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Starred Review: LOVE GALAXY by Sierra Branham

Apr 022026
 

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Booklist: If “unfair” had a picture next to its dictionary definition, Temmi Ialan’s face would be there. She’s grinding out an existence on the planet X72, working as a trash collector to barely keep a roof over head, along with caring for her sick mother and disabled brother. Despite the grim circumstances, Temmi’s brother is excited for the new season of Love Galaxy, a The Bachelor-esque show where empire royalty dates prospective suitors until they find true love at the end of the season. After an especially bad day, Temmi inadvertently goes toe-to-toe with Spie and Nix Expani, the emperor’s heirs starring on this season, and finds herself cast on the show with a life-changing sum of money hanging on her ability to make it far enough into the season to make a mark. Temmi is thrust into the spotlight and mingles reluctantly with the elite . . . until her fellow cast members start dying. It quickly becomes clear that there is far more afoot than simply a dating show—it is part Hunger Games in outer space and part makeover show. Branham’s debut is a page-turner expertly set up for the next in the series, with enough twists and turns to keep readers guessing until the end

 April 2, 2026  Tagged with: ,

March Translation Deals

Mar 312026
 

Bulgarian rights to Robert Sheckley’s STORE OF INFINITY to Alto, by Tamara Vukicevic at Prava i Prevodi, on behalf of Katie Shea Boutillier for Cameron McClure.

Czech audio rights to New York Times bestselling author Martha Wells’ ROGUE PROTOCOL, EXIT STRATEGY, NETWORK EFFECT, FUGITIVE TELEMETRY, and SYSTEM COLLAPSE, books 3-7 in The Murderbot Diaries, to OneHotBook, by Nada Popovic at Prava i prevodi in association with Michael Curry for Jennifer Jackson.

French renewal rights to New York Times bestselling author Anne Bishop’s MARKED IN FLESH and ETCHED IN BONE, the fourth and fifth books in the Others series, to Bragelonne, by Sarah Dray at Anna Jarota Agency in association with Michael Curry for Jennifer Jackson.

French omnibus rights to New York Times bestselling author Martha Wells’ ALL SYSTEMS RED, ARTIFICIAL CONDITION, ROGUE PROTOCOL, and EXIT STRATEGY, the first four books in The Murderbot Diaries, to Editions L’Atalante, by Sarah Dray at Anna Jarota Agency in association with Michael Curry for Jennifer Jackson.

German rights to J.M. Kearl’s THE ASSASSIN’S WAY, to Piper, at auction, in a three-book deal, by Sarah Knofius at Thomas Schlueck Agency, on behalf of Katie Shea Boutillier at Donald Maass Literary Agency.

Japanese rights to New York Times bestselling author Martha Wells’ PLATFORM DECAY, the eighth book in the Murderbot Diaries series, to Tokyo Sogensha, by Shreya De Sousa at The English Agency (Japan) in association with Michael Curry for Jennifer Jackson.

Ukrainian rights to British Fantasy Award winner Simon Jimenez’s THE SPEAR CUTS THROUGH WATER, to Athena, by Tamara Vukićević at Prava i Prevodi in association with Michael Curry.

 

 March 31, 2026  Tagged with: , , , , ,

Review: THE BLOODWEAVER by C.N. Kuster

Mar 262026
 

Kirkus: The rich worldbuilding is arguably the novel’s biggest strength, but the well-developed dynamics between the main characters, particularly Mel and Ismene’s complex relationship, are also compelling. The narrative has an impressive pace fueled by intertwining and action-packed plotlines that maintain the pedal-to-the-metal momentum.

 March 26, 2026  Tagged with: ,

TRACE ELEMENTS: Conversations on the Project of Science-Fiction and Fantasy by Jo Walton and Ada Palmer

Mar 242026
 

Jo Walton and Ada Palmer are two of the most innovative and insightful writers to emerge in the SF and fantasy genres in this century. As writers of fiction they’ve each won multiple awards. As commenters on SF and fantasy in print and in visual media, they’ve both sparked new conversations that expanded our imaginations and understanding of how SF and fantasy work, and what more it could be doing.

Now, in Trace Elements, Walton and Palmer have come together to write a book-length and supremely entertaining look at modern science fiction and fantasy, at how our genre is written and how it is read, that will join nonfiction works like Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Language of the Night, Samuel R. Delany’s The Jewel-Hinged Jaw, and Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud on the short shelf of titles essential to all readers of our genre.

Subjects covered include the nature of genre itself, the history of SF publishing, the implicit contract between author and reader, the ways SF and fantasy disguise themselves as one another, what SF&F can learn from outside influences ranging from Shakespeare to Diderot to anime, the role of complicity in reading, the need to expand our “sphere of empathy”, and finally the need for optimism, the importance of rejecting “purity” culture, and the fact that the human story for centuries to come will be composed of hard work.

 March 24, 2026  Tagged with: ,

Review: LOVE GALAXY by Sierra Branham

Mar 192026
 

Publishers Weekly: Reality television goes galactic in Branham’s thrilling sapphic sci-fi debut. After poverty-stricken trash collector Artemis Ialan has an unfortunate public run-in with the prince and princess of the Expan empire, she’s invited to appear on Love Galaxy, a reality dating show that matches royals and others high in the empirical hierarchy with important people from other systems in the empire, like a diplomatic—and deeply propagandistic—version of The Bachelor. The prince, Nix, has taken a liking to Artemis, and the princess, Spielan, offers her a massive payout to join the contestants vying for his hand, money that could drastically improve Artemis’s circumstances and potentially save her mother’s life. As one of the few contestants from the fringe systems, Artemis has no idea what to expect from the show and quickly finds herself in over her head. When a fellow contestant turns up dead, it’s all she can do to stay afloat while dealing with a killer on the loose, intergalactic intrigue, and the combined attention of both royal heirs. Branham does a fantastic job weaving seemingly disparate threads together. The murder mystery is fairly clued and the antagonistic attraction that emerges between Ellie and Spielan feels real and heated. Fans of science fiction with a romantic edge should snap this up. (May)

 March 19, 2026  Tagged with: ,

Review: AND SIDE BY SIDE THEY WANDER by Molly Tanzer

Mar 122026
 

Publishers Weekly: A far-future gang attempts an interstellar museum heist in this crafty sci-fi novella from Tanzer (Creatures of Charm and Hunger). Led by Tarquin Lennox, a wealthy human man affiliated with Earth’s last corporation, the crew also includes Arakachi Misora, “a set of sextuplets folded into a single body” acting as the team’s muscle; Jack Kirby, a powerful machine intelligence there to interface with the computer systems; Tchick-tchick, the insect-like alien hive mind captaining their space craft; and Fennel Tycho, Jack’s former attaché and the tale’s first-person narrator. Their mission: to liberate six masterpieces of Earth art from a distant Celerian museum and replace them with exact copies. In the 21st century, humanity allowed the Celerians to temporarily safeguard these pieces in exchange for technological solutions to Earth’s “multifarious” problems, but the aliens subsequently refused to return them. The mission gets off to a rocky start when the team learns they no longer have corporate support—Tarquin has gone rogue. As they forge ahead, Fennel recounts the wacky sequence of events that brought her and humanity to this point, complicating the otherwise straightforward adventure with poignant observations about the significance of original art and art history. This bite-size romp is a wild and thought-provoking ride. (May)

 March 12, 2026  Tagged with: ,

INTERGALACTIC FEAST by Lavanya Lakshminarayan

Mar 102026
 

It has been three months since Saraswati Kaveri and Serenity Ko won Interstellar MegaChef with their groundbreaking new food simulation, Feast.

But victory is only the beginning. Saras is busy promoting their invention as the public face of Feast, while Ko keeps fighting battles to steer its development at XP Inc. And then there’s the kiss. They’ve decided to just be friends for now, at least until the sim’s impending launch, but the memory of that heady night hangs over them.

And sometimes it seems the whole galaxy is lined up against them. Saraswati’s secret past is coming under scrutiny, while old rivals are running smear campaigns against her. The cookery world is divided over Feast, proclaiming it a bold new invention and a betrayal of the chef’s art by turns.

And others see Feast’s darker potential—not as an experience, but as a weapon…

 March 10, 2026  Tagged with: ,

Starred Review: TRACE ELEMENTS by Ada Palmer and Jo Walton

Mar 052026
 

Library Journal: This collection of essays, some original and many revised and updated, represents a wide range of thought and many sterling examples of what makes science fiction and fantasy popular and so appealing for readers, along with what causes some readers not to like it. They also offer insight into where the speculative fiction conversation with itself, its past, and its readership is going in the future. Readers interested in the study of genre and those who have been captivated by SF’s ability to explore the future while commenting on the present will find their TBR piles expanding exponentially. These essays provide a thoroughly researched but highly opinionated exploration of the science fiction and fantasy genres by two award-winning novelists who have, in addition to writing in the genre, spent significant time thinking and writing about their genre and analyzing where speculative fiction has been and where it might be going.

VERDICT Highly recommended for collections of literature studies, particularly but not limited to studies of SF and fantasy, and collections where Walton’s What Makes This Book So Great and An Informal History of the Hugos, as well as both authors’ novels, have been popular.

 March 5, 2026  Tagged with: ,

February Translation Deals

Feb 282026
 

Czech rights to New York Times bestselling author Martha Wells’ PLATFORM DECAY, the eighth book in The Murderbot Diaries, to Dobrovsky, by Nada Popovic at Prava i prevodi in association with Michael Curry for Jennifer Jackson.

French rights to New York Times bestselling author Martha Wells’ PLATFORM DECAY, the eighth book in The Murderbot Diaries, to Editions L’Atalante, by Sarah Dray at Anna Jarota Agency in association with Michael Curry for Jennifer Jackson.

German rights to Melissa K. Roehrich’s Avonleya series, to Vajona, in a two-book deal, by Sarah Knofius at Thomas Schlueck Agency, on behalf of Katie Shea Boutillier.

Latvian rights to New York Times bestselling author Jim Butcher’s STORM FRONT, FOOL MOON, GRAVE PERIL, and SUMMER KNIGHT, the first four books of The Dresden Files, to Prometejs, by Tamara Vukićević at Prava i Prevodi in association with Michael Curry for Jennifer Jackson.

Slovene rights to New York Times bestselling author Martha Wells’ NETWORK EFFECT and FUGITIVE TELEMETRY, the fifth and sixth books in The Murderbot Diaries, to Aktivni Mediji, by Tamara Vukićević at Prava i Prevodi in association with Michael Curry for Jennifer Jackson.

Spanish rights to Ronald Malfi’s THE HIVE and COME WITH ME, to Lubre, by Elena Rodriguez at International Editors & Yanez, on behalf of Katie Shea Boutillier for Cameron McClure.

Ukranian rights to Sue Burke’s INTERFERENCE, to Lobster, by Tamara Vukićević at Prava I Prevodi, on behalf of Katie Shea Boutillier for Jennie Goloboy.

 

 February 28, 2026  Tagged with: , , , , , ,

Review: TRACE ELEMENTS by Jo Walton and Ada Palmer

Feb 182026
 

Booklist: This collaboration between two prominent sf authors blends historical research, anecdotal narratives, and even a few poems. Sf fans might already be familiar with authors Walton (Or What You Will, 2020) and Palmer (Perhaps the Stars, 2021), but this collection of both authors’ nonfiction is an extensive plunge into sf’s deep end. While not having an overarching theme, these articles cover a broad range of topics, including the contract between author and reader, the histories of various genres and mediums that evolved alongside sf, and the writers’ own experiences with writing and living as disabled authors and  instructors, with each piece showcasing a massive amount of depth. These articles, many of them co-written, show off their individual writing strengths, including historian Palmer’s ability to synthesize an encyclopedia’s worth of information and Walton’s skill in deconstructing tropes based on the stories she’s read and watched. While this book is a dense read, it’s also a comprehensive academic tome about what sf is and, perhaps most importantly, what it can be.

 February 18, 2026  Tagged with: ,
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