Shadows of the Apt

Been a while, usual reasons. In this case the endgame of Children of Time 2 (Arachnid Boogaloo) is very mind-consuming, as indeed are some of the things contained therein. So: I'm moved to do a brief post about podcasts, as it's been a long old while. I'm particularly moved to this because a number of podcasts I've been listening […]

So: not the planned reading recs post, which has been shoved into the future like a dyspeptic time traveller. Instead, lord alive, The Tiger and the Wolf won the Robert Holdstock Award for best fantasy novel at the British Fantasy Awards, which somewhat blindsided me (as anyone listening to my cobbled-together speech probably gathered). Holdstock is one […]

Long pause since I last blogged, which was on the Clarkes shortlist, the suspense of which will be resolved at Foyles in London this 27^th July, where I will have the honour of handing out this year's award to one of those six worthies. As previously gushed, it's a hell of a shortlist this year. I'm excited to tear […]

So, it appears to be inarguable now that this happened: My very own beautiful Children of Time has won the Clarkes this year. Please do tune in to those stalwarts Barry and Dave at Geek Syndicate, here, for a skipthrough of the ceremony itself, including my horribly garbled acceptance speech and a spectacularly rabbit-in-headlamps interview after. It's probably useful […]

I have actually been sitting on a post for a while — basically my usual Clarkes shortlist writeup, except it now feels super weird to post it, even though it amounts to little more than a "these books are awesome do go read." So… no idea if that will ever get posted. But they are all awesome […]

I regret to announce that I won’t be doing my annual readthrough of the Clarkes shortlist this year because of a thorny little conflict of interest. It appears that someone did, after all, think of the Children (of Time) and Portia and her little friends have scuttled their way onto the shortlist. Is this a good point to […]

I have taken my saw and hacked off the end of the previous post, and performed other grievous surgery, because I wanted to talk about the British Fantasy Holdstock Award 2015 in more detail. As noted, I've actually read the shortlist this year — mostly by apparently being psychic when picking reading material last/this year. The […]

The title generator has finally given up the ghost! Metaphor, snark and dubious pun stocks are at an all time low! Dig for victory! Sooo much to cram into this podcast, so very brief nod to Octocon in Dublin, which was great fun and highly recommended. Maura McHugh and Emma Newman were superb GoH's, the […]

Or maybe 2014, as that's the year under the microscope. The shortlist has been out a while, the ceremony is Wednesday 6^th May, so there's just time for me to vent my minuscule opinions on the subject before the rather better informed panel of judges proves me wrong. So… in name order: The Girl with all the […]

Did I do that joke last year? There are a limited number of axe-related puns in the world, honestly. Anyway, it's that time of year (a bit later than the same time last year, if that makes any sense at all) when someone has to get axed. The Gemmell Awards have opened up for voting on the […]