While I still read a whole lot of new release sci-fi and fantasy in 2025, even a moderate scaling back enabled me to drastically increase my backlist reading compared to last year. And stories that are still getting recommended years after their publication date are disproportionately great. So I’d like to share some of my… Continue reading Tar Vol’s 20 from the Backlist
It’s the words. Well, perhaps the unplowed depths. But to start, it’s the words. Fourth Mansions is my favorite novel by my favorite author, and yet it’s been over ten years since my last reread. I finally pulled it off the shelf, and if I recall correctly, it will make my second reread review (of… Continue reading Fantasy Novel Review: Fourth Mansions by R.A. Lafferty
I’d already been hearing about Emily St. John Mandel for years when Sea of Tranquility came out to much acclaim. I gave it a try and found that it was well-written and entertaining but never really more than the sum of its parts. I was ready to chalk her up as too litficky for me,… Continue reading Sci-fi Novel Review: Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
I’ve never been a big poetry reader, and I know almost nothing about speculative poetry. So I was initially a little skeptical about Mary Soon Lee’s epic The Sign of the Dragon. But with a handful of friends providing plenty of peer pressure, an intriguing opening poem, and an online book club to read with,… Continue reading Fantasy Novel Review: The Sign of the Dragon by Mary Soon Lee
We’re nearing the end of December, so it’s once again time for my favorite annual post: my annual favorites post! This is where I share the best sci-fi and fantasy I read from this year. I write two versions of my Recommended Reading List each year, one in December when reviewers start dropping their favorites,… Continue reading Tar Vol’s 2025 Recommended Reading List (Holiday Edition)
For my last Magazine Minis of 2025, I’ll be taking a look at a handful of stories from the year’s final issues of Apex and Uncanny. Apex Apex almost always has something that catches my attention, but the editors enjoy body horror far too much for me to read it cover-to-cover. But they closed 2025… Continue reading Tar Vol’s Magazine Minis: Apex and Uncanny
With GigaNotoSaurus on hiatus for one last month, I’m closing out 2025 with a review of the December 2025 issue of Clarkesworld. Clarkesworld The final Clarkesworld of the year features five short stories interrupted by a pair of extended novelettes. It opens with a trim sci-fi parenting story, Tomorrow. Today. by R.T. Ester, in which… Continue reading Tar Vol Reads a Magazine: Review of Clarkesworld (December 2025)
This review is based on an ARC (Advance Reading Copy) provided by the editor in exchange for an honest review. Think Weirder was released on October 30, 2025. I have to admit, I was won over by the cover of Think Weirder: The Year’s Best Science Fiction Ideas, edited by Joe Stech. Not because of… Continue reading Sci-fi Anthology Review: Think Weirder by Joe Stech
There’s been a little less miscellany than usual this month, as most of my short fiction reading has been part of either my monthly magazine reviewing or the couple Year’s Best anthologies I’m working through. Does that mean I have nothing to recommend? Of course not. Let’s get to it. Short Fiction November Favorites As… Continue reading November 2025 Round-up and Short Fiction Miscellany
I read a lot of short fiction, but I tend to be a bit wary of climate fiction. Not because it’s bad—on the contrary, there’s a climate-focused story on my favorites list almost every year—but because I see stories praised as brilliant and visionary when the main selling point is the way the world could… Continue reading Sci-fi/Fantasy Anthology Review: ECO24 by Marissa Van Uden
