If you wish to view the award ceremony, and hear the winners’ speeches, there are two versions available online: the full ceremony (3hrs+), or a (recommended) shortened verson (1h 41m).
Category: Critical Mass
Nova Mob Aug 5th: Farah Mendlesohn on Robert Heinlein
Nova Mob’s convenor, Murray, writes:
Our guest is Farah Mendlesohn, who is a simply amazing person: BSFA, Clareson and Hugo-award winning academic, critic, author, editor, essayist, historian, reviewer, disability advocate, con organiser and fan. Farah will be videoconferencing to us from London on Zoom, from what could be described as a door into summer. Her topic is:
Robert Heinlein: 50 years as the SF genre’s pivot point.
Farah’s latest book is The Pleasant Profession of Robert A Heinlein. In terms suitable for a festschrift’s blurb Paul Kincaid in the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction describes it as “an ambitious and intensive argument for conceiving of Robert A Heinlein‘s long career as a surprisingly integrated whole; it won a BSFA Award for best nonfiction.”
That award was announced on 17 May 2020, and made Farah the only person to have won the BSFA twice for non-fiction; she will be speaking to us with the award newly perched in the trophy cabinet.
Nova Mob is now celebrating 50 years and a sterling examination of such a central author of the genre as RAH is a great way to do so. Twenty years in, this is the most significant critical work on Robert Heinlein of the millennium thus far.
You are invited to a scheduled Zoom meeting:
Topic: Nova Mob Aug 2020 Farah Mendlesohn
Time: Aug 5, 2020 08:00 PM Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney (7:30 Adelaide)
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/4177583193?pwd=VjdPL1BhSTBNclN2YnRsejN3Y1hlUT09
Meeting ID: 417 758 3193
Passcode: nova
Please share this invitation to friends of the Nova Mob.
The Pleasant Profession of Robert A Heinlein is widely available in e-book formats.
Original crowd-funded publication:
https://unbound.com/books/robert-heinlein/
For Australian currency, booktopia has it for just over $10.
https://www.booktopia.com.au/search.ep?author=Farah%20Mendlesohn
The accompanying bio says Farah Mendlesohn is “the co-editor of the Cambridge Companion to Science Fiction, and the Cambridge Companion to Fantasy and co-wrote A Short History of Fantasy, all with Edward James. Her other work includes Rhetorics of Fantasy and Diana Wynne Jones and the Children’s Fantastical Tradition. She won the Hugo Award with Edward James in 2005, and is currently working on a book about fiction about the English Civil War.”
Hugo Awards
Straight from CoNZealand, Ellen Boucher provides details of the award winners:
| Martine, Jemisin, El-Mohar and Gladstone win 2020 Hugo Awards by Ellen Boucher Arkady Martine’s debut novel, A Memory Called Empire, which explores the links between language, culture and interplanetary politics, has won the Hugo Award for the Best Novel. This Is How You Lose the Time War, a time travelling spy love story, by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone won in the Best Novella category, and Emergency Skin, set on a post-apocalyptic Earth, by N.K. Jemisin for the Best Novelette. For the first time ever, the awards were presented in a virtual ceremony as part of CoNZealand, the 78th World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon). S.L. Huang’s As the Last I May Know won the Hugo for the Best Short Story and the Expanse, by James S. A. Corey won the Best Series category. Jeannette Ng’s 2019 John W. Campbell Award Acceptance Speech, which led to the award’s name being changed, received a Hugo for Best Related Work. — more details on the CoNZealand website |
Crit Mass Aug 19th: The Kraken
This month, Kate Treloar will be looking at The Kraken.
As noted last newsletter, there are various items you might like to read/view.
NOVELS
- Kraken by China Mieville (2010)
- The Kraken Wakes by John Wyndham (1953)
SHORT STORY
- The Call of Cthulhu by HP Lovecraft (1928)
Part of the installation Beatrice by Julia Robinson at the Santos Museum of Economic Botany, Adelaide. Do the tentacles look familiar?
As before, we’re meeting via Zoom
Meeting details:
Topic: The Kraken — Critical Mass, Adelaide
Start Time: Aug 19, 2020 7:00 pm Adelaide, 7:30 Melbourne
<tea break at 7:40pm>
Meeting resumes 7:50pm, for an 8:30 finish.
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us04web.zoom.us/j/75115213552?pwd=eVdMNTBxOHVVTTMxQ0FGSDI5M3BjZz09
Meeting ID: 751 1521 3552
Passcode: Ds3ksp
On Stanislaw Lem
His impact on science fiction is undeniable – not only because of what Lem wrote and predicted (e-paper, for example), but also due to how he wrote it. His prose is very precise, carefully planned, seemingly concise and distant, only to reveal at a second glance an incredible depth of emotions, breathtaking imagination, painful questions and even more harrowing answers about human nature and the Universe. It’s paradoxical, at times absurdly funny, at times depressing, almost always unsettingly convincing. And in many cases, it’s just utterly brilliant. I won’t hesitate to put many of his novels among the best of the best in sf, ever. Mulling over Lem’s more difficult novels takes as much time – or more – as reading them; and they stay with the reader for a long time afterwards. But Lem also wrote wonderfully funny, witty satires, little morality plays dressed up as fables, hilarious accounts of interstellar travelers, and twisted crime novels with no perpetrators. During his later years he turned toward philosophical essays, analyzing the significance of nanotechnology, AI, and virtual reality – but his most influential, and the best in my opinion, are his science fiction novels.
— Ola G, “On Stanislaw Lem”, Re-enchantment Of The World
Crit Mass, Aug 19th: Kraken good reads
In August Kate Treloar will look at the Kraken – the myth, the reality it’s based on, and key inclusions in literature and popular culture.
Krakens are giant squid sea monsters from the ocean’s depths, capable of destroying ships and hurling hapless sailors to watery deaths. Seemingly based on real creatures, the line between reality, myth and imagination easily blurs, providing a fascinating topic to explore.
Before the Kraken catchup, you may be interested in delving into a selection from this list:
NOVELS
- Kraken by China Mieville (2010)
- The Kraken Wakes by John Wyndham (1953)
SHORT STORY
- The Call of Cthulhu by HP Lovecraft (1928)
“Of such great powers or beings there may be conceivably a survival . . . a survival of a hugely remote period when . . . consciousness was manifested, perhaps, in shapes and forms long since withdrawn before the tide of advancing humanity . . . forms of which poetry and legend alone have caught a flying memory and called them gods, monsters, mythical beings of all sorts and kinds. . . .”
—Algernon Blackwood.
MOVIES
- Clash of the Titans (1981, 2010)
- Pirates of the Caribbean – Dead Man’s Chest (2006)
MOVIE SCENE
- Giant squid battle from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUgDYxZHGz0
| POETRY “The Kraken” (1830) – Victorian Web Below the thunders of the upper deep; Far, far beneath in the abysmal sea, His ancient, dreamless, uninvaded sleep The Kraken sleepeth: faintest sunlights flee About his shadowy sides: above him swell Huge sponges of millennial growth and height; And far away into the sickly light, From many a wondrous grot and secret cell Unnumbered and enormous polypi Winnow with giant arms the slumbering green. There hath he lain for ages and will lie Battening upon huge sea-worms in his sleep, Until the latter fire shall heat the deep; Then once by man and angels to be seen, In roaring he shall rise and on the surface die. “The Kraken”, Poems, Chiefly Lyrical by Alfred Tennyson |
Further suggestions welcome!!
Crit Mass, July 15th: Octothorpe, Plokta! and Guff
Our special guest for the July Critical mass meeting is this year’s GUFF winner, Alison Scott. Undaunted by the COVID-19 lockdown, she is planning a virtual GUFF trip through Australia, culminating in Wellington for CoNZealand, this year’s worldcon.
As part of the Plokta cabal, Alison was involved in producing this award-winning fanzine. (See https://www.plokta.com/plokta/index.html for copies.)
She’s been involved in organising conventions, and was slated to appear as GoH at this year’s Eastercon. Undaunted by the lockdown, she still held her fannish room party — online!
Her fondness for the Traditional London First Thursday Pub nights prompted her to create an online equivalent via zoom rooms.
And then just to top it all, she’s recently launched a podcast, Octothorpe,
with John Coxon and Liz Batty.
This Critical Mass will be in three parts, each of 40 minutes duration.
Part One: A chat with Alison Scott
Jul 15, 2020 7:00pm – 7:40pm Adelaide (7:30 Melbourne)
<10 min tea break>
Part Two: More chatting + Q&A, initial discussion about the novellae
Jul 15, 2020 07:50 — 8:30pm Adelaide (8:20 Melbourne time)
<10 min wine break>
Part Three: Picking the Hugo winner & general chat
Jul 15, 2020 08:40 — 9:20pm Adelaide (9:10 Melbourne time)
Zoom meeting details:
Meeting ID: 768 9343 2810
Password: 2LYCvH
Note you will need version 5 of the zoom app!
We will be discussing the last two of the Hugo nominated novellae:
- To Be Taught, If Fortunate, by Becky Chambers (Harper Voyager; Hodder & Stoughton)
- The Deep, by Rivers Solomon, with Daveed Diggs, William Hutson & Jonathan Snipes (Saga Press/Gallery)
Critical Mass, July 15th
Once more, we will be discussing two of the Hugo nominated novellae:
- To Be Taught, If Fortunate, by Becky Chambers (Harper Voyager; Hodder & Stoughton)
- The Deep, by Rivers Solomon, with Daveed Diggs, William Hutson & Jonathan Snipes (Saga Press/Gallery)
Nova Mob 1st July
The speaker this coming Wednesday is Eugen Bacon on Afrofuturism, Speculative Fiction, genre boundaries and interfaces.
Eugen is preparing for three events on African speculative fiction at the ConZealand Worldcon, was a speaker at the June 2020 Emerging Writers’ Festival, is Aurealis Reviews Editor, is active on sfnal matters on Twitter, and in May 2020 saw publication of the book Hadithi and the State of Black Speculative Fiction as well as an article on AfroSF in the BSFA journal Vector. Her goodreads page is an .. erm.. good read.
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3147403.Eugen_Bacon
https://twitter.com/eugenbacon?lang=en
https://emergingwritersfestival.org.au/writer/eugen-bacon/
https://twitter.com/BSFA/status/1264617300847624193
Nova Mob will be by way of a Zoom meeting.
Here are the login details and password.
Topic: Nova Mob 1 July
8.00pm – Eugen Bacon on Afrofuturism and Speculative Fiction
Zoom open from 07:45 PM, Start time 8.00pm Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney
Note: all times half an hour earlier for Adelaide, so meeting open from 7:15, start 7:30pm
8.00pm Notices, apologies, and similar
8.10pm or so – Eugen Bacon
9.00pm or so – completion, questions, discussion
9.45pm Zoom meeting shuts down
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/4177583193?pwd=VjdPL1BhSTBNclN2YnRsejN3Y1hlUT09
Meeting ID: 417 758 3193
Password: nova
Reminder: Zoom works well on Chrome and most other browsers but not on PaleMoon.
Further reminder: please share this invitation with friends who will be interested. A special shout-out for Critical Mass in Adelaide. {thanks, Murray!}
Eugen Bacon, MA, MSc, PhD, is a computer scientist mentally re-engineered into creative writing.
Her stories have won, been shortlisted and commended in international awards, including the Bridport Prize, Copyright Agency Prize, Ron Hubbard’s Writers of the Future Award, Nommo Award for Africans and Fellowship of Australian Writers National Literary Awards.
Her creative work has appeared in literary and speculative fiction publications worldwide, including Award Winning Australian Writing, British Science Fiction Association’s Vector Magazine, AntipodeanSF, Andromeda, Aurealis, Bards and Sages Quarterly, Meniscus, TEXT, The Victorian Writer, Unsung Stories, the Canberra Speculative Fiction Guild and through Routledge in New Writing.
Publications: Claiming T-Mo (Meerkat Press).
Writing Speculative Fiction (Red Globe Press).
In 2020: Her Bitch Dress (Ginninderra Press);
The Road to Woop Woop & Other Stories (Meerkat Press);
Hadithi (Luna Press Publishing);
Inside the Dreaming (NewCon Press).
Locus Awards
Locus Magazine has announced the winners of its 2020 Awards.
Here are the winners of best SF and Fantasy novels (winners in bold)
SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL
- The City in the Middle of the Night, Charlie Jane Anders (Tor; Titan)
- The Testaments, Margaret Atwood (Nan A. Talese; Chatto & Windus)
- Ancestral Night, Elizabeth Bear (Saga; Gollancz)
- Empress of Forever, Max Gladstone (Tor)
- The Light Brigade, Kameron Hurley (Saga; Angry Robot UK)
- Luna: Moon Rising, Ian McDonald (Tor; Gollancz)
- The Future of Another Timeline, Annalee Newitz (Tor; Orbit UK)
- Fleet of Knives, Gareth L. Powell (Titan US & UK)
- The Rosewater Insurrection/The Rosewater Redemption, Tade Thompson (Orbit US & UK)
- Wanderers, Chuck Wendig (Del Rey; Solaris)
FANTASY NOVEL
- Middlegame, Seanan McGuire (Tor.com Publishing)
- Ninth House, Leigh Bardugo (Flatiron; Gollancz)
- A Brightness Long Ago, Guy Gavriel Kay (Berkley; Viking Canada; Hodder & Stoughton)
- The Raven Tower, Ann Leckie (Orbit US & UK)
- Jade War, Fonda Lee (Orbit US & UK)
- Gods of Jade and Shadow, Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Del Rey; Jo Fletcher)
- The Starless Sea, Erin Morgenstern (Doubleday; Harvill Secker)
- Storm of Locusts, Rebecca Roanhorse (Saga)
- The Iron Dragon’s Mother, Michael Swanwick (Tor)
- Dead Astronauts, Jeff VanderMeer (MCD; Fourth Estate)
The full list of winners and nominees is listed at tor.com
The Adelaide Fan Review 
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