Looking back at the books of 2019, the one that has stuck with me the most, latching on even as my brain slowly melted in quarantine, was Tamsyn Muir’s Gideon the Ninth. February feels as if it were years ago, 2019 is ancient history, but reading Gideon the Ninth feels like yesterday. The follow-up, Harrow …

Rejoice! For the necromancers are back, and they are gayer than ever. Pansexual, polyamorous lusts and even a few chaste passions simmer beneath more layers of  mystery and necromantic magic than ever before, and dear grim little Harrow is our guide. Which is both fortunate and challenging, because she’s going places you wouldn’t believe. No …

e.e. cummings exhorted his readers to “dive for dreams or a slogan may topple you,” and I have tried to keep that warning in mind since I read it long ago. But today I have failed. A slogan has brought me down. “Lesbian necromancers in space” is that slogan. I have toppled. I have fallen …

There are always trends in publishing, but a recent one was particularly odd: the use of “nine” in titles. Was everyone excited about 2019 for some reason? Is there some kind of numerology pact among authors? Are the nine muses subtly signaling for attention? I don’t know. But hey, here’s a list to keep track …