Sad news, folks. BBC News is reporting that Iain M. Banks has died of cancer. HE was 59 years old.
Just 2 months ago, he announced he was diagnosed with terminal cancer and was withdrawing from public engagements.
Banks is of course best known to fandom for his Culture series of space opera novels. He also wrote more mainstream novels as Iain Banks (without the M.). When news broke in April, fans flocked to sign his guestboook and leave their best wishes.
[via Lawrence Person]
Sad news, folks…
Lawrence Person is reporting that science fiction and fantasy author and SFWA Grand Master Jack Vance has passed away at the age of 96.
Jack Vance is known for numerous works, including The Dying Earth, Emphyrio, Lurulu, Green Magic, Lyonesse, Ports of Call and many others.
Says the official Jack Vance website:
Jack Vance passed away at home on the evening of Sunday May 26, 2013, ending a long, rich and productive life. Recognized most widely as an author, family and friends also knew a generous, large-hearted, rugged, congenial, hard-working, optimistic and unpretentious individual whose curiosity, sense of wonder and sheer love of life were an inspiration in themselves. Author, friend, father and grandfather – there will never be another like Jack Vance.
See also:
If you’ve been anywhere on the web today, you’ve seen the sad news of Ray Harryhausen’s passing.
Harryhausen was responsible for some of my earliest childhood movie memories. The Sinbad films in particular (and later, Clash of the Titans) were standout films for me specifically because of Harryhausen’s vision, patience and skill. It’s funny how recent re-watches of these films don’t hold up to my memories of them…but Harryhausen’s animation is as charming as ever. That’s an amazing feat in the age of photorealistic animation.
Here’s a Ray Harryhausen tribute video we posted a few years back.
Read the rest of this entry
Sad news…
Tor.com reports that author James Herbert has passed away.
Herbert’s 23 horror novels include The Rats, The Fog, Others, The Secret of Crickley Hall as well as 2012′s Ash.
Sad news, folks…
Via Jessica Reisman, Lawrence Person is reporting that Steve Utley has passed away.
Utley announced to his friends that he had been diagnosed with Type 4 cancer in his intestines, liver, and lungs, and a lesion on his brain on December 27, 2012. On January 7, he sent out an email saying that he was losing his motor skills and designated Jessica as his literary executor (and hopefully she’ll be able to get some of his swell stories back in print). On the morning of January 12 he slipped into a coma and died that night.
Steven Utley was one of the original Turkey City writers, along with Chad Oliver, Tom Reamy, Howard Waldrop, etc. Utley’s work included “Custer’s Last Jump” (with Howard Waldrop), the collections The Beasts of Love and Where or When, as well as the forthcoming collections The 400-Million-Year Itch and Invisible Kingdoms.
Sad news…
Pys.org is reporting that Russian sci-fi author Boris Strugatsky has passed away.
Boris Strugatsky, along with is brother Arkady, wrote the science fiction classic Roadside Picnic (basis for the Stalker film and game) as well as The Ugly Swans, Hard to Be a God and The Time Wanderers and has been the recipient of many awards. He was born in 1933.
[via Steven H. Silver]
Sad news…
Reuters is that reporting that atsronaut Neil Armstrong has died at 82 years of age. Armstrong was the commander of the Apollo 11 mission and became the first human to set foot on the moon on July 20, 1969.
Sad news…
io9 is reporting via the The Official Harry Harrison Website that author Harry Harrison has passed away.
Harrison was known for numerous books and series, including The Stainless Steel Rat series, the Deathworld series, the Bill, the Galactic Hero series, Make Room, Make Room (the basis for the film Soylent Green), A Transatlantic Tunnel, Hurrah!, and many, many more.
Memorials may be left at this Harry Harrison News Blog.
[UPDATE] – Tor President and Publisher, Tom Doherty, had this to say:
“Harry Harrison was an illustrator, anthologist, critic; a writer of power and scope voted Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. He was published in 25 languages around the world.
In The Stainless Steel Rat and Bill, The Galactic Hero he created two of the great comic series of the genre. In Make Room! Make Room! he made us consider the consequences of over population and over consumption of the world’s resources. Before the term “steampunk” was coined he had written Transatlantic Tunnel, Hurrah!. He believed science fiction was important, that it caused people to think about our world and what it could become.
For over 40 years, he was my friend.”
- Tom Doherty
Sad news…
Locus Online is reporting that Ray Bradbury has passed away. He was 91 years old.
Bradbury is known for numerous works, including The Martian Chronicles, The Illustrated Man, Something Wicked This Way Comes, The October Country, Dandelion Wine, I Sing the Body Electric, and many more.
Sad news, folks…
Author K.D. Wentworth (born oin 1951) died yesterday from complications related to cancer and pneumonia. She was the author of the novels Black on Black, Moonspeaker, The Imperium Game and other novels as well as numerous works of short fiction. Wentworth entered the field with a win in the Writers of the Future contest and later went on to become the editor of their book series. She was also a multiple Nebula Award nominee and helped run conventions.
[via Scott Cupp and SF Site.
Sad news, folks…
Tor.com is reporting that art legend Ralph McQuarrie has passed away. McQuarrie, born in 1929, was the designer of the original Star Wars movies (including the design for Darth Vader) as well as Battlestar Gallactica, ET, Star Trek and many other science fiction classics…including many books.
See also:
Sad news…
Locus Online is reporting that Samuel Youd, who wrote genre fiction under the name John Christopher, passed away at the age of 89.
As John Christopher he wrote the Tripods YA trilogy as well as the classic catastrophe novel The Death of Grass (UK, 1956, published as No Blade of Grass in the US in 1957).
Sad news…
Ansible reports that Robert Holdstock has died at age 61:
Robert Holdstock (1948-2009) died at 4am in the morning of Sunday 29 November, having been in intensive care since his collapse with E. coli infection on the 18th . He was only 61 and will be much missed. All sympathy to Sarah and the rest of the family.
Holdstock was perhaps best known for his Mythago Wood cycle, for which he won the World Fantasy Award in 1985.
See also:
[via Adam Roberts and James Nicoll]
Sad news…British fantasy author Louise Cooper, passed away on October 21, 2009 of a brain aneurysm at her home in Cornwall. She was 57.
Cooper wrote over 80 books for adults and children and was best known for her Time Master trilogy Indigo Saga series.
See also:
[via Locus Online]
Sad news, folks…
According to Locus Online, Barbara Bova, Literary Agent and the wife of sf author Ben Bova, passed away earlier this week. She was also a columnist for the Naples Daily News.
Our condolences go out to barbara’s family and friends.
