Award season reading has begun
Books I COMPLETED
I read 8 books in May and started/continued 1 other book. I’m still working on cataloging my ebook collection, including adding in the Hugo 2026 nominees. And I made a list of some of the Eisner Award nominees to read.
I’ve included snippets from my reviews and additional thoughts.
A Long and Speaking Silence (5/5/26) by Nghi Vo (eARC)
Set during their first round together, Cleric Chih and Almost Brilliant are forced to stay in Luntien. Chih spends their days working in a family restaurant and their evenings gathering stories. Chih and the neixin are still figuring out to work with each other, and Chih makes some unforced errors. Together they learn and listen and discover a secret related to the Singing Hills Monastery.
There are so many small stories in this novella! I love when the same story is told by different characters. It gave me a lot of Tales of Nevèrÿon vibes.
A Trade of Blood (8/26/26) by Robert Jackson Bennett (eARC)
Ana and Din travel to a town on the brink of violence. It starts with a riff on Romeo and Juliet and weaves in family trauma, power dynamics, and hidden histories. Ana swears a lot more than I remembered from the first two books.
An Accident of Dragons (4/28/26) by Cheryl Radke (eARC)
Teddy is the current Lord of Summer, contractor to a powerful dragon who watches over the island of Summer. Always feeling like an outsider, he distances himself emotionally from everyone except his daughter. The court does not expect much from him–a poor, low-born immigrant whose lover was the previous Lord of Summer. Teddy plays it up as the fool until he is forced to fight for his family and his island against raiders and religious fanatics.
Teddy narrates his own story, actively choosing what to reveal and when, with a wink and a wry comment on fashion. He knows he is an unreliable narrator.
The First Step (3/28/26) by Tao Wong (eARC)
Tale of a young cultivator who increases his skills through bad luck, hard luck, and lots of running. It is all about the grinding and leveling up, not so much character development.
I think this is the first LitRPG I’ve read (barring media tie-in novels.) I want to read more in the genre before deciding that this is not the genre for me.
Ode to the Half-Broken (5/26/26) by Suzanne Palmer (eARC)
I really liked this book. Forced out of its self-imposed isolation in the New York Botanical Gardens, a bot must re-engage with the world and seek out its siblings. A cyberdog, a human mechanic, and many other bots join it on the journey. The main story is layered with flashbacks and archival fragments.
The Feywild Job (6/30/26) by CL Polk (eARC)
Is this also LitRPG? It is set in the Dungeons and Dragons universe, following a group of adventurers who must steal an enchanted gem and return it to its rightful owner. It flowed like a good campaign, but did not require any understanding of D&D mechanics.
I liked it much better than The First Step. Both books are written with love and care of their genres. This one, though, had lots of side characters (with their own stories and agency) and side plots.
Zatanna: It’s Showtime! (2025) by Jamal Campbell
Zatanna is injured while putting together a new show. There is a mystical sword stuck in her chest, and now her magic is behaving erratically. When one of her crew is lost in a portal, she must figure out who is controlling the pocket dimension while keeping her friends safe.
Writer-artist Jamal Campbell was nominated for an Eisner Award. Lots of trippy artwork across two-page spreads. There are lots of character cameos, including my favorite Clayface, Basil Karlo.
Wizard of Earthsea: A Graphic Novel (2025) by Ursula K. Le Guin and Fred Fordham
Graphic novel adaptation with haunting illustrations. It’s been so long since I read the book, I don’t know how faithful it is to the original.
Books I’M currently reading
- The Tapestry of Fate (5/5/26) by Shannon Chakraborty (eARC)
- Silent Paths of Night (6/9/26) by David R. Slayton (eARC)
June TBR
Backlist
It’s award season! I’m trying to read some of the Eisner and Hugo nominees:
- The Incandescent (2025) by Emily Tesh
- The Everlasting (2025) by Alix E. Harrow
- Absolute Wonder Woman, vol. 1: The Last Amazon (2025) by Kelly Thompson, Hayden Sherman, and Mattia de Iulis
- Absolute Martian Manhunter (2025) by Deniz Camp and Javier Rodriguez
Recent and Upcoming Releases That I Want to Read
- The Redemption Center Is Closed on Sundays (4/28/26) by Andrea Hairston
- Force of Nature (5/19/26) by Melissa Clark
- Kill All Wizards (6/16/26) by Jedediah Berry
- Everybody’s Perfect (6/30/26) by Jo Walton
Already read:
- Disaster Gay Detective Agency (6/2/26) by Lev AC Rosen (eARC)
