After a mammoth fifth birthday extravaganza last year, this year’s Subjective Chaos Awards are back – a little older, a little wiser, and a little more focused. Once again, a chaotic panel of readers and reviewers have read, wrangled and agonised our way into an entirely subjective selection of the best works of speculative fiction published in the previous calendar year. Let’s take a look at this year’s nominees…
bite-size
In 2022, I set myself the multi-year ‘challenge’ of reading the anthologies on my shelves. I’m starting my 2023 bite-size adventures with Opulent Syntax, Neon Hemlock’s latest anthology of speculative fiction – a gorgeous collection of tales by Irish writers.
Welcome back to Spooktastic Bite-size Reads, where my 2022 challenge to read (some of) the amazing anthologies on my shelves embraces the darker side of fantasy. This week I’m completing my journey around This Dreaming Isle with uncanny tales inspired by British cities and coastline.
Welcome to Spooktastic Reads! I’m kicking off 13 days of celebrating the darker side of fantasy with a return to Bite-size Reads, my 2022 challenge to read (some of) the amazing anthologies on my shelves. Having trotted the globe with Chinese SF and African horror, for Spooktastic Reads I’m staying on home shores with some uncanny British tales.
Welcome back to Bite-size Reads, where it’s my final round-up of the dark and haunting tales of African Monsters, edited by Margrét Helgadóttir and Jo Thomas.
Welcome back to Bite-size Reads, where I’m currently enjoying tales collected by Margrét Helgadóttir and Jo Thomas. It’s time to be haunted and horrified by some more African Monsters…
Welcome back to Bite-size Reads, my 2022 challenge to read (some of) the amazing anthologies on my shelves. It’s been a long while since Sinopticon, and today I’m on the trail of African Monsters – the second volume of the globe-trotting Fox Spirit Book of Monsters.
Our fifth annual Subjective Chaos Kind of Awards have been simmering away over the summer as our panellists have read and agonised their way through the excellent shortlists. It’s time to turn up the heat as we reveal our finalists in each category!
For our fifth year of the Subjective Chaos Kind of Awards, we have stacked our judging panel – and consequently our shortlists – with excellent folk. I’ll be reading and reviewing in batches, starting today with two novellas that focus on very different takes on time travel.
Five years ago, C of The Middle Shelf floated the idea of a jury-based award given by a panel of bloggers to their pick of the best works of genre fiction each year. Fast forward to 2022 and our fifth annual Subjective Chaos Kind of Awards will be bigger and more chaotic than ever, with more categories, more nominees and more opinions. Buckle up, it’s time to say hello to our 2022 panel and subjective shortlist!
Welcome back to Bite-size Reads, my 2022 challenge to read (some of) the amazing anthologies on my shelves. Today I’m looking at the final batch of stories from Sinopticon, a curated collection of Chinese SF translated and presented by Xueting Ni.
Generations past, the robots of Panga achieved sentience and were unhappy with their lot. When humanity gave them their freedom, they disappeared into the wilderness. Now, they are ready to make contact again – and a restless young tea monk will be asked the biggest question: what makes humanity happy?
Welcome back to Bite-size Reads, my 2022 challenge to read (some of) the amazing anthologies on my shelves. Today I’m looking at my second batch of stories from Sinopticon, a curated collection of Chinese SF translated and presented by Xueting Ni.
A young scholar explores and documents the House, an endless palace of vestibules, halls and statues lapped by ceaseless tides. As he tries to makes sense of his world, he finds himself increasingly driven to keep secrets from the Other. Does his only friend – the only other living person in the House – really have Piranesi’s best interests at heart?