Of Special Note
Allen Steele has finished up his back cover duties and has approved the cover art for his latest Captain Future tale – Lost Apollo. We’ll have a cover reveal (by one of Allen’s favorite artists) soon.
and The Amazing Stories submissions portal has been placed on hiatus owing to “being full up”. Submissions will re-open when current inventory has been reduced
AMAZING PEOPLE NEWS
Paul Di Filippo reviews Robert Sawyer’s Downloaded for Locus
Ian Randal Strock (Fantastic Books) is all set up at Balticon
Fandom
The World Fantasy Awards wants you to know – “The deadline for nominating material to be considered for the 2024 World Fantasy AwardsSM is Friday, May 31, 2024. Five nominees will be selected in each category. Three of those are selected by a panel of judges, and two will be chosen by popular vote of World Fantasy Convention members from 2022, 2023, and 2024. Eligible works will have a 2023 publication date.”
Youtube video discusses 70s & 80s Fanzines
Warhorn’s Execution Delayed
Space
The United States suggests that Russia has launched a space weapon satellite
Boeing’s Starliner still hasn’t gotten off the pad
Science
Nanoplastics have been found in human testicles.
John Lee Hooker, the Blues guitarist (featured in The Blues Brothers) must have been channeling a cat when he sang Boom Boom:
“I love to see you walk
Up and down the floor
When you talking to me
That baby talk
I like it like that
You talk like that
You knock me dead
Right off my feet
A haw haw haw haw”
– scientists have recently determined that our social credentials like it when we talk to them in baby talk
Industry
More Voice Actors complain about AI theft
Literature
A Youtube discussion of Heinlein’s only fantasy novel – Glory Road
Bruce Sterling examines Utopias on Medium
Film & TV
A humorous discussion of Star Trek: Lower Decks examines the California Class starship
Events
Betsy Wollheim will be Zooming with the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society
Social Commentary
Research supports what we have known all along: Higher Intelligence Correlates with “Left Wing” political thought. Or, in other words, most science fiction fans are progressives. (How can you not be when your initial premise is that our species will survive into the far future?)
Is it possible for genre penetration of mainstream culture to go too far? Maybe, but we don’t think that The Empire Strips Back: A Burlesque Parody represents that limit. Get your tickets today! (And check out these photos from a production!)
Just For Fun
Mini-Editorial
Has George Lucas “stepped in it”? In a recent interview, George stated at the Cannes Film Festival that ““They would say, ‘It’s all white men,’” Lucas said, per Variety. “Most of the people are aliens! The idea is you’re supposed to accept people for what they are, whether they’re big and furry or whether they’re green or whatever. The idea is all people are equal.” He further stated “…that “there were a few Tunisians who were dark” in the original film, that Williams was a major part of the 1980 sequel, and noted Jackson’s character was a “top Jedi.” And, of course, Darth Vader was black (and voiced by James Earl Jones). He concluded with stating that he was the only one “who really knew what ‘Star Wars’ was.”
“When they started other ones after I sold the company, a lot of the ideas that were in [the original] sort of got lost,” he said, per The Hollywood Reporter. But that’s the way it is. You give it up, you give it up.” (more coverage here)
