Hey!
Last week I did a giveaway for a copy of The Witch Roads by Kate Elliott. Congrats to Ellie, who random.org selected! Thanks to everyone who entered and promoted the giveaway. I appreciate you all. :)
This week, Hugo voting wraps to some final commentary, there are more short fic reviews than you can shake a stick at, and I collected so many author reviews/chats. Enjoy!
I Didn’t Expect Dr. Gurathin To Be My Favorite Part of Murderbot
This essay unpacking the development of Gurathin in the show caught my eye. Before Murderbot aired, I was pretty sure what would make/break the show was not Murderbot, but the way the characters around it were shifted to be whole people. This positive read on Gurathin’s development, and one of the longer comments disagreeing with the positivity, make me go, “good thinking, past me!” I see both their perspectives; the way they changed and deepened Gurathin’s character is good, but some of the choices mean that Gurathin’s TV persona has to be more complicated than the Gurathin we know from the books. That means making him flawed and messy, especially as a survivor of the Corporation Rim. That causes conflict between our own reality, because our society is currently the Corporation Rim. 😭 In the books, SecUnit cares deeply for its humans, but it deliberately ignores and blocks out the messiness of their humanity, so adding more into the series was always going to be a gamble. I’m interested to see if more people write about the differences between the books and show as we begin our long wait for Season 2.
Pre-Ordering Books Makes You More of a Citizen of Literature
When I first saw this subject, I felt a twinge of annoyance. I’m a big critic of publishers farming out marketing to their authors, and pushing pre-orders feels like yet another way these big publishers are demanding authors work without compensation. But, after reading it I can definitely see how pre-ordering itself, when divorced from all the mess of publishing, can be an interesting way for authors to engage with their reader communities. I remember a time when I was subscribed to so many author newsletters and would be stoked when I got the news we could pre-order. Unfortunately, I have ADHD so I don’t get the “oh look, a surprise!” part of pre-orders. If I don’t track which books I’ve pre-ordered and from where I will pre-order them multiple times from different places. I’m happy for those that can make that strategy work for them, though!
Audition For the Fox by Martin Cahill (Sia @ Every Book a Doorway)
The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Gary K. Wolfe @ Locus)
Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V.E. Schwab (Carlysgrowingtbr)
The Dead Withheld by L.D. Lewis (Elias @ Bar Cart Bookshelf)
The Enchanted Greenhouse by Sarah Beth Durst (Annemieke @ A Dance with Books)
Fantastic Four: First Steps (Connor Lightbody @ Pop Heist)
Fantastic Four: First Steps (Kate Sánchez @ But Why Tho?)
A Far Better Thing by H. G. Parry (Anushree Nande @ Strange Horizons)
The Flat Woman by Vanessa Saunders (Octavia Cade @ Strange Horizons)
Green Rider by Kristen Britain (Niko'sBookReviews)
The Lighthouse at the Edge of the World by J.R. Dawson (Liz Bourke @ Locus)
The Martian Contingency by Mary Robinette Kowal (Marion Deeds @ FanLit)
The Memory of the Ogisi by Mose Ose Utomi (Dina @ SFF Book Reviews)
The Memory of the Ogisi by Mose Ose Utomi (Bill Capossere @ Fan Lit)
Minds in Transit by Joan Slonczewski (Electra Pritchett @ Ancillary Review of Books)
Murderbot (Arturo Serrano @ Nerds of a Feather)
One Yellow Eye by Leigh Radford (Rob Bedford @ SFF World)
Pearl City by Julia Vee and Ken Bebelle (Realms of My Mind)
Predator: Killer of Killers (Dean E.S. Richard @ Nerds of a Feather)
Redundancies and Potentials by Dominique Dickey (Alex Brown @ Punk-Ass Book Jockey)
Saturation Point by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Niko'sBookReviews)
Ten Incarnations of Rebellion by Vaishnavi Patel (Jenny @ Reactor)
The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula K. Le Guin (Fiction Fans Podcast)
The West Passage by Jared Pechacek (Niko'sBookReviews)
When Devils Sing by Xan Kaur (Mahvesh Murad @ Reactor)
A Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping by Sangu Mandanna (Annemieke @ A Dance With Books)
A Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping by Sangu Mandanna (Andrea Reid @ The Nerd Daily)
Voting for the 2025 Hugo Awards is closed. There was a flurry of last minute posts about various categories that caught my eye. Tarvolon talked about Best Short Story, Best Novelette, and Best Novella. Nicholas Whyte shared his thoughts on the Best Dramatic Presentation categories and I firmly disagree with him about The Wild Robot because I love anthropomorphic robots and believe I am in the majority. :P Finally, Roseanna had a Hugo Short Fiction Roundup. Gosh, I love a ranking. I didn’t finish any of the fiction categories (womp womp) so my rankings were like #1 AND #2 for both Novel and Novella. I had so much fatigue around Hugo reading this time. Maybe next year will be better. I’m going to try to seduce one of my group chats into a Hugo finalist book club in 2026.
Now that Hugo Awards voting is finished, we can all turn our attention to the Ignytes, where voting is open through August 15. And it’s time for everyone to bookmark the Hugo Spreadsheet of Doom for 2026 and get serious about putting great things on it! That way in January/February 2026 we’re prepared. Also, I’m hoping to see more active reccing of 2025 media from voters. I love that we have eligibility posts normalized, but let’s get fan style For Your Consideration popularized, too.
Tar Valon Or Bust Presents clocks back in on their discussion of Mary Stewart’s Arthurian Saga, The Crystal Cave: The Wolf, Sections 1-6. Mona Lisa Overpod discusses Wild Palms and 90s TV. Octothorpe #139 is out, and they spent some time discussing the possibility of not having a 2027 Worldcon. I found the vibe of this conversation very off-putting! But what do I know about running cons? Maybe publicly threatening a convention bid group with a no-confidence vote is normal? I guess it works, since this notice dropped in Locus announcing the convention co-chairs if the bid wins (it is currently the only bid). Meanwhile, I’m not sure I will ever finish Supernatural (there are so many seasons after I stopped watching!), but I will be listening to The Mystery Spotcast, which is probably not only just as good, but better.
A game many of my friends love, Heaven's Vault, has a sequel series in book form. I’m very intrigued by the The Expanse: Osiris Reborn trailer. Not that I’m behind on my backlogged games or anything after starting yet another Stardew playthrough… It’s all over Bluesky now, but the first news I got about the upcoming Avatar sequel was this post. I should…finish Korra.
I’m never quite sure how to link to short fiction review compilations, but a bunch came across my feeds this week: Clarkesworld and GigaNotoSaurus from Tarvolon; khōréō 5.1 from A.C. Wise; and GigaNotoSaurus, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, and Lightspeed from Charles Payseur. If you’re looking for a new fantasy short fiction venue, consider subscribing to Fantasy Magazine or FIYAH.
Maureen has a list of upcoming middle grade SFF books. Emily Hughes has a big list of the horror books dropping this July. Transfer Orbit has another list of SFF books for July. Shades of Orange dropped her Best & Worst science fiction for the year so far. If you’re doing a Canadian author reading challenge, there’s a list of SFF books under 300 pages to check out.
The Gods Must Burn by T.R Moore had its cover reveal. It drops in February 2026 from Solaris. The Many by Sylvain Neuvel, which drops April 2026 from Solaris Books, had a cover reveal at Reactor. As of writing, The Raven Scholar is on sale at Kobo and everyone should read it. Also at Reactor, there are excerpts of Woven From Clay by Jenny Birch and The Entanglement of Rival Wizards by Sara Raasch.
There’s an interview with Sara Omer, author of The Gryphon King, at FanFiAddict. The Nerd Daily has interviews with Mai Corland, Molly X. Chang, Sarah Beth Durst, and E.K. Johnston. Myna Chang interviewed Thomas Ha, author of Uncertain Sons and Other Stories. At Locus, there’s an interview excerpt with H.E. Edgmon. Ai Jiang was on Long Lost Friends. Karin Lowachee, author of the upcoming A Covenant of Ice, has a guest post over at Fantasy Hive, “If Dragons Were the Ultimate Apex Predator of the World”.
Art recs: rpg cat triptych byshafer brown. Starwinder and The Dragon Rider by Devin Elle Kurtz. vexnir, an artist I like and have recced before, has cute art prints for sale. Cute cat by Charlene Chua. Veiled woman with a crown by Julijana M. Northwestern Golds by Erin Hanson. side A to side B by Graham Annable. Birch Queen, walker of Autumn, herald of Winter by Evui. Goldfish starring down a Cat by John Ramsey. gdbee has done three Sailor Moon pieces (Sailor Moon, Mercury, and Mars) in an incredible style that I cannot get enough of.
This week I posted an episode of Fangirl Happy Hour, where I had the marvellous Roseanna on to discuss some of her favorite 2024 books. If you’re looking for recs, her list is great (I have purchased several).
Next week’s issue will be at the end of July. If there’s a book you loved in July, feel free to share it! Recs run after I collect at least four book recs in the form.
See you next time!