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» Washington Post: Everdeen Mason reviews David Burr Gerrard, Ninni Holmqvist, Nancy Kress

» NPR: Octavia Butler: Writing Herself Into The Story, about a Huntington Library exhibit near Pasadena CA

» David Langford’s Ansible 360

» Salon: Chandler Baker on Is this the future we want?: “How speculative fiction is uniquely suited to help us talk, even across party lines, about our social politics”

» Slate, Kevin Bankston: Prototyping a Better Tomorrow: How science fiction can help us create a better future

» Boing Boing, Cory Doctorow: How science fiction writers’ “design fiction” is playing a greater role in policy debates

» Boing Boing, Bruce Sterling, science fiction won’t make the future better

» Guardian, Laurie Penny: In science fiction, the future is feminist

» Popular Mechanics, Tiffany Kelly: The Best Science Fiction Books of 2017 (So Far), by Robinson, VanderMeer, Doctorow, Hurley, Lafferty, Mastai, Neuvel, and Kessel

» David Langford’s Ansible 359

» The New Yorker: Jill Lepore on A Golden Age for Dystopian Fiction

» NY Times Book Review: Terrence Rafferty on horror, I Know What You’ll Read This Summer, reviewing Philip Fracassi, Bracken MacLeod, Josh Malerman, Giorgio De Maria, Kit Reed

» Wall Street Journal: Tom Shippey reviews Kit Reed

» The Age: James Bradley reviews Cory Doctorow’s Walkaway

» Berkeley radio station KPFA offers archive Octavia Butler 1983 conversation with Richard Wolinksy and Richard A. Lupoff

» Scott Edelman’s Eating the Fantastic eats donuts with guests and gobbles glass noodles with William F. Nolan

» Slate: Laura Miller on What happens when literary novelists experiment with science fiction

» Slate: Cory Doctorow’s I’ve Created a Monster!, excerpted from a new annotated edition of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein

» SF Chronicle: Michael Berry reviews Robinson’s New York 2140

» NY Times Book Review: Wai Chee Dimock reviews Jeff VanderMeer’s Borne

» LA Review of Books: Rob Latham reviews Norman Spinrad’s The People’s Police











   
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Fri 14 Jul 12:02 pm

The British Fantasy Society has announced the shortlist for the 2017 British Fantasy Awards. The nominees are: Best Fantasy Novel (the Robert Holds...

Thu 13 Jul 9:51 am

The Center for Fiction has released the long list for its 2017 First Novel Prize, “awarded to the best debut novel published between January 1 and ...








The Apes of Wrath: A Review of War for the Planet of the Apes


Saturday 15 July 2017  |  Reviews

Special to Locus Online

Everything about Matt Reeves's War for the Planet of the Apes thankfully suggests a desire to bring its series to an end as a trilogy. True, much of the film simply carries on the apes-versus-humans saga unveiled in the second film, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, but eventually all of the major story lines are concluded in a satisfying manner that precisely lays the groundwork for the transformed world observed in the original Planet of the Apes.

Paul Di Filippo reviews Susan Casper

Friday 14 July 2017  |  Reviews

Special to Locus Online

In February of this year, after several long illnesses, we lost Susan Casper. Wife to Gardner Dozois, she was on her own merits so much more, including a talented fiction writer. It is a testament to the high regard in which she was held that this commemorative volume was so quickly assembled and issued.

Russell Letson reviews C.J. Cherryh

Thursday 13 July 2017  |  Reviews

From Locus Magazine's June 2017 issue

Even newcomers might find Convergence an engaging (if occasionally puzzling) read — the parallel depictions of the two protagonists navigating the complexities of their respective societies, each conditioned by a necessarily partial but passionate understanding of the Other, can stand on its own.

Paul Di Filippo reviews Christopher Brown

Wednesday 12 July 2017  |  Reviews

Special to Locus Online

This debut novel from Chris Brown — many of whose earlier short stories appeared under the byline "Chris Nakashima-Brown" — is a knockout first novel, paradoxically solemn yet exuberant, restrained yet inventive, as attested to by well-deserved encomiums from William Gibson, Bruce Sterling and Cory Doctorow.

New Books : 11 July

Tuesday 11 July 2017  |  Monitor

Nancy Kress' Tomorrow's Kin, Nina Allan's The Rift, Greg Egan's Dichronauts, Sam J. Miller's The Art of Starving, best-of-year anthology by Ellen Datlow and Gardner Dozois, debut collections by Naomi Kritzer and Christopher Rowe, and titles by Brooks, Brown, Caine, Gray & Herbison, Hearne, Kenyon, Lucas, MacNaughton, Martin, Sniegoski, Stross, and Vaughn

This Week's Bestsellers

Monday 10 July 2017  |  Monitor

Diana Gabaldon's Seven Stones to Stand or Fall and Pittacus Lore's Generation One debut.

Sam J. Miller: A Better Power

Sunday 9 July 2017  |  Perspectives

sam j. miller
Excerpts from Locus Magazine's July Issue interview

I wanted to tell a story about how the power you get from self-harm is much less powerful or sustainable than the power you get from loving yourself, loving the people around you, and acknowledging that you are amazing and you don't need to hurt yourself. You don't need to make yourself look a certain way or act a certain way in order to be amazing.

Periodicals: early July

Saturday 8 July 2017  |  Monitor

Fantastic Stories of the Imagination's "People of Color Take Over" special issue, and new issues of Abyss & Apex, Apex, Aphelion, Aurealis, Clarkesworld, The Dark, Forever, Galaxy's Edge, GigaNotoSaurus, Intergalactic Medicine Show, Lightspeed, Nightmare, Shimmer, and Uncanny

Locus Bestsellers, July

Friday 7 July 2017  |  Magazine

Bestsellers from specialty bookstores are led by John Scalzi's The Collapsing Empire, Neil Gaiman's American Gods, James S.A. Corey's Leviathan Wakes, and and Chuck Wendig's Star Wars: Aftermath: Life Debt.

Locus Magazine's New & Notable Books, July

Thursday 6 July 2017  |  Magazine

July New and Notable books include A. Merc Rustad's So You Want to Be a Robot and titles by Barker, Benford, Czerneda, Danker, Jeter, Kincaid, King & Chizmar, Parker, Scalzi, Valente, and Wells.

Cory Doctorow: Be the First One to Not Do Something that No One Else Has Ever Not Thought of Doing Before

Wednesday 5 July 2017  |  Perspectives

cory doctorow
From Locus Magazine's July Issue.

What if a story made the fact of humanity's essential goodness the center of its conflict? What if, after a disaster, everyone wanted to help, but no one could agree on how to do so?

New Books : 4 July

Tuesday 4 July 2017  |  Monitor

K.J. Parker's Mightier than the Sword and titles by Aaronovitch, Boop, Durst, Kuhn, Leigh, Posey, Price, Snodgrass, Taylor & Nye, Wagner, Wells, and Willett

This Week's Bestsellers

Monday 3 July 2017  |  Monitor

Dean Koontz's The Silent Corner debuts strongly.

Periodicals: late June

Sunday 2 July 2017  |  Monitor

New issues of Analog and Asimov's, and June content at Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Daily SF, Persistent Visions, Strange Horizons, and Tor.com

July 2017 Table of Contents

Saturday 1 July 2017  |  Magazine

july issue
The July issue features interviews with Cory Doctorow and Sam J. Miller, a column by Cory Doctorow, complete results of this year's Locus Poll, photos from the Nebula Awards Conference and WisCon, and reviews of short fiction and books by Nina Allan, Kit Reed, Mariana Enriquez, Wendy N. Wagner, Tad Williams, and many others.

Liz Bourke reviews Cassandra Khaw

Thursday 29 June 2017  |  Reviews

From Locus Magazine's May 2017 issue

Food of the Gods is a mosaic novel, of sorts. It collects three linked novellas by Cassandra Khaw that, together, form a whole arc. At least two of these novellas have already been published as standalone e-books. The first of these is called "Rupert Wong, Cannibal Chef", and if I tell you it really does live up to the title, you've got some idea of the flavour of the novel as a whole.

Russell Letson reviews Ian McDonald

Wednesday 28 June 2017  |  Reviews

From Locus Magazine's May 2017 issue

Ian McDonald's Luna: Wolf Moon (the second-act volume in the sequence that opened last year with Luna: New Moon) is instantly recognizably as hard SF: it's set only a century from now, in a future developed from current conditions and built on technologies that we can imagine evolving from today's cutting-edge efforts in AI, medicine, and engineering.

New Books : 27 June

Tuesday 27 June 2017  |  Monitor

Daryl Gregory's Spoonbenders, Karin Tidbeck's Amatka, and titles by Barnes, Belcher, Dunne, Gabaldon, Hough, Irvine, Lore, Oden, Ryan, Tanaka, West, and Williams

This Week's Bestsellers

Monday 26 June 2017  |  Monitor

The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. by Neal Stephenson & Nicole Galland and The Black Elfstone by Terry Brooks debut.

Paul Di Filippo reviews K.J. Parker and James Morrow

Sunday 25 June 2017  |  Reviews

Special to Locus Online

Both these novellas offer as much pleasure as books three times their size. Snap them up!

Bruce Sterling reviews Cory Doctorow

Saturday 24 June 2017  |  Reviews

From Locus Magazine's June 2017 issue

Walkaway is a real-deal, generically traditional science-fiction novel; it's set in an undated future and it features weird set design, odd costumes, fights, romances, narrow escapes, cool weapons, even zeppelins. This is the best Cory Doctorow book ever.

New in Paperback: June

Friday 23 June 2017  |  Monitor

David D. Levine's Arabella of Mars, Sofia Samatar's The Winged Histories, and titles by Black, Durbin, Martinez, and Milán

Gary K. Wolfe reviews Ellen Klages

Thursday 22 June 2017  |  Reviews

From Locus Magazine's May 2017 issue

Like Bradbury, Klages is notable for the clarity and unstrained elegance of her prose, though she never reaches for the self-conscious rhapsodizing that often characterized Bradbury's later work. To the extent that Klages's world is like Bradbury's, it’s for the most part Bradbury without the boys and without the exclamation points.

New Books : 20 June

Tuesday 20 June 2017  |  Monitor

Theodora Goss's The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter, James Morrow's The Asylum of Dr. Caligari, and titles by Bishop, Chen, Crowley, Dietz, Gunn, Hieber, Holt, Jones, Koontz, Lam, Nagata, and Turzillo

This Week's Bestsellers

Monday 19 June 2017  |  Monitor

Michael Crichton's Dragon Teeth ranks in the top 5 on four lists.

Cat Sparks: Strange Directions

Sunday 18 June 2017  |  Perspectives

cat sparks
Excerpts from Locus Magazine's June Issue interview

I didn't set out to write a climate change story, but it is easy to see how I ended up with one. My still-not-finished PhD examines the intersection point of ecocatastrophe science fiction and climate fiction. No way to stop that bleeding over into any­thing else I'm working on. I can barely keep it out of my conversation.

Periodicals: mid-June

Saturday 17 June 2017  |  Monitor

New issues of Apex, Aphelion, Aurealis, Forever, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Mythic Delirium, The New York Review of Science Fiction, and Star*Line

Spotlight on: Scott H. Andrews, Beneath Ceaseless Skies

Friday 16 June 2017  |  Perspectives

From Locus Magazine's June Issue

"Literary adventure fantasy" is my tagline for literary or character-centered fantasy set in other worlds. Much secondary-world fantasy feels focused on the setting or the plot; I like a focus on the characters, for example using Realist approaches like close points-of-view or ambiguous endings — realism in worlds that aren't real.

Locus Magazine's Forthcoming Books: Selected Titles through March 2018

Thursday 15 June 2017  |  Resources

Titles from Locus Magazine's June issue listings of Selected Forthcoming Books by Author are arranged here by month.

Paul Di Filippo reviews Neal Stephenson & Nicole Galland

Wednesday 14 June 2017  |  Reviews

Special to Locus Online

Just after I had lamented, a few reviews ago, that authors were not inclined nowadays to indulge in old-school, one-on-one collaborations, along comes this giddy, engrossing romp of a novel authored by a team. It's a seamless performance reminiscent of such ancestors as de Camp & Pratt, while still hewing to ultra-modern standards and practices for SF novels with a magical slant.

New Books : 13 June

Tuesday 13 June 2017  |  Monitor

Yoon Ha Lee's Raven Stratagem, Neal Stephenson & Nicole Galland's The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O., and titles by Anderson, Brooks, Cooper, Corlett, Drayden, Egan, Johnston, Lavalle, McGuire, Saintcrow, Schenck, Schwab, and Smith & Gladstone

This Week's Bestsellers

Monday 12 June 2017  |  Monitor

J.R.R. Tolkien’s Beren and Lúthien debuts.

John Kessel: Over the Moon

Sunday 11 June 2017  |  Perspectives

john kessel
Excerpts from Locus Magazine's June Issue interview

I'm very happy to have The Moon and the Other out. In this book I wanted to make the scientific extrapolation as plausible as I could, and do social speculation, and get deeply into the characters — tell a novel of manners, two love stories set in a made-up society — and have political intrigues and family drama and even something of a thriller plot.

Paul Di Filippo reviews Gregory Benford

Saturday 10 June 2017  |  Reviews

Special to Locus Online

From his wonted haunts in the intergalactic realms of space, Gregory Benford has come down to Earth — a venue he has not totally neglected in the past, given such seminal and well-received quasi-naturalistic works as Timescape — to produce a counterfactual novel in the manner of Harry Turtledove.

Spotlight on: Heather Shaw, Persistent Visions

Friday 9 June 2017  |  Perspectives

From Locus Magazine's June Issue

As I say in my guidelines, I'm looking for "stories that include a diverse cast of characters, that challenge conventional assumptions regarding race, relationships, gender, neurodiversity, disability, and sexuality in thought-provoking, exciting new ways..."

Kameron Hurley: Story Isn't Just "Stuff Happens"

Thursday 8 June 2017  |  Perspectives

kameron hurley
From Locus Magazine's June Issue.

Just because we have read stories doesn't mean we intrinsically know how to write them, the same way that simply having a dog isn't going to teach you how to better understand them.

Locus Bestsellers, June

Wednesday 7 June 2017  |  Magazine

Bestsellers from specialty bookstores are led by Patricia Briggs' Silence Fallen, Seanan McGuire's Magic for Nothing, V.E. Schwab's A Darker Shade of Magic, and Chuck Wendig's Star Wars: Aftermath: Empire's End.

New Books : 6 June

Tuesday 6 June 2017  |  Monitor

Catherynne M. Valente'a The Refrigerator Monologues, K.W. Jeter's Grim Expectations, a memoir by Frank M. Robinson, and titles by Afsharirad, Chandler & Mullenax, Conroy & Dunn, de Castell, DuBois, Gilligan, Green, Huff, Jensen, Kadrey, Korpon, Tolkien, and Wells

This Week's Bestsellers

Monday 5 June 2017  |  Monitor

Cassandra Clare's Lord of Shadows and Michael Crichton's Dragon Teeth debut strongly.

Periodicals: early June

Sunday 4 June 2017  |  Monitor

New issues of Clarkesworld, GigaNotoSaurus, Lightspeed, and Nightmare

A Working Model for Superhero Films: A Review of Wonder Woman


Saturday 3 June 2017  |  Reviews

Special to Locus Online

Without a doubt, Patty Jenkins's Wonder Woman is the very best of the recent "DC Extended Universe" superhero films — yet the praise doesn't mean as much as it should, inasmuch as its undistinguished precursors — Man of Steel, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, and Suicide Squad — set the bar very low, to put it mildly.

Locus Magazine's New & Notable Books, June

Friday 2 June 2017  |  Magazine

June New and Notable books include Weinberg Tales and titles by Adams, Brennan, Clarke, Doctorow, Hobb, Johnson, Kiernan, Klages, Kushner, Murad & Shurin, and VanderMeer

June 2017 Table of Contents

Thursday 1 June 2017  |  Magazine

june issue
The June issue features interviews with John Kessel and Cat Sparks, a column by Kameron Hurley, spotlights on Scott H. Andrews and Heather Shaw, lists of forthcoming books through March 2018, and reviews of short fiction and books by Daryl Gregory, Dave Duncan, C.J. Cherryh, Ellen Datlow, Cory Doctorow, and many others.

Periodicals: late May

Wednesday 31 May 2017  |  Monitor

New issues of Black Static, Interzone, and Into the Ruins, plus May content at Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Daily Science Fiction, Strange Horizons, and Tor.com

New Books : 30 May

Tuesday 30 May 2017  |  Monitor

Kit Reed's Mormama and titles by Andrews, Black, Brennan, and Hough

This Week's Bestsellers

Monday 29 May 2017  |  Monitor

Stephen King & Richard Chizmar's Gwendy's Button Box debuts on four lists.

Gary K. Wolfe reviews Claire North

Sunday 28 May 2017  |  Reviews

From Locus Magazine's April 2017 issue

With its fragmented structure and occasionally self-consciously meditative prose, The End of the Day might puzzle some who enjoyed the thriller plotting of The Sudden Appearance of Hope, but at its best it reaffirms the passion and ambition that have made North such a consistently intriguing writer.

Comments from the 2017 Locus Poll and Survey

Saturday 27 May 2017  |  Magazine

february issue
Here are comments, presented anonymously, submitted by voters in this year's Locus Poll and Survey. Results of the poll will be published in the magazine's July issue; survey results will appear in August issue.

Adrienne Martini reviews Robert Charles Wilson

Friday 26 May 2017  |  Reviews

From Locus Magazine's April 2017 issue

The past, it has been said, is another country. If you're August Kemp in Robert Charles Wilson's Last Year, that other country is one you can monetize.

Stefan Dziemianowicz reviews Powers of Darkness

Thursday 25 May 2017  |  Reviews

From Locus Magazine's April 2017 issue

Question: When is Bram Stoker's Dracula not Bram Stoker's Dracula?

Answer: When it's Makt Myrkranna, a book whose title translates from the Icelandic as Powers of Darkness and which, in the early twentieth century, was published as the Icelandic-language edition of Stoker's vampire classic.

New Books : 23 May

Tuesday 23 May 2017  |  Monitor

Michael Crichton's Dragon Teeth, Stephen King & Richard Chizmar's Gwendy's Button Box, and titles by Baldwin, Clare, Gailey, and Higgins

This Week's Bestsellers

Monday 22 May 2017  |  Monitor

Robin Hobb's Assassin's Fate and Sherrilyn Kenyon's Deadmen Walking debut; Amazon.com debuts "Amazon Charts"

Periodicals: mid-May

Sunday 21 May 2017  |  Monitor

New issues of Aphelion, Aurealis, and The Dark

Contractual Obligations: A Review of Alien: Covenant


Saturday 20 May 2017  |  Reviews

Special to Locus Online

Unquestionably, Alien: Covenant fulfills its contractual obligations: so, if you have been longing to watch scene after scene of lunging aliens latching on the faces of intended victims and gruesomely slaughtering every one of them, this film represents the answer to your prayers. The very open question is whether anyone without that fervent yearning will want to sit through two hours and three minutes of this otherwise lamentable movie.

Faren Miller reviews Brian Staveley

Friday 19 May 2017  |  Reviews

From Locus Magazine's April 2017 issue

Over the course of killings and adventures, Skullsworn explores deeper issues — love and death, humanity and Other — without becoming ponderously profound... Stavely pulls it all off with style.

Gary K. Wolfe reviews John Kessel

Thursday 18 May 2017  |  Reviews

From Locus Magazine's April 2017 issue

The Moon and the Other brilliantly balances character, social commentary, and hard SF in a novel of surprising density and depth of feeling.

Paul Di Filippo reviews Robert Jackson Bennett

Wednesday 17 May 2017  |  Reviews

Special to Locus Online

The rest of the book is a hurdle across many venues, a cat-and-mouse game in which Sigrud and his allies have to stay one step ahead of Nokov to frustrate his plans for world domination. Finished pretty much with any fresh worldbuilding — that activity was executed sufficiently in the first two books — Bennett can now use his well-established venues and cultures as stagesets for incredible action.

New Books : 16 May

Tuesday 16 May 2017  |  Monitor

Nebula Awards Showcase 2017, edited by Julie E. Czerneda, and titles by Campbell, Golden, MacLeod, Rossi, Smale, Turner, and Wallace

This Week's Bestsellers

Monday 15 May 2017  |  Monitor

Sarah J. Maas' A Court of Wings and Ruin debuts prominently on two lists.

Ellen Klages: Magic in the Mix

Sunday 14 May 2017  |  Perspectives

ellen klages
Excerpts from Locus Magazine's May Issue interview

I love short stories. Imagine holding a small carved bowl, its weight and shape and size a perfect fit for two cupped hands. The grain of the wood flows with the bowl's curves. The interplay of light and dark pleases the eye. The texture is silken against your skin. You turn it, admiring the craft, the artistry, and the detail. "It’s lovely," you say, handing it back to its creator. Then you say, "Now when are you going to make something real, like furniture?"

New in Paperback: May

Saturday 13 May 2017  |  Monitor

Guy Gavriel Kay's Children of Earth and Sky, Blake Crouch's Dark Matter, Neil Gaiman's The View from the Cheap Streets, and titles by Andrews, Bear, Coe, DeLillo, Green, Lockwood, Maas, Niven & Barnes, and Ryan

Paul Di Filippo reviews Bud Sparhawk

Friday 12 May 2017  |  Reviews

Special to Locus Online

Sparhawk offers us unflashy, solid tales which nonetheless often extend SF's remit. He never neglects either real technological novums nor humanistic story-telling values. He does not privilege message over entertainment, nor vice versa, but rather tries to keep both in balance. And in the end, he's all about the art and the history and traditions of the genre, not self-aggrandizing grandstanding.

Gary K. Wolfe reviews Elizabeth Hand

Thursday 11 May 2017  |  Reviews

From Locus Magazine's March 2017 issue

PM Press's ongoing series of chapbook miscellanies of "outspoken authors" — basically appetizer-size collections of fiction, non-fiction, and interviews — can at their best convey a sense of meeting an old radical friend in a bar, sharing a few memories, and catching up on things. Elizabeth Hand's Fire, the series' 18th volume, offers a cross-section of Hand's work as both author and critic.

Paul Di Filippo reviews Eric Flint & Mike Resnick

Wednesday 10 May 2017  |  Reviews

Special to Locus Online

Flint and Resnick deliver an outstanding, madcap, goofball adventure, with plenty of surprises and not a dull moment. If you want some points of comparison, I would adduce Ron Goulart, Keith Laumer, James Schmitz and — a fellow who has unfortunately dropped off the publishing map — that master of surreal japes, Philip Palmer.

New Books : 9 May

Tuesday 9 May 2017  |  Monitor

Gregory Benford's The Berlin Project, Ellen Klages' Wicked Wonders, and titles by Hardinge, Hobb, Kenyon, Khaw, Kroese, Rustad, and White

This Week's Bestsellers

Monday 8 May 2017  |  Monitor

Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale ranks #1 on two paperback lists.

Paul Tremblay: Aftermath

Sunday 7 May 2017  |  Perspectives

jane yolen
Excerpts from Locus Magazine's May Issue interview

That's why the emotional lives of characters in books are so interesting to me. I want to know why people react in certain ways to different situations, and what decisions they're going to make after that. In the best horror stories, the horror happens somewhere in the middle. The interesting part for me is the aftermath: "What are people going to do now?"

Periodicals: early May

Saturday 6 May 2017  |  Monitor

New issues of Apex, Clarkesworld, Forever, Galaxy's Edge, GigaNotoSaurus, Lightspeed, Nightmare, Shimmer, and Uncanny

Locus Bestsellers, May

Friday 5 May 2017  |  Magazine

Bestsellers from specialty bookstores are led by V.E. Schwab's A Conjuring of Light, Patricia Briggs' Fire Touched, Ted Chiang's Stories of Your Life and Others, and Claudia Gray's Star Wars: Bloodline.

Locus Magazine's New & Notable Books, May

Thursday 4 May 2017  |  Magazine

May New and Notable books include Ian McDonald's Luna: Wolf Moon and titles by Armstrong, Asher, Britain, Chokshi, Kessel, Lafferty, Matthews, Moon, Robinson, Scalzi, and Silverberg

Cory Doctorow: Weaponized Narrative

Wednesday 3 May 2017  |  Perspectives

cory doctorow
From Locus Magazine's May Issue.

Walkaway is a utopian disaster novel. It's a novel about people doing right for one another under conditions of adversity. It's a deliberate, tactical rebuttal of the science fiction stories (including my own) that resort to the easy, lazy trope of having civilization erupt into violence, rape, and chaos the minute that technology fails.

New Books : 2 May

Tuesday 2 May 2017  |  Monitor

Sharon Lee & Steve Miller's 20th Liaden novel The Gathering Edge, and titles by Bennett, Bennis, Carey, Danker, Douglas, Flint & Resnick, Gaiman & Srinivasan, Hoyt, Hunter, Koch, Kushner, Maas, McLean, Meadows, Ochse, Patel, Rhodes, Wells, and Zahn

This Week's Bestsellers

Monday 1 May 2017  |  Monitor

Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale rises in the rankings.

May 2017 Table of Contents

Monday 1 May 2017  |  Magazine

may issue
The May issue features interviews with Ellen Klages and Paul Tremblay, a column by Cory Doctorow, coverage of the International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts and other conventions, and reviews of short fiction and books by Jonathan Strahan, Jeff VanderMeer, Ian McDonald, Clive Barker, Marie Brennan, and many others.

Online Periodicals: late April

Sunday 30 April 2017  |  Monitor

April posts at Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Daily SF, Fireside, Persistent Visions, Strange Horizons, and Tor.com

Print Periodicals: late April

Saturday 29 April 2017  |  Monitor

New issues of Analog, Asimov's, and Black Static

Gary K. Wolfe reviews Kim Stanley Robinson

Friday 28 April 2017  |  Reviews

From Locus Magazine's March 2017 issue

In contrast to the Dos Passos expansiveness of 2312 and despite its panoramic title, New York 2140 is a comparatively intimate tale of a handful of representative characters whose paths cross in various ways in a New York defiantly rebuilding after two separate "pulses" have left sea levels something like 50 feet higher than they are now.

Classics In Reprint: April

Thursday 27 April 2017  |  Monitor

The first volumes of The Best of Gordon R. Dickson and Seabury Quinn's The Complete Tales of Jules de Grandin, and titles by Jeter, Lee, and Niven & Pournelle

Paul Di Filippo reviews Poul Anderson

Wednesday 26 April 2017  |  Reviews

Special to Locus Online

The date range is almost identical to that of the selections in The Best of Gordon R. Dickson: Volume 1 that I reviewed earlier this month. And right up front, I believe we can make an important distinction along these lines. Poul Anderson was simply the better and more influential and consequential writer of the pair...

New Books : 25 April

Tuesday 25 April 2017  |  Monitor

Jeff VanderMeer's Borne, Cory Doctorow's Walkaway, and titles by Brennan, Broaddus, Honeywell, Maberry, and Staveley

This Week's Bestsellers

Monday 24 April 2017  |  Monitor

Timothy Zahn's Star Wars: Thrawn ranks #2 at New York Times and Publishers Weekly

Paul Di Filippo reviews Allen Steele

Sunday 23 April 2017  |  Reviews

Special to Locus Online

After being more or less defunct for decades, this seems to be Captain Future's time to be reborn. The Captain's retro yet timeless virtues — both the hero's personal creed and the narrative stylings — are arguably congruent with cultural trends today toward a desired and desirable return to basics and old verities with a useful revisioning.

Adrienne Martini reviews Elan Mastai

Saturday 22 April 2017  |  Reviews

From Locus Magazine's February 2017 issue

This is a science fiction love story that is by turns funny and wistful and smart, while remaining fully invested in how being human feels.

Paul Di Filippo reviews Gordon R. Dickson

Friday 21 April 2017  |  Reviews

Special to Locus Online

Dickson began publishing professionally in 1950, and this first volume of his Best Stories chronicles the years 1954 through 1964 — with one important exception. Editor Hank Davis has wisely and temptingly kicked off the collection with "Love Song," the piece that Dickson sold to Harlan Ellison for Last Dangerous Visions, and which has been unseen since.

New in Paperback: March - April

Thursday 20 April 2017  |  Monitor

Charlie Jane Anders' All the Birds in the Sky, Stephen King's End of Watch, Thomas Olde Heuvelt's HEX, Anna Smaill's The Chimes, and titles by Armstrong, Bauers, Belcher, Campbell, Cherryh, Martinez, Riggs, Seay, and Stewart.

Spotlight on: Rovina Cai, Artist

Wednesday 19 April 2017  |  Perspectives

From Locus Magazine's April Issue

I've just wrapped up illustrating a picture book! It's called Tintinnabula, and is written by Australian SF/F writer Margo Lanagan. One of my favourite things about illustration is getting to delve into a writer's "world," and it has been a delight to explore Margo's.

New Books : 18 April

Tuesday 18 April 2017  |  Monitor

Jonathan Strahan's The Best Science Fiction & Fantasy of the Year Volume Eleven, Sofia Samatar's Tender: Stories, John Joseph Adams' Cosmic Powers, and titles by Armstrong, Carr, Clark, Golden, James, Johnson, Kent, Shea, and Wolf

This Week's Bestsellers

Monday 17 April 2017  |  Monitor

Omar El Akkad's American War debuts on three lists.

20 Years of Locus Online

Monday 17 April 2017  |  About the Website

Locus Online debuted 20 years ago today. Here's a look back at the history of the site, a selection of featured posts, and a gallery of homepage image captures that illustrate the development of the site as web standards evolved over the years.


Kinuko Y. Craft: Light & Shadow

Sunday 16 April 2017  |  Perspectives

jane yolen
Excerpts from Locus Magazine's April Issue interview

One of the benefits I get from doing covers is, I get to read. The main thing I like about what I do is that I'm away from reality and the real world where I live, in a make believe one — a land of someone else's imagina­tion — as long as the project lasts. I need that to survive.

Periodicals: mid-April

Saturday 15 April 2017  |  Monitor

New issues of Aurealis, Intergalactic Medicine Show, Interzone, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, The New York Review of Science Fiction, and Perihelion

Spotlight on: Jeffrey Alan Love, Artist

Friday 14 April 2017  |  Perspectives

From Locus Magazine's April Issue

My first job in SF/F, I think, was working for Irene Gallo for Tor.com, an absolutely wonderful website which has revolutionized short fiction and art in the SF/F field. I couldn't have asked for a better first job.

Gary K. Wolfe reviews Kameron Hurley

Thursday 13 April 2017  |  Reviews

From Locus Magazine's February 2017 issue

While the raw template may be space opera, The Stars Are Legion draws enthusiastically and effectively on a number of mythological and horror traditions as well.

Spotlight on: Paul Lewin, Artist

Wednesday 12 April 2017  |  Perspectives

From Locus Magazine's April Issue

Coming from the perspective of a fine artist, there are only a handful of cover projects that I've been involved with over the years. Without a doubt, though, the most interesting one has been with Seven Stories Press and the reissuing of Octavia Butler's books Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents.

New Books : 11 April

Tuesday 11 April 2017  |  Monitor

Allen Steele's Avengers of the Moon, Elizabeth Moon's Cold Welcome, Gwyneth Jones' Proof of Concept, and titles by Anderson, Beal, Durst, Farland, Maberry, Mason, Pollock, Smith, and Smythe

This Week's Bestsellers

Monday 10 April 2017  |  Monitor

Laini Taylor's Strange the Dreamer debuts on two lists.

Kameron Hurley: How to Write a Book in a Month

Sunday 9 April 2017  |  Perspectives

kameron hurley
From Locus Magazine's April Issue.

We all want to learn how to write books faster. The pace of the news cycle today has heated up to such an extent that for those of us who aren't in the 1% of writers, if we don't come out with a book a year, it feels like the world has forgotten us amid the buzz of ever more intensifying world horror.

Periodicals: early April

Saturday 8 April 2017  |  Monitor

New issues of Abyss & Apex, Apex, Aphelion, Clarkesworld, The Dark, Forever, GigaNotoSaurus, Lightspeed, and Nightmare

Russell Letson reviews Ken MacLeod

Friday 7 April 2017  |  Reviews

From Locus Magazine's February 2017 issue

Ken MacLeod's new trilogy-in-progress bears the overall title The Corporation Wars, with US print editions of the first two volumes, Dissidence and Insurgence, appearing just a month apart late in 2016. (The third, Emergence, is due out later this year.) The story is told from a variety of viewpoints and features a mixture of motifs: the post-human condition, interstellar coloni­zation, and space combat, along with familiar MacLeodian discussions about political systems and revolution.

Locus Bestsellers, April

Thursday 6 April 2017  |  Magazine

weeks
Bestsellers from specialty bookstores are led by James S.A. Corey's Babylon's Ashes, Neil Gaiman's American Gods, Philip K. Dick's The Man in the High Castle, and Alexander Freed's Rogue One.

Liz Bourke reviews Charles Stross

Wednesday 5 April 2017  |  Reviews

From Locus Magazine's February 2017 issue

Empire Games is the start of a new trilogy, set in the world of his Merchant Princes novels (six books, now released as three omnibus edi­tions), but several years on from the nuclear events that punctuated those novels.

New Books : 4 April

Tuesday 4 April 2017  |  Monitor

John Kessel's The Moon and the Other, Omar El Akkad's American War, Aliette de Bodard's The House of Binding Thorns, Neil Clarke's The Best Science Fiction of the Year, Volume Two, and titles by Cherryh, Dolkart, Emrys, Flint & Barber, Jacka, Jennings, Lawrence, Lee, Matthews, Neuvel, North, O'Keefe, Priest, and Yatsuhashi

This Week's Bestsellers

Monday 3 April 2017  |  Monitor

John Scalzi's The Collapsing Empire debuts on two lists.

Locus Magazine's New & Notable Books, April

Sunday 2 April 2017  |  Magazine

April New and Notable books include Edmund Gordon's The Invention of Angela Carter: A Biography, George Saunders' Lincoln in the Bardo, and titles by Bledsoe, Carey, Donnelly, Nix, Palmer, Pratt, Rosetti & Rayyan, Schwab, and Spinrad.

Back to the Retrofuture, Version 2.0: A Review of Ghost in the Shell


Saturday 1 April 2017  |  Reviews

Special to Locus Online

Ghost in the Shell is most definitely a film worth seeing, and no one who buys a ticket will feel cheated afterwards; they may especially appreciate the film, as I did, as an unusually artful rendering of all the things that people used to worry about in the 1980s. Still, like me, they may also conclude that the film just wasn’t their cup of tea.

April 2017 Table of Contents

Saturday 1 April 2017  |  Magazine

april issue
The April issue features an interview with Kinuko Y. Craft and spotlights of artists Paul Lewin, Jeffrey Alan Love, and Rovina Cai, an obituary and appreciations for Susan Casper, a column by Kameron Hurley, a report on SF in Portugal, and reviews of short fiction and books by John Kessel, Brian Staveley, Robert Charles Wilson, Alex Wells, and many others.

Periodicals: late March

Friday 31 March 2017  |  Monitor

Fourth issue of new quarterly 'zine Into the Ruins, and March issues and content at Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Daily SF, Fireside, Persistent Visions, Strange Horizons, Terraform, and Tor.com

Liz Bourke reviews Lara Elena Donnelly

Thursday 30 March 2017  |  Reviews

From Locus Magazine's March 2017 issue

Amberlough isn't a cheerful book, but it has an amazing voice. Its spy-thriller twists and ever-growing tension combine to provide an extraordinarily entertaining ride. And I have to say: if this is her debut? I can't wait to see what Donnelly does next.

John Langan reviews Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Wednesday 29 March 2017  |  Reviews

From Locus Magazine's March 2017 issue

With Certain Dark Things, Silvia Moreno-Garcia demonstrates that there is always more to be done with familiar figures such as the vampire, and that in the hands of a talented writer, the creatures can rise to new (un)life.

New Books : 28 March

Tuesday 28 March 2017  |  Monitor

Ian McDonald's Luna: Wolf Moon and titles by Eves, McDermott, Sapkowski, Taylor, and Westerfeld

This Week's Bestsellers

Monday 27 March 2017  |  Monitor

A new edition of Rowling's Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Kim Stanley Robinson's New York 2140, and Andrzej Sapowski's The Lady of the Lake debut.

Classics In Reprint: March

Sunday 26 March 2017  |  Monitor

The seventh volume of Collected Short Works of Poul Anderson, a 50th-anniversary edition of Ira Levin's Rosemary's Baby, and new editions of novels by Richard Bowes and Tanith Lee

Mutiny of the Unknown Alien Slime: A Review of Life


Saturday 25 March 2017  |  Reviews

Special to Locus Online

From one perspective, Life represents yet another example of a recent Hollywood trend that I find heartening — a renewed interest in realistic depictions of humanity's probable future in space. ... Regrettably, however, Life ultimately becomes a conventional, and sometimes silly, horror film.

Russell Letson reviews Cory Doctorow

Friday 24 March 2017  |  Reviews

From Locus Magazine's March 2017 issue

For all of its engagement with What's Happenin' Now, Baby, Walkaway feels like good old-fashioned science fiction: part thrill-ride, part warning, part all-night political wrangle with your really smart college roommate.

Gary K. Wolfe reviews Cat Sparks

Thursday 23 March 2017  |  Reviews

From Locus Magazine's March 2017 issue

[Her] fine first novel Lotus Blue, set in a far future Australian wasteland, is as evocative of Terry Dowling's Rynosseros stories, with their neat sandships, or even of David R. Bunch's surreal Moderan stories, as it is of George Miller's monster truck rallies.

Paul Di Filippo reviews Caitlín R. Kiernan

Wednesday 22 March 2017  |  Reviews

Special to Locus Online

The heterogeneous tales assembled in this collection display Kiernan's large but tightly interlocked range of interests. Outsiders, art, the elements, transcendence, sex, love, failure, responsibility.

New Books : 21 March

Tuesday 21 March 2017  |  Monitor

John Scalzi's The Collapsing Empire, Mishell Baker's Phantom Pains, and titles by Allan, Asher, Clarke, Cornell, Fujii, Lebbon, Strickland & Miller, and Weis & Krammes

This Week's Bestsellers

Monday 20 March 2017  |  Monitor

Patricia Briggs' Silence Fallen, Mohsin Hamid's Exit West, and Anne Bishop's Etched in Bone debut.

Paul Di Filippo reviews Kim Stanley Robinson

Sunday 19 March 2017  |  Reviews

Special to Locus Online

This book is amiable, humorous, good-natured, optimistic, in love with the quotidian and with the crazy quilt adaptive existence that life under stress assumes. Robinson gives us a host of fascinating, interlocking plots, and some of them have global resonance.

Periodicals: mid-March

Saturday 18 March 2017  |  Monitor

New issues of Apex, Aphelion, The New York Review of Science Fiction, Perihelion, and Uncanny

New in Paperback: February - March

Friday 17 March 2017  |  Monitor

Robert J. Sawyer's Quantum Night, Allen Steele's Arkwright, and titles by Abercrombie, Brennan, Das, Lawrence, Locke, Oyeyemi, Staveley, Straub, Tremblay, and Valente

Adrienne Martini reviews Carrie Vaughn

Thursday 16 March 2017  |  Reviews

From Locus Magazine's February 2017 issue

Carrie Vaughn's Martians Abroad clearly shares DNA with Heinlein's juveniles, and is, the author states, and homage to Podkayne of Mars.

Paul Di Filippo reviews Paul La Farge

Thursday 15 March 2017  |  Reviews

Special to Locus Online

Put most simplistically, it's a novel examining the friendship between H. P. Lovecraft and his teenage pal, Robert Barlow, who became HPL's literary executor. But it's also much more than that, as we shall see.

New Books : 14 March

Tuesday 14 March 2017  |  Monitor

Kim Stanley Robinson's New York 2140 and titles by Fletcher, Helmreich, Knaak, Murad & Shurin, Neumeier, Newman, and Xue

This Week's Bestsellers

Monday 13 March 2017  |  Monitor

Kristen Britain's Firebrand debuts; George Saunders' Lincoln in the Bardo and Neil Gaiman's Norse Mythology rank #1 or #2 on four lists.

Jane Yolen: Accidental Novelist

Sunday 12 March 2017  |  Perspectives

jane yolen
Excerpts from Locus Magazine's March Issue interview

Children's books and young-adult books and fantasy have this in common: the best are writ­ten like poems. They have metaphor, they have astonishing lyrical prose, and they work on mul­tiple levels. They are a gateway drug to beautiful literature, and shouldn't be dismissed.

Bungle in the Jungle: A Review of Kong: Skull Island


Saturday 11 March 2017  |  Reviews

Special to Locus Online

Kong: Skull Island actually begins quite promisingly, as we are introduced to a diverse and generally appealing cast of characters, and they gather together to journey to the mysterious Skull Island and confront the enormous, and initially hostile, King Kong. ... Unfortunately, the film devolves into an iterative, and increasingly unpleasant, series of variations on the two basic set pieces observed in all giant monster movies: humans vs. monster, and monster vs. monster.

Locus Magazine's Forthcoming Books: Selected Titles through December 2017

Friday 10 March 2017  |  Resources

Titles from Locus Magazine's March issue listings of Selected Forthcoming Books by Author are arranged here by month.

Locus Bestsellers, March

Thursday 9 March 2017  |  Magazine

weeks
Bestsellers from specialty bookstores are led by James S.A. Corey's Babylon's Ashes, Patrick Rothfuss' The Name of the Wind, Ted Chiang's Stories of Your Life and Others, and James Luceno's Star Wars: Catalyst.

Gary K. Wolfe reviews Ken Liu

Wednesday 8 March 2017  |  Reviews

From Locus Magazine's February 2017 issue

The Wall of Storms is a far more complex and rewarding novel than The Grace of Kings — unusual for the middle book in a series, and equally unusual is that it can be appreciated largely as a standalone.

New Books : 7 March

Tuesday 7 March 2017  |  Monitor

Paul La Farge's The Night Ocean, Ada Palmer's Seven Surrenders, Jaroslav Kalfar's Spaceman of Bohemia, Cat Sparks' Lotus Blue, and titles by Bailey & Schmidt, Bishop, Bledsoe, Briggs, Butler, Christopher, Claycomb, Fortune, Hamilton, Henderson, Maresca, McClellan, McGuire, Rieder, and Wells

Langan reviews Pinborough: They Say a Girl Died Here Once

Monday 6 March 2017  |  Reviews

From Locus Magazine's March 2017 issue

The family at the heart of They Say a Girl Died Here Once, Sarah Pinborough's excellent new novel, is in retreat. Three years prior to the book's opening, Anna, its teenaged protagonist, was slipped a date-rape drug at a party....

This Week's Bestsellers

Monday 6 March 2017  |  Monitor

V.E. Schwab's A Conjuring of Light and Chuck Wendig's Empire's End: Aftermath debut; George Saunders' Lincoln in the Bardo and Neil Gaiman's Norse Mythology rank #1 and #2 on three lists.

John Joseph Adams: The Stars His Destination

Sunday 5 March 2017  |  Perspectives

john joseph adams
Excerpts from Locus Magazine's March Issue interview

Having read The Stars My Destination, I went on a quest to find more books like it, and ultimately that's what led to me becoming an editor — to driving myself to find things that would challenge me as a reader and change the way I read.

Periodicals: early March

Saturday 4 March 2017  |  Monitor

New issues of Aurealis, Clarkesworld, Forever, Galaxy's Edge, GigaNotoSaurus, Lightspeed, Mythis Delirium, Nightmare, and Shimmer

Locus Magazine's New & Notable Books, March

Friday 3 March 2017  |  Magazine

March New and Notable books include Mur Lafferty's Six Wakes and titles by Bond, Brust & White, Datlow, Delany, Dyer, Hand, Matthews, McGuire, Okorafor, Stross, and Vaughn

Cory Doctorow: The Jubilee: Fill Your Boots

Thursday 2 March 2017  |  Perspectives

cory doctorow
From Locus Magazine's March Issue.

Technology hints at another model, one that hybridizes the pre-industrial rhythms of work and play and the super-modern ability to use computers to solve otherwise transcendentally hard logistics and coordi­nation problems.

March 2017 Table of Contents

Wednesday 1 March 2017  |  Magazine

march issue
The March issue features interviews with Jane Yolen and John Joseph Adams, listings of forthcoming books through December 2017, a column by Cory Doctorow, an obituary with appreciations for Edward Bryant, and reviews of short fiction and books by Kim Stanley Robinson, Cory Doctorow, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Lara Elena Donnelly, Henry Kuttner, Shaun Tan, and many others.

New Books : 28 February

Tuesday 28 February 2017  |  Monitor

Rob Latham's Science Fiction Criticism: An Anthology of Essential Writings, the US edition of Alastair Reynolds' Revenger, and titles by Britain, Broaddus, Dawidziak, Hoover, Kadrey, Kiernan, Lewis, Marr, Martinez, Millet, Nix, Skovron, and Wendig

This Week's Bestsellers

Monday 27 February 2017  |  Monitor

George Saunders' Lincoln in the Bardo debuts at #1 on three lists; Neil Gaiman's Norse Mythology is #2 on the same three lists.

Periodicals: late February

Sunday 26 February 2017  |  Monitor

New issues of Analog and Asimov's (its 40th-anniversary issue), and February content at Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Daily SF, Strange Horizons, and Tor.com

Classics In Reprint: February

Saturday 25 February 2017  |  Monitor

New editions of books by William Gibson, K.W. Jeter, Philip Francis Nowlan, and Michael Swanwick

Liz Bourke reviews Bookburners

Friday 24 February 2017  |  Reviews

From Locus Magazine's February 2017 issue

Book­burners Season 1 might top 200,000 words, but it reaches that total in 16 novelette-to-short-novella-length episodes. Structurally, then, it's a lot more like a television show than a serial novel — as it's intended to be. A supernatural copshow/caper/spies and intrigue television show, with added complicated team dynamics.

Rich Horton reviews Short Fiction

Thursday 23 February 2017  |  Reviews

From Locus Magazine's January 2017 issue

F&SF for November/December features a rare and welcome appearance from Gardner Dozois, whose fame as an editor should not cause us to forget how good his fiction is...

Faren Miller reviews S. Jae-Jones

Wednesday 22 February 2017  |  Reviews

From Locus Magazine's February 2017 issue

Historically, "The Earl-King" (Der Erlkönig), "Unfinished Sym­phony", the title piece, and more are works by Franz Schubert. Jae-Jones plays her own games by reimagining and recasting him as the heroine's young violin-virtuoso brother (not a composer in his own right), while still invoking the full pas­sion of the time when Baroque gave way to early Romantic — and the world changed.

New Books : 21 February

Tuesday 21 February 2017  |  Monitor

Meg Elison's The Book of Etta, Michael Tolkin's NK3, and titles by Dayton, Dornbusch, Eames, Hogan, Lyons, Schwab, and Sharp

This Week's Bestsellers

Monday 20 February 2017  |  Monitor

Neil Gaiman's Norse Mythology rank #1 on two print lists.

Gary K. Wolfe reviews Nnedi Okorafor

Sunday 19 February 2017  |  Reviews

From Locus Magazine's January 2017 issue

Binti: Home opens about a year after that earlier story began as a quiet coming-of-age story, turned suddenly into a survival adventure, and ended with Binti playing a key role in a kind of revolution.

Periodicals: mid-February

Saturday 18 February 2017  |  Monitor

New issues of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Apex, Aphelion, Aurealis, Forever, Intergalactic Medicine Show, Mothership Zeta, and Perihelion

Paul Di Filippo reviews Elan Mastai

Thursday 16 February 2017  |  Reviews

Special to Locus Online

The first thing to note is that although Mastai might very well have been raised outside strict genre borders, he exhibits a playful fluency with, and is creatively savvy about, all the genre appurtenances and furniture. His does not make a single misstep with his speculations or language.

Paul Di Filippo reviews Richard Kadrey

Wednesday 15 February 2017  |  Reviews

Special to Locus Online

Lastly, and possibly the biggest attraction of the book, is the sheer language. Like S. J. Perelman writing for the Marx Brothers, combined with Raymond Chandler's propensity for over-the-top similes and metaphors, Kadrey's language pops off the page, whether as dialogue or description.

New Books : 14 February

Tuesday 14 February 2017  |  Monitor

Peter S. Beagle's In Calabria, Steve Erickson's Shadowbahn, George Saunders' Lincoln in the Bardo, and titles by Brodsky, Carey, Danielewski, Duncan, Hand, James, Jordan, Tem, and Wells

This Week's Bestsellers

Monday 13 February 2017  |  Monitor

Neil Gaiman's Norse Mythology ranks high on all three Amazon lists.

Alastair Reynolds: Expanding Universe

Sunday 12 February 2017  |  Perspectives

alastair reynolds
Excerpts from Locus Magazine's February Issue interview

The other seed of Revenger came from when I really fell in love with science fiction, around the time I was 16. That's when I was absolutely besotted with Larry Niven and the Known Space stories...

New in Paperback: January - February

Saturday 11 February 2017  |  Monitor

Ada Palmer's Too Like the Lightning and titles by Bishop, Briggs, Carriger, Harris, Hines, Jones, Kadrey, Lyris, McAuley, McIntosh, Neuvel, North, Pratchett & Baxter, and Sullivan

Faren Miller reviews Laura Eve

Friday 10 February 2017  |  Reviews

From Locus Magazine's January 2017 issue

What is myth for the new millennium? In The Graces, Laure Eve confronts what's left of the old with something that might take its place (no galactic empires required).

Paul Di Filippo reviews Norman Spinrad

Thursday 9 February 2017  |  Reviews

Special to Locus Online

Spinrad revels in the juicy, sleazy, all-too-human Machiavellian machinations of all the parties, the rebels and the establishment alike. His ability to chart thrust and counter-thrust is akin to that of some television political strategist following the twists and turns of national affairs.

Kameron Hurley: If You Want to Level Up, Get Back to the Basics

Wednesday 8 February 2017  |  Perspectives

kameron hurley
From Locus Magazine's February Issue.

There are few things, for me, that are as equally depressing and energiz­ing as reading a really great book. Great books are why I got into this business in the first place, which is why I'm often so shocked when I hear from other professional writers that they don't read anymore.

New Books : 7 February

Tuesday 7 February 2017  |  Monitor

Samuel R. Delany's journals In Search of Silence, Neil Gaiman's Norse Mythology, Kameron Hurley's The Stars Are Legion, Norman Spinrad's The People's Police, and titles by Ambrose, Beaulieu, Blackmoore, Clarke, Datlow, Donnelly, Fischl, Gannon, Harrison, Isaacson, Jae-Jones, Mastai, Sagara, Savory, Spencer, Taylor, and Wallace

This Week's Bestsellers

Monday 6 February 2017  |  Monitor

Terry Goodkind's Death's Mistress and Neil Gaiman's Norse Mythology debut; Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale is #1 this morning at Amazon.com; Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four is #1 at USA Today and Washington Post.

Periodicals: early February

Sunday 5 February 2017  |  Monitor

New issues of Clarkesworld, The Dark, Fireside, GigaNotoSaurus, Lightspeed, Mythic Delirium, The New York Review of Science Fiction, Nightmare, and Persistent Visions

The Boy Who Fell to Earth: A Review of The Space Between Us


Saturday 4 February 2017  |  Reviews

Special to Locus Online

Like a NASA rocket slowly rising from the surface, The Space Between Us takes a long time to achieve escape velocity and soar through space; however, if you can endure one of the most boring opening sequences in any film I can recall, and about an hour of trite melodramatic sequences interspersed with inauthentic personal drama, its last thirty minutes are actually quite enjoyable, even moving.

Locus Bestsellers, February

Friday 3 February 2017  |  Magazine

weeks
Bestsellers from specialty bookstores are led by Brent Weeks' The Blood Mirror, Neil Gaiman's American Gods, Ted Chiang's Stories of Your Life and Others, and R.A. Salvatore's Forgotten Realms: Homecoming Book III: Hero

Locus Magazine's New & Notable Books, February

Thursday 2 February 2017  |  Magazine

February New and Notable books include Karen Lord's anthology New Worlds, Old Ways: Speculative Tales from the Caribbean and titles by Arden, Bear, Dellamonica & Berman, Dellamonica, Dennard, Gemmell, Gilman, Heller & Viola, Littlewood, MacLeod, and Pinborough.

February 2017 Table of Contents

Wednesday 1 February 2017  |  Magazine

february issue
The February issue features an interview with Alastair Reynolds and the annual Year in Review with essays by Gary K. Wolfe, Paul Kincaid, Geoff Ryman, Gardner Dozois, and many others; the Locus Recommended Reading List, the Locus Poll and Survey ballot, a column by Kameron Hurley, and reviews of short fiction and books by Kameron Hurley, S. Jae-Jones, Ian McDonald, Ken MacLeod, and many others.

New Books : 31 January

Tuesday 31 January 2017  |  Monitor

Nnedi Okorafor's Binti: Home, Thoraiya Dyer's debut novel Crossroads of Canopy, Mur Lafferty's Six Wakes, and titles by Aaronovitch, Gladstone, Goodman, Goodwin, and Shearin

This Week's Bestsellers

Monday 30 January 2017  |  Monitor

Titles by Veronica Roth and Karen Marie Moning debut; George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four has been #1 on Amazon.com most of the past week; other dystopian titles by Atwood, Bradbury, Huxley, Lewis, and Orwell also rank on Amazon lists.

Spotlight on: Kelly Abbott, Great Jones Street

Sunday 29 January 2017  |  Perspectives

kelly abbott
From Locus Magazine's January Issue

Great Jones Street is the Netflix of Fiction. We mean that seriously, as both a business model and a battle cry. We feature short fiction. We curate. We package it nicely into a great user experience.

Periodicals: late January

Saturday 28 January 2017  |  Monitor

New issues of Black Static and Interzone, and January posts at Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Daily Science Fiction, Strange Horizons, and Tor.com

Gary K. Wolfe reviews Ellen Klages

Friday 27 January 2017  |  Reviews

From Locus Magazine's January 2017 issue

Passing Strange may be the most fully developed and richly detailed of all of Klages's stories for adults, but it never feels like it needs to be a longer novel...

Classics In Reprint: January

Thursday 26 January 2017  |  Monitor

New editions of books by Lois McMaster Bujold, David G. Hartwell, William Hope Hodgson, Keith Laumer, Kim Stanley Robinson, and Clark Ashton Smith, and an anthology of short fiction from Hank Davis

Liz Bourke reviews Wesley Chu

Wednesday 25 January 2017  |  Reviews

From Locus Magazine's December 2016 issue

The Rise of Io is a messy, scrappy, and yet incred­ibly fun science fiction thriller with extra body-snatching (more like body-sharing) aliens.

New Books : 24 January

Tuesday 24 January 2017  |  Monitor

Stephen Baxter's Wells sequel The Massacre of Mankind, Ellen Klages' Passing Strange, Tom Toner's The Weight of the World, and titles by Brust & White, Crilley, Goodkind, Kemp, Newman, and Price

This Week's Bestsellers

Monday 23 January 2017  |  Monitor

Susan Dennard's YA fantasy Windwitch debuts on two lists; George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four ranks #6 this morning on Amazon.com

Spotlight on: Ellen Kushner, Tremontaine

Sunday 22 January 2017  |  Perspectives

ellen kushner
From Locus Magazine's January Issue

The other writers have made it more real. The world is already a great big stewpot of periods, books, and cities I love. But I've only explored certain corners of it. A real world is vast and full of complexities and contradictions.

Periodicals: mid-January

Saturday 21 January 2017  |  Monitor

New issues of The Dark, Fantastic Stories of the Imagination, MOSF Journal of Science Fiction, and Perihelion

Adrienne Martini reviews Bob Proehl

Friday 20 January 2017  |  Reviews

From Locus Magazine's December 2016 issue

I thought I knew what Bob Proehl's A Hundred Thousand Worlds would be about be­fore I even cracked the spine. It's about comic book conventions, the blurbs on the back said...

New in Paperback: January

Thursday 19 January 2017  |  Monitor

Joe Hill's The Fireman, Dexter Palmer's Version Control, and titles by Asher, Bara, Dennard, Hemstreet, Kadrey, Marshall, Sanderson, and Schwab

Paul Di Filippo reviews David Brin & Stephen W. Potts

Wednesday 18 January 2017  |  Reviews

Special to Locus Online

David Brin's The Transparent Society (1998) surveyed the new technology that is driving us towards more and more disclosure, and drew fresh new conclusions about the issues. Now, still cogitating on the ramifications of these issues, and displaying admirable tenacity and dedication to the cause, Brin offers an anthology of fiction on the topic, featuring a stellar lineup of contributors.

New Books : 17 January

Tuesday 17 January 2017  |  Monitor

Charles Stross' Empire Games, Neil Clarke's anthology Galactic Empires, and titles by Germain, Graham & Land, McDermott, Moning, Roth, Vaughn, and White

This Week's Bestsellers

Monday 16 January 2017  |  Monitor

Cixin Liu's The Three-Body Problem ranks #53 on Amazon.com this morning, after Obama plugs it in today's NYT

Blake Charlton: Forward & Backward

Sunday 15 January 2017  |  Perspectives

blake charlton
Excerpts from Locus Magazine's January Issue interview

You'd think failing kindergarten would be difficult to do, but I did it rather spectacularly. ... The book went around the class, and soon after that my parents got called in. My teacher said, 'When Blake had the book, he held it upside down when he read from it.'

Paul Di Filippo reviews Gordon Eklund

Saturday 14 January 2017  |  Reviews

Special to Locus Online

Few occasions give more pleasure to a reader than witnessing the unexpected return to print of a long-silent author who once had a rewarding, admirable career. This time around, the satisfaction derives from the appearance of Cosmic Fusion, by Gordon Eklund.

Gary K. Wolfe reviews Emmi Itäranta

Friday 13 January 2017  |  Reviews

From Locus Magazine's December 2016 issue

The Weaver, published earlier this year in England under the far more evocative title The City of Woven Streets, is the second novel from the Finnish writer Emmi Itäranta, whose post-apocalyptic SF novel The Memory of Water deservedly gained attention a couple of years ago, largely because of her evocative, lyrical prose (she apparently writes simultaneously in Finnish and English). That prose serves her well in The Weaver...

Locus Bestsellers, January

Thursday 12 January 2017  |  Magazine

weeks
Bestsellers from specialty bookstores are led by Brent Weeks' The Blood Mirror, Neil Gaiman's American Gods, N.K. Jemisin's The Fifth Season, and Alan Dean Foster's Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Paul Di Filippo reviews Henry Kuttner

Wednesday 11 January 2017  |  Reviews

Special to Locus Online

Nearly seven hundred pages of fiction by Kuttner from the short span of 1937 to 1940 finds the Golden Age Master even more deft and wide-ranging than in that first volume, Terror in the House... The sure hand and clever wit that would be fully on display under John Campbell's Golden Age guidance appear in stronger and more lasting flashes here.

New Books : 10 January

Tuesday 10 January 2017  |  Monitor

David Brin & Stephen W. Potts' Chasing Shadows: Visions of Our Coming Transparent World and titles by Arden, Cogman, Dennard, Gilman, Liggett, and McGuire

This Week's Bestsellers

Monday 9 January 2017  |  Monitor

Whitehead's The Underground Railroad and Chabon's Moonglow each ranks #1.

Mary Robinette Kowal: The Familiar & the Strange

Sunday 8 January 2017  |  Perspectives

mary robinette kowal
Excerpts from Locus Magazine's January Issue interview

It wasn't really until I started to get into the novel that I buckled down and did some more research and realized how much perceived knowledge I had about the First World War was completely wrong and very American-centric. You watch these war movies, and it's all about the men at the battlefront. I did not realize at all how heavily involved women were in the First World War, and how directly tied it was to suffrage.

Electronic Periodicals: early January

Saturday 7 January 2017  |  Monitor

New issues of Abyss & Apex, Apex, Aurealis, Clarkesworld, Galaxy's Edge, GigaNotoSaurus, Intergalactic Medicine Show, Kaleidotrope, Lightspeed, Mythic Delirium, Nightmare, Shimmer, and Uncanny

Print Periodicals: January

Friday 6 January 2017  |  Monitor

New issues of Analog and Asimov's, both now bi-monthly; Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet, and The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction

Locus Magazine's New & Notable Books, January

Thursday 5 January 2017  |  Magazine

January New and Notable books include Richard A. Lupoff's Where Memory Hides: A Writer's Life and titles by Beukes, Chabon, Corey, Duchamp, Ellis, Kuttner, MacLeod, Milford, Sanderson, Shusterman, Sterling, Strahan, Kai Ashante Wilson, and Robert Charles Wilson.

Cory Doctorow: It's Time to Short Surveillance and Go Long on Freedom

Wednesday 4 January 2017  |  Perspectives

cory doctorow
From Locus Magazine's January Issue.

Let's say for the sake of argument that you voted for Donald Trump and you're ecstatic that he's taking the White House.

New Books : 3 January

Tuesday 3 January 2017  |  Monitor

A study of American SF films, and titles by Bara, Bedford, Buettner, Flint, Forstchen, Hendee & Hendee, McKinley, Modesitt, Moore, Older, Pratchett, Scalzi, Scull, Jen Williams, and Tad Williams

This Week's Bestsellers

Monday 2 January 2017  |  Monitor

The novelization Rogue One: A Star Wars Story debuts on two lists.

January 2017 Table of Contents

Sunday 1 January 2017  |  Magazine

january issue
The January issue features interviews with Mary Robinette Kowal and Blake Charlton, a column by Cory Doctorow, spotlights on Ellen Kushner and Kelly Abbott, and reviews of short fiction and books by Colson Whitehead, Laure Eve, Ben Aaronovitch, Ellen Klages, Jonathan Strahan and many others.



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July 2017

Cory Doctorow interview
Sam J. Miller interview
Cory Doctorow column






Locus seeks InternsDigital Editions available



Dario Ciriello Guest Post–“Art and Revolt”

Wed 05 Jul

The main rule of writing is that if you do it with enough assurance and confidence, you?re allowed to do whatever you like. (That may be a rule for life as well as for writing. But it?s definitely true for writing.) So write your story as it needs to be written. Write it honestly, and tell it as ...
Scott Westerfeld Guest Post–“Sisters and Family in Spill Zone”

Thu 04 May

Spill Zone is about what we’re left with after our family is destroyed. It’s about two sisters, Addison and Lexa, who’ve lost their parents and hometown in an event called the Spill. The older sister, Addison, is left with the task of raising and providing for Lexa, which is in some ways like try...







China wholesale online at DHgate








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