A lot happened in April! I had a lot of chunky posts, so we will be short on the short fiction miscellany this month. But there’s still some. And it’s disproportionately good. So let’s get to some sci-fi fantasy:

Short Fiction

I posted my usual magazine review, a five-zine mini, and a review of If We Cannot Go at the Speed of Light. I read a lot of short fiction! If We Cannot Go at the Speed of Light particularly stands out. But you know what else stands out? Almost every random piece I read that wasn’t part of a bigger review post. Are we doing all favorites? We just well might be.

April Favorites

• Middle Song (2026 short story) by Thomas Ha. I talk about Thomas Ha a lot, and it’s tempting to review this only in relation to his other fiction. It probably wouldn’t be my starting point, but I’m also not the sort of reader who typically peruses Bourbon Penn. If you are? This is a weird piece with atmosphere for days that in some ways has the feel of a single episode in a broader world (for Ha fans, this calls to mind “The Sort”) but also has a lot to say on resistance and complicity (like “Grottmata”). There’s a sufficiently satisfying plot for readers who need such things, but the atmospheric weirdness is the calling card. And yet it has something to say. At a third of the way through 2026, this is the best short story I’ve read so far.
• Grackles (2026 short story) by K. Ferngall. Have my last couple reviews been vibe-heavier than usual? Perhaps. But that will continue for at least one more story, as “Grackles” stitches together small-town legends from 19th century America to try to find the true story behind a shabby traveler who would show up, possibly with the Devil, and reluctantly work wonders. There are big questions under the surface about justice and the afterlife, but this one is mostly about diving through the haze of strange, legendary Americana, and the vibes are on point.
• Deficiency Agent (2026 short story) by Andrew Liptak. Ordinarily, I don’t go in much for military stories, nor sci-fi tales with painfully obvious real-world analogues. And yet, I have sufficient feelings on unreflective trust of the GPS to be curious about this tale of a souped-up, military-grade navigational AI and its instance on leading a supply convoy down a bizarrely circuitous route. While it’s fairly up front about the real-world takeaway, the in-universe stakes are sufficiently high as to build up the tension that keeps the reader engaged. And the ultimate direction of the plot avoids both flat-footed anti-AI and AI-obsessed pitfalls to deliver a piece that feels grounded and an ending that’s genuinely clever. It’s a story with something to say, but that doesn’t mean it can’t offer real drama or moments of levity.

Novels and Novellas

Reviews Posted

• Psychopomp and Circumstance (2025 novella) by Eden Royce. This fantasy of manners explores plenty of magic in its alternate Reconstruction setting, all while diving into the importance of community and the choices one makes even when backed into a corner.
• The Poet Empress (2026 novel) by Shen Tao. A rags-to-riches epic in a fanciful China, tinged with romance but subverting the expectations of genre Romantasy to explore three characters molded by the traumas around them and yet inevitably shaping the future of the empire.
• Dawn (1987 novel) by Octavia E. Butler. A meditative first contact story, where the characters’ visceral disgust isn’t mirrored in the reader but the challenges of a situation where the lead has no real levers of power come through loud and clear.

Other April Reads

• Covenants (2004 novel) by Lorna Freeman. A chunky fantasy tale that hearkens back to the epics of the 80s and 90s–there are a few seams, but it’s a lot of fun. Full review to come.
• The Language of Liars (2026 novella) by S.L. Huang. An extremely linguistics-heavy tale about a race trying to bolster their limited resource via their secret ability to jump into the minds of the titanic Star Eaters, formerly enslaved and poorly-understood, but indispensable in the harvesting of the galaxy’s most precious resources. This one delivers emotionally and thematically and will surely be one to remember at the end of the year. Full review to come.

Bingo

A new Bingo year has started! I love this time of year! I’ve posted my initial TBR-shuffling plan for the 2026 r/Fantasy Bingo challenge, along with a copy of my 2025 Bingo card complete with information about its applications to 2026.

Hugos

The Hugo Awards shortlists have been announced. As usual, I’m over on r/Fantasy planning a summer Readalong. Not so usual? I’m one of the finalists this year. It’s an enormous honor, and I’ve been excited to dig into the reviews of some of the other finalists in my category (Best Fan Writer). I’ve also taken the opportunity to provide a reintroduction, seeing as how the one in the depths of the blog is nearly six years old.