(1) 2026 HUGO NOMINATIONS. They’re out! See them here: “LAcon V Announces 2026 Hugo Awards Finalists”.

(2) HAS ANYONE READ THESE BOOKS? Nicholas Whyte applies to various Hugo book categories a test I used to run on the Dragon Awards finalists. (I’m not saying he didn’t think of it himself; just noting how turnabout is fair play.) “Hugo final ballot: Goodreads / LibraryThing / StoryGraph stats” at From the Heart of Europe.

Here are the Goodreads / LibraryThing / StoryGraph stats for the categories where those numbers are relevant.  I do this not to predict winners, but to assess the extent to which each book (of those which have been published individually as standalone volumes) has measurably penetrated the wider market….

(3) HOW WAS BOOKCON? “BookCon’s return to New York City gets mixed reviews from attendees” says AMNY.

BookCon made its return to New York City over the weekend with mixed reviews from those who attended.

On April 18-19, the highly anticipated convention brought literature lovers together to explore the latest releases from big-name publishers and indie authors alike, with opportunities to shop, listen in on panels, and meet authors. 

The convention was held at North Javits, offering multiple floors of events for convention-goers. For indie authors and small business owners alike, interacting with convention-goers on the floor of Indie Alley was the most rewarding part of the whole experience….

…Despite the excitement around BookCon, there was still criticism around the event, starting with crowd control. On the first morning of BookCon, the line was wrapped around for blocks, and it was slow-moving for some people to get into the convention. Several people online criticized ReedPop, which organized BookCon, for overselling tickets, making it difficult for ticket-holders to make reservations for author signings and contributing to the overcrowding issue.

Brittany, who runs @bookfairybritt, said online that the crowd situation felt unorganized, making it unclear where lines were for publishing booths that were giving away advanced reader copies (ARCs) of upcoming novels.

“Could this have been more organized? Yes. The friend I went with, she has been to Comic-Con a bunch of times and has told me they could have maximized the space better. They could have had organized designations for lines,” Brittany said. “It felt a bit underwhelming, but still overwhelming because of the crowd, and just, like, I didn’t know what to do, it just felt like it was all over the place, I didn’t know where to go, where to see things.”…

(4) HOLD THAT PLACE! Christopher Lockett built a column around this chart: “On Bookmarks”.

…This bookmark alignment chart is, to my mind, pretty much on the money. It also serves as further confirmation that I am, every day in every way, resolutely Chaotic Good.

I have had over the years any number of “proper bookmarks,” accurately designated here as the True Neutral of the page-marking realm. Many were gifts, some I purchased myself; in all cases they didn’t see much use. Couldn’t really say why; they’re just not my speed, and I never felt quite right with something that decorative stuck in the middle of my book, especially if they were thicker than your average piece of card stock, and really especially if they had tassels or dangly bits or other such embellishments.

I’m most comfortable with more random pieces of paper….

(5) IF HE COULD SEE ME NOW. Jeremy Szal’s latest novel Wolfskin completes a trilogy, and in “It Lives” the author tells how that feels.

… Never in my wildest imagination did I think I would end up where I am today. That not only would I sell a book, I would sell three of them.

I’d publish a trilogy and would reach tens of thousands of people around the world.

I’d fulfill my dream of becoming a traditionally published author.

After a while, the work that you’ve put into your passions can fade into the background. before can fade into the distance.

You forget just how much effort and sweat and blood and tears went into the thing that you were put in, the emotional labour involved.

The hard nights, the loose plot threads, the uncertainty. The mountain, looming ahead, taunting you.

As some of you know, that did not go away when I sold these books. If anything, it increased.

Still, now that I have reached this high point, I like to remind myself where I came from. The place where I once was. How long and arduous this climb has been.

And how damn proud that 20-year-old kid, thinking that his dream of publishing a novel had been dashed forever, would be if he could see me now….

(6) LEST DARKNESS FALL. [Item by Steven French.] “Game over: Players press EU to ban ‘destroying’ video titles” at Tech Xplore.

It’s a bitter pill for video gamers: a growing number of older but still-popular titles are being dropped by publishers—with servers going dark overnight—in a practice the EU is being urged to outlaw.

More than a million people from across Europe have backed a citizens’ petition called “Stop Destroying Videogames,” and are now pressing for action in Brussels.

At the heart of the issue: in the past decade, hundreds of video titles have been rendered unplayable at the whim of their publishers, for a variety of reasons ranging from profitability to changes in strategy.

A significant part of popular culture is being wiped out in the process, with no compensation for gamers who in many cases have invested substantial sums, notably on microtransactions inside the playing environment.

The phenomenon has concerned older versions of hugely popular franchises such as the FIFA football simulation series.

But it was the shutdown of car-racing game The Crew that proved the final straw in 2024, prompting players to mobilize with a European petition.

“It’s a bit like buying a book from a publisher and then suddenly opening it to find the pages have gone blank because they’ve decided you can’t play your game anymore,” Brendan Fourdan, organizer of the French chapter of the petition, told AFP….

(7) WEBBY AWARDS. A lot of things are “2026 Webby Awards Winners”. The Hollywood Reporter list includes two of genre interest:

• Severance S2 – Tune-In Campaign won the Webby Award and People’s Voice Award for Social Media Campaign, Advertising Campaigns (Advertising, Media & PR)
• Sinners Theatrical Social Campaign won the Webby Award for Best Overall Social Presence – Media/Entertainment, Social Features (Social)

(8) INTERESTINGLY NAMED COMPANY IN UKRAINE. [Item by John A Arkansawyer.] I heard it on the radio and checked it—the drone company is really called “Fourth Law”: “Ukraine’s fast-growing defense tech sector takes center stage in Iran war” at NPR.

To Ukraine now, which finds itself in an unexpected position since the war with Iran began. It’s no longer just a recipient of military aid. Ukraine is also positioning itself as a provider. Weaknesses in Middle East air defense systems open doors for Ukraine’s growing defense technology industry. NPR’s Joanna Kakissis reports from Kyiv….

…KAKISSIS: Maksym Savanevsky is with The Fourth Law, another Ukrainian defense company that makes cheap, reliable interceptor drones.

SAVANEVSKY: There’s very strong demand for interceptors in general because everyone sees the same problem. Using expensive air defense missiles against relatively cheap attack drones is not sustainable at scale.

KAKISSIS: The Fourth Law’s interceptor is called Zerov-8. It uses artificial intelligence to detect targets faster.

SAVANEVSKY: We trained the system to see targets at a distance two to three times greater than humans. This gives us precious time and distance to intercept Shaheds, for example….

(9) SF COLLECTOR Q&A. Heritage Auctions goes “On the Record With Rare Book Collector David Aronovitz” at Intelligent Collector. (You can currently bid on his books in The David Aronovitz Collection of Important Science Fiction & Fantasy, Part I Rare Books Signature® Auction.)

IC: Are there any items in the auction that stand out as memorable first works in your mind?

DA: I found a couple of items that were not in bibliographies, and so no one had any idea what they were. One of those I sold a long time ago, but the other one is in the auction, which is the only known copy of that item. It’s the Robert Bloch publication from 1937. It’s in a fanzine that was one page folded to make four, and he had used a pseudonym for it. The pseudonym was Sarcophagus W. Dribble. I was very pleased to find that. I don’t know of any other copy.

(10) RAW DEAL. “Man Charged in Lego Theft Scheme of Replacing Pieces With Pasta, Police Say”  — the New York Times has the story (behind a paywall).

A California man cooked up a scheme that called for buying thousands of dollars worth of Lego kits, replacing Lego pieces and minifigures with bags of uncooked pasta, and returning the sets to stores for refunds, the police said on Thursday.

The man, Jarrelle Augustine, 28, of Paramount, Calif., was charged with grand theft after he gained about $34,000 in the fraudulent transactions, the Irvine Police Department said on social media.

The department store Target reported at least 70 thefts across the country that were tied to Mr. Augustine, the police said. Target did not immediately return a request for comment on Saturday….

…Read Hayes, a research scientist and criminologist at the University of Florida and the executive director of the Loss Prevention Research Council, said it was possible that Mr. Augustine’s use of uncooked pasta — which he described as “off the charts” — was meant to simulate the shifting sound of the pieces inside the box….

…The Irvine Police Department urged others to not to replicate Mr. Augustine’s scheme.

“If your master plan involves swapping LEGOs for linguine, we can promise your plan will be cooked al dente,” the police said.

(11) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY.

[Written by Cat Eldridge.]

April 21, 1954 — James Morrison, 72.

So which cancelled series are on your list that you wish had definitely been finished? On mine is Space Above & Beyond with James Morrison as Lt. Col. Tyrus Cassius “T. C.” McQueen (USMC, In Vitro), whose Birthday is today. As played by Morrison, Lt. Col. McQueen was a completely believable military officer, not a caricature of one as seen in far too many SF shows. He, like every character, was a believable real being.

Likewise the series itself was stellar, both the ship and the universe it traveled being quite believable. The Chigs made an interesting enemy being linked to Earth life — something not noted until the last two episodes of the cancelled series. They had small black eyes set deeply in the head, pale pink skin, an almost missing nose, a protruding upper jaw, something that might be gills. As the Chigs got as close in Jupiter, the question is how far out did the War start? Was this a compact war fought with a few star systems?  There’s no way to know as, like all SF series that deal with interstellar flight, it deals with such distances badly. Just my opinion of course.

Ok, so what else is Morrison do? His other long term character was on 24. Is it genre? I think so, or at genre adjacent. Buchanan during the Day 4 story was the Director of CTU Los Angeles. Before taking command of CTU LA, he was a Regional Division Director at CTU. He was initially sent to CTU Los Angeles by Division Command to oversee the exchange of Jack Bauer for Behrooz Araz in that story. His role would develop over a number of stories. He’d be in thirty-five episodes, one of the longest running characters. 

Not surprisingly he had a Twilight Zone appearance, though given his age it was on the new series. He was in “The Blue Scorpion” episode where a strange here now, gone then gun effects an anthropology professor who’s going mad. He is the voice of JEFF. I won’t say more just in case someone here hasn’t seen it. 

He plays a major a role in the X-File episode, “Theef”: Dr. Irving Thalbro is staying the night with his daughter and her family including Dr. Robert Wieder (Morrison) when in the middle of the night, Irving finds a pile of dirt shaped like a man in his bed. Irving is eventually discovered by Robert hanging from the ceiling with the word “theef” painted in Irving’s blood on the wall.’”

(12) COMICS SECTION.

• Caption It has an opening.
• Moderately Confused gets an answer, but is it a solution?
• Rubes knows why there were no argument clinics in the Jurassic.
• Speed Bump ignored the warning.
• xkcd contrasts board games.
• Zits writes his bio.

(13) BATMAN’S FIRST CENTURY. 13^th Dimension celebrates“1956’s BATMAN #100: A Comics Landmark Turns 70!”

An offbeat anniversary in the history of Batman is upon us: Exactly 70 years ago (on April 17, 1956) the Batman series celebrated its 100th issue. Well, it celebrated at least by showing off on its front six great covers from the series’ then-16 year run.

Unfortunately, the inside didn’t quite play up the benchmark to the degree the cover did. No retelling of the Dynamic Duo’s individual origins, and no appearance from any of their infamous rogues gallery. However, it did include tales that were examples of the period — and entertaining ones at that.

NOTE: Art for all interior pages below by Sheldon Moldoff (pencils) and Charles Paris (inks).

The lead story is indeed appropriate for the issue: “Batmantown, U.S.A.” The Dark Knight is honored by the renaming of a small town after him — though the burg does it just for monetary reasons. It doesn’t take long for Batman to discover that criminals are already at work taking advantage of the new name. The script (by an undetermined author) turns amusing when Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson (in disguise) show up and apply to play Batman and Robin in the city’s upcoming festivities, and then intentionally bungle their acrobatic moves….

(14) OCTOTHORPE. The Octothorpe podcast crew says, “We’re releasing early today, with a Hugo Awards finalists special! We discuss what ended up on the ballot and give some off-the-cuff remarks about it all. We’re also thrilled to be finalists again: a huge thanks to all who nominated us.” Episode 158 is titled: “I Am the Worldcon Chair in Avignon”. There’s an uncorrected transcript available here.

(15) CASE IN (NO) POINT. TVLine critiques these picks for the “10 Worst Episodes Of The Twilight Zone, According To IMDb”.

…Like any long-running anthology, its hit-or-miss nature becomes more apparent when viewed episode by episode. In fact, the series includes several weaker episodes that serve as curios, showing what it looked like at its lowest points. Let’s take a look at the 10 worst episodes of this seminal series, according to IMDb….

The list includes a surprising dud directed by a future great:

9. From Agnes – With Love (Season 5, Episode 20)

“From Agnes — With Love” sees Rod Serling dabble in comedy, with mixed results. Directed by future blockbuster filmmaker Richard Donner, the episode follows a hapless computer genius named James Elwood (Wally Cox), who’s put in charge of a glitchy supercomputer called Agnes. When Agnes learns that Elwood is interested in a colleague called Millie (Sue Randall), it starts distributing hilariously misinformed relationship advice, which Elwood — who’s considerably worse with women than he is with computers — eventually obeys without a second thought. 

As a series of dating-themed mishaps utterly sabotages Elwood’s chances with Millie, Agnes eventually reveals that this was the endgame all along. The final plot “twist,” of course, is given away by the episode’s title itself. 

There’s a reason Serling is remembered as a writer of sci-fi and mystery rather than comedy. While there are moments in “From Agnes — With Love” that are perfectly entertaining, it’s a decidedly mediocre episode of television — and “mediocre” isn’t really a word often associated with “The Twilight Zone.” 

(16) UNANSWERED CURIOSITY. “’Is it life? We can’t tell’: Nasa’s Curiosity rover finds organic molecules on Mars” reports the Guardian.

Nasa’s Curiosity rover has detected organic molecules on Mars, including chemicals widely considered building blocks for the origin of life on Earth.

Five of the seven molecules identified in a dried lakebed near the equator had never previously been observed on the red planet. The analysis performed by the robotic rover cannot establish whether the organic compounds are linked to potential ancient life on Mars or were delivered by meteorites or formed through geological processes. However, the finding implies that if microbial life once thrived on Mars, chemical fingerprints should remain there today.

“We think we’re looking at organic matter that’s been preserved on Mars for 3.5bn years,” said Prof Amy Williams, an astrogeologist at the University of Florida and a Curiosity mission scientist, who led the experiment. “Is it life? We can’t tell, based on this information.”…

… “It had all the conditions for life to start there when life was starting on Earth,” said Prof Andrew Coates, a planetary scientist at University College London’s Mullard Space Science Laboratory, who was not involved in the latest findings. “There’s no known reason why it shouldn’t have started on Mars as well.”

However, scientists have been unsure whether the chemical traces of life from this window of habitability, about 3.7bn to 4.1bn years ago, would have survived to the present day.

Williams said: “For a long time, we thought that all organic matter was going to be seriously degraded by that harsh radiation environment. It’s really exciting to see [that] large complex material can survive in the subsurface environment.”…

(17) A CORNUCOPIA OF SOUVENIR BUCKETS. Mandalorian and Grogu will have a plethora!

[Thanks to Andrew Porter, John King Tarpinian, Cat Eldridge, John A Arkansawyer, SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Mark Roth-Whitworth, Kathy Sullivan, Steven French, and Mike Kennedy for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Andrew (not Werdna).]