posted Friday December 12, 2008 01:55pm EST

Icebreakers: Calling all SF and Fantasy book reviewers

From GalleyCat and SF Signal: John Ottinger from Grasping for the Wind is doing some community-building and compiling a list of SF and Fantasy blogs across the net—and he’s making it interactive! See below.

[T]ake the following list and stick it on your website, then add yourself to the list, preferably in alphabetical order. That way, I will be able to track it across the web from back links, and can add each new blog to my roll as it comes along. So take this list, add it to your blog, and add a link to your blog on it.

JasonB @ Galleycat makes a good point that “too many publicists, authors, and other reviewers are unaware” of all these great genre sites. And this “genre” is one hot potato, so what's the hold-up??

So, meet old friends, link to new friends, and join the gathering. And maybe somewhere, somehow, some of these folks can figure out whether or not it’s worth seeing the new The Day the Earth Stood Still in IMAX…

A Dribble Of Ink

Adventures in Reading

The Agony Column

The Antick Musings of G.B.H. Hornswoggler, Gent.

Dark Wolf Fantasy Reviews

Darque Reviews

Dave Brendon's Fantasy and Sci-Fi Weblog

Dragons, Heroes and Wizards

Fantasy Book Reviews and News

Fantasy and Sci-fi Lovin' Blog

Graeme's Fantasy Book Review

Grasping for the Wind

Highlander's Book Reviews

Jumpdrives and Cantrips

Literary Escapism

Michele Lee's Book Love

Monster Librarian

Mostly Harmless Books

My Favourite Books

Neth Space

NextRead

OF Blog of the Fallen

The Old Bat's Belfry

Pat's Fantasy Hotlist

Post-Weird Thoughts

Reading the Leaves

Realms of Speculative Fiction

[Musical Reviews]

Severian's Fantastic Worlds

SF Signal

SF Site

SFF World's Book Reviews

Silver Reviews

Speculative Fiction Junkie

Speculative Horizons

Sporadic Book Reviews

Temple Library Reviews

Tor.com [Also original short fiction and art]

Un:Bound

Urban Fantasy Land

Vast and Cool and Unsympathetic

The World in a Satin Bag

WriteBlack

Foreign Language (other than English)

Cititor SF

[Romanian, but with English Translation]

Elbakin.net

[French]

BOOKMARK

categories: Internet

tags: John Ottinger, Grasping for the Wind, SF blogs

18 comments

1. graspingforthewind
VIEW ALL BY · Friday December 12, 2008 02:07pm EST

Thanks for posting this Dot!

2. Estara
VIEW ALL BY · Friday December 12, 2008 03:19pm EST

I wonder if following this appeal would fit into their literary conceit but I'm missing the Green Man Review there...
http://www.greenmanreview.com/index2.html

3. Estara
VIEW ALL BY · Friday December 12, 2008 03:20pm EST

Addendum: Aw, I see on the original site it has been added.

4. sfrgalaxy
VIEW ALL BY · Friday December 12, 2008 10:33pm EST

John Ottinger is the man. And so is John DeNardo, I might add.

Dot, thanks for doing this post!

5. sphericaltime
VIEW ALL BY · Saturday December 13, 2008 12:41am EST

Eh. My blog is just weird. I do the occasional review of SF&F, but not enough to really do this.

Although I am looking forward to my Julian Comstock review.

6. eilatan
VIEW ALL BY · Saturday December 13, 2008 12:59am EST

My blog's weird, too--I'm a print reviewer, so while I mention the reviewing once in a while, that's not the primary focus. The primary focus tend to be: "Oh crap, I haven't updated in two months! I suck! Have some screenshots of my video games!"

7. jsherry
VIEW ALL BY · Saturday December 13, 2008 08:42am EST

I'm kind of lame, because I just enjoy seeing my name / blog linked places. :)

For what its worth, Matt Staggs put together a huge list like this a while back, though Matt's list also includes author blogs and I see some on John's list that aren't on Matt's.

John's list, though, seems to have hit some nerve and is getting picked up in a whole lot places and getting a lot of people exposure. Which is cool.

8. fangirl
VIEW ALL BY · Saturday December 13, 2008 02:26pm EST

it's great to see all these people I know (and new people, too! looking forward to that julian comstock review..).

Oh man, yes, Matt's "Enter the Octopus" is a great site (as is yours, Joe). I KNEW there would have been other SF lists in the past.. maybe there should be some sort of "list refresh" every several months? Sort of an "SF Icebreakers Redux!"

9. jsherry
VIEW ALL BY · Saturday December 13, 2008 02:35pm EST

Matt used to be great for his link roundup posts (can't remember what he called them) which he spent an hour or two a day putting together, but those got a bit too much for him between his day job, his publicity jobs, and family...which, selfishly, stinks.

He's been updating more frequently again, though.

And, thanks, fangirl. :)

10. fritzom
Sunday December 14, 2008 01:51pm EST

That's an awful lot of blogs! Is anybody doing carnivals?

11. graspingforthewind
VIEW ALL BY · Sunday December 14, 2008 05:24pm EST

Fritzom - no carnivals as yet, though that idea is on my to think about doing list. Of course, I would be glad to work with someone on getting such a thing set up.

12. graspingforthewind
VIEW ALL BY · Sunday December 14, 2008 05:26pm EST

Sfrgalaxy - thanks for the compliment. I never imagined it would go this far. I thought at best it would add five to ten new blogs to my outdated list. You guys have made this so fun, thank you for all your work!

13. BlueTyson
VIEW ALL BY · Sunday December 14, 2008 10:41pm EST

Strange Horizons do a fair few I think?

Subterranean Online?

14. Bill Ward
Sunday December 14, 2008 11:56pm EST

This meme certainly has some legs -- congrats John. Great promotional idea.

Now to actually visit all those sites . . .

15. kevinr
VIEW ALL BY · Monday December 15, 2008 12:06am EST

Using back-links is very cute, but it sort of assumes that reviewers are using blog software. MITSFS, err, has an HTML file that gets edited by hand periodically. Yes, yes, leading technical university mumble. We like our flat text files, thank you. (And we're too hosed with classwork to switch to something better. ;-)

So, Mr. Ottinger, since you seem to be watching this comment thread, here's MITSFS's review site.

16. jsherry
VIEW ALL BY · Monday December 15, 2008 12:36pm EST

Kevin, I think most online reviewers are using blog software. :)

17. katenepveu
VIEW ALL BY · Monday December 15, 2008 12:51pm EST

You can just comment at the original home of the list to be added; it's what I did.

18. fangirl
VIEW ALL BY · Monday December 15, 2008 05:27pm EST

MITSF, you got your own update on Ottinger's site ;) And nice to see at least one YA sf site .. if we open this up to Young Adult sites who also review SF .. will the list explode?? ;)