nomination season closing up! highlighting some incredible works I got to touch in 2019. 1: @Kerstin__Hall’s luminous visual feast of a fantasy THE BORDER KEEPER, 999 demon realms, less a trick narrative than one that slowly turns its head to face you & you’ve always known it.

2: @emilytesh_uk’s lovely dark & deep SILVER IN THE WOOD, a romantic folkore fantasy about the mortifying ordeal of Being Known when your v. pretty bf is a monster hunter & you’re the Wild Man legend who dares to hope again after deep wounds & long centuries of loneliness

I was also lucky enough to work as the in-house ed. on a host of brilliant novellas ranging from goblin realms to far future djinn to indictments of gun violence. here are some you should keep in mind!

writing from the heart of gun country @robertjbennett unleashed a blazing pitch dark SF indictment of exactly where we’re headed. (ed. the brilliant @jdiddyesquire)

PERMAFROST by Alastair Reynolds is one of the most fascinating takes on time travel I’ve seen in recent SF, engaging in both bravura turns of plot & diving into the emotional weight of when trying to do the right thing just isn’t enough. (ed. the amazing @JonathanStrahan)

only Greg Egan could convince me that “found family dystopian climate SF” would be a subgenre I wanted more of. PERIHELION SUMMER takes you into a world we might be facing down now & gives you soft & wonderfully drawn relationships in a hard SF case (ed. @JonathanStrahan)

in HER SILHOUETTE, DRAWN IN WATER @Vylar_Kaftan twists the emotional dial to 11 in a claustrophobic SF thriller where breaking out of prison is only the first step, a book & characters you want to scream about but you’ll almost certainly spoil it (ed. the wonderful @inkhaven)

Michael Blumlein’s LONGER is space adventure as contemplation of mortality in a lived-in marriage. it understands that quiet competence & the wreckage of the past are as compelling as battles. a crushingly lovely love letter to relationships (ed. the unstoppable @AnnVanderMeer)

goblins, parties, unions, society as a curse you can break out of: @csecooney made me want to put on my best horns & feathers for a trip Below. amid the luxurious imagery is a central friendship has a dizzyingly tender Tam Lin quality that will grip you (ed. @EllenDatlow)

how do you make buddy cop SF even better? deliver an out-to-troll-you djinn king & a cranky gurkha in a cut-price far-future paradise. @saadzhossain’s THE GURKHA & THE LORD OF TUESDAY reinvents about 5 subgenres & does them all justice. (ed. @JonathanStrahan)

priya sharma’s ORMESHADOW reads like sebastian barry writing fantasy, a rural gothic exploration of how families destroy each other, with beautifully imagery & assured prose so vivid you smell the soil as you read. (ed. @EllenDatlow)

nuns! in! space! there is so much quiet joy in @LinaRather’s SISTERS OF THE VAST BLACK, which puts unassumingly competent women front & center & has one of my favorite living ships in recent memory (impulsive, a space slug, a little needy, hand-raised!) (ed. @inkhaven)

cariad corcoran from THE MENACE FROM FARSIDE is the sort of spiky spiteful relatable protagonist that could anchor even a slight plot, but unsurprisingly @iannmcdonald gives her a rich & satisfying storyline in the Luna universe full of delight (ed. @JonathanStrahan)

I also had the joy of working w/ @KJKabza on "Water: A History," a gorgeous short story abt the cerebral sadness of what we leave behind in a future where humanity has gone to space & the visceral immediate pleasures we can still access. quiet assured storytelling & a whole mood.

"Her bath is deep and steaming. Light falls from the high windows, splashing the marble with wealth. My grandmother has opened these windows a crack, and wet spring air slithers in." you can read/revisit here for free: https://www.tor.com/2019/10/09/water-a-history-kj-kabza/