All These Worlds: Reviews & Essays by Niall Harrison

(Briardene Books, 2023)

Reviewed by Steven French

As a former editor of both Vector and Strange Horizons, Niall Harrison knows whereof he speaks when it comes to mapping the landscape of recent science fiction. This collection of 55 reviews, covering novels and short stories as well as entire magazine issues, and spanning the years 2005 to 2014, is bookended by a clutch of typically informative essays. It opens with Harrison’s reflections on the changing state of play over the last twenty-odd years, charting the rise—and fall—of New Weird, Mundane SF, Slipstream… all dismissed as movements that ‘turned out to largely be moments’ (p. 10). Nevertheless, he notes, their cumulative effect was to batter down various walls and the debate over ‘racefail’, the subsequent Sad and Rabid Puppy backlash, and the latter’s fade into pathetic irrelevance are all touched upon. Of course, as Harrison emphasises, there is still more to be done, along a number of axes, including the further internationalisation of the genre.

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Review from BSFA Review 22 - Download your copy here.