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Dan Hartland @danhartland.bsky.social · 21h

Always happy to carry an Electra Pritchett review - you can rely on her for incisive genre analysis worn enviably lightly.

Case in point, here she is on The Witch Roads by Kate Elliott (@tordotcom.bsky.social): "If epic fantasy is about scale, then Elliott has written the best I’ve read in years."

The Witch Roads by Kate Elliott

The Witch Roads may be Elliott's most concise and economical book yet.

strangehorizons.com

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Strange Horizons @strangehorizons.bsky.social · 1d

Critical Friends Episode 16 is out now!

Have you ever felt that a novel was too long? Or perhaps too short?

Dan Hartland @danhartland.bsky.social discusses what drives those feelings with Redfern Jon Barrett @redfernjon.bsky.social and Nileena Sunil!

Link ⬇️
strangehorizons.com/wordpress/po...

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 short or not long enough: what's behind that feeling we have that a text is lacking something, …

strangehorizons.com

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Nefarious Bat Press @nefariousbatpress.bsky.social · 1d

It's Prime Day... so please consider buying your books direct from (ideally indie) bookstores and publishers today, instead of from the Big River that's gouging us all into penury

We'd love you to grab one of our books, from our estore or as a signed paperback

But really: any indie is good :)

Nefarious Bat Press

We're a female-owned independent publisher specialising in queer horror, crime and dark fiction

payhip.com

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Dan Hartland @danhartland.bsky.social · 2d

📣 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

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Niall Harrison @niallharrison.bsky.social · 3d

"When We are Wolves Again is not only the novel we have been waiting for from E. J. Swift, one of the UK’s brightest younger talents in speculative fiction, but the novel we also have been waiting for as readers." Amen to that. strangehorizons.com/wordpress/no...

When There are Wolves Again by E.J. Swift

When There Are Wolves Again is, put simply, the most important, the most courageous, the most uplifting novel I have read in years.

strangehorizons.com

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Dan Hartland @danhartland.bsky.social · 3d

Paul March-Russell on EJ Swift: "in electing to write against the white noise of voices prophesying doom, Swift’s turn to the utopian is courageous ... [it's] a viable demonstration of how we can meet the greatest challenges that face us as a community."

A review, and a novel, which demands notice.

Niall Harrison @niallharrison.bsky.social · 3d

"When We are Wolves Again is not only the novel we have been waiting for from E. J. Swift, one of the UK’s brightest younger talents in speculative fiction, but the novel we also have been waiting for as readers." Amen to that. strangehorizons.com/wordpress/no...

When There are Wolves Again by E.J. Swift

When There Are Wolves Again is, put simply, the most important, the most courageous, the most uplifting novel I have read in years.

strangehorizons.com

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Strange Horizons @strangehorizons.bsky.social · 4d

The reviews are in!

Black Hole Heart and Other Stories by K. A. Teryna, translated by Alex Shvartsman
by Rachel Cordasco

Contra Amatores Mundi: A Gothic Fantasy by Graham Thomas Wilcox
by Matt Holder

The Entanglement of Rival Wizards by Sara Raasch
by Cameron Miguel

Link to latest issue in bio!

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cover of Black Hole Heart and Other Stories by K. A. Teryna, translated by Alex Shvartsman featuring a heart shaped hole with animals and clouds and a person fishing in it.

Right
REVIEWS
Quote
"The stories in Black Hole Heart refuse to be labeled. They burst from the confines of the page, swirling and switching genre gears, leaving the reader wondering what’s coming next."
reviewer: Rachel Cordasco

29 September 2025
Strange Horizons

Left
cover of Contra Amatores Mundi: A Gothic Fantasy by Graham Thomas Wilcox featuring two gothic relief panels one of a person in a suit of armor and the other in a nun's habit.

Right
REVIEWS
Quote
"The language is inseparable from both the human artist invested in strange and ornamental mode of storytelling and from the storytelling itself. It is the one element that above and beyond transports the reader to a truly alien, medieval world."
reviewer: Matt Holder

29 September 2025
Strange Horizons

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cover of The Entanglement of Rival Wizards by Sara Raasch featuring a blonde man leaning on a table looking up at the blushing tattooed half-elf.

Right
REVIEWS
Quote
"With that frequent foreshadowing, the respectful approach she takes to sensitive topics, and the way she melds healing and romance, I am beyond pleased that I read this novel; if I outlined every stellar moment we’d be here for hours."
reviewer: Cameron Miguel

29 September 2025
Strange Horizons

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Dan Hartland @danhartland.bsky.social · 5d

While we're on the question of @strangehorizons.bsky.social's 25th, I should say that the same week - oddly enough - sees my 20th anniversary with the magazine. (I began reviewing in the cradle, of course.)

On 26 Sep, 2005, SH published a little-noted Battlestar Galactica review.

Battlestar Galactica, season two: the opening quartet

Almost all television shows, from ER to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, reach a point at which they cease to revolve around their concepts and begin to focus with great import on the tortured souls of th…

strangehorizons.com

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Dan Hartland @danhartland.bsky.social · 5d

The last review of the 25th-anniversary issue is from Cameron Miguel, who I'm happy to say has also just become our staff's latest recruit, as one of our amazing band of copyeditors.

They write about Sara Raasch, who in this wizarding romance "demonstrates equal respect for consent and boundaries."

The Entanglement of Rival Wizards by Sara Raasch

The addition of the recent subgenre of sports romance into this fantasy world offers a new, refreshing spin on a recurring trope.

strangehorizons.com

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lor gislason @lormaggot.ca · 5d

Hello y'all!! I'm promoting my upcoming novella COSMIC DYKE PATROL which u can preorder here. ghoulish.rip/product/cosm... I even made a lil poster!

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Dan Hartland @danhartland.bsky.social · 7d

Oh, hi. Yes, there’s a Wednesday review: it’s @mattholder93.bsky.social on the medievalist gothic fantasy of Graham Thomas Wilcox:

“Readers of Clark Ashton Smith or Wolfe will find much to enjoy in Wilcox’s baroque presentation, each sentence buttressed with beautiful crenellations and frescoes.”

Contra Amatores Mundi: A Gothic Fantasy by Graham Thomas Wilcox

Contra Amatores Mundi is a love story soaked in martial theology and stylistic decadence.

www.strangehorizons.com

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Maria Haskins @mariahaskins.com · 8d

Strange Horizons turns 25 this year, which is pretty much an eternity in the world of spec fic zines, and I had the privilege of going through the archives for a special short fiction roundup: 2 x 25 Gems from Strange Horizons’ Archives

strangehorizons.com/wordpress/fi...

A Short Fiction Treasures Special: 2 x 25 Gems from Strange Horizons’ Archives

Going through the archives of Strange Horizons for this special column has been a bit like exploring a treasure chamber. I’ve picked fifty stories. I could have picked hundreds. Meaning: I left a l…

strangehorizons.com

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Raven Books @bloomsburyraven.bsky.social · 8d

We’re delighted that Richard Strachan's atmospheric debut, The Unrecovered, has been chosen as Waterstones Scottish Book of the Month!

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Dan Hartland @danhartland.bsky.social · 9d

It's SH's 25th birthday! Three reviews as ever this week, with the first from @rachelcordasco.bsky.social: a short fiction collection from KA Teryna, translated Alex Shvartsman for @patrickswenson.bsky.social's Fairwood Press.

"The stories in Black Hole Heart refuse to be labeled," Rachel writes.

Black Hole Heart and Other Stories by K. A. Teryna, translated by Alex Shvartsman

These stories are genre-bending explorations of how protagonists deal with unusual and unexpected situations.

strangehorizons.com

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Strange Horizons @strangehorizons.bsky.social · 10d

Mapping the Interior by Stephen Graham Jones
reviewed by Phoenix Scholz

Menacing Environments by Benjamin Bigelow
reviewed by Octavia Cade

The Afterlife Project by Tim Weed
reviewed by Jacqueline Nyathi

Link to the latest issue in our bio!

#horror #sciencefiction #scifi #sff #bookreviews

Left
cover of Mapping the Interior by Stephen Graham Jones featuring a cut out of a feather dripping blood with the image of a neon purple mobile home inside.

Right
REVIEWS
Quote
"This ghost story may well be the most visceral way to teach others what it means continuously to try to get your community’s potential back, and in the process always to find out that it isn’t you who is calling the shots."
reviewer: Phoenix Scholz

22 September 2025
Strange Horizons

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cover of Menacing Environments by Benjamin Bigelow featuring a view looking up into bare black trees against a red sky.

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REVIEWS
Quote
"Where these films sit in national and regional histories of cinema, and how they relate to any environmental and horrific presentations in the films around them, is something that could have been gone into in more depth, I think. As it is, they are illustrations of a proffered theme, illuminating but not entirely comprehensive."
reviewer: Octavia Cade

22 September 2025
Strange Horizons

Left
cover of The Afterlife Project by Tim Weed featuring a painting of a lush green landscape.

Right
REVIEWS
Quote
"Having given up on humanity, Weed offers then in The Afterlife Project a different hope—not, in the end, the furtherance of H. sapiens, but the possibility—even probability—of life on Earth proceeding by other means."
reviewer: Jacqueline Nyathi

22 September 2025
Strange Horizons

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Dan Hartland @danhartland.bsky.social · 12d

The final review over at SH this week is @hararereview.bsky.social on Tim Weed's The Afterlife Project: "Having given up on humanity, Weed offers in The Afterlife Project a different hope—the possibility, even probability, of life on Earth proceeding by other means."

The Afterlife Project by Tim Weed

It may feel like apocalypse has always been with us in the sense of the end of the world—only it hasn’t, really.

strangehorizons.com

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Hana Carolina @hanacarolina.bsky.social · 13d

Thank you 🥰🥰🥰

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Hana Carolina @hanacarolina.bsky.social · 14d

Excited to share a new flash in Literally Stories!

Burnout and modern frustrations meet ghosts. Can we truly imagine other experiences, other lives?

A fleeting dream turned into a tiny story 👻✨

share.google/hDJEx0N2QjVC...

Timeless Sympathy by Hana Carolina

Our house was what dreams were made of—a hazy vision of lost grandeur, countless rooms, and long corridors leading to an airy parlour. A crumbling gilded ceiling glittered in the light seeping thro…

share.google

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Hana Carolina @hanacarolina.bsky.social · 14d

Excited to share a new flash in Literally Stories!

Burnout and modern frustrations meet ghosts. Can we truly imagine other experiences, other lives?

A fleeting dream turned into a tiny story 👻✨

share.google/hDJEx0N2QjVC...

Timeless Sympathy by Hana Carolina

Our house was what dreams were made of—a hazy vision of lost grandeur, countless rooms, and long corridors leading to an airy parlour. A crumbling gilded ceiling glittered in the light seeping thro…

share.google

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Runalong Womble @runalongwomble.bsky.social · 21d

New Review - a really impressive science fiction story exploring themes of identity and memory. Highly recommend if The Stars Are Lit by @skateellis.bsky.social out now via @lunapress.bsky.social www.runalongtheshelves.net/blog/2025/9/...

If The Stars Are Lit by Sara K Ellis — Runalong The Shelves

Publisher – Luna Press Publishing Published – Out Now Price – £13.57 paperback £4.99 ebook If the Stars Are Lit is a speculative mystery exploring the implications of AI, memory, and loss. ...

www.runalongtheshelves.net

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Dan Hartland @danhartland.bsky.social · 14d

It’s always a good day when we publish @octavia-cade.bsky.social on climate, and here she is on Benjamin Bigelow on ecohorror in Nordic cinema (@uwapress.uw.edu): “films … hold a mirror to human and environmental interaction, how the exploitation of natural resources is integrated into culture.”

Menacing Environments by Benjamin Bigelow

Nordic horror films, says Bigelow, hold a mirror to human and environmental interaction.

www.strangehorizons.com

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Dan Hartland @danhartland.bsky.social · 15d

Monday’s review at @strangehorizons.bsky.social is from the always excellent Phoenix Scholz, on a reissue of Mapping The Interior from @tordotcom.bsky.social’s Nightfire imprint. It affords an ideal opportunity to sit with and return to a book that Phoenix “hope[s] makes you as angry as it does me.”

Mapping the Interior by Stephen Graham Jones

This novel's concept of reality can sometimes leave the reader in a difficult spot and with a double perspective.

www.strangehorizons.com

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Divination Hollow Reviews @divinationhollow.bsky.social · 19d

For one day - Queer Your eReader! Grab some books from multiple genres - Fantasy, Horror, Romance, Sci-Fi & Mystery/Thriller!

divinationhollow.com/queer-your-e...

Queer Your eReader — Divination Hollow Reviews

divinationhollow.com

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Dan Hartland @danhartland.bsky.social · 19d

Two more reviews for this week:

@amritesh.bsky.social on @willthisbeaproblem.bsky.social Volume 5 ("to witness these stories is to dream without apology").

@subham6.bsky.social on Olivie Blake's Gifted & Talented, from @tordotcom.bsky.social ("Blake offers no easy answers, and that’s the point").

15 September 2025

Visit the post for more.

www.strangehorizons.com

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Amy DeBellis @amykdebellis.bsky.social · 20d

I’ve got 20 signed copies of my debut novel ALL OUR TOMORROWS that I’d love to send out into the world.

Each copy is wrapped by hand and comes with three character art bookmarks + a bonus cover art bookmark.

Limited to 20 — once they’re gone, that’s it. Link in bio to grab one 💌💗 US only, sorry!

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