Happy Halloween! I’m thrilled to be making my debut in the Ancillary Review of Books with a review of Lina Rather’s new novella, A Season of Monstrous Conceptions. It’s a historical fantasy, and very different from her previous nuns-in-space series in some ways, but I thoroughly enjoyed it and it’s certainly a seasonally appropriate read.

My review of Translation State (2023) by Ann Leckie went up at Strange Horizons last month. I thoroughly enjoyed this one, and I’m eagerly awaiting Leckie’s next book as usual, particularly if it’s another tale from the world of the Imperial Radch.

My review of Veronica Roth’s Arch-Conspirator went live at Strange Horizons in May. This slim novella, a more faithful retelling of Antigone than I was expecting, packs a real punch. Definitely recommended.

My review of the graphic novel Where Black Stars Rise, with words by Nadia Shammas and art by Marie Enger, was published at Strange Horizons in March. You don’t have to be a huge fan of The King in Yellow to get a lot out of this slim graphic novel, and I definitely recommend it to those who are fans of all things Lovecraftian. I’ve been a fan of Marie Enger’s art for years, and it perfectly matches the narrative. Definitely recommended.

2022 is well and truly in the rearview mirror, to which I say, good riddance. But if you’re interested in some of what was good about last year, my tranche of the annual year in review is up at Strange Horizons as of…two months ago.

I reviewed The Book Eaters, the debut novel by Sunyi Dean, for Strange Horizons earlier this month. There’s a lot going on in this book, and it’s definitely one of the best books I’ve read this year. Highly recommended, and I’ll be looking forward to Dean’s next book for sure.

My review of the first two books in this trilogy by Andrea Stewart went up at Strange Horizons yesterday. All in all they were a lot of fun, and I’ll be interested to see how Stewart ties everything together in the forthcoming The Bone Shard War.

My review of Mark Oshiro’s recent YA novel Each of Us a Desert went up at Strange Horizons at the end of June. I really liked Oshiro’s first book Anger Is a Gift and their new MG book The Insiders is on my e-reader. This book is vivid, unusual, and a compelling read.

Strange Horizons is doing their annual Kickstarter in October this year; you can contribute to the magazine and its planned special issues until the end of the month, and I highly recommend doing so.

My review of Katherine Addison’s 2020 novel The Angel of the Crows went up on Strange Horizons last month. I really wanted to like this book, but there’s too much questionable stuff in the subtext for me to fully endorse it, even as a committed and lifelong fan of Sherlock Holmes.

I also want to give a shout-out to Jenny Hamilton of Reading the End, whose review of the book last year first put me on the track of some of the problems I found in my reading.

My review of Tim Maughan’s Infinite Detail (2019) is up at Strange Horizons. I’m very pleased with this review, and I think this is the rare case where a long delay (I pitched it in the fall of last year, things happened, I got the assignment just before the March lockdown, and then quarantine brain happened) has actually helped make the book’s strengths more appreciable. If you haven’t read it yet, I recommend it highly.