Veronica Roth is back with an adult(ish) SFF offering, taking the Chosen One trope to the next level. Title: Chosen Ones Author: Veronica Roth Genre: Speculative Fiction/Science Fiction Publisher: John Joseph Adams / Houghton Mifflin HarcourtPublication Date: April 2020Hardcover: 432 pages The first novel written for an adult audience by the mega-selling author of the Divergent franchise: five twenty-something heroes famous for saving the world when they were teenagers must face even greater demons—and reconsider what it means to be a hero . . . by destiny or by choice. A decade ago near Chicago, five teenagers defeated the otherworldly enemy known as the Dark One, whose reign of terror brought widespread destruction and death. The seemingly un-extraordinary teens—Sloane, Matt, Ines, Albie, and Esther—had been brought together by a clandestine government agency because one of them was fated to be the “Chosen One,” prophesized to save the world. With the goal achieved, humankind celebrated the victors and began to mourn their lost loved ones. Ten years later, though the champions remain celebrities, the world has moved forward and a whole, younger generation doesn’t seem to recall the days of endless fear. But Sloane remembers. It’s impossible for her to forget when […]

The Book Smugglers

17.06.2022

A scattered journey through Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

You thought you were prepared for this book. You were, and I can’t stress this enough, not. You loved Gideon the Ninth. In fact, you may have uttered words like “best book of 2019”, “genius” and “most fun I ever had reading a book in decades” and also “this book eviscerated me from inside like lyctor soup”. So coming to Harrow the Ninth with your SOUL eviscerated by the previous book, dehydrated from sobbing your heart out and grieving but with your feelings and your memory somewhat dulled by time and by pretending things would be ok, you realise something very soon into the narrative that… This is not Gideon the Ninth. Because there is NO GIDEON. At least, not in a certain way. You thought you may have been prepared for that given the end of the first book. The joke is on you, silly knuckle. This new rollercoaster is a feverish dream of an unreliable second person narrative that does the UNPARDONABLE sin of rewriting memory and erasing a certain personage from most of the narrative. You do however, love unreliable narratives and narrators and this one is so cleverly done. It is unpardonable though because it hurts […]

The Book Smugglers

17.06.2022

Hugo Award Packet 2020

Hello, friends! We are pleased to announce that The Book Smugglers are finalists for the 2020 Hugo Award for Best Fanzine! Every year, the Hugo Awards are administered and voted on by members of the World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon). The Hugos are typically presented at the end of Worldcon weekend in late August–though this year, of course, things are a little different. The 2020 Worldcon, CoNZealand, scheduled for 29 July – 2 August 2020 in Wellington, New Zealand, has announced that they will be a “virtual online convention” without a physical convention this year due to the global COVID-19 pandemic (and we Smugglers respect and understand the decision from the CoNZealand committee–stay home, stay safe, wash your hands, and wear a mask, people!) We are thrilled to be included in the roundup for this year’s finalists for Semiprozine–which includes Galactic Journey, Journey Planet, Quick Sip Reviews, the Rec Center, and Nerds of a Feather Flock Together. It’s tradition for Hugo Finalists to provide sample work in the year’s Voter Packet–this year, we’ve selected some of our favorite reviews. Whether or not you’re a voting member of Worldcon, we hope you’ll enjoy the selection of content we’ve put together below. […]

The Book Smugglers

17.06.2022

Holy Guacamole: WE WON A HUGO AWARD?!

We are speechless. After multiple nominations and losses, starting back in 2014–we were like, the Leo Dicaprios of the Hugo Awards–THE BOOK SMUGGLERS WON A HUGO AWARD FOR BEST FANZINE LAST NIGHT! WHAT AN ACHIEVEMENT! WHAT A DELIGHT! (Yes, we know that rhymes.) We are overwhelmed, incredibly touched, and hugely thankful to everybody who voted for us. This means a lot to the both of us. However we must say it has also been a bittersweet win in many aspects. We are far away from each other, our celebratory hugs and high fives were granted virtually–which is awesome, and necessary, given the global pandemic. Above all, in spite of our personal happiness and being thrilled for all the amazing winners, we are deeply unsettled with many aspects of the awards ceremony. (We do appreciate all of the effort that went into making a completely virtual awards show happen, which is a thankless and doomed-at-the-outset endeavor.) Technology issues aside, many parts of the show were uncomfortable, and downright enraging, to watch. George R.R. Martin was the host this year and in between his pre-recorded messages and his live performance, he sadly managed to somehow be simultaneously boring, infuriatingly oblivious (we are […]

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The Book Smugglers

Books & Literature

Book Review: CHOSEN ONES by Veronica Roth

A scattered journey through Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

Hugo Award Packet 2020

Holy Guacamole: WE WON A HUGO AWARD?!

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