Hey!

It’s time for Reviews and Interviews season! There are lots of reviews of recent releases, but also backlist titles. I can’t wait for the reviews of backlist series titles by women. I’m going to speak this into existence.

Each week, I generally link to a reviewer once in A-Side so I can have space for the most voices. But some of these writers are prolific and my archive is bursting (it would help if I stopped reading people’s archives, but I won’t be doing that). I’m considering doing a big archive dump each month? Each quarter? I’m not sure yet since it will make the review section larger and Google Email will be annoyed at me and truncate my emails as punishment. I read and watch a ton, and Intergalactic Mixtape links to a lot of commentary, but alas, I cannot compile the whole internet even if I might want to.

A-Side

Adventures in Utopia
This essay by Carline Tromp (which was translated by Caroline Waight), was a lovely reflection on reading, criticism, and science fiction. “Even the books we read solely for “pleasure” can expand our minds a little, prise open doors that had seemed sealed shut. Or maybe they just give our brains a little space to catch up.”

Stargate SG1 season 1
I love a good recap series and there’s a new one for Stargate: SG-1 by Alex Pierce!!! She talked about her reactions to the first four episodes, too. This is very exciting for me! I missed onboarding for SG-1 fandom, although I have watched the whole show. I sure do miss the days of us nerds writing episode reaction posts and analysis. Of course, it’s hard to do in our current environment, as the ultra wealthy streaming bros have broken TV.

Rec Thread from Marty Cahill
On Bluesky, Marty asked folks, “What's a book you love with all your goddamn heart that you believe did NOT get the love and attention it's due?” I have so many of these: Kate Elliott’s entire backlist, Witchmark and its sequels by C.L. Polk, Finder by Suzanne Palmer, The Last Watch by J.S. Dewes, Sunshine by Robin McKinley (although it’s finally becoming a cult classic so maybe we can say its reached the finish line), and The Light Brigade by Kameron Hurley. The replies to the post have a lot but the quote posts have even more.

Pretty Pretty Please I Don’t Want to be a Magical Girl
This indie cartoon from Kiana Khansmith is incredibly cute. One of my favorite things is folks taking genre conventions and twisting them around to try new things. The art style is fantastic, too.

Reviews/Discussions

Accumulation by Aimee Pokwatka (Alexandra Pierce @ Locus)
All That Is In The Earth by Andrew Knighton (Cheryl Morgan @ Salon Futura)
Apparently, Sir Cameron Needs to Die by Greer Stothers (ilikereadingactually)
The Apple and the Pearl by Rym Kechacha (Roseanna Pendlebury @ A Reader of Else)
Blacktail by Scott Hawkins (Elias @ Bar Cart Bookshelf)
Blacktail by Scott Hawkins (Galen Strickland)
Crimson in Quietus by Eugen Bacon (Vanessa Fogg @ Locus)
Daggerbound by T. Kingfisher (Dina @ SFF Book Reviews)
Daggerbound by T. Kingfisher (Liz Bourke)
Dead but Dreaming of Electric Sheep by Paul Tremblay (Gabino Iglesias @ Locus)
The Devils by Joe Abercrombie (Stewart Hotston)
Earth 7 by Deb Olin Unferth (Ian Mond @ Locus)
Engines of Reason by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Filip R. Zahariev@ Ancillary Review of Books)
Everybody's Perfect by Jo Walton (Paul Weimer @ Nerds of a Feather)
The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan (Sean Guynes @ Genre Fantasies)
The Felicity Complex by august clarke (Jenny Hamilton @ Reactor)
Fold Catastrophes by Peter Watts (Bonnie @ Red Headed Femme)
Fold Catastrophes by Peter Watts (Gary K. Wolfe @ Locus)
The Infinite State by Richard Swan (Paul Di Filippo @ Locus)
The Infinite State by Richard Swan (Niall Harrison @ Locus)
Kill All Wizards by Jedediah Berry (Marlene Harris @ Reading Reality)
Murder by Other Means by John Scalzi (Kat Hooper @ FanLit)
Nobody’s Baby by Olivia Waite (azteclady @ Her Hands, My Hands)
The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks (Science Fiction Book Review Podcast)
The Radiant Dark by Alexandra Oliva (Narrated Podcast)
The Raven and the Reindeer by T. Kingfisher (Sam Tyler @ SF Book)
The Salt King by Natasha Pulley (Tobias Carroll @ Reactor)
Sailing The Golden Chersonese by Joyce Chng (Womble @ Runalong the Shelves)
Skin Thief: Stories by Suzan Palumbo (Rose R. @ The Lesbrary)
The Strangers by Naomi Alderman (Tar Vol on)
There Is No Antimemetics Division by qntm (Marion Deeds @ FanLit)
This Is Where The Future Bleeds by Mike Brooks (Eddie Clark @ Nerds of a Feather)
The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett (Becky’s Book Blog)
A Trade of Blood by Robert Jackson Bennett (Abigail Nussbaum)
A Trade of Blood by Robert Jackson Bennett (Kathryn Adams @ Pixelated Geek)
Wickhills by Premee Mohamed (Kate Towner @ Ancillary Review of Books)
Xicanxfuturism: Codex 1 edited by Scott Russell Duncan (Jacqueline Nyathi @ Strange Horizons)

B-Side

The Booker shortlist was announced, and there’s at least one genre book on the list: The End of Everything by M. John Harrison. I don’t know enough about the others, but probably not since this is a fancy literary award. Baen is starting a new award in honor of David A. Drake for military-themed SFF. As part of the ongoing Le Guin Prize (although not for long!), Tashan Mehta read from her shortlisted book, Mad Sisters of Esi, and Premee Mohamed read from One Message Remains.

At Reactor, there’s a list of indie press books out for September and October. At Five Books, Eugen Bacon recced five Afrofuturist books. At Transfer Orbit, Andrew Liptak has a big list of new SFF out in September as well as a smaller list. Ancillary Review of Books is looking for more editors and support volunteers. The ARB folks are incredible and volunteering for them would be cool! Via Sandstone, there’s going to be a Kickstarter for a Murderbot graphic novel. The original artist for the book covers, Jaime Jones, is participating! In SFF newsletters, there are new issues of THE LODESTAR and The Full Lid.

The Lord of the Rings rereads continue and for once I am timely. Roseanna wrote about two chapters, The Tower of Cirith Ungol and The Land of Shadow, and I wish I could write this well about books I was grumpy about it. Abigail wrote about The Riders of Rohan, and I remember how hard I rode for Éowyn in the films. I annoyed my friends about it constantly. Meanwhile, the compilation album for the new Hunger Games film is coming out and they have evil heartbreak guitar man Noah Kahan doing a song for it, and it’s already ruined my life. The trailer for Below is super creepy, so this will test my “can Renay handle water horror movies as long as animals aren’t harmed?” hypothesis. 2026 is the year I discover my limits. Most of my game recs come from friends these days, but sometimes my TikTok FYP will surface something cool, like Hello Sunshine. There’s no release date yet, but it can be wishlisted on Steam. Robot pals!

Vanessa Fogg collected together recs from the last few months of her short fiction reading. From deep in my archives, but woefully mistagged because I was still figuring out how to log my readings about poetry: Ai Jiang shared some poetry recs. Poetry, you’re going to have to live under the short fiction tag of my mind and I hope that’s okay. :D Brian Collins reviewed “The Furies” by Roger Zelazny back in July. Predictably, I end up appreciating the history of the story more than I want to read the story. Cele Goldsmith ejecting from SF editing after such a short time for a 30-year career at Modern Bride is hilarious, though.

I read a lot of excerpts this week, because it’s That Time of Year: The Gates of Midnight by Helene Wecker, which, based on my experience will mean more if you’ve read/remember the other books; chapters one through three of The Thrice-Bound Fool by Christopher Buehlman (I only read chapter one, for the same reason as the previous excerpt); All the Hidden Places: Stories by Cadwell Turnbull; and As You Wake, Break the Shell by Becky Chambers. This release by Chambers sneaked up on me a bit!

Micaiah Johnson will be in conversation with P. Djèlí Clark about The Unhaunting on October 6. The livestream tickets are $10, but there are in-person tickets available if you’re in New York. John Scalzi will be going on tour for his new book, Monsters of Ohio. Once again living in the armpit of the U.S. South has cursed me, so please go and have a great time on my behalf. Robert Jackson Bennett shared a skunk-themed update about the fourth book (there are no book four details, but the skunk story is funny).

Two authors shared playlists for their books at Largehearted Boy: Eugen Bacon for Crimson in Quietus and Deb Olin Unferth for Earth 7. Natasha Pulley was at The Nerd Daily for a short Q&A about her book, The Salt King. Joe Abercrombie was on the Long Story Short Podcast to talk about The Devils. Peter Watts was at Whatever for a Big Idea essay about his new book, Fold Catastrophes. He also did a short Q&A with Paul Semel and a longer interview with Arley Sorg in Clarkesworld. Ginger Nuts of Horror interviewed Scott Hawkins about Blacktails. Paul Tremblay was on the SFF Addicts Podcast to discuss Dead but Dreaming of Electric Sheep. Jedediah Berry, author of Kill All Wizards, has a short Q&A at The Nerd Daily.

For more SFF links, don’t miss last week’s Wombling Along.

Art recs: doodlin’ by Davis Bickford; Dancing in the wind by maru; Welcome, Autumnal Equinox by Lu; The ladies and Mog of Final Fantasy VI by AgzDeGrey; May every strike ring true and just by Jessica the Bestica; A Witch's Solemn Dream by Jonah Walker;

Outro

The 2026 Hugo season is over, but the 2027 Hugo season starts now! I mean, for me. I never stop thinking about my Special Interest, truly. I have started my own personal list, but 2026 has been such a weird reading year. I have decided to read one piece of short fiction from the rec spreadsheet a day in October. I’m determined to be more prepared for short fiction nominations next year because this year was embarrassing.

I have launched a bookshop.org affiliate page, because once you do you can make tons of lists of nicely organized recommendations. Now I need to fill it. So far I have: my favorite space operas. If you have any other good ideas for rec lists you’d like me to do, write in. — Renay

Recent Reading

(Last) The Feywild Job by C.L. Polk
(Now) In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan
(Next) An Accident of Dragons by Cheri Radke