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 fantastic, unique fantasy novel set in a kind of post-revolutionary world of toppled wizard-aristocrats and democratic armies;

• essays and columns on Elon Musk’s habits, Pankaj Mishra’s new book, the politics of the world’s worst podcast, and the deciphering of Linear Elamite;

• three under-appreciated Gene Hackman movies, none of which are The Conversation or Royal Tenenbaums;

• four tracks I’ve been loving.

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Now, the roundup: