Check out the latest and greatest SFFH coming out this week!

Arley Sorg received the fourth annual Space Cowboy Award, given “to someone whose work has helped to enhance and support our ever growing and changing field.” The award is administered by science fiction bookstore Space Cowboy Books, based in Joshua Tree CA. This year’s committee was composed of bookstore owners Jean-Paul L. Garnier & Zara Kand with prior Space Cowboy Award recipients. Previous recipients are Rachel Cordasco (2022), Cora Buhlert

The 2023 Whiting Award winners have been announced. Authors of genre interest include Ama Codjoe, Marcia Douglas, and Emma Wippermann. The ten winners, “emerging writers in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and drama,” each receive $50,000. The award was created by New York investor and philanthropist Flora Ettlinger Whiting in 1971. Recipients of the award are selected by an anonymous committee appointed by the Foundation. For more information, including the complete list

White Cat, Black Dog, Kelly Link (Random House 978-0-59344-995-0, $27.00, 272pp, hc) March 2023. There are a lot of things you can do with fairy tales, but leaving them alone doesn’t seem to be one of them. Even the Brothers Grimm themselves messed around with the stories they collected, and various redactions, reinterpretations, satires, and improvisations have been with us pretty much as long as the tales themselves. Kelly Link

The Audio Publishers Association has announced the 2023 Audie Awards winners, recognizing excellence in audiobooks and spoken word entertainment. Winners of genre interest follow. Science Fiction WINNER: Intergalactic Exterminators, Inc, Ash Bishop, narrated by Scott Brick and Suzanne Elise Freeman (CamCat Books) Ymir, Rich Larson, narrated by Alan Medcroft (Hachette Audio) How High We Go in the Dark, Sequoia Nagamatsu, narrated by Julia Whelan, Brian Nishii, Keisuke Hoashi, MacLeod Andrews,

Author Michael Reaves, 72, died March 20, 2023 in Los Angeles CA. He had Parkinson’s. James Michael Reaves was born September 14, 1950 in San Francisco CA. He attended the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers’ Workshop in 1972, and his first SF story was “The Breath of Dragons” in Clarion 3 (1973). Some early work appeared under the name J. Michael Reaves. Debut novel I, Alien appeared in 1978, and other novels

Judge John Koeltl of New York Federal Court issued a summary judgment on March 24, 2023, finding in favor of the four publishers who sued the Internet Archive. The suit, brought in 2020 by HarperCollins, Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group, and Wiley, alleged “willful mass copyright infringement” by IA’s “National Emergency Library,” which offered unlimited borrows of over a million ebooks. The judge wrote: “At bottom, IA’s fair use

This list covers new SF/F/H print, online, and electronic periodicals (including regularly updated websites) seen by Locus magazine, focusing on those that publish fiction or reviews and criticism. To submit titles for listing on these pages, please send to Locus Publications, 655 13th St. #100, Oakland CA 94612 or email locus@locusmag.com. Analog Science Fiction and Fact Trevor Quachri, ed. Vol. 93 Nos. 3 & 4 March/April 2023 includes fiction by

Tsalmoth, Steven Brust (Tor 978-0-76538-284-9, $27.99, 288pp, hc) April 2023. Steven Brust’s Tsalmoth is the 16th book in his (allegedly) 19-book series. Each book focuses on one house on the great wheel of power in Dragaera, but each story within the series concerns Vlad Taltos, an assassin whose backstory is more complicated than it first appears. Taltos is an Easterner in a world full of dragons, who aren’t really dragons

Baer, Marianna: Wolfwood (Abrams/Amulet 9781419733710, $19.99, 384pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 3/28/2023) In this young-adult horror novel, a teen whose mother was a famous painter before her breakdown secretly forges paintings by her mother and gets drawn into a dangerous magical world. This is an international edition with US, Canadian, and UK prices.   Carey, M.R.: Infinity Gate (Orbit UK 9780-356-51801-5, $18.99, 544pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, 3/28/2023) This

The newly expanded Rathbones Folio Prize announced the winners in three categories: Non-Fiction, Fiction, and Poetry; as well as an overall “Book of the Year” winner. Scary Monsters by Michelle de Kretser (Atlantic/Allen and Unwin) won the Fiction category. Each category winner receives £2,000 and is a candidate for the overall prize. “First awarded in 2014 (originally known as The Folio Prize), the Rathbones Folio Prize is open to all

Salman Rushdie will receive a Hay Festival Medal for Prose for “exceptional work” as one of four “groundbreaking storytellers” during the Hay Festival event in Hay-on-Wye, Wales, to be held May 25 – June 4, 2023. Awarded annually since Britain’s Olympic year (2012), and crafted locally by silversmith Christopher Hamilton, the Hay Festival Medals draw inspiration from the original Olympic medal given for poetry. Previous recipients include Margaret Atwood. For

The six-title shortlist for the Dublin Literary Award has been announced. Authors and titles of genre interest include Anthony Doerr’s Cloud Cuckoo Land (Scribner), The Trees by Percival Everett (Graywolf Press; Influx), and Paradais by Fernanda Melchor, translated by Sophie Hughes (New Directions/Fitzcarraldo). “Nominations include 29 novels in translation, with works nominated by 84 libraries from 31 countries across Africa, Europe, Asia, the US, Canada, South America, Australia, and New Zealand. 14

The inaugural Wayward Wormhole workshop will run November 1-21, 2023 at Castle de Llaés in Gurb, Spain. The instructors are Tobias Buckell, Ann Leckie, Sarah Pinsker, and Cat Rambo. Applications open April 10, 2023 and the fee is $4,915, which includes “Twenty-two nights shared accommodation in a 10th Century castle (anticipating two students per room), instruction, breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, commemorative T-Shirt, and other SWAG, plus one night’s hotel stay

A Slice of the Dark and Other Stories, Karen Heuler (Fairwood Press 978-1-93384-622-4, $18.99, 206pp, tp), November 2022. To say that Karen Heuler’s new collection, A Slice of the Dark and Other Stories, is deeply unsettling reveals only a tiny fraction: it is also musical, gorgeous, and uncomfort­able. I wasn’t familiar with Hueler’s work before this, which feels like a huge miss on my part – and yours, if you

Writer Eric Brown, 62, died March 21, 2023 of sepsis. He was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma in 2022. Brown was the author of over 50 books, and a longtime SF reviewer for The Guardian. Brown was born was born May 24, 1960 in Haworth, West Yorkshire. He traveled extensively in Greece and Asia in the ’80s, eventually settling in Berwickshire, Scotland. Brown’s first work of genre interest was children’s play

The Bookseller has announced the shortlists for the 2023 British Book Awards, including several titles and authors of genre interest. Fiction Stone Blind, Natalie Haynes (Mantle) Fairy Tale, Stephen King (Hodder & Stoughton) Babel, R.F. Kuang (HarperVoyager) Pageturner The Island of Missing Trees, Elif Shafak (Viking) Discover As Long As the Lemon Trees Grow, Zoulfa Katouh (Bloomsbury) Children’s Fiction Onyeka and the Academy of the Sun, Tọlá Okogwu (Simon &

The Voice That Murmurs in the Darkness, James Tiptree, Jr. (Subterranean 978-1-64524-107-2, $45.00, 376pp, hc) April 2023. The last line in James Tiptree, Jr.’s last story is “He headed down the highway, to encounter the ex­istential Unknown.” The story, “In Midst of Life”, is haunting for a number of reasons, not least of which is its description of the surprisingly gentle afterlife of a man who has just committed suicide

Finalists for the 2023 Imadjinn Awards have been announced. Best Science Fiction Novel Rimworld – Diplomatic Immunity, J.L. Curtis (self-published) Omitted Pieces, Stephanie Hansen (Fire & Ice) Sunrise Over Shippo, Melissa Olthoff (‎Theogony) Consquences, Nick Steverson (Theogony) Best Fantasy Novel Sovereign Fourth, Saph Dodd (Jumpmaster) The Raven and The Crow: The Gray Throne, Michael K. Falciani (Three Ravens) The Fate Of The Realm, Rose Marie Machario (Seventh Star) Killer of

The Jack L. Chalker Young Writers’ Contest is open to original science fiction and fantasy submissions by Maryland students “no younger than 14 and no older than 18 years of age.” First, second, and third prizes are $150, $100, and $50, respectively, and the deadline for submissions is March 31, 2023. The contest is run by the Baltimore Science Fiction Society (BSFS) and “Judges shall be drawn from the membership

The Oxford Centre for Fantasy and Pushkin Children’s Books have announced the inaugural Oxford/Pushkin Children’s Fantasy Prize. To be eligible to enter, the author may be published but “in the early stages of their career.” The author of the winning entry will receive £2,000 and a mentorship with an editor at Pushkin Children’s Books. Four runners-up will win further prizes. Submissions open March 31, 2023 and close May 31, 2023.

Margaret Atwood’s new collection Old Babes in the Wood (Doubleday) debuted on the LA Times fiction hardcover list last week at #6, and ranks this week at #7, but so far has ranked on no other list. Amazon Canada ranks it at #109 this morning, just below the cutoff for this page. The USA Today bestseller list remains on hiatus.

The Galactic Philadelphia Author Read­ing Series relaunched on January 18, 2023 with an event at the Rosenbach Library with authors Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki and C.S.E. Cooney. 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

GigaNotoSaurus 12/22 Flash Fiction Online 12/22 Three-Lobed Burning Eye 12/22 F&SF 1-2/23 December’s GigaNotoSaurus story has some strong Star Trek vibes with “Patterns in Stone and Stars” by MV Melcer, where a Federation in conflict with different galactic powers needs to determine if the inhabitants of a certain strategically important planet are sentient and therefore would prevent the world from being colonized. Szkazy is from the outer territories of the

The Deadlands 11/22, 12/22 PodCastle 12/20/22 Dark Matter 11-12/22 The Deadlands is a monthly speculative fic­tion magazine. They “publish short stories, poems, and essays about the other realms, of the ends we face here, and the beginnings we find elsewhere. It is an adventure into the unknown, to meet those who live there still, even though they may be dead. Death is a journey we all will take, but we’d

Are you the kind of person who likes to know about all the new SFFH books coming out? This BookTube is FOR YOU!

  Dahlia Adler, ed., At Midnight (Flatiron 11/22) Familiar fairy tales get diverse and globally inclusive retellings in this young-adult original anthology of 14 tales, reimagined by noted YA authors including Tracy Deonn, H.E. Edgmon, Hafsah Faizal, Darcie Little Badger, Malinda Lo, and Rory Power. For comparison, this includes the original versions of the tales, most from notably male authors Hans Christian Andersen, the Brothers Grimm, and Charles Perrault.  

Dead Country, Max Gladstone (Tordotcom 978-0-7653-9591-7, $17.99, 256 pp, tp) March 2023. Cover by Goni Montes. Max Gladstone’s Craft Sequence created a world in which slivers of soul are used as currency and lawyers are as close to clerics as you can get. All six books in the sequence can be read independently of each other, mostly, but reading them all in any order tells a more complete story about

The National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) has announced the winners for the 2022 NBCC awards. Authors and titles of genre interest include Bliss Montage by Ling Ma (Farrar, Straus, Giroux) which won in the Fiction category, and Night of the Living Rez by Morgan Talty (Tin House) which took the John Leonard Prize. City Lights bookstore in San Francisco was honored with the Toni Morrison Achievement Award for “institutions that have

The Destroyer of Worlds: A Return to Lovecraft Country, Matt Ruff (Harper 978-0-06-325689-7, $30.00, 320pp, hc) Feb­ruary 2023. As many readers of Locus will know, Maureen Kincaid Speller passed away on September 18, 2022. She was an outstanding critic (a collection of her reviews and essays, edited by Nina Allan, will be out from Luna Press in 2023) and a generous and insightful editor for Strange Horizons. Maureen was one

Colson Whitehead received a National Humanities Medal, presented by President Biden on March 21, 2023. Whitehead was among 12 honorees for the National Humanities Medals, as well as honorees for National Medals of Arts. “With genre-defying craftsmanship and creativity, Colson Whitehead’s celebrated novels make real the African American journey through our Nation’s continued reckoning with the original sin of slavery and our ongoing march toward a more perfect Union.” The

The shortlist for the 2023 International Dylan Thomas Prize has been announced. The six-title list includes Limberlost by Robbie Arnott (Atlantic). The annual Dylan Thomas prize, in partnership with Swansea University, awards £20,000 “to the best published or produced literary work in the English language, written by an author aged 39 or under.” This year’s judges are Jon Gower, Rachel Long, Prajwal Parajuly, Di Speirs, and Maggie Shipstead. The winner

The Wicked Remain, Laura Pohl (Source­books Fire 978-1-7282-2890-7, $10.99, tp, 462 pp) September 2022. Cover by Ray Shappell. Laura Pohl finishes off her Grimrose Girls duology with The Wicked Remain and there is a lot, A LOT, to absorb in this 450+ page read. Picking up soon after the events of The Grimrose Girls, our four heroines are reeling from the discovery in that book that they are trapped in

The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA) has announced that performer and designer Cheryl Platz will be toastmaster at the 58th Annual Nebula Awards to be presented May 14, 2023 in Anaheim CA. SFWA President Jeffe Kennedy said, “We are proud to welcome Cheryl Platz as our 2023 Toastmaster. Platz shares our love of game writing and exploring new worlds — from the page to the movie screen and onto

Nightwatch Over Windscar, K. Eason (DAW 978-0-75641-859-5, $28.00, 480pp, hc) No­vember 2022. Cover by Tim Green. First things first: you definitely don’t want to read this without reading the first in the series, Nightwatch on the Hinterlands (2021). This second book in the series opens just months after the events in the first, and while there is a little backstory as a reminder of the stakes, it’s definitely not enough

Ballingrud, Nathan: The Strange (Simon & Schuster/Saga Press 9781534449954, $27.99, 304pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 3/21/2023) An intriguing alternate timeline SF novel. 1931, New Galveston, Mars: Fourteen-year-old Anabelle Crisp sets off through the wastelands of the Strange to find Silas Mundt’s gang who have stolen her mother’s voice, destroyed her father, and left her solely with a need for vengeance.   Chong, Jinwoo: Flux (Melville House 9781685890346, $28.99, 352pp, formats:

Future SF Digest 12/22 Asimov’s 11-12/22 As I wrap up my reading year for 2022, I’m sorry to also be noting the shut­tering, at least for now, of one of my favorite venues. Future Science Fiction Digest, edited by Alex Shvartsman, is going on hiatus as of its 17th issue. It started publishing in 2018 (the same year I started my short fiction column here) with an emphasis on interna­tional

Analog has announced the Analog Award for Emerging Black Voices, open to “any writer over 18 years of age who customarily identifies as Black, has not published nor is under contract for a book, and has three or less paid fiction publications.” Submissions will be read blind. Please remove all identifying information from the document before sending it. The file name should be the title of the story. Submissions should be .doc

The shortlists for the Yoto Carnegie Medal for Writing and Yoto Carnegie Medal for Illustration have been announced. Titles and authors of genre interest follow. Yoto Carnegie Medal for Writing The Light in Everything, Katya Balen, illustrated by Sydney Smith (Bloomsbury) When Shadows Fall, Sita Brahmachari, illustrated by Natalie Sirett (Little Tiger) Medusa, Jessie Burton, illustrated by Olivia Lomenech Gill (Bloomsbury) The Eternal Return of Clara Hart, Louise Finch (Little

Alina Pete’s “Telling the Soul of Mars” is the winner of the 2022 Imagining Indigenous Futurisms Award. The $1,000 prize is given by the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts (IAFA) to “emerging authors who use science fiction to address issues of Indigenous sovereignty and self-determination.” Other finalists are “The Good One” by Allanah Hunt, “The Tangle” by Rae Mariz, and “Spirit Medicine” by Gina McGuire. The judge

The six-title shortlist for the Authors’ Club Best First Novel award has been announced, and includes When We Were Birds by Ayanna Lloyd Banwo (Hamish Hamilton). The award is open to any debut novel written in English and published in the UK. The £2,500 winner will be announced at a dinner at the National Liberal Club on May 24, 2023. For more information, visit the Authors’ Club website. ©Locus Magazine.

A new Star Wars novel by Sam Maggs, Star Wars Jedi: Battle Scars (Random House Worlds), debuts on two lists. The USA Today bestseller list remains on hiatus.

Writer John Jakes, 90, died March 11, 2023. While famed for his bestselling historical novels, Jakes was a prolific SF and fantasy author early in his career. He published over 60 books in a variety of genres, but became famous with two historical epics: the eight-volume Kent Family Chronicles histories in the 1970s, and the North and South trilogy in the 1980s, which collectively sold tens of millions of copies.

The City of Last Chances, Adrian Tchai­kovsky (Head of Zeus 978-1-80110-842-3, £20.00, 512 pp, hc) December 2022. Cover by Joe Wilson. Adrian Tchaikovsky clearly understands genre games quite thoroughly, since he has been working both sides and several alleyways of the great science fiction/fantasy divide in more than three dozen pre­vious titles. For example, Elder Race (2021) built a pseudo-medieval heroic fantasy world on an armature of science-fictional enabling devices,

The Locus Bestsellers for November include top titles: Babel by R.F. Kuang (Harper Voyager US), Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson (Tor), Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree (Tor), and Critical Role: The Mighty Nein: The Nine Eyes of Lucien by Madeleine Roux (Del Rey).

AYIZE JAMA-EVERETT was born in 1974 in Harlem NY. He has trav­eled widely, including in Asia, Mexico, and North Africa. He has a master’s degree in divinity, another in clinical psychology, and recently finished his MFA in literature at UC Riverside. He currently lives in Oakland CA, where he works as a therapist. Jama-Everett began publishing with SF novel The Liminal People (2011), launching a series that continued with The Liminal

Juniper Wiles and the Ghost Girls, Charles de Lint (Triskell Press 978-1-98974-106-1, $15.99, 264pp, tp), November 2022. I’m well aware that calling something a ‘‘beach read’’ holds negative connota­tions – but in the case of Charles de Lint’s second installment in his Juniper Wiles series, Juniper Wiles and the Ghost Girls, I mean to call it a beach read in a more literal, delicious way. This book, which stands alone

The Strange, Nathan Ballingrud (Gallery 978-1-53444-995-4, 304pp, $27.99, hc) March 2023. Nathan Ballingrud’s debut novel The Strange takes place in a version of the 1930s where humans have inhabited Mars. It opens with teenager Anabelle and her father Sam working in their diner, living in a Martian town that is surrounded by arid nothingness, an isolation that is mirrored in the characters’ loneliness. When their diner is robbed by a

Bliss Montage by Ling Ma (Farrar, Straus, Giroux) won the Story Prize, “honoring the author of an outstanding collection of short fiction,” presented March 15, 2023. The prize includes $20,000 and an engraved silver bowl. Night of the Living Rez by Morgan Talty (Tin House) was one of the finalists, and will receive $5,000. Director Larry Dark and prize founder Julie Lindsey chose three finalists from 119 collections published in

Tor.com 12/1/22, 12/24/22, 1/11/23, 1/18/23, 1/25/23 The Dark 11/22, 12/22 Nightmare 11/22, 12/22 The Sunday Morning Transport I’ll start 2023 off by looking at three January stories from Tor.com as well as a couple from December 2022. Chances are, you still haven’t caught up with all of end-of-the-year fiction, so we’ll then look at more from last year. ‘‘Time: Marked and Mended’’ by Carrie Vaughn (Tor.com 1/11/22) is a crackerjack

You love new books! Let us tell you what is coming out this week in SF/F/H!

When We Were Birds by Ayanna Lloyd Banwo (Doubleday/Penguin UK) is on the 2023 Jhalak Prize longlist. The award “seek to celebrate books by British/British resident BAME writers” and “accept entries published in the UK by writers of colour. These include (and not limited to) fiction, non-fiction, short stories, graphic novels, poetry and all other genres.” The judges for 2023 are Haleh Agar, Anthony Vahni Capildeo, and Monisha Rajesh. The prize

The Crane Husband, Kelly Barnhill (Tor­dotcom 978-1-250-85097-3, $19.99, 128pp, hc) February 2023. Kelly Barnhill’s When Women Were Drag­ons ranked pretty high on my list of last year’s outstanding fantasy novels, a highly original combination of feminist coming-of-age tale, alternate history period piece, and metamor­phosis myth, all cast in the form of a memoir, or what used to be called a personal history. That combination of domestic realism and family strife

The Lambda Literary Foundation has announced finalists for the 35th Annual Lambda Literary Awards (the “Lammys”), celebrating “the best lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender books.” Nominees of genre interest follow. LGBTQ+ Speculative Fiction The Book Eaters, Sunyi Dean (Tor) The Paradox Hotel, Rob Hart (Ballantine) The Wicked and the Willing,  Lianyu Tan (Shattered Scepter) Into the Riverlands, Nghi Vo (Tordotcom) The Circus Infinite, Khan Wong (Angry Robot) Bisexual Fiction Reluctant Immortals,

The Gunn Center for the Study of Science Fiction has announced the second annual Sturgeon Symposium, to be held September 28-30, 2023 at the University of Kansas in Lawrence KS. The Symposium is “celebrating the 30th anniversary of Octavia Butler’s groundbreaking novel, The Parable of the Sower. As KU’s choice for the 2023 Common Book program, this novel is a powerful inspiration for our Symposium’s theme, ‘Fantastic Worlds, Fraught Futures.’”

MILESTONES GREGORY BENFORD, 82, had a stroke on December 22, 2022. While his condition is serious, he has moved from the hospital to a rehabilitation center, and is reportedly recovering well.   AWARDS WALTER MOSLEY, 71, won the 2023 Diamond Dagger Award, presented by the Crime Writers’ Association. The award is the highest honor offered by the group, and ‘‘recognises authors whose crime writing careers have been marked by sustained

Illuminations, T. Kingfisher (Red Wombat Studio, $4.99, 248pp, eb) November 2022. Illuminations, the latest middle-grade book by T. Kingfisher (AKA Ursula Vernon), opens on a very, very bored Rosa Mandolini. Fortu­nately, the Studio Mandolini, her family’s art/magic business, is full of storage rooms, stuffed to the brim with boxes of interesting, ancient wonders. One such box resists being found and opened. And thus begins Rosa’s adventure. As you’d expect from

Ashton, Edward: Antimatter Blues (St. Martin’s 978-1-250-27505-9, $26.99, 304pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, 3/14/2023) Far-future SF thriller, this is a thrilling follow up to Mickey7 in which an expendable heads out to explore new terrain for human habitation.. Mickey is still alive because Commander Marshall believes the alien neighbors have an antimatter bomb — and he wants it back.  Simultaneous with the UK (Solaris) edition.   Bakewell, Catherine: Flowerheart (HarperTeen 978-0-06-321459-0, $17.19,

The 13-title longlist for the 2023 International Booker Prize has been announced, including titles and authors of genre interest: The Gospel According to the New World, Maryse Condé, translated by Richard Philcox (World Editions) Jimi Hendrix Live in Lviv, Andrey Kurkov, translated by Reuben Woolley (MacLehose) Whale, Cheon Myeong-kwan, translated by Chi-Young Kim (Europa Editions) The award is given “every year for a single book that is translated into English

Fusion Fragment 12/22 Diabolical Plots 12/22 Beneath Ceaseless Skies 12/1/22, 12/15/22 Fusion Fragment’s last issue of 2022 brings a mix of genres and styles, with a decidedly grim and slightly dystopian feel to it. That re­ally coalesces in Owen Leddy’s ‘‘Lifeblood’’, in which a blood heist goes rather wrong for Joel, who is desperate to find a way to save his partner. Aching and not afraid to use some emotional

Winners of the New England Science Fiction Association (NESFA) SF/F short story contest were announced at Boskone 60, held February 17-19 2023. Prizes included certificates of achievement, books from NESFA Press, and free membership to a future Boskone convention. WINNER: “Excuse Me, This is My Apocalypse”, Amy Johnson Runner-up: “The Gambler”, Dianne Lee Finalist: “Mara’s Moon”, Chloe Oriotis Finalist: “To Look Upon the Face of God”, Gideon P. Smith Finalist:

Two fantasy novels debut this week, beginning with Samantha Shannon’s A Day of Fallen Night (Bloomsbury), a stand-alone prequel to her 2019 The Priory of the Orange Tree, ranking among the top 5 on three lists. Then Shannon Chakraborty’s The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi (Harper Voyager), first in a new series, ranking among the top 10 of two lists. The USA Today bestseller list remains on hiatus.

Grave Things Like Love, Sara Bennett Wealer (Delacorte 978-0-593-70355-7, $12.99, tp, 332pp) November 2022. Cover by David Seidman. In Sara Bennett Wealer’s Grave Things Like Love, protagonist Elaine Gillies has the dubious distinction of being ‘‘funeral girl,’’ a teenager whose family has owned the local funeral home, where they also live, for more than a century. Caught between her frazzled and overworked parents, who constantly pile tasks onto her shoulders

DENISE ANGELA SHAWL was born November 2, 1955 and grew up in Kalamazoo MI. (Their cousin Delores came up with the nickname “Nisi.ha”) At 17, Shawl moved to Ann Arbor to attend the University of Michigan. After leaving the university, Shawl worked as a bookseller, au pair, cook, janitor, and artist’s model. Shawl settled in Seattle in 1996, worked on publicity for Clarion West, and currently serves on the workshop’s

Soul of the Deep, Natasha Bowen (Random House 978-0-59312-098-9, $19.99, 304pp, hc) September 2022. Natasha Bowen’s Soul of the Deep picks up several months after the events of Skin of the Sea. Simidele, a Mami Wata, has been living at the bottom of the sea with the imprisoned orisa Olokun. She’s miserable, not just because she’s lost her freedom and can no longer see the sun, but also because she’s

Night of the Raven, Dawn of the Dove, Rati Mehrotra (Wednesday Books, 978-1-250-87134-3, $18.99, 352 pp, tp) October 2022. Cover by Devan Norman. In Rati Mehrotra’s Night of the Raven, Dawn of the Dove, Katyani’s path in life has been laid out for her since childhood: train to become the best guardswoman of Chan­dela, advise the crown prince Ayan once he comes of age, and above all else, serve Queen

Take a few minutes to find out about all the top SFFH books hitting shelves this week!

Horror Spotlight, formerly known as Ladies of Horror Fiction, have announced their top choices for horror in 2022: We Are Here to Hurt Each Other, Paula D. Ashe (Nictitating) Chasing Whispers, Eugen Bacon (self-published) Dead Silence, S.A. Barnes (Tor) Cool S, Die Booth (self-published) Hell Hath Only Fury, S.H. Cooper & Oli A. White (self-published) The Sacrifice, Rin Chupeco (Sourcebooks) Such a Pretty Smile, Kristi DeMeester (St. Martins) Number One

The 2022 Aurealis Awards shortlist, recognizing the best in Australian speculative fiction, has been announced. Best Science Fiction Novel Hovering, Rhett Davis (Hachette AU) The Stranger, Kathryn Hore (Allen & Unwin) 36 Streets, TR Napper (Titan) Here Goes Nothing, Steve Toltz (Hamish Hamilton) Bootstrap, Georgina Young (Text) Best Science Fiction Novella Resembling Lepus, Amanda Kool (Grey Matter) “The Goruden-Mairu Job”, TR Napper (Night, Rain, and Neon) “The Sisters of Saint

The finalists for the 92nd Annual California Book Awards, presented by the Commonwealth Club of California, have been announced. Titles and authors of genre interest include The Furrows by Namwali Serpell (Hogarth) which was one of three finalists for the Fiction category, Out There by Kate Folk (Random House) which was one of five finalists for the First Fiction category, and Cold by Mariko Tamaki (Roaring Brook) which was one

Empathy, Hoa Pham (Goldsmiths Press 978-1-91338-061-8, $24.95, 256pp, tp) November 2022. The 2018 documentary Three Identical Strangers tells the astonishing and distressing true story of triplet brothers split at birth who become aware of each other only by chance when they turn 19. The documentary reveals that the triplets were part of a “nature versus nurture” study that was never disclosed to the boys or their adoptive parents. It’s a

Baen Books has announced the ten finalists for the 2023 Jim Baen Memorial Short Story Award: Zack Be J.M. Eno Meghan Feldman William Paul Jones K.D. Julicher Marshall J. Moore Avery Parks Hûw Steer Rudy Vener Brad Zeiger The Grand Prize winner will be featured on the Baen website. The author will be given a trophy and paid professional rates. Grand Prize, second, and third place winners each receive free

The five-title 2023 PEN/Faulkner finalists list includes titles and authors of genre interest: Fruiting Bodies, Kathryn Harlan (Norton) The Book of Goose, Yiyun Li (Farrar, Straus, Giroux) The prize “honors the best published works of fiction by American citizens in a calendar year.” This year’s judges are Christopher Bollen, R.O. Kwon, and Tiphanie Yanique. The longlist was announced in February. The winner will be announced in April. The winner will

Dreams for a Broken World, Julie C. Day & Ellen Meeropol, eds. (Essential Dreams 978-1-95536-005-0, $20.00, 304pp, tp) No­vember 2022. Wherever you stand, by nature, on the spec­trum between optimism and pessimism, it’s hard to argue that right now, the world is deeply troubled. Systems we’ve come to rely on are fractured. More and more often, politics and economics divide us. Things are, well, broken. Now, none of these wounds

We’re pleased to premiere a career-spanning interview with one of our finest SF authors: Kim Stanley Robinson, by Jake Brown from About the Authors TV as the opening of their new season of science fiction and fantasy author interviews. Robinson’s works are insightful, smart, entertaining, and center on ecological and global themes about the Earth and our future on it. Brown has been interviewing authors and musicians in a comprehensive

Fantasy 12/22 Lightspeed 12/22 Hexagon 12/2 Fantasy closed out 2022 with a bang with an issue full of hauntings, magic, and people desperate for a safe place to be. In ‘‘The End of a Painted World’’ by Sam Kyung Yoo, a painter named Woojin must flee an assault by the emperor’s soldiers. The reason for the attack is never confirmed, but it likely has to do with the way that

The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA) has released the final ballot for the 2022 Nebula Awards. Novel Legends & Lattes, Travis Baldree (Cryptid; Tor) Spear, Nicola Griffith (Tordotcom) Nettle & Bone, T. Kingfisher (Tor; Titan UK) Babel, R.F. Kuang (Harper Voyager US; Harper Voyager UK) Nona the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir (Tordotcom) The Mountain in the Sea, Ray Nayler (MCD; Weidenfeld & Nicolson) Novella A Prayer for the Crown-Shy,

Afifi, Nadia: The Transcendent  (Flame Tree Press UK 978-1-78758-673-4, $26.95, 352pp, formats: hardcover, trade paperback, ebook, 3/7/2023) Quasi-SF thriller/horror novel, third in the Cosmic trilogy begun in The Sentient. After a fateful confrontation with her former ally, Tony Barlow, Amira Valdez is on the run, pregnant with her own clone and desperate. The fundamentalist Trinity Compound has grown in strength and numbers, and with the help of the powerful mind-controlling

The Romantic Novelists’ Association (RNA) has announced winners for the 2023 Romantic Novel Awards, including titles of genre interest. The Fantasy Romantic Novel Award WINNER: I Let You Fall, Sara Downing (Quilla) Hidden in the Mists, Christina Courtenay (Headline) Skip to the End, Molly James (Quercus) Impossible, Sarah Lotz (HarperCollins; as The Impossible Us in the US, Ace) Ocean’s Echo, Everina Maxwell (Orbit UK; Tor) The Jackie Collins Award for Romantic

The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches, Sangu Mandanna (Berkley 978-0-593-43935-7, $17.00, tp, 316 pp) November 2022. Cover by Lisa Perrin. For much of the time I was reading Sangu Mandanna’s The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches, I was waiting for the other literary shoe to drop. Something bad, I was certain, had to happen. As British witch Mika Moon took on the job of educating a trio of