Help! I've lost my Arkenstone amid the space encompassed by the Hubble Ultra Deep Field image!

For new followers: re-upping this thread of AMOT's 2025 episodes!

Had a lot of fun chatting to @casella.bsky.social for the @mealofthorns.bsky.social podcast. Watch out in April for an episode on Ready Player One!

Like every week, but this week it's more obvious: it's a good time to read Greg Egan

Oh boy, Diaspora is a masterpiece of worldbuilding.

Listen to @mealofthorns.bsky.social

Octothorpe 153 arrives! We discuss the best board games to play at school, and then we cover important topics such as whether yellow is “Pokémon-coloured” before discussing @smofcon43.bsky.social, Nuremberg 2028, and @dublin2029.bsky.social. Listen here! octothorpe.podbean.com/e/153-bowlin...

Make a place for me on the Ark of Bones. @fordhampress.bsky.social

Egan is such a blast to read—really enjoyed revisiting this one with Eden. We somehow didn't make the Ted Chiang comp, but: if you are hungry for more like EXHALATION or STORIES OF YOUR LIFE, pick up some Egan post-haste.

this means so much to me ;-;

Got the chance to talk about one of my all time favorite sci-fi novels and also a book that I consider massively underrated. Vast scales, theoretical mathematics (no, seriously; so much math) and super cool future humanity and space travel!

(The secret third way I discover new music is when it's featured on either Acid Horizon or Death//Sentence)

You can't just "know" kung fu: @tallesteden.bsky.social is on to talk about Greg Egan's hard SF classic, DIASPORA, with much discussion of the mechanics of scale & wonder, and what we can learn from thinking about weird posthuman societies: ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/2026/02/09/a...

Out today! Listen to Paul March-Russell discuss the importance of women writers in science fiction and the legacy of the short story collection “Women of Wonder” (1974) edited by Pamela Sargent. Paul March-Russell is the co-founder of GoldSF. Listen here! www.spreaker.com/episode/wome...

As I have said many times: Nick Land's The Dark Enlightenment isn't some ur-text of the dark and sinister limits of anti-humanist thought; it's a guy who's always on the computer complaining about Slate articles and how everyone laughs at race science.

I’m so busy thinking about #gally1 I almost forgot to post about this week’s #podcast episode! We read THIS IS HOW YOU LOSE THE TIME WAR by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone Listen to our thoughts here: linktr.ee/fictionfanspod #booksky 💙📚

NEW WRITING: A while back I played Everyone's Gone To The Rapture and really enjoyed it - happy to say that Still Wakes the Deep is also really good www.patreon.com/posts/144522...

This was amazing and I only heard about it because of the equally amazing @mealofthorns.bsky.social podcast from @ancillaryreviewofbooks.org Each episode is a curriculum and the careful consideration of the text is a joy: close reading and high level discussion! pca.st/episode/366a...

There is a brand new episode of SFULTRA, the only book podcast that has ever existed. It is about Samuel R. Delany and his book Stars In My Pocket Like Grains Of Sand. It's free to listen to here right now: www.patreon.com/posts/149597... and will appear in the usual podcast places later today.

I don't know if Charles R. Saunders was the first Black author to tackle the Cthulhu Mythos, but he's the first I know of. His story goes into very unusual territory immediately, being told about two Black men and dealing with the history of slavery in the US. deepcuts.blog/2020/08/29/j...

In the latest episode of A Meal of Thorns, biographer Jon Tattrie (TO LEAVE A WARRIOR BEHIND) joins to talk about Charles R. Saunders' sword-and-soul classic IMARO, and its many lives & afterlives:

Two books we used to talk through Frankenstein are Capitalism: A Horror Story by @thelitcritguy.bsky.social (from @horrorvanguard.bsky.social) and Skin Shows by Jack Halberstam, both excellent reference books for your horror theory library!

¡Ceci n'est pas une banane république! Glad to be back on Worker's Lit talking about this truly wild and wooly novel!

And one last thing for today: the latest edition of Critical Friends. We've moved it a week earlier in the schedule in order to include a fantastic conversation between @tristanbeiter.bsky.social's Le Guin book club about the contexts of criticism ... and the potential of the book club.

Jon Tattrie's biography of Charles Saunders, TO LEAVE A WARRIOR BEHIND, is hot off the presses! Jon's on our latest episode to discuss IMARO, sword and soul, and Saunders' legacy: ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/2026/01/26/a...

In a strange twist of fate, or maybe an augury of futures past, most of the things I’m publishing in spring are print-first or print-only. Subscribe to @clereviewbooks.bsky.social , Death Kit, and The Toe Rag to get them, and you’ll find a whole print world on top of them!

This is right now! Come on in!

It's Ursula Le Guin's day of death. Every year, I have a lot to say and every year I quote her instead. "The Revolution is in the individual spirit, or it is nowhere. It is for all, or it is nothing. If it is seen as having any end, it will never truly begin.

Yesterday a reporter asked me for comment about Minneapolis’ opposition to ICE. I got kind of worked up and sent way more than I should have. The piece is great—it’s in my prior post. But I wanted post my comments in full here:

Welcome to the Imaro Book Club, reading Charles Saunder's iconic epic, Imaro! Read alone or join the TriCon Discord to chat as you go. Then, during the con, come to a live book club session w/ Jon Tattrie to discuss the work. Be part of upholding Saunders' legacy as a black Nova Scotian writer!

ICYMI: Marisa Mercurio of HOWEVER IMPROBABLE (@marmercurio.bsky.social) joins to discuss Richard Marsh's THE BEETLE, a melodramatic Gothic horror about shape-shifting cultists and imperial anxieties that reads a bit like DRACULA's louder sibling! ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/2026/01/12/a...

I listen to a few podcasts going through individual writers’ work - Re-Reading Wolfe, Eight Days of Diane Wynne Jones etc. wondering if people have recs for similar, ideally with 2+ regular presenters with a good chemistry.

to distract from the horrors, why not a podcast? WE HAVE A NEW ONE and it's a banger. this week we talk with the astonishingly smart and fun @byzantienne.bsky.social about doing history and writing fiction, empathy and emotion, and 11th century best century. enjoy! #medievalsky pca.st/2zd3kmwg

Going through the show and working on pulling out some clips to share! Starting with our very first episode, so long ago: @danhartland.bsky.social on THE SCAR and the (retrospectively premature) demise of the New Weird... ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/2024/07/01/a...

Calling published SFF authors! I’m researching the work lives & well-being of science fiction and fantasy authors for my doctoral dissertation, and I'm looking for participants! If you’re a published SFF author interested in participating, then DM me and I can provide details

Going through the show and working on pulling out some clips to share! Starting with our very first episode, so long ago: @danhartland.bsky.social on THE SCAR and the (retrospectively premature) demise of the New Weird... ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/2024/07/01/a...

Today is the first anniversary of my launching the Ballantine Adult Fantasy reading series, which started off with this essay on Peter Beagle's THE LAST UNICORN. I'm really proud of this one, in which I highlight how we might read this wonderful novel in the contexts of late 1960s America.

Finally listened to this and A Meal of Thorns never disappoints! Great conversation on this (the?) founding text of dark academia. Particularly enjoyed the discussion on the portrayal of the arts, and of magic as mechanistic in many texts? Sadly, no talk of flowing scarves. Go listen!

There was a hiccup mailing this one out but it should be in inboxes now!

For the weekend crowd: check out our first episode of 2026, with @marmercurio.bsky.social talking us through Richard Marsh's melodramatic Gothic horror (with screaming not-even-sub-text) THE BEETLE!

For the weekend crowd: check out our first episode of 2026, with @marmercurio.bsky.social talking us through Richard Marsh's melodramatic Gothic horror (with screaming not-even-sub-text) THE BEETLE!

Ever wonder “what did Tolkien think of the plane?” Or “what if goblins were played by the Beastie Boys?” Well, I’ve got the show for you.

Let's talk about SFFH magazine editing! With @mrjoshuawilson.bsky.social, editor of @fabulistmag.bsky.social, and Alexandra Pierce, editor of @speculativeinsight.bsky.social. wizardsandspaceships.ca/2026/01/15/s...

We emerge blinking into the sunlight of 2026 and we have a full mail bag! We discuss the @montreal2027.bsky.social org chart and René Walling’s role at Montreal, as well as recent Hugo how-to guides from @renay.bsky.social and @mollytempleton.com. Listen here! octothorpe.podbean.com/e/151-only-d...

For the first 2026 episode of @mealofthorns.bsky.social, @marmercurio.bsky.social is our guest and guide for Richard Marsh's THE BEETLE, a melodramatic Gothic horror-mystery with a lot going on under the carapace:

Really is something Tolkien-y in the air this year. Weird Studies (@weirdstudiesphil.bsky.social) kicking off with an episode about "On Fairy-Stories":

So I am finally done with my reading for the Crawford Award! I will share the results when they come out, but until then, I want to highlight some of the books I read that I really enjoyed. My comments are entirely separate from awards comments or results. First up: Yasushi Kitagawa's The Lucky Ride

Not helping the whispered rumours of Yalta Below here, but recent Critical Friends guest @marmercurio.bsky.social is now recent A Meal of Thorns guest @marmercurio.bsky.social. Very fun episode. “Every thematic topic in this novel is hitting you over the head.”

Eden launches into @hironennes.bsky.social's The Works of Vermin, using it as a platform to explore ideas around the potentials and contradictions of living in modern cities, the influence of the French Second Empire (yes) on the New Weird and much more! soundcloud.com/death-senten...

If you read Dracula & thought “I like the ancient shapeshifting nemesis & the homoerotic subtext, but I don’t like how subtle the sexual & national anxieties are,” you’re in luck! Editor, reviewer, & scholar @marmercurio.bsky.social talks us through Richard Marsh's THE BEETLE: