The 64th issue of Uncanny Magazine, winner of seven Hugos, plus a British Fantasy Award, a Locus Award, and World Fantasy Award, will be available on May 6 at uncannymagazine.com.
Hugo Award-winning Publisher and Editor-in-Chief Michael Damian Thomas is proud to present the 64th issue of their seven-time Hugo Award-winning online science fiction and fantasy magazine, Uncanny Magazine. Stories from Uncanny Magazine have won Hugo, Nebula, Locus, Sturgeon, and World Fantasy Awards. As always, Uncanny features passionate SF/F fiction and poetry, gorgeous prose, provocative essays, 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 the day of release and half on June 3.
“Unfinished Architectures of the Human-Fae War” by Caroline M. Yoachim (5/6)
“Barbershops of the Floating City” by Angela Liu (5/6)
“Vivisection” by Anjali Sachdeva (5/6)
“The Breaker of Mountains and Rivers” by Aliette de Bodard (6/3)
“Hi! I’m Claudia” by Delilah S. Dawson (6/3)
“All the World Is Fog” by DaVaun Sanders (6/3)
“Pale Serpent, Green Serpent” by Ewen Ma (5/6)
Essays
“Doing the Math” by Kelly Sue DeConnick (5/6)
“Get Lost! How Whereness Deepens Fiction” by Alex Jennings (5/6)
“Fantasy Musical Theatre: Sensawunda, Activate!” by Tina Connolly (6/3)
“Disney Presents: Second Person POV: Vloggers, Happy Haunts, and Short Stories that Use ‘You’” by J.R. Dawson (6/3)
Poetry
“A Full Belly” by Elizabeth Hart Bergstrom (5/6)
“Letter to My Future Reader” by Margaret Rhee (5/6)
“moth boy” by Praise Osawaru (6/3)
“Post-apocalypse Love Poem” by Gospel Chinedu (6/3)
Interviews
Interview: Angela Liu by Caroline M. Yoachim (5/6)
Interview: DaVaun Sanders by Caroline M. Yoachim (6/3)
Podcasts
Episode 64A (5/6): Editor’s Introduction; “Unfinished Architectures of the Human-Fae War” by Caroline M. Yoachim, as read by Erika Ensign; “A Full Belly” by Elizabeth Hart Bergstrom, as read by Erika Ensign; and Michael Damian Thomas interviewing Caroline M. Yoachim.
Episode 64B (6/3): Editor’s Introduction; “The Breaker of Mountains and Rivers” by Aliette de Bodard, as read by Matt Peters; “moth boy” by Praise Osawaru, as read by Matt Peters; and Michael Damian Thomas interviewing Aliette de Bodard.
LibGen contains millions of pirated books and research papers, built over nearly two decades. Court documents show Meta torrented a version of it to build its AI.
Here’s an example of what is being discovered.
But writers refuse to despair.
Search the LibGen database here, and peer inside a pirated library of millions of books and research papers used by Meta and others:
(2) BORDER AROUND THE WORLDCON. Seattle Worldcon 2025 chair Kathy Bond today responded to concerns about Trump administration policies and the hazards they create for international visitors to the U.S. Here are some excerpts:
I am writing this statement in order to share the status of Seattle Worldcon’s current journey through living up to our theme of Building Yesterday’s Future—For Everyone. We have received a number of concerns asking how the convention will respond to orders and actions of the U.S. government, which we condemn, that create hostile conditions and travel barriers for LGBTQ+ members and international members….
… We do not have a list of all the steps we are going to take in light of the political landscape right now, as it continues to shift rapidly. We know this is not a particularly satisfying answer in light of the many concerns that we have heard from you about our members who need to enter the United States and what they might encounter trying to cross the border. We are not minimizing those concerns. The situation is frightening, and we encourage our members to make the best decisions for themselves even if that means that we will miss you at our convention. At the same time we are committed to not cancelling the in-person Worldcon as some have suggested because it is even more important than ever to gather with those who are able to do so to discuss our theme and celebrate the power of SFF to imagine different societies.
We are investigating what concrete actions we can take and offer to our members. Our Code of Conduct, Diversity Commitment, and Anti-Racism Statement provide the guidelines we are using in making these determinations. We would also like to remind people about what we are already doing.
First, we have in place a Virtual Membership for people who determine that they are no longer safe traveling to the U.S or cannot attend for other reasons…
Second, building on the work of other Worldcons and conventions, we will be having Safer Spaces Lounges available for members of marginalized communities who attend the convention in person. These spaces will be marked on convention maps.
Third, we will be drafting a resource guide to collate many of the wonderful resources that local organizations have already put together. In the interim, the ACLU of Washington has several Know Your Rights publications available, as does Northwest Immigrants Rights Project for individuals concerned about their rights while traveling.
Fourth, we will be fundraising for the following nonprofit organizations at the convention: Books to Prisoners, The Bureau of Fearless Ideas, and Hugo House. All of these organizations do important work to promote literacy education in the Seattle area and help build community resilience.
Finally, the political landscape is changing daily and impacting all of us in differing, but profound ways. Our staff is not immune. Many of our staff are deeply, personally impacted by the actions of the U.S. president, as his bigoted and hateful orders target our shared humanity. Many of us are federal employees who are now navigating what is happening to the civil service, terminations from our careers, and extreme uncertainty about our livelihoods. Many of us are also still dealing with the impact of the Los Angeles fires, Hurricane Helene, tornadoes, and other recent severe weather events on our families, loved ones, and friends. As citizens in the U.S. and around the world, we have many concerns, which are probably similar to yours. We all care deeply about our community and about Worldcon and are working diligently to navigate all of the waters that surround us, but we are also human with all the fallibility, blind spots, and competing demands on our time that entails.
This is a time to support each other. If you have questions about how we can support you in deciding about your Worldcon attendance, please reach out to chair@seattlein2025.org.
(3) ADDITIONAL COMMENTARY. Frank Catalano, journalist, past SFWA Secretary, and File 770 contributor, amplified the expressed concerns in a Facebook post.
…The climate, and practices, at the border have changed a lot since Seattle committee won its bid.
…I think it now requires even more caution if you’re a writer or artist from outside the U.S. who considers conventions like this to be part of your work.
Asked at border crossings your purpose for entering the U.S.? In the past, saying you were attending a science-fiction convention might have gotten a weird look and a wave. Now, if you also say you work in the field, it may get you denied entry without an appropriate visa. Or even detained.
This isn’t alarmism. It’s happened to Canadian and U.K. citizens trying to enter the U.S. recently whose visa paperwork, in the eyes of those at the border, was not in order.
I’m attending Worldcon. I’d love to see all of you there, especially my international colleagues.
But take care. Prepare. Based on recent events, casual answers that led to a wave of flexibility in the past may keep you from entering, or returning home, in a timely manner.
After 11 years as Co-Editor-in-Chief and Co-Publisher of Uncanny Magazine, Lynne M. Thomas is stepping down from her editorial duties starting with Issue 64, and will also be stepping down as Co-Publisher starting withIssue 67. Going forward, Co-Editor-in-Chief and Co-Publisher Michael Damian Thomas will continue solo in both of these roles.
As many of you know, Lynne worked at Uncanny Magazine while also working as a rare books librarian, most recently as the Head of Rare Books and Special Collections at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. For over 15 years, Lynne has balanced rare book librarianship with an editorial and publishing career in science fiction and fantasy, but she is now shifting her focus to her day job as she works towards her rare book librarianship goals. The entire Uncanny Magazine staff warmly wishes Lynne the best of luck going forward!
Over the years, Michael gradually took over most of the editorial and publishing responsibilities at the magazine, and he is prepared for the work ahead and excited to continue sharing his vision as the sole Editor-in-Chief and Publisher of Uncanny Magazine.
Today, Wheaton announced a brand new weekly audiobook podcast called It’s Storytime with Wil Wheaton, in which he narrates speculative fiction stories he loves from places like Lightspeed Magazine, Uncanny Magazine, Clark’s World Magazine, and On Spec. The podcast launches on March 26, 2025, anywhere you get your podcasts.
We got a chance to chat with Wheaton about the inspiration behind it, what we’re going to experience, and getting the blessing of fellow Star Trek actor LeVar Burton.
Vital Thrills: Tell us all about “It’s Storytime with Wil Wheaton”!
Wil Wheaton: …Our first season is mostly established authors. We have a couple of multiple Hugo and Nebula finalists who have written incredible works because I just wanted to have something to show people in a few months, or however long it takes, so I could say to them, look, this is what I’m doing. This is what I want to do. Do you want to pitch us?
And that’s the ultimate goal. The thing that pushed that all from an idea into a thing that I worked on and the thing that is coming out was my love of LeVar Burton’s podcast, “LeVar Burton Reads.” When he was finishing his podcast, I was at a point where I had to decide: am I going to do this, or am I just going to record a thing for my friend?
I asked LeVar what he thought, and I said, “This is what I’m thinking about doing, and this is how I’m thinking about doing it, and I just really want to make sure that I don’t step on your toes. You absolutely inspire it.”
And it was so awesome. We were at the Burbank airport waiting to get on an airplane to go to a convention together, and LeVar just lit up and he hugged me, and he was like, “I’m so excited for you. I love it. It’s such a great idea. I give you my blessing. If there’s anything I can do to help you, please ask.”…
VT: I love that! The book market is so different now with everything online and self-publishing and all that, so a lot of stuff gets buried. This is such a cool way to get stuff out there. Did you have specific criteria in terms of what you were picking? Were there things that you’ve seen before?
Wil Wheaton: There were a couple of things that I’d seen before. I knew, for instance, that I loved Uncanny Magazine, Lightspeed Magazine, and Clarkesworld. I’ve been reading them for years, and when I was in the beginning, I went and looked for things… I was like, I’m going to do this entirely on my own.
And I went looking for new things. I went to all the writers’ markets. I went to all the very, very, very small publications. Most of ’em are online only in the double digits only. And I’m like, I’m going to find gems here. I know there are. And it turns out that I’m not good at that. It turns out that I don’t have that editorial skill.
So I went back to, okay, I love these magazines, and I love these editors. And as it turns out, a good friend of mine has a great relationship with Lynne and Michael Thomas, who are the editors of Uncanny, and she offered to make an introduction for me. I talked to them, and I told them what I wanted to do, and they were so excited.
They were on board before I even finished, before I got to the part of the pitch where I was like, “So, do you want to work together?” They were like, “So what do you need from us?” I was like, “Holy crap. This is amazing.” Every step of the way….
VT: The podcast launches on March 26 — where can everybody find it?
Wil Wheaton: You can get it wherever you get podcasts. I’ve asked the team to make sure that it’s in all the usual places. So Apple Podcasts is probably the biggest, most centralized place for people to find it, but it’s also on Stitcher, Pocket Casts, Pandora, iHeart, and Spotify. I have a homepage for the podcast at WilWheaton.net/Podcast. And there’s a list there with links to all the different places that it’s online at the moment….
(6) C.L. MOORE’S SHAMBLEAU. [Item by Rich Horton.] I thought this essay very interesting. There’s a paywall but you get two free per month. “The Soul Should Not Be Handled” by B.D. McClay in The Point Magazine.
… I like genre fiction for the same reason I like black-and-white film, stylized dialogue, animation, the paintings of Marc Chagall or ballet: things feel more real if they’re obviously a little fake. If somebody asked me whether I preferred literary fiction to genre fiction (or vice versa) I would say, I hope, that I prefer good fiction to bad fiction. I think that this is a good response to a silly question, but there’s another one we could ask that’s a little more interesting: Is what makes a genre story good the same thing that makes realistic fiction good? Part of what makes genre genre is its place in a certain tradition with certain conventions and stock elements. If we are reading a detective story, we have certain figures and moments we come to expect: the amateur detective, the hapless sidekick, the suspicious woman, a second crime, a red herring, a solution. Part of what makes a detective story good or bad is its use of these expectations—a use that can (and often does) include subverting them. When it comes to speculative fiction, another dimension is that the boundaries between a fan, a professional and an amateur are never very clear. The landscape is more horizontal. You could, if you wanted, start a fanzine and get important writers to contribute; you could publish your first story ever in a magazine and get a letter from one of your most famous peers. Within genre, work can be wildly experimental, but this experiment takes place in a context of shared touchstones and trust in the audience. Writers of speculative fiction want to be read, and they have a good idea of who is out there reading their work….
…So let’s go back to that old issue of Weird Tales—it’s from November 1933—and to the first entry in the table of contents: “Shambleau,” “an utterly strange story” (the table of contents says) “about an alluring female creature that was neither beast nor human, neither ghost nor vampire.”…
The Big Bang Theory spinoff on Max is untitled no more — and it’s good news and bad news for Kevin Sussman’s Stuart Bloom character.
The series, which remains in development, will be titled Stuart Fails to Save the Universe, Deadline has learned. That puts Stuart at the center of the offshoot but also hints that the beloved sidekick, who could never quite catch a break on Big Bang, might not have better luck on his own….
…On Stuart Fails to Save the Universe, Sussman is joined by fellow Big Bang alums Lauren Lapkus, who plays Stuart’s girlfriend Denise, Brian Posehn (Bert Kibbler) and John Ross Bowie (Barry Kripke). Because the series is still awaiting a green light, the quartet are not formally cast in it but have talent holding deals with WBTV with the purpose of starring in the spinoff once it’s picked up.
For the first time, legendary visual futurist Syd Mead will have a major exhibition of his paintings. “Future Pastime” will run March 28-May 21 at the former Mitchell-Innes & Nash gallery space in Chelsea.
Long before the metaverse, Mead was crafting immersive future worlds that have shaped our collective imagination and became a defining force in science fiction cinema, designing iconic worlds. From the neon-drenched streets of Blade Runner (1982) to the sleek, geometric landscapes of TRON (1982), his influence on sci-fi films is undeniable. His designs also impacted Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) 2010 (1984), Aliens (1986), and many more. They even inspired Elon Musk’s Cybertruck.
Born in St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1933, Mead was a visionary artist who redefined how we imagine the future. After serving in the U.S. Army, he studied at the Art Center School in Los Angeles, blending inspiration from classical masters like Caravaggio with the Space Age musings of Chesley Bonestell to create a singular and unprecedented art style: visions of the future rendered wholly with classical technique. His philosophy of science fiction as “reality ahead of schedule” defined a career that bridged imagination and reality. He died in 2019….
(9) TRIBUTE TO GINJER BUCHANAN. [Written by Cat Eldridge.] I have come to honor one of our most excellent Editors ever, Ginjer Buchanan. She was the Editor-in-Chief at Ace Books and Roc Books, two sff imprints of Penguin Books, where she stayed for an extraordinary thirty years before retiring. Prior to that, she was consulting editor for the Star Trek tie-ins at Pocket Books and an outside reader for the Science Fiction Book Club which just ended its long run.
And yes, she was active in fandom from an early age which included being a founding member of the Western Pennsylvania Science Fiction Association (WPSFA, or “Woops-fa” as it was affectionately known as she noted in a Locus interview.)
Berkley president and publisher Leslie Gelbman upon her retirement said of her: “During her thirty years with Ace and Roc, Ginjer was essential in growing our science fiction and fantasy list and launching the careers of several bestselling authors. Her love for the genre and books in general and dedication to her authors is unparalleled, and she’s a key reason Ace/Roc is one of the preeminent science fiction-fantasy publishers.”
She won a Hugo at Loncon 3 for Best Editor, Long Form and was nominated for the same at Nippon 2007, Denvention 3, Anticipation, Aussiecon 4 and Renovation.
She won the Nebula Solstice Award in 2013, and the same year saw her garner the Edward E. Smith Memorial Award for Imaginative Fiction (aka the Skylark). She was nominated in 2006 for a World Fantasy Award in the Special Award, Professional category for her work Ace Books but alas did not win.
She was the Toastmaster at the World Fantasy Convention in 1989, and a Guest of Honor at ArmadilloCon in 1988, Foolscap in 2000 and at OryCon in 2008. Ginjer was also a Guest of Honor at the Dublin 2019 Worldcon, and a GOH at World Fantasy Con in New Orleans in 2022.
And yes, she’s written fiction. Her sole novel is a Highlander series tie-in, White Silence. It’s a most excellent novel, well worth reading, especially if you are a fan of that series. Yes I am. She’s got a deft feel for the characters and the milieu they’re a part of. Yes, it’s available from the usual suspects.
She’s also penned three short pieces of fiction, “The End of Summer by The Great Sea” in the Alternate Kennedys anthology, “Cathachresis” in the More Whatdunits anthology, and “If Horses Were Wishes …” in the By Any Other Fame anthology. The first two are edited by Mike Resnick alone, the last by Resnick and Martin H. Greenberg. All three are available are to be had from the usual suspects.
So being a serious Firefly fan, she has an essay, “Who Killed Firefly?” in the Jane Espenson edited Finding Serenity: Anti-Heroes, Lost Shepherds and Space Hookers in Joss Whedon’s Firefly collection. It’s available from the usual suspects. And yes, it’s a lot of fun to read if you’re a Firefly fan. Really it is.
And being a fan of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series, she penned “The Journey of Jonathan Levenson: From Scenery to Sacrifice” which was in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Watcher’s Guide, Volume 3 edited by Paul Ruditis. This is not to be had from the usual suspects.
Oh, and she has one published poem, “Four Views of Necon” published in Cemetery Dance’s The Big Book of Necon anthology edited by Bob Booth. No luck on this one either.
All in all, a truly amazing individual who has contributed in oh so many ways to our community, so let’s toast her now as she so richly deserves to be.
Ginjer Buchanan
(10) COMICS SECTION.
Carpe Diem finds small businesses have it hard in Middle-Earth, too.
If there’s one man who could reliably be considered to have the history of the DC Universe at his fingertips, it’d be Barry Allen — the former Flash who was the first hero to travel the multiverse and uncover the secrets behind DC’s reality. If there were two, then the other would be real-life comic book writer Mark Waid, long-time DC expert and writer of everything from The Flash and Kingdom Come to Action Comics and Justice League Unlimited. Starting this June, the two will be collaborating (well, kind of) to make fans’ dreams come true with the four-issue comic book series New History of the DC Universe.
Written by Waid and starring the erstwhile Mr. Allen, the series is intended to reveal the truth behind the DCU — including some secrets even longtime fans might be surprised by.
“This is my dream project,” Waid said in a statement about the series. “It’s a chance to realign all of DC’s sprawling continuity into one master timeline, and to be joined by some of comics’ greatest artists to make it shine. With new information for even longtime fans, plus Easter eggs galore, this series will be an essential read for DC fans.”
The first issue will feature art from Jerry Ordway and Todd Nauck, and will cover everything from the beginnings of the DCU through the origins of the Justice Society of America. Future issues will see an “all-star line-up of interior artists” contribute, according to DC, with an equally impressive group of cover artists working on the title throughout….
… This isn’t the first time DC has released an official version of its comic book canon: in 1986, the company published History of the DC Universe by Marv Wolfman and George Perez, the two creators who had just rebooted everything in the previous year’s Crisis on Infinite Earths series. It’s also not the first time that Mark Waid has worked on a project of this scope; in 2019, he wrote the six-issue History of the Marvel Universe, illustrated by Javier Rodriguez….
Disney investors on Thursday voted down a proposal that the entertainment giant cease its participation in a prominent LGBTQ rights organization’s equality ratings program.
The proposal — requesting that Disney “cease” its participation in the Human Rights Campaign‘s annual Corporate Equality Index — was submitted by right-wing think tank National Center for Public Policy Research, through its Free Enterprise Project initiative. (The FEP calls itself “the original and premier opponent of the woke takeover of American corporate life.”)
“When corporations take extreme positions, they destroy shareholder value by alienating large portions of their customers and investors. This proposal provides Disney with an opportunity to move back to neutral,” the FEP’s proposal stated. It noted that since 2007, Disney has received a “perfect score” on the CEI, “which can only be attained by abiding by its partisan, divisive and increasingly radical criteria.”…
… Disney’s board recommended voting against the proposal to end its participation in the HRC’s Corporate Equality Index. Shareholders concurred, with only 1% of shares voted in favor the proposal, according to the preliminary tally….
A foreign language sci-fi movie is headed to U.S. movie theaters this spring, but audiences won’t have to groan about subtitles. For the first time, an international feature film will look and sound as if it was made in English thanks to artificial intelligence.
Though the supernatural Swedish adventure “Watch the Skies” was made in its native tongue, AI company Flawless has digitally altered the film’s images and sound so character mouth movements and speech will be perfectly synced for English speaking viewers. The tech uses voices of the original cast to create dubs, and is compliant with SAG-AFTRA.
AMC Theatres, the nation’s top movie chain, has committed 100 screens to the project in the top 20 markets across America. Flawless has partnered with distributor XYZ films to roll the film out to cineplexes on May 9.
SpaceX’s Crew-9 astronauts had some company in the water after they splashed down on Tuesday afternoon (March 18).
The Crew-9 mission returned to Earth at 5:57 p.m. EDT (2157 GMT) on Tuesday, splashing down in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Tallahassee, Florida. A fleet of recovery vessels soon converged on Crew-9‘s Dragon capsule, named Freedom — and so did some curious marine mammals, who wanted to check out this strange object that fell from the sky into their domain.
Freedom carried four people — NASA astronauts Nick Hague, Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore and Aleksandr Gorbunov of the Russian space agency Roscosmos — home from the International Space Station (ISS)…
…Crew-9’s splashdown was memorable and dramatic even before the dolphins showed up. It brought an end to the long space saga of Wilmore and Williams, which was a big story from the outset but became turbo-charged recently….
While in space, astronauts must exercise two hours per day, every day,according to a NASA pamphlet, as zero-gravity conditions can cause “bone and muscle deterioration” over time. Williams worked out first thing as part of her morning routine — waking up at 5:30 a.m. GMT and “running, cycling, and weightlifting” until 7:30 a.m., according to ESPN.(NASA did not immediately respond to CNBC Make It’s request for comment on the amount of control Williams had over her schedule.)
Wilmore and Williams will now have to spend 45 days re-acclimatizing to Earth’s gravity, NPR reports. Their new routines will include a “personalized recovery program” of two hours per day that they spend exercising with personal trainers….
Dark energy, the mysterious force powering the expansion of the universe, appears to be weakening, according to a survey that could “overthrow” scientists’ current understanding of the fate of the cosmos.
If confirmed, the results from the dark energy spectroscopic instrument (Desi) team at the Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona would have profound implications for theories about the evolution of the universe, opening up the possibility that its current expansion could eventually go into reverse in a “big crunch”.
A suggestion that dark energy reached a peak billions of years ago would also herald the first substantial change in decades to the widely accepted theoretical model of the universe….
… Dark energy has been assumed to be a constant, which would imply the universe will meet its end in a desolate scenario called the “big freeze”, when everything is eventually so far apart that even light cannot bridge the gap between galaxies. The latest findings, announced on Thursday at the American Physical Society’s Global Physics Summit in Anaheim, California, challenge that prevailing view.
Desi uses its 5,000 fibreoptic “eyes” to map the cosmos with unprecedented precision. Its latest data release captures 15m galaxies, spanning 11bn years of history, which astronomers have used to create the most detailed three-dimensional map of the universe to date.
The results suggest that dark energy reached a peak in strength when the universe was about 70% of its current age and it is now about 10% weaker. This would mean the rate of expansion is still accelerating, but that dark energy is gently lifting its foot off the pedal.…
[Thanks to Teddy Harvia, Mike Kennedy, Andrew Porter, N., Frank Catalano, Matthew Kressel, Rich Horton, John King Tarpinian, Chris Barkley, Cat Eldridge, SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Mark Roth-Whitworth, Steven French, and Kathy Sullivan for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Jim Janney.]
The 63rd issue of Uncanny Magazine, winner of seven Hugos, plus a British Fantasy Award, a Locus Award, and World Fantasy Award, will be available on March 4 at uncannymagazine.com.
Hugo Award-winning Publishers Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas are proud to present the 63rd issue of their seven-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, Sturgeon, 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 April 1.
“The Uncanny Valley” by Lynne M. Thomas & Michael Damian Thomas
Fiction
“10 Visions of the Future; or, Self-Care for the End of Days” by Samantha Mills (3/4)
“Butterfly Pavilion” by G. Willow Wilson (3/4)
“Red, Scuttle When the Ships Come Down” by Wen-yi Lee (3/4)
“The Prodigal Mother” (excerpt from Lessons in Magic and Disaster) by Charlie Jane Anders (4/1)
“The Life and Times of Alavira the Great as Written by Titos Pavlou and Reviewed by Two Lifelong Friends” by Eugenia Triantafyllou (4/1)
“The Island with the Animals” by Stephanie Malia Morris (4/1)
“Unbury” by Kirsty Logan (4/1)
“Infinite Halves” by J.L. Akagi (3/4)
Essays
“Breakout, Ripoff, Genre: How Fiction Outgrows Originality” by John Wiswell (3/4)
“Crawling out of the Laptop: On Reader-to-Character Interactions and Mixed Reality Storytelling” by Angela Liu (3/4)
“Ncuti to the Moon Take Two: Reflecting on the Fifteenth Doctor’s First Season” by Amanda-Rae Prescott (4/1)
“Green Walls, Castles, and Dark Rides: What I Learned about Worldbuilding from Imagineers” by J.R. Dawson (4/1)
Poetry
“The Birds” by Rafiat Lamidi (3/4)
“the bud of a dead dream” by Ai Jiang (3/4)
“Time loop for the day I die.” by Abdulrazaq Salihu (4/1)
“Red-Coded and Weary” by Lesley Hart Gunn (4/1)
Interviews
Wen-yi Lee interviewed by Caroline M. Yoachim (3/4)
Eugenia Triantafyllou interviewed by Caroline M. Yoachim (4/1)
Podcasts
Episode 63A (3/4): Editors’ Introduction; “10 Visions of the Future; or, Self-Care for the End of Days” by Samantha Mills, as read by Erika Ensign; “Butterfly Pavilion” by G. Willow Wilson, as read by Erika Ensign; “The Birds” by Rafiat Lamidi, as read by Matt Peters; and Lynne M. Thomas interviewing Samantha Mills.
Episode 63B (4/1): Editors’ Introduction; “The Island with the Animals” by Stephanie Malia Morris, as read by Matt Peters; “Time loop for the day I die.” by Abdulrazaq Salihu, as read by Matt Peters; and Lynne M. Thomas interviewing Stephanie Malia Morris.
(1) SPACE UNICORNS SOUND OFF. You have until February 17 to make your voice heard in the Uncanny Magazine 2024 Favorite Fiction Reader Poll. Vote at the link. Each person gets a single entry of 3 stories (which can be edited later).
(2) SFF SHUT OUT OF DGA AWARDS. No works of genre interest won when the Directors Guild of America announced the 2025 DGA Awards at a ceremony on February 8. The complete list of 2025 DGA Awards winners and all related credits are at the link.
… We speculative poets know speculative poetry when we read it, but sometimes it’s not so easy to tell for some readers, and sometimes the line is fragile, even for us speculative poets, so I am going to give a few examples of situations and poems that are clearly speculative as guidelines….
… Let’s say a person wants to write a speculative poem about their broken heart. Your feelings are real and having your heart broken is a devastating experience.
However, if your heart has been pulled into cosmic taffy, boiled in acid in a dutch oven full of tears, shattered once it reaches the hard crack stage on a candy thermometer, and fed to the monsters that live under your bed after it has been ripped from your chest, pulped under foot, and destroyed- your tears became diamonds you pawned to a constantly changing man with a ragged trench coat with pockets full of wonders in an alleyway behind a coffeehouse that could only be found at 3:13pm every other Tuesday for a new heart of pure gold or some strange unbreakable alloy with strange properties that you merely insert into a fairy door in your chest- it is now a speculative poem about a broken heart….
(4) FURRIES SLURRED IN TABLOID. Dogpatch Press drew attention to a UK tabloid “hit piece” about a furry convention this weekend in Scotland — “Gathering featuring anthropomorphic erotica will be held in support of Scottish conservation group” at The Telegraph [Archive.Today link] – and says, “Furries are angry about being conflated with abusers, based on nothing but twisting the wording of a convention code of conduct about what they don’t support.” [Warning for slurs in the screencaps.]
Furries are angry about being conflated with abusers, based on nothing but twisting the wording of a convention code of conduct about what they don't support.
It's complicated when surface level reaction is one thing, internal organizer level handling is another. There is the issue of limited power and liability about being able to control who interacts. And then there is the issue of cronyism/corruption which I have witnessed and experienced.
I can't discuss active investigation but can help anyone who blows a whistle in public or private. There's multi layers where misinformed, hateful outsider attacks exist at the same time as significant internal issues that are not unique to a targeted community that hosts marginalized people.
Fennick Firefox, a man dressed as a large furry orange fox with blue hair and a tail tipped by a flame, says that in his normal life he is very shy person.
But after he adopts his “fursona”, he is dancing in the street and sharing a long hug with his best friend Rock, who is dressed as a giant red and black German Shepherd.
“It’s like a superhero cape,” says Fennick.
“When I put my fox head on, the person is gone – he does not exist.”
Fennick says that being in costume allows him to escape his everyday struggles and “do nothing but be happy”.
That’s what has brought him to Scotland’s largest furry convention – Scotiacon….
Marvel’s latest ‘The Fantastic Four: First Steps’ trailer has just dropped, and it’s turning heads! Join me as I dive into this retro-futuristic take on Marvel’s first family. Could this be the MCU’s boldest move yet or another blunder? Watch to find out and let me know what you think!
Christopher Reeve just got a tribute that even the strongest kryptonite couldn’t take down.
During a panel at MegaCon Orlando in Florida on Saturday, Feb. 8, six actors who have portrayed Superman in the years since Reeve’s role as the Man of Steel in 1978’s Supermancame together to discuss the DC hero’s legacy on and off the screen and to honor Reeve, who died in 2004.
Those in attendance included Tyler Hoechlin (Superman & Lois), Brandon Routh (Superman Returns), Dean Cain (Lois & Clark), Tim Daly (Superman: The Animated Series), George Newbern (Justice League animated series) and Tom Welling (Smallville).
During the discussion, Welling, 47, recalled working with Reeve on a season 2 episode of Smallville, an experience he said he “walked away from wanting to be a better person.” Reeve appeared in the WB series as scientist Virgil Swann, who played an important role in the storyline of Welling’s portrayal of Clark Kent.
“We got there and the plan was to shoot four hours and get his side of two scenes and then he would leave and I would do my side with someone else,” Welling recalled. “We did the first scene and they said, ‘OK, we’re gonna do the next scene.’ He goes, ‘What about Tom?’ “
As Welling recalled at MegaCon, Reeve had other plans — just as he had a quick sense of humor.
“He was like, ‘No I’m not leaving.’ And long story short, it got to the point about eight hours into the day and they turned around filming my scenes with him. And his nurse, power of attorney, was like, ‘If you don’t come with me in 15 minutes, I’m calling the police.’ He had to leave. He looked at me and goes, ‘They’re always telling me what to do.’ “
“You didn’t feel sorry for him at all,” Welling said elsewhere during his story about Reeve. “He was telling jokes the whole time. We had a riot, he was cracking up. … We just had really great banter. I had a lot of fun with him.”…
(8) MEMORY LANE.
[Written by Cat Eldridge.]
February 9, 1966 — Lost In Space’s “War Of The Robots”
Fifty-nine years ago this evening, the thrilling sight of Lost In Space’s “War Of The Robots” first happened. In one corner of this fight, we have Robby the Robot from Forbidden Planet. And in the other corner of the ring (metaphorically speaking), we have B-9 from Lost in Space.
Aired as the twentieth episode of the first season, the story is that while returning from a fishing trip, Will and B-9 find a deactivated Robotoid. Against the wishes of B-9, Will proceeds to repair and restore the Robotoid which apparently becomes a humble servant of the Robinson family. Sure.
The best part of this episode is the slow motion rock ‘em, sock ‘em battle between the robots. And yes it’s a very, very silly battle indeed as you can see from the image below. Robotic gunfighters, eh?
Lost in Space is available to stream on Hulu and Disney+.
(10) AI ART GOING UNDER THE HAMMER. But are they hitting it hard enough? Christie’s auction house thinks people should line up to bid on stuff created with AI tools, or might once they explain it to them in “What Is AI Art?”
Christie’s New York is proud to announce its inaugural AI art auction, Augmented Intelligence, the first ever artificial intelligence-dedicated sale at a major auction house. Running from 20 February to 5 March with a concurrent exhibition at Christie’s Rockefeller Center galleries, the online sale will include highly sought-after works by AI artists spanning the establishment and new guard, such as Refik Anadol, Claire Silver, Sasha Stiles, Pindar Van Arman, Holly Herndon & Mat Dryhurst, Harold Cohen and more. The sale also showcases a selection of artists from NVIDIA’s AI Art Gallery.
‘AI technology is undoubtedly the future, and its connection to creativity will become increasingly important,’ says Nicole Sales Giles, Christie’s Director of Digital Art.
So, what is AI art?
In simple terms, artificial intelligence art (AI art) is any form of art that has been created or enhanced with AI tools. Many artists use the term ‘collaboration’ when describing their process with AI….
Searching for life in alien oceans may be more difficult than scientists previously thought, even when we can sample these extraterrestrial waters directly.
A new study focusing on Enceladus, a moon of Saturn that sprays its ocean water into space through cracks in its icy surface, shows that the physics of alien oceans could prevent evidence of deep-sea life from reaching places where we can detect it.
Published today (Thursday, 6 February 2025) in Communications Earth & Environment, the study shows how Enceladus’s ocean forms distinct layers that dramatically slow the movement of material from the ocean floor to the surface.
Chemical traces, microbes, and organic material – telltale signatures of life that scientists look for – could break down or transform as they travel through the ocean’s distinct layers. These biological signatures might become unrecognisable by the time they reach the surface where spacecraft can sample them, even if life thrives in the deep ocean below.
Flynn Ames, lead author at the University of Reading, said: “Imagine trying to detect life at the depths of Earth’s oceans by only sampling water from the surface. That’s the challenge we face with Enceladus, except we’re also dealing with an ocean whose physics we do not fully understand.
“We’ve found that Enceladus’ ocean should behave like oil and water in a jar, with layers that resist vertical mixing. These natural barriers could trap particles and chemical traces of life in the depths below for hundreds to hundreds of thousands of years. Previously, it was thought that these things could make their way efficiently to the ocean top within several months.
“As the search for life continues, future space missions will need to be extra careful when sampling Enceladus’s surface waters.” …
In the Super Bowl trailer for Thunderbolts*, premiering May 2 in theaters, Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ CIA director Valentina Allegra de Fontaine warns the Avengers aren’t coming as she questions “who will keep the American people safe?”
Set to Starship’s ‘Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now’, the spot features Florence Pugh’s Yelena Bolova/Black Widow suffering from some serious imposter syndrome until her fellow Thunderbolts give her a pep talk.
“We can’t do this. No one here is a hero,” she says before David Harbour’s Alexei Shostakov/Red Guardian tells her: “Yelena, when I look at you, I don’t see your mistakes. That’s why we need each other.”…
Return with us now to the rugged isle of Berk, where Vikings and dragons have been bitter enemies for generations, Hiccup (Mason Thames) stands apart. The inventive yet overlooked son of Chief Stoick the Vast (Gerard Butler, reprising his voice role from the animated franchise), he defies centuries of tradition when he befriends Toothless, a feared Night Fury dragon. Their unlikely bond reveals the true nature of dragons, challenging the very foundations of Viking society.
With the fierce and ambitious Astrid (Nico Parker) and the village’s quirky blacksmith Gobber (Nick Frost) by his side, Hiccup confronts a world torn by fear and misunderstanding. As an ancient threat emerges, endangering both Vikings and dragons, Hiccup’s friendship with Toothless becomes the key to forging a new future….
This summer’s action-packed monster movie Jurassic World: Rebirth has released its first trailer and glimpse into the latest film in the franchise, starring Jonathan Bailey, Scarlett Johansson and Mahershala Ali among others. Universal opens the film globally on July 2.
The fourth film in the Jurassic World series follows a team of scientists and others whose main objective is to acquire genetic samples from three of the largest dinosaurs in the sea, on land and in the air. Set five years after Jurassic World: Dominion (2022), the planet has become inhospitable for dinosaurs, so those that still exist have become isolated to environments in which their breeds once flourished. The three most colossal creatures in the different parts of the ecosystem could prove necessary for a life-saving drug for humans….
…Ethan Hunt, the spy at the center of the blockbuster action flick helmed by Christopher McQuarrie, returns to chase down villains, conduct submarine reconnaissance and hang beneath propeller planes in what is billed as the epic finale to a saga that first began nearly two decades prior.
In the sequel to 2023’s Dead Reckoning Part One, slated for release May 23, Cruise’s character embarks on a final mission that will reportedly close out the sprawling franchise….
[Thanks to Teddy Harvia, Mike Kennedy, Andrew Porter, John King Tarpinian, Chris Barkley, Cat Eldridge, SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Steven French, and Kathy Sullivan for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Jim Janney.]
The 62nd issue of Uncanny Magazine, winner of seven Hugos, plus a British Fantasy Award, a Locus Award, and World Fantasy Award, will be available on January 7 at uncannymagazine.com.
Hugo Award-winning Publishers Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas are proud to present the 62nd issue of their seven-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, Sturgeon, 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 February 4.
“The Uncanny Valley” by Lynne M. Thomas & Michael Damian Thomas
Fiction
“Kaiju Agonistes” by Scott Lynch (1/7) “Six People to Revise You” by J.R. Dawson (1/7) “For Whom the Hair Grows” by Tia Tashiro (1/7)
“The Flaming Embusen” by Tade Thompson (2/4) “With Her Serpent Locks” by Mary Robinette Kowal (2/4) “Men with Tails” by Rati Mehrotra (2/4)
“Your Personalized Guide to the Museum of the Lost and Found” by AnaMaria Curtis (1/7)
Nonfiction
“The Hugo Awards” by Nicholas Whyte (1/7) “Homes to Remember and Forget” by Ai Jiang (1/7)
“Accessibility Toolkit for When Things Go Wrong” by A. T. Greenblatt (2/4) “Everything You Didn’t Know You Needed to Know about Writing Swords” by Suzanne Walker (2/4)
Poetry
“Nymph” by Kailee Pedersen (1/7) “Care for Lightning” by Mari Ness (1/7)
“Love Letter in Cobra Pose” Shankar Narayan (2/4) “Cassandra” by E. N. Díaz (2/4)
Interviews
Scott Lynch interviewed by Caroline M. Yoachim (1/7)
Rati Mehrotra interviewed by Caroline M. Yoachim (2/4)
Podcasts
Episode 62A (1/7): Editors’ Introduction; “Six People to Revise You” by J.R. Dawson, as read by Erika Ensign; “Care for Lightning” by Mari Ness, as read by Erika Ensign; and Lynne M. Thomas interviewing J.R. Dawson.
Episode 62B (2/4): Editors’ Introduction; “The Flaming Embusen” by Tade Thompson, as read by Matt Peters; “Love Letter in Cobra Pose” by Shankar Narayan, as read by Erika Ensign; and Lynne M. Thomas interviewing Tade Thompson.
The 61st issue of Uncanny Magazine, winner of seven Hugos, a British Fantasy Award and a Locus Award, will be available on November 5 at uncannymagazine.com.
Hugo Award-winning Publishers Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas are proud to present the 61st issue of their seven-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, Sturgeon, 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 December 3.
“The Uncanny Valley” by Lynne M. Thomas & Michael Damian Thomas
Fiction
“Woodmask” by Adrian Tchaikovsky (11/5)
“The Golden Tooth: A Solo Show by Orion Cabrera” transcribed by William Alexander (11/5)
“Twice Every Day Returning” by Sonya Taaffe (11/5)
“The Geckomancer’s Lament” by Lauren Beukes (12/3)
“On the Water Its Crystal Teeth” by Marissa Lingen (12/3)
“Ancestor Heart” by Naomi Day (12/3)
“A Book Is a Map, a Bed Is a Country” by Angel Leal (11/5)
Nonfiction
“The Breathtaking Condescension Tango” by Vivian Shaw (11/5)
“Longlegs, Long Held Memories” by Tania Chen (11/5)
“Romantasy All Along!” by Tansy Rayner Roberts (12/3)
“Can’t We All Just Get Along? Them: The Scare Uses Afro-Surrealism to Produce Effective Scares” by Alex Jennings (12/3)
Poetry
“Anansi Braids Your Stepson’s Hair” by Brandon O’Brien (11/5)
“Null Path Catalog” by Sneha Mohidekar (11/5)
“We Tried Beating Time to Death” by Abu Bakr Sadiq (12/3)
“Operetta” by Katherine James (12/3)
Interviews
William Alexander interviewed by Caroline M. Yoachim (11/5)
Marissa Lingen interviewed by Caroline M. Yoachim (12/3)
Podcasts
Episode 61A (11/5): Editors’ Introduction; “Woodmask” by Adrian Tchaikovsky, as read by Erika Ensign; “Anansi Braids Your Stepson’s Hair” by Brandon O’Brien, as read by Matt Peters; and Lynne M. Thomas interviewing Adrian Tchaikovsky.
Episode 61B (12/3): Editors’ Introduction; “The Geckomancer’s Lament” by Lauren Beukes, as read by Luyanda Unati Lewis-Nyawo; “We Tried Beating Time to Death” by Abu Bakr Sadiq, as read by Matt Peters; and Lynne M. Thomas interviewing Lauren Beukes.
(1) SEATTLE 2025 CONSIDERING ARTISTS TO DESIGN HUGO BASE. The 2024 Worldcon committee announced on Facebook:
Seattle Worldcon 2025 is currently accepting information from artists interested in designing the 2025 Hugo Base. Have an idea that builds yesterday’s future for everyone?
If, after reading the information listed at the link below, you are interested, please fill out the form. Our Hugo Base Subcommittee will be reviewing submissions until November 15, 2024. After that point, we will contact you to either move forward with further discussions or with a heartfelt thanks for sharing your interest.
There’s a Google Doc link in the post that takes readers to the complete guidelines. They say in part:
Our Hugo Base sub-committee will be reviewing submissions based on the following criteria:
Ability to produce an initial order of 45 bases;
Ability to possibly produce more bases upon request in the 3 months after our convention;
….Historically, it was not that hard for an author in pulp or genre fiction to publish under a name different than their legal name. Many works of fiction were submitted to editors in the mail, perhaps with a cover letter and address or post office box. Correspondence and payment could go back to that address, with someone ultimately cashing the check. Especially before the internet, it was not hard to do this. I assume the editors often knew there was a pen name, or even requested one be used.
With today’s copyright laws and the internet, it is my suspicion that using a pseudonym without anyone other than your agent, editor or publisher knowing it is you is a good deal harder than it might have been in the past….
… Cordwainer Bird was used by Harlan Ellison for “material he was partially disclaiming”, to quote SFE. This was substantially scripts for TV, including “The Price of Doom” (1964) episode of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, “You Can’t Get There from Here” (1968) episode of The Flying Nun; and “Voyage of Discovery” (1973) episode of The Starlost. Harlan Ellison’s first published story was “Glow Worm“, a short story, Infinity Science Fiction, February 1956. He wrote under many pseudonyms especially early in his career. For those not familiar with his broad work in speculative fiction including SF, fantasy, and horror and combinations thereof, you would not go wrong with the recent collection Greatest Hits, J. Michael Straczynski editor, 2024 Union Square & Co. (see my review).
Cordwainer Bird was also used as a pseudonym by Philip José Farmer with permission of Harlan Ellison for the “The Impotency of Bad Karma“, a short story, Popular Culture June 1977. His first published work was “The Lovers“, a novella, Startling Stories August 1952. 1952, rather revolutionary and still important. Farmer went through what he called his “fictional author phase” from 1974 to 1978, when he used pseudonyms that were often the names of fictional writers in works by others or by him. My own favorite in terms of pseudonym used by Farmer is “Venus on the Half-Shell“, a novella, F&SF December 1974, as by Kilgore Trout, who first appeared in Kurt Vonnegut’s God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, 1965 Holt, Rinehart and Winston….
My fave did not make his list – “Tak Hallus”, a Steven Robinett pseud that supposedly is Persian for “pen name”.
(3) SFWA UPDATE. SFWA’s Interim President Anthony W. Eichenlaub today sent a message to members that said in part:
…Recent resignations prove to us how much we’ve come to depend on our staff while also highlighting flaws in the structure of our organization. SFWA must change as it rebuilds. To help guide us in this, we are bringing in Russell Davis in a transitional leadership position. He knows SFWA well, understands corporate structure, and is already getting up to speed.
At last week’s Board meeting we discussed new formats for the Nebula Conference that will allow us to serve both members and non-members without burning out volunteers or staff. Our yearly event has taken many forms throughout the years, and we want to focus this year on a celebration of everything SFWA has accomplished over these past sixty years. None of the details are nailed down yet, but it will likely be a significant change from the Nebulas of recent years. We’re focusing on the Midwest and we’ll have more to share as soon as possible.
We also now have a finalized confidentiality policy. It’s back from the lawyer, and the next step is to vote both this and the corresponding OPPM changes in so that we can start rolling it out. My hope is that we can make this the start of a cultural shift toward transparency for the organization. Change is easier when it happens in the light of day….
(4) SIFTING AND SIEVING. Uncanny Magazine coeditor Michael Damian Thomas today expanded on his previous comments about an AI-inspired surge in submissions.
2- We haven't banned any submitters yet for AI use. We would probably need something like "I totally used AI for this story, you suckers!!" for that to happen.
4- AI submissions aren't anywhere near Uncanny's biggest problems. Those remain the financial impact of Am*zon changes and the disintegration of social media.
Harrison Ford is no stranger to blockbuster Hollywood franchises, having played Han Solo and Indiana Jones across decades. And now, the 82-year-old actor is joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross / Red Hulk in next year’s “Captain America: Brave New World.” Speaking to GQ magazine, Ford said it would be “silly” to avoid Marvel when it’s something moviegoers have clearly responded to for years now.
“I mean, this is the Marvel universe and I’m just there on a weekend pass. I’m a sailor new to this town,” Ford said about his MCU debut. “I understand the appeal of other kinds of films besides the kind we made in the ’80s and ’90s. I don’t have anything general to say about it. It’s the condition our condition is in, and things change and morph and go on. We’re silly if we sit around regretting the change and don’t participate. I’m participating in a new part of the business that, for me at least, I think is really producing some good experiences for an audience. I enjoy that.”…
Ward Christensen, co-inventor of the computer bulletin board system (BBS), has died at age 78 in Rolling Meadows, Illinois. He was found deceased at his home on Friday after friends requested a wellness check. Christensen, along with Randy Suess, created the first BBS in Chicago in 1978, leading to an important cultural era of digital community-building that presaged much of our online world today.
In the 1980s and 1990s, BBSes introduced many home computer users to multiplayer online gaming, message boards, and online community building in an era before the Internet became widely available to people outside of science and academia. It also gave rise to the shareware gaming scene that led to companies like Epic Games today….
…Christensen and Suess came up with the idea for the first computer bulletin board system during the Great Blizzard of 1978 when they wanted to keep up with their computer club, the Chicago Area Computer Hobbyists’ Exchange (CACHE), when physical travel was difficult. Beginning in January of that year, Suess assembled the hardware, and Christensen wrote the software, called CBBS.
“They finished the bulletin board in two weeks but they called it four because they didn’t want people to feel that it was rushed and that it was made up,” Scott told Ars. They canonically “finished” the project on February 16, 1978, and later wrote about their achievement in a November 1978 issue of Byte magazine.
Their new system allowed personal computer owners with modems to dial up a dedicated machine and leave messages that others would see later….
Tom Becker also notes, “There is some indication that he was active in Chicago fandom. He has a mention on Fancyclopedia as one of the founders of the Build-A-Blinkie organization.” — “Ward Christensen”.
… Dale Sulak, Dwayne Forsyth and Ward Christensen created the Build-a-Blinkie organization. Build-a-Blinkie is a 501(c)3 dedicated to the teaching of STEM. They run learn-to-solder events in the Great Lakes area. Build-a-Blinkie has the world’s largest mobile soldering stations and participates at numerous Maker Faires, libraries, universities, Maker Spaces, and Chicago-area sf conventions….
By Paul Weimer: I mentioned Walter Jon Williams before in my remembrance of the work of John Ford. And I stand by what I said there: he is one of the most widely writing people in SFF today. The sheer breath of the type of work he writes, from the post singularity(?) Metropolitan, to the sword and singularity of Implied Spaces, the Drake Majestal future space opera crime capers, and so much more. The impossibility to pin him and his work down, I think is part of the reason why his work isn’t better known–he doesn’t stick to a line long enough to get complete traction in it so that he attracts a critical mass of readers.
And that is a shame.
His work is clever, erudite, witty, and bears up to multiple readings. The intensity and subtlety of the Dread Empire’s Fall series, one of the best space opera series out there, is criminally underappreciated. Or his Quillifer series, which feels like early Renaissance with magic and Gods sort of world, as Quillifer is the “Most Interesting Man” made flesh–but that doesn’t help him get out of his latest schemes and problems. He has to work hard with cleverness, boldness and ingenuity to continue his rise. (Quillifer is a favorite of mine, and it feels resonant with the work of K J Parker).
And he’s also written a solid Star Wars novel, The New Jedi Order: Destiny’s Way.
He’s also written outside of genre, from historicals to near future thrillers to a straight up disaster novel (The Rift— really good!) He always seems ready to invent and try something new. .
Williams also runs the Taos Toolbox workshop in New Mexico every year.
I got to meet him in Helsinki, where he was GOH for the 2017 Worldcon, but he doesn’t remember me. Alas!
Walter Jon Williams
(9) COMICS SECTION.
Bliss thinks some will remain lost who want to be found.
(10) ATWOOD ON THE RADIO. [Item by SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie.] This week’s BBC Radio 4’s The Verb programme had as one of its two guests the SF grandmaster Margaret Atwood, firmly in poetry mode of course.
Ian McMillan talks to Margaret Atwood and Alice Oswald about how we write poetry, and their own process, the natural world, time, and the possibilities of myth…
13. Rocky is wearing a prosthetic plug to cover his belly button. Because Frank-N-Furter created him, he wouldn’t have had an umbilical cord.
(12) KEVIN SMITH NEWS. [Item by Danny Sichel.] Kevin Smith has finally regained the rights to his 1999 religious fantasy DOGMA, which were being controlled by Harvey Weinstein. Yes, that Harvey Weinstein.
Smith is planning to rerelease the movie on home video format as well as streaming; he’s also mentioned the possibility of sequels and associated TV material, now that Weinstein will no longer be getting any of the profit. “Kevin Smith Regains Control of Dogma, Coming to Streaming” at Consequence Film.
Kevin Smith’s celebrated 1999 comedy, Dogma, will soon be re-released in theaters and made available on streaming for the first time, now that the director has finally secured the rights to the film after its one-time owner, Harvey Weinstein, held it “hostage” for years.
Smith confirmed the acquisition during a recent interview on The Hashtag Show, explaining that the rights had been bought off Weinstein recently, which allowed him to finally regain them. “The movie had been bought away from the guy that had it for years,” he said. “The company that bought it, we met with them a couple months ago. They were like, ‘Would you be interested in re-releasing it and touring it like you do with your movies?’ I said, ‘100 percent, are you kidding me? Touring a movie that I know people like, and it’s sentimental and nostalgic? We’ll clean up.’”
(13) RED PLANET AGRICULTURE. In Nature, “Rebeca Gonçalves explains how plant food could be grown on the red planet”: “Planning for life on Mars”.
The day this photo was taken, in November 2021, I got the best of presents. One hundred kilograms of material designed to simulate Mars regolith, the dense, soil-like deposits present on the planet’s surface, arrived from Austin, Texas, at the Wageningen University laboratory in the Netherlands, where I was then working. Mars has no nutrients or organic matter, so there’s no real soil in its regolith. The simulant I received had been developed by NASA researchers on the basis of data retrieved and analysed by rovers that have visited the red planet.
Over the next few months, my colleagues and I started to explore what we could grow in the material. We found that tomatoes, peas and carrots all took to the soil and grew well. But could these plants realistically survive on Mars?
The planet does have water, but most of it is frozen at its poles or buried deep underground. So for plants to live, water would need to be pumped up to the surface. Mars has almost no atmosphere and no magnetic field, so plants would have to be housed in colonies, with greenhouse-like structures to protect them. In these, an internal ecosystem with a controlled atmosphere could help the plants to retrieve oxygen through hydrolysis.
In modern agriculture, those techniques are already used to protect crops. And research to understand how to help food grow in harsh conditions won’t be wasted if it doesn’t get to Mars. That’s because restoring infertile, degraded soil that’s been damaged by climate change, or events such as flash flooding and droughts, will become more and more important in the future.
I’d love to visit Mars, but preferably when some kind of life-support system is in place. Our research might represent a step in that direction….
Microsoft has settled an antitrust lawsuit brought by gamers challenging the tech giant’s $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard.
The two sides on Monday notified the court of a deal to dismiss the lawsuit “with prejudice,” meaning it can’t be refiled. Terms of the agreement weren’t disclosed. “Each party shall bear their own costs and fees,” agreed the lawyers in a court filing.
The lawsuit, filed in California federal court in 2022 by gamers across multiple states, stressed that the merger will create among the largest video game companies in the world, with the ability to raise prices, limit output and reduce consumer choice. One example cited in the complaint was the possibility that Microsoft makes certain titles exclusive to Xbox. It was filed less than two weeks after the Federal Trade Commission sued to block the deal….
Google plans to buy electricity from next-generation nuclear reactors. It announced the deal yesterday, which it says is the world’s first corporate agreement to purchase electricity from advanced small modular reactors (SMRs) that are still under development.
Google inked the deal with engineering company Kairos Power, which plans to get its first SMR up and running by 2030. Google agreed to purchase electricity from “multiple” reactors that would be built through 2035.
Google needs a lot more clean energy to meet its climate goals while pursuing its AI ambitions. New nuclear technologies are still unproven at scale, but the hope is that they can provide carbon pollution-free electricity while solving some of the problems that come with traditional nuclear power plants…
Rainbow Brite is getting a remix from Crayola Studios and Hallmark, which are teaming to develop a new TV series and feature film inspired by the 1980s children’s franchise.
The theatrical movie is in the works from “Fast & Furious” and “Sonic the Hedgehog” producers Neal H. Moritz and Toby Ascher, while Cake Entertainment is developing a series with “contemporary appeal” based on the themes of “friendship, teamwork and the power of color and optimism to overcome darkness and negativity.”
Per the series logline, “Rainbow Brite, a friend, hero, role model and creative inspiration who brings all the colors of the rainbow to the universe, is transported to a dark and gloomy place with a mission to bring color, light and happiness to the world.”…
At Tesla‘s big Cybercab Robotaxi presentation last week at the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank, the company also showed off the latest iteration of the Tesla Bot, dubbed Optimus, as well as a Robovan. The initial reveal of the trio of robot products caused great excitement on social media, but, very quickly, praise turned to mockery as the designs were scrutinized with a host of people accusing Elon Musk‘s company of ripping off the designs found in the 2004 sci-fi film I, Robot starring Will Smith.
Tesla had dubbed the event “We, Robot,” which plays into the title of Isaac Asimov’s 1950 short-story collection on which the film is based, so there was some recognition of the cross-pollination of ideas. However, many on social media called out the uncanny resemblance that all three of Tesla’s planned robot offerings have to similar products in Alex Proyas‘ film, which is set in 2035 Chicago….
Optimus, a general-purpose robotic humanoid Tesla is currently developing that takes its name from the Transformers character, does bear similarities to the NS5 robots found in I, Robot. But it was the fact that the Robovan (a self-driving people mover that looks like the robot delivery vehicle in the film) and Robotaxi (a self-driving taxi that looks like the Audi RSQ in the film) also aped similar vehicles found in I, Robot that really inspired the relentless mockery on social media and even a response from Proyas.
Alex Proyas also directed the 1998 film Dark City.
[Thanks to Teddy Harvia, Mike Kennedy, Andrew Porter, Paul Weimer, N., Tom Becker, Danny Sichel, John King Tarpinian, Chris Barkley, Cat Eldridge, SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Steven French, and Kathy Sullivan for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Thomas the Red.]
(1) UNCANNY DELUGED WITH AI SUBMISSIONS. Michael Damian Thomas of Uncanny Magazine announced on October 10 that the volume of AI submissions has caused a delay in their responses to writers.
Then he later followed up with these additional thoughts:
Some quick notes. 1- We don't use AI detectors. 2- We'll only ban a submitter if we were positive of AI use. 3- We have no plan to ever permanently close unsolicited submissions. The plan is to just take longer processing submissions. Not our favorite, but that's where we're at. https://t.co/mYn58sVsX2
Since the Uncanny AI thing went viral, here are some of my thoughts.
1- There are plenty of people out there desperate to be published or to remain publishing. "Shortcuts" are going to get used. Ask any teacher/professor about plagiarism and current AI use for academic writing.
3- The only negative effect for Uncanny is longer submission processing time. (It's very unlikely we'd ever get fooled by an AI story.) It's not optimal, but unfortunately writers will have to get used to waiting for decisions a bit longer like we did back in ye olde SASE days
The research for Deeper Cut: Lovecraft, Miniter, Stoker: the Dracula Revision required an examination of the history of the Dracula manuscript and an evaluation of the textual variations in order to evaluate whether there was any place in the timeline for Edith Miniter, as Lovecraft alleged, and to judge Bram Stoker’s involvement with changes to the text before and after publication.
One of the most notable developments in Dracula studies in recent years has been the discovery of and translation into English of the 1899 Swedish translation Mörkrets Makter (translated into English as Powers ofDarkness), which was serialized in in the newspaper Dagen, and 1901 Icelandic edition Makt Myrkanna (also translated into English as Powers of Darkness) serialized in the newspaper Fjallkonan. What has become apparent, however, is that there were also numerous Dracula serializations in English-language newspapers in the period 1899-1928. Thanks to the digitization of old newspaper archives and online subscription services, these newspaper serials, which have received rather scanty attention, are more accessible today than they were previously. Enough that a survey of the extant texts is warranted….
… There may well be additional newspaper serializations of Dracula besides these; these are just the serials available via newspapers.com as of the time of this writing. Links will be to the full pages, as clips tend to come out illegible….
(3) JOY DAVIDMAN AT THE LONDON CIRCLE. Rob Hansen has assembled excerpts of fannish memoirs about “C.S. Lewis & The London Circle” at Fiawol.org. A great deal of it is about Joy Davidman’s attendance at pub meetings of the London fan group.
[SAM YOUD, who wrote as “John Christopher”] …Joy herself I got to know quite well. We drank bitter together and argued endlessly through those Thursday evenings. Joy never stopped arguing, and we derived much mutual pleasure from the exercise.
She had endured a cruelly-hard childhood, involving a range of diseases that included curvature of the spine, exaggerated insulin secretion resulting in excessive appetite and a weight problem, and Grave’s disease – hyperthyroidism. For the last she was treated by a doctor who required her to wear a radium collar around her neck, weekly for a year. It appeared to cure the condition, but one can speculate on the cost in later life. I did not know any of this before reading AND GOD CAME IN, her biography by Lyle Dorsett, published in 1983. Nor did she talk about her achievements as an award-winning poet, her authorship of two well-regarded novels, or her stint in Hollywood as a screenwriter. Perhaps she did not want to belittle our petty triumphs in sales to Astounding Stories or Galaxy or New Worlds….
A Japanese anti-nuclear weapons group made up of survivors of the atomic bombings in Japan during World War II has won the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee said it has awarded the Japanese organization Nihon Hidankyo “for its efforts to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons and for demonstrating through witness testimony that nuclear weapons must never be used again,” sending a message to countries that are considering acquiring or threatening to use them.
Committee Chair Jørgen Watne Frydnes said Nihon Hidankyo, made up of survivors of the August 1945 nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nakasaki by the United States, has been instrumental in the global movement that has kept nuclear weapons from being used in conflict for 80 years….
… At a press conference in Hiroshima, Nihon Hidankyo’s co-chair, Toshiyuki Mimaki, 81, held back tears and pinched his cheeks when the award was announced. “I can’t believe it’s real” he told reporters.
Mimaki is a Hiroshima survivor and said the award helped recognize the group’s work. “It would be a great force to appeal to the world that the abolition of nuclear weapons can be achieved,” he said.
He said the idea that nuclear weapons bring peace to the world is wrong.
“It has been said that because of nuclear weapons, the world maintains peace. But nuclear weapons can be used by terrorists,” he said. “For example, if Russia uses them against Ukraine, Israel against Gaza, it won’t end there. Politicians should know these things.”…
…Around the world, Indigenous communities have passed rich storytelling traditions from one generation to the next from time immemorial. Many of the stories have been lost in the upheaval and destruction of the colonial era. Selfless heroes and bold tricksters alike have been forgotten, or faded to a mere wisp of collective memory. But the monsters, ah, the monsters. Ferocious, fanged, skulking, slithering, they seem to have endured better than most. These beings still haunt—and hunt—from Australia to Brazil, Lake Victoria to Lake Winnebago. Here are some of the most memorable ancient terrors from Indigenous lore that still send chills down our spines.
Few monsters from Indigenous folklore can boast of making it in Hollywood. There’s Krampus, a modern amalgamation of deeply ancient Central European traditions, and the wendigo, which first terrorized the Algonquin, Ojibwe, and other Anishinaabe peoples around the North American Great Lakes. We’ll leave it to you to decide whether the 2021 movie Antlers does justice to the wendigo’s ferocity, but we’re betting the wendigo doesn’t care. It’s too busy looking for its next victim. A potent symbol of human greed, the emaciated creature is insatiably hungry and appears in the lean and desperate season of winter. In the 19th century, some documented regional cases of cannibalism and other unspeakable acts were chalked up to individuals “going wendigo.”
(6) FANTASY STUDY. Adam Roberts, winner of the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Jack Glass, a three-time BSFA Award winner, and Professor in Nineteenth Century Literature and Culture at Royal Holloway, University of London, UK, will have a nonfiction book Fantasy: A Short History out in April 2025 from Skylight Books.
One of the most popular genres of modern times, fantasy literature has as rich a cultural and literary heritage as the magical worlds that so enrapture its readers. In this book, a concise history of the genre, Adam Roberts traces the central forms and influences on fantasy through the centuries to arrive at our understanding of the fantastic today.
Pinning the evolution of fantasy on three key moments – the 19th-century resurgence of interest in Arthurian legend, the rise of Christian allegory, and a post-Ossian, post-Grimm emergence of a Norse, Germanic and Old English mythic identity – Roberts explores how the logic of ‘the fantastical’ feeds through into the sets and trappings of modern fantasy. Tracking the creation of heroic and high fantasy subgenres through antiquarian tradition, through C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien and into the post-Tolkien boom in genre fantasy writing, the book brings the manifestation of the fantastic beyond literature into art, music, film and TV, video games and other cultural productions such as fandoms. From Tennyson and Wagner, through Robert Graves, David Jones, Samuel Delany, Dungeons and Dragons, Terry Pratchett and Robin Hobb, to the Game of Thrones, Skyrim, The Witcher and The Lord of the Rings media franchises, the book digs into the global dissemination and diversity of 21st-century fantasy. Accessible and dynamic, wide-ranging but comprehensive, this is a crash-course in context for the most imaginative form of storytelling….
(7) TEDDY HARVIA CARTOON.
(8) MEMORY LANE.
[Written by Paul Weimer.]
Anniversary: Star Trek’s “Mudd’s Women” (1966 on this date)
By Paul Weimer: Harry Mudd is, for all being a reprobate, cheat, con man, and sneak, is one of the iconic characters of all of Star Trek. In a supposedly glorious Federation, it is heartwarming in a way to see a character as mercilessly mercenary as Harry Mudd come on screen.
“Mudd’s Women” is his first appearance. (he would be in one more TOS episode, an animated episode and surprisingly, also on Discovery (before they go to the future).
“Mudd’s Women” itself is a con man scheme involving a drug to make women appear more beautiful, and Mudd trying to marry them off to settlers while on the drug, and reap the profits. It shows the early “Wagon Train in Space” roots of Star Trek to the fullest, because with just some changes, this could easily be an episode of Bonanza or another Western. And if you look at Mudd’s getup (and that hat), you can totally see it. And Kirk’s clever use of a placebo in the denouement is a positive message that beauty drugs, in the end, pale to self-confidence and real inner beauty.
So it was no surprise when from Santa Rosa County in the panhandle of Florida this past month there came familiar news. A parent, discovering their child was reading something they found problematic, approached a school board and asked that Fahrenheit 451 be removed from the curriculum.
“Filth,” that parent called Bradbury’s work, as she pressed for it to be removed from an eighth grade reading list. The concerned mom leading the banning effort didn’t see its prophetic relevance. All she saw was a vulgarity, the word “bastard,” which she felt was inappropriate for her 13-year-old daughter. “I’m just trying to keep my little girl a little girl,” she said.
This kind of book-banning effort isn’t unusual, but this one was a gut punch. Why? Because the parent organizing the banning effort suggested that Bradbury’s work should be replaced with something more acceptable to her.
Among her suggestions for more “suitable” material: my own dystopian novel, When the English Fall.
I cannot imagine receiving a more troubling and heartbreaking endorsement.
Sure, my Amish protagonist and narrator doesn’t use vulgarity in the face of the world’s collapse. Because he’s Amish. Old Order Mennonites don’t tend to swear like sailors. But my story contains its fair share of death and murder and human horror, at least as graphic as anything you’ll find in Bradbury.
The mother bringing the complaint was concerned at the violence in the book, and worried that the book wasn’t “safe,” and suggested that kids might read about murder and violence and become murderous and violent themselves. As a pastor, I preach the Bible every Sunday, and teach it in classes. My gracious, I can’t imagine a less “safe” book than the Bible. Try reading Genesis sometime. That’s a rough, rough book. My Adult Ed class has been discovering this last month as we’ve been reading it together. Murder? Rape? Betrayal? Incest? Ray Bradbury’s got nothing on the Word of God….
…Musk might see Starship as an ark for all God’s creatures, but environmentalists tell a different story. As Starship prototypes have begun flying from SpaceX’s launch pad in Boca Chica, Texas, they say the company has shown little regard for the wildlife Musk has said he wants to protect.
Now, a review of state and federal records by NPR, including some obtained through a freedom of information request, shows how SpaceX has sometimes ignored environmental regulations as it rushed to fulfill its founder’s vision. With each of its launches, records show, the company discharged tens of thousands of gallons of what regulators classify as industrial wastewater into the surrounding environment.
In response to the discharges of water from the pad, both the Environmental Protection Agency and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) have determined that SpaceX has violated the Clean Water Act. Both agencies levied fines totaling more than $150,000 against the company in September….
In one of the most dramatic, high-risk space flights to date, SpaceX launched a gargantuan Super Heavy-Starship rocket on an unpiloted test flight Sunday and then used giant “mechazilla” mechanical arms on the pad gantry to pluck the descending first stage out of the sky in an unprecedented feat of engineering.
The Starship upper stage, meanwhile, looped around the planet and re-entered the atmosphere over the Indian Ocean as planned, enduring temperatures nearing 3,000 degrees as it descended to a controlled, on-target splashdown.
The spacecraft came through the hellish heat of re-entry in relatively good condition, protected by improved heat-shield tiles and beefed-up steering fins that worked as needed while engulfed in a fireball of atmospheric friction.
But the jaw-dropping first stage capture back at the launch pad, using pincer-like arms more familiarly known as chopsticks, was the clear highlight of the giant rocket’s fifth test flight.
Snagging the descending 23-story-tall Super Heavy booster with the mechazilla arms represented an unprecedented milestone in SpaceX’s drive to develop fully reusable, quickly re-launchable rockets, a technological tour de force unmatched in the history of earlier space programs relying on expendable, throw-away rockets….
The world’s biggest anime piracy site, Aniwatch, has recently rebranded itself following a huge rise in infamy.
The popular site “Aniwatch” has changed its domain name to “HiAnime” this week. Users attempting to access Aniwatch received the message: “Aniwatch is being rebranded to HiAnime. You will be redirected to the new HiAnime website in 10 seconds. Or you can also click here to go to HiAnime now.” According to Similarweb, “Aniwatch” is the #1 most accessed anime piracy site worldwide with 136.2 million visitors in January 2024. It’s also 16th overall in the “Streaming and Online TV” category. Aniwatch does not provide an official explanation for the rebranding.
A new report by Torrent Freak adds that a recent ‘dynamic+’ site blocking order in India may have motivated this. This refers to a court-ordered instruction to Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to block access to a website, with the theory proving especially likely given that India is Aniwatch’s biggest user base…
(14) VIDEOS OF YESTERDAY. [Item by Mike Kennedy.] Last night’s Saturday Night Live had several items that could be considered anything from genre adjacent to vaguely kind of sort of adjacent to genre adjacent. It depends on how you look at it. And how hard you squint.
This one is definitely horror. But not supernatural horror or anything else that’s really SF-adjacent. More like serial murderer horror. Although, the fantasy talking furniture, bookcases, etc. DO lend more credibility as genre related. I think it’s extremely well-made, considering they (presumably) had less than a week to put it together. “My Best Friend’s House”.
Oh, this one is absolutely solidly genre IMO. You just have to watch it all the way to the end to see why. “The Hotel Detective”.
[Thanks to Steven French, Kathy Sullivan, Teddy Harvia, Paul Weimer, Lise Andreasen, 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 Lis Carey.]
The 60th issue of the Uncanny Magazine, winner of seven Hugos, a British Fantasy Award and a Locus Award, will be available on September 3 at uncannymagazine.com.
Hugo Award-winning Publishers Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas are proud to present the 60th issue of their seven-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, Sturgeon, 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 October 1.
“The Uncanny Valley” by Lynne M. Thomas & Michael Damian Thomas
Fiction
“Cursed Moon Queers” by Natalia Theodoridou (9/3)
“The 6% Squeeze” by Eddie Robson (9/3)
“Another Girl Under the Iron Bell” by Angela Liu (9/3)
“A Stranger Knocks” by Tananarive Due (10/1)
“¡Sangronas! Un Lista de Terror” by M. M. Olivas (10/1)
“A Menu of First Favorite Meals” by Jo Miles (10/1)
“The Wrong Time Travel Story” by Marissa Lingen (9/3)
Nonfiction
“It’s a Wonderful (Doctor Who) Life” by Sophie Aldred (9/3)
“Growing Up in Fiction” by Yamile Saied Méndez (9/3)
“Scalzi on Film: 20th Century Cinematic Science Fiction Starter Pack” by John Scalzi (10/1)
“The Liminality of Community Loss” by LaShawn M. Wanak (10/1)
Poetry
“Dreams on a Tamarind Road” by Prosper C. Ìféányí (9/3)
“Festival of Scales and Teeth” by Aline-Mwezi Niyonsenga (9/3)
“The Witch Recalls Her Craft” by Angel Leal (10/1)
“To Hunt a Chimera” by Mikal Wix (10/1)
Interviews
Angela Liu interviewed by Caroline M. Yoachim (9/3)
M. M. Olivas interviewed by Caroline M. Yoachim (10/1)
Podcasts
Episode 60A (9/3): Editors’ Introduction; “Cursed Moon Queers” by Natalia Theodoridou, as read by Erika Ensign; “The 6% Squeeze” by Eddie Robson, as read by Matt Peters; “The Wrong Time Travel Story” by Marissa Lingen, as read by Erika Ensign; “Dreams on a Tamarind Road” by Prosper C. Ìféányí, as read by Matt Peters; and Lynne M. Thomas interviewing Eddie Robson.
Episode 60B (10/1): Editors’ Introduction; “A Stranger Knocks” by Tananarive Due, as read by Matt Peters; “The Witch Recalls Her Craft” by Angel Leal, as read by Erika Ensign; and Lynne M. Thomas interviewing Tananarive Due.
Eleven-time Hugo Award-winner Lynne M. Thomas and eight-time Hugo Award-winner Michael Damian Thomas are launching a Kickstarter for Year Eleven of their Hugo Award-winning and 2024 Locus Award-winning professional online Science Fiction and Fantasy magazine:Uncanny Magazine.
Each issue contains new speculative fiction, podcasts, poetry, essays, art, and interviews. Uncanny Magazine is raising funds via Kickstarter to cover some of its operational and production costs for its eleventh year, with an initial goal of $30,000, plus added stretch goals of three original covers, flash fiction, and a novella. The Kickstarter launched July 8, 2024, and run through August 7, 2024. “Uncanny Magazine Year 11: This One Goes to ELEVEN! by Lynne M. Thomas”.
“Uncanny features passionate SF/F fiction and poetry, gorgeous prose, and provocative nonfiction, with a deep investment in our diverse SF/F culture. We publish intricate, experimental stories and poems with verve and vision, from writers from every conceivable background. With the hard work of the best staff and contributors in the universe,Uncanny Magazine has delivered everything as promised (or is in the middle of delivery) with our Years One through ten Kickstarters. This year, four stories have been recognized as Nebula Award finalists (with two winning); four stories, the editors-in-chief, and the magazine have been recognized as Hugo Award finalists; and six stories, the editors-in-chief, and magazine have been recognized as Locus Award finalists (with one story and the magazine winning). We are deeply honored and grateful,” Lynne says.
“We couldn’t have done all of this without the amazing support of our Kickstarter community, who we call the Space Unicorn Ranger Corps after our logo mascot. This is their magazine; their support makes it possible for us to make all of this amazing content available for free on our website. We still feel Uncanny‘s mission is important, especially in these times. And hopefully, we will meet the stretch goals and be able to give everyone a spectacular eleventh year of Uncanny,” Michael adds.
For its special eleventh year, Uncanny has solicited original short fiction from Hugo, Nebula, Locus, and World Fantasy Award-winning and nominated authors and bestselling authors including:John Chu, Aliette de Bodard, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Mary Robinette Kowal, Scott Lynch, Samantha Mills, Tade Thompson, Adrian Tchaikovsky, Emma Törzs, Catherynne M. Valente, Daniel H. Wilson, G. Willow Wilson, and Caroline M. Yoachim. (There will also be numerous slots for unsolicited submissions.)
John Chu, Aliette de Bodard, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Mary Robinette Kowal, Scott Lynch, Samantha Mills, Tade Thompson, Adrian Tchaikovsky, Emma Törzs, Catherynne M. Valente, Daniel H. Wilson, G. Willow Wilson, and Caroline M. Yoachim
Uncanny has also solicited original essays by Senaa Ahmad, Charlie Jane Anders, Kelly Sue DeConnick, A.T. Greenblatt, Del Sandeen, and Rachel Talalay, and solicited poetry by Dr. Taylor Byas, Lora Gray, Ai Jiang, Brandon O’Brien, Margaret Rhee, and Abu Bakr Sadiq.
Senaa Ahmad, Charlie Jane Anders, Kelly Sue DeConnick, A.T. Greenblatt, Del Sandeen, and Rachel TalalayDr. Taylor Byas, Lora Gray, Ai Jiang, Brandon O’Brien, Margaret Rhee, and Abu Bakr Sadiq
Uncanny Magazine issues are published as eBooks (MOBI, PDF, EPUB) bimonthly on the first Tuesday of that month through all of the major online eBook stores. Each issue contains 5-6 new short stories, 4 poems, 4 nonfiction essays, and 2 interviews, at minimum.
Material from half an issue is posted for free on Uncanny’s website (built by Clockpunk Studios) once per month, appearing on the second Tuesday of every month (uncannymagazine.com). Uncanny also produces a monthly podcast with a story, poem, and original interview. Subscribers and backers will receive the entire double issue a month before online readers.
