I managed to get a bit more reading done this month, thanks to some time off during spring break. It still wasn’t enough to drown out the insanity of the current state of the world, though. Ah well, there’s always next month.

Fiction

Stan On Guard by KR Wilson

A pair of immortals live through the world’s ages, getting caught up in both history and myth, hanging out with infamous characters such as Odysseus and Nietzsche, while locked in a deadly dance.

No, I’m not talking about my Cross series of books. This is the premise of Stan on Guard by KR Wilson, the followup to Wilson’s book Call Me Stan. It’s a wild ride through history, the arts, philosophy, mythology, psychology and a whole lot of other things. If you like the Cross books, you should check out Stan on Guard.

Link: https://guernicaeditions.com/products/stan-on-guard

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The Necromancer’s One Weakness by R. Lochlann

I have to admit that I wasn’t expecting a story with “necromancer” in the title to feature a barbarian bard who beats people to death with an accordion. Or that the necromancer’s sole weakness was xylophones. Or the idea of agents to adventurers. But these things all come together in harmony in this delightful little tale.

Link: https://translunartravelerslounge.com/2026/02/15/the-necromancers-one-weakness-by-r-lochlann/

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Atomic Chess by Josh Pearce

“Project upon the cosmos whatever system of understanding you wish.”

An eerie tale of a physicist conducting experiments in a submerged Russian submarine, combined with a encrypted chess game in a cafe between the only survivor of the lost submarine and a member of a mysterious intelligence organization.

Atomic Chess is as existentially weird as a Lovecraft tale and as delirious as Max Barry’s Lexicon, with more than a dash of Cold War spy thriller thrown in. One of the most intriguing stories I’ve read yet this year.

Link: https://www.bourbonpenn.com/issue/38/atomic-chess-by-josh-pearce

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Non-fiction

Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams

If you use any Meta service — Facebook, Instagram, Threads, etc. — you should probably read Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams. An insider account of her time working alongside the leaders of Facebook, including Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg, Careless People follows Wynn-Williams as she forces her way into a role at Facebook because of her belief that it can change the world, only to to spiral into despair at how it changes the world.

The Meta that Wynn-Williams describes is a world of greed and obsessions with power, where those calling the shots don’t care about the negative outcomes of their decisions as long as it increases their reach and thus bottom line. Wynn-Williams reveals moment after moment where Meta leadership appears to have lied outright to the public and to governments, where they make choices they know will cost lives, where there is no greater good.

And then there are the personal anecdotes of harassment by managers aided by complicit human resources, to say nothing of just plain weirdness such as when Sandberg makes staff sleep with her on flights.

Perhaps the most telling bit in the whole book is the reaction of Meta’s leadership to discovering the role Facebook had in getting Trump elected. Rather than being appalled, Zuckerberg seemed intrigued by the technical aspects and even delighted by Facebook’s potential. Sandberg comes off even worse, wondering if Facebook can hire Trump’s social media guru.

Careless people indeed.

Link: https://read.macmillan.com/fib/careless-people/

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The big fix for Canadian publishing by Kenneth Whyte

Does Canada need a Book Law to protect Canadian culture?

Link: https://shush.substack.com/p/the-big-fix-for-canadian-publishing

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History’s biggest book heist by Kenneth Whyte

A short history of book piracy in the name of technological progress. The AI companies scanning pirated books to train their LLMs are just the latest in a long series of those who believe authors and publishers shouldn’t be compensated for use of their works.

Link: https://shush.substack.com/p/historys-biggest-book-heist

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The Day NY Publishing Lost Its Soul by Ted Gioia

“Literary culture can’t survive in a world of risk avoidance, stale formulas, and clownish covers.”

The death of the midlist writer and what’s next.

Link: https://www.honest-broker.com/p/the-day-ny-publishing-lost-its-soul

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The Coming Clash of Civilizations by Mike Brock

Do the technocrats want a return to feudalism? Hell, we’re already halfway there.

Link: https://www.notesfromthecircus.com/p/the-coming-clash-of-civilizations