Ian Mond’s best books of genre not packaged as genre
Face to face meeting, simulcast in Zoom
A great pleasure of the Nova Mob is Ian’s annual talk on the year’s best books, selected from those that aren’t marketed as genre SF but instead typically have the words “A Novel” somewhere on the cover for the discerning book shop browser to be certain as to what it is they are buying.
Ian again has selected 10 books for your reading delight. Hear about them, and why #10 is good and his #1 pick is better, at our meeting on 1 November.
As usual with Nova Mob talks there’s lively discussion, so attendance in person is recommended. The Zoom option as always is available.
Many thanks to Julian and Lucy who will be chairing November’s Nova Mob meeting.
Kensington Town Hall, 8.00pm, Wednesday 1 November, address below.
Please share this Zoom invitation with like-minded friends and fans
Face to face
You are invited to an in-person Nova Mob meeting at:
Wednesday 1 November 8.00pm – 9.30 pm or so, first floor Conference Room Kensington Town Hall 30 – 34 Bellair St, Kensington Melbourne VIC 3031
By Zoom – simulcast
For those who prefer not to travel or are unable to attend face-to-face. This’ll be close to a webcast or radiocast in style, broadcast from the Kensington Town Hall. Questions or comments typed into the Zoom chat will be passed through to Ian as the opportunity permits.
The standard unchanging web link, deserving of a bookmark in your browser.
About Ian Mond
Ian has just won the 2023 Atheling Award for his reviews in Locus!
Locus says, “Ian Mond loves to talk about books. For eight years he co-hosted a book podcast, The Writer and the Critic, with Kirstyn McDermott. Recently he has revived his blog, The Hysterical Hamster, and is again posting mostly vulgar reviews on an eclectic range of literary and genre novels. You can also follow Ian on Twitter (@Mondyboy) or contact him at mondyboy74@gmail.com.
Our next guest at the Nova Mob is a multiple winner of the Hugo Award!
As reported by David Langford in Ansible’s Fanfundery column: _GUFF:_ Alison Scott, the 2020 winner, is at last making her delayed Australian trip — arriving in Sydney on 24 September, flying home from Perth on 30 October.
Alison is our guest in person at the Nova Mob on Wednesday 4 October, along with her husband Steven Cain. Amid a whirl of Melbourne fannish socialising, of which more below! Expect adrenalin highs and mirth.
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MOB CALENDAR
4 October – Alison Scott, GUFF Winner “Zines and Me”
1 November – Ian Mond’s Mondial best books of the year: the world of sf, horror, and fantasy in 2023
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Alison Scott – GUFF Winner “Zines and Me”
Anzapa member and Hugo winner tells all (or much of it, anyway)
She is a member of the League of Fan Funds and won the 2020 GUFF trip, but had to postpone her trip because of the Covid-19 epidemic. She ran a virtual trip and is waiting for the moment when it’s safe to travel to Australia and New Zealand. [Ednote: that time has arrived]
She was married to UK fan Mike Scott from 1986–95 and has been married to UK fan Steven Cain since October 1998.
Meeting details Nova Mob Wednesday 4 October 2023 –
Alison Scott – A Life in Fanzines
Face to face
You are invited to an in-person Nova Mob meeting at: Wednesday 4 October 2023 8.00pm – 9.15pm or so, first floor Conference Room Kensington Town Hall 30 – 34 Bellair St, Kensington Melbourne VIC 3031
By Zoom – simulcast
For those who prefer not to travel or are unable to attend face-to-face. Zoom session broadcast from the Kensington Town Hall. Questions or comments typed into the Zoom chat will be discussed as the opportunity permits, and you’ll have as much airtime as the other Mob members at the venue.
You are invited to a scheduled Zoom meeting. Wednesday 4 October 8.00pm – 9.00/9.30 pm Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney time 7.30pm – 8.30/9.00pm Adelaide time 11:00am UK London time, 3.00am USA Mountain View
Join Zoom Meeting Meeting ID: 417 758 3193 Passcode: nova
This is the wholly reliable web link. By now one surely has added it to one’s bookmarks.
Tubi’s business model is that you get the movie for free but they ask you to sit through adverts. The TV and film studios pay for the adverts, rather than the consumer paying for the film.
The ARIA-award winning soundtrack by the Grigoryan Brothers is available here. Click on TIDAL and wait to see the track listing. Flamenco versions of out-of-copyright classics and it all just works.
Lucy Sussex and Julian Warner will be reprising their quarter-century-long role as Nova Mob co-ordinators for the night of 1 November. That’s the night of Ian Mond’s annual talk. I apologise for my absence on that night, I regret missing Ian, he always delivers a fine informative entertaining evening.
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Vale Helena Binns
Helena Binns died on the night of 18 September, at the age of 82. She was a Life Member of the Melbourne Science Fiction Club and I remember her delight at being nominated and awarded that status (I was the MSFC President at that time and nominated her). She spoke well and with feeling about what it was like in the 1950’s believing that amazing things were about to happen in science, space, and technology, and the opprobrium that those days had for science fiction fans and for female science fiction fans in particular. As Dick ‘Ditmar’ Jenssen wrote at the time, the bestowal recognised Helena individually and wimmen’s voices in the Melbourne fannish narrative generally. Helena was conscious of both aspects. Rest in peace.
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Gillian Polack shortlisted for Sideways Award, World Fantasy Con
Fingers crossed for Gillian – announcement on 29 October AEST
Here’s the shortlist and the link to the Sideways Awards. That Mr Turtledove is pretty good company… Shortlist with thanks to Dave Langford at Ansible. Gillian’s in Melbourne in October!
Sidewise (alt-history) finalists: LONG Appliance by J.O. Morgan; Babel by R.F. Kuang; Beat the Devils by Josh Weiss; Begin the World Over by Kung Li Sun; The Peacekeeper by B.L. Blanchard; Three Miles Down by Harry Turtledove.
SHORT ‘Kingsbury 1944’ (9/22 Analog) by Michael Cassutt; ‘A Sky and a Heaven’ (Other Covenants ed. Andrea D. Lobel and Mark Shainblum) by Eric Choi;‘Why the Bridgemasters of York Don’t Pay Taxes’ (ibid) by Gillian Polack;It’s Real Life by Paul Levinson; ‘Dreams of Electric Mothers’ (Africa Risen ed. Sheree Renee Thomas, Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki and Zelda Knight) by Wole Talabi.
“Hi Murray, Does this give me an excuse to talk to Nova Mob? I haven’t been asked any questions by anyone at all about that short story and I’d so love an excuse. I don’t think I’m going to win either the Sidewise or the William Atheling Jr (I think my book is suitable for the Atheling, but no-one’s read it!) so I’m rejoicing in being shortlisted and not thinking beyond that. But I’m an actual Medieval historian (I know my first PhD was decades ago, but I’ve kept up that side of my life) and the story in Other Covenants is a Medieval one and it would be so much fun to chat about.
In other news, I’ll be in Melbourne for a few days in October for a conference. I can’t do things with big crowds, but am very happy to meet with small groups of friends for dinner, especially if it’s outside. I’m still COVID-vulnerable but being a bit daring… my health is just a little better than it has been and it’s time to find out if there still is a world outside my loungeroom.
This is pretty amazing. Cameron Nugent, director and writer of the feature-length award-winning film “A Boy Called Sailboat” is our guest speaker on Wednesday 6 September. It’s a very fine movie which fell through the cracks here in Australia for reasons which read like the usual you-must-be-kidding-me Hollywood treatment of how these things happen, whether it’s to filmmakers, musicians, or authors. Full details further down this email.
The heart of this fantasy movie (it’s a big heart) is a wonderful musical conceit.
A fantasy movie in which a child composes and plays a song which opens to the notes at the heart of the world.
The soundtrack by the Grigoryan Brothers was nominated for an ARIA. “A Boy Called Sailboat” was overall winner at the Boston Film Festival, among others. Extracts of the film will be played using the Zoom meeting software.
November is our final meeting of the year and Ian Mond will be listing the year’s best sfnal, fantasy, and horror works not packaged as genre.
Janeen Webb and Andrew Enstice have a book launch of genre literary critical interest on 19 Sep.
Bruce Barnes’s talk on Brick Bradford will be at a later date. It’s postponed again – with Bruce’s best wishes and kind assent – so that DUFF Winner Alison Scott can be our speaker on 4 October. Delighted to have Alison visit on her travels!
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CALENDAR
6 September – Cameron Nugent on his film “A Boy Called Sailboat”
[Book launch: 19 Sep Aliens & Savages: The Voice in Australia, by Janeen Webb and Andrew Enstice]
4 October – Alison Scott, GUFF Winner “Zines and Me”
1 November – Ian Mond’s Mondial best books of the year: the world of sf, horror, and fantasy in 2023
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Australian fantasy from Hollywood studios: A Boy Called Sailboat
Director and writer Cameron Nugent tells the inside story
Cameron has been showing A Boy Called Sailboat at boutique screenings across Australia, with the Grigoryan Brothers playing the soundtrack live and the showing-cum-performance followed by a Q&A. Turns out Cam is a long-time reader and fan of fantasy and science fiction and he’s delighted to be our speaker at the Nova Mob, feeling he will fit right in.
Cam’s name may be familiar to you. His acting credits include SeaChange, Blue Heelers, City Homicide, and Noah and Saskia. Also Celebrity House Cleaners.
So how did a reader, surfer and child actor from the Surf Coast write, direct, and get Hollywood funding for a fantasy film about a poor Hispanic family somewhere in deep Texas?
“A Boy Called Sailboat is an astonishingly assured debut narrative film, managing to be heartwarming but not overly cloying, visually striking without seeming like a formal exercise, thoughtful but probably not too complicated for kids to understand.”
“It’s a special kind of film that can rely on children to drive its story and maintain its charm, but A Boy Called Sailboat pulls it off, evading some of the pitfalls of the quirky indie comedy to deliver something truly wonderful.”
Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA) Awards –
2020 Nominee AACTA Award “Best Indie Film”
ARIA Music Awards – 2020 Nominee ARIA Music Award
Best Original Soundtrack, Cast or Show Album for soundtrack by Slava Grigoryan and Leonard Grigoryan
Golden Trailer Awards –
2019 Nominee Golden Trailer Award for Best Independent Trailer (For Film Under $1.5 Million)
Adelaide International Youth Film Festival
2019 Winner Jury Award – Best Overall Film
Cameron Nugent (director) Andrew Curry (producer)
Borderscene Film Festival
2019 Nominee Borderscene Film Festival Award: Best U.S. Feature
Meeting details
Nova Mob Wednesday 6 September 2023 –
Cameron Nugent – A Boy Called Sailboat
Please share this invitation with like-minded friends and fans
Face to face
You are invited to an in-person Nova Mob meeting at:
Wednesday 6 September 2023 8.00pm – 9.15pm or so, first floor Conference Room Kensington Town Hall 30 – 34 Bellair St Kensington Melbourne VIC 3031
By Zoom – simulcast
For those who prefer not to travel or are unable to attend face-to-face. Zoom session broadcast from the Kensington Town Hall. Questions or comments typed into the Zoom chat will be discussed as the opportunity permits, and you’ll have as much airtime as the other Mob members at the venue.
You are invited to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Wednesday 6 September
8.00pm – 9.00/9.30 pm Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney time
7.30pm – 8.30/9.00pm Adelaide time
11.00am UK London time
3.00am USA Mountain View
Join Zoom Meeting
Meeting ID: 417 758 3193
Passcode: nova
This is the wholly reliable web link and it could fit nicely into your bookmarks.
You’re invited to the launch by Julian Burnside of Aliens & Savages: The Voice in Australia, by Janeen Webb and Andrew Enstice, at Readings Hawthorn on 19 September at 6:30pm. (Invitation via Rob Gerrand).
Janeen Webb is a superb anthologist and writer. Among her claims to fame are Dreaming Down Under and Dreaming Again. Her recent fiction has been published within the US market and it’s a delight to see her literary non-fiction chops at work in a significant Australian publication
.
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Clarke Award
Winner was announced on 17 August – it’s a good ‘un
“We’re delighted to announce that Venomous Lumpsucker by Ned Beauman and published by Sceptre has been announced as the 37th winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award science fiction book of the year.” (From the Clarke Award mailing list).
It’s reviewed here in The Guardian under the rather coy descriptor The Meaning of Life which is fully and niftily accurate as far as it goes.
I’m halfway through it and am finding it very similar to Max Barry’s work, but slightly less tight in the prose. One of the two protagonists is an Australian. Recommended (so far) and essential for Max Barry fans.
“The venomous lumpsucker is the most intelligent fish on the planet. Or maybe it was the most intelligent fish on the planet. Because it might have just gone extinct. Nobody knows. And nobody really cares, either. Except for two people.
Mining executive Mark Halyard has a prison cell waiting for him if that fish is gone for good, and biologist Karin Resaint needs it for her own darker purposes. They don’t trust each other an inch, but they’re left with no choice but to team up in search of the lumpsucker. And as they journey across the strange landscapes of near-future Europe – a nature reserve full of toxic waste; a floating city on the Baltic Sea; the lethal hinterlands of a totalitarian state – they’re drawn into a conspiracy far bigger than one ugly little fish.”
A change of plans. This coming Wednesday, we welcome Paul Kincaid by Zoom on The Influential Contradictions of Brian Aldiss.
Paul will be speaking to us from London. Details are below.
Bruce Barnes’s talk on Brick Bradford will be at a later date. It’s postponed to a date yet to be confirmed while another matter currently takes Bruce’s attention. We thank Paul for bringing forward his talk by a month.
Paul brings a fierce intellect and impressive bibliography to bear on the topic of Aldiss. Looking forward to it!
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CALENDAR
2 August – Paul Kincaid on The Influential Contradictions of Brian Aldiss
6 September, 4 October – to be advised
1 November – Ian Mond’s Mondial best books of the year: the world of sf, horror, and fantasy in 2023
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The Influential Contradictions of Brian Aldiss
Wednesday 2 August 2023 – leading UK SF critic Paul Kincaid
The late Brian Aldiss was much loved in Australian SF fandom. Aldiss was a man of many contradictions. Those contradictions are now outwardly expressed in the very nature of UK science fiction today. Paul Kincaid will discuss those contradictions and their expression from the person to the field we see today.
Paul is in the front ranks of the UK’s science fiction critics. He is author of the critical work Brian W. Aldiss published by the University of Illinois Press (2022) available in hardcover, paperback, and e-book.
From Paul’s web site: http://www.paulkincaid.co.uk/: “I first started reading science fiction in my teens, but I became almost obsessively interested in the genre while I was at the University of Ulster. My degree was in Philosophy and History, and those two disciplines have influenced the way I have written about science fiction ever since.
“In 1975 I had my first encounter with fandom and in the next couple of years started writing occasionally for fanzines. By 1978, that turned into writing reviews for various journals.
“There are overviews of what might laughably be called my career at the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and also (rather sparsely and not entirely accurately) at Wikipedia.
“I’ve arranged all my reviews chronologically and also in alphabetical order of author (and where possible linked to the reviews on line). I’ve also listed the various essays, interviews and columns I’ve done. By now, I’ve actually surprised myself by having a number of books published in my name, as well as contributing to quite a number of different volumes. And I’ve even had the occasional piece of fiction published.
“In 1993 I married the wonderful Maureen Kincaid Speller, whose name does crop up a few times on this site. You really should do yourself a favour and check out her blog, Paper Knife.
“For rather more than 30 years I earned my living as an advertising copywriter, and if you’re really interested, there are details of that career here.”
Also at this site I’ve incorporated my ongoing Timeline of British Science Fiction, which will, of course, never be completed, and that often goes into abeyance for months at a time.
Oh, and before I forget, I also blog at Through the Dark Labyrinth and (very occasionally, now) at Big Other, if you feel the need to read even more of my writing.”
Meeting details Nova Mob Wednesday 2 August 2023 –
Paul Kincaid
Please share this invitation with like-minded friends and fans
Face to face You are invited to an in-person Nova Mob meeting at: Wednesday 2 August 2023 8.00pm – 9.15pm or so, first floor Conference Room Kensington Town Hall 30 – 34 Bellair St, Kensington Melbourne VIC 3031
By Zoom – simulcast
For those who prefer not to travel or are unable to attend face-to-face. Zoom session broadcast from the Kensington Town Hall. Questions or comments typed into the Zoom chat will be discussed as the opportunity permits, and you’ll have as much airtime as the other Mob members at the venue.
Wednesday 2 August
8.00pm – 9.00/9.30 pm Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney time 7.30pm – 8.30/9.00pm Adelaide time
11.00am UK London time
Meeting ID: 417 758 3193
Passcode: nova
This is the wholly reliable web link. One for your bookmarks?
“He is without question both the most original and most significant Australian author of the last 50 years, and one of the best writers Australia has produced.”
Critical work “Murnane” launches on 1 August
Dr Emmett Stinson of the University of Tasmania sees his short critical book Murnane launched on 1 August. Its focus is Murnane’s four final novels – Barley Patch, A History of Books, A Million Windows and Border District. https://www.mup.com.au/books/murnane-paperback-softback
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From the archives
Hugh Walters and the internet archive
The Internet Archive holds many items of science fictional interest.
“Hugh Walters was a British writer of science fiction for children, who is best remembered for creating the Chris Godfrey of U.N.E.X.A. series, about the fictional United Nations Exploration Agency. This ran to 20 volumes, some of which are presented here.
“These are strong stories, well written, aimed at anyone with an interest in the actual Space Race of the 1950s and ’60s.
“Of his writing, Walters said: I believe a good SF story should (1) entertain, (2) educate painlessly, and (3) inspire young people of today to be the scientists of tomorrow.
“The first novel, Blast Off at Woomera, is loosely based on the true fact that Britain and Australia did at one time co-operate in space research, and jointly funded a rocket base for satellite launches at Woomera in Australia.” Later novels involved alien encounters as the earlier books exhausted settings in the solar system.
Launch pad here for 5 novels and for the Archive’s general search term “science fiction” to search all books
The Adelaide Fan Review 
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