Hey!
There’s lots of reviews this week. Thanks to everyone who recommended me their favorite reviewers.
Also, in a wild turn of events, we almost have 100 subscribers via email? I’m very grateful to everyone who allows me into their inbox each week. If you know an SFF fan who is also into Niche SFF Happenings & Commentary, please share this newsletter with them. :D
The Digital Chastity Belt
If you were on Bluesky, it was hard to miss the recent censorship inflicted on multiple platforms by several payment processors that decided to cave to the Moral Panic Police. I found this essay a really good summary. I’ve lived through so many platforms running queer and explicit artists and creatives off that I’m no longer surprised whenever this happens. Living through any moral panic feels oppressive and overwhelming but the groups doing these things are, in my experience, well-funded but loud and small. They can absolutely be out-organized. Money can buy a lot. However, there’s not enough money for the long term people power they’d need to invest in to counter those of us who can organize out of love for our communities and utter spite.
What Do We Want From the Bookish Internet?
Two years on from this essay by Molly Templeton and so much of it still rings true. However! Since publication, Bluesky has removed invites and is explicitly pro-link, offering more control to creatives to direct their followers to longer form writing. Also, people are starting more newsletters that also operate like blogs—RSS is baked into many of them. Alas, what’s missing there is robust comment tools. I continue to mourn Livejournal/Dreamwidth threaded comments. The reason I came back to this essay was because of ReaderCon; an essay I wrote was a seed for a panel. Then it was posted to Bluesky and Casella shared a whole big thread of things to read! This series of events felt like…not a tipping point, but the start of a journey to a tipping point to new ways to connecting? I’m pretty optimistic about the future (although I do find it funny that whenever critique/reviews come up, the conversation inevitably defaults to the responsibilities of the critic/reviewer, and never the authors).
The Hugo Awards (2026)
“Oh no,” I hear you say. “It can’t be time already.” Truly, Hugo Season never ends for me. It is always Hugo Season in my heart. I love collecting recs, collectively, with everyone. I love seeing what people are excited about. I already have 2026 ballot predictions! Alas, they will have to be kept under wraps until we’ve crowned our 2025 winners. My goal now is to convince all the international folks (rightly) boycotting U.S. travel to become WSFS members—or Supporting members or whatever we’re calling it now—of LAcon V and prepare to nominate and to look at categories they might not otherwise consider. How many people decided the Hugo finalists this year? 1,338. We may never reach the heights of 2016, when 4,000ish people showed up to nominate because a bunch of weirdos tried to cheat in order to fill the gaping abyss in their crusty hearts, but we can get closer to 2,000 next year for positive reasons. I believe in us.
All the Murmuring Bones by A.G. Slatter (Marion Deeds @ Fan Lit)
Arkhangelsk by Elizabeth H. Bonesteel (Arturo Serrano @ Nerds of a Feather)
Black Brane by Michael Cisco (Ian Mond @ Locus)
Blood of the Old Kings by Sung-Il Kim, translated by Anton Hur (Nils Shukla @ The Fantasy Hive)
Blood on the Tide by Katee Robert (Danika Ellis @ The Lesbrary)
A Covenant of Ice by Karin Lowachee (Annemieke @ A Dance with Books)
The Devils by Joe Abercrombie (Dina @ SFF Book Reviews)
Fantastic Four: First Steps (Camestros Felapton)
Fantastic Four: First Steps (Emmet Asher-Perrin @ Reactor)
The Forestborns by Vardhini Amin (Amritesh Mukherjee @ Strange Horizons)
Future's Edge by Gareth L. Powell (Fiction Fans Podcast)
The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison (Abigail Nussbaum @ Lawyers, Guns, & Money)
A Granite Silence by Nina Allan (Roseanna Pendlebury @ A Reader of Else)
Hemlock & Silver by T. Kingfisher (Adrienne Martini @ Locus)
Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros (Dina @ SFF Book Reviews)
KPop Demon Hunters (Carlie St. George @ My Geek Blasphemy)
The Library at Hellebore by Cassandra Khaw (Matthew Jackson @ Paste)
The Lighthouse at the Edge of the World by J.R. Dawson (Dee Holloway @ Ancillary Review of Books)
The Memory Hunters by Mia Tsai (Tarvolon)
The Memory Hunters by Mia Tsai (Bill Capossere @ FanLit)
The Memory Hunters by Mia Tsai (Elias @ Bar Cart Bookshelf)
Metallic Realms by Lincoln Michel (Paul Di Filippo @ Locus)
The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley (Bill Capossere @ FanLit)
No Such Thing As Duty by Lara Elena Donnelly (Roseanna Pendlebury @ Nerds of a Feather)
One Message Remains by Premee Mohamed (Alex Brown @ Punk-Ass Book Jockey)
Saint Elspeth by Wick Welker (Tarvolon)
A Song of Legends Lost by M. H. Ayinde (Paul Weimer @ Nerds of a Feather)
A Song of Lost Legends is M.H. Ayinde (Rob H. Bedford @ SFFWorld)
Starstrike by Yoon Ha Lee (Alexandra Pierce @ Locus)
The Tainted Cup/A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett (Mr. Greekchoir)
This Is Not A Ghost Story by Amerie (Niall Harrison @ Locus)
The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy by Megan Bannen (Realms of my Mind)
The Undercutting of Rosie and Adam by Megan Bannen (Dina @ SFF Book Reviews)
The Unkillable Frank Lightning by Josh Rountree (Gary K. Wolfe @ Locus)
Volatile Memory by Seth Haddon (Alexandra Pierce @ Locus)
We Called Them Giants by Kieron Gillen (Bonnie McDaniel @ Red Headed Femme)
We Can Never Leave by H.E. Edgmon (Jenny Hamilton @ Reactor)
Yours Celestially by Al Hess (Tarvolon)
Other newsletters I follow had issues out in the last week. The Rec Center #499 (next week: 500!) and The Full Lid. These both drop on Friday, so by the time people read this their next issues are already out. If you love them you can get even more immediately—they have robust archives, too! It feels a little awkward, timing-wise, to highlight them, but they bring me so much joy so I’m gonna start!
Wow! Signal, the column of criticism and analysis of SFF from Ancillary Review of Books, has a new entry for July 2025 and there’s a new Meal of Thorns podcast episode, covering ReaderCon. Stitch & Bitch recorded their July 2025 episode, which is always great fun—the discussions are wide-ranging. Octothorpe #140 is out with more Worldcon news and opinions. Kelsey from The Fancy Hat Lady Reads shared her anticipated SFF for the rest of 2025. Niko's Book Reviews shared his favorite books of 2025 so far; here is a man who is reading to the beat of his own drum because that is a chronologically diverse list. Also, The Witch Roads by Kate Elliott mention! Lisa from the Narrated Podcast was at ReaderCon and shares some of her author convos. Several scientists recommended their favorite science fiction over at Five Books. It was an interesting mix.
Short fiction reviews I saw this week include Lightspeed, Kaleidotrope, and Strange Horizons hits from Tarvolon and FIYAH: Issue #35 - Black Isekai from Womble. Womble also had his weekly “What are you reading?” thread on Bluesky, in case you need to do some damage to your TBR.
If you’re into nerdy parliamentary procedure and committee structure, this post from Nicholas Whyte about how easy it is to game the WSFS Committee structure is some great nightmare fuel! On Thursday, August 21, Kristen from Fantasy Cafe will be doing a livestream with the Ashland Public Library and reccing some SFF titles. If you have time, let’s show up to support her!
The Lambda Literary Awards finalists were announced; there’s a speculative fiction in a few different categories. Voting for the Ignyte Awards ends August 15, so time is quickly running out! Also, the Sidewise Awards finalists dropped; this award is for the best alternate historical fiction.
Read excerpts from The Lighthouse at the Edge of the World by J.R. Dawson: chapter one is over at SFF World and chapter two is at The Nerd Daily. The author was also at Left Bank Books for an event, and there’s a recording of the livestream. Also at Nerd Daily, there’s an excerpt from Terms of Service by Ciel Pierlot. For those into nonfiction about science fiction, there’s an excerpt of Space Ships! Ray Guns! Martian Octopods! an Oral History of Science Fiction by Richard Wolinsky up at Civilian Reader.
Interviews: there’s one with Ryan Rose, author Seven Recipes for Revolution, and the cover on this one is really striking. Allison Saft, author of Down Comes The Night and Joshua Phillip Johnson, author of The Bloodless Queen were also interviewed by the same site. At Transfer Orbit, Andrew Liptak interviewed Adam Rowe, author of Worlds Beyond Time: Sci-Fi Art of the 1970s. Seth Haddon, author of the recently released Volatile Memory, has an interview with Paul Semel. He also introduced his book in a short video on Tor’s TikTok channel.
In A-Side, you’ll notice a lot of reviews for The Memory Hunters by Mia Tsai, because it dropped on July 29. She has a Big Idea column up at Whatever for release week. Julie E. Czerneda has a guest post about cozy fantasy over at Skiffy and Fanty. Connie Willis did a reading of A Spanner in the Works with Locus Magazine.
Gareth L. Powell shared the cover for his next book, Jitterbug, out in February 2026 from Titan Books. Julie Dillon dropped the cover art for Witchkiller by Ashlee Latimer, plus a link to the B&N listing to see it with the cover text. The UK cover for Enchanting the Fae Queen by Stephanie Burgis posted last week and I am very jealous, because while I like the U.S. cover the UK cover has more vibes. Victor Manibo’s The Villa, Once Beloved has a cover reveal at Reactor. SciFiNow has the cover for The Misheard World by Aliya Whiteley.
Now that I shared five covers: it feels like cover reveals used to be bigger? This is the first week I’ve found this many! Are there so many that there’s too much noise? They happen on blogs sometimes, but have the spectacle and novelty worn off enough that they happen more often quietly in author corners now? I’m not in enough author corners. 😭 Send me your favorite author newsletters.
The Green Bone Saga by Fonda Lee is getting an RPG, and you can sign up to playtest. Debbie Urbanski was on the Strange Horizons podcast. If you’re into author tours, Annalee Newitz will be around the country promoting their upcoming book, Automatic Noodle.
The Zootopia 2 trailer dropped, and against my better judgement about endless sequels, I’m interested. I’m also intrigued by the upcoming horror movie, Weapons, which dropped another trailer last month that I had missed. Sadly, in another trailer (which I will not link, boo) they used genAI so now I have to make some choices. I’m so sick of genAI, y’all. Especially in art.
Art recs: cut where indicated (that won't work) by alicia. Citrine's SweetsCafe by gdbee. I Don’t Want To Do This Anymore by Katie Aki. long fallen empire by Paul. Sumatran Tiger by CassWArt. Sami, Wildcat Captain by Ashley Mackenzie. Dragons and waterfall by Katie Croonenbergh. Welcome to the Snail Forest by Big Hippo. Scribble cats by Aubry. Sphynx cat by Helen Mask. Garden Path by Maxine Vee.
I run a list of book recs when I get four recs collected in the book rec form, so if you’ve had a hankering to get effusive about a recent SF/F/H read, hit up the rec form and tell me about it. :)
We’re leaving July behind and inching closer to Peak Book Release Season. I wish everyone luck with their August TBRs.
If you can, check out KPop Demon Hunters, too! It’s excellent.