News Percy Jackson and the Olympians Percy Jackson and the Olympians Season 2 Actor Reveals He Secretly Appeared in the Original Films He wore lots of prosthetics in both… By Vanessa Armstrong | Published on December 8, 2025 Credit: Disney/David Bukach Comment 0 Share New Share Credit: Disney/David Bukach The second season of Disney+’s Percy Jackson and the Olympians is set to premiere on December 10, and an actor in the upcoming episodes also had a spot in one of the Percy Jackson films from the 2010s. That actor is Aleks Paunovic, who is playing the villainous cyclops Polyphemus in season two. However, in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, he revealed that the character isn’t the first time he’s been in the Percy Jackson franchise. “What’s so funny is the producers didn’t know,” Paunovic said about his presence in the first Percy Jackson film. “I wasn’t going to say anything until the contract was done….” Paunovic’s part in the film, he said, “was more of a stunt gig than anything.” He was a cyclops then too, running through the forest. He ended up telling executive producer Dan Shotz after the paperwork was signed. “When I told Dan afterwards, he was like, ‘What?!’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, man.’ He goes, ‘Well, that’s an Easter egg for people.’” Paunovic might be the only actor who appears in both the films and the television series. He also wore prosthetics for both, and for the Disney+ show he donned about forty pounds of it, which—along with his costume—took about five hours to get ready. One thing that wasn’t prosthetics for the show, however, was his single eye. “How I was acting in the TV show, that’s what they used for just the one eye. So my blinking and where my eyes were going were just transferred, and then they took both of my eyes out. So it’s actually my eye, and my eye reacting to the scene.” You can see Paunovic’s CGI-ed eye when the second season of Percy Jackson and the Olympians premieres on Disney+ on December 10, 2025. [end-mark] The post <i>Percy Jackson and the Olympians</i> Season 2 Actor Reveals He Secretly Appeared in the Original Films appeared first on Reactor.

News Pluribus Pluribus Episode 6 Had a Vince Gilligan Cameo You Probably Missed The moment is the first time Gilligan has appeared on-screen in one of his shows By Vanessa Armstrong | Published on December 8, 2025 Credit: Apple TV Comment 0 Share New Share Credit: Apple TV Warning! This post contains spoilers for the latest episode of Pluribus, “HDP.” One of the big reveals in the sixth episode of Pluribus comes when Carol discovers that the hive mind is, among other things, eating human-derived protein (aka, human bodies smashed up into a slurry then put into milk cartons). Later on in “HDP,” the individual formerly called John Cena explains to Carol, the necessity behind it—they don’t like doing it, but if they don’t, they’ll starve because they can’t even pick apples from a tree for food, since that hurts the tree. Brief aside: Does it, though? Doesn’t the apple tree want animals to eat the apples, so their seeds spread and create more apple trees? Shouldn’t the hive mind see that and eagerly pick and eat the apples, since that would make the tree happy? But I digress… Carol discovers the hive is eating people by investigating a warehouse-sized freezer, where various body parts are wrapped in plastic for future slurry consumption. We get a glimpse of some of these body parts, specifically a decapitated head with its mouth open in (what Carol likely presumes) horror. That head is none other than show creator Vince Gilligan’s. In a conversation with Carol herself, Rhea Seehorn, he explained how the moment came to be. “I had never done the Hitchcockian cameo until episode six of Pluribus, where my severed frozen head appears on the show,” he said. Gilligan described the process of making that head “wonderfully noninvasive.” Special effects expert Joe Ulibarri simply captured his head using a LiDAR scanner to capture Gilligan’s likeness and then 3D printed it. Gilligan also got a smaller bust of the image for his own enjoyment. Fun! See if you can catch other Easter eggs when new episodes of Pluribus premiere on Apple TV on Fridays. In the meantime, check out Seehorn’s interview with Gilligan about his frozen head cameo below. [end-mark] The post <i>Pluribus</i> Episode 6 Had a Vince Gilligan Cameo You Probably Missed appeared first on Reactor.

Books book reviews Horizons Beyond Grief: Psychopomp and Circumstance by Eden Royce Jenny Hamilton reviews Eden Royce’s “beautiful, spooky, and deeply heartfelt” novella. By Jenny Hamilton | Published on December 8, 2025 Comment 0 Share New Share In a magical version of America’s Reconstruction era, Phaedra St. Market is white-knuckling her way through the cotillions and marriage proposals her parents see as the only path to a safe and prosperous future. Phee wants to control her own life, perhaps working with her father at his distillery, or even hiring on with one of the funeral directors in New Charleston. Upon receiving word that her aunt Cleo has died, Phee insists that she will pomp for her beloved aunt, giving her the homegoing she deserves. Aunt Cleo left the family home in disgrace after Phee’s grandmother’s funeral, and Phee now deeply regrets not making more of an effort to spend time with Cleo while she was alive. In death, at least, she can extend the loving care and familial support that Aunt Cleo lacked in the final decade of her life. If Phee does the job well, maybe a local funeral home will take notice of her. Though Phee’s mother is hotly opposed to the idea—Phee has never planned a homegoing before! Cleo wronged the family and can never be forgiven!—Phee sets off alone for Horizon, the city Aunt Cleo founded and made her home. Psychopomp and Circumstance wears its speculative elements so lightly that it’s only when I reached the book’s end that I fully understood how much of a fantasy novel it is. Magic is woven through every part of Phee’s world—the carriages are drawn across water by hippocampi, the food can carry spells, and unearthly creatures abound in Horizon. Royce has created a rich world that’s full of possibility for future books, if she so chooses, but those elements all exist in service of the emotional story Royce wants to tell. When we first meet Phee, she’s been standing on the neutral ground of her own life for several years, neither progressing toward her desired independence nor acceding to her mother’s vision for her life (marriage; polite society; uplifting her people through prosperity). Her aunt’s death provides the catalyst for her to get off the sidelines and into the game. Her initial agreement to arrange Cleo’s funeral arises purely from a place of care for her aunt, and from the recognition that it’s the only thing she can do now in service of this relationship. This moment, Phee’s impulsive act of love, sets up the book’s two most prominent and, to my mind, loveliest themes: the discrepancy between intention and action, and the question of what we owe to each other, living and dead. In all the years since Aunt Cleo was cast out from Phee’s family, Phee never went to Horizon to visit her, a decision she deeply regrets now that Cleo has died. As a reader, I felt really defensive of Phee for this. She was only a child, and then a very young adult, and she was and remains dependent on the approval of the same people who sent Cleo away in the first place. But Royce’s point is that my excuses, or anyone’s excuses, cease to matter in the face of death. Phee’s opportunity to have a relationship with Cleo is gone now, and forever, and no excuses, however justified, are going to change that. The intention matters less, and the fact of Phee’s inaction more. It’s a theme that reverberates throughout the book. At Cleo’s funeral, Phee speaks to a family member who wronged Cleo in life, and wishes now that they had acted differently. But they were never willing, at the risk of losing face, to repair the breach while Cleo was alive, and they remain unwilling to take any action to atone for it now. Whatever they think about how they behaved, it’s ultimately their action—rather, the lack of action—that carries the most weight. Buy the Book Psychopomp & Circumstance Eden Royce Buy Book Psychopomp & Circumstance Eden Royce Buy this book from: AmazonBarnes and NobleiBooksIndieBoundTarget Similarly, Phee has grown up with the weight of familial expectations on her shoulders. “This was her duty as a daughter of the Reconstruction. Find a suitable husband, have children, and raise them to carry on the family name and its legacy of enriching the city with wealth and knowledge.” As we learn, though, it’s really Cleo—the disgraced aunt, the thrown-away family member—who has done the work of caring for her people in the aftermath of Reconstruction. Her town of Horizon is a resting place and a waystation for both supernatural creatures and Black Americans in need of respite in the aftermath of slavery. Her legacy is care, and it’s that legacy that Phee enters into when she volunteers to manage Cleo’s homegoing. As she spends more time in Horizon, Phee comes to realize that it’s only the appearance that matters to her mother. One of the most moving scenes in the book occurs when Phee spends the morning with a funeral director her mother called “odd” and refused to patronize. Yet Phee sees a man of exceptional kindness, a man who feels deeply the weight of his responsibility to the living and the dead alike. Though Royce isn’t heavy-handed, the gulf between Phee’s mother—who refused reconciliation with her sister even after death—and the man she scorns as “odd” feels particularly wide. Here again, thoughts and intention can only carry us so far. It’s our actions that show our true character. Although they’re absent for most of the book, Phee’s parents are a presence deeply felt in their differences from Aunt Cleo; their choices make them strong foils for the life Cleo built for herself in Horizon. Where Phee was raised to care about appearance and reputation, Cleo showed tenderness to the vulnerable, strange, and outcast. Where Phee’s mother uses coercive control to get Phee to do what she wants, Cleo remained a steady, welcoming presence on the periphery of Phee’s life: steadfast in expressing her love for Phee, but never pushing Phee to go beyond what she was comfortable with. Royce ably navigates the contradictions of caring deeply about family while recognizing people’s flaws and pursuing a life that aligns first and foremost with your own core values. Though I’ve barely mentioned Aunt Cleo’s house (so much to think about in this slim novella!), Psychopomp and Circumstance is, at its core, a haunted house story. As so often in such stories, Phee is haunted by lost possibilities that look like ghosts. After a lifetime of being told what adulthood will look like for her, Phee grasps at the chance to take on the responsibility of planning a funeral—an act for adults, an act that closes off childhood. But her true coming-of-age is her burgeoning understanding of what it means to be accountable to family, to community, and to the dead. This is a beautiful, spooky, and deeply heartfelt read. I can’t wait to see what Royce does next.[end-mark] Psychopomp & Circumstance is available from Tordotcom Publishing.Read an excerpt. The post Horizons Beyond Grief: <i>Psychopomp and Circumstance</i> by Eden Royce appeared first on Reactor.

Movies & TV It: Welcome to Derry IT: Welcome to Derry Embraces the Power of Fear in “The Black Spot” Rich + Margie 4-EVA By Leah Schnelbach | Published on December 8, 2025 Credit: Brooke Palmer/HBO Comment 0 Share New Share Credit: Brooke Palmer/HBO This week’s episode of IT: Welcome to Derry, “The Black Spot”, does finally take us to the murders at The Black Spot, but also gives us a glimpse of Ingrid’s childhood, and what will probably be the military’s endgame. It was written by Jason Fuchs & Brad Caleb Kane, and directed by Andy Muschietti. As Brief a Recap as a King Adaptation Will Allow We open in 1908, with a long setpiece about Bob Gray’s act as Pennywise the Dancing Clown. Far from being mindless slapstick, his act starts as a kind of foreshadowing of Caddyshack as he battles a gopher, then turns into a sweet, silent fable about the death of his wife. The children of Derry are entranced—but as soon as the story ends and the fast dancing music comes back up, they storm the stage and try to tear Pennywise’s wig off. Across the Midway, we see a small boy watching from a barn. Backstage, Young Ingrid shows her Papa her extremely elaborate clown makeup and costume. He loves it and tells her to show him the bow, which she does. He says that soon they’ll work together—“The Pennywise and Periwinkle Show.” “That was mom’s name,” Ingrid says. Bob immediately backtracks. “You can change it!” “No I love it,” she says. He assures her that “…one day the big tent will come a-callin’ again” and that their “act will be something new.” Credit: Brooke Palmer/HBO This achingly sweet interlude ends as badly as you would expect on this show. Later that night, Bob is leaning against a fence drinking, and staring out into the woods. A scruffy kid who looks like he wandered in off the Insidious poster creeps out of the woods. “The children seem drawn to you,” the child says, as that’s a perfectly normal thing for a child to say. Bob comments on that, and the “boy” changes tack, pitching his voice up and saying “I can’t find my parents.” “Me neither,” Bob Gray replies, and now I’m wishing we’d gotten a whole episode of this fuckin’ guy. But then there’s screaming in the woods, and Bob leaves the safety of the carnival and the lights, and the “boy” takes his hand and leads him away. All that’s left to give Ingrid is her Papa’s blood-stained handkerchief, and the interlude closes with a narrowing circle of darkness like a silent film lens. Back to the Black Spot, the mob have burst in. They wave their guns around, but, well, this is an officially recognized military hangout (kind of) and every man in the place pulls his own gun. “Ours just happen to be government issue.” Unfortunately, Hank Grogan does the honorable—and stupid—thing, and tries to give himself up to end the standoff. Reggie and the other men still refuse to let him go with the mob; Clint Bowers (still hidden behind a Dracula mask) convinces the rest of the mob to retreat, only to block the doors and set to work with gasoline and Molotov cocktails, now with the “justification” that the Spot is harboring a fugitive from the law. The camera POV stays mostly in the club for an agonizingly long time. Heads are split open by the bullets the mob manages to shoot into the windows, arms catch on fire, the fire spreads across the ceiling, onto the bar. The doors have all been blocked by the mob, there is no clear way out. People churn and rush in circles, screaming. In the midst of this carnage, a dancing figure appears in the background. Pennywise approaches a sobbing woman, calls her Noreen, and claims he knows a way out. In her shock, she takes the hand of a giant clown and lets him lead her away, and moments later Ronnie Grogan stumbles over them. Pennywise is devouring her, dripping with blood. “Whatsamatta? Do I have… face on my face?” (For fuck’s sake, television show. You’re going to make me laugh during this scene?) Dick, meanwhile, sees a Civil War era (???) ghost and follows it, and finds a way out under the fridge. He starts to climb down alone, but he hears Ronnie’s screams. Reluctantly, extremely reluctantly, he goes back to rescue more people. Dick sees the spirit of Necani, the Shokopiwah warrior, wearing a bear pelt, and asks her for help to find the children. Pennywise spots him. “Seein’ things? I think THEY SEE YOU, TOO.” Dick manages to get past him and practically throws Will and Ronnie into the passageway, and Ronnie practically drags Hank with her as he fights to try to get others. And then… that’s it. A wall collapses, and Dick is separated from the rest of the living people. He escapes, but has to leave Rich and Margie behind. Credit: Brooke Palmer/HBO Richie helps Margie into the Coke fridge, and closes it on her just as she relaizes there isn’t enough room for both of them. He lies on top of the fridge. “Remember what you said about knights? We don’t just pee in pots—we also protect fair maidens.” He tells her the story of the first time he ever saw her, and they sob out that they love each other as the flames consume the roof. Back outside, most of the mob has driven away, but Stanley Kirsh realizes his engine is messed up. As he gets out to deal with it, Ingrid flits through the trees. She approaches him. She is fully done up in her Periwinkle clown gear. Naturally, she’s the one who informed about Grogan. She set this all up, to lure Pennywise to a site of fear and horror. She tries to tell Stanley that this is who she really is, but Stanley tells her to go home and take it off unless she wants to be “black and blue”. She seems disappointed in him for a moment, but then… “Papa?” Bill turns, and there’s Pennywise. Holding a comically huge meat cleaver, of course. And there goes Bill’s head. As Pennywise slurps her husband’s brain out of its skull, it seems to occur to Ingrid that things are amiss. She calls Pennywise Papa again, and he stops eating long enough to say “Show me the bow.” She does, he applauds, and then says he’s going to sleep. When she panics, he reassures her that he’ll come back, but she grabs his arm and begs “Don’t abandon me!” He drops the act and looks at her with pure malevolence, and she screams that he’s not her papa. Pennywise giggles. “I ate him! He still lives inside of me! I can feel him right now!” And then he hits her with the Deadlights, and she levitates. The next morning, the fire department cleans up what used to be The Black Spot. They find Margie, alive in the fridge, and she finds Rich’s body propped up against it. Ronnie and Will come back in from the woods and gather around her. Later, when the kids are sitting outside, we see Ingrid on a gurney being wheeled into an ambulance, and she seems to be catatonic—until she flicks her eyes toward Will. When Major Hanlon and Charlotte get there, Will tells them that Mr. Hallorann got them out, and Hanlon’s called over to speak with Dick. Ronnie takes that opportunity to tells Charlotte that her dad’s in the woods. Credit: Brooke Palmer/HBO Dick Hallorann is sitting on a log, his eyes rolling and head shaking as the dead press around him. Hanlon stands in front of him. “Hallorann! You all right?” “…nooo? Nooooo.” (This is not just the best line read on this show, I think it’s the best line read I heard on TV this year. The way these actors wring incredibly dark humor out of their dialogue is amazing.) “I had to talk to ‘em.” Dick says. From Hanlon’s perspective, it’s just Dick sitting there. From Dick’s, there are legions of dead people whispering, “Make it right…” He tells them that IT is gone, or dormant—“It’s like a light went out”—but that he can still lead them to a Shard. “Now we just gotta follow her,” Dick says, staring past Hanlon. “Who?” he asks. “HER,” Dick replies. He’s looking at Necani, who stands in the woods watching him. Major Hanlon suggests that Charlotte take Hank to their house in Derry, as no one will look for him there. As morning dawns over Derry, the radio DJ informs the town that an “electrical fire” destroyed “an illegal Colored speakeasy.” He says that among the dead were Stanley Kirsh (“Rest in peace, Stanley. No one could filet a tenderloin quite like you.”) and Hank Grogan. So now at least the town thinks he’s gone. Lilly’s mom glares at her daughter to eat more of her breakfast as they listen to the horror on the radio. The Shokopiwah meet, and tally up the dead. Twenty-three adults, seventeen children. As some of the newer members of the circle react in horror at the numbers, Rose reminds them to “focus on the lives we protected because we keep this thing in ITs cage.” Meanwhile, at the latest dig site, that cage is, um… The military find the Shard that was inside a turtle shell and load it into a truck. Hallorann is told he’s done good work and sent back to base, and Major Hanlon is told to stand down as the plan has changed, and they’re taking the Shard to scientists on the base. When he protests that it’s like “leaving a cage door open” he’s assured that since the entity is dormant, they’ll now be able to study the Shard safely.   Sure. Taniel, somehow, has staked out the Shard site and sees them take it. Ronnie and Margie go to Lilly’s to tell her about Rich, and the three of them go to the Tower to gather his things. Margie starts sobbing again as she realizes that he never got one of his balsa planes all the way to Main Street. Charlotte has Hank change into one of her husbands old uniforms, and tells Will to stay home because even if IT is asleep, as Mr. Hallorann says, it wasn’t IT that set fire to the Black Spot. She takes Hank to Rose, and tells the other woman that she has contacts in Montreal who could help him start over. They just need help getting him over the border. “Just a line on a map, right?” As Rose smiles, Taniel bursts in. “We might have a problem.” The scientists and military men are slowly putting the Shard into what looks like a barbecue smoker. Major Hanlon rushes in with a gun to try to stop them, and for a moment they stand down at Shaw’s order. Shaw finally explains his real plan. The country is “fracturing into jagged pieces”, but “the one thing that makes people listen is fear.” In Derry, after the horrific events at the Black Spot: “The streets are calm today. No rioting, no looting, no unrest. The Fear settles on every living person it touches… like a fog. Like a goddamn anesthetic.” (I think the streets might also be calm cause Derry’s fucking racist, and the good white people of Derry are pleased about what happened, even if they won’t admit that, and the small Black population knows a protest will only lead to more murder—but I doubt the General’s going to hear that opinion.) Major Hanlon is, in his way, as horrified at this mask coming off as the kids are when they glimpse IT. “You want to make America Derry???” He tells Major Hanlon that his actions “may very well have saved this country” and tells him to go home. And as soon as he’s out of earshot he tells his underling to make sure Hanlon never leaves the base. The phone rings, and Will, trapped at home, runs to it. It’s Ronnie, calling to talk about what happened at the Black Spot—but once she starts describing how delicious Rich’s fear was, Will realizes that his enemy isn’t dormant after all. “I’m done being afraid of you!” he screams, which is easy to say over the phone, but harder when he turns and sees Pennywise crouched on top of the fridge like a particularly menacing cat. IT Deadlights him. Do We All Float? Credit: Brooke Palmer/HBO Hoo boy. I absolutely love the way the show takes the time to give us the long set piece at the circus. Seeing Ingrid’s dad’s artistry, seeing how great he is with her, seeing how, in the midst of this life that was clearly broken down, he was trying to give her acceptance and creativity and magic, makes it all the more horrible when the idyll comes to an end. It goes a little way towards explaining her actions as an adult. Bob Gray’s silent play is amazing? It created a fascinating cognitive dissonance to see Pennywise perform something so moving. And then to drop us from that into the horror at the Black Spot was masterful. By keeping us in the building for the fire, the show doesn’t allow us to look away from what’s happening, it doesn’t soften any of it, and then it shows us the aftermath: the happy white folks of Derry going about their day, the stern white generals informing their Black reportees that what America really needs is more racist massacres. My only frustration here is that Dick only managed to get Will, Ronnie, and Hank out—given how cavalier the show has been about plot armor, it would have been nice if the show had included a couple of background characters escaping to let it work both ways, and add to the realism. The scene with Margie and Rich is just perfect. After those two sequences, I was shocked to see how much episode was still left. Both of them were so riveting that they felt like entire episodes on their own. But the show still added actual nuance to moments that could have just been plot machinations, with Charlotte finally reaching out to Rose for the friendship she was promised, the kids all coming together to mourn their friend, and Major Hanlon trying to make a giant heroic play only to learn just how high up the evil goes. In all of this, it’s Dick Hallorann who’s proving baffling. When the spirits tell him to “Make it right”—what does that mean? Surely not to let IT escape. Why would Necani lead him to the Shard, after everything she sacrificed fighting IT? Is this some sort of huge spiritual trap? Or is IT still manipulating him, even though, at this point, he think IT has gone dormant? Aside from that, I really love how he was going to fully abandon everyone to their fate. I’ve really enjoyed seeing the beginning of the Mr. Hallorann who risks his life for a boy he barely knows decades in the future. And finally, holy crap, Madeline Stowe as Ingrid. The arc on this character has been beautiful to behold, and the way she says “Papa?” destroys me. All of the acting has been stellar here: Arian S. Cartaya and Matilda Lawler in their final (???) scene together, all the kids coming together to mourn Rich, Bill Skarsgård as Bob Gray. The only way this kind of horror works is if it’s grounded, and these performances have been fantastic all the way through. #JustKingThings Credit: Brooke Palmer/HBO In the book, the murders at The Black Spot are recounted as a horrible act of racism that becomes part of Mike Hanlon’s generational trauma. I was extremely concerned with how this would be handled, since it could so easily become exploitation, or trauma porn, but the way the show expands on it is brilliant. The massacre is set in motion by a white woman. BUT. She isn’t just acting out of jealousy, racism, or some twisted power game—she sets the massacre up because she wants to draw Pennywise out, to try to save her father. Which is much more interesting, and even more tragic. This disturbed person uses her lover, who protected her at the risk of his own life, as bait. But not bait for a stupid white power fantasy, bait for an evil alien creature that feeds on fear. I also have to note that both of the white girls make it out alive—the girl who is recognized and sent home by a mob member, and then Margie, who Rich saves at the cost of his own life. Almost every Black person, and one Cuban boy, are murdered by white supremacist thugs. And as General Shaw notes, there are no riots the next day, because the few people in Derry who have tried to ally across racial lines—all of them quite young—have been terrified into submission. Turtles all the Way Down The military finds the shard that was sealed up in a turtle shell, but they seem to be able to take it and barbecue it easily enough. Mike Hanlon’s Photo Album We finally see the killing at the Black Spot, and we see the last day in the life of Bob Gray, so it’s kind of the photo album come to life. Ridiculous Alien Spider, or Generationally Terrifying Clown? Credit: Brooke Palmer/HBO After all the irritating “Pennywise is gonna run really fast now” stuff, the show finally shows us some things that transcend all of that. First the creepy child wandering in from the dark woods, with its strange, obviously performative voice and unblinking Kubrick eyes. But better, I think, is that we simply see IT eating. We see the delight it takes tormenting humans, and the sheer joy IT takes in burying ITs teeth into flesh. After all the bells and whistles of embodying people’s deepest fears, IT is simply a carnivorous animal hunting us and chucking us straight to the bottom of the food chain—the most primal fear most people don’t even know they have. And best of all, ITs sick glee in laughing at Ingrid and ripping away her fantasy that somehow her dad is still in there, able to fight back.[end-mark] The post <em>IT: Welcome to Derry</em> Embraces the Power of Fear in “The Black Spot” appeared first on Reactor.

Books reading recommendations Five Freshly Reprinted SFF Books and Series Did you miss these books the first time around? Good news! By James Davis Nicoll | Published on December 8, 2025 Image by 愚木混株 Yumu [via Unsplash] Comment 0 Share New Share Image by 愚木混株 Yumu [via Unsplash] There are many reasons one might miss books when they are first released. Perhaps the books were poorly distributed, the warehouse in which the print run was stored flooded, the cover art misled purchasers1, you weren’t in the mood for that book at that particular time, you couldn’t afford it, you had to detour to the emergency room before reaching the bookstore, you had yet to be born when they were released2, and so on. Given how short the shelf life of a book can be3, it’s not uncommon for readers to discover that they missed their window of opportunity. Such readers need not despair and hurl themselves into the Seine4—there is such a thing as reprints. New editions provide readers with that rare thing, the second chance. You might want to consider these five recently (or soon to be) re-released books and series. Dominion of the Fallen by Aliette de Bodard For the last eight centuries, fallen angels have found refuge in Paris, the City of Lights. This has not always worked out to Paris’ benefit, as the Fallen’s Great Houses are as keen on competition as they are indifferent to collateral damage. Since the 1914 unpleasantness, Paris has become a desolation. House Silverspires survived the conflict. It survived the loss of its founder, Morningstar. Can it survive what is to come? Dominion of the Fallen includes three novels, The House of Shattered Wings (2015), The House of Binding Thorns (2017), and The House of Sundering Flames (2019). All are slated for re-release with brand-new covers. Community Witch by Ash Kreider Aspen Fahey is a non-binary aspiring community witch and failed witchfluencer living in downtown Toronto. When their aunt dies and bequeaths them a witching practice on Vancouver Island, their life unexpectedly turns into a Lifetime movie: early thirties enby leaves the big city to move to a beautiful small town, has meet-cute with beautiful stranger before running into The One That Got Away. Community Witch is kind of an odd duck for this essay. Unlike the other examples, Community Witch is a recent release. But it began as a self-published work. A publishing deal with Varus Publishing offers a more prominent profile5. Accordingly, the book has been unpublished in its original form, and will be re-released in February of 2026 as Parksville Community Witch. Arabella of Mars by David D. Levine Raised on the frontier world of Mars, Arabella Ashby was dragged back to Earth by her very proper mother. Arabella will be groomed into a suitable young woman for the very best sort of husband. But Arabella prefers less ladylike pursuits. Confounding the homicidal machinations of her malevolent cousin will be only the first of her adventures. The Arabella of Mars series is a steampunk—remember steampunk?—planetary romance series consisting of Arabella of Mars (2016), Arabella and the Battle of Venus (2017), and Arabella the Traitor of Mars (2018), all of which have since fallen out of print, as books do. However, they’ve just been reprinted, so you need not miss them6. Sarah Tolerance by Madeleine E. Robins Sarah Tolerance’s Regency England is a different regency than the one we know. For one thing, the Prince of Wales married Catholic Maria Fitzherbert, which is why the Regent is the Queen Regent. Other details are quite familiar. Poor George III is still quite mad and the roles open to fallen women such as Sarah are still limited, unpleasant, and designed to encourage prudent women to conform. Sarah rejects the role of cautionary tale in favour of becoming quite possibly England’s first woman consulting detective. The Sarah Tolerance series of old consisted of Point of Honour (2003), Petty Treason (2004) (both from Forge) and The Sleeping Partner (2011) (from Plus One Press). However, the relaunch of the series isn’t confined to a reprise of old material. The reprints are companied by a brand-new fourth volume, The Doxies Penalty (2025). Letters to the Pumpkin King by Seanan McGuire Originally published in 2014, Letters was billed as the first collection of Seanan McGuire’s non-fiction works7. It offers a diverse assortment of short pieces, non-fiction as well as poetry, that might otherwise be difficult to obtain. It did so in one of NESFA’s nicely-bound hardcovers that last forever. The combination of “works by an author whose awards are so numerous word count limits preclude listing them,” and “durable, well-made artifact” was enticing enough that readers purchased the whole print run. Which is good! Much better than not selling the entire print run. But a disappointment for anyone who missed the initial release8. Or it was a disappointment! Now you can purchase the second edition. (McGuire fans may also be interested to know there’s a new Velveteen, Velveteen vs. the Early Adventures, available for preorder.) Books are always being reprinted, and thank goodness for that. Did I miss some notable recent or upcoming examples? Please mention them in comments below.[end-mark] I know, I know. That seems terribly unlikely. There’s even a saying about judging books by covers that I someday plan to read… ︎Not being born yet is my excuse for not picking up Curme Gray’s 1951 Murder in Millennium VI. ︎It is not practical to keep books on shelves indefinitely, because that would take up valuable shelf space needed for more editions of The Lord of the Rings and various Stephen King novels. ︎Which would do no good, as the Seine is already full of despairing operatic police officers. ︎Hmmm. I could write an essay on self-published works that found their way into trad publishing. There are certainly enough examples. ︎I assume that ebook issue counts as a re-release. ︎Awkward phrasing for two reasons, one reasonable and one not. The reasonable one is that first implies there might be a second, and I am not sure there were more McGuire non-fiction books. My sources failed me. The unreasonable one is that the collection includes the complete texts of two poetry collections. If poetry counts as non-fiction or at least didn’t disqualify collections containing it as non-fiction, then the two poetry collections might count as non-fiction? Fun fact: I once joked to my boss I had a 128-step system to avoid overthinking and she thought I was serious. ︎Especially readers who have never heard of NESFA. ︎The post Five Freshly Reprinted SFF Books and Series appeared first on Reactor.