The New England Science Fiction Association (NESFA) SF/F short story contest is now open to entries from amateur and semi-professional writers. Winners will be selected by a panel of judges and announced at Boskone 57, to be held at the Westin Waterfront Hotel in Boston MA, February 14-16, 2020. Prizes include certificates of achievement, books from NESFA Press, and free membership to a future Boskone convention. Deadline for submissions is
New titles this week are by Jay Allan, Stephanie Andrea Allen & Lauren Cherelle, John Birmingham, Michael Bishop, Marie Brennan, Troy Carrol Bucher, Ellen Datlow, Craig Dilouie, Shane Hinton, Rokuro Inui, Morgan Llywelyn, Téa Obreht, and Juli Zeh.
The winners of the 2019 National Fantasy Fan Federation Speculative Fiction Awards (the Neffys) have been announced. Best Novel (over 100,000 words) Against Three Lands, George Phillies (self-published) Best Shorter Work (under 100,000 words) The Black God’s Drums, P. Djèlí Clark (Tor.com Publishing) Best Book Editor Toni Weisskopf Best Magazine Amazing Best Fanzine Tightbeam Best Blog Mad Genius Club Best Graphic Art Publication Raven: Daughter of Darkness, Marv Wolfman & Pop Mhan
Fall; or, Dodge in Hell, Neal Stephenson (Morrow 978-0-06-245871-1, $35.00, 896pp, hc) June 2019. Neal Stephenson’s idea of a novel isn’t quite the same as anyone else’s, and for the most part this has served him remarkably well. His Baroque Cycle trilogy was really no more a trilogy than was Asimov’s Foundation series, except that while Asimov’s narrative units were stories and novellas, Stephenson’s were entire novels – and not
The best science fiction I have read this year came in a series of emails from the future. The Training Commission is a collaboration between authors Ingrid Burrington and Brendan C. Byrne, produced with sponsorship from Mozilla. It’s an epistolary work, a fragmented narrative in the form of electronic correspondence from a character on the run in a near-future USA that is both familiar and incredibly strange. Rich with worldbuilding
Applications are open for the 2019 Tiptree Fellowships until October 31, 2019. Each year, the Tiptree Motherboard awards $500 each to two emerging 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
Washington DC’s unopposed bid to host the 2021 Worldcon was successful, with 798 votes received in favor out of 878 votes total. (Other votes included “none of the above,” “no preference,” and various write-in choices.) DisCon III, the 79th World Science Fiction Convention, will be held at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in Washington DC, August 25-29, 2021. Guests of honor include Nancy Kress, Malka Older, Sherée Renee Thomas,
The nominees for the 2018 Sidewise Awards for Alternate History have been announced. Long Form The Calculating Stars, Mary Robinette Kowal (Tor) Summerland, Hannu Rajaniemi (Tor) The Trial and Execution of the Traitor George Washington, Charles Rosenberg (Hanover Square) Unholy Land, Lavie Tidhar (Tachyon) Short Form “The Secret City”, Rick Wilber (Asimov’s 9-10/18) Codex Valtierra, Oscar (Xiu) Ramirez & Emmanuel Valtierra (self-published) The Sidewise Awards have been presented annually since
Pierce Brown’s Dark Age debuts on one more list, but drops on three others.
Finalists for the 2019 Washington Science Fiction Association (WSFA) Small Press Award for Short Fiction have been announced: “The Tale of the Three Beautiful Raptor Sisters, and the Prince Who Was Made of Meat”, Brooke Bolander (Uncanny 7-8/18) “Familiar in Her Angles”, E.A. Brenner (Metaphorosis 9/21/18) “Baggage”, Leslie Burton-Lopez (When to Now: A Time Travel Anthology) “The Djinni and the Accountant”, Hal J. Friesen (Fire: Demons, Dragons, and Djinn) “A
Lesley Nneka Arimah was born October 13, 1983, in London and grew up in Nigeria, Europe, and the US – wherever her father was stationed for work. She attended Florida State University as an undergrad and got her MFA at Minnesota State University, graduating in 2010. Arimah’s short fiction has appeared in in Granta, Harper’s, McSweeney’s, The New Yorker, A People’s Future of the United States (2019), and several other
Broken Shadow, Jaine Fenn (Angry Robot US 978-0-85766-803-5, $12.99, 432pp, tp) May 2019. Cover by Andreas Rocha. Jaine Fenn’s Hidden Sun, out from Angry Robot Books last year, introduced the reader to the world of shadowlands and skylands. In the shadowlands, or at least the ones with which the novel concerns itself, a powerful Church restricts scientific development and unorthodox thought, while a patriarchal society relegates women to a second-class
Winners for the Hugo Awards and for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer were announced by Dublin 2019, the 77th Worldcon, on August 18, 2019 at the Convention Centre Dublin in Dublin Ireland. Best Novel WINNER: The Calculating Stars, Mary Robinette Kowal (Tor) Record of a Spaceborn Few, Becky Chambers (Harper Voyager US; Hodder & Stoughton) Revenant Gun, Yoon Ha Lee (Solaris US; Solaris UK) Spinning Silver, Naomi Novik
Kim Newman will be Writer Guest of Honour at Stokercon UK, to be held April 16-19, 2020 at the Royal and Grand Hotels in Scarborough, UK, joining previously announced Editor Guest of Honour Gillian Redfearn and Mistress of Ceremonies AK Benedict. For more <stokercon-uk.com/guests.htm>. 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
The 18th Indian SF Conference/the 4th International SF Conference will be held October 16-18, 2019 at Mukthananda College, Gangapur in Aurangabad, Maharashtra State, India. The theme is “Science & Science Fiction – Inter Disciplinary & Multi Disciplinary Perspectives.” Guests include Michaek Brotherton, Kristen Renee Goritz, Joshua Sky, Ashish Mahabal, and Ravindra Kale from the US, Michael Iwoleit from Germany, Frank Roger from Belgium, and Julie Novakova from the Czech Republic.
Analog 5-6/19 Asimov’s 5-6/19 Space and Time Spring/Summer ’19 The May-June Analog opens with a fun alternate history from Harry Turtledove, “Bonehunters“, retelling a version of the fossil wars of the late 19th century in a timeline where, apparently, dinosaurs never became extinct, and two separate intelligent species evolved from raptors. The story is told by Rekek, a “greenskin” who serves as a guide. His stepson Junior is a “brownskin”
The 2019 Sycamore Hills Writers’ Conference was held June 15-21, 2019 at the Wildacres Retreat Center in the Blue Ridge Mountains near Little Switzerland NC. This story and more like it in the August 2019 issue of Locus. 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
Malcolm Edwards has been named publisher of André Deutsch, a venerable imprint recently acquired by the fledgling Welbeck Publishing Group. Edwards has been charged with “resurrecting and reviving” their backlist and acquiring new titles in the SF, fantasy, horror, crime, and thriller genres. Deutsch was founded in 1952 and published works by Margaret Atwood, Jack Kerouac, Philip Roth, and John Updike, among others. Edwards says, “The appeal was that it’s
Marc Gascoigne has been named publisher of Aconyte, a new fiction imprint from game company Asmodee (which publishes Arkham Horror, Legend of the Five Rings, Pandemic, Dead of Winter, and Catan, among other games). The imprint will focus on titles based on their games, but also has plans to publish tie-in works for other parties. They recently made a deal with Simon & Schuster for US and Canadian distribution, with
Writer Barry Hughart, 85, died August 1, 2019. Hughart was best known for his Master Li series, set in a mythical version of China, beginning with World Fantasy and Mythopoeic Award winner Bridge of Birds (1984) and continuing with The Story of the Stone (1988) and Eight Skilled Gentlemen (1991), all later collected as The Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox (1998). Hughart was born March 13, 1934
Editor and author Robert N. Stephenson, 57, died August 15, 2019. Stephenson wrote SF and mystery, edited magazine Altair, and was publisher of Altair Publishing/Altair Australia Books. Stephenson was born September 17, 1961 in Adelaide, South Australia. His first book, poetry collection Garments of Rainbow, appeared in 1992, and his first story, “Who’ll Stop the Rain”, in 1998. He went on to publish around 50 stories, notably Aurora Award winner
Amnesty, Lara Elena Donnelly (Tor 978-1-25017-362-1, $18.99, 384pp, tp) April 2019. “It is not easy,” Aristide Makricosta tells a gathered crowd early in Amnesty, “to destroy your life. To coat the things you love in kerosene and light a match.” He is talking about Cordelia Lehane, a burlesque dancer turned resistance leader, who did exactly that when she decided to fight against the fascism sweeping across Amberlough. Cordelia had a
Winners for the 1944 Retro Hugo Awards, honoring work from 1943, were announced by Dublin 2019, the 77th Worldcon, during a ceremony held August 15, 2019 at the Convention Centre Dublin in Dublin Ireland. Best Novel WINNER: Conjure Wife, Fritz Leiber, Jr. (Unknown Worlds 4/43) Das Glasperlenspiel [The Glass Bead Game], Hermann Hesse (Fretz & Wasmuth) Gather, Darkness!, Fritz Leiber, Jr. (Astounding Science-Fiction 5/43-7/43) Perelandra, C.S. Lewis (John Lane, The Bodley
Triangulum, Masande Ntshanga (Two Dollar Radio 978-1937512774, $17.99, 367pp, tp) May 2019. I was predisposed to enjoy Masande Ntshanga’s Triangulum. Some of my favourite books are “found manuscript” novels, including James Hogg’s The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner, David Means’ Man Booker Prize longlisted Hystopia, and the granddaddy of them all, Mark Z. Danielewski’s breathtaking House of Leaves. Triangulum doesn’t feature the structural and typographical antics of
The Locus Bestsellers for August include top titles A Brightness Long Ago by Guy Gavriel Kay, A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin, and Star Wars: Master & Apprentice by Claudia Gray. HARDCOVERS Months on list Last month 1) A Brightness Long Ago, Guy Gavriel Kay (Berkley) 1 – 2) Exhalation, Ted Chiang (Knopf) 1 – 3) Storm Cursed, Patricia Briggs (Ace) 1 – 4) Middlegame, Seanan McGuire (Tor.com
Clarkesworld 4/19 Apex 3/19 Capricious SF #11 Apparition #5 Aurealis #119 April’s Clarkesworld brings us the first in a planned run of stories translated from Korean, starting with “The Flowering” by Soyeon Jong (translated by Jihyun Park & Gord Sellar). This is a sly story told in interview style, with the sister of a known subversive who’s been working to literally ‘plant’ organic biotech routers to get around government censorship.
The Science Fiction Research Association (SFRA) has announced the winners of several of its awards. Mary Kay Bray award for best essay, interview, or extended review to appear in the SFRA Review (tie) Amandine Faucheux for a review of The Stone Sky by N.K. Jemisin T.S. Miller for a review of The Oxford Handbook of Science Fiction by Rob Latham, ed. Thomas D. Clareson award for distinguished service Sherryl Vint
New titles this week are by Eugen Bacon, Christopher Brown, Howard V. Hendrix, Reese Hogan, Saad Z. Hossain, Keren Landsman, George R.R. Martin et al, L.E. Modesitt, Jr., Temi Oh, Anna Smith Spark, and Erin Swan.
The Iron Dragon’s Mother, Michael Swanwick (Tor 978-1-250-19825-9, $26.99, 366pp, hc) June 2019. There are hints of the afterlife in Michael Swanwick’s The Iron Dragon’s Mother, but it’s hard to accuse a fantasy world of pretentiousness when it cheerfully includes living metal dragon jet fighters along with Hello Kitty backpacks, or in which the streets of a magical underwater city are lined with Vuitton and Dolce & Gabbana shops. Swanwick
All ideas come from somewhere. For me, a book really starts taking shape when I have three separate ideas that come together. These ideas come from all sorts of places, but at least one of them is almost always from another piece of art. For example, for one of my novels, I found a gorgeous picture on Deviant Art that filled my mind with possibilities, and brought my story in
The six-title shortlist for the 2018 Edge Hill Prize for Short Story includes genre titles The Sadness of Beautiful Things by Simon Van Booy (Penguin) and The Sing of the Shore by Lucy Wood (4th Estate). The £10,000 prize “recognises excellence in a single author short story collection.” Judges for 2019 are Elizabeth Baines, Tessa Hadley, and Sam Jordison. The winners will be announced on October 25, 2019 during a ceremony
Author J. Neil Schulman, 66, died August 11, 2019 in Colorado Springs CO. He suffered a pulmonary embolism three days earlier and never regained consciousness. Schulman’s work was particularly influential in the field of Libertarian SF. His first novel Alongside Night (1979) was a finalist for the Libertarian Futurist Society’s Prometheus Award, and in 1989 it won their Hall of Fame Award. The Rainbow Cadenza: A Novel in Logosata Form
Pierce Brown’s Dark Age (Del Rey), latest in his Red Rising series, debuts strongly on three lists.
William Gibson was born March 17, 1948 in Conway SC and grew up in Virginia, attending boarding school in Arizona. He went to Canada in 1967 to avoid being drafted into the Vietnam War, eventually settling in Vancouver, British Columbia in 1972. He began seriously writing fiction while studying at the University of British Columbia, where he earned a BA in English in 1977. That same year he published his
Do You Dream of Terra-Two?, Temi Oh (Saga 978-1-53443-7401 $16.99, 528pp, tp) March 2019. First, this book is a doorstop. I am not kidding, it’s a book about a deep space mission that doesn’t even leave the ground until more than 100 pages in. It has a big cast of characters (six living teens, one dead one, four adults, plus mentions of various parents and assorted other living and dead
Presenting the cover of Tetrastatum by Tim Smith & Dr. Richard! From the publisher: What if the laws of physics as we understand them are incomplete, only half of the equations that explain reality? Mankind has been blinded by the light, searching for answers in the photonic (material) universe while the truths are concealed beyond the shutter speed of our biological cameras. One day, an image processor evolves. Schrödinger’s equation
Amazon’s ongoing legal issues in Europe continue. The Federal Cartel Office in Germany has accepted concessions from Amazon regarding the retailer’s terms for third-party sellers, and has closed the “abuse of dominance” procedure begun last fall. According to Cartel Office head Andreas Mundt, Amazon has agreed to improve “the lack of transparency of the terms of business; the unexpected termination and blocking of sellers accounts…; the lack of possibilities for
New issues of Aphelion, Aurealis, Clarkesworld, The Dark, Lightspeed, and Nightmare
Author Lavie Tidhar and game designer Jake Olefsky have launched an interactive SF story, “Svalvard”. Olefsky explains: “Essentially, you read a chapter, then solve a puzzle to unlock the next chapter. There are 23 short chapters in this non-linear short story. Did I mention it has robots and sentient fungi?” To read – and play – visit <www.puzzletales.com>. While you are here, please take a moment to support Locus with
The Warship, Neal Asher (Night Shade 978-1-59780-990-0, $26.99, 369pp, hc) May 2019. Cover by Adam Burn. Okay, now it’s getting complicated. I called Infinity Engine (2017), the finale of Neal Asher’s Transformation trilogy, “sprawling and shaggy,” a description that applies as well to his new book. The Warship is the plot-thickening middle volume of a trilogy that is also part of the Polity future history series that so far consists
Laffcon 4, the world’s only conference dedicated to the work of R.A. Lafferty, was held at the Lawrence Library in Lawrenceville NJ on June 8, 2019. The event, co-sponsored by the Lawrence Library and the Northeast Lafferty League (NELL), included lectures, readings, panels, an art gallery, and a lunch reception. More information can be found at <ralafferty.com> and <laffcon.org>. This report and more like it in the August 2019 issue
Ragged Alice, Gareth L. Powell (Tor.com Publishing 978-1-250-22018-9, $14.99, 202pp, tp) April 2019. In this novella, Powell introduces DCI Holly Craig, a London-based detective who has decided to move back to her native Wales in this Broadchurch-esque mystery. The detective grew up in the seaside town Pontyrhudd, where things aren’t always what they seem and the residents are colorful. A young woman has been murdered and Craig’s untangling of the
Finalists for the 2019 Imadjinn Awards have been announced, including several categories of genre interest. Best Science Fiction Novel The Shadow Beneath the Waves, Matt Betts (Severed) Storm Forged, Patrick Dugan (Falstaff) Jurassic Jail, William Alan Webb (Dingbat) Best Fantasy Novel Winter’s Heir, Sarah Joy Adams & Emily Lavin Leverett (Falstaff) Fey West, Michael J. Allen (Bell Bridge) Terra Australis, Cody Higgins (Zen Mob) Best Horror Novel The Mourner’s Cradle:
Red Birds, Mohammed Hanif (Bloomsbury 978-1408897188, £16.99, 304pp, hc) October 2018. (Grove/Black Cat 978-0802147288, $16.00, 304pp, tp) May 2019. Mohammed Hanif draws on his own experience as an Air Force pilot for his fourth novel, Red Birds, a hit-and-miss satire on America’s attitude toward foreign policy, set in a refugee camp located in an unnamed Arabic country. The narrative alternates between three characters, the first of which is a discombobulated
Dragon Con has announced the ballot for the 2019 Dragon Awards. Voting is open to the public at the Dragon Awards website; registration for voting is open until August 30, 2019, 11:59PM (EDT). Winners will be announced at Dragon Con, held August 29 – September 2, 2019 in Atlanta GA. Best Science Fiction Novel Record of a Spaceborn Few, Becky Chambers (Harper Voyager) Tiamat’s Wrath, James S.A. Corey (Orbit) Europe
I had the good fortune of attending Another Planet Science Fiction Convention from May 22-23, 2019 at the Chaoyang Museum of Urban Planning in Beijing, China. It’s the second year of this four-track con celebrating Chinese and world science fiction. The conference is organized by the Future Affairs Administration (FAA), a private multimedia SF company looking to create a meeting place for authors, fans, movie producers and directors, special effects
Descendant of the Crane, Joan He (Albert Whitman 978-0-80751-551-8, $17.99, 416pp, hc) April 2019. I more than liked Joan He’s debut fantasy. Descendent of the Crane sets itself in a world deeply influenced by Chinese history and culture. It’s a lush, deeply realised world, full of laws and ministries and red-light districts, scents and textures and presences, histories and legacies. (I’m almost certainly missing references and resonances that would make
Readercon 30 was held July 11-14, 2019, in Quincy MA. Guests of honor were Tananarive Due and Stephen Graham Jones; Edward Bryant was the memorial guest of honor. Total attendance was 700; highest warm body count an estimated 650 on Saturday. The focus of Readercon is “imaginative literature” – literary science fiction, fantasy, horror, and their intersections. Programming was deliberately organized, with topics ranging from book-club style discussions to academic
Fantasy series are everywhere on this week’s list of new books! New volumes in The Age of Dread, Vorkosigan, Witchy Eye, The Custard Protocol, Monster Hunter, Legends of the Alfar, The Poppy War, Dragons of Terra, and The Dragon Corsairs series. New titles this week are by Stephen Aryan, Damien Broderick, Lois McMaster Bujold, D.J. Butler, Gail Carriger, Larry Correia & Sarah A. Hoyt, Julie E. Czerneda, Joel Dane, J.P.
Nobel laureate Toni Morrison, 88, died August 5, 2019 in the Bronx, of complications from pneumonia. Morrison was celebrated for her complex and emotionally rich novels about womanhood and the black experience in America. She often used supernatural and magical realist elements in her work, notably in National Book Critics Circle Award winner Song of Solomon (1976), Pulitzer Prize winner Beloved (1987; adapted as a feature film in 1998), and
Everything is Made of Letters, Sofía Rhei (Aqueduct) March 2019. Perihelion Summer, Greg Egan (Tor.com Publishing) April 2019. Hidden Histories, Juliana Rew, ed. (Third Flatiron) April 2019. I was really impressed by Sofía Rhei‘s Everything is Made of Letters. Rhei is a Spanish writer, and this slim book contains five recent stories, all as far as I can tell appearing here for the first time in English. The title of
The Clarion West Summer Workshop has announced its 2020 instructors: Ted Chiang, Neil Clarke, Tina Connolly, Andy Duncan, Eileen Gunn, Nalo Hopkinson, and Caroline M. Yoachim. The six-week summer workshop will be held June 21 – July 31, 2020 in Seattle WA, with applications opening December 1, 2019. For more information, see the Clarion West website. While you are here, please take a moment to support Locus with a one-time
The Mythopoeic Society announced the 2019 Mythopoeic Awards winners on August 4, 2019 during Mythcon 50, held at San Diego State University in San Diego CA. Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature WINNER: Spinning Silver, Naomi Novik (Del Rey) 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 2: More
Margaret Atwood’s The Testaments, due September 10th, again ranks on two Amazon sites with pre-publication sales.
It’s taken some time for me to come to terms with the fact that I have developed fairly severe anxiety. When I say this out loud, of course, those in conversation with me often reply, “It’s 2019. Who doesn’t have anxiety?” Anxiety is showing up sooner in children, too. My mom often points out that in her day, everyone was fearful of nuclear war, and the threat of climate change
Spectacle, Jodie Lynn Zdrok (Tor Teen 978-0-7653-9968-7, $17.99, 359pp, hc) February 2019. Author Jodie Lynn Zdrok’s Paris initially reads as quite familiar to fans of historical fiction. It’s 1887 and the Eiffel Tower is under construction, the Catacombs are open for tours, and every morning bodies “found in the public domain” are displayed at the morgue. Anyone and everyone lines up for a brief glimpse of the dead. The unlikely
Comics publisher DC is retiring their Vertigo imprint, created in 1993 to publish edgier and more adult content, including Neil Gaiman’s Sandman and Stardust, Bill Willingham’s Fables, Chris Roberson’s iZOMBIE, Alan Moore’s V for Vendetta, and many other works by authors of interest. The imprint will “sunset” at the end of 2020. DC is reorganizing all of its content under three new age-specific imprints: DC Kids (for readers 8-12); DC
New issues of Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Black Static, Interzone, and Strange Horizons, plus July posts at Daily Science Fiction and Tor.com
Alameda County Superior Court judge Michal M. Markman ruled in favor of Peter S. Beagle on June 21, 2019 for several claims in Beagle’s civil suit against former business manager Connor Cochran, and awarded Beagle a total of $332,500 in damages. The judge accepted Beagle’s claims for defamation, financial elder abuse, fraud, and breach of fiduciary duty, but dismissed the claims of conversion of assets and elder abuse based on
The Gollancz Book of South Asian Science Fiction, Tarun K. Saint, ed. (Hachette India 978-93-88322-05-8, RS599, 382pp, hc) March 2019. Over the past several months, we’ve looked at anthologies of Chinese, Korean, and Israeli SF, all largely geared towards familiarizing ”outsiders” – namely, English language readers – with these various national voices. The Gollancz Book of South Asian Science Fiction, edited by Tarun K. Saint, is a little different. Published
The Locus Awards were held June 28-30, 2019 at the Executive Inn in Seattle for the 14th consecutive year. Connie Willis and Daryl Gregory emceed the ceremony. Attendance reached 160, starting on Friday night with readings by Willis and Amal El-Mohtar, followed by a Clarion West-hosted party in honor of first-week instructor Elizabeth Hand. Willis and El-Mohtar also taught the Locus Writers Workshops that bookended the weekend. Saturday started with
Uncanny 3-4/19 Black Static 3-4/19 The Dark 3/19, 4/19 Nightmare 4/19, 5/19 Tor.com 4/17/19 Uncanny is one of my favorite periodicals because, even if the stories are not always 100% top-notch (no magazine’s content can be!), they are all 100% enjoyable to read and each issue always offers variety. That’s rare and welcome. Whether intentional or not, the March/April issue has an appropriately springtide theme. Five – maybe all six
Dublin 2019, the 77th Worldcon, has released the daily schedule for its event programming, with over 700 events planned. The panels, presentations, and activities include: “Special items featuring our Guests of Honour Academic Track Art Programme Children’s and Young Adult Programme Media Programme and Viewings Gaming and Gaming Programme Music, Costuming, and Artistic Programme and Performances Writers Programming and Workshops Fan Chats (Special Interest Group Meetups) And more!” Dublin 2019
Radicalized, Cory Doctorow (Tor 978-1250228581, $26.99, 304pp, hc) March 2019. There’s a glib and half-serious theory that the career of every SF writer is contained in embryonic form in their first short-story sale. For Cory Doctorow, this critical trick holds partially true. His first major work – “Craphound” from 1998 – displayed his affinity for droll humor laced with melancholy; his hipness and intimacy with trends, fads, and bubbling-under currents
NASA had a plan. A plan that would put people back on the moon by 2028. There we would build a base camp from which we would take the first steps toward landing human beings on Mars. It was a bold plan built on decades of science and experience, and it would have probably taken a few miracles to pull off. NASA, of course, has always been in the business
Early Riser, Jasper Fforde (Viking 978-0-670-02503-9, $28.00, 416pp, hc) February 2019. Cover art by Patrick Leger. Given how popular Jasper Fforde’s Friday Next books are, I feel like I have to preface this review with a disclaimer: Early Riser is the first Fforde I’ve ever read. As far as I can tell, it does not fit into his most popular series. I also can’t tell you if it is more
The European Science Fiction Society (ESFS) Hall of Fame Awards, Achievement Awards, and Chrysalis Award nominees have been announced, along with the names of the nominating countries: Hall of Fame Awards: Best Author Ismael Martínez Biurrun (Spain) Philippe Curval (France) Yana Dubynianska (Ukraine) Victor Pelevin / Виктор Пелевин (Russia) Charles Stross (United Kingdom) Maria Turtschaninoff (Finland and Sweden) João Ventura (Portugal) Alessandro Vietti (Italy) Aleksandar Žiljak (Croatia) Best Artist Ninni
Divine books round out this week’s list of nine new titles: Iron Gods, Death Goddess Dance, Gods of Jade and Shadow, and The Ascent to Godhood New titles this week are by Andrew Bannister, Levi Black, Pierce Brown, Karen Chance, Ruthanna Emrys, Tim Lebbon, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Claire O’Dell, and JY Yang.
No Way, S.J. Morden, (Orbit US 978-0-316-52221-2, $15.99, 372pp, tp) February 2019. In One Way (2018), S.J. Morden mashed up two kinds of procedural: a very hard-SF planetary-pioneering adventure (the building of the first Mars base) and a countdown murder mystery modeled on Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None. That book ends with the murders solved and the surviving character facing an uncertain future. The sequel, No Way, continues
Stealing Worlds, Karl Schroeder (Tor 978-0-7653-9998-4, $29.99, 320pp, hardcover) June 2019 There are a handful of SF writers whose novels are both vastly entertaining and which also serve as engineer-level blueprints for refashioning the world. In this category I would put Kim Stanley Robinson, Vernor Vinge, Cory Doctorow, William Gibson, Bruce Sterling, Neal Stephenson, Greg Bear, and Charles Stross. Now, with a shift in his focus from far futures to
The RITA and Golden Heart Awards were presented by the Romance Writers of America (RWA) at their annual convention in New York NY on July 26, 2019. The RITA is presented for best novel, and the Golden Heart is a contest for the best novel by an unpublished novelist. Winners of genre interest follow. RITA for Paranormal Romance: Dearest Ivie, J.R. Ward (Ballantine) Golden Heart for Paranormal Romance: Bless Your
The International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts (IAFA) has announced that starting in 2020, the Imagining Indigenous Futurisms Award will be presented at the International Conference for the Fantastic in the Arts (ICFA). The $1,000 award, now in its tenth year, “recognizes emerging authors who use science fiction to address issues of Indigenous sovereignty and self-determination.” Deadline for entry is November 1, 2019. For more information, see the
The Science Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Association (SFPA) has announced the winners of the annual Rhysling Awards for SF, fantasy, and horror poetry in short and long form categories. This year’s winners are: SHORT POEM First Place “After Her Brother Ripped the Heads from Her Paper Dolls”, Beth Cato (Mythic Delirium 1-3/18) Second Place “What Loves You”, Jeff Crandall (F&SF 9-10/18) Third Place (tie) “3D-Printed Brother”, Millie Ho (Strange Horizons
The 58th Japan Science Fiction Convention has announced the 2019 Seiun Awards winners (the Japanese equivalent to the Hugo Awards), honoring the best original and translated works published last year in Japan. The winners for translated works are: Best Translated Novel WINNER: Mecha Samurai Empire, Peter Tieryas, translated by Naoya Nakahara (Hayakawa) Six Wakes, Mur Lafferty, translated by Takeshi Mogi (Tokyo Sogensha) Provenance, Ann Leckie, translated by Hideko Akao (Tokyo
The shortlists for the 2019 Sunburst Awards for Excellence in Canadian Literature of the Fantastic have been announced: Adult Fiction Sodom Road Exit, Amber Dawn (Arsenal Pulp) Armed in Her Fashion, Kate Heartfield (Chizine) Annex, Rich Larson (Orbit) Trickster Drift, Eden Robinson (Penguin Random House Canada) Plum Rains, Andromeda Romano-Lax (Penguin Random House Canada) Young Adult Fiction Spellslinger, Sebastian de Castell (Orbit) Tess of the Road, Rachel Hartman (Penguin Random
Station Zero, Philip Reeve (Oxford University Press 978-0-19-275915-3, 7.99, 288pp, tp) January 2018. (Capstone 978-1684460540, $17.95, 313pp, hc) February 2019. Having now finished reading Station Zero, the final book in Philip Reeve’s fabulous Railhead trilogy, I remain confused about why this science fiction series is not far more popular. It has political intrigue, smart and gutsy teens of all shapes, sizes, races, and genders, more than one battle (with more
Margaret Atwood’s The Testaments, due September 10th, ranks on two Amazon sites with pre-publication sales.
The Little Animals, Sarah Tolmie (Aqueduct 978-1-61976-161-2, $20.00, 378pp, tp) May 2019. Sarah Tolmie’s approach to the intersection between the historical and the marvelous is comparatively minimalist. The Little Animals is, for the most part, a straightforward account of the early career of the 17th-century Delft scientist Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, as he discovers and records various “animalcules” through his homemade single-lens microscopes and tries to get his findings recognized by
The Fire Opal Mechanism, Fran Wilde (Tor.com Publishing 978-1-250-19654-5, $14.99, 208pp, tp) June 2019. Cover by Tommy Arnold. The Fire Opal Mechanism is billed as a sequel to an earlier novelette by award-winning author Fran Wilde (Updraft, Cloudbound, Horizon). That novelette was The Jewel and Her Lapidary, a work with elegant prose, a deeply compelling friendship between two young women, and an ambivalent – and ambivalently tragic – ending. The
The World Fantasy Awards ballot for works published in 2018 has been announced. The awards will be presented November 3, 2019 during World Fantasy 2019 (WFC) to be held at the Marriott Los Angeles Airport Hotel in Los Angeles CA. The Lifetime Achievement Awards, presented annually to individuals who have demonstrated outstanding service to the fantasy field, will go to Hayao Miyazaki and Jack Zipes. The World Fantasy Awards finalists
