Niall Harrison
@niallharrison
reader, critic, fan, he/him
I would! I would also say, though, that while the Calvino link is definitely there, The Mulai is somewhat more directly unsettling than most Calvino (in my experience). This is the start of my Locus review, not online yet.
Recent acquisitions. A couple of these are review copies, and I did also have a birthday, but I regret to say that this is mostly my own fault.
And three pre-2026 books that I really enjoyed, if only to prove that not *everything* I read is contemporary. Some of them are from as long ago as 2023!
Some honourable mentions. It's been a really strong year for first novels so far!
I didn't review The Illuminated Man, but I thought it was an extraordinary and very moving book
"what I felt when the novel released me was more immediate. I felt the urge to go outside, to run around and shout, not to celebrate the novel’s brilliance (although I think it is brilliant), but simply to prove that, for now, something real still exists."
POD pbs it is! Very basic - not even any back cover text - but I guess it doesn't cost Peter Owen much to make their backlist available in this way.
And now three out of four of the ones I've read have made the shortlist. Guess I should really look up the other three...
I think it's interesting more because it's how someone who centres authors -- and Budrys is definitely that type of reviewer -- finds the argument for encouragement wrong on its own terms. What has set him off is some (in his view) unrealistically positive blurbs from people who should know better.
I haven't listened to the podcast that occasioned all this discussion yet, but I did just read a review column by Algis Budrys (obviously in the author-critics camp) from February 1969, and he says this when reviewing Bob Shaw's second novel The Two Timers
Gagarin! (I assume.) No idea about a direct follow up, but if you haven't listened to their other albums I think they all have good stuff.
Is All My Love by Agnes Lidbeck speculative? A story in three acts.
Always neat to come across the longlist for a prize you don't follow closely where you have, without intent, read a quarter of the selections. Really interesting juxtapositions. The ones I've read are A Granite Silence, Greyhound, Helm and Saraswati; liked them all.
Takes me back to New Weird days ... are you saying they are Richard Morgan in this context? urchin.earth.li/~twic/cgi-bi...
Looking forward to reading this properly, but had to check the index for one particular thing first...
It is! (And bookmarks!) And the new edition is also foiled, if that's not clear from the static photo.
This is a very cool thing from a generous publisher - Rabbit Hole books in Korea has published a revised edition of Bora Chung's fantastic novel Red Sword; they asked if they could use a quote from my Locus review, and have now sent me the new edition and some other promotional materials!
Today's book post. And the first line of my @locusmag.bsky.social review: "I turned the last page of the latest installment of Solvej Balle’s rich and resonant On the Calculation of Volume and thought to myself, Tara Selter, you should meet Fitz Wahram." The rest is in the April issue!
Enjoying my bespoke badge ribbon courtesy @chloroformtea.bsky.social
Seems to me that genre-related non fiction is starting off 2026 pretty strong
There is of course this period of Asimov. If memory serves the montage extended onto Foundation's Edge and Foundation & Earth as well, but I don't have the right editions of those.
Happy 80th birthday to @garykwolfe.bsky.social. One of the great critical careers, telling the story of SF and fantasy for over thirty years now.
Splinter! I knew he'd done it somewhere. Three parts, different tense in each.