Wombling Along
Hellooo!
It has been A WEEK of day job that has meant I’ve not had much time to do things that haven’t enjoyed fun words like spreadsheets, workshops and data files. I hope you avoided this!
A quiet relaxing weekend beckons and I hope you have one too! Next weekend I’m at Edge-Lit and hope to see a few of you there.
As always Wombling Along is the reviews and other articles that grabbed my attention this week as I’ve not been that online (for a change) It may be a little short but I’m sure I’ll Booktempt more soon
Reviews
First off Ancillary Review of Books has a really interesting review of Moonsongs a post humous collection of Carol Emswhiller’s short stories
https://ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/2025/09/12/birds-and-war/
Also a shout out to their podcast Meal of Thorns which is a growing favourite where there is a discussion of Authorieyy by Jeff VanderMeer and what it means for the wider Southern Reach series
https://ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/2025/09/08/a-meal-of-thorns-32-authority-with-zachary-gillan/
Gavreads continues their trip through anthologies with Fight Like A Girl Volume 2 edited by Roz Clarke and Joanne Hall
Gingernuts of Horror is clearly impressed by the novella Good Boy by Neil McRobert
https://gnofhorror.com/good-boy-by-neil-mcrobert-a-must-read/
I loved this enthusiastic review from Other Worlds Reviews of someone discovering the horror podcast The Magnus Archives and for the first time experiencing the wonder and terrors of season 3
https://otherworldsreviews.wordpress.com/2025/09/05/review-the-magnus-archives-s3/
Fan fi addict have a very interesting look at Into The Drowing Deep by Mira Grant
https://fanfiaddict.com/review-into-the-drowning-deep-by-mira-grant/
Locus tempts me with a look at A Thousand Natural Shocks by Omar Hussain
https://locusmag.com/2025/09/a-thousand-natural-shocks-by-omar-hussain-review-by-gabino-iglesias/
Jamedi of Jam Reads definitely puts on my radar The Memory Hunters by Mia Tsai
https://jamreads.com/reviews/the-memory-hunters-the-consecrated-1-by-mia-tsai
Considering debates about the newspaper review being dead I had this week saw this in the Observer which reviews two non fiction books and makes a really impressive look at two competing versions of the internet and our wider world. It’s a great way to put down someone spurious arguments to make money out of us forever.
Witty & Sarcastic Bookclub has the tricky task of a balanced review that I really liked with Guilty by Definition by Susie Dent - the kind of review that explains who may or may not like a book
I was also impressed by this Strange Horizons discussion of Memories From The Jungle By Tristan Garcia translated by Christopher Beach that really highlights how we can talk about problematic books
In other news
I liked the way Joanne Harris discusses going back to a series’ first ever book to write a prequel and the experience of learning who you were then and are now
https://lithub.com/returning-to-the-world-of-chocolat-25-years-later/
Reactor has this fascinating article exploring SF’s love of using alien languages
I loved this article in the New Yorker talking about someone realising they loved reading mystery novels starring cats. This really builds up into a discussion on our love of pets, fiction and a lot more
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-weekend-essay/the-mystery-of-the-cat-mystery
This week’s slightly reheated conversation was stale tropes in litfic that’s for me suggested the authors involved needed to read more books. But there was a more interesting debate starting in the waters about what is literary and what is worth reviewing - what are we hear for
Molly Templeton shared an older Ursula K Le Guin blog on the arbitrary distinction on genre and ‘literary’ well worth a read
https://www.ursulakleguin.com/blog/54-le-guins-hypothesis
Strange Horizons in their criticism focused podcast Critical Friends - has a great discussion on the idea of items as ‘time passes’ and the not always clear boundaries of high and low culture
http://strangehorizons.com/wordpress/podcasts/critical-friends-episode-15-on-time-pass/
Molly Templeton then wrote this power and really intelligent look at Criticism - it’s health, the conceptions but also very powerfully what it can be for and also why we do this. I hope Wombling Along is helping you find more critics and also you’re finding the variety of reviews out there but this is a gorgeous piece of writing
https://reactormag.com/its-not-the-death-of-criticism-again/
For more glorious recs please sign up for The Full Lid from Alasdair Stuart
https://mailchi.mp/e63816f6fbfd/the-full-lid-12th-september-2025
And get yourselves plugged into the amazing Intergalactic Mixtape from Renay
https://buttondown.com/intergalacticmixtape/archive/intergalactic-mixtape-19/
I leave you for the day with this beautiful article by Shing Yin Khoi that I found online via Elizabeth Bear about being stuck and how the art of just creating anything can bring joy and a lot more
https://stone-soup.ghost.io/love-letter-khor/?ref=stone-soup-newsletter
Have a great weekend and see you for more soon!
Ps see below Zachary Gillan on Bluesky posted this yesterday which I think also deserves a nice way of explaining why reviewers do what we do (and also when not to!)
