J.T. Greathouse’s debut novel The Hand of the Sun King may have flown under the radar when it was released last year, but what it lacked in quantity of readers, it made up for in quality of reviews. Almost everything I saw about this book praised it to high heaven, with recommendations from several prolific… Continue reading Fantasy Novel Review: The Hand of the Sun King by J.T. Greathouse
Arkady Martine won the Hugo Award for Best Novel with her debut A Memory Called Empire—a book with some fascinating cultural work to go with a solid-but-unexceptional thriller plot—and has returned to the Best Novel ballot with the second half of the duology: A Desolation Called Peace. [Note: while I always try to stay away… Continue reading Sci-fi Novel Review: A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine
Alix E. Harrow has become one of the more notable names in fantasy over the last several years, riding a tendency to tug at heartstrings and a prose style that’s simultaneously beautiful and easy-to-read to five Hugo nominations (one win) across three separate categories since 2019. Best Novella finalist A Spindle Splintered was my second… Continue reading Fantasy Novella Review: A Spindle Splintered by Alix E. Harrow
I got started with Hugo voting a couple years after perennial nominee Seanan McGuire broke through with a Best Novella win for Every Heart a Doorway, so I haven’t read the entire Wayward Children series of portal fantasy novellas, but last year’s nomination of Come Tumbling Down and its associated backstory for me two-thirds of… Continue reading Fantasy Novella Review: Across the Green Grass Fields by Seanan McGuire
Aliette de Bodard has been all over the sci-fi/fantasy awards lists for the past decade—with three wins each in the Nebula and BSFA Awards and nine Hugo nominations by my count—but for whatever reason, I’d been yet to find any of her work that really stuck with me. But this year’s Hugo voting has given… Continue reading Fantasy Novella Review: Fireheart Tiger by Aliette de Bodard
Sometimes there’s a book that comes out to such acclaim that I feel like I don’t have to rush to read it, because it’s bound to appear on my Hugo reading list. In 2021, no book fit that mold better than Shelley Parker-Chan’s historical fantasy debut She Who Became the Sun. I didn’t read it… Continue reading Fantasy Novel Review: She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan
In about a month, I’ve gone from never having read anything by Becky Chambers to having read two novels and a novella. While neither of the other two hit the five-star threshold, I could see clear progression as a writer from her debut to her Best Novella finalist. And so I was looking forward to… Continue reading Sci-fi Novel Review: The Galaxy and the Ground Within by Becky Chambers
This summer is quickly taking me from not having read any Becky Chambers to reading three of her books, given a late-series Hugo nomination for Best Novel and a series-opener nominated for Best Novella. But A Psalm for the Wild-Built may be the novella that I had heard most about in 2021, so I was… Continue reading Sci-fi Novella Review: A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers
My final read in the finals of the Self-Published Science Fiction Competition (SPSFC) had perhaps the best combination of consistent praise (90% of individual ratings coming in at 7.5/10 or higher) and high ceiling (20% of individual ratings coming in at 9/10) in the first two rounds. The blurb pitching an action-heavy space opera didn’t… Continue reading Sci-fi Novel Review: Captain Wu by Patrice Fitzgerald and Jack Lyster
I’m closing the inaugural Self-Published Science Fiction Competition (SPSFC) with two finalists that had extremely high ratings floors in the first two rounds. Today, I’ll be looking at A Star Named Vega by Benjamin J. Roberts, a novel that received a score of at least 8/10 from nine of the ten judges that rated it… Continue reading Sci-fi Novel Review: A Star Named Vega by Benjamin J. Roberts
