Amazon.com published its yearly array of lists to promote the best books of 2018, with editors’ selections in various categories.
A Winter’s Promise by Christelle Dabos (Europa) was the editors’ pick for best science fiction and fantasy book of the year. Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi (Henry Holt) was the editors’ pick for best young adult book of the year.
For complete lists in each category, see ...Read More
Redemption’s Blade, Adrian Tchaikovsky (Solaris 978-1781085790, $11.99, 520pp, tp) July 2018.
Redemption’s Blade, like Adrian Tchaikovsky’s unrelated 2016 novella Spiderlight, is heavily influenced by the Tolkien tradition in epic fantasy. Unlike Tolkien, though, Tchaikovsky’s work is interested in – for want of a better word – the humanity of people on both sides of a war between “light” and “darkness”: the flaws and the good points on both sides of ...Read More
K.D. Edwards, The Last Sun (Pyr 978-1-63388-423-6, $17.00, 363pp, tp) June 2018. Cover by Micah Epstein.
The last scion of a once-powerful house works as an investigator/agent in this entertaining first novel, a sort of urban fantasy set in a world that mixes modern technology (cell phones) with a strangely different culture. In this world, refuges from war-torn Atlantis used money and magic to turn Nantucket into New Atlantis, mostly ...Read More
F&SF 7-8/18
Stonecoast Review Summer ’18
Fireside Quarterly 9/18
Pulp Literature Summer ’18
The July-August F&SF features an impressive novella from a new writer, L.X. Beckett, “Freezing Rain, a Chance of Falling“. Drow Whiting is a journalist and (for now) failed musician, and he’s in serious trouble, because a prominent singer just tried to commit suicide because of a bad review he wrote. That’s bad enough (says this reviewer!), but ...Read More
The Dragon’s Child, Janeen Webb (PS Publishing 978-1-786363-19-0, £15.00, 208pp, hc) May 2018.
Janeen Webb’s novella The Dragon’s Child opens with Lady Feng, a wealthy Hong Kong businesswoman, deciding to “stretch her claws” on the first day of Chinese New Year (The Year of the Dragon). Assuming her true dragon form, Lady Feng circles a remote village where she spies a tasty morsel of meat. It’s only after she gobbles ...Read More
Beneath Ceaseless Skies 6/21/18, 7/5/18, 7/19/18, 8/2/18, 8/16/18, 8/20/18
Starting out a new-to-me short fiction reviewing column, I find myself in the enviable position of having a lot of issues of Beneath Ceaseless Skies to catch up on. The blend of fantasy, dark fiction, and dreams present throughout the stories gives BCS a particularly strong character. September marks its tenth anniversary, and editor Scott H. Andrews has brought out a ...Read More
Scarlett Thomas, The Chosen Ones (Canongate 978-1-78211-930-2, £12.99, 368pp, hc) April 2018; (Simon & Schuster 978-1-4814-9787-9, $17.99, 374pp, hc) May 2018. Cover by Erwin Madrid.
Effie Truelove and her friends continue their efforts to understand the world of magic while working around obstructive adults, in this second book in the quirky middle-grade Worldquake trilogy. Effie Truelove wants to get back to the magical Otherworld, but things keep going wrong; one ...Read More
The Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP), which administers the prestigious Carnegie Medal and Kate Greenaway Awards for the best British children’s books, has promised to take immediate action to improve the diversity of their selections. The award, launched in 1935, has never been won by a black, Asian, or minority ethnic (BAME) writer, and the 20 authors on the 2017 longlist were all white.
After an outcry ...Read More
Members of the British Science Fiction Association may nominate works for the 2018 BSFA Awards until December 31, 2018. Nominations may be made online here.
BSFA has changed the rules for the Best Novel category:
To bring it into line with all the other awards, we are dropping the publication location requirement for novels. Previously novels were only eligible if they were published for the first time in the UK ...Read More
The winner of the 2018 Endeavour Award has been announced:
The award “honors a distinguished science fiction or fantasy book, either a novel or a single-author collection, created by a writer living in the Pacific ...Read More
Estcon 2018 was another wonderful summer event, held in the same location, Udu Farm in Estonia. Estcon is possibly the only science fiction convention in the world held primarily in the open air. The farm offers a camping area and two large farmhouses with multiple bedrooms as well as two dozen “camping huts,” each fitted with three beds, a small refrigerator, and a covered area with picnic bench and grill ...Read More
David G. Barnett will be awarded the 2019 J.F. Gonzalez Lifetime Achievement Award by Splatterpunk Awards founders Wrath James White and Brian Keene.
The Lifetime Achievement Award “honors individuals who have upheld, impacted and contributed to the sub-genres of Splatterpunk and Extreme Horror.” The award will be presented during the second annual Splatterpunk Awards, presented during Killercon 2019 in Austin, Texas.
For more information, see the official announcement.
[via File770] ...Read More
Founder and publisher Marc Gascoigne has announced that he will be leaving Angry Robot Books at the end of 2018, saying, “After more than ten years building AR up into a popular, worldwide sci-fi imprint, it’s time for a new challenge. I’m looking forward to getting my teeth into a new project soon.”
Angry Robot was created in 2008 as an imprint of HarperCollins before becoming an independent imprint of ...Read More
Circe by Madeline Miller (Little, Brown) is on the eight-title shortlist for the 2018 Waterstones Book of the Year award. Established in 2012, the award is given to an “exceptional book which simply must be read, judged from the quality of its writing to the sheer beauty of its production.” Shortlisted titles are nominated by Waterstones booksellers. The 2018 winner will be chosen be a panel headed by James Daunt ...Read More
Bowker has updated their self-publishing statistics with numbers from 2017 – the first year with more than one million self-published books carrying ISBNs. Bowker counted 1,009,188 ISBNs issued to self-published authors, a 28% increase over 2016. (That’s doubtless far lower than the actual number of self-published books, as many ebook authors don’t bother with ISBNs at all since Amazon, the dominant ebook retailer, doesn’t require them.)
The increase comes from ...Read More
The Prime Minister and Arts Minister of Australia announced the shortlists for the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards on October 17, 2018. The awards “celebrate outstanding literary talent in Australia and the valuable contribution Australian literature and history makes to the nation’s cultural and intellectual life.” The winner receives A$80,000 and each runner-up gets A$5,000. Finalists of genre interest follow.
The Buried Ark, James Bradley (Pan Macmillan Australia 9781743549902, A$14.99, 272pp, tp) May 2018.
James Bradley’s The Buried Ark begins where the first book of The Change, The Silent Invasion, ends: Callie is lost in the Zone, confused and frightened until she hears the impossible voice of her father say her name. For those of you who haven’t read The Silent Invasion (you really should because it’s terrific), the Zone ...Read More
Winners of the 2018 BookNest Fantasy Awards have been announced:
Best Traditionally Published Novel
The Mermaid and Mrs. Hancock by Imogen Hermes Gowar (Harvill Secker) and Elmet by Fiona Mozley (John Murray) are among the four shortlisted titles for the Sunday Times/Peters Fraser + Dunlop Young Writer of the Year Award, for work by British or Irish authors 18-35 years old. The 2018 shortlist consists of two novels and two works of nonfiction. The winner receives a £5,000 prize, and each runner-up receives £500. ...Read More
Results for the British Fantasy Society’s (BFS) short story competition have been announced:
First prize is £100 and a year’s membership in the BFS. Second prize is £50 and a year’s membership. Third prize is £20. All three stories will be published in BFS Horizons. The contest was judged
...Read More
Winners of the Prix Utopiales were announced at the Nantes International Science Fiction Festival held October 31 – November 5, 2018 at the Nantes Convention Center in Nantes, France. The awards honor works published in French.
Prix Utopiales Européen (Utopiales European Awards)
Kevin J. Anderson won Mexico’s National Literature Award in the science fiction category, Orson Scott Card won in the fantasy category, and Laura Esquivel won in the mainstream fiction category. The award is given by Grupo Amatl (the “Mexican Association of Publishing Houses”) and the Federal Government of Mexico. Winners will be honored at an event to be held at the House of Representatives in Mexico City on November 9, ...Read More
The ninth annual Xingyun awards for Chinese science fiction were presented by the World Chinese Science Fiction Association on November 3, 2018 in Chongqing, China. Gate of Memories by Jiang Bo won Best Novel, The Monster Reunion by Chen Qiufan won Best Novelette, and “Memories of Chengdu” by Baoshu won Best Short Story.
For more information, see the Xinhua website.
While you are here, please take a moment to support ...Read More
Terry Gilman and Maryelizabeth Yturralde are seeking new owners for Mysterious Galaxy, their San Diego CA bookshop:
When we opened Mysterious Galaxy in 1993, we did so with the belief that it was essential to create a sustainable environment for years to come. Mysterious Galaxy and its immensely qualified and experienced booksellers are well-positioned to ensure that books and author events will remain a vital part of our community. The ...Read More
Sarah J. Maas’ Kingdom of Ash (Bloomsbury) debuts strongly on two lists, ranking #1 on the Publishers Weekly children’s list, and #2 on the combined USA Today list.
And George R.R. Martin’s Fire & Blood: 300 Years Before A Game of Thrones (Bantam), due November 20, is selling on all three Amazon sites this morning. ...Read More
Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968) has been selected for the One Book, One Chicago program by the Chicago Public Library. Numerous events – including book discussion groups, panels, talks, and film screenings – will be held from October 2018 to April 2019. Notable events include N.K. Jemisin and Mikki Kendall discussing the importance of diverse voices in storytelling on November 14, 2018, and Alec Nevala-Lee ...Read More
All the Fabulous Beasts, Priya Sharma (Undertow 9781988964027, $17.99, 288pp, tp) May 2018.
“The Crow Palace”, the opening story in Priya Sharma’s luminous debut collection, All the Fabulous Beasts, begins with its protagonist revisiting a childhood memory. When she was young, Julie tells us, living with her parents and twin in a large house in the English countryside, her father built a bird table, an arrangement of large shelves on ...Read More
