The Mammoth Book of Best New SF 25 (Mammoth Books) (10 page)

The SF comedies
Eureka
and
Warehouse 13
are returning, as are
Doctor Who
and
Primeval
and the British version of
Being Human,
although the fates of the American spin-offs of
Torchwood
and
Being Human
are uncertain, and they may both be dead. The animated SF satire
Futurama,
after being canceled for a couple of years and spinning off a couple of special features, is returning to regular production. Another animated series,
Star Wars: The Clone Wars,
is also returning. Mention should probably be made here of
The Big Bang Theory
, which, although not strictly a genre show, is so chockful of sly geek knowledge references to movie and television SF, print SF, online gaming, science, and comic books that I can’t imagine that it doesn’t appeal to the majority of genre readers.

A mini-series version of Kim Stanley Robinson’s
Red Mars
has been promised for a couple of years now, but has yet to make an appearance.

The 69th World Science Fiction Convention, Renovation, was held in Reno, Nevada, from August 17 to August 21, 2011. The 2011 Hugo Awards, presented at Renovation, were: Best Novel,
Blackout/All Clear,
by Connie Willis; Best Novella, “The Lifecycle of Software Objects,” by Ted Chiang; Best Novelette, “The Emperor of Mars,” by Allen M. Steele; Best Short Story, “For Want of a Nail,” by Mary Robinette Kowal; Best Related Work,
Chicks Dig Time Lords: A Celebration of
Doctor Who
by the Women Who Love It
, edited by Lynne M. Thomas and Tara O’Shea; Best Editor, Long Form, Lou Anders; Best Editor, Short Form, Sheila Williams; Best Professional Artist, Shaun Tan; Best Dramatic Presentation (short form),
Doctor Who
: “The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang”; Best Dramatic Presentation (long form),
Inception
; Best Graphic Story,
Girl Genius, Volume 10: Agatha Heterodyne and the Guardian Muse
, by Kaja and Phil Foglio, art by Phil Foglio; Best Semiprozine,
Clarkesworld
; Best Fanzine,
The Drink Tank
; Best Fan Writer, Claire Brialey; Best Fan Artist, Brad W. Foster; plus the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer to Lev Grossman.

The 2010 Nebula Awards, presented at a banquet at the Washington Hilton Hotel in Washington, D.C., on May 21, 2011, were: Best Novel,
Blackout/All Clear
, by Connie Willis; Best Novella, “The Lady Who Plucked Red Flowers Beneath the Queen’s Window,” by Rachel Swirsky; Best Novelette, “That Leviathan Whom Thou Hast Made,” by Eric James Stone; Best Short Story (tie), “Ponies,” by Kij Johnson and “How Interesting: A Tiny Man,” by Harlan Ellison; Ray Bradbury Award,
Inception
; the Andre Norton Award to
I Shall Wear Midnight
, by Terry Pratchett; and Solstice Awards to Alice Sheldon (aka James Tiptree, Jr.) and Michael Whelan.

The 2011 World Fantasy Awards, presented at a banquet on October 30, 2011, in San Diego, California, during the Twentieth Annual World Fantasy Convention, were: Best Novel,
Who Fears Death
, by Nnedi Okorafor; Best Novella, “The Maiden Flight of McCauley’s
Bellerophon
,” by Elizabeth Hand; Best Short Story, “Fossil-Figures,” by Joyce Carol Oates; Best Collection,
What I Didn’t See and Other Stories
, by Karen Joy Fowler; Best Anthology,
My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me,
edited by Kate Bernheimer; Best Artist, Kinuko Y. Craft; Special Award (Professional), to Marc Gascoigne, for
Angry Robot;
Special Award (Non-professional), to Alisa Krasnostein, for
Twelfth Planet Press;
plus the Life Achievement Award to Peter S. Beagle and Angélica Gorodischer.

The 2010 Bram Stoker Awards, presented by the Horror Writers of America on June 19, 2011, at the Long Island Marriott Hotel in Uniondale, New York, were: Best Novel,
A Dark Matter,
by Peter Straub; Best First Novel,
Black and Orange,
by Benjamin Kane Ethridge and
Castle of Los Angeles,
by Lisa Morton; Best Long Fiction,
Invisible Fences,
by Norman Prentiss; Best Short Fiction, “The Folding Man,” by Joe R. Lansdale; Best Collection,
Full Dark, No Stars,
by Stephen King; Best Anthology,
Haunted Legends,
edited by Ellen Datlow and Nick Mamatas; Non-fiction,
To Each Their Darkness,
by Gary A. Braunbeck; Best Poetry Collection,
Dark Matters,
by Bruce Boston; plus Lifetime Achievement Awards to Ellen Datlow and Al Feldstein.

The 2011 John W. Campbell Memorial Award was won by
The Dervish House,
by Ian McDonald.

The 2011 Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award for Best Short Story was won by “The Sultan of the Clouds,” by Geoffrey A. Landis.

The 2011 Philip K. Dick Memorial Award went to
The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack,
by Mark Hodder.

The 2011 Arthur C. Clarke Award was won by
Zoo City,
by Lauren Beukes.

The 2011 James Tiptree, Jr. Memorial Award was won by
Baba Yaga Laid an Egg,
by Dubravka Ugresic.

The 2011 Sidewise Award went to
When Angels Wept,
by Eric G. Swedin (Long Form) and “A Clash of Eagles,” by Alan Smale (Short Form).

The Cordwainer Smith Rediscovery Award went to Katherine MacLean.

Dead in 2011 or early 2012 were: Science Fiction Hall of Fame inductee and SFWA Grandmaster
Anne McCaffery
, 85, the first woman to win a Hugo and Nebula Award, author of more than a hundred books, including the famous and bestselling Pern series, whose best-known works are probably “Weyr Search,” “Dragonriders,” and
The White Dragon,
the first SF novel to make the
New York Times
Best Seller List, a friend; Hugo, Nebula, and Tiptree award-winner
Joanna Russ
, 74, SF writer and critic, author of such acclaimed books as
The Female Man, Picnic on Paradise,
and
And Chaos Died,
as well as much short fiction years ahead of its time, such as “Nobody’s Home,” “When It Changed,” “Souls,” and the
Alyx
stories, and also of many books of critical essays, a friend; distinguished fantasist
Diana Wynne Jones
, 76, winner of the World Fantasy Convention’s Lifetime Achievement Award, and author of forty books, including the Chrestomanci series,
Archer’s Goon, Howl’s Moving Castle,
which was later made into an animated film by Hayao Miyazaki, and satirical non-fiction work,
The Tough Guide to Fantasyland;
Russell Hoban
, 86, author of more than fifty children’s books, including a long-running series about Frances the badger, perhaps best known to genre audiences for his adult SF novel
Riddley Walker,
which won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award and the Ditmar Award;
Thomas J. Bassler
, 79, who wrote SF as
T. J. Bass
, best known for his work in the 1970s such as the SF novels
Half Past Human
and
The Godwhale;
horror writer and editor
Alan Ryan,
68, World Fantasy Award-winning author of many short stories that were collected in books such as
The Bones Wizard,
a friend; prolific SF writer
Larry Tritten
, 72, particularly known for his humorous short stories;
Brian Jacques
, 71, children’s fantasist, author of the well-known twenty-volume Redwall series; prominent Australian fantasy author
Sara Warneke,
54, who wrote many bestselling novels as
Sara Douglass
; prominent German SF writer, agent, and editor
Hans Joachim Alpers
, 67; British writer
Euan Harvey
, 38, a frequent contributor to
Realms of Fantasy
and elsewhere;
Gilbert Adair
, 66, Scottish writer, critic and translator;
Colin Harvey
, 51, British SF writer, author of six novels and more than thirty short stories;
William Sleator
, 66, children’s and YA novelist;
Juan Carlos Planells
, 61, Spanish author and critic;
Leslie Esdaile Banks,
51, popular urban fantasy author who published as
L. A. Banks
;
Joel Rosenberg
, 57, SF and mystery author;
John Frederick Burke
, 89, British SF and mystery author who wrote as
Jonathan Burke; Vittorio Curtoni
, 61, Italian SF writer, editor, and translator;
Minoru Komatsu,
80, Japanese SF writer, screenwriter, and essayist, who wrote under the name
Sakyo Komatsu
;
Ion Hobana
, 80, Romanian SF writer;
Moacyr Scliar
, 73, Brazilian fantasy author;
John Glasby
, 82, British SF and fantasy author;
Wim Stolk
, 61, Dutch fantasy artist and writer who wrote as
W. J. Maryson; Lisa Wolfson,
47, YA and SF author who wrote as
L. K. Madigan; John M. Iggulden
, 93, Australian SF author; British SF writer
Lionel Percy Wright
, 87, who wrote as
Lan Wright
;
Richard Bessière
, 88, French SF author;
Louis Thirion
, 88, French SF author;
Thierry Martens
, 69, Belgian author, editor, anthologist, and comics historian;
Mark Shepherd
, 49, SF author;
Les Daniels
, 68, comics historian and author
of Comix: A History of Comic Books in America,
who also wrote a series of vampire novels;
Glenn Lord
, 80, U.S. agent for the Howard estate, author of
The Last Celt: A Bio-Bibliography of Robert Ervin Howard;
Theodore Roszak
, 77, SF writer and essayist, author of
The Making of a Counter Culture: Reflections on the Technocratic Society;
H.R.F. Keating
, 84, mystery writer who also occasionally wrote SF;
Craig Thomas
, 69, Welsh technothriller writer of
Firefox,
which was later made into a well-known movie;
Martin Woodhouse
, 78, British author and screenwriter;
Robert C. W. Ettinger
, 92, cryonics advocate and occasional SF writer, author of the non-fiction books
The Prospect of Immortality
and
Man into Superman;
Martin H. Greenberg
, 70, prolific anthologist and academic, involved in the editing of more than a thousand anthologies, founder of the book-packaging company Tekno Books;
Margaret K. McElderry,
98, children’s editor and publisher, founder of children’s imprint Margaret K. McElderry Books;
Philip Rahman
, 59, co-founder of the weird fiction publisher Fedogan and Bremer;
Malcolm M. Ferguson
, 91, writer, bookseller, librarian, and collector;
Darrell K. Sweet
, 77, one of the most acclaimed SF and fantasy cover artists of modern times;
Jeffrey Catherine Jones
, 67, prominent fantasy cover artist;
Gene Szafran
, 69, SF cover artist and illustrator;
Cliff Robertson,
88, movie and TV actor, probably best known to genre audiences as the lead in
Charly,
the film version of “Flowers for Algernon,” and for his role as Uncle Ben in the
Spider-Man
movies;
Harry Morgan
, 96, movie and TV actor probably best known to everybody as ‘Colonel Potter’ from the TV show M*A*S*H, but who also appeared in many films, including
Inherit the Wind
and
The Ox-Bow Incident;
Peter Falk
, 83, film and television actor probably best known for his long-running role as the rumpled detective in
Columbo,
but who will also be familiar to genre audiences for roles in
The Princess Bride, Murder by Death,
and
Tune in Tomorrow;
Nicol Williamson
, 75, British stage and film actor, probably best known to genre audiences for his roles as Merlin in
Excalibur,
as Sherlock Holmes in
The Seven-Per-Cent Solution,
and as Little John in
Robin and Marian;
James Arness
, 88, film and television actor best known as Matt Dillion in
Gunsmoke,
but who also appeared as The Thing in
The Thing from Another World
and in
Them!;
John Wood
, 81, stage and screen actor, probably best known to genre audiences for roles in
WarGames, The Purple Rose of Cairo,
and
Chocolat;
Bob Anderson
, 89, former Olympic fencer, fight director, stunt performer, and swordmaster, who staged many of cinema’s most famous duels in films such as
The Princess Bride, The Adventures of Robin Hood,
and the
Star Wars
movies;
James “Rusty” Hevelin
, 89, longtime fan, fanzine publisher, collector, and huckster, a friend;
Michael D. Glickson
, 64, longtime Canadian convention and fanzine fan, who won a Hugo in 1973 for his fanzine
Energumen,
a friend;
Susan Palermo-Piscitello
, 59, musician and longtime fan, a friend;
Terry Jeeves
, 88, British fan artist, writer, and publisher;
John Berry
, 80, longtime Irish fan;
Paul Gamble
, 61, British fan and bookseller;
Steve Davis
, 72, husband of author and editor Grania Davis; musician
Marty Burke
, 68, husband of SF author Diana Gallagher;
Elzer Marx
, 86, father of SF writer Christy Marx;
April B. Derleth,
56, daughter of August Derleth and co-owner of Arkham House.