Hey!
Since there's no non-awkward place to put this, I'll stick it up here. I'm a finalist for the Ignytes in the Ember Award category for unsung contributions to genre. I'm nominated alongside Charles Jane Anders, Nisi Shawl, Indrapramit Das, and Sonia Sulaiman! It feels very surreal, but wow, how wild to be sharing a category with such incredible artists. The Ignytes are always a delight! Please check out the rest of the finalists. RIP our TBRs.
Enough being perceived. Onward to the SFF happenings!
Murderbot Makes Some Awkward Choices in “Rogue War Tracker Infinite”
Alex Brown's recaps continue to be a delight. This episode was the first big departure from the books with the addition of a Deltfall survivor. Brown's take on this episode re: the writing with regard to the sexuality is a good analysis, although they had more problems with it than I did. I found the shuttle scene to be awkward and unnecessary, but didn't get the same level of squick from it. It felt like the writers were trying to make a point about dehumanization and it didn't quite work. What I hated more was the kiss scene, which I found almost unbearable to the point of having to pause/fast forward. I agree with Liz Barr: "From the very first episode, the TV series has both ramped up the sexuality and the prurience, from showing us repeatedly that Murderbot has no genitals to the deeply uncomfortable throuple situation, and now the Leebeebee business."
I wish none of this extra stuff existed! I wish Oversee was a character instead and Pin-Lee wasn't married to Arada and there was no throuple and they had found a creative way to create drama with inventing a new character that exists solely to sexually harass our protagonist. Truly, these are my least favorite parts of the adaption, which is otherwise good. Anyway, Brown's essay unpacks it all more deftly than I can here, so highly recommend.
Strange Horizons 2026
The Kickstarter for Strange Horizons is live. Strange Horizons was my very first nonfiction venue. They paid me real money to write things! I learned a lot and will always be grateful that they found my fannish perspective valuable. It was very niche, after all! But that's something that Strange Horizons does very well. It highlights artists and writers in the margins and it's got a valuable, long term editorial perspective that feels collaborative and responsive. If you can spare a few dollars for their fund drive, I know this writer would appreciate it! And ALSO, if they reach $22,500, they'll do a special fungi issue. Someone's bound to do a rec list for that issue! I want that rec list, friends.
Sexy Sapphic Summer Reading, or, the Pride Month Reading List I Composed After The AI Summer Reading List Debacle
Liz Bourke put together a full rec list, complete with the blurbs, to share, and I quote, "queer women doing queer shit all over the place". I would like to take a moment to remember the times where there were very few mainstream outlets publishing highly supported queer fantasies. I'm pretty sure Liz and I complained about it together back in the Bad Old Days. I wasn’t even around for the Worse Days before that. Good riddance, and I will not miss you. This list is full of recent and upcoming titles, and there's likely something everyone might like.
Antonia Hodgson on Introducing the World to The Raven Scholar, Crafting Her Unique Heroine, and More
(Spoilers for The Raven Scholar) I finished The Raven Scholar and have since decided to go on a campaign to make everyone who reads fantasy (and some people who don't) try it. This interview is in-depth and long, and gives us a glimpse of how Hodgson built this world. Warning for the unfortunate HP jump scare, though. (Please can we let that series go? I'm begging.) What pleased me the most was the preview of book two and the assurance that it's in progress and that we won't have to wait that long for it. I want something that’s not “burn out the author” but more reasonable than “The Winds of Winter is coming soon”. If you aren't too concerned about massive spoilers from the first three chapters, Paste shared an excerpt a few months ago.
The Nebulas: 2025
The Nebulas were last weekend, and Locus has a list of the winners. This means that Wiswell now only needs to defeat Kingfisher's Hugo Darling status to likely take home a Hugo, unless the Tchaikovsky fans can come together and not split their votes (the down side of accepting two nominations). And hey, I still think The Tainted Cup might be a sleeper hit, so the genAI bro could still take it home!
My Hugo 2025 Best Novel rankings
Camestros Felapton walks through his Hugo ballot ranking. I've made zero progress on novel. After reading this I agree with part of this post; last year it felt like the excellent books on the short list captured a high that none of this year's finalists managed hype-wise. I'm still pretty excited to read Some Desperate Glory (I'm just being a wimp about the hard bits), and I'm at the point where if I had the money I would be at "leave a copy of The Saint of Bright Doors in every little free library I can find" levels of advocacy. Anyway, it's fun seeing how and why people are ranking the finalists. Even though Someone You Can Build a Nest In won the Nebula, it's so popular that people might have already read it. They could still have time to find something else on the Hugo finalist list they like better.
The Hugo Awards (2026)
As we run out of time for consideration and voting for the awards this year (the deadline for voting is Wednesday, July 23. 11:59PM PDT), don’t forget to stop by and put the 2025 media you’re enjoying in the Hugo Spreadsheet of Doom. This way in January 2026 you can check back in and find all those things you may have forgotten that are now eligible. This has been your mid-June reminder. See you in July for another one. :)
A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett (Jake Casella Brookins @ Locus)
A Song of Legends Lost by M.H. Ayinde (Tar Vol on)
A Song of Legends Lost by M.H. Ayinde (Krystal Lang)
Alien Clay by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Roseanna @ A Reader of Else)
Alien Clay by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Abigail Nussbaum @ Asking the Wrong Questions)
Bee Speaker by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Unofficial Hugo Book Club Blog)
Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V.E. Schwab (Rachel Friars @ The Lesbrary)
Bury Our Bones In the Midnight Soil by V.E. Schwab (Lacy Baugher Milas @ Paste)
Crueler Mercies by Maren Chase (Shay)
Eat the Ones You Love by Sarah Maria Griffin (Matthew Eatough @ The Ancillary Review of Books)
The Feast Makers by H. A. Clarke (Dina @ SFF Book Reviews)
Point of Hearts by Melissa Scott (Liz Bourke @ Locus)
So Let Them Burn by Kamilah Cole (Dina @ SFF Book Reviews)
The Starving Saints by Caitlin Starling (Jenny Hamilton @ Reactor)
The Two Lies of Faven Sythe by Megan E. O'Keefe (Ladybug Books)
The Witch Roads by Kate Elliott (Rob Bedford @ SFF World)
StoryBundle has a Pride collection full of lots of SFF titles. The cover and TOC for FIYAH #35 came across my feed again and is still very cool. At Largehearted Boy, V.E. Schwab shared a playlist of music for her recent release, Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil. Time released their Best Books of 2025 so far and while there's nothing explicitly genre, My Documents by Kevin Nguyen comes close. It also feels pretty timely. Also, if someone reads Sky Daddy, please tell me how wild it is. Book Riot dropped a list of 6 New Sci-Fi/Fantasy Collections and Anthologies, which reminded me of the days where we got anthologies like Robots Versus Fairies or The Djinn Falls in Love…days with more optimism for the future of publishing.
The June 2025 Stitch & Bitch live show was last week. No, I didn't speak anything dire into the universe via the live chat. I would never. Octothorpe #136 is out, full of convention talk. Liz recced The Incandescent, furthering my belief that we have a Hugo contender on our hands. Narrated Podcast covered the Hugo Best Novella finalists and also the Best Novel finalists. Joe Sherry continues his October Daye reread with A Killing Frost (spoilers, ahoy). This essay about SecUnit's lack of stability and how that comes through in the first arc is so good. The fandom habits of SecUnit and ART (this is now my official headcanon). "Murderbot is such a neurodivergent power fantasy." This Avatar:TLA episode sketch plus accompanying art...tonally perfect.
I wish I could be excited about Mass Effect getting a show, but all I really want is a sequel to Andromeda. Also, I just know they're going to make Shep male, because gestures to everything. This full Ironheart trailer is awfully tempting...but I'll wait and see what Black critics say before I let Disney lure me back in. Ambrosia Sky is like if you played Power Wash Simulator in space but there was a...space mushroom infestation? The art style looks wicked. Capy Castaway is a puzzler that looks adorable. Herdling is a wordless adventure (it gives me big Journey vibes) about traveling with a herd of mysterious beasts. Fading Echo has a character that turns into water and beats ass with this skill. Spectacular, give me 14 of them right now.
Incredible Lego and Meme engineering. Cat “causing some small misalignments in the universe”. Bador and Moku from The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport! Pretty Kingdom Hearts art, featuring Sora and the ocean. Space dragon. Flowers and snails. Strawberry season. Jellyfish dragon.
We're officially in Summer Release season! While I'm keeping my eye on things, my June TBR is more diverse. It also keeps changing because people will mention a book and I go, "oooh, I should read that!" ADHD is hell on reading lists.
I also posted my non-spoiler review of The Witch Roads by Kate Elliott. If you're looking for a walking road trip featuring a 30-something woman, some deadly fungal encounters, and a little possession, this may be up your alley.
Thanks to everyone who sent me the books they’re excited about for June or that they’re currently reading. Truly, TBR building is a totally different hobby than reading books, just like buying books is a different hobby than reading.
Have a great weekend!