Ansible 456 -- July 2025
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ANSIBLE(R) 456
JULY 2025
From DAVID LANGFORD, 94 London Road, Reading, Berks, RG1 5AU, UK. Website news.ansible.uk. ISSN 0265-9816 (print); 1740-942X (e). Available for SAE, a terrible torch of tin, or a tower of turbulent toast.
[NET NOTE. See https://news.ansible.uk/a456.html for the nice HTML version; https://news.ansible.uk/pdf/a456.pdf for a printable PDF. Mailing list subscribe/unsubscribe information appears below -- please don't send such requests to my own e-mail address. DRL]
### A HUNDRED HOLLOW HORSES ###
PAT BARKER, the noted UK novelist whose work includes historical fantasies set in the Trojan War era, was made a Dame for services to literature in the UK King's Birthday honours.
NELLY BEN HAYOUN-STEPANIAN, film-maker and 'designer of experiences', has a mission to show that 'space travel is queer'. According to her _Guardian_ profile, 'In Ben Hayoun-Stepanian's mind, space exploration forces us to reimagine everything. "It's queer. It's decolonial. It's pluralistic."' (_Guardian_, 29 May) [PE] Someone should tell Elon Musk.
JOHN CLUTE's sf collection is now open to the public, by appointment, as the Clute Science Fiction Library in Telluride, Colorado. He donated the 13,700+ volumes in 2017 to the Telluride Institute co-founded by John and Pamela Lifton-Zoline. See tellurideinstitute.org/clute-science-fiction-library for further details. (_Telluride News_, 21 June)
GARY DAVID CREW and GARTH NIX received Medals of the Order of Australia for services to literature in the King's Birthday honours. [L]
YOKO SHIMOMURA is the first videogame music composer (_Street Fighter_, _Final Fantasy_, _Super Mario_ and over 70 more) to receive a BAFTA fellowship, the academy's highest honour. (_Guardian_, 20 June)
KEITH STUART on recent videogame retellings of _Macbeth_ and _Hamlet_, the latter as _Grand Theft Hamlet_: 'I think if Shakespeare was magically reincarnated in the first quarter of the 21st century, there is only one genre he'd be working in: the open-world role-playing adventure. Here, he'd have the time and space to weave complex narratives involving dozens of characters and diverse environments. King Lear's moors would become a desolate explorable wasteland, much like the post-apocalyptic hellscapes of Fallout or Death Stranding.' (_Guardian_, 28 May) [PE] Critics brought up on _Doom_ have long felt the plays' action could be streamlined by a judicious sprinkling of chainsaws, plasma guns and rocket launchers.
### CONCREMENT ###
5 Jul [] COMIC CON AINTREE, Aintree Racecourse. 10am-5pm. Adult tickets GBP12; other rates at www.ljeventsentertainment.com.
5-6 Jul [] TOLKIEN SOCIETY SEMINAR: 'Arda's Entangled Bodies', Glasgow and online. Free. See www.tolkiensociety.org/events/.
5-6 Jul [] THE TOWN THAT NEVER WAS (steampunk), Blists Hill, Telford. See www.ministryofsteampunk.com. Tickets/passes from GBP27 (child GBP15.50) for one day: www.ironbridge.org.uk/plan/ticket-prices/.
13 Jul [] BFS/BSFA SOCIAL, Waterstones, Piccadilly, London. 2:30-5pm. Free tickets available at tinyurl.com/mvt4sek6.
SOLD OUT 18-20 Jul [] FANTASY FOREST (cosplay), Sudely Castle, Cheltenham. No tickets but a waiting list sign-up option at fantasyforest.co.uk.
19 Jul [] SMALL PRESS DAY, various events throughout the UK and Ireland, and online. See smallpressday.co.uk.
25-28 Jul [] CONTINUUM (RPG), Cranfield University CMDC . GBP60 reg; day pass GBP25; under-17s free. See continuumconvention.co.uk.
2-3 Aug [] SURREY STEAMPUNK CONVIVIAL, Stoneleigh, Epsom. See bumpandthumper.wixsite.com/steampunkconvivials.
26 Oct [] STARS OF TIME (comics), LC, Swansea. 10am-5pm. GBP11.55 (under-14s GBP7.21) at www.starsoftime.co.uk/swanseacomiccon.
22 Nov [] TFN: MINI-CON (_Transformers_), Reading University. GBP40; under-18s GBP25; under-16s free. See tfnation.com/mini-con-reading-25.
16-18 & 23-25 Jan 2026 [] HORROR-ON-SEA (film festival), Park Inn Radisson Palace Hotel, Church Rd, Southend-on-Sea, SS1 2AL. Tickets awaited on 31 October at the-white-bus-limited.sumupstore.com.
11 Apr 2026 [] BEDFORD WHO CHARITY CON (_Doctor Who_), King's House, Ampthill Road, Bedford, MK42 9AZ. 10am-5:30pm. Tickets GBP49.50; under-14s GBP20. See bedfordwhocharitycon.co.uk.
9-10 May 2026 [] LAWLESS (UK comics), Hilton Doubletree, Bristol. Ticket sales should open 'in early 2026' at lawlesscomiccon.co.uk.
29-31 May 2026 [] UK GAMES EXPO, Birmingham NEC. Ticket sales awaited at www.ukgamesexpo.co.uk.
20 Jun 2026 [] STARS OF TIME (comics), Steam Museum, Swindon. Tickets awaited at www.starsoftime.co.uk/swindon.
27-31 Aug 2026 [] LACON V, Anaheim Convention Center and hotels in Anaheim, California. _Now $230 full adult membership._ For the other rates, all unchanged, see www.lacon.org.
RUMBLINGS. _Seattle Worldcon 2025:_ Hugo voting closes on 23 July. Virtual WSFS business meetings will be held on 4 July, 13 July, 19 July and 25 July. See July links at news.ansible.uk for the vast (146pp) agenda document plus a 15pp guide to using the virtual meeting platform.
_2027 Worldcon_ site selection voting has opened, and will close on 15 August; the Montreal in 2027 bid is running unopposed.
### INFINITELY IMPROBABLE ###
AS OTHERS CONFABULATE US. A mention on a fan mailing list that Ted White was once headlined in the _Washington Daily News_ (1957) as the owner of '10,000 COMICS!' led to a web search and a bibliographical surprise from Google's now-integrated AI: 'The title "The Boy with 10,000 Comic Books" refers to the character Teddy White, a character created by author Ted White. This character is featured in Ted White's science fiction novel, also titled "The Boy with 10,000 Comic Books". The story centers around a young man who finds solace and escape in his vast collection of comic books.' [LB] Now it only remains for Ted to write it.
AWARDS. _ActuSF Prize for Uchronia_ (France, alternate history): the _Grandville_ series by Bryan Talbot won the 2025 graphic novel category.
_Arthur C. Clarke:_ _Annie Bot_ by Caragh M. O'Brien writing as Sierra Greer.
_Infinity_ (SFWA posthumous Grand Master award): Frank Herbert.
_Locus._ SF NOVEL _The Man Who Saw Seconds_ by Alexander Boldizar. FANTASY NOVEL _A Sorceress Comes to Call_ by T. Kingfisher. HORROR NOVEL _Bury Your Gays_ by Chuck Tingle. YA NOVEL _Moonstorm_ by Yoon Ha Lee. FIRST NOVEL _Someone You Can Build a Nest In_ by John Wiswell. NOVELLA _What Feasts at Night_ by T. Kingfisher. NOVELETTE 'By Salt, By Sea, By Light of Stars' by Premee Mohamed (6/24 _Strange Horizons_). SHORT 'Why Don't We Just Kill the Kid in the Omelas Hole' by Isabel J. Kim (2/24 _Clarkesworld_) ANTHOLOGY _The Black Girl Survives in This One_ ed. Desiree S. Evans & Saraciea J. Fennell. COLLECTION _Lake of Souls_ by Ann Leckie. MAGAZINE _Clarkesworld_. PUBLISHER Subterranean Press. EDITOR Neil Clarke. ARTIST Charles Vess. NONFICTION _Afro-Centered Futurisms in Our Speculative Fiction_ ed. Eugen Bacon. ILLUSTRATED/ART BOOK _The Last Unicorn_ by Peter S. Beagle illus. Tom Kidd. SPECIAL Ignyte Awards.
_Nebulas._ NOVEL _Someone You Can Build a Nest In_ by John Wiswell. NOVELLA _The Dragonfly Gambit_ by A.D. Sui. NOVELETTE 'Negative Scholarship on the Fifth State of Being' by A.W. Prihandita (11/24 _Clarkesworld_). SHORT STORY 'Why Don't We Just Kill the Kid in the Omelas Hole' by Isabel J. Kim (2/24 _Clarkesworld_). CHILDREN'S/YA _The Young Necromancer's Guide to Ghosts_ by Vanessa Ricci-Thode. GAME WRITING _A Death in Hyperspace_. DRAMATIC _Dune: Part Two_.
_Stokers_ (horror, novel categories only). MAIN _The Haunting of Velkwood_ by Gwendolyn Kiste. DEBUT _The Eyes Are the Best Part by Monika Kim_. CHILDREN'S (tie) _There's Something Sinister in Center Field_ by Robert P. Ottone; _The Creepening of Dogwood House_ by Eden Royce. YA _Clown in a Cornfield 3: The Church of Frendo_ by Adam Cesare. Full list at locusmag.com/2025/06/2024-stoker-awards-winners.
PUBLISHERS & SINNERS. Transworld and Fairyloot revealed the name of their new collaborative fantasy imprint, suitably evocative of perilous seas in faery lands forlorn: Wayward TxF. (_Bookseller_, 23 June) [SF2C]
R.I.P. _Aki Aleong_ (1934-2025), Trinidadian/US actor in _V_ (1984-1985), _Dragonfight_ (1990), _Superhero Movie_ (2008) and others, died on 22 June aged 90.
_Michael Allaby_ (1933-2025), UK author -- and actor in _Doctor Who_ (1964) -- who co-wrote _The Greening of Mars_ (1984) with James Lovelock, died on 4 May aged 91. [SHS]
_Jack Betts_ (1929-2025), US actor in _Batman Forever_ (1995), _Spider-Man_ (2002) and others, died on 19 June aged 96. [SJ]
_Marilyn 'Mattie' Brahen_, US author whose work includes the novel _Baby Boy Blue_ (2010) and the collection _Seastruck and Other Fantasies_ (2019), died on 9 June. She was also known as a convention book-dealer with her husband Darrell Schweitzer, to whom all sympathy. [DS]
_Roland Curram_ (1932-2025), UK actor in _Rime of the Ancient Mariner_ (1975, as Coleridge), _Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde_ (1980), _Artemis 81_ (1981) and others, died on 1 June aged 92.
_Rebekah Del Rio_ (1967-2025), US singer/songwriter and actress whose credits include _Mulholland Drive_ (2001), _Southland Tales_ (2006) and _The Winter Soldier_ (2017), died on 23 June aged 57. [SJ]
_Frances Doel_ (1942-2025), UK producer/screenwriter who worked for many years and made significant contributions (often uncredited) at Roger Corman's New World Pictures, died on 26 May aged 83. Film credits include _Deathsport_ (1978), _Starship Troopers_ (1997) and _Dinocroc_ (2004). [AIP]
_Taina Elg_ (1930-2025), Finnish-US actress in _Hercules in New York_ (1970), died on 15 May aged 95. [JH]
_Barbara Ferris_ (1939-2025), UK actress in the Wyndham- based _Children of the Damned_ (1964), died on 23 May aged 85. [AIP]
_Frederick Forsyth_ (1938-2025), best-selling UK thriller author who published one supernatural fantasy and a few near-future novels with sf elements, died on 9 June aged 86.
_Leanne Frahm_ (1946-2025), Ditmar-winning Australian author of short fiction since 1980 -- some stories collected as _Borderline_ (1996) -- died on 10 June aged 79. [JHW] One of the people I was very glad to meet on my only visit to Australia.
_Allan Freeman_ (1937-2025), US film marketing executive whose promotional campaigns included _The Stepford Wives_, _The Omen_, _Star Wars_, _Superman_, _Monty Python's Life of Brian_ and _The Shining_, died on 6 June aged 88. [AIP]
_Jose Luis Galicia_ (1930-2025), Spanish set decorator/production designer whose nearly 200 films include _Satanik_ (1968), _The Night of the Devils_ (1972) and _Count Dracula's Great Love_ (1973), died on 5 June aged 95. [SJ]
_Lynn Hamilton_ (1930-2025), US actress in _Brother John_ (1971), _Baby's Breath_ (2003) and genre tv series, died on 19 June aged 95. [SJ]
_Prentis Hancock_ (1942-2025), UK actor in various _Doctor Who_ series (1970-1978), _Space: 1999_ (1975-1976), _The Monster Club_ (1981), _Jekyll & Hyde_ (1990) and others, died on 30 May aged 83. [SJ]
_Rick Hurst_ (1946-2025), US actor in _The Cat from Outer Space_ (1978), _Earth Girls Are Easy_ (1988), _Venomous_ (2001) and _Return of the Killer Shrews_ (2012) died on 26 June aged 79. [SJ]
_Clifton Jones_ (1937-2025), Jamaican actor in _Space: 1999_ (23 episodes 1975-1976), _1990_ (6 episodes 1997) and _Watership Down_ (1978), died on 4 June aged 87. [SJ]
_Jonathan Joss_ (1965-2025), US actor in _The Forever Purge_ (2021) and _Abduction of the Fourth Kind_ (2022) -- plus voice work in sf videogames -- was shot and killed by a Texas neighbour on 1 June; he was 59. [LP]
_Pik Sen Lim_ (1944-2025), Malaysian-born UK actress in _Maleficent: Mistress of Evil_ (2019) and genre tv series including _Doctor Who_ (1971) and _Vampire Academy_ (2022), died on 9 June aged 80. [SJ]
_Barry B. Longyear_ (1942-2025), popular US author who began to publish sf in 1978, won the 1980 John W. Campbell award as best new writer, and received Hugo, Locus and Nebula awards for his 1979 novella 'Enemy Mine', died on 6 May aged 82. [RJS] That best-known story was filmed as _Enemy Mine_ (1985), which he deprecated.
_Valerie Mahaffey_ (1953-2025), US actress in _The Lost Souls_ (1993, based on Kipling's 'They'), _Witch Hunt_ (1994) and _The Witch Files_ (2018), died on 30 May aged 71. [SJ]
_Beans Morocco_ (Dan Barrows,1934-2025), US actor in _Where Have All the People Gone?_ (1974), _Once Bitten_ (1985), _Wes Craven's New Nightmare_ (1994) and others, died on 29 May aged 90. [SG]
_Susan Beth Pfeffer_ (1948-2025), US author of many children's/YA books including the bestselling post-disaster sf sequence opening with _Life as We Knew It_ (2006), died on 23 June aged 77. [AIP]
_Chris Robinson_ (1938-2025), US actor in _Beast from Haunted Cave_ (1959, as the Beast), _Sweet, Sweet Rachel_ (1971) and others, died on 9 June aged 86. [SJ]
_Gailard Sartain_ (1943-2025), US tv horror host and actor in _Wishman_ (1992), _Sandman_ (1993), _Existo_ (1999) and the Laurel & Hardy tribute _For Love or Mummy_ (1999, as Hardy), died on 19 June aged 81. [SJ]
_Lalo Schifrin_ (1932-2025), Argentinian composer whose many music credits include _Mission: Impossible_ (1966-1973), _The President's Analyst_ (1967), _The Cat From Outer Space_ (1978), _Return from Witch Mountain_ (1978), _The Amityville Horror_ (1979 plus sequel) and _Back to the Planet of the Apes_ (1980), died on 26 June aged 93. [LP]
_David Schleinkofer_ (1951-2025), US artist who produced many sf book covers from 1976 to the 1990s, died on 20 April aged 74. [L]
_Jim Shooter_ (1951-2025), US comics writer, penciller, editor and publisher who first worked for DC in the mid-1960s, was the successful though often controversial editor-in-chief at Marvel 1978-1987, and went on to found other comics imprints, died on 30 June aged 73. [LP/MR]
_Loretta Swit_ (1937-2025), US _M*A*S*H_ actress in _It's a Bird... It's a Plane... It's Superman!_ (1975 tv film), _Whoops Apocalypse_ (1987) and _Forest Warrior_ (1996), died on 30 May aged 87. [LP]
_Valentina Talyzina_ (1935-2025), Russian actress who starred in the fantasy film _Koltsa Almanzora_ (_Almanzor's Rings_, 1977), died on 21 June aged 90. [AM]
_Rodger Turner_ (1947-2025), Canadian fan, dealer and webmaster who was a founder in 1997 of Sfsite.com, co-owner of the House of Speculative Fiction bookshop in Ottawa and long-time World Fantasy Convention board member/ awards administrator, died on 16 June aged 77. [CDL/AIP]
_Renee Victor_ (1938-2025), US actress in _The Prophecy 2_ (1998), _Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones_ (2014), _Snowpiercer_ (2020-2021) and _Green Ghost and the Masters of the Stone_ (2021), died on 30 May aged 86. [SJ]
_G. Peter Winnington_ (1944-2025), noted Peake scholar who wrote _Vast Alchemies: The Life and Work of Mervyn Peake_ (2000) and other studies, reportedly died in April aged 80. [DAA]
_Harris Yulin_ (1937-2025), US actor in _Ghostbusters II_ (1989) and others, died on 10 June aged 87. [MR]
_Manuel Zarzo_ (1932-2025), Spanish actor in _Encounters of the Deep_ (1979), _Nightmare City_ (1980) and others, died on 17 June aged 93. [SJ]
THE WEAKEST LINK. Cinema Dept -- _Roman Kemp:_ 'The flag of Uzbekistan contains 12 what?' _Contestant:_ 'Monkeys.' (BBC1, _The Finish Line_) [PE]
Hollow Horses Dept -- _Kemp:_ 'In which war was the mythical hero Hector killed?' _Contestant:_ 'The First World War.' (_Ibid_) [PE]
COURT CIRCULAR. Chris Barkley's legal quest to prise his 2023 Hugo Award from the sinister clutches of that year's Hugo administrator Dave McCarty led to a court encounter in Chicago on 26 June, in which the judge told McCarty to deliver the trophy (or fragments thereof, the bases having reportedly been damaged in transit from China) to Barkley before a further 'continuance' hearing on 22 September. With characteristic charm, McCarty informed the court that 'he would neither receive or accept any emails, text messages, phone calls or any other form of communication regarding the issue'. [F770] Keep watching the skies!
THE DEAD PAST. _20 Years Ago_, Brian Aldiss told us about his OBE: 'I was greatly chuffed by the award "for services to Literature" -- a euphemism in this case for SF.... But when chatting to Her Majesty, I was disappointed to find she had only got as far as John Wyndham and the triffids. "What do you like about it?" I asked. She replied, "Oh, it's such a cosy catastrophe." I blushed.' (_Ansible_ 216, July 2005)
_30 Years Ago_, your editor saw the shape of things to come: 'I finally got to be a virtual convention guest ... one of several at Cascon in Slovakia, via Internet Relay Chat [1 July]. Great hospitality, though vodka does not e-mail well.' (_Ansible_ 96, July 1995)
_50 Years Ago_, Brian Aldiss offered yet another innovation: 'How about a new definition of science fiction? It's about things going wrong.' (_Vector_ 69, Summer 1975)
_60 Years Ago:_ 'Recent _Sunday Times_ colour supplement featured article called "Tarzan 66" and quoted Sy Weintraub, owner of all Tarzan film and TV rights, as saying "Let's get a James Bond approach to Tarzan." The article did not mention Burroughs, but quoted Weintraub as adding "In fact, he's really English, the son of a lord, but that's all forgotten now."' (_Skyrack_ 81, 10 July 1965)
BIG NUMBERS. Frank Frazetta's artwork for a 1954 _Famous Funnies_ Buck Rogers cover sold for over $1 million. (Heritage Auctions, 27 June)
RANDOM FANDOM. _Andy Hooper_ became Official Editor of SAPS (fandom's second oldest surviving APA) this year, and says: 'members are now permitted to send contributions electronically for printing by the OE'.
THE CRITICAL HERITAGE. 'From Garfield to Simon's Cat, Krazy Kat to Bagpuss and everything in between, there is a long line of iconic cartoon cats.' (London Cartoon Museum 'Cats in Cartoons' blurb) Bagpuss?
FOOTFALL. A UK parliamentary committee was presumably unsurprised by a report that there's still no international protocol for deciding how to tackle the hypothetical future threat of a devastating asteroid impact on Earth. Apparently 'aligning governments behind any space mission needed to deflect a looming orb would be difficult, even if technically possible.' It was all so much easier in the sf films. (_The Register_, 27 June)
FANFUNDERY. _Fan Fund Books:_ the latest Ansible Editions ebook at the TAFF site is Rob Hansen's _Approaching Xero: The SF Prehistory of Comics Fandom_. See taff.org.uk/ebooks.php?x=Xero. Both this and the updated _TAFF Trip Report Anthology_ (see ae.ansible.uk?t=TAFFanth) are also trade paperbacks with all proceeds going to TAFF. This year's Corflu fanthology -- _Dancing to Architecture_ edited by Doug Bell, in which many fans write about music -- is a free download at taff.org.uk/ebooks.php?x=Dancing.
What next? In the tradition of his 1957 and 1965 Worldcon tomes, Rob Hansen is now working on _1979: The Third UK Worldcon_. I was there!
MAGAZINE SCENE. The Australian _Andromeda Spaceways Magazine_ will cease regular quarterly publication with issue 100, expected for the third quarter of 2025. ' The hull of the ship will be coasting for a while afterwards, and we'll see what shape that takes ...' [PS-P]
THOG'S MASTERCLASS. _Streaming Service._ '... his dry matter-of-fact-maleness seeming to stream out on the wings of the storm.' (Paul J. McAuley, _Four Hundred Billion Stars_, 1988) [BA]
_Dept of Elusive Pulchritude._ 'Miss Deary was the most beautiful woman on Earth, in fact in the entire Empire. There was something unearthly about Miss Deary's beauty, something more than of Earth. It was hard to say, even looking at her, exactly what she looked like.' (Martin Siegel, _Agent of Entropy_, 1969) [AR]
### GEEKS' CORNER ###
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### ENDNOTES ###
PAYPAL TIP JAR THINGY. Donate to support _Ansible_, cover website costs and keep the editor happy! Or just buy his books.
https://ansible.uk/paypal.html
https://ae.ansible.uk/
https://ansible.uk/books/index.html
GROUP THEORY.
17 July 2025, evening: London Zoom meeting, third Thursday of each month. 'Please share this with people who you know typically come to the Bishop's Finger, but aren't on Facebook.'
https://bohemiancoast.medium.com/first-thursday-london-sf-fan-virtual-drinks-5232021e961f
EDITORIAL. Ansible Editions book projects continue, as does the _SF Encyclopedia_ with its relentless weekly updates. Your editor would like to add something ever so witty about all this, but it's still too hot here for rational thought.
BSFA NEWS. Stewart Hotston is the new BSFA Chair since the June AGM at which Allen Stroud stepped down.
C.O.A. _Martin Tudor_, Flat 6, 11-12 New Road, Willenhall, WV13 2BD.
R.I.P. II -- LATE REPORTS. _Linda Evans_ (1958-2023), US author of _Sleipnir_ (1994), the 'Time Scout' sequence (1995-2001) with Robert Asprin, and contributions to the Keith Laumer 'Bolo' universe, died on 13 June 2023 aged 64 (not widely reported before June 2025). [F770]
_Swen Papenbrock_ (1960-2025), German author and artist who created a great many covers and interior illustrations for the 'Perry Rhodan' series since 1996, died on 10 March aged 64. [SHS]
_Rainer Schorm_ (1965-2025), German author and artist who was chief writer for the 'Perry Rhodan NEO' series and published many novels in that setting from 2014, died in March aged 59. [SHS]
SOME LINKS from the _Ansible_ home page.
2027 Worldcon site selection
https://seattlein2025.org/wsfs/site-selection/voting/
British Fantasy Awards finalists
https://britishfantasysociety.org/british-fantasy-awards-2025-shortlist-announced/
Mythopoeic Awards finalists
https://www.mythsoc.org/news/news-2025-06-02.htm
Seattle Worldcon 2025 virtual business meeting agenda and instuctions
https://seattlein2025.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/WSFS_business_meeting_agenda_2025_v2op.pdf
https://seattlein2025.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/WSFS_business_meeting_2025_virtual_meeting_instructions_v3op.pdf
THOG'S GOLDEN OLDIES from _Ansible_ 216, July 2005. _Biothermics Dept, or Why Polar Bears Do Not Exist._ 'It was evidently cold-blooded or nearly so, for no warm-blooded animal could have withstood that more than glacial cold.' (George Griffith, 'Stories of Other Worlds', 1900)
_Limits of Vision Dept._ '"That," he said impressively, "is the blackest black you or any other mortal ever looked upon ... so black that no mortal man will be able to look upon it -- and see it!"' (Jack London, 'The Shadow and the Flash', 1903)
'Xavier closed his eyes, then forced himself to watch the terrible solution.' (Brian Herbert & Kevin J. Anderson, _The Butlerian Jihad_, 2002)
_Dept of Motherhood and Stale Apple Pie._ 'He took an instant to gulp water from a dipper, stale and welcome as a mother's love.' (S.M. Stirling & David Drake, _The Sword_, 1995)
_Ansible_(R) 456 (C) David Langford, 2025. Thanks to Brian Ameringen, Douglas A. Anderson, Lenny Bailes, _File 770_, Charles de Lint, Steve Green, Jerry House, Steve Jones, _Locus_, Andrey Meshavkin, Lawrence Person, Andrew I. Porter, _Private Eye_, Adam Roberts, Marcus Rowland, Darrell Schweitzer, _SF2 Concatenation_, Steven H Silver, Phil Stephensen-Payne, Robert J. Sawyer, Jean Hollis Weber, and as always our Hero Distributors: Durdles Books (Birmingham SF Group), SCIS/Prophecy, and Alan Stewart (Australia).
1 July 2025
JULY 2025
From DAVID LANGFORD, 94 London Road, Reading, Berks, RG1 5AU, UK. Website news.ansible.uk. ISSN 0265-9816 (print); 1740-942X (e). Available for SAE, a terrible torch of tin, or a tower of turbulent toast.
[NET NOTE. See https://news.ansible.uk/a456.html for the nice HTML version; https://news.ansible.uk/pdf/a456.pdf for a printable PDF. Mailing list subscribe/unsubscribe information appears below -- please don't send such requests to my own e-mail address. DRL]
### A HUNDRED HOLLOW HORSES ###
PAT BARKER, the noted UK novelist whose work includes historical fantasies set in the Trojan War era, was made a Dame for services to literature in the UK King's Birthday honours.
NELLY BEN HAYOUN-STEPANIAN, film-maker and 'designer of experiences', has a mission to show that 'space travel is queer'. According to her _Guardian_ profile, 'In Ben Hayoun-Stepanian's mind, space exploration forces us to reimagine everything. "It's queer. It's decolonial. It's pluralistic."' (_Guardian_, 29 May) [PE] Someone should tell Elon Musk.
JOHN CLUTE's sf collection is now open to the public, by appointment, as the Clute Science Fiction Library in Telluride, Colorado. He donated the 13,700+ volumes in 2017 to the Telluride Institute co-founded by John and Pamela Lifton-Zoline. See tellurideinstitute.org/clute-science-fiction-library for further details. (_Telluride News_, 21 June)
GARY DAVID CREW and GARTH NIX received Medals of the Order of Australia for services to literature in the King's Birthday honours. [L]
YOKO SHIMOMURA is the first videogame music composer (_Street Fighter_, _Final Fantasy_, _Super Mario_ and over 70 more) to receive a BAFTA fellowship, the academy's highest honour. (_Guardian_, 20 June)
KEITH STUART on recent videogame retellings of _Macbeth_ and _Hamlet_, the latter as _Grand Theft Hamlet_: 'I think if Shakespeare was magically reincarnated in the first quarter of the 21st century, there is only one genre he'd be working in: the open-world role-playing adventure. Here, he'd have the time and space to weave complex narratives involving dozens of characters and diverse environments. King Lear's moors would become a desolate explorable wasteland, much like the post-apocalyptic hellscapes of Fallout or Death Stranding.' (_Guardian_, 28 May) [PE] Critics brought up on _Doom_ have long felt the plays' action could be streamlined by a judicious sprinkling of chainsaws, plasma guns and rocket launchers.
### CONCREMENT ###
5 Jul [] COMIC CON AINTREE, Aintree Racecourse. 10am-5pm. Adult tickets GBP12; other rates at www.ljeventsentertainment.com.
5-6 Jul [] TOLKIEN SOCIETY SEMINAR: 'Arda's Entangled Bodies', Glasgow and online. Free. See www.tolkiensociety.org/events/.
5-6 Jul [] THE TOWN THAT NEVER WAS (steampunk), Blists Hill, Telford. See www.ministryofsteampunk.com. Tickets/passes from GBP27 (child GBP15.50) for one day: www.ironbridge.org.uk/plan/ticket-prices/.
13 Jul [] BFS/BSFA SOCIAL, Waterstones, Piccadilly, London. 2:30-5pm. Free tickets available at tinyurl.com/mvt4sek6.
SOLD OUT 18-20 Jul [] FANTASY FOREST (cosplay), Sudely Castle, Cheltenham. No tickets but a waiting list sign-up option at fantasyforest.co.uk.
19 Jul [] SMALL PRESS DAY, various events throughout the UK and Ireland, and online. See smallpressday.co.uk.
25-28 Jul [] CONTINUUM (RPG), Cranfield University CMDC . GBP60 reg; day pass GBP25; under-17s free. See continuumconvention.co.uk.
2-3 Aug [] SURREY STEAMPUNK CONVIVIAL, Stoneleigh, Epsom. See bumpandthumper.wixsite.com/steampunkconvivials.
26 Oct [] STARS OF TIME (comics), LC, Swansea. 10am-5pm. GBP11.55 (under-14s GBP7.21) at www.starsoftime.co.uk/swanseacomiccon.
22 Nov [] TFN: MINI-CON (_Transformers_), Reading University. GBP40; under-18s GBP25; under-16s free. See tfnation.com/mini-con-reading-25.
16-18 & 23-25 Jan 2026 [] HORROR-ON-SEA (film festival), Park Inn Radisson Palace Hotel, Church Rd, Southend-on-Sea, SS1 2AL. Tickets awaited on 31 October at the-white-bus-limited.sumupstore.com.
11 Apr 2026 [] BEDFORD WHO CHARITY CON (_Doctor Who_), King's House, Ampthill Road, Bedford, MK42 9AZ. 10am-5:30pm. Tickets GBP49.50; under-14s GBP20. See bedfordwhocharitycon.co.uk.
9-10 May 2026 [] LAWLESS (UK comics), Hilton Doubletree, Bristol. Ticket sales should open 'in early 2026' at lawlesscomiccon.co.uk.
29-31 May 2026 [] UK GAMES EXPO, Birmingham NEC. Ticket sales awaited at www.ukgamesexpo.co.uk.
20 Jun 2026 [] STARS OF TIME (comics), Steam Museum, Swindon. Tickets awaited at www.starsoftime.co.uk/swindon.
27-31 Aug 2026 [] LACON V, Anaheim Convention Center and hotels in Anaheim, California. _Now $230 full adult membership._ For the other rates, all unchanged, see www.lacon.org.
RUMBLINGS. _Seattle Worldcon 2025:_ Hugo voting closes on 23 July. Virtual WSFS business meetings will be held on 4 July, 13 July, 19 July and 25 July. See July links at news.ansible.uk for the vast (146pp) agenda document plus a 15pp guide to using the virtual meeting platform.
_2027 Worldcon_ site selection voting has opened, and will close on 15 August; the Montreal in 2027 bid is running unopposed.
### INFINITELY IMPROBABLE ###
AS OTHERS CONFABULATE US. A mention on a fan mailing list that Ted White was once headlined in the _Washington Daily News_ (1957) as the owner of '10,000 COMICS!' led to a web search and a bibliographical surprise from Google's now-integrated AI: 'The title "The Boy with 10,000 Comic Books" refers to the character Teddy White, a character created by author Ted White. This character is featured in Ted White's science fiction novel, also titled "The Boy with 10,000 Comic Books". The story centers around a young man who finds solace and escape in his vast collection of comic books.' [LB] Now it only remains for Ted to write it.
AWARDS. _ActuSF Prize for Uchronia_ (France, alternate history): the _Grandville_ series by Bryan Talbot won the 2025 graphic novel category.
_Arthur C. Clarke:_ _Annie Bot_ by Caragh M. O'Brien writing as Sierra Greer.
_Infinity_ (SFWA posthumous Grand Master award): Frank Herbert.
_Locus._ SF NOVEL _The Man Who Saw Seconds_ by Alexander Boldizar. FANTASY NOVEL _A Sorceress Comes to Call_ by T. Kingfisher. HORROR NOVEL _Bury Your Gays_ by Chuck Tingle. YA NOVEL _Moonstorm_ by Yoon Ha Lee. FIRST NOVEL _Someone You Can Build a Nest In_ by John Wiswell. NOVELLA _What Feasts at Night_ by T. Kingfisher. NOVELETTE 'By Salt, By Sea, By Light of Stars' by Premee Mohamed (6/24 _Strange Horizons_). SHORT 'Why Don't We Just Kill the Kid in the Omelas Hole' by Isabel J. Kim (2/24 _Clarkesworld_) ANTHOLOGY _The Black Girl Survives in This One_ ed. Desiree S. Evans & Saraciea J. Fennell. COLLECTION _Lake of Souls_ by Ann Leckie. MAGAZINE _Clarkesworld_. PUBLISHER Subterranean Press. EDITOR Neil Clarke. ARTIST Charles Vess. NONFICTION _Afro-Centered Futurisms in Our Speculative Fiction_ ed. Eugen Bacon. ILLUSTRATED/ART BOOK _The Last Unicorn_ by Peter S. Beagle illus. Tom Kidd. SPECIAL Ignyte Awards.
_Nebulas._ NOVEL _Someone You Can Build a Nest In_ by John Wiswell. NOVELLA _The Dragonfly Gambit_ by A.D. Sui. NOVELETTE 'Negative Scholarship on the Fifth State of Being' by A.W. Prihandita (11/24 _Clarkesworld_). SHORT STORY 'Why Don't We Just Kill the Kid in the Omelas Hole' by Isabel J. Kim (2/24 _Clarkesworld_). CHILDREN'S/YA _The Young Necromancer's Guide to Ghosts_ by Vanessa Ricci-Thode. GAME WRITING _A Death in Hyperspace_. DRAMATIC _Dune: Part Two_.
_Stokers_ (horror, novel categories only). MAIN _The Haunting of Velkwood_ by Gwendolyn Kiste. DEBUT _The Eyes Are the Best Part by Monika Kim_. CHILDREN'S (tie) _There's Something Sinister in Center Field_ by Robert P. Ottone; _The Creepening of Dogwood House_ by Eden Royce. YA _Clown in a Cornfield 3: The Church of Frendo_ by Adam Cesare. Full list at locusmag.com/2025/06/2024-stoker-awards-winners.
PUBLISHERS & SINNERS. Transworld and Fairyloot revealed the name of their new collaborative fantasy imprint, suitably evocative of perilous seas in faery lands forlorn: Wayward TxF. (_Bookseller_, 23 June) [SF2C]
R.I.P. _Aki Aleong_ (1934-2025), Trinidadian/US actor in _V_ (1984-1985), _Dragonfight_ (1990), _Superhero Movie_ (2008) and others, died on 22 June aged 90.
_Michael Allaby_ (1933-2025), UK author -- and actor in _Doctor Who_ (1964) -- who co-wrote _The Greening of Mars_ (1984) with James Lovelock, died on 4 May aged 91. [SHS]
_Jack Betts_ (1929-2025), US actor in _Batman Forever_ (1995), _Spider-Man_ (2002) and others, died on 19 June aged 96. [SJ]
_Marilyn 'Mattie' Brahen_, US author whose work includes the novel _Baby Boy Blue_ (2010) and the collection _Seastruck and Other Fantasies_ (2019), died on 9 June. She was also known as a convention book-dealer with her husband Darrell Schweitzer, to whom all sympathy. [DS]
_Roland Curram_ (1932-2025), UK actor in _Rime of the Ancient Mariner_ (1975, as Coleridge), _Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde_ (1980), _Artemis 81_ (1981) and others, died on 1 June aged 92.
_Rebekah Del Rio_ (1967-2025), US singer/songwriter and actress whose credits include _Mulholland Drive_ (2001), _Southland Tales_ (2006) and _The Winter Soldier_ (2017), died on 23 June aged 57. [SJ]
_Frances Doel_ (1942-2025), UK producer/screenwriter who worked for many years and made significant contributions (often uncredited) at Roger Corman's New World Pictures, died on 26 May aged 83. Film credits include _Deathsport_ (1978), _Starship Troopers_ (1997) and _Dinocroc_ (2004). [AIP]
_Taina Elg_ (1930-2025), Finnish-US actress in _Hercules in New York_ (1970), died on 15 May aged 95. [JH]
_Barbara Ferris_ (1939-2025), UK actress in the Wyndham- based _Children of the Damned_ (1964), died on 23 May aged 85. [AIP]
_Frederick Forsyth_ (1938-2025), best-selling UK thriller author who published one supernatural fantasy and a few near-future novels with sf elements, died on 9 June aged 86.
_Leanne Frahm_ (1946-2025), Ditmar-winning Australian author of short fiction since 1980 -- some stories collected as _Borderline_ (1996) -- died on 10 June aged 79. [JHW] One of the people I was very glad to meet on my only visit to Australia.
_Allan Freeman_ (1937-2025), US film marketing executive whose promotional campaigns included _The Stepford Wives_, _The Omen_, _Star Wars_, _Superman_, _Monty Python's Life of Brian_ and _The Shining_, died on 6 June aged 88. [AIP]
_Jose Luis Galicia_ (1930-2025), Spanish set decorator/production designer whose nearly 200 films include _Satanik_ (1968), _The Night of the Devils_ (1972) and _Count Dracula's Great Love_ (1973), died on 5 June aged 95. [SJ]
_Lynn Hamilton_ (1930-2025), US actress in _Brother John_ (1971), _Baby's Breath_ (2003) and genre tv series, died on 19 June aged 95. [SJ]
_Prentis Hancock_ (1942-2025), UK actor in various _Doctor Who_ series (1970-1978), _Space: 1999_ (1975-1976), _The Monster Club_ (1981), _Jekyll & Hyde_ (1990) and others, died on 30 May aged 83. [SJ]
_Rick Hurst_ (1946-2025), US actor in _The Cat from Outer Space_ (1978), _Earth Girls Are Easy_ (1988), _Venomous_ (2001) and _Return of the Killer Shrews_ (2012) died on 26 June aged 79. [SJ]
_Clifton Jones_ (1937-2025), Jamaican actor in _Space: 1999_ (23 episodes 1975-1976), _1990_ (6 episodes 1997) and _Watership Down_ (1978), died on 4 June aged 87. [SJ]
_Jonathan Joss_ (1965-2025), US actor in _The Forever Purge_ (2021) and _Abduction of the Fourth Kind_ (2022) -- plus voice work in sf videogames -- was shot and killed by a Texas neighbour on 1 June; he was 59. [LP]
_Pik Sen Lim_ (1944-2025), Malaysian-born UK actress in _Maleficent: Mistress of Evil_ (2019) and genre tv series including _Doctor Who_ (1971) and _Vampire Academy_ (2022), died on 9 June aged 80. [SJ]
_Barry B. Longyear_ (1942-2025), popular US author who began to publish sf in 1978, won the 1980 John W. Campbell award as best new writer, and received Hugo, Locus and Nebula awards for his 1979 novella 'Enemy Mine', died on 6 May aged 82. [RJS] That best-known story was filmed as _Enemy Mine_ (1985), which he deprecated.
_Valerie Mahaffey_ (1953-2025), US actress in _The Lost Souls_ (1993, based on Kipling's 'They'), _Witch Hunt_ (1994) and _The Witch Files_ (2018), died on 30 May aged 71. [SJ]
_Beans Morocco_ (Dan Barrows,1934-2025), US actor in _Where Have All the People Gone?_ (1974), _Once Bitten_ (1985), _Wes Craven's New Nightmare_ (1994) and others, died on 29 May aged 90. [SG]
_Susan Beth Pfeffer_ (1948-2025), US author of many children's/YA books including the bestselling post-disaster sf sequence opening with _Life as We Knew It_ (2006), died on 23 June aged 77. [AIP]
_Chris Robinson_ (1938-2025), US actor in _Beast from Haunted Cave_ (1959, as the Beast), _Sweet, Sweet Rachel_ (1971) and others, died on 9 June aged 86. [SJ]
_Gailard Sartain_ (1943-2025), US tv horror host and actor in _Wishman_ (1992), _Sandman_ (1993), _Existo_ (1999) and the Laurel & Hardy tribute _For Love or Mummy_ (1999, as Hardy), died on 19 June aged 81. [SJ]
_Lalo Schifrin_ (1932-2025), Argentinian composer whose many music credits include _Mission: Impossible_ (1966-1973), _The President's Analyst_ (1967), _The Cat From Outer Space_ (1978), _Return from Witch Mountain_ (1978), _The Amityville Horror_ (1979 plus sequel) and _Back to the Planet of the Apes_ (1980), died on 26 June aged 93. [LP]
_David Schleinkofer_ (1951-2025), US artist who produced many sf book covers from 1976 to the 1990s, died on 20 April aged 74. [L]
_Jim Shooter_ (1951-2025), US comics writer, penciller, editor and publisher who first worked for DC in the mid-1960s, was the successful though often controversial editor-in-chief at Marvel 1978-1987, and went on to found other comics imprints, died on 30 June aged 73. [LP/MR]
_Loretta Swit_ (1937-2025), US _M*A*S*H_ actress in _It's a Bird... It's a Plane... It's Superman!_ (1975 tv film), _Whoops Apocalypse_ (1987) and _Forest Warrior_ (1996), died on 30 May aged 87. [LP]
_Valentina Talyzina_ (1935-2025), Russian actress who starred in the fantasy film _Koltsa Almanzora_ (_Almanzor's Rings_, 1977), died on 21 June aged 90. [AM]
_Rodger Turner_ (1947-2025), Canadian fan, dealer and webmaster who was a founder in 1997 of Sfsite.com, co-owner of the House of Speculative Fiction bookshop in Ottawa and long-time World Fantasy Convention board member/ awards administrator, died on 16 June aged 77. [CDL/AIP]
_Renee Victor_ (1938-2025), US actress in _The Prophecy 2_ (1998), _Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones_ (2014), _Snowpiercer_ (2020-2021) and _Green Ghost and the Masters of the Stone_ (2021), died on 30 May aged 86. [SJ]
_G. Peter Winnington_ (1944-2025), noted Peake scholar who wrote _Vast Alchemies: The Life and Work of Mervyn Peake_ (2000) and other studies, reportedly died in April aged 80. [DAA]
_Harris Yulin_ (1937-2025), US actor in _Ghostbusters II_ (1989) and others, died on 10 June aged 87. [MR]
_Manuel Zarzo_ (1932-2025), Spanish actor in _Encounters of the Deep_ (1979), _Nightmare City_ (1980) and others, died on 17 June aged 93. [SJ]
THE WEAKEST LINK. Cinema Dept -- _Roman Kemp:_ 'The flag of Uzbekistan contains 12 what?' _Contestant:_ 'Monkeys.' (BBC1, _The Finish Line_) [PE]
Hollow Horses Dept -- _Kemp:_ 'In which war was the mythical hero Hector killed?' _Contestant:_ 'The First World War.' (_Ibid_) [PE]
COURT CIRCULAR. Chris Barkley's legal quest to prise his 2023 Hugo Award from the sinister clutches of that year's Hugo administrator Dave McCarty led to a court encounter in Chicago on 26 June, in which the judge told McCarty to deliver the trophy (or fragments thereof, the bases having reportedly been damaged in transit from China) to Barkley before a further 'continuance' hearing on 22 September. With characteristic charm, McCarty informed the court that 'he would neither receive or accept any emails, text messages, phone calls or any other form of communication regarding the issue'. [F770] Keep watching the skies!
THE DEAD PAST. _20 Years Ago_, Brian Aldiss told us about his OBE: 'I was greatly chuffed by the award "for services to Literature" -- a euphemism in this case for SF.... But when chatting to Her Majesty, I was disappointed to find she had only got as far as John Wyndham and the triffids. "What do you like about it?" I asked. She replied, "Oh, it's such a cosy catastrophe." I blushed.' (_Ansible_ 216, July 2005)
_30 Years Ago_, your editor saw the shape of things to come: 'I finally got to be a virtual convention guest ... one of several at Cascon in Slovakia, via Internet Relay Chat [1 July]. Great hospitality, though vodka does not e-mail well.' (_Ansible_ 96, July 1995)
_50 Years Ago_, Brian Aldiss offered yet another innovation: 'How about a new definition of science fiction? It's about things going wrong.' (_Vector_ 69, Summer 1975)
_60 Years Ago:_ 'Recent _Sunday Times_ colour supplement featured article called "Tarzan 66" and quoted Sy Weintraub, owner of all Tarzan film and TV rights, as saying "Let's get a James Bond approach to Tarzan." The article did not mention Burroughs, but quoted Weintraub as adding "In fact, he's really English, the son of a lord, but that's all forgotten now."' (_Skyrack_ 81, 10 July 1965)
BIG NUMBERS. Frank Frazetta's artwork for a 1954 _Famous Funnies_ Buck Rogers cover sold for over $1 million. (Heritage Auctions, 27 June)
RANDOM FANDOM. _Andy Hooper_ became Official Editor of SAPS (fandom's second oldest surviving APA) this year, and says: 'members are now permitted to send contributions electronically for printing by the OE'.
THE CRITICAL HERITAGE. 'From Garfield to Simon's Cat, Krazy Kat to Bagpuss and everything in between, there is a long line of iconic cartoon cats.' (London Cartoon Museum 'Cats in Cartoons' blurb) Bagpuss?
FOOTFALL. A UK parliamentary committee was presumably unsurprised by a report that there's still no international protocol for deciding how to tackle the hypothetical future threat of a devastating asteroid impact on Earth. Apparently 'aligning governments behind any space mission needed to deflect a looming orb would be difficult, even if technically possible.' It was all so much easier in the sf films. (_The Register_, 27 June)
FANFUNDERY. _Fan Fund Books:_ the latest Ansible Editions ebook at the TAFF site is Rob Hansen's _Approaching Xero: The SF Prehistory of Comics Fandom_. See taff.org.uk/ebooks.php?x=Xero. Both this and the updated _TAFF Trip Report Anthology_ (see ae.ansible.uk?t=TAFFanth) are also trade paperbacks with all proceeds going to TAFF. This year's Corflu fanthology -- _Dancing to Architecture_ edited by Doug Bell, in which many fans write about music -- is a free download at taff.org.uk/ebooks.php?x=Dancing.
What next? In the tradition of his 1957 and 1965 Worldcon tomes, Rob Hansen is now working on _1979: The Third UK Worldcon_. I was there!
MAGAZINE SCENE. The Australian _Andromeda Spaceways Magazine_ will cease regular quarterly publication with issue 100, expected for the third quarter of 2025. ' The hull of the ship will be coasting for a while afterwards, and we'll see what shape that takes ...' [PS-P]
THOG'S MASTERCLASS. _Streaming Service._ '... his dry matter-of-fact-maleness seeming to stream out on the wings of the storm.' (Paul J. McAuley, _Four Hundred Billion Stars_, 1988) [BA]
_Dept of Elusive Pulchritude._ 'Miss Deary was the most beautiful woman on Earth, in fact in the entire Empire. There was something unearthly about Miss Deary's beauty, something more than of Earth. It was hard to say, even looking at her, exactly what she looked like.' (Martin Siegel, _Agent of Entropy_, 1969) [AR]
### GEEKS' CORNER ###
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More details, and an ALTERNATIVE LIST subscription form for those averse to Google, on this page (which is also where to unsubscribe from the alternative list, hosted at ansible.uk):
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LiveJournal syndication -- http://www.livejournal.com/users/ansiblezine/
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Email the editor -- https://news.ansible.uk/contact.php
Books Received -- https://ansible.uk/books.php
CONVENTION AND EVENT LINKS
British Isles -- https://news.ansible.uk
London -- https://news.ansible.uk/london.html
Overseas -- https://news.ansible.uk/conlisti.html [no longer updated]
### ENDNOTES ###
PAYPAL TIP JAR THINGY. Donate to support _Ansible_, cover website costs and keep the editor happy! Or just buy his books.
https://ansible.uk/paypal.html
https://ae.ansible.uk/
https://ansible.uk/books/index.html
GROUP THEORY.
17 July 2025, evening: London Zoom meeting, third Thursday of each month. 'Please share this with people who you know typically come to the Bishop's Finger, but aren't on Facebook.'
https://bohemiancoast.medium.com/first-thursday-london-sf-fan-virtual-drinks-5232021e961f
EDITORIAL. Ansible Editions book projects continue, as does the _SF Encyclopedia_ with its relentless weekly updates. Your editor would like to add something ever so witty about all this, but it's still too hot here for rational thought.
BSFA NEWS. Stewart Hotston is the new BSFA Chair since the June AGM at which Allen Stroud stepped down.
C.O.A. _Martin Tudor_, Flat 6, 11-12 New Road, Willenhall, WV13 2BD.
R.I.P. II -- LATE REPORTS. _Linda Evans_ (1958-2023), US author of _Sleipnir_ (1994), the 'Time Scout' sequence (1995-2001) with Robert Asprin, and contributions to the Keith Laumer 'Bolo' universe, died on 13 June 2023 aged 64 (not widely reported before June 2025). [F770]
_Swen Papenbrock_ (1960-2025), German author and artist who created a great many covers and interior illustrations for the 'Perry Rhodan' series since 1996, died on 10 March aged 64. [SHS]
_Rainer Schorm_ (1965-2025), German author and artist who was chief writer for the 'Perry Rhodan NEO' series and published many novels in that setting from 2014, died in March aged 59. [SHS]
SOME LINKS from the _Ansible_ home page.
2027 Worldcon site selection
https://seattlein2025.org/wsfs/site-selection/voting/
British Fantasy Awards finalists
https://britishfantasysociety.org/british-fantasy-awards-2025-shortlist-announced/
Mythopoeic Awards finalists
https://www.mythsoc.org/news/news-2025-06-02.htm
Seattle Worldcon 2025 virtual business meeting agenda and instuctions
https://seattlein2025.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/WSFS_business_meeting_agenda_2025_v2op.pdf
https://seattlein2025.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/WSFS_business_meeting_2025_virtual_meeting_instructions_v3op.pdf
THOG'S GOLDEN OLDIES from _Ansible_ 216, July 2005. _Biothermics Dept, or Why Polar Bears Do Not Exist._ 'It was evidently cold-blooded or nearly so, for no warm-blooded animal could have withstood that more than glacial cold.' (George Griffith, 'Stories of Other Worlds', 1900)
_Limits of Vision Dept._ '"That," he said impressively, "is the blackest black you or any other mortal ever looked upon ... so black that no mortal man will be able to look upon it -- and see it!"' (Jack London, 'The Shadow and the Flash', 1903)
'Xavier closed his eyes, then forced himself to watch the terrible solution.' (Brian Herbert & Kevin J. Anderson, _The Butlerian Jihad_, 2002)
_Dept of Motherhood and Stale Apple Pie._ 'He took an instant to gulp water from a dipper, stale and welcome as a mother's love.' (S.M. Stirling & David Drake, _The Sword_, 1995)
_Ansible_(R) 456 (C) David Langford, 2025. Thanks to Brian Ameringen, Douglas A. Anderson, Lenny Bailes, _File 770_, Charles de Lint, Steve Green, Jerry House, Steve Jones, _Locus_, Andrey Meshavkin, Lawrence Person, Andrew I. Porter, _Private Eye_, Adam Roberts, Marcus Rowland, Darrell Schweitzer, _SF2 Concatenation_, Steven H Silver, Phil Stephensen-Payne, Robert J. Sawyer, Jean Hollis Weber, and as always our Hero Distributors: Durdles Books (Birmingham SF Group), SCIS/Prophecy, and Alan Stewart (Australia).
1 July 2025
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