Ancillary Review of Books
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culture, power, speculation
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https://ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/
Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/AncillaryReview
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Upcoming Changes at ARB
Hello readers! I hope you’ve been enjoying the Ancillary Review of Books and A Meal of Thorns; 2025 has been a great year for us! We’ve published a lot of reviews and essays, welcomed cool new writ…
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org
Hey ARB readers! A quick announcement: December is going to be a quieter publishing month for us, but only because we're working on some big changes for next year. More details here:
A Meal of Thorns #39: @chloroformtea.bsky.social is back on the show, exploring class, style, and the roots of dark academia in Donna Tartt's THE SECRET HISTORY!
A Meal of Thorns 39- THE SECRET HISTORY with Roseanna Pendlebury
We’re tracking down the wellspring of “dark academia” in Donna Tartt’s The Secret History, and plucking on threads that stretch out to current fantasy and science fiction li…
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org
December 16, 2025 at 1:01 AM
A Meal of Thorns #39: @chloroformtea.bsky.social is back on the show, exploring class, style, and the roots of dark academia in Donna Tartt's THE SECRET HISTORY!
Reposted by Ancillary Review of Books
I'll be honest: this year has mostly felt like a zero-progress slog in terms of getting my writing out there. But I did publish a handful of things, and I'm gonna list them here so I don't forget about them.
All but one are free to read, too.
All but one are free to read, too.
December 15, 2025 at 5:06 PM
I'll be honest: this year has mostly felt like a zero-progress slog in terms of getting my writing out there. But I did publish a handful of things, and I'm gonna list them here so I don't forget about them.
All but one are free to read, too.
All but one are free to read, too.
Reposted by Ancillary Review of Books
Announcing the National Book Critics Circle 2025 Longlist for Fiction
December 15, 2025 at 4:02 PM
Announcing the National Book Critics Circle 2025 Longlist for Fiction
Reposted by Ancillary Review of Books
So @ancillaryreviewofbooks.org has been knocking it out of the park for quite a while.
They had a very good article earlier this year on the "World" in Worldcon. It's worth reading.
1/X
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/2025/05/23/t...
They had a very good article earlier this year on the "World" in Worldcon. It's worth reading.
1/X
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/2025/05/23/t...
The World in Worldcon
Jake Casella Brookins In this op-ed series, ARB editors share some informal thoughts and opinions about the Hugo awards, Worldcons, and other aspects of the SFF award and convention scene. What are…
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org
December 14, 2025 at 4:48 PM
So @ancillaryreviewofbooks.org has been knocking it out of the park for quite a while.
They had a very good article earlier this year on the "World" in Worldcon. It's worth reading.
1/X
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/2025/05/23/t...
They had a very good article earlier this year on the "World" in Worldcon. It's worth reading.
1/X
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/2025/05/23/t...
Reposted by Ancillary Review of Books
Currently reading the new edition of John M. Ford's The Last Hot Time, and once again grateful to @isaacbutler.bsky.social for this 2019 piece and the ensuing Ford revival it prompted. slate.com/culture/2019...
The Resurrection of the Greatest Sci-Fi Writer You’ve Never Read
He was beloved by Neil Gaiman and Robert Jordan, and so good that he won a World Fantasy Award for a Christmas card. How did John M. Ford disappear?
slate.com
December 13, 2025 at 10:49 PM
Currently reading the new edition of John M. Ford's The Last Hot Time, and once again grateful to @isaacbutler.bsky.social for this 2019 piece and the ensuing Ford revival it prompted. slate.com/culture/2019...
Reposted by Ancillary Review of Books
Unscientific Flights of Fancy: Gareth A. Reeves reviews Kate Holterhoff’s Speculation and the Darwinian Method in British Romance Fiction, 1859–1914 (@ohiounivpress.bsky.social)
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/2025/10/31/u...
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/2025/10/31/u...
Unscientific Flights of Fancy: Review of Kate Holterhoff’s Speculation and the Darwinian Method in British Romance Fiction, 1859–1914
Gareth A. Reeves Under Review:Speculation and the Darwinian Method in British Romance Fiction, 1859–1914. Kate Holterhoff. Ohio University Press, April 2025. Kate Holterhoff’s ambitious Speculatio…
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org
October 31, 2025 at 2:03 PM
Unscientific Flights of Fancy: Gareth A. Reeves reviews Kate Holterhoff’s Speculation and the Darwinian Method in British Romance Fiction, 1859–1914 (@ohiounivpress.bsky.social)
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/2025/10/31/u...
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/2025/10/31/u...
Reposted by Ancillary Review of Books
the 30th December is a very betwixt and between date. Enliven it with a discussion of The Female Man, with four passionate enthusiasts for Joanna Russ's strange little book. www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1697987549... Link goes out on the day.
Discussing the Female Man
The Female Man is Farah Mendlesohn's favourite science fiction novel. Melanie Fishbane has been thinking about its Jewishness. Jed Hartman h
www.eventbrite.co.uk
December 12, 2025 at 12:10 PM
the 30th December is a very betwixt and between date. Enliven it with a discussion of The Female Man, with four passionate enthusiasts for Joanna Russ's strange little book. www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1697987549... Link goes out on the day.
Reposted by Ancillary Review of Books
Reposted by Ancillary Review of Books
Very sad to hear of the death of John Carey. His book Pure Pleasure - a compendium of Sunday Times columns covering his favourite pleasurable books of the 20C - is a model of good, enthused, informed journalistic book criticism. I’ve read its essays so many times.
December 12, 2025 at 5:53 PM
Very sad to hear of the death of John Carey. His book Pure Pleasure - a compendium of Sunday Times columns covering his favourite pleasurable books of the 20C - is a model of good, enthused, informed journalistic book criticism. I’ve read its essays so many times.
Reposted by Ancillary Review of Books
For everyone nominating for next year's SFFH awards: ARB's 2025 Awards Eligibility
ARB Awards Eligibility 2025
The Ancillary Review of Books turned five this year! We’ve had an excellent year, and are very pleased to continue publishing criticism with an emphasis on the speculative and the utopian, thanks t…
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org
December 11, 2025 at 7:05 PM
For everyone nominating for next year's SFFH awards: ARB's 2025 Awards Eligibility
For everyone nominating for next year's SFFH awards: ARB's 2025 Awards Eligibility
ARB Awards Eligibility 2025
The Ancillary Review of Books turned five this year! We’ve had an excellent year, and are very pleased to continue publishing criticism with an emphasis on the speculative and the utopian, thanks t…
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org
December 11, 2025 at 7:05 PM
For everyone nominating for next year's SFFH awards: ARB's 2025 Awards Eligibility
Reposted by Ancillary Review of Books
As 2025 comes to a close, we are excited to present some of our favorite 2025 releases in (or about) translation. From Turkey to Georgia, and China to Italy, our favorite books spanned the globe. Take a look at our picks here, or scroll the thread: wordswithoutborders.org/read/article...
December 11, 2025 at 6:41 PM
As 2025 comes to a close, we are excited to present some of our favorite 2025 releases in (or about) translation. From Turkey to Georgia, and China to Italy, our favorite books spanned the globe. Take a look at our picks here, or scroll the thread: wordswithoutborders.org/read/article...
Reposted by Ancillary Review of Books
December 11, 2025 at 12:27 AM
Reposted by Ancillary Review of Books
Living in the Moments Between Collapse: @mishagw.bsky.social talks to @isaac-fellman.bsky.social about NOTES FROM A REGICIDE, out this week from @torbooks.bsky.social!
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/2025/04/16/l...
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/2025/04/16/l...
Living in the Moments Between Collapse: Isaac Fellman on Notes From A Regicide
Misha Grifka Wander Isaac Fellman is a writer and archivist from San Francisco. He is the Lambda Literary Award-winning author of The Breath of the Sun, as well as Dead Collections and The Two Doct…
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org
April 16, 2025 at 4:28 PM
Living in the Moments Between Collapse: @mishagw.bsky.social talks to @isaac-fellman.bsky.social about NOTES FROM A REGICIDE, out this week from @torbooks.bsky.social!
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/2025/04/16/l...
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/2025/04/16/l...
Reposted by Ancillary Review of Books
What are we doing here? Why do people agree to work with such journals? I just don't understand. Even if you get published by places like this, hardly anybody's going to be able to read your work. You might as well make it a paper airplane and throw it out a window.
December 10, 2025 at 8:46 PM
What are we doing here? Why do people agree to work with such journals? I just don't understand. Even if you get published by places like this, hardly anybody's going to be able to read your work. You might as well make it a paper airplane and throw it out a window.
Reposted by Ancillary Review of Books
CONTINGENT PHILOSOPHERS! (Contractually, not metaphysically). I’ve been a big fan of @contingent-mag.bsky.social for a while. This year they’re letting philosophy piggyback one of their institutions: the year-end list of books and articles written by non tenured/permanent academics in that year.
Publications by Non-Tenure-Track Historians
Since we began publishing in 2019, Contingent has published end-of-year lists of books and articles by non-tenure-track historians released in the past calendar year. To submit something for inclusion...
contingentmagazine.org
November 26, 2025 at 9:33 AM
CONTINGENT PHILOSOPHERS! (Contractually, not metaphysically). I’ve been a big fan of @contingent-mag.bsky.social for a while. This year they’re letting philosophy piggyback one of their institutions: the year-end list of books and articles written by non tenured/permanent academics in that year.
Reposted by Ancillary Review of Books
So excited to read this new series, especially having come up against serious barriers to finding SFF in translation this year!
In the first entry in a new series that re-examines overlooked SFF in translation, @coimeas.bsky.social draws our attention to language, gender, and more in Elia Barceló’s NATURAL CONSEQUENCES, tr. Andrea Bell & Yolanda Molina-Gavilán (Vanderbilt University Press)
Misplaced In Translation: Review of Elia Barceló’s Natural Consequences
Nat Harrington Under Review:Natural Consequences. Elia Barceló, translated by Andrea Bell and Yolanda Molina-Gavilán. Vanderbilt University Press, 2021 [1994]. I begin this column with a simple but…
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org
October 30, 2025 at 2:04 PM
So excited to read this new series, especially having come up against serious barriers to finding SFF in translation this year!
Reposted by Ancillary Review of Books
surprisingly everyone including myself, I wrote things this year!
December 9, 2025 at 11:36 PM
surprisingly everyone including myself, I wrote things this year!
Reposted by Ancillary Review of Books
Top 10 Books of 2025 featuring @thelincoln.bsky.social, @rjbennett.bsky.social, @jonathanreeder.bsky.social, @ginnytkmr.bsky.social, and more! speculativeshelf.com/2025/12/02/top-10-books-of-2025/
December 9, 2025 at 6:21 PM
Top 10 Books of 2025 featuring @thelincoln.bsky.social, @rjbennett.bsky.social, @jonathanreeder.bsky.social, @ginnytkmr.bsky.social, and more! speculativeshelf.com/2025/12/02/top-10-books-of-2025/
more of this, please
(stealing this idea for next year)
(stealing this idea for next year)
Another list!! This time, old books we at Lit Hub read in 2025! I'm here to pitch Sarah Orne Jewett, Thornton Wilder, Robin Hobb, Emma Bull (h/t @kellylink.bsky.social), and Todd Grimson! Plus lots of other great old (new-old, somewhat-old, old-old) reads!
lithub.com/the-29-best-...
lithub.com/the-29-best-...
The 29 Best (Old) Books We Read in 2025
It is the hallowed tradition of every cultural publication under the sun to, come December, curate a list of their favorite books of the year. (No shade, we did it too.) But at Literary Hub, we als…
lithub.com
December 9, 2025 at 5:11 PM
more of this, please
(stealing this idea for next year)
(stealing this idea for next year)
Reposted by Ancillary Review of Books
This is not a drill. @yaffasutopia.bsky.social is fascinating a workshop series about organizing toward freedom. fnd.us/d2dO71?ref=s...
Organizing to a Living Utopia
Please support us by making a contribution!
fnd.us
December 9, 2025 at 1:46 PM
This is not a drill. @yaffasutopia.bsky.social is fascinating a workshop series about organizing toward freedom. fnd.us/d2dO71?ref=s...
ARB puts up a call for reviews every month, but: at the end of each year, we find ourselves looking at a *long* list of speculative fiction & related non-fiction that we'd love to cover! Do your part to fight recency bias, and claim one of these!
2025 Reviews: Last Call
The Ancillary Review of Books does focus on newly-released works as they are published. However, we very much want to fight recency bias in book coverage, and the idea that books just vanish if the…
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org
December 8, 2025 at 10:10 PM
ARB puts up a call for reviews every month, but: at the end of each year, we find ourselves looking at a *long* list of speculative fiction & related non-fiction that we'd love to cover! Do your part to fight recency bias, and claim one of these!
Reposted by Ancillary Review of Books
if you are among the few staff critics reviewing books, films, music, art, &c, it is your professional duty to take a chance on things. Attend a random screening, pick up a self-published book, follow whims and offer full-throated generous praise for anything that makes an impression on a shoestring
December 8, 2025 at 7:29 PM
if you are among the few staff critics reviewing books, films, music, art, &c, it is your professional duty to take a chance on things. Attend a random screening, pick up a self-published book, follow whims and offer full-throated generous praise for anything that makes an impression on a shoestring
Reposted by Ancillary Review of Books
reading a pair of wintry wonder tales on @storyhour.bsky.social this Wednesday with the great @ashsmash.bsky.social... join us! www.storyhour2020.com
December 8, 2025 at 2:14 PM
reading a pair of wintry wonder tales on @storyhour.bsky.social this Wednesday with the great @ashsmash.bsky.social... join us! www.storyhour2020.com
Reposted by Ancillary Review of Books
ARB has posted our AI Policy for reviews, essays, and material being covered. We have not had an issue with this to date, but because there is a lot of strange AI usage floating around, and because we encourage new critics to pitch us, we wanted to clarify:
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/ai-policy/
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/ai-policy/
AI Policy
On submissions of AI-generated reviews & essays: ARB has no interest in running articles created by any form of AI. Besides its economic, environmental, and moral harms, generative AI simply ha…
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org
March 6, 2025 at 1:15 PM
ARB has posted our AI Policy for reviews, essays, and material being covered. We have not had an issue with this to date, but because there is a lot of strange AI usage floating around, and because we encourage new critics to pitch us, we wanted to clarify:
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/ai-policy/
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/ai-policy/