Ansible® 462, January 2026
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. Available for SAE, or the secret link between Max Carrados and Mr Fisher-King.
Wurzel-Flummery
Harrison Ford is to receive the SAG-AFTRA (Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) Life Achievement Award for his acting and humanitarian career. (Deadline, 18 December)
R.F. Kuang withdrew from the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature (Dubai, 21-27 January) in response to a call for a UAE boycott because of the current atrocities in Sudan. (The Bookseller, 4 December) [SF²C]
Terry Pratchett anecdotes still keep turning up. The author of a memoir of High Wycombe Technical School bitterly recollects the games master’s ruling that boys considered unfit for games owing to asthma etc. literally had to shovel coal instead. But our man found a younger pupil prepared to do the makework for a shilling, for which in 1960 ‘you could buy four Mars Bars or four packets of Smith’s Crisps. [...] I think I can possibly lay claim to have given Terry Pratchett his first paid job.’ (Stuart Rooksby, The High Wycombe Society Newsletter, Winter 2025)
David Walliams has been dropped by HarperCollins UK despite his status as a bestselling children's author, in the wake of ‘allegations of inappropriate behaviour towards young women’ which he strenuously denies. (BBC, 19 December) According to the Telegraph, ‘Former [HC] staff also told this publication that they were told to work in “pairs” when meeting Walliams and were advised not to visit his home.’ (19 December) Early repercussions include his removal from the list of speakers at the 2026 Waterstones Children’s Book Festival. (BBC, 22 December)
Sylvia Townsend Warner of Lolly Willowes and Kingdoms of Elfin fame is now commemorated by a statue of her seated on a bench – with a cat familiar in attendance – unveiled in Dorchester, Dorset, in December. This followed a campaign asking for nominations of overlooked local women; she ‘won by a landslide’. (Guardian, 12 December) [AIP]
Confinity
Click here for longlist • London • Overseas
8 Jan • London Pub Meeting, The Bishop’s Finger, 9-10 West Smithfield, EC1A 9JR. All evening. Replaces the usual ‘First Thursday’ because the pub was closed on 1 January. See news.ansible.uk/london.html.
16-18 & 23-25 Jan • 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.
18 Jan 2026 • SF, Comic & Toy Fair, Heywood Sports Village. 11am-4pm. Tickets £3, children £1. See www.mseevents.co.uk.
25 Jan 2026 • SF, Comic & Toy Fair, Ruskin Sports Village, St Helens. 11am-4pm. Tickets £5, children £3. See www.mseevents.co.uk.
30 Jan - 1 Feb • Contabile 36 (filk), Wensum Valley Hotel, Norwich. £45 reg; £35 concessions; £20/day. See www.contabile.org.uk/c36/.
6-9 Feb • Scotiacon (furry), Crowne Plaza Hotel, Glasgow. Western theme. £100 reg or £45/day; for membership/hotel room packages see www.scotiacon.org.uk. Registration closes on 4 January.
14 Feb • WrexCon (comics), Wrexham University, LL11 2AW. 10am-5pm. See www.ljeventsentertainment.com.
7 Mar • Picocon 42, Imperial College, London. Membership rates and website awaited.
27-28 Mar • TFnation (Transformers), Pendulum Hotel, Manchester. Ticket sales awaited at tfnation.com/TFN-Manchester-2026.
11-12 Apr • Conpulsion (games), The Pleasance, Edinburgh, EH8 9TJ. Tickets £28 or £18 for either day. See conpulsion.org.
23 or 24 May • Peter Cushing Celebration, Whitstable. £75 for either day – same programme both days. See renownfilms.co.uk.
18-19 Jul • Weird Worcester (film), U of Worcester Arena. £37; £47 early entry. See www.treasuredfilms.co.uk/weirdworcester.
7-9 Aug • MCM Comic Con, Birmingham NEC. Tickets awaited at www.mcmcomiccon.com/birmingham/en-us.html
15-16 Aug • Caption (small press/comics), Seacourt Hall, Botley, Oxford, OX2 9TH. Venue TBC. See captionfestival.co.uk.
15 Aug • Stars of Time (comics), Winter Gardens, Weston-super-Mare. £12.62; concessions/under-14s £8.30. See www.starsoftime.co.uk.
27-31 Aug • LAcon V, Anaheim Convention Center, California. $230 adult reg; $175 first Worldcon – rising to $250 and $200 on 4 January. $125 YA (18-24); $100 teen (13-17); $50 child (6-12); infants free. $50 WSFS only. Virtual membership $85 from 4 January. See www.lacon.org. LAcon V will present a Best Poetry Hugo as its optional extra category. Virtual WSFS business meetings are on 17 July, 26 July, 1 August and 9 August, all starting at 9am Pacific time (6pm British Summer Time).
2-6 Sep 2027 • Montréal Worldcon 2027, Montréal, Canada. New rates from 1 January 2026, all in Canadian dollars: adults $265 (inc $70 WSFS membership, required), first Worldcon $180 (ditto), under-31s $210 (ditto), under-18s $100 (inc $50 WSFS membership, optional), under-13s $55 (ditto), accompanied under-8s free. See montreal2027.ca.
Rumblings. BristolCon (Bristol, October) registration is expected to open on 1 February at www.bristolcon.org.
Infinitely Improbable
As We See Us. ‘... the influence of pulp science on real science. It is an admission both shamefaced and proud that some large proportion of scientists claim inspiration from various crude blatherings they loved when young. Satellite scientists cite Arthur Clarke, biologists are drawn to the field by the neuro- and nanotech visions of entertainers. Above all, Roddenberry’s leaden space-pioneering meant a demographic bulge of young physicists attempting to replicate replicators, tricorders, phasers and transporter rooms ...’ (China Miéville, Kraken, 2010) [BA]
Awards. 2026 UK New Year Honours List: ‘services to drama’ honorees with significant genre credits include Warwick Davis (OBE), Cynthia Erivo (MBE), Matt Lucas (OBE) and Meera Syal (Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire).
R.I.P. Vera Alentova (1942-2025), Russian actress who played the goddess Ishtar in Empire V (2023, based on Viktor Pelevin’s novel) died on 25 December aged 83. [AM]
• Sergey Banevich (1941-2025), Russian composer who scored the sf film Zaveshchaniye professora Dowella (Professor Dowell's Testament, 1984, based on Alexander Belyaev’s novel Professor Dowell's Head) died on 21 December. [AM]
• Stanley Baxter (1926-2025), BAFTA-winning UK comic actor in Mr Majeika (title role, 20 episodes 1988-1990) and The Jungle Book (1992), died on 11 December aged 99.
• Steven Bond (1953-2025), long-time Minneapolis fan and collector, a former comics shop owner, died on Christmas Day. His character Kragar in Steven Brust’s role-playing game became a regular in the long-running ‘Dragaera’ fantasy sequence by Brust. [BF]
• Pierre Bordage (1955-2025), prolific French author of much sf and fantasy since 1992, died on 26 December aged 70. Literary honours include the Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire. [F770]
• Françoise Brion (1933-2025), French actress in Attack of the Robots (1966), La mort mystérieuse de Nina Chéreau (1988) and She Is Conann (2023), died on 12 December aged 92. [SJ]
• Amanda Brotchie, Australian director whose genre credits include ZuZu & the SuperNuffs (2013) and two 2025 episodes of Doctor Who, died on 19 December.
• Bob Burns III (1935-2025), US actor, effects technician and noted collector/historian of genre film props and costumes – as described in It Came From Bob’s Basement (2001) by John Michlig – died on 16 December aged 90. [SJ] In his many films from Invasion of the Saucer-Men (1957) to 2015 he often played monsters or gorillas.
• Yevgeny Drozd (1947-2025), Belarusian sf&f author (writing in Russian) of Vampiry tozhe lyudi (Vampires Are People Too, 2009) and three collections, and translator of Aldiss’s The Malacia Tapestry, died on 13 December aged 78. [AM]
• Juli Erickson (1939-2025), US actress whose genre credits include Bigfoot Wars (2014), The Shadow People (2017), Howlers (2019) and Soul Frackers (2020), and who also did much voice work for anime dubs, died on 17 December aged 86. [SJ]
• Susie Figgis (1948-2025), UK casting director for Interview with the Vampire (1994), Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (2001), The Time Traveler’s Wife (2009), Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children (2016) and many more, died on 12 December aged 77. [AIP]
• Pat Finn (1965-2025), US actor in Space Buddies (2009), Spooky Buddies (2011) and Santa Paws 2 (2012), died on 22 December aged 60. [SJ]
• Anthony Geary (1947-2025), Emmy-winning US General Hospital actor whose genre films include Blood Sabbath (1972), The Return of Captain Nemo (1978), Grave Misdemeanours (1989) and High Desert Kill (1989), died on 14 December aged 78. [SJ]
• Gil Gerard (1943-2025), US actor who starred in Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1979 film, 1979-1981 tv), died on 16 December aged 82. Other credits include the monster movies Bone Eater (2007), Reptisaurus (2009) and Dire Wolf (2009). [PS-P]
• Terence M. Green (1947-2025), Canadian sf/fantasy author active since the late 1970s, whose first novel was the sf police procedural Barking Dogs (1988), died on 19 December aged 78. [SJ]
• Peter Greene (1965-2025), US actor in The Mask (1994), Earthling (2010), The Time Travel Hills (2024) and others, died on 12 December aged 60. [LP]
• Tiit Härm (1946-2025), Estonian ballet dancer and actor in the Strugatsky-based Dead Mountaineer’s Hotel (1979) and the Alexander Grin-based Blistayushchiy mir (The Shining World, 1984), died on 7 December aged 79. [AM]
• Arthur D. Hlavaty (1942-2025), US fan active in many APAs, whose funny and clever personalzine The Diagonal Relationship (1977-2002) went through various DR titles ending with Derogatory Reference, died on 9 December aged 83. [BB] He was a friend.
• Rebecca Heineman (1963-2025), transgender US video game developer whose titles include Robin Hood (1983), The Bard’s Tale III: Thief of Fate (1988), Dragon Wars (1989) and a 1990s console version of Doom, died on 17 November aged 62. [AIP]
• Anatoly Korolyov (1946-2025), Russian author whose genre novels include Blyustiteli neba (Guardians of the Skies, 1992), Instinkt # pyat (Instinct # Five, 2004) and Dom bliznetsov (The House of Twins, 2016) died on 29 December. [AM]
• Epy Kusnandar (1964-2025), Indonesian actor in The ABCs of Death (2012), V/H/S/2 (2013), The Returning Dead (2025) and others, died on 3 December aged 61. [SJ]
• Natalia Rakhmanova (1930-2025), Russian translator of many genre works since 1957 – including The Hobbit – died on 21 December aged 95. [AM]
• James Ransone (1979-2025), US actor in The American Astronaut (2001), Sinister (2012 plus sequel), It: Chapter 2 (2019) and The Black Phone (2021 plus sequel), committed suicide on 19 December aged 46. [LP]
• Candy Raymond (1950-2025/6), Australian actress in The Phantom Gunslinger (1970) and Shirley Thompson Versus the Aliens (1972) was reported on 1 January as having died aged 75.
• Rob Reiner (1947-2025), Emmy-winning actor and film-maker who directed The Princess Bride (1987), was found stabbed to death at home – together with his wife Michele – on 14 December; he was 78. Their son has been arrested. [MR]
• Helen Siff, US actress in I Dream of Jeannie ... Fifteen Years Later (1985), Earth Girls Are Easy (1988) and others, died on 18 December aged 88. [SG]
• Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa (1950-2025), Japanese-US actor who played the evil sorcerer Shang Tsung in Mortal Kombat (1995 plus sequels and spinoffs), died on 4 December aged 75. Other credits include The Phantom (1996), Planet of the Apes (2001), Tekken (2020) and The Man in the High Castle (2015-2018). [SJ]
• John Varley (1947-2025), US author whose dazzling sf of the 1970s and 1980s won him three Hugos, two Nebulas and a heap of Locus Awards, died on 10 December aged 78. His 1977 story ‘Air Raid’ as by Herb Boehm was the basis of his screenplay for the film Millennium (1989). [MS]
• John L. Waggott (1964-2025), popular UK fan and convention-goer, active since the late 1970s and known to all as ‘Wag’, died on 18 December aged 61. [AT]
• Jim Ward (1959-2025), US voice actor whose credits include Jetsons: The Movie (1990), The Fairly OddParents (95 episodes 2001-2017), Ratchet & Clank (2002 videogame with many sequels) and Wolverine and the X-Men (20 episodes 2008), died on 10 December aged 66. [AIP]
• Isiah Whitlock Jr. (1954-2025), US actor in Enchanted (2007), Europa Report (2013), Pete’s Dragon (2016), The Mist (2017) and Lightyear (2022), died on 30 December aged 71. [LP]
• Vince Zampella (1970-2025), co-creator of the Call of Duty videogame plus such sf computer games as Apex Legends and Titanfall, died in a car crash on 21 December; he was 55.
For the Fan Who Has Everything. Arion Press offers an art book of two rare Asimov stories, ‘Nightfall’ and ‘The Last Question’: ‘The Fine Press edition is limited to 210 copies for sale and printed by letterpress on 125 gsm Zerkall mouldmade. The book features three anthotype prints by the artist and five double-page spreads of Ebtekar’s “Cloud” prints. Each copy is Smythe-sewn and square-backed, and presented in an imprinted handmade slipcase.’ Only $1,575, and – as Flann O’Brien ended his spoof of such descriptions – a gory livid bleeding bargain at the price. [JDB]
Court Circular. Studio Gainax of Japan, noted for many anime productions including Shinseiki Evangelion (Neon Genesis Evangelion, 1995-1996), was formally dissolved on 10 December; they had filed for bankruptcy in May 2024. All IP rights have reportedly been transferred to rightful owners and creators. (Anime News Network, 10 December) [LP]
Award Shortlist. Prometheus Hall of Fame (libertarian classics): The Star Dwellers (1961) by James Blish, Brave New World (1932) by Aldous Huxley, That Hideous Strength (1945) by C.S. Lewis, Salt (2000) by Adam Roberts, Singularity Sky (2003) by Charles Stross. Perhaps Rudyard Kipling’s ‘As Easy as A.B.C.’, shortlisted seventeen times for this award (2006-2025) without ever winning, has at last been put to rest.
Fanfundery. TransAtlantic Fan Fund: nominations for the 2026 race from North America to the Berlin Eurocon (MetropolCon, 2-5 July) are still open and will close on 1 February. For the official announcement at taff.org.uk, please see taff.org.uk/news/2026race.pdf.
• TAFF Books: no new announcements for once, but many thanks to everyone who bought fan-fund benefit paperbacks from the list at ae.ansible.uk/titles.php?taff. Such sales raised over £300 for TAFF and over £50 for GUFF in 2025.
SFWA announced changes to the Nebula Awards rules on 19 December, most significantly regarding use of what some call plagiarism engines: ‘Works that are wholly written using generative large language model (LLM) tools are not eligible. / Works that used LLMs at any point during the writing process must disclose this upon acceptance of the nomination, and the nature of the technology’s use will be made clear to voters on the final ballot.’ As a crowd of outraged SFWA authors with pitchforks and flaming torches began to form, this was hastily revised:‘wholly’ in the first sentence became ‘either wholly or partially’ and the last clause of the second became ‘and those works will be disqualified’. [JS/F770] Many, many ensuing pro-AI and anti-AI posts are mercifully not summarized here.
The Dead Past. 20 Years Ago, the devout website balaams-ass.com (now defunct) exposed ‘the darker and esoteric meanings of the Chronicles of Narnia’, including the author’s vile profanity: ‘The word “ass” appears in 4 of the books. Being British, it probably did not mean the same to him as it does to Americans (as a swear word), but he could have left it out, especially since he only used it four times and did use “donkey” in other places. However, considering the filthy state of his mind, it is possible that he thought this cute.’ (Ansible 222, January 2006) Why the site wasn’t called balaams-donkey.com remains a profane mystery.
• 80 Years Ago, some possible fake news about the official magazine of the National Fantasy Fan Federation: ‘The ink in which the National Fantasy Fans have been duplicated will fade out completely within a year unless sprayed with goat’s milk. Speer has a large number of copies so treated, for which he will charge exorbitant prices for those who wish to have complete files of TNFF.’ (Stefnews 28, January 1946, ed. Jack Speer)
The Dark Web. Following the death of its owner Rodger Turner in June 2025, the long-running SFsite.com – launched in 1997 – has at last ceased to function but is preserved at the Internet Archive. [A]
Random Fandom. Chris Barkley, following much legal and other hassle (see A461 with links to older Ansible coverage), has at last received the Hugo he won at the 2023 Chengdu Worldcon – sent by administrator Dave McCarty, who, despite being twice stripped of responsibilities by the DCFCW holding company that planned to despatch the trophies itself, had begged one last chance to carry out his long-delayed duty. [F770]
• Fancyclopedia.org has a not very threatening rival with the corresponding .net domain, whose entries seem to have been generated by a system trained on corporate-brochure puffery. Fandom’s once notorious Claude Degler gets ten chapters analysing his various forms of ‘excellence’; from ‘Chapter 5: Social Dynamics and Community Excellence’ we learn that ‘Claude Degler social established revolutionary frameworks for community advancement while creating systematic approaches to social disruption that would influence fannish society through social methodology worthy of recognition as transformative achievement in community development deserving continued study and appreciation.’ [CF/JDN] Well I never. I hardly dare read this site’s ten-chapter exegesis of the Astral Leauge.
Magazine Scene. Copies of the delayed (under new management) Analog, Asimov’s and F&SF have at last been seen in the wild. Some F&SF covers admit to ‘Summer 2025’; others mysteriously say ‘Volume I’. [CP]
Thog’s Masterclass. Windmill Weather. ‘The day was the quixotic sort, half-gloomy, half challenging.’ (Roger Arcot, ‘The Timeless Man’, June 1956 Other Worlds)
• Scientific Units. ‘According to this little instrument, we’re heading for a pile of hydrogen gas!’ ‘Peters informed them that they were on the edge of a thick band of hydrogen, which seemingly stretched away for incalculable distances on all sides.’ ‘They were travelling at enormous speed towards the largest concentrated “blob” of hydrogen any of them had experienced, and they were hopelessly out of control!’ ‘Those terrible explosions that followed, causing us to be bumped all over the place, were due to large lumps of flaming hydrogen gas being flung from the disintegrating sun.’ (Terence Haile, Galaxies Ahead, 1963)
• It’s All Greek To Me. ‘Doyle searched his memory; then he recognized it – a pentagram, with its circles and six-pointed star.’ (Henry Kuttner, ‘The Hunt’, June 1939 Strange Stories) [LP]
Geeks’ Corner
Subscriptions. To receive Ansible monthly via email, send a message to:
ansible-news+subscribe [at] googlegroups.com
You will be asked to confirm by email that you want to join the group. To resign from the Google Groups list, send email to:
ansible-news+unsubscribe [at] googlegroups.com
More details on this page:
https://news.ansible.uk/asubs.html
Home page – https://news.ansible.uk/
RSS feed – https://news.ansible.uk/rss.html
LiveJournal syndication – http://www.livejournal.com/users/ansiblezine/
Back issues – https://news.ansible.uk/aseries2.html
Printable PDFs – https://news.ansible.uk/pdf/
Email the editor – https://news.ansible.uk/contact.php
Books Received – https://ansible.uk/books.php
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
https://ae.ansible.uk/
https://ansible.uk/books/index.html
Group Theory.
• 15 January 2026, 6pm to late: 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. Many thanks for heaps of seasonal cards and good wishes. My apologies to anyone who as a result of general Langford inefficiency didn’t get a response. The link below goes to our utterly jolly festive e-card for 2025.
https://ansiblemag.substack.com/p/nearly-solstice
The Dead Past II. 20 Years Ago: Clive James, writing about ‘sludge fiction’, showed no respect for ‘... the classically awful British television SF series Blakes Seven: no apostrophe in the title, no sense in the plot. The depraved space queen Servalan, played by the slinky Jacqueline Pearce, could never quite bring herself to volatilize the dimly heroic Blake even when she had him square in the sights of her plasmatic spasm guns. The secret of Blake’s appeal, or Blakes appeal, for the otherwise infallibly fatale Servalan remained a mystery, like the actual wattage of light bulb on which the design of Blake’s spaceship, or Blakes spaceship, was plainly based.’ (Times Literary Supplement) (Ansible 222, January 2006)
Bad Times All Round. Sean Markey’s small press Psychopomp has ceased publishing novellas and novelettes, and put nonfiction and Fantasy Magazine on hiatus from December. (Psychopomp.com) [F770]
Some Links from the Ansible home page.
• 2026 TAFF race announcement
https://taff.org.uk/news/2026race.pdf
• Author contracts: the state of play
https://camestrosfelapton.wordpress.com/2025/12/20/new-felapton-towers-contract-for-authors/
• The Cruciverbal Inquisitor meets Michael Crichton
https://www.fifteensquared.net/2025/12/02/inquisitor-1935-your-move-by-ploy/
Thog’s Golden Oldies from Ansible 222, January 2006. Dept of Nose Noises. ‘But the younger man had a nose for trouble which Acevedo had learned to trust, or at least listen very carefully to.’ (David Weber. Changer of Worlds, 2001)
• ‘He whispered under his nose.’ (Greg Vilk, Golem, 2005)
• True Romance Dept (or, Precursors of Gor). ‘I looked at Miellyn, took her slender unmanacled hand in mine, and smiled as we walked through the gates of the city. Now, after all my years on Wolf, I understood the desire to keep their women under lock and key that was its ancient custom. I vowed to myself as we went that I should waste no time finding a fetter shop and having forged therein the perfect steel chains that should bind my love’s wrists to my key forever.’ (Marion Zimmer Bradley, The Door Through Space, 1961)
• Dept of Complex Mapping. ‘However erroneous the theory upon which the cartographers evolved their maps, mine were not entirely useless; though they required considerable mental mathematical gymnastics to translate them into usable information ... the actual and the apparent measurements of distance can be reconciled by multiplying each by the square root of minus one!' (Edgar Rice Burroughs, Escape on Venus, 1946)
Ansible® 462 © David Langford, 2026. Thanks to Ahasuerus, Brian Ameringen, John D. Berry, Bernadette Bosky, File 770, Camestros Felapton, Beth Friedman, Steve Green, Steve Jones, Andrey Meshavkin, James D. Nicoll, Lawrence Person, Curt Phillips, Andrew I. Porter, Marcus Rowland, Jason Sanford, SF² Concatenation, Mike Stamm, Phil Stephenson-Payne, Adela Terrell, and as always our Hero Distributors: Durdles Books (Birmingham SF Group), SCIS/Prophecy, and Alan Stewart (Australia). Happy New Year to you all. 2 January 2026