Intergalactic Mixtape #24
Hey!
This week’s most notable books are Katabasis by R.F. Kuang (expected) and Red City by Marie Lu (a surprise). There’s also a section on Alchemised/Harry Potter, some project announcements, and several rec lists. Enjoy!
A-Side
Join Nerds of a Feather, Flock Together!
I have been reading Nerds of a Feather for over a decade; it’s one of my go-to book blogs. They’re looking for new writers and this is an incredible team of great folks with a deep knowledge of genre and SFF fandom. If you’ve thought, “I would love to have a book/media blog but I can’t go it alone”, this team may be a good fit for you!
The Cookout: A Speculative Fiction Anthology
A while back, we were getting a ton of very specifically themed short fiction anthologies like Robots vs. Fairies, The Djinn Falls in Love, and Zombies vs. Unicorns. Anthologies are still out there for sure, but I always love seeing new twists on the collection idea. This upcoming Kickstarter has one! A speculative anthology for Black authors on the theme of the cookout? Sounds incredible. It hasn’t launched yet, but you can set it to remind you when it goes live!
Tell me your most unhinged literary opinion, as a little treat
This was a thread by Rachel Feder that took over my timeline and was delightful; there’s plenty of regular replies but the quote post section has over 4,000 responses. It’s not specific to SFF, but plenty of SFF readers and writers weighed in. Obviously, there is ragebait, because this is the internet, but I trust us all to remember that attention is currency and muting/blocking is a superpower. :D
Reviews/Discussions
All That We See or Seem by Ken Liu (Womble @ Runalong the Shelves)
Among Ghosts by Rachel Hartman (Alex Brown @ Locus)
Angel Maker by Elizabeth Bear (Liz Bourke @ a garden from the libraries)
As the Earth Dreams: Black Canadian Speculative Stories edited by Terese Mason Pierre (Jeremy Brett @ Ancillary Review of Books)
Big Time by Jordan Prosser (Abigail Nussbaum @ Asking the Wrong Questions)
Birth of a Dynasty by Chinaza Bado (Maya C. James @ Locus)
Blood for the Undying Throne by Sung-il Kim, translated Anton Hur (Christina Ladd @ Geekly Inc)
The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones (Tarvolon)
Cinder House by Freya Marske (Bethan Hindmarch @ The Fantasy Hive)
The Door on the Sea by Caskey Russell (Will Swardstrom @ FanFiAddict)
Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman (Camestros Felapton)
The Entanglement of Rival Wizards by Sara Raasch (Realms of My Mind)
The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow (Beth and Nils @ The Fantasy Hive)
First Thousand Trees by Premee Mohamed (Annemieke @ A Dance With Books)
Flight of the Fallen by Hana Lee (Bonnie McDaniel @ Red Headed Femme)
Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones (Tarvolon)
The Iron Garden Sutra by A.D Sui (Randomly Yours, Alex)
Katabasis by R.F. Kuang (Tarvolon)
Katabasis by R.F. Kuang (FIC! Podcast)
Kallocain by Karin Boye, translated by Gustav Lannestock (Rachel Cordasco @ Speculative Fiction in Translation)
Knife Children by Lois McMaster Bujold (Tarvolon)
The Lost Reliquary by Lyndsay Ely (Realms of My Mind)
The Mimicking of Known Successes by Malka Older (Maddie Erb @ Neon Hemlock)
The Place of Shells by Mai Ishizawa, translated by Polly Barton (Roseanna Pendlebury @ Ancillary Review of Books)
Red City by Marie Lu (Tori Morrow)
Red City by Marie Lu (Mark Yon @ SFF World)
Red City by Marie Lu (Lacy Baugher Milas @ Paste)
The Stardust Grail by Yume Kitasei (Clara Cohen @ Nerds of a Feather)
Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins (Dina @ SFF Book Reviews)
These Memories Do Not Belong to Us by Yiming Ma (Trish Matson @ Skiffy & Fanty)
The Wax Child by Olga Ravn, translated by Martin Aitken (Akankshya Abismruta @ Strange Horizons)
The Works of Vermin by Hiron Ennes (Elias @ Bar Cart Booksehlf)
Zomromcom by Olivia Dade (Fiction Fans Podcast)
B-Side
The Alchemised debates have been raging hot and heavy on all my timelines. I’ve come down pretty comfortably on “I do not see it” because I’m not the boss of anyone but me. It’s led to some interesting discussions based on the justifications of people who want to read it, though, and has ended up at, “everything is deriative so it doesn’t matter if it was fanfic!” I liked Mari’s take on this particular point. This longer video by Jananie from this story ain’t over is also good. However, please note that fanfiction.net did not create fanfiction as we conceptualize it today and I am coming to you from the afterlife because once I heard that I combusted into dust and drifted away on a soft breeze. The way I think about Alchemised (and other pull to pub fic in this context) and Harry Potter is summed up well by Carter Kalchik, because Capital is my nemesis and I love to deny it.
Over at Niko’s Book Reviews, he made a list of underated fantasy. I love a good list that actually digs into some less well known books, and this one delivered (and the gender balance was good). Bailey (@greekchoir) had an interesting rec list for male authors who write women well. I cackled at the George R.R. Martin portion. At The Shades of Orange, Rachel reviews a collection of 2025 SFF releases, and answers a question I had in my review of The Shattering Peace by John Scalzi: is the new book accessible to those who haven’t at least read the original trilogy?
Reactor has a list of SFF crossover titles out this month. Transfer Orbit has another list of October SFF titles. Over at The Guardian, there’s a round up of some recent SFF, where When There Are Wolves Again by EJ Swift is listed. Several people I trust have raved about it. Yes, there is still no U.S. version. In another blow to U.S. readers, as the international market seeks revenge on U.S. publishing for making books hard to get outside our country, Gautam Bhatia’s The Sentence has been acquired by Saga Press, for release in 2027 under the title The Fifth Inflection. My reaction: 2027?! Throw us a bone, Saga.
The 2025 Ignyte Awards were announced on Bluesky. Here’s the full list of winners at Reactor. If you’re going to World Fantasy this year, the program details are available.
SciFi Month was announced, and this time around the readalong will be Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie. Octothorpe dropped Episode #145 with a special Liz named Tommy. Sword & Laser dropped Episode #521, which features SFF news and a discussion of The Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice. Roseanna continues her deep read and analysis of The Lord of the Rings with chapters 10-12. Tar Volon or Bust Presents shared the next episode of their reread of Mary Stewart's Arthurian Saga. The Narrated Podcast tackled several books and stumped me on how to properly list them in A-Side fairly to each book, so because I’m lazy they got upgraded to B-Side. Check out their latest episode with discussions of Saltcrop by Yume Kitasei, The Man Who Died Seven Times by Yasuhiko Nishizawa, translated by Jesse Kirkwood, and Lessons in Magic and Disaster by Charlie Jane Anders.
There’s a cover reveal for Preaching to the Choir by Adrian Tchaikovsky. Samantha Shannon recced five of the best fantasy series at Five Books. Fran Wilde shared her favorite high tech heists over at Reactor. Jo Walton shared her reading list for September 2025. Catherine Asaro has a Big Idea post for her book, Gold Dust, over at Whatever. Ken Liu was on NPR to talk about his new book, All That We See or Seem. You can read an excerpt of the book over at Nerd Daily. There’s also an excerpt from “Peak Day” by Suyi Davies Okungbowa, one of the stories in As the Earth Dreams: Black Canadian Speculative Stories edited by Terese Mason Pierre.
Julie Leong, author of The Keeper of Magical Things, was on the SFF Addicts Podcast to talk about her new book and to discuss writing cozy fantasy. There’s a Q&A with Emma Hinds, author of Witchlore and Richard Kadrey, author of The Flesh King, at Nerd Daily. Runalong the Shelves has an interview with Eliza Chan, author of Tideborn. Vanessa Fogg, author of collection The House of Illusionists, has an interview with Myna Chang.
As always, if you want even more links, check out Wombling Along at Runalong the Shelves.
Art recs: Late Night Study by Maxine Vee; hooded crow by Emily L'Orange; please dont let him have the martini by Deb JJ Lee; Haze on Two Horizons by parker parrella; Iridescent black by Athanaca; ramen noodles by gdbee; hold on by meyo; Autumn journey by Mali.
Outro
If you missed the September Favorites from IGMX readers (and me), you can check out last week’s issue for the full list. As always, the book rec form is open 24/7 for freeform recs of any SFF title you’ve loved, so don’t be shy about dropping a rec in any time. I hope everyone is preparing for the October Favorites rec call!
Have a good weekend. :D