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Reading Recs for the Days You Want to Be Samwise, Not Frodo
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Reading Recs for the Days You Want to Be Samwise, Not Frodo

Books Necessary Whimsy Reading Recs for the Days You Want to Be Samwise, Not Frodo Books, comics, and a new TV show that will deliver some much needed whimsy when you need it most. By Lish McBride | Published on May 19, 2026 Chilling Effect cover art by Julie Dillon Comment 0 Share New Share Chilling Effect cover art by Julie Dillon I don’t know about the rest of you, but I feel like I’m starting a lot of conversations with, “Today has been really rough.” And then immediately shifting to, “I mean, yesterday was, too.” It quickly snowballs from there to a rough week, then month, then year, and then I sigh and move on. Usually, I would think this was just me since it’s a running joke that I seem to be touched by the god of chaos. I don’t do anything to invite it; things just seem to happen to me. Everyone else’s “unprecedented times” are my “very precedented, actually, and I’d like it to stop.” Basically, I sometimes feel like I have main character energy when I want sidekick energy. I don’t want to be Frodo. I want to be Samwise with his potatoes and his chill life in the Shire. Basically, my therapist has job security, is what I’m saying. And I know I’m not the only one—rather unfortunately, it feels like we all have main character energy right now and we’re all yearning for the Shire. Everyone is having that rough week/month/year/decade. And I think, if you’re not careful, that kind of constant pressure can turn you into an emotional diamond. That’s no way to live, my friends, because while those shiny hard surfaces repel the bad, they also don’t let in the good. I think the best way to handle this constant Barrage of Awful, even though it’s really difficult, is to stay soft. Stay kind, stay loving. You may feel cooked, but like Samwise’s potato, you can nourish those around you and yourself by being soft and buttery. The only thing a hard potato is good for is throwing at ICE agents. (For legal reasons, I feel like I should say this is a joke.) Or, as Mary Oliver more elegantly put it, “You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.” Despair might be being hand-delivered to your doorstep right now, but joy is still there, and tactical whimsy is a tried-and-true weapon against it. Let your body love, my friends. The world is your potato. With that in mind, we’ve decided to expand the scope here a bit to give you even more tools to fight the good fight—not only will I be recommending books to you, but also shows, webcomics, or other media that has brought me joy, and might bring you joy in turn… Chilling Effect by Valerie Valdes I’ve been very clear about the fact that I love nothing more than a motley crew, a rag-tag group of adventurers, a found family, if you will. Enter foul-mouthed space captain Eva Innocente and the crew of the La Sirena Negra. Are they all human? No. Does it matter? Not one bit, they’re family. When Eva’s sister is kidnapped by an evil crime syndicate called The Fridge, Eva’s crew is right behind her as she takes on dangerous tasks, all while running from a fish-faced emperor hell-bent on revenge after Eva rejected his advances. Oh, and the ship is full of psychic cats who keep escaping the cargo hold. And Eva has a lot of very inconvenient feelings for the ship’s engineer… Chilling Effect is a funny, off-beat romp of a space opera. Just One Damned Thing After Another by Jodi Taylor Did you ever see that Tree House of Horror episode of The Simpsons where Homer keeps going back in time and tries not to impact anything, only to accidentally sit on a fish and set off a series of events that ruins the future? (The whole thing is a goofy parody of Bradbury’s “A Sound of Thunder.”) Well, this book is sort of like an extended exploration of that. Madeline Maxwell is a historian who is recruited to work at St. Mary’s, an institution that investigates major incidents in history by sending people back to observe—and only to observe. If a historian tries to change history, history bites back swiftly and violently. While there are some grim moments in the story (I mean, major incidents in history often aren’t pleasant), this book is a well-executed chaotic romp, with a lot of fun to offset the darker moments. Plus, like, there are dinosaurs at one point. If you like this one, then good news! It’s a whole series. (If memory serves, I listened to this one as an audiobook and really enjoyed it.) Shadow of a Dead God by Patrick Samphire You know another trope I love? The down-on-their-luck underdog detective. Only sometimes, that detective is a mage. You know what I’m talking about—the rough-around-the-edges, heart-of-gold person trying to do the best they can in a tough world only to repeatedly and sometimes spectacular fail? Mennik is like that. He’s just trying to do his best in an unjust world, even though he doesn’t quite have the same magical chops as his adversaries. A simple job has made him a murder suspect and now he’s trying to clear his name. The humor in this book comes from Mennik himself—wry, self-deprecating, and definitely being used as a coping mechanism, giving the story a sort of noir fantasy tone at times. I really loved how magic is set up in this book as well, and if you’re looking for a new series, this one is finished and ready for you to dive into! Wilde Life by Pascalle Lepas Okay, so I love webcomics despite the fact that I often forget that they exist and space out on reading them for months at a time. That being said, I return to this one and gleefully binge it. (I also follow the creator on Patreon.) Oscar is a journalist who decides to run away from his life in Chicago to a small town in rural Oklahoma. Which, I mean, that’s a choice, Oscar… Anyway, the house he rents is haunted, but by the charming ghost of a computer girl from the army in the 1940s. Instead of running from the ghost, Oscar approaches the experience with curiosity, which I love. (I mean, he does run for a second, but gets over it.) The longer Oscar lives in this town, the more he sees, including local witches, a mystical bear in the woods, and a teenage werewolf named Clifford. While it deals with some scary creatures and real issues, there’s a sweetness and humor to it because of Oscar and the family he builds. Also, I honestly love Lepas’ art style. The wallpaper of my laptop is one she drew of Clifford in wolf form years ago that I love so much that I can’t quite manage to ever change it to anything else. While there is one graphic novel you can get collecting the early part of the comics, it’s mostly only online. Widow’s Bay, created by created by Katie Dippold (Streaming on Apple TV) I’ve had several people recommend this show to me, but the best pitch I heard was from my friend who said it was like Parks and Rec if Stephen King wrote it. On one hand, this show is a story of the mayor of a small island who is doing his level best to bring tourism and income to his community. On the other hand, that island is definitely cursed. While the show has a lot of hilarious moments, it also has some honestly creepy ones, too. The creators of this series really understand that true horror is in the anticipation of the Terrible Thing. (Once you watch episode two, where the mayor ends up in the basement, you’ll see what I mean.) The tone, the cast, the setting—everything so far (I’m only part way through the series) has that pitch-perfect feel of show that really understands the story it’s telling. The details are what really have me dying. For example, in episode two, the mayor finds a bunch of boardgames. One is labeled “Daddy’s Home,” with a truly off-putting vintage graphic, while the one underneath that is “She Shouldn’t Have Said That.” The mayor picks up a game called “Teeth” and when he opens it, finds a set of pliers. It’s funny and creepy and the mayor, portrayed by Matthew Rhys, is a sympathetic and flawed person just trying to do his best. The supporting cast is an absolute delight, not the least of which is Stephen Root, who plays the jaded voice of reason to Mayor Tom’s reckless optimism. If you enjoy horror comedy, you should definitely check this show out. And now over to you: Have a whimsy-related rec that I haven’t covered, be it a book, movie, comic, TV show, or something else entirely? Please feel free to drop it in the comments below![end-mark] The post Reading Recs for the Days You Want to Be Samwise, Not Frodo appeared first on Reactor.

Reading The Wheel of Time: Egwene Confronts Darkfriends and Rand Confronts Borderlanders in The Gathering Storm (Part 26)
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Reading The Wheel of Time: Egwene Confronts Darkfriends and Rand Confronts Borderlanders in The Gathering Storm (Part 26)

Books The Wheel of Time Reading The Wheel of Time: Egwene Confronts Darkfriends and Rand Confronts Borderlanders in The Gathering Storm (Part 26) By Sylas K Barrett | Published on May 19, 2026 Comment 0 Share New Share This week, Reading The Wheel of Time is covering chapters 43 and 44, in which Egwene confronts Darkfriends, Galad, and a difficult decision, while Rand goes to meet the Borderlanders, only to be confronted by an old ally and the memory of a not so old trauma. Nynaeve does her best to protect people from Rand and learns the whereabouts of Perrin and his company. Without further ado, let’s get to the recap. In her tent in the rebel camp, attended by Chesa, Egwene thinks about her failure to defeat Elaida. She is angry at her followers for disobeying her orders, but she is also aware that she herself may have been able to do better. She wonders if she was too secretive, and considers that she should have shared more with Siuan. She’d once thought, mistakenly, that the Amyrlin wouldn’t be so easily tossed about by random twists in the Pattern. She was supposed to be in control. Everyone else spent their days reacting, but the Amyrlin was a woman of action! Egwene is now realizing that her assumptions were incorrect; Kings and Queens and Amyrlins are also tossed about by the storms of life. The only difference is that they are skilled at projecting calm and control in the face of life’s chaos. She realizes that in some ways, the Amyrlin does have more control than most people. While she still needs to adapt to the needs of the moment and the changes of the Pattern, she also has the knowledge and skills and power to shape the world in turn. Egwene decides that she cannot wait for negotiations, not with the threats of the Seanchan and the Last Battle looming. Her army is fresh and ready, while the Tower forces are exhausted and demoralized. Now is the time to strike. She hopes that history will forgive her. She is startled to find Gawyn outside her tent. He tries to talk to her, telling her that he needs to know where they stand and how she feels, but Egwene cuts him off, upbraiding him for ruining her work in the White Tower. He replies that he and Siuan were worried about her. “Well, that worry was the sacrifice I demanded, Gawyn,” she said, exasperated. “Don’t you see what a distrust you have shown me? How can I trust you if you will disobey me in order to feel more comfortable?” She tells him that while Egwene the woman understands, Egwene the Amyrlin is furious with him. She also realizes then that he doesn’t see her as the Amyrlin, and points out that this uncertainty in Gawyn undermines their relationship. She agrees to talk to him about it later. In the White Tower, five Ajah heads—Jesse Bilal of the Brown,  Adelorna Bastine of the Green, Ferane Neheran of the White, Suana Dragand of the Yellow, and Serancha Colvine of the Gray—have gathered for a secret meeting. Tsutama hasn’t been included, since she wasn’t yet the Highest of the Red Ajah when the the Ajah heads of the White Tower came up with a scheme to heal the division in the Tower and to rule the Aes Sedai themselves by using Elaida.  It had seemed like a brilliant plan. The division of the Tower, the departure of so many in rebellion and the raising of a new Amyrlin, had not been their fault. But it had presented several opportunities. The first had been the easiest to take hold of: send Sitters to the rebels to steer them and hasten a reconciliation. The most youthful of Sitters had been chosen, their replacements in the Tower intended to serve only a short time. The Ajah heads had been certain this ripple of a rebellion could be easily smoothed over. The Ajah heads discuss the fact that their plan to wield power through Elaida has failed, as has their plan to reconcile the division in the White Tower. Their election of Sitters who were too young for the job made other sisters suspicious. They hadn’t anticipated Elaida’s instability, and never have anticipated how effective the rebel leadership would turn out to be. To herself, Jesse also thinks that letting Elaida disband the Blue was the greatest mistake; without that dishonor, the Blues might not have dug in so hard, keeping the rest of the rebels from returning. With their plan to lead the White Tower themselves no longer viable, and with Elaida beyond rescue, conversation turns to the election of a new Amyrlin. Each woman suggests a member of her own Ajah, arguing for why their particular skill set is most needed. The talk rises to arguing… and then Adelorna suggests Egwene. There is resistance at first, but as they all discuss Egwene’s ability to resist Elaida, her effectiveness during the Seanchan attack, and the fact that her appointment would bring the rebels back to the White Tower, they realize that she is the best, and the only, choice. They also realize that their dreams of leading the White Tower themselves will never come to pass, as this time they will be setting up a strong Amyrlin. “I, for one,” Adelorna said, “think that’s a splendid idea. It’s been too long.”One by one, the others agreed. Siuan waits under a tree outside the tent where the Hall is meeting. When Bryne joins her, they discuss what punishment Egwene might mete out to Siuan. He asks if the risk of rescuing her was worth it. “Yes,” Siuan said. “She didn’t realize how close this band was to slipping away from her. And we couldn’t know that she’d be safe within the Tower during the attack. If there’s one thing my time in the White Tower taught me, it’s that there is a time for gathering and planning, but one also has to act. You can’t always wait for certainty.” Bryne tells her that she is a woman of honor, and that he understand her now: She is able to break oaths or shrug off orders when she deems it necessary because no oath is as heavy or as binding on her as the responsibility she has already put on herself. When she asks when he will tell her what the other condition is, he admits that he intends to demand that she marry him, but only after the Last Battle is over. His hope is that after Siuan has given everything for the world for so long, she will be willing to take a life for herself, with him. Inside the tent used as the Hall, Egwene faces a dozen Sitters. Each Ajah has one missing, as they were sent as part of the envoy to the Black Tower. Sheriam is with Egwene, and has a bandage on her hand, which she won’t let anyone look at or Heal.  Having already had the youngest member weave a ward against eavesdropping, Egwene embraces the Source. She produces the Oath Rod and swears the Three Oaths before the Hall, telling them that they can no longer claim that she has the ability to lie, or that she is not fully Aes Sedai. She then explains that a sister came to her while she was in the Tower and admitted to being a Darkfriend. She announces in plain words that she herself is not Black Ajah, then explains that each of them will be required to remove and then retake their Oaths and declare they are not Darkfriends, just as Egwene has done. Sheriam tries to embrace the Source but Egwene is ready and shields her. She tricks Sheriam into saying a falsehood by asking her a series of rapid-fire questions, then tells her about Verin’s confession, the giving of Sheriam’s name, and how Verin got around the oaths by taking poison. Sheriam admits that this was clever; she could never bring herself to do anything similar. When Egwene mentions that there were many other names given, including those of Sitters, Moria jumps up and runs for the door. She is shielded immediately and bound with Air. One by one, the rest of the Sitters release themselves and then retake the Three Oaths, declaring themselves not to be Darkfriends. Egwene then tells them her plan to bring the rest of the Aes Sedai into the Hall in groups, under the guise of telling everyone something important that must not be overheard by the soldiers in camp. Armed with Verin’s list of names, the Sitters will be ready to capture everyone on that list, and anyone else who is revealed when Egwene demands they all go through the same process of removing and re-swearing the Oaths. Egwene also declares that once the job is done, they will attack the White Tower. Romanda agrees that this is what must be done, formally putting forward a motion to follow Egwene’s plan. It is unanimously agreed upon. Accompanied by Aiel, Narishma, and Naeff, Nynaeve and Rand ride to a meeting with the Borderlanders. They discuss where Rand will fight the Last Battle. Nynaeve insists that Tarwin’s Gap is the perfect place for Rand to fight, but he disagrees. He intends to take advantage of Lan’s presence there as a distraction; the Dark will think Rand is there too, and move its forces there, at which point he will Travel in to strike at Shayol Ghul itself. Nynaeve has attempted several good, rational arguments, but none have worked. *“Rand,” Nynaeve said, her anger fading to horror. “Lan will die!”“Then who am I to deny him that?” Rand said. “We all deserve the chance to find peace.”Nynaeve found her mouth hanging open. He actually believed that! Or he was convincing himself to believe it, at least. She attempts to argue further, but Rand shuts her down with that soft, dangerous tone he has developed. She falls silent, musing on how she can change this outcome, worrying over how Lan will die at the Gap, his forces overrun, and how the Shadowspawn and the Seanchan will sweep across the lands, trampling innocents in their wake. She asks Rand if he knows where Perrin is, and Rand mentions that he is connected to Perrin, and to Mat, but won’t explain further. They reach the rendezvous, but the Borderlanders are not there. There is only one man, who Nynaeve and Rand both recognize as Hurin. After Rand tests the man’s memory of their time together in order to prove he is who he seems to be, Rand asks Hurin what is going on. Hurin explains that he was sent to discuss terms. The Borderlanders want to meet him in Far Madding, inside the protection of the Guardian. Rand cuts off anything else Hurin is going to say, and opens a Gateway back to a familiar stretch of road, and then to a place outside Far Madding. They can see an army camped around the lake, outside of the island city but within the reach of the ter’angreal that prevents men from reaching the Source while in its boundaries. Rand tells Nynaeve that the army will have seen him arrive, and that they want him in their box. “The city is a box,” Rand said. “The whole city and the area round it. They want me where they can control me, but they don’t understand. Nobody controls me. Not anymore. I’ve had enough of boxes and prisons, of chains and ropes. Never again will I put myself into the power of another.” He pulls the access key to the Choedan Kal. Nynaeve is dismayed when she sees the globe on the key begin to glow. He mutters about how they need to be taught to obey him, how they captured and beat him in Far Madding once already. Nynaeve reminds him that the city isn’t full of Graendal’s mind-controlled slaves, that they are innocent people. Rand responds that he isn’t going to hurt the city, but that the army deserves to experience fireballs, or perhaps lightning. She tells Rand that if he does this, there will be no turning back, but he counters that he was never able to turn back; his feet were set on this path the moment Tam found him as a baby. Still, Nynaeve persists, telling him that he doesn’t have to kill anyone today. Rand stops channeling, ordering Hurin to carry a message to the Borderlanders that the Dragon Reborn is riding to Shayol Ghul. If they wish to return to their posts and serve with honor, he will provide them with a gateway. If not, they can stay here, hiding, and they can explain to their children and their grandchildren why they were far away from their duty when the Dark One was slain and the prophecy fulfilled. They return to Tear. As Nynaeve is dismounting, Rand tells her that Perrin is camped in the shadow of an enormous statue that looks like a sword stabbed into the Earth. When she asks why he told her, he replies that he owes her a debt for continuing to care, even when he cannot. Nynaeve goes to Cadsuane, finding her with her usual group of Aes Sedai. Min is also there. Nynaeve approaches Cadsuane respectfully, but holds the information about Perrin hostage in an attempt to make Cadsuane tell her the plan. She does tell Cadsuane about the meeting with the Borderlanders, and how she only just stopped Rand from raining down fire on the army. She worries that it’s getting too late to do anything to change him. Cadsuane declares her determination to teach Rand to laugh again. Corele interrupts, pointing out that many of Min’s visions have to do with events that are clearly going to happen after the Last Battle, which proves that they are going to defeat the Dark One. Therefore, it doesn’t really matter whether they are able to intervene with Rand or not. The Pattern has already decided that he will be successful. Min counters that this is wrong, because if Rand loses, there will no longer be a Pattern. “The girl is correct.” Cadsuane sounded surprised. “What this child sees are weavings in the Pattern from a time still distant—but if the Dark One wins, he will destroy the Pattern entirely. This is the only way the visions could fail to occur. The same holds for other prophecies and Foretellings. Our victory is by no means sure.” Nynaeve, realizing she can’t hold back the information about Perrin if she wants a chance to help Rand, tells Cadsuane about the statue of a sword stabbed into the ground. Cadsuane, who recognizes the description at once, knows where Perrin is. She declares that they will leave at once, and admits to Nynaeve that it is not Perrin who is important to her plan, but rather one particular person who is with him. Trying to make sense of fate and predestination in this universe is enough to make anyone’s brain melt and pour out of their ears. I really love that Min has become a philosopher/scholar about these things, because it gives the narrative more chances to get into the themes of fate and prophecy, and also because Min’s power (and therefore Min as a character) becomes less passive as a result. Her viewings are an active ability she understands and can use, rather than only being able to offer them to others for them to understand and use. Her correction of Corele, for example, shows that in this she is an authority who can participate equally in a conversation between Aes Sedai. Cadsuane seems a little surprised at the insight, but she doesn’t stop or correct Min for joining in. Min has come a long way from playing Elmindreda the fool and spying for Siuan. I do think I understand Min’s point about her visions. If the Pattern were ever to come to an end, she wouldn’t be able to see it, because it wouldn’t be the end of a straight line, cause and effect leading to a single finality. Rather, the Dark One’s victory would result in the destruction of a never-ending circle. You couldn’t see it on the circle. The key here, I think, is how one thinks about time. In our own world, physicists know that time exists in relation to the three dimensions of space, which is why we have the term spacetime. I once watched a video in which an astrophysicist explained why it doesn’t make sense to ask the question of what existed before the Big Bang. Time, and therefore concepts like “before” “during” and “after,” only exists because the universe exists. There was no “before” the universe, because there is no time without it. That can be a mind-bending concept for beings who exist inside of time, but it does once again raise the question in my mind of how the Dark One himself relates to time. From everything we’ve seen, it appears that he is restrained by time, in some way, since he cannot access the souls of his followers who have been removed from the Pattern via balefire. However, he does not appear to be affected by linear time, as we saw that those Forsaken who were trapped inside the Bore with him did not age, though those closest to the “outside” or “surface” or whatever you want to call it were not fully protected from the ravages of time. (See: Balthamel and Aginor.) One might almost deduce that the Dark One exists outside time, but is somehow imprisoned by it. Perhaps by the Pattern itself. In any case, Min is great and I am proud of her, as well as worried about her relationship with Rand. The two of them need a serious long talk, maybe over wine, but I don’t think they’ll be able to get that while Rand is in his current condition. I am now confident in my prediction that Cadsuane’s plan is to bring Tam to Rand, since she told Nynaeve that there is one person in particular, who is with Perrin, who is vital to her plans. We know that Rand is still in there, under the paranoia and trauma and the hardness he has built around himself. In a way, he is imprisoned by these things just as the Dark One is imprisoned. The only difference is that Rand’s prison is one of his own making, while the Dark One was (presumably) imprisoned by the Creator. I suppose it’s rather fitting that Rand would end up in a metaphorical prison due to the corruption of the taint. As the soul designated to fight and repel the Dark One (I don’t think it’s possible for Rand to kill him, but more on that later), he acts basically as a parallel to the Dark One, perhaps even more so than the Creator might be said to be. The Dark One is a being outside of the Pattern, unconnected to the world and its consequences, with no aim other than to bring about nothingness. Rand, in contrast, is human, inside the Pattern, a part of the World. He brings about good and ill, change and evolution—all the consequences of time and existence. Perhaps most importantly, Rand is a being who has choice. He can bend the Pattern to his will, both intentionally and unintentionally; he can choose how he wants to live his life and fight his battles. Egwene also muses on this when she considers whether or not the Amyrlin is immune to the dictates and storms of the Pattern. Initially she thought someone so powerful would be, but now she understands that everyone must weather what the Pattern throws at them, and that no one can change or anticipate what the Wheel might weave. At the same time, she is also aware that the Amyrlin’s position of power gives her more ability than most to affect change in turn, and to direct the path the world takes. But Rand doesn’t see things this way. He sees himself as more trapped than the average person, and his fate as a never-ending cage of pain and being hated. We have seen this multiple times, most recently in his conversation with Lews Therin in chapter 44. What have we become? Lews Therin whispered. We’re going to do it again, aren’t we? Kill them all. Everyone we’ve loved. Again, again, again….“Again and again,” Rand whispered. “It doesn’t matter, as long as the world survives. They cursed me before, swore at Dragonmount and by my name, but they lived. We’re here, ready to fight. Again and again.” We also see him refer to Lan’s probable death as “finding peace,” showing just how little love Rand has for life. Of course he’s willing to kill anyone these days, if he sees death as bringing peace to a beleaguered and suffering humanity. We can’t know anything, really, about how the Dark One thinks or acts; this is all supposition and musing on my part. Still, if the Dark One exists outside of time, that suggests a lack of ability to change or make choices. He is what he is and that’s it. As a prisoner with a single-minded existence, it makes sense if he wanted to delude and trap the soul designated to fight against him, both to cripple and demoralize him, but also to inflict his own state upon his enemy. The tragedy of that is that Rand has decided he has no choice, no free will, not in this life or in any other. However, Rand exists inside time, even if it is cyclical rather than linear. He should have the ability to choose. He chose to listen to Nynaeve, after all, when he did not attack the Borderlander army. He is considering options about where he starts his assault during Tarmon Gai’don, implying choice there, as well. He also has the choice of whether or not to cut himself off from his emotions, whether or not becoming hard and unfeeling is really the direction he wants to take his life. He has the ability to choose to feel, to love, and to laugh. We know the old Rand is still in there somewhere. He was grateful to Nynaeve for caring about people’s lives when he felt he could not. He listened to her. If that meant nothing, he would not have stayed his hand or offered her information about Perrin to discharge a debt he felt he had incurred. He still feels pain and grief over what he has become, and he still attempts to control his anger and violence. Nynaeve worries that it may soon be too late to reach him, but it does not appear to be too late yet. I do think the Borderlanders are being rather silly. I can absolutely understand their concern that they have been left out of the dealings that the Dragon Reborn has had with the rest of the world, but just marching around with their full armies and all their rulers does seem really ridiculous. They could have sent envoys, or designated one ruler to negotiate for all of them, or any number of other plans. Heck, they’ve spent months (or more; I really don’t know how much time has passed in the series) wandering around, traveling in winter—a difficult and impractical thing to do, as Hurin pointed out—hoping they can find Rand and mostly failing. They’re only getting a meeting now—or would have, if they hadn’t gone to Far Madding—because Rand finally decided to seek them out. It kind of makes you wonder if there is something else going on, some pull on them by the Pattern or Rand’s ta’veren nature. Why that would be, or whether it will turn out for good or ill, remains to be seen, of course. The Wheel weaves as the Wheel wills, and it weaves in mysterious ways. Also, I love that Hurin has reentered the story! He’s a really fun character, and I’m very interested in his weird ability to smell violence. I assume what he smelled around Rand was the taint of the “True Power.” “The air… it smells like a lot of death, a lot of violence, only not. It’s darker. More terrible.” He shuddered visibly. Hurin’s ability to smell violence was one of those oddities that the Tower couldn’t explain. Not something related to the Power, yet obviously not quite natural either. He describes it as similar to violence and death, but darker and more terrible, which makes sense. Violence and death are bad, especially from a human standpoint, but they are still part of the world. The power of the Dark One is not actually death or violence but an absence of creation; death and violence are just the closest analogies for beings existing within creation. We see this same translation of the Dark One’s essence whenever he is connected with carrion eaters, insects, rodents, and decay. These things are not actually unnatural, but they represent the sorts of things humans associate with the Dark One.  As Nynaeve observes, it must have been quite a shock for Hurin to experience this version of Rand, which is so very different from the one he knew. I would love to hear his report to the Borderland rulers, and maybe learn what he thought and how he interpreted Rand’s actions. Meanwhile, Egwene is making some bold choices and actions of her own. The parallels between the two continue to the point where they are starting to get a bit obvious and tired, but it remains true that Egwene’s approach to making hard decisions is very different from Rand’s. In this chapter, she has to confront the members of the Black Ajah among her own followers, including women she respected and thought of as friends. Sheriam being one of these, one can appreciate how calm and even-tempered Egwene was during her conversation with her former Keeper, and when Moria tried to escape. I have no doubt she will be able to keep her composure when confronting the rest of the Black Sisters, both for her own sake and for the sake of her followers. A big part of Egwene’s journey as Amyrlin has been figuring out how to bring the rest of the Aes Sedai to trust and believe in her, both in the sense of trusting Egwene’s judgment and the path she has chosen for them, and in the sense of believing that Egwene has the strength and ability to execute her plans. She doesn’t know it yet, but she has succeeded on both counts with the Aes Sedai of the White Tower. Things might have gone differently if Elaida had not been captured, but with the space opened up, the confidence Egwene inspired in the Ajah Heads allowed them to see the other merits of installing her, especially the fact that it will allow them to reunite the White Tower. It’s actually startling to realize that the tragedy of the Seanchan raid is in some ways a good thing for the Aes Sedai. Not for those who were captured or killed, of course, but Elaida’s capture allows everyone to sidestep the messy business of trying to decide whether she should be deposed and then actually having to go through with it. Elaida being removed by a third party means that the Aes Sedai who stayed loyal to her can save face; they don’t have to denounce her or claim to have made a mistake. Both sides now can agree on how to move forward without having to litigate out whether anyone needs to be sanctioned or punished for what happened in the past. Adelorna asserts that Elaida deserved to be captured, since she ignored Egwene’s warnings and insisted that the Seanchan were not a threat. While I don’t believe anyone deserves the horrors of being a damane (and I think Egwene would agree with me) it does feel very symbolic that Elaida was captured. Not just because she was almost willfully ignorant about the Seanchan threat, but because she wanted to elevate herself to a position of importance even greater than your average Amyrlin. She moved herself to the highest part of the Tower, setting herself apart from the other Aes Sedai, which put her directly in the path of the Seanchan raid. Elaida’s fate is an interesting one. She isn’t just a bad person who came to a bad end. She is someone whose ambitions of greatness contributed directly to her own destruction. She’s a very Shakespearean character that way. I have to admit that I really enjoyed seeing her story play out, even though it’s awful that anyone at all was collared. We now also have an answer for why both the rebel Hall and the White Tower Hall have a contingent of Sitters who are too young to have been normally elected. I find it rather hilarious that the Tower Hall chose women who were too young for the job in a bid to control them, only to have it backfire spectacularly, just as the rebel Hall had the raising of Egwene to Amyrlin backfire on them. It also makes perfect sense to me that Beonin wasn’t the only spy among the rebels, and that the Ajah Heads would be much more involved in trying to fix the division than Elaida herself was. It will be interesting to see how Egwene and Gawyn navigate their relationship. I had a thought about Min’s visions concerning the two of them as well: Perhaps the vision that Min had of Gawyn either kneeling to Egwene or causing her death had something to do with his love for Egwene the woman vs. his inability to accept her as Amyrlin. I have no doubt that Egwene would never accept Gawyn as a lover, a Warder, or any kind of companion, unless he was willing to fully dedicate himself to her identity as Amyrlin. She will do whatever must be done, no matter how painful it is to herself; her personal life will never be even remotely as important to her as being Amyrlin and taking care of the Aes Sedai and the world. So I guess time will tell how that will work out. Siuan and Bryne are very cute here. I believe that last week I accidentally included this week’s exchange and talked about it; I had already read chapter 43 and forgot what happened when. I am quite confident that Lan isn’t going to die in a futile attempt to hold Tarwin’s Gap. I’m expecting it to be a sort of Helm’s Deep situation, and if Rand isn’t going to come riding (or Traveling) to his aid, someone else will. Maybe Egwene? It would be really thematically beautiful if the White Tower were to arrive just in time to prevent Lan and his Malkieri followers from being overrun by Shadowspawn; after all, they were unable to prevent the fall of Malkier because they could not travel fast enough to reach that land before it was too late. They have Traveling now, so that limitation no longer exists. Maybe Lan can get some kind of closure in more ways than one. Rand using Lan’s fight at the Gap as a distraction from his own strike at Shayol Ghul also reminded me of Lord of the Rings. In The Return of the King, Aragorn, Gandalf, et al. ride to the gates of Mordor to challenge Sauron to battle. They are hopelessly outnumbered, and know that they are all likely going to die, but they are willing to sacrifice themselves in order to draw Sauron’s gaze and hopefully give Frodo and Sam a chance to finish their mission while Sauron is distracted by the King of Gondor showing up with an army. Lan is an Aragorn parallel in many ways, but Frodo didn’t decide to sacrifice his friends without even letting them know about it, which is what Rand is doing. I really like the compare/contrast of these two moments, given how much the early books of The Wheel of Time were inspired by Lord of the Rings. We’ll be continuing on to more Egwene stuff next week, and I’m very excited to report that both chapter 45 and 46 are hers. The Wheel of Time has always moved from POV to POV, but I much prefer a few chapters in one head before moving on to someone else, and then to someone else, rather than the hopping back and forth that the narrative has been doing lately. And boy, are there some big things coming for Egwene and her Aes Sedai. I enjoyed the dramatic irony of Egwene being angry over losing her place in the White Tower right when she was about to win, and angsting about having to lead her army against Elaida’s after all, when I as the reader knew that she is going to be offered the Amyrlin Seat, and reunification, by the Tower Hall. We’ll see how that goes next week. In the meantime, all my best to you, dear readers. See you again soon![end-mark] The post Reading The Wheel of Time: Egwene Confronts Darkfriends and Rand Confronts Borderlanders in <i>The Gathering Storm</i> (Part 26) appeared first on Reactor.

Five SFF Satires of Modern Tech Culture
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Five SFF Satires of Modern Tech Culture

Books Five Books About Five SFF Satires of Modern Tech Culture Let’s take a look at some of the funniest, sharpest takes on our tech overlords… By Caitlin Rozakis | Published on May 19, 2026 Comment 0 Share New Share Speculative fiction has always had a love/hate relationship with technology; whether it’s the “don’t play God” message of Frankenstein or the dehumanization of industrialization depicted in Metropolis, some of the earliest works in the genre have turned a skeptical eye on emerging tech. But technology is one thing; tech culture is something more specific. The rise of the tech bro with his (and let’s be honest, it’s almost always his) “move fast and break things” philosophy has collided with late-stage capitalism’s demand for numbers that multiply in size every quarter to create a uniquely terrible corporate hellscape. And it’s one full of fantastical terms, from angel investors to vampire capitalists to unicorn startups. The jokes practically write themselves. I spent the better part of fifteen years working for a series of tech startups (some better, some worse). So it’s with a certain “it’s funny because it’s true” glee that I inhale stories that take the most fantastical elements and apply them to the modern workplace. It’s part of why I wrote Startup Hell, in which an employee at a terrible tech startup walks into her boss’s office to find him face down on the desk, dead, and the demon he summoned still trapped in the circle. She’s a junior salesperson, he’s a junior salesdemon, they both have monthly quotas to meet. Which is worse—all the forces of hell, or her ambitious tech bro CEO? (I’ll give you one guess.) The hallmarks of modern tech companies—from hustle culture to the seemingly mandatory foosball tables and weird free snacks to touchy-feely-tone deaf HR—are ripe for satire. Let’s take a look at some of the funniest, sharpest takes on our tech overlords. Starter Villain by John Scalzi Charlie is normal, boring, and broke when he unexpectedly inherits a vast supervillain business. Now he’s dealing with pro-union dolphins, intelligent talking cats, and some really terrifying henchpeople… and those are the folks on his side. Featuring the single funniest take on a TED talk/pitch contest imaginable, this book takes on multinational corporations and venture capitalists as the real supervillains. It’s no surprise and only the mildest of spoilers that there’s a global conspiracy of businessmen working together to profit off world tragedies while stabbing each other in the back. (Am I still describing fiction? I don’t feel like I’m describing fiction.) Don’t worry, there are still giant laser death rays. Sourdough, or Lois and Her Adventures in the Underground Market by Robin Sloan Just about every tech worker seems to dream at some point of leaving coding behind for something more tangible. Lois Clary is nearly killing herself with the grind of working for a San Francisco robotics company. That is, until she ends up the inadvertent caretaker of a sourdough starter that’s more than it appears. It requires music to grow right. It seems to express opinions. It murders other sourdough starters. Modern tech companies want to grow regardless of what that turns them into, and Lois comes from a tech background that demands supporting that growth. Even if not everything should continue growing. This one puts the “culture” in tech culture. Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots Even supervillains need office help. Anna works for a temp agency for villains, doing data entry. Is it really so much worse than the same work for a tobacco or coal company? Except something goes wrong and she gets hurt on the job by a superhero. Instead of workman’s comp, all Anna gets is layoff via fruit basket and a deep need for some way to both make a living and maybe take that hero down. But Anna doesn’t have superpowers, unless you include a stubborn interest in sifting through data, pulling together insights, and making a really compelling Powerpoint. When she discovers a supervillain who actually values these skills, she has the opportunity to start controlling the narrative that declares who’s a hero and who’s a villain. This book understands the importance of social media, marketing, and most of all—data analysis. Several People Are Typing by Calvin Kasulke Does the mere sound of a Slack notification haunt your dreams? Welcome to Gerald’s nightmare. This epistolary novel is told entirely in the form of Slack threads. Poor Gerald, who works for a PR firm, has somehow gotten uploaded into the company’s internal Slack channels. On the minus side, his body is abandoned and drooling on itself and his coworkers are deeply resentful that he’s been allowed to work from home all the time. On the plus, his productivity metrics are higher than ever before. He needs to figure out how to remove his ghost from the machine, yes, but he also needs to help write a press release for a client whose dog food company is being accused of poisoning Pomeranians, wrangle coworkers who are increasingly distracted by the howling of disembodied wolves, and deal with a CEO whose biggest concern is who keeps moving his office furniture. Who’s going to notice he no longer inhabits his body as long as his deliverables keep arriving? A delightfully absurd take on modern office culture. Red Team Blues by Cory Doctorow Forensic accounting isn’t going to sound exciting to most people, but it can be a good way to make some powerful folks awfully angry. In this extremely-near-future thriller, Martin Hench has been around Silicon Valley to know where a lot of the bodies are buried. So when a cryptocurrency scheme turns deadly, he’s the one brought in to play defender. Along the way, we’re treated to Doctorow’s punk take on all things tech bro, from the arc of a successful startup to the issues surrounding crypto to the impact of the tech boom on the unhoused folks of San Francisco.[end-mark] Buy the Book Startup Hell Caitlin Rozakis Buy Book Startup Hell Caitlin Rozakis Buy this book from: AmazonBarnes and NobleiBooksIndieBoundTarget The post Five SFF Satires of Modern Tech Culture appeared first on Reactor.

Disney+ Is Developing an Ella Enchanted Series; Anne Hathaway Is Involved
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Disney+ Is Developing an Ella Enchanted Series; Anne Hathaway Is Involved

News Ella Enchanted Disney+ Is Developing an Ella Enchanted Series; Anne Hathaway Is Involved Hathaway starred in the movie adaptation of the book that came out over 20 years ago By Vanessa Armstrong | Published on May 18, 2026 Screenshot: Disney Comment 0 Share New Share Screenshot: Disney Disney is once again adapting the book Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine. According to Deadline, Disney+ has signed off on putting a series adaptation of the story into development. This isn’t the first time, of course, that Levine’s novel has made its way to the screen. Back in 2004, Disney released a musical film of the same name that starred Anne Hathaway as the titular Ella. In the movie, the not-so-nice fairy godmother, Lucinda Perriwether, curses Ella at birth, requiring her to obey anyone who gives her a command. When she is a teenager, Ella goes on a quest to find Lucinda and reverse the curse and falls in love along the way. Hathaway will be involved in the new Disney+ project as well; she’ll be an executive producer, with Ilana Wolpert (Anyone But You, High School Musical: The Musical: The Series) writing and Beth Schwartz (Arrow, Legends of Tomorrow, Dead Boy Detectives) serving as showrunner. Given those involved, it seems likely that the the series will have musical numbers as well. Deadline also reports, however, that the series will have more of a “coming-of-age feel with a boarding school setting,” which differs from the movie adaptation. Part of Levine’s novel takes place at a boarding school (the movie does not), suggesting they may include more from that section of the book while also leaning a bit more into the school vibes. The project is still in its early stages of development, so no news yet on who will star in the Ella Enchanted series or if/when the show will premiere on Disney+. [end-mark] The post Disney+ Is Developing an <i>Ella Enchanted</i> Series; Anne Hathaway Is Involved appeared first on Reactor.

The Outlander Series Finale Brings Jamie and Claire’s Love Story Full Circle
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The Outlander Series Finale Brings Jamie and Claire’s Love Story Full Circle

Movies & TV Outlander The Outlander Series Finale Brings Jamie and Claire’s Love Story Full Circle Love is a time loop in a finale that puts new meaning into “meant to be.” By Natalie Zutter | Published on May 18, 2026 Comment 0 Share New Share “Oh,” I said in a tiny voice when Raya Yarbrough’s voice came back on my TV screen, and I burst into tears as her original rendition of “The Skye Boat Song” carried us into the Outlander series finale. Despite how movingly the late Sinead O’Connor’s take on the Outlander theme song communicated the gravitas of aging while ending on a high note, it was still thrilling to be transported back to how we felt in the first season. There was the whole unknown arc of Claire and Jamie’s epic love story ahead of us, rather than the fond and complicated memory of it behind us. The series finale plays on that tension, as the modern nurse-turned-doctor and her Highlander-turned-printer/landowner/soldier look back on all they’ve built and face a potential ending, while begging the universe for just a little more time. Aside from some sentimental creative choices that verged on overly sappy, it’s a satisfying conclusion to the series and an elegant homage to Diana Gabaldon’s novels. Spoilers for Outlander “And the World Was All Around Us” Opening the extra-long episode on Jamie writing out his last will and testament was a lovely way to check back in with his children and grandchildren, in a way that was somewhat undercut by then wasting precious screentime on repeating various goodbyes that were already covered in previous episodes regarding whether Jamie would die on King’s Mountain. Or anyone else—it was a little hard to take seriously the women sending their husbands off to battle when we have a pretty good sense that there’s only one fighter whose fate we should be worried about. Despite all of Claire’s warnings to blackmailing abolitionist time traveling spy Ezekiel Richardson in the penultimate episode “Pharos”—that people like them could not change the past, no matter how hard they tried—I still kept expecting her insistence to join the battle at King’s Mountain to be the self-fulfilling prophecy that makes Frank’s book true. Would it be her distraction that led to Jamie being mortally wounded? Would she instead die? Image: Starz But no, they make it through the battle with minimal loss of life (RIP Hiram Crombie, you fucked around and found out), and it is a triumphant, dare we say cocky, James Fraser standing on the peak of King’s Mountain who gleefully demands Major Ferguson’s surrender, only to get shot in the heart. The moment is shocking because of how it falls outside the rules of battle; Ferguson should not be fighting anymore, should be conducting himself with honor. Jamie, stunned at making it through, has let his guard down; he deserves better than this coward’s killing shot. And there’s no way that Claire, battle surgeon extraordinaire, can patch him up in time on the top of a mountain, her bag of supplies having fallen away in the madness. So all she can do is forgive him and hold him as the light goes out of his eyes.  What’s interesting is Claire’s insistence on staying beside his body. That if she leaves, if she lets him out of his sight, then she’ll have to accept that she’s never going to see him again. But if she holds on to him, it freezes them in a morbid tableau. Image: Starz If the series finale had not come full-circle to ghost!Jamie standing outside of Claire’s window in Inverness, it would have been incredibly disappointing. I’ve seen some theories that this was Jamie sort of astral-projecting during his near-death experience at Culloden; you could also argue that this is his spirit in the 24 hours post-King’s Mountain, especially with his earlier comments about lingering in purgatory if Claire didn’t have them say a proper Mass for his soul. Regardless of whether this was the young Jamie who had just sent pregnant Claire back through the stones, or the one who lived to see his grandchildren, it’s equally poetic either way to follow his ghost from the window to Craigh na Dun—to touch the stones but not go through—to plant the forget-me-nots that would draw Claire to the stones the following morning, and set all of this into motion. The series admirably stuck to its narrative guns in never retconning Jamie’s inability to travel through the stones. But this little purgatorial loophole created a lovely paradox that reaffirms the core of Jamie and Claire’s love: no matter how time or distance strands them from one another, each period of separation will only last so long, and they will always find their way home to each other. Image: Starz Now, Claire bringing Jamie back and coming fully into her white-haired La Dame Blanche power was a wee bit cheesy. Balfe sells Claire’s guttural horror and denial; I almost believed that she was laying down next to him to die, if not for the dozen-plus dependents waiting for her back at Frasers Ridge. In post-finale interviews, the stars have spoken to the supposed ambiguity of the ending, but it seems clear to me that they both come back to life with the same breath. What undercuts this big moment for me is how it fits around the rest of the season’s tragic deaths. It is rather bizarre that the Frasers basically bookended this last season by losing two of their adult children in random and awful ways: discovering that Faith was literally on her way to find them when she was brutally murdered, and then watching Fergus die in the print shop fire. To juxtapose those senseless losses with Claire intentionally bringing Jamie back feels odd. I don’t know if the books address such things (though of course in the books it was Henri-Christian, not Fergus, who perished), but it’s hard to glean any potential meaning in this medium. Image: Starz Bravo for book readers not spoiling how Tell the Bees That I Am Gone resolves, though there was the heightening of stakes between Jamie’s knee getting injured (ahh, “James Fraser falls”) and being shot in the actual heart. All season the show deftly handled these stakes, interweaving it with Jamie’s resentment over Frank, which slowly morphed into respect for the other man preparing Bree to live in the past, and Claire and Jamie himself for how to save him; and making peace with his respective jealousies between Claire’s other two husbands. For a warrior who has been through so much over the past eight seasons, Jamie grew even a little more in these final episodes. Knowing that there is one Outlander novel to come (no publication date yet, though), it makes sense to end their story here. That final ragged inhale presages the events of Blessing for a Warrior Going Out, whatever they may be. We could still lose Jamie, or Claire, or both; they may not live much longer than King’s Mountain, for all we know, but at least we got to see them triumph over time and mortality one more time. Image: Starz Gemstones and Forget-Me-Nots Why show that Fannie can time travel if you’re not going to do anything with it? Her grandparents don’t even know yet. My assumption is some sort of spinoff, since Bree and Roger are committed to staying in the past if Davy can’t travel through the stones. I did love the conversation with William last episode about how most of Outlander’s characters have been raised by two daddies and how that’s a very good thing. Claire writing down their life’s story is cheesy as a TV trope that’s been done too many times before to have real resonance. (I half-expected to see Jamie wearing Lauren Graham’s beatific smile from Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life: “I’m going to call it The Outlander.” “Drop the The. It sounds cleaner.”) But for her character, and for their impossible love story? It makes a hell of a lot of sense. The post-credit scene was a bit too earnest for my tastes, with Gabaldon carting Claire’s diary around to her first book signing as “a wee bit of inspiration.” But then I read how the entire audience in the store (which was recreated as her local bookstore The Poisoned Pen from 1991!) was all the crew on the show, and I mostly came around on it. Still, I was expecting the old woman in the signing line to be Fannie time-traveling, or one of her descendants. Did the Outlander series finale live up to your expectations?[end-mark] The post The <i>Outlander</i> Series Finale Brings Jamie and Claire’s Love Story Full Circle appeared first on Reactor.