Ever New Earths gathers twenty-five years of book columns written by legendary writer James Sallis and published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction to offer an exceptional overview of developments in contemporary science fiction, fully appreciating the genre’s traditions while recognizing its reach, its potential. This is a rare view of the genre from the inside, written toward outsiders with reason to learn and understand more: critics, historians, writers, editors.

James Sallis (1944–2026) published nineteen novels, multiple collections of short stories and essays, five collections of poems, three books of musicology, a landmark biography of writer Chester Himes, and a translation of Raymond Queneau’s novel Saint Glinglin. Sallis worked for many years as a reviewer for the Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, and The New York Times. In his early years, Sallis edited the groundbreaking science fiction magazine New Worlds. His novel Drive was adapted into a Cannes-winning film in 2011.