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Countess by Suzan Palumbo: Review by Liz Bourke

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Countess, Suzan Palumbo (ECW Press 978-1770417571, $16.95, 168pp, tp) September 2024

Trinidadian-Canadian author Suzan Palumbo draws on Caribbean history, culture, and experi­ence in her space opera novella Countess. Pa­lumbo has been previously best known for short fiction: Her collection Skin Thief was published by Neon Hemlock Press in 2023.

As a novella, Countess is a mixed bag. Its first half is genuinely compelling, while its second feelts to me ...Read More

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Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor: Review by Gary K. Wolfe

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Death of the Author, Nnedi Okorafor (Morrow 978-0-06-344578-9, $30.00, 448pp, hc) January 2025.

For a certain generation of academics, ‘‘the death of the author’’ is the title of an influential 1967 essay by Roland Barthes arguing against interpreting literature in terms of the author’s identity or psychology. Nnedi Okorafor’s Death of the Author makes a brief and oblique reference to this in an early chapter in which the protagonist, ...Read More

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The Kwaidan Collection by Lafcadio Hearn: Review by Karen Haber

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The Kwaidan Collection, Lafcadio Hearn, il­lustrated by Kent Williams (Beehive Books 978-1-948886-32-1) $100.00, 144+pp, hc) April 2023. Cover by Kent Williams.

The Kwaidan Collection is not only a fascinating illustrated volume of vintage supernatural Japanese folk tales, brilliantly interpreted by acclaimed multimedia artist Kent Williams, it’s historically significant. These stories were literally rescued by the eccentric multilingual world traveler Lafcadio Hearn (1850-1904) in the early 20th century when the ...Read More

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Remember You Will Die by Eden Robins: Review by Ian Mond

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Remember You Will Die, Eden Robins (Source­books Landmark 978-1-72825-603-0, $16.99, 336pp, tp) October 2024.

It has been another excellent year for uncon­ventional narratives. There’s Rakesfall by Vajra Chandrasekera, which I called “a full-frontal deconstruction of narrative and genre”; there’s Rita Bullwinkel’s magnificent Headshot, a story structured around the intense, chaotic and bal­letic bouts of a junior girl’s boxing tournament; and there are the 1,281 F-bombs that punctuate the ...Read More

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Dream Machine: A Portrait of Artificial Intelligence by Appupen & Laurent Daudet: Review by Archita Mittra

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Dream Machine: A Portrait of Artificial Intel­ligence, Appupen & Laurent Daudet (The MIT Press 978-0-26255-129-8, $29.95, 160pp, tp) August 2024.

The graphic novel Dream Machine is the brainchild of versatile Indian artist Appu­pen (known for Legends of Halahala, The Snake and the Lotus, and other inventive myth-building comics) and Laurent Daudet, a French physicist and AI researcher. Educational and engaging, the book delves into the wide-reaching ramifications ...Read More

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The Midnight Club by Margot Harrison: Review by Gabino Iglesias

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The Midnight Club, Margot Harrison (Graydon House 978-1-52580-988-0, $28.00, 368pp, hc) September 2024.

Margot Harrison’s The Midnight Club is one of those novels that defies catego­rization. At its core, this is a murder mystery (or a mystery about a suicide that some folks think could have been a murder). However, it’s also a narrative about the changing nature of friendship as well as a science fiction tale about a ...Read More

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Our Wicked Histories by Amy Goldsmith: Review by Colleen Mondor

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Our Wicked Histories, Amy Goldsmith (Dela­corte Press 978-0-583-70395-3, $19.99, 384pp, hc) July 2024. Cover by Marcela Bolivar.

The heroine of Amy Goldsmith’s Our Wicked Histories is Meg, a scholarship student at an exclusive private art school. In the opening pages she is still reeling from an episode a few months earlier when, at a school dance, she made a stupid drunken mistake that obliterated her social life (she has ...Read More

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Strange Horizons, F&SF, and Kaleidotrope: Short Fiction Reviews by Charles Payseur

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Strange Horizons 9/16/24, 10/7/24, 10/14/24 F&SF Summer ’24 Kaleidotrope Autumn ’24

Strange Horizons has been firing on all cylinders lately, as with September’s “A War of Words” by Marie Brennan, a poem that imagines a war where the winners take more than wealth, more than land. They take language, leaving survivors without a way to contain their loss that isn’t filtered through the lens of their oppressors. ...Read More

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Thalamus: The Art of Dave McKean by Dave McKean: Review by Karen Haber

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Thalamus: The Art of Dave McKean, Dave McKean (Dark Horse 978-1-50672486-7 $149.99, 600pp, hc) November 2023. Cover by Dave McKean.

A giant of the fantastic art field deserves a huge print retrospective, and for British artist Dave McKean, one of the most ac­claimed and influential artists in the SF/F field and beyond, Thalamus fills the bill. A huge, slipcased, two-volume retrospective of McKean’s artwork, it’s a monument to one ...Read More

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The Final Orchard by C. J. Rivera : Review by Paul Di Filippo

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The Final Orchard, C.J. Rivera (Angry Robot 978-1915998262, trade paperback, 400pp, $18.99) November 2024

As her CV informs us: until now, C.J. Rivera’s creative output has occurred in media other than print, making this not only her debut novel, but apparently her debut prose fiction of any sort. (ISFDB believes so too.) But we need fear not, because her skills earned elsewhere translate to a rousing good tale benefiting ...Read More

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Suite 13 by David J. Schow : Review by Paul Di Filippo

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Suite 13, David J. Schow (Subterranean 978-1645241621, hardcover, 384pp, $45.00) November 2024

When I reviewed Cixin Liu’s story collection A View from the Stars a few months ago, I made a big deal of how Liu had pulled a radical move by issuing a hybrid volume of fiction and non-fiction. Well, now comes an identical blend from master of shocks David Schow, half tales, half essays. There must be ...Read More

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SHORT TAKE: The Wood at Midwinter by Susanna Clarke: Review by Gary K. Wolfe

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The Wood at Midwinter, Susanna Clarke (Bloomsbury 978-1-63973-448-1, $16.99, 64pp, hc) October 2024.

Except for children’s books, I can think of relatively few authors for whom a relatively spare short story would be the occasion for a pricey hardcover, but between the holiday gift-book market, the 20th anniversary of Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, and the anticipation surrounding anything Susanna Clarke writes, one can hardly blame Bloomsbury for ...Read More

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A Conventional Boy by Charles Stross: Review by Russell Letson

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A Conventional Boy, Charles Stross (Tordotcom 978-1-250357-847, $28.99, 224 pp, hc) January 2025.

Charles Stross expands his series about the highly secret and secretive counteroccult-threat agency nicknamed the Laundry with a volume made up of a new short novel, accompanied by a pair of previously published pieces. The novel, A Conventional Boy, is the origin story of a particular Laundry employee, as well as an homage to tabletop fantasy ...Read More

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Cover of the book wooing the witch queen by Stephanie Burgis
Books Reviews 

Wooing the Witch Queen by Stephanie Burgis: Review by Liz Bourke

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Wooing the Witch Queen, Stephanie Burgis (Bramble 978-1250359599, $19.99, 304pp, tp) February 2025.

Given my hit-and-miss track record with fantasy romances – a record far more miss than hit – I didn’t expect to enjoy Stephanie Burgis’s Wooing the Witch Queen nearly as much as it turns out I did. But this playful, tongue-in-cheek, not-exactly enemies-to-lovers romp won me over with aston­ishing rapidity.

Felix von Estarion is an Archduke ...Read More

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We Are All Ghosts in the Forest by Lorraine Wilson: Review by Niall Harrison

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We Are All Ghosts in the Forest, Lorraine Wilson (Solaris 978-1-83786-144-6, 400pp, £18.99, hc). November 2024. Cover by Jo Walker.

The image that I think will stay with me longest from Lorraine Wilson’s resonant new novel, We Are All Ghosts in the For­est, comes a little over halfway through the book. The novel’s protagonist, Katerina, has completed a trade in a village on the shore of Lake Peipus, ...Read More

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Sargassa by Sophie Burnham: Review by Liz Bourke

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Sargassa, Sophie Burnham (DAW 978-0-7564-1936-3, $28.00, 416pp, hc) October 2024.

Sophie Burnham’s Sargassa is another first novel, and another novel that flits with playful seriousness between the trappings of fantasy, science fiction, and alternate history, using all three to question and upend the reader’s assumptions about the world of the novel (and perhaps the world at large) and how it works. Sargassa takes the aura of Rome – perennial ...Read More

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The Presidential Papers by John Kessel: Review by Gary K. Wolfe

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The Presidential Papers, John Kessel (PM Press 979-8-88744-058-3 , $16.00, 160pp, tp), October 2024.

PM Press’s series of “Outspoken Author” collec­tions, reaching its 30th volume with John Kessel’s The Presidential Papers, has long provided use­ful short overviews of the fiction and nonfiction of some of our field’s most distinguished writers (always accompanied by insouciant but revealing interviews by the late series editor Terry Bisson). While some authors have ...Read More

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The Bog Wife by Kay Chronister: Review by Ian Mond

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The Bog Wife, Kay Chronister (Counterpoint 978-1-64009-662-2, $28.00, 336pp, hc) October 2024. Cover by Nicole Caputo.

Like all conscientious and well-meaning read­ers, I strive to bring an open mind unsullied by prejudice and bias to any fiction work. However, based solely on the title and cover of Kay Chro­nister’s new novel, The Bog Wife, I assumed it was a revisionist fairytale based on Celtic mythology that takes place ...Read More

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The Sapling Cage by Margaret Killjoy: Review by Alex Brown

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The Sapling Cage, Margaret Killjoy (The Femi­nist Press 978-1-55861-331-7, $17.95, 336pp, tp) September 2024.

The trope of gender-based magic is an old one in fantasy fiction. It never fails to annoy me, and not just because I’m gen­derqueer. Besides the whole gender essentialism thing, I just find it to be lazy and uninspired. At this point, the only time I’ll read a ‘‘girls do this magic and boys do ...Read More

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On the Calculation of Volume I by Solvej Balle: Review by Jake Casella Brookins

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On the Calculation of Volume I, Solvej Balle (New Directions 978-0-81123-725-3, 160pp, $15.95, tp) November 2024.

In Solvej Balle’s On the Calculation of Volume I, translated from the Danish by Barbara Haveland, rare book dealer Tara Selter has found herself trapped in a time loop on the 18th of November; the first entry in Balle’s septology begins with November 18 #121. For reasons unknown, time for her has “fallen ...Read More

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New Year, New You edited by Chris Campbell: Review by Alexandra Pierce

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New Year, New You, Chris Campbell, ed. (Im­mortal Jellyfish Press 979-8-99077-550-3, 312pp, $25.00, tp). Cover by Melinda Smith. October 2024.

In my experience, it’s often the case that once you hear a good idea, you think “Of course! Why has no one done that before?” In that spirit: the “new year, new you!” slogan seems a perfect theme for a speculative fiction anthology – now that Chris Campbell has ...Read More

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A Simple Intervention by Yael Inokai: Review by Niall Harrison

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A Simple Intervention, Yael Inokai (Peirene 978-1-90867-087-8, 187pp, £12.99, pb). October 2024. Cover by Tessa Mackenzie.

There are different ways of writing medical SF. One, as in the case of Rajaniemi above, or Greg Egan occasionally, is to crank up the verisimilitude and extrapolate specific diseases or treatments in the best net-up hard-SF fashion; another is to lean into medicine as a system rather than a sci­ence and build ...Read More

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The Last Dangerous Visions edited by Harlan Ellison & J. Michael Straczynski: Review by Gary K. Wolfe

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The Last Dangerous Visions, Harlan Ellison & J. Michael Straczynski, eds. (Blackstone 979-8-212-18379-6, $27.99, 450pp) October 2024.

Speaking of unusual ways to assemble an anthol­ogy, here we have The Last Dangerous Visions, nominally edited by Harlan Ellison, but also by El­lison’s executor J. Michael Straczynski, who added seven stories he solicited himself after Ellison’s death. By my count, nine of the 24 stories were among the nearly 90 ...Read More

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At the Fount of Creation by Tobi Ogundiran: Review by Archita Mittra

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At the Fount of Creation, Tobi Ogundiran (Tor­dotcom 978-1-25090-803-2, $21.99, 224pp, hc) January 2025.

At the Fount of Creation is a thrilling con­clusion to Tobi Ogundiran’s Guardians of the Gods duology, packed with cinematic action and with more deities from the Yoruba pantheon making an appearance. It continues the story of Ashâke, a failed acolyte who is later revealed to be the vessel for the surviving orisha, and is ...Read More

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Somewhere Beyond the Sea by TJ Klune: Review by Colleen Mondor

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Somewhere Beyond the Sea, TJ Klune (Tor Books 879-1-250-88120-5, $28.99, 416pp, hc) September 2024.

Fans of TJ Klune’s enormously popular The House in the Cerulean Sea were no doubt thrilled to hear about the unexpected sequel, Somewhere Beyond the Sea. The continuing story of Arthur, Linus, and the group of orphaned magic children they care for is as heartfelt and political as readers could want. Make no mistake, ...Read More

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Blood of the Old Kings by Sung-il Kim: Review by Sean Dowie

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Blood of the Old Kings, Sung-il Kim (Tor 978-1-25089-533-2, $27.95, 368pp, hc) October 2024.

Sung-il Kim’s 2016 fantasy novel Blood of the Old Kings features heroic characters and an innovative, engaging magic system. It makes for a breezy fantasy story where exposition is skillfully allotted in brief bursts that don’t mar its pacing. And the action scenes are breathlessly propulsive. Those ingredients launch a tale of a band of ...Read More

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Demon Daughter by Lois McMaster Bujold: Review by Liz Bourke

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Demon Daughter, Lois McMaster Bujold (Subter­ranean Press 978-1-64524-219-2, $45.00, 224pp, hc) January 2025. Cover by Lauren Saint-Onge.

I first read Lois McMaster Bujold’s Demon Daughter when it was initially released in e-book. Now that it is coming out from Subterranean Press in hardcover – the latest of the Penric and Desdemona novellas set in the World of the Five Gods to do so – I have read it again ...Read More

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The Nightward by R.S.A. Garcia: Review by Liz Bourke

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The Nightward, R.S.A. Garcia (Harper Voyager US 978-0-06-334575-1, $19.99, 448pp, tp) Oc­tober 2024.

The Nightward is R.S.A. Garcia’s first traditionally published novel. From the outside, it looks like a work of epic fantasy in the classic mode, in which a small team of he­roes must outwit and stand against a nebulously defined threat to all they know and love. A closer examination, however, finds it taking this classic form ...Read More

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An Earthquake Is a Shaking of the Surface of the Earth by Anna Moschovakis: Review by Jake Casella Brookins

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An Earthquake Is a Shaking of the Surface of the Earth, Anna Moschovakis (Soft Skull 978-1-59376-783-9, 208pp, $16.95, tp) November 2024. Cover by Gregg Kulick.

I’m continually interested in how the corona­virus pandemic does – or commonly doesn’t – make its way into fiction. It’s such a huge event, but one that “realistic” novels, movies, and television series seem hesitant to engage with, opting instead for a kind of hazy ...Read More

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The Lost Souls of Benzaiten by Kelly Murashige: Review by Colleen Mondor

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The Lost Souls of Benzaiten, Kelly Murashige (Soho Teen 978-1-641-29574-1, $19.99, 304pp, hc) July 2024.

Debut author Kelly Murashige mixes a tender coming-of-age story with the unexpected antics of a bored Japanese goddess to give readers the highly original fantasy The Lost Souls of Ben­zaiten. The author’s clever plot and thoroughly en­gaging characters manage to make all too relatable the protagonist’s wish early on to “become one of ...Read More

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Good Night, Sleep Tight by Brian Evenson: Review by Ian Mond

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Good Night, Sleep Tight, Brian Evenson (Cof­fee House Press 978-1-56689-709-9, $19.00, 256pp, tp) September 2024.

The best horror fiction is about dislocation, the growing feeling that something is askew or lopsided with the world and only you, no one else, is aware. Brian Evenson gets this. In a recent article for Lit Hub, he points out that:

Writing Horror is about tapping into something that resonates for you, some­thing ...Read More

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The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2024 by Hugh Howey & John Joseph Adams, eds.: Review by Gary K. Wolfe

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The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2024, Hugh Howey & John Joseph Adams, eds. (Mariner 978-0063315785, $18.99, 384pp, tp) October 2024.

There are a lot of different ways of assembling an anthology, but none seem quite so programmatic as John Joseph Adams’s The Best American Sci­ence Fiction and Fantasy series, now in its tenth year. Adams describes his methodology with admirable clarity: As series editor, he compiles a list ...Read More

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