This October marks the 40th anniversary of the publication of Redwall, the first installment of Brian Jacques' long-running fantasy series, and after that milestone, it appears that the series is going to grow a little bigger. The Redwall Wiki reports that a 23rd installment of the series will be published in 2027, Orphans of Mossflower.

Set in a fantastical fantasy world populated by talking animals, the series generally follows the inhabitants of the Redwall Abbey in Mossflower Woods. Redwall introduced readers to a heroic mouse named Matthias, a monk in the Abbey, who dreamt of following in the footsteps of the Abbey's founder, Martin the Warrior. Over the course of the series, Jacques jumped from era to era, with his various heroes facing off against some sort of threat to their home, often following in the footsteps of their heroic ancestors, before exploring their story in another installment. The series includes 22 novels in Jacques' lifetime, the last of which, The Rogue Crew, was published in 2011, not long after Jacques passed away at the age of 71.

Earlier this year, the folks at the Redwall Wiki discovered that Penguin Random House was set to publish a special boxed set of the series in conjunction with the 40th anniversary, only to delay that release until 2027 (the 40th anniversary of Redwall's publication in the US). Now, they've found an additional listing: Orphans of Mossflower, which is set to be published alongside the boxed set and a a larger celebration of the franchise, which will include repackaging the books with new cover art.

There have long been rumors that Jacques left behind an unfinished novel when he died. In 2010, Penguin Random House launched a contest for readers to name a character for an upcoming novel, and in 2015, the Wiki revealed that a fan had won the contest, but her character, a haremaiden named Reisa Kartwell, didn't appear in the The Rogue Crew, leading the Wiki to believe that another installment was in the works.

That appears to be the case, based on the listing in Edelweiss, a publishing marketing and sales platform. (For what it's worth, I can't seem to find it, but it's also a ... platform that isn't very intuitively searchable, and it's possible that there are catalogs that I don't have access to). Beyond the title and September 2027 release date, there's nothing else known about the book: the plot, where it takes place in the series, or more importantly, to what extent it was completed prior to Jacques' death.

The news comes after some disappointing developments with another Redwall project, an animated television series that Netflix began working on in 2021. Earlier this year, we learned that the streaming service wasn't moving forward with the series – a shame, given that it's a rich story that would have lent itself well to younger viewers. There was a television adaptation that ran from 1999 through 2002, following the events of Redwall, Mattimeo, and Martin the Warrior.

Hopefully, with this upcoming anniversary, we'll not only get a new adventure to bring us back into the world one last time, but a broader, newfound interest in the stories for an entirely new generation of younger readers.

DragonCon took over Atlanta, Georgia this last holiday weekend, and part of the festivities include the presentation of this year's Dragon Awards.

The award has been handed out annually for the last decade, and its winners are decided by an open call for votes from fandom at large. This year's winners come right on the heels of this year's Hugo Awards, and I've always found this awards slate to be a solid list of popular books to check out.

I was particularly pleased to see that Joe Hill's King Sorrow earned the award for Best Horror, given that it's ya' know, about dragons (and it's excellent). I was also a little surprised that Matt Dinniman's latest installment of his Dungeon Crawler Carl series, A Parade of Horribles didn't get a nod, but given his popularity, I'm not surprised that his non-DCC book, Operation Bounce House, won for science fiction.

Here are this year's winners (marked in bold):

Best Science Fiction Novel

• The Faith of Beasts by James S.A. Corey
• Radiant Star by Ann Leckie
• Operation Bounce House by Matt Dinniman
• Slow Gods by Claire North
• The Shattering Peace by John Scalzi
• God’s Junk Drawer by Peter Clines

Best Fantasy Novel (Including Paranormal)

• Red City by Marie Lu
• Queen Demon by Martha Wells
• Academy of Outcasts by Larry Correia
• Hell to Pay by Sherrilyn Kenyon
• The Lost Reliquary by Lyndsay Ely
• Twelve Months by Jim Butcher

Best Young Adult / Middle Grade Novel

• Make Me a Monster by Kalynn Bayron
• The Executioners Three by Susan Dennard
• Hazelthorn by CG Drews
• Ride or Die by Delilah S. Dawson
• Sky on Fire by E.K. Johnston
• Queen of Faces by Petra Lord

Best Alternate History Novel

• Powerless by Harry Turtledove
• World War 3.2 by John Birmingham
• The Winds of Fate by S.M. Stirling
• The Unnecessary War by Brian C. Thompso
• A Resistance of Witches by Morgan Ryan
• No Man’s Land by Richard K. Morgan

Best Horror Novel

• It Was Her House First by Cherie Priest
• Play Nice by Rachel Harrison
• Girl in the Creek by Wendy N. Wagner
• The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
• King Sorrow by Joe Hill
• The Possession of Alba Díaz by Isabel Cañas

Best Illustrative Book Cover

• Brigands & Breadknives by Carson Lowmiller
• The Ishtar Deception by Dominic Harman
• The Sapphire Heart by Jeff Brown
• Hemlock & Silver by T. Kingfisher
• Pretenders to the Throne of God by Joe Wilson
• The Second Death of Locke by Anna Moshak

Best Comic Book / Graphic Novel

• Absolute Batman by Scott Snyder and Nick Dragotta
• Absolute Wonder Woman by Kelly Thompson and Hayden Sherman
• Something is Killing the Children by James Tynion IV and Werther Dell’Edera
• Daredevil by Stephanie Phillips and Lee Garbett
• X-Men: Elsewhen by John Byrne
• Absolute Superman by Jason Aaron and Rafa Sandoval

Best Science Fiction or Fantasy TV Series, TV or Internet

• Strange New Worlds Season 3, Paramount+
• Foundation Season 3, Apple TV
• A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, HBO
• Alien: Earth, FX
• Fallout Season 2, Amazon
• Plur1bus, Apple TV
• The Boys Season 5, Amazon
• Widow’s Bay, Apple TV

Best Science Fiction or Fantasy Movie

• Superman, by James Gunn
• Project Hail Mary, by Phil Lord, Christopher Miller
• Disclosure Day, by Steven Spielberg
• Predator: Badlands, by Dan Trachtenberg
• Frankenstein, by Guillermo del Toro
• Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu, by Jon Favreau
• Toy Story 5, by Andrew Stanton
• The Sheep Detectives, by Kyle Balda

Best Digital Game

• Hades II, Supergiant Games
• Hollow Knight: Silksong, Team Cherry
• Silent Hill f, NeoBards Entertainment
• Ghost of Yōtei, Sucker Punch Productions
• Forza Horizon 6, Playground Games
• Battlefield 6, Battlefield Studios

Best Tabletop Game

• Forgotten Realms: Heroes of Faerûn, Wizards of the Coast
• ACKS II Revised Rulebook, Autarch
• Magic: the Gathering – Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Wizards of the Coast
• 7 Wonders Dice, Repos Production
• Warhammer 40,000 The Maelstrom, Games Workshop
• Wingspan Americas Expansion, Stonemaier Games

I'm back from LACon, and had a good time: it was great to catch up with a bunch of folks that I haven't seen in years, and to remind myself that the literary world isn't just words on a page: it's a huge community of people tapping out words to connect and inspire one another. I came away from the convention a bit more refreshed, even if I barely managed to cut down on my to-read list while traveling back and forth to California from Vermont.

Okay, here are 17 new science fiction and fantasy books to check out in the first half of the month. I'll have two additional roundups for you in the weeks ahead. As always, you can see prior installments of this monthly book roundup here.  

Crimson in Quietus: A Sauútiverse Novel by Eugen Bacon (September 1st)

Eugen Bacon adds a new installment to the Sauútiverse collective world, Crimson in Quietus. The world is a shared universe that is designed to "create a space for African and African diaspora writers and creators to collaborate and share fantastical ideas," and it has a growing number of shorter stories and other works, including Bacon's novella The Nga'phandileh Whisperer and a pair of anthologies, Mothersound, edited by Wole Talabi and Sauúti Terrors: Short Stories, edited by Bacon, Stephen Embleton, and Cheryl S. Ntumy.

In this new adventure, Muso'mi is a maadiregi: someone who can consume sound and rework its powers. She enters a school called Mahadum, where she works to master her gifts. When her friend discovers a secret and goes missing, she has to go after them, discovering a string of violence and harvested silence, the work of a serial killer who has also mastered the power of sound.

Survivor by Octavia Butler (September 1st)

Octavia Butler's long-out-of-print novel Survivor is back on bookshelves. It's one installment of her five-book Patternist series, which in 1976 with Patternmaster. That novel was set in the distant future, about telepath who's fighting for a position of power in his society.

Originally published in 1978, Survivor is set centuries before Patternmaster (and after Wild Seed, Clay's Ark, and Mind of My Mind), following a woman named Alanna, a colonist who leaves a damaged Earth and arrives on a planet inhabited by the Kohn, where she finds herself swept up in their internal conflicts.

Butler famously refused to let this book back into print throughout her lifetime, noting that it was her "Star Trek" novel and wasn't entirely happy with how it turned out. Copies have thus been extremely hard to come by, and readers will have to balance Butler's wishes that it would just go away, and being a completionist. It'll be interesting to see what reactions will be.

Zero Lives Remaining by Adam Cesare (September 1st)

Union Square & Co. has launched a novella line, and the first book out of the gate is Adam Cesare's Zero Lives Remaining. It kicks off in 1989 when FunCave Arcade employee Robby Asario is killed in a pizza machine, and who ends up inhabiting the arcade as a friendly ghost.

Decades later, the arcade is still going strong amidst a craze for retro games, with Robby still watching over the place. He cares about the regulars, and when a favorite patron of his, Tiffany Park, is being bullied, he steps in and kills them, absorbing his victim's hate and rage. Now, he's going on a killing spree, with the rest of the patrons trapped inside.

Driven by Mason Coile (September 8th)

After his wife and child have left, Jamie Newcross wants nothing more than to vanish and escape from everything. He thinks that he's being haunted: every house and apartment he moves to seems to be inhabited by ghosts, and he's running on little sleep and sanity. He starts to make a plan: he finds someone getting rid of their Lion, an advanced self-driving car, which he thinks will give him some reprieve from his demons.

But when he wakes up in the car to find it driving down a dark road and with a dent in its hood, he finds that it's not responding to him, and it won't let him out. As he finds himself along for this grim ride, he's forced to reckon with his past and figure out how to survive.

Publishers Weekly gave it a starred review, saying "Coile makes a meal of this hair-raising premise while crafting a nuanced portrait of his flawed and deeply human lead."

I Am the Night: The Ultimate Unauthorized History of Batman: The Animated Series by Daniel Dockery (September 1st)

I love a good genre history, and this one looks like a fascinating entry: a history of Batman: The Animated Series. The series began in 1992 and ran for only two seasons (85 episodes in all), but it's had an outsized impact on not only animation, but on the Batman universe as well.

Dockery looks at the folks behind the show and how they worked to craft the series at a time when the animation field wasn't the best fit, and how they'd depict the character in the series. This promises to be a deep dive with a whole bunch of new revelations about the series and how it came about.

As an aside, it's a good opportunity to plug this video by YouTuber KaptainKristian about the series.

I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream by Harlan Ellison (September 1st)

One of Harlan Ellison's best-known shorter stories is "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream," about a group of people trapped inside a simulation by a malevolent AI that's bent on torturing them. It's been an incredibly influential story, and it's now being published as a standalone novella, with some intriguing – and controversial extras: a new foreword, some photographs and essays by Ellison, and another piece that his estate's executor, J. Michael Stracynzki used AI for – a response to the story.

Blacktail by Scott Hawkins (September 1st)

A wolf named Blacktail finds that his forest and territory is being overrun by men. While he has faith in the Forest God, that doesn't seem to be enough, and when his mate, a domesticated dog, is killed, he goes after her owners to exact revenge. His anger attracts the attention of a witch, who presents him with an offer: he could help end humanity and their destruction by waking the Forest God, and sets off on a quest to do so.

Kirkus Reviews awarded the book a starred review, saying "Though the narrative falls into a predictable pattern of travel interludes with other woodland and household animals, Hawkins cleverly distinguishes each fox or bear or even two-legger that Blacktail encounters. Despite the apocalyptic stakes, he grounds the animal protagonists in familiar rituals—they hunger, they love, they protect—and even a relatable sense of humor and honor."

Scion by James Islington (September 1st)

In this cyberpunk adventure, an assassin is tasked with going after "lifers", members of the ultra wealthy class who can afford to life forever. It's not an easy job, but he's exceptionally good at it, and his latest mission turns out to be something a little different: he has to protect an asset and finds himself in the midst of a larger conspiracy.

Publishers Weekly gave the book a starred review, saying "mayhem and skullduggery ensue, with myriad red herrings and shocking twists all bolstered by the tense and often humorous working relationship between Jasa and Azure. The result is explosive and delightfully cinematic, perfect for sci-fi fans who love a wisecracking, morally ambiguous protagonist."

As the Snow Gathers by Mere Joyce (September 1st)

The town of Aplin Shade is located deep in the Canadian wilderness, on the site of what had once been another settlement that vanished long ago. It's Dominic's home, and when his father is killed in a carriage accident, he's expected to step up and lead the family.

Dominic would rather leave, and he and his friend Lex hatch a plan to escape the brutal township. They face some serious challenges: the woods are home to the Fanteur, shadowy creatures who arrive in the night to suck the blood from the town's dead. They've never harmed the living until now, and as the cold winter approaches, Dominic and Lex have to fight their way out.

We Turn Gruesome At Night by Eric LaRocca (September 8th)

Eric LaRocca follows up last year's We Are Always Tender with Our Dead with We Turn Gruesome at Night. In the former, a gruesome crime took place on Christmas morning in the town of Burnt Sparrow, New Hampshire, and a decade later, the town is still trying to come to grips with what they experienced. Rupert Cromwell and Gladys Esherwood have been experiencing a monotonous existence in East House, and when a courier arrives with a message about a secret organization called The Perdido Society, they undercover a horrifying secret that affects their lives and home.

The Passing of the Dragon and Other Stories by Ken Liu (September 8th)

One of my favorite authors is Ken Liu, who's written phenomenal novels like The Grace of Kings and last year's All That We See or Seem, and shorter stories, which he's collected in volumes like The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories and The Hidden Girl and Other Stories.

He's now releasing another collection of his short fiction, The Passing of the Dragon and Other Stories. In his newsletter, Ken noted that "If the theme of The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories is “what does it mean to live in time?” and the theme of The Hidden Girl and Other Stories is “what does it mean to be human?” then the theme of this newest collection is “what does it mean to talk and listen?” Its title story was originally published in Reactor in 2023, and it's accompanied by 12 additional stories.

Publishers Weekly gave it a starred review, saying "taken as a whole, it’s a stirring paean to human connection and an impressive showcase for a writer at the top of his game."

Wickhills by Premee Mohamed (September 8th)

An intelligence agent named Vycol Ferec has been tasked with tracking down a scientist who defected. It should have been an easy job, but he's now on the run from his rogue handler.

The scientist he's after might be carrying a magical doomsday weapon, and to survive, Ferec and his team have to go underground, where they'll have to play by a whole new set of rules.

Booklist says that "fans of China Miéville’s novels, particularly King Rat (1999) and Perdido Street Station (2001), as well as Jeff Vandermeer’s Southern Reach series will enjoy."

Massif by Garth Nix (September 8th)

Garth Nix is known for his books aimed at younger readers, but I was surprised to learn that his next is his adult debut: Massif. Ship Leader Parnell Shi-Sawahla and the crew of the Sassafras have been heading to a new system, where they'll engage and fight an enemy, then move onto the next system, hitching rides on the massive, star-faring creatures known as Massifs.

Humanity has plenty of questions about this arrangement: why do the Massifs help humanity carry their wars into the depths of space, but they're not supposed to think about or ask those questions, or even talk to the avatars that the Massifs have for them. But Parnell and his crew have to break that taboo and begin asking, so that they can save themselves and all of humanity.

Publishers Weekly gave the novel a starred review, saying that "Nix grounds these epic stakes in human terms," and that "the result is a staggering adventure that should win Nix a whole new set of fans."

Engines of of Reason by Adrian Tchaikovsky (September 1st)

A couple of years ago, I picked up and blew through Adrian Tchaikovsky's novel Elder Race, finding it to be a fascinating exploration of the disparities between enormously advanced cultures and those who haven't – as Arthur C. Clarke famously wrote, "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

Tchaikovsky is back with a sequel, in which we catch up with Nyr and his companions 15 years later, as they confront some lingering issues that continue to plague their home. I'm really looking forward to returning to this world.

Precious Children by Mary G. Thompson (September 1st)

This novel follows a wealthy family that's been trying to find ways to overcome death. Geoff Blake just died for a second time, but it's something that the family has prepared for: they've got a stockpile of thousands of clones of their children, many of whom have been sent to live with families. There's a catch: should one of the Blakes need them for parts, they're to be brought back.

When Geoff dies, his memories are uploaded into one clone named Nathan, who's trying desperately to stay with his host family. Meanwhile, their youngest daughter Di is terrified of the procedures, realizing that the memory transfers don't always work.

Publishers Weekly says "Thompson uses minimal sci-fi worldbuilding to create this dark and occasionally comedic tale, focusing instead on the legal framework for these high-tech kidnappings and how their young victims fight for and against each other. It’s a thrilling and suspenseful ride."

All the Hidden Places by Cadwell Turnbull (September 1st)

Another author I'm a big fan of is Cadwell Turnbull, whose novels like The Lesson and No Gods, No Monsters provide some outstanding, socially-conscious reads about the world we live in. He's also written some outstanding short stories, and he's brought them together into his first collection, All the Hidden Places. One of the stories included is "Monsters Come Howling in Their Season," which I edited and included in a short fiction anthology I published at The Verge years ago. I'm eager to see what other adventures he has in store.

Kirkus Reviews gave the book a starred review, saying "Whether on a distant planet or high mountain peak, or in a crowded urban setting or abandoned rural home, people struggle to cling to something larger than themselves. But, Turnbull suggests, perhaps what they really need sometimes is to narrow their focus rather than broaden it, to love someone, talk honestly with them, and be understood."

The Tower of Beggars by Torsten Weitze (September 1st)

A girl named Niri loses her entire family in a tragic accident, and now has to figure out how to survive in a hostile city that would rather turn her out. Her only possession is a copper coin that will grant her entry into the magical Stormfell Academy. That's only the first step: she has to figure out how to survive within the school and alongside its inhabitants.

The book has been super popular in Europe and is coming to the US and UK for the first time. In its review, IGN says that "the delicate balance between surviving and actually finding time to learn is where this story really shines."

September has arrived. I'm still recovering from WorldCon, where I got to chat with a bunch of fellow writers and editors, and it was nice to see the community in person, rather than just words on a page or website. I heard from at least one person who said that they appreciated this roundup, which I was thrilled to hear: I'm glad it's useful.

Here are the short stories coming out in September. As usual, I've updated last month's list, which you can read here, and the prior installments here.

Analog Science Fact and Fiction (September / October 2026 Vol. XCVI No. 9 & 10)

Subscribe here.

Fiction

• "The Light Of Darian" by Sean Mcmullen
• "Beggars Mounted" by Eric Del Carlo
• "The User Manual" by Tony Ballantyne
• "Septo’s Taj" by R.R. Corvi
• "Bella’s Heart" by A.T. Sayre
• "Robo Bashers" by Harri Hemlock
• "Socrates" by Geoffrey Hart
• "Relative Error" by Jay Werkheiser
• "Meeting A Mom At The Edge Of Space by Xu Mason
• "A Dark Or Red Forest by Jakub Tomczyk
• "The Supply-side Ouroboros by Noah Lemelson
• "Roots Rememberance by Jennifer S. Hane
• "Upcoast by J.L. Rifkin
• "Career Considerations For Starship Burglars by Hans Ege Wenger
• "The Daughter by Stephen Case
• "Wee Man by David Mcgillveray
• "Bright Points On The Quiet Sun by Jody Rich
• "Preggo Bomb by J.R. Dewitt
• "Neomergence by Paul E. Franz
• "Will Everyone Please Rise? by Adam-troy Castro
• "The Hubble Constant by Ashleigh Gill
• "Time Between Wars by Carol Dorf

Nonfiction

• Editorial: The Long Road by Trevor Quachri
• Astounding And von Braun by Edward M. Wysocki Jr.
• Out Of “Some Warm Pond” Part 3 by Kelly Lagor
• Anlab Results
• Unknowns, Naming Convention by Todd Mcclary edited By Alec Nevala-lee
• Alternate View by John G. Cramer
• In Times To Come
• The Reference Library by Sean CW Korsgaard
• Brass Tacks

Asimov's Science Fiction (September/October 2026 Vol. 50 Nos. 9 & 10)

Subscribe here.

Fiction

• "Visiting Skins" by Christopher Ruz & Rich Larson
• "Night Caller from Outer Space" by Dale Bailey
• "Forever and Again" by Leah Cypess
• "The Case of the Lost Busker" by David Ira Cleary
• "The Weight of a Heart" by Tegan Moore
• "The Wages of Saints" by Eric Del Carlo
• "We Shall Be Monsters" by Esther M. Friesner
• "This World is a World of Dew" by Andrea Kriz
• "The Great Game" by Lois Metzger
• "The Invisible Bone" by Stephanie Feldman
• "Embers" by Lawrence C. Connolly
• "Curiosities Found on Captain Nemo’s Nightstand" by Gretchen Tessmer
• "Why We Give" by Andy Dibble
• "Roadside Geology of Hell" by Jennifer Crow
• "Every Atom of Your Flesh is as Dear" by Marisca Pichette

Nonfiction

• Editorial: Fortieth Annual Readers’ Awards’ Results by Emily Hockaday
• Reflections: Starting Out by Robert Silverberg
• On the Net: I, Chatbot by James Patrick Kelly
• Thought Experiment: The Haunting of the Nostromo by Kelly Lagor
• On Books by Peter Heck

Aurealis (August 2026, Issue 193)

Subscribe here.

Fiction

• "The Map and Territory" by Jocasta Suzanne and Maddison Stoff
• "Song of the Stormy Petrel" by Kaaron Warren
• "Treasure Moon" by Neurocleric
• The Orc" by Emmet O’Cuana

Nonfiction

• From the Cloud
• An Interview with Keri Arthur by Trevor Howis
• I Am Providence: A City’s Influence on Lovecraft and His Work by Paul Lonardo

Clarkesworld Magazine (September 2026, Issue 240)

Subscribe here.

Fiction

• "Water-Eaters" by Beth Goder
• "When Humans Are No Longer Born Human" by Zhu Yixuan
• "To Walk This Distant Shore with You" by A.D. Sui
• "And So I Open My Fists" by Rachel Sobel
• "Fistful of Antimatter" by Rich Larson
• "Country Music" by Madeleine Vigneron
• "Skin and Glass" by R. P. Sand

Nonfiction

• Talking to Whales (and Other Cetaceans) by Priya Sridhar
• Devastating and Liberating: A Conversation with Cadwell Turnbull by Arley Sorg
• Enjoy the Apocalypse! A Conversation with Peter Watts by Arley Sorg
• Editor's Desk: The Other Shoe by Neil Clarke

The Dark (September 2026, Issue 136)

Subscribe here.

Fiction

• "Ticky-Tacky" by Kristi DeMeester
• "I Swear I Didn’t Kill the Others" by Kelsea Yu
• "The Boy the Bhoot Loved" by Fatima Taqvi
• Cul-de-Sac" by Françoise Harvey

Dark Horses Magazine (September 2026, Number 54)

Fiction

• "Death Trip At Command Of Fat Man" by Samuel Ramirez
• "Here, The Woods" by Leah Kafetz Rothman
• "Nightberries And Mammoths" by Griffith Pound
• "The Dagger And The Chalice" by Wayne Kyle Spitzer
• "Rock Resurrection" by David Sheskin
• "Sweet Revenge" by June Trop
• "Gen-f" by Bill Walthall
• Playtime With Our Men" by Abigail Shackelford
• "The Ghosts Adrift And Three Others" by Jack Ranieri
• "Beer And Tentacles" by Bill Link
• "Flamenco Frio" by Tom Witherspoon
• "Salvage" by Kelly Shepherd
• "Escalot" by Thalia M. Peters
• "Day 97" by David Blitch

Diabolical Plots (September 2026)

Support here.

Fiction

• “Everyone Wants to be a Part of Sasha" by J.N. Bilse

Flash Fiction Online (September 2026)

Donate here.

Fiction

• "Welcome, Welcome." by Daniel Roop
• "Guardian of the Thresholds" by Elijah J. Mears
• "Ghostwalking" by Jonathon Burgess
• "By Candlelight, By Blue Jeans" by Elitsa Dermendzhiyska
• "How to Cross a Covered Bridge" by Stewart C Baker
• "For the Good of the Engines" by Margaret A. Hanson
• "One God Loved Me as I Died" by Hannya Kay

Nonfiction

• Editorial, Introduction: Tiny Gods by Jennifer Brozek

Forever Magazine (September 2026, Issue 140)

Subscribe here.

Fiction

• “Wyatt Earp 2.0” by Wil McCarthy
• “Cuttlefish” by Anil Menon
• “Encore” by Wole Talabi

GigaNotoSaurus (September 2026)

Fiction

• "Knots of Red and Black" by Victoria Brun

Lightspeed Magazine (September 2026, Issue 196)

Subscribe here.

Fiction

• "A Guide on How to Repay Your Vow to the Deity of Many Faces" by Oyedotun Damilola Muees
• "Dreamweavers" by Alexander Weinstein
• "The Chrysalis of Moth One" by V.M. Ayala
• "Long Goodbyes" by Anya Ow
• "Alterverse" by Sanjana Raj
• "The Dragon, the Scarab, the Wolf, the Dragon" by Rhiannon Rasmussen
• "Maskwork Saltman Giftbox" by Rich Larson
• "Jempo" by Thomas Ha

Nonfiction

• Editorial: September 2026 by John Joseph Adams
• Author Spotlight: Alexander Weinstein by Robin Jeffrey
• Author Spotlight: Anya Ow by Phoebe Barton
• Book Review: Africanfuturism Short Stories by Chinelo Onwualu, ed. by Arley Sorg
• Author Spotlight: Sanjana Raj by A Humphrey Lanham
• Book Review: Black Arts: Stories by Megan Giddings by Melissa A Watkins
• Author Spotlight: Thomas Ha by Erik Grove
• Book Review: Code and Codex by Yoon Ha Lee by Chris Kluwe

Luna Station Quarterly (September 2026, Issue 067)

Subscribe here.

Fiction

• "The Disappearance" by Kristine Chang
• "Low Orbit" by Anna Sheffer
• "The Mischievous Kind" by Spoorthi AG
• "Marigold and the Toad with Cerulean Eyes" by Morgan Lockhart
• "The Road from Windy to Dragonroot" by Francesca Forrest
• "For the Living" by Emma McCoy
• "Baba Yaga in Chernobyl" by Ava Neumaier
• "Rules for Inter-Dimensional Refugees" by Esther Lim
• "Rest for the Weary" by Alexandra Claus
• "Bahiyyah and the Brass Lamp" by Rozalija Grace
• "The Hand of Death is Mine" by Tabor Skreslet
• "Geese are Born Without Fear of Gods" by Erin Keating
• "The Green Girl and the Creeping Vine" by Lauren Stark

Nature Futures (September 2026)

Subscribe here.

Fiction

• "City of slop" by Erin Cullen

Nightmare Magazine (September 2026, Issue 168)

Subscribe here.

Fiction

• "The Red Veil" by Daniel Roop
• "Useless Heart / Stopped Cold" by A. Artemis Chen
• "Not Even a Fly" by Phoenix Alexander
• "Sweet Certainty" by Deborah L. Davitt

Nonfiction

• Editorial: September 2026 by Wendy N. Wagner
• Author Spotlight: Daniel Roop by Clay Vermulm
• The H Word: Roadside Dread—Horror at the Diner by Matthew Sorrento
• Author Spotlight: Phoenix Alexander by Clay Vermulm
• Book Review: September 2026 by Adam-Troy Castro

Uncanny Magazine (September/October 2026, Issue 72)

Subscribe here.

Fiction

• "The Dragonfly" by Luna Hou
• "A Sigilary for the Median Human in the Gearwrack" by Ken Liu
• "Horse Boy" by Natalia Theodoridou
• "starship aubade" by Rebecca Uhlman
• "Huangdi" by Kailee Pedersen

Nonfiction

• The Uncanny Valley by Michael Damian Thomas
• Thank You, Patreon Supporters! by Michael Damian Thomas
• Thank You, Year 12 Kickstarter Backers! by Michael Damian Thomas
• Being a Brief History of It’s Storytime with Wil Wheaton by Wil Wheaton
• Portrayals of Disability and Anxiety in NPC Peacock’s The Copenhagen Test by Mari Ness
• Interview: Ken Liu by Caroline M. Yoachim

Weird Horror Magazine (Fall 2026, Issue 13)

Fiction

• "On TV" by Brian Evenson
• "Kettleman" by Kay Vaindal
• "Dead Mermaids" by M. Rickert

Nonfiction

• The Waning Boom by Simon Strantzas
• Bats in the Belfry: Appreciating the Unofficial Mascots of Horror by Orrin Gray

Back in 2015, I wrote about C.J. Cherryh and her career for Kirkus Reviews. As part of that research process, Cherryh kindly agreed to be interviewed, and we had a short chat about her influences and origins as a writer.

This interview has been lightly edited for formatting and typos.

Where did you first come across science fiction, and what about it made you stick with reading it?

My dad gave me a copy of Tarzan and the City of Gold—when I was about 7. Before that it was comics. I graduated to Conan at about 9-10. Read every 'lost world' I could find and was a fanatic listener to Tom Corbett on radio. When I found books of the same ilk, I read them. Age 9-10 family got a telly and I got addicted to Flash Gordon. Beyond that, I wrote my own.

Who were some of the authors who inspired you?

Jack Williamson, Robert Heinlein, Don Wollheim, Andre Norton, and Publius Vergilius Maro.

I saw that you had begun writing when you were disappointed with the cancellation of your favorite television show at a young age. Did you continue to write between that time and when you began to publish professionally?

Yes, daily.

Where did you first come up with your first novel, Gate of Ivrel? What was the writing and publication process like?

I'd sent Don [Wollheim] Brothers of Earth and he sent me a letter saying it wasn't quite in their size range. First time I'd gotten a publisher to answer in person, so I wrote Gate in 2 months while teaching a full schedule. Ate at the keyboard, slept when I could.

How did Donald Wollheim first come across your stories at DAW Books?

I targeted Don, finally taking a systematic approach to sending out books, because I went through my own library and investigated who was the editor who had bought most of my favorite books—figured we had similar taste.

Serpent's Reach was your first Union-Alliance novel. How did you go about constructing that world? Was there anything particularly different about the writing and publication process from your earlier novels?

I don't know that it was the first. But I researched real astronomy to find a couple of stars in the right relationship and built the ecology based on what I thought might result from that class star. (Beta Hydri.)

[Her first was Brothers of Earth – this question was the result of me misreading her ISFBD entry]

Your novels are notable for their female protagonists in a field that was considered male-dominated: how was this received by readers while they were being published?

My goal is to create characters that men can identify with just the same as women identify with the male heroes. Everybody wants to be a hero in what they're reading.

What some of the Union-Alliance influences? I decided to set up a situation in which there were no 'evil' superpowers, just superpowers doing what superpowers do re their own survival, and to write stories from the viewpoint of people on both sides.

I'm back from attending LAConV, this year's WorldCon. I was only there for a couple of days, where I interviewed Anand Gandhi about his project Maya: The Seed Takes Root, caught a panel about robotics in warfare, took some photographs for various pieces and interviews, and caught up with a handful of folks that I haven't seen in a while. It was an interesting time, and I'm thinking that I'll be attending next year's convention in Montreal.

Amongst the activities was the annual announcement of the winners of this year's Hugo Awards: a selection of fandom's favorite reads and works that were published in 2025.

It was a solid list of winners: I was pleased to see that Alix Harrow's The Everlasting picked up the win for Best Novel: it was a spectacular read in an already strong category. I was also happy to see that John Scalzi's Old Man's War series earned the award for best series.

But something that I was really pleased to see? Buried in the longer award statistics was this:

Enough people (12 of you!) liked Transfer Orbit enough to think to add it to their list of publications in the Fanzine category when nominating. It's a really nice feeling, and I'm grateful to you for it.

Okay, here are the winners of this year's Hugo Awards:

Best Novel

• A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett
• Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor (Review)
• Shroud by Adrian Tchaikovsky
• The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow (Review)
• The Incandescent by Emily Tesh 
• The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson

Best Novella

• Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz (Review)
• Cinder House by Freya Marske
• Murder by Memory by Olivia Waite 
• The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar
• The Summer War by Naomi Novik 
• What Stalks the Deep by T. Kingfisher

Best Novelette

• “Kaiju Agonistes” by Scott Lynch (Uncanny Magazine, Issue 62)
• “Never Eaten Vegetables” by H.H. Pak (Clarkesworld, Issue 220)
• “Rapport: Friendship, Solidarity, Communion, Empathy” by Martha Wells (Reactor, July 10, 2025)
• “The Girl That My Mother Is Leaving Me For” by Cameron Reed (Reactor, April 2, 2025)
• “The Millay Illusion” by Sarah Pinsker (Uncanny Magazine, Issue 67)
• “When He Calls Your Name” by Catherynne M. Valente (Uncanny Magazine, Issue 65)

Best Short Story

• “10 Visions of the Future; or, Self-Care for the End of Days” by Samantha Mills (Uncanny Magazine, Issue 63)
• “In My Country” by Thomas Ha (Clarkesworld, Issue 223)
• “Laser Eyes Ain’t Everything” by Effie Seiberg (Diabolical Plots, May 16, 2025)
• “Missing Helen” by Tia Tashiro (Clarkesworld, Issue 226)
• “Six People to Revise You” by J.R. Dawson (Uncanny Magazine, Issue 62)
• “Wire Mother” by Isabel J. Kim (Clarkesworld, Issue 229)

Best Series

• Emily Wilde by Heather Fawcett 
• October Daye by Seanan McGuire 
• Old Man’s War by John Scalzi (Feature)
• The Chronicles of Osreth by Katherine Addison
• The Craft Wars by Max Gladstone 
• White Space by Elizabeth Bear

Best Graphic Story or Comic

• Absolute Wonder Woman Vol. 1: The Last Amazon, written by Kelly Thompson, art by Hayden Sherman and Mattia de Iulis, coloring by Jordie Bellaire, lettering by Becca Carey 
• A Girl and Her Fed, written by KB Spangler, art by Ale Presser 
• A Wizard of Earthsea: A Graphic Novel, written by Ursula K. Le Guin, adapted and art by Fred Fordham 
• The Invisible Parade by Leigh Bardugo and John Picacio
• The Power Fantasy Volume 1: The Superpowers, written by Kieron Gillen, art by Caspar Wijngaard, lettering by Clayton Cowles 
• The Space Cat, written by Nnedi Okorafor, art by Tana Ford 

Best Related Work

• Colourfields: Writing About Writing About Science Fiction by Paul Kincaid
• Inventing the Renaissance by Ada Palmer
• Last War in Albion: “The Cuddled Little Vice (Sandman)” by Elizabeth Sandifer
• Positive Obsession: The Life and Times of Octavia E. Butler by Susana M. Morris (Review)
• “Ragnarök vs the Long Night” by Ashaya and Aziz
• The Hugo Spreadsheet of Doom, maintained by Renay 

Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form

• Andor (Season 2), written by Tom Bissell, Dan Gilroy, Tony Gilroy, and Beau Willimon, directed by Ariel Kleiman, Janus Metz, Alonso Ruizpalacios, 
• Frankenstein, screenplay by Guillermo del Toro, directed by Guillermo del Toro 
• KPop Demon Hunters, screenplay by Danya Jimenez & Hannah McMechan, Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans; directed by Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans 
• Mickey 17, screenplay by Bong Joon Ho, directed by Bong Joon Ho 
• Sinners, screenplay by Ryan Coogler, directed by Ryan Coogler 
• Superman, screenplay by James Gunn, directed by James Gunn

Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form

• Doctor Who: “The Story & the Engine”, written by Inua Ellams, directed by Makalla McPherson 
• Murderbot: “All Systems Red”, written by Paul Weitz & Chris Weitz, directed by Roseanne Liang, based on the book All Systems Red by Martha Wells 
• Murderbot: “The Perimeter”, written Chris Weitz & Paul Weitz, directed by Paul Weitz, based on the book All Systems Red by Martha Wells 
• Pluribus: “We Is Us”, written and directed by Vince Gilligan, directed by Vince Gilligan
• Severance: “Cold Harbor”, written by Dan Erickson, directed by Ben Stiller 
• The Wheel of Time: “The Road to the Spear”, written by Rafe Lee Judkins, directed by Thomas Napper, based on the book The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan

Best Game or Interactive Work

• Blue Prince, developed by Dogubomb, published by Raw Fury
• Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector, developed by Jump Over the Age, published by Fellow Traveller
• Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, developed by Sandfall Interactive, published by Kepler Interactive
• Dispatch, developed and published AdHoc Studio
• Hades II, developed and published by Supergiant Games
• Hollow Knight: Silksong, developed and published by Team Cherry

Best Editor Short Form

• Scott H. Andrews
• Jennifer Brozek
• Neil Clarke
• Lee Harris
• Michael Damian Thomas
• Sheila Williams

Best Editor Long Form

• Carl Engle-Laird
• Jaymee Goh
• Lee Harris
• Jenni Hill
• Joe Monti
• Diana M. Pho

Best Professional Artist

• Lulu Chen
• Kelly Chong
• Dave Kellett
• Tran Nguyen
• John Picacio
• Tom Roberts

Best Semiprozine

• Escape Pod, editors Mur Lafferty and Valerie Valdes, assistant editors Kevin Wabaunsee and Phoebe Barton, hosts Tina Connolly and Alasdair Stuart, producers Summer Brooks and Adam Pracht, and the entire Escape Pod team
• khōréō magazine, by team khōréō (publisher Aleksandra Hill; editor-in-chief Zhui Ning Chang; editors Kanika Agrawal, Isabella Kestermann, Danai Christopoulou; audio Lian Xia Rose, Jenelle DeCosta, Grayson Norman, Aaron Kling, E.B.; marketing M.L. Krishnan, Ashley Thompson; art Ambi Sun; copyeditors Jeané Ridges, Eleanor Glewwe, Derek Yen, Ariya Bandy; proofreader Cyrus Chin; first readers Adialyz Del Valle Berríos, Sanjna Bhartiya, Kelsey Costa, Merulai Femi, A.R. Frederiksen, Yuvashri Harish, Zohar Jacobs, Lynn D. Jung, Phoebe Low, Katie McIvor, Adil Mian, Katarzyna Nowacka, A.W. Prihandita, Helena Ramsaroop, Jin Hui Saw, Aditya Sundararajan, Sophia Uy, Madeleine Vigneron, Aaron Voigt, K.S. Walker, Akilah White, MJ Woods, Kelsea Yu, Lilia Zhang, Tina Zhu)
• On Spec: The Canadian Magazine of the Fantastic, published by the Copper Pig Writers’ Society; managing editor/art director Diane L. Walton; poetry editors Colleen Anderson and Bob Stallworthy; fiction editors Barb Galler-Smith, Ann Marston, Virginia O’Dine, Constantine Kaoukakis, Susan MacGregor, Alyssa Kulchisky, Amanda Wells, Ashley Alton, Lorina Stephens, Lareina Abbott, Matthew Stobie Jackman, Cheryl Merkel, Dan Gyoba, Ethan Zou, Jade Mah-Vierling, Jessica Zdril, Kathleen Phul, Krystle McGrath, Thomas Schwarz, and William Thompson; interviewers Roberta Laurie and Cat McDonald; proofreaders Ashlin McCartney, Isaac Calon, and Mya Colwell
• Strange Horizons, by the Strange Horizons Editorial Collective
• The Deadlands, publisher Sean Markey, editor in chief E. Catherine Tobler, poetry editor Nicasio Andres Reed, nonfiction editor David Gilmore, necromancer Amanda Downum, art director Cory Skerry, copy editors Laura Blackwell and Annika Barranti Klein, proofreader Josephine Stewart, designer Christine M. Scott, and social media skeleton Felicia Martínez
• Uncanny Magazine, publisher and editor-in-chief: Michael Damian Thomas; managing editor Monte Lin; poetry editor Betsy Aoki, podcast producers Erika Ensign and Steven Schapansky

Best Fanzine

• Ancillary Review of Books, editors Jake Casella Brookins, Misha Grifka Wander, Bianca Skrinyár, Zachary Gillan, Cynthia Zhang, Lyz Bush-Peel
• An Unofficial Hugo Book Club Blog, editors Olav Rokne and Amanda Wakaruk
• Galactic Journey, founder Gideon Marcus, editor Janice L. Newman, staff David Levinson, Jessica Dickinson Goodman, Tam Phan, Andi Dukleth
• Intergalactic Mixtape, edited by Renay
• Journey Planet, edited by Allison Hartman Adams, Jean Martin, Steven H Silver, Christopher J. Garcia, James Bacon
• nerds of a feather, flock together, editors Roseanna Pendlebury, Arturo Serrano, Paul Weimer; senior editors Joe Sherry, G. Brown, Vance Kotrla

Best Fancast

• A Meal of Thorns, presented by Jake Casella Brookins
• Eating the Fantastic, hosted by Scott Edelman
• Hugo, Girl!, presented by Haley Zapal, Amy Salley, Lori Anderson, and Kevin Anderson
• Octothorpe, presented by John Coxon, Alison Scott, and Liz Batty
• The Coode Street Podcast, presented by Jonathan Strahan and Gary K. Wolfe
• Worldbuilding for Masochists, presented by Marshall Ryan Maresca, Cass Morris, and Natania Barron

Best Fan Writer

• Jay Brantner for “Tar Vol”
• Alex Brown
• James Davis Nicoll
• Roseanna Pendlebury
• Jason Sanford
• Örjan Westin

Best Fan Artist

• Terri Ash
• Geneva Bowers
• Sara Felix
• Richard Man
• España Sheriff
• Yuumei

Best Poem

• “Care for Lightning” by Mari Ness (Uncanny Magazine, Issue 62)
• “Hex Supply Customer Support Log” by Elis Montgomery (Strange Horizons, Issue 25 August 2025)
• “How to Become a Sea Witch” by Theodora Goss (The Orange & Bee, Issue 5)
• “Landing: Seattle” by Brandon O’Brien (Seattle Worldcon 2025 Opening Ceremony)
• “The Mourning Robot” by Angela Liu (Uncanny Magazine, Issue 66)
• “The World to Come” by Jennifer Hudak (Strange Horizons, Issue 22 December 2025)

Lodestar Award for Best YA Book

• Among Ghosts by Rachel Hartman
• Coffeeshop in an Alternate Universe by C.B. Lee 
• Holy Terrors by Margaret Owen 
• Oathbound by Tracy Deonn
• Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins 
• They Bloom at Night by Trang Thanh Tran

Astounding Award for Best New Writer (sponsored by Dell Magazines)

• Sophie Burnham (2nd year of eligibility)
• Kamilah Cole (2nd year of eligibility)
• Antonia Hodgson (1st year of eligibility)
• Molly O’Neill (1st year of eligibility)
• H.H. Pak (2nd year of eligibility)
• Jared Pechaček (2nd year of eligibility)

One of the things that I like doing with Transfer Orbit is speaking to people about their work. That's usually authors, but I've also interviewed other creative types over the years. This week, I’m at WorldCon, where I was invited to speak with Anand Gandhi about a project he’s been working on, the Maya narrative universe, and interviewing has been on my mind lately, as I have a couple that I’ve conducted and which I’m in the process of transcribing and getting ready for publication.

In recent months, I’ve posted a handful of interviews: Adam Rowe, Ray Nayler, Ann Leckie, Thomas Elrod, James S.A. Corey, and Annalee Newitz (and a whole bunch of others!), and it brought up a question in the TO Slack channel:

Nick G.: “I am curious, when you set out to do an interview like this do you do a bunch of looking into other interviews with the person to know what questions they have been asked before? Or is repeating common questions not a concern?”

I was going to type out a quick response, but when I started thinking about it, I realized that there wasn't a quick answer, because there are lots of different approaches and ways to prepare. So, here's how I approach things.

My first step is to do some groundwork to prepare. The extend of that will depend on the type of interview. For a shorter, reported piece that's about news or an announcement (like what I did for the news about Subterranean Press winding down its operations), I'll reach out to the folks involved, usually via email or with a short list of questions that I come up with based on the story in front of me. I'll start with whatever the origin point of that news is: an exclusive on a news site or a press release, then read up on any contextual things that might come into play.

For a longer, feature-style interview or piece (like any of the ones that I linked above), I'll do a bit more research. Generally, that has me looking up other interviews, profiles, any news-style articles about said subject, and other things in that vein. When I'm doing this, I'm looking for a couple of things: getting an idea of where said person might have come from, but also their work style, what influenced them, what their approach to their story is, and so forth.

I'm also looking for things like questions that they've been asked before, so I don't tread over already-worn ground, but also to see how those questions are asked and how they're answered.

I also work to read whatever material they have is relevant: whatever novel is most recent or the subject of said piece, as well as short stories, essays, blog posts, and social media posts, because that gives be a good idea of where they're coming from in their own words.

While I'm doing this, I'm jotting down questions. I've got a notebook that I'll be taking notes in while I'm reading something (some of the time) – this can include anything from notable lines to questions as they occur to me, to things that I'm noticing about the text that I might want to come back to. I'm not always great about this step, but I'm getting better at it.

The next is the questions themselves.

When I interviewed Katherine Arden at Bookstock in May, I stumbled onto a format that I've since adopted for other interviews that I’ve conducted since: I start with a notepad and write down 3-4 topics that I'd like to speak with each author about. I don't have an established set of these topics, but they generally include starting with someone's background, one about a specific title or work that they've most recently come out about, and then some others that typically drill down into some deeper topics about creativity, storytelling, technology, and writing, or whatever else is notable.

For Arden's interview, I had ones about her background, her approach to writing (and how her background in studying languages figured into it), how she leans into history for her work, and her novel The Unicorn Hunter. I recently interviewed Matt Dinniman for a longer feature-style piece (stay tuned?), where I asked about his background, the Dungeon Crawler Carl series, the publication of that series, and his approach to writing. Usually, I'm figuring out a larger theme for whatever it is I'm writing that comes out of that text, and from there, I'm establishing those buckets for those questions.

I reserved four pages in my notebook, one for each category, which I then began dropping questions into. As I'm reading a subject's book or doing background research on them, I've started jotting down the questions as I thought of them, in whatever order I'd get them. Some I'll cross out, some I'll modify, and others I'll use arrows to rearrange them.

Because Arden's interview was on stage, I wanted something that I could hold onto so that I wasn't trying to remember all the questions off the top of my head and keep myself organized. As it happened, I'd found several sheets of really nice paper in my office (I think they were leftover scraps from some sort of book project? Or packing material for a box of books? IDK, but it's great paper) and ended up taking my categories and writing the questions down fresh on each card, 10-15 minutes before the interview.

I've found that taking a couple of quiet moments and jotting these down all at once is crucial for me: it gets me into the right head space for going up on stage and talking with someone before a crowd, but it also helps me figure out what questions are really worth asking, how they might flow together, and importantly, make them legible so that I can read them in the moment. I tend to over-build my interviews: I don't think that I'll get to ask them all (I think for Arden's interview, I probably got through 60-70% of them?), but while there are specific ones that I do make sure I ask, they're to be treated like a guide or suggestion, rather than a strict map.

With the questions jotted down, it's then time to conduct the interview.

Those first two answers largely address what Nick was asking. The next part of the process is the interview and transcription itself.

I prefer to talk to someone when I interview them. Email is the easiest and quickest way: jot down a handful of questions, and send it off. I did this for years, and would often let my subject know that I'd likely have a series of followups, which would relate to their answers. That's fine: it's good for being on a deadline, but when I'm speaking with someone, I really want to get their thoughts as they're thinking of them, in the moment.

There are a couple of reasons for this: chiefly, when you're doing it by email ahead of time, you have time to rehearse your answers and jot them down in a way that's well thought-out, detailed, and ultimately flattering to the subject. There's nothing wrong with that – I don't generally like to think and answer questions on the fly, especially when I have to dig back into my memory for something that I wrote about years ago. But rehearsed interviews can be really boring, and I don’t necessarily want a rehearsed sales pitch, but their authentic self coming through. (This usually only happens when I’m working through a company’s PR person, which sometimes is a reality.)

Secondly, I like to conduct interviews as a running, natural conversation, ideally with a back and forth that starts with a question, and with followup questions that dig deeper into their answers. I like the way those interviews flow, because it feels less rigid, and it gives me an opportunity to see where my questions lead and how they're answered. It allows for us to jump to different topics and questions that I might not have thought to ask, drill down on some detail that they've mentioned, or ask for clarification on something.

I think there's a lot of value in asking questions in the moment, because you get a human response from one's subject. You don't just get insights into the answer of the question, you get insight into how they approach the questions and how they answer it, which can be just as interesting as the answer itself.

Once I've conducted the interview, the final step is to prep it for publication. In the instances where I'm writing a report or feature, I don't need to clean it up all that much: just format it for my notes, then go about writing, and refer to the audio file if needed. When I'm recording my interviews, I'll use my phone – iOS has a neat feature now where it'll generate a transcription of your conversation from an audio file. The transcript that it puts together will require cleanup, but they're generally pretty good.

When I'm publishing a straight Q&A, I'll listen to the entire conversation and correct the transcript. I'll also do a search for some usual suspects. I tend to say "You know," and "um" and "uh", which I can go through and delete with a little bit of work. I'll also keep an eye out for duplicate words and other things like that, and clean them up so it's a little more readable.

But I try not to really mess with the conversation or to clean it up where it's overly polished. I tend to cut down my long-winded questions to get to the point, but for the subject, a reader has an expectation that when they're reading an interview, what they're saying is what they said – you need to know what the intent of their answer is, as well as the tone.

I'll leave in run-on sentences, and will try and keep any artifacts – an abrupt stop or laugh – to maintain the tone of the conversation, and when I make adjustments to something or swap out a word for clarity, it's indicated, usually with brackets. That way, the reader knows that there's been some alteration, but it's clear where that alteration took place.

Once I've gone through that process, there's the final edit: a read through to make sure that there's nothing out of place, place the pictures, write an introduction that frames the interview appropriately, and then there's the final button click to publish it.

I see a lot of value in doing interviews in this way: I'm endlessly curious about the nature of creativity and the creative process, and I think the best way to get those insights is to ask the people who're having them!

Pop-culture journalism is rife with thinly-reskinned press releases and speculation based on "what makes sense", and this is a way to get information straight from the source.

Hopefully, they're as interesting for folks to read as they are to conduct.

Audible has announced a new original audio story, Exoplanet, which is being written by author Benjamin Percy (The Ninth Metal, The Unfamiliar Garden, The Sky Vault) ) and executive produced by Andy Weir (The Martian, Project Hail Mary). It's a full-cast audio drama that stars Anthony Mackie (The MCU), Ariana DeBose (Scarpetta), John Leguizamo (The Odyssey, Titan AE) in the lead roles, as well as Cherry Jones (Succession, The Handmaid's Tale), Sufe Bradshaw (Veep, VICE), Charlie Plummer (Lean on Pete), Ray Porter (narrator for the Project Hail Mary and Bobiverse audiobooks), and Aida Osman (Rap Sh!t), and it will be released on November 5th as an exclusive on the audiobook platform.

It has a wild premise: a starship called Wild Blue Yonder encounters a quantum anomaly, and it crash-lands on a distant, deadly exoplanet. There's a bit of a twist: the crew that survives are scattered on the planet not by distance, but across time. First Officer Becca Bang (DeBose) finds herself stranded in the distant past in a hostile environment, Chief Engineer Jeff Shaw (Mackie) and his virtual assistant (Porter) land in the present, where he's working to figure out how to get home, while Science Officer Logan Bowers (Leguizamo) ends up in the far, future, where the planet is ruled by machines. Moreover, they're not there by accident: some sort of alien intelligence has been waiting for them for their own purposes, and the crew has to figure out how to talk to one another across the centuries.

Weir explained to me in an email that Audible approached him "with an idea to make a sort of 'Andy Weir Presents' series," in which they'd select the stories and authors, with the audiobook company producing a full-cast and heavily-produced version.

"While I'm not the writer, I am a producer and I give notes and feedback, and can insist on changes," Weir told me. The writing duties fell to Percy, who's written not only novels, but comics (he's currently working on Deadpool, Midnight Fantastic Four, and The Punisher for Marvel), as well as audio dramas: he wrote the recent Wolverine shows The Long Night and The Long Trail, as well as Wastelanders: Old Man Starlord.

Exoplanet, Percy explained in an email, had a circuitous route. He was the recipient of a Filmnorth and McKnight Media Artist fellowship in 2023 to produce a short film, and he ended up at the Sundance Film Festival, where he met with a bunch of organizations, including Audible. There, they broached the idea of partnering with Weir. "I jumped at the opportunity," he said, "as a massive fan of The Martian and Project Hail Mary."

From there, he began to figure out how to tell a story in the vein of Weir's work. "I broke down elements that define an Weir story: a disaster that leaves someone stranded in space, smart science-driven problem-solving, communication challenges, good-hearted characters, hope and humor and epic thrills."  

The result was Exoplanet, about the crew of a spaceship scattered throughout time. "I like to Trojan horse one genre inside of another," Percy said, noting that his novel The Ninth Metal both science fiction and a crime family story. "In this case, I’m Trojan-horsing a time travel narrative inside of an Andy Weir space disaster. In this against-all-odds scenario, a terraforming ship crash-lands on an exoplanet and the three survivors end up in splintered timelines…five hundred years apart. They puzzle together ways to communicate and work across time to potentially save themselves…and humanity."

He noted it was a fun project project to work on. "Audio is a particularly fun space to work in, because it exists somewhere between novels and film/TV. You are relying on description and dialogue, as in a novel—but you also have sensory elements that help enrichen the experience (sound effects, score, actors)." It was also something of a collaborative experience. Percy sat in on each of the recording sessions, and noted that "there was a constant back-and-forth between me, the actors, the director, and the other producers. We were constantly revising on the spot and also encouraging the actors to riff and bend the script around their voices/personalities."

The result will be a different storytelling experience than a printed book or audiobook: "When you hear the first few minutes of Episode 1, when you hear the propulsive score, when you hear the panicked actors, when you heard their ship—The Wild Blue Yonder—wrench one way, wheel another, and ultimately crash-land on the Exoplanet, you’ll have your answer. It’s a completely transportive experience, and you’ll feel as if you’re right there with the crew."

Weir said that he hopes that this type of full-audio project becomes more of a mainstream thing: "it's not just for podcasts and audiobooks, but it's a form of storytelling that is all its own and unique. It was the main form of mass media about a hundred years ago and people loved it. Let's bring it back!"

Percy noted that there aren't any plans at the moment for a printed edition or adaptation of Exoplanet at the moment ("I wouldn't rule it out.) and Weir explained that this is the first project under his banner that's coming out of the gate, saying that they're "still working out how the overall banner will be [and that] for now, we're focused on Exoplanet. If that goes well, we'll move on to the next production."

Exoplanet will be released on Audible on November 5th.

As a reminder: I'll bet at LAcon V next week on August 27th and 28th! I'll be moderating a panel about MAYA (more on that book in a moment). Let me know if you'll be at the convention, come say hi! I'm very excited: I've never been to WorldCon before, and I'm looking forward to moderating this panel.

August has brought a good pile of books to bookshelves this month, and the second batch is just as intriguing as the first. We've got stories of vampires, murders, ancient evils reawakened, missions to distant planets, and quite a bit more!

As always, you can see prior installments of this monthly book list here, and if you find this and other lists useful, consider signing up as a supporting subscriber.

Okay, here are 14 new science fiction and fantasy books to check out in the second half of August:

Murder at the End of the World by Akane Araki, translated by Jesse Kirkwood (August 4th)

A young woman named Haru is working toward getting her driver's license, even if she won't have a whole lot of time to use it: a meteor is headed to Earth, threatening catastrophic destruction. When she shows up to her driving lesson with her ex-cop instructor, Isagawa, they discover a body in the trunk of their car.

Even though the world is coming to a swift end, they decide to investigate the killing, and set off across Japan to search for the killer. As more bodies emerge, they have to figure out why someone would do this in the first place, and what justice means at such a time.

Kirkus Reviews says "simmering beneath the surface is a slyer exploration of human behavior in the face of imminent disaster."

Brona: The First Druids of Shannara by Terry Brooks and Delilah S. Dawson (August 25th)

Terry Brooks follows up last year's Galaphile, the start to a new series in his long-running Shannara universe. In March of that year, he revealed that it was time to retire, and that he was bringing on Delilah S. Dawson to write the next installment, Brona.

In this installment, Galaphile Joss and his partner Nirianne established Paranor to bring peace to the Four Lands, and now, their sons have grown up, only to find that this world is pretty boring, and yearn for adventure. When adventure does find them, it's a familiar foe from their family's past: a sorcerer who their father had once defeated and who has now returned, stronger than before.

Fortune’s Wake by C.L. Clark (August 24th)

Grimdark Magazine is publishing a short novella from C.L. Clarke that sounds very exciting: Kova of Stormwatch has a simple plan: kill the giant beasts that are hiding away in a deep forest, earn a bounty, and win over the heart of a girl. To do that, she needs to become an apprentice for a legendary monster hunter, Sayre Boarbane.

The problem is that Sayre doesn't like to work with people, and ends up dragging Kova home, where they discover that Kova's mother is missing, the girl she lusted after has found someone else, and the monsters she was hoping to slay have arrived in Stormwatch.

MAYA: Seed Takes Root by Anand Gandhi and Zain Memon (August 25th)

This is the book that's part of the project that I'll be talking about at World Con next week: it's part of a transmedia project that encompasses not only a book, but a game, feature film, and quite a bit more. Filmmaker Anand Gandhi and gamer designer Zain Memon have build a huge world around the following concept:  “Whoever controls the stories, controls our dreams and nightmares, our very desires and fears. Their whispers become our will.”

It's an intriguing idea, and we're introduced to the Divyas control the world, through a planetwide network of trees known as Maya to make keen predictions into the future, while the rest of the world taps into it through their everyday lives. Now, the Divya have announced the Trials, in which billions around the world will take part, but only one will become a god, and the Divya know the outcome: the son of a god will be the winner.

Kshar, doesn't believe in that outcome, and he's rehearsed hundreds of times within Maya's simulations, and sees that everything is plotted and understood. There shouldn't be any surprises. But there is one: another named Yachay, a nineteen year old who's never connected to Maya before, thanks to his grandfather, and he thinks that he has a chance to win the entire thing.

Testament of Leaves by Carolyn Ives Gilman (August 18th)

A linguist has been killed on a distant planet, and Inscrutinator Shameesh Kulkarni is tasked with investigating why. Their investigation isn't easy: nobody wants to talk about them, from the prospectors, archeologists, or natives, save for two: a digital version of the victim, and an octopod who befriended her. They uncover a long-buried secret that everyone on the planet is trying to keep under wraps.

Publishers Weekly says "with an earnest sleuth and a darling tentacled sidekick leading the way, there’s much to enjoy here."

The Book of Bots by James Patrick Kelly (August 18th)

James Patrick Kelly brings together 12 of his stories about robotics, ranging from ones here on Earth and in deep space, in cyberspace, that exist as cars and smartphones, all serving in roles such as explorers, advisors, caretakers, lovers, and more.

Season of the Serpent by Suyi Davies Okungbowa (August 18th)

Suyi Davies Okungbowa caps off his Nameless Republic trilogy (which includes Son of the Storm and Warrior of the Wind) in which the world has changed: the continent has split, the Empire of Bassa has crumbled, and the Nameless Republic and Kangalaland are about to come to blows in a final, terrible battle.

The family of Danso, a Bassa scholar, are fighting to reach him before the war arrives, Lilong has survived the destruction of the islands only to lose her powers, and is working to get them back, and the dead queen Esheme is about to rise once more.

Kirkus Reviews gave the book a starred review, saying "Okungbowa has crafted an epic with heart and an unflinching portrayal of the best and worst of humanity and the mixtures in-between. Inseparable from its West African influences, this is a complex tale with both deep characterization and a grand scope, leading through many twists and turns to the inevitable, wrenching finale."

The Jewel and the Comet by Tim Pratt (August 18th)

In this space opera, Glenn is a regular-ish graduate student who's been living with Vivy, who happens to be part of an interdimensional spy agency. When she's called out on a mission to stop a rogue comet, Glenn is brought along on his own adventure through the multiverse, where he faces off against an evil cult that can draw on an unlimited amount of power, while Vivy finds herself tracking down a stolen jewel that could destroy entire universes. And as it turns out, there's a link between their two journeys.

Publishers Weekly says "with laugh-out-loud moments and characters worth rooting for, this hits just the right balance between earnest and kooky."

The Salt King by Natasha Pulley (August 18th)

A Jesuit priest named Avelyn Brocken came from a small mining town in England, and at the age of 16, fled, leaving behind the local god – the Salt King – after his family was killed. When a fellow priest was turned to salt, he's dispatched back to his home village by the Vatican to investigate, finding that there are other issues coming from the salt mines – while other issues are cropping up all over the world, an event that could upend the world.

Kirkus Reviews gave it a starred review, saying "drawing on some of her favorite narrative elements—time jumps, perspective shifts, mammoths—Pulley cleverly reckons with thorny questions of truth versus belief, faith versus institutions, and whether it’s better to navigate the unimaginable alone or with a companion whose very presence you doubt.

Blood Rising by Markus Redmond (August 25th)

Last year, Markus Redmond published Blood Slaves, the story of a slave named Willie who was held on a Carolina plantation. He was approached by Rafazi, the member of a vampiric tribe from Africa that had been almost entirely wiped out by illness, and is now looking to foment a revolt.

In the aftermath, Kwadzo Okoro been made the leader of the Tribe, and now faces threats from all sides. On one hand, he's got to contend with the area's two big slaveholding holders, Bartholomew and Constance Crabtree, who are planning to strike back at the Tribe. But the violence they threaten is nothing compared to what Penelope Knudsen could bring, a hatred fueled by Ramanga Tribe and an ability to survive in the sunlight. And then there's Rafazi, who refuses to take orders from those he created. When he strikes a deal with the Crabtrees, Kwadzo has to go to war with his maker, while the fate of his fellow former slaves hangs in the balance.

The Book of the Jaguar by Victor Ladis Schultz (August 25th)

When a legionnaire is killed in battle, the armies of the New Serraña will bring the body home to the soldier's family. After a brutal attack by a monster at a garrison considered safe, Álbaro Ceynos is the only survivor, and has to bring his fellow soldiers home through a broken landscape, armed only with a horse, wagon, and his sword.

The Chicago Review of Books says "it’s a book you’ll want to pore over again and again, both for the inventiveness of the world and the questions with which it leaves you. This is an absolute feat of imagination and love."

The Elements of Dark Academia edited by Jared Shurin (August 27th)

I'm a big fan of Jared Shurn's editorial chops: he was the editor of Pornokitsch years ago and edited a handful of really excellent anthologies over the years. He's got a new one coming (in the UK) about the Dark Academia genre, which contains more than two dozen stories that look back at its roots in gothic literature all the way up to the modern day, and includes such authors as Edgar Allan Poe, Carmen Maria Machado, Lev Grossman, and many others.

Last and First Men: A Story of the Near and Far Future by Olaf Stapledon (August 25th)

One of the genre's most influential authors was Olaf Stapledon, who lived from 1886 to 1950. After earning his doctorate in philosophy, he wrote one of the books he was best known for: Last and First Men, which he published in 1930.

The story is epic in every sense of the word: it spans billions of years, following the evolution of humanity from Earth far, far into the future, with plenty of highs and lows as they progress. MIT Press and Joshua Glenn have added this abridged version of the book to their ongoing Radium Age series. It comes with an introduction by British author Matthew De Abaitua.

The Calamities by Chuck Wendig (August 18th)

In Chuck Wendig's latest horror novel, Mourning Mayne knows that he'll be in charge of his family's vast empire, something that he's approaching with more than a little trepidation, given their history of cruelty and exploitation. This also isn't your usual family: they're one of the oldest and most influential families of fiends – half-human, half demons who draw their power from buying human souls.

When Mourning's estranged father orders him to return, he has to figure out where he stands and how to approach his destiny and role in the family moving forward. A he does, he meets Key and Quinn – a black market dealer in human souls and an artist, respectively – who might hold some answers for the truth behind their grim nature.

Writing for Bloody Disgusting, Matthew Jackson says that it's "a sharp, witty, absorbing novel from one of our finest genre writers, and it moves like a bat out of Hell."

Thanks again for reading: let me know what caught your eye this time, and what you have on your own TBR.

Years ago, I interviewed author James L. Cambias, author of A Darkling Sea, for the now-defunct and much-missed website SF Signal. I've been going through old archives to revisit some of those interviews, and this book remains one that I still think about quite a bit: it's a sort of older-school, hard SF novel that you don't see a lot these days.

While recently writing about Jupiter and Saturn for my Destinations column for Clarkesworld Magazine, I was reminded of this book and some of the inspirations that it seemed to draw from the discoveries we've made on Europa and Enceladus in recent decades.

This interview was originally published in 2014. It's been lightly updated for format and some typos.

What can you tell us about yourself? When did you first discover science fiction, and why did you stick with it?

Like so many other people, I discovered science fiction through Heinlein. My older sister was getting books like Podkayne of Mars and The Moon is a Harsh Mistress out of the library when she was in her teens and I was about ten. I’d sneak into her room to borrow them, and that hooked me. I became a stereotypical omnivorous SF reader, devouring classics and drek with equal enthusiasm.

I first thought about writing science fiction when I was fourteen. I’d been reading Isaac Asimov’s autobiography and was quite taken with the idea that he’d made his first professional sale at age 15. I thought maybe I could beat that. And in every issue of my monthly copies of Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine there was a little blurb about submission policies. Why not?

So I wrote some stories, more or less just to be writing them, and naturally got rejections. I tried again a few years later when I was in college, and still got rejected. In 1995 or so I sent a story to Gordon Van Gelder at F&SF, and got an encouraging personal rejection instead of a form letter. A few years after that, I sold him my first story. I still haven’t managed to sell anything to Asimov’s.

As to why I stuck with it…I’ve never really wanted to do anything else.

A Darkling Sea is your first novel. What inspired this particular storyline?

I blame Zeppelins and Star Trek.

Allow me to explain. Back in the 1990s, for a time I was doing some nonfiction writing, chiefly for aviation magazines. I wrote a long article for Airpower magazine about a World War I German airship mission to take supplies to their colonial garrison in East Africa. It’s a fantastic real-life adventure, by the way. As part of my background research I wound up reading several books about World War I in Africa. That was a very strange theater of operations. You had tiny forces, often no more than a few hundred men, fighting each other over tremendous distances in a fairly harsh and unfamiliar landscape. The soldiers were a mix of Africans, European colonist volunteers, and a handful of professionals. Relatively trivial resources, like a single steamboat or a telegraph station, became vital strategic objectives. I thought it would be neat to tell a story like that in a science-fictional context.

During that same period I also was doing some writing for Last Unicorn Games, which at the time had the license to publish the Star Trek roleplaying game. (Their game was excellent, by the way; especially the Original Series sourcebook.) Naturally I had to steep myself in all things Trekish, including the famous “Prime Directive” — you know, the stupid rule that forbids Captain Picard from helping a civilization that’s about to get wiped out by an asteroid impact because it would “interfere with their natural development.”

I don’t like the idea of the Prime Directive, especially not the mix of patronizing condescension and postwar Western guilt which spawned it. Only a culture which doesn’t need the Prime Directive could think of it. So I wanted to tell the story of a civilization living in the ocean under a mile of ice. If nobody from outside ever makes contact with them, they’ll never know there is an outside universe.

Those two notions came together, and I wrote A Darkling Sea.

A number of blurbs on the back herald this as a great Hard Science Fiction read: is there any particular stories or authors that inspired you?

It might be easier to list the ones that didn’t. Poul Anderson is one of my favorites, and he was an absolute master of creating believable alien societies. Larry Niven is another favorite. Jack Vance is an under-appreciated genius at creating aliens. I’ve already mentioned Asimov and Heinlein, of course. I’m also a tremendous fan of Arthur C. Clarke. I suspect all of them influenced me to one degree or another.

But I should also mention some of the non-SF authors which have influenced me. I read James Thurber from an early age, and I think I got my appreciation of deadpan humor from him. I also read everything Tom Wolfe writes, and I tried to imitate his wide-ranging journalistic style in my accounts of the Ilmatarans.

What are your thoughts on some of the exploration efforts within our solar system, particularly Europa?

Whatever it is, I’m for it. Any space exploration is better than none at all. Will we find complex life under the ice of Europa? Probably not. But we’ll never know until we look.

I expect Europa will have to wait longer than most people realize. Certainly it’ll have to wait until after humans have landed on Mars. The space around Jupiter is a hell of radiation trapped by the big planet’s magnetic field, and getting in and out of Jupiter’s gravity well is very difficult indeed.

The good news is that robots are getting so capable that it’s likely we’ll be able to send unmanned probes to Europa which would be almost as effective as human astronauts.

Space travel is difficult and expensive, but it’s not hugely difficult and expensive. Americans spend ten times as much money in a year on sports merchandise than we do on space exploration. We could have a much bigger space effort than we do; it’s mostly a question of political priorities and public interest.

When we think of ‘First Contact’ stories, we think of spaceships bumping into one another in the empty regions of space. Here, however, you set it deep under the ice of Llmatar. Why the shift?

As I mentioned earlier, it was necessary for the theme of the story. The Ilmatarans are walled off from the rest of the Universe. If the humans didn’t go to them, they’d never have contact at all.

The Sholen have a particular philosophy guiding them: one of non-interference with other races, due to their own violent past. Do you think this is hypocritical on the part of the Sholen, given that they’re willing to resort to violence?

Oh, naturally it’s hypocritical. All ideologies have a huge amount of hypocrisy. In the case of the Sholen, the beliefs they’ve adopted to keep from killing themselves have the unhappy side effect of making them slightly crazy.

Your characters take on a revolutionary stance when they’re confronted by the Sholen, and particularly, they invoke the imagery of Lawrence of Arabia. It’s mentioned in the text, but there were long-range consequences. Is this some foreshadowing for a future story?

Definitely. The conflict ignited in A Darkling Sea isn’t going to end quickly or easily. I’ve got plans for another novel looking at a very different “front” in that war.

The Terran-Sholen war in some ways resembles the “proxy wars” of the Cold War era on Earth. Neither side wants to escalate to attacks on each other’s home planets because of the risk of devastating retaliation. Which means it’s the sort of fight that can drag on for a very long time as victory and defeat are entirely matters of perception.

In Harlan Ellison's landmark 1967 short story "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream", an artificial intelligence called AM has taken over the world. It has eradicated humanity, except for five people that it's trapped in a surreal and nightmarish simulation in a sadistic attempt to exact revenge against its creators. It transforms them in horrendous ways as it sends them on a fruitless journey for some form of relief, only to withhold it in increasingly cruel ways.

It's a horrifying story, and one that I kept thinking about as I read Paul Tremblay's latest novel, Dead But Dreaming of Electric Sheep, itself a horrifying parable about the toxic nature of Silicon Valley's "move fast and break things" ethos and the era of artificial intelligence that it's ushering us into.

Spoilers for the novel ahead.

Tremblay opens the book on a surreal note: "Your fluttering eyelids are mouths, mouths that talk too fast because they are lying. You press your palms into your eyes to slow the lids down, to shut them the hell up." You – in these second-person chapters – find yourself in a strange environment, questioned by mysterious people, and unable to remember who you were and how you've gotten here.

It's soon clear what's happening when we flip over to the novel's other perspective, Julia Flang, a former competitive gamer who's now working in a menial assistant's role in the entertainment industry. She's endured a difficult adulthood: after her parents split, her father died, and she ended up living with her uncle Charles (Uncle Fun), a fellow pop-culture aficionado.

She's not particularly close with her mother, an ambitious woman who's now the CFO of a "bleeding-edge, monopolistic tech company" called Decillion. That not-quite estrangement makes Julia somewhat reluctant to pick up the phone when her mother calls and texts. But when she eventually does, she finds that she's being offered a life-transforming opportunity: for an enormous sum of money, they want her to help them transport someone across the country.

That someone is – was? – a former Decillion employee who she's been told had debilitating stroke and who's now in a vegetative state that doctors say he won't ever wake up from. He'd indicated that in the event of a medical incident like this, he wanted to be brought home, where his family could end his life in a humane way. But he also donated his body to science, which the company is taking full advantage of: they've pioneered some cutting-edge nano and artificial intelligence technologies that would allow them to stimulate what remains of his neurons and control his movements.

When Julia arrives, she's given an orientation, brief training, and a specialized smartphone that allows her to "pilot" this man, who she begins calling Bernie. All she has to do is get him on two flights across the country from San Francisco to Rhode Island, before his body runs out of steam, and all will be well.

You can see where this is going: "Bernie" might be brain dead, but there's still something of his consciousness locked away in there, trapped and tormented by all of these outside forces and memories that he doesn't have any context for or control over. We follow him through this nightmarish scenario as he's brought from stop to stop as he works to figure out what's happening to him, and eventually how to try and escape.

Tremblay's known for more straight-up horror novels like A Head Full of Ghosts, Disappearance at Devil's Rock, The Cabin at the End of the World, Survivor's Song, and others, but this is horror in the vein of the Channel 4 / Netflix series Black Mirror: a story that showcases the pitfalls and drawbacks of the technologies that feel like they'll be commonplace in just a couple of years. The story here is firmly in that wheelhouse, where the horror comes not from the body horror or surrealism, but at how stripping away one's agency is one of the most frightening and devastating things, as Ellison's own story centered.

Julia's story is just as nightmarish and Black Mirror-esque, and she knows it. "This is yet another moment where Julia should say no and walk away. She should make a high-minded, ethical objection to this whole thing. It's beyond fucked up." She – like everyone involved in this situation – is tipped over the edge by the insane payday that's been promised to her: it's a potentially life-changing amount of money and there's just enough wiggle-room in her mind to justify taking it on: after all, didn't he and his family consent to this sort of thing?

The Decillion employees who walk her through her tasks and the hardware note that they've been careful to not humanize their subject: he was a low-level employee, and they were keen to withhold his identity and any details about him. It's Julia who begins calling him "Bernie" (after Weekend at Bernie's), and who begins to wonder who he might have been before his stroke. Those qualms are the leaks in the dam for her, and it isn't long before Tremblay shows off the differences between her corporate companions and Julia: the former are more than willing to treat "Bernie" as a piece of tech, whereas the latter recognizes his humanity, even if it's locked away behind layers of decaying flesh. The longer their journey goes on, the more pronounced those differences in attitude become.

There's a little bit of useful context here: in 2023, Tremblay was one of a pair of authors that embarked on a lawsuit against OpenAI, claiming that it had improperly used their works to train its systems in ways that violated their copyrights. That lawsuit – and others – have been working their way thought various courts, with some successes and some setbacks. This is very much a book that wraps up his attitudes toward the larger tech industry and its excesses, and it neatly showcases a world that's been made stranger and more frightening by the technologies that are supposed to make our lives better.

I don't think it's stretch to say that broad swaths of the genre are responding to the profound changes that the industrial revolution brought with it; changes that upended how we live and organize our lives, bringing not only new opportunities and lots of genuine improvements, but also uncertainty and upheaval at the same time. Mary Shelley captured that vibe perfectly when she published Frankenstein in 1818, showing an understanding of the role that humanity plays in the natural world and how our hubris can be our undoing.

Tremblay embedded more than a little Frankenstein embedded in this novel as he brings his not-quite-living-but-not-quite-dead character across the country, the product of some new technological advances. Those technologies, Julia is told, hold a lot of promise for the future of humanity. They probably do! But she also points out that what Decillion is working on probably has a ton of applications for the military and other not-so-world-improving applications.

We've had a lot of those advances in the last couple of decades. Social media heralded an age where we can connect with people all over the world, only to bring about a society and culture that can at times be incredibly divided. Smartphones are a window to limitless knowledge – while also unlocking all sorts of peer pressures, harassment, fixations, tics, and whatnot. And the new wave of Generative large language models came with a promise of efficiency and creative boosts for users, only to be used in any number of unethical, illegal, and downright terrible ways.

It's how they're used that defines a technology's usefulness, and in this modern technological revolution we're living through, it feels as though we're often leaping before we're putting any sort of thought into whether or not it was actually a good idea. Recall the line from Jurassic Park: "Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should." Silicon Valley technologies do have the potential to bring some incredible changes, and I'll admit that disruption is probably useful in the longer term.

But we humans are really bad at gaming out the longer-term consequences of our actions in favor of the immediate rewards that are sitting right in front of us. Silicon Valley's "burn it all down and rebuild" ethos wraps us up in a future that we didn't necessarily ask for or need. New technologies are deployed that have far-reaching consequences that sometimes take years to fully understand, but not before they can enact devastating consequences. Who could have imagined that a social platform that rated college girls hotness could domino into a tool that helped bring about a genocide?

In many ways, this is the real horror story that Tremblay's book digs into: a world where we're subjected to the whims of the products that tech companies unleash upon the world with little regard for how they'll actually be used, where a minor change or new feature or can spiral into enormous, real-world upheaval. Even more horrifying, there's an element of complicity here. We know that piling onto someone online is bad, but sometimes, we can't help but weigh in on the latest controversy. We know that tech companies (take your pick for which one) have their share of unethical practices, but we still buy their gadgets and use their services. Julia has her qualms about what she's going to do, but she goes through with it because she's being paid gobs of money. We make excuses for why we do these things, but in the end, we still have to acknowledge that we have some agency in our decisions.

Ellison's yarn about an insane and malevolent machine intelligence hit the nail on the head when it came to the horror that striping away one's agency brings. With Dead But Dreaming of Electric Sheep, Tremblay shows that's still horrifying, but that it's even scarier when it's an unintended consequence of human greed and indifference.

There’s an anecdote that I read years ago that stuck with me: President Bill Clinton was so disturbed by Richard Preston's novel The Cobra Event that he began asking senior staffers and policy officials about the nature of the country's defenses against biological hazards.

Preston is most famous for The Hot Zone, a nonfiction thriller that investigated the origins of the Ebola virus, and an incident in which the U.S. Army was called in to contain an outbreak in a population of primates destined for research purposes in a quarantine facility in Reston, Virginia in October 1989. In their book Germs: Biological Weapons and America's Secret War, Judith Miller, Stephen Engelberg, and William Broad recounted that after writing the book, Preston was interested to learn that the military was concerned about Ebola's potential as a biological weapon. He began drafting a novel, and after consulting with experts, landed on the idea of a lone-wolf terrorist bent on thinning out the world's population, mashing together a couple of viruses into a highly-transmissible weapon.

"Clinton was impressed by the book’s grim narrative and apparent authenticity. Preston’s acknowledgments included more than one hundred experts — military officers, intelligence analysts, doctors, scientists, and officials in Clinton’s own administration, including Danzig. The novel’s science, Preston wrote in a preface, 'is real or based on what is possible.'"

Clinton began asking his friends, cabinet members, even House Speaker Newt Gingrich whether they had read the book and what they thought about it. After a White House meeting on another topic, the president suddenly turned to John Hamre, the deputy secretary of defense, and asked whether he could speak to him privately for a few moments. As the two men walked into the Oval Office, Clinton said he had recently read The Cobra Event and asked Hamre whether he thought the novel’s scenario was plausible. Could a terrorist unleash an unstoppable plague with designer pathogens?

Fiction is a powerful tool for stirring the imagination and gaming out possibilities, and for her latest book, Biological War: A Scenario, journalist Annie Jacobsen takes a look at what the release of a biological weapon might look like. If Preston's novel was enough to get policymakers thinking about it, this should be the equivalent of someone pulling a fire alarm.

Scenario fiction can be a useful tool for policy makers at all levels as a way to take concepts, contingency plans, and policy and see what happens should the worst happen: novels like P.W. Singer and August Cole's Ghost Fleet and Burn-In look at global problems facing the US, while Jeffrey Lewis documents a theoretical nuclear strike against the United States in The 2020 Commission Report on the North Korean Nuclear Attacks Against the United States. Jacobsen tackled similar ground in her 2024 book Nuclear War: A Scenario, in which the US faces a nuclear strike and takes us through how the world ends in a minute-by-minute account that shows how the systems we've set up to speed along the start of a nuclear war will do just that.

Jacobsen sets the stage from the start in her author's note: "Biological warfare is illegal. Biological weapons are illegal. And yet biological weapons exist. The biological weapons that exist include genetically modified weapons designed for hypervirulence and human-to-human transmission. Weapons with a high lethality rate and no known cure."

Her scenario kicks off with a traveler in Frankfurt, Germany who's unaware that he had come into contact with a biological weapon while traveling in Russia. He's in a crowded disco and is spreading the illness to everyone around him.

Four days earlier, a Russian scientist, worried about the implications of their work at the Vector Institute, Russia's premiere biological research facility, attempted to destroy their work and ended up causing an explosion that allowed for the escape of a genetically-modified version of pneumonic plague. This is a particularly nasty weapon, designed to give its victims a sense of euphoria while it incubates inside of them, increasing the chances of it being spread to new victims. As containment in Russia fails, a group of tourists come across a member of the science team and are infected before returning to their respective homes. The countdown begins.

Jacobsen follows the spread of the disease from there: one infected person ends up in a crowded airport in Texas, lands in Los Angeles, and another boards a cruise ship. The results are horrifying: an illness that rages through human bodies, prompting its victims to vomit up blood and necrotized tissue, all while spreading it to everyone around them. The plague rips through the cruise ship like a hot knife through butter, and in Los Angeles, it finds its way into the unhoused populations in Skid Row, where public health officials initially believe that they're dealing with a bad batch of drugs. In the Caribbean, the weapon has landed in the population in the Dominican Republic, prompting an exodus from the island nation that's met with deadly force from US forces in the region.

The situation is quickly spiraling out of control, and while they quickly recognize that the spread of the plague is tied to the explosion at Vector, U.S. officials aren't able to move quickly enough to stop the spread, and are forced to undertake drastic contingency measures, including martial law and devolution to ensure some measure of the continuity of governance. The bioweapon does more than just spread the plague, Just days after the explosion and leak, the U.S. president finds himself isolated in a bunker, unsure when he'll be able to leave.

Jacobsen closes out her narrative on a bleak note: the world has been utterly transformed by this bioweapon. Russia, in its haste to get out a cure, distributed an antidote that kept people safe – but at the cost of horrific birth defects and infertility amongst the remaining population. The survivors in the United States and elsewhere have bunkered down into a series of feudal strongholds in a world reminiscent of the grimmest post apocalyptic thrillers.

The threat that biological agents pose to the country are real and out there. Just days after the terrorist attacks on September 11th, someone began sending packets of anthrax through the mail to a handful of news outlets and US senators Tom Daschle and Patrick Leahy (ultimately killing five people and sickening 17) exposed real gaps in our nation's bio defenses. More recently, our hyper-connected world allowed naturally-occurring pathogens like Ebola and COVID-19 to quickly spread around the globe, where it met a population that was ill-prepared to counter it. As I'm writing this, there's a massive Ebola outbreak raging in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda.

Margaret Atwood has famously explained that her rule for herself while writing The Handmaid's Tale was that nothing was invented out of thin air: "All of the things I have written about have been done before, more than once." The result is a book that's remained chillingly plausible, decades after it was published.

Jacobsen intertwines her scenario between the events precipitated by her fictional bioweapon with various case studies: overviews of war game sessions undertaken by various government agencies, the response to the 2014 Ebola outbreak that saw several cases arrive in the United States, a 1988 accident in which Russian scientist Nikolai Ustinov accidentally injected himself with Marburg, a 2019 explosion at the Vector lab, a crackdown on marmot hunting over fears of the plague, and explorations of the policies and procedures that govern the responses to biological threats. Jacobsen spins out a fictional scenario, but many of its beats are informed by these real-world events and outbreaks.

Like 2024's Nuclear War: A Scenario, Biological War looks at how years of decision-making and posture from the US Army and Soviet counterparts have brought about the rise of the environment that now threatens us: while elements of biological war have existed throughout the history of warfare (think back to the possibly apocryphal story of Mongols catapulting infected bodies over castle walls to the US Army distributing smallpox-infected blankets to Native Americans), the rise of the scientific-industrial complex in the 20th century has given rise to a range of new medical advances that can be misapplied for conflict.

Both the United States and Soviet Union researched and stockpiled reserves of biological weapons, until an Biological Weapons Convention of 1972 put steep restrictions on them – something that Jacobsen points out left open loopholes for research and defensive posture. While President Richard Nixon ordered the complete destruction of the country's biological weapons stockpile in November 1976, the USSR continued its work – with Russia possibly continuing the program.

Like nuclear weapons, these types of weapons are designed never to be used – a deterrent in one's arsenal so that it's available to be used if the need arises. It's a familiar argument, but like the massive arsenal of firearms that infests the United States, their mere existence means not only that there's a chance that they can be used intentionally, there's also the chance of an accident. Jacobsen points to an incident that took place in Sverdlovsk, Russia in April 1979 in which an accidental release of anthrax spores led to 68 deaths amongst the local population, and the 2019 explosion at the Vector Lab (in which there was no release of biological agent) as examples of close calls.

In her prior scenario, Jacobsen examined the role that systems play in the processes to launch a nuclear war. Because nuclear weapons can be launched to their targets in incredibly short amounts of time, the posture of nuclear-armed nations are aligned for a quick response – the end of the world will happen in minutes, because those systems speed the decision-making along so quickly, even in cases of mistakes.

If that book was about how systems work well to ensure a result, this book is about how the gaps and breaks between systems lead to this particular apocalypse. Time and again, Jacobsen points out that biological agents can take days to surface, and when they do, first responders often won't know that they're dealing with a weapon. Initial patients will likely be misdiagnosed, critical information won't be shared between agencies, and by the time governmental officials and leaders understand what's happening, it'll be too late.

There are plenty of instances that stand out: military units trained to respond to biological disasters exist, but it can take houses or even days for them to come up to a readiness so that they can carry out their mission, while disease surveys specifically don't take in data from the country's unhoused populations (already extremely vulnerable), leading to gaps in our awareness about a potential situation. And when authorities do realize something's happening, there are significant bottlenecks when it comes to distributing critical preexposure prophylaxis to first responders and those needed to ensure that civil society remains intact in a crisis.

In Jacobsen's scenario, things go sideways: fast. A massive outbreak in Skid Row leads to confrontations between the population and police, turning into a horror scene that's endlessly played on social media until the internet is shut down. It's only a matter of time before everything breaks, thanks to divisions in civil discourse, a distrust in government, and a willingness to use force and violence against civil authorities. While COVID-19 wasn't nearly as bad as what Jacobsen plays out, we still got a taste of how society would react – not well.

While there's plenty that's shocking in this book – the images of people vomiting and coughing up necrotizing lung tissue is nightmare fuel enough – what's the scariest here is less the blood and gore, but the ease and speed at which this apocalypse happens. An accidental leak leads to the end of the world in a matter of days, thanks to decades of accumulated policies and procedures that we know aren't sufficient to protect ourselves.

The point of the book is clear – to show policymakers and constituents the flaws in our national defenses by throwing everything into the framework of a story, where you can safely show the worst case scenario (or even just a bad-case scenario). Hopefully, it's a book that, like Richard Preston's Cobra Event, will reach the right people and prompt them to not only ask questions about the state of our biohazard defenses, but do something about them. I can only hope that this scary story be more effective at achieving that goal than Preston's was.

The World Fantasy Convention has announced the finalists for this year's awards. The World Fantasy Award has been been handed out annually since 1975, and they're amongst the highest honors in the fantasy and horror genres alongside the Hugo and Nebula Awards. This year's jury was composed of Chịkọdịlị Emelụmadụ, Tamsyn Muir, Madeleine E. Robins, Richard Thomas, and Ann VanderMeer.

This year's winners will be announced at this year's convention, which will be held October 22-25 in Oakland, California.

Here are the finalists for this year's award:

Best Novel

• Audition for the Fox by Martin Cahill
• Once Was Willem by M.R. Carey
• The Secret Market of the Dead by Giovanni De Feo
• The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow
• The Adventures of Mary Darling by Pat Murphy

Best Long Fiction

• The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar
• “The Secret Diary of Mina Harker" by Theodora Goss (Letters from an Imaginary Country)
• “Uncertain Sons” by Thomas Ha (Uncertain Sons and Other Stories)
• The Death of Mountains by Jordan Kurella
• “The Spotter” by Josh Malerman (You, Human: An Anthology of Dark Science Fiction, Vol. 2)
• Psychopomp & Circumstance by Eden Royce
• A Mouthful of Dust by Nghi Vo

Best Short Fiction

• “The Hungry Mouth at the Edge of Space and the Goddess Knitting at Home” by Renan Bernardo (Reactor 8/27/25)
• “In My Country” by Thomas Ha (Clarkesworld 4/25)
• “10 Visions of the Future; or, Self-Care for the End of Days” by Samantha Mills (Uncanny 3-4/25)
• “St. Dymphna’s School for Borderland Girls” by Jocelyn Szczepaniak-Gillece (Weird Horror Spring ‘25)
• “Unfinished Architectures of the Human-Fae War" by Caroline M. Yoachim (Uncanny 5-6/25)

Best Anthology

• Night & Day edited by Ellen Datlow
• Storyteller: A Tanith Lee Tribute Anthology edited by Julie C. Day, Carina Bissett and Craig Laurance Gidney
• The Best Weird Fiction of the Year: Volume 1, edited by Michael Kelly
• Year’s Best Canadian Fantasy & Science Fiction: Volume Three edited by Stephen Kotowych
• Bog People: A Working-Class Anthology of Folk Horror edited by Hollie Starling

Best Collection

• Letters from an Imaginary Country by Theodora Goss
• Uncertain Sons and Other Stories by Thomas Ha
• The Essential Patricia A. McKillip by Patricia A. McKillip
• The Eleventh Hour: A Quintet of Stories by Salman Rushdie
• Black Hole Heart and Other Stories by K.A. Teryna and translated by Alex Shvartsman

Best Artist

• Galen Dara
• Kathleen Jennings
• Daniele Serra
• Rachel Smythe
• Charles Vess

Special Award – Professional

• Clive Bloom, for London Uncanny: A Gothic Guide to the Capital in Weird History and Fiction 
• Jaymee Goh, Jill Roberts & Jacob Weisman, for Tachyon Publications
• Tim Lucas, for Succubus 
• Blumhouse & Dave Schilling, for Horror’s New Wave: 15 Years of Blumhouse 
• Becky Siegel Spratford, for Why I Love Horror: Essays on Horror Literature 
• Richard Wolinsky, for Space Ships! Ray Guns! Martian Octopods!: Interviews with Science Fiction Legends

Special Award – Non-Professional

• Scott H. Andrews, for Beneath Ceaseless Skies
• Andy Cox, for Remains
• Patrick Swenson, for Fairwood Press and for the Rainforest Writers Village Retreat
• Elise C. Tobler, for The Deadlands
• Wendy Wagner, for Nightmare

Congratulations to all of the finalists! Thanks for reading. Let me know what stood out for you on this list. For me, I really loved Alix Harrow's The Everlasting (here's my review), but there are a ton of other really exciting books included.

So, a quick announcement off the bat: I'm going to WorldCon at the end of the month! I'll be interviewing the folks behind the MAYA narrative universe, which includes a novel, MAYA: Seed Takes Root, which is coming out at the end of the month.

I've never been to WorldCon, and I'm looking forward to it! If you're going to be there, let me know. I won't be there the whole time, but I should be around on the 27th and 28th.

As always, you can find the prior book lists in the always find prior lists linked in the Book List tag. And if you find these lists useful, consider signing up as a supporting subscriber?

Okay, here are 13 books to check out this month:

A Fugitive's History of the Known Universe by Nadia Afifi (August 11th)

Nadia Afifi follows up her novel A Rebel’s History of Mars. In that book, a performer named Kezza planned to seek out revenge on the person who exiled her on Mars, only to find a buried secret. A millennia later, a historian named Azad learned the truth behind some secrets of his own.

Now, Azad is a fugitive and he’s being hunted across the galaxy by the Vitruvius Authorities. He and his crew work to enlist the help of a space pirate to begin fomenting a revolution.

Lucky Starr and the Big Sun of Mercury by Isaac Asimov (August 11th)

Next installment in Isaac Asimov's Lucky Starr series, following David Starr, Space Ranger, Lucky Starr and the Pirates of the Asteroids and Lucky Starr and the Oceans of Venus. This is a reprint of a series that he wrote back in the 1950s, and which had originally been designed to underpin a science fiction TV show that was never made.

This latest adventure, the fourth in the series, takes the heroes out to Mercury, where agent David Starr is dispatched to investigate a series of accidents.

A Trade of Blood: An Ana and Din Mystery by Robert Jackson Bennett (August 4th)

It's the third installment of his fantastic Ana and Din series (preceded by The Tainted Cup and A Drop of Corruption). These novels are set in a fantastical empire that's besieged by giant leviathans, with lots of weird science and biological stuff. It follows Ana Dolabra, an imperial Iudex investigator and her assistant, Dinios Kol, who's had his brain altered to remember everything.

They're dispatched to the canton of Sapirdad, where the heir to one of the empire's powerful families has been accused of murder. It looks like he did it: he literally has the victim's blood on his hands, and he can't deny the crime or explain what happened. If he's convicted and hanged, the canton might break out into open war, and as the breadbasket of the Empire, that's unacceptable.

As with the other novels, there's more to the crime than meets the eye, and Ana and Din find that the murder is just the tip of the iceberg.

Publishers Weekly gave the book a starred review, saying "The case is as clever and fairly clued as ever, and it’s a pleasure to revisit these sharply drawn characters. This series shows no signs of slowing down."

A Plagued Sea by Kim Bo-Young and translated by Sophie Bowman (August 11th)

A bodyguard named Mu-young is at the train station with her niece waiting for their train to the seaside village of Haewon when she gets an alert: there’s a massive earthquake taking place on the coast, and decides to leave, rather than leave the girl with her mother.

Just a couple of years later, she’s haunted by the choice. Her niece is dead and the earthquake unleashed a horrifying plague that transforms its victims into monsters. Mu-young’s only job is to hunt down the survivors who’ve broken quarantine. When a bureaucrat arrives from the capitol, he causes even further trouble, all while Mu-young is trying to decide if she even deserves to survive.

Whalesong by Miles Cameron (August 4th)

Miles Cameron brings a new installment of his space opera series (preceded by Artifact Space and Deep Black), Arcana Imperii. In the first, we follow a young woman named Marca Nbaro, who's long dreamed of escaping from her meager upbringing and heading into space via the city-sized Greatships that ferry humanity's cargo across space, where she joins one of the crews. In the second, she her crewmates are aboard the Greatship Athens, and something has been attacking them

Now, Marca and her allies have been growing in power to counter the distant alien threat, they're attacked, and she appears to have been killed. One single ship is all that stands between humanity's survival and its extinction.

Them by W.H. Chizmar (August 11th)

In this debut, a scientific program has cracked the code for transporting matter across space, and it's brought back something alive and dangerous. The threat is contained until it's being transported across New England, and when it crashes, something is unleashed that decimates humanity.

Years later, a man comes out of the ruins and begins looking for other survivors, encountering monsters and other threats. The unearthly monsters aren't the only things that have spelled the end of humanity.

Meat Bees by Dane Erbach (August 4th)

When Scarlett Sutton heads out to the Smoky Mountains to her father's isolated cabin, she's trying to escape her family's issues: her mother has checked herself into a hospital, and she has to go out to live with her father for the summer. He insists that she gets a job, and after finding work at an outdoor sports store, she is shocked when she comes across a skeleton on the job.

Little did she know, a couple of people have been killed that summer in the mountains, and as the sheriff's office races to figure out what's behind the killings, one of Scarlett's coworkers goes missing. She and her friends are horrified to find his body, with a host of yellow jackets consuming him, and now, they have to figure out how to save themselves and their home.

The Dungeon Book by Gareth Hanrahan (August 11)

A woman named Bait is trapped in a dungeon, and doesn't know any other world beyond that. She was stolen from her bed by a dragon, who gave her over to the horrifying residents of the dungeon, who ended up raising her in a large, adoptive family, rather than eating her.

The dungeon, with its mysterious corridors and treasures, proves to be a powerful draw for hunters and dungeon crawlers, and as Bait's home is invaded, she has to figure out where her loyalties really lie.

Star Wars Legends: Cloak of Deception and Labyrinth of Evil by James Luceno (August 11th)

Two of the better prequel-era novels, Cloak of Deception and Labyrinth of Evil, are getting the Star Wars re-release treatment. The former sets up some of the events that lead into The Phantom Menace, while the latter sets up the fall of Anakin Skywalker in Revenge of the Sith. They might not be part of the official canon anymore, but they're still intriguing reads.

The Wandering Inn by pirateaba (August 11th)

If you've been itching for another LitRPG novel series after reading Dungeon Crawler Carl, another series is getting the trad-publishing treatment: pirateba's Wandering Inn series. It's a massive series (this volume is the first part of book one, weighing in at 640 pages), and introduces us to a woman named Erin Solstice. She runs the Wandering Inn, and once came from our world. She's adapted to this fantasy realm, where dragon and monster attacks are common. The longer she's there, she learns that she's part of a much larger game, one in which other humans are pulled from our world and made to fight for survival.

The Infinite State by Richard Swan (August 4th)

This first installment of a new series, The Decurion Saga, introduces us to Katherine Fuller, who just lost her husband. He was a major part of the Pater Aeternus, a governing party in the oppressive Decurion Empire, and he's left behind a fortune to her.

Spanning a galaxy, Pater Aeternus rigorously controls its subjects, and with this new wealth and resources at her disposal, Katherine has an opportunity: purchase an entire world and start up a new society on it. But while she has ambitious plans, the empire isn't willing to let them play out, and she's forced to work in secret and recruit allies that she's not sure she can trust as she works to build a fledgling democracy.

Preaching to the Choir by Adrian Tchaikovsky (August 11th)

Adrian Tchaikovsky has a new novella, in which a woman named Elena Mendes knows that her rich boyfriend Ross fled England for the United States so that he could escape his insufferable family. Now, he's been summoned home to the family estate for a strange family fathering that only happens once every generation. While she wasn't invited, he asked her along, and when they arrive, she realizes that there are some deep, ancient secrets hiding out on the estate that give the term "old money" an entirely new meaning.

I'll have another list for you later in the month. As usual, let me know in the comments what catches your eye!

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the Dragon Awards, which kicked off in 2016 in the aftermath of a bitter fight between various factions of fandom over the nature of fandom, what works deserve to be honored as the "best" of the year, and how much of what's big and popular is driven by certain personalities/publishers verses what "real" fans want.

Handed out every year at DragonCon in Atlanta, Georgia, the awards are designed to be driven by fans, and unlike the Hugo Awards, they are open to everyone, regardless of your membership status at the con. The results aren't the right-wing alternative that I think some within fandom had hoped: they've really been a wide-ranging and excellent roundup of notable works published in the last year (roughly Labor Day to Labor Day).

Voting is now open – you can register to do so here – until Friday, September 4th. Interestingly, it looks like they now have an option to be automatically renewed for upcoming years when you do so. Once registered, a prospective voter will get a confirmation link, with ballots being issued on "Thursdays and Mondays during the month of August."

Here are this year's nominees:

Best Science Fiction Novel

• The Faith of Beasts by James S.A. Corey
• Radiant Star by Ann Leckie
• Operation Bounce House by Matt Dinniman
• Slow Gods by Claire North
• The Shattering Peace by John Scalzi
• God’s Junk Drawer by Peter Clines

Best Fantasy Novel (Including Paranormal)

• Red City by Marie Lu
• Queen Demon by Martha Wells
• Academy of Outcasts by Larry Correia
• Hell to Pay by Sherrilyn Kenyon
• The Lost Reliquary by Lyndsay Ely
• Twelve Months by Jim Butcher

Best Young Adult / Middle Grade Novel

• Make Me a Monster by Kalynn Bayron
• The Executioners Three by Susan Dennard
• Hazelthorn by CG Drews
• Ride or Die by Delilah S. Dawson
• Sky on Fire by E.K. Johnston
• Queen of Faces by Petra Lord

Best Alternate History Novel

• Powerless by Harry Turtledove
• World War 3.2 by John Birmingham
• The Winds of Fate by S.M. Stirling
• The Unnecessary War by Brian C. Thompso
• A Resistance of Witches by Morgan Ryan
• No Man’s Land by Richard K. Morgan

Best Horror Novel

• It Was Her House First by Cherie Priest
• Play Nice by Rachel Harrison
• Girl in the Creek by Wendy N. Wagner
• The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
• King Sorrow by Joe Hill
• The Possession of Alba Díaz by Isabel Cañas

Best Illustrative Book Cover

• Brigands & Breadknives, by Carson Lowmiller
• The Ishtar Deception, by Dominic Harman
• The Sapphire Heart, by Jeff Brown
• Hemlock & Silver, by T. Kingfisher
• Pretenders to the Throne of God, by Joe Wilson
• The Second Death of Locke, by Anna Moshak

Best Comic Book / Graphic Novel

• Absolute Batman by Scott Snyder, Nick Dragotta
• Absolute Wonder Woman, by Kelly Thompson, Hayden Sherman
• Something is Killing the Children, by James Tynion IV, Werther Dell’Edera
• Daredevil, by Stephanie Phillips, Lee Garbett
• X-Men: Elsewhen, by John Byrne
• Absolute Superman, by Jason Aaron, Rafa Sandoval

Best Science Fiction or Fantasy TV Series, TV or Internet

• Strange New Worlds Season 3, Paramount+
• Foundation Season 3, Apple TV
• A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, HBO
• Alien: Earth, FX
• Fallout Season 2, Amazon
• Plur1bus, Apple TV
• The Boys Season 5, Amazon
• Widow’s Bay, Apple TV

Best Science Fiction or Fantasy Movie

• Superman, by James Gunn
• Project Hail Mary, by Phil Lord, Christopher Miller
• Disclosure Day, by Steven Spielberg
• Predator: Badlands, by Dan Trachtenberg
• Frankenstein, by Guillermo del Toro
• Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu, by Jon Favreau
• Toy Story 5, by Andrew Stanton
• The Sheep Detectives, by Kyle Balda

Best Digital Game

• Hades II, Supergiant Games
• Hollow Knight: Silksong, Team Cherry
• Silent Hill f, NeoBards Entertainment
• Ghost of Yōtei, Sucker Punch Productions
• Forza Horizon 6, Playground Games
• Battlefield 6, Battlefield Studios

Best Tabletop Game

• Forgotten Realms: Heroes of Faerûn, Wizards of the Coast
• ACKS II Revised Rulebook, Autarch
• Magic: the Gathering – Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Wizards of the Coast
• 7 Wonders Dice, Repos Production
• Warhammer 40,000 The Maelstrom, Games Workshop
• Wingspan Americas Expansion, Stonemaier Games