News

A few days after Phil Valentine announced he had tested positive for Covid-19 on July 11th, the conservative talk-radio host wrote on Facebook that he was “doing my patriotic duty for natural herd immunity.” Valentine, whose nationally syndicated Phil Valentine Show aired on 100 stations from 2007 to 2019, had questioned the vaccines on his current show on Nashville’s SuperTalk 99.7 Wtn and online, mocking the U.S.’s inoculation campaign in the song “Vaxman,” a parody of the Beatles’ “Taxman.” “I certainly am not getting the vax now,” he replied to a...

I am a bad SFnal blogger, since these nominees were announced a good two weeks ago. (Perhaps I delayed because I believe, based on my own Wfa judge experience, that the winners in all categories have already been determined, and so most of the nominees are doomed to forlorn hopes.)

Anyway, congratulations to all of the nominees, and good luck to them. I leave the annual exercise of determining which two entries in each category were voted on by the convention membership and which were picked by the judges to fandom assembled.

Novel

Those Across the River, Christopher Buehlman (Ace) 11/22/63, Stephen King (Scribner; Hodder & Stoughton as 11.22.63) A Dance with Dragons, George R.R. Martin (Bantam; Harper Voyager UK) Osama, Lavie Tidhar (Ps Publishing) Among Others, Jo Walton (Tor)

Novella

“Near Zennor”, Elizabeth Hand (A Book of Horrors) “A Small Price to Pay for Birdsong”, K.J. Parker (Subterranean Winter 2011) “Alice Through...