The winners of the 2023 Shirley Jackson Awards for outstanding achievement in horror, psychological suspense, and dark fantasy fiction have been announced.
Novel
WINNER: The Reformatory, Tananarive Due (Saga Press)
The Daughters of Block Island, Christa Carmen (Thomas & Mercer)
Every Version Ends in Death, Aliya Chaudhry (Haunt)
Don’t Fear the Reaper, Stephen Graham Jones (Saga)
The Militia House, John Milas (Henry Holt & Company)
Brainwyrms, Alison Rumfitt (Nightfire)
Novella
WINNER: To the Woman in the Pink Hat, LaToya Jordan (Aqueduct)
Broken Paradise, Eugen Bacon (Luna Press Publishing)
Getting by in Tligolian, Roppotucha Greenberg (Arachne)
From reactormag: Previously, in Doctor Who news, it was announced that current companion Ruby Sunday would have only one season of adventures in the TARDIS before being replaced by a new, unnamed companion played by Varada Sethu (Andor). Radio Times noted, at the time, that Gibson would still be on the show, but in a smaller role.
That’s not quite the case. Sethu is joining the show as the Doctor’s second companion, with Gibson also staying on board. There’s even a cute picture of the whole season-two gang, looking very happy and like they might invite you over for drinks if they like your vibe.
In person: in July, we are meeting at the Community Room at Christie Walk, 101 Sturt Street, as Kappy’s will not be open in the evenings. Turn up at Christie Walk at 6:15 for a 6:30pm start on Wednesday, July 17th.
Yes, an interesting new animated series. From the minds of executive producers J.J. Abrams (Star Wars: The Force Awakens), Matt Reeves (The Batman), and Bruce Timm (Batman: The Animated Series) comes a brand new animated series for the Dark Knight and releasing on Prime Video this summer with Batman: Caped Crusader.
There’s a new series of Orphan Black, set 25 years after the original. The new series Orphan Black: Echoes stars Krysten Ritter as Lucy. The episode begins with Lucy, disoriented as she wakes up to talk to a scientist played by Keeley Hawes. She can’t remember anything and eventually escapes the room, finding a lab with computer-printed body parts. “You were created. You were printed from a high-resolution scan using a very complex process,” Hawes’ scientist tells her. “It’s a new technology. It’s the fourth-dimensional printing of human tissue.” Lucy escapes, and seems to have found a new life two years later. Unfortunately, she is found by the scientist, who apparently has links to the clones in Orphan Black.
The nominees in the fiction categories for the 2024 Hugos have been announced:
Best Novel The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty (Harper Voyager, Harper Voyager UK) The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera (Tordotcom) Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh (Tordotcom, Orbit UK) Starter Villain by John Scalzi (Tor, Tor UK) Translation State by Ann Leckie (Orbit US, Orbit UK) Witch King by Martha Wells (Tordotcom) 1420 ballots cast for 576 nominees. Finalists range 91-172.
Best Novella “Life Does Not Allow Us to Meet”, He Xi / 人生不相见, 何夕, translated by Alex Woodend (Adventures in Space: New Short stories by Chinese & English Science Fiction Writers) Mammoths at the Gates by Nghi Vo (Tordotcom) The Mimicking of Known Successes by Malka Older (Tordotcom) Rose/House by Arkady Martine (Subterranean) “Seeds of Mercury”, Wang Jinkang / 水星播种, 王晋康, translated by Alex Woodend (Adventures in Space: New Short stories by Chinese & English Science Fiction Writers) Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher (Tor, Titan UK) 962 ballots cast for 187 nominees. Finalists range 106-186.
Best Novelette I AM AI by Ai Jiang (Shortwave) “Introduction to 2181 Overture, Second Edition”, Gu Shi /〈2181序曲〉再版导言, 顾适 translated by Emily Jin (Clarkesworld, February 2023) “Ivy, Angelica, Bay” by C. L. Polk (Tor.com 8 December 2023) “On the Fox Roads” by Nghi Vo (Tor.com 31 October 2023) “One Man’s Treasure” by Sarah Pinsker (Uncanny Magazine, January-February 2023) “The Year Without Sunshine” by Naomi Kritzer (Uncanny Magazine, November-December 2023) 755 ballots cast for 212 nominees. Finalists range 40-117.
Best Short Story “Answerless Journey”, Han Song / 没有答案的航程, 韩松, translated by Alex Woodend (Adventures in Space: New Short stories by Chinese & English Science Fiction Writers) “Better Living Through Algorithms” by Naomi Kritzer (Clarkesworld May 2023) “How to Raise a Kraken in Your Bathtub” by P. Djèlí Clark (Uncanny Magazine, January-February 2023) “The Mausoleum’s Children” by Aliette de Bodard (Uncanny Magazine, May-June 2023) “The Sound of Children Screaming” by Rachael K. Jones (Nightmare Magazine, October 2023) 美食三品 (“ s”), 宝树 / Baoshu (银河边缘013：黑域密室 / Galaxy’s Edge Vol. 13: Secret Room in the Black Domain) 720 ballots cast for 612 nominees. Finalists range 27-69.
Although Sheri S. Tepper became best known for her eco-feminist SF writing, her first published trilogy, The True Game, can be read as a more traditional fantasy with SF elements. Two subsequent trilogies continue exploring this world. Over the nine novels set on this world, many of her future themes can be found which lift it out of the traditional fantasy genre into something more interesting. Consisting of the Peter Trilogy (collected as The True Game in 1985), the Chronicles of Mavin Manyshaped, and the Jinian Trilogy, the nine novels explore themes of ecology, feminism and colonialism.
Zoom Details: Critical Mass July Time: Jun 26, 2024 6:30pm Adelaide, 7pm Melbourne/Sydney, 5pm Perth
In person: in June and July, we are meeting at the Community Room at Christie Walk, 101 Sturt Street, as Kappy’s will not be open in the evenings. Turn up at Christie Walk at 6:15 for a 6:30pm start on Wednesday, June 26th.
We are delighted to announce that Dr Janeen Webb, author, critic, critic, editor, World Fantasy Award winner, is our speaker at June’s Nova Mob meeting on Wednesday 5 June!
Janeen’s recent published works have explored alternate histories to great effect, receiving recognition in overseas markets that her home Australian market would do well to meet. Comment from critics are that her novels and stories are strong additions to the subgenre of alternate history (counterfactuals), a realm of the science fiction landscape where it’s hard to tell stories well but when you do get it right, you wield large enduring narrative power which stays with the reader and achieves that conceptual breakthrough and reframing of perception which is at the heart of successful science fiction.
Excellent memorable powerful stories.
What makes for excellence in alternate history? What makes special this particular realm of sf? You are invited to a fireside chat on these and similar questions.
If you’ve not encountered Janeen’s fiction over the past decade, now is your opportunity.
You may know Janeen Webb’s work from many perspectives. Perhaps the award-winning anthologies of Australian SF she co-edited, Dreaming Down Under and Dreaming Again, or the republication of Kenneth MacKay’s 1895 Yellow Peril novel The Yellow Wave (co-edited with Andrew Enstice). Or as a critic, including as a member of the ASFR (Australian Science Fiction Review) collective. Perhaps as an academic, “I spent way too many years as a professor, and I’ve recently been lecturing on counterfactuals for a post-grad College in Canberra”. Or as author of the nonfiction work of note Aliens & Savages: Fiction, Politics, and Prejudice in Australia (1998, 2023) with Andrew Enstice. Maybe by way of her short stories. Or maybe as author of the young adult fantasy Sinbad Chronicles series, of Sailing to Atlantis (2001) and The Silken Road to Samarkand (2003). Or novelist of the fantasy satires The Gold-Jade Dragon and The Dragon’s Child, or the alternate history author of The City of the Sun series (also co-authored with Andrew Enstice).
It is these latter works to which Janeen will be talking in particular. In the best tradition of fannish discourse however it’s likely all these various aspects will be touched on.
“The date is 1854. The place is the Australian goldfields in the British colony of Victoria—the richest prize on earth. The story begins with a stockade. The flag of independence is unfurled. Men driven beyond endurance take arms against British redcoats. At their forefront are two hundred Colt-wielding Americans, the California Rangers, led by the charismatic and idealistic Captain James McGill. The stockade falls. The Rangers are scattered.
But from the ashes will rise a new revolution—a revolution powered by the sun. And this one will not fail. In the 19th century, just how close did we come to a world run on solar power? The Five Star Republic is history with a twist, the story of a world that might easily have been—the future you’ll wish we’d had. For more information visit the publisher’s page.” Link to video of the book launch
Introduction by Andrew Enstice & Janeen Webb “He was a mate of Banjo Paterson, and hailed as a possible poetic successor to Henry Kendall. He was a champion jockey, a prospector, a station owner. He sat for thirty-five years in the New South Wales parliament. He was a friend of Churchill, of Cecil Rhodes, and a champion of the rights of the ordinary soldier. He founded the Australian Light Horse, and led them into battle in South Africa. And yet you’ve probably never heard of Kenneth Mackay. But the themes of The Yellow Wave: A Romance of the Asiatic Invasion of Australia resonate as much today as they did a century and a quarter ago: nationalism, racism, and fear of a resurgent China.”
“Janeen Webb holds a PhD in literature from the University of Newcastle. A lecturer in literature at Australian Catholic University in Melbourne, Janeen is also co-editor, with Jack Dann, of the anthology Dreaming Down-Under, which won the 1999 international World Fantasy Award for Best Anthology, as well as the 1999 Ditmar (Australian Science Fiction Award). She has won both the Aurealis and the Ditmar awards for her short stories. She splits her time between Melbourne and her country retreat in Foster in South Gippsland.” https://www.harpercollins.com.au/cr-107969/janeen-webb/
The Adelaide Fan Review 
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