The Mammoth Book of Best New Science Fiction: 23rd Annual Collection (9 page)

Not everything was bleak in TV Land, though.
Lost
returned for its announced final season, and the series opener was excellent, although everyone is wondering if the show can possibly tie up its enormous number of loose ends in the amount of time they have left.
X-Files
lookalike
Fringe
seems to be a hit, as is
True Blood
, based on the Sookie Stackhouse novels of Charlaine Harris. New show
Caprica
, the “prequel” to
Battlestar Galactica
, is getting good notices, although its ratings are still a bit low, and a new series has moved into the
Stargate
neighborhood for its crack at the brass ring,
Stargate Universe.
Spy semi-spoof with fantastic elements,
Chuck
, still on the air, has been joined by a similar new show,
Human Target.
New show
The Vampire Diaries
seems to be aiming for the same romantic soap opera with vampires territory as
True Blood. Doctor Who
is coming back with a new doctor in the role, after racking up some of the best ratings in its history.
Primeval
was canceled, but then renewed after the BBC changed its mind. It looks like
Torchwood
may be coming back, at least there are rumors to that effect, even though things were wrapped up fairly decisively in a TV movie; there are also rumors of an upcoming American version of
Torchwood
, which will probably suck. The long-running
Smallville
has been renewed (its strategy of bringing in most of the members of the Justice League of America as guest stars seems to be working), as have
Eureka
,
Star Wars: The Clone Wars
,
Supernatural
,
Ghost Whisperer
,
Medium
,
Sanctuary
, and
Legend of the Seeker
.

Coming up: mini-series versions of George R.R. Martin’s
A Game of Thrones
from HBO and Kim Stanley Robinson’s
Red Mars
from AMC.

The 67th World Science Fiction Convention, Anticipation, was held in Montréal, Québec, Canada, from August 6–August 10, 2009. The 2009 Hugo Awards, presented at Anticipation, were: Best Novel,
The Graveyard Book
, by Neil Gaiman; Best Novella, “The Erdmann Nexus,” by Nancy Kress; Best Novelette, “Shoggoths in Bloom,” by Elizabeth Bear; Best Short Story, “Exhalation,” by Ted Chiang; Best Related Book,
Your Hate Mail Will Be Graded: A De cade of What ever, 1998–2008
, by John Scalzi; Best Editor, Long Form, David G. Hartwell; Best Editor, Short Form, Ellen Datlow; Best Professional Artist, Donato Giancola; Best Dramatic Presentation (short form),
Doctor Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog
; Best Dramatic Presentation (long form),
WALL-E
; Best Semiprozine,
Weird Tales
, edited by Ann VanderMeer and Stephen H. Segal; Best Fanzine,
Electric Velocipede
, edited by John Kilma; Best Fan Writer, Cheryl Morgan; Best Fan Artist, Frank Wu; plus the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer to David Anthony Durham.

The 2008 Nebula Awards, presented at a banquet on the UCLA campus in Los Angeles, California on April 25, 2009, were: Best Novel,
Powers
, by Ursula K. Le Guin; Best Novella, “The Spacetime Pool,” by Catherine Asaro; Best Novelette, “Pride and Prometheus,” by John Kessel; Best Short Story, “Trophy Wives,” by Nina Kiriki Hoffman; Best Script,
WALL-E
, by Andrew Stanton, Jim Reardon, and Peter Docter; the Andre Norton Award to
Flora’s Dare
, by Ysabeau S. Wilce; plus the Ray Bradbury Award to Joss Whedon; the Solstice Award to Kate Wilhelm, A.J. Budrys, and Martin H. Greenberg; the Author Emeritus Award to M.J. Engh; and the Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award to Harry Harrison.

The 2009 World Fantasy Awards, presented at a banquet at the Fairmont Hotel in San Jose, California on 29 October–1 November 2009, during the World Fantasy Convention, were: Best Novel,
The Shadow Year
, by Jeffrey Ford, and
Tender Morsels
, by Margo Lanagan (tie); Best Novella, “If Angels Fight,” by Richard Bowes; Best Short Story, “26 Monkeys, Also the Abyss,” by Kij Johnson; Best Collection,
The Drowned Life
, by Jeffrey Ford; Best Anthology,
Paper Cities: An Anthology of Urban Fantasy
, edited by Ekaterina Sedia; Best Artist, Shaun Tan; Special Award (Professional), to Kelly Link and Gavin J. Grant, for Small Beer Press and Big Mouth House; Special Award (Non-Professional), to Michael Walsh, for Howard Waldrop collections from Old Earth Books; plus the Life Achievement Award to Ellen Asher and Jane Yolen.

The 2008 Bram Stoker Awards, presented by the Horror Writers of America during a banquet at the Burbank Marriott Hotel near Los Angeles, California on 13 June 2009, were: Best Novel,
Duma Key
, by Stephen King; Best First Novel,
The Gentling Box
, by Lisa Mannetti; Best Long Fiction,
Miranda
, by John R. Little; Best Short Fiction, “The Lost,” by Sarah Langan; Best Fiction Collection,
Just After Sunset
, by Stephen King; Best Anthology,
Unspeakable Horror
, edited by Vince A. Liaguno and Chad Helder; Best Nonfiction,
A Hallowe’en Anthology
, by Lisa Morton; Best Poetry Collection,
The Nightmare Collection
, by Bruce Boston; plus Lifetime Achievement Awards to F. Paul Wilson and Chelsea Quinn Yarbro.

The 2009 John W. Campbell Memorial Award was awarded to
Little Brother
, by Cory Doctorow, and
Songs of Time
, by Ian R. MacLeod (tie).

The 2009 Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award for Best Short Story was won by “The Ray-Gun: A Love Story,” by James Alan Gardner.

The 2009 Philip K. Dick Award went to
Emissaries from the Dead
, by Adam-Troy Castro, and
Terminal Mind
, by David Walton (tie).

The 2009 Arthur C. Clarke award was won by
Song of Time
, by Ian R. Mac Leod.

The 2009 James Tiptree, Jr. Memorial Award was won by
The Knife of Never Letting Go
, by Patrick Ness, and
Filter House
, by Nisi Shawl (tie).

The 2009 Cordwainer Smith Rediscovery Award went to A. Merritt.

Dead in 2009 or early 2010 were:

PHILIP JOSÉ FARMER
, 91, multiple Hugo winner, a SFWA Grand Master, and a winner of the World Fantasy Award: Life Achievement, the author of a huge number of books, including the
Riverworld, World of Tiers
, and
Dayworld
series, and many others, whose best-known book was probably the Hugo-winning
To Your Scattered Bodies Go;
J.G. BALLARD
, 78, widely acclaimed outside the genre for his autobiographical World War II novel,
Empire of the Sun
, which was filmed by Stephen Spielberg, best known inside the genre as one of the ancestral figures in the British New Wave of the sixties, author of many groundbreaking short stories, some of the best of which were collected in
Vermilion Sands
and
The Voices of Time
, as well as novels such as
The Drowned World, The Crystal World, Concrete Island
, and many others;
CHARLES N. BROWN
, 72, a longtime fan and one-time nuclear engineer who was one of the co-founders of
Locus
, which under his multi-decade direction as editor and publisher became the most important and prominent news magazine in the history of SF, and earned the magazine twenty-nine Hugo Awards, also a tireless promoter of SF from thousands of convention panels, and a personal friend;
DAVID EDDINGS
, 77, prominent fantasy author best known for the novels of the
Belgariad
series, as well as for books in the
Malloreon
series, the
Dreamers
series, and others;
ROBERT HOLDSTOCK
, 61, acclaimed British fantasy writer, author of
Mythago Wood
, thought to be one of the classic post-Tolkein fantasy novels by many critics, as well as six sequels and a number of stand-alone novels;
PHILIP KLASS
, 89, who wrote SF as
WILLIAM TENN
, and whose classic stories, most published in the fifties, included “Bernie the Faust,” “Venus and the Seven Sexes,” “The Liberation of Earth,” and many others, as well as the novel
Of Men and Monsters;
KAGE BAKER
, 57, prolific author of the extensive linked series of novels and stories about the time-travelling agents of the Company, one of the most popular series in recent SF, just as Baker may have been one of the most significant talents to enter the field during the last ten years, a friend;
PHYLLIS GOTLIEB
, 83, pioneering Canadian SF author, sometimes known as “the mother of Canadian science fiction,” Aurora Award-winning author of many stories collected in
Son of the Morning and Other Stories
and
Blue Apes
as well as novels such as
Sunburst;
HARRY C. CROSBY, Jr.
, 84, who wrote more than a hundred SF stories, mostly for
Astounding/Analog
, and several novels, under the name
CHRISTOPHER ANVIL
;
LOUISE COOPER
, 57, SF/fantasy writer, author of the
Time Master
trilogy,
The Shadow Star
trilogy,
The King’s Demon
, and others;
THOMAS DEITZ
, 57, author of sixteen fantasy novels, including
Windmaster’s Bane
and
Bloodwinter;
KEN RAND
, 62, author of
Phoenix, The Golems of Laramie County, A Cold Day in Hell
, and other novels;
RICHARD GORDON
, 62, Scottish author who wrote SF novels as
STUART GORDON
author of books such as
One-Eye, Two-Eyes, Three-Eyes
, and
Time Story;
JOHN KENNEDY
, 63, SF writer, ex-husband of SF writer Leigh Kennedy;
JENNIFER SWIFT
, 54, SF writer whose work appeared in
Asimov’s, Amazing, F&SF, Interzone
, and elsewhere;
JANET FOX
, 68, writer and editor, who also edited the monthly market report,
Scavenger’s Newsletter;
TAKUMI SHIBANO
, 83, translator and novelist, longtime Japanese fan, sometimes spoken of as “the father of Japanese fandom”;
KAORU KURIMOTO
, 56, Japanese fantasy and anime author;
EDWARD UPWARD
, 105, distinguished British author whose works included the fantasy stories collected in
The Mortmere Stories;
JOHN ATKINS
, 92, British author who occasionally wrote fantasy and SF;
JOHN A. KEEL
, 79, paranormal author and UFOologist best known for
The Mothman Prophecies;
MILORAD PAVIC
, 80, Serbian novelist, many of whose novels had surreal fantastic elements;
ED VALIGURSKY
, 82, famous SF cover artist, whose covers graced many of the classics of the field;
DEAN ELLIS
, 89, another famous and pioneering SF cover artist;
DON IVAN PUNCHATZ
, 73, prominent artist and illustrator;
ILENE MEYER
, 69, SF/ fantasy artist who did covers for books by Jack Vance, Harlan Ellison, Philip K. Dick, and others;
DAVE SIMONS
, 54, comics artist;
KNOX BURGER
, 87, editor and agent, who published early works by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., Ray Bradbury, and John Wyndham as fiction editor of
Collier’s
magazine, edited SF for Dell and Fawcett, and later became a prominent literary agent;
ALFRED A. KNOPF
, 90, publisher and co-founder of Atheneum;
ROBERT A. COLLINS
, 80, scholar, founder of the International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts, editor of
Fantasy Review
, and co-editor of
Science Fiction & Fantasy Book Review Annual;
MARK OWINGS
, 64, bibliographer and longtime fan, a founder of the Baltimore Science Fiction Society, who worked with the late Jack Chalker to produce
The Index to the Science-Fantasy Publishers;
I.F. CLARKE
, 91, British bibliographer and literary scholar, compiler of the classic study of future-war fiction,
Voices Prophesying War;
DONALD M. GRANT
, 82, winner of three World Fantasy Awards, including the World Fantasy Life Achievement Award, founder of Donald M. Grant Publisher, Inc;
BARBARA BOVA
, literary agent, wife of SF writer Ben Bova;
DON CONGDON
, 91, agent and anthologist, longtime agent for writers such as Ray Bradbury and Henry Kuttner;
ROBERT LOUIT
, 64, French SF editor, critic, and translator;
DAVE ARNESON
, 61, co-creator of the fantasy role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons;
WALTER CRONKITE
, 92, perhaps the best-known television broadcaster and anchor man of the twentieth century, who had no direct genre connection, but was known to every genre fan, if for nothing else, for his coverage of the Moon landing in 1969;
ANDY HALLETT
, 33, actor, best known to genre audiences for his role as the singing green demon Lorne on the television vampire show
Angel;
DAVID CARRADINE
, 72, actor, best known to genre audiences for his role as wandering monk and martial arts expert Cain in the sixties’ TV show,
Kung Fu
, also known for the title role in the
Kill Bill
movies and as the ghoulishly jovial host of
Wild West Tech;
MICHAEL JACKSON
, 50, worldwide celebrity and performer, best known to genre audiences for his role in
The Wiz
, the seventies’ remake of The Wizard of Oz, and for the song “Thriller,” which referenced horror movie clichés and featured a voiceover cameo by Vincent Price;
FARRAH FAWCETT
, 62, actor, best known to genre audience for roles in
Logan’s Run
and
Saturn 3
, and as one of tele vi sion’s original
Charlie’s Angels;
NATASHA RICHARDSON
, 46, actor, best known to genre audiences as the star of the movie version
of The Handmaid’s Tale;
MARY TRAVERS
, 72, member of the famous folk-music trio Peter, Paul, and Mary, whose closest approach to genre was probably their fantasy song about “Puff, the Magic Dragon”;
HENRY GIBSON
, 73, movie and television actor;
PERNELL ROBERTS
, 81, television actor, best known for his roles in
Bonanza
and
Trapper John, M.D.
, but who had genre-related roles in
The Wild Wild West, Night Gallery
, and
The Six Million Dollar Man;
RON SILVER
, 62, actor, best known to genre audiences for his role in
Timecop;
MICKEY CARROLL
, 89, whose role as a Munchkin in the Judy Garland version
of The Wizard of Oz
generated an entire subsequent career for him;
KARL MALDEN
, 97, a film actor for whom it’s hard to think of a really prominent genre connection (although he did do a few low-budget disaster movies like
Beyond the Poseidon Adventure
and
Meteor)
, but whose name and face will be familiar to most readers, and whose most famous movies included
On the Waterfront
and
A Streetcar Named Desire;
GALE STORM
, 87, television actress with even less of a genre connection than Karl Malden, but who will be familiar to those of us old enough to have watched TV in the fifties from shows such as
My Little Margie
and
The Gale Storm Show;
ELEANOR FRAZETTA
, 74, wife of fantasy artist Frank Frazetta;
DAVID GAIMAN
, 75, father of SF writer Neil Gaiman;
MARIAN BAILEY
, 84, mother of SF writer Robin Bailey;
JOHN IAN REYNOLDS
, 66, father of SF writer Alastair Reynolds; and
EMILY KATE BETHKE
, 28, daughter of SF writer Bruce Bethke.