A novella that effortlessly slides from science fiction to elements of fantasy and mythology and allegory to tell a moderate near future story set off the coast of Nigeria. Yekini has a problem. She is a midder, working and living on the middle levels of the Pinnacle, the last of the Fingers, the last of an ark/arcology built off of the Nigerian coast. She has by luck and dint of effort escaped her lower class origins. Or so she has thought, until an assignment sends her with the higher class administrator Ngozi down undersea, to the levels of the Pinnacle underneath the waves. There Ngozi ..read more

  The Ignyte Awards have just announced their much anticipated 2024 shortlist, and it is, as ever, a fantastic set of nominees (not that we're biased from last year or anything). There's a huge amount to dig into here, but I'm going to focus on the categories where I've read some or all of the finalists, and so feel like I have something significant to say - this is no shade on the rest, and I have no doubt they're all brilliant, but as someone who doesn't read, for example, middle grade, I'm not sure my uninformed opinion helps anyone. If you're interested in the full shortlist, you ..read more

Sony's newest live-service game leaves much to be desired. The release of Overwatch turned a lot of heads in 2016 (and way fewer with the release of Overwatch 2 in 2022). Many clones were created in and around the time of the original’s release, with claims of copycat being echoed through the halls of the video game community (despite many of the games being in development at the same time). But with the fall of Overwatch over time and the rise of its toxic community, I thought we wouldn’t see much in the way of a new hero shooter any time soon. How wrong I was. And of all the publishers, S ..read more

The scariest movie of the year so far delivers a tense and creepy 1990s-set serial killer procedural that plays out like a long episode of the X-files. (spoiler free) I saw Longlegs last Tuesday and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it – it's that good.  As a caveat, I'm a big horror fan, and nearly nothing scares me. The only movies I tend to avoid are over-the-top generational trauma A24 movies like Hereditary. But reviewing (and even recommending!) genre films can be hard because non-fans tend to criticize the very things that tend to be hallmarks of the genre — things like ..read more

b̷̞̝͓̬͇̲̤̫͂̾͌̾e̵̡̳̲̖̫͚̩̓h̸̜͕̝̪͗̀͆̽̅͋̒͊̄̈̐̐͠͝ò̶͎̩͔͎̝̩̣̙͇͇̞̔̂ļ̶̭̻̪̇̔̃̍̇̐́͘̕̕d̸̺̝̬̬̰̈́͝,̶̛͔̬̭͔̱͆͋̋̋͝ ̶̢̝̦̣̱̖͔͙͚̪͇̼͕̤̬̆̈́̍̈́̓͠h̷̢͎̹͇̯̆̐̏̓͗̅͆̆̎̐̕̕͝ŭ̶̧̺̙̠̤͙̞̥̠̲͇̈́̕͘͜͝͝ḿ̷̫͇̜̥̯̥̗̰͔͚̅̊̓̔̎̈́͘͜͝a̷̜̻̝͓̪̺͕̤̱̐͆͊̀͜ͅň̷̢̫̻͚̥̙̤̙̘̤s̸̢̐̉̐̽̔̂̎͗̿͛͊̕̕̕,̵̡̖̠̠̙̪͉̭̜̳̗̩̮͐͗͋̇ ̴̨̟͉̰̞̞͇̮͂̐̄̋̅̄́̐̓̎͊̏͜t̶͙̮̓̆͛̈́̊ẖ̶̝̀̂̒̂̂͐̌̕ȩ̷̧̟̫̤̲͊͋̏̅̚͝ ̶̢͈̹̜̣̭̲̤̖̼͇͂̀̀̇̀̾̌̚ͅͅF̸̥̟̜̗͙̺͎̩̲͂̎́̈́͊Ǐ̶̻̭̯̦̗͍͍̣͖̜̳͈̤̤̝͂̎́̊̊͊͋͒̏͘͠Ļ̵̛̛͖̫̤̭̌͗̏̉̈͗̎ͅM̸̮͚͇̝͔̩͉̲̠̮̣͙̝͋̏̀͋̽̂̆̉̍̐̅ I for one enjoyed Poor Things (reviewed on this blog by my esteemed colleague Arturo Serrano). It was deeply odd, yes, and I can certainly understand critiques of its gender po ..read more

Awards Season is well upon us - we’ve had the results of the Nebulas, the Locus Awards and the BSFA, Hugo voting has just closed, we got an Ignyte shortlist just yesterday, and many other awards are in progress besides. But we’re not interested in those right now! Today, we’re focussing on the Clarke Award. To partially quote some of their website’s own blurb, the annual Arthur C. Clarke Award is given for the best science fiction novel first published in the United Kingdom during the previous year. It’s one of the most prestigious UK based SFF awards, though not quite so well known internati ..read more

Canon exists to be reshuffled every once in a while From the Star Wars prequels we learned that the so idolized Jedi were too drunk on their own importance to notice the falling dominoes until it was late. However, the self-inflicted decline of the Jedi developed over a long time; Anakin Skywalker was born in a galaxy that was already headed for chaos. The Disney+ series The Acolyte takes advantage of this narrative opportunity and shows us the widening cracks in the Jedi Order a century before the prequel trilogy. Predictably, it was a bad idea to try to maintain a monopoly on the Force and ..read more

 A promising vision, thwarted by an attempt to maintain strict historical accuracy Dark City Rising is a story that piles up all my catnip features high and deep: Dark Academia, 18th century Glasgow and Edinburgh, the Scottish Enlightenment, hidden magical libraries, secret societies, and plucky medical professors fight back by reading minds and shooting fire from their hands. It sounds absolutely amazing, right? It should have been! All the pieces were there. But alas, it was not—and I think it struggled in large part because of the earnest, rigorous research into the historical under ..read more

The last episode of the season puts in overtime to wrap up the loose threads, and we get a couple of A-list cameos and more stellar lightsaber choreography Remember last week when Osha put Qimir's helmet on? It's got some serious power, and it enabled her to see the future. She sees Mae kill Sol—and she knows she's gotta stop her. As we know in the Star Wars universe, though, always in motion, the future is. Qimir asks her if she'd ever consider training with him, and she gives a final no. (Also a note: I've referred to Qimir as the Master, and he's sometimes called the Stranger. I'm using Qi ..read more

Gareth L. Powell is the author of 20 published books. He is best known for The Embers of War trilogy, The Continuance Series, the Ack-Ack Macaque trilogy, Light Chaser (written with Peter F. Hamilton), and About Writing, his guide for aspiring authors. He has twice won the British Science Fiction Association Award for Best Novel (previous winners include J. G. Ballard and Arthur C. Clarke) and has become one of the most shortlisted authors in the award’s 50-year history. He has also been a finalist for the Locus Award, the British Fantasy Award, the Seiun Award, and the Canopus Award. Today ..read more