What are the best sites for science fiction and fantasy book reviews?
September 24, 2013 7:31 PM Subscribe
I like reading reviews of books, both to learn about new things to read, and to gain insight on things I've already read. Right now, almost all the books I'm reading are science fiction and fantasy. What are the best, most comprehensive sites that review books in these genres? I'm looking for review quality above your standard Amazon reviews—not just rehashing the plot with "I liked it" or "I didn't like it", but thoughtful, high quality analysis.
Also Abigail Nussbaum's blog, Asking the Wrong Questions. She doesn't post often, but it's always meaty and thoughtful, even if you disagree. She also posts on genre television and movies.
posted by suelac at 8:50 PM on September 24, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by suelac at 8:50 PM on September 24, 2013 [1 favorite]
Previously from last month, which produced just a couple of useful answers.
You might consider subscribing to the New York Review of Science Fiction, which makes a few articles available via the advanced technology of the World Wide Web and was gracious enough to make its recent 300th issue available as a free ebook/pdf here, "since we are also hoping to attract new readers to carry us forward for another quarter-century!"
I'm not sure they've quite grokked the best way to accomplish that goal, but hey, the 300th issue looks interesting enough and you can decide for yourself if it's worth $30 a year, or whether you'll hold out in the name of Free Culture. I'm teetering, but the apparent absence of other smart options (or at least Mefites who know of them) is a push in the direction of subscribing, for sure.
If you loosen your "book" definition to include short stories, I just discovered Tangent, which looks promising; it offers relatively detailed reviews of monthly/semi-monthly mags like Analog, Asimov's and Fantasy & Science Fiction, along with what at first glance seem to be reasonably informative if not particularly deep reviews of recent anthologies. Again, I've just discovered it so can't say much beyond that first impression, but it looks worth a few hours at least.
posted by mediareport at 9:54 PM on September 24, 2013 [1 favorite]
You might consider subscribing to the New York Review of Science Fiction, which makes a few articles available via the advanced technology of the World Wide Web and was gracious enough to make its recent 300th issue available as a free ebook/pdf here, "since we are also hoping to attract new readers to carry us forward for another quarter-century!"
I'm not sure they've quite grokked the best way to accomplish that goal, but hey, the 300th issue looks interesting enough and you can decide for yourself if it's worth $30 a year, or whether you'll hold out in the name of Free Culture. I'm teetering, but the apparent absence of other smart options (or at least Mefites who know of them) is a push in the direction of subscribing, for sure.
If you loosen your "book" definition to include short stories, I just discovered Tangent, which looks promising; it offers relatively detailed reviews of monthly/semi-monthly mags like Analog, Asimov's and Fantasy & Science Fiction, along with what at first glance seem to be reasonably informative if not particularly deep reviews of recent anthologies. Again, I've just discovered it so can't say much beyond that first impression, but it looks worth a few hours at least.
posted by mediareport at 9:54 PM on September 24, 2013 [1 favorite]
Most of these are British-- perhaps speculative fiction is more popular in the UK than the US
http://graemesff.blogspot.co.uk/
http://www.tor.com/
http://fantasybookcritic.blogspot.com/
http://elitistbookreviews.blogspot.com/
http://nethspace.blogspot.com/
http://www.staffersbookreview.com/
http://www.thetatteredscroll.com/
posted by ohshenandoah at 7:16 PM on September 25, 2013 [4 favorites]
http://graemesff.blogspot.co.uk/
http://www.tor.com/
http://fantasybookcritic.blogspot.com/
http://elitistbookreviews.blogspot.com/
http://nethspace.blogspot.com/
http://www.staffersbookreview.com/
http://www.thetatteredscroll.com/
posted by ohshenandoah at 7:16 PM on September 25, 2013 [4 favorites]
LibraryThing reviews by SF/F authors you already like!
posted by MidSouthern Mouth at 1:55 PM on September 29, 2013
posted by MidSouthern Mouth at 1:55 PM on September 29, 2013
Response by poster: ohshenandoah, those are all great! And thanks, MidSouthern Mouth, I didn't know about authors on LibraryThing.
posted by ocherdraco at 7:55 PM on September 29, 2013
posted by ocherdraco at 7:55 PM on September 29, 2013
This thread is closed to new comments.
I don't know about you, but I find the number of panegyrics in this genre that I love frustrating, when in my opinion many of the books published are... not deserving of panegyrics. There are other substantive review sites out there, but they tend to be a little hype-driven, or linked to closely to publishers and unable to publish not-rave reviews.
posted by smoke at 7:34 PM on September 24, 2013 [7 favorites]