Author: locusmag

Awards News 

sf-Lit Award 2021 Longlist

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sf-Lit.de has announced the 2021 sf-Lit Award 2021 longlist winners. The longlist consists of 13 candidates and is open to any books that have been published in German in 2020, regardless of the author’s country of origin or the language of the first publication.

sf.Lit Award Longlist

  • Gabriele Behrend, Salzgras & Lavendel (p.machinery)
  • Laurent Binet, Eroberung (Rowohlt)
  • Blake Crouch, Gestohlene Erinnerung (Goldmann)
  • Christoph Dittert, Fallender Stern (Piper)
  • Ralph C. Doege,
...Read More Read more
Books Reviews 

Alethea Kontis Reviews Fan Fiction by Brent Spiner

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Fan Fiction, Brent Spiner (St. Martin’s 9781250274366, $27.99, 256pp, hc) October 2021.

Acclaimed actor Brent Spiner’s debut novel Fan Fiction is, as the cover boasts, not a memoir but a Mem-Noir: an avant-garde mystery loosely based on actual events that [may or may not have] happened to Spiner during the course of filming Star Trek: The Next Gen­eration, where he played android Commander Data, and received some incredibly ...Read More

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Reviews Short Fiction 

Gabino Iglesias Reviews Body Shocks by Ellen Datlow

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Body Shocks, Ellen Datlow, ed. (Tachyon Pub­lications 978-1-61696-360-6, $17.95, 384pp, tp) October 2021. Cover by John Coulthart.

Once in a while, an anthology comes along that demands we alter the standard review format. Body Shocks, edited by Ellen Datlow, is one of those rare books. Yes, there are stories that will get individual attention later, but this book accomplishes two things that deserve to be mentioned first. The ...Read More

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New Books New Titles & Bestsellers 

New Books: 19 October 2021

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Anonymous, ed.: Arkham Horror: Dark Origins

(Aconyte US 978-1-83908-118-7, $17.95, 512pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, October 19, 2021)

Collection of four novellas in the world of the Lovecraftian fantasy game, the first book in the Collected Novellas series. Authors incl. Dave Gross, Graeme Davis, Richard Lee Byers, Chris A. Jackson.

 

Armentrout, Jennifer L.: A Shadow in the Ember

(Evil Eye Concepts/Blue Box Press 978-1-952457-64-7, $31.99, 570pp, formats: hardcover, trade ...Read More

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Awards News 

2021 Ditmar Preliminary Ballot

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The preliminary ballot for the 2021 Ditmar Awards for Australian SF has been announced.

Best Novel

  • The Crying Forest, Venero Armanno (IFWG Publishing Australia)
  • Hollow Empire, Sam Hawke (Penguin)
  • The Animals in That Country, Laura Jean McKay (Scribe)
  • Monstrous Heart, Claire McKenna (HarperCollins)
  • The Left-Handed Booksellers of London, Garth Nix (Allen & Unwin)
  • Poison & Light, Gillian Polack (Shooting Star)
  • Repo Virtual, Corey J.
...Read More Read more
Awards News 

2022 Andrew Carnegie Medals Longlist

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The American Library Association (ALA) has announced the longlist for the 2022 Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence for “the best fiction and nonfiction books for adult readers published in the U.S. in the previous year” with 23 fiction titles and 22 non-fiction. The fiction longlist includes the following titles and authors of genre interest:

  • Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr (Scribner)
  • The Sentence by Louise Erdrich (Harper)
  • The Book of
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Announcements Milestones News 

Icons of Darkness Museum

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Actor Rich Correll has opened Icons of Darkness, a new Hollywood museum filled with $15 million worth of props and costumes from beloved science fiction, fantasy, and horror franchises.

The collection, which represents “over 100 years of Hollywood film history curated and collected over the last 60 years,” includes props from Jurassic Park, a Darth Vader mask, and lots more costumes and memorabilia. The collection is currently on display ...Read More

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Awards News 

2021 Mythopoeic Awards Winners

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The Mythopoeic Society has announced the 2021 Mythopoeic Awards winners in an online ceremony.

Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature

  • WINNER: The House in the Cerulean Sea, TJ Klune (Tor)
  • Magic Lessons, Alice Hoffman (Simon & Schuster)
  • Raybearer, Jordan Ifueko (Amulet)
  • Mexican Gothic, Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Del Rey)
  • The Left-Handed Booksellers of London, Garth Nix (Katherine Tegen)

Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children’s Literature

  • WINNER: A Wizard’s
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Books Reviews 

Paula Guran Reviews My Heart Is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones

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My Heart Is a Chainsaw, Stephen Graham Jones (Saga 978-1-982137-63-2, $26.99. 416pp, hc) August 31, 2021.

I am not a fan of slasher films, but I know enough – as just about anyone with any pop cultural awareness does – to soundly appreci­ate Stephen Graham Jones’s use of the subgenre he so brilliantly employs in My Heart Is a Chain­saw. Not being a slasher aficionado means there’s at ...Read More

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Announcements Awards News 

New Le Guin Prize for Fiction

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The Ursula K. Le Guin Literary Trust has announced the Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction, a new award to launch in 2022. The annual $25,000 cash prize will be given to “a single book-length work of imaginative fiction.”

This award is intended to recognize those writers Ursula spoke of in her 2014 National Book Awards speech—realists of a larger reality, who can imagine real grounds for hope and ...Read More

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Films 

My Tapeworm Tells Me What to Do: Josh Pearce and Arley Sorg Discuss Venom: Let There Be Carnage

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Reporter Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) is washed up. Worse, he and his alien symbiote, Venom (also Tom Hardy), aren’t getting along too well. In classic serial killer movie fashion, incarcerated murderer Cletus Kasady (Woody Harrelson) declares that he’s willing to reveal where the bodies are buried but will only talk to Brock, who seizes the opportunity to try to get his career back on track. During one of their visits, ...Read More

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Awards News 

2021 Aurora Awards Winners

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The 2021 Aurora Awards winners were announced October 16, 2021 during a livestreamed ceremony organized by Ottawa’s Can*Con convention.

Best Novel

  • WINNER: Mexican Gothic, Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Del Rey)
  • A Stitch in Time, Kelley Armstrong (KLA Fricke)
  • A Connecticut Gumshoe in King Arthur’s Court, Randy McCharles (Tyche)
  • Beneath the Rising, Premee Mohamed (Solaris)
  • The Oppenheimer Alternative, Robert J. Sawyer (Red Deer)

Best YA Novel

  • WINNER: Flights
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Awards News 

Campbell Wins Sturgeon

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Results for the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award for the best short science fiction of 2020 have been announced by the Gunn Center for the Study of Science Fiction. The award is traditionally presented during the annual Campbell Conference Awards, but was instead announced online.

  • WINNER: “An Important Failure”, Rebecca Campbell (Clarkesworld 8/20)
  • Second place: “The Pill”, Meg Elison (Big Girl)
  • Third place: “Yellow and the Perception of Reality”,
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Books Reviews 

Colleen Mondor Reviews Eat Your Heart Out by Kelly Devos

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Eat Your Heart Out, Kelly Devos (Razorbill 978-0-593-20482-5, $18.99, 352pp, hc) June 2021.

Just when you thought no one needed another zombie novel, author Kelly Devos gives readers Eat Your Heart Out, a terror-filled foray into weight-loss camp that will not be soon forgotten. Personally, I’ve never understood the appeal of zombie stories, but I was intrigued by Devos’s premise and completely won over by her charac­ters. I knew ...Read More

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Features Interviews Slider 

R.B. Lemberg: A Different Adventure

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R.B. LEMBERG was born September 27, 1976 in Ukraine, and grew up there, in Russia, and in Israel. They attended graduate school at the University of Cali­fornia, Berkeley, where they studied Slavic linguistics, earning a PhD. They work as a sociolinguistics professor at a Midwestern university.

Lemberg began publishing poetry and fiction of genre interest in 2008, initially under the byline Rose Lemberg. Some of their poetry is collected in ...Read More

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Uncategorized 

Publishing News, October 2021

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HarperCollins has announced reorganization plans for the recently acquired Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. They will have four imprints, which will see ‘‘see increased focus and investment, with the majority of acquiring editors remaining in place.’’ Mariner will publish most of the adult books, and will absorb Custom House. The Clarion and Versify imprints will retain their names as part of the new Clarion Group. Graphic novels from the Etch imprint will ...Read More

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Conventions Features 

Estcon 2021 Report

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THIS ESTONIAN SUMMER would have been right at home at the Locus office in California: Sunny days under brilliant blue skies with just a slight breeze to keep the heat from becom­ing stifling. Perfect for the annual outdoor science fiction convention held at Udu Farm in central Estonia. The event wasn’t confirmed until just a few weeks before, but the vaccination program had reached full throttle and infection rates remained ...Read More

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Books Reviews 

Ian Mond Reviews Bewilderment by Richard Powers

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Bewilderment, Richard Powers (Norton 978-0-393-88114-1, $27.95, 288pp, hc) September 2021.

I first became aware of Richard Powers’s work when his novel, Generosity: An Enhance­ment, was nominated for a Clarke Award back in 2011. However, it wasn’t until the publication of The Overstory in 2019 that I read a book by Powers. If Goodreads is any indication, I’m not alone. Having written 11 novels over more than three decades ...Read More

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News Obituaries 

Gary Paulsen (1939-2021)

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Gary Paulsen, 82, died October 13, 2021 at home in Tularosa NM of cardiac arrest. Paulsen was best known for his YA novels about wilderness survival, notably Hatchet (1986).

In all, he wrote more than 200 titles, with numerous SF works (adult and YA) among them, beginning with The Implosion Effect (1976) and including The Green Recruit (1978), The Night the White Deer Died (1978), Meteorite Track 291 (1979), Compkill ...Read More

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Announcements Awards Milestones News Publishing 

People & Publishing Roundup, October 2021

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MILESTONES

N.K. JEMISIN was named as one of the 100 most influential people of 2021 by Time. See the full list on their website.

AWARDS

NANCY PEARL will receive the 2021 Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community, to be presented November 17, 2021 at the National Book Awards ceremony in New York. Pearl is the influential librarian who created the ‘‘One Book, One City’’ program.

SUSANNA ...Read More

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Reviews Short Fiction 

Gary K. Wolfe Reviews The Art of Space Travel and Other Stories by Nina Allan

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The Art of Space Travel and Other Stories, Nina Allan (Titan 978-1-789091755, $15.95, 480pp, tp) September 2021.

Not very many lines of SF criticism get widely quoted, but Susan Wood’s long-ago observation that ‘‘Ursula K. Le Guin makes maps’’ is one of them, and it helped kick off a discussion of fantasy maps that isn’t over yet. It came to mind about halfway through Nina Allan’s major retrospective collection ...Read More

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News Publishing 

Pantheon Books Status Change

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Penguin Random House imprints Pantheon and Schocken Books will no longer be divisions of Alfred A. Knopf, but will instead operate as an imprint alongside Vintage/Anchor, Doubleday, and Knopf, as equal parts of the Knopf Doubleday publishing group. In the announcement, group president and publisher Maya Mavjee noted that the imprints will be hiring for several new editorial positions. Recent hires include executive editor Naomi Gibbs, editorial director Denise Oswald, ...Read More

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Reviews Short Fiction 

Karen Burnham Reviews Short Fiction: Strange Horizons, The Deadlands, khōréō, and The Economist

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Strange Horizons 5/31 The Deadlands 6/21 khōréō 6/21 The Economist 6/25/21

At the end of May Strange Horizons put out a special issue dealing with transgender themes. Along with nine poems and three non-fiction ar­ticles are three original short stories. My favorite is ‘‘Women Want Me, Fish Fear Me’’ by Paris Green. In this future, genemods based on different animals are fairly common, and the narrator’s are ...Read More

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Reviews Short Fiction 

Alvaro Zinos-Amaro Reviews Dangerous Visions and New Worlds: Radical Science Fiction, 1950 to 1985 by Andrew Nette & Iain McIntyre, eds

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Dangerous Visions and New Worlds: Radical Science Fiction, 1950 to 1985, Andrew Nette & Iain McIntyre, eds. (PM Press 978-1629639321, $59.95, 224pp, hc) October 2021.

The Melbourne-based duo of writers/editors Andrew Nette & Iain McIntyre follow up their two previous PM Press volumes, Girl Gangs, Biker Boys, and Real Cool Cats: Pulp Fiction and Youth Culture, 1950 to 1980 (2017) and Sticking It to the Man: Revolution and Counterculture ...Read More

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New Books New Titles & Bestsellers 

New Books: 12 October 2021

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Anipare, Sifton Tracey: Yume

(Rare Machines 978-1-4597-4737-1, $19.99, 536pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, October 12, 2021)

Contemporary fantasy novel about a Canadian woman teaching English in a small city in Japan, who gets caught up in supernatural chaos.

 

Baker, A. Deborah: Along the Saltwise Sea

(Tordotcom 978-1-250-76828-5, $19.99, 208pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, October 12, 2021)

Written by Seanan McGuire. Middle-grade fantasy novel, the second book in the Up-and-Under ...Read More

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Contests News 

2021 Otherwise Fellowship Applications Open

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The Otherwise Award (formerly the Tiptree Award) is currently accepting applications for the Otherwise Fellowships, providing $500 grants for “writers, artists, scholars, media makers, remix artists, performers, musicians, or something else entirely. If you are doing work that is changing the way we think about gender through speculative narrative – maybe in a form we would recognize as the science fiction or fantasy genre, maybe in some other way – ...Read More

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Awards News 

Heinlein Journal Wins Design Award

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The Heinlein Journal was chosen as one of six winners for the Editorial category in Communication Arts’ 62nd annual design competition. This win comes after the Heinlein Journal‘s recent redesign.

Managing Editor and Designer Mark Bult says

This redesign matches the quality of the publication with the stature of its authors and their scholarship…. We’ve enlivened the publication with a new masthead and typography, plus more photos and new, custom ...Read More

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Announcements Milestones News 

Encyclopedia of Science Fiction Fourth Edition

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The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (SFE) has launched its Fourth Edition. The online edition of the essential reference work was sponsored by Orion/Gollancz from 2011-2021, but is now published by SFE Ltd and Ansible Editions.

Editors John Clute and David Langford say of the move:

With the release of the Fourth Edition of The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, we have a new publisher and a new web server; but ...Read More

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Reviews Short Fiction 

Maya C. James Reviews Half Sick of Shadows by Laura Sebastian

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Half Sick of Shadows, Laura Sebastian (Ace 978-0-593-200513, $27.00, 448pp, hc) July 2021.

Elaine is surrounded by heroes, and she knows how each of them will fall: Morgana the sorcer­ess, Lancelot the knight, Gwen the queen, and Arthur the king; all powerful pieces on a chess board waiting to be toppled by their own doing. Despite her great power of Sight, there is nothing Elaine can do but gaze ...Read More

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News Obituaries 

Douglas Barbour (1940-2021)

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Canadian author, editor, and scholar Douglas Barbour, 81, died September 25, 2021 of lung cancer.

Douglas Fleming Barbour was born March 21, 1940 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. He co-edited Tesseracts 2 (1987) with Phyllis Gottlieb, and wrote many essays, reviews, and letters for fanzines and SF journals. Barbour’s dissertation was “Patterns of Meaning in the SF Novels of Ursula K. Le Guin, Joanna Russ and Samuel R. Delany, 1962-1972″, ...Read More

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Awards News 

Williams Wins Forry Award

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The Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society (LASFS) has selected composer John Williams as this year’s recipient of the Forry Award for lifetime achievement in the SF field. Williams created the scores for SF and fantasy films including the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Superman, and installments of the Jurassic Park and Harry Potter film series.

The award, named for Forrest J ...Read More

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