More awards have already been handed out at Worldcon, according to the 5th AnticipationSF Newsletter. The Aurora Awards have been handed out, and while I have read many of the nominated works, I don’t know a single one of the winners; which means I have a lot of excellent new science fiction to add to my To Be Read list. Also handed out were this years Sidewise Awards for Alternate History, and congratulations to Chris Roberson for his win with The Dragon’s 9 Sons, a very impressive book in a well built new universe; he also has a lack of speech statement about the award. Again, I am adding every book and story nominated that I haven’t already read to my list, and you might want to do the same. They also gave the results of the Ningen-Senkan Sensuikan (aka human battleship) contest, and I was very pleased to see Girl Genius listed under the Webcomics You Should Be Reading header, since it is my all-time favorite. And again, I will be checking out everything listed that I am not already familiar with, since that is one of the most important functions of Worldcon; making us all aware of what our peers think is worth some interest.
SciFi Cool has posted the first trailer for The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassu, along with a brief synopsis of the story. This is the first new film in a while from Terry Gillium, and it looks really good. There is also an international trailer available, which looks fairly similar. In Worldcon-related news, Suvudu has posted that George R. R. Martin was interviewed and the results podcast. If you missed last weeks Eisner Awards Winners, you will find the list at that link. Tomorrow are the Hugo Awards at Worldcon, which will (technology willing) be covered Live by Cheryl Morgan, in conjunction with SF Awards Watch and the folks that seem to have the best Con coverage I have found so far, Con Reporter. They also are running a Live Celebrity Tweets compilation continuously, with input from people like Lou Anders, Cory Doctorow, Neil Gaimon, John Scalzi, and many others (yes, that was in alphabetical order; good of you to notice).
It’s party time again! Thanks to the World Science Fiction Society, Worldcon 2009 is about to happen, from the 6th to the 10th of August. This time around, it takes place in Montreal, Canada, and goes by the name AnticipationSF. As always, it will include presentation of the Hugo Awards and the Campbell Award, as well as the Chesley Awards (and you might enjoy reading the Crotchety Old Fan’s Hugo Winner Prediction). Since this years Worldcon is also Canvention 29, the Aurora Awards will be handed out there as well. There will be the usual world-class writers workshops, the rather insane Masquerade, and so much more I can’t decide what to mention next. So I will just do the Masquerade historical reminder; Cosplay was invented by Forrest J Ackerman and his friend Myrtle R. Jones at the very first Worldcon in 1939. He came dressed in a space suit, while she wore a gown recreated from the classic 1933 film Things to Come (written by H.G. Wells, the movie was staged for 1936, and only 6 years in the past at the point the convention occurred). Neil Gaiman is the Guest of Honor this year, and Tom Doherty is the Publisher Guest of Honor. You gotta love Worldcon!!!
io9 once more, with their Comic-Con Top 10. All very good entries, and I am more ready than ever for V and Stargate Universe, Avatar and Tron, and of course 9, district and otherwise. And they had the new SGU trailer as well.
Comic-Con roundups on SFX, including abloggers segment, and IO9 and many more continue to hammer us with news entry after entry. That’s pretty much to current total of stories at SciFi Wire as well. I really need to grab tickets for next year.
According to this report from the BBC, fans have started a campaign to save Ianto Jones. Part of the Torchwood team, they killed him off last night in episode 4 of Children of Earth, or a few weeks ago if you live in the UK. Here in the US, The Prisoner won’t air until November, but AMC had a little taste for folks at Comic-Con today; check it out: