Author: locusmag

Legal News 

Adams Family Wins Back Rights to Watership Down

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The estate and family of Richard Adams, as Watership Down Enterprises, have won a lawsuit in the English High Court against film producer Martin Rosen, who wrote and directed a 1978 animated film adaptation of Watership Down. Rosen and his companies were ordered to pay costs ad well as damages of $95,000 for infringement of copyright, contracting unauthorized licensing deals, and withholding royalty payments. The court also terminated the ...Read More

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Awards News 

Selfies Award Shortlist

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Publisher’s Weekly and BookBrunch have announced the shortlist for the Selfies Book Award for US self-published authors, a new award which “aims to discover promising talent and recognise the very best indie-published titles each year.” Titles of genre interest include:

  • Athena’s Choice, Adam Boostrom (self-published)
  • Murder of Ravens, Paty Jager (Windtree)
  • The Winter Sisters,Tim Westover (Qw)

The winning author will receive $1,000 and a $5,000 advertising package

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Awards News 

2020 Commonwealth Short Story Prize Regional Winners

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Regional winners for the 2020 Commonwealth Short Story Prize have been announced, including one title of genre interest: “When a Woman Renounces Motherhood”, by Innocent Chizaram Ilo, the winner for the Africa Region.

The Commonwealth Short Story Prize is awarded for the best piece of unpublished short fiction (2,000–5,000 words) in English. Regional winners receive £2,500 and the overall winner receives £5,000.

The overall winner will be announced in an

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Books Reviews 

Gary K. Wolfe Reviews Vagabonds by Hao Jingfang

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Vagabonds, Hao Jingfang (Saga 978-1-5344-2208-7, $27.99, 610pp, hc) April 2020.

Although I’ve used it myself often enough, I’ve always been vaguely suspicious of the term “literary science fiction,” or for that matter the sister terms “literary fantasy” and “lit­erary horror.” The implication, of course, is that, without that saving modifier, the reader might be faced with unfettered pulp adventures of the sort that gave these genres their unsavory reputations ...Read More

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Conventions News 

TorCon Virtual Convention

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Tor, Tor.com Publishing, and Den of Geek have announced TorCon, a virtual convention to be held June 11-17, 2020. TorCon will feature panels with more than 20 authors, including Cory Doctorow, Neil Gaiman, Christopher Paolini, and Brandon Sanderson.

TorCon is free, but registration is required to watch each panel. For registration links and more information, see the full announcement.

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

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Films 

Arley Sorg and Josh Pearce Review The Dead Lands and Tales from the Loop

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Theaters remain closed. A few movies have been released on streaming services, but many have been scheduled for later release dates in anticipation of the reopening of theaters on a national level. So film reviewers Josh Pearce & Arley Sorg continue their coverage of select science fiction and fantasy series available on streaming services.

Several shows have put out new seasons, such as 12 Monkeys on Hulu and Kingdom on ...Read More

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Books Reviews 

Ian Mond Reviews By Force Alone by Lavie Tidhar

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By Force Alone, Lavie Tidhar (Head of Zeus 978-1-838-93127-8, £18.99, 512pp, hc) March 2020. (Tor 978-1250753458, $27.99, 416pp, hc) June 2020.

Lavie Tidhar has built a career out of not playing it safe. Over the last decade he has written bold, pro­vocative novels that, with a flair for metafiction and inspired by the pulps (both hard-boiled and genre), reimagine Osama bin Laden as a pulp-fiction hero (Osama), ...Read More

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Awards News 

2020 CrimeFest Awards Nominees

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Nominees for the 2020 CrimeFest Awards have been announced, including several authors and titles of genre interest.

Audible Sounds of Crime Award

  • Big Sky, Kate Atkinson (Penguin Random House Audio)

H.R.F. Keating Award

  • Crime Fiction: A Reader’s Guide, Barry Forshaw (No Exit Press)

Last Laugh Award

  • Bryant & May: The Lonely Hour, Christopher Fowler (Transworld)

Best Crime Novel for Young Adults

  • Beauty Sleep, Kathryn Evans (Usborne)
...Read More Read more
Awards News 

2020 Munsey Award Nominees

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PulpFest has announced the nominees for the 2020 Munsey Award, given “to an individual or institution that has bettered the pulp community.” Nominees are selected by the general pulp community, with the winner selected by a vote of past Lamont, Munsey, and Rusty Awards winners. The nominees are:

  • Mike Ashley
  • Richard Bleiler
  • Jason Ray Carney
  • Camille Cazedessus
  • Gene Christie
  • William G. Contento
  • Stephen Haffner
  • Rich Harvey
  • Chris Kalb
  • Rick Lai
...Read More Read more
Books Reviews 

Carolyn Cushman Reviews The Glass Magician by Caroline Stevermer, Titan’s Day by Dan Stout, and Network Effect by Martha Wells

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Caroline Stevermer, The Glass Magician (Tor 978-0-7653-3504-3, $26.99, 286pp, hc) April 2020. Cover by Chris Gibbs.

When a trick goes wrong, stage magician Thalia Cutler discovers she has real magic in this sweet, rather low-key historical fantasy set in an alternate 1905. In this world, people are divided into three races, the magicless Solitaires, the shape-shifting Traders who lead society, and the nature-attuned Sylvestri. As far as Thalia knows, she’s ...Read More

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Conventions News 

World Fantasy Convention 2020 Goes Online

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The World Fantasy Convention (WFC) has announced that this year’s WFC, scheduled for October 29 – November 1, 2020 in Salt Lake City, will be held as an entirely virtual event.

Plans have already begun to transition many of the traditional physical experiences you’ve come to expect from World Fantasy Convention. We’ll be ironing out the details in the coming months, but we hope to provide a variety of online ...Read More

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Awards News 

2020 Colorado Book Awards Winners

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Winners for the 2020 Colorado Book Awards include the following titles of genre interest.

Science Fiction/Fantasy

  • WINNER: An Illusion of Thieves, Cate Glass (Tor)
  • Denver Moon, Book II: The Saint of Mars, Warren Hammond & Joshua Viola (Hex)
  • The Blood of Seven, Claire L. Fishback (Dark Doorways)
  • The Legend of Carl Draco, Gary Reilly (Running Meter)

Anthology/Collection

  • WINNER: Rise: An Anthology of Change, Northern Colorado
...Read More Read more
Commentary Features Kameron Hurley Slider 

Kameron Hurley: It’s OK if this Email Finds You Well

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It’s perfectly fine if you’re doing okay right now.

The odds are against it, but it’s absolutely all right to answer ‘‘How are you?’’ with ‘‘I’m… okay?’’ Because at some point, each of us will complete the five or seven stages of grief that accompany slow-moving crises and pandemics and disasters like the one currently sweeping the globe, and we will carry on.

Humans are resilient creatures, to both our ...Read More

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Awards News 

New Zealand Queen’s Birthday Honours

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The New Zealand Cabinet Office published the 2020 Queen’s Birthday Honours list on June 1, 2020.

Writer Elizabeth Knox was appointed Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to literature, and filmmaker Taika Waititi was appointed Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to film.

For more information, see the complete list.

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

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Awards News 

2020 Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire Winners

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The winners for the 2020 Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire, honoring the best SF/F work published in France in 2019, have been announced:

French Novel

  • WINNER: Les Furtifs, Alain Damasio (La Volte)
  • Vie™, Jean Baret (Le Bélial’)
  • Le Chant mortel du soleil, Franck Ferric (Albin Michel)
  • Les Machines fantômes, Olivier Paquet (L’Atalante)

Foreign Novel

  • WINNER: Vita Nostra, Marina & Sergey Dyachenko (L’Atalante)
  • Trop semblable à l’éclair
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Awards News 

32nd Annual Lambda Awards Winners

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The Lambda Literary Foundation has announced the winners of the 32nd Annual Lambda Literary Awards (the “Lammys”), celebrating “the best lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender books.” Titles of genre interest follow.

LGBTQ SF/F/Horror

  • WINNER: The Deep, Rivers Solomon, Daveed Diggs, William Hutson & Jonathan Snipes (Saga)
  • Stories to Sing in the Dark, Matthew Bright (Lethe)
  • The Rampant, Julie C. Day (Aqueduct)
  • A Spectral Hue, Craig Laurance
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Books Reviews 

Gary K. Wolfe Reviews Comet Weather by Liz Williams

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Comet Weather, Liz Williams (NewCon Press 978-1-912950-46-1, $15.99, 306pp, tp) March 2020.

Comet Weather, Liz Williams’s first novel in several years, is an absolutely lovely tale of an attractive if troubled family in contemporary Somerset and their increasingly hazardous interactions with the world of faerie. I suppose it falls into the broad tradition of what we might call English rural gothic, reaching all the way back through Diana ...Read More

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Announcements Conventions News 

COVID-19 SF/F Event Cancellations as of 6/1/2020

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Numerous upcoming conventions and literary events have been postponed or canceled as part of efforts to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus that causes respiratory illness COVID-19. The situation remains in flux as the full extent of the pandemic remains to be seen. We will update this story and our convention listing with further information about cancellations and postponements as it becomes available.

  • The 32nd Annual Lambda Literary Awards
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Issues 

Issue 713 Table of Contents, June 2020

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The June 2020 issue of Locus has interviews with Madeline Ashby and Tobias S. Buckell. The issue lists US and UK forthcoming books titles through March 2021. News covers the BSFA winners, the Apex relaunch, continued Covid-19 cancellations, the Aurora Awards ballot, SFWA election results, bookstore news, the print sales rebound, and much more. The column by Kameron Hurley is entitled “It’s OK if ...Read More

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Bookstores News 

Uncle Hugo’s Bookstore Burned Down in Riots

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Uncle Hugo’s, the oldest independent science fiction and fantasy bookstore in the US founded in 1974, burned down during the recent riots protesting police brutality and racism in the wake of the shocking death of George Floyd during a police arrest in Minneapolis. As of May 30, at least 250 businesses across the Twin Cities had been damaged or destroyed. Some, including Uncle Hugo’s, were destroyed completely by fire or ...Read More

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Books Reviews 

Amy Goldschlager Reviews Gods & Lies: Season 1 by Elizabeth Vail

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Gods & Lies: Season 1, Elizabeth Vail; Cary Hite & Sarah Mollo-Christensen, narrators (Serial Box, $9.99, 7 episodes, digital download, 5.5 hr., un­abridged) November-December 2019.

Serial Box continues to fuel my love for SF/F buddy-cop dramas with this slightly predictable yet incredibly adorable romantic mystery mini-series.

Set in a modern city in an alternate world where the gods take an active role among mortals, Justix Iris Tharro, priestess and ...Read More

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Awards News Slider 

2020 Locus Awards Finalists

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The Locus Science Fiction Foundation has announced the top ten finalists in each category of the 2020 Locus Awards.

Winners will be announced June 27, 2020 at the virtual Locus Awards Weekend; Connie Willis will MC the awards ceremony. Additional weekend events include planned author readings and panels with leading authors. Supporting/virtual memberships are available and come with a Locus t-shirt.

SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL

  • The City in the Middle of
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News Obituaries 

Marshall B. Tymn (1937-2020)

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SF Scholar Marshall B. Tymn, 82, died May 24, 2020 of pneumonia. Tymn was an essential figure in the field in the ’70s and ’80s, and did much to further the study of SF in academia. He won a Pilgrim Award for lifetime contributions from the Science Fiction Research Association in 1990, and the Robert A. Collins Service Award from the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts in ...Read More

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Books Reviews 

Colleen Mondor Reviews Sensational by Jodie Lynn Zdrok

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Sensational, Jodie Lynn Zdrok (Tor Teen 978-0-7653-9971-7, $17.99, 336pp, hc) February 2020.

Jodie Lynn Zdrok concludes the adventures of late-19th-century teen reporter Nathalie Baudin with her second book, Sensational. As readers of the first book, Spectacle, will recall, Nathalie has a powerful ability to see the last moments of a murder (courtesy a bit of mad scientist intervention involving her parents before she was born). She has ...Read More

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News Publishing 

Penguin Classics Launches Science Fiction Series

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Penguin Classics plans to “celebrate science fiction as the essential genre of modern times” with a new series of science fiction classics. Titles launching in August include Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut, Flatland by Edwin Abbott, and Ten Thousand Light-years from Home by James Tiptree, Jr. Penguin also plans to publish well-known international science fiction translated into English, such as The Hair Carpet Weavers by Andreas Eschbach (Doryl Jensen, translator) ...Read More

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News Publishing 

Karp New Simon & Schuster CEO

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Jonathan Karp has been named president and CEO of Simon & Schuster, taking over after former president Carolyn Reidy died unexpectedly of a heart attack on May 12. He was promoted from president of Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing, where he oversaw key books like What Happened by Hillary Clinton, Fear by Bob Woodward, and Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson. He plans to “continue to build on the strong foundation ...Read More

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Books Reviews 

Ian Mond Reviews Death in Her Hands by Ottessa Moshfegh

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Death in Her Hands, Ottessa Moshfegh (Penguin Press 978-1-984-87935-6, $18.99, 272pp, hc) April 2019.

Vesta Gul (pronounced “like the ocean bird”) is walking her dog, Charlie, through the woods when she finds a note on the ground. The note reads:

Her name was Magda. Nobody will ever know who killed her. It wasn’t me. Here is her dead body.

Except there is no body, “no bloodstain. No tangle of ...Read More

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Awards News 

2020 Dalkey Literary Awards Shortlists

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The Fire Starters by Jan Carson (Black Swan Ireland) is on the shortlist for the €20,000 Novel of the Year category in the inaugural Dalkey Literary Awards, given by the Dalkey Book Festival. There are also finalists in the €10,000 Emerging Writer category. Winners will be announced June 20, 2020 at a digital awards ceremony.

For more information, including the complete shortlists, see the Dalkey Literary Awards website.

While you ...Read More

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Awards News 

Wagner Wins Lambda Visionary Award

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The Lambda Literary Board of Trustees has awarded the 2020 Visionary Award to playwright and author Jane Wagner. The Visionary Award “honors those who, through their achievements and passionate commitment, have contributed to the LGBTQ literary community in significant and tangible ways.” Wagner’s work of genre interest includes The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe (1986).

The members of the 2020 Lambda Literary Board of Trustees are ...Read More

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New & Notable New Titles & Bestsellers 

New & Notable Books, May 2020

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Max Barry, Providence (Putnam 3/20) Barry min­gles classic SF ideas, touches of satire, and deeply drawn characters in this entertaining SF thriller of war with aliens, a four-man mission sent to fight them, and the realization that their ship – and the people who sent them – are unreliable.

 

Elizabeth Bear, The Best of Elizabeth Bear (Subterranean 1/20) Bear’s wide-ranging skill is displayed in this collection of 27 stories, ...Read More

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Reviews Short Fiction 

Rich Horton Reviews Short Fiction: Analog, Asimov’s, Pulp Literature, and Uncanny

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Analog 3-4/20 Asimov’s 3-4/20 Pulp Literature Winter ’20 Uncanny 3-4/20

Analog offers several impressive stories in its March-April issue. Andy Dudak can be counted on for wild ideas, and “Midstrathe Exploding” delivers on that account. Ciaran is a pickpocket in Midstrathe City, which seems mainly known for the weirdly time-shifted explosion that engulfed it 200 years before and is still expanding with its victims frozen inside it. He ...Read More

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