I’ve been vaguely familiar with Malka Older as a sci-fi author with a pretty good reputation, but I hadn’t actually had an opportunity to read any of her work, and when The Mimicking of Known Successes was pitched as a sapphic Sherlock Holmes in space, my mystery-fatigue inclined me to skip this one as well.… Continue reading Sci-fi Novella Review: The Mimicking of Known Successes by Malka Older
I’ve spent a lot of May being caught up in Hugo reading, but I’m still plugging away with my regular magazines, and I’ve found at least one story that I expect will be in the front of my mind when thinking about Hugo nominations for next year. So let’s get to it! Clarkesworld The May… Continue reading Tar Vol Reads a Magazine (or Two): Reviews of Clarkesworld and GigaNotoSaurus (May 2024)
Usually I manage to finish a pair of Bingo cards with a bit of time to spare, but this year, March saw me still hunting for a couple more books to fill some tricky squares. One of those tricky squares was Set in the Middle East, and I decided to circle back to an acclaimed… Continue reading Fantasy Novel Review: Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson
If I’m looking for excellent sci-fi from the 2000s that has been largely forgotten, the first stop has to be the recommendations of Janny Wurts. Our tastes aren’t exactly the same, but she is a tremendous champion of character-driven speculative fiction—and a pretty good writer in her own right—and her recommendations have taken more than… Continue reading Sci-fi Novel Review: Warchild by Karin Lowachee
We’ve made it to the finals of the third annual Self-Published Science Fiction Competition. My team has whittled down a slush pile to two semifinalists, and then joined up with two more teams to cut our combined six semifinalists to just two finalists. Now everybody is reading the same books, as only six remain. Though… Continue reading Sci-fi Novel Review: Dark Theory by Wick Welker
This review is based on an eARC (Advance Reading Copy) provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Navola will be released on July 9, 2024. Paolo Bacigalupi is an author that hit big while I was in a reading hiatus. I missed the boat, but I’ve been meaning to circle back… Continue reading Fantasy Novel Review: Navola by Paolo Bacigalupi
I’m not anything approaching a connoisseur of magical girl fiction, but having immensely enjoyed both of M.L. Wang’s adult novels, I was a little bit curious about her series of snappy YA titles beginning with Girl Squad Volta. And when I heard a pretty compelling argument that magical girl stories are a type of superhero… Continue reading Fantasy Novel Review: Girl Squad Volta by Maya Lin Wang
I loved M V Melcer’s 2021 short story “The Falling,” so it didn’t take too many positive reviews to convince me to shell out the four dollars for her new space opera: Refractions. Refractions is a story of sabotage in space, with a pilot fleeing her past thrust into an unfamiliar leadership role with no… Continue reading Sci-fi Novel Review: Refractions by M V Melcer
This review is based on an eARC (Advance Reading Copy) provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The Brides of High Hill will be released on May 7, 2024. While I still haven’t circled back to When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain, I’ve read and enjoyed everything else in The… Continue reading Fantasy Novella Review: The Brides of High Hill by Nghi Vo
Was a big book month, with the start of the Hugo Readalong, a new Bingo season, and the announcement of the SPSFC3 finalists. I haven’t read as much new short fiction as in a normal month, because I’ve been rereading Hugo finalists, but I’ve still found a few real gems. So let’s get to it!… Continue reading April 2024 Round-up and Short Fiction Miscellany
