Hey!

This week there’s big award news, lots of reviews of highly anticipated books, several Kickstarters for short fiction, and I caught up on the Tolkien Rereads. I realized I don’t own The Lord of the Rings films, which is a critical oversight that I plan to address ASAP.

A-Side

Short Fiction Book Club: Season 4 Awards
The Short Fiction Book Club over at r/Fantasy on Reddit released their selections for some of the best stories. I love fan projects that highlight stories like this, even if it’s dangerous for reading lists. There’s so much great stuff published every year, yet our time on Earth is finite. The commentary on why each story was chosen was great. I love you, SFBC fans.

It’s Time to Get Loud About the Books You Love
The award season continues, and with it, conversations about snubs, categories full of the same publisher, and unread short lists that we’re still looking at, wondering how the books will compare (and more!). As I was reading the Short Fiction Book Club announcement, I was reminded of this essay by Molly Templeton, and how regular readers can change the course of a story/book’s life and the whole ecosystem around that book (libraries, bookstores, social media buzz; Bigolas Dickolas, I salute you). Like Molly, I have complicated feelings about the unpaid labor publishers are asking participants in the market to do, but that’s a whole other rant. Talking about and engaging with stories we love is critical practice, now more than ever.

17776
In a development that surprised me, new people are discovering 17776, or What Football Will Look Like in the Future by Jon Bois. It’s about humans being immortal, sentient space probes, football, and life, with a lot of humor and rules lawyering. There’s a sequel, 20020, and Tor bought a book in this universe, titled 50007: An American Football Odyssey. I have no clue how that’s going to work, but I know the preorders for it are going to be off the charts. I love watching new people discover this series because the multimedia aspect is so fun. Weird, creative stuff like this is what the internet is for.

Reviews/Discussions

Bloodtide by Sophie Burnham (Liz Bourke @ Locus)
Cabaret in Flames by Hache Pueyo (Jenny Hamilton @ Reactor)
The Cellar Below the Cellar by Ivy Grimes (A.C. Wise)
Children of Strife by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Camestros Felapton)
Children of Strife by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Paul Di Filippo @ Locus)
The Chosen and the Beautiful by Nghi Vo (Dina @ SFF Book Reviews
Event Horizon by Balsam Karam, translated by Saskia Vogel (Niall Harrison @ Locus)
The Everlasting by Alix Harrow (Paul Weimer @ Skiffy and Fanty)
Every Galaxy a Circle by Chloe N. Clark (Gabino Iglesias @ Locus)
The Faith of Beasts by James S.A. Corey (Into the Volcano)
The Faith of Beasts by James S.A. Corey (Trish Matson @ Skiffy and Fanty)
The Faith of Beasts by James S.A. Corey (Tar Vol on)
The Faith of Beasts by James S. A. Corey (Bill Capossere @ Strange Horizons)
If We Cannot Go at the Speed of Light by Kim Choyeop, translated by Anton Hur (Rachel Cordasco @ SF in Translation)
One Message Remains: Stories by Premee Mohamed (Libby Langhorn @ Sower)
The Potency of Ungovernable Impulses by Malka Older (Safia H. Senhaji @ Strange Horizons)
Seasons of Glass and Iron: Stories by Amal El-Mohtar (Narrated Podcast)
Seasons of Glass and Iron: Stories by Amal El-Mohtar (Marlene Harris @ Reading Reality)
A Song of Legends Lost by M. H. Ayinde (Sia @ Every Book a Doorway)
The Subtle Art of Folding Space by John Chu (Galen Strickland)
This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me by Ilona Andrews (Rob B. @ SFF World)
When There Are Wolves Again by E.J. Swift (Stewart Hotston @ Nerds of a Feather)
Year of The Mer by L.D. Lewis (Womble @ Runalong the Shelves

B-Side

The Locus Awards Top Ten dropped this week. My main takeaways: 1) Notes from a Regicide! The Raven Scholar!; 2) I was not powerful enough to convince people to read and write in The Witch Roads, but that’s fine, it will be a winner in my heart; 3) other novella publishers exist; 4) the First Novels category is incredibly interesting this year; 5) all the YA finalists are YA novels, an incredible feat; 6) the only Nebula finalist that’s not here is Wearing the Lion by John Wiswell, and my brain is percolating over what that will mean for the Hugos, which will be announced on Tuesday, April 21. Will my vigorous campaign for the books I love or my predictions bear fruit?

The Book of Lost Hours by Hayley Gelfuso won the Compton Crook Award for best first SF/fantasy/horror novel. I first heard about The Book of Lost Hours from this short list. Folks who like historical fantasy, weird libraries, and time shenanigans might want to check it out. The Lighthouse at the Edge of the World by J.R. Dawson won the 2026 Adult Fiction Award for the Society of Midland Authors. I read a few reviews of this book last year from Dee Holloway, Liz Bourke, and T.O. Munro.

Wm Henry Morris used some data from Casella to look at the overlap between the World Fantasy and Clarke Award. It’s fascinating that the overlap fell off when the mixing of the two genres feels stronger than ever. I also watched Angela’s video on what she nominated for the Hugos, because I never get tired of hearing what and why people chose the things they did. I added “Never Eaten Vegetables” by H.H. Pak to my short fiction reading list because of the high praise!

On Bluesky, Christina Orlando asked folks who their auto-buy authors are and there are so many recs in the replies and the quotes. Mine are N.K. Jemisin, Kate Elliott, Martha Wells, S.L. Huang, and Suzanne Palmer. It could be more but I’m trying to control myself re: preorders (book buying got out of hand in 2024/2025) and use my library more. An alternate question could be: which authors would you fight for a number one hold list spot for? At Pages Unbound, the discussion question this week was, “Do you prefer low or high fantasy? Or both?” It’s been so long since I thought of fantasy in this way, because specific subgenres have taken over as the main way to distingush which type of fantasy we’re reading in my corners. For example, I wouldn’t call the October Daye series low fantasy, I would call it urban fantasy, even though it’s set in our world. I could write a whole essay about how it’s also epic fantasy, but now’s not the time. :D

Goodreads shared 100 recs of long books, and there are a lot of SFF/SFF-adjacent options. C.L. Clarke shared some books they’re looking forward to this year. I had heard of The Felicity Complex by august clarke, maybe when it was announced, but hadn’t seen a blurb yet. Authors putting their own books in these lists is a very cute way to show excitement. Let’s continue!

In short fiction developments, Anathema: Spec from the Margins is relaunching and has a Kickstarter to support. There’s a new issue of Baffling Magazine. The Year's Best Canadian Fantasy and Science Fiction: Volume 4 is funded on Kickstarter, but they’re still reaching for some stretch goals. The ebook option is pretty reasonable! Vanessa Fogg has a list of short fiction recs for the last few months. I forgot to share the latest issue of THE WYRMHOLE last time, which has a bunch of short fiction recs and a surprise interview with Isabel J. Kim. If you love short fiction recs, you can also subscribe to the HOLE while at the same time helping me with my referal goals so I can be declared #1 WYRMHOLE FAN.

Merc Fenn Wolfmoor is launching an anthology for found footage. This sounds extremely cool and it comes with recs. I’m definitely in the mood for more of this, as I quickly got addicted to a series of short videos with the premise, “What if you’re stuck in the backrooms but you’re mostly chill about it and good at making friends?” Compare that with the professional trailer for Backrooms. Way different vibes, but similar quality. Incredible. One day someone is going to write a banger essay about late-stage capitalism and the rise of backrooms/liminal space fiction.

I’m behind on Roseanna’s Small Press Dispatch column, but I immediately added The Sheltering Flame by Ruthanna Emrys to my TBR after reading this review/essay. She also published the next entry in her readalong recap of The Two Towers. Thanks for the imagery of orcs having sex, Roseanna! Appreciate you! Shelved by Genre read and discussed Book Two of The Fellowship of the Ring, chapters three through seven. This podcast is so tonally different than the other essay versions, but it’s extremely fun. Nick Hubble continued his reread back in March in an entry I somehow missed when it was published. There’s some fun analysis of Strider/Aragorn from the adventures in Bree.

Sword & Laser dropped episode #531, where they finished up their discussion of Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz (spoilers) and launched the discussion of their next book, The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson (no spoilers). Apparently, their tournament-style decision was a very close race between The Raven Scholar and Slow Gods by Claire North, so they might already have their next discussion book chosen. Octothorpe dropped episode #157, which is their Eastercon liveshow, and it is appropriately chaotic.

I read a few excerpts this week: Make Me Better by Sarah Gailey, Deathly Fates by Tesia Tsai, and the one I saw the most buzz for, The Tapestry of Fate by Shannon Chakraborty. Jo Walton shared her reading list for March 2026 and I agree with her that Kate Elliott’s Court of Fives YA trilogy is a good introduction to her work. Women in SF&F Month is ongoing, and there have been more great essays from Veronica G. Henry, Cheryl S. Ntumy, and E.J. Swift.

Ai Jiang was on SFF Addicts to talk about her book, A River from the Sky. At Lightspeed, there are interviews with J.R. Dawson and V.M. Ayala. Paul Semel has an interview with Cameron Reed, author of What We Are Seeking. Molly Tanzer, author of And Side by Side They Wander, dropped in on episode #699 of the Functional Nerds Podcast. P.A. Cornell, author of Shoeshine Boy & Cigarette Girl, was on The Halfling and the Spaceman.

For additional fun SFF links (and more!) check out Wombling Along.

Art recs: A mossy friend by MossyPine; Orion splashing down by Dr. Laci Brock; Cherry blossom isopod by pikaole; Sophie and Howl by Devin Elle Kurtz; Sakura Moon by Erin Hanson; cat-like creature by Mali; Just a little guy by KikiDoodle; The Roc's Tower by shafer brown; Rainbow Dash by JLMeyer; Bodega Worm by Zuccnini; microraptor by Mx. Morgan; a green guy by rat wednesday.

Outro

That’s it for this week! I’ll surely see some of y’all on the social medias for the Hugo Award finalist announcements/excitement on Tuesday. — Renay