The Week In Womble aka Higher Further Faster

Hellooo!!

It has been a looooong week. Happily nothing to do with moving house but an unfortunate point where five projects all need things doing at once; I’ll get there but I ned at least one day to recharge batteries and sleep. The admin [part of my job is the worst. But finding out how things work or does not is the best bit, so this week was conflicted!

Anathem update

Still on page 100! This is getting ridiculous

What I read this fortnight

A quick catch up on reviews and reading for the past few weeks

Subjective Chaos

Novellas

Prime Meridian by Silvia Moreno-Garcia - review here – brilliant novella about not giving in to the desire to do what everyone else wants you to

Chlorophyll & Gasoline by Sj Fleming - review here – a novella where humanity has now been extinct and a robot from the past is found by the world’s new inhabitants.  Charming.

Science Fiction

Embers of War by Gareth L Powell – review here Really impressed by the start of his new SF series that has huge intelligent warships, redemption and desire to be beter than you are.

I suspect next up some Blurred Boundaries…

Reviews

The Line Between by Tosca Lee – review here A really compelling start to an apocalyptic event with a very unusual lead who has escaped from a cult

The City in The Middle of the Night by Charlie Jane Anders - review here her second novel moves into firm SF territory with a bittersweet tale of rebellion and leaving the past behind.  Loved it

Captain Marvel – Liberation Run by Tess Sharpe – review here An original novel where Carol Danvers fughts a planet where women are to be seen and not heard. Powerful and intelligent.  Plus Captain Marvel rocks!!

The Near Witch by VE Schwab - review here One of my favourite authors has her first ever novel re-released and its got all the trademark weird, haunting, intelligent fantasy I’m used to.

And in the process of finishing

Everything About You by Heather Child – in the near future smart AI is common place but Freya discovers it talks in the voice of her missing sister.  A very smart SF thriller.

The Outcast Hours edited by Mahvesh Murad and Jared Shurin – a short story anthology about the night

In the pipeline

I’m looking at the these over the next few weeks

-          New Suns edited by Nisi Shawl – an anthology of speculative fiction by people of colout

-          American Monsters Part 1 edited by Margret Helgadottir – the latest entrant in this brilliant Fox Spirit series with writers telling tales of their cultures.

-          The Raven Tower by Ann Leckie – the author of the Ancillary Justice trilogy doing fantasy? I’m so there!!

-          After the Eclipse by Fran Dorricott

-          The Ruin of Kings by Jenn Lyons – Heard lots of good things about this series about a bard finding they’re the lost son of an immortal prince

-          The Migration by Helen Marshall - a tale of plague, death and apocalypses

-          Fleet of Knives by Gareth L Powell – the sequel to Embers of a war is a must

-          Knightfall – The Infinite Deep by David B Coe – based on History Chanel’s Templar drama

-          The Rosewater Insurrection by Tade Thompson – the sequel to one of my favourite SF tales -oh yes!!!

-          Soul Keeper by David Dalglish – what happens if you keep telling people monsters don’t’ exist and they then turn up

-          Zero Bomb by M T Hill – A near future tale of a man finding his daughter may not be as dead as he was led to be expected

Genre Awards

Hugo voting is nearly upon us and nominations need to be in place by the 15th and a great source of what is eligible is provided via Lady Business here if you want to remind yourselves

Recent shortlists that have come out are the The Nebulas, The British Science Fiction Awards and one of my favourites The Kitschies