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aseLet's start in March and go from there.
The Faith of Beasts (James S. A. Corey) (2026): In audiobook, narrated by Jefferson Mays,
Insta-reaction: YAY THE BOYS ARE BACK AT IT.
Premise: Dafyd & (most some of the) company have survived and completed the challenges demanded by their alien abductors, the Carryx, during The Mercy of Gods. Dafyd has figured out enough about the Carryx he thinks he can figure out more, and maybe plot their downfall, without getting himself and all surviving humans slaughtered for insubordination. Dafyd & (surviving) company's reward? More work!
Jessyn, Campar, Rickard are shipped out for "field work" on distant planets or space battlefields. Tonner and the labs are given another nightmare project.
Is this amazing? No. Am I having a good time? Yes. Am I having a better time than the protagonists? Yes. I do not have a complicated relationship with a constructed alien spy person who jumps bodies and, so help us, has discovered gender. I am not trying to help a group of humans escape a Carryx invasion, while being part of the invasion, odds of death very high. I am not discovering my massive, massive ego is no protection from the Carryx deciding I'm nobody now, and having my former glass-washing peon deliver this message with bonus broken arm to hammer the point home.
None of which gets into the themes of "resistance when resistance seems impossible", "the ethics of having babies who will be slaves", "which of my resistance buddies can I trust with my secret plan to destroy the Carryx, and which ones get to know about each other," "what do you mean my plan to destroy the Carryx is based on faulty assumptions and isn't going to work," etc. Book of Daniel stuff . Tiamat's Wrath touched on the "resistance when resistance seems impossible" theme, JASC are going at it a lot more here.
For what are likely obvious reasons, I reread Project Hail Mary (2021). For anyone who has not been paying attention, the movie adaptation is very fun, and Sandra Hüller does a great Eva Stratt.
In late May: Hugo novels!
Life is too short to read Shroud (Adrian Tchaikovsky) (2026) without vetting.
The Incandescent (Emily Tesh) (2026): previously read, in audiobook.
A Drop of Corruption (Robert Jackson Benett) (2026) in audiobook, narrated by Andrew Fallaize.
The Kingdom of Yarrow is scheduled to be absorbed into the Empire, semi Hong Kong style, but one of the diplomats negotiating terms has been murdered in a bedroom with all doors and windows locked from the inside. Why does this need special handling? Because the only reason the Empire cares about Yarrow is the Shroud, directly offshore the Kingdom: the place leviathan carcasses are towed for research and processing into the materials the Empire relies on for its biological technology. And so Ana and Din are off to a locked room mystery!
My split-second reaction after finishing the audiobook: if your author's note / afterword is "I didn't lean hard enough into skewering high fantasy tropes", perhaps you should have done another pass to spackle in additional skewering of high fantasy tropes.
With that said, I think Bennett is doing something fun with the series. I am inappropriately fond of Ana calling the children to listen (the children are 20something officers of the Empire who respect her intelligence and doubt her sanity). Fallaize's querulous intonation of Ana dispensing brilliant deductions, invective, and questionably appropriate personal advice is hilarious to me. The general thread of the novels - the empire is made up of its people and its labors - is worth further exploration. Fun novel, will read sequel(s).
Death of the Author (Nnedi Okorafor) (2026) in audiobook, primarily narrated by Liz Femi, with sections by Anthony Oseyemi, Jason Culp, and Chris Djuma. Protagonist Zelunjo Onyenezi-Onyedele is at her sister's wedding when she is fired. Disabled, queer, Black, and unemployed, Zelu resolves to write what she wants to. The novel becomes a breakaway hit and the pathway to stardom for Zelu.
The first chapters feel very heavy on the MFA "this is My Literary Novel" tradition, especially when chapters or excerpts of Zelu's novel, Rusted Robots, are interspersed with Zelu's story, and with interviews from friends and family, but the story accrues SF elements during the narrative. Joining Rusted Robots are "wait, isn't this here" self-driving cars, high end engineering, biotech, and civilian space travel.
There is so freaking much throw into this novel. Parasocial relationships. The experience of being an American born child of Nigerian immigrants. Zele's questionably reliable narration. (If Conan is a millenial-ish Nigerian-American character's laptop password, I have to ask: are you really not a science fiction reader? Have the tropes soaked into the mainstream that thoroughly?) Zele's large, loud family wondering where she gets all this story drama is the stuff of irony. Tech like the exos and the wheelchair-friendly self-driving vehicles which are basically already in existence (plus or minus the "person in the Phiipines behind the scenes" element of Waymo and competitors). Space tourism exists. Zele's not-Jeff Bezos and the wildly experimental genetic engineering at the end of the novel could happen. (Want to see me scream bloody murder about ethics? "Let's do germline genetic engineering in 2026" is how you get me to do that.) The core of Zele is that forward motion toward her desires, both admirable and destructive.
And then the very end of the novel says, "oh yeah, this is actually a story about Zele, written by the protagonist of Rusted Robots." Total POV flip. Wild. Is it as trite as "it was all a dream"? A really cool way to get around the "tell us the novel was a hit, don't show us" issue? Are my eyes still crossing about what this says about The Importance Of Stories? All of the above!
High marks for scope, author control of material, and making my head explode in the last chapter, in a way well supported by everything that came before. I want to talk and talk and talk about Death of the Author, which is what I look for in award nominees.
The Everlasting (Alix Harrow) (2026): in audiobook, narrated by Moira Quirk and Sid Sagar. Story of Owen Mallory, historian, scholar, coward, ex-solider, and Una Everlasting, the Queen's Champion, the Red Knight, the Virgin Saint, the Drawn Blade of Dominion. Born a thousand years apart, their lives become entwined thanks to a book with Una's sigil on the cover, and the woman who would see that book written to her command, and translated to her specific orders.
It's a time travel adventure, all for me!
Okay. Actual thoughts.
From where I'm sitting, the theme and pull and push of the entire novel is Vivian Rolfe, aka Queen Yvanne, aka any number of women on or near the throne of the Kingdom of Dominion over endless years, manipulating the fact and the tale of Dominion's history so she can stay in charge. Propoganda, but with time travel to make it true, from a certain point of view. It's also about Owen and Una discovering and breaking Vivian's story to make their own version of history, but Vivan is a really good antagonist. Very active, very strong opinion of her exceptionalism, very enthusiastic about being terrible to keep power. Vivian is the anti-Dafyd. One of these characters wants to instill survival and subtle (for now) resistance as a virtue, the other wants people to die on command, preferably as dramatically as possible.
I had a lot of fun listening to the audiobook, not just because I saw Moira Quirke's name and thought, "lesbian necromancers!" (Quirke has also narrated the three Locked Tomb novels.) I think the audiobook's choice to go full Tragic Reading during Una's death(s) isn't great, but that's because other people getting emotional kicks off a deep "nope, not going to do that" spinal reflex. This was largely overcome by Alix Harrow's writing convincing me that I did, in fact, want to root for Una and Owen to have a happy ever after.
I do wonder: if youngest!Vivian's death cut off the entire Dominion timeline branch(es), which is strongly implied, did all the dragons still get killed? Or are the dragon hearts, which do strange things with time, yew trees, and aging, still beating in the final timeline presented to the reader?
edited to add: It's worth noting that The Everlasting has substantial blocks of second person past tense, and it worked for me. Points to the author and the audiobook readers.
I'll hold off Hugo ranking thoughts until I've knocked out The Raven Scholar. It's 24 hours in audiobook. Oof.
The Faith of Beasts (James S. A. Corey) (2026): In audiobook, narrated by Jefferson Mays,
Insta-reaction: YAY THE BOYS ARE BACK AT IT.
Premise: Dafyd & (
Jessyn, Campar, Rickard are shipped out for "field work" on distant planets or space battlefields. Tonner and the labs are given another nightmare project.
Is this amazing? No. Am I having a good time? Yes. Am I having a better time than the protagonists? Yes. I do not have a complicated relationship with a constructed alien spy person who jumps bodies and, so help us, has discovered gender. I am not trying to help a group of humans escape a Carryx invasion, while being part of the invasion, odds of death very high. I am not discovering my massive, massive ego is no protection from the Carryx deciding I'm nobody now, and having my former glass-washing peon deliver this message with bonus broken arm to hammer the point home.
None of which gets into the themes of "resistance when resistance seems impossible", "the ethics of having babies who will be slaves", "which of my resistance buddies can I trust with my secret plan to destroy the Carryx, and which ones get to know about each other," "what do you mean my plan to destroy the Carryx is based on faulty assumptions and isn't going to work," etc. Book of Daniel stuff . Tiamat's Wrath touched on the "resistance when resistance seems impossible" theme, JASC are going at it a lot more here.
For what are likely obvious reasons, I reread Project Hail Mary (2021). For anyone who has not been paying attention, the movie adaptation is very fun, and Sandra Hüller does a great Eva Stratt.
In late May: Hugo novels!
Life is too short to read Shroud (Adrian Tchaikovsky) (2026) without vetting.
The Incandescent (Emily Tesh) (2026): previously read, in audiobook.
A Drop of Corruption (Robert Jackson Benett) (2026) in audiobook, narrated by Andrew Fallaize.
The Kingdom of Yarrow is scheduled to be absorbed into the Empire, semi Hong Kong style, but one of the diplomats negotiating terms has been murdered in a bedroom with all doors and windows locked from the inside. Why does this need special handling? Because the only reason the Empire cares about Yarrow is the Shroud, directly offshore the Kingdom: the place leviathan carcasses are towed for research and processing into the materials the Empire relies on for its biological technology. And so Ana and Din are off to a locked room mystery!
My split-second reaction after finishing the audiobook: if your author's note / afterword is "I didn't lean hard enough into skewering high fantasy tropes", perhaps you should have done another pass to spackle in additional skewering of high fantasy tropes.
With that said, I think Bennett is doing something fun with the series. I am inappropriately fond of Ana calling the children to listen (the children are 20something officers of the Empire who respect her intelligence and doubt her sanity). Fallaize's querulous intonation of Ana dispensing brilliant deductions, invective, and questionably appropriate personal advice is hilarious to me. The general thread of the novels - the empire is made up of its people and its labors - is worth further exploration. Fun novel, will read sequel(s).
Death of the Author (Nnedi Okorafor) (2026) in audiobook, primarily narrated by Liz Femi, with sections by Anthony Oseyemi, Jason Culp, and Chris Djuma. Protagonist Zelunjo Onyenezi-Onyedele is at her sister's wedding when she is fired. Disabled, queer, Black, and unemployed, Zelu resolves to write what she wants to. The novel becomes a breakaway hit and the pathway to stardom for Zelu.
The first chapters feel very heavy on the MFA "this is My Literary Novel" tradition, especially when chapters or excerpts of Zelu's novel, Rusted Robots, are interspersed with Zelu's story, and with interviews from friends and family, but the story accrues SF elements during the narrative. Joining Rusted Robots are "wait, isn't this here" self-driving cars, high end engineering, biotech, and civilian space travel.
There is so freaking much throw into this novel. Parasocial relationships. The experience of being an American born child of Nigerian immigrants. Zele's questionably reliable narration. (If Conan is a millenial-ish Nigerian-American character's laptop password, I have to ask: are you really not a science fiction reader? Have the tropes soaked into the mainstream that thoroughly?) Zele's large, loud family wondering where she gets all this story drama is the stuff of irony. Tech like the exos and the wheelchair-friendly self-driving vehicles which are basically already in existence (plus or minus the "person in the Phiipines behind the scenes" element of Waymo and competitors). Space tourism exists. Zele's not-Jeff Bezos and the wildly experimental genetic engineering at the end of the novel could happen. (Want to see me scream bloody murder about ethics? "Let's do germline genetic engineering in 2026" is how you get me to do that.) The core of Zele is that forward motion toward her desires, both admirable and destructive.
And then the very end of the novel says, "oh yeah, this is actually a story about Zele, written by the protagonist of Rusted Robots." Total POV flip. Wild. Is it as trite as "it was all a dream"? A really cool way to get around the "tell us the novel was a hit, don't show us" issue? Are my eyes still crossing about what this says about The Importance Of Stories? All of the above!
High marks for scope, author control of material, and making my head explode in the last chapter, in a way well supported by everything that came before. I want to talk and talk and talk about Death of the Author, which is what I look for in award nominees.
The Everlasting (Alix Harrow) (2026): in audiobook, narrated by Moira Quirk and Sid Sagar. Story of Owen Mallory, historian, scholar, coward, ex-solider, and Una Everlasting, the Queen's Champion, the Red Knight, the Virgin Saint, the Drawn Blade of Dominion. Born a thousand years apart, their lives become entwined thanks to a book with Una's sigil on the cover, and the woman who would see that book written to her command, and translated to her specific orders.
It's a time travel adventure, all for me!
Okay. Actual thoughts.
From where I'm sitting, the theme and pull and push of the entire novel is Vivian Rolfe, aka Queen Yvanne, aka any number of women on or near the throne of the Kingdom of Dominion over endless years, manipulating the fact and the tale of Dominion's history so she can stay in charge. Propoganda, but with time travel to make it true, from a certain point of view. It's also about Owen and Una discovering and breaking Vivian's story to make their own version of history, but Vivan is a really good antagonist. Very active, very strong opinion of her exceptionalism, very enthusiastic about being terrible to keep power. Vivian is the anti-Dafyd. One of these characters wants to instill survival and subtle (for now) resistance as a virtue, the other wants people to die on command, preferably as dramatically as possible.
I had a lot of fun listening to the audiobook, not just because I saw Moira Quirke's name and thought, "lesbian necromancers!" (Quirke has also narrated the three Locked Tomb novels.) I think the audiobook's choice to go full Tragic Reading during Una's death(s) isn't great, but that's because other people getting emotional kicks off a deep "nope, not going to do that" spinal reflex. This was largely overcome by Alix Harrow's writing convincing me that I did, in fact, want to root for Una and Owen to have a happy ever after.
I do wonder: if youngest!Vivian's death cut off the entire Dominion timeline branch(es), which is strongly implied, did all the dragons still get killed? Or are the dragon hearts, which do strange things with time, yew trees, and aging, still beating in the final timeline presented to the reader?
edited to add: It's worth noting that The Everlasting has substantial blocks of second person past tense, and it worked for me. Points to the author and the audiobook readers.
I'll hold off Hugo ranking thoughts until I've knocked out The Raven Scholar. It's 24 hours in audiobook. Oof.