What if something was eating your memories? You were also aware that it was happening but didn’t know what it had taken, or what you were doing to stop it, because it wasn’t just your memories it was taking, but everyone else’s too? And what if it wasn’t just one thing but lots of ‘things’ that could affect people’s memories? Then what would you do?
We are used to ideas (memes) breaking containment.
…an internet meme is a concept or piece of media that spreads via the internet. It could be anything – a video, hashtag or image…They can come from social interactions, pop culture, or political views.
Memes change the world, and anti-memes do too. qntm’s There Is No Antimemetics Division explores what happens when ideas don’t spread, but instead resist being remembered and slip from the mind.
An antimeme is an idea with self-censoring properties; an idea which, by its intrinsic nature, discourages or prevents people from spreading it.
It opens with Marie Quinn walking into a meeting that feels wrong, and from there, everything feels out of place.
qntm takes the weirdness of VanderMeer’s Area X novels, combines it with the government bureaucracy of Stross’s The Laundry series, and puts it in a pressure cooker, releasing the results in a series of intense, interlinked sections.
As a novel that plays with memory, it has its own logic, but it also has jarring moments. It takes what you’ve been told from earlier scenes and twists and changes them, which doesn’t automatically mean you’ve misremembered them.
It originated as a web serial, and I wonder if that’s why it occasionally feels fragmented. Whether the fragmentation is accidental or deliberate, they add to the uncertainty and enhances the creeping horror signposted throughout.
As a reader, I don’t think you’re expected to ‘keep’ up with the changes, but you do need to accept that the reality you now see is the one in that moment.
Cosmic horror is, at its heart, about the uncaring nature of the universe and the entities who are bigger than us, but qntm makes this personal for Quinn, and by extension, the reader. Quinn is perhaps cruelly given back memories she’d lost, only to have them taken away again.
This is a clever novel; it may frustrate and infuriate, but it builds toward a moment via the mantra:
No, this is not your first day.
Recommended for readers interested in the 2026 Arthur C. Clarke Award shortlist and for fans of Jeff VanderMeer, Charles Stross, and creeping existential horror.
The nominees for best anthology have had individual reviews, but I’ve decided to comment on the novellas as a group.
As a reminder the nominees for World Fantasy Awards 2025 Novella are:
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)
Crypt of the Moon Spider by Nathan Ballingrud (Tor Nightfire/Titan Books)
This is a re-read. I originally read this in November 2024 and enjoyed it. On the second reading, it felt more powerful. I was vaguely anticipating certain events, but I was convinced that I had also misremembered them. I hadn’t. It was more disturbing.
The opening challenges you to suspend your disbelief. A woman is accompanied to the hospital by her husband for treatment of her affliction by hospital staff. So far, this is typical for a late nineteenth or early twentieth-century novel. However, this hospital is on the moon. It is also reported to be situated at the entrance to the burrow of a long-dead spider.
What fascinates me about this story is Ballingrud’s exploration of memory and how reality can be reshaped through misremembering. There are spiders and body horror, but also themes of empowerment, rage, and revenge.
I highly recommend this.
In the Shadow of Their Dying by Michael F. Fletcher and Anna Smith Spark (Grimdark Magazine)
An assignation attempt goes very wrong.
There is no other way of saying this; I Did Not Finish this. I barely made it to the end of the second chapter.
I also checked the ending to see if I’d been unkind or impulsive in my assessment. But I hadn’t.
The opening had me hooked: following the third-best assassin in the city on a mission was quite thrilling. However, the voice, the point-of-view shift, and ultimately the story itself wasn’t for me.
I’m sure it’ll have its fans. I am not one of them.
Yoke of Stars by R. B. Lemberg (Tachyon Publications)
A linguist has an interview with an assassin at the School of Assassins. Stonee Orphan greets the individual with their first assignment. As they try to understand who they are to kill, we gain insight into both the assassin and their client.
Lemberg made me work. Since this was my first Birdverse story, I had to grasp the world being presented—a world of Stars and personified storylines: Song, Stone, Fish, Moss, Feeder, Boater, and Weaver.
I’m curious how that lore is used, if at all, in other Birdverse works.
The interview format allows the characters to swap stories, giving Stone, the assassin, and the reader insight into why Ulín, the linguist, wants someone killed. It also explores why Ulín is coy about stating it outright.
It’s one of those stories that gets under your skin because it feels unfair. Ulín and Stone end up where they are because of what others see in them, not because of what they’ve built for themselves.
Ultimately, it’s an exploration of story, gender, language, and understanding.
Outstanding, and my winner (it was the actual winner too).
The Woods All Black by Lee Mandelo (Tordotcom)
A nurse volunteers to work in a small rural community in the Appalachian Mountains. There, she discovers she is unwelcome, despite the benefits her work could bring.
This is a tough one. Billed as a blend of historical horror, trans romance and blood-soaked revenge, it certainly delivers all three.
Mandelo handles the fluidity of pronouns used by the main character – a nurse sent to an Appalachian settlement – with ease. The romance becomes spicy, and the sense of dread remains palpable.
Yet Mandelo’s story has some blind spots. At certain points, they create magical (and impossible) safety bubbles and pull back from fully exploring the truly horrific moments. I’m unsure whether this was a conscious or subconscious attempt to protect the characters – or the readers – from additional trauma.
However, by holding back, some awkward moments arise where threats seem to vanish unnaturally. I also felt slightly short-changed by the lore surrounding the forest, which was only hinted at rather than fully explored or utilised.
There is a lot to enjoy here, and it’s worth reading, but you may come away feeling slightly short-changed.
The Butcher of the Forest by Premee Mohamed (Tordotcom/Titan Books UK)
The children of the Tyrant vanish into a wood—a wood the locals know never to enter. The only person who has ever ventured into those woods and returned is sent in after them.
Perhaps I’ve been reading too many stories set in dangerous, mythological forests—thanks to Heartwood: A Mythago Wood Anthology—but, as with The Woods All Black review above, I felt Mohamed held something back here and didn’t dig quite deep enough.
Veris Thorn enters the woods with a knack (or folk instinct) for knowing the right or wrong way to proceed. There, she encounters tricksters, helpers, monsters, and impossible things. I liked Veris as a character—stoic and stalwart as she marched through the woods.
But the set pieces didn’t add up for me. Should it have been grimmer? More fantastical? Perhaps the children should have been more damaged. Personally, I would have preferred it to be darker, more dangerous, and more unsettling.
Again, as with The Woods All Black, I’m left wondering whether this was a deliberate or subconscious attempt to shield the readers—or perhaps the writer—from the trauma at the heart of the story.
A sequel might well change my view, but for now, it’s a pleasant afternoon read—provided you don’t expect too much.
The winner, Yoke of Stars by R. B. Lemberg, was announced on Sunday, 2 November, at the World Fantasy Convention in Brighton.
Sunday Summary mainly functions as my personal record of book-related topics that have captured my interest over the past week. It also acts as a public memory prompt and bookmarking system.
Keeping Everything Tracked
I sought Bluesky’s advice on tracking books, as I am feeling a mix of lost, confused, or overwhelmed due to all the options.
Do you keep a list of books you want to read/buy? How long is that list? Could you make it ten or less and keep it that long on a constant basis?
The following discussion prompted me to compile a spreadsheet of all my pre-orders, clearly showing that I have enough pre-orders to keep me occupied until June.
Tufty McTavish reminded me of the power of tags in the Story Graph and why it’s good to invest time in adding them.
I’m also going to try more immediate (the next week or two) reading lists to see if that cuts through the ever-growing physical TBR.
Newsy Things
Introducing a new bona new quarterly literary magazine:
FANTABULOSA!
Pushing the boundaries of bold, authentic, QUEER storytelling. Bringing you stories of the uncanny, the dangerous and the fantastical.
& thanks to our brilliant #WrathMonth backers, we’re fully funded for 2026 🤘
The UK’s largest book chain, Waterstones, had a pre-order sale on releases for 2026 this week. Did I fall into the trap and order some books? Yes. Did I also get a bit too invested in what is coming out in 2026? Also, yes.
I placed orders for various new releases and paperback reprints.
Thanks to the spreadsheet mentioned above I now know when to look out for post.
And the offer wasn’t all the books coming out in 2026, but I now expect to stay busy with new releases from January to June.
But the reason for mentioning it was that I had to sift through many books to decide on those I chose.
Which is probably why I felt the urge to look at all the books coming out this week… there are a few.
Womble from Runalong The Shelves has been doing a weekly “Wombling Along” and highlighting reviews and other articles that caught their attention over the past week.
Sunday Summary is mostly going to be my personal log of books and bookish things that have caught my attention — and may also serve as a public memory prompt/bookmarking system.
Halloween is Not Far Away
And this means that both the British Fantasy Awards and the World Fantasy Awards are soon to be announced.
The British Fantasy Awardswill be presented on Saturday 1st November, in the evening, at the World Fantasy Convention in Brighton.
And
The World Fantasy Awards will be presented on Sunday 2nd November, in the afternoon following the banquet, also at the World Fantasy Convention in Brighton.
I’ve just realised I have three weeks to finish reading my selected shortlists from each!
I’m confident I’ll manage the novellas — I’ve read three and have two to go. I’m about halfway through the anthology reading. I’m planning to read the novels as a group and continue reviewing the anthologies individually.
I am reading them in the order in which they are presented in the shortlists, and as a reminder, here they are:
British Fantasy Awards 2025: Best Anthology
Nova Scotia 2, edited by Neil Williamson and Andrew J Wilson – Luna Press Publishing
Fight Like A Girl 2, edited by Roz Clarke and Joanne Hall – Wizard’s Tower Press
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 Sofia Ajram – Ghoulish Books
World Fantasy Awards 2025: Best Novella
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)
I’m taking longer to read Heartwood than I expected. The themes explore similar emotional and mythic territory, though from completely different angles. Despite their varied perspectives, they overlap in meaningful ways, which is slowing my reading pace. That might also be due to the weight of the stories — they demand attention.
I think it’s going to be my winner. Not because the other anthologies aren’t excellent, but because this is a unique collection, rooted in a powerful myth.
I thought Crypt of the Moon Spider was going to be my novella winner before reading Yoke of Stars, and now I’m not so sure. Let’s see what the two tree-related stories do for me, as Ryhope Wood has entrances everywhere.
Back to anthologies — they’ve put me in the mood to read more. I’ve already started The Crawling Moon: Queer Tales of Inescapable Dread, and I’ll have read Heartwood: A Mythago Wood Anthology. So, after the winner has been announced, do I read the other nominees in the World Fantasy Awards Best Anthology category? They are:
Heartwood: A Mythago Wood Anthology, ed. Dan Coxon (Drugstore Indian Press)
Discontinue If Death Ensues: Tales from the Tipping Point eds. Carol Gyzander & Anna Taborska (Flame Tree Press)
Northern Nights ed. Michael Kelly (Undertow Publications)
The Dagon Collection, ed. Nate Pedersen (PS Publishing)
The Crawling Moon: Queer Tales of Inescapable Dread ed. Dave Ring (Neon Hemlock Press)
Newsy Things
Ebooks – Now Available from Bookshop.org
There is more in the press release, but these are the highlights:
For the first time ever, UK indies will be able to sell ebooks to their customers
The launch marks Bookshop.org’s fifth anniversary
Bookshops will make 100% profit on every ebook they sell
A much-awaited alternative to Amazon to buy ebooks, at no extra cost
Bookshop.org to launch audiobook sales next year
I use an iPhone and a Boox Palma (which uses Google Play), and I’ve bought a couple of books to test it out. The whole process was slick and easy—especially with Apple Pay.
The app offers lots of control over the reading experience, but there are two things you should know. By default, it:
looks terrible
overrides the publisher’s settings
But don’t worry—there’s an easy fix if you have the patience. Try turning on the publisher settings or fiddling with the options until you get it looking the way you want. The initial appearance actually encourages you to change it, and once you do, the text looks stunning.
So don’t let that put you off. It’s great to have more big-company options for buying ebooks, and I’m sure they’ll improve the app to make it a better out-of-the-box experience.
Kickstarter #1: I want to see Welsh Heroes Return
They are Still Here (Maen Nhw Yma O Hyd) will be an anthology of contemporary fantasy tales of resistance and resilience. The threats will be very modern, but the resolution will contain a hint or more of the fantastic.
This one is live but the all or nothing deadline is:
Thursday, November 6, 2025 at 9:47 AM GMT (UK local time)
This one is coming in 2026. I loved A Market of Dreams and Destiny, and while I’m waiting on a sequel —which Trip has just confirmed is written and likely out in 2027—I’m excited to get a new novel‑length work in 2026 to fill the gap!
The Fall of the House of Valenziaga is a high-stakes, science-fantasy family epic. If you love lushly imagined settings, strange magics and impossible sciences, and queer characters that are both smart and sexy, you’ll live for this latest tale from Trip Galey!
The Ignytes seek to celebrate the vibrancy and diversity of the current and future landscapes of science fiction, fantasy, and horror by recognizing incredible feats in storytelling and outstanding efforts toward inclusivity of the genre.
Hot off the presss is the winners to this year’s awards:
OUTSTANDING NOVEL: ADULT – For novel-length work (40,000+ words) intended for an adult audience Winner:The Sentence – Gautam Bhatia
OUTSTANDING NOVEL: YOUNG ADULT – For novel-length (40,000+ words) works intended for the young adult audience Winner:Heir – Sabaa Tahir
OUTSTANDING MIDDLE GRADE – For works intended for the middle grade audience Winner:The Last Rhee Witch – Jenna Lee-Yun
OUTSTANDING NOVELLA – For speculative works ranging from 17,500–39,999 words Winner:Lost Ark Dreaming – Suyi Okungbowa Davies
OUTSTANDING NOVELETTE – For speculative works ranging from 7,500–17,499 words Winner:We Who Will Not Die – Shingai Njeri Kagunda
OUTSTANDING SHORT STORY – For speculative works ranging from 2,000–7,499 words Winner:We Will Teach You How to Read | We Will Teach You How to Read – Caroline M. Yoachim
OUTSTANDING SPECULATIVE POETRY – For excellence in speculative poetry Winner:Reliving: Post Trauma of the Lekki Tollgate Massacre – Fasasi Ridwan
CRITICS AWARD – For reviews and analysis of the field of speculative literature Winner: Maya Gittelman
OUTSTANDING FICTION PODCAST – For excellence in audio performance and production for speculative fiction Winner: Podcastle
OUTSTANDING ARTIST – For contributions in visual speculative storytelling Winner: Tran Nguyen
OUTSTANDING COMICS TEAM – For comics, graphic novels, and sequential storytelling Winner:Lunar Boy – Jes and Cin Wibowo
OUTSTANDING ANTHOLOGY/COLLECTED WORKS – For excellence in curated speculative fiction collections Winner:Thyme Travellers: An Anthology of Palestinian Speculative Fiction – Sonia Sulaiman
OUTSTANDING CREATIVE NONFICTION – For works related to the field of speculative fiction Winner:Afro-Centered Futurisms in Our Speculative Fiction – Eugen Bacon, ed.
THE EMBER AWARD – For unsung contributions to genre Winner: Sonia Sulaiman
THE COMMUNITY AWARD – For outstanding efforts in service of inclusion and equitable practice in genre Winner: Authors Against Book Bans
Out This Week in the UK – ish
(I need to do better at this as this is a last minute list category)
Big Kiss, Bye-Bye by Claire-Louis Benett via Jeff VanderMeer (but not really as I bought it before I saw this BlueSky post)
I List My Favourites Reads Since 2022
Do you ever get the feeling that you don’t read enough? I had that earlier in the week, so I wrote up a list of my favourites going back to 2022. It turned out to be a longer list than I expected:
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk trans. Antonia Lloyd-Jones
Auntie Mame by Patrick Dennis trans. by Anne Milano Appel
Babel-17 by Samuel R. Delany
‘salem’s Lot by Stephen King
The Old Woman With the Knife by Gu Byeong-mo trans. Chi-Young Kim –
The Salvagers Trilogy by Alex White
Magic For Liars by Sarah Gailey
Alien: The Cold Forge by Alex White
Siblings by Brigitte Reimann trans. Lucy Jones
Death of a Bookseller by Alice Slater
Broken Light by Joanne Harris
What Abigail Did That Summer (Rivers of London #5.3) by Ben Aaronovitch
The Indranan War by K.B. Wagers
What Moves the Dead (Sworn Soldier #1) by T. Kingfisher
What Feasts at Night (Sworn Soldier #2) by T. Kingfisher
The Living and the Rest by José Eduardo Agualusa
The Bandit Queens by Parini Shroff
A Market of Dreams and Destiny by Trip Galey
The Colony by Audrey Magee
When Among Crows by Veronica Roth
Starling House by Alix E. Harrow
Calypso by Oliver K.
Lake of Darkness by Adam Roberts
The Drowned Woods by Emily Lloyd-Jones
Rubicon by J.S. Dewes
Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto tr. Megan Backus
The Black Cloud by Fred Hoyle
August Kitko and the Mechas from Space (The Starmetal Symphony #1) by Alex White
The Undetectables (The Undetectables Series #1) by Courtney Smyth –
The Stars Too Fondly by Emily Hamilton
Goodnight Tokyo by Atsuhiro Yoshida tr. Haydn Trowell –
Diavola by Jennifer Marie Thorne –
The Last Hour Between Worlds (The Echo Archives #1) by Melissa Caruso
The Grimoire Grammar School Parent Teacher Association by Caitlin Rozakis
Crypt of the Moon Spider by Nathan Ballingrud
All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries #1) by Martha Wells
Artificial Condition (The Murderbot Diaries #2) by Martha Wells
I feel better about myself after seeing this, I’m not gonna lie.
Outro
Well, that turned out to be a much longer post than I expected.
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
Gav Reads 