6 Books with R.J. Barker

R.J. Barker is a critically acclaimed and award-winning author of fantasy fiction. He won the British Fantasy Award for Best Novel for his fourth novel, The Bone Ships, and his debut trilogy The Wounded Kingdom was nominated for the David Gemmel Award, the Kitschie Golden Tentacle, the Compton Crook, and the BFS Best Debut and Best Novel awards. R.J. lives in Leeds with his wife, son, and a collection of questionable taxidermy, odd art, scary music, and more books than they have room for.

Today he tells us about his six books:

1. What book are you currently reading?

I am currently reading Children of Strife by Adrian Tchaikovsky, which is the fourth if his ‘Children of…’ books. I am quite a slow reader now so I am not a long way into it but it is just wonderful so far. I think Adrian is probably one of the best writers working in SFF right now. The breadth of his imagination is extraordinary, as is how quickly he manages to work which should probably be illegal (I have tried writing to my local Member of Parliament about this but they were strangely uninterested.) I love the way that he makes everything interlock and how work often calls back on itself and the depth of his creations is just wonderful. You can tell he’s done the work, which is always quite impressive to me as I try to do very little work.

2. What upcoming book are you really excited about?

This was a really hard question for me as I am a very live in the moment person I don’t tend to be thinking about what’s coming or what has gone by much. I’m always too busy enjoying what I am doing now and writing is such a precarious occupation I think it’s often best not to think too much about the future. So I don’t. However, because of this question I found out that James Lee Burke released a new Dave Robicheaux book on the 12^th of February so now I know about that I am looking forward to it immensely. His writing is absolutely beautiful and the way he balances a sense of  impending violence and (often but not always) very subtle supernatural themes with the nature and environment of the deep south is incredible. The book is called The Hadacol Boogie. I have no idea what a Hadacol is but I am looking forward to finding out.

3. Is there a book you’re currently itching to re-read?

Not really. Life is way too short to re-read things (with one exception but we’ll get to that below) and I’m always in search of something new. I don’t really like nostalgia and I think, for me anyway, every type of art I’ve consumed has its enjoyment tied to a place and a situation that I can never go back to. And wouldn’t want to really, so often going back to things I’ve loved is just an exercise in disappointment. I will never reclaim the sense of awe in the new I had when I first read Iain M Banks Culture books. Or find again the joy of C.J. Cherryh’s Morgaine cycle revealing to me what was really going on. So instead I want to find new things that will wow me in new ways.

4. A book that you love and wish that you yourself had written.

There are so many but RECENTLY that is Pagans by James Alastair Henry. It’s a police procedural set in a modern day England where Christianity never happened in the same way it did in ours. (I don’t think it’s ever underlined why but it doesn’t seem the Roman Empire never happened either). It’s an incredible book, not just because I love a crime novel, but the world just works. It’s a great bit of creation and feels entirely possible. The UK is very much a backwater, America never existed, and Africa and the Mughal empire of India are the main superpowers. There’s never a moment in the book where it doesn’t feel real.

But, bit of bad news if you are in the US, I don’t think you can get Pagans yet and you are really missing out. Sorry.

5. What’s one book, which you read as a child or a young adult, that has had a lasting influence on your writing?

Watership Down. I think some aspect of Watership Down is in everything I write and it remains the only book that I go back to and each time I find something new. Richard Adams was quite dismissive about the book, and thought it was for children but I think that just shows the author never quite knows what they are writing. On one level it is just an adventure with some rabbits for kids. But it’s also a deep and complex political allegory and a book full of lessons on how we treat each other. It’s just a wonderful thing and I love it dearly.

 6. And speaking of that, what’s your latest book, and why is it awesome?

My latest book is Mortedant’s Peril and it comes out in May of this year. It’s always hard as Brit when someone says ‘what makes this thing you did Brilliant.’ As you’re kind of first instinct is to go, 'well, it’s alright' then deflect off as we don’t do self congratulation particularly well. Having said that, I think people will love Irody and his friends. Even though Irody at first approach is not that loveable, I think readers will see past his mask to what’s within. Then there’s the world, I’ve created quite a few worlds and they are often hard to approach, and require a lot of patience in the reader where this isn’t that. The world has all the complexity I enjoy giving a place but you can more or less step straight in to Elbay. It’s a city and we understand cities, even if it is one like no other you’ve ever come across. There’s also no build up, the danger (or peril!), is there right from the start, you’re thrown right in to the murder mystery that puts Irody’s life in danger..

And it’s funny. Not in a jokes way, but in the way people are, when they hide from themselves or don’t see the truth that you, the reader, can see from your lofty position above the page. It’s just all something very enjoyable, I loved writing it, and I hope you will love reading it.

Thank you, R.J!

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POSTED BY: Paul Weimer. Ubiquitous in Shadow, but I’m just this guy, you know? @princejvstin.

6 Books with John Chu

John Chu is a microprocessor architect by day, a writer, translator by night. He has been a finalist for the Hugo, Nebula, Locus, and Ignyte Awards, won the Best Short Story Hugo for "The Water That Falls on You from Nowhere" and won the Best Novelette Nebula for "If You Find Yourself Speaking to God, Address God with the Informal You." The Subtle Art of Folding Space is his first novel.

Today he tells us about his six books.

1. What book are you currently reading?

Matching Minds with Sondheim by Barry Joseph. Stephen Sondheim, of course, is one of greatest writers of musical theater of all time. He was also a great creator of games and puzzles. This book explores this aspect of his work to give us more insight into his creative process. Also, it has some of the puzzles and games he created. As you read the book you are, in fact, also matching minds with Sondheim.

 2. What upcoming book are you really excited about?

I was lucky enough to read an advance copy of What We Are Seeking by Cameron Reed, the author who wrote The Fortunate Fall. It’s a bit lengthy, but I absolutely devoured it. The novel is unabashedly and unapologetically queer. It is an unflinching exploration of gender that takes place on a world whose native living beings have a genuinely alien lifecycle that defy our implicit categorization of living beings. ((I apologize for the awkward wording of that last sentence. I’m trying to avoid spoilers.) All of this takes place in an epically far-future milieu. There is so much to unpack with this novel and it is all fascinating.

I believe both Cameron Reed’s novel and mine have the same release date [April 7th]. Buy both!

3. Is there a book you’re currently itching to re-read?

I don’t generally re-read books. I’m not the world’s fastest reader. Also, the day job and writing doesn’t leave much time for reading. So, I prioritize works that I haven’t read over works I have. At this point, my (virtual) to-be-read pile is so large that I don’t know whether I will ever make my way through. And yet, I keep adding to it.

That said, there are books like The Palm-Wine Drinkard by Amos Tutuola that are so far outside my lived experience, I feel like perhaps I need to read it again before I can claim with a straight face that I have read it. In grad school, I rushed through The Book of the New Sun in my spare moments and I would love to experience those novels again at a more leisurely pace. While I’m at it, by sheer coincidence, I read A Fire Upon the Deep while I was studying network architecture. (A novel computer network is a tangential part of my PhD dissertation.) So much of that book referenced what I was also learning about and researching at that moment. It might be nice to revisit that book in a context where that is not the case.

 4.  A book that you love and wish that you yourself had written.

I read Arkady Martine’s A Memory Called Empire and was instantly smitten. It is a gorgeously written novel and very much the novel about assimilation that I wanted to write. The book is trenchant about the effects of imperialism and the contradictions it inevitably creates. Mahit is so true to life in that she both admires the culture of the empire, seeing its value, and understands viscerally the cost of that culture. She does this through, in part, the context of language, which is a topic near and dear to my heart.

5. What’s one book, which you read as a child or a young adult, that holds a special place in your heart?

I’m going to mention two because I can’t decide. 

The first is The Phantom Tollbooth by Norman Juster. Malka Older, who read it recently, posted about it on social media and from that I have to conclude, sadly, that the Suck Fairy has gotten to it. Fear of this is one reason why I never revisited or passed it on to my nieces when they were the right age for it. I gave them more contemporary books. The Phantom Tollbooth, I should note, was already pretty old when I read it. So, maybe the right time to read it was when both you and the world was young enough not to know better.

That said, baby me was absolutely delighted by the sheer invention of all the places Milo visited. I ate up all the absurdity and wordplay. 

That brings me to the second book, The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin. It’s another book that I’m afraid to revisit, lest I find out the Suck Fairy has gotten to that, too. This book almost sparked the love mysteries and sheer wordplay that I still have today. Again, tiny me eeked and gasped at every revelation. Tiny me reveled in the clever way Ellen Raskin manipulated words. 

There is a Chinese translation. One day, I may have to get my hands on it just to see how the translators navigated some potentially thorny issues as the wordplay is very much part of the mystery. (Again, I’m being vague so as to avoid spoilers for a novel that’s nearly 50 years old.) Maybe I should have mentioned this as a novel that I’m itching to re-read. (It depends on whether you call reading it in a different language re-reading.)

6. And speaking of that, what’s your latest book, and why is it awesome?

My latest (read: first) book is called The Subtle Art of Folding Space and it comes out on April 7th from Tor Books. To reference question 4b, this is, to some extent, the book about assimilation that I did write. Right off the bat, the main character, Ellie, is accused of being insufficiently Taiwanese by her sister and, throughout the book, Ellie finds herself navigating the expectations of not just her family but multiple cultures. 

That, however, is the context for a story about the sometimes thankless job of making sure the world keeps working. Ellie is sent off by her sister Chris to the skunkworks, the machinery that generates the physics of the university, to replace a worn part. Chris can’t do it as she insist on being the one and only person to take care of their comatose mother. However, her cousin Daniel shows her that physics has been deliberately modified to keep her mother alive. It’s also causing spurious errors all over the universe. Right at the start, she is forced to make a decision no one should ever be forced to make: the life of her mother or the proper functioning of the universe.

The novel deals with family, assimilation, and the responsibility to make the world work, but it’s also a lot fun. It has both a secret cabal that threatens to topple the order of the universe and a man who makes food appear out of thin air on command. It has both a library with too many physical dimensions and a librarian who is a giant tree trunk mounted on top of a giant spider. It encompasses both the messy aftermath of a death and a car that spontaneously turns into a rhinoceros. I hope the novel captures the absurdity and joy of life and I hope people have as much fun reading it as I have writing it.

Thank you!

Thank YOU, John. 

You can also read a review of The Subtle Art of Folding Space here.

POSTED BY: Paul Weimer. Ubiquitous in Shadow, but I’m just this guy, you know? @princejvstin.

6 Books with Aubrey Sitterson

Aubrey Sitterson is a comic book man. Based in Los Angeles, he is recognized for his ferociously idiosyncratic creator-owned work, blending literary aspirations with genre exploration. His best-known works of fiction include the geopolitical space opera Free Planet, fight comic character study No One Left to Fight, and populist superhero series BEEF BROS. Additionally, he is the writer of the exhaustively researched nonfiction tome The Comic Book Story of Professional Wrestling.

Today he tells us about his Six Books

1. What book are you currently reading?

Recognizing the importance of a balanced diet, in addition to contemporary comics and other periodicals, I try to always keep a nonfiction and a historical comics read going simultaneously. Right now, the former is Peter Hopkirk's The Great Game, a detailed, personality-based exploration of the 19th century military and intelligence sparring undertaken by the British and Russian Empires in Central Asia, particularly Afghanistan. In addition to being the beginning of a dynamic that would continue through the Cold War with significant impacts today, it's also a rollicking, imperialist adventure story.

On the comics front, I'm finally reading Elfquest, which has always been an embarrassing gap in my comics knowledge; it's as wonderful as everyone says it is. Wendy Pini's control of gesture and character design are unparalleled, functioning within a newspaper and European comic strips tradition that, because of its remove from most contemporary US comics, hits like a ton of bricks today; not to mention how outrageously sensual all the character interactions are, without ever feeling salacious. Plus, like The Great Game--I'm discovering a theme--it's also a ripping adventure story.

2. What upcoming book are you really excited about?

The Daniel Freedman anthology Stimulus. Daniel sent me a PDF of it months and months ago and I adored it, despite being keenly aware that--because we share a similar comics philosophy--reading it digitally was a pale imitation of the real thing. Working with a murderer's row of artists, all chosen for their specific talents, Daniel presents a collection of sci-fi stories that reward slow, careful reading and deliberate thought, with interlocking and recursive themes. And, as evidenced by how stoked I am to get the physical edition, it also rewards rereading.

3. Is there a book you’re currently itching to re-read?

Dave Sim's sprawling, experimental, abrasive, and controversial Cerebus isn't just one of my favorite comics of all time, I think it's the best comic of all time and one of the best works of written English in any medium. Sim accomplished what I aspire to: A comic that achieves novelistic depth not despite the medium but through it, utilizing, dusting off and innovating formal approaches that are always tied to his overarching fixations and the work's byzantine thematic layering. I read the full thing in college and it blew the top clean off my skull; over the past few years, I've been going back through the collections and am even more impressed than I was as a younger man. After I finish this volume of Elfquest, I'm planning to tackle the acclaimed Jaka's Story volume.

4. How about a book you’ve changed your mind about – either positively or negatively?

It took me at least three running starts, over the course of half a dozen years, to make it through Dune. Well before the movie, I knew it was something that--on paper--I should love; in addition, I wanted to love it; I wanted to be a Dune guy. Not just because of the high regard in which it was held but because it was this big, sprawling, uncompromising text, so deep and complex as to feel esoteric. But on the first few reads, I found it punishingly dry; I think it was down to two things: 1) Trying to read it like an essay that has to be fully digested as opposed to a work of art meant to wash over you, and 2) Reading it--like a fool--digitally.


Eventually, something clicked for me and I devoured all of the Frank Herbert books. While I'm still torn on my opinion of the individual volumes, I adore them all as part of a whole; it's the platonic ideal of a long-running series, reveling in the freedom to explore different approaches, settings, tones and characters, while remaining in disciplined service to the work's overarching themes, layering in depth and complexity along the way.

5 What’s one book, which you read as a child or a young adult, that has had a lasting influence on your writing?

My favorite author in high school was Aldous Huxley; he still ranks extremely highly. While I dug Brave New World and Island was probably my favorite, the one that stuck with me the most is Point Counterpoint. It's a stunning piece of work, with a sprawling cast generally freaking out about the convulsions of the early 20th century. The character work is flawless, with Huxley simultaneously constructing and deploying instantly relatable archetypes, such that it feels both prophetic and timeless. But the aspect I've never stopped thinking about is the interplay between the characters' lengthy conversations, the larger issues lurking around the edges, and their relationships with one another, including the romantic.

Point Counterpoint is big, messy soap opera but it's also about big, messy ideas; concepts and challenges so complex and complicated as to defy the simple explanations found in parable and direct metaphor. Instead, Huxley mirrors the complexities of these challenges--political, social, economic, and moral--with the characters' ardently held but often inconsistent worldviews. I've always aspired to create work this challenging, with this type of depth; work brave enough to admit that there aren't any simple answers to questions worth asking, with complexity and ambiguity that inspire rumination in readers.

6. And speaking of that, what’s your latest book, and why is it awesome?

My latest book is Free Planet, an ongoing series from the legendary Image Comics. Free Planet is space opera about what happens after the revolution is won. The Freedom Guard, a group of revolutionary heroes, is tasked with safeguarding the freedom of Lutheria from threats without and within. The problem, however, is that--just like in this great nation of ours--they all have completely different ideas about what complete freedom entails. It's informed by extensive research into real world revolutions and civil wars, with what Robert Kirkman calls "rich, intricate worldbuilding"; think "Cordwainer Smith meets Noam Chomsky" and "Sci-fi G.I. Joe defending space Venezuela" and you're partway there.

Throughout Free Planet's creation, cocreator/artist Jed Dougherty and I have aspired to utilize the comics medium to the utmost, attempting to match Huxley's depth and complexity through the use, not just of prose, but images, design, and their communication with one another on the page. It's a holistic approach to comics; rather than creating a story and breaking it into issues, panels, and pages, the book is ideated and written as an art object, built of overwhelming spreads featuring maps, graphs, charts, and infographics on top of all the sci-fi action and soap opera drama. It's not to be read quickly; it's a world you're meant to slow down and luxuriate within. And best of all? There's a full graphic novel waiting for you, with new issues landing at your local comic shop every single month.

--

Thank you, Aubrey!

POSTED BY: Paul Weimer. Ubiquitous in Shadow, but I'm just this guy, you know? @princejvstin.

Six Books with Alex Shvartsman

Alex Shvartsman (Brooklyn, NY) is the author of The Best of All Possible Planets (2026), Kakistocracy (2023), The Middling Affliction (2022), and Eridani’s Crown (2019). Over 150 of his stories and translations from Russian have appeared in Analog, Asimov’s, Clarkesworld, F&SF, Nature, Reactor, Strange Horizons, and several Year’s Best volumes. He won the WSFA Small Press Award for Short Fiction, was a three-time finalist for the Canopus Award for Excellence in Interstellar Fiction, and was a two-time finalist for the BSFA Award. Read his work at alexshvartsman.com.

Today he tells us about his Six Books.

1. What book are you currently reading?

I tend to read or listen to a couple of books at a time: one in English and one in Russian. I’m finishing up Operation Bounce House, a standalone sci-fi adventure by Matt Dinniman (of Dungeon Crawler Carl fame), where a colony is invaded by remotely operated drones and mechs controlled by gamers from Earth. Although set in the far future, it has plenty to say about current gamer culture, politics, and AI.

I’m also reading Tunnel by Yana Vagner, the author whose novel The Epidemic was adapted into the To the Lake series which aired on Netflix. Tunnel is a thriller where hundreds of people are trapped in a tunnel underneath Moscow, the entry points shut due to an unknown catastrophe on the surface.

2. What upcoming book are you really excited about?

Children of Strife by Adrian Tchaikovsky, coming out later this month. Children of Time is one of my favorite SF books of the past decade or so and I’m excited to see where he takes the series next.

3. Is there a book you’re currently itching to reread?

The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov, which is my favorite Russian-language book. I reread it every decade or so and it always feels fresh, benefiting from added perspective.

4. A book that you love and wish that you yourself had written?

Birthright by Mike Resnick; it’s not one of his better-known books, but it’s fantastic and quite ambitious in its scope. It tells the story of the human species from the moment we reached the stars and until humanity’s demise, spanning tens of thousands of years, and he does it through interconnected short stories that set up the universe he’s written many novels in.

5. What’s one book, which you read as a child or a young adult, that holds a special place in your heart?

The Snow Queen and Summer Queen duology by Joan Vinge. I love those books dearly and really enjoy her other novels as well. That’s another set of books I need to reread!

6. And speaking of that, what’s your latest book, and why is it awesome?

The Best of All Possible Planets is a space opera comedy. This book is inspired by Candide and structured as a series of Futurama episodes. It is full-on absurd and funny, and the sort of thing I love writing the most. The audiobook is narrated by Eli Schiff (Succession, The White Lotus) and Lewis Black (The Daily Show, Inside Out)! Plus there are corgis.

This book is presently on Kickstarter, and you can snag unique rewards as well as copies of the book itself in four different formats.



Thank you, Alex!

POSTED BY: Paul Weimer. Ubiquitous in Shadow, but I'm just this guy, you know? @princejvstin.

6 Books with A.C Wise

A.C. Wise is the author of the novels Wendy, Darling and Hooked, along with the recent short story collection The Ghost Sequences. Her work has won the Sunburst Award for Excellence in Canadian Literature of the Fantastic, and has been a finalist for the Nebula Awards, Stoker, World Fantasy, Locus, British Fantasy, Aurora, Lambda, and Ignyte Awards. In addition to her fiction, she contributes a review column to Apex Magazine.

Today, we find out about her six books.

1. What book are you currently reading?

I recently started reading The Villa, Once Beloved by Victor Manibo. I’m not that far into it yet, but I’m very much enjoying it thus far. It’s an atmospheric Gothic that looks to be playing with some of the tropes of the genre. There’s a desolate and run-down mansion, and the idea of the family curse, but there are several characters who could fulfil the role of the outsider coming into the situation. Sophie isn’t a member of the family; she was adopted as a child, leaving her feeling in an in-between state of both being from the Philippines and not from the Philippines; her boyfriend spent time at the estate as a child, but didn’t exactly grow up there; and other members of the family are estranged, semi-estranged, or don’t fit in. Thus far, everyone is also very up front about the idea of the curse, which makes me think there are other buried secrets yet to be revealed. I’m looking forward to seeing how the dynamics and expectations of the genre play out over the course of the book.

2. What upcoming book are you really excited about?

There are a few 2026 titles that I was lucky enough to get an early look at, and I’m very excited for other folks to be able to read them. The Iron Garden Sutra by A.D. Sui is a gorgeous, slow-burn locked room mystery set in space. Cabaret in Flames by Hache Pueyo is a lush novella exploring trauma and healing in a world of ghuls. Stephanie Feldman also has a lovely collection upcoming, The Night Parade and Other Stories. As for works I haven’t read yet coming out in 2026, I’m looking forward to John Chu’s debut novel The Subtle Art of Folding Space and Paul Tremblay’s new novel Dead But Dreaming of Electric Sheep.

3. Is there a book you’re currently itching to reread?

I saw a really beautiful edition of The Picture of Dorian Gray the other day, and while I resisted buying it, it did make me want to reread it. I’ve also been contemplating giving Moby Dick another try. From what I recall, I got almost of the way through it, but never actually finished it.

4. How about a book you’ve changed your mind about—either positively or negatively?

A book I’ve changed my mind about multiple times over the years is Catcher in the Rye. The first time I tried to read it in a high school English class, I bounced off of it. I gave it another shot a few years later and ended up really liking it and finding Holden Caufield more relatable. Looking back now, I suspect Holden would be irritating and I’d be impatient with him. I also get the feeling that may be intentional, and the way a reader reacts to Holden may very much be a factor of age.

5. What’s one book, which you read as a child or a young adult, that holds a special place in your heart?

The Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark trilogy both continues to have a lasting influence on my writing and holds a special place in my heart. So many of the stories are mere snippets or leave events wholly unexplained, which means there’s room to imagine all sorts of things around the margins. Being drawn from folk/fairy/traditional tales and urban legends gives the stories an enduring and timeless feel. Plus, there are those gorgeous illustrations, which I feel like are absolutely burned into the brains of many authors and readers of my generation. Several things I’ve written over the years have drawn inspiration from those stories and their accompanying artwork.

6. And speaking of that, what’s your latest book, and why is it awesome?

My latest book is Ballad of the Bone Road, and while it’s not strictly horror, there are horror-adjacent elements, and there are ghosts involved. It’s set in an alternate version of New York City, which was once occupied by the fae. Two supernatural investigators get caught up in a particularly tricky haunting involving a movie idol, and things get increasingly complicated from there. I love stories where the fae are as dangerous as they are lovely, and where ghosts are more tragic than frightening. This novel has both, and there’s also romance and friendship and people making terrible decision with the best intentions in mind. I had a lot of fun writing it, so hopefully people will enjoy reading it!

Thank you!

6 Books with Stew Hotston

With a Celtic-Indian mother and a father of North African/Roma descent, Stewart Hotston is a somewhat confused second-generation immigrant living in the UK. His novels include the BFS and Subjective Chaos finalist Entropy of Loss, as well as the tech thriller Tangle’s Game and the science fiction novels based in UBISoft’s Watch Dogs universe—Daybreak Legacy and Stars & Stripes. He is also co-owner of one of the UK’s largest LARP systems, Curious Pastimes, and is an internationally competitive historical fencer with a PhD in theoretical physics.

Today he takes that diverse curriculum vitae and tells us about his Six Books.

1. What book are you currently reading?

I’m reading Blood over Bright Haven by ML Wang. For nonfiction I’m reading Judith Butler’s Who’s Afraid of Gender? I’m really enjoying both. Wang’s feels pretty timely, and an interesting take on a whole number of issues that are important to me (intersectionality, prejudice, colonialism) wrapped up in a meticulously crafted fantasy world.

2. What upcoming book are you really excited about?

Mahmud El Sayed’s science fiction novel The Republic of Memory is the one most on my radar. Having just seen the cover and read the first chapter, I’m really very excited for what he’s bringing to the genre—a unique cultural perspective, a fascinating stor, and what looks to be interesting structural choices.












3. Is there a book you’re currently itching to reread?

I’m not much of a rereader, but I have promised myself I’m going to reread The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez and the Tyrant Philosopher series by Adrian Tchaikovsky.

4. How about a book you’ve changed your mind about—either positively or negatively?

Annie Bot. I’m not sure I’ve changed my mind—I really disliked it when I first read it, but it then went on to win the Clarke Award, and I’ve promised myself I’m going to return to it and reassess to see if what I found so difficult the first time remains a sticking point on a second readthrough.












5. What’s one book, which you read as a child or a young adult, that has had a lasting influence on your writing?

Oh, wow. That’s a difficult one because I read A LOT as a younger person and much of that has stayed with me. In terms of lasting influence on my writing, though? I think I was about 25 (I’m 50 now, so I’m going to let it count) when I read House of Leaves, and that really showed me that writing was more than content, more than delivering plot, that it could be about the words, the structure, the form itself. I’ve never written anything like it (and probably never will), but it remains a revelation to me that I return to again and again. Especially when I encounter people telling me there are rules to writing.

6. And speaking of that, what’s your latest book, and why is it awesome?

My latest is Project Hanuman, which is a space opera in the Culture mode, if that’s not too pretentious to say. More specifically, it’s also a retelling of how the god Hanuman lost his powers (and got them back), wrapped up in the collapse of a pan-galactic civilisation called the Arcology, and follows three of the survivors as they seek to build back. I am a trained physicist, and as a result this is one weird book, because modern physics says some incredibly strange things about reality, and I wanted to make those part of the story as much as the mythic elements around Hanuman.







Thank you, Stewart!

POSTED BY: Paul Weimer. Ubiquitous in Shadow, but I'm just this guy, you know? @princejvstin.

Six Books with Chloe N. Clark

Chloe N. Clark is the author of Collective Gravities (a pick for Best Books of 2020, NPR and The Brooklyn Rail), Patterns of Orbit, Escaping the Body, and more. She is a founding co-editor-in-chief of Cotton Xenomorph. Her next book, Every Galaxy a Circle, is forthcoming from JackLeg Press.

Today Chloe tells us about her Six Books!

1. What book are you currently reading?

What book am I not currently reading might be a fairer question at this point. After a period of not having much time to read, I've started carving out more dedicated reading time, and now I am feasting upon these long overdue delights. I can balance one non-fiction, one novel, and one short story collection at a time basically. Currently reading Why I Love Horror edited by Becky Spratford, Happy People Don't Live Here by Amber Sparks, and First Kicking, then Not by Hannah Grieco.

2. What upcoming book are you really excited about?

Oh gosh (depending on when this runs), I am looking forward to quite a few in my pile of TBR and pre-orders, including Ken Liu's All that We See or Seem, The Earth Room by Dana Diehl, Bitter Over Sweet by Melissa Llanes Brownlee, and so many more! I am cheating so much at this one book thing!

3. Is there a book you’re currently itching to re-read?

I love re-reading books, so I'm always hoping to re-read something. Right now, I want to re-read Victor LaValle's Devil in Silver before the show comes out.

4. How about a book you’ve changed your mind about—either positively or negatively?

There's a lot of books I've changed my mind about in a more negative manner (some because the book no longer connects to me and some because the author has turned out to be terrible). In positives, though, I think I had to age into Mary Oliver's poetry.

5. What’s one book, which you read as a child or a young adult, that has had a lasting influence on your writing?

The Alvin Schwartz Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark series had a profound effect on me as a child. I got deeply into exploring folklore because of them. I also think the very disturbing and almost impressionistic illustrations greatly inspired the way I think about describing horrifying things.

6. And speaking of that, what’s your latest book, and why is it awesome?

My latest book is Every Galaxy a Circle. It's a collection of stories that spans almost two decades of writing and revision (it has a story that was my very first fiction publication way back in the prehistoric times). Story topics include pie, basketball, space ghosts, monsters, and the scariest thing that's ever existed—yes, I'm talking about leopard seals.











Thank you, Chloe!

POSTED BY: Paul Weimer. Ubiquitous in Shadow, but I'm just this guy, you know? @princejvstin.

6 Books with Fran Wilde

Fran Wilde is the award-winning author of A Philosophy of Thieves, out 30th of September from Erewhon Books. You can find her at her website, her Patreon, and on instagram and bluesky under @fran_wilde.

A Philosophy of Thieves: Robin Hood meets Parasite meets Six of Crows in multi-award winning author Fran Wilde’s thrilling, high-tech adventure heist wrapped in a futuristic fantasy where thieves are entertainment for the wealthy. Get your copy here.

Today she tells us about her Six Books:

1. What book are you currently reading?

LD Lewis’ Year of the Mer (April 2026). I’m reading it to blurb and — spoilers — I’m going to blurb it A LOT. This is a story that goes beyond a retrenching of The Little Mermaid, to explore deeper issues of generational identity, trauma, revenge, and anger. It has so much heart, and so many moments where my own heart is ready to crumble. I am so looking forward to seeing this book out in the world, wrecking havoc.

2. What upcoming book are you really excited about?

LD Lewis’ Year of the Mer, see above. 

AND Alix Harrow’s new book, The Everlasting (10/28).  I would read a phone book cover to cover if Alix wrote it. But The Everlasting has a mysterious book in it that is so rare it might not exist, which is absolute Fran-bait. And a female knight, and fiction vs. reality plot lines and I’m so here for it.

OH AND Will Alexander’s just-out book Sunward (9/16). What began as a short story for The Sunday Morning Transport has bloomed into a resplendent space opera with so many fantastic moving parts (and sarcastic intelligences) that I want to hug it and share it and then grab it back and hug it again. Do I feel a tiny bit like a book auntie on this one? Yes. Yes I do.

3. Is there a book you’re currently itching to re-read?

I love rereading Frances Hardinge’s books - this year it’s Unraveller that I want to revisit. 

4.  A book that you love and wish that you yourself had written.

Alix Harrow’s Starling House and Frances Hardinge’s Unraveller.  The prose in both, the awareness of relationships and the heart-strings that wrap around your throat in both as the main characters fall deeper and deeper into the plot. I’m so here for that kind of utterly immersive writing, and I can still hear the phrases and sentences I wish I’d written in both. 

5. What’s one book, which you read as a child or a young adult, that has had a lasting influence on your writing?

The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster and Natalie Babbitt’s Tuck Everlasting are two childhood books that have both had a lasting influence on my writing (each deals with adventures and fantasy, getting your wildest dreams, and setting out from the real world into a very different place). Oh and puns. Lots of puns. And whimsy.

6. And speaking of that, what’s your latest book, and why is it awesome?

My latest book is A Philosophy of Thieves and I think it’s awesome because: high-society performance heists, tactical ballgowns (with lots of pockets), industrial espionage, immortality, and many heists wrapped in a speculative trench coat. 

Thank you, Fran!

Read Paul's review of A Philosophy of Thieves here at NOAF.

POSTED BY: Paul Weimer. Ubiquitous in Shadow, but I’m just this guy, you know? @princejvstin.