Boston Globe vs. B&N.com: Where is the future home for book reviews?

Earlier this year The Boston GlobediscontinuedKatherine A. Powers‘s longtime literary column ”A Reading Life.” The column was later resurrected at The Barnes and Noble Review. Reading Powers’s third column at her new home, a review of Erik Larson‘s In The Garden of the Beasts, it struck me how this move—ostensibly from a 100+ year-old, 21-Pulitzer newspaper to a glorified book chain blog—was clearly a step up rather than down. For example, consider design. Powers’s last column at The Boston Globe was a pitiful sliver of text surrounded by garish ads. Perhaps the print version redeems it, but at least in its online incarnation, there is nothing to suggest care or seriousness in the Globe’s presentation.

Boston Globe vs. B&N.com: Where is the future home for book reviews?, via MOBYLIVES.

Locus Award finalists announced

Locus magazine has announced the finalists for this year’s Locus Award, a popular science fiction, fantasy and horror award voted on by the magazine’s readers.

Science Fiction Novel
* Surface Detail, Iain M. Banks (Orbit UK; Orbit US)
* Cryoburn, Lois McMaster Bujold (Baen)
* Zero History, William Gibson (Putnam; Viking UK)
* The Dervish House, Ian McDonald (Pyr; Gollancz)
* Blackout/All Clear, Connie Willis (Spectra)

Fantasy Novel
* Under Heaven, Guy Gavriel Kay (Penguin Canada; Roc)
* Kraken, China Miéville (Macmillan UK; Del Rey)
* Who Fears Death, Nnedi Okorafor (DAW)
* The Fuller Memorandum, Charles Stross (Ace; Orbit UK)
* The Sorcerer’s House, Gene Wolfe (Tor)

First Novel
* The Loving Dead, Amelia Beamer (Night Shade)
* The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, N.K. Jemisin (Orbit UK; Orbit US)
* Shades of Milk and Honey, Mary Robinette Kowal (Tor)
* The Quantum Thief, Hannu Rajaniemi (Gollancz; Tor)
* How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe, Charles Yu (Pantheon)

Young Adult Book
* Ship Breaker, Paolo Bacigalupi (Little, Brown)
* Mockingjay, Suzanne Collins (Scholastic)
* Enchanted Glass, Diana Wynne Jones (HarperCollins UK; Greenwillow)
* I Shall Wear Midnight, Terry Pratchett (Gollancz; HarperCollins)
* Behemoth, Scott Westerfeld (Simon Pulse; Simon & Schuster UK)

via Locus Award finalists announced – Boing Boing.