It’s been a long time coming, but sales of George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire sequence (better known to some by the name of its TV adaptation, HBO’s Game of Thrones) have finally and officially passed the 100 million mark.

The news was buried in The Hollywood Reporter‘s recent article on Martin, although the main focus was elsewhere (yes, *The Winds of Winter* still isn’t out yet, and yes, the fall-out from Martin’s public dissatisfaction with House of the Dragon continues to reverberate).

The series started off a little sluggishly, with *A Game of Thrones* only doing okay on its first publication in August 1996 (the series turns thirty this year) and it taking until the paperback was released before sales picked up, something Martin attributed to the cover quote from fellow fantasy author Robert Jordan, of Wheel of Time fame. Sales and critical acclaim grew with the release of *A Clash of Kings* in 1998 and *A Storm of Swords* in 2000. By …

I’ve never heard of this happening before: a fan subreddit actually got the rights to a big fantasy series and republished them. Maybe someone can correct me.

The Chronicles of an Age of Darkness is written by Hugh Cook (who sadly passed away early). It’s a big ten book series set on multiple continents and has a cult-like following (including me). It sold hundreds of thousands of copies in the late 80s and early 90s.

If you read the first book you’d think it’s normal epic fantasy with heroes, wizards and magic items with a dash of humor. But the series gets more and more unusual (and funny) with each book having a different style, until you get to the sixth book, which might be the most unique and bizarre fantasy book I’ve ever read.

Anyway, members of r/hughcook got the rights off Hugh’s family and the series is now available again. Hooray for reddit! Has that ever happened before? Hopefully more fantasy subreddits of out-of-print books get the …

Anyone else struggling to read traditional / epic fantasy? I used to love the big chunky series. I tore through every big fantasy series from the 90s to the mid 2010s. But everything coming out lately is just…..underwhelming. Cookie cutter. A new skin on an old body.

I forced myself to read the books the echo chamber that is bookstagram recommended. The first 3 Red Rising were ok, but left me with zero desire to keep reading. Sun Eater gets hyped to be an incredible new space epic, but I couldn’t convince myself to start the third book. I have 10 John Gwynne books unread on my bookshelf because I’d rather read about a guy punching things in his boxers with his ex’s talking cat.

I dipped my toes into the litrpg and progression fantasy kiddie pool and I don’t want to come out. It’s fresh and doesn’t take itself seriously. But mostly it’s just fun. Almost reminds me of reading diskworld for the first time after the sword and sorcery era of the 80s/90s. If someone asked me what my …

I think the first time I became aware of my brain working different than other peoples’ was when I read THE TIME MACHINE when I was eight and wondered why the Time Traveler was so mean to the Morlocks. After all, they were the sentient people not the mindless but pretty Eloi.

That got me thinking, what are books you’ve read where you absolutely do not gel with the intended message or interpretation of the story.

Fantasy books that actually focuses on the military aspect of military fantasy and not just background flavoring or a small part in their story(looking at you Malazan). With main characters that is part of the army from the very beginning and not just join in when the war actually start.

Sorry if this post comes out as hostile and needy, it just the number of times I saw people label a book Military Fantasy despite the military element not playing a major part in the narrative is baffling. I mean I’ve seen people recommend The Broken Empire Trilogy as military fantasy.

P.S. Don’t recommend me Black Company already read it

Every adaptation I’ve ever seen as a movie watcher has been a brainless groaning zombie type guy. To read the book and find out he’s articulate and actually quite tragic really upsets me. It makes me wonder what other common stories have had their origin misrepresented. I also think reducing Frankenstein to a mad scientist when he’s the picture of self loathing is interesting. I feel like I have been bamboozled by popular culture’s representation.

The Washington Post said that a third of its staff across all departments was getting laid off, so it is not just affecting the newsroom, The Associated Press reported.

Employees were told that they would get an email with one of two subject lines telling them whether or not they still had a job at the Post, the AP reported.

The newspaper, which was founded in 1877, is doing away with its Sports section, Books section and is canceling the Post Reports podcast.

It is also restructuring the Metro desk, which covers Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia and will scale back international coverage, CNN reported.

ETA: Ron Charles has now posted about being laid off on Substack

Becca Rothfeld on substack

Article archived here

The First One Hundred Hours, an oral history of an alien invasion.

Just saw it recommended by a person whose taste record is somewhat sketchy. The concept of the book sounded interesting.

Have you read it?

Would you recommend it?

What other books/authors would you feel it closely resembles in style?

When I was reading yet another excellent Cherryh novel recently (Cuckoo’s Egg) I started thinking how many excellent male PoV (point of view) characters she has written throughout her career. And I can easily come with numerous examples of this in books written by other female writers in science fiction - works by Bujold and Le Guin being the most obvious ones. But I really struggled to come up with the opposite examples - well written and memorable female PoV characters in science fiction books written by men. So I’d love to get some examples and recommendations for this. Novellas and short stories recs are also welcome.

A few examples from me off the top of my head (some of these I’ve read a long time ago and I am not sure if they will hold up on a reread):

Random Acts of Senseless Violence - Jack Womack

Story of Your Life - Ted Chiang

Thorns - Robert Silverberg

Venomous Lumpsucker - Ned Beauman

Ian McDonald’s Luna series

Gradisil by Adam Roberts

I am …

I got an ARC copy and here are my thoughts:

The Universe Box. by Michael Swanwick. 2026

#ARC

THE UNIVERSE BOX

RATED 92% POSITIVE. STORY SCORE 4.0 OF 5 

19 STORIES : 4 GREAT / 13 GOOD / 1 AVERAGE / 0 POOR / 1 DNF

This is Michael Swanwick 20th appearance in a book that I’ve reviewed: beaten only by Isaac Asimov and Robert Silverberg. When you notice that one of those books was a large single author collection, Swanwick becomes the author I’ve reviewed more than any other. Any for good reason. He is on the short list of greatest science fiction writers and one of the very few who are still producing an ocean of good short stories. And this collection shows that he hasn’t lost a step. The stories in this collection cover 2012 to 2026, but that vast majority of them around from the 2020s

One thing I noticed reading Swanwick this time was how good his first sentences were. More than once, I finished a story, thinking I’d goto bed, and that first sentence pulled me all the way into the …

Lately I’ve been thinking about how people learn to enjoy reading — especially through sci-fi.

I read a lot less in middle and high school than I did in elementary school, and I think part of the reason was school-required reading. Many of the books we had to read felt disconnected from anything I cared about, so reading started to feel like a chore. In college, without much mandatory reading, I’ve rediscovered reading for pleasure.

A lot of the sci-fi I’ve read recently — Scalzi, Le Guin, Butler — is intellectually demanding, morally complex, and absolutely something you could analyze and write about in an English class. These books ask big questions about identity, power, technology, and society while still being engaging to read. It makes me wonder whether speculative fiction could sit alongside traditional “classics” in school curricula, and get more students excited about reading.

Curious what others think:

• Would you have wanted to read more sci-fi in English class? Or would …

I try to watch this every year. Hearing Dr. West talk about race, identity, what it means to be human, and why we have Black History Month opened my eyes when I first this live in college. Craig is an incredible interviewer, allowing his own ignorance to be nakedly seen so that he and his audience can be educated. Craig doesn’t just ask questions, he knows when to respectfully challenge Dr. West.

This interview is beautiful and I would love it if you joined me in watching it this year!

Not only do I no longer feel the urge to consume content every spare second – watching or continuing on a movie demands a little more time and focus than that. But my mental well-being has also changed dramatically.

Scrolling videos made my brain feel like porridge. I’d suddenly realize after 5 seconds that I was watching an obnoxious ad. No focus at all. Totally spaced out.

Watching a movie actually makes me feel good. Being engaged in a storyline, maybe watching a feelgood movie like I did yesterday (The Intern) … It makes me happy and relaxed. It makes me enjoy life more afterwards.

Reading and working out is great as well, but it never made me not want to scroll. Watching a movie fulfills my desire for easy entertainment, without making it impossible to do something productive after.

Tomorrow marks a month of watching a movie every single day. Well, sometimes I watch half one day and the other half the next. I still think it counts.

Edit: Yes, I know I’m on reddit. …