Month: September 2024

Books Reviews 

Key Lime Sky by Al Hess: Review by Paul Di Filippo

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Key Lime Sky, Al Hess (Angry Robot 978-1915998125, trade paperback, 304pp, $18.99) August 2024,

It has been said that Irish fantasist Flann O’Brien had a penchant for involving the humble bicycle in his surreal fiction, until the vehicle became a kind of numinous totem or idiosyncratic symbol. A few other writers of fantasy have deployed such a technique—recurring enigmatic touchstone with multiple meanings—and now Al Hess joins their ranks, ...Read More

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Legal News 

Internet Archive Loses Appeal

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The Second Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the lower-court ruling against the Internet Archive (IA).

The suit was first brought in 2020 by HarperCollins, Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group, and Wiley, alleging “willful mass copyright infringement” by IA’s “National Emergency Library,” which offered unlimited borrows of over a million ebooks. Judge John Koeltl of New York Federal Court issued a summary judgment against IA on March 24, 2023.

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Announcements Awards News 

WSFS Issues Apology

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The following resolution passed at the 2024 Business Meeting of the World Science Fiction Society (WSFS), held during Glasgow 2024: A Worldcon for Our Futures, in Glasgow, Scotland, August 8-12, 2024:

BE IT RESOLVED, that the World Science Fiction Society apologizes unreservedly to the nominators and voters of the 2023 Hugo Awards for any failures in the administration of the 2023 Hugo Awards; and

The World Science Fiction Society apologizes ...Read More

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Reviews Short Fiction 

Small Wonders, Flash Fiction Online, and Cast of Wonders: Short Fiction Reviews by Charles Payseur

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Small Wonders 5/24 Flash Fiction Online 5/24 Cast of Wonders 5/29/24

I’ll start off with May’s Small Wonders, a pub­lication dedicated to flash fiction and poetry, which includes Angel Leal’s powerful poem ‘‘Music of the Seraphim’’. A child meets an angel and is filled with a desire for something new – new experiences, a new body, a new place to be – and find their prayers and ...Read More

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Commentary Features 

Fantasy, Science Fiction, and Horror in Spain

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The genre is experiencing a blooming pe­riod. Big names like George R.R. Martin, Patrick Rothfuss, Brandon Sanderson, Andrzej Sapkowski, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Rob­ert Jordan sell hundreds of copies every week, thanks to television adaptations, but also, in recent years, fantastic fiction has been gaining ground over the other genres and is becoming, little by little, the main trend. For example, the most recent worldwide publishing phenomenon – although in Spain ...Read More

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Films 

What to Expect When You’re Expecting a Chestburster: Arley Sorg and Josh Pearce Discuss Alien: Romulus

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As Alien: Romulus opens on a stunning starscape and clever title sequence, the Weyland-Yutani corporation is up to its usual tricks, recovering something foreboding from deep space and whisking it away for further study/experimentation.

Sometime later, a mix of six friends and family conspire to escape the dismal conditions of a company-controlled mining colony. Unable to break their employment contracts with Weyland-Yutani, and facing deadly work environments, they hatch a ...Read More

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Contests News 

2024 NESFA Short Story Contest

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The New England Science Fiction Association (NESFA) SF/F short story contest is now open to entries.

“The purpose of this contest is to encourage amateur and semi-professional writers to reach the next level of proficiency…. If you have received more than $1000 for your fiction writing from any source on the date you submit your story and/or have published, in any paying publication, a novel or multiple shorter works adding ...Read More

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Awards News 

Garcia Wins 2024 Sturgeon Award

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“Tantie Merle and the Farmhand 4200” by R.S.A. Garcia (Uncanny, 7/23) is the winner of the 2024 Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award for the best short science fiction story, presented by the J. Wayne and Elsie M. Gunn Center for the Study of Science Fiction.

The second-place runner up was “Patsy Cline Sings Sweet Dreams to the Universe” by Beston Barnett (Strange Horizons 11/20/23). The third-place runner up was “The Year ...Read More

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cover of the black girl survives in this one by evans and fennell
Books Reviews 

Alex Brown Reviews The Black Girl Survives in This One edited by Desiree S. Evans & Saraciea J. Fennell

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The Black Girl Survives in This One, Desiree S. Evans & Saraciea J. Fennell, eds. (Flatiron 978-1-25032-199-2, $19.99, 368pp, hc) April 2024.

Horror is in a golden age in young adult fiction. Just a few years ago, you could count the number of YA horror novels released each year on one hand. Last year I tracked more than 30 YA books marketed as horror. This year just in January ...Read More

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Speculative Literature Foundation logo with a pen and stars
Announcements News 

2024 SLF Working Class Writers Grant Applications Open

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The Speculative Literature Foundation (SLF) is accepting applications for its $1,000 Working Class Writers Grant, “awarded annually to speculative fiction writers who are working class, blue-collar, financially disadvantaged, or homeless, who have been historically underrepresented in speculative fiction due to financial barriers which make it hard to access the writing world.”

Applications are open until September 30, 2024. The winner will be announced November 15, 2024.

For more information, see ...Read More

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Awards News 

2024 Washington State Book Award Finalists

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Finalists for the 2024 Washington State Book Awards, presented by the Washington Center for the Book, have been announced, including titles and authors of genre interest.

Bookshops & Bonedust by Travis Baldree (Tor) and Jewel Box: Stories by E. Lily Yu (Erewhon) are among the six titles shortlisted in the Fiction category. The Golden Needle by T.J. Carroll (Cumberstone) and Painted Devils by Margaret Owen (Henry Holt) are among three ...Read More

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Announcements News Publishing 

Changes At Gamut

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House of Gamut has rebranded and relaunched Gamut Publishing as Ruadán Books, including “All anthologies and novel contracts” previously signed with Gamut. Scheduled titles include anthology 120 Murders edited by Nick Mamatas. Ruadán is open to submissions of short stories, novellas, and novels, as well as non-fiction for their column “From the Writers Desk”.
Gamut also announced the closure of Gamut Academy and Gamut Magazine, with their final scheduled issue
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Books Reviews 

SHORT TAKES: Gary K. Wolfe Reviews Tomorrowing by Terry Bisson and The Book Blinders by John Clute

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Tomorrowing, Terry Bisson (Duke University Press 978-1-4780-3068-3, $15.95, 168pp, tp) May 2024.

Terry Bisson, who died in January, began writing his ‘‘This Month in History’’ column of hilarious microfictions for Locus on April Fool’s Day 2004, and for the next two decades it became as much a fixture of this magazine as The New Yorker’s car­toons or Alfred Hitchcock’s cameos. (He’d actually begun a similar series for Eileen Gunn’s ...Read More

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resnick award trophy
Awards News 

Brown Wins Resnick Award

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“When I was Your Age” by Sam Brown is the winner of the Mike Resnick Memorial Award, presented at Dragon Con, held August 29 – September 2, 2024 in Atlanta GA. “What the Cat Dragged In” by Bailey Maybray was first runner-up.

Other finalists were:

  • “The Year of Pepsi Nova”, Pete Lead 
  • “Life in the Old Bones”, Scott M. Sands 
  • “The Green Ones”, Magda Smith 

The annual award is sponsored

...Read More Read more
Awards News 

Jones Wins Eugie Award

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“The Sound of Children Screaming” by Rachael K. Jones (Nightmare 10/23) is the winner of the 2024 Eugie Foster Memorial Award for Short Fiction for “stories that are irreplaceable, that inspire, enlighten, and entertain.”

Other finalists were:

  • “Tantie Merle and the Farmhand 4200”, R.S.A. Garcia (Uncanny 7/23)
  • “The Year Without Sunshine”, Naomi Kritzer (Uncanny 10/23)
  • “Even if Such Ways Are Bad“, Rich Larson (Reactor 2/8/23)
  • Falling Bodies, Rebecca Roanhorse
...Read More Read more
Awards News 

2023 Dragon Awards Winners

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The winners of the 2024 Dragon Awards were presented at Dragon Con, held August 29 – September 2, 2024 in Atlanta GA.

Best Science Fiction Novel

  • WINNER: Starter Villain, John Scalzi (Tor; Tor UK)
  • The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport, Samit Basu (Tordotcom)
  • The Saint of Bright Doors, Vajra Chandrasekera (Tordotcom)
  • Theft of Fire, Devon Eriksen (self-published)
  • These Burning Stars, Bethany Jacobs (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
...Read More Read more
New Books New Titles & Bestsellers 

New Books, 3 September 2024

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Aiello, K.J.: The Monster and the Mirror: Mental Illness, Magic, and the Stories We Tell (ECW Press 9781770417083, $18.95, 272pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, 09/03/2024)

Non-fiction, a memoir mixed with research and cultural criticism showing ways popular fantasy can serve as a framework for understanding mental illness and notions of what is good or evil, sane or mad.

 

Buffini, Moira: Songlight (HarperCollins 9780063358218, $19.99, 384pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, ...Read More

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Reviews Short Fiction 

khōréō: Short Fiction Reviews by A.C. Wise

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khōréō 3.4

Due to an error in my logging stories for review, I acciden­tally left three stories out of my initial review of khōréō 3.4. The stories are reviewed here with apologies to the authors, editors, and publisher of the magazine.

“The Maiden Voyage of the Piranha Belle” by L.M. Guay is a diamond of a story, with beautiful glittering surfaces and a sharp, cutting point. The Piranha Belle of ...Read More

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Announcements News 

More Gaiman Allegations

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We reported last month on two women who accused author Neil Gaiman of sexual assault. Since then, three more women have come forward with allegations. Two of them spoke on the Tortoise Media podcast Master: The Allegations Against Neil Gaiman. Caroline Wallner lived on Gaiman’s property in Woodstock NY from 2014 to 2021, and says that she felt pressured to have sex with him in order to maintain her living ...Read More

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Features Interviews Slider 

Cory Doctorow: Marshmallow Longtermism

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There are many ways to cleave the views of the political right from the political left, but none is so science fictional as the right’s confidence in the role of individual self-discipline on one’s life chances. Dip into any political fight about crime and poverty and you’re sure to turn up someone confidently asserting that these social ills are rooted in impatience. Poverty, we’re told, is rooted in an unwillingness ...Read More

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Books Reviews 

Ian Mond Reviews Gogmagog by Jeff Noon & Steve Beard

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Gogmagog, Jeff Noon & Steve Beard (Angry Robot 978-1-91520-282-6, $18.99, 353pp, tp) February 2024.

Gogmagog is the first novel I’ve read by Jeff Noon since the publication of Nyphomation in 1997. The books he wrote immediately after his Vurt phase – Needle in the Groove and Falling Out of Cars – didn’t appeal to twenty-something Ian (though Falling Out of Cars looks right up the al­ley of fifty-something Ian). ...Read More

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Books Reviews 

Colleen Mondor Reviews A Tempest of Tea by Hafsah Faizal

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A Tempest of Tea, Hafsah Faizal (Farrar Straus Giroux 978-0-374-38940-6, hc, 336 pp) February 2024. Cover by Valentina Remenar.

Hafsah Faizal has written a banger of a caper novel with A Tempest of Tea. Her tale of thieves, forgery, and political malfeasance set in the town of White Roaring takes readers on a ride with twists and turns they can never expect. Reminiscent of 19th-century London, White Roaring ...Read More

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Books Reviews 

Paul Di Filippo Reviews Time’s Agent by Brenda Peynado

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Time’s Agent, Brenda Peynado (Tordotcom 978-1250854315, trade paperback, 208pp, $16.99) August 2024

Would it be possible to write a piece of fiction that exhibited or contained no emotions? That seems highly unlikely. Humans are made of emotions—and intellect. Those two realms are—to truncate the famous phrase coined by Stephen Jay Gould when he was trying to categorize the barrier between science and religion—“overlapping magisteria.” Two vast territories with a ...Read More

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Issues 

Issue 764 Table of Contents, September 2024

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The September 2024 issue of Locus magazine has interviews with Catherynne M. Valente and Justin C. Key and a spotlight on artist Micaela Alcaino. The issue lists US and UK forthcoming books through June 2025. News covers 2024 Hugo Awards winners, the World Fantasy Awards ballot, Dragon Awards finalists, SFWA resignations, SF&F Hall of Fame inductees Okorafor and Griffith, MacInnes’s Clarke win, additional Gaiman allegations, the Galaxy magazine revival, and ...Read More

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