@ErsatzCulture

105 Followers
49 Following
531 Posts
Mostly about SF books and data
Sitehttps://sf.ersatzculture.com
LocationUK
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Twitterhttps://twitter.com/ErsatzCulture
Show threadErsatzCulture8h ago
Looking more closely, Slan, The Man Who Sold the Moon, Who Goes There? and (to a much lesser extent) The Green Hills of Earth are all collections/fixups of stories that appeared in Astounding, so perhaps voters were largely picking stuff they'd already read in the magazine?
ErsatzCulture8h ago

Wonder if there was any contemporary fandom/fanzine discourse about this list (that has survived to the present day)?

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/award_category_year.cgi?1+1952

Three anthologies & an omnibus seems cheating slightly, but the lack of OIaf Stapledon, 1984, Brave New World or Frankenstein seems weird? Did US fans of the time not consider them SF?

ErsatzCulture13h ago

I won't claim to be an expert on the book publishing industry, but this opening statement of a Goodreads review strikes me as very unlikely?

(I know selfpub stuff can have a quick turnaround, but this is a novella that had a limited hardback edition and was from a medium-sized publisher that uses a Big 5 distributor.)

ErsatzCulture2d ago

Some stunningly original and imaginative titling being shown by the UK publishing industry this week.

https://www.hachette.co.uk/titles/meg-shaffer/the-book-witch/9781529443868/

https://www.thebookseller.com/rights/wayward-txf-snaps-up-the-book-witch-by-nora-elghazzawi

ErsatzCulture5d ago
Tonight's sunset
ErsatzCultureApr 4

After (IMHO) a few very lean years, the SF Masterworks series is putting out some more interesting works this year.

https://www.waterstones.com/book/paprika/yasutaka-tsutsui/9781399623254

Can't wait to read XXXXX's intro too ;-)

ErsatzCultureMar 28
Fesshole 🧻Mar 28
Primary school teacher here. I'm so over world fucking book day. Most kids barely own a book these days so why waste a day's learning to prance about in nasty, polyester princess or boy wizard costumes? Frozen is not a book and no 7 year old has read Harry Potter. Utter nonsense.
ErsatzCultureMar 21

It's his film and music work that's getting mentioned in articles and posts, but worth pointing out that the late Philip Castle was also responsible for this iconic image of 1980s British computer games.

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2026/mar/20/philip-castle-obituary

(Image source: https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?58281 , which also lists some Andre Norton Witch World covers)

Show threadErsatzCultureMar 20

I haven't looked (yet), but I'd not be surprised if there was a GR blog post promoting these titles and others for exactly those reasons.

The GR Choice Awards would also have an impact on activity, although only 2 of these 4 books were finalists.

I know there have been a few admirable initiatives to push people to read novellas outside of those from TorDotCom, maybe this is another angle to try?

Apologies in advance if this is indeed already being done, and I've forgotten about it.

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Show threadErsatzCultureMar 20

However, the pattern didn't recur on TorDotCom nth-in-a-series novellas, nor on one from Nightfire.

This makes me think there's nothing nefarious here; rather my current working theory is that some GR users are wanting to maximize the number of books they've read to meet a end-of-year reading challenge target, and are picking titles that are high-profile and short to help reach that goal.

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