I’ve been traveling, so my October roundup is extremely late! In part because of the travel, it’s bit a little bit of a light month with novels, but I’ve reviewed some books I’m extremely excited about, and I’ve read some short fiction that’s going pretty high on my annual favorites list. Plus SPSFC is in full swing, even if it’s been a bit light on the updates. Let’s dive in!

Short Fiction

I’ve switched from one magazine review each month to two, with my regular review of Clarkesworld and GigaNotoSaurus and another that dipped into current issues of Asimov’s, Reckoning, and Uncanny. That means there’s a little bit less miscellany, but we still have some.

October Favorites

I really enjoyed “Fishing the Intergalactic Stream” from Clarkesworld and had an absolutely tremendous time with Asimov’s and Reckoning, adding five stories to my monthly favorites list and probably a couple to my award ballots. But let’s focus on the new ones for now, and there were a few:

• “Dreamer, Passenger, Partner” (2024 short story) by Colin Alexander. A short piece written in second-person from the perspective of an AI involved in the prison system. What starts as a solid “look how bad the world would be if these couple things happened” story grows into something truly powerful as the narrator’s perspective is more thoroughly revealed.
• “Jinx” (2024 short story) by Carlie St. George. It’s not too hard to see where the sci-fi twist will come in, but the description of a manipulative relationship just gets more and more harrowing as it progresses. Even when you see where it’s going, it’s hard to look away.
• “Median” (2024 short story) by Kelly Robson. This story of emergency phone calls getting deeply weird after the main character finds herself in a car accident feels more dreamlike than explicable sci-fi or fantasy, but it establishes the atmosphere masterfully and gives the main character meaningful progress in a short space.

Strong Contenders

• “All Belknaps Go Under the Mountain” (2024 short story) by Margaret Dunlap. An amusing story of a generational bargain with a disoriented Fae never establishes a whole lot of tension but delivers a satisfying ending on cleverness and heart.

Others I Enjoyed in October

• “Bleeding Hearts” (2024 short story) by Suzan Palumbo. A short piece featuring a witch who grows bad memories and emotions into literal plants being forced to work through her own baggage. It doesn’t offer many twists and turns, but there’s a satisfying progression here.
• “Cold Comfort” (2024 short story) by Louis Inglis Hall. Another short piece, this one featuring a character whose creator and father was worshipped as a god endeavoring to climb a statue of his father–one so high that no one but the sculptors have seen its top. Surreal and engaging, though more meditative than propulsive.
• “Parasocial” (2024 short story) by Monica Byrne. The story of an out-of-work actor who becomes a model for customizable virtual reality experiences feels a lot like a Black Mirror episode, with all that that entails. I found myself comparing it to another Black Mirror-esque story about parasocial relationships–“Piggyback” by M.H. Ayinde–and while I didn’t like this one quite as much, it’s still a good read.
• “Down the Dust Hatch” (2024 short story) by Derrick Boden. In a capitalist hellscape in space, the lead is trying every trick in the book to survive a scenario in which access to breathable air is tied to one’s production. I often feel that stories with similar premises gain almost all their power from the opening image, but this one brings a bit of plot-related intrigue as so many workers compete for the right to survive.
• “Breathing Constellations” (2024 short story) by Rich Larson. A negotiation with a pod of orcas may be the difference between a commune’s survival and dissolution, but that negotiation will require the lead to address some of her own repressed feelings. It’s a story where the internal and external plots mesh together beautifully, even if the lead has to be led by the hand at times.
• “A Tapestry of Dreams” (2024 short story) by Victor Forna. The story of a girl with intense, incurable chronic pain, the polarized responses of friends and family members, and the uncertainty of the path forward. It’s a short piece, so the family messiness takes a light touch, and it leaves much of the resolution to the reader.
• “Set in Stone” (2024 novelette) by K.J. Parker. A sculptor being asked to carve the king’s victories slowly wakes up to the propaganda he’s being called to perpetuate. Not too many big surprises here, but the narrative voice is strong.
• “The Thirteenth Dancer” (2024 novelette) by Leah Cypess. A reimagining of the Twelve Dancing Princesses tale, told by one who escaped and returns with uncertain motivations, even to herself.
• “Vigilant” (2024 novelette) by Cory Doctorow. Marcus the hacker returns in this story about surveillance software in schools. It’s the same lead as in “Spill,” which I quite enjoyed last month, and though this one didn’t grab me quite as hard, it still comes together quite nicely.

Novels and Novellas

Reviews Posted

• The Mountain Crown (2024 novella) by Karin Lowachee. A woman from an indigenous group that lives in communion with the lands and its dragons returns to her colonized homeland to try to gather a dragon–teaming up with an old soldier and a countryman of uncertain loyalty in her attempt to keep it out of the hands of the empire.
• The Daughters’ War (2024 novel) by Christopher Buehlman. A war story with a good pinch of family drama thrown in. Well-written, though probably not going to win over those who aren’t already fans of the military subgenre.
• The Reformatory (2023 novel) by Tananarive Due. This is honestly one of the best books I’ve ever read. It feels like a spiritual cousin of Octavia Butler’s Kindred, only with ghosts instead of time travel and Jim Crow instead of slavery.
• Lifelode (2009 novel) by Jo Walton. A fascinating family drama in a polyamorous ruling family of a small village in a world where time and magic varies wildly based on how far East you travel, with plenty of interesting narrative choices, albeit with a bit too quick a resolution.

Other October Reads

• I Who Have Never Known Men (1995 novel) by Jacqueline Harpman, translated by Ros Schwartz. A fascinating post-apocalyptic novel about a group of women imprisoned in a bunker on an unrecognizable world, for no reason they can remember. Short on answers, but long on exploration and meditation on humanity when removed from society. Full review to come.
• A Court of Wings and Ruin (2017 novel) by Sarah J. Maas. The A Court of Thorns and Roses initial trilogy ends with a novel that feels much less like romantasy and more like epic fantasy, with the couple established in the prior books dealing with all the fantastical antagonists who had been lurking in the background. Full review to come.
• Grievers (2021 novel) by adrienne maree brown. Much like I Who Have Never Known Men, it’s mostly the lead sorting out her own feelings in the midst of an inexplicable and deadly environment–this one a pandemic that seems to only strike Black people. There’s not a lot of plot momentum, but plenty of excellent reflection on grief. Full review to come.
• We Are All Ghosts in the Forest (2024 novel) by Lorraine Wilson. My October round-up is so late that I’ve already posted the review of this one, which follows an herbalist through a technological apocalypse that feels almost slice-of-life in the beginning before opening into a frantic, thrilling plot.

SPSFC

The Self-Published Science Fiction Competition is back for its fourth year (SPSFC4), and I’m leading a team again. There are 188 total books spread across six teams. Each team has a few months to narrow down the 30+ books in our initial allocation to pick two semifinalists (12 in total), after which we’ll narrow it further to six finalists. Learn how to follow the seven judges on Team Tar Vol On this year, or take a look at the 32 books in our first-round allocation. We’ve been doing some reading already–I’ve personally sampled about half of my initial scouting allotment–and there have already been a few review posts from individual judges. Keep an eye on my blog in late November and into December for official team updates on our first cuts and our quarterfinalists.