Italian SF, fantasy, and horror writer VALERIO EVANGELISTI, 69, died April 18, 2022. He was best known for his bestselling Nicolas Eymerich series and the Nostradamus trilogy. Born June 20, 1952 in Bologna, Italy, he earned a political science degree in 1976. He worked as an academic and for the Italian ministry of finance before turning to fiction writing in the 1990s. Debut novel Nicolas Eymerich, inquisitore (1993) won the ...Read More
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Beneath Ceaseless Skies 2/10/22, 2/24/22 Diabolical Plots 2-3/22 F&SF 3-4/22
Beneath Ceaseless Skies also celebrated an anniversary in February, putting out its 350th issue. To mark the occasion, two issues are stuffed with extra stories, all of them centered on a crossing of genres, on science fantasy, rather than on a theme. Yoon Ha Lee opens the festivities with “Bonsai Starships”, which weaves a narrative around a young ...Read More
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Book Riot is reporting that Virginia state delegate and lawyer Tim Anderson and Republican Congressional candidate Tommy Altman are suing Barnes & Noble in Virginia Beach Circuit Court to stop sales of fantasy A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas and Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe, calling passages that include sexual language “obscene.”
Anderson claims the court found “probable cause that the books… are obscene ...Read More
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Base Notes, Lara Elena Donnelly (Thomas & Mercer 978-1-542-03070-0, $15.95, tp, 408pp) January 2022.
Lara Elena Donnelly’s Base Notes appears initially (if you ignore the dead body in the brief introduction) to be about perfumer Vic Fowler’s unique ability to capture memories in scent. Vic is struggling to keep her small perfume company afloat in a hostile financial environment, and a side hustle selling these special perfumes to high ...Read More
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Amber Boothe and Letitia Jarrett won the 2022 Owned Voices Novel Award. Running for the second year, the award is for writers without agents who are “from an under-represented background.” Shortlisted writers are “invited to a virtual ‘Routes to Getting Published’ Q&A session with a panel of industry experts” and winners receive £250 as well as mentoring and feedback.
For more information, see the Owned Voices site.
While you are ...Read More
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When Women Were Dragons, Kelly Barnhill (Doubleday 978-0385548229, $28.00, 352pp, hc) May 2022.
I suppose there are plenty of human-dragon metamorphoses in fantasy novels, but they aren’t what immediately came to mind when reading Kelly Barnhill’s first adult novel When Women Were Dragons – in which 642,987 American women suddenly transform into dragons on a single day in 1955. Instead, I was reminded of Ionesco’s 1959 play Rhinoceros, ...Read More
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The shortlist for the 2022 Orwell Prize for Political Fiction, given by The Orwell Foundation to novels and short story collections published in the UK which explore major political and social themes through a fictional lens, includes at least two titles of genre interest:
The judges for 2022 are Dennis Duncan, Sana Goyal, Adam Roberts (chair ...Read More
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Clarkesworld 2/22 Analog 3-4/2022 The Sunday Morning Transport 1/23/2022
The first three stories in February’s Clarkesworld all feature an aspect of human life that I’ve long felt gets short shrift in science fiction in particular, but also in fantasy – parenting. I was complaining once (after I became a parent myself, naturally) that I just did not see many folks with kids in these stories, and someone (childless, I believe) ...Read More
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Abdullah, Chelsea: The Stardust Thief
(Orbit US 978-0-316-36876-6, $28.00, 480pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, May 17, 2022)
Fantasy novel inspired by One Thousand and One Nights/Middle-Eastern folklore.
Afifi, Nadia: The Emergent
(Flame Tree Press US 978-1787586666, $14.95, 320pp, formats: trade paperback, hardcover, ebook, May 17, 2022)
SF thriller/horror novel about clones and immortality, sequel to The Sentient.
Bustamante, Ashley: Vivid
(Third Day Books/Enclave Escape 9781621842309, $22.99, 304pp, ...Read More
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Finalists have been announced for the 2022 Premios Kelvin 505 Awards, presented by the Celsius 232 festival and honoring the best science fiction, fantasy, and horror novels published in Spain.
Mejor Novela Original (Best Original Novel)
Mejor
Yiyun Li won the 2022 PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in the Short Story. “Given since 1988 in honor of the late Bernard Malamud, the award recognizes writers who have demonstrated exceptional achievement in the short story form.” Li’s genre work includes 2019 novel Where Reasons End (Random House).
Li will be honored at the annual PEN/Malamud Award Ceremony, held in partnership with American University, on December 2, 2022.
While you ...Read More
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The African Speculative Fiction Society (ASFS) has announced the shortlist for the 2022 Nommo Awards, given to works “by Africans as defined by the ASFS and Nommo Awards Guidelines.”
Best Novel
The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) has announced Petra Mayer, Arley Sorg, and Troy L. Wiggins as recipients of the Kate Wilhelm Solstice Award “for distinguished contributions to the science fiction and fantasy community.”
The Solstice Award, created in 2008 and given at the discretion of the SFWA president with the majority approval of the Board of Directors, is for individuals, living or dead, who have had ...Read More
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Fire Becomes Her, Rosiee Thor (Scholastic 978-1-33867-911-3, $18.99, 368pp, hc) February 2022.
In Rosiee Thor’s Fire Becomes Her, Candesce, a nation similar to the United States in the 1920s, is on the cusp of an historic presidential election. Gwendolyn Brooks, a former entertainer, is challenging Senator Holt, an excessively wealthy man everyone believes is a shoe-in. When she was a child, Ingrid Ellis’s father was thrown in jail ...Read More
Read moreF-CON, the 59th Japan SF Convention, has announced the finalists for the 2022 Seiun Awards (the Japanese equivalent of the Hugo Awards), honoring the best original and translated works published last year in Japan.
Best Translated Novel
The British Fantasy Society (BFS) is looking for judges for the British Fantasy Awards. “For each category, 3-5 jurors read/watch/examine every entry on the final shortlist (4-6 titles) & then agree between themselves on the final winner.”
The BFA constitution calls for “at least one non-member of the Society” to be on the jury. Interested individuals may apply through the webform, which is scheduled to close May 29, 2022.
For ...Read More
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The 2022 Indie Book Awards Shortlist has been announced, with several titles and authors of genre interest:
Fiction
Non-Fiction
Children’s Fiction
Dhonielle Clayton was born May 26, 1983 in Olney MD and grew up “right in the shadows of DC.” Clayton graduated from Wake Forest University in 2005, earned her MA from Hollins University in 2008, and her MFA in creative writing from The New School in 2012. She has worked as a children’s librarian.
Clayton writes SF, fantasy, and contemporary works for children and young adults. Her first fantasy novel ...Read More
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The Paradox Hotel, Rob Hart (Ballantine 978-1-98482-064-8, 324pp, $28, hc) February 2022.
Rob Hart’s The Paradox Hotel sums its own energy up with one line of dialog: ‘‘We’re at DEFCON Level Holy Shit.’’ Hart not only starts in media res, he puts us on the rollercoaster that is the Paradox Hotel just as it is tipping down the first big hill. The pace never really lets up until the ...Read More
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Sea of Tranquility, Emily St. John Mandel (Knopf 978-0-59332-144-7, $25.00, 272pp, hc) April 2022.
There is this wink-to-the-audience moment about halfway through Sea of Tranquility where Olive Llewellyn, bestselling author of Marienbad, is asked what it’s like to have written such a successful book.
Oh. It’s surreal, actually. I wrote three books that no one noticed, no distribution beyond the moon colonies… when I published Marienbad, I ...Read More
Read moreAuthor ROBERT C. CORNETT, 69, died April 1, 2022 at home in Albuquerque NM. Cornett was a prolific author of SF, military, and adventure fiction.
His work of genre interest includes the Time Mercenaries series with Kevin D. Randle: Remember the Alamo! (1980), Remember Gettysburg! (1988), and Remember the Little Bighorn! (1990), and the Fifty Million Years War series, also written with Randle: Seeds of War (1986), The Aldebaran ...Read More
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Horror author JOHN SKIPP, 64, has announced his retirement from writing and publishing fiction; his final title is collection Don’t Push the Button (Clash Books). Going forward he will focus on music and film. He has two new albums, The Antidote to Fear and Cry Me a Rainbow, out via his own Fungasm Records label. He also wrote, produced, directed, and scored short film Doppelbanger, which premiered ...Read More
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The Horror Writers Association (HWA) has announced the winners for the 2021 Bram Stoker Awards.
Superior Achievement in a Novel
Superior Achievement in a
The 45th Williamson Lectureship, held April 7-9, 2022 in Portales NM, was a smaller event after two years of COVID, but those who attended were happy to see each other. “I’m so glad we’re in-person this year,” Connie Willis said at Friday’s luncheon. “It’s so nice to see people’s faces, whether masked or not. I am so pleased we’re here today, and not on Zoom.”
“Speculative Fiction: Never the Same ...Read More
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The Temperature of Me and You, Brian Zepka (Disney-Hyperion 978-1-36806-471-2, $17.99, hc, 416 pp) January 2022.
Author Brian Zepka set out to blend a sweet romance with high school drama and a major science fiction twist in The Temperature of Me and You, a novel involving the teen victim of a lab accident/experiment that has left him literally burning from the inside out. I’ll be honest; I’m a ...Read More
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The winners of the 2022 Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire, honoring the best SF/F work published in France in 2021, have been announced.
French Novel
Foreign Novel
The finalists for the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award for the best short science fiction story have been announced by the Gunn Center for the Study of Science Fiction.
Flash Fiction Online 2/22 Fireside 2/22 Strange Horizons 2/7/22, 2/14/22
At Flash Fiction Online, February is often dedicated to stories about love, and new editor Emma Munro keeps that tradition going. A small note for full disclosure that this issue contains a reprint of my own story, “A Lumberjack’s Guide to Dryad Spotting” (the story also appears as a reprint in Xenocultivars, which I’m also reviewing in this column). Some ...Read More
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The winners of the 91st Annual California Book Awards, presented by the Commonwealth Club of California, have been announced.
Home Is Not A Country by Safia Elhillo (Make Me a World) won the gold medal in the Young Adult category, while Refractive Africa by Will Alexander (New Directions) won the gold medal in the Poetry category.
The awards honor “the writers who have come to define California to the world.” ...Read More
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Chen, Mike: Star Wars: Brotherhood
(Penguin Random House/Del Rey 978-0-593-35857-3, $28.99, 352pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, May 10, 2022)
Star Wars tie-in novel, set just after the events of Star Wars: Attack of the Clones.
Finelli, Jen: Neodymium Betrayal
(WordFire Press 978-1-68057-284-1, $18.99, 406pp, formats: trade paperback, hardcover, ebook, May 4, 2022)
SF novel, second in The Neodymium Chronicles series. A young space veteran is already struggling with trauma ...Read More
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Kazuo Ishiguro has won the Tähtivaeltaja Award for Klara ja aurinko [Klara and the Sun], translated into Finnish by Helene Bützow (Tammi).
The award is sponsored by Helsingin Science Fiction seura. The judging panel includes Hannu Blommila, Toni Jerrman, Elli Leppä, and Kaisa Ranta. For more information, see the announcement.
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