Things I enjoyed in 2026 (Part 2)
Short Stories
“Let’s Go to the Zoo” by Louis Evans (2026): Wanna watch the last sane human being through glass?
“Welcome to Heroism” by John Wiswell (2026): There are some very cute lines (“Her mix of speed and spite was too potent for mortal algorithms.”) in a type of story I normally feel meh about. But reading it in early April (right after the “ceasefire” ahead of the civilization-ending-deadline) was something.
“Sloth Metamorphosis” by Effie Seiberg (2026): I really appreciate Effie explicitly engaging with Covid in her stories; there’s altogether too much memory-holing. My own sloth metamorphosis was not nearly so complete, but this story still resonates.
“Constellations” by Jeff VanderMeer (2026): A doomed, surreal journey with a comforting nugget of moral choice.
“The Universe Ends on a Tuesday” by Aimee Ogden (2022): I missed this one the first time around, but did see the reprint. It’s sad and oddly uplifting.
“Bone Talker, Bone Eater” by D. S. Ravenhurst (2024): Excellently sketched backstory grounds this tale and really makes it shine.
Novelettes
“Courtney Lovecraft’s Book of the Dead” by Sam J. Miller (2025): Why wouldn’t spirits speak through a drag queen in Poughkeepsie? And why wouldn’t they be pissed off at, well, everything?
Novellas
The Death of Mountains by Jordan Kurella (2025): The voices of ancient stone and instantiated concepts strike the right balance between mythic and distinctive.
#recommended #recommended2026