psocoptera

Clara & the Devil

Thu, 22 Oct 2026 04:09:56 GMT

Clara & the Devil, Olivie Blake and Little Chmura, 2026 graphic novel, originally on Webtoon, now from First Second/23rd St. This is not good - sort of vaguely Gaiman/McKean in the art and pacing, but, like, blander, the writing is full of little things that don't make sense (if nobody new ever comes to town, how does the library have someone whose entire job is memberships?), and the plot doesn't have much to offer. And it's suffering from what Rien Gray calls "if only eroticism" in this insightful essay - the cover, which is the best thing about it, shows the main character smirking while fingering a flower suggestively, but in the actual book we get page after page of her looking exhausted or sometimes stoned, talking about sex sort of wistfully but never getting anywhere near the actual eroticism of that cover image. And like, yes, I have read a comic before, of course characters are always posing sexy or badass on the cover in ways the book can't live up to (that first Saga cover probably remains the high point of the series), but the risk of a bait-and-switch is boring your reader, and they did.

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Hawks

Wed, 21 Oct 2026 20:37:07 GMT

Hawks In Flight, Dunne, Sibley, & Sutton, 2012, and Hawks At A Distance, Liguori, 2011. One time I was out birding and three different raptor-looking birds flew over and I was just like, okay, wow, those were all really different, but what were they. I couldn't see any of the kinds of details on any of them you can see in a Peterson's illustration or a good photo, and was like "I need a book that's just like "hawks that flew away quickly"". It turned out that's an actual thing, and now I have studied and am hopefully more prepared for my next mystery raptor. Hawks at a Distance is especially good for having collections of "bad" photos - photos where the bird fits under your fingertip, from a variety of weird angles, which is about as close as you can get on paper to the actual visual experience.

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2027 SFWA Grand Master

Sun, 18 Oct 2026 00:19:12 GMT

Apparently announced at Worldcon, who knew! They announced the 2026 one in November 2025 so my inability to ever know when this is happening really may have something to do with its erratic scheduling.

Anyways: Nancy Kress! Kress was on my list of likelies and is one I'm very personally pleased to see win (her Beggars series is very big in my personal canon).

Looking back at my list from last time, Kress (born 1948) was in fact the oldest person on it, John Crowley and John Varley having sadly moved to the Infinity list. We now have left: Kim Stanley Robinson (1952), Greg Egan (1961), Martha Wells (1964), Ted Chiang (1967), John Scalzi (1969), Ursula Vernon (1977), Seanan McGuire (1978). Of whom I think they're less likely to give it to Egan or Scalzi but quite likely to give it to KSR sooner and Wells, Chiang, and Vernon eventually.

(Infinity list: Diana Wynne Jones, Terry Pratchett, Joanna Russ, Philip K Dick, Theodore Sturgeon, Iain M Banks, Vernor Vinge, CL Moore, Frank Herbert, James Tiptree, Zenna Henderson, Vonda McIntyre, plus John Crowley and John Varley, if we think it might go to people who died after they started giving it. I think they're somewhat unlikely to do that while there's still a big "backlist" to mine, but who knows.)

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Everybody's Perfect

Tue, 13 Oct 2026 14:21:09 GMT

Everybody's Perfect, Jo Walton, 2026 fantasy novel. An intriguingly-constructed story about an alternate-reality Venice and some of the different people(s) who live there. A sort of treasure-box illustrated-menagerie story (not actually illustrated, just text, but that feeling), delightful to unfold and leaf through and uncover. Very Le Guin-ian in what Walton does with voice and perspective and in some of the imagery and themes, highly recommended to Le Guin fans.

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Steam

Thu, 08 Oct 2026 22:25:53 GMT

Steam, 2026 graphic novel, written by Shaenon K. Garrity and illustrated by Emily Holden. Cute, sweet, wacky romance between an escaped genetic experiment and a barista. I thought it was fun and should appeal to people who like Garrity's Willowweep Manor writing. (Also perhaps CB Lee's Coffeeshop in an Alternate Universe, or Flip or Song For You & I, but a little more screwball/a little less heft.) But I'm not sure I think it has the power to make it to the Hugo ballot, like I definitely read it and thought "oh yes we're all going to enjoy reading this", but are we going to think "everyone must read this"?

ETA: This book is set at Smithson but I can't remember the character designs from the Smithson comic well enough to tell whether there are any cameos in the background characters. I didn't spot any but if someone else has please tell me!

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The Mystery of the Bitten Peach

Wed, 07 Oct 2026 01:07:52 GMT

The Mystery of the Bitten Peach, Cecilia Tan, 2026 fantasy novella. This was sweet and fun; I couldn't quite follow some of the logistics (( Read more... )) but it was neat the way the different story elements fit together and I liked the character voice a lot. Gorgeous cover by Jenn So.

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Daggerbound

Tue, 29 Sep 2026 23:59:33 GMT

Daggerbound, T Kingfisher, 2026 fantasy novel. Swordheart is probably my favorite of all her books, so of course I'm thrilled that we're finally getting the other two books that one sets up. Daggerbound is not as wildly funny as Swordheart, but it's fun, and it's clever - if the best parts of Swordheart are an extended bit about one aspect of the central gimmick, then Daggerbound plays with a different aspect, and it's very satisfying.

But here's a question: is Vernon digging herself deeper into lady debt, and is this lady debt also lesbian debt? Here's what I mean. Swordheart, with a m/f romance, introduced two more future viewpoint characters, a man and a woman, the dude of whom was gay, and Daggerbound is his m/m romance as expected. The woman we know has once loved a man, but that doesn't necessarily mean she will again, and Vernon had thought her book would be second but changed her mind at some point and decided it had to be third. Meanwhile, over in Paladins, there were five dude paladins and two women, and so far we've had four of the dudes, three m/f couples and an m/m, leaving one man who's still in love with his wife who he's been letting think he was dead, which has always sounded like a hard book to pull off, and the two women. Which makes me wonder if Vernon feels the women are also harder to write, or harder to come up with romances for, and that's why she's been putting them off for the end? Of course all the m/f couples have women *in* them but I do feel like there's some kind of difference between the fixed and free ends of the pairings (not counting the first book of each series where she may have started with the woman or come up with the couple together). And are any of these women ever going to get an f/f romance?

All sorts of things are of course possible. Vernon may be into writing het and m/m but not f/f (one runs into this all the time in fandom), or f/f may not sell to romantasy readers who will happily buy m/f and m/m, or it could even be the "the second book is women" trilogy thing where the first book is m/m with better sales to establish the series and then in the second one the author gets to have f/f, only in this case even further along into the series. But she's running out of stalling room.

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The Jasmine Throne

Tue, 29 Sep 2026 04:06:37 GMT

The Jasmine Throne, Tasha Suri, 2021 fantasy novel, first of a trilogy. I hadn't especially liked the previous Suri book I tried, Empire of Sand, but friends convinced me to try this one, and I was glad I did! Epic fantasy along Game of Thrones lines - power struggles and magical conflicts - but set in fantasy India rather than fantasy Europe, and all the key characters are women, with an f/f romance at the heart. (A very satisfying mastermind/mage dynamic, where both of them have big plots and goals in somewhat different worlds, the purely human/political and the natural/magical, putting them somewhat at odds (or at least going in different directions) which I assume will get worse in book two and then (hopefully) resolve somewhere around the 80% mark in book three.) Would probably appeal to fans of Chakraborty's Daevabad books, or maybe Roanhorse's Earth and Sky books... I guess I'll have a better sense of that once I've read all three.

(Unrelated to Suri, while poking around on Goodreads I've learned that Tor decided not to publish the sequel to Kerstin Hall's Asunder on the grounds it wouldn't sell enough, which, a) argh, b) it was a fucking Nebula nominee what more do you want, c) arrrrrgh. Apparently as of two months ago it had been at another publisher for eight months without a decision which doesn't seem great and if it gets another rejection she's going to give up and hope that someday she gets enough name rec that someone's willing to do it. I guess a thin hope is better than nothing.)

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Rhinoceros

Wed, 23 Sep 2026 20:05:38 GMT

Rhinoceros at the ART. A deeply weird play by Eugène Ionesco about, I guess, the seductive power of animal transformation as a metaphor for fascism. Two hours of fast-paced shouting, notably John Turturro and Paul Giamatti shouting at each other and Tatiana Maslany not getting enough lines, Giamatti absolutely owning his rhinofication, Tatiana Maslany getting more lines but them not making a lot of sense, and John Turturro trying to find the emotional beat that will finally let him get off the stage. (No, I mean, he was great, the last act in particular just felt like a speedrun of maybe too many different things for them to all land.) I thought they did a better job making the rhinoceroses feel present in the theater than their Moby Dick did with Moby Dick, which I think was the last play I saw involving a threatening large animal just offstage.

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Obstetrix

Wed, 16 Sep 2026 02:08:15 GMT

Obstetrix, Naomi Kritzer, 2026 novella. Not really speculative - if I had to categorize it I guess I would call it a medical thriller, although mostly I think of those as more like Michael Crichton or Robin Cook which actually often did have more of a speculative element, at least the ones I've read - but since Kritzer is generally a sff author and it was published by Tordotcom it probably caucuses with sff? Anyways, it's really good, extremely intense, I read it in a single afternoon/evening, as close to a single sitting as I could manage, and (major spoiler) ( Read more... ) It would make a nice movie with a good juicy starring role for a middle-aged actress (Ashley Judd? Laura Dern? Carrie-Anne Moss? they'd basically be carrying the movie, whoever it was), although if they did make a movie I can think of at least three ways they'd probably ruin it, so... perhaps not.

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Sublimation

Tue, 15 Sep 2026 21:39:56 GMT

Sublimation, Isabel J. Kim, 2026 sff novel. Excellent and recommended. Not to pit brilliant Asian-American short fiction writers who recently expanded a story into their first novel against each other, but this is how you get a whole novel out of a short story! (And I'll put everything else behind a spoiler cut, while avoiding specific spoilers.) ( Read more... )

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Coyote vs Acme

Tue, 08 Sep 2026 22:06:48 GMT

Coyote vs Acme, 2026 cartoon and live action film. Great stuff - funny, and just the right amount of plot, and surprisingly moving. I can't wait to see how it does in the Hugos against Project Hail Mary. (There's something funny about how last year my two favorite movies were both about the power of music and teams of people facing off with evil forces exploiting music for their own purposes (Sinners and KPop Demon Hunters) and now this year we get two movies about men who find new purpose in their relationship with a nonhuman who uses some kind of assistive communication.) ETA: there is also a great Reddit AMA here, some good stuff in there.

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2026 Hugo Awards

Fri, 04 Sep 2026 03:51:50 GMT

Hugos! Between family travel and the start of school I'm a little behind the times but here are my thoughts (or see all the results and stats in the stats pdf here plus the admin report here). I did actually watch some of the ceremony live (on my phone, on silent, while at a family gathering) but have now also watched the whole thing here on YouTube.

Behind the cut, my thoughts. ( Read more... )

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Queen Demon

Wed, 02 Sep 2026 15:42:38 GMT

Queen Demon, Martha Wells, 2025 fantasy novel sequel to Witch King. Another very satisfying installment (and we're pretty clearly getting at least one more). I like what she's doing with the two timelines and it will be interesting to see how she ends the series - how much of the time between gets filled in or implied.

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Moana 2

Wed, 02 Sep 2026 02:00:32 GMT

Moana 2, 2024 animated movie, on an airplane (note: JetBlue has a much more limited media selection than Alaska). Fine, unobjectionable, a little choppy as it jumped from bit to bit, a couple of fun songs (I liked "Get Lost" and "Chee Hoo"). Nothing near as catchy or moving as in the first one but did exactly the job I needed it to of entertaining me with pretty colors for awhile. Making the magical island that connects the world and brings people together recognizably the sandcastle version of the classic Disney castle logo (with the tunnel and the tallest tower on the right) was definitely a choice but I'd like to imagine someone had fun pitching that at a design meeting and is super on-brand for Disney so... sure.

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Spider-Man: Brand New Day

Thu, 27 Aug 2026 02:18:32 GMT

Spider-Man: Brand New Day, 2026 MCU movie, in a theater with Q. We were the only people in the theater which was fun for being able to react out loud occasionally. Enjoyable movie and it had a throughline and a sequence of intelligible emotional beats, which is not guaranteed in a Marvel movie. (I'll be actively shocked if Doomsday does.)

Cut for spoilers. ( Read more... )

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Platform Decay

Tue, 25 Aug 2026 02:52:22 GMT

Platform Decay, Martha Wells, 2026 science fiction novel in the Murderbot series. I continue to tear gleefully through all the library holds I had frozen for months. This was a very enjoyable installment of a very enjoyable series with lots of great moments and action sequences. My favorite not-too-spoilery detail was that, like in previous books, Murderbot again alters its appearance by lengthening its hair two centimeters and thickening its eyebrows. It must look like Groucho Marx by now and I can only hope this is a very slow-building gag that pays off someday :)

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Your Name

Tue, 25 Aug 2026 02:41:37 GMT

Your Name, 2016 animated movie, back in theaters. Ten years later this is still a terrific movie and I was pleased that both Js agreed. :)

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A Long and Speaking Silence

Mon, 24 Aug 2026 21:53:36 GMT

A Long and Speaking Silence, Nghi Vo, 2026 fantasy novella, seventh in the Singing Hills Cycle. This one is set earliest in time of all of them so far, which was sort of interesting, but I thought it was maybe the weakest story-wise. I might have hoped for a stronger installment being the one that puts it over the Series-eligible wordcount (which I think this one probably does?) but I suppose we can go again when the eighth (and last??) comes out next year.

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Mamma Mia

Sun, 23 Aug 2026 16:45:12 GMT

Mamma Mia, 2008 movie. I wanted to see how it compared to the stage musical. Similarly fun - I think the overall quality of the singing was probably higher in the stage musical, and the dance choreography was definitely more elaborate, but the character acting was stronger in the movie and I probably laughed more. Still did not cry but I did feel one genuine pang. I have heard the movie described as Hollywood getting together to do karaoke (which I suppose is also sort of what Moulin Rouge was) and, like, sure, I support that as a genre.

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Yuri On Ice

Sun, 23 Aug 2026 15:35:16 GMT

Yuri!!! On Ice, 2016 animated series, temporarily available for its 10th anniversary. I was pretty familiar with the show from having been on Tumblr in 2016 but had never actually seen it. It was fun! I enjoyed trying to think about who was skating in the 00s-10s who various characters might be somewhat based on, and the skating animation was neat, and it was fun to see all those gifs in context. Possibly some of the cringier bits would have felt less awkward in a sub rather than a dub - I think I'm more willing to buy certain kinds of exaggerated emotional portrayal as genre-normal when the language is emphasizing the genre - but there didn't seem to be a choice, just the dub, so, dub it was. Of all the movies and shows in the world this probably wasn't the one I would have called my absolute top priority, but there is also something satisfying about occasionally indulging in some random thing I was curious about, like, it makes my brain feel like there is hope I might eventually get around to more of those things.

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Wolf Worm

Sun, 23 Aug 2026 03:38:28 GMT

Wolf Worm, T Kingfisher, 2026 Gothic sff novel. Connects with Radiant Star (by chance) by also being about something I find particularly upsetting (famine in the case of Radiant Star, maggots in the case of Wolf Worm. Uh, major content note for body horror.) Despite which it was good - tense in the way she's so good at in all her horror, and the core concepts in this one are particularly clever.

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Radiant Star

Sat, 22 Aug 2026 20:17:38 GMT

Radiant Star, Ann Leckie, 2026 science fiction novel, in the Radch universe but more or less a standalone. (I'm not sure how well this one would work if you tried to start with it though.) Connects with Subtle Art of Folding Space (by chance) by also concerning end-of-life decisions for parents and questions of care vs exploitation, although that's just one thread in a book with a lot of things going on. (Reminded me a little of Among Ghosts that way.) I liked it a lot - it concerns some awful events (uh, content note for famine) but wasn't awful to read. I expected maybe one to two more reveals than we got but what we got was satisfying and Leckie is so good at worldbuilding and character moments.

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The Subtle Art of Folding Space

Fri, 21 Aug 2026 03:01:35 GMT

I have read and watched a whole bunch of stuff in the last two weeks which I would like to catch up on posting about.

The Subtle Art of Folding Space, John Chu, 2026 science fiction novel. Cool concept but unfortunately when he expanded it from a short story he mostly did that by repeating himself, and it needed... more. More development, more depth, maybe a twist. ( Read more... ) It's a fast read and enjoyable enough I just wished his editor had pushed him further, or something.

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movies

Tue, 11 Aug 2026 01:35:43 GMT

I needed to watch three movies this weekend even less than I needed to read nothing but KJ Charles a few months ago BUT I have decided that every time I have to have more dental work I will be observing a sort of carnival holiday in which normal priorities are suspended and I can indulge in whatever random nonsense amuses me. Thus, a Wang Yibo double feature:

One and Only is a dance movie about competitive street dance in China. For a dance movie, I felt like it could have used a little more dancing - a lot of the dancing is shown as fast cuts in montage, with a lot of frantically-moving camera at weird angles, and I feel like I might have gotten a better appreciation of it with longer takes and steadier cameras. Plus there's a big moment in the climax that (spoilers) involves a solo routine that has integrated elements of the specialty moves or styles of the whole team, and I felt like if those moves had been introduced more clearly in the build-up, it would have been more satisfying to see how they turned up again at the end. But the climax was funnier than I could have possibly imagined.

Born to Fly is Chinese Top Gun about test pilots trying to develop the next generation of fighter planes so they can stand up to border-ignoring security-threatening Americans. I don't think I could stomach an American military puff piece right now but there is something relaxing to me about somebody else's jingoism - not that I think the Chinese military is any better, but they feel like not my problem? Like I guess as citizens of the world we are all responsible for everybody but I don't feel complicit in Chinese crimes the way I do in, like, all those American military murders of fishermen in the Caribbean (my tax dollars at work!). So, this was fine, planes go fast, uniforms sexy, sure whatever. Could have used some homoerotic volleyball but what couldn't. (Actually I was struck in both these movies by how the romance consisted of people smiling at each other while never making physical contact (I guess in One and Only there's a high-five) - obviously different cultures are going to have different standards for what is appropriate or enjoyable to show onscreen, like I have the impression people don't kiss in Bollywood but they do embrace with both people facing the same way, so I guess maybe for Chinese cinema it's enough to be like "here are two attractive young people who would make a nice heterosexual couple at some point in the future".)

I also interrupted Born to Fly to watch Bill and Ted Face the Music with Q, having previously shown him the other two. Q didn't think much of it but I am deeply interested in the project of revisiting childhood narratives to explore adult or middle-aged concerns, and they really went for it! Not all of which landed, but I enjoyed it, and thought some of the gags that were lost on Q (like some highly referential costuming) were pretty funny. (Although... the soundtrack wasn't very fun or interesting?? But maybe that makes sense, like, the "God Gave Rock and Roll To You" credits montage at the end of Bogus Journey is so good, and then this movie is about not getting that, so I guess it's fitting to spend the movie wishing, like Bill and Ted, for better music.)

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