All posts by Jonathan Strahan

Podcasts

Episode 176: Liza Groen Trombi and the Locus Recommended Reading List

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Every February US science fiction and fantasy industry trade journal Locus  publishes an annual ‘Year in Review” issue that includes overviews, summaries, reports and an eagerly awaited ‘Recommended Reading List’.

With the February issue safely complete and either already in eager digital reader’s inboxes or winging its way to them in print courtesy of international postal services, and with the 2013 Recommended Reading List available to read on the Locus website, editor-in-chief Liza Groen Trombi joins Gary and Jonathan on the podcast to discuss the year in review issue, the Recommended Reading List, and what it means to try to produce an annual summary of SF/F in 2014.

As always, we hope you enjoy the podcast. See you next week!

Podcasts

Episode 175 cont’d: Gary’s books to look for in 2014

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As promised, following on from Ep 175 going live, here’s Gary Wolfe’s list of books he’s Looking Forward to in 2014:

More next week!

Podcasts

Episode 175: We return and talk about new books in 2014

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It’s been a long time since the last episode. In late November Jonathan and Gary sat down to record a final episode before commencing a lengthy hiatus.  After nearly two months, though, normal service returns!

This week Jonathan and Gary announce the winner and shortlist for the 2014 Crawford Award, begin thinking about Loncon3 (the 2014 World SF Convention), and discuss the books they’re looking forward to in 2014.

Lists will be added, but these are the books Jonathan’s Looking Forward to in 2014:

with a bonus title of The Just City, Jo Walton (Tor, January 2015) which Jonathan thought was coming in 2014 but isn’t.  Gary’s list will be up shortly.

In the meantime, we thank you for your patience, thank Cat Sparks for her help during our hiatus, and hope you enjoy the new episode. See you next week when we will be talking to Locus editor in chief Liza Trombi about the year in review!

Science fiction

Fantasy ToC for Best Short Novels: 2013

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I’ll do a proper post about my likely novella nominees for the Hugo, but I was pondering what I’d put into my old Best Short Novels series if I was still editing it for the Science Fiction Book Club.

After a bit of reflection I came up with the following list. I wasn’t restricted to Hugo length requirements, so one story is actually a long novelette, but this list would still come close to 200,000 words which is about right for the old series.

So, herewith, the fantasy contents for Best Short Novels: 2013.

  • “Gateway”, Nina Allen (Stardust)
  • “Wakulla Springs”, Andy Duncan & Ellen Klages (Tor.com)
  • “Black Helicopters”, Caitlin R. Kiernan (Subterranean Press)
  • “Iseul’s Lexicon”, Yoon Ha Lee (Conservation of Shadows)
  • “The Princess and the Queen”, George R.R. Martin (Dangerous Women)
  • “The Sun and I”, K J Parker (Subterranean, Summer 2013)
  • “Precious Mental”, Robert Reed (Asimov’s, 6/13)
  • “One”, Nancy Kress (Tor.com, 7/17/13)
Science fiction

Hugos in the UK

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There is a lot of interest in the Hugo Awards for the upcoming WorldCon, Loncon 3, and how nominations might be affected by a return to the UK.

There’s no reliable way at all of telling how a change of venue will impact on the ballot in any year, but personally I hope the UK votership is active and has a huge impact on the final ballot.

Here are links to the Hugo ballots for previous UK WorldCons.

Looking at these, the impact seems to have varied over time, but the most recent one (2005) has a strong UK flavour so I’m hopeful that might happen again this year.