My judging team in the fourth annual Self-Published Science Fiction Competition has whittled our randomly-assigned 32 entries to four quarterfinalists. And then some off-page drama shrunk that list down to two. Come March, we will evaluate the third-place book from at least one other judging team to determine whether we would like to make it… Continue reading Sci-fi Novel Review: Time of the Cat by Tansy Rayner Roberts
A short month with lots of travel means my Magazine Minis are even smaller than usual this month, but I did read more than one story from two different magazine issues this month, so let’s take a brief look at a couple that caught my eye from the Winter 2025 issue of Apex and the… Continue reading Tar Vol’s Magazine Minis: Apex and Asimov’s
A short month with a lot of travel means my magazine reviews are coming later than usual, but coming they are. Let’s check out the February 2025 issues of Clarkesworld and GigaNotoSaurus. Clarkesworld As with the January 2025 issue, this month’s Clarkesworld contains fewer than the usual eight stories, but with higher than average word… Continue reading Tar Vol Reads a Magazine (or Two): Reviews and Clarkesworld and GigaNotoSaurus (February 2025)
I didn’t know that Mechanize My Hands to War even existed until author Erin K. Wagner was interviewed in Clarkesworld in December 2024. But as so often happens with Clarkesworld interviews, she talked about it in a way that caught my attention and sent it flying up my TBR. And I’m glad it did. Mechanize… Continue reading Sci-fi Novel Review: Mechanize My Hands to War by Erin K. Wagner
I’ve gotten started up with 2025 reading while scrambling to catch up on 2024, and it’s led to one of my biggest reading months. . . ever? Admittedly, a lot of the books were short, but I read a lot of things, including some tremendous work–2025 is shaping up to be an astounding year for… Continue reading January 2025 Round-up and Short Fiction Miscellany
