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The Universe Box by Michael Swanwick. Tachyon, 2026. 9781616964504. 304pp. 

I was lucky enough to attend Swanwick's flash fiction writing seminar at Seattle's Worldcon last August. He was a generous, attentive teacher, and I decided to read some of his shorter work. This new collection of his stories is the best I've read in years; they're consistently entertaining and their subjects span the genre. And Swanwick not only knows how to write short stories, he knows how to end them! Highly recommended.

Lost Marvels No. 2: Howard Chaykin Vol. 1: Dominic Fortune, Monark Starstalker, and Phantom Eagle by Howard Chaykin and others. Fantagraphics, 2025. 9798875000362. 256pp.  Contains an introduction by Brannon Costello.  

This collection of Marvel comics by Chaykin includes a singular Dominic Fortune issue of Marvel Premiere (#56) plus a later 4-issue Marvel MAX miniseries featring the character; a complete WWI epic by Garth Ennis that was drawn by Chaykin (War Is Hell: The First Flight of the Phantom Eagle); and Marvel Premier #32 featuring Monark Starstalker, a bounty hunter who is attacked moments after arriving on the remote planet where he's tracked his quarry. All of the stories were entertaining (and entertainingly adult). I loved the Starstalker story the best; Chaykin delivered a great story within the restrictive bounds of the Comics Code Authority, and it reminded me of how much I enjoyed finding random issues of the original Marvel Premiere series at Fred Meyer as a kid. 

Preparing to Bite by Keiler Roberts. Drawn & Quaraterly, 2025. 9781770467743. 168pp.  

Roberts' deadpan, autobiographical comics about her family continue to make me laugh. I find the way she draws exquisite, and I envy her ability to tell a story in a single panel. Now that her daughter is getting a bit older, they're a nice reminder of many absurd moments I experienced with mine. I hope Roberts never stops publishing these collections. 

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Eradication: A Fable by Jonathan Miles. Doubleday, 2026. 980385551915. 159pp.

Adi, a teacher, takes a strange job. He'll live on a remote island trying to save its plants and animals by killing as many of the invasive goats that are destroying the ecosystem. He lies to get the job, though; he's never fired a gun in his life. And he's still dealing with a few personal issues. 

Grabbed this because it was short, and it was one of the Seattle Public Library's Peak Picks. It's dark, twisted, and I loved the ending. I'm planning to seek out more work by Miles.

The Wrong Case by James Crumley. Knopf, 1985. 9780394735580. 288pp. 

An alcoholic private detective whose business is crumbling takes a job looking into the death of a young man, though what happened is already fairly clear. He falls for the sister who hired him, bounces around town, and has the crap beaten out of him. It's got everything I need in a dark crime story, from great writing to characters that deserve their own novels. Spectacular. Thanks to my friend Tom for loaning me a copy. 

Dalgoda Omnibus by Jan Strnad and Dennis Fujitake. About Comics, 2025. 9781949996821. 359pp. 

Dalgoda (that's him, the alien dog-man on the cover) arrives on Earth seeking help to save his planet from an alien menace, the Nimp. He brings faster-than-light technology, but outfitting the few ships the Earth can put at his disposal may not help much. Plus, there are factions on our planet that would rather kill him than help him.

I read parts of this story when I was a kid visiting my comic shop every Wednesday in the early 1980s. This was a nostalgic read for me, with its echoes of the pulpiest science fiction of the 1970s and 1980s. (Plus I had no memory of how adult some of it is.) Recommended if you enjoyed early Usagi Yojimbo stories, the original Star Trek, or if you're a comic fan of a certain age. 

Contains all eight issues of the original Dalgoda series, Doomsday Squad #1, Flesh & Blood #1-4, and A1 issue 4, originally published from 1984 to 1990. Republished in glorious black and white (though I believe many if not all of these were originally published in color). 

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Absolute Martian Manhunter Volume 1: Martian Vision by Deniz Camp (writer) and Javer Rodríguez (art). DC, 2025. 9781799505204. Contains #1 - 6.

This reinterpretation of DC's Martian Manhunter for its new Absolute universe is worth reading whether you're familiar with the original character or not. FBI Agent John Jones survives a bomb blast through the intervention of a "Martian" who bonds with him to save his life. Now the alien is a voice in his head trying to share its perceptions with him as it masters English. It's confusing. John's world is now filled with colored "smoke" that emanates from people; by inhaling it Jones can absorb some of their thoughts. (There are even some pages at the end of chapters to help the reader experience Martian vision themselves. Cool.)

Jones is going to need the Martian's powers and help to defeat a cosmic-level threat determined to wipe out humanity. Arson plays a part, and there's quite a bit of violence that's more realistic than in many other superhero books. 

It's worth noting that the story is brutal in parts; though there's no age range noted on the back of the book, this is clearly a graphic novel for adults. And if you enjoy the more psychedelic graphic novels by Grant Morrison, I think you'll find a lot to love in the story and in Rodríguez's art. 

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Ultra Wild: An Audacious Plan for Rewilding Every City on Earth by Steve Mushin. Graphic Universe, 2025. 9798765647073. 91pp.

This is inventor Steve Mushin's nonfiction graphic novel of ideas for saving the world from climate change. At its heart is the idea of rewilding the earth to capture carbon. Mushin takes inspiration from science and his own outlandish imagination to inspire others to use theirs. Some of the ideas he comes up with and illustrates: compost-firing cannons attached to toilets with legs, turning cities into vast forests where humans share space with animals with the help of recycled plastics and printers (including self-replicating bird-shaped printers), and much more. Mushin continually acknowledges the tough road ahead of us and the science at the heart of his solutions to climate change.  

Epic. Oversized! Plus it's a beautifully illustrated and fun book full of science. It belongs in every school and public library. 

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Out Of Alcatraz by Christopher Cantwell and Tyler Crook. Oni-Lion Forge, 2025. 9781637158685. 176pp. Contains issues #1 - 5. Includes a cover gallery. 

Four convicts planned their escape. Only two make it off the island (or so the survivors think). They're heading for freedom with the help of a contact who is out to start a new life of her own, where maybe she can be herself instead of trying to pass. They're pursued by two lawmen who can't reveal the truth about themselves or their relationship. And of course they run into other kinds of trouble on the way.

This is a beautifully illustrated graphic novel based on a real escape attempt from Alcatraz in 1962. It's such a great period crime story, full of unexpected moments and developments, that I can't recommend it highly enough. 

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Just One Damned Thing After Another (Chronicles of St. Mary's Book 1) by Jodi Taylor. Night Shade, 2016. 9781597808682. 348pp.  

My friend Karen sent me this time-travel novel, and it was delightful! It's a quick, non-technical sort of science fiction adventure starring an academic misanthrope, Dr. Madeleine Maxwell, who becomes a member of a team exploring time for a British university. The job is high-risk. There's a bit of romance plus betrayal, secrets, and dinosaurs! 

And there are a ton of other novels and stories in the series when I'm ready for another!

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Radiant Star by Ann Leckie. Orbit, 2026. 978-0316290357. 336pp.

I love Leckie's books set in the Imperial Radch universe. They scratch the itch in my brain for Le Guin's worldbuilding and, in some ways, the everyday weirdness of Philip K. Dick's science fiction. It's not necessary to have read any of them before this one, but Ancillary Justice (the first in the series) is so good that I recommend it to everyone, and my favorite of them is the coming-of-age novel, Provenance. 

Radiant Star is set in a city beneath an ice world hurtling through interstellar space. It's a planet frequented by religious pilgrims that has been taken over by the Radch because it will, at some point, become militarily significant. But the empire has seen better days, and for most of the book, the planet's governor is out of contact with their superiors. 

Two individuals want to become Saints of the temple and await the return of the Radiant Star. There's a young man who was raised to be sold and sent away, rather than to serve on the planet, who awakens after years in storage. And there's a ship that inhabits, like many of Radch's other ships, thousands of bodies from captured worlds. Worth noting: This ship is stranger than most.  This cast of characters comes into conflict over inheritance, holiness, favors, flavors, colonization, and culture. 

Radiant Star is compelling in many ways, all of them best discovered by reading it. It's quiet and thoughtful and a fantastic addition to the series of interrelated novels that also includes Translation State and the two direct sequels to Ancillary Justice. 

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Forces of Nature: A Book Of Drawings by Edward Steed. Drawn and Quarterly, 2024. 9781770466982. 184pp. 

I'm not sure I've ever done this, but I take issue with the subtitle. This is a book of single-panel comics! They're drawings, sure, but most of them have captions, and these have mostly been published in the New Yorker. 

These are simply excellent. Each has just the right amount of meanness and a sense of glee. Many of my favorites feature naked people. Plus Steed's people have large heads, so this book makes me feel less alone.  

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