We kicked off the weekend with what proved to be a happy non-event. The highly touted arrival of Tropical Cyclone Narelle delivered plenty of rain – more than 70mm over the weekend – but the intense storms and wind largely passed us by. That meant by work-from-home Friday was like a rather intense winter’s day, if a little humid.

Marianne and I headed off to Hanami for lunch, which was pleasant, and I was home in time to finish the work day and get dinner underway. Marianne was out with friends, so it was me and the girls. As happens these days, we failed to find a suitable family movie, so Sophie and I watched the latest episode of The Pitt, we mucked around a bit, and that was the day.

Saturday was cool and wet and busy. I picked Stephen up from his place and we headed over to Blake Hill for breakfast and chat about this and that. A nice way to relax, even if the place was loud, which lead these older types to head off. I got home around 10.45am and then went out to Yahava with Jess and Marianne. We sat outside in between showers and chatted about travel, go-karting, doing new things, and such like. Coffee was had, with Jess as always favouring her iced coffee. We’d hardly got home when I was back out with Sophie for lunch at The Rosemount in North Perth. Again, rainy and damp, but relaxing too. Then Diabolik and home. I’ve been reading the new Adrian Tchaikovsky Tyrant Philosophers novel, so some of that, then dinner and a quiet evening.

Sunday was supposed to start with a podcast chat with Jo Walton and Ada Palmer, but a service outage at my end put paid to that for this weekend. After confirming there was nothing to be done, I headed over to the Stirling Farmer’s Market to do some grocery shopping.  Then I took Sophie out to Keller’s Farm before heading home. Marianne, Sophie and I went over to Belmont to see The Magic Faraway Tree, the first movie at the cinema for some while, and it was delightful.  Hard to hear in places, because my hearing is pretty much shot, but fun.  Sunday evening was a roast chicken dinner and then ready for work.

All in all, a pretty solid weekend.

It’s always a little tricky to keep track of new books. There are constant announcements and people doing what they can to promote this and that, and suddenly books are here and gone.

So, I’m going to try to update this. A list of new short story collections to be published in English during 2026. Ordering links are included.

1. Five, César Aira (May)
2. Tales from the Territory, Travis Baldree (September)
3. If We Cannot Go at the Speed of Light, Kim Choyeop (April)
4. The Astronaut Among the Flowers and Other Stories, P.A. Cornell (August)
5. Home in the Dark, Jayanta Dey (May)
6. From the Imp’s Archives, Rafael Dieste (January)
7. Not Yet Gods, Djuna (April)
8. Seasons of Glass and Iron: Stories, Amal El-Mohar (March)
9. Pandemonium Waltz, Jeffrey Ford (February)
10. She is Here, Nicola Griffith (January)
11. The Slantwise Histories and Other Stories, Alix E. Harrow (October)
12. The Book of Bots, James Patrick Kelly (August)
13. Visions & Apparitions: Selected Tales of the Uncanny, Ladislav Klíma (June)
14. The Passing of the Dragon and Other Stories, Ken Liu (September)
15. Rabbit Test and Other Stories, Samantha Mills (April)
16. River of Bones and Other Sto­ries, Rebecca Roanhorse (March)
17. The Raven of Ruwi and Other Stories from Oman, Hamoud Saud (March)
18. The Autopsy and Others, Michael Shea (May) (possible reprint of 2009 title)
19. The Sourdough Compendium: Dark and Dangerous Fairy Tales, A.G. Slatter (June)
20. With the Heart of a Ghost, Lim Sunwoo (February)
21. The Universe Box, Michael Swanwick (February)
22. Mojorhythm, Sheree Renée Thomas (February)
23. Ring Shout on Saturn, Sheree Renée Thomas (Spring)
24. The Three Coffin Problem, Lavie Tidhar (June)
25. The Best of Adrian Tchaikovsky, Adrian Tchaikovsky (February)
26. All the Hidden Places, Cadwell Turnbull (September)
27. This’ll Make Things a Little Easier, Attila Veres (March)
28. Masters of Science Fiction: Howard Waldrop, Howard Waldrop (January)
29. Blued Moon and Other Screwball Comedies, Connie Willis (April)

A quick glance at some books coming in 2026. Every year ends up surprising and there are always books you expect to read but never get to, and books you planned to read that disappoint.

This list is simply a few books I’ve seen scheduled that I think could be interesting:

1. A Trace of Blood, Robert Jackson Bennett
2. To Ride a Rising Storm, Moniquill Blackgoose
3. The Subtle Art of Folding Space, John Chu
4. The Faith of Beasts, James S.A. Corey
5. Seasons of Glass and Iron, Amal El-Mohtar
6. She is Here, Nicola Griffith
7. Traitors’ Nest, Frances Hardinge
8. The Language of Liars, S.L. Huang
9. The Book of Bots, James Patrick Kelly
10. Sublimation, Isabel J Kim
11. Intergalactic Feast, Lavanya Lakshminarayan
12. Radiant Star, Ann Leckie
13. The Last Contract of Isako, Fonda Lee
14. Code and Codex, Yoon Ha Lee
15. The Passing of the Dragon and Other Stories, Ken Liu
16. Prescribed Burn, Arkady Martine
17. Loss Protocol, Paul McAuley
18. Boy, with Accidental Dinosaur, Ian McDonald
19. The Rouse, China Mieville
20. Wickhills, Premee Mohamed
21. Palaces of the Crow, Ray Nayler
22. Massif, Garth Nix
23. Season of the Serpent, Suyi Davies Okungbowa
24. Sister Svangerd and the Not Quite Dead, K.J. Parker
25. River of Bones and Other Sto­ries, Rebecca Roahorse
26. Frankenstein Rex, Adam Roberts
27. The Iron Garden Sutra, A.D. Sui
28. A Forest, Darkly, A.G. Slatter
29. Nonesuch, Francis Spufford
30. The Universe Box, Michael Swanwick
31. The Fist of Memory, Wole Talabi
32. Pretenders to the Throne of God, Adrian Tchaikovsky
33. The Best of Adrian Tchaikovsky, Adrian Tchaikovsky
34. A Long and Speaking Silence, Nghi Vo
35. Everybody’s Perfect, Jo Walton
36. Trade Elements, Jo Walton & Ada Palmer
37. Platform Decay, Martha Wells
38. The Misheard World, Aliya Whiteley
39. The Dragon Has Some Complaints, John Wiswell

Christmas Eve 2025. A completely different affair than last year, should you look back at the entry. We were coming off a stinking hot day of 44.3C and the weather was turning mild. Today, by comparison, it got up into the high 30s and tomorrow should be 40 with maybe a thunderstorm. We’ll see.

The day started with Gary and I releasing the last two episodes of Coode Street for 2025, and making plans for the next few weeks. Sophie and I then went out at about 7am to do some errands – collect the mail from two post offices (one of my pieces of offical merch went astray), get some groceries, have some breakfast and so on. Then back to the house for tidying and prep for the big day. I ended up going out on another trip to get groceries and such and then spent time to laying out my tasks for tomorrow morning. All of the usual stuff.

Along the way, I spent a little time wth my favourite new podcast (Bill Nighy’s Ill-Considered), read a bit of Ben Aaronovitch’s Moon Over Soho, and felt slightly stressed about being not prepared enough. We then had Chinese for dinner and watched Miracle on 34th Street. A nice day, with no car accidents, for busy and not super Christmassy.

Tomorrow will be up early to see if Santa’s been, some family gifts, then breakfast, cooking and final tidying. The family are due about noon, and the turkey should be coming out of the oven aaround then. We’re sitting inside, so it’s a little cramped, but it’s also well air conditioned, so you have to pick what’s important to you. We’ll share gifts, no doubt, and then food and games and such for the rest of the afternoon. At some point, I’ll eventually slip into a mild food coma, and then watch something or other and crash.

As to Boxing Day – cricket, reviews editing, and year-in-review column writing. I owe Locus a review column after all these years, so that’s on the to do list. All in all, a busy few days.

I keep hearing about how good this England* side is — once-in-a generation players, incredible talent and so on. Blah blah. But here’s the thing — pretty much every time I’ve seen them play they consistently fail to bring it. Not just here in the 2025-26 Ashes, but most every other time. They’re great when things are going their way, They’re great when the conditions are good. But when things get hard, when it’s ‘game on!’ time, they don’t come together as a team. They don’t play great cricket. Mostly, they kinda waft about and fail, looking for some magic quick fix solution that usually doesn’t work. Or they’re sitting around hoping for some magician (ie. their captain) to save them.

And what of Stokes? There’s no doubt Stokes is special. An honest-to-god Test cricketer of quality with the spirit to play the game. A credit to England and the game. And Root? A terrific batter, though for mine a bit overrated. After that? Not so much. Not consistently. I see Stokes supporting the team again and again, but I don’t see them supporting him.

England are 2-0 down in this series because that accurately reflects how they played as a team. They had one and a half good days, and that was it. Could easily have won in Perth. Could probably have won in Brisbane. Both are tough, but the Australian team was at its weakest due to injury etc. And yet they couldn’t focus, couldn’t come together, couldn’t put in the hard yards, do the hard stuff where you knuckle down and play the percentage game so you can turn the game your way.

That’s why I doubt they’ll do a lot better in the next three Tests. Not because Australia will be fielding progressively stronger sides (though they will), but because I think this is who this England team is. A bunch of almost-good-enoughs led by genuine champion relying on extraordinary rescues to save them rather than skill and application.

It may not be 5-0. There could be a draw somewhere if the weather gets in the way, but likely it will be. This isn’t the greatest Australian Test side I’ve seen — that was probably Waugh’s Australians — but it’s a good side. Great bowling unit, top keeper, and a frankly unsteady but sometimes brilliant batting unit. That’s enough to do the job because as a team they do everything England does not.

* Test cricket.