Intergalactic Mixtape #45
Hey!
This week there’s lots of awards discussion. I shared a lot of reviews to the the Nebula finalists so people can see what folks out there think, if you’re into that kind of thing! Plus, immediately after this paragraph, a call to go appreciate the vidders you know.
A-Side
the edit economy
After I read this essay about vidding culture (and the way those cultures diverged both generationally and geographically), I went back and watched vids I bookmarked ages ago that were still there and it was a great time. Highly recommend going back and watching your favorite vids again and commenting anew (if the site allows it). I’ve also enjoyed the short vids folks are making; if you haven’t been victimized by the Drag Path edits, please count yourself very hydrated (because you weren’t sobbing on your couch for five minutes). This is a shiny new source of great writing to me, so if you like reading about fan culture, it’s incredibly good. I have so many essays bookmarked so you’ll be hearing about it again. :D
Hugo voting statistics since 1971
I thought about putting this in B-Side, but instead, no! This is my special interest and I will drag everyone with me. :D LACon V released some stats about nominations, and Nicholas pulled all the data he hoards (complimentary) about the Hugos. I remember how quickly my flabbers were gasted when I first got involved in the Hugo Awards at how few people decided the finalist lists. What do you mean we didn’t break 1000 until 2011? Looking at these charts, yeah, no wonder the white nationalists decided they could game the award and ruin the day of everyone they didn’t like and net themselves Hugo finalist/winner status during the process. Too bad that backfired! Anyway, it is my Professional Opinion as an Official Hugo Fangirl that more nominations are a good thing, not only because they make for better finalist lists and discussion, but because the long lists, released after the awards, become a discovery engine to find cool new things, especially outside the main fiction categories. I won’t rest until people know they can continue to be WSFS members even if they’re not attending and we get an average 2000 nomination ballots per year. (You can judge me a little, but only a little.)
Reviews/Discussions
Agnes Aubert’s Mystical Cat Shelter by Heather Fawcett (Marion Deeds @ FanLit)
The Book of Fallen Leaves by A. S. Tamaki (Nils Shukla @ The Fantasy Hive)
The Book of Fallen Leaves by A. S. Tamaki (Realms of My Mind)
The Book of Fallen Leaves by A. S. Tamaki (Only the Best Fantasy Novels)
Children of Strife by Adrian Tchaikovsky (T. O. Munro @ The Fantasy Hive)
The Curse of the Mistwraith by Janny Wurts — Part 2 (Green Team of the Legendarium Podcast)
Entwined by H. M. Long (Womble @ Runalong the Shelves)
The Forest on the Edge of Time by Jasmin Kirkbride (Niall Harrison @ Locus)
Green Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson (Hugo, Girl! Podcast)
The Library of Fates by Margot Harrison (Alexandra Pierce @ Locus)
The Misheard World by Aliya Whiteley (Roseanna Pendlebury @ Nerds of a Feather)
The Misheard World by Aliya Whiteley (Abigail Nussbaum @ Locus)
Murder by Memory by Olivia Waite (Lara @ Smart Bitches, Trashy Books)
Nobody’s Baby by Olivia Waite (Marlene Harris @ Reading Reality)
Outlaw Planet by M.R. Carey (Tar Vol on)
The Ship Who Sang by Anne McCaffery (Camestros Felapton)
The Rainseekers by Matthew Kressel (Bill Capossere @ FanLit)
The Red Winter by Cameron Sullivan (Cat Treadwell @ The Fantasy Hive)
The Red Winter by Cameron Sullivan (Tammy @ Books, Bones, & Buffy)
Vengeful by V. E. Schwab (Dina @ SFF Book Reviews)
B-Side
Awards season keeping trucking on! The Lambda Awards announced their finalist lists, and there’s a Speculative Fiction category. In a shocking twist, I’ve read a finalist: Volatile Memory by Seth Haddon, which looked at dysmorphia from two different angles in a authoritarian space-faring future. There’s a sequel coming out this year, titled Null Entity.
The big SFF Awards news was the annoucement of the Nebula Awards finalists (here’s a text version from Locus). I delved into my archives, and as per usual they told a story. I hadn’t had Sour Cherry on my radar at all. I immediately went and found a ton of reviews (featured below) and read them all and once I was convinced I discovered my library doesn’t have a copy. The universe is so funny.
When We Were Real by Daryl Gregory: Tar Vol on
The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones: Bonnie @ Red Headed Femme; Tar Vol on; Womble @ Runalong the Shelves
Katabasis by R.F. Kuang: Roseanna Pendlebury @ Nerds of a Feather; Lexi @ NewlyNova; Dina @ SFF Book Reviews; Bonnie @ Red Headed Femme; Narrated Podcast; Gabino Iglesias @ NPR; Gary K. Wolfe @ Locus; Andrew Liptak @ Transfer Orbit; Tar Vol on
Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor: A Meal of Thorns Podcast; Alexandra Pierce @ Randomly, Alex; Tar Vol on
The Incandescent by Emily Tesh: Liz Bourke @ Locus; Molly Templeton @ Reactor; Abigail Nussbaum @ Strange Horizons; Dina @ SFF Book Reviews; Kelly Lasiter @ FanLit; Cheryl Morgan @ Salon Futura; Womble @ Runalong the Shelves
Sour Cherry by Natalia Theodoridou: Roseanna Pendlebury @ Ancillary Review of Books; Gary K. Wolfe @ Locus; Jonathan Thornton @ The Fantasy Hive
Wearing the Lion by John Wiswell: Jenny Hamilton @ Reading the End; Narrated Podcast
Next week: novellas.
As I compiled this, I wondered why it felt like I should have more reviews of Death of the Author and The Buffalo Hunter Hunter. After trawling the IMGX archives and my various social media bookmarks I determined it was because more than half the commentary about those books came from short form videos. I try to keep TikTok links restricted to people I’ve followed for at least two years and now I’m extra dubious given US TikTok is owned by a dude who is slowly buying up all our media companies and likes money and Nazis, in that order. It’s fascinating to me what takes off on the video platforms and what takes off in writing, though. The Nebula and Hugo electorate definitely overlap, so I suspect we’ll see some of these books on the Hugo list. I don’t have any additional insight, but I did spitball some contenders (although I now doubt myself re: Hemlock & Silver). I don’t get too invested in the fiction categories these days, but I’m still hopeful we can revive the fan categories! I have a lot of recs for those, if anyone needs ideas.
In awards discussion and recommendations, Jake Casella Brookins used his blog to write about some of his Hugo recommendations. I like to believe I’m slowly convincing everyone we can reclaim the blog format by interlinking to each other and being supportive even when some of us are still growing as writers. Next up: commenting culture! Disclaimer: he mentions me! I promise I’m not linking to him for that, but it is an honor from one the SFF’s notable critics (more on this in a sec re: Ancillary Review of Books). There was some commentary about the Nebula finalists from Nicholas Whyte, where he sees how the coverage on review sites compares, and Cora Buhlert. The Narrated Podcast went to the Audie Awards and discussed their experience. I admit, I am ready for the Clarke Award Horde (affectionate) to descend when that finalist list drops. Thousands of words of commentary—a dream. And the Ignyte Award is still looking for donations to help administer the award.
Andrew Liptak has another list of March SFF releases; this list reminded me about Trace Elements from Ada Palmer and Jo Walton, which I learned about from Coode Street and promptly forgot. I saw the cover and had to pour one out for the mass market paperback. Book Riot has a list of books to read after watching Sinners. I will never get tired of these lists; they surface new things for me every time. Ancillary Review of Books has prelaunched their Kickstarter as they attempt to become professionals and pay their writers for their work, a worthy goal in these times of book review and criticism crisis. Jake wrote a little about it.
The Coode Street Podcast did a deep dive into Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go; I didn’t read what the episode was about so I was very ??? until I just shrugged and decided, okay, I guess we’re explicating the SFnal failures of this 20 year old novel while I wash these dishes. I listened to Octothorpe #155 for the usual convention news and while doing so, hatched a plan for 2027 that combines a) recs, b) blogs, and c) the Hugo Spreadsheet of Doom. Sword & Laser #530 has their Final Four books and the theme is: UK Women. Y’all got something in the water over there?
In short fiction, Emmie Christie reviewed stories by and interviewed Ramez Yoakeim. Alex Brown has February’s must-read short fiction for February 2026 at Reactor. Womble reviewed PseudoPod and Brian Collins reviewed “The Gostak and the Doshes” by Miles J. Breuer, and tied it to current events (everything old is new again re: war). Otherside, a speculative fiction magazine by and for queer folks, has their first issue out!
The cover of Forged in FIYAH: Celebrating Ten Years of Black Speculative Fiction debuted, and it’s gorgeous. I’m very excited there will be a physical book! The cover for Annalee Newitz’s new book, A Wall is Also a Road, is very pretty, and Andrew Liptak has a bonus interview to go with it. In other author interview/discussions, H.M. Long was on Worldbuilding for Masochists. A. S. Tamaki, author of The Book of Fallen Leaves, was interviewed at The Fantasy Hive. John Chu, author of the upcoming The Subtle Art of Folding Space, was on The Functional Nerds. Ellen Burnett, author of Ex Partum, was interviewed (with a bonus review!) by Myna Chang. Alex Shvartsman, author of The Best of All Possible Planets, was at Nerds of a Feather for their Six Books feature.
If you need more SFF link scrolling, don’t miss Wombling Along.
Art recs: Kingfisher by Aled Thompson; shrimpo by Alex Plante; a lilguy by spacegooose; Stars and Bells by Sita Art; a tiny painting of a tiny cat by Meg Frank; butterflies by grace; rocky landscape by LK
Outro
That’s it for this week! Have a relaxing weekend. :) — Renay