What are you reading in 2026?

[Ralif Redhammer]

I read them lots of times - especially VotDT at #3 - as a youth. Now I find myself having to ignore a lot of the symbolism or they feel really kludgey to me. (I don't know what it says about younger me that I missed a lot/most of it on the early readings even though my mom got them for me at a Catholic Book store) Doing that I still had a great time reading all six of them to my spawn several years ago.

I think I only read The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe when I was a kid, but I was an adult when I read the entire series from start to finish. Some of it seems a bit heavy-handed to me, but generally doesn't bother me.

I have a nice plan for 2026 IF I find the time.
So I never read the classic dnd novels and my plan is to tackle The Dark Elf trilogy, Songs & Swords series and the Last Mythal
If anyone has similar suggestions that they liked, please recommend!

Would agree on Songs & Swords. Elaine Cunningham is one of the better D&D fiction writers. As far as classic D&D fiction goes, the Dragonlance Chronicles trilogy deserves mention. Probably the most iconic of TSR's fiction line.

 

[Fetfreak]

Be aware that the Dark Elf Trilogy of Drizzt's origins in the underdark and coming to the surface were a prequel trilogy written after the Icewind Dale trilogy which were the first novels Salvatore wrote. The characterization for Drizzt in those first ones is a bit different from later characterizations (more of a cold killer in the original surface trilogy whose good is mostly that he fights evil, less of the clearly moral hero he becomes in later characterization in the Dark Elf Trilogy and later written stuff). If you start with the Dark Elf trilogy and follow it up with Icewind it could be a little jarring.

In the Dragonlance line my favorite was Weasel's Luck by Michael Williams, a fairly standalone novel set before the main Dragonlance trilogy. I also really enjoyed the Hickman and Weiss short story anthologies in Dragonlance Tales. The Medusa's Eye series I remember being decent as well.

In Greyhawk I read the original (1e era) Wolf Barbarian stuff by Rose Estes, I liked the author's Endless Quest books much more. I heard good things about Paul Kidd's WotC era Greyhawk novels but have not read any. Gygax's official Greyhawk ones which lead into the not TSR Gord the Rogue series are OK, it has parts I really enjoy but I really dislike some elements and the series anitclimax ending.

I read most all of the original Ravenloft series of novels, the first one Vampire of the Mists by Christie Golden was my favorite. Some rave about Knight of the Black Rose, but I preferred his characterization in the original Dragonlance series by different authors more, so for me it was overall good but not my top.

Thank you! I recently finished a trilogy that started with Daughter of the Drow so now I'm unsure if to continue with the Drow or Elaine Cunningham.
Next to that I only read (twice) I Strahd by Elrod and I love that book

Would agree on Songs & Swords. Elaine Cunningham is one of the better D&D fiction writers. As far as classic D&D fiction goes, the Dragonlance Chronicles trilogy deserves mention. Probably the most iconic of TSR's fiction line.

Great, thanks, will check it out!

 

[Richards]

Besides finishing Rot & Ruin and almost finishing the second book in Jonathan Maberry's zombie apocalypse series, Dust & Decay, I also had the opportunity to pick up copies of Art Spiegelman's Maus I: My Father Bleeds History and Maus II: And Here My Troubles Began. These are the award-winning graphic novels telling the story of the author's father, Vladek, and his mother, Anja, as they ended up in the Auschwitz concentration camp in World War II. I had read these years ago, and now I have copies of my own.

Next up, though, is book 3 of the "Rot & Ruin" series, Flesh & Bone. I was a bit surprised to find these are classified as "Young Adult" novels, and Maberry does steer away from places where the situation could have definitely gone into R-rated areas, but they're still good reads.

Johnathan

 

[Jeremy E Grenemyer]

I have finished listening to Anne Leckie’s Translation State and have moved on to her book Provenance.

Adjua Ando is a magnificent narrator. She makes all of Leckie’s Imperial Radch books come alive in audiobook format.

 

[jian]

Have finished The Starving Saints by Caitlin Starling, which is a fascinatingly weird and horrible book, very atmospheric. I’m reminded of Ursula Vernon’s horror books and also Pratchett’s Lords and Ladies (iron, bees, fae).

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

I finished reading Somers' The Electric Church. Mixed feelings on it. Great ending, fast-moving and engaging plot, solidly garbage world, but the main character just didn't click with me until towards the end.

Now I'm reading PKD's The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch.

 

[Mannahnin]

It feels to me that the proto-Underdark is as much about depression and despair as it is about an extensive subterranean ecosystem. A lot of The Silver Chair is allegorical in a Pilgrim’s Progress lite sort of way - the Gentle Giants are, well, giants (and sort of referencing Gulliver’s morally superior Brobdinagians) but they’re also representing oblivious middle-class adults who caution children that religion and fairy-tales are nonsense.

Underland is therefore a setup for the Lady’s atheist pitch to our heroes, that all Narnia and Aslan and all good things are an illusion, and for Puddleglum’s debate with her (his argument boils down to a desperate ontological one of “well, I want to believe in it whether it’s real or not”). It’s commonly said that this scene reflects Lewis’ own public debate in 1948 with the philosopher Elizabeth Anscombe, which he’s generally said to have lost and which may have put him off writing any more Christian apologetics. Both Lewis and Anscombe underplayed the importance of their debate. In any case, the themes here foreshadow (ha ha) Lewis’ ultimate pitch in The Last Battle that it is real life that is the illusion (“shadowlands”) and God who is truly real.

"under"played, or downplayed? Are you opining that it was definitely of greater moment than either of them would admit?

 

[Voadam]

Great, thanks, will check it out!

I really enjoyed the beginning of the Dragonlance chronicles when I read them when they came out in the 80s but I really dislike new plot elements introduced for the climax and resolution that make it less a story about the group of protagonists and more about a couple new late introduced NPCs.

 

[jian]

"under"played, or downplayed? Are you opining that it was definitely of greater moment than either of them would admit?

I think both - most people (including friends of Lewis) disagree with Lewis and Anscombe, saying that Lewis was quite upset after the debate and pointing to the facts that he rewrote Miracles and never wrote any Christian apologetics again. Anscombe, for her part, probably didn’t want to seem like a bully after taking apart an older respected colleague in public in a debate not in his specific field (Lewis was a professor in literature, not philosophy).

 

[prabe]

Now I'm reading PKD's The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch.

It's funny, the more I read PKD's novels the more I think he should have stuck to short stories.