News The Vampire Lestat Lestat Would Like a Word in the Trailer for The Vampire Lestat He is a golden god, goddammit By Molly Templeton | Published on April 22, 2026 Photo: AMC Comment 0 Share New Share Photo: AMC Lies, all lies. Or at least some lies. The vampire Lestat (Sam Reid) has some opinions about his story as told by Louis de Pointe du Lac (Jacob Anderson) to Daniel Molloy (Eric Bogosian). He’s not exactly here to set the record straight. But he is certainly here, in the trailer for the series formerly known as Interview with the Vampire, to put his stamp on things. It’s The Vampire Lestat now. And Lestat is a rock god now. I remain uncertain about how he becomes a vampire rock god via music that is so toothless—in this case, a limp cover of Billy Idol’s “Dancing With Myself”—but perhaps they’re saving the good stuff for the actual show. This trailer for the upcoming season begins with a voiceover in which Daniel recites all (okay, some of) the things Lestat has already experienced. “You witnessed the French Revolution, the electric light, the atomic bomb,” he says. “Why music? Why now?” According to Lestat, he is doing a rewrite. The synopsis for this season says: In the upcoming rock and roll-centric season, the Vampire Lestat goes on an electric multi-city tour while being haunted by “muses” from his wild and rebellious past. As his band’s popularity and star power rises, so does Lestat’s influence over vampires and humans alike, leaving others to contend with Lestat’s power in the face of the Great Conversion, an unnatural surge in the vampire population. A previous teaser for this show set Louis and Lestat at each other’s throats—figuratively speaking—across a conference room table. Another showed him having a lil’ meltdown in a bookstore. Every look we’ve had at this season is delicious. The Vampire Lestat also stars Assad Zaman, Delainey Hayles, and Jennifer Ehle. Rolin Jones is the creator, writer, and showrunner. The drama begins June 7 on AMC/AMC+.[end-mark] The post Lestat Would Like a Word in the Trailer for <i>The Vampire Lestat</i> appeared first on Reactor.

Movies & TV Daredevil: Born Again Daredevil: Born Again Makes Us See Red in “Requiem” This episode has enough choking to inspire half a Weeknd album… By Leah Schnelbach | Published on April 22, 2026 Image: Marvel Studios Comment 0 Share New Share Image: Marvel Studios Welcome back to Daredevil: Born Again! Your faithful recapper is Leah again, returned from a fabulous visit to Matty Murdock’s ancestral homeland. (I mean Ireland, not Hell’s Kitchen, I’m in Hell’s Kitchen all the time.) Many thanks to my beloved colleague Emmet Asher-Perrin for taking care of the last two weeks, and pointing out all the same stuff that pissed me off when I caught up on the episodes. And Emmet is right: I was pleased about the inclusion of Saint Lucia! And I am annoyed by Not-Father-Lantom and his willingness to give up his parishioners to the AVTF thugs—but I’m wayyyy more annoyed by the retconning of Buck “Absolutely-Not-Our-Beloved-Wesley” Cashman. This week’s episode is “Requiem”, and it was written by Devon Kliger & Jesse Wigutow, and directed by Angela Barnes. And I wish I could say things were looking up but hoo boy is this episode rough. A Spoilery Recap We open on Fisk sitting beside Vanessa who is, unfortunately, still dead. As ever, let me say that D’Onofrio makes this character live in a way that I don’t think anyone else could. The doctor comes back in and muses that “They that love beyond the world cannot be separated by it” and “death cannot kill what never dies”—which is a nice sentiment, and if he’d left it at that and simply left he might still have a functional spine and everything. Instead he goes on to says something about Vanessa having “gone to the beautiful darkness that awaits us all” which I think really exceeds his pay grade as a medical doctor, and then… he tells Fisk it’s been an honor to accompany him on this whole journey, and he hugs Wilson Fisk. Even in a “normal” end-of-life situation, this is way way way beyond the bounds of what the doctor should do with someone who’s sitting in shock next to newly-dead person! And Fisk responds pretty much exactly how I would, albeit more successfully, because he crushes that doctor like a spent PBR. Somehow an impeccable Buck is already waiting outside to clean up the mess, back from cleaning up the previous mess with Daniel. I guess there’s never traffic between Albany and New York City in this universe? Then the show has a priest intoning the “Requiem Aeternam” or “Eternal Rest” prayer in Latin over Vanessa’s blinding white coffin. The scenes of her funeral are intercut with Matt watching Bullseye sleep, Mr. Charles realizing Fisk stole all his smuggled weaponry back, the AVTF guys celebrating receiving said weaponry, and finally back around to Fisk placing a single red rose on the casket. Image: Marvel Studios After the credits, thugs of some sort show up to a nice house in a suburban neighborhood. They throw a beeping grenade through a window, where a delightful little kid in fairy wings waves it around like a wand. Outside, the thugs are having their various asses handed to them—we hear bodies hit walls, and see blood streak down windows. The clearly superpowered person comes in just in time to disengage the grenade, and guess what? It’s Jessica Jones! She tells the kid—presumably her daughter—that the grenade isn’t a toy, and they grin at each other. Well shit what if this is a good epi— awwww, dammit. Matt and Karen are arguing about the ethics of murder again, this time right after Not-Night-Nurse Soledad finishes stitching Bullseye up and Angela heads back out into the street. Matt actually says “Vengeance isn’t justice, Karen” cause apparently we just say the themes now. Meanwhile at Vanessa’s wake, Buck tasks a shellshocked Daniel with determining whether BB’s the leak (“WHO ELSE COULD IT BE THERE ARE ONLY LIKE FIVE OF YOU” I wail at my TV screen) and tells him that “the big time will take care of you if you take care of it.” He also explains the idea of a Barium Meal Test which Daniel, hilariously, thinks is a meal plan his mom is on. But no, in espionage terms, it means you plant false information to see who leaks it. Meanwhile, on a roof, Matt glowers out over HIS CITY when a rad pair of boots walks up. And inside those boots, once again, is Jessica Jones! She tells him about the raid on her house, says “You told me it wouldn’t touch me” which, what? How could he guarantee that, and how could she trust that guarantee? She goes on to say that a “sketchy” guy called, who was “interested in people like us. I told him to fuck off. Not everyone I know did.” She stares at Matt meaningfully, he takes a beat, and says: “Oh.” (Don’t worry, I’ll yell about this plot point further down.) Then she says her powers drop out sometimes since she had Danielle, so I guess I’m not done being furious. Then the two of them raid the warehouse below, I’m still unclear why because don’t they need those weapons to prove nefarious shit about Fisk? They blow the warehouse up, but not before Jess’ power winks out again and fucking Powell is able to knock her down, and Matt has to leap in and save her. Back at the wake, Heather Glenn is creeping creepily around the Fisks’ bedroom, and steals some of Vanessa jewelry. We all grieve in our own ways? Buck finds her crying in the room, and, in a scene that genuinely felt imported from some other, very different show, he makes Heather sit on the Fisks’ bed, tell him exactly what Muse did to her, and then he encourages her to choke him so hard his face turns purple. Image: Marvel Studios Between this and last week’s foot conversation I really want to hang out in the Daredevil: Born Again writers’ room. He asks if she feels better and she bolts out of the room. But wait! We’re not quite done with Daredevil: FetLife! After a brief scene of Daniel planting a fake story for BB to share, we’re back in Frank Castle’s Sadness Basement. Karen is manspreading in a chair over Bullseye’s prone, shackled body, pointing a gun right at him! She kicks him awake. She climbs on top of him. She puts the gun to his forehead. She flashbacks about Foggy a whole lot. He whispers: “Thank you.” The whole thing is weird and charged and uncomfortable and then, of course, Matt shows up just in time to knocks the gun out of her hand with one of his batons, which should really break her wrist, no? But nobody’s losing their immortal soul on Matty Murdock’s watch, no sir! And all I can think is how much better would this be from Bullseye’s POV? Handcuffed to a cot for hours and hours, you’ve just begged yet another person to kill you, they almost did it, and now you’re watching the Alpha Couple rehash their murder argument, again, like you’re not even in the room anymore. BB has gone to Daniel’s mom’s house on Staten Island for his birthday, where Mom-of-Daniel is selling her on a Spectrum Vitamin MLM scheme that I think is based on the idea of ingesting all the colors of the spectrum? BB seems to genuinely like her. She goes upstairs, sneaks into Daniel’s room, and see all the detritus of his life: a photo of him with his late father, wrestling trophies, posters of mob bosses, a How High poster, a Casino poster on the back of his door. She deletes the “scoop” that she was about to send to Ellison. Of course this doesn’t matter because she still had the SD card in her coat pocket, and while she was snooping in his room, Daniel rifled through her shit and found it. So now he knows that the only person who could possibly be the leak is in fact the leak. I still think their relationship is on firmer ground than Matt and Karen’s right now, though. He says he’s wants to protect her, and BB, ludicrously, says “From who?” and he waves his incoming call from Buck in her face. Mr. Charles confronts the Governor, she tries to posture at him and it doesn’t work, and they both agree to dump Fisk. (As long as all the plots get wrapped up neatly, I was scared to death we might have to stay in some character development for a minute.) The protests grow at Gracie Mansion, and finally, somehow, the Resistance projects their recorded testimonials of AVTF victims onto the walls of the building itself. They also project the words “Resist” and “Rebel”. This galvanizes the protesters, but somehow Fisk is able to leave and go back to his murder catacombs, and he stares at Rabbit in a Snowstorm as, obviously, the AVTF gets the OK to get more violent. Somehow Powell knows that Saunders was the mole and kills him and blames the protesters which is just… stupid? They’ve already got guns trained on the protesters, plausible deniability is way out the window. Somehow in the clash Angela’s friend Javi seems to be the only one killed, which is why Karen is tending to him when her wig flies off, and Powell finally recognizes her and arrests her. And for some reason Matt confronts Wilson in the murder catacombs, tells him “I’m sorry for your loss, Wilson”, and after a very brief attempt at negotiation, they battle in front of the painting. Again. Wilson finally gasps out that Daredevil “cannot” arrest him, and “will not” murder him. We end with Karen kneeling on the ground with her hands in the air, and Matt and Fisk bloodied in the murder basement, gasping for air, with no clear winner. Grace Image: Marvel Studios Watching Fisk crush that doctor like an empty PBR was excellent. We all grieve in our own ways, man. The raid on Jessica’s home, and seeing her destroy all the thugs in the background before she came in to disarm the grenade Danielle was waving around like a wand? Pretty great. Danielle herself was extremely great. Seeing Matt and Jess fight side-by-side again, even if only briefly, was fun… up to a point.   Daniel’s home in Staten Island, the quiet birthday with his mom, the utter lack of other friends, the way BB looks through his bedroom and realizes he is, actually, a person—all of that is very good. Her decision not to send Daniel’s fake scoop (to Ellison???) was both a sigh of relief for those of us who are rooting for her, and a sweet moment of her choosing to try to be his friend for real. The decision to project detained people’s video testimony onto Gracie Mansion itself along with the words “RESIST” and “REBEL” was genuinely stirring. And again, before I get into all of my rage, let me say that all of the acting and fight choreography is stellar. I just wish the scripts trusted us to engage with the show instead of, I don’t know, sitting on our phones and doomscrolling through the reality that the show is mirroring? Retribution Image: Marvel Studios And now for the rest of the episode. Why are Matt and Karen still having the same goddamn argument they’ve been having since the Punisher first waltzed into Season 2 of the Netflix era? Karen knows that Matt will never willingly resort to murder. Matt knows that she thinks violence is sometimes necessary. Why does he leave her alone with the man who killed their best friend? Why does she think she can shoot an unarmed man who’s handcuffed to a cot when her boyfriend will immediately know it wasn’t self-defense once he comes back and hears her heartbeat when she lies? Why does Karen climb into Bullseye’s lap to shoot him through the forehead? Why the hell did BB keep the SD card in her pocket??? Especially when she’s going into Daniel’s house??? I guess we can all assume Surfshark VPN isn’t sponsoring her fucking Phisk broadcasts, cause she clearly knows dick all about security. Why the hell is Heather Glenn stealing Vanessa’s jewelry during the wake? And then choking Buck Cashman on the Fisks’ bed??? I mean, I guess I finally understand what Matt saw in her, but come on. Why does Karen go to the protest when she’s one of the heads of the resistance and needs to stay absolutely underground in order to coordinate shit??? And leaving the women aside for a moment: why do Matt and Wilson need to have a redux of their fight from the end of Season 3??? That fight was great! We saw it already! Do something else! Also, where the fuck is Bullseye now? Is he just… tied to the cot in Frank Castle’s Sadness Basement while everyone else marches off to protests and murder catacombs? OK and about the protest: how many people are on the side of the Resistance? Because I feel like at this point there should be a much larger throng of people gathered, and that the AVTF’s inevitable turn to violence should result in even more chaos, but also in the sheer numbers of protesters tipping the scales a bit. New York City has close to 9 million people in it, and, at least in our timeline, the vast majority of them would be anti-Fisk. So where are they? How is the crowd small enough that Powell is able to wade through the protesters to spot Karen after her Alias wig flies off in the fray? But now back to my real rage: IS THE SHOW TELLING US THAT MOTHERHOOD ROBBED JESSICA JONES OF HER SUPER STRENGTH. And if so, why is it telling us that. Because I need a real, good, thematic reason that I’m watching Matt goddamn barely superpowered Murdock rescue Jessica fucking Jones during a fight in between his usual titanic gasps for breath. I maybe wouldn’t be quite so angry about this if every other woman in the show wasn’t either acting like they had tapioca between their ears or was, you know, DEAD. Actually, fuck that, I would be that angry. You promise me Jessica Jones and she shows up to infodump shit the audience already knows and then lose a fight with Powell? And have to be rescued???? Even if Powell is, um, enhancing himself, which seems likely, you’ve taken a great idiosyncratic troubled anti-hero, tied her powers into her motherhood in a way that I really don’t like, and now had the worst of the AVTF thugs give her a bloody nose and pull a gun on her. Not cool, television show. And on top of alllll that, are you seriously implying, television show, that Luke Cage—LUKE CAGE—would get in bed with the United States government after everything he’s lived through? Have you met the United States government, television show? You’re telling me that Mr. Charles could call LUKE CAGE on the phone and he’d even stay on the line for a second, let alone agree to work with the man? (If it turns out Jess is talking about Danny Rand, fine, I’ll retract my anger. If it’s Trish Walker, well, yeah, she’s already compromised, fine. And if this is some kind of deep cover espionage situation, I might retract my anger—but why would Jess withhold that info from Matt while she’s already recapping the plot?) I just don’t know. I was extremely excited for the show to tackle an underground resistance narrative, I was excited about the AVTF aspect, and about Jessica coming back, and hell, even about Bullseye coming back. But at this point I spend most of each episode saying WHY ARE YOU DOING THAT??? out loud to fictional characters whom I’m pretty sure can’t hear me. Fiorello’s Desk Image: Marvel Studios Fisk has now attempted to double-cross Mr. Charles by handing the weapons shipment straight off to his private AVTF Army, and Mr. Charles has retaliated by going to the Governor’s house and saying that they need to pull all their support for him. So… what now? Fisk attempts to go full feudal lord over the nation-state of New York City, and is pretty much immediately crushed by the US military? Quotes! Image: Marvel Studios “What if this doesn’t end until one of you goes down?”“I can’t think about it that way.”“Well you’re gonna have to! He has proven that he will not hesitate!” —Karen and Matty return to a theme “What the hell is wrong with you? You keep choosing the wrong people! Fisk???—[gestures at Bullseye] this thing—over the people who love you!”“What? H-how can you say that?”“Because it’s true! Because you let them live, and people die. Please, just. Let me do this…[l]et me carry this for you.” —Karen and Matty return to a theme, AGAIN, this time with a frisson of Murder Samwise “You want to know what happened to me? I grew up.” —Karen will never let a good theme die! Unless it murdered Foggy. “I don’t think the little fish tells the big fish how to swim.” —Mr. Charles, off in a different episode of a different television show. Closing Arguments Image: Marvel Studios What’s bothering me is that there are good ideas here, but the show isn’t giving any of them the space to breathe. Karen leaning back into her ruthless side, especially as a counterpoint to Matt’s lost love, Elektra? Very cool! But not when the only result is the two of them rehashing the same argument they’ve been having since literally 2016.   Matt wrestling with his own violent tendencies, especially with a partner who encourages him to give in? Cool! Unless that’s expressed through a replay of his “You’re getting redemption whether you want it or not!” argument that was so powerful when he had it with Punisher, but much less so when he keeps having a shallow replay of it with Bullseye—particularly since his history with Bullseye should make this argument riveting. Matt finally confronting Fisk? Well, again, we’ve seen this so many times! But I will say the fight between them is great, and they’re both giving this their all. Daniel gives us an interesting opportunity to see a kid who clearly grew up with pop culture about the mafia (and my guess would be that he glamorized it a bit—which shows he wasn’t actually paying attention during those Scorsese movies, but whatever) find himself living the life he thought he wanted, only to realize he doesn’t have the stomach for it. For him to realize that his only real friend in all of this is the girl who’s trying to take the whole organization down—and he can’t really trust her, either? That’s a rich text! And Michael Gandolfini is doing great work with it. But instead of sitting with the themes, we see Buck confront Daniel with a scene that is, literally, straight out of Goodfellas. I guarantee you Daniel has watched the scene with Henry Hill and Jimmy and Tommy stopping off at Tommy’s mama’s house and borrowing a knife roughly 1,000 times. I would bet real money that the dialogue about a deer’s paw was playing through Daniel’s mind as he gazed into that trunk. But the episode doesn’t make us stay with him while he lives the reality of hacking a corpse up. We don’t see him bury it. We don’t even see him washing the blood off. After all the protracted build up to last week’s trunk reveal, we only get two brief scenes of him trying to process the emotional fallout this week, and then the focus shifts to his relationship with BB. And we don’t see BB wrestling with her burgeoning friendship with Daniel, she just seems like she’s using him until she suddenly isn’t—but she’s so inept that she’s startled when he says he’s protecting her from Buck. Like, girl. You know Fisk murdered your uncle. You are here to bring down Fisk. You should be terrified all the time, not just when Daniel tells you there’s trouble. And as long as I’m here… in the Netflix Era, Matt’s questions about his faith, justice, mercy, the existence of the Devil—they animated his decisions. In Born Again, the writers have given him two accurate, specific saints to pray to, which i appreciate, but if the wrestling isn’t there it starts to feel like stained glass window dressing. His relationship to Bullseye is animated more by a memory of Foggy than anything else, and since Karen is very clearly #TeamMurder, all of Matt’s internal moral struggle gets outsourced into an argument with her. But again, they already had that argument, and I’d be way more interested in watching Matt Murdock, Hero in Hiding, Symbol of Hope, Pretty Lapsed Catholic At This Point Let’s Be Real, struggle with the problem of Bullseye within himself. Bullseye murdered Father Lantom, tried to murder Karen, murdered Agent Nadim, murdered Vanessa, and murdered Foggy, and now he actively wants to die. This should be agonizing for Matt. WE COME TO THIS PLACE FOR AGONY, MARVEL. I’ve talked for a long time, I’ll shut up. But I formally request a spinoff prequel about the adventures of poor hapless Dr. Doomed.[end-mark] The post <em>Daredevil: Born Again</em> Makes Us See Red in “Requiem” appeared first on Reactor.

News Evil Dead Burn Evil Dead Burn Release Date Revealed In New Teaser Clip This clip makes your last visit to the in-laws look like a cakewalk By Vanessa Armstrong | Published on April 21, 2026 Screenshot: Warner Bros. Comment 0 Share New Share Screenshot: Warner Bros. In-laws, am I right? At least that’s the premise of the latest film in Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead franchise. This one, titled Evil Dead Burn, comes from director Sébastien Vaniček (Infested), who co-wrote the story with Raimi and Florent Bernard. Here’s the official synopsis of the film: Evil Dead Burn unleashes the franchise’s most savage and terrifying ride to date, blazing onto big screens with an all-new chapter of carnage and demonic mayhem. After the loss of her husband, a woman seeks solace with her in-laws in their secluded family home. As one by one they are transformed into Deadites—turning the gathering into a family reunion from hell—she comes to discover that the vows she took in life… live on even in death. The clip Warner Bros. and StudiocanalUK released today brings that conceit to graphic life. In it, poor Souheila Yacoub, who plays the woman in question, is trying to stay alive in a darkened mansion where her presumed in-laws are getting ripped apart, thrown, and crushed around her. It’s disturbing, stressful, and will likely make Evil Dead fans eager to see the full trailer, which Warner Bros. promises we’ll get soon. In addition to Yacoub, Evil Dead Burn stars Tandi Wright, Hunter Doohan, Luciane Buchanan, Errol Shand, Maude Davey, George Pullar, and Greta Van Den Brink. It’s set to premiere in theaters on July 10, 2026. Check out the extended clip below. [end-mark] The post <i>Evil Dead Burn</i> Release Date Revealed In New Teaser Clip appeared first on Reactor.

Excerpts gothic fantasy Read an Excerpt From A Dark and Wild Wood by Sarah Nicole Lemon A lush and atmospheric story of a maiden with dark magic who becomes the apprentice to Lord Death—for a price. By Sarah Nicole Lemon | Published on April 21, 2026 Comment 0 Share New Share We’re thrilled to share an excerpt from A Dark and Wild Wood by Sarah Nicole Lemon, a debut dark fantasy publishing with Harper Voyager on May 26th. Ever since she was a child, Salomé has been plagued by visions of spirits and dangerous powers she can’t control. After watching her foster mother burn as a witch, she and her beloved sister Rochelle are raised together in a convent, a grim and dreary existence. Until one day, Rochelle vanishes.Determined to find a way to save her, Salomé runs: first to a brothel, and then, after a terrible accident, away from the village and into the woods. Deep amongst the trees of the wild Black Forest, she comes face-to-face with Lord Death.Rather than taking her life, he brings her to his home at the heart of the woods, a strange manor full of locked rooms and mysterious corridors, crumbling one moment, magnificent the next. He promises to make her his apprentice and teach her how to harness her mind and magic. His words are as seductive as his presence—but should one trust Death? Drawn to the Edge Another girl is gone,” Dacia said. “I heard from one of the washing women.” “Another?” I asked, then yawned. I stood bleary-eyed and clutching my too-thin wrap against the icy wind, on the premise of scrounging up some eggs for Cook. The rest of the girls were inside, clinging to the last few moments of sleep before Josef would order them up. Privacy was hard to come by in a brothel, but in these late morning hours when all the previous night’s patrons had left and that night’s patrons had yet to arrive, there were a few precious moments when I could pretend we were just two village wives, our cheeks and noses reddened from the wind and our eyes weary from babies or husbands keeping us up at night. I drifted off, staring at Dacia’s golden curls as she ducked to look behind a barrel for some hidden nest. She straightened and caught me staring. But I did not blush. I never blushed. “You’re supposed to be looking for eggs,” Dacia scolded. “I’m too cold,” I said. But I turned my attention to the nooks and crannies of the yard where the chickens liked to lay. It had been an early and long winter, following a meager harvest. The first girl went missing in the October freeze, before Allhallowtide. At first, there were the usual tales of wolves and running off, but then another disappeared, and then another and another and another. A few had been daughters or wives of good standing in the village, good girls, and so the tales had shifted. The current favorite was that of Death, a tall lord, all in black, who rode a black stallion with smoke at its hooves, and lured girls from their beds to carry off to his château deep in the forest. Sometimes as slaves. Sometimes as queens. The village opinion of the girl in question determined the difference in her fate. I picked a corner of the yard where Dacia could not see, and thinking only of having an egg deposited into my hand, reached. My fingers slid across the warm shell of the egg, buried in the straw. “Here,” I said, offering her the pretty blue pullet. “Who was it?” Her smile was generous and just a little sly, there at the corner, which always made my heart race. She took the egg and tucked it away under her wrap. “I don’t know how you find them so easily.” “A gift,” I said with a bitter little laugh and quickly changed the subject. “She probably ran away. Hoping to find patrons other than the Baron’s men,” I said to reassure her. It had only been last summer when our long absent Baron arrived from King Frederick II’s court in Palermo to take up residence in his valley maison. At first, we were excited for the flush of new men and good business. But soon after his arrival it became clear that the Baron was present only to send out a large retinue of guards to gather tributes, taking back in taxes nearly everything we earned from his soldiers. I’d heard—not from his soldiers, but from other women at the well—that he’d been exiled from the Holy Roman Court on account of some financial misdeeds. Buy the Book A Dark and Wild Wood Sarah Nicole Lemon Buy Book A Dark and Wild Wood Sarah Nicole Lemon Buy this book from: AmazonBarnes and NobleiBooksIndieBoundTarget “You don’t think it’s Lord Death?” Dacia’s question was said in jest, but it did not distract me from hearing the undercurrent of fear that swirled in her voice. We all asked the reasonable questions: If they had run away, why had none ever sent word? If they had died, why had no one found their bodies? I remembered the black-eyed gaze of the burning man, looking at me from inside the forest, and a chill crept down my spine. That was the kind of creature in the forest—not some romantic hero that whisked beautiful girls away to make them queens. And too, I remembered the thin figure that had come for Valerie as she burned. That was no Lord or even man. But saying any of this would make Dacia think I’d lost my mind. “Or they ran away to the Bandits of Molsheim,” I offered instead, with a waggle of my eyebrows. The bandits, supposedly led by a pair of much-sighed-about green eyes, had started tormenting the new Baron. Dacia laughed and shook her head at me. “Be sensible,” I said. “If you were Lord Death, you would not keep a home in the middle of a nowhere such as this.” “If it was Lord Death, I might rather he take me,” she said, and I could tell I’d set her at ease. But then she looked toward the forest and called. “Lord Death!” A raw bite of wind snuck along my neck, and the moment she called out, it gusted and sent chills up my arms. It seemed the whole world fell silent, as if a speaker had overheard his name and abruptly stopped so he might eavesdrop. “Stop,” I hissed, panicked. Her face fell. Eyes wide. “Salomé, I was only joking.” “I know, but…” I half turned, glancing behind me at the mountain ridge looming just past the village. The dark gray trees clattered like bones in the wind. A terrible burning leapt into my throat, as if I were still out there, in the field, screaming for my sister to be returned to me. “You don’t know what you might call. I can’t…” But my words stayed clumped together in my throat. I was now twenty-four, and five years had passed since I’d lost Rochelle, but my childlike terror and the memory of the monster who took her remained clear and vivid in my mind. I had never heard a story since that described such a creature or explained what it might have been. My stomach trembled and I grabbed Dacia’s hand in the middle of crossing herself. “Let’s go. It’s cold.” We rushed inside and I slid the bolt tight behind us. Leaning against the door, I waited for my heart to slow. Dacia didn’t notice, carefully carrying the eggs to Cook. I had nothing to fear, I reassured myself, for there was nothing left to take and nowhere lower for me to go. Excerpted from A Dark and Wild Wood, copyright © 2026 by Sarah Nicole Lemon. The post Read an Excerpt From <i>A Dark and Wild Wood</i> by Sarah Nicole Lemon appeared first on Reactor.

News Hugo Awards Here Are the Finalists for the 2026 Hugo Awards Congratulations to all! By Molly Templeton | Published on April 21, 2026 Comment 0 Share New Share LAcon V, the 84th World Science Fiction Convention (WorldCon), has announced the finalists for this year’s Hugo Awards. Members of the 2025 and 2026 WorldCons cast 1,488 nominating ballots for this year’s awards; organizers note that in total, “nominators made 23,543 nominations for 4,299 works and individuals across 21 categories.” Members of LAcon V will be able to vote for the winners when the final ballot opens in May. The awards will be presented in Anaheim, California, on August 30, 2026. Congratulations to the finalists! Best Novel A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett (Del Rey; Hodderscape) Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor (William Morrow; Gollancz) Shroud by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Tor UK; Orbit US) The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow (Tor US; Tor UK) The Incandescent by Emily Tesh (Tor US; Orbit UK) The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson (Orbit US; Hodderscape) 1,153 ballots cast for 555 nominees. Finalists range 126-210. Best Novella Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz (Tordotcom) Cinder House by Freya Marske (Tordotcom; Tor UK) Murder by Memory by Olivia Waite (Tordotcom) The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar (Tordotcom; Arcadia UK) The Summer War by Naomi Novik (Del Rey US; Del Rey UK) What Stalks the Deep by T. Kingfisher (Nightfire; Titan UK) 807 ballots cast for 172 nominees. Finalists range 90-241. Best Novelette “Kaiju Agonistes” by Scott Lynch (Uncanny Magazine, Issue 62) “Never Eaten Vegetables” by H.H. Pak (Clarkesworld, Issue 220) “Rapport: Friendship, Solidarity, Communion, Empathy” by Martha Wells (Reactor, July 10, 2025) “The Girl That My Mother Is Leaving Me For” by Cameron Reed (Reactor, April 2, 2025) “The Millay Illusion” by Sarah Pinsker (Uncanny Magazine, Issue 67) “When He Calls Your Name” by Catherynne M. Valente (Uncanny Magazine, Issue 65) 414 ballots cast for 144 nominees. Finalists range 36-64.  Best Short Story “10 Visions of the Future; or, Self-Care for the End of Days” by Samantha Mills (Uncanny Magazine, Issue 63) “In My Country” by Thomas Ha (Clarkesworld, Issue 223) “Laser Eyes Ain’t Everything” by Effie Seiberg (Diabolical Plots, May 16, 2025) “Missing Helen” by Tia Tashiro (Clarkesworld, Issue 226) “Six People to Revise You” by J.R. Dawson (Uncanny Magazine, Issue 62) “Wire Mother” by Isabel J. Kim (Clarkesworld, Issue 229) 507 ballots cast for 549 nominees. Finalists range 26-60. Best Series Emily Wilde by Heather Fawcett (Del Rey US; Orbit UK) October Daye by Seanan McGuire (Tor US; DAW) Old Man’s War by John Scalzi (Tor US; Tor UK) The Chronicles of Osreth by Katherine Addison (Tor US; Solaris UK; Subterranean) The Craft Wars by Max Gladstone (Tor; Tordotcom) White Space by Elizabeth Bear (Saga Press; Gollancz) 687 ballots cast for 185 nominees. Finalists range 52-136.  Best Graphic Story or Comic Absolute Wonder Woman Vol. 1: The Last Amazon, written by Kelly Thompson, art by Hayden Sherman and Mattia de Iulis, coloring by Jordie Bellaire, lettering by Becca Carey (DC Comics) A Girl and Her Fed, written by KB Spangler, art by Ale Presser (www.agirlandherfed.com) A Wizard of Earthsea: A Graphic Novel, written by Ursula K. Le Guin, adapted and illustrated by Fred Fordham (Clarion Books; Walker UK) The Invisible Parade by Leigh Bardugo and John Picacio (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers; Orion UK) The Power Fantasy Volume 1: The Superpowers, written by Kieron Gillen, art by Caspar Wijngaard, lettering by Clayton Cowles (Image Comics) The Space Cat, written by Nnedi Okorafor, art by Tana Ford (First Second) 362 ballots cast for 243 nominees. Finalists range 19-42. Best Related Work Colourfields: Writing About Writing About Science Fiction by Paul Kincaid (Briardene Books) Inventing the Renaissance by Ada Palmer (University of Chicago Press US, Head of Zeus UK) Last War in Albion: “The Cuddled Little Vice (Sandman)” by Elizabeth Sandifer (Eruditorum Press) Positive Obsession: The Life and Times of Octavia E. Butler by Susana M. Morris (Amistad) “Ragnarök vs the Long Night” by Ashaya and Aziz (History of Westeros Podcast, August 10, 2025)  The Hugo Spreadsheet of Doom, maintained by Renay (Google Spreadsheet) 479 ballots cast for 250 nominees. Finalists range 31-70. Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form Andor (Season 2), written by Tom Bissell, Dan Gilroy, Tony Gilroy, and Beau Willimon, directed by Ariel Kleiman, Janus Metz, Alonso Ruizpalacios (Disney+) Frankenstein, screenplay by Guillermo del Toro, directed by Guillermo del Toro (Netflix) KPop Demon Hunters, screenplay by Danya Jimenez & Hannah McMechan, Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans; directed by Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans (Sony Pictures Animation for Netflix) Mickey 17, screenplay by Bong Joon Ho, directed by Bong Joon Ho (Warner Bros. Pictures) Sinners, screenplay by Ryan Coogler, directed by Ryan Coogler (Proximity Media, Warner Bros. Pictures) Superman, screenplay by James Gunn, directed by James Gunn (DC Studios) 650 ballots cast for 149 nominees. Finalists range 85-313. Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form Doctor Who: “The Story & the Engine,” written by Inua Ellams, directed by Makalla McPherson (BBC One, Disney +) Murderbot: “All Systems Red,” written by Paul Weitz & Chris Weitz, directed by Roseanne Liang, based on the book All Systems Red by Martha Wells (Apple TV) Murderbot: “The Perimeter,” written by Chris Weitz & Paul Weitz, directed by Paul Weitz, based on the book All Systems Red by Martha Wells (Apple TV) Pluribus: “We Is Us,” written and directed by Vince Gilligan (Apple TV) Severance: “Cold Harbor,” written by Dan Erickson, directed by Ben Stiller (Apple TV) The Wheel of Time: “The Road to the Spear,” written by Rafe Lee Judkins, directed by Thomas Napper, based on the series The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan (Amazon Prime Video) 471 ballots cast for 249 nominees. Finalists range 40-98. Best Game or Interactive Work Blue Prince, developed by Dogubomb, published by Raw Fury Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector, developed by Jump Over the Age, published by Fellow Traveller Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, developed by Sandfall Interactive, published by Kepler Interactive Dispatch, developed and published by AdHoc Studio Hades II, developed and published by Supergiant Games Hollow Knight: Silksong, developed and published by Team Cherry 357 ballots cast for 159 nominees. Finalists range 29-110. (924 raw noms) Best Editor, Short Form Scott H. Andrews Jennifer Brozek Neil Clarke Lee Harris Michael Damian Thomas Sheila Williams 305 ballots cast for 128 nominees. Finalists range 30-84.  Best Editor, Long Form Carl Engle-Laird Jaymee Goh Lee Harris Jenni Hill Joe Monti Diana M. Pho 234 ballots cast for 95 nominees. Finalists range 27-74. Best Professional Artist Lulu Chen Kelly Chong Dave Kellett Tran Nguyen John Picacio Tom Roberts  228 ballots cast for 220 nominees. Finalists range 10-28. Best Semiprozine Escape Pod, editors Mur Lafferty and Valerie Valdes, assistant editors Kevin Wabaunsee and Phoebe Barton, hosts Tina Connolly and Alasdair Stuart, producers Summer Brooks and Adam Pracht, and the entire Escape Pod team khōréō magazine, by team khōréō (publisher Aleksandra Hill; editor-in-chief Zhui Ning Chang; editors Kanika Agrawal, Isabella Kestermann, Danai Christopoulou; audio Lian Xia Rose, Jenelle DeCosta, Grayson Norman, Aaron Kling, E.B.; marketing M.L. Krishnan, Ashley Thompson; art Ambi Sun; copyeditors Jeané Ridges, Eleanor Glewwe, Derek Yen, Ariya Bandy; proofreader Cyrus Chin; first readers Adialyz Del Valle Berríos, Sanjna Bhartiya, Kelsey Costa, Merulai Femi, A.R. Frederiksen, Yuvashri Harish, Zohar Jacobs, Lynn D. Jung, Phoebe Low, Katie McIvor, Adil Mian, Katarzyna Nowacka, A.W. Prihandita, Helena Ramsaroop, Jin Hui Saw, Aditya Sundararajan, Sophia Uy, Madeleine Vigneron, Aaron Voigt, K.S. Walker, Akilah White, MJ Woods, Kelsea Yu, Lilia Zhang, Tina Zhu) On Spec: The Canadian Magazine of the Fantastic, published by the Copper Pig Writers’ Society; managing editor/art director Diane L. Walton; poetry editors Colleen Anderson and Bob Stallworthy; fiction editors Barb Galler-Smith, Ann Marston, Virginia O’Dine, Constantine Kaoukakis, Susan MacGregor, Alyssa Kulchisky, Amanda Wells, Ashley Alton, Lorina Stephens, Lareina Abbott, Matthew Stobie Jackman, Cheryl Merkel, Dan Gyoba, Ethan Zou, Jade Mah-Vierling, Jessica Zdril, Kathleen Phul, Krystle McGrath, Thomas Schwarz, and William Thompson; interviewers Roberta Laurie and Cat McDonald; proofreaders Ashlin McCartney, Isaac Calon, and Mya Colwell Strange Horizons, by the Strange Horizons Editorial Collective The Deadlands, publisher Sean Markey, editor-in-chief E. Catherine Tobler, poetry editor Nicasio Andres Reed, nonfiction editor David Gilmore, necromancer Amanda Downum, art director Cory Skerry, copy editors Laura Blackwell and Annika Barranti Klein, proofreader Josephine Stewart, designer Christine M. Scott, and social media skeleton Felicia Martínez Uncanny Magazine, publisher and editor-in-chief: Michael Damian Thomas; managing editor Monte Lin; poetry editor Betsy Aoki, podcast producers Erika Ensign and Steven Schapansky 324 ballots cast for 93 nominees. Finalists range 34-100. Best Fanzine Ancillary Review of Books, editors Jake Casella Brookins, Misha Grifka Wander, Bianca Skrinyár, Zachary Gillan, Cynthia Zhang, Lyz Bush-Peel An Unofficial Hugo Book Club Blog, editors Olav Rokne and Amanda Wakaruk Galactic Journey, founder Gideon Marcus, editor Janice L. Newman, staff David Levinson, Jessica Dickinson Goodman, Tam Phan, Andi Dukleth Intergalactic Mixtape, edited by Renay Journey Planet, edited by Allison Hartman Adams, Jean Martin, Steven H Silver, Christopher J. Garcia, James Bacon nerds of a feather, flock together, editors Roseanna Pendlebury, Arturo Serrano, Paul Weimer; senior editors Joe Sherry, G. Brown, Vance Kotrla 224 ballots cast for 61 nominees. Finalists range 33-66.  Best Fancast A Meal of Thorns, presented by Jake Casella Brookins Eating the Fantastic, hosted by Scott Edelman Hugo, Girl!, presented by Haley Zapal, Amy Salley, Lori Anderson, and Kevin Anderson Octothorpe, presented by John Coxon, Alison Scott, and Liz Batty The Coode Street Podcast, presented by Jonathan Strahan and Gary K. Wolfe Worldbuilding for Masochists, presented by Marshall Ryan Maresca, Cass Morris, and Natania Barron 370 ballots cast for 198 nominees. Finalists range 31-69. Best Fan Writer Jay Brantner for “Tar Vol” Alex Brown James Davis Nicoll Roseanna Pendlebury Jason Sanford  Örjan Westin 308 ballots cast for 158 nominees. Finalists range 22-54.  Best Fan Artist Terri Ash Geneva Bowers Sara Felix Richard Man España Sheriff Yuumei 176 ballots cast for 137 nominees. Finalists range 12-22. Best Poem  “Care for Lightning” by Mari Ness (Uncanny Magazine, Issue 62) “Hex Supply Customer Support Log” by Elis Montgomery (Strange Horizons, Issue 25 August 2025) “How to Become a Sea Witch” by Theodora Goss (The Orange & Bee, Issue 5) “Landing: Seattle” by Brandon O’Brien (Seattle Worldcon 2025 Opening Ceremony) “The Mourning Robot” by Angela Liu (Uncanny Magazine, Issue 66)  “The World to Come” by Jennifer Hudak (Strange Horizons, Issue 22 December 2025) 202 ballots cast for 229 nominees. Finalists range 12-35. Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book Among Ghosts by Rachel Hartman (Random House Books for Young Readers) Coffeeshop in an Alternate Universe by C.B. Lee (Feiwel & Friends) Holy Terrors by Margaret Owen (Henry Holt; Hodderscape UK) Oathbound by Tracy Deonn (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers) Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins (Scholastic Press) They Bloom at Night by Trang Thanh Tran (Bloomsbury US; Bloomsbury UK) 244 ballots cast for 169 nominees. Finalists range 12-48. Astounding Award for Best New Writer (sponsored by Dell Magazines) Sophie Burnham (2nd year of eligibility) Kamilah Cole (2nd year of eligibility) Antonia Hodgson (1st year of eligibility) Molly O’Neill (1st year of eligibility) H.H. Pak (2nd year of eligibility) Jared Pechaček (2nd year of eligibility) 290 ballots cast for 156 nominees. Finalists range 17-76. Disqualifications and Withdrawals The following nominees received enough votes to qualify for the final ballot, but were found to be ineligible: Best Series:  Lady Astronaut, by Mary Robinette Kowal (fewer than 240,000 new words since last appearance on the ballot) The Singing Hills Cycle, by Nghi Vo (fewer than 240,000 words in total) Astounding Award: Silvia Park (had qualifying publication prior to 2024) Barbara Truelove (had qualifying publication prior to 2024) The following nominees received enough votes to qualify for the final ballot, but declined nominations: Best Editor, Long Form: Lindsey Hall Best Semiprozine: Beneath Ceaseless Skies The following nominee received enough votes to qualify for the final ballot, but was withdrawn by the showrunners to abide by the limitation on number of episodes of the same show allowed in the category. Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form: Murderbot: “Free Commerce” [end-mark] The post Here Are the Finalists for the 2026 Hugo Awards appeared first on Reactor.