July 20, 2017
Penric and the Shaman (2016) Written by: Lois McMaster Bujold Pages: 160 (Kindle) Publisher: Spectrum Literary Agency, Inc Why I chose it: I’ve read (and adored) Bujold’s Sharing Knife series and have been wanting to read more of her work. When this Penric novella was offered as a Hugo reading, I took the opportunity to expand my Bujold repertoire. The…
July 19, 2017
Novelettes are tricky little beasts. They are story tidbits, and it takes a particularly skilled writer to create one that offers a full story within the limited constraints of standard word count for the form. I am challenging myself to read more short fiction this year, so when our editor approached me to ask if I would be willing to…
July 18, 2017
My recipe for success has always been: take something you’re interested in and add dragons. It started back at the age of 13 when I first read Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern and it continued straight through 2006, when I picked up His Majesty’s Dragon, the first in the Temeraire series. And I don’t just mean any dragon. There has to be something…
June 30, 2017
What if I told you that the savviest science fiction story on bookshelves right now features a stolen warship, a Martian cowboy, a lady marine who’s nearly seven feet tall, an endearing sociopath and a farm boy who has come close to accidentally instigating interstellar war at least twice? What if I told you that the person with the most…
June 28, 2017
The Philip K. Dick Awards have been announced. The Nebulas have been announced. We didn’t cover them, but the Stokers, the Tiptree, and so many other awards have been announced. What’s left? There’s a few, but the biggest one on Spec Chic’s radar is the Hugos! You may think that blogging the Hugos would be a daunting project for the…
June 23, 2017
This year the Hugos are including a new experimental category for Best Series in order to recognize the awesomeness that can’t be contained in one or even two books. I’m thrilled that one of my absolute favorites is on the ballot. The Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold is aptly named, with over fifteen novels and several short stories and…
June 20, 2017
Hugo season continues! With the Nebulas wrapped up, you’ll be seeing more and more Hugo-related posts between now and August. Up next in our reviews of the Hugo-nominated works of 2016: the entire short story category. I was especially drawn to the short story category as a challenge to myself. I haven’t read a lot of short fiction that isn’t…
June 6, 2017
It’s Hugo season! This means banding together to discuss, debate, and ultimately vote for the things that we love. This year saw something new and different in the Best Dramatic Presentation (Short Form): an experimental hip-hop album called Splendor & Misery had appeared on the ballot alongside four television episodes. I was intrigued. I’m a lifelong music junkie (my first…
May 31, 2017
As you may have noticed, here at Speculative Chic, we love following the award circuit. While we don’t get to read all the things for all the awards, we do make a pretty darn good effort, if I do say so myself (and as Editor-in-Chic, I do say so!). However, there are some awards that pop up and say, “Here’s…
April 17, 2017
Over the weekend, the Philip K. Dick winner was announced, but before that winner was even announced, we’ve already had our sights set on the Nebulas! In fact, some of our reviewers have already gotten started, so I thought this was the perfect time to go ahead and provide our index for you to follow along. However, we will not…