What are you reading in 2026?

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I read the Annihilation book, and watched the movie back to back.

Might be the unusual case where a movie is as good or better than the book.

The later books really deepen the setting in, to me, really compelling ways, while continually making sure to add on more weirdness and mystery (rather than solving it all, which too many series do, IMO). I love the movie but I think the Area X novels as a whole are better. But both are fantastic.

 

[billd91]

My wife and I just finished Verity Vox and the Curse of Foxfire by Don Martin. Now, we've started Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. And on the side, I've started Antony Beevor's The Battle of Arnhem: The Deadliest Airborne Operation of World War II, which I just got last night as a belated birthday present from my sister.

 

[jian]

I don't think it's wildly unusual for (say) a movie adapted from a novel to be a better movie than the novel was a novel. I mean, both Jaws and The Silence of the Lambs are, IMO.

My wife really enjoyed this book, and I'll probably be reading it at some point. I'll gesture at the main point of this forum and say I think time loops are one of those conceits that will work better in a novel (or a movie) than in a TRPG--it's one of those things where the differences in the media really matter.

The time loop stuff is definitely well done, and I didn’t see the twist coming about it (to be fair, it’s basically irrelevant to the solution). I think you could do time looping in a RPG adventure and would definitely try it as a GM - anyone remember or played The Last Dance?

Spoiler

One thing that did disappoint me about the book is that as a genre-savvy reader I thought it likely that there were other loopers, for instance the grandfather (who’s telegraphed several times as being so), but this is sadly not the case or even mentioned or considered as a possibility. The Golden Spoon this is not.

 

[Voadam]

he time loop stuff is definitely well done, and I didn’t see the twist coming about it (to be fair, it’s basically irrelevant to the solution). I think you could do time looping in a RPG adventure and would definitely try it as a GM - anyone remember or played The Last Dance?

I've played a Groundhog's Day D&D session as a player that was fun and run a time travel through the Feywild plotline I came up with when running the Reign of Winter pathfinder adventure path that went well tying the PCs into having caused big setting history elements from their personal interactions with past Baba Yaga that I had not scripted out at all but recognized how things could tie in as we went and they made choices in the moment.

In D&D Dragonlance they have it as a setting element PCs can possibly get involved in, late 2e AD&D had the Chronomancer sourcebook, there are a couple time travel third party sourcebooks and modules besides The Last Dance for various editions of D&D, and there is the whole Doctor Who RPG line, among other non-D&D RPGs (Transdimensional TMNT, Terminator RPG, etc.).

Time travel in RPGs has a lot of potential to go either way, to be really fun or to just not work.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

Catch-up time.



Four Lost Cities, by Analee Newitz. Fascinating and delightful, using four very different cities to discuss endings that aren’t necessarily calamities. I learned a lot and never felt overwhelmed. A good book for GMs and authors.

This one was quite good. A good prelude to reading Coyote & Crow.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

My lovingly handcrafted custom bookshelves were made for mass market books. Sadness.

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Was thinking about how many used bookstores shelves were optimized for mmpbs, and they struggle to market well the larger trade size now so popular.

 

[Retros_x]

I don't think it's wildly unusual for (say) a movie adapted from a novel to be a better movie than the novel was a novel. I mean, both Jaws and The Silence of the Lambs are, IMO.

I feel when the movie is more popular as the book its always a sign of that happening. Like when people don't even know its based on a book - the movie probably is better. Not a guarantee, but often it is like that. Another example that comes to mind is "Fight Club". I did enjoy the movie much more than the book and it heavily improved on the ending.

 

[prabe]

I feel when the movie is more popular as the book its always a sign of that happening. Like when people don't even know its based on a book - the movie probably is better. Not a guarantee, but often it is like that. Another example that comes to mind is "Fight Club". I did enjoy the movie much more than the book and it heavily improved on the ending.

Yeah, I wasn't thinking "more popular." While that's a thing, I think it's plausibly easier for a movie to be more popular than a novel--or at least have more impact at a moment. Books just take longer for most people to absorb, among other things. Also, I try to avoid conflating "popular" and "good." I've had enough experience where a popular thing was ... less good than several less-popular things, in several media, that I mostly don't do that. (I've had enough experiences where a popular thing was surprisingly good that I don't just presume "popular" is "garbage," either.)

 

[prabe]

This one was quite good. A good prelude to reading Coyote & Crow.

And I just requested this at the local public library of my choice. Maybe it'll get to their closest branch before I swing in to pick up The Far Edges of the Known World by Owen Rees (recommended on acoup.com). There seems to be some thematic stuff in common, and that's at least part of where my headspace is right now.

 

[overgeeked]

Just finished Shaun Hutson's horror novel Slugs. I'm doing a sampling of older British horror novels from authors who just might be the inspirations behind Garth Marenghi. Slugs doesn't disappoint. I went in not expecting much and was very pleasantly surprised that it was an unintentional horror-comedy book. Horror-comedy is my all-time favorite genre so I was really happy this one turned out that way. There's a bit of gross out, of course...and more than a bit of exploitation. There's at least one instance of a good comeuppance in here, too. Which I also absolutely love. Since there's no such thing as justice in the real world, it's quite nice to see some in fiction.

As you might have guessed from the title, the novel is about killer slugs. The novel isn't a slow burn, Hutson gets right to the point with the first kill in the first chapter of the book, but given that it's slugs, the novel covers a few weeks of time from start to finish. All the comedy is accidental. A lot of it comes from the implausibility of the premise, killer slugs as the monster in a horror book, but the author does handle the premise with an attempt at seriousness...he just picked slugs as his monster. One example is a man being held down by the weight of a few hundred slugs...a quick search tells me even with slugs double the normal size it would take about 1500 slugs to weigh about 6.5 pounds. And even the smallest cut or bite seems to hit major arteries and results in sprays, fountains, and geysers of blood.

A good, fun read if you like schlocky horror and unintentional horror-comedy.