The US edition of Philip Pullman’s Daemon Voices: On Stories and Storytelling, plus titles by Myke Cole, Claire G. Coleman, Sebastien de Castell, Deborah Harkness, Tanya Huff, George Mann, Mark Morris, Catherine Reef, Brandon Sanderson, Peter Tieryas, Harry Turtledove, and Edward Willett
William B. Wolfe, The Phantom Files: Twain’s Treasure (Dreaming Robot Press 978-1-940924-29-8, $12.95, 247pp, tp) July 2018. Mark Twain provides the focus for this amusing middle-grade fantasy novel, which follows a boy trying desperately to hide the fact he can see ghosts. Alex April can’t always tell the dead from the living, and that gets him into trouble because the ghosts always want things from him, and aren’t necessarily rational
The annual Clarion West writing workshop was held June 17 – July 27, 2018 in Seattle WA. While you are here, please take a moment to support Locus with a one-time or recurring donation. We rely on reader donations to keep the magazine and site going, and would like to keep the site paywall free, but WE NEED YOUR FINANCIAL SUPPORT to continue quality coverage of the science fiction and
Leech Girl Lives, Rick Claypool (Spaceboy Books 978-0-9987120-7-9, $13.95, 322pp, tp) September 2017. Art Inspector Margo Chicago (named in honor of boundary-pushing art creator Judy Chicago) is in a pickle. She’s trapped outside of the Bublinaplex, a geodesic dome city that protects its residents from the giant fungi and other unsavories that slither and ooze through the landscape. Outside is not a great place to be, if you are a
The Shimmer Program’s Worldcon Attending Fund for Chinese Fans is now accepting applications to attend Worldcon 77 in Dublin, Ireland. The fund is available only to Chinese citizens who live in mainland China. Two active Chinese fans will be selected and granted RMB 10,000 each, for their attendance in and work for Dublin 2019 – An Irish Worldcon, which will be held in Dublin in August 2019. The beneficiaries should
The Science Fiction Poetry Association (SFPA) has announced the 2018 Dwarf Stars Award winners. First Place: “The Green”, Kath Abela Wilson (Carrying the Branch: Poets in Search of Peace) Second Place: “If She Knew She Was a Ghost”, David C. Kopaska-Merkel (Polu Texni 5/22/17) Third Place (tie): “Lo Shu’s Magic Square”, Deborah L. Davitt (Snakeskin #237) Third Place (tie): “Lace at the Throat”, Holly Lynn Walrath (2017 SFPA poetry contest)
Finalists for the National Book Awards (NBA) fiction category have been announced, including works by authors of genre interest: Gun Love, Jennifer Clement (Hogarth) Florida, Lauren Groff (Riverhead) The Great Believers, Rebecca Makkai (Viking) The Friend, Sigrid Nunez (Riverhead) The 2018 fiction judges are Chris Bachelder, Laila Lalami (chair), Min Jin Lee, Laurie Muchnick, and Chinelo Okparanta. Each finalist will receive a prize of $1,000, a medal, and a citation;
The Folio Society Readers’ Choice 2018 survey is now open for public voting. The 15-title finalist list includes several works of genre interest: “Speech Sounds”, Octavia E. Butler “The Chase”, Italo Calvino “The Lady of the House of Love”, Angela Carter “The Signal-Man”, Charles Dickens “The Body Snatcher”, Robert Louis Stevenson The winning stories will be included in The Folio Book of Great Short Stories, to be published in September
Haruki Murakami, who was shortlisted for The New Academy Prize in Literature, has asked to be withdrawn from consideration, explaining that “his preference is to concentrate on his writing, away from media attention.” The prize was founded by Swedish journalist Alexandra Pascalidou with the intent of providing an international literature award since the 2018 Nobel Prize in Literature is not being awarded. The New Academy plans to dissolve in December 2018.
The five-title BBC National Short Story Award shortlist has been announced, with works by authors of genre interest including “To Belong To” by Kerry Andrew and “Sudden Traveller” by Sarah Hall. The winner will be announced at an award ceremony at Cambridge University on October 2, 2018. The winning writer will receive £15,000, and the other shortlisted authors will each get £600. All five stories will be broadcast with author interviews
The Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society (LASFS) has selected Steven Barnes as this year’s recipient of the Forry Award for lifetime achievement in the SF field. The award, named for Forrest J Ackerman, has been presented annually since 1966. Past winners include Ray Bradbury, Andre Norton, Roger Zelazny, and Connie Willis. [via File 770] While you are here, please take a moment to support Locus with a one-time or
Several titles debut on lists this week, most prominently a new Forgotten Realms novel by R.A. Salvatore, Timeless (Harper Voyager), ranking as high as #11 on the Publishers Weekly list. Also: Flight or Fright, an anthology edited by Stephen King and Bev Vincent and published by Cemetery Dance — the second title from that publishers ever compiled on these pages, after Gwendy’s Button Box by King and Richard Chizmar,
Applications are open for the 2018 Tiptree Fellowships until October 31, 2018. Each year, the Tiptree Motherboard awards $500 each to two creators who “are doing work that is changing the way we think about gender through speculative narrative.” For more information, or to apply, see the official website. While you are here, please take a moment to support Locus with a one-time or recurring donation. We rely
REBECCA ROANHORSE was born in 1971 in Conway AR and grew up in Fort Worth TX. She received a B.A. in Religious Studies from Yale University and an M.A. in Theology from Union Theological Seminary before going on to receive a J.D. from the University of New Mexico School of Law, specializing in Federal Indian Law. Roanhorse is of Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo and African American descent, and writes “rez-based fantasy
You want to know why romance is the most popular genre? With more romance novels sold than all other novels put together? I have a theory. It’s not about all the kissy-facing (ok, it is a little bit): it’s because every book ends with hope. Have you noticed how many versions of Sherlock Holmes there are extant? Looking at movies and TV alone, at least three, right? And probably more
The Sacerdotal Owl and Three Other Long Tales, by Michael Bishop (Fairwood Press 978-1933846729, $17.99, 280pp, trade paperback) August 2018 Vividly do I recall purchasing the 1970 issue of Galaxy magazine that contained Michael Bishop’s first story sale, “Piñon Fall.” After all, I was only sixteen years old at the time, and in the midst of my own personal Golden Age of SF immersion. Liking the eerie and evocative tale,
Mercedes Lackey was briefly hospitalized in early August while attending Gen Con in Indiana after she became dizzy and began hallucinating. While she at first feared she was having a stroke, she later realized she was a having a reaction to furniture, carpet, paint, and other materials outgassing in a newly renovated hotel room. She was out of the hospital in time to do her scheduled signing, and is recovering
A new organization, Asia SF Association, has been established, with Cixin Liu as president. The organization has members from China, Egypt, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Vietnam, and other countries. The group first met at APSFCon, held May 18-19, 2018 in Beijing, China, and held a general meeting online in July 2018 to announce the president and board members. In addition to Liu, Latssep of Science Fiction World
Jason Kirk is a senior editor for Amazon Publishing’s 47North and Skyscape imprints. Books edited by Kirk have won the Arthur C. Clarke, British Science Fiction Association, and UTOPiA Book of the Year Awards, and have been finalists for the Philip K. Dick and Bram Stoker Awards. Prior to joining Amazon Publishing in 2014, Kirk worked in magazine publishing and music journalism for 15 years. Aside from his interest in
Vivian Shaw, Dreadful Company (Orbit US 978-0-316-43463-8, $15.99, 323pp, tp) July 2018. Cover by Will Staehle. Dr. Greta Helsing goes to Paris for a medical conference on treating supernatural sorts and naturally runs into monsters, from an unexpected little wellmonster in her sink, to some overly cliché goth vampires with pretentious names and a leader with an old grudge against Lord Ruthven. He’s only in Paris long enough to take
Finalists have been announced for the Digital Book World 2018 Awards across 52 categories. Finalists of genre interest include: Best Book (Science Fiction) Star Wars: From A Certain Point Of View, Anonymous, ed. (Del Rey) The Tangled Lands, Paolo Bacigalupi & Tobias S. Buckell (Saga) Candidates, Cartel, and Chaos, Sterling Emmal (Blurb) Seeker, Douglas E. Richards (Paragon) Artificial Condition, Martha Wells (Tor.com Publishing) Best Book (Horror) Gilchrist, Christian Galacar (self-published)
The 2018 Odyssey Writing Workshop was held June 4 – July 13, 2018 at St. Anselm College in Manchester NH. While you are here, please take a moment to support Locus with a one-time or recurring donation. We rely on reader donations to keep the magazine and site going, and would like to keep the site paywall free, but WE NEED YOUR FINANCIAL SUPPORT to continue quality coverage of the
Alien Virus Love Disaster: Stories, Abbey Mei Otis (Small Beer 978-1-618-73140-1, $16.00, 238pp, tp) August 2018. As I’ve mentioned before, the better small presses cultivate a curatorial sensibility, a distinct personality which can be a reliable indicator that, whatever this new book is, it’s probably at least interesting. Small Beer Press is near the top of this list, and Alien Virus Love Disaster is a good example of what they
Finalists for the National Book Awards (NBA) in the Translated Literature and Young People’s Literature categories have been announced, including titles of genre interest. The Translated Literature longlist includes: Disoriental by Négar Djavadi, translated by Tina Kover (Europa Editions); Comemadre by Roque Larraquy, translated by Heather Cleary (Coffee House); Wait, Blink: A Perfect Picture of Inner Life by Gunnhild Øyehaug, translated by Kari Dickson (Farrar, Straus, Giroux); The Emissary by
HARDCOVERS Months on list Last month 1) Brief Cases, Jim Butcher (Ace) 1 – 2) The Hills Have Spies, Mercedes Lackey (DAW) 1 – 3) Season of Storms, Andrzej Sapkowski (Orbit US) 1 – 4) The Skaar Invasion, Terry Brooks (Del Rey) 1 – 5) Starless, Jacqueline Carey (Tor) 1 – 6) Outcasts of Order, L.E. Modesitt, Jr. (Tor) 1 – 7) King of Ashes, Raymond E. Feist (Harper Voyager
Mercedes Lackey, The Hills Have Spies (DAW 978-0-7564-1317-0, $27.00, 360pp, hc) June 2018. Cover by Jody A. Lee. Lackey returns to Valdemar with this first book in the Family Spies series, the ninth novel featuring Herald Mags, now a father with three children. His eldest, Perry, is only 13, but has been training to follow in his father’s footsteps all his life, and though he has yet to be Chosen
Christopher Priest’s An American Story, Sjón’s CoDex 1962, and titles by Holly Black & Cassandra Clare, Glen Cook, Susan Forest & Lucas K. Law, Sara Hanover, Dean Koontz, Malka Older, Parker Peevyhouse, Angus Watson, and Scott Westerfeld
The Audio Publishers Association has announced that the Audie Awards will no longer hold their gala event during Book Expo, with the 2019 awards moving to March 4 in order “to improve our chances of gathering media attention” and to “increase visibility and also make the night less expensive for attendees,” according to APA president Linda Lee. The ceremony will be held in New York, though a venue has not
The Rio Hondo writing workshop was held May 13-20, 2018 in Angel Fire NM. While you are here, please take a moment to support Locus with a one-time or recurring donation. We rely on reader donations to keep the magazine and site going, and would like to keep the site paywall free, but WE NEED YOUR FINANCIAL SUPPORT to continue quality coverage of the science fiction and fantasy field.
The Million, Karl Schroeder (Tor 978-1-250-18542-6, $14.99, tp) August 2018. Cover by Jan Weßbecher. Karl Schroeder’s novella The Million belongs to the future designed for his previous novel, Lockstep (2014), a setting that I still find strongly reminiscent of that branch of 1950s and ’60s SF in which One Big Idea generates a whole society (a cousin to Kingsley Amis’s “comic inferno” model). Again there is a strong dose of
Finalists for the 2018 Imadjinn Awards have been announced, including several titles of genre interest: Best Science Fiction Novel The Unmoving Stars, Dave Creek (self-published) Belly of the Beast, Katina French (Per Bastet) Best Fantasy Novel The Black Lily, Mandy & G.D. Burkhead (Burkshelf) The Rite of Wands, Mackenzie Flohr (Indigo) Best Horror Novel Knife’s Tell, Daniel Dark (Seventh Star) Dark and Deadly Things, Kelly Martin (self-published) Best Urban Fantasy
J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Fall of Gondolin (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) debuts strongly on print lists this week, as do two other titles: Ilona Andrews’ Magic Triumphs (Ace) and Sherrilyn Kenyon’s Stygian (Tor).
Kelly Robson was born July 17, 1967 in Edmonton, Alberta and grew up in Hinton, Alberta, a small town just east of the Rockies. She graduated with a degree in English from the University of Alberta. Robson married writer A.M. Dellamonica in an “outlaw” wedding in 1989, and they wed officially in 2003 when Canada legalized marriage equality. They lived in Vancouver until 2013, when they relocated to downtown Toronto.
The Hugo-nominated and Locus award-winning anthology Luminescent Threads: Connections to Octavia E. Butler contains essays and letters to the beloved pioneer of science fiction, many of which were written in the wake of the 2016 presidential election. The timing of this collection is particularly poignant; many of the contributors made direct reference to recent events and the contemporary political climate, drawing parallels with Butler’s work. Her influence is keenly felt. Miriam Rune
Abrams has purchased The Overlook Press, with some employees (notably publisher Tracy Carns) set to remain after the transition. The move began in August 2018, with Abrams taking immediate control of all editorial, marketing, and business elements, and planning to take over sales and distribution once existing service contracts run out – Overlook is currently distributed by Norton, while Abrams is distributed by Hachette Book Group. The Overlook Press was
Frank Frazetta’s 1972 painting “Escape from Venus”, used as the cover for the eponymous Edgar Rice Burroughs volume in 1974, sold for $660,000 at auction in August 2018, the third-highest price yet for a Frazetta painting auctioned in the US – “Death Dealer 6” (1990) sold for $1.79 million this past May. While you are here, please take a moment to support Locus with a one-time or recurring
New issues of Apex, Aphelion, Aurealis, Clarkesworld, The Dark, Galaxy’s Edge, GigaNotoSaurus, Lightspeed, The New York Review of Science Fiction, Nightmare, Shimmer, and Uncanny
» David Langford’s Ansible 374 » Wired: Yuval Noah Harari on science fiction, and Harari’s episode at Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy » Spectator: James Bradley reviews Christopher Priest’s An American Story » Guardian: Eric Brown reviews Peter F Hamilton, Tamora Pierce, Catherynne M Valente, Jasper Fforde, Martin Millar » Chicago Tribune: Gary K. Wolfe reviews Abbey Mei Otis, Jeffrey Ford, John Varley » Scott Edelman dines with Don McGregor
George R.R. Martin appeared on stage in conversation with artist John Picacio on August 14, 2018 at the historic Fox Theatre in Redwood City CA. The event was hosted by SF in SF, with proceeds from ticket sales benefitting the Locus Science Fiction Foundation. An audience of nearly 600 (including various genre luminaries in town for Worldcon) gathered for a wide-ranging discussion that stretched over more than two hours (with
Annalee Newitz of Ars Technica sat down with author Robin Sloan on August 8, 2018 during the monthly Ars Technica Live event at Eli’s Mile High Club in Oakland CA to discuss Sloan’s SF novel Sourdough (2017) and his machine learning experiments – including a bot he trained on old issues of SF magazines and programmed to write science fictional sentences. For more, see the Ars Technica website.
The Promise of Space, James Patrick Kelly (Prime 978-1-607-01495-9, $15.95, 384pp, tp) July 2018. In his afterword to The Promise of Space, James Patrick Kelly assures us that none of the 16 stories were included in his massive Centipede Press collection from a couple of years ago, the imposingly titled Masters of Science Fiction: James Patrick Kelly – which serves as an indication that his accomplished career as a short
Space and Time has announced that it will close after 52 years of continuous publication. They plan to produce two more issues, one before the end of 2018 and one in 2019. Editor-in-chief Hildy Silverman says: The expenses associated with printing and shipping issues have outpaced income by a ridiculous margin — quite simply, S&T no longer has enough subscribers to remain viable. And, as I have a day job
Dragonfly Song by Wendy Orr (Allen & Unwin) is one of the five titles shortlisted for the 2018 TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award. The C$50,000 prize, awarded “for the most distinguished book of the year,” is sponsored by the Toronto-Dominion Bank Group and administered by the Canadian Children’s Book Centre (CCBC). For more information, including a complete list of finalists, see the CCBC website. While you are here, please take
The Cascade Writers workshop was held July 20 – July 22, 2018 in Tacoma WA. While you are here, please take a moment to support Locus with a one-time or recurring donation. We rely on reader donations to keep the magazine and site going, and would like to keep the site paywall free, but WE NEED YOUR FINANCIAL SUPPORT to continue quality coverage of the science fiction and fantasy field.
Tanya Huff, The Privilege of Peace (DAW 978-0-7564-1153-4, $26.00, 342pp, hc) June 2018. Cover by Paul Youll. Torin Kerr – and the alien plastic – are back in this lively third novel in the Peacekeeper trilogy, itself a follow-up to the military SF Confederation novels. Torin and her Wardens Strike Team Alpha continue their work keeping the peace when things get violent, but they’re having continued trouble from the group
Starting in July, Tor Books has begun delaying release of ebook versions of some titles to the library market for four months after the on-sale date as “part of a test program to determine the impact of eLending on retail sales.” They plan to “work closely with our library vendors who service this channel to evaluate the results and develop ongoing terms that will best support Tor’s authors, their agents,
The Expert System’s Brother, Adrian Tchaikovsky (Tor.com Publishing 978-1-250-19756-6, $14.99, 174pp, tp) July 2018. Cover by Raphael Lacoste. The Expert System’s Brother is a new novella by Arthur C. Clarke Award-winning author Adrian Tchaikovsky (Children of Time, Ironclads) from Tor.com Publishing’s well-regarded novella line. Tchaikovsky is developing quite a range when it comes to science fiction, from the near-future grim military story of Ironclads to the deep-time, far-future hard evolutionary
Ten years of Tor.com short fiction in Irene Gallo’s anthology Worlds Seen in Passing, J.R.R. Tolkien’s unfinished The Fall of Gondolin, Stephen King & Ben Vincent’s anthology Flight or Fright, and new titles by Stephen Aryan, Larry Correia, Jaine Fenn, Sean Grigsby, Peter F. Hamilton, Nick Mamatas, Michael J. Martinez, Jack McDevitt, Seanan McGuire, Patrick Ness & Rovina Cai, Tim Pratt, Justina Robson, Greg van Eekhout, Steve White, and Walter
“Clearly Lettered in a Mostly Steady Hand” by Fran Wilde (Uncanny 9/17) is the winner of the 2018 Eugie Foster Memorial Award for Short Fiction (the Eugie Award), announced September 1, 2018 at Dragon Con, held at the Hyatt Regency in Atlanta GA. Other finalists were: “Infinite Love Engine”, Violet Allen (Lightspeed 4/17) “Zen and the Art of Starship Maintenance”, Tobias S. Buckell (Cosmic Powers) “The Last Novelist (or A
Winners of the 2018 Dragon Awards were announced at Dragon Con on September 1, 2018 in Atlanta GA. Best Science Fiction Novel WINNER: Artemis, Andy Weir (Crown) Persepolis Rising, James S.A. Corey (Orbit US; Orbit UK) The Mutineer’s Daughter, Chris Kennedy & Thomas A. Mays (Theogony) Sins of Her Father, Mike Kupari (Baen) Win, Vera Nazarian (Norilana) It Takes Death to Reach a Star, Gareth Worthington & Stu Jones (Vesuvian)
“Family Over Blood” by Kacey Ezell (Forged in Blood) is the winner of Baen‘s fourth annual Year’s Best Military and Adventure SF Readers’ Choice Award, announced September 1, 2018 at Dragon Con in Atlanta GA. The prize includes $500 and an inscribed plaque. The winner was selected by public vote from 15 finalist stories published in The Year’s Best Military and Adventure SF, Vol. 4, edited by David Afsharirad (Baen).
The yearly Clarion writing workshop was held June 24 – August 4, 2018 at UC San Diego in La Jolla CA. While you are here, please take a moment to support Locus with a one-time or recurring donation. We rely on reader donations to keep the magazine and site going, and would like to keep the site paywall free, but WE NEED YOUR FINANCIAL SUPPORT to continue quality coverage of
Spinning Silver, Naomi Novik (Del Rey 978-0-399-18098-9, $28.00, 440pp, hc) July 2018. One of the highlights of Navah Wolfe & Dominic Parisien’s The Starlit Wood a couple of years ago was Naomi Novik’s “Spinning Silver”, a shrewd deconstruction of the Rumpelstiltskin tale, which highlighted, among other things, the anti-Semitic undertones of the original, a point which Jane Yolen and others have previously noted. Now Novik has expanded Spinning Silver into
As women writing fantasy and science fiction today it’s exciting to see so many female writers of this genre, to see more support for women and continued successes. As a writer of paranormal, fantasy, and science fiction since the 1990s, I’ve found a welcoming home in this genre over the years. I’ve invited some of my friends and colleagues to join me in discussing what it’s like to write in
A new J.R.R. Tolkien book, The Fall of Gondolin (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), is selling well on all three Amazon lists today; look for it on the print bestseller lists in a week or two.
Once, the mainstream view was that worrying about tech policy was faintly ridiculous, a kind of masturbatory science fictional exercise in which your hyperactive imagination led you to have vivid delusions about the supposed significance of the rules we laid down for the internet and the computers we connect to it. Weirdly, worrying about this stuff made you a “techno utopian,” though it’s a strange type of utopian who spends
Agent Martha Millard is retiring, effective immediately. She ran her eponymous literary agency for 35 years, and spent the past three years working at Sterling Lord Literistic. She says, I need to focus my attention on maintaining my health, as I have Parkinson’s. It’s been hugely satisfying to work with some of the best writers in the SF, fantasy, and general field, and I feel fully confident leaving my wonderful
Irontown Blues, by John Varley (Ace 978-1-101-98937-1, $16, 304pp, trade paperback August 2018 The science fiction and fantasy genres are conducive to long-lived series. Any number of writers who have managed to contrive extensive careers have found fandoms who relish receiving continuing installments of their favorite sagas. Sometimes enthusiastically, sometimes reluctantly, these writers keep the franchises ticking along. Jack Williamson gave us The Legion of Space in 1947–and in 1983
Worldcon 76 was held August 16-20, 2018 at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center in San Jose CA. Guests of honor were Spider Robinson, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, John Picacio, Frank Hayes, and Pierre & Sandy Pettinger. Edgar Pangborn and Bob Wilkins were memorial ghosts of honor. According to preliminary numbers, the convention had 5,440 warm bodies on site, out of 7,864 members total (including 1,771 supporting members). The October issue
August issues and posts at Apex, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Daily SF, Intergalactic Medicine Show, Strange Horizons, and Tor.com.
The Locus Selected Books by Author list has been updated on our Forthcoming Books page, with information from the September 2018 issue covering upcoming titles from genre houses slated through June 2019. Find out about your favorite authors upcoming books! For the complete list of books by publisher, subscribe to our print magazine or purchase the September issue in print or digital editions, available September 1, 2018. While you are
Laura Purcell’s horror novel The Silent Companions (Raven) is one of six titles on the Goldsboro Books Glass Bell Award shortlist. The award was established in 2017 by independent bookstore Goldsboro Books for novels with “compelling storytelling with brilliant characterisation and a distinct voice that is confidently written and assuredly realised.” The winning title will be announced September 27, 2018 and the author will receive £2,000 as well as a
Laura Anne Gilman, Red Waters Rising (Saga 978-1-4814-2975-7, $16.99, 350pp, tp) June 2018. Cover by Emma Ríos. The Devil’s West trilogy concludes – sort of – with this novel, which finds Isobel and Gabriel heading south for the winter, ending Isobel’s training trip as the Devil’s Hand on the eastern edge of the Devil’s Territory, across the Big Muddy river from what would be New Orleans in our world. Isobel’s
A Voice in the Night, by Jack McDevitt (Subterranean 978-1-59606-880-3, $40.00, 464pp, hardcover) 31 August 2018 With nearly two dozen novels published, Jack McDevitt is one of those writers whose sturdy and engaging presence in the territory of long-form fiction definitely overshadows his stature at shorter lengths. But since his first story sale in 1981–nigh unto forty years ago, impossible as that seems!–he has accumulated, by ISFDB’s catalog, over one
The Cabin at the End of the World, Paul Tremblay (William Morrow, 978-0062679109, $26.99, 288pp, hc) June 2018. I’m not a fan of secluded countryside chalets where the 4G is patchy, there’s no wifi, and the closest neighbor is 20 minutes away. These places fill me with existential dread; every creak and whisper a possible axe-murderer out for an easy kill. Paul Tremblay’s The Cabin at the End of the
A vagabond, a pit-fighter, a noblewoman, and a dung-collector stand in a crowded square to witness the execution of a dissident madman. Though strangers before that overcast day, the condemned man’s final ravings upon the scaffold will bind them inextricably. Marked to deliver his body safely to a doom-cult, the four hapless individuals discover that failure risks their sanity. And their souls. That was the story hook for a roleplaying
The latest return of Amazing Stories, and new issues of Analog Science Fiction and Fact, Asimov’s Science Fiction, and The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
The four-person shortlist for The New Academy Prize in Literature includes three authors of genre interest: Maryse Condé, Neil Gaiman, and Haruki Murakami. (Vietnamese-Canadian author Kim Thúy is the fourth.) The prize was founded by Swedish journalist Alexandra Pascalidou with the intent of providing an international literature award since the 2018 Nobel Prize in Literature is not being awarded. The New Academy plans to dissolve in December 2018. The winner will
A Thousand Beginnings and Endings, Ellen Oh & Elsie Chapman, eds. (Greenwillow 978-0-06-267115-8, $17.99, 336pp, hc) June 2018. In the introduction to A Thousand Beginnings and Endings, editors Elsie Chapman & Ellen Oh write of their deep love for myth and legend, something many readers will likely identify with. However, for Chapman and Oh, immersion in tales of Greek and Norse gods, while exciting, was always a bit disappointing. The
John Varley’s Irontown Blues, Jeffrey Ford’s Ahab’s Return: or, The Last Voyage, Adam Roberts’ By the Pricking of Her Thumb, and titles by Ilona Andrews, Seb Doubinsky, Nicholas Eames, Richard Kadrey, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Rhonda Mason, Brian McClellan, and Victoria Schwab
Winners of the the inaugural Splatterpunk Awards, honoring “superior achievement in the sub-genres of SplatterPunk / Extreme Horror fiction,” were announced at Killercon 2018, held August 24-26, 2018 at the Wingate by Wyndham Conference Center in Round Rock TX. Best Novel WINNER: White Trash Gothic, Edward Lee (Deadite) Containment: The Death of Earth, Charlee Jacob (Necro) Exorcist Falls, Jonathan Janz (Sinister Grin) The Hematophages, Stephen Kozeniewski (Sinister Grin) Spermjackers From
Jessica Day George, The Rose Legacy (Bloomsbury USA 978-1-59990-647-8, $18.99, 259pp, hc) May 2018. Cover by Kevin Keele. Kids who dream of having horses should love this middle-grade fantasy novel about an unwanted orphan girl who ends up with an uncle she didn’t know she had, who raises forbidden animals: horses. This has an interesting setting in a kingdom vaguely reminiscent of an early-20th-century Great Britain, with trains and early
Josh: So, about the title of this review. What do you think of, “We’re gonna need a bigger boat,” or is that too easy? Arley: How about, “We’re gonna need a bigger shark.” Josh: I was also thinking, “We’re gonna need a bigger beer.” The Meg stars Jason Statham as Jonas Taylor, a diver whose rescue operation goes wrong due to an encounter with a mysterious creature, which scares him
Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders (Random House) won the 2018 Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize in the fiction category, announced August 23, 2018. The Heartland Prize has been awarded in fiction and non-fiction categories annually since 1988 for “work that exemplifies the values of heartland America.” The awards will be presented October 27, 2018 during the Chicago Humanities Festival in Chicago IL. Previous winners of genre interest include Colson
Worldcon Artist Guest of Honor John Picacio received an Alfie Award for his services to the field, including the recent Mexicanx Initiative to bring pros and fans of Mexican ancestry to Worldcon, presented by George R.R. Martin at the Hugo Losers Party, held August 19, 2018 in San Jose CA during Worldcon 76. The Alfie Awards were created by Martin in 2015 and named in honor of Alfred Bester (whose
Stephen King’s The Outsider remains on all four print lists compiled here.
84K, Claire North (Orbit 978-0316316804, $15.99, 480pp, tp) May 2018. Since 2014 Claire North has tapped into a rich vein of high concept speculative thrillers. Starting with The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August, each stand-alone novel has been framed around a straightforward “what if.” For example, what if there were people who, when they died, cycled back to the day they were born, but with all their memories intact?
Classic works in new editions include a new translation of Arkady & Boris Strugatsky’s The Snail on the Slope, a novel by Tim Powers, and collections and omnibuses by Poul Anderson, Tanith Lee, H.P. Lovecraft, Arthur Machen, Pamela Sargent, and Connie Willis.
The Future Affairs Administration (FAA) and Dailan Wanda Group, in cooperation with the local government in Danzhai, organized the Danzhai SF Camp, bringing SF writers to tour anti-poverty initiatives in Danzhai County, Guizhou province, including Danzhai Wanda Village (recently transformed into a tourist destination) and Legend Tea. Invited writers included Jiang Bo, Alyx Dellamonica, Derek Künsken, Lucia Liu, Liang Qingshan, Kelly Robson, Lawrence Schoen, Bao Shu, and Han Song, who
Tina Connolly taught a YA-novel writing workshop at the Gunn Center for the Study of Science Fiction at the University of Kansas, held June 24-29, 2018. While you are here, please take a moment to support Locus with a one-time or recurring donation. We rely on reader donations to keep the magazine and site going, and would like to keep the site paywall free, but WE NEED YOUR FINANCIAL SUPPORT
