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@billcap.bsky.social
110 followers 310 following 180 posts
writer of essays, stories, and plays; reviewer of fantasy/sci fi at fantasyliterature.com and (rarely) Tor.com, reader of just about anything, adjunct instructor, ultimate player, hiker, camper, devourer of worlds (or is that words . . . )
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danhartland.bsky.social
🚨 As we enter the weekend, let it be known that the coming Monday is not just any Monday … it’s the annual @strangehorizons.bsky.social Criticism Special Monday.

Five essays! Five reviews! Poems! A roundtable, a podcast, a veritable trove of critical insight.

Also, ducks.

Be there!
January 23, 2026 at 7:20 PM
new review:
In its genre trappings, worldbuilding, scale, Hum takes a minimalist approach that works quite effectively, offering up a sense of sinking inevitability that many feel nowadays, a constant anxiety we have to shove to the background to get through our days.
@fantasyliterature.com #booksky
Against a bright green background, a series of white oval shapes of the same size but in differing configurations. one looks like an eye with a central iris, another looks like a satellite dish pointed upward, another like a simple drawing of a wheeled (one wheel on the side) vehicle
January 23, 2026 at 6:51 PM
new review:
fantasyliterature.com/reviews/slow...

"an ambitious novel ... If the ending left me a bit wanting, the vast majority of the book kept me engrossed thanks to a strong central character, wonderful worldbuilding, those aforementioned big questions, and North’s usual high level of craft"
Against a dark star field a fiery red planet sits in the center with concentric rings around it (a shock wave). Several other planets surround out within the expanding rings. In the center of the central planet is a rocket hip with a glittering trail behind leading down to the bottom edge of the cover. Text on the cover reads Million-Copy Bestselling author Claire North Slow Gods blurb by Adrian Tchaikovsky: "Astonishing"
January 21, 2026 at 4:44 AM
new review up:
fantasyliterature.com/reviews/the-...

"While a few aspects might prompt the reader to suspect its debut nature, generally the story is smoothly written, fast-paced, and engaging, making for an overall enjoyable read."

#booksky
#bookreviews
An ancient Chinese structure (like a palace) dominates the cover. Below it it appears wreathed in flames. Above it a long ribbon of scroll twists upward. The scroll has Asian characters written on it and a woman standing on it. Flowers run along the sides
January 13, 2026 at 10:21 PM
recent reviews

fantasyliterature.com/reviews/the-...

A good analysis of text & art, placing writers within their cultural and Marvel context

fantasyliterature.com/reviews/doct...

for a casual stroll through the weirdly wonderful or wonderfully weird that is Doctor Strange, Moore hits the spot
January 12, 2026 at 7:15 AM
Reposted
danhartland.bsky.social
Part 2 of @strangehorizons.bsky.social's 2025 In Review has been published!

Every year has real breadth, but this year feels especially so. If you're into the horse race, the runners and riders are numerous; if you're after great recommendations, there are a tonne of all kinds here.

Explore it!
2025 In Review: Part Two
The second part of our reviewers' picks of 2025.
strangehorizons.com
January 7, 2026 at 1:09 PM
One more catch-up review

Powsels and thrums: 'snippets of cloth the weaver kept … to make something whole and new.' ... An apt description for a collection of folktales, poems, essays, speeches, criticism, and discussion of Garner's own composing process

fantasyliterature.com/reviews/pows...
Powsels and Thrums: Tales from a Creative Life | Fantasy Literature: Fantasy and Science Fiction Book and Audiobook Reviews
fantasyliterature.com
January 6, 2026 at 12:40 AM
catching up on reviews post-holiday
"Thematically, the novel continues to explore the uses (especially abuses) of power ... The treatment of of “the Other,” and of refugees and ... [how] control of history can be used to gain and maintain power"

fantasyliterature.com/reviews/the-...
The Nameless Land: A satisfying conclusion with maybe (?) a promise of more | Fantasy Literature: Fantasy and Science Fiction Book and Audiobook Reviews
fantasyliterature.com
January 6, 2026 at 12:33 AM
recent review
"Cornell does a good job with analysis of text & art, places writers neatly within their cultural context & the Marvel context, isn’t afraid to criticize ... & writes in an engaging, conversational style, bringing in a nice touch of the personal."

fantasyliterature.com/reviews/the-...
The Mighty Avengers vs. the 1970s: Solid overview though left me wanting more | Fantasy Literature: Fantasy and Science Fiction Book and Audiobook Reviews
fantasyliterature.com
January 6, 2026 at 12:20 AM
Happy to be part of this diabolical attempt to increase everyone’s TBR pile in this first week of the new year. Especially appreciative for my fellow reviewers’ books in translation recs as they tend to fly under my radar
January 5, 2026 at 9:40 PM
continuing the 2025 review countdown with 4-star books

Non-Fiction
Powsels and Thrums

The Secret Lives of Dinosaurs
fantasyliterature.com/reviews/the-...

Airborne
fantasyliterature.com/reviews/airb...

The Best American Essays 2025
www.goodreads.com/book/show/22...
December 20, 2025 at 5:05 AM
Continuing 2025 Review countdown

4.5 Fantasy/Sci-Fi

Spectators
fantasyliterature.com/reviews/spec...

Daedalus is Dead
fantasyliterature.com/reviews/daed...

The Memory of the Ogisi
fantasyliterature.com/reviews/the-...

The Witch Roads
fantasyliterature.com/reviews/the-...
December 17, 2025 at 4:57 PM
counting down this year's reviews beginning with the 5-stars
5-star nonfiction:

The Story of CO2 is the Story of Everything
fantasyliterature.com/reviews/the-...

Dinner With King Tut
www.goodreads.com/book/show/22...

Replaceable You
fantasyliterature.com/reviews/repl...
Books covers (will add descriptions in a bit!)
December 16, 2025 at 10:12 PM
A shout out to the great crew who put together the Anomaly Film Fest! Personal highlights:

By far my favorite was the brilliant Thai film A Useful Ghost. Several movies in one, it's absurdly funny, darkly powerful, deeply substantive, willing to veer 180° from where it begins. A must-see film.
November 10, 2025 at 5:33 PM
Best line tonight from a weather-reduced Halloween:
"This is my first time trick-or-treating. I get candy. And I get a book too? I love books!"
November 1, 2025 at 7:42 AM
The Anomaly Pass Association is highly recommended by all the best APA acronyms, including both the American Psychiatric Association AND the American Psychological Association. And those folks never agree!
anomalyfilmfest.com Anomaly Film Fest @anomalyfilmfest.com · Oct 28
✨The 7th Anomaly Film Festival is fast approaching!✨

Experience the best genre cinema from around the world, November 5-9, 2025 in downtown Rochester, NY! A full festival pass grants you access to ALL the films and events. And saves you $ too!

Get yours now! anomaly2025.eventive.org/passes/buy
Tall rectangle promo image. Background is a mossy forest floor. In the middle is a basket of mushrooms, with an Anomaly full festival pass resting inside. A shadowy hand reaches for the pass from the bottom right of the image. Text: 2025 full festival pass. Now on sale! Tall rectangle promo image. Background is a purple forest with small green fireflies. In the foreground is a 5x3 grid of posters for the feature films and shorts programs being shown at the festival: Dust Bunny, Night Stage, Cannonball, Friday Shorts, A Useful Ghost, Reflection in a Dead Diamond, Saturday Shorts, By Design, Mother of Flies, Obex, Anything That Moves, In the Mouth, Beyond the Drumlins, I Am Frankelda, and It Ends. Hovering around the poster images are several many-eyed potatoes, observing. Text: Anomaly 2025 festival. 13 feature films. 34 short films. 5 astounding days of genre films. November 5-9.
October 28, 2025 at 8:20 PM
great discussion here on when we want more or less from the works we read and why
danhartland.bsky.social Dan Hartland @danhartland.bsky.social · Oct 6
📣 NEW CRITICAL FRIENDS!

In a new ep of the @strangehorizons.bsky.social SFF criticism podcast, I talk with @redfernjon.bsky.social and Nileena Sunil about books that might be longer, and others that could be shorter.

How to read a text that offers too little, or too much, stuff? Some ideas.
Critical Friends Episode 16: Length and Breadth
Dan Hartland is joined by Redfern Jon Barrett and Nileena Sunil to discuss those novels that feel too sure or not long enough: what's behind that feeling we have that a text is lacking something, o…
strangehorizons.com
October 15, 2025 at 11:53 PM
I confess I did not have the US govt turning into a real-world merger of the Stanford Prison & Milgram Experiments writ large on my bingo card

(note for fellow pedants: I'm referencing the cultural awareness of these experiments, well aware of the scientific dispute over them)
October 14, 2025 at 9:08 PM
review: I've a short list of NF writers I will read no matter the topic: shapes of pasta, different hues of white paint swatches at Home Depot, Pi to various decimal points. Mary Roach has long been on that list, & her newest doesn’t disappoint
fantasyliterature.com/reviews/repl...

@wwnorton.com
Replaceable You: Adventures in Human Anatomy | Fantasy Literature: Fantasy and Science Fiction Book and Audiobook Reviews
fantasyliterature.com
October 10, 2025 at 11:50 PM
review: The prose is smooth, the pace quick-moving, the universe as fascinating as it has been through the novels. There’s also a wonderfully wry sense of humor throughout. My one issue is it felt more summative than I prefer ...

fantasyliterature.com/reviews/live...

@headofzeus.bsky.social
Lives of Bitter Rain: Entertaining novella to fill in some series gaps | Fantasy Literature: Fantasy and Science Fiction Book and Audiobook Reviews
fantasyliterature.com
October 9, 2025 at 7:41 PM
Reposted
anomalyfilmfest.com
✨ LAST CHANCE FOR EARLY GHOUL PASSES ✨

Get yours by 10/10 and unlock full access to everything Anomaly has to offer AND save $20!

Hurry over to: www.anomalyfilmfest.com/tickets2025

#ROC #RochesterNY #FilmFestival #AnomalyFilmFest #AnomalyFilmFest2025
October 9, 2025 at 5:18 PM
review: Thematically, Wells explores the aforementioned impact of trauma ... the allure & danger of power, even if wielded for “good” intent, and — set against the idea of singular power —the benefits of community and coalition

fantasyliterature.com/reviews/quee...

@torbooks.bsky.social #booksky
Queen Demon: Often engrossing and nearly always enjoyable | Fantasy Literature: Fantasy and Science Fiction Book and Audiobook Reviews
fantasyliterature.com
October 3, 2025 at 4:14 PM
Reposted
danhartland.bsky.social
There are three poems - count 'em! - in this week's 25th anniversary issue of @strangehorizons.bsky.social. Among them is a super fun collaboration across the SH staff, co-ordinated by the truly excellent @romiesays.bsky.social.

Ever wanted to go Behind The Scenes At Strange Horizons? Well.
Behind the Scenes at Strange Horizons
Call-and-response currents. Proseships drift on the tide.
strangehorizons.com
October 2, 2025 at 8:39 PM
review: sharply focused on fossils offering direct evidence of behavior such as predation/reproduction ... Lomax employs a nicely conversational tone ... enhanced by Bob Nicholls' artist renditions that bring the text’s stories to life

fantasyliterature.com/reviews/the-...

@deanrlomax.bsky.social
The Secret Lives of Dinosaurs: Unearthing the Real Behaviors of Prehistoric Animals | Fantasy Literature: Fantasy and Science Fiction Book and Audiobook Reviews
fantasyliterature.com
September 28, 2025 at 7:46 PM
Reposted
strangehorizons.bsky.social
Uncertain Sons and Other Stories by Thomas Ha
reviewed by William Shaw

Will This Be A Problem? The Anthology: Issue V edited by Olivia Kidula & Somto Ihezue
reviewed by Amritesh Mukherjee

Gifted & Talented by Olivie Blake
reviewed by Subham Rai

Link to latest issue in bio!

#bookreviews
Left cover of Uncertain Sons and Other Stories by Thomas Ha featuring the profile of a being with a white face, protuding back of the head, and a neck and shoulders made of connected wires, roots, gothic buildings and bones. Right REVIEWS Quote "...I am willing to bet that I will not forget “The Brotherhood of Montague St. Video” in a hurry, nor the extraordinary collection in which it appears. If you choose to read it, I doubt you will either. Ha has produced an engaging, kinetic, and profoundly well-crafted set of stories." reviewer: William Shaw 15 September 2025 Strange Horizons Left cover of Will This Be A Problem? The Anthology: Issue V edited by Olivia Kidula & Somto Ihezue featuring a black person wearing an orange suit and gold chainlink necklaces with a face wearing a helmet in the clouds above. Right REVIEWS Quote "Collecting such a chaotic, genre-defying constellation of stories, the anthology models a form of narrative rebellion. To witness these stories is to remember that other futures are possible, that inherited ideas about order, hierarchy, and belonging can be broken." reviewer: Amritesh Mukherjee 15 September 2025 Strange Horizons Left cover of Gifted & Talented by Olivie Blake featuring a picture of three people offset in equally distant sections of rippling. Right REVIEWS Quote "Olivie Blake’s Gifted & Talented is not just a story about such people; it is a scalpel-sharp dissection of the systems that commodify genius, the families that weaponize it, and the bodies and minds that crumble under its demands." reviewer: Subham Rai 15 September 2025 Strange Horizons
September 21, 2025 at 3:53 PM