Locus Online

Analog 5-6/19 Asimov’s 5-6/19 Space and Time Spring/Summer ’19

The May-June Analog opens with a fun alternate history from Harry Turtledove, “Bonehunters“, retelling a version of the fossil wars of the late 19th century in a timeline where, apparently, dinosaurs never became extinct, and two separate intelligent species evolved from raptors. The story is told by Rekek, a “greenskin” who serves as a guide. His stepson Junior ...Read More

Amnesty, Lara Elena Donnelly (Tor 978-1-25017-362-1, $18.99, 384pp, tp) April 2019.

“It is not easy,” Aristide Makricosta tells a gathered crowd early in Amnesty, “to destroy your life. To coat the things you love in kerosene and light a match.” He is talking about Cordelia Lehane, a burlesque dancer turned resistance leader, who did exactly that when she decided to fight against the fascism sweeping across Amberlough. Cordelia ...Read More

Triangulum, Masande Ntshanga (Two Dollar Radio 978-1937512774, $17.99, 367pp, tp) May 2019.

I was predisposed to enjoy Masande Ntshanga’s Triangulum. Some of my favourite books are “found manuscript” novels, including James Hogg’s The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner, David Means’ Man Booker Prize longlisted Hystopia, and the granddaddy of them all, Mark Z. Danielewski’s breathtaking House of Leaves. Triangulum doesn’t feature the ...Read More

Clarkesworld 4/19 Apex 3/19 Capricious SF #11 Apparition #5 Aurealis #119

April’s Clarkesworld brings us the first in a planned run of stories translated from Korean, starting with “The Flowering” by Soyeon Jong (translated by Jihyun Park & Gord Sellar). This is a sly story told in interview style, with the sister of a known subversive who’s been working to literally ‘plant’ organic biotech routers to get ...Read More

The Iron Dragon’s Mother, Michael Swanwick (Tor 978-1-250-19825-9, $26.99, 366pp, hc) June 2019.

There are hints of the afterlife in Michael Swanwick’s The Iron Dragon’s Mother, but it’s hard to accuse a fantasy world of pretentiousness when it cheerfully includes living metal dragon jet fighters along with Hello Kitty backpacks, or in which the streets of a magical underwater city are lined with Vuitton and Dolce & Gabbana ...Read More

Do You Dream of Terra-Two?, Temi Oh (Saga 978-1-53443-7401 $16.99, 528pp, tp) March 2019.

First, this book is a doorstop. I am not kid­ding, it’s a book about a deep space mission that doesn’t even leave the ground until more than 100 pages in. It has a big cast of char­acters (six living teens, one dead one, four adults, plus mentions of various parents and assorted other living and ...Read More

Winners for the 1944 Retro Hugo Awards, honoring work from 1943, were announced by Dublin 2019, the 77th Worldcon, during a ceremony held August 15, 2019 at the Convention Centre Dublin in Dublin Ireland.

Best Novel

The Science Fiction Research Association (SFRA) has announced the winners of several of its awards.

Mary Kay Bray award for best essay, interview, or extended review to appear in the SFRA Review (tie)

Thomas D. Clareson award for distinguished service

The six-title shortlist for the 2018 Edge Hill Prize for Short Story includes genre titles The Sadness of Beautiful Things by Simon Van Booy (Penguin) and The Sing of the Shore by Lucy Wood (4th Estate).

The £10,000 prize “recognises excellence in a single author short story collection.” Judges for 2019 are Elizabeth Baines, Tessa Hadley, and Sam Jordison. The winners will be announced on October 25, 2019 during a ...Read More

Author J. Neil Schulman, 66, died August 11, 2019 in Colorado Springs CO. He suffered a pulmonary embolism three days earlier and never regained consciousness. Schulman’s work was particularly influential in the field of Libertarian SF. His first novel Alongside Night (1979) was a finalist for the Libertarian Futurist Society’s Prometheus Award, and in 1989 it won their Hall of Fame Award. The Rainbow Cadenza: A Novel in Logosata Form ...Read More

Amazon’s ongoing legal issues in Europe continue. The Federal Cartel Office in Germany has accepted concessions from Amazon regarding the retailer’s terms for third-party sellers, and has closed the “abuse of dominance” procedure begun last fall. According to Cartel Office head Andreas Mundt, Amazon has agreed to improve “the lack of transparency of the terms of business; the unexpected termination and blocking of sellers accounts…; the lack of possibilities for ...Read More

Author Lavie Tidhar and game designer Jake Olefsky have launched an in­teractive SF story, “Svalvard”. Olefsky explains: “Essentially, you read a chapter, then solve a puzzle to unlock the next chapter. There are 23 short chapters in this non-linear short story. Did I mention it has robots and sentient fungi?” To read – and play – visit <www.puzzletales.com>.

While you are here, please take a moment to support Locus with ...Read More

The Warship, Neal Asher (Night Shade 978-1-59780-990-0, $26.99, 369pp, hc) May 2019. Cover by Adam Burn.

Okay, now it’s getting complicated. I called Infinity Engine (2017), the finale of Neal Asher’s Transformation trilogy, “sprawling and shaggy,” a description that ap­plies as well to his new book. The Warship is the plot-thickening middle volume of a trilogy that is also part of the Polity future history series that so far ...Read More

Ragged Alice, Gareth L. Powell (Tor.com Pub­lishing 978-1-250-22018-9, $14.99, 202pp, tp) April 2019.

In this novella, Powell introduces DCI Holly Craig, a London-based detective who has de­cided to move back to her native Wales in this Broadchurch-esque mystery. The detective grew up in the seaside town Pontyrhudd, where things aren’t always what they seem and the residents are colorful. A young woman has been murdered and Craig’s untangling ...Read More

Finalists for the 2019 Imadjinn Awards have been announced, including several categories of genre interest.

Best Science Fiction Novel

Best Fantasy Novel

Red Birds, Mohammed Hanif (Bloomsbury 978-1408897188, £16.99, 304pp, hc) October 2018. (Grove/Black Cat 978-0802147288, $16.00, 304pp, tp) May 2019.

Mohammed Hanif draws on his own experience as an Air Force pilot for his fourth novel, Red Birds, a hit-and-miss satire on America’s attitude toward foreign policy, set in a refugee camp located in an unnamed Arabic country.

The narrative alternates between three charac­ters, the first of which is ...Read More

Dragon Con has announced the ballot for the 2019 Dragon Awards. Voting is open to the public at the Dragon Awards website; registration for voting is open until August 30, 2019, 11:59PM (EDT). Winners will be announced at Dragon Con, held August 29 – September 2, 2019 in Atlanta GA.

Best Science Fiction Novel

Descendant of the Crane, Joan He (Albert Whitman 978-0-80751-551-8, $17.99, 416pp, hc) April 2019.

I more than liked Joan He’s debut fantasy. Descendent of the Crane sets itself in a world deeply influenced by Chinese history and culture. It’s a lush, deeply realised world, full of laws and ministries and red-light districts, scents and textures and presences, histories and legacies. (I’m almost certainly missing references and reso­nances that would ...Read More

Nobel laureate Toni Morrison, 88, died August 5, 2019 in the Bronx, of complications from pneumonia. Morrison was celebrated for her complex and emotionally rich novels about womanhood and the black experience in America. She often used supernatural and magical realist elements in her work, notably in National Book Critics Circle Award winner Song of Solomon (1976), Pulitzer Prize winner Beloved (1987; adapted as a feature film in 1998), and ...Read More

Everything is Made of Letters, Sofía Rhei (Aqueduct) March 2019. Perihelion Summer, Greg Egan (Tor.com Publishing) April 2019. Hidden Histories, Juliana Rew, ed. (Third Flatiron) April 2019.

I was really impressed by Sofía Rhei‘s Everything is Made of Letters. Rhei is a Spanish writer, and this slim book contains five recent stories, all as far as I can tell appearing here for the first time ...Read More

The Clarion West Summer Workshop has announced its 2020 instructors: Ted Chiang, Neil Clarke, Tina Connolly, Andy Duncan, Eileen Gunn, Nalo Hopkinson, and Caroline M. Yoachim. The six-week summer workshop will be held June 21 – July 31, 2020 in Seattle WA, with applications opening December 1, 2019. For more information, see the Clarion West website.

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

The Mythopoeic Society announced the 2019 Mythopoeic Awards winners on August 4, 2019 during Mythcon 50, held at San Diego State University in San Diego CA.

Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature

Spectacle, Jodie Lynn Zdrok (Tor Teen 978-0-7653-9968-7, $17.99, 359pp, hc) February 2019.

Author Jodie Lynn Zdrok’s Paris initially reads as quite familiar to fans of historical fiction. It’s 1887 and the Eiffel Tower is under construction, the Cata­combs are open for tours, and every morning bodies “found in the public domain” are displayed at the morgue. Anyone and everyone lines up for a brief glimpse of the dead. The ...Read More