JOHN VARLEY, 73, began having chest pains in late February 2021, and subsequently underwent quadruple bypass surgery. He returned home on February 28 and is recovering well. “I thank you for the good vibes and wishes and karma sent my way during my recent travails. Yes, and your prayers as well, though I’m an atheist and don’t know quite what to do with them. Is anyone really listening? ...Read More
All the Murmuring Bones, A.G. Slatter (Titan 978-1-78909-434-3, $15.95, 368pp, tp) March 2021.
All the Murmuring Bones is A.G. Slatter’s (a semi-pseudonym of Australian author Angela Slatter) first novel-length work set in the Irish-flavored world of her acclaimed Sourdough and Other Stories and The Bitterwood Bible. For fans of Slatter, that’s probably all that needs to be said to compel immediate acquisition. The rest of you, even ...Read More
F&SF 3-4/21 Analog 1-2/21
The March-April issue of F&SF is a significant one, the first put together by new editor Sheree Renée Thomas. Based on the evidence in front of me, she’s got off to an outstanding start, though we need to wait a few issues before we begin to understand Thomas’s editorial vision.
The issue features a strong Madeleine Robins story, “Mannikin“, about a boy who is ...Read More
Out Past the Stars, K.B. Wagers (Orbit Books 978-0356512402, $16.99, 400pp, tp) February 2021.
It is often difficult to begin a review of the third volume in a trilogy, particularly when, as with K.B. Wagers’s Out Past the Stars, it is the third volume of the second trilogy to star its protagonist and her world. Behind The Throne, After the Crown, and Beyond the Empire are ...Read More
Purgatory Mount, Adam Roberts (Gollancz 978-1473230941, £16.99, 336pp, hc) February 2021.
It’s not too uncommon for an SF story to split itself between different time frames separated by centuries, with the causal links between frames only gradually made apparent – M. John Harrison’s Light is a well-known example – but the odd structure of Adam Roberts’s Purgatory Mount still seems pretty bold, as does the novel’s shifting tone from ...Read More
Constelación 1/21 Metaphorosis 1/21, 2/21 Beneath Ceaseless Skies 1/1/21, 1/14/21
Welcome to 2021! Sure, it might be March or later as you’re reading this, but really my reading “year” runs from the March issue to the February “Year in Review” issue of the following year. I think we’re all looking for a better year to come, and the fiction I’ve been reading so far gives me hope.
A genuine newcomer ...Read More
The Unfinished Land, Greg Bear (John Joseph Adams Books 978-1-328-58990-3, $26.00, hc, 365 pp) February 2021.
Greg Bear’s The Unfinished Land is not your standard-issue fantasy adventure, even if it does feature a young naïf who travels across a magical, quasi-living landscape, guided by and encountering a range of strangely powered beings, all on the way to a series of revelations about the true natures of said landscape, beings, ...Read More
Finalists for the 2021 Colorado Book Awards have been announced, including titles of genre interest:
Science Fiction/Fantasy
Additionally, Molly Tanzer’s Creatures of Charm and Hunger (John Joseph Adams Books) is a finalist in ...Read More
Burn by Patrick Ness (Walker) and Bearmouth by Liz Hyder (Pushkin) are among the titles shortlisted for the UK Literacy Association (UKLA) awards in the 11-14+ category.
The UKLA awards are “the only national book awards which are judged by teachers.” Winners will be announced during the virtual UKLA International Conference on July 2, 2021.
For more information, including the complete shortlists, see the UKLA website.
While you are here, ...Read More
Madeleine L’Engle’s library is being auctioned by New England Book Auctions to benefit three charity organizations. A small portion of the collection was auctioned in December 2020, raising nearly $10,000 for PEN America’s Prison and Justice Writing Program, Smith College’s Madeleine L’Engle Travel Research Fellowships, and the L’Engle Initiative at Image Journal.
The rest of the books can be bid on through the New England Book Auctions website, with lots ...Read More
Westercon 73, the West Coast Science Fantasy Conference scheduled for July 1-4, 2021 in Seattle WA, has announced that the convention will not be held. It is disbanding its committee due, in part, to the coronavirus pandemic.
They are working with LASFS, owner of the Westercon service mark, to implement Section 1.9 of the Westercon Bylaws regarding a Westercon committee failure. Loscon 47, scheduled for November 26-28, 2021 at the ...Read More
Author, editor, and publisher John C. Pelan, 63, died April 12, 2021 in Albuquerque NM of an apparent heart attack. He lived in Gallup NM. Pelan was a significant figure in the dark fantasy and horror field, best known for founding numerous small presses and editing anthologies.
Pelan was born July 19, 1957 in Seattle WA. In 1986 he founded Axolotl Press, publishing work by James P. Blaylock, Charles de ...Read More
Author David Bowles and Estudio Tlalli have announced The Path Grant, which will award annual $2,500 prizes “to new and emerging BIPOC women writers of speculative fiction.” To fund the grant, Bowles will donate royalties from The Path series of novels (The Blue-Spangled Blue, The Deepest Green, The Rising Red, and The Swirling Black) and is seeking additional funding “to provide support to the maximum ...Read More
Polskie Towarzystwo Studiów and Przyszłością (PTSP), the Polish Society for Futures Studies, will host the Stanisław Lem Centennial Debate, free online on April 18, 2021 at 12:00 p.m. Pacific Time. The event, billed as “the expansion of future consciousness through the practice of science fiction and futures studies,” features Thomas Lombardo, Kacper Nosarzewski, and Karlheinz Steinmüller, and is supported in part by the World Futures Studies Federation, Association of Professional ...Read More
The Libertarian Futurist Society (LFS) has released the finalists for the Prometheus Award in the Best Novel category, honoring pro-freedom works published in 2020.
All ...Read More
The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson (Del Rey) is the winner of the 2021 Compton Crook Award. Other finalists were:
The award is given by the Baltimore Science Fiction Society (BSFS) to honor the best first ...Read More
The winners for the 2021 PEN America Literary Awards have been announced, including Sharks in the Time of Saviors by Kawai Strong Washburn (MCD) in the $10,000 PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel.
Other finalists of genre interest in the category were
PEN ...Read More
The New York Public Library announced its five Young Lions Fiction Award finalists for 2021, which includes Pew by Catherine Lacey (Farrar, Straus, Giroux) and Temporary by Hilary Leichter (Coffee House).
The winner will be announced June 17, 2021. The $10,000 prize is awarded “each spring to a writer age 35 or younger for a novel or a collection of short stories” by a panel of judges. 2019’s winner was ...Read More
Experimenter Publishing Company has announced that, due to ongoing legal issues with a licensing agreement, it is placing Amazing Stories magazine on indefinite hiatus. Amazing Stories publisher Steve Davidson said,
Experimenter Publishing hopes to get our current issue, featuring Canadian Writers and Artists, published once we raise funds to cover expenses.
The Amazing Stories website will continue to publish on a daily basis and is not expected to be affected. ...Read More
DisCon III, the 79th World Science Fiction Convention, announced that it will be held as an in-person convention December 15-19, 2021, at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, DC. The move comes “after nearly two-thirds of respondents to a public survey put out by DisCon III said they would prefer an in-person December convention over a virtual convention in August.” Virtual memberships to the December convention will still be available. ...Read More
Legendborn, Tracy Deonn (Simon Pulse 978-1-534-44160-6, $18.99, 512pp, hc) September 2020.
In Legendborn, an epic blend of Arthurian legend and Southern Black magical tradition, author Tracy Deonn incorporates the endless allure of collegiate secret societies with a lighter version of Hunger Games-esque battles (not to the death), and a cast of demons to give readers a big adventure that doesn’t stop until the final pages. (And even then ...Read More
The Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) board unanimously signed a statement about anti-Asian hate crimes and racism. The statement reads, in part,
Anti-Asian racism has long been a part of America’s fabric from the Page Act to the Chinese Exclusion Act and includes our own SF/F communities. We’ve seen it in the tropes and stereotypes that fetishize Asian women as dragon ladies and butterfly maidens, portray Asian ...Read More
Burning Girls and Other Stories, Veronica Schanoes (Tordotcom 978-1-250781505, $25.99, 336pp, hc) March 2021.
“History is a fairy tale”, a subtitle in Veronica Schanoes’s story “Emma Goldman Takes Tea with the Baba Yaga”, could almost serve as an epigram for the whole of her first collection, Burning Girls and Other Stories. Schanoes, who is a scholar of fairy tales, feminism, and Jewish literature and history, brings all of ...Read More
Road Out of Winter by Alison Stine (Mira) won the 2021 Philip K. Dick Award, announced April 2, 2021 during the virtual Norwescon 43. A special citation was given to The Book of Koli by M.R. Carey (Orbit US). Other finalists were:
The winners for the 2020 British Science Fiction Association (BSFA) Awards have been announced.
Best Novel
There have been big changes at Quirk Books. Brett Cohen has resigned as president and publisher, ending a 20-year career there, with owner/founder David Borgenicht returning as president and Jhanteigh Kupihea promoted to publisher. Nicole De Jackmo rises to the new position of senior vice president of sales, marketing, and publicity. Megan Dipasquale was promoted to vice president of finance, Andie Reid to art director, Jane Morley to managing editor, ...Read More
We Need Diverse Books has launched a new program, the Black Creatives Fund, starting in Spring 2021. The program, sponsored by Penguin Random House, is devoted to “supporting emerging and established Black writers and illustrators,” with plans including a workshop on revision, mentorships, and marketing education in association with The Brown Bookshelf, a group devoted to promoting children’s literature by Black creators. The revision workshop will include stipends for a ...Read More
