Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

Author: Marion Deeds


testing

WWWednesday: July 9, 2025

USA Today provides links to charities helping the Texas flood victims, if you want to donate.

This YouTube video shows Ryan Coogler talking about that amazing dance sequence in Sinners, and shows some of the visuals.

File770 posted the WesterCon 2027 site election results. If I read this right, it also looks as if that will be the final “WesterCon.”

SpongeBob SquarePants and his friends are now on first-class postage stamps.

In the 1980s, Buckaroo Banzai (as we called it) was one of my favorite films.


Read More




testing

Persephone Station: Action, suspense, and tears in this adventure

Persephone Station by Stina Licht

Stina Leicht’s SF novel, Persephone Station (2021), is filled with action, suspense, and great descriptions. From a hold-your-breath opening to the tear-jerking ending, the book leads us through capers-gone-wrong, double-crosses, asymmetrical warfare, decades-old rivalries and witty banter.

Persephone is described as a “hell-planet.” Behind the artificial barrier around the one human city, everything in the environment wants to kill you; the atmosphere, the flora, and the fauna. Within the human city you can make a living if you’re flexible about obeying the law,


Read More




testing

WWWednesday: July 2, 2025

Last Sunday, AMC+ premiered its new action-fantasy show Nautilus. Purchased from Disney, the story is inspired by Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, as you could no doubt tell by the title. Roger Ebert.com liked it very much. Vulture liked it too, but they take a more analytical approach.

Nerds of a Feather reviews John Wiswell’s Heracles retelling, Wearing the Lion.

They also reviewed the fourth season of HBO’s True Detective, Night Country.


Read More




testing

Shield of Sparrows: My favorite romantasy so far

Shield of Sparrows by Devney Perry

Shield of Sparrows came out this year, 2025, and is already in development as a feature film, so I guess Devney Perry, who sold about a million romance novels before this one, knows what she is doing. I’m exaggerating. It isn’t a million books, only fifty. This book is a romantasy—a romance novel set in a second world. It’s not my go-to genre, but I enjoy them now and then, and I would say this is my favorite romantasy so far.

Let me quickly run through the romantasy tropes you can expect here: enemies-to-lovers,


Read More




testing

Where the Axe is Buried: Thoughtful SF spy thriller

Where the Axe is Buried by Ray Nayler

Ray Nayler’s 2025 SF geopolitical spy-thriller novel, Where the Axe is Buried, explores totalitarian regimes and the role of AI in a dystopian near-future. The story moves among many characters; Lilia, a scientist; Palmer, her London boyfriend; Zoya, a famed activist in the repressive Federation, now living in exile; Nurlan, a government functionary who is deeply in love; Nikolai, the Federation president’s personal physician, and Krotov, the president’s head of security.

The Federation is ruled by one man,


Read More




testing

WWWednesday: June 25, 2025

Locus awards were announced last Saturday. Best Science Fiction Novel: The Man Who Saw Seconds, by Alesander Boldizar; Best Fantasy Novel: A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher; Best Horror Novel: Bury Your Gays by Chuck Tingle.

Surfing around, I found this piece of short fiction from Garth Nix from last month on Reactor.

They also feature an excerpt from The Enchanted Greenhouse by Sarah Beth Durst.

Canada’s Sunburst Award longlist is out.


Read More




testing

WWWednesday: June 18, 2025

This Friday is 2025’s summer solstice. The Farmer’s Almanac provides some information on the event.

Last Saturday, people all over the USA participating in a protest event called No Kings. The Facebook page called Alt National Park Services tracked attendance and reports a final number of 13.1 million people.

The Guardian provides a Best Of round-up of new speculative novels. Esperance has caught my attention—although the horror of sleepless zombies is intriguing too.

I tried to say “femfanzines”


Read More




testing

The Crimson Road: A treat of a magical vampire-hunter-quest book

The Crimson Road by A.G. Slatter

The first A.G. Slatter book I’ve read, 2025’s The Crimson Road was a treat. Violet Zennor is a smart, witty, bitter young protagonist with an unusual upbringing, who reluctantly embarks on a quest she has no desire to undertake. The story is a vampire-themed fairy tale, filled with magic and danger. I wanted to know how Violet would fare against the dreaded vampire Leech Lords, who rule in the north. Violet has been trained to fight and kill, but she’ll need more than the arts of war to prevail against the being who has risen as their new leader.


Read More




testing

WWWednesday: June11, 2025

The Tony Awards included some speculative plays this year.

Last Thursday was the anniversary of the drive-in movie theater. Here is a nice article about the first drive-in.

Two small-press bankruptcies made the news this week—bad news for writers and readers. Unbound and Albert Whitman and Co have both had financial troubles in the past, and both leave many writers unpaid.

Thanks to File 770 for the link to this long article discussing 100 years of film “stunts.” Some are way more dangerous and convoluted than mere “stunts;”


Read More




testing

The River Has Roots: Lush, beautiful fairy tale retelling

The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar

I use up all my superlatives whenever I review anything by Amal El-Mohtar, whose prose is always exquisite and imaginative, flowing like syrup. In the case of 2025’s The River Has Roots, the hardcopy version of El-Mohtar’s lovely, original fairy tale is enhanced by woodcut-style illustrations. The story is short, novella-length, and draws on familiar elements, but the themes of the river and music form the story’s main currents, which drew me in immediately.

Esther and Ysabel Hawthorn are sisters,


Read More




Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

We have reviewed 8497 fantasy, science fiction, and horror books, audiobooks, magazines, comics, and films.

Subscribe to all posts:

Support FanLit

Want to help us defray the cost of domains, hosting, software, and postage for giveaways? Donate here:


You can support FanLit (for free) by using these links when you shop at Amazon:

US          UK         CANADA

Or, in the US, simply click the book covers we show. We receive referral fees for all purchases (not just books). This has no impact on the price and we can't see what you buy. This is how we pay for hosting and postage for our GIVEAWAYS. Thank you for your support!
Try Audible for Free

Recent Discussion:

  1. Marion Deeds
  2. Bill Capossere
  3. Marion Deeds