I haven't read any of these yet, though some are already sitting in my TBR. Tragically, some (e.g. WHERE THERE ARE WOLVES AGAIN and A GRANITE SILENCE) don't seem available in the US yet

ARB's Notable Books of 2025!

At the hospital they had a very limited selection of films and a peculiar genre breakdown. There was "science fiction" (the Avatar movies) and "science fiction and fantasy" (the Avatar movies + the Star Wars movies)

Walter Benjamin wrote that the work of translation is “to liberate the language imprisoned in a work" to find the “pure language” of “the unfathomable, the mysterious, the ‘poetic’”. This is all, of course, utterly anathema to AI

It's a whole genre it's beautiful

No document will protect you. All they have to do is take it from you and "lose" it; take it from you and say you never gave it to them; claim it's fake ⬇️; make a new rule that you need ANOTHER document. Citizenship is a made-up status that governments decide the rules for. No one is free until all.

Speaking of AI as a technology being fundamentally fucked even outside of LLMs, especially in medical contexts

“Just when you thought you heard it all, AI systems designed to spot cancer have startled researchers with a baked-in penchant for racism.”

I switched off spell check many years ago (at the time it was mostly because it annoyed me to see names like mine with red underlines) so idk if it's been aishittified lately—is that why it's in the slop discourse or is this just a reach to claim that the slop is inescapable

Finally got my hands on this one. Hold my calls. If there's an emergency, 911 is well-staffed. Send food as long as the delivery person doesn't mind me coming straight from the bubble bath to get it, damn the towel, it's reading time. @vajra.me It's reading time!

And please also, AGAIN, never forget that they are inherently unethical to use because no one gave permission for their research or writing to be used in it. It is all stolen, and if you're using the plagiarism machine, please keep that in mind.

This studio awards-season email is really matching the current mood in a way I’m not sure they intended.

A speech by Stuart Hall at a protest in support of Walter Rodney in London in 1974.

SFWA already backpedaled on this, thankfully, but tbh you can see the reasoning after Robert Jackson Bennett's Hugo win. If some popular authors are already semi-divulged slopmongers and some award-voters already don't care, it must have seemed like the "community" was asking for loopholes

This is a truly wild decision to make. It's insulting to all the writers and past winners/nominees.

Vajra Chandrasekera, author of "Rakesfall" and winner of the Ursula K. Le Guin Prize 2025 shares a nifty piece of advice for speculative fiction writers. 🔮 - #SouthAsian #SpeculativeFiction

"Hold your sentences close." -- @vajra.me Advice that resonates with STEERING THE CRAFT...

Rakesfall by Vajra Chandrasekera The irreverent freedom of The Saint of Bright Doors gets cranked up to 11 in this slipstream fever dream. Can't wait to see whatever comes next bsky.app/profile/spir...

In, "The Saint of Bright Doors," Fetter's mother tells him that the only way to change the world is through, "the application of directed violence." We discuss what that means for the characters in the novel as they take on their own rickety liberal institutions. Full episode out now!

Surgery went well and I'm at home recovering, mildly floaty on pain meds, and this was an excellent listen—many thanks to the Workers' Lit crew for a wonderful in-depth episode reading THE SAINT OF BRIGHT DOORS, and for the many kind words and puns! (And yes, I'd love to come on the show sometime)

Guy who sells mediocre-but-passable entryways call that the Saint of Aight Doors

Guy who excels at foreseeing haunted house jumpscares call that the Saint of Fright Doors

Listen here or wherever you get your pods and casts! And a special thank you to fellow bluesky user @vajra.me for writing suck a delightful book!!

Them doors are about to get real bright. It's time to hop into Vajra Chandrasekera's crazy 2023 fantasy novel, "The Saint of Bright Doors." We've got revolution, we've got being bisexual, we've got family trauma, we've got cults, we've got it ALL with this book!!

It's been a tremendous 2025 awards season for Solaris! Here's a compilation of all our winners! Which ones have you read? Our award-winners include @rebeccaroanhorse.bsky.social @premeemohamed.com @vajra.me @aptshadow.bsky.social @maryrobinettekowal.com @deuceofgearsmusic.bsky.social & many more!

🕯️ 🕯️ 🕯️ Vajra's 🕯️ 🕯️ new book 🕯️ 🕯️ SoonTM 🕯️ 🕯️

The other day I looked through the comments I left on different social media apps and I am absolutely not ashamed of the amount of times I've recommended Rakesfall or Saint of Bright Doors or Last Dragoners of Bowbazar. So many people got these books because I was passionate and insufferable 🙏

After wining of the @ursulakleguin.com Prize for Fiction 2025, @vajra.me talked to @cxorlando.bsky.social @reactorsff.bsky.social discuss to discuss RAKESFALL, a sprawling narrative about reincarnation, revolution, and recollection, as well as his approach to writing the fantastic!

Have not been able to get this passage from @vajra.me out of my head:

This was the hardest piece to write. Thank you EI for allowing me to share some of the abuses the media perpetrated against Refaat that led to his murder. electronicintifada.net/content/refa...

It's amazing how laughable this threat is but you still know there are plenty of people who *would* be panicked by it—low-information, early-career writers, perhaps especially in self-publishing where Yog's Law is already broken and the demand might seem relatively modest

This is a really cool group associated with a big property, and this hits on issues like union-busting, AI, likeness rights, and Canadian workers being undercut by US and multinational companies. Many hot button issues! If you can draw cartoon fan art, we could use your help for some messaging!

Are there any fan artists who can do (Western) TV cartoon characters reasonably true-to-style who want to donate a little mischievous labor to some Canadian creative industry workers in a union fight against corporate greed? If so, send me a message and I can give you details!

I mean sure "cellar door" and all, but just hold "nanocrystalline metacinnabar" in your mouth a minute

… décrit lui-même le roman comme littérairement dysphorique. Difficile de dire mieux. En bref, je n'ai jamais rien lu de comparable : on sort sonné par l'inventivité déployée, que ce soit dans la construction du récit ou dans le style. Certainement pas une lecture facile, mais un roman brillant.

#3/25 Rakesfall, de Vajra Chandrasekera (lu en anglais). Annelid et Leveret sont liés et leurs âmes se séparent et se retrouvent à travers les lieux, les époques et les genres littéraires. Difficile d'en dire plus pour décrire ce roman joyeusement inclassable et d'une grande originalité. L'auteur…

And today's pick for my best new paperbacks of 2025 is Rakesfall by @vajra.me. Defying categorisation, it's an incredible, mind-bending, @ursulakleguin.com Prize-winning tale of reincarnation and entwined souls, rooted in Sri Lanka but expanding across worlds. #SFF 💙📚🪐

A few days ago, the National Blood Bank of Sri Lanka said they were running low in the wake of the disaster and called for fifteen hundred donors to help them catch up. Twenty thousand people showed up. Today the Bank said, basically, thanks this is great but please stop now we are too full of blood

Look at this gorgeous list and these gorgeous books. You all know this started a year ago with a grumpy wine skeet and a half baked idea of mine!?? Look at what we made!!! My gratitude is so deep this morning. lithub.com/100-notable-...

From Hasini (ssmiggle85 on Instagram) who's been funnelling Venmo donations from the US to on-the-ground relief efforts in Sri Lanka. If you'd like to help out and Wise/direct bank transfers have been giving you trouble, please Venmo @sinjaya!

Lots of this about. Any contact purportedly from a book club should be carefully checked out, because these days there’s a high likelihood it’s an impersonation scam.

things that raise your blood pressure: knowing that there are people who, threatened by devastating floods, will abandon their dogs along with their homes things that lower your blood pressure: knowing there are people who will take a boat out into the flood to pick up other people's abandoned dogs

Got one of these recently from a slopbot claiming to be the Singapore Silent Book Club—which is a real thing that exists, so I checked with the organizer of the actual club, partly just to be entirely certain and also to give them a heads up that this shit is happening using their name.

Time for a round up of all of the new Solaris Books released in 2025, including titles from @emmanewman.bsky.social @aptshadow.bsky.social @shoutoutmapes.bsky.social @voidcricket.bsky.social @csecooney.bsky.social @vajra.me @natania.bsky.social @rainewilson.bsky.social @mkhardywrites.com & more!

Some that pop to mind: Sofia Samatar's A STRANGER IN OLONDRIA, William Gibson's NEUROMANCER, Vikram Chandra's SACRED GAMES, Samuel R. Delany's TRITON and DHALGREN, Vajra Chandrasekera's THE SAINT OF BRIGHT DOORS, Alan Moore's FROM HELL, Nghi Vo's THE CITY IN GLASS

important post here from @vajra.me vajra.me/2025/11/29/c...

Updated the post with a verified Venmo link! It's in the blog post, or you can go directly to it here: linktr.ee/sinijay8#230...

Sri Lanka is hit hard by Cyclone Ditwah with severe flooding across the island. Over a hundred and fifty are dead, and tens of thousands are displaced. Some ways you can help: vajra.me/2025/11/29/c...

As #NationalIllustrationDay draws to a close, time for one last post... We know they say not to judge by its cover, but we all do. The art a book is wrapped in is often as important as the words inside to the reader, thank you to all the freelance designers who help shape our books' identity! 1/9

Rakesfall - Vajra Chandrasekera