Worldcon 2025: "And the nominees are..."

Without very much fanfare, the World Science Fiction Association has released the slate of nominees for the 2025 Hugo Awards, which will be presented at the upcoming Seattle Worldcon, taking place in August. The full list of nominees can be found here:

https://seattlein2025.org/wsfs/hugo-awards/2025-hugo-award-finalists/

As a member of the WSFA, I'm able to vote on this year's awards, although I have to admit that I'm not familiar with all the nominees. I've chosen to address this shortcoming by concentrating on the Best Novel category, simply because it's probably easiest to obtain copies of the books that have been nominated, rather than trying to chase down all the short fiction or fanzines. (Although I should be able to research the Best Artist category online.)  The nominees for Best Novel are:

Alien Clay by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Orbit US, Tor UK)

The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley (Avid Reader Press, Sceptre)

Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Tordotcom)

Someone You Can Build a Nest In by John Wiswell (DAW)

A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher (Tor)

The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett (Del Rey, Hodderscape UK) 

I'm not sure when voting will open, but fortunately I'm a bit of a speed reader, so I should be able to run through all six of the nominees this week without much difficulty, especially now that I'm retired.  I'm familiar with Adrian Tchaikovsky and T. Kingfisher, but the other authors are new to me - regardless, it should be an enjoyable reading session!

 - Sid

Treat yo' self.

In the wake of my recent retirement decision, I decided to get myself a going away gift, a little something to mark the event. 

Surprisingly, it was an easy decision: the Gerry Anderson* web site had just announced the return of their Space: 1999 Eagle** schematic T-shirt to their online catalogue - cost per was a little more than I would normally spend on a T-shirt, but, as per the title, sometimes you have to indulge yourself.

I'm not sure if this qualifies as a limited edition item:  they were originally out of stock when I stumbled across the Gerry Anderson site and added myself to their mailing list, but to the best of my knowledge they only had 150 of the shirts printed as restock.  Regardless, I'm pleased to add this to my fan wardrobe, and my sincere thanks to Louise at Gerryanderson.com for helping out with my address error. (It's probably a good idea to confirm that you haven't accidentally inverted two of the numbers in your street address before you place your order.)

 - Sid

* In case there are people reading this who don't know who Gerry Anderson is, he and his wife Sylvia worked together to create the legendary British Supermarionation children's programs such as Fireball XL-5, Stingray, Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet, as well as live action series like UFO, Space Precinct, and of course, Space: 1999. 

** I always thought that the Eagle transporter was a quite well thought-out option for lunar and vacuum usage.  The modular design that allowed for the addition of cargo and passenger modules, first introduced as part of the Thunderbirds series, was a clever idea, and the NASA-influenced combination of main engines and directional thrusters seemed like a practical approach to low and zero-gravity manoeuvring.

That being said, the external view of the cockpit didn't really match up with the interior layout, and there are a few episodes where Eagles are used as planetary landers, which made no sense at all - all of the features that made them such believable vacuum spacecraft would make them about as flight-ready as a thrown brick for atmospheric usage. 

Survival Hints for the Retirement Map.

I just gave notice to my employers of the last 15 years - in two weeks, I start retirement.

My plans for this new phase of my life are very much like the guidelines for successfully playing The Long Dark, one of my favourite games:

Get enough sleep.

Eat properly, and stay hydrated.

Keep my energy level up.

Avoid cabin fever by going out, exploring the world, and discovering new things.

Make sure that I stay warm and dry.

Avoid being killed by wolves or bears. 

And every now and then, take a minute to just look around and appreciate how incredible it all is.

Overall, not a bad set of rules for life, although really, I'm not VERY worried about the wolves and bears one.

- Sid 

P.S. By the way, I'd love to get a retirement job at a used bookstore, if anyone reading this knows of an opening please leave a comment. But not right away, I'd like to explore the zen of sleeping in for a few months.