Hey!

I’m dragging my way through February with the power of rereads. Latest: the Finder Chronicles by Suzanne Palmer. The series doesn’t end on a cliffhanger per se, but there are mysteries remaining I wanted more books to explore. WHEN I CATCH YOU, DAW BOOKS.

This week has several reviews/discussions of older books, lots of author interviews, and compiling it raised the question: we have lots of Hugo Award themed podcasts, but no dedicated podcasts for the other awards, unless I’ve missed them somehow. Is it because the Hugos aren’t juried? Not me staring at certain individuals who love the Clarke Award/Le Guin Prize pointedly.

A-Side

Another Hugo nomination-time thread
The nomination threads are flying around everywhere, but this one stood out to me because Roseanna talks about novellas published outside of Tor. Very easily, my novella reading before nominations close has not only maxed out, but likely exceded what I can manage. Not that I think my measly vote will keep Tor from sweeping the category! The Hugos reflect where the majority of WSFS members are reading novellas, and WSFS members are mostly reading Tor, due to habit or marketing budget or the authors Tor chooses to invest in. I bought one of the novellas Roseanna mentions last year (The Death of Mountains), I have all the Lowachee novellas, and I’m very tempted by The Creator by Aliya Whiteley. My novella ballot is very empty, so I’m curious where it will end up.

Romance Roundup (Feb 26)
KJ Charles is starting a review round up of romance novels. I suspect there will be a lot of fantasy mixed in whenever she does, so romantasy fans, take note (yes, there is an RSS feed!). More importantly, it was here I learned that Goodreads is closing its review system and not allowing people to link directly to reviews anymore without forcing people to log in. And lo, my plea is renewed: stopped trusting third party social media with your creative review content (yes, even Storygraph, which I like). Much like when Twitter and Facebook started suppressing external links, the goal is to lock you into one platform so you can’t leave. Solution: start a blog on a platform that will allow you to download your archives and dip when things get bad! Discovery is harder, but over the last decade we let these companies consolidate us into these silos and then slowly chip away at the freedoms of those platforms which…made discovery harder. If you have a blog you can link to it whenever you want! It will persist! Blogs are great.

Space Opers Rec Thread
Molly Templeton did a call for recs. Of course Ann Leckie featured heavily, because we live in the time of a Legend. One series I didn’t see mentioned was The Divide by J.S. Dewes; I loved the first two books. And they wouldn’t be mentioned because they’re older middle grade titles, but Philip Reeve’s Larklight series was great fun, as well as Mars Evacuees by Sophia McDougall, for those willing to slip down a few reading levels to have a blast. For shorter fiction, Edge of Infinity, edited by Jonathan Strahan, was great, and I wish someone would give him the money to do another short fiction space opera collection.

Reviews/Discussions

A Canticle for Leibowitz by Robert M. Miller (Hugo History Podcast)
A Canticle for Leibowitz by Robert M. Miller (Classic SF with Andy Johnson)
City of Others by Jared Poon (Narrated Podcast)
The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin (Fiction Fans Podcast)
The Elsewhere Express by Samantha Sotto Yambao (Beth & Nils @ The Fantasy Hive)
The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow (Tar Vol on)
The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow (Cheryl Morgan @ Salon Futura)
The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow (Grady Shelton @ SFF Insiders)
The Essential Patricia A. McKillip by Patricia A. McKillip (Roy Salzman-Cohen @ Strange Horizons)
A Forest, Darkly by A.G. Slatter (Womble @ Runalong the Shelves)
A Forest, Darkly by A.G. Slatter (Tammy @ Books, Bones, & Buffy)
The Forest On The Edge Of Time by Jasmin Kirkbride (Bill Capossere @ FanLit)
Paladin of Souls by Lois McMaster Bujold (A Meal of Thorns Podcast)
A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers (Elizabeth Bush-Peel @ Strange Horizons)
The Red Winter by Cameron Sullivan (LiteraturelyLou)
The Red Winter by Cameron Sullivan (Only the Best Fantasy Novels)
The Red Winter by Cameron Sullivan (Realms of my Mind)
The Red Winter by Cameron Sullivan (Rob B. @ SFFWorld)
The Red Winter by Cameron Sullivan (Elias @ Bar Cart Bookshelf)
The Shipwright and the Shroudweaver by Rafael Torrubia (Niall Harrison)
Silver and Blood by Jessie Mihalik (Liz Bourke @ a garden from the libraries)
Slow Gods by Claire North (Ian J. Simpson @ Strange Horizons)
The Universe Box by Michael Swanwick (Trish Matson @ Skiffy and Fanty)
The Universe Box by Michael Swanwick (Gary K. Wolfe @ Locus)

B-Side

At SF in Translation, Rachel Cordasco talks about the discovery of translated speculative fiction and does a short history of translated fiction coverage in our corner of the SFF internet. At Transfer Orbit, there’s another list of February 2026 SFF titles. There’s apparently going to be book out from Titan Books, Event Horizon: The Making of the Classic Film, all about the greatest space horror of 1997. As a hardcore Event Horizon fan, I’m in. Kristen at Fantasy Cafe continued her rec series with the Ashland Public Library. This year she’ll be focusing on fantasy titles (fantasy is ascendent, news at 11). The first video is available on Youtube and you can learn more and register for future streams via Kristen’s announcement.

It’s fully awards season now! The Bram Stoker nominees were announced. I sort of cover horror in IGMX, but not thoroughly, because I’m a big wimp. There are a ton of categories to look over if you’re into horror. Via Paul Weimer, The Aurealis Awards were given out and as always, this award is a great overview of a market U.S. SFF readers aren’t as exposed to. Wole Talabi looked at the 2025 Locus Recommended Reading List for what percentage of the books were by African authors. There are charts!

One award I’ve gotten more interested in over the years is the Compton Crook, which recognizes the best debut SFF/H novel of the year. They announced their finalist list, and I immediately put on my archivist hat and dug out reviews I’ve read about the books where I had them:

• A Song of Legends Lost by M.H. Ayinde: Tar Vol on; Paul Weimer @ Nerds of a Feather; Rob B. @ SFF World; The Book Wyrms Hoard

• Sleeping Worlds Have No Memory by Yaroslav Barsukov

• All the Water in the World by Eiren Caffall

• The Book of Lost Hours by Hayley Gelfuso

• The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson: Molly Templeton @ Reactor; Bill Capossere @ Strange Horizons; Elias @ Bar Cart Bookshelf; Paul Weimer @ Nerds of a Feather; Stewart Hotston; Narrated Podcast; Tar Vol on; Jo’s Book Blog; Dina @ SFF Book Reviews

• Splinter Effect by Andrew Ludington

As always, I’m intrigued by which books I don’t have any reviews for. A combo of the titles being niche and me still rebuilding my feeds? Often, these award lists are the first time I’ve heard of these books, which is true for The Book of Lost Hours and Splinter Effect.

In short fiction happenings, Alex Brown has their January 2026 recommended reading list in short fiction. SFF Remembrance has a review of “Daughter” by Philip José Farmer. Emmie Christie did a profile of several stories from Elijah J. Mears, with a bonus interview. I really like this format for showcasing short fiction authors and their works. Over at the Unofficial Hugo Book Club Blog, there’s an essay making the case for a Hugo Award nod for On Spec Magazine, which ended last year and has never received industry recognition due to a noisy, crowded field. At Reactor, Sam Reader did a rec list for some short, but weird, collections. Bogi Takács finished eir list of favorite anthologies and collections from 2025; Bogi is deep into the indie short fiction scene, so definitely check that out.

At Nerd Daily, there are interviews with Cameron Sullivan, author of The Red Winter and Kate Golden, author of Half City. Michael Swanwick, author of The Universe Box, was on the Coode Street Podcast. Swanwick was also over at Fantasy Cafe with a guest post, with bonus giveaway. Myna Chang did an interview with A.D. Sui, author of The Iron Garden Sutra, and paired it with a review of the book.

A.C. Wise, author of The Ghost Sequences, was over at Nerds of a Feather for their Six Books column. At Whatever, there are two Big Idea columns from Gideon Marcus and R.Z. Nicolet. Scalzi also has his own announcement, with the debut of the cover of his next book, Monsters of Ohio. At Reactor, they have the cover reveal for The Unhaunting by Micaiah Johnson (I will follow her anywhere, even into haunted house stories).

For more excellent SFF links (and more), don’t forget to check out Wombling Along.

Art recs: Fox sketch by Vantid Art, Kaiju chillout by Graham Annable, the Lovers series by parker parrella, Crocus by citrus sapling, Creatures from the deepest sea by Marie Enger, No worries if not by Ida Olson, pigeon by Maggie Tokuda-Hall, cat concert by Sarah Graley, Xena fanart by Bertoni, happy horse year by Nynne, Transparent by maru, cats in onesies by Beth W, cat lurking in empty tuna can by Mali

Outro

I finally got to see Predator: Badlands (thank you, public library) and I loved it, but then again I love most things that are like, “extractive capitalism is the real baddie.”

That’s it for this week! Have a good weekend. — Renay