AMAZING NEWS: June 9, 2024 – 80th Anniversary of D-Day Edition

Special Note:  Today, we re-introduce a news section – The Weekly Recap – links to a selection of posts published on the site during the previous week.  See below.

AMAZING PEOPLE NEWS

Moshe Feder reminds us that yes, there were women involved in early SF Fandom, with this photo from the 7th Worldcon, depicting the first (and only?) person to be crowned Miss Science Fiction 

Chris Barkley shares this story of speaking truth to power:  at a HS graduation for a school that removed Atwood’s A Handmaid’s Tale from its library, a graduate hands a copy to the school superintendent. 

Scott Edelman shares this photo of non-awarded author Todd Keisling getting his “loser” card punched

Al Sirois shares a photo of the back side of the Moon

Tony Peak announces the release of his latest – Delta Desperados – Imposter’s Gambit (book 1) (It’s currently number 7 in the rankings!)

Noah Chinn shares a short piece of fiction to illustrate some aspects of his writing process

Matthew Kressel has sold his story Five Hundred KPH Toward Heaven to Asimov’s

Ian Randal Strock announces the publication of The Architects by Apollo Harrison, from Fantastic Books

Gustavo Bondi was pleased to discover that his contributor copies of Tales of the United States Space Force (Baen) have successfully de-orbited in Argentina

Paul Tremblay’s Horror Movie gets rave review from the NY Times

David Agranoff hosts a special PKD Dickheads Podcast

Fandom

An image and a bit of history of Tigrina, also known as Edyth E. Eyde, though probably better known as Lisa Ben, publisher of the first known  lesbian publication.  Wikipedia entry   Fiawol entry

The Worldcon Historical Society successfully raised enough money to purchase at auction the very first Hugo Award ever handed out (presented to Forrest J. Ackerman by Isaac Asimov in 1953).  (Amazing Stories, along with numerous fans, pledged funds to make this happen.)

If you are a fan of Perry Rhodan and resident in Germany, Helmut Paul is offering up his 1800+ volume collection for a “decent offer” and pickup

A full run of the first fanzine – Comet – recently  sold at auction for over 10k.  (This is the fanzine edited by Ray Palmer – who would later edit Amazing Stories to some success )

Science

Whale communications are revealed to be much closer to human forms of communication than previously thought

There’s a new star in the skies – the result of a nova

A family out hiking may have found a juvenile T-Rex

Crystals reveal that Earth may have had fresh water and dry land some 4 billion years ago

World’s largest 3D printer makes homes from wood

It is the age of the invasive, giant flying spider!

Space

China’s Chan’g-e6 lander lifts off to return first samples from the Lunar far side

Astronaut William Anders, photographer of the iconic Earthrise photo, dead in a plane crash

Hubble is in safe mode;  plans to keep it going are in the works

Industry

Mexican authors of SF/weird/speculative fiction sought

Literature

Simon & Shuster announce the release of Rebecca Roanhorse’s Mirrored Heavens:  “The interwoven destinies of the people of Meridian will finally be determined in this stunning conclusion to New York Times bestselling author Rebecca Roanhorse’s Between Earth and Sky trilogy.”

DAW celebrates Pride Month with a selection of novels –  John Wiswell’s Someone You Can Build a Nest In; Grace Curtis’ Floating Hotel; L. R. Lam’s Dragonfall; Mercedes Lackey’s The Last Herald-Mage trilogy; Elizabeth May’s To Cage God; Joshua Phillip Johnson’s The Forever Sea.

A look at Le Guin’s The Dispossessed, fifty years on

Art

The Facebook page of the International Association of Astronomical Artists shares an animation in progress of an astronaut using a manned manuevering unit

Nick Stathopoulos, an award-winning Australian artist (we know him from his lovely portrait of A. Bertram Chandler that graced the cover of From Sea to Shining Star) offers up this “Harlan on Mars” illustration.

Film & Television

Not my Spock –  Zachary Quinto misbehaves in public

Marion Stokes, a Philadelphia native, began taping television shows in 1972 and didn’t stop until her death in 2012.  Her archive now contains some 71,000 VHS and Betamax tapes, the largest known collection of that era of television, now at the Internet Archive.

The Day After, the television movie that helped change US nuclear policy 

Damian Walter highlights ten SF films dealing with the psychedelic

The Alien: Romulus trailer had dropped

Another Star Trek alum stirs the pot:  Simon Pegg says Godzilla films are “cultural appropriation”.  (Do you think Raymond Burr feels that way?)

Just For Fun

A parody of The Prisoner series’ opening sequence

A flow chart for Time Travel in film

Tom Gauld reveals that truth IS stranger than fiction

A wonderful cartoon illustrates both the sense of wonder and why books are better than screens

Moon Walking – sped up

Fletcher Pratt & L. Sprague de Camp raise a toast

Events

NASA illustrates what it is like to go beyond a black hole’s EVENT horizon

Retro

A Fan takes a ride on George Pal’s Time Machine

The LA Times review of books profiles Harlan Ellison’s Lost Aztec Temple of Mars  (you can find the exterior on Google maps)

The Evolution of Science Fiction video  (should non-Fans be allowed to tell us what our genre’s history is?)

Classic vs Modern Science Fiction – more of the same?

Space Patrol (the puppet one) will be airing on TPTV

Social Commentary

Invasive species Monitor lizards spotted in Florida  (Maybe they’ll eat enough “Florida Men” to cut down on the headlines.)

Dr. Birx shares a warning about Bird Flu – we may be in for another pandemic (CDC’s info)

A letter by a former slave, written to his former owner in response to a request to return to the plantation.  It says “Fuck You” in a very unique way.

You Might Have Missed

Matt’s Reviews: Noor by Nnedi Okorafor

RETRO MOVIE REVIEW — PREDESTINATION (2014) 

Starship Flight Test 4: Hot Take

SpaceX Starship Test Flight 4 

JustWatch: Current Top Ten Streaming Films & Shows

What Happened to the SHIP from PLANET of the APES? 

FREE FICTION – Masefield Prospect – FREE FICTION

Unexpected Questions with Lisa Wood

New Releases in Science Fiction/Fantasy/Paranormal Romance for MAY 29

When You Love Science Fiction So Much, You Just Have To Write A Song 

CLUBHOUSE: Review: “Stowaway’s Luck and Other Stories” by Peter J. Foote

FREE FICTION – The Messy Business of Peddling DoomEaters by Darcy L. Wood – FREE STORY – FREE FICTION