Books

Project Hail Mary Left hand of darkness

Just finished "Kafka on the Shore", it was very weird and gross at points but I enjoyed it overall. I think I liked the side characters more than the main protagonist. Seemed like there was a lot of loos threads at the end though.

I love these threads. I always find new titles to add to my “to be read” pile.

The Dungeon Anarchist Cookbook, from the Dungeon Crawler Carl series.

Mostly audiobook, I really like the actor. He plays every character differently. There's a guest actor that almost made me stop the audiobook, but it was worth enduring it for the end of his arch. If you know, you know.

I LOVE sapphic sci-fi, please never let this trend end 🙏🏼

Currently reading Unconquerable Sun. It's fun, the writing isn't the best but it has great world building and cute lesbians.

I read Volatile Memory, which was intense but good. I just hope trans girls don't look at it as an example, the world is very dystopic and the relationship very unhealthy. There's plenty of people who support you in real life~

Monk and Robot was a little disappointing. It's nice and has some beautiful descriptions but it felt somewhat aimless. If there was any point to it it's just some liberal self-care nonsense.

Die Tyrannei des Schmetterlings (the tyranny of the butterfly) by German author Frank Schätzing. A sci-fi thriller in the same vein as John Chrichton about AI and quantum physics. A great page turner, although the flowery language sometimes comes across as a bit forced.

I started The Count of Monte Cristo, which has been on my to read list forever!

Just finished The Roman Villa. An older book, and dry as death.

It was interesting, however, to see concepts which were cutting-edge in the 70s (connecting certain non-Latin place-name endings with Roman villas, the collapse of the Roman economy as a function of societal decline rather than destructive invasions, the continued habitation and transformation of post-Roman villa locations) but are simply accepted orthodoxy now.

I'm on Fool Moon, trying for a complete Dresden Files re-read before Twelve Months

I finished Provenance by Ann Leckie. I read her Imperial Radch trilogy years ago and really enjoyed it. This was set in the same world so I expected to like it but it just fell kind of flat to me. The exploration of personhood and gender norms wasn't really there and the political intrigue felt shallow.

Now I'm on A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett, the sequel to The Tainted Cup. It is just as gripping as the first book and I'm absolutely loving it. I really need to read more from this author.

Finished "Singularity sky" by Charles Stross, great book which ends kind of slow. Or at least, the beginning set some very high expectations, and then the story unfolds into something different. Good enough to start the second book "Iron sunrise", of which I have just read the prologue.

I finished Winter's Heart the other day, and my ambivalence towards the Wheel of Time continues. I quite disliked the first third of the book, and quite liked the rest. It's just amazing to me that in a series with thousands of named characters, the only one I find likeable is Min. I also thought Perrin was nice enough, but war trauma and an unhealthy, abusive relationship have changed him in to someone I don't much care for. At least Nynaeve has mellowed down some.

And yet, and yet, I like the series. At it's core it's a really good story, and if Jordan had had some actual focus it could've been amazing. I say this should have been six books, max. It's perplexing to me that he has like three main characters (well, more than that, but let's focus on the supposedly important ta'veren) and usually one of them will be absent for most or whole of a book. Jordan is way too enamored with his world, writing and work.

But as to the topic at hand, I recently watched Nöthin' but a Good Time: The Uncensored Story of '80s Hair Metal, and it made me want to re-read The Dirt: Confessions of the World's Most Notorious Rock Band by Mötley Crüe. I remember it being a surprisingly good book, given it's the story of a group of dysfunctional musicians committing various crimes and general insanity. What I think makes it especially interesting is the fact that every member gets to tell their side, letting the book speak in many voices. In fact, the book opens with a quote by Wilkie Collins from The Woman in White, about how the story is told by many speakers. I did not expect a Wilkie Collins quote in The Dirt, but here we are. They also constantly shit on each other with little regard for anyone's feelings, which I feel adds a sense of honesty.

Finished Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier yesterday. It was a good gothic novel about how a person can still haunt the lives of others, even strangers, after they pass.

Last night I started Cory Doctorow’s book Enshittification. I didn’t get far, but after reading his blog a lot a year ago it mostly feels like a summary of stuff he normally writes about so far. That’s about what I hoped for. I’m interested to see what more he has to add later.

Just finished Isle of the Emberdark by Brandon Sanderson. Took a few hours to really get into it but once I did it was another enjoyable Sanderson book with lots of cosmere goodness throughout.

I then started book 141 of Deathlands today.

I did some more reading up about the history of Deathlands recently and think I found the reason why I think the writing has gotten better / more interesting recently.

The original author wrote up to book 33 (and the one final book at number 44) and these were all great. Then books 34 - 125 were written by a series of different authors and I think this is why those books are pretty inconsistent in terms of how good the writing was. In general it wasn't bad otherwise I wouldn't have carried on but there were definitely a few in that lot that were considerably less interesting. In this time as well there were never any real changes to the overall cast and by 125 the story as a whole definitely felt like it had started to stagnate some what.

After 125 however Graphic Audio (the company who produce the fully voiced audiobooks adaptations I have been listening to) acquired the rights to continue the story. It was after 125 that I found things to be getting considerably more interesting again, there were a lot more significant advancements in terms of the story or back story and in general I think the writing has been better.

So that kind of answered and unasked question in my mind in terms of the ups and downs in quality of the writing and I'm looking forward to these last 15 or so books knowing it is Graphic Audio at the helm now and that they are willing to push things forward and change things up. It does also answer why there were some slight changes in the way some of the characters presented over time, most of them were subtle but now I have a reasoning. One bad thing is they seem to be making the doctor more insufferable in my opinion but you can't love every character!

I've just started a queer (somewhat furry-adjacent - don't hate me) fantasy novel called Wolf of Withervale by Joaquin Baldwin. Some fascinating world-building around a plot which has been fairly low stakes so far, but I'm hoping will build into something grander.

I started The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett this week and am really liking it. This is the first book I've read from him, and I'm easily getting into his writing style.

I actually just finished both Howling Dark by Christopher Ruocchio today. Its the second book in the Sun Eater series. I enjoyed it more than the first book in the series. At times still feels like just Dune but it did have some things i didnt expect.

Also finsihed Heart of Midnight by J Robert King. Its a D&D book from the 90s set in Ravenloft. There are a series of them bit non are connected. Was not great but was fun. So I enjoyed it.

So as of right now i am reading nothing lol. Probably pick up the third book in Sun Eater series in a day or two and then I am not sure what else.

Just finished The Girl Who Could Move Shit With Her Mind by Jackson Ford.

Was a fun read. Nothing too spectacular but was nice to get close to EoY and knock out a 400-pager. I'm so excited to see my StoryGraph stats at the end of the year!

Just finished:

Midnight Rooms by Donyae Coles. A Gothic fairy tale with promising vibes of Crimson Peak, Beauty and the Beast, and Rebecca. I found it ultimately disappointing as there was never any explanation or lore provided and I thought the MC wasn't well fleshed out. But if you like Gothic vibes and romance, you might appreciate this one.

The Electric Kingdom by David Arnold. A post-apocalyptic time travel story with likable characters. Thoroughly enjoyed this one.

Currently reading American Sirens: The Incredible Story of the Black Men who Became America's First Paramedics by Kevin Hazzard. I never knew about them until they were mentioned on The Pitt. Some heartbreaking stories in the first chapter.

Reading Germinal by Emile Zola right now. From time to time it gets a bit too dry and reads more like political theory than fiction, but overall I’m enjoying it a lot. Got about 100 pages left and it seems like it’ll end in tragedy, but that was to be expected from the start.

I love the way Zola describes things. The darkness, the cold, the mines that are more like man-eating beasts than mere workplaces, make you really feel the tragic plight of the workers there.

It is also quite depressing to me how many lines I can draw from what I’m reading to what I’m hearing in my own life. The fight hasn’t really changed and the arguments that I hear also haven’t.

Probably gonna finish it this week and not sure what’s next, but I can definitely recommend this to anyone interested in politics and social justice. It feels very realistic (who would have thought, it’s realist/naturalist literature after all) and makes for a great fictional adaptation of the often pretty dry political theory on communism and socialism at the time.

Ran across 'Assistant to the Villain' on Libby as an audiobook, thought it sounded fun.

I regret it.

I want to know what happens next but the narrator is abysmal. She sounds so much like an AI voice - complete with awkward pauses and bad pronunciation of unusual words - that I had to look her up and make sure she was a real person. I've actually taken to occasionally re-narrating out loud with better inflection to drown her out. I'll probably stick it out until the end of the book, but... Sorry, Em Eldridge, you're going on my 'never again' list.

Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer for the podcast - the Natalie Portman movie is very loosely based on it - its pretty good so far but I'm not far in.

Just started Johannas Cabal the Necromancer by Jonathan L. Howard. I'm loving it. If you like Adams, Pratchett, or the guy who co-wrote Good Omens early work, I just about guarantee you'll dig this.

Finished all the Fred, the vampire accountant books. They had a good ending that fit the story well. Lots of room for alternate stories in the future as not all dropped threads were picked up, but that doesn’t bother me necessarily.

Currently partway through Masquerade by O.O. Sangoyomi.

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Finished Shutter by Ramona Emerson (supernatural crime thriller) | bingo: minority author, orange, steppin' up

A Navajo crime scene photographer that can see ghosts is haunted by a victim seeking justice.

This ended up being more about how the MC's ghost-seeing and interest in photography impacted her childhood, rather than the thriller plot or other characters. Not terrible for a debut novel, but I don't think I'd recommend it. (Also, skip if you don't handle gore well: the crime scenes are described in vivid detail.)

For Whom the Belle Tolls by Jaysea Lynn.

Working my way through Aurora Blazing by Jessie Mihalik. I have less than 100 pages left and I love it. I’m excited to see what happens, but sad to be finishing it, but also excited that there is another book after this. It’s a great scifi romance series that I recommend checking out.

I started reading A Little Tea Book by Sebastian Beckworth on the side. It’s cute and has quite a bit of information about tea. I’m not sure if I’ll read the whole thing, but I’m reading sections that interest me and skimming the others. This is a library book and I recently decided to check out any book that I spend flipping through pages for more than 30 seconds. I’ve been happy with this decision so far.

Still reading Rising Up and Rising Down: Some Thoughts on Violence, Freedom and Urgent Means by William Vollmann.

Just finished The Vanished Birds by Simon Jimenez.

Not too far into Half a King by Joe Abercrombie and also about to start Best Served Cold by the same author as my commute audio book.