Hey!

Welcome to 2026. Also, welcome to the new subscribers; I assume lots of you are here from the very kind rec in The Rec Center. Thanks very much to Elizabeth and Gav for the shoutout and their incredible emotional support newsletter. I’m happy to have you all here and hope you find something cool to read. :) Y’all are also welcome to take the 2025 Intergalactic Mixtape Survey and give me all your recs; it will be open until next week. The feedback so far has been great, and I have seen you, short fiction readers! I will try to lean into short fiction content more in 2026.

This is last stack of books that entered my house during December 2025. My goal is to use my library a little more in 2026, and hopefully inspire others with libraries to do the same.

A-Side

A Meal of Thorns — 2025 Wrap-Up
One of my favorite podcasts did a retrospective, looking back at the year in SFF genre spaces. It’s a wide-ranging conversation with lots of recs. If you’re looking for a good summary of a hyper specific cross section of SFF, from two notable genre editors, this one episode will do you well! I really enjoy the ways they contextualize things and also highlight what they don’t know and potential places to look. Eventually there will be a transcript, if you prefer to read, so highly recommend bookmarking it for later.

Watching Weapons
I’m always interested when other reviewers/critics come away from a piece of art going, as Natasha Ochshorn says here, “I told my husband that it was interesting that the movie turned out to not really be about anything” when I came away from that same piece of art with a strong sense of what it was “about.” In the case of Weapons, for me the movie is about trauma. Every perspective in the film comes back to trauma, caused by a different aspect of society: surveillance culture, substance abuse, hyper individualism, dysfunctional families, state violence… It’s fascinating! I enjoyed this essay, also, for the perspective of how short form video led to the rise of teachers using their students as content which sometimes feels inescapable (no matter how much I hit not interested, the algorithm persists).

50 wonderful things from 2025
Don’t miss this incredible round up of pop culture art and moments from Linda Holmes. Not only is it a good summary of the year in media (mostly not SFF, but there’s a sprinkle of genre), but the generous way Holmes writes about the things she loved invites you into them in the best way, even if you’ve never heard of them before.

Reviews/Discussions

The Big Book of Cyberpunk Vol. 2, edited by Jared Shurin (Womble @ Runalong the Shelves)
The Blackfire Blade by James Logan (Rob Bedford @ SFF World)
The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow, narrated by Moira Quirk & Sid Sagar (Narrated Podcast)
The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow (Galen Strickland)
Hammajang Luck by Makana Yamamoto (Safia H. Senhaji @ Strange Horizons)
Harmattan Season by Tochi Onyebuchi (Duncan Lawie @ Strange Horizons)
Hemlock & Silver by T. Kingfisher (Dina @ SFF Book Reviews)
The King Must Die by Kemi Ashing-Giwa (Niall Harrison @ Locus)
The King Must Die by Kemi Ashing-Giwa (Gary K. Wolfe @ Locus)
The Legend Liminal by Ren Hutchings (Alexandra Pierce @ Locus)
The Legend Liminal by Ren Hutchings (Maya C. James @ Locus)
Making History by K.J. Parker (Paul Weimer @ Nerds of a Feather)
The Nameless Land by Kate Elliott (Bill Capossere @ FanLit)
Outlaw Planet by M.R. Carey (Unofficial Hugo Book Club Blog)
Outlaw Planet by M.R. Carey (Paul Di Filippo @ Locus)
The Shattering Peace by John Scalzi (Adam Roberts @ Locus)
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel (Tar Vol on)
Volatile Memory by Seth Haddon (Kim B. @ The Lesbrary)
We Will Rise Again, edited by Karen Lord, Annalee Newitz, and Malka Older (Ruth Joffre @ LA Review of Books)
You Weren't Meant to Be Human by Andrew Joseph White (Bonnie @ Red Headed Femme)

B-Side

I’ve spent the holiday luxuriating in favorite book posts. This is my favorite time of the year for books. It’s like recommendations, but on plaid speed. This week is for round-ups and next week will be for round-ups and anticipated book lists (my second favorite).

My most coveted favorites/stats post was Roseanna’s expansive analysis of her reading. There are stats, which I was excited for, but also a (surprise!) terrific examination of where her reading is sourced from. I’ve considered this question a lot as the rise of fantasy has happened, because I want to be part of conversations but I also want to do nothing but read romance and space opera. Also, everyone should read/review Notes From a Regicide, because it will make Roseanna happy.

All the Reactor reviewers shared their favorite reads of the year. Over at Ancillary Review of Books, reviewers highlighted some of their best books of the year and it’s a diverse list. Very excited to see multiple mentions of The Raven Scholar, one of my favorite 2025 books. My pal Maureen collected her favorite books of the year, spanning multiple categories with several genre options. One of my favorite things is coming across random people I’ve never read before sharing their top books, and reintroducing me to some titles I really need to get to. There’s another backlist collection at Tar Vol on—I love seeing people discovering and revisiting 17776 by Jon Bois.

Adam Roberts highlighted some of his favorites in The Guardian. Once again I am morose over there not being a U.S. edition of When There Are Wolves Again by E.J. Swift (hint hint hint U.S. publishers). SFF World reviewers selected their fantasy, horror, science fiction, and film/TV faves. Ed Morland did a Bluesky thread of his five star reads of the year (me, an enabler, whispering: “start a blog”). Our favorite book tempter, Womble, has his favorite lists (as well as stats), and my E.J. Swift FOMO continues.

At Shades of Orange, Rachel shared her top fantasy and science fiction for 2025. At the Fantasy Hive, Beth has her top 25 and Nils has her top 20. Sia at Every Book a Doorway has her 2025 favorites list out as well as her backlist favorites list. This is a feat I’m extremely envious of. I’m impressed when people can read enough to do this! At the Kissing Books newsletter, Carly Lane shared 25 of her favorite books. If you like romance, I highly recommend her newsletter!

One thing I want to do more of in 2026 is play more games, so this top video games of 2025 from But Why Tho? was particularly welcome. The less said about my Steam wishlist, the better, though.

It was quiet as fandom enjoyed their own holidays (and let’s be real, lots of us were watching/rewatching Heated Rivalry), but there were still some happenings. There’s a new issue of Journey Planet, about Andor Season 2. The Coode Street Podcast did their year end discussion with lots of recs. Speculative Fiction in Translation shared some fun statistics. Camestros Felapton wrote How to become a Hugo finalist Fan Writer. I thought this was a good approach. My read is, a) don’t worry about it because it’s out of your control, b) write a lot in genre spaces and find your voice, c) read even more, d) engage with the writing of your peers. This is why Point A is critical. :D

From my 2025 backlog (there’s always going to be things I want to read that it takes me a hot minute to get to), Myna Chang had an interview with L.D. Colter. At LAcon V, Terese Mason Pierre will be a special guest. At Reactor earlier in December, Ratika Deshpande wrote a rec list of stories told through articles and reviews. I love this trope a lot and everything here was new to me. And I don’t really know how to rec everything Charlie Jane Anders has written in 2025 that I’ve bookmarked—she’s so prolific! Instead I’ll do a general rec that her newsletter, Happy Dancing, is well worth a subscription via email or RSS.

There were several episodes from Skiffy and Fanty with author interviews: Fran Wilde; Martha Wells; and Bethany Jacobs. Coode Street also wrapped their advent calendar interview series with quick interviews with Becky Chambers, Francis Spufford, James S.A. Corey, Tochi Onyebuchi, E. J. Swift (is it any wonder I have When There Are Wolves Again FOMO? Truly?), and Ursula Vernon.

For more great links, as always, there’s Wombling Along. Plus, as we enter into 2026, a quick reminder that I take link suggestions! From reviews to new blogs/newsletters to rec lists, I’m pretty open to seeing what’s out there, because I am only one human. I also solicit one off book recs, and when I get to 4-5 recs I run a list of them (or I will, in theory, when I reach this goal). Don’t be shy about reccing SFF books you’ve loved, either new or backlist.

Art recs: A crested tit sitting in the snow by Emily L'Orange; Meet me by the promise tree by Malil; bye 2025 by Tiina Menzel; Return to the Hidden Summit by Katie Croonenbergh; The heat by Dominique Ramsey; yoongi and Tang by Winter; Winter girl sketch by gdbee; Korben!! by Gwen; Red fox’s Dream by Athanaca

Outro

My final Hugo Award predictions for Best Novel are out! Last year I got very close to guessing the final ballot (4/6). The WSFS electorate changes every year so I suspect what I’m about to learn is that humans are unpredictable in their artistic taste. :) I encourage everyone interested in popular-vote awards to check out the excellent Science Fiction Awards Database and see all the amazing short lists. Every award is different (especially the juried ones) and captures a specific slice of genre. You could discover a hidden gem!

That’s it for this week. Have a great weekend. — Renay