A great fantasy novel midway between Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Michael Swanwick; a gnarly, stylish, revenge flick; and haunting Welsh-language post-punk

Roundup 09/22/2024

Greetings from Read Max HQ, and welcome to our weekly roundup column, in which I pick out some worthwhile and often overlooked books, articles, movies, and music to recommend to paying subscribers. For this week’s round-up, I’ve got:

• A great new fantasy novel that’s got a little bit of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, a little bit of Michael Swanwick, and a little bit of Gene Wolfe, while also being totally original;

• an insanely gnarly, insanely well-directed, insanely bloody revenge action flick; and

• striking Dead Can Dance-ish, Cure-ish Welsh-language post-punk.

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Now, the roundup.