This review is based on an eARC (Advance Reading Copy) provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Where the Axe is Buried was released on April 1, 2025. I started reading Ray Nayler a couple years ago, and I’ve been consistently impressed with his quiet explorations of how big political and… Continue reading Sci-fi Novel Review: Where the Axe is Buried by Ray Nayler
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
The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years by Shubnum Khan wasn’t on my radar at all to start 2024, as I’m not particularly enthralled by Gothic stylings, but an extremely strong review from someone who loved my favorite books of the year and the intrigue of a split timeline got my attention and convinced me to… Continue reading Fantasy Novel Review: The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years by Shubnum Khan
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
I didn’t know that Mechanize My Hands to War even existed until author Erin K. Wagner was interviewed in Clarkesworld in December 2024. But as so often happens with Clarkesworld interviews, she talked about it in a way that caught my attention and sent it flying up my TBR. And I’m glad it did. Mechanize… Continue reading Sci-fi Novel Review: Mechanize My Hands to War by Erin K. Wagner
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
I was previously unfamiliar with Jedediah Berry, and despite a striking cover, I would have let The Naming Song pass me by without a strong recommendation from a book club friend who loved the language element. So I decided to give it a try after all. The Naming Song takes place after an underdescribed apocalypse—when… Continue reading Fantasy Novel Review: The Naming Song by Jedediah Berry
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez is an undisputed classic of magical realism, with a Nobel Prize under its belt and plenty of staying power. And so it’s been on my TBR for a long time. But at the same time, I don’t have a ton of experience with magical realism, so… Continue reading Magical Realism Review: One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
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
This review is based on an eARC (Advance Reading Copy) provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. ChloroPhilia will be released on January 14, 2025. I had read a short story or two by Cristina Jurado a couple years ago, and while I was a bit wary that she can lean… Continue reading Sci-fi Novella Review: ChloroPhilia by Cristina Jurado
