Lavie Tidhar today announced the table of contents for his The Best of World SF: Volume 3, a 175,000 word collection with 28 authors from around the world.
The book will be released by Head of Zeus on October 12, 2023. It’s available for preorder.
The stories in the Table of Contents:
1. “A Minor Kalahari” by Diana Rahim (Singapore)
2. “Behind Her, Trailing Like Butterfly Wings” by Daniela Tomova (Bulgaria)
3. “Cloudgazer” by Timi Odueso (Nigeria)
4. “The EMO Hunter” by Mandisi Nkomo (South Africa)
5. “Tloque Nahuaque” by Nelly Geraldine García-Rosas (Mexico) translated by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
6. “The Walls of Benin City” by M.H. Ayinde (UK)
7. “The Foodie Federation’s Dinosaur Farm” by Luo Longxiang (China) translated by Andy Dudak
8. “The Day The World Turned Upside Down” by Thomas Olde Heuvelt (The Netherlands) translated by Lia Belt
9. “The Worldless” by Indrapramit Das (India)
10. “Now You Feel It” by Andrea Chapela (Mexico) translated by Emma Törzs
11. “Act of Faith” by Fadzlishah Johanabas (Malaysia)
12. “Godmother” by Cheryl S. Ntumy (Ghana)
13. “I Call Upon the Night as Witness” by Zahra Mukhi (Pakistan)
14. “Sulfur” by Dmitry Glukhovsky (Russia) translated by Marian Schwartz
15. “Proposition 23” by Efe Okogu (Nigeria)
16. “Root Rot” by Fargo Tbakhi (US)
17. “Catching the K-Beast” by Chen Qian (China) translated by Carmen Yiling Yan
18. “Two Moons” by Elena Pavlova (Bulgaria) translated by Kalin M. Nenov and Elena Pavlova
19. “Symbiosis Theory” by Choyeop Kim (Korea) translated by Joungmin Lee Comfort
20. “My Country is a Ghost” by Eugenia Triantafyllou (Greece)
21. “Old People’s Folly” by Nora Schinnerl (Austria)
22. “Echoes of a Broken Mind” by Christine Lucas (Greece)
23. “Have Your #Hugot Harvested at This Diwata-Owned Café” by Vida Cruz (Philippines)
24. “Order C345” by Sheikha Helawy (Palestine) translated by Raphael Cohen
25. “Dark Star” by Vraiux Dorós (Mexico) translated by Toshiya Kamei
26. “An excerpt from ‘A Door Opens: The Beginning of the Fall of the Ispancialo-in-Hinirang (Emprensa Press: 2007)’ by Salahuddin Alonto, Annotated by Omar Jamad Maududi, MLS, HOL, JMS.” by Dean Francis Alfar (Philippines)
27. “Ootheca” by Mário de Seabra Coelho (Portugal)
28. “Where The Trains Turn” by Pasi Ilmari Jääskeläinen (Finland) translated by Liisa Rantalaiho
(1) AI AND CLICK FARMERS GAMING KINDLE UNLIMITED. AI-generated books are hitting the best-seller lists in the Kindle Unlimited store. Stacy King points out that one of the best-sellers in the War & Military Fiction category is “URGENT CHARACTER NAME: URGENT CHARACTER NAME” by Minh Duong. Thread starts here.
Given the sample pages, I think it's pretty clear that the pageviews are from a click-farm, not actual human readers. pic.twitter.com/5yLUQR9axz
Chadwick Boseman is set to receive a posthumous star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame as part of their class of 2024. The actor died from colon cancer in August 2020 at the age of 43. He was diagnosed with the disease in 2016, but kept his illness private until his death.
Best known for his starring role in Marvel’s Black Panther as King T’Challa of Wakanda and the titular superhero (and other appearances in the Avengers movies), Boseman also starred in films like Da 5 Bloods, 21 Bridges, and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. He received a posthumous Oscar nomination for his performance in the latter, and he was also posthumously awarded the Emmy for Outstanding Character Voice-Over Performance for his work in animated Marvel series What If…?
Boseman was selected to appear on the Walk of Fame in the motion picture category, with other groups including television, recording, live theatre/live performance, and radio. Honorees are chosen every year by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce out of hundreds of nominees. Other new additions to the movie category include Gal Gadot, Michelle Yeoh, Chris Pine, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Christina Ricci, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige, and Illumination CEO Chris Meledandri.
Those in the TV category include Ken Jeong, Eugene Levy, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Michael Schur, and Kerry Washington. The cohort’s other posthumous honoree is Otis Redding, in the live performance category. Redding died in a plane crash in 1967.
In a box office upset, Sony holdover Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse edged out Pixar’s Elemental to win the weekend all the way in its fourth outing. Rarely does a film reclaim the top spot like that amid fierce summer competition.
Spidey took in an estimated $19.3 million as it raced past the $300 million mark domestically to finish Sunday with a North American total of $317.1 million and an impressive $560.3 million worldwide.
Elemental took in an estimated $18.5 million upon falling only 39 percent in its second weekend, a strong hold after suffering the worst start in the modern history of Pixar. The film’s hold means it’s being helped by strong word of mouth….
… The news for DC and Warner Bros.’ big-budget superhero pic The Flash — which opened last weekend opposite Elemental to a sobering $55.1 million — grew worse as it fell off 72 percent to $15.3 million for a domestic cume of $87.6 million. Unlike Elemental, The Flash received poor exit scores. (The studio had hoped for a decline of 55 percent.) Insiders concede the film, starring Ezra Miller, is a huge miss and is being rejected by audiences on a wholesale basis….
(4) MAKING THE ROUNDS. Craig Miller comments on screenings of Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken and Elemental before reporting on a Propstore reception where some top-end costumes and art were displayed ahead of an auction. See the photos on his Facebook page.
…Herewith, photos of a few of the pieces. I think the gem of the auction is Carrie Fisher/Princess Leia’s Medal Ceremony dress from the end of “Star Wars”. Estimated to sell for, perhaps, $1,000,000. Also on display were an asteroid miniature from “The Empire Strikes Back”, Michael Keaton’s Batman costume from “Batman Returns” and Tommy Lee Jones’ Two-Face costume from “Batman Forever”, an original painting by Ralph McQuarrie done for the ILM crew shirt for “Star Wars”, a matte painting for the Death Star trench (interesting at least to me, I have hanging in the hall outside my office the matching photo – about 3’x3′ – of the Death Star trench miniature that was painted over and cut out to make this matte), Harrison Ford’s “Blade Runner” costume, Daniel Radcliff’s costume from “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets”….
(5) MISSING FROM HISTORY. After Thomas Monteleone got expelled from the Horror Writers Association, and Mort Castle started a kerfuffle about being left out of an HWA Blog Q&A series, author Lionel Ray Green asked Brian Keene: “Feeling forgotten: Do older horror writers have a point?”
…In his June 21st podcast, Keene addressed the Castle and Monteleone controversies.
“I know there was a big kerfuffle with Mort Castle,” Keene said. “I did not see Mort’s comments, but people I trust have paraphrased them for me. I think we can have empathy for Mort. I don’t think it’s terrible of him to feel forgotten. I think his feelings are valid because Mort did some important things. I don’t know, maybe Mort should’ve read the room … maybe there was a better way of expressing it.
“Tom’s comments were reprehensible. They were inexcusable. And I’m in no way defending him. But I do think Tom’s comments stem from a place of hurt, of feeling forgotten. There was a time when Tom Monteleone did a lot in this genre. He was one of the movers and shakers. In some of the much-deserved blowback to his comments, you saw a lot of ‘Who’s Tom Monteleone?’ which kind of proves the point. The guy was feeling forgotten.”
Keene said he talked to Bram Stoker Award-nominated author Ronald Malfi about the issue during StokerCon 2023 earlier this month.
“Ron Malfi and I had a heart-to-heart about this in the bar at StokerCon,” Keene said. “We feel it’s our generation’s responsibility to spotlight some of these people. I try to do that in my newsletter. Right now, I’m campaigning for Chet Williamson to get a Lifetime Achievement Award from the HWA. I think he deserves it.”
Williamson received six Stoker Award nominations from 1987 to 1990, including two for his novels Ash Wednesday and Reign….
…Oh yeah, we’re definitely mining some nostalgia here. It certainly feels like this iteration of the show is attempting to go back and replicate nearly everything fans still love and reference about the original series, right down to bit players like the colony of worms that once invaded Fry’s colon after some bad truck stop egg salad. At least the voices of the characters sound more or less intact, mercifully avoiding the tiredness and unnatural delivery that has become an expected part of new Simpsons episodes for the last decade. We’re also not sure how to feel exactly about the series seemingly making a point of falling back on topical humor, with jokes clearly directed at the COVID-19 pandemic, cryptocurrency and even the popularity of Frank Herbert’s Dune following its big-screen adaptation. Hopefully, this version of Futurama can prove it still has some reason to exist, beyond brand recognition….
When told how long she’s been recording the audiobooks for the Wheel of Time, the fantasy series by Robert Jordan, Rosamund Pike sounded disconcerted.
“You mean so far, with the three I’ve done?” she asked. “It’s 80 hours?” (To be precise, between “The Eye of the World,” “The Great Hunt” and the most recent installment, “The Dragon Reborn,” which has just been released, it’s 87 hours and 23 minutes.) Pike was calling in from Prague, where she and her family moved a few years ago for the production of the television series adapted from Jordan’s books. She is a producer of the series and stars as the magical priestess Moiraine. Over video, what passed over her face, hearing that time estimate, could be called a grimace. “Well — that’s good.” Her eyebrow arched. “Yeah, that’s … nice.”
Pike’s account of how she got involved in this epic project has a “hero’s journey” ring to it: the call to adventure, the reluctant protagonist, then some intervention that encourages them to leave the world they knew. When Macmillan Audio initially approached her, she turned the job down. Though she’d recorded audiobooks before — including Jane Austen, a historical spy novel and a murder mystery — for most of her life she hadn’t been much of a fantasy fan: “I think I’d always been quite grounded in reality,” Pike told Stephen Colbert in 2021. “… I didn’t feel I needed to branch out into creatures and mythological beasts…”
(8) MEMORY LANE.
1986 – [Written by Cat Eldridge from a choice by Mike Glyer.]
And then there’s Gene Wolfe. What an amazing writer. I was surprised in doing this write-up to find that he had not won any Hugos, though he has won World Fantasy Awards both for his long and short form work, along with a BSFA, a BFA and Nebulas.
So what do I like by him? First and foremost is the exemplary The Book of the New Sun series. Now this is what fantasy should be. I’ve not read all of The Wizard Knight series but what I have read has been very enjoyable; and likewise the stand-alone novels Pirate Freedom and the fascinating travel affair The Land Across as I love imaginary European countries.
So our Beginning this Scroll is from Soldier of the Mist, the first novel of the Latro series. It was published by Gollancz in 1986. It picked up Nebula and World Fantasy Award nominations.
And here’s our Beginning…
I write of what has just occurred. The healer came into this tent at dawn and asked whether I recalled him. When I said I did not, he explained. He gave me this scroll, with this stylus of the slingstone metal, which marks it as though it were wax.
My name is Latro. I must not forget. The healer said I forget very quickly, and that is because of a wound I suffered in a battle. He named it as though it were a man, but I do not remember the name. He said I must learn to write down as much as I can, so I can read it when I have forgotten. Thus he has given me this scroll and this stylus of heavy slingstone metal.
I wrote something for him in the dust first. He seemed pleased I could write, saying most soldiers cannot. He said also that my letters are well formed, though some are of shapes he does not know. I held the lamp, and he showed me his writing. It seemed very strange to me. He is of Riverland.
He asked me my name, but I could not bring it to my lips. He asked if I remembered speaking to him yesterday, and I did not. He has spoken to me several times, he says, but I have always forgotten when he comes again. He said some other soldiers told him my name, “Latro,” and he asked if I could remember my home. I could. I told him of our house and the brook that laughs over colored stones. I described Mother and Father to him, just as I see them in my mind, but when he asked their names, I could tell him only “Mother” and “Father.” He said he thought these memories very old, perhaps from twenty years past or more. He asked who taught me to write, but I could not tell him. Then he gave me these things.
(9) TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS.
[Compiled by Cat Eldridge.]
Born June 27, 1909 — Billy Curtis. You’ll best remember him as the Small Copper-Skinned Ambassador in Trek’s “Journey to Babel” episode. His genre experienced goes all the way back to Wizard of Oz where he was a Munchkin, and later on he’s a mole-man in Superman and The Mole-Men, and later on a little person in The Incredible Shrinking Man. He had lots of one-offs, be it on Batman (twice there), Bewitched, Gilligan’s Island, Planet of The Apes or Twilght Zone. (Died 1988.)
Born June 27, 1941 — James P. Hogan. A true anti-authoritarian hard SF writer in the years when that was a respectable thing to be. I’m sure that I’ve read at least Inherit the Stars and The Gentle Giants of Ganymede. Tell me about his short fiction please. A decent amount of his work is available on the usual suspects. (Died 2010.)
Born June 27, 1952 — Mary Rosenblum. SF writer who won the Compton Crook Award for Best First Novel for The Drylands, her first novel. She later won the Sidewise Award for Alternate History Short Form for her story, “Sacrifice.” Water Rites and Horizons are the only ones available at the usual suspects. (Died 2018.)
Born June 27, 1959 — Stephen Dedman, 64. Australian author of The Art of Arrow-Cutting, a most excellent novel. I really should read Shadows Bite, the sequel to it. He’s the story editor of Borderlands, the tri-annual Australian science fiction, fantasy and horror magazine published in Perth. Apple Books has nothing for him, Kindle has The Art of Arrow-Cutting and a few other titles.
Born June 27, 1966 — J. J. Abrams, 57. Let’s see… He directed and produced the rebooted Star Trek, Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (he was a co-writer on the latter two), but I think I will single him out as the executive producer of the Fringe series, the Lost series, and Person of Interest.
Born June 27, 1972 — Christian Kane, 51. You’ll certainly recognize him as he’s been around genre video fiction for a while first playing Lindsey McDonald on Angel before become Jacob Stone on The Librarians. And though Leverage may or may not be genre, his role as Eliot Spencer there is definitely worth seeing.
Born June 27, 1975 — Tobey Maguire, 48. Spider-man in the Sam Raimi trilogy of the Spidey films. His first genre appearance was actually in The Revenge of the Red Baron which is one serious weird film. Much more interesting is his role as David in Pleasantville, a film I love dearly. He produced The 5th Wave, a recent alien invasion film.
Born June 27, 1987 — Ed Westwick, 36. British actor who has roles in the dystopian Children of Men, S. Darko (a film I couldn’t begin to summarize), Freaks of Nature (a popcorn film if ever there was one), the “Roadside Bouquets” episode of the British series Afterlife (which I want to see) and The Crash (which may or may not be SF).
For his article on direct market pioneer Bud Plant (see “Bud Plant, a Pioneer“), Dan Gearino (author of The Comic Shop, see “New Edition of ‘Comic Shop’“) conducted a meaty video interview with Plant, which you can watch in three parts:
In Part 1 (see video below), Plant talks about the very early days of the comics business in the 1960s, and some of the first comic stores in California.
In Part 2, he talks about meeting Phil Seuling, the beginnings of the direct market, and opening the first Comics & Comix store.
In Part 3, he talks about rapid growth in the 1980s, selling his wholesale business to Diamond, and the meaning of it all.
We are also making available full transcripts of the interview, in three parts corresponding to the three parts of the video interview.
Victor Ginzburg’s timely sci-fi horror Empire V, which is described as a social parody of Russia being controlled by vampires, world premieres at Montreal’s Fantasia Fest this July.
Ahead of the debut, Deadline can reveal a first trailer for the film which has gained fresh resonance following the revolt in Russia over the weekend by Yevgeny Prigozhin’s Wagner mercenary group.
Based on a 2006 satirical novel by Victor Pelevin, the film revolves around a 19-year-old Muscovite who is turned into a vampire, propelling him into an elite and powerful echelon of society that has controlled humanity since time immemorial.
… Sony had been due to release the film in Russia on more than 1,800 screens in the first quarter of 2022, but the government refused to release its distribution permit, effectively banning the film….
There is an “exclusive” trailer embedded in the Deadline article, which visually is probably 99% the same as this one released a year ago.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUsejOXVCUY
(12) THE WITCHER INFOGRAPHIC. The premiere of season 3 of the Geralt of Rivia adventures is coming this week. On this occasion, JustWatch thought you’d like to see how the miniseries and animated film performed compared to Netflix’s tentpole, starring Henry Cavill.
Despite efforts, The Witcher: Blood Origin failed to captivate viewers, receiving -2.3% less popularity than the animated film The Witcher: Nightmare Of The Wolf. The movie also pales in comparison to Netflix’s flagship series The Witcher, that surpassed the combined popularity of the miniseries and film by a remarkable 8 times.
[Thanks to SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Mike Kennedy, John Hertz, Andrew Porter, John King Tarpinian, Chris Barkley, Michael Toman, and Cat Eldridge for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Jack Lint.]
The 53rd issue of Uncanny Magazine, winner of six Hugos and a British Fantasy Award, will be available on July 4 at uncannymagazine.com.
Hugo Award-winning Publishers Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas are proud to present the 52nd issue of their six-time Hugo Award-winning online science fiction and fantasy magazine, Uncanny Magazine. Stories from Uncanny Magazine have been finalists or winners of Hugo, Nebula, Locus, and World Fantasy Awards. As always, Uncanny features passionate SF/F fiction and poetry, gorgeous prose, provocative nonfiction, and a deep investment in the diverse SF/F culture, along with a Parsec Award-winning monthly podcast featuring a story, poem, and interview from that issue.
All of Uncanny Magazine’s content will be available in eBook versions on the day of release from Weightless Books, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Google Play, and Kobo. Subscriptions are always available through Weightless Books. The free online content will be released in 2 stages — half on day of release and half on August 1.
“The Uncanny Valley” by Lynne M. Thomas & Michael Damian Thomas
Fiction
“SuperMAX” by Daniel H. Wilson (7/4)
“Tantie Merle and the Farmhand 4200” by R.S.A. Garcia (7/4)
“The Big Heavy” by Steph Kwiatkowski (7/4)
“Anything with a Void at the Center” by Lee Mandelo (8/1)
“Love at the Event Horizon” by Natalia Theodoridou (8/1)
“The Ghasts” by Lavie Tidhar (8/1)
“Theses on the Scientific Management of Goetic Labour” by Vajra Chandrasekera (7/4)
Reprint
“The Music of the Siphorophenes” by C. L. Polk (8/1)
Nonfiction
“Book Bans Won’t Take Away Our Voices” by Del Sandeen (7/4)
“House of the Dragon and the Empress Who Tried to Rule England” by Lizbeth Myles (7/4)
“Weirdos” by Suzanne Walker (8/1)
“The Matter of King Arthur on the Screen” by Natania Barron (8/1)
Poetry
“As Does the Crow” by Beth Cato (7/4)
“First Eclipse: Chang-O and the Jade Hare” by Emily Jiang (7/4)
“an alternate universe in which Yemọja is my mother” by Sodïq Oyèkànmí (8/1)
“Eroticide” by Valerie Valdes (8/1)
Interviews
R.S.A. Garcia interviewed by Caroline M. Yoachim (7/4)
Lee Mandelo interviewed by Caroline M. Yoachim (8/1)
Podcasts
Episode 53A (7/4): Editors’ Introduction, “SuperMAX” by Daniel H. Wilson, as read by Matt Peters, “As Does the Crow” by Beth Cato, as read by Erika Ensign, and Lynne M. Thomas interviewing Daniel H. Wilson.
Episode 53B (8/1): Editors’ Introduction, “Love at the Event Horizon” by Natalia Theodoridou, as read by Matt Peters, “Eroticide” by Valerie Valdes, as read by Erika Ensign, and Lynne M. Thomas interviewing Natalia Theodoridou.
American science fiction and fantasy writer, N.K. Jemisin debuted her first novel, The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, in 2010. She has since won multiple awards, including the Hugo, Locus, and Nebula Awards for Best Novel. She is known for exploring a wide range of themes like cultural conflict, liminal spaces, and the mechanics in systems of oppression.
Her Broken Earth Trilogy(2015-2017) won her the Hugo Award for Best Novel, making her the first Black author to win the award. She is the first author to win the award three years in a row, and the first to win it for each book in a trilogy. Jemisin was a recipient of the MacArthur Fellows Program Genius Grant in 2020 and included in Times annual list of the 100 Most Influential People in the World in 2021.
Jemisin has also worked as a counseling psychologist, an instructor for the Clarion and Clarion West writing workshops, and as the science fiction and fantasy book reviewer at The New York Times. Jemisin’s works have been translated into more than 20 languages and in 2021 Sony’s TriStar Pictures won the rights to The Broken Earth Trilogy with Jemisin adapting the novels for the screen.
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Inheritance Trilogy (2010-2011) Dreamblood Duology (2012) Broken Earth Trilogy (2015-2017) Great Cities Series (2020-2022)
John Carpenter
b. 1948
John Carpenter is an American filmmaker and composer known for his horror, action, and science fiction films, most notably the Halloween franchise. Carpenter’s films are characterized by minimalist lighting, panoramic compositions, and distinctive scores.
They include box office hits such as Halloween (1978), one of the most successful independent films of all time, The Fog (1980), Escape from New York (1981), and Starman (1984), as well as cult classics Dark Star (1974), The Thing (1982), Prince of Darkness (1987), They Live (1988), and Escape from L.A (1996).
Raised in a musical home, Carpenter wrote or co-wrote the scores for nearly all his films. His early adoption of synthesizers inspired many electronic artists and recent reissues of several has reinvigorated public interest in his talents as a musician.
While his commercial film success peaked in the 1980s, Carpenter’s legacy as a legendary American filmmaker continues to grow. The U.S. Library of Congress selected Halloween for preservation in the National Film Registry in 2006, and in 2019 Carpenter was presented with the Golden Coach Award at the Cannes Film Festival.
SELECTED FILMOGRAPHY
Halloween (1978) The Fog (1980) Escape from New York (1981) The Thing (1982) Starman (1984) Big Trouble in Little China (1986) They Live (1988) Memoirs of an Invisible Man (1992) In the Mouth of Madness (1994) Village of the Damned (1995) Escape from L.A. (1996) Ghosts of Mars (2001)
SELECTED DISCOGRAPHY
Lost Themes (2015) Lost Themes II (2016) Anthology: Movie Themes 1974–1998 (2017) Lost Themes III: Alive After Death (2021)
Dune (Franchise)
Considered the world’s best-selling science fiction novel, Frank Herbert’s Dune (1965) created a franchise that now includes comics, video games, television shows, and films—and continues to challenge and inspire generations of creators and audiences.
Herbert’s novel, with its more than two dozen prequels and sequels, tells the story of an interstellar empire tens of thousands of years in the future. Vital to this empire is the desert planet Arrakis, the only known source of the spice melange, which is the most valuable substance in the universe. Control of Arrakis, its spice production, and the combined impact on humanity’s development form the axis of a millennia-long conflict that develops throughout the series.
Ambitious screen adaptations include the 1984 film by David Lynch and the John Harrison turn-of-the-millennium TV miniseries. Denis Villeneuve’s cinematic reimagining brought Dune back to the screen in 2021.
Frank Herbert’s original book was honored with the inaugural Nebula Award for Best Novel and the Hugo Award in 1966. It was praised by The New Yorker as “an epic of political betrayal, ecological brinkmanship, and messianic deliverance.” The novel has been translated into dozens of languages and sold roughly 20 million copies.
RELATED WORKS
Dune, book (1965) Dune Messiah, book (1969) The Illustrated Dune, book (1978) Avalon Hill’s Dune, board game (1979) Marvel Comics Super Special #36: Dune (1985) Dune: Blood of the Sardauker, comic book (2021)
Dune, film (1984) Dune, video game (1992) Dune, television show (2000) Children of Dune, television show (2004) Dune, film (2021) Dune: Spice Wars, video game (2022)
The Rocky Horror Picture Show (Film)
1975
The Rocky Horror Picture Show is a musical comedy horror film exploring themes of self-expression, the ethics of conformity, and gender and sexual freedom. Initially panned by critics, it has become a landmark cult film with a devoted global fanbase.
Based on Richard O’Brien’s 1973 musical stage production The Rocky Horror Show, it stars O’Brien, Tim Curry, Susan Sarandon, and Barry Bostwick, and centers on a young couple seeking help at a remote castle after their car breaks down. They find the castle occupied by extravagantly dressed people celebrating an annual convention led by Dr. Frank N. Furter, an eccentric scientist, and visiting alien, who creates a man named Rocky Horror in his laboratory.
Embracing the show’s affirmation of gender expression, audiences began participating with the film at the Waverly Theater in New York City in 1976, and audience interaction has become an essential part of the Rocky Horror experience. In 2016, a television remake was made starring Laverne Cox as Dr. Frank N. Furter.
Still in limited release in 2023, Rocky Horror is the longest-running theatrical release in film history. The film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress in 2005.
RELATED WORKS
The Rocky Horror Show, play (1973) The Rocky Horror Picture Show, film (1975) Rocky Horror Picture Show, The Comic Book, comic book (1980) Shock Treatment, film (1981) The Rocky Horror Glee Show, television show (2010) The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Let’s Do the Time Warp Again, television special (2016)
This is the complete list of nominees voted on by the public:
Robert Heinlein’s ‘All You Zombies—‘ on Escape Pod
Review by Cat Eldridge: In a scant fourteen minutes, Heinlein creates the most perfect time travel story of all time and lays the foundation for World as Myth novels that were written much later than this, which was written in Heinlein in 1958. He has been quoted as saying he wrote it in one day, not surprising given the speed with which the tale is told.
But first some words about narrators, audio quality and why older audio isn’t always better than newer audio. You can purchase this story as part of The Fantasies of Robert Heinlein which Tor Books did some fifteen years ago.
The collection is quite wonderful and well worth reading but the audiobook version of this collection is just plain awful — a tinny sound combined with a truly boring narrator who sounds like he’s sleepwalking through the fourteen minutes. Avoid at all costs. So what should you listen to instead? Well that’s where a neat podcast called EscapePod comes in.
Steve Eley narrates the story and does a superb job of doing so. There’s only two different voices needed for all practical purposes and he makes them sound like people you’d know from their voices if you met them. And the production is spot on.
Now about this story. Essentially it’s a tale of sexual genders switched (literally) over and over again. All of which are… Oh never mind. Look I can’t really tell you much about the tale as that’d spoil your enjoying this really clever tale in which not a word is wasted, not a story aspect is not wrapped up perfectly.
If you’ve read the later World as Myth novels such as The Cat Who Walks Through Walls, you’ll see where Heinlein first thought of those ideas including the name of the time travelling force that’s central to the World as Myth novels. Indeed I suspect that this story was what led him to write those later, specifically Stranger in A Strange Land, The Number of The Beast, The Cat Who Walks Through Walls, and To Sail Beyond The Sunset. To a lesser extent, these ideas show up elsewhere as well.
So go here for the location of this story and do check their other spoken story productions. You won’t be at all disappointed!
(1) GIVE ME A SIGN! Almost 16,000 people have signed the petition to “Save Star Trek Prodigy!” at Change.org. Here’s the text of the appeal:
Paramount+ have announced the cancellation of Star Trek Prodigy and have stated it will be removed from their streaming platform in the coming days. Their reasoning? It’s a tax write-off.
In a statement to TrekCore.com, Paramount stated that, “Star Trek: Prodigy will not be returning for the previously announced second season. On behalf of everyone at Paramount+, Nickelodeon and CBS Studios, we want to thank Kevin and Dan Hageman, Ben Hibon, Alex Kurtzman and the Secret Hideout team, along with the fantastic cast and crew for all their hard work and dedication bringing the series to life.”
That’s right. Not only are they not moving forward with the show and removing the first season from their platform, but the second season (due to be completed) will not air unless picked up by another buyer.
Paramount have long mistreated the loyalty and generosity of Trek fans, but this feels like a gut punch; the final nail in the coffin of goodwill.
Money talks, but so do fans and we can’t let this beautiful show go without a fight!
(2) A MILESTONE IN HORROR. The New York Times commemorates Shirley Jackson’s story in “75 Years After ‘The Lottery’ Was Published, the Chills Linger”. Stephen King, Carmen Maria Machado, Tananarive Due, Stephen Graham Jones, Paul Tremblay and others tell how this classic first got under their skin.
Paul Tremblay
Author, “The Pallbearers Club”
I’ve reread “The Lottery” many times and remain haunted by the possibilities and ambiguity in the final line uttered by the doomed Mrs. Hutchinson: “It isn’t fair, it isn’t right.” Is she simply the victim of blind chance? Did she believe the lottery was fixed so that her name would come up? Was it supposed to have been fixed for her name not to be chosen? Is she decrying the entire lottery, the social/political system and its ugly inherent injustices? Is it existence itself that is unfair and not right? All great stories wrestle with that last question.
Cecilia Rabess figured her debut novel, “Everything’s Fine,” would spark criticism: The story centers on a young Black woman working at Goldman Sachs who falls in love with a conservative white co-worker with bigoted views.
But she didn’t expect a backlash to strike six months before the book was published.
In January, after a Goodreads user who had received an advanced copy posted a plot summary that went viral on Twitter, the review site was flooded with negative comments and one-star reviews, with many calling the book anti-Black and racist. Some of the comments were left by users who said they had never read the book, but objected to its premise.
“It may look like a bunch of one-star reviews on Goodreads, but these are broader campaigns of harassment,” Rabess said. “People were very keen not just to attack the work, but to attack me as well.”
In an era when reaching readers online has become a near-existential problem for publishers, Goodreads has become an essential avenue for building an audience. As a cross between a social media platform and a review site like Yelp, the site has been a boon for publishers hoping to generate excitement for books.
But the same features that get users talking about books and authors can also backfire. Reviews can be weaponized, in some cases derailing a book’s publication long before its release.
“It can be incredibly hurtful, and it’s frustrating that people are allowed to review books this way if they haven’t read them,” said Roxane Gay, an author and editor who also posts reviews on Goodreads. “Worse, they’re allowed to review books that haven’t even been written. I have books on there being reviewed that I’m not finished with yet.”…
(4) FRAZETTA IS BIG BUSINESS. [Item by Arnie Fenner.] Frazetta’s cover painting for Karl Edward Wagner’s 1976 novel Dark Crusade set a new record, selling for $6m at Heritage. It became better known when Ellie Frazetta licensed it in 1979 to Molly Hatchet to use as the album jacket for Flirtin’ With Disaster.” “Frank Frazetta’s ‘Dark Kingdom’ Sells For $6 Million to Rule the Record Books at Heritage Auctions”.
Also, you’ll find this fun: Frazetta’s daughter Holly and granddaughter Sara under their Frazetta Girls imprint have released a light-up Death Dealer keychain.
1. “The Tell-Tale Heart” Is it a crime story? A horror tale? It’s both, of course, and it’s also a chilling masterpiece that finds Poe brilliantly prowling the murky boundary between obsession and madness. As the author’s “dreadfully nervous” narrator tells us how an old man’s filmy “pale blue eye” drives him to murder, Poe gives us a master class in establishing mood, building suspense, and maintaining pace, all while expertly employing wonderfully specific gradations of light and sound. Not just a remarkably constructed model for the short story form, “The Tell-Tale Heart” is a near-perfect monologue, with Poe, the son of actors, displaying his ever-keen sense of the dramatic. He tells us just what we need to know, leaving enough unexplained that we continue to speculate about the characters long after the histrionic “tear up the planks” climax. Small wonder this chilling 1843 tale has remained a classroom favorite and a popular performance piece.
Film historian Ed Glaser, who previously found the last 35mm print of The Man Who Saves the World (aka, “the Turkish Star Wars”) has released another mini-documentary for his “Deja View” series. This one focuses on the interestingly named 3 Dev Adam—alternatively known as either 3 Giant Men or Captain America & Santo vs. Spider-Man. The big claim to fame for this movie is that it’s “the world’s first comic book crossover film,” well before the MCU or any imitators came onto the scene. Its other big boast is that its version of Spider-Man lives up to everything J. Jonah Jameson’s ever said about him, because he’s a menace and genuine villain who requires two heroes to team up and bring him down….
(7) MEMORY LANE.
2014 – [Written by Cat Eldridge from a choice by Mike Glyer.]
Eugie Foster had a phenomenal life before it was tragically cut short when she died at Emory University Hospital on September 27, 2014 from respiratory failure, a complication of treatments for large B-cell lymphoma, with which she was diagnosed on October 15, 2013. So now I’m depressed, and you should be too.
She was the managing editor for The Fix and Tangent Online, two online short fiction review magazines. She was also a director for Dragon Con and edited the Daily Dragon, their onsite newsletter.
She’s here because of her amazing short stories which were nominated for a lot of Awards including “Sinner, Baker, Fabulist, Priest; Red Mask, Black Mask, Gentleman, Beast” which nominated for an Hugo at Aussiecon 4. It did win a Nebula and was nominated for a BSFA as well.
And that brings us to our Beginning take from her short story , “When it Ends, He Catches Her by” which was nominated for a Nebula and a Sturgeon. It was first published in Daily Science Fiction, September 2014.
And now for the Beginning…
The dim shadows were kinder to the theater’s dilapidation. A single candle to aid the dirty sheen of the moon through the rent beams of the ancient roof, easier to overlook the worn and warped floorboards, the tattered curtains, the mildew-ridden walls. Easier as well to overlook the dingy skirt with its hem all ragged, once purest white and fine, and her shoes, almost fallen to pieces, the toes cracked and painstakingly re-wrapped with hoarded strips of linen. Once, not long ago, Aisa wouldn’t have given this place a first glance, would never have deigned to be seen here in this most ruinous of venues. But times changed. Everything changed.
Aisa pirouetted on one long leg, arms circling her body like gently folded wings. Her muscles gathered and uncoiled in a graceful leap, suspending her in the air with limbs outflung, until gravity summoned her back down. The stained, wooden boards creaked beneath her, but she didn’t hear them. She heard only the music in her head, the familiar stanzas from countless rehearsals and performances of Snowbird’s Lament. She could hum the complex orchestral score by rote, just as she knew every step by heart.
Act II, scene III: the finale. It was supposed to be a duet, her as Makira, the warlord’s cursed daughter, and Balege as Ono, her doomed lover, in a frenzied last dance of tragedy undone, hope restored, rebirth. But when the Magistrate had closed down the last theaters, Balege had disappeared in the resultant riots and protests.
So Aisa danced the duet as a solo, the way she’d had to in rehearsal sometimes, marking the steps where Balege should have been. Her muscles burned, her breath coming faster. She loved this feeling, her body perfectly attuned to her desire, the obedient instrument of her will. It was only these moments that she felt properly herself, properly alive. The dreary, horrible daytime with its humiliations and ceaseless hunger became the dream. This dance, here and now, was real. She wished it would never end.
(8) TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS.
[Compiled by Cat Eldridge.]
Born June 26, 1929 — Wally Weber, 94. Cry of the Nameless co-editor when it won Best Fanzine; next year chaired the 19th Worldcon (called “Seacon”, being in Seattle; the 37th was “Seacon ’79” being by the sea; not my fault). In SAPS and the N3F (edited one ish of Tightbeam). TAFF delegate 1963. W.W.W. collection published by Burnett Toskey 1975 (hello, Orange Mike). Has been seen, or at least photographed, in a propeller beanie. (John Hertz)
Born June 26, 1950 — Tom DeFalco, 73. Comic book writer and editor, mainly known for his Marvel Comics and in particular for his work with the Spider-Man line. He designed the Spider-Girl character which was his last work at Marvel as he thought he was being typecast as just a Spider-Man line writer. He’s since been working at DC and Archie Comics.
Born June 26, 1954 — James Van Pelt, 69. Here for the phenomenal number of nominations that he has had though no Awards have accrued. I count 26 nominations so far including a Sturgeon, a Nebula and, perhaps the longest named Award in existence, John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer / Astounding Award for the Best New Science Fiction Writer. He has but two novels to date, Summer of the Apocalypse and Pandora’s Gun, but a really lot of short fiction, I think over a hundred pieces, and two poems.
Born June 26, 1965 — Daryl Gregory, 58. He won a Crawford Award for his Pandemonium novel. And his novella, We Are All Completely Fine, won the World Fantasy Award and a Shirley Jackson Award as well. It was also a finalist for the Sturgeon Award. I’m also fond of his writing on the Planet of The Apes series that IDW published.
Born June 26, 1969 — Austin Grossman, 54. Twin brother of Lev. And no, he’s not here just because he’s Lev’s twin brother. He’s the author of Soon I Will Be Invincible which is decidedly SF as well as You: A Novel (also called YOU) which was heavily influenced for better or worse by TRON and Crooked, a novel involving the supernatural and Nixon. He’s also a video games designed, some of which such as Clive Barker’s Undying and Tomb Raider: Legend are definitely genre.
Born June 26, 1969 — Lev Grossman, 54. Most notable as the author of The Magicians Trilogy which is The Magicians, The Magician King and The Magician’s Land. Perennial bestsellers at the local indie bookshops. Understand it was made into a series which is yet another series that I’ve not seen. Opinions on the latter, y’all?
Born June 26, 1980 — Jason Schwartzman, 43. He first shows up in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy as Gag Halfrunt, Zaphod Beeblebrox’s personal brain care specialist. (Uncredited initially.) He was Ritchie in Bewitched, and voiced Simon Lee in Scott Pilgrim vs. the Animation. He co-wrote Isle of Dogs alongwith Wes Anderson, Roman Coppola, and Kunichi Nomura. I think his best work was voicing Ash Fox in Fantastic Mr. Fox.
Born June 26, 1984 — Aubrey Plaza, 39. April Ludgate on Parks and Recreation which at least one Filer has insisted is genre. She voiced Eska in recurring role on The Legend of Korra which is a sequel to Avatar: The Last Airbender. She was in Scott Pilgrim vs. the World as Julie Powers, and was Lenny Busker on Legion.
… The real question, I suppose, is whether he deserved his status as the major creator of the so-called Marvel Universe.
Gelb’s documentary wisely lets Stan himself narrate his story from start to finish. Virtually the only voice we hear during its 1½-hour length that speaks more than one or two sentences in a row is Stan’s, in extended sound bites harvested from a host of TV appearances, comics convention Q&A sessions, award ceremonies, previous documentaries, and radio guest shots — enlivened by the occasional deathless line of dialogue from one of his many late-life movie cameos.
This is a refreshing way to encounter Stan the Man, and Gelb and his producers (which include Marvel Studios) are to be congratulated for letting him tell his own tale his way. By and large, the effort is successful and entertaining … and, so far as I can tell from my long association with him (which includes writing a humongous “career biography” of him for Taschen Books in the 2010s), it presents a reasonably accurate portrait of the man as he saw himself, and as the world came to see him:
As arguably the most important comicbook writer since Jerry Siegel scribed his first “Superman” story back in the 1930s…
As the creator (or at the very least the co-creator) of a host of colorful super-heroes and related comics characters…
…And as the creator (or at least the major overseer and guiding light) of a four-color phenomenon that became known as the Marvel Universe, and which formed the underlying bulwark of the now-even-more-famous Marvel Cinematic Universe, the most successful series of interconnected motion pictures in the history of that medium.
But of course he didn’t do it alone … and that’s where all the mostly ill-considered criticisms of Stan Lee’s life and work begin to kick in.
As recorded in the film, simply because he often (not always, but often) fails to credit the artists he worked with, Stan often seems to be claiming full credit for milestones, be they the powerful Hate Monger yarn in Fantastic Four No. 21 or such concepts as the Hulk and the X-Men. This is partly just a verbal shorthand, yet it is also in accordance with his expressed belief that “the person who has the idea is the creator,” and that the artist he then chooses to illustrate that concept is not. In L.A. in the 1980s (admittedly, at a time when I was not working for him), I argued that very point with him one day over lunch, maintaining that an artist who rendered and inevitably expanded that original idea was definitely a co-creator. I made no headway with my past and future employer. And clearly, when he wrote his celebrated letter, quoted in the doc, that he had “always considered Steve Ditko to be the co-creator of Spider-Man,” he was doing so only to try to mollify Steve and those who might agree with him. Later, he admitted as much….
(10) IT’S A JUNGLE OUT THERE. [Item by Dann.] Kids from a certain era…here I go dating myself again…will recall the jungle gyms that populated American playgrounds and schoolyards. These were fabrications of steel pipes set perpendicularly to create cubes of space for kids to climb and explore. The “jungle gym” was originally patented by Sebastian Hinton.
Sebastian got the idea from his father, Charles Howard Hinton. Charles was a British mathematician. He also was an author of science fiction. His interest was primarily in the so-called fourth dimension.
Charles constructed an early jungle gym out of bamboo for young Sebastian and his friends to use. Charles apparently thought that allowing children to play on three-dimensional equipment might enable them to develop the ability to perceive the fourth dimension. Spoiler – they didn’t.
Since the first direct detection of the space-time ripples known as gravitational waves was announced in 2016, astronomers regularly listen for the ringing of black holes across the universe. Projects like the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (better known as LIGO) have detected almost 100 collisions between black holes (and sometimes neutron stars), which shake up the fabric of the cosmos and send invisible waves rippling through space.
But new research shows that LIGO might soon hear another kind of shake-up in space: cocoons of roiling gas spewed from dying stars. Researchers at Northwestern University used cutting-edge computer simulations of massive stars to show how these cocoons may produce “impossible to ignore” gravitational waves, according to research presented this week at the 242nd meeting of the American Astronomical Society. Studying these ripples in real life could provide valuable insight into the violent deaths of giant stars….
(12) DISCUSSIONS ON FILM MUSIC BY COMPOSERS/ORCHESTRATORS/ AND WRITERS. [Item by Steve Vertlieb.] This remarkable roundtable of composers and orchestrators assembled ten years ago for a sequence in the unfinished feature length motion picture documentary The Man Who “Saved” The Movies.
Pictured from left to right are acclaimed motion picture orchestrator Patrick Russ, Erwin Vertlieb, Emmy winning film and television composer/conductor Lee Holdridge, writer/film score musicologist Steve Vertlieb, and one of the most brilliant composers working in film today, the marvelous Mark McKenzie.
William Shatner opens the 2005 AFI Life Achievement Award: A Tribute to George Lucas with a song performed the way only Shatner can perform it. Complete with backup Stormtrooper dancers and a cameos by Chewbacca!
[Thanks to Cat Eldridge, SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Mike Kennedy, Arnie Fenner, Dann, John Hertz, Andrew Porter, John King Tarpinian, Chris Barkley, Michael Toman for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Rob Thornton.]
[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. Find her in her virtual home at coldwildeyes.com. Wipe your feet before entering.]
SPACE ELVES
Hello All! Melanie here.
When last we left our heroes, Writer X and her boyfriend, fellow fantasy writer Tod, were reunited following a month long mishap that involved gnomes, a brain-stunning device, and a general failure to ask people questions.
While this has resolved nicely with the appropriate people returning to their appropriate cocoons of romantic contentedness, new mysteries gather on the horizon. Tryxy—a demon—has been tiptoeing around with angels—specifically one angel—nursing a secret that he’s afraid X will uncover before he can find the words to break it to her.
With X and Tod back together and discussions of moving in underway, I wonder what writing plans X is formulating. The road of every writer is different from the next, but if one is to be the “next big epic fantasy writer of all time,” you do have to actually write something now and then.
This brings to mind something the former editor of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, C.C. Finlay, once told me. He said: “The apprenticeship for becoming a writer is such a long and difficult one…it can be frequently interrupted by other aspects of life.”
I wonder if Charlie would include a mysterious angel and a traveling carnival in that list of “other aspects.”
Without further ado…
Subject: SOMETHING NEW!!!!
Dear Gladys,
I found another one of those angel feathers. This time it wasn’t in my backyard, it was in the MUDROOM. Do you think an angel has been breaking into my house??? Or is it possibly just using it as a shortcut??? So far I haven’t heard any word of complaint from Tryxy, but if this keeps up, I’m going to have to call an exterminator. Once you get a case of the angels, they get into EVERYTHING.
Anyhoo, I’m sure you’re dying to know how my writing is going. Things are going WONDERFFULLY. First, we got satellite television. But also, my boyfriend, award nominated fantasy writer Tod Boadkins, has been spending several nights a week at our humble abode here with Tryxy, #bestkitten, and me. And the malevolent purple leopard. Seeing as he owns his home and isn’t quite ready to sell it, we’re splitting our time between the two houses. This means I’ve written at least three days this week and the pages I’m about to send you are going to BLOW. YOU. AWAY.
This is LIKE NOTHING ELSE I”VE WRITTEN GLADYS!!!!
I am in the very early stages of writing AN ENTIRELY NEW EPIC FANTASY SAGA. This one is special, I can feel it in my writerly bones!!!! This NEW epic fantasy saga is going to be the one that establishes me as the next big epic fantasy writer of all time.
Now Gladys, I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking HOW could I possibly publish this new saga before I publish my epic fantasy saga led by my AMAZING character Fenchin in search of the Humingdaal? But I won a flash fiction contest, I’m a PRO, and I think about things very differently than you or someone else might think.
I’m COMPLETELY COMFORTABLE with getting paid millions of dollars for this epic fantasy saga before I get paid millions of dollars for my masterpiece. Each of my sagas will reveal a DIFFERENT aspect of my writerly brilliance.
THe Fenchin story will have EVERYTHING—love, betrayal, adventure, magic, and square-dancing orcs. But this NEW saga has SUCH an original idea that it’s going to quickly establish me as a groundbreaking fantasy writer that creates something EXTREMELY NEW!!!!
If you’re a new writer, it’s helpful to attract new readers by doing something they’ve NEVER seen before, and while some fantasy writers out here plunder through other people’s cultures for unique material, SOME OF US ARE NATURALS AT NEWNESS!!!!!
Because you are my biggest fan, I feel I should prepare you for the pages I will send you at some point next week. You are going to be KNOCKED OFF YOUR FEET with the power of this new FANTASY IDEA!!!!!
Are you ready??
This story has—hang on, Gladys, I have to check and make sure no one’s looking over my shoulder.
This story has…SPACE. ELVES.
Right now, fantasy is experiencing a revival. People are making fantasy movies every which way, but you know what NO ONE is doing???? SPACESHIPS!!!! That’s why this is going to be such a hit!!!!
Anyhoo, I have to go. I’m waiting on a call from my life coach and then my boyfriend and I are going to binge watch the SCI-PHY channel!!!!!
xox,
X
P.S. Btw, (that means “by the way” Gladys) did you see the carnival is coming to town??? They’re still setting it up in the parking lot of that haunted Spirit of Halloween store, but I could’ve sworn I saw them erecting a Tilt-a-Hurl!!!! I can’t wait to bring Tryxy to the carnival!!!!!!
Subject: COUPON BOOK!!!!!
Dear Gladys,
Whatever you are up to, I need you to STOP EVERYTHING, come over here, and help me find my Cradensburg Big Book of Savings. Nothing less than my ENTIRE WRITING CAREER is on the line!!!! AND CANCEL YOUR SUBSCRIPTION TO THE SCI-PHY CHANNEL ASAP!!!!!
Just when I’m ready to take the fantasy world by STORM, people have to come along and steal my ideas before I’m even finished with them!!!!!
Have you seen the new Sci-Phy show “Plight of Stars????” Well, some writer had the nerve to have a spaceship traveling between planets that have been consumed by a mysterious force called “The Blight” looking for survivors. They have a captain, a meat shield, a thief, AND AN ELF on the ship. AND THE ELF IS A MAGIC USER!!!!!
MY ELVES ARE MAGIC USERS!!!! Who is going to read my crummy story when they already have ELVES IN SPACE SHIPS????
I’m very upset Galdsy!!!! My boyfriend says that it’s hard when you think yuou’re writing something original and then you see that hollywood has already beat you to the punch but I’m not going to take this lying down!!!!!
There’s only one thing that can fix this and that’s THE CRADENSBURG BIG BOOK OF SAVINGS!!!!! I could have sworn—
Hang on, Gladys, an angel just flew past my window. Nahhhh, maybe it was a duck.
Anyhoo, what was I saying??? If I don’t stop people from putting elves in spaceships, other people will be famous for MY ideas and I won’t be considered groundbreaking at all!!! I talked to my life coach and there is only ONE THING that can be done to address this situation and that is some good ole juju. I need to make the Sci-Phy writer completely change the show!!!!! Why can’t they just stick to plundering someone else’s culture for material????
Good thing that the carnival has come to town!!!! There’s always a good Juju person at the carnvia—
Hang on, Gladys, I think an angel just tried to throw a baseball through my window and cracked my siding instead!!!! I need to find my nailbat. I can only hope I cleaned off the feathers from the last angel that tried to chuck a baseball through my window!!!!
Do you have an extra copy of that coupon book laying around??? I think I lost mine when I threw it at the mailman. Wasn’t there a coupon for 25% off juju??? Or am I misremembering???
Got my nailbat!!!
xox,
X
Subject: FOUND IT!!!!
Dear Gladys,
Well that angel gave me the slip, but it definitely left a dent in my siding!!! I called my boyfriend and he said that maybe I should think about calling an exterminator. Do you know a good angel exterminator??? Didn’t your cousin Maude used to have something to do with angel extermination after the whole “Angel of the Lord” incident?
Anyhoo, things with my story are back on track!!!! I looked online and found that coupon and it’s for 40% off. Which is comforting because juju can be expensive!!! It’s a good thing I can do a solid Jamaican accent!!!!
Would you mind printing this out for me? My printer has a lil’ nailbat dent in it.
Off to the carnival next week, Gladys! Tomorrow, the stars!!!!!
Review by Warner Holme: T.E.D. Klein’s Dark Gods is a nice little collection of novellas by an author who has been anything but prolific. With a range of horrific tales within the pages, it is easy to see what attracts about the book.
“Children of the Kingdom” is a thoughtful update on ancient history related horror, with obvious nods to Lovecraft. Overall the narrator dealing with his grandfather and the man’s new surroundings work as an interesting story, and the oddities of ideas related two of them helped to build mystery amd horror.
Big city horror of this vein is not particularly common, and this volume does an interesting job of it. One certainly gets the feel for a dark and dingy place bordering upon the grotesque at times in this story, yet at the same time some details of the metropolis seem most enjoyable.
Naming the wife of the narrator Karen is somewhat unfortunate in light of the decades later reputation that name has gained.
Some parallels to Lovecraft, like a fear of breeding with the unacceptably strange, are certainly handled better than by the aforementioned author. In this the horrifying possibility of breeding with a very different creature is presented in relation to rape, which combined with the relatively cosmopolitan setting makes it seem less a condemnation of miscegenation.
This story feels like it could have easily been expanded into a full novel, and certainly some of the less fortunate implications would not have been noticed then. By a similar token people of color are frequently described amongst the criminals of various areas, in a way that might seem racially-motivated. While this seems unintentional on the part of the author, and he indeed does describe relatively positive characters from multiple racial groups, it might very well be bothersome to certain readers.
Given the introduction features a quote by Lovecraft “The Black Man with a Horn” represents another clear homage. In this one can find the themes of a strange foreigner, old objects and horrifying revelations. It all begins with the narrator meeting the titular character on a trip, finding him amiable enough but quickly discovering that
Throughout this story is the familiar creeping dread, a Stephen King like use of an author as the viewpoint character, and the sense of humor the figure starts out with a nice bit of levity. Mind, a story written before the year 2000 are doing it would be impossible to find a lost work is a little hilarious, however the proliferation of information even at the time was wide enough that the point was understandable.
Overall this is a very nice little collection from an author whom kept his work to a minimum. To anyone who enjoyed his novel The Ceremonies, it is a must-read. To other readers of horror and the horrific it is well worth a look. The newest edition does contain a number of revisions, effectively serving as an author is preferred text, making it in and of itself desirable for that reason. Still regardless the stories contained within are suitably good examples of their respective subgenres, and easy to enjoy.
Often shy and retiring Warner Holme has worn many hats over the years. He has worked in fields ranging from the medical to advertising, but always finds himself most at home among stories and words. He can usually be found in the mid-south, caring for some person or animal, and is almost never more than a meter away from a few books.
(1) FROM FANFIC TO THE TOP. [Item by Steven French.] One to watch out for: after debuting with Boy Parts, ‘a mischievous satire’, and following that up with Penance, based on horrific true events, Eliza Clark is planning a third novel of speculative fiction and a collection of science fiction and horror short stories: “Eliza Clark: ‘I’m more primary school teacher than enfant terrible’” in the Guardian.
…She reckons that being a word-of-mouth success let her fly under the radar of critics ready to dismiss Granta’s selection as a list of commercially unsuccessful unknowns. “But you don’t want to be the arsehole who’s like: ‘Actually, if you were to check TikTok and ask 20-year-old girls on humanities courses at university, you’d find that one of these books is actually very popular,’” she says, with a winningly wicked laugh.
Being underestimated is something of a theme with Clark. In her early teens she read keenly, led by her parents to Tolkien, George RR Martin and Stephen King while finding Nabokov and Murakami on her own (“Ryū, not Haruki,” she adds quickly, as if to make certain I know that extreme horror is her jam, not pervy magic realism). The kind of pupil who once wowed English teachers by writing “pages and pages and pages”, she was blocked by her school from applying to study English at Oxbridge because she got C grades in GCSE maths and French. She then fell into boozing with pals (“it was very easy to underage drink in Newcastle”) and out of love with reading – or at least with books. “My brain had been so boiled by the internet by that point. I shouldn’t have been allowed to have my own laptop! Shock images were so clickable and findable. But I used to write loads of fan fiction and I wouldn’t have had all those years of writing practice.”…
Therefore, I decided to do another Pride Month Special featuring fan favourite Malcolm a.k.a. Fisto and his significant other Ram-Man a.k.a. Krass. Especially since I had just picked up the new Masterverse Deluxe Ram-Man figure.
(3) INCREASING REPRESENTATION. Arturo Serrano interviews two game designers, Miguel Colón (designer of Boricubos) and Adrián Mejía (designer of Koboa) in “More Latin American content for your TTRPG sessions” at Nerds of a Feather.
…AS: How did you ensure a respectful representation of elements from real-world cultures?
MC (Boricubos): There is a careful balance here. As someone who is very entrenched in the culture, I had to make sure I represented what I loved about some of the stories I was told, some of the research I did, and some of the things that I came up with individually. This all blended together quite nicely, I believe. Ultimately, it is not my role to speak for every Puerto Rican, other Latin Americans, or anyone, really. I am trying to represent something deeply personal to me, share with others something that would make them interested in doing their own research, and present a new point of view for people. It’s very hard because, in order for the setting to work, there have to be things that are inspired by the actual culture, but also things that are completely independent. I think the best thing for people to take away is that Boricubos represents some stories and legends, but is not a one-for-one recreation.
AM (Koboa): It is an ongoing process. We have built up a team of South American designers, writers, and artists with extremely diverse backgrounds and experiences. Additionally, all our content (writing, art briefs, illustrations, etc.) goes through two or more cultural and sensitivity consultants, to ensure we don’t inadvertently represent elements of culture in ways that are harmful or offensive….
What was it about the horror genre that drew you to it?
I didn’t have an idyllic childhood. I was exposed to a lot of pain, loss, and trauma from an early age, which made me feel alienated from my peers. I enjoyed the horror genre because it allowed me to deal with those themes in an imaginative, transformative way. It was safe to talk about certain traumas in the context of a horror story, because for a child/teen/young adult, the truths were almost too brutal to articulate any other way. But it’s more than just that… I found horror sexy, exciting. I hated being afraid, and I loved being afraid. It was the push and pull of daring yourself to be brave. It’s a challenging genre that begs to break formulae time and again. It can be romantic, erotic, terrifying, cathartic, disgusting, beautiful. It truly is a genre that has it all and can do it all.
(5) TIDAL FLOW. Really, I’m not convinced by this first paragraph. Is adding “-punk” to a noun anything more than a tactic to market a short list of books? “Diving into the Sub-Genre of Oceanpunk” at Book Riot.
From steampunk to dieselpunk to clockpunk and more, there is a proliferation of sub-genres and mashups that fall under the punk literature umbrella. Defined by their embrace of retro, yet futuristic technologies and specific elements and settings, these books transport readers to an imaginative world in which characters move through an altered landscape from our own. Punk sub-genre books often play with timelines and settings in ways that both echo our own world and change it up. For example, steampunk writers craft fictional worlds that are both futuristic and have echoes of Victorian fashion and steam powered-technology, while cyberpunk authors focus on what happens when a high-technology society meets humanity. Oceanpunk writers take us under or onto the high seas, to explore what it would be like to live in a water-dominated world….
…Pegg’s ascent remains one of the great, recent Hollywood creation stories. In one of the most entertaining parts of it, he and Wright were asked in an interview, after Shaun of the Dead, whether they planned to leave the UK behind and make action films in the US. Pegg responded, “It’s not like we’re going to go away and do, I don’t know” – scanning his brain for an imaginary, and unimaginable, blockbuster – “Mission: Impossible III.”
The reply was honest. Pegg had not long before done an audition for a small part in the Mission: Impossible franchise, something involving a helicopter, and heard nothing. But then, the original director, Joe Carnahan, left the project and Cruise brought in Alias creator JJ Abrams, who was a huge fan of… Shaun of the Dead! Ricky Gervais was set to play Cruise’s sidekick Benji Dunn, but dropped out and Pegg was given the nod. “So it was a huge irony that I’d said, ‘I’m not going to go off and do this,’” says Pegg. “But then, at that time, there was this attitude that anyone who went off to Hollywood was betraying their roots in some sense or selling out. It’s not like you cross some misty bridge at night and never come home again. So many people assume that I live over there. But, you know, I live in Hertfordshire.”…
(7) MONTY PYTHON’S DYING CIRCUS. ICv2 carried news of CMON’s game expansion “Monty Python’s Flying Circus – Zombicide 2E”. There’s a gallery of images of the components at the link.
CMON announced Monty Python’s Flying Circus – Zombicide 2E, a new board game expansion, which will arrive in April 2024.
Zombicide 2E just got a whole lot more wacky with the introduction of this expansion featuring the elements of the classic TV show by the legendary English comedy troupe. The set revisits some of the show’s funniest sketches by adding Monty Python-themed survivors , enemies, and equipment. There is also a new mission and if the expansion is preordered off CMON’s website, it includes an exclusive pack of Gumbys.
This set comes with 21 miniatures, 8 tokens, 47 cards, and a rules leaflet. The expansion requires a base set to play and it will retail for $50.00….
(8) MEMORY LANE.
1994 – [Written by Cat Eldridge from a choice by Mike Glyer.]
Now here’s an author that I really like — Mike Resnick. There’s really nothing by him that I’ve not enjoyed immensely.
First and foremost are the four novels in the John Justin Mallory series, followed by his Future History series and the ever so silly Galactic Midway affair with one with the best novel titles ever, The Best Rootin’ Tootin’ Shootin’ Gunslinger in the Whole Damned Galaxy.
Let’s not forget the Weird West Tale series which I consider one of the best steampunk Western series ever done.
And then there’s the “Seven Views of Olduvai Gorge” novella, the source of our Beginning this Scroll, which was first published in 1994 by Axolotl Press, part of Pulphouse Publishing. Part of his Birthright Universe series, it would win a Hugo at Intersection. A Nebula would be also would be won as well as a HOMer. There was also a Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award nomination
And here’s our Beginning…
The creatures came again last night.
The moon had just slipped behind the clouds when we heard the first rustlings in the grass. Then there was a moment of utter silence, as if they knew we were listening for them, and finally there were the familiar hoots and shrieks as they raced to within fifty meters of us and, still screeching, struck postures of aggression.
They fascinate me, for they never show themselves in the daylight, and yet they manifest none of the features of the true nocturnal animal. Their eyes are not oversized, their ears cannot move independently, they tread very heavily on their feet. They frighten most of the other members of my party, and while I am curious about them, I have yet to absorb one of them and study it.
To tell the truth, I think my use of absorption terrifies my companions more than the creatures do, though there is no reason why it should. Although I am relatively young by my race’s standards, I am nevertheless many millennia older than any other member of my party. You would think, given their backgrounds, that they would know that any trait someone of my age possesses must by definition be a survival trait.
Still, it bothers them. Indeed, it mystifies them, much as my memory does. Of course, theirs seem very inefficient to me. Imagine having to learn everything one knows in a single lifetime, to be totally ignorant at the moment of birth! Far better to split off from your parent with his knowledge intact in your brain, just as my parent’s knowledge came to him, and ultimately to me.
But then, that is why we are here: not to compare similarities, but to study differences. And never was there a race so different from all his fellows as Man. He was extinct barely seventeen millennia after he strode boldly out into the galaxy from this, the planet of his birth—but during that brief interval he wrote a chapter in galactic history that will last forever. He claimed the stars for his own, colonized a million worlds, ruled his empire with an iron will. He gave no quarter during his primacy, and he asked for none during his decline and fall. Even now, some forty-eight centuries after his extinction, his accomplishments and his failures still excite the imagination.
(9) TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS.
[Compiled by Cat Eldridge.]
Born June 25, 1894– Hermann Oberth. Physicist, engineer, pioneer of rocketry. Read Jules Verne as a child, built his first model rocket at age 14. Doctoral dissertation Rockets into Space. Consulted on Fritz Lang’s film Woman in the Moon (1929). Worked on early rockets, came to work for NASA. Autobiography in Clarke’s anthology The Coming of the Space Age (1967). Werner von Braun said “Oberth was the first.” (Died 1989) [John Hertz]
Born June 25, 1903 — George Orwell, born Eric Blair in 1903. Animal Farm is fantasy of a political sort, but 1984 is clearly genre, and it may hold the record for the most neologisms added to English by a single SF book. Orwell was mostly known as a journalist and essayist, including his spats with H.G. Wells, most notably in “Wells, Hitler and the World State”. (Died 1950.) [Alan Baumler]
Born June 25, 1925 — June Lockhart, 98. Maureen Robinson on Lost in Space which amazingly only ran for three seasons. She has a number of genre one-offs including Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., The Greatest American Hero and Babylon 5. She appeared in the Lost in Space film as Principal Cartwright.
Born June 25, 1935 — Charles Sheffield. He was the President of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America and of the American Astronautical Society. He won both the Nebula and Hugo Awards for his novelette “Georgia on My Mind” and a John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best SF Novel for Brother to Dragons which is an amazing read. Much of his fiction is in his Heritage Universe series; the linked short stories of space traveler Arthur Morton McAndrew are a sheer comic delight. Besides his Hugo Award at ConAdian (1994) for “Georgia on My Mind”, he had several nominations as well. Chicon V (1991) picked two, “A Braver Thing” novelette and the “Godspeed” short story. Oh, and he was toastmaster at BucConeer. (Died 2002.)
Born June 25, 1947 — John Maddox Roberts, 76. Here for being prolific with his Conan pastiches, seven to date so far. I’ll also single out his The SPQR series beginning with SPQR which are police-procedural mystery novels set in Ancient Rome. Someone at the Libertarian Futurist Society really, really likes the Island Worlds as it has been nominated three times for the Prometheus Hall of Fame.
Born June 25, 1956 — Anthony Bourdain. That’s a death that hit me hard. Partly because he’s round my age, partly because, damn, he seemed so interested in everything that I couldn’t conceive him committing suicide. And yes, he was one of us with three works to his credit: Get Jiro!, (with Joe Rose and Langdon Foss), Get Jiro: Blood and Sushi (with Joe Rose and Ale Garza) and Hungry Ghosts (with Joel Rose, Alberto Ponticelli, Irene Koh, Paul Pope). The first two are on DC, the latter‘s on Berger Books. (Died 2018.)
Born June 25, 1981 — Sheridan Smith, 42. She makes the Birthday list for being Lucie Miller, a companion to the Eighth Doctor in his Big Finish audio adventures starting in 2006 and running through at least this year. Her only video genre work was being in The Huntsman: Winter’s War as Mrs Bromwyn.
(11) TO THE THIRD POWER. Paul Weimer praises a trilogy with a satisfying ending: “Review: The Ivory Tomb by Melissa Caruso” at Nerds of a Feather. “Melissa Caruso finishes the Rooks and Ruin trilogy, as Ryx and her friends must deal with the return of all the demons of legend and myth to the world.”
It’s not been a good time for Ryx. After the revelations of the second book in the series (the main one I will discuss anon), The Quicksilver Court, and the disastrous events, she and the rest of the magical-problem solving Rookery are on the backfoot. All the demons are on the loose, both the Vaskandrans and Serene Empire seem to be ready to pummel each other. But the Rookery is still in the fight, hoping to get new and old friends together to oppose the world-spanning threat.
This is the story of The Ivory Tomb, the third and final volume in Caruso’s Rooks and Ruin series, her second series set in her world of Vaskandar and the Serene Empire….
Taking a trip to your local Trader Joe’s is probably a highlight of your week, so if you got the chance to check out the most secretive Trader Joe’s in the country, that might just make your entire year. There’s a hidden (and exclusive!) Trader Joe’s in Irvine, California, that’s making waves on social media. You need a ticket to get in and … it’s completely pint-sized.
This top-secret Trader Joe’s is located inside Pretend City Children’s Museum, and the entire store has been shrunken down to give children the experience of grocery shopping. Natasha, the creator behind the Trader Joe’s List Instagram account, visited the spot that comes with child-sized shopping carts, make-believe food, faux flower bouquets, and pretend cash registers….
(15) MARKS THE SPOT. Whatever happened to the “on the internet no one knows you’re a dog” meme? Ryan George’s new video shows what it would be like “If Dogs Had Podcasts”.
[Thanks to Michael Toman, Cat Eldridge, SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Steven French, Alexander Case, John Hertz, Mike Kennedy, Andrew Porter, John King Tarpinian, and Chris Barkley for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Peer.]
FanTaminals Cocker Spaniel Scroll Wood Puzzle Made by Judy Peterson Rochester, NY
Review by Lis Carey At Boskone for several years, I’ve been seeing Judy Peterson and her wonderful scroll wood puzzles, which feature fantasy creatures, animals well known in our own world, and a really stunning Noah’s Ark puzzle. Mostly, the ones I’ve wanted have been well out of my price range.
And then I saw the cocker spaniel.
When I was in my early twenties, my first dog, a border collie, died. For reasons I’ll skip over, my mother said we could, after a decent mourning period, get another dog, but the new dog had to be small enough for her to pick up on her own. After much thought, we got a cocker spaniel puppy, whom we named Brandy. (Registered name: Lady Emer de Brandanin.)
At Boskone 60, she had this cocker spaniel puzzle, almost exactly the color of my Brandy. I sat and chatted with Judy, took a break to see if the urge would go away, and then came back to buy it. (Of course.) The puzzles are made from very good quality wood, and the craftsmanship is marvelous. They’re fun to put together, and they stand easily on any flat surface.
The cocker spaniel is made from Black Cherry. Its heartwood when first cut is a light pinkish-brown color, that darkens to orange red with exposure to sunlight. The sapwood is cream-colored, and does not darken. It’s the sapwood that you see in the puzzle facing to the right, and that’s the color my Brandy was. The other side, seen in the picture where she’s facing left, is a little darker, and will darken more as she’s exposed to sunlight.
All the pieces feel smooth and very pleasing to hold.
She has taken up residence on one of the wide windowsills in my new apartment.
Since dogs were the second-most popular theme in her puzzles, we talked about dogs, and of course Cider was with me. I mentioned that she didn’t have a Chinese Crested puzzle. I had mentioned this at previous Boskone meetings with her, and she had met Dora.
But it was Cider who inspired her to take pictures, as models for a potential future Chinese Crested puzzle. Cider was very pleased to model for Judy, and only charged pets, not treats, for her service.
I love this puzzle. I love putting together, and I love handling the pieces, and I love looking at it. I hope that next year, Brandy can be joined by a Chinese Crested.
