Locus Online

Lightspeed 1/19, 2/19 See the Elephant #4 Future Science Fiction Digest #1

January’s Lightspeed opens with a mythic science fictional novelette by A. Merc Rustad, “With Teeth Unmake the Sun“. It features war between immortal godlike beings, one of whom commands a wolf who can unmake planets, stars, and solar systems. While it is an agent of destruction, it has its own yearnings (and its own very ...Read More

Seanan McGuire, That Ain’t Witchcraft (DAW 978-0-7564-1179-4, $7.99, 432pp, pb) March 2019. Cover by Aly Fell.

Antimony “Annie” Price’s adventures continue in this eighth volume in the InCryptid series. She and her cryptid friends, still on the road after their harrowing adventures at Lowryland theme park, finally find a safe place to stop for a while in Maine. But this is Stephen King country, where their rental house hides secrets, ...Read More

The Rosewater Insurrection, Tade Thompson (Orbit 978-0-316-44908-3, $15.99, 378pp, tp) March 2019.

Tade Thompson’s wildly original first novel Rose­water, with its political savvy, its problematic main character, its inventive notion of alien contact, and its colorful setting of the improvised city of Rosewater – which grew up around an alien dome near Lagos, Nigeria – also seemed to challenge some readers with its shifting timelines and questions of ...Read More

Permafrost, Alastair Reynolds (Tor.com Pub­lishing 978-125-030356-1, $14.99, 176pp, tp) March 2019.

Alastair Reynolds is one of a handful of authors writing science fiction today who can boast of having worked for a space agency as a scientist (as part of the European Space Research and Technology Centre). His long-form fiction has tended towards far-future science fiction, space operas with sprawling future histories and a strong interest in the influence ...Read More

Tiamat’s Wrath, James S.A. Corey (Orbit 978-0-316-33287-3, $30.00, 528pp, hc) March 2019. Cover by David Dociu.

There is an empire at the center of the eighth (and projected next-to-last) volume of James S.A. Corey’s Expanse sequence. Tiamat’s Wrath continues the story of the Laconian Empire (begun in Persepolis Rising, 2017), founded by a rebel admiral who is ambitious to have all of humankind under his rule and himself ...Read More

Smoke & Summons, Charlie N. Holmberg (47North 9781503905436, $24.95, 332pp, hc) February 2019.

Charlie Holmberg has carved out a suc­cessful niche as a writer of speedy, fan-pleasing novels in a small constellation of fantasy genres. Smoke & Summons, the first book in the new Numina series, continues her work in the same field: it’s an urban fantasy set against a sooty metropolis, making use of religious corruption, ...Read More

The European Parliament passed the Copyright in the Digital Single Market directive, a unified set of laws governing intellectual property rights in the European Union, by a vote of 348 to 274. The law will not go into effect unless the European Council passes it with a “formal endorsement,” via a simple majority. Once that happens, each country will have to implement the law by 2020. The version passed includes ...Read More

The winners for the 2018 Analog Analytical Laboratory (AnLab) and Asimov’s Readers’ Awards have been announced. Most are available to read online.

Analog Science Fiction and Fact Analytical Laboratory Winners

Best Novella

Best Novelette

Winners of the Tolkien Society Awards 2019 were announced at the society’s annual dinner on April 6. The awards “recognize excellence in the fields of Tolkien scholarship and fandom, highlight­ing our long-standing charitable objective to ‘seek to educate the public in, and promote research into, the life and works of”‘ J.R.R. Tolkien. The society’s trustees choose the shortlist, with winners chosen by the membership.

Best Artwork

Ellen Klages’s novel Out of Left Field (Viking) is the winner of the $10,000 Children’s History Book Prize, presented by the New York Historical Society. The award “honors the best children’s historical literature in the United States and encourages authors to continue to create engaging and challenging narratives that provide a window into the past for middle readers and their families.”

For more information, see the prize’s website.

While you ...Read More

The Tales of Beedle the Bard, J.K. Rowling, illustrated by Lisbeth Zwerger (Arthur A. Levine 978-1-338-26218-6, $34.99, 159pp, hc) October 2018. Cover by Lisbeth Zwerger

An unexpected pairing of author and artist has yielded a big payoff in The Tales of Beedle the Bard by J.K. Rowling with illustration by inter­nationally acclaimed illustrator Lisbeth Zwerger. This is surely one of the most impressive tie-in products to the Harry Potter ...Read More

The five judges for the 2019 Philip K. Dick Award have been announced. Works of science fiction published as paperback originals in the US during the year 2019 are eligible for the award.

Thomas A. Easton, 84 Commonmwealth Ave, Dedham MA 02026-1425

Karen Heuler, 13 Antler Drive, Sandyston NJ 07826 (until October 31) / 80 Charles Street Apt. 3R, New York NY 10014-6110 (after October 31)

Mur Lafferty, 8311 Brier ...Read More

Uncanny 1-2/19 F&SF 1-2/19 Interzone 1-2/19 Galaxy’s Edge 1/19 Granta Autumn ’18

Uncanny in January-February features a challenging story from Fran Wilde. (The last time I wrote about Wilde’s work I called both stories I covered “challenging.” I am sure I did it on purpose, and I am even surer Wilde does it on purpose.) “A Catalog of Storms” is built around names given to different kinds ...Read More

General Strike by Norman Spinrad (Self-published 978-1091528574, $7.00, 61pp, trade paperback) March 2019.

Outside the Gates by Molly Gloss (Saga Press 978-1534414983, $24.99, 128pp, trade paperback) January 2019.

Too Fat to Go to the Moon by Rob McCleary (Zero Books 978-1785352317, $13.95, 160pp, trade paperback) April 2019.

More Walls Broken by Tim Powers (Subterranean 978-1596068865, $25.00, 136pp, trade paperback) February 2019.

The widespread interest in—and production of—novellas continues apace. Large ...Read More

Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU) has announced a new retreat, Camp Writerhaven, for writers of all genres. Two sessions are offered from June 20-23 and July 14-20, 2019 to be held at the Rockvale Writers Colony in College Grove TN. Craft classes taught by award-winning writers are available during both sessions.

For more information, or to apply, see the MTSU website or contact mtsuwrite@mtsu.edu.

While you are here, please take ...Read More

Shortlists for several Society of Authors (SoA) fiction awards have been announced, including titles and authors of genre interest.

Betty Trask Prize and Awards

The Betty Trask Prize and Awards gives £26,250 “for a first novel by a writer under 35” and is ...Read More

Winners for the This Is Horror Awards 2018 have been announced:

Novel of the Year

Novella of the Year

Jim C. Hines, Terminal Uprising (DAW 978-0-7564-1277-7, $26.00, 324pp, hc) February 2019. Cover by Daniel Dos Santos.

Marion “Mops” Adamopoulos and her Hygiene and Sanitation Services team take their stolen ship, the EMCS Pufferfish, on a mission to Earth in this second book in the Janitors of the Post-Apocalypse series. In this future, the humans of Earth have all been reduced to zombie-like ferals, but some, like Mops and her ...Read More

The African Speculative Fiction Society (ASFS) has announced the shortlist for the 2019 Nommo Awards. All titles “are speculative fiction, were published in calendar year 2018, and are thought to be by Africans as defined by the ASFS and Nommo Awards Guidelines. ”

The Lesson, Cadwell Turnbull (Blackstone 978-1-5385-8464-4 $26.99, 272pp, hc) June 2019.

Although I could be wrong, I think The Lesson, Cadwell Turnbull’s debut novel, is an allegory for white interference in Black cultures, whether in Africa, America, or the Caribbean. I’m cautious of assigning this idea from inside my white skin, because I could be making a deeply insulting assumption. But if I am wrong, I’m listening to ...Read More

Luna: Moon Rising, Ian McDonald (Tor 978-0765391476, $29.99, 368pp, hc) March 2019.

I’ve long advocated to anyone who’ll listen (generally myself in the shower) that books in a trilogy or multi-volume series need to begin with a recap of the previous novel. The expectation that I’ll either remember the many plot threads and character arcs or reread the previous instalments is wishful thinking given my sketchy middle-aged memory and ...Read More

The Horror Writers Association (HWA) has announced the winners of the 2018 Bram Stoker Awards:

Superior Achievement in a First Novel

Voting has opened for the 2021 Worldcon site selection, with ballots available on the Dublin 2019 — An Irish Worldcon website. Voting is open to Full Attending, Young Adult, First Worldcon, or Supporting members of Dublin 2019 who have paid the voting fee (€40/$45). Only paper ballots will be accepted.

There is only one qualifying bid on the ballot, DC in 2021, to be held at the Marriott Wardman Park ...Read More

Finalists for the 2019 Ignotus Awards (the Spanish equivalent of the Hugo Awards), honoring the best works published in Spain last year, have been announced.

Novela extranjera (Foreign Novel)

The Italian Conference of Fantasy and Science Fiction (Italcon) announced winners for the 2019 Premio Italia on May 4, 2019, during Vaporosamente 10 held in Turin, Italy.

International SF Novel

Science Fiction Novel

Fantasy Novel

Series

Anthology