ANSIBLE 233
DECEMBER 2006

From DAVE LANGFORD, 94 London Road, Reading, Berks, RG1 5AU. Web
news.ansible.co.uk. Fax 0705 080 1534. ISSN 0265-9816 (print) 1740-942X
(online). Available for SAE or Orel's Epulotic Vulnerary.

[NET NOTE. See http://news.ansible.co.uk/a233.html for the nice HTML
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please don't send such requests to my own e-mail address. DRL]


### THE KEYS TO DECEMBER ###

KOFI ANNAN, UN Secretary-General, made the usual distinction when talking
about global warming in November: `This is not science fiction. These are
plausible scenarios, based on clear and rigorous scientific modelling.'
[SS] Is this a slur on Kim Stanley Robinson's research?

ARTHUR C. CLARKE is no longer writing, and has asked dynamic young author
Frederik Pohl (born two years after ACC) to finish his new novel. `Talked
to Pohl recently, and he was doing it,' confirms Charles N. Brown. It is
rumoured that this came as a surprise to Greg Benford, who had rather
expected to be called on for the task.

JAMES ELLROY deftly avoids false modesty: `I am a master of fiction. I
am also the greatest crime novelist who ever lived. I am to the crime
novel in specific what Tolstoy is to the Russian novel and what Beethoven
is to music.' (_New York Times Magazine_ interview, 5 Nov) [MMW]

JAMES GUNN will be honoured as SFWA Grand Master for 2007 at the Nebula
Awards weekend next May. [SFWA] The usual mutterings of `shouldn't X be
honoured first?' were heard from the usual suspects.

STEPHEN HAWKING announces that humanity must colonize planets in other
solar systems, using _Trek_-style antimatter propulsion. (Reuters, 1 Dec)
[DKMK] So presumably this particular notion isn't sf any more....

STEPHEN KING is to receive a Grand Master award from the Mystery Writers
Association at their NYC banquet in April 2007. [MR]

DAVID LANGFORD wonders whether anyone will notice him inserting a plug
for his highly unauthorized nonfiction book from Gollancz, _The End of
Harry Potter?_ Yes, I'm afraid it's all about a certain boy wizard.

TERRY PRATCHETT's best-kept secret was revealed in the BBC website blurb
for his 21 November BBC4 interview: `Terry Pratchett talks to Mark Lawson
about his life and work, from the early days as a teenage journalist to
his rise to fame as one of the world's most popular sci-fi writers under
the name Iain M Banks.' Our newshound David Kennedy can hardly wait for
the appearance of `a future Culture novel featuring a drone which follows
the hero on hundreds of little legs ...'

SOMTOW SUCHARITKUL (now writing fiction as S.P. Somtow) caused an
unexpected stir in Thailand with his opera _Ayodhya_. Showing the death
of the mythical demon king Thotsakan sent the Thai military government
into a frenzy of superstitious alarm: this event had to be moved
offstage. `The composer said officials told him that any misfortunes
which befell those in power would be blamed on the opera.' (BBC) [S] Do
UK terror laws allow us to quote _Macbeth_ at Tony Blair?


### CONTRARIOUS ###

8 Dec [] BRITISH FANTASY SOCIETY open night, Devereux pub, Essex St, off
the Strand, London. 6.30pm onwards. All welcome.

9-10 Dec [] BIRMINGHAM INTERNATIONAL COMICS SHOW, Custard Factory, Gibb
St, Birmingham, B9 4AA. Pounds10 reg; Pounds6 Sat only.

13 Dec [] SCIENCE AND ITS FICTIONS, Birkbeck (U of London) free lunchtime
lecture: Rm B04, 43 Gordon Sq, London. 1pm. Steve Connor on `Big Bangs
and Whimpers: The Ends and Beginnings of Science'.

21 Dec [] LONDON CIRCLE XMAS MEETING, Melton Mowbray, 18 Holborn.
Evening; all welcome; _NB upstairs bar_ (the cellar was booked).

27 Dec [] BSFA OPEN MEETING -- cancelled as usual in December.

13 Feb 07 [] PICOCON 24, Imperial College Union, London. 10am-7pm/8pm.
GoH Charles Stross, Ken MacLeod, and Farah Mendlesohn. Approx Pounds8
reg, Pounds6 concessions, Pounds4 ICFS members. Contact ICSF, Beit Quad,
Prince Consort Road, London, SW7 2BB.

6-9 Apr 07 [] CONTEMPLATION (Eastercon rescue bid) -- no venue as yet.
This event was overwhelmingly approved at Novacon and has the blessing
of Convoy, the cancelled 2007 Eastercon. Pounds45 reg, Pounds30 unwaged,
Pounds20 supp/junior (13-17), Pounds5 child (5-12), Pounds1 infant (under
5). Contact 18 Letchworth Ave, Feltham, Middlesex, TW14 9RY. Hopes of
using the Britannia International Hotel in London Docklands were thwarted
by too-high function space charges. Developments awaited....

3-5 Aug 07 [] MECON 10, Queen's Elms Centre, 78 Malone Rd, Belfast.
Pounds14 or Pounds12 concessions, _rising to Pounds16 or Pounds14
concessions on 1 Jan 2007_. Contact 115 Malone Road, Belfast, BT9 6SP.

21-23 Sep 07 [] FANTASYCON 2007, Britannia Hotel, Nottingham. GoH Michael
Marshall Smith, Stephen Jones, more TBA. Pounds45 reg rising to Pounds55
after 30 Jun 2007; BFS members and students Pounds25 to the end of 2006,
Pounds40 to 30 Jun 2007, Pounds45 thereafter. Contact 3 Tamworth Close,
Lower Earley, Reading, Berks, RG6 4EQ.

2-4 Nov 07 [] NOVACON 37, Quality Hotel, Walsall (again). GoH Charles
Stross. Pounds35 reg. Contact 379 Myrtle Rd, Sheffield, S2 3HQ.

10-12 Nov 07 [] ARMADACON 19, Novotel, Plymouth. Pounds30 reg. Contact
20 Pinewood Close, Plympton, Devon, PL7 2DW.

_Rumblings_ [] EASTERCON 2009: two bids so far have emerged for the 60th
UK Eastercon. CONCORDIA (concordicon at googlemail com) is aiming for the
Birmingham NEC Metropole Hotel; LXCON (no contact details received) is
currently `looking at Yorkshire in general, and Leeds in particular, for
a city centre bid'. See www.eastercon.org.


### INFINITELY IMPROBABLE ###

AS OTHERS SEE US. Or rather, as others see space entrepreneurs on a field
trip to Bigelow Aerospace: `The van full of visiting space geeks didn't
seem to mind the harsh conditions. Last July they happily left the air-
conditioned glamour of Vegas's Flamingo Hotel and Casino, where the cream
of the private space industry had gathered for the NewSpace 2006
conference, to spend a few hours at Bigelow's warehouse and mission
control center. They couldn't have been more excited if the van had been
on the way to a Star Trek-themed strip club.' (Katherine Mangu-Ward,
_Reason_, January 2007) [MMW]

R.I.P. _Robert Altman_ (1925-2006), noted US film director who ventured
into sf/fantasy with _Countdown_ (1968), _Quintet_ (1979) and the live-
action _Popeye_ (1980), died on 20 November aged 81.
     _Pierce Askegren_ (1955-2006), US sf novelist, died in late
November; he was 51. [SFWA]
     _Jerry G. Bails_ (1933-2006) US `father of comic book fandom', died
on 23 November aged 73. [GW]
     _Sydney J. Bounds_ (1920-2006), UK author active since 1946 (and in
fandom from 1937), who published four sf novels in the 1950s but became
better known for horror, was recently diagnosed with terminal cancer and
died in a hospice on 24 November. He was 86. [PH] Syd's agent Phil
Harbottle had just sold his last novel, a western. It's always a sad
occasion when another name is removed from the printed _Ansible_'s
dwindling mailing list: goodbye, Syd.
     _Dave Cockrum_ (1943-2006), US comics artist who created several
major _X-Men_ characters, died on 26 November; he was 63. [GW]
     _Don Dohler_, founding editor of _Cinemagic_ magazine and maker of
various low-budget sf/horror films, died on 2 December. [SFS]
     _John Hallam_ (1941-2006), Irish character actor whose genre credits
included _Dragonslayer_ (1981), _The Chronicles of Narnia_ (1989 tv) and
_Dr Who_ (`Ghost Light', 1989), died on 14 November aged 65. [JY]
     _Craig Hinton_ (1964-2006), UK author of _Doctor Who_ spinoff
novels, was found dead at home on 3 December. [GW]
     _Ken Ishikawa_ (?1948-2006), co-creator of the 1970s giant robot
anime _Getter Robo_, died suddenly on 15 November; he was 58. [PM]
     _Akio Jissoji_ (1937-2006, Japanese film-maker best known for
_Ultraman_ and _Ultraseven_ (1960s tv), died on 29 November aged 69. [PM]
     _Stanley Meltzoff_ (1917-2006), US artist who became best known for
marine subjects but painted several influential covers for 1950s Signet/
NAL sf paperbacks, died on 9 November; he was 89. [L]
     _Maggie Noach_ (1949-2006), UK literary agent for many sf authors,
died unexpectedly while being treated in hospital for a back injury on
17 November. She was 57. Her current list included Brian Aldiss, Colin
Greenland, Garry Kilworth, Michael Scott Rohan and Geoff Ryman.
     _Basil Poledouris_ (1945-2006), US composer whose film scores
included _Robocop_, _Starship Troopers_ and (notably) _Conan the
Barbarian_, died on 8 November aged 61. He scored several other genre
films and tv episodes. [GD]
     _Leon E. Stover_ (1929-2006), US academic who wrote nonfiction about
sf and collaborated with Harry Harrison on the 1968 anthology _Apeman,
Spaceman_ and on a novel, died on 25 November; he was 77. [L]
     _John Symonds_ (1914-2006), UK author and playwright who wrote such
children's fantasies as _The Magic Currant Bun_ (1953) and was the
literary executor of Aleister Crowley, died on 21 October aged 92. [JE]
     _Shirley Walker_ (1945-2006), US composer who scored _Batman_ (1992-
1995) and other animated superhero tv series, died on 29 November; she
was 61. [GW]
     _Jack Williamson_ (1908-2006), much-loved US author and academic
whose astonishingly long sf career stretched from his first magazine
story in 1928 (`The Metal Man' in _Amazing_) to a final novel published
in 2005, died on 10 November aged 98. His many awards included the 1973
Pilgrim for sf criticism, SFWA Grand Master status in 1976, and a 1985
Hugo for his autobiography _Wonder's Child_. [SFWA]

THOG'S PR MASTERCLASS. The editor of the Bantam Spectra email newsletter
may know something about the great Stan Robinson that the rest of us
don't: `Congratulations to Kim Stanley Robinson! Her technological eco-
thriller _Fifty Degrees Below_ is among _School Library Journal_'s Best
Adult Books of the Year for high school students!' [RR]

SMAUGWURST. UK trading standards officials threatened to prosecute the
makers of `Welsh Dragon' sausages because the product _does not in fact
contain dragon_. The general public, it is felt, will be less easily
misled by the new label `Welsh Dragon Pork Sausages.' (_Times_, 18 Nov)

AWARDS. Sarah Singleton's YA novel _Century_ won the Dracula Society's
Children of the Night Award for best gothic novel.

AS OTHERS SEE US II. Michael Allen's `Grumpy Old Bookman' weblog
speculates plausibly about bad paperback design: `The thinking goes
something like this. "This book is just science-fiction crap. It's only
going to be read by nerds who've worn the same t-shirt for the last three
weeks, and who wouldn't appreciate good design if you gave them a course
of instruction. Furthermore, if we print the book really cheaply, then
with a bit of luck it will fall to pieces after they've read it, so all
their friends will have to go out and buy another copy."'

FANFUNDERY. _TAFF:_ with Convoy cancelled and the location of its
replacement still uncertain, the TAFF administrators decided in early
November to postpone the 2007 race until 2008. Condolences to the two
candidates.
     _JETS_, the one-off Europe to Nippon 2007 fund, has a final slate
of seven: Abi Brown, Jim de Liscard, Jukka Halme, Tom Nanson and Teddy
(running as a pair), Chris O'Shea, Liam Proven and Robert Sneddon.
Further details and ballots at www.astralpole.org, or from LFF c/o 59
Shirley Rd, Croydon, Surrey, CR0 7ES.
 
OUTRAGED LETTERS. _Stephen Baxter_ can't resist a little gloat: `I noted
NASA's announcement yesterday that they are planning a base at the lunar
south pole -- which is precisely where Clarke & I put our lunar base in
_Sunstorm_ last year. Clarke always goes on about this sort of thing,
whereas I ... oh. (I just hope we were wrong about the Sun exploding
however.)'
     _Simon R. Green_ is still at it: `Having discovered that repeatedly
killing you off doesn't win awards, I have instead introduced you to the
Nightside universe as a kind of beer. So you will be appearing in the
next Nightside book, _The One and Only Unnatural Inquirer_, as Langford's
Exceedingly Old Speckled Hen. (Taste that albumen.) No need to thank me.'
     _Mike Moorcock_ mourns: `I was very sad to hear of Ron Bennett's
death. We'd been out of touch for a while and I'd begun to worry about
him. Another lesson about enjoying your friends while you have the
chance. Ron was one of a couple of people who first introduced me to
fandom after I'd begun publishing Burroughsiana, not knowing that I
wasn't an individual but part of the zeitgeist. His patience, humour and
kindness, as well as his contributions to my fanzines and, eventually,
prozines, made life better for me in many ways. My mother was also very
fond of him, as was Linda. I remember visiting him at the NATO base in
Belgium when he was still "Captain Bennett", teaching the children of the
base. I was in full Hawkwind-style finery and travelling with my friend
Jon Trux, whose hair was about eight feet longer than mine. Ron came to
meet us, treated us with considerable courtesy and grace in spite of a
few odd looks from the uniformed chaps at the gate. He later came to
visit us in Yorkshire, with his wife and little girl. As his friends
know, he bore a great deal of tragedy in recent years. The company of his
son, who also helped run his comics business, was a great comfort. He was
a witty, erudite man and I shall miss him. / I was also sorry to see that
Philip Strick died. Another man whose erudition brightened my life.'

ACADEMIC RIGOUR. A University of Florida newsletter brags about `New
materials added to John Cabell Collection', explaining that `A recent
donation [...] has substantially improved the research value of the
libraries' already extensive collection on Virginia author John Branch
Cabell (1879-1958).' [MB] Somewhere is heard the sound, not convenient
to describe, of James Branch Cabell rotating in his grave....

THE NOVA AWARDS for UK/Irish fanzine activity were presented at Novacon
36. FANZINE _Banana Wings_ (runners-up _Zoo Nation_, _Plokta_). FAN
WRITER Claire Brialey (runners-up Mark Plummer, James Bacon). ARTIST Sue
Mason (runners-up Alison Scott, Pete Young). [SG]

THE DEAD PAST. `Winston Churchill was a closet science fiction fan who
borrowed the lines for one of his most famous speeches from HG Wells.'
(_Independent_, 27 Nov) Not, alas, science-fictional lines: that 1906
speech drew on Wells's _A Modern Utopia_ (1905), but the only quoted
borrowing is `the gathering storm' from _The War of the Worlds_, later
applied by Churchill to the rise of Nazi Germany. For slower readers, the
researcher Dr Richard Toye offers this analogy: `It's a bit like Tony
Blair borrowing phrases from Star Trek or Doctor Who.' [J/PT] But not
very. (`Iraq: We Must Reverse The Polarity Of The Neutron Flow.')

AS OTHERS SEE US III. In the tv series _Eleventh Hour_, Patrick Stewart
`portrays Ian Hood, a former physics professor hired by British police
to solve cases in which scientific "progress" and technological excess
have homicidal consequences. / In tonight's episode, Hood confronts the
grim consequences of a multinational baby-cloning operation. Not for the
squeamish, the episode begins with the discovery of a mass graveyard of
discarded experimental fetuses.' Stewart is quick to explain that this
is an everyday occurrence: `It has nothing to do with science fiction
whatsoever. No aliens in sight. These four stories deal with very
pressing issues ...' (_Times Herald-Record_, 4 December) [KFL]

C.O.A. _John Jarrold_ (again), Flat 1, 1 Eversfield Place, St Leonard's-
on-Sea, East Sussex, TN37 6BY. _Julie Faith Rigby & Pat McMurray_, 9
Corcorans, Brentwood, Essex, CM15 9NR.

CINEGEEKERY. The genre film magazine _Cinefantastique_ -- launched in
1970, renamed _CFQ_ in 2002 -- is `on hiatus into 2007', whatever that
means exactly. Subscribers instead received the new _Geek Monthly_,
apparently its replacement, edited by _CFQ_ editor Jeff Bond. [MMW]

THE DEAD PAST II. _Brian Ameringen_ wafts us back to 1950: `I've just
discovered that on April 9 1950 the Sydney _Sunday Telegraph_ newspaper
_gave away_ a Science Fiction novel -- presumably to educate the masses
and inculcate a sensibility of science fiction and sensawunder. The
classic novel chosen for such purposes was ... Frank Belknap Long's _John
Carstairs: Space Detective_, the novel with lines like "No sane man would
let a vicious killer plant hop around on his palm", and so many others
that Thog would be in his seventeenth heaven....'

HIDEOUS GAFFES. _A232_ obits: the question mark against Darrell
Richardson's birth year (?1918) can be deleted. [MMW]
     Lilian Edwards's CoA may be for about `a year' but she hopes that
her Chair of Internet Law will last much longer.

GROUP GROPES. _Sheffield:_ Old Queens Head pub, nr Ponds Forge, Wed
evenings and last Fri of month -- check at www.sheffieldsf.org.uk.

THOG'S MASTERCLASS. _Fortean Physics Dept._ `But what I mean is that if
the ether is strong enough to convey from one central point to the ends
of the Earth music and speech, and all the other things that are so
broadcast, why shouldn't there be in space a kind of super-ether that
will support mighty floating islands?' (Professor A.M. Low, _Adrift in
the Stratosphere_, 1937)
     _Dept of Spaceship Performance._ `... it seems that either the
weight gets out or gravity gets in ...' (John Stafford Gowland, _Beyond
Mars_, 1956) [KFS/IC]
     _Superluminal Physics Dept._ `"We are already more than a light-year
away from Earth." "In seven hours? And that's how many trillion miles?"
"Quite a few," said Swainson. "So even to go home -- below light speed,
it might take us nearly a year to get there."' (_Deathstar Voyage_, Ian
Wallace, 1969) [DB]
     _Dept of Scientific Jargon._ `As you know, the Masters possess a
positive potential of several thousand bratilgrovits on which they depend
for motivation. That potential is drawn from the positive static in the
body of Conzan _[a moon of the planet Pirivar]_ itself ...' '... you mean
to create a fusing circuit within a Master ... Their bodies are positive
in character, the mechanism actuated through the medium of a minute
negative potential drawn from the girdle radiations of Pirivar itself
....' 'Exactly! And on such a basis of theory, if a strong negative
discharge were introduced so as to impinge on the collectivators a fusing
element would be introduced ... They would, therefore, be paralysed by
the negative contact of a charged shaft of electronic particles.' And so
probably would you. (Arn Romilus [Dennis Hughes], _Brain Palaeo_, 1953)
[BA]
     _Health & Safety Dept._ ` -- if you're going to traverse thin ice,
you might as well dance your way across!' (Mercedes Lackey, _Winds of
Fury_, 1993) [TMcD]


### GEEKS' CORNER ###

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CONVENTION LONGLIST
Details at http://news.ansible.co.uk/ansilink.html#cons
London meetings -- http://news.ansible.co.uk/london.html
Overseas -- http://news.ansible.co.uk/conlisti.html
[] 2006
9-10 Dec, Birmingham International Comics Show
13 Dec, Science and Its Fictions, London
[] 2007
13 Feb 07, Picocon 24, London
2-4 Feb 07, D'Zenove Convention (filk), Basingstoke
23-25 Feb 07, Redemption (multimedia SF), Hinckley, Leics
10-11 Mar 07, P-Con 4, Dublin
[Cancelled] 6-9 Apr 07, Convoy (Eastercon), Liverpool
6-9 Apr 07, Contemplation (Eastercon substitute), somewhere
25-27 May 07, Confounding Tales! (crime/sf/horror pulp), Glasgow
20-22 Jul 07,Year of the Teledu, Leicester
10-12 Aug 07, Recombination/HarmUni III (Unicon/RPG/filk), Cambridge
30 Aug - 3 Sep 07, Nippon 2007 (Worldcon), Yokohama, Japan
21-23 Sep 07, Eurocon 2007, Copenhagen, Denmark
2-4 Nov 07, Novacon 37, Walsall
[] 2008
21-24 Mar 08, Orbital (Eastercon), Heathrow
Spring 08, Distraction, Newbury
6-10 Aug 08, Denvention 3 (Worldcon), Denver, USA


### ENDNOTES ###

APPARITIONS.
[] 16 December - 6 January: Robert Lloyd Parry's one-man show `A
Pleasing Terror -- Two Ghost Stories by M R James', New End Theatre,
Hampstead, various times. Box office 0870 033 2733.
 http://www.nunkie.co.uk./page_3.html
[] 12 January: Brum Group, Britannia Hotel, New St, Birmingham.
7.45pm. AGM (not sure whether they charge admission for this).
Normally Pounds3 members, Pounds4 non-members. Contact bhamsfgroup at
yahoo co uk. Forthcoming: 9 February, Robert Holdstock; 9 March,
Justina Robson.

RANDOM LINKS. Rather than save them up for _Ansible_ each month, I now
add topical links to a sidebar column on the links page:
 http://news.ansible.co.uk/ansilink.html

PAYPAL DONATION. Support _Ansible_ and keep the editor happy! Or just
buy his books ...
 http://ansible.co.uk/paypal.html
 http://ansible.co.uk/biblio.html
 http://ansible.co.uk/books/hp.html

MORE _ANSIBLE_ SUPPLEMENTS. The second includes a Thog's Christmas
Dinner Special ...
 http://ansible.co.uk/a232supp.html
 http://ansible.co.uk/a233supp.html


Ansible 233 Copyright (c) Dave Langford, 2006. Thanks to Brian
Ameringen, Mike Blake, Damien Broderick, Ian Covell, Gary Dalkin, John
Eggeling, Steve Green, Phil Harbottle, Jonjo, David K.M. Klaus, Locus,
Keith F. Lynch, Tim McDaniel, Petrea Mitchell, Mary Reed, Rich
Rennicks, SF Site, Scott Simpson, Simo, Ken Slater, Paul Tomlinson,
Gary Wilkinson, Martin Morse Wooster, Jessica Yates, and Hero
Distributors: Rog Peyton (BSFG), Janice Murray (North America), SCIS,
and Alan Stewart (Australia). Merry Xmas to all readers!

7 Dec 06
-- 
David Langford | http://ansible.co.uk/ | http://news.ansible.co.uk/
Latest nonfiction: =The End of Harry Potter?= (Gollancz, 2006)
Latest fiction: =Different Kinds of Darkness= (Cosmos, 2004)