James Cambias – 7 May – The Miranda Conspiracy – Baen Books
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!
“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!”
Face to face
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
By Zoom – simulcast You are invited to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
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
Murray MacLachlanwrites The meeting is 2 April – Alexandra Pierce on First Contact – Adrian Tchaikovsky’s “Shroud” and other great SF novels”
First Contact is one of the great science fiction themes and award-winning author Adrian Tchaikovsky has outdone himself with Shroud. Published on 25 February, Shroud has been favourably reviewed in Locus by Alexandra Pierce herself and in tonight’s talk she will expand on Tchaikovsky’s achievement in the context of many other impressive First Contact novels.
It’ll be a fine night! Alex will be speaking in person, travelling to our meeting from her home in country Victoria to be with us in person. Of course the Zoom meeting will be part of our meeting as usual, so please join on line if you can’t make it in person.
Other great news – our speaker on 7 May is travelling US author James Cambias who will be here in Melbourne discussing his seventh Baen Books novel, The Miranda Conspiracy, and of his Billion Worlds venue and writing in that “allegedly juveniles, but we know better than that” Robert Heinlein tradition.
Perry Middlemiss will be speaking in July on the novels of award-winning Taswegian author Robbie Arnott.
Nova Mob meeting 2 April 2025 – Alexandra Pierce on First Contact – Adrian Tchaikovsky’s “Shroud” and other great SF novels
“The most common Communications scenario in sf – often but not always Linguistic in nature – involves the meeting of humans with Aliens. These are generally called first-contact stories, and perhaps the best known of them is “First Contact” (May 1945 Astounding) by Murray Leinster…” (Langford et al, SF Encyclopedia)
Pan MacMillan Australia tell us about Shroud –
“They looked into darkness. The darkness looked back . . . An utterly gripping story of survival on a hostile planet from Adrian Tchaikovsky, author of the Arthur C. Clarke Award-winning Children of Time. A commercial expedition to a distant star system discovers a pitch-black moon alive with radio activity. Its high-gravity, high-pressure, zero-oxygen environment is deadly to human life, but ripe for exploitation. They named it Shroud. Under no circumstances can a human survive Shroud’s inhospitable surface – but a catastrophic accident forces Juna Ceelander and Mai Ste Etienne to make an emergency landing in a barely adequate escape vehicle. Alone, and fighting for survival, the two women embark on a gruelling journey across land, sea and air in search of salvation. But as they travel, Juna and Mai begin to understand Shroud’s unnerving alien species. It also begins to understand them. If they escape Shroud, they’ll somehow have to explain the impossible and translate the incredible. That is, if they make it back at all . . .”
“Adrian Tchaikovsky was born in Woodhall Spa, Lincolnshire, has practised law and now writes full time. He’s also studied stage-fighting, perpetrated amateur dramatics and has a keen interest in entomology and table-top games.
“Adrian is the author of the critically acclaimed Shadows of the Apt series, the Echoes of the Fall series and other novels, novellas and short stories. Children of Time won the prestigious Arthur C. Clarke Award, and Children of Ruin and Shards of Earth both won the British Science Fiction Award for Best Novel. The Tiger and the Wolf won the British Fantasy Award for Best Fantasy Novel, while And Put Away Childish Things won the BSFA Award for Best Shorter Fiction.”
Alexandra Pierce reviews novels for Locus and edits Speculative Insight magazine and web site, and we strongly recommend all to you.
Please share this invitation to this forthcoming meeting with like-minded friends and fans
Face to face
You are invited to an in-person Nova Mob meeting at: Wednesday 2 April 2025 8.00pm – 9.00 (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
By Zoom – simulcast
Zoom session opened from the Kensington Town Hall. You are invited to a scheduled Zoom meeting. Wednesday 2 April 2025 8.00pm – 9.30 pm Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney time; 7.30pm – 9.00pm Adelaide time; 6.30pm – 8.00 pm Darwin time; 5.00pm – 6.30 pm Perth time; 9.00am – 10.30am London time; 1.00am – 2.30am PST the night before
Melbourne SF pub meetup. Second Wednesday of every month Next meetup: Wednesday 9 April.
It’s an open invitation to all. The Nixon Hotel, 757 Bourke St, Docklands. https://nixonhotel.au/
Time: 6pm+ Westwards towards the Yarra waters from the north end of Southern Cross Station. Nearest train station: Southern Cross (exit the Bourke Street end and turn left) There is a lift outside and to the right of the Channel 9 building at concourse level, which takes you down to Bourke St level.
Convenor: Perry Middlemiss No RSVP required.
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The Electric State on Netflix
Very expensive and with many negative reviews, yet The Electric State’s sensibility comes through in the look of the feature-length movie just released. Mob members may recall discussion of Simon Stålenhag’s book as one of the short-listed candidates for the 2019 Clarke Award, this was at a meeting co-ordinated by Justin Ackroyd.
A role-playing game has been launched to accompany the Netflix movie. It includes previously unseen art. Even so, we go back to Simon Stålenhag’s generous web site, which has almost all of The Electric State posted on line. It looks glorious, and the images enlarge to high definition.
Chris Flynn was a fine guest at the Nova Mob as his book Mammoth became UQP’s surprise biggest best-seller of 2020. So when the Guardian reported that woolly mice have been created as a step on the path to recreating mammoths, we got in touch.
“Yes, they’ve been inundated with offers to buy them since the announcement. Not for sale, but how long can they resist that potential goldmine? Next thing we’ll see is tusked dogs and horned cats. Hybrid pets will be en vogue in the coming years. SF comes for us all eventually.
“Wait until some muppet creates a shark/octopus or a crocodile/bear. We won’t be laughing then. What could possibly go wrong?
“Best wishes, Chris Flynn”.
James Cambias – 7 May – The Miranda Conspiracy – Baen Books
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!
“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!”
Friends, out-of-town guests, and new arrivals – you are always welcome and have an open invitation to the Mob’s face-to-face and Zoom meetings. First time arrivals – free. Otherwise a $5 donation for expenses please. Face-to-face meetings are at the Kensington Town Hall: https://activemelbourne.ymca.org.au/venues/kensington-town-hall Face to face, the Kensington Town Hall has ample parking and excellent disability access. Kensington Railway Station is 13 minutes travel from Flinders St Station on the Craigieburn line. Bus routes via Metlink Journey Planner. 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
According to The Hollywood Reporter, a Buffy the Vampire Slayer reboot is currently in development at Hulu.
Academy Award winning director Chloé Zhao, known for Nomadland and Eternals, is set to direct, while Nora and Lilla Zuckerman will be writing the script. They’ve described the reboot as “the next chapter in the Buffyverse,” and we couldn’t be more ready.
Variety alleges that the series is nearing a pilot order, meaning it shouldn’t be too far away.
Sources suggest that the new Buffy reboot will focus on a younger slayer, and that Buffy Summers will not be the main character.
The show was centred around the premise that only one Slayer could exist at a time. However, the original series ended following “the awakening” of hundreds of potential Slayers, meaning it was left open-ended enough for a new cast to come through.
Janeen Webb is a multiple award winning Melbourne author, editor, and critic who has written or edited a dozen books and over a hundred essays and stories. She is a recipient of the World Fantasy Award, the Peter MacNamara SF Achievement Award, the Australian Aurealis Award and four Ditmar Awards. Her most recent book is The Dragon’s Child (PS Publishing, UK, 2018). Her short story collection, Death at the Blue Elephant, (Ticonderoga, WA) was shortlisted for the 2015 World Fantasy Award. Janeen Webb is joining us in person to launch her new collection of short stories, Scorpion Girl.
We all have our demons. In Scorpion Girl, women of all ages face theirs. From battlefields to bedrooms, in these stories nothing is what it seems: creatures from myth, legend, history and literature rub shoulders with ordinary—and extraordinary—people. From ghosts to scientists, from eco-terrorists to time travellers, these courageous women come face to face with the uncanny, the supernatural and the bizarre. They meet the challenges with whatever they can muster—from the casual bravery of a woman warrior to the stoic endurance of a refugee child. Like all of us, they try to make sense of the unstable, conflicted world in which they find themselves.
Critical Mass will meet at 6:30pm on Wednesday, March 19th 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
For March’s meeting our face to face meeting will be in the Creative Hub room at Kensington Town Hall. The meeting however will be a Zoom meeting, led from the Canberra wing of the Nova Mob – thanks Gillian! – and including a guest speaker from Hamburg or London.
Speakers for April and May also are known, both are Nova Mob members which is great to see the Mob tradition continuing.
Next 3 meetings
5 March – “Germans meet Australian Gothic” – Fifty years after “Picnic at Hanging Rock” and the translation into German of Australian Gothic. Gillian Polack/translation project manager or representative/ Mob discussion.
2 April – Alexandra Pierce on First Contact – Adrian Tchaikovsky’s “Shroud” and other great SF novels
7 May – Perry Middlemiss – “The Novels of Robbie Arnott”
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Nova Mob meeting 5 March 2025 – Germans meet Australian Gothic
Did you know there’s a project under way to translate Australian Gothic novels and stories and novels into German?
Also that it’s fifty years since the film of Joan Lindsay’s “Picnic at Hanging Rock” was released?
A first step would be to define Australian Gothic. I’m sure the borders are porous but that there are core works. Is Lindsay’s one of them? Also the German understanding of Australian Gothic differs from the Australian version. There is nuance!
From Canberra, Gillian will be interviewing the translation program manager or their representative, prior to Mob general discussion of Picnic at Hanging Rock and other Australian Gothic.
German may be spoken from time to time.
Nova Mob 5 March “Germans meet Australian Gothic”
Face to face
You are invited to an in-person Nova Mob meeting on Wednesday, 5 March 2025 8.00pm – 9.00 Melbourne time, 7:30-8:30pm Adelaide, first floor Creative Hub room.
Zoom meeting closes about 9.20pm or so. Kensington Town Hall 30 – 34 Bellair St Kensington Melbourne VIC 3031
Last time for the pre-refurbishment pre-Mob pub meal in Newmarket
The Quiet Man, 271 Racecourse Road, Kensington, VIC 3031.
On the corner of Rankins Rd and Racecourse Rd. Enjoy it, the pub is closing for a swift refurbishment. The new owners perhaps have decided the Mexican tiled floors don’t go with the Irish pub fittings and fixtures.
Table for 8 booked under the name of the Nova Mob Book Discussion group also Murray, 6.00pm for 6.30, through to 8.00pm.
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Melbourne Fannish Drinks
Melbourne SF pub meetup. Second Wednesday of every month
Next meetup: Wednesday 12 March.
It’s an open invitation to all. The Nixon Hotel, 757 Bourke St, Docklands.
Time: 6pm+. Westwards towards the waters from the north end of Southern Cross Station. Nearest train station: Southern Cross (exit the Bourke Street end and turn left) There is a lift outside to the right of the Channel 9 building at concourse level, which takes you down to Bourke St level. Convenor: Perry Middlemiss
No RSVP required.
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Nova Mob About and Contact Us
Nova Mob on social media: We’re on Mastodon. Click the invite to follow
Face to face, the Kensington Town Hall has ample parking and excellent disability access. Newmarket Railway Station is 15 minutes travel from Flinders St Station on the Craigieburn line. By tram it’s via the Route 57 and by bus it’s the #83. Other bus routes via Metlink Journey Planner.
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.
Our guest this month is Karen J Carlisle, author of Victorian Steampunk & fantasy novels, including stories about the adventures of Viola Stewart, Homesian mysteries featuring Mrs Hudson, and Adelaide’s Aunt Enid, protector extraordinaire. Karen first fell in love with science fiction when she saw Doctor Who, as a four-year old. Her short stories have featured in the 2016 Adelaide Fringe exhibition, and the ‘A Trail of Tales’, ‘Where’s Holmes?’, ‘Deadsteam’ and ‘Sherlock is a Girl’s Name’ anthologies.
She writes full-time and can often be found plotting fantastical, piratical or airship adventures, and co-writing the occasional musical ditty. Karen has always loved dark chocolate and rarely refuses a cup of tea.
This meeting will feature the launch of the brand new Aunt Enid book, Twixtmas
It’s Twixtmas: the odd, dream-like time between Christmas and New Year when time slows, days blur, and the connections between the Otherworlds and ours are at their thinnest. Anything is possible. And accidents can happen. Join Sally as she’s transported to an Otherworld on a rescue mission – where Protectors are forbidden to tread.
Twixtmas is a portal fantasy with characters from The Aunt Enid Mysteries.
Critical Mass will meet at 6:30pm on Wednesday, February 19th 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
If you have a science fiction nerd for a parent, then you know it is impossible to shop for them over the holidays. They have read every SF title from the ‘Best of’ lists and have a personal pulp collection from decades past. Locus magazine suggests “six recent science fiction titles reviewed by our experts that we think your dad hasn’t read yet“– see details here
Humans are returning to the moon—this time, to stay. Because our presence will be more permanent, NASA has selected a location that maximizes line-of-sight communication with Earth, solar visibility, and access to water ice: the Lunar South Pole (LSP).
While the sun is in the lunar sky more consistently at the poles, it never rises more than a few degrees above the horizon; in the target landing regions, the highest possible elevation is 7°. This presents a harsh lighting environment never experienced during the Apollo missions, or in fact, in any human spaceflight experience.
The ambient lighting will severely affect the crews’ ability to see hazards and to perform simple work. This is because the human vision system—which, despite having a high-dynamic range—cannot see well in bright light and cannot adapt quickly from bright to dark or vice versa.
Two days after a historic Christmas Eve sun flyby that flew closer to the star than any spacecraft in history — taking the car-sized spacecraft nearly a tenth as close to the sun than Mercury — the Parker Solar Probe phoned home for the first time since its solar encounter. The space probe sent a simple yet highly-anticipated beacon tone to Earth just before midnight late Thursday (Dec. 26).
Scientists on Earth were out of contact with the Parker Solar Probe since Dec. 20, when the spaceraft began its automated flyby of the sun, so the signal is a crucial confirmation that the spacecraft survived, and is in “good health and operating normally,” NASA shared in an update early Friday (Dec. 27).
Mission control at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland received the signal just before midnight ET on the night of Dec. 26, the statement read.
Parker Solar Probe has phoned home!After passing just 3.8 million miles from the solar surface on Dec. 24 — the closest solar flyby in history — we have received Parker Solar Probe’s beacon tone confirming the spacecraft is safe.
Reactor magazine recently published lists by their reviewers of best novels of 2024. Here are some of their suggestions:
The Tainted Cupby Robert Jackson Bennett—already one of my favorite authors for his Foundryside series—was everything I wanted from a fantasy murder mystery: a reclusive detective and a put-upon assistant reminiscent of the Nero Wolfe series; powerful biochemical magic; and all-too-realistic bureaucracy. And despite my love for vast, world-shattering stories like the two above, I enjoyed that The Tainted Cup wasn’t that; with this first book in the Shadow of the Leviathan series, Bennett threads the needle of setting the mystery in a sprawling world without raising the stakes too far. [Sasha Bonkowsky]
Kerstin Hall’s Asunder has slipped under a lot of radars. Written with precise and glittering prose and a deft eye for characterisation, its worldbuilding is complex and entertaining eldritch, while its protagonist keeps making terrible life choices on account of all the other ones are worse. Compelling, brilliant, weird: I will fight you for the sequel. [Liz Bourke]
Of courseMetal From Heaven by august clarke and The City in Glass by Nghi Vo are here. Their latest books were stunning literary achievements. The experience of reading these stories is as intense as the stories themselves. It felt like I was holding my breath the entire time. These books are gorgeous, lyrical, and relentless, and furious. [Alex Brown]
Kaliane Bradley’s The Ministry of Time was an unexpected read that I enjoyed—I picked it up for the deft critique of colonialism explored via the trope of time travel and stayed for the steamy relationship between the narrator and the darkly sexy 19th-century arctic explorer who becomes her roommate. Not every book is both thoughtful and entertaining, but The Ministry of Time is one of those books that knocks both out of the park. [Vanessa Armstrong]
If someone asks for the definition of magic, hand them Kelly Link’s debut novel, The Book of Love. Tell them that by the end, you will not have THE definition of magic, but you will have so many beautiful definitions to choose from. Whimsical, sexy, unrelenting, oppressive, sorrowful, hilarious, real, unreal, quirky, joyous, stalwart, deadly, vicious, musical, romantic, all-powerful, quite small indeed, just a little to the right of what you’re looking at, Link lets us define magic how we want through one of my new favorite novels for life. [Martin Cahill]
Kaliane Bradley’s fantastic The Ministry of Time leans all the way into the weirdness of bringing people from the past into our current moment. Having reeled you in with the promise of time travel and kissing, it slowly reveals itself to be an immensely thoughtful story of complicity, power, and the function of individual choice within unjust systems. [Jenny Hamilton]
The Adelaide Fan Review 
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