Late in 2024, I started supplementing my regular magazine reviews with Magazine Minis, where I dip into a magazine issue for two or three stories instead of reading it in full. I’ve found some real gems that way, and I’m back at it in 2025. This month, I’ll be looking at four magazines that are… Continue reading Tar Vol’s Magazine Minis: Mysterion, Metaphorosis, FIYAH, and Kaleidotrope
Am I still catching up on 2024 fiction? Yes. Is it 2025? Also yes. So in between catching up, I’m also reading and reviewing my usual new releases. And let me tell you, there are some good stories out this month. Clarkesworld The January 2025 issue of Clarkesworld has fewer stories than usual, mostly because… Continue reading Tar Vol Reads a Magazine (or Two): Reviews of Clarkesworld and GigaNotoSaurus (January 2025)
It’s been a big reading month! I finished my favorite 2024-published novel, I had a big push of current-year short fiction before posting the first edition of my 2024 Recommended Reading List, and once I got it posted, I spent a little while dipping into backlist recommendations that had been languishing on my TBR. Let’s… Continue reading December 2024 Round-up and Short Fiction Miscellany
It’s time for my favorite post of the year, where I share all the best sci-fi and fantasy I read from 2024. I write two versions of this post each year. The second comes out in late February, once I’ve had a chance to read works from everyone else’s Best of the Year lists. And… Continue reading Tar Vol’s 2024 Recommended Reading List (Holiday Edition)
Everybody may be posting Best of the Year lists–and don’t get me wrong, I’ll be doing the same later this week–but there are still new stories coming out this month. As always, I read a couple magazines and am here to talk about them. Clarkesworld The December 2024 issue of Clarkesworld had a wonderfully international… Continue reading Tar Vol Reads a Magazine (or Two): Reviews of Clarkesworld and GigaNotoSaurus (December 2024)
The more I read new releases, the more my “scramble to catch up on new releases” time moves from February to November. Which is not to say that it won’t continue into February, but it’s definitely started. Let’s take a look at what I read this month and what I have to recommend. Short Fiction… Continue reading November 2024 Round-up and Short Fiction Miscellany
In my first two months of Magazine Minis—where I review a few stories from a particular magazine, even if I haven’t read the entire issue—I’ve collected groups of stories that were at least published in the same issue. But some magazines don’t publish multi-story issues at all. And just because a venue publishes one story… Continue reading Tar Vol’s Magazine Minis: Podcastle and Strange Horizons
This is the same every month. I read some genre magazines, I talk about them. Let’s go. Clarkesworld My favorite genre magazine over the last several years has been Clarkesworld, which generally mixes experimental or boundary-pushing sci-fi with well-executed takes on classic premises. The former is unsurprisingly more boom-or-bust, but I regularly find favorites in… Continue reading Tar Vol Reads a Magazine (or Two): Reviews of Clarkesworld and GigaNotoSaurus (November 2024)
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… Continue reading October 2024 Round-up and Short Fiction Miscellany
Welcome to the second month of the new feature in which I dip into various magazines for a couple stories in a given issue. I can’t really call them magazine reviews, since I’m only reading a small portion of the magazines in question, but I also want to give the venues a little bit more… Continue reading Tar Vol’s Magazine Minis: Reckoning 8, Uncanny #60, and Asimov’s (November/December 2024)
