Ansible 449 -- December 2024
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Nov 29, 2024, 3:49:55 PM11/29/24
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ANSIBLE(R) 449
DECEMBER 2024
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 or any reliable charm against being seasonally scrobbled.
[NET NOTE. See https://news.ansible.uk/a449.html for the nice HTML version; https://news.ansible.uk/pdf/a449.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]
### THE WOLVES ARE RUNNING ###
JOSH BROLIN targeted the Thog Hall of Fame with his poetic captions for a book of _Dune_ photos taken by Greig Fraser. One shot of Timothee Chalamet inspired the deathless 'Your cheekbones jump toward what are youth-laden eyes that slide down a prominent nose and onto lips of a certain poetry.' One response: 'It is less a traditional poem and more the sort of thing ChatGPT would blurt out if you asked it to describe a crayon drawing of a melting Cabbage Patch Kid.' (_Guardian_, 22 November) [DA]
SAMANTHA HARVEY, whose novel _Orbital_ is set on the International Space Station and involves various near-future developments, explained to radio listeners that this is not at all science fiction but 'space realism'. Asked whether there were other books in that specialist genre, the author confessed she wasn't sure and didn't herself know of any. (BBC Radio 4, _Front Row_, 5 November) [SF2C] _Orbital_ was the only genre or near-genre novel on the Booker Prize shortlist, and has since won that prize. _New Scientist_ tactfully calls it 'space pastoral'. [RH] There are no talking squid.
STEPHEN KING found the horror too much: 'I'm leaving Twitter. Tried to stay, but the atmosphere has just become too toxic.' (14 November)
LINDA MOORCOCK gives warning to the world: 'EDITIONS L'ATALANTE: This French company continues to sell books by Michael Moorcock ILLEGALLY. All Moorcock contracts have expired. Editions L'Atalante were refused renewal requests earlier this year after they illegally reprinted and put on sale one of the books they no longer had rights to. / If you are doing business with this company, at least be aware of how they have behaved towards Michael. We have repeatedly asked them to stop all sales and they continue to ignore us.' [CP]
TERRY PRATCHETT would surely have chortled at the news that his Discworld novel _Night Watch_ is to be reissued in April 2025, with learned annotations, as a Penguin Modern Classic. (_The Bookseller_, 1 November)
### CONACASTE ###
7-8 Dec [] DARKNESS IN THE FIELDS (folk horror), online. GBP36 reg, GBP20 Sat/Sun only, plus fees. See tinyurl.com/5n95jeuc.
7-8 Dec [] WOMEN IN THE BLACK FANTASTIC (SFF conference), online. GBP30; GBP15 unwaged. See www.sf-foundation.org/fresh-about.
19 Dec [] CHRISTMAS MEETING in the London First Thursday pub (Bishop's Finger, West Smithfield). See news.ansible.uk/london.html.
29 Dec - 1 Jan [] STEAMPUNK NEW YEAR, Belmont Hotel, Leicester. See www.ministryofsteampunk.com/steampunknewyear2025.
22-23 Feb 2025 [] SURREY STEAMPUNK CONVIVIAL, Stoneleigh, Epsom. See bumpandthumper.wixsite.com/steampunkconvivials. Further 2025 events take place on 24-25 May, 2-3 August and 25-26 October.
6-8 Mar 2025 [] FRIGHTFEST (film), Glasgow Film Theatre, Rose Street. Tickets in January from www.frightfest.co.uk/filmsandevents/.
30 Mar 2025 [] BLOOMSBURY EPHEMERA FAIR, Holiday Inn Bloomsbury, Coram St, London. 9:30am-3pm. GBP3 entry. Apparently not including the Paperback & Pulp Book Fair. See etcfairs.com/ephemera-fairs/.
18-21 Apr 2025 [] RECONNECT (Eastercon), Hilton Lanyon Place Hotel and ICC, Belfast.GBP90 reg, _rising to GBP100 on 1 January and GBP120 at the door_; Eastercon first-timers and fans living in Ireland _now GBP70_; GBP40 under-18s, concessions; GBP25 supporting. See easterconbelfast.org.
5 Jul 2025 [] COMIC CON AINTREE, Aintree Racecourse. 10am-5pm. Adult tickets GBP12; other rates at www.ljeventsentertainment.com.
8-10 Aug 2025 [] TFNATION (_Transformers_), Hilton Birmingham Metropole near the NEC. Ticket sales awaited at tfnation.com/2025.
26-28 Sep 2025 [] LAKES INTERNATIONAL COMIC ART FESTIVAL, Bowness-on-Windermere. Ticket sales awaited at www.comicartfestival.com.
27-28 Sep 2025 [] NOR-CON (media), Norfolk Showground Arena. Adult tickets GBP17 or GBP21 early entry; other rates at www.nor-con.co.uk.
31 Oct - 2 Nov 2025 [] ARMADACON, Future Inns, Plymouth. GBP47 reg; GBP40 concessions. More at www.armadacon.org.
7-9 Nov 2025 [] NOVACON 54, Palace Hotel, Buxton. GoH Emily Tesh. Now GBP54 reg; under-17s GBP12; under-13s free. More at novacon.uk.
22-24 May 2026 [] SATELLITE 9, Glasgow. Venue, rates, guests and other details awaited at nine.satellitex.org.uk.
RUMBLINGS. _Eastercon 2026._ The Iridescence bid has the Birmingham NEC Metropole as planned venue, and a website at eastercon2026.org.
_Eastercon 2027._ A Glasgow bid is announced: see easterconglasgow.org.
_Worldcon 2030._ The bid for Edmonton (Alberta, Canada) revealed its website in November: see www.edmontonin2030.org.
### INFINITELY IMPROBABLE ###
SILVER LINING. 'Sales surge for dystopian books after Trump election victory ... The Handmaid's Tale has risen more than 400 places on bestseller charts since Wednesday.' (_Guardian_, 7 November) [AIP]
AWARDS. _Forry_ (LASFS, for life achievement): Hayao Miyazaki.
_Ignyte_ novel winners: ADULT _The Saint of Bright Doors_ by Vajra Chandrasekera. YA _I Feed Her to the Beast and the Beast Is Me_ by Jamison Shae. MIDDLE GRADE _Abeni's Song_ by P. Djeli Clark.
_Kitschies_ (final year of presentation, alas): NOVEL _Julia_ by Sandra Newman. DEBUT _The Centre_ by Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi. COVER ART Arnold J. Kemp (art) and Janay Nachel Frazier and Stuart Wilson (design) for _Out There Screaming_ edited by Jordan Peele. SPECIAL Kieron Smith, digital director of Blackwell's (the sponsor) as a 'tireless champion of small presses'.
AS OTHERS CREDIT US. An article on 'The rise of the floating breakfast, travel's most insufferable flex' (i.e. breakfast on a floating tray in the hotel swimming pool, argh) notes its prediction by 'Science fiction writer John Varley [in] his 1998 book _The Golden Globe_'. Immortality is assured! (Natalie B. Compton, _The Washington Post_, 3 November) [PL]
R.I.P. _Jim Abrahams_ (1944-2024), US director, producer and screenwriter who co-wrote _Airplane!_ (1980) and _Scary Movie 4_ (2006), died on 26 November aged 80. [LP]
_Rod Barzilay_, founder member of The Eagle Society who revived Dan Dare in his _Spaceship Away_ (2003-2010), scripting new stories drawn by original Hampson studio artists, died in August aged 77. [SH]
_Bruce Boston_ (1943-2024), US author and poet active since the early 1970s, winner of many Rhysling Awards for poetry and honoured in 2000 as the first Rhysling Grand Master, died on 11 November aged 81. [PDF]
_Marshall Brain_ (1961-2024), US author of the _How Stuff Works_ books and founder of the related website, whose sf novel was _Manna_ (2003), died on 20 November aged 63.
_Colin Chilvers_ (1945-2024), Oscar-winning UK special effects director whose films include _The Rocky Horror Picture Show_ (1975), _Superman_ (1978 plus sequels), _Saturn 3_ (1980), _Condorman_ (1981) and _X-Men_ (2000), died on 19 November aged 79. [SJ]
_Giovanni Cianfriglia_ (1935-2024), Italian actor/stuntman who starred (as Ken Wood) in _Superargo vs. Diabolus_ (1966 plus sequel) and whose many often uncredited stunt appearances include _Ladyhawke_ (1985), _Frankenstein Unbound_ (1990) and _Angels & Demons_ (2009), died on 30 October aged 89. [SJ]
_Paul Engelen_ (1949-2024), UK makeup designer whose many credits include _Moonraker_ (1979), _Little Shop of Horrors_ (1986), _Highlander II_ (1991), _Frankenstein_ (1994) and _The Phantom Menace_ (1999), died on 3 November aged 75. [SJ]
_Al Ferrara_ (1939-2024), US actor in _Batman_ (1967-1968), _Mansion of the Doomed_ (1976) and _Zoltan... Hound of Dracula_ (1977), died on 15 November aged 84. [SJ]
_Jonathan Haze_ (1929-2024), US actor in _It Conquered the World_ (1956), _Not of This Earth_ (1957), _Little Shop of Horrors_ (1960) and others, died on 2 November aged 95. [LP]
_Dan Hennessey_ (1941-2024), Canadian voice actor in _X-Men_ (1992-1997), _Inspector Gadget_ (1983), _Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors_ (1985-1986), _Beetlejuice_ (1989), _Tintin_ (1991-1992), _Redwall_ (1999 plus film) and more, died on 13 November aged 83. [AIP]
_Kate Hepburn_ (1947-2024), UK artist and graphic designer who worked with Terry Gilliam on _Monty Python_ animations and designed the cover of _The Brand New Monty Python Bok_ (1973), died on 26 July aged 77. [AIP]
_Earl Holliman_ (1928-2024), US actor in _Forbidden Planet_ (1956), _The Six Million Dollar Man: Wine, Women and War_ (1973), _NightMan_ (1997) and genre tv series -- he was the star of the very first episode of _The Twilight Zone_ (1959) -- died on 25 November aged 96. [LP]
_Song Jae-rim_ (1985-2024), South Korean actor in _Ingyeogongjoo_ (_The Idle Mermaid_, 2014), died on 12 November aged 39.
_Richard D. James_, Emmy-winning US production designer for _Star Trek: The Next Generation_ (1988-1994) and _Star Trek: Voyager_ (1995-2001), died on 11 November aged 88. [SJ]
_Quincy Jones_ (1933-2024), noted US composer and producer whose credits include _The Wiz_ (1978), _Michael Jackson: Thriller_ (1983), _Austin Powers in Goldmember_ (2002) and _X-Men: Days of Future Past_ (2014), died on 3 November aged 91. [SJ]
_Zoe Kaplan_ (1996-2024), US short-story author since 2021, and publisher with Tor and then Simon & Schuster/Saga Press, died on 9 October aged 28. [L/P-SP]
_Peter Maddocks_ (1928-2024), UK cartoonist who drew the 'Four D. Jones' sf strip for the _Daily Express_ 1955-1965, died on 20 November aged 96.
_Davide Mana_ (1967-2024), Italian sf/fantasy author active since 2011 whose first collection was _The Hand of Isfet_ (2014), died in November. [JLG]
_Tony Mirrcandani_, Indian actor in _The Curse of King Tut's Tomb_ (2006) and _Ender's Game_ (2013), died on 3 November.
_Istvan Nemere_ (1944-2024), Hungarian author of some 750 books under 46 pseudonyms in multiple genres, including 60 sf novels, died on 15 November aged 80. [AM]
_Alan Rachins_ (1942-2024), US actor in _Time Walker_ (1982), _Terminal Voyage_ (1995), _Monster Night_ (2006), _Angels on Tap_ (2018) and genre tv series, died on 2 November aged 82. [SJ]
_Phil Rickman_ (1950-2024), UK author active since 1991, best known for the 'Merrily Watkins' supernatural-tinged mystery series beginning with _The Wine of Angels_ (1998), died on 29 October aged 74. [L]
_Scott L. Schwartz_ (1959-2024), US actor in _Lost in Oz_ (2000), _Journey to Promethea_ (2010), _Joe Dirt 2_ (2015) and genre tv series, died on 26 November aged 65.
_Ken Shorter_ (1945-2024), Australian actor in _Dragonslayer_ (1981) and _Dragonheart: A New Beginning_ (1999), died in November aged 79.
_Tim Sullivan_ (1948-2024), US author, actor, editor and director whose first stories appeared in the late 1970s and whose first-written novel was _Destiny's End_ (1988), died on 10 November aged 76. He scripted and acted in several genre films including _Twilight of the Dogs_ (1995). [GVG]
_Tony Todd_ (1954-2024), US actor whose many genre credits include _Candyman_ (1992, title role and sequels), _The Crow_ (1994), _The Man from Earth_ (2007) and tv series such as _Star Trek_ (1990-2001) and _The Flash_ (2015-2023), died on 6 November aged 69. [OC/CM]
_Kazuo Umezu_ (1936-2024), Japanese manga writer/artist best known for his horror and sf series 'Hyoryu Kyoshitsu' [The Drifting Classroom], 'Watashi wa Shingo' [My Name is Shingo] and 'Fotin' [Fourteen], died on 28 October aged 88. [SH]
_Vic 'Waddy' Wadmore_, UK Discworld fan who ran the unofficial Discworld-themed Wadfest camping event from 2002 to 2017 (skipping 2012), died on 26 November.
_Timothy West_ (1934-2024), UK actor whose genre credits include _Beowulf_ (1998), _102 Dalmatians_ (2000), _The Fall of Gondolin_ (2019) and various tv/podcast series, died on 12 November aged 90. [SJ]
_Eiji Yanagisawa_ (1967-2024), Japanese voice actor whose many anime credits include _Mobile Suit Gundam 1_ (1981), _Digimon Frontier_ (2002) and _Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone_ (2007), died on 12 November aged 57.
THE WEAKEST LINK. _Q:_ 'The Three Broomsticks is a fictional pub in a series of books by which writer?' _A:_ 'I think I know the name C.S. Lewis -- from _Fifty Shades of Grey_ ...' (ITV, _Tipping Point_) [PE]
DIRTY WORK ONLINE. Victoria Strauss of Writer Beware, which famously exposes publishing frauds, is being impersonated by a scammer asking four-figure sums to recover money lost to an allegedly different scammer, about whose doings the impersonator is suspiciously well-informed. (Writer Beware, 15 November) George R.R. Martin warns that the apparent GRRM presence on Bluesky is not him (from his Not A Blog, 18 November); there's also a false Peter F. Hamilton on that platform. Two fake Ken MacLeods are issuing friend requests on Facebook, which has ignored reports of this in favour of more urgent work like banning links to the _SF Encyclopedia_ 'What's New' page -- because, they claim, it secretly contains nudity. Finally, a moving plea from a very familiar face on Instagram: 'Hey it's me Queen Elizabeth, I am not dead, Charles sent me to a st helena island so he could be queen. I don't have access to my royal money so please cashapp me GBP300 so I can get back to the UK.'
WE ARE EVERYWHERE. 'Ennui is The Thing: welcome to the death-football of late-stage capitalism [...] Light and heat without content. Football as something empty and frictionless, humans in coloured shirts waiting for life to happen. J.G. Ballard-ball.' (Barney Roney on Manchester United versus Chelsea, _The Guardian_, 3 November) [PE]
SANITY CLAUSE. Simon Groth has an exemplary LLM statement on his 2023 copyright page from publishers Tiny Owl Workshop of Brisbane: 'No part of this book may be used as data for "training" any large language model or as part of any machine learning or neural network architecture. Human creativity cannot be replicated by doing maths with stolen art. Altman, Andreessen and all their cronies can get fucked.' [CB]
THE DEAD PAST. _40 Years Ago_, John Brosnan dived into the slushpile and found 'a classic line: "She was a fish out of water in a man's arms." Aren't we all?' (_Ansible_ 41, December 1984)
_30 Years Ago_, Ian Watson bewailed his popularity: 'Alarmed by the complete sell-out of all copies of IW's _Warhammer 40,000: Harlequin_ available at Games Day, Games Workshop have forbidden this particular hardback to be on sale in any GW shop in case customers buy it instead of a game. Stunned publishers Boxtree are protesting vehemently.' (_Ansible_ 89, December 1994)
_20 Years Ago_, Lucy Lawless revealed all: 'I was known at school as Unco, for uncoordinated, so it was a horrible shock to do all the fight scenes in _Xena: Warrior Princess_. I don't watch fantasy or sci-fi, I'm just not into it. I'm into real people and exploring humanity. I will always watch Judi Dench rather than people with pointy ears.' (Interview in _The Big Issue_ #1642, 18-24 November 2004) [KM]
_10 Years Ago_, a scholarly insight was noted: '"I believe that [Sax] Rohmer's texts aim at effects that differ fundamentally from the effects that high modernist literature aspires to." (Ruth Mayer, _Serial Fu Manchu -- The Chinese Supervillain and the spread of Yellow Peril ideology_, 2014)' (_Ansible_ 329, December 2014)
OUTRAGED LETTERS. _Rob Jackson_ on the Ken Howard obit in _A448_: 'He and Alan Blaikley were also the producers and writers of an sf concept album called _Ark 2_ by Flaming Youth, which featured among others a very young Phil Collins.' (Email, 3 November)
FANFUNDERY. _TransAtlantic Fan Fund._ Nominations for the TAFF race to the 2025 Seattle Worldcon close on 20 December; voting is expected to begin in early January and to continue until just after Eastercon in Belfast. See taff.org.uk for the official newsletter with the announcement.
_Free Ebooks._ The latest is _Motorway Dreams_ by John Nielsen-Hall, a memorial collection of his fan writing with a simultaneous paperback edition. See taff.org.uk/ebooks.php?x=Johnny. Donations via that page and all paperback proceeds go to his preferred fan fund, The Corflu Fifty.
SFWA's board of directors has given the nod to new Nebula Award categories for genre comics and poetry; first presentation in 2026. [F770]
RANDOM FANDOM. _Alvar Appeltofft Memorial Award_ (for Swedish fan activity): Karl-Johan Noren. [AE]
EDITORIAL: ANOTHER YEAR. The free library at taff.org.uk acquired 19 new titles in 2024, for a total of 111. Besides many GUFF and TAFF trip reports available as ready-made PDFs (thanks to all who traced or created these), additions include _New Worlds Profiles 1952-1963_, _British SF Conventions Volume 2: 1952-1957_ by Rob Hansen, my own critical collection _Work for Hire_, and _Motorway Dreams_ as noted above. Among the TAFF titles in preparation for 2025 is a substantial (82,000 words) collection of Ian Watson's writings for fan and convention publications, which he has augustly titled _Watto's Wisdom_. Like that famous wagon in _The Phantom Tollbooth_, the relentless routine of at-least-weekly _SF Encyclopedia_ updates and monthly _Ansible_s goes without saying.
LOADSAMONEY. Bidding for the first Christie's auction dedicated wholly to sf/fantasy memorabilia closes on 12 December. Eye-watering price estimates yield the interesting coincidence that a first edition of _Frankenstein_ and _The Dune Bible_ (storyboard for the unmade Alejandro Jodorowsky film) are each expected to fetch from GBP250,000 to GBP350,000. See onlineonly.christies.com/s/science-fiction-fantasy/lots/3835.
MAGAZINE SCENE. Hiraeth Publishing's _The Martian Wave_ and _The Fifth Di..._ will cease with their March and April 2025 issues. [PS-P]
THOG'S MASTERCLASS. _Striking Similes._ 'A thick black moustache drooped on his upper lip, like a rodent pinned there by the knifelike nose.' 'His face looked like a two-minute egg.' (Ron Miller, _Palaces and Prisons_, 1991) [BA] '... a broad, pellucid expanse of water that was like a steel cuirass.' '... those grey eyes glowed from the shadowy face like noctilucent clouds, like aurorae fizzing with electricity, like radium, like will-o'-the-wisps in a marsh enameled with midnight, and she felt herself dissolving in them like a spoonful of effervescent salts.' (Ron Miller, _Hearts and Armour_, 1992) [BA]
_Eyeballs in the Sky._ 'Porter cocked an alarmed eye as he bit a roll.' (Ivar Jorgensen [Paul Fairman], _The Deadly Sky_, 1971) [AR] 'Her eyes keened into his.' (Eric Frank Russell, _Sentinels from Space_, 1953)
_After Clockwork, What?_ '... the thin whistle of the radium chronometer ...' (_Ibid_)
_The Deep Purple Fix._ 'In the slow pause which dropped between these two there arose ever-changing hues of colors rare, melting now here, now there, into new and gorgeous dyes, jewel-flecked with gold and silver. Strange perfumes exuded from these colors rare, intoxicating the lovers with long-forgotten bliss.' 'Simultaneously upon the bosom of this unfathomable abyss shone milliards of scintillating sparks, each holding by its thread of light, stirring the ether with exultant throbs, and streams of joyous melody.' (Julia H. Coffin, _The Vendor of Dreams_, 1917) [LP]
_You Know The Feeling._ 'A tremor of transport palsied outer sense.' (Richard Matheson, 'Pattern For Survival', May 1955 _F&SF_) [BA]
### 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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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.
19 December 2024, 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
R.I.P. II -- LAST-MINUTE REPORTS. _Bob Blackwood_ (1942-2024), US fan and film critic who wrote _Future Prime: The Top 10 Science Fiction Films_ (2015) with John Flynn, died on 21 November. [SHS]
_Linda Bushyager_ (1947-2024), long-time Philadelphia fan latterly in Las Vegas, whose fanzines included the genzine _Granfalloon_ (20 issues 1968-1976) and the major US newszine _Karass_ (38 issues 1974-1978), died on 27 November aged 77. [AIP] She also co-edited the 1976 Worldcon newsletter and began to publish fiction professionally with _Master of Hawks_ (1979). Much sympathy to her husband of many years, Ron Bushyager.
_Paul Teal_ (1989-2024), US actor in _Descendants: The Rise of Red_ (2024), died on 15 November aged 35. [SHS]
PETER DENNIS PAUTZ warns US and other non-UK members of next year's World Fantasy Convention (Brighton, October-November 2025) about the new requirement for electronic travel authorizations. Long-distance travellers to Eastercon and other events should also take note:
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/check-when-you-can-get-an-electronic-travel-authorisation-eta
SOME LINKS from the _Ansible_ home page.
The Cruciverbal Inquisitor at Full Moon
https://www.fifteensquared.net/2024/11/12/inquisitor-1880-transformers-by-cranberry/
Rob Latham on _The Last Dangerous Visions_ and _New Worlds_
https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/back-to-the-new-wave-future
_Taffluorescence_ #6 announces the 2025 TAFF race, and more
https://taff.org.uk/news/Taffluorescence6.pdf
THOG'S GOLDEN OLDIES from _Ansible_ 209, December 2004. _Dept of Slannish Tendrils._ 'He turned to the strikingly beautiful girl sitting beside him. A girl whose long almost blue-black hair seemed so vibrantly alive that it pulsated with a sentience of its own.' (Bron Fane, 'Jungle of Death', _Supernatural Stories_ #27, 1959)
_Rocketry and Relativity Dept._ 'We're only going to go at a thousand miles an hour [...] We're in no hurry and a great increase in speed brings a large number of problems. [...] our bodies are being penetrated by cosmic radiation and probably cosmic particles as well all the time, but because they travel relatively slowly we suffer no ill effects. Speed them up and they would be fatal.' (Leonard Wibberley, _The Mouse on the Moon_, 1962)
_Stupefying Similes._ 'The boiling upsurge of questions and ideas whirled around in Harding's head like particles being accelerated in a cyclotron, until he felt like a man both blind and deaf searching for a needle in a lightless, soundless chamber, and forced to wear feather pillows for gloves.' (Steve Hall, 'Out of Character', _Science Fantasy_ 57, February 1963)
_Ansible_(R) 449 (C) David Langford, 2024. Festive thanks to Dev Agarwal, Brian Ameringen, Chaz Brenchley, Olav M.J. Christiansen, Paul Di Filippo, Ahrvid Engholm, _File 770_, John Linwood Grant, Steve Holland, Ralph Houston, Steve Jones, _Locus_, Pamela Love, Ken MacLeod, Andrey Meshavkin, Chris Moore, Curt Phillips, Andrew I. Porter, _Private Eye_, Adam Roberts, Phil Stephensen-Payne, Lawrence Person, _SF2 Concatenation_, Gordon Van Gelder, and our Hero Distributors: Durdles Books (BSFG), SCIS/Prophecy, Steven H Silver and Alan Stewart (Australia).
29 November 2024
DECEMBER 2024
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 or any reliable charm against being seasonally scrobbled.
[NET NOTE. See https://news.ansible.uk/a449.html for the nice HTML version; https://news.ansible.uk/pdf/a449.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]
### THE WOLVES ARE RUNNING ###
JOSH BROLIN targeted the Thog Hall of Fame with his poetic captions for a book of _Dune_ photos taken by Greig Fraser. One shot of Timothee Chalamet inspired the deathless 'Your cheekbones jump toward what are youth-laden eyes that slide down a prominent nose and onto lips of a certain poetry.' One response: 'It is less a traditional poem and more the sort of thing ChatGPT would blurt out if you asked it to describe a crayon drawing of a melting Cabbage Patch Kid.' (_Guardian_, 22 November) [DA]
SAMANTHA HARVEY, whose novel _Orbital_ is set on the International Space Station and involves various near-future developments, explained to radio listeners that this is not at all science fiction but 'space realism'. Asked whether there were other books in that specialist genre, the author confessed she wasn't sure and didn't herself know of any. (BBC Radio 4, _Front Row_, 5 November) [SF2C] _Orbital_ was the only genre or near-genre novel on the Booker Prize shortlist, and has since won that prize. _New Scientist_ tactfully calls it 'space pastoral'. [RH] There are no talking squid.
STEPHEN KING found the horror too much: 'I'm leaving Twitter. Tried to stay, but the atmosphere has just become too toxic.' (14 November)
LINDA MOORCOCK gives warning to the world: 'EDITIONS L'ATALANTE: This French company continues to sell books by Michael Moorcock ILLEGALLY. All Moorcock contracts have expired. Editions L'Atalante were refused renewal requests earlier this year after they illegally reprinted and put on sale one of the books they no longer had rights to. / If you are doing business with this company, at least be aware of how they have behaved towards Michael. We have repeatedly asked them to stop all sales and they continue to ignore us.' [CP]
TERRY PRATCHETT would surely have chortled at the news that his Discworld novel _Night Watch_ is to be reissued in April 2025, with learned annotations, as a Penguin Modern Classic. (_The Bookseller_, 1 November)
### CONACASTE ###
7-8 Dec [] DARKNESS IN THE FIELDS (folk horror), online. GBP36 reg, GBP20 Sat/Sun only, plus fees. See tinyurl.com/5n95jeuc.
7-8 Dec [] WOMEN IN THE BLACK FANTASTIC (SFF conference), online. GBP30; GBP15 unwaged. See www.sf-foundation.org/fresh-about.
19 Dec [] CHRISTMAS MEETING in the London First Thursday pub (Bishop's Finger, West Smithfield). See news.ansible.uk/london.html.
29 Dec - 1 Jan [] STEAMPUNK NEW YEAR, Belmont Hotel, Leicester. See www.ministryofsteampunk.com/steampunknewyear2025.
22-23 Feb 2025 [] SURREY STEAMPUNK CONVIVIAL, Stoneleigh, Epsom. See bumpandthumper.wixsite.com/steampunkconvivials. Further 2025 events take place on 24-25 May, 2-3 August and 25-26 October.
6-8 Mar 2025 [] FRIGHTFEST (film), Glasgow Film Theatre, Rose Street. Tickets in January from www.frightfest.co.uk/filmsandevents/.
30 Mar 2025 [] BLOOMSBURY EPHEMERA FAIR, Holiday Inn Bloomsbury, Coram St, London. 9:30am-3pm. GBP3 entry. Apparently not including the Paperback & Pulp Book Fair. See etcfairs.com/ephemera-fairs/.
18-21 Apr 2025 [] RECONNECT (Eastercon), Hilton Lanyon Place Hotel and ICC, Belfast.GBP90 reg, _rising to GBP100 on 1 January and GBP120 at the door_; Eastercon first-timers and fans living in Ireland _now GBP70_; GBP40 under-18s, concessions; GBP25 supporting. See easterconbelfast.org.
5 Jul 2025 [] COMIC CON AINTREE, Aintree Racecourse. 10am-5pm. Adult tickets GBP12; other rates at www.ljeventsentertainment.com.
8-10 Aug 2025 [] TFNATION (_Transformers_), Hilton Birmingham Metropole near the NEC. Ticket sales awaited at tfnation.com/2025.
26-28 Sep 2025 [] LAKES INTERNATIONAL COMIC ART FESTIVAL, Bowness-on-Windermere. Ticket sales awaited at www.comicartfestival.com.
27-28 Sep 2025 [] NOR-CON (media), Norfolk Showground Arena. Adult tickets GBP17 or GBP21 early entry; other rates at www.nor-con.co.uk.
31 Oct - 2 Nov 2025 [] ARMADACON, Future Inns, Plymouth. GBP47 reg; GBP40 concessions. More at www.armadacon.org.
7-9 Nov 2025 [] NOVACON 54, Palace Hotel, Buxton. GoH Emily Tesh. Now GBP54 reg; under-17s GBP12; under-13s free. More at novacon.uk.
22-24 May 2026 [] SATELLITE 9, Glasgow. Venue, rates, guests and other details awaited at nine.satellitex.org.uk.
RUMBLINGS. _Eastercon 2026._ The Iridescence bid has the Birmingham NEC Metropole as planned venue, and a website at eastercon2026.org.
_Eastercon 2027._ A Glasgow bid is announced: see easterconglasgow.org.
_Worldcon 2030._ The bid for Edmonton (Alberta, Canada) revealed its website in November: see www.edmontonin2030.org.
### INFINITELY IMPROBABLE ###
SILVER LINING. 'Sales surge for dystopian books after Trump election victory ... The Handmaid's Tale has risen more than 400 places on bestseller charts since Wednesday.' (_Guardian_, 7 November) [AIP]
AWARDS. _Forry_ (LASFS, for life achievement): Hayao Miyazaki.
_Ignyte_ novel winners: ADULT _The Saint of Bright Doors_ by Vajra Chandrasekera. YA _I Feed Her to the Beast and the Beast Is Me_ by Jamison Shae. MIDDLE GRADE _Abeni's Song_ by P. Djeli Clark.
_Kitschies_ (final year of presentation, alas): NOVEL _Julia_ by Sandra Newman. DEBUT _The Centre_ by Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi. COVER ART Arnold J. Kemp (art) and Janay Nachel Frazier and Stuart Wilson (design) for _Out There Screaming_ edited by Jordan Peele. SPECIAL Kieron Smith, digital director of Blackwell's (the sponsor) as a 'tireless champion of small presses'.
AS OTHERS CREDIT US. An article on 'The rise of the floating breakfast, travel's most insufferable flex' (i.e. breakfast on a floating tray in the hotel swimming pool, argh) notes its prediction by 'Science fiction writer John Varley [in] his 1998 book _The Golden Globe_'. Immortality is assured! (Natalie B. Compton, _The Washington Post_, 3 November) [PL]
R.I.P. _Jim Abrahams_ (1944-2024), US director, producer and screenwriter who co-wrote _Airplane!_ (1980) and _Scary Movie 4_ (2006), died on 26 November aged 80. [LP]
_Rod Barzilay_, founder member of The Eagle Society who revived Dan Dare in his _Spaceship Away_ (2003-2010), scripting new stories drawn by original Hampson studio artists, died in August aged 77. [SH]
_Bruce Boston_ (1943-2024), US author and poet active since the early 1970s, winner of many Rhysling Awards for poetry and honoured in 2000 as the first Rhysling Grand Master, died on 11 November aged 81. [PDF]
_Marshall Brain_ (1961-2024), US author of the _How Stuff Works_ books and founder of the related website, whose sf novel was _Manna_ (2003), died on 20 November aged 63.
_Colin Chilvers_ (1945-2024), Oscar-winning UK special effects director whose films include _The Rocky Horror Picture Show_ (1975), _Superman_ (1978 plus sequels), _Saturn 3_ (1980), _Condorman_ (1981) and _X-Men_ (2000), died on 19 November aged 79. [SJ]
_Giovanni Cianfriglia_ (1935-2024), Italian actor/stuntman who starred (as Ken Wood) in _Superargo vs. Diabolus_ (1966 plus sequel) and whose many often uncredited stunt appearances include _Ladyhawke_ (1985), _Frankenstein Unbound_ (1990) and _Angels & Demons_ (2009), died on 30 October aged 89. [SJ]
_Paul Engelen_ (1949-2024), UK makeup designer whose many credits include _Moonraker_ (1979), _Little Shop of Horrors_ (1986), _Highlander II_ (1991), _Frankenstein_ (1994) and _The Phantom Menace_ (1999), died on 3 November aged 75. [SJ]
_Al Ferrara_ (1939-2024), US actor in _Batman_ (1967-1968), _Mansion of the Doomed_ (1976) and _Zoltan... Hound of Dracula_ (1977), died on 15 November aged 84. [SJ]
_Jonathan Haze_ (1929-2024), US actor in _It Conquered the World_ (1956), _Not of This Earth_ (1957), _Little Shop of Horrors_ (1960) and others, died on 2 November aged 95. [LP]
_Dan Hennessey_ (1941-2024), Canadian voice actor in _X-Men_ (1992-1997), _Inspector Gadget_ (1983), _Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors_ (1985-1986), _Beetlejuice_ (1989), _Tintin_ (1991-1992), _Redwall_ (1999 plus film) and more, died on 13 November aged 83. [AIP]
_Kate Hepburn_ (1947-2024), UK artist and graphic designer who worked with Terry Gilliam on _Monty Python_ animations and designed the cover of _The Brand New Monty Python Bok_ (1973), died on 26 July aged 77. [AIP]
_Earl Holliman_ (1928-2024), US actor in _Forbidden Planet_ (1956), _The Six Million Dollar Man: Wine, Women and War_ (1973), _NightMan_ (1997) and genre tv series -- he was the star of the very first episode of _The Twilight Zone_ (1959) -- died on 25 November aged 96. [LP]
_Song Jae-rim_ (1985-2024), South Korean actor in _Ingyeogongjoo_ (_The Idle Mermaid_, 2014), died on 12 November aged 39.
_Richard D. James_, Emmy-winning US production designer for _Star Trek: The Next Generation_ (1988-1994) and _Star Trek: Voyager_ (1995-2001), died on 11 November aged 88. [SJ]
_Quincy Jones_ (1933-2024), noted US composer and producer whose credits include _The Wiz_ (1978), _Michael Jackson: Thriller_ (1983), _Austin Powers in Goldmember_ (2002) and _X-Men: Days of Future Past_ (2014), died on 3 November aged 91. [SJ]
_Zoe Kaplan_ (1996-2024), US short-story author since 2021, and publisher with Tor and then Simon & Schuster/Saga Press, died on 9 October aged 28. [L/P-SP]
_Peter Maddocks_ (1928-2024), UK cartoonist who drew the 'Four D. Jones' sf strip for the _Daily Express_ 1955-1965, died on 20 November aged 96.
_Davide Mana_ (1967-2024), Italian sf/fantasy author active since 2011 whose first collection was _The Hand of Isfet_ (2014), died in November. [JLG]
_Tony Mirrcandani_, Indian actor in _The Curse of King Tut's Tomb_ (2006) and _Ender's Game_ (2013), died on 3 November.
_Istvan Nemere_ (1944-2024), Hungarian author of some 750 books under 46 pseudonyms in multiple genres, including 60 sf novels, died on 15 November aged 80. [AM]
_Alan Rachins_ (1942-2024), US actor in _Time Walker_ (1982), _Terminal Voyage_ (1995), _Monster Night_ (2006), _Angels on Tap_ (2018) and genre tv series, died on 2 November aged 82. [SJ]
_Phil Rickman_ (1950-2024), UK author active since 1991, best known for the 'Merrily Watkins' supernatural-tinged mystery series beginning with _The Wine of Angels_ (1998), died on 29 October aged 74. [L]
_Scott L. Schwartz_ (1959-2024), US actor in _Lost in Oz_ (2000), _Journey to Promethea_ (2010), _Joe Dirt 2_ (2015) and genre tv series, died on 26 November aged 65.
_Ken Shorter_ (1945-2024), Australian actor in _Dragonslayer_ (1981) and _Dragonheart: A New Beginning_ (1999), died in November aged 79.
_Tim Sullivan_ (1948-2024), US author, actor, editor and director whose first stories appeared in the late 1970s and whose first-written novel was _Destiny's End_ (1988), died on 10 November aged 76. He scripted and acted in several genre films including _Twilight of the Dogs_ (1995). [GVG]
_Tony Todd_ (1954-2024), US actor whose many genre credits include _Candyman_ (1992, title role and sequels), _The Crow_ (1994), _The Man from Earth_ (2007) and tv series such as _Star Trek_ (1990-2001) and _The Flash_ (2015-2023), died on 6 November aged 69. [OC/CM]
_Kazuo Umezu_ (1936-2024), Japanese manga writer/artist best known for his horror and sf series 'Hyoryu Kyoshitsu' [The Drifting Classroom], 'Watashi wa Shingo' [My Name is Shingo] and 'Fotin' [Fourteen], died on 28 October aged 88. [SH]
_Vic 'Waddy' Wadmore_, UK Discworld fan who ran the unofficial Discworld-themed Wadfest camping event from 2002 to 2017 (skipping 2012), died on 26 November.
_Timothy West_ (1934-2024), UK actor whose genre credits include _Beowulf_ (1998), _102 Dalmatians_ (2000), _The Fall of Gondolin_ (2019) and various tv/podcast series, died on 12 November aged 90. [SJ]
_Eiji Yanagisawa_ (1967-2024), Japanese voice actor whose many anime credits include _Mobile Suit Gundam 1_ (1981), _Digimon Frontier_ (2002) and _Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone_ (2007), died on 12 November aged 57.
THE WEAKEST LINK. _Q:_ 'The Three Broomsticks is a fictional pub in a series of books by which writer?' _A:_ 'I think I know the name C.S. Lewis -- from _Fifty Shades of Grey_ ...' (ITV, _Tipping Point_) [PE]
DIRTY WORK ONLINE. Victoria Strauss of Writer Beware, which famously exposes publishing frauds, is being impersonated by a scammer asking four-figure sums to recover money lost to an allegedly different scammer, about whose doings the impersonator is suspiciously well-informed. (Writer Beware, 15 November) George R.R. Martin warns that the apparent GRRM presence on Bluesky is not him (from his Not A Blog, 18 November); there's also a false Peter F. Hamilton on that platform. Two fake Ken MacLeods are issuing friend requests on Facebook, which has ignored reports of this in favour of more urgent work like banning links to the _SF Encyclopedia_ 'What's New' page -- because, they claim, it secretly contains nudity. Finally, a moving plea from a very familiar face on Instagram: 'Hey it's me Queen Elizabeth, I am not dead, Charles sent me to a st helena island so he could be queen. I don't have access to my royal money so please cashapp me GBP300 so I can get back to the UK.'
WE ARE EVERYWHERE. 'Ennui is The Thing: welcome to the death-football of late-stage capitalism [...] Light and heat without content. Football as something empty and frictionless, humans in coloured shirts waiting for life to happen. J.G. Ballard-ball.' (Barney Roney on Manchester United versus Chelsea, _The Guardian_, 3 November) [PE]
SANITY CLAUSE. Simon Groth has an exemplary LLM statement on his 2023 copyright page from publishers Tiny Owl Workshop of Brisbane: 'No part of this book may be used as data for "training" any large language model or as part of any machine learning or neural network architecture. Human creativity cannot be replicated by doing maths with stolen art. Altman, Andreessen and all their cronies can get fucked.' [CB]
THE DEAD PAST. _40 Years Ago_, John Brosnan dived into the slushpile and found 'a classic line: "She was a fish out of water in a man's arms." Aren't we all?' (_Ansible_ 41, December 1984)
_30 Years Ago_, Ian Watson bewailed his popularity: 'Alarmed by the complete sell-out of all copies of IW's _Warhammer 40,000: Harlequin_ available at Games Day, Games Workshop have forbidden this particular hardback to be on sale in any GW shop in case customers buy it instead of a game. Stunned publishers Boxtree are protesting vehemently.' (_Ansible_ 89, December 1994)
_20 Years Ago_, Lucy Lawless revealed all: 'I was known at school as Unco, for uncoordinated, so it was a horrible shock to do all the fight scenes in _Xena: Warrior Princess_. I don't watch fantasy or sci-fi, I'm just not into it. I'm into real people and exploring humanity. I will always watch Judi Dench rather than people with pointy ears.' (Interview in _The Big Issue_ #1642, 18-24 November 2004) [KM]
_10 Years Ago_, a scholarly insight was noted: '"I believe that [Sax] Rohmer's texts aim at effects that differ fundamentally from the effects that high modernist literature aspires to." (Ruth Mayer, _Serial Fu Manchu -- The Chinese Supervillain and the spread of Yellow Peril ideology_, 2014)' (_Ansible_ 329, December 2014)
OUTRAGED LETTERS. _Rob Jackson_ on the Ken Howard obit in _A448_: 'He and Alan Blaikley were also the producers and writers of an sf concept album called _Ark 2_ by Flaming Youth, which featured among others a very young Phil Collins.' (Email, 3 November)
FANFUNDERY. _TransAtlantic Fan Fund._ Nominations for the TAFF race to the 2025 Seattle Worldcon close on 20 December; voting is expected to begin in early January and to continue until just after Eastercon in Belfast. See taff.org.uk for the official newsletter with the announcement.
_Free Ebooks._ The latest is _Motorway Dreams_ by John Nielsen-Hall, a memorial collection of his fan writing with a simultaneous paperback edition. See taff.org.uk/ebooks.php?x=Johnny. Donations via that page and all paperback proceeds go to his preferred fan fund, The Corflu Fifty.
SFWA's board of directors has given the nod to new Nebula Award categories for genre comics and poetry; first presentation in 2026. [F770]
RANDOM FANDOM. _Alvar Appeltofft Memorial Award_ (for Swedish fan activity): Karl-Johan Noren. [AE]
EDITORIAL: ANOTHER YEAR. The free library at taff.org.uk acquired 19 new titles in 2024, for a total of 111. Besides many GUFF and TAFF trip reports available as ready-made PDFs (thanks to all who traced or created these), additions include _New Worlds Profiles 1952-1963_, _British SF Conventions Volume 2: 1952-1957_ by Rob Hansen, my own critical collection _Work for Hire_, and _Motorway Dreams_ as noted above. Among the TAFF titles in preparation for 2025 is a substantial (82,000 words) collection of Ian Watson's writings for fan and convention publications, which he has augustly titled _Watto's Wisdom_. Like that famous wagon in _The Phantom Tollbooth_, the relentless routine of at-least-weekly _SF Encyclopedia_ updates and monthly _Ansible_s goes without saying.
LOADSAMONEY. Bidding for the first Christie's auction dedicated wholly to sf/fantasy memorabilia closes on 12 December. Eye-watering price estimates yield the interesting coincidence that a first edition of _Frankenstein_ and _The Dune Bible_ (storyboard for the unmade Alejandro Jodorowsky film) are each expected to fetch from GBP250,000 to GBP350,000. See onlineonly.christies.com/s/science-fiction-fantasy/lots/3835.
MAGAZINE SCENE. Hiraeth Publishing's _The Martian Wave_ and _The Fifth Di..._ will cease with their March and April 2025 issues. [PS-P]
THOG'S MASTERCLASS. _Striking Similes._ 'A thick black moustache drooped on his upper lip, like a rodent pinned there by the knifelike nose.' 'His face looked like a two-minute egg.' (Ron Miller, _Palaces and Prisons_, 1991) [BA] '... a broad, pellucid expanse of water that was like a steel cuirass.' '... those grey eyes glowed from the shadowy face like noctilucent clouds, like aurorae fizzing with electricity, like radium, like will-o'-the-wisps in a marsh enameled with midnight, and she felt herself dissolving in them like a spoonful of effervescent salts.' (Ron Miller, _Hearts and Armour_, 1992) [BA]
_Eyeballs in the Sky._ 'Porter cocked an alarmed eye as he bit a roll.' (Ivar Jorgensen [Paul Fairman], _The Deadly Sky_, 1971) [AR] 'Her eyes keened into his.' (Eric Frank Russell, _Sentinels from Space_, 1953)
_After Clockwork, What?_ '... the thin whistle of the radium chronometer ...' (_Ibid_)
_The Deep Purple Fix._ 'In the slow pause which dropped between these two there arose ever-changing hues of colors rare, melting now here, now there, into new and gorgeous dyes, jewel-flecked with gold and silver. Strange perfumes exuded from these colors rare, intoxicating the lovers with long-forgotten bliss.' 'Simultaneously upon the bosom of this unfathomable abyss shone milliards of scintillating sparks, each holding by its thread of light, stirring the ether with exultant throbs, and streams of joyous melody.' (Julia H. Coffin, _The Vendor of Dreams_, 1917) [LP]
_You Know The Feeling._ 'A tremor of transport palsied outer sense.' (Richard Matheson, 'Pattern For Survival', May 1955 _F&SF_) [BA]
### GEEKS' CORNER ###
SUBSCRIPTIONS. To receive _Ansible_ monthly via email, send a message to:
ansible-news+subscribe [at] googlegroups.com
You will be asked to confirm by email that you want to join the group. To resign from the Google Groups list, send email to:
ansible-news+unsubscribe [at] googlegroups.com
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):
https://news.ansible.uk/asubs.html
Home page -- https://news.ansible.uk/
RSS feed -- https://news.ansible.uk/rss.html
LiveJournal syndication -- http://www.livejournal.com/users/ansiblezine/
Back issues -- https://news.ansible.uk/aseries2.html
Printable PDFs -- https://news.ansible.uk/pdf/
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.
19 December 2024, 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
R.I.P. II -- LAST-MINUTE REPORTS. _Bob Blackwood_ (1942-2024), US fan and film critic who wrote _Future Prime: The Top 10 Science Fiction Films_ (2015) with John Flynn, died on 21 November. [SHS]
_Linda Bushyager_ (1947-2024), long-time Philadelphia fan latterly in Las Vegas, whose fanzines included the genzine _Granfalloon_ (20 issues 1968-1976) and the major US newszine _Karass_ (38 issues 1974-1978), died on 27 November aged 77. [AIP] She also co-edited the 1976 Worldcon newsletter and began to publish fiction professionally with _Master of Hawks_ (1979). Much sympathy to her husband of many years, Ron Bushyager.
_Paul Teal_ (1989-2024), US actor in _Descendants: The Rise of Red_ (2024), died on 15 November aged 35. [SHS]
PETER DENNIS PAUTZ warns US and other non-UK members of next year's World Fantasy Convention (Brighton, October-November 2025) about the new requirement for electronic travel authorizations. Long-distance travellers to Eastercon and other events should also take note:
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/check-when-you-can-get-an-electronic-travel-authorisation-eta
SOME LINKS from the _Ansible_ home page.
The Cruciverbal Inquisitor at Full Moon
https://www.fifteensquared.net/2024/11/12/inquisitor-1880-transformers-by-cranberry/
Rob Latham on _The Last Dangerous Visions_ and _New Worlds_
https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/back-to-the-new-wave-future
_Taffluorescence_ #6 announces the 2025 TAFF race, and more
https://taff.org.uk/news/Taffluorescence6.pdf
THOG'S GOLDEN OLDIES from _Ansible_ 209, December 2004. _Dept of Slannish Tendrils._ 'He turned to the strikingly beautiful girl sitting beside him. A girl whose long almost blue-black hair seemed so vibrantly alive that it pulsated with a sentience of its own.' (Bron Fane, 'Jungle of Death', _Supernatural Stories_ #27, 1959)
_Rocketry and Relativity Dept._ 'We're only going to go at a thousand miles an hour [...] We're in no hurry and a great increase in speed brings a large number of problems. [...] our bodies are being penetrated by cosmic radiation and probably cosmic particles as well all the time, but because they travel relatively slowly we suffer no ill effects. Speed them up and they would be fatal.' (Leonard Wibberley, _The Mouse on the Moon_, 1962)
_Stupefying Similes._ 'The boiling upsurge of questions and ideas whirled around in Harding's head like particles being accelerated in a cyclotron, until he felt like a man both blind and deaf searching for a needle in a lightless, soundless chamber, and forced to wear feather pillows for gloves.' (Steve Hall, 'Out of Character', _Science Fantasy_ 57, February 1963)
_Ansible_(R) 449 (C) David Langford, 2024. Festive thanks to Dev Agarwal, Brian Ameringen, Chaz Brenchley, Olav M.J. Christiansen, Paul Di Filippo, Ahrvid Engholm, _File 770_, John Linwood Grant, Steve Holland, Ralph Houston, Steve Jones, _Locus_, Pamela Love, Ken MacLeod, Andrey Meshavkin, Chris Moore, Curt Phillips, Andrew I. Porter, _Private Eye_, Adam Roberts, Phil Stephensen-Payne, Lawrence Person, _SF2 Concatenation_, Gordon Van Gelder, and our Hero Distributors: Durdles Books (BSFG), SCIS/Prophecy, Steven H Silver and Alan Stewart (Australia).
29 November 2024
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