science fiction

Ian Mond Reviews Here in the (Middle) of Nowhere by Anastacia Reneé

March 8, 2024February 19, 2025 locusmag 0 Comments Ian Mond, science fiction

Here in the (Middle) of Nowhere, Anastacia Reneé (Amistad 978-0-06322-168-0, $17.99, 144pp, tp) March 2024.

I’ve never really seen eye to eye with poetry. As a kid, all that word-play, metaphor, and allusion seemed like hard work, especially when my literary diet consisted mainly of Terrance Dicks Doctor Who novelisations and Stephen King. But in the last decade I’ve made a concerted effort to read outside my comfort zone ...Read More

Gary K. Wolfe Reviews Convergence Problems by Wole Talabi

March 6, 2024February 19, 2025 locusmag 0 Comments Gary K. Wolfe, science fiction

Convergence Problems, Wole Talabi (DAW 978-0756418830, $27.00, 320pp, hc), February 2024.

After the exuberant fantasy/heist caper that was his debut novel Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon, it might be easy to overlook Wole Talabi’s background as an engineer and SF writer. His new collection, Convergence Problems, serves as a rewarding reminder of his connections to more-or-less traditional SF themes and techniques. A story like ‘‘Blowout’’, ...Read More

Paul Di Filippo Reviews Equimedian by Alvaro Zinos-Amaro

March 3, 2024February 19, 2025 LocEditor 0 Comments Paul Di Filippo, science fiction

Equimedian, Alvaro Zinos-Amaro (Hex 979-8988082712, hardcover, 326pp, $31.99) February 2024

I would venture to guess that most SF fans know Alvaro Zinos-Amaro as one of our best critics and interviewers. Case in point is his recent volume, Being Michael Swanwick, which I reviewed on this platform just a short time ago. But like Green Arrow or Hawkeye, the man has more than one arrow in his quiver. (I ...Read More

Jake Casella Brookins Reviews Same Bed Different Dreams by Ed Park

March 3, 2024February 19, 2025 locusmag 0 Comments Jake Casella Brookins, science fiction

Same Bed Different Dreams, Ed Park (Random House 978-0-8129-9897-9, $30.00. 544pp, hc) November 2023. Cover by Will Staehle.

Framed from the perspective of Soon Sheen, a writer-turned-tech worker, Ed Park’s Same Bed Different Dreams is an intricate and entertaining puzzlebox of a novel, an expansive and allusive meditation on Korean history and much else. Soon works for GLOAT, a giant and quietly dystopian tech company in the mold of ...Read More

Paul Di Filippo Reviews Beggar’s Sky by Wil McCarthy

March 2, 2024February 19, 2025 LocEditor 0 Comments Paul Di Filippo, science fiction

Beggar’s Sky, Wil McCarthy (Baen 978-1982193188, hardcover, 320pp, $28.00) February 2024

Wil McCarthy has had an atypical career that is almost neatly bifurcated. He came out of the gate strong with a duology, Aggressor Six, from 1994-1996. With the dawn of a new century, he delivered an even better, more mature and inventive series, Queendom of Sol (2000-2005). But then, for whatever reason, he fell more or less ...Read More

A.C. Wise Reviews Short Fiction: Analog

March 2, 2024February 19, 2025 locusmag 0 Comments A.C. Wise, science fiction

Analog 11-12/23

Analog’s November/December issue includes a wide variety of short fiction. The standout story in the issue was “An Infestation of Blue” by Wendy N. Wagner, told from the point of view of a dog who wakes to find her consciousness altered through an Operator meant to allow her to communicate with humans. The dog, who now thinks of herself as Rebecca, discovers that the Man who ...Read More

Charles Payseur Reviews Short Fiction: GigaNotoSaurus, Diabolical Plots, Lightspeed and Rosalind’s Siblings

March 1, 2024February 19, 2025 locusmag 0 Comments Charles Payseur, science fiction

GigaNotoSaurus 12/23 Diabolical Plots 12/23 Lightspeed 12/23, 1/24 Rosalind’s Siblings, Bogi Takács, ed. (Atthis Arts) September 2023

The December GigaNotoSaurus mixes two of my favorite things in Sara Norja’s “Reconciliation Dumplings and Other Recipes”: Sspeculative fiction and food! The piece is framed as parts of a book of family recipes collated and annotated by Ember, who is writing them down to save them for future generations. ...Read More

Paula Guran Reviews The Sunday Morning Transport, Apex, and The Dark

February 29, 2024February 19, 2025 locusmag 0 Comments fantasy, horror, Paula Guran, science fiction

The Sunday Morning Transport 10/24/23, 9/10/23, 9/3/23 Apex #140 The Dark 9/23, 10/23

I know I am repeating myself, but every story The Sunday Morning Transport publishes should be read. Of the nine original stories published from the end of August through October 22, I’ll mention only my absolute favorites. Nura – in ‘‘We Will Witness’’ by Martin Cahill – is a 30th-century Witness, sent back in time ...Read More

Alexandra Pierce Reviews 2022 Best of Utopian Speculative Fiction edited by Justine Norton-Kertson

February 26, 2024February 19, 2025 locusmag 0 Comments Alexandra Pierce, science fiction

2022 Best of Utopian Speculative Fiction, Justine Norton-Kertson, ed. (Android Press 978-1-95812-166-5, $21.99, 240pp, tp) December 2023.

In their follow-up to Bioluminescent: A Lunarpunk Anthology, Justine Norton-Kertson has assembled a range of stories that suggest different ways of thinking about “utopia.” Going into this anthology I had clear expectations of what “utopia” meant and what these stories would probably look like: societies would be shown as having figured ...Read More

Gary K. Wolfe Reviews The Tusks of Extinction by Ray Nayler

February 25, 2024February 19, 2025 locusmag 0 Comments Gary K. Wolfe, science fiction

The Tusks of Extinction, Ray Nayler (Tordotcom 978-1-25085-552-7, $26.99, 112pp, hc) January 2024.

Just over a year ago, Ray Nayler offered us a brilliantly original glimpse into the minds of octopuses in The Mountain in the Sea, making a convincing case that this was about as close as we’ve come to encountering a genuine alien intelligence. With The Tusks of Extinction, he turns his attention to the ...Read More

Ian Mond Reviews Womb City by Tlotlo Tsamaase

February 24, 2024February 19, 2025 locusmag 0 Comments Ian Mond, science fiction

Womb City, Tlotlo Tsamaase (Erewhon Books 978-1-64566-056-9, $27.00, 416pp, hc) January 2024.

Tlotlo Tsamaase’s debut novel, Womb City, initially presents as science fiction. In an evocative opening, our protagonist Nelah tells us that ‘‘in our city, everyone lives forever. But murder hangs in the air like mist.’’ The city is Gaborone, the capital of Botswana. The mist is a ‘‘puff of human corpse-detecting chemicals’’ that can locate where a ...Read More

Ian Mond Reviews Deluge by Stephen Markley

February 21, 2024February 19, 2025 locusmag 3 Comments Ian Mond, science fiction

The Deluge, Stephen Markley (Simon & Schuster 978-1-98212-309-3, $32.50, 896pp, hc) January 2023.

I won’t lie. I balked at reading Stephen Markley’s second novel, The Deluge. At nearly 900 pages, I knew it would take me two weeks to read, time I could spend working through a backlog of 2023 books that I’ve been meaning to pick up (including new novels from Francis Spufford, Daniel Mason, Emily Habeck, ...Read More

Gary K. Wolfe Reviews Kinning by Nisi Shawl

February 19, 2024February 19, 2025 locusmag 0 Comments Gary K. Wolfe, science fiction

Kinning, Nisi Shawl (Tor 978-1-25021-269-6, $28.99, 432pp, hc) January 2024.

Nisi Shawl’s 2016 Everfair was one of the more provocative alternate histories of the past decade, with its steampunk Africa giving birth to a safe-haven country called Everfair, carved out of the oppressively brutal Belgian Congo of King Leopold and financed in part by British socialists and African-American missionaries. It was a sprawling, ambitious narrative, covering some 30 years ...Read More

Paul Di Filippo Reviews Exordia by Seth Dickinson

February 18, 2024February 19, 2025 LocEditor 0 Comments Paul Di Filippo, science fiction

Exordia, Seth Dickinson (Tordotcom 978-1250233011, hardcover, 544pp, $29.99) January 2024

Seth Dickinson’s Baru Cormorant trilogy, known collectively as The Masquerade, was a splashy debut, earning him many accolades and fans. So when his next book, “a gonzo space opera and alien techno-thriller” titled Exordia, was announced in 2018, excitement grew. Six years later, after some public wistful wondering as to when the book would actually appear, Exordia finally ...Read More

Alex Brown Reviews A Feast for Flies by Leigh Harlen

February 16, 2024February 19, 2025 locusmag 0 Comments Alex Brown, science fiction

A Feast for Flies, Leigh Harlen (Dancing Star Press 978-1-73214-186-5, $11.99. 163pp, pb) November 2023. Cover by Vitalii Ostaschenko.

Leigh Harlen has only published a collection and one novella, but I loved the latter so much that they immediately became one of my auto-buy authors. Queens of Noise is a riot of a novella, a fierce, funny story about were-punks trying to stop a corporate takeover of their favorite ...Read More

Paul Di Filippo Reviews The Glass Box by J. Michael Straczynski

February 12, 2024February 19, 2025 LocEditor 0 Comments Paul Di Filippo, science fiction

The Glass Box, J. Michael Straczynski (Blackstone 979-8212007795, hardcover, 350pp, $25.99) January 2024

We are lucky that Mr. Straczynski—hereafter, the familiar JMS—has taken some time off from his comics and television work to gift us with a fine new novel. Considering also his heavy duties administering the estate of Harlan Ellison—I for one eagerly await the reprinting of Dangerous Visions and Again, Dangerous Visions, and the birth of ...Read More

Alexandra Pierce Reviews Chaos Terminal by Mur Lafferty

February 11, 2024February 19, 2025 locusmag 0 Comments Alexandra Pierce, science fiction

Chaos Terminal, Mur Lafferty (Ace 978-0-59309-813-4, 369pp, $17.00, tp) Cover by Will Staehle. November 2023.

I have watched a lot of episodes of the British TV show Midsomer Murders. They follow a predictable format: There’s the murder (or three) and the investigation, and the final triumphant reveal of whodunit. In the course of the investigation far more problems than just the murder will turn up, some of which are ...Read More

Niall Harrison Reviews Nordic Visions edited by Margrét Helgadóttir

February 10, 2024February 19, 2025 locusmag 0 Comments fantasy, horror, Niall Harrison, science fiction

Nordic Visions, Margrét Helgadóttir, ed. (Solaris 978-18378-60296, 341pp, $16.99, tp) October 2023.

The most haunting story in Nordic Visions is one of the shortest. “I am hanging from the lowest bar,” says the narrator of Rakel Helmsdal’s “The Abyss”, by way of introduction, “as I have been for a while now. Knowing there is nothing to see I still stare into the fog.” They cannot recall when they were ...Read More

Liz Bourke Reviews Fallen by Melissa Scott

February 7, 2024February 19, 2025 locusmag 0 Comments Liz Bourke, science fiction

Fallen, Melissa Scott (Candlemark & Gleam 978-1-952456-20-6, $22.45, 302pp, tp) December 2023. Cover by Eleni Tsami.

Melissa Scott’s Fallen might lack the sheer bloody energy of These Burning Stars, but it has instead the precise and understated competence of a writer who’s been honing her craft for four decades. Few of Scott’s novels are alike: while Fallen returns to the space opera universe that made its debut in ...Read More

Jake Casella Brookins Reviews Inversion by Aric McBay

February 6, 2024February 19, 2025 locusmag 0 Comments Jake Casella Brookins, science fiction

Inversion, Aric McBay (AK Press 978-1-8493-5504-9, $17.00. 240pp, tp) November 2023. Cover by Bob Kayganich & T.L. Simons.

Every once in a while, I run into a new science fiction story that feels remarkably classic, as though it had been written at the height of some previous era and only recently discovered. Or classical, perhaps – so well-versed in its themes and tropes that you can immediately see where ...Read More

A.C. Wise Reviews Short Fiction: Asimov’s, Clarkesworld and khōréō

February 4, 2024February 19, 2025 locusmag 0 Comments A.C. Wise, science fiction

Asimov’s 11-12/23 Clarkesworld 11/23 khōréō 3.2

Asimov’s November/December issue includes three novellas, along with an assortment of short stories and novelettes. The wide variety of themes and styles in this issue work well, with stories evoking classic science fiction, stories with an epic science fantasy feel, and others taking a quiet slice-of-life approach. “Berb by Berb” by Ray Nayler is one of the most effective pieces in the ...Read More

Ian Mond Reviews The Wolfe at the Door by Gene Wolfe

February 3, 2024February 19, 2025 locusmag 0 Comments fantasy, Ian Mond, science fiction

The Wolfe at the Door, Gene Wolfe (Tor 978-1-25084-620-4, $29.99, 480pp, hc) October 2023.

With its punny title, The Wolfe at the Door is the second collection of Gene Wolfe’s work to be published this year (and the third book to come out since his passing in 2019). Where The Dead Man and Other Horror Stories from Subterranean Press assembled Wolfe’s more chilling tales, Tor’s The Wolfe at the ...Read More

Alexandra Pierce Reviews The Year’s Top Robot and AI Stories: Fourth Annual Collection edited by Allan Kaster

February 1, 2024February 19, 2025 locusmag 0 Comments Alexandra Pierce, science fiction

The Year’s Top Robot and AI Stories: Fourth Annual Collection, Allan Kaster, ed. (Infinivox 978-1-88461-261-9, $18.99, 286pp, tp) October 2023. Cover by Maurizio Manzieri.

Discussions around the place of robots and artificial intelligence have grown in relevance and urgency over the last couple of years; AI is gaining ever more presence in our “real” lives rather than just in fiction. Allan Kaster’s fourth collection of stories about robots and ...Read More

Charles Payseur Reviews Short Fiction: Lightspeed, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, GigaNotoSaurus, Flash Fiction Online, and F&SF

February 1, 2024February 19, 2025 locusmag 0 Comments Charles Payseur, fantasy, horror, science fiction

Lightspeed 11/23 Beneath Ceaseless Skies 11/2/23, 11/16/23 GigaNotoSaurus 11/23 Flash Fiction Online 11/23 F&SF 11-12/23

The November Lightspeed shows a keen interest in storytelling forms, with stories framed as recipes, as reviews, as confessions, and with Regina Kanyu Wang’s “A Record of Lost Time” (translated by Rebecca F. Kuang) as a series of personal narratives surrounding a new technology called FastForward, which allows users to experience “sped ...Read More

Colleen Mondor Reviews Jonathan Abernathy You Are Kind by Molly McGhee and Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands by Heather Fawcett

January 30, 2024February 19, 2025 locusmag 0 Comments Colleen Mondor, science fiction

Jonathan Abernathy You Are Kind, Molly McGhee (Astra House 978-1662602115, $24.95, hc, 304pp) October 2023.

On the fourth page of Molly McGhee’s debut novel, the titular character Jonathan Abernathy is described as a young man drowning in financial debts. They primarily include ‘‘(1) a series of unpaid credit cards inherited after the death of his parents’’ and ‘‘(2) the legal culminations of the decisions he made as a 17-year-old ...Read More

Charles Payseur Reviews Short Fiction: Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Escape Pod, Worlds of Possibility, Cast of Wonders

January 25, 2024February 19, 2025 locusmag 0 Comments Charles Payseur, fantasy, science fiction

Beneath Ceaseless Skies 10/5/23, 10/19/23 Escape Pod 10/12/23, 10/19/23, 10/26/23 Worlds of Possibility 10/23 Cast of Wonders 10/14/23, 10/25/23, 10/27/23

Beneath Ceaseless Skies celebrated their 15th anniversary in October with a special double issue including Filip Hajdar Drnovšek Zorko’s novella, “Between Blades”, which unfolds in a world where some people can adopt “swordform,” wherein one in a pair of people becomes a living weapon – a sword ...Read More

Gary K. Wolfe Reviews The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2023 by R.F. Kuang & John Joseph Adams, eds.

January 23, 2024February 19, 2025 locusmag 1 Comment fantasy, Gary K. Wolfe, science fiction

The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2023, R.F. Kuang & John Joseph Adams, eds. (Mariner 978-0-06-331574-7, $18.99, 292pp, tp) October 2023.

Now in its ninth year, The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2023 predictably offers a stimulating and eclectic selection of tales, three of which made the Hugo ballot and a few of which are nothing short of brilliant. But it also raises a few questions of ...Read More

Liz Bourke Reviews These Burning Stars by Bethany Jacobs

January 19, 2024February 19, 2025 locusmag 0 Comments Liz Bourke, science fiction

These Burning Stars, Bethany Jacobs (Orbit US 978-0-316-46332-4, $19.99, 423pp, tp) October 2023.

These Burning Stars is Bethany Jacobs’s debut novel, and it’s an interesting and ambitious space opera – and a surprisingly self-contained narrative for an entry in that typically sprawling subgenre. Jacobs has the confidence to go big, and the control to bring her debut to a satisfying conclusion: I feel that fans of Megan E. O’Keefe’s ...Read More

A.C. Wise Reviews Short Fiction: Analog, Clarkesworld and Flash Fiction Online

January 14, 2024February 19, 2025 locusmag 0 Comments A.C. Wise, science fiction

Analog 9-10/23 Clarkesworld 10/23 Flash Fiction Online 10/23

Analog’s September/October issue opens with the excellent novelette “The Apotheosis of Krysalice Wilson” by Howard V. Hendrix. Teenage figure skater Krysalice is approached with the opportunity to implant experimental technology that will give her better reaction times and improve her sense of spatial relations – a kind of natural GPS akin to the way birds navigate as they migrate – enhancing ...Read More

Paul Di Filippo Reviews Short and Long by Michael Blumlein

January 13, 2024February 19, 2025 LocEditor 0 Comments Paul Di Filippo, science fiction

Short, Michael Blumlein (Subterranean Press 978-1645241522, hardcover, 424pp, $45.00) December 2023

Long, Michael Blumlein (Subterranean Press 978-1645241539, hardcover, 360pp, $45.00) December 2023

For many years, I saw Michael Blumlein regularly at Readercon. We had pleasant chats, for he was congenial, simpatico, funny, and smart. Then one year I asked him if he were returning to the West Coast immediately after the con. “No, we’re going to Rhode Island ...Read More