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Countess, Suzan Palumbo (ECW Press 978-1770417571, $16.95, 168pp, tp) September 2024

Trinidadian-Canadian author Suzan Palumbo draws on Caribbean history, culture, and experi­ence in her space opera novella Countess. Pa­lumbo has been previously best known for short fiction: Her collection Skin Thief was published by Neon Hemlock Press in 2023.

As a novella, Countess is a mixed bag. Its first half is genuinely compelling, while its second feelts to me ...Read More

Death of the Author, Nnedi Okorafor (Morrow 978-0-06-344578-9, $30.00, 448pp, hc) January 2025.

For a certain generation of academics, ‘‘the death of the author’’ is the title of an influential 1967 essay by Roland Barthes arguing against interpreting literature in terms of the author’s identity or psychology. Nnedi Okorafor’s Death of the Author makes a brief and oblique reference to this in an early chapter in which the protagonist, ...Read More

The Kwaidan Collection, Lafcadio Hearn, il­lustrated by Kent Williams (Beehive Books 978-1-948886-32-1) $100.00, 144+pp, hc) April 2023. Cover by Kent Williams.

The Kwaidan Collection is not only a fascinating illustrated volume of vintage supernatural Japanese folk tales, brilliantly interpreted by acclaimed multimedia artist Kent Williams, it’s historically significant. These stories were literally rescued by the eccentric multilingual world traveler Lafcadio Hearn (1850-1904) in the early 20th century when the ...Read More

Flash Fiction Online 9/24 Cast of Wonders 9/29/24 Escape Pod 9/19/24

September’s Flash Fiction Online starts strong with Stefan Alcalá Slater’s “Tornado Break­ers Don’t Cry”, which finds siblings Ethel and Edgar living in the shadow of their father, a famous tornado breaker, long after he’s gone from their lives. Ethel has taken up the mantel, but when she fails to break a tornado that comes through their ...Read More

Analog 9-10/24

The October/November issue of Analog opens with the novella “Minnie and Earl Have a Kit­ten” by Adam-Troy Castro, set on the moon and featuring the author’s recurring characters, Minnie and Earl, who on the surface appear to be a sweet, elderly Midwestern couple, but in truth may be higher intelligences. Tish receives an invitation out of the blue from Minnie and Earl to visit them ...Read More

It’s the first week of 2025 and everyone at Locus is super excited for another year of fantastic new releases to share with you! Come by the Locus YouTube channel to keep up-to-date on all the top new SF, Fantasy, Horror, and YA book! Help us start off this year strong by showing your support for what we do by subscribing to the channel!

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Remember You Will Die, Eden Robins (Source­books Landmark 978-1-72825-603-0, $16.99, 336pp, tp) October 2024.

It has been another excellent year for uncon­ventional narratives. There’s Rakesfall by Vajra Chandrasekera, which I called “a full-frontal deconstruction of narrative and genre”; there’s Rita Bullwinkel’s magnificent Headshot, a story structured around the intense, chaotic and bal­letic bouts of a junior girl’s boxing tournament; and there are the 1,281 F-bombs that punctuate the ...Read More

Wizard’s Tower Press has an­nounced the new Wiz Duo novella series, edited by Roz Clarke and Joanne Hall, to launch in early 2025. Each volume “will contain two novella-length stories from different writers.” The first two books include stories by David Gullen and Ben Wright, and Juliet Kemp and E.M. Faulds. Their novellas were first acquired by the now-defunct Grimbold Books. Publisher Cheryl Morgan said:

While I love reading novellas, ...Read More

Dream Machine: A Portrait of Artificial Intel­ligence, Appupen & Laurent Daudet (The MIT Press 978-0-26255-129-8, $29.95, 160pp, tp) August 2024.

The graphic novel Dream Machine is the brainchild of versatile Indian artist Appu­pen (known for Legends of Halahala, The Snake and the Lotus, and other inventive myth-building comics) and Laurent Daudet, a French physicist and AI researcher. Educational and engaging, the book delves into the wide-reaching ramifications ...Read More

The Midnight Club, Margot Harrison (Graydon House 978-1-52580-988-0, $28.00, 368pp, hc) September 2024.

Margot Harrison’s The Midnight Club is one of those novels that defies catego­rization. At its core, this is a murder mystery (or a mystery about a suicide that some folks think could have been a murder). However, it’s also a narrative about the changing nature of friendship as well as a science fiction tale about a ...Read More

Our Wicked Histories, Amy Goldsmith (Dela­corte Press 978-0-583-70395-3, $19.99, 384pp, hc) July 2024. Cover by Marcela Bolivar.

The heroine of Amy Goldsmith’s Our Wicked Histories is Meg, a scholarship student at an exclusive private art school. In the opening pages she is still reeling from an episode a few months earlier when, at a school dance, she made a stupid drunken mistake that obliterated her social life (she has ...Read More