Author: gavreads

Sunday Summary: 5th Oct 25 Edition
Womble from Runalong The Shelves has been doing a “Wombling Along” post for the last few weeks, highlighting reviews and other articles that caught their attention over the past week.

This is mostly going to be about books and book-ish things that have come to my attention — and possibly serve as my own public bookmarking system.

We all understand that acquiring books to read later and actually reading books are two entirely separate hobbies, don’t we? Good.

Here is a curated selection from my recent acquisitions, starting with ebooks — some of which were irresistible deals priced between £1.99 and 99p:
1. Victorian Psycho by Virgina Felto
2. A Ghost Hunter’s Guide to Solving a Murder by F.H. Petford
3. An Academy for Liars by Alexis Henderson
4. Coffin Moon by Keith Rosson
5. Model Home by Rivers Solomon
6. The Scholar and the Last Faerie Door by H.G. Parry
7. Artificial Wisdom by Thomas R. Weaver
8. What Stalks the Deep by T. Kingfisher
9. How to Defeat a Demon King in Ten Easy Steps by Andrew Rowe
10. Reignclowd Palace by Phillipa Rice
11. Cold Eternity by S.A Barnes
And now the physical books…
1. All of Us Murderers by KJ Charles
2. Once Was Willem by M. R. Carey
3. The Healing Season of Pottery by Yeon Somin
4. The Autumn Springs Retirement Home Massacre by Philip Fracassi
5. House Of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
6. To Clutch a Razor (Curse Bearer #2) by Veronica Roth
7. Carrion Crow by Heather Parry
8. Play Nice by Rachel Harrison
9. The Most Unusual Haunting of Edgar Lovejoy by Roan Parrish
10. The Haunting of William Thorn by Ben Alderson
11. Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz
Have you read any of these, or are there any you’d like to read?

2025 Lammy Award Winners have been announced.

The 2025 Lammy Award winners have been announced!

Selected by a panel of 80 literary professionals, the winners were chosen from over 1,300 book submissions representing more than 300 publishers.

For over 30 years, Lambda Literary has championed LGBTQ books and authors. We believe that lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer literature is essential to preserving our culture — and that LGBTQ lives are affirmed when our stories are written, published, and read.

Fiction and poetry
- Bisexual Fiction: How to Fall in Love in a Time of Unnameable Disaster by Muriel Leung
- Gay Fiction: Henry Henry by Allen Bratton
- Lesbian Fiction: The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden
- Transgender Fiction: Firebugs by Nino Bulling
- Bisexual Poetry: Interrogation Records
- Gay Poetry: How to Kill a Goat and Other Monsters by Saúl Hernández
- Lesbian Poetry: Song of My Softening by Omotara James
- Transgender Poetry: Girl Work by Zefyr Lisowski
- LGBTQ+ Poetry: Cowboy Park by Eduardo Martínez-Leyva
- LGBTQ+ Speculative Fiction: Metal From Heaven by August Clarke
Nonfiction and memoir
- Bisexual Nonfiction: You’re Embarrassing Yourself by Desiree Akhavan
- Gay Memoir/Biography: Radiant: The Life and Line of Keith Haring by Brad Gooch
- Lesbian Memoir/Biography: My Withered Legs and Other Essays by Sandra Gail Lambert
- Transgender Nonfiction: Pretty by KB Brookins
- LGBTQ+ Nonfiction: The Other Olympians by Michael Waters
That’s a lot of books — and there’s more, since each category also has a shortlist.

I do want to share the LGBTQ+ Speculative Fiction one:
- Metal From Heaven by August Clarke (Erewhon)
- The Palace of Eros by Caro De Robertis (Primero Sueño)
- Markless by C.G. Malburi (Levine Querido)
- The Sunforge by Sascha Stronach (Saga)
- Bury Your Gays by Chuck Tingle (Tor)
The good news for UK readers like myself is that Solaris will be publshing Metal From Heaven at the end of the month — and should be available in any good (or even not-so-good) bookstore.

Good News About Two Lovely People

ONE: Let’s start with a book that’s been years in the making—one I had the privilege of beta reading twice. Both times, it made me cry.

What’s it called, and who wrote it?

Everything Not Saved by N. M. J. Coveney.

What’s it about?

It’s a debut Queer YA novel that blends the emotional power of video games and the magic of young love with elements of horror and the supernatural.

You can pick up a signed limited edition from Gay’s the Word, or order physical and ebook editions from any good bookshop.

I hope you’ll grab a copy.

TWO: Historian Sacha Coward has a new publisher—Manchester University Press! That means Queer As Folklore: The Hidden Queer History Of Myths And Monsters is returning to shelves in December 2025.

‘Queer as Folklore’ takes readers across centuries and continents to reveal the unsung heroes and villains of storytelling, magic and fantasy. Featuring images from archives, galleries and museums around the world, each chapter investigates the queer history of different mythic and folkloric characters, both old and new. Leaving no headstone unturned, Sacha Coward will take you on a wild ride through the night from ancient Greece to the main stage of RuPaul’s Drag Race, visiting cross-dressing pirates, radical fairies and the graves of the ‘queerly departed’ along the way.

I’m going to buy another copy, because the original publisher—despite securing crowdfunding and the book becoming a Sunday Times bestseller—didn’t fully pay out the royalties owed to him. I’m also more than happy to gift a few copies!

It’s been a bit of a busy reading week

I’ve made some progress on The Listeners by Maggie Stiefvater (I’m reading the hardback, so it limits when and where I can read); I listened to more of The Devils by Joe Abercrombie, but not as much as I would like; I got a good chunk of Heartwood: A Mythago Wood Anthology read, but I did get thrown by the novella by John Langan, as I was reading the ebook and didn’t know that I’d made a longer-reaching commitment and thought it was a bit slow (it was ultimately excellent). I also started and finished a reread of Crypt of the Moon Spider, and now I’m reading In the Shadow of Their Dying by Michael R. Fletcher & Anna Smith Spark.

And if you’re curious this my The StoryGraph reading round-up for September.

I do need to revisit and share some of my bookmarked items—like the 116 genre books being published this month—but I’ve run out of Sunday. Maybe next week?
05/10/2025
Sunday Summary: 28th Sept 25 Edition
Womble from Runalong The Shelves has been doing a “Wombling Along” post for the last few weeks, highlighting reviews and other articles that caught their attention over the past week.

This is mostly going to be about books and book-ish things that have come to my attention — and possibly serve as my own public bookmarking system.

Let’s start with this stack of… I’m genuinely not sure what to call it… books?

It was inspired by Roseanna Pendlebury

Thinking about the things I would love to have read by the end of the year, and pulling together a few piles to drawn from as an aspirational to do list.I will not read all of these. I mean, I possibly theoretically could. But I doubt it. They're just the ones I really want to get in, if I can.
— Roseanna Pendlebury (@chloroformtea.bsky.social) 2025-09-22T12:44:56.787Z

and then Niall Harrison

Right then, excluding review copies, here's my pile of aspiration/despair.
— Niall Harrison (@niallharrison.bsky.social) 2025-09-22T18:31:44.781Z

I badged mine as “the stack of books it would be nice to have read by the end of the year.” I added three caveats:

But since I’ve made the pile with the intention of prompting myself to read them, I’ve started with The Listeners by Maggie Stiefvater. One chapter in, I’m intrigued—but also wondering why I haven’t heard much about it from others.

I haven’t reviewed my recent reads:
- The Last Hour Between Worlds (The Echo Archives #1) by Melissa Caruso [2024]
- Artificial Condition (The Murderbot Diaries #2) by Martha Wells [2017]
- The Grimoire Grammar School Parent Teacher Association by Caitlin Rozakis [2025]
If I get the time, a joint review of The Last Hour Between Worlds and The Grimoire Grammar School Parent Teacher Association might be fun. Both are excellent, and both explore parenting in a fantasy setting—though in very different ways. Each had great twists and turns, and both had me emotionally gripped. I highly recommend them.

And if you’re looking for something cosy in an SF setting, The Murderbot Diaries is turning into just that. Nice to see that Martha Wells has the adventures of Murderbot well under control.

It’s October this week. The clock is ticking to get my reading in before the World Fantasy Convention 2025 announces the various award winners. I’m seriously going to need to weave in some novellas alongside the anthologies.

The issue I’m having with Heartwood is that all the stories centre on the mythos at the heart of the wood—and speeding through them would do them a disservice.

I’m sure I’ll figure something out.

The dive into my BookTok bookmarks is going to have to wait until next week.

This week’s Wombling along contains:
- A review of Network Effect by Martha Wells, which I’m going to avoid until I’ve got to it myself.
- A takedown of The End of the World As We Know It: New Tales of Stephen King’s The Stand. I read the last paragraph, as I still hope to finish The Stand and then read the anthology.
- More praise for Uncertain Sons and Other Stories by Thomas Ha
- An older, very serious discussion on the absolute canon to read
- And so much more!
Next week, I may wade into “what’s a reviewer for?”—as that was today’s hot topic on Bluesky.

Until then, Happy Reading!
28/09/2025
Sunday Summary: 21st Sept 25 Edition
Womble from Runalong The Shelves has been doing a “Wombling Along” post for the last few weeks, highlighting reviews and other articles that caught their attention over the past week.

This is mostly going to be about books and book-ish things that have come to my attention — and possibly serve as my own public bookmarking system.

Happy Sunday everyone, I hope you’ve managed to get some reading done this week.

I kind of did—and kind of didn’t.

I finished the excellent The Last Hour Between Worlds (The Echo Archives #1) by Melissa Caruso. It sets itself up perfectly for a sequel and absolutely delivered on what I was hoping for. But it also got me thinking about the formula it used to get there.

That’s definitely more of a me problem than a book problem. Maybe writing a review will help get my thoughts in order. I am going to read the sequel, The Last Soul Among Wolves, at some point in the future—by which I mean, when the paperback drops.

I got some train time this week and made more inroads into The Devils and I’m up 6% from last week’s update.

I also picked up Artificial Condition by Martha Wells as my paperback, and I’m enjoying the cosy nature of it.

As a reminder to me, The Murderbot Diaries chronology is:
- “Compulsory”
- All Systems Red [I’ve read this]
- Artificial Condition
- Rogue Protocol
- Exit Strategy
- “Rapport”
- “Home”
- Fugitive Telemetry
- Network Effect
- System Collapse
I’ve just started Heartwood: A Mythago Wood Anthology but from what I’ve read so far the authors are embracing the spirit of the original but putting on their own twists. The bar is now high for the rest of the anthology.

Did you know that Bluesky now has bookmarks?

I just counted—I’ve collected 62 in the last two weeks!

I’m trying to be better about revisiting the bookmarks I’ve saved, periodically going through them and actually using them for their intended purpose: reminding me to check something later.

Reactor has an article on All the New Horror, Romantasy, and Other SFF Crossover Books Arriving in September 2025, and here are a few that stood out to me:
1. Moonflow — Bitter Karella (Run For It) *
2. The Haunting of William Thorn — Ben Alderson (Angry Robot)*
3. House of Idyll — Delilah S. Dawson (Titan)
4. Play Nice — Rachel Harrison (TItan)*
5. The Macabre — Kosoko Jackson (Harper Voyager)
6. You Weren’t Meant to Be Human — Andrew Joseph White (Daphne Press)
7. Exiles — Mason Coile, Andrew Pyper (Baskerville)
8. Veil — Jonathan Janz (Blackstone)
9. Spread Me — Sarah Gailey (Nightfire) *
10. Midnight Timetable — Bora Chung, tr. Anton Hur (Dialogue Books)
11. What Stalks the Deep (Sworn Soldier #3) — T. Kingfisher (Titan) *
12. The Autumn Springs Retirement Home Massacre — Philip Fracassi (Run for It)
Apart from the ones marked with a *, I think the rest will have to wait until I get my physical TBR under control… though, by my calculations, I may need to shorten the time it takes me to finish a book from my current 16-day average to… something a lot shorter.

I do and I don’t like a stat. Added more books to @thestorygraph—my physical TBR is now over 400. Maybe I’ll just do the ’25 releases? Only 48! If I read one every 2.5 days and never sleep again, I could do it? Any bets on me crying on New Year’s Eve, still buried in unread books?
— @gavreads (@gavreads.co.uk) 2025-09-20T11:57:57.293Z

The author & editor, Trip Galey, shared a link to his appearence on the Trope-ology Podcast:

I stopped by the Trope-ology Podcast with @themythofchris.bsky.social to natter on about Goblin Markets! Have a listen if you fancy!Available in the usual places!open.spotify.com/episode/1cfs…
— Trip Galey (@trip.bsky.social) 2025-09-14T08:01:28.453Z

And Simon of Savidge Reads, shared his September Reading Horizons:

#booksky let’s chat about what we’ve all read, are reading and what we may well read next over hereyoutu.be/u_Rg-FvETLk
— Simon Savidge (@savidgereads.bsky.social) 2025-09-12T17:43:57.242Z

SciFiScavenger has asked a great question about rereading:

I was asked earlier how many books I re-read. Answer not v many, much as I'd like to, I have too much exploring to do, too many other books on my shelves, even more not yet acquired. I worked out that my re-read rate this year so far is around 3%.🪐📚 #scifbooks #sciencefiction
— SciFiScavenger (@scifiscavenger.bsky.social) 2025-09-19T13:53:24.101Z

My answer was:

I’m at 10% for the year. I re-read two books from the Rivers of London series. I’d love to revisit a few more—there are always plans to do so—but I’ve never made the time.

Finally, I want to share Niall’s stack of books:

And here it is with some other recent acquisitions
— Niall Harrison (@niallharrison.bsky.social) 2025-09-20T09:24:41.441Z

He always gives me book envy—his picks are often ones I’d never have considered on my own.

Next week, I’ll talk about my TikTok Bookmarks, which currently stands at 236…

This week’s Wombing Along is here and is a A lovely write-up of their week which includes: A reminder of The Scour by Richard Swan (a prequel novella) Writing The Magic hasn’t been dispatched yet Slow Gods is one to look forward to And an answer to Why Anthologies? Plus lots of other temptations and insights.

This week’s Wombing Along is here—a lovely write-up of their week, which includes:
- A reminder about The Scour by Richard Swan (a prequel novella to An Empire of the Wolf )
- News that Writing The Magic hasn’t been dispatched yet
- Slow Gods is one to look forward to
- An answer to “Why Anthologies?”
- Plus lots of other temptations and insights
Until next week—happy reading!
21/09/2025
Sunday Summary: 14th Sept 25 Edition
Womble from Runalong The Shelves has been doing a “Wombling Along” post for the last few weeks, highlighting reviews and other articles that caught their attention over the past week.

And I thought I’d join in.

I’m curious about a few things:
- Whether I’ll be able to keep it up.
- What looking back on these posts will feel like in a year or two.
This is mostly going to be about books and book-ish things that have come to my attention — and possibly serve as my own public bookmarking system.

Let’s start with a recommendation from one of my favourite BookTokers, Claire Linney. She recommended Blood Debts by Terry J. Benton-Walker. To borrow and paraphrase a bit of her summary — because that’s what got me hooked:

Two 16-year-old twins are part of a magical bloodline, but a murder has doomed their name and stripped their mother of her throne. The story is told from the perspectives of both the twins and their adversaries. It features a magic system that’s used to comment on race, and the politics and policing around it.

Please check out Claire’s full review here.

I have downloaded it and it’s now on my overflowing ereader ready to read.

@claire_linney
Blood Debts and Blood Justice by Terry J Benton Walker – young adult for ages 13+ #diversebooks #blackauthors queerbooks #youngadultbooks #fantasybooks
♬ original sound – Claire Linney Author

On Bluesky two posts on criticism have been shared:
- One by New York Magazine
- One by Reator Magazine (formly Tor.com):
Do reviews draw readers? Boost subscriptions? Sell ads? And if the answer is ‘no,’ what then? Charlotte Klein explores the precarious state of cultural criticism.
— New York Magazine (@nymag.com) 2025-09-08T09:10:36.872Z

In the latest Mark As Read, @mollytempleton.com places The Death of the Critic into context. For how long has criticism has been dying, and how do we engage with discussions about art?reactormag.com/its-not-the-…
— Reactor Magazine (@reactorsff.bsky.social) 2025-09-11T15:37:43.114Z

I’m bookmarking these to digest later, but Niall Harrison pointed out a quote from Christine Smallwood that really interests me:

Criticism is an act of autobiography. The work of making an argument, coming to a judgment, or simply choosing which books or objects to give time and attention to is inevitably, helplessly, an expression of values

And borrowing an item from Womble:

I need to ponder this some more. If you’re a media outlet (like Locus) or a specialist blog, you’ll likely be commenting on ‘significant’ or potentially ‘significant’ books in your area of interest. But more generally, I think we’re in the age of influencers — and influencers should be more willing to step back from the flow and share what’s important to them. Claire and Womble are both great examples of that philosophy.

As an aside, I’m enjoying reading anthologies for my BFA challenge. However, I’ve given myself permission to skip those that don’t resonate from the start or that I fizzle out with. I’m unlikely to have anything interesting to say about them—unless the number of skips ends up reflecting something about the anthology as a whole.

Don’t tell anyone, but I’m struggling to find time to listen to audiobooks — which is why I’ve been reading The Devils by Joe Abercrombie since the 7th of May and I’m only 46% through. It’s frustrating because I’m really enjoying Steven Pacey’s performance, and I want to listen to Let the Bad Times Roll by Alice Slatter.

I’m going to have to just read the ebook versions of both, which will be great — but not quite the experience I was hoping for.

Lastly, what are my plans for the rest of September? Well, I need to crack on with World Fantasy Award novellas:
- Crypt of the Moon Spider by Nathan Ballingrud (Tor Nightfire / Titan Books)
- In the Shadow of Their Dying by Michael F. Fletcher and Anna Smith Spark (Grimdark Magazine)
- Yoke of Stars by R. B. Lemberg (Tachyon Publications)
- The Woods All Black by Lee Mandelo (Tordotcom)
- The Butcher of the Forest by Premee Mohamed (Tordotcom / Titan Books UK)
And finsih the remaining British Fantasy Awards Best Anthology nominees:
- Heartwood: A Mythago Wood Anthology, edited by Dan Coxon – PS Publishing
- The Year’s Best African Speculative Fiction (2023), edited by Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki and Chinaza Eziaghighala – Caezik SF & Fantasy
- Bury Your Gays – An Anthology of Tragic Queer Horror, edited by Sofia Ajram – Ghoulish Books
I can guarantee you that I’m not looking forward to Bury Your Gays—it’s exactly the type of tales I tend to avoid—but I’ve committed myself now, so wish me luck when I get there.

Apart from those, I’m planning to finish The Devils and The Last Hour Between Worlds by Melissa Caruso, as I keep pushing them aside for the anthologies. My last experience with The Last Hour Between Worlds had me sitting there gasping at something she had cleverly woven in. Like The Devils, The Last Hour Between Worlds is proving to be very entertaining.

Until next week—happy reading!
14/09/2025
BFA25 Review: Fight Like A Girl 2 edited by Roz Clarke and Joanne Hall

This is the third review from my challenge to read the 2025 British Fantasy Award Best Anthology category.

In the introduction, Charlotte Bond writes:

Whatever your taste, whatever you’re looking for, in these pages, you will learn one thing: how to fight like a girl.

And I did — though I also found a few stories that weren’t to my taste, which is a shame. With fewer stories than the other anthologies I’ve read so far, the weaker ones stand out a little more — but never mind, there are still some standout tales here.

K T Davies’s The Seamstress, the Hound, the Cook, and her Brother surprised me the most using a triptych to follow a crime through different eyes. Having seen the situation build from competing viewpoints, the shifting perspectives give the reader deeper insight into the final scene.

Shifts in perspective are definitely a theme.

One perspective I enjoyed — though I felt a little cheated by — was in A Human Response by Dolly Garland. Here a women’s body is replaced, and she finds herself trapped. Slowly, she pieces together what happens to her. The character is supposed to be without emotion, yet she has emotional reactions, which feels jarring. It also fades to black at a key moment in the ending, which I think robbed the character of the agency Garland had built up.

In In More Trouble Than She’s Worth? by Cheryl Morgan, the narrator lacks agency, but her perspective offers some great observations. For example:

I like the chrome in the sick bay, but am not convinced by the white. My crew have odd taste at times. I, by the way, am Sagaris, an Artemis Class cruiser of the Queen’s Amazon Navy, General Thomys commanding.

And

I got him though, didn’t I?, I thought proudly to myself. You can’t scrag a target without wobbling a few crew stomachs. A little non-fatal discomfort does the little ones good.

In this tale, the crew picks up some very precious cargo. Morgan uses the situation to explore how women can be both mothers and fighters — and how that differs from their enemies. This one made me cry.

The arrogance of men was explored by directly and successfully by both Gaie Sebold and Juliet E. McKenna.

In Ambition’s Engine, Sebold takes us to high society, where a newly appointed Chief Defender of the Dominion’s Transport hatches a plan to get more from a train ride than he was commissioned for. Sebold packs in commentary about war, colonialism, and the arrogance of powerful men.

With Civil War, McKenna examines the impact of a change in monarch when the King has no male heir. She explores the options available to the court and the guilds. This was a like watching a royal game of chess and I didn’t see final the move until it was too late. Very cleverly done.

In the introduction Roz Clarke and Joanne Hall suggest:

‘…perhaps now we can look beyond a direct kick back against the idea that women can’t fight, and start to reintegrate more traditionally acceptable forms of feminine power with that warrior archetype.’

And they’ve proved with this collection that fighting and feminine power take many forms — from the bloody, to the subtle, to the fearless — with motivations that defy the ‘warrior archetype’.

If you don’t need convincing that women can fight, this collection is for you. There are some excellent stories here.

And if you do need some persuasion, this collection is also for you — though you might end up a little more paranoid than before, as not all fights are direct confrontations or fairly fought.

Anthology Details

Title: Fight Like a Girl – Volume 2
Editors: Roz Clarke, Joanne Hall
Publisher: Wizard’s Tower Press
Publication Date: Autumn 2024
ISBN (Paperback): 9781913892845
ISBN (EPUB): 9781913892852
ISBN (MOBI): 9781913892869
Format: Paperback, EPUB, MOBI

12/09/2025
BFA25 Review: I Want That Twink OBLITERATED! edited by Berg, McCartney & Galey
This is the second review from my challenge to read the 2025 British Fantasy Award Best Anthology category.

The title of I Want That Twink OBLITERATED! is provocative. It came from a comment made in jest, which sparked a train of thought that led to an anthology of…

…stories that reclaim the idea of pulp for a queer audience, centre masculinities in a new light, and take [the reader] on a damn fun ride. Pulp parody, pulp pastiche, and pulp deconstruction.

And unlike Death Becomes Her, I’m going to give you a warning before you drink the Queer-Aid:

The stories in this volume run the gamut(s!) between funny, horny, heartbreaking, thrilling, horrific, explicit, and more.

The opening story, In the Garden of the Serpent King by James Bennett, jumps right in, presenting the promised themes of humour, horror, and eroticism.

The tone is set by exploring the question: “How do you subvert the ‘Englishman in Congo’ trope?”

The answer is: you hammer home how of-its-time it was—in the gayest way possible. And the hammer keeps hitting home, tale after tale. This is not a subtle collection, but it contains lots of subtleties as themes emerge and intertwine.

An overarching one is age and beauty, but the stories also explore narcissism turned into cannibalism, perfection as slavery, and—more importantly—love and legacy.

These stories are best approached with a camp sense of fun, because there are a couple that are so silly they might be annoying—yes, Tea, Shade, and Drag Crusades by Bailey Maybray, I am thinking about you. It takes the “lip sync for your life” idea off into space. Where I feel Bailey fell short is that there are bits in the story that fail its own internal logic.

Just as silly, but more successful, is Dotch Masher and the Planet ‘MM’ by William C. Tracy. This time, there’s a race across space to stop a villain—but are they rivals, or are they lovers? Now that’s a question that rears its head a lot.

The conflict between internal and external is explored in Plezure by Rand Webber, which is reminiscent of The Stepford Wives—at least at the start—but evolves as the spell starts to crumble, thanks to love.

Love is powerful. These authors have drawn on it and utilised it. The love can be familial (found or blood), friendly, or romantic. And it’s strong.

I can now say I’ve read Aliette de Bodard. In The Tutelary, the Assassin, and the Healer, we encounter love in its negative and positive forms—grief and anger alongside romantic bonds—as it asks the question: What would you do for those you love? Taking a journey on a potentially insane ship seems to be one of them.

In Yesterday’s Heroes by Charlie Winter, a warrior comes out of retirement to find someone he loves—but I’ll let you figure out what type of love the Boy in the tale represents.

And despite the title’s request, not all twinks are obliterated. They are celebrated. And in some cases, they need to continue to be heard.

Like the Tharsis Courier in Dusk and Dawn in the Grand Bazaar by John Berkeley, and the acquisition specialist in Hazard Pay by Malcolm Schmitz.

I can’t leave this review without mentioning two of my favourites, as I’ve not had a way of slipping them in thus far—but I hope we get to see the twinks in these:
- Narcissus Munro, Thief for Hire by Kieran Craft
- In Sheep’s Clothing by Caleb Roehrig
Before I go, it’s clear that despite some clumsiness in a few stories, I found them emotionally resonant. That might not be the case for every reader, but I think the editors hit their goal of reclaiming the idea of pulp, with stories that centred masculinities in a new light—and took this reader on a damn fun ride.

Anthology Details
- Title: I Want That Twink OBLITERATED!: A Radical Anthology of Queer SFF
- Editors: Trip Galey, C.L. McCartney, Robert Berg
- Publisher: Bona Books
- Publication Date: November 1, 2024
- ISBN: 9781068731112
- Format: Paperback
01/09/2025
BFA25 Review: Nova Scotia Vol 2 edited by Neil Williamson and Andrew J Wilson [2024]
This is the first review from my challenge to read the 2025 British Fantasy Award Best Anthology category.

An anthology, to me, is a little bit like a selection box—mostly treats you’ve never tried before. There might be an author or two you’ve read previously, but for the most part, they’re new experiences. And I can say that’s true of this anthology.

Jon Courtenay Grimwood and Ken MacLeod are authors I’ve read and enjoyed before. The others—apart from Grant Morrison—were unknown to me.

The editors, Neil Williamson and Andrew J. Wilson, in their introduction to this collection of new speculative fiction from Scotland, ask and answer the question: What is speculative fiction?

“It’s writing that challenges consensus reality. Speculative fiction includes science fiction, fantasy, horror, and all the variants and subgenres of these imaginative approaches to storytelling. What does it have to do with Scotland? Everything!”

They also explain how they see the contributors’ connection to Scotland:

“The contributors are all Scots. They’re Scottish in the broadest sense: some were native-born while others have chosen to make their home here; some are Highlanders and islanders, others urbanites; and this gives us an extraordinary range of perspectives. We wanted this collection to be inclusive, not exclusive, and we wanted not only the tight focus of introspection, but also the ability to see ourselves, as Burns had it, as others see us.”

Did every story give me a sense of connection to Scotland? Not quite. There were definitely some stories that didn’t evoke that feeling, despite the editorial postscript often trying to explain the link. That sense of connection swings from strong to weak, and in a couple of cases, I felt their inclusion was tentative at best.

The opening story by Ken MacLeod threw me slightly. It resurrects two folk singers from an earlier story (Newton’s Wake)—I’ve no idea how significant they were, as I’ve never met them before. Ken places them on a future Mars where AIs have not been a gift to humanity. But what niggled me was the use of “Joint Chiefs” in a military context. It felt like an odd Americanism in a story that should centre Scotland.

Not understanding the importance of political and protest songs to Scotland reflects my own ignorance. And opening with what ends up being a very clever story, with multiple layers, set me up for the whiplash that followed.

The whiplash effect comes from jumping between strong voices—at least at the beginning. There’s a TV star whose family traditions lie in curses, a homecoming that could lead to confrontation, a detective who gets too nosy about a specialist investigation team, and a good old-fashioned locked-room murder.

A story that’s exceptional but felt out of place is Lise and Otto by Pippa Goldschmidt. It describes the rise of the Nazis but doesn’t, as hinted in the introduction, lean into the idea of “as others see us.”

Another story I enjoyed was Broderie Écossaise by Eris Young. Again, it lacked a grounding in Scotland, though I’m glad I read such a clever story about embroidery and desire.

We slip into body horror with Grimaldo the Weeping, as Ali Maloney explores the power of stories—and how often they’re closer to reality than we’d like.

Junior by Lindz McLeod floored me. You’ll see why when you read it.

There were also a few skips—sorry, Grant, I just couldn’t get into it.

There’s environmental exploration in a couple of stories, volunteering that goes wrong, and the cutest—but saddest—dodo story.

I need Doug Johnstone to write another story set in the world of Under the Hagstone—ideally with the same characters.

There were more skips, and a few misses, but overall I’d say there’s enough variety and story strength to justify reading this all the way through—skipping where appropriate.

Anthology Details
- Title: Nova Scotia Vol 2: New Speculative Fiction from Scotland
- Editors: Neil Williamson, Andrew J. Wilson
- Publisher: Luna Press Publishing
- Publication Date: July 30, 2024
- ISBN: 978-1915556431
- Format: Paperback
07/08/2025
SR Review: Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner [2024]

Second (or Spoiler) Read Reviews are written for readers who already know about a book or don’t mind a spoiler or three. Expect plot reveals and in-depth discussion of the book’s events.

WARNING. SPOILERS FROM THIS POINT ON

My interest in reading Creation Lake was sparked by a mistaken categorisation of it as science fiction. It’s not. It is, however, science-infused fiction.

That’s one of the things that kept me going—the main character and first-person narrator’s paraphrasing of various emails focused on Neanderthals and Homo sapiens, which were also supposed to contain hidden messages about the intentions of an activist group she was sent to spy on.

I should have put it down when the email summaries stopped; without them, it lost its magic. It felt like there was a moment when the author realised she needed to do something with all these vibes and start planning for an ending.

I can see why it made it to The Booker Prize 2024 shortlist. It lingers. It lingers. I imagine it would spark a great book club discussion.

The character repeatedly tells us she’s an agent provocateur—and not a good one. In the end, the incident she’s meant to instigate would have happened without her, which makes it all feel a little pointless. Actually, that’s unfair. She does whip up the crowd, forcing the target to be in the wrong place at the right time.

There’s no grand conspiracy. There’s commentary on wealthy people playing saviour to those their peers have oppressed and ignored. There’s also a lot of information imparted about evolution.

It’s like a weird fever dream of a secret agent’s summer holiday—one that both we and the author eventually wake up from. It’s one I feel I’d rather not have had.

26/07/2025
Challenge: Award Reading x 2
Based on my last post on DNF’ing, this is probably unwise, but I’ve been thinking about setting myself the challenge of reading a shortlist or at least a category from an award’s shortlist.

This idea was fuelled by the FOMO from seeing all the discussions around this year’s ARTHUR C. CLARKE AWARD.

Out of this year’s shortlist, I’ve read two, DNF’d two, heard very interesting things about one I’ve not read, and not heard a lot about the other unread one:
- Annie Bot by Sierra Greer – see a spoiler-filled thoughts here
- Private Rites by Julia Armfield – To Be Read
- The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley – DNF’d
- Extremophile by Ian Green – DNF’d
- Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky – Read
- Thirteen Ways to Kill Lulabelle Rock by Maud Woolf – To Be Read
Whilst this was all bubbling away in my brain, another two award shortlists were announced:
1. British Fantasy Awards 2025
2. World Fantasy Awards 2025
I floated the idea on Bluesky of reading and reviewing the BFA Best Anthology category, and I’ve publically committed to doing that before the announcement at the end of October, which will be done as part of the World Fantasy Convention.

The only thing is that I don’t think I’ve reviewed an anthology before, so I asked the experts. Runalong Womble gave me a great template:
- How is the theme developed or explored throughout the anthology?
- Does the mix of stories work effectively together?
- Which stories stood out to you, and why?
Thanks Womble.

The World Fantasy Awards also take place during the World Fantasy Convention, and as I am planning on attending, I thought I’d also read and review of one of the WFA shortlists. This time, I’m going for the novellas:
- Crypt of the Moon Spider by Nathan Ballingrud (Tor Nightfire/Titan Books)
- In the Shadow of Their Dying by Michael F. Fletcher and Anna Smith Spark (Grimdark Magazine)
- Yoke of Stars by R. B. Lemberg (Tachyon Publications)
- The Woods All Black by Lee Mandelo (Tordotcom)
- The Butcher of the Forest by Premee Mohamed (Tordotcom/Titan Books UK)
That’ll keep me busy from now until October.

I say busy. I do plan on completing the Clarke Award reading of Private Rites by Julia Armfield and Thirteen Ways to Kill Lulabelle Rock by Maud Woolf. And the TBR pile is overflowing, and I need to get it down.

Are you planning on reading any shortlists from these two awards? If so, which ones?
14/07/2025
Thoughts: Embracing the DNF
This week, I have DNF’d (Did Not Finish), aka started but not finished the following books:
- The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley [2024]
- Floating Hotel by Grace Curtis [2024]
- Extremophile by Ian Green [2024]
And in May, I DNF’d:
- The Employees: A Workplace Novel of the 22nd Century by Olga Ravn [2018]
- Under the Eye of the Big Bird by Hiromi Kawakami [2016/2025]
And before that, I was struggling with the following:
- Red Sonja: Consumed by Gail Simone [2024]
That one actually put me in a reading slump.

Are they ‘bad’ books? Definitely not. They’ve got mainly positive reviews. A Womble, for example, enjoyed The Ministry of Time and Extremophile. Most of them are award-shortlisted, so someone has definitely advocated for them.

Do they work for my brain? No. At least, they didn’t work for me when I picked them up. And part of my brain won’t let go of them. Why didn’t I like them? Why did other people enjoy what I did not?

It’s those kinds of spirals that cause a short circuit.

I joked on Bluesky that the theme for the rest of 2025 is:

DNF With Gay Abandon.

I am considering getting it printed on a t-shirt.

T-Shirt Idea

What I don’t want to do is put myself in the position of another reading slump. They are brutal. I am giving myself permission to DNF for the silliest of reasons without guilt.

It might be the book, or it might be me, but I’m going to try not to read too much into it if you don’t?

Though I don’t understand how anyone made sense of Under the Eye of the Big Bird…

I’m leaving this post here before I get myself in trouble.

But before I do, I’ve avoided a slump. I’m reading Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner [2024], and the narration is doing the right things for my brain.
13/07/2025