One of the movies on the list that I have seen is Event Horizon. I remember I was in line by myself to see a different movie (which one, I can’t remember), but it sold out, so I thought, “Sam Neal and Laurence Fishburne? I’ll try this.” Wow, was I in for a surprise. Its tagline should have been, “Hell Not on Earth.” I was really creeped out, but not as scared as the woman next to me, who started openly weeping. I wonder if I would still find it scary today. What movies would you add to the list?
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Let’s Follow That Up with Something Adorable—Cozy Cat Fantasy!
Heather Fawcett, author of many books, including Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries, has a historical fantasy coming next year about a cat shelter that is a front for illegal magic. I NEED THIS NOW.
Agnes Aubert’s Mystical Cat Shelter by Heather Fawcett takes place in Montreal in the 1920s, where Agnes Aubert is running a cat shelter, which has just been unceremoniously evicted. So Agnes finds a new place for the cats, but quickly learns that her grumpy landlord, Havelock, is a failed Dark Lord who is using the cat shelter as a front to sell illegal magical items. And when one of his enemies returns, Agnes will have to work with Havelock to keep his secrets from being discovered so the cats can keep their home.
From the publisher’s description: “Agnes couldn’t care less about the shop—magical intrigue or not, there are cats to be rescued. But when an enemy from Havelock’s past surfaces, the magic shop—and more importantly, the cat shelter—are suddenly in jeopardy. To save the shelter, will Agnes have to set aside her social conscience and protect the man who once tried to bring about the apocalypse—and is now trying to steal her heart?
Havelock is everything Agnes thinks she doesn’t need in her life: chaos, mischief, and a little too much adventure. But as she gets to know him, she discovers he’s more than the dark magician of legend, and that she may be ready for a little intrigue—and romance—in her life. After all, second chances aren’t just for rescue cats…”
Doesn’t it sound so cute??! Please, please let the cats become magical too. Agnes Aubert’s Mystical Cat Shelter by Heather Fawcett will be out February 17, 2026, from Del Rey.
SFF Authors Answer: What Is Your Favorite SFF Trope, and What Trope Needs To Be Reimagined?
At San Diego Comic Con this year, 17 SFF authors were asked, “What is your favorite SFF trope, and what trope needs to be reimagined?” And the answers were great!
On favorite tropes:
Amal El-Mohtar: You can speak to the dead and the dead talk back. That’s where I’m at these days.
Chuck Tingle: Everybody being friends and having a good time together, I love that trope. It’s the best thing that’s happened to stories.
Evan Leikam: Magic school, I think that might be it. Or like any kind of like rendition of that, you know, like a true Watson character being shown a completely different organization, love that.
On tropes they’d like to see reimagined:
Danielle L. Jensen:I really love time travel books, but I can’t write them because they break my brain. So I really want other authors who don’t have their brains broken by them to do them in a really cool and new way. Maybe like, time travel in space. I would love that.
Marie Lu: Like most people, I love enemies-to-lovers, but I think there’s more variation on that than I think gets to be seen. So I would love to see more variations on lovers-to-enemies or friends-to-enemies. Just to play around with that a little bit more.
You can read all the answers over on Reactor!
That Had to Hurt: The Grimmest Ensign Deaths on Star Trek
Call me a morbid little space monkey, but I thought this list of fictional Star Trek characters buying the farm was entertaining. Someone (almost always) expendable dies on pretty much every episode of a Star Trek show, new or old. And it turns out, they aren’t all wearing red shirts. (As Sam Rockwell says in Galaxy Quest, “I’m just “Crewman Number Six.” I’m expendable. I’m the guy in the episode who dies to prove how serious the situation is. I’ve gotta get outta here.”) Let this be a lesson to you, kids: don’t touch the spatial distortions. You can read all about them on Gizmodo, with obvious spoiler warnings.
And To Close: An Excerpt from Extremity by Nicholas Binge
You’ve probably heard me mention somewhere that I really enjoyed Ascension, Nicholas Binge’s first novel, which is horror sci-fi. I meant to get to his newest one, Dissolution, but somehow, that hasn’t happened yet. I will definitely be reading it, but maybe before I do that, I’ll check out his upcoming novella, Extremity. It’s another horror sci-fi, but this time it’s also a police procedural involving clones. I love a good sci-fi murder mystery!
From the publisher’s description: “A time-traveling, end-of-the-world police procedural,ExtremityisTrue Detectiveif written by Philip K. Dick.
When once-renowned police detective Julia Torgrimsen is brought out of forced retirement to investigate the murder of Bruno Donaldson, a billionaire she worked with whilst undercover, she doesn’t expect to find two bodies. Both are Bruno—identical down to the fingerprints—and both have been shot.”
If you are intrigued, Reactor recently shared an excerpt from the book!
“Mark—get your coat on. I’m gonna need some help.”
“Sure thing, boss.” I’m already on my feet. “What’s up?”
“Murder. Maybe two. Get your car.”
“Crime scene?” I ask, feeling my pockets for my keys.
“No.” There’s this resignation to his voice, like he’s already given up. “No, first we need to go get Julia Torgrimsen.”
Extremity by Nicholas Binge will be out October 14, 2025, from Tordotcom.
Okay, star bits, now take the knowledge you have learned here today and use it for good, not evil. If you want to know more about books, I talk about books pretty much nonstop (when I’m not reading them), and you can hear me say lots of adjectives about them on the BR podcast All the Books! and on Bluesky and Instagram.
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