Alexandra Pierce Reviews 2022 Best of Utopian Speculative Fiction edited by Justine Norton-Kertson

2022 Best of Utopian Speculative Fiction, Justine Norton-Kertson, ed. (Android Press 978-1-95812-166-5, $21.99, 240pp, tp) December 2023.

In their follow-up to Bioluminescent: A Lu­narpunk Anthology, Justine Norton-Kertson has assembled a range of stories that suggest different ways of thinking about “utopia.” Going into this anthology I had clear expectations of what “utopia” meant and what these stories would probably look like: societies would be shown as having figured ...Read More

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The Year in Review 2023 by Russell Letson

Long Games, Nightmares, and Retrospectives by Russell Letson

I look into the tea leaves – well, the coffee grounds – at the bottom of the year’s cup and find no wisdom or insight into either the state of the field or even my own reading patterns. As usual. Nevertheless, I am more than content with where my nose-following and stumbling around in the dark have taken me in 2023, across ...Read More

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Liz Bourke Reviews Fathomfolk by Eliza Chan

Fathomfolk, Eliza Chan (Orbit US 978-0-316-56492-2, $19.99, 448pp, tp) February 2024. Cover by Kelly Chang.

Eliza Chan has racked up several short fiction pub­lications in recent years, but Fathomfolk represents her debut novel. And it is an interesting debut, albeit one that, on the whole, didn’t come together as I might have hoped.

Fathomfolk takes place in a world dominated by water, apparently in the aftermath of a process ...Read More

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Gary K. Wolfe Reviews The Tusks of Extinction by Ray Nayler

The Tusks of Extinction, Ray Nayler (Tordotcom 978-1-25085-552-7, $26.99, 112pp, hc) January 2024.

Just over a year ago, Ray Nayler offered us a brilliantly original glimpse into the minds of octopuses in The Mountain in the Sea, making a convincing case that this was about as close as we’ve come to encountering a genuine alien intelligence. With The Tusks of Extinction, he turns his attention to the ...Read More

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New & Notable Books, February 2024

 

 

Josiah Bancroft, An Empyreal Retinue (Subterranean 10/23) Collection of eight stories, four new, all expanding upon the author’s popular Books of Babel series, plus an author’s note, with lavish illustrations throughout by Tom Kidd.

 

 

 

 

 

Mike Carey, The Ghost in Bone (Subterra­nean 10/23) This dark urban fantasy novella heralds the return of Carey’s series character, the exorcist Felix Castor, who answers a help wanted ...Read More

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Ian Mond Reviews Womb City by Tlotlo Tsamaase

Womb City, Tlotlo Tsamaase (Erewhon Books 978-1-64566-056-9, $27.00, 416pp, hc) January 2024.

Tlotlo Tsamaase’s debut novel, Womb City, ini­tially presents as science fiction. In an evocative opening, our protagonist Nelah tells us that ‘‘in our city, everyone lives forever. But murder hangs in the air like mist.’’ The city is Gaborone, the capital of Botswana. The mist is a ‘‘puff of human corpse-detecting chemicals’’ that can locate where a ...Read More

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The Year in Review 2023 by Niall Harrison

Every once in a while, in defiance of all the cacoph­ony of the actual world, the federated genres of the fantastic can still produce a work whose single novum speaks with a clarity that demands attention. Such a work is Sin Blaché and Hel­en Macdonald’s Prophet, a highly readable technothriller-romance with two screenplay-ready protagonists, elevated by their investigation into the titular substance. Prophet causes people to experience an irresist­ible ...Read More

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2024 Prix Bob Morane Finalists

Finalists have been announced for the 2023 Prix Bob Morane, recognizing French-language works in the science fiction, fantasy, espionage, and thriller genres.

Roman traduit (Translated Novels)

  • Dors et ne te réveille pas, Matthias Ernst, translated by David Gruner (DP)
  • Le silence [Small Mercies], Dennis Lehane, translated by François Happe (Gallmeister)
  • Le ministère du futur [The Ministry for the Future], Kim Stanley Robinson, translated by Claude Marnier (Bragelonne)
  • Parcourir la
...Read More Read more

Year’s Best African Speculative Fiction Call

The Year’s Best African Speculative Fiction Volume Three anthology is open to submissions until March 31, 2024, covering works originally published in 2023. The book will be published in late 2024 by Caezik SF & Fantasy.​ Editors for this volume are Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki & Chinaza Eziaghighala.

We welcome submissions of all reprint works of speculative fiction, from any genres and sub genres, including fantasy, dark fantasy, science fiction, horror ...Read More

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2023 Analog AnLab and Asimov’s Readers’ Awards Finalists

Finalists for the 2023 Analog Analytical Laboratory (AnLab) Awards, and the 38th Asimov’s Readers’ Awards, have been announced, with many finalists available to read online.

Analog Science Fiction and Fact Analytical Laboratory Award Finalists

BEST NOVELLAS

“To Fight the Colossus“, Adam-Troy Castro (July/August 2023)

“The Tinker and the Timestream“, Carolyn Ives Gilman (March/April 2023)

“The Elephant-Maker”, Alec Nevala-Lee (January/February 2023)

“Flying Carpet“, Rajnar Vajra (November/December 2023)

“Poison“, Frank Wu & ...Read More

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2023 L.A. Times Book Prize Finalists

Finalists have been announced for the 2023 Los Angeles Times Book Prizes. Categories and works of genre interest follow.

Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Speculative Fiction

  • The Reformatory, Tananarive Due (Saga)
  • Whalefall, Daniel Kraus (MTV Books)
  • Lone Women, Victor LaValle (One World)
  • The Fragile Threads of Power, V.E. Schwab (Tor)
  • Jewel Box: Stories, E. Lily Yu (Erewhon)

Fiction

  • Same Bed Different Dreams, Ed Park (Random House)
...Read More Read more

Alexandra Pierce Reviews The Parliament by Aimee Pokwatka

The Parliament, Aimee Pokwatka (Tordotcom 978-1-25082-097-6, 320pp, $28.99, hc) Cover by Jaya Miceli. January 2024.

Aimee Pokwatka leans into the absurdist, and refuses explanations in her fiction. Her debut, Self-Portrait with Nothing (2022), has an artist with the ability to bring variants of her portrait subjects into this world; how this works is never explained. Rather, the focus is on relationships: between the artist’s own variants, between the artist and ...Read More

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The Year in Review 2023 by Jake Casella Brookins

2023 wound up being a strange reading year for me. I started the year with a big move: from Chicago back to beautiful Buffalo, NY. While it’s wonderful to be back east and closer to the mountains, being so far from Chicago’s amazing literary scene has been hard. I’ve particularly missed the wonderful speculative book clubs I was part of there – Think Galactic and the Chicago Nerd Social Club ...Read More

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2023 Stoker Awards Final Ballot

The Horror Writers Association (HWA) has announced the final ballot for the 2023 Bram Stoker Awards:

Superior Achievement in a Novel

  • The Reformatory, Tananarive Due (Saga)
  • How to Sell a Haunted House, Grady Hendrix (Berkley)
  • Don’t Fear the Reaper, Stephen Graham Jones (Saga)
  • Lone Women, Victor LaValle (One World)
  • Camp Damascus, Chuck Tingle (Nightfire)
  • Black River Orchard, Chuck Wendig (Del Rey)

Superior Achievement in

...Read More Read more

Liz Bourke Reviews The Butcher of the Forest by Premee Mohamed

The Butcher of the Forest, Premee Mohamed (Tordotcom 978-1-250-88178-6, $18.99, 160pp, tp) February 2024. Cover by Andrew Davis.

It seems to me that I’ve read more books that have to do with weird forests over the last couple of years (some kind of Otherness, other land, or strange and inimical powers deep within the woods) than I have in a long while: Hannah Whitten’s fantasy-romance For the Wolf comes ...Read More

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Ian Mond Reviews Deluge by Stephen Markley

The Deluge, Stephen Markley (Simon & Schuster 978-1-98212-309-3, $32.50, 896pp, hc) January 2023.

I won’t lie. I balked at reading Stephen Mark­ley’s second novel, The Deluge. At nearly 900 pages, I knew it would take me two weeks to read, time I could spend working through a back­log of 2023 books that I’ve been meaning to pick up (including new novels from Francis Spufford, Daniel Mason, Emily Habeck, ...Read More

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Steve Miller (1950-2024)

Author Steve Miller, 73, best known for the Liaden Universe series co-written with wife Sharon Lee, died suddenly on February 20, 2024, as reported by Lee on Facebook.

Steven Richard Miller was born July 31, 1950 in Baltimore MD. He attended the University of Maryland, where he worked on college newpaper The Retriever and founded the science fiction club. He was the curator of the UMBC Albin O. Kuhn Library ...Read More

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SFWA Career Mentorship Program Open to Applications

The Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA) has opened applications their 2024 career mentoring program, seeking both mentors and mentees. The program is “is an all-volunteer service provided free of charge… with the objective of providing community, sharing knowledge, and offering networking opportunities.”

Applications are open from February 13 to February 27, 2024 at 12:00 p.m. Eastern Time.

For more information, or to apply, see the announcement on the ...Read More

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Colleen Mondor Reviews The Parliament by Aimee Pokwatka

The Parliament, Aimee Pokwatka (Tordotcom 978-1-250-82097-6, $27.99, 320pp, hc) January 2024.

Alfred Hitchcock’s classic film The Birds was based, a bit, on a Daphne du Maurier short story of the same name which itself was inspired by du Maurier’s experience seeing a farmer attacked by a flock of seagulls. (If you never saw The Birds, head to YouTube for the phone booth scene.) Author Aimee Pokwatka takes the ...Read More

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The Year in Review 2023 by Archita Mittra

Once upon a time, bad things happened and even­tually, things got better. While this might be true for certain stories, real life, plagued by ongoing pandemics and genocides, rarely offers such neat con­clusions. Perhaps that is why we repeatedly turn to art – not only to find escape and solace, but also, wisdom, empathy, and more urgently so, the will to resist and survive, despite the odds. And as the ...Read More

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2024 Dell Award Winners

“Lolo’s Last Run” by Emma Kerkman is the winner of the 2024 Dell Magazines Award for Undergraduate Excellence in Science Fiction and Fantasy Writing.

The complete list of honors is:

  • First Runner-up: “The Waves of Light” by Liam Betts from Vanderbilt University
  • (Tie) Second Runner-up: “Red Roots” by Wren Chan from Oberlin College
  • (Tie) Second Runner-up: “My Mother’s Daughter” by Rona Wang from Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • Honorable Mention: “Kodak
...Read More Read more

2024 Splatterpunk Awards Nominees

Nominees have been announced for the Splatterpunk Awards, “honoring superior achievement for works published in 2023 in the sub-genres of Splatterpunk and Extreme Horror.”

Best Novel

  • The Night Mother, John Everson (Dark Arts)
  • Maeve Fly, C.J. Leede (Nightfire)
  • Pedo Island Bloodbath, Duncan Ralston (Shadow Work)
  • Dead End House, Bryan Smith (Grindhouse)
  • Along the River of Flesh, Kristopher Triana (Bad Dream)

Best Novella

  • The Bighead’s Junk
...Read More Read more

Gary K. Wolfe Reviews Kinning by Nisi Shawl

Kinning, Nisi Shawl (Tor 978-1-25021-269-6, $28.99, 432pp, hc) January 2024.

Nisi Shawl’s 2016 Everfair was one of the more provocative alternate histories of the past de­cade, with its steampunk Africa giving birth to a safe-haven country called Everfair, carved out of the oppressively brutal Belgian Congo of King Leopold and financed in part by British social­ists and African-American missionaries. It was a sprawling, ambitious narrative, covering some 30 years ...Read More

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The Year in Review 2023 by Arley Sorg

2023 was a bummer: We published our final issue of Fantasy Magazine in October. All the same, it was a wonderful issue, and a strong way to go out. But there was no shortage of excellent short fiction to be found elsewhere. Be­sides the many intriguing magazines regularly putting out stories, there was a wealth of books that folks who love short fiction should consider picking up.

My caveat: These ...Read More

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The Year in Review 2023 by Alexandra Pierce

2023 by Alexandra Pierce

2023 was a really good year for books! I’m going to focus on the books I loved that were written by women and nonbinary folk.

SEQUELS

It was a pretty good year for sequels. I would be a paid-up member of the Murderbot fanclub if one existed (let me know if I’ve missed that memo), so Martha Wells’s System Collapse was a welcome end-of-year ad­dition to ...Read More

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Colleen Mondor Reviews Mislaid in Parts Half-Known by Seanan McGuire

Mislaid in Parts Half-Known, Seanan McGuire (Tordotcom 978-1-250-84850-5, $22.99, 160pp, hc) January 2024. Cover by Robert Hunt.

Seanan McGuire’s latest entry in her Wayward Children series includes several old favorites who come together and relearn the meaning of the word ‘‘home.’’ Mislaid in Parts Half-Known opens in Eleanor West’s School for Wayward Chil­dren and includes a foray through some doors that lead into the fairyland of Prism, a visit ...Read More

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Gabino Iglesias Reviews Black Sheep by Rachel Harrison

Black Sheep, Rachel Harrison (Berkley 978-0-59354-585-0, $27.00, 304pp, hc) September 2023. Cover by Katie Anderson.

Horror, perhaps the best dancing partner when it comes to genre because it gets along very well with everyone else, can be a lot of things, and that includes hilarious. Rachel Harrison’s Black Sheep contains all the elements you’d expect from a horror novel – a creepy presence, dread, emotional turmoil, bloody sacrifices, Satan. However, ...Read More

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2024 Premio Ernesto Vegetti Finalists

The Associazione World SF Italia announced the finalists for the 2024 Premio Ernesto Vegetti, an Italian SF award.

Novel

  • Daimones, Giancarlo Giuliani (Tabula Fati)
  • Eva dei sette mondi, Max Gobbo (Elara)
  • I Giganti immortali, Stefano Carducci e Alessandro Fambrini (Elara)

Nonfiction

  • Astronavi. Le storie dei vascelli spaziali nella narrativa e nel cinema, Michele Tetro e Roberto Azzara (Odoya)
  • Batman. Le origini, il mito, Riccardo Rosati
...Read More Read more

Cybils Awards Winners

Winners for the 2023 Children’s and Young Adults Bloggers’ Literary Awards (Cybils) have been announced. Books of genre interest follow.

Young Adult Speculative Fiction

  • WINNER: Threads That Bind, Kika Hatzopoulou (Razorbill)
  • The Half-Life of Love, Brianna Bourne (Scholastic)
  • The Isles of the Gods, Amie Kaufman (Alfred A. Knopf)
  • Divine Rivals, Rebecca Ross (Wednesday)
  • Fault Lines, Nora Shalaway Carpenter (Running Press)
  • Revelle, Lyssa Mia Smith
...Read More Read more

2024 Audie Awards Finalists

The Audio Publishers Association (APA) has announced the finalists for the 2024 Audie Awards, “recognizing distinction in audiobooks and spoken-word entertainment.” Finalists of genre interest include:

Science Fiction

  • Dual Memory, Sue Burke, narrated by André Santana (Dreamscape)
  • Wool, Hugh Howey, narrated by Edoardo Ballerini
 (Blackstone)
  • The Deep Sky, Yume Kitasei, narrated by Sarah Skaer
 (Macmillan Audio)
  • The World We Make, N.K. Jemisin, narrated by Robin
...Read More Read more