2017 Arthur C. Clarke Award Winner
The 2017 Arthur C. Clark Award has been announced:
WINNER:
- The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead (Fleet)
FINALISTS:
- A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers (Hodder & Stoughton)
- Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee (Solaris)
- After Atlas by Emma Newman (Roc)
- Occupy Me by Tricia Sullivan (Gollancz)
- Central Station by Lavie Tidhar (PS Publishing)
Our congrats to Colson Whitehead and all the finalists.
2017 World Fantasy Award Finalists
The 2017 World Fantasy Awards finalists have been announced. The awards will be presented during the World Fantasy Convention, November 2-5, 2017 at the Wyndham Riverwalk in San Antonio, TX.
The finalists in the Novel category are:
- Borderline by Mishell Baker (Saga)
- Roadsouls by Betsy James (Aqueduct)
- The Obelisk Gate by N.K. Jemisin (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
- The Sudden Appearance of Hope by Claire North (Redhook; Orbit UK)
- Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff (Harper)
Our congrats to all the finalists! You can see the full list of finalists in all categories on the Locus website.
What do you think of this lineup?
2017 Comic-Con Trailer Park
As usual, Comic-Con has dumped a huge batch of new trailers on the net and here are a handfu that are worth a look – in no particular order.
THOR RAGNAROK Trailer 2 (Extended) Marvel 2017
JUSTICE LEAGUE: “Steppenwolf” Trailer (Extended) 2017
READY PLAYER ONE Trailer (2018)
THE SHAPE OF WATER Trailer (2017)
THE LEGO NINJAGO MOVIE Comic Con Teaser Trailer (2017)
THE DARK TOWER “Magnum Opus” Trailer (2017)
THE DEFENDERS: “Punisher Reveal” Trailer (2017)
BRIGHT Trailer (2017) Netflix
DEATH NOTE: First Clip from the Movie (2017)
Marvel´s INHUMANS Trailer 2 (Extended) 2017
THE DEFENDERS Trailer 2 (Extended) 2017
STAR TREK DISCOVERY Trailer 2 (Extended) 2017
STRANGER THINGS Season 2 Trailer (2017)
WESTWORLD Season 2 Trailer (2018)
Big Headed Humans With Telepathy
Our online science fiction book club is reading Before the Golden Age edited by Isaac Asimov and discussing one story a week. The first story is “The Man Who Evolved” by Edmond Hamilton, first appeared in the April 1931 issue of Wonder Stories. The story is very old fashioned, about a mad scientist, Dr. John Pollard, inviting two friends to observe an experiment. The narrator, Arthur Wright, describes what he and Hugh Dutton see when Pollard subjects himself to distilled cosmic rays.
Wikipedia has a nice summary. You can read the story online in a scan of April 1931 Wonder Stories. Also, here’s a “Retro Review” that’s rather nice.
The setting is like something out of Frankenstein. Pollard has built a machine that gathers cosmic rays, which he believes is the agent of evolution. Each 15-minute exposure will alter his body as if had evolved for 50 million years. Wright and Dutton watch Pollard transform six times, each time his brain grows larger and his body becomes smaller. Pollard acquires telepathy and vast knowledge. Of course, all this is ridiculously unscientific. However, Hamilton is using the story to imagine what will happen to humans in the future. Hamilton is mining the same motherload as Olaf Stapledon, H. G. Wells, and many other early science fiction writers when they thought about the future of our species.
I love reading old science fiction stories like this because they give perspective on the nature of science fiction. You must ask yourself when you read such a tale, “What other science fiction stories have explored the same theme?” Right off the bat I thought of The Time Machine by H. G. Wells, First and Last Men by Olaf Stapledon, Childhood’s End by Arthur C. Clarke, and Darwin’s Radio by Greg Bear – and of course “The Sixth Finger” from the old TV show, The Outer Limits, which featured a plot that Hamilton should have sued them over.
What all these stories boil down to is this: What will Humans 2.0 be like? Time and time again science fiction predicts people with ESP abilities. 1950s science fiction was full of such stories. And quite often, they predicted people with larger heads. Star Trek often featured many big headed aliens – the first pilot which became the episode “The Menagerie” featured big-headed aliens with telepathy.
I don’t think humans will ever evolve to have ESP powers. But we will create a species of intelligent machines that will have telepathy with radio waves and networking.
I am rather bothered by the constant desire to see humans have telepathy, telekinesis, clairvoyance, precognition and other wild talents. Aren’t they the same talents we assigned in the past to God and gods – prayer, the invisible hand of God, and prophecy? The reason why this country is so politically divided today is most citizens reject science for magic. They can’t accept evolution or global warming because it means giving up on an immortal soul and heaven.
Why can’t science fiction imagine evolution creating non-magical abilities for us? I consider science fiction failing if all it can come up with for our future evolution is reprocessed abilities from myths and religions. The insights of The Enlightenment are evolutionary. Compassion is evolutionary. Technology is evolutionary. Global cooperation is evolutionary. Computers and networking are evolutionary.
What natural abilities could we expect for biological evolution to give us in the future? I think the epitome of gifts would be a better understanding of reality without the desire for magic. If you watch the nightly news what we need is better bullshit detectors rather than telepathy. Personally, I’d like a better memory or a body that’s less prone to disease and decay. I wish I could synthesize more information and model bigger concepts in my head. I admit that telepathy could be useful, but I just can’t see any way that nature would give us built in radios. However, I can imagine us becoming more empathetic. Could that lead to being able to read each other’s moods or feelings?
One lesson I’ve learned from writing is my thoughts are not very coherent. It takes a lot of writing and editing to make them gel into something understandable. I’m not sure telepathy would be very effective. Writing takes work and time, and even then, it’s very hard to make a coherent message that others will read and interpret in the same way it was intended.
Let’s say you are Edmond Hamilton in 1931 and want to convey the ideas of “The Man Who Evolved” to friends. Would telepathy have worked better than Wonder Stories?
I think science fiction needs to get out of the rut of big headed humans with ESP.
2017 John W. Campbell Award Winner – A Belated Recognition
Note: This announcement was made the day after I left on my vacation and I’ve only just now realized that I missed updating the award. Thanks to WWEnder madirondack for the heads-up.
The winner of the John W. Campbell Award for 2017 The awards were presented during the Campbell Conference held June 16-18, 2017 at the University of Kansas Student Union in Lawrence KS.
WINNER:
- Central Station by Lavie Tidhar
FINALISTS:
- The Medusa Chronicles by Alastair Reynolds and Stephen Baxter
- Zero K by Don DeLillo
- The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe by Kij Johnson
- Into Everywhere by Paul J. McAuley
- Everfair by Nisi Shawl
- Occupy Me by Tricia Sullivan
- Rosewater by Tade Thompson
- The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
- The Arrival of Missives by Aliya Whiteley
- Alien Morning by Rick Wilber
- Underground Airlines by Ben Winters
- Azanian Bridges by John Nicholas Wood
Our belated congrats to Lavie Tidhar and all the finalists. What do you think of this result?
2017 Gemmell Award Winners
The winners for the 2017 David Gemmel Legend and David Gemmel Morningstar awards have been announced.
The Legend Award for Best Fantasy Novel:
WINNER:
- Warbeast by Gav Thorpe (Black Library)
FINALISTS:
- Wrath by John Gwynne (Tor)
- Nevernight by Jay Kristoff (Harper Voyager)
- The Wheel of Osheim by Mark Lawrence (Harper Voyager)
- The Bands of Mourning by Brandon Sanderson (Gollancz)
The Morningstar Award for Best Fantasy Newcomer:
WINNER:
- Steal the Sky by Megan E. O’Keefe (Angry Robot)
FINALISTS:
- Infernal by Mark de Jager (Del Rey UK)
- Duskfall by Christopher Husberg (Titan)
- Snakewood by Adrian Selby (Orbit)
- Hope and Red by Jon Skovron (Orbit)
2017 Prometheus Award Winner
The Libertarian Futurist Society has announced the winner of the 2017 Prometheus Award, honoring pro-freedom works published in 2016.
WINNER:
- The Core of the Sun by Johanna Sinisalo (Grove Press/Black Cat)
NOMINEES:
- Dissidence by Ken MacLeod (Orbit)
- Insurgence by Ken MacLeod (Orbit)
- The Mandibles by Lionel Shriver (HarperCollins)
- Blade of p’Na by L. Neil Smith (Phoenix Pick)
Our congrats to Johanna Sinisalo and all the noms!
2016 Shirley Jackson Award Winner
The 2016 Shirley Jackson Award winners have been announced at Readercon 28 in Quincy, Massachusetts.
WINNER:
- The Girls by Emma Cline (Random House)
FINALISTS:
- The Wonder by Emma Donoghue (Little, Brown)
- Lily by Michael Thomas Ford (Lethe)
- Mongrels by Stephen Graham Jones (Morrow)
- I’m Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reid (Gallery/Scout)
- Foxlowe by Eleanor Wasserberg (Fourth Estate UK/Penguin US)
Our congrats to Emma Cline and all the finalists! You can see the complete list of winners in all categories over at Locus Online.
What do you think of this result?
2017 Derleth and Holdstock Awards Shortlists Announced
The British Fantasy Society has released the shortlists for the 2017 British Fantasy Awards.
2017 August Derleth Award Shortlist (Horror):
- The Searching Dead by Ramsey Campbell (PS)
- The Hidden People by Alison Littlewood (Jo Fletcher)
- 13 Minutes by Sarah Pinborough (Gollancz)
- Disappearance at Devil’s Rock by Paul Tremblay (Titan)
2017 Robert Holdstock Award Shortlist (Fantasy):
- The Summer Goddess by Joanne Hall (Kristell Ink)
- The High King’s Vengeance by Steven Poore (Kristell Ink)
- The Tiger and the Wolf by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Pam Macmillan)
- The Silver Tide by Jen Williams (Headline)
Our congrats to all the nominees. You can see the complete list of nominees in all categories on the official press release.
What do you think of the lineups for these 2 awards?
2017 Locus Awards Winners
Editor’s Note: Catching up on things that happened while I was on vacation.
The Locus Science Fiction Foundation has announced the winners for the 2017 Locus Awards on Saturday, June 24, 2017 during the Locus Awards Weekend in Seattle WA. The winners are:
- WINNER: Death’s End by Cixin Liu (Tor; Head of Zeus)
- Company Town by Madeline Ashby (Tor)
- The Medusa Chronicles by Stephen Baxter & Alastair Reynolds (Gollancz; Saga)
- Take Back the Sky by Greg Bear (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
- Visitor by C.J. Cherryh (DAW)
- Babylon’s Ashes by James S.A. Corey (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
- After Atlas by Emma Newman (Roc)
- Central Station by Lavie Tidhar (Tachyon)
- The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead (Doubleday; Fleet)
- Last Year by Robert Charles Wilson (Tor)
- WINNER: All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders (Tor; Titan)
- Summerlong by Peter S. Beagle (Tachyon)
- City of Blades by Robert Jackson Bennett (Broadway)
- The Obelisk Gate by N.K. Jemisin (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
- Children of Earth and Sky by Guy Gavriel Kay (NAL; Viking Canada; Hodder & Stoughton)
- The Wall of Storms by Ken Liu (Saga; Head of Zeus)
- The Last Days of New Paris by China Miéville (Del Rey; Picador)
- The Winged Histories by Sofia Samatar (Small Beer)
- The Nightmare Stacks by Charles Stross (Ace; Orbit UK)
- Necessity by Jo Walton (Tor)
- WINNER: Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee (Solaris US; Solaris UK)
- The Reader by Traci Chee (Putnam)
- Waypoint Kangaroo by Curtis Chen (Dunne)
- The Star-Touched Queen by Roshani Chokshi (St. Martin’s)
- The Girl from Everywhere by Heidi Heilig (Greenwillow; Hot Key)
- Roses and Rot by Kat Howard (Saga)
- Arabella of Mars by David D. Levine (Tor)
- Infomocracy by Malka Older (Tor.com Publishing)
- Everfair by Nisi Shawl (Tor)
- Vigil by Angela Slatter (Jo Fletcher)
- WINNER: Revenger by Alastair Reynolds (Gollancz; Orbit US ’17)
- Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo (Holt)
- The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill (Algonquin)
- Double Down by Gwenda Bond (Switch)
- Truthwitch by Susan Dennard (Tor Teen; Tor UK)
- Poisoned Blade by Kate Elliott (Little, Brown)
- Burning Midnight by Will McIntosh (Delacorte; Macmillan)
- Goldenhand by Garth Nix (Harper; Allen & Unwin; Hot Key)
- This Savage Song by Victoria Schwab (Titan; Greenwillow)
- The Evil Wizard Smallbone by Delia Sherman (Candlewick)
For the complete list of winners in all categories check out the official press release from Locus. Our congratulations to all the winners and nominees!
What do you think of these picks? Did your favorites win?