Author: kwoll

Mike Glyer writes in Pixel Scroll, File770

• April 27, 1955 — The Devil Girl From Mars premiered. It was produced by Edward J. Danziger and Harry Lee Danziger as directed by David MacDonald. It was written by James Eastwood and John C. Maher  It starred Patricia Laffan, Hugh McDermott, Adrienne Corri and Hazel Court. Critics in general called it a delightfully bad film with the Monthly Film  Bulletin saying  “Everything, in its way, is quite perfect.” The audience reviewers over at Rotten Tomatoes apparently don’t agree as they give it a 22% rating. You can decide for yourself as you can see it here as it’s in the public domain.

• April 27, 1963 — The Day of the Triffids premiered in the USA. It was produced by George Pitcher and Philip Yordan, as directed by Steve Sekely.  It’s rather loosely based on the 1951 novel of the same name by John Wyndham (who was toastmaster at Loncon 1) as scripted by Bernard Gordon and Philip Yordan. It starred Howard Keel, Nicole Maurey, Janette Scott, Kieron Moore and  Mervyn Johns. Critics who were familiar with the novel weren’t terribly happy with the film. It currently rates a 52% rating among audience reviewers at Rotten Tomatoes.  Yes, it’s in the public domain, so you can watch it here. 

Garth Nix has a new story in tor.com

Sir Magnus Holmes, cousin to the more famous Sherlock, is asked to investigate the appearance of an otherworldly knight carrying a legendary sword in the cellar of a Victorian London pub.

“We was ’oping for t’other ’Olmes to take an interest,” said the publican. He wiped his fingers again on his striped apron as if this might somehow remove the strong aroma of beer that emanated not just from his hands, but his entire being. “Meaning no hoffence, your ’onour.”

— read the full story at tor.com

When I set out to write my first novel some 24(!) years ago now, I rather famously flipped a coin to see which genre I would write it in — science fiction or crime/thriller, and it landed on heads, which meant science fiction. At this point people expect science fiction from me, and I can write other genres while also writing science fiction (see: The “Lock In” books, which are crime/thriller books set in the near future), so I don’t feel especially constrained by writing science fiction.

— Highlights from John Scalzi’s r/Books AMA at tor.com

London’s National Theatre has been keeping audiences at home the world over on the edge of their sofas during lockdown by streaming plays from its archive on YouTube for free.

The highlight is likely to be Danny Boyle’s take on ‘Frankenstein’ starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller – who famously alternated the roles of Victor Frankenstein and his creation when the play came to stage in 2011.

National Theatre at Home audiences will be blessed with the opportunity to see them play both parts in this vision of Mary Shelley’s gothic tale, with the two versions airing on YouTube for free on consecutive nights (April 30 and May 1).

National Theatre at Home launched on YouTube on April 2, and now, every Thursday (7pm BST/3:30am Adelaide time) sees a new National Theatre play released – free to watch for one week – along with bonus content including cast and creatives Q&As and post-stream talks.

After a discussion with Adam, we agreed that it might be a good idea to have another online meeting for Critical Mass each month. We thought we’d repeat last year’s experiment of reading and ctitiquing all the novellae nominated for Hugo awards this year. there are six in all, so we thought we’d spen some time discussing two each month.

So for the meeting on may 20th, we ask you to read these two novellae

• The Haunting of Tram Car 015, by P. Djèlí Clark (Tor.com Publishing)
• This Is How You Lose the Time War, by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone (Saga Press; Jo Fletcher Books)

after the tea break, we invite you to share something interesting you’ve found in SF&F during your isolation: book, game, film, TV, comic, audio drama, website, fanzine or whatever!

Details of the May 20th zoom meeting of crit mass:

Join Crit Mass Zoom Meeting May 20, 2020 7:00 PM Adelaide
https://us04web.zoom.us/j/75768909497?pwd=b09CUndHbzlZTE5pdytiS2dnY2Ntdz09

Meeting ID: 757 6890 9497
Password: 7fXx7M
Critical Mass, Part2  May 20, 2020 07:50 PM Adelaide

https://us04web.zoom.u/j/78193278157?pwd=OXRFb2xzV0RMaXlQSmxyRm4wNmlQUT09

Meeting ID: 781 9327 8157
Password: 7fXx7M

Novel

• Marque of Caine, Charles E. Gannon (Baen)
• The Ten Thousand Doors of January, Alix E. Harrow (Redhook; Orbit UK)
• A Memory Called Empire, Arkady Martine (Tor)
• Gods of Jade and Shadow, Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Del Rey; Jo Fletcher)
• Gideon the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir (Tor.com Publishing)
• A Song for a New Day, Sarah Pinsker (Berkley)

Novella

• “Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom”, Ted Chiang (Exhalation)
• The Haunting of Tram Car 015, P. Djèlí Clark (Tor.com Publishing)
• This Is How You Lose the Time War, Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone (Saga)
• Her Silhouette, Drawn in Water, Vylar Kaftan (Tor.com Publishing)
• The Deep, Rivers Solomon, with Daveed Diggs, William Hutson & Jonathan Snipes (Saga)
• Catfish Lullaby, A.C. Wise (Broken Eye)

see tor.com for full lists

2020 Hugo Award Finalists

Best Novel

• The City in the Middle of the Night, by Charlie Jane Anders (Tor; Titan)
• Gideon the Ninth, by Tamsyn Muir (Tor.com Publishing)
• The Light Brigade, by Kameron Hurley (Saga; Angry Robot UK)
• A Memory Called Empire, by Arkady Martine (Tor; Tor UK)
• Middlegame, by Seanan McGuire (Tor.com Publishing)
• The Ten Thousand Doors of January, by Alix E. Harrow (Redhook; Orbit UK)

Best Novella

• “Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom”, by Ted Chiang (Exhalation (Borzoi/Alfred A. Knopf; Picador)
• The Deep, by Rivers Solomon, with Daveed Diggs, William Hutson & Jonathan Snipes (Saga Press/Gallery)
• The Haunting of Tram Car 015, by P. Djèlí Clark (Tor.com Publishing)
• In an Absent Dream, by Seanan McGuire (Tor.com Publishing)
• This Is How You Lose the Time War, by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone (Saga Press; Jo Fletcher Books)
• To Be Taught, If Fortunate, by Becky Chambers (Harper Voyager; Hodder & Stoughton)

— full list of all categories at tor.com

Our guest speaker for the May meeting is Melbourne Fantasy and Science Fiction writer Jane Routley. Her 7th book, Shadow in the Empire of Light, is due out in epub this August.  She has published 6 books, 5 as herself and one as Rebecca Locksley, and won two Aurealis Awards for Best Fantasy Novel for her novels Fire Angels and Aramaya.  Her short stories have been widely anthologized and read on the ABC.

Jane was a judge for the recent Australian Role Playing Industry Awards. She has had a variety of careers, including fruit picker and occult librarian and she lived in Germany and Denmark for a decade. Now she works on the railways in Melbourne and is a keen climate activist.

The meeting will be held by zoom, at 7pm May 6th, Adelaide time. In the first half, Jane will talk about her work and answer questions. At 7:40 we will have a short (10 min) tea-break, reconvening at 7:50pm for a discussion of what’s new and interesting in SF & F.

Join Crit Mass Zoom Meeting, 7pm May 6th:
https://us04web.zoom.us/j/78026195446?pwd=SmQraE1jbXJxaitxMXhuOHpIN08zQT09

Meeting ID: 780 2619 5446
Password: 7fXx7M

Join Zoom Meeting, Critical Mass, Adelaide, part 2, May 6th, 7:50 PM Adelaide
https://us04web.zoom.us/j/76738664461?pwd=Tk83eGh3SFJIMTdjazVyL0QyMlJwdz09

Meeting ID: 767 3866 4461
Password: 7fXx7M

[Note that we are also holding a second meeting, on May 20th, to discuss novellae, and chat in general]