fans of sf, fantasy, horror & whimsy
News items which go out to a monthly newsletter
There’s a five-episode Doctor Who spinoff coming to Disney+ called The War Between the Land and the Sea, and Disney+ released a trailer today that suggests that the battle will be epic.
Here’s the official synopsis:
When a fearsome and ancient species emerges from the ocean, dramatically revealing themselves to humanity, an international crisis is triggered. With the entire population at risk, UNIT step into action as the land and sea wage war.
The full shortlists were revealed on June 14th.
You can see them at https://file770.com/2025-mythopoeic-awards-finalists/
Guardian critic Lisa Tuttle’s new “The best recent science fiction, fantasy and horror – review roundup” covers Awakened by Laura Elliott (Angry Robot, £9.99), Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by VE Schwab (Tor, £22), Immaculate Conception by Ling Ling Huang (Canelo, £14.99), Esperance by Adam Oyebanji (Arcadia, £10.99), and The Quiet by Barnaby Martin (Pan Macmillan, £16.99).
Adrian will be our guest speaker (via Zoom) at Critical Mass on June 18th, where he will be interviewed by Alexandra Pierce, editor of Speculative Insight.
Adrian Tchaikovsky has two novels, Alien Clay and Service Model, as finalists in this years Hugo awards, as well as being nominated as best series finalist for his Tyrant Philosophers series.
He has also received the Arthur C Clark Award for Shroud.
You can read more about him at https://adriantchaikovsky.com/
Critical Mass will meet at 6:30pm on Wednesday, June 18th at the Minor Works Building,
22 Stamford Court, Adelaide. Doors open at 6:20pm
[If you enter from Sturt Street, there’s an open path between 50 and 52 Sturt Street
leading to the community centre]
For those who can’t make it in person, they’re welcome to join us via zoom
Zoom details:
Topic: Critical Mass, Adelaide
Time: Jun 18, 2025 6:30pm Adelaide, 7pm Melbourne, 10am London
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83196030896?pwd=m2ImO2Z7bGfLtmLvJJHeoci1455Vtr.1
Meeting ID: 831 9603 0896
Passcode: 570773
As well as being a renowned author and scientist, Stan Robinson is one of the nicest people in science fiction.
“Kim Stanley Robinson (born March 23, 1952) is an American science fiction writer best known for his Mars trilogy. Many of his novels and stories have ecological, cultural, and political themes and feature scientists as heroes. Robinson has won numerous awards, including the Hugo Award for Best Novel, the Nebula Award for Best Novel and the World Fantasy Award. The Atlantic has called Robinson’s work “the gold standard of realistic, and highly literary, science-fiction writing.” According to an article in The New Yorker, Robinson is “generally acknowledged as one of the greatest living science-fiction writers.” [Wikipedia]
💥 💥 💥
“Andrew Milner (born 9 September 1950) is Professor Emeritus of English and Comparative Literature at Monash University. From 2014 until 2019 he was also Honorary Professor of English and Comparative Literary Studies at the University of Warwick. In 2013 he was Ludwig Hirschfeld Mack Visiting Professor of Australian Studies at the Institut für Englische Philologie, Freie Universität Berlin.
“Locating Science Fiction is arguably Milner’s most important, potentially paradigm-shifting, book. Academic literary criticism had tended to locate science fiction primarily in relation to the older genre of utopia; fan criticism primarily in relation to fantasy and science fiction in other media, especially film and television; popular fiction studies primarily in relation to such contemporary genres as the romance novel and the thriller. Milner’s book relocates science fiction in relation not only to these other genres and media, but also to the historical and geographic contexts of its emergence and development.
“Locating Science Fiction sought to move science fiction theory and criticism away from the prescriptively abstract dialectics of cognition and estrangement associated with Fredric Jameson and Darko Suvin, and towards an empirically grounded understanding of what is actually a messy amalgam of texts, practices and artefacts. Inspired by Williams, Bourdieu and Franco Moretti’s application of world systems theory to literary studies, it drew on the disciplinary competences of comparative literature, cultural studies, critical theory and sociology to produce a powerfully distinctive mode of analysis, engagement and argument. The concluding chapter is preoccupied with environmentalist thematics occasioned by Milner’s growing interest in Green politics.” [Wikipedia]
You are invited to a Nova Mob meeting gathered around a big TV screen at the Kensington Town Hall, for Dr Andrew Milner by Zoom:
Wednesday 4 June 2025 8.00pm – 9.00 Melbourne (7:30-8:30 Adelaide) (formal close), first floor Creative Hub.
Lift access. Stairs access. Both available.
Zoom meeting closes about 9.20pm or so.
Kensington Town Hall. 30 – 34 Bellair St
Kensington Melbourne VIC 3031
You are invited to a scheduled Zoom meeting. Please join us on-line!
Wednesday 4 June 2025
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
The current nominees for Best Short Story in the Nebula Awards are:
We’d like members of Critical Mass to read a few of the short stories, beginning with
Evan: a Remainder
Evan is suddenly coughing up bones, like, A LOT of bones, but that’s not even in the top ten strangest things that have happened to him since he moved into his new (possibly haunted) duplex . . .
and The V*mpire,
The vampires aren’t even the worst part about being a teenage trans girl on tumblr.
which appeared in Reactor.
You can also read the stories from Lightspeed magazine: Five Views of the Planet Tartarus and
We Will Teach You How to Read | We Will Teach You How to Read .
And Why Don’t We Just Kill the Kid in the Omelas Hole is available from Clarkesworld.
A reminder, we meet in person at 6:30pm on Wednesday,May 21st at the Minor Works Building, 22 Stamford Court, Adelaide.
[If you enter from Sturt Street, there’s an open path between 50 and 52 Sturt Street
leading to the community centre]
For those who can’t make it in person, they’re welcome to join us via zoom
Zoom details
6:30pm Adelaide, 7pm Melbourne/Sydney, Noon Helsinki, 10am London, 9pm Wellington
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83196030896?pwd=m2ImO2Z7bGfLtmLvJJHeoci1455Vtr.1
Meeting ID: 831 9603 0896
Passcode: 570773
The first two episodes have been released in the series, and they bode well for the series.
Hailing from Academy Award nominees Chris and Paul Weitz (About A Boy) and based on Martha Wells’ best-selling book series The Murderbot Diaries, the show follows a self-hacking security construct who is horrified by human emotion yet drawn to its vulnerable clients.
SciFiNow’s Rachael Harper talked with Skarsgård about playing a sardonic robot who can’t help but take a liking to humanity…
Hi All,
At the end of last meeting we speculated what themes might be prevalent in this year’s Hugo/Nebula nominees given the political situation.Our Predictions: (i) Cli-Fi, (ii) rogue AIs, (iii) Aliens as a commentary on current life,
(iv) Fantasy/Escapism, (v) Dystopian politics, (vi) LGBT, (vii) Space OperaDystopia and LGBT were very prominent in this year’s Nebula short stories.
I hope everyone also reads the Omelas story!In contrast the themes for novels were not so different from previous years
(see attached; below).See you Wednesday (and safe & fun travels)
AndrewSummary of predicted themes from the 19 novels nominated for 2024-5 Hugo/Nebula awards:
- 4/19 Escapism: Humor/Comedy/Adventure/Pirates/High Fantasy – others? (19/19 Fantasy)
- 9/19 LGBT
- 3/19 Space Opera
- 1/19 Aliens
- 1/19 Robots (AI)
- 0/19 Cli-Fi
My Call of Cthulhu scenario is being performed in Ballarat as a live action role play on the 22 of May
I’m wondering if you could let the The SF types in Adelaide know. There is a streaming option.
All the best
Jane Routley
Murray MacLachlan writes
Jim Cambias writes “I’m making my first visit to Australia in April and May, and I’ll be in Melbourne between May 6 and May 9. I’d love to meet some of Australia’s SF fan community. My seventh novel, The Miranda Conspiracy, just came out.”
Jim will be our guest speaker on 7 May!
Baen Books are pure quill SF and it’s a real pleasure to welcome Jim and his wife to Melbourne! They will be joining our pre-Mob pub meetup dining too.
Here’s the Baen page for his new book:
https://www.baen.com/the-miranda-conspiracy.html
Jim’s personal blog is here: https://www.jamescambias.com
“Political intrigue on Uranus’s moon Miranda, intertwined mysteries among the super-rich ruling class, and a lost treasure from deep space add up to trouble for Adya, Daslakh, and Zee. Unravel The Miranda Conspiracy, a new Billion Worlds novel now available from Baen Books!”
You are invited to an in-person Nova Mob meeting at:
Wednesday May 7th 2025 8.00pm – 9.00 (formal close) Melbourne, first floor Creative Hub.
Lift access. Stairs access. Both available.
Zoom meeting closes about 9.20pm or so.
Kensington Town Hall 30 – 34 Bellair St
Kensington Melbourne VIC 3031
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/4177583193?pwd=VjdPL1BhSTBNclN2YnRsejN3Y1hlUT09
Passcode: nova
Meeting ID: 417 758 3193
8pm Melbourne, 7:30pm Adelaide
Please don’t attend if you have symptoms that could be COVID 19 or similar.
Our COVID-safe Plan continues to apply and we remain mask-friendly for those who wear them.
Murray MacLachlan|
Convenor
The Adelaide Fan Review 
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