Saturday Miscellany—5/9/26

Yes, this is late–but you should blame (in part) Fall into Fiction for putting on another great event today.

Odds ‘n ends about books and reading that caught my eye this week. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:
We’re going to start on a highbrow note: Seven of the Greatest Farts in Western Literature
Celebrating 20 Years of First Law—Z.B. Steele commemorates The Blade Itself‘s 20th Anniversary. “Commonly heralded as a master of the craft and one of fantasy’s greatest character writers, it’s time to celebrate Joe Abercrombie, First Law, and the impact Abercrombie’s work has had on the genre.”
How Substack became the new book tour—huh
Celebrating 15 Years at Pages Unbound!
Witty and Sarcastic Book Club hosted another great mini-series of posts this week, “Looking for the Helpers: Small Roles, Big Influence in SFF.” Its focus is “smaller roles in SFF books and how they can nonetheless play big parts”
…Featuring Jonathan Nevair
…Featuring Dorian Hart
…Featuring Ben Schenkman
…Featuring Shannon Knight
…Featuring Ricardo Victoria

My favorite sentence/passage/phrase (or two) that I read this week:
“What was it about fathers, Clay wondered, that compelled so many of them to test their children? To insist that a daughter, or a son, prove themselves worthy of a love their mother offered without condition?”—Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames

To help talk about backlist titles (and just for fun), What Was I Talking About 10 Years Ago This Week?
Madam Tulip by David Ahern
Indexing (Audiobook) by Seanan McGuire, Mary Robinette Kowal
Dead is Best by Jo Perry
Kill the Boy Band by Goldy Moldavsky—Nunc hoc in marmore non est incisum
And I mentioned the releases of: Zero K by Don DeLillo; Everybody’s Fool by Richard Russo; Robert B. Parker’s Slow Burn by Ace Atkins ; The Hidden Oracle by Rick Riordan; Blood Defense by Marcia Clark; Double Down by Gwenda Bond; The Jewel and Her Lapidary by Fran Wilde; and Outriders by Jay Posey

This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
Out Law by Jim Butcher—A nice little novella that follows up The Law, Twelve Months, and Changes. Butcher’s spoiling us in 2026.
The Last Contract of Isako by Fonda Lee—”A battle-worn corporate samurai undertakes one last mission on a merciless planet where death is always a mere breath away, in this standalone dystopian epic.”
On Faith and Freedom of Thought by Marilynne Robinson—”Marilynne Robinson’s speech for the 2026 Jon Fosse Lecture, delivered at the Norwegian Royal Palace…our creativity, along with the free space offered by literature, gives us reason for hope. This essay is a powerful exhortation to rediscover our spiritual and human obligations.”