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Niall Harrison @niallharrison.bsky.social · 47m

And this is an indirect connection, but the discussion of hope made me think of KSR's "A History of the Twentieth Century, with Illustrations", which rather miraculously is still online at InfinityPlus: www.infinityplus.co.uk/stories/hist...

A History of the Twentieth Century, with Illustrations - a novelette by Kim Stanley Robinson

The Twentieth Century: an age of mass destruction and suffering. Frank Churchill: a historian, an author charged with summing up this period. A powerful reflection on what we have been, what we are an...

www.infinityplus.co.uk

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Niall Harrison @niallharrison.bsky.social · 49m

Great piece. What I particularly like in here is the discussion of the novel's balance between witnessing and acting as responses to things in the world.

Roseanna Pendlebury @chloroformtea.bsky.social · 2h

I only finished it yesterday but When There Are Wolves Again by E. J. Swift was so good (and so singular), I couldn't help but write about it immediately.

When There Are Wolves Again – E. J. Swift

The new novel from the author of The Coral Bones1, When There Are Wolves Again follows two women in Britain from the present, stretching out across the years into the future of the late 21st centur…

readerofelse.wordpress.com

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Niall Harrison @niallharrison.bsky.social · 1d

I apologise for doubting

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Niall Harrison @niallharrison.bsky.social · 1d

Please lord tell me that is highlight on the image and not on the actual book

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Reposted by Niall Harrison

Locus Magazine @locusmag.bsky.social · 1d

“THE CREATOR is a more ambiguous title than it first appears, with every character in the story fitting the role at one point or another.” @niallharrison reviews Aliya Whiteley

SHORT TAKE: The Creator by Aliya Whiteley: Review by Niall Harrison

The Creator, Aliya Whiteley (NewCon Press 978-1-914-95398-9, £8.99, 104pp, tp) May 2025. Cover by Ian Whates. NewCon Press’s latest batch of novellas is led off by the latest from Aliya Whiteley. I…

locusmag.com

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Reposted by Niall Harrison

Niall Harrison @niallharrison.bsky.social · 2d

"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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Niall Harrison @niallharrison.bsky.social · 2d

a man wearing glasses says i never said thank you

Alt: gif from either The Dark Knight or The Dark Knight Rises, can't remember which, of Commissioner Gordon saying "I never said thank you" and Batman saying "and you'll never have to". It's funny because I'm comparing Dan to Batman.

media.tenor.com

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Niall Harrison @niallharrison.bsky.social · 2d

Maybe this will help us bsky.app/profile/danh...

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 · 2d

"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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Reposted by Niall Harrison

Niall Harrison @niallharrison.bsky.social · 3d

A brief piece on Aliya Whiteley's latest novella: locusmag.com/review/short...

SHORT TAKE: The Creator by Aliya Whiteley: Review by Niall Harrison

The Creator, Aliya Whiteley (NewCon Press 978-1-914-95398-9, £8.99, 104pp, tp) May 2025. Cover by Ian Whates. NewCon Press’s latest batch of novellas is led off by the latest from Aliya Whiteley. I…

locusmag.com

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Niall Harrison @niallharrison.bsky.social · 2d

I've already been thinking about this, and I'm not sure what "justifying" means. Is it the opportunity cost thing, do I have to conclude that it is better than four normal novels? Does it have to do something that can *only* be done at this scale? Is it enough if I just enjoy the time spent?

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Niall Harrison @niallharrison.bsky.social · 2d

It is doing a *lot*, but still.

Niall Harrison @niallharrison.bsky.social · 2d

And based on what I've just googled/estimated, Ice is a comfortable 100k longer than the Goddard! It is probably more words than everything I read for my last Locus column put together. It's a good thing I have a few days off next week otherwise there is no way I would make it by deadline.

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Niall Harrison @niallharrison.bsky.social · 2d

It definitely does have that thing where you have to make the mental adjustment of, right, I am reading this Very Long Book, I am giving myself over to its pace and rhythm, this is my life now for the next few weeks, I accept the opportunity cost and am at peace with it.

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Niall Harrison @niallharrison.bsky.social · 2d

In this limited and specific case, yes, part of me wishes they had sent an eARC rather than a physical one.

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Niall Harrison @niallharrison.bsky.social · 2d

(It is also not *great* for female characters so far, but maybe that will change.)

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Niall Harrison @niallharrison.bsky.social · 2d

It is slow going and quite intoxicating and I feel I can dimly perceive the shape it is building but who knows.

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Niall Harrison @niallharrison.bsky.social · 2d

By which I mean it is about the understanding of History and its processes, as explored through philosophical dialogues and as reported by an unreliable narrator. Or perhaps a narrator more honest than any other.

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Niall Harrison @niallharrison.bsky.social · 2d

I have now read 325 pages, or five chapters, or perhaps 125,000 words, or about one-quarter of this novel. So far it's a little bit like Ian R MacLeod's The Light Ages rewritten in collaboration by Ada Palmer and Thomas Mann.

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Niall Harrison @niallharrison.bsky.social · 3d

Londoners may be interested in this event events.bl.uk/events/ice-a...

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Niall Harrison @niallharrison.bsky.social · 3d

A brief piece on Aliya Whiteley's latest novella: locusmag.com/review/short...

SHORT TAKE: The Creator by Aliya Whiteley: Review by Niall Harrison

The Creator, Aliya Whiteley (NewCon Press 978-1-914-95398-9, £8.99, 104pp, tp) May 2025. Cover by Ian Whates. NewCon Press’s latest batch of novellas is led off by the latest from Aliya Whiteley. I…

locusmag.com

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Niall Harrison @niallharrison.bsky.social · 5d

The Wikipedia listing of potato organisations seems deeply inadequate en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Categor...

Category:Potato organizations - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

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Niall Harrison @niallharrison.bsky.social · 5d

Ireland seems to have a Potato Federation with a National Potato Committee

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Niall Harrison @niallharrison.bsky.social · 5d

Google reveals that there is EUPPA, the European Potato Processors' Association; EAPR, the European Association for Potato Research; the brilliantly named Europatat, the European Potato Trade Association; and AHDB Potatoes, a UK-specific organisation that was *previously* known as the Potato Council

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Reposted by Niall Harrison

File 770 @file770.bsky.social · 5d

Conrad Loyer Wins 2025 Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award
file770.com/conrad-loyer...

Conrad Loyer Wins 2025 Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award

Conrad Loyer Conrad Loyer’s “The Carcossa Pattern,” published by Fiyah Magazine, is the winner of the 2025 Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award for best science fiction short story published in 2024. T…

file770.com

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