Juice, Tim Winton (Picador 978-1-76134-489-3, AUD$45.00, 528pp, hc) October 2024. Cover by Adam Laszczuk.
Here’s an admission that would elicit a gasp from the Australian literary elite: I have never read a Tim Winton novel. Worse, I read the opening of one of his most famous novels and I hated it. But then I read Juice. And if all his novels hit like that for people who like realism… ...Read More
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Sinkhole, and Other Inexplicable Voids, Leyna Krow (Penguin 9780593299654, $19.00, 304pp, tp) January 2025. Cover design by Nerylsa Dijol.
Leyna Krow’s Sinkhole, and Other Inexplicable Voids is a dazzling, vivid collection. Throughout its 16 stories, Krow expertly threads together a handful of elements: magical or absurd developments, incisive snapshots of familial loves and fears, and haunting reflections on climate change disasters. Shared thematic concerns and a handful of connected ...Read More
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The March 2025 issue of Locus has interviews with Amal El-Mohtar and Hache Pueyo, a spotlight on Diabolical Plots & the Submission Grinder, and a spotlight on Allan Kaster & Infinivox. The issue lists US and UK forthcoming books titles through December 2025. News covers the Stoker Awards Preliminary ballot, ALA awards, the launch of magazine Remains, the Department of Education’s dismissal of the book ban suits, and much more. ...Read More
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The 2024 Locus Awards were held on June 22, online and in-person at the historic Preservation Park in Oakland CA. Author Henry Lien – ‘‘Emperor Stardust’’ – emceed the ceremony, with author, activist, and journalist Cory Doctorow as keynote speaker. The awards ceremony concluded the Locus Weekend, a larger celebration of readings, talks, and meetups from June 19‒22. Full members received access to virtual and in-person events, six months of ...Read More
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One Level Down, Mary G. Thompson (Tachyon 978-1-61696-430-6, $16.95, 176pp, tp) April 2025.
Mary G. Thompson is another middle-grade and young-adult author now venturing into adult SF with One Level Down, an efficient VR thriller with some fairly familiar elements skillfully handled and given additional punch by a memorable narrator, a megalomaniacal villain who echoes the ‘‘mad scientists’’ of yore, and a persistent undertone of psychological horror. While ...Read More
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During a recent trip to Singapore, I went book shopping. The science fiction and fantasy shelves of the Books Kinokuniya on Orchard Road predominantly featured familiar titles, but there were also a good number of locally published books by writers unknown to me. The specific publisher that caught my eye was Penguin Random House SEA, perhaps because in the UK almost all the SF titles with a penguin on the ...Read More
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We are so happy to release our fourth episode of The Storytellers, our series of Zoom-recorded author readings! Previously, we had Samantha Mills read the first chapter of The Wings Upon Her Back. Today we are pleased to show Daniel Abraham reading “The Wind”, a short story written by Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck, who together make up the pseudonym responsible for The Expanse, James S.A. Corey. “The Wind” ...Read More
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Coup de Grâce, Sofia Ajram (Titan Books 978-1-80336-962-4, $19.99, 144pp, hc) October 2024.
Sofia Ajram’s Coup de Grâce is a relentlessly dark and visceral novel about a man on his way to commit suicide who somehow becomes trapped in the endless liminal space of an empty subway station. Beautifully written and claustrophobic in the way only empty liminal spaces can be, this short novel delivers breathtaking lines along with ...Read More
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The Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA) has announced that the 2025 Nebula Conference and Awards will be held June 5-9, 2025 at the Kansas City Marriott Downtown in Kansas City, MO. The announcement notes that “Conference and hotel registration will open soon!”
This year’s Nebula Conference will be the 60th, a “diamond-year celebration of science fiction, fantasy, and related genre creators around the globe!” The announcement also contains ...Read More
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Apex Book Company is seeking submissions for a reprint anthology, ECO24: The Year’s Best Speculative Ecofiction.
Stories must be complete reprints between 1,000 and 6,000 words, published during the 2024 calendar year. Content must be speculative and “focused on ecology, climate, the environment, conservation, the natural world, our relationship to animals and other non-human life, and related issues. A climate-crisis setting alone is not enough to qualify.”
Payment is ...Read More
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It’s the end of February and we’ve got one last video to send off the month. Come by our YouTube channel to see the latest video on our picks for the top new SF, Fantasy, Horror, and YA releases of the week! Show your support and keep up-to-date on future videos by subscribing! We’ll see you all next week for another video to kick off the start of March!
The Scottish Book Trust has announced the 2025 winners of the New Writers Awards. The awardees included several writers of genre interest, such as:
Finalists for the 2025 Minnesota Book Awards, given by The Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library, have been announced. Titles and authors of genre interest include:
Novel & Short Story
Genre Fiction
Middle Grade Literature
Winners for the 2024 Children’s and Young Adults Bloggers’ Literary Awards (2024 Cybils) have been announced. Books of genre interest follow.
Young Adult Speculative Fiction
The Tomb of Dragons, Katherine Addison (Tor 978-1-250-81619-1, $28.99, 352pp, hc) March 2025. Cover by Chris Gibbs.
It is impossible for me to overstate how much I enjoy the novels of Katherine Addison set in the world of The Goblin Emperor. Their only real competition, for me, is the ‘‘World of the Five Gods’’ continuity of Lois McMaster Bujold: the sense of being in the hands of a ...Read More
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The 13-title longlist for the 2025 International Booker Prize has been announced, with works and writers of genre interest including:
The Locus Selected Books by Author list has been updated on our Forthcoming Books page, with information from the March 2025 issue covering upcoming titles from genre houses slated through December 2025. Find out about your favorite authors’ upcoming books!
For the complete list of books by publisher, subscribe to our print magazine or purchase the March issue in print or digital editions, available March 1, 2025
While you are ...Read More
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The “big three” digest magazines Analog, Asimov‘s, and F&SF are under new ownership, confirming recent rumors, as reported by Jason Sanford and Steve Davidson of Amazing Stories. Sanford writes,
Confirmation of this has now appeared on the websites of Asimov’s and Analog, as first reported by Amazing Stories. The ownership language at the bottom of both websites changed recently from “© 2024 PENNY PUBLICATIONS, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED” to “© ...Read More
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It’s been a year, hasn’t it? Has it? Honestly, it feels like 2024 just began, and here we are at the end, staring down the uncertainty of the year to come. However, as always, my fiction reading – both for my review columns and for myself – has been a comfort and a highlight. I know I’ve missed out on many wonderful works. There are sadly only so many hours ...Read More
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The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of Japan (SFWJ) announced the results of the 45th Japan SF Grand Prize:
Three individuals were presented with posthumous Contribution Awards:
The grand prize winner receives 1 million yen ($6,600), a certificate, and a trophy. The Special Award winner
Sharon Lee is the winner of the 2025 Robert A. Heinlein Award, given for “outstanding published works in science fiction and technical writings that inspire the human exploration of space.”
This award is in recognition of Ms. Lee’s body of work of over 38 novels and short stories. A majority of her space themed work is in the Liaden Universe, written with her late husband Steve Miller, and features merchant ...Read More
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The River Has Roots, Amal El-Mohtar (Tordotcom 978-1-250-34108-2, $24.99, 144pp, hc) March 2025.
Amal El-Mohtar’s The River Has Roots is an absolutely lovely take on classic murder ballads, with distinct echoes of the Tam Lin story and a soundtrack that might as well be wall-to-wall Steeleye Span. It might come as a bit of a surprise to readers who know El-Mohtar’s work only from the popular and multiple award-winning ...Read More
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Bourbon Penn
Mechanize My Hands to War, Erin K. Wagner (DAW 978-0-7564-1934-9, $28.99, 309pp, hc) December 2024. Cover by Faceout Studio, Tim Green.
From a novel in which voice overmasters genre we move to one in which genre more or less overmasters voice. Erin K. Wagner’s debut novel, Mechanize My Hands to War, isn’t badly told or badly imagined per se, but most of what is imagined is familiar and, ...Read More
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Spread the Word, a literary development agency in London, has announced the 2025 winners of their London Writers Awards for emerging writers. The Awards are split into three categories, Literary, Commercial, and YA/Children’s; of the 24 awardees, there are several with work of speculative and genre interest, including:
Literary Fiction:
Commercial Fiction:
YA/Children’s Fiction
The Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA) has posted updates in an announcement from its Board of Directors.
New Director-at-Large: Day Al-Mohamed was appointed to the board on February 1, 2025. Her first SFWA Board meeting was on February 19, and a public announcement was posted on February 22.
Nebulas personnel: Events manager Sherine Mani was announced as the Nebula Conference Project Manager. Additionally, Rebekah Postupak and ...Read More
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Samantha Allen, Roland Rogers Isn’t Dead Yet (Zando 12/24). In this paranormal romance novel, protagonist Adam, who’s out and proud but also down on his luck, is commissioned to write the autobiography (and coming-out) of Hollywood hunk Roland Rogers. The twist is that Rogers is already dead, communicating frantically through his kitchen speaker. Adam must complete the project before Rogers’ body is found.
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The River Has Roots, Amal El-Mohtar (Tordotcom 978-1-250-34108-2, $24.99, 144pp, hc) March 2025.
Amal El-Mohtar is perhaps most famous as the co-author (with Max Gladstone) of the justly lauded bestselling novella This Is How You Lose the Time War. Her independent talents, however, are numerous, and in her new solo novella The River Has Roots, several of them are on display.
The River Has Roots is intertwined ...Read More
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The Horror Writers Association (HWA) has announced the final ballot for the 2024 Bram Stoker Awards:
Superior Achievement in a Novel
Superior Achievement in a First Novel
The Orb of Cairado, Katherine Addison (Subterranean 978-1-64524-213-0, 120pp, $45.00, hc) January 2025. Cover by Tom Canty.
A similar question arises for the protagonist of the standalone novella The Orb of Cairado. Like the Cemeteries of Amalo books, it is an offshoot of Addison’s Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy Award-nominated novel The Goblin Emperor (2014) – more directly, perhaps, as their actions kick off from the same event, ...Read More
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Writer Emma Burnett has won the 2024 Gulliver Travel Grant, given by the Speculative Literature Foundation (SLF) “to assist writers of speculative literature (in fiction, poetry, drama, or creative nonfiction) in their research.” The $1,000 grant is intended to cover airfare, lodging, or other travel expenses.
Burnett’s winning work was the short story “Amaranth”.
LuLu Johnson, Shawnna Thomas, and Nasser Yousefi were shortlisted for the grant.
Applications for the Gulliver ...Read More
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Some years, it feels like there’s a central book in SF and fantasy, one around which the conversation orbits. A few obvious examples: Neuromancer in 1984, Ancillary Justice in 2013, This Is How You Lose the Time War in 2019. In my reading, 2024 was not such a year. There were plenty of good books – see below – but as a year it felt curiously decentered, as if the ...Read More
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