Hey!

In my main group chat we regularly go, "what if we started an SFF newsletter?" This happens on a cycle, about every 8 - 9 months. In the past, we have generally talked each other out of it because:

This time, I did not consult anyone when the intrusive thought found me (oops).

Welcome to Intergalactic Mixtape!

Every Thursday evening, I'll rec some of the Internet Content, mostly science fiction/fantasy related, that I've been reading, boost cool projects I find, and talk about SFF media. Welcome, and thanks for subscribing! — Renay

A-Side

A Path Through the Landscape: My Own Route Through Science Fiction
Roseanna Pendlebury wrote this banger personal essay. It's detailed, thoughtful, and critically honest about the genres she loves. Blogs are so cool, writing is the best, book blogger for life, etc.

2025 Locus Awards Top Ten Finalists
The top ten in the Locus Awards across all the categories dropped on May 2. I have read exactly two of the fiction selections, The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain by Sofia Samatar and The Siege of Burning Grass by Premee Mohamed, proving that I continue to be at least three years behind the SFF zeitgeist at any time. Most surprising to me was that Tor recused itself, so for the first time in almost four decades there will be a new winner for Book Publisher. This leads me back to my soapbox re: recusing from awards for a year after winning.

Announcing the 2024 Otherwise Award winners
The winners of the Otherwise Award are out and both the short list and the long list look great. The Otherwise has always been a quirky, intriguing award, honoring things that exist along the margins of mainstream SFF and often trending literary/poetical in its choices. Very cool there’s translated work on the winners list, too. I’m happy to see it back and hope people will suggest 2025 books.

2024 Aurealis Award Winners
The Aurealis Awards is one of my favorites because I’m always finding cool books that don’t get marketing in the U.S., or at least doesn’t get marketing in the U.S. that reaches me, specifically.

Women in SF&F Month 2025: Thank You and Links
Every year, Kristen from Fantasy Cafe puts together an essay collection on her blog from women writers in genre. This is April's wrap up post featuring essays from both YA and adult authors, talking about writing and publishing. My favorite was If This Can’t Make Me Cry Anymore: Thoughts on Writing and Quitting by Kate Elliott.

Adventures with Crossdressing Sword Girls
Over at Lady Business, forestofglory talks about some of the media she's been watching recently featuring women crossdressing. As per usual, she has some of the best comment sections at Lady Business, so highly recommend both the essay and the thoughtful replies.

Old Gay SF
remnantglow put together a thorough database of older LGBT SFF. The amount of work and research that must have gone into this is immense. I love projects that situate the queer community more firmly in SFF history.

​​The Rec Center #487
The Rec Center #488 will be out tomorrow, so catch up on Issue #487! I wanted to highlight this because a good mini-essay from Gav (a long time writer in popular media) about the recent layoffs in culture/gaming. Her essay, and others I’ve read, makes me deeply nostalgic for a time before microblogging slurped us into its giant maw. Yes, I am still salty about Google Reader.

Table of Contents: May 2025
Over at Transfer Orbit, Andrew Liptak is compiling the TOCs from various short fiction magazines. It's unclear to me whether or not it will be a public feature going forward, but this one at least is open to everyone!

Wyrd & Wonder Launch
Hosted by a collection of fantasy fans, this event is a great way to find cool recs of fantasy books. Other people might want to actually participate by signing up. The organizers are also over on Bluesky.

How Clair Obscur’s Composer Created An Incredible Soundtrack
I haven’t played Clair Obscur yet, but I read this interview with the composer and it’s so wholesome. Regardless of the questions asked, he roots his answers in his deep love of music and games.

Reviews
Cold Eternity by S.A. Barnes (Jenny Hamilton @ Reactor)
The Incandescent by Emily Tesh (Liz Bourke @ Locus Mag)
The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson (Molly Templeton @ Reactor)
Tusks of Extinction by Ray Nayler (Dina @ SFF Book Review)
Film Review: Sinners (Ann Michelle Harris @ nerds of a feather)
Review: Sinners Takes Us to Church (Aisha Jordan @ Black Nerd Problems)

Worldcon Drama (Again)

The launch of this newsletter was going to be extremely chill, but then the Seattle Worldcon screwed the pooch with its use of ChatGPT in preparing convention programming. There were 24 hours of solid backlash, which included:

• 500+ quotes of the original announcement, most of them negative.

• Best Fanzine finalist Ancillary Review of Books writing an open letter expressing dismay.

• Yoon Ha Lee pulling his book, Moonstorm, from the Lodestar short list.

• Numerous requests for membership refunds and multiple people, both fans and authors, backing out of the convention.

Chair Kathy Bond posted an apology and a request for more time with the convention team to determine next steps, citing Tuesday of this week as a deadline. Things cooled down a bit as it seemed as if the immediate and vicious backlash had penetrated con leadership.

But before Tuesday arrived, on Monday, May 5, Nicholas Whyte, Esther MacCallum-Stewart, and Cassidy, all part of the World Science Fiction Society division, resigned from their roles. Cheryl Eddy at Gizmodo recapped things in an article, because while all this was happening I was, predictably, taking a nap to recover from all the other Societal Horrors. I still don’t know how or why or even if these resignations were directly connected the PR crisis, and frankly, maybe I don’t want to. I’m tired of this, grandpa!

On Tuesday, Genre Grapevine covered the scandal at length and in the report confirmed their would be a statement. At the last possible moment when it could be considered “business hours” on the west coast and when many people were logging off for the evening, Kathy Bond and SunnyJim Morgan posted dual statements. We switched from rake stepping to digging the grave of Seattle Worldcon’s legitimacy.

I have one problem with these statements: the people who did the wrong thing didn’t resign or at the very least bring on co-chairs that sit on top of their counterpart for everything like a cloud of accountability. How does anyone rebuild trust if they refuse to relinquish even a little of the power they used to make bad decisions?

I’m very attached to the Hugo Awards, which is administered year to year by the Worldcon committee who wins their bid to host, because I host a recommendation project for the Hugo Awards that directly linked to each year’s convention. Over the last decade, this has resulted in blow after preventable blow to the award’s reputation, which makes it hard to want to keep advocating for the WSFS as a whole.

There’s always 2026!

B-Side

The Keeper's Six by Kate Elliott is on sale this month in ebook. If you like surly dragons and begrudging team-ups with a side of union organizing, you may also like this. John Wiswell posted a thread for books people are looking forward to for the rest of the year and the replies and the quotes are full of upcoming titles to look through.

Flamecraft Duals has a Kickstarter, and if you loved the first game, this 2-player version might be up your alley, too. There's a new WYRMHOLE to explore. Locus Mag is doing their annual fundraiser. Ancillary Review of books posted their call for reviews/essays for August 2025.

John Chu shared the cover art for his new book, The Subtle Art of Folding Space, out in 2026. Amal El-Mohtar announced the cover for her short fiction collection, Seasons of Glass and Iron.

Jellyfish mermaid. Yoongi from BTS as Howl from Howl's Moving Castle. Heart of the Forest with delightful autumnal vibes. For the Common Good, a beautiful and intricate example of why I bought two Bloomburrow decks before I re-learned how to play MTG. Cadence Lewis was commissioned to draw Harrow and Gideon on a classic romance novel cover and the results are incredible, down to the tiny details. Also, never say no to cute cat art.

Outro

Intergalactic Mixtape is a whole baby! I’m nervous, but excited to start. I’m hoping to expand to soliciting links once I get a handle on things, so stay tuned.

For now, here’s the most recent song I’ve been into by the New Constellations.