I got a request recently from Oprah! I've been meaning to get back to her. Are you telling me it might not really be Oprah, and she's not going to recommend a niche SFF anthology to her millions of book club readers!?
I just finished "Slow Gods" by Claire North via a recommendation by @aptshadow.bsky.social, and I loved it.
Beyond the cultural richness of the far future setting, I think there's something very appealing about the juxtaposition of real-feeling technology set against an element of the numinous
I did this last year and I'm trying to make it an annual Thing, so here are a few short fiction writers in their first two years of publishing worth considering for Astounding Award nomination! I'm highlighting a work I loved from each of them (it's hard to keep it to just one, but c'est la vie)
🚨New episode ‼️
Brilliant author David Goodman @davegoodman.bsky.social takes us on a paratextual tour of Excession by Iain M Banks!
linktr.ee/stetpodcasts
Dave helps us understand why paratext is sometimes the best tool for conveying intricate relationships in a novel.
💙📚 #podcasts
My wife and I did the Mallory Cave hike above NCAR today, check out this section of "trail" that turned out to be a class 4 slab! I wouldn't have believed it was part of the trail if that plaque wasn't there. The view from the top was incredible.
Thoughtful conversation on @mealofthorns.bsky.social about Egan's Diaspora, I loved how they differentiated between the sort of superficial engineering projects+big guns pop culture hard SF and the mind-expanding concept-driven hard SF that Egan writes: ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/2026/02/09/a...
😩
By the time I was two paragraphs in I was laughing so hard I had to take a break and go get a glass of water
The whole thing is heavily performance-art-coded, and seems like extremely funny satire to me. Unfortunately I suspect his main audience doesn't interpret it that way
As a 40 year old, I feel this in my bones.
The craziest feeling for me is going somewhere that I haven't been since I was a child. I lived in London ages 8-11, and a year ago I went back and visited some places I hadn't seen for thirty years. Time and experience utterly changed my perception.
I loved this one so much, I take extra damage from great stories about dogs
the only anthology that might pay you in silver coins
Calling all concept-driven science fiction short stories (and novelettes) published in 2025! I'm looking for bangers I might have missed that fit this brief: compellingsciencefiction.com/posts/call-f...
If you can share this with your favorite SF author/publisher/editor, I'd be grateful!
you got me shooksmaxxing
of Hugh Herr, the rock climber who lost his legs to frostbite after being trapped for 3 days in -20F temps, and who later became a leading biomechatronics researcher.
I love that the name Hugo is both evocative of Hugh and the Hugo awards (for which Okorafor's book will undoubtedly be a finalist)
I just finished "Death of the Author" by @nnedi.bsky.social, and I LOVED it.
This book had an utterly unique combination of technology, family, the confluence of Nigerian and American culture, and writing life.
As a rock climber, I really enjoyed the side character "Hugo", who reminded me strongly
Readers' poll closes tomorrow!
sure whatever this novel about the mall is actually about american cultural imperialism and how cultural victory is achieved by the cancerous replication of your tropes across other cultures until everywhere on earth looks like you
I have vowed that if I ever win a Hugo, I will get a tattoo.
If you like any of the works below, or just want to see me get ink, give me a nod on your ballot.
Fed up with your world? Visit ours. Picture of the Clarkesworld robot looking over at the cover of our February issue. That cover features a robot looking out at the sea while standing on the beach with their hands clasped behind their back. The water comes gently towards their feet. Peaceful ocean and sky. A contemplative moment of peace. Cover art by Matt Dixon.
It's time for your periodic reminder that we count on subscriptions to keep the lights on.
clarkesworldmagazine.com/subscribe/
Thank you.
this is the perfect ad copy, please ask Tor to turn this into a Facebook ad and see how well it converts
(also happy birthday!)
I don't ONLY read science fiction (just mostly).
Here are some of my favorite books from 2025! Incredible reads by @aptshadow.bsky.social, Robert Jackson Bennett, Cory Doctorow, @doriskgoodwin.bsky.social, and @brandonsanderson.com
compellingsciencefiction.com/posts/favori...
After finishing Echopraxia, this is the first thing I see in the "Notes and References" section:
"I am naked as I type this. I was naked writing the whole damn book."
Bravo, Peter Watts. Superbly played.
I've been a member of a graphic novel book club for the last ten years, and I've never been more excited than for this release. This is better than when I got the group to read the Hugo-winning Lower Decks CYOA last year 😆
My latest @clarkesworldmagazine.com story ‘Three Fortunes on Alcestis…’ is out today! It’s available to read for free online right here:
clarkesworldmagazine.com/hall_02_26/
It’s about a tyrant and a soldier and a baby. With bonus fortune-telling and bonus bad-tempered alien goats.
Oh hey, is there a new Morag and Seamus story out?
There is!
Check out a cozy post-apocalyptic take on the legend of Tam Lin here:
clarkesworldmagazine.com/moore_02_26/
I've noticed a microgenre shift in SF over the last year - or possibly just in the books I've come across. Specifically, a bit of a boom in big concept space opera books working in the Banks/Hamilton ideaspace. Meaning SF that simultaneously delivers a strong action storyline against a backdrop
I feel that this is an appropriate first bluesky post: compellingsciencefiction.com/posts/the-bu...
This is the level of seriousness you can expect from me going forward
