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Catch-22 by Joseph Heller - The classic anti-war novel, Heller artfully uses structure & viewpoint to create a sense of how unsettled his characters are. It's a stark deconstruction of the heroic war narrative, with swipes at capitalism & bureaucracy. The chapter focused on Milo's mad business feels darkly prescient of how capitalism has evolved in the decades since. Read if you haven't already.

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Invisible: Essays and Poems About Representation in Science Fiction and Fantasy, edited by Jim C. Hines and Mary Ann Mohanraj - Anything that helps me to understand other people's perspectives and the struggles they go through is good, & this book did exactly that. Many identities and issues I hadn't properly thought about are covered in here. Read if you want to write more representative fiction, or simply increase your understanding of other people's lives.

#AmWriting #SFF

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Under the Moon by E. M. Faulds - A great collection of short sf+f, full of unusual ideas & perspectives. There's a reality-bending solar-powered train, a sentient shop trying to put its past behind it, the devil at dinner, & a host of excellent female protagonists. Read if you want imaginative genre fiction, stories that get past the bias toward male POV, or to dip into the great work coming out of the Scottish genre scene.

@EMFaulds

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On Spec 124 - The latest issue of a Canadian genre fiction magazine that always provides something interesting. Highlights included a haircut at the end of the world & a story exploring the moral responsibilities arising from keeping dead people alive in automata. Read if you're after thought-provoking short fiction.

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Vector 297 - An issue of the British Science Fiction Association's critical journal, this time focused on "futures", & especially the use of scifi in predicting or preparing for what will come. Lots of interesting reflections on different projects. Good to see some facing the climate crisis, & the variety of approaches taken to engaging with people. Read if you like the idea of scifi shaping how we deal with the real world.

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The Spider's War by Daniel Abraham - Suitably epic end to The Dagger & the Coin, a fantasy series where economics, faith, & politics play out to shape the fate of a kingdom. The main characters got off lightly for my tastes, one choice taking away difficult decisions that would have made a more interesting but less happy ending. Still satisfying though, & a series with weighty themes. Read if you like GoT but wouldn't mind a slightly faster pace.

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Aurealis 163 - Australia's premier scifi & fantasy magazine, featuring a story by me, so I'm probably biased. I particularly enjoyed the story from the POV of an AI-guided missile, which made good use of a distinctive viewpoint, as well as articles on Mad Max as lone warrior archetype & on religion in the Foundation books. Read if you enjoy distinctive sf+f paired with thoughtful analysis.

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Follow Me: Religion in Fantasy & Science Fiction, ed. Francesca T Barbini - An interesting & varied collection of essays, running the gamut from queer gods to UFO cults to monotheism in Middle Earth. The annual essay collection from @LunaPressPublishing is always a highlight of my reading year, & it doesn't disappoint, digging deep on topics I'd never considered. Read if you like to think deeply about SFF.

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#ReadingThread

Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle - This book's strength lies in its protagonist, & it's great at showing her distinct perspective. It's a story of two halves, the first creepy & atmospheric, the second delivering satisfying but more familiar payoffs. Very readable with a powerful message. Read if you want horror where a gay, neurodivergent PoV grapples with family & faith, or to support one of the internet's most joyfully weird inhabitants.

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Death and Dying: A Sociological Introduction by Glennys Howarth - Does what it says on the tin, & does it well. Particularly interesting for how it talks about the role of expertise, the life/death binary vs a continuum, & the living's relationships with the dead. I made a ton of notes for my next two big projects, & it might have changed what I write after that. Read if you're interested in how societies deal with death, & who isn't fascinated by that?

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On Spec issue 123 - Canadian sff fiction magazine, with stories that ranged from horror on a penny farthing to a recurring cycle of memory loss in an airport. As with any short fiction mag, some stories hit better than others, & which are which will vary with the reader. I really enjoyed the range of unusual ideas. Read if you want some genuinely odd stories or to get a taste of Canadian sff.

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The Last Light of the Sun by Guy Gavriel Kay - GGK tackles the Viking era in one of his fantasy novels that's effectively history with the serial numbers filed off. The writing is beautiful, the characters & setting really coming to life. An exploration of fate, family, & responsibility that will stay with me a long time. Read if you like big, slow, beautifully written books, or are used to historical fiction & want to dip a toe in fantasy.

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Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett - One of my favourite Discworld books, introducing the Ankh-Morpork city watch & its wonderful range of characters. The city's in danger thanks to a dragon & some idiots with schemes above their intelligence, but a ragtag band of flawed heroes are here to reluctantly save the day. Read if you like fantasy that's funny & filled with humanity.

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Teaming With Microbes: The Organic Gardener's Guide to the Soil Food Web by Jeff Lowenfels and Wayne Lewis - Holy cow, soil is way more interesting than I thought. The first half of this book goes deep into the millions of living things in a spoonful of soil, from fungi to bacteria to bugs, & how they relate. The second half is full of practical tips for healthy soil. Read if you're a gardener or want to know more about the hidden web of life.

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Divisible By Itself and One by Kae Tempest - Varied & fascinating poems by a great modern voice. There's a serious side to all of this, with real intimacy & striking images, but also playfulness as Tempest tries on different forms & tones. Read if you like to see poets open up their hearts or play around with the form.

#Books #Bookstodon #Poetry

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The Widow's House by Daniel Abraham (Dagger & Coin book 4) - Epic fantasy GoT style, with politics, wars, religion, & multiple PoV. As it gets into people deeply & combatively believing in their own truths, this feels like a story for our times, but it's the characters who make it. Geder in particular is a great embodiment of the banality of evil. Read if you like big fantasy full of intrigue & strongly written characters, but start at book 1.

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On the Brink by RB Kelly - Near future scifi in which an artificial human travels to an agricultural space station in search of something that might not exist. On the one hand, this is a story about prejudice & economic division, on the other an exploration of grief & reluctant friendship. Kelly's socially informed setting is very well crafted, & the central relationship compelling. Read if you like near future sf pointing at modern problems.

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Silent Letters of the Alphabet by Ruth Padel - Essays on poetry & how it works, originally presented as lectures. I found the reflections on metaphor, blank space, & voice useful in thinking about the word-by-word craft of writing. Wider points on the nature of poetry were interesting, & it was good to have someone make me think beyond the forms I understand. Read if you're interested in how poetry works, or the micro-scale craft of wordsmithing.

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Shoreline of Infinity 35, ed. Noel Chidwick - Great collection of Scottish short sff. Lots of unexpected delights, my favourites being a story about a cyborg seagull & a couple written in Scots dialect. I stopped in the street & read bits out loud to myself in a perfectly normal way, just to see how those stories felt in my mouth. Read if you want surprising & varied sff or a seagull terminator.

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The Weird and the Eerie by Mark Fisher - Non-fiction on the nature of the weird & the eerie in fiction, the distinctions, between them, & how they play out in certain books, shows, films, & even albums. I enjoyed the way it dug into what the eerie is & how it affects us. Also got some good recommendations for other reading from it. Read if you're interested in fiction that unsettles, or want to make your own writing more uncanny.

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