This review is based on an eARC (Advance Reading Copy) provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Psychopomp was released on March 25, 2025. Maria Dong’s “Braid Me a Howling Tongue” was one of my favorite stories of 2023, so when I saw she had a new novel coming out, I… Continue reading Sci-fi Novel Review: Psychopomp by Maria Dong
Because my judging team for the fourth annual Self-Published Science Fiction Competition (SPSFC4) had an unusually light group of quarterfinalists, I spent the end of the stage catching up on some quarterfinalists from other teams. And one that particularly caught my eye was the supernatural sci-fi Our Lady of the Artilects by Andrew Gillsmith. Our… Continue reading Supernatural Sci-fi Novel Review: Our Lady of the Artilects by Andrew Gillsmith
We’ve made it to the quarterfinals of the fourth annual Self-Published Science Fiction Competition. Team Tar Vol On has sifted through 32 randomly assigned books and selected a top four. That number has since dropped to two, so we’ll be evaluating a pair of our own and a third-place book from one other team in… Continue reading SPSFC Semifinalist Review: A Swift and Sudden Exit by Nico Vincenty
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
My judging team in the fourth annual Self-Published Science Fiction Competition (SPSFC4) has sifted through our 32-book allocation and chosen four quarterfinalists for further evaluation as we seek to identify just two semifinalists to advance to the next stage. For my second quarterfinalist read, I picked up the time travel romance A Swift and Sudden… Continue reading Sci-fi Novel Review: A Swift and Sudden Exit by Nico Vincenty
For the fourth consecutive year, I am leading a judging team in the Self-Published Science Fiction Competition (SPSFC4), and my team has been given 32 books to whittle down to two semifinalists. To start, we’ve split them up so that each team member has nine or ten books to evaluate, and together we’ll pick the top 15-25% to pass… Continue reading Fantasy Novel Review: Norylska Groans by Michael R. Fletcher and Clayton W. Snyder
For the fourth consecutive year, I am leading a judging team in the Self-Published Science Fiction Competition (SPSFC4), and my team has been given 32 books to whittle down to two semifinalists. To start, we’ve split them up so that each team member has nine or ten books to evaluate, and together we’ll pick the… Continue reading Sci-fi Novel Review: The Thief by G.S. Jennsen
For the fourth consecutive year, I am leading a judging team in the Self-Published Science Fiction Competition (SPSFC4), and my team has been given 32 books to whittle down to two semifinalists. To start, we’ve split them up so that each team member has nine or ten books to evaluate, and together we’ll pick the… Continue reading Sci-fi Novel Review: Turn Left at the Mooncrow Skeleton by Linda Raedisch
We’ve made it to the finals of the third annual Self-Published Science Fiction Competition. My team has whittled down a slush pile to two semifinalists, and then joined up with two more teams to cut our combined six semifinalists to just two finalists. Now everybody is reading the same books, as only six remain. And… Continue reading Sci-fi Novel Review: Children of the Black by W.J. Long III
We’ve made it to the finals of the third annual Self-Published Science Fiction Competition. My team has whittled down a slush pile to two semifinalists, and then joined up with two more teams to cut our combined six semifinalists to just two finalists. Now everybody is reading the same books, as only six remain. And… Continue reading Sci-fi Novel Review: Memoirs of a Synth–Gold Record by Leigh Saunders
