SFF Hot from Printers: New Releases discussion

The last month of the summer and the second one, when we start reading this year's SFFH works, which may be good enough to be read and even nominated for the SFF Awards.

The usual rules apply: nominate up to 2 books for the month per member, one novel and one shorter piece, usually a novella, but a novelette and a short story are possible as well, published in 2025

Esperance for the novel. I really liked Braking Day

For the short piece, no idea, maybe some more short pieces from Reactor?

I'm having a hard time deciding because I have lots of options, but I'll go with these to avoid re-nominating the ones that didn't win last time:

Novel: The Incandescent by Emily Tesh

Novella: The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar

Kalin wrote: "I'm having a hard time deciding because I have lots of options, but I'll go with these to avoid re-nominating the ones that didn't win last time:"

I guess re-nominating is fine, sometimes ones that lost are my strong second choice

I'll cycle back to them eventually if I run out of other things to nominate.

While, as it turns out, there is yet another Tchaikovsky's novel, Bee Speaker, I won't nominate it this time... instead I nominate:
A Far Better Thing, a fantasy set in French Revolution as a novel by H.G. Parry from NZ
and
Murder by Memory a mystery SF novella by Olivia Waite

Bee Speaker is #3 in a series, do you know if that series is continuous or is each one standalone?

The standalone Tchaikovsky we definitely *could* read is Shroud. There's also the new Solaris novella coming out in a few weeks, can't remember the name off the top.

Kalin wrote: "Bee Speaker is #3 in a series, do you know if that series is continuous or is each one standalone?"

I've read the first two (I guess even with the group), and while they work as standalones, reading all is preferable.

Oleksandr wrote: "instead I nominate:
A Far Better Thing, a fantasy set in French Revolution as a novel by H.G. Parry from NZ
and
Murder by Memory a mystery SF novella by Olivia Waite""

Well, that saves me from nominating either :) And I'll even be able to get the H G Parry quickly for once.

I will heartily recommend Shroud.

There's also a Tchaikovsky novella, The Hungry Gods, but I think that's out too late for August, so I was saving it for later.

MH wrote: "There's also a Tchaikovsky novella, The Hungry Gods, but I think that's out too late for August, so I was saving it for later.
."

Yes, there is a bunch of novellas coming later this year, which I plan to read when they are out, including the one you've mentioned

how about The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar for the short piece? It's only 133 pages so I think it's a novella

Kateblue wrote: "how about The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar for the short piece? It's only 133 pages so I think it's a novella"

Yes, Kalin nominated it, see above :)

For the shorter work I’ll nominate A Palace near the Wind by Ai Jiang (sorry, on my phone so can’t link).

Oleksandr wrote: "Kateblue wrote: "how about The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar for the short piece? It's only 133 pages so I think it's a novella"

Yes, Kalin nominated it, see above"

Oops! Well it and the Olivia Waite thing look very good, so I will stop looking for short pieces. I must say, though, that reading the Reactor stuff was fun, too.

Rebecca wrote: "For the shorter work I’ll nominate A Palace near the Wind by Ai Jiang (sorry, on my phone so can’t link)."

Sweet, my previous nomination! Happy to read any of the novella picks.

I plan to make polls tomorrow, so there is one last chance for nominations/changes

I went to Polls and there were no polls for August 2025, so I thought I would do Acorn a favor and make the polls. So I made one for the three novels, but it has disappeared.

Is there a box to check to put the newest poll on the top? Or, I checked today for it to start, but because I think the default said the default time was "pacific time" (for no good reason), so I will wait see if it pops up in 3 hours. If it does, I will do a poll for the shorter works. And make the time be my time, eastern daylight.

If it doesn't, I guess I do not remember how to make polls.

Thanks Kate, I'll try to dig it up!

Here it is https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/3... - poll for novels

Well, the novels poll is up, but the poll creation thingy just keeps telling me that the poll has to start in the future, So I set it to start tomorrow.

Maybe someday someone can teach me how to get polls to start NOW. Which I seem to be incapable of

Kateblue wrote: "Maybe someday someone can teach me how to get polls to start NOW. Which I seem to be incapable of"

Just set the starting day Today and play with Time Zones

Novellas poll: https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/3...

We should probably roll straight into nominating for September when these polls conclude, we're a bit behind where we normally are in the process of selecting future reads.

Agree. I'm probably going to just re-nominate Esperance. If I keep it up, it might win!

I'll create September nominations thread around mid-July I guess

There was a tie in the novel poll, did you decide which one we're reading?

Kalin wrote: "There was a tie in the novel poll, did you decide which one we're reading?"

I tossed a coin @random.org and we are reading A Far Better Thing