SF writer and Rotsler Award winning fan artist Ray Nelson died in his sleep overnight November 29/30 his son, Walter, announced today on Facebook. He was 91 years old. As an author Ray Nelson was best known for his short story … Continue reading
Peter Nicholls (1939-2018) was an important science fiction critic and commentator for four decades starting in the Seventies. He published reviews and essays in Foundation: The Review of Science Fiction (which he edited 1974-1978), The New York Review of Science Fiction, Vector and many other … Continue reading
(1) COSTA BOOK AWARDS RETIRED. “Costa book awards scrapped suddenly after 50 years” reported the Guardian today. The Costa book awards, after running for half a century, have been abruptly scrapped. The coffee shop chain has said the 2021 awards, which … Continue reading
“Today the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction moved house,” said co-editor David Langford. A new publisher and web server are part of the October 6 release of its Fourth Edition. However, their familiar domain sf-encyclopedia.com is unchanged, and the Encyclopedia (SFE) … Continue reading
(1) THE TROUBLE WITH KIBBLES. With Camestros Felapton 63 chapters into Debarkle, a chronicle of how the Sad/Rabid Puppies were the sff genre’s reflection of broader right-wing movements, John Scalzi shares his own retrospective “Thoughts on the ‘Debarkle’” at Whatever. … Continue reading
(1) A HARD ROAD. Sue Burke, author of The Immunity Index, and whose Semiosis made the Arthur C. Clarke Award shortlist and was a John W. Campbell Memorial Award finalist, summarizes the SF novel’s journey from manuscript to print, through … Continue reading
(1) ALT-FACTS. The Hugo Book Club Blog contends “Alternate facts make bad alternate history”. … Even one of the better Alternate History works written by a very conservative author, Another Girl, Another Planet by Lou Antonelli, only really works when it avoids … Continue reading
(1) AN APPEAL. [Item by rcade.] In a series of tweets Tuesday, Astounding Award winner Jeannette Ng asks for more nuanced takes on problematic elements of literary works and less pat conclusions about what they reveal about the author. Thread … Continue reading
(1) PLAY ALONG AT HOME. Eli Grober offers these “Opening Lines Rewritten for a Pandemic” in The New Yorker. “A Wrinkle in Time,” by Madeleine L’Engle “It was a dark and stormy night, so we stayed inside, just like we’d … Continue reading
(1) UNAUTHORIZED. Marina Lostetter illustrates her points about authorship with ancient and contemporary examples in “Le Morte d’Author: on Aggregate Storytelling and Authorial Hope” at Stone Soup. …When aggregate storytelling is done unofficially, we call it “transformative work,” of which fan … Continue reading