The December issue was a little late up due to the holidays, but it did go live on January 1st which is not too bad. In it you will find:
Book reviews
Beyond the Hallowed Sky by Ken MacLeod
The Anthropocene Unconscious by Mark Bould
The Memory Theater by Karin Tidbeck
The Necropolis Empire by Tim Pratt
TV and Movie reviews
The Green Knight
Supergirl Season 7
Hawkeye
Titans Season 3
And to cap it all off one of those very long Worldcon reviews. All the controversy, all the time. And just who was responsible for selling the Hugo Awards to Raytheon (if indeed that happened)?
The July issue of Salon Futura went online over the weekend. It is a bit thin because life has been rather busy of late, but hopefully it will still be of interest.
The issue leads off with a look at the comics origins of the Loki TV series. There’s a good reason why the show is very reminiscent of Doctor Who, and an unexpected Alan Moore connection.
The fiction reviews are of A Strange and Brilliant Light, a rather unusual science fiction debut from Eli Lee, and the justifiably much praised Riot Baby by Tochi Onyebuchi. There’s also a non-fiction review featuring a new biography of William Blake, William Blake vs the World. Plus I take a look at the latest Academia Lunare book, Worlds Apart. Finally I have a review of the new Disney animation, Raya and the Last Dragon. You can find it all here.
There will be no new issue in August as I take that month off. That’s ostensibly because of Worldcon, but this time more to hopefully get my life in order.
This one went live at the end of March. There didn’t seem much point in doing lots of PR for it during the holidays, but hopefully people are back online again. Here’s what you can find covered in #28.
Ten Low by Stark Holborn
WandaVision
In Veritas by CJ Lavigne
Fireheart Tiger by Aliette de Bodard
Gendering Time, Timing Gender by PM Biswas
The Last Days of Pompeii by Edward Bulwer-Lytton
There’s also an article titled, “Is WSFS Fit for Purpose?”, and a look back on two newly released books I did sensitivity reads for: The Fall of Koli by Mike Carey, and SisterSong by Lucy Holland. You can find all of that lot here.
Everyone is doing their Award Eligibility posts, so I need to remind you that Salon Futura is a fanzine, and therefore eligible in that Hugo category. That makes me an eligible fan writer.
More importantly the excellent Cora Buhlert, whom you should totally vote for in Fan Writer, has decided to do a series of Fanzine Spolights featuring eligible zines that you might want to nominate. You can find the initial posts here, and they will be added to in the coming weeks.
Also, both The Green Man’s Silence by Juliet E. McKenna, and Unjust Cause by Tate Hallaway, are eligible wherever fine fantasy novels are awarded.
The Left-Handed Booksellers of London by Garth Nix
The Doors of Sleep by Tim Pratt
Last Stand in Lychford by Paul Cornell
Miracles of Our Own Making by Liz Williams
Merry Happy Valkyrie by Tansy Rayner Roberts
The Mandalorian – Season #2
SMOFcon 37¼
If you are in the UK and like the sound of any of those books, you can buy them through Bookshop.org and help support Wizard’s Tower Press in the process.
The October issue of Salon Futura went live over the weekend. It includes reviews of books by Hao Jinfang, Elizabeth Bear, P Djèlí Clark, Linden A Lewis, and Elizabeth May & Laura Lam. There’s also a review of the Lovecraft Country TV series, and no less than three separate convention reports. You can read the whole thing here.
New as of last night, I have puchase links to Bookshop.org in the UK. Unlike the Amazon links, these are affiliate links, and of course any sales made means money going to independent bookstores, as well as to Wizards’ Tower. So if you are in the UK, I’d appreciate you using them.
In addition there are reports on Worldcon and NASFiC. I have chosen to concentrate on the virtual aspects of the conventions because that seems important.
Here we go again. The new issue of Salon Futura went live on Wednesday night. Here’s what I have on review:
The Sunken Land Begins to Rise Again by M John Harrison
Mordew by Alex Pheby
The Empress of Salt and Fortune by from Nghi Vo
Scarlet Odyssey by CT Rwizi
Of Dragons, Feasts and Murders by Aliette de Bodard
Exhalation by Ted Chiang
Season one of Doom Patrol
I have also written a length article about how WSFS might change to become more responsive to fans, and to help fans feel more part of the organisation. It seems to have been well-received thus far, but writing means nothing if it isn’t followed up by action.
The June edition of Salon Futura is now online. Here’s what you can find in it.
Book reviews
Chosen Spirits by Samit Basu
Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water by Zen Cho
FINNA by Nino Cipri
Ormeshadow by Priya Sharma
TV Reviews
She-Ra and the Princesses of Power: Seasons 4 & 5
Crisis on Infinite Earths
I have also done a diversity audit of the book reviews. The results aren’t great, but they are not terrible and I can see where there is room for improvement.
Progress! The new Salon Futura is now online, so you can read some of the things I have been writing over the past week. I have also done a couple of online meetings, and got thoroughly depressed about the state of the world, and the USA in particular. Hang in there, American friends!
Tomorrow I get to edit together a new radio show, which means I need to talk about what is happening across the pond. That won’t be fun, but it is very necessary. Now more than ever we need to stand up in support of our PoC friends, in particular Black Americans.
Here in the UK the weekly rolling average number of deaths from C-19 has been more or less flat for about a week now. That’s after it had been falling steadily for over 5 weeks. So of course Bozo has picked this time to tell everyone that it is perfectly safe now. I’ve been seeing pictures of packed beaches on social media. I’ve also been seeing photos of large-scale demonstrations in support of our friends in the USA. I shall be relived, but very surprised, if we don’t see a sharp rise in the number of C-19 cases very soon.
Today’s show began with an hour-long chat with Dr. Donna Drucker who has recently written a great little book on the history of contraception. Our conversation goes all the way from herbal rememdies to cybersex.
It’s Thursday, and that means it is time for another free short story from Wizard’s Tower. This one is Bright, Bright City Lights by Lyda Morehouse. It is a story set in Lyda’s home city of St. Paul, which she has particular affection for as we discussed in her interview for the new Salon Futura. It also has some resonance with the new NK Jemisin novel, The City We Became, which I reviewed here. And, given that it is a story about left-wing politics, it is very much speaking to the present day, even though it was first published in 2010 and is inspired by an event that happened in 2002.
You can find the full list of free Lockdown Reading stories here.
