Ansible® 461, December 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: Brad W. Foster. Available for SAE, hodmandods, Magimuck, flaked corns, or stercoraceous dungarees.
When Things Get Out of Hand
Joe Hill, son of Stephen King, was one of three horror authors who withdrew from the British Library’s ‘Tales of the Weird’ event on 1-2 November, in sympathy with BL workers on strike owing to ‘poverty wages’. ‘I have to eat a Thanksgiving dinner with Tabitha King and if I cross a picket line to sell a book, it’s not going to be a good one.’ V. Castro and Keith Rosson also pulled out. (Guardian, 31 October)
N.K. Jemisin is the latest author to be honoured by SFWA with the Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award. (SFWA, 16 November)
R.F. Kuang should set her sights higher, according to her husband: ‘Yeah, sure, the Hugo is nice. But what about a Booker? I can see it for her.’ (Bennett Eckert-Kuang, The New Yorker, 25 August) [MM]
Jeanette Winterson’s One Aladdin Two Lamps puzzled reviewer Craig Brown: ‘Some of the cultural references are laboriously spelled out, while others are left to fend for themselves. The reader, for example, is expected to have heard of Joni Mitchell and Paul Simon, but needs a bit of help with “fantasy writer Terry Pratchett”, “poet Ted Hughes” and, best of all, “Irish poet WB Yeats”.’ (Private Eye, 28 November)
Convally
Click here for longlist • London • Overseas
5 Dec • Tolkien Seminar Lecture, Magdalen College, Oxford. 5pm. ‘No registration is required.’ See tolkien50.web.ox.ac.uk.
5-8 Dec • Grimmfest Online (film). Full pass £55.50 or tickets at £6.50 for each film. See www.grimmfest.com/grimmfest-online.
11-13 Dec • Talos SF Theatre Festival, Bread & Roses Theatre, 68 Clapham Manor St, London. Thursday/Friday evening, all day Saturday. £12/performance; concessions £10. See www.cyborphic.com/talos-2025.
12 Dec • BSFA Xmas Social, The Doric Arch pub, Euston. 7-9pm. See www.bsfa.co.uk/event-6444410.
17 Dec • London Xmas Meeting (additional to First Thursdays), The Bishop’s Finger, 9-10 West Smithfield, EC1A 9JR. All evening.
29 Dec - 1 Jan • Steampunk New Year, Belmont Hotel, Leicester. See www.ministryofsteampunk.com/steampunknewyear2025.
30 Dec • The Female Man online discussion panel, 7pm. Details on Facebook event sign-up at fb.me/e/3F0xoFwPh.
16-18 & 23-25 Jan 2026 • Horror-on-Sea (film festival), Park Inn Radisson Palace Hotel, Southend-on-Sea, SS1 2AL. Tickets £80 for either weekend or £130 for both at the-white-bus-limited.sumupstore.com.
5-7 Mar 2026 • Frightfest (film), Glasgow Film Theatre, Rose Street. Tickets and line-up awaited at frightfest.co.uk/filmsandevents/.
18-19 Apr 2026 • For the Love of Horror, BEC Arena, Manchester. Tickets at various rates from www.fortheloveofhorroruk.com.
22-24 May 2026 • MCM Comic Con, London ExCel. Tickets from £97; day rates at www.mcmcomiccon.com/london/en-us.html.
23-24 May 2026 • Steam Trains and Fairytales (steampunk), Midland Railway Trust, Butterley. See www.ministryofsteampunk.com.
24-27 Jul 2026 • Continuum (RPG), Cranfield University CMDC . Ticket sales expected ‘early 2026' at continuumconvention.co.uk.
26-27 Sep 2026 • Norcon (media), Norfolk Showground Arena. 9:30am-4pm. Tickets £43.25 (£34.25 for 10:30am entry); under-14s £27 (£23); family £132.50 (£106.25). See www.nor-con.co.uk.
17 Oct 2026 • PictCon2, Salutation Hotel, 30-34 South St, Perth, Scotland. GoH Neil Williamson. £30 reg; £20 concessions, under-18s £11.55. Tickets available at tinyurl.com/242ya33b.
24-25 Oct 2026 • BristolCon, Hilton DoubleTree Hotel, Bristol.GoH Cheryl Morgan, Trip Galey. Registration awaited at www.bristolcon.org.
6-8 Nov 2026 • Armadacon, Future Inns, Plymouth. GoH Mike Collins, Andy Lane. £50 reg; £40 concessions. More at www.armadacon.org.
6-8 Nov 2026 • Novacon 55, Palace Hotel, Buxton. GoH Una McCormack. £55 reg; under-17s £12; under-13s free. More at novacon.uk.
26-29 Mar 2027 • Unconfined (Eastercon), Crowne Plaza Hotel, Glasgow. Now £105 reg, £70 concessions, £25 under-27s, £10 under-13s – as of 1 December. See easterconglasgow.org.
21-25 Apr 2027 • Dead by Dawn (horror film festival), Filmhouse, Lothian Road, Edinburgh – returning after a long gap since 2019. Further details and ticket sales to follow in late 2026 at deadbydawn.co.uk.
11-13 Jun 2027 • FunCon Two, Palace Hotel, Buxton. £55 reg first 50 members; £65 next 40; £70 thereafter; £50 unwaged. See funcon.lol.
Rumblings. LAcon V (Worldcon 2026) will continue the convenient if not strictly constitutional practice of online WSFS business meetings.
• Montréal Worldcon 2027: membership rates increases expected on 1 December 2025 have been deferred to January.
• Brisbane in 2028: this Worldcon bid (Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre, 27-31 July) is accepting AUD donations from $20 and pre-memberships – not including WSFS – at $50 (virtual), $250 (full), $125 (under-25s) or a $550 ‘Best Mates’ option. More at brisbane28.org.
• Nuremberg in 2028 is a newly announced bid for a German Worldcon in July 2028 (‘August is rainy’).
• Glasgow in 2034, yet another Worldcon bid, has provisionally booked the SEC for 3-6 or 10-13 August and cites Glasgow’s vibrant food culture.
Infinitely Improbable
The Uses of Literacy. New York Times headline: ‘Sex Had Become a Chore. Then They Started Reading Romantasy. / The wildly popular fiction genre allows readers to talk openly about yearning, sex and desire. And it’s spilling over into their bedrooms.’ (17 November) [AIP]
Awards. Aldiss (worldbuilding): inaugural presentation to The Dance of Shadows by Rogba Payne.
• British Fantasy. ANTHOLOGY Bury Your Gays ed. Sofia Ajram. ARTIST Kelly Chong. AUDIO Breaking the Glass Slipper. COLLECTION Elephants in Bloom by Cecile Cristofari. ROBERT HOLDSTOCK (fantasy novel): Masquerade by O.O. Sangoyomi. AUGUST DERLETH (horror novel): My Darling Dreadful Thing by Johanna van Veen. INDEPENDENT PRESS Flame Tree Press. MAGAZINE /PERIODICAL ParSec. SYDNEY J. BOUNDS (newcomer): Frances White for Voyage of the Damned. NON-FICTION Queer as Folklore by Sacha Coward. NOVELLA The Last to Drown by Lorraine Wilson. SHORT ‘Loneliness Universe’ by Eugenia Triantafyllou (Uncanny). KARL EDWARD WAGNER (special): Rosemary ‘Ro’ Pardoe.
• Goldsmiths Prize (£10,000 for a mould-breaking UK/Irish book): We Live Here Now by C.D. Rose.
• World Fantasy. NOVEL The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett. NOVELLA Yoke of Stars by R.B. Lemberg. SHORT ‘Raptor’ by Maura McHugh (in Heartwood below). ANTHOLOGY Heartwood: A Mythago Wood Anthology ed. Dan Coxon. COLLECTION A Sunny Place for Shady People by Mariana Enriquez, trans Megan McDowell. ARTIST Liv Rainey-Smith. SPECIAL – PROFESSIONAL Mapping New Stars: A Sourcebook on Philippine Speculative Fiction by Gabriela Lee, Anna Felicia Sanchez and Sydney Paige Guerrero. SPECIAL – NON-PROFESSIONAL Steve J. Shaw for Black Shuck Books.
We Are Everywhere. The Ansible Café, a science-fiction-themed coffee shop in Chengdu, China, opened on 28 October. [F770]
R.I.P. Celeste Rita Baker (1958-2025), New York-born Virgin Islands author active since 2010 whose genre collection is Back, Belly, & Side: True Lies and False Tales (2015) and who won a 2021 World Fantasy Award for best short story, died on 30 October aged 67. [L]
• Carl Ciarfalio (1953-2025), US actor/stuntman in Roger Corman’s unreleased The Fantastic Four (1994, as The Thing) and other genre tv/film productions, died on 19 November aged 72.
• Pauline Collins (1940-2025), UK actress in Doctor Who (1967, 2006), From Time to Time (2009) and The Last Dragonslayer (2016), died on 6 November aged 85. [RH]
• Sergey Desnitsky (1941-2025), Russian actor in the Lem-based Doznaniye pilota Pirksa (Pilot Pirx’s Inquest, 1979), died on 19 November aged 84. [AM]
• Jonathan Farwell (1932-2025), US actor in Frankenstein General Hospital (1988), C.H.U.D. II (1989), the Poe-based The Haunting of Morella (1990) and Watchers II (1999), died on 22 November aged 93. [SJ]
• Leslie Fish, US fan active since the 1960s in filk and early Star Trek fandom, who was honoured for her musical work with multiple Pegasus awards and entry to the Filk Hall of Fame in 1995, died on 29 November. [O] Many of her songs are collected as The Incomplete Leslie Fish (2001); she also published genre fiction.
• Jill Freud (1927-2025), UK actress who in WW2 was evacuated to Oxford and there stayed with C.S. Lewis, inspiring (he later told her) Lucy in the Narnia books, died on 24 November aged 98. [AIP] Her genre credits include narration and voice parts in Torchy, the Battery Boy (52 episodes 1959-1961).
• Sue Granquist (1966-2025), US reviewer and blogger whose weekly horror-themed ‘Goth Chick’ column had appeared in Black Gate since 2009, died on 18 November aged 59. [PS-P]
• Adam Greenberg (1937-2025), Polish-born US cinematographer for The Terminator (1984 plus sequel), Ghost (1990), Alien Nation (1998), Sphere (1998) and others, died on 30 October aged 88. [SJ]
• Tchéky Karyo (1953-2025), Turkish-born French actor in The Core (2003), Utopía (2003)and Mermaid in Paris (2020), died on 31 October aged 72. [AIP]
• Udo Kier (1944-2025), German actor in Flesh for Frankenstein (1973, as Baron von Frankenstein) plus several vampire films, and voice actor in genre games and animations, died on 23 November aged 81.
• Sally Kirkland (1941-2025), US actress whose many genre films include The Incredible Shrinking Woman (1981), Brave New World (1988), The Visitor from Planet Omicron (2013), The Haunting of Hell Hole Mine (2023) and Woods Witch (2023), died on 11 November aged 84. [SJ]
• Pete Knifton (1959-2025), UK sf/fantasy/comics artist who illustrated Games Workshop’s Blood Bowl, Fighting Fantasy books, fantasy wargames, heavy metal record covers and Transformers comics, and appeared in Omni and New Worlds, died on 29 October aged 66. [MG]
• Jorga Kotrbová (1947-2025), Czech actress who played the title role in the fairytale film Zlatovláska (Princess Goldilocks, 1973), died on 24 November aged 78.
• Diane Ladd (1935-2025), US actress in Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983), Carnosaur (1992), Kingdom Hospital (2004), Grave Secrets (2013) and others, died on 3 November aged 89. [LP]
• Gerry Lively, UK cinematographer for Waxwork (1988 plus sequel), Lobster Man from Mars (1989), Hellraiser III (1992 plus sequel), Children of the Corn III (1995) and several more, died on 7 November. Director credits include two D&D films (2005, 2012) and All Saints Eve (2015). [SJ]
• Dan McGrath (1964-2025), Emmy-winning US screenwriter who scripted 50 episodes of The Simpsons (1992-1994) and was consulting producer for 20 more (1996-1998), died on 14 November aged 61. [AIP]
• Tatsuya Nakadai (1932-2025), noted Japanese actor in Kwaidan (1964), Illusion of Blood (1965), The Face of Another (1966), The Tale of the Princess Kaguya (2013) and others, died on 8 November aged 92. [SJ]
• Alexander ‘Sasha’ Okun (1949-2025), Israeli author writing in Russian whose YA novel Placebo (2007; reissued as Uchenik aptekarya [Apothecary’s Apprentice]) is fantasy, died on 6 November. [AM]
• Danny Seagren (1943-2025), US actor in Sesame Street (1969-1986), The Great Santa Claus Switch (1970) and – as the first live-action Spider-Man – The Electric Company and Spidey Super Stories (both 1974-1977), died on 10 November aged 81. [SHS]
• Ralph Senensky (1923-2025), US director whose credits include Star Trek (7 episodes 1967-1968) and the fixup film Treachery and Greed on the Planet of the Apes (1980), died on 1 November aged 102. [SJ]
• Jack Shepherd (1940-2025), UK actor in The Bed Sitting Room (1969), Count Dracula (1977) and The Golden Compass (2007), died on 25 November aged 85. [SJ]
• Ken Smookler (1929-2025), long-time Canadian fan who was a founder of the Ontario SF Club in 1966 (and its first president) and worked on the successful Toronto in 1973 Worldcon bid, died on 11 November aged 96. [MM]
• Tom Stoppard (1937-2025), distinguished Czech-born UK playwright and Oscar winner, several of whose stage plays – notably Jumpers (1972) – had sf/fantasy elements, died on 29 November aged 88. Genre cinema script work included Brazil (1985), Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989, uncredited but openly acknowledged by Spielberg) and Revenge of the Sith (2005, uncredited). [AW]
• Lee Tamahori (1950-2025), New Zealand director of The Ray Bradbury Theatre (3 episodes 1990-1992), Die Another Day (2002) and Next (2007), died on 7 November aged 75. [SJ]
• John Russell Taylor (1935-2025), UK author, critic and biographer of Alec Guinness, Alfred Hitchcock – with the authorized Hitch: The Life and Times of Alfred Hitchcock (1978) – Orson Welles and others, died on 18 August aged 90. [AIP]
• Ron Tiner (Ronald Charles Tickner, 1940-2025), UK artist whose work – besides much illustration and comics art – includes The Encyclopedia of Fantasy & Science Fiction Art Techniques (1996 with John Grant) and the text for Mass: The Art of John Harris (2000), died on 18 October aged 85. He was a contributing editor of The Encyclopedia of Fantasy (1997). [SH]
• Jean-Louis Trudel (1967-2025), Canadian author who wrote in French and published some 30 sf novels and collections (both adult and YA) beginning with Aller simple pour Saguenal (1994), died in November aged 58. [PDF]
• Peter Watkins (1935-2025), UK filmmaker who wrote and directed the unforgettable Oscar-winning docudrama The War Game (1966) – about a nuclear attack on Britain – died on 30 October aged 90. [AIP] His other genre films are Privilege (1966), The Gladiators (1968 aka The Peace Game) and Punishment Park (1971).
The Weakest Link. Alexander Armstrong: ‘Fill in the movie title missing word. It’s a mythical creature, and we’ve given you the first letter.’ (The Little M____, 2023) Contestant: ‘Mouse.’ (BBC1, Pointless) [PE/AR/FD]
• Bradley Walsh: ‘The Rubens painting The Wrath of Achilles depicts a scene from which war?’ Contestant: ‘World War 2.’ (ITV, The Chase) [PE]
Auction Comics. Here we go again: a 1939 first issue of Superman found last year in a California attic sold through Heritage Auctions on 20 November for a record $9.12 million. (ABC7news.com, 26 November) [LB] Meanwhile a mint copy of the first ever Ansible has been valued at 12p.
Fanfundery. TransAtlantic Fan Fund: the 2026 race will run from North America to the Berlin Eurocon (MetropolCon, 2-5 July). Nominations are now open and will close on 1 February; voting then runs to 7 April. Candidates must find nominators (3 NA, 2 Euro) and provide a platform of up to 101 words plus $20 bond. More details at taff.org.uk.
• TAFF Library. Our latest release is Rob Hansen’s British SF Conventions Volume 4: 1958-1965, exploring sf events between the first and second UK Worldcons chronicled in volumes 3 and 5. With much funny reportage from days when the guests included Kingsley Amis and Edmund Crispin, while Brian Aldiss and Michael Moorcock were not only striving pros but fans behaving badly. See taff.org.uk/ebooks.php?x=UKcons4.
The Dead Past. 20 Years Ago, Terry Pratchett reported: ‘On Sunday AM on BBC1 yesterday Andrew Marr was kind enough to describe me as “following in the tradition of Philip Pullman and JK Rowling.” And a fine tradition it is.’ (Ansible 221, December 2005)
• 30 Years Ago, fandom was already everywhere: ‘The Financial Times offered a cartoon feature showing the financial past, with a highwayman stockbroker threatening Victorian investors, and the future – symbolized by the Mekon threatening investors wearing propellor beanies.’ (Ansible 101, December 1995)
Outraged Letters. Jonathan Cowie views with alarm: ‘SF² Concatenation news pages forthcoming books listing for Spring edition is being compiled right now. Well over a dozen imprints have sent in SF/F catalogues ... all well and good so far. But there has been a huge, HUGE, surge in fantasy, especially romantasy, and a bigger than usual decline in SF (SF always was junior to fantasy). One publisher, HarperCollins and also their Voyager imprint, has zero SF books in their catalogue!’ [SF²C]
Random Fandom. Dave Hicks received the 2025 Rotsler Award for life achievement in fanzine art. [F770]
• Novacon 54 in November had (according to Read Me) a generous hotel checkout time of 11pm. Alas, this was a typo for 11am – as the hotel had told the committee while, it sadly emerged, really meaning 10am. [SB]
• Pavel A. Samsonov explained the mysteries of the WSFS Business Meeting handbook Robert’s Rules of Order. The First Rule goes: ‘A Robert may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.’ SF scholars can now deduce the Second and Third Rules. (Mastodon.social, 1 November)
Zine Scene. The Birmingham SF Group is feeling the pinch and has polled its members about the future of Brum Group News (est. 1971): should monthly printed newsletters cease, presumably to be replaced by a digital version, or go quarterly? (Email, 22 November)
• Space Cowboy Books launches a new print magazine, Electronic Brain, on 9 December. For this ‘Cultural idiopathy’ see bookshop.org/a/197/9781968958008.
This Is The Future. Campbell’s, of soup fame, has fired an IT vice-president who was recorded saying he wouldn’t touch his company’s products ‘because they contain “bioengineered meat” and he doesn’t want to “eat chicken that came from a 3D printer”.’ (The Register, 28 November)
The Law’s Delays. Chris Barkley withdrew his arduous Hugo recovery lawsuit against the 2023 administrator Dave McCarty (see A456, A459, A460), despite the latter’s persistent failure to deliver any Hugos. [F770] The US Development Center for Chengdu Worldcon company has – as already happened in October, only to unhappen very shortly afterwards (A460) – revoked McCarty’s administrator status and taken over the responsibility of getting the 2023 trophies to their winners. Phew. [F770]
Thog’s Masterclass. It’s That Time of Year Again. ‘He’s all snotted up in this like slurry in alveoli.’ (China Miéville, Kraken, 2010) [BA]
• But What About the Neutron Flow? ‘...by reversing the drive polarity to open a quantum singularity in Bear’s gravity well, then thread the aperture with negative energy so that they create a stable wormhole. After that, it’s mainly a matter of expanding it to a usable size.’ (Allen Steele, Coyote Frontier, 2005) [BA]
• The Girl Had Guts. ‘Her jaw line began to flex and I admired the firm, strong chin she wore below the softness of her face. She had the sort of chin which goes with plenty of giblets.’ (Michael Morgan, Charity Begins at Homicide, 1950)
• Flowers of Rhetoric. ‘The next day dawned bright and clear on my empty stomach.’ (Michael Avallone, Meanwhile Back at the Morgue, 1960) ‘He was like a ghoul blown out of shape through a briar thicket by a harsh wind.’ (Tom Roan, The Dragon Strikes Back, 1936) ‘I was as confused as a sterile rabbit ...’ (Shell Scott, Way of a Wanton, 1956)
Geeks’ Corner
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Convention and Event Links
• British Isles – https://news.ansible.uk
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• 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.
• 18 December 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.’
• 1 January 2026, 6pm to late: an additional virtual gathering instread of the First Thursday gathering, since the pub will not be open on New Year’s Day.
https://bohemiancoast.medium.com/first-thursday-london-sf-fan-virtual-drinks-5232021e961f
Editorial. 2025 has been a year of many distractions at 94 London Road, where modest plans for a less muddy front path escalated when the gigantic cedar out there was diagnosed as increasingly likely to shed massive branches in bad weather (probably on to passing cars or people) or even fall over. At colossal expense it was removed, and eventually we ended up with new garden walls, a new paved parking space, and as an unexpected side effect a new bit of roof over the front bay window where the rain had kept coming in. Office work was particularly difficult when noisy things were happening outside, especially in the fraught days when burly chaps and heavy machinery laid siege to the huge stump and too many roots of that cedar, working in a big hole crossed by the slender wobbly pipe carrying our Internet connection.
Neverthless I dutifully churned out twelve monthly issues of Ansible, did a lot of SF Encyclopedia writing and editing (with site updates at least weekly), and added eight ebooks to the Little Free Library at taff.org.uk – where there are now 118 downloadables, 29 also available as paperbacks sold in aid of TAFF (or GUFF, or other funds). And already the indefatigable Rob Hansen is working on further fanhistorical projects....
Clarke Award. Submissions for 2025 opened in November and close on 31 December. See www.clarkeaward.com/#contact.
R.I.P. II – Late and Last-Minute Reports. Chet Clingan (1944-2024), author of short fiction 1973-1982 and editor – with various co-editors – of the fiction zine The Diversifier (1974-1979), died on 28 December 2024 aged 80. [PS-P]
• Michael Kenward (1945-2025), UK science writer and editor of New Scientist from 1979 to 1990, died in August aged 80. David Garnett reminds me that he edited and wrote reviews for six issues of the BSFA’s Vector, 1968-1970.
• Ingrid van Bergen (1931-2025), German actress whose films include The Vampire Happening (1971) and Sharknado 5 (2017), died on 28 November aged 94. [SJ]
The Dead Past II. 40 Years Ago, Thog’s 1994 Ansible debut was pre-empted: ‘At the next Minicon Damon Knight will judge a “bad SF” writing contest, in two categories. One will include “Putrid passages purloined from published pros(e).” Entries must identify the author and story they’re from.’ (File 770:56, December 1985)
Some Links from the Ansible home page.
• Scott Edelman on contract issues at F&SF (and sister magazines)
https://www.scottedelman.com/wordpress/2025/11/12/a-dream-denied/
• SMOFcon Future Conventions and Bids Q&A
https://www.smofcon42.com/at-smofcon-42/future-conventions-q-a
• TAFF accounts 2023-2025
https://taff.org.uk/news/Accounts2022-2025.pdf
Thog’s Golden Oldies from Ansible 221, December 2005. Prestidigitation Dept (or, Yoga Exercise #42). ‘As Morgan sat in another chair beside him, Duncan rolled his head in Morgan’s direction and looked at him searchingly, folding his hands and tapping joined forefingers against his cheek as he rested his elbows on the chair arms.’ (Katherine Kurtz, The Bishop’s Heir, 1984)
• Method Acting Dept. ‘Leash drilled his eyes into Ramsey.’ ‘May furrowed her brow. Her pupils jittered side to side, as if her frontal lobes were doing heavy lifting. Her gaze was so intense, it looked like her skull could blow up in a puff of hot steam at any moment. Then her face lit up with a divine epiphany.’ (both Greg Vilk, Golem, 2005)
Ansible® 461 © David Langford, 2025. Thanks to Brian Ameringen, Lenny Bailes, Sandra Bond, Paul Di Filippo, Fran Dowd, File 770, Marc Gascoigne, Rob Hansen, Steve Holland, Steve Jones, Locus, Murray Moore, Andrey Meshavkin, Omega, Lawrence Person, Andrew I. Porter, Private Eye, Ang Rosin, Steven H Silver, Phil Stephenson-Payne, SF² Concatenation, Andrew Wells, and as always our Hero Distributors: Durdles Books (Birmingham SF Group), SCIS/Prophecy, and Alan Stewart (Australia). Seasonal good wishes to all readers! 1 December 2025