Paul Di Filippo Reviews Tomorrow’s Children by Daniel Polansky

Tomorrow’s Children, Daniel Polansky (Angry Robot 978-1915202857, trade paperback, 384pp, $18.99) February 2024

Postapocalypse tales don’t get any grimmer or funnier, more slambang or more nuanced, more hopeful or more despairing, than Daniel Polansky’s Tomorrow’s Children. If that catalog of virtues sounds oxymoronic, please restrain your doubts. Polansky’s accomplished novel is large and contains multitudes, and foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of a small mind.

This is my ...Read More

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Paul Di Filippo Reviews Equimedian by Alvaro Zinos-Amaro

Equimedian, Alvaro Zinos-Amaro (Hex 979-8988082712, hardcover, 326pp, $31.99) February 2024

I would venture to guess that most SF fans know Alvaro Zinos-Amaro as one of our best critics and interviewers. Case in point is his recent volume, Being Michael Swanwick, which I reviewed on this platform just a short time ago. But like Green Arrow or Hawkeye, the man has more than one arrow in his quiver. (I ...Read More

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Paul Di Filippo Reviews Beggar’s Sky by Wil McCarthy

Beggar’s Sky, Wil McCarthy (Baen 978-1982193188, hardcover, 320pp, $28.00) February 2024

Wil McCarthy has had an atypical career that is almost neatly bifurcated. He came out of the gate strong with a duology, Aggressor Six, from 1994-1996. With the dawn of a new century, he delivered an even better, more mature and inventive series, Queendom of Sol (2000-2005). But then, for whatever reason, he fell more or less ...Read More

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Around the Web: Profiles of Sarah J. Maas and Stanislaw Lem; Reviews by Amal El-Mohtar, Sophie Mackintosh, Gabino Iglesias, and Charlie Jane Anders; Recalling the book Poor Things; Scott Edelman Dines

» Vox, Constance Grady, 27 Feb 2024: Why half the people you know are obsessed with this book series, subtitled “With A Court of Thorns and Roses, Sarah J. Maas has established herself as the reigning queen of romantasy.”

» The New Yorker, Rivka Galchen, 27 Feb 2024: Thinking About A.I. with Stanisław Lem, subtitled “The science-fiction writer didn’t live to see ChatGPT, but he foresaw so much ...Read More

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Paul Di Filippo Reviews Exordia by Seth Dickinson

Exordia, Seth Dickinson (Tordotcom 978-1250233011, hardcover, 544pp, $29.99) January 2024

Seth Dickinson’s Baru Cormorant trilogy, known collectively as The Masquerade, was a splashy debut, earning him many accolades and fans. So when his next book, “a gonzo space opera and alien techno-thriller” titled Exordia, was announced in 2018, excitement grew. Six years later, after some public wistful wondering as to when the book would actually appear, Exordia finally ...Read More

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Paul Di Filippo Reviews The Best Horror of the Year: Volume 15 edited by Ellen Datlow

The Best Horror of the Year: Volume Fifteen, edited by Ellen Datlow (Night Shade 978-1949102727, trade paperback, 432pp, $19.99) January 2024

“Curation” is an overworked word these days, when, on the internet, everything from a collection of Pez dispensers to an Instagram stream of dinner photos is deemed to be “curated.” And yet there’s really no better term to be applied to an assemblage of art put together by ...Read More

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Around the Web: Kelly Link Reviewed and Interviewed; Sarah J. Maas profiled; Reviews by Gabino Iglesias, Charlie Jane Anders, and Lisa Tuttle; Scott Edelman Dines

» NY Times: Amal El-Mohtar reviews Kelly Link’s The Book of Love

» Washington Post: Ron Charles reviews Kelly Link’s The Book of Love

» Esquire: Adam Morgan interviews Kelly Link

» Business Insider: Inside the rise of Sarah J. Maas, the best-selling author who’s taking the “romantasy” genre to the next level

» NY Times: Gabino Iglesias reviews Emily Ruth Verona, Jenny Kiefer, Christopher Golden, and Tlotlo Tsamaase ...Read More

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Paul Di Filippo Reviews The Glass Box by J. Michael Straczynski

The Glass Box, J. Michael Straczynski (Blackstone 979-8212007795, hardcover, 350pp, $25.99) January 2024

We are lucky that Mr. Straczynski—hereafter, the familiar JMS—has taken some time off from his comics and television work to gift us with a fine new novel. Considering also his heavy duties administering the estate of Harlan Ellison—I for one eagerly await the reprinting of Dangerous Visions and Again, Dangerous Visions, and the birth of ...Read More

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Weekly Bestsellers, 29 January 2024

Heather Fawcett’s Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands (Del Rey), second in her Emily Wilde series, debuts strongly on all four print lists compiled here.

Meanwhile, Sarah J. Maas’s House of Flame and Shadow, third in her Crescent City series, which has ranked on this page for nearly four months with Amazon pre-publication orders, is due for actual publication tomorrow.

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Around the Web: Lisa Tuttle Reviews; Scott Edelman Dines; George Bass Recalls Octavia Butler

The Guardian: Lisa Tuttle reviews Aliya Whiteley, Alice McIlroy, Esmie Jikiemi-Pearson, Emma Hinds, and Maud Woolf

Scott Edelman dines with Nina Kiriki Hoffman and Pat Murphy

Washington Post, 13 Jan 2024: A 1993 dystopian novel imagined the world in 2024. It’s eerily accurate. — George Bass on Octavia Butler’s ‘Parable of the Sower’ ...Read More

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Paul Di Filippo Reviews Short and Long by Michael Blumlein

Short, Michael Blumlein (Subterranean Press 978-1645241522, hardcover, 424pp, $45.00) December 2023

Long, Michael Blumlein (Subterranean Press 978-1645241539, hardcover, 360pp, $45.00) December 2023

For many years, I saw Michael Blumlein regularly at Readercon. We had pleasant chats, for he was congenial, simpatico, funny, and smart. Then one year I asked him if he were returning to the West Coast immediately after the con. “No, we’re going to Rhode Island ...Read More

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Paul Di Filippo Reviews HIM by Geoff Ryman

HIM, Geoff Ryman (Angry Robot 978-1915202673, trade paperback, 366pp, $18.99) December 2023

The subgenre of SF that deals with religion is a copious, healthy, and growing one, albeit not as large as some branches of fantastika. From del Rey’s “For I Am a Jealous People!” to Blish’s A Case of Conscience; from Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land to Russell’s The Sparrow; from Bishop’s “The Gospel According ...Read More

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Paul Di Filippo Reviews Collected Ogoense and Other Stories by Rebecca Ore

Collected Ogoense and Other Stories, Rebecca Ore (Aqueduct Press 978-1619762480, trade paperback, 222pp, $20.95) November 2023

Aqueduct Press reaches its twentieth anniversary in 2024. Helmed for all these years by the talented and dedicated L. Timmel Duchamp, the firm has—under the rubric of “Bringing challenging feminist science fiction to the demanding reader”—offered a wide range of stellar fiction and nonfiction that any of the Big Five would have been ...Read More

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Around the Web: Best of Year Lists; Eating the Fantastic

» The Guardian, Adam Roberts: Five of the best science fiction and fantasy books of 2023 are by Allan, Ryman, Tesh, MacInnes, and Tidhar

» NY Times, Amal El-Mohtar: The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of 2023 are by Chandrasekera, Törzs, Carey, Hardinge, Fawcett, Lee, Harkaway, Link, Wells, and Taub

» NY Times, Gabino Iglesias: The Best Horror Books of 2023 are by Moreno-Garcia, LaValle, Ampuero, Khaw, ...Read More

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Weekly Bestsellers, 4 December 2023

Three of Sarah J. Maas’ backlist titles, Heir of Fire, Queen of Shadows, and Empire of Storms, all reissued by Bloomsbury this past February both in hardcover and paperback (per Amazon), show up on Publishers Weekly‘s trade paperback list this week, ranking at 20, 21, and 24 respectively; neither these editions nor any earlier ones of these titles have ranked on any of the bestsellers lists compiled

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Around the Web: WaPo’s Best SF/F of 2023; Essay by Kelly Barnhill; Profile of Christopher Paolini; Reviews by Michael Dirda and of Naomi Alderman

» Washington Post, 14 Nov, Charlie Jane Anders: The 10 best science fiction and fantasy novels of 2023 by Kitasei, Moreno-Garcia, Awad, Link, Huang, Googins, Talabi, Kaner, Parker-Chan, and Blackgoose

» NY Times, 22 Nov 2023: Essay by Kelly Barnhill since experiencing a traumatic brain injury in 2021

» Washington Post, Sophie Nguyen, 24 Nov 2023: Christopher Paolini wrote ‘Eragon’ as a teen. Now 40, he’s still ...Read More

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Paul Di Filippo Reviews Weird Tales: 100 Years of Weird edited by Jonathan Maberry

Weird Tales: 100 Years of Weird, edited by Jonathan Maberry (Blackstone 979-8200687992, hardcover, 200pp, $27.99) October 2023

I have yet to read any individual issue of the revived Weird Tales magazine, piloted by editor Jonathan Maberry. But I already know that this new periodical incarnation must be a class act, fully worthy of bearing forward into the future the celebrated name and lineage. My appraisal comes from enjoying this ...Read More

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