This has been a great couple of days - interesting selection of papers, fab keynote from Anna MacFarlane, good conversations, plenty of books added to TBR. Rumours are they might do it again next year, which would be ace.

Trying to decide whether the inclusion of covers of books not mentioned in this (fun & interesting) discussion carries deliberate subtext

Today's activity (and tomorrow's activity) blogs.ncl.ac.uk/nu-cusp/2026...

Interesting to compare Cade's state-of-climate-fiction reflections at the end of this (great) review-essay with those in this essay in Prospect, also jumping off from the Climate Prize shortlist www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/culture/7375...

Great discussion of the "it's not for everyone" book-description cliche (along with the main analysis)

Was a real pleasure speaking with @rachelcordasco.bsky.social about SF in Translation for the @sfencyclopedia.bsky.social Substack. Small Planet is definitely worth a read for anyone interested in SF beyond the Anglosphere! substack.com/home/post/p-...

Interesting to compare Cade's state-of-climate-fiction reflections at the end of this (great) review-essay with those in this essay in Prospect, also jumping off from the Climate Prize shortlist www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/culture/7375...

Join Grist’s @torystephens.bsky.social, founder of Imagine 2200: Climate Future for Future Ancestors, for a deep conversation on speculative climate fiction with renowned author @ShereeReneeThomas.bsky.social, professor of physics Vandana Singh, and engineer @wtalabi.com. luma.com/19l5xgr9

First review of the week over at SH is a long one, and brilliantly so. Here’s @octavia-cade.bsky.social on this year’s Climate Fiction Prize shortlist. Producing this *after* the winner was announced for me lets the shortlist breathe some more - and affords alternative readings to the judges’.

Did you miss the virtual book launch event for The Curve of the World? You can catch the entire discussion on the Clarion West Youtube Channel here: youtu.be/q9TYaaDKqJU?...! #vondanmcintyre #thecurveoftheworld

The Strange Horizons Annual Fund Drive is moving to BackerKit! Same great rewards to fund the same great content! Sign up to show your interest in the launch at the link ⬇️

2026 Theodore A. Sturgeon Memorial Award Finalists file770.com/2026-theodor...

It's not entirely a surprise to me that the Critical Friends episode about established writers has attracted less discourse than the one about debut writers, but it's probably a topic I worry about more.

The Ear Is the Organ of Fear: Matthew Eatough reviews Mónica Ojeda’s ELECTRIC SHAMANS AT THE FESTIVAL OF THE SUN (@coffeehousepress.bsky.social, tr. Sarah Booker)

See @garykwolfe’s review of THE RECOLLECTIONS by Christopher Priest: “clear, precise, and generally good-humored language, from the stark details of his rather gloomy childhood to his encounters with fandom and his skirmishes with the literary world”

Review of The Recollections by Gary K Wolfe in Locus: "a candid, sometimes cantankerous, and often self-effacing portrait of a fascinating and thoroughly original writer" locusmag.com/review/the-r...

We have a Clarke shortlist! Two books I thought were great; two I thought were good, but can see why others think they're great; one that I have only half-read through Circumstance, and one that I never really expected to pick up. Yep, that's a Clarke shortlist all right.

So, at this moment, my shortlist: On the Calculation of Volume II by Solvej Balle tr. Haveland Ice by Jacek Dukaj tr. Phillips Under the Eye of the Big Bird by Hiromi Kawakami tr. Yoneda The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami When There Are Wolves Again by EJ Swift The Book of Records by Madeleine Thien

By special request ( @gavreads.co.uk ), the longest* shortlist: The Folded Sky by Elizabeth Bear (496) Ice by Jacek Dukaj tr. Philips (1191) The Enduring Universe by Kritika H Rao (560) The Sea Eternal by Emery Robin (512) Shadows Upon Time by Christopher Ruocchio (928) Basilisk by Matt Wixey (556)

A quite loose one today, but there is an intended theme: Basilisk by Matt Wixey Big Time by Jordan Prosser Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman Rose/House by Arcady Martine The Definitions by Matt Greene What We Can Know by Ian McEwan

🎧 NEW PODCAST TO PUT IN YOUR EARS. 🎧 In this month’s Critical Friends, @kateem.bsky.social and Duncan Lawie talk about reading writers with back catalogues: how to start, how to you think about them, what to do when they publish another new book? On oeuvres (with apologies to the French language):

The Strange Horizons Kickstarter to fund 2027 will begin on Sunday, 7 June, 2026! This is a critical time for SFF publications when the existence of venues publishing short speculative fiction, poetry and non-fiction is sometimes uncertain. We hope that you will keep us publishing for another year!

And now the inevitable parochial British writers list: Aerth by Deborah Tomkins Basilisk by Matt Wixey Outlaw Planet by M. R. Carey Project Hanuman by Stewart Hotston The Essence by Dave Hutchinson The Salt Oracle by Lorraine Wilson

New month new Locus, and I somehow managed six (6) reviews: Vonda N. McIntyre's The Curve of the World, Isabel J. Kim's Sublimation, Jedediah Berry's Kill All Wizards, 'Pemi Aguda's One Leg on Earth, Munir Hachemi's The Mulai, and M John Harrison's The End of Everything: locusmag.com/2026/06/issu...

The Weathering by Artem Chapeye: Review by Abigail Nussbaum locusmag.com/review/...

Includes Calculation of Volume III as the inaugural winner of Best Translated Novel

OK, let's have a full shortlist of translated novels: On the Calculation of Volume II by Balle, tr. Haveland Red Sword by Chung, tr. Hur Vanishing World by Murata tr. Takemori Ice by Dukaj, tr. Phillips Under the Eye of the Big Bird by Kawakami tr. Yoneda A Thousand Blues by Seon-ran, tr. Kim

Next up: messing with time and history: On the Calculation of Volume I by Solvej Balle tr. Haveland The Book of Guilt by Catherine Chidgey Ice by Jacek Dukaj tr. Phillips The Third Rule of Time Travel by Philip Fracassi Lightbreakers by Aja Gabel Tomorrow Was Beautiful Once by Amy Orrell

What if the Clarke went for sense-of-place, like the Ondaatje? A Granite Silence by Nina Allan Ice by Jacek Dukaj tr. Phillips Helm by Sarah Hall City of All Seasons by Oliver Langmead & Aliya Whiteley A Thousand Blues by Cheon Seon-ran tr Kim When There Are Wolves Again by EJ Swift

“THE SUBTLE ART OF FOLDING SPACE is a novel of surface charm and inner steel, of witty images and sharp ideas, of multidimensional cosmology and equally complex family dynamics…” Niall Harrison reviews debut novel from John Chu

Just in under the wire after a busy day: a posthuman (or altered human) shortlist The Folded Sky by Elizabeth Bear Every Version of You by Grace Chan Red Sword by Bora Chung tr. Hur Under the Eye of the Big Bird by Hiromi Kawakami tr. Yoneda Animals by Geoff Ryman The Merge by Grace Walker

Reviewers on Reviewing 2! @chloroformtea.bsky.social asks @vajra.me, @carturo222.bsky.social, @hararereview.com, and @niallharrison.bsky.social: what makes a review good as a piece of literature itself?

Really enjoyed this one

Having commented quite a bit on the potential overlap between the CFP and this year's Clarke shortlist, worth noting that (because of differing eligibility periods), this is one that could in theory have been shortlisted by the Clarke last year.

We're thrilled to announce that Hum by Helen Phillips is the winner of the 2026 Climate Fiction Prize! “Hum deals with love, community and family in the face of the climate crisis, privilege and the age of AI.” Arifa Akbar, Chair of Judges

And from AI to aliens: The Fourth Consort by Edward Ashton Beautyland by Marie-Helene Bertino The Immeasurable Heaven by Caspar Geon Esperance by Adam Onyebanji Cold Eternity by SA Barnes Shroud by Adrian Tchaikovsky

The near future shottlist! Or is it the AI and algorithms shortlist? It's both, really. The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami All That We See or Seem by Ken Liu For Emma by Ewan Morrison Where the Axe is Buried by Ray Nayler A Thousand Blues by Cheon Seon-ran tr. Kim Artificial Wisdom by Thomas R Weaver

What about SF as the literature of ideas? Hmm: Rakesfall by Vajra Chandrasekera Ice by Jacek Dukaj tr. Phillips There Is No Antimemetics Division by qntm When The Moon Hits Your Eye by John Scalzi Archipelago of the Sun by Yoko Tawada tr. Mitsutani The Book of Records by Madeleine Thien

The Dead Man’s Empire by W.P. Wiles: Review by Abigail Nussbaum locusmag.com/review/...

What if the Clarke shared priorities with the Otherwise? Maybe we'd get something like: The Mune by Sue Dawes Some Body Like Me by Lucy Lapinska Jaw Filler by Max and Charlie Markbreiter Murray Vanishing World by Sayaka Murata tr. Takemori Luminous by Silvia Park Blob: A Love Story by Maggie Su

And from earth to space, with today's shortlist: The Folded Sky by Elizabeth Bear Red Sword by Bora Chung Here and Beyond by Hal LaCroix Slow Gods by Claire North Future's Edge By Gareth Powell Space Oddity by Catherynne M Valente

With an "unseasonably warm" weekend in the offing, let's have a climate fiction Clarke shortlist: Helm by Sarah Hall The Price of Everything by Jon McGoran Tomorrow Was Beautiful Once by Amy Orrell When There Are Wolves Again by EJ Swift The Book of Records by Madeleine Thien Sunbirth by An Yu

By my count there are thirteen books in the running by twelve previously-shortlisted writers, so let's have a veterans' shortlist: Hearthspace by Stephen Baxter Helm by Sarah Hall Where The Axe is Buried by Ray Nayler Slow Gods by Claire North Animals by Geoff Ryman Shroud by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Reviewers on Reviewing! @chloroformtea.bsky.social asks @readingtheend.bsky.social, @annmichelleharris.bsky.social, and @princejvstin.com to talk about how they approach the dreaded spoiler:

Here, Duncan Lawie looks at the latest from Paul McAuley, a novel of climate change which "hits hard because we can see it in the world around us". I kept thinking of Paul March-Russell on EJ Swift as I read this one. A tight little corpus of Brit climate near-futures is forming.

Today's shortlist: some dark horses, by my subjective judgement: Every Version of You by Grace Chan A Line You Have Traced by Roisin Dunnett Esperance by Adam Onjebanji The Expansion Project by Ben Pester The Merge by Grace Walker Sunbirth by An Yu

I’ve written more about statistics of the Guardian’s 100 best novels list, including: – Books that just missed out – Two errors in the data (Cather and Camus lost out) – Best novelists – Alternative rankings – Weirdest and least-weird ballots mpaldridge.github.io/blog/guardia...

‘It’s a captivating, slyly sophisticated novel’ We're delighted to announce the winner of the #InternationalBooker2026, supported by Bukhman Philanthropies, is Taiwan Travelogue by Yáng Shuāng-zǐ, translated by Lin King. Discover the book: thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-l...

Today's shortlist: the already-awarded (or multiply-shortlisted): A Granite Silence by Nina Allan Rakesfall by Vajra Chandrasekera Ice by Jacek Duka tr. Ursula Phillips Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor Luminous by Sylvia Park When There Are Wolves Again by EJ Swift

See Niall Harrison’s review of ON THE CALCULATION OF VOLUME IV by Solvej Balle: “What I am certain of... is that I will be there for the last page of the last installment; and then I strongly suspect I will go round the whole thing again.”