Mary Soon Lee's Blog

Favorite October reads

What did folks read in October that you loved?

My favorites were:

- Robert Jackson Bennett's fantasy mystery, The Tainted Cup: amazing worldbuilding/setting and I love Din

- Jamie Lackey's lovely fairytale novella, The Forest Gods, sequel to the also-wonderful and similarly-titled The Forest God

Also very good:

- Sarah Beth Durst's gentle fantasy romance, The Spellshop. One of the characters, Caz, is a contender for my favorite plant-based character ever

- A Drop of Corruption, sequel to The Tainted Cup

I'm not quite finished, but also a shout out to Roger Zelazny's A Night in the Lonesome October. The chapters are dated October 1, October 2, ...., October 31. And, as recommended by Sharon Lee, I've been reading the chapter for the day each evening. An excellent lead-up to Halloween.

review in Asimov's

I am delighted to report that Peter Heck reviewed "The Sign of the Dragon" in the On Books column in Asimov's Science Fiction, November/December 2025 :-) :-) :-)

N.B. Currently, The Sign of the Dragon is the 3rd of 11 reviews. But in a couple of months, the column will be updated with a different set of book reviews.

poem in Eye to the Telescope

My poem "Cyberpunk Dragon" has just been published in the Cyberpunk issue of Eye to the Telescope, edited by Casey Aimer.

October 2025 update

For the curious, here is a link to the October update of my newsletter .

It includes poetry news, a photo of me with Pilot (my cat) on my 60th birthday, and book recommendations.

poem in Uppagus

My poem Andy Warhol's Many Cats has just been published in Uppagus :-) This is my 51st poem to appear in Uppagus!

Rhysling Award

I am honored and delighted and excited and happy to announce that my poem "The Blackthorn," first published in Dreams and Nightmares, has won the 2025 Rhysling Award in the long-poem category :-) :-) :-)

Many thanks to David C. Kopaska-Merkel for giving the poem its first home.

N.B. Here's the webpage with the 2025 Rhysling + Elgin results .

Favorite September reads

What did everyone read in September that they loved?

I read seven -- yes, seven -- of the Slough House books by Mick Herron. They are not SFF, instead being spy books centered on agents sidelined from MI5 for various misdemeanors. I love them!

N.B. The TV series based on the Slough House books is named Slow Horses, which is the title of the first book.

On the SFF front, my favorite was a re-read of Jamie Lackey's fairy tale novella The Forest God . Sweetness, gentleness, and darkness all stirred together.

September 2025 update

For the curious, here is a link to the September update of my newsletter .

There's cancer news (good), three bits about The Sign of the Dragon (also good), and a reading update (yes, I did read all nine Slough House books in the past month).

Favorite August reads

What did everyone read in August that they loved?

My favorites were Natasha Pulley's fantasy, The Hymn to Dionysus, which makes pre-Homeric Thebes new and vivid and full of marvels, and Mick Herron's Slow Horses, neither SF nor F, but very good, a book whose main characters have been sidelined from MI5, which makes the espionage genre new and vivid and full of misfits.

Baubles From Bones

My poem Outlaw, Exile, Traitor has been published in Baubles From Bones :-)