fantasy and science fiction book reviewsLists and awards

An award for every man, woman, and child! First up, the British Science Fiction Association has announced their shortlist, which includes such near-to-my-heart things as Vandermeer’s Wonderbook, Leckie’s Ancillary Justice, and Sofia Samatar’s “Selkie Stories are for Losers.” Then there’s the Quantum Shorts flash fiction competition, which has released their shortlisted stories. Locus Magazine also has their reader’s survey and poll open for voting. And Strange Horizons has the results of their poll of reader’s favorites up on their site.

As far as upcoming books, I should first like to direct your attention stage left, where you’ll see that Fantasy Literature has our very own constantly-updated list of upcoming speculative fiction. Which is a great way to end up literally suffocating in books. My Bookish Ways also has a nice list of books coming in February, for those still keeping their heads above the rising book-water.

Articles and such

In the slightly more random vein of stuff-I-read-this-week, we’ll start with this very, very irritating debate that sprang out of Alex MacFarlane’s Tor.com post on post-binary gender systems in science fiction. The less upsetting side of the debate is addressed here. Do yourself a favor and don’t read the comments.

But I digress. For fun, go check out this roundtable on food in science fiction, which features all your (read: my) favorite authors. And then go check out Anna Redmond’s thoughts on writing female protagonists who aren’t Bridget Jones. And then—because I have no shame at all­—here’s Benedict Cumberbatch on Sesame Street.

fantasy and science fiction book reviewsWriting and publishing

This isn’t terribly writer-ly, but Books, Brains and Beer offers us a list of the 10 types of obnoxious book people. Would we say “obnoxious” though? Perhaps, “lovably neurotic?” And also, dudes, American Gods and Anansi Boys will both be put onto your television, via magic. This fills me with great excitement and great fear.

Oh, and here’s an interview with Elizabeth Bear about all things Writerly at Tor.com.

Pretty things

Whew, bullet point time:

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.