Latest Posts

  • 2025 Hugo Awards: the last two finalists

    The Hugo Awards for 2025 will be announced on August 16, 2025 at Seattle WorldCon. The finalists for best novel: Disclaimer: I review only the novels. Go to the Hugo Awards site to find all the other finalists in all… Continue reading

  • Hugo Awards 2025: Two More Finalists

    The Hugo Awards for 2025 will be announced on August 16, 2025 at Seattle WorldCon. The finalists for best novel: Disclaimer: I review only the novels. Go to the Hugo Awards web site to find the finalists in other categories.… Continue reading

  • Hugo Awards 2025: Two Finalists for Best Novel

    The Hugo Awards for 2025 will be announced on August 16, 2025 at Seattle WorldCon. The finalists for best novel: Disclaimer: I only review the novels. Go to the Hugo Awards web site to find all the other finalists in… Continue reading

  • The Hugo Awards–and the Usual Controversies

    The Hugo Awards for 2025 are soon to be announced. Here is the list of finalists for best novel: The winner will be announced on August 16, 2025 at Seattle WorldCon. That means you, Reader, have time for some catch-up… Continue reading

  • The Arthur C. Clarke Awards short list: Final words

    The novels short-listed for this major speculative fiction award include: In my last post, I reviewed the novels by by Green and Woolf. The first post in this series reviewed the novels by Armfield and Bradley. Service Model, Adrian Tchaikovsky(2024,… Continue reading

  • The Arthur C. Clarke Awards short list, continued

    The novels short-listed for this major speculative fiction award include: In my last post, I reviewed the novels by Armfield and Bradley. This post reviews the novels by Green and Woolf. Extremophile, Ian Green (2024, Head of Zeus/Bloomsbury) What an… Continue reading

  • The Arthur C. Clarke Awards: Belated Post

    And don’t I feel silly! I know I said I’d turn to the Hugo Awards short-listed novels next. Meanwhile–how, I’m not sure–I completely misunderstood the Clarke Awards timeline. The decision has already been made and the winner is: Annie Bot,… Continue reading

  • It’s A Midsummer Night’s Eve: Fairy Abduction, Anyone?

    I write this blog post on the evening of June 24th, which is the traditional date of midsummer celebrations all across Europe, even if it’s not the date of the actual summer solstice (and misleading as well, since that moment… Continue reading

  • It’s Midsummer! Older Novels of Fairy Abduction

    In this series of blog posts, I celebrate Midsummer fairy madness by reviewing tales and novels of fairy abduction. Those fairies aren’t the cute little Disney-fied winged things we think they are. Fairies are dangerous. Fairies are curious. They love… Continue reading

  • It’s Midsummer! Have you been abducted by a fairy yet?

    For the past few years at Midsummer, I’ve posted my recommendations for speculative fiction with fairies. June 20th is this year’s summer solstice ushering in the season of summer in the geographical (astronomical) sense. Midsummer, Midsummer Eve–these have been recognized… Continue reading