Author: locusmag

Books Reviews 

Colleen Mondor Reviews The Mirror Season by Anna-Marie McLemore

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The Mirror Season, Anna-Marie McLemore (Feiwel & Friends 978-1-250-62412-3 $18.99, 320pp, hc) March 2021.

Content warning: This title deals graphically with the emotional and psychological fallout from sexual assault.

As Anna-Marie McLemore’s The Mirror Season opens, Graciela Cristales (“Ciela”) is dropping off a boy she does not know at the emergency room in her hometown of Astoria OR. It quickly becomes clear that the two of them were at ...Read More

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Books Reviews Short Fiction 

Ian Mond Reviews The Ghost Variations: One Hundred Stories by Kevin Brockmeier

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The Ghost Variations: One Hundred Stories, Kevin Brockmeier (Pantheon Books 978-1-524-74883-8, $27.00, 288pp) March 2021.

I became aware of Kevin Brockmeier’s work back in 2008 when Robert Shearman, in an in­terview with Eric Forbes, included Brockmeier in a list of writers “who play with the short story, squeeze as much out of it as they can.” Sadly, I’ve only now gotten around to reading Brock­meier’s short fiction, picking up ...Read More

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Awards News 

2021 Roswell Award Finalists and Women Hold Up Half the Sky Winner

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The Omega Sci-Fi Awards has announced the finalists for its Roswell Award short story competition:

  • “The Rite to Vote”, Matthew Cushing
  • “Imagine Dandelions”, Andrea Goyan
  • “Autonomous”, Ben Hennesy
  • “Run”, Tenzin Phillips
  • “Biomimicry”, Ven Pillay
  • “Realtiger”, Susan Wachowski

Honorable mentions were given to the following stories:

  • “When the Books Were on Paper”, Evgeniy Bondarev
  • “Logistics”, Christian Darkin
  • “Buddy and I”, Bryan Leong Jing Ern
  • “Opt-In”, Susan Harper
  • “Way Out”, Larry Herbst
...Read More Read more
New Books New Titles & Bestsellers 

New Books: 13 April 2021

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Anders, Charlie Jane: Victories Greater Than Death

(Tor Teen 978-1-250-31731-5, $15.99, 288pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, April 13, 2021)

A young-adult SF novel and the first in the Unstoppable trilogy, centering around a sleeper-agent alien teenager on Earth whose part in an intergalactic war is bigger than she thinks.

 “It’s properly, wickedly exciting – I devoured it! How Anders packs so much power and energy into her prose is astonishing. ...Read More

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Announcements Awards Milestones News Publishing 

People & Publishing Roundup, April 2021

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MILESTONES

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

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Books Reviews Short Fiction 

Paula Guran Reviews All the Murmuring Bones and Red New Day by An­gela Slatter

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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

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Announcements News 

Royal Mail Classic Science Fiction Stamps

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The Royal Mail has issued a series of stamps featuring art to commemorate classic science fiction stories by British authors including:

  • Childhood’s End, Arthur C. Clarke, illustration by Matt Murphy
  • Brave New World, Aldous Huxley, illustration by Thomas Danthony
  • Shikasta, Doris Lessing, illustration by Sarah Jones
  • Frankenstein, Mary Shelley, illustration by Sabina Šinko
  • The Time Machine, H.G. Wells, illustration by Francisco Rodríguez
  • The Day of
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Reviews Short Fiction 

Rich Horton Reviews Short Fiction: F&SF and Analog

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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

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Awards News 

2021 Hugo, Astounding, and Lodestar Awards Finalists

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Finalists for the Hugo Awards, the Astounding Award for Best New Writer, and the Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book have been announced by DisCon III, the 79th World Science Fiction Convention. There were 1,249 valid nominating ballots received (1,246 electronic and 3 paper).

Best Novel

  • Piranesi, Susanna Clarke (Bloomsbury US; Bloomsbury UK)
  • The City We Became, N.K. Jemisin (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
  • The Relentless Moon,
...Read More Read more
News Publishing 

Arsenika to Close

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Speculative poetry and flash fiction magazine Arsenika announced that it will permanently close following the release of its upcoming Spring 2021 issue. The magazine ran for five years, starting with Issue 0 in Winter 2017. Issue 8 will be the last, and will include a longer statement from editor S. Qiouyi Lu.

 

While you are here, please take a moment to support Locus with a one-time or recurring donation. ...Read More

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Awards News 

Tolkien Society Awards 2021

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Winners of the Tolkien Society Awards 2021 were announced on April 11, 2021. 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

  • WINNER: “He Beheld a Vision of Gondolin Amid
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Awards News 

2021 Colorado Book Awards Finalists

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Finalists for the 2021 Colorado Book Awards have been announced, including titles of genre interest:

Science Fiction/Fantasy

  • Tower of the Four: The Champions Academy Episodes 1-3 [The Quad, The Tower, The Test], Todd Fahnestock (F4)
  • Once Again, Catherine Wallace Hope (Alcove)
  • White Trash Warlock, David R. Slayton (Blackstone)

Additionally, Molly Tanzer’s Creatures of Charm and Hunger (John Joseph Adams Books) is a finalist in ...Read More

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Awards News 

UKLA Shortlists 2021

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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

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Announcements News 

L’Engle Library Auctioned for Charity

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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

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Conventions News 

Westercon in Seattle Disbands

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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

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News Obituaries 

John Pelan (1957-2021)

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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

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Announcements Awards News 

Path Grant for BIPOC Women Writers

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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

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Announcements News 

Stanisław Lem Centennial Debate

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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

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Features Interviews Slider 

Ursula Vernon: Shiny New Idea

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Ursula Vernon was born May 28, 1977 in Japan to a military fam­ily. She lived in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, and grew up mostly in Oregon, Arizona, California, and Minnesota, moving 18 times by age 20. She attended Macalester College in Saint Paul MN. Vernon has lived in North Carolina for the past 17 years.

An illustrator and author, Vernon has written extensively for children and also writes ...Read More

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Awards News 

2021 Prometheus Award Finalists

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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.

  • Who Can Own the Stars?, Mackey Chandler (self-published)
  • Storm Between the Stars, Karl K. Gallagher (Kelt Haven)
  • The War Whisperer, Book 5: The Hook, Barry B. Longyear (Enchanteds)
  • Braintrust: Requiem, Marc Stiegler (LMBPN)
  • Heaven’s River, Dennis E. Taylor (Ethan Ellenberg)

All ...Read More

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Books Reviews 

Liz Bourke Reviews Out Past the Stars by K.B. Wagers

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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

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Awards News 

Johnson Wins Compton Crook Award

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The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson (Del Rey) is the winner of the 2021 Compton Crook Award. Other finalists were:

  • Axiom’s End, Lindsay Ellis (St. Martin’s)
  • Nameless Queen, Rebecca McLaughlin (Crown)
  • Architects of Memory, Karen Osbourne (Tor)
  • The Bone Shard Daughter, Andrea Stewart (Orbit)
  • Docile, K.M. Szpara (Tordotcom)

The award is given by the Baltimore Science Fiction Society (BSFS) to honor the best first ...Read More

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Awards News 

PEN America Literary Awards Winners

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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

  • These Ghosts are Family, Maisy Card (Simon and Schuster)
  • Temporary, Hilary Leichter (Coffee House)
  • How Much of These Hills Is Gold, C Pam Zhang (Riverhead)

PEN ...Read More

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Awards News 

2021 Young Lions Fiction Award Finalists

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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

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Books Reviews 

Gary K. Wolfe Reviews Purgatory Mount by Adam Roberts

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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

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News Publishing Uncategorized 

Amazing Stories on Hiatus

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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

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Reviews Short Fiction 

Karen Burnham Reviews Short Fiction: Constelación, Metaphorosis, and Beneath Ceaseless Skies

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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

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Announcements Conventions News 

Worldcon Moves Dates and Venue

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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

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Books Reviews 

Russell Letson Reviews The Unfinished Land by Greg Bear

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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

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New Books New Titles & Bestsellers 

New Books: 6 April 2021

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Allington, Patrick: Rise & Shine

(Scribe US 978-1-950354-42-9, $16.00, 240pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, April 6, 2021)

Post-apocalyptic SF novel of survivors in the only two city-states left, literally fed only by the suffering they see in graphic footage of perpetual war.

[Rise & Shine] could easily be an episode of Charlie Brooker’s Netflix series Black Mirror…Rise & Shine does not shy away from the ...Read More

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Books Reviews 

Colleen Mondor Reviews Legendborn by Tracy Deonn

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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

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Announcements News 

SFWA Statement and Plan of Support for Asian Diaspora Communities

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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

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