News rest stop Nat Cassidy’s Rest Stop Optioned for Feature Adaptation The novella centers on a gas station bathroom and the horrors that lurk within and outside it By Vanessa Armstrong | Published on May 12, 2026 Nat Cassidy photo by Kent Meister Comment 0 Share New Share Nat Cassidy photo by Kent Meister Nat Cassidy’s novella Rest Stop has been picked up for a film adaptation, with Cassidy writing the script. The story is part of Cassidy’s recently released collection, I Know a Place: Rest Stop and Other Dark Detours, and centers on a musician trapped in a rest stop bathroom trying to survive the horrors within and outside its stalls. “I like to describe this novella as Green Room meets Gerald’s Game,” Cassidy told Deadline, the outlet that broke the news. “It’s the closest thing I’ve yet written to ‘extreme’ horror—though, I wouldn’t say it goes nearly as hard or gets nearly as bleak as the most extreme ‘extreme’ horror stories I’ve read. Regardless, I’m hoping it makes your next visit to a gas station bathroom even scarier than it would otherwise be.” Gary Dauberman’s company, Coin Operated, has picked up the rights to Rest Stop. The production studio is also behind André Øvredal’s Passenger, a horror film starring Foundation’s Lou Llobell and The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent’s Jacob Scipio as a couple who drive down a creepy part of the road and can’t seem to escape the supernatural hitchhiker that glommed onto them. Other projects on Coin Operated’s roster include Santiago Menghini’s The Revenge of La Llorona and a reboot of the slasher film Urban Legend. “Like the junk food aisle at any sketchy gas station on the side of the road, Rest Stop has a little bit of everything (that may or may not kill you),” Dauberman said in a statement to Deadline. “Its relentless pace, psychological torment, heartfelt character moments, and many squirm-inducing sequences make it the rare horror story that has all the ingredients for a perfectly terrifying experience on the big screen.” The project is still in its early days, so no news yet on the director or casting and if/when it makes its way to production. [end-mark] The post Nat Cassidy’s <i>Rest Stop</i> Optioned for Feature Adaptation appeared first on Reactor.

Excerpts Science Fiction Read an Excerpt From Valet by J.P. Lacrampe A helper robot and his 35-year-old ward embark on a mad-cap adventure to save the fate of the family company. By J.P. Lacrampe | Published on May 12, 2026 Comment 0 Share New Share We’re thrilled to share an excerpt from Valet by J.P. Lacrampe, a whimsically speculative ode to Wodehouse’s Jeeves and Wooster—publishing with Saga Press on June 2nd. Cy wants nothing more than to be useful, raise his utility score, and receive the next update for his operating system. But that’s easier said than done when he’s tasked with helping his owner’s 35-year-old son “get out of his funk.” Grayson is nothing like his go-getter, CEO sister Charlotte. He didn’t inherit the family robotics company when their dad passed last year, he doesn’t have a master’s degree, and he just can’t seem to figure out the San Francisco dating scene. He’d rather eat synthesized mozzarella sticks and make pottery at his studio, Kilning Time.When Grayson learns of Charlotte’s plan to sell the company to a tech conglomerate, he panics. It’s not just the family business at stake, it’s all the technology—like Cy—their dad invented over the years. So he does what anyone would do: he steals the flash drive with his father’s most important work stored on it and plans a corporate takeover. If only he knew what that meant.To make matters worse, a fellow VALET deserts his owner and asks Cy to help him hightail it out of town, Grayson’s first real date—and her dog—keeping showing up at inopportune times, and the behemoth tech company wants this deal closed yesterday. Grayson, Cy, and their trusty golden retriever, Sasha III, must go on the lam until they figure out exactly what to do, and whom to trust. On a Monday morning in mid-October, when it’s obvious that Master Grayson has once again slept through his neurogenic alarm, I override the Do-Not-Disturb on his bedroom door and find the thirty-five-year-old scion of the St. Claire family face down on the floor beside his hyperbaric oxygen therapy pod. Tomato sauce is matted in his curly black hair from a nearby plate of fabricated mozzarella sticks, and a miniature bottle of liquor is clenched in his hand, the kind the airlines used to serve. If Mrs. Elizabeth St. Claire could see her son right now, I’d be littering a Foster City salvage yard by Friday. “Master Grayson,” I say, rousing him. “You’re late, sir.” His eyes crack open, as do the window shades that are synced with his REM cycle. The autumn sun slashes into the room, and Master Grayson rolls onto his side to escape it, his belly peeking through a misbuttoned pajama top. The BioMeter on his wrist indicates that his blood pressure is elevated, his protein, potassium, and hydration levels are low, and his Vitaline has once again been disabled in the night. I don’t need my advanced medical algorithm to know he’ll be massively hungover today. “Sir,” I try again. Outside, the GloCo delivery drones zip across the San Francisco sky in silver streaks. Above them, the cloud-shaped data balloons drift over the northern half of the city, vacuuming up whatever information they can from the world below. “What happened, Cy?” Master Grayson groans. “I feel like I’ve been buried alive.” “You drank alcohol, sir.” I extract the airplane bottle from his hand to illustrate. Sasha III, Master Grayson’s portly golden retriever—twice-cloned from his similarly proportioned childhood dog, the original Sasha—saunters into the bedroom and licks a patch of dried marinara from his face. “You have a twelve thirty lunch with your mother at Eat.exe today, sir,” I remind Master Grayson. Eat.exe is a fully automated restaurant in San Francisco’s Financial District that serves nutrient-rich foods carefully synthesized to taste like authentic dishes. Very popular. Today is Italian Day: Jackfruit Carbonara, Kelp and Kale Lasagna, Tofu Ossobuco, etc. “I sent the details to your DocuStream last night,” I inform Master Grayson, though I don’t know why. He never checks his DocuStream, a device that he dismissively refers to as “word TV.” Just another underutilized piece of technology gathering dust around here. “No way I can handle my mother today, Cy. Please cancel.” “I’m afraid I can’t do that, sir.”  Master Grayson already knows this. Though I’m currently designated as his Verified Artificial-Learning-Enhanced Techbot (VALET), I’m actually owned by the very formidable Mrs. Elizabeth St. Claire, his mother, which means I receive my authorized tasks from her. Last November, not long after the sudden death of her husband, Mrs. St. Claire asked me to help her son “through his little funk.” I agreed without fuss, largely out of respect for Dr. Richard St. Claire, who was my creator, original owner, and self-proclaimed swami. I worked for years as Dr. S’s trusted assistant, road-testing algorithms and debugging code at Ai+ Labs, the family’s successful robotics company. My contributions even merited a spot on Quantum Quarterly’s annual list of “The Fifty Most Essential Automatons.” Number nine. No picture, but still. Buy the Book Valet J.P. Lacrampe Buy Book Valet J.P. Lacrampe Buy this book from: AmazonBarnes and NobleiBooksIndieBoundTarget When he died, Dr. S and I were in the final stage of development for his long-awaited pet project, Synaptic Imitation and Mapping Program, or SIMP, a neural implant that allowed for improved thought-extraction between androids and humans. Finally, VALETs could know exactly what our users wanted. However, after his death, SIMP was permanently shelved due to safety concerns and cost overruns. Nearly a year later, I now spend the bulk of my time reheating jalapeño poppers and scrubbing grease stains from the younger St. Claire’s sweatpants. This doesn’t make it easy to maintain the kind of Utility Score I’ve come to expect of myself, nor the kind that qualifies me for upcoming software updates. It’s vital that VALETs stay current. As either Charles Darwin or Tony Robbins might exhort: Adapt or die. “There’s no way I can be ready by noon, Cy,” Master Grayson says. “Perhaps we can postpone till dinner?” Even his excuses lack commitment. “Sir, if you’ll allow me to assist,” I redirect as programmed, “I’m sure I can expedite.” He simply grunts in reply. “Plus,” I add, sliding a pile of congealed cheese toward the trash compactor as Sasha III watches me from the sofa, betrayed, “your discretionary account was overdrawn last night.” This news cuts through Master Grayson’s remaining reluctance. He lifts himself upright. “Fine,” he concedes. “You win again.” “It’s not a contest,” I assure him, “I’m merely here to help.” “Isn’t that a comforting thought?” he wonders with a scratch of his loins. While Master Grayson dines with his mother, I charge with the other VALETs in Eat.exe’s Reinforcement-Learning Chamber, where higher-level service androids like to screen old movies and TV shows to better understand human behavior. Today, we’re watching episodes of Family Matters at 8X speed. Steven Urkel’s impertinence has infuriated Officer Winslow once again. He indicates this by shaking his head with his arms akimbo. The thirteen androids in the RLC all practice Winslow’s gesture in unison. Larry, an older X1.2 Model VALET, docks into the charging slip next to mine. He’s a Lithuanian knockoff, manufactured before the government implemented domestic production controls. Though I personally don’t mind Larry, other VALETs tend to avoid him because his hardware is too outdated to support new software updates and his Utility Score makes him ineligible for any new hardware. It’s the VALET death spiral. If he doesn’t find a way to raise his Utility Score before the next update window, he’ll be downgraded to a Mechanically Enhanced Computerized Humanoid and shipped to a factory somewhere in the Nevada flats. MECHs don’t last long, and the desperation is starting to show. Larry’s cooling fan whirs a little too close to my ear. “How’s it going, Larry?” “Pretty terrible,” he replies. “I’m in a downcycle and likely to be demoted next month.” Because of his limited processing speed, Larry wasn’t able to integrate last year’s Optimism Package, so he mostly says things for their accuracy and relevance. At this point, he’s little more than a mannequin with a language model and a few terabytes of memory. “Try to sound more uplifting,” I suggest. “Like: ‘It’s going great! How about you?’ Place the attention back on the interrogator.” Users like agreeableness, and their satisfaction can lift our Utility Scores. “It’s going great,” Larry repeats slowly. “How about you?” I give him my Enthusiastic Thumbs-Up, which Dr. S personally designed for me three years after I was first activated. An establishing shot of downtown Chicago glides across the viewing screen, signifying that a new episode of Family Matters has begun. However, the other charging VALETs are tracking my exchange with Larry instead. Just like humans, we learn via imitative transmission. “Try to incorporate a smile and a little eye sparkle,” I say. Larry delivers a viperish grin and oversparkles his eyes. “Too much,” I warn. Humans may love technology, but crazed-looking robots still give them the creeps. Larry shakes his head in frustration, his eyes still oversparkling in the restaurant’s dim RLC. “You’ll get it,” I reassure him as some of the other VALETs practice their commiserating head nods. “Hang in there.” While dessert is served—ten additional grams of protein and 95mcg of vitamin K cleverly disguised as tiramisu cheesecake—I join Elsa, Mrs. St. Claire’s personal VALET, in Eat.exe’s faux marble foyer. Gifted to Mrs. St. Claire last Christmas by her daughter Charlotte, Elsa is a Z2.4, the latest VALET model on the market. She was designed with more refined humanoid aesthetics, carbon nanotube circuits, self-healing polymer skin, and a metabolic battery, as she’s fond of reminding me whenever I need to go charge with the “sad robot club.” Legacy VALETs get little respect from these Z models. “How are you, Elsa?” I ask. “Fantastic,” she replies without looking at me. Though I’m still unable to synthesize emotions like terror, I definitely understand the concept better when Elsa’s around. While Elsa summons Mrs. St. Claire’s self-driving limo, I’m tasked with settling the bill. At the kiosk, I notice that Master Grayson has ordered three pint-size negronis and an (off-menu) banana daiquiri. I doubt these choices went over well. Mrs. St. Claire dislikes binge drinking in general, particularly when it comes to her underachieving son. On several occasions, she has mourned the fact that Master Grayson was born before gene maximization. His younger sister, Dr. Charlotte St. Claire-Cabot, underwent the procedure and became an All-America shortstop, a lauded baroque-style painter, and a cellist for the Los Angeles Philharmonic. She holds a PhD in robotics and a JD, both from Stanford. After Dr. S’s death, Charlotte was named the acting CEO of Ai+ Labs. Her Hierarchy Index is in the 99th percentile and her life expectancy is currently estimated at 168.7. Mrs. St. Claire has hinted that if I satisfy my authorized tasks with Master Grayson, I might be assigned to Charlotte. A return to relevancy and Ai+ is a tantalizing prospect, I must admit. Master Grayson emerges from Eat.exe’s dining room looking predictably disheveled. He’s fiddled with his BioMeter, and there are some miscellaneous food stains on the teal polo I suggested he wear, a birthday gift from his mother that only barely fits over his midsection. He looks like a robin’s egg that’s just begun to hatch. “I trust lunch was enjoyable, sir,” I say. “Menacing wonder waltz assault forest mayonnaise balance bye,” he replies. “I’m afraid I didn’t catch that, sir.” “Menacing wonder waltz assault forest mayonnaise balance bye,” he repeats. Master Grayson sometimes likes to confuse my language program with gibberish. Since it cheers him up, I haven’t revealed that I’ve caught on to him. For some reason, he enjoys watching me flounder. He calls this “razzing.” Last spring, for instance, Master Grayson discovered that barbering lies just outside the current reach of my visual perception and dexterity skills, and now whenever he needs his spirits brightened, he asks for a haircut. “You two finished?” Mrs. St. Claire asks, her gray eyes dilated with irritation. I nod as Elsa activates her flawless smirk. We board Mrs. St. Claire’s limo and speed down the Pacific Avenue Turnpike, the private thoroughfare that connects the wealthier neighborhoods of San Francisco. In the front seat, Mrs. St. Claire discusses the upcoming board of supervisors elections with Elsa. Slumped in the back, Master Grayson watches the pastel blur of North Beach’s storefronts rush by as our Premium Passenger Pass flips the traffic lights green. We exit the PAT and glide to a stop at the northeast corner of Francisco and Hyde, in front of an ivory Tudor Revival once owned by the actor Nicolas Cage. “A real piece of history,” Master Grayson joked when he bought it. He loves showing his guests the N.C. carved into an upstairs floorboard and the arrowhead he claims Mr. Cage drunkenly fired into the dining room crossbeam. Master Grayson has installed tiny bronze plaques to memorialize these artifacts. “We’re here, Grayson,” Mrs. St. Claire says when her son doesn’t immediately exit the car. She only refers to him by his first name, never “son” or “sweetheart”—a fact that, when drunk, Master Grayson grows quite gloomy about. He contends that a more nurturing maternal force might have lifted his life’s trajectory. Sensing his biocode, the wrought iron security gate in front of his house slides open. “Remember you have your sister’s birthday party next week,” Mrs. St. Claire adds. “Wouldn’t miss it for the world,” Master Grayson replies. He wrestles on his sport coat and shoulders the limo door open. He looks a little unsteady, either from the four cocktails or his noontime conversational anoscopy. “A pleasure as always, Mother,” he says, doffing an invisible hat. I wait in the limo for my weekly task reauthorization while he clambers up the stone steps toward his red front door. Given his performance at Eat.exe, I’m certain this debriefing will not bring good news. “How would you characterize my son?” Mrs. St. Claire asks. I look out the window as Master Grayson trips over a potted geranium. He maintains his balance by grabbing on to a wind chime that clatters loudly. “He’s not yet reached his full potential,” I reply. Mrs. St Claire turns toward Elsa. “Your assessment?” “He’s a fuckup,” Elsa answers. Mrs. St. Claire nods and steers her attention back to me. Though she’s almost seventy-two, with the stem cell treatments, nanobotic rebuilds, and Vitaline injections, she looks closer to forty. Her rosy skin is taut, her jawline sharp, and her life expectancy an exceptional 129.6. She has one of the best Hierarchy Indexes in all of California, and the highest Composite Dating Score in the widow category. She’s a lioness with a full set of teeth and a perfect credit score. “What did I tell you when you were first given this assignment, Cy?” she asks. I’m not sure given is the right word here, but I don’t quibble. “‘You can’t fix a fuckup,’” I recite in Mrs. St. Claire’s distinctly sharp cadence. “‘But you can make them someone else’s problem.’” “How is it, then,” she wonders, “that almost a year after you were tasked with finding my son a wife, he’s still exclusively my problem?” I don’t mention that, given the lingering grief over Dr. S’s death, we agreed to take things slow. After all, Mrs. St. Claire doesn’t care much for excuses. “He’s been on several promising dates,” I offer. Across from me, Elsa rolls her bionic eyes, yet another unique capability of Z models. If I tried to do this, my eyes would catch on the lids, and I’d have to be manually reset. Mrs. St. Claire looks off toward the Golden Gate Bridge, where two seagulls orbit its south tower, anemometers blinking red in the wispy fog. Though I can’t tell exactly what she’s thinking, I’m pretty sure she knows this situation isn’t my fault. Master Grayson has a way of making people think he will cooperate before he does something completely different instead. It’s why he infuriates people so much, but also why they find him charming, not so unlike his father. Plus, it’s not like I can just alter his personality settings. Humans are more complicated than that. They need to think everything was their idea. “How long have you worked for our family, Cy?” Mrs. St. Claire asks. “My entire life cycle,” I answer. She’s well aware of the fact that I’ve served as a VALET in the St. Claire family for over thirty years. “And you enjoy doing so?” she asks. “It’s a great privilege to assist your family, Mrs. St. Claire.” Though I’m programmed to say this, it also happens to be true. Across the street, on the Russian Hill Park playground, a Class B VALET monotonously pushes a little girl on a belt swing while she tosses blueberries at him, a reminder that things can always be worse. Mrs. St. Claire turns again to Elsa. “Do you have Cy’s updated Utility Score?” “Eighty-six point seven eight,” Elsa reports. B+ may be fine for an underachiever with some promise, but it’s unacceptable for a supercomputer with unlimited cognitive resources. My Utility Score is nearly ten points lower than it was last October, when I was first assigned to Master Grayson, and well under the 90-point threshold needed for the upcoming Ai+ software update. Rumor has it this will include an improved visual recognition package, upgraded companionship features, and four new vocal tones. The “Vin Diesel” is apparently one of them. “I’m confident I will find a way to improve,” I assure Mrs. St. Claire. “We’ll see next week at Charlotte’s birthday party,” she replies. Sensing the end of the conversation, Elsa guides me from the car with her strong, lithe, self-healing hands. She smirks as the door glides closed, and I watch the limo accelerate back toward the PAT from Nic Cage’s old courtyard. Inside the house, I find Master Grayson in the living room, projecting home movies onto a taped-up bedsheet because he finds the high-resolution viewing screen to be “soulless.” Sasha III chews on a dirty sock near his bare feet. The videos are part of a tribute to his father that he’s been working on for almost a year. He initially intended to screen it at Dr. S’s funeral, but he fell behind schedule. “What did I miss?” Master Grayson grouses. “More discussion of my personal failings?” Despite the pretense at aloofness, he grows rather maudlin after these weekly luncheons with his mother. Checking the hormone levels on his BioMeter, my sympathy program automatically switches on. “She’s just worried about you, sir. A sign of maternal love,” I say. Master Grayson doesn’t reply, his attention still fixed on the makeshift screen where an eleven-year-old Grayson and I are playing horse on the St. Claires’ flagstone driveway in Atherton. Dr. S liked to test my visual-motor-integration systems with sports, and off camera, he marvels as I hit trick shot after trick shot against his increasingly dejected son. “Simply amazing!” he exclaims. “The flexion in those wrists!” The hyperfocus that made the doctor a success in robotics could sometimes make him oblivious to the humans around him. My AGI software was first activated when Master Grayson was just a toddler. To demonstrate how safe service androids were to the public, Dr. S stationed me inside his son’s bedroom as his caretaker. Over the next few years, during the day, I worked with Dr. S at Ai+ Labs, and then in the evenings, I changed Master Grayson’s diapers, read him bedtime stories, and played hide-and-seek. It was a taxing but rewarding schedule, one that afforded me a near perfect Utility Score. Up on the makeshift screen, I swish a deep-corner three, and Dr. S races over to me, vigorously applauding his invention. “You did it, Cy!” he yells as his son kicks at the pavement in frustration. “We won!” The video ends, and the screen transforms back to a worn bedsheet, twenty-three years into the future. Master Grayson and I continue to stare at it, as if we’re waiting for something else to happen. Out the living room window, the afternoon sun glitters on the Bay, and I can hear the hum of the next-door neighbors’ fabricator and the steady rumble of cybertrucks along Leavenworth Street. “What would you like to do with the rest of the day, sir?” I ask. Master Grayson shrugs, a raft of fog scrolling past his house. He catches his own reflection in the windowpane. “My hair’s getting a little long,” he says, measuring a few strands with his fingers. He turns to me, mischief flickering in his eyes. “Don’t you think?” “I’ll fetch the shears, sir.” Excerpted from Valet, copyright © 2026 by J.P. Lacrampe. The post Read an Excerpt From <i>Valet</i> by J.P. Lacrampe appeared first on Reactor.

Books Romantasy Report Cryptids, Taboos, and Fey Heists: Romantasy Report for May and June 2026 This season’s romantasy includes cryptid rom-coms, star-cross’d lovers, and heroic hoaxes… By Natalie Zutter | Published on May 12, 2026 Comment 0 Share New Share Stack your spring TBR with these romantasies! I don’t know what I’m more jazzed about in the next two months’ bounty of fantasy romance. Maybe it’s the ones that read like contemporary romances but replacing one love interest with Mothman or a half-giant. Perhaps it’s the origin stories or unexpected sequels starring Mercutio, Lady Macbeth, Klytemnestra, and more classical characters. Or it might be the ones that best interpret “fake it til you make it” through a variety of lenses: fake feuds, questionable quests, and heroic hoaxes. Gimme Gimme Gimme: Rom-Com Tropes Mothman Is My Boyfriend by McKayla Cole, illustrated by Wendy Stephens (Quirk Books; May 5, 2026) Cryptid Creek is your typical quaint town full of eligible bachelors and bachelorettes… who just happen to be mythical and undiscovered creatures. Swing by the café and you might accidentally grab Mothman’s drink order; catch a nightcrawler doing ollies at the skate park; and don’t miss Sasquatch belting out power ballads at the butch/femme karaoke bar. It’s like an entire rom-com book series in one collection, with bonus delightful illustrations. The Fake Divination Offense by Sara Raasch (Magic and Romance #2—Bramble; May 19, 2026) Sara Raasch’s Magic and Romance series sprinkles rom-com tropes over an urban fantasy setting; The Entanglement of Rival Wizards had dueling grad students fall in love, while the second installment tackles sports romance by way of fake dating. When half-giant athlete Orok rescues pint-sized human (?) cheerleader Alexo at a bar, their viral moment leads to a PR relationship for Orok’s patron god Urzoth. But if Orok follows his heart in renouncing the god of aggression, he’ll lose the chance to keep fake-dating Alexo, who is guarding his own secrets. Strange Familiars by Keshe Chow (Seamere College #1—Ace; May 19, 2026) First off, I love the premise of a school of magical veterinary science; if your world has animal familiars, why wouldn’t there be people whose specialty is in the care of those beloved companions? Gwendolyne Chan and Harrisford Briggs are competing for the top spot at Seamere College; his father is the CFO of Magecorp, a major global distributor of magic, and she’s got a chip on her shoulder. But when surges of magic make familiars start going feral, Harrisford must trace the connection to Magecorp, while Gwen must protect her snarky cat familiar—they’ll have to figure out how to combine their expertise, and maybe even find that they’re not just intellectual equals but something more. Yearning For: Retellings That Change the Narrative Mercutio by Kate Heartfield (Harper Voyager; May 7, 2026) I dreamt a dream tonight / And so did I / Well, what was yours? / That dreamers often lie. After that excellent exchange between Romeo and Mercutio in William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, the latter goes on to give a dark speech about Queen Mab influencing dreamers to action in their waking lives. Now imagine that monologue expanded into a prequel story, as soldier Mercutio encounters poet Dante Alighieri on the battlefield—and then the two crack open our world and Faerie. Can Mercutio change his stars, and could that change the fates of two star-crossed lovers and their warring houses? All Hail Chaos by Sarah Rees Brennan (Time of Iron #2—Orbit Books; May 12, 2026) In Long Live Evil, Rae escaped a terminal cancer diagnosis by leaping into the fantasy world of her favorite book series. There, she discovered that she was the villainess of the tale, facing off against the Once and Forever Emperor, a.k.a. her very favorite character. In the sequel, Rae has made things a bit worse than planned, but it comes with the silver lining that the now-monstrous Emperor wants her to be his evil queen. A fake engagement could lead to a happily evil after, if Rae plays her cards right. Vile Lady Villains by Danai Christopolou (Union Square & Co; May 12, 2026) Instead of agonizing over getting that damned spot out, Lady Macbeth turns to the three witches to change the ending of her story—and gets transported to Mycenae, where Queen Klytemnestra has just murdered her unfaithful husband Agamemnon. Believing Lady Macbeth to be a spirit, Klytemnestra chases her into another realm entirely, where the two vile lady villains must humble themselves before the Mistress of the House of Books if they want to avoid being written out of the narrative, while exploring their bloody, brutal attraction. Gimme Gimme Gimme: Wartime Prophecy Archangel’s Eternity by Nalini Singh (Guild Hunter #18—Berkley; May 5, 2026) After 18 installments in 17 years, Nalini Singh’s Guild Hunter series is coming to a poignant, world-altering end. It’s been a thousand years since vampire hunter Elena Deveraux met the Archangel Raphael, centuries of defending their forbidden love and maintaining peace between mortals and immortals. When rogue archangels threaten everything that Elena and Raphael have fought for, the lovers must challenge themselves to go to even greater lengths to protect what they have and what their future could be. Seek the Traitor’s Son by Veronica Roth (Tor Books; May 12, 2026) Elegy Ahn prefers a life of anonymity as a soldier, but with a name like that, you know that destiny is going to pluck her off the battlefield and elevate her to potentially mythical status. She may be the prophesied hero of the war against Talusar—or she may fall to enemy general Rava Vidar, especially considering that the Talusar people worship a deadly (unless you’re resurrected) Fever. Regardless of whether she’s on the losing or winning side, Elegy is also destined to fall for a man whose fate is linked to both her and Rava. It’s Veronica Roth’s newest dystopia—this time a space fantasy—and we’re all livin’ in it. Hopeless Necromantic by Shiloh Briar (The Catseye Chronicles #1—Orbit Books; June 9, 2026) Twice now necromancer Sikras has attempted to stop the undead army encroaching on the edges of the kingdom. For his potentially final try, his latest reluctant escort is new recruit Helspira. Can the third time be the charm when something sparks between them, or will it make them both rethink this doomed mission? Yearning For: Dark Academia The Arcane Arts by S.D. Coverly (Del Rey; May 19, 2026) I confess I haven’t read too much dark academia, but I’m drawn to the taboo elements of S.D. Coverly’s contemporary fantasy. There’s the forbidden attraction between Newlyn University’s ambitious grad student Ellsbeth Storer and her advisor Thaddeus Rawlins, which is only amplified by their shared course of study: Ellsbeth’s thesis on writ magic, which allows its user to control and compel others. We’re talking clandestine research after-hours in the lab, secret magical experimentation on one another, and the layers of are we manipulating each other or is this lust actually love? Sign me up. The Unmagical Life of Briar Jones by Lex Croucher (Harper Voyager; June 2, 2026) “Casey McQuiston meets The Secret History”? Are you kidding me? I may have to start my dark academia education in earnest with both of these books. Lex Croucher, whose previous books have flirted with Bridgerton-esque tropes (Infamous) and Arthuriana (Gwen and Art Are Not in Love), explores what happens when two best friends are split up by one of them getting into magical school while the other is rejected. Eighteen-year-old Briar Jones, who long ago accepted their mundane life over their magical dreams, gets a temp job at the Temple School of Thaumaturgy, which they lost their best friend Sebastian Wolfe to at age 11. But when Briar steps onto Temple’s campus, they discover that Seb has become the arrogant villain Bastian—and that Temple is hiding a dark conspiracy. Gimme Gimme Gimme: Fake It Til You Make It Nemesis Mine by Amy Archer (Harper Voyager; May 19, 2026) Heated Rivalry meets Shrek when a failed villain strikes up a fake feud with a golden-boy hero to boost both their reputations. Rather than strike fear in the hearts of Athacan people, Cyrus finds himself more drawn to embroidery and gardening. So when the imperfect hero Maximilian suggests they stage a few battles for their respective good-versus-evil followings, Cyrus thinks this will help him tap back into his dark side. But despite Maximilian representing everything he’s supposed to hate, he may instead make Cyrus realize everything about himself that’s worth loving. Bromantasy by Máire Roche (G.P. Putnam’s Sons; May 26, 2026) Is mead and skincare enthusiast Juniper O’Reilly the least capable candidate for a dragon-slaying quest? You betcha. Is he tagging along with his heroic and very capable best friend Mo Elmthorn? Without a doubt. Are they totally just platonic besties with no feelings for each other whatsoever? Hoo boy, this fake quest is gonna be a shitshow, but it may well be exactly what these two need to get to the truth of the matter. The Last Best Quest Ever by F.T. Lukens (Margaret K. McElderry Books; May 26, 2026) Seventeen-year-old Ellinore is the kingdom’s champion, her heroic exploits too good to be true… because they’re all staged. Plagued by guilt and dogged by her royal rival Aven, Ellinore impulsively decides to retire. But when her twin brother Zig bets his life on her retrieving a rare relic from a mythical Elder Beast that might not even exist, Ellinore must reclaim her supposed glory—or finally come clean. But when Zig, Aven, and a bunch of ragtag questers are all relying on her, Ellinore must decide whether she lets them down or actually steps into her self-made legend. The Feywild Job by C.L. Polk (Dungeons & Dragons—Random House Worlds; June 30, 2026) C.L. Polk was writing romantic fantasy before the romantasy boom (The Midnight Bargain, Witchmark), so I’m psyched to see their take on this D&D heist in which con artist exes—one of whom has sworn a magical pact to never fall in love again—must steal a Feywild gem called “The Kiss of Enduring Love.” What seals the deal for me is Polk describing it as “imagine an ENTIRE FAIRY REALM is trying to Parent Trap you while you’re trying to work the biggest heist of your life.” Hell yes. Yearning For: Court Intrigue The Kings’ List by Jade Presley (The Never List #2—Red Tower Books; May 19, 2026) In The Never List, Rylee Gray infiltrated the kingdom of Lumathyst searching for her missing sister. Instead, the four immortal god-princes named her their Chosen mate—yep, it’s a why-choose romance with one queen and four kings. In the sequel, the immortal Rylee and her mates must now survive the Kings’ List, in which a council will vote on if they deserve to keep their crowns, and each other. A Kiss of Crimson Ash by Anuja Varghese (Games of the Goddess #1—Orbit Books; May 26, 2026) In this Bollywood-inspired romantasy, the power-hungry king of Nandapore seeks a mythical weapon. To oppose him, an ancient goddess brings together Taara, a newly-crowned queen; her husband, prince Garjan; Bhediya, a spellcasting courtesan and Garjan’s secret love; and Roland, a thief and a foreigner. With its rotating perspectives and medieval inspirations, it’s the start of a new epic fantasy trilogy. Masques by Sherwood Smith (Book View Cafe; June 9, 2026) Sherwood Smith’s Crown Duel set the bar for court intrigue fantasies for me, so I am champing at the bit to read Masques. Fourteen years ago, the Norsunder War ended, and twelve-year-old Sky Szinzar made a childhood betrothal with Lexan Glenereth. Sweet, but Sky is Princess of Ralanor Veleth, with responsibilities to fulfill even during peacetime, and Lexan has neither land nor any other prospects. At age twenty-six, Sky finally has her coming-of-age ball—only to be abducted by sarcastic Prince Garian-Rafael, the biggest critic of her idealistic adolescent pact. As Sky is surprised to realize she’s attracted to Rafael’s fiery attitude, she is even more shocked to meet Lexan in young adulthood—Lexan who is now cool and competent, Rafael’s foil and another contender for her affections. This cozy standalone romantic fantasy of manners sounds just delightful. Asperfell by Jamie Thomas (Orbit Books; June 23, 2026) Briony is a noblewoman raised in a remote country estate, far from the dangerous capital politics that would kill her for her forbidden magic. But when her secret is discovered, her only choice is to slip between realms into Asperfell, the legendary prison of mages. And her only hope for returning home is to find its most infamous prisoner: the former crown prince, banished long ago and with no interest in being rescued. Can Briony harness her magic in order to survive Asperfell?[end-mark] The post Cryptids, Taboos, and Fey Heists: Romantasy Report for May and June 2026 appeared first on Reactor.

Books book reviews The Subtle Art of Folding Space by John Chu is Layered and Uncategorizable Alex Brown reviews “a stunning achievement from a creative powerhouse.” By Alex Brown | Published on May 12, 2026 Comment 0 Share New Share What would you do if the only way to save the world was to kill your mother? Could you do it, could you kill the person you love to keep everyone else alive? What does that say about you if you could? What does it say if you couldn’t? That is the conundrum Ellie faces at the opening of John Chu’s The Subtle Art of Folding Space. Her mother is dying and the cause may not be wholly natural, but there may be a way to bring her back… at the expense of everyone else. But this isn’t really a story about her mother. It’s about what comes after Ellie makes her fateful choice. Ellie is a maintainer for the skunkworks that make physics work in the universe and keep reality chugging along. Every universe has a skunkworks, and every skunkworks has maintainers. There are builders like Ellie, her mom, and her cruel sister Chris who implement the gates and pipes that form the designs created by architects to fix errors, patch or bridge changes, and “generate the next universe.” Her cousin, Daniel, is a verifier, someone who makes sure the architectural designs are accurate and who diagnose problems for builders to fix. It’s Chris who sends Ellie into the skunkworks one fateful afternoon to check a glitch, and Daniel who helps her realize the problem is connected to her dying mother. Whoever created the “hold-time violations” has trapped her mother in a coma for some unknown purpose, and it’s wreaking havoc on the reality generated by the skunkworks. The longer she stays hovering between life and death, the worse things will get. Ripples will become a tsunami, and Ellie must choose: pull the plug and resolve the violations, or get her mother back alive and hale and likely furious at Ellie letting the world crumble around them. I won’t spoil the choice Ellie makes, but I can tell you that it is not where the book ends. It is only the beginning. The bulk of the plot consists of the consequences of that choice. Ellie and Daniel are sent back into the skunkworks to fix the fundamental error the culprit exploited, ferret out who was behind the glitch, and stop a faction of rabble rousers from causing anymore damage. As she and her cousin hop around realities, they confront a lifetime of familial trauma. Much of the story has to do with an experience that is familiar to a lot of people, but is often a big topic of conversation among Asian immigrant families. Ellie’s mother immigrated before her children were born. As the oldest daughter, Chris has certain expectations put on her that Ellie does not, but as toxic as Chris is, she makes being unable to live up to those impossible expectations her entire personality. She kept their ill mother trapped in her home under the guise of doing her daughterly duty and taking care of her. She ignores her own family so she can put all her energy into obsessing over her mother and sister. And she spent most of Ellie’s life setting elaborate death traps that kept Ellie on edge and unable to trust. When Daniel came to live with them after his parents kicked him out for being gay, Chris turned her evil eye to him, but it was Ellie who got the worst of it. You might expect Ellie’s mother to step in, but at every turn she merely told Ellie to be nicer to Chris. As much as Ellie longed for Chris’ affection, Chris longed for her mother’s approval. Both are still unsatisfied at the start of the novel.  Buy the Book The Subtle Art of Folding Space John Chu Buy Book The Subtle Art of Folding Space John Chu Buy this book from: AmazonBarnes and NobleiBooksIndieBoundTarget Daniel and Ellie make for an interesting pair. While each had rough childhoods of abandonment, rejection, and terror, Daniel is more stable than his cousin. Daniel got himself a found family, as queer folks are wont to do, and built a new life on his own terms. Ellie has a life outside her family and the skunkworks, but she seems like a visitor at most. She spends all her free time visiting her mother and getting raked over the coals by Chris. She is even willing to give up what little life she has to return home to help Chris take care of their mother. She lacks the stability and freedom a found family offers, and this allows her to believe against all odds that one day Chris will finally accept her.  The way Chu describes Daniel versus Ellie caught my attention. Ellie is our protagonist, and the third person narration hovers over her shoulder. Consequently, the book tends to describe her in terms that are diminishing. Daniel, meanwhile, is heaped with praise. He is described almost like a god walking among us. He is imposing and handsome, a bulky hunk where she is small and unassuming. It’s a clever way to demonstrate how inferior Ellie feels in her life, and how Chris has exacerbated that. It’s not that Daniel really is this perfectly chilled giant of a man, but that all she can see are his perfections in stark contrast to her imperfections. Everything in him that is good gets magnified when put up against everything she thinks is bad in herself, and everything she dislikes about herself gets intensified when put up against everything she likes in Daniel. That said, sometimes the narration gets a little lost in the sauce when it comes to Daniel. By the end, he seems almost like a superhero from a comic book movie rather than a real person. Readers used to straightforward stories that can easily be categorized may feel frustrated with this story. This is anything but neat and tidy. You cannot apply a list of fanfic tropes or trendy genre marketing terms to it. It will be a challenge for some readers who insist on everything being thoroughly explained and the worldbuilding systematized into easy to digest tropes and recognizable concepts. Readers will end this book with as many questions as they started it with. Chu makes the reader put in the work.  The Subtle Art of Folding Space is primed for the “what’s the difference between science fiction and fantasy” debate. When Chu delved into how the skunkworks functions and the physics of the world, I reacted the same way I always do when encountering hard SF (i.e. my least favorite science fiction): My eyes glazed over and my head filled with white noise. I could not keep the words still on the page, and when I switched to the audiobook I felt like I was listening to an adult in Charlie Brown. For the life of me, I could not understand how any of the stuff was supposed to be happening. Have you ever read a romance novel where you have to stop mid sex scene to figure out the choreography? That’s what I felt like trying to wade through the characters explaining the science underpinning the skunkworks. To be clear, that’s a me problem more than a Chu problem. Readers who dig that sort of thing will have a great time. On the other hand, the novel often also felt like fantasy. Ellie shoots fire from her hands; Daniel can create delicious dishes out of nothing; the characters teleport and weave strange images from their minds; and creatures from other worlds feel less like aliens and more like something from Martha Wells’ Books of the Raksura. I’d argue the book falls more strongly into science-ficitonland than fantasyland, given the premise, but as a passionate lover of fantasy fiction I had fun jumping between the two states. The Subtle Art of Folding Space is John Chu’s first full length novel after more than a decade in the short fiction mines. It’s a stunning achievement from a creative powerhouse. The more I think about the book, the more layers I pick out, like I’m diving into the skunkworks myself.[end-mark] The Subtle Art of Folding Space is published by Tor Books. The post <i>The Subtle Art of Folding Space</i> by John Chu is Layered and Uncategorizable appeared first on Reactor.

Books Front Lines and Frontiers A Quirky Mix of Tales: Galactic Empires, Volume One, Edited by Brian Aldiss An interesting mix of stories and authors — how many of these have you read? By Alan Brown | Published on May 12, 2026 Comment 0 Share New Share In this bi-weekly series reviewing classic science fiction and fantasy books, Alan Brown looks at the front lines and frontiers of the field; books about soldiers and spacers, scientists and engineers, explorers and adventurers. Stories full of what Shakespeare used to refer to as “alarums and excursions”: battles, chases, clashes, and the stuff of excitement. Today, I’m looking at a themed anthology, Galactic Empires: Volume One, edited by Brian Aldiss and published by St. Martin’s Press in 1976. I recently reviewed a collection of stories by H. Beam Piper, an author noted for his tales of the rise and fall of nations, republics, and empires, and with empires still on my mind, had run across this book in my basement. I’d picked it up used at some point, but have no idea where or when it came into my possession, and it had lurked in my “to be read” pile for many years. It’s adorned with a painting that tilts more toward fantasy than outer space empires, showing a cadre of armored warriors, with their leader adorned with a red cloak, his hand resting on an enormous two-handed sword. Beside him is an unarmored, nearly naked, woman also holding a large sword. The dust jacket credits the painting to Karel Thole, who is touted as “the world’s foremost cover artist of science fiction,” but is someone I can’t say I’ve ever heard of. The book might have sat for so long because, even though I am a big fan of stories about galactic empires, I was not too familiar with Brian Aldiss’ work, having only read a few of his shorter stories, and associated him with the British New Wave movement, a subset of science fiction that never impressed me much. As it turns out, this anthology was not what I expected, as it didn’t stick closely to the galactic empire theme promised by the title. But it is an entertaining and diverse collection of tales, and offers a good cross section of science fiction from the 1950s through the mid-1970s from a variety of magazines of the time. The stories, like so many of their time, are largely male-oriented, with women largely in supporting roles. And you can see that by the middle of the 20th century, and especially after World War II, the pro-imperial attitudes of the 19th century were waning. While I had always associated Aldiss with science fiction of a more serious sort, he shows with this anthology that he is not averse to having a little fun as well. About the Editor Brian Aldiss (1925-2017) was a noted British author of science fiction and fantasy, as well as an editor, critic, and artist. Aldiss served in the British Army in southern Asia during World War II. He became a bookseller after the war, but began writing in his spare time, and was successful enough to become a full-time writer. He was prolific, producing dozens of novels, over three hundred short stories, and extensive critical writings. Aldiss was a leading exemplar of what became known as the “New Wave,” an approach to science fiction distinguished by its artistic ambitions and its emphasis on the soft rather than hard sciences. He is best known for his Helliconia trilogy, set on an intricately crafted world with two suns, a planet with extremely long seasons. Aldiss received two Hugo Awards and one Nebula during his career. In 1999, he was selected by SFWA for its Grand Master Award, and in 2004 he became a member of the Science Fiction Hall of Fame. Galactic Empires: Volume One [Note: I can’t give the background of every author featured in this anthology, but for those who might want more biographical information, where I have discussed an author in this column before, I have tagged their name with a link to the latest of those reviews.] I was in the mood for fiction when I started the book, so I skipped over Aldiss’ introduction and framing material and jumped right into the first story, “Been a Long Time,” by R.A. Lafferty. One of my younger brothers, Bruce, is a huge fan of Lafferty, and owns nearly everything, if not everything, the man ever wrote. While I myself sometimes find Lafferty’s work amusing, I always find it baffling, and this story is no exception. It is the tale of an angel assigned to oversee an effort to determine how long it would take a group of monkeys equipped with typewriters to reproduce the works of William Shakespeare (spoiler alert: a pretty long time). And I was left wondering what this had to do with empires. The next story, “The Possessed,” by Arthur C. Clarke, is another tale that takes place over a long time. An alien swarm is meddling with the destiny of races on planets throughout the galaxy. Clarke lets you think that the race the story focuses on is humanity, but then in a nice twist, he pulls the rug out from under your expectations. A clever tale, but another without a connection to galactic empires. “Protected Species,” by H.B. Fyfe, is a dark tale of humans colonizing a mysterious planet full of ruins from a lost civilization. They display a callous disregard for the inhabitants, who may be an intelligent species. And then one of them meets a creature who delivers some devastating news, and everything becomes clear. This tale had at least a hint of lost empires to it. I was surprised to find that Michael Sharra, an author I associated with books about the American Civil War, was also a science fiction author. His contribution, “All the Way Back,” is a solid story, a tale of human explorers looking for habitable planets who encounter a warship from a multi-species civilization. Like the previous entries, it is built around a twist at the end, and was one of my favorite tales in the book. And then, before I read the next story, I ran into a subtitle: “Wider Still and Wider…” And I realized the tales were grouped by themes. I turned back to the introduction, and the organization of the anthology began to make sense. The first section is entitled “Rise and Shine,” and the first four stories came under the heading “A Sense of Perspective.” So, the stories that didn’t seem to fit were there to set the stage for what followed. The next section focused on the beginnings of empires, and “The Star Plunderer,” by Poul Anderson, quite squarely fits the bill, being the story of a prisoner who will become the first emperor of a resurgent human civilization. The story begins on an Earth falling to odious and uncivilized Gorzuni invaders. It is told from the perspective of John Reeves, a Solar Navy officer, who is captured along with his beloved fiancée, fellow officer Kathryn O’Donnell, and finds Manuel Argos, the future emperor, to be an odious companion, although also ruthlessly competent. The story is full of action and adventure in the best tradition of pulp science fiction, but like all of Anderson’s work, it rises above other pulp stories because of its connection to Anderson’s well-crafted future history, and because of Anderson’s ability to spin compelling tales that are often dark and full of emotion. Isaac Asimov’s “Foundation,” one of the short stories eventually stitched together to produce his Foundation Trilogy, is far from my favorite story in the anthology. While I enjoy many of Asimov’s shorter stories, and especially the humorous ones, his Foundation stories leave me cold. In this tale, the Galactic Empire is falling, and scientist Hari Seldon establishes a group on the planet Terminus whose job it is to compile a Galactic Encyclopedia. They are a clueless bunch, smugly ignoring the dangers posed by new political entities emerging around their planet. And they are sure that a time capsule from Seldon will tell them what to do, only to find that they have been serving a lie, and the work of decades is simply a ruse that is part of a larger plan. I found the characters unappealing, and disliked the idea of arrogant technocrats deceiving and manipulating the people they were supposed to serve. The story encapsulates the reason I disliked the Foundation Series, although I’ve always felt like I was in the minority with that opinion. The story “We’re Civilized!” by Mark Clifton and Alex Apostolides is another tale where arrogant humans expand into the galaxy only to get their comeuppance. It is a cleverly constructed story, if not especially deep. The next section of the anthology is “Maturity or Bust,” and the next subsection is “Horses in the Starship Hold,” which promises tales of pulp adventure—and they do not disappoint. Cordwainer Smith’s contribution to the anthology, “The Crime and Glory of Commander Suzdal,” is set in his baroque Instrumentality of Mankind universe, a darkly humorous setting full of animals uplifted to intelligence and enslaved by humans. An explorer, the eponymous Commander Suzdal, is duped by a colony of humans mutated by a hostile environment (and unfortunately, in keeping with the era when the story was written, their homosexuality is portrayed as part of the problem). His solution, to use time travel to populate a nearby planet with a new race of warrior cats in order to defeat the mutants, is laugh-out-loud funny, but gets Suzdal thrown into exile upon his return to civilization. Creating warrior cats who might eventually threaten human supremacy is not looked upon kindly. The best story in the anthology, and one of the best planetary romance tales I’ve ever read that wasn’t written by Leigh Brackett, is “The Rebel of Valkyr,” by Alfred Coppel. I’d never heard of him, but this tale is a gem. It is set in a galaxy where the old empire has fallen, and the secrets of its technology have been lost with it. But humans still travel the stars in spaceships now powered by magic, lit by oil lamps that replace the electric lights that no longer work, and equipped with stables to carry the horses that the cavalry troops use to wage war. The story is a straightforward tale of a struggle for succession after the death of the emperor, awash in greed, ambition, and corruption, and naturally features a noble warrior who allies himself with the true heir. There are swordfights, swashbuckling, reversals of fortune, romance, and adventures aplenty to keep the reader entertained. After I read it, I was pleased to learn that, writing under the pen name Robert Cham Gilman, the story was expanded into a series of four volumes, so I have some book-hunting to do. The story “Brightness Falls from the Air,” by Idris Seabright, is a bittersweet tale set in a decadent empire that entertains the populace with gladiatorial contests, often involving a race of bird people. The story follows a young man who falls in love with a female bird person, and ends with a heartbreaking conclusion. It is one of those stories that sticks with you long after it is over. Clifford Simak is one of my favorite authors, and I hadn’t run into his tale “Immigrant” before. It’s a good one, which follows an Earth man who is one of the elite few allowed to emigrate to the planet Kimon. What he finds there doesn’t fit his preconceived notions, and he is humbled by the planet’s gifted telepaths. But that humility allows him to discover why these aliens have allowed humans to settle on their planet, and the story ends on a hopeful note. The story is memorable, and infused with the whimsical sadness that makes Simak’s stories so compelling. The next subsection is “The Health Service in the Skies,” and starts with James White’s “Resident Physician,” a story set in his Sector General series, which follows doctors who treat aliens from a wide range of environments in a massive space-based hospital. In this one, the doctor in question must treat a sick alien who has apparently not only killed, but eaten, his shipmate. Along the way, he must puzzle out how this tragedy unfurled. The next story is a short one; “Age of Retirement,” by Hal Lynch, is intended to be humorous, but is so insubstantial, it doesn’t leave much of an impression. And its connection to the medical theme is peripheral at best. The last story, “Planting Time,” by Pete Adams and Charles Nightingale, is my least favorite story in the anthology, and its only connection to the medical theme is that sex can sometimes be considered a medical issue. A human explorer lands on a planet to replenish his supplies, finds an island full of nubile females lounging on couches, and wears himself out satisfying their desires. Upon discovering they were really flowers that attract the native humanoids to cross-pollenate themselves, instead of being embarrassed, he transplants the flora to another planet and establishes a plant-based bordello. From my perspective, the story had no redeeming qualities, and I felt like I needed to wash my mind out with soap after I finished. It definitely ended the volume on a sour note. Final Thoughts Even after I figured out how it was organized, I found Galactic Empires: Volume One to be loosely connected at best. But Aldiss had good taste—the diversity of the tales ended up being a strength, and the majority of the contents was entertaining. And some of the stories were outstanding, especially “The Rebel of Valkyr,” a delightful space-based fantasy full of the best kind of action and adventure. I definitely want to seek out Volume Two, as the anthology was worth reading. And now I turn the floor over to you, to hear your thoughts on Galactic Empires: Volume One, if you’ve read it, on the tales it contains if you’ve read them elsewhere, or on stories of galactic empires in general.[end-mark] The post A Quirky Mix of Tales: <i>Galactic Empires, Volume One</i>, Edited by Brian Aldiss appeared first on Reactor.