Hey!

This week there’s lots of lists, a neat Critical Friends episode, a special review section for the winner of the Clarke Award, and a new kitten photo!

A-Side

10 Fantasy Books With The Best Lore (That You Have Never Heard Of)
A reader sent me this link (thank you!) and as soon as I read the title, I said, “Challenge accepted.” Then I read the list and realized I lost. :D The only reason the writer defeated me was because I don’t seek out/read a lot of fantasy by men unless it comes with lots of strong recs from folks I trust. People had to work hard to have me give Robert Jackson Bennett another chance after A City of Stairs, which hilariously, is on this list. It was exciting to see The Steerswoman by Rosemary Kirstein included and reminded me to go rewatch this great vid. There are serious context spoilers if you haven’t read the first book, which you should because it’s great. The first ebook is only $3!

Ebooks Are Coming to Libro!
This isn’t an essay, but a promotional piece about Libro.fm getting ebooks. I get all my audiobooks from Libro.fm because I can download them and save/play them on other devices. This is the most valuable service I use for books. I spend the money and get to keep the digital object! Imagine! Plus, it looks like there will be cool hand off features between ebook/audio. As someone who loves an immersive reading experience, this is about to get dangerously expensive.

Critical Friends Episode 26: On Awards
This episode of Critical Friends was about my Special Interest, so of course I listened to it twice and also read the transcript. Then I put multiple quotes from Dan, Amritesh, and Abigail into my zettalkasten. I’ll want to remember them in the future and I’m finally giving my brain a break trying to remember everything from my special interests at all times. There are some rad quotes, too. The window into how awards work in another countries was especially nice to peek into. It does seem like this time we didn’t all do spaghetti discussion threads on Bluesky, though! There were a reasonable number of quotes, instead. :P

Voting For the Ignyte Awards closes August 16!
I have a soft spot for the Ignyte Awards, as they’re filling a gap in the awards landscape due to how they’re organized and presented. Their mix of large jury, with special attention to YA and middle grade, and then public voting on the shortlist, makes this award really special. They’re capturing something the other popular vote awards like the Hugo and the Locus might miss because of how the shortlists are generated. Anyway, please vote if you can, especially in the down ballot categories.

Reviews/Discussions

The Coffin of Honey by Geoffrey D. Morrison (Ian Mond @ Locus)
A Dance of Burning Blades by M.H. Ayinde (Sia @ Every Book a Doorway)
The Dragon Has Some Complaints by John Wiswell (Narrated Podcast)
The Fifth Elephant by Terry Pratchett (Dina @ SFF Book Reviews)
The Heart of the Nhaga by Lee Young-do, translated by Anton Hur (Nathaniel Harrington)
Hell’s Heart by Alexis Hall (Adrienne Martini @ Locus)
Home Sick by Rhiannon Grist (Sam Tyler @ SF Book)
I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman (Lashaan Balasingam @ Roars & Echoes)
The Inevitable Undoing of Zahara Douglass by Leslye Penelope (Maya C. James @ Locus)
The Inevitable Undoing of Zahara Douglass by Leslye Penelope (Becky’s Book Blog)
Kill All Wizards by Jedediah Berry (Niall Harrison @ Locus)
Kill All Wizards by Jedediah Berry (Paul Weimer @ Nerds of a Feather)
Kill All Wizards by Jedediah Berry (Marion Deeds @ FanLit)
Luminous by Silvia Park (Womble @ Runalong the Shelves)
The Midnight Train by Matt Haig (T.O. Munro @ Fantasy Reviews)
Moon Over Brendle by Jeff Noon (Nileena Sunil @ Strange Horizons)
Multitude by Marie Vibbert (Elias @ Bar Cart Bookshelf)
Outlaw Planet by M.R. Carey (Cheryl Morgan @ Salon Futura)
A Plagued Sea by Kim Bo-Young, translated by Sophie Bowman (Rachel Cordasco @ SF in Translation)
The Sea Hides Its Dead by Megan Bontrager (Rob B. @ SFF World)
Sea of Charms by Sarah Beth Durst (Tammy @ Books, Bones, & Buffy)
Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Jeremy Brett @ SFRA Review)
The Sixth Nik by Daniel Kraus (Martin Cahill @ Reactor)
Trace Elements by Jo Walton and Ada Palmer (Alvaro Zinos-Amaro @ Locus)
A Trade of Blood by Robert Jackson Bennett (Marlene Harris @ Reading Reality)
A Trade of Blood by Robert Jackson Bennett (Only the Best Fantasy Novels)
A Trade of Blood by Robert Jackson Bennett (Tar Vol on)
The Tusks of Extinction by Ray Nayler (Adrián Pla Ángel @ SFRA Review)
What We Are Seeking by Cameron Reed (Cat Fitzpatrick @ Strange Horizons)

B-Side

Dina shared her regular monthly wrap up column, The State of SFF. Jo Walton has her reading list for July 2026 at Reactor. There’s a new edition of Wow! Signal, full of critical writing recs from Casella. Over at Five Books, Adrian Tchaikovsky recced some SF dystopias. Michael Whelan is on Bluesky and did an interview! If you like mass market SFF, you have his art on your shelves. The Rec Center had a collection of time travel recs in their last issue. There’s a 91k fic for The Silmarillion. I love fans so much.

skygiants read and discussed All Hail Chaos by Sarah Rees Brennan and This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me by Ilona Andrews. Come for the fun comparison of isekai tropes, stay for the robust comments. Anushree Nande read and discussed The Radiant Dark by Alexandra Oliva and Ode to the Half-Broken by Suzanne Palmer. I loved Ode to the Half-Broken and once I reread it I’m not going to shut up about it. :D There’s a new episode of Sword & Laser with a discussion of This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me by Ilona Andrews.

When There Are Wolves Again by E.J. Swift won the Clarke Award! The book isn’t out in the U.S. yet (not until 2027), although B&N has an ebook copy as does Kobo. Not sure how long those will last!

Reviews/Discussions:
— Ant Jones @ SF Book Reviews
— Alexandra Pierce @ Randomly, Alex
— Roseanna Pendlebury @ A Reader of Else
— Paul March-Russell @ Strange Horizons
— Jonathan Thornton @ The Fantasy Hive
— Womble @ Runalong the Shelves
— Niall Harrison @ Locus
— Nick Hubble @ Prospective Cultures
— Stewart Hotston @ Nerds of a Feather

If you know of other reviews, hit me up! Niall Harrison collected some Clarke Award takes (he did not guess the winner, but neither did I, as I thought it would be Luminous based on all the commentary I’ve read). I’ve linked to some of them, but he’s got a nice bluesky thread of the ones he’s seen. I’ve been thinking about Abigail noting the Hugo hasn’t been discussing/awarding climate fiction, and I wonder what might be the reason for the shift away. There’s an interesting essay there for someone to write! The new entries for me were an IG story highlight from Tom Atherton, who gives out his own award (I love when people do this) and Womble’s essay about his choice for how to rank the finalists. Over in popular vote land, Camestros Felapton did some analysis of the Dragon Awards, looked at the Dragon Awards in the context of Goodreads stats, and then did a little more analysis, as a treat.

Voting for the Hugo Awards has closed (I read all the novel finalists for the first time in ages; I’ll be riding this high for the remainder of the year!), but there will still be Takes as I catch up on everyone’s thoughts. We get a small break before Post-Award Discourse arrives! While you wait you can add art you’ve liked this year to our spreadsheet! Tar Vol on shared his rankings of of Novella, Novelette, and Short Story. Hugos There did a panel discussion of the Short Story finalists. Dina recapped her Best Series reading and did a final ranking (no, I’m not sorry for encouraging her to fast track the Scalzi books). Andrew Liptak reviewed The Shattering Peace by Scalzi. Marlene Harris reviewed “Laser Eyes Ain't Everything" by Effie Seiberg. At Pixelated Geek, Kathryn reviewed The Incandescent by Emily Tesh. At Literature Science Alliance, Angela goes over the categories she voted in and talks about her rankings. I agree re: the Astounding. It feels very weird that the rules allow an author who has the experience of a large number of books in other genres to be nominated, but it’s been like this the whole time and I’ve never paid much attention because it’s not a critical category for me. I also…agree…with her about the Murderbot Diaries story (please don’t cancel me). It was very cute, but requires so much context from the series for the world building and characterization to work. Anyway, everyone can always read more novelettes. If this year’s crop isn’t big enough yet, there are years worth of novelette recs in the archives.

I’ve been reading excerpts but not sharing them (there’s so much to choose from each week!), but my archive is getting out of hand. So, a robust list to clear out the queue: Moon Over Brendle by Jeff Noon; How to Find a Nameless Fae by A.J. Lancaster; “Neon Moon” by Theodore C. Van Alst Jr.; The Salt King by Natasha Pulley; The Inevitable Undoing of Zahara Douglass by Leslye Penelope; and Wickhills by Premee Mohamed (you could also read this promo graphic to get even more Vibes).

In other “wow, these links ballooned out of my control” news, The Lord of the Rings discussions popped off the last few weeks. I tend to take my time with reading/listening, because again, I have not read these books but do want to understand everyone’s readings. But my speed is not the speed of these folks, who are whipping through the books quick. From Shelved By Genre: The Return of the King Part 2 and Part 3. From Roseanna: III – The Muster of Rohan and IV – The Siege of Gondor. From Abigail: Farewell to Lórien and The Great River, The Breaking of the Fellowship. Nick Hubble has also picked up their 50-year-reread after a short break.

Hit up Wombling Along for even more SFF links!

Outro

It’s been a pretty full week and I haven’t been online as much (art recs will return next week) because we’re in the middle of a heat wave, we have new kittens, I’ve been completing some Overdue Tasks in the ADHD Consequences Mines, and I also became obsessed with finding my old mp3 collection from my previous laptops because I wanted to find one (1) song used in a Final Fantasy VIII fanvid I loved, which has turned into a whole project. Here are the kittens, Cas (black) and Evie (torbie):

And here is one of the songs from the part of the collection I found, from an artist I have no clue how I discovered. :D — Renay