Reviews

Fantasy Novel Review: Norylska Groans by Michael R. Fletcher and Clayton W. Snyder

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For the fourth consecutive year, I am leading a judging team in the Self-Published Science Fiction Competition (SPSFC4), and my team has been given 32 books to whittle down to two semifinalists. To start, we’ve split them up so that each team member has nine or ten books to evaluate, and together we’ll pick the top 15-25% to pass… Continue reading Fantasy Novel Review: Norylska Groans by Michael R. Fletcher and Clayton W. Snyder

Monthly Round-Up

December 2024 Round-up and Short Fiction Miscellany

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It’s been a big reading month! I finished my favorite 2024-published novel, I had a big push of current-year short fiction before posting the first edition of my 2024 Recommended Reading List, and once I got it posted, I spent a little while dipping into backlist recommendations that had been languishing on my TBR. Let’s… Continue reading December 2024 Round-up and Short Fiction Miscellany

Artwork by Tithi Luadthong Tar Vol On’s SPSFC4 First-Round Eliminations, Batch One
SPSFC

Tar Vol On’s SPSFC4 First-Round Eliminations, Batch One

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It’s been a bit quiet with updates lately, but my judging team for the fourth annual Self-Published Science Fiction Competition (SPSFC4) has been hard at work reading the 32 books initially assigned to us. By the end of March, we need to pick just two from that 32-book allocation to put forward as semifinalists. But… Continue reading Tar Vol On’s SPSFC4 First-Round Eliminations, Batch One

Magazine Review

Tar Vol Reads a Magazine (or Two): Reviews of Clarkesworld and GigaNotoSaurus (December 2024)

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Everybody may be posting Best of the Year lists–and don’t get me wrong, I’ll be doing the same later this week–but there are still new stories coming out this month. As always, I read a couple magazines and am here to talk about them.  Clarkesworld The December 2024 issue of Clarkesworld had a wonderfully international… Continue reading Tar Vol Reads a Magazine (or Two): Reviews of Clarkesworld and GigaNotoSaurus (December 2024)