Asking the Wrong Questions

[This review was published in the September 2025 issue of Locus. After some back and forth exchanges, I was informed that the editors of Locus's website had decided not to run the review online. I am reprinting it here, both for my own records, and because I think this is one of the most intriguing science fiction novels published last year, one that is worthy of more public discussion.] Looking out at the Tokyo skyline in an early scene in Rie Qudan's Sympathy Tower Tokyo , architect Sara Machina considers Zaha Hadid's iconic Olympic stadium, designed for the 2020 games. The expensive, controversial design, Sara tells us, was nearly abandoned and replaced by a more conventional structure. To Sara, however, the stadium feels inevitable: "only [Hadid's] stadium could supply Tokyo with the beauty it desperately needed. If it went unbuilt, the city would never be content. The stadium would be built because it had to be built; it would exist because it had to exist....

Tom Bombadil by Dan Wolff 'Good morning, merry friends!' cried Tom, opening the eastern window wide. A cool air flowed in; it had a rainy smell. 'Sun won't show her face much today, I'm thinking. I have been walking wide, leaping on the hill-tops, since the grey dawn began, nosing wind and weather, wet grass underfoot, wet sky above me. I wakened Goldberry singing under window; but nought wakes hobbit-folk in the early morning. In the night little folk wake up in the darkness, and sleep after light has come! Ring a ding dillo! Wake now, my merry friends! Forget the nightly noises! Ring a ding dillo del! derry del, my hearties! If you come soon you'll find breakfast on the table. If you come late you'll get grass and rain-water!' Fucking Tom Bombadil. Look, I try. Every time I reread The Lord of the Rings , I tell myself that I'll give "In the House of Tom Bombadil" a fair shake, and maybe this time I'll find myself appreciating it. Afte...

"Old Man Willow is Tamed" by Ted Nasmith At length they made up their minds to go on again. The path that had brought them to the hill reappeared on the northward side; but they had not followed it far before they became aware that it was bending steadily to the right. Soon it began to descend rapidly and they guessed that it must actually be heading towards the Withywindle valley: not at all the direction they wished to take. After some discussion they decided to leave this misleading path and strike northward; for although they had not been able to see it from the hill-top, the Road must lie that way, and it could not be many miles off. Also northward, and to the left of the path, the land seemed to be drier and more open, climbing up to the slopes where the trees were thinner, and pines and firs replaced the oaks and ashes and other strange and nameless trees of the denser wood. There's a gag that appears several times in Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels: a chara...

For those of us who follow pop culture, January 2026 marked a significant anniversary. It was five years ago last month that Disney and Marvel premiered, with great fanfare and a tremendous marketing push, their inaugural streaming collaboration, WandaVision . A glossy puzzle box of a show, WandaVision enthralled audiences and reviewers alike, inspiring fan theories, thinkpieces, and memes (remember when "what is grief, if not love persevering?" was the most moving line of dialogue ever uttered on screen?). And, because entertainment news in the 2020s is always also business news, WandaVision was a critical component in Disney, Marvel, and the MCU's realignment post- Endgame . It was intended as a proof of concept for a brave new world in which every movie studio in Hollywood had their own streaming platform, in which mega-franchises could stretch across movie and television screens, and in which a franchise like the MCU could continue growing endlessly (and also, in wh...

"Nazgûl" by Juan Bjuan Oliver [Frodo] had indeed privately made up his mind to leave on his fiftieth birthday: Bilbo's one hundred and twenty-eighth. It seemed somehow a proper day on which to set out and follow him. Following Bilbo was uppermost in his mind, and the one thing that made the thought of leaving bearable. He thought as little as possible about the Ring, and where it might lead him in the end. We have our first multi-chapter discussion this week, as we follow Frodo from his (now former) home at Bag End to the edges of the Shire. The first leg of his journey, in a part of the world he knows well and where he is known and respected, ought to be an easy, safe one. Indeed, from the way he and his companions, Pippin and Sam, think and talk about the journey, as a leisurely farewell to their home and a pleasant bit of exercise, one might assume that despite his ever-present fear of the Ring and the danger it poses, Frodo is leaving on a holiday rather than an adven...

"Frodo and Gandalf" by Alan Lee [Gandalf] paused, and then said slowly in a deep voice: 'This is the Master-ring, the One Ring to rule them all. This is the One Ring that he lost many ages ago, to the great weakening of his power. He greatly desires it—but he must not get it.' Frodo sat silent and motionless. Fear seemed to stretch out a vast hand, like a dark cloud rising in the East and looming up to engulf him. 'This ring!' he stammered. 'How, how on earth did it come to me?' Hot on the heels of a chapter spent in the hustle and bustle of objectively trivial pursuits, steeped in the mundane concerns of an extremely silly group of people, comes a chapter that forces us—as well as our unwilling and terrified hero—to pay attention to the concerns of the outside world. After an absence of years, during which Frodo has both settled into life as master of Bag End and felt the repeated urge to follow Bilbo on his adventures, Gandalf returns and reveals to...