These two authors wrote many books which influenced later science fiction/fantasy works, including movie adaptations of their books.
Significant works
Herbert George Wells (21 September 1866 – 13 August 1946) was an English writer, prolific in many genres. His science fiction imagined time travel, alien invasion, invisibility, and biological engineering before these subjects were common in the genre.. His most notable science fiction works include The Time Machine (1895), which was his first novella, The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896), The Invisible Man (1897), The War of the Worlds (1898), the military science fiction The War in the Air (1907), and the dystopian When the Sleeper Wakes (1910)
Jules Verne was born on February 8, 1828, in the city of Nantes, France . He is best known for his works A Journey to the Centre of the Earth, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea,The Mysterious Island, From the Earth to the Moon, and Around the World in Eighty Days. Verne is often referred to as the ‘Father of science fiction’ because he wrote about space, air and underwater travel before aeroplanes, spacecrafts and submarines were invented. He died in 1905.
For the October Critical Mass, we invite you to choose a novel to talk about, and note subsequent novels, radio dramas, films and TV series based on them. Hopefully we will decide which was the most influential.
Join us at the Minor Works Building, 22 Stamford Court, at 6:30pm (Adelaide) on Wednesday October 15th.
Via Zoom: 6:30pm Adelaide, 7:30pm Melbourne, 9pm Auckland and 9am London
The winners of the Hugo Awards, the Astounding Award for Best New Writer, and the Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book were announced on August 16, 2025 by Seattle Worldcon 2025, the 83rd World Science Fiction Convention.
The winners are:
Best Novel: The Tainted Cup, Robert Jackson Bennett (Del Rey; Hodderscape UK) Best Novella: The Tusks of Extinction, Ray Nayler (Tordotcom) Best Novelette: ”The Four Sisters Overlooking the Sea”, Naomi Kritzer (Asimov’s 9-10/24) Best Short Story: “Stitched to Skin Like Family Is”, Nghi Vo (Uncanny 2/24 Best Series: Between Earth and Sky, Rebecca Roanhorse (Saga)
As well as being a renowned author and scientist, Stan Robinson is one of the nicest people in science fiction.
“Kim Stanley Robinson (born March 23, 1952) is an American science fiction writer best known for his Mars trilogy. Many of his novels and stories have ecological, cultural, and political themes and feature scientists as heroes. Robinson has won numerous awards, including the Hugo Award for Best Novel, the Nebula Award for Best Novel and the World Fantasy Award. The Atlantic has called Robinson’s work “the gold standard of realistic, and highly literary, science-fiction writing.” According to an article in The New Yorker, Robinson is “generally acknowledged as one of the greatest living science-fiction writers.” [Wikipedia]
💥 💥 💥
Prof Milner!
“Andrew Milner (born 9 September 1950) is Professor Emeritus of English and Comparative Literature at Monash University. From 2014 until 2019 he was also Honorary Professor of English and Comparative Literary Studies at the University of Warwick. In 2013 he was Ludwig Hirschfeld Mack Visiting Professor of Australian Studies at the Institut für Englische Philologie, Freie Universität Berlin.
“Locating Science Fiction is arguably Milner’s most important, potentially paradigm-shifting, book. Academic literary criticism had tended to locate science fiction primarily in relation to the older genre of utopia; fan criticism primarily in relation to fantasy and science fiction in other media, especially film and television; popular fiction studies primarily in relation to such contemporary genres as the romance novel and the thriller. Milner’s book relocates science fiction in relation not only to these other genres and media, but also to the historical and geographic contexts of its emergence and development.
“Locating Science Fiction sought to move science fiction theory and criticism away from the prescriptively abstract dialectics of cognition and estrangement associated with Fredric Jameson and Darko Suvin, and towards an empirically grounded understanding of what is actually a messy amalgam of texts, practices and artefacts. Inspired by Williams, Bourdieu and Franco Moretti’s application of world systems theory to literary studies, it drew on the disciplinary competences of comparative literature, cultural studies, critical theory and sociology to produce a powerfully distinctive mode of analysis, engagement and argument. The concluding chapter is preoccupied with environmentalist thematics occasioned by Milner’s growing interest in Green politics.” [Wikipedia]
You are invited to a Nova Mob meeting gathered around a big TV screen at the Kensington Town Hall, for Dr Andrew Milner by Zoom:
Wednesday 4 June 2025 8.00pm – 9.00 Melbourne (7:30-8:30 Adelaide) (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
You are invited to a scheduled Zoom meeting. Please join us on-line!
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
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
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]
A few weeks ago, we asked dozens of authors about the speculative books they considered The Most Iconic SFF Books of the 21st Century. We loved their responses, from modern classics to translated works to graphic novels to hidden gems.
But of course, readers had opinions! What about this book? How could that author not be in the top 10? It’s part of what we love about this community: a group of people who share a love for science fiction, fantasy, and horror from thousands of different angles, and who feel passionate enough about declaring their love for those books to come together to debate them from across the globe. We anticipated that people might want an outlet for these thoughts outside of social media, so we opened a poll asking for your input. And readers, you delivered!
We received well over 500 responses in the short time the poll was open. While the selections below are just a slice of that enthusiasm, we hope they show the diversity and fervor of SFF fans. Maybe you spot some favorites here. Maybe you get a new stack of recommendations for your shelves. Maybe you just take a minute to think about what the word “iconic” means to you. Either way… we hope you enjoy.
Jeff Harris’ talk at Critical Mass will be an overview of Stableford’s oeuvre. We will be meeting at 7:30pm November 20th, at the Minor Works Building, 22 Stamford Court, Adelaide. (If you are coming via Sturt St, there’s a walkway between the cafés at 50 and 52 Sturt Street)
Stableford produced so much that it is worth looking at the bibliographies at the above sites. The Wikipedia entry has links to interviews with BMS. Because they are done at different times you get sketches of the development of his career at different stages. It also has an excellent bibliography.
Because there is so much, yes, I am suggesting you can do your own research.
E. PUBLISHERS:
Places where Stableford’s books can be found. Mainly e-books, some are only available in print formats.
Not the most easy access to find Stableford’s books. It’s a long way down to the letter ‘S’ and there are lots of other authors with names beginning with an ‘S’. This is where you can find Sherlock Holmes and the Vampires of Eternity (2009). Only available in paperback. But it’s worth it.
It also lists his anthologies and translations (which they call ‘adaptations’).
Snuggly Books:
Again you have to work down to S for Stableford. The only place for some of his last books. Plus anthologies and translations. A curiosity publisher. A title like Snuggly Tales of Femme Fatales feels simultaneously wrong and yet so perversely right.
F. A note about BMS:
Brian Stableford has been writing for fifty years. His fiction includes include eleven novels and seven short story collections in a series of “tales of the biotech revolution”; a series of metaphysical fantasies set in Paris in the 1840s, featuring Edgar Poe’s Auguste Dupin, most recently The Cthulhu Palimpsest; A Romance of Termination (2024); and a series of supernatural mysteries set in an artist’s colony, recently The Pool of Mnemosyne (2018). Recent novels independent of any series include Vampires of Atlantis (2016) and The Tangled Web of Time (2016). He also translates antique works from the French, with particular interests in the Symbolist and Decadent Movements, roman scientifique and the fantastique.
(Included to give a sense that Stableford was more than simply a science-fiction writer.)
G. Notes:
It is a quirk of my nature that give titles to talks like this; a way of putting things into one place conceptually. There are two jokes therein, well, sort of jokes. More like bits of irony. Another of my quirks.
“I believe in the importance of science fiction and fantasy to inform, explore and challenge society: where it is now,where it has been, and where it might go.” Alexandra Pierce
Alexandra Pierce has been reading science fiction and fantasy since childhood. She did time as a book reviewer for ASiF! (Australian Speculative Fiction in Focus) and Strange Horizons, and currently reviews for Locus Magazine as well as on her own blog. For a decade she was one third of the Hugo Award-winning podcast Galactic Suburbia. Alex co-edited two award-winning books, both with Australian indie publisher Twelfth Planet Press: Letters to Tiptree and Luminescent Threads: Connections to Octavia E Butler.
In January 2024 Alexandra launched Speculative Insight, publishing two essays a month about issues and themes in science fiction and fantasy. Born in Adelaide, Alex grew up in Darwin, moved to Melbourne for uni, and now lives in Ballarat.
In person: we are meeting once more at Kappy’s, 1/22 Compton St, Adelaide. Turn up at 6:15 for a 6:30pm start on Wednesday, October 16th.
Zoom details for Critical Mass Oct 16, 2024 6:30pm Adelaide, 7pm Melbourne/Sydney
Stableford produced so much that it is worth looking at the bibliographies at the above sites. The Wikipedia entry has links to interviews with BMS. Because they are done at different times you get sketches of the development of his career at different stages. It also has an excellent bibliography.
Because there is so much, yes, I am suggesting you can do your own research.
E. PUBLISHERS:
Places where Stableford’s books can be found. Mainly e-books, some are only available in print formats.
Not the most easy access to find Stableford’s books. It’s a long way down to the letter ‘S’ and there are lots of other authors with names beginning with an ‘S’. This is where you can find Sherlock Holmes and the Vampires of Eternity (2009). Only available in paperback. But it’s worth it.
It also lists his anthologies and translations (which they call ‘adaptations’).
Snuggly Books:
Again you have to work down to S for Stableford. The only place for some of his last books. Plus anthologies and translations. A curiosity publisher. A title like Snuggly Tales of Femme Fatales feels simultaneously wrong and yet so perversely right.
F. A note about BMS:
Brian Stableford has been writing for fifty years. His fiction includes include eleven novels and seven short story collections in a series of “tales of the biotech revolution”; a series of metaphysical fantasies set in Paris in the 1840s, featuring Edgar Poe’s Auguste Dupin, most recently The Cthulhu Palimpsest; A Romance of Termination (2024); and a series of supernatural mysteries set in an artist’s colony, recently The Pool of Mnemosyne (2018). Recent novels independent of any series include Vampires of Atlantis (2016) and The Tangled Web of Time (2016). He also translates antique works from the French, with particular interests in the Symbolist and Decadent Movements, roman scientifique and the fantastique.
(Included to give a sense that Stableford was more than simply a science-fiction writer.)
G. Notes:
It is a quirk of my nature that give titles to talks like this; a way of putting things into one place conceptually. There are two jokes therein, well, sort of jokes. More like bits of irony. Another of my quirks.
The Adelaide Fan Review 
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