This month I’ve started reading up on Hugo Award finalists, Asimov’s Readers’ Award finalists, and SPSFC semifinalists, all in between chipping away at my backlog of new releases. Have I found things to recommend? Of course I have! Let’s dive in!
Short Fiction
I have separate posts reviewing Clarkesworld and GigaNotoSaurus and evaluating the Asimov’s Readers’ Award shortlist. Both are full of excellent stories, including my favorite novella of last year (“Death Benefits” by Kristine Kathryn Rusch), a new-to-me novelette that would’ve made my Hugo nominating ballot had I read it on time (“Charon’s Final Passenger” by Ray Nayler), and one of my top two short stories of the first third of 2025 (“In My Country” by Thomas Ha). And there’s more beyond those. I’m not re-reviewing all of them here, so check out those posts! In the meantime, let’s talk about other things:
April Favorites
- Houyi the Archer Fights the Sun (2025 short story) by Cynthia Zhang. The conceit–immortal heroes of legend have to deal with mundane, contemporary problems–is nothing new. But the character voices are so much fun. Really, the back-and-forth between Houyi and his wife made this one for me, everything else was gravy.
Strong Contenders
- The Lovers (1994 novelette) by Eleanor Arnason. This is a story that feels very targeted at particular social attitudes, but at the same time, it’s a really good story that does a great job capturing a particular sort of voice that’s reminiscent of oral storytelling.
- Knapsack Poems: A Goxhat Travel Journal (2002 short story) by Eleanor Arnason. A solid story that’s elevated by the deeply alien species–made up of multiple organisms not necessarily maintaining a physical connection–at its heart.
- Liberation (2025 novelette) by Tade Thompson. A nonlinear tale of disaster during the first Nigerian space mission that really delivers the tension in key moments.
Others I Enjoyed in April
- The Grammarian’s Five Daughters (1995 short story) by Eleanor Arnason. A linguistic fable with a quality voice and some entertaining subversion of expectations.
- The Octopus Dreams of Personhood (2025 short story) by Hannah Yang. An audacious premise–in which an octopus literally takes command of the lead’s body for long stretches of time–used to explore depression and abusive relationships.
Novels and Novellas
Reviews Posted
- Psychopomp (2025 novel) by Maria Dong. A tense story set in an asteroid prison labor camp, this does a good job diving into the lead’s traumatic inner life but otherwise feels a bit overstuffed.
- Where the Axe is Buried (2025 novel) by Ray Nayler. A multi-POV novel that hits hard on a lot of common Nayler themes, like AI, the effects of technology on ordinary people, and living under oppressive governments.
- Saint Death’s Herald (2025 novel) by C.S.E. Cooney. The sequel to Saint Death’s Daughter–perhaps my favorite book of 2022–feels a bit like a side quest but is entertainingly written and provides a satisfying ending.
- Ancillary Justice (2013 novel) by Ann Leckie. The space opera that set the genre world alight in 2013 is a plenty entertaining read but doesn’t hit quite so hard a decade later.
- Black Sun Rising (1991 novel) by C.S. Friedman. A classic fantasy quest story, well-written but drawn out in the way one may expect from 90s fantasy.
Other April Reads
- Navigational Entanglements (2024 novel) by Aliette de Bodard. A borderline novella/novel that throws the reader into magic space travel and personal rivalry but grows into itself in the second half. Full review to come.
- A Sorceress Comes to Call (2024 novel) by T. Kingfisher. Starts as a tremendously compelling dark fairy tale and gets a little lighter as the story progresses. Full review to come.
- The Incandescent (2025 novel) by Emily Tesh. A very English magic school novel from a teacher’s perspective, well-written and seemingly aimed directly at millennial fantasy readers. Full review to come.
- The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain (2024 novella) by Sofia Samatar. A theme-driven story about academia, oppression, and extreme class divides in space, with perhaps a hint of magical realism. Not especially plotty, but very compelling. Full review to come.
- The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue (2020 novel) by V.E. Schwab. A Faustian tale with a satisfying-but-predictable subplot and a more daring one that didn’t quite come off. Nevertheless, a speedy and pleasant read. Full review to come.
Bingo
The 2025 r/Fantasy Book Bingo Challenge is live, and I’m planning my card for next year. I also swear I’m still working on my 2024 wrap-up post. I’ve been behind. Look for it in May? Hopefully?
SPSFC
My team is still reading through our four new semifinalists, which we’ll be finishing up and reviewing in late May and early June. I’ve posted personal reviews for two books: Proliferation and On Impulse.