Time spent planning TBR(To Be Read) vs time spent actually reading the books.

#ToBeRead #Books #Bookstodon #TBR

A Great Strange Monster

Fair warning, I’m about to recommend a story I have not yet read. Why? Because it’s a finalist for the Hugo Awards. Because it’s by Scott Lynch, author of The Lies of Locke Lamora and many more excellent works. And because it has a great title.

Kaiju Agonistes

[Time Reference Unavailable]—August, 1946

The watchseed is planted in a watery hemisphere of a watery world. The place spins around a yellow star, wearing its magnetic field like a proud little hat. It’s ridiculous with life.

Hence, a watchseed, with the best of intentions. Let’s give the seed-planters that much. They mean well. Crawling from star to star at not-quite-c, they make their surveys, consult their charts, launch a seed now and then. Old thinkers, they make an endless circuit of the galaxy on behalf of young thinkers. Young thinkers are rare and precious and must be protected, particularly from themselves, because young thinkers are stupid as hell and prone to misadventures with anything they can dig out of their planetary crusts. Hydrocarbons, radioactives, anything.

This planet is rich in ingredients for misadventure.

A terrific opener. Also, it’s free at Uncanny Magazine, one of the best venues for short fiction out there today. 

So yes, I expect this story to be a fun read. Perhaps you’d like it too?

Note from the future: I was right, the story was a great read!

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I absolutely endorse this message!

https://wandering.shop/@kmherkes/116411333388982190

I started with Relics From a Traveling Show and ended up reading almost everything on the list.

I've just noticed Weaving in the Ends which I don't think I've seen before, so I've definitely got to check that out!

#ToBeRead

My #ToBeRead list. Left is non fiction and right is fiction. I have five preorders at the local bookshop four of which come in this month

Yes I know there isn't a set genre at all. I read books like music - I wouldn't be able to stick to one type if my life depended on it

The New Nebula Award Finalists

The Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association has released its list of finalists for the new Nebula Awards. These are some of the best stories, movies, games and more from 2025, and a great way to boost your to be read list. If you’re an SFWA member you have until April 15th to vote on your favorites.

The list is available in lots of places but I’ll link to Andrew Liptak’s site because he has already done the work of finding links for the stories that are available online. Thanks, Andrew!

I’ll copy the short stories here, but click through to Andrew’s site for links to the novelettes and more. And do I love that many of the top short story markets are open access? I do!

Here are the finalists for the 2026 Nebula Awards

Best Short Story 

• “Through the Machine” by P.A. Cornell (Lightspeed Magazine, 5/25)
• “Six People to Revise You” by J.R. Dawson (Uncanny Magazine, 1-2/25)
• “In My Country” by Thomas Ha (Clarkesworld Magazine 4/25)
• “The Tawlish Island Songbook of the Dead” by E.M. Linden (PodCastle 2/18/25)
• “Because I Held His Name Like a Key” by Aimee Ogden (Strange Horizons 6/16/25)
• “Laser Eyes Ain’t Everything” by Effie Seiberg (Diabolical Plots 5/25)

I’ve only read a couple of these stories so this promises to be a treat. Happy reading everyone!

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The Ancient Art and Intimate Craft of Artificial Eyes
Eye makers for millennia have been trying to re-create the expressionist power of the human body’s most complex and emotionally meaningful visible organ.
By: Dan Roche
https://thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/the-ancient-art-and-intimate-craft-of-artificial-eyes/
This article is adapted from Dan Roche’s book “Eyes by Hand: Prosthetics of Art and Healing.”

There's also this photo essay we did of the process of creating my own prosthetic eyes

Part 1: Kestrell and Alexx go to the Ocularist
https://kestrell.dreamwidth.org/56868.html

Part 2: Kestrell and Alexx return to the ocularist
https://alexx-kay.livejournal.com/289581.html

#EyesByHand #EyeProsthetics #Prosthetics #BodyArt #BodyModification #AncientMedicine #ToBeRead