(1) HUGO VOTE TOTAL UPDATE. Today Hugo Administrator Nicholas Whyte issued a correction. The correct number of total Hugo Award nominating votes is 1,338.

(2) MURDERBOT PRODUCTION NEWS. Martha Wells is posting photos taken by Troyce on the Murderbot set at Bluesky. That’s in addition to the “First Look” photos in the following article which she warns is “spoilery”.

“’Murderbot’ Would Hate You—But That’s Why You’ll Love It” promises Vanity Fair.

… While the title might make the show sound like a hard-edged thriller, it’s more like a workplace comedy about hating what you’re good at. Skarsgård’s character is the unwitting straight man—or rather, straight…thing. (Though it looks like a man, Murderbot prefers the neutral pronoun because it is proud to be an object rather than a person.) It regards the small group of interplanetary scientists it must protect with the same enthusiasm as W.C. Fields babysitting a room full of toddlers. “It just doesn’t get humans at all,” Skarsgård says. “It’s not a deep hatred, it’s just zero amount of curiosity. It’s confused by humans and wants to get away from them.”…

… Murderbot’s devotion to a futuristic TV series called The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon also evokes real people on the spectrum, who can develop a phenomenon called hyperfixation. Murderbot studies the fictional melodrama for cues about how to behave in emotional situations. The show-within-a-show stars John Cho, Jack McBrayer, Clark Gregg, and DeWanda Wise, sporting outrageous hairstyles and costumes that make the stylings of A Flock of Seagulls look like business casual…

(3) SF TITLES PULLED FROM NAVAL ACADEMY LIBRARY. [Item by F. Brett Cox.] The Nimitz Library at the U.S. Naval Academy has removed 381 books in response to the current administration’s policies. The list includes What Are We Fighting For?, nonfiction by Joanna Russ, as well as the following works of contemporary science fiction and fantasy literature: Ryka Aoki, Light from Uncommon Stars; Becky Chambers, A Psalm for the Wild-Built; Mohsin Hamid, The Last White Man; Rivers Solomon, Sorrowland; Neon Yang, The Genesis of Misery. This has been reported in multiple outlets, including CNN, the NY Times, the AP, and CBS News.  Link to full list: “250404-List of Removed Books from Nimitz Library.xlsx” at Defense.gov.

(4) THE YEAR IN LIBRARY BOOK CHALLENGES. “ALA Releases Top 10 Most Challenged Books of 2024” reports Publishers Weekly.

The American Library Association kicked off National Library Week 2025 with its annual report on the state of the nation’s libraries, including the top 10 most challenged books of 2024. All Boys Aren’t Blue, George M. Johnson’s YA memoir about growing up Black and queer, surpassed Maia Kobabe’s Gender-Queer, which had topped the list two years in a row, as the most challenged title of last year….

…[The] ALA stressed the new stakes, in a statement: “This year, as library funding is under attack, ALA encourages every library advocate to Show Up for Our Libraries by telling Congress to protect federal support for libraries.”

In its report, the ALA documented 821 attempts to censor materials and services at libraries, schools, and universities in 2024—a notable drop from the 1,247 attempts recorded in 2023. Moreover, the ALA 2,452 unique titles that were challenged or banned last year, marking a decrease from the record-breaking 4,240 titles targeted in 2023.

However, Caldwell-Stone noted that while the trend is a positive one, 2024 still marked “the third-highest number of book challenges recorded by ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom since it began documenting library censorship in 1990.” She added that the data is just one part of the picture.

“Not reflected in these numbers are the relentless attacks on library workers, educators, and community members who stand up to the censors and defend the freedom to read,” Caldwell-Stone wrote. “These attacks are creating an environment of fear in which library workers are afraid to buy books or report censorship.”…

(5) R. E. BURKE PROFILE. British comics creator R. E. Burke is “working on a comic that will tell the story of what happened to her, and the women she shared 19 days with, based on the drawings, notes and official documents she managed to take out of the detention centre. Becky still doesn’t know why she was incarcerated for so long.” “’I was a British tourist trying to leave the US. Then I was detained, shackled and sent to an immigration detention centre’” in the Guardian.

…Workaway warns users that they “will need the correct visa for any country that you visit”, and that it is the user’s responsibility to get one, but it doesn’t stipulate what the correct visa is for the kind of arrangements it facilitates in any given country. Becky had always travelled with a tourist visa in the past – including to the US in 2022 – without any problems. She checked that work visas were only required for paid work in Canada. She had had months to plan her trip, and would have applied for a work visa if it was necessary, she says.

But the Canadian officials told Becky they’d determined she needed a work visa. She could apply for one from the US and come back, they said. Two officers escorted her to the American side of the border. They talked to the US officials. Becky doesn’t know what was said.

After six hours of waiting – and watching dozens of people being refused entry to the US and made to return to Canada – Becky began to feel frightened. Then she was called into an interrogation room, and questioned about what she had been doing during her seven weeks in the US. Had she been paid? Was there a contract? Would she have lost her accommodation if she could no longer provide services? Becky answered no to everything. She was a tourist, she said.

An hour later, Becky was handed a transcript of her interview to sign. She was alone, with no legal advice. “It was really long, loads of pages.” As she flicked through it, she saw the officer had summarised everything she told him about what she had been doing in the US as just “work in exchange for accommodation”. “I remember thinking, I should ask him to edit that.” But the official was impatient and irritable, she says, and she was exhausted and dizzy – she hadn’t eaten all day. “I just thought, if I sign this, I’ll be free. And I didn’t want to stay there any longer.” So she signed.

Then she was told she had violated her tourist visa by working in the US. They took her fingerprints, seized her phone and bags, cut the laces off her trainers, frisked her, and put her in a cell. “I heard the door lock, and I instantly threw up.”

At 11pm, Becky was allowed to call her family. Her father asked what was going to happen next. “I looked at the officer and he said, ‘We’re going to take you to a facility where you’ll wait for your flight. You’ll be there one or two days – just while we get you on the next flight home.’”…

But of course, she wasn’t.

… On her first day in the facility, Becky asked for a scrap of paper and a pen, and began to draw the inmates on the table next to her. She was immediately inundated with portrait requests. A Mexican woman called Lopez, who had a photo of her children stored on one of the iPads, told Becky she would buy her some paper and colouring pencils from the commissary if Becky drew her kids. She soon became the dorm’s unofficial artist-in-residence, with women huddling around the dirty mirrors to make themselves look presentable before they sat for her. They would decorate their cells with Becky’s drawings, or send them to their families. Lopez declared herself Becky’s manager. “She kept saying, ‘Becky, you need to ask for stuff in exchange. Ask for popcorn.’ And I’d be like, ‘Lopez, I don’t need anything.’ I thought, I’m here briefly, you’re stuck here a long time. I’m not going to take your food away from you.”…

… Becky had arrived in the detention centre on a Thursday. She soon realised she would not be out of it before the end of the weekend. No one ever replied to the message she sent to Ice on the iPad; she found out the Ice officer assigned to her case had gone on annual leave. The following Monday, Paul contacted the Foreign Office in London, and the British consulate in San Francisco. “They were doing the diplomatic bit,” he tells me. “But, after seven days, I could see it wasn’t really working. My perception is the British consulate couldn’t get Ice people to respond to them. There was no end in sight.”

After Becky had been incarcerated for more than 10 days, Paul decided to go to the media…

(6) OLIVIER AWARDS 2025. The Guardian names the winners of the awards that celebrate London theatre: “Olivier awards 2025: Giant, Benjamin Button and Fiddler on the Roof triumph”.

…The play Giant, which portrays children’s author Roald Dahl amid an outcry about his antisemitism, has triumphed at the Olivier awards on a star-studded night at the Royal Albert Hall in London.

US star John Lithgow took home the best actor prize for his performance as Dahl, Elliot Levey won best supporting actor (for playing publisher Tom Maschler) and Mark Rosenblatt received the award for best new play.

Giant is Rosenblatt’s debut as a playwright and brought him a double victory at the Critics’ Circle theatre awards in March, where he won for most promising playwright and best new play. Giant ran last year at the Royal Court in London and will transfer to the West End later this month, with Lithgow and Levey resuming their roles.

Lithgow thanked the audience for “welcoming me to England” and said “it’s not always easy when you welcome an American into your midst”, highlighting that this moment was “more complicated than usual” for relations between the US and the UK….

(7) REMEMBERING THE INKLINGS. Brenton Dickieson revisits “The First Meeting of the Inklings, with George Sayer” at A Pilgrim in Narnia.

I wrote last week about all the literary groups that formed some of the greatest writers of the 20th century, and how L.M. Montgomery was alone. One of those was the Inklings, which made C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien into the writers that they were. Without the daring possibilities in Tolkien’s work and the intelligent conversation of the Inklings, Lewis may never have turned to popular fiction and cultural criticism. Without Lewis’ persistent support and criticism and the company of other mythopoeic writers, Tolkien may never have completed that grand project of turning his mythology into popular story, lyric, and epic. I don’t think that the Inklings were more important to English literature than the Paris Expats or the Bloomsbury Set or the Detection Club, but in terms of the development of fantasy literature, the Inklings created new worlds.

Dickieson quotes from George Sayer’s Jack: C.S. Lewis and His Times (1988; 1994; 2005). 

…I don’t know if Sayer ever attended an official Inklings event, but his description of how the Inklings emerged and what happened there is a great introduction both to this Oxford literary circle and to Sayer’s biography.

“For years no regular event delighted Jack more than the Thursday evening meetings of the little group of friends called the Inklings. His was the second group to use this name. Its predecessor was founded in about 1930 by a University College undergraduate named Tangye Lean. Members met in each other’s rooms to read aloud their poems and other work. There would be discussion, criticism, encouragement, and frivolity, all washed down with wine or beer. Lean’s group consisted mainly of students, but a few sympathetic dons were invited to join, including Tolkien and Jack, who may have been Lean’s tutor. Lean graduated in June 1933, and that autumn Jack first used the name the Inklings to describe the group that had already begun to meet in his rooms.

“It was always utterly informal. There were no rules, no officers, and certainly no agenda. To become a member, one had to be invited, usually by Jack. Nearly all members were his friends….

“…The ritual never varied. When most of the expected members had arrived (and maybe only three or four would come), Warren would brew a pot of strong tea, the smokers would light their pipes, and Jack would say, ‘Well, has nobody got anything to read us?’ …”

(8) MEMORY LANE.

[Written by Cat Eldridge.]

Quark series (1978)

Forty-six years ago, a series called Quark aired as mid-season replacement on NBC. It surprised me that it only lasted eight episodes as I swear, I remember it lasting longer than that, then I often think that of series such as the Space Rangers which lasted six episodes and Nightmare Cafe which, oh guess, lasted six episodes as well. Surely, they lasted longer, didn’t they? 

It was created by Buck Henry, co-creator along with Mel Brooks of Get Smart. It was co-produced by David Gerber who had been responsible for the series version of The Ghost & Mrs. Muir (try not to hold that against him) and Mace Neufield who after being a talent agent for such acts as The Captain and Tennille and became responsible for The Omen as its producer. That film is effing scary.

(I tried rewatching Get Smart! a few years ago. Unlike The Man from U.N.C.L.E which held very splendidly when we watched it again, Get Smart! caused the Suck Fairy to visibly cringe when we watched it. I just thought it was bad, really bad.)

The cast was Richard Benjamin, Tim Thomerson Richard Kelton, Cyb and Tricia Barnstable, Conrad Janis, Alan Caillou and Bobby Porter. The Barnstable twins got a lot of press, mostly for the fact that they didn’t wear much by the standards of the day and really, really could not act. They previously appeared as the Doublemint Twins often with identical canines. I kid you not. 

Interesting note: they still live in their hometown of Louisville, Kentucky and are the hostesses of the annual Kentucky Derby Eve party which they founded in 1989. There were no Kentucky Derby parties before that as Tricia notes here, “It was astonishing that there really weren’t any celebrations at that time in Louisville,” Tricia says. “We started with about 500 people. We invited James Garner. Dixie Carter. Lots of stars. And they came!” The party which now draws thousands is a fundraiser for diabetes research as the maternal side has a history of that disease. 

Ok, so how is the reception? Oh, you have to ask? Seriously? One reviewer summed it up this way: “Only lasting eight episodes, it is eight episodes too many. The idea of spoofing science fiction is a given and there are only a handful that get it right, but this is a spectacularly awful show.” 

And another said succinctly that “A viewer seeking something a little different may find the series entertaining, but low expectations are a must.” 

Doesn’t most television SF comedy require low expectations? Most I said, not all.

It has no rating at Rotten Tomatoes. It might be streaming on Crackle and Philo, two services that I’ve never heard of. It might not be. Telling what is there is almost impossible as the major streaming tracking services don’t bother such services.

Yes, there are full episodes on YouTube. As it is very much still under copyright, those are definitely bootleg, so not provide links to them as they will be removed. As the Board Chair in Robocop 2 said, “Gentlemen, behave yourselves!”

(9) COMICS SECTION.

• Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal causes Batman to turn against math.
• Alley Oop illustrates that parents are the same everywhere.
• Birdbrains fancies an idyllic time. 
• Ink Pen illustrates a truly bad hair day.

(10) JMS’ NEXT SPIDER-MAN. This July, writer J. Michael Straczynski closes out his series of “unlikely duo one-shots” with Spider-Man Vs. The Sinister Sixteen, featuring art by Phil Noto. For more information, visit Marvel.com.

 Over the last few months, prolific writer J. Michael Straczynski has been spotlighting unlikely character pairings in a series of action packed one-shots. These timeless and standalone stories have co-starred two Marvel icons of Straczynski’s choosing—either in unexpected team-ups or thrilling showdowns—from Doctor Doom & Rocket Raccoon to Nick Fury Vs. Fin Fang Foom. This July, Straczynski closes out the series with a collision course of heroes and villains from every corner of the Marvel Universe in SPIDER-MAN VS. THE SINISTER SIXTEEN #1.

…On what inspired the tale, Straczynski explained, “One of the most common tropes in the super hero world is that of the amount of destruction that comes when heroes and villains lock horns. We all accept that it just happens. This led to thinking: What if the owner of a popular restaurant has run it into the ground and needs the place to be destroyed for the insurance money, and invites a ton of heroes and villains to dine all at the same time in the hope that a fight breaks out? What if initially everyone tries to stay calm to enjoy the experience, but sooner or later, with that roster…the storm comes.”

(11) DIRE STRAITS. “’Game of Thrones’ Dire Wolves Return in De-Extinction Breakthrough” – The Hollywood Reporter mashes up science and show-biz insights.

Immortalized in Game of Thrones and on the crest of House Stark, the dire wolf is walking the Earth again and even howling after going extinct nearly 10,000 years ago.

As announced today by genetic engineering company Colossal Biosciences, the long-extinct canine — or at least a very close approximation of it — has been successfully brought back to life. The process was accomplished via DNA extracted from two fossils as well as 20 edits of the genetic code of a gray wolf, the species’ closest living relative, according to research carried out by Colossal, sometimes known as the De-Extinction Company.

Colossal says it has whelped three dire wolves and — using CRISPR technology — decided to select fluffy white fur for their coats, based on its new analysis that the original species had snow-colored fur. (A previous study, published in Nature in 2021, found evidence that dire wolves were not closely related to gray wolves.)

The Colossal company has named its two new male dire wolves — a pair of six-month old adolescents — Romulus and Remus, after the mythological twin founders of Rome, who were said to have been raised by a wolf. And in an homage to Game of Thrones’ Daenerys Targaryen, it’s christened a female puppy Khaleesi.

The trio are now living in an enclosed preserve of more than 2,000 acres at an undisclosed location. They are expected to mature at 130 to 150 pounds — by contrast, a typical gray wolf clocks in at about 80 to 100 pounds.

 “Our team took DNA from a 13,000-year-old tooth and a 72,000-year-old skull and made healthy dire wolf puppies,” says Colossal CEO and co-founder Ben Lamm in a statement. “It was once said, ‘any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.’ Today, our team gets to unveil some of the magic they are working on and its broader impact on conservation.”…

… Colossal reached out to [George R.R.] Martin after it started work on its dire wolf de-extinction project. Not only did he sign on as a Colossal Biosciences cultural adviser and investor, Martin also flew to meet Romulus and Remus at their private preserve (which Colossal says has been certified by the American Humane Society).

Says Martin, in a statement, “Many people view dire wolves as mythical creatures that only exist in a fantasy world, but in reality, they have a rich history of contributing to the American ecosystem.”

While many fans of Game of Thrones likely think that dire wolves as fantasy beasts, they are in fact an actual animal that lived in the Americas and likely went extinct due to the disappearance of the large herbivores on which they preyed. At L.A.’s famed La Brea Tar Pits, fossil remains from more than 3,600 dire wolves have been discovered and the adjacent museum devotes an entire wall to displaying around 400 dire wolf skulls….

(12) FUSION IN SPAAAAACE, [Item by Mark Roth-Whitworth.] Actually, this makes *perfect* sense. In my novels, before we discover complete conversion, this is how we get around the solar system.

There will, of course, be idiots against it, I mean, let’s ignore the humongous fusion reactor in the middle of the solar system… “Nuclear-powered rocket concept could cut journey time to Mars in half” at CNN.

… With funding from the UK Space Agency, British startup Pulsar Fusion has unveiled Sunbird, a space rocket concept designed to meet spacecraft in orbit, attach to them, and carry them to their destination at breakneck speed using nuclear fusion.

“It’s very unnatural to do fusion on Earth,” says Richard Dinan, founder and CEO of Pulsar. “Fusion doesn’t want to work in an atmosphere. Space is a far more logical, sensible place to do fusion, because that’s where it wants to happen anyway.”

For now, Sunbird is in the very early stages of construction and it has exceptional engineering challenges to overcome, but Pulsar says it hopes to achieve fusion in orbit for the first time in 2027. If the rocket ever becomes operational, it could one day cut the journey time of a potential mission to Mars in half….

(13) CUDDLY KEN PASSED 30 YEARS AGO THIS MONTH, [Item by SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie.] Kenny Everett, one of Britain’s all-time top two disc jockey’s, died 30 years ago this month.  In addition to radio, he was known for The Kenny Everett TV Show: it was all in the best possible taste.. His humour was decidedly wacky and occasionally SF-adjacent if not, as with Captain Kremmen full-blown Sci-Fi.  And so…

Front shields on. Krill tray in position. Booster one. Booster two. Booster three. My mission, to camply go where no hand has set foot, to explore new vistas, quash new monsters and make space a safe place for the human race…  Yes, he’s so hunky… Muscles of steel, legs like a gazelle, thighs like tug boats, x-ray eyes, bionic blood, bulging biceps, a lock of tousled hair falling over a bronzed forehead, saviour of the Universe… Cue the music…

[Thanks to Mark Roth-Whitworth, Steven French, Kathy Sullivan, F. Brett Cox, Lis Carey, Teddy Harvia, 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.]