The True Queen

The True Queen, Zen Cho, sequel to Sorcerer to the Crown which I talked about here. This was a blast; Cho's characters and situations are great, and the pacing and story were tight and nicely constructed. Would make a great second season followup to the limited series I dreamt of for Sorcerer. Also, this one might be readable as a standalone? It's centered on a different main character, at least, although some of the worldbuilding and secondary characters might be a little confusing. People who want to skip right to the book in the series with f/f content could certainly try, though. :)

World Fantasy Awards

The World Fantasy Award is another award I don't particularly follow, but hey, it's always interesting to see what's getting awards.

Best Novel:
WINNER: Witchmark, C.L. Polk
In the Night Wood, Dale Bailey
The Mere Wife, Maria Dahvana Headley
The Poppy War, R.F. Kuang
Trail of Lightning, Rebecca Roanhorse

Best Novella
WINNER: “The Privilege of the Happy Ending“, Kij Johnson (Clarkesworld 8/18)
The Only Harmless Great Thing, Brooke Bolander (Tor.com Publishing)
The Black God’s Drums, P. Djèlí Clark (Tor.com Publishing)
The Tea Master and the Detective, Aliette de Bodard (Subterranean)
Beneath the Sugar Sky, Seanan McGuire (Tor.com Publishing)

Best Short Fiction (tie)
WINNER: “Ten Deals with the Indigo Snake”, Mel Kassel (Lightspeed 10/18)
WINNER: “Like a River Loves the Sky”, Emma Törzs (Uncanny 3-4/18)
“The Ten Things She Said While Dying: An Annotation”, Adam-Troy Castro (Nightmare 7/19)
“A Witch’s Guide to Escape: A Practical Compendium of Portal Fantasies”, Alix E. Harrow (Apex 2/18)
“The Court Magician”, Sarah Pinsker (Lightspeed 1/18)

Best Anthology
WINNER: Worlds Seen in Passing, Irene Gallo, ed. (Tor.com Publishing)
Sword and Sonnet, Aidan Doyle, Rachael K. Jones, & E. Catherine Tobler, eds. (Ate Bit Bear)
The Book of Magic, Gardner Dozois, ed. (Bantam; Harper Voyager UK)
Best New Horror #28, Stephen Jones, ed. (Drugstore Indian)
Robots vs Fairies, Dominik Parisien & Navah Wolfe, eds. (Saga)

Best Collection
WINNER: The Tangled Lands, Paolo Bacigalupi & Tobias S. Buckell (Saga)
Still So Strange, Amanda Downum (ChiZine)
An Agent of Utopia, Andy Duncan (Small Beer)
How Long ’til Black Future Month?, N.K. Jemisin (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
Phantom Limbs, Margo Lanagan (PS)

Best Artist
WINNER: Rovina Cai
Galen Dara
Jeffrey Alan Love
Shaun Tan
Charles Vess

Special Award – Professional
WINNER: Huw Lewis-Jones for The Writer’s Map: An Atlas of Imaginary Lands (University of Chicago Press)
C.C. Finlay, for F&SF editing
Irene Gallo, for Art Direction at Tor Books and Tor.com
Catherine McIlwaine for Tolkien: Maker of Middle-earth exhibition (The Bodleian Libraries at the University of Oxford)
Molly Barton, Jeff Li, James Stuart & Julian Yap for Serial Box

Special Award – Non-Professional
WINNER: Scott H. Andrews, for Beneath Ceaseless Skies
Mike Allen, for Mythic Delirium
Lynne M. Thomas & Michael Damian Thomas, for Uncanny
E. Catherine Tobler, for Shimmer
Terri Windling, for Myth & Moor