Hey!

It’s Hugo Awards week! I won’t be at Worldcon this year (sob), but I hope everyone attending in person or online has a great time. Good luck to all my fellow Hugo finalists. You can watch online via the LAcon V Youtube channel.

This is a lighter week because I was online less due to (wait for it) reading actual books. My long reading slump is over, thank you Murderbot! What there is: Hugo commentary (because I’m me), reviews, book excerpts, and a few interviews!

A-Side

Lessons From a Heated Media Rivalry
I don’t go here (Heated Rivalry fandom) and I hadn’t read the original article because I was avoiding things that made me sad about genAI (people using it to write fanfic definitely does). But then this article was shared in one of my groups chats and I was like, “Ah, the NYT has done a shenanigan!” I can (sort of) remember when these legacy media outlets did this to blogs constantly. They’re still at it! You can read the original piece that the NYT used for ~inspiration~ or whatever they’re calling this kind of behavior these days, and support Fansplaining.

The Hugo Award for Best Novel Shortlist 2026: Part One & Part Two
This review/analysis of the Best Novel ballot for the 2026 Hugo Award by Nick Hubble was great. They dig into each book but also position the books in our current political moment. I do think there’s something to the idea that English SFF has felt different since the Jemisin years. Not just because Jemisin’s Broken Earth trilogy was meteoric, but because it felt like a shift in how we conceptualize genre divisions, too. We’re obviously in a fantasy moment but it feels as if the lines are blurrier than ever between fantasy and SF as both genres borrow from each other more and more.

Way More Fun Than the Actual Hugos
This episode of Octothorpe is neat, where they all made a slate of Hugo categories and argue for why their categories are the best. There’s category sniping! While listening I was convinced that getting rid of BDP - Short Form wouldn’t be the worst thing. I know somewhere the people who consider the Business Meeting their fandom had a cold chill as soon as this episode went to the cloud, without even listening to it or knowing it exists. From this I also learned that the essay series about Best Related Work by Heather Rose Jones will have a book version.

yo… when jet breaks in the tea shop and accuses zuko and iroh of beinh firebenders…
I’m rediscovering my favorite thing about Tumblr, which is the way its user interface and reblogging tool allows for incredibly fun fan interactions and discussion.

Yeah, I’m going to end up reading The Lord of the Rings.
I loved this so much.

Reviews/Discussions

The Book of Bots by James Patrick Kelly (Michael Swanwick @ Locus)
The Broadview Anthology of Science Fiction edited by Jason Haslam (Timothy S. Miller @ SFRA Review)
Cabaret in Flames by Hache Pueyo (Narrated Podcast)
Children of Strife by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Zorica Lola Jelic @ SFRA Review)
Daggerbound by T. Kingfisher (Becky’s Book Reviews)
The Dragon Has Some Complaints by John Wiswell (Alex Brown @ Reactor)
The End of Everything by M. John Harrison (Stewart Hotston)
Ex Partum by Emma Burnett (Jeff Goldberg @ Foofaraw Press)
Foundling Fathers by Meg Elison (Bonnie @ Red Headed Femme)
The Fox and the Devil by Kiersten White (ilikereadingactually)
Hell's Heart by Alexis Hall (skygiants)
Home Sick by Rhiannon Grist (Womble @ Runalong the Shelves)
Innamorata by Ava Reid (Elias @ Bar Cart Bookshelf)
Jaran by Kate Elliott (Niko’s Book Reviews)
The Last Contract of Isako by Fonda Lee (Martin Cahill @ Reactor)
Luminous by Silvia Park (Ant Jones @ SF Book)
Mortedant’s Peril by RJ Barker (Alexandra Pierce @ Locus)
The Mulai by Munir Hachemi, translated by Julia Sanches (Niall Harrison @ Locus)
Muñeca by Cynthia Gómez (Galen Strickland)
Obstetrix by Naomi Kritzer (Gary K. Wolfe @ Locus)
Preaching to the Choir by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Tar Vol on)
Preaching to the Choir by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Marlene Harris @ Reading Reality)
Preaching to the Choir by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Ronit J @ SFF Insiders)
Precious Children by Mary G. Thompson (Trish Matson @ Skiffy and Fanty)
Spread Me by Sarah Gailey (Shannon Blake Skelton @ SFRA Review)
Teddy Bears Never Die by Cho Yeeun, translated by Sung Ryu (Shannon Fay @ Strange Horizons)
A Viper Among Kings by Sydney Olivia (Dina @ SFF Book Reviews)
The Winter Folk by Jen Julian (Rob B. @ SFF World)

B-Side

There is yet still more Hugo commentary! Although next week all Hugo book reviews will return to A-Side as I begrudgingly transition out of Hugo Awards season. Thank you everyone for indulging me, however, I will still accept your winner reaction essays. Stewart Hotston discussed The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett in the context of empire. That led me to this essay by Eddie Clark about A Drop of Corruption and the political ideas that Bennett is exploring in the series. I’m ready to read A Trade of Blood now that I’m out of Reading Slump Hell and read all the additional thoughts people have! Womble reviewed The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow. Paul Weimer reviewed Shroud by Adrian Tchaikovsky. At Pixelated Geek, Kathryn Adams talked about Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor. Kelsey at The Fancy Hat Lady Reads shared her Best Novella thoughts. The Hugonauts, which is brand new to me (the power of reccing me things!), talked about the Best Novel finalists and shared some other SFF novels they liked from last year. They are correct about Slow Gods. If you see a shadowy figure outside your home, pressing a copy of Slow Gods by Claire North to your window, don’t worry, it’s just me.

There was some Book Promo Discourse I missed, but it resulted in a rec thread from Eddie, which are always a treat. One of my favorite fantasy books from last year, The Witch Roads by Kate Elliott, is out in paperback with its direct sequel, The Nameless Land. Unlike me, you don’t have to wait between books! Over on Instagram, Orbit books did a round up of their August books and a photo carousel for all their upcoming books. Titan shared the cover for Hache Peueyo’s upcoming book, Tyrant in the Cracks.

I’ve collected a lot of microreviews over the last little bit, including The Memory Police by Yōko Ogawa (translator: Stephen Snyder) Hum by Helen Phillips, The Killswitch Protocol by M.J. Kuhn and The Last Contract of Isako by Fonda Lee from BookBorn. Gautam Bhatia discussed Halcyon Years by Alastair Reynolds and Children of Ruin by Adrian Tchaikovsky. At Nerds of a Feather, Eddie Clark reviewed Heaven's Graveyard by Grace Curtis, The Infinite State by Richard Swan and The Demon Star by Jesse Aragon (it’s Eddie’s turn to be the main character of the newsletter). And in the “group reviews that are definitely not a microreview”, Adam Roberts discussed the first four volumes of On The Calculation of Volume by Solvej Balle.

The Unclear and Present Danger podcast did a deep dive into Gattaca. Bouie’s podcast is always great for placing movies in their political/social context. My time has arrived and Backrooms will finally hit streaming. The Green Team of the Legendarium has rebranded to Legendarium GT and did a mid-year check in. Sword and Laser is back with another discussion of This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me by Ilona Andrews.

In short fiction, Tar Vol on discussed stories from Clarkesworld and GigaNotoSaurus, and picked a favorite! A.C. Wise reviewed the May issue of Clarkesworld, with two recs. The Best Science Fiction of the Year: 2025 will be published, restarting the series. Preorders are open at Wyrm Publishing. Alex Brown has their short fiction recs for July 2026 over at Reactor.

Look at all those chickens excerpts. It’s definitely fall book season. Here’s a list so you can pop open any you’d like:
— The Knave and the Moon by Rachel Gillig
— Bodies of Magic by Freya Marske (Chapter 1 is here)
— Of Sorcery and Science by Mike Chen
— The Lost Spectacular by Zoé Duhaime
— Daughter of the Dark by R.J. Valldeperas
— Kiki and the New Magic by Eiko Kadono, translated by Emily Balistrieri

Over at Clarkesworld, Arley Sorg has a longer interview with James Patrick Kelly. Paul Semel has a shorter one. At Whatever, Kelly shared an essay about his collection, The Book of Bots. Last up, Richard Swan, author of The Infinite State, did an interview with Gryftkin. I sincerely did not know this author wrote science fiction at all. Big, “oops, I tripped and fell and made this ultra successful fantasy series and now the space opera readers who should know about me think I only write fantasy” energy (I have learned of my errors at this point).

Don’t miss last week’s Wombling Along for even more SFF links.

Art recs: Spectral Mist by Kristina Gehrmann; Mages Unite by AgzDeGrey; Most beavers prefer trees, but Bradley has a more refined pallet by David Zinn; And today, you probably need this mouse by Thomas S Brown; after the rain by Chloé Stawski; tomat by Jessica Elena; “Calcifer, were you ever a falling star?” by meyo

Outro

Since I mention it a lot here, a quick note. I try not to promote the Hugo Spreadsheet of Doom heavily until November (I don’t always succeed but I try my best), to give the winners time to enjoy their flowers. Bookmark it if it would be helpful, but you can always find a link via my carrd, linked at the bottom of every newsletter. :)

That’s a wrap for this issue. Happy Hugo Week! — Renay

Recent Reading:

(Last) Artificial Condition by Martha Wells
(Now) How to Fake It In Society by KJ Charles
(Next) A Trade of Blood by Robert Jackson Bennett