The latest reviews and mentions of Tachyon titles and authors from around the web.

Jo Walton, Kage Baker, and Ellen Klages (photo: Scott R. Kline)

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY praises Jo Walton’s STARLINGS.

This collection of fiction and poetry from Hugo- and Nebula-winner Walton (The Just City) showcases her trademark focus on genre and philosophical questions. Most of the fiction is very brief, and fans of the form will have plenty to appreciate.

The collection will appeal most strongly to Walton’s dedicated fans and those with academic interest in her work.

THE LITTLE RED REVIEWER is charmed by Kage Baker’s THE HOTEL UNDER THE SAND.

Full of humor and happiness, THE HOTEL UNDER THE SAND was a pure joy to read. Most of the books I read have some level of darkness and tragedy. People die, lovers are separated, there is a war, the good guys lose, someone finds out they’ve been manipulated their entire life, etc. And then of course, there is social media and the news, which is a thousand times worse than any fictional story.  To randomly pick up THE HOTEL UNDER THE SAND and find it to be 180 pages of pure sunshine was next level selfcare.  A comfort book that makes you feel good about yourself and universe on every page? Yep, this is it.

THE HOTEL UNDER THE SAND is a wonderful book for parents to read to their kids. A kid can certainly read this to themselves with no problem, but there are a handful of jokes and subtleties that will be very meaningful to adults.

Never read a Kage Baker before?   THE HOTEL UNDER THE SAND is an excellent place to start.  Your children will thank you.

Liz Bourke at TOR.COM in her essay Sleeps With Monsters: My Year In Queer mentions Ellen Klages’ PASSING STRANGE. The novella contains characters and the same setting from two stories in her collection WICKED WONDERS.

This year, I’ve come across a whole eighteen new books with significant queer inclusion. (From mainstream imprints. This is important, because it means they are more likely to have bookshop distribution. People won’t necessarily have to go and specifically seek them out.) Five of them are novellas, but they’re substantial novellas. And this number represents only the new books I’ve read so far this year that represent worlds that aren’t almost entirely heterosexual. (And that aren’t genre romance. I like romance! Romance is fine. But sometimes I want other things to happen in the plot.) There may yet be one or two more. I have my fingers crossed for several—it’d be nice to have twenty-four as a number!—but that might be hoping for too much.

I have, it turns out, come across more books that include women who love women than those that include men who love men, and more of either than those that include trans characters—though there are a few. When it comes to nonbinary characters, the list is fairly short.

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Ellen Klages’s PASSING STRANGE, which is an ode to, and a love story set in, 1940s San Francisco.

For more info on STARLINGS, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover design by Elizabeth Story

For more info about THE HOTEL UNDER THE SAND, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Ann Monn

For more info on WICKED WONDERS, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover design by Elizabeth Story