It's the first Thursday of the month. Time to report!

What is the best book you read in July 2022 and why did you love it? It doesn't have to be a newly published book, or even SFF, or even fiction. 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.

And don't forget that we always have plenty more reading recommendations on our Fanlit Faves page and our 5-Star SFF page.

One commenter with a U.S. mailing address will choose one of these prizes:

a FanLit T-shirt (we have sizes M, L, XL)
a book from Read More

President Biden introduced the first image from the James Webb Space telescope, the deepest we’ve seen into the universe.

The Imadjinn Award winners were announced last weekend. (Thanks to File 770.)

The Last Dangerous Visions anthology has a release date of September 2024.

Alex Horman, one judge of this year’s Self Published Science Fiction Competition Read More

It's the first Thursday of the month. Time to report!

What is the best book you read in June 2022 and why did you love it? It doesn't have to be a newly published book, or even SFF, or even fiction. 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.

And don't forget that we always have plenty more reading recommendations on our Fanlit Faves page and our 5-Star SFF page.

As always, one commenter with a U.S. mailing address will choose a book from our stacks. If you're outside the U.S., we'll send you a $5 ... Read More

It's the first Thursday of the month. Time to report!

What is the best book you read in May 2022 and why did you love it? It doesn't have to be a newly published book, or even SFF, or even fiction. 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.

And don't forget that we always have plenty more reading recommendations on our Fanlit Faves page and our 5-Star SFF page.

As always, one commenter with a U.S. mailing address will choose a book from our stacks. If you're outside the U.S., we'll send you a $5 A... Read More

Dear faithful FanLit readers,

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away (well, 15 years and the Milky Way, to be more precise), a band of plucky underdogs who believed life’s too short to read bad books started a website under the able leadership of Princess, err, Dr Kat Hooper.

June 1 will mark our 15th birthday, and we’d like to take this opportunity to thank all of our readers who have joined us on this epic journey, whether you found us a decade and a half ago or just today.

If it weren’t for you we’d have given this up long ago and just be ranting with our friends over beers about waiting for the next GAME OF THRONES book, moaning with our friends over beers about how Brandon Sanderson just wrote anot... Read More

Time for another "Rename This Horrible Cover" contest.

We like Philip K. Dick's Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said, but wonder if you can come up with a better title for this particular cover? (Click to embiggen.)

The creator of the title we like best wins a book from our stacks. 

Got a suggestion for a horrible cover that needs renaming? Please send it to Kat. Read More

Today’s covers all come from books, comics, or films we reviewed in April 2022. Once you identify a cover, in the comment section list:

1. The number of the cover (1-12)
2. The author/director
3. The book/film title



Please identify just one cover that has not yet been identified correctly so that others will have a chance to play. If they're not all identified by next Thursday at noon EST, you can come back and identify more.

Each of your correct entries enters you into a drawing to win a book of your choice from our stacks (if you're in the U.S.A.), a FanLit T-shirt (as long as we have your size and you live in the U.S.A.), or a $5 Amazon gift certificate (outside the U.S.A.). Winners are notified in the comments, so make sure to subscribe to them. If we do... Read More

It's the first Thursday of the month. Time to report!

What is the best book you read in April 2022 and why did you love it? It doesn't have to be a newly published book, or even SFF, or even fiction. 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.

And don't forget that we always have plenty more reading recommendations on our Fanlit Faves page and our 5-Star SFF page.

As always, one commenter with a U.S. mailing address will choose a book from our stacks. If you're outside the U.S., we'll send you a $5... Read More

Free Comic Book Day — FCBD — is always the first Saturday of May. To get your free comics on May 7, you’ll need to locate a local comic bookstore and, if in doubt, give them a call to see if they are participating. Chances are, if it’s an independent comic book store, they are offering free comics, because FCBD is designed to celebrate comics, to introduce comic books to new readers, to celebrate the unique independent comic book stores that sell them, and to support comic book stores by bringing in new customers in addition to the regular patrons.



If you are new to comics, FCBD is for you just as much as it is for those of us who can’t make it through a single day without reading comics. For me and others like me, it’s a day of celebration. But we also want to reach out to new readers.

So, if you have never been into a comic book store before, please ... Read More

Today’s covers all come from books, comics, or films we reviewed in March 2022. Once you identify a cover, in the comment section list:

1. The number of the cover (1-12)
2. The author/director
3. The book/film title



Please identify just one cover that has not yet been identified correctly so that others will have a chance to play. If they're not all identified by next Thursday at noon EST, you can come back and identify more.

Each of your correct entries enters you into a drawing to win a book of your choice from our stacks (if you're in the U.S.A.), a FanLit T-shirt (as long as we have your size and you live in the U.S.A.), or a $5 Amazon gift certificate (outside the U.S.A.). Winners are notified in the comments, so make sure to subscribe to them. If we do... Read More

This was supposed to go up last week, but our server was down, so here it is, a week late.

What is the best book you read in March 2022 and why did you love it? It doesn't have to be a newly published book, or even SFF, or even fiction. 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.

And don't forget that we always have plenty more reading recommendations on our Fanlit Faves page and our 5-Star SFF page.

As always, one commenter with a U.S. mailing address will choose a book from our stacks. If you're ... Read More

It's a single-topic column today. In honor of Women's History Month, I'm sharing my interview with a writer, friend and mentor I've known and admired for years.

As a writer, editor, teacher and activist, Marta Randall has a long and influential career in the SFF world. A leading voice in the New Wave movement, Randall saw her 1976 novel Islands nominated for a Nebula. She went on to write several novels, including THE KENNERIN SAGA and, most recently,  Mapping Winter and Read More

I confess it’s been hard for me to escape from the world lately, whether via reading, my own writing, work, or just the mundanity of everyday life (hard, for instance, to read social media from people in my town upset about lacking power for two days after a recent windstorm, given events elsewhere). So when it came time to come up with another St. Patrick’s Day post and prompt, the usual lightheartedness (Pubs!  Shamrocks! Snakes!) of prior posts felt a little off-tune.

One of my earlier posts noted how I often think of one of...

Giveaways: This is an announcement. The “Notify Me of Follow Up Comments” button began causing some problem on the site. At this time it is disabled. I generally announce Giveaway winners on Sundays, so please check back each Sunday to see if you’ve won.

Because I categorized this as a Giveaway, one commenter will get a hardcover Copy of Tripping Arcadia by Kit Mayquist.

UPDATE:  It seems the feature has been reactivated. If you use it, I recommend checking back on Sundays anyway, at least for a week or two.

Catherine Lucille Moore, often using the pseudonym C.L. Moore, published science fiction since the 1930s. Much but not all of her work was a collaboration with her husband Henry Kuttner. She also wrote for television in the early 1960s.

File770 has a very lo... Read More

Today’s covers all come from books, comics, or films we reviewed in February 2022. Once you identify a cover, in the comment section list:

1. The number of the cover (1-12)
2. The author/director
3. The book/film title



Please identify just one cover that has not yet been identified correctly so that others will have a chance to play. If they're not all identified by next Thursday at noon EST, you can come back and identify more.

Each of your correct entries enters you into a drawing to win a book of your choice from our stacks (if you're in the U.S.A.), a FanLit T-shirt (as long as we have your size and you live in the U.S.A.), or a $5 Amazon gift certificate (outside the U.S.A.). Winners are notified in the comments, but our current notification system is n... Read More

It's the first Thursday of the month. Time to report!

What is the best book you read in February 2022 and why did you love it? It doesn't have to be a newly published book, or even SFF, or even fiction. 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.

And don't forget that we always have plenty more reading recommendations on our Fanlit Faves page and our 5-Star SFF page.

As always, one commenter with a U.S. mailing address will choose a book from our stacks. If you're outside the U.S., we'll send you a... Read More

Today’s covers all come from books, comics, or films we reviewed in January 2022. Once you identify a cover, in the comment section list:

1. The number of the cover (1-16)
2. The author/director
3. The book/film title



Please identify just one cover that has not yet been identified correctly so that others will have a chance to play. If they're not all identified by next Thursday at noon EST, you can come back and identify more.

Each of your correct entries enters you into a drawing to win a book of your choice from our stacks (if you're in the U.S.A.) or a $5 Amazon gift certificate (outside the U.S.A.). Winners are notified in the comments, so make sure to check the notification box and/or remember to check back in about 10 days. If we don't choose a winner... Read More

M.A. Carrick (Alyc is on the left, Marie is on the right)

Once upon a time, I finished every book I started whether it gave me pleasure or not. It took me years to break myself of that, but I did eventually grow older and wiser (in that order and with a pretty big lag time between the two).

Also once upon a time (as in all the way back to “up to last week”), I’d sit through anything to watch my beloved science fiction/fantasy on TV. Originally, this was less a stupid obsession and simply a fact of scarcity; with three networks, and then later a mere handful of cable stations, there just weren’t a lot of genre shows on. So good, bad — it didn’t matter; you took what you got when you got it. And even though we’ve long been in a golden age of genre television, with sci-fi/fantasy all over the screen nowadays (there’s even a sci-fi channel! Kind of. Sort of. Well, not so much), it’s taken me a while to break an old habit (there’s that lag time I mentioned).

But epiphany has finally struck... Read More

In honor of Valentine's Day, as thoughts turn to romance, we ask:

Have you ever had a crush on a character from a science fiction or fantasy novel?

If so, tell us who it is and why you like them so much.

One commenter who comes clean chooses a book from our stacks or a $5 Amazon gift card.

Happy Valentine's Day! Read More

It's the first Thursday of the month. Time to report!

What is the best book you read in January 2022 and why did you love it? It doesn't have to be a newly published book, or even SFF, or even fiction. 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.

And don't forget that we always have plenty more reading recommendations on our Fanlit Faves page and our 5-Star SFF page.

As always, one commenter with a U.S. mailing address will choose a book from our stacks. If you're outside the U.S., we'll send you a ... Read More

Today’s covers all come from books, comics, or films we reviewed in December 2021. Once you identify a cover, in the comment section list:

1. The number of the cover (1-16)
2. The author/director
3. The book/film title



Please identify just one cover that has not yet been identified correctly so that others will have a chance to play. If they're not all identified by next Thursday at noon EST, you can come back and identify more.

Each of your correct entries enters you into a drawing to win a book of your choice from our stacks (if you're in the U.S.A.) or a $5 Amazon gift certificate (outside the U.S.A.). Winners are notified in the comments, so make sure to check the notification box and/or remember to check back in about 10 days. If we don't choose a winne... Read More

No WWW links today.

The Fourth Season Takes Us in Different Directions

(Warning, spoilers for Season Four and previous seasons.)

When Agents of SHIELD’s fourth season opens, the team has defeated their fungal villain Hive, but at great cost. Phil Coulson is no longer the director. He’s an agent again, working with Mac, monitoring Inhumans. Daisy, heart-broken by the death of her boyfriend Lincoln, has left the team to track down and stop the hate group militia called the Watchdogs. (Technically, if you include double-agent Grant Ward, Daisy lost two boyfriends to Hive, so, ouch.) Daisy’s angst is heightened by her guilt for the things she did while possessed by Hive herself.

Daisy, or Quake, has been declared a public enemy by the goverment. Jemma Simmons has been promoted, reporting to the new director. This position requires frequent lie-detector tests, so Agent May, Coulson and Mac have to keep her out of the... Read More

It's the first Thursday of the month. Time to report!

What is the best book you read in December 2021 and why did you love it? It doesn't have to be a newly published book, or even SFF, or even fiction. 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.

And don't forget that we always have plenty more reading recommendations on our Fanlit Faves page and our 5-Star SFF page.

As always, one commenter with a U.S. mailing address will choose a book from our stacks. If you're outside the U.S., we'll send you a... Read More

In 2012’s The Avengers, Agent Phil Coulson was murdered by Loki. This didn’t stop him from coming back and having a seven-season run on his own TV show, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, even if he did die at least one more time during that show’s run.

Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. aired on ABC from 2013 to 2020. I recently started rewatching it. It brought back memories, good and bad, of my original watch of the series. I’m going to discuss my thoughts and reactions to the first three seasons which cover generally (these are my names), Welcome to S.H.I.E.L.D, Hydra Emerges, The Rise of the Inhumans, and the Arrival of Hive.

Back in 2013, I got impatient with the show because of its close ties to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Looking back, I’ve changed my opinion. The task of telling original stories that must dovetail in time and pacing with a series of films, and keeping things coherent, is a massive logistic achievement wh... Read More