Looking for 2015 SF&F Recommendations!

[rowyn]

Next year, I'll be going to MidAmericon, the 2016 WorldCon. This means I'll be eligible to make Hugo nominations!

Which means that I should read some SF&F that was written this year.

Because I have a habit of reading only work that's been recommended to me, and I'm too cheap to buy hardcovers/e-books priced like hardcovers, my reading is rarely anything published in the last 12 months. But hey, I can check stuff out from the library and even figure out the nationwide-interlibrary loan system again if I have to! And indie books are usually reasonably priced even when new. LET'S DO THIS.

So if you know any good sf&f that came out this year (including your own!), please let me know. I am especially interested in short fiction -- I actually know 2 novels to nominate already -- but anything is good.  If it's something you enjoyed but feel is a "guilty pleasure" or "not literary enough for an award" or whatever, please recommend it anyway. I like light fluffy stories and will be happy to nominate a good one for an award.

Comments

[argonel.livejournal.com]

A not very helpful suggestion I'm afraid, but I just started a kindle unlimited subscription. It is a flat $10 a month to read as much as you want from the books in the program and the authors get paid. The problem is still what to read, but it opens the doors to a lot of ebooks for a flat fee.

[rowyn]

I am really leery of Kindle Unlimited: for one thing, KU enrollment requires (at least of self-pub) that the book be ONLY available on Amazon. Amazon has plenty of monopoly power as it is. :/

Besides, my local library system has like 90% of trad published books in its catalogue, so the books I feel are budget busters are available for free that way anyhow. :)

[alinsa.livejournal.com]

I heard about this one polyamorous romance story...

[rowyn]

I think I've read that one already. Thanks!

[benalene.livejournal.com]

I think Hugh Howey (author of Wool) has come out (or is coming out) with a new series called Beacon23. I really enjoyed his Wool series, and have been meaning to try his other works, including this one. I think it is a series of short stories. If you have unlimited on Amazon, they are free. Otherwise, $0.99.

[rowyn]

*downloads a sample of Beacon23* Though I admit that the format ("I will release parts 1-5 as individual books for $0.99 each, when all five together would make one shortish book") is kind of a turn off for me. But I can give it a chance!

[benalene.livejournal.com]

I wasn't sure how long each individual one was. Are they like, chapter length??

[rowyn]

Yes, each one is around 20-40 pages, per Amazon.

The "break the story into little chunks" reminds me of a Kindle Unlimited revenue-maximizing scheme: originally Amazon paid KU authors by how many "e-books" were downloaded through KU. So you'd make 5x as much off KU readers if you had five 40-page ebooks than if you had one 200 page book. Recently, Amazon switched to paying authors by the number of pages readers read, so there was no incentive to break a story into mulitple "ebooks".

I don't know if that was this author's motive, or if the author just feels that each novelette stands well on its own, or what. But the superficial appearance is not a positive one, for me. :|

[benalene.livejournal.com]

I think he did a similar thing with Wool, and then collected it all into an Omnibus later. I couldn't guess at his motives. But if you don't like it, since I suggested it to you, I'll buy you another .99 cent book of your choosing!

[aliettedb.livejournal.com]

Novel: Zen Cho's Sorcerer to the Crown, fantasy Regency with the first Black magician in the UK, familiars, and a very determined young woman... Ken Liu's The Grace of King, which is like a cross between Three Kingdoms and Tolkien.
Mine is out this month as well: The House of Shattered Wings, set in a post-magical-apocalypse Paris with witches, alchemists, Fallen angels and entirely too many dead bodies.

In short fiction I've loved Isabel Yap's Milagroso on Tor.com: http://www.tor.com/2015/08/12/milagroso-isabel-yap/ and Usman T Malik's "The Pauper Prince and the Eucalyptus Jinn" http://www.tor.com/2015/04/22/the-pauper-prince-and-the-eucalyptus-jinn-usman-malik/

[rowyn]

Congrats on your book! Nice elevator pitch you have for it. :) *snags a sample*

Hmm, The Grace of Kings looks like "my ebook edition is on sale right now because my author translated the Best Novel winner", so I think I will just buy it now.

Sorcer is not quuuuite out yet, so I'll get a sample of it next time I cruise through this list.

Thank you for the recommendations!

[birdsedge.livejournal.com]

Well, my second book, Crossways, came out on 4th August from DAW, though maybe you need to read Empire of Dust first (November 2014)

[rowyn]

Hey, congrats! *grabs a sample*

[prezzey.livejournal.com]

Sorry, the new LJ interface surprised me - writing a comment right now. Not sure how to delete the preceding?

[rowyn]

It looks like you figured out how to delete it, and then accidentally deleted your actual comment! I got it in email so I'm pasting it back in here for reference. :D If you actually deleted it on purpose, lemme know and I'll remove this comment too.

Thanks for the links!

*

Hi,

I have semi-daily SFF recommendations on Twitter under #diversestories and #diversepoems - I also gather them on my website. I have a lot of 2015 stuff, but also earlier work. For example, this is the Mar-Apr roundup.

Around awards time, I also tend to post recommendations specifically focused on awards (Hugo, Nebula, Rhysling, Carl Brandon usually).

Hope this helps a bit!

[rowyn]

Oooh, nevermind. LJ flagged your comment as "suspicious" because of the combination of "user who isn't a friend" and "link". I've unflagged it. :)

[prezzey.livejournal.com]

Yes, it told me it was categorized as spam! I looked around like a plonk but couldn't figure out what to do about it, and then I tried to locate you on Twitter to ask you - unsuccessfully. I did see your original link on Twitter, but it was swallowed up by the giant blue bird. O.o

[rowyn]

Yup, LJ used to have a huge problem with spammers using comments for SEO sleaze, so they took aggressive measures to prevent it from working. It actually works out fine -- I still get emailed your comment, so I know it's there, and I can unmoderate it with a button click or two. But it looks like either LJ switched to putting them behind a "suspicious comments" button, or they roll up all the flagged comments on a post if you get more than one, and I'm just not used to getting more than one. :)

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

I'm trying to think of anything I've read recently that wasn't either a novel or fanfiction. I'm pretty sure fanfiction is disqualified. For one thing, it has to be published, right?

[rowyn]

Uhhhh ...

Actually.

There is nothing in the rules that says fanfiction is disqualified. And the rules say explicitly that works "made available on a website" are eligible. So I guess they are?

*pokes around the net* And, in fact, the author of HPMOR was asking for it to be nominated for the Best Novel Hugo in 2016. Which would be the eligible year.

Huh. Interesting.

I suspect HPMOR is not gonna make my best-novel shortlist ultimately, but I will keep it in mind!

[archangelbeth]

HM!

In that case, I suggest:

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11095590/1/World-Too-Small (Unfinished, but I wonder if you can nominate a chapter?)

Possibly http://archiveofourown.org/works/4017901/chapters/9048439 , which is shameless of me. ^_^

Anything by fadeaccompli that qualifies; I think some of her Jupiter Ascending fic is finished? http://archiveofourown.org/users/fadeaccompli/pseuds/fadeaccompli (One of these days, her original fic is gonna get picked up, and I will happydance.)

Not fanfic: I don't know how they're going to want to handle the UK/US publication differences (not to mention the ebook/physbook ones...), but there's Genevieve Cogman's The Invisible Library and/or The Masked City (forthcoming). They're fun.

*gets distracted by the new fadefic*

[prezzey.livejournal.com]

Hi,

I have semi-daily SFF recommendations on Twitter under #diversestories and #diversepoems - I also gather them on my website (http://prezzey.net/). I have a lot of 2015 stuff, but also earlier work. For example, this is the Mar-Apr roundup (http://www.prezzey.net/2015/diversestories-diversepoems-recs-mar-apr-2015/).

Around awards time, I also tend to post recommendations specifically focused on awards (Hugo, Nebula, Rhysling, Carl Brandon usually).

Hope this helps a bit!

[mrw42.livejournal.com]

I expect to be going to MidAmericon, too. I hope to see you there!

[rowyn]

Squeeeeeee! I look forward to seeing you there! Eeee!

Good sf&f reads

[(Anonymous)]

Aliette de Bodard's classy and classical The House of Shattered Wings naturally, but also waiting in the sidelines and I can heartily recommend: The Gameshouse, a set of three novella's by Claire North that add up to one stunning read published by Orion and due out next month,and a first novel by Catriona Ward, Rawblood... darkly gothic and immensely spooky writing spanning two centuries, also due out next month and well worth waiting for!

RE: Good sf&f reads

[rowyn]

I will look for those when they come out! Grabbed a sample of The House of Shattered Wings while I was thinking about it.

[emgrasso.livejournal.com]

Have you seen Uprooted by Naomi Norvik?
Or Karen Memory by Elizabeth Bear?
Or Forgotten Suns by Judith Tarr?

That's one each fairy tale, steampunk and space opera, all with diverse characters and relationships.

[rowyn]

*puts Uprooted on reserve at the library, gets samples for the other two*

[archangelbeth]

1: Toad Words by T. Kingfisher, as a lead-in to Byrony and Roses. (As mentioned on Twitter! Also Nine Goblins, ditto.)

2: ...oh, blast, http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/lee_07_14/ is 2014. Maybe look for more by this author? I should do that...

[rowyn]

And I was really hoping that "The Contemporary Foxwife" would be from 2015! I know I read it earlier this year. The author has a flashfic collection up: http://www.amazon.com/Foxs-Tower-Other-Tales-ebook/dp/B00ZOLSBME/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1434390783&sr=8-10&keywords=the+fox%27s+tower , and it was published this year, so there's some stuff in it that's eligible. Will have to double-check which stories, since looks like the author web-posted most but not all of the flashfics before putting it out as a collection.

[archangelbeth]

Fingers crossed!