Hey!

This week I read essays about robots, reading, and…book marketing (I was also surprised). It’s Q3 book season, which means there are many reviews, plus a special review section to celebrate a buzzy new release (it worked; I’m excited).

A-Side

Critical Friends Episode 27: Pop Fiction
On the latest episode of Critical Friends, or their potential new name/subtitle under a rebrand, Tragic Middlebrow Tendency, they discuss popular fiction and what counts as existing in the category. They talk about new Anne Rice vampire show a bunch to anchor their thoughts. I especially liked the example of Jeff VanderMeer, because he wrote a book series (The Southern Reach), the first book was made into a movie with a very specific soundtrack, and now sounds from that soundtrack are a deeply ingrained part of short video culture around creepypasta. That’s how I think about popular fiction: its impact on wider culture, where that impact doesn’t always have to be 1:1 between the original source text and society at large. What makes things sticky is their malleability. Their point about how popular fiction is often in response to societal anxiety also seems relevant based on the response to things like Dungeon Crawler Carl. Sometimes it doesn’t matter how awkward something is in its portrayal if it’s capturing how a majority of the public is feeling.

The Comedy of Science
One of my Special Interests is robots. Many people will have come to the theme via the well-outlined path in this essay by James Patrick Kelly in Speculative Insight. My path was different, featuring robots and machine intelligences already inspired by the stories that had come before in the form of cartoons and Star Wars/Star Trek, so it was neat to follow the literary path and see just how…behind…I am on all the robot fiction of the 20th century. It’s a great reading list, though! :D

What I remember from the last 1,000 books I read
Nathan Shuherk is one of my favorite nonfiction reviewers; I’ve followed him for several years now and he’s the reason my nonfiction bookshelves (both physical and digital) are packed. I liked this essay he wrote to mark a reading milestone. Nathan doesn’t talk explicitly about the annual drama in short form video review spaces, where people, for some reason, lose their minds over people who read a lot. They claim that if we can’t remember everything we’ve read, we’re not really reading and it doesn’t count. This continues to be a very perplexing argument every time it crops up. He roots reading in a way I deeply appreciate: “My library is the place where my mind moves slowly. I pick up the books off my shelf not because I will learn about the subject, but because I will think about the subject.”

Is Trope Marketing Ruining Literature?
I remember when using AO3 tags to market books was a cute thing authors who were also in fandom were doing. Then the publishers decided to use it, as well, and it all devolved from there and now we live here where this type of marketing feels shallow and uninspired. I’m coming down on the side of tropes in this debate, though, because sometimes I do want to eat three cupcakes that are all the same flavor, but I want the crumb on each cake to be well-baked, and that depends on each baker and the quality of their oven. The trope being in the batter will not save a book if the cupcake is burnt! I lost where I was going with the metaphor and now I want cupcakes.

Director: hey guys did you finish the sequence introducing the pollution monster?
Animators and Tim Curry: sure did boss, real fuckin sexy just like you asked
Director: what
It’s been a sad time with celebrity deaths recently. With many of these losses, though, comes a reminder that many of these people left excellent creative legacies behind for us to enjoy. Bonus: sometimes they were delightfully weird.

Reviews/Discussions

An Accident of Dragons by Cheri Radke (Liz Bourke)
And Side by Side They Wander by Molly Tanzer (E.M. Morrissey @ Vespertine Dispatch)
The Dungeon Book by Gareth Hanrahan (Eddie Clark @ Nerds of a Feather)
Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman (Marines)
Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman (Ant Jones @ SF Book)
Engines of Reason by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Marlene Harris @ Reading Reality)
The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow (Science Fiction Book Review Podcast)
Fortune’s Wake by C.L. Clark (Elias @ Bar Cart Bookshelf)
Fortune's Wake by C. L. Clark (Joey @ SFF Insiders)
The Felicity Complex by august clarke (Abigail Nussbaum @ Locus)
The Felicity Complex by august clarke (Raf Blutaxt)
Green City Wars by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Gautam Bhatia)
Halcyon Years by Alastair Reynolds (Cheryl Morgan @ Salon Futura)
The Icarus Coda by Timothy Zahn (Electra Pritchett @ Strange Horizons)
Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny (Dina @ SFF Book Reviews)
Massif by Garth Nix (Alexandra Pierce @ Locus)
Massif by Garth Nix (Narrated Podcast)
On The Calculation of Volume Book II by Solvej Balle, translated by Barbara J. Haveland (Stewart Hotston)
The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson (Womble @ Runalong the Shelves)
Slow Burn by Amal Singh (Tar Vol on)
Song for the Basilisk by Patricia McKillip (skygiants)
The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez (Esmay Rosalyne @ Grimdark Magazine)
Spread Me by Sarah Gailey (Clara Cohen @ Nerds of a Feather)
The Subtle Art of Folding Space by John Chu (Alex Kingsley @ Strange Horizons)
Testament of Leaves by Carolyn Ives Gilman (Paul Di Filippo @ Locus)
Time Travel for Beginners by Jaclyn Moriarty (Gary K. Wolfe @ Locus)
Valet by J.P. Lacrampe (Ian Mond @ Locus)

B-Side

This week, one of the big releases is Wickills by Premee Mohamed. I’ve read one book by Mohamed, The Siege of Burning Grass, which was a super readable book about war, pacifism, and disability that was deeply weird (see: the author’s whole vibe). For a short description of the book, the author has you covered or you can read an excerpt at Reactor. I caught a few interviews with Mohamed at various Online Locales: Hyperspace of Words, the Hugo History podcast where she also discussed Little, Big by John Crowley; and with Gryftkin on Youtube.

Reviews/Discussions:
— Alexandra Pierce @ Randomly Alex
— Christine D. Baker @ Nerds of a Feather
— Sia @ Every Book a Doorway
— Trish Matson @ Skiffy & Fanty
— Marlene Harris @ Reading Reality
— J.L.R @ Terra Somnī

In “unhinged things I got into this week” Coyote vs. Acme dropped and people immediately started shipping. I watched two videos and then ended up down the new RoadRage (their name, not mine) ship abyss and got attached to several edits and short vids of the film (obviously, big spoilers). TikTok is very ephemeral so who knows if these will be live for long, but this reminded me how much I love fans. They’re so great.

In awards, the Eugie Award was given. This is a memorial award for short fiction and Locus has the winner and finalists. The winner will be a familiar name if you follow IGMX for the short fiction reviews I read: A.C. Wise is a prolific reviewer. The Dragon Awards were held, and Camestros Felapton has the list of winners as well as some context around them. Cora Buhlert also went category-by-category over the winners. The Le Guin Prize announcement approaches, but until then, the finalists are still sharing things about their work, including Bora Chung for Midnight Timetable and Isaac Fellman for Notes from a Regicide (bonus reading!). Dina at SFF Book Reviews discussed the Hugo Award winners, and it’s always so much fun to watch people’s top picks for a category win.

Over at Ancillary Review of Books, the Wow! Signal column is out for September. Strange Horizons is shuffling their Reviews department and adding coverage for Vintage SFF. This is especially exciting for me, Person Who Loves to Read Book Reviews. In a frustrating development for me and my haphazard newsletter collection methods, THE LODESTAR (the newsletter for the recently relaunched STARLOG magazine) was going to the wrong email folder. However, I’ve fixed it and can now share Issue #11 (and all future issues, hopefully) with you!

If you like to keep an eye on middle grade SFF, my pal Maureen has a list of August releases. Grimdark Magazine rounded up all the 2026 dark fantasy releases of note (although there’s at least one 2025 release, so check your dates if doing a reading challenge!). ATTN all The Works of Vermin fans: your bestie made the list. Yes, I am still a coward. :D DAW Books shared a list of their books out for Q3 Book Season for pre-order. On Instagram, Tor Books shared a photo slide of their September releases, along with Saga Press. Book Riot shared a list of their anticipated horror books out in September.

In short fiction, Three-Lobed Burning Eye Magazine launched a Kickstarter for their 2027 issues. Shousetsu Bang*Bang announced their themes and dates for next year. If you like queer fiction (not always SFF, but sometimes!), you may like their issues and they have huge back lists to explore. At Locus, Maria Haskins reviewed issues of Strange Horizons, Lightspeed, and Kaleidotrope, and shared eight recs. A.C. Wise reviewed Analog and recced three stories. Brian Collins reviewed “The Color of Neanderthal Eyes” by James Tiptree, Jr. at SFF Remembrance, and also positions the story within Tiptree’s personal history. I always appreciate the depth of context Brian brings to his reviews.

Excerpts I read this week: The Witches of Cambridge by Alice Hoffman; Disenchanted by Lucy Jane Wood; A Wall Is Also a Road by Annalee Newitz, and Rooted by Leopoldo Goût. Saga Press shared the TOC for Ken Liu’s recent collection, The Passing of the Dragon and Other Stories. There’s a Humble Bundle for Timothy Zahn’s work: 23 items! Lucy Jane Wood has a short Q&A over at Nerd Daily. Alix E. Harrow and Garth Nix were on the Coode Street Podcast (separately, although that would be a fascinating roundtable, in case Jonathan and Gary are looking for ideas). Garth Nix was also profiled in the Sydney Morning Herald. If you’re very excited about Massif and want to meet Nix on the book tour in England, Gollancz has a tour graphic up over on Instagram. Paul Semel has a short interview with Carolyn Ives Gilman and she also has an essay over at Whatever. Finally, C.L. Clark was a guest on the SFF Addicts podcast.

Check out Wombling Along for more SFF links you may have missed.

Art recs: Why is the worm sad? by Mali; Unrestrained Summer Fun by Triage; Noble Opossum by Ben Sears; Smol Shroom by Sita Art; New commandment by Sam Antics; Shiny by Victoria Maderna; a cat sitting in a tree by cloudy; if you talk to me about using an AI chatbot I WILL crash out by Aubo; capyberus by Guilherme Nunes

Outro

Now that Worldcon is over, I’ve seen a few con reports via podcast and have bookmarked them to enjoy, but of course I always welcome more. I can’t be everywhere on the internet (alas).

That’s it for this week! Have a great weekend.

Recent Reading

(Last) Fugitive Telemetry by Martha Wells
(Now) The Feywild Job by C.L. Polk
(Next) In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan