2026 Aurora Award Nominees: Represent!

And now, some Canadian content to balance out the Hugo Awards coverage: the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association (CSFFA) has released the slate of nominees for the annual Aurora Awards, which recognize the best Canadian science fiction and fantasy works of the year.  In the past, the awards ceremony has been held in conjunction with Canvention, as with the Hugos and Worldcon, but in recent years the organizers have transitioned to an online ceremony in order to allow for a wider viewership.  The 2026 ceremony will be livestreamed on YouTube on August 9th - the link will be published closer to the event.

This year's nominees are:

BEST NOVEL

• The Bewitching, Silvia Moreno-Garcia
• Blight, Rachel A. Rosen
• Direct Descendant, Tanya Huff
• The Downloaded 2: Ghosts in the Machine, Robert J. Sawyer
• Emily Wilde’s Compendium of Lost Tales, Heather Fawcett
• A Shift of Time, Julie E. Czerneda
• Written on the Dark, Guy Gavriel Kay

BEST YOUNG ADULT (YA) NOVEL

• Breath of the Dragon, Shannon Lee & Fonda Lee 
• Fireboy, Edward Willett 
• A Lion’s Head, D.M. De Alwis
• Minotaur, Jamieson Wolf
• One Morning Sun, Avi Silver
• Winging It, Jen Desmarais

BEST NOVELETTE/NOVELLA

• The First Thousand Trees, Premee Mohamed
• In the Gardener’s Service, Michèle Laframboise
• The Lure of Stone, Silvia Moreno-Garcia
• A Palace Near the Wind, Ai Jiang
• The River Has Roots, Amal El-Mohtar

BEST SHORT STORY

• Hunted To Extinction, Premee Mohamed
• I Ain’t Your Doll Face, Jacqueline Thorpe
• the love song of house and lake, Gillian Secord
• The Stone Played at Tengen, R.H. Wesley
• What If We Kissed While Sinking a Billionaire’s Yacht?, Rachel A. Rosen

BEST GRAPHIC NOVEL/COMIC

• Atana and the Jade Mermaid, Vivian Zhou
• Bonds of the Forest, Ally Rom Colthoff
• It Never Rains, Kari Maaren
• Questionable Content, Jeph Jacques
• Shark Girl, Kate Beaton

BEST POEM/SONG

• At the Spaceport Bar, Lisa Timpf
• Bigfoot Farewell, Carolyn Clink
• Dragon Karaoke, David Clink
• Explosive, Derek Newman-Stille
• flowers without meadow, Tiffany Morris
• From Dust, J. Y. Zhang

BEST RELATED WORK

• As the Earth Dreams: Black Canadian Speculative Stories, Terese Mason Pierre
• Augur Magazine, Issues 8.1-8.3, Kerry C. Byrne, Toria Liao, André Geleynse, Kelley Tai, and Azure Arther
• On Spec Magazine, Issues #131 – 134, Vol 35, Diane L. Walton, Managing Editor
• One Message Remains, Premee Mohamed
• Year’s Best Canadian Fantasy and Science Fiction: Volume Three, Stephen Kotowych, Editor

BEST COVER ART/INTERIOR ILLUSTRATION

• Dancing With the Holly King, Janice Blaine
• Seance, Alice M.
• Lunar Base, Dan O’Driscoll
• Starship Librarians, Lorna Antoniazzi
• Listen to Me and I’ll tell You a Story, Ejiwa “Edge” Ebenebe

BEST FAN WRITING AND PUBLICATION

• Amazing Stories online columns, Numbers 405-420, Steve Fahnestalk
• Book Reviews in The Ottawa Review of Books, Robert Runté
• Polar Starlight Magazine, Issues 17-20, Rhea E. Rose, editor
• Speculative Poetry and the Hugos, Lynne Sargen
• Young People Read Old Science Fiction, James Davis Nicoll

BEST FAN RELATED WORK

• Can*Con, Marie Bilodeau, chair and Brandon Crilly, vice-chair
• Scintillation, Jo Walton and Rene Walling, co-chairs
• Two Old Farts Talk Sci-Fi, Troy Harkin and David Clink
• Wizards & Spaceships, Rachel A. Rosen and David L. Clink
• The Worldshapers Podcast, Edward Willett 

I see that The Infinite Revolution has not received a nomination this year - obviously not a surprise, but can you imagine?  Joking aside, I suspect that my little hobby is a bit too casual for awards consideration - although, we are coming up on the 20th anniversary of this blog, perhaps I should be recognized for sheer persistence.

- Sid

"Hug, question?"

Image by Matteroum

This, this is exactly what I was talking about in this post about the xenomorph ecosystem. 

- Sid

The Economics of Scarcity.

My modest collection of Major Matt Mason toys is high on the list of things that spark joy for me, as per Marie Kondo.  (Is the KonMari Method still a thing?)  They were my favourite childhood toys, and as such it just makes me smile to have them on display with the rest of my idiosyncratic selection of collectables.  

All things considered, they're in remarkably good shape for 60 year old toys.  The Major himself and Sergeant Storm have their original helmets, and none of the armature wires inside their molded rubber figures are broken.  The number stickers are missing from the helmets, and a few bits of paint here and there have rubbed off (which has made me reluctant to give them a really good cleaning) but outside of that they've stood up quite well.

Similarly, my Supernaut Power Limbs, which cost me a staggering $9.99 (probably less than the original retail price) are in virtually mint condition and even has most of their original stickers. I also have one of the simple molded Cat Tracs that were packaged with the figures, a Jet Propulsion Pack that's missing one of its guiding strings, and of course my Space Crawler, which is missing its winch string and hook, rear roller, and hubcabs, but which still runs.  All in, the entire collection has cost me about $130 CAD, which may be a lot to spend on vintage toys - or at least I would have thought so until I saw the current state of the market.

I'm generally a bit of a purist when it comes to things like this, but I'd like to see the Space Crawler restored to something closer to its former glory, even if it involves non-original alternatives.  Surprisingly, options are available online for both of the issues: several people have reproduced the original stickers in free downloadable PDF format, and a recent search on eBay revealed several options for reasonably priced 3D-printed replacement parts for the Space Crawler.  

As usual, eBay also showed me a selection of related posts, including the following for two Major Matt Mason figures and a space crawler:

Personally, I'd be embarrassed to sell anything in this kind of condition.  It's bad enough that one of the figures is missing virtually all its paint, and both have lost all of their hair and eye colouring (and most of their noses), but the figure on the left is missing most of its right arm, for heaven's sake!  Given the level of abuse that the two dolls have suffered, it would be a miracle if their armatures weren't broken in a few spots, although the item description isn't specific.  It simply says "FOR PARTS", which suggests that the crawler engine probably doesn't work either.  

The price for this battered trio of toys?  An astonishing $170 CAD, plus $51 shipping to Canada. 

The next eBay suggestion was equally surprising. This is a box - an empty cardboard box.  Admittedly, it's in reasonable shape for a box from 1967, but still, it's an empty box.

Buy It Now price on eBay?  $216 CAD.  Plus $75 shipping.  When was the last time that you paid almost $300 for an empty box? 

All of this goes to illustrate what happens when there's a limited supply to meet demand. Mattel is not making new Major Matt Mason toys (well, there was an odd re-release of reimagined classics in 2022, but not really the same thing) and as such, anything and everything from the original line is now a desirable commodity, and pricing reflects that fact.

That being said, it makes me wonder if the Matt Mason toys that I owned in my childhood are somehow still out there in circulation.  I honestly have no memory of what might have happened to them  - they were certainly well used, but as demonstrated, that's apparently not a barrier to having them show up on the marketplace. Not that I'd buy them. I'm certainly sentimental about things like that, but the ones I own now are in much better condition.

- Sid