Reactor Magazine

We’re thrilled to announce the launch of our first podcast, Read Receipts, a weekly show about speculative fiction, genre, and nerd culture.

Two mortals, a prince, and a portrait: Astrid Scholte's young adult fantasy Fallen Beauty follows a girl made a prisoner. We're sharing an excerpt at Reactor!

The winners of the 2026 World Fantasy Awards have been announced! Congratulations, everyone!!

How does a story change when you revisit it? Yoon He Lee talks returning to Ann Turnbull's The Wolf King, a novel where the question of what "really" happened is just as important as the version that exists inside your head:

Guys...I'm starting to think Muad’Dib isn't our friend

Rings of Power, Percy Jackson, and our favorite stranded Yellowjackets return to TV this November, plus a new Bladerunner! Here's all the new TV shows coming out next month 🍂

From a time when space adventures were all the rage, Dig Allen, Space Explorer followed in the footsteps of Tom Corbett and other intrepid teenage adventurers rocketing around the Solar System, uncovering conspiracies and thwarting evildoers

"It was the narrative of a child being disbelieved...A child who knew they were in danger, and had no one they could turn to who would listen." @use-theforce-em.bsky.social on revisiting the horror movie that scared you:

tomorrow...

How scary can a short story really BE?? Stephanie Feldman recommends 5 examples that demonstrate the best of what horrific short fiction can do...

Three magicians escape the Labyrinth to find earth ravaged by monsters, and in need of saving… We're excited to reveal the cover for The Kingdom of Rising Nightmares by @kulwickiwrites.bsky.social!!! The sequel to The Labyrinth of Waking Dreams arrives March 30, 2027 from Page Street YA 🌙

Mike Flanagan has given us yet another masterclass in horror that elicits the empathy of its viewers—the better to devastate us. Read my account of his brilliant and brutal remake of Carrie. Share the article and comment over at Reactor if you’re feeling inspired.

Blake Crouch told me he started thinking of Dark Matter season 2 as an album; episodes 5 & 8 are its “two radiant ballads.” I love them! For @reactorsff.bsky.social, we talked about those two standalones. A nice appertif before the season 2 finale this Friday! reactormag.com/blake-crouch...

If you thought the 2015 podcast The Black Tapes was based on a true story, we're starting a support club in this comment section

Chuck Wendig's Calamities is Succession with a little more demons and a lot more blood. (Complimentary). Check out @mcflycahill90.bsky.social's review!

Horror and humor can be the perfect combo when the balance is right. Our Necessary Whimsy column highlights 11 books and movies that mix laughs and jump scares, from gentler kids' books to hilarious slasher comedies--what are your favorites?

“I mean, we’ve gone ‘Minus One‘ and ‘Minus Zero.’ So if there is another sequel to this, where do we take it from here?”

Feeling nostalgic about '90s alien conspiracy stories? The penultimate episode of Crusade, "Visitors From Down the Street," has you covered:

"He makes sure that his audience empathizes with everyone in his shows. He rarely settles for the explanation that the villains are inhumanly irredeemable and that is his most striking and devastating gift." @tmdean.bsky.social on the "catharsis and catabasis" inherent in Mike Flanagan's Carrie:

Roger Zelazny’s A Night in the Lonesome October is the perfect read for this time of year. But in the SFF Bestiary, we're not here to discuss Games or Elder Gods. We're here to talk about the familiars:

Today's Classic Cover of the Day is Ash: A Secret History (Book #1)! This first entry into a series that would eventually be bound into one 1000+ page volume was illustrated by Donato Giancola

Horror is famous for its jump scares, but what about the quieter, subtle moments that exist just for the viewers: a glimpse of a ghost just behind a protagonist, a demon that only we get to see? Let's talk about some terrifying moments of background horror in film and TV 🎈

I WON A WORLD FANTASY!!!!!! It has been a difficult day so far but just got these wonderful news! ❤️ 🏆 Congratulations to all the winners and finalists. It's impossible to put into words how honored I am to be amongst you all.

The only ending I could think of.

"There are plenty of alterations to the story, and not all of them are outright terrible. But the whole, once assembled, becomes nothing more than a mechanized Velveteen Rabbit parable, and a watery one at that." Taika Waititi's Klara and the Sun can't commit:

GOOD NEWS, THE HEADLINE SAYS IT ALL:

What’s the best movie to watch on Halloween and why is it NOT Halloween (1978)?

"You could say that you could see another movie, twisting and screaming, pressing against the flesh of this one so you could spot its torture outline for a moment before it’s swallowed back into the hackneyed shape of Antihero Movie #2." Clayface is gross and weird. But what if it were weirder?

icymi: butch knights and their various swords............

The Bottle Episode is not dead, it's just trapped in the house of a woman named Laurel. Blake Crouch discusses episodes 5 and 8 of Dark Matter's second season: #DarkMatter

Today's Classic Cover of the Day is More Than Human by Theodore Sturgeon! This delightfully unsettling cover was created by Richard Powers

What We Know About 2 Carrie 2 Furious:

The Empire faces a reckoning that could destroy the world itself... We're excited to share an excerpt from Sung-il Kim's Blood to the True Crown, translated by @antonhur.com!! The conclusion to the Bleeding Empire series looms ever closer. And take a look at that cover!

James Islington's fast-paced science fiction novel Scion brings the best of pulp SF to the modern day. @bonkowsky.bsky.social recommends it for the Neuromancer and Ghost in the Shell fans praying for a cyberpunk revival:

Splice of Life offers tiers of bodies suitable for every budget and with their proprietary new chip, they've completely (probably) eliminated bleed through between driver and passenger... Next week. "An Eye for Property" by @fordwalker.bsky.social! Art by Addison Green Edited by @malf.bsky.social

I got to hang out with my bros and talk about swords and I'm making it everyone else's problem

Our anime experts are back to sample a mix of supernatural anime just in time for Halloween, featuring ghost hunters, Marvel's most famous daywalker, zombies overrunning Tokyo, and a meet-cute with a sexy vampire lady. But are these shows any good??

We’re in the back half of our spooky coverage at the 80s Fantasy Film Club and taking on one of the most enduring entries in fantasy horror. Read my take on a flawed classic. Share and comment on the @reactorsff.bsky.social site itself if you’re feeling generous.

"Lanterns is the next turn in the conversation that HBO’s Watchmen started." Even @bookjockeyalex.bsky.social, a DC skeptic, loves Lanterns. And to prove it, here's a breakdown of the best scene from each episode! #Lanterns

It turns out Marvel can stop themselves from revealing everything through marketing when they really want to #Marvel

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We were going to wait to tease the first episode next week, but... Read Receipts: Ladyknights and Sword Lesbians, featuring @alixeharrow.bsky.social, @tashasuri.bsky.social, @clclarkwrites.com, and host @cxorlando.bsky.social October 28, 2026 ⚔️

Everybody loves Beetlejuice (1988), but is it possible that our nostalgia for this oddball hit rests on key lines and standout performances, and not so much on the film as a whole? Or is the movie the perfect blend of weirdness we remember?

Writing a publishable book is no small feat--but sometimes the publishing process does not run smoothly, and things go very wrong. @jdnicoll.bsky.social on four books that ran into trouble for reasons far beyond their authors' control.