The Adelaide Fan Review

As usual, we meet from 6:30 at the Minor Works Building, 22 Stamford Court, Adelaide
[There’s a pathway between 50 and 52 Sturt St]

For this month’s meeting, we ask you to come along to talk about a novel or novella
you’ve recently read and enjoyed*.
Tell us why it’s interesting, and what you enjoyed about the work or author.

[*it need not be a new work, you might be re-reading an old favourite,
or you have discovered something from previous years]

Critical Mass via zoom
Time: Jun 17, 2026 6:30pm – 8pm Adelaide time; 7-8:30 Sydney time

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/82461705043?pwd=uqQARwIKgXsqifdPsgLV1oIabFipJV.1

Meeting ID: 824 6170 5043
Passcode: 208178

Here are some of the nominees for the 2026 Hugo awards.

Best Novel

A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett (Del Rey; Hodderscape)
Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor (William Morrow; Gollancz)
Shroud by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Tor UK; Orbit US)
The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow (Tor US; Tor UK)
The Incandescent by Emily Tesh (Tor US; Orbit UK)
The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson (Orbit US; Hodderscape)

1,153 ballots cast for 555 nominees. Finalists range 126-210.

Best Novella

Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz (Tordotcom)
Cinder House by Freya Marske (Tordotcom; Tor UK)
Murder by Memory by Olivia Waite (Tordotcom)
The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar (Tordotcom; Arcadia UK)
The Summer War by Naomi Novik (Del Rey US; Del Rey UK)
What Stalks the Deep by T. Kingfisher (Nightfire; Titan UK)

807 ballots cast for 172 nominees. Finalists range 90-241.

Best Novelette

“Kaiju Agonistes” by Scott Lynch (Uncanny Magazine, Issue 62)
“Never Eaten Vegetables” by H.H. Pak (Clarkesworld, Issue 220)
“Rapport: Friendship, Solidarity, Communion, Empathy” by Martha Wells (Reactor, July 10, 2025)
“The Girl That My Mother Is Leaving Me For” by Cameron Reed (Reactor, April 2, 2025)
“The Millay Illusion” by Sarah Pinsker (Uncanny Magazine, Issue 67)
“When He Calls Your Name” by Catherynne M. Valente (Uncanny Magazine, Issue 65)

414 ballots cast for 144 nominees. Finalists range 36-64. 

The full list of nominees in each category is at Hugo Award finalists

The Locus Awards winners will be announced May 30, 2026, during the in-person Locus Awards Ceremony, held in the historic Hotel Shattuck in downtown Berkeley, California. Join MCs Sarah Gailey and Maggie Tokuda-Hall, plus guests of honor Tananarive Due, Stephen Graham Jones, and Nnedi Okorafor, and featured local artist Alyssa Winans, for an entertaining presentation of the awards, including a catered reception and awards banquet.

The top ten awards finalists in the SF/Fantasy novels category are:

SCIENCE FICTION NOVELS

• The Folded Sky, Elizabeth Bear (Saga; Gollancz) amazon / bookshop
• Picks & Shovels, Cory Doctorow (Ad Astra; Tor) amazon / bookshop
• Notes from a Regicide, Isaac Fellman (Tor) amazon / bookshop
• When We Were Real, Daryl Gregory (Saga) amazon / bookshop
• All That We See or Seem, Ken Liu (Saga; Ad Astra) amazon / bookshop
• Where the Axe Is Buried, Ray Nayler (MCD; Weidenfeld & Nicolson) amazon / bookshop
• Slow Gods, Claire North (Orbit US; Orbit UK) amazon / bookshop
• Death of the Author, Nnedi Okorafor (Morrow; Gollancz) amazon / bookshop
• The Shattering Peace, John Scalzi (Tor; Tor UK) amazon / bookshop
• Shroud, Adrian Tchaikovsky (Tor UK; Orbit US) amazon / bookshop

FANTASY NOVELS

• The Devils, Joe Abercrombie (Tor; Gollancz) amazon / bookshop
• The Tomb of Dragons, Katherine Addison (Tor; Solaris UK) amazon / bookshop
• Lessons in Magic and Disaster, Charlie Jane Anders (Tor; Titan UK) amazon / bookshop
• A Drop of Corruption, Robert Jackson Bennett (Del Rey; Hodderscape) amazon / bookshop
• The Everlasting, Alix E. Harrow (Tor; Tor UK) amazon / bookshop
• The Raven Scholar, Antonia Hodgson (Orbit US; Hodderscape) amazon / bookshop
• Hemlock & Silver, T. Kingfisher (Tor; Tor UK) amazon / bookshop
• Katabasis, R.F. Kuang (Harper Voyager; Harper Voyager UK) amazon / bookshop
• The Incandescent, Emily Tesh (Tor; Orbit UK) amazon / bookshop
• Queen Demon, Martha Wells (Tor) amazon / bookshop

See the full details at https://locusmag.com/2026/04/2026-top-ten-finalists-for-locus-awards/

Hungry squid games? Best candidates for this year’s SF and Fantasy Awards

Ian Mond and Alex (Alexandra) Pierce – Victoria’s Locus writers – discuss their preferences, and perhaps who ought not to be there – in the forthcoming Awards season. Hugos, Nebulas, Ditmars, World Fantasy, Bram Stoker, Vogels, Clarkes, and more – the lists are large, will your favourite award or author be mentioned? May the cream rise to the top.

Fresh to you and – for those wanting more, or an appetiser – here are Ian and Alex on the Coode St podcast.

Nova Mob meets 7:30-9pm Adelaide time / 8-9:30pm Melbourne time Wednesday, 6th May

Zoom link (unchanged, this link applies to all Mob meetings):

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/4177583193?pwd=VjdPL1BhSTBNclN2YnRsejN3Y1hlUT09

Passcode: nova

Meeting ID 417 758 3193

The meeting will be at 6:30pm May 20th at the Minor Works Building
(follow the path between 50 and 52 Sturt Street)

Samantha Lane is exploring various definitions of Science Fiction in an attempt to understand the factor that unites all the media and stories that we understand as SciFi. 
SciFi is such a broad genre that it seems to defy definition. What any two members read can vary greatly in terms of themes, style and setting and yet they both acknowledge the other’s choice as SciFi. I would like to begin with what authors such Asimov, Dick and Le Guin think SciFi was and then take a step back to see how academics view the genre in a broader sense.

Samantha will present for about 25 minutes followed by 20 minutes of discussion.

You can also attend via zoom:

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/82461705043?pwd=uqQARwIKgXsqifdPsgLV1oIabFipJV.1

With writers from South Africa and France, Russia and India, Hungary and Italy and Malaysia and Australia, I’ve selected a whopping 15 titles – a mix of novels, novellas, short story collections and anthologies to give you a wide palate of tastes from around the world! I hope you find your next favourite here, discover new voices and explore the wide variety and imagination of speculative fiction from around our planet. I hope you enjoy them! – Lavie Tidhar

* * *

For StoryBundle, you decide what price you want to pay. For $5 (or more, if you’re feeling generous), you’ll get the basic bundle of three books in .epub format—WORLDWIDE.

• Broken Paradise by Eugen Bacon
• The Last Pantheon by Tade Thompson and Nick Wood
• ChloroPhilia by Cristina Jurado and translated by Sue Burke

If you pay at least the bonus price of just $30, you get all three of the regular books, plus TWELVE more books, for a total of 15!

• The Map of Lost Places by Sheree Renée Thomas and Lesley Conner
• New Adventures in Space Opera by Jonathan Strahan
• Letters From an Imaginary Country by Theodora Goss
• Central Station by Lavie Tidhar
• Interstellar MegaChef by Lavanya Lakshminarayan
• Black Hole Heart and Other Stories by K.A. Teryna translated by Alex Shvartsman
• The Grief Hole by Kaaron Warren
• Cities Are Forests Waiting to Happen by Cécile Cristofari
• Futures to Live By by Ana Sun
• Veg-humans by Clelia Farris and translated by Rachel Cordasco
• Ecoceanic by Tarun K. Saint and Francesco Verso
• The Tea Master and the Detective by Aliette de Bodard

This bundle is available only for a limited time via http://www.storybundle.com. You get a DRM-free .epub for all books!

A Nova Mob group discussion, looking at Dan Simmons and John Varley..

Consider your favourite novel or other work by either or both writers.

A story or anecdote about them – and perhaps you.

In this way we celebrate our connection with two of SF’s finest writers,
whose deaths in December 2025 (Varley) and February 2026 (Simmons) were a shock and a loss.

You are invited to a scheduled Zoom meeting. Please join us on-line!

Wednesday 1 April 2026
8.00pm – 9.30 pm Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney time|
7.30pm – 9.00pm Adelaide time

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/4177583193?pwd=VjdPL1BhSTBNclN2YnRsejN3Y1hlUT09

Passcode: nova

Meeting ID: 417 758 3193