Jake Casella Brookins
@casella.bsky.social
Appalachian in the big city. Editor at Ancillary Review, host of A Meal of Thorns, bookseller, coffee pro, SF reviewer & scholar. He/him.
https://linktr.ee/jakecasellabrookins
https://linktr.ee/jakecasellabrookins
Pinned
I mean ... I do admire the faith in humanity that leads you to believe that Hugo nominators will ever nominate a nyrb book!
To restore cosmic balance after the Tor novella sweep, we must engineer a New Directions sweep
"Silence, in every direction, irrevocable."
February 13, 2026 at 3:54 AM
"Silence, in every direction, irrevocable."
Reposted by Jake Casella Brookins
all the kinds of modern Indie Games:
-"roguelike" (slot machine)
-feelings
-unlock/tech tree simulator
-"god we hope northernlion plays this"
-crunchy first person shooter
-morrowind built by a single lunatic
-"roguelike" (slot machine)
-feelings
-unlock/tech tree simulator
-"god we hope northernlion plays this"
-crunchy first person shooter
-morrowind built by a single lunatic
February 13, 2026 at 2:59 AM
all the kinds of modern Indie Games:
-"roguelike" (slot machine)
-feelings
-unlock/tech tree simulator
-"god we hope northernlion plays this"
-crunchy first person shooter
-morrowind built by a single lunatic
-"roguelike" (slot machine)
-feelings
-unlock/tech tree simulator
-"god we hope northernlion plays this"
-crunchy first person shooter
-morrowind built by a single lunatic
Reposted by Jake Casella Brookins
+ in particular if you haven't read my essay from the Strange Horizons criticism special last year it's the thing I'm proudest of: strangehorizons.com/wordpress/no...
focused on Celtic-language cultures but hopefully speaking to general questions about fantasy's extractive use of colonized cultures
focused on Celtic-language cultures but hopefully speaking to general questions about fantasy's extractive use of colonized cultures
The Celts Meet Celtic Fantasy
What would it look like for dominant-language fantasy to engage with the living cultures, contemporary politics, and modern histories of Celtic-language communities?
strangehorizons.com
February 12, 2026 at 4:56 PM
+ in particular if you haven't read my essay from the Strange Horizons criticism special last year it's the thing I'm proudest of: strangehorizons.com/wordpress/no...
focused on Celtic-language cultures but hopefully speaking to general questions about fantasy's extractive use of colonized cultures
focused on Celtic-language cultures but hopefully speaking to general questions about fantasy's extractive use of colonized cultures
Hugo nominations are open! Going to do a personal blog post or two with some ideas about a few categories, but in the meantime I would point you towards the @ancillaryreviewofbooks.org & @mealofthorns.bsky.social: very happy with the work editors & contributors shared in 2025.
ARB Awards Eligibility 2025
The Ancillary Review of Books turned five this year! We’ve had an excellent year, and are very pleased to continue publishing criticism with an emphasis on the speculative and the utopian, thanks t…
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org
February 12, 2026 at 2:10 PM
Hugo nominations are open! Going to do a personal blog post or two with some ideas about a few categories, but in the meantime I would point you towards the @ancillaryreviewofbooks.org & @mealofthorns.bsky.social: very happy with the work editors & contributors shared in 2025.
Reposted by Jake Casella Brookins
Sometimes I find myself thinking that some problem or another would be much easier solved if people were smarter, kinder, more open minded - and then I tend to think it's time to move on. Cos, like, yeah, that. That is probably true? Also not very helpful, hit a bit of a dead end there.
February 12, 2026 at 8:37 AM
Sometimes I find myself thinking that some problem or another would be much easier solved if people were smarter, kinder, more open minded - and then I tend to think it's time to move on. Cos, like, yeah, that. That is probably true? Also not very helpful, hit a bit of a dead end there.
Happy Darwin Day, fellow mammals. The triumphs of your ancestors are within you.
February 12, 2026 at 12:44 PM
Happy Darwin Day, fellow mammals. The triumphs of your ancestors are within you.
Reposted by Jake Casella Brookins
Reposted by Jake Casella Brookins
February 11, 2026 at 7:42 PM
just thinking about the hexarchate books again, as one does
February 11, 2026 at 6:48 PM
just thinking about the hexarchate books again, as one does
arms race of aquatic & hydrodynamic literary taxa metaphors ensues. 5 months until the phrase "estranging thermocline" breaks containment. folks tossing around "meridional overturning" to discuss commercial sub-genre churn. "is it a retelling or an aquifer depletion," I sneer of a new release
So what is weird fiction, anyway? It's when you read weird fiction.
February 11, 2026 at 5:06 PM
arms race of aquatic & hydrodynamic literary taxa metaphors ensues. 5 months until the phrase "estranging thermocline" breaks containment. folks tossing around "meridional overturning" to discuss commercial sub-genre churn. "is it a retelling or an aquifer depletion," I sneer of a new release
Reposted by Jake Casella Brookins
The thing about ebooks as a substitute is that it ignores two major needs of teen readers: autonomy (the ability to get a book without going through parents) and community (the ability to pass a book around to all their friends.)
I've said this before but I truly believe we could revitalize YA and kidlit overnight by switching to MMPB and paperback first. Kids want paperbacks! It is by far the biggest request I get from teen readers.
hello this is the official petition to bring back mass market paperbacks!! mmpbs are good actually and everyone should do them!! i think esp romantasy readers would really love that shit! and you can still spray those edges!!! bring back mass market paperbacks thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!
February 11, 2026 at 3:51 PM
The thing about ebooks as a substitute is that it ignores two major needs of teen readers: autonomy (the ability to get a book without going through parents) and community (the ability to pass a book around to all their friends.)
copy-editing, pro tip: "that" vs "which" is a tricky one. Statistically, your best bet is to assume that whichever's in the draft right now is wrong, and flip it.
February 11, 2026 at 4:35 PM
copy-editing, pro tip: "that" vs "which" is a tricky one. Statistically, your best bet is to assume that whichever's in the draft right now is wrong, and flip it.
Reposted by Jake Casella Brookins
Welcome to our weekly game, Violent Atrocities or Gross Incompetence? in which we try to decode minimally informative breaking news without scaring the chickens
February 11, 2026 at 2:06 PM
Welcome to our weekly game, Violent Atrocities or Gross Incompetence? in which we try to decode minimally informative breaking news without scaring the chickens
spiritual decline of a nation as evinced by increasingly slipshod heat-sealing on coffee bags
February 10, 2026 at 11:31 PM
spiritual decline of a nation as evinced by increasingly slipshod heat-sealing on coffee bags
100% correct, and also a great *investment* in future readers— I get real spooked thinking about young potential megareaders who don't have access to dirt-cheap piles of mass markets
hello this is the official petition to bring back mass market paperbacks!! mmpbs are good actually and everyone should do them!! i think esp romantasy readers would really love that shit! and you can still spray those edges!!! bring back mass market paperbacks thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!
February 10, 2026 at 10:56 PM
100% correct, and also a great *investment* in future readers— I get real spooked thinking about young potential megareaders who don't have access to dirt-cheap piles of mass markets
Reposted by Jake Casella Brookins
In answer to a side question @tallesteden.bsky.social and @casella.bsky.social have early in this podcast episode: I do reread, mainly for pleasure, to revisit old works, and mainly do re-reads in Audiobooks. there are also authors who are *richer* in the re-read, like Gene Wolfe. So that's me.
You can't just "know" kung fu: @tallesteden.bsky.social is on to talk about Greg Egan's hard SF classic, DIASPORA, with much discussion of the mechanics of scale & wonder, and what we can learn from thinking about weird posthuman societies:
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/2026/02/09/a...
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/2026/02/09/a...
February 10, 2026 at 8:11 PM
In answer to a side question @tallesteden.bsky.social and @casella.bsky.social have early in this podcast episode: I do reread, mainly for pleasure, to revisit old works, and mainly do re-reads in Audiobooks. there are also authors who are *richer* in the re-read, like Gene Wolfe. So that's me.
Reposted by Jake Casella Brookins
For the new folks: I am a disaster survivor and my only income is making shirts and art.
www.etsy.com/shop/thenigh...
www.etsy.com/shop/thenigh...
February 10, 2026 at 6:56 PM
For the new folks: I am a disaster survivor and my only income is making shirts and art.
www.etsy.com/shop/thenigh...
www.etsy.com/shop/thenigh...
Reposted by Jake Casella Brookins
Ida B. Wells's writing to document lynchings is something rare, even though lynching was commonplace. One reason* for that is: it is hard to write about. It it hard to read about. The challenge of being a writer is harder to meet when the thing you are writing about is so, so painful
Shout-out to all my colleagues who are also teaching about lynching, Reconstruction, and the 14th amendment right now. Give yourself space, it's hard, essential work.
February 10, 2026 at 7:06 PM
Ida B. Wells's writing to document lynchings is something rare, even though lynching was commonplace. One reason* for that is: it is hard to write about. It it hard to read about. The challenge of being a writer is harder to meet when the thing you are writing about is so, so painful
this sounds fantastic!
I'm not starting an award.
But I am going on a perhaps quixotic months-long exercise in spotlighting great quality early 2020s queer SFF. The details, the thinking behind it, and a bonus cringeworthy pun are here!
I look forward to shouting at y'all about great books over the next few months.
But I am going on a perhaps quixotic months-long exercise in spotlighting great quality early 2020s queer SFF. The details, the thinking behind it, and a bonus cringeworthy pun are here!
I look forward to shouting at y'all about great books over the next few months.
I'm not starting up an award
...but I am testing a hypothesis and spotlighting some great queer SFF
borrowed-and-blue.beehiiv.com
February 10, 2026 at 2:51 PM
this sounds fantastic!
Man, Ebo Taylor, what a loss—constantly on my rotation, what a titan. Leaving behind that many decades of great music.Do yourself a favor and look him up if you're not familiar. Never fails to improve my mood.
February 10, 2026 at 1:29 AM
Man, Ebo Taylor, what a loss—constantly on my rotation, what a titan. Leaving behind that many decades of great music.Do yourself a favor and look him up if you're not familiar. Never fails to improve my mood.
Reposted by Jake Casella Brookins
The Panican Brief
February 9, 2026 at 9:39 PM
The Panican Brief
Egan is such a blast to read—really enjoyed revisiting this one with Eden. We somehow didn't make the Ted Chiang comp, but: if you are hungry for more like EXHALATION or STORIES OF YOUR LIFE, pick up some Egan post-haste.
For the latest episode of A Meal of Thorns, critic and podcaster @tallesteden.bsky.social joins ARB editor @casella.bsky.social to talk about big-picture, far-future science fiction (with some surprisingly timely bits) in Greg Egan's DIASPORA:
A Meal of Thorns 43- DIASPORA with Eden Kupermintz
Greg Egan’s work exemplifies a certain kind of “hard” science fiction: not that it’s obsessed with big manly space battles, but rather that it’s using science to reall…
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org
February 9, 2026 at 6:37 PM
Egan is such a blast to read—really enjoyed revisiting this one with Eden. We somehow didn't make the Ted Chiang comp, but: if you are hungry for more like EXHALATION or STORIES OF YOUR LIFE, pick up some Egan post-haste.
Reposted by Jake Casella Brookins
does anyone else keep opening tabs with interesting articles and then discovering that you have just absolutely no capacity to read them
February 9, 2026 at 3:50 PM
does anyone else keep opening tabs with interesting articles and then discovering that you have just absolutely no capacity to read them
honestly with thermal underwear and two layers of flannel and a hoodie and fingerless gloves and a scarf and a hat and thick socks and slippers and special alpine anti-chilblain cream and a space heater and a lap blanket—this cold snap's no big deal
February 9, 2026 at 3:29 PM
honestly with thermal underwear and two layers of flannel and a hoodie and fingerless gloves and a scarf and a hat and thick socks and slippers and special alpine anti-chilblain cream and a space heater and a lap blanket—this cold snap's no big deal
Reposted by Jake Casella Brookins
One thing that AI author article really crystallizes for me is how much the “they’re crap books” portion of any discussion of both the creation and consumption of crap books gets glossed over because books & reading have this sheen of inherent virtue to them
February 9, 2026 at 3:14 PM
One thing that AI author article really crystallizes for me is how much the “they’re crap books” portion of any discussion of both the creation and consumption of crap books gets glossed over because books & reading have this sheen of inherent virtue to them