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Bookish Scifi & Fantasy

@bookishsff.bsky.social

14K followers 560 following 1.2K posts

Posting Science Fiction, Fantasy, Geekery, bookshop life, occasional cats. Expert Bookseller at Waterstones Ipswich. All views my own.

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Bookish Scifi & Fantasy @bookishsff.bsky.social · 10d

Very excited to be hosting this in Ipswich in November.

Tell all your folklore-y friends!

(If you can't make it to the event, the book is out everywhere now, and is a beautiful little hardback by the National Trust which would make a lovely gift!)

#Booksky
#Folklore

Waterstones Ipswich @waterstonesipswich.bsky.social · 10d

Join us at Waterstones Ipswich, Fri 7th Nov, 7-8.30pm, for An Evening of British Folklore, and step into a year of stories, traditions, and celebrations with #folklore expert Mark Norman (of @folklorepod.bsky.social) as your guide!

Booking essential: www.waterstones.com/events/an-ev...

#Suffolk
💙📚

A picture of Mark's book Britain's Folklore Year, with text:
From wassailing customs to May Day, Straw Bears to Beating the Buns, join us for a journey through the seasons of British
folklore, customs, and
rituals, with folklore
expert and author Mark
Norman as our guide!

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Bookish Scifi & Fantasy @bookishsff.bsky.social · 19h

Your semi-regular @brandonsanderson.com preorder alert! (gosh he writes quickly)

Fancy limited @waterstones.bsky.social editions of Isles of the Emberdark, out on 3rd Feb, now available to reserve here:

www.waterstones.com/book/isles-o...

💙📚🪐
#SFF

A banner with a picture of the book, turned to show off the painted sprayed edges, and the words "Waterstones exclusive special edition"

Bookish Scifi & Fantasy @bookishsff.bsky.social · 19h

Gabriela Romero Lacruz's The River and the Star is now out!

The second part of the Warring Gods duology will enchant and then ruin your heart... Gods and mortals, power and betrayal, in a lush and gripping South American-inspired fantasy world.

Special #spredge editions while stocks last!

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The cover of the special Waterstones edition in purple

The gorgeous gold foil embossed cloth hardback cover underneath the normal slipcover.

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Bookish Scifi & Fantasy @bookishsff.bsky.social · 1d

A tale of folklore, murder, magic and glamour set in Hollywood, from the phenomenal bestselling author of Caraval and Once Upon a Broken Heart, Stephanie Garber!

Alchemy of Secrets is out today 💫

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A copy of the book next to a copy with the jacket removed to show off the gold embossed cloth cover.

A photo of the endpapers, covered in alchemical symbols in embossed gold foil

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Bookish Scifi & Fantasy @bookishsff.bsky.social · 1d

Out today! @richardkadrey.bsky.social's The Flesh King, a macabre and bloody hunt for a flesh-eating monster in NYC.

It's a supernatural horror noir, just in time to join your spooky TBR piles this October...

Even the cover alone is making my skin crawl!

#Horrorsky
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The cover of The Flesh King. It's very good. A monstrous glowing red-eyed torso is split down the middle with bands of flesh stretching between the two halves. Through the middle three tiny human figures in glowing red tumble.

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Jane Johnson @janejohnsonbakrim.bsky.social · 2d

Really looking forward to this new HBO adaptation (coming in January). These stories are wonderful, set around 90 years before A GAME OF THRONES, and I'm so proud to have published them. #books 💙📚

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Bookish Scifi & Fantasy @bookishsff.bsky.social · 2d

To celebrate the release of Haruki Murakami's SUPER-FROG SAVES TOKYO, @waterstones.bsky.social is giving away a specially made Frog plush and an exclusive A4 giclee art print!

GB residents, details here: www.waterstones.com/win/super-fr...

💙📚🪐
#FROG

A prize draw banner with a picture of the book cover, plush, and print

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Bookish Scifi & Fantasy @bookishsff.bsky.social · 2d

Coincidence? 👀

#SuperFrogSavesTokyo

competentposter @competentposter.bsky.social · 4d

wizard frog is insane

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Bookish Scifi & Fantasy @bookishsff.bsky.social · 2d

A man joins forces with a giant frog to save the city in this lovely new hardback edition of Murakami's strange and iconic short story, "Super-Frog Saves Tokyo", now out!

💙📚🪐

A hand holds three copies of the book in a bookshop

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Bookish Scifi & Fantasy @bookishsff.bsky.social · 3d

Enjoy! They've done such a lovely job with these.

Bookish Scifi & Fantasy @bookishsff.bsky.social · 3d

I'm having a nice relaxed day off listening to podcasts ("Can science fiction save us from fascism?" - don't say I don't know how to relax...) and braving the wind for a walk.

Suddenly have a hankering to re-read V for Vendetta later. Tis the season, etc.

💙📚🪐

The Bunker podcast – News without the nonsense @bunkerpod.bsky.social · 6d

🚨OUT NOW🚨
Space-suit vs Jackboot – Can science fiction save us from fascism? Writer, critic and host of a fascinating online science fiction community @damiengwalter.com discusses the lessons of future oligarchs, space tyrants and cosmic populism with @nndroid.bsky.social 👉 linktr.ee/bunker_pod

Reposted by Bookish Scifi & Fantasy

Emma Butler @emmabutler.bsky.social · 3d

In ascension by Martin Macinnes. It’s sci-fi in the same way The Martian is I think - but also like Absolution it’s about biology and botany - but also very very much about people. Very enjoyable

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Lambda Literary @lambdaliterary.org · 4d

🎉🎉🎉 Congratulations to the 2025 Lambda Literary Award Winner for LGBTQ+ Speculative Fiction: Metal From Heaven by August Clarke! 🎉🎉🎉 @sapphomancer.bsky.social @erewhonbooks.bsky.social @kensingtonbooks.bsky.social
#Lammys2025 #LammyAwards

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Bookish Scifi & Fantasy @bookishsff.bsky.social · 3d

It's as good an explanation as any! A link to something lovecraftian feels a bit more interesting than "they would only eat green beans so they turned green"

Bookish Scifi & Fantasy @bookishsff.bsky.social · 3d

(It was a game we run in the interval at an annual charity quiz, this year for Cancer Support Suffolk. It's bigger than it looks, and people can throw a pound coin and try to get it through the hole, if they manage they get a raffle ticket for a very nice hamper)

Bookish Scifi & Fantasy @bookishsff.bsky.social · 3d

I spent my day off yesterday finishing this big map painting of Suffolk for a charity event last night. Snuck in several bits of local #folklore (see if you can spot them all!)

So many more I could have added. Tempted to digitise it and make a proper strange Suffolk map out of it

#painting
#Artsky

A map made of two A2 boards stuck together. Local landmarks and tales are illustrated in black and white, with a green and yellow wash background, and a blue green wash for the sea.
There's a hole in the middle where Ipswich would be.

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Waterstones Swansea @swanseastones.bsky.social · 4d

Doors open in 50 minutes.

Everyone, this is Wilma and Frodo.

Wilma and Frodo, this is everyone.

By day, they are normal, tiny dogs. By night, they solve crimes. Tiny crimes.

Their proudest achievement is that they're Very Good Dogs.

#DogsInBookshops

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Bookish Scifi & Fantasy @bookishsff.bsky.social · 5d

Ooh, bookseller envy...

Waterstones Leicester Highcross @waterstoneslhx.bsky.social · 5d

Got my hands on a proof - 60 pages in, and oh, are we all in for a treat. Loving every word

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Bookish Scifi & Fantasy @bookishsff.bsky.social · 5d

Ooh, I've got book mail from @solarisbooks.bsky.social!

Very excited to start Cry, Voidbringer, as I've been looking for a good "rage against the unfair imperialist system" read to follow on from the excellent Blood Over Bright Haven I finished last week, which ticked all the boxes ❤️🔥🗡️

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A proof of the book with the words "a broken system forges the sharpest blades"

Bookish Scifi & Fantasy @bookishsff.bsky.social · 5d

Have you seen these fancy new sprayed edge editions of Rachel Gillig's dark fantasy One Dark Window and Two Twisted Crowns?

Beautiful work from publisher @orbitbooks.bsky.social!

#Romantasy
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Copies of the book on a table, turned to show off the sprayed edges, and the inside flap of the cover with the author bio

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Bookish Scifi & Fantasy @bookishsff.bsky.social · 5d

Ipswich Book Festival starts this afternoon!

www.ipswichbookfestival.com

#IpswichBookFestival
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An image showing the timetable of events for the festival. Details can be found at the website.

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SF & F Poetry Assn @sfpoetry.bsky.social · 6d

Announcing the 2025 Rhysling Award Winners

The Rhysling Award honors the year's best in speculative poetry ✨

Nominees were selected by the membership of the Science Fiction Poetry Association. Each member is allowed to nominate one work in each of two categories: Long and Short poem

thread/

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Bookish Scifi & Fantasy @bookishsff.bsky.social · 6d

Medlock by SG Hartnell gives a gothic sinister twist to the classic Secret Garden story...

When newcomer Mary arrives at Marwood, housekeeper Mrs Medlock fears she may unearth deadly secrets kept safe in the manor's walled gardens. Tragic, macabre, and twisty!

Out today in hardback

💙📚🪐
#Horrorsky

A hand holds a copy of the book in a bookshop. On the cover a manor house against a red sky, formal gardens with hedge knots in the foreground.

Bookish Scifi & Fantasy @bookishsff.bsky.social · 6d

Shy Trans Banshee by Tony Santorella is published today!

This follow up to Bored Gay Werewolf sees the crew trying to track down a missing colleague in London. It's dark, hilarious, and full of heart 🐺🖤

💙📚🪐
#NewBooks

A hand holds a copy of the book in a bookshop. A glowing blue screaming banshee face on a black background, with bold white lettering for the title above and below it.

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Bookish Scifi & Fantasy @bookishsff.bsky.social · 6d

Love at First Fright by @nadiaelfassi.bsky.social is a brand new spicy #romantasy, in which a horror writer and the lead in the Hollywood adaptation of her book find their growing attraction derailed by a horde of ghosts in the haunted mansion set...

Out today, with #Spredges!

💙📚🪐

A pile of the book in a bookshop, some turned to show off the brilliant purple sprayed edge spredges.

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Bookish Scifi & Fantasy @bookishsff.bsky.social · 6d

Lots of SFF publishing today to kick the month off, but our lift was out of action so it was a bit of a frantic day involving an ungodly amount of stairs. I didn't have time to pause and take many photos!