Review of The Iron Code: Stories in Honour of David Gemmell edited by Ian Whates

I am no expert on David Gemmell's oeuvre. Aside from the Macedon series, what I've read goes too far into ultra-nerd D&D land—the deep sub-sub-sub reddits debating lore minutiae. Seeing Ian Whates' anthology The Iron Code: Stories in Honour of David Gemmell (2026), however, my interest was piqued. What would such ideas be like in short form, a form which does not allow for such excavation?

The Iron Code kicks off with the tasty, twisting tale of two veterans trading war stories over a drink and a hearth, “The Other” by Dan Abnett. It needed another edit to tighten up some details, but the delicately appropriate ending makes it a nesting doll worth unpacking. “Crows and Ashes” by Kari Sperring is more vignette than story—and is as gothic in mood as can be. A prioress living at the base of a mountain sees the ravages of war wash past the nunnery in the spring melt. It spurs her to action, necessitating a hike. Stylistically the story is tumultuous, but when it's on, it's dead on.

Review of The Book of Bots by James Patrick Kelly

James Patrick Kelly is one few remaining writers whose collections are published as an update, as in Here is what has been happening in JPK land since his last collection of previously uncollected stories a few years ago. As I don't read sf magazines or periodicals (nothing against them), the collections are critical for keeping me up to date. His 2026 The Book of Bots bucks the trend, however. A hybrid, it collects several recent stories which have yet to find a home in a JPK collection as well as several older stories, all around the theme of robots and robotic/artificial intelligence.

With echoes of Brian Aldiss’ “Supertoys Last All Summer Long”, “Itsy Bitsy Spider” kicks things off with the story of a middle-aged woman returning to her father’s house. A man she has a troubled relationship with, she discovers he has uploaded her memories into an android child. The conversations between the younger and older self, later expanded by the father, is fully human despite the science fiction conceit. It hones in on the value of history and memory with age, making for an effective, touching piece to open the collection. “Undone” is more science fantasy than science fiction, but I split hairs. A tribute to Cordwainer Smith and Alfred Bester, it is set in the far, far future and tells of a woman who escapes her enemies by traveling a couple million years into the future, only to discover she didn't truly escape. She is forced to settle down and start a family. The story contains backwards syntax, like listening to a cassette in rewind, along with a large dose of wacky sf.

Review of Bug Jack Barron by Norman Spinrad

It's a wonder what a few decades does to cultural perception. In 1969, Norman Spinrad's Bug Jack Barron was published to a spot of controversy. It hit a few talking points of the counter culture, but was recognized by American science fiction awards. Worth the fuss?

Bug Jack Barron is the host of a political talk show—similar to Hasan Piker but with more audience interaction and without the political connections. Day in and out, he receives a barrage of calls describing injustice and discrimination, and when possible, uses said connections to right wrongs. His influence so great, in fact, the California governor calls Barron to suggest he run for President. If it weren't for all of the humanitarian action he is involved in, maybe he would have time?

Review of The Mad Ship by Robin Hobb

You're here for one of two reasons:

1. By accident. If true, be informed as such.
2. You want to know whether Robin Hobb's The Mad Ship (1999) is as good as Ship of Magic? Yes. Go—no, Run! to your favorite bookshop—and buy it.

Want to know a little more, read on.

The Mad Ship picks up precisely where Ship of Magic ended. It doesn't miss a beat. All of the characters readers are familiar with, at least those who survived Ship of Magic, return. Hobb adds one or two more to round things off, notably a courtesan within the satrap's inner court to give the reader a glimpse of the happenings there, as well as more light on the life of a woodworker whose skills come in particularly handy for one major plot thread. These two become particularly important as The Mad Ship ratchets up political tension; where Ship of Magic effectively used the Vestrid family affairs as its launch pad for antagonism, The Mad Ship puts more spice in the stew with a kingdom in crisis.

The Mad Ship really does feel like the next wall of scenes in the tableaux room, such is the seamless nature which it picks up and carries forward the Liveship series. There was one particular character about-face that felt a bit rushed, a bit Hallmark. But it's after such a traumatic event that I have to shove it to the gray area of: Maybe? Everything else is as organic as Ship of Magic. Things are constantly zigging when they should be zagging, but always in accordance with the foundation stones of story Hobb has already laid. Legend-level story crafting.

Review of The Perseids and Other Stories by Robert Charles Wilson

Robert Charles Wilson's novels are a mixed bag. They run the gamut of cliche to existentialist. The Chronoliths is about as good a look at human nature in the face of otherness as science fiction has produced, whereas Darwinia is genre fluff if ever there were goose dander. One might assume Wilson's one and only short story collection, The Perseids and Other Stories (2000), runs in parallel. Such is not the case.

Not explicitly framed, The Perseids nevertheless has a through line: the lives of ordinary people in Toronto around the turn of the millennia, 20th to 21st. The story which kicks things off, “The Fields of Abraham”, could be seen as that setting's prequel. It tells of a Jewish boy getting by on almost nothing in early 20th century Toronto. His sister has dementia and is unable to help. So when not teaching immigrants English, he heads to a local shop to escape. But a student makes an offer that could help the boy financially, only it would mean selling his familial soul. Over a game of chess he asks the shopkeeper for advice, which doesn't go as planned. It's a simply written story, but Wilson wrings emotion from the boy's plight, setting the tone for the bittersweet stories which follow.

Criticism: Human Slop: A Deeper Look into “The Binding” by John Gwynne

AI slop is a term bandied about these days early days of artificial intelligence. It describes content that is unpolished, untidy, not 100% ready but thrown to the public for consumption, anyway. It's uncle Bob's attempt at fixing the water pump with tape and wire. It works for a few days, but depend on the fix for much longer and it starts dripping, again. Guitars gain extra strings and are played upside down. Human anatomy is displayed in inhuman form. And buzzwords are buzzzzzzing. While reading “The Binding" by John Gwynne my brain was screaming “AI slop”. But I know a human wrote the short story. What is going on?

“The Binding” is grimdark fantasy about a clan of giants who are attacked by an army of humans. Like a homework assignment scratched out last minute, the style Gwynne deploys can be described as spilling, loose, slapdash. For the first few days of tape and wire, the plot has an arc, there are primary characters, conflict occurs, and dialogue and exposition link the pieces together. But once that fix starts to give out, it noticeably fails semantically.

Review of Extremophile by Ian Green

The names of a few counter-culture/beat writers from the 60s still echo—Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, and Ken Kesey among them. But the novel which captures the espirit of the era the best is perhaps Jack Kerouac's On the Road. More rhythm and melody than plotted story with waypoints, it tells of a young man who sets aside his day job to live the moment—sex, drugs, and jazz concerts. It's been thirty years since I read the novel, but I don't remember much political ideology. It's thus interesting that Kerouac's novel kept springing to mind reading Ian Green's (wildly different) Extremophile (2024).

Extremophile is cyberpunk through and through. Body augmentation, cyberspace, corporate dystopia, dark streets, hackers, loads of neon, evil CEOs, etc., etc. You're familiar with it. Charlie, punk rock bass player by night, gene artist by later night, sleeps during the day. She and her band mates enjoy carousing with fellow musicians, just as much as they enjoy mucking with the system—ecoterrorism, DNA hacking to help their friends avoid corporate watchdogs, and generally sticking their middle-finger up at the man as much as possible. When an opportunity to hit a particularly vile corporate suit comes along, the band are all over it. Trouble is, the suit has his own private security.

Review of A Different Kind of Tension: New and Selected Stories by Jonathan Lethem

Jonathan Lethem has somehow been writing fiction for more than three decades. I say 'somehow' as his recent novels remain relevant, fresh, and off-center of typical mainstream genre fluff. Those decades also include almost one-hundred short stories, some of which have been collected, some which have not. A Different Kind of Tension: New and Selected Stories (2025) brings together almost a third of said output, but rather than a 'best of' or 'greatest hits', Lethem himself seems to have chosen what made the cut—'author's picks' the better descriptor.

A Different Kind of Tension is organized chronologically 1990 - 2024, starting with the earliest published work. Tone-setter more than story, “Walking the Moons” is a very short piece about a man in a virtual reality simulator walking a treadmill on a moon of Jupiter. Human nature ensues until mother nature comes knocking to highlight the absurdity of his attempts at experiencing reality in a sim. Unfortunately prognostic. “Program's Progress” is a Rudy Rucker or Paul Di Filippo-esque (bizarro) tale of an uploaded man (thing? consciousness?) who abuses his position for pleasure drugs and gets demoted back to stationary (immobile) life. He has "adventures" in clever, subversive fashion.

Review of A Trade of Blood by Robert Jackson Bennett

When a writer hits a groove, it's tough not to hope they can stick it for a while. Robert Jackson Bennett put the needle in with The Tainted Cup, first book in the Shadow of the Leviathan series, then settled in, letting the turntable sing with A Drop of Corruption. Just a year later, the third book in the series, A Trade of Blood (2026), is hitting shelves. Still spinning?

A Trade of Blood drops the unlikely detective duo, Dinius Kol and Ana Dolabra, into the middle of Sapirdad, a frontier agricultural land where two families, the Armentas and the Buravs, are engaged in a clan war. The Armentas raise cattle while the Buravs harvest the crops needed to feed the cattle. They feud despite this symbiosis. Din and Dolabra are called to the scene when the eldest daughter of the Armentas is found disemboweled on a hotel room floor, the scion of the Buravs, her ostensible lover, covered in blood in the forest. What they uncover turns the clans on their heads, leaving the land in tatters.

Review of A City Dreaming by Daniel Polansky

That thimbleful of Speculiction's readers are aware this blog has no love for fantasy which elicits a vibe of anything is possible therefore nothing is interesting. The kitchen sink is a mess, not art. Reading back cover copy for Daniel Polansky's A City Dreaming (2016) is not promising in this regard. I paraphrase: An immortal, charmed man visits the surreal side of New York City, a place full of monsters, pirates, shifting cafes, witches, aliens, zombies, Mister T, and much more. But it's Polansky, a writer who is one or two novels away from taking a place on Speculiction's (unenviable, unpublished) Top 10 Underrated writers' list. Let's dive in to the milieu...

Indeed, A City Dreaming is the story of a modern mage in an urban world—at least some of the time. His name is M, and at the outset of the story he leaves Paris for NYC to stay with a friend. In the course of his daily life—going to cafes, walking the sidewalks, and trying to pick up girls and/or narcotics—he finds himself slipping in and out of alternate realities. But the chump lifestyle has its price. Maybe those occasional rewards are worth it?