Author: locusmag

Announcements News 

Burgess Manuscript Found

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Burgess Foundation director Andrew Biswell discovered an unfinished manuscript by Anthony Burgess, The Clockwork Condition, dating from 1972-73. The book is about Burgess’s experience writing his classic A Clockwork Orange (1963) and the reaction to Stanley Kubrick’s 1971 film adaptation. Biswell was cataloging the author’s archive when he found the manuscript, which he says sheds “new light on Burgess, Kubrick and the controversy surrounding the notorious novel.” Kubrick mentioned ...Read More

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Books Reviews 

Liz Bourke Reviews Empress of Forever by Max Gladstone

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Empress of Forever, Max Gladstone (Tor 978-0-7653-9581-8, $18.99, 480pp, tp) June 2019. Cover by Tommy Arnold.

Max Gladstone is unfairly talented. Reviewing his Empress of Forever is a bloody intimidating undertaking, because it’s just that damn good. It’s not enough that his Craft Sequence series is a complex, twisty, delightfully playful and deeply thought provoking set of works that take on themes of power, the ten­sion between progress and ...Read More

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Books Reviews 

Ian Mond Reviews The Lesson by Cadwell Turnbull

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The Lesson, Cadwell Turnbull (Blackstone Publishing 978-1538584644, $26.99, 290pp, hc) June 2019.

Cadwell Turnbull’s debut, The Lesson, has been billed as one of the first science fiction novels set in the Virgin Islands. While this is something to cheer about, what’s more important, especially in the context of the #ownvoices movement, is that Turnbull was raised in the Caribbean in a family that lived there for generations. This ...Read More

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Books Reviews 

Russell Letson Reviews The Best of Greg Egan by Greg Egan

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The Best of Greg Egan, Greg Egan (Subterranean Press 978-1-59606-942-8, $45.00, 731 pp, hc) October 2019. Cover by David Ho.

I first encountered Greg Egan’s work in 1991, with two stories selected by Gardner Dozois for The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Eighth Annual Collection. Gardner continued to pick up Egan stories with some regularity, and then came the early novels (Quarantine, Permutation City, Distress), ...Read More

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Features 

Photo Story: SF in SF

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An SF in SF reading was held on April 28, 2019 at the American Bookbinders Museum with Peter S. Beagle and Jaymee Goh performing, with guest moderator Cliff Winnig. The event included readings from each author’s work, a Q&A with the audience, and was podcasted by SomaFM. Proceeds from the reading went to the American Bookbinders Museum.

This story and more like it in the June 2019 issue of Locus. ...Read More

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Conventions News 

Bay Area Book Festival Report

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The fifth Bay Area Book Festival took place May 4-5, 2019 in Berkeley CA, with keynotes, interviews, and panels held on ten indoor stages. The festival also included an Outdoor Fair in Martin Luther King, Jr. Civic Center Park with over 200 exhibitors and free programming, including many events for children. Books were available for sale through various independent bookstore partners.

The festival included over 300 speakers and panelists, with ...Read More

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Books Reviews 

Russell Letson Reviews Luna: Moon Rising by Ian McDonald

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Luna: Moon Rising, Ian McDonald (Tor 978-0765391476, $29.99, 448pp, hc) March 2019.

If Ian McDonald’s Luna sequence is a trilogy (or, as I see it, a single triple-decker novel), then Luna: Moon Rising is the final volume, since it completes the large-cast, multi-threaded, braided story arc that began with Luna: New Moon (2015) and continued in Luna: Wolf Moon (2017). On the other hand, this capacious, busy, fictional story ...Read More

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Awards News 

2019 Kurd Laßwitz Preis Winners

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Winners of the 2019 Kurd Laßwitz Preis for best German science fiction works and translations have been announced:

Best German SF Novel

NSA – Nationales Sicherheits-Amt, Andreas Eschbach (Lübbe)

Best German SF Short Story

“Confinement”, Thorsten Küper (Nova #26)

Best Foreign SF Work Published in German

Eiswelt [Early Riser], Jasper Fforde (Heyne)

Best SF Translation Into German

New York 2140, Kim Stanley Robinson, translated by Jakob Schmidt (Heyne) ...Read More Read more
Books Reviews 

Colleen Mondor Reviews The Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi

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The Gilded Wolves, Roshani Chokshi (Wednes­day Books 978-1-250-14454-6, $18.99, 388pp, tp) January 2019.

In this glittering journey through a fantastical late 19th-century Paris, author Roshani Chokshi gifts readers with adventure wrapped in mystery wrapped in (unorthodox) family drama that in­corporates aspects of crime thrillers, caper flicks, and a fair bit of James Bond-esque espionage. The descriptions of the 1889 Paris Exposition are exquisite, and the history that Chokshi weaves ...Read More

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Awards News 

2019 Sunburst Awards Longlist

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The longlists for the 2019 Sunburst Awards for Excellence in Canadian Literature of the Fantastic were announced June 10, 2019:

Adult Fiction

Sodom Road Exit, Amber Dawn (Arsenal Pulp) One of Us, Craig DiLouie (Orbit) Armed in Her Fashion, Kate Heartfield (Chizine) The Wolves of Winter, Tyrell Johnson (Simon & Schuster Canada) The Quantum Magician, Derek Künsken (Simon & Schuster Canada) The Tiger Flu, ...Read More Read more
Books Reviews 

Amy Goldschlager Reviews The Kingdom of Copper Audiobook by S.A. Chakraborty

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The Kingdom of Copper, S.A. Chakraborty; Soneela Nankani, narra­tor (HarperAudio 978-1-98260844-6, $65.99, MP3 CD, 23.25 hr., unabridged [also available as a digital download]) January 2019.

This second in a series picks up five years after The City of Brass, in which Nahri, an orphan from Napoleonic-era Cairo with a magical gift for healing, discovered her true heritage as a Daeva (a tribe of djinn who refuse that name) ...Read More

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Awards News 

2019 Campbell Memorial Award Finalists

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The finalists for the 2019 John W. Campbell Memorial Award have been announced:

Semiosis, Sue Burke (Tor) A Spy in Time, Imraan Coovadia (Rare Bird) The Calculating Stars, Mary Robinette Kowal (Tor) Time Was, Ian McDonald (Tor.com Publishing) Blackfish City, Sam J. Miller (Ecco) Moon of the Crusted Snow, Waubgeshig Rice (ECW) Theory of Bastards, Audrey Schulman (Europa Editions) Unholy Land, Lavie ...Read More Read more
Books Reviews 

Ian Mond and Adrienne Martini Review Golden State by Ben H. Winters

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Golden State, Ben H. Winters (Mulholland Books 978-0-31650-541-3, $28.00, 336pp, hc) January 2019.

Ben H. Winters’s new novel the Golden State begins with a lovely bit of cognitive dissonance:

This is a novel. All the words of it are true.

Not only does this pronouncement wrong-foot the reader, echoing Orwell’s clocks striking 13 on a cold April day, but it also establishes a tension between fact and fiction that ...Read More

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Awards News 

Martin Receives Carl Sandburg Literary Award

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George R.R. Martin will receive the 2019 Carl Sandburg Literary Award from the Chicago Public Library Foundation. Martin will be honored at an awards dinner held October 10, 2019 at the Isadore & Sadie Dorin Forum on the University of Illinois at Chicago campus. Previous winners of the award, which “recognizes the work of the world’s most heralded authors,” include Isabel Allende, Margaret Atwood, Toni Morrison, Joyce Carol Oates, Salman ...Read More

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Awards News 

Northern California Book Awards Nominees

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Works of genre interest Out of Left Field by Ellen Klages (Viking BFYR) and Blanca & Roja by Anna-Marie McLemore (Feiwel & Friends) were among four books nominated for the Northern California Book Awards in the Children’s Literature category for older readers.

The awards, “celebrating books published by Northern California authors in 2018,” are presented and sponsored by the Northern California Book Reviewers, Poetry Flash, PEN West, Mechanics’ Institute Library, ...Read More

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Awards News 

2019 Ditmar Awards Winners

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Winners of the 2019 Ditmar Awards for Australian SF have been announced:

Best Novel

WINNER: City of Lies, Sam Hawke (Tor) Devouring Dark, Alan Baxter (Grey Matter) The Subjugate, Amanda Bridgeman (Angry Robot) Faerie Apocalypse, Jason Franks (IFWG Australia) The Beast’s Heart, Leife Shallcross (Hodder & Stoughton) Tide of Stone, Kaaron Warren (Omnium Gatherum)

Best Novella or Novelette

WINNER: Cabaret of Monsters, Tansy ...Read More Read more
Awards News 

2019 Hemming Award Winners

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The winners of the 2019 Norma K. Hemming Award have been announced.

Short Fiction (stories up to 17,500 words)

WINNER: “Pinion”, Stephanie Gunn (Aurum) “Triquetra”, Kirstyn McDermott (Tor.com 9/5/18) “The Sea-Maker of Darmid Bay”, Shauna O’Meara (Interzone 9-10/18) “With this Needle I Thee Thread”, Angela Rega (Aurum) “Shatterglass”, Susan Wardle (Aurum) “Knitting Day”, Jen White (Mother of Invention)

Long Work (tie)

WINNER: ...Read More Read more
Awards News 

2018 Australian Shadows Awards Winners

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Winners of the 2018 Australian Shadows Awards have been announced. The award is given by the Australian Horror Writers Association (AHWA) for “the finest in horror and dark fiction published by an Australasian within the calendar year.”

Best Novel

WINNER: Tide of Stone, Kaaron Warren (Omnium Gatherum) Devouring Dark, Alan Baxter (Grey Matter) Teeth of the Wolf, Dan Rabarts & Lee Murray (Raw Dog Screaming) Contrition, ...Read More Read more
Awards News 

2019 Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire Winners

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Winners of the 2019 Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire, honoring the best SF/F work published in France in 2018, have been announced:

French Novel

WINNER: Le Cycle de Syffe, tomes 1 & 2, Patrick K. Dewdney (Au diable vauvert) BonheurTM, Jean Baret (Le Bélial’) Dernières fleurs avant la fin du monde, Nicolas Cartelet (Mü Éditions) Rouille, Floriane Soulas (Scrineo) Les Pierres et les Roses, tomes 1 ...Read More Read more
Awards News 

2019 REH Foundation Awards Winners

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The Robert E. Howard Foundation has announced the winners for its 2019 REH Foundation Awards.

The Atlantean – Outstanding Achievement, Book (non-anthology/collection)

WINNER: Robert E. Howard: A Literary Biography, David C. Smith (Pulp Hero) Western Weirdness and Voodoo Vengence, Fred Blosser (Pulp Hero) Famous Someday: A Robert E. Howard Biography, Don Herron & Leo Grin (Cimmerian)

The Hyrkanian – Outstanding Achievement, Essay (print)

WINNER: “Poseidon and the ...Read More Read more
Commentary Features Kameron Hurley Slider 

Kameron Hurley: The Singular Cure for Burnout

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We live in a hustle culture. Trying to manage a living with a singular regular job is increasingly difficult. To freelancers and other working class folks, this isn’t news. As the middle class shrinks, the working class grows, and so does the working class hustle.

There’s an expectation that we all have side hustles. How are we monetizing our hobbies, our passions? Do you pick up odd jobs? Have you ...Read More

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Books Reviews 

Katharine Coldiron Reviews The Gutter Prayer by Gareth Hanrahan

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The Gutter Prayer, Gareth Hanrahan (Orbit 978-0-316-52531-2, $15.99, 560pp, hc) January 2019.

From the first pages of The Gutter Prayer, it’s obvious that Gareth Hanrahan has a background in writing game books. Read­ing it feels like sitting at a table with an especially long-winded dungeon master who is telling his players everything he possibly can about the world they’re moving through, whether it’s interesting or not. After the ...Read More

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Books Reviews Short Fiction 

Gary K. Wolfe Reviews Broken Stars, Edited by Ken Liu

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Broken Stars: Contemporary Chinese Science Fiction in Translation, Ken Liu, ed. (Tor 978-1250297662, $27.99, 480pp, hc) February 2019.

One aspect of Waste Tide that may come as a slight surprise to readers whose familiarity with Chinese SF is limited to Liu Cixin’s Remembrance of Earth’s Past trilogy, with its epic galactic scope and somewhat Clarkean ideas, is the degree to which the novel is grounded in gritty near-future realism, ...Read More

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News Publishing 

Baker & Taylor Drops Trade Distribution

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Baker & Taylor, one of the two major book distributors in the US, will no longer wholesale books to stores. Parent company Follett calls it a “strategic shift,” explaining, “Exiting wholesale book distribution will allow us to align our resources, technology, and people to do what we do best – helping public libraries support the communities they serve.” Baker & Taylor president Dave Cully says they will work “closely with ...Read More

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Reviews Short Fiction 

Karen Burnham Reviews Short Fiction: Tor.com, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, and Clarkesworld

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Tor.com 1/23/19, 1/30/19, 1/31/19 Beneath Ceaseless Skies 2/14/19, 2/28/19 Clarkesworld 2/19

Tor.com continues its strong January with stories from Mimi Mondal, JY Yang, and Elizabeth Bear. Mondal’s story “His Footsteps, Through Darkness and Light” tells of a circus traveling in India. Binu is a trapeze master deeply in love with a jinni, Shehzad Marid. When they perform at a lavish wedding, a devidasi (a woman ...Read More

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Features 

Photo Story: Madle Still Going Strong

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Curt Phillips recently visited writer and fan Robert A. “Bob” Madle, “First Fandom founder, WW II veteran, and science fiction’s master bookseller.” Madle turns 99 on June 2, and Phillips reports he is still selling rare books and magazines and “doing very well… active, sharp as a tack, and still loving science fiction and fandom as much as ever…. He was there at fandom’s beginnings and he’s with us still.” ...Read More

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Awards News 

2019 Mythopoeic Awards Finalists

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The Mythopoeic Society has announced the 2019 Mythopoeic Awards finalists. Winners will be announced at Mythcon 50, held August 2-5, 2019 at San Diego State University in San Diego CA.

Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature

The Arcadia Project: Borderline, Phantom Pains, Impostor Syndrome, Mishell Baker (Saga) In Other Lands, Sarah Rees Brennan (Big Mouth House) The Innsmouth Legacy: “The Litany of Earth” (New Cthulhu ...Read More Read more
Bookstores News 

Barnes & Noble Sold

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Barnes & Noble, the largest bookstore chain in the US, has been sold to Elliot Management Corporation, the same hedge fund that purchased leading UK bookseller Waterstones in June 2018. Waterstones CEO James Daunt will take over as CEO of B&N when the deal is complete and plans to relocate to New York. The all-cash transaction is valued at around $683 million — $6.50 a share, plus the assumption of ...Read More

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Books Reviews 

Rich Horton Reviews For the Killing of Kings by Howard Andrew Jones

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For the Killing of Kings, Howard Andrew Jones (St. Martin’s Press, 978-1250006813, $26.99, 368pp, hc) February 2019.

For the Killing of Kings, the opening volume of a new fantasy trilogy by Howard Andrew Jones, is exciting, absorbing, and a great deal of fun, and it ends on a cliffhanger, which is, perhaps, to be expected. It’s fairly traditional fantasy in form and action, with a small band of heroes ...Read More

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Conventions News 

StokerCon 2019 Report

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StokerCon, sponsored by the Horror Writers Association, was held at the Amway Plaza Hotel in Grand Rapids MI, May 9-12, 2019. Guests of honor were Josh Boone (who was unable to attend), Kathe Koja, Josh Malerman, Robert R. McCammon, Kaaron Warren, and Stephanie M. Wytovich; Jonathan Maberry was emcee, giving a “moving opening speech” and keeping the “pace of the awards brisk.” Graham Masterton was the recipient of the Lifetime ...Read More

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Books Reviews Short Fiction 

Amy Goldschlager Reviews And Other Stories Audiobook by Adam-Troy Castro

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And Other Stories, Adam-Troy Castro; Stefan Rudnicki, Gabrielle de Cuir, Justine Eyre, Kathe Mazur & Adam-Troy Castro, narrators (Skyboat Media 978-1-98262931-1, $29.95, MP3 CD, 13.3 hr., un­abridged [also available as a digital download]) January 2019.

Oh, how I love audio-only (and audio-first) books! It gives my life meaning as an audiobook reviewer. Produced by the excellent Skyboat Media, who were also respon­sible for Jennifer Marie Brissett’s Elysium a few ...Read More

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Announcements News 

Martin Joins Meow Wolf

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Meow Wolf, an arts and entertainment group based in Santa Fe NM, has named George R.R. Martin as their Chief World Builder. Formed in 2008 as an art collective, “Meow Wolf creates immersive and interactive experiences that transport audiences of all ages into fantastic realms of story and exploration. This includes art installations, video and music production, and extended reality content.” As Chief World Builder, Martin will advise on narratives ...Read More

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