Welcome! Nova Mob is Melbourne’s long-running science fiction, speculative fiction, fantasy, and horror discussion group.
Established in 1970, the Mob meets on the first Wednesday of the month, 8.00pm Melbourne time, usually from February to November, with meetings built around a guest speaker or a discussion topic and run in hybrid form, both face to face at Kensington Town Hall and by Zoom.
Attendance is typically between a dozen and two dozen people, and friends, out-of-town guests, and new arrivals are welcome.
News of our next Meetings link here
General date, time, place, and remote access by Zoom details are found on the Meeting Arrangements page.
2026
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5 Aug 2026 – Maria Takolander — The End of Romance
Nova Mob — Wednesday 5 August 2026 8:00pm
Maria Takolander will be our guest at the Nova Mob meeting on Wednesday 5 August, joining us in person to discuss her work in general and The End of Romance in particular. The connection came via Nova Mob member Chong, who illustrated the book’s cover — so we’ll have both author and artist represented on the night, one way or another. Chong’s verdict: “very cool & edgy.”
Carmel Bird gave an excellent review in The Age – “Here, in all its glory, is the intense poetic imagination of Maria Takolander constructing a disturbing novel, a kind of complex violent legend, set in the dystopia of a planet that appears to have no future. Suspense is a key ingredient in romantic fiction, and while the very title The End of Romance plays against type, this novel is compelling and chilling as it sings its way towards its resolution.”
The novel was launched on 30 June by Text Publishing. Copies are likely to be available for cash purchase on the night.
The meeting will be a fireside chat Q&A style.
About Maria Takolander
Maria Takolander is an award-winning Finnish-Australian fiction writer and poet. She is the inaugural winner of the Australian Book Review Elizabeth Jolley short-story prize, and her debut collection of short fiction, The Double (Text 2013), was a finalist for the Melbourne Prize for Literature’s ‘Best New Writing Award’. Maria is also the author of four books of poetry, the most recent of which, Trigger Warning (UQP 2021), won a Victorian Premier’s Literary Award and was shortlisted for an Association for the Study of Australian Literature Gold Medal. As a public artist, her words can be found at the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria in Melbourne and in Geelong, where she lives with her husband and son.
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2 Sep 2026 – Fifty years of Star Wars 1976-2026
Our September meeting gets in a little ahead of the clock: Star Wars turns fifty on 12 November 2026, and we’re marking the occasion early with Darren “Dags” Maxwell leading a wide-ranging Mob discussion on the film’s impact, personal and societal, on Wednesday 2 September.
Dags has been a fixture of Melbourne fandom since 1984, co-founding the world’s longest-running Star Wars fan club, Star Walking Inc., in 1988. Convention organiser, podcaster, auctioneer, and subject of the documentary Batman and Me, he’s currently writing his fandom memoirs — fitting company for a discussion on fifty years of Star Wars. More at darren.maxwell.net.
Bring something Starwarsy along! (Weapons Policy applies to lightsabers. Life-sized statues of the late Carrie Fisher, please use the lift).
An event to acknowledge the huge impact on popular culture of this now-Disney franchise, and it all started in November 1976 with publication of Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker, ghostwritten by Alan Dean Foster and credited to George Lucas.
“It adapts the film of the same name, and it was based on the screenplay by Lucas. The novelization was first published on November 12, 1976 by Ballantine Books, prior to the film’s 1977 release.”
Image and story here. Andrew Preston
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7 October Nova Mob – Gillian Polack – publishing in 2026, or the long and winding road to finding the right home
[28 May 2026 announcement]: Fresh experiences from achieving a US novel sale – arriving at the right home (at last!)
A Zoom only meeting.
A reputable US publisher and a saleable book. What could keep them apart? If this was a marriage, the story is all the things which almost prevented the wedding day togetherness at the altar.
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4 Nov 2026 – Ian Mond on the Year’s Best Books
Mondiale – Ian Mond, of Locus fame, on the best books of the year, not marketed as SF, fantasy, nor horror, and yet central to the genre all the same. Always among the largest events of the year.
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2 Dec 2026 – End of year pub meetup
End of year pub meetup 5.30pm.
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3 February 2027 – Sarah Endacott on Sergey Lukianenko’s World of Watches a.k.a. The Night Watch series
Sarah Endacott, editor and publisher (of Orb SF magazine) on the Russian urban fantasy phenomenon – books and films.
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pre-Mob pub meal meetup
Venue is Hardiman’s Hotel, which has comparable food and a wider range of bheer than the Doutta Galla.
6.15pm/6.30pm onward – table for Murray, Hardiman’s Hotel
Hardiman’s is in Kensington, a short walk up the hill from the Kensington Railway Station. It’s the shopping area south of the Kensington Town Hall, where Bellair St meets Macaulay Rd, as compared to Newmarket and the Doutta Galla, which is north of the Kensington Town Hall.
521 MACAULAY ROAD
KENSINGTON, VIC 3031
https://hardimans.com.au/about-us/
In fact about 250m up the hill along Macaulay Rd. The green arrow shows the direction of approach by train, from North Melbourne Station and the city centre. Continuing onward up the line takes you to the ‘burbs for that quadrant of the city.
The map also shows you where the Kensington Town Hall is.
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Other News
Melbourne pub meetup – second Wednesday of the month
At the Melbourne Central Lion Hotel, Level 3 – Melbourne Central, 211 La Trobe Street, Melbourne.
Table booked for 5:30pm. (Though Happy ‘Hour’ runs from 4:00 to 7:00.) All invited, so send interested parties our Facebook group ( https://www.facebook.com/groups/598578313049319 ), tell those not on FB about the meet-up (and if they email me I’ll add them to the email list), spread the news, etc. No need to RSVP.
For those who haven’t attend in the past six months or so, we’ve begun to reserve tables inside. These are more comfortable and have somewhat lower noise than offered by the tables in the pub’s “Beer Garden” (well, that’s what they call it!)
Plenty of public transport go past Melbourne Central.
Cheers,
Irwin
Australian Fan Fund website: www.ozfanfunds.com
Shaun Tan exhibition “The Red Tree”
“The Red Tree is an exhibition of original artworks by Shaun Tan at Beinart Gallery, marking the 25th anniversary of his groundbreaking picture book of the same name.
“Opening Reception: Saturday, May 2nd, 5pm – 8pm. This is a free event. As Beinart Gallery is a licensed venue, any minors attending the opening reception will need to be accompanied by a responsible adult.
“The exhibition will run from May 3rd to May 24th, 2026.
Beinart Gallery is at 307 Victoria St, Brunswick, and also has a wide range of limited edition prints by Shaun Tan, including new prints released for this exhibition.”
Lisa Tuttle recommends
Turns out the Guardian newspaper (UK) has a tidy thing going in sf, fantasy, and horrorbook reviews. Here’s a link to that trove. “The best recent SF, fantasy, and horror, from Lisa Tuttle.
Nick Stathopoulous in the Archibalds
Noted friend of the Nova Mob and fine artist Nick Stathopoulos is in the Archibald Portrait Prize shortlist. Just over 50 artworks from a thousand candidates were selected for the 2026 Award. Nick’s chosen subject is Margaret Fink A.M., whose film My Brilliant Career helped launch Sam Neill’s brilliant career. This is her third portrait; links to the others are here: National Portrait Gallery 1989 and National Portrait Gallery 1975. Nick famously won the People’s Award in 2016 for his portrait of Deng Adut in a year where the People’s Award winner surprised many by not being the overall winner. His 2026 entry has the same strengths and more – it contains two portraits: the story told of Fink’s face, and the story of her hands.
With thanks to the Art Gallery of NSW – link here.
Murnane in the Archibalds
Mitch Cairns’ portrait of Gerald Murnane is also in the Archibalds. It’s a successful discussion of landscape, connection, and the hardy white men who have made the great inland plains of Australia their home. Murnane, at last, is getting the recognition that Bruce Gillespie, Carey Handfield, and Rob Gerrand saw when first publishing him in Norstrilia Press.
Brisbane Files Bid for 2028 Worldcon
~ verbatim from Kayla Allen from the LACon WorldCon team – with thanks:
Committees for Brisbane, Australia and Nuremberg, Germany have filed the papers required by the WSFS Constitution with LAcon V to qualify as bids to host the 2028 Worldcon. We have updated the Worldcon Bid Information page with copies of their bid filings.
Rwanda has withdrawn their bid. Nuremberg has withdrawn their bid. There are no further bids.
Critical Mass April 15th: Nebula Awards Nominees
The 2025 Nebula Award ballot has been announced by SFWA. Our sister organisation Critical Mass in Adelaide met on Wednesday 15 April to discuss the nominees. Mob members are warmly invited to join them via Zoom (6.30pm Adelaide, 7.00pm Melbourne).
Zoom link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/82223110135?pwd=xNM1ZB0skJ1jbmCoPuWca1w1rqO92Q.1
Critical Mass invites participants to read two of the nominated short fiction works — novella, novelette, or short story — and come ready to offer their views. Novel nominees are also fair game if you’ve read one.
The full ballot is at the Adelaide Fan Review and the complete list of all categories is at Locus.
Nova Mob 1 April 2026 – Celebrating Dan Simmons and John Varley
Vale John Varley (1947–2025)
John Varley was born in Austin, Texas, on 9 August 1947, grew up on the Gulf Coast, and attended Michigan State University on a National Merit Scholarship before dropping out and spending years drifting across the country. Screen Rant He settled eventually in Oregon and committed himself to writing science fiction in 1973.
He began publishing work of genre interest with “Picnic on Nearside” in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction in August 1974, and was soon thought to be the most significant new SF writer of the late 1970s. His Eight Worlds sequence — centred on a near-future solar system from which humanity has been expelled from Earth by aliens — gave him a richly imagined canvas for stories exploring cloning, identity transfer, fluid gender, and body modification. His shorter works of the 1970s and 1980s brought him three Hugos, two Nebulas, and nine Locus Awards. His novels include The Ophiuchi Hotline, the Gaea trilogy (Titan, Wizard, Demon), Steel Beach, and The Golden Globe. He fell silent after 2018 owing to persistent health problems, and died in Beaverton, Oregon, on 10 December 2025, aged 78.
The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (Clute et al) sums him up thus: “He was fresh, he was complex, he understood the imaginative implications of transformative developments like cloning and identity transfer, many of his protagonists were women, and most of the stories he told were set within an overall background universe whose centre of geography had been startlingly displaced — in a manner characteristic of the finest SF — from Earth itself.”
Vale Dan Simmons (1948–2026)
Daniel Joseph Simmons was born on 4 April 1948 in Peoria, Illinois, grew up in various small Midwestern towns, and earned a BA in English from Wabash College in 1970 and a Masters in Education from Washington University, St Louis, in 1971. He then spent eighteen years as an elementary school teacher in Missouri, New York, and Colorado before becoming a full-time writer. His career took off in 1982 when his short story “The River Styx Runs Upstream” won first prize in a Twilight Zone Magazine fiction competition, and he was taken on by Harlan Ellison’s agent.
He was the author of the Hyperion Cantos and the Ilium/Olympos cycles, among other works that span the science fiction, horror, and fantasy genres, sometimes within a single novel. Screen Rant Hyperion (1989), structured after Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales and set among pilgrims journeying to a terrifying creature called the Shrike, won the Hugo and Locus Awards and launched what became a 2000-page space opera epic.
His horror novel Carrion Comfort (1989) and his first novel Song of Kali (1985) won the World Fantasy Award. Later works ranged across historical fiction — The Terror (2007), his Arctic nightmare, was adapted into a celebrated television series — and literary pastiche. He was nominated on numerous occasions for the Arthur C. Clarke, Bram Stoker, British Fantasy Society, Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy Awards. He died on 21 February 2026.
The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (Clute et al) says: “He will be long remembered for his moment of prolific renown, which lasted at least two decades. It will be seen that that fame was warranted, and that his work, which in particular climaxed twentieth-century space opera in America, has in fact not dated.”
Ditmar Nominations — now open, door closing fast! Nominations close 30 March
Yes, that’s Really Real Soon Now
Ditmar Award nominations for work published in 2025 are now open and close on 30 March 2026 — which is very soon. Nominations are via the Swancon website at swancon50.sf.org.au. Any fan active in fandom may nominate.
Nova Mob members will recall Janeen Webb as a guest speaker, and I am pleased to recommend her 2025 collection Scorpion Girl (PS Publishing, UK) for the Best Collection category. The collection brings together nine original stories — three novellas (A Second Coming, Spike, Dolores the Dancer) and six shorter works — alongside previously published pieces. The title story, Scorpion Girl, is a tough and compassionate account of an asylum seeker’s journey that several reviewers have singled out as the collection’s emotional centrepiece; it is also independently eligible in the Best Short Story category. The whole collection is fast-paced, unsettling, and very much in Janeen’s distinctive voice — highly recommended.
Nova Mob has a website!
novamob.blog — do please take a look
The Nova Mob now has a website, and you are looking at it — or reading about it, which amounts to the same thing. Our thanks to Roman Orzanski, who set up the site and got us started.
The site includes forthcoming meetings, meeting arrangements, a chronological archive of past meetings going back to 1970, information for new and visiting members, a guide for guest speakers, and useful links. Some sections are still under construction and will be filled out over the coming months.
Feedback is welcomed positively — what works, what doesn’t, what’s missing, what’s wrong. Please send comments to the Convener using the email address found elsewhere on this site.
Second Wednesday Melbourne SF/Fannish Drinks
Diana Wynne Jones “quaffing is the only form of drinking that occurs in Fantasyland”. But this is Melbourne Central.
A reminder that Melbourne fans meet every second Wednesday of the month from 5.30pm at the Melbourne Central Lion Hotel, Level 3, Melbourne Central, 211 La Trobe Street, Melbourne.
Look for the group at one of the inside tables.
To join the Facebook group or the announcement email list, contact Irwin Hirsh at hirsh@bigpond.net.au.
Adelaide Fan Review and Critical Mass
Our sister organisation in Adelaide
The Adelaide Fan Review is a site for fans of the fantastique imagination — science fiction, fantasy, horror, and whimsy. It publishes news, features, and reviews, and is the home base for Critical Mass, a critical discussion group meeting monthly to discuss SF and fantasy works in a serious but convivial manner. Critical Mass meetings run in hybrid form, with an in-person gathering in Adelaide and a Zoom option open to Melbourne and beyond.
The Adelaide Fan Review is at adelaidefanreview.com — well worth bookmarking and subscribing to the update email.
Melbourne SF Club — New Premises Formal Opening was 20 March
Home at last. Congratulations all!
“The MSFC held its first meeting at the Preston Scout Hall on 20 March, with twenty people attending. The meeting took place in the Heritage Communal space and Library room at the rear of the hall, shared with the Brittanica Morris dancing group who use the main hall on Friday nights. It was a successful orientation night with plenty of discussion about unpacking and re-shelving the club library. The committee is working on disabled access, which is currently restricted by steps into the Communal space.
The next MSFC meeting is Friday 17 April, 8.00pm to 11.00pm, at 25–27 Townhall Avenue, Preston. Contact the club at melbsfclub@yahoo.com.au.”
As reported by Jocko, MSFC President, to Leigh Edmonds and copied here from his Chatter Box 4, with thanks.
Nova Mob member Natalie MacLachlan was MSFC President when the Club left St David’s in Brunswick West: “At the time I was excited that the new premises in Coburg would provide us with space for the Library, but after we moved in they told us we couldn’t due to building structural reasons. I’m glad the Library is now able to be out on display.”
The Chatter Box — Leigh Edmonds
[March 2026] 4 issues in one month, oh my!
A welcome new arrival in the inbox has been The Chatter Box, a bouncy genzine from Leigh Edmonds in Wendouree, Victoria. Leigh being Past President of the Fantasy Worldcon Association and long-time figure in Australian fandom.
The Chatter Box describes itself as a fanzine for the elite of fandom, and then immediately explains that you know who you are. Mob members will be reassured to learn that the Secret Masters of Fandom are operating locally, and that the Nova Mob — and, more specifically, my email address — has been admitted to the elect. Albeit, I note with some comfort and appropriate humility, by late addition to the mailing list rather than by any presumed merit.
It operates under eight Official Rules, the most important being Rule 1: no issue will exceed ten pages, on pain of old copies of Thyme, Lhyfe, or SF Commentary being deployed. Rule 2 says it will be frequent. Both rules are being honoured: four issues have arrived in quick succession, all in March 2026.
The format is a back-porch conversation — Leigh as moderator, with contributions from a wide circle of fans. Recent issues have included Corflu reports from Jerry Kaufman, William Breiding, and Nic Farey; Perry Middlemiss’s postcard diary of a Kangaroo Island holiday; Julian Warner on the surprising number of jazz musicians named Sonny; fanzine reviews under the byline of Bunchy; and a running thread on the Melbourne SF Club’s new premises at Preston. Two items particularly caught this reader’s eye –
In issue 3, Leigh describes the ongoing work by Perry Middlemiss, Marc Ortleib, Irwin Hirsh and himself cataloguing the fanzine Special Collection at Monash University Library — specifically the heroic task of cataloguing every issue of Dave Langford’s Ansible from number 37 to 392, followed by Andy Hooper’s Apparachik up to issue 30, before mental RSI set in.
In issue 4, the GUFF result is announced: Farah Mendlesohn has won the race and will be travelling to Australia for Swancon 50 in Perth. Nova Mob members will recall that Farah was our February speaker. Farah will be in Melbourne in June, after Swancon, for a couple of days. So there is every chance we can all meet in person.
To subscribe, email Leigh at leighedmonds01@gmail.com or send a poctsarcd — that is, a postcard imbued with fannish essence — to 60 Park Street, Wendouree VIC 3355. The Chatter Box is old fashioned and has no subscribe button. Getting on the list is easy; getting off it, Leigh warns, will be the hard part.
We did receive zines from other writers, and please expect reports in due course. Thank you Bruce, Alex, Perry, David.
Solar Eclipse — Sydney, 22 July 2028
An invitation from Jim Cambias
Nova Mob members will recall Jim Cambias, the US science fiction writer who spoke to us in May 2024 on his Billion Worlds series and whose whose novels include A Darkling Sea. Jim has been in touch with a generous invitation.
A total solar eclipse will cross Australia on 22 July 2028, with the path of totality running from Kununurra on the Timor Sea coast, across the Northern Territory and Queensland, and directly over Sydney. Jim and his wife Diane are planning to be there and are inviting others to join them — with the idea of finding a cottage or apartment with room for a group.
If you are interested, Jim has set up a mailing list to discuss arrangements. Contact the Convener and I will pass your details to Jim. Note that July is mid-winter in Sydney — not beach weather, but hopefully fine eclipse weather (not cloudy).
This is a long lead time, but eclipse accommodation in Sydney in 2028 will not stay available forever.
War Machine – local film tops Netflix
Sci fi success
War Machine, a sci-fi action thriller directed by Victorian filmmaker Patrick Hughes, topped the Netflix global film charts after its release on 6 March 2026. Hughes returned home to Victoria to shoot the film, with locations including Bright, Myrtleford, Melbourne, and Docklands Studios. Set during the final 24 hours of a US Army Ranger selection program, an elite team’s training exercise turns into a fight for survival against an unimaginable threat (Aliens. It’s always aliens. Or their tech). The cast includes Alan Ritchson, Dennis Quaid, Stephan James, Jai Courtney, and Keiynan Lonsdale. IMDb
The film recently held the number one position on Netflix’s worldwide movie chart, drawing 44.4 million views in a single week.
David Russell and Dave Sim
The Bacon Number for Kevin Bacon, but the Dave Sim number…
Long-time MSFC member, fan, and cartoonist David Russell of Warrnambool reports that “Dave Sim, the best cartoonist in the world” received his Christmas card and discusses it for three minutes and thirty-six seconds on the podcast A Moment of Cerebus (amomentofcerebus.com): “Please hold for Dave Sim, January 2026, Part 3.”
News which delighted this long-time reader of Cerebus to receive — a devotee since 1988 — though my delight must surely pale beside David’s own moment with the colossus.
Bernard Caleo – February Nova Mob
Australian comics and graphic novels: a personal journey 1985-2025
As part of his excellent talk, Bernard provided a list of “Bernard’s Top Ten Australian comics and graphic novels as of today Wednesday 4 February 2026“
1. Mandy Ord Rooftops (Findlay Lloyd 2007)
2. Pat Grant Blue (Giramondo 2012) free on website pantgrantart.com
3. Josh Santospirito The Long Weekend In Alice Springs (San Kessto 2013)
4. Safdar Ahmed Still Alive: Notes from Australia’s Immigration Detention System (Twelve Panels Press 2021)
5. Steven Christie Turtlenecks (AdHouse Books 2021)
6. Chris Gooch In Utero (IDW Publishing 2024)
7. Steve Mushin Ultrawild (Allen and Unwin 2023)
8. Trace Balla Treeshape (Allen and Unwin 2026)
9.Trudy Cooper and Doug Bayne Oglaf online oglaf.com
(do not click this link at work. Bernard says: “may not be best for work or other places with limited sense of humour”. When you are in the site, the content can be filtered to moderate the content, for example to sight the General Admission strips only)
10. Gina Chadderton Oh Brother (Penguin Random House 2026)
Ian Mond – November 2025 Nova Mob
Year’s Best Books – typically not marketed as genre
Ian Mond, Locus reviewer and Mob member, was unable to attend the November 2025 meeting due to sudden illness. We are glad he made a complete recovery. Here is his list of 2025 recommended reading, with #1 as the best.
#10 is recommended for anyone who has read Harry Potter, and is adult enough to understand what “duty of care” actually means in a school setting.
- A Granite Silence by Nina Allan
- Waterblack by Alex Pheby
- Tom’s Crossing by Mark Z. Danielewski
- Dwelling by Emily Hunt Kivel
- We Live Here Now by C. D. Rose
- The Wax Child by Olga Ravn
- Kalivas! Or Another Tempest by Nick Mamatas
- The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami
- Colourfields: Writing about Writing about Science Fiction by Paul Kincaid
- The Incandescent by Emily Tesh.
Nova Mob 