Author name: Daniel Haeusser

Daniel Haeusser (He/Him) is an Associate Professor of Biology who teaches microbiology and biochemistry. He researches bacterial cell shape & division, and phage (bacterial viruses) that alter either in their host during infection. His constant reading spans many genres, but SF, Fantasy, Horror, mystery, and world literature remain closest to his heart. His regular book reviews can be found at Reading 1000 Lives, and he also contributes reviews to Strange Horizons, Fantasy Book Critic, Speculative Fiction in Translation, and World Literature Today. You can connect with him on Goodreads or Bluesky.

Kickstarter page image for The Cookout anthology, featuring a ticket, a flying saucer, jellyfish floating in space or the sea, and various cookout foods including sausages and shish kebabs.
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Kickstarter Signal Boost: THE COOKOUT: An Anthology of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora, Edited by Erin Brown, Emmalia Harrington, Tonya R. Moore, & P.C. Verrone

Coming up in March we’re planning a podcast Signal Boost interview with writer/editor Tonya R. Moore about The Cookout, an anthology of science fiction and fantasy stories by Black authors of the African diaspora, centering on the traditions of “the cookout” — the joy, the drama, and the delicious food! A Kickstarter campaign is currently going on to support the anthology and help pay the contributors, who include Brent Lambert, Eden Royce, DaVaun Sanders, and Sheree Renée Thomas to date. There is just FIVE more days left to support this campaign, before we have the live recording with Moore or are able to release the podcast, so we’re also boosting this now on the blog. They are close to their goal, so be sure to check it out and help if you are able! Moore is a Jamaican speculative fiction writer and editor based in Florida. She is the editor-in-chief at Rogue Star Magazine, Poetry Editor at Solarpunk Magazine, and an associate writer at Galactic Journey. Her latest short story publications include “Water Baby”, published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction and “Anansi and the Astronaut”, published in the Spacefunk! Anthology. Moore is co-editing the collection with three others: 1) Erin Brown, a poet and author of horror, fabulist, and fantasy short fiction who has been published in FIYAH, Nightmare, Midnight and Indigo, The Deadlands, and many other venues, 2) Emmalia Harrington, a disabled QBIPOC novelist of Walk on Grey Ruins, whose short stories can be found at FIYAH, Abyss and Apex, Flame Tree Press, and elsewhere, and 3) P.C. Verrone, an author and playwright whose work has appeared in FIYAH, Nightmare, PodCastle, and numerous anthologies, and whose debut novel Rabbit, Fox, Tar is forthcoming from Catapult this year. Why The Cookout? How did this idea come about? Find more information on The Cookout and its editors/contributors on its website. And help support the project on Kickstarter.

Cover of Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2025, edited by Nnedi Okorafor and John Joseph Adams, featuring numerous sizes and colors of circles.
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Book Review: THE BEST AMERICAN SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY 2025, Edited by Nnedi Okorafor and John Joseph Adams

Ten years ago marked the centennial anniversary of The Best American Short Stories annual series of anthologies, first published by Small, Maynard & Company and now released by Mariner Books, an imprint of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. It took one hundred years, but that anniversary was also the birth of The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy (BASFF) spin-off series under the editorialship of John Joseph Adams. (In contrast, the crime/mystery/suspense genre had already gotten its own series starting in 1997.)  The decade of volumes since its inception has seen a diverse range of annual guest editors for BASFF, starting with Joe Hill in 2015 through Nnedi Okorafor for the latest 2025 volume. Each year the guest editors bring their own unique perspectives and tastes to the collection but work within a system with Adams to fit the overall series. And that overall series has a particular perspective itself, one attuned to the more mainstream literary auspices of The Best American Short Stories parent series. Thus, as with any “Best of” anthology, a reader is going to get a rather limited and by necessity somewhat personalized collection of stories that align with the editor’s tastes and the artistic viewpoints of the publisher/series. This is all to say that though there are a host of various “Best of” anthologies each year, it really does pay for short fiction fans to read a wide range of them, particularly if one isn’t keeping up with all the short fiction publication outlets through the year.

Cover of Star Trek: Lost to Eternity, by Greg Cox, featuring profiles of Kirk, Spock, and Saavik, with the Enterprise, against a green and blue starfield.
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Book Review – STAR TREK: LOST TO ETERNITY by Greg Cox

Set in three separate time periods, the recent Star Trek (Original Series) novel Lost to Eternity features three separate story lines that reveal connection and converge as the novel progresses. Writing one single story line can be challenging enough, let alone three, particularly under limitations that a franchise series novel could involve. Star Trek novel readers will likely recognize the name Greg Cox and appreciate that he might be able to succeed at making such a novel engaging. And he certainly does.

Website image for FrightFest 2025, London, UK, featuring a green monster menacing an Odeon theatre.
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Movie Reviews: Five from FrightFest 2025 London, UK

We had the opportunity to screen five of the films featured in the annual FrightFest this past summer in London. Promoting “the Dark Heart of Cinema,” FearFest 2025 included close to 100 features (both new films and recent restorations) and short film showcases across five days.  Though it was not one of the ones we had a chance to view, I was excited to see that their programming included the new 4K restoration of Harry Kümel’s Malpertuis (The Legend of Doom House) based on the classic “Belgian-weird” novel of Jean Ray. A definitive translation of that novel is available from Wakefield Press and the film adaptation is available on physical media from Radiance or as a Digital Cinema Package for screenings from an AGFA library scan.

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