2026 Recommended Books/Stories/TV/Movies

 

Yes, folks, it's that time again. I must make a list and check it twice, so as to find out who's been naughty and nice.  

Short Story

I've started subscribing to The Deadlands, and the very first issue, Winter 2026, has a banger of a story. "You Build Your House On Your Father's Corpse," by Sadoeuphemist, is a surreal exploration of death and parenting.

"Three Fortunes On Alcestis As Told By the Fraud Baeliss Shudal," Louis Inglis Hall, Clarkesworld Magazine February 2026. (This is is the tale of a "false" fortune-teller who nevertheless manages to tell quite a bit of truth. This story has a touch of the horrific as well, as the protagonist reads the mad emperor's fortune in the "shattered entrails of an entire civilization." This is another story that is on the quiet side, but the further you read the more steam it gathers, and the more it pays off at the end.)

"Painstaking," Rich Larson, Clarkesworld Magazine February 2026. (This story is a cyberpunk story set in Nigeria dealing with family and identity. The premise is a bit bonkers--the protagonist, Mars, is inhabited by an immortal alien organism that has turned his body into something resembling a starfish, capable of regenerating a twin, called a "clone-brother," Balarabe, after Mars was accidentally cut in half. This is a rather gross idea that gets explored in detail in this story, and ends up being quite interesting.) 

"The Stars You Can't See By Looking Directly," Samantha Murray, Clarkesworld Magazine January 2026. (This is an interesting little story that is a cross between science fiction and magical realism. The precipitating event, snow on Christmas Day in Australia at the height of summer, sets off a chain of events that represent a new evolution for the human race, with all babies conceived thereafter apparently genetically modified humans. The story becomes a quiet, thoughtful examination of the past and the future of humanity, and what it will mean for the respective children of the protagonist and her best friend, one of which will be an "old" human and one of which will be new. This story packs quite a punch.)

 "The Desolate Order of the Head in the Water," A.W. Prihandita, Clarkesworld Magazine January 2026. (This is a creepy little horror story, and the title is fully accurate. It's a near-future story of an all-conquering AI, and is as bleak as you might expect. It's probably not something you want to read if you're depressed. Having said that, why did I like it, you ask? Well, even bleak stories, if written well enough and with compelling characters, can worm inside your head and stay there. This is one of those.)

"Macaroni Art in the Age of Filtration," Ryan Cole, Clarkesworld Magazine April 2026. (This is a story with a rather bleak setting--environmental destruction and underground colonies that sometimes run out of air--that nevertheless shines in its portrayal of a young woman's love for her little brother.)

"Human Studies 401," Abbie Nicole Yee, Clarkesworld Magazine April 2026. (This is a flash SF/horror story about godlike aliens, and love, and the former using the latter to do the human race in. It doesn't have a happy ending, but the story is a knife you don't know is cutting you until you've reached the end.)

"The Profitable Sentience of Household Gods," Louis Inglis Hall, Clarkesworld Magazine May 2026. (Hall is a new writer, but so far I've really liked all of his stories. This is a tale of a benevolent  AI who wants to serve its humans and rises through the ranks, only for the story to take an unexpected darker turn.)

"Archaeological Evidence for the Time Traveler," Tia Tashiro, Clarkesworld Magazine May 2026. (This is a poignant story of time travel, and a mother's love for her son, reaching out across the centuries.)

"Conquerers," Nick Wolven, Clarkesworld Magazine May 2026. (This is a really interesting story, set on a colony planet with a bit of philosophical discussion: Grounders vs. Spacers; rough, uncouth, spoiled explorers vs. settled stay-at-home settlers and ecologists. It reminded me of N.K. Jemisin's story "Emergency Skin," where Earth was improved immeasurably once the rich white supremacist snots left.)

"Piglet Delivers," Maria Haskins, Apex Magazine February 2026. (Now that the Pooh characters are in the public domain, other writers can do something with them. This is a dark tale of a reimagined Hundred Acre Wood, where Christopher Robin has abandoned his animal friends, Piglet is a truck driver, and Kanga and Roo are the local Mafia-like enforcers.)

"The Bathhouse for Long Life," Claire Jia-Wen, Apex Magazine May 2026. (This story has as its protagonist the daughter of a spider demon, and talks about the Kingdom of Women and the "springs of conception and abortion," a thinly veiled metaphor for the rotten state of reproductive rights in this country. I don't care if you don't like messages in your fiction; sometimes we need them, especially in times like these. This is more elegant than most, but it is incredibly hard-hitting.)

Novelette

"Donor Unknown," Nika Murphy, Clarkesworld Magazine January 2026. (This is a clever, complicated story of an android matchmaker wearing the holographic face of a human, who goes hunting for a painting taken from a Jewish family during the Nazi occupation in 1941. This story deals with prejudice and ghosts of the Holocaust, and generational trauma. It talks at the very end about "loving one's true self," so it has a nice uplifting conclusion.)

"D0G," Tania Fordwalker, Clarkesworld Magazine April 2026. (This is a post-apocalyptic story that is not about flesh-and-blood dogs--note the title's spelling--but is nevertheless about dogs, and loyalty, and impossible choices.)

Novel

This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me, Ilona Andrews (5 of 5 stars, full review here). (The author is better known for their Kate Daniels urban fantasy series, but this portal fantasy, with the meta storyline of the protagonist unexpectedly being transported to the city of Kair Toren, the setting of the infamously unfinished epic fantasy series she has read over and over again, is definitely a leveling up. If you like rich, layered worldbuilding, snap this up.) 

Children of Strife, Adrian Tchaikovsky (5 of 5 stars, full review here). (I've read plenty of the author's books, but this fourth entry in the award-winning Children of Time series is one of his best. Do not miss it.)

Ignore All Previous Instructions, Ada Hoffman (4 of 5 stars, full review here). (This is a potent mixture of the horrors of generative AI and the horrors currently being inflicted on the LGBTQ community, set in a future where humanity has expanded into the solar system.)

Twelve Months, Jim Butcher (4 of 5 stars, full review here). (This 18th volume of the long-running urban fantasy Dresden Files is one of the better offerings in the series. It's slower-paced, more thoughtful and reflective, and deals with the aftereffects of trauma and grief. It's also an effective character study of the protagonist, Harry Dresden. I think it's a good setup for the remaining books in the series.)

Young Adult

To Ride a Rising Storm, Moniquill Blackgoose (This book isn't as good as the first in the series, To Shape a Dragon's Breath; it's very much a middle-trilogy book, including an abrupt and somewhat annoying cliffhanger ending. Nevertheless, the world is more complex, and if this story is quieter and more slice-of-life [and also clearly setting things up for the finale], it makes up for it with its expanded worldbuilding. Indeed, the magical sigils, called "skiltas," that control a dragon's breath are becoming so convoluted I can hardly follow them. That's on me, however, not the author. Anequs and her dragon are growing up, and she is even more determined to preserve her people and their way of life, protecting them from the culture-destroying Anglish.)

Downfall, Marc J. Gregson (4 of 5 stars, full review here). (This is the third book in the young-adult science fantasy Sky's End trilogy. The pacing in this book is off, but once the story slows down a bit, it comes to a satisfying end. The protagonist Conrad manages to defeat his terrible uncle, and as the story ends he is basically having to rebuilt his world. This trilogy is not like any other YA story out there.)

Graphic Novel

Absolute Wonder Woman Vol. 2: As My Mothers Made Me, written by Kelly Thompson; Hayden Sherman, artist (5 of 5 stars, full review here). (The first volume of this series, The Last Amazon, was the best graphic novel I read last year, and this continues the series' excellence. Kelly Thompson has really gotten to the heart of who Diana is, and the artwork in this volume is stellar. You should not miss it.)

Series

The Dresden Files, Jim Butcher (See my review of Twelve Months, above. The Dresden Files are one of the few urban fantasy books from the early-oughts still around.)

I didn't expect too much from  Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, wondering if they perhaps should have titled it Star Trek 90210. I have been pleasantly surprised, as this season has had a four-episode (so far) run that has made it worth the price of admission. The four episodes are "Vox in Excelso," "The Life of the Stars," "Series Acclimation Mil," and "Come, Let's Away." I think my favorite of the bunch is "The Life of the Stars," an absorbing and emotional examination of coping with trauma, set to the students' performance of the play Our Town. Robert Picardo shines in this episode. 

For All Mankind, Season 5 Ep 3, "Home," ep 8, "Brave New World," and ep 10, "This Land Is Our Land." (Apple TV's alternate history of the space race is still going strong, and these are the three outstanding episodes. "Home" gives an original character a poignant send-off, "Brave New World" ramps up the suspense in a tension-filled race to stop an invasion from Earth, and "This Land Is Our Land" is a sad but hopeful ending to the season.) 

Star City, Season 1 Ep 6, "Awl In a Sack," and Ep 8, "The Wolves." (Apple TV's spin-off of For All Mankind tells this alternate history of the Soviets winning the race to the moon in 1969 from the Russian point of view, complete with all the Cold War-era Soviet paranoia, fascism, and totalitarianism. Anna Maxwell Martin creates a chilling portrait of a KGB colonel who will kill for the regime without hesitation.)

Spider-Noir, Season 1, Amazon Prime. (This show, a live-action spinoff of the animated Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse starring Nicolas Cage as a Depression-era early version of Spider-Man known simply as the Spider, is better than it has any right to be. It leans heavily into its noir and pulp roots, and gives Nicolas Cage a role where all of his twitches and over-the-top acting style can be used in service of the plot. You can also watch it in either black and white or full popping Technicolor! Seriously, this show was great fun.)

Project Hail Mary, directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller. (Based on Andy Weir's novel and starring Ryan Gosling, this is the story of a milquetoast--nay, cowardly--science teacher who is unwillingly recruited to save the world, and his friendship with a five-limbed alien that enables him to do just that. People may object to the science, but that isn't the story; the friendship between Ryland Grace and Rocky is the story.)

Backrooms,  written/directed by Kane Parsons. (This weird, mind-bending little horror movie has broken out in a big way. It's the tale of a man who stumbles into a multidimensional portal in the basement of his furniture store, a Lovecraftian dimension that lacks the tentacled monsters but shows us that the monsters in someone's subconscious can be even worse. It will also probably put you off ever having yellow paint and wallpaper.)