🫰SNAP!🫰 My latest column for the excellent @ancillaryreviewofbooks.org, on Tochy Onyebuchi, Joy Sanchez-Taylor, and what to read to understand what you’re reading. How might we fill the “imagination gap” in our fictions?

The power of audiobooks is hearing an interpretation of the words that you wouldn’t have imagined without it being read by that narrator. An example of that is The Trees by Percival Everett. I am about 15% in, but I don’t think I would have realised how funny it was meant to be if I had read it.

Unsolicited writing advice, no. 18181999: "Write what you know" is limiting advice, which leads to limited writing. Instead, know what you're writing about. That means due diligence: good research, wide reading, specialist help and advice if you need it. Stay curious. Try new ideas. No limits.

A deep dive into the details of Psychopomp & Circumstance is in this wonderful review from Strange Horizons magazine - thank you! strangehorizons.com/wordpress/no... #booksky 📚🪐

"HOLY TERRORS may put fans through a rough start, but in the end it is a fantastic payoff in every way imaginable." My review of the final adventure of Vanja, the con artist and thief who is the goddaughter of Death and Fortune!

Here's a repost of my sort of TOC for anthologies of the best short science fiction between 1989 and 2018. richhorton314252.substack.com/p/great-shor...

New week at SH, and in Reviews we open with a doozy: @shinjinidey.bsky.social on Paul Kincaid's Colourfields (@briardenebooks.bsky.social). Who doesn't love reading a critic on a critic? So much to pick out in this really productive dialogue. But key: "Kincaid is attempting to apprehend a public."

And my review of Seascraper:

My review of Love Forms:

So it’s the Szalay. It may be the most consistently realised of the books, but how good a thing that is will be down to your taste. The judges clearly liked this depiction of “[a] self [who] remains a mystery to us, because it is a mystery to him.”

I was sold at ‘I really liked it’

"Jacobs’ novel doesn’t lack for grotesque and awe-inducing images, but cloaked beneath that is a story of heroism in an unlikely place." John Hornor Jacobs' The Night That Finds Us All embraces maritime cosmic horror 🌊

Oh holy shit this is good news I didn't for a second believe we'd get.

We'll be chatting with indie publisher Bona Books about their journey from reader/writer to setting up a publishing house. @bonabooks.bsky.social was founded by 3 book-obsessed friends to produce high-quality, subversive & unapologetically queer SFFH books. www.cymerafestival.co.uk/2025-confere...

PALESTINE - 1: Stories from the Eve of the Nakba Ed. Basma Ghalayini 🗝️📚 📕 Pub. Nov 13 commapress.co.uk/books/palest... 📚 MANCHESTER BOOK LAUNCH 📍 Manchester Museum 📅Dec 3, 2025 Link below 👇🧵

Our new issue is out now! Grab single issues here: https://bit.ly/484Awe6

A big welcome to the UK National Archives' Sector Leadership team - great to see you here on Bluesky!

Has anyone read/would recommend any of these: Crooked Cross by Sally Carson The House Saphir by Marissa Meyer The Wax Child by Olga Ravn (author), Martin Aitken (translator) I have book vouchers burning a hole in my pocket

Anyone remember The Hogarth Shakespeare, a hugely ambitious project announced in 2013 where contemporary authors wrote versions of all of Shakespeare plays, inc Atwood, St Aubyn, Winterson etc - and then it fizzled out after half a dozen? Well, it’s back! This time as ‘Shakespeare Retold’.

Trying to settle into an own-voice m/m romance story, and so far I’m on my third try of the day. I think they’ve all been enemies to lovers, and it’s annoying me. Looking for a Matt Peters equivalent, as his rugby ones were great.

This week's Sunday Summary is up. It contains: 18 books coming out this week-ish 13 books that others have tempted me with Praise for @danhartland.bsky.social's post of The Booker What's been tempting @runalongwomble.bsky.social And two excellent covers I've seen this week.

I got very excited by a romantasy, cringed through the first point of view in the first chapter, and read the first paragraph of the second point of view and said out loud, ‘Absolutely not’.

Has anyone heard anything about Coldwire?

New books! New books! 💙📚🪐 All released today: The War Beyond by @andreagstewart.bsky.social, Coldwire by Chloe Gong, Empire of the Dawn by @misterkristoff.bsky.social, The Tower of the Tyrant by @jeremyteg.bsky.social, As Many Souls as Stars by Natasha Siegel, 1/2

New on the blog today, I've written about CROOKED CROSS by Sally Carson. A brilliant, terrifying novel about the rise of Nazism, the falling apart of a country’s codes of decency & the moral fortitude required to oppose persecution. Frighteningly timely. 💙📚 jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2025/11/09/c...

Can anyone recommend any academic essays (that are publicly available online or that you could send me) exploring the parallels between Loki and Ulysses expanding on Snorri's slightly throwaway lines on the topic. Or failing that, general explorations of Troy-as-Asgard? #MedievalSky #ClassicsSky

If you want to dig into the books in this year’s Booker, then this post is for you.

Not long to go on those early birds for WRITING THE OCCULT: CRYPTIDS AND CREATURES! We have an absolute beast of a line-up incoming for the 29th November... www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/writing-th... #monsters #cryptids #horror #occult #writing #writers #authors

I’m working on my Sunday Summary blog post, and I’ve got 13 books listed that I’ve been tempted by from various creators on Blusky, Instagram, and TikTok. I am very grateful to everyone who takes the time to share what they’ve loved.

This sounds crazy bonkers, and so much fun.

I might make 2026 The Year of T. Kingfisher. I have so many of their back catalogue titles to read that I'll turn it into a challenge/celebration.

The saddest book is when you know it’s the last one an author ever wrote. The last Merrily Watkins take The Echo of Crows by Phil Rickman

COVER REVEAL! My short story collection COME SING FOR THE HARROWING will be reissued by the marvellous CLASH Books next April with this tasty new cover. I've also added two new stories, one previously unpublished - what more can you ask? ARCs are available now from NetGalley, or drop me a line!

Two of these I've not heard of, but I feel that @chloroformtea.bsky.social @niallharrison.bsky.social would have - and two are on my desk.

I can't decide between The Samurai Detectives and Eurotrash.

I am very curious to see how Dorothy tackles this!

Hello Evening crowd this excellent novel which has digital ghosts, magic and a cat is out now in paperback All The Ghosts In The Forest by Lorraine Wilson www.runalongtheshelves.net/blog/2024/12...

Our very own Trip Galey has an EXTRA special announcement!!

AT LAST I CAN SHOW YOU! Here is the US cover for MORTEDANT'S PERIL! And ain't it a cracker?

Sent editorial notes on Mia Dalia's brilliant icy cosmic horror novel PERFORATED SKY back to the author this morning. Looking forward to submitting it to major publishers on both sides of the Atlantic...

Holy fucking shit I've made it in life 😭

It's friday! That means time for the weekly good news thread. What's YOUR good news from the week? What's made you smile? Mine is an incredibly fun time I had with @amdassu.bsky.social at her online launch last night. For this gorgeous book! (pics from the physical launch earlier on)

I very much approved of how this discussion centred the weirdness of Big Bird, since that is I think a big part of what gives it a sense of scale and even - albeit in the context of decline - *wonder*. Elsewhere, it also speaks to Jacqui’s thoughts on redemption (or lack thereof) in fiction here:

I somehow missed this back in September, but 👀👀👀

reading this right now and it fucking slaps so hard, man

Yes, also when you are meeting an artist at an opening, or a musician at a concert, an author at a book event, etc., you're meeting their public persona, which is (usually) a distinct and modulated version of themselves. Not fake! But designed to help them get through being the focus of attention.

Publishers, thank you! Our #WalterScottPrize submissions window may have closed for this year, but we might just have to wedge our door open to make space for the bumper crop of entries as we unbox. Watch for our longlist announcement coming next February. #historicalfiction #booktok #literaryprize

For anyone who might have been waiting, The Dead Man is now also available for pre-order on Kobo: www.kobo.com/gb/en/search... And everywhere else: books2read.com/thedeadman

"Though this story is decidedly more action-packed than the others set in this world, it never loses sight of its heart-filled message, making it another worthy entry in the LEGENDS AND LATTES series." Thanks Tor for the ARC of BRIGANDS AND BREADKNIVES!