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NEXT CLUB MEETING SOON: SATURDAY, APRIL 12!

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MonSFFA’s next meeting is scheduled to take place a little over a week from now, on Saturday, April 12, from 1:00PM to 5:00PM!

We will gather at our downtown meeting locale, Le Nouvel Hotel, 1740 Rene-Levesque Ouest (corner St-Mathieu) in our usual “Maisonneuve” meeting room.

Out-of-towners, as always, may join our ZOOM-chat and take part in the meeting from the comfort of home!

On the Agenda:

Sssssnakes in SF&F!

An extensive review of snakes and serpent-like beings in SF&F literature, comics, film, television, and elsewhere! There are many more than you might imagine!

Your Top Three!

What are your top three very best SF&F novels, short fiction stories, films, and television series? The crème-de-la-crème! We’re asking MonSFFen for their recommendations, the absolutely must-read/must-watch SF&F that they believe the best of the best, desert-island material; the stories in one, two, or all four of the categories we’ve outlined which others must read or watch before they die; the most memorable, thought-provokingly intelligent, important works of superior SF&F, of high entertainment value and overall quality! That stuff! Let’s discuss.

and more…

Meeting Theme: In keeping with today’s scheduled presentation, and in honour of the Chinese Year of the Snake, members are asked to bring in for our display table a cool snake toy, SF&F-themed, if possible—rubber or plastic snakes, action figures, a game or puzzle; you get the idea!

Spring is here, the snow is gone (we hope!), and so we’re looking to see as many of you as possible at our downtown meeting hall! Bring a friend! See you all there on Saturday, April 12, 1:00PM-5:00PM!

Please Note: While we strive to keep on schedule, we do, sometimes, fall behind a little, or find ourselves having to reshuffle the order of items on the agenda for one reason or another, or reschedule planned presentations/discussions. Therefore, please understand that all programming is subject to change!

Books

Locus List of Forthcoming Books

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APRIL 2025

  • NEAL ASHER • Dark Diamond • Macmillan/Tor UK, Apr 2025 (hc, eb)
  • ROBERT JACKSON BENNETT • A Drop of Corruption • Penguin Random House/Del Rey, Apr 2025 (hc, eb)
  • ROBERT JACKSON BENNETT • A Drop of Corruption • Hodder & Stoughton UK/Hodderscape, Apr 2025 (hc, eb)
  • OLIVIE BLAKE • Gifted & Talented • Macmillan/Tor UK, Apr 2025 (hc, eb)
  • OLIVIE BLAKE • Gifted & Talented • Tor, Apr 2025 (hc, eb)
  • PATRICE CALDWELL • Where Shadows Meet • St. Mar­tin’s/Wednesday Books, Apr 2025 (ya, v, hc, eb)
  • KACEN CALLENDER • Chaos King • Tor Teen, Apr 2025 (ya, hc, eb)
  • VAJRA CHANDRASEKERA • Rakesfall • Rebellion/Solaris UK, Apr 2025 (1st UK, tp, eb)
  • P. DJÈLÍ CLARK • Abeni and the Kingdom of Gold • Tor/Starscape, Apr 2025 (hc, eb)
  • C.S.E. COONEY • Saint Death’s Herald • Rebellion/Solaris UK, Apr 2025 (tp, eb)
  • ISAAC FELLMAN • Notes from a Regicide • Tor, Apr 2025 (hc, eb)
  • DANIEL M. FORD • Advocate • Tor, Apr 2025 (hc, tp, eb)
  • DARYL GREGORY • When We Were Real • Simon & Schuster/Saga Press, Apr 2025 (hc, eb)
  • JIM C. HINES • Kitemaster • Arc Manor/Caezik SF & Fantasy, Apr 2025 (tp, eb)
  • TANYA HUFF • Direct Descendant • Astra House/DAW, Apr 2025 (h, hc, eb)
  • AI JIANG • A Palace Near the Wind: Natu­ral Engines • Titan Books UK, Apr 2025 (hc, eb)
  • MARK LAWRENCE • The Book That Held Her Heart • Ace, Apr 2025 (hc, eb)
  • SHARON LEE & STEVE MILLER • Diviner’s Bow • Baen, Apr 2025 (hc, eb)
  • JEFFREY ALAN LOVE • The Last Battle at the End of the World • Flesk Publications, Apr 2025 (gn, art, tp, hc)
  • NNEDI OKORAFOR • One Way Witch • Astra House/DAW, Apr 2025 (na, hc, eb)
  • DANIEL PINKWATER • Jules • Penny, & the Rooster, Tachyon Publications, Apr 2025 (na, ya, tp, eb)
  • NATASHA PULLEY • The Hymn to Dionysus • Orion UK/Gollancz, Apr 2025 (hc, eb)
  • EDEN ROYCE • Psychopomp and Circumstance • Tordotcom, Apr 2025 (na, hc, eb)
  • NGHI VO • Don’t Sleep With the Dead • Tor­dotcom, Apr 2025 (na, hc, eb)
  • KHAN WONG • Down in the Sea of Angels • Angry Robot UK, Apr 2025 (tp, eb)
  • RITA WOODS • The Edge of Yesterday • Tor/Forge, Apr 2025 (hc, eb)
  • TIMOTHY ZAHN • The Icarus Coda • Baen, Apr 2025 (hc, eb)
Dinosaurs

Unique two-clawed dinosaur discovered in the Gobi Desert

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Unique two-clawed dinosaur discovered

Tim Dodd, Climate and science reporter

A tall brown dinosaur stands in a forest, its ostrich-like head almost in the tree canopy, grasping trees with hands containing two very large claws and sets of orange feathers on the arms.  The dense rainforest is a dark green mixture of tropical-looking hardwood trees and fern-like plants. Duonychus tsogtbaatari would have been adept at grasping vegetation

Artist’s impression by Masato Hattori

A rare new species of two-clawed dinosaur has been discovered by scientists in Mongolia’s Gobi Desert.

The species, named Duonychus tsogtbaatari, was unique within a group of dinosaurs called Therizinosaurs, which stood on their hind legs and usually had three claws.

It was medium-sized, with an estimated weight of approximately 260kg.

Researchers believe the species’ long, curved claws and its ability to strongly flex them would have made it an efficient grasper of vegetation.

Yoshi Kobayashi, Hokkaido University– Researchers believe the dinosaur weighed approximately 260kg

Therizinosaurs were a group of either herbivorous or omnivorous theropod dinosaurs that lived in Asia and North America during the Cretaceous Period, which began 145 million years ago and ended 66 million years ago.

They are exemplified by the massive, long-clawed form Therizinosaurus, featured in the film Jurassic World Dominion, and were “awkward looking”, according to one of the study’s authors Dr Darla Zelenitsky, associate professor at the University of Calgary.

The specimen was recovered from the Bayanshiree formation in the Gobi Desert of Mongolia, which dates back to the Late Cretaceous period (between 100.5 to 66 million years ago).

Unesco, the UN’s Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, calls the Mongolian Gobi Desert the largest dinosaur fossil reservoir in the world.

The region is an especially important source of fossils from the later Cretaceous period, which is the last of the main three periods of the dinosaur age, representing the final phase of dinosaur evolution.

Kobayashi et al —  The claws may also have been used as formidable weapons

At nearly a foot long, the claws themselves were much larger than their underlying bone, the study revealed.

Besides better grasping, the two-fingered hands may have been used for display, digging, or as formidable weapons.

The most famous two-fingered theropods are species within the group tyrannosaurids, which includes Tyrannosaurus rex, but Duonychus evolved its two-fingered hands separately from them and from other two-fingered theropods.

The specimen also preserves the first keratinous sheath of a therizinosaur, an element that covers the claw much like human fingernails, aiding defence, movement, or prey catching.

Astronomy News

Are we on the verge of mining metals from the asteroids above Earth?

Are we on the verge of mining metals from the asteroids above Earth?

BBC, Josh Sims
 

Getty Images An asteroid rock on a starry background (Credit: Getty Images)
Asteroid mining firms say mining for minerals on asteroids is just around the corner now, but not everyone is convinced (Credit: Getty Images)

 

As an asteroid mining start-up’s latest mission goes awry, Josh Sims looks at how close we really are to extracting rare minerals from the many celestial bodies floating above us.

Thirty years ago the seminal BBC science programme Tomorrow’s World made a few predictions about how the world might be by 2025. It was a testament to how hard predicting the technological future is: we would, the programme suggested, have microchip implants to help us deal with ATMs, chat with holographic helpmates in our homes and there would be riots over internet access.

The episode also suggested we would be mining asteroids by now. And while we aren’t there yet, it’s something that some start-ups argue will happen sooner than many imagined.

The founder of the California-based company AstroForge believes it will be the first to get there, and the company has already taken the first tentative steps. On 27 February 2025 it launched its first $6.5m (£5.1m) unmanned spacecraft on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Around nine days later, AstroForge believes the spacecraft – named Odin – likely passed beyond the Moon and into deep space as planned.

Unfortunately, however, AstroForge developed major communications problems with Odin, which it is still trying to rectify at the time of writing. The firm hopes Odin has now entered its nine-month long coast to its mission destination: a fly-by of the carefully pre-selected asteroid 2022 OB5, some eight million km (five million miles) from Earth, which Odin will assess the composition of using its sensors.

“Move fast and break rocks” might be the mantra of Matt Gialich, AstroForge’s ebullient founder with a penchant for swear words, who is not dissuaded by the perhaps unresolvable technical trouble. AstroForge expected nothing less than many hurdles and has, he says, learned much even if contact isn’t made with this spacecraft again. “Yes, there are a lot more baby steps to take,” he concedes. “But we’re going to start to actually do it. You have to try.”

READ MORE

Astronomy News

STRONG GEOMAGNETIC STORM WATCH

STRONG GEOMAGNETIC STORM WATCH
Space Weather News for March 22, 2025

NOAA forecasters have issued a watch for strong G3-class geomagnetic storms on March 23rd when a CME is expected to hit Earth. The Russell-McPherron effect could amplify the effectiveness of the impact, producing widespread equinox auroras. Full story @ Spaceweather.com.

CME impact alerts: Sign up for Space Weather Alerts to receive instant text messages when CMEs strike Earth.

Above: Equinox auroras over Luosto, Finland, on March 20th. “Thanks to the Russell-McPherron effect, the aurora showed up nicely,” reports photographer Zoltán Kolláth.

Astronomy News

COSMIC RAY SHOWERS CAUSE LIGHTNING

Space Weather News for March 20, 2025
https://spaceweather.com
https://www.spaceweatheralerts.com

COSMIC RAY SHOWERS CAUSE LIGHTNING:  A new study by researchers at the Los Alamos National Laboratory links lightning to antimatter in cosmic ray showers. This could solve a centuries-old mystery of what causes electrical outbursts in thunderstorms. Full story @ Spaceweather.com

Above: 3D images of lightning over New Mexico. Researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory used these data to link lightning to cosmic rays.

Fanzines

fanzine roundup

Zines to share!

Update from Bill Burns, who writes:

Reminder: Voting on the FAAn awards for work published in 2024 closes at midnight (Pacific time) Saturday March 29, 2025. Full details in Nic Farey’s The Incompleat Register: https://efanzines.com/TIR/index.htm.

A busy week for fanzine production!  These new issues are now at

https://efanzines.com

  • J.L. Farey’s JenZine #11
  • Christopher J. Garcia’s Claims Department #82
  • Robert Jennings’ Fadeaway #68
  • Octothorpe #130, a regular fannish podcast by John Coxon, Alison Scott and Liz Batty, is now on line
  • Henry Grynnsten’s Wild Ideas #57
  • Rich Lynch’s You’re Still on My Mind #8, a letterzine companion to My Back Pages
  • Christopher J. Garcia’s The Drink Tank #461–
    Bill

The Obdurate Eye, From Garth Spencer, who writes:

So she went into the garden to cut a cabbage leaf to make an apple pie; and while she was there, a great she-bear in the street put its head through the kitchen window. “What! No soap?” So he died, and she very imprudently married the gardener; and there were the Joblillies, and the Pickninnies, and the Grand Panjandrum with the little round button at top, and they all fell to playing catch-as-catch-can, until the gunpowder ran out at the heels of their boots.

Zines from the N3F:

Eldritch Science from the N3F has a gorgeous cover by Alan White.

FanAct202503

Tightbeam366

NAPA275

From Israel: CCMar2025-v01

And from Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society.

De Profundis #606 – March 2025 OCR-C

 

News items

Two VERY important stories

It’s very common for fans to travel on a tourist visa, sometimes as a guest of a con.  I, for instance, had been invited to be a fan GoH at an American convention. I cannot make commitments more than a few months in advance, and even then there is a risk I have to cancel, so I regretfully declined.  If I accepted such an invitation today, I could be arrested by ICE. It’s illegal to work while on a tourist visa, and accepting free room and flight counts as payment. Who knew?!

READ, especially the second link.

https://bleedingcool.com/comics/british-comics-artist-r-e-burke-still-being-held-in-us-detention-camp/

https://comicon.com/2025/03/18/fresh-risks-to-foreign-comic-creators-doing-comic-cons-in-the-usa-canada-emerge/

Astronomy News

LUNAR ECLIPSE OBSERVED FROM THE MOON

LUNAR ECLIPSE OBSERVED FROM THE MOON:  For the first time in almost 60 years, a lunar lander has photographed an eclipse from the surface of the Moon. During last night’s lunar eclipse, Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost recorded the sky show from Mare Crisium. Full story with photos @ Spaceweather.com.

Above: A two-planet view of last night’s lunar eclipse. Credit: Eric Allen and Firefly Aerospace.

Montreal Science Fiction and Fantasy Association