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RanaldClouston @ranaldclouston.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 3h

Venerable #PrintSF magazine #AsimovsScienceFiction has had a rough time of it lately: a printer change delaying deliveries by about 4 months, editor Sheila Williams getting sick, and worst of all new publishers Must Read Magazines pushing contributors towards […] [Original post on fediscience.org]

Cover of Asimov's Science Fiction magazine for March/April 2026

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RanaldClouston @ranaldclouston.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 13/10/2026

Finished part 1 of a series about warring clans and ninjas in a low magic fantasy analogue of medieval Japan (the word ninja is never used, but a tribe of assassins for hire who can turn invisible and move noiselessly? That's ninjas). Chapters alternate […] [Original post on fediscience.org]

Across the Nightingale Floor, by Lian Hearn. Part 1 of the Tales of the Otori series.

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RanaldClouston @ranaldclouston.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 10/10/2026

#GardnerDozois must be the most reliable name in short sci fi; for more than three decades straight he read every professional publication in the field and published 600 pages of his favourites. His 2011 collection is not the best I've read - it even has one […] [Original post on fediscience.org]

The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Ninth Annual Collection, edited by Gardner Dozois. Also released as The Mammoth Book of Best New SF 25.

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RanaldClouston @ranaldclouston.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 26/09/2026

My first foray into classical Graeco-Roman literature (I've read a bit of viking stuff like Beowulf before). I can see why Hollywood is attracted to this one; it builds through a series of smaller adventures into a satisfyingly brutal scene of action and […] [Original post on fediscience.org]

The Odyssey, by Homer. Translated by Emily Wilson.

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RanaldClouston @ranaldclouston.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 15/09/2026

#KatharineKerr delivers on the climax of her second Deverry quadrilogy, with all the magic, battle scenes, and shocking character deaths one might wish for. Imagine George R. R. Martin, except working decades earlier and capable of ending a story, and you […] [Original post on fediscience.org]

A Time of Justice (in some markets released as Days of Air of Darkness) by Katharine Kerr.

The cover illustration is high cliche campy fantasy, with a shirtless mulletted 'barbarian', atop a dragon, brandishing a spear.

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RanaldClouston @ranaldclouston.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 08/09/2026

A primer on philosophical paradoxes that is surprisingly wide ranging for its length: more than 200 named paradoxes, according to the index, discussed in less than 200 pages. This means steaming through them pretty quickly, but it works as a nice introduction […] [Original post on fediscience.org]

This Sentence is False: An Introduction to Philosophical Paradoxes, by Peter Cave

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RanaldClouston @ranaldclouston.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 05/09/2026

"This is it, he thought. This is where we've filled ourselves up with so many questions that they're starting to overflow and become answers." #TerryPratchett was my most beloved author by far when I was a teenager, but I've re-read him only a few times over […] [Original post on fediscience.org]

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RanaldClouston @ranaldclouston.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 05/09/2026

Family haul from #Canberra 's wonderful #LifelineBookfair second hand book (and DVD, puzzle, etc) sale. Did we win? @bookstodon #Bookstodon

21 books, 9 DVDs, and a puzzle laid out on the floor, with multiple appearances by Stephen Hawking, Georgette Heyer, Katharine Kerr, Phillip Pullman, Sherlock Holmes in book and film form, and David Suchet as Poirot.

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RanaldClouston @ranaldclouston.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 02/09/2026

An anthology of recent (2012-23) short space opera, a genre defined by editor #JonathanStrahan in an interesting introduction as "romantic adventure set on space and told on grand scale". This is a high quality collection by a diverse group of big names in […] [Original post on fediscience.org]

New Adventures in Space Opera, edited by Jonathan Strahan

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RanaldClouston @ranaldclouston.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 27/08/2026

A near-future thriller of a woman drawn into a world of ecoterrorism and the smuggling of taxidermied endangered species. Jane is a unique protagonist, a hulking former collegiate wrestler and bodybuilder with a violent past, turned into an apparently […] [Original post on fediscience.org]

Hummingbird Salamander, by Jeff Vandermeer

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RanaldClouston @ranaldclouston.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 18/08/2026

My last read was a thousand page monster, so I was looking for something lighter and frothier, and this romantic comedy fantasy of 19th century pirate witches and their flying houses did the job. But I didn't much like it. The central joke, that the […] [Original post on fediscience.org]

The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels, by India Holton

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RanaldClouston @ranaldclouston.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 13/08/2026

Finished this 992 page behemoth of a novel by typographer #RianHughes , in which Earth is 'invaded' by ideas from outer space. Full of style shifts from fake wikipedia pages and BBC articles, to text-based graphic storytelling, to an entire novella presented […] [Original post on fediscience.org]

An open book, with a small amount of conventional text, but dominated by a typographical 'picture' of an exclamation plummeting towards a 'city grid' made of criss-crossing words.

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RanaldClouston @ranaldclouston.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 05/08/2026

Finished reading this collection of short stories and critical and philosophical essays by Borges, mostly from the 1940s, and unfortunately bounced off it pretty hard. His very short stories are written (and translated) in a style that I found dry and […] [Original post on fediscience.org]

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RanaldClouston @ranaldclouston.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 28/07/2026

A romantasy about a secretly Jewish magician in inquisition-era Spain. I've not read #LeighBardugo before, and had mixed feelings about this, leaning positive. Her prose is elegant and pleasurable to read, and she balances the plausible and magical aspects […] [Original post on fediscience.org]

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RanaldClouston @ranaldclouston.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 26/07/2026

People from across the 20th century are pulled into a bizarre city with an artificial sun as part of an experiment that can only be discussed in thought terminating cliches (the Experiment is the Experiment). If it were a novella I might have called it a […] [Original post on fediscience.org]

The Doomed City, by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky

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RanaldClouston @ranaldclouston.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 17/07/2026

Packing for #FLoC2026 in Portugal (the cat is not coming). Hope to see a few of you there? #FLoC #LICS #FSCD

A calico cat, Sweet Pea, standing in a half packed suitcase on a bed.

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RanaldClouston @ranaldclouston.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 14/07/2026

Part 7 of #KatharineKerr 's neverending series of Deverry novels suffers a bit for being the penultimate part of her second quadrilogy, as it feels a bit more like moving pieces into place for a climactic novel than a full story in itself. It also tells its […] [Original post on fediscience.org]

A Time of War, by Katharine Kerr. The US title, Days of Blood and Fire, is also featured on the cover.

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RanaldClouston @ranaldclouston.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 08/07/2026

In #JohnLeCarré 's 1989 novel, a British publisher gets entangled in smuggling weapons secrets out of the perestroika-era Soviet Union. This is a real slow burner - it's a spy story, but I wouldn't call it a thriller! But it completely repaid my patience. The […] [Original post on fediscience.org]

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RanaldClouston @ranaldclouston.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 30/06/2026

I really enjoyed this plainspoken little book about particle physics by #IvoVanVulpen . It is mostly written at a level that I would happily put in the hands of a curious teenager, and indeed my 13yo is the one who got it out the library and is planning to […] [Original post on fediscience.org]

How to Find a Higgs Boson — and other big mysteries in the world of the very small, by Ivo van Vulpen. Translated from Dutch by David McKay. Illustrations by Serena Oggero.

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RanaldClouston @ranaldclouston.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 25/06/2026

A present from my son for my recent birthday: the latest in #AnnLeckie ' s loosely linked series of space operas. Here imperial civil war (the main story of some of the earlier books) triggers chaos in a remote part of the empire, a rogue planet with […] [Original post on fediscience.org]

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RanaldClouston @ranaldclouston.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 23/06/2026

My first time reading #LouiseErdrich . Some more familiarity might have helped, as this book is obviously personal: the main setting is the independent bookstore she owns in real life, and while the rest of the staff is fictional she appears herself as the […] [Original post on fediscience.org]

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RanaldClouston @ranaldclouston.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 18/06/2026

Finished a book on attempts to send Messages to Extraterrestrial Intelligence #METI: how do you construct a message that can be understood by a hypothetical alien we will never meet or converse with, and what should be in the message? My interest in this […] [Original post on fediscience.org]

Extraterrestrial Languages, by Daniel Oberhaus

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RanaldClouston @ranaldclouston.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 14/06/2026

My tenth and counting of the #GardnerDozois best short #SF of the year compilations that are gradually putting increasing strain on my bookshelves. This edition collects stories from 2006, and perhaps isn't quite as diverse and interesting as his very best […] [Original post on fediscience.org]

The Mammoth Book of Best New 20, edited by Gardner Dozois

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RanaldClouston @ranaldclouston.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 02/06/2026

I think this is the first time I've read any #wuxia (Chinese martial arts fantasy), though I've certainly seen lots of films in the genre. This novella is so slight and low stakes that I don't think it will stick with me, but some of the banter is amusing and […] [Original post on fediscience.org]

The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water, by Zen Cho

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RanaldClouston @ranaldclouston.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 01/06/2026

I've read and enjoyed a couple of #NaomiNovik 's novels, but I think this collection of short stories is actually even better. She is very much someone who works in pastiches and homages of existing genres and writers, but she draws on an appealing range of […] [Original post on fediscience.org]

Buried Deep and Other Stories, by Naomi Novik

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RanaldClouston @ranaldclouston.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 28/05/2026

I read and loved the Mars trilogy quite a few years ago; this is a collection of short stories and poems set in that world, including some 'alternate future histories' checking in with some of the characters in a timeline where the colonisation did not go […] [Original post on fediscience.org]

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RanaldClouston @ranaldclouston.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 24/05/2026

I've heard some hype around #SarahJMaas 's horny romantic fantasies, but found this a mixed bag. On the bad side, the prose is in places excruciatingly poor, piling up adjectives unnecessarily. A typical, but particularly funny, example is when one of the […] [Original post on fediscience.org]

House of Earth and Blood, by Sarah J. Maas

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RanaldClouston @ranaldclouston.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 12/05/2026

Technically a re-read, but the first read was so long ago, I recollected little details as I read like snatches of a dream. Cassandra Mortmain is one of the most delightful narrators I've had the pleasure to spend time with. The castle is a beautifully […] [Original post on fediscience.org]

I Capture the Castle, by Dodie Smith, or as the book appears to call her, 'Vintage Smith'

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RanaldClouston @ranaldclouston.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 05/05/2026

An obscure read this one, with zero written reviews on The Storygraph or Goodreads: a 1995 collection of New Zealand #SciFi short stories, many by unknown authors. I'd love to say this is packed with gems, but a few stories are quite poor, and although most […] [Original post on fediscience.org]

Rutherford's Dreams: A New Zealand Science Fiction Collection. Edited by Warwick Bennett & Patrick Hudson

Contents page. As best as I can tell the more famous names featured are Phillip Mann, Peter Friend, and Lyn McConchie.

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RanaldClouston @ranaldclouston.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 02/05/2026

#JaneAusten 's earliest novel (by some measures; she bounced back and forth between edits on several of her novels, and this one was not published until after her death) is, while short, as delightful, funny, and psychologically acute as I'd expect from […] [Original post on fediscience.org]

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RanaldClouston @ranaldclouston.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 27/04/2026

This is the ultra-prolific #AdrianTchaivovsky in throwaway, goof-off mode, built around a pastiche of a D&D adventure, complete with anachronistic dialogue and lore ripped straight out of Tolkien and not much disguised in the process. Of course Tchaivovsky […] [Original post on fediscience.org]

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RanaldClouston @ranaldclouston.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 18/04/2026

The best edition of #AsimovsScienceFiction magazine since I started my subscription a year ago? Great variety of #SciFi subgenres, from a remarkable surrealist piece by K. A. Teryna (translated by Alex Shvartsman)*, to the text of a children's 'nonfiction' […] [Original post on fediscience.org]

Asimov's Science Fiction magazine, Jan/Feb 2026 edition, with cover story 'The Greenway' by Susan Palwick, and also advertising stories by Alexander Jablokov, Adam-Troy Castro, John Richard Trtek, and James Sallis

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RanaldClouston @ranaldclouston.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 15/04/2026

How do you invent a spaceship whose mind is a mix of human and dog consciousness, and make it boring? I had my hopes raised by cover blurbs by Adrian Tchaikovsky and Ann Leckie, two of the best writers in modern sci fi, but this space opera, while competent […] [Original post on fediscience.org]

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RanaldClouston @ranaldclouston.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 09/04/2026

I feel a little bad about not appreciating this, as Robin Ince seems like a good guy, but his exploration of neurodiversity, mostly framed by his own experiences with (recently diagnosed) ADHD, didn't work for me. The way the chapters are structured around […] [Original post on fediscience.org]

Normally Weird and Weirdly Normal: My Adventures in Neurodiversity, by Robin Ince

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RanaldClouston @ranaldclouston.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 06/04/2026

As a mail subscriber to #AsimovsScienceFiction magazine, I get a vote in their 2025 reader's awards. It was fun to go back and re-read my favourite stories for the year to decide my rankings: Best Novella: 1. Quantum Ghosts, #NancyKress 2. The […] [Original post on fediscience.org]

The July/August 2025 cover for Asimov's Science Fiction magazine. The cover story is The Chronolithographer's Assistant, by Suzanne Palmer. The illustration depict a young man in old fashioned clothing turning the wheel on a lithograph press. There are vessels of brightly coloured liquids on nearby tables and shelves. The background is dissolved into fuzzy shapes of trees, with two malevolent-looking futuristic drones emerging.

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RanaldClouston @ranaldclouston.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 01/04/2026

A grim tale of domestic violence in remote New Zealand sheep country, narrated by the couple's pet magpie(!). Very much outside my comfort zone, as I had to keep forcing myself to pick it up given the upsetting themes, but at it's best it was brilliantly […] [Original post on fediscience.org]

The Axeman's Carnival, by Catherine Chidgey

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RanaldClouston @ranaldclouston.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 25/03/2026

Finished an interesting romp through the scientific and technological history of the representation and transmission of information, from talking drums to Wikipedia, with Claude Shannon's information theory taking the star turn. I appreciated that the author […] [Original post on fediscience.org]

The Information: a History, a Theory, a Flood. By James Gleick

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RanaldClouston @ranaldclouston.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 19/03/2026

#GardnerDozois 's best short SF of the year collections are always good, but the 1998 one might be the best I've read. My favourite story was a re-read of Ted Chiang's Story of Your Life (later adapted as Arrival) and there are also extremely memorable […] [Original post on fediscience.org]

The Mammoth Book of Best New SF 12, edited by Gardner Dozois

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RanaldClouston @ranaldclouston.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 05/03/2026

Giant robot fights on the moon are fun and all, but unfortunately this book spends far more time on the central romance, and it really did not work for me. It just felt like endless flirty, not particularly witty, banter between two characters that didn't […] [Original post on fediscience.org]

August Kitko and the Mechas from Space, by Alex White

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RanaldClouston @ranaldclouston.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 28/02/2026

Part 5 of #THWhite 's quintet of Arthurian novellas is an oddity: the publisher baulked at releasing the collection, partly due to wartime paper rationing, so White raided it for its best 20 pages and stuck them in the 1st book! What remains, published […] [Original post on fediscience.org]

A cover page for 'The Book of Merlyn', by T. H. White

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RanaldClouston @ranaldclouston.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 25/02/2026

Picked up this history of Australian #philosophy on the chance it covered philosophical logic, and indeed @consequently , Graham Priest, relevance logic, and the Automated Reasoning Group make cameos. As a book the writing is delightfully funny and acerbic […] [Original post on fediscience.org]

Corrupting the Youth: A History of Philosophy in Australia, by James Franklin

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RanaldClouston @ranaldclouston.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 21/02/2026

The most recent #AsimovsScienceFiction to appear in my mailbox features an absorbing cover future story from #GregEgan about a dementia sufferer's experimental brain implants that lead him to a partial recovery, but also highlights a world of techbro hype […] [Original post on fediscience.org]

Asimov's Science Fiction magazine, with cover story 'Spares Parts for the Mind' by Greg Egan, plus stories by Tegan Moore, Ray Nayler, Sean McMullen, Sean Monaghan, Allen M. Steele, and Susan Schwartz.

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RanaldClouston @ranaldclouston.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 15/02/2026

Picked up on a #bookstodon recommendation: a space opera that I found excellent in places but flawed. Every major character is an insanely overpowered unkillable badass, making the over the top violence feel a bit weightless. The prose is pretty good and the […] [Original post on fediscience.org]

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RanaldClouston @ranaldclouston.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 08/02/2026

The 1908 battle of wits between charismatic French genius burglar Arsène Lupin and the English detective 'Holmlock Shears' of Parker Street. The mystery writing is not as tight as the first volume of Lupin's adventures, but the humiliations inflicted on the […] [Original post on fediscience.org]

Arsène Lupin versus Holmlock Shears, by Maurice LeBlanc, translated from French to English by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos.

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