Wombling Along

Hellooo!

I hope you had a good week and avoided being slightly overloaded with work! Not been online as much this week but the experiment continues for round three- who knows it may eventually be permanent!

Awards

I thanks to the stuff that was going on in life earlier in the year didn’t have time for Hugo Awards but they took place and here are the winner - Congratulations to them all.

https://locusmag.com/2025/08/hugo-lodestar-and-astounding-awards-winners-2/?utm_source=intergalacticmixtape&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=intergalactic-mixtape-16

I was not able to watch the ceremony but it’s yet again an example of poor organisation and an inability to work on the regular mistakes of the past. Grigory Lukin provided some insight into how bad the mispronunciation of names is for those affected

https://grigorylukin.com/2025/08/21/when-people-giggle-at-your-name-or-the-2025-hugo-awards-incident/

Miri Baker also attended a Worldcon panel about learning mistakes and quite frankly what is witnessed sums up my growing feeling about this con

https://miribaker.com/2025/08/22/on-the-perennial-embarrassment-of-worldcon/

if you google Worldcon Chair Apologises and add any year it’s often illuminating how often this con makes big and often preventable errors. My endless frustration is they never seem to think learning from mistakes is important or that eventually fandom may decide it needs an alternative that actually represents it.

The Sidewise Award winner was announced with no controversy - Sargassa by Sophie Burnham - Congratulations and Nerds of A Feather has a review here to tempt.

http://www.nerds-feather.com/2024/12/book-review-sargassa-by-sophie-burnham.html?m=1

The Aldiss Award with a focus on Worldbuilding starts this year and with immediate controversy announced their shortlist

https://thealdissaward.com/the-2025-shortlist/

The Nommos celebrating African SF and Fantasy also announced their shortlist for the year with no controversy

https://www.africansfs.com/nommo-awards/2025-nommo-awards-finalists

Reviews

Blue Book Balloon looks at the thriller The Burning Stones by Antti Tuomainen (trans David Hackston)

https://bluebookballoon.blogspot.com/2025/08/blogtour-review-burning-stones-by-antti.html?m=1

Jamedi of Jam Reads has a great look at The Library At Helleborr by Cassandra Khaw

https://jamreads.com/reviews/the-library-at-hellebore-by-cassandra-khaw

And then with Requiem by John Palisano

https://jamreads.com/reviews/requiem-by-john-palisano

Nerds of A Feather looks at the awesome novella A Palace Near Wind by Ai Jiang and this is a hard book to review and how this deals with reveals works very nicely.

http://www.nerds-feather.com/2025/08/second-look-review-palace-near-wind-by.html?m=1

Fantasy Book Critic looks by Midas Rain by Adam Roberts

https://fantasybookcritic.blogspot.com/2025/08/book-review-midas-rain-by-adam-roberts.html?m=1

Gingernuts of Horror looks at Lucky Day by Chuck Tingle - I want read this!

https://go.bsky.app/redirect?u=https%3A%2F%2Fgnofhorror.com%2Fchuck-tingles-lucky-day-book-review%2F

The Fantasy Hive gives us a look towards a big book for the autumn (in more ways than one) with King Sorrow by Joe Hill

https://fantasy-hive.co.uk/2025/08/king-sorrow-by-joe-hill-book-review/

Strange Horizons explores Dark Worlds We Wander by Kristin Kirby

http://strangehorizons.com/wordpress/non-fiction/dark-worlds-we-wander-by-kristin-kirby/

Hugo Bookclub reminds us of the Best Related Work Hugo winner and a) how great to see this reward looking at actual non fiction again and b) this book needs reading Speculative Whiteness by Jordan S. Carroll

https://go.bsky.app/redirect?u=https%3A%2F%2Fhugoclub.blogspot.com%2F2025%2F02%2Fthe-nerd-reich.html

Also grabbing attention

Molly Templeton gives a great list of recommended non fiction books about science fiction and fantasy

https://www.mollytempleton.com/sff-nonfiction-reading-list

Gingernuts of Horror do a great July round up of YA and middle grade horror releases

https://gnofhorror.com/ufos-conspiracies-and-chills-our-july-ya-and-mg/

Lorraine Wilson explore how a writer tackles imagery

https://lorrainewilson.substack.com/p/imagery-poetry-and-the-defamiliar

SFF180 is back! And starts a new vlogging project focused on generational starships

https://youtu.be/yciyQ9tTd0I?si=WNM7OO2OZsryHUWT

Galactic Journey takes us to 1970 and a massive moment impacting the U.K. magazine market

https://galacticjourney.org/august-16-1970-it-all-comes-tumbling-down-vision-of-tomorrow-12/

Lithub has a great article by Charlie-Jane Anders on a potential starting point for dark academia

https://lithub.com/charlie-jane-anders-on-how-a-s-byatts-possession-paved-the-way-for-dark-academia/

The British Fantasy in October are having a monster themed online panel day - they’re really good!

https://britishfantasysociety.org/events-calendar/bfs-online-something-monstrous/

Alasdair Stuart closes the week with an excellent The Full Lid

https://mailchi.mp/986f6fee5697/the-full-lid-22nd-august-2025

And Renay delivers the essential Intergalactic Mixtape

https://buttondown.com/intergalacticmixtape/archive/intergalactic-mixtape-16/

Closing off for the week with this I saw in Thoughts from the Writing Desk where Fendy S Tulodo talks about writing - a feeling I suspect many may recognise

https://ruadanbooks.com/an-essay-that-tried-to-escape-me/

Have a great weekend!