Good Stuff Recently Read (1/2)
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SJ Games Daily Illuminator for April 5, 2026
Good Stuff Recently Read (1/2)
I got some science fiction for Christmas, and gave myself some more. And they have all been at least pretty good, and some were excellent.
Terra Ignota – This is a four-book saga by Ada Palmer. (I will not call it a series, because adding a fifth book would be deeply wrong.) It describes the pivotal years of a not-so-near Earth in which war, unknown for hundreds of years, is coming back. The leaders of the seven great Hives and three Laws can see it in the numbers. They've put it off for years in ways both open and secret, but they can't stop it. The events are seen, mostly, through the eyes of an affable lunatic, who is a good man, a polymath genius and binge killer – yes, you read that right. There are so many memorable characters, so many brilliant new words and new uses of old words, so many stirring stories within the story, that I'm going to stop with that description of Mycroft Canner and send you to the books to find out whether humanity survives.
The Tainted Cup – was a great success, so one sequel is out now and another at press. (This is me, cheering.) Robert Jackson Bennet has created a very disturbing science-fantasy empire within a very disturbing world, and you will not be surprised that Crimes Happen. This is the story of how this world's Nero Wolfe found her Archie Goodwin, and their first case. Do not be offput by the moronic back-cover blurb invoking Holmes and Watson; they were never here. Either the blurb writer has only heard of one detective duo, or they think you have . . . Likewise, this is not a world of magic, you blurb-dribbling cretins, but of twisted science. But I digress, distracted by the solecisms I wanted you to ignore. Highly recommended from both the science-fantasy and the detective side.
Some Desperate Glory – by new novelist Emily Tesh, kept me going back mentally and reviewing what I had learned so far on the down days between chapters. Kyr is a soldier in the last free human outpost, willing to sacrifice anything to strike at the alien oppressors. The problem is, she may not have a completely accurate view of her situation or her outpost's . . . It's a mess. And the whole timestream keeps changing, and now it's a worse mess. This story is both uplifting and heartbreaking, and it may take over your brain for a little while.