Month: September 2024

Books Reviews 

A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher: Review by Liz Bourke

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A Sorceress Comes to Call, T. Kingfisher (Tor 978-1-250-24407-9, $27.99, 336pp, hc ) August 2024. Cover by Christina Mrozik.

A Sorceress Comes to Call is the latest novel from the pen of award-winning fantasy and horror writer T. Kingfisher, also known as Ursula Vernon. The humour and compassion of Kingfisher’s early work has borne comparison to Terry Pratchett, and in recent years she’s gone from strength to strength, with ...Read More

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Milestones News 

Isabel Allende Barbie Doll

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Mattel Creations has added a Barbie doll based on author Isabel Allende to their “Inspiring Women” line.

On the Mattel site, the doll is shown holding a miniature of Allende’s novel La casa de los espíritus [The House of the Spirits] (1982).

The doll is designed by Suim Noh and is available on the site for $35.

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

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Books Reviews 

Children of Anguish and Anarchy by Tomi Adeyemi: Review by Eugen M. Bacon

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Children of Anguish and Anarchy, Tomi Ad­eyemi (Henry Holt 978-1250171016, $22.99, 356pp, tp) June 2024.

As a reader new to Tomi Adeyemi, I hadn’t read the first two books in the Legacy of Orïsha trilogy, before approaching Chil­dren of Anguish and Anarchy. I don’t believe it affected my reading experience, because the novel, while part of a trilogy, clearly allows for new readers.

An eye-catching cover paves the ...Read More

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Awards News 

Davids Wins 2024 Caine Prize

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“Bridled” by Nadia Davids of South Africa won the 2024 Caine Prize for African Writing.

The Prize honors works across Africa; finalist works will be included in this year’s Caine Prize Anthology. The judges for this year include Julianknxx, Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu, Tumi Molekane, and Ayesha Harruna Attah.

For more information, see the Caine Prize website.

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

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Books Reviews 

She Who Knows by Nnedi Okorafor: Review by Gary K. Wolfe

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She Who Knows, Nnedi Okorafor (DAW 978-0-75641-895-3, $23.00, 176pp, hc) August 2024.

As with any good fantasy setting, Nnedi Okorafor’s 2010 World Fantasy Award-winning Who Fears Death introduced us to a world that seemed far more expansive than what was contained in the text. Set in a far-future Sudan in which the Okeke people face brutal oppression by the Nuru, it combined hints of a bygone technological age with ...Read More

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New Books New Titles & Bestsellers 

New Books, 17 September 2024

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Brom: Evil in Me (Tor/Nightfire 9781250622013, $31.99, 304pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 09/17/2024)

Horror novel. Ruby Tucker’s dreams of making it big in the Atlanta punk scene are gone — until she gets possessed through a cursed ring. The only way to exorcise it is to get hundreds of people to chant a spell, so she gets her band back together for one last song. Illustrated by the author in ...Read More

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Awards News 

2024 National Book Award Longlists

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Longlists for the National Book Awards (NBA) have been announced. The Fiction, Nonfiction, Young Adult, and Translated Literature categories include titles and authors of genre interest.

Fiction

  • Ghostroots, ’Pemi Aguda (Norton)
  • James, Percival Everett (Doubleday)

Nonfiction

  • Our Moon: How Earth’s Celestial Companion Transformed the Planet, Guided Evolution, and Made Us Who We Are, Rebecca Boyle (Random House)
  • Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder, Salman Rushdie (Random
...Read More Read more
Awards News 

2024 BBC Young Writers’ Award Shortlist

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The BBC has announced the shortlist for its 2024 Young Writers’ Award:

  • “A Human, a Robot and a Gosling Walk into a Post-Apocalyptic Bar” by Basmala Alkhalaf (17, from Birmingham)
  • “The Quiet” by Amaan Foyez (18, from Essex)
  • “Special” by Lulu Frisson (17, from Birmingham)
  • “Confession” by Vivienne Hall (17, from Bolton)
  • “Nathalie’s Flatmate” by Aidan Vogelzang (15, from Elgin, Scotland)

Many of the shortlisted stories are speculative in nature,

...Read More Read more
Awards News 

Sunburst Award Returns

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The Sunburst Award, honoring the best in Canadian fantastic literature, will return after a four-year break to celebrate books published in 2024.

The Sunburst Award Society is delighted to announce the return of the Sunburst Award for Excellence in Canadian Literature of the Fantastic after a four-year hiatus. The pause has allowed the volunteer-run Sunburst Award Society to restructure the award and offer increased prize money.

Since its inception in ...Read More

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Bestsellers New Titles & Bestsellers 

Weekly Bestsellers, 16 September 2024

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Five titles published on September 3rd debut on lists this week. Most prominent is Abigail Owen’s The Game Gods Play (Entangled: Red Tower Books), ranking #1 at New York Times, USA Today, and Publishers Weekly. Others include the US edition of Matt Haig’s The Life Impossible (Viking), on four print lists; Harper L. Woods’s The Cursed (Bramble), on three lists; and Tigest Girma’s YA Immortal Dark (Little, Brown), on three

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Features Interviews Slider 

Justin C. Key: Roller Coaster

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JUSTIN CARLYLE KEY was born June 18, 1987, in Washington DC, where he grew up. He studied biology at Stanford University, attended medical school, and is now a practicing psychiatrist.

He began publishing genre fiction with “The Roller Coaster” in 2012, and his stories have appeared in F&SF, Lightspeed, Tor.com, Out There Screaming, and other magazines and anthologies. Notable stories include novelette “One Hand in the Coffin” (2020) an ...Read More

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Books Reviews 

Daughter of the Merciful Deep by Leslye Penelope: Review by Alex Brown

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Daughter of the Merciful Deep, Leslye Penelope (Redhook 978-0-31637-822-2, $25.99, 416pp, hc) June 2024.

When she was 11, Jane Edwards was pulled into a murder investigation. Soon after, her older sister Grace’s sweetheart, Rob, was lynched and the rest of the Black residents of Earnestville were driven out of town by a white mob. As they fled, Jane nearly drowned, and although she was saved, her voice was lost. ...Read More

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Reviews Short Fiction 

Fusion Fragment, Diabolical Plots, and GigaNotoSaurus: Short Fiction Reviews by Charles Payseur

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Hexagon 6/24 Fusion Fragment 6/24 Diabolical Plots 6/24 GigaNotoSaurus 6/24

The latest issue of Hexagon is devoted to stories focused on climate change and climate resil­ience – people coming together to push back against the forces that have led to ecological and societal disaster and trying to walk humanity back from the brink of ruin. As in Madi Haab’s “Heat Devils”, which features brisk action as two ...Read More

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Announcements Awards Milestones News Publishing 

People & Publishing Roundup, September 2024

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AWARDS

REBECCA YARROS’s Fourth Wing (Red Tower) won in the International Book of the Year category at the TikTok Book Awards, held July 25, 2024 in London. Winners were voted on by the #BookTok community.

’PEMI AGUDA’s “Breastmilk” (One Story 5/27/21) is a finalist for the £10,000 Caine Prize for African Writing. The winner will be selected by a panel of judges and announced September 17, 2024.

KATHRYN ...Read More

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Books Reviews 

Mouth by Puloma Ghosh: Review by Ian Mond

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Mouth, Puloma Ghosh (Astra House 978-1-66260-247-4, $26.00, 224pp, hc) June 2024.

Reading Puloma Ghosh’s debut collection, Mouth, brought me back to the pandemic and the months spent in lockdown. To be clear, not one of the eleven stories in the book takes place during or refers to COVID, but isolation and loneliness are so central to Ghosh’s work, her protagonist’s aching for intimacy, that my thoughts were cast ...Read More

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Poster of the Beetlejuice 2 movie, shows many characters in a cemetery
Films 

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice: Sequel Magic or Missed Opportunity? A Movie Review by Erin Underwood

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Tim Burton returns to direct Beetlejuice 2 (2024), also known as Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, in this wickedly wild sequel that takes on the 1988 classic, starring Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, and Jenna Ortega. Since so many remakes and sequels this year have fallen flat, despite media buzz and excitement, it was easy to be skeptical about this film. Could it live up to the original? With Tim Burton, most of ...Read More

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Books Reviews 

We Mostly Come Out at Night edited by Rob Costello: Review by Alex Brown

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We Mostly Come Out at Night, Rob Costello, ed. (Running Press 978-0-76248-319-8, $18.99, 384pp, hc) May 2024.

We Mostly Come Out at Night, a new dark fantasy YA anthology, looks at the scarier side of queerness. The anthol­ogy opens with editor Rob Costello’s powerful introductory essay about queerness and its rela­tionship to monstrousness, how we as a society and as individuals create monsters to reflect our fears and ...Read More

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Books Reviews 

How to Make a Horror Movie and Survive by Craig DiLouie: Review by Gabino Iglesias

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How to Make a Horror Movie and Survive, Craig DiLouie (Redhook 978-0-31656-931-6, $19.99, 400pp, ppb) June 2024.

Funny horror is hard to do right, but Craig DiLouie delivers plenty of it in How to Make a Horror Movie and Survive. At once a send up of the movie industry, a brutal horror novel where a lot of people die in horrible ways, and an exploration of art and ...Read More

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Awards News 

2024 Mo Siewcharran Prize Shortlist

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The six-title shortlist for this year’s Mo Siewcharran Prize has been announced. The award “aims to nurture talent from under-represented backgrounds writing in English.”

This year’s submission call was for YA and adult fantasy novels. Shortlisted entries include:

  • The Devotee, H.D. Ahmed
  • Sandstorm, Aliyah Goga
  • The Master of the Valley, Cassie Leung
  • The Treaties We Break, Tina Shah
  • Modern Day Dragons, Ana Sun
  • Deity of
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Announcements Awards News 

Hardwick Named New Baen Contest Director

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C Stuart Hardwick is taking over as contest director for the Jim Baen Memorial Short Story Award. Hardwick replaces William Ledbetter, who served as director for the past 18 years.

Hardwick said, “In this competition, Bill [Ledbetter] and Toni Weisskopf have created something of real and lasting value to the industry, and I’m honored and excited to have a part in carrying on its legacy.”

The contest will open for ...Read More

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Books Reviews 

Something Kindred by Ciera Burch: Review by Colleen Mondor

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Something Kindred, Ciera Burch (Farrar Straus Giroux 978-0-374-38913-0, $19.99, hc, 284pp) March 2024.

Seventeen-year-old Jericka is 100% not having, at all, the summer she was promised. Stuck in her mother’s hometown of Coldwater, Maryland, Jericka is supposed to be visiting all the beaches in New Jersey with her best friend, figuring out if she and her boyfriend are really as serious as they seem to be and taking pictures ...Read More

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Announcements News Publishing 

Changes at Saga

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Saga Press, the SF/F imprint of Simon & Schuster (S&S), has announced several promotions and other changes.

Tim O’Connell has become vice president and publisher of Saga, moving from his role as vice president and editorial director of fiction at S&S, though he will continue to acquire for the latter. He will report to S&S VP and publisher Sean Manning.

Joe Monti has been promoted to vice president, associate publisher, ...Read More

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New Books New Titles & Bestsellers 

New Books, 10 September 2024

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Allen, Samantha: Roland Rogers Isn’t Dead Yet (Zando 9781638931539, $18, 288pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, 09/10/2024)

Ghost romance novel. An actor’s ghost with just enough energy to communicate via kitchen speaker wants Adam Gallagher to help write his autobiography before his body is found crushed by an avalanche. They have to get it done within one month, and ghost and ghostwriter don’t entirely agree on their visions for the ...Read More

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Reviews Short Fiction 

Escape Pod, Strange Horizons, and Beneath Ceaseless Skies: Short Fiction Reviews by Charles Payseur

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Escape Pod 5/16/24 Strange Horizons 5/20/24, 5/27/24, 6/10/24, 6/17/24 Beneath Ceaseless Skies 5/30/24, 6/13/24

Rocky Cornelius returns to Escape Pod with An­drew Dana Hudson’s May story, “The Concept Shoppe: A Rocky Cornelius Consultancy”. Having left uncool hunting behind her, Rocky is a creative consultant for Primal, a new store that’s selling the postapocalypse experience in a future that feels in many ways postapocalyptic, right down to the ...Read More

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Awards News 

2024 Ditmar Awards Preliminary Ballot

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The preliminary ballot for the 2024 Ditmar Awards for Australian SF has been announced.

Best Novel

  • Polyphemus, Zachary Ashford (DarkLit)
  • The Tangled Lands, Glenda Larke (Wizard’s Tower)
  • The Sinister Booksellers of Bath, Garth Nix (Allen & Unwin)
  • Dream Weaver, Steven Paulsen (IFWG)
  • When Dark Roots Hunt, Zena Shapter (MidnightSun)
  • Traitor’s Run, Keith Stevenson (coeur de lion)

Best Novella or Novelette

  • “The Measure of Sorrow”,
...Read More Read more
Features Interviews Slider 

Catherynne M. Valente: Get to the Future

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CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE was born May 5, 1979 in Seattle WA, and grew up moving between her parents in Seattle and Sacramento CA. She attended high school in Davis CA, graduating at age 15 and attending UC San Diego, where she took a degree in Classical Studies. She attended grad school at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, but quit to move overseas. She lived near Yokohama, Japan for just over ...Read More

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Reviews Short Fiction 

Analog: Short Fiction Reviews by A.C. Wise

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Analog 5-6/24

The May/June 2024 issue of Analog opens with “Uncle Roy’s Computer Repairs and Used Robot Parts” by Martin L. Shoemaker, a charming novella about a man who retires with his wife to her hometown and starts his own computer repair business only to find himself accidentally in a bitter rivalry with the town’s resident “whiz kid.” It’s a fun story that does a good job of capturing ...Read More

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Books Reviews 

Archangels of Funk by Andrea Hairston: Review by Sean Dowie

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Archangels of Funk, Andrea Hairston (Tor­dotcom 978-1-25080-728-1, $29.99, 384pp, hc) July 2024.

Andrea Hairston’s Archangels of Funk forced me to rewire my brain chemistry. The book contains a stew of dense but rewarding elements as people, dogs, spirits, and bots dot a literary canvas unlike anything I’ve read. It’s a cozy dystopia that demands attention, demands that you think on its wavelength. The book largely contains good but flawed ...Read More

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News 

Rosenbaum’s Game

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Choice of Games published Benjamin Rosenbaum’s The Ghost and the Golem, a “450,000-word Jewish histori­cal fantasy interactive fiction,” in August 2024. Rosenbaum calls it “kind of a magnum opus,” and explains, “Unlike a game which is graphics and fight mechanics with some story crammed in here and there, these games are purely a bunch of fictional narrative words: you do make choices, but the output, after having made those choices, ...Read More

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Books Reviews 

The Price of Redemption by Shawn Carpenter: Review by Liz Bourke

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The Price of Redemption, Shawn Carpenter (Saga 978-1-6680-3373-9, $18.99, 358pp, tp) July 2024.

The Price of Redemption is Shawn Carpen­ter’s debut novel. Inspired by the exploits of the British Royal Navy during during the French revolutionary wars, it sets its story in a different world to ours and adds magic to the mixture. As a fan of both fantasy and of the naval adventure story (though frequently through gritted ...Read More

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