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By the Pricking of Her Thumb, by Adam Roberts (Gollancz 978-1473221499, $24.99, 272pp, hardcover) August 2018

I seem to recall a character from one of John Barth’s early novels who wanted to live a life of utter unpredictability and inconsistency, as a kind of embodiment of the chaos principle. But then with a shock the man realized that total inconsistency was a kind of predictability. And so he picked ...Read More

The Paris Review Summer ’18
New Yorker 6/4-11/18
Asimov’s 7-8/18
Analog 7-8/18

This month Karen Burnham steps in for the late and much-lamented Gardner Dozois, and we’re making changes to ensure Locus covers as much short fiction as possible. We’ve decided to split review sources between three reviewers: this column will cover primarily print magazines and anthologies, Karen will cover primarily online sources, and Paula Guran will continue her focus ...Read More

The Black God’s Drums, P. Djèlí Clark (Tor.com Publishing 978-1250294715, $11.99, 112pp, tp) August 2018.

The Black God’s Drums does leave me feeling very enthusiastic. This delight­ful novella is a breath of fresh air, and promises good things for P. Djèlí Clark’s career – though I should note that he already has no mean track record in shorter fiction.

The Black God’s Drums sets itself in a steampunk-esque alternate history ...Read More

Halcyon, Rio Youers (St. Martin’s 9781250072412 $27.99, 384pp, hc) July 2018.

While Halcyon, Rio Youers’s new novel, is not a direct sequel to last year’s The Forgotten Girl, it shares the previous novel’s interest in psychic phenomena. Once again, Youers links psychic ability to a young woman, in this case, Edith Lovegrove, 10-year-old daughter of Martin and Laura, younger sister of 15-year-old Shirley. As the novel begins, Edith suffers what ...Read More

My Plain Jane, Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton & Jodi Meadows (Harper Teen 978-0-06-265277-5, $17.99, 464pp) June 2018.

Let’s get this out of the way right now: you do not need to have read (or liked) Jane Eyre to enjoy the hell out of My Plain Jane. Over the years I have tried to finish Charlotte Brontë’s “masterpiece” many times and could never get past my frustration with Jane’s willingness to ...Read More

The Future is Female! 25 Classic Science Fic­tion Stories by Women, from Pulp Pioneers to Ursula K. Le Guin, Lisa Yaszek, ed. (Library of America 978-1-59853-580-8, $27.95, 532pp, hc) September 2018.

In her pioneering 2016 anthology Sisters of To­morrow, Lisa Yaszek brought to light a number of women SF writers of the pulp era, most long forgotten and out of print for decades. Now, with The Future is Female! 25 ...Read More

Fan and collector David J. Willoughby, 67, died October 5, 2018 of complications from pancreatic cancer at home in Tuscola IL. Willoughby was a regular and beloved presence at SF conventions for decades, known for his avid collecting and the vast library he assembled over his 50 years in fandom, and as a dedicated autograph-seeker.

Willoughby was born November 1, 1950 in Short Creek KY, moving to Illinois as a ...Read More

Winners for the 2018 Imadjinn Awards were announced, including several titles of genre interest.

The 2018 Warwick Prize for Women in Translation longlist has been announced. Titles of genre interest include:

Inaugurated in 2017, the annual prize goes to “the best eligible work of fiction, poetry, literary non-fiction, work of fiction for children or young ...Read More

Finalists for the 2018 National Book Awards have been announced and include authors and works of genre interest.

Finalists for the 2018 Parsec Awards, honoring excellence in speculative fiction podcasting, have been announced.

Low Chicago, George R.R. Martin & Melinda M. Snodgrass, eds. (Tor 978-0-7653-9056-1, $27.99, hc) June 2018.

John Jos. Miller sets up the premise for this latest Wild Cards mosaic novel in the first part of “A Long Night at the Palmer House”: a high stakes poker game hosted in the present day by an elite gangster at Chicago’s historic and still luxurious Palmer House Hotel. He also introduces the players ...Read More

Shortlists for the 2018 Books Are My Bag (BAMB) Readers Awards have been announced, including some titles and authors of genre interest in the following categories:

The Italian Conference of Fantasy and Science Fiction (Italcon) announced winners for the 2018 Premio Italia on October 6, 2018, during Stranimondi held in Milan, Italy.

The 2018 Aurora Awards winners have been announced “for Canadian literary and fan works that members of the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association (CSFFA) feel are exceptional.”

Winners of the 2018 Harvey Awards were announced October 5, 2018 during New York Comic Con at the Javits Center in New York City.

There were also winners in Best Children’s or Young Adult Book, Best ...Read More

Adrift, Rob Boffard (Orbit 978-0356510439, £8.99, 400pp, pb) June 2018.

Adrift is Rob Boffard’s fourth novel and the first piece of his that I’ve read, and it makes me think I’ve been missing out by not noticing his work earlier. This is a strong, well-written effort with an ensemble cast and a solid science fictional setting.

Sigma Station used to be a mining station, but with the end of the ...Read More

Michael Bishop received the Georgia Author of the Year Award for Best Story Collection of 2017 for Other Arms Reach Out to Me: Georgia Stories (Kudzu Planet), presented June 16, 2018 at Kennesaw State University in Kennesaw GA.

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 ...Read More

The Apex Book of World SF: Volume 5, edited by Cristina Jurado and Lavie Tidhar (Apex, $16.95, 359pp, hardcover) October 2018

It can be convincingly argued, I believe, that the expressed genuine interest of the English-speaking SF audience in foreign science fiction is exactly coterminous with the birth of the genre. For did not the very first issue of Amazing in 1926 feature work by Jules Verne? Yes, that’s ...Read More

Dragon Con 2018 was held August 30 – September 3, 2018 across five hotels in downtown Atlanta GA. There were roughly 80,0000 attendees, about the same as the 2017 event. Steven Barnes was the literary guest of honor, and Brom was the art show guest of honor. The scores of guests included numerous actors from genre films and television, screenwriters, video game creators, editors, and writers. SF writers on programming ...Read More

New issues of Abyss & Apex, Apex, Clarkesworld, The Dark,GigaNotoSaurus, Kaleidotrope, Lightspeed, and Nightmare ...Read More

The Afterlife of Walter Augustus (self-published) by Hannah Lynn won the 2018 Kindle Storyteller Award. Lynn was honored during a ceremony at the Royal Society in London on October 3, 2018. The award, inaugurated in 2017, comes with a £20,000 prize and is “open to anyone over the age of 18 who publishes their book through Kindle Direct Publishing on Amazon.co.uk.”

For more information, see the Kindle Storyteller page.

While ...Read More

Shimmer 5/18
Uncanny 5-6/18
Black Static 5-6/18

The regular venues this column covers had quite a bit to offer as spring turned to sum­mer. Shimmer went spooky with all four stories in their 43rd issue. Katherine Kendig‘s “What the Skeleton Detective Tells You (while you picnic)” is dark “lite”: a cute reworking of a private eye yarn with a living skeleton detec­tive. “You, In Flux” by Alexis A. Hunter is ...Read More

Kelly Link is one of 25 MacArthur Foundation Fellows selected for 2018. Each “genius grant” recipient receives a no-strings-attached “stipend of $625,000… paid out in equal quarterly installments over five years.”

Although nominees are reviewed for their achievements, the fellowship is not a lifetime achievement award, but rather an investment in a person’s originality, insight, and potential. Indeed, the purpose of the MacArthur Fellows Program is to enable recipients to ...Read More

The Clarion Workshop has announced the instructors for its 2019 session: Maurice Broaddus, Andy Duncan, Karen Lord, Carmen Maria Machado, Shelley Streeby (faculty director), Ann VanderMeer, and Jeff VanderMeer. The 2019 classes will be held June 23 – August 3, 2019 on the UC San Diego campus in San Diego CA. For more information, see the Clarion website.

The Clarion West Summer Workshop also announced its 2019 instructors: Jack Dann, ...Read More

Winners have been announced for the 2018 Digital Book World Awards across 52 categories. Winners and finalists of genre interest included: