Fantasy Books
Spotlight on “Homebound” by Portia Elan
LitStack Spots We’ve spotted a few other titles we want to add to our TBR…
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Categories: Fantasy Books
The Wonder Engine - Book Review
The Wonder Engine (Clocktaur War #2)by T. KingfisherWhat is it about:Pull three people out of prison--a disgraced paladin, a convicted forger, and a heartless assassin. Give them weapons, carnivorous tattoos, and each other. Point them at the enemy.
What could possibly go wrong?
In the sequel to CLOCKWORK BOYS, Slate, Brenner, Caliban and Learned Edmund have arrived in Anuket City, the source of the mysterious Clockwork Boys. But the secrets they're keeping could well destroy them, before the city even gets the chance...
What did I think of it:This was an entertaining read and a mostly cool conclusion to this duology.
I absolutely loved Grimehug, the gnole who joined Slate and her team in The Clockwork Boys. He and the other gnoles are my favorite of the creatures in the Clocktaur world.I also really liked Learned Edmund and Brenner.The story was fun and exciting as well. I was eager to find out how our band of misfits would deal with their predicaments and how they would complete their mission.
But the Romance...
I loved Slate, but Caliban...I know which Knight Commander inspired Caliban, and I can say that Caliban is just as annoying as I find that particular Knight Commander, so well done, I say.And mostly the romance is cute and sweet, and I might even have been satisfied with it, but near the end of the book something happens that for me would have meant the end of the relationship or should have had at least a different aftermath then it got. Now the Romance to me ended with a lopsided relationship that I don't think will last.
All that said: the overall story was still tons of fun, so this book will be added to my growing T. Kingfisher collection.
Why should you read it:It's a really fun and entertaining Fantasy read.
Categories: Fantasy Books
Review: The Fake Divination Offense by Sara Raasch
Buy The Fake Divination Offense
FORMAT/INFO: The Fake Divination Offense will release on May 19th, 2026 from Bramble Romance. It is 336 pages and available in paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats.
OVERVIEW/ANALYSIS: It's time for a new chapter in Orok's life. He's starting the rawball season on a new team, and ready to make a clean break with the Church of Uzroth (patron god of aggression). But when Orok protects cheerleader Alexo at a bar, the Church of Uzorth approaches Orok and Alexo with a proposal: be part of a fake relationship for the season to give the Church a needed PR boost, and they'll sponsor Alexo off the bench and onto the main cheerleading squad. Orok's already attracted to Alexo and he can see how much the sponsorship would mean to the man, so he agrees to the deal. But while genuine sparks fly between Orok and Alexo, Alexo has dangerous secrets in his past - ones that threaten much more than a simple sponsorship.
The Fake Divination Offense is an adventure-filled fantasy sports romance that's about all kinds of love: self-love, platonic love, and yes, romantic love. Main character Orok is a half-giant, raised in a church that believes its followers should resolve all conflict through physical violence and posturing, and should always be the alpha in the room. (Quick Note: Although Orok struggles with his church in this book, this is a queernorm world, and none of his struggles have the slightest thing to do with homophobia.) While Orok doesn't follow his church's tenets, he also wrestles with his own belief that relying on his friends just drags them down. He shouldn't bother them with his problems, he should be strong enough to deal with them on his own. Learning to accept his friends' help is just one journey this quiet giant goes on.
What's nice about this romance is that although it's a fake-dating story, from the jump Orok makes it clear to Alexo that he's interested in a real relationship. There's no dancing around what's pretend and what's real; the two have frank conversations about their feelings and what their boundaries are. That doesn't mean there aren't secrets or that their relationship is perfect. But as someone who hates when miscommunication is used, it was nice to not have to deal with "is any of this real?" type story-lines.
Speaking of not-perfect, Orok is a possessive person by nature. While he is constantly checking in on Alexo and his wants and boundaries, Orok is also the kind of person who sees the person he loves and thinks "this person is MINE, I will protect them at all costs." Naturally, Alexo has been written as the kind of love interest who is fine with this dynamic, but if possessiveness isn't your cup of tea, you might bounce a little on this. But as Alex is in a certain amount of danger throughout the story from nefarious individuals, it's a dynamic that does make sense, as Orok will do whatever it takes to keep his love safe, whether it's sucking up to people he doesn't like or physically defending Alexo from a villain.
I did also enjoy the fantasy sports aspect of the storyline. Orok plays a fantasy sport called rawball (the name is a play on a D&D term) that vaguely resembles football if magic was allowed. The rules of the sport aren't important; what IS important is Orok's journey to integrating with his new team. After a bad experience with his previous team, Orok is constantly looking for his teammates to undercut him, ignore him, or outright attack him. Learning to let go of past social traumas and to open up to his teammates is part of Orok's own growth, and a story I really enjoyed watching.
The Fake Divination Offense is another lovely story of love, healing, and acceptance from Sara Raasch. I've really enjoyed this romance duology and look forward to checking out more of her work in the future!
Categories: Fantasy Books
Swords & Sorcery and The Fantastic Swordsmen, edited by L. Sprague de Camp
Swords and Sorcery: Stories of Heroic Fantasy, edited by L. Sprague de Camp
(Pyramid Books, December 1963). Cover by Virgil Finlay
Here are two more Sword & Sorcery anthologies edited by L. Sprague de Camp. Both are from Pyramid Books. Swords & Sorcery is 1963, with interior illustrations by Virgil Finlay. ISFDB indicates the cover is by Finlay as well, although it looks to me very much in the cover style of the second book, The Fantastic Swordsmen (1967), where the cover is attributed to Jack Gaughan. Some of the experts who visit this page probably know the truth.
1. Swords & Sorcery is a nice collection. It contains “Shadows in the Moonlight” (Conan) by Robert E. Howard, and stories by Poul Anderson (the excellent “Valor of Cappen Varra”), Fritz Leiber (Fafhrd, Gray Mouser), Kuttner (Prince Raynor), Lord Dunsany, C. L. Moore (Jirel), Clark Ashton Smith, and Lovecraft (“The Doom that Came to Sarnath”). The introduction on “Heroic Fantasy” by de Camp tends to piss some people off that I know, although I’m not one of those particularly. It suggests that S&S is purely escapist reading. I think it does make for a good escape from life’s mundanities but there’s more to it than just that.
The Fantastic Swordsmen , edited by L. Sprague de Camp (Pyramid Books, May 1967). Cover by Jack Gaughan
2. The Fantastic Swordsmen is also a pretty good collection, with stories about Conan, Elak, Brak, and Elric, along with a few new items. The cover shows us Brak. The Conan story is one that de Camp finished from a Howard outline and isn’t terribly strong. There’s also a very early story by Robert Bloch, which, while well written, shows his lack of storytelling experience at the time.
Fantastic Swordsmen also contains:
“Tellers of Tales” an intro by L. Sprague de Camp
“Black Lotus” by Robert Bloch
“The Fortress Unvanquishable, Save for Sacnoth” by Lord Dunsany
“Drums of Tombalku” by REH and L. Sprague de Camp
“The Girl in the Gem” by John Jakes (Brak)
“Dragon Moon ” by Henry Kuttner (Elak of Atlantis)
“The Other Gods” by H.P. Lovecraft
“The Singing Citadel” by Michael Moorcock (Elric & Moonglum)
“The Tower” by Luigi De Pascalis, who also wrote an Afterword
Charles Gramlich administers The Swords & Planet League group on Facebook, where this post first appeared. His last article for us was a review of The Imaro Saga by Charles Saunders. See all of his recent posts for Black Gate here.
Categories: Fantasy Books
Women in SF&F Month: Shay Kauwe
Today’s Women in SF&F Month guest is Shay Kauwe! The Killing Spell, her upcoming novel that follows a young Hawaiian woman in a future with language magic, will be released on April 14 in the US and April 23 in the UK. Her book has received starred reviews from Booklist and Publishers Weekly, which called it a “smart and satisfying urban fantasy debut [that] combines gripping mystery, tantalizing romance, and sharp cultural critique.” I’m delighted she’s here today to discuss […]
The post Women in SF&F Month: Shay Kauwe first appeared on Fantasy Cafe.
Categories: Fantasy Books
7 Author Shoutouts | Authors We Love To Recommend
Here are seven Author Shoutouts for this week. Find your favorite author or discover an…
The post 7 Author Shoutouts | Authors We Love To Recommend appeared first on LitStack.
Categories: Fantasy Books
Teasing on a Wednesday - Do You Ship It?
He interjects, 'And this is my mate, Jake. He was meant to come dressed as you, actually, but had a wing malfunction.'(page 184, Do You Ship It? by Beth Reekles)
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Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, previously hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following: - Grab your current read - Open to a random page - Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!) - Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!
Categories: Fantasy Books
Day of Now (by Miranda Reason)
Young Adult / Dystopian
A virus has turned the planet into a dystopian wasteland. After their father is bitten Dayna and Pax venture out after hearing the promise of a vaccine. What they find are religious fanatics, deviants and a group who have decided they are in charge and will crush anyone who stands against them.
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Day of Now reminded me of so many books. I can see reflections of the John Wyndham classic, The Day of the Triffids, a book I last read in the late 1970s by Robert C. O’Brien, Z is for Zachariah and more recently a book by A.M. Geever, Love in an Undead Age. It’s all of those books and it’s none of them. I really hope young people read this one because I think it has the potential to be something they will remember reading in 50 years just like I remember reading Z is for Zachariah when I was young.
Categories: Fantasy Books
Review – Dating After the End of the World by Jeneva Rose (2/5 stars)
Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Post-Apocalyptic
Length: 300 pages
Publisher: Montlake
Release Date: October 1, 2025
ASIN: B0DW4HPCMF
Stand Alone or Series: Sttand Alone
Source: Kindle First Reads
Rating: 2/5 stars
“Casey Pearson grew up with a doomsday-prepping father. At eighteen, tired of living an unconventional life, she left home, vowing never to return.
More than a decade later, a mysterious viral outbreak changes everything, including the people it infects, turning them into zombielike creatures. It’s the end of the world, and no one saw it coming—well, except for Casey’s father. With no place left to run and danger lurking around every corner, Casey is forced to return home.
Upon arrival, she’s surprised to find that her dad has hunkered down with a group of survivors, including her archnemesis, Blake Morrison, the high school bully who made Casey’s teenage years a living hell.
While struggling to live on the compound, face outside threats, and survive alongside her handsome enemy, Casey will learn that although the world has ended, hers is just beginning.”
Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book. I got this on ebook from Kindle First Reads.
Thoughts: This was an easy and quick read, and I appreciated how Rose tried to combine a zombie apocalypse story with an enemies to lovers comedy romance. The characters were immature, and the action scenes poorly written. The ending was just unhinged…and not in a good way.
After the death of her mother, Casey’s father changed into a huge doomsday prepper. Casey, unlike her classmates, spent every hour of her free time digging trenches and prepping for an apocalypse. Her classmates, especially Blake Morrison, teased her relentlessly. Fast forward to present day where Casey is doing her residency as a medical doctor. She hasn’t talked to her dad in years and is engaged to a perfectly nice fellow doctor. Then the world ends, and Casey is left running for her life to seek shelter at the very compound she helped build, only to find her worst enemy (Blake) is also taking shelter there.
This is a cute story with some gruesome zombie apocalypse elements. I enjoyed the premise of their being different types of results of this viral infection (biters, nomes, and nothing). I also enjoyed Casey’s background being raised as a prepper; it left her much more aware and able to survive, and explained her ability to “make it” in this world. After the beginning of the book, there isn’t a ton of plot here.
There were a number of things I thought were just okay or flat out didn’t like. Casey acts very immature for her age and makes some bad decisions that are very out of character and seem to be there only to move the plot forward (especially at the end of the book). When she and Blake are reunited, Blake acts like a colossal asshole, which is odd for someone who wants to apologize and get to know Casey better. It seems borderline abusive, and I didn’t really enjoy their relationship. The characters in here have very little depth and are all stereotypes of characters you have already read about. The dialogue is immature, more like middle-schoolers arguing, than snappy or witty.
The way weapons were used throughout was silly and inaccurate. Casey using throwing stars to “one-shot” everything is a fantasy that doesn’t even happen in fantasies. This bothered me throughout the story, throwing stars just don’t do that much damage. The action scenes in general needed work and were poorly written and hard to follow.
The end of this book made absolutely no sense to me. I am not sure if it is setting up for a sequel or trying to make the point that this is a treacherous world now. It felt clunky and awkward. I thought I had missed a chapter or something and went back to make sure I hadn’t accidentally missed a part, but no….it was just a really awkward ending.
My Summary (2/5): Overall this was a quick, mildly entertaining read with an intriguing premise around zombies that quickly gets dropped and wanders into a somewhat absurd rom-com tale instead. I thought the characters were immature and didn’t like the chemistry between Blake and Casey. The action scenes are poorly written with a lot of inaccuracies (even trying to look past my disbelief that you can kill someone with a ninja star to the head from a long distance). The ending was the worst part, not making sense and stopping completely in the middle of a scene. This needed better editing. It was a quick read, so I didn’t waste a ton of time on it, but I don’t plan on picking up any more Jeneva Rose books in the future.
I guess if you aren’t fan of zombie/fantasy literature and are looking for a gory rom-com that dips a toe into the zombie/fantasy world you might enjoy this. Anyone who has read a lot of zombie stories or is big into fantasy will be frustrated by all the inaccuracies and poor portrayals here. I actually didn’t like the romance that much either, but some people might be into “that big strong man being verbally abusive when he really wants to apologize” vibe…I am not one of those people.
Categories: Fantasy Books
DNF Round-Up
I know I haven’t been posting or commenting on blogs these past couple weeks, but it was spring break for the schools over here and my family and I have been away traveling. I thought I was going to have some downtown to read and get a few reviews up while I was gone, but yes, that plan turned out to be just a tad over ambitious. We flew out west to visit family, and between stops in San Diego, Las Vegas, and then a full tour of the Utah national parks, there really wasn’t much time to sit still, let alone write anything coherent.
Anyway, I just got back and I’m still recovering, so honestly this might be the perfect time for another DNF update while I take the next couple days to gather my wits and catch up. Recently, I ended up abandoning several books, and honestly, nothing against them, but they just weren’d holding my attention, and I have very little patience for that when I’m traveling. My reading mood tends to get extra picky when I’m on the go.
As always, just because I DNF a book doesn’t mean it’s terrible. Most of the time, it just means it’s not the right fit at the right moment. And that’s why I do these posts, because even if something didn’t work for me, it might be exactly what someone else is looking for.
I received review copies from the publisher(s). This does not affect the contents of my reviews and all opinions are my own.
I’ll Make A Spectacle of You by Beatrice Winifred Iker
Mogsy’s Rating: DNF
Genre: Horror
Series: Stand Alone
Publisher: Run For It (November 18, 2025)
Length: 388 pages
This one ended up being a DNF for me quite early on. The premise of a Southern gothic horror set at an old university, complete with secret societies and a legend about a beast lurking in the nearby woods drew me in initially. However, the execution didn’t quite click. From the start, the pacing felt very slow, and I struggled to stay engaged. The writing style also didn’t help. Despite the beauty of the prose, it came across more clunky and awkward than I liked. It made it hard to connect with any of the characters or care about what was happening. I had to restart this one multiple times just in case it was me being in a distractable mood, but ultimately it started to feel like a chore to keep trying. That said, I can see the appeal for readers who enjoy slower, more atmospheric horror with heavy folklore and historical influences.
Graceless Heart by Isabel Ibañez
Genre: Fantasy, Romance
Series: Book 1 of The Spellbound History Quartet
Publisher: Saturday Books (January 13, 2026)
Length: 488 pages
I technically “finished” this book which is why you see a rating, but because I also ended up skimming through huge chunks (eventually just giving up and skipping to the end so I could find out what happened), I feel it appropriate enough to include my thoughts here. Graceless Heart is another book whose premise sounds rich on paper, featuring a heroine who is a sculptor who uses forbidden magic, but not much about its story or central romance worked for me at all. The plot was linear and the tropes were predictable, which is why I felt so comfortable skimming without feeling I was missing much. The world-building was also sparse, though there were flashes of intersting ideas, especially with the magic tied to artistry and the main character’s skills. Plus, I was invested enough to see how it all ended, so there’s something to be said for that, though in the end, none of it was explored deeply enough to really matter.
After the Fall by Edward Ashton
Mogsy’s Rating: DNF
Genre: Science Fiction
Series: Stand Alone
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press (February 24, 2026)
Length: 288 pages
This one actually hurt a bit to abandon. I’ve genuinely had a great time with Edward Ashton’s previous books, and going into After the Fall, I wanted to like the whole “humans as pets to alien overlords” concept. Unfortunately, it did not come together for me in the way I’d hoped. Instead of the usual sharp, witty voice I associate withe author, the story felt strangely flat and lifeless. Gone was the humor or personality that normally carries his writing. Again, I had several false starts, but in the end, I just had to accept that the hook was never going to come. This one just felt bland more than anything else, though I think readers who might connect with a more subdued approach should still give it a try.
Categories: Fantasy Books
Conan the Barbarian: Lamentations of a 35-Foot Snake
Conan the Barbarian (Universal Pictures, May 14, 1982)
Conan the Barbarian (129 minutes; 1982)
Written by John Milius and Oliver Stone. Directed by John Milius.
Based on the Conan stories by Robert E. Howard.
The first film adaptation of Robert E Howard’s greatest creation: the Cimmerian warrior who was a thief, soldier, pirate, mercenary and king. We get at least a glimpse of most of those here, even if in a somewhat distorted form.
Arnold Schwarzenegger as Conan
Noteworthy
The original script for the movie was written by Oliver Stone (Platoon; JFK) under the influence of a whole lot of drugs. It would’ve run at least four hours, and featured Conan in a sort of Thundarr the Barbarian post-apocalyptic future hellscape, battling an army of 10,000 mutants.
The production company struggled to find a suitable director, at one point considering Stone and also looking at Ridley Scott. Scott, coming off the filming of the first Alien movie, turned them down. (There’s an alternate timeline where we got Alien vs Conan. And I would’ve been there for it.)
Finally John Milius, who had written the screenplays for Clint Eastwood’s Dirty Harry (1971) and Magnum Force (1973), agreed to direct the film — if he could rewrite Stone’s screenplay. No one objected to that idea. Milius was already contracted to do his next film for Dino De Laurentiis, so he convinced the producer to make Conan that movie.
Milius combined elements from various Conan stories by Robert E. Howard for his rewrite of the script, as well as borrowing the villain (Thulsa Doom) from the stories of another Howard creation, Kull the Conqueror.
After the producers saw Arnold Schwarzenegger’s bodybuilding film, Pumping Iron, they agreed he was the clear choice for the title role. They did, however, require him to slim down from a massive, muscular 240 to a more lithe 210 pounds, through a regimen of rope climbing, horseback riding and swimming.
This was the breakout role for Schwarzenegger, who would go on to dominate action cinema for years. Other actors who were considered include Charles Bronson, Lou Ferrigno and Sylvester Stallone. Ferrigno and Stallone are predictable, but a Charles Bronson Conan would certainly have been… something. I’m not sure what, though. He might have made a better Subotai.
Sandahl Bergman as Valeria, Arnold Schwarzenegger as Conan, and Gerry Lopez as Subotai
Interestingly, Conan’s two allies in the film were also played by relative newcomers. While Schwarzenegger’s background was bodybuilding, Gerry Lopez (Subotai) was a champion surfer, and Sandahl Bergman (Valeria) was a dancer who had appeared in Bob Fosse’s All That Jazz. All three performed their own stunts, but none of them pleased Milius with their initial acting performances. Schwarzenegger was subjected to intensive speech training in a (failed) attempt to reduce his heavy Austrian accent, while Lopez’s lines ultimately were overdubbed by another actor. When James Earl Jones joined the cast, he began helping coach Arnold on his line delivery.
Four carbon steel copies each were forged of Conan’s father’s sword and the Atlantean sword he finds in a tomb, at a cost of $10,000 each. These were used for closeup filming. Lighter versions used in combat scenes were made from aluminum and fiberglass. Some were able to retract their blades to simulate a killing blow, and others could spray blood from their tips.
Conan the Barbarian: The giant snake
The giant snake Conan kills was over 35 feet long and cost $20,000 to create. It was so large it would not fit onto the set, so only part of it is ever shown on screen. Its skeleton was made from the same material used to build aircraft frames.
Some action scenes were filmed using a remote-controlled camera crane system originally created by Nick Allder during the filming of Dragonslayer.
The movie was shot in five months in various locations in Spain. It took over a year to edit. During that time, editor C. Timothy O’Meara removed several particularly violent scenes to which the studio objected. He then had to piece the movie back together without them, and keep the story comprehensible in the process.
Conan on the Tree of Woe
The musical score for the film, composed by Basil Poledouris, is spectacular and memorable. It was the first film to list Musync, a newly developed music and tempo editing software package, in the credits. Musync allowed Poledouris to compose much of the music before filming had even wrapped, and then alter it to fit the various scenes after they were completed. It was the last film released by a major studio with a mono soundtrack, because producers balked at the extra tens of thousands of dollars required for a stereo score, and because they felt at the time not enough theaters were equipped to handle that anyway.
The film earned around $75 million (on a $20 million budget) in its initial theatrical release. This was considered successful enough that a sequel, Conan the Destroyer, was released two years later. (We’ll cover it soon.)
Young Conan and his father
Quick and Dirty Summary
A young barbarian vows revenge on the snake cult leader who killed his parents and destroyed his village. He grows up to be a powerful warrior with a heavy Austrian accent, and teams up with a pair of thieves moonlighting from their surfing and dancing jobs. Eventually he gets the chance to exact his vengeance, slaying the snake cult leader and destroying his temple – but at a price.
James Earl Jones as Thulsa Doom
Fantasy/SF/Sword & Sorcery Elements
Robert E. Howard literally wrote the book on muscles and steel triumphing over sorcerers, monsters and evil gods. And Conan is the prototypical Sword & Sorcery hero. He greatly dislikes sorcery, but he seems to fare pretty well against it.
This film overflows with Sword & Sorcery elements. The battle with the giant snake is memorable, as is Conan’s showdown with Thulsa Doom’s henchmen. Doom’s slow transformation into a giant snake himself – a remarkable achievement of practical special effects in the days before CGI – comes out of nowhere and shakes things up again.
Sandahl Bergman in Conan the Barbarian
High Point
Once Conan becomes “grown-man warrior Conan,” the plot remains fun but it becomes fairly predictable. Full-on Conan isn’t going to lose to anybody in his debut film. At that point, the only questions are, “How will he kill them all?” and “Will any of his allies die along the way?”
I would argue the most interesting portion of the movie is actually the first third, as we watch a young Conan transition from scene to scene in slavery, as a gladiator, and a survivor, all the while learning about the world around him and looking for the cultists who wiped out his village.
And of course there’s the classic moment where he reminds us all what is best in life: “To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentations of the women!”
Conan and Valeria
Low Point
There’s no question that Schwarzenegger’s performance here, at the very start of his career, is iconic and enjoyable. But it’s a situation similar to “movie James Bond vs book James Bond.” In both cases, the movie version of the character is significantly altered from the literary version. Arnold’s Conan is dumbed down. He’s mostly muscle and brute force. At one point, he punches a camel. His reactions are often comical, and some are played for comedy. Howard’s Conan was always capable of winning a fight with his muscles and his sword, but he was also a serious, clever and canny guy, endowed with native smarts and charisma.
All of the above said, it would be a crime not to give the nod here to Schwarzenegger. This movie would not be half of what it is without his unforgettable presence looming over nearly every frame. He may not exactly be Howard’s Conan, but he’s mesmerizing, entertaining, and entirely awesome.
Valeria in action
Overall Evaluation as a Movie and as Fantasy/SF/Sword & Sorcery
Conan the Barbarian is an excellent action/adventure movie in general, but it is on the “Mt. Rushmore” of Sword & Sorcery films. It has to be. It brought the greatest hero of the genre to the big screen for the first time. It gave him a worthy opponent and high stakes. It combined drama, action, character and violence, with a touch of humor along the way.
To paraphrase Conan’s prayer to his Cimmerian god: Valor pleases Crom, so perhaps he will grant me one request: That those of you who have not watched this movie will give it a shot.
And if you do not love it, then to hell with you!
Van Allen Plexico is a member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA), a Grand Master of Pulp Literature (2025 class) and a multiple-award-winning author of more than two dozen novels and anthologies, ranging from space opera to Kaiju to crime fiction to superheroes to military SF. He notably edited, co-created and co-wrote the Sword and Sorcery anthology GIDEON CAIN: DEMON HUNTER. Find all of his works on Amazon and at Plexico.net.
Categories: Fantasy Books
So What If I’m A Puta and Putafeminista | 2 Books Explore Brazilian Sex Workers
The post So What If I’m A Puta and Putafeminista | 2 Books Explore Brazilian Sex Workers appeared first on LitStack.
Categories: Fantasy Books
Apparently, Sir Cameron Needs to Die - Book Review
Apparently, Sir Cameron Needs to Dieby Greer StothersWhat is it about:All his life, Sir Cameron has stayed as far away from danger as possible. He is, quite frankly, too handsome to die a violent and pointless death in battle. But when the Church hands down a prophecy to his fellow knights predicting that the only way to defeat their nemesis, the mad sorcerer Merulo, is to kill Cameron, he finds himself in a situation too sticky for even his considerable wiles. Short of ideas, Cameron throws himself on the mercy of the one person who now actually wants him to survive: the mad sorcerer.
Merulo isn’t thrilled to be babysitting a spoilt, attention-seeking knight, but fate has tied them together. And transmogrifying Cameron into a vulture is at least a great source of entertainment. Cameron, meanwhile, is on a voyage of self-discovery. It turns out he’s really, really into surly sorcerers who lock him up and tell him what to do. Who knew?
As a legion of knights surround their stronghold, the sorcerer’s poisonous ambitions draw ever closer to fruition. Cameron is quite invested in not dying, but he finds he’s also invested in Merulo. And sometimes, supporting the sorcerer you care about means taking an interest in their hobbies. Even if that hobby is trying to kill God.
Even if it might get you killed, too.
What did I think of it:This was a nice enough read.
I especially liked the first half of the boo. It was fun and funny, and Sir Cameron's antics were fresh. Also: He's a vulture for parts of the story!At one point though, I thought things were going on too long and then there were revelations where it came to the world this story is set and the book lost me to be honest. I was far enough in to finish it, but it was a bit of a drag.
All in all a fun concept, with an overall execution that was just not for me.
Why should you read it:It's a fun Fantasy Romance.
Categories: Fantasy Books
Book review: The Red Winter by Cameron Sullivan
Book links: Amazon, Goodreads
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Cameron Sullivan was born in Perth, Western Australia. He grew up with the dark fantasy and horror icons of the ’80s and went on to study classics and creative writing at the University of Western Australia.
After several years working and studying in Italy and the UK, he returned to Australia and settled in Melbourne. He will easily lose a weekend to a good book, a new recipe or games of any kind.
Publisher: Tor Books (February 24, 2026) Page count: 544 (Hardback) Formats: all
Sebastian Grave is a centuries-old occult practitioner, who makes a living off the dead. He shares his body with a demon, Sarmodel, who is extremely effective, provided you don’t forget what it is.
The story opens with a dead girl, a curse, and a misunderstanding involving a witch’s bone. It works because it’s fun, well-written but also shows that in this world the supernatural is not mysterious so much as procedural. Things happen for reasons and Sebastian’s job is to find them.
Soon, things get complicated. A young nobleman, Jacques d’Ocerne, arrives with a summons tied to an old, unfinished contract concerning a Beast of Gévaudan. Against his better judgement, Sebastian agrees to return there.
And so a journey starts, and it's not a cheerful one. It involves mud, infection, poor financial planning, and mayhem. From there we follow a few timelines, learn about demons, church politics, and follow a thread of doomed romance. The shifting timelines are handled well enough that you don’t feel lost, and there’s a steady drip of reveals that keeps things moving.
I enjoyed the business of the supernatural most. The scenes involving it are grim, and often carry a dry edge of humor that lands well with me. I also loved Sarmodel’s presence. I mean, he is Sebastian’s inner voice that has opinions about how edible his clients are. The conversations between them are some of the strongest parts of the book.
Jacques, on the other hand, functions as an obstacle with legs. His secrecy, pride, and general refusal to communicate make sense once explained, but the explanation arrives late. Until then, much of the interaction follows a familiar pattern where Sebastian asks a reasonable question, Jacques refuses to answer it, and both suffer for it. Repeatedly.
There’s also Livia - Sebastian's secretary (well, not really but I won’t spoil everything for you) and a succubus. She feeds on desire and leaves very little behind when she is done. Her chapters and scenes are some of the most entertaining in the story. She says what she wants, goes after it, and resents every rule that stops her halfway. On the page, she’s lively. In the audiobook, she’s something else entirely. Imogen Church narration is brilliant, rich, theatrical and over the top in the best way.
Structurally, the book is uneven. After an excellent opening, the middle section sags. Things happen, but they don’t always feel like they’re building toward something larger. The central threat (the Beast, the old contract) waits too long while the story circles smaller conflicts and Sebastien's history.
That said, the atmosphere is consistently good, the writing remains entertaining and both POV characters have strong and memorable voices. So yes, The Red Winter is carried by its characters.
Categories: Fantasy Books
Women in SF&F Month: Samantha Mills
Women in SF&F Month continues today with a guest post by Samantha Mills, plus a chance to win a copy of her upcoming book (whether you live in the US or not)! She is the author of the science fantasy novel The Wings Upon Her Back, a Compton Crook Award winner and World Fantasy Award finalist—as well as one of my own favorite books published in 2024 for its uniqueness and exploration of a variety of subjects, particularly its protagonist’s […]
The post Women in SF&F Month: Samantha Mills first appeared on Fantasy Cafe.
Categories: Fantasy Books
Spotlight on “The Fifth Year” by Marlen Haushofer
LitStack Spots Here are a few other titles we’ve spotted and are adding to the…
The post Spotlight on “The Fifth Year” by Marlen Haushofer appeared first on LitStack.
Categories: Fantasy Books
Twin Peaks Meets Arthur Conan Doyle
Mark Frost co-created, co-wrote, and co-produced, Twin Peaks. That includes the 2017 reboot (which I abandoned early on. I’m a huge fan of the original series, but the restart did nothing for me.
He also wrote the two Fantastic Four films with Jessica Alba (which I said here, are better than people give it credit), as well as 42 episodes of Hill Street Blues, which was an extremely influential cop show in the eighties.
Frost wrote the dark James Spader movie, Storyville after Twin Peaks ended. And he also wrote a novel, which came out in 1993.
The List of 7 came about because Frost is a Sherlock Holmes fan. Not only is the novel’s protagonist none other than Arthur Conan Doyle and bits of his life are scattered throughout, but there are Holmes-isms aplenty. Thus, the book is a type of pastiche, though darker than any straight Holmes tale I’ve read.
A struggling young doctor who hasn’t yet created Holmes, Doyle receives a mysterious summons to what turns out to be a séance. Really creepy stuff happens, people die, a mysterious rescuer appears, and Doyle spends the rest of the book on the run from a dark conspiracy. Turns out that his completely fictional novel submission, The Dark Brotherhood, exactly mirrors a real group. And as you can guess by the name, it’s a really evil secret organization. Man, don’t you hate it when that happens!
Doyle’s rescuer, Jack Sparks, clearly has a lot of Sherlock Holmes in him, with some James Bond thrown in. And the main villain certainly brings to mind a ruthless Moriarty. Doyle is a pretty good version of, well, himself.
This is a pulp style horror yarn: More Clark Ashton Smith than Arthur Conan Doyle. It’s lathered in supernatural like a cheap medium in fake ectoplasm. Four hundred pages long, it rollicks along at a breakneck pace: another pulp characteristic. I think that Frost is an over-writer. He uses lots and lots of words. I don’t particularly mind his style, but it certainly feels a bit wordy. This book could be leaner. It works, but it’s noticeable.
I’m not much of a horror fan, but I am a great fan of Robert R. McCammon (I wrote about his nearly flawless ‘coming of age’ novel, Boy’s Life, here). The antagonist brought to mind the villain from his novel, Baal. And that ain’t nice. There is some unpleasant stuff in this book: there’s just no way around it. This secret group is evil.
Now, along with Doyle, we meet Bram Stoker, Prince Edward Albert, and a slightly renamed Sir William Gull (the latter two figuring prominently in the Royal Conspiracy theories about Jack the Ripper).
But you can’t finish a chapter without running into something Sherlockian, which is fun. Sparks has a place on Montague Street, he uses cocaine, he’s brilliant, he has a brilliant brother: you get the idea. The story also nicely dovetails into Doyle’s actual life.
After the main problem has been resolved, there are still a couple of nice little surprises left. If you don’t mind a supernatural edge to your Holmes-like story, this is a pretty good read. Frost really does keep things moving forward at a brisk pace.
I recommend The List of 7 as as a Pulp-style, supernatural thriller with a Sherlock Holmes/Arthur Conan Doyle overlay. That definitely works for me.
THE SEQUELTwo years later, Frost followed up with a sequel, The 6 Messiahs.
Doyle is now an international success, though constantly pestered to bring Holmes back from his supposed death at the Reichenbach Falls. Jack Sparks and Eileen Temple, from the first book, had vanished from his life.
Doyle, accompanied by his (real-life) younger brother, Innes, is off to America for a speaking tour. Shenanigans on shipboard (I like that turn of phrase) draw Doyle into a plan to steal great religious texts as part of an evil plot. Really, Doyle can’t turn around without coming up against some great evil trying to take over the world. It’s like Miss Marple or bakers on Hallmark, finding a dead body every time they leave the house!
Turns out five folks have had dreams of a great black tower rising out of the desert and events bring heroes and villains together for an epic showdown. “Five,” you say? Yep, you’ll have to guess who the sixth messiah is.
Unlike List, Messiahs is very much an American/Old West adventure. And there’s a Mormon feel to the religious commune. It doesn’t feel as action-packed as its predecessor. This one moves forward at a more leisurely pace. I think it’s in part because there’s much less a sense of imminent danger for Doyle this time around.
Anyone who enjoyed List should certainly read Messiahs, though I think it is markedly the lesser of the two. Nothing wrong with it, just not as good a book.
Mark Frost will forever be known (with David Lynch) for Twin Peaks. But he’s also got a foot in the Holmes door with these two dark, Pulpy novels about Arthur Conan Doyle. I’d certainly like to see it become a trilogy, but after thirty years of silence about it, I don’t think so.
Check out The List of 7. You won’t be disappointed.
Bob Byrne’s ‘A (Black) Gat in the Hand’ made its Black Gate debut in 2018 and has returned every summer since.
His ‘The Public Life of Sherlock Holmes’ column ran every Monday morning at Black Gate from March, 2014 through March, 2017. And he irregularly posts on Rex Stout’s gargantuan detective in ‘Nero Wolfe’s Brownstone.’ He is a member of the Praed Street Irregulars, and founded www.SolarPons.com (the only website dedicated to the ‘Sherlock Holmes of Praed Street’).
He organized Black Gate’s award-nominated ‘Discovering Robert E. Howard’ series, as well as the award-winning ‘Hither Came Conan’ series. Which is now part of THE Definitive guide to Conan. He also organized 2023’s ‘Talking Tolkien.’
He has contributed stories to The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories — Parts III, IV, V, VI, XXI, and XXXIII.
He has written introductions for Steeger Books, and appeared in several magazines, including Black Mask, Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine, The Strand Magazine, and Sherlock Magazine.
You can definitely ‘experience the Bobness’ at Jason Waltz’s ’24? in 42′ podcast.
Categories: Fantasy Books
COVER REVEAL: Death Has Joined the Party: A LitRPG Dungeon Crawl (Mana Runners Book #1) by Rachel Aaron & Travis Bach
Official Rachel Aaron WebsiteOfficial Travis Bach WebsitePre-order Death Has Joined The PartyRead the first two sample chapters over hereListen to an audio sample narrated by Nicholas Cain
Rachel Aaron and Travis Bach have announced a new series which is a whole new genre for both of them. Behold the fantasbulous cover of the MANA RUNNERS Book 1 titled Death Has Joined The Party which releases tomorrow (April 7th 2025)
OFFICIAL BOOK BLURB: Welcome, sentient races one and all, to the centennial season of the greatest collaboration between mortals and gods! The most thrilling, most deadly, most watched spectacle ever put on in any realm…Mana Runners!
The infinite dungeon below Whitepeak, the famous City of Wizards, has reset itself once again, bringing new traps, new monsters, and new, never-before-seen challenges to this historic event. All of your favorite champions from Season Ninety-Nine are back and ready to face what is sure to be the most difficult season of Mana Runners ever attempted. From the lowest Copper Tier to the Platinums who shine at the top, every Runner is ready to lay down their lives defending you from the monsters that lurk beneath the mountain.
All of their sacrifices shall be recorded in the pages of history, but only those blessed with unique powers from the gods can reach the deepest floors. It’s the event that brings sentient races from all over the world together! The spectacle no one can afford to miss! And you can watch it all live thanks to Whitepeak College of Wizardry’s revolutionary sendernet: the only Sending spell network that broadcasts the can’t-be-missed action of Mana Runners straight into your home!
(The Mana Runners Centennial Season is produced by the Whitepeak Dungeon Committee and the Coalition of Rightfully Aligned Gods. Remember, the gods are always listening, so be sure to pray for your favorite Mana Runner to earn them blessings as they battle the unthinkable dangers of the Endless Dungeon!)
Categories: Fantasy Books
Review – Light From Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki (5/5 stars)
Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Science Fiction
Length: 365 pages
Publisher: Tor Books
Release Date: September 28, 2021
ASIN: B08QGJDSCK
Stand Alone or Series: Sttand Alone
Source: Borrowed ebook from Kindle Unlimited
Rating: 5/5 stars
“Shizuka Satomi made a deal with the devil: to escape damnation, she must entice seven other violin prodigies to trade their souls for success. She has already delivered six.
When Katrina Nguyen, a young transgender runaway, catches Shizuka’s ear with her wild talent, Shizuka can almost feel the curse lifting. She’s found her final candidate.
But in a donut shop off a bustling highway in the San Gabriel Valley, Shizuka meets Lan Tran, retired starship captain, interstellar refugee, and mother of four. Shizuka doesn’t have time for crushes or coffee dates, what with her very soul on the line, but Lan’s kind smile and eyes like stars might just redefine a soul’s worth. And maybe something as small as a warm donut is powerful enough to break a curse as vast as the California coastline.
As the lives of these three women become entangled by chance and fate, a story of magic, identity, curses, and hope begins, and a family worth crossing the universe for is found.”
Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book. I borrowed this from Kindle Unlimited on ebook.
Thoughts: This is one of the odder books I have read. I thought I was starting some sort of sci fi read, and it kind of is that, but it is so much more too. There is an ex-violin player cursed to send souls to hell, an alien running to Earth to protect her family by getting them set up to run a donut shop, a violin maker who is plagued by her family past, and a transgender runaway trying just to get people to accept her for who she is. It was a lot, but I was impressed with how seamlessly the story was woven together and by how hard this was to put down. It is a very different story, and I was impressed by how unique it was. I loved the ending as well.
The story follows three main characters. Katrina Nguyen is transgender and has runaway from an abusive home; she is incredibly talented at playing violin but struggling to make ends meet. Shuzuka Satomi is looking for her last victim; she made a deal with the devil and has delivered six of the seven souls she promised. Lan Tran is trying to run a donut shop, which is tougher than it sounds since she is an alien refugee fleeing a war and she is trying to provide for her whole family. All three women become entangled together, and things don’t turn out how any of them expect.
The writing is very well done and flows well. We jump between three main different viewpoints (with a couple others thrown in), but the story never feels fractured or hard to follow. This was a story that kept me interested and guessing; I struggled to put it down. I have honestly been struggling a bit with finding books that really grab me; sometimes, everything I read seems like something else I have already read. This book stood out from the crowd by being unique and different as well as thought-provoking and entertaining.
I really loved everything about this book. The characters have a lot of depth and are interesting; the story had a lot of different threads and they are masterfully woven together; and I just never knew what was going to happen next, so the story kept me interested.
There are heavy themes here around being people cruel to things/people they don’t understand (especially regarding people from a different background, women, or people with different sexuality) and around being true to yourself and finding a family and place where you belong. They were addressed very thoughtfully and wrapped in with an intriguing story.
My Summary (5/5): Overall I really loved this strange book about donuts, aliens, music, and souls. This was very well written, had excellent characters, and a unique storyline that was masterfully woven together. I would recommend this if the synopsis sounds intriguing to you and will definitely keep my eye out for future books by Aoki.
Categories: Fantasy Books
Military Cyborgs, Alien Plants, and Desert Heists: January-February 2026 Print Science Fiction Magazines
The January-February issues of Analog Science Fiction & Fact and
Asimov’s Science Fiction. Cover art by Tithi Luadthong and Dominic Harman
We’ve settled into a new reality with Analog and Asimov’s SF. Both magazines are consistently running more than two months late, but both are at least on a predictable schedule, arriving regularly in two-month intervals. Readers more observant than I have pointed out that the publisher, Must Read Magazines, has removed the cover date and Next Issue date from the covers entirely, which was probably a good idea.
They do provide semi-regular updates online, and on March 31st Emily Alta Hockaday, Managing Editor at Dell Magazines, posted this in the Analog Science Fiction and Fact Magazine Fan Club on Facebook in response to a question on postal delivery.
We’re in the process of switching printers — both because of print quality and the delays we’ve experienced with them. Once we have the contract with the new printer figured out, I’ll have warehouse dates to share for both March/April and May/June.
Hopefully that change will help them gradually get back on schedule. In other news, Sheila Williams continues to recover from the brain aneurysm she suffered two months ago. She remains hospitalized, but her family posts occasional updates, including the delightful photo of Sheila below.
The unstoppable Sheila Williams, in a photo posted by her daughter Irene (with the caption “Felt cute might delete later”). That stare!
Until Sheila returns, Emily Hockaday continues to act as interim editor of Asimov’s.
As usual, the latest issues have plenty to offer science fiction fans, including new stories by Alexander Jablokov, William Preston, Adam-Troy Castro, Susan Palwick, Sean Monaghan (twice!), Jack Skillingstead, Will Ludwigsen, Lavie Tidhar, James Sallis, Mark W. Tierdermann, Geoffrey Hart, Matt McHugh, Jo Miles, Rich Larson, and many more.
Victoria Silverwolf at Tangent Online enjoyed the latest Analog.
“Sin Eaters” by Mark W. Tiedemann is the lead novelette. A police officer rescues alien children from a man who kidnapped and tortured them. The adult aliens refuse to press charges. The officer tries to figure out the motives of the man and the aliens, while dealing with his own emotional trauma. This is a powerful story that deals with issues of guilt, atonement, and psychological healing in a thoughtful and mature fashion. It also provides an example of true, profound friendship, rarely seen in fiction.
In the novelette “The Origami Man” by Doug Franklin, a fishing boat discovers what seems to be a drowned man in the middle of the ocean. The being turns out to be alive, and something other than human. It goes on to interact with the man who found it in a special way. At first, the mood is that of a horror story, with the entity compared to a zombie or a shape-shifting alien. The conclusion changes the tone drastically, in a way that some may find a bit too sentimental. The story is most notable for a vivid portrait of its Alaskan setting.
“You Who Sought the Stars’ Distant Light” by Stewart C. Baker is narrated by what was once the mind of a human being, now the consciousness of a starship. It defends itself against an intruder, only to discover its former relationship with the person invading it. The revelation of the narrator’s previous life, now forgotten, offers emotional appeal.
“Unsung” by Derrick Boden features a man who has been genetically engineered and prosthetically enhanced to become a military cyborg, destined to be a hero in a war taking place across the solar system. He participates in many battles, becoming less human each time, until he learns the truth about his origin and purpose. This is a dark, cynical story, with multiple deceptions involved in the plot.
The title character in “And She is Content” by Frank Ward is an artificial intelligence running a starship while the crew and passengers are in hibernation. Once a century during the long voyage the people wake up and enjoy the pleasures of a city created for them. The AI panics when the journey is complete, now that she has no purpose and will lose the company of the ship’s commander. This is a romantic science fiction story, reminiscent of Anne McCaffrey’s 1961 story “The Ship Who Sang” and its sequels. The once-a-century city is compared to the one featured in the 1947 musical Brigadoon. The AI and the Commander are referred to as the famous medieval lovers Heloise and Abelard. These allusions create a wistful, nostalgic mood that will appeal to softhearted readers.
“Linka’s Out” by Rich Larson takes place on a mining planet. The protagonist travels to the planet’s prison to meet the title character when she is released. The reunion leads to a shocking conclusion. This is a gloomy and hopeless tale, set on a harsh world dominated by an autocratic corporation. A hint to the story’s mood appears very early in the text, when the reader learns that the bodies of dead workers are recycled into raw material. The discovery that the main character makes at the prison is particularly gruesome.
All the characters in “Iron Star Swing” by Kate Orman are beings made up of subatomic particles, although they appear to each other as people or even as inanimate objects. They live on the surface of the sun, which is now a black dwarf in the immensely far future. They feed on neutrinos that reach the sun from stars that become novae. The plot involves a wounded warrior in a war that has lasted trillions of years and a young being who sometimes takes the form of a boy and sometimes of a firetruck. As can be seen, this story is most notable for its bizarre setting and characters.
Read Victoria’s complete review here.
The new Asimov’s is reviewed by Mina at Tangent Online. Here’s an excerpt.
“The Greenway” by Susan Palwick is an odd story, but it grows on you. The narrator is alone with her two children when the caravan comes bringing the “greenway” with it. We learn that all people eventually begin to sprout plants (a new meaning for “gone to seed”), which slowly kills them. But the sprouting bodies bring a new fertility that is spread every spring by the caravan. The bitter-sweet ending stays with you.
“Ecobomb” by Alexander Jablokov is an invasion story that doesn’t take itself too seriously. The aliens are truly alien, sending “ecobombs” to change the ecosystems on the planet they are invading. But the humans on the Earth adapt to the changes and start working with the new flora and fauna to create hybrids. They create biocomputers and, through cooperation, they not only survive but are ready when the alien invaders arrive. The story grows on you like an unpleasant fungus.
“The Man with the Ruined Hand” by Sean Monaghan starts with a heist in the middle of a desert of a distant planet. Cliff is sent to catch the thief but finds himself in the middle of a double cross. It feels like the author wanted to create a Philip Marlowe vibe, but Raymond Chandler did it better.
In “Replacement Theory” by Jack Skillingstead, Tyler suddenly starts seeing everyone around him as monsters, including his girlfriend Emma. Does he have a brain defect or is he surrounded by aliens? Then he meets someone else with the same problem. But who can he trust?
“The Imaginative Youngster’s Handbook to UFOs” by Will Ludwigsen is one of those short stories I really like — a wonderful surprise. What starts off reading like a book for intelligent and imaginative youngsters slowly gains an emotional depth that is truly heart-rending. We begin to care very much about one particular child, who experiences abuse and bullying in their daily life, yet who manages to keep wonder alive inside themselves despite their loneliness. There is gentle humour and questioning of things adults hold to be self-evident but, mostly, there is compassion and a desire not to be a person who hurts others just because you have been hurt yourself. What’s particularly well done is the mix of a child’s logic with adult understanding. I would read this more than twice!
“As Long As We’re Still Here, We Might As Well Dance” by Adam-Troy Castro continues our descent into grimness. We watch the last moments of two people who did not flee when the Nihilators arrived to destroy and “repurpose” their city, including anyone left alive in it. We see love and defiance, and an unwillingness to die. The real tragedy is that both protagonists stayed because each in their own way believed they deserved to be damned.
“The Lady in Camo” by John Richard Trtek is a detective story with references to Blade Runner, Chandler, and Sherlock Holmes. Jack Twice is hired to find a missing person. It’s a world filled with clones, soft deaths and partial resurrections. I wanted to like this story but just couldn’t fully engage with it. The last few lines are good, making you wish the rest of the story had lived up to them.
Read Mina’s complete review here.
Here’s all the details on the latest SF print mags.
Analog Science Fiction & Fact Magazine January/February 2026 contents
Analog Science Fiction & Science Fact
Editor Trevor Quachri gives us a tantalizing summary of the current issue online, as usual.
This issue’s opening salvo of 2026 stories continues right on into a furious fusillade of fiction next issue, including:
“Sin Eaters,” by Mark W. Tiedemann: how do you investigate — let alone prosecute — a crime when the societal standards violated are so alien that we can hardly recognize them?; A slick interstellar heist (…or is it?) in “The Starworthy Slip,” by AC Koch; a particle-scaled solar fable in “Iron Star Swing” by Kate Orman; a sweet burgeoning romance that mingles with a perspective on a deep geological timescale to reveal something else entirely, in Peter Medeiros’ “A Future Full of Glaciers”; a salvage crew that thinks they’ve found signs of intelligent life only to realize that the life may have anticipated them more keenly then they’d like, in Geoffrey Hart’s “Monkey Trap”; a look at the realities of building permanent settlements on the Moon, in “Homes Away From Home,” our Fact Article for the issue, by Michael W. Carroll; and more, from Doug Franklin, Howard V. Hendrix, Theodora Suttcliffe, Sean Monaghan, Matt McHugh, and others, plus, of course, all our regular columns, including an additional Guest Alternate View from Richard A. Lovett on AI and conspiracy theories (sadly, ever more relevant by the day); as well as our annual Index and Analytical Laboratory ballot.
Here’s the full TOC.
Novelettes
“Sin Eaters” by Mark W. Tierdermann
“The Origami Man” by Doug Franklin
“Monkey Trap” by Geoffrey Hart
Short Stories
“Salary Man” by Matt McHugh
“You Who Sought the Star’s Distant Light” by Stewart C. Baker
“Artificial Cupidity” by Hayden Trenholm
“Still Cold, Still Losing Air” by Sean Monaghan
“A Goodbye at the End of the Universe” by Ian Baaske
“Silver Hands” by E.L. Mellor
“Unsung” by Derrick Boden
“A Future Full of Glaciers” by Peter Medeiros
“Flag Lamp” by Jonathan Olfert
“Recognition Memory” by Benjamin C. Kinney
“Jack Cade’s Rebellion” by Philip Brian Hall
“A Chatbot’s Guide to Self-Respect” by Jo Miles
“Like Father, Like Son” by Theodora Sutcliffe
“And She is Content” by Frank Ward
“Linka’s Out” by Rich Larson
“Iron Star Swing” by Kate Orman
Probability Zero
“Jiggity Jog” by Dan Mark Baldridge
Science Fact
Nor Any Drop to Drink by Kevin Walsh
Special Features
The War, Astounding, and Campbell by Edward M. Wysocki, Jr.
Me-N-You-Genics by Howard V. Hendrix
Poetry
Escape Pod by S.L. Johnson
The Bones They Left by Stanley Poole
Reader’s Departments
Editorial: The State of the Union by Trevor Quachri
In Times to Come
The Alternate View by John G. Cramer
In Memoriam: J.T. Sharrah by Emily Hockaday
In Memoriam: Bruce Boston by Emily Hockaday
Guest Alternate View by Richard A. Lovett
Unknowns, edited by Alec Nevala-Lee: Time Lapse by Todd McClary
The Reference Library by Sean CW Korsgaard
Brass Tacks
2025 Index
Analytical Laboratory Ballot
Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine January/February 2026 contents
Asimov’s Science Fiction
Sheila Williams provides a brief summary of the latest issue of Asimov’s at the website.
We have a lively bunch of stories in our January/February 2026 issue! John Richard Trtek’s novella teems with intrigue, deceit, danger, and the mystery of “The Lady in Camo,” while Alexander Jablokov’s novelette, “Ecobomb,” is a tense yet often amusing tale about the unanticipated consequences of an alien invasion!
William Preston tells a moving story about a dying man, his sister, his robot double, and his best friend in “Stay”; James Sallis’s characters calmly face alien visitors and the death of half of humanity in “And We Will Find Rest”; in his first sale to Asimov’s, R.T. Ester tells a complicated tale about “The Tourist”; also new to Asimov’s, well-known author Adam-Troy Castro’s characters enjoy a final day of freedom in “As long as We’re Still Here, We Might as Well Dance”; some young men experience serious breakdowns in Jack Skillingstead’s “Replacement Theory”; a woman faces an unusual condition in K.A. Teryna’s lovely story about “All My Birds” (this tale was translated from Russian by Alex Shvartsman); another woman faces mysterious strangers and an illness along “The Greenway” in Susan Palwick’s new story; Sean Monaghan reveals why you shouldn’t trust “The Man with the Ruined Hand”; a woman copes with an extreme fetish in “The Moribund” by Lavie Tidhar; and Will Ludwigsen charms us with “The Imaginative Youngster’s Handbook to UFOs.”
Robert Silverberg’s Reflections considers: “The Multiplicity of Mermaids”; James Patrick Kelly’s On the Net looks at AI audio and says, “Welcome to Just Okay”; Kelly Jennings’s On Books reviews works by Mary Soon Lee, Ray Nayler, Chuck Tingle, Charlie Jane Anders, and others; Kelly Lagor’s Thought Experiment shines a light on “Bradbury and Truffaut’s Empathy in Fahrenheit 451”; plus we’ll have an array of poetry, our yearly Index, and our 40th Annual Readers’ Award ballot!
You’ll find our January/February 2026 issue on sale at newsstands on December 8, 2025. Or subscribe to Asimov’s—in paper format or our own downloadable varieties — by visiting us online at www.asimovs.com. We’re also available individually or by subscription via Amazon.com’s Kindle Unlimited, BarnesandNoble.com’s Nook, and Magzter.com/magazines!
Here’s the complete Table of Contents.
Novella
“The Lady in Camo” by John Richard Trtek
Novelettes
“Ecobomb” by Alexander Jablokov
“Stay” by William Preston
“The Tourist” by R.T. Ester
“As Long as We’re Still Here, We Might as Well Dance” by Adam-Troy Castro
Short Stories
“The Greenway” by Susan Palwick
“The Man with the Ruined Hand” by Sean Monaghan
“Replacement Theory” by Jack Skillingstead
“The Imaginative Youngster’s Handbook to UFOs” by Will Ludwigsen
“All My Birds” by K.A. Teryna (Translated by Alex Shvartsman)
“The Moribund” by Lavie Tidhar
“And We Shall Find Rest” by James Sallis
Poetry
Monster by Megan Branning
The Freetown Bar and Bookstore by M.C. Childs
Thirty-Six Views of the Milky Way by Connor Yeck
Closing Time by Brian U. Garrison
Humans Make Anything Their Pets by Dawn Vogel
Departments
Editorial: WorldCon Extraganza by Sheila Williams
Reflections: The Multiplicity of Mermaids by Robert Silverberg
On the Net: Welcome to Just Okay by James Patrick Kelly
Thought Experiment: Bradbury and Truffaut’s Empathy in Fahrenheit 451 by Kelly Lagor
2025 Index
Asimov’s Readers’ Awards Ballot
On Books by Kelly Jennings
Next Issue
Analog, Asimov’s Science Fiction and The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction are available wherever magazines are sold, and at various online outlets. Buy single issues and subscriptions at the links below.
Asimov’s Science Fiction (208 pages, $9.99 per issue, one year sub $57.75 in the US) — edited by Sheila Williams
Analog Science Fiction and Fact (208 pages, $10.99 per issue, one year sub $57.75 in the US) — edited by Trevor Quachri
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction (208 pages, $12.99 per issue, one year sub $46.95 in the US) — edited by Sheree Renée Thomas
The January-February issues of Asimov’s and Analog are officially on sale until mid-February, but since that was almost two months ago and the magazines are still on sale, I suspect they’ll be on shelves a little longer than that. No word on when to expect the next F&SF, but let’s say 2027 to be on the safe side.
See our coverage of the November-December 2025 issues here, and all our recent magazine coverage here.
Categories: Fantasy Books
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