June Books 3) Speculative Fiction 2012, eds. Justin Landon & Jared Shurin

I am easily pleased sometimes. This is a collection of online commentary on sf which was published in 2012, pulling together the sorts of essays I always like reading and wish I could write more often. All the usual suspects are here – in-depth examinations of race and gender as they are manifested in the genre, but also simple critiques of writing as writing. It’s not perfect – the internal ordering of the pieces seems half thought through (is it alphabetical by author’s first name? Not quite, but if not, then what?) and I would have dropped most of the shorter pieces in favour of some more long ones – but I was pretty sure from an early stage that I would give it a high place on my Hugo ballot. Then I reached page 297 and found my own name in the first line. Yep, I’m easily pleased.