It’s time foe the Subjective Chaos Kind of Awards for 2023! I was asked to be a judge again; and, this year will be the 3rd year I’ve participated in this speculative awards with other bookbloggers. I’m very excited about this year’s awards and nominees!
Best Fantasy Novel
THE UNBALANCING by R.B. Lemberg Spear by Nicola Griffith The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez The Book Eaters by Sunyi Dean Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher Swallow:Efunsetan Aniwura by Ayodele Olofintuade The Bone Orchard by Sara A. Mueller
One of Autostraddle’s best books of last year, this fantasy novel set in Lemberg’s acclaimed Birdverse features world-building deeply rooted in neurodiversity, queerness, nonbinary identity, and transness. The story follows two lovers, a poet and a starkeeper, as they simultaneously fall for each other while their island home approaches a fated doom. (As you might guess from that description, THE UNBALANCING is a loose retelling of the Atlantis myth). This fantasy book really has it all, from complex diverse characters, a unique magical system, careful explorations of the intersections of queer and neurodivergent identities, romance, lyrical writing, and more!
At this point Lemberg could just scream and I would probably find it fascinating. They are an amazing creator. Their world is fantastic. I hate magic, because it seems so uncontrolled and saves the day too easily. This book has wild magic, but it isn’t what saves the day (though this is not a spoiler in the way you are thinking, because magic very much does play a major role in the ending.)
One of my favorite parts of this is the way gender and sexuality work. There are so many genders that are just accepted. There is no real fight or discussion. They just are.
The more I read of the Birdverse, the more fascinated I become with this fantastic and fantastical place. The story in THE UNBALANCING is complete in and of itself, but it hints at depths that I found myself wishing I knew better. In other words, I loved it AND I wanted more. And I found it in Geometries of Belonging: Stories & Poems from the Birdverse, a collection of many of the foundational stories of this marvelous place. I’m looking forward to diving in and learning that MORE – and soon!
The latest reviews and mentions of Tachyon titles and authors from around the web
Sam J. Miller Photo by Kalyaní-Aindrí SánchezR. B. Lemberg Photo by Bogi TakácsBrandon Sanderson (Ceridwen via Wikimedia Commons)David Ebenbach Photo by Rachel GartnerNalo Hopkinson Photo by Sana PudasDavid Sandner
In both of their Year in Review 2022 pieces for Locus, Paula Guran and Charles Payseur (who receives bonus points for mentioning R. B. Lemberg’a first collection Geometries of Belonging) praise Sam J. Miller’s debut collection BOYS, BEASTS & MEN.
There are always great single-author collections every year. Probably (I have a nagging feeling I am forgetting something) my three favorites were Breakable Things(Undertow) by the ever-unsettling Cassandra Khaw BOYS, BEASTS & MEN by Sam J. Miller, who has a knack for striking deep into both a reader’s heart and gut, and the richly imaginative (and often dark)Our Fruiting Bodies: Short Fictionby the legendary Nisi Shawl (Aqueduct).
Both Sam J. Miller (with BOYS, BEASTS & MEN) and R.B. Lemberg (with Geometries of Belonging) came out with collections that capture for me a lot of what hooked me on short speculative fiction. These were the two authors who, upon discovering their work, changed the way I viewed reading, showing me what I had been missing and what I was most hungry for. Their collections are treasures, gems that shine brightly even among the hordes of works released this year.
THE EMPEROR’S SOULis brilliant at exploring the nature of art and how society often overlooks art that doesn’t fit into the confines of a certain dominant worldview which is refreshing. As a novella, you can see why it won the Hugo Award in 2013, although there are places that are itching to be expanded upon in a way that a sequel wouldn’t necessarily be able to accomplish. 8/10.
Cover art by Alexander Nanitchkov Design by Elizabeth Story
HOW TO MARS is an out-of-this-world human migration story that’s wonderfully weird, stylistically creative, darkly funny and unexpectedly moving.
At MI Book Reviews, Isaiah Roby though much the same about the book.
Irreverent, poignant, and perfectly weird, David Ebenbach’s debut science-fiction outing, like a mission to Mars, is an incredible trip you will never forget.
This is a wonderful collection of short stories, and Nalo Hopkinson kept me reading stories that were just straight up horror that I would ordinarily just skip right over. Along with the horror, there’s dark fantasy, lighter, happier fantasy, and even a couple of stories that can fairly be called science fiction. There’s a reworking of the story of Caliban, and a new Bordertown story. It’s an impressive range.
Lanterfish Press announces David Sandner’s new anthology The Afterlife of Frankenstein: A Century of Mad Science, Automata, and Monsters Inspired by Mary Shelley, 1818-1918.
Lanternfish Press is pleased to announce the acquisition of The Afterlife of Frankenstein: A Century of Mad Science, Automata, and Monsters Inspired by Mary Shelley, 1818-1918, edited by David Sandner, for publication in Fall 2023.
Dr. Frankenstein’s monster is one of the most iconic figures in English literature, popularized through decades of writing, film, and comedy. But even before the invention of film, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein profoundly impacted scores of writers, gathering force for the genre that would ultimately become what we know as science fiction.
In this anthology, scholar of the fantastic David Sandner explores the first hundred years of Frankenstein’s influence. This collection of short stories and excerpts from work published between 1818 to 1918 demonstrates what a pioneering myth Frankenstein has always been—from the very day when lightning first struck and it opened its eyes on the world.
NEOM is a thoughtful, beautifully written story about what we have, what we want, how we achieve our desires, and what, and whom, we are willing to risk for our own benefit.
All of this — and much more that I haven’t touched upon — is fascinating. It draws from familiar themes of science fiction without dwelling on them, then peppers the story with new and creative ideas. The novel is short but eventful, always in motion but not driven by action. Perhaps because of its emphasis on robots, but primarily because it is such a quiet novel, Neom reminded me of Clifford D. Simak’s groundbreaking science fiction. Just as Neom is a cognitive city, NEOM is a cognitive novel — a story to think about and, in the end, to appreciate as an innovative work in a genre that is too often stagnant.
If you are looking for something that has warm fuzzy feelings, lots of dialogue that challenges easy thinking, and just lovely writing, I recommend this book. It is one of the most interesting books I have read this year.
Neom appears in a year that has also seen the release of Maror, Tidhar’s excoriating alternative history of modern Israel, NEOM shows that he has not lost his ability to be insightful and playful. Built on memorable characters in a deeply imagined solar system, contemplative and full of both terror and wonder, NEOM is another must-read for science fiction fans.
We’re halfway through December and more than halfway through our Advent Calendar. Today Gary sits down with one of the most interesting and diversely creative writers working in science fiction today, Lavie Tidhar, about his new novels NEOM and Maror, his many other projects, as well as what he’s been reading lately and would recommend.
On the roof the solar panels were folded in on themselves, still asleep, yet uneasily stirring, as though they could sense the imminent coming of the sun. Boris stood on the edge of the roof. The roof was flat and the building’s residents, his father’s neighbors, had, over the years, planted and expanded an assortment of plants, in pots of clay and aluminum and wood, across the roof, turning it into a high-rise tropical garden.
It was quiet up there and, for the moment, still cool. He loved the smell of late-blooming jasmine, it crept along the walls of the building, climbing tenaciously high, spreading out all over the old neighborhood that surrounded Central Station. He took a deep breath of night air and released it slowly, haltingly, watching the lights of the space port: it rose out of the sandy ground of Tel Aviv, the shape of an hourglass, and the slow moving sub-orbital flights took off and landed, like moving stars, tracing jeweled flight paths in the skies.
This medical fantasy mystery, set amid a tense refugee crisis, features a nonbinary protagonist in a Persian-inspired world. When Firuz’s search for a cure to a terrible disease leads to a healer gone rogue, they must wrestle with their mentor, their conscience, and questions of whether good ends can justify evil means. The delicately interwoven complexity of the story, along with the loving portrait of Firuz and their found family, make this fantasy puzzler a delight.
The characters were complex. The story and the emotions were complex. The way the book ended was perfection. It was messy. It was heartbreaking. It was exactly what I wanted and needed. I didn’t want a hero to ride in. I didn’t want some unredeemable villain. I wanted human, I wanted messy, I wanted real. No one is all good or all evil, despite what so much fantasy shows. Instead everyone has motivations that can make justifiable actions out of horrifying ideas. The ending really sealed how much I loved this book. It was truly the only ending that would do this story justice.
It reminded me of Becky Chambers, Charlie Jane Anders, R.B. Lemberg, and add a little bit of The Doomsday Book in for good measure. It was clearly written exactly for me.
THE BRUISING OF QILWA is a short eloquent foray into international politics and gender issues entirely focused on the central characters. These characters are engaging and sympathetic. I highly recommend this novella for all readers and especially for high school literature classes and book clubs for meaty challenging discussion.
Depending on where you are in the world the weather is either turning chilly or it’s becoming warm and sunny, but either way, it’s not long till the end of our Advent Calendar. Today Gary talks to Naseem Jamnia about what they’ve been reading, what they’d recommend, and their exciting new novella, THE BRUISING OF QILWA.
LOCUS reports that Lemberg has been chosen as the 2020 Le Guin Feminist Science Fiction Fellow.
The $2,000 fellowship, sponsored by the University of Oregon Libraries Special Collections and University Archives (SCUA), is awarded “to encourage research within collections in the area of feminist science fiction.”
SCUA houses the papers of Suzette Haden Elgin, Kate Elliot, Sally Miller Gearhart, Molly Gloss, Damon Knight, Ursula K. Le Guin, Laurie Marks, Joanna Russ, Jessica Salmonson, James Tiptree, Jr., and Kate Wilhelm, and is in the process of acquiring the papers of other feminist science fiction authors.
THE FOUR PROFOUND WEAVES is a beautifully articulated exploration of queer identity and transformation. Lemberg’s prose is rhythmic and haunting. They do not flinch from truth, but neither do they dwell too long in darkness. “It is only in stories that change is easily found,” says Uiziya e Lali, but Lemberg’s first Birdverse novel is a testimony to how stories can do just that. The inventiveness of this world and its systems of magic reflects our own but does not mirror it; the possibilities presented offer hope for different ways and modes of being.
THE FOUR PROFOUND WEAVES is AMAZING. The two MCs are trans and are totally the sort of heroes I needed to read.
In advance of forthcoming (Nov. 16) first issue, REVUU teases coverage of the acclaimed debut.
We also cover the debut of an up-and-coming writer who creates a fictional world based on the LGBTQ+ society in Kris van der Voorn’s review of THE FOUR PROFOUND WEAVES.
I strongly urge everyone to read Birdverse, it is truly one of the hidden gems in today’s science fiction. I only scratched the surface of why these stories are great. Birdverse is shaped by R. B. Lemberg’s queerness, neurodivergence, and Jewishness creating a rich tapestry of immersive narratives full of hope and comfort for the othered and marginalized. Don’t know where to start? Start with “Grandmother-nai-Leyit’s Cloth of Winds”. You can find the entire bibliography of Birdverse at R. B. Lemberg’s website with many of the stories free to read.
Coming your way September 30th, Daniel Pinkwater’s forthcoming ADVENTURES OF A DWERGISH GIRL (available for pre-order from your favorite bookseller or direct from Tachyon and for reviewers via EDELWEISS and NETGALLEY) generates interest.
For THE WASHINGTON POST, Micheal Dirda in expresses excitement for both Pinkwater and the forthcoming book.
While Daniel Pinkwater has produced classics for all ages — from that paean to nonconformity, “The Big Orange Splot,” to the Sherlockian pastiche “The Snarkout Boys & the Avocado of Death” — I’m fondest of “Alan Mendelsohn, The Boy From Mars.” In it, the two young heroes acquire the Samuel Klugarsh Mind Control System and discover that it really works. Happily, Pinkwater still works, too: Next month Tachyon Books will bring out ADVENTURES OF A DWERGISH GIRL.
When I first saw ADVENTURES OF A DWERGISH GIRL, I was struck with the cover, then I read the description and struck again. A Dwergish girl gets bored with her dull life and what lays in her future and decides to leave her in-forest-home for the city? And her family just lets her? And supports her? Just give me that.
It is amazing what a cover and just a little bit of information can do to a reader…
[…]
It is a good read and pizza lovers will feel an elevated love for this book. I also hope that this is a beginning of series as the end of the book suggests.
The plot itself was slow and meandering, but in a way that made it feel fleshed out and one that allowed for cute jokes to happen. The ending was one that mostly made sense. I feel like it was left open a bit for a sequel, but the only questions I have are about what that sequel would be which is a wonderful change from a huge plot point not being explained just to set up a sequel. I liked the ending. It was quick, no huge surprises that annoyed me, and it fit perfectly with the pace of the story and the world that was built. So at least one of the chapters I wanted to erase before really is necessary.
Overall, it was a cute story and my first Pinkwater book.
