Welcome to our regular update on genre awards, where we keep you up to date with all the major awards. Award season is in full swing and we’ve got the details on the latest awards and nominations. Did we miss an award you think we should be keeping track of? Let us know and we’ll get right on it. RECENT AWARDS          LATEST SHORTLISTS          COMING SOON RECENT AWARDS Nebula Awards Voted by members of the Science Fiction Writers Association and awarded at SFWA Nebula Conference (20 May) Best Novel Charlie Jane Anders, All the Birds in the Sky (Tor; Titan) *WINNER Mishell Baker, Borderline (Saga) N. K. Jemisin, The Obelisk Gate (Orbit US; Orbit UK) Yoon Ha Lee, Ninefox Gambit (Solaris US; Solaris UK) Nisi Shawl, Everfair (Tor) Best Novella S.B. Divya, Runtime (Tor.com Publishing) Kij Johnson, The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe (Tor.com Publishing) Victor LaValle, The Ballad of Black Tom (Tor.com Publishing) Seanan McGuire, Every Heart a Doorway (Tor.com Publishing) *WINNER John P. Murphy, “The Liar” (F&SF 3-4/16) Kai Ashante Wilson, A Taste of Honey (Tor.com Publishing) Best Novelette William Ledbetter, The Long Fall Up (F&SF 5-6/16) *WINNER Sarah Pinsker, Sooner or Later Everything Falls Into the Sea (Lightspeed 2/16) Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam, The Orangery (Beneath Ceaseless Skies, 12/8/16) Jason Sanford, Blood Grains Speak Through Memories (Beneath Ceaseless Skies 3/17/16) Fran Wilde, The Jewel and Her Lapidary (Tor.com Publishing)…

Kellen is 15, the astonishingly untalented son of the Jan’Tep’s greatest mage. Struggling to cast even the simplest spells, he’s the butt of jokes and school yard bullying. Worse, if he can’t pass his mage trials before he turns 16, he’ll be relegated to the Sha’Tep servant class – reliant on his obnoxious little sister’s charity if he’s lucky, sent down the mines if he’s not. Kellen is bright and resourceful, never one to back away from a fight he can’t win if he believes he can think his way through it. When a nice bit of trickery – or cheating, depending on your point of view – sees him through his first trial, the stage is set for Trouble. It’s not a good time for an unpopular outsider to befriend a confrontational foreigner with some unusual tricks of her own. But common sense is almost as alien as magic to headstrong young Kellen… I was a bit sceptical about how much I would enjoy a book with a teen boy protagonist. I needn’t have worried – Spellslinger is a riot from start to finish. The narrative has considerably more confidence and control than its protagonist; de Castell never misses…

Welcome to our regular update on genre awards, where we keep you up to date with all the major awards. Award season is in full swing and we’ve got the details on the latest awards and nominations. Did we miss an award you think we should be keeping track of? Let us know and we’ll get right on it. RECENT AWARDS          LATEST SHORTLISTS          COMING SOON RECENT AWARDS Bram Stoker Awards Superior Achievement in a Novel Elizabeth Hand, Hard Light: A Cass Neary Crime Novel (Minotaur Books) Stephen Graham Jones, Mongrels (William Morrow) John Langan, The Fisherman (Word Horde) *WINNER Bracken MacLeod, Stranded: A Novel (Tor Books) Paul Tremblay, Disappearance at Devil’s Rock (William Morrow) Superior Achievement in a First Novel Barbara Barnett, The Apothecary’s Curse (Pyr Books) Greg Chapman, Hollow House (Omnium Gatherum Media) Tom Deady, Haven (Cemetery Dance Publications) *WINNER Michelle Garza and Melissa Lason, Mayan Blue (Sinister Grin Press) Stephanie Wytovich, The Eighth (Dark Regions Press) Superior Achievement in a Young Adult Novel Maria Alexander – Snowed (Raw Dog Screaming Press) *WINNER Jennifer Brozek, Last Days of Salton Academy (Ragnarok Publishing) Elle Cosimano, Holding Smoke (Hyperion-Disney) Jeyn Roberts, When They Fade (Knopf Books for Young Readers) Alexandra…

When Allah created man out of clay, he created djinn out of fire. Ephemeral spirits that tempt us, trick us, and sometimes grant our wishes, these creatures of folklore take centre stage in excellent Mahvesh Murad & Jared Shurin’s anthology, The Djinn Falls in Love. With contributors from all around the world, this collection of short stories is as remarkable for its variety as it is for its quality. Murad & Shurin have given their contributors an open brief, and the results are dazzling. Some (try to) cleave to settings and stories located in times and places traditionally associated with these smoky spirits; others explore what the djinn might become in locations as disparate as modern day Los Angeles to rural Pakistan. One depicts a future where roles are reversed, in which now-corporeal djinni struggle to live alongside a crafty humanity always on the look out for a twist of fate in their favour. This is a showcase of authorial skill – delicious prose and well-crafted narratives bending themselves around their chosen theme. Particular favourites for me include a number of authors new to me – one of my many reasons for loving anthologies. I shall certainly be watching out for these names…

We’re in the heart of award season now, with awards and shortlists coming thick and fast! This week we bring you the first big spring round up: the Philip K Dick award, the Aurealis Awards for Australian SF, and the British Science Fiction Association award winners – along with the latest shortlists. Did we miss an award you think we should be keeping track of? Let us know and we’ll get right on it. RECENT AWARDS          LATEST SHORTLISTS         COMING SOON RECENT AWARDS PHILIP K DICK AWARD          AUREALIS AWARDS         BSFA AWARDS Philip K Dick Award Awarded by jury on 14th April at Norwescon Kristy Acevedo – Consider (Jolly Fish) Eleanor Arnason – Hwarhath Stories: Transgressive Tales by Aliens (Aqueduct) Claudia Casper – The Mercy Journals (Arsenal Pulp) *WINNER Susan diRende – Unpronounceable (Aqueduct) *SPECIAL CITATION Matt Hill – Graft (Angry Robot) Yoss (transl. David Frye) – Super Extra Grande (Restless)   Aurealis Awards Awarded by jury on 14th April at SwanCon  Best SF Short Story Jack Dann, Trainspotting in Winesburg (Concentration, PS Publishing) Ian McHugh, The Baby Eaters (Asimov’s Science Fiction 40/1) Claire McKenna, The Autumn Dog Cannot Live to Spring (In Your Face, Fablecroft) Samantha Murray, Of Sight, of Mind, of…

Any book that has me struggling not to squeak on public transport and then has me nearly miss my bus stop is going to get a big thumbs-up. I loved Aliette de Bodard’s blasted, magic-torn Paris in The House of Shattered Wings and I delighted in the chance to return to it and peer into one of the darker Fallen Houses. This makes it sound vaguely like there’s any such thing as a light Fallen House. There isn’t, which is the first reason I love this world: without being grimdark, it has little time for our petty human morality. However, House Hawthorn was firmly established as the home of villains in the first book: now they are the protagonists, but still shown through mistrustful eyes. Alchemist Madeleine was a loyal Hawthorn dependent until Asmodeus seized power, slaughtering the previous Head and his allies. Madeleine barely escaped with her life, seeking refuge in House Silverspires – until her addiction to angel essence got her banished. Now she is back in Hawthorn, where it’s made clear that she must give up angel essence (nobody can give up angel essence) or die. The knowledge that Asmodeus will get to choose the manner of her dying keeps her alive. Fear, perhaps predictably, is a driving force throughout The House of…

We’re in the heart of award season now, with awards and shortlists coming thick and fast! This week we bring you the winner of the Tiptree Award and the shortlists for the Hugos, the Nommos, and the Prometheus Awards. Did we miss an award you think we should be keeping track of? Let us know and we’ll get right on it. RECENT AWARDS          LATEST SHORTLISTS         COMING SOON RECENT AWARDS James Tiptree, Jr Award Anna-Marie McLemore, When the Moon Was Ours (Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin’s Press) *WINNER Honour List Eleanor Arnason, Hwarhath Stories: Transgressive Tales by Aliens (Aqueduct Press) Mishell Baker, Borderline (Saga Press) Nino Cipri, Opals and Clay (Podcastle) Andrea Hairston, Will Do Magic for Small Change (Aqueduct Press) Rachael K. Jones, The Night Bazaar for Women Becoming Reptiles (Beneath Ceaseless Skies) Seanan McGuire, Every Heart a Doorway (Tor Books) Ada Palmer, Too Like the Lightning (Tor Books) Johanna Sinisalo, The Core of the Sun (Grove Press/Black Cat) Nisi Shawl, Everfair (Tor Books) Long list   LATEST SHORTLISTS PROMETHEUS AWARDS         HUGO AWARDS          JOHN W CAMPBELL AWARD         NOMMO AWARDS Prometheus Awards Best Novel Ken MacLeod, The Corporation Wars: Dissidence (Orbit)…

Welcome to our regular update on genre awards, where we keep you up to date with all the major awards. It’s the calm before the April storm of shortlists – we’ve got all the latest updates and upcoming deadlines for nominations or voting. Did we miss an award you think we should be keeping track of? Let us know and we’ll get right on it. LATEST SHORTLISTS         COMING SOON LATEST SHORTLISTS Aurealis Awards         Lammys Aurealis Awards Awarded by jury at SwanCon (14-17 April) Best SF Short Story Jack Dann, Trainspotting in Winesburg (Concentration, PS Publishing) Ian McHugh, The Baby Eaters (Asimov’s Science Fiction 40/1) Claire McKenna, The Autumn Dog Cannot Live to Spring (In Your Face, Fablecroft) Samantha Murray, Of Sight, of Mind, of Heart (Clarkesworld #122) Kaaron Warren, 68 Days (Tomorrow’s Cthulu, Broken Eye Books) Jen White, The Least of Things (Aurealis #94) Best SF Novella Deborah Biancotti, Waking in Winter (PS Publishing) Nick T Chan, Salto Mortal (Lightspeed #73) Thoraiya Dyer, Going Viral (Dimension6 #8, coeur de lion) Rose Mulready, The Bonobo’s Dream (Seizure Press) Simon Petrie, All the Colours of the Tomato (Dimension6 #9, coeur de lion) Tansy Rayner Roberts, Did We Break the End of the World? (Defying Doomsday, Twelfth Planet Press) Best SF Novel Jane Abbott, Watershed (Penguin Random House) SK Dunstall, Confluence (Ace…

Nowhere is a small community founded on the teachings of the Unnamed Midwife, flourishing nearly 100 years after a plague drove women to the brink of extinction. But outside Nowhere’s walls, violent men still seize what they desire. Can there be any hope for a better future? Meg Elison caused a stir with her debut, picking up the Philip K Dick award for her twist on the apocalyptic in The Book of the Unnamed Midwife. Set a century later, The Book of Etta is less a direct sequel than a chance to explore how the world has changed in the longer term. As such, I think The Book of Etta can be approached as a stand-alone novel (although your mileage may vary). A hundred years down the line, the Unnamed Midwife is a semi-mythical icon in the small matriarchal community of Nowhere. We can pick up the salient facts as we go along: that women remain a tiny minority because female infant mortality is unusually high and many mothers are killed by a birthing fever (however, those prefer clear context from the start may be put off). Outside Nowhere’s walls, women are frequently sexually enslaved by unscrupulous men – the world hasn’t recovered its balance or empathy down the years. The eponymous Etta is an anomaly: a woman who has rejected Nowhere’s traditional…

Plain, dutiful Liesl has given up her dreams of music to help her mother tend their inn, but when she was a child she played in the woods with the Goblin King. Her beautiful younger sister Käthe is tone deaf, engaged to the man Liesl once hoped to marry, but she dreams of bigger places than their small village in the Bavarian forest. But the Goblin King does not forget and if he does not take a bride the world will fall into eternal winter. Which sister will he take? Which sister will he keep? I have a soft spot for books that take well-established sources and weave old tropes into something magical and new. In Wintersong, S Jae-Jones takes an inch of Labyrinth, a pinch of Rossetti’s Goblin Market, and a hint of the Rape of Persephone to create a Germanic fairytale romance: dark, Gothic, and sultry. The disadvantage of retreading a well-worn path is that it can rob a story of surprises. Thankfully, Jae-Jones can write – her prose is as lush as her narrative – so even when things feel a little too familiar (peaches, masked balls, heterochromia), they’re still a delight to read. The better news is that Wintersong lays out its stall, entices you to buy something familiar, then sweeps you off to a dimly-lit…