Ansible 230, September 2006
From Dave Langford, 94 London Road, Reading, Berkshire, RG1 5AU. Web ansible.co.uk. Fax 0705 080 1534. ISSN 0265-9816 (print) 1740-942X (online). Logo: Dan Steffan. Cartoon: Bill Rotsler. Available for SAE or a tepid mouse/torpid moose.
L.A.con
IV. The 64th Worldcon was a success by all accounts, although
non-attending cheapskates like me grumbled at the decision not to update
the con website day by day with
the usual newsletters, award results, etc. One major surprise was that
Denver won the 2008 site selection (beating Chicago by 12 votes, with
Columbus trailing), an event so unexpected that 'Denver Wins!' had been
a droll headline in the traditional hoax newsletter. [GS].
• Hugo
Awards. NOVEL Robert Charles Wilson, Spin
(wild rejoicing at Tor Books).
• NOVELLA Connie Willis, 'Inside Job' (Asimov's
1/05).
• NOVELETTE Peter S. Beagle, 'Two Hearts' (F&SF
10/05).
• SHORT David D. Levine,'Tk'tk'tk' (Asimov's
3/05).
• RELATED BOOK Kate Wilhelm, Storyteller:
Writing Lessons and More from 27 Years of the Clarion Writers' Workshop.
• DRAMATIC, LONG Serenity.
• DRAMATIC, SHORT Doctor Who: 'The Empty
Child' & 'The Doctor Dances'.
• PRO EDITOR David G. Hartwell (ecstasy at Tor).
• PRO ARTIST Donato Giancola.
• SEMIPROZINE Locus.
• FANZINE Plokta.
• FAN WRITER Dave Langford (blush).
• FAN ARTIST Frank Wu.
• JOHN W. CAMPBELL AWARD John Scalzi.
• Special awards went to Betty Ballantine for life achievement,
and to Harlan Ellison for 50 years of publishing fiction.
It was
revealed that Neil Gaiman's Anansi Boys would have been
shortlisted as best novel had it not been withdrawn by Neil. Geri
Sullivan enthuses: 'It's a beautiful
Hugo base.
1920s art deco movie theatre theme. Supposedly sturdy, though one broke
pretty much as soon as the winner arrived at the post-ceremony Hugo
Nominees Reception hosted by Nippon 2007.' The Best Editor rules change
was agreed, splitting this Hugo into categories Long (books) and Short
(magazines, anthologies). A change to Best Artist, requiring 3 or more
specific items of artwork to be cited for each nominee, awaits
ratification in 2007.
• The only attendance figure I've seen is 'over 4000'.
• For topical astronomical reasons, the convention ended with a
Dead Pluto Party.
The Touch of Your Hand
Brian Aldiss brags: 'I am to have a cameo role in a low-budget movie to be shot in Kansas. It's the project of a wonderful guy I met in Neuchatel last year, Kevin Wilmott.... Name of film: Waiting for the Son.' Later, 9 Sep: 'This week five movie-makers flew over from the USA to film me ... As the Oxford Mail put it, above a large photo of me more or less acting, AUTHOR WINS ROLE IN FILM. One section of the shoot was staged in the Pegasus Theatre in Oxford, the other in my house here – which is great because it immediately puts the value of the property up.'
David Bradley, SFX editor, will be on sabbatical until 2 Jan 2007. Lucky sod. Meanwhile, former editor Dave Golder is minding the shop.
Harlan Ellison caused his customary stir at L.A.con by publicly groping GoH Connie Willis's breast during the Hugos. She seemed unruffled – the show must go on – but at the closing ceremony said something very like: 'If someone wants to start a petition for Harlan Ellison to keep his fucking hands off of me, I'd be willing to sign it!' Much post-worldcon gossip ensued, with Willis wisely keeping silent while Ellison successively issued a not-quite-apology; railed against fan 'maggots' who had dared to comment; announced that the much-filmed incident never happened; and eventually appeared to blame Connie Willis. Oh dear.
Henry Gee of Nature begs for the deluge to end: 'Nature has received quite a few excellent contributions to Futures, its award-winning series of SF short-shorts. However, the End of Eternity is upon us. The End, not to put too fine a point on it, is Nigh. The Veil of the Temple is Rent in Twain. I now have enough copy to fill the column until its end on 21 December, and – sadly – I shall not be able to consider any more. There is a faint hint of a whisper of a possibility of its continuation or resurrection in some other guise, but that particular wave function has yet to collapse definitively, one way or the other.'
William Hope Hodgson of House on the Borderland fame won the 2006 Cordwainer Smith Rediscovery Award, announced in July.
Mike Moorcock mysteriously alludes to: 'Jo Fletcher telling people on radio that it was all pulp crap during the 1960s and then someone or other came along to change all that? I forget the exact understanding of the Great Darkness when hacks like Fritz Leiber, Ray Bradbury or Brian Aldiss were filling the pulps with their lurid muck....' Onward to The Last Dangerous Moorcocks: 'Looks like Moorcock's Miscellany, which had become a nightmare of misunderstandings, won't be appearing, though authors who got paid will stay paid, as will John Coulthart, who was paid to design a book whose designs they scrapped early on. Last time I get involved in an anthology I haven't thought of myself. Maybe I could do a Best of New Worlds If New Worlds Was Still Running anthology, which would include all the good stories around that aren't seeing the light of day or only getting a glimpse at it as PODs.'
William Shatner, offered a free Virgin Galactic space trip in 2008 (normal cost £114,000), decided that discretion was the better part of boldly going: 'to vomit in space is not my idea of a good time.' But Sigourney Weaver is made of sterner stuff and plans to be aboard. [R]
Conzieu
9-13 Sep • Space Soon: Art & Human Spaceflight, Roundhouse, Chalk Farm Rd, London, NW1. Exhibition 12-6pm, free. Entrance-fee events daily: see www.artscatalyst.org. Box office 0870 389 1846.
27 Sep • BSFA Open Meeting, The Star pub, West Halkin Mews, London, SW1. 6pm on; fans present from 5pm. With Judith Clute.
22-24 Sep • Fantasycon 2006, Britannia Hotel, 1 St James Street, Nottingham. £55 reg; BFS members £50. Day rate for Saturday only: £20. Contact (SAE) Beech House, Chapel Lane, Moulton, Cheshire, CW9 8PQ. Main hotel fully booked; overflow rooms available.
28 Sep • Terry Pratchett in conversation with Sarah LeFanu, Logan Hall, Inst of Education, 20 Bedford Way, London, WC1H 0AL. 7pm. Tickets £7, concessions £5. Bookings (Mon-Fri) 0845 456 9876.
23-25 Feb 07 • Redemption 07 (B7/B5), Hinckley Island Hotel, Leics. Now £55 reg; £60 at door. Day: £35, £40 at door. Under 18s £15; day £10. Contact 26 Kings Meadow View, Wetherby, LS22 7FX.
10-11 Mar 07 • P-Con 4, Wynn's Hotel, Dublin. GoH Kim Newman. €25/£15 reg. Contact c/o Yellow Brick Rd, 8 Bachelor's Walk, Dublin 8, Ireland; UK c/o Dave Lally, 64 Richborne Terrace, London, SW8 1AX.
10-12 Aug 07 • Recombination/HarmUni III (Unicon 21/RPG/filk), New Hall, Cambridge. Guests Jo Walton, Ian Watson, Chris Pramas, Franklin Gunkelmann. Now £24 reg, rising again 'some time in 2007'. Contact 155 Gilbert Road, Cambridge, CB4 3PA.
30 Aug - 3 Sep 07 • Nippon 2007 (65th Worldcon), Yokohama, Japan. Sterling rates: £115 reg/£27 supp, £87/£20 age 13-19; £42 7-12. Contact (UK) 68 Crichton Avenue, York, YO30 6EE; 07815 767273.
6-10 Aug 08 • Denvention 3 (66th Worldcon), Denver, CO, USA. GoH Lois McMaster Bujold, Tom Whitmore. $130 reg; site selection voters $80; presupporters $100; presupp+vote $60. Address TBA.
Rumblings • Convoy, the 2007 Liverpool Eastercon, may be cancelled after another Adelphi Hotel security scare (largely a matter of local politics, says chairman Tim Kirk). Both hotel reassurances and more paid memberships are needed to make Convoy workable. £55 to 81 Western Rd, London, E13 9JE. Full refunds if they do cancel.
Infinitely Improbable
As Others See Us. Russell T Davies congratulates himself on resisting the fatal temptation to commit sci-fi: 'I've always got a much more complicated, science-fictiony version of each episode in mind, and I always filter that out, and go for the more straightforward version – the more emotional, honest version. For example, there was a great, complicated version of "Tooth and Claw" in my mind where, at the end of the episode, Queen Victoria is killed, and that creates the parallel universe which becomes the world of "Rise of the Cybermen" and "The Age of Steel". It would have been the most brilliant ending, because the Doctor and Rose would have stood there and gone "That's not supposed to happen!" But it's very subscription channel, cult audience, male sci-fi. It's a brilliant moment, but its legacy is too complicated, and too dark in a boring way.' (Doctor Who Magazine #373) [PC]
R.I.P.
Mike Damesick (1949-2006), UK fan and con-goer who had been a
stalwart of the Oxford University SF Group and more recently the Brum
Group, was found dead in his Birmingham flat in early August. Many fans
attended his funeral on 10 August. Dermot Dobson adds: 'the vicar
insisted on using SciFi all the time and thought a lightyear was a
measure of time – ah well....'
• Philip E. High (1914-2006), UK sf author who wrote for
Nebula and the Carnell-era New Worlds, and published 14
sf novels in the 60s and 70s, died on 9 August. He was 92, but as
recently as 2004 had published a book of new short stories, A Step
to the Stars.
• Martin Last (1929-2006), writer and book dealer who with
Baird Searles ran the New York City SF Bookshop 1973-1986, died on 6
July aged 76.
• Bob Leman (1922-2006), long-time US fan admired for his
1950s/60s fanzine The Vinegar Worm and for a number of short
stories eventually collected as Feesters in the Lake (2002),
died on 6 August.
• John Miesel (1941-2006), US fan and husband of
author/fan Sandra Miesel, died on 30 August.
• Michael Simanoff (1975-2006), US fan, died unexpectedly
on the weekend of August 13. Luis Rodrigues writes: 'He was an editor
(Ministry of Whimsy Press, Prime Books, my own Fantastic Metropolis),
reviewer (NYRSF, Strange Horizons, others) and
occasional story writer (in Electric Velocipede and Revolution
SF).'
• Stargate SG-1 was rewarded for reaching 200 episodes
with a Sci-Fi Channel decree that the series (launched 1997) is to be
cancelled. [SFS]
• Joseph Stefano (1922-2006), US screenwriter who wrote
Psycho (1960, 1998) and several 1960s Outer Limits
episodes, died on 25 August aged 84. [GW]
• Hirotaka Suzuoki (1950-2006), voice actor in many, many
anime films, notably Ranma ½, Dragonball Z, and
various incarnations of Gundam, died on 6 August from lung
cancer. He was 56. [PM]
• Bertie van Asseldonk, Netherlands fan active for over 20
years, died from Hodgkin's lymphoma on 25 June; he was only 40. His wife
says he wanted his sf collection donated to a suitable library. [VD]
• Helen Wesson (?1922-2006), long-time US APA fan active
since 1938 and with FAPA membership dating from 1946, died on 7
September. [RL]
As Others See Us II. John Joseph Adams writes: 'I called CBS to request an advance screener copy of their new TV show, Jericho, which is a post-apocalyptic family drama sort of thing. When I explained that I'd be reviewing the show for an SF magazine ... Publicist: "Oh, but the show's not science fiction." Me: "Isn't it post-apocalyptic?" Publicist: "Yes, but it's based on events that could actually happen."'
More
L.A.con Awards. Big Heart: this, now renamed the
Forrest Ackerman Big Heart Award, was presented to Forrest J. Ackerman.
• First Fandom: Joe Hensley.
• Prometheus: Ken MacLeod, Learning the World
(novel); Alan Moore & David Lloyd, V for Vendetta (classic);
Serenity (special).
• Sidewise: Ian R. MacLeod, The Summer Isles
(long); Lois Tilton, 'Pericles the Tyrant' (short; Asimov's
10/05).
Random
Fandom. Bridget Bradshaw sent a TAFF postcard: 'I'm
having a great time in Madison, home to shops with signs like "Fruit
Cheese Spirits Bakery". I suppose they sell pastries filled with
alcoholic lemon curd (the closest I can think of to fruit cheese).' [29
Aug]
• Martin Easterbrook had a successful heart bypass
operation on 21 August and is now recovering at home. [MA]
• Victor Gonzalez (of Trufen.net)
and Tamara Menteer were married in Washington State on 19
August.
Bad Guys. The all-time top ten literary villains, voted on by 16,000 UK children: 1 Lord Voldemort (Rowling), 2 Sauron (Tolkien), 3 Mrs Coulter (Pullman), 4 Lex Luthor (DC), 5 The Joker (DC), 6 Count Olaf (Snicket), 7 The Other Mother (Coraline/Gaiman), 8 The White Witch (Lewis), 9 Dracula (Stoker), 10 Artemis Fowl (Colfer). The poll was conducted by those disinterested publishers, Bloomsbury; the only non-fantasy finalists were Professor Moriarty (12) and Heathcliff (16). [PDF]
British Fantasy Awards novel shortlist: Ramsey Campbell, Secret Stories; Mark Chadbourn, The Hounds Of Avalon; Hal Duncan, Vellum: The Book Of All Hours 1; Neil Gaiman, Anansi Boys; George R.R. Martin, A Feast For Crows; Mark Morris, Nowhere Near an Angel. [More below]
C.o.A. James Bacon & Simoné van Zyl, 55 Cromwell Rd, Croydon, CR0 2JZ. Paul Thompson, Paasberglaan 5, 6824 PV Arnhem, Netherlands. Eva Whitley, 6316 Cross Ivy Rd, Elkridge, MD 21075, USA.
Thog's Critical Impartiality Masterclass. 'Dune is the best-selling and most beloved science fiction novel of all time.' (Brian Herbert & Kevin Anderson, in the introduction to their Hunters of Dune) [PDF]
Outraged
Letters. Brian Aldiss on A229:
'I can assure Diana [Wynne Jones] that Philip Pullman is very much alive
and kicking, enjoying, as he deserves to do, the usual round of summer
parties.'
• Richard E. Geis: 'Thanks once again for Ansible.
A joy as usual. I am more and more enjoying the obits, smirking as I
note each oldtime fan I've outlived. Such pleasures are reserved for the
aged.'
• Margaret Hoyt on Michael Gove MP (see
A229): 'As someone who has been a woman
all her life, or at least the grown-up parts of it, I would like to tell
Mr Gove that seeing a male person reading a science fiction/fantasy
novel (except something by Robert Jordan) would cause me to think, "Oh
good, someone I can talk to." On the other hand, sitting in an
airline seat next to someone reading, say, Philip Roth, I would have the
thought, "Deeply boring, no taste, possibly a politician."'
• Steve Jones responds to Jeff VanderMeer's
A229 comments on that open letter
protesting omission of anthologies from the International Horror Guild
awards shortlist: 'In fact, just one person asked to have their name
taken off the open letter after it was released ... and five more
(including Nancy A. Collins – the founder of the IHG Award!) asked to
have their names added. I also note that, yet again, Jeff fails to
reveal that his wife is one of this year's IHG judges under her maiden
name.'
• Jennie Kermode sent happy Aldiss news on 26 August: 'Brothers
of the Head has just won the Michael Powell Award for Best New
British Feature at the Edinburgh Film Festival. This is extremely
unusual for a genre film and will almost certainly assure proper
nationwide distribution.'
• David Parsonage found that Thog.org.uk belongs to the
Tower Hamlets Opportunity Group. Enraged at becoming a mere acronym,
Thog demanded that I instantly register Thog.org
for his very own.
Mythopoeic
Awards. ADULT Neil Gaiman, Anansi Boys.
• CHILDREN Jonathan Stroud, 'The Bartimaeus
Trilogy' (The Amulet of Samarkand, The Golem's Eye, Ptolemy's
Gate).
• SCHOLARSHIP: INKLINGS Wayne G. Hammond and
Christina Scull, The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion.
• SCHOLARSHIP: GENERAL Jennifer Schacker, National
Dreams: The Remaking of Fairy Tales in Nineteenth-Century England.
As Others See Us III. The anonymous Dig rant 'Chick Lit is Hurting America' deftly puts sf in its place: 'Beyond adding to the cultural cesspool, what's dangerous about chick lit is that it fills trade slots at publishing companies that used to be given to literary fiction. Unlike romance or sci-fi, chick lit is a genre that is in direct competition with literature because of its price point and packaging.' (29 Aug) [PDF]
Fanfundery.
TAFF Nominations: the 2007 race deadline has been extended to 30
September 2006. Should Eastercon be cancelled (see events list
'Rumblings') the TAFF trip may be delayed until later in 2007.
Official release at
taff.org.uk.
• Two One-Off Funds. Harry Bell to Corflu 2007: fine
t-shirts for sale, and a planned 'fanarthology'. Contact Rob Jackson,
Chinthay, Nightingale Ln, Hambrook, nr Chichester, PO18 8UH;
jacksonshambrook at tiscali co uk. USA: Rich Coad, richcoad at
comcast.net.
• John Hertz to Nippon 2007:
sjhtn2007.livejournal.com.
Late News. In June it emerged that a Jim Grimsley story purchased by Asimov's editor Sheila Williams – contract signed, proofs printed – was vetoed by the magazine's owner. Why? Because the story discussed, though of course did not advocate, child abuse. Thoughtcrime! [PDF]
The Dead Past. 30 Years Ago, Peter Roberts reclaimed his UK sf newsletter: 'Alerted by strange signs in the heavens and unnatural noises in the wardrobe, former CP editor Peter Roberts was able to unmask Ian Maule's miserable scheme to turn Checkpoint into an annual one-page listing of recent Perry Rhodan reprints.' (CP74, Sep 1976)
Hideous Gaffes. A229 My note on the soon-to-fold Emerald City had it shortlisted for the fanzine rather than semiprozine Hugo. Oops. A230: sorry this issue is later than usual. Too many distractions....
Thog's
Masterclass. Classic Spung! Dept. 'His fingers
enveloped the fullness of her breasts quite as a boy grasps soap-bubbles
and marvels at their intact resistance.' (Maxwell Bodenheim, Replenishing
Jessica, 1925) [SJP]
• Dept of Other-Dimensional Cubes. [A big cube has the
Vitruvian Man engraved on just one face:] 'It just sat there, revolving
slowly on the turntable, presenting five blank faces and then the da
Vinci design.' (Alastair Reynolds, Pushing Ice, 2005) [JT] •
[To Mr Reynolds and the 5,271,009 loyal Thog-watchers who responded:
Thog grunt brutish apology. Thog not good at 3D geom. or balancing cube
on corner. Guilty researcher will be reproved with big club....]
• True Grit Dept. 'The first thing he was aware of was a
sensation of smooth, yielding grittiness.' (Karl Zeigfreid [Lionel
Fanthorpe], No Way Back, 1968 – opening line) [PL]
• Unorthodox Chess Dept. '"... Listen, rook to bishop
nine. Check it out. Think I've got you, you bastard." [...] Chris
studied the board for a moment, moved the piece and felt a tiny fragment
of something detach from his heart and drop into his guts.' (Richard
Morgan, Market Forces, 2004) [AC]
• Dept of Thermal Printing. '... letting her suddenly
erect nipple write a line of fire across his palm.' (Jon Courtenay
Grimwood, Pashazade, 2001) [DL]
• Bogey Dept. 'Perry felt his jaw muscle tighten until
hard lumps and an acrid smell came into his nostrils' (Robert A.
Heinlein, For Us, the Living, written 1938/9) [TW]
Geeks' Corner
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Convention
Longlist
Details at http://news.ansible.co.uk/ansilink.html#cons
London meetings – http://news.ansible.co.uk/london.html
Overseas – http://news.ansible.co.uk/conlisti.html
• 2006
9-13 Sep 06, Space Soon: Art & Human Spaceflight, London
22-24 Sep 06, Fantasycon 2006, Nottingham
15-16 Oct 06, Octocon, Maynooth, Ireland
20-23 Oct 06, Cult TV 2006, Great Yarmouth
10-12 Nov 06, Armadacon 18, Plymouth
10-12 Nov 06, Novacon 36, Walsall
• 2007
?? Feb 07, Picocon 24, London
2-4 Feb 07, D'Zenove Convention (filk), Basingstoke
23-25 Feb 07, Redemption (multimedia SF), Hinckley, Leics
10-11 Mar 07, P-Con 4, Dublin
6-9 Apr 07, Convoy (Eastercon), Liverpool
25-27 May 07, Confounding Tales! (crime/sf/horror pulp), Glasgow
20-22 Jul 07,Year of the Teledu, Leicester
10-12 Aug 07, Recombination/HarmUni III (Unicon/RPG/filk), Cambridge
30 Aug - 3 Sep 07, Nippon 2007 (Worldcon), Yokohama, Japan
21-23 Sep 07, Eurocon 2007, Copenhagen, Denmark
2-4 Nov 07, Novacon 37, Walsall
• 2008
21-24 Mar 08, Orbital (Eastercon), Heathrow
Spring 08, Distraction, Newbury
6-10 Aug 08, Denvention 3 (Worldcon), Denver, USA
Endnotes
Apparitions.
• 15-26 September: Raymond E. Feist UK promotional tour.
• 6 October: Jim Burns talks to the Brum Group at the usual venue
– Britannia Hotel, New St, Birmingham. 7.30pm for 8pm. £3 members,
£4 non-members.
Random
Links. Rather than save them up for Ansible each
month, I now add topical links to a sidebar column on the links page:
http://news.ansible.co.uk/ansilink.html
PayPal
Donation. Support Ansible and keep the editor happy!
Or just buy his books ...
http://ansible.co.uk/paypal.php
http://ansible.co.uk/biblio.html
http://ansible.co.uk/books/sexcol.html
Operation Bughouse. A bug on the Redemption website which prevented online booking by credit card has been fixed. Judith Proctor writes: 'If anyone tried to book and failed, if they try again it should now work. In an effort to encourage people to report bugs rather than just giving up and going away, I faithfully promise to buy a pint for anyone who tries to book a membership and fails and TELLS me about the problem.'
Festival of Fantastic Films. Steve Green reports: 'Despite the traditional 11th-hour reshuffle of its guestlist and an airline's temporary mislaying of actor-director Crispin Glover's luggage (including the movie he was premiering), the 17th Festival of Fantastic Films proved another hit for fans of the bizarre, obscure and downright weird in international cinema. The annual awards for best independent feature and short movie went, respectively, to Paulo Sedazzali's thriller The Toybox and Mike Flanagan's nightmarish Oculus, whilst Karl Holt's hilarious horror comedy Eddie Loves You received the Delta Award after the closest race ever for best amateur entry. The re-enthused organisers have already booked Manchester's Days Hotel for the 18th Festival (31 August - 2 September 2007), when it's hoped Italian director Lamberto Bava will finally top the bill after this year's unavoidable raincheck.'
British
Fantasy Awards. Oh, all right, here are the remaining
categories that I didn't have room for up there in the bit that gets
printed. Winners will be announced at Fantasycon this month.
• NOVELLA Guy Adams, 'Deadbeat' (Humdrumming);
Jeffrey Ford, The Cosmology of the Wider World; Joe Hill, Voluntary
Committal; Paul Kane, Signs of Life; Paul Meloy, 'Dying In
The Arms Of Jean Harlow (The Coming Of The Autoscopes)' (The Third
Alternative #42); Sean Wright, Dark Tales of Space and Time;
Stuart Young, 'The Mask Behind the Face' (The Mask Behind the Face &
Other Stories).
• ANTHOLOGY; Allen Ashley, The Elastic Book Of
Numbers; Peter Crowther, Fourbodings; Gary Fry, Poe's
Progeny; Stephen Jones, The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror 16;
Stephen Jones, Don't Turn Out the Light.
• COLLECTION Leigh Brackett, Sea-Kings of Mars
& Other Worldly Stories; Simon Clark, Hotel Midnight;
Joe Hill, 20th Century Ghosts; Andrew Hook, Beyond Each Blue
Horizon; Tim Lees, The Life To Come; Stuart Young, The
Mask Behind the Face and Other Stories.
• SHORT FICTION Ramsey Campbell, 'Just Behind You'
(Poe's Progeny); Joe Hill, 'Best New Horror' (Postscripts
#3 & 20th Century Ghosts); Paul Kane, 'Homeland' (Assembly
of Rogues); John Lucas, 'Approaching Zero' (The Elastic Book of
Numbers); Will McIntosh, 'Soft Apocalypse' (Interzone #200);
Marie O'Regan, 'Can You See Me?' (Midnight Street #5); Sean
Wright, 'The Numberist' (New Wave Speculative Fiction).
• ARTIST Clive Barker, Randy Broecker, Les
Edwards, Dominic Harman, Richard Marchand, Robert Sammelin.
• SMALL PRESS Andy Cox, TTA Press; Peter Crowther,
PS Publishing; Andrew Hook, Elastic Press; D.F. Lewis, Nemonymous;
Christopher Teague, Pendragon Press.
Cultural
Penetration. Captain Scarlet Lives! Moshe Feder notes
another 'example of SF turning up in unexpected places. La Cie has just
introduced a new portable hard drive called the La Cie Rugged Hard
Drive. The designer says its appearance was inspired by a favorite
British SF TV show of his youth.' See URL:
http://www.lacie.com/company/news/news.htm?id=10265
Checkpoint.
The complete 1970s run of Peter Roberts's UK sf newsletter is now
archived on line. Peter Sullivan, who has transcribed no fewer than 34
issues, filled the last gap in Checkpoint's second series on 7
September. Look on his works, ye mighty, and despair.
http://checkpoint.ansible.co.uk/
Ansible 230 Copyright © Dave Langford, 2006. Thanks to Margaret Austin, Alexander Campbell, Paul Cockburn, Paul Di Filippo, Vince Docherty, Peta Lee, Robert Lichtman, Dave Linton, Petrea Mitchell, S.J. Perelman, The Register, SF Site, John Toon, Tanaqui Weaver, Gary Wilkinson, and our Hero Distributors: Rog Peyton (BGN), Janice Murray (NA), SCIS, and Alan Stewart (Aus). Extra Hugo thanks to Bridget Bradshaw, Martin Hoare & Geri Sullivan. 10 Sep 06.