Locus Online

Diabolical Plots 2/23 GigaNotoSaurus 2/23 Escape Pod 2/5/23 Cast of Wonders 2/1/23

February’s Diabolical Plots features two stories where the lines between the human and super­natural worlds touch and ideals of perfection must give way to the beauty and magic of being able to make mistakes. It’s not an easy thing, though, especially for a goddess, as in Anja Hendrikse Liu’s “The Monologue of a Moon Goddess in ...Read More

A House with Good Bones, T. Kingfisher (Tor 978-1-250-82979-5, $26.99, 256 pg, hc) March 2023. Cover by Karolis Strautniekas.

In A House with Good Bones, T. Kingfisher (AKA Ursula Vernon) travels back into the horror section like she did with What Moves the Dead. This time, the subject is roses rather than fungi, but rest assured, there are still the dead.

Sam, a 30-something archaeoentomologist, returns to ...Read More

The Collected Enchantments, Theodora Goss (Mythic Delirium 978-1-7326440-7-6, $39.99, 436pp, hc) February 2023.

2023 is already shaping up as something of a ban­ner year for retrospective short story collections. Last month, I looked at new books from Peter S. Beagle and Catherynne Valente, and generous collections from Howard Waldrop and K.J. Parker are in the offing, as well as posthumous titles from Gene Wolfe, Joanna Russ, and James Tiptree, ...Read More

Asimov’s 1-2/23 Clarkesworld 2/23 The Sunday Morning Transport 1/22/23, 2/5/23, 2/12/23

Asimov’s presents us with an interesting range of stories to start the year, with two that are optimistic about the future but in very different ways. The cover novella is “Up and Out” by Norman Spinrad, a key voice of New Wave science fiction. In this (possibly overlong) story we follow “Elon Tesla,” a man who ...Read More

All Hallows, Christopher Golden (Nightfire 978-1-25028-029-9, $17.99, 336pp, hc) January 2023.

Almost every horror lover I’ve ever met has a spe­cial place in their heart for Halloween, the one time of the year when everyone likes the same things we do and it’s okay to enjoy horror without having to explain yourself. Well, Christopher Golden’s All Hallows is the perfect novel for anyone who enjoys the horror, movies, candy, ...Read More

Ragged Maps, Ian R. MacLeod (Subterranean 978-1645240938, hardcover, 456pp, $45.00) April 2023

How best to convey to the uninitiated the contours and pleasures of Ian MacLeod’s fiction? I would start by saying it’s elegant, complex, mysterious, empathetic, melancholy, mystical, and, somehow, quintessentially British; full of startling ideas often verging on the surreal. Then I would say he’s a peer and heir to Aldiss, Peake, Ballard, Priest, and Moorcock. If ...Read More

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 with the entire issue 130 of Locus.

In addition to all the benefits of lower ...Read More

Seven minutes to find out the top new books out this week! (pay no attention to the year typo)

The Magician’s Daughter, H.G. Parry (Redhook 978-0-31638-370-7, $18.99, tp) February 2023.

H.G. Parry’s The Magician’s Daughter is a very different novel to Rubicon. As with Rubicon, this is the first novel by the author that I’ve read. As with Rubicon, I’m favourably impressed. That’s about where the similarities end, because The Magician’s Daughter is a fantasy set in 1912, one I almost dismissed out of hand. ...Read More

The inaugural Salam Award Writers’ Work­shop was held March 5-11, 2023 at Lahore University of Management Sciences in La­hore, Pakistan. The workshop brought in 14 international writers, with instructors Eliza­beth Hand and Mary Anne Mohanraj, for daily workshops, evening panels, and tours of the city. Organizers say “this week-long residency was the first of its kind in the country.” Attendees included former winners and finalists of the Salam Award, given ...Read More

Extended Stay, Juan Martinez (University of Ari­zona Press 978-0-81654-797-5, $19.95, 320pp, tp) January 2023. Cover by Leigh McDonald.

I don’t know if “refreshing” is quite the right word to use for a book this horrifying, but it’s fascinating to see well-worn horror tropes re­mixed and reinvigorated this well. Juan Martinez’s Extended Stay is an excellent and unsettling riff on the haunted house – a genre that seems to be ...Read More

Behold the Ape, James Morrow (WordFire 978-1-68057-406-7, $32.99, 162pp. hc) April 2023.

Satire has been a significant aspect of SF since long before anyone called it SF, so it’s a bit surpris­ing to realize that relatively few SF authors have built their reputations largely as satirists. James Morrow has been at it for four decades, although it’s only one aspect of a career that has cham­pioned a kind of ...Read More

Village in the Sky, Jack McDevitt (Saga 978-1-6680-0429-6, $29.99, 341 pp, hc) January 2023. Cover by John Harris.

The possibility that humankind might be alone in a universe empty of intelligent life runs right through Jack McDevitt’s work, from The Hercules Text (1989) to several of the stories in last year’s Return to Glory collection. It is a particularly prominent motif in the Alex Benedict novels, which trace the ...Read More

Tim Te Maro and the Subterranean Heartsick Blues, H.S. Valley (Hardie Grant 978-1-76058-75-3, $12.99. 320pp, tp) February 2023.

I first heard about New Zealand writer H.S. Valley’s debut 2021 novel Tim Te Maro and the Subterranean Heartsick Blues a little over year ago, and was instantly disappointed that I couldn’t acquire it through a US publisher. When I got a notification that review copies were available in the States, ...Read More

Winners of the 2023 Kurd Laßwitz Preis for the best German science fiction works and translations have been announced.

The 2023 SERAPH awards were announced April 27, 2023 at the Leipzig Book Fair. Theresa Hannig won Best Book for Pantopia (Fischer Tor). Christopher Abendroth won Best Indepedent Book for Der salzige Geschmack unserer Freiheit ‎ (Eigenverlag). Best Debut Book went to Lucia Herbst for Medusa: Verdammt lebendig (Piper Wundervoll).

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The six-title shortlist has been announced for the 2023 Women’s Prize for Fiction, and includes Pod by Laline Paull (Corsair).

Adjei-Brenyah, Nana Kwame: Chain-Gang All-Stars (Penguin Random House/Pantheon 978-0-593-31733-4, $27.00, 384pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 5/2/2023) This is a dystopian science fiction novel set in an alternate United States, where prisoners in a private-run prison system can compete for freedom in gladiator-style arena death matches.

Bazterrica, Agustina: Nineteen Claws and a Black Bird (Pushkin Press UK 978-1-782279013, $17.99, 176pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, 5/4/2023) From celebrated author Agustina ...Read More