Congratulations!

Congratulations!

Congratulations!

Congratulations!

In things it's lovely to see, each of the four Hugo fan categories has a first time nominee this year and for Fan Artist half the nominees are first timers.

They're categories that have historically been quite sticky, cough 19 times in row cough, so it's good to see fresh faces on the ballot.

Congratulations!

Congratulations, it's great to see the nominators have recognised how great Intergalactic Mixtape is at the first opportunity.

Congratulations!

Congratulations!

Congratulations!

Book Review: The Language of Liars by S. L. Huang Linguistics science fiction that isn't  just the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis redux? And that will emotionally devastate you? Hook it to my veins....

I've got a review up at @nerdsofafeather.bsky.social today of The Language of Liars by S. L. Huang. It's a thoughtful, substantial novella tackling language, politics, culture and power, and one that absolutely kicked me in the face by the end (in the best possible way).

The Queersar Not An Award 2021 For excellence in queer SFF and SFF with queers released in 2021

I'm assured by writer friends that one good thing you can do to support them is to buy not just new releases but explore their backlists.

Read SF/fantasy? Like queer stuff? I am part way through a project looking at great queer SFF from the 2020s.

2021 is here, and... 1/2

I'm making one last push to let people know about this online talk -- sponsored by the British Library in conjunction with their current exhibition on fairy tales. The live stream starts at 7:30 tonight, but if you buy a ticket *before* the event you can watch it any time over the next 7 days.

5...4...3...2...1...IGNITION! Hugo Finalist announcement launches April 21 10 a.m. PT

Tune in right here on April 21 at 10 a.m. Pacific Time to find out who the finalists are for the 2026 Hugo Awards for Science Fiction.

Where I was frustrated here is absolutely the way they explicitly construct an us and them to it all and frequently assume you're in the us so they don't even need to convince you of the divide.

At least if they made the argument you can grapple with it, rather than just being left outside.

Absolutely, I have enjoyed grappling with Jo Walton's writing even if it convinces me we have noticeably different tastes in SFF.

In many ways the enjoyment is because it's usually a well written window into a different viewpoint on the genre.

I was at Twickenham for the England France game in the 6 Nations last year and you could feel the crowd tense up and will England over the line as the French comeback got closer and closer.

People care about the game and the result, the atmosphere was however still different to a men's game.

But some of that is the goodwill. A crowd determined to have fun the first time the women ran out at Murrayfield even if the game isn't exactly competitive. Performative misery is not the only way to show you care about a sport.

Yes, they're one continuous story so very much designed to be read in order.

Really looking forward to France Ireland next week to hopefully see if Ireland can continue that step up to join the top 4 sides in the world.

As you say amazing what a bit of money, spent on a coaching team as well as the players, can do if you're willing to invest.

Good Morning Womble

I'm currently about to start On the Calculation of Volume IV by Solvej Balle. Has been a fascinating journey so far and interested to see how she changes things up in this book.

Help ARB become a paying venue for ruthless criticism of all that doesn’t exist

It's possible the biggest takeaway from the first half of Scotland vs England is how good Ireland's first up tackling was last week.

I think the Red Roses are playing better today but it's so much easier when you get over the gainline on almost all your forward carries.

The FULL Murray field treatment.

The piper. The acapella final verse. The pyrotechnics.

WOMEN'S RUGBY IS HERE

"This is a love story to its blade-dented bone."

Intergalactic Mixtape #49 Hey! This week there’s big award news, lots of reviews of highly anticipated books, several Kickstarters for short fiction, and I caught up on the Tolkien...

The new issue of Intergalactic Mixtape is live and full of recs in a variety of formats: straight lists, author forward, monthly faves, and of course, award related. :D

I was very late to the party on Silvia Park’s Luminous, with a lot of other reviewers having sung its praises before me, but I’m super glad to have got there because it was entirely worth every single bit of the hype.

If you haven't already do please check out the ARB fundraiser.

They're now over 75% of their way to their first stretch goal and there's few finer venues for SFF criticism out there.

An Existence Predicated on Submission: Review of Silvia Park’s Luminous Author Under Review:Luminous. Silvia Park. Simon & Schuster, March 2025. Luminous, the debut novel by Silvia Park,  follows several protagonists in a near-future reunited Korea, centering on cr…

An Existence Predicated on Submission: @chloroformtea.bsky.social reviews Silvia Parks' LUMINOUS (@simonandschuster.bsky.social)

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