Author: FanLit

It’s time for our annual Fantasy Limerick contest!

Your task is to create an original limerick that has something to do with speculative fiction. It could be about a character, a series, an author, or whatever fits the theme. Here are the rules for creating a good limerick (quoting from this source). A limerick:

• is five lines long
• is based on the rhythm “da-da-DAH” (anapest meter)
• has two different rhymes
• Lines 1, 2, and 5 have three of those da-da-DAH “feet,” and rhyme with each other.

The Hugo Awards have been awarded by science fiction and fantasy readers at the World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon) since 1953.

Starting in 1996, fans began awarding Retrospective Hugo Awards to works that might have won in the years before the Hugos were instituted.

This year the Retro Hugos will celebrate novels, novellas, novelettes, and short stories that were published in 1943 and, therefore, might have won a Hugo Award if the Hugos had existed back then.

The 1944 Retro Hugo Awards will be presented at Worldcon 77 in Dublin, Ireland,

It’s the first Thursday of the month. You know what that means, ’cause we do this on the first Thursday of every month! Time to report!

What is the best book you read in July 2019 and why did you love it? It doesn’t have to be a newly published book, or even SFF. We just want to share some great reading material. Feel free to post a full review of the book here, or a link to the review on your blog, or just write a few sentences about why you thought it was awesome.

The 2019 Hugo Awards will be presented at Worldcon 77 in Dublin, Ireland, on August 18. The Hugo Award finalists are chosen by readers who are voting members of Worldcon. This week we’ll talk about the finalists for Best Series, Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book, and the Campbell Award for Best New Writer. We discussed other categories in previous columns.

Click the title links below to read our reviews and on the author links to visit our page for the author. We’ve included the cover art for our favorites.

The 2019 Hugo Awards will be presented at Worldcon 77 in Dublin, Ireland, on August 18. The Hugo Award finalists are chosen by readers who are voting members of Worldcon. This week we’ll talk about the novels and novellas. We discussed other categories in previous columns.

Click the title links below to read our reviews and on the author links to visit our page for the author. Most of these works are, not surprisingly, the same ones nominated for the Nebula Awards.

Who do you think will win the Hugo Award in these categories?

Happy Independence day to our American readers! We hope you’re taking the day off and getting some reading done.

It’s the first Thursday of the month. You know what that means, ’cause we do this on the first Thursday of every month! Time to report!

What is the best book you read in June 2019 and why did you love it? It doesn’t have to be a newly published book, or even SFF. We just want to share some great reading material. Feel free to post a full review of the book here,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO US!

June 1 marks our TWELFTH birthday!

Yep, we’ve been hanging out together (well, some of us) since June 2007!

To celebrate, we’re giving away gifts!

FIVE commenters from the US will receive some FanLit BOOKMARKS (quite practical!) and a cozy FANLIT T-SHIRT (as long as we still have your size). Or, if you prefer, you may choose a book from our stacks.

You can leave any sort of comment — a birthday wish,

The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America’s 54th Annual Nebula conference (May 16-19) will be held in Los Angeles, and the 2018 Nebula Awards will be announced on Saturday, May 18, 2019.

We’ve already covered the Novelettes and Short Stories. Today let’s talk about the finalists for Best Novel, Best Novella, and the Andre Norton Award for Young Adult SFF.

Here are the finalists in these categories. Click the links to read our reviews:

BEST NOVEL:

• The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal,

Here are some of the books we can’t wait for in 2019!

Hover over the covers to see what our reviewers said about each book.

Which books are you looking forward to this year? One commenter wins a book from our stacks.