In our recent podcast I talked about how small Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Horror presses are really doing some amazing work. And then I totally blanked on the specific recommendations. So here they are, fifteen small presses for you to check out, complete with links and apologies to the publishers I really do love. Neon …
The independent city-state of Qilwa has seen better days. Beset by plague, the city is fracturing along ethnic and class lines, with the wealthy hiding in their homes while the poor and disempowered fight for what very few resources are available for treatment. No, this book isn’t set in 2020, and no, I don’t think …
Along with my list of books read, I keep a list of particularly excellent quotes from those books, insights or particularly poetic turns of phrase that I know I’ll want to revisit. I don’t record things from every book; some novels have great plots or characters without ever really hitting that point where brilliant insight …
Perhaps it’s the times, or perhaps it’s my specific brand of pessimism, which I don’t wish on anyone, but A Prayer for the Crown-Shy made me sad. Not tragically so, and not also without making me think, making me smile, and ultimately making me glad, but this second entry in the Monk and Robot series …
Good horror is scary, but great horror is tender. It does not always speak at a scream, but tells you, very softly but very firmly, what is about to happen. It does not gloat, but likewise does not flinch. It is—inevitable. I wish that all novellas were as inevitable as Helpmeet, the exquisite new offering …
I confess that I had never read “The Fall of the House of Usher” until What Moves the Dead came out. (Other Poe, yes, but I prefer his poetry.) But I could not in good conscience review this novel without reading the story it is directly and explicitly commenting upon, and so to The Collected …
Dolly Parton, a woman who we can all agree is unequivocally herself (and her best self, at that), once advised to “find out who you are and do it on purpose.” I mention this not because Little Bird is about country singers or Tennessee, but because author Tiffany Meuret has so completely embodied this advice. …
I realized part of the way through A Mirror Mended, Alix E. Harrow’s follow-up to her 2021 A Spindle Splintered, that this was only sort of taking its inspiration from portal fantasy. Its true parentage, though? Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure. A Mirror Mended doesn’t map on to any of the films perfectly, but the spirit …
“The crew of the Rosebud are, currently, and by force of law, a balloon, a goth with a swagger stick, some sort of science aristocrat possibly, a ball of hands, and a swarm of insects.” I can’t really improve on that first line and so I’m going to reproduce it for my own review, which …
With the news lately and the general condition of the world, I don’t think it’s any surprise to see the argument in fiction that the monsters are us. J. M. Miro, whose fantasy debut Ordinary Monsters is out on June 7, has his share of concern and pessimism about the world, but his story about a ragtag …