A slideshow from masscon ’21: a list of Roman’s favourite audio dramas for your entertainment.
New season of The Expanse
This trailer has something for every Expanse fan: Avasarala (Shohreh Aghdashloo) plotting; Bobbie (Frankie Adams) being breathtakingly competent; the Roci maneuvering; Holden (Steven Strait) being captainly; Amos (Wes Chatham) being soft and also tough; Naomi (Dominique Tipper) putting things together; Marco Inaros (Keon Alexander) being a schemer; Drummer (Cara Gee) growing into her role as leader; and a whole lot of space action.
The Latest Trailer for The Expanse’s Final Season Looks for a Reason to Hope, tor.com
Crit Mass Nov 24th: Empires, Galactic and Magic
Roman considers two stories of empires: Arkady Martine, a Byzantium scholar, writes about an interesting Texicalaan galactic empire (a cross between the Byzantine and Aztec empires) in A Memory of Empire,
and Aliette de Bodard looks at a magical Aztec empire in the first Obsidian and Blood novel Servant of the Underworld. Both first novels deal with a murder mystery…
Have a read of these novels, and come along ready to talk about your favourite stories of empire…
— you might even have some thoughts about the TV series of Foundation!
Note this will be a combined Zoom/In Person meeting: either join us at Kappys, or Zoom in remotely.
We will start the meeting with a review of the Hugo nominees for Best Novella. Please consider the candidates we’ve looked at, and be ready to rank them: Riot Baby, Tochi Onyebuchi; Upright Women Wanted, Sarah Gailey; Come Tumbling Down, Seanan McGuire; The Empress of Salt and Fortune, Nghi Vo ; Finna, Nino Cipri ; and Ring Shout, P. Djèlí Clark.
Zoom details:
Join Zoom Meeting: Nov 24th, 6:30pm Adelaide, 7pm Melbourne
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82167796217?pwd=M2d0aUMwU01nbVVPa2g0czNXTjQxUT09
Meeting ID: 821 6779 6217
Passcode: 784499
That’s Weird…
Something doesn’t feel quite right. The world around you seems a little…off. Things turn strange and fluid, as if you’re trapped inside a dream…but you aren’t. Something about you might have changed in a fundamental way that you sense but can’t understand. This is what weird fiction at its best feels like…and this bundle explores its many worlds through the eyes of authors who’ve mastered its dark and disorienting ways.
Let Samuel R. Delany, a living literary legend by any definition, guide you through the universe of weird science fiction (with an introduction by master fantasist and fellow legend Neil Gaiman of Sandman and Good Omens fame). Joe R. Lansdale, whose books spawned the Hap and Leonard TV series, will give you a crash course on weird Western tales and weird pulp fiction. Ramsey Campbell, impresario extraordinaire of dark fiction, will throw you headfirst into the realm of weird horror. Experience surreal weird fiction with Michael Cisco and Ray Vukcevich, retro weird scifi with Jeffrey Thomas, and classic, Gothic weird with the incredible Elizabeth Hand. By the time you’re done with the tour, you will have a deeper understanding of weird fiction’s many outposts and byways…and perhaps you’ll have a greater desire to explore that intricate universe more thoroughly.
The Many Worlds of Weird Fiction Bundle, curated by Robert Jeschonek, storybundle.com
Ditmars ho!
Conflux is pleased to announce that the 2021 Ditmar Awards ceremony and afternoon tea party will be Zoom Livestreamed at http://www.facebook.com/confluxcanberra/ at 3pm on Saturday 20 November AEST. Grab a cuppa and join our fabulous host Dan O’Malley to eat cake and celebrate! Members of Australian Natcons across the past 5 years are eligible to vote up until midnight Thursday: https://ditmars.sf.org.au/2021
Nova Mob events…
Dec 1 Nova Mob – Iain McIntyre – Dangerous Visions and New Worlds: Radical Science Fiction, 1950 to 1985 by Andrew Nette and Iain McIntyre.
Dec 5 – Wrong Turns on the Wallaby Track: Australian Science Fiction Fandom to Aussiecon – Part 1, 1936 to 1960, a Zoom call with Leigh Edmonds and Perry Middlemiss.
Dec 18 Nova Mob – end of year Nova Mob lunch face to face. Details to be confirmed.
Feb 2 2022 Nova Mob – first meeting of 2022. Topic to be confirmed. Topics for 2022, please bring yours!
Mar 2 2022 Nova Mob – Perry Middlemiss on Short SF in 1965.
Australian SF Fandom 1936 to 1960, with Leigh Edmonds
Wrong Turns on the Wallaby Track:: Australian Science Fiction Fandom to Aussiecon – Part 1, 1936 to 1960
A Zoom videoconference with Leigh Edmonds and Perry Middlemiss. FANAC Zoom series, 10:30am Dec 5th, Adelaide time.
From the 1930s to the 1950s sf fandom in Australia was active and buoyant. Centred mainly around the city of Sydney their activities included fanzine production, club meetings and feuding. Yet by the beginning of the 1960s it had nearly all withered away. How did this vibrant community survive the Second World War and yet somehow fail to make it through peacetime? This, and many other questions, will be addressed by Dr Leigh Edmonds, sf fan and professional historian, in his FANAC talk.
To RSVP, or find out more about the series, please send a note to fanac@fanac.org.
December 4 (US) and December 5 (Australia), 2021 – 7PM Dec 4 EST, 4PM Dec 4 PST, 11AM Dec 5 Melbourne AU
Critical mass: dinner on December 8th
As usual, we’re meeting for dinner in early December, rather than a regular meeting. We’ll decide the venue at the November meeting, so if you have a suggestion for a good place to eat, let us know! Also let us know if you’re coming along, as we’ll have to book a venue.
Current list of possibilities: King’s Head (King William), Naaz Persian (Pulteney St), Madre Pizza (Gilbert St), Eros Greek (Rundle St).
The muslimness of Dune
One of Dune’s overarching concerns is to locate and explore a “Muslimness in time.” The novels fixate on change across time and space: How does a tradition adapt, or not, across centuries, environments, and societies? The novels interrogate this question through a range of Muslim approaches to it. They look to Muslim scholarly traditions, historical interpretations, and experiences as they shift from place to place and generation to generation. The saga finds answers in Muslim beliefs in the sanctity of the Qur’an and the Prophet Muhammad’s teachings; in Muslim practices of mysticism and experience as a response to legalism and scientism, or to the (orientalist) binary of reason against unthinking following; in a respect for other traditions that nevertheless preserves a unique commitment to the bespoke quality of Islam; and in Muslim narratives of political succession and revolutionary power.
Haris Durrani, writing on Dune in “The Muslimness of Dune: A Close Reading of “Appendix II: The Religion of Dune“, tor.com
Another story bundle…
The Magic and Mystery Bundle, curated by the Melissa Snark:
“A great fantasy story is, to my mind, about endless possibilities. If every author penned their tale according to a rigid set of guidelines, the genre would have all the flavor of stale saltines. A fantastical saga, a magical realm, a raven’s flight, a god of chaos sparks a fire in your imagination.
Magic and Mystery is a collection of ten books that touch on fantasy fiction’s stunning breadth and diversity, from cat assassins to faerie kings. A New Orleans haunted mansion and a talking cockroach—we have that, too. Our stories will seize and sweep you away.
Our featured charity for this bundle is the The Salish Sea School, a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting local marine ecosystems and the education of future student leaders in marine conservation.”
Bundle available until 11th November at https://storybundle.com/magic
The Adelaide Fan Review 
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