fantasy and science fiction book reviews

Lists and articles

We are experiencing a list and award drought. Book buying sales might suffer, and the quality of the Websday post might decline, but we persevere! First, here’s a single, lonely list to tide you over: The zaniest alternate histories ever published, compiled by iO9. They’ll always make a list in our hour of need.

We’re also a little lite on articles, but here’s a really juicy one from SF Signal asking the provocative question: What’s wrong with epic fantasy? Other than, I assume, racial exclusion, problematic gender portrayals, obsessive Tolkein-ism, and an infestation of dragons.

At the opposite end of high fantasy, we’ve got high space. NASA is apparently partnering with Tor to produce fact-based science fiction. Which sounds a tad dull, but apparently it involves real live novelists getting to talk to real live scientists and brainstorm. I am reader of science fiction, and I support this message.

Flavorwire also offers us a look at the experience of Tweeting while literary—or, the unfortunate effects of seeing every single one of Stephen King’s first reactions to world news. I sometimes suspect we need that curtain between us and the Wizard.

Writing and publishing news

So much juicy news stuff! A surprising amount of it is about television (the live-action book), so bear with me:

 Pretty things

Also limited in the pretty stuff category.  

Author

  • Alix E. Harrow

    ALIX E. HARROW, who retired from our blog in 2014, is a part-time historian with a full-time desk job, a lot of opinions, and excessive library fines. Her short fiction has appeared in Shimmer, Strange Horizons, Tor.com, Apex, and other venues. She won a Hugo Award for her fiction in 2019. Alix and her husband live in Kentucky under the cheerful tyranny of their kids and pets. Find her at @AlixEHarrow on Twitter. Some of her favorite authors include Neil Gaiman, Ursula LeGuin, Lois McMaster Bujold, and Susanna Clarke.