Science Fiction Ratatouille

The 2009 Hugo and Campbell Award ballots have just been published on the Hugo Awards site.

Here’s a peek:

Hugo for Best Novel
(639 Ballots)

* Anathem by Neal Stephenson (Morrow; Atlantic UK)
* The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman (HarperCollins; Bloomsbury)
* Little Brother by Cory Doctorow (Tor)
* Saturn’s Children by Charles Stross (Ace; Orbit)
* Zoe’s Tale by John Scalzi (Tor)

The John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer
(288 Ballots)

Aliette de Bodard*
David Anthony Durham*
Felix Gilman
Tony Pi*
Gord Sellar*

*(Second year of eligibility)

See the full ballot at the Hugo Awards site.

The short list for the 2009 Arthur C. Clarke award has been announced:

* Song of Time, Ian R. MacLeod (PS Publishing)
* The Quiet War, Paul McAuley (Gollancz)
* House of Suns, Alastair Reynolds (Gollancz)
* Anathem, Neal Stephenson (Atlantic)
* The Margarets, Sheri S. Tepper (Gollancz)
* Martin Martin’s on the Other Side, Mark Wernham (Jonathan Cape)

Thanks, as always, to ScienceFictionAwardsWatch.com for the tip.

Author Joe Hill wants you to shop at your local independent bookstore. As an incentive, he’s having a contest:

From JoeHillFiction.com:

How to Play: Go to a local independent bookstore. Buy something. Save the receipt. Send a photo or scan of the receipt to this address: indie@joehillfiction.com. Make sure either your e-mail or your receipt includes the name and phone number of the bookstore in question.

Prize: At the end of March I’ll have a random drawing, and send the winner a signed slipcased copy of GUNPOWDER.

BUT WAIT! There’s more. As this thing goes along, I’ll be adding other signed editions of other books for other randomly drawn winners. Stay tuned.

And remember, even if you lose you win, because you will have supported a small bookstore, and come away with something worth reading.

—
Read the details and full contest rules on Joe’s site.

From Slice of SciFi:

In the past few years, fans of Philip K. Dick have had a few treats show up in bookstores–some newly discovered completed works by the author. While not on the same level as his classic novel, “The Man in the High Castle” or the late author’s short stories, the novels are still a fascinating insight into the evolution of this influential science-fiction writer.

Now that fans have had a look back at the early works of Dick, they will soon get a look at the last novel Dick was working on before his death in 1982. The author’s wife, Tessa Dick, announced last month that she has completed work on the novel Dick was working on when he passed away. Called “The Owl In Daylight,” novel was to tell the story of a computer designer who ended up trapped inside a virtual reality of his own making.

“I hope that I have captured the spirit of ‘The Owl’ as Phil would have written it, if his life had not been cut short by a massive stroke,” Tessa Dick said in an interview with Self-Publishing Review.

Read the full story.

From SFScope.com:

By Ian Randal Strock March 10, 2009

Tir Na Nog Press just purchased Realms of Fantasy from Sovereign Media, and already has a brief web site available at realmsoffantasymag.com (they’re planning to have a much more elaborate web site soon). Publisher Warren Lapine feels it’s much more important to get things running quickly–since the deal just happened–rather than spend more time behind the scenes.

Lapine said, “This is a win-win for everyone. I think Sovereign Media is really happy to be able to leave the magazine to the field, and I’m really happy to keep such an important magazine publishing.”

He continued, “I could see the field was saddened by its passing, and when I called to make a pitch, Sovereign was happy because they didn’t want to close the magazine. They really like it, but it wasn’t turning a large enough profit for them. Nevertheless, they’re very happy the magazine will continue publishing.”

Lapine is not anticipating any changes that will be visible to the public. Realms will continue paying authors the same rates, on acceptance, and leave the editors in place. He hopes to have his first issue out in May. “Our plan is to miss only one issue. The next on the schedule would have been 15 March, and for obvious reasons, that’s not going to happen.”

There is already an inventory of stories that are being transferred in the deal, so filling the next issue won’t be a rush job.

Editor Shawna McCarthy told SFScope, “I’m thrilled and delighted and looking forward to working with Warren. It’s a ray of good news in an otherwise gloomy world. I’m really very happy with the deal.” She’s not sure if they’ll be able to get the May issue out; a lot will depend on what’s in inventory and has artwork, because it’s a pretty short deadline, but she said “we’ll see; we’ll do our best.”

Read the full story.

By Marcia Dunn, Associated Press

March 9, 2009 — Two science teachers who have spent the past five years under NASA’s tutelage are about to graduate with high-flying honors.

The space shuttle flight Wednesday night of Joseph Acaba and Richard Arnold II will mark the first time two former teachers have rocketed into space together. And during the two-week construction mission to the International Space Station, both will attempt multiple spacewalks — the most dangerous job in orbit.

Acaba was a freshman at the University of California at Santa Barbara when McAuliffe died on Jan. 28, 1986. Arnold was fresh out of college and living in Washington, and his wife-to-be was a student-teacher.

“It definitely had an impact when you look at the sacrifices that she (McAuliffe) made and the importance that NASA put on it,” Acaba said.

Read the full story.

By MARCIA DUNN
AP Aerospace Writer

CAPE CANAVERAL — NASA’s planet-hunting spacecraft, Kepler, rocketed into space Friday night on a historic voyage to track down other Earths in a faraway patch of the Milky Way galaxy.

It’s the first mission capable of answering the age-old question: Are other worlds like ours out there?

Read more at the Orlando Sentinel.

An experiment in programmed emotion has yielded Kenji, a robot so amorous it recently held an intern captive in its laboratory enclosure.

“Initially, we were thrilled to see a bit of our soul come alive in this so called ‘machine,’” said Dr. Akito Takahashi, the principal investigator on the project. “This was really the final step for us in one of the fundamentals of the singularity.”

The robot first found love with a stuffed doll, which it hugged for hours at a time, but soon it transferred its affections to humans…all of them. One intern discovered just how much Kenji loved her when he refused to let her leave the lab one evening and commenced hugging her repeatedly. The young woman had to be rescued by two staff members who answered her frantic phone call and flipped Kenji’s off switch.

“Despite our initial enthusiasm, it has become clear that Kenji’s impulses and behavior are not entirely rational or genuine,” conceded Dr. Takahashi.

Read the full story.

Special thanks to Cheryl Morgan for the tip (and the headline)!

From NASA.gov:

Help us to name another important addition to the station – Node 3 and its cupola!

NASA wants your opinion in naming the International Space Station’s Node 3 — a connecting module and its cupola — before the two segments travel to space and are installed on the orbiting laboratory. The name should reflect the spirit of exploration and cooperation embodied by the space station, and follow in the tradition set by Node 1- Unity- and Node 2- Harmony.

Currently the top choice is…Serenity.

Vote now!

Monster
A. Lee Martinez
Orbit Books
304 pages

The chief trope of much Occult fiction is the seemingly endless variety of threat pulled from nether regions like contorted rabbits from the hat of a diabolic magician. Demons, ogres, werecritters of all phylogenic composition, the specially empowered and mythically engendered, all form an army of challenges to be met by means equally occult, arcane, and irrational. Science and its byproducts never work. If we understand something, it seems to say, then we have it wrong, and here’s a little something out of the realm of superstition to demonstrate just how wrong we have it. The hero must always step outside the bounds of physics, biology, and often even psychology in order to deal with the malevolence of what are essentially nightmares.

Read More!