I turned in my review of Kate Elliott’s newest novel The Witch Roads in…June? And then due to the vagaries of scheduling, it languished in the publication queue at Strange Horizons until this past week. The good news is, the follow-up novel The Nameless Land comes out in less than a month! Plenty of time for you to read this first book and then preorder the next one.

My review of Joan Slonczewski’s new novel Minds in Transit went up at the Ancillary Review of Books earlier this week. I enjoyed this book a lot; I’ve enjoyed all of Slonczewski’s books that I’ve read since they were a Guest of Honor at Wiscon years ago. I recently read their postapocalyptic Quakers in space book, The Wall Around Eden, and thought it was a minor masterpiece. Anyway, read Minds in Transit and the Elysium Cycle.

My review of Jared Pechaček’s The West Passage went up at Strange Horizons recently. It was one of my favorite books of 2024, and I fear I haven’t really conveyed so much of what I liked about it, but you should read it anyway.

Along with other reviewers, I offered up one notable book of 2024 at the start of 2025 in the Ancillary Review of Books. I’m delighted to see that Jared Pechaček is up for the Astounding Award at this year’s Worldcon, and you should definitely read The West Passage.

My review of Martha Wells’ reissued and revised Wheel of the Infinite went up at Strange Horizons a few weeks back. This is another excellent standalone fantasy novel from Wells that really showcases her strengths as a writer. I’m looking forward to Queen Demon.

My review of Sofia Samatar’s The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain is up at Strange Horizons. This is an excellent sci-fi novella that I recommend to everyone, but if you’ve spent time in the mines of academia, it will have particular (painful) resonance for you.

I reviewed Kelly Link’s new, long-awaited debut novel The Book of Love over at Ancillary Review of Books. I enjoyed it, but ultimately it felt long, like overstaying your vacation down the shore. But if you’ve enjoyed Link’s short stories, I suspect that you’ll also like this book.

I reviewed both these recent books from Frances Hardinge, one of my absolute favorite authors, for Strange Horizons in December. Short version: I think Unraveller is her best book yet, but it’s not for arachnophobes.

The Strange Horizons editors put Martin Petto and I together to talk about Prophet by Sin Blaché and Helen Macdonald, and I think we both had a lot of fun with a really fascinating and fun book.

I and other contributors talked about our notable books of 2023 for the Ancillary Review of Books. My entry was S.A. Chakraborty’s The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi, and there are several other books I’ve already added to my TBR on the list. Happy 2024!