A Very Special Meeting, tonight: instead of an interview, a panel discussion about this year’s BSFA Awards, featuring Jon Courtenay Grimwood, Alastair Reynolds, and Adam Roberts.
The time and place stay the same, though: turn up from 6pm for discussion from 7pm, in the upstairs room of The Antelope (22 Eaton Terrace, London, SW1W 8EZ. The closest tube station is Sloane Square, and a map is here). The meeting is free, and open to any and all; and there will be a raffle with books as prizes.
The guest at tonight’s BSFA London Meeting is Nick Lowe, film reviewer for Interzone. He will be interviewed by Graham Sleight.
As usual, interview will start at 7pm, though there will be people in the bar from 6-ish; the meeting is free, though there will be a raffle (with sf books as prizes), and it is open to any and all.
The venue is the upstairs room of The Antelope, 22 Eaton Terrace, London, SW1W 8EZ. The closest tube station is Sloane Square, and a map is here.
Even all the snow ever can’t stop the new Vector getting through, it seems:
Torque Control — editorial
Letters — from Anna Feruglio Dal Dan and Martin Lewis
HG Wells’ The War of the Worlds as a controlling metaphor for the twentieth century — Stephen Baxter
The Menace of War: Einstein, Freud and SF by James Holden
After Heinlein: Politics in Scalzi’s Green Soldier Universe by Martin McGrath
The Flowers of War — Nick Hubble considers The Carhullan Army
First Impressions — book reviews edited by Kari Sperring
Transmission, Interrupted — a TV column by Saxon Bullock
Foundation Favourites: Memoirs of a Spacewoman — Andy Sawyer
Resonances: Hitler Wins — Stephen Baxter
The New X: Wings of Song — Graham Sleight
It’s a big issue — twelve pages more than usual! — but as noted in the editorial, I also recommend the following supplementary reading:
Wild Hearts in Uniform — Gwyneth Jones
Denvention 3 Guest of Honour Speech — Lois McMaster Bujold
Letters to the usual address; and, as ever, if your copy doesn’t arrive in a timely fashion, let us know. Otherwise, apologies for the quiet period around here — very busy with the day job at the moment, and I’m off to Montreal (for all of 48 hours!) tomorrow.
The guest at tonight’s BSFA London Meeting is Michael Swanwick, who will be interviewed by Roz Kaveney.
As usual, the venue is the upstairs room of The Antelope, 22 Eaton Terrace, London, SW1W 8EZ. The closest tube station is Sloane Square, and a map is here.
The meeting is free (although there will be a raffle, with sf books as prizes), and any and all are welcome. The interview will start at 7pm, although there’ll be people in the bar from 6 onwards.
Best Novel
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Flood by Stephen Baxter
The Gone-Away World by Nick Harkaway
The Night Sessions by Ken MacLeod
Anathem by Neal Stephenson
Best Short Fiction
“Exhalation” by Ted Chiang (Eclipse 2)
“Crystal Nights” [pdf] by Greg Egan (Interzone 215)
“Little Lost Robot” [pdf] by Paul McAuley (Interzone 217)
“Evidence of Love in a Case of Abandonment” by M. Rickert (F&SF, Oct/Nov 2008)
Best Non-Fiction
“Physics for Amnesia” by John Clute
Superheroes!: Capes and Crusaders in Comics and Films by Roz Kaveney (I.B. Tauris)
What It Is We Do When We Read Science Fiction by Paul Kincaid (Beccon)
Rhetorics of Fantasy by Farah Mendlesohn (Wesleyan)
Best Artwork
Cover of Subterfuge, ed. Ian Whates, by Andy Bigwood
Cover of Flood by Stephen Baxter, by Blacksheep
Cover of Swiftly by Adam Roberts, by Blacksheep
Cover of Murky Depths 4 by Vincent Chong
Cover of Interzone 218 by Warwick Fraser Coombe
Congratulations to all the nominees! Note that there are only four nominees in the Best Novel, Best Short Fiction, and Best Non-Fiction categories due to multiple-way ties for fifth place. The Awards will be presented at this year’s Eastercon, LX, on 11th April.
The new issue of Vector should be dropping through letterboxes right about now. It looks like this:
And contains the following:
Torque Control — editorial
Letters — from Nic Clarke, Lindsay Jackson and James Bacon
The BSFA Awards — call for nominations by Donna Scott
Doris Lessing and SF — by Adam Roberts
… And The Law Won — by Jonathan McCalmont
On the ‘Art’ of Reviewing — by Frank Ludlow
First Impressions — reviews, edited by Kari Sperring
Particles — books received, compiled by Kari Sperring
Transmission Interrupted: Midnight at the Lost and Found — a TV column by Saxon Bullock
Foundation’s Favourites: Vector 1 — by Andy Sawyer
Resonances — by Stephen Baxter
The New X: Photocopying the Navel of Augustus Caesar — by Graham Sleight
There’s already been a bit of discussion about the issue on the BSFA forum; as ever, all feedback is welcome. I’d particularly like to be able to continue running a print letters column, so send your comments to the usual address.
Although this issue was a bit (cough) delayed, V258 is following close behind, and with any luck should go to the printers next week. And if you’re really lucky, I’ll get around to putting some articles up on the website this weekend.
A good time was had by all, I think, and I took some slightly blurry photos:
This one is Martin McGrath (right) announcing the results of the BSFA 50 short story competition, as judged by Alastair Reynolds (left), BSFA president Stephen Baxter (middle) and Justina Robson (not pictured). The winner was Roderick Gladwish for his story “Nestbuster”; additional photos here.
Or, in chronological order, Tony Keen has news about a party:
On Wednesday 26th November 2008, from around 7pm
in
The Melton Mowbray (18, Holborn, London, ec1n 2le)
BSFA 50th anniversary party
Including the announcement of the winner of the BSFA Short Story competition
ALL WELCOME
(No entry fee or tickets. Non-members welcome. There will be a raffle.)
(Note one-time only change of venue.)
And Donna Scott wants nominations for the awards:
BSFA Awards 2008 – Nominations
The rules
You may nominate a work if YOU:
— Are a member of the BSFA
— Send or give your nominations to the Awards Administrator to arrive by January 16th 2009.Best Novel
The Best Novel award is open to any novel-length work of science fiction or fantasy that has been published in the UK for the first time in 2008. (Serialised novels are eligible, provided that the publication date of the concluding part is in 2008). If a novel has been previously published elsewhere, but it hasn’t been published in the UK until 2008, it is eligible.Best Short Fiction
The Best Short Fiction award is open to any shorter work of science fiction or fantasy, up to and including novellas, first published in 2008 (in a magazine, in a book, or online). This includes books and magazines published outside the UK.Best Artwork
The Best Artwork award is open to any single science fictional or fantastic image that first appeared in 2008. Again, provided the artwork hasn’t been published before 2008 it doesn’t matter where it appears.Best Non-Fiction
The Best Non-Fiction award is open to any written work about science fiction and/or fantasy which appeared in its current form in 2008, in print or online. Whole collections comprised of work that has been published elsewhere previous to 2008 are ineligible.Notes
Subject to these other rules, you may nominate as many pieces as you like in any category, but you may only submit one nomination for any particular piece.The shortlists for these four awards will be comprised from the five works in each category that receive the most individual nominations by the deadline. Works published by the BSFA, or in association with the BSFA, are ineligible for a BSFA award. The deadline for me to receive nominations will be midnight, Friday January 16th 2009.
Your nominations can reach me in several ways. Perhaps the easiest is by email – I can be reached at awards@bsfa.co.uk. It would be helpful if you can write the award category, author or artist, title, and the source (i.e. the publisher or magazine). There are columns for this information on the form that should have gone out with this mailing for those who would prefer to use snail mail. All nominations must be received in writing, and must include your name to be accepted.
The guest at tonight’s BSFA London Meeting is John Clute, who will be interviewed by journalist Andrew McKie.
As usual, the venue is the upstairs room of The Antelope, 22 Eaton Terrace, London, SW1W 8EZ. The closest tube station is Sloane Square, and a map is here.
The meeting is free (although there will be a raffle), and any and all are welcome. The interview will start at 7pm, although there’ll be people in the bar from 6 onwards.
The guest at tonight’s BSFA London Meeting is Farah Mendlesohn, author of Rhetorics of Fantasy, co-editor of The Cambridge Companion to Science Fiction, and much else. She’ll be interviewed by Tony Keen.
As usual, the venue is the upstairs room of The Antelope, 22 Eaton Terrace, London, SW1W 8EZ. The closest tube station is Sloane Square, and a map is here.
The meeting is free (although there will be a raffle), and open to any and all. The interview will start at 7pm, although there’ll be people in the bar from 6 onwards.
vector-bsfa.com 
