Hey!

Now that award nomination season is over and convention season is starting, maybe we’re all shaking off the cobwebs from our reading hyperfocus. This week felt packed! There’s lots of reviews, a bunch of author interviews, and a ton of various blog projects continuing on with new content. Enjoy!

A-Side

Reading in Stealth, or My Life in Animorphs
In the aftermath of the announcement that there is going to be a new adaptation of Animorphs with Ryan Coogler attached, Cassius Adair wrote this essay I stumbled across on Bluesky. It’s beautifully written. It’s a lovely letter to a series that gave people a way to see themselves.

Some Thoughts on Angel Wrestling
Max Gladstone had some thoughts in reference to the ongoing Andy Weir discussion re: politics in stories. I liked the way Gladstone imagined writing here. I do a lot of “what am I trying to say?” in this very newsletter, when I am brutally editing down A-Side so a) Google doesn’t truncate my issues and most importantly, b) I’m sure I’m willing to stand by an opinion.

Romancing The Genre
In Episode #22 of Critical Friends, Jenny Hamilton and Anushree Nande go on to perform inception so he becomes a romantasy fan share their knowledge about romantasy with Dan Hartland. It’s a great discussion! If you’re prefer to read it rather than listen, there’s also a transcript.

Ancillary Review of Books: Year 7!
The folks at ARB are doing their first Kickstarter to fund their next year. This is the first of several magazines/outlets I’m going to support in 2026. I’m excited to see projects like this asking for community support so they can continue to exist, grow, and keep book commentary alive in our current all-professional-book-coverage-getting-axed hellscape. If billionares and private equity want to buy up all the platforms and ruin them, we can build our own they can’t touch (dear ARB folks, please do not sell your future successful Semiprozine platform to private equity in 2034)!

Reviews/Discussions

An Arcane Inheritance by Kamilah Cole (Maya C. James @ Locus)
Assassin's Fate by Robin Hobb (Clara Cohen @ Nerds of a Feather)
Audiofuturism by andré m. carrington (Sullivan Summer @ Ancillary Review of Books)
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell (A Meal of Thorns Podcast)
Dispelling Fantasies by Joy Sanchez-Taylor (Nick Hubble @ Strange Horizons)
The Geomagician by Jennifer Mandula (Tammy @ Books, Bones, & Buffy)
Hell Bent by Leigh Bardugo (Dina @ SFF Book Reviews)
Hell’s Heart by Alexis Hall (Jenny Hamilton @ Reactor)
The Lighthouse at the End of the World by Philip A. Suggars (Jim Mcleod @ Ginger Nuts of Horror)
Magician by Raymond E. Feist (Hugos There Podcast)
The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick (Hugo History Podcast)
Operation Bounce House by Matt Dinniman (Paul Di Filippo @ Locus)
The Poet Empress by Shen Tao (Anonymous @ Lady Business)
Starter Villain by John Scalzi (Mark Yon @ SFF World)
The Subtle Art of Folding Space by John Chu (Elias @ Bar Cart Bookshelf)
The Subtle Art of Folding Space by John Chu (Narrated Podcast)
The Subtle Art of Folding Space by John Chu (Paul Weimer @ Nerds of a Feather)
There Is No Antimemetics Division by qntm (Galen Strickland)
The Tricky Business of Faerie Bargains by Reena McCarty (Anushree Nande @ Strange Horizons)
The Tricky Business of Faerie Bargains by Reena McCarty (Nils Shukla @ The Fantasy Hive)
What Stalks The Deep by T. Kingfisher (Mylee J. Miller @ SFF Insiders)
What We Are Seeking by Cameron Reed (Trish Matson @ Skiffy and Fanty)
What We Are Seeking by Cameron Reed (Sia @ Every Book a Doorway)

B-Side

The BSFA and Philip K. Dick Awards announced their winners: When There Are Wolves Again by E.J. Swift won the Best Novel for BSFA./ Outlaw Planet by M. R. Carey won the PKD, and Uncertain Sons and Other Stories by Thomas Ha got a special shout out. In case you’re curious what folks said about these books before they won, wow, you’ve come to the right place. :D

• When There Are Wolves Again: Alexandra Pierce; Roseanna Pendlebury; Paul March-Russell; Jonathan Thornton; Womble; Niall Harrison; Nick Hubble

• Outlaw Planet: Trish Matson; Unofficial Hugo Book Club; Paul Di Filippo; Bonnie McDaniel; Cat Treadwell; Tar Vol on

• Uncertain Sons and Other Stories: Tar Vol on; William Shaw; Womble; Vanessa Fogg

Before the BSFA Awards dropped, Nicholas Whyte did some musing over his selections for the award. He had a good night! The bigger news for me is that now When There Are Wolves Again can be had for U.S. readers via ebook at most of the usual places, but I got mine from BN.com because I am Amazon’s enemy. In award-but-not-really news, Eddie Clark posted the next entry in the Queersar Not An Award project, this time for 2021. I’ve read several, but there’s a few I should check out (like the ones on my literal shelves).

The discussion question for this week at Pages Unbound was: how do you define “fantasy”? Recently some of us were discussing science fiction being an arm of fantasy, and the reactions to that thesis were very fun, so it’s been interesting seeing some of the same points crop up in another fandom sphere. At The Rec Center, they’re looking for fic recs on a variety of different themes; I’m most excited about Outsider POV. Ancillary Review of books posted their Wow! Signal collection of critical pieces from around the internet. I have all of these bookmarked and inevitably I never get through one before the next edition is out. There’s so many people writing cool things online, for free!

Via Tar Vol On, r/Fantasy has released their 2026 Bingo card. In Big Milestone news, Civilian Reader is 20 years old?! It’s the blogging equivalent of a great-grandparent. Stewart Hotston did a short recap about Eastercon. As everyone gets home and catches up on sleep, I imagine we’ll get additional con reports, and maybe some panel recaps? That would be exciting. There’s more new book releases for April over at Transfer Orbit. Maureen has a list of middle grade SFF out this month on her blog. Joachim Boaz asked: what pre-1985 SF are folks reading? The comments had a lot of books I had never heard of (needs more women, though).

Camestros Felapton and Bonnie McDaniel both discussed Project Hail Mary. Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler might get a movie (I’m very cynical about properties like this making it all the way to release in our current environment). Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman is headed to Peacock, which seemed inevitable with the popularity of the series. Warner Bros. also announced an animated version of The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune. I have mixed feelings about this. I liked the book when I read it, but my enjoyment was derailed when I learned he used a pretty dark historical moment to anchor his queer cozy fantasy. Another thing I learned after hearing the adaptation news: there are academic papers about this book and how it handled its inspiration (via Diana). People’s ability to engage with this series if it comes to fruition will depend on how they feel about Klune’s choice.

The The Lord of the Rings rereads and discussion continue! Shelved by Genre finished book one and started book two of The Fellowship of the Ring. Abigail Nussbaum is at the halfway point of Fellowship, and she did not like the poetry. If this were LJ or Dreamwidth, I’d put a poll here. Tolkien’s Poetry: Great or Corny?

Over in short fiction, Tar Vol on recced some March favorites in his monthly roundup. Bonnie McDaniel recced some stories from the Jan/Feb edition of Clarkesworld. Womble reviewed Issue #4 of Remains. Emmie Christie shared her March favorites and did a writer spotlight for Daniel Ausema. Poetry isn’t short fiction, but it feels related? Myna Chang shared a guest post from Marisca Pichette with some speculative poetry recs. Sonia Sulaiman shared a huge list of recs for Palestinian speculative fiction, including tons of short fiction. There’s also a Kickstarter for Thyme Travellers 2, for even more Palestinian speculative fiction in the future. They’re really close to their goal! Awhile back, Reactor debuted the cover for Back for Blood: Never Whistle at Night Part II, for those who loved the first collection of indigenous horror, which means you can preorder! A.C. Wise reviewed the December 2025 and January 2026 issues of Clarkesworld and recommended some stories. Maria Haskins did the same for the January issues of GigaNotoSaurus, Diabolical Plots, and Small Wonders.

Women in SF&F Month over at Fantasy Cafe continues with essays from Elaine Ho, author of Cry, Voidbringer; Samantha Mills, author of Rabbit Test and Other Stories; and Shay Kauwe, author of The Killing Spell. John Chu’s new book, The Subtle Art of Folding Space is out, and he’s all over. Paul Semel has an interview, he’s at Clarkesworld for a long form interview with Arley Sorg, The Nerd Daily for a short Q&A, he was on the Turn the Page Podcast, and at Nerds of a Feather for their 6 Books feature. Also at The Nerd Daily: Kritika H. Rao, author of The Rise of the Celestials, has a Q&A. Last year, Myna Chang interviewed Chris Campbell, the editor of the speculative fiction anthology, New Year, New You. I had never heard of this anthology, and this is why talking about books you love is important. :D The Fantasy Hive has three interviews: one with Reena McBride, author of The Tricky Business of Faerie Bargains, one with Jasmin Kirkbride, author of The Forest On The Edge Of Time, and one with Kate Golden, author of Half City.

I read two excerpts: The Killing Spell by Shay Kauwe (out next week) and What We Are Seeking by Cameron Reed (out now). There’s been a lot of buzz about What We Are Seeking, including an entire New Yorker article (full of spoilers! Be careful!) about the author and their work: The Sci-Fi Novelist Who Disappeared for Decades by Stephanie Burt. Very dramatic! Meanwhile, I feel like there has to be more sites out there posting excerpts. Publishing Experts, where are SFF excerpts going besides Reactor, The Nerd Daily, and popular SFF blogs?

For more fun SFF links, check out last week’s Wombling Along.

Art recs: day 8 - autumn by Elio; Mossy by Aled Thompson; Spectacular Skywhale by Serena Malyon; Keep your friends close and your croissants closer by Nimasprout; Ingenious Prodigy by Kim Sokol; guys check out this egg i cracked the other day by Merlin G.G; dancing dragons II by pat; the man made of shadows by Guilherme Nunes; a little stream weaving through a yellow flowery field by Arthur Baron-Clément; tiger-striped dragon by hibbary

Outro

Intergalactic Mixtape’s birthday is coming up soon! It’s wild that I’ll have been doing this for a year in a few short weeks. I’ve had such a great time the last year, learned so many new things, and discovered tons of great books, films, and most importantly, excellent writers. Thanks to all the people making stuff for me to read/rec and to y’all for coming along for the ride. :) — Renay