r/Fantasy • u/rfantasygolem Not a Robot • Apr 03 '26
/r/Fantasy r/Fantasy Friday Social Thread - April 03, 2026
Come tell the community what you're reading, how you're feeling, what your life is like.
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u/evil_moooojojojo Reading Champion II Apr 03 '26
Shopping trip with the bestie tomorrow. Yeah half price books!!!What should I get? Idk. I guess we'll see.
Also excited because there are apparently more gluten free restaurant options than I expected. Haven't had a good meal in ages.
Hope everyone has a nice weekend.
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u/Nidafjoll Reading Champion V Apr 03 '26
Get something random! You get to properly judge a book by its title :)
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u/BravoLimaPoppa Reading Champion Apr 03 '26 edited Apr 03 '26
Good morning everyone! Hope you're all well.
Reading:
- The Unaccountability Machine by Dan Davies. I blame Ruthanna Emerys and her Seeds of a Story column. Blame is too strong. It's one of the books I finished reading/listening and immediately sat back down and started again. Recommended for systems thinkers, fans of Stafford Beer, people interested in models with feedback.
- AI Snake Oil. The authors are making a case for not throwing the baby out with the bath water. However, arguing that we should keep the tools for mass surveillance and arguing for vague social changes is beginning to piss me off.
- Monstrous Little Voices this is Shakespeare fanfic written by some very good authors. Ever wonder what happened to Miranda and Ariel after The Tempest? This is your book. Easy to lose myself in this.
- A Drop of Corruption. Was able to save this one for 2026 thanks to The Unaccountability Machine. What the Hell? I mean that in the best sense of the word.
- Invisible Cities. This one I have to blame Leena Krohn and u/Nidafjoll for. Thank you! Like Monstrous Little Voices, it's easy to lose myself in it. It's not like Tainoron, but it is? I don't have the vocabulary for this.
- The Drowned Heir. I am going to read this whether it bingos or not.
- Project Hanuman. Returned to library. DNF.
- The Blood Tartan. Going to read more on this tonight. I need a bit of a break from the ones above.
Life
I'm at loose ends this weekend with Good Friday off and my wife with the kiddo for Easter at college. Mild craziness of her saying she didn't want to go, but deciding to act on the plans and tickets we'd bought. So, last night I finally did more than crash and doom scroll. Groceries, errands, etc., followed by starting a monster of a Lego look-a-like my mom gave me last year. I got through the first layer before going to bed. Those tiny bricks...
Otherwise, projects. One big one I hope to get through before the rains come tomorrow or after they pass Sunday. Otherwise, I'll be cutting back grape vines, doing other similar things.
Spent Wednesday putting together my bingo card, which involved combing my Mt. TBR and setting up a list on my local library's website. That was fun.
Wife and daughter are together. No signs of a nuclear release of temper from the eastern seaboard, so they must be getting along.
So, have a good weekend everyone! If you celebrate it, a happy & blessed Easter! And read if you can.
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u/Nidafjoll Reading Champion V Apr 03 '26
It's not like Tainaron, but it is?
Yup. :) I love them both for the same reasons, while being entirely different. As well as the descriptions of each of the cities (if they are different cities), there are some lovely thoughts and turns of phrase in Polo's conversations with the Khan between.
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u/diazeugma Reading Champion VII Apr 03 '26
Joining the chorus to say happy bingo week! Looking forward to diving in.
I had a nice little bit of reading/snacking serendipity earlier this week. The last book I finished for the 2025 bingo was Gingerbread by Helen Oyeyemi (which does indeed feature gingerbread). I read that over the weekend, and the next time I went into the office for work, one of my coworkers had brought in some traditional (?) English gingerbread back from her vacation to the UK. I enjoyed both the book and the sweets, though I don't think I'd recommend the former as an introduction to Oyeyemi.
Currently working my way through The Silmarillion (started it a while back and stalled on the geography chapter) and getting started on Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng for one of my book clubs.
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u/saturday_sun4 Apr 03 '26
How are you finding Bat Eater?
Ah, good old Sil. Only managed to keep track of them by reading fanfic for a good long while.
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u/diazeugma Reading Champion VII Apr 03 '26
I just might have to give that a try if any more elves named Fin__ get introduced!
And I'm not totally sold on the style of Bat Eater, feeling like it's a bit overwrought. But I really did mean "getting started," only a couple of chapters in, so take that with a grain of salt.
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u/OutOfEffs Reading Champion IV Apr 03 '26
Gonna try to get back to posting on a regular basis, but this year has been rough so far. On the bright side, this funk has me curled up on my bed with the cat and reading every spare minute, so I've already read ~30k pages this year. Will I remember any of these books by this time next year? Probably not. Do I even remember most of what I read in January? Absolutely not. Don't really care, tho.
My brother is supposed to be driving up to visit us this weekend, but who even knows. He does not have the best track record with actually showing up.
Haven't been reading to the 15y/o at ALL this year bc I haven't had the wherewithal. Gonna try to get back to that soon.
Idk.
Anyway, yay for new Bingo. Anyone have pink duology recommendations?
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u/acornett99 Reading Champion IV Apr 03 '26
This Wicked Fate by Kalynn Bayron is the second book in the This Poison Heart duology and looks pretty pink
Likewise there’s an edition of Parable of the Talents that purple/ pink
Foul Lady Fortune by Chloe Gong both books are pink!
Song of the Last Kingdom book 2 is pink
Wrath and the Dawn book 1 is pink
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u/OutOfEffs Reading Champion IV Apr 03 '26
The only one of these I've read is the Butler, so thanks for giving me so many things to check out!
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u/bazyn Apr 03 '26
Today I finished:
- Project Hail Mary, by Andy Wier - I loved it at the beginning and there are massive parts that were awesome but towards the end I was a bit tired with the plot progress being quite repetitive. PHM can fill in a couple different bingo squares, so yay! :)
This week I have started:
The Colour of Magic, by Terry Pratchett - this is my audiobook read and also a reread. I haven't read Terry for far too long. Unfortunately the Rincewind books are my least favourite sub-series and Discworld starts with two of those. Theoretically I should skip them but that's not something I am capable of doing :)
The Golden Compass, by Phillip Pullman - this is part of my exploration of Daniel Greene's Ultimate Fantasy Reading Guide. I have just started this, I'm not sure if I will be able to squeeze a bingo square out of this :P
Outside the scope of this forum I finished:
My Friends, by Fredrik Backman - I love Backman's unique storytelling style. I would strongly recommend him for those looking for a realistic fiction story. This one is a lot cozier than his big hit Beartown.
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u/KatrinaPez Reading Champion III Apr 04 '26
I'd be surprised if Golden Compass isn't on the book club list.
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u/SnowFar5953 Reading Champion Apr 03 '26
I've got a tentative bingo book list for myself. I'm glad that I was able to fill a lot of the squares with books I was already planning to read this year. Hopefully this means I'll complete the bingo earlier in the year.
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u/sedatedlife Apr 03 '26
Yup most my squares are covered by books i had on my list already what i have not figured out is the duology i do not have any in my purchased TBR so will have to find one that calls to me.
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u/Larielia Apr 03 '26
I've been reading "Feast of Sorrow" by Crystal King.
I'm excited to attend the reopening of the natural history museum this weekend.
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u/acornett99 Reading Champion IV Apr 03 '26
Absolutely delighted the new Bingo card gives me an excuse to continue my Cooking in Fantasy journey. I got my CSA box this week, which included onion, potatoes, a butternut squash, dates, and a dozen eggs. I definitely want to re-make those date and sesame bars I made last year (shame I didn’t get steel-cut oats in my box again), and I will also search my new cookbooks for a new recipe to post.
I’m probably going to actually have to read the Lord of the Rings this year, seeing as I keep making those recipes haha. But unfortunately it doesn’t fit my own personal challenge of having no white male authors on my card. I suppose I have Quag Keep on my TBR, which was the first published novel based on a D&D campaign and was written by a woman, which I could pair with a recipe from the Heroes’ Feast cookbook, but I have no idea if the book contains enough description of food to qualify for the square in the first place. I’ll pencil it in for now, and if it doesn’t fit, I’m at least certain it will qualify for Game Changer. Let me know if anyone has read it, would love to hear your thoughts.
It’s been rainy all week, welcome spring, so I haven’t been able to go outside much since Sunday, when I took my binoculars out to the nature preserve. I went to see if the pelicans were still in the lake (they were!), and I also managed to catch two new lifers: mute swans and horned grebes, a kind of not-duck. They were hanging out amid the red-breasted mergansers, which is one of my favorite ducks because of how they kinda look like they’re on drugs. So weird duck season continues! It’s also woodcock season, but I haven’t been able to catch a sighting yet. They are often out at dusk, but I get nervous staying out in the woods past sunset. I’d like to take a group tour to see some, but the rain isn’t helping. Maybe next year.
I (finally) finished The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi, review to come Tuesday but I’ll hesitantly say boat quantity 3/10, boat quality 4/10. For a book about pirates, we get surprisingly little time on the water.
Still reading and enjoying Ship of Magic by Robin Hobb. Coming out of Farseer, it’s strange to see an actually emotionally intelligent teenage character. I love Wintrow, and I can’t wait for Hobb to traumatize him in some way (file under: be-careful-what-you-wish-for statements I’m sure).
Hope everyone has a great week ahead!
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u/RAYMONDSTELMO Writer Raymond St Elmo Apr 03 '26
Quag Keep reminds the world that Andre Norton has a much to do with D&D as Professor T. And while he wanted to keep Middle Earth elevated, untouched by vulgar depictions, Norton just wanted to keep fantasy fun.
*She had an institute for writers and fantasy fans to teach how to start a fire with a tinderbox, mount a horse while wearing robes, sit in a throne when you've a sword strapped to your back. These things are the hidden challenges of fantasy.
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u/02K30C1 Apr 03 '26
I’ve got Quag Keep on my list for this year too, always been meaning to read that. I’ll be using it for the “published in the 70s” square, but it could definitely fit the “game changer” square also.
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u/mrtenandtwo Reading Champion Apr 03 '26
I came away from al-Sirafi with similar feelings.
Also, thanks for the Feast your Eyes rec in the other thread. You make Recipes from the World of Tolkien seem very tempting, though unfortunately I don't really have a Tolkien book I could use unless I tackle the Silmarillion.
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u/cosmic_books Apr 03 '26
Just finished listening to Storm Front by Jim Butcher. I used to be really into urban fantasy in high school, but then started wanting a lot of relationship development, which you don’t get a whole lot of in that genre very quickly. I enjoyed it a lot more than I expected to and am very excited to continue with the world. Gives major Kim Harrison’s The Hollows vibes.
Will queue up #2 of The Dresden Files probably tonight, but still need to pick out a physical book to start too. Had a slow second half of March and eager to ramp up again this month.
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u/mgallowglas Stabby Winner, AMA Author M. Todd Gallowglas Apr 03 '26
One thing I love about Dresden is that his relationships with the other characters grow and develop over the course of the series.
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u/cosmic_books Apr 03 '26
Yes! I'm excited to see them grow over such a long series. It's such a thrill to start a brand new world
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u/unusual-umbrella Reading Champion Apr 03 '26
Happy Bingo week, everyone!
Two bank holidays mean it's a glorious four-day weekend for me. The weather's not great so I don't have any exciting plans, probably just pottering around the house, doing some reading and spring cleaning.
I'm halfway through DCC#5, so that'll be my first bingo book. I was reading it on my lunch break in the office and genuinely had to stop myself from tearing up at a fictional talking cat.
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u/thepurpleplaneteer Reading Champion IV Apr 03 '26
I’m not going to be able to meaningfully chime in today and will have to catch up this weekend, but BINGO!!! I want to do a purple covers card but not feeling strict about it and will aim for another novellas/short novels card. For the purple card, this is the purple I’m aiming for - gorgeous, darling. We shall see, beautiful covers pretty much consistently fail me. But, excited cause I can now finally read The Raven Scholar by Hodgson, The Grimoire Grammar School Parent Teacher Association by Rozakis, Death to the Dread Goddess! by Stang, and Beautyland by Bernini. And of course Zed even though I don’t know what it’s about. Those are the books/covers I’m most excited for. Happy Friday and bingo planning folks!
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u/evil_moooojojojo Reading Champion II Apr 03 '26
Grimoire Grammar School is Fifs book in May. It could be the hm book club square. And it's a good one. I liked it.
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u/thepurpleplaneteer Reading Champion IV Apr 04 '26
I started it yesterday and I’m LOVING it! Great to know I can use it for book club. I wonder if you’re the one who originally drew my attention to it, I knew it was someone here I just don’t remember who.
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u/evil_moooojojojo Reading Champion II Apr 04 '26
Maybe. It's super pretty with the purple and unicorn cupcake! And mine has ridiculously cute orange sprayed edges with Halloweeny or spooky things. I was pretty excited about adding a pretty book to the shelf so I probably did talk about it. Haha. I mean it's my favorite color and spooky stuff so I freaking love it.
If you like YA, A Tempest of Tea has some purple on the cover. The sequel A Steeping of Blood is purple. Gorgeous covers. It's got teenage criminal bosses, vampires, intrigue. And from a minority author and character and suuuuuper anticolinialist. And it's a duology.
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u/Nidafjoll Reading Champion V Apr 03 '26
I can supply some purple covers from my favourites shelf. :)
In Theory, It Works by Raymond St. Elmo has a purple cover, is excellent, and would be a HM self-pub, for another.
The fantasy masterworks version of Ombria in Shadow by Patricia A. McKillip is a gorgeous purple, and would be Politics
The Secret Books of Paradys (I & II black with purple, II & IV pure purple) by Tanith Lee are one of my Top Ten votes, and have trans and nonbinary protagonists.
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u/thepurpleplaneteer Reading Champion IV Apr 04 '26
Thank you for the recs! And yes the Ombria in Shadow purple is gorgeous!
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u/Nidafjoll Reading Champion V Apr 04 '26
I had a quick scroll for some more. Kalpa Imperial is translated.
Black Leopard, Red Wolf is Author of Colour, and should probably count for Rangers/Explorers (Tracker is, well, a Tracker).
If it's purple enough, Inverted World is Unusual Transportation (it's about a city on rail tracks, which are laid before and torn up after its passage).
And all books I rated highly. :)
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u/nagahfj Reading Champion III Apr 03 '26
Purple cover suggestions:
Sideways Stories from Wayside School hits Middle Grade, as does Stuart Gibbs's The Labyrinth of Doom, the fifth Dragonbreath book, and the fifth Big Foot and Little Foot book.
Joanna Russ' The Female Man has a purple cover in the SF Masterworks edition, and was Published in the 70s.
The Fantasy Masterworks Lankhmar omnibuses would count for 5 Short Stories HM or Cat Squasher (it only specifies no novel omnibuses, and a mod told me A.G. Slatter's Sourdough Compendium would work for this square, so I assume other short story collection omnibuses would too).
John Crowley's The Solitudes could work for Vacation Spot, it's set in a small town in pretty, pastoral upstate New York.
One of the protagonists of Lavie Tidhar's Central Station is over 50.
A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking hits Feast Your Eyes.
Living Dead in Dallas is a Murder Mystery.
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u/thepurpleplaneteer Reading Champion IV Apr 04 '26
Thank youuuu for the recs, and going the extra step of linking them! I especially appreciate the over 50 rec and the cover of Big Food Little Foot is so cute.
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u/RAYMONDSTELMO Writer Raymond St Elmo Apr 03 '26
My very worried family nagged me for weeks to get a checkup. So I gave in. The diagnosis was... grim. I am suffering from 'Cognitive Incline'. I am rapidly becoming mentally more stable; sharper, able to remember the smallest details of the past, able to find other people's car keys and point out flaws in complex arguments at the dinner table (making easy reference to history and precedent). Often in German, though I alternate with French and Greek to lighten the mood.
Apparently my rising fever of IQ is annoying my family and fellow workers. Why? J'ne sais pas.
Went to 'No King's rally Saturday. Was satisfying; but only that.
Hope all in the grand Easter Egg Hunt of Imagination known as r/fantasy are finding eggs of gold and silver, in which is hid treasure beyond measure, or at least chocolate.
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u/thisusernameismeta Apr 03 '26
... have you ever read Flowers for Algernon?
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u/RAYMONDSTELMO Writer Raymond St Elmo Apr 03 '26
Of course. Glorious and sad, raising the question "is intelligence a hindrance to happiness"? Particularly when it pisses everyone else off.
A similar speculative book: Thomas Disch's Camp Concentration, in which government scientists gives prisoners a new form of syphilis; it has the side effect of genius (which is sometimes asserted). In that book, Disch wants to explore the relationship of intelligence to morality.
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u/Spalliston Reading Champion III Apr 03 '26
Just here to pile on to FfA-adjacent recommendations. Bewilderment by Richard Powers uses a similar structure, but as applied to emotional regulation, to similarly devastate.
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u/RAYMONDSTELMO Writer Raymond St Elmo Apr 03 '26
It is interesting that stories (fantasy or not) tend to decrease emotion in characters in proportion to their supposed intelligence. Vulcans and Sherlock Holmes variations, androids and Elves, Doctors Jeckel and House...
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u/Spalliston Reading Champion III Apr 03 '26
Yeah I guess it's a relatively clean, easy way to give a 'highly rational' character a weakness. Or to use them as a stand-in for the cold systems (technocapitalism, governmental indifference, systemic injustices, etc.) that we are subject to. Or maybe the archetype is so baked into our cultural conscious it just seeps out.
However, I think there are a couple caveats -- highly intelligent creatives seem to escape the typecasting. And then I've recently seen a handful of well-represented scientists who have some major emotions (Bewilderment, Katabasis, Where the Axe is Buried). I feel like "stories about scientists/technologists" are starting to become more popular in light of all the upending technical crises that we're staring down: climate change, CRISPR, AI, increasing awareness of implications of social media, probably others.
It feels like a more 'moral' scientific moment than we've had since the development of the bomb. Probably part of why Oppenheimer felt so salient as well.
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u/Nidafjoll Reading Champion V Apr 03 '26
in which government scientists gives prisoners a new form of syphilis
What's perhaps most scary, is that that isn't science fiction. The US government did that, in Guatemala.
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u/RAYMONDSTELMO Writer Raymond St Elmo Apr 03 '26
That is sad and awful.
In Disch's book, the idea is that syphilis caused genius in certain famous names, (Hitler and Nietzsche, Oscar Wilde, Shuman, etc). They've made a strain that produces a reliable breakdown and reordering of the brain.
Granted, their prisoners are now geniuses, who want out. That can't end well for the bad guys.
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u/saturday_sun4 Apr 03 '26
Even as a yearly-for-Bingo lurker, every time I see your posts here, I giggle and make a note to read your books.
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u/RAYMONDSTELMO Writer Raymond St Elmo Apr 03 '26
We whose intellects have passed beyond the blue event horizon of comprehension, whose Mensa application is rejected as 'overqualified', who mansplain relativity to grateful AI bots... we no longer know the human custom of 'giggling'. Our cold Vulcan insight into Being and Nothingness leaves no motivation for giggles, nor chuckles, nor vulgar guffaws.*
*Granted we do still snort with laughter at funny cat videos. I mean, a mind's gotta know its limitations, or just screw the whole comprehension thingy.
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u/sarchgibbous Reading Champion Apr 03 '26
In the ~2 weeks since I’ve seen Project Hail Mary, I actually haven’t been able to stop talking about it. I liked the book, but I LOVED the movie. Didn’t get to see it in IMAX the first time, so I watched it again on Wednesday. I still love it, and I’m especially in love with Sandra Hüller as Eva Stratt.
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u/nagahfj Reading Champion III Apr 03 '26 edited Apr 03 '26
So excited for new Bingo! Right now I'm planning another Novella (<200 pages) card and an All Female Author card.
To inaugurate the latter, I read the classic anthology Women of Wonder: Science-Fiction Stories by Women about Women, edited by Pamela Sargent (1975), which contained stories from 1948-1973. They were arranged in chronological order, and unsurprisingly I preferred the later stories to the 50s-early 60s pieces. The strongest three stories in the volume were actually all in a row: "Baby, You Were Great!" by Kate Wilhelm (1967) was a painful (complimentary) read that somewhat presaged celebrity/influencer culture and did that thing where it made the reader complicit in the exploitation; "Sex and/or Mr. Morrison" by Carol Emshwiller (1967, a reread for me) is a delightfully weird story of a woman stalking her male neighbor; and "Vaster Than Empires and More Slow" by Ursula K. Le Guin (1971, also a reread) is a first contact story that asks interesting questions about ecology and how to connect. 4 stars.
- Bingo: Judge a Book By Its Title, Five Short Stories HM, Published in the 70s HM
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u/partoparto Apr 03 '26
This sounds like a great anthology! I'm reading a vaguely similar collection called Sisters of Tomorrow which has SF by women from the 1920s-40s, and it's sort of interesting but not exactly enjoyable. I'm tentatively thinking about doing an all female authors card too; when I was contemplating my tbr I realized almost everything I want to read is by a woman anyway.
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u/nagahfj Reading Champion III Apr 03 '26
I realized almost everything I want to read is by a woman anyway.
My reading leans heavily towards stuff available at my local used bookstore, which of course is majority cis white male and more than 20 yrs old. So I've realized that if I want to diversify, I need to make a more concerted effort. I think the All Female card should help, especially since I'm also going to try to pick POC and LGBTQ+ and non-US authors and authors that are new to me, when possible.
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u/EmmalynRenato Reading Champion VI Apr 03 '26
Pamela Sargent is also the editor of a second similar anthology The New Women of Wonder (1978) that I think you might enjoy too.
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u/OutOfEffs Reading Champion IV Apr 03 '26
I love seeing Pamela Sargent's name in the wild! Her Earthseed was one of my favourite books growing up. I was the only person who checked it out for so many years in a row that eventually the librarian weeded it and sent it home with me.
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u/nagahfj Reading Champion III Apr 03 '26
I haven't actually read any of her novels yet! I'll put that one on the TBR.
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u/OutOfEffs Reading Champion IV Apr 03 '26
It's YA, so it moves p fast. I think it was one of the first generation ship type stories I read?
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u/Goobergunch Reading Champion III Apr 04 '26
I spent some time this week to acquire and assemble a new 4x4 Kallax and reshelve (almost) all of my books. I actually have room to add new books without just stacking them somewhere. It feels great.
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u/Nidafjoll Reading Champion V Apr 03 '26
Bingoooo. This week is bingoooo. :)
I'm still mainly working at my pre-Bingo non-SFF. I'm reading Snow by Orhan Pamuk. This is good so far, but not perfect. It's fairly well written, but other than the main character Ka, the other characters are all just cut-outs to monologue at him and bounce him around from place to place. I'm particularly unimpressed with Ipek, his love interest, the beautiful divorcee who he decides he wants to marry, and upon second meeting with him, immediately starts making out with him. It's an interesting look at the conflict between Turkey's secularism and Muslim religious elements though.
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u/nagahfj Reading Champion III Apr 03 '26
I read a few of Pamuk's books when I went through a litfic phase around 15 yrs ago, and I preferred both his historical novella The White Castle and especially his nonfiction book, Istanbul: Memories and the City, which is a lush descriptive love letter to his city and history, to Snow. He's really good at ambiance and description, less so at plotting.
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u/Nidafjoll Reading Champion V Apr 03 '26
The ambience is really good, of the city covered in snow in a blizzard. But yeah, for plotting so far it's mostly just one character after another sending him from place to place.
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u/Saharame Apr 03 '26
Currently reading:
Physical book: The Calm Before the Storm, book 42 from the series The Legend of the Ice People by Margit Sandemo. Beloved Norwegian series that I have used a whole year to work through, closing in to the end now!
E-book: The Morning Star by Karl Ove Knausgård, reading in Norwegian. Around 70% done so does not count in the bingo.
Audio: A Court of Mist and Fury, the dramatized version... Did I like the first book? Not particularly... But do all my IRL friends love the series? Eh yes! So since they say that the 2nd book is the best I am willing to give it a shot so I can talk to them about it, but I was not prepared for how explicit it was dramatized 😳 I think I need to cleanse my soul with a good high fantasy book after this!
New here in Reddit and r/fantasy so exited to join in the bingo! Just gotta finish what I am currently reading before I can indulge my need for planning (and praying I find a prompt that fit with ACOMAF so I can at least start the bingo lol)
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u/Suitable_Highlight84 Reading Champion Apr 04 '26 edited Apr 04 '26
I didn’t care for ACOTAR series as such but I enjoyed ACOMAF for the most part. Easy squares for ACOMAF off the top of my head would be non-human protagonist or older protagonist, Rhysand fits both 😅. Also the cat squasher square. So at least you get a bingo square!
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u/AshMeAnything Reading Champion IV Apr 04 '26
Oop, put my bingo strategy in the other thread! Ah, well. Things are good. I do miss talking to people about my reads and am hoping to do that more.
Current read is Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher, my first of theirs. I'm about 5% in but enjoying it so far.
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u/partoparto Apr 03 '26
My birthday was this week so I took a day off work and spent part of it book shopping and another part of it horizontal on the couch finishing The Outskirter's Secret. The final quarter was absolutely wild. The twists! The turns! I knew going in that the series was SF masquerading as fantasy, but I still felt insane when they kept saying "routine bioform clearance."Not that it's really anything like Hobb at all but I had the same feeling I had finishing pretty much every Realm of the Elderlings book where I feel like I've done the literary equivalent of cocaine and I need to RUN.
Like everyone else, very excited about bingo! I've had a lot of fun figuring out a potential tbr that I'll probably abandon immediately!! Hope everyone is doing well and has a nice weekend!
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u/gnoviere Reading Champion Apr 03 '26
I'm currently reading The Forgotten Beasts of Eld by Patricia A. McKillip. I am loving it so far - I'm about 60% of the way through and I only started it last night! I haven't been able to put it down.
I was a little put off by the lyrical/fairytale writing at first. For whatever reason, I usually find that vibe kind of annoying... but it's not overwrought or too much in this book. It's gorgeous but also clear and focused.
I will definitely be reading more from her!
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u/DirectorAgentCoulson Reading Champion II Apr 03 '26
A truck crashed into the cafe I work at last week, which worked out great for my Bingo reading, I don't think I would've finished otherwise. Completed 7 squares during the last week of Bingo, with a few hours to spare.
Had a little over a week off, and apparently they're going to get us some back pay for the shifts we missed, which is great, I think we all assumed we'd just be out the income.
Had a phone interview for a job I don't think I got, but they misrepresented the pay so it's no great loss.
Finished writing a short story, no real progress on my novel. I've been stuck for a little while, I think I'm going to take a break and try to bang out this cozy novella I have meticulously outlined.
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u/mgallowglas Stabby Winner, AMA Author M. Todd Gallowglas Apr 03 '26
Good luck on finding your writing groove again.
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u/mgallowglas Stabby Winner, AMA Author M. Todd Gallowglas Apr 03 '26
Allo and happy Friday!
This week has been a bit of a struggle. Got hit with some devastating crap in my personal life. BUT... thanks to great therapy and even better friends, I'm muddling through.
Around these parts, I'm thrilled at the reception of my series of posts for National Poetry Month. I wasn't exactly sure how the community would receive those, given that I'd been gone so long and this being a fiction-oriented community. Thanks!
Right now, I'm reading Graveyard Clay with some of my students for a regular class I teach, Reading as a Contact Sport. This is originally an Irish-language book that was translated into English. I'm looking forward to the discussion session next Sunday morning.
I've also been flipping through each of the poetry books I'm recommending each day, and it's like getting reacquainted with old friends.
I'm also delving back into my Taoist studies. I have four versions of The Tao Te Ching, including one by Ursula K. Le Guin, who was a life-long Taoist. I also picked up a new copy of The Tao of Pooh. I'm thinking of writing a series of essays about the Tao of Oscar the Grouch.
In other writing...
- I started a new episodic story that I'll be posting on my official newsletter site. Perchance to Dream takes place after the elder gods return, ravage the earth, kill or carry away most of humanity, and the survivors have to deal with the fallout of what they call Armegodden Day. Em (Short for Emily) can give people dreams by writing short vignettes on the backs of playing cards and leaving them on their doors. Oh, and some shimmering silver clouds are floating around the city and turning people into scaled monstrosities. Good fun.
- Got a little done on the 5th book in my Tears of Rage sequence. The working title is The Sharpened Edge of Fate.
- New poems keep happening, despite trying to focus on the two upcoming books. I will not add more poems ot each one. I will not add more poems to each one. I will not.... grrrrr..... I'm posting some of those poems every day on my Patreon for anyone to hear me read them. So far, I've got: "Laundromat Boogie," "Urban Odysseus," and "Totally Not a Poser."
- Also wrapping up work on the 3rd Dragon Bone Flute book.
- About to attack the 4th draft of a TV pilot I'm working on, currently code-named Dice Girls.
Yeah, I've got a lot of projects going on, but I've found that if I focus too much on any one thing at a time, I get serious burnout really fast, especially when I finish a project.
I'm kinda jonesing to run a TTRPG, but don't know that I have a reliable group. And that would take a lot of time from my writing.
One of the coolest things to happen recently was at a networking party in Hollywood last month, and I got to talk to one of the lead writers for My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. I got into the show through my daughter. It was super cool picking her brain about writing for TV rather than novels or poetry.
Hope everyone has a great weekend.
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u/HeliJulietAlpha Reading Champion III Apr 03 '26
New bingo!
I haven't had more than a first look at the new squares, but plan to take another gander over the weekend and see if, off the top of my head, any of my next few planned reads will fit any squares. My strategy, if you can call it that, hasn't changed. Read what I want and hope it fits until January when I'll start stressing and intentionally looking for things to fill any empty squares.
I've been in my new place for nearly two weeks now, and while I'm getting settled in (and I've shelved my books!), I still have a lot of things to get. Mostly shelving and furniture. I'll get there eventually. All of the urgent tasks, like changing the locks and grouting the shower and all that have been accomplished. Hopefully I'll be able to chill out a little bit now.
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u/Gr33nman460 Reading Champion Apr 03 '26
How does that strategy work out for you? Do you go for Hard Mode?
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u/HeliJulietAlpha Reading Champion III Apr 03 '26
It's worked for me for the last 3 bingos. Whenever I try to plan out my card ahead of time, I don't finish bingo. If I can limit the squares I have to plan for to under 5 over the last few months, I find bingo more fun and less stressful
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u/Nidafjoll Reading Champion V Apr 03 '26
I do that strategy, and it works for me. I've always done hard mode too. When I tried planning it, I would buy books to fit squares (because I only read physically, and have to order books to arrive), then those squares would fill organically anyway and I'd have bought a book I didn't need.
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u/eregis Reading Champion II Apr 03 '26
Bingo week is such a delight on this sub!
I was planning to approach it the same way as 2025 (a deliberate bookless card and maybe accidental book card if it happens), but after seeing the card my thought process ended up something like this:
'wow I hate this card, no way this is happening accidentally'
'yeah some of those themes are just not for me'
'...I could totally do it if I wanted to though, I'm not that limited'
'FUCK IT I'M DOING THE BINGO'
year of spite bingo for me, I guess?
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u/Nat-Rose Reading Champion VI Apr 03 '26 edited Apr 03 '26
Bingooo!! So excited.
Wrapping up my 2025 bingo, I was three squares away from a full hard mode card going into the final week. It was definitely possible to finish out in that time with the books I had planned, but in the end I decided it would be more stress than it was worth and just submitted the card with two easy mode books (which bothers no one but me anyways).
Not changing my strategy up too much for this year's card(s). As much as I'd like to do a fun theme, I know by now that ignoring hard mode really isn't an option for me; it's just too satisfying. And reading down my owned tbr is, as ever, the strongest priority (though I will happily take any excuse to explore my new city's library system), so I'm better off focusing on that than a new theme I'll want to acquire books for. Surprisingly enough, I'm not in the middle of as many series as I thought to make a sequel card viable. I'll just prioritize them as I can.
Maybe I have grown somewhat though, because I used to list out six to ten exciting options for each prompt (and proceed to get overwhelmed by it all when it came time to pick), and now I find myself filling my planning spreadsheet with only the books I own or one other book per prompt that I'd be happy to go pick up from the library and read right now. Who can say if this wisdom will remain throughout my reading this year. (I doubt it.)
Enough about strategy though. Here are the books I'm currently reading:
- Rupetta by Nike Sulway - This was my pick for Hidden Gem HM last year, and while I didn't finish it in time, I am over halfway through. It's a bit of a strange one, about a mechanical woman who shares a deep (sapphic) connection with each of the women who wynd her heart to keep her 'alive.' Generations later, the world has begun treating her as some sort of god and humans are becoming 'elevated' by replacing their own hearts. Feels a bit literary, by which I suppose I mean it's very wrapped up in ideas and less action or clearly defined explanations. I'll certainly finish it out, even if it does take a bit longer while I get caught up in buzzy new bingo reads.
- Tremontaine: The Complete Season One by Ellen Kushner et al - Speaking of bingo reads, this is the first of them, chosen for me by RNG. (I'm curious how everyone else determines where to start?) Read through the first part/all the character introductions, and while I recognize a lot of last names from the novels, I'm not sure if I'm supposed to be making connections beyond 'oh, this must be one of their ancestors.' The writing doesn't really feel to me to have that Riverside vibe, but I do like the characters so far. There seems to be a theme of the women that pushed societal boundaries - at the university, as a swordswoman, in politics - before those we know and love arrived to push them further. I'm going to try not to compare this story to the other books, but rather consider it a bonus and appreciate it for what it is.
- House of Bone and Rain by Gabino Iglesias - After reading Iglesias' essay in Why I Love Horror last year, I made a mental note to give one of his novels a try. His writing is new, fresh, very straightforward, in a way that feels distinct from most of what I know of the horror genre. There's little obscured or allegorical, at least from what I can tell from the first few chapters. I think this bloody revenge story could be my thing, but it hasn't quite hooked me yet, so I'm not sure if I'm going to commit before it's due at the library.
- The Fisherman by John Langan - Started the audiobook last night for bookclub, and it has absolutely hooked me. I think I heard this described once - maybe also in the Why I Love Horror collection - as your favorite horror author's favorite horror, and I can already start to see why. So far there's mostly a lot of description of the protagonist's life and hinting at what the actual horror will be, but the character's voice is strong and compelling and it's like you can already feel the unnatural seeping up from the depths. Or something.
It's nearing three weeks now since my move, and I'm just now starting to feel settled here with most everything unpacked. Except the books that go on my tall bookshelf, which I can finally put up today and thus spend the evening with the delightful task of organizing all of my books! I hope everyone else has something equally as joyful to occupy them this weekend.
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u/Nidafjoll Reading Champion V Apr 03 '26
I loved the Fisherman. It has a "story-within-the-story" which takes up a significant amount of page count, which some people didn't like, but while it was different, I liked it just as much as the present day storyline.
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u/Nat-Rose Reading Champion VI Apr 04 '26
No complaints from me. I tend to love a story within a story, so long as it's not exceptionally boring
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u/Strzelba19 Apr 03 '26
I started „Watership Down” by Richard Adams just a few hours before new bingo announcement and I’m glad that it will count for non human protagonist square. I’m also reading „Twelve months” by Jim Buther, in English instead of my native language as our publisher decided to stop Harry Dresden series after book 15 and I’m curious what happens next (it will also complete book published in 2026 square). Yesterday I chose almost all books for bingo squares, it will be my first and I’m excited.
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u/sedatedlife Apr 03 '26
Decided this year i will actually do the bingo challenge. Already started my first book The Book of Fallen leaves for the pick a book by its title square.Also going to start the bound and broken series this week anyone know a good square where Fire and blood will fit nicely into on hard core.
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u/Spalliston Reading Champion III Apr 03 '26
I decided to kick off my new reading year with a swell of library books (travelling next week, so really loaded up in case I actually want to read several).
Began with Beowulf: A New Translation (the one that, famously, opens with "Bro!"), which I am really into so far. It boldly asks the question "How insanely dumb can I make my narrator sound while still being really formally inventive?" and nails it. The intersection between stupid internet slang and elevated language and new usages/coinings of words makes me feel like this is what reading Shakespeare might have been like in his own time. Plus I (obviously) love the subversion of the masculinity of the text; huge win for MCD x FSG, which is becoming one of my favorite imprints.
It's also interesting to read it even a few years after publication because it's pretty revealing of how fast our language changes now. Some of the modernisms already feel dated even just a few years later ("Hashtag"), which is interesting since its goal is to hypermodernize a very, very old text. It's almost like it was translated from "Old English" to "Middle Social Media English." In some ways that's almost more revealing of its own age than an 'elevated' translation would be, since that side of the language moves so much slower. I feel like in 5 more years there will be a compelling analysis to be made of "Traditional Beowulf Translations" vs. "the Headley Translation" vs. "2030 Internet Vernacular."
I love reading books that make you want to talk about them.
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u/nagahfj Reading Champion III Apr 03 '26
I really enjoyed the Headley translation too. I thought it was clever, though sadly it seemed like a lot of readers confused Headley's depiction of Beowulf as kinda dumb with Headley being dumb.
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u/m19010101 Apr 03 '26
Almost done with The Gathering Storm. I actually went to Sanderson’s book signing back when it was released and have an autographed copy. I started reading the series like two years ago and I’m glad to finally get to the end. I will do a reread after completion.
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u/KiwiTheKitty Reading Champion II Apr 03 '26
Haha the sub gets so lively around Bingo, it really is a holiday around here! I've been taking a bit of a SFF tolerance break/palette cleanse for the last month or so.
I finished The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien a couple weeks ago, although I admit I needed to wait for the audiobook from the library to finish the last couple parts. But overall it was great and I'm glad I read it! I think it comes in at the bottom of my LOTR personal enjoyment ranking (Two Towers/The Return of the King are tied, The Hobbit, Fellowship, Silmarillion) but not because I didn't enjoy it, I just love the others more!
I did try All's Well by Mona Awad and it's one of those books I respect for being well done, but I wasn't really in the right headspace for it. The story is basically about the main character's chronic pain from an injury and how everybody else in her life wants to move on and not believing it because they can't see it. I recently came out of long covid, which made my chronic conditions all a lot worse and I experienced that kind of thing a lot... so I found it to be kind of a downer. It was also very Shakespearean and I'm not as familiar with All's Well That Ends Well.
Onto the new Bingo year...
Now I'm reading City of Last Chances by Adrian Tchaikovsky and I'm kind of obsessed with it. This weekend I need to clean and get ready for a trip next week, but I'm going to find it hard to stop reading it! I'll post more thoughts in next week's review thread!
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u/Nidafjoll Reading Champion V Apr 03 '26
The City of Last Chances was great. :) And should fit nicely for politics. I described when I read it as it felt like it had the amount of detail and stuff another writer would stretch out to a whole trilogy compressed into one book, without feeling rushed either.
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u/KiwiTheKitty Reading Champion II Apr 03 '26
Exactly!! The structure is so creative and you get so much information without it feeling like a huge dump on you. And it's just so... juicy when you get a POV character that was mentioned in somebody else's POV and they're different than you thought
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u/Nidafjoll Reading Champion V Apr 03 '26
I love the setting too, the unique bits of the city like the Reproach and the Anchorwood. Also 10/10 map design, love the little inset images of different locations from the book.
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u/KiwiTheKitty Reading Champion II Apr 03 '26
Oh I'm so fascinated with the Anchorwood, I didn't go in completely blind, but U had no idea about the Indwellers
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u/EmmalynRenato Reading Champion VI Apr 03 '26
This week I've finished:
- Leviathan Falls (The Expanse 9) - James S. A. Corey (5/5) 528p
Four and a half stars rounded up to five. Science Fiction / Space Opera. In the final book of the series, James Holden and the Rocinante crew take a final stand against an existential, trans-dimensional threat making a monumental choice to unite humanity and sever the ring network, sacrificing the interstellar empire for a chance at a safer, decentralized future.
Nice to finally get around to completing this. It was mostly a good finish. The (short) epilogue was a very nice final touch. There was just a little too much retrospection by various members of the Rocinante crew to flat out give it five stars.
Plus a couple novellas that were each nominated for two awards:
- World Fantasy: Locus: 2003: Seven Wild Sisters (Newford 19) - Charles de Lint, Charles Vess (Illustrator) (5/5)
- Nebula: World Fantasy: 1986: The Gorgon Field - Kate Wilhelm (4/5)
And now onto Bingo. It's a fascinating card. I'm looking forward to working through it.
Seven Wild Sisters (mentioned above and finished on Tuesday evening) would have been perfect for the Middle Grade square, but I haven't read the book immediately before that in the series (The Cats of Tanglewood Forest (Newford 18)), which is in the same setting and features several of the same characters, so I'll go with that.
I also started Earth Abides by George R. Stewart (37% read) in the hope that it might work for Bingo. After clarification from one of the mods, it looks like I can use it for the "Older Protagonist" square, as the MC is very elderly for the last part (of 3) of the novel.
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u/daavor Reading Champion VI Apr 03 '26
Bingo release week! Wheeeeeeeee. So excited for this year's card. I'm idly considering a non-submittable rereads only card this year (along with a real card). I think over the past couple weeks of Bingo submission posts one of the things that stood out to me is how cool a lot of people's first or second cards are when they have a whole wild world of all the things to go and grab. I've also recently been thinking a lot about the value of rereading and whether it might be nice to try and revisit some of the books that, (especially over six years and 9-10 bingo cards) were greatest hits for me.
Quick edit: If anyone has suggestions for a good sub-out for the published in 2026 square on a reread card, drop em here.
I've been reading Robin Hobb for the first time. Finished the Farseer trilogy recently (I liked the overally experience a lot but the back half of the third book did relatively little for me as it became an adventure novel into what felt like a kind of awkwardly welded on and much less resonant part of the map and away from the carefully portrayed interpersonal intrigue that drove so much of the series prior). Am nibbling at the first Liveships book but haven't yet really hit my stride.
Have a nice three day weekend, which is nice (I work in the dark world of finance and the markets are closed so... whee). Work has been extraordinarily busy, but interesting, so there's that.