Hey!

This week I was all over the place because I was distracting myself from The Election. I’m very glad it’s over and I can get back to obsessing about the only voting I care about more than civic participation: the Hugo Awards.

There’s essays about the dark side of publishing, podcasts about books and fandom, philosophical questions about sorting science fiction and fantasy, and me shaking my fist at Sexism.

A-Side

Axed Partum: The dumpsterfire consumed my book
This essay from author Emma Burnett tracks her experience with publisher Atthis Arts, a small press whose owners have decided to torch their reputation via increasingly unhinged behavior from their editors. I didn’t know anything about the press before this year. I imagine I’m not alone in only learning about it because of aforementioned behavior aimed at lots of different people. Publishing a book should be a joy. It sucks this author was treated this way.

There Is No Ethical Research Under Capitalism
This discussion of The Language of Liars by S.L. Huang is excellent. Raf digs into some of the themes Huang was exploring and I listened through the video twice while puttering around. It’s about 30 minutes, so if you like book podcasts and want to hear some interesting thoughts about Huang’s latest release, tune in!

Google Starved Out Publishers With AI Search. Now, Its Pivot Is Blowing Up in Its Face.
Hahahahaha! Hahahahahahahahaha ha ha ha. This is what you get, Google. You should have just left everything from your glory days (Google Reader, Search) alone. I love this for you. I hope you lose more billions, your office floors are always sporadically sticky, and every CEO you have sleeps hot for the entirety of their tenure.

Is Money Ruining Fanfiction?
This interview with Elizabeth Minkel on the Imaginary Worlds podcast went over some of the ways fandom culture is changing. It was a nice follow up to Every Trope Everywhere All At Once ($$) at Fansplaining, even though the interview came first, back in July. One day someone is going to use all these conversations, articles, and interviews to write a banging thesis. I hope some publisher buys that to release.

Why Are Sci-Fi and Fantasy Often Grouped Together? And Should They Be?
My answer to this is biased because of my relationship with my public library and its terrible leadership, who once said that all genres should be mixed into the fiction section together. That is my literal nightmare. I’ve slowly watched more and more SFF that comes into my library get stuck in General Fiction even when it’s obviously SFF and I’m extremely suspicious. I’m Team “GROUP THEM!!” until the heat death of the universe because of this.

Seeing the diminishment and erasure of the legacy of Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonriders of Pern series occur in my actual lifetime is mind-boggling.
This post has been on my mind because there’s a lot of fan rereads for Tolkien happening due to The Lord of the Rings turning Even Older. I’ve also seen people doing rereads of late 20th century SFF by men, but I have not yet found anyone doing rereads of SFF by women in the same way. Even if a reread and essay series about McCaffrey came with critique, that still feels valuable. I know why, of course, but I’m morose about it.

Reviews/Discussions

As You Wake, Break the Shell by Becky Chambers (Narrated Podcast)
Astarion by T. Kingfisher (Roseanna Pendlebury)
The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones (Legendarium GT Podcast)
The Calamities by Chuck Wendig (Martin Cahill @ Reactor)
Cello's Gate by Maurice Africh (Caitlin Lloyd @ FanFiAddict)
Cello's Gate by Maurice Africh (Paul Weimer @ Nerds of a Feather)
A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett (Becky’s Book Blog)
A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett (Amanda Firestone @ SFRA Review)
The Faith of Beasts by James S.A. Corey (Zorica Lola Jelic @ SFRA Review)
The Fist of Memory by Wole Talabi (Jacqueline Nyathi @ Harare Review of Books)
Horde of the Counterwind by Alain Damasio, translated by Alexander Dickow (Rachel Cordasco @ Strange Horizons)
The Incandescent by Emily Tesh (Annie @ A Bookish Type)
The Infinite Sadness of Small Appliances by Glenn Dixon (Christine D. Baker @ Nerds of a Feather)
The Last Contract of Isako by Fonda Lee (Bonnie @ The Red Headed Femme
The Language of Knives by Haralambi Markov (Ian Mond @ Locus)
Monsters of Ohio by John Scalzi (Tammy @ Books, Bones & Buffy)
Monsters of Ohio by John Scalzi (Ronit J @ SFF Insiders)
Monsters of Ohio by John Scalzi (Will Swardstrom @ FanFiAddict)
Monsters of Ohio by John Scalzi (Mark Yon @ SFF World)
Mortedant’s Peril by R.J. Barker (Ant @ SF Book)
Ode to the Half-Broken by Suzanne Palmer (Jeremy Brett @ SFRA Review)
Once Was Willem by M.R. Carey (Alexis Ong @ Reactor)
Once Was Willem by M.R. Carey (Cheryl Morgan @ Salon Futura)
Our Infinite and Inevitable Ends by A.D. Sui (Alex Pierce @ Locus)
Our Infinite and Inevitable Ends by A.D. Sui (A.C. Wise)
A Plagued Sea by Kim Bo-Young, translated by Sophie Bowman (Helen Rhee @ Reactor)
Reliquary by Hannah Whitten (Gabino Iglesias @ Locus)
Scholomance trilogy by Naomi Novik (Liz Bourke)
Seasons of Glass and Iron by Amal El-Mohtar (Kyle R. Garton @ Strange Horizons)
Sorcery and Small Magics by Maiga Doocy (Lekden @ Reading from the Depths)
Storm Front by Jim Butcher (Dina @ SFF Book Reviews)
Sublimation by Isabel J. Kim (Galen Strickland)
Sunward by William Alexander (Madeline @ The Bookish Mutant)
There Used to Be People Here by Kennedy Cole (Jim McLeod @ Ginger Nuts of Horror)
Wolf Worm by T. Kingfisher (Womble @ Runalong the Shelves)

B-Side

Gizmodo has their big list of books out in November. Book Riot has another release list; there’s overlap but a few non-repeated titles. Andrew Liptak lists the books that caught his eye. Between these three, you should be good to go on November releases! naye shared some of her recent favorite SFF audiobooks; for reviews of SFF audiobooks, the backlist of Narrated is great. They talk specifically about audio performance. John Scalzi recced his favorite new SFF books and I wish all authors, as part of their own book promo, would make rec lists of recent things they’ve loved. Yes, authors, readers are nosy.

There’s a new edition of the SFRA Review. I’ve only been able to read a few fiction reviews, but it’s always full of neat stuff. For November subscribers to Speculative Insight, there will be a special zine with pre-2000s book recs. Ancillary Review of Books posted their call for reviews/essays for media out in February 2027. Dina shared her monthly wrap up column, The State of SFF for November and for once I escaped mostly unscathed from TBR list additions.

The second episode of Read Receipts is live, and it’s my favorite thing: lists upon lists upon lists of recs! Christina Orlando, my hero. The Sword & Laser podcast did a survey on dumplings, but also started their discussion of The Stardust Grail by Yume Kitasei. Gnocchi are dumplings, right? Surely they are. Also, there’s a new issue of The Drink Tank, all about The Justice League.

In short fiction, Myna Chang has a round up of flash fiction from September and October. Emmie Christie shared her favorite short pieces from October. She also has a spotlight for and interview with Tim W. Burke. Andrew Liptak dropped the latest Table of Contents column for November and updated the October list with new links. r/Fantasy apparently has a short fiction book club. I should really use my account to check in on discussions over there, because it was only because of Tar Vol on that I discovered the Parents and Portals iteration. There are comment threads for “Remade, Reshaped, Remembered” by Sydney Paige Guerrer, “All Worlds Left Behind” by Iona Datt Sharma, and “Strange Waters” by Samantha Mills. Speaking of Tar Vol on, he reviewed issues of Apex, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Kaleidotrope, and Uncanny with several recs. Maria Haskins reviewed recent issues of FIYAH, Small Wonders, Flash Fiction Online, and Beneath Ceaseless Skies and gave us a bounty of eight recs!

Reactor posted the first two chapters of Everina Maxwell’s new book, Call Me Traitor. Solaris shared the UK cover of Alistair Fall and the Restless Dead by Marianne Gordon. The US cover is pretty but the vibes on the UK version are immaculate. Ada Hoffmann announced her next book, The Priest of Crawling Things, out next year. A.D. Sui has an interview with Paul Semel about their new release, Our Infinite and Inevitable Ends. Paul also has an interview with Kennedy Cole, author of There Used To Be People Here. Wole Talabi did an AMA on r/Fantasy for the release of his new book, The Fist of Memory. He also wrote a great essay about the intersection of first contact stories with mysteries. John Scalzi was on NPR to talk about Monsters of Ohio.

For even more links, catch last week’s Wombling Along.

Art recs: A Lucky Find by Evan Sky; ladybirds by kiera.illustrations; Bumble shark by Ida; angel of the moon by vee; Quality time by Jen; Autumn prince by Adam; tiny harvest mouse by The Wee Owl Studio; don’t get mad. get even. by gdbee

Outro

Even though I knew I would be tired due to Elections, this year I swore I would take part in SciFi Month and I did it. Yes, I’m mostly talking about books I want to read, but we use the tools we have at hand! I have a tag over on my tumblr with my responses to the prompts so far. There’s also the #SciFiMonth2026 tag on Bluesky. The whole event is run by imyril, Annemieke, Lisa, and Mayri each year and I’m very pleased I get to take part. Even if you don’t have time to participate, it’s a great place to find recs! — Renay

Recent Reading

(Last) Witch Hat Atelier, Vol. 4 by Shirahama Kamome
(Now) Warchild by Karin Lowachee
(Next) Spin by Robert Charles Wilson