Feed aggregator

The organizers of the Otherwise Award (formerly the Tiptree Award) have announced the jury for the 2025 award, including Eugen Bacon (chair), Rebecca Fraimow, Andrew Hook, K. Ibura, and Cheryl S. Ntumy.

The jury is considering works for the 2025 award. A recommendation form is open to the public and nominations will be accepted until November 14, 2025. Winners will be announced by late May 2026 and with plans to ... Read More

James Patterson, in partnership with organizations including Association of Writers & Writing Programs, the Authors Guild, Girls Write Now, the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and PEN America, has announced and organized the “Go Finish Your Book” program, offering monetary support toward unfinished works.

According to an Associated Press article, winning authors will receive up to $50,000 to help finish their manuscript. According to AWP, winners will also receive “mentorship opportunities, resources, ... Read More

Co-owner Savanna Sturkie has announced the imminent opening of new independent bookstore Love & Legends in New York City. Sturkie describes the bookstore as the city’s first to focus exclusively on works of fantasy and romance.

At Love & Legends, you can expect to find a tailored selection of genre fiction, bookish gift items, RPGs, dice and more. We will also create a much-needed third space for fantasy-loving Brooklynites by ... Read More

The preliminary ballot for the 2025 Ditmar Awards for Australian SF has been announced.

Best Novel

• Blood Covenant, Alan Baxter (Cemetery Dance)
• Ghost Cities, Siang Lu (University of Queensland Press)
• The Medusa Situation, Gabiann Marin (Clan Destine)
• The Escher Man, T.R. Napper (Titan)
• The Underhistory, Kaaron Warren (Serpent’s Tail)

Best Novella or Novelette

• Wilder, Pamela Jeffs (Four Ink)
• Cruel Nights, Jason Nahrung (Brain

...Read More

U.S. District Court Judge William Alsup has given “preliminary approval” to the $1.5 billion class action lawsuit, Bartz v. Anthropic PBC, in which authors accused AI company Anthropic of illegally obtaining and using their books to teach its AI system.

According to a Bloomberg report, Alsup said the settlement was “fair” and emphasized the need for capable lawyers to manage the suit ethically. Anthropic will pay approximately $3,000 for each ...Read More

Winners of the 16th annual Xingyun Awards for Chinese science fiction were announced by the World Chinese Science Fiction Association. Titles have been translated by Hu Shaoyan.

Best Novel

• WINNER: Golden Peaches, Yang Wanqing (Sichuan Science & Technology; Science Fiction World)

• The Planetary Rites, An Hao (New Star)
• Jia Jia, Qi Ran (China Translation Publishing House; SciFidea)
• Cracks, Liu Yang (People’s Literature Publishing House)

Best Novella

...Read More

Winners of the 2025 Deutsche Science Fiction Preis have been announced.

Best German Language Short Story

• WINNER: “Davy ’n‘ Jean”, Gabriele Behrend (Rock Planet)
• Second Place: “Ascheweg”, Robert Corvus (C.R.E.D.O)
• Third Place: “Die Tür in den Sommer”, Ulf Fildebrandt (NOVA 34)
• Fourth Place: “Ein Schritt ins Leere”, Aiki Mira (Psyche mit Zukunft)
• Fifth Place: “Ich bin die Auferstehung und das Leben”, Heidrun Jänchen (NOVA

...Read More

Yume Kitasei has announced the launch of the 2025 “Traveling Science Fiction and Fantasy Book Festival,” a series of panel discussions over two weeks as panelists visit eight cities in the northeastern US. The cities are: Monday, October 13: New York NY (PT Knitwear) Wednesday, October 15: Baltimore MD (Greedy Reads) Thursday, October 16 – Washington DC (East City Bookshop) Friday, October 17: Philadelphia PA (Mavey Books) Tuesday, October 21:

Writer Jon Lasser, 49, died in hospice on September 23, 2025. He had lung cancer. Lasser was born November 10, 1975 in NYC and worked in the technology industry. During his career, he published short stories in Analog, Diabolical Plots, Galaxy’s Edge, Lightspeed, and other publications. “The Star Tree” won a Writers and Illustrators of the Future contest in the fourth quarter of 2016, and “Wreckwalkers” was a James White

The Asociación Española de Fantasía, Ciencia Ficción y Terror (AEFCFT) has announced the winners for the 2025 Ignotus Awards, honoring speculative fiction from Spain and beyond. Novela extranjera (Foreign Novel) WINNER: Què mou els morts [What Moves the Dead], T. Kingfisher, translated by Marta Armengol Royo (Obscura) and Lo que mueve a los muertos [What Moves the Dead], T. Kingfisher, translated by Arrate Hidalgo (Crononauta) Aprendre, si tenim sort [To Be

The American Library Association (ALA) has released their Top 10 Most Challenged Books of 2024, including some works and authors of genre interest. The ALA has listed the top 10 most challenged books amid the third-highest number of book challenges since 1990.

Finalists for the French-language Prix Aurora-Boréal have been announced. Best Novel Magnétisme, Paule Blanchette (Lux & Nox) La perle verte, Amélie Bougie (Lux & Nox) Le fléau d’Angarie, Julie Desjardins (Lux & Nox) Ashara: La quête de la Lumière, Marie-Ève Rondeau (Essor-Livres) Le centre-ville des morts, Éric Thériault (Lo-Ély) Best Short Story “IA”, July Cyr (Échos de l’imaginaire) “Bercer les voûtes”, Ariane Gélinas (Les Six Brumes) “La dette”, Bruno Mercille

The Land in Winter by Andrew Miller (Sceptre) is one of the six titles shortlisted for the 2025 Booker Prize. The £50,000 prize is “open to works by writers of any nationality, written in English and published in the UK or Ireland.” This year’s judges are Sara Collins, Justine Jordan, Yiyun Li, Nitin Sawhney, and chair Edmund de Waal. Shortlisted authors receive £2,500 and a “specially bound edition of their

The Before Columbus Foundation has announced the winners of the 46th American Book Awards for “out­standing literary achievement from the entire spectrum of America’s diverse literary community.” Winners of genre interest include: Martyr!, Kaveh Akbar (Knopf) Beautyland, Marie-Helene Bertino (Farrar, Straus & Giroux) James, Percival Everett (Doubleday) Malas, Marcela Fuentes (Penguin) Mice 1961, Stacey Levine (Verse Chorus) The awards will be presented Octo­ber 26, 2025 in at UC Berkeley in

by Brenda W. Clough

I’m going to make a big assumption here: You are not immortal. If this is not accurate, email me, and we’ll write another article for Planetside about planning for your endless life. But if you are like the rest of us, you’re going to die someday. And you should think about it.

Why Should I?

The notion of one’s own demise is curiously repugnant for some people. I had an uncle who steadfastly refused to contemplate it or take any action about it. This meant that when he did pass, his affairs were in chaos. This is not a good look for anybody, but 10 times out of 10, it’s particularly bad if you are an author or creative. Because you have more value than just your personal property. You have intellectual property: the copyrights to your fiction or art. And these can be a huge cause of contention after you’re no longer around.

The basic rule of all end-of-life planning is: If you want anything done, set it up now. Everything and anything can be done, if only you’re above ground to do it. Once you’re dead, you get no more say in anything. You want a Viking funeral, to lie on a burning longship as it’s pushed out to sea into a golden sunset? Oral instructions are easily forgotten, misheard, or ignored. Write it down, or better yet, find the business that does Viking funerals and sign a contract in advance for their services, and you’ll happily burn.

The first and most important step is to make your will. It’s not necessary—in fact, it’s downright unwise—to wait until your golden years to do this. When you acquire significant assets, like real estate, a partner, or children? You should make a will. These things are too important not to plan for.

What If I Don’t?

If you die intestate (without a will), your estate will be subject to probate. This means the government will intervene to determine how to distribute your assets. But you, being dead, will get no input into these decisions. The authorities may do things that you’d very much dislike. And going through probate takes ages. My uncle, who was too nervy to ever make a will? He owned property. It took two years for his estate to go through probate, two years during which his widow needed the money, and his sons frantically struggled with New York state’s bureaucracy. It was the last thing the family needed to face after the bereavement.

Depending upon where you live, you may not need a lawyer to draw up that will. There are online forms that allow you to create a simple will. This works if you don’t own a lot of stuff. If it’s you, your car, and your goldfish, you do not have a complicated estate. But if there’s anything complex or important in your life, you should hire an expert, an estate attorney, to be sure it’s done right.

A competent estate lawyer will help you to arrange things the way you want, now, while you still have all your marbles. If you want to provide for your beloved Labrador retriever, if you want to specifically ensure that your worthless son has nothing to squander on riotous living, the lawyer can make this happen. There are hundreds of mystery thrillers and Victorian novels, excitingly plotted around intestate deaths, confusing or badly worded bequests, and squandered inheritances. A properly drawn-up will means you offer no inspiration to novelists. You want this to be boring, legal, and airtight.

Your lawyer will also help you draw up an end-of-life document, designating a person to make medical decisions on your behalf if you are no longer able to do so. Again, this saves your loved ones a world of hurt at a moment of tragedy and crisis. It becomes especially important if you become incapacitated but don’t die right away. You do not want a fight between your kids about who decides to pull the plug on your life support. A spouse or partner is the usual candidate for this role, but your lawyer should ask you to designate a backup person as well.

Then Your Literary Estate

The above is the absolute minimum in estate planning. But an author or a creative has that intellectual property. The executor of your will acts as you have instructed regarding your money, house, or children. And your literary executor will do the same for your copyrights and intellectual property. They’ll sign contracts for reprints, collect the payments, and transfer those monies where you want them to go. Consult your lawyer about this, because state laws vary. You may need a second document, or at least a letter of your intent, designating someone to handle your literary estate.

Who should your literary executor be? Select someone who knows you and your work. Let them be responsible and reasonably young. A literary executor older than you may predecease you, and then you’d have to do it all again. You’ll want to discuss this with the person in advance, so they know what it entails and can consent to accept the role.

Supply them with a list of all your publications to date, so they have a grasp of how big your literary estate is going to be. Mention to them any vehement feelings you have about media options, or having your stories telepathically transmitted into the reader’s cerebral cortex if that technology comes online before your copyrights run out. These instructions can be as simple or as complex as you like. My son is my literary executor, and my instructions were elementary: “Grab all the money on offer, and run!” 

If you have no suitable person you’re comfortable with to act as your executor or literary executor, ask your lawyer again. The law firm may well agree to act on your behalf in this matter. Having an entity be your executor is no bad thing. Law firms don’t last forever, but they’re far more immortal than a human being.

Once you have your literary executor lined up, be sure to tell SFWA’s Estates-Legacy Program, which keeps track of them all. This will allow the Steven Spielberg of the 22nd century to find your literary executor and negotiate for the telepathic rights to your novel without difficulty. Much more information is available at this link. This would also be the moment to tell any agents you may have, literary or media, that you’ve chosen a literary executor.

Wait, There’s More

This is the absolute minimum for an author. Even if you only have a couple of stories out, it’s only responsible to take care of your physical and literary offspring. But let’s suppose you’re a bigger player. You’re George R. R. Martin or Stephen King, with a dozen New York Times best sellers in your catalog, movie deals in development, or Netflix projects scheduled. Your works are not just sofa change but a major income stream.

At that level, you probably already have a lawyer to organize your career. She almost certainly has already told you this. If she hasn’t, ask her now about setting up living trusts. You can shelter all your assets in a trust that will outlive you. This trust can do anything you want: donate the ongoing income from your movies to worthy causes; allow your as-yet-unborn great-grandkids to afford a Princeton tuition; erect your elaborate tomb next to Chopin’s in Père Lachaise Cemetery. A trust is the main vehicle you can deploy to elude estate taxes. You can set up as many separate trusts as you like to protect one asset from litigation that might devour another.

Most crucially, a trust helps to cut off litigation. Your unborn grandkids may despise one another, but they’ll hesitate to sue if you set up a trust. It’s not a perfect guarantee, but because you’re setting up the trust and declaring your intent for it while you’re still alive, your intent is clear and inarguable in court. Not having a trust is worse. Not having a record of your intent gives your heirs the opening to litigate all the assets away like Jarndyce v. Jarndyce, or to make an embarrassing splash in the media fighting over your millions when you’re incapacitated or dead.

You read in the news now and again of people who did not organize their estates until it was too late. They’re no longer competent, or they died unexpectedly. The rats in their life seized the opportunity to crawl out of the woodwork. Suddenly, accusations fly, the cries of elder abuse or looting of the checking accounts. The dirty laundry is dumped out, the old girlfriends, long-lost offspring, or estranged relatives, all of them clawing for the money the oldster can no longer use. Everyone who admired that actor, author, or artist nods their head. What a shame that this should be her legacy! Do not be the star of one of these loathsome scenarios. Look your demise in the eye—and plan for it.

Editor’s note: SFWA provides the Bud Webster Legacy Kit to help professional creators compile the resources they need to protect their intellectual legacies.

Brenda W. Clough is the first female Asian American SF writer, first appearing in print in 1984. Her 2025 novel is a science fiction novel, His Selachian Majesty Requests. In 2024, she published the 12th book in the Marian Halcombe series, Servants of the Empress. A novelette, “Clio’s Scroll,” appeared in Clarkesworld in July 2023. A historical novel, A Door in His Head, won the 2023 Diverse Voices Award. Her novella “May Be Some Time” was a finalist for both the Hugo and the Nebula awards and became the novel Revise the World. She is active in the SF community, attending conventions and doing podcasts. Her complete bibliography is up on her website, brendaclough.net.

The post Estate Planning for Authors and Creatives appeared first on SFWA - The Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association.

“A Catalog of 21st Century Ghosts” by Pat Murphy (Lightspeed 12/24) has been announced as the winner of the 2025 Washington Science Fiction Association (WSFA) Small Press Award for Short Fiction.

The Bookseller has announced the shortlists for the inaugural British Audio Awards.

By Marta F. Suarez Dine or Die, with a Pinch of Comedy

Delicious in Dungeon (2024, Netflix). Season 1, Episode 3. Living-Armour Stir Fry and Soup [00:18:57]

Delicious in Dungeon (Netflix, 2024-present) is Studio Trigger’s adaptation of Ryōko Kui’s eponymous manga (2014-2023). The series is set in a fantasy world that merges and echoes different fantasy and manga traditions popular in Japan. The overall setting takes the viewer to the dungeon crawl genre, which recently experienced a resurgence in the country after Etrian Odyssey Nexus (2018). The characters’ races and skills are shaped by influences of Dungeons and Dragons, the Middle-Earth world set by Tolkien, and even the Final Fantasy universe, which itself draws inspiration from these narrative traditions. However, what makes Delicious in Dungeon significantly different is the resonances of cooking series like Mister Ajikko (1986-1989), a manga series that had several sequel runs over the years, including a recent 2015-2019 one, titled Mister Ajikko Bakumatsu-hen. The first season comprises 24 episodes, with a new second season coming soon this 2025. 

In the world of the story, adventuring parties enter dungeons looking for the legendary Golden Country, a kingdom transported by a sorcerer to the depths of an expansive dungeon, which is said to contain the ultimate treasures. Lured by wealth, fame, and adventure, different guilds enter this dungeon with the hope of finding the lost realm. One of these teams is led by Laios Touden, a tall-man (human) Paladin Knight who starts this quest alongside his sister Falin, a magic wielder; Marcille, a half-elf mage; and Chilchuck, a halfling thief. The opening scenes present the party’s encounter with a magnificent red dragon, against which they are losing. As the beast defeats them one by one, Falin uses her last strength before being ingested by the dragon to teleport the other members of the party out of the dungeon. Still alive but on the surface, the party is now several floors above where the battle took place and too far to attempt to rescue Falin. However, due to the magic of the dungeon, Falin could be resurrected if there are some remains and she has not been fully digested. With this in mind, the group decides to return, defeat the dragon and rescue any remaining parts of Falin. However, with time being of the essence, they realise that they cannot afford to stop to resupply and find provisions, as that would risk their chance to succeed. In a conventional dungeon crawl storytelling, the party would possibly open containers to find cheese and fruit, pick edible mushrooms and seeds, or perhaps kill a rodent and eat a left-behind spoiled pie in a moment of necessity. In contrast, Laios introduces the unconventional idea of eating the monsters they encounter, setting the course for the series. With this decision, the party ensures their survival and the journey becomes also one of gastronomic exploration.

The premise adopts a comedic approach, with Laios exhibiting an almost obsessive enthusiasm for consuming monsters, verging on a fixation. Marcille, in contrast, is disgusted by the idea and often protests very vocally, with Chilchuck taking a more pragmatic attitude but also questioning Laios’ desires to embrace monster cuisine. Their first attempt at cooking a monster ends in disaster due to Laios’s inexperience on the matters of the safe handling and preparation of monster meat. It is at this point that they meet Senshi, a Dwarf warrior who has long embraced cooking monsters and joins the party as the cook. Senshi’s expertise crafts delicious recipes using the monsters they defeat. From here on, the episodes include entering a new room or level where there is an encounter with a new monster,  a method to defeat it that considers the best approach to retain flavour or avoid toxins, a detailed recipe explained by Senshi, a commentary on the steps needed or the reasons to cook the monster that way, and the final presentation of the dish to the audience, which include diagrams of the body areas used for that particular recipe and the title (Figure 1). If you have watched any cooking manga series, these scenes replicate the conventions of culinary battles and faceoffs leading to awards, fame and prestige. Yet, this is also a format echoed in contemporary cooking blogs and social media accounts, where a recipe turns into a long post about the memory of a grandmother’s apron, the very special ingredients needed, the precise and unique way to prepare these, and the social-media-ready photos of the result. In this manner, these scenes will appeal to a range of audiences who will find the format familiar for different reasons and will appreciate the humorous tone in which the monster recipe is presented. These scenes become humorous because of the detailed and serious explanations surrounding the recipes, which quite often extrapolate real techniques and advice to soften tough meats, the temperature or timings required in different methods, the way to slice certain ingredients, etc. The series describes real cooking tips with fantasy ingredients and lets the audience linger over the presentation of the final dish with slow panning and close-ups of beautifully presented bowls. And yet, just before risking taking itself too seriously, the group dynamics and reactions to the food smash the exquisite moment with Marcelle’s tantrum about the ingredients, Laios’ overexcitement at trying a new monster, or Chilchuk’s scepticism.

The series makes a case for environmentally sustainable food consumption.  With each monster they slay, the group collects different parts as ingredients, many of which are featured in subsequent episodes as part of their supply pack. Quite often, different body parts are used for different recipes and require different cooking techniques. As they continue to descend to the lower levels of the dungeon, the party acquires knowledge about the monsters’ habitats, their biological traits, methods to defeat them for better flavour, and the processes involved in preparing and cooking their meat. While the characters’ reactions to these unconventional meals provide comedic relief, the overarching theme of survival remains central to the narrative, encapsulated within the ‘Eat or Be Eaten’ premise. This is established from the onset through Falin’s story arc. She is eaten in a self-sacrificing act so the party can escape, but the dragon that consumed her is also finally eaten to restore her life, with some unintended consequences. Beyond the comedic premise, the series explores deeper themes of consumption and survival. Marcille’s aversion to monster meat is framed as naïve and even childish, as sustenance and survival should take precedence. Ethical concerns surrounding food emerge at several points in the storytelling, such as when the characters ponder whether eating carnivorous plants that had consumed people would constitute an indirect act of cannibalism. Further exploring the implications of the food chain, Senshi cultivates mud golems to grow produce, prompting questions about the ethics of using monsters as crops. Furthermore, his personal background story explores guilt about potentially (and involuntarily) having consumed Dwarf’s flesh: a personal trauma that is resolved with further culinary experimentation. Even the central objective of the first part of the series, the rescue and resurrection of Falin, presents a series of twists related to transformation through eating. Questions over what is edible cross over with questions over what is socially acceptable to eat, as it is clear by the reactions of other dungeon dwellers that eating monster meat is not at all conventional. 

The interactions with other guilds and adventurers help construct a wider view of the society and the world of the party. Racial tensions and prejudice are subtly woven into the worldbuilding, shaping interactions between different races without forming a central narrative arc. The story consistently reminds viewers that mistrust and misunderstandings persist, showing how each race holds distinct perspectives on events, differing approaches to situations, and varying degrees of knowledge and historical memory. Rather than presenting feuds or conflicts of major consequence, these tensions emerge organically in dialogue and worldbuilding detail. Characters remark on racial preconceptions, challenge how they are perceived, or reference historical narratives that reflect their community’s perspective. These scenes underscore the lingering effects of prejudice, stereotypes, and the accumulated weight of centuries of assumptions. However, the tensions that these moments could build are turned into comedy relief towards the end of the season, when the characters undergo temporary transformations that change their race after being exposed to a type of mushroom. These moments playfully subvert the prejudices and assumptions established earlier in the story, offering amusing reflections around identity and the self. 

Fan interpretations have highlighted additional layers within the narrative, such as the portrayal of neurodivergence via Laios, or the potential to read characters like Izutsumi as queer or trans coded, a point also made about Lycion, a character in the manga books who could possibly appear in the upcoming season 2. Although these elements have not been officially endorsed and in some cases have been denied, the fanbase attributes these characterisations to the author’s unconscious representation of identities drawn from real-life inspirations. 

Delicious in Dungeon is an entertaining series that uses familiar tropes, genres, and archetypes to playfully twist them for a giggle. The characters are constructed with very defined personalities that are distinctive and endearing, complementing each other and allowing the camaraderie of the party to shine through. The comedy is built around their reactions to situations (and food), which almost work like a hot potato game where emotions are thrown around in the same scene with the shape of shock, laughter, embarrassment, annoyance, and resolve, among others. Contrast is a comedy device throughout, making unexpected conjunctions, epitomised most of all in the development of the culinary art of monster cooking. It is comfort food, a well-seasoned dish of (un)familiar flavours with an extra bit on the side that tastes funny. It might be the monsters.

§

Bio:

Marta F. Suarez is a Senior Lecturer in Latin American Cultural Studies (Screen Media). With a background in screen studies and storytelling, her research explores speculative fiction in screen media, unveiling the tensions and dialogues arising between portrayals of race and gender and the societies from within which they are imagined. She is currently working on transmedia narratives and exploring questions of adaptation, storytelling, and portrayals of identity. In her spare time, she can be found adventuring on the PlayStation or on a watching spree across diverse streaming media.

Author Ru Emerson, 80, died August 15, 2025 in Dallas OR. Emerson was born December 15, 1944 in Butte MT. She married Doug Garrety and settled in rural Oregon. She began publishing with debut fantasy The Princess of Flames (1986). Other works includes the Tales of Nedao series with To the Haunted Mountains (1987), In the Caves of Exile (1988) and On the Seas of Destiny (1989), and the YA Night-Threads books, including The Calling of the

Independent bookshop Books Are Magic has announced a special event “remembering, celebrating, and dissecting the work of” late horror author Peter Straub (1943-2022). Event panelists include Nat Cassidy, Dan Chaon, Kelly Link, and the author’s daughter and novelist Emma Straub. The event will be held on October 27, 2025 in Brooklyn NY and livestreamed on the Books Are Magic website and on YouTube. For more information, see the event web page.