articles.
(5) SFF AUDIO DRAMA. [Item by SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie.] The BBC’s Radio 4 (formerly the Home Service) airs some excellent audio dramas with some solid SF in the mix. The latest such offering is The Skies Are Watching.
Heather Haskins went missing two years ago. Discovered aboard a flight without a ticket or identification, she now believes she’s a woman named Coral Goran, it’s 1938, and that she was abducted on the night of Orson Welles’ infamous</I> War of the Worlds <I>broadcast. Her family struggles to come to terms with this turn of events while searching for answers…
Episode 1 airs Friday, July 5 and can for a month be accessed here.
(6) TEDDY HARVIA CARTOON.
(7) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY.
[Written by Paul Weimer.]
July 5, 1957 — Jody Lynn Nye, 67.
By Paul Weimer. I mainly know the work of Nye as a collaborator and facilitator, working with other people’s work. Sure, she has written a slew of short stories, and several novels of her own. But when I think of her work, I don’t think of those as much as I should. Instead, I think of her work with Robert Asprin, and Anne McCaffrey.
Neither is a surprise. One of the strong arrows in Nye’s quiver is humor, and collaboration with Asprin on some of the later works in the MYTH series must have seemed natural to both of them when they decided to do it. Both engage in both broad humor and subtle wordplay, laugh out loud at the moment, and later poleaxing bits of humor as profound as they are funny. And coming in as she did late in the series, it provided a fresh infusion of ideas for the MYTH series at the time and helped extend the series into the 2000s.
Jody Lynn Nye
And then there is Anne McCaffrey. The first thing I read by Nye is not her standalone novels, or MYTH, but rather her guide to Pern. Even then, intensely interested in worldbuilding, of COURSE I had to pick this one up (it would be one of several I picked up, including one on Julian May’s Pliocene exile, the Visual Guide to Castle Amber, et cetera). I only in retrospect realized that the Nye who wrote this would be the one who collaborated with McCaffrey in the other arena McCaffrey is known more: The Ship Who Sang. That original novella, way back in the 1960’s led to Nye and McCaffrey collaborating on more stories and novels about a sentient spaceship. Nye also continued the series on her own, as did other authors like S M Stirling. (In point of fact, Nye seems to like to do that, to continue on series. She did it with MYTH and with some other series as well, extending and building them outward.
And then there is the odd collaborative/shared world Exiled Claw, which is an alternate earth where intelligent bipedal cats (think Kzinti but not as stupidly aggressive ) take on intelligent dinosaurs in a bronze age/early iron age technology verse. Nye shows off yet another arrow in her quiver in those two volumes. Pity they stopped after two volumes and not even Nye has had the opportunity to write any more. Alas!
It would be a Mythstake, indeed, to discount Nye’s work in the SFF field as “merely” being collaborative. (She also teaches at DragonCon every year, too). Collaborations and working in other people’s sandboxes is hard, not easier, than original ideas, and Nye has a talent (and clearly, a proclivity) for it.
The Far Side does not have the brightest detectives on the case.
(9) SCIENCE EXHIBITION IN LONDON. [Item by Steven French.] If anyone happens to be in London over the weekend, there’s some neat stuff going on at the Royal Society: “Summer Science Exhibition 2024”.
Discover cutting-edge research and innovation at the Royal Society’s unmissable Summer Science Exhibition, taking place from 2 – 7 July 2024, an interactive experience open to everyone with a curious mind. This is a free event and no ticket is required.
This year, visitors can get hands-on with personal brain scanners, hear real ice core samples from Antarctica, marvel at a chandelier made from a waste product, or learn how stem cells are revealing secrets of the embryo. Find out more about the 14 main exhibits and plan your visit.
DUNE, the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment, is a cutting-edge experiment developed by the international neutrino physics community to study a broad range of science, including neutrino oscillations, neutrinos from nearby supernovae, and proton decays.
The Near Detector of the experiment will be hosted by Fermilab, IL, USA, with its Far Detector 1300 km away in South Dakota at the Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF). Surprisingly, no tunnel is needed for the neutrinos to travel through because these ghostly particles pass easily through soil and rock as they rarely interact with matter. The Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility (LNBF) at Fermilab will deliver a neutrino beam of unprecedented power, which is needed for the detailed measurements DUNE is due to take of such elusive particles.
Probably the most well-known goal of the experiment is to study neutrino oscillations. This has driven the large-scale design of the experiment as neutrinos need to travel a large distance for oscillation to take place. This will help solve some fundamental questions, such as why the Universe is made of matter and not antimatter, and provide more information about the masses and nature of neutrinos….
(10) CHINA SMASH! [Item by Mike Kennedy.] Not satisfied, one supposes, with the NASA effort to redirect asteroids in the DART mission, China claims they will one up that by “smashing“ a 30-meter asteroid by 2030. (It might be noted that the smaller asteroid, (Dimorphos) of the double asteroid NASA targeted—the one actually impacted—was ~170-meters and thus much more massive than China’s target.)
China is planning to launch a spacecraft with the aim of smashing a nearby asteroid, in an impact designed to test the feasibility of protecting against any Earth-threatening asteroids like the one that killed off the dinosaurs about 66 million years ago.
Researchers outlined their plans in a recent paper published in the Journal of Deep Space Exploration and spotted by The Planetary Society, saying that a test mission should happen before 2030 and that an asteroid with a diameter of about 30 meters will be the target….
That led to a career in space agriculture, figuring out how to grow food on other planets. She credits time later spent living among the Kambeba, an Indigenous tribe in the Amazon rainforest she is descended from, for her conviction that it is essential that she do more than explore distant worlds. She wants to preserve this one, too.
“It’s a very conscientious topic within the world of space agriculture science,” said Gonçalves, noting that “every single piece of research that we produce must have direct benefits to Earth.”
That ideal makes her latest research particularly timely. She and a team at the Wageningen University & Research Centre for Crop System Analysis found that an ancient Maya farming technique called intercropping works surprisingly well in the dry, rocky terrain of Mars.
Their findings, published last month in the journal PLOS One, have obvious implications for the possibility of exploring or even settling that distant planet. But understanding how to grow crops in the extraordinarily harsh conditions on other planets does more than ensure those colonizing them can feed themselves. It helps those here at home continue to do the same as the world warms.
“People don’t really realize [this], because it seems far away, but actually our priority is to develop this for the benefit of Earth,” said Gonçalves. “Earth is beautiful, and it’s unique, and it’s rare, and it’s fragile. And it needs our help.”…
Intercropping, or growing different crops in close proximity to one another to increase the size and nutritional value of yields, requires less land and water than monocropping, or the practice of continuously planting just one thing. Although common among small farmers, particularly across Latin America, Africa, and China, intercropping remains a novelty in much of the world. This is partly because of the complexity of managing such systems and largely unfounded concerns about yield loss and pest susceptibility. Modern plant breeding programs also tend to focus on individual species and a general trend toward less diversity in the field….
[Thanks to Steven French, Teddy Harvia, Kathy Sullivan, Rich Lynch, Mike Kennedy, Andrew Porter, John King Tarpinian, Chris Barkley, Cat Eldridge, and SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Cat Eldridge.]
EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION: This third reprint from Journey Planet’s “Be the Change” issue defines five problems with Worldcon governance and proposes solutions for each, addressing the WSFS, the Worldcon’s service marks, the Hugo Awards and the Business Meeting.
By Randall Shepherd: I went to my first Worldcon when I was 17. I’d been to my first science fiction convention when I was 14. From a tiny advertisement in one of the science fiction magazines, I saw the ad for the World Science Fiction Convention coming to my town. I was over the moon to find out there was a “world” version of the SF conventions!
I still love the idea of fans from across the globe gathering to celebrate the genre with programs, panels, events, parties, friendships made and renewed at our annual convention and the Hugo Awards!
I’ve chaired a Worldcon, vice-chaired one, chair-advised a few times, been a Division Head, along with being involved with the Hugo Awards multiple times.
When the 2023 Hugo Awards scandal hit, I shared the outrage so many fans felt at the unfolding disastrous responses launched on the internet. We simply cannot move forward by putting a bandaid on the problem and hoping that we are not hit with a future crisis. Bold reforms need to be made. Below I outline several problems along with proposed solutions. My original ideas were modified after speaking with a couple of Hugo-winning professionals, several past and future Worldcon chairs, and some fans that care deeply.
The solutions below are not set in stone and very open to being modified. That said, efforts to weaken them will not be welcome. I think a consensus needs to be developed to make multiple changes to better the World Science Fiction Society. The Society needs to take action to be trustworthy, transparent, and inclusive of all parts of the community.
What will be welcome are suggestions to improve the solutions and add others to the mix. I, after getting feedback from original advisors and the readers of Journey Planet, will file final versions to be on the agenda for the Business Meeting in Glasgow. I’m looking for a broad series of improvements to be voted on as a complete package. Even if someone has qualms about parts of the solutions, a willingness to find consensus in the proposals will, I believe, create a chance at wide, effective reform.
Solutions for a Clearer, Friendlier, Trustworthy WSFS and Hugo Awards
1. Problem: There is no official voice of the World Science Fiction Society.
We cannot have a future incident where a prior year’s Hugo Administrator, Chair of the Mark Protection committee, or any other staff member is acting or even appearing to act on behalf of the Society. There needs to be a designated date for the official handover of power. While there is a handoff at closing ceremonies, this is truly only for show, and a hard demarcation of power is not established.
Solution: There needs to be an official hand off on a specific date. Possible dates are: the official close of a Worldcon; December 31st in the year a Worldcon is held; January 1 of the year following; or January 31st (or whenever Hugo nominations close), as that date marks the end of the activity of a member of the Society from the prior year.
All staff of each Worldcon should be put under a duty to not speak about or on behalf of the Society, and all communications should professionally be handled by the committee in charge of the next Worldcon.
Enforcing the duty won’t be easy, but it should still be known and in place. It would be good if the inside view of last year’s Hugo Administration Subcommittee’s emails weren’t just in journalists’ hands, but also available to the Society on demand from the committee in charge.
The primary value of this change is to not have half-cocked idiots or evil doers enraging, insulting, and harming the community.
2. Problem: There is no licensing agreement between a Worldcon and the Society to use the service marks for Worldcon and the Hugo Awards.
Ridiculous. Fraught with peril and legally stupid.
Solution: Under the current rules, when a bid files to be on the ballot, the bidder must provide several things, including: proof of a contract showing they have the facilities to hold a Worldcon, and evidence that they have rules in place to replace the Chair if needed. They take on the constitutional requirement to hold a Business Meeting, see to site selection, and administer the Hugo Awards.
Part of getting on the ballot needs to be the mandatory condition of an executed licensing agreement. Spoiler alert: the mechanism of agreeing to particular behaviors/obligations in order to be validly on the ballot will be used for other solutions suggested in this document.
3. Problem: Hugo Administrators use their own private software that no one else can see the code or test the software.
Horrible that this has been allowed to happen four times!
Solution: As part of getting on the ballot, a Worldcon bid must agree to use the Society’s standard Hugo software. This software will be publicly viewable and testable. Chris Rose’s Hugo counting software appears to be set for use by the next several Worldcons. His software is available to examine on Github. He has invited testing and asked for datasets.[1]
Software needs change over time as technological advances are made. To enable the software to be alive and improvable, a standing committee could be formed that evaluates and sets out the official software for each year. Such a committee might be created like the Mark Protection Committee: each Worldcon appoints a member of the committee. I’d add that the members of the committee should then select a few others to be members of this committee. Year to year adjustments may be made, and all without the business meeting’s slow two years to change model. Use of the Society’s counting software would be mandatory.
4. Problem: The Hugo awards do not need another scandal.
Let’s bring sunshine to dark places. The Constitution as currently written allows for a Hugo Subcommittee, but delegating all authority over the Hugos to it is not mandatory.
Solution: The least invasive change is to remain with the Worldcon in charge of creating the Hugo Administration Subcommittee. This should be mandatory, as currently the creation of such a subcommittee is not mandatory. Each Worldcon must name a Hugo Administration Subcommittee with all authority delegated to it.
Further, each subcommittee must include oversight members that are NOT appointed by the Worldcon. Independent members of the committee who are selected by outside bodies guarantees a high degree of transparency. This will allow honest eyes inside the Hugo Administration Subcommittee. I suggest five oversight members. For example, I’d ask SFWA and ASFA to appoint representatives to the independent oversight. The creators honored each year by the Hugo Awards deserve to have a level of involvement that ensures the Hugo Awards retain integrity.
I am wide open to a mechanism for selecting oversight members. This method must be rigorous in adding other voices from the worldwide community of fans. There can be no failure in diversity.
5. Problem: I just want to go on vacation, see/make friends, attend programs and events, etc. I do not want to go to a business meeting several hours every morning.
It is almost like some people designed it to be inconvenient so you didn’t drop in and mess up the “fun”. “Hey wait, what do you mean they are sending that item to a committee for study…is it going to come up again?”
Well, Virginia there is a good chance the answer is no.
Solution: This conversation is too big for this space, but an effort has to be made to make the Business Meeting less of an intrusive time-suck that dissuades involvement. Maybe require anything sent to a committee for study to report back the next year, and if suggested changes are not acceptable to the maker of the motion, then it goes up for vote unaltered? We should be better than simply killing things in a subcommittee.
I’ve seen proposals floated in recent months to have the Business Meeting pass changes the first year, but rather than the current model of next year’s meeting passing it again, we have the Society as a whole vote on it. One hopes this would be done electronically. The involvement of the Society as a whole appeals to me. What does not appeal are suggestions for sunset provisions or re-ratification votes a few years after passing. These maneuvers always smack of a sneaky second bite at the apple of killing an idea after the spotlight is off an issue.
Summary: If future Worldcons do not comply with a final version of the solutions to problems 1-4 then their license and authority to carry out constitutionally-required acts will be pulled and conducted by the next seated Worldcon.
I’m open to suggestions to improve the proposed solutions, but they must still provide the transparency and required behavior that will make all members of the community confident of the World Science Fiction Society acting well and without scandal.
(1) JULY 4, 1939: Julius Schwartz ditched the last day of the first World Science Fiction Convention and went with Mort Weisinger and Otto Binder to see a ballgame at Yankee Stadium. Here’s what happened next: “On This Day In History 7/4”.
Three AWOL Worldcon members were in Yankee Stadium when this picture was taken.
… Steven L Sears, writer and co-executive producer: …People called Xena a sword and sorcery show, even though our universe had swords but no magic. There were mythological creatures and entities with powers, but those powers had restrictions. Most of the gods echoed the pettiness of mankind, with all their egos and desires.
Back then, the studio was very hesitant about suggesting Xena and Gabrielle were in a romantic relationship. They even objected to a moment in the title sequence where Xena is seen walking seductively towards the warlord Draco, because he was shot from the back and had long hair, so could be mistaken for a woman. But as time went on, they decided to look the other way and just let us get on with it. Somebody once asked me if Xena and Gabrielle ever had sex. I said: “It’s none of my damn business. They do social and domestic duties together, they have fought for each other and died for each other. If you’re defining the relationship just on sex, you’re really missing the whole point.”…
It was 1976 when Kiran Shah saw the advert that would change his life. “It was a sci-fi film looking for a little guy,” he says. Shah turned up at Elstree Studios in Hertfordshire and was introduced to a nervous young man named George Lucas. “He said: ‘Can you get in that dustbin thing?’ I was a bit too tall for it but I got in, they put the lid on, and he said: ‘Can you look left, look right?’” Shah didn’t realise he was auditioning for the role of R2-D2 in Star Wars. He didn’t get the job – it went to Kenny Baker – but Lucas’s casting director liked Shah, and got him an agent, which set him on the path of an almost 50-year career as “the world’s shortest stuntman”…
There are very few blockbusters Shah has not been in. You might not recognise him – he is often doubling for another character or he’s disguised under prosthetics as a mythical creature. But he has played more Star Wars characters than he can count, doubled for every hobbit in The Lord of the Rings movies, did Christopher Reeve’s stunts in the Superman movies, and played every single child in Titanic (which is even more impressive given that he can’t swim)….
Image Engine shared a VFX breakdown reel and case study for its work contributing 137 shots to Netflix’s sci-fi drama, 3 Body Problem. The studio’s attention to detail, from replicating the vastness of the Neutrino Observatory to breathing life into a photoreal chimpanzee animation, resulted in a world of remarkable visuals.
Beginning with the first episode, the studio’s craft is on display, when scientist Dr. Vera Ye enters the Cherenkov tank, walks out onto a platform, and jumps into a shallow pool of water below.
Compositing supervisor Matt Yeoman explained, “Vera’s plate element of her walking along a suspended walkway needed to be integrated into the Neutrino Observatory, which was a full CG environment render. The main objective of this shot was to create a sense of scale for her very unique and mysterious surroundings.”…
(5) OCTOTHORPE. In Episode 113 of Octothorpe, “I Realised Too Late What I Had Done” John Coxon, Alison Scott, and Liz Batty discuss a variety of things, “including but not limited to: the country of Sweden; haggises; the processing of peaches; listener statistics; the way that Los Angeles is gearing up for the Olympics; and Scrabble. We also discuss something called a ‘Worldcon’, in a first for us.” An uncorrected transcript is available here.
Doctor Whois making its way to the stage for the first time in over 20 years. Last performed live in 1989, the Doctor will be appearing in front of a live audience in celebration of 25 years of audio adventures by Big Finish Productions. The live show will see Paul McGann’s Eighth Doctor in a new live-recorded audio drama, titled “The Stuff of Legend,” written by Robert Valentine and directed by Barnaby Edwards. McGann will star alongside India Fisher as his companion Charley Pollard, who’s been around since the beginning of Big Finish’s Doctor Who dramas, in this exciting new venture for the Whoniverse. McGann and Fisher will be joined on stage by Alex Macqueen as theMaster — who featured in the Eighth Doctor Adventures series Dark Eyes — and Nicholas Briggs as the voice of the Daleks.
The drama will be performed live to audiences for one night only, at London’s Cadogan Hall on Saturday, September 14, 2024, with a studio version of the same story releasing on the same day. Although this is not the first time that Doctor Whohas been performed to a live audience, it is the very first time that one of the show’s audio plays will be performed on stage. The announcement comes just weeks after the end of Season 1 of Doctor Who’s Disney revamp, which saw Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor and Millie Gibson’s companion Ruby Sunday face off against classic Who villain Sutekh (Gabriel Woolf)….
Whovians and theatre fans, did you spot some familiar faces in this season of Doctor Who? The 14th season of Doctor Who has just concluded on Disney+, and a few Broadway stars made guest appearances. The BBC staple, which has been running for over 60 years, has always had a rich relationship with the stage.
Many stars and guest stars of Doctor Who have connections to the theatre, including The First Doctor, William Hartnel, who was a prolific Shakespearean actor before ever stepping into the TARDIS. The 10th (and 14th) Doctor (played by David Tennant, who has been in countless theatrical productions) once landed his TARDIS inside The Globe to fight off witches with Shakespeare himself. That episode was filmed at Shakespeare’s Globe in London—where the current 15th Doctor, played by Ncuti Gatwa, starred as Demetrius in A Midsummer Night’s Dream in 2016….
…Umberto Rossi’s ‘From Soft Totalitarianism to TV: Philip Kindred Dick and The Tube,’ was of course an enlightening read. I am aware that David Gill believes Rossi’s writing on PKD to be some of, if not the most important analysis of the work. I admit I am late to get to his work, but this is an excellent piece. I also had the weird experience of reading Rossi writing about the bible hypertext in The Divine Invasion while a woman on the plane (I was taking to the PKD fest) was reading the bible on her phone….
(9) ROBERT TOWNE (1935-2024). Best known for his Oscar-winning Chinatown screenplay, Robert Towne died July 1 at the age of 89. There’s some genre work among the credits listed in Deadline’s tribute.
…Towne also earned BAFTA, Golden Globe and WGA awards for Chinatown, the L.A.-set 1974 thriller starring Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway. It was one of three Writers Guild Awards he won during his career, along with Shampoo and the drama series Mad Men, on which he was a consulting producer during the final seventh season. He also was nominated for The Last Detail (1973) and Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes (1985). He was honored with the guild’s Laurel Award for Screenwriting Achievement in 1997.
Born on November 23, 1934, Towne got his start with his screenplay for 1960’s Last Woman on Earth before writing for … early-’60s TV series The Outer Limits, [and] The Man from U.N.C.L.E.He went on to work with Roger Corman on films including The Tomb of Ligeia (1964)…
During the 1970s, Towne also did script-doctor work on Beatty’s directorial debut Heaven Can Wait.
Towne … wrote the screenplay for the 1984 Tarzan tale Greystoke, starring Christopher Lambert, with an eye to direct. But the poor financial showing of Personal Best led Warner Bros to hand the helming reins to Hugh Hudson, who was hot off Best Picture Oscar winner Chariots of Fire.
Towne was angered by the move and had his name taken off the Greystoke screenplay — opting instead to credit the script to P.H. Vazak, his sheepdog. It went on to score an Adapted Screenplay Oscar nom for Vazak, making him the only canine ever to be so honored. It also was the first Academy Award nom for any Tarzan film….
(10) MEMORY LANE.
[Written by Cat Eldridge.]
July 4, 1996 — Independence Day film. We’re celebrating Independence Day tonight. Now not that one, but the film of that name which premiered twenty-eight years ago this coming weekend, but I thought it should be written up on this day. (Indeed, sites think it premiered today with more than a few individuals remember seeing it today.)
So let’s talk about Independence Day. It came out twenty-eight years ago. Now it’s a franchise as Independence Day Resurgence would come twenty years later. Well, a franchise unlikely to see a third film, as Independence Day Resurgence was financial failure unlike Independence Day which, well, I’ll note later.
It was directed by Roland Emmerich, written by Emmerich and Dean Devlin. Now if you think that you know Emmerich and Devlin, that’s not at all surprising as both had a major success in a genre film as Emmerich directed Stargate and Devlin co-wrote that script with Emmerich.
Ok, any Filer who has not seen should, well, skip to the rest of of the Scroll as I cannot avoid spoilers. I really can’t. SPOILERS. INCREDIBLY LARGE SPOILERS HERE.
Emmerich wanted to write an alien invasion on a massive scale rather than on the personal scale of the Fifties films, wreaking destruction those didn’t, and having the aliens hidden until they get revealed late in the film.
Each ship is fifteen miles across! And he had those ships destroy entire cities, be it New York or London, though the destruction of the White House is one of my favorite scenes in the film. President Thomas J. Whitmore, the former fighter pilot and Gulf War veteran, as played Bill Pullman, is one of the best secondary characters here.
The primary cast is Will Smith as Captain Steven Hiller, a Marine F/A-18 pilot: Jeff Goldblum as David Levinson, an all-around technological expert; and Judd Hirsch as Julius Levinson, David Levinson’s father (the character was based on one of Dean Devlin’s uncles). All are stellar in their roles. Same applies to the many other characters such as Randy Quaid as Russell Casse, an, alcoholic former fighter pilot and Vietnam War veteran insists that he was abducted by the aliens, and Brent Spiner as Dr. Brackish Okun, the scientist in charge of research at Area 51.
Now let’s talk about creating the look at the film. I can’t possible cover everything that made this film look fantastic, and one might assume that since shows like Babylon 5 were made intensively using CGI that most of this film was likewise. There over five thousand special effects shots required to make this film but and over ninety-five percent were practical in nature. That’s a lot of models, a massive number, many of which are now in collectors hands. And they fetched very nice prices.
So they built an actual White House, as Vogel Engel, effects supervisor, said in an interview, “Our pyrotechnician, the late Joe Viskocil, and our miniature supervisor Mike Joyce did a fantastic job in preparing a 15-feet wide and 5-feet high miniature of the building — basically a plaster shell attached to a metal body, with individual floors and a lot of furniture and other details on the inside.” And then they blew it up in the desert outside Vegas with the press looking on with only one chance to get it right. And they absolutely did.
A outstanding script, a fantastic cast and special effects that are still considered cutting edge according to be among the best ever done.
Next let’s talk what the critics thought. They mostly really liked it and Duane Bryge of the Hollywood Reporter is typical: “20th Century Fox’s Independence Day is a blast — a sci-fi disaster film about an alien force that attacks Earth on Fourth of July weekend. A generic juggernaut, as well as a story of appealing human dimension, Independence Day should set off box-office fireworks worldwide.”
So, want to know about well it did? Well, it didn’t cost that much to make back then, just seventy-five million. Oh, that was a good investment considering that it would go in to gross eight hundred and seventeen million. One knows that it went well over a billion with a secondary run, cassette and DVD sales, television and streaming fees.
The sequel made as I note above half as much and Emmerich blamed that largely on the absence of Will Smith who declined to take part. Emmerich stated in an interview with Collider magazine that his originally intended script in which Steven Hiller was alive during the film was “much better” and that Smith’s absence from the film forced him to use an alternative script.
Well over a century after its discovery, researchers at the University of Glasgow say they’ve used statistical modeling techniques, originally designed to analyze gravitational waves — ripples in spacetime caused by major celestial events such as two black holes merging — to suggest that the Antikythera mechanism was likely used to track the Greek lunar year.
In short, it’s a fascinating collision between modern-day science and the mysteries of an ancient artifact.
In a 2021 paper, researchers found that previously discovered and regularly spaced holes in a “calendar ring” were marked to describe the “motions of the sun, Moon, and all five planets known in antiquity and how they were displayed at the front as an ancient Greek cosmos.”
Now, in a new study published in the Oficial Journal of the British Horological Institute, University of Glasgow gravitational wave researcher Graham Woan and research associate Joseph Bayley suggest that the ring was likely perforated with 354 holes, which happens to be the number of days in a lunar year.
The researchers ruled out the possibility of it measuring a solar year.
“A ring of 360 holes is strongly disfavoured, and one of 365 holes is not plausible, given our model assumptions,” their paper reads….
(13) CLIFF NOTES. A commenter on the Daytonian in Manhattan’s post“The Cliff Dwelling – 240-243 Riverside Drive” tells us: “L. Ron Hubbard lived here 1939–40, writing — with a radically customized, continuous-feed typewriter beneath a low-glare blue lightbulb — several of his most celebrated stories before moving to Washington, DC.”
…According to The New York Times columnist Christopher Gray…, [the building’s designer Herman Lee] Meader “was intensely interested in Mayan and Aztec architecture and made regular expeditions to Chichén Itzá in the Yucatán and other sites.” Meader’s fascination with South America melded with Palmer’s terra cotta interests to create a unique design. Completed in 1914, the Cliff Dwelling was 12 stories tall and faced in orange brick. Meader lavished his Arts & Crafts style structure with Western motifs like cattle skulls, spears, and mountain lions, and Aztec- or Mayan-inspired designs….
(14) SO, YOU WRITE SF. DO YOU GET WRITERS BLOCK? [Item by SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie.] “Twelve Scientist-Endorsed Tips To Get Over Writer’s Block” in Nature gives tips to scientists facing writing block. Some of these may be transferable to fiction writers (?)….
Know thy enemy
Create routines
Clarify the message
Plan first
Eliminate the blank page
Visualise
Write out of order
Give yourself extra time
Embrace collaboration
Take the pressure off
It might get easier, but don’t expect it to get easy
Know you are not alone
(15) LOOKING FOR SOMEWHERE TO PARK. For those of you who feel your place needs more clutter, we recommend the “Optimus Prime Human-Size Statue” from the Spec Fiction Shop. Only $18,549!
[Thanks to SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Steven French, Teddy Harvia, Michael J. Walsh, Kathy Sullivan, Mike Kennedy, Andrew Porter, John King Tarpinian, Chris Barkley, and Cat Eldridge for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Ingvar.]
Named for Frank A. Munsey, publisher of the first pulp magazine, the award recognizes someone who has contributed to the betterment of the pulp community through disseminating knowledge, publishing, or other efforts to preserve and to foster interest pulp magazines.
The members of the 2024 CSFFA Hall of Fame jury were Ryah Deines, Gordon Johansen, Rebecca Lovatt, Michelle Sagara, and David Clink (chair).
CHRIS A. HADFIELD
Colonel Chris Hadfield is a renowned astronaut, business leader, and author. He commanded the International Space Station and directed companies, sharing his experiences on leadership and change management. He serves as a director and advisor to tech companies like SpaceX and Virgin Galactic.
Hadfield’s distinguished career spans over three decades with the military, NASA, and the Canadian Space Agency, during which he flew three space missions, built two space stations, and performed two spacewalks. His contributions have earned him numerous awards including the NASA Exceptional Service Medal and the Order of Canada.
He is a best-selling author of five books and a global speaker, with his TED talk garnering over 20 million views. He co-hosts the BBC series “Astronauts: Do You Have What It Takes?” and National Geographic’s “One Strange Rock” documentary series. His album, “Space Sessions: Songs from a Tin Can,” was the first to be recorded in space.
NALO HOPKINSON
Nalo Hopkinson. Photo credit: David C. Findlay, 2024
Nalo Hopkinson was born in Jamaica in 1960, then moved to Canada in 1977. In 1997 she received the Warner Aspect First Novel Award for Brown Girl in the Ring. She has published six novels, numerous short stories, and has written comics in DC’s “Sandman” universe.
She’s received the Astounding, Locus and World Fantasy Awards, Canada’s Aurora Award, the Sunburst Award for Canadian Literature of the Fantastic, and the Octavia E. Butler Memorial Award. In 2020, Science Fiction Writers of America made her its 37th Damon Knight Memorial “Grand Master” in recognition of her writing, teaching, and mentorship.
She is currently a professor in the School of Creative Writing at the University of British Columbia. Her latest novel, Blackheart Man, will be published by Simon & Schuster in August 2024, and her short story collection, “Jamaica Ginger and Other Concoctions,” will be published by Tachyon Publications in October 2024.
JO WALTON
Jo Walton. Photo credit: Ada Palmer
Jo Walton has published fifteen novels, most recently Or What You Will. She has also published three poetry collections, two essay collections and a short story collection. She won the (now named) Astounding Award for Best New Writer in 2002, the World Fantasy Award for Tooth and Claw in 2004, the Hugo and Nebula Awards for Among Others in 2012, and in 2014 both the Tiptree Award for My Real Children and the Locus Non Fiction Award for What Makes This Book So Great.
She comes from Wales but since 2002 has lived in Montreal where the food and books are much better. She blogs on Reactor, and has a podcast with Ada Palmer called Ex Urbe Ad Astra. She tends to write books that are different from each other. She also reads a lot, enjoys travel, talking about books, and eating great food. She plans to live to be ninety-nine and write a book every year.
A fundraiser to save a local bookstore has raised almost $70,000 in a matter of days.
Nikki High, founder and owner of Octavia’s Bookshelf in Pasadena, has reopened a GoFundMe campaign to raise funds for her struggling bookstore, Octavia’s Bookshelf.
In a heartfelt social media post, she revealed her heavy heart, tired soul, and months of sleepless nights, and said she needed transparency with her community….
As Nikki High explained in her GoFundMe call:
We managed to open last year to great support and lots of excitement. This past year has been some of the most rewarding and difficult times in my life.
Bookselling is a tricky animal and being a Black Women entrepreneur adds another level of hardship that I was not quite prepared for.
Being underresourced but determined, I have fought through the highs and lows of retail. I’ve made some mistakes, and I’ve learned so much. Of all the sleepless nights and hardships, it’s the community we’ve built that has kept me going and reaffirmed to me that Octavia’s Bookshelf is a space we need to keep in our community.
To be completely transparent, we need an urgent influx of cash to keep us afloat right now. The coffers are dry and the reserves are non existent. We are being faced with tremendous financial mountains to climb to get here we need to be to be sustainable and I need your help once again…
The bookstore, named for Octavia Butler, opened its doors on February 18, 2023, at 1361 North Hill Ave, in Pasadena.
(2) CORY PANSHIN Q&A. [Item by Andrew Porter.] Alexei Panshin’s widow on their collaborations together, Robert A. Heinlein, other subjects. “Interview with Cory Panshin” at One Geek’s Mind.
John Grayshaw: How did you and Alexei become writers and critics of science fiction?
We both started off as SF and fantasy readers from an early age and then as fans. Alexei has written detailed accounts of his pathway in a couple of places, but the short version is that as a teenager he began subscribing to fanzines. Then he received a typewriter as a high school graduation present and the idea struck him that he should be a writer. He started out by writing a novel which was very amateurish. (As I recall from the one time I read the manuscript, it was something like a spaceship full of librarians seeking refuge from an evil empire.) He made better progress doing book reviews for fanzines, as well as short stories, of which he wrote about twenty between 1960 and 1965.
As for me, it’s a little more complicated, since I didn’t launch right into writing the way Alexei did. When I was twelve, I started trying to write a spy novel, and only got a few pages in. I recently found that old notebook and discovered to my surprise that I’d kept adding pages on and off for the next four years before giving up entirely and launching into a science fiction story about a spaceship crew that goes astray in hyperspace and finds itself battling a jabberwock that attacks them with its eyes of flame.
That might have been the beginning and end of my abortive science fiction writing career, but that fall I started my freshman year at Harvard College, where my roommate Leslie Turek and I discovered we had a lot in common; but also that Harvard was not particularly geek-friendly, being primarily dedicated to grooming the scions of the ruling class. So instead, we found our way to the MIT Science Fiction Society, where we were quickly drafted to co-edit the MITSFS fanzine and from there got drawn into science fiction fandom.
There weren’t a lot of women in fandom at that time, so it was easy for us to get noticed. Alexei spotted me in costume at the 1966 Worldcon and we were married in 1969. Around the same time, my fellow MITSFS member Fuzzy Pink married Larry Niven, while Leslie became actively involved in convention-running and eventually chaired the 1980 Worldcon.
Except for occasional con reports and other fanzine articles, I wasn’t doing much writing in the late 60s, but once I married Alexei we discovered a mutual interest in theorizing about the nature of science fiction and began to do critical writing in collaboration….
Sally Wiener Grotta’s latest two books are Of Being Woman, a collection of feminist science fiction stories, and Daughters of Eve, a discussion workbook which uses tales of biblical matriarchs to explore the modern world. Her short fiction has appeared in anthologies and magazines such as the North Atlantic Review, DreamForge, Across the Universe: Tales of Alternative Beatles, and others.
Her previous books include Digital Imaging for Visual Artists (co-authored with Daniel Grotta), and the novels Jo Joe, which was a Jewish Book Council Network book, and The Winter Boy, which was a Locus Magazine Recommended Read. Sally is also co-curator of the Galactic Philadelphia Salon reading series. Plus she’s also an award-winning journalist and photographer who has traveled on assignment to all seven continents.
We discussed when we first met (and can’t quite figure out whether it was a third or a quarter of a century ago), how her first storytelling impulse began because she’d fall asleep while being read stories as a child, the importance of the question “what if?,” why she often finds horror difficult to read, the early experience which allowed her to have such a good relationship with editors, the story she wrote in Ursula K. Le Guin’s writing workshop which caused that Grand Master to say “what a darling monster,” when we should submit to editorial suggestions and when we should run screaming, and much more.
In the days after Paramount Global disabled mtvnews.com and mtv.com/news — removing a trove of hundreds of thousands of articles about music and pop culture from the internet — the not-for-profit Internet Archive assembled a searchable index of 460,575 web pages previously published at mtv.com/news.
You can search the MTV News archive on the organization’s Wayback Machine at this link. Prior to Internet Archive aggregating the MTV News pages into a collection, there was no way to locate articles based on search terms.
Paramount shut down the MTV News division as part of a larger round of layoffs in May 2023…
(5) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY.
[Written by Cat Eldridge.]
July 3, 1937 — Tom Stoppard, 87. I was delighted to discover that playwright Tom Stoppard has crafted far more genre than I thought, considering I all I knew he had done was Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (which is adjacent genre if not actually genre). If you’ve not seen it yet, it is quite delightful.
He scripted Brazil, which he co-authored with Terry Gilliam and Charles McKeow. Brazil was actually part of the Trilogy of Imagination, all written or co-written by Gilliam, which consisted of Time Bandits, Brazil and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen. Not my favorite of those three films by any means but certainly interesting to catch at least once I’d say.
Tom Stoppard
He also did the final Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade rewrite of Jeffrey Boam’s rewrite of Menno Meyjes’s screenplay. Now I like that film a lot but not as much as Raiders of The Lost Ark, which I consider perfect. The Suck Fairy broke her buckles when she tried to sully Raiders of The Lost Ark’s reputation recently.
He did one genre adjacent script, the adaptation of the Robert B. Parker and Raymond Chandler novel Poodle Springs for television. Chandler had completed four chapters before his death, so on the occasion of the centenary of Chandler’s birth, Parker was asked by the estate of Raymond Chandler to complete the novel. No, I’ve not read it for the same reason I don’t watch films or series off novels that I really like — I prefer the originals, thank you.
Let’s not overlook Shakespeare in Love which he co-authored with Marc Norman. Any film with Geoffrey Rush in it is certainly going to be worth seeing and if the script is written by Stoppard in some fashion as it was here, it’s likely that the dialogue is going to be stellar. It certainly is here.
He was even involved in the largest SF franchise ever as he did the dialogue polish of George Lucas’s Revenge of the Sith screenplay. Polish? Interesting phrase there.
(8) STARLOST AND FOUND. [Item by Michael Burianyk.] Any SF fan who was around in the early 70s will remember the TV series Starlost. Canadian writer Den Valdron is running a Kickstarter for his Starlost Unauthorized book which has six more days to go to reach its stretch goal. Den is a good writer (who has written unauthorized works discussing ‘Dr Who’ and ‘Lexi’) with a lot of energy and will bring a lot to understanding this little known piece of Science Fiction history in the context of Canadian cultural identity. I think the whole project is timely and is worthy of support. “Starlost Unauthorized by D.G. Valdron”.
…The thing that makes old hoaxes so frustrating is that they are hard to tease out from their actual history. Something fabricated in the 1600s made to look like it is from the 1400s can be very hard to pick out. The astronaut on the Cathedral of Salamanca is not in fact a hoax, but an approved and modern addition to the Cathedral, however it has all the earmarks of something which may provide for great confusion some 500 years from now.
Built between 1513 and 1733, the Gothic cathedral underwent restoration work in 1992. It is a generally a tradition of cathedral builders and restorers to add details or new carvings to the facade as a sort of signature. In this case after conferring with the cathedral, quarry man Jeronimo Garcia was given the go-ahead to add some more modern images to the facade. He included an astronaut floating among the vines, a dragon eating ice cream, a lynx, a bull, a stork, a rabbit, and a crayfish….
…In 1991, the abbey underwent some necessary restoration work. Twelve of its 13 gargoyles were so badly ruined from water damage they had to be removed. The work was carried out by an Edinburgh-based stone masonry company, which replaced the carvings with newer models.
Apparently, some of the stone masons had a bit of fun with their creations. One of the gargoyles is certainly unique, which is fitting, as medieval tradition holds that no two gargoyles can look the same. The creature bears a strong resemblance to H.R. Giger’s Xenomorph from the Alien franchise. As the films were popular throughout the 1980s and early ‘90s, it’s likely one of the workers drew a bit of inspiration from its otherworldly antagonist….
[Thanks to Cat Eldridge, SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Scott Edelman, Michael Burianyk, Daniel Dern, Steven French, Teddy Harvia, Kathy Sullivan, Mike Kennedy, Andrew Porter, John King Tarpinian, Chris Barkley for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Andrew (not Werdna).]
Spain’s Festival Celsius 232 committee has revealed the 2024 winners of the Premios Kelvin 505.
The trophies are scheduled for presentation at Festival Celsius 232 which takes place July 18-22 in Avilés, Spain.
Mejor novela original en castellano publicada por primera vez en España / Best original novel in Spanish published for the first time in Spain
Teseo en Llamas, by Beatriz Alcaná
Mejor novela traducida al castellano y publicada por primera vez en España / Best novel translated into Spanish and published for the first time in Spain
Mi corazón es una motosierra, by Stephen Graham Jones. Translated by Manuel de los Reyes.
Mejor novela juvenil original en castellano publicada por primera vez en España / Best original juvenile novel in Spanish published for the first time in Spain
El verano en que llegaron los lobos, by Patricia García-Rojo
Mejor novela juvenil traducida al castellano y publicada por primera vez en España / Best youth novel translated into Spanish and published for the first time in Spain
Bajo la puerta de los susurros, by T. J. Klune. Translated by Carlos Abreu Fetter
EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION: This second reprint from Journey Planet’s “Be the Change” issue, searches for specific redress the Worldcon community can offer to the people who were mistreated by how the Chengdu Worldcon handled last year’s Hugo Awards.
By Sarah Gulde: Other articles in this issue are discussing how to reform the Hugo Awards going forward so that this debacle never happens again. What I want to talk about is the folks already harmed, and how we as a community can make amends.
Merriam-Webster defines “amends” as “compensation for a loss or injury.”
At the time of writing, those who were wrongfully disqualified from the Hugo Awards have been identified, acknowledged, and offered spots on panels in Glasgow. Xiran Jay Zhao also received an extension of eligibility for the Astounding Award.
Is this really “amends”? While Zhao may or may not feel compensated for missing out in 2023, it seems to me that being a panelist is something the other disqualified nominees would be welcomed for anyways. I’ve been a Worldcon panelist several times myself, and it never had anything to do with being a Hugo nominee.
So if we truly want to make amends, what can we do?
Many have pointed out that a revote, were it logistically possible, would be unduly influenced by sympathy for those who were unfairly excluded the first time around. I agree with that, but I don’t agree with what seems to be the general consensus: if the nuclear option isn’t available, then we’re off the hook.While we can’t undo what has happened, there is so much more we could be doing as a community to show our remorse.
Some are quite simple. How about an invitation to the Losers Party in Glasgow? That’s something special that they may have missed out on in Chengdu, and something that the Glasgow concom could rather easily make happen.
Or how about Worldcon membership for life? I imagine this would involve some sort of resolution passed by the Business Meeting to make it official, but it’s something that the next few concoms could put into action on their own.
Or, as suggested by Ash Charlton, how about an actual Hugo? “Rather than take anything away from the Hugo Winners of 2023, who, you never know, may have won in any case, I think a special award should be created for the writers who missed out. I don’t like the phrase ‘Honorary Hugo’ as it sounds like it’s not a real one, but something like an ‘Amends Hugo’, or ‘Special 2023 Hugo’ means it could still go on this writer’s resume and would recognise the injustice done. We definitely owe them something, and this would go some way to making restitution.”
The Worldcon convention committee does have the option to award a “Special Committee Award”, sometimes informally referred to as “Special Hugos” as they are not official Hugos.
Perhaps Sara Felix could be commissioned to create special tiaras? Or George R. R. Martin could be convinced to award another round of “Alfies”?
If you like one or more of these ideas, or have one of your own, please contact Journey Planet at [email protected] or comment on this article on File 770. If there seems to be enough support, I will personally contact and work with the entity who can make things happen. I would love it if something more can be done for these folks in our community who were treated so outrageously.
