It’s been a busy August in real life, with a family getaway, a couple celebrations, and the beginning of school. But I’ve been plugging along in my reading, and I’ve found some great fiction. Do I say that every month? Pretty much yeah. But I read enough to make it true. Let’s get to it,… Continue reading August 2024 Round-up and Short Fiction Miscellany
I first read Sarah Pinsker when “Two Truths and a Lie” was a Hugo Award finalist for Best Novelette in 2021 (it won). Three or four stories later, she’d become one of my absolute favorite short story authors, and picking up a copy of her second collection, Lost Places, was an easy decision. Lost Places… Continue reading Sci-fi/Fantasy Collection Review: Lost Places by Sarah Pinsker
As I have each year since the pandemic, I’ve not only completed a full card in the r/Fantasy Bingo Challenge, I’ve completed one with its own special theme. I love the way the challenge churns through my TBR and brings to my attention books I otherwise would never have noticed or would have let languish… Continue reading Time Warp Book Bingo: 25 Books for Two Cards (2015, 2023)
It was the month that sees the “best of 2022” lists start dropping (including mine!), which means it was the month that saw my short fiction TBR explode and my reading pace try desperately to catch up. Overall, I read 25 short pieces this month, and there were some really good ones in that batch. … Continue reading December 2022 Round-up and Short Fiction Focus
This review is based on an eARC (Advance Reading Copy) provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Neom will be released on November 9, 2022. Lavie Tidhar is a name that has popped up several times in my short fiction reading—I’ve read a few of his stories, and I have a… Continue reading Sci-fi Novel Review: Neom by Lavie Tidhar
I’ve finished a year of judging for the first annual Self-Published Science Fiction Competition, and it’s been both fun and instructive. I’ve learned a lot of things about myself as a reader, about slush pile reading, and about organizing a contest with such massive scale. So with this year’s competition in the books and the… Continue reading SPSFC Reflections and Ranking
After whittling our initial 30-book allotment down to three, my SPSFC team has received six more semifinalists from other judging teams. Our scores of these six new books, along with our original three semifinalists, will combine with with 81 other scores (nine each from nine teams) to determine the SPSFC finalists. Each of the six… Continue reading SPSFC Semifinalist Review: In the Orbit of Sirens by T.A. Bruno
January delivered plenty of “Best of 2021” recommended reading lists, and so February was my heaviest month of short-fiction reading since I jumped back into the form in 2020. I made plenty of additions to my Hugo Nomination Draft, and I had such a good time reading that, even after going back at the end… Continue reading February 2022 Round-up and Short Fiction Focus
It’s done. Team Tar Vol On has finished our first pass through our first-round allotment of books for the Self-Published Science Fiction Competition. We’ve read 10-20% of each book and made a decision on ten quarterfinalists to read through to completion. In the first, second, third, and fourth batches of cuts and quarterfinalists, I advised… Continue reading SPSFC First-Round Cuts and Quarterfinalists, Batch Five
After a month of silence and a lot of reading, Team Tar Vol On has begun to make decisions about our first-round entries in the Self-Published Science Fiction Competition. To refresh your memory, our team of six judges began with 30 self-published science fiction novels, and we’ve spent the last month reading extended previews (10-20%)… Continue reading SPSFC First-Round Cuts and Quarterfinalists, Batch One
