Monthly Archives: February 2010

The great fantastist Jack Vance won the Hugo for the first time in 1963 for his novella “The Dragon Masters”, and backed up the following year winning again for his novelette “The Last Castle”. He was nominated again in 1975 for “Assault on a City”, but has not appeared on a Hugo ballot since. That’s … Continue reading »

My post supporting Starship Sofa for the Hugo Award in the category of Best Fanzine has been drawing a healthy number of comments, all of which have been both civil and welcome.  Some commenters have stated the view that a fanzine is a very specific thing and that podcasts really should not be considered in … Continue reading »

For all that I love science fiction and science fiction magazines; my favourite magazine in the world is, by some considerable margin, The Word.  It’s the only magazine that I subscribe to that I don’t read for professional reasons and one of the few that I read cover-to-cover every issue. Just the month before last … Continue reading »

So I need to lose like a billion kilos, right, cos almost all of my activities are sedentary. I’m trying to fit in as much walking as I can to aid in the cause. Just did a six kilometre round trip walk to the local shopping centre in 28C sunshine. I am sweating like a … Continue reading »

One of my happiest discoveries last year was Tony C. Smith’s StarShip Sofa podcast. Each week the indefatigable Tony would sit down with some of science fiction’s luminaries and chat about what they were up to, the day-to-day issues confronting the science fiction field, and so on. The podcast was bright and smart and funny.  … Continue reading »