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January 2017 in review

31 Jan, 2017

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23 books read. 12 by women (52%). 10 by men (43%). 1 by non-binary authors (4%). Ah, my old foe, rounding error. This month has an atypically high fraction of men because last month I convinced myself that December 31 fell on the Sunday and did a double review of books by men, counting them against December’s stats. There were days I knew December 31 was on the Saturday. Truly, the ability of the brain to believe two mutually exclusive facts is impressive. 

POC 6 (26%). It’s just dumb luck it was that high. 

I wonder, should I be comparing these to 2016? 

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A Year of Waterloo Region Speculative Fiction

6 Jan, 2017

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The Waterloo region (and neighboring areas) are not generally known as hotbeds of spec-fic writing. If you’ve heard of us at all, it’s most likely thanks to the University of Waterloo or the annual Oktoberfest. Why, Kitchener’s Public Library does not even bother to keep track of which SF authors come from the surrounding region 1.

But I do.

Spec-fic authors who either live in or near Waterloo region or did live here in the past include the following. 


R. J. Anderson
Orin Bishop
Evelyn Barber
Marie Bilodeau
W. Patrick Bradley
Erin Bow
James Bow
Patricia Bow
Melanie Card
Robert Card
Suzanne Church
M. L. Clark
Kristen Ciccarelli
Ange Clayfield
John Robert Columbo
Ryan Consell
Julie Czerneda
Karen Dales
James Roy Daley
Kit Daven
A. K. Dewdney
Cory Doctorow
Chris Evans
Jon Evans
Pat Forde
Ed Greenwood
B. C. Holmes
Matthew Hughes
E. K. Johnston
Edward Llewellyn
Jen Frankel
J. M. Frey
James Alan Gardner
Sephera Giron
Viktor Haag
Chris Hadfield
Kate Heartfield
Josh Hoey
Matthew Douglas Ingraham
Dean Italiano
Becka Kinzie
Armon Kishen Kohli
Ash Kreider
Alisse Lee-Goldenberg
Violette Malan
Lyn McGinnis
Jane Ann McLachlan
John McMullen
David Morrell
Amber O’Brien
Dave Okum
Neil Randall
Sarah Raughley
Vanessa Ricci-Thode
Stephen B. Pearl
Yuy Ren
Thomas J. Ryan
Graydon Saunders
Robert J. Sawyer
Emily Schooley
John Settle
Dylan Siebert
Ray Slay
Richard H. Stephens
Craig Stewart
Glynn Stewart
Ruth Stuart
Dave Switzer
Sarah Totton
An Tran
Sarah Tolmie
Jessica Vitalis
Non-Fiction Authors

Andrea Austin
Andrew Deman

Restaurants

The Watchtower



Over the next year I will be reviewing fifty-two works 2 of speculative fiction by as broad a cross-section of the names above as I can manage. Please join me. 

1: Or local authors of any kind. 

2: Not necessarily prose works: spec-fic comes in other forms as well. 

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Merry Christmas

25 Dec, 2016

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My third since I began this site.

A Merry Christmas and thank you to Karen Lofstrom for de-word-salading my prose, Adrienne L. Travis for creating and managing this site, and to all my readers and my patreon supporters, and everyone who has ever commissioned a review. And everyone who suggested an interesting book for me to try.

In honour of the season, please enjoy this audio production of Arthur C.Clarke’s ​“The Star”.


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November 2016 in Review

30 Nov, 2016

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November 2016

21 books reviewed. 18 by women, 3 by men. F/T = 0.86

6.5 books by POC, or 31%

Year to date

234 books read. 142 by women (0.61), 90 by men (0.38), 2 by authors who identifies as neither (0.01). 57.5 by POC (0.25).

To put in context:

Key: WNB stands for “women and non-binary genders”, while POC stands for “person of colour”. R/R stands for “reviews/reviewers”. Figures in brackets are percentages; for R/R the percentage represents the site’s R/R over my 2015 R/R. SFX is actually called SFX; it is not short for anything. Same with io9. JNR is James Nicoll Reviews. F&SF is the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. SFS is
Science Fiction Studies. LARB is the Los Angeles Review of Books. CSZ is the Cascadia Subduction Zone.

At this point, Locus 2015 is far behind me where reviews of POC are concerned, but slightly ahead of me where books by women are concerned and they have an insurmountable lead for reviews in general. Nothing I can do to match them in the last category but I should be able at least match them for reviews of books by women, as long as no fewer than 19 of the books I review in December are by women. But 20 would be better.



Review source

Total

WNB (%)

POC (%)

Reviewers

R/R (%)

James Nicoll Reviews 2015

329

195 (59)

45 (14)

1

329 (1)

Locus

324

163 (50)

22 (7)

17

19 (5.7)

JNR 2016

234

144 (62)

57.5 (25)

1

234 (71)

SFX

165

48 (29)

10 (6)

30

5.5 (1.5)

Romantic Times

146

84 (57)

14 (10)

(incorrect)

n/a (n/a)

Tor

141

66 (47)

18 (13)

27

5.2 (1.6)

Strange Horizons

139

66 (48)

30 (22)

80

1.7 (0.5)

Rising Shadows

83

25 (30)

1 (1)

2

41.5 (12.6)

Interzone

67

21 (31)

7 (10)

19

3.5 (1)

F&SF

59

32 (54)

5 (9)

5

11.8 (3.6)

Analog

58

10 (17)

3 (4)

1

58 (17.6)

Io9

56

17 (30)

12 (21)

10

5.6 (1.7)

Asimov's

53

21 (23)

3 (6)

3

17.7 (5.4)

Vector

52

18 (35)

4 (8)

26

2 (0.6)

SFS

45

48 (21)

2 (4)

38

1.2 (0.3)

NYRSF

42

11 (26)

6 (13)

24

1.8 (0.5)

Foundation

38

9 (24)

1 (3)

27

1.4 (0.4)

LARB

35

11 (31)

7 (20)

28

1.3 (0.4)

Lightspeed

28

16? (57)

14 (50)

3

9.3 (2.8)

CSZ

23

19 (80)

8 (35)

17

1.4 (0.4)


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October 2016 in review

31 Oct, 2016

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October 2016

22 books reviewed. 12 by women, 10 by men. F/T = 0.55

7 books by POC, or 32%.

Year to date

213 books read. 124 by women (0.58), 87 by men (0.41), 2 by authors who identifies as neither (0.01). 51 by POC (0.24).

To put in context:

Key: WNB stands for “women and non-binary genders”, while POC stands for “person of colour”. R/R stands for “reviews/reviewers”. Figures in brackets are percentages; for R/R the percentage represents the site’s R/R over my 2015 R/R. SFX is actually called SFX; it is not short for anything. Same with io9. JNR is James Nicoll Reviews. F&SF is the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. SFS is
Science Fiction Studies. LARB is the Los Angeles Review of Books. CSZ is the Cascadia Subduction Zone.

Not going to beat Locus in total numbers but I have thus far read 29 more books by authors of colour than their 17 reviewers did in 2015, and it's not impossible that I will review at least 38 books by women and non-binary authors between now and the end of the year. Although if I am reading 22 books a month, that means no more than three books by men each month.


Review source

Total

WNB (%)

POC (%)

Reviewers

R/R (%)

James Nicoll Reviews 2015

329

195 (59)

45 (14)

1

329 (100)

Locus

324

163 (50)

22 (7)

17

19 (5.7)

JNR 2016

213

126 (59)

51 (24)

1

213 (65)

SFX

165

48 (29)

10 (6)

30

5.5 (1.5)

Romantic Times

146

84 (57)

14 (10)

(incorrect)

n/a (n/a)

Tor

141

66 (47)

18 (13)

27

5.2 (1.6)

Strange Horizons

139

66 (48)

30 (22)

80

1.7 (0.5)

Rising Shadows

83

25 (30)

1 (1)

2

41.5 (12.6)

Interzone

67

21 (31)

7 (10)

19

3.5 (1)

F&SF

59

32 (54)

5 (9)

5

11.8 (3.6)

Analog

58

10 (17)

3 (4)

1

58 (17.6)

Io9

56

17 (30)

12 (21)

10

5.6 (1.7)

Asimov's

53

21 (23)

3 (6)

3

17.7 (5.4)

Vector

52

18 (35)

4 (8)

26

2 (0.6)

SFS

45

48 (21)

2 (4)

38

1.2 (0.3)

NYRSF

42

11 (26)

6 (13)

24

1.8 (0.5)

Foundation

38

9 (24)

1 (3)

27

1.4 (0.4)

LARB

35

11 (31)

7 (20)

28

1.3 (0.4)

Lightspeed

28

16? (57)

14 (50)

3

9.3 (2.8)

CSZ

23

19 (80)

8 (35)

17

1.4 (0.4)

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September 2016 in Review

30 Sep, 2016

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22 books reviewed. 13 by women, 9 by men. F/T = 0.59

5 books by POC, or 23%.

Year to date

191 books read. 112 by women (0.59), 77 by men (0.40), 2 by authors who identifies as neither (0.01). 44 by POC (0.23). To put in context:

Key: WNB stands for “women and non-binary genders”, while POC standsfor “person of colour”. R/R stands for “reviews/reviewers”. Figures inbrackets are percentages; for R/R the percentage represents the site’s R/R over my 2015 R/R. SFX is actually called SFX; it is not short for anything. Same with io9. JNR is James Nicoll Reviews. F&SF is the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. SFS = Science Fiction Studies. LARB is the Los Angeles Review of Books. CSZ is the Cascadia Subduction Zone.

Review source

Total

WNB (%)

POC (%)

Reviewers

R/R (%)

James Nicoll Reviews 2015

329

195 (59)

45 (14)

1

329 (1)

Locus

324

163 (50)

22 (7)

17

19 (5.7)

JNR 2016

191

114 (60)

44 (23)

1

191 (58)

SFX

165

48 (29)

10 (6)

30

5.5 (1.5)

Romantic Times

146

84 (57)

14 (10)

23

6.3 (1.9)

Tor

141

66 (47)

18 (13)

27

5.2 (1.7)

Strange Horizons

139

66 (48)

30 (22)

80

1.7 (0.5)

Rising Shadows

83

25 (30)

1 (1)

2

41.5 (12.6)

Interzone

67

21 (31)

7 (10)

19

3.5 (1)

F&SF

59

32 (54)

5 (9)

5

11.8 (3.6)

Analog

58

10 (17)

3 (4)

1

58 (17.6)

Io9

56

17 (30)

12 (21)

10

5.6 (1.7)

Asimov's

53

21 (23)

3 (6)

3

17.7 (5.4)

Vector

52

18 (35)

4 (8)

26

2 (0.6)

SFS

45

48 (21)

2 (4)

38

1.2 (0.3)

NYRSF

42

11 (26)

6 (13)

24

1.8 (0.5)

Foundation

38

9 (24)

1 (3)

27

1.4 (0.4)

LARB

35

11 (31)

7 (20)

28

1.3 (0.4)

Lightspeed

28

16? (57)

14 (50)

3

9.3 (2.8)

CSZ

23

19 (80)

8 (35)

17

1.4 (0.4)


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August 2016 in Review

31 Aug, 2016

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22 books reviewed. 12 by women, 10 by men. F/T = 0.55

5 books by POC, or 23%.

Year to date

169 books read. 99 by women (0.59), 68 by men (0.40), 2 by authors who identifies as neither (0.01). 39 by POC (0.23). To put in context:

Key: WNB stands for “women and non-binary genders”, while POC stands for “person of colour”. R/R stands for “reviews/reviewers”. Figures in brackets are percentages; for R/R the percentage represents the site’s R/R over my 2015 R/R. SFX is actually called SFX; it is not short for anything. Same with io9. JNR is James Nicoll Reviews. F&SF is the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. SFS = Science Fiction Studies. LARB is the Los Angeles Review of Books. CSZ is the Cascadia Subduction Zone.

Review source

Total

WNB (%)

POC (%)

Reviewers

R/R (%)

James Nicoll Reviews 2015

329

195 (59)

45 (14)

1

329 (1)

Locus

324

163 (50)

22 (7)

17

19 (5.7)

JNR 2016

169

101 (60)

39 (23)

1

169 (51)

SFX

165

48 (29)

10 (6)

30

5.5 (1.5)

Romantic Times

146

84 (57)

14 (10)

23

6.3 (1.9)

Tor

141

66 (47)

18 (13)

27

5.2 (1.7)

Strange Horizons

139

66 (48)

30 (22)

80

1.7 (0.5)

Rising Shadows

83

25 (30)

1 (1)

2

41.5 (12.6)

Interzone

67

21 (31)

7 (10)

19

3.5 (1)

F&SF

59

32 (54)

5 (9)

5

11.8 (3.6)

Analog

58

10 (17)

3 (4)

1

58 (17.6)

Io9

56

17 (30)

12 (21)

10

5.6 (1.7)

Asimov's

53

21 (23)

3 (6)

3

17.7 (5.4)

Vector

52

18 (35)

4 (8)

26

2 (0.6)

SFS

45

48 (21)

2 (4)

38

1.2 (0.3)

NYRSF

42

11 (26)

6 (13)

24

1.8 (0.5)

Foundation

38

9 (24)

1 (3)

27

1.4 (0.4)

LARB

35

11 (31)

7 (20)

28

1.3 (0.4)

Lightspeed

28

16? (57)

14 (50)

3

9.3 (2.8)

CSZ

23

19 (80)

8 (35)

17

1.4 (0.4)


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