Books and comics read in February-May 2026
Thursday, 4 June 2026 20:53![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
usuallyhatsTo Ride a Rising Storm - Moniquill Blackgoose
The Bright Ages: A New History of Medieval Europe - Matthew Gabriele, David M Perry
Counterweight - Djuna trans Anton Hur
The Coral Bones - EJ Swift
The Wolf and His King - Finn Longman
Mythica - Emily Hauser
Notes from a Regicide - Isaac Fellman
The End of This Day's Business - Una McCormack
Helm - Sarah Hall
Step Aside, Pops - Kate Beaton
Scarlet Morning - ND Stevenson
Harmattan Season - Tochi Onyebuchi
Rare Birds - LB Hazelthorn
Peri Peri Paprika - Leanne Su
The Impossible Fortune - Richard Osman
The Sheltering Flame - Ruthanna Emrys
Walking a Wounded Land - Andrew Knighton
When There Are Wolves Again - EJ Swift
The Works of Vermin - Hiron Ennes
Digital Social Reading: Sharing Fiction in the Twenty-First Century - Federico Pianzola
Slow Gods - Claire North
The Original - Nell Stephens
The Two Doctors Górski - Isaac Fellman
Emilie and the Hollow World - Martha Wells
The Siege of Burning Grass - Premee Mohamed
The Iron Garden Sutra - AD Sui
She is Here - Nicola Griffith
We Will Rise Again - ed Karen Lord, Annalee Newitz and Malka Older
Thief of Night - Holly Black
Tomb of Brass - Tansy Rayner Roberts
Critical Role: The Chronicles of Exandria - The Mighty Nein Part Two
The Somewhat Wicked Witch of Brigandale - CM Waggoner
The Kingdom of Almonds - Ariel Kaplan
What We Are Seeking - Cameron Reed
The Subtle Art of Folding Space - John Chu
The Last Dragoners of Bowbazar - Indra Das
Space Crone - Ursula K Le Guin
City of Others - Jared Poon
The Desert Talon - Karin Lowachee
The Power Fantasy: The Superpowers
Colourfields: Writing About Writing About Science Fiction - Paul Kincaid
Automatic Noodle - Annalee Newitz
They Bloom At Night - Trang Thanh Tran
Seasons of Glass and Iron - Amal El Mohtar
In the Serpent's Wake - Rachel Hartman
The Summer War - Naomi Novik
Luminous - Silvia Park
Among Ghosts - Rachel Hartman
I opened up my draft of this post and discovered there wasn't anything there since February, oh DEAR. So this is mostly just a list of things I have read! I really loved these ones in particular: Notes from a Regicide, When There Are Wolves Again, The Works of Vermin and Slow Gods. I also really liked What We Are Seeking and Luminous. Also yes, I am counting Una McCormack's latest Garak book of Garak in this list, even though it was published on AO3, because I do what I want, Thor.
(Will I manage to post this before the end of June (it's the 27th May right now) or will there be another paragraph of /o\ below this?) (update, SUCCESS)
Basically nothing happens in this book until right at the end, it's all worldbuilding explanations and people having conversations about society, politics and their interpersonal relationships. Luckily I do find the world very interesting, and Blackgoose's prose style is very engaging, so I still had a good time, though I could have done with slightly less chemistry-with-AU-element-names.
The Wolf and His King
Retelling of Bisclavret that started strong for me but gradually fell apart as it went on, for a few reasons:
I did mostly enjoy reading this book, and really liked what it did with points of view, but overall it didn't work for me like I wanted to. (I do want to read the lai when I am reunited with my copy, though.)
Didn't finish:
First casualty of my attempts to read the Hugo shortlist! This is a very solid YA novel, but it's the first in the trilogy of which the third is the one actually nominated, and I realised I just wasn't quite invested enough to keep going. Once again I was like "maybe THIS YA will work for me", and once again, through no fault of the book itself... not quite.
The Bright Ages: A New History of Medieval Europe - Matthew Gabriele, David M Perry
Counterweight - Djuna trans Anton Hur
The Coral Bones - EJ Swift
The Wolf and His King - Finn Longman
Mythica - Emily Hauser
Notes from a Regicide - Isaac Fellman
The End of This Day's Business - Una McCormack
Helm - Sarah Hall
Step Aside, Pops - Kate Beaton
Scarlet Morning - ND Stevenson
Harmattan Season - Tochi Onyebuchi
Rare Birds - LB Hazelthorn
Peri Peri Paprika - Leanne Su
The Impossible Fortune - Richard Osman
The Sheltering Flame - Ruthanna Emrys
Walking a Wounded Land - Andrew Knighton
When There Are Wolves Again - EJ Swift
The Works of Vermin - Hiron Ennes
Digital Social Reading: Sharing Fiction in the Twenty-First Century - Federico Pianzola
Slow Gods - Claire North
The Original - Nell Stephens
The Two Doctors Górski - Isaac Fellman
Emilie and the Hollow World - Martha Wells
The Siege of Burning Grass - Premee Mohamed
The Iron Garden Sutra - AD Sui
She is Here - Nicola Griffith
We Will Rise Again - ed Karen Lord, Annalee Newitz and Malka Older
Thief of Night - Holly Black
Tomb of Brass - Tansy Rayner Roberts
Critical Role: The Chronicles of Exandria - The Mighty Nein Part Two
The Somewhat Wicked Witch of Brigandale - CM Waggoner
The Kingdom of Almonds - Ariel Kaplan
What We Are Seeking - Cameron Reed
The Subtle Art of Folding Space - John Chu
The Last Dragoners of Bowbazar - Indra Das
Space Crone - Ursula K Le Guin
City of Others - Jared Poon
The Desert Talon - Karin Lowachee
The Power Fantasy: The Superpowers
Colourfields: Writing About Writing About Science Fiction - Paul Kincaid
Automatic Noodle - Annalee Newitz
They Bloom At Night - Trang Thanh Tran
Seasons of Glass and Iron - Amal El Mohtar
In the Serpent's Wake - Rachel Hartman
The Summer War - Naomi Novik
Luminous - Silvia Park
Among Ghosts - Rachel Hartman
I opened up my draft of this post and discovered there wasn't anything there since February, oh DEAR. So this is mostly just a list of things I have read! I really loved these ones in particular: Notes from a Regicide, When There Are Wolves Again, The Works of Vermin and Slow Gods. I also really liked What We Are Seeking and Luminous. Also yes, I am counting Una McCormack's latest Garak book of Garak in this list, even though it was published on AO3, because I do what I want, Thor.
(Will I manage to post this before the end of June (it's the 27th May right now) or will there be another paragraph of /o\ below this?) (update, SUCCESS)
To Ride a Rising Storm - Moniquill Blackgoose (four stars), The Wolf and His King - Finn Longman (three stars)
To Ride a Rising StormBasically nothing happens in this book until right at the end, it's all worldbuilding explanations and people having conversations about society, politics and their interpersonal relationships. Luckily I do find the world very interesting, and Blackgoose's prose style is very engaging, so I still had a good time, though I could have done with slightly less chemistry-with-AU-element-names.
The Wolf and His King
Retelling of Bisclavret that started strong for me but gradually fell apart as it went on, for a few reasons:
- The king's immediate instinctive connection with and yearning for Bisclavret worked really well, but it never really went anywhere? They have a few interactions before Bisclavret disappears, but there wasn't enough feeling on Bisclavret's side for me to really feel the connection that they apparently have, not to mention
spoilers
we don't even get the payoff of the king realising that the wolf is Bisclavret, he has to be told. - The setting and the characters felt a bit neither fish nor fowl: there are moments of specificity that take them out of the purely archetypal, but not enough for them to really come alive. The latter half of the book sees the king working at diplomacy and trying to avoid becoming entangled in war, but there isn't enough detail for any of it to feel real.
- The handling of Bisclavret's treacherous wife gestured at the possibility that she had a motivation beyond just being A Baddie, but never really went anywhere with it, or really addressed the fact that actually, no, it's not OK that Bisclavret married her without telling her he intermittently turns into a wolf! It's the one area where the werewolfism-as-disability metaphor, which mostly worked really well, fell down for me: it is in fact ok to object to your husband turning into a wolf that might want to kill you, and to try to get out of that situation.
I did mostly enjoy reading this book, and really liked what it did with points of view, but overall it didn't work for me like I wanted to. (I do want to read the lai when I am reunited with my copy, though.)
Didn't finish:
Little Thieves - Margaret Owen
Little Thieves - Margaret OwenFirst casualty of my attempts to read the Hugo shortlist! This is a very solid YA novel, but it's the first in the trilogy of which the third is the one actually nominated, and I realised I just wasn't quite invested enough to keep going. Once again I was like "maybe THIS YA will work for me", and once again, through no fault of the book itself... not quite.