Helloooooo!
Welcome to Wombling Along the blog’s weekly round up of reviews and other things that caught my eye in the week. Grab a cuppa and get tempted!
I turned 50 this week! It went ok - the week off prior helped a lot and I gently returned to work. Things start the next decade in a good place and I’m reading regularly again which is exactly my plan for this weekend!
Now let’s see who is tempting?
Reviews
At Locus we have an impressed review of A Wall Is Also A Road by Annalee Newitz
https://locusmag.com/review/a-wall-is-also-a-road-by-annalee-newitz-review-by-gary-k-wolfe/
They also tempt with this review of the collection The Language of Knives by Haralambi Markov
https://locusmag.com/review/the-language-of-knives-by-haralambi-markov-review-by-ian-mond/
Ancillary Review of Books tempts with The Unhaunting by Micaiah Johnson
https://ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/2026/11/05/literal-and-figurative-ghosts/
And impressed by The Ship of Death by Kyle Winkler
https://ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/2026/11/04/learning-the-rules/
Jam Reads really enjoyed the great The Stone Knife by Anna Stephens
https://jamreads.com/reviews/the-stone-knife-the-songs-of-the-drowned-1-by-anna-stephens
They also really enjoyed By Force Alone by Lavie Tidhar
https://jamreads.com/reviews/by-force-alone-anti-matter-quartet-of-britain-1-by-lavie-tidhar
At Reactor we get a good balanced review explaining why To Our Untamed Core by Sonido Reyes didn’t quite hit its mark
https://reactormag.com/book-review-to-our-untamed-core-by-sonido-reyes/
At Witty and Sarcastic Bookblog we get a touching review of Take My Word For It A Memoir by LeVar Burton and Tracey Michae’l Lewis-Giggetts
https://wittyandsarcasticbookclub.home.blog/2026/11/02/book-review-take-my-word-for-it-a-memoir/
At Reader of Else we get a thoughtful review about why Astarian by T Kingfisher didn’t land
https://readerofelse.wordpress.com/2026/11/04/astarion-t-kingfisher/
At Gingernuts of Horror we get a Korean vampire novel that tempts Mothersucker by Kim Boyhun - I had to check the spelling carefully in that title
https://gnofhorror.com/mothersucker-review/
And advance tempting with Samantha’s by Jacob Steven Mohr
https://gnofhorror.com/samanthas-review/
Tar Volon has a short fiction round up for last month
https://www.tarvolon.com/2026/11/01/october-2026-round-up-and-short-fiction-miscellany/
SFF World did not enjoy Monsters of Ohio by John Scalzi
https://www.sffworld.com/2026/11/monsters-of-ohio-by-john-scalzi/
At Nerds of a Feather they were unimpressed by The Infinite Sadness of Small Appliances by Glenn Dixon
http://www.nerds-feather.com/2026/11/book-review-infinite-sadness-of-small.html
In Other News
Charlie Jane-Anders at Happy Dancing has a lovely themed set of reviews. Plus a few other things in this week’s blog
https://buttondown.com/charliejane/archive/two-essential-new-novels-about-queer-longing-
At Uncanny we get this essay about gender and how early Transformers had a refreshing approach to it
At Profane Radiance Nick Hubble the new editor of Foundation focuses their plans for Foundation
https://profaneradiance.blog/2026/11/06/editorial-foundation-153/
At Clarkesworld the great editor Xueting C Ni talks about their work
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/ni_interview_2026/
There is a great essay at Speculative Insight about Gender Exploration in the genres
https://www.speculativeinsight.com/essays/reading-as-becoming
It’s still 1971 for Galactic Journey and this time folklore and YA get discussed
At Ancillary we have a new Wow signal wrap up
https://ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/2026/11/06/wow-signal-november-2026/
Words for Worlds has a new edition
https://gautambhatia.substack.com/p/words-for-worlds-issue-135
As always for more great reviews and other things grab hold of Renay’s Intergalactic Mixtape
https://buttondown.com/intergalacticmixtape/archive/intergalactic-mixtape-78/
