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Science Fiction: Documents of Contemporary Art, Dan Byrne-Smith, ed. (The MIT Press 978-0262538855, $24.95, 240pp, pb) April 2020.

The question of who the intended readership is for the non-fiction anthology Science Fiction, edited by Dan Byrne-Smith for the Documents of Contemporary Art MIT Press series, kept nagging at me throughout. The series, we are told, focuses on subjects ‘‘of key influence in contemporary art internationally’’ and seeks to ...Read More

Of Ants and Dinosaurs, Cixin Liu (Head of Zeus 978-1-789-54611-8, 256pp, £18.99, hc) April 2020.

Cixin Liu’s satirical novel Of Ants and Dinosaurs seems to have a complex history. A novella with this title was published in China in 2004, later appearing as a standalone book in 2012, translated by Holger Nahm. This was included in Liu’s 2013 collection The Wandering Earth published in Beijing – but not in ...Read More

Wicked As You Wish, Rin Chupeco (Sourcebooks 978-1-4926-7266-1, $17.99, 400pp, hc) February 2020.

Rin Chupeco’s Wicked As You Wish is a sometimes dizzying combination of classic fairy tales and alternate history that draws heavily from the real world and somehow manages to include everything from the Snow Queen to King Arthur to Wonderland to ICE. (Here’s the unlikeliest quote to appear in a YA fantasy novel ever: ”So ICE ...Read More

Creatures of Charm and Hunger, Molly Tanzer (John Joseph Adams 978-0-358-06521-0, $16.99, 320pp, tp) April 2020.

When Molly Tanzer introduced her ”Diabolist’s Library” trilogy with Creatures of Will and Temper back in 2017, she combined the sharply insightful coming-of-age tale of two contrasting sisters finding their way in Victorian London with a cleverly gender-swapped version of Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray. Then, with a skillful narrative ...Read More

Race to the Sun, Rebecca Roanhorse (Disney Hyperion 978-136802466-2, $16.99, 298pp, hc) January 2020. Cover by Dale Ray DeForest.

Rick Riordan’s already impressive Disney Hyperion imprint has another winner with Rebecca Roanhorse’s adventure, Race to the Sun. Sporting a southwestern setting and Navajo protagonist while executing a traditional hero/heroine’s journey with aplomb, Race to the Sun hits all the right notes while giving readers an excellent ...Read More

The Sunken Land Begins to Rise Again, M. John Harrison (Gollancz 978-0575096356, 272pp, hardcover) June 2020

One does not merely read a novel by M. John Harrison; rather, one inhabits it. Or perhaps the uncanny novel inhabits the lucky reader. For the duration of the reader’s immersion in the text (or the immersion of the text in the reader), his or her consciousness is erased and supplanted with Harrison’s ...Read More

Numerous upcoming conventions and literary events have been postponed or canceled as part of efforts to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus that causes respiratory illness COVID-19. The situation remains in flux as the full extent of the pandemic remains to be seen. We will update this story and our convention listing with further information about cancellations and postponements as it becomes available.

“Humanslayer” by Scott Huggins won the sixth annual Baen Fantasy Adventure Award, announced August 2, 2020 during the Baen Virtual Roadshow, broadcast live on Facebook. Second place went to “The Chilling Account of the Wolf-Bann of Krallenburg” by J.E. Tabor and third place went to “Seidh” by Morgan Welch.

Other nominees were:

The shortlists for the 2020 Norma K. Hemming Award have been announced.

Mike Ashley is the winner of the 2020 Munsey Award, presented annually by PulpFest “to an individual or institution that has bettered the pulp community.” Nominees are selected by the general pulp community, and the winner is selected by a vote of past Lamont, Munsey, and Rusty Awards winners.

Ashley received a fine art print by David Saunders as his award. Since PulpFest 2020 has been canceled, the award was ...Read More

SF, fantasy, and alter­nate reality game writer Sean Stewart has written an interactive online farce called Roundabout: “A love triangle gets even more complicated when three digital beings decide they want to go back into bodies – and the audience chooses who goes where.” You can watch (and participate!) at <twitch.tv/NIDA-Roundabout> on August 6, 7, and 8 at 6 p.m. PST. Stewart created the play in collaboration with the ...Read More

Barnes & Noble fired unspecified number of employees from its head­quarters in New York who’d been on furlough since March – including longtime SF/fantasy and graphic novel buyer James Killen and fiction buyer Sessalee Hensley. A spokesperson said, “It is with great regret that a number of employees in the corporate office have left our employment. As with so many companies, we evaluate our needs in circumstances much changed by ...Read More

Winners for the Hugo Awards, the Lodestar for Best Young Adult Book, and the Astounding Award for Best New Writer were announced by CoNZealand, the 78th Worldcon, on August 1, 2020 during an online ceremony.

The inaugural longlist for the Diverse Book Awards, created “to highlight the best of the diverse voices published in the UK during 2019, both traditionally and self-published,” has been announced. Titles and authors of possible genre interest include:

Best Children’s

The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water, Zen Cho (Tor.com 978-1-250-26925-6, $19.99, 160pp, hc) June 2020. Cover by Sija Hong.

After decades of movies, games, manga, and TV, it might well be that contemporary audiences are more familiar with the conventions of wuxia than with the classic American Western – not that there isn’t a fair amount of overlap. The crucial opening scene of Zen Cho’s The ...Read More

CoNZealand Site Selection announced that Chicago has won the site vote and will host the 80th Worldcon, Chicon 8, to be held September 1-5, 2022, winning 517 of the 587 ballots. The con will take place at the Hyatt Regency Chicago. Guests include author guest of honor Charles de Lint, artist guest of honor Floyd Norman, fan guests of honor Edie Stern and Joe Siclari, First Fandom guest of honor ...Read More

Winners for the 2020 Sir Julius Vogel Awards have been announced by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Association of New Zealand (SFFANZ).

Interlibrary Loan, Gene Wolfe (Tor 978-1-250-24236-5, $25.99, 308pp, hc) June 2020.

There was already something of a valedictory tone about Gene Wolfe’s 2015 novel A Borrowed Man, which portrayed a glum, diminished future in which authors survive as helpless ”reclones” who could be checked out of libraries like books (or cubes or disks) – but who could casually be incinerated if they aren’t checked out frequently enough. In ...Read More

Winners of the 1945 Retro Hugo Awards, honoring work from 1944, have been announced by CoNZealand, the 78th Worldcon.

The Fantastic Fiction of Hannes Bok, Hannes Bok (American Fantasy Press 978-0990784678, $45, 448pp, hardcover) March 2020

As a kid, I used to confuse the artwork of Hannes Bok and Boris Artzybasheff. There’s a surface similarity, but when examined closer, Bok’s paintings and drawings exude a kind of Art Deco romance that Artzybasheff’s more cold and clever and satirical drawings never did. We can tell that one man was ...Read More

A digital copy of Aurealis #132, the All-New Zealand issue, will be sent free to anyone who emails <editor@aurealis.com.au> with the subject line “Aurealis #132 All-New Zealand” during CoNZealand, July 29 – August 2, 2020.

While you are here, please take a moment to support Locus with a one-time or recurring donation. We rely on reader donations to keep the magazine and site going, and would like to keep ...Read More

Several awards for services to SF fandom were presented during the CoNZealand opening ceremonies, held online July 28, 2020.

While you are here, please take a moment to support Locus with a one-time or recurring ...Read More

Honeybones, Georgina Bruce (TTA Press 978- 1-9163629-1-8, £7.00, 90pp, tp) May 2020.

Honeybones, the sixth in TTA Press’s novella series, deals with ugly subjects in beautifully written prose. Georgina Bruce immediately plunges the reader into young teen Anna Carew’s befuddled mind and places us in a ”house of mirrors… entangled with its selves, a pattern looping inwards, up stairs and through doorways and round corners…” haunted by ”endless ...Read More

CoNZealand Fringe, “a project of many genre fiction fan communities” which is “not endorsed by CoNZealand,” has created “a complementary programming series to the annual science fiction convention Worldcon,” accessible on their website and free to watch on YouTube.

Programming events will livestream on YouTube from July 28 – August 2nd (PDT) at “European-friendly times.” Panelists include Jeannette Ng, Gareth L. Powell, DongWong Song, Alasdair Stuart, Bogi Takács, and many ...Read More

Winners for the 2019 Ladies of Horror Fiction Awards have been announced: