Author name: trishmatson

Educated as a physicist yet living as a journalist, Trish Matson is an award-winning writer and editor whose ever-expanding list of interests includes a lifelong love of SF/F, plus wordplay, libraries, games, music, dancing, audio drama, and podcasting. She’s listed as TrishEM on various fora, but you can find her most easily on Twitter.

Poster image for Star City; in gray, red, and black, a dark-haired woman in a trench coat carrying a briefcase walks up stone steps in the foreground; behind her, a rocket takes off into space; in the background, in shades of red, yellow, and gray, the Chief Designer listens on headphones.
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Review: Star City series (S1)

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The three episodes of For All Mankind that I watched last summer during Apple TV’s free weekend were great, but I never found time to dive into the four (now five) seasons of that acclaimed alt-history science fiction series (based on the idea that the USSR got to the moon before the US). However, when the spinoff series Star City started this May, and some people whose judgment I trust said you didn’t have to have watch FAM to understand this show, I gave it a try. It turns out they were right, that was a great decision, and this is a great show! It definitely helps if you’ve read or watched some Cold War spy fiction previously, but I think I’d have been fine even if I hadn’t watched S1 E1-3 of FAM. I absolutely love the character developments and the plot convolutions in this 8-episode show, even if a few circumstances seemed slightly unlikely/sentimental. It’s unknown so far whether there will be a second season, but I can see it ending as is, without feeling dissatisfied, even though several people’s fates are left hanging. However, I do hope for at least one more season.

Cover of A Plagued Sea, by Kim Bo-Young, featuring lots of dead, rotting fish piled on a beach in front of a small village clinging to a mountainside.
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Book Review: A Plagued Sea, by Kim Bo-Young

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I devoured A Plagued Sea, by Kim Bo-Young, translated by Sophie Bowman, in one sitting, just a couple of hours. It’s fairly short, but it packs in a lot of emotion, events, and (mostly local) worldbuilding. It’s a Korean horror story that combines illness, body horror, and the things that people do to each other, with family love and guilt.

Cover of Godfestation, by Jendia Gammon, featuring a car driving with headlights down a dark mountain road, with a bird skeleton and morning glories at the lower edges and large eyes watching from a purple fog above.
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Book Review: Godfestation, by Jendia Gammon

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Godfestation, by Jendia Gammon, is an interesting combination of vibes, from creepiness to revulsion to scariness, but also including homely home comforts, a long journey, a wonderful diner, familial and other kinds of love, cryptic admonitions, and unexpected delights. It’s definitely not a novella for someone who demands complete answers and explanations, but if you can put that desire aside, it ends up being rather comforting.

Cover of Titanium Noir, by Nick Harkaway, featuring a white silhouette of a man's head under a black fedora, against a lime-green background, with spires of a cityscape against the white face.
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Book Review: Titanium Noir, by Nick Harkaway

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Ever since I listened to an episode about mystery novels on The Incomparable podcast last fall, the library holds that I’d placed have been intermittently coming through and inserting themselves onto my TBR queue. Since I’d waited eight months for Titanium Noir (2023) by Nick Harkaway, recommended by Jason Snell, I delayed my self-assigned reading (Hugo finalists and upcoming novels) a little longer to start this one. I’m glad I did (even if I feel a little guilty). I enjoy the noir subgenre, and this is a good noir plot; the science fictional elements here are also interesting, but what really raises this book to a remarkable level for me are the very human and sympathetic reasons for the way people act here, even the ones becoming transhuman or arguably posthuman.

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Book Review: Tales from Rugosa Coven (2026 edition), by Sarah Avery

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Like most people, I never got to read the edition of Tales from Rugosa Coven that was published in 2013, even though it won the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award in 2015. When the rights reverted to author Sarah Avery, her blog said that it had only sold a few hundred copies, including print and ebooks. The book found a new home with publisher Candlemark & Gleam in 2025, and an updated and revised edition is now available for preorders, with the release set for Aug. 1. I have been privileged to read an eARC of this version, and it’s great! This is one of the most grounded-feeling urban fantasies I’ve ever read, with deeply developed characters whose real-life issues marvelously intertwine with the magic in their lives, featuring a strongly positive theme of a supportive, inclusive community.

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Book Reviews: Hugo Best Novel Finalists

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The Skiffy and Fanty Show doesn’t, as a group, rank or endorse Hugo Award finalists, although individual columnists certainly may have their favorites. However, over the course of the past year and a half, Paul Weimer and I have reviewed all six of this year’s Best Novel finalists. All but one of those reviews were posted in the first four months of 2025, long before the finalists could be nominated, let alone announced. That just goes to show that at Skiffy and Fanty, we’re doing a good job of keeping our eyes on the speculative fiction field, although of course there’s too much out there to avoid missing some of the good stuff now and then. For the convenience of anyone new to the show/blog or who wants a refresher before voting for the Hugos, we’re linking all six reviews here. They’re listed in the order that the reviews were published, not indicating any preference.

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