Asking the Wrong Questions

Sometimes I make very odd reading decisions. For example, in late March of this year, a time when I was regularly running for shelter ahead of Iranian missiles, I made the inexplicable choice to read Francis Spufford's latest novel Nonesuch , which takes place during the London Blitz. But although there were moments during my reading when I found myself wondering why I'd done this to myself, for the most part I found the experience of reading Nonesuch cathartic. There was something reassuring about the insight, sympathy, and yes, humor with which Spufford wrote about the experiences of his heroine, stock exchange clerk by day, good time girl by night Iris Hawkins, as she found her footing in a world where a bomb might kill you, but if it doesn't, there's still work to do in the morning. Iris's already complicated life is complicated further when she learns that a secret occult society associated with the British Union of Fascists is trying to use magic hidden in Lo...

"The Fellowship" by Robin Robinson , 2024 'We cannot go further tonight,' said Boromir. 'Let those call it the wind who will; there are fell voices on the air; and these stones are aimed at us.' 'I do call it the wind,' said Aragorn. 'But that does not make what you say untrue. There are many evil and unfriendly things in the world that have little love for those that go on two legs, and yet are not in league with Sauron, but have purposes of their own. Some have been in this world longer than he.' Fourteen chapters into the book titled The Fellowship of the Ring , the fellowship of the Ring is formed, and sets out on its mission. We are now once again in journeying mode, with all that Book One of Fellowship had taught us to expect from that type of storytelling: detailed, granular nature writing, challenging landscapes, and a wilderness that quickly proves more stubborn than expected. So far in this journey, we have had wrong turns, short cut...

"The Council of Elrond" by Cor Blok , 1960 'Then,' said Erestor, 'there are but two courses, as Glorfindel has already declared: to hide the Ring for ever; or to unmake it. But both are beyond our power. Who will read this riddle for us?' 'None here can do so,' said Elrond gravely. 'At least none can foretell what will come to pass, if we take this road or that. But it seems to me now clear which is the road that we must take. The westward road seems easiest. Therefore it must be shunned. It will be watched. Too often the Elves have fled that way. Now at this last we must take a hard road, a road unforeseen. There lies our hope, if hope it be. To walk into peril—to Mordor. We must send the Ring to the Fire.' In the first part of "The Council of Elrond", we learned about the Ring's history and Sauron's efforts to recover it (and also, that science is bad ). Now comes the time to decide what to do about it—to reach the conclusio...

I had three reviews in the April 2026 issue of Locus , and they are now all online. First up, I reviewed Samantha Mills's collection Rabbit Test and Other Stories . The title story was one of the most talked-about pieces of SFF short fiction of the last few years, racking up multiple award wins due both to its topicality—it is a story about America backsliding on reproductive health published just as this happened in reality—and the excellence of its execution. In my review I try to detect how a collection built around a single, attention-grabbing story manages to buttress it with other readings, and what those other stories tell us about Mills as a writer. One of the earliest pieces, "Strange Waters", feels almost like a first attempt at the framework that would eventually become "Rabbit Test", relying, like it, on a sense of the ebb and flow of history. Mika, a fisherwoman, has been swept out to sea, away from the city she calls home. But the currents she...

Publicity still for Lego Rivendell 'You have done well to come,' said Elrond. 'You will hear today all that you need in order to understand the purposes of the Enemy. There is naught that you can do, other than to resist, with hope or without it. But you do not stand alone. You will learn that your trouble is but part of the trouble of all the western world. The Ring! What shall we do with the Ring, the least of rings, the trifle that Sauron fancies? That is the doom that we must deem.' In today's chapter, we encounter perhaps the most fantastical turn of plot in the whole of The Lord of the Rings : a group of powerful people gather together for a meeting on an important topic; speak for hours without pause for rest or refreshment; give long, detailed presentations with only minimal interruption; and come to a mostly unanimous conclusion about the scope of the problem and the steps they will undertake to solve it. And all before breaking for lunch. It's a long c...

"Rivendell" by J.R.R. Tolkien 'I hear all kinds of news, from over the Mountains, and out of the South, but hardly anything from the Shire. I heard about the Ring, of course. Gandalf has been here often. Not that he has told me a great deal, he has become closer than ever these last few years. The Dúnadan has told me more. Fancy that ring of mine causing such a disturbance! It is a pity that Gandalf did not find out more sooner. I could have brought the thing here myself long ago without so much trouble. I have thought several times of going back to Hobbiton for it; but I am getting old, and they would not let me: Gandalf and Elrond, I mean. They seemed to think that the Enemy was looking high and low for me, and would make mincemeat of me, if he caught me tottering about in the Wild.' The second book of The Fellowship of the Ring opens with Frodo waking up in Rivendell and reuniting with Gandalf and his friends. Though some plot-relevant conversation occurs—Gandalf ...