A speculative fiction advent calendar of quotes: Dec. 24, 2025

Russell Hoban’s eccentric masterpiece, Riddley Walker, was published in 1980. Push past the weird spellings. Read it aloud to yourself if you have to. A must-read.

Cover of Russell Hoban's novel "Riddley Walker"
Find out more HERE.

A speculative fiction advent calendar of quotes: Dec. 20, 2025

Extremophile (2024), Ian Green’s novel of cyberpunk dystopia, bioterrorism, wild heist/caper shenanigans, and more! more! is a delight. It was short-listed for the 2025 Arthur C. Clarke Award. A great, gritty read.

book cover of Ian Green's novel "Extremophile"
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A speculative fiction advent calendar of quotes: Dec. 18, 2025

Matt Dinniman’s hilarious novel Dungeon Crawler Carl (2020) is the first in a series of novels starring Carl and Donut as they navigate a world catastrophe (emphasis on the “cat”) requiring them to survive multiple levels of a fiendishly designed gamer dungeon. Their peril is being streamed to an alien audience of billions. The alien version of Twitch, I guess. This is LitRPG at its funniest, especially considering how ill-equipped Carl is for combat. On the book cover, you see him in his boxers with the pink hearts, being chased down by a goblin about to flatten him. As for Donut. . .she’s a survivor.

book cover of "Dungeon Crawler Carl," LitRPG humorous novel by Matt Dinniman
Find out more HERE.