It’s “Best of the Year” season, and in addition to posting my own Recommended Reading List, I’ve started reading a lot of stories from “best of the year” lists from authors and readers like John Wiswell, A.C. Wise, and Maria Haskins. Suffice to say, there’s been plenty of good reading to be done. So let’s… Continue reading December 2023 Round-up and Short Fiction Miscellany
I’m wrapping up my first year of regular magazine reading with a short review of the December 2023 issues of Clarkesworld and GigaNotoSaurus. Both publications were well worth reading all year, and this month is no exception. Stay tuned for a deep dive into my favorite stories of the year—hopefully to be posted this week—and… Continue reading Tar Vol Reads a Magazine (or Two): Reviews of Clarkesworld and GigaNotoSaurus (December 2023)
My monthly sci-fi/fantasy magazine review was way busier than usual, with four different issues on the docket this month. But one of my heaviest reading months of the year ensured there was plenty of room for short fiction miscellany. In addition to my book clubs and a few impulse reads, I was able to swing by… Continue reading November 2023 Round-up and Short Fiction Miscellany
Welcome to the biggest in my first year of magazine reviews. I’ve spent this year regularly reading three publications—Clarkesworld, GigaNotoSaurus, and The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction—but this month, I added a fourth, ending a year or so of swearing that I’d get to Asimov’s eventually. It made for one heck of a reading… Continue reading Tar Vol Reads a Magazine (or Four!): Reviews of Clarkesworld, GigaNotoSaurus, F&SF, and Asimov’s (November 2023)
Regular readers of the blog will know that I’m a big short story guy, and I have much more patience with weirdness in short form than in novels. So when I was perusing the Ursula K. Le Guin Prize shortlist and saw Ten Planets by Yuri Herrera, translated by Lisa Dillman, I figured it was… Continue reading Sci-fi/Fantasy Collection Review: Ten Planets by Yuri Herrera
Every once in a while, I read so much fantastic work in a short period of time that I begin to wonder whether I’m losing my standards. October was such a month. Five stars in my novels, five stars in my magazines, five stars in anthologies and in miscellaneous short fiction. It was a great… Continue reading October 2023 Round-up and Short Fiction Miscellany
A welcome quieter month—with only two of my regular magazines releasing new issues—allowed me to get to an ARC of an exciting new short fiction anthology, leading yet again to a magazine round-up coming at the very end of the month. But I thought it was a very good reading month, and I have a… Continue reading Tar Vol Reads a Magazine (or Two): Reviews of Clarkesworld and GigaNotoSaurus (October 2023)
This review is based on an eARC (Advance Reading Copy) provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The Digital Aesthete will be released on November 14, 2023. I haven’t read much of Alex Shvartsman’s work as an editor, but I’ve enjoyed a bit of his translated short fiction, and I’ve been… Continue reading Sci-fi Anthology Review: The Digital Aesthete, edited by Alex Shvartsman
A real scramble this month, with the end of Hugo reading and the beginning of SPSFC3 reading. I’m wildly behind on reviews, but I’m not forgetting my short fiction crew. I’ve got some great stuff to talk about this month, like every month. Short Fiction September Favorites Did my September magazine review come out in… Continue reading September 2023 Round-up and Short Fiction Miscellany
The second whirlwind month in a row has seen me settling into a new house, finishing up a year of Hugo reading, and opening my third year of SPSFC. So it’s been a bit of a quiet month for short fiction, but it was also a three-magazine month with the release of the bimonthly Magazine… Continue reading Tar Vol Reads a Magazine (or Three): Reviews of Clarkesworld, GigaNotoSaurus, and F&SF (September 2023)
