Where do you find new SF/F books?
July 9, 2018 5:37 PM Subscribe
Looking for review sites, blogs, or wherever you find out about new books you’ll probably dig. Bonus if the sites (?) have distinctive tastes and their recs / reviews are actually fun to read.
I feel like this is a thing that used to exist more, before Facebook etc swallowed the web. Hoping it still exists somewhere!
James Nicoll's blog is a good resource. His reviews tend to be more "this is a quick recap of the book" style rather than "this is an analysis/positive/negative assessment", but he casts a wide net and he puts effort into reviewing works that aren't by white men.
posted by asterix at 5:50 PM on July 9, 2018 [4 favorites]
posted by asterix at 5:50 PM on July 9, 2018 [4 favorites]
io9 does a list monthly that is worth checking out. Unbound Worlds also has a ton of great lists of various kinds of scifi and fantasy books to get into.
posted by loveyhowell at 5:59 PM on July 9, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by loveyhowell at 5:59 PM on July 9, 2018 [1 favorite]
Combing through my RSS reader for smaller sites, I'd suggest A Fantastical Librarian, Andrew Wheeler's Blog, Bibliosanctum, Fantasy Café, Fantasy Literature, Lady Business, Tamaranth's Creative Reading, and The Book Smugglers too. I also know of The Weatherwax Report and other sites participating in SPFBO via r/Fantasy.
posted by Wobbuffet at 6:13 PM on July 9, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by Wobbuffet at 6:13 PM on July 9, 2018 [2 favorites]
Blogs I read for SF/F recommendations:
1. The Book Smugglers - I'm not particularly interested in their middle grade and YA reviews, but their other SF/F reviews are great, and enjoyable to read as well as being good recommendations.
2. Reading the End - a mixture of SF/F reviews and other things, including a podcast.
3. The Hysterical Hamster - Ian Mond's reviews of a mixture of SF/F and literary fiction.
4. Not really a blog, but I enjoy Liz Bourke's book review column at Tor.
posted by fever-trees at 6:15 PM on July 9, 2018 [2 favorites]
1. The Book Smugglers - I'm not particularly interested in their middle grade and YA reviews, but their other SF/F reviews are great, and enjoyable to read as well as being good recommendations.
2. Reading the End - a mixture of SF/F reviews and other things, including a podcast.
3. The Hysterical Hamster - Ian Mond's reviews of a mixture of SF/F and literary fiction.
4. Not really a blog, but I enjoy Liz Bourke's book review column at Tor.
posted by fever-trees at 6:15 PM on July 9, 2018 [2 favorites]
I have found many enjoyable books at the Big Idea, part of John Scalzi's Whatever blog. He also posts New Books and ARCs, so you can see interesting titles and new books by authors you may not track obsessively.
posted by mogget at 6:20 PM on July 9, 2018 [3 favorites]
posted by mogget at 6:20 PM on July 9, 2018 [3 favorites]
Cosma Shalizi's used to do a monthly list of what he read with mini-reviews. A lot of SF/F books mixed in with the stats and general non-fiction; look at the pre-2016 or so as he kind of petered out on the frequency and number of books per update.
posted by mark k at 6:47 PM on July 9, 2018
posted by mark k at 6:47 PM on July 9, 2018
I look at the Hugo nominees.
That's how I got turned on to the Broken Earth series by N.K. Jemisin, which is by far one of my favorite new SF/F series (and authors).
posted by rue72 at 7:10 PM on July 9, 2018 [2 favorites]
That's how I got turned on to the Broken Earth series by N.K. Jemisin, which is by far one of my favorite new SF/F series (and authors).
posted by rue72 at 7:10 PM on July 9, 2018 [2 favorites]
I love Lady Business. Excellently feminist, a wide variety of taste amongst the reviewers, intelligent commentary.
Martha Wells does recs of new books at her blog, which, in her own words:
Martha Wells does recs of new books at her blog, which, in her own words:
... while most book lists emphasize books by popular straight white men, this one emphasizes everybody else. I include books by straight white men, but in about the same percentage that other book lists include everybody else. I also try to highlight books that are less well known.posted by fire, water, earth, air at 7:38 PM on July 9, 2018 [2 favorites]
Strange Horizons has weekly reviews that are usually interesting in addition to their short fiction/articles.
posted by therewithal at 7:42 PM on July 9, 2018
posted by therewithal at 7:42 PM on July 9, 2018
Seconding Liz Bourke's columns at tor.com, and James Nicoll.
posted by suelac at 9:16 PM on July 9, 2018
posted by suelac at 9:16 PM on July 9, 2018
Seconding the Book Smugglers! They published one of my short stories and were absolutely lovely to work with. They read widely and through a lot of categories (YA, middle grade, adult SFF) but I love their focus on diverse, distinct and hopeful books. Sandstone on Twitter also recs lots of interesting SFF, often stuff that's older as well.
posted by storytam at 12:35 AM on July 10, 2018
posted by storytam at 12:35 AM on July 10, 2018
I look at the Hugo nominees.
I forgot that I do this too—er, sort of. My tastes align a little better with the World Fantasy Awards, so I check their nominees (in addition to the Hugos and a few other lists).
Fact is, there are so many SF/F awards, there's probably one or more you'll find worth keeping tabs on.
posted by xenization at 5:24 AM on July 10, 2018 [1 favorite]
I forgot that I do this too—er, sort of. My tastes align a little better with the World Fantasy Awards, so I check their nominees (in addition to the Hugos and a few other lists).
Fact is, there are so many SF/F awards, there's probably one or more you'll find worth keeping tabs on.
posted by xenization at 5:24 AM on July 10, 2018 [1 favorite]
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posted by Wobbuffet at 5:49 PM on July 9, 2018 [4 favorites]