Free Republic

The snowflakes at Worldcon are having a very bad weekend. On Friday, the San Francisco chapter of Worldcon settled a lawsuit and agreed to pay restitution and to issue a public apology for banning conservative author Jon Del Arroz from their convention in 2018 and for besmirching him as a “racist.” .... The ban resulted when Del Arroz asked Worldcon for security measures because he feared for his safety due to the mob-like attacks on him and his family from the industry insiders. Instead of helping him, Worldcon banned him and made public statements claiming the author was a “racist”...

The Hugo Awards turn into a participation trophy of sorts ...

At the seventy-third annual Worldcon science fiction convention on Saturday night, social justice warriors did their best impression of the nightmare firemen of Ray Bradbury’s classic Fahrenheit 451, choosing to burn down the Hugo Awards and damage science fiction instead of seeing works of heretical authors outside of their exclusive clique winning awards. Earlier this year, Breitbart reported on the Sad Puppies and Rabid Puppies voting slates, which swept many major categories for the Hugo Awards, science fiction’s coveted fan-voted awards. This year’s Hugos were hotly anticipated: fans and industry insiders alike were curious to see if social justice could come together...

... I know what it's like to love an author despite his or her controversial statements about real-life political issues. And I also feel that this year's Hugo slate is an unmitigated outrage that has serious implications for the future of speculative fiction. Next week, on Aug. 22, voters will decide if these awards are still about celebrating excellent writing and innovative ideas, or if they are just another blood-drenched battleground in the conflict between white male traditionalists and everyone else. For those who don't follow the genre-fiction awards circuit, here's what's going on. A shifting contingent of science fiction...

And all members of Worldcon get the Hugo Voters package, soft copies of the nominated works. Read them, and make your own decisions on the best SF and Fantasy of 2014. https://sasquan.swoc.us/sasquan/reg.php

This is the era in which we are all being drafted in the Culture War. It doesn’t matter if you’re secular or religious, political or apolitical, frat boys or geeks, hipsters or bros. Nobody gets to be neutral or sit on the sidelines, because we’ll all be expected to make our obeisance to the latest politically correct opinion handed down to us by a Twitter mob. By now, we know the basic ingredients of a typical skirmish in Culture War 4.0. It goes something like this: a) a leftist claque starts loudly pushing the “correct” Culture War position onto b)...

2007 Hugo Awards Announced Published on 1 Sep 2007 at 4:22 am. No Comments. Filed under Worldcon, Results. The results of the 2007 Hugo Awards, as announced at Nippon 2007, the 65th World Science Fiction Convention, in Yokohama, Japan, on September 1st 2007, are as follows: Best Novel: Rainbows End by Vernor Vinge [Tor, 2006]Best Novella: “A Billion Eves” by Robert Reed [Asimov’s Oct/Nov 2006] Best Novelette: “The Djinn’s Wife” by Ian McDonald [Asimov’s July 2006]Best Short Story: “Impossible Dreams” by Tim Pratt [Asimov’s July 2006]Best Related Non-Fiction Book: James Tiptree, Jr.: The Double Life of Alice B Sheldon by...

Denvention III will be the 66th World Science Fiction Convention. It will be held August 6 - 10, 2008.

It's in Anaheim, California this year and it starts tomorrow. Is anyone here attending?

WorldCom files for bankruptcy It's largest declaration ever; corporate assets at $107 billion 07/21/2002 By VIKAS BAJAJ / The Dallas Morning News Hounded by a deepening accounting scandal and a dwindling pocketbook, WorldCom filed Sunday night for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, the largest such filing in history. Phone and Internet service to the company's more than 20 million customers is expected to continue with few hitches, regulators and executives said. "This step is the best thing for most people, in our opinion," company spokesman Brad Burns said. "It preserves jobs, it ensures service is not interrupted for our customers,...