What are you reading in 2026?

[Ralif Redhammer]

I have contrasting conspiracy theories: the first, which is probably just the simple truth, is thst he saw people's reactions to the show's ending, and lost any will to deliver it. The other, perhaps just wishful thinking, is that he is making good headway on finishing, but doesn't want them published until he is gone so he does not have to hear any of the reaction.

I suspect getting lapped by the TV series would've had a demoralizing effect regardless of the reaction to the ending. Combine the two, and I can see how it would be even worse. GRRM's self-professed gardening style of plotting probably doesn't help. He knows how he wants the story end but not how to get there.

 

[Old Fezziwig]

I recently started rereading The Sword of Shannara, which I loved when I read it at twelve or thirteen. I'm about halfway through at this point. As a Lord of the Rings pastiche, it's enjoyable enough. The prose ranges from stiff to middling, but there are fun action sequences and some creepy moments (ruins of the world before the wars are creepy, and the boiler room at Paranor is fun). And I'm very amused by how angsty and unpleasant all the main characters are -- Bastard Gandalf Allanon in particular is a complete jackass most of the time -- though Panamon Creel and Keltset are pretty likable thus far. They seem, at least, to know what they want in life. As for the rest -- as I grow older, I find a lot of my pleasure in LotR is in the warmth of the characters to each other and in the quieter moments. I'm getting none of that enjoyment here. And the portrayal of Gnomes is pretty uncomfortable -- there's something vaguely racist to their portrayal that makes my hackles rise, though I'm not sure that it's intentional on Brooks's part as much as just completely unconsidered.

 

[prabe]

I find a lot of my pleasure in LotR is in the warmth of the characters to each other and in the quieter moments..

It's been decades, and I'd be a little worried about how well I'd find it to hold up, but this is similar to most of my take on The Belgariad--the dialogue (and some of the other prose, probably) was where the fun was; the story was at least mostly as expected.

 

[gban007]

It's been decades, and I'd be a little worried about how well I'd find it to hold up, but this is similar to most of my take on The Belgariad--the dialogue (and some of the other prose, probably) was where the fun was; the story was at least mostly as expected.

Yeah, both LoTR and the Belgariad / Mallorean were ones where id get to end, then want to start over again to enjoy the company of the characters as such, few other series quite did that for me, I think were others but cant really recall at the moment, except maybe Doctor Who.

However not sure I can go back to Belgariad knowing what David and Leigh did, which makes certain character interactions in the books look a bit different (though to be honest one at least at the time I should have picked up on more, but teenage me was young and stupid in many respects).

 

[prabe]

Yeah, both LoTR and the Belgariad / Mallorean were ones where id get to end, then want to start over again to enjoy the company of the characters as such, few other series quite did that for me, I think were others but cant really recall at the moment, except maybe Doctor Who.

However not sure I can go back to Belgariad knowing what David and Leigh did, which makes certain character interactions in the books look a bit different (though to be honest one at least at the time I should have picked up on more, but teenage me was young and stupid in many respects).

Yeah, I gather there's some squick--I've looked it up a time or three but the details haven't stuck--but even aside from that, the book (and its attitudes) are very 1980s, in ways that do not seem as they could have aged well.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

I recently started rereading The Sword of Shannara, which I loved when I read it at twelve or thirteen. I'm about halfway through at this point. As a Lord of the Rings pastiche, it's enjoyable enough. The prose ranges from stiff to middling, but there are fun action sequences and some creepy moments (ruins of the world before the wars are creepy, and the boiler room at Paranor is fun). And I'm very amused by how angsty and unpleasant all the main characters are -- Bastard Gandalf Allanon in particular is a complete jackass most of the time -- though Panamon Creel and Keltset are pretty likable thus far. They seem, at least, to know what they want in life. As for the rest -- as I grow older, I find a lot of my pleasure in LotR is in the warmth of the characters to each other and in the quieter moments. I'm getting none of that enjoyment here. And the portrayal of Gnomes is pretty uncomfortable -- there's something vaguely racist to their portrayal that makes my hackles rise, though I'm not sure that it's intentional on Brooks's part as much as just completely unconsidered.

Allanon is the worst. He seems to relish bullying and mocking the people he's supposed to be helping save the world. It's like if Saruman went with the Fellowship instead of Gandalf. It's no wonder that by the time we get around to Walker Boh, he wants nothing to do with the Druids.

Still, I'll admit to having nostalgia for the series. The post-apocalyptic fantasy aspects of the setting are interesting.

 

[Autumnal]

This’ll Make Things A Little Easier, by Attila Veres. This is the second English-language collection of horror stories by Hungarian writer Attila Veres, and it is really good. I highly doubt I’ll read a better horror collection this year. Veres has Ligotti’s gift for deadpan humor amidst the cosmic horror, and has a lot of things to say about living in Hungary:

Then you see the whole thing, from head to toe. The ends of time and space, though it never really ends; and just as there is no end, there is no center; no meaning, no purpose, no creator guiding this infinite system to some kind of meaning. In this first phase of the journey, you are presented the facts. I’m sure it’s hard for others to experience the utter meaninglessness of their own civilization, even their species, in this way, but it was nothing new to me. I guess I’m far too Hungarian for this; insignificance and lack of control have been always been a fact of life for me. Seeing it as a hard, cosmic truth was fine, I guess. It’s good to know that every decision I have made or ever will make is essentially meaningless. It takes the pressure off. But I live in Hungary, so that’s no big surprise.

The stories range from how he got scammed by a foreign-language fiction anthology to post-Kafka body horror to alien gods with a taste for Russian club music to a Deep One invasion and the rise of R’lyeh as chronicle by someone who never heard of Lovecraft to a government scheme to help the people out with trees that take in pain and give out money. It’s amazing.

I’ve apparently decided to make my sixties a time for reading I always meant to get to but never did. Earlier in the year, I read George Eliot’s Middlemarch, and y’know, it really was all that critics say. Lately I’ve been listening to readings of poetry. So far, the complete works of Emily Dickinson and a selection of John Keats, with others lined up. It’s been great for really disengaging from the moment and spending time with interesting thoughts beautifully expressed. I recommend it to all.

 

[Cadence]

The Nero Wolfe (and related books by Rex Stout) reread continues

• "Double For Death" from Oct 3, 1939 introduces a new lead character Tecumseh Fox. It was certainly better written than the Dol Bonner based "Hand in the Glove" and better than a chunk of the books by random authors that I've read from that time period, but the character didn't grab as much as Wolfe, Goodwin, and Co. Fox seems a bit too smooth and well-rounded, but is likeable enough. Some of the romance between the younger characters is silly (but not as bad as Ngaio Marsh might have written it). Unlike the main sequence, this is not written in first person.
• "Red Threads" from Dec 1, 1939. This one features Inspector Cramer (no Wolfe or Archie) and was again pretty solid. Written in the third person, there are huge chunks without Cramer. Feels like a Wolfe completist should read this one to see some more on Cramer when Archie isn't looking.
• "Over My Dead Body" from January 3, 1940. The first time I read the corpus I didn't do it in order, and I still forget how early in the series this one was. Some of the anti-immigrant things (including from Archie) are a bit jarring, especially given the current times. I had forgotten how much Cramer just lets Wolfe run with things and some of Nero and Archie's dissembling veered awfully close to lying. I thought "Too Many Cooks" and "Some Buried Caesar" better, but it is solid.

Latest John Sandford book

• "Revenge Prey" is the 36th Prey book (and 54th in the shared universe) featuring Lucas Davenport and related characters. It isn't high literature but was a quick, enjoyable read. I want to say some of the last couple had annoying things I wondered if they were errors, but this one didn't. Passed it over to the 16yo to read and he's been enjoying it (when I tell him to take a break on the computer and read a chapter).

Saw an ad on facebook and uncharacteristically looked at it, leading too:

• "The Tainted Cup" by Robert Jackson Bennett. A fun read, nice world building, and winner of the Hugo and World Fantasy Award. It makes me sad that a bunch of praise quotes immediately called up Watson and Holmes as if every book with two detectives have to be modeled on them. It's clearly more Wolfe and Archie, although not nearly as much as Cook's Garrett Files. I need to keep up on these threads more because it was mentioned in last years one and maybe the year before.
• "The Drop of Corruption" is the follow-up to the above. It's nice to have a second book that is reasonably in the ballpark of a really good first one (as opposed to my vast disappointment with "The Wise Man's Fear"). Like Wesley Chu's "War Arts Saga" trilogy, this is one I can see a fund D&D adaptation for. Was there one error about the military ranks, and one about the direction of one of the rivers from where they were?

 

[Eyes of Nine]

Not sure which Cramer book I read, but having read one, it changed quite a bit my perspective on the rest of the series I read

 

[Richards]

I'm starting up some humorous light reading: Fanged & Fabulous by Michelle Rowen, a novel with a female vampire protagonist. It's apparently a sequel to Bitten & Smitten, so I gather there's likely going to be some love interest plotline or something. Oh well, I picked it up for fifty cents at a used bookstore, so I'm not out much if it isn't my thing.

Johnathan