recursal/Fanatic-Fandom huggingface dataset:
The Last Beginning

The epic conclusion to Lauren James's debut *The Next Together* about true love and reincarnation.

Sixteen years ago, after a scandal that rocked the world, teenagers Katherine and Matthew vanished without a trace. Now Clove Sutcliffe is determined to find her long lost relatives.

But where do you start looking for a couple who seem to have been reincarnated at every key moment in history? Who were Kate and Matt? Why were they born again and again? And who is the mysterious Ella, who keeps appearing at every turn in Clove's investigation?

For Clove, there is a mystery to solve in the past and a love to find in the future, and failure could cost the world everything.
Spinning Silver

Miryem is the daughter and granddaughter of moneylenders... but her father isn't a very good one. Free to lend and reluctant to collect, he has loaned out most of his wife's dowry and left the family on the edge of poverty--until Miryem steps in. Hardening her heart against her fellow villagers' pleas, she sets out to collect what is owed--and finds herself more than up to the task. When her grandfather loans her a pouch of silver pennies, she brings it back full of gold.

But having the reputation of being able to change silver to gold can be more trouble than it's worth--especially when her fate becomes tangled with the cold creatures that haunt the wood, and whose king has learned of her reputation and wants to exploit it for reasons Miryem cannot understand.
The Black God's Drums

Creeper, a scrappy young teen, is done living on the streets of New Orleans. Instead, she wants to soar, and her sights are set on securing passage aboard the smuggler airship Midnight Robber. Her ticket: earning Captain Ann-Marie’s trust using a secret about a kidnapped Haitian scientist and a mysterious weapon he calls The Black God’s Drums.

But Creeper keeps another secret close to heart--Oya, the African orisha of the wind and storms, who speaks inside her head and grants her divine powers. And Oya has her own priorities concerning Creeper and Ann-Marie…
Sitera

**Population:** 13,289

**Walls:** none

**Layout:** poorly defined quarters

**Attractions:** universities and lavish temples

**Famous For:** wizards and seers

**Nearest Tavern:** half a dozen blocks from the entrance

**Guards:** opressive

**Locals:** slightly suspicious of outsiders

**Crime:** little

**Economic Base:** farming

**Main Crop:** maize

**Economy:** average and declining

**Government:** King Koinos

**Major Influence:** the criminal element

**Corruption:** very low

**Religious Influence:** somewhat weak

**Streets:** littered with beggars

**Buildings:** have small windows

**Noteable Locals**

The suave artist who keeps unusual company. He has many enemies. Rumors say that he gets along fairly well with master artisans. He can usually be found at the market.

The showy courtesan who attends every social event in the city. She has more enemies than allies. Rumors say that she gets along fairly well with scholars.

The strikingly attractive politician who has been talking of changes. He has many allies. Rumors say that he is secretive about dealings with traders.

The disgraced priest who seems to always get free drinks. He seems to have many allies. Rumors say that he has threatened the guard captain. He can usually be found at a tavern.

The arrogant military official who seems to always get free drinks. He has been quickly gaining enemies. Rumors say that he has great admiration for mages.

The obnoxious criminal who is currently battling a suspicious illness. She seems to have little trouble with obvious enemies. Rumors say that she has been having trouble with priests.

The recently wealthy master artisan who has recently fended off several assassination attempts. He has been rapidly losing allies. Rumors say that he has plans involving entertainers.
Space Opera

*The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy* meets Eurovision in an over-the-top science fiction spectacle from bestselling author Catherynne M. Valente, in which sentient species compete for glory in a galactic musical contest—where the stakes are as high as the fate of planet Earth.

A century ago, the Sentience Wars tore the galaxy apart and nearly ended the entire concept of intelligent space-faring life. In the aftermath, a curious tradition was invented—something to cheer up everyone who was left and bring the shattered worlds together in the spirit of peace, unity, and understanding.

Once every cycle, the civilizations gather for the Metagalactic Grand Prix—part gladiatorial contest, part beauty pageant, part concert extravaganza, and part continuation of the wars of the past. Instead of competing in orbital combat, the powerful species that survived face off in a competition of song, dance, or whatever can be physically performed in an intergalactic talent show. The stakes are high for this new game, and everyone is forced to compete.

This year, though, humankind has discovered the enormous universe. And while they expected to discover a grand drama of diplomacy, gunships, wormholes, and stoic councils of aliens, they have instead found glitter, lipstick, and electric guitars. Mankind will not get to fight for its destiny—they must sing.

A band of human musicians, dancers, and roadies have been chosen to represent Earth on the greatest stage in the galaxy. And the fate of their species lies in their ability to rock.
The Thing In the Walls Wants Your Small Change

The story can be found here

"The penny was gone again.

Caro huffed and dropped her grocery bags in the hall. She reached in, took a penny from the change bowl by the door, and rubbed it between her thumb and forefinger, said Nana’s charm for the house spirits, to keep them happy and home.

She blew on the penny and tucked it down by the threshold.

Five days she’d lived here, and seven times the penny had been gone, either in the morning or after she returned from an errand. The apartment didn’t set off her Spooky Senses, but the penny thing was weird."
Restricted Fantasies

**Restricted Fantasies** is a short story first published in 2018 as part of the Restricted Fantasies collection. A consideration copy of the short story is available here.

"One man’s dream is another man’s nightmare. I know that better than anybody. But it still surprises me, the things people fantasize about. There’s some twisted minds out there, and some twisted ways to live.

Most people have dark dreams sometimes, and I get that. Lots of us even act them out. But some people go too far, and that’s when I’ve got to step in. This one was awful enough that it made me want to vomit.

But at the end of the day, it was all just zeros and ones conjured from the depths of a very disturbed mind. A simulated reality tailored to someone else’s wildest fantasies. None of it was real, no matter how much it might have felt like it was. I had to keep reminding myself of that if I wanted to get through it."
Claire Rousseau

Claire Rousseau Channel Art

**Channel Description:**

Hi there! I'm Claire, a lifelong SFF nerd, avid fangirl, and proud Slytherpuff.

I make videos about books and bookish things for this channel, focusing mostly on science-fiction and fantasy novels, novellas and graphic works, with some romance, non-fiction and YA sprinkled into the mix.

**Channel:** https://www.youtube.com/user/ClaireRousseau

**2018 Highlights:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WU-i0BiuAaA&list=PLy4IrWj0K5Nh8yncAN6Szy1HiDDrcAt4a
Ariela Housman

Deemed ineligibile for 2019 by the Hugo Committee - "Lady Astronaut Nouveau" (Lady Astronaut used with permission from Mary Robinette Kowal)"Penric's Demon" Illuminated First Page (text by Lois McMaster Bujold, used with permission)*Anathem* Illuminated First Page (text by Neal Stephenson, used with permission)
Cirsova Magazine

Website: www.cirsova.wordpress.com

Publisher: Cirsova Publishing

Qualifying Issues:

Cirsova Vol.2 No.1 (Spring 2019)

Cirsova Summer Special 2019

Cirsova Vol.2 No. 2 (Fall 2019)

Note: Cirsova Magazine of Heroic Fantasy and Science Fiction rebranded as Cirsova Magazine of Thrilling Adventure and Daring Suspense in 2019; publication was uninterrupted and the Magazine has released 13 issues since 2016.
A Conspiracy of Truths

In a bleak, far-northern land, a wandering storyteller is arrested on charges of witchcraft. Though Chant protests his innocence, he is condemned not only as a witch, but a spy. His only chance to save himself rests with the skills he has honed for decades – tell a good story, catch and hold their attention, or die.

But the attention he catches is that of the five elected rulers of the country, and Chant finds himself caught in a tangled, corrupt political game which began long before he ever arrived here. As he’s snatched from one Queen’s grasp to another’s, he realizes that he could either be a pawn for one of them… or a player in his own right. After all, he knows better than anyone how powerful the right story can be: Powerful enough to save a life, certainly. Perhaps even powerful enough to bring a nation to its knees.
Cross Fire

Earth's century of peace as a colony of an alien race has been shattered. As the alien-run government navigates peace talks with the human terrorist group Sapience, Donovan tries to put his life back together and return to his duty as a member of the security forces. But a new order comes from the alien home planet: withdraw. Earth has proven too costly and unstable to maintain as a colony, so the aliens, along with a small selection of humans, begin to make plans to leave. As word of the withdrawal spreads through the galaxy, suddenly Earth becomes vulnerable to a takeover from other aliens races. Aliens who do not seek to live in harmony with humans, but will ravage and destroy the planet.

As a galactic invasion threatens, Donovan realizes that Sapience holds the key that could stop the pending war. Yet in order to save humankind, all species on Earth will have to work together, and Donovan might just have to make the ultimate sacrifice to convince them.

**Cross Fire** is the sequel to **Exo**.
Michi Trota

Website: geekmelange.com

Twitter: @geekmelange

Writing samples from 2018:

* “My Favorite Bit: Michi Trota and Matt Peters talk about UNCANNY MAGAZINE Year 5”
* “Eight Nerdy Chicago People and Organizations We Love (Uncanny Magazine Kickstarter Shout Out)”
* On Writing the Exhibit Text for Worlds Beyond Here: Expanding the Universe of APA Science Fiction
* Worlds Beyond Here: Expanding the Universe of APA Science Fiction (exhibit text writer)
Uncanny Magazine

Website: uncannymagazine.com

Editors: Lynne M. Thomas & Michael Damian Thomas, and Michi Trota

Publisher: Lynne M. Thomas & Michael Damian Thomas

Qualifying Issues:

* Issue Twenty, January/February 2018
* Issue Twenty-One, March/April 2018
* Issue Twenty-Two, May/June 2018
* Issue Twenty-Three, July/August 2018
* Issue Twenty-Four: Disabled People Destroy Science Fiction, September/October 2018
* Issue Twenty-Five, November/December 2018
When We Were Starless

In the ruins of far-future Earth, Mink’s tribe desperately needs the resources of a large building that vanished humanity left, but she needs to purge it of “ghosts” first—and it has lots of them.

"When we set out to weave a new world from the old, broken one, we knew we pledged the lives of our clutches and our clutches’ clutches to wandering the wastes. Season after season, our windreaders find us a path through the poison currents, and our herds scuttle over molten glass seas and pockmarked plains into the haunted places where the harvest is plentiful. We move swiftly, outpacing vapors and packs of wild dogs alike, leaving only the prints of our tails in acrid sands.

This wasn’t entirely true; we left other things, too, dear and precious. But this was how it was told by the elders when the veiled moon was high and we were cuddled up with our cozy-stones.

On the moonless nights, though, they spoke of ghosts: beckoning wraithlights and treacherous silent ones, and all the other types we had classified; and the multitudes that still waited for our soothing hands out among the ruins. They spoke of ghosts like they were the ones to handle them, when it was always me."

You can read the story here
Hugo Nominees 2018 Wiki

## Welcome to the Hugo Nominees 2018 Wiki

Making a list of eligible Hugo Award works for 2018. If you're looking for this year's potential Hugo nominees, you'll find them here.

A similar, predating project is Renay's excellent Hugo Spreadsheet of doom. Be sure to check it out as well!

## Let's Nominate

In order for more people to vote in the Hugos, let's make a list of eligible works and people, with links to read where available. This isn't meant to be a database of everything in genre over a year, as that would be unmanageable, but if you read or see something that you think is worthy of an award, by all means add it! The rules for each category can be found on the category page, and you can read them in full in the WSFS constitution.

But first, a short video illustrating how to add works or people:

 File:How to add a nominee to the Hugo Nominees 2018 Wiki-0
The Categories

Best Novel

Best Novella

Best Novelette

Best Short Story

Best Series

Best Related Work

Best Graphic Story

Best Dramatic Presentation (Long form)‏

Best Dramatic Presentation (Short form)

Best Editor (Short Form)‏‎

Best Editor (Long Form)‏‎

Best Professional Artist

Best Semiprozine‏‎

Best Fanzine

Best Fancast‏‎

Best Fan Writer‏‎

Best Fan Artist

Best YA Novel (Not a Hugo)

John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer‏

## Latest activity

Photos and videos are a great way to add visuals to your wiki. Find videos about your topic by exploring Fandom's Video Library.

File:Placeholder
Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach

Discover a shifting history of adventure as humanity clashes over whether to repair their ruined planet or luxuriate in a less tainted past.

In 2267, Earth has just begun to recover from worldwide ecological disasters. Minh is part of the generation that first moved back up to the surface of the Earth from the underground hells, to reclaim humanity's ancestral habitat. She's spent her entire life restoring river ecosystems, but lately the kind of long-term restoration projects Minh works on have been stalled due to the invention of time travel. When she gets the opportunity take a team to 2000 BC to survey the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, she jumps at the chance to uncover the secrets of the shadowy think tank that controls time travel technology.
The War of Light and Shadow, in Five Dishes

In which we learn how an over-enthusiastic chef inadvertently brought about the end of the war.

"If it had been merely Lord Fio’s wrath that had sent Leu out on that day, the War of Light and Shadow might be raging still. But although Fio had purchased Leu in the refugees’ market, Leu was no mere cook. He had trained under the fabled Haf herself in the kitchens of the Singing Court, where he had learned the dance of knives and the scent of every spice in the Five Realms. He had earned his craftsman’s tattoo a year before the Iron Crusade began, a year before the Singing Court itself was set aflame and all its harpers and songsters sent mute and bloody-fingered into the ash-strewn fields."

You can read the story here
Centenal Cycle

In Malka Older’s Centenal Cycle, a series of cyberpunk technothrillers beginning with Infomocracy, Information (think Google on steroids) balances the paradoxes of a global micro-democracy. Mishima and Ken face election fraud, man-made and natural disasters, and deadly espionage from powerful rogue governments, while kindling a romance. For fans of The West Wing, Person of Interest and Mr. Robot.

This year's qualifying book is the third book in the series, **State Tectonics**:

The future of democracy must evolve or die.

The last time Information held an election, a global network outage, two counts of sabotage by major world governments, and a devastating earthquake almost shook micro-democracy apart. Five years later it’s time to vote again, and the system that has ensured global peace for 25 years is more vulnerable than ever. Unknown enemies are attacking Information’s network infrastructure. Spies, former superpowers, and revolutionaries sharpen their knives in the shadows. And Information’s best agents question whether the data monopoly they’ve served all their lives is worth saving, or whether it’s time to burn the world down and start anew.

The previous works in the series are **Infomocracy** and **Null States**.
The Book of M

The Book of M cover

One afternoon at an outdoor market in India, a man’s shadow disappears—an occurrence science cannot explain. He is only the first. The phenomenon spreads like a plague, and while those afflicted gain a strange new power, it comes at a horrible price: the loss of all their memories.

Ory and his wife Max have escaped the Forgetting so far by hiding in an abandoned hotel deep in the woods. Their new life feels almost normal, until one day Max’s shadow disappears too.

Knowing that the more she forgets, the more dangerous she will become to Ory, Max runs away. But Ory refuses to give up the time they have left together. Desperate to find Max before her memory disappears completely, he follows her trail across a perilous, unrecognizable world, braving the threat of roaming bandits, the call to a new war being waged on the ruins of the capital, and the rise of a sinister cult that worships the shadowless.

As they journey, each searches for answers: for Ory, about love, about survival, about hope; and for Max, about a new force growing in the south that may hold the cure.
Breaking the Glass Slipper

Breaking the Glass Slipper is a podcast dedicated to exploring women and women's roles in speculative fiction.

# About *Breaking the Glass Slipper*

This podcast series was inspired by writer Juliet McKenna who recently commented on her blog about the many so-called ‘best of’ genre fiction lists that were conspicuously lacking in entries written by women. Science fiction, fantasy, and horror are genres created and loved by women as much as men, and yet the majority of the dialogue surrounding them *still* suggests that women are in the minority. We are here to prove to all genre lovers that there is a place for female writers and great female characters amongst the men folk!

Co-hosted by Megan Leigh, Charlotte Bond and Lucy Hounsom

Popular episodes in 2018 were 'Where are the Tampons' with Tiffani Angus, 'Unravelling Mysteries (live from Fantasycon with RJ Barker and Claire North). 2018 guests included:

* Aliya Whiteley
* John Gwynne
* Vic James
* Leah Moore
* Jeanette Ng
* RJ Barker
* Paige L Christie
* Mary Robinette Kowal
* Elizabeth Moon
* Jacqueline Carey
* Martha Wells

And many more.
Hugo Award Nominees 2019 Wiki

## Welcome to the Hugo Nominees 2019 Wiki

Making a list of eligible Hugo Award works for 2018. The wiki for 2019 works (eligible for the 2020 Hugos) is here. If you're looking for last year's potential Hugo 2018 nominees, you'll find them here.

A similar, predating project is Renay's excellent Hugo Spreadsheet of doom. Be sure to check it out as well!

## Let's Nominate

In order for more people to vote in the Hugos, let's make a list of eligible works and people, with links to read where available. This isn't meant to be a database of everything in genre over a year, as that would be unmanageable, but if you read or see something that you think is worthy of an award, by all means add it! The rules for each category can be found on the category page, and you can read them in full in the WSFS constitution.

But first, a short video illustrating how to add works or people:

The Categories
Best Novel

Best Novella

Best Novelette

Best Short Story

Best Series

Best Related Work

Best Graphic Story

Best Dramatic Presentation (Long form)‏

Best Dramatic Presentation (Short form)

Best Editor (Short Form)‏‎

Best Editor (Long Form)‏‎

Best Professional Artist

Best Semiprozine‏‎

Best Fanzine

Best Fancast‏‎

Best Fan Writer‏‎

Best Fan Artist

Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book (Not a Hugo)

John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer‏

Best Art Book

## Latest activity

Photos and videos are a great way to add visuals to your wiki. Find videos about your topic by exploring Fandom's Video Library.

File:Placeholder
Foz Meadows

Blog: Shattersnipe: Malcontent & Rainbows

SFF Reviews and Commentary

Featured posts:

* TV Series: The Emotional Buy-In
* A Personal Note
* Star Wars: The Last Jedi
* Worldcon 76: More Than Technical Difficulties
* Poem: winter
* A Note on Robert Silverberg
* Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom Is A Terrible, Awful Film
Feminist Futures

Feminist Futures essay series

Contributing Authors: Joe Sherry, Adri Joy, Vance Kotrla, Phoebe Wagner, Paul Weimer, Chloe Clark

Edited by Joe Sherry

Introduction

Perhaps bolstered by the success of Hulu's television adaptation of Margaret Atwood's seminal 1985 novel *The Handmaid's Tale* and perhaps because of the rising tide of anger, fear, and apprehension over and about what path to the future we seem to be on, there is a renewed groundswell of feminist science fiction in popular culture today.

We may be living in a new golden age of feminist science fiction (and of science fiction in general), but it is important to note and remember that feminist science fiction has never gone away. It has been an integral part of science fiction from the very beginning. The nature and the place of the conversation it has engendered and facilitated may have shifted depending on the era, but it has always been here.

Feminist science fiction has never gone away, but we have a damnable habit of forgetting those who have come before, especially those voices that were not among those few writers we still talk about decades later as if they were the only voices that mattered.

Through dossier reviews and essays, we will look at the works of Ursula K. Le Guin and Joanna Russ and James Tiptree and Sally Miller Gearheart and Pamela Sargent and Suzy McKee Charnas and more. We expect to also touch on some of the more modern writers such as Nicola Griffith, Ann Leckie, L. Timmel Duchamp, and Kameron Hurley. We'll explore novels and anthologies and short stories. We'll have personal reflections and a look into the experience of attending Wiscon, the feminist science fiction convention.
Putting the Science in Fiction

Science and technology have starring roles in a wide range of genres--science fiction, fantasy, thriller, mystery, and more. Unfortunately, many depictions of technical subjects in literature, film, and television are pure fiction. A basic understanding of biology, physics, engineering, and medicine will help you create more realistic stories that satisfy discerning readers.

This book brings together scientists, physicians, engineers, and other experts to help you:

* Understand the basic principles of science, technology, and medicine that are frequently featured in fiction.
* Avoid common pitfalls and misconceptions to ensure technical accuracy.
* Write realistic and compelling scientific elements that will captivate readers.
* Brainstorm and develop new science- and technology-based story ideas.

Whether writing about mutant monsters, rogue viruses, giant spaceships, or even murders and espionage, *Putting the Science in Fiction* will have something to help every writer craft better fiction.

*Putting the Science in Fiction* collects articles from "Science in Sci-fi, Fact in Fantasy," Dan Koboldt's popular blog series for authors and fans of speculative fiction (dankoboldt.com/science-in-scifi). Each article discusses an element of sci-fi or fantasy with an expert in that field. Scientists, engineers, medical professionals, and others share their insights in order to debunk the myths, correct the misconceptions, and offer advice on getting the details right.

Read read the **first few chapters online** for free.
Sin du Jour

Matt Wallace’s Sin du Jour series is a comedic action-packed supernatural romp through the New York City restaurant scene, told in serialized standalone novellas. It’s a twisted world of magic, monsters, and gourmet food that makes for fast-paced, highly addictive reads.

This year's qualifying work, **Taste of Wrath**, is the seventh in the series:

With seven books for seven sins, Taste of Wrath is the adrenaline-fuelled finalé to the Sin du Jour series, which Chuck Wendig calls “a raucous, riotous tale of culinary madness”!

Bronko and his team of crack chefs and kitchen staff have been serving the New York supernatural community for decades. But all that could be about to change.

The entity formerly known as Allensworth has been manipulating Bronko and his team from Day One, and the gang at Sin du Jour have had enough.

Old debts are called in, and an alliance is formed with the unlikeliest of comrades.

Some will die. Some will descend. And some will rise.

The previous works are **Envy of Angels**, **Small Wars**, **Lustlocked**, **Pride's Spell**, **Idle Ingredients**, **Greedy Pigs**, and **Gluttony Bay**.
Kalanadi

Kalanadi Channel Art

**Channel Description:**

I'm Rachel, and welcome to my Booktube channel Kalanadi! My favorite genre is science fiction, closely followed by fantasy. I also read non-fiction and other genres, wherever the reading journey takes me. This channel won a 2018 Parsec Award -- one of the most exciting things that's ever happened to me on the internet!

**Channel:** https://www.youtube.com/user/Kalanadi
The Dragon of Ynys

The Dragon of Ynys

The Dragon of Ynys

Every time something goes missing from the village, Sir Violet makes his way to the dragon's cave and negotiates the item's return. It's annoying, but at least the dragon is polite.

But when the dragon steals a person, that's a step too far. As Sir Violet ventures out to get the missing baker back, however, he quickly realizes things are not at all what they seem...
The Only Harmless Great Thing

In the early years of the 20th century, a group of female factory workers in Newark, New Jersey slowly died of radiation poisoning. Around the same time, an Indian elephant was deliberately put to death by electricity in Coney Island.

These are the facts.

Now these two tragedies are intertwined in a dark alternate history of rage, radioactivity, and injustice crying out to be righted. Prepare yourself for a wrenching journey that crosses eras, chronicling histories of cruelty both grand and petty in search of meaning and justice.
Gears and God: Technocratic Fiction, Faith, and Empire in Mark Twain's America

Technocratic Fiction, Faith, and Empire in Mark Twain's America

*Gears and God* analyzes the proto-steampunk genre of technology-themed exploration novels—dime novel adventure stories featuring steam-powered and electrified robots, airships, and submersibles. This genre proliferated during the same cultural moment when evolutionary science was dismantling Americans’ prevailing, biblically based understanding of human history.

While their heyday occurred in the late 1800s, technocratic adventure novels like Twain’s *A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court* inspired later fiction about science and technology. Similar to the science fiction plotlines of writers like Jules Verne and H. Rider Haggard, and anticipating the adventures of Tom Swift some decades later, these novels feature Americans using technology to visit and seize control of remote locales, a trait that has led many scholars to view them primarily as protoimperialist narratives. Their legacy, however, is more complicated. As they grew in popularity, such works became as concerned with the preservation of a fraught Anglo-Protestant American identity as they were with spreading that identity across the globe.
Kings and gods Wiki

## Welcome to the Kings and Gods Wiki

Aeonar is an ancient and magical planet which has been the theater of mighty empires, god-kings, legendary heroes, and villains with lust for power beyond reckoning.

Important Pages

Session Timeline

Player Characters

Otumati Pantheon

Otumat

## Latest activity

Photos and videos are a great way to add visuals to your wiki. Find videos about your topic by exploring Fandom's Video Library.

File:Placeholder
The Adventure of the Dux Bellorum

## The Adventure of the Dux Bellorum

### Series

Blood-Thirsty Agent

Lesbian vampire spies on the Western Front!

Intelligence agent
Lucy Harker receives the most dangerous job in the world — keeping
Winston Churchill safe in the Great War. Despite her unique abilities as
 Dracula's daughter, she loses Churchill to Kaiser Wilhelm's inhuman
allies. If she's to recover Britain's greatest leader, Agent Harker must
 gain the aid of her Austrian lover, Countess Karnstein — better known
as Carmilla. But the notorious vampire is keeping secrets that might
doom the British Empire.
Crook's Landing, By Scaffold

"Crook's Landing, By Scaffold," by G.V. Anderson.

Published in *Nightmare*, Issue #71, August 2018. 5042 words.

Read it here.

> So, *this* was Crook’s Landing. Journey’s end for the street grifter, the slick confidence man, and everyone in between. I’d heard about it all my life. How could I not, growing up above the corner pub. When my brother and I stood at our dad’s graveside, his mates clapped our shoulders with tattooed, signet-ringed hands and said, “He’ll be in Crook’s Landing now, lads.” It was an afterlife, a prize, a club; but it weren’t *real*. No more real than Heaven.
>
>

> I turned back to the figure on the mountaintop. They’d pulled off their sackcloth mask to give me a chipper wink: underneath was a boy hardly older than my brother who’d probably got caught up in his local pick-pocketing racket. I’d seen kids like him before. He pulled me unsteadily to my feet. “Bit of a shock, right?”
>
>
Brave New Words

Erratic and chaotic British fannish podcast. Brave New Words format is simple; the show's host tries to review a genre novel, their friends attempt to stop them.

Best known for their live shows, which has authors and co-hosts attempt to stop someone from getting to the end of the book news.

They keep getting nominated for things (they aren't sure why) and never seem to win anything. This has become a running joke. The show comes from Manchester, England.

Can be found on iTunes here

Ensemble cast includes Russel Smith, Ed Fortune, Ninfa Sferlazzo-Hayes, Ross O'Brien, Rebecca Derrick and Producer AL. Regular author guests include RJ Barker and Claire North.
The Science Fiction of Iain M. Banks

The Science Fiction of Iain M. Banks

(SF Storyworlds: Critical Studies in Science Fiction)

Editors: Esther McCallum-Stewart, Nick Hubble, Joseph Norman

Publisher: Gylphi Limited

Published: January 9, 2018

Critics have paid less attention to Banks' science fiction than his mainstream work, although a substantial body of scholarship on the *Culture* series has developed since at least 1996, significantly increasing in volume since around the time of Banks' death in 2013. Banks' non-*Culture* SF, such as *The Algebraist*, *Feersum Endjinn* and *Against a Dark Background*, has received the least attention of his oeuvre to date. This study provides a comprehensive overview of the author's science fiction, determining unique areas of connection.

**Contents**

* "A Timeline of Iain (M.) Bank's (Science) Fiction" by David Haddock
* "Introduction" by Nick Hubble and Esther MacCallum-Stewart and Joseph Norman
* "Only Matter Is innocent: Iain Banks as Science Fiction Reader, Writer and Fan" by Ken MacLeod
* "A Conversation with Iain (M.) Banks" interview by David Smith
* "'Once Upon a Time, Over the Gravity Well and Far Away...': Fairy-Tales Narratives in Banks's Science Fiction" by Nick Hubble
* "Hearing The Culture: Music and Utopianism in Iain M. Banks's Space Opera" by Joseph Norman
* "Playing Games with Gods: Iain M. Banks and John Fowles" by Martyn Colebrook
* "The Gaming of Players: Jamming Azad" by Esther MacCallum-Stewart
* "Making and Playing Azad at Loncon 3: The Theory and Practice of Designing an Impossible Game" by Ian Sturrock
* "Forceful and Fuzzy Games in the Novels of Iain M. Banks" by Jo Lindsay Walton
* "'Cannibals from Outer Space!': Symbolic Violence and the Cannibalism of the Other" by Jude Roberts
* "The Sublime in Iain M. Banks's 'Culture' Novels" by Jim Clarke
* "Inside the Whale and Outside Context Problems" by Robert Duggan
The House on the Moon

The House on the Moon is available online here.

*Castle Jordan stands in a place that makes sense according to the logic of castles. It has a good view of a remote area, the better to spot siege-minded armies on the march. But castles do not fit the logic of the moon. Exposure and isolation aren’t very useful survival traits here.*
Tess of the Road

In the medieval kingdom of Goredd, women are expected to be ladies, men are their protectors, and dragons get to be whomever they want. Tess, stubbornly, is a troublemaker. You can’t make a scene at your sister’s wedding and break a relative’s nose with one punch (no matter how pompous he is) and not suffer the consequences. As her family plans to send her to a nunnery, Tess yanks on her boots and sets out on a journey across the Southlands, alone and pretending to be a boy.

Where Tess is headed is a mystery, even to her. So when she runs into an old friend, it’s a stroke of luck. This friend is a quigutl—a subspecies of dragon—who gives her both a purpose and protection on the road. But Tess is guarding a troubling secret. Her tumultuous past is a heavy burden to carry, and the memories she’s tried to forget threaten to expose her to the world in more ways than one.

Returning to the fascinating world she created in the award-winning and New York Times bestselling Seraphina, Rachel Hartman introduces readers to a new character and a new quest, pushing the boundaries of genre once again in this wholly original fantasy.
Binti: The Night Masquerade

The concluding part of the highly-acclaimed science fiction trilogy that began with Nnedi Okorafor's Hugo- and Nebula Award-winning BINTI.

Binti has returned to her home planet, believing that the violence of the Meduse has been left behind. Unfortunately, although her people are peaceful on the whole, the same cannot be said for the Khoush, who fan the flames of their ancient rivalry with the Meduse.

Far from her village when the conflicts start, Binti hurries home, but anger and resentment has already claimed the lives of many close to her.

Once again it is up to Binti, and her intriguing new friend Mwinyi, to intervene--though the elders of her people do not entirely trust her motives--and try to prevent a war that could wipe out her people, once and for all.
Welcome To Night Vale: Are You Sure?

Title: "Are You Sure?"

Series: Welcome To Night Vale

Studio/Production Company: Night Vale Presents

Listen: http://podbay.fm/show/536258179/e/1535774400

Transcript: https://cecilspeaks.tumblr.com/post/177629905346/133-are-you-sure

*Is this the first time you’ve heard me say this?
Are you sure?
Welcome to Night Vale.*

*OK, I’m starting again. As many of you certainly noticed, we are having a problem of timeline divergence here in Night Vale. Events are happening over and over, and each instance is different than the last.*
What Is Eve?

What Is Eve? is available online here.

*"I’d never been on a quieter school bus. Kids were whispering to each other, looking scared as hell as the bus clipped stray branches from the endless forest pressing in on both sides of us.*

*“This isn’t even a two-way road,” I murmured to Flora, the girl sitting beside me."*
The Last Banquet of Temporal Confections

illustration by Anna & Elena Balbusso

"The Last Banquet of Temporal Confections," by Tina Connolly.

Published: July 11, 2018, Tor.com .

Read it here: https://www.tor.com/2018/07/11/the-last-banquet-of-temporal-confections-tina-connolly

Saffron returns to herself, the delight of the memory still sharp on her tongue. Her eyes clear, she smiles warmly at the crowd. “This has always been one of my favorite recipes of Danny’s,” she tells them, and her gilded plate is passed to the Duke. He does not look at her as he picks up the second bite of golden-crusted toast, redolent with rosemary and crystals of sea salt. Danny was an excellent baker long before he started experimenting with the rose-thyme plant that causes the memories, and this crostini is no exception.

Around the table the noble sycophants follow the Duke’s example, and Saffron watches in amusement at seeing the whole table go slack, their eyes staring off into nothing as they *remember*.
A Witch’s Guide to Escape: A Practical Compendium of Portal Fantasies

“A Witch’s Guide to Escape: A Practical Compendium of Portal Fantasies,” by Alix E. Harrow.
Published in Apex #105, February 2018.

Read it here.

> He smelled of a thousand secret worlds, of rabbit-holes and hidden doorways and platforms nine-and-three-quarters, of Wonderland and Oz and Narnia, of anyplace-but-here. He smelled of *yearning*.
>
>

> God save me from the yearners. The insatiable, the inconsolable, the ones who chafe and claw against the edges of the world. No book can save them.
>
>

> (That’s a lie. There are Books potent enough to save any mortal soul: books of witchery, augury, alchemy; books with wand-wood in their spines and moon-dust on their pages; books older than stones and wily as dragons. We give people the books they need most, except when we don’t.)
>
>
Worlds Beyond Here: Expanding the Universe of APA Science Fiction

Exploring the connection between Asian Pacific Americans and the infinite possibilities of science fiction, *World’s Beyond Here* follows the path of a young Sci Fi fan to becoming an empowered creator, limited only by imagination.

Despite the historically limited representation of Asian Pacific Americans in popular science fiction, they have had and continue to have a large impact in science fiction,

## Worlds Beyond Here: Expanding the Universe of APA Science Fiction

### Title

Worlds Beyond Here: Expanding the Universe of APA Science Fiction

### Author

Mikala Woodward (exhibit developer), Michi Trota (exhibit writer)

### Pub date

October 12, 2018

often behind the scenes, as artists, actors, designers, writers, animators, and directors. For many Asian Pacific Americans, science fiction addresses issues related to identity, immigration and race, technology, morality and the human condition, all while capturing the imagination through exciting adventures in outer space and time travel.

The exhibit features a mix of literary and pop culture works, as well as original artwork that inspires us to create our own vision for our world and our future.
The Washer from the Ford

## The Washer from the Ford

### Publisher

The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction

### Pub date

January / February 2019

NOVELLAS
The City of Lost Desire – Phyllis Eisenstein

NOVELETS
Joe Diabo's Farewell – Andy Duncan
Blue as Blood – Leah Cypess

SHORT STORIES
To the Beautiful Shining Twilight – Carrie Vaughn
The Province of Saints – Robert Reed
The Right Number of Cats – Jenn Reese
Survey – Adam-Troy Castro
The Washer from the Ford – Sean McMullen
Tactical Infantry Bot 37 Dreams of Trochees – Marie Vibbert
Fifteen Minutes from Now – Erin Cashier
The Fall from Griffin's Peak – Pip Coen

DEPARTMENTS
Books to Look For – Charles de Lint
Musing on Books – Michelle West
Science: When Betelgeuse Blows – Jerry Oltion
Films: Venom, Us – E.G. Neill
Plumage from Pegasus: A Walk on the Mild Side – Paul Di Filippo
Coming Attractions –
Curiousities – Paul Di Filippo

CARTOON
Arthur Masear.

COVER
Jill Bauman for "The City of Lost Desire"

https://seanmcmullen.net.au/the-washer-from-the-ford/
Oozy Muesli Bar

Oozy Muesli Bar is a common Stinky Snacks Shopkin from Series 1.

## Bio

### Website

From the Stinky Snacks team, it's the oozy bar that's made of lumps and festering bumps!

MAY CONTAIN TRACES OF: NUTTINESS, CRAZINESS AND OOZE!

### The Shopkins Gang: Collector’s Guide

He's the oozy bar that's made of lumps and festering bumps!

**Likes:** Going nuts

**Dislikes:** Milk

**May Contain Traces Of:** Nuttiness, craziness, and ooze!

**Rarity:** Common

## Appearance

Oozy Muesli Bar is a moldy, gone-off granola/muesli bar with half of his wrapper peeled down. He has a bite mark on his top left corner and has lots of crumbs in his mouth.

## Trivia

* "Muesli bar" is the Australian and New Zealand term for a granola bar.
* He is the first granola bar-based Grossery, the second being Yuck Nut Bar from Series 3.

## Gallery

Oozy Muesli Bar toyOozy Muesli Bar variant toyOozy Muesli Bar collector’s tool artworkOozy Muesli Bar collector’s tool variant artwork
Blackfish City

After the climate wars, a floating city is constructed in the Arctic Circle, a remarkable feat of mechanical and social engineering, complete with geothermal heating and sustainable energy. The city’s denizens have become accustomed to a roughshod new way of living, however, the city is starting to fray along the edges—crime and corruption have set in, the contradictions of incredible wealth alongside direst poverty are spawning unrest, and a new disease called “the breaks” is ravaging the population.

When a strange new visitor arrives—a woman riding an orca, with a polar bear at her side—the city is entranced. The “orcamancer,” as she’s known, very subtly brings together four people—each living on the periphery—to stage unprecedented acts of resistance. By banding together to save their city before it crumbles under the weight of its own decay, they will learn shocking truths about themselves.

Blackfish City is a remarkably urgent—and ultimately very hopeful—novel about political corruption, organized crime, technology run amok, the consequences of climate change, gender identity, and the unifying power of human connection.
The Empress of Timbra

Fourteen-year-old Taver didn't know he was a nobleman's bastard until his real father died. Eleven-year-old Elaku has always known she was the bastard daughter of the same nobleman - and the Empress's Witch. When the two siblings meet in the Empress of Timbra's palace, neither is aware that treachery and war threaten their home - and that they must rely on their magic, their wits, and each other to have any chance of victory.
Steven Universe: Reunited

"**Reunited**" is the 23rd and 24th episode of the fifth season of the American animated television series *Steven Universe*, and the 151st and 152nd episode of the series overall. A 22-minute double-length special episode, it was directed by Joe Johnston and Liz Artinian, and written and storyboarded by Miki Brewster, Jeff Liu, Katie Mitroff and Paul Villeco from a story by Johnston, Matt Burnett, Ben Levin, Kat Morris, Tom Herpich and series creator Rebecca Sugar.
Croissant d’Or

Croissant d’Or is a common Half Baked Bakery Shopkin from Series 1.

## Bio

From the Half Baked Bakery, it's moldy and flakey to make you feel achy!

MAY CONTAIN TRACES OF: MOLD, DEAD ANIMAL AND SNEEZE!

## Appearance

Croissant d'Or is a brown croissant with yellow cream filling on his head.

His variant is a normal, golden croissant with brown cream filling on him.

## Trivia

* Croissant d’Or resembles Le Crusty Croissant, a Series 1 Grossery.
* His ingredient list is the same as Cheezey B., which is most likely by mistake.
* His static art colors him tan, a color his figures do not come in.

## Gallery

Croissant d’Or toyCroissant d’Or variant toyCroissant d’Or collector’s tool variant artwork
The Calculating Stars

On a cold spring night in 1952, a huge meteorite fell to earth and obliterated much of the east coast of the United States, including Washington D.C. The ensuing climate cataclysm will soon render the earth inhospitable for humanity, as the last such meteorite did for the dinosaurs. This looming threat calls for a radically accelerated effort to colonize space, and requires a much larger share of humanity to take part in the process.

Elma York’s experience as a WASP pilot and mathematician earns her a place in the International Aerospace Coalition’s attempts to put man on the moon, as a calculator. But with so many skilled and experienced women pilots and scientists involved with the program, it doesn’t take long before Elma begins to wonder why they can’t go into space, too.

Elma’s drive to become the first Lady Astronaut is so strong that even the most dearly held conventions of society may not stand a chance against her.

*Per author contact, the total word count for the Lady Astronaut series does not meet the 240,000 word count requirement for Best Series. (01/10/2019) Hopefully next year, with the publication of The Relentless Moon.*
Record of a Spaceborn Few

Hundreds of years ago, the last humans on Earth boarded the Exodus Fleet in search of a new home among the stars. After centuries spent wandering empty space, their descendants were eventually accepted by the well-established species that govern the Milky Way.

But that was long ago. Today, the Exodus Fleet is a living relic, the birthplace of many, yet a place few outsiders have ever visited. While the Exodans take great pride in their original community and traditions, their culture has been influenced by others beyond their bulkheads. As many Exodans leave for alien cities or terrestrial colonies, those who remain are left to ponder their own lives and futures: What is the purpose of a ship that has reached its destination? Why remain in space when there are habitable worlds available to live? What is the price of sustaining their carefully balanced way of life—and is it worth saving at all?

A young apprentice, a lifelong spacer with young children, a planet-raised traveler, an alien academic, a caretaker for the dead, and an Archivist whose mission is to ensure no one’s story is forgotten, wrestle with these profound universal questions. The answers may seem small on the galactic scale, but to these individuals, it could mean everything.
When the Letter Comes

When the Letter Comes is available online here.

Henry believes that someday, something awesome will happen–everything will turn out all right and all her problems will disappear once her letter arrives, welcoming her to magic school. So even though puberty is already here with changes (like her voice deepening and hair growing in places she does not want), she also knows it’s only a matter of time. After all, hundreds of books have said so.

But when the letter finally comes on Henry’s thirteenth birthday, it is not addressed to her, but to her sister.

*When The Letter Comes* is a short story with a YA trans protagonist that embraces the experience of those left behind, who must find their own way in the world–magic or not.
The Kite Maker

After aliens arrive on earth, humans do the unthinkable out of fear. When an alien walks into a human kite maker’s store, coveting her kites, the human struggles with her guilt over her part in the alien massacres, while neo-Nazis draw a violent line between alien and human.

You can read the story here
Galactic Journey

Galactic Journey fanzine from an alt-history 1963!

Imagine living in the post-Golden Age of science fiction and fantasy. What would it be like to actually *be* there, experiencing life, the movies, the books, the music, day per day?

The Traveler and co. live in 1963, regularly commuting 55 years into the future to write about then-contemporary science fiction and fantasy, particularly fiction found in magazines...including spotlights on the rising cadre of woman writers. But that's not all there is to life 55 years ago! So expect to read about the movies, the space shots, the politics, the music, and much more!

There is nothing like the Journey anywhere else in the universe. Come jump through the portal and see a world you may but dimly remember, or which you may never have seen before, but without which your time could never have been...

Published throughout 2018 (posts every 2-3 days) by Gideon Marcus, with contributions by Janice Marcus, Tammi Bozich, Erica Frank, Rosemary Benton, Ashley Pollard, Victoria Silverwolf, Lorelei Marcus, John Boston, Gwyn Conaway, Vicki Lucas, Mark Yon, Ida Moya, Cora Buhlert, Margarita Mospanova, Jessica Holmes, and Jason Sacks.