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Sunday 28 April 2002

Death

George Alec Effinger, born 1947, has died in New Orleans. A graduate of Clarion, he was the author of numerous novels and stories, including the popular cyberpunk series beginning with When Gravity Fails (1987), Hugo-, Nebula-, and Sturgeon-award winning novelette "Schrödinger's Kitten" (1988), and many satirical works from early short story "All the Last Wars at Once" (1971) to a recent series of stories about Maureen Birnbaum, Barbarian Swordsperson. Known affectionately in the science fiction community as "Piglet" (a nickname he came to dislike), Effinger had been ill for several years. Further details will be posted when they become available.

Update 29 April: The SFWA News page links to this Boston Globe obituary of Effinger, and posts a remembrance by Lawrence Person.

Update 30 April: The New Orleans Times-Picayune has published this obituary by Susan Larson.

Update 2 May: This obituary in Cleveland's The Plain Dealer is compiled from staff and wire reports; Effinger was born in Cleveland, and this piece has some details of his background there.

The New York Times today runs this Associated Press obituary of "George Effinger"; it's the same piece that ran in the Boston Globe, but NYT includes a photo.

Editorial note: Every obit notes that "Schrödinger's Kitten" won the Nebula in 1988 and the Hugo in 1989, but this is incorrect: the story was published in 1988, and received both awards in 1989. The confusion comes from the different dating conventions of the two awards.


Awards


Above: Catherine Asaro; Robin Wayne Bailey. Below: Jim Frenkel, Betty Ballantine, Ellen Datlow

§ The 2001 Nebula Awards winners were announced Saturday evening, April 27, at a banquet in Kansas City, Missouri.

NOVEL
  • The Quantum Rose, Catherine Asaro (Tor)
  • NOVELLA
  • "The Ultimate Earth", Jack Williamson (Analog Dec 2000)
  • NOVELETTE
  • "Louise's Ghost", Kelly Link (Stranger Things Happen, Small Beer Press)
  • SHORT STORY
  • "The Cure for Everything", Severna Park (Sci Fiction 06.22.00)
  • SCRIPT
  • Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, James Schamus, Kuo Jung Tsai & Hui-Ling Wang (Sony Pictures Classics; from the book by Du Lu Wang)
  • Only Catherine Asaro was present to accept her Nebula; Ellen Datlow accepted for Kelly Link and Severna Park, Tor editor Jim Frenkel accepted for Jack Williamson, and Robin Wayne Bailey accepted for the Crouching Tiger screenwriters.

    In addition, a special President's Award was presented to Betty Ballantine. There was no Grand Master Award this year. Further details, and photos from the weekend's events, are available on the SFWA site:

    SFWA News

    Update 29 April: The Kansas City Star had this coverage and guide to Nebula Weekend by John Mark Eberhart.


    Wednesday 24 April 2002

    Obits

    Damon Knight rates a death notice on Time Magazine's Milestones page for April 29 (scroll down).

    Damon Knight, 79, science-fiction author and critic whose darkly wry short story To Serve Man became a famous episode of TV's Twilight Zone; in Eugene, Ore. An early member, with Isaac Asimov, of the influential writers' group the Futurians, Knight, in 1956, wrote In Search of Wonder, considered among the most important works of science-fiction criticism. The title To Serve Man refers to the name of a manual carried by aliens promising to end Earth's war and hunger. The manual turns out to be a cookbook.

    § Joan Harrison, wife of SF author Harry Harrison, died on April 21, 2002. (Locus Magazine will have tributes by Brian Aldiss and Sam J. Lundwall.)

    Awards

    § Ditmar Award nominations, for achievement in Australian SF, have been announced. Winners will be presented at ConVergence, in June 2002.

    Politics

    § All over the weblogs the past day is this item about an Alabama legistator who would finance the space program by taxing.... science fiction.

    § This item about one Gordon Van Gelder is complete coincidence...

    Dayworld Infringement?

    § The latest slate of TV series in development by the Sci Fi Channel includes this item--

    On the Seventh Day. The seven-hour limited series takes place in the year 2850 in an overcrowded world in which the government has assigned people only one day a week to live, while spending the remaining six days in cryogenic suspension. Gary Sherman (First Wave) will executive produce and write the original series, to be distributed through USA Cable Entertainment.
    -- which bears a striking similarity to Philip Jose Farmer's Dayworld, for which neither the SciFi Channel, nor parent company USA Network, own the rights. Dayworld, as described by David Pringle in The Ultimate Guide to Science Fiction, is described thus:
    "In an overpopulated world of the 35th century, citizens are allowed to live a normal life just one day a week: the other six days are spent in suspended animation."

    Farmer's agency, Ralph Vicinanza, has issued a notice to USA Network protesting this apparent infringement. (Gary Sherman's website is here.) Ironically, USA Network has another series credited to Farmer, that has been shot and is in editing: Riverworld.

    Locus Online will post further information as it develops.


    Friday 19 April 2002

    Awards

    § The 2002 International Horror Guild Awards were presented last weekend at the World Horror Convention near Chicago, Illinois. In addition to the winners listed below, writer William F. Nolan was presented with the the Living Legend Award, as previously announced. Judges for this year's awards were Edward Bryant, Stefan R. Dziemianowicz, Bill Sheehan, Hank Wagner, and Fiona Webster; awards facilitator was Paula Guran.

    NOVEL
  • Threshold, Caitlín R. Kiernan (Roc)
  • FIRST NOVEL
  • Ordinary Horror, David Searcy (Viking)
  • LONG FICTION
  • "Cleopatra Brimstone", Elizabeth Hand (Redshift)
  • SHORT FICTION
  • "Onion", Caitlín R. Kiernan (Wrong Things)
  • ILLUSTRATED NARRATIVE
  • Just a Pilgrim, Garth Ennis & Carlos Ezquerra (Titan Books)
  • COLLECTION
  • Through Shattered Glass, David B. Silva (Gauntlet Press)
  • ANTHOLOGY
  • Night Visions 10, Richard Chizmar, ed. (Subterranean Press)
  • NONFICTION
  • Wild Hairs, David J. Schow (Babbage Press)
  • PUBLICATION
  • The Spook
  • ARTIST
  • John Picacio
  • FILM
  • Ginger Snaps (directed by John Fawcett, written by John Fawcett and Karen Walton)
  • TELEVISION
  • no award
  • This year's Seiun Awards nominees in translated categories, to be presented by the 41st Japan Science Fiction Convention, are as follows. Winners will be announced July 14, 2002, and the awards will be re-presented at this year's World SF Convention in San Jose, California. (Note: Ian Watson's nominated novel, first published in French in 1976, has never appeared in English.)

    TRANSLATED NOVEL
  • All the Weyrs of Pern, Anne McCaffrey
  • Brightness Reef, David Brin
  • Cetaganda, Lois McMaster Bujold
  • Children of the Mind, Orson Scott Card
  • The Diamond Age, Neal Stephenson
  • Flashforward, Robert J. Sawyer
  • Green Mars, Kim Stanley Robinson
  • Orgasmachine, Ian Watson
  • The Player of Games, Iain M. Banks
  • There and Back Again, Pat Murphy
  • TRANSLATED SHORT STORY
  • "The Chop Girl", Ian R. MacLeod
  • "Galactic North", Alastair Reynolds
  • "Innocents", Ian McDonald
  • "Never Seen by Waking Eyes", Stephen Dedman
  • "Reasons to be Cheerful", Greg Egan
  • "The Secret History of the Ornithopter", Jan Lars Jensen
  • "Story of Your Life", Ted Chiang
  • "The Wedding Album", David Marusek

  • Earlier April News Log



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