Teenager Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) is bitten by a radioactive spider and then develops superhuman abilities. Struggling to control and understand his powers, he returns to the underground site where he was bitten. He stumbles upon Wilson Fisk/The Kingpin (Liev Schreiber) and his lackeys hatching a diabolical plan. Peter Parker/Spider-Man (Chris Pine) shows up to stop Kingpin and when he runs into Miles he realizes that Miles is “just like

Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) has announced the minimum pay rate for qualifying professional short fiction markets will be raised from six cents per word to eight cents, effective September 1, 2019. For more information, see the SFWA site. In addition, the official call for SFWA Board of Directors candidates was announced January 15, 2019. This year, the president, secretary, and three director-at-large positions are open for election.

The Locus Bestsellers for December include top titles Uncompromising Honor by David Weber, Dune by Frank Herbert, Persepolis Rising by James S.A. Corey, and Timeless by R.A. Salvatore.   HARDCOVERS Monthson list Lastmonth 1) Uncompromising Honor, David Weber (Baen) 1 – 2) The Consuming Fire, John Scalzi (Tor) 1 – 3) Port of Shadows, Glen Cook (Tor) 1 – 4) Vengeful, V.E. Schwab (Tor) 2 7 5) The Fall of

The Accidental War, Walter Jon Williams (Harper Voyager 978-0-06-246702-7, $16.99, 476pp, tp) September 2018. When, back in 2002, I reviewed The Praxis, the first volume of Walter Jon Williams’ Dread Empire’s Fall trilogy, the lede was, “The signals on the outside of [the advance copy of] the first volume of Walter Jon Williams’s new series don’t really prepare you for what’s inside.” I can’t come up with a better lede

Mapping the Bones by Jane Yolen (Philomel) won the 2019 Golden Kite award in the Young Adult Fiction category, given by the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) for “excellence in children’s literature.” The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo (HarperTeen) was named a Golden Kite honor book in the same category. “The Golden Kites are the first children’s literary award judged by a jury of peers.” This year’s

Having created illustrations for many publish­ers, including Simon & Schuster, Random House and Hyperion/Disney, Omar Rayyan’s primary market was geared towards children’s and young adult’s magazine and books, doing cover and interior illustrations. He also illustrated several children’s picture books. Other genres he has worked in include the gam­ing market, most notably for Magic: The Gathering, where he has done card art and concept work. Omar was also among the

Hazards of Time Travel, Joyce Carol Oates (Ecco 978-0-06-231959-3, $26.99, 336p, hc) November 2018. The main problem with contemporary dystopian fiction, I think, is that it no longer demands any imagination. It’s not just that the US is currently being governed by the petulant brat from Jerome Bixby’s “It’s a Good Life” (or that the rest of the government is acting like the terrified adults in that story), but that

The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin (Putnam) and Eternal Life by Dara Horn (Norton) are on the six-title shortlist for the 2019 JQ-Wingate Literary Prize. The award gives £4,000 “to the best book, fiction or non-fiction, to translate the idea of Jewishness to the general reader.” Judges for 2019 are Arifa Akbar, Shoshana Boyd Gelfand (chair), Thomas Harding, and Francesca Simon. The winner will be announced February 25, 2019 at the

Explore the past with a time traveling professor, or an alternate history WWII secret magical warfare program. Explore the future with fox-magic space opera, or in a cursed pirate spaceship. Explore both with a novel about a detective who solves crimes by traveling to alternate pasts and futures. New titles this week are by Gregory Benford, Terry Goodkind, Yoon Ha Lee, David Mack, Christopher Paolini, Alastair Reynolds, S. Andrew Swann,

Girls of Paper and Fire, Natasha Ngan (Jimmy Patterson Presents 978-0316561365, $18.99, 400pp, hc) November 2018. In terms of worldbuilding, Natasha Ngan’s Girls of Paper and Fire works a lot better for me. Overall, it just purely works: part of that might be the sheer weight of feeling that Ngan packs into this, her third novel and fantasy debut. (And what an accomplished, explosive novel it is.) Lei is the

» NY Times Book Review: Alec Nevala-Lee on How Astounding Saw the Future » Guardian: Eric Brown reviews Stephen Cox, Gareth Hanrahan, Mimi Yu, Ivor W Hartmann, David Owen

The 2019 Philip K. Dick Award nominees have been announced: Time Was, Ian McDonald (Tor.com Publishing) The Body Library, Jeff Noon (Angry Robot) 84k, Claire North (Orbit) Alien Virus Love Disaster, Abbey Mei Otis (Small Beer) Theory of Bastards, Audrey Schulman (Europa) Ambiguity Machines and Other Stories, Vandana Singh (Small Beer) The award is presented annually to a distinguished work of science fiction originally published in paperback form in the

Christopher Paolini’s The Fork, the Witch, and the Worm: Tales from Alagaësia (Knopf) debuts on three lists, ranking #1 on the New York Times Young Adult Hardcover list.

Charles Vess was born June 10, 1951 in Lynchburg VA. He attended Virginia Commonwealth University, graduating in 1974 with a BFA, and worked in commercial animation until moving to New York City in 1976. There he became a freelance illustrator, working for many publications including Heavy Metal, Klutz Press and National Lampoon. For over 10 years he worked for various comic book publishers, including Marvel, DC, and Dark Horse. He

Infinity’s End, Jonathan Strahan, ed. (Solaris) September 2018. Infinite Fantastika, Paul Di Filippo (WordFire Press) September 2018. Alas, Jonathan Strahan’s Infinity’s End is the final entry in his Infinity Project series. It’s a very strong book, and these volumes stand with the very best original anthol­ogy series ever in the field, series like Fred Pohl’s Star, Damon Knight’s Orbit, Robert Silverberg’s New Dimensions, and Terry Carr’s Universe. This book’s main

Episode 22b: In conversation with Kij Johnson: “The Privilege of the Happy Ending” Rounding off our triad of podcasts about the end of the world as we know it, we are honoured to welcome Kij Johnson to discuss her apocalypse-themed fantasy story (with strong hints of science fiction!) “The Privilege of the Happy Ending”. The research, the worldbuilding, and the structural and narrative choices that went into this story make

The Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge MA is hosting “Gregory Manchess: Above the Timberline,” a showcase exploring the artist/writer’s illustrated novel Above the Timberline, featuring 30 paintings, props, archival materials, photographs, and videos of the artistic process, plus life-sized sculpture of characters. The show opened November 10, 2018 and will run through February 24, 2019. For more, see the Norman Rockwell Museum website. This feature and more like it in

My Year of Rest and Relaxation, Ottessa Mosh­fegh (Penguin Press 978-0525522119, $26.00, 304pp, hc) July 2018. I’m sure if it was feasible a number of us would jump at the idea of hibernating for an entire year. Anything to avoid the ongoing horror show currently masquerading as politics. It’s certainly the plan of the unnamed protagonist in Ottessa Moshfegh’s new novel My Year of Rest and Relaxation. Except she isn’t

Nominations are now open for the Hugo Awards, the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, and the Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book, to be presented at Dublin 2019—An Irish Worldcon, August 15-19, 2019 in Dublin, Ireland. Members with an attending or supporting membership of Worldcon 76 or who have purchased membership to Dublin 2019 before December 31, 2018 are eligible to nominate. The nomination period closes

Dublin 2019—An Irish Worldcon has announced Jim Fitzpatrick as the designer of the 2019 Hugo Award base, and Eleanor Wheeler as the designer of the 1944 Retro-Hugo Award base. Additionally, Association of Science Fiction and Fantasy Artists (ASFA) president Sara Felix will design the 2019 Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book. Dublin 2019 will be held August 15-19, 2019 at the Convention Centre Dublin in Dublin, Ireland. While you

Episode 22a: In conversation with Daryl Gregory: “Nine Last Days on Planet Earth” Even better than reading an excellent story is discussing with the author how and why they wrote it! We are so pleased to have Daryl Gregory with us to discuss the nuances, secrets and personal touches in his apocalypse-themed science fiction story “Nine Last Days on Planet Earth”. (But first listen to episode 22 of the podcast

The Tropic of Eternity, Tom Toner (Night Shade 978-1-59780-911-5, $26.00, 380pp, hc) August 2018. Fans of Saga, that superlative postmodern-space-opera in graphic novel form, creat­ed by Brian K. Vaughan & Fiona Staples, had cause to mourn recently. Issue 54 brought the tragic death of a main character, and also the news that the series would go on indefinite hiatus. If I could offer any solace to these read­ers, it would

Josh: When we reviewed A Quiet Place earlier this year, I said that it reminded me of Josh Malerman’s book Bird Box. What do you think? Fair comparison? There are definite similarities: unexplained monsters come to town; humans have to give themselves a handicap in order to survive; there’s a pregnant woman at the forefront; save the children! Arley: It’s different, but similar. Even though the filmmakers of Bird Box

Inkmistress, Audrey Coulthurst (Balzer & Bray 978-0-06-243328-2, $17.99, 387pp, hc) March 2018. In its opening paragraphs, Audrey Coulthurst’s Inkmistress seems to be a story about love. The protagonist, Asra, declares her love and longing for Ina, the beautiful girl who lives in the village below, and soon, with the coming of spring, will return to her. They are aware that their relationship must remain secret – the fear engendered by

Gregory Benford is the winner of the 2019 Robert A. Heinlein Award, given for “outstanding published works in science fiction and technical writings that inspire the human exploration of space,” recognizing his body of work, including 22 novels, more than 180 short stories, and many non-fiction articles. The winner was chosen by a committee of SF authors chaired by Michael F. Flynn, and will receive a plaque, a sterling silver

Episode 22: The Everyday Apocalypse: “Nine Last Days on Planet Earth” by Daryl Gregory and “The Privilege of the Happy Ending” by Kij Johnson Apocalypse now, or some day soon when we least expect it? Karen and Karen compare and contrast two very different stories with a common theme – the end of the world as we know it. But apocalypse can mean many things when we consider the privileged

Victo Ngai is a Los Angeles based illustrator from Hong Kong, graduated from Rhode Island School of Design. “Victo” is not a boy nor a typo, but a nickname derived from Victoria – a leftover from the British colonization. Ngai’s work appears in advertising, packaging, magazines, books, newspapers and animation, her clients include The New York Times, The New Yorker, Apple, Prophecy Wines, Johnnie Walker, American Express, Lufthansa Airline, General

Future Tense 8/18 Lightspeed 10/18 Apex Magazine 8/18 Future Fire 8/18 Slate’s Future Tense short story for August, “When We Were Patched” by Deji Bryce Olukotun, finishes their series looking at the future of sport. The narrator is a particularly officious AI, and never has a character had more rationale for having a stuffy tone: this AI is an augmented refereeing as­sistant for a particularly awesome kind of extreme tennis.

New books this week feature young people: a girl who can see ghosts; a mortal girl in the faerie court; a boy who can restore civilization; and a new Wayward Children title.

The Morgan Library & Museum in New York City will host Tolkien: Maker of Middle-earth, “the most extensive public display of original Tolkien material for several generations.” The exhibition includes “family photographs and memorabilia, Tolkien’s original illustrations, maps, draft manuscripts, and designs related to The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion” drawn from the Tolkien archives at the Bodleian Library at Oxford, the Marquette University Libraries in

Neil Gaiman will be presented with the Barnes & Noble Writers for Writers Award at the Poets & Writers annual dinner, March 7, 2019 at 583 Park Avenue in New York NY. The award “celebrates authors who have given generously to other writers or to the broader literary community.” Gaiman is being recognized “for advocating for freedom of expression worldwide and inspiring countless writers.” For more information, see the Poets &

Larry Eisenberg, 99, died December 25, 2018 in a Lincoln MA hospice of complications from leukemia. Eisenberg published dozens of SF stories in the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s, beginning with “The Mynah Matter” (1962), and is best known for his sequence of humorous SF stories about Emmett Duckworth, many collected in The Best Laid Schemes (1971).  Story “What Happened to Auguste Claro?” appeared in Dangerous Visions (1967). Lawrence Eisenberg was

The Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) has named William Gibson the 35th recipient of the Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award. SFWA president Cat Rambo said Gibson “forged a body of work that has played a major part in the coalescing of the cyberpunk movement, influencing dozens of writers of cinema, fiction, and games, among other creatives…. Gibson continues to produce taut, evocative works that reflect the despair

Suspended in Dusk II, Simon Dewar, ed. (Grey Matter Press 978-1940658971, $13.95, 257pp, tp) July 2018. It’s shocking that I can’t remember the last time I read a horror anthology. Back in the day – in my late teens and early twenties – horror anthologies were my bread and butter. Whether it was Dark Forces, Prime Evil, Splat­terpunks: Extreme Horror (volume 1 and 2), Midnight Graffiti, or Little Deaths, these

The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton (Raven) has won the 2018 Costa First Novel award. The Costa Book Awards recognizes “some of the most enjoyable books of the year, written by authors based in the UK and Ireland.” Each winner in the five individual categories receives £5,000. The Costa Book of the Year, an award accompanied by a £30,000 prize, will be selected from the category winners

The Washington Science Fiction Association is now accepting nominations of “works published for the first time in the English language in 2018” for its Small Press Award, given annually to an outstanding story of “imaginative literature” (17,500 words or fewer) published in the small press. Authors and small-press publishers are among those eligible to nominate, and need not be members of WSFA. Finalists are selected “by a committee of five

George R. R. Martin’s Fire & Blood: A History of House Targaryen of Westeros, Volume 1 remains strong on several lists.

Dublin 2019 — An Irish Worldcon has announced the “Fantastic Dublin Fund” to increase diversity among fans and program participants. Donated funds and memberships will go towards helping Irish fans of limited financial means, the Irish Traveller community, people of color via Con-or-Bust, program participants from marginalized communities, and participants of color. The 77th Worldcon will be held August 15-19, 2019 at the Convention Centre Dublin in Dublin, Ireland. For

The Silicon Valley gospel of “disruption” has descended into caricature, but, at its core, there are some sound tactics buried beneath the self-serving bullshit. A lot of our systems and institutions are corrupt, bloated, and infested with cream-skimming rentiers who add nothing and take so much. Take taxis: there is nothing good about the idea that cab drivers and cab passengers meet each other by random chance, with the drivers

Tide of Stone, Kaaron Warren (Omnium Gath­erum 9780615827995 $14.99, 374pp, tp) May 2018. Tide of Stone, Kaaron Warren’s excellent new novel, concerns a unique prison: a great stone tower located on the Australian coast, which houses the worst of the region’s criminals. What distinguishes the prison is neither its shape nor the depravity of its inmates, but the punishment they are undergoing. The residents of nearby Tem­puston, who staff and

New issues of Abyss & Apex, Apex, Aphelion, Clarkesworld, The Dark, Galaxy’s Edge, GigaNotoSaurus, Intergalactic Medicine Show, Lightspeed, The New York Review of Science Fiction, Nightmare, and Uncanny

New issues of Analog Science Fiction and Fact, Asimov’s Science Fiction, and The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction

Nnedi Okorafor was named Person of the Year at the 2018 African Diaspora Awards, presented December 1, 2018 during an awards ceremony hosted by the Society for Africans in Diaspora held at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture at the New York Public Library. This and more like it in the January 2019 issue of Locus. While you are here, please take a moment to support Locus with

Sense of Wonder: Short Fiction Reviews (2009-2017), Gardner Dozois (Advent/ReAni­mus Press 978-1718795051, $19.99, 444+60pp, tp) May 2018. A good example of what we’ll be missing – in this magazine in particular – can be found in Dozois’s Sense of Wonder: Short Fiction Reviews 2009-2017, which collects the first nine years of the Gardnerspace columns he wrote for Locus (in his introduction, Dozois makes it clear this title was foisted upon

glass slipper dreams, shattered, Doungjai Gam (Apokrupha 9781721770724 $7.99 74pp, tp) September 2018. Many of the most famous examples of horror fiction are brief, from such campfire classics as “The Hook” to Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart”. (Even Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” falls on the shorter end of the spectrum.) Despite this, writing a truly effective short horror story, let alone one at flash fiction length, is a rock upon which

This list of 2018 speculative titles in translation was compiled by Rachel Cordasco, who founded and runs site sfintranslation.com as well as the SF in Translation Award which can be voted on here until March 1, 2019. Corrections may be sent to locus@locusmag.com. SF IN TRANSLATION OUT IN 2018 Total books/collections/anthologies: 79 Top 3 languages: Japanese (19%) French (16.5%) Spanish (8.9%) Top 3 publishers: Black Coat Press (13.9%) Haikasoru (6.3%)

Children of Blood and Bone, Tomi Adeyemi (Henry Holt 978-1-250-17097-2, $18.99, 448pp, hc) March 2018. Tomi Adeyemi’s Children of Blood and Bone was released with a deafening boom in March, arriving on the heels of a near-seven figure film deal on top of the seven-figure publishing contract for the trilogy. This is big book in every way: big story, big pay­check and, at nearly 400 pages, it’s a physically big

Finalists for the 2018 Children’s and Young Adults Bloggers’ Literary Awards (Cybils) have been announced. Books of genre interest are listed below: Young Adult Speculative Fiction Pitch Dark, Courtney Alameda (Feiwel & Friends) Mirage, Somaiya Daud (Flatiron) Tess of the Road, Rachel Hartman (Random House) Dread Nation, Justina Ireland (Balzer + Bray) Summer of Salt, Katrina Leno (HarperTeen) Not Even Bones, Rebecca Schaeffer (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) This Mortal Coil, Emily

Several writers of genre interest are on the 2019 New Year’s Honours list which “recognises the achievements and service of extraordinary people across the United Kingdom.” For services to literature, Margaret Atwood was named a Companion of Honour, Julia Donaldson was named Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE), and Philip Pullman was knighted. Chris Riddell was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE)

Rachel Cordasco, founder of SFinTranslation.com, has launched the inaugural “Favorite SF in Translation” poll for non-Anglophone speculative fiction that has been translated into English and published between January 1 and December 31, 2018. Winners will be chosen by a readers’ survey, open for voting until March 1, 2019. Cordasco said, “Hopefully this will encourage more readers to learn about non-Anglophone speculative fiction, and thus, the global trends in a genre

Static Ruin, Corey J. White (Tor.com Publishing 978-1250195548, $15.99, 224pp, tp) November 2018. Cover by Tommy Arnold. Corey J. White’s Static Ruin is the third – and for now final – volume in his Voidwitch Saga series of novellas. Static Ruin follows on from Void Black Shadow, and it’s much less of a hectic hot mess than that volume, and it serves up a decent helping of cathartic resolution –

Four adventures for the New Year: free humanity from aliens, follow King Arthur in the far future, bring down a criminal syndicate, or save your family from being sacrificed to the gods!

Astounding: John W. Campbell, Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, L. Ron Hubbard, and the Golden Age of Science Fiction, Alec Nevala-Lee (Dey Street/William Morrow 978-0-06-257194-6, $28.99, 528pp, hc) October 2018. In the acknowledgements to Astounding: John W. Campbell, Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Hein­lein, L. Ron Hubbard, and the Golden Age of Science Fiction, Alec Nevala-Lee quotes the late Algis Budrys arguing that “we need a long, objec­tive look at John

George R. R. Martin’s Fire & Blood: A History of House Targaryen of Westeros, Volume 1 remains strong on several lists. There’s no Publishers Weekly list this week.

Marshall Ryan Maresca, The Way of the Shield (DAW 978-0-7564-1479-5, $7.99, 354pp, pb) October 2018. Cover by Paul Young. Maresca keeps adding new series set in the city of Maradaine, all running more-or-less concurrently, each focusing on a different facet of the city. This first volume in the Maradaine Elite series follows a young man trying to join an archaic military order, one of two surviving orders from the past,

Tell Me Like You Done Before: And Other Stories Written on the Shoulders of Giants, Scott Edelman (Lethe Press 978-1-59021-544-9, $20, 332pp, trade paperback, December 2018) As a writer who labors meticulously and intensively and slowly at his craft of short fiction, and as one who has publicly proclaimed that he has no interest in writing novels, Scott Edelman accumulates published work at a relatively slow rate—at least compared to

The Adventure of the Dux Bellorum, Cynthia Ward (Aqueduct Press 978-1-61976-154-4, $12.00, 128pp, tp) October 2018. This story follows on from the events of The Adventure of the Incognita Countess, in which Lucy Harker, half-vampire (dhampir) daughter of Mina Harker and Dracula and current agent for the British secret service, encountered the vampire Carmilla (famed in history, now reformed from murder and known as Clarimal) and found a deep attraction

Hachette Book Group is reor­ganizing. The Hachette Books non-fiction line will be folded into Perseus Books with the departure of founder Mauro DiPreta. Da Capo Press, a Per­seus imprint, is in turn becoming part of Hachette Books, with Da Capo publisher John Radziewicz retiring. Susan Weinberg will be acting publisher until a new publisher is chosen. “Several positions” are being eliminated as part of the consolidation. Dark Horse Comics CEO

Red Moon, Kim Stanley Robinson (Orbit 978-0-316-26237-8, $27.00, 480pp, hc) October 2018. As far as I know, Kim Stanley Robinson hasn’t bothered to develop a consistent fu­ture history in the manner of Heinlein and others, and it’s just as well: why be constrained by a future concocted years or decades earlier, when everything that’s happened in the interim could alter that future radically? (Robinson recognized this when he updated the

The Agony House, Cherie Priest (Scholastic/Levine 978-0-545-93435-0 $18.99 272pp, hc) September 2018. Cover by Tara O’Connor. Cherie Priest takes a pause from adult fiction with this second foray into YA after the cyberthriller I Am Princess X. This time she goes full creepy with a haunted house story set in New Orleans that also manages to throw in a hefty dose of the history of comic books and some thoughtful

Audible.com has announced their Best of 2018 lists, selected by their editorial team. Titles of genre interest include: Science Fiction Rosewater, Tade Thompson (Hachette) Fantasy Spinning Silver, Naomi Novik (Random House) Fiction Circe, Madeline Miller (Hachette) Young Adult Children of Blood and Bone, Tomi Adeyemi (Macmillan) Customer Favorite The Land: Raiders: A LitRPG Saga, Aleron Kong (Tamori) For more information, including complete winners and runners-up, see Audible.com. While you are

Hidden Sun, Jaine Fenn (Angry Robot 978-0857668011, $12.99, 448pp, tp) September 2018. Cover by Andreas Rocha. Jaine Fenn is probably best known for her Hidden Empire science fiction series, begun in 2008 with Principles of Angels, the last entry for which was Queen of Nowhere in 2013. Hidden Sun is her first novel-length publication in five years, and her first fantasy novel. Well. For certain values of fantasy. It’s set

Dale Bailey, In the Night Wood (John Joseph Adams 10/18) This tale of literary horror concerns Erin, the descendant of a famous children’s book author, who inherits the family estate. In mourning with her husband over the loss of their daughter, things get worse when they begin to see a grim figure from her ancestor’s book. “The prose is genuinely good, the setting is genuinely creepy, and the hints of

Rosewater, Tade Thompson (Apex 978-1-937009-29-8, $16.95, 360pp, tp) November 2016. (Orbit 978-0-316-44905-2, $15.99, 394pp, tp) September 2018. I missed Tade Thompson’s Rosewater when it first appeared from Apex a couple of years ago and subsequently won the inaugural Nommo award and became a Campbell Award finalist. Since then, it’s generated quite a bit of discussion, not only for its inventive and ambitious plot, but because it seemed to represent yet

Chercher La Femme, L. Timmel Duchamp (Aq­ueduct Press 978-1619761476, $19.00, 320pp, tp) August 2018. L. Timmel Duchamp’s eighth novel, Cher­cher La Femme, might have been more than 20 years in the making, involving numerous re-writes and multiple critiques, but I can report that the final product justifies the effort. The book’s premise is simple enough. A rescue mission is sent from Earth to the far-off world of La Femme to

The 2018 Australian Shadow Awards are now open for entries through February 28, 2019. The Shadow Awards are given by the Australasian Horror Writers Association (AHWA) for “the finest in horror and dark fiction published by an Australasian within the calendar year.” Winners in each category will receive a trophy and will be announced at Continuum 15, to be held July 7-10, 2019 in Melbourne, Australia. For more information, including complete

Sara Taylor won the 2019 Eccles British Library Writer’s Award, given annually to one fiction and one non-fiction writer. Winners receive £20,000 and a one-year residency at the British Library’s North America collections “to develop a current writing project.” The judges for 2019 were Mercedes Aguirre, Sarah Churchwell, Catherine Eccles, Phil Hatfield, and Erica Wagner. For more information, see the British Library website. While you are here, please take a moment to support Locus with a one-time

Writer Jane Langton, 95, died December 22, 2018. Best known for her mystery novels for adults, her SF/F work includes the Grace Jones, Hall Family, and Homer Kelly series for young readers, and novel Paper Chains (1977). Langton was named a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America (MWA) in 2017. Her work was nominated for several Edgar awards and won a Nero Wolfe award in 1984. The Fledgling (1980) was

Asimov’s 9-10/18 Analog 9-10/18 On Spec #108 Amazing Stories Fall ’18 As usual, there is a certain focus on Halloween-themed stories in the Sep­tember-October Asimov’s. The cover novella comes from a writer one hardly expects to be working in that mode, but Greg Egan‘s “3-adica” does open in a foggy Victorian Lon­don of sorts, and Sagreda and her lover Mathis do encounter dangerous vampires. It’s quickly clear we’re in an

George R. R. Martin’s Fire & Blood: A History of House Targaryen of Westeros, Volume 1 remains strong on lists.

Hazards of Time Travel Joyce Carol Oates (Ecco 978-0-06-231959-3, $26.99, 336pp, hardcover, November 2018) Joyce Carol Oates turned eighty this year, and her fabled productivity seems undiminished. Given that she began her career at age nineteen by winning a short story contest sponsored by Mademoiselle, she has passed sixty years of unceasing and exemplary creativity. Moreover, she continues to delve into areas outside her familiar remits of mimetic fiction, crime

A Blade So Black, L.L. McKinney (Macmillan/Imprint 978-1-250-15390-6 $18.99, 352pp, tp) September 2018. Author L.L. McKinney is not coy about what she has to offer with her debut novel A Blade So Black. The protagonist is named Alice, her mentor is named Addison Hatta (a “punk Prince Charming” who strolls onto the page in a t-shirt reading “We’re All Mad Here”), and a couple of her pals are a snarky

Yes, I will admit, I would have preferred to see fewer brutal fistfights accompanied by the amplified sound of crunching lettuce and more leisurely attention to the imaginative underwater environments that mostly serve as backdrops for the film’s incessant free-for-falls; and yes, the film would have benefited from some judicious editing to reduce its two-and-a-half hour length to two hours. But overall, Aquaman qualifies as a successful superhero film, persuasively

Ac­cording to report from the National Endowment for the Arts, “US Trends in Arts Attendance and Literary Reading: 2002-2017”, the number of adults reading for plea­sure dropped by a small amount be­tween 2002 and 2017. The number of people over 18 who read a book not for work or school was 52.7%, down from 54.6% in 2012, 54.3% in 2008, and 56.6% in 2002. The survey is conducted every five

Salvation’s Fire, Justina Robson (Solaris 978-1781086087, £7.99, 432pp, pb) September 2018. Salvation’s Fire is Leeds-native Justina Robson’s twelfth novel. Robson’s previous works have been finalists for the Arthur C. Clarke Award (Silver Screen, Mappa Mundi, Living Next Door to the God of Love) and the Philip K. Dick Award (Silver Screen, Natural History, Living Next Door to the God of Love), among others, but although she’s combined fantasy and science

Vigilance, Robert Jackson Bennett (Tor.com 978-1250209443, $14.99, 448pp, hc) January 2019. People keep telling me I should read Robert Jackson Bennett’s work, and I keep meaning to. But his 196-page-long novella from Tor. com Publishing, is the first of his work I’ve actually managed to read so far, and, on the evidence, Bennett can pack a hell of a punch. Vigilance is less a story than an intensely distilled mood,

» Time: The 10 Best Fantasy Books of 2018 are by Adeyemi, Kuang, Maas, Miller, Suri, Novik, Bennett, Tolkien, Penelope, and Harris » Barnes & Noble: Paul Di Filippo on The Future is (Nearly) Now: Science Fiction’s View of 2018, discussing Nick Clark Windo, Ahmed Saadawi, John Scalzi, Chandler Klang Smith, and Gordon Van Gelder » Guardian: Eric Brown reviews Whiteley, Cobley, Jemisin, Owen, and Cogman

Forbidden Planet in London hosted a multi-author signing for The Mammoth Book of Halloween Stories and The Mammoth Book of Vampire Stories by Women (both edited by Stephen Jones) on October 27, 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

Julia Unbound, Catherine Egan; Erin Spencer, narrator (Listening Library, $32.95, digital download, 11.5 hr., un­abridged). August 2018. The final installment of The Witch’s Child trilogy is a real race against time that practically explodes with plot. Julia’s brother Dek has been captured by the sinister Casimir and implanted with a sac of poison that will kill him in a couple of weeks. To save her brother, Julia has accepted Casimir’s

Since Mary Poppins Returns was one of those rare films falling within my area of expertise that was of interest to my other family members, I watched it in the company of my wife and granddaughter, and I should report that six-year-old Serena Michelle Kong thoroughly enjoyed the film, explaining that she found it just as delightful as its esteemed precursor Mary Poppins (1964). And perhaps, that is the only