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Over at HumbleBundle you can get a 14 book bundle by Adrian Tchaikovsky (if you liked Children of time) that ends in 4 days.It's two series: Shadows of the Apt, Echoes of the Fall and the novel Guns of the Dawn.
There is a Johnscalzi in the asteroid belt! 💫He is chuffed.😊
https://whatever.scalzi.com/2026/01/1...
It's that time of year... Registration for LACon V where the next WorldCon is being held, ends January 31. If you just want to nominate and vote for the Hugo Awards, WSFS Membership Only is $50, and you will receive the Voting Packet with copies of many nominated works.Best Fancast: Awarded for any non-professional audio- or video-casting with at least four (4) episodes that had at least one (1) episode released in the previous calendar year.
https://www.lacon.org/register/
Via Locus:The 2026 Philip K. Dick Award nominees have been announced:
Sunward, William Alexander (Saga)
Outlaw Planet, M.R. Carey (Orbit UK; Orbit US)
Casual, Koji A. Dae (Tenebrous)
The Immeasurable Heaven, Caspar Geon (Solaris UK)
Uncertain Sons and Other Stories, Thomas Ha (Undertow)
Scales, Christopher Hinz (Angry Robot UK)
City of All Seasons, Oliver K. Langmead & Aliya Whiteley (Titan)
https://locusmag.com/2026/01/2026-phi...
Matt Dinniman, of Dungeon Crawler Carl fame, is the guest and subject of the latest episode of the Barnes and Nobel podcast: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/blog/c...
The Immeasurable Heaven sounds like a crazy space opera.
Since sharing a humble bundle here a few months ago, I'm now getting their ads pushed to me, which means I've got another good SFF one: Fierce Women of SFFH64 books featuring a bunch of authors including Nalo Hopkinson, Elizabeth Bear, Jo Walton, Kate Elliot, Nancy Kress, Mira Grant and Sarah Langan including 12 award winning books (Hugo, Stoker, Nebula, etc) for $24.82 CAD. Proceeds go to Active Minds, a leading nonprofit promoting mental health for young adults ages 14-24.
I was a little late posting though, so it's only available for 4 more days.
https://www.humblebundle.com/books/fi...
Library awards came out for all sorts of books this week. Here's their genre-fiction selections:Fantasy
Winner
“The Knight and the Moth: The Stonewater Kingdom: Book One” by Rachel Gillig (Orbit, an imprint of Hachette Book Group)
In a world ruled by godlike Omens, Sybil tells the fortunes of others by repeatedly drowning in divine waters. When her fellow seers start disappearing, she and a gargoyle companion join a young king’s retinue to seek the truth.
Read-alikes: “The Everlasting” by Alix E. Harrow, “Godkiller” by Hannah Kaner, “The Jasmine Throne” by Tasha Suri
Short List
“Greenteeth” by Molly O’Neill (Orbit, an imprint of Hachette Book Group)
“The Raven Scholar: Book One of the Eternal Path Trilogy” by Antonia Hodgson (Orbit, an imprint of Hachette Book Group)
“Red City” by Marie Lu (Tor, an imprint of Tom Doherty Associates / Tor Publishing Group, a division of Macmillan Publishers)
“The River Has Roots” by Amal El-Mohtar (Tordotcom, an imprint of Tom Doherty Associates / Tor Publishing Group, a division of Macmillan Publishers)
Winner
“Automatic Noodle” by Annalee Newitz (Tordotcom, an imprint of Tom Doherty Associates / Tor Publishing Group, a division of Macmillan Publishers)
In post-independence California, the eccentric robot employees of an abandoned restaurant seize the opportunity to build something of their own by illegally opening a noodle shop. Enthusiastic support from the community saves the day when review bombing and anti-robot sentiment almost kill their fledgling business.
Read-alikes: “A Psalm for the Wild-Built” by Becky Chambers, “The Year Without Sunshine” by Naomi Kritzer (novelette), “You Sexy Thing” by Cat Rambo
Short List
“The Heist of Hollow London” by Eddie Robson (Tor, an imprint of Tom Doherty Associates / Tor Publishing Group, a division of Macmillan Publishers)
“Hole in the Sky: A Novel” by Daniel H. Wilson (Doubleday, an imprint of Penguin Random House)
“When We Were Real: A Novel” by Daryl Gregory (Saga Press, an imprint of Simon & Schuster)
“Where the Axe is Buried: A Novel” by Ray Nayler (MCD / Farrar, Straus and Giroux, an imprint of Macmillan Publishers)
Saw this pop up on Kickstarter — a new tabletop game is being created based on Naomi Novik’s Temeraire novel series, which is her “Napoleonic Wars with dragons” world. Way back in 2013 (holy cannoli!) Sword & Laser read the first book, His Majesty's Dragon.https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/...
Magpie Games is excited to bring you Temeraire: The Roleplaying Game, the officially licensed tabletop roleplaying game set in the world of the Temeraire novel series by Naomi Novik!
Rise into aerial battle. Fly to lands across the world. Face treachery and deceit, alongside honor and nobility. Find your love and fight for it. Save nations by the sweat of your brow and the strength of your scales.
In these pages you will find setting information seeded with plot hooks for your game, numerous character types representing the variety of characters fans love from the British Aerial Corps, and even the rules for playing a dragon!
I feel like this was talked about already but just in case: Brandon Sanderson’s Cosmere has been optioned by Apple TV.From the man himself: https://youtu.be/VBQmStfWDVE
Apple TV makes the best Sci-Fi, hands down, everyone else is a distant second place, so there’s a good chance this will be good.
A certain Matt Dinniman is the guest on V. E. Schwab's podcast, No Write Way, kicking off its fourth season.S4 E1- Trapping Matt Dinniman: A Hippopotamus, Bass Strings, and Pizza-Blasted Goldfish
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...
https://heinleinsociety.org/andy-weir...The Heinlein Society has awarded Andy Weir the 2026 Robert A. Heinlein Award, bestowed for outstanding published works in science fiction or technical writings that inspires the human exploration of space.
Sharon Lee won it last year. Looking at the previous winners. She wrote a lot of space opera with Steve Miller.
Via Reactor.com:Finalists for the 2025 Los Angeles Times Book Prize in Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Speculative Fiction
As chosen by judges Maurice Broaddus, S. B. Divya, and Maryelizabeth Yturralde, the finalists are:
The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones (Saga Press)
The Death of Mountains by Jordan Kurella (Lethe Press)
Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor (William Morrow)
Esperance by Adam Oyebanji (DAW Books)
Luminous by Silvia Park (Simon & Schuster)
The winners will be announced April 17, during the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books.
https://reactormag.com/2025-los-angel...
Via Locus:The Horror Writers Association (HWA) has announced the final ballot for the 2025 Bram Stoker Awards.
Superior Achievement in a Novel
Witchcraft for Wayward Girls, Grady Hendrix (Berkley)
King Sorrow, Joe Hill (William Morrow)
The Buffalo Hunter Hunter, Stephen Graham Jones (Saga)
The Bewitching, Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Del Rey)
Girl in the Creek, Wendy N. Wagner (Tor Nightfire)
This is just the novel award.
Here's the link for all the other awards: https://locusmag.com/2026/02/2025-bra...
Just saw that Dan Simmons (Hyperion, The Terror) passed away from a stroke last Saturday. He was 77. The Hyperion series is on my top 10 favorite book list and I recently read Olympos. I saw on Discord someone say that he's been revealed to be a white supremist which makes mourning him problematic, but I did enjoy his writing.
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