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Rajnar Vajra (1947-2023)
SF writer Rajnar Vajra, 75, died May 16, 2023 in Amherst MA.
David Rajnar Vajra-Loeb was born September 16, 1947 in New York City, where he lived until his family moved to San Diego CA when he was six. He attended Berkeley College in the 1960s, where he formed a band. He later relocated to Massachusetts, where he remained heavily involved in the music scene as a performer, sound designer, ...Read More
SF/Fantasy/Horror ReviewsView All

Ian Mond Reviews Hospital by Han Song
Hospital, Han Song (Amazon Crossing 978-1-54203-947-5, $28.99, 414pp, hc) March 2023.
Summarising the plot of Hospital by Chinese author Han Song (translated by Michael Berry) is a near-impossible task, yet I’m willing to give it a crack. The novel begins in the far future with the SS Mahamayuri heading to Mars to find one of the many Buddhas scattered across the Universe. But after landing on the Red Planet, ...Read More

Angela Slatter Reviews Don’t Fear the Reaper by Stephen Graham Jones
Don’t Fear the Reaper, Stephen Graham Jones (Saga 978-1-98218-659-3, $27.99, 464pp, hc) February 2023.
“It’s starting again.”
Welcome home, Jade. Well, Jennifer – Jade’s not herself right now. Not after several years in the injustice system. That experience has beaten her all out of shape – out of her true self. She’s started to think that safety lies in denying who she was – is – the one with ...Read More

Charles Payseur Reviews Short Fiction: Diabolical Plots, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, and GigaNotoSaurus
Diabolical Plots 3/23 Beneath Ceaseless Skies 3/9/23, 3/23/23 GigaNotoSaurus 3/23
Diabolical Plots celebrated March with a special issue on telepathy dubbed Diabolical Thoughts, guest-edited by assistant editor Ziv Wities. All four works in the issue circle influence, mind control, and mental communication. As with The Desert’s Voice is Sweet to Hear” by Carolina Valentine, which finds Zazy moving through a desert that wants to embrace her like an ...Read More

Colleen Mondor Reviews The Last Tale of the Flower Bride by Roshani Chokshi
The Last Tale of the Flower Bride, Roshani Chokshi (Morrow 978-0-06-320650-2, $27.99, hc, 304pp) February 2023. Cover by Elena Masai.
Roshani Chokshi has an exceptional ability to write dramatically different but wonderful books. Her Gilded Wolves series, aimed at older teens, is solidly in ‘‘magical James Bond-ian’’ territory (if such a thing exists) and follows a group of misfit gifted teens who break into places that seem impossible to ...Read More

Gary K. Wolfe Reviews Under My Skin by K.J. Parker
Under My Skin, K.J. Parker (Subterranean 978-1-64524-079-2, $50.00, 680pp, hc) March 2023.
Under My Skin is the third major collection from K.J. Parker, and like Academic Exercises in 2014 and The Father of Lies in 2018, it’s a hefty one. This is mostly because Parker tends to favor novella and novelette-length stories, and four of the 13 stories here – ‘‘Mightier Than the Sword’’, ‘‘My Beautiful Life’’, ‘‘Prosper’s Demon’’, and ...Read More

Karen Burnham Reviews: Analog and Asimov’s
Analog 3-4/23 Asimov’s 3-4/23
The lead novella in the March/April Analog is ‘‘The Tinker and the Timestream’’ by Carolyn Ives Gilman. Rustem is a young man learning to be the tinker of his colony, which is tenuously living under the threat of a solar eruption wiping them out at any minute. Interstellar travelers arrive, traveling in a fascinatingly complex way involving time currents and bubbles of slow ...Read More
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New Books Video for 5/30/23!
Check out what is coming out this week, in SF, fantasy, and horror!
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Dispatches from Dragonhold: 1982 Letter from Anne McCaffrey
Greetings from beyond the paywall! We have been posting new content monthly on our Patreon Archive Feed – scans of vintage Locus and audio clips from author interviews and more – and wanted to share a little of what that feed looks like by making some of our earlier posts public. Check out this post featuring a letter from Anne McCaffrey.
In addition to all the benefits of lower tiers, ...Read More
Earlier Posts…

2023 Clarke Award Shortlist
The shortlist for the annual Arthur C. Clarke Award, celebrating the best science fiction novel published in the UK, has been announced:
- Venomous Lumpsucker, Ned Beauman (Sceptre)
- The Red Scholar’s Wake, Aliette de Bodard (Gollancz)
- Plutoshine, Lucy Kissick (Gollancz)
- The Anomaly, Hervé Le Tellier, translated by Adriana Hunter (Michael Joseph)
- The Coral Bones, E.J. Swift (Unsung Stories)
- Metronome, Tom Watson (Bloomsbury)
The winner will be ...Read More

2023 Roswell Award Winners
Winners for the Roswell Award for short science fiction have been announced.
- First Place: “Philanthropy”, Cecilia Evans
- Second Place: “First Plantings”, E.E. King
- Third Place: “Breathing for Two”, Rich Larson
First, second, and third place receive cash prizes of $500, $250, and $100 USD, respectively, and first place receives access to a 10-week or shorter online course sponsored by the UCLA Extension Writers’ Program.
Other finalists included “The Ripples Spread

SFWA 2023 Election Results and Membership Eligibility Changes
Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA) has announced the results of its election for open Board of Directors positions. Positions for re-election included President, Secretary, and three Director-At-Large positions. New Board members include:
Directors-at-Large:
- Phoebe Barton
- Chelsea Mueller
Effective July 1, 2023, they will join continuing Board members Jeffe Kennedy (president), John Murphy (vice president), Jasmine Gower (secretary), and Erin Hartshorn (chief financial officer). Monica Valentinelli, Jordan Kurella, and

2023 Sturgeon Award Finalists
The finalists for the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award for the best short science fiction story have been announced by the Gunn Center for the Study of Science Fiction.
- “Ten Steps for Effective Mold Removal”, Derrick Boden (Apex 9/22)
- “Slow Communication”, Dominique Dickey (Fantasy 2/22)
- “In the Beginning of Me, I Was a Bird”, Maria Dong (Lightspeed 1/22)
- “If We Make It Through This Alive”, A.T. Greenblatt (Slate 1/22)
- “The City

Ward Wins ITW Thriller Award
The 2023 winners for the ITW Thriller Awards were announced June 3, 2023 at ThrillerFest XVIII in New York City, as well as synchronously on Twitter. Winners of genre interest include Sundial by Catriona Ward (Macmillan) for Best Hardcover Novel.
For more information see the ITW website.
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2022 Aurealis Awards Winners
The 2022 Aurealis Awards winners, recognizing the best in Australian speculative fiction, have been announced.
Best Science Fiction Novel
- WINNER: 36 Streets, TR Napper (Titan)
- Hovering, Rhett Davis (Hachette AU)
- The Stranger, Kathryn Hore (Allen & Unwin)
- Here Goes Nothing, Steve Toltz (Hamish Hamilton)
- Bootstrap, Georgina Young (Text)
Best Science Fiction Novella
- WINNER: Resembling Lepus, Amanda Kool (Grey Matter)
- “The Goruden-Mairu Job”, TR Napper

2023 Sir Julius Vogel Awards Winners
Winners for the 2023 Sir Julius Vogel Awards have been announced by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Association of New Zealand (SFFANZ).
Best Novel
- WINNER: A Rake of His Own, A.J. Lancaster (Camberion)
- Chevalier & Gawayn: The Ballad of the Dreamer, Phillip Mann (Quentin Wilson)
- Ithaca Bound, Kirsten McKenzie (Squabbling Sparrows)
- Brightest Star, Andy Southall (Amapur)
- Tarquin the Honest: The Hand of Glodd, Gareth Ward

McCarten and Pulley Shortlisted for Wilbur Smith Prize
The 2023 shortlist for the Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize for Best Published Novel was announced June 1st, 2023. Titles and authors of genre interest include Going Zero by Anthony McCarten (Harper) and The Half Life of Valery K by Natasha Pulley (Bloomsbury). Voting is open from June 1st to August 31st. The winner of the £10,000 prize will be announced on October 18th at an awards ceremony in London. ...Read More

Paul Di Filippo Reviews Pennies from Heaven by James P. Blaylock
Pennies from Heaven, James P. Blaylock (PS Publishing 978-1786368843, trade paperback, 304pp, $21.00) December 2022
I find it incredibly hard to believe that so many years have passed. But databases don’t lie. The Internet Science Fiction Database informs me that PS Publishing issued its first title in 1999—and since then has produced nearly one thousand more! That is some kind of dramatic major milestone for any small press, as ...Read More

Gabino Iglesias Reviews Our Share of Night by Mariana Enriquez
Our Share of Night, Mariana Enriquez (Granta 978-1-78378-673-2, £18.99, 736pp, hc) October 2022. (Hogarth US 978-0-45149-514-3, $28.99, 608pp, hc) February 2023. Cover by Debbie Glasserman.
Once in a while a novel comes along that makes you think it was written just for you. That’s how I felt about Mariana Enriquez’s Our Share of Night, a superb novel beautifully translated from the Spanish by Megan McDowell. A sprawling epic ...Read More