Niall Harrison
@niallharrison.bsky.social
reader, critic, fan, he/him
Reposted by Niall Harrison
Please share: I am delighted to release the programme for the July 11 2026, Symposium on the work of Frances Hardinge, at Kings College, London. We can't manage virtual attendance but we do offer cheap conference proceedings. Tickets at Eventbrite: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/a-one-day-...
A One Day Symposium on Frances Hardinge
Politics, Ethics and the Material World: the Interrogative Fiction of Frances Hardinge.
www.eventbrite.co.uk
November 29, 2025 at 9:19 AM
Please share: I am delighted to release the programme for the July 11 2026, Symposium on the work of Frances Hardinge, at Kings College, London. We can't manage virtual attendance but we do offer cheap conference proceedings. Tickets at Eventbrite: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/a-one-day-...
Reposted by Niall Harrison
This was a fun first novel, and I think that view is mostly independent of the fact that it's the only novel I'm aware of whose climactic set piece takes place ten minutes from my front door: locusmag.com/review/its-n...
It’s Not a Cult by Joey Batey: Review by Niall Harrison
It’s Not a Cult, Joey Batey (Raven Books 978-1-52667-681-8, £16.99, 320pp, hc) October 2025. It’s rare that I get a chance to review novels set where I live, and perhaps given the infinite canvas a…
locusmag.com
November 27, 2025 at 7:03 PM
This was a fun first novel, and I think that view is mostly independent of the fact that it's the only novel I'm aware of whose climactic set piece takes place ten minutes from my front door: locusmag.com/review/its-n...
Reposted by Niall Harrison
Mark your calendars! We are kicking off our End of Year fundraiser on the 2nd, Giving Tuesday!
Donate at bwc.io/locus2025 (link in bio) through December and see your gift doubled via a $100,000 match challenge.
The campaign is live now if you just can't wait.
Donate at bwc.io/locus2025 (link in bio) through December and see your gift doubled via a $100,000 match challenge.
The campaign is live now if you just can't wait.
November 27, 2025 at 8:11 PM
Mark your calendars! We are kicking off our End of Year fundraiser on the 2nd, Giving Tuesday!
Donate at bwc.io/locus2025 (link in bio) through December and see your gift doubled via a $100,000 match challenge.
The campaign is live now if you just can't wait.
Donate at bwc.io/locus2025 (link in bio) through December and see your gift doubled via a $100,000 match challenge.
The campaign is live now if you just can't wait.
This was a fun first novel, and I think that view is mostly independent of the fact that it's the only novel I'm aware of whose climactic set piece takes place ten minutes from my front door: locusmag.com/review/its-n...
It’s Not a Cult by Joey Batey: Review by Niall Harrison
It’s Not a Cult, Joey Batey (Raven Books 978-1-52667-681-8, £16.99, 320pp, hc) October 2025. It’s rare that I get a chance to review novels set where I live, and perhaps given the infinite canvas a…
locusmag.com
November 27, 2025 at 7:03 PM
This was a fun first novel, and I think that view is mostly independent of the fact that it's the only novel I'm aware of whose climactic set piece takes place ten minutes from my front door: locusmag.com/review/its-n...
Not to start my "variant @clarkeaward.bsky.social shortlists" schtick too early, but I've realised it would be possible for the 2026 shortlist to consist almost entirely of books that have already won major awards. At least, I've got five out of six (see following post), can anyone think of a sixth?
November 27, 2025 at 3:35 PM
Not to start my "variant @clarkeaward.bsky.social shortlists" schtick too early, but I've realised it would be possible for the 2026 shortlist to consist almost entirely of books that have already won major awards. At least, I've got five out of six (see following post), can anyone think of a sixth?
Reposted by Niall Harrison
Never-Ebbing Story: @casella.bsky.social reviews Eva Meijer's SEA NOW, translated by Anne Thompson Melo (@catransitnerd.bsky.social)
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/2025/11/26/n...
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/2025/11/26/n...
Never-Ebbing Story: Review of Eva Meijer’s Sea Now
Jake Casella Brookins Under Review:Sea Now. Eva Meijer, translated by Anne Thompson Melo. Two Lines Press, October 2025. Ironically, it’s the very dry humor of Eva Meijer’s Sea Now—a story entirely…
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org
November 26, 2025 at 2:14 PM
Never-Ebbing Story: @casella.bsky.social reviews Eva Meijer's SEA NOW, translated by Anne Thompson Melo (@catransitnerd.bsky.social)
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/2025/11/26/n...
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/2025/11/26/n...
Reposted by Niall Harrison
Good news: First review of the week!
Even better news: It’s @thehubble101.bsky.social on Alix E. Harrow!
“The dismissal of fantasy is compounded by the strategy of rhetorical containment in which novels in the genre by women are singled out.”
Even better news: It’s @thehubble101.bsky.social on Alix E. Harrow!
“The dismissal of fantasy is compounded by the strategy of rhetorical containment in which novels in the genre by women are singled out.”
The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow
A critical discomfort with fantasy still remains a feature of public life.
strangehorizons.com
November 25, 2025 at 12:52 PM
Good news: First review of the week!
Even better news: It’s @thehubble101.bsky.social on Alix E. Harrow!
“The dismissal of fantasy is compounded by the strategy of rhetorical containment in which novels in the genre by women are singled out.”
Even better news: It’s @thehubble101.bsky.social on Alix E. Harrow!
“The dismissal of fantasy is compounded by the strategy of rhetorical containment in which novels in the genre by women are singled out.”
Reposted by Niall Harrison
“SEA NOW is not a novel without hope, but it is a novel in which hope is tempered.” @niallharrison reviews new work from Eva Meijer
Sea Now by Eva Meijer: Review by Niall Harrison
Sea Now, Eva Meijer (Two Lines 978-1-94964-185-1, $18.00, 180pp, tp) October 2025. One of the few Northern European countries not visited in Yoko Tawada’s trilogy is the Netherlands, so it was brie…
locusmag.com
November 25, 2025 at 2:00 AM
“SEA NOW is not a novel without hope, but it is a novel in which hope is tempered.” @niallharrison reviews new work from Eva Meijer
"Death of the SF category but not SF content" latest: I count, I think, six science fiction novels in the NYT notable books list; none of them are categorised in the list as SF and none of them were published as SF. One was even marketed as Romantasy, it seems! www.nytimes.com/2025/11/24/b...
November 25, 2025 at 1:19 PM
"Death of the SF category but not SF content" latest: I count, I think, six science fiction novels in the NYT notable books list; none of them are categorised in the list as SF and none of them were published as SF. One was even marketed as Romantasy, it seems! www.nytimes.com/2025/11/24/b...
Reposted by Niall Harrison
Explore as @niallharrison reviews ARCHIPELAGO OF THE SUN by Yoko Tawada, saying the book “finds both a yearning for a state beyond language, and a joy in the necessity of it.”
Archipelago of the Sun by Yoko Tawada: Review by Niall Harrison
Archipelago of the Sun, Yoko Tawada (New Directions 978-0-811-23979-0, $16.95, 214pp, tp) September 2025. In similar vein, sometimes a novel can be about a place via its absence. Yoko Tawada’s Arch…
locusmag.com
November 23, 2025 at 8:00 PM
Explore as @niallharrison reviews ARCHIPELAGO OF THE SUN by Yoko Tawada, saying the book “finds both a yearning for a state beyond language, and a joy in the necessity of it.”
Reposted by Niall Harrison
Spotlight: 2025 Nommo Award winners
The ASFS announced this year’s winners at the Aké Arts & Book Festival in Lagos. The awards celebrate exceptional talent in African speculative fiction across four categories.
#AfricanSFF 🪐📚💙
The ASFS announced this year’s winners at the Aké Arts & Book Festival in Lagos. The awards celebrate exceptional talent in African speculative fiction across four categories.
#AfricanSFF 🪐📚💙
November 22, 2025 at 1:25 PM
Spotlight: 2025 Nommo Award winners
The ASFS announced this year’s winners at the Aké Arts & Book Festival in Lagos. The awards celebrate exceptional talent in African speculative fiction across four categories.
#AfricanSFF 🪐📚💙
The ASFS announced this year’s winners at the Aké Arts & Book Festival in Lagos. The awards celebrate exceptional talent in African speculative fiction across four categories.
#AfricanSFF 🪐📚💙
Reposted by Niall Harrison
Aha, my review of Sea Now is online! Fabulist disaster novel, witty and cutting: locusmag.com/review/sea-n...
Sea Now by Eva Meijer: Review by Niall Harrison
Sea Now, Eva Meijer (Two Lines 978-1-94964-185-1, $18.00, 180pp, tp) October 2025. One of the few Northern European countries not visited in Yoko Tawada’s trilogy is the Netherlands, so it was brie…
locusmag.com
November 21, 2025 at 7:44 PM
Aha, my review of Sea Now is online! Fabulist disaster novel, witty and cutting: locusmag.com/review/sea-n...
Aha, my review of Sea Now is online! Fabulist disaster novel, witty and cutting: locusmag.com/review/sea-n...
Sea Now by Eva Meijer: Review by Niall Harrison
Sea Now, Eva Meijer (Two Lines 978-1-94964-185-1, $18.00, 180pp, tp) October 2025. One of the few Northern European countries not visited in Yoko Tawada’s trilogy is the Netherlands, so it was brie…
locusmag.com
November 21, 2025 at 7:44 PM
Aha, my review of Sea Now is online! Fabulist disaster novel, witty and cutting: locusmag.com/review/sea-n...
Reposted by Niall Harrison
Just (belatedly) listened to this and having read it twice now and discussed it at my book group, want to say that When There Are Wolves Again is not so central liberalist as portrayed. The central political action is a protest camp and the dominant values are countercultural rather than liberal 1/2
Paul March-Russell on When There Are Wolves Again, in the latest episode of Critical Friends: “From a kind of Marxist revolutionary position, this book will really annoy you. But actually it is reaffirming a faith in legal, constitutional, democratic institutions.”
Radical reformism? Discuss.
Radical reformism? Discuss.
Critical Friends Episode 17: On Imagining Hopefully
Dan Hartland is joined by Paul March-Russell and Jacqueline Nyathi to discuss speculative fiction’s approach to hope and optimism. Where has it gone? How do writers express it? And what are its pit…
www.strangehorizons.com
November 20, 2025 at 11:42 AM
Just (belatedly) listened to this and having read it twice now and discussed it at my book group, want to say that When There Are Wolves Again is not so central liberalist as portrayed. The central political action is a protest camp and the dominant values are countercultural rather than liberal 1/2
A conference! In Newcastle! With am excellent keynote speaker! This is exciting.
November 20, 2025 at 6:07 PM
A conference! In Newcastle! With am excellent keynote speaker! This is exciting.
Reposted by Niall Harrison
Slippery novel, this: locusmag.com/review/archi...
Archipelago of the Sun by Yoko Tawada: Review by Niall Harrison
Archipelago of the Sun, Yoko Tawada (New Directions 978-0-811-23979-0, $16.95, 214pp, tp) September 2025. In similar vein, sometimes a novel can be about a place via its absence. Yoko Tawada’s Arch…
locusmag.com
November 20, 2025 at 9:43 AM
Slippery novel, this: locusmag.com/review/archi...
Slippery novel, this: locusmag.com/review/archi...
Archipelago of the Sun by Yoko Tawada: Review by Niall Harrison
Archipelago of the Sun, Yoko Tawada (New Directions 978-0-811-23979-0, $16.95, 214pp, tp) September 2025. In similar vein, sometimes a novel can be about a place via its absence. Yoko Tawada’s Arch…
locusmag.com
November 20, 2025 at 9:43 AM
Slippery novel, this: locusmag.com/review/archi...
"This analysis has, so far, neglected the Science Fiction category as it is now by far SFF’s junior partner with just two titles in the 2025 Top 50." www.thebookseller.com/bestsellers/...
November 17, 2025 at 10:13 AM
"This analysis has, so far, neglected the Science Fiction category as it is now by far SFF’s junior partner with just two titles in the 2025 Top 50." www.thebookseller.com/bestsellers/...
Reposted by Niall Harrison
✨ Please join SFWA in celebrating the announcement of our latest Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award: N. K. Jemisin. ✨
Learn more here about @nkjemisin.bsky.social, the Grand Master Award, and how the work goes on after the accolades for all we've already done:
www.sfwa.org/2025/11/16/p...
Learn more here about @nkjemisin.bsky.social, the Grand Master Award, and how the work goes on after the accolades for all we've already done:
www.sfwa.org/2025/11/16/p...
November 16, 2025 at 9:47 PM
✨ Please join SFWA in celebrating the announcement of our latest Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award: N. K. Jemisin. ✨
Learn more here about @nkjemisin.bsky.social, the Grand Master Award, and how the work goes on after the accolades for all we've already done:
www.sfwa.org/2025/11/16/p...
Learn more here about @nkjemisin.bsky.social, the Grand Master Award, and how the work goes on after the accolades for all we've already done:
www.sfwa.org/2025/11/16/p...
Reposted by Niall Harrison
The reviews are in!
Colourfields by Paul Kincaid
reviewed by Shinjini Dey
Making History by K. J. Parker
reviewed by Cameron Miguel
Esperance by Adam Oyebanji
reviewed by Eric Hendel
Link to the latest issue in our bio!
#speculativefiction #specfic #horror #sff #bookreviews
Colourfields by Paul Kincaid
reviewed by Shinjini Dey
Making History by K. J. Parker
reviewed by Cameron Miguel
Esperance by Adam Oyebanji
reviewed by Eric Hendel
Link to the latest issue in our bio!
#speculativefiction #specfic #horror #sff #bookreviews
November 16, 2025 at 8:58 PM
The reviews are in!
Colourfields by Paul Kincaid
reviewed by Shinjini Dey
Making History by K. J. Parker
reviewed by Cameron Miguel
Esperance by Adam Oyebanji
reviewed by Eric Hendel
Link to the latest issue in our bio!
#speculativefiction #specfic #horror #sff #bookreviews
Colourfields by Paul Kincaid
reviewed by Shinjini Dey
Making History by K. J. Parker
reviewed by Cameron Miguel
Esperance by Adam Oyebanji
reviewed by Eric Hendel
Link to the latest issue in our bio!
#speculativefiction #specfic #horror #sff #bookreviews
Follow-up on this: Notwithstanding that Waterstones is selling them, am I correct that two of the chosen SF books (Automatic Noodle and Monsters & Mainframes) aren't actually published by UK publishers? (Tordotcom and Girl Friday, respectively, both US based I believe).
State of the genres in the UK: 25 fantasy books (and an entire separate romantasy list), 18 horror books, and 5 science fiction books, one of which is a Brandon Sanderson collection that isn't out yet www.waterstones.com/blog/the-bes...
The Best Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror of 2025 | Waterstones.com Blog | Waterstones
From R.F. Kuang to Brandon Sanderson, here is the science fiction, fantasy and horror we've loved this year.
www.waterstones.com
November 14, 2025 at 8:30 AM
Follow-up on this: Notwithstanding that Waterstones is selling them, am I correct that two of the chosen SF books (Automatic Noodle and Monsters & Mainframes) aren't actually published by UK publishers? (Tordotcom and Girl Friday, respectively, both US based I believe).
Reposted by Niall Harrison
Stephen Baxter sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/baxter... was born on this day, so here are some of his magazine and book covers (Artist: John Picacio, Manchu, Jim Burns and Bob Eggleton):
November 13, 2025 at 10:10 PM
Stephen Baxter sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/baxter... was born on this day, so here are some of his magazine and book covers (Artist: John Picacio, Manchu, Jim Burns and Bob Eggleton):
State of the genres in the UK: 25 fantasy books (and an entire separate romantasy list), 18 horror books, and 5 science fiction books, one of which is a Brandon Sanderson collection that isn't out yet www.waterstones.com/blog/the-bes...
The Best Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror of 2025 | Waterstones.com Blog | Waterstones
From R.F. Kuang to Brandon Sanderson, here is the science fiction, fantasy and horror we've loved this year.
www.waterstones.com
November 13, 2025 at 1:04 PM
State of the genres in the UK: 25 fantasy books (and an entire separate romantasy list), 18 horror books, and 5 science fiction books, one of which is a Brandon Sanderson collection that isn't out yet www.waterstones.com/blog/the-bes...
Reposted by Niall Harrison
🫰SNAP!🫰
My latest column for the excellent @ancillaryreviewofbooks.org, on Tochy Onyebuchi, Joy Sanchez-Taylor, and what to read to understand what you’re reading.
How might we fill the “imagination gap” in our fictions?
My latest column for the excellent @ancillaryreviewofbooks.org, on Tochy Onyebuchi, Joy Sanchez-Taylor, and what to read to understand what you’re reading.
How might we fill the “imagination gap” in our fictions?
Snap! Criticism: Sanchez-Taylor and Onyebuchi
Dan Hartland What should you read if you want to understand what you’re reading? Gang, this column would of course advise that you read criticism. But there are other, and less eccentric, answers. …
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org
November 12, 2025 at 7:02 PM
🫰SNAP!🫰
My latest column for the excellent @ancillaryreviewofbooks.org, on Tochy Onyebuchi, Joy Sanchez-Taylor, and what to read to understand what you’re reading.
How might we fill the “imagination gap” in our fictions?
My latest column for the excellent @ancillaryreviewofbooks.org, on Tochy Onyebuchi, Joy Sanchez-Taylor, and what to read to understand what you’re reading.
How might we fill the “imagination gap” in our fictions?
Reposted by Niall Harrison
The website of Alter Magazine - a space for “new literary writing on science, technology, and progress from South Asia,” has just gone live: www.altermag.com
The first long-form piece - my essay on the secret history of Indian science fiction - will be published on 22 Nov.
Watch this space!
The first long-form piece - my essay on the secret history of Indian science fiction - will be published on 22 Nov.
Watch this space!
New Literary Writing on Science, Technology & Progress
Alter Magazine is a monthly journal of ideas documenting the dreams & dilemmas shaping the Subcontinent's aspirations for collective human progress.
www.altermag.com
November 12, 2025 at 10:09 AM
The website of Alter Magazine - a space for “new literary writing on science, technology, and progress from South Asia,” has just gone live: www.altermag.com
The first long-form piece - my essay on the secret history of Indian science fiction - will be published on 22 Nov.
Watch this space!
The first long-form piece - my essay on the secret history of Indian science fiction - will be published on 22 Nov.
Watch this space!