Ansible® 456, July 2025
From David Langford, 94 London Road, Reading, Berks, RG1 5AU, UK. Website news.ansible.uk. ISSN 0265-9816 (print); 1740-942X (e). Logo: Dan Steffan. Cartoon: Ulrika O’Brien, ‘Moon Girl’. Available for SAE, a terrible torch of tin, or a tower of turbulent toast.
A Hundred Hollow Horses
Pat Barker, the noted UK novelist whose work includes historical fantasies set in the Trojan War era, was made a Dame for services to literature in the UK King’s Birthday honours.
Nelly Ben Hayoun-Stépanian, film-maker and ‘designer of experiences’, has a mission to show that ‘space travel is queer’. According to her Guardian profile, ‘In Ben Hayoun-Stépanian’s mind, space exploration forces us to reimagine everything. “It’s queer. It’s decolonial. It’s pluralistic.”’ (Guardian, 29 May) [PE] Someone should tell Elon Musk.
John Clute’s sf collection is now open to the public, by appointment, as the Clute Science Fiction Library in Telluride, Colorado. He donated the 13,700+ volumes in 2017 to the Telluride Institute co-founded by John and Pamela Lifton-Zoline. See tellurideinstitute.org/clute-science-fiction-library for further details. (Telluride News, 21 June)
Gary David Crew and Garth Nix received Medals of the Order of Australia for services to literature in the King’s Birthday honours. [L]
Yoko Shimomura is the first videogame music composer (Street Fighter, Final Fantasy, Super Mario and over 70 more) to receive a BAFTA fellowship, the academy’s highest honour. (Guardian, 20 June)
Keith Stuart on recent videogame retellings of Macbeth and Hamlet, the latter as Grand Theft Hamlet: ‘I think if Shakespeare was magically reincarnated in the first quarter of the 21st century, there is only one genre he’d be working in: the open-world role-playing adventure. Here, he’d have the time and space to weave complex narratives involving dozens of characters and diverse environments. King Lear’s moors would become a desolate explorable wasteland, much like the post-apocalyptic hellscapes of Fallout or Death Stranding.’ (Guardian, 28 May) [PE] Critics brought up on Doom have long felt the plays’ action could be streamlined by a judicious sprinkling of chainsaws, plasma guns and rocket launchers.
Concrement
Click here for longlist • London • Overseas
5 Jul • Comic Con Aintree, Aintree Racecourse. 10am-5pm. Adult tickets £12; other rates at www.ljeventsentertainment.com.
5-6 Jul • Tolkien Society Seminar: ‘Arda’s Entangled Bodies’, Glasgow and online. Free. See www.tolkiensociety.org/events/. Postponed to 18-19 October.
5-6 Jul • The Town That Never Was (steampunk), Blists Hill, Telford. See www.ministryofsteampunk.com. Tickets/passes from £27 (child £15.50) for one day: www.ironbridge.org.uk/plan/ticket-prices/.
13 Jul • BFS/BSFA Social, Waterstones, Piccadilly, London. 2:30-5pm. Free tickets available at tinyurl.com/mvt4sek6.
SOLD OUT 18-20 Jul • Fantasy Forest (cosplay), Sudely Castle, Cheltenham. No tickets but a waiting list sign-up option at fantasyforest.co.uk.
19 Jul • Small Press Day, various events throughout the UK and Ireland, and online. See smallpressday.co.uk.
25-28 Jul • Continuum (RPG), Cranfield University CMDC . £60 reg; day pass £25; under-17s free. See continuumconvention.co.uk.
2-3 Aug • Surrey Steampunk Convivial, Stoneleigh, Epsom. See bumpandthumper.wixsite.com/steampunkconvivials.
26 Oct • Stars of Time (comics), LC, Swansea. 10am-5pm. £11.55 (under-14s £7.21) at www.starsoftime.co.uk/swanseacomiccon.
22 Nov • TFN: Mini-Con (Transformers), Reading University. £40; under-18s £25; under-16s free. See tfnation.com/mini-con-reading-25.
16-18 & 23-25 Jan 2026 • Horror-on-Sea (film festival), Park Inn Radisson Palace Hotel, Church Rd, Southend-on-Sea, SS1 2AL. Tickets awaited on 31 October at the-white-bus-limited.sumupstore.com.
11 Apr 2026 • Bedford Who Charity Con (Doctor Who), King’s House, Ampthill Road, Bedford, MK42 9AZ. 10am-5:30pm. Tickets £49.50; under-14s £20. See bedfordwhocharitycon.co.uk.
9-10 May 2026 • Lawless (UK comics), Hilton Doubletree, Bristol. Ticket sales should open ‘in early 2026’ at lawlesscomiccon.co.uk.
29-31 May 2026 • UK Games Expo, Birmingham NEC. Ticket sales awaited at www.ukgamesexpo.co.uk.
20 Jun 2026 • Stars of Time (comics), Steam Museum, Swindon. Tickets awaited at www.starsoftime.co.uk/swindon.
27-31 Aug 2026 • LAcon V, Anaheim Convention Center and hotels in Anaheim, California. Now $230 full adult membership. For the other rates, all unchanged, see www.lacon.org.
Rumblings. Seattle Worldcon 2025: Hugo voting closes on 23 July. Virtual WSFS business meetings will be held on 4 July, 13 July, 19 July and 25 July. See July links at news.ansible.uk for the vast (146pp) agenda document plus a 15pp guide to using the virtual meeting platform.
• 2027 Worldcon site selection voting has opened, and will close on 15 August; the Montréal in 2027 bid is running unopposed.
Infinitely Improbable
As Others Confabulate Us. A mention on a fan mailing list that Ted White was once headlined in the Washington Daily News (1957) as the owner of ‘10,000 COMICS!’ led to a web search and a bibliographical surprise from Google’s now-integrated AI: ‘The title “The Boy with 10,000 Comic Books” refers to the character Teddy White, a character created by author Ted White. This character is featured in Ted White’s science fiction novel, also titled “The Boy with 10,000 Comic Books”. The story centers around a young man who finds solace and escape in his vast collection of comic books.’ [LB] Now it only remains for Ted to write it.
Awards. ActuSF Prize for Uchronia (France, alternate history): the Grandville series by Bryan Talbot won the 2025 graphic novel category.
• Arthur C. Clarke: Annie Bot by Caragh M. O’Brien writing as Sierra Greer.
• Infinity (SFWA posthumous Grand Master award): Frank Herbert.
• Locus. SF NOVEL The Man Who Saw Seconds by Alexander Boldizar. FANTASY NOVEL A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher. HORROR NOVEL Bury Your Gays by Chuck Tingle. YA NOVEL Moonstorm by Yoon Ha Lee. FIRST NOVEL Someone You Can Build a Nest In by John Wiswell. NOVELLA What Feasts at Night by T. Kingfisher. NOVELETTE ‘By Salt, By Sea, By Light of Stars’ by Premee Mohamed (6/24 Strange Horizons). SHORT ‘Why Don’t We Just Kill the Kid in the Omelas Hole’ by Isabel J. Kim (2/24 Clarkesworld) ANTHOLOGY The Black Girl Survives in This One ed. Desiree S. Evans & Saraciea J. Fennell. COLLECTION Lake of Souls by Ann Leckie. MAGAZINE Clarkesworld. PUBLISHER Subterranean Press. EDITOR Neil Clarke. ARTIST Charles Vess. NONFICTION Afro-Centered Futurisms in Our Speculative Fiction ed. Eugen Bacon. ILLUSTRATED/ART BOOK The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle illus. Tom Kidd. SPECIAL Ignyte Awards.
• Nebulas. NOVEL Someone You Can Build a Nest In by John Wiswell. NOVELLA The Dragonfly Gambit by A.D. Sui. NOVELETTE ‘Negative Scholarship on the Fifth State of Being’ by A.W. Prihandita (11/24 Clarkesworld). SHORT STORY ‘Why Don’t We Just Kill the Kid in the Omelas Hole’ by Isabel J. Kim (2/24 Clarkesworld). CHILDREN’S/YA The Young Necromancer’s Guide to Ghosts by Vanessa Ricci-Thode. GAME WRITING A Death in Hyperspace. DRAMATIC Dune: Part Two.
• Stokers (horror, novel categories only). MAIN The Haunting of Velkwood by Gwendolyn Kiste. DEBUT The Eyes Are the Best Part by Monika Kim. CHILDREN’S (tie) There’s Something Sinister in Center Field by Robert P. Ottone; The Creepening of Dogwood House by Eden Royce. YA Clown in a Cornfield 3: The Church of Frendo by Adam Cesare. Full list at locusmag.com/2025/06/2024-stoker-awards-winners.
Publishers & Sinners. Transworld and Fairyloot revealed the name of their new collaborative fantasy imprint, suitably evocative of perilous seas in faery lands forlorn: Wayward TxF. (Bookseller, 23 June) [SF²C]
R.I.P. Aki Aleong (1934-2025), Trinidadian/US actor in V (1984-1985), Dragonfight (1990), Superhero Movie (2008) and others, died on 22 June aged 90.
• Michael Allaby (1933-2025), UK author – and actor in Doctor Who (1964) – who co-wrote The Greening of Mars (1984) with James Lovelock, died on 4 May aged 91. [SHS]
• Jack Betts (1929-2025), US actor in Batman Forever (1995), Spider-Man (2002) and others, died on 19 June aged 96. [SJ]
• Marilyn ‘Mattie’ Brahen, US author whose work includes the novel Baby Boy Blue (2010) and the collection Seastruck and Other Fantasies (2019), died on 9 June. She was also known as a convention book-dealer with her husband Darrell Schweitzer, to whom all sympathy. [DS]
• Roland Curram (1932-2025), UK actor in Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1975, as Coleridge), Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1980), Artemis 81 (1981) and others, died on 1 June aged 92.
• Rebekah Del Rio (1967-2025), US singer/songwriter and actress whose credits include Mulholland Drive (2001), Southland Tales (2006) and The Winter Soldier (2017), died on 23 June aged 57. [SJ]
• Frances Doel (1942-2025), UK producer/screenwriter who worked for many years and made significant contributions (often uncredited) at Roger Corman’s New World Pictures, died on 26 May aged 83. Film credits include Deathsport (1978), Starship Troopers (1997) and Dinocroc (2004). [AIP]
• Taina Elg (1930-2025), Finnish-US actress in Hercules in New York (1970), died on 15 May aged 95. [JH]
• Barbara Ferris (1939-2025), UK actress in the Wyndham- based Children of the Damned (1964), died on 23 May aged 85. [AIP]
• Frederick Forsyth (1938-2025), best-selling UK thriller author who published one supernatural fantasy and a few near-future novels with sf elements, died on 9 June aged 86.
• Leanne Frahm (1946-2025), Ditmar-winning Australian author of short fiction since 1980 – some stories collected as Borderline (1996) – died on 10 June aged 79. [JHW] One of the people I was very glad to meet on my only visit to Australia.
• Allan Freeman (1937-2025), US film marketing executive whose promotional campaigns included The Stepford Wives, The Omen, Star Wars, Superman, Monty Python’s Life of Brian and The Shining, died on 6 June aged 88. [AIP]
• José Luis Galicia (1930-2025), Spanish set decorator/production designer whose nearly 200 films include Satanik (1968), The Night of the Devils (1972) and Count Dracula’s Great Love (1973), died on 5 June aged 95. [SJ]
• Lynn Hamilton (1930-2025), US actress in Brother John (1971), Baby’s Breath (2003) and genre tv series, died on 19 June aged 95. [SJ]
• Prentis Hancock (1942-2025), UK actor in various Doctor Who series (1970-1978), Space: 1999 (1975-1976), The Monster Club (1981), Jekyll & Hyde (1990) and others, died on 30 May aged 83. [SJ]
• Rick Hurst (1946-2025), US actor in The Cat from Outer Space (1978), Earth Girls Are Easy (1988), Venomous (2001) and Return of the Killer Shrews (2012) died on 26 June aged 79. [SJ]
• Clifton Jones (1937-2025), Jamaican actor in Space: 1999 (23 episodes 1975-1976), 1990 (6 episodes 1997) and Watership Down (1978), died on 4 June aged 87. [SJ]
• Jonathan Joss (1965-2025), US actor in The Forever Purge (2021) and Abduction of the Fourth Kind (2022) – plus voice work in sf videogames – was shot and killed by a Texas neighbour on 1 June; he was 59. [LP]
• Pik Sen Lim (1944-2025), Malaysian-born UK actress in Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (2019) and genre tv series including Doctor Who (1971) and Vampire Academy (2022), died on 9 June aged 80. [SJ]
• Barry B. Longyear (1942-2025), popular US author who began to publish sf in 1978, won the 1980 John W. Campbell award as best new writer, and received Hugo, Locus and Nebula awards for his 1979 novella ‘Enemy Mine’, died on 6 May aged 82. [RJS] That best-known story was filmed as Enemy Mine (1985), which he deprecated.
• Valerie Mahaffey (1953-2025), US actress in The Lost Souls (1993, based on Kipling’s ‘They’), Witch Hunt (1994) and The Witch Files (2018), died on 30 May aged 71. [SJ]
• Beans Morocco (Dan Barrows,1934-2025), US actor in Where Have All the People Gone? (1974), Once Bitten (1985), Wes Craven’s New Nightmare (1994) and others, died on 29 May aged 90. [SG]
• Susan Beth Pfeffer (1948-2025), US author of many children’s/YA books including the bestselling post-disaster sf sequence opening with Life as We Knew It (2006), died on 23 June aged 77. [AIP]
• Chris Robinson (1938-2025), US actor in Beast from Haunted Cave (1959, as the Beast), Sweet, Sweet Rachel (1971) and others, died on 9 June aged 86. [SJ]
• Gailard Sartain (1943-2025), US tv horror host and actor in Wishman (1992), Sandman (1993), Existo (1999) and the Laurel & Hardy tribute For Love or Mummy (1999, as Hardy), died on 19 June aged 81. [SJ]
• Lalo Schifrin (1932-2025), Argentinian composer whose many music credits include Mission: Impossible (1966-1973), The President’s Analyst (1967), The Cat From Outer Space (1978), Return from Witch Mountain (1978), The Amityville Horror (1979 plus sequel) and Back to the Planet of the Apes (1980), died on 26 June aged 93. [LP]
• David Schleinkofer (1951-2025), US artist who produced many sf book covers from 1976 to the 1990s, died on 20 April aged 74. [L]
• Jim Shooter (1951-2025), US comics writer, penciller, editor and publisher who first worked for DC in the mid-1960s, was the successful though often controversial editor-in-chief at Marvel 1978-1987, and went on to found other comics imprints, died on 30 June aged 73. [LP/MR]
• Loretta Swit (1937-2025), US M*A*S*H actress in It’s a Bird... It’s a Plane... It’s Superman! (1975 tv film), Whoops Apocalypse (1987) and Forest Warrior (1996), died on 30 May aged 87. [LP]
• Valentina Talyzina (1935-2025), Russian actress who starred in the fantasy film Koltsa Almanzora (Almanzor’s Rings, 1977), died on 21 June aged 90. [AM]
• Rodger Turner (1947-2025), Canadian fan, dealer and webmaster who was a founder in 1997 of Sfsite.com, co-owner of the House of Speculative Fiction bookshop in Ottawa and long-time World Fantasy Convention board member/ awards administrator, died on 16 June aged 77. [CDL/AIP]
• Renée Victor (1938-2025), US actress in The Prophecy 2 (1998), Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones (2014), Snowpiercer (2020-2021) and Green Ghost and the Masters of the Stone (2021), died on 30 May aged 86. [SJ]
• G. Peter Winnington (1944-2025), noted Peake scholar who wrote Vast Alchemies: The Life and Work of Mervyn Peake (2000) and other studies, reportedly died in April aged 80. [DAA]
• Harris Yulin (1937-2025), US actor in Ghostbusters II (1989) and others, died on 10 June aged 87. [MR]
• Manuel Zarzo (1932-2025), Spanish actor in Encounters of the Deep (1979), Nightmare City (1980) and others, died on 17 June aged 93. [SJ]
The Weakest Link. Cinema Dept – Roman Kemp: ‘The flag of Uzbekistan contains 12 what?’ Contestant: ‘Monkeys.’ (BBC1, The Finish Line) [PE]
• Hollow Horses Dept – Kemp: ‘In which war was the mythical hero Hector killed?’ Contestant: ‘The First World War.’ (Ibid) [PE]
Court Circular. Chris Barkley’s legal quest to prise his 2023 Hugo Award from the sinister clutches of that year’s Hugo administrator Dave McCarty led to a court encounter in Chicago on 26 June, in which the judge told McCarty to deliver the trophy (or fragments thereof, the bases having reportedly been damaged in transit from China) to Barkley before a further ‘continuance’ hearing on 22 September. With characteristic charm, McCarty informed the court that ‘he would neither receive or accept any emails, text messages, phone calls or any other form of communication regarding the issue’. [F770] Keep watching the skies!
The Dead Past. 20 Years Ago, Brian Aldiss told us about his OBE: ‘I was greatly chuffed by the award “for services to Literature” – a euphemism in this case for SF.... But when chatting to Her Majesty, I was disappointed to find she had only got as far as John Wyndham and the triffids. “What do you like about it?” I asked. She replied, “Oh, it’s such a cosy catastrophe.” I blushed.’ (Ansible 216, July 2005)
• 30 Years Ago, your editor saw the shape of things to come: ‘I finally got to be a virtual convention guest ... one of several at Cascon in Slovakia, via Internet Relay Chat [1 July]. Great hospitality, though vodka does not e-mail well.’ (Ansible 96, July 1995)
• 50 Years Ago, Brian Aldiss offered yet another innovation: ‘How about a new definition of science fiction? It’s about things going wrong.’ (Vector 69, Summer 1975)
• 60 Years Ago: ‘Recent Sunday Times colour supplement featured article called “Tarzan 66” and quoted Sy Weintraub, owner of all Tarzan film and TV rights, as saying “Let’s get a James Bond approach to Tarzan.” The article did not mention Burroughs, but quoted Weintraub as adding “In fact, he’s really English, the son of a lord, but that’s all forgotten now.”’ (Skyrack 81, 10 July 1965)
Big Numbers. Frank Frazetta’s artwork for a 1954 Famous Funnies Buck Rogers cover sold for over $1 million. (Heritage Auctions, 27 June)
Random Fandom. Andy Hooper became Official Editor of SAPS (fandom’s second oldest surviving APA) this year, and says: ‘members are now permitted to send contributions electronically for printing by the OE’.
The Critical Heritage. ‘From Garfield to Simon’s Cat, Krazy Kat to Bagpuss and everything in between, there is a long line of iconic cartoon cats.’ (London Cartoon Museum ‘Cats in Cartoons’ blurb) Bagpuss?
Footfall. A UK parliamentary committee was presumably unsurprised by a report that there’s still no international protocol for deciding how to tackle the hypothetical future threat of a devastating asteroid impact on Earth. Apparently ‘aligning governments behind any space mission needed to deflect a looming orb would be difficult, even if technically possible.’ It was all so much easier in the sf films. (The Register, 27 June)
Fanfundery. Fan Fund Books: the latest Ansible Editions ebook at the TAFF site is Rob Hansen’s Approaching Xero: The SF Prehistory of Comics Fandom. See taff.org.uk/ebooks.php?x=Xero. Both this and the updated TAFF Trip Report Anthology (see ae.ansible.uk?t=TAFFanth) are also trade paperbacks with all proceeds going to TAFF. This year’s Corflu fanthology – Dancing to Architecture edited by Doug Bell, in which many fans write about music – is a free download at taff.org.uk/ebooks.php?x=Dancing.
• What next? In the tradition of his 1957 and 1965 Worldcon tomes, Rob Hansen is now working on 1979: The Third UK Worldcon. I was there!
Magazine Scene. The Australian Andromeda Spaceways Magazine will cease regular quarterly publication with issue 100, expected for the third quarter of 2025. ‘ The hull of the ship will be coasting for a while afterwards, and we’ll see what shape that takes ...’ [PS-P]
Thog’s Masterclass. Streaming Service. ‘... his dry matter-of-fact-maleness seeming to stream out on the wings of the storm.’ (Paul J. McAuley, Four Hundred Billion Stars, 1988) [BA]
• Dept of Elusive Pulchritude. ‘Miss Deary was the most beautiful woman on Earth, in fact in the entire Empire. There was something unearthly about Miss Deary’s beauty, something more than of Earth. It was hard to say, even looking at her, exactly what she looked like.’ (Martin Siegel, Agent of Entropy, 1969) [AR]
Geeks’ Corner
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Convention and Event Links
• British Isles – https://news.ansible.uk
• London – https://news.ansible.uk/london.html
• Overseas – https://news.ansible.uk/conlisti.html [no longer updated]
Endnotes
PayPal Tip Jar Thingy. Donate to support Ansible, cover website costs and keep the editor happy! Or just buy his books.
https://ansible.uk/paypal.html
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Group Theory.
• 17 July 2025, evening: London Zoom meeting, third Thursday of each month. ‘Please share this with people who you know typically come to the Bishop’s Finger, but aren’t on Facebook.’
https://bohemiancoast.medium.com/first-thursday-london-sf-fan-virtual-drinks-5232021e961f
Editorial. Ansible Editions book projects continue, as does the SF Encyclopedia with its relentless weekly updates. Your editor would like to add something ever so witty about all this, but it’s still too hot here for rational thought.
BSFA News. Stewart Hotston is the new BSFA Chair since the June AGM at which Allen Stroud stepped down.
C.o.A. Martin Tudor, Flat 6, 11-12 New Road, Willenhall, WV13 2BD.
R.I.P. II – Late Reports. Linda Evans (1958-2023), US author of Sleipnir (1994), the ‘Time Scout’ sequence (1995-2001) with Robert Asprin, and contributions to the Keith Laumer ‘Bolo’ universe, died on 13 June 2023 aged 64 (not widely reported before June 2025). [F770]
• Swen Papenbrock (1960-2025), German author and artist who created a great many covers and interior illustrations for the ‘Perry Rhodan’ series since 1996, died on 10 March aged 64. [SHS]
• Rainer Schorm (1965-2025), German author and artist who was chief writer for the ‘Perry Rhodan NEO’ series and published many novels in that setting from 2014, died in March aged 59. [SHS]
Some Links from the Ansible home page.
• 2027 Worldcon site selection
https://seattlein2025.org/wsfs/site-selection/voting/
• British Fantasy Awards finalists
https://britishfantasysociety.org/british-fantasy-awards-2025-shortlist-announced/
• Mythopoeic Awards finalists
https://www.mythsoc.org/news/news-2025-06-02.htm
• Seattle Worldcon 2025 virtual business meeting agenda and instuctions
https://seattlein2025.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/WSFS_business_meeting_agenda_2025_v2op.pdf
https://seattlein2025.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/WSFS_business_meeting_2025_virtual_meeting_instructions_v3op.pdf
Thog’s Golden Oldies from Ansible 216, July 2005. Biothermics Dept, or Why Polar Bears Do Not Exist. ‘It was evidently cold-blooded or nearly so, for no warm-blooded animal could have withstood that more than glacial cold.’ (George Griffith, ‘Stories of Other Worlds’, 1900)
• Limits of Vision Dept. ‘“That,” he said impressively, “is the blackest black you or any other mortal ever looked upon ... so black that no mortal man will be able to look upon it – and see it!”’ (Jack London, ‘The Shadow and the Flash’, 1903)
• ‘Xavier closed his eyes, then forced himself to watch the terrible solution.’ (Brian Herbert & Kevin J. Anderson, The Butlerian Jihad, 2002)
• Dept of Motherhood and Stale Apple Pie. ‘He took an instant to gulp water from a dipper, stale and welcome as a mother’s love.’ (S.M. Stirling & David Drake, The Sword, 1995)
Ansible® 456 © David Langford, 2025. Thanks to Brian Ameringen, Douglas A. Anderson, Lenny Bailes, File 770, Charles de Lint, Steve Green, Jerry House, Steve Jones, Locus, Andrey Meshavkin, Lawrence Person, Andrew I. Porter, Private Eye, Adam Roberts, Marcus Rowland, Darrell Schweitzer, SF² Concatenation, Steven H Silver, Phil Stephensen-Payne, Robert J. Sawyer, Jean Hollis Weber, and as always our Hero Distributors: Durdles Books (Birmingham SF Group), SCIS/Prophecy, and Alan Stewart (Australia). 1 July 2025