Awards, CSFFA / Aurora Award / Hall of Fame

Aurora Awards: Nominations open

Join the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association, to nominate and vote for the Aurora Awards. Also, you get a great deal in reading material when the nominations are announced! https://prixaurorawards.ca/   CPL

Aurora Awards
Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association

NOMINATIONS ARE OPEN FOR 2022 AURORAS

Nominations are now open to CSFFA members and will close on March 26th at 11:59 pm EDT. You may select/change/remove items at any time until nominations close.

All twelve categories are open this year and members may select up to five different works in each category. Select works from the dropdown lists, which are sorted by title. If you want to remove an item that you have chosen, select the blank line at the top of the dropdown list. You must click the Update button at the bottom of each nomination form to save your selections. Your choices will be displayed on your nomination central page.

You don’t have to nominate in all categories. Nominate those works that you enjoyed, because this is your chance to have your favorite works from 2021 on this year’s Aurora Awards final ballot. The top five most-nominated works in each category will be selected to be on the final ballot.

Items on our eligibility lists have been submitted by publishers, authors, and fans, and verified by a team of CSFFA volunteers. To review what is eligible for this year’s awards you can go to our public eligibility page. Unlike our dropdown lists, these lists are sorted by author’s or creator’s first name.

Astronomy News

NASA ROCKET PLUNGES INTO PULSATING AURORAS

Space Weather News for March 7, 2022
https://spaceweather.com
https://www.spaceweatheralerts.comNASA ROCKET PLUNGES INTO PULSATING AURORAS: Over the weekend, NASA launched a rocket from Alaska into an expanse of mysterious pulsating auroras. This type of aurora, which is a bit like a strobing checkerboard, is a favorite among tour guides because it is so unusual and mesmerizing. Researchers are just beginning to understand what makes it tick. Full story @ Spaceweather.com.

Solar Flare Alerts: Sign up for Space Weather Alerts and get instant text notifications when solar flares are underway.

Above: A NASA sounding rocket launches into pulsating auroras over the University of Alaska’s Poker Flat Research Range on March 5th. Photo credit: Marketa S. Murray of The Aurora Chasers.
Astronomy News, Our planet Earth holds wonders enough!

Mysterious new substance possibly discovered inside Earth’s core

Mysterious new substance possibly discovered inside Earth’s core

https://www.space.com/

By published

The planet’s core could be a mushy mix of solid and liquid.

Earth's core is weirder than first thought.
Earth’s core is weirder than first thought. (Image credit: Shutterstock)

Earth’s inner core may be filled with a weird substance that is neither solid nor liquid, according to a new study.

For more than half a century, scientists believed that Earth‘s deepest recesses consist of a molten outer core surrounding a densely compressed ball of solid iron alloy. But new research, published Feb. 9 in the journal Nature, offers a rare insight into the inner structure of the planet — and it’s far weirder than previously thought.

New computer simulations suggest that Earth’s hot and highly pressurized inner core could exist in a “superionic state” — a whirling mix of hydrogen, oxygen and carbon molecules, continuously sloshing through a grid-like lattice of iron.

READ FULL ARTICLE HERE
Corona meetings from home

Sea Monkeys and Other Wonders

Order Yours Today: Sea-Monkeys and Other Fantastic Wonders From the Back Pages of Comic Books!

Remember those crazy, wild, and amazing novelty products advertised on the back pages of comic books in the 1960s and ’70s? From the inveterate Sea-Monkeys to X-Ray Specs to a one-man submarine, we’ll look at what was advertised, and what you actually received in the mail if you ordered!

Don’t miss Keith’s presentation March 12th, 13:30h, right here on  http://www.monsffa.ca

Or join us on Zoom. For the link, please contact president@monsffa.ca.

Movies

Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror

Nosferatu: The monster who still terrifies, 100 years on

From the BBC: https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20220303-nosferatu-the-monster-who-still-terrifies-100-years-on
From his shadow to his gaunt face, the vampire Count Orlok in 1922’s Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror remains one of film’s most spine-tingling creations. Nicholas Barber examines why.

It was exactly 100 years ago, in March 1922, that Berlin’s movers and shakers attended the premiere of FW Murnau’s Nosferatu: A Symphony Of Horror, and saw the nightmarish Count Orlok springing bolt upright from his coffin. Those unsuspecting viewers could well have witnessed the first great jump scare in the history of horror movies. They had certainly witnessed its first great monster. An unofficial adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula – hence the Count’s name-change from Dracula to Orlok – this silent masterpiece pioneered techniques and established horror tropes that have been used ever since. But the creation of the iconic Orlok, played by Max Schreck, is its supreme achievement. He is, says Cristina Massaccesi, in her guide to Nosferatu for the Devil’s Advocates horror history series, “the Ur-Vampire, the father of all undead creatures lurking in the darkest recesses of a cinema screen”.

 He is also one of the few monsters to be instantly recognisable, even in silhouette. Murnau makes spine-tingling use of his shadow – and once you see the outline of Orlok’s domed, bald head, his pointed ears, his hunched shoulders, his stick-thin body and his snaking talons, you know who’s on the prowl. Then you see his gaunt, chalk-white face. More animal than human, Orlok has huge bushy eyebrows, sunken eyes, a beaky nose, and a rodent’s incisors in the centre of his mouth (far odder than the sharp canines possessed by later screen vampires). As Kevin Jackson says in Constellation of Genius, his survey of 1922 in the arts, Orlok “must be the strangest and most hideous leading man in all cinema”.

Count Orlok was the distinctive vision of producer Albin Grau – and his original sketches are even creepier than in the finished film (Credit: Getty Images)
Count Orlok was the distinctive vision of producer Albin Grau – and his original sketches are even creepier than in the finished film (Credit: Getty Images)

Much of the credit for this strangeness should go to the producer of Nosferatu, Albin Grau. A student of the occult, he wrote an article claiming that, during World War One, a Serbian peasant had told him of his own encounters with vampires: “Before this wretched war, I was over in Romania,” said the peasant, allegedly. “You can laugh about this superstition, but I swear on the mother of God, that I myself knew that horrible thing of seeing an undead… or Nosferatu, as vampires are called over there.” In 1921, Grau set up an independent studio, Prana Film, but he also worked closely with Murnau as the designer of Nosferatu. With no earlier vampire films to copy or to react against, Grau had to dream up something new – and his sketches of Orlok, a spindly, demonic alien with glowing eyes, are even creepier than the version in the finished film.

READ the full article: https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20220303-nosferatu-the-monster-who-still-terrifies-100-years-on

 Still creepy, after all these years! Watch it on Youtube:

Reading

LOCUS FORTHCOMING BOOKS: MARCH 2022

LOCUS FORTHCOMING BOOKS: MARCH 2022

  • GEORGE R.R. MARTIN, ED. • Wild Cards: Three Kings • Tor, Mar 2022 (1st US, oa, hc, eb)
  • RAMSEY CAMPBELL • The Way of the Worm • Flame Tree Press US, Mar 2022 (1st US, h, hc, tp, eb)
  • JAMES S.A. COREY • Memory’s Legion • Little, Brown UK/Orbit, Mar 2022 (c, eb, hc)
  • JAMES S.A. COREY • Memory’s Legion • Orbit US, Mar 2022 (c, hc, eb)
  • JOHN LANGAN • Corpsemouth and Other Autobiographies • Word Horde, Mar 2022 (c, tp, eb)
  • SEBASTIEN DE CASTELL • Play of Shadows • Quercus/Jo Fletcher, Mar 2022 (eb, hc)
  • CHRISTOPHER RUOCCHIO • Kingdoms of Death • Orion/Gollancz, Mar 2022 (eb, tp)
  • JOHN SCALZI • The Kaiju Preservation Society • Macmillan/Tor UK, Mar 2022 (eb, hc)
  • ADRIAN TCHAIKOVSKY • Ogres • Rebellion/Solaris, Mar 2022 (eb, hc)
  • KHAN WONG • The Circus Infinite • Angry Robot, Mar 2022 (eb, tp)
  • MARSHALL RYAN MARESCA • The Assassins of Consequence • DAW, Mar 2022 (eb)
  • TODD MCCAFFREY • The King’s Ghosts • Foxxe Frey, Mar 2022 (eb)
  • T.L. HUCHU • Our Lady of Mysterious Ailments • Tor, Mar 2022 (h, hc, eb)
  • GRAHAM MASTERTON • The Soul Stealer • Head of Zeus/Aries, Mar 2022 (h, hc)
  • ANGELA SLATTER • The Bone Lantern • PS Publishing/Absinthe Press, Mar 2022 (h, na, hc)
  • ANNE BISHOP • Crowbones • Ace, Mar 2022 (hc, eb)
  • PATRICIA BRIGGS • Soul Taken • Ace, Mar 2022 (hc, eb)
  • MAURICE BROADDUS • Sweep of Stars • Tor, Mar 2022 (hc, eb)
  • A. LEE MARTINEZ • Constance Verity Destroys the Universe • Simon & Schuster/Saga Press, Mar 2022 (hc, eb)
  • SYLVAIN NEUVEL • Until the Last of Me • Tordotcom, Mar 2022 (hc, eb)
  • CHRISTOPHER RUOCCHIO • Kingdoms of Death • DAW, Mar 2022 (hc, eb)
  • JOHN SCALZI • The Kaiju Preservation Society • Tor, Mar 2022 (hc, eb)
  • PENG SHEPHERD • The Cartographers • HarperCollins/Morrow, Mar 2022 (hc, eb)
  • ADRIAN TCHAIKOVSKY • Ogres • Rebellion/Solaris US, Mar 2022 (hc, eb)
  • V.E. SCHWAB • Gallant • Titan, Mar 2022 (hc) SLATTER, A.G.
  • SAAD Z. HOSSAIN • Kundo Wakes Up • Tordotcom, Mar 2022 (na, tp, eb)
  • K.J. PARKER • The Long Game • Subterranean Press, Mar 2022 (na, hc, eb)
  • CHARLES STROSS • Escape from Yokai Land • Tordotcom, Mar 2022 (na, hc, eb)
  • SARAH TOLMIE • All the Horses of Iceland • Tordotcom, Mar 2022 (na, tp, eb)
  • TAD WILLIAMS • The Deathless Prince and the Peach Maiden • Hodder & Stoughton, Mar 2022 (na, hc)
  • YU CHEN & REGINA KANYU WANG, EDS. • The Way Spring Arrives and Other Stories • Tordotcom, Mar 2022 (oa, tp, eb)
  • CHARLIE N. HOLMBERG • Star Father • Amazon/47North, Mar 2022 (tp, eb)
  • SEANAN MCGUIRE • Spelunking Through Hell • DAW, Mar 2022 (tp, eb)
  • PREMEE MOHAMED • The Void Ascendant • Rebellion/ Solaris US, Mar 2022 (tp, eb)
  • HAN WONG • The Circus Infinite • Angry Robot US, Mar 2022 (tp, eb)
  • A. LEE MARTINEZ • Constance Verity Destroys the Universe • Quercus/Jo Fletcher, Mar 2022 (tp)
  • PREMEE MOHAMED • The Void Ascendant • Rebellion/ Solaris, Mar 2022 (tp)
  • S.J. MORDEN • The Flight of the Aphrodite • Orion/ Gollancz, Mar 2022 (tp)
  • LAURIE FOREST • The Demon Tide • Harlequin/Inkyard Press, Mar 2022 (ya, hc, eb)
  • V.E. SCHWAB • Gallant • HarperCollins/Greenwillow, Mar 2022 (ya, hc, eb)

Montreal Science Fiction and Fantasy Association