Author: Marion Deeds

We’ll just get right to it today.

Awards:

The Hugo Awards were announced Saturday, August 22, in Spokane Washington at WorldCon. David Gerrold and Tananarive Due were the hosts. The event started late and ran very long, making it a normal awards event (I watched the Sasquan livestream, which should be available next week). The full list of awards can be found here:

Best Novel:  The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu, translated by Ken Liu (See our reviews here.)

Best Novella: No Hugo was awarded

Best Novelette: “The World Turned Upside Down” by Thomas Olde Heuvelt,

On this day in 1887, Russian chemist Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev, better known for outlining the original Periodic Table of Elements, ascended 11,500 feet in a hot air balloon, the better to study the solar eclipse that was happening. Once Mendeleev had observed and made his notes, he had to figure out how to descend, since he’d never flown a balloon before. Mendeleev is also known for setting a Russian standard that vodka had to be at least 40% alcohol. Cheers, Mr. Mendeleev!

Awards:

The Baen Fantasy Adventure Awards were announced on August 1. 

On this date in 1924, the comic strip Little Orphan Annie first appeared, debuting in the New York Daily News. The strip, created by Harold Gay, was syndicated by the Tribune Media Services.

Space:

NASA provides a behind-the-scenes (or is it “above the scenes?”) look at the ISS astronauts prepping for a spacewalk.

The UK Mirror reports that Nichelle Nichols of Star Trek, TOS, will come the closest of any cast member to “the final frontier” when she rides on the space telescope SOFIA in September,

On this day in 1954, George Allen and Unwin, London publishers, published The Fellowship of the Ring, Volume One of The Lord of the Rings, by JRR Tolkien.

Movies and Television:

Syfy announces plans to serialize Dan Simmons’s work Hyperion. (The Shrike! The Shrike!) The plans so far only include the first of the four books, but since that one ends on a cliffhanger,  it seems likely they will want to continue production if the audience response is good.