Locus Online

F&SF 11-12/18
Uncanny 11-12/18
Interzone 9-10/18
Galaxy’s Edge 11/18
Bourbon Penn 11/18

Sean McMullen‘s “Extreme” from the November-December F&SF can be called SF horror, I suppose, though the horror is moral and arises from the social and economic extrapolation at the center of the story. Set in the relatively near future, the narrator is a man addicted to extreme experiences, due to genetics with the help of ...Read More

Finders, Melissa Scott (Candlemark & Gleam 978-1-936460-88-5, $20.95, 372pp, tp) Decem­ber 2018.

I have to admit that I’m a fan of Melissa Scott, although I came late to her novels, and later still to her science fiction ones. Her work gen­erally concerns itself in some way with personal relationships, and with social alienation, and with, in some several cases, movements or moments arising out of the solidarity of the ...Read More

Today I Am Carey by Martin L. Shoemaker (Baen 978-1-4814-8384-1, $16, 336pp, trade paperback) March 2019.

Martin Shoemaker’s debut novel (he had his first story publication in 2011), is based on his tale “Today I Am Paul“. That quietly emotional story about “Medical Care Android BRKCX-01932-217JH-98662” garnered Shoemaker a Nebula nomination, and consequently a fair number of readers will certainly be quite interested to see how Shoemaker expands what was ...Read More

Friday Black, Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah (Mariner Books 978-1328911247, $14.99, 208pp, tp) October 2018.

In Lit Hub’s Ultimate Fall Books Preview, which aggregates recommendations made by “various online publications,” Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah’s debut collection, Friday Black, was listed alongside such heavyweights as Bar­bara Kingsolver’s Unsheltered, Kate Atkinson’s Transcription, and Michelle Obama’s Becoming as one of the season’s most anticipated books. The hype reminded me of another debut ...Read More

Rosewater, Tade Thompson; Bayo Gbada­mosi (Hachette Audio 978-1-54917090-4, $25.98, digital download, 13.5 hr., un­abridged) September 2018.

This first in a trilogy is set in an alternate mid-21st-century Nigeria, in which aliens have landed on Earth multiple times and seeded the atmosphere with mysterious, fungi-like microorganisms. The remaining alien is now permanently located in Nige­ria, surrounded by a biodome which, when it opens, grants miraculous healing powers, causes mysterious biological ...Read More

How to Fracture a Fairy Tale, Jane Yolen (Tachyon 978-1-61696-306-4, $16.95, 320pp, tp) November 2018.

Chances are that not every reader of Jane Yo­len’s collection How to Fracture a Fairy Tale – which follows close upon her World Fantasy Award winning The Emerald Circus – will remember the classic Rocky and Bullwinkle segments from nearly 60 years ago, narrated by Edward Everett Horton, which as far as I know ...Read More

Gabriela Damián Miravete’s short story “They Will Dream in the Garden” (Latin American Literature Today 5/18) won the 2018 James Tiptree, Jr. Award, given annually to works of science fiction or fantasy that explore and expand gender roles. Miravete will receive $1,000, original artwork, and chocolate. She will be honored at a ceremony during WisCon 43, to be held at the Concourse Hotel and Governor’s Club, May 24-27, 2019 ...Read More

Sooner or Later Everything Falls into the Sea by Sarah Pinsker (Small Beer Press 978-1-61873-155-5, $17, 286pp, trade paperback) March 2019

Having published her first story as recently as 2012 — that date surely seems barely in the rearview mirror to me, although your personal chrono-mileage may vary — Sarah Pinsker has accomplished a lot. With nearly fifty stories to her credit, and a couple of major awards, she has ...Read More

Alliance Rising, C.J. Cherryh & Jane S. Fancher (DAW 9780756412715, $26.00, 352pp, hc) Janu­ary 2019. Cover by Micah Epstein.

Alliance Rising is the first novel to be published by the partnership of SFWA Grand Master C.J. Cherryh and her wife, author and artist Jane S. Fancher. It’s also the latest novel to be set in Cherryh’s Alliance-Union continuity, a literary universe that incorporates novels like Downbelow Station and Cyteen ...Read More

The Sea Dreams It Is the Sky, John Hornor Jacobs (Harper Voyager $3.99 127pp, eb) Oc­tober 2018.

John Hornor Jacobs’s The Sea Dreams It Is the Sky is an excellently written, Lovecraft-inflected novella concerned with the history of an invented South American nation and the life of its most famous poet. It begins in Malaga, Spain, in 1987, with Isabel, the first-person narrator, noticing an older man wearing an ...Read More

Hedge fund Man Group will no longer sponsor the Booker Prize, effective after the 2019 prizes are presented. The Man Group has contributed £25 million to the prize since its sponsorship began in 2002, including £1.6 million for the 2019 prize. The Booker Foundation said, “The Trustees are in discussion with a new sponsor and are confident that new funding will be in place for 2020. In the meantime the ...Read More

Faerie Knitting, Alice & Lisa Hoffman; Janu­ary LaVoy, narrator (Simon & Schuster Audio/Blackstone Audio 978-150827645-6, $21.99, CD, 1.5 hr., unabridged [also available as a digital download]) September 2018.

Somewhere I have a half-finished article that I always intended to submit to a knitting maga­zine, concerning the strong parallels between SF geekery and knitting geekery. Both involve a certain intensity of focus on the topic, utilize a specialized vocabulary, hold ...Read More

The Bookseller has announced the shortlists for the 2019 British Book Awards, including several titles of genre interest.

The Speculative Literature Foundation’s inaugural A.C. Bose Grant for South Asian Literature is open for submissions until March 31, 2019. The grant provides $1,000 to “a South Asian / South Asian diaspora writer developing speculative fiction.”

The SLF also offers the Older Writers Grant, the Working Class Writers Grant, and more. For details or to apply, visit the Speculative Literature Foundation website. ...Read More

Raw Dog Screaming Press won the Horror Writers Association (HWA) Specialty Press Award, recognizing “the accomplishments of a noteworthy small press or presses” and given to “an outstanding publisher of horror, dark fantasy, and weird fiction.”

The awards will be presented during StokerCon 2019, May 9-12, 2019 at the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel in Grand Rapids MI. As previously announced, Graham Masterton will also receive the Lifetime Achievement Award. For ...Read More

Unholy Land, Lavie Tidhar (Tachyon Publica­tions 978-1616963040, $15.95, 288pp, tp) October 2018.

In 1938 (or possibly 1939) there was a plan to settle European Jews facing rising anti-semitism in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. It never eventuated. More than a century prior, and a good 80 years before the establishment of modern-day Zionism, Mordechai Manuel Noah attempted to establish a Jewish State, called Ararat, in Grand Island NY. ...Read More

Jane Crowley and Kate Dollarhyde are stepping down as editors-in-chief of Strange Horizons, with Vanessa Rose Phin taking over the role. Crowley and Dollarhyde said:

Friends and fellow readers, we come bearing bittersweet news: the time has come for us to move along. We’re stepping down from our positions as editors-in-chief and passing the torch to Vanessa Rose Phin, who’s served the magazine ably in several capacities during vees ...Read More

Finalists for the 2019 Colorado Book Awards include the following titles of genre interest:

Shimmer 11/18
Clarkesworld 11/18
Lightspeed 12/18

As we say goodbye to 2018 we also bid a fond farewell to Shimmer, as their 46th issue is their last. After 13 years of pub­lication they go out in style with a 12-story triple issue that showcases the wide range of genre fic­tion that found a home between their covers over the years. It starts strongly with “Rotkäppchen” by Emily ...Read More

Philip Pullman won the 2019 J.M. Barrie Award, given annually by the Action for Children’s Arts (ACA) “to a children’s arts practitioner or organisation in recognition of a lifetime’s achievement in delighting children.”

ACA chair Vicky Ireland said:

The Trustees selected Sir Philip Pullman as the winner of the ACA JM Barrie Award 2019, for his outstanding talent as a storyteller who appeals to all ages, especially to the young. ...Read More

Uncommon Miracles, Julie C. Day (PS 978-1-786363-34-3, £20.00, 234pp, hc) October 2018.

Well, aren’t we about overdue for the bunny apoc­alypse? That seems to be the question Julie C. Day raises in “Everyone Gets a Happy Ending”, the lead story in her first collection Uncommon Miracles, and it’s not quite as whimsical as it sounds. It follows the familiar pattern of end-of-days tales, with two friends making their ...Read More

The Carnegie Medal shortlist for best children’s book has been announced. Titles of genre interest follow.

The award is presented by the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP). The winner will be ...Read More

Murmur by Will Eaves (Bellevue) and My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh (Penguin) are on the six-title shortlist for the 2019 Wellcome Book Prize.

The £30,000 prize “rewards exceptional works of literature that illuminate the many ways that health, medicine and illness touch our lives.” Judges for 2019 are Jon Day, Rick Edwards, Kevin Fong, Viv Groskop, and Elif Shafak (chair). The winner will be announced on ...Read More

Winners of the 2019 Jim Baen Memorial Short Story Award have been announced.

The Grand Prize winning story will be featured on the Baen website in June 2019. The author will be given a trophy and paid a professional rate.

Grand Prize, second, and third place winners each receive free admission into the ...Read More

Foundryside, Robert Jackson Bennett; Tara Sands, narrator (Random House Audio, $32.95, digital download, 19.5 hr., unabridged) August 2018.

The city of Tevanne runs on magitech: “Scrivings,” writings based on the relics of an ancient magical civilization, are used to power vehicles and all manner of technologi­cal innovations. But only the wealthy merchant guilds and their employees benefit from these, or indeed, from any public services at all. The guild­less ...Read More

Winners have been announced for the inaugural “Favorite SF in Translation” award, given to non-Anglophone speculative fiction that has been translated into English and published between January 1 and December 31, 2018. The winners were chosen by a readers’ survey.