Dan Hartland
@danhartland.bsky.social
Writes, variously. Reviews Editor, Strange Horizons. Columns at Ancillary Review. Songs over at Bandcamp. Also see @savinglives.bsky.social.
Pinned
Dan Hartland
@danhartland.bsky.social
· Aug 10
☎️ SH CRITICISM HOTLINE NOW OPEN
In mid-August, thoughts naturally turn to the end of next January: the @strangehorizons.bsky.social Criticism Special.
What spec fic essays, roundtables, interviews, song-and-dance routines have you got for us? Go broad!
⚾️ Pitch us: danwhartland at gmail dot com
In mid-August, thoughts naturally turn to the end of next January: the @strangehorizons.bsky.social Criticism Special.
What spec fic essays, roundtables, interviews, song-and-dance routines have you got for us? Go broad!
⚾️ Pitch us: danwhartland at gmail dot com
So it’s the Szalay. It may be the most consistently realised of the books, but how good a thing that is will be down to your taste. The judges clearly liked this depiction of “[a] self [who] remains a mystery to us, because it is a mystery to him.”
I read the Booker Prize shortlist (again). Rum do, this year - but not uninterestingly.
On the bourgeois novel:
On the bourgeois novel:
The Booker Prize 2025
Many awards shortlists make a statement. Whether by accident or design, the clutch of books from which a given work is granted a particular gong are to one extent clear about – or at least re…
thestoryandthetruth.wordpress.com
November 10, 2025 at 10:17 PM
So it’s the Szalay. It may be the most consistently realised of the books, but how good a thing that is will be down to your taste. The judges clearly liked this depiction of “[a] self [who] remains a mystery to us, because it is a mystery to him.”
New week at SH, and in Reviews we open with a doozy: @shinjinidey.bsky.social on Paul Kincaid's Colourfields (@briardenebooks.bsky.social). Who doesn't love reading a critic on a critic?
So much to pick out in this really productive dialogue. But key: "Kincaid is attempting to apprehend a public."
So much to pick out in this really productive dialogue. But key: "Kincaid is attempting to apprehend a public."
Colourfields by Paul Kincaid
Colourfields is constituted by tensions inherent to the genre.
strangehorizons.com
November 10, 2025 at 6:07 PM
New week at SH, and in Reviews we open with a doozy: @shinjinidey.bsky.social on Paul Kincaid's Colourfields (@briardenebooks.bsky.social). Who doesn't love reading a critic on a critic?
So much to pick out in this really productive dialogue. But key: "Kincaid is attempting to apprehend a public."
So much to pick out in this really productive dialogue. But key: "Kincaid is attempting to apprehend a public."
Reposted by Dan Hartland
I read the Booker Prize shortlist (again). Rum do, this year - but not uninterestingly.
On the bourgeois novel:
On the bourgeois novel:
The Booker Prize 2025
Many awards shortlists make a statement. Whether by accident or design, the clutch of books from which a given work is granted a particular gong are to one extent clear about – or at least re…
thestoryandthetruth.wordpress.com
November 8, 2025 at 1:31 PM
I read the Booker Prize shortlist (again). Rum do, this year - but not uninterestingly.
On the bourgeois novel:
On the bourgeois novel:
I read the Booker Prize shortlist (again). Rum do, this year - but not uninterestingly.
On the bourgeois novel:
On the bourgeois novel:
The Booker Prize 2025
Many awards shortlists make a statement. Whether by accident or design, the clutch of books from which a given work is granted a particular gong are to one extent clear about – or at least re…
thestoryandthetruth.wordpress.com
November 8, 2025 at 1:31 PM
I read the Booker Prize shortlist (again). Rum do, this year - but not uninterestingly.
On the bourgeois novel:
On the bourgeois novel:
Paul March-Russell on When There Are Wolves Again, in the latest episode of Critical Friends: “From a kind of Marxist revolutionary position, this book will really annoy you. But actually it is reaffirming a faith in legal, constitutional, democratic institutions.”
Radical reformism? Discuss.
Radical reformism? Discuss.
Critical Friends Episode 17: On Imagining Hopefully
Dan Hartland is joined by Paul March-Russell and Jacqueline Nyathi to discuss speculative fiction’s approach to hope and optimism. Where has it gone? How do writers express it? And what are its pit…
www.strangehorizons.com
November 7, 2025 at 8:21 PM
Paul March-Russell on When There Are Wolves Again, in the latest episode of Critical Friends: “From a kind of Marxist revolutionary position, this book will really annoy you. But actually it is reaffirming a faith in legal, constitutional, democratic institutions.”
Radical reformism? Discuss.
Radical reformism? Discuss.
The week’s horror theme at SH ends with a review of a novel that seriously commits to the bit, paying homage to slasher classics in a way that Racheal Chie finds generative.
Field Of Frights by Christina Hagmann
Field of Frights pays mindful homage to movies like Nightmare on Elm Street, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Friday the 13th, and Halloween.
strangehorizons.com
November 7, 2025 at 4:17 PM
The week’s horror theme at SH ends with a review of a novel that seriously commits to the bit, paying homage to slasher classics in a way that Racheal Chie finds generative.
I very much approved of how this discussion centred the weirdness of Big Bird, since that is I think a big part of what gives it a sense of scale and even - albeit in the context of decline - *wonder*.
Elsewhere, it also speaks to Jacqui’s thoughts on redemption (or lack thereof) in fiction here:
Elsewhere, it also speaks to Jacqui’s thoughts on redemption (or lack thereof) in fiction here:
November 6, 2025 at 3:08 PM
I very much approved of how this discussion centred the weirdness of Big Bird, since that is I think a big part of what gives it a sense of scale and even - albeit in the context of decline - *wonder*.
Elsewhere, it also speaks to Jacqui’s thoughts on redemption (or lack thereof) in fiction here:
Elsewhere, it also speaks to Jacqui’s thoughts on redemption (or lack thereof) in fiction here:
Wednesday’s review over at SH continues the monstrous theme of the week, with @subham6.bsky.social on Victory Witherkeigh’s The Demon: “The novel’s soul lies in its interrogation of identity.”
The Demon by Victory Witherkeigh
The integration of Filipino mythology is this novel’s beating heart.
strangehorizons.com
November 5, 2025 at 8:44 PM
Wednesday’s review over at SH continues the monstrous theme of the week, with @subham6.bsky.social on Victory Witherkeigh’s The Demon: “The novel’s soul lies in its interrogation of identity.”
Reposted by Dan Hartland
Good podcast ep on my favourite part of speculative fiction: near future sf and also hopeful stories. Something we are sorely lacking in these days.
🎧New Critical Friends! It was a real pleasure to convene this talk with Paul March-Russell of @sffoundation.bsky.social and Jacqueline Nyathi of @hararereview.bsky.social.
On the hopeful imagination: “We should have a much bigger perspective when we’re thinking about how to get to the future.” (JN)
On the hopeful imagination: “We should have a much bigger perspective when we’re thinking about how to get to the future.” (JN)
Critical Friends Episode 17: On Imagining Hopefully
Dan Hartland is joined by Paul March-Russell and Jacqueline Nyathi to discuss speculative fiction’s approach to hope and optimism. Where has it gone? How do writers express it? And what are its pit…
strangehorizons.com
November 5, 2025 at 6:01 PM
Good podcast ep on my favourite part of speculative fiction: near future sf and also hopeful stories. Something we are sorely lacking in these days.
More novella s̶h̶e̶n̶a̶n̶i̶g̶a̶n̶s̶ discourse.
For Day 4 of #NovellaNovember, let's talk about Randy Duncan's
"Kade & Karger: Big Trouble for Lil' Easy." Word count wise, this is probably closer to novelette than novella, but I'm not being super strict about the line between the two (or between novella and short novel).
"Kade & Karger: Big Trouble for Lil' Easy." Word count wise, this is probably closer to novelette than novella, but I'm not being super strict about the line between the two (or between novella and short novel).
November 5, 2025 at 2:16 AM
More novella s̶h̶e̶n̶a̶n̶i̶g̶a̶n̶s̶ discourse.
Gang, Archita Mittra needs our help. She's a vital critical voice, a great writer of fiction, and more importantly she's part of the community we've built and are building here. Let's help her reach a place where she can carry on being all of those things, and write whatever she has for us next. 🙏
Donate to Help Archita and Her Mom Rebuild Their Lives, organized by tehseen baweja
Hey Everyone! My name is Tehseen and I publish an online magazine called T… tehseen baweja needs your support for Help Archita and Her Mom Rebuild Their Lives
www.gofundme.com
November 4, 2025 at 5:35 PM
Gang, Archita Mittra needs our help. She's a vital critical voice, a great writer of fiction, and more importantly she's part of the community we've built and are building here. Let's help her reach a place where she can carry on being all of those things, and write whatever she has for us next. 🙏
I really enjoyed the latest U&DF, not least because it came out right after Paul, Jacqui and I had recorded the latest Critical Friends - and trod some similar ground in attaching some of the most deterministic dystopias with horror. Something about the affects in these texts are aiming similarly.
November 4, 2025 at 1:25 PM
I really enjoyed the latest U&DF, not least because it came out right after Paul, Jacqui and I had recorded the latest Critical Friends - and trod some similar ground in attaching some of the most deterministic dystopias with horror. Something about the affects in these texts are aiming similarly.
🎧New Critical Friends! It was a real pleasure to convene this talk with Paul March-Russell of @sffoundation.bsky.social and Jacqueline Nyathi of @hararereview.bsky.social.
On the hopeful imagination: “We should have a much bigger perspective when we’re thinking about how to get to the future.” (JN)
On the hopeful imagination: “We should have a much bigger perspective when we’re thinking about how to get to the future.” (JN)
Critical Friends Episode 17: On Imagining Hopefully
Dan Hartland is joined by Paul March-Russell and Jacqueline Nyathi to discuss speculative fiction’s approach to hope and optimism. Where has it gone? How do writers express it? And what are its pit…
strangehorizons.com
November 3, 2025 at 6:47 PM
🎧New Critical Friends! It was a real pleasure to convene this talk with Paul March-Russell of @sffoundation.bsky.social and Jacqueline Nyathi of @hararereview.bsky.social.
On the hopeful imagination: “We should have a much bigger perspective when we’re thinking about how to get to the future.” (JN)
On the hopeful imagination: “We should have a much bigger perspective when we’re thinking about how to get to the future.” (JN)
Hallowe’en was last week, of course, but this week’s slate of SH reviews are going for the ghostly and gruesome theme regardless.
Here’s Nileena Sunil on Eat The Ones You Love by Sarah Maria Griffin, from @titanbooks.bsky.social. Happy belated Samhain!
Here’s Nileena Sunil on Eat The Ones You Love by Sarah Maria Griffin, from @titanbooks.bsky.social. Happy belated Samhain!
Eat the Ones you Love by Sarah Maria Griffin
There have been several interesting works of speculative fiction that centre plants, both sentient and sometimes malevolent.
www.strangehorizons.com
November 3, 2025 at 2:08 PM
Hallowe’en was last week, of course, but this week’s slate of SH reviews are going for the ghostly and gruesome theme regardless.
Here’s Nileena Sunil on Eat The Ones You Love by Sarah Maria Griffin, from @titanbooks.bsky.social. Happy belated Samhain!
Here’s Nileena Sunil on Eat The Ones You Love by Sarah Maria Griffin, from @titanbooks.bsky.social. Happy belated Samhain!
0 notes, minus notes.
it's me, unnamed critter from bosch's triptych of the temptation of anthony!
November 1, 2025 at 1:00 AM
0 notes, minus notes.
Critical Friends fans will be like me addicts of our theme tune, “Dial-Up” by Lost Cosmonauts. Those musicians release under a number of monikers, and one of their incarnations - Aki No Koe - release a lovely piece on the frustrations of creativity today.
Take a listen, start a podcast!
Take a listen, start a podcast!
Prussian Portraiture, by Aki No Koe
track by Aki No Koe
akinokoe.bandcamp.com
October 29, 2025 at 7:03 PM
Critical Friends fans will be like me addicts of our theme tune, “Dial-Up” by Lost Cosmonauts. Those musicians release under a number of monikers, and one of their incarnations - Aki No Koe - release a lovely piece on the frustrations of creativity today.
Take a listen, start a podcast!
Take a listen, start a podcast!
Reposted by Dan Hartland
Archita is 67% to her goal. Thank you to everyone who's been sharing & donating for your generosity. Please don't stop doing so, so that she can reach the goal and get some degree of security for herself and her mother in this terrible time.
Fellow Calcuttan writer/editor Archita Mittra is in desperate need of financial help. She recently lost her father, her home was damaged in the recent rains, & her mother's in hospital. They don't have insurance, & she's a freelancer. I can vouch for her. Please share widely & donate:
Donate to Help Archita and Her Mom Rebuild Their Lives, organized by tehseen baweja
Hey Everyone! My name is Tehseen and I publish an online magazine called T… tehseen baweja needs your support for Help Archita and Her Mom Rebuild Their Lives
www.gofundme.com
October 26, 2025 at 8:01 AM
Archita is 67% to her goal. Thank you to everyone who's been sharing & donating for your generosity. Please don't stop doing so, so that she can reach the goal and get some degree of security for herself and her mother in this terrible time.
This rapturous review still barely captures the character of a remarkable night. Few shows I’ve attended have had such a sense of occasion - something about being away for fifteen whole years, I guess.
But, unaccountably, it was worth the wait.
But, unaccountably, it was worth the wait.
Gillian Welch and David Rawlings review – perfectly paired talents at the peak of their powers
Gillian Welch and David Rawlings review – perfectly paired talents at the peak of their powers
The guitar duo cast a spell over a rapt audience with wistful songs evoking open skies and yearning that even the final house lights can’t dispel
www.theguardian.com
October 26, 2025 at 1:11 PM
This rapturous review still barely captures the character of a remarkable night. Few shows I’ve attended have had such a sense of occasion - something about being away for fifteen whole years, I guess.
But, unaccountably, it was worth the wait.
But, unaccountably, it was worth the wait.
Always happy to see SH reviewers publish variously. Here’s a chapbook from Daniel Rabuzzi via @moonstonearts.bsky.social - 33 poems about and inspired by NYC.
moonstone-arts-center.square.site/product/rabu...
moonstone-arts-center.square.site/product/rabu...
October 25, 2025 at 4:54 PM
Always happy to see SH reviewers publish variously. Here’s a chapbook from Daniel Rabuzzi via @moonstonearts.bsky.social - 33 poems about and inspired by NYC.
moonstone-arts-center.square.site/product/rabu...
moonstone-arts-center.square.site/product/rabu...
Last review of the week is the always thoughtful @tristanbeiter.bsky.social on Eden Royce’s Psychopomp & Circumstance (@tordotcom.bsky.social): “one of the core questions of the novel is choice […] what it is even to have choices—and all the many ways that choices are constrained.”
Psychopomp & Circumstance by Eden Royce
One of the core questions of this novel is choice.
strangehorizons.com
October 24, 2025 at 10:50 PM
Last review of the week is the always thoughtful @tristanbeiter.bsky.social on Eden Royce’s Psychopomp & Circumstance (@tordotcom.bsky.social): “one of the core questions of the novel is choice […] what it is even to have choices—and all the many ways that choices are constrained.”
Petition for a series in which @casella.bsky.social reads things above a bed of Louis Armstrong.
Venturing a bit further afield this week: musing on speculative-adjacent ideas of irrealism, and mostly just enthusing about Barthelme's 60 STORIES with @timothymoore.bsky.social. A very fun conversation about a remarkable stylist, check it out: ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/2025/10/20/a...
A Meal of Thorns 35 – 60 Stories with Timothy Moore
Podcasts, reviews, interviews, essays, and more at the Ancillary Review of Books.Please consider supporting ARB’s Patreon!Guest: Timothy MooreTitle: 60 Stories by Donald BarthelmeHost: Jake Casella…
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org
October 24, 2025 at 5:51 PM
Petition for a series in which @casella.bsky.social reads things above a bed of Louis Armstrong.
YOU: Hey, Strange Horizons hasn’t had a review of any speculative poetry for a while. But I like reviews of speculative poetry!
ME: *I bear good news.*
Vivian Wagner on Mahalia Smith’s Seed Beetle from @stelliform.press:
ME: *I bear good news.*
Vivian Wagner on Mahalia Smith’s Seed Beetle from @stelliform.press:
Seed Beetle: Poems by Mahaila Smith
This collection reimagines what a new “natural” world might look like in the wake of an Anthropocene apocalypse.
strangehorizons.com
October 22, 2025 at 7:55 PM
YOU: Hey, Strange Horizons hasn’t had a review of any speculative poetry for a while. But I like reviews of speculative poetry!
ME: *I bear good news.*
Vivian Wagner on Mahalia Smith’s Seed Beetle from @stelliform.press:
ME: *I bear good news.*
Vivian Wagner on Mahalia Smith’s Seed Beetle from @stelliform.press:
Excellent news - Rakesfall thoroughly deserves this recognition. I hope it leads to further discussion of (and attention on) what is a super important text.
As I wrote for SH’s 2024 in review, “Rakesfall comes not to revivify the hoary bromides of SFF but dissolve them entirely into something new.”
As I wrote for SH’s 2024 in review, “Rakesfall comes not to revivify the hoary bromides of SFF but dissolve them entirely into something new.”
Congratulations to Vajra Chandrasekera (@vajra.me), recipient of the 2025 Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction for Rakesfall!
Chandrasekera's book was chosen by authors Matt Bell, Indra Das, Kelly Link, Sequoia Nagamatsu, and Rebecca Roanhorse.
Chandrasekera's book was chosen by authors Matt Bell, Indra Das, Kelly Link, Sequoia Nagamatsu, and Rebecca Roanhorse.
October 21, 2025 at 7:16 PM
Excellent news - Rakesfall thoroughly deserves this recognition. I hope it leads to further discussion of (and attention on) what is a super important text.
As I wrote for SH’s 2024 in review, “Rakesfall comes not to revivify the hoary bromides of SFF but dissolve them entirely into something new.”
As I wrote for SH’s 2024 in review, “Rakesfall comes not to revivify the hoary bromides of SFF but dissolve them entirely into something new.”
Reposted by Dan Hartland
If you can, please donate to help one of our regular contributors in this time of need.
Fellow Calcuttan writer/editor Archita Mittra is in desperate need of financial help. She recently lost her father, her home was damaged in the recent rains, & her mother's in hospital. They don't have insurance, & she's a freelancer. I can vouch for her. Please share widely & donate:
Donate to Help Archita and Her Mom Rebuild Their Lives, organized by tehseen baweja
Hey Everyone! My name is Tehseen and I publish an online magazine called T… tehseen baweja needs your support for Help Archita and Her Mom Rebuild Their Lives
www.gofundme.com
October 20, 2025 at 4:54 PM
If you can, please donate to help one of our regular contributors in this time of need.
We kick off the week at @strangehorizons.bsky.social with Kyle R. Garton on Fadi Zaghmout's fantastical parable, The Man of Middling Height (translated by Wasan Abdelhawq for @syracuseup.bsky.social).
The book "will provoke much discussion, and—hopefully!—controversy," Kyle argues. Why? Click!
The book "will provoke much discussion, and—hopefully!—controversy," Kyle argues. Why? Click!
The Man of Middling Height by Fadi Zaghmout, translated by Wasan Abdelhaq
The Man of Middling Height is at its best in moments that combine theme, plot, character, and image.
strangehorizons.com
October 20, 2025 at 4:55 PM
We kick off the week at @strangehorizons.bsky.social with Kyle R. Garton on Fadi Zaghmout's fantastical parable, The Man of Middling Height (translated by Wasan Abdelhawq for @syracuseup.bsky.social).
The book "will provoke much discussion, and—hopefully!—controversy," Kyle argues. Why? Click!
The book "will provoke much discussion, and—hopefully!—controversy," Kyle argues. Why? Click!