The internet, summed up beautifully.

A Heartwarming Ending to the Trilogy: Katherine Addison – The Tomb of Dragons Here's another series I finished reading for the Hugo Awards this year. With four (and a half) entries, it's on the shorter end, but fortunately/unfortunately, every instalment was really good. That's nice for me because…

The State of SFF – July 2026 Awards season is upon us, I'm very deep into Hugo Award reading, and much is happening in the SFF world. So lots of news this month, including some sad ones.My personal life is super busy right now. With a toddler, things never really slow down, but planning a wedding…

Top Ten Tuesday: Most Anticipated Books for the Rest of 2026 It's been ages since I participated in a Top Ten Tuesday tag, but it's the halfway point of the year, so it feels natural to look back at the first half and look forward to the second half of 2026. This week's topic is most anticipated…

Time to Freak Out! The Mid-Year Book Freak Out Tag 2026 It's that time again. The middle of the year is here, so naturally, us book lovers and avid readers, ebook fiends and audiobook nuts, come together to reflect upon the previous six months, look ahead at the next six months and... collectively…

Boring Manosphere Wishfulfillment: Pierce Brown – Red Rising Look, I never truly enjoy writing this type of review, but when you commit to putting your honest opinion to paper (or pixel) then you better be prepared to deliver. And I swear I expected to love this book. It comes recommended by…

Speaking to the Dead is Hard: Katherine Addison – The Grief of Stones It's a good sign when reading a book in a series makes me want to pick up the next book in that series right away, without any kind of palate cleanser in between volumes. I just did that with John Scalzi's Old Man's War series…

Oh my god now I want to have a genre reveal party for my next book this is pure brilliance. And all us synesthesiacs can argue about what color the genres are! Fantasy is green with hints of gold, MFers!

Aliens Make Everything Better/Worse: John Scalzi – The Shattering Peace I have reached the end of my accidental read-through of the Old Man's War series and I am a bit deflated. Part of my brain says I want more of the same, the more sensible part says this is the sweet spot to stop before I get…

Scholars, Artifacts, and a Touch of Murder: Katherine Addison – The Orb of Cairado I am making my way through the Best Series category of this year's Hugo Awards, hurray! At this point, I've dipped my toes into some series, read an entire one in one go (Scalzi's Old Man's War), and I felt like…

Reading the Hugos 2026: Best Novel Let's look at the Big One, the award we've been waiting for. Best Novel, ladies and gentlemen. I was quite taken with this year's line-up, even though two big novels of 2025 that I expected to be here didn't make it (Katabasis and The Devils, When the Moon Hits…

"I believe in story. It helps us make sense of the world in all its messiness, glories, mismatches, and marvels." - Jane Yolen, 1939-2026

A Philosophical Space Opera: Claire North – Slow Gods I finally read my first book by Claire North. This may not sound super interesting, but they are one of those authors whose books always sound intriguing which makes me buy all of them. It's one of those reader mysteries why some authors remain…

Reading for the Hugo Awards? Try the finalist for Best Novelette "When He Calls Your Name" by Catherynne M. Valente @catvalente.bsky.social! It is also a Locus Award finalist and placed 1st on the Uncanny Poll! You can read it here or in the Hugo packet! buff.ly/1fhgx9A

Not My Favorite: John Scalzi – The End of All Things This book may be called The End of All Things, but for me there's one more volume to read until I'm all caught up on the Old Man's War series. I did not expect to read all of them for this year's Hugo Awards, but Scalzi's constantly improving…

Reading the Hugos 2026: Best Novella This was a pretty standard year for me and the novella ballot. I had read three out of the six finalists when they were announced and looked forward to catching up on the other three. All of them were either on my radar or on my TBR already. You can find my…

Let Sleeping Gods Lie: Max Gladstone – Two Serpents Rise It's almost becoming a theme with me to read the first book in a series, really like it, and then never touch that series again until years and years later. In my defense, sometimes only the first book has been published when I start a…

Cover Reveal: OUR LADY OF BATTLES by @angelaslatter.bsky.social Set in the Sourdough Universe with witches, LADY KNIGHTS, conspiracies and an enchanted throne. Coming Feb 2027 from @titanbooks.bsky.social I am obsessed! www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/837968...

I’m a little stunned by how hard this hits me. Maybe in part because her story in Persepolis is identical to that of members of my family. Just so saddened by the loss.

Omfg!!! 🥺 I’ve been searching for new work by her. She is one of my favorite graphic novelists! I have consumed every work I could find of hers. This is awful!!! What is happening? What happened ?? ☹️ deadline.com/2026/06/marj...

The State of SFF – June 2026 June has arrived, the weather is behaving appropriately, and I am deep into Hugo Award reading. It's going well, both in terms of me making my way through the ballot and in terms of book quality. I did originally plan to sample one or two books from each of the Best…

Reading the Hugos 2026: Best Novelette I usually like to read the fiction Hugo categories in order of shortest to longest, but this year, I had such a headstart with the novels and novellas that I finished those first. Best Novelette happened somewhere in the middle of my Best Series reading,…

John Scalzi – The Human Division I would like to thank Renay for doing exactly what I love best in the book community. Loving a book series and spreading that love around, so it becomes contagious. And now here I am, still a little surprised at how much I am enjoying these books! Btw, Renay is a…

Reading the Hugos 2026: Best Short Story Short Story is a bit of a wild category for me. I don't usually read short fiction, so I just pick up the Hugo finalists and that's all I know about that year of SFF short fiction. For people who read magazines or collections and anthologies extensively,…

The Finale That Isn’t One: Heather Fawcett – Emily Wilde’s Compendium of Lost Tales Okay, the title sounds a lot more dramatic than I meant it to. This is due simply to the fact that Heather Fawcett just announced there will be two more volumes following Emily Wilde, whereas I previously thought…

This Series Keeps Getting Better: John Scalzi – Zoe’s Tale Thanks in part to Renay, I am now determined to just read this entire series in one go. She was right again, it does get better and Zoe's Tale therefore is an even better book than The Last Colony. With a change in perspective as well as…

Reading the Hugos 2026: Best Poem The Best Poem category is back for more. Is it here to stay? I don't know and, if I'm quite honest, I'm not super invested in it. Last year was a first so I was curious to see what it had to offer. Although I am still not the right audience for poetry, I found the…

Expanding the Universe, Literally: John Scalzi – The Last Colony I did not expect this to happen. Sure, some part of me intended to read as many of the Best Series Hugo Award finalists this year as possible, but I didn't think I'd just dive into my first series and just... keep going. Yet here I…

Fun With Clones… in Space: John Scalzi – The Ghost Brigades Okay, it's been a minute since I read Old Man's War, so I was not exactly on the up and up when it cames to the world building for John Scalzi's longest series. But as it's a finalist for this year's Best Series Hugo Award and I thought…

Underwhelming on Every Level: Annalee Newitzi – Automatic Noodle I was so pumped for this novella with the brightly colored cover and a premise that would make any cozy SFF reader's heart soar. As a long-time fan of Annalee Newitz's non-fiction/podcast work, I was certain I would love this. Sadly,…

Welcome to Planet Soundscape Horror: Adrian Tchaikovsky – Shroud Ah, Adrian Tchaikovsky. He certainly has a type, doesn't he? Weird planets with... interesting types of life, usually not super hospitable to humans. I am far from having read everything the author has written (he's prolific), but I…

Capitalism Sucks Even With Magic: Jordan Ifueko – The Genie Game If I told you this was a Middle Grade novel that feels like a Black Mirror episode, but in a fun way, would you believe me? Because that is the best way I can put it. Jordan Ifueko managed to boil down capitalism into a fast-paced,…

#WyrdAndWonder26 Fantastic Fives: Transformations It's time for me to join this year's Wyrd and Wonder for some wonderful and weird reads, prompts, and other fun activities. Moon magic by Varvara Gorbash TRANSFORMATIONS This prompt is about tales of change, not shapeshifters (those come later in…

Orilium Magical Readathon Spring Equinox 2026: Wrap-Up Phew! We made it through another semester at Orilium Academy and, this time, we're pursuing a Higher Calling. I didn't think I would have as much fun as I did, but I was very lucky when it came to the books I picked up. Also, thanks again to…

The State of SFF – May 2026 Welcome to May, everyone. The Orilium Magical Readathon is over, and this marks the beginning of Wyrd & Wonder. I don't know about you, but I love monthly reading events, whether I'm participating or not. And for me, May is also the beginning of the period in which I…

What a Wild Ride: Fonda Lee – The Last Contract of Isako I don't want to sound surprised, because I'm not, but Fonda Lee's new standalone corporate espionage in space, with peacoat-wearing samurai who follow a Code, was absolutely stunning. The short recommendation is: If you liked the Green Bone…

A Very Ghostly Cinderella: Freya Marske – Cinder House And thus begins my read-through of this year's Hugo Award finalists, starting with the novella category, simply because it fit really well with my readathon prompts. I had three novellas left to go and this fairy tale retelling sounded like…

Excellent Start, Then Fizzles Out: Naomi Novik – The Summer War I didn't really expect any of the Best Novella finalists in this year's Hugo Award to topple The River Has Roots in my ranking, but this one by Naomi Novik at least had similar vibes and themes and was also set on the edge of the…

The Art of Drawing Creepy Crawlies: T. Kingfisher – Wolf Worm By now, everybody knows and loves T. Kingfisher and for very good reason. But - and I said this in my review of Snake-Eater which I loved way more than I anticipated - we all have favorite Kingfisher sub-genres. The woman is prolific! I…

I Can’t Believe This is a Debut: Cameron Sullivan – The Red Winter I stumbled across this book first because Alix E. Harrow recommended it on her Instagram. It already sounded like something I might like, then the cover got me even more interested, and when I heard there were footnotes, it was all…

My Thoughts on The Hugo Award Finalists 2026 It's that time again. Took a while this year, but here we are. Congratulations to the Hugo Award Finalists 2026!!! As always I'm going to talk a little bit about the categories that I care most about and let others discuss the rest. The entire list of…

(53/55) Lodestar Award Finalists for Best YA Book 💫 (cont.) Oathbound by Tracy Deonn (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers) Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins (Scholastic Press) They Bloom at Night by Trang Thanh Tran (Bloomsbury US; Bloomsbury UK)

(52/55) Lodestar Award Finalists for Best YA Book 💫 Among Ghosts by Rachel Hartman rachelhartmanbooks.com (Random House Books for Young Readers) Coffeeshop in an Alternate Universe by C.B. Lee (Feiwel & Friends) Holy Terrors by Margaret Owen @what-eats-owls.bsky.social (Henry Holt; Hodderscape UK)

(29/55) Best Professional Artist 🚀 Lulu Chen Kelly Chong @afterblossom.bsky.social Dave Kellett @davekellett.bsky.social Tran Nguyen @mynameistran.bsky.social John Picacio @johnpicacio.bsky.social Tom Roberts

(47/55 ) Best Fancast 🚀 (cont. 2) Worldbuilding for Masochists @worldbuildcast.bsky.social, presented by Marshall Ryan Maresca mrmaresca.com, Cass Morris cassmorriswrites.com, and Natania Barron

(46/55) Best Fancast 🚀 (cont.) Octothorpe @octothorpecast.bsky.social, presented by @johncoxon.bsky.social, Alison Scott, and Liz Batty The Coode Street Podcast, presented by Jonathan Strahan and @garykwolfe.bsky.social

We’ll be revealing the finalists for the 2026 Hugo Awards right here in just one hour! If you want to vote on the Hugo Awards this year, information about registration is available at lacon.org/register.