2024 Locus Awards Finalists
The finalists for the 2024 Locus Awards have been announced. Here they are for the novel categories:
- The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport by Samit Basu (Tordotcom)
- A Fire Born of Exile by Aliette de Bodard (Gollancz; JAB Books)
- Red Team Blues by Cory Doctorow (Tor; Ad Astra)
- Furious Heaven by Kate Elliott (Ad Astra; Tor)
- Translation State by Ann Leckie (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
- The Terraformers by Annalee Newitz (Tor; Orbit UK)
- Starter Villain by John Scalzi (Tor; Tor UK)
- Lords of Uncreation by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Orbit US; Tor UK)
- System Collapse by Martha Wells (Tordotcom)
- The Road to Roswell by Connie Willis (Del Rey)
- To Shape a Dragon’s Breath by Moniquill Blackgoose (Del Rey)
- The Keeper’s Six by Kate Elliott (Tordotcom)
- Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett (Del Rey; Orbit UK)
- Dead Country by Max Gladstone (Tordotcom)
- The Water Outlaws by S.L. Huang (Tordotcom; Solaris UK)
- Paladin’s Faith by T. Kingfisher (Argyll)
- He Who Drowned the World by Shelley Parker-Chan (Tor; Mantle)
- My Brother’s Keeper by Tim Powers (Baen; Ad Astra)
- City of Last Chances by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Ad Astra)
- Witch King by Martha Wells (Tordotcom)
- Vampires of El Norte by Isabel Cañas (Berkley)
- The Reformatory by Tananarive Due (Saga; Titan UK)
- A Haunting on the Hill by Elizabeth Hand (Mulholland; Sphere)
- Starling House by Alix E. Harrow (Tor; Tor UK)
- How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix (Berkley; Titan UK)
- Don’t Fear the Reaper by Stephen Graham Jones (Saga; Titan UK)
- A House with Good Bones by T. Kingfisher (Nightfire; Titan UK)
- Lone Women by Victor LaValle (One World)
- Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Del Rey; Jo Fletcher)
- Black River Orchard by Chuck Wendig (Del Rey; Del Rey UK)
- Promises Stronger Than Darkness by Charlie Jane Anders (Tor Teen; Titan UK)
- The Making of Yolanda la Bruja by Lorraine Avila (Levine Querido)
- Damned If You Do by Alex Brown (Page Street)
- A Song of Salvation by Alechia Dow (Inkyard)
- The Library of Broken Worlds by Alaya Dawn Johnson (Scholastic; Magpie UK)
- The Sinister Booksellers of Bath by Garth Nix (Tegen; Gollancz)
- Into the Light by Mark Oshiro (Tor Teen)
- Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross (Wednesday; Magpie UK)
- The Siren, the Song, and the Spy by Maggie Tokuda-Hall (Candlewick)
- The Spirit Bares Its Teeth by Andrew Joseph White (Peachtree Teen)
- Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah (Pantheon)
- The Strange by Nathan Ballingrud (Saga; Titan UK)
- The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera (Tordotcom)
- Threads That Bind by Kika Hatzopoulou (Razorbill; Penguin UK)
- These Burning Stars by Bethany Jacobs (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
- Godkiller by Hannah Kaner (Harper Voyager UK; Harper Voyager US)
- The Marigold by Andrew F. Sullivan (ECW)
- Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon by Wole Talabi (DAW; Gollancz)
- Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh (Tordotcom; Orbit UK)
- Ink Blood Sister Scribe by Emma Törzs (Morrow; Century)
For the complete list of noms in all categories check out the official press release from Locus. Our congratulations to all the nominees!
What do you think of these lists? Any surprises? Any favorites?
2024 Arthur C. Clarke Award Shortlist
The shortlist for the Arthur C. Clarke Award for best science fiction novel for 2023 has been announced:
- Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah (Harvill Secker)
- The Ten Percent Thief by Lavanya Lakshminarayan (Solaris)
- In Ascension by Martin MacInnes (Atlantic)
- The Mountain in the Sea by Ray Nayler (Weidenfeld & Nicholson)
- Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh (Orbit)
- Corey Fah Does Social Mobility by Isabel Waidner (Hamish Hamilton)
The winner will be presented with a check for £2,024.00 and the award itself, a commemorative engraved bookend on July 24, 2024. For more information, see the Clark Award website.
So what do you think of this lineup? Which is your pick to win?
Ex Libris WWEnd: I’m Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom by Jason Pargin
I’m Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom by Jason Pargin
St. Martin’s Press | September 24, 2024
A standalone darkly humorous thriller set in modern America’s age of anxiety, by New York Times bestselling author Jason Pargin.
Outside Los Angeles, a driver pulls up to find a young woman sitting on a large black box. She offers him $200,000 cash to transport her and that box across the country, to Washington, DC.
But there are rules:
He cannot look inside the box.
He cannot ask questions.
He cannot tell anyone.
They must leave immediately.
He must leave all trackable devices behind.
As these eccentric misfits hit the road, rumors spread on social media that the box is part of a carefully orchestrated terror attack intended to plunge the USA into civil war.
The truth promises to be even stranger, and may change how you see the world.
Praise for Jason Pargin and “Black Box”:
“A road trip through America that is equal parts hilarious and terrifying. Jason understands humanity better than most, and it’s inspiring that his diagnosis is ultimately optimistic.” ― Daniel O’Brien, Senior Writer, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver
“I was hooked from the first page. If I’m honest, from the first sentence or two. Jason has a rare gift for delivering High Weirdness coated in a sticky layer of real life, deeply relatable shit that forces you to see yourself in whatever weirdo or maniac he introduces. It’s a rare gift, but he’s got a lot of those. You should read this book.” ― Robert Evans, Host of Behind the Bastards
“Jason Pargin’s curse is a brain that can make sense of what we’re all living through. His gift is an ability to take the key elements — paranoia, screen addiction, deep loneliness, fear of the end times — and hocus-pocus them into a comic thriller. Illuminatus! for an even weirder time, and with much cooler cars.” ― David Weigel, national political reporter, Semafor
“Jason Pargin has a unique grasp on all the ways our relationship with information technology has warped our brains and our society as a whole. This latest work is a fun, socially relevant, and propulsive work of satire. Well, mostly satire: The way its characters fabricate dangerous narratives out of whatever information they can access is terrifyingly true to life. I felt personally called out a dozen times and I loved every page of it.” ― Matthew Kitchen, Editor, Chron
JASON PARGIN is the New York Times bestselling author of the John Dies at the End series as well as the award-winning Zoey Ashe novels. He previously published under the pseudonym David Wong. His essays at Cracked.com and other outlets have been enjoyed by tens of millions of readers around the world.
2024 Aurora Awards Finalists
The 2024 Aurora Awards finalists have been announced, celebrating the “best works and activities done by Canadians in 2023.” The nominees in the Best Novel category are:
- The Valkyrie by Kate Heartfield (HarperVoyager)
- Bad Cree by Jessica Johns (HarperCollins Canada)
- Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Del Rey)
- Moon of the Turning Leaves by Waubgeshig Rice (Random House Canada)
- The Marigold by Andrew F. Sullivan (ECW)
Locus has the list of finalists in all categories.
Our congrats to all the nominees. What do you think of this list? Anything there look good to you?
2024 Prometheus Award Finalists
The Libertarian Futurist Society has announced the finalists for the 2024 Prometheus Award, honoring pro-freedom works published in 2023.
- Theft of Fire by Devon Eriksen (self-published)
- Swim Among The People by Karl K. Gallagher (Kelt Haven)
- God’s Girlfriend by Dr. Insensitive Jerk (self-published)
- Lord of a Shattered Land by Howard Andrew Jones (Baen)
- Critical Mass by Daniel Suarez (Dutton)
Our congrats to all the nominees. What looks good to you on this list?
2023 Aurealis Awards Finalists
The finalists for the 2023 Aurealis Awards have been announced. The nominees in the SF, Fantasy, and Horror novel categories are:
- Minds of Sand and Light by Kylie Chan (HarperCollins)
- The Comforting Weight of Water by Roanna McClelland (Wakefield)
- Aliens: Bishop by T.R. Napper (Titan)
- Dronikus by Marko Newman (AndAlso)
- Time of the Cat by Tansy Rayner Roberts (self-published)
- Traitor’s Run by Keith Stevenson (coeur de lion)
- Shadow Baron by Davinia Evans (Orbit / Hachette)
- The Will of the Many by James Islington (Text)
- The Sinister Booksellers of Bath by Garth Nix (Allen & Unwin)
- Of Knives and Night-Blooms by Tansy Rayner Roberts (self-published)
- The Blood-Born Dragon by J.C. Rycroft (BattleWarrior)
- How to be Remembered by Michael Thompson (Allen & Unwin)
- Borderland by Graham Akhurst (UWA)
- When Ghosts Call Us Home by Katya de Becerra (Macmillan)
- The Graveyard Shift by Maria Lewis (Datura)
- Some Shall Break by Ellie Marney (Allen & Unwin)
- Cretaceous Canyon by Deborah Sheldon (Severed)
- Bunny by S.E. Tolsen (Pan Macmillan Australia)
See Locus for all the nominees in all categories.
Winners will be announced at the Aurealis Awards ceremony in May.
Guest Post: L. Ron Hubbard Presents: Writers of the Future, Volume 40
The month of April is half finished, and I suspect I’m not the only one wondering how a month could rush by so fast. Whether we are busy with work, family, or creative endeavors it seems there is little time for recreation, and the time we do have is easily sucked away by less intentional sinks, like the exhausted scroll of social media, so while I have been anxiously awaiting the latest Volume of Writers of the Future, I admit I was reticent and slow to start reading my ARC copy. I knew it would be good based on past volumes, but my fatigue and the demands of my ever-refilling list of projects held me back. Once I dug in and started reading, however, it became effortless, and more than that, I couldn’t stop, had no desire to stop, and instead let the stories flow over me like a tidal wave of wonder.
The first story I read, from somewhere in the middle, was a science-fiction offering, Ashes to Ashes, Blood to Carbon Fiber by James Davies, featuring a dystopian world both unique and painfully familiar. Another time, another planet where those that have are few, and those that have not are many. To get by and survive, dire sacrifices must be made. I connected with it so viscerally, that I wept reading it, and yet, I felt uplifted at the finish. My appetite for story now sharpened to a fine edge, I read the first story in the volume, The Edge of Where My Light is Cast by Sky McKinnon. I found myself gripped by the heart and pulled along on a journey that was as human as it was strange, a cat that was the formless computer-generated rendering of a lost pet’s personality and so much more than that—Science fiction at its best, the kind that connects to what makes us human and inspires us to new heights of wonder. I held my breath, I cried, I made little sounds of dismay and worried I’d wake my sleeping teens upstairs and they’d find me with tears streaming down my face and a smile of awe on my lips.
Volume 40 isn’t just the delightful diversion that we all need between work and more mindless play, it is a gift. Inspiration, adventure, comfort, depth, excitement, and wonder, crafted and pulled together by the best debut authors writing today under the mentorship of our old and oh-so-dear favorites. I said it last year and I say it again with renewed certainty, Volume 40 is the most inspiring Writers of the Future anthology to date. It features twelve stories by the winners of Writers of the Future 2023 plus four bonus stories by best-selling authors, all illustrated by winners of the Illustrators of the Future contest.
Now for the good news, Volume 40 is up for preorder now and there are preorder bonuses at this link: Preorder here. Preorder bonuses include early access to audio and ebook copies of a Volume 40 story, wallpaper for desktop and phone of the V40 cover art, and other ebook treats. The release date for Writers and Illustrators of the Future Volume 40 is May 7th so you’ve no time to lose and little time left to wait!
Writers and Illustrators of the Future anthologies are an invaluable resource for readers as a means to finding stories, novels, and whole worlds in fresh new voices from around the globe. Each volume is diverse thanks to a blind judging process and the judges’ commitment to bringing us stories from multiple perspectives and styles of writing. While the stories in volume 40 have depth and complexity, they are suitable for sharing with middle-grade readers. Volume 40’s cover image is graced by a moonlit sorceress amid the tusks of mammoths. The artist sets a tone of mysticism that feels unbridled by time or genre. In an age of AI saturation, this masterful art is human-made as are the lush illustrations inside.
For authors and Illustrators, volume 40 contains articles on story and illustration craft written by industry professionals and an even more useful tool, the stories themselves. I have learned more reading the winning stories of Volume 40 than any craft book and highly recommend reading Volume 40 cover to cover if you are looking to improve your skills, especially if you are looking to win Writers and Illustrators of the Future.
If you want to springboard your writing or illustrating career, the Writers and Illustrators of the Future contest has more to offer aspiring authors and artists than any other contest, with zero entry fee, prize money, and a professional publication in your name. Each winner participates in a book signing, award ceremony and gala, and a week-long training and mentorship from industry professionals like Jody Lynn Nye, Kevin J. Anderson, Bob Eggleton, Echo Chernik, and so many more greats including two new judges (congratulations to them both) Mark Leslie Le Febvre, and Hugh Howey. The official website has an easy-entry submission portal with the contest rules and guidelines. On the website, there is a forum of over 10,000 writers and illustrators where you can find support for learning about, entering, and winning the contest. The website has a free online writers training course on the fundamentals of short story writing.
The Writers and Illustrators of the Future Contest creates a unique training ground for authors and Illustrators with clear deadlines and goals—four quarters a year to enter and four opportunities to win. If you write or illustrate, don’t self-reject. Enter and see what happens. You’ll either win, get close, or learn what it takes to win and improve along the way.
By CL Fors
CL Fors lives and breathes stories in multiple mediums: the written word, illustration in watercolor, acrylic, digital, and ink, and the creation of custom jewelry and other artifacts of story. She is an artist with a myriad of interests and experiences that inform and flavor her writing and illustrating. A multipotentialite, mother, author, and adventurer, CL is a science and science-fiction enthusiast with a passion for research based sci-fi, fantasy, horror, and speculative fiction in general.
CL’s debut novel, Cradle of Mars, is the first installment of the Primogenitor series and is releasing with a shiny new cover on April 20th (available for preorder now). The second, third, and final books in the series are all available on Amazon and will be getting new covers soon.
CL just won Illustrators of the Future for Quarter one, Volume 41. If you’d like to see her non-fiction work, she also writes science articles and short stories and has articles published at Genetic Literacy Project and Midwifery today Magazine. To explore CL’s writings and illustrations check out her Website: https://CLForsauthor.com
Or subscribe to her newsletter at Epitome Press
Writers of the Future Quick links:
- Preorder Offer https://galaxypress.com/new-release/writers-of-the-future-volume-40/
- Enter the Writing Contest https://www.writersofthefuture.com/enter-writer-contest/
- Free Writing Workshop https://www.writersofthefuture.com/writing-workshop/
- Writing Podcast: https://www.writersofthefuture.com/podcast/
- Writers Forum: https://www.writersofthefuture.com/forum/
- Writing Contest Rules https://www.writersofthefuture.com/contest-rules-writers/
- Contest Judges: https://www.writersofthefuture.com/writer-judges/
- Contest Blog: www.writersofthefuture.com/blog
- List of Writers of the Future & L. Ron Hubbard books https://galaxypress.com/l-ron-hubbard-books/
Social media links:
2024 Philip K. Dick Award Winner
The winner of the 2024 Philip K. Dick Award for distinguished original science fiction paperback published for the first time during 2023 in the USA is:
These Burning Stars by Bethany Jacobs (Orbit)
Special Citation was awarded to The Museum of Human History by Rebekah Bergman (Tin House)
The PKD Award was presented at Norwescon 46, March 28-31. Our congrats to the winners and all the nominees.
- Danged Black Thing by Eugen Bacon (Apex)
- Infinity Gate by M. R. Carey (Orbit)
- Wild Spaces by S. L. Coney (Tordotcom)
- Where Rivers Go to Die by Dilman Dila (Rosarium)
2023 BSFA Award Winner
The British Science Fiction Association has announced the winners of the BSFA Awards for works published in 2022.
In the Best Novel category the winner is The Green Man’s Quarry by Juliet McKenna (Wizard Tower). Our congrats to Juliet McKenna and all the nominees:
- Descendant Machine by Gareth L. Powell (Titan)
- Airside by Christopher Priest (Gollancz)
- HIM by Geoff Ryman (Angry Robot)
- Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon by Wole Talabi (Gollancz)
See the winners for all categories over on Locus. What do you think of this result?
2024 Hugo Award Finalists
The 2024 Hugo Award finalists have been announced. The noms in the Best Novel category are:
- The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty (Harper Voyager; Harper Voyager UK)
- The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera (Tordotcom)
- Translation State by Ann Leckie (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
- Starter Villain by John Scalzi (Tor US; Tor UK)
- Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh (Tordotcom; Orbit UK)
- Witch King by Martha Wells (Tordotcom)
See the full list of noms in all categories on the Locus website.
Our congrats to all the finalists. What do you think of this crop of books? Any favorites in the list?