Alexandra Pierce Reviews Nightwatch Over Windscar by K. Eason

Nightwatch Over Windscar, K. Eason (DAW 978-0-75641-859-5, $28.00, 480pp, hc) No­vember 2022. Cover by Tim Green.

First things first: you definitely don’t want to read this without reading the first in the series, Nightwatch on the Hinterlands (2021). This second book in the series opens just months after the events in the first, and while there is a little backstory as a reminder of the stakes, it’s definitely not ...Read More

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New Books: 21 March 2023

Ballingrud, Nathan: The Strange (Simon & Schuster/Saga Press 9781534449954, $27.99, 304pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 3/21/2023) An intriguing alternate timeline SF novel. 1931, New Galveston, Mars: Fourteen-year-old Anabelle Crisp sets off through the wastelands of the Strange to find Silas Mundt’s gang who have stolen her mother’s voice, destroyed her father, and left her solely with a need for vengeance.

 

Chong, Jinwoo: Flux (Melville House 9781685890346, $28.99, 352pp, formats: ...Read More

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Karen Burnham Reviews Short Fiction: Future SF Digest and Asimov’s

Future SF Digest 12/22 Asimov’s 11-12/22

As I wrap up my reading year for 2022, I’m sorry to also be noting the shut­tering, at least for now, of one of my favorite venues. Future Science Fiction Digest, edited by Alex Shvartsman, is going on hiatus as of its 17th issue. It started publishing in 2018 (the same year I started my short fiction column here) with an emphasis on interna­tional ...Read More

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2023 Analog Award for Emerging Black Voices

Analog has announced the Analog Award for Emerging Black Voices, open to “any writer over 18 years of age who customarily identifies as Black, has not published nor is under contract for a book, and has three or less paid fiction publications.”

Submissions will be read blind. Please remove all identifying information from the document before sending it. The file name should be the title of the story. Submissions should ...Read More

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2023 Yoto Carnegie Medals Shortlists

The shortlists for the Yoto Carnegie Medal for Writing and Yoto Carnegie Medal for Illustration have been announced. Titles and authors of genre interest follow.

Yoto Carnegie Medal for Writing

  • The Light in Everything, Katya Balen, illustrated by Sydney Smith (Bloomsbury)
  • When Shadows Fall, Sita Brahmachari, illustrated by Natalie Sirett (Little Tiger)
  • Medusa, Jessie Burton, illustrated by Olivia Lomenech Gill (Bloomsbury)
  • The Eternal Return of Clara Hart
...Read More Read more

2023 Imagining Indigenous Futurisms Winner and Shortlist

Alina Pete’s “Telling the Soul of Mars” is the winner of the 2022 Imagining Indigenous Futurisms Award. The $1,000 prize is given by the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts (IAFA) to “emerging authors who use science fiction to address issues of Indigenous sovereignty and self-determination.” Other finalists are “The Good One” by Allanah Hunt, “The Tangle” by Rae Mariz, and “Spirit Medicine” by Gina McGuire.

The judge ...Read More

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Authors’ Club Best First Novel Shortlist

The six-title shortlist for the Authors’ Club Best First Novel award has been announced, and includes When We Were Birds by Ayanna Lloyd Banwo (Hamish Hamilton).

The award is open to any debut novel written in English and published in the UK. The £2,500 winner will be announced at a dinner at the National Liberal Club on May 24, 2023.

For more information, visit the Authors’ Club website.

(adsbygoogle = ...Read More

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John Jakes (1932-2023)

Writer John Jakes, 90, died March 11, 2023. While famed for his bestselling historical novels, Jakes was a prolific SF and fantasy author early in his career. He published over 60 books in a variety of genres, but became famous with two historical epics: the eight-volume Kent Family Chronicles histories in the 1970s, and the North and South trilogy in the 1980s, which collectively sold tens of millions of copies. ...Read More

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Russell Letson Reviews The City of Last Chances by Adrian Tchaikovsky

The City of Last Chances, Adrian Tchai­kovsky (Head of Zeus 978-1-80110-842-3, £20.00, 512 pp, hc) December 2022. Cover by Joe Wilson.

Adrian Tchaikovsky clearly understands genre games quite thoroughly, since he has been working both sides and several alleyways of the great science fiction/fantasy divide in more than three dozen pre­vious titles. For example, Elder Race (2021) built a pseudo-medieval heroic fantasy world on an armature of science-fictional enabling ...Read More

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Ayize Jama-Everett: Against Entropy

AYIZE JAMA-EVERETT was born in 1974 in Harlem NY. He has trav­eled widely, including in Asia, Mexico, and North Africa. He has a master’s degree in divinity, another in clinical psychology, and recently finished his MFA in literature at UC Riverside. He currently lives in Oakland CA, where he works as a therapist.

Jama-Everett began publishing with SF novel The Liminal People (2011), launching a series that continued with The ...Read More

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Caren Gussoff Sumption Reviews Juniper Wiles and the Ghost Girls

Juniper Wiles and the Ghost Girls, Charles de Lint (Triskell Press 978-1-98974-106-1, $15.99, 264pp, tp), November 2022.

I’m well aware that calling something a ‘‘beach read’’ holds negative connota­tions – but in the case of Charles de Lint’s second installment in his Juniper Wiles series, Juniper Wiles and the Ghost Girls, I mean to call it a beach read in a more literal, delicious way. This book, which ...Read More

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Sean Dowie Reviews The Strange by Nathan Ballingrud

The Strange, Nathan Ballingrud (Gallery 978-1-53444-995-4, 304pp, $27.99, hc) March 2023.

Nathan Ballingrud’s debut novel The Strange takes place in a version of the 1930s where humans have inhabited Mars. It opens with teenager Anabelle and her father Sam working in their diner, living in a Martian town that is surrounded by arid nothingness, an isolation that is mirrored in the characters’ loneliness. When their diner is robbed by ...Read More

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Ma Wins Story Prize

Bliss Montage by Ling Ma (Farrar, Straus, Giroux) won the Story Prize, “honoring the author of an outstanding collection of short fiction,” presented March 15, 2023. The prize includes $20,000 and an engraved silver bowl.

Night of the Living Rez by Morgan Talty (Tin House) was one of the finalists, and will receive $5,000.

Director Larry Dark and prize founder Julie Lindsey chose three finalists from 119 collections published in ...Read More

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Paula Guran Reviews Tor.com, The Dark, The Sunday Morning Transport, and Nightmare

Tor.com 12/1/22, 12/24/22, 1/11/23, 1/18/23, 1/25/23 The Dark 11/22, 12/22 Nightmare 11/22, 12/22 The Sunday Morning Transport

I’ll start 2023 off by looking at three January stories from Tor.com as well as a couple from December 2022. Chances are, you still haven’t caught up with all of end-of-the-year fiction, so we’ll then look at more from last year.

‘‘Time: Marked and Mended’’ by Carrie Vaughn (Tor.com 1/11/22) is ...Read More

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2023 Jhalak Prize Longlists

When We Were Birds by Ayanna Lloyd Banwo (Doubleday/Penguin UK) is on the 2023 Jhalak Prize longlist.

The award “seek to celebrate books by British/British resident BAME writers” and “accept entries published in the UK by writers of colour. These include (and not limited to) fiction, non-fiction, short stories, graphic novels, poetry and all other genres.”

The judges for 2023 are Haleh Agar, Anthony Vahni Capildeo, and Monisha Rajesh. The ...Read More

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Gary K. Wolfe Reviews The Crane Husband by Kelly Barnhill

The Crane Husband, Kelly Barnhill (Tor­dotcom 978-1-250-85097-3, $19.99, 128pp, hc) February 2023.

Kelly Barnhill’s When Women Were Drag­ons ranked pretty high on my list of last year’s outstanding fantasy novels, a highly original combination of feminist coming-of-age tale, alternate history period piece, and metamor­phosis myth, all cast in the form of a memoir, or what used to be called a personal history. That combination of domestic realism and family ...Read More

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35th Annual Lambda Awards Finalists

The Lambda Literary Foundation has announced finalists for the 35th Annual Lambda Literary Awards (the “Lammys”), celebrating “the best lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender books.” Nominees of genre interest follow.

LGBTQ+ Speculative Fiction

  • The Book Eaters, Sunyi Dean (Tor)
  • The Paradox Hotel, Rob Hart (Ballantine)
  • The Wicked and the Willing,  Lianyu Tan (Shattered Scepter)
  • Into the Riverlands, Nghi Vo (Tordotcom)
  • The Circus Infinite, Khan Wong
...Read More Read more

2023 Sturgeon Symposium

The Gunn Center for the Study of Science Fiction has announced the second annual Sturgeon Symposium, to be held September 28-30, 2023 at the University of Kansas in Lawrence KS.

The Symposium is “celebrating the 30th anniversary of Octavia Butler’s groundbreaking novel, The Parable of the Sower. As KU’s choice for the 2023 Common Book program, this novel is a powerful inspiration for our Symposium’s theme, ‘Fantastic Worlds, Fraught ...Read More

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People & Publishing Roundup, March 2023

MILESTONES

GREGORY BENFORD, 82, had a stroke on December 22, 2022. While his condition is serious, he has moved from the hospital to a rehabilitation center, and is reportedly recovering well.

 

AWARDS

WALTER MOSLEY, 71, won the 2023 Diamond Dagger Award, presented by the Crime Writers’ Association. The award is the highest honor offered by the group, and ‘‘recognises authors whose crime writing careers have been marked ...Read More

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Adrienne Martini Reviews Illuminations by T. Kingfisher

Illuminations, T. Kingfisher (Red Wombat Studio, $4.99, 248pp, eb) November 2022.

Illuminations, the latest middle-grade book by T. Kingfisher (AKA Ursula Vernon), opens on a very, very bored Rosa Mandolini. Fortu­nately, the Studio Mandolini, her family’s art/magic business, is full of storage rooms, stuffed to the brim with boxes of interesting, ancient wonders. One such box resists being found and opened. And thus begins Rosa’s adventure.

As you’d ...Read More

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New Books: 14 March 2023

Ashton, Edward: Antimatter Blues (St. Martin’s 978-1-250-27505-9, $26.99, 304pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, 3/14/2023)

Far-future SF thriller, this is a thrilling follow up to Mickey7 in which an expendable heads out to explore new terrain for human habitation.. Mickey is still alive because Commander Marshall believes the alien neighbors have an antimatter bomb — and he wants it back.  Simultaneous with the UK (Solaris) edition.

 

Bakewell, Catherine: Flowerheart (HarperTeen 978-0-06-321459-0, ...Read More

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2023 International Booker Prize Longlist

The 13-title longlist for the 2023 International Booker Prize has been announced, including titles and authors of genre interest:

  • The Gospel According to the New World, Maryse Condé, translated by Richard Philcox (World Editions)
  • Jimi Hendrix Live in Lviv, Andrey Kurkov, translated by Reuben Woolley (MacLehose)
  • Whale, Cheon Myeong-kwan, translated by Chi-Young Kim (Europa Editions)

The award is given “every year for a single book that is ...Read More

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Charles Payseur Reviews Short Fiction: Fusion Fragment, Diabolical Plots, and Beneath Ceaseless Skies

Fusion Fragment 12/22 Diabolical Plots 12/22 Beneath Ceaseless Skies 12/1/22, 12/15/22

Fusion Fragment’s last issue of 2022 brings a mix of genres and styles, with a decidedly grim and slightly dystopian feel to it. That re­ally coalesces in Owen Leddy’s ‘‘Lifeblood’’, in which a blood heist goes rather wrong for Joel, who is desperate to find a way to save his partner. Aching and not afraid to ...Read More

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2022-2023 NESFA Contest Winners

Winners of the New England Science Fiction Association (NESFA) SF/F short story contest were announced at Boskone 60, held February 17-19 2023. Prizes included certificates of achievement, books from NESFA Press, and free membership to a future Boskone convention.

  • WINNER: “Excuse Me, This is My Apocalypse”, Amy Johnson
  • Runner-up: “The Gambler”, Dianne Lee
  • Finalist: “Mara’s Moon”, Chloe Oriotis
  • Finalist: “To Look Upon the Face of God”, Gideon P. Smith
  • Finalist:
...Read More Read more

Colleen Mondor Reviews Grave Things Like Love by Sara Bennett Wealer

Grave Things Like Love, Sara Bennett Wealer (Delacorte 978-0-593-70355-7, $12.99, tp, 332pp) November 2022. Cover by David Seidman.

In Sara Bennett Wealer’s Grave Things Like Love, protagonist Elaine Gillies has the dubious distinction of being ‘‘funeral girl,’’ a teenager whose family has owned the local funeral home, where they also live, for more than a century. Caught between her frazzled and overworked parents, who constantly pile tasks onto ...Read More

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Nisi Shawl: Story Space

DENISE ANGELA SHAWL was born November 2, 1955 and grew up in Kalamazoo MI. (Their cousin Delores came up with the nickname “Nisi.ha”) At 17, Shawl moved to Ann Arbor to attend the University of Michigan. After leaving the university, Shawl worked as a bookseller, au pair, cook, janitor, and artist’s model. Shawl settled in Seattle in 1996, worked on publicity for Clarion West, and currently serves on the workshop’s ...Read More

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Alex Brown Reviews Soul of the Deep by Natasha Bowen

Soul of the Deep, Natasha Bowen (Random House 978-0-59312-098-9, $19.99, 304pp, hc) September 2022.

Natasha Bowen’s Soul of the Deep picks up several months after the events of Skin of the Sea. Simidele, a Mami Wata, has been living at the bottom of the sea with the imprisoned orisa Olokun. She’s miserable, not just because she’s lost her freedom and can no longer see the sun, but also ...Read More

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Maya C. James Reviews Night of the Raven, Dawn of the Dove by Rati Mehrotra

Night of the Raven, Dawn of the Dove, Rati Mehrotra (Wednesday Books, 978-1-250-87134-3, $18.99, 352 pp, tp) October 2022. Cover by Devan Norman.

In Rati Mehrotra’s Night of the Raven, Dawn of the Dove, Katyani’s path in life has been laid out for her since childhood: train to become the best guardswoman of Chan­dela, advise the crown prince Ayan once he comes of age, and above all else, ...Read More

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Horror Spotlight Best Books of 2022

Horror Spotlight, formerly known as Ladies of Horror Fiction, have announced their top choices for horror in 2022:

  • We Are Here to Hurt Each Other, Paula D. Ashe (Nictitating)
  • Chasing Whispers, Eugen Bacon (self-published)
  • Dead Silence, S.A. Barnes (Tor)
  • Cool S, Die Booth (self-published)
  • Hell Hath Only Fury, S.H. Cooper & Oli A. White (self-published)
  • The Sacrifice, Rin Chupeco (Sourcebooks)
  • Such a Pretty Smile
...Read More Read more