Books cover reveals Revealing Sunderworld, Vol 2: The Unfortunate Responsibilities of Leopold Berry by Ransom Riggs Leopold Berry was certain he’d been chosen to save the world. He was wrong. By Reactor | Published on February 19, 2026 Comment 0 Share New Share We’re thrilled to share the cover of Sunderworld, Vol 2: The Unfortunate Responsibilities of Leopold Berry, the conclusion of Ransom Riggs’s Sunerworld Saga—available October 13, 2026 from Penguin Young Readers. The magic was failing. The monsters were coming. Sunder was desperate for a hero, and Leopold Berry was certain he’d been chosen to save it. He was wrong.After flunking his channeler test in spectacular fashion and getting kicked out of Sunder in record time, Leopold swore he was done with magic for good—until a trail of clues from his late mother dragged him back in, then led him to a mysterious ring that might just be the most powerful object in magical history. If only he can figure out how the damn thing works. Now the walls are closing in.Famous in Sunder for all the wrong reasons, Leopold is being stalked by paparazzi, threatened by government agents determined to get their hands on the ring, and hunted by terrifying creatures hungry for its power. His only hope is to learn to wield the ring before someone kills him for it and then use it to uncover his family’s buried connection to Sunder before the trail goes cold—and the magical world collapses around him.Because the magic is still failing. The monsters are everywhere. And Sunder still needs a hero. Cover art © 2026 by Matt Griffin; Design by Headcase Design Buy the Book The Unfortunate Responsibilities of Leopold Berry Ransom Riggs Buy Book The Unfortunate Responsibilities of Leopold Berry Ransom Riggs Buy this book from: AmazonBarnes and NobleiBooksIndieBoundTarget Ransom Riggs is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children novels. Riggs was born on a farm in Maryland and grew up in southern Florida. He studied literature at Kenyon College and film at the University of Southern California. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, bestselling author Tahereh Mafi, and their family. The post Revealing <i>Sunderworld, Vol 2: The Unfortunate Responsibilities of Leopold Berry</i> by Ransom Riggs appeared first on Reactor.

Books Short Fiction Spotlight Must Read Short Speculative Fiction: January 2026 This month’s short fiction recs include strange tales, near future explorations, and at least one giant. By Alex Brown | Published on February 19, 2026 Comment 0 Share New Share This month I have for you short fiction from a new magazine and several long running ones, from authors who are new to this spotlight and returning favorites. Some of these stories are short enough to be drabbles and some are longer and more immersive. Some are strange tales and some are near future explorations. And one has a giant. Here are my ten favorite short science fiction, fantasy, and horror stories I read in January. “Awakening” by Natalia Plos The first issue of Quotidian Bagatelle, a new micro imprint focusing on fiction and poetry under 250, is a banger, and Plos’ piece is a great introduction for readers. In 12 sentences, Plos drops a dystopian nightmare. Our protagonist wakes up hundreds of years after entering cryostasis. The reason they’re woken up will send a chill down your spine. (Quotidian Bagatelle—January 2026; issue 1) “Bots All the Way Down” by Effie Seiberg ““Once upon a time,” outputted the algorithm, “there was an AI.” I’m iffy on speculative fiction involving generative AI—I work in secondary education and trust me, whatever horrible things you’ve heard about genAI in schools, the reality is even worse—but I knew Seiberg wouldn’t let me down. She digs into the superficiality of generative AI while also satirizing the ways pro-AI weirdos treat it like a sentient, conscious being. A fairy tale of web crawlers and a dead internet. (Lightspeed—January 2026; issue 188) “Into the Briarpatch” by Ella N’Diaye If you, like me, know about Black history in the American South and the Caribbean and were raised on African American folktales—all hail The People Could Fly—you’ll get a kick out of this story. Lots of references and deep cuts. Sadia is a pilot for a maroon community hiding out in the furthest reaches of space. She rescues people seeking freedom and delivers them to safety, like Harriet Tubman with a spaceship. After an unexpected betrayal, she must take evasive action to protect her passengers. N’Diaye could write a space opera trilogy about Sadia and I’d be seated for the whole thing. (FIYAH—Winter 2026; issue 37) “Love in the Time of Te Rāhuinui” by Hiria Dunning The title of this story is inspired by Gabriel García Márquez’s Love in the Time of Cholera. We begin in a future where the climate crisis is being mitigated by ending nearly all international travel and forcing everyone to justify any extravagances by acknowledging the subsequent environmental damage their actions will cause. In Aotearoa, Ingrid studies godwit birds. In Alaska, Noah also studies godwits. The annual migration of the birds offers a chance at communicating off the grid for these two scientists. As tough as things are down south, they’re even worse up north. While this story isn’t quite dystopian, it’s not hopepunk either. It’s something more complex and thoughtful. (Reckoning—January 2026; issue 10) “Magical Girl: Corporate Failure” by Lia Lao “The problem with saving the world at sixteen is that you’re doomed to chase that high for the rest of your life.” What happens when you save the day for one last time and are no longer the Chosen One? In the case of our protagonist, she becomes a corporate drone. And she fucking hates it. She longs for the adventure and excitement of battling demons from the Netherworld rather than the drudgery of debates over serif fonts in slide decks and private school tuition. It doesn’t go where you expect it to. (Haven Spec—January 2026; issue 21) “The (Mis)Fortunes of Saint Ilia’s School for Gifted Girls, In No Particular Order” by Catherine Tavares This horror story starts off almost like an urban fantasy. “You” are the lead detective assigned to investigate the murders of six students and two teachers from Saint Ilia’s School for Gifted Girls. Everyone at Saint Ilia’s has strange abilities—one can fly, another can speak in any language, a third has super strength, etc—but their powers also seemed to lead them to their terrible deaths. What got this story on this list isn’t that it’s well-written and entertaining but that Tavares picked a particularly interesting format: she structured it around a paper fortune teller. If you grew up in the US you probably made one of these at some point in your childhood. A piece of paper is folded so you can slip your fingers into slots and say a little rhyme while you open and close the paper in different ways. Then you ask a question and lift up a flap to get your fortune. What a killer (pun in tended) premise! (The Dark—January 2026; issue 128) “The Metabolism of Grief” by Elitsa Dermendzhiyska “The comma of you nestles against my aching body as if you’re merely asleep and I wonder what you might be dreaming of, when two nurses strut in through the door. It’s time, they say. Time? For what? For what?” It took me a moment to realize what was going on in this story, and when I finally did, all the air rushed out of my lungs. It’s a heartbreaking, beautiful story about motherhood and the kind of grief few of us are unlucky enough to experience. This is the saddest bit of fiction I’ve read so far this year, but also one of the most powerful. (Small Wonders—January 2026; issue 31) “More Than Feathers” by Phoebe Barton Our hero takes the form of a giant in order to kill a dragon after it kills their companion Tuaamala, but ends up stuck as in oversize. They’re saved, so to speak, by a mysterious mage calling herself Mijanlirel. She tries to resize our hero, but for now they’re going to have to get used to being big. A great little story that is deeper than it seems at first glance. Plus, giants! (Kaleidotrope—Winter 2026) “On the Anthology Entitled “Frames of Colour and Un-colour”” by Dmitri Akers Our protagonist, known only as The Luddite, is sent a roll of film to develop. The Luddite describes the 24 photographs in all their grotesque, increasingly cosmic horror. I won’t tell you what’s on them, but I agree with the Luddite that “what remains visible in the developed film is awful. Things a man should not see. You are a sick man for photographing them.” (The Deadlands—Winter 2026; issue 41) “Slake” by Victor Manibo Want a deeply upsetting short story? Well, here you go. Manibo’s piece is climate fiction by way of horror. Calix is trapped in their apartment as a hurricane bears down. It’s been raining for weeks straight and the city has more or less shut down as the flooding gets worse. Calix is separated from Jericho by the rising water, and the combination of the isolation, intense anxiety, and constant rain pushes Calix to the brink. I was glad I had already finished my tea by the time I read this story. (Sunday Morning Transport—January 18, 2026)[end-mark] The post Must Read Short Speculative Fiction: January 2026 appeared first on Reactor.

News Game of Thrones Game of Thrones Is Getting a Prequel Stage Play About the Tourney at Harrenhal Game of Thrones: The Mad King will premiere at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre By Vanessa Armstrong | Published on February 18, 2026 Screenshot: HBO Comment 0 Share New Share Screenshot: HBO The Game of Thrones franchise is heading to the Royal Shakespeare Theatre. Today, we got confirmation that a play called Game of Thrones: The Mad King will premiere at Stratford-upon-Avon this summer. The production will center on the tourney at Harrenhal that led to Robert’s Rebellion, an event that took place over a decade before HBO’s Game of Thrones begins and features characters from that series, specifically Ned Stark, Robert Baratheon, and Jaime Lannister. Here’s the official description: A long winter thaws in Harrenhal, and spring is promised. At a lavish banquet on the eve of a jousting tournament, lovers meet and revelers speculate about who will contend. But in the shadows, amid growing unease at the blood-thirsty actions of the realm’s merciless Mad King, dissenters from his inner circle anxiously advance a treasonous plot. Far away, the drums of battle sound. Family bonds, ancient prophecies, and the sacred line of succession will be tested in a dangerous campaign for power. Who will survive? Who will rise? Wars aren’t won by those with most cause, but whose story’s best told. The play is based on George R.R. Martin’s novels, was written by Duncan Macmillan, and will be directed by Dominic Cooke. “When I first wrote Game of Thrones, I never imagined that it would be anything other than a book,” Martin said in a statement. “It was a place for my imagination to exist without limits. To my great surprise, it was adapted for a series and viewers have been able to enter the world of my imagination through the medium of television. For my work to now be adapted for the stage is something I did not expect but welcome with great enthusiasm and excitement. Theatre offers something unique. A place for mine and the audience’s imagination to meet and hopefully create something magical.” Royal Shakespeare Company artistic directors Daniel Evans and Tamara Harvey added, “When we first read Duncan’s script, it was immediately apparent how this epic cycle of warring families sits in a continuum with Shakespeare’s history cycles. So it feels like an exciting and apposite marriage between the RSC and Game of Thrones universe.” Tickets for the summer production go on sale on April 14 for Royal Shakespeare Company members. Public booking will be announced in April 2026. [end-mark] The post Game of Thrones Is Getting a Prequel Stage Play About the Tourney at Harrenhal appeared first on Reactor.

News Coven Academy Devon Sawa Joins Disney’s Coven Academy as a Cool Teacher and Brilliant Warlock The CW-esque show (complimentary) is set to come out on Disney+ later this year By Vanessa Armstrong | Published on February 18, 2026 Comment 0 Share New Share The upcoming Disney series Coven Academy will see Devon Sawa at the front of the class. According to Variety, Sawa, whose previous credits include SYFY’s Chucky (pictured above) and the 2000 film Final Destination, will join the show as a guest star. What’s Coven Academy all about, you ask? It takes place in New Orleans and, according to its logline, “follows three teenage witches and their dangerously charming warlock peers at an elite magic school where power is currency, secrets are lethal, and attraction is a liability. Caught between ancient supernatural wars and forbidden love interests, the coven must decide how far they’re willing to go to protect their city—and themselves.” Sawa, per Variety, is playing a teacher named Mr. Cole, who is “the effortlessly cool teacher who’s tired of watching teenagers mistake talent for readiness.” The description goes on: “He’s the adult who can clown you and protect you in the same breath. A good man and a brilliant warlock. It’s just another year at Coven Academy until Mr. Cole and the rest of the faculty are rocked by a surprising new student who threatens to upend everything.” Coven Academy also stars Malina Pauli Weissman, Malachi Barton, Jordan Leftwich, Ora Duplass, Louis Thresher, and Tiffani Thiessen as well as recurring cast members Swayam Bhatia, Brendon Tremblay, and Keegan Connor Tracy. The show comes from Tim Federle, whose previous credits include High School Musical: The Musical: The Series. “I pitched Coven Academy as a love letter to the genre YA shows I grew up on,” Federle said in a statement when the show was first announced in 2025. I feel you, Federle. I feel you. Coven Academy is set to premiere on Disney+ and The Disney Channel sometime in 2026. [end-mark] The post Devon Sawa Joins Disney’s <i>Coven Academy</i> as a Cool Teacher and Brilliant Warlock appeared first on Reactor.

Excerpts The War of Lost Hearts Read an Excerpt From Mother of Death and Dawn by Carissa Broadbent Tell me, little butterfly, what would you do for love? By Carissa Broadbent | Published on February 18, 2026 Comment 0 Share New Share We’re thrilled to share an excerpt from Mother of Death and Dawn, the third novel in Carissa Broadbent’s War of Lost Hearts romantasy trilogy, publishing with Bramble on March 17. In the wake of a crushing defeat, Tisaanah and Maxatarius have been ripped apart. Tisaanah is desperate to rescue Max from his imprisonment, even as her people’s fight for freedom grows more treacherous. But within the walls of Ilyzath, Max’s mind is a shadow of what it once was… leaving his past a mystery and his future at the mercy of Ara’s new, ruthless queen.Meanwhile, in the Fey lands, Aefe has been dragged back into this world by a king who vows to destroy civilizations in her name. But even as her past returns to claim her, her former self is a stranger.Tisaanah, Max, and Aefe are thrust into the center of a cataclysm between the human and Fey worlds. The unique magic they share is key to either winning the war, or ending it.But that power demands sacrifice. Tisaanah may be forced to choose between love and duty. Max cannot forge his future without confronting his past. And Aefe must decide between reclaiming who she was, or embracing who she has become.The choices they make will either reshape this world forever… or end it. Prologue Tell me, little butterfly, what would you do for love? The woman knows the tower, now. She knows every angle of its imposing shape as it rises from the surf. She knows the way the whorls carved into its surface feel beneath her palms. She knows how the bone-white stone looks smeared with her blood. She knows its scent, acrid and stagnant, like death itself. She knows everything, except for how to break it. This place has taken something from her, you see. Taken the most precious thing. Tell me, little butterfly, what would you do to get him back? Anything. Everything. The first time she tries, it is an act of pure desperation. She has conquered cities and defeated armies. She has ended wars. Surely she is powerful enough to do this. Now she does not need to conquer a city, just a single prison. She does not need to free a civilization. Just one person. The stone strikes her down like a palm to a fly. Minutes, and she is crashing back into the surf, pulled out again by friends who barely manage to escape with their lives. But the woman knows nothing if not how to fail. So she tries again, again, again. She collects another scar, another night of an aching heart, and a little more of her dies. She gets up and goes again. The last night is stormy and dark—the sort of night yanked from horror stories. Her friends beg her not to go. Wait one more day, they say. If the guards don’t kill you, then the storm will. What’s one more day, they say, after all of this? What’s one more day? She would have laughed if she wasn’t choking back sheer rage. One more day is twenty-four hours— one thousand four hundred and forty minutes—eighty-six thousand seconds of torture for the man trapped within those walls. The storm is a monster. It is so dark she can barely see, the white tower of Ilyzath lit only in garish blue-white flashes as lightning cracks the night. Rain shreds the air like silver blades. As always, she makes it to the prison. And as always—faster than they once did—the eyeless guards are upon her in seconds. She fights back. But there are many of them, and only one of her. Her head smashes against the ground. CRACK. The sky splits open, just as her skin does, just as her heart does. She rises to her feet. Blood is in her eyes, staining the world crimson. And there, in that moment of desperation, she feels a sliver of the magic that had so evaded her for these last weeks—a flicker of a familiar soul, contorted in pain and buried within layers of stone. He is so, so close. It cuts something primal loose in her. The next time a blade opens her flesh, she doesn’t feel it. She fights back like an animal. These are not people before her—they are obstacles. Obstacles keeping her away from her most precious person, obstacles who dared deny her broken heart every time she came here, fighting for the queen that had put a dagger in her back. She becomes nothing but the desire to burn down the world that did this to him. CRACK. Lightning illuminates flashes of blood, of opened bodies, of rotting flesh. Flashes of her own seeping wounds. She fights and fights and fights as tears stream down her cheeks. Tell me, little butterfly, what would you do for love? Excerpted from Mother of Death and Dawn, copyright © 2026 by Carissa Broadbent. Buy the Book Mother of Death and Dawn Carissa Broadbent Buy Book Mother of Death and Dawn Carissa Broadbent Buy this book from: AmazonBarnes and NobleIndieBoundTarget The post Read an Excerpt From <i>Mother of Death and Dawn</i> by Carissa Broadbent appeared first on Reactor.