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I mentioned this project last autumn, and I'm very pleased to see it coming to fruition: Speculative Fiction 2012: The Best Online Reviews, Essays and Commentary edited by Justin Landon and Jared Shurin will be published at the end of April, and will include writing by these people:

Joe Abercrombie, Daniel Abraham, Niall Alexander, Elizabeth Bear, Rob Berg, Liz Bourke, Maurice Broaddus, Myke Cole, Kate Elliott, Katherine Farmar, Chris Gerwel, Christopher Garcia, Daniel Goodman, Ana Grilo, Niall Harrison, Dan Hartland, Matt Hilliard, Kameron Hurley, Thea James, NK Jemisin, Paul Kincaid, Lady Business, Justin Landon, Rose Lemberg, Rochita Loenen-Ruiz, Cynthia Martinez, Tim Maughan, Foz Meadows, Jonathan McCalmont, Martin McGrath, Aidan Moher, Ken Neth, Larry Nolen, Abigail Nussbaum, Christopher Priest, Stefan Raets, Adam Roberts, Tansy Rayner Roberts, CS Samulski, Penny Schenk, Jared Shurin, Ro Smith, Maureen K. Speller, Aishwarya Subramaniam, Matthew Surridge, Sam Sykes, Gav Thorpe, Lavie Tidhar

The eagle-eyed amongst you will have spotted my name in there, which is very flattering; they're reprinting my review of Osiris from the LA Review of Books last summer. More than that I'm pleased to be able to say there are three reviews from Strange Horizons in there (and an awful lot of SH contributors in general in that list).

More than that, I just think this is an exciting project, and the list of names suggests to me that the editors have come up with a good and valid snapshot of what we as a field were talking about last year. I hope the book itself goes on to generate further discussions, whether that be in response to the ideas in the pieces they've selected, or taking issue with the frame they've created ... since a snapshot is only one view out of many.

Recognising that last fact, the press release linked above notes that this series will have a rotating editorship, which strikes me as a very good thing; and next year's editors will be Thea James and Ana Grilo, aka the Booksmugglers, who I'm sure will put together a very interesting selection indeed. You can read their own comments on the announcement over here.



Niall Harrison is an independent critic based in Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. He is a former editor of Strange Horizons, and his writing has also appeared in The New York Review of Science FictionFoundation: The International Review of Science Fiction, The Los Angeles Review of Books and others. He has been a judge for the Arthur C. Clarke Award, and a Guest of Honor at the 2023 British National Science Fiction Convention. His collection All These Worlds: Reviews and Essays is available from Briardene Books.
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29 Apr 2024

The Lightning Road cuts far across the Cosmos, a streak of dazzling gold amidst the star-studded void.
daily you suppress it and ride the shame / like a surfer rides a monster wave,
somersaulting in continuous turns
two wolves lope / behind the Atlantic
The thing is; I don’t set out to write neurodivergent characters. I write people – fictional people who are drawn from the people around me, the way I experience the world, and my understanding of these experiences. Too bad if other people refuse to afford my experiences as being real or relatable.
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