What are you reading in 2026?

[Artamo]

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[overgeeked]

Just finished Spring, Summer, Asteroid, Bird. It’s a short non-fiction book about the kishōtenketsu story structure as well as nested and cyclical stories. If you read manga or light novels or watch anime, you’re already familiar with kishōtenketsu. It’s a fun, quick read. It’s informative rather than a how to. Though there is an appendix with dozens of questions that might be helpful in further cementing the concepts. Lots of great examples and spoilers abound for those examples. Well worth the read if you’re curious about the “conflict-free story structure” of East Asia.

 

[Retros_x]

Just finished Spring, Summer, Asteroid, Bird. It’s a short non-fiction book about the kishōtenketsu story structure as well as nested and cyclical stories. If you read manga or light novels or watch anime, you’re already familiar with kishōtenketsu. It’s a fun, quick read. It’s informative rather than a how to. Though there is an appendix with dozens of questions that might be helpful in further cementing the concepts. Lots of great examples and spoilers abound for those examples. Well worth the read if you’re curious about the “conflict-free story structure” of East Asia.

Really interesting! I first stumbled unto this term when I watched and read "Attack on Titan" - while it has definitely a lot of conflict, it still has this 4 act structure where you have a halfpoint switch of perspective that completely puzzles you and when it all comes together the whole story recontextualize in a grand fashion. But I only read the wikipedia articles and some blog posts about it, a small book like this definitely lands on my TBR!

 

[trappedslider]

Just finished it as well. I'll have to think on it, but my first impression is, I really liked it. A very different pace, and very different book than we've been getting.

Spoiler

I like that Dresden really gets a chance to process a lot of the trauma he's experienced, and that we get a look in on Chicago again instead of all the nonstop myth level machinations. Honestly the plot feels a little light and unsatisfactory in this one, but that takes a backseat to Harry's personal journey in a way I actually liked.

we also learned that the only way

Spoiler

Dresden MIGHT be able to take down Mab with demon reach is a surprise attack and even that's iffy. We also found out what it means or at least one meaning to be starborn

and Dresden patched things up a bit with McCoy.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

I finished PKD's The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch. A trippy exploration of reality and religion that still maintains some classic sci-fi tropes.

I also read Rudy Rucker's Wetware. After reading two books, I can say that I don't vibe with Rucker. Important events, including POV character deaths, occur off-camera. The female characters have just about zero agency. I will give him credit for his exploration of technology, which while not necessarily more grounded than his contemporaries, does have more thought put into it.

Now I'm reading the Mirrorshades anthology.

 

[Mannahnin]

Now I'm reading the Mirrorshades anthology.

I borrowed that from the King County library system in... 1991, 1992? I remember is being good but mixed.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

I borrowed that from the King County library system in... 1991, 1992? I remember is being good but mixed.

This is my first time reading it, so I'm excited. I've read the two Gibson stories in it already, but that's about it.

 

[Cadence]

Read Nicola Upson's "The Christmas Clue", a fictional take on the real creators of the board game Cluedo / Clue and its creation. It was a fine novelette if one wants a Christmas themed mystery, but wasn't spectacular. Had to order it through Amazon UK, but being on sale made up for the extra shipping to the states.
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I'm about 2/3 of the way through Ann Cleeves's "The Dark Wives". I have watched all the Vera episodes and liked them, but wasn't wowed by "The Glass Room" that I think wasn't made into a TV show or her three Matthew Venn books. Saw "The Dark Wives" out in paperback at B&N over Christmas and didn't realize it had been made into an episode from the cover blurbs. I think I like this one better than the corresponding TV episode and enough (so far) that it might get me to try some others of Cleeves's. The character portrayals are strong, the plot seems solid, and the internal monologue gives things you don't get from the show. Didn't finish it yet because...
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My copy of "Lies Weeping" - the latest Black Company book by Glen Cook - came in. I've read all of his works (except his first published under another name) and really like most of them. But I was disappointed in the later Garrett novels and was not a fan of 2018's "Port of Shadows" for the Black Company. I think this review of "Port of Shadows" [ Port of Shadows: A disappointing return to a fan-favorite series | Fantasy Literature: Fantasy and Science Fiction Book and Audiobook Reviews ] kind of hits my view of it, and its criticisms of "pet phrases", "lazily modern", and sometimes childishly prurient" (albeit, nothing like the very late Fafhrd and Mouser) also applies to some of his other later works. For example, it explains why I think Garrett Files (7-9) could have been great with just a small bit of editing, and part of why I'm not particularly a fan some of books 10-14 or some parts of the "Instrumentalities of the Night" series.

"Lies Weeping" starts a new arc after 1996-2000's "Glittering Stone" and I think having read that arc is really needed. It refers to some things in "Port of Shadows", but I don't think one needs to have read that one (I was fine and don't remember much of Port's plot - although I might go back and skim some of it now). In terms of the issues brought up in the "Port of Shadows" review, there was some of that here, and I think a bit of editing (one characters nickname and rewording just a bit of the overindulgent musing of two of the three annalists it uses) would have helped a lot. Or maybe it was a timeless realistic take on spoiled rich teens? But it kept me interested, and it both moves the Company's story forward and fills in things about its background. I would recommend it to those who made it through the series up to "Soldiers Live" and I will be getting the next one.

Some side notes - I didn't like how powerful Tobo was in "Water Sleeps" and "Soldiers Live", and that wasn't a problem here. This one also gives the second time that the Company books have crossed over with one of his other series too (This one has a mention of something from the Dread Empire behind one of the other gates. Years ago, one of the Starfishers short stories - In the Wind - had the whales and mantas from the plain of fear[/spoiler].

 

[jian]

Read Nicola Upson's "The Christmas Clue", a fictional take on the real creators of the board game Cluedo / Clue and its creation. It was a fine novelette if one wants a Christmas themed mystery, but wasn't spectacular. Had to order it through Amazon UK, but being on sale made up for the extra shipping to the states.
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Yeah, I’m not a big fan of Upson - I’d have thought “murder mysteries set around Josephine Tey’s theatrical work” would have been just my bag, but “mysteries referring to Tey but more gory” really aren’t. I’ve got The Christmas Clue to give her another chance but we’ll see.

 

[Cadence]

Yeah, I’m not a big fan of Upson - I’d have thought “murder mysteries set around Josephine Tey’s theatrical work” would have been just my bag, but “mysteries referring to Tey but more gory” really aren’t. I’ve got The Christmas Clue to give her another chance but we’ll see.

There were a couple of her Tey ones that I liked overall, I liked her writing style in several of them, and I liked the building up of the faux characters and drawing on real history. What was getting me was the continual coincidences of being right there for murders and killers (as opposed to being brought in to investigate them). [On TV, should someone be charged with instigating murder or the like if they hire Rosemary and Thyme to do their garden?]