Finding New Science Fiction and Fantasy: The Short Form

By Rob Thornton:  In the Pixel Scroll for March 11, 2018, the Filers discussed a blog post from Kevin Drum of Mother Jones, which alleged that science fiction was “no longer writing” what he wanted to read. As a result of those discussions, John A Arkansawyer suggested that someone create a resource named “Seven simple ways for the casual SF fan to find a likely new book without investing too much time.”

This post attempts to fulfill that request. Here is a collection of links to sites that generate lists of newly published science fiction and fantasy books. If possible, the link leads to a source’s latest list (such as Amazon). If not, the link leads to a list of search results (such as “best new science fiction and fantasy” at Barnes & Noble) which captures the most recent lists. Please add other sources in the comments.

Direct Links

Search Results

Standalone Novels:

Thanks to: Both JJ and Dann for making contributions to the list and additional thanks to JJ for cleaning up some of my links as well.

23 thoughts on “Finding New Science Fiction and Fantasy: The Short Form

  1. New Science Fiction and Fantasy – Monthly – the link is bust

    Best SF/F To Read This Month @ The Verge – search produces no results for me.

  2. One problem with using those sites for finding new books that I, in particular, want is that none of them is at all good at including small-press or independent books (unless they’re from prestigious small SFF presses) — and an awful lot of the books I enjoy most come from those sources. My basis for this statement is my own experience at trying to get my small press fantasy novels included in things like the Locus forthcoming books list or the Tor.com new releases posts.

  3. @Heather Rose Jones

    I agree. Small presses frequently provide some really great genre literature. There is a bit of a generic bias towards larger presses.

    At the very least, if Mr. Drum has the odd chance to look at this post, then perhaps he will have a shot at finding something that satisfies his reading objectives.

    Regards,
    Dann
    I do not fear computers. I fear the lack of them. – Isaac Asimov

  4. Heather Rose Jones, do you know of any resources that do include excellent small-press or indie books? How do you go about finding them? Is it purely word-of-mouth? If so, and if you’re connected enough to get the word (as it were), would you mind terribly amplifying it on File770? (I’ve enjoyed the books you’ve written and you are therefore on my “trust this woman’s recc’s” list….)

    I’m always interested in widening my reading resources, and this thread is going to be very, very dangerous to my book-budget… <wry grin>

  5. I second Kathryn’s suggestion, their Newsletters contain a lot of book releases both large and small with brief descriptions and can be sorted by date or by author. Their archive is useful for scanning through previous months books too.

    Indies are hard because not all of them, or even a majority, choose to announce release dates in advance of launching making it more difficult to have a ‘Coming out in March’ style list and mostly can only tell by Amazon new release lists.

  6. Cora Buhlert also has monthly blog posts for independent crime and genre fiction at corabuhlert.com

  7. @Heather, seconded. I get most of my indie recs through a handful of Facebook groups, and some from File 770 comments and Cora’s Speculative Fiction Showcase website. For the last few years I’ve been making a good solid effort to read more grownup corporate-published science fiction for things like Hugo nominations and just to stay current, but it often feels like a repetitious slog. Which is probably why I gravitate more towards YA, where I can occasionally find fresh bursts of inspired wackiness.

  8. I can do with wacky. I guess that’s part of why I love Oor Wombat’s stuff.

    And another one – James Davis Nicoll. Yes, he does a lot of old stuff, but it’s how I found Graydon Saunders Commonweal books.

  9. Speaking of the Commonweal, does anyone (Graydon? Are you there?) know if another book is coming out any time soon….?

  10. @ Cassy B

    The Human Dress is coming out from Graydon tomorrow but it is not a Commonweal book. If you are were on the newsgroups back in the day this is the doorstop.

    The next Commonweal book is in final editing I think which means it should be out in a few months.

  11. Magewolf, tell me more about The Human Dress; I’ve enjoyed Graydon’s work so far. What is it about? Where can I get it?

  12. @ Cassy B

    I read some of the excerpts that Graydon posted years ago but in complete honesty I have no idea what it is about. The Commonweal books are Graydon writing simply and clearly for us mere mortals while The Human Dress is him trying to be obtuse it seems. I have it pre-ordered from Google Play but it is available at some other places as well I think but not Amazon or anything like that.

    This is a post from Graydon about it with links to buy it. http://dubiousprospects.blogspot.com/2018/02/the-human-dress-available-on-2018-03-23.html

  13. GrayGraydon Saunders’s _The Human Dress_ is about vikings and zombies and magicians and dinosaurs and much much much more. If this is the kind of thing you like, you will like this thing—I like it very, very much.

    It is not a book to skim: I am sure that I have missed many important things in it—I am pretty sure I have missed great and important things about the antagonists and their motivation and purposes. And I am also not sure whether the name of the ship really is “With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility”. And I am not sure whether the principal heroine’s name—“Red Harvester”—is a Dashiell Hammett reference or not.

    I certainly did not expect so many important characters to be eaten by dinosaurs, or for the eating to have such consequences.

    Nor have I looked up what the runic inscription on the cover page means—although I suspect that there is a message there. Nor was I expecting the principal hero to say “and you so neat with your food” at that time and in that place…

  14. The Doorstop wasn’t Graydon being obtuse, it was Graydon trying to be accessible and failing miserably. The Blessed Novelthat was Graydon being obtuse. I remember hearing Teresa Nielsen Hayden reminisce about reading the Blessed Novel as a submission to Tor, and about editing John M. Ford’s work. “Why do I get the hypercompressors?” she lamented.

  15. @ Cassy B

    I wish I had a better source of book info for indie/small press than Twitter (and this site). I do my best to cross-pollinate when I can, but it’s pretty rare for me to know about a book before everyone else does.

    Apart from SFF, I’ve started trying to track down new releases in historical fiction featuring queer women to mention on my podcast, which involves a lot of checking out individual small press websites every month. As Matt Y notes, often they don’t have a “forthcoming” list on their websites and all I can do is try to find the new releases in their catalog. And I’m regularly hearing of books a month or two after they’re out.

    My lament above was more about how hard it is to get small press books listed in the “official” sources, which creates the result that one has to try to track them down by chance.

  16. Seasonal SF2 Concatenation’s news page has forthcoming SF and seperately fantasy book listings derived from catalogues sent by major Brit SF imprints

    Click on the appropriate box link in row three here
    http://www.concatenation.org/newsindex.html

    BravoLimaPoppa3 “Wonderful! I wonder if I can RSS any of those?”

    Yes, if your browser doesn’t pick up from home page then see home page top left hand col.

    Dann “I agree. Small presses frequently provide some really great genre literature. There is a bit of a generic bias towards larger presses.”

    SF2 Concat did try to list UK small presses a few years ago, but a) few geared up to providing info 3 – 4 months in advance, and b) some sold out quickly because runs so small. But your’s is a good point.

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