Month: May 2021

Thoughtful Thursday: The 2020 Nebula Awards: Novelettes & Short Stories

The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America’s 56th Annual Nebula conference (June 4-6) will be held online this year (as it was last year) and the 2020 Nebula Awards will be announced on Saturday, June 5, 2021.

Today let’s talk about the finalists for Best Short Story and Best Novelette. We’ll talk about other categories in a future column.

Here are the finalists in these categories. Click the links to read our reviews and get the links to the stories. Most can be read for free online.

BEST SHORT STORY:

Badass Moms in the Zombie Apocalypse by Rae Carson,

May 20th, 2021. FanLit | Nebula Award | Giveaway!, Thoughtful Thursday | 13 comments |

SHORTS: 2020/21 Awards finalists

This week’s SHORTS column features some of the 2020 Nebula and 2021 Locus and Hugo award finalists in the novella, novelette, and short story categories.

“A Guide for Working Breeds” by Vina Jie-Min Prasad (2020, free at Tor.com, originally published in Made to Order: Robots and Revolution)

This is an absolutely delightful story! A grumpy robot, Constant Killer, who makes a living by engaging in robot deathmatch and assassination games, is obliged to mentor a chirpy, innocent new robot who is having problems with its life,

WWWednesday: May 19, 2021

The Speculative Literature Foundation is launching a Convention Support Grant, to help conventions get back on their feet as pandemic measures ease. (Thanks to File 770.)

Hugh Howey is initiating a self-publishing contest similar in structure to Mark Lawrence’s Self-Publishing Blog-Off. Ten book bloggers will review up to 300 self-published SF novels. At the end of a year, a winner will be chosen from among the finalists.

Alexandra Petri knocks it out of the park for her Washington Post column, a post pandemic horror-satire (or is it?).

May 19th, 2021. Marion Deeds | World Wide Wednesday | no comments |

A Game of Fox & Squirrels: A moving allegory

A Game of Fox & Squirrels by Jenn Reese

11-year-old Samantha and her big sister have just arrived at their Aunt Vicky’s farm in Oregon. Samantha is not happy that the girls have been taken away from their parents and she wants to go home, even though her dad sometimes has a pretty bad temper. Aunt Vicky and her wife are clearly not prepared to take the girls in, but they do their best to make the sisters feel at home.

Aunt Vicky gives Samantha a game called The Game of Fox &

Bill chats with Marion about Copper Road (Giveaway!)

In case you haven’t heard, our own Marion Deeds‘ novel Copper Road was recently published by Falstaff Books. After reading and reviewing it, I had some questions about the story, the world Marion created, and her writing process. I’m pleased to share her answers with you. Marion will send a signed copy of Copper Road to one of our commentors with a U.S. address (if our winner is outside the U.S., we’ll send a $5 Amazon gift card).

Bill Capossere: I mentioned in my review how meticulously constructed the plot felt.

May 18th, 2021. Bill Capossere | Marion Deeds | Author Interviews, Giveaway! | 12 comments |

Raybearer: Deserves its accolades

Raybearer by Jordan Ifueko

Tarisai, who has the magical gift of being able to perceive the memories of objects and people, has always lived a sheltered life in her mother’s large house. She rarely sees her mysterious mother and is taken care of by unfriendly servants and tutors who are rigorously educating her for some unknown task. Lonely, Tarisai longs for companionship, travel, freedom, and a sense of purpose.

When she is 11 years old, without any explanation, Tarisai’s mother sends her to the capital to compete to be one of the crown prince’s 11 counselors.

Sunday Status Update: May 16, 2021

Marion: I’m caught up in S.B. Divya’s SF adventure Machinehood. I’m loving the beautifully realized future world, the action and the dilemmas the characters face. I was all set to recommend it to Kat, but she’s already reviewed it!

Sandy: Moi? I am currently reading my third book in a row by San Francisco-born author/poet Stanton A. Coblentz. I had previously enjoyed his first book, 1928’s The Sunken World, and his fifth, 1931’s Into Plutonian Depths,

May 16th, 2021. Tim Scheidler | Status Update | no comments |

Klara and the Sun: An understated masterpiece

Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro

Klara and the Sun (2021) is the newest novel by Kazuo Ishiguro, and the best description I can think of it is that it’s the newest novel by Kazuo Ishiguro. In other words, it’s very “Ishiguro”-like in its themes, its voice, its prose style and will call up memories of earlier works such as Never Let Me Go and The Remains of the Day, which I consider high praise indeed.

WWWednesday: May 12, 2021

Nerds of a Feather gives us a review of Water Horse by Melissa Scott.

From last month, here is Tordotcom’s 2021 publishing sampler.

Also from last month, Orbit provides a cover reveal of the latest by Tade Thompson.

Baen’s home page shows some new releases too.

From The Little Book of Feminist Saints, LitHub chose five who should be feminist writer saints.

According to Publishers Weekly,

May 12th, 2021. Marion Deeds | Giveaway!, World Wide Wednesday | 10 comments |

Victories Greater Than Death: Share it with your teen, then enjoy it yourself

Victories Greater Than Death by Charlie Jane Anders

2021’s Victories Greater That Death is the first book in Charlie Jane Anders’s new Young Adult space opera series, UNSTOPPABLE. The book is filled with smart, heroic young people, extraterrestrials, space adventures, horrifying villains, bad food and plenty of relationships, as six Terran humans get pulled up onto The Royal Fleet warship Indomitable. The Royal Fleet is smack-dab in the middle of a war with a faction that calls itself Compassion.

Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

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Kind of you to say. I certainly like to think so!
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You bet, Marion!