ANSIBLE(R) 431
JUNE 2023

From DAVID LANGFORD, 94 London Road, Reading, Berks, RG1 5AU, UK. Website
news.ansible.uk. ISSN 0265-9816 (print); 1740-942X (e). Available for SAE,
Harzan's Monograph or the Incantation of Raaaee.

[NET NOTE. See https://news.ansible.uk/a431.html for the nice HTML version;
https://news.ansible.uk/pdf/a431.pdf for a printable PDF. Mailing list
subscribe/unsubscribe information appears below -- please don't send such
requests to my own e-mail address. DRL]

### THE MOVING FUR CASE ###

STEPHEN BAXTER was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Open University on
31 March for 'Services to the Arts and Sciences': that is, his
'extraordinary contribution to science fiction writing'. [PM-R]

NEIL CLARKE's struggle against a barrage of AI submissions at
_Clarkesworld_ continues. The cover of issue 200 (May 2023) was criticized
as AI-generated and hastily replaced with a 'No AI' logo; _Clarkesworld_
and the unnamed artist -- who'd signed a contract including 'a statement
that the work was not generated or assisted' -- have decided without
further comment 'to go our separate ways'. (Twitter.com/clarkesworld, 1-2
May)

CARRIE FISHER (1956-2016) was at last honoured with a star on the Hollywood
Walk of Fame on, of course, May the Fourth. [F770]

MARK HAMILL has recorded voice messages in character as Luke Skywalker for
a Ukrainian air-raid warning app. The all-clear goes: 'The alert is over.
May the Force be with you.' (_The Verge_, 29 March) [GF]

MIKE MOORCOCK on resurgent daft claims that 'Shake Spear' is an obvious
pseudonym: 'Clearly More Cock is another invented name. One person could
not have written so many books!' (Facebook, 16 May)

SFWA sends a worried release about the future of the Nebula conference,
increasingly subsidized by SFWA itself to cover rising costs across the
board. The May 2023 conference may perhaps be the last: 'Because there is
absolutely nothing left in our funds to pass on to future events.'
Donations are urgently requested at sfwa.org/donate. (Email, 4 May)

### CONCESSIBLE ###

Until 6 Jun [] SCI-FI LONDON (film festival); multiple London venues
including Picturehouse Central. See sci-fi-london.com; showings listed and
individually ticketed at sci-fi-london.com/2023-info/.

Until 11 Jun [] GERRY ANDERSON'S CENTURY 21, Cartoon Museum, London. Adults
GBP9.50. See www.cartoonmuseum.org/whatson.

2-4 Jun [] CYMERA SF FESTIVAL 2023, Edinburgh and online. Weekend pass
GBP80, or GBP50 digital only. See www.cymerafestival.co.uk.

2-4 Jun [] JODIWORLD (Jodi Taylor), Doubletree by Hilton, Coventry. GBP70
reg; GBP10 supporting; see www.jodiworld.org.

3-4 Jun [] PORTSMOUTH COMIC CON, Guildhall, Portsmouth. Weekend tickets
GBP28; for day rates see portsmouthcomiccon.com.

8-11 Jun [] KONFLIKT (Eurocon), Uppsala, Sweden. Euro60 or 600 SEK reg;
under-26s free but must register. See eurocon2023.wordpress.com.

10-11 Jun [] EM-CON (media), Motorpoint Arena, Nottingham. Weekend tickets
GBP30 (11am entry) or GBP40 (10am) at www.em-con.co.uk.

17 Jun [] BSFA & SF FOUNDATION AGMS as part of online sf event. Zoom/agenda
links emailed to BSFA members in late May; Foundation members should
request links from grahamsleight [at] gmail.com.

24 Jun [] LEICESTER HORROR CON, Guildhall, Leicester. GBP6.66 reg;
under-10s free (tickets 'very limited'). See linktr.ee/leicesterhorrorcon.

24-25 June [] THE TOWN THAT NEVER WAS (steampunk), Blists Hill, Telford.
Further details at www.ministryofsteampunk.com.

27 Jun [] AN OUTSIDER IN THE CITY (on Colin Wilson), Century Club, London.
7pm. Tickets GBP12. See acuriousinvitation.com/colinwilson.html.

2 Jul [] TOLKIEN SOCIETY SEMINAR, Leeds Hilton and online. Free. See
www.tolkiensociety.org/events/seminar-2023/.

30 Jul [] PAPERBACK & PULP BOOK FAIR, Holiday Inn Bloomsbury, Coram St,
London WC1N 1HT. 9:30am-3pm. GBP3 admission. Combined with the Bloomsbury
Ephemera Fair: see etcfairs.com/ephemera-fairs/.

5 Aug [] SMALL PRESS DAY, all UK. See smallpressday.co.uk.

25-28 Aug [] ASYLUM-XII (steampunk), The Lawns and other Lincoln venues.
GBP45 reg: sales and day rates at www.ministryofsteampunk.com.

2 Sep [] WHOOVERVILLE 14 (_Doctor Who_), QUAD Centre, Derby. Tickets GBP55;
concessions GBP38; under-12s GBP10; book at
www.derbyquad.co.uk/Whooverville14. (Former website now seething with
malware.)

21-22 Oct [] FILM & COMIC CON CARDIFF, International Arena, Cardiff.
Weekend GBP16; GBP32 for early entry. See filmandcomicconcardiff.com.

29 Mar - 1 Apr 2024 [] LEVITATION (Eastercon), Telford International
Centre. GBP115 reg _(rising on 1 July)_; GBP50 concessions; GBP35
supporting; all memberships include virtual access. See
eastercon2024.co.uk.

6 Apr 2024 [] BEDFORD WHO CHARITY CON (_Doctor Who_), King's House,
Ampthill Road, Bedford, MK42 9AZ. 10am-5:30pm. Guests TBA; tickets
'available soon' at bedfordwhocharitycon.co.uk.

20-21 Apr 2024 [] SCI-FI SCARBOROUGH (multimedia), The Spa, Scarborough.
GBP30 reg; students GBP20; 'kids' GBP10. See scifiscarborough.co.uk.

2-5 Aug 2024 [] DISCWORLD CONVENTION, Birmingham NEC Hilton. Prices to be
announced at 2024.dwcon.org.

8-12 Aug 2024 [] GLASGOW 2024, Glasgow SEC. _Now GBP190 reg;
concessions/Scots residents/first Worldcon GBP140; YA (under 26) GBP120;
under-16s GBP80; under-11s GBP50; under-6s GBP5. These rates good to 30
September 2023; virtual memberships available January 2024._ See
glasgow2024.org.

16-19 Aug 2024 [] ERASMUSCON (Eurocon), Rotterdam, Netherlands. Euro125
reg. Online registration is open at www.erasmuscon.nl.

18-21 Apr 2025 [] RECONNECT, Hilton Lanyon Place Hotel and ICC, Belfast.
GBP60 reg; GBP45 under-18s and concessions; GBP25 supporting only. _Rates
rise postponed from 1 June to 2 July._ See easterconbelfast.org.

RUMBLINGS. _The Ray Bradbury Experience Museum_ (2017-2023) in his home
town Waukegan, Illinois, closed down in May. (Facebook, 26 May)
_Eurocon 2026:_ the team that ran the recent Metropolcon (Berlin, May)
now plans a Berlin bid with a likely date of late May or June 2026. [DH]

### INFINITELY IMPROBABLE ###

OUR NEW AI OVERLORDS. Researchers into ChatGPT and its underlying GPT-4
large language model confirmed the notion that it's all based on fuzzy
plagiarism -- with a special fondness for sf/fantasy: 'GPT-4 was found to
have memorized titles such as the _Harry Potter_ children's books, Orwell's
_Nineteen Eighty-Four_, _The Lord of the Rings_ trilogy, the _Hunger Games_
books, _Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy_, _Fahrenheit 451_, _A Game of
Thrones_, and _Dune_, among others.' (_The Register_, 3 May) [KF]
One 'Sci-fi author' using ChatGPT and Midjourney brags of creating 97
heavily illustrated stories in nine months, earning 'nearly $2,000' from
574 sales. O brave new world, that has such people in it. (_The Register_,
22 May)
Mark Lawrence's Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off competition is
dropping the cover art category after the 2023 winner -- by Sean Mauss for
M.V. Prindle's _Bob the Wizard_ -- was identified as AI-generated despite
the artist's strenuous denials. (Blogspot and Twitter, 27-28 May) [F770]

AS OTHERS FEEL US. On Chie Hayakawa's film _Plan 75_: 'The downplayed
presentation sells the concept as something more tangible than science
fiction.' (_The Movie Waffler_, May 2023) [JonC]

ROYAL ALT-HISTORY MASTERCLASS. 'The first to be crowned in the Abbey was
Norman the Conqueror.' (Christiane Amanpour, CNN) [PE]

AWARDS. _British Book Awards ('Nibbies'):_ FICTION _Babel_ by R.F. Kuang.
CHILDREN'S ILLUSTRATED _Tyger_ by SF Said and Dave McKean. FREEDOM TO
PUBLISH Salman Rushdie.
_Horror Writers Association Lifetime Achievement:_ Elizabeth Massie,
Nuzo Onoh and John Saul.
_HWA Specialty Press:_ Undertow Publications.
_International Booker Prize:_ _Time Shelter_ by Georgi Gospodinov.
_Nebulas:_ NOVEL _Babel_ by R.F. Kuang. NOVELLA _Even Though I Knew
the End_ by C.L. Polk. NOVELETTE 'If You Find Yourself Speaking to God,
Address God with the Informal You' by John Chu (_Uncanny_ 7-8/22). SHORT
'Rabbit Test' by Samantha Mills (_Uncanny_ 11-12/22). YA/MIDDLE GRADE _Ruby
Finley vs. the Interstellar Invasion_ by K. Tempest Bradford. DRAMATIC
_Everything Everywhere All at Once_. GAME WRITING _Elden Ring._
_Peabody_ (media) entertainment category: _Andor_.
_Kurd Lasswitz Preis_ (Germany) for best foreign novel: _The Galaxy
and the Ground Within_ by Becky Chambers. [L]

SCIENCE CORNER. 'First animal to appear on Earth identified -- and its
ancestors are now aquarium favourites' (_Sun_ headline, 17 May) [RJ]

R.I.P. _Ed Ames_ (1927-2023), US actor in _Androcles and the Lion_ (1967),
_Cricket on the Hearth_ (1967), and genre tv series, died on 21 May aged
95. [LP]
_Martin Amis_ (1949-2023) , noted UK author whose best-known genre
venture is the time-reversed novel _Time's Arrow_ (1991), died on 19 May
aged 73. [JC] Other books played with near future and alternate history
tropes; he also scripted the sf film _Saturn 3_ (1980). Jim Linwood
reminisces: 'I remember the 11-year old Martin running up and down the
stairs in the 1961 Gloucester Eastercon hotel where his father, Kingsley,
was GoH.'
_Kenneth Anger_ (1927-2023), US experimental/underground film-maker
whose short works are often fantasy-themed -- e.g. _Lucifer Rising_ (1972)
-- died on 11 May aged 96. [LP]
_Lev Askerov_ (1940-2023), Azerbaijani author writing in Russian whose
15 books include four sf novels, died on 30 April. [AM]
_John Beasley_ (1943-2023), US actor in _The Gift_ (2000), _Lost
Souls_ (2000), _The Purge: Anarchy_ (2014), _Sinister 2_ (2015) and others,
died on 30 May aged 79. [SJ]
_Helmut Berger_ (1944-2023), noted Austrian actor with genre roles in
_Dorian Gray_ (1970), _Faceless_ (1988) and _Timeless_ (2016), died on 18
May aged 78. [AIP]
_Bard Bloom_, US co-creator of the _World Tree_ role-playing game
whose novels in that setting include _A Marriage of Insects_ (2007), died
on 29 April aged 60. [RB]
_Jim Brown_ (1936-2023), US footballer and actor in _The Running Man_
(1987), _Mars Attacks!_ (1996) and _Small Soldiers_ (voice, 1998), died on
18 May aged 87. [SG/LP]
_Barbara Bryne_ (1929-2023), UK actress in _Into the Woods_ (1987
Broadway), _Two Evil Eyes_ (1990) and _The Neverending Story_ (1995-1996
tv), died on 2 May aged 94. [LP]
_Marty Cantor_ (1935-2023), long-time Los Angeles fan, APA-L
contributor, publisher of fanzines including _Holier Than Thou_ (1979-1998;
three Hugo nominations) with his then wife Robbie Cantor (now Bourget) and
_No Award_ (1991-2008), died on 29 April aged 88. He and Robbie won DUFF in
1985. [F770] Another old pal gone.
_Maths Claesson_ (1959-2023), Swedish fan active for over 40 years --
producing fanzines, attending cons, being a driving force of the Swedish SF
Bookstore (and its second CEO) and publishing a well received juvenile sf
trilogy 2014-2018, died on 7 May aged 64. [J-HH/B]
_Marlene Clark_ (1937-2023), US actress in _Night of the Cobra Woman_
(1972), _Son of Blob_ (1972), _The Beast Must Die_ (1974), _Black Mamba_
(1974) and others, died on 18 May aged 85. [SJ]
_Peter Day_ (1927-2023), UK visual effects designer who worked on
several genre series including _Doctor Who_ (51 episodes 1967-1977) and
_The Goodies_ (19 episodes 1975-1976), died on 13 March aged 95. [AIP]
_Sergey Dreyden_ (1941-2023), Russian actor who starred in the fantasy
comedy _Window to Paris_ (1993) and in _Russian Ark_ (2002) died on 8 May
aged 81. [AM]
_Warren Hammack_ (1934-2023), US actor in _The Eye Creatures_ (1967),
_Zontar: The Thing from Venus_ (1967) and _Mars Needs Women_ (1968), died
on 13 February aged 88. [LP]
_Terrence Hardiman_ (1937-2023), UK actor who starred in _The Demon
Headmaster_ (1996-1998 plus spinoff film), with other genre credits
including _The Worst Witch_ (1998-2001) and _Fishtales_ (2007), died on 8
May aged 86. [AIP]
_Karen Kelly_ (1966-2023), Cambridge UK fan, con-goer and committee
member of Follycon (Eastercon 1988) and two Unicons, died on 24 May aged
57. [K]
_Gary Kent_ (1933-2023), US actor, stuntman and stunt co-ordinator
with credits for _The Mighty Gorga_ (1969), _Dracula vs. Frankenstein_
(1971), _The Incredible 2-Headed Transplant_ (1971), _Bubba Ho-Tep_ (2002)
and others, died on 25 May aged 89. [SG/LP]
_Mikhail Khleborodov_ (1967-2023), Russian director, screenwriter and
producer whose film _Paragraph 78_ (2007) is sf, died on 5 May aged 56.
[AM]
_Sergey Kolesnikov_ (1955--2023), Russian actor in _Warhammer 40,000:
Dawn of War II_ (2009, Russian dub) and _Land of Legends_ (2022), died on
29 April aged 68. [AM]
_Jerry Lapidus_ (1948-2023), US fan active since the 1960s with many
APA contributions (most recently to Slanapa), died on 19 April. [DGG]
_Ralph Lee_ (1935-2023), US mask and puppet designer who created the
'Land Shark' that ate _Saturday Night Live_ cast members in the 1970s, died
on 12 May aged 87. [AIP]
_Angus McAllister_ (1943-2023), Scots author of _The Krugg Syndrome_
(1988) and other sf novels, died on 18 April aged 79. [JS]
_George Maharis_ (1928-2023), US actor in _The Satan Bug_ (1965),
_Death in Space_ (1974), _The Sword and the Sorcerer_ (1982) and
_Doppelganger_ (1993), died on 24 May aged 94. [LP]
_Lisa Montell_ (1933-2023), Polish-born US actress in _World Without
End_ (1956), _Daughter of the Sun God_ (1962) and others, died on 7 March
aged 89. [SJ]
_Russ Nicholson_, UK fantasy artist who contributed to the early
_White Dwarf_ and illustrated many Fighting Fantasy gamebooks -- beginning
with the first, _The Warlock of Firetop Mountain_ (1982) -- and various
_Warhammer_ products, died in May. [GW]
_Giovanni Lombardo Radice_ (1954-2023), Italian actor -- also as John
Morghen -- in _Cannibal Apocalypse_ (1980), _City of the Living Dead_
(1980) and other horror films, died on 27 April age 68. [SF2C]
_John Refoua_ (1964-2023), film editor for _Avatar_ (2009 plus
sequel), _Geostorm_ (2017), _Transformers: The Last Knight_ (2017) and
others, died on 14 May aged 58. [AIP]
_Gerald Rose_ (1935-2023), UK illustrator of children's books
including Carroll, Lear, Ted Hughes's _Nessie the Mannerless Monster_
(1964) and several in Norman Hunter's 'Professor Branestawm' series, died
on 5 May aged 87. [AIP]
_Eileen Saki_ (1943-2023), _MASH_ actress whose genre films include
_Meteor_ (1979) and _Splash_ (1984), died on 1 May aged 79. [AIP]
_Inger Sandberg_ (1930-2023), Swedish children's author whose works
include _Laban the Little Spook_ (1965, first of a long supernatural series
illustrated by her husband Lasse Sandberg), died on 16 May aged 92.
_Rickey Sheppard_ (1953-2023), US fan and book dealer, a charter
member of the Western Kentucky University SF Society and a mainstay of
Bowling Green Fandom, died on 28 April aged 69. [RL]
_Ray Stevenson_ (1964-2023), Northern Irish actor in _Punisher: War
Zone_ (2008), _Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant_ (2009), _Thor_
(2011 plus sequels), _Divergent_ (2014 plus sequels) and genre tv series,
died on 21 May aged 58. [LP]
_Roger Taylor_ (1938-2023), UK author of the 'Chronicles of Hawklan'
fantasy sequence opening with _The Call of the Sword_ (1988), died on 25
March aged 85. [MF]
_Tina Turner_ (1939-2023), noted US singer and actress in _Tommy_
(1975), _Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome_ (1985) and _Last Action Hero_ (1993),
died on 24 May aged 83. [LP]
_Ken Westbury_ (1927-2023), UK cinematographer who worked on _The Man
in the White Suit_ (1951), _Adam Adamant Lives!_ (1966) and various _Doctor
Who_ storylines (1966-1978), died on 28 April aged 96. [AIP]