In this episode of Critical Friends, the Strange Horizons SFF criticism podcast, Hana Carolina and Alex Kingsley join Dan Hartland to think about reviewing debut books and writers. Is there an extra responsibility reviewers owe to new writers? And if so, what might it be?
In this episode of Critical Friends, the Strange Horizons SFF criticism podcast, Jenny Hamilton and Anushree Nande join Dan Hartland to discuss romance and romantasy.
In this episode of Critical Friends, the Strange Horizons SFF criticism podcast, as part of our 2026 criticism special issue Tristan Beiter introduces us to his Ursula K. Le Guin book club.
In this episode of Critical Friends, the Strange Horizons SFF criticism podcast, Dan Hartland is joined by Shannon Fay and Marisa Mercurio to discuss horror, and especially its cozy variety.
Dan Hartland is joined by Paul March-Russell and Jacqueline Nyathi to discuss speculative fiction’s approach to hope and optimism. Where has it gone? How do writers express it? And what are its pitfalls?
Dan Hartland is joined by Redfern Jon Barrett and Nileena Sunil to discuss those novels that feel too short or not long enough: what's behind that feeling we have that a text is lacking something, or that it's overstretched?
