This review is based on an eARC (Advance Reading Copy) provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. System Collapse will be released on November 14, 2023. The Murderbot Diaries have rocketed Martha Wells to genre stardom, and it’s easy to see why. They’re fast-paced and fun, with a part-mechanical, part-organic construct—the… Continue reading Sci-fi Novel Review: System Collapse by Martha Wells
A welcome quieter month—with only two of my regular magazines releasing new issues—allowed me to get to an ARC of an exciting new short fiction anthology, leading yet again to a magazine round-up coming at the very end of the month. But I thought it was a very good reading month, and I have a… Continue reading Tar Vol Reads a Magazine (or Two): Reviews of Clarkesworld and GigaNotoSaurus (October 2023)
This review is based on an eARC (Advance Reading Copy) provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The Digital Aesthete will be released on November 14, 2023. I haven’t read much of Alex Shvartsman’s work as an editor, but I’ve enjoyed a bit of his translated short fiction, and I’ve been… Continue reading Sci-fi Anthology Review: The Digital Aesthete, edited by Alex Shvartsman
This review is based on an eARC (Advance Reading Copy) provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Starling House was released on October 3, 2023. Alix E. Harrow burst onto the scene in the late 2010s with a blend of beautiful imagery, bingeable prose, and fabulist plots featuring sharp moral divides… Continue reading Fantasy Novel Review: Starling House by Alix E. Harrow
This review is based on an eARC (Advance Reading Copy) provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Generation Ship will be released on October 17, 2023. When I saw Michael Mammay’s Generation Ship pop up on NetGalley, I was intrigued by the blurb, but I’d never heard of the author and… Continue reading Sci-fi Novel Review: Generation Ship by Michael Mammay
I’ve been working through my own personal subset of my team’s slush allocation for the third annual Self-Published Science Fiction Competition (SPSFC3), and one of the books that immediately intrigued me from the cover and blurb was The Mimameid Solution by Katherine Kempf. The Mimameid Solution takes place after a series of environmental disasters, in… Continue reading Sci-fi Novel Review: The Mimameid Solution by Katherine Kempf
The second whirlwind month in a row has seen me settling into a new house, finishing up a year of Hugo reading, and opening my third year of SPSFC. So it’s been a bit of a quiet month for short fiction, but it was also a three-magazine month with the release of the bimonthly Magazine… Continue reading Tar Vol Reads a Magazine (or Three): Reviews of Clarkesworld, GigaNotoSaurus, and F&SF (September 2023)
This review is based on an eARC (Advance Reading Copy) provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The Hexologists will be released on September 26, 2023. Josiah Bancroft was perhaps the first breakout star of the Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off (SPFBO, elder sister to SPSFC), parlaying Senlin Ascends into a four-book deal… Continue reading Fantasy Novel Review: The Hexologists by Josiah Bancroft
This review is based on an eARC (Advance Reading Copy) provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Mammoths at the Gates will be released on September 12, 2023. Nghi Vo hooked me on The Singing Hills Cycle with the the wonderful, Hugo-winning, found object epic The Empress of Salt and Fortune.… Continue reading Fantasy Novella Review: Mammoths at the Gates by Nghi Vo
It’s been a busy month outside of reading, so it’s good that this was a short month for my magazines, with new issues of only two of my three regular reads. While my highlights list isn’t quite as long as usual this month, I still found one story that truly stood out. So let’s get… Continue reading Tar Vol Reads a Magazine (or Two): Reviews of Clarkesworld and Giganotosaurus (August 2023)
