There were no review copies this week, but I had to of course get a book for National Buy a Book day. How could I not after last year when I bought my favorite book of the year on that day (Elfland by Freda Warrington)? Aftermath by Ann Aguirre This is the fifth book in the Sirantha Jax series, and I really enjoy these books so I had to get the latest one since it just came out! These are […]

Embassytown is the latest book by China Mieville, who is perhaps best known for his novel Perdido Street Station.  He’s written several books in the speculative fiction genre, some of which have won major awards, including the Arthur C. Clarke Award, the Hugo Award, and the World Fantasy Award. Embassytown, a science fiction novel, came out in hardcover and ebook formats this year and will be released in trade paperback in January 2012. Since I’ve heard a lot about China Mieville […]

Jeff Vandermeer is working on a book titled If You Lived Here: The Top 30 All Time Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Worlds for Underland Press. They are looking for nominations from readers on their favorite fantasy and science fiction worlds, and it’s possible they may request to use what you have to say about one of your favorite imaginary worlds in the book. I’ve been thinking about submitting some myself, but I’m having a horrible time limiting it to […]

Today I learned about the Russ Pledge from this week’s SF Signal Mind Meld post, which addressed the importance of it in science fiction today. In case you don’t know what it is, it was proposed by Nicola Griffith and it’s a very simple idea – it simply means making an effort to talk about female writers and their work.  The name comes from Joanna Russ, who wrote the book How to Suppress Women’s Writing.  This has been a hot […]

Song of Scarabaeus, a debut science fiction novel by Sara Creasy, was nominated for both the Philip K. Dick Award and the Aurealis Award for Best SF Novel.  Its sequel and the conclusion to the story, Children of Scarabeaus, was released earlier this year. When Edie has to leave lunch to look into a freight car that stopped working properly, she figures it’s all part of the job.  Instead, her guard is knocked out by a woman carrying a weapon […]

The Children of the Sky is Vernor Vinge’s sequel to his iconic book A Fire Upon the Deep, which was first released almost twenty years ago (that sentence makes me feel kind of old…alas).  Another Vinge book, A Deepness in the Sky, is set in the same universe but is largely unrelated to the other two, and there have been various other related works as well.  Children is the first direct sequel though, set in the ten years following the […]