Laith

I'm having a blast with Tanith Lee so far, I loved Night's Master and this book was more of that Flat Earth goodness. I was very curious to see how the series would continue on from such a non-standard first entry, would this book turn away from the decentralized story telling style of the first, or would this book build on the mythos with more interwoven fairy tales. The answer is a little of both: This book DOES have a main character, and we follow ONE story the whole way through. Likewise, this one story is a Matryoshka doll with diverting, detailed, and interwoven backstory provided for the entire cast. The further we get into the main story, the more of these secondary stories get woven in. Some people liken this to a long form epic poem, I can see that, personally I got the feeling that I was reading a novelized tapestry (but hey usually those tapestries are of the epic variety).

Where Night's Master was titled after Azhrarn, Death's Master similarly is titled after Uhlume, the Lord of Death, another of the Lords of Darkness. Uhlume's presence is much more subdued and looming as compared to that of Azhrarn, he's this silent, morose and ever-present force in the story. The novel concerns a fated pair, Simmu and Zhirem, two characters who in some way meddle in the forces of life and death. There are many of the same story beats as Night's Master; boons with gods and demons, themes of love and betrayal, and more of that sort of stuff. I will note that Azhrarn also features in this book, I'm guessing he will in all of them, because he's the drama (he's kind of the malicious engine that drives the story).

I found it nice to see Lee changing up the formula a touch for this second entry in the series. Most readers will appreciate the character focused narrative, this is a much more conventional story as compared to Book 1. Personally, the conventional format was a bit of a let-down, one of the things I dug most about Night's Master was just how unique that style of storytelling was in the Adult fantasy landscape. This book is also fantastic, but I felt the story dragging when it switched threads or delivered backstory late into the book. I think the key difference here is that the interwoven story was distracting from a larger narrative, whereas in NM the story was free to jump around. Pacing is definitely my chief complaint here, this book was twice as long as NM, and I was really feeling the increased page count whenever the story shifted gears later into the book.

"Damn, this is really from the 80s?" That's a question I couldn't stop asking myself as I read this. I didn't note this explicitly for the first novel, but so far both entries have had some gay sex right off the rip, and the functional main character of this novel is gender-fluid. Gender and sex play into the story in a big and nonjudgmental way. In the 80s! And these books were popular! It's mind-blowing to me just how "modern" the sensibilities of these books are, and I love that I can get some vintage 80s fantasy without any of the cringe worthy chauvinism or poorly conceived romantic plots. I think of this series' contemporaries, series like Dragons of Autumn Twilight and The Sword of Shannara that, while fantastic in their own ways, are bland and silent when it comes to such a popular contemporary subject. Obviously, not every book has to have an inclusive cast of characters or even LGBTQ themes (I will even chide authors who include those themes in a publishing/tick the boxes kind of way), but this book is the perfect example of how, when, and why to include those themes in a fantasy story; this book is just that much more interesting because of it.

TL;DR: A more conventional fantasy story compared to book 1; a modern-vintage type of read.

I am a fan of short stories, but it's kind of rough picking through anthologies to find gems. I have to say I love when authors take advantage of modern publishing and publish their short stories independently, it makes it less daunting to find good short stories. This book is one of those, and it's currently free on kindle, as well as just 23 pages, so give it a read. It'll only take 30 minutes max.

This short story is a part of Almeida's spiral worlds, an illustrated short story collection that spans two volumes and tells an interconnected story. Model Organisms is a stand-alone story, but it does connect to that body of work, so there's more to check out if you wind up liking what you read.

Okay, so what is this about? Well, to start, this seems to be set in some kind of virtual world/collection of interconnected worlds. The story is told from the perspective of Scout, who is one of an entire school bus of pregnant clones. The bus is driven by the Devil, at least that's what Scout thinks, the woman at the wheel is wearing glowing horns. This bus is hauling ass trying to escape what appears to be the collapse of civilization or possibly even the world around them.

You aren't given a lot of context for what is happening, but there are a ton of interesting details concerning consciousness, the nature of reality, and inherited memory. I imagine reading the rest of spiral worlds will illuminate some of the more wacky stuff that's going in this story, but I should say that there is a lot of wackiness, and I'm not sure if I like it that much as a stand-alone work.

I should also mention that there is some pronoun stuff going on in here, zir gets thrown around some and there is exposition on personal identifiers (oh great heavens). It didn't necessarily bother me, but this story was only 23 pages long, and you've got a bus full of costumed and pregnant clones doing 100 on the freeway-tell me more about that stuff, please.

This has sparked an interest in the larger spiral worlds series for me, but this story did read like random happenings when divorced from the context of that series.

Thanks to little bro Adam for the copy, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I think maybe I have a small hang up with a book being so overtly religious while also simultaneously being aimed at children, but in this case I think I can overlook it since the ultimate message of the book is some good old agnostic wisdom (at least by my reckoning).

We follow Santiago, a young and educated Shepard boy who tends his flock all over Andalusia in the south of Spain. After successive dreams that hint at treasure in far off Egypt, Santiago is whisked along by the machinations of fate on a journey to fulfill his personal legend. I think some people may have read this book in class, so I can understand if there's a small cloud of scholastic taint around this book. Likewise, I would encourage people to look past that and revisit the title if it's been awhile because Santiago's journey is fantastic.

I think that Paulo Coelho himself is an interesting guy, I would suggest looking him up because the story of his life is one of overcoming adversity and some serious spiritual awakening. I was wondering why this book was so religious, and let me save you the time and tell you that this was among a spate of books Coelho published after making his own pilgrimage. Like I said before, I'm going to give the religion in this book a general pass, you don't need to be religious to get what this book is trying to say about the nature of life and the metaphysics of pursuing your goals. It's easy enough to ignore or to treat the religious allusions and tropes as fantasy elements. The brand of religion in this book is also fairly innocuous and seems to encompass the entire Abrahamic tradition without any zealotry shown towards any particular faith, so points for inclusivity as well.

I won't say much else, this is basically a classic hero's journey with some generally palatable philosophy and modern religious themes (Say goodbye Zeus, say hello Melchizedek). Honestly, I'm surprised it took me this long to read it; I really liked what the book has to say, and I think that this would be a perfect book for a younger reader.

A Late Edit: I completely forgot to plug the 2001 audiobook for this, it's narrated by Jeremy Irons. chefs kiss

Oh man, this book came really close to perfection, it's as if Hurley added Starship Troopers, 1984, All You Need Is Kill, 3oz of grain alcohol, and Slaughterhouse-Five into a Nutribullet. Delicious, but you know, for a book not a smoothie.

Before I outline the story, I have to shout out some really ambitious and successful world building. This book is set on a far future Earth that we (as in modern day people) have predictably devastated. The states of the modern day have collapsed, and in their place rise the corporations. Much of corporate controlled earth was left an infertile irradiated mess and the people of earth were slowly starving their way to extinction. In come the Martians. I'll try not to elaborate here lest I spoil anything, but the Martians offer to fix the ruined Earth in return for the right to settle. The corporations are in disbelief and agree to those terms; a conflict quickly arises as avarice for the reclaimed territories sparks a war between the Corporations and Mars. At least that's what the war appears to be on the surface.

The story follows Dietz, a new recruit to the Corporate forces. Dietz is inspired to join the war after a catastrophe called the Blink hits their birthplace of São Paulo, evaporating millions of people. The Corporations blame the Martians, and unveil a new light based technology that will allow them to prosecute the war in every corner of the solar system. Dietz trains as one of these light soldiers, genetically modified to be able to disassemble their atomic structure and travel along beams of light to "drop" into combat. But the tech isn't all that safe, some soldiers jump and come back with their heads literally up their asses, and others return whole but forever changed. In Dietz' case, their jumps don't just carry them across space but across time.

Yep, you guessed it, we've got another non-linear narrative here! The plot is non-linear, and Dietz experiences time in a fragmented and disorienting way, and it works exceptionally well here as that experience is mapped onto the experience of a soldier. I know that I'm a sucker for non-linear anything, but this mechanic adds a level of much-needed complexity to the story in this case. I was really engaged with trying to piece together the puzzle of Dietz's experiences, so hey yet another win for non-linear stories.

There is so much more about this book that I want to gush about, but I don't think I can without spoiling it. Hurley skillfully explores profound themes such as the dehumanizing effects of war, the manipulation of truth, and the consequences of conflict. There is an entire psychological aspect to this book that addresses war's toll on individuals, it's a raw and honest portrayal of the harsh realities of war. It's extremely compelling and offers a lot of the same style of commentary as is present in 1984 and Slaughterhouse V.

What kept this from perfection for me was just how broad the commentary is. This might be a non-issue for other readers, but I get really put off when authors offer up passage after passage of social commentary on issues that are at best in the periphery of the story. This book takes a really loud and wide stance when it comes to its political philosophy, there's a line for everything. Yes, this book is clear about what it wants to say, but my issue is that it says too much and doesn't let the reader mull the thing over. As a direct comparison to Starship Troopers, this is the one aspect in which this book falls a little flat for me; I felt like this was holding my hand, whereas Starship Troopers just trusted me to get the message and to make up my own mind.

This was up for the Hugo in 2020, I think it totally deserves the nod. This was fun and engaging, and you know what? It might be saying a lot, but it's saying some good stuff.

We've all read books that we couldn't put down, this is one of those books. Well, it might be. It's only 133 pages, so I didn't really have a chance to put it down. Days later, I'm still not sure what to make of this book, it's been very hard to tell what it was trying to say. It's alien, non-conforming, and obtuse. I would normally say, “I loved it,” at this point, but I didn't; this might just be me failing to digest the book, but it seemed to be confusing on purpose. I'll give a bit more of the context that helped to explain some of the artistic choices in this book, but I should make it clear that I definitely see this book primarily as art as opposed to entertainment (my thinking being, all entertainment is art but, not all art is entertainment).

I classify The Employees as an experimental SF art novel. This book is framed as a series of non-linear interview statements with the crew of the Six-Thousand Ship. The ship is corporate owned and orbits around the planet of “New Discovery”; its crew are a mix of humans and humanoid robot/AI constructs. In advance of the story, the ship's crew discover a series of Objects on New Discovery, which they collect and place aboard the ship for study and care. The Objects are truly bizarre and possibly alive, they emit aromas or some type of aura that begin to affect both the human and humanoid crew alike. We are reading their statements to the corporate representatives onboard the ship.

Before I go further, I think it's important to note that this book was conceived as a companion piece to a contemporary art installation. The objects in the story are meant to correspond to the objects in the installation. The installation itself, Consumed Future Spewed Up As Present, is a commentary on form, presence, and the body. That tracks with me. The Employees struck me in part as an exploration of the difference between a human being and a thing; the objects fill the role of metaphors for the variety in the human form. In both works, the objects, their presentation and accessories serve to define different facets of the human form as well as the ways in which visual/sociological context can at times alter the perception of those facets. The statement ultimately amounting to: Humans come in all shapes and sizes and modes of dress and modifications- the definition is not fixed to body or form.

Beyond those themes, The Employees is also a workplace satire. If the title didn't give it away this is a workplace novel, and like the narration at the start points out, the testimonials we are reading have been collected in the interest of, “reduction or enhancement of performance, task-related understanding, and the acquisition of new knowledge and skills.” There's a hierarchy between the humans and humanoids that exists but is not defined, and there is tension and envy that builds between them as the novel goes on. But there's a third group, faceless and cold, and that's the representative(s) that are taking these statements: Management. The satire is in the form, as the employees make increasingly more emotional statements, the focus and presentation does not shift at all, nothing changes regardless of what the employees say (This clicked immediately as a corpo drone myself). The employees are secondary to the stated corporate interest, and the more you read, the clearer this aspect becomes as more and more of the story is cut out of the statements.

So yeah, this book is mad artsy, and sometimes you sacrifice for your art. I think that's the case here because the narrative forms around the Objects; what the book gains in the context and grounding of the installation, it loses in out on in its standalone form. I imagine it's quite rare for a book like this to break out on its own, and it's a testament to how well written this piece is that it manages to escape the orbit of its artistic roots despite not being a traditional novel. Divorced from the art, this book has its own anxious and looming energy, we don't often know who is speaking or what the text is speaking on. Ravn is stingy with the delivery of the plot details: there are stirrings of a revolt, the absence of (what I surmise to be) the chief scientist, and some type of corporate tribunal is occurring far in the background. Working within the testimonial format, it's actually very impressive that we get so much characterization and plot and imagery without any heavy lifting from the narration/narrator/thematic framework.

What this book amounted to was a series of eerie visuals that give the distinct sense that something has been obscured or censored from the reader. This is the magic of the book, it appears hollow on first inspection, but the further you go, the more obvious it becomes that something is excising anything not related to the Objects and worker efficiency. What are the add-ons that some humans wear? What about the child holograms, what on earth are those? What became of the chief scientist? There's something stifling about how precise this novel is with its visual focus, and how purposeful it is with obscuring the rest. So yes, this novel works, and it's kind of incredible exactly how it works, it's so cool to me that you can tell a story by not telling a story. But it's not really all that fun of a read because of how much is obscured from the reader, I'm all for a puzzle, but I'm not going to solve the Riemann Hypothesis just for fun.

TL;DR: This is one artsy book.

And here I was worried that January would open with 3 duds. Not the case. Not the case at all. What I got is one of the best fantasy novels I've ever read. Night's Master is a unique blending of different traditional mythos, a little Abrahamic religion, a dash of Greek gods, and for added spice it's written in the style of Arabian Nights. It's high fantasy and weird, it's also progressive as fuck for 1978; I loved it.

This book is a lot of firsts. This is the first book in the Flat Earth series, it is also my first Tanith Lee novel. Oh, and I almost forgot: this is my first 5-Star read of 2024 (meaning it's also the first book I have bought in physical print this year).

Well, shucks, I guess I spoiled the review. Just pretend I didn't say anything.

Night's Master is high fantasy, it's about as high as fantasy can get if you ask me. I've only read one other series that comes close to taking such a lofty approach to its story telling, and that's The Shadow of the Torturer, which I'll come back to later. This is the first book in a sequence of stories that chronicle the Flat Earth, a mystical time when the Earth was flat and sandwiched between the demonic under-earth and the mysteriously silent heavens. This entry follows the master of the under-earth, the prince of demons, Azhrarn.

What Night's Master is, is a series of interwoven stories that connect in some way to the deeds/misdeeds of Azhrarn. This book is NOT a protagonist-centered narrative. What we get is the mythology of an entirely imagined world, something similar to the Homeric Hymns and the Epics of the Epic Cycle. It's more accurate to say that those themes are mixed into the delivery of Arabian Nights, with each story leading into the next across the ages. This is written in a style similar to the epics, not really in terms of morality or density and inscrutability, but rather it captures the episodic and dreamy vibe of stories of the oral tradition. You could easily imagine the contents of this book being read out by a bard or crier to the illiterate inhabitants of some nameless tavern. It's Lore, and it's good Lore.

I mentioned Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun earlier. I don't want this whole review to be compare and contrast between these works, but Wolfe is the only other person who writes like this. BTNS is a reimagining of the (far future) worlds' mythos in the style of the Testaments. It's wacky and weird, but also ingenious and anachronistic to a time that does not exist. Wolfe's work is a bit of a Christ allegory, and the prose carries a lot of that trademark biblical density. Those characteristics mean the narrative adopts a more traditional story structure to offset just how alien its prose and story beats can be.

But we're talking about Night's Master here, right? Well, this book is similar to Gene Wolfe's work, it assumes the character and style of Arabian Nights and old fairy tales and curates a careful mix of uncaring gods and vicious demons playing the games of Greek tragedy upon humanity. This book is taking the grandeur and imagery that Greek and Christian myths have, and it weaves this flowing tale that borrows from those tropes and stories but without any of the moralism, none of the preaching. I really dug Night's Master, this book has politics that I agree with and prose that's 5/5 for depth and clarity. I actually preferred this to TBNS because of how fantastic the prose was. Not to leave it at that-I understood this book cover to cover on my first read, it seems to me that Lee went for clarity in prose given the winding nature of the narrative, and that's never been the case for Wolfe's work. I've to say that if this is just how Lee writes, I need to read more Lee.

This book is nearly 50 years old, so I won't say much more. If you're interested, but I haven't sold you, feel free to check out some other reviews by much better critics (I think you'll end up adding this to your TBR). If you are a fan of Romantasy/faerie courts books, I would highly recommend this, especially if your main draw to those books is the lore and world building.

Book Club for Jan

_______

I'm just going to admit right off the top that this one lost me. I feel stupid for not getting it. Maybe this was too smart for me, too deconstructed. But it isn't deconstructed, and maybe I am wrong and simply doubling down in my ignorance, but this isn't all that smart either.

The Shining Girls seemed extremely promising at the outset, here's this very well researched glimpse into 1930s Chicago that leads into a time travel murder-thriller-mystery. This is a book about Harper, a psycho vagrant from the 1930s who stumbles upon a magic time traveling house. After murdering its owner, he explores the house only to feel like he's been in there before. He discovers a trademark psycho-killer room upstairs, there he finds photos of young women and shining pieces of memorabilia connected by lines carved, drawn, and stained into the walls. The house is his vehicle, his mission is to murder all the shining girls across time while sprinkling collectibles at the crime scene. It all goes pretty good at first, he taunts the young versions of the women, giving them each a gift he'll come back for. But he messes up, he doesn't kill Kirby. She survives his attack and begins investigating him at her Chicago Sun internship.

I can tell that Lauren Beukes is a talented author, I shouldn't write this entire book off. This seems to be pretty well researched from the Chicago perspective, Mayor Donovan (Read Klayton) was a nice touch to the Randolph street Hooverville. There's actually a surprising amount of visual detail in here, particularly where it concerns the descriptions of the shining girls as Harper sees them. But that's about all the praise I can muster; there is a breakdown in the story the closer we approach the core of the narrative. I wish that I knew how every detail connected up, the fact that I can't even try has me questioning myself. Maybe it's in here, an explanation? A satisfying conclusion? Something that can justify an ending that reeks of toast.

I couldn't tell you what happens at the end of this story. I mean, I can, Kirby gets tipped off that some menacing guy is asking after her. Showcasing some uncharacteristic wile, she stalks Harper back to the time travel house and sneaks in with enabler/mentor/admirer Dan after the police search and find nothing but a crack house. This time the house is magical, it transports them back in time and Dan fights Harper in 1929 while Kirby burns all the shining memorabilia and splatters Harper's brains on the carpet when he returns to the house to stop her.. But the ending explains nothing. Why do the girls shine? Why is house magic? Who is Harper? Nothing. This book ends like oh-so-many thrillers, with the protagonist defeating the villain, just without any of the catharsis or satisfaction of unraveling the mystery. Most time travel books really work their asses off to explain the function of time travel in their universe, or at least they try to get the reader to understand the role that time travel will play in the larger narrative beyond simply existing. We have time travel here, and for the first third it's just a big whatever! So much of the early parts of this book are just like “here's a thing” or “here's a brutal murder” and then the page turns, and it means nothing because now we're in 1989 and following a completely different character and narrative thread. I'm all for a puzzling read, but it has to unravel eventually!

I read this right after reading Recursion by Blake Crouch so it's very apparent to me that there is some genre confusion going on here. The balance in the SF-Thriller formula is not being respected, this is a thriller that just glosses over its SF elements and not a complete melding of concepts. I'm not saying that the formula is fixed and that you can't alter the ratio, movies the like the Lake house prove that you can designate your non-SF elements as the focus and still tell a compelling story. The problem in The Shining Girls is that there is just too much of the story wrapped up in the non-mystery/thriller aspects. To end the book without resolving those threads is to present us with a book that is under-cooked.

I know that I said I can't write the whole book off, but I am close. Those Chicago history moments? They read like they came out of a history book, honestly, for as accurate as the portrayal of Chicago was, it rang inauthentic and scripted (As the acknowledgements illuminate: the setting comes from some haunted city tours). I haven't even touched on the characters: Dan, her journalist mentor with a big time crush that just robs him of agency (Please Dan, can I investigate these 80-year-old murders on company time? I know we're supposed to cover the cubs, but they'll be irrelevant until 2016 fluttering lashes). Kirby herself is mostly an impression in my mind, a collection of scars and crazy ideas that the story describes as charming; she's an extremely jaded individual. The problem is that all of her life experience is being back-filled as a way to excuse or explain her poor social skills. I am not a fan, the formula seems to be: Kirby talks to someone, Kirby feels awkward, or the conversation sucks, Kirby does or says something out of pocket or awkward, and then we get a page or two about how much it sucked to have her throat slit. I'm sure that experience scars you (in more ways than one) but we're with her after a multi-year time skip and there's not enough context for the reader to excuse these quirks of her character. That applies to everyone in this book; It felt like a lot of the initial development/establishing of the cast was covered with a coat of gloss. Avery, our limping time traveling psycho, is just that, a collection of keywords and phrases. He does stuff all book long without any rhyme or reason, he has major character moments only for them to read like filler because of how little we know about his inner machinations.

I did not like this book, and I feel a little short-changed. The entire book is saying, “Read me! I'm smart and complex and mysterious! It'll all pay off, just keep going!” only to not pay off and not be anything but complicated for the sake of complication. This was extremely well received in 2013, and those media rights went straight to DiCaprio. Did other people get this? Am I wrong here? They made a show out of this! Where is the appeal!

This is where my journey with this series ends. I noticed this with the last book, but it was very apparent here, this could not grasp my attention. I did a fair bit of travel over the holidays and figured by the time I got back home I'd have finished this series, but I got through just one entry. These books are getting longer without really including any more story. The pace of the narrative is fixed to the progression of the game and that progression is broken up book to book; of which there are 7 mainline entries, 4 or 5 “side quests”, and a whole three book spin off series. I am not invested enough for all that, I barely got through this book!

It's not that things don't happen in this story, there's always something going on, but this reads more like gameplay commentary than it does a narrative. The bulk of this book is about Jason unlocking some race specific skills in order to overcome a new/powerful enemy. This in-game progression is mirrored by a high profile and lurid congressional hearing concerning the oversight of the VR tech and Alfred the AI. But maybe mirrored isn't the right word, the trial does take its share of pages, but it doesn't move the story along one bit. Everything that “matters” as far as the story is concerned is what's happening in the game; and like I said for book 3, that's not the unique and interesting part of this story to me.

I gave this a shot, but it's getting a little too long-winded and repetitive for me. There's just not enough development in here to justify the page count, I know the focus is on the game but dude I've played DnD, and I've already read/seen/heard about this game in a million other stories. I'm just not interested in this campaign dungeon master, I want to go outside.

Happy New Year, everyone! I just stumbled on this year in review entry, and it is a neat little feature, isn't it? 2023 has been something of a reading renaissance for me, but this all really started in 2022. That was the first year in my adult life without any need to study/cram or work long hours, and I realized that I needed a "productive" alternative to my phone.

I rode the momentum of that decision along with a string of some really excellent books (Hyperion, Blindsight, and The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet to name a few) and decided that in 2023 I would have three main reading goals:

1. I would read a minimum of 30 minutes every day. (326 Days in a row according to kindle) 2. I would try to read as many books as I could. (92 Books read!) 3. I would try to review everything I read. (this got added later)

I stuck to my genres (SF/Fantasy) but I made sure to cleanse the palate with whatever sounded interesting/ whatever literary references went over my head. I wanted a baseline for just how much I could read in a year without pushing myself; turns out you can read a ton when you don't have casebooks and social media competing for your time. Once I started the Urth of the New Sun series I realized that I couldn't keep it all straight without taking notes, and once you have notes you're basically obligated to post a review.

It's been a great reading year for me, and I intend to keep up with this habit I've formed. My goals for 2024 are a little different, I'd actually like to read with a little more moderation (I may have spent more time with the books than I did with my girlfriend), I'd like to finish the Dandelion Dynasty, and I would like to read more books outside my genres/wheelhouse (maybe a little more non-fiction and literature).

With all that said I read a ton this year so let me highlight some stuff!

Favorites Series for the year:

I was big into series this year, I read Urth of the New Sun, The Culture, Bobiverse, Murderbot, The First Law, The Dandelion Dynasty, Monk and Robot, Alex Stern, and the Sarantine Mosaic.

I had a blast reading all of these series and I have nothing but praise for all of them, you seriously can't go wrong picking up any one of these. That makes it super tough to pick my series of the year, since almost all of these books left such a strong impression on me. I mean, seriously, it's kind of like picking which cut of Wagyu was most delicious!

When in doubt, I turn to the roots, and what I was most excited about (and most diligent with) had to be the Culture Series by Ian M. Banks. I was absolutely consumed by this series, it was like "oh wow, I can't believe this has existed all this time, and I am literally the last person to hear about it." I didn't love every book, but it's 10 whole books, there's bound to be a miss or two. What's really impressive is that each book could very easily be the start of their own series, each book is wholly unique and PACKED with ideas and content. I wish I could read more Culture. RIP BIG BANKS.

Author of the Year:

I only read two of his books this year, but I love them both. I will be reading more Philip K. Dick in 2024. His authorial style agrees with me in a way that no one else I read this year quite managed to match. Obviously, I am a little late to the party and I know that marking him as my favorite for the year is a little bit like saying Citizen Kane or On the Waterfront is my favorite movie. But I can't help it, Ubik was amazing and A Scanner Darkly really agreed with me!

If I have to pick someone a little more contemporary, I am giving the nod to Becky Chambers. I first read her in 2022, but with each additional book of hers that I read, my appreciation of her style and ideas only grows. I absolutely loved Monk & Robot, I fully intend on grabbing a box set for this series once it's complete. M&R aside, there is more Wayfarers on the horizon for me. Count me as a fan.

Top 5 Books for the Year:

1. The Library at Mount Char 2. Use of Weapons 3. A Scanner Darkly 4. Bad Brains 5. Cosmos

This list is in order, but maybe it shouldn't be. I read so many excellent books this year, so this isn't a quality metric, but rather I'm ranking these books by how much I liked them and just how much of their ideas/imagery/plot managed to make it into my daily thoughts (Love and Staying Power). What makes me rank Char at the top has a lot to do with just how much of a surprise it was, I expected nothing and got something so incredible and unique. Let's not forget to mention that it is an authorial debut for Scott Hawkins, a grand slam the first time up to bat is something that I can't help but take note of.

Wish I could unread this:

Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality

You can read my review of this fanfic, but I don't know why I didn't put this down. Chalk it up to morbid curiosity. My problem with this book had a lot to do with the weakness of the writing, and not necessarily with the premise or plot.

Been a while since I finished this so I might be a little bit fuzzy on the details, but we're 3 books deep and it's safe to say that the watermark on this series continues to rise with each entry.

This book picks up after a fairly large cliffhanger at the end of book 2 and proceeds to kind of bury that development while Jason and the gang progress the in-game story line. After the events of the last book Jason is working on his race change quest and expanding his kingdom, these tasks ultimately take us to the coast and the water temple (of course there's a water temple). I think that if you're the type of litRPG reader who is all about the game progression this might be the perfect series for you, because these stories are consistently 80% game and 20% life as far as the balance of content goes.

Book 2 v. Book 3: This entry is the best yet from a techincal writing standpoint. I think the name of the game for this series is gradual improvement because this entry continues the trend of tightening the pacing and expanding the antagonists presence in the story. That's right Alex is still here and while he largely develops seperate from Jason's story there is so much more personally focused content for him this time around. Overall this book is fairly tight and focused, much more so than the previous two, I just wish that there was more of a content balance between the SF elements and the Video Game elements.

I am a little split on the series. I find the in-game universe of this series entertaining and engaging and I am enjoying the character progression as well as the backstory/evolution of the game world itself. The progression is good but I wouldn't continue reading on if that's all there was to these books; what I find myself being increasingly interested in is the overworld and AI storyline. I don't want to spoil much here but memory editing + a rogue AI is so much more compelling than a water temple adventure to me. The problem is that the AI plot progresses gradually across the series and it's a little maddening. There is this fascinating subplot that doesn't develop at the same pace as the main plot and I am realizing that's been my problem this whole time. There are a lot of conceptually interesting ideas that this story includes but does not capitalize on because of the intense focus on the game.

TL;DR: Water Temple episode. Very game focused. More Alexion than ever before.

This was great! Crouch is 2 for 2 when it comes to a gripping premise, and I have to say I am enjoying contemporary SF that includes modern scientific advances instead of re-hashing warp drives and ring worlds. It is a shame then that this book takes a killer premise and kind of goes no-where with it. Maybe it's more accurate to say that it doesn't go anywhere new; this was one of those books with a super strong first half that just fizzles out by the end. Overall, this was a very entertaining and pleasant read, even if I didn't love the direction the latter half took. I bet this will make a fairly gripping Netflix movie/series some day.

If you've heard of CRISPR, then you'll be pretty familiar with what's going on here. This story follows Logan, a former geneticist who is walking the path of atonement after he and his mother accidentally cause a global catastrophe. Logan's mother was the world's foremost geneticist, and her major advancements in gene editing technology made it possible to make large-scale changes to any genome. Her scientific advancements are overshadowed by her mistakes and as a result of her actions genetic engineering is highly regulated and a specialized police force called the GPA is established to enforce those regulations. Logan now works for the GPA and while working his latest case he is exposed to a mysterious virus that begins to re-write his DNA. Shenanigans ensue.

This book was interesting for more reasons than just the killer premise. This is an SF Thriller, which in my experience so far is a surprisingly uncommon subgenre within SF. The combo really works here, it takes the best parts of both genres and plays to their strengths; the intrigue and “just one more page” elements of a thriller meshes perfectly with the rich lore and philosophical edge of Sci-Fi. It's a unique blend, and it works exceptionally well here, you get the driving and insistent pace of a Thriller and when the story takes a breath or two it comes in the form of philosophical and moral exploration. In practice, this made the latter half of the story really focus on its themes and framing, which is extremely fresh in the context of a Thriller.

My issue with this book comes in the form of its antagonist and the false dichotomy that exists between them and the MC. Trying not to spoil anything here, but there is a point in this story when it becomes clear who the ultimate antagonist is and what their plan is. That person has a close relationship to the MC, and their change of heart and their master plan as the antagonist felt rushed/thematically forced. I spent the entire second half of this story thinking two things: “Wow, they couldn't have even tried to talk it over?” and “if they're so smart, how is it possible that they just ran with literally the first thing they thought of.” It speaks to my biggest problem with the book, which is that things are “bad” because the author says they are and not because he's shown them to be so. This is a very personal take, the Author does take their time to rationalize these story choices- I just happen to disagree with them; to me, it all felt extremely elementary.

I think I would have more to say about this book if I hadn't read Blood Music first. These stories are very similar, they both deal with a man-made disaster of genetic origin. These are both telling a cautionary tale that concerns itself with man's hubris and the function of wisdom in a scientific context. Blood Music is kind of like the weird/wacky older brother of Upgrade, you know the kind? He grows and eats his own mushrooms and collects minerals in his free time, but he also went to MIT? What separates these books for me is the strength of that thematic discourse. Where Blood Music is timeless and to some degree impenetrable, Upgrade came off as simplistic and a little patronizing. The overall message is the same: Genetic manipulation is a Pandora's box, but I felt that Blood Music did a fantastic job of SHOWING that it is, whereas Upgrade spends most of its time TELLING us that it is. Of the two, I would recommend Blood Music every time, but if you can't find a copy, Upgrade is a fine substitute that scratches the same itch.

TL;DR: Gene Manipulation focused thriller. Strong start with a weak finish. Cool ideas and easy to read.

I've heard good things about Blake Crouch, this is the first novel I've read by this author, and I am impressed. I recognized this name from thriller shelves, but I have to say his Sci-Fi is fantastic. This is a time travel loop story, always a favorite with me. It's very specific about what kind of time travel it is, which I always appreciate. What really impressed me was just how much story is crammed into 326 pages, I think there are longer books with less plot development than this book has by its halfway point.

The premise of this book is really cool to me, part of it is how unique the science aspect of this book is. Most time travel stories have physics come up with the time portal/chair/chamber, but in Recursion time travel is a function of memory. This is a dual perspective narrative: The story follows a New York detective who gets sucked into some time travel shenanigans while investigating the outbreak of FMS in NYC. False Memory Syndrome is afflicting people seemingly at random, with the victims waking up to find complete sets of alternative memories from a different life. Our second MC is Helen, the scientist who's misused Alzheimer research into memory is twisted to create an invention that is wreaking havoc across the timeline. I don't want to give away any more of the time travel stuff

As far as logically sound time travel goes, I think this qualifies, as for its level of complexity: this is a better thought out Tenet (2020). Not only that, but I wasn't super focused on figuring out the minutiae of the time traveling in this book, the way the time travel works enables the narrative to jump tracks without confusing the reader. This quirk of the story reminded me of old fix up novels. I will note that unlike fix up novels, there is a distinct plan that the narrative is following. Reading through this felt like being attached to a rope at the bottom of a well, and with each leap the story takes it tugs you towards its ending. Very Nice. A+

This is totally spoiler territory, but I did not like the romance that develops between Barry and Helena. I understand that given the time loop in the story, there needed to be a second person to break the loop. I can also see that it's super convent if they're married and soul bonded. That kind of sucks, fine; they're soul bonded, that's got to be pretty cool and intense and beautiful, right? It really wasn't, it sounded excruciating and didn't at all focus on the romance as a factor in what is effectively a hundred-year time skip. Just one smooch in all that time, that's all we get. Maybe I'm just a little freak but like if you're going to have your characters spend like 133 years married to each other, maybe let us know how that sex life is going. I think that instinctively I know that what would have made this story perfect was a more intense connection between Helena and Barry.

This is a great time travel story, someone should sell this to Nolan. The science/sci-fi speculation is also top-notch; it's cool to know that even as we learn more about the surrounding universe, that we are still able to find fields of study where much is unknown and imagine the possibilities. I am giving it monster bonus points for being a good time travel story and having a type of speculation that's unique. This came out the same year as This is How You Lose the Time War and it surprised me that of the two time travel stories that year, this isn't the one getting the buzz because this book is a much more entertaining and interesting read.

This is on the border between 4 and 5. A little romance would have gone a long way, so I'm going to be a conservative on this one just as a matter of personal taste.

I have difficulty believing this book was over 500 pages because it went by in a flash. Some litRPGs kind of cheat by spamming the status screen every other chapter to pad out the page count, but that's not what's happening here. I consider this a significant improvement over the first entry in the series, a lot of the issues I had with the balance of the narrative and the overall characterization have been addressed or wallpapered over in some way. It's still not perfect, and it is guilty of bulldozing past the issues of the first book, but if the series had started like this, I think I'd be stoked on it.

This picks up right after Book 1, and it kind of veers off into kingdom builder territory for a while as Jason consolidates his bounty from the previous book. This entry is different from the first in that it introduces, or rather re-introduces, previous side characters into Jason's party. The theme and focus this time is the party, we're establishing the relationship between these characters and discovering the importance of friendship.


Characterization was a big weakness of the first entry, I'm glad to say that this book is much closer to the neutral baseline this time around. The characters may have started off seriously flawed, but I think one of the goals of the book is to reflect changes in their behavior/character as they continue to play the game. That's kind of what is going on here, Jason's character is about a thousand times less violent and edgy than he is in the first, and we can chalk it up to the events of the first/effects of the helmet changing him for the better (No more wholesale slaughter of cities, Jason's a good boy now). It might feel like kind of a large scale change, but it's for the better, so I'm going to look past how complete of a change it is.

Alex also improves dramatically a foil, a lot of this is really just because he actually gets the whole book's worth of introduction sections. He's still fairly weak as a character, but this book does a much better job as we continue to get his backstory and there are much more (more than the zero in the first) passages directly from his perspective. I think my problem with Alex is that he's neither sympathetic nor fearsome, he's kind of more like... evil toilet paper with a tragic backstory. There's not enough context to why he's a threat (outside some fairly blasé bullying and being a 1%er douche) and we already saw him get his ass kicked in book 1. I am surprised that the side story after this book wasn't one for him specifically.

This is a cleaning house kind of book for the most part, I would describe it as tweaking the foundation before possibly letting the story finally rip? There's a touch of second book syndrome here, there's a big focus on development, but ultimately the narrative has progressed satisfyingly enough. The ending of this book is probably the best part (if a little sudden and a major cliffhanger), it seems like maybe book three is going to seriously advance the story outside the game and that's a storyline that I am interested in. This is getting a 3 just like the first, but this is closer to a 3.5.

TL;DR: Skeleton boy gets some friends and that fixes all the problems in his personality. 3.5/5

This is my third dalliance with fanfic, and my second go at a piece of rationalist fiction. In my experience, reading these stories has been something of a Sisyphean task - they've been too long, they're too dense, and it feels like pacing is an afterthought. Thankfully, this story is reasonably sized, it's well paced, and mercifully absent is the long-form philosophical exposition. I have to say that I enjoyed this fic way more than Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality. This story is somewhat related to HPMOR, as the fan made audiobook is produced by the same fan group that did the HPMOR audiobook. It's actually very well produced for something that's completely free.

This is an extremely divergent re-imagining of the Superman origin story. Set in the thirties, this story works from the framework of the golden age comics to re-imagine the world of Superman as it would be in reality. The story follows Lex Luthor after the sudden arrival of Superman to Metropolis; rather than simply being cartoonishly evil, the Lex of this world recognizes Superman as a walking Doomsday, and he works to free humanity from the threat of possible extinction should Superman ever go rogue. I will note that this story is still true to the original; I've never been so fortunate as to read any of the golden age Superman comics, but I have seen enough pages and stills to recognize iconic scenes and characters that are faithfully reproduced, albeit somewhat twisted from the original.

If we have any Kill Bill fans reading this, you may remember the Superman monologue.; this story is an extension of that idea. The Superman of the comics is a force for absolute good, an incorruptible paragon whose humanity is his defining trait. But for those of us living in reality, to be human is to be imperfect, and since Superman is in some respect human he must be also be imperfect. Lex realizes the danger of an unstoppable semi-omniscient god with human emotions and sets the comic book morality aside in order to stop him, regardless of the cost. I would say that reading this requires you keep an open mind to the developments because they will diverge, and diverge HEAVILY from what you know.

For my money, this is the most interesting exploration of Superman's character that exists. This book manages to explore all the fun theory craft topics: Is Superman a disguise for Clark Kent, or is it vice versa? Why doesn't Superman kill, what is his personal philosophy? Surely there's some better way in which he could use his powers? What if Superman gets it wrong? What would it take to break Superman? How about Lois Lane, what would she really think about Superman/Clark Kent? It's a weakness of the book that not every avenue is explored in depth, but it manages to at least acknowledge these popular subjects whenever they are tangentially related to the narrative. If you come to this book looking for answers to questions like that, I think you'll seriously enjoy this story.

If you're like me and are tired of superheros, these "rational" stories are the perfect way to interact with these characters. I don't actually need another story where Superman fights some previously unknown foe who somehow has a new variety of Kryptonite (I think at this point in the comics there's a type of Kryptonite that just makes Superman gay, to which I shrug say why not, but the formula sure is getting stale). What I want, and what this book delivers, is a willful and direct exploration of the character and the consequences of his existence. These rational stories are purposefully heady and anticlimactic, they have a tendency to destroy the story beats that underpin whatever subject they're about, but unlike Harry Potter here is a character/IP that needs a little deconstruction.

I think that the ending is where this book is going to lose a lot of people. We experience Superman from behind suspicious eyes, and that carries through the whole book. I don't want to give anything away, but let's just say that there's a less than pleasant ending for Superman. What that means for the story is that the conclusion rings exceptionally hollow, you could even consider it nihilistic. Personally, I can see how and why we get there, but it must speak to decades of conditioning by the comics because I despised the last chapter of this story. But hey, that's the emotion that I think this story was trying to evoke in me, so I wouldn't call it a wash.

All in all this is much better written than HPMOR, way better paced, and it deals with a much more interesting subject. Oh, and it's actually short enough for sane people to read. That said, you may not like how some of the characters are portrayed, and the ending is polarizing. I thought this was pretty good, but your mileage may vary.

Book Club For December.

Do you remember the first time you listened to Zeppelin III? Maybe 13 seconds into Immigrant Song, you were like “THIS SHIT ROCKS!” and then proceeded to reach musical nirvana? That's this book. Like holy crap, I didn't even know I wanted a story like this, but here it is! A Rock/Metal themed Fantasy adventure; some bards, bands, and battles. We've got a nicely put together fantasy world and some veteran characters to guide us along a fantastical journey. It's the First Law but written by Terry Pratchett with music by Led Zepplin. There's actually a Spotify playlist to accompany this book, and if you're reading this (as opposed to listening) I think it's kind of mandatory. (The audiobook is narrated by Jeff Harding and is excellent, so that's another valid choice)

This book was previously on my radar, but I skipped it. I must have been judging books by their covers at the time (the cover does bear a striking resemblance to Gwyne or Abercrombie at first glance) and I was under the mistaken impression that this was yet another grimdark story. Rest assured, dear reader, this is not grimdark. What this book is: a high energy high fantasy rollick; a weird but kick-ass mishmash of Andy Weir, Guns n' Roses, Conan, and Rimworld. This book is about “Saga” the world's greatest mercenary band that's been ten years retired. We follow Clay “Slowhand” Cooper and Saga's frontman “Golden” Gabe as they work to reunite the band to bring Saga out of retirement for one last mission: Saving Gabe's daughter Rose, who is trapped in the under siege city of Castia.

If I haven't given it away yet, this book is decidedly Metal, at least to me. The mercenary bands are this world's analog for our Rock/Metal bands. I guess Rock is more the more ubiquitous label, but I just kept getting a serious Metalocalpyse vibe from characters like Ganelon the axe wielding warrior who's spent the last ten years trapped in stone, Larkspur the black winged Daeva with DID and/or head trauma, really every character in the band rocks. I think that's why I liked this so much, it's kind of like a novelized Metalocalypse (which for my money was the best thing Adult Swim was making in the 00s) with less “heavy” in its flavor of metal and the “fantasy” knob is turned to 11. This book was really playing to its demo in my case, and if the reception to this debut is any indication, I am not alone in thinking this combo was Metal as fuck.

On the subject of music, I don't want to make this review nothing but me calling out the references, but I need to address this point somehow. This work is Referential, capital R; EVERY character is a reference, EVERY location is a reference. Honestly, pick a detail, and you will find it referencing a band, a song, a line in a song, or something else entirely (I'm 90% sure there's a Final Fantasy 7 spinning away transition reference). I'm not knocking this aspect of the book- I was grinning ear to ear when I realized that the villain, Duke Lastleaf, is a White Duke era Bowie reference- but I can see this wearing on some readers. I mentioned Andy Weir at the top and this is what I was talking about, there are just so many references that it seems like Eames read The Martian and then tried to do the same thing just in Azeroth but then realized he had to name everything from scratch. In all likelihood, the average reader isn't going to catch all but the most obvious of these references and given the decided “rock fantasy” theme here, all the people/places/things aren't at all out of place or jarring.

Beyond the referential nature of this book, there is a really stunning world paired with an entertaining and jaunty yet emotionally grounded story that takes its time showing you how its insane universe functions. I was so surprised to learn that this was a debut because I really felt like I was in the hands of a veteran author with how steady and confident the pace of the book was. I came to love the characters, and while some of the dialogue was a little corny, I think that there's a certain point where you get what this book is trying to do, and you are either on board and in the spirit of things, or you are a reluctant passenger missing the forest for the trees.

Let's talk about rollicks for a second because that's kind of where I am torn on this book, I don't usually care for stories like this. A rollicking adventure is a lively, typically light-hearted or low stakes, humorous journey. A lot of things fall under the umbrella of a “rollick”, it's not always swashbuckling pulp or fierce barbarian warriors a-la Conan but more often than not I find that a lot of books like this tend to fall victim to the “make-em-up” criticism. Things always wind up working out! The dragon turns out to have a toothache, the earth was made in a factory, and they happen to have back-ups, etc. For a while there, it seemed like a lot of popular Fantasy stories were forced into a happy ending framework; even stories that took themselves fairly seriously fell victim to fantastical deus ex machina endings and story beats that undercut character progression.

Maybe there's been a little bit of an over correction. We're the spoiled generation that gets to read 5/7th of A song of Ice and Fire and as much Abercrombie as we can consume before traumatizing ourselves. I don't want to come off like a self serious fuddy-duddy, there are rollicks I have enjoyed: Hitchhiker's Guide is the prime example. It's smart, it's funny, it's absurd and unpredictable, and somehow it's still so relatable that you can't help buy into the ridiculous story. On the whole I get the criticism, I wouldn't apply it to Fantasy writ large, but hey there sure are a lot of fantasy rollicks that just fall apart at the end (especially in YA). Thankfully, Kings of the Wyld doesn't confuse a light-hearted tone as a license to tell a weak or uncompelling story. Honestly, some of the themes and character moments are pretty heavy, and it made it a lot easier to push through some of the heavier chapters when you could think back to a sword fight double entendre or other moment of levity.

This book managed to sell me on a world where cool shit is constantly happening, it convinced me that it rocks without pause. There is a whole universe of books that don't take themselves too seriously and are fantastic, and I am 100% on board with books like that, books like Kings of the Wyld.

I first read this while traveling in the summer of 2014. I'd seen the movie, so I thought I knew what I was getting into, but this book blew my socks off. Not only that, but I couldn't believe how different the book was, where was Denise Richards? The troopers wear mobile suits? Neodogs? Why did the military government have such an American ring to it? I wish I had sat down and took some notes from that first read, but I didn't. It feels weird to review on a re-read and this book already has like a million reviews anyway, so I guess this will be more like a blog entry than an actual review. If you haven't read this book, but you like SF then do yourself a favor and read it, the same goes for fans of the movie and more generally for people with pulses who like good books.

I recently read Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis, it's a completely opposite end of the spectrum type of book compared to Starship Troopers. But I want to note that Troopers came out just 5 years after Lucky Jim. They couldn't be more different, but somewhere in the time between them, one era ended and another began. I see the impact of the times in both of these books: In Jim we see the angst of the post-war educated and a rejection of the old ordering of society. Troopers takes that post-war angst and extrapolates it onto a galaxy-spanning human empire, the concept of a technocratic authoritarian future looming large in the aftermath of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

I would call this one of the modern classics.

Modern? This book is 60 years old! You say.

This book is old. You'd be forgiven for seeing the publishing date and thinking that fact would reflect in the writing. Let's get one thing straight, minus the Neodogs and small traces of the Leave it to Beaver Era vocab, I thought this could have been published last week. The secret sauce here is that unlike something relatively contemporary to Troopers, something like Lucky Jim, this is genre writing. At this point in time, I get the sense that the modern tropes for the SF genre were being unveiled. The SF stories of the Golden Age started taking on a more realistic tone. The concept of a technologically advanced future was legitimized as we gained the ability to vaporize whole cities. The period in which this was published is the transition between the Golden Age and the New Wave of SF. We're talking Bradbury to Dick, books like 1984 and I, Robot, ad infinitum; these classics went on to define the genre's unique embrace of hard edged science and political philosophy.

That's the best thing about Troopers (and SF larger still), even if you find the philosophy contained therein to be a little dusty or unsound, there is a philosophy to engage with, and it's a philosophy that modern readers are more than capable of engaging with. A lot of early SF that made a mark were books that delivered this engaging blend of interstellar scenario and secret philosophy essay. But those titles which predate this period never really got the story mechanics as polished as they were by this point, compare Huxley and Burroughs to Bradbury or Asimov. To me, Troopers embodies this personal definition of modern SF, it's a philosophy dissertation masquerading (quite well) as a pulpy SF Man vs Alien story.

The philosophy is a double-edged sword here. I think the main thing that holds Troopers back for a lot of people is that the philosophy of the book is absolute blue bleeding conservative fascism. I think that it is perfectly acceptable to read this book and think that it's disgusting and perverse; this window into the possible future is heartbreaking and pessimistic. Furthermore, I think the modern worldview is in part defined by the active prevention of a Kipling tinted future. To learn the right lesson from the tragedies of both World Wars is to stand in opposition to endless war and military rule. In blowing the whistle and calling Nazi, you would in-fact be echoing the critical reception this book received from its contemporaries and from scholars in the following decades.

I say all that, so I don't sound an apologist for this next part. This book is a product of its time to its core. This is the postwar era, the president has been General Ike for the last two terms, and here comes another veteran in JFK. The America of this time is the post Korea-post McCarthy-baby boom-domino theory American Empire we're talking about. To read Starship Troopers and not see it belie the course of American politics in the 1950s is to put one's own head in the sand. Consider that Heinlein is painting with the colors of the time, and you will see that this work is not entirely self-consistent. Given a purity test, there are some elements that read as liberal, elitist, or even libertarian alongside the more apparent Fascist overtones; there's a dual-handedness to a lot of the ideas as they are presented. Women in this book are a perfect example of what I'm talking about: on one hand it's a progressive concept to have women serve alongside men, on the other hand how much of this book is antiquated machismo and paternalism directed in the female direction (a lot). There is some nuance here is my point, and I choose to take it as Heinlein inviting the reader to grapple with the philosophy rather than espousing those beliefs as right and true.

I think that invitation to grapple is the ethos that inspired the satirical nature of the movie (Of course, I have to mention the movie, name a more iconic pairing). I think that in nerddom it's rare to see a movie that strays so far from the source material wind up being the most appropriate adaptation. I don't think I would be such a fan of the movie if I wasn't also a fan of the book. Even without reading Troopers, you can see the satire in the film-it's dripping off of the poster. Once I gave this book a read I found myself appreciating the movie differently, a straight adaptation may as well just be an extended recruitment advertisement and even that remark makes its way into the film. As a satire the film manages to highlight the aspect of Troopers that dares you to disagree, it has its own magic and message and without that aspect to it, I doubt Troopers would be a definitive cult classic in either medium.

TL;DR: It's classic for a reason, and it isn't a tough or boring read either.

I am such a fan of this series, and it's 7 books deep - anyone else that wants to read this book is probably in the same shoes. If you've got this on your radar/tbr just go ahead and read it.

This picks up right after Network Effect. I mean RIGHT AFTER Network Effect. It took me a second to orient myself, and I think anyone that read Fugitive Telemetry during the gap in publishing should probably scan over a recap before jumping in.

This is probably the most “inward” the narrative has gotten so far, as Murderbot deals with the aftermath of redacted events in the last novel. Bot has added a fresh helping of trauma to their already traumatic existence-that's it, that's all i'm going to say about the plot of this novel.

Murderbot is changing, both the character and the series as a whole. Prior to NE the series had been a collection of action-packed survival-based romps across the corporation rim, but in these last few releases the focus of the narrative has shifted inwards. I thought NE was a touchstone for the series; it ushered in the next phase of the story now that Murderbot has so many human friends that it has to classify them by group. It seems to me that Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs also must apply to bot-human constructs because now that ‘Bot's physiological and safety needs have been met the story is moving its focus further up the pyramid.

I've always been a fan of the human exploration elements of this series, and I am really happy with the direction that Martha Wells is taking this project. That isn't to say I want less dry wit and explosive action scenes, it's just that the most interesting aspects of Murderbot the character are the things that it doesn't want to talk about. Watching this character change as the series progresses is gratifying, and I wager that further entries in this series are going to expand on the exploration of the “human” aspects of Murderbot's physiology and psychology.

TL;DR: Another solid entry in the series, progressing the narrative in all the ways you want it to. Minus 1 star for a confusing beginning.

Having not yet read Skyward, all this is to me is a pretty dang good Novella. Typically, for short works like this, my metric for quality is “If this were a first chapter, would I continue reading?” In the case of this novella, the answer is a resounding yes. It's actually so much of a yes that I am a little less excited to read Skyward; I'd much rather read a direct sequel to this.

Novellas are tricky, you need to tell a self-contained story in such few words. In 42 pages we get some quality character development, a solid and engaging plot, and (this is what kind of blew me away) Brando's writing is still excellent even in this proto form. I know this isn't the first thing he had published-I think this came after the first Mistborn trilogy-but still, this is remarkably tight for something so different from his typical fantasy fare. What carries over best from his long-form writing is his grasp on pacing; this kept me engaged the whole way through but never once felt rushed or compressed. I'm also happy to note that there is a satisfying but open-ended conclusion.

What's really impressive about this work to me is that it goes beyond the basic marks of quality. There's a thematic undercurrent that swirls in the details, all the SF staples are here: Questions of Human Nature, scientific responsibility, and good old empathy. 42 pages, and it still has all this stuff in here, wow. That said, there isn't really anything “new” in here; the themes are present but ubiquitous in SF (oh, the aliens aren't all that trustworthy, huh?). The only points for originality that I can give to this is from the outset of the premise-The phone company is responsible for first contact? They aren't exactly the most helpful guys around? It's conceptually hilarious, but the story doesn't do much with the idea, the PC may as well have been the Red Cross or Cyberdyne or the Nakatomi Corporation.

All told, this is a good little SF story, it definitely works to set up a larger world but does so without compromising its own story beats. I would recommend this to anyone in the mood for something short and good, this is not just for fans of Skyward/Brando.

PS: This also has an Audiobook release! It's free to listen to here, the narration is by Nick Camm, it has no right being as good as it is and as free as it is.

Oooh this book had a pretty controversial debut didn't it, the reviews kinda look a little like Fallujah circa. 2004. Having read the book, I can't say I am surprised, this was a tough read to get through. This is one of those books where different people will find different sections to be intolerable, but suffice to say the subject is heavy. Personally, I found myself hating this book early on, but the further I got into it the more the project as a whole started to make sense. I really enjoyed this book by the end, but having perused the reviews I can see that there is some truth to the negative reactions.

This is a book about the publishing process first and foremost; it also directly deals with the issues of plagiarism and race. This book centers on June Hayward, a struggling white author who happens to be present when her more successful friend and colleague Athena Liu chokes and dies in an accident. June winds up stealing Athena's manuscript about Chinese laborers in the First World War. After some serious revision, June publishes The Last Front under the nom de plume of Juniper Song to immediate critical acclaim. But the good times don't last, people begin to notice the similarities between her work and Athena's, debates around race and cultural appropriation dominate the narrative around her book and ultimately accusations of plagiarism are hurled June's way.

All it really took for me to read this were the keywords “R.F. Kuang” and “Unreliable Narrator”, I'm just a mark for books like this. I think that this might be one of the best First Person Present-tense stories that I've gotten to read. This is a tough style to pull off, but god-damn if Babel wasn't a fluke, THIS LADY CAN WRITE. This is even more impressive to me because the character of June isn't really a self insert for Kuang, but her character was incredibly complete and well-defined. All I can say towards the writing quality in this book is that it's masterful, this is a prestige, a magic-trick that I completely bought into.

Despite the abundant quality, the first third of this book was incredibly difficult for me to read, I just kept finding myself getting irrationally upset with the text and with the character of June. The feeling of abject revulsion I felt with every action June took to cover up her crime, with every justification she presented for her actions and mentality, was honestly too much. I found that I had to break this read up into little chunks to bleed off the anger and focus on the text, but this was tough. If you also hate “everyday racism” and plagiarism, this will probably also get under your skin. That said, I'm glad I powered through because it all pays off in a very Cronenberg-Lets watch this car crash in slo-mo type of way.

I think that even if you took away the narrative elements and stripped this down to an essay concerning race/POC in the publishing industry, it would still be a strong, poignant, and valuable read. Valuable is the key word here, I never expected to read the industry equivalent of a naval broadside: Kuang hits every single issue, every single side, and I can respect the message that much more for its indiscriminate truth. I hate that non-white authors get pigeonholed into writing “diverse works” almost as much as I hate that white authors get flak for telling stories outside their cultural lanes, and it seems like I'm in Kuang's boat here.

There was one criticism that I read in the warzon- I mean the review section- that I agree with in spades. RFK's voice bleeds through the veneer of June; there is a pretty clear distinction between character and author that's established fairly early on, but the more the book dives into the pressure of publishing and the (frankly disgusting) racial aspect ascribed to historical/cultural works, the more I felt RFK's voice take control of the narrative. That's not all bad, her voice has quite a lot to say on the subject, and I'm glad that the whole “They already have an Asian Writer. They can't put out two minority stories in the same season,” discussion concerning the broken diversity elevator made it into the book. And her voice goes a long way to rehabilitating June's character, adding a healthy dose of nuance after an opening that toes the line between social discourse and reverse race baiting. But even with these clear benefits, blurring the line between June and Rebecca makes digesting this content a little messy, on some level it's all the author's words but what are we to ascribe to RFk's life experience and what is pure fiction. If I can boil my issue down, it would be that it would have been so much more impressive if June was just June and RFK found a different, less central character to deliver her opinion.

Closing thoughts: This is a really good book, it's got some flaws, and maybe the ending is a touch bleak for something that was already pretty heavy. I think as a total package this has some literary importance, and even if the content isn't to everyone's liking RFK is saying something that everyone should hear. It blows me away that people read this thing and then still published all of these trash reviews as if to prove RFK right.

For a while there all I would read were LitRPGs but I had to take a break. I figured I would treat myself to this very well-reviewed series after finishing up a spate of fairly challenging reads. I liked this book, it is far from perfect but I would say that this execution of the formula meets par, which is impressive for a new author debut. I would not recommend this as a jumping-in point for LitRPG, but if you're a fan of/familiar with this genre I think you'll find this enjoyable.

I am giving zero points for originality here, the premise is ripped straight out of any high school set fantasy game anime produced in the last 15 years. Jason is an intelligent but misunderstood kid attending a prestigious high school on scholarship, he is bullied by antagonist Alex (A rich 17yo psychopath) and expelled by a corrupt school administration. He dives into a VR MMO called Awaken Online, a cutting-edge game that's run by an intelligent AI called Alfred. This first book tackles the origins of Alfred and Jason's rise to power in the game and his efforts to crush Alex (Alexion in-game) under the heel of his boot.

If you've seen Sword Art Online this is straight-up ripping off that premise with minor changes, like the bullying subplot and an expanded plotline for the sentient AI game controller/DM. I don't fault it for being SAO-inspired, SAO is the framework on which many LitRPGs extrapolate, but that doesn't mean that this isn't one of the most blatant rip-offs of that premise I've ever read (the last chapter is total SAO bait).

Before I start tearing this book apart further I do want to give credit where it is due. This is the most litRPG a litRPG can be, it hasn't strayed from the formula one iota but it is still better written than 99% of the web novels that I've read (Take that with a grain of salt, this is competing in a space-crowded with non-English speaking authors and machine translations). I think the core strength of this story is how much attention and care has gone into building out the details of the game world. Unlike many other competitors in this space, the game that's described here is something I would want to play. There are no improvements I would offer to the setting of this book, it's perfectly executed. The game makes sense, the skills are well-defined, and the systems have been thought over. While there is power creep I would point out that this book, like nearly everything else in this genre, is an escapist power fantasy and this is just the first volume so it's hard to comment definitively.

On to the plethora of flaws:

This is a self-published debut book and it probably wasn't professionally edited so there's screwed-up grammar, tense, and just generally lacking prose. There is a clear lack of polish but I wouldn't say that the lack of polish is what's killing this book. What's killing this book is that the characterization and plot structure is a dumpster fire, these are critical flaws that go well beyond the technical details.

Let's start with Alex, our foil to Jason: He gets maybe 10 lines of dialogue in 500 pages and the bulk of his characterization happens in the last 15% of the story. He is a contrived one-dimensional villain stereotype and I wonder why he's featured so prominently when he's written like a henchman in a Saturday morning cartoon. If he's supposed to be the source of any of the tension in this story, and the second half of the book is written like he is, then this is a failure of a character. I would note that nearly every other author in this genre is guilty of writing flat villains that are meant to be stepped on to progress the power fantasy, but typically those characters don't stick around for an entire volume.

Well, what about the MC? Jason is maybe one bad day away from shooting up his school and that characterization seems to have been largely done by accident. I think that this first volume was supposed to be about Jason getting over his anger issues, but his redemption falls flat, and feels forced. This story is supposed to be about Jason but outside of his anger issues and his obsession with the game we really know next to nothing about him and that's not okay when what most of this book does is question his morality. To pile on, the bullied at school by rich kids gimmick really shouldn't be the first thing we grasp when we want a compelling character in a video game world. I've seen every variation of “poor and lame in real life, but rich and powerful in the game” and IMO there are so many more compelling archetypes. I think that this characterization is supposed to justify the choice of playstyle/in-game character and highlight the influence of the AI, but a bullied kid rolling a Necromancer-Assassin is not a new thing, it's like the author picked one generic trope to underpin a second and equally generic trope.

The biggest problem I had with this book was the plotting. The bulk of the tension in this story is not coming from the A plot at all: Instead of caring about character growth and gameplay, I spent most of this read dreading what kind of a monster Jason was going to turn into just to have that narrative thread cut out abruptly. Jason goes through something resembling redemption or at least a change in his attitude, but that change is largely unexplained. This commentary on/change in his nature is what the AI subplot seemed to be designed to deliver but if that's the case why did that subplot seemingly disappear? Every chapter has a split structure: There's the opening passage in Italics which delivers the B plot about how the AI has slipped its reins and is reading and altering the memories of its players, while the remainder is the A plot which focuses on Jason as he gets increasingly homicidal in the way he plays the game. This isn't a bad setup all things told, it raises some interesting questions about the AI as it enables the worst aspects of Jason's personality. But for some unstated reason the passages that were delivering the B plot suddenly time skip to the present and become POV from the game company as Jason rampages. I'm guessing the AI's influence is what the next volume will focus on, but if that's the case why is the introduction of this plotline the dominant source of tension in this volume?

I'll probably read on to see if and how this is going to improve as Bagwell matures as an author. I can tell from this first book that he cares about this project and there is some seriously nerdy attention to detail being paid to the game-focused elements. Despite this book having some serious flaws I am interested in the game world and if I can make a big-time generalization: no one reads LitRPG for the prose or plot. These books are like rollercoasters or bags of chips; they're pure entertainment and filler- and this story is sufficiently entertaining with a lot of room for growth and improvement. To quote my real estate agent, “This has good bones”.

From an enjoyment standpoint this is a 3.5/5, from a more global quality standpoint this is a 2/5 at best. Overall 2.75

Lucky Jim.

Someone else likened this book to growing up with The Beatles; they were this big thing that was a total change of pace for their contemporaries, but to a generation that grew up with them they aren't anything exciting or special. That's such an apt description I couldn't put it better myself, this is like the Beatles if you were born well after Beatlemania; it's great stuff but your parents (and maybe even grandparents) listen to it.

I think I could stop the review there but I think that would turn off potential readers, after all, who wants to read a nearly 70-year-old book after being told it's “something your parents listened to”. Even more so, why would anyone want to read a comedy from 1955, everyone knows they invented humor in the 70s. Well if you're still with me, here's why: this is still just as funny and well-written as the day it was published. Like seriously there are some moments in this book that seem straight out of Monty Python or even American works like Caddyshack and for good reason, it's books like this that helped to define the tradition of British Humor. I'm not saying that this is the birthplace of modern comedy or satire, but this book comes from and is itself a part of a shared cultural backdrop rather than a direct influence on modern comedy.

I think what makes it read so well in 2023 is just how relatable it can be. Jim Dixon is a professor at a provincial university and it's clear that he cares just as much for his subject of study as I do, which is to say not at all. He's stuck in a situationship with a girl he doesn't remember ever initiating with and is scared to end it for fear of how she'll take it. He spends the whole of the book trying his best not to be fired while simultaneously doing as little work as humanly possible. That sounds like college if it's ever been described to me, and even if my personal experience wasn't exactly the same Amis hits enough notes on the register to play a recognizable tune. The same social commentary that this made in the 50s, the experience of the first generation of common folk to enter into the elite circles of higher ed still rings true. Modern higher ed has done away with a lot of the pomp and snobbery but I think the experience of trying to get into your doctoral advisor's good books can't have changed much.

All of this is to say that the humor translates well enough over the 70-year culture gulf, this reads like the bones of those classic 80's National Lampoon comedies. Dixon himself is an agent of chaos and a delightful screwball, his approach to the stodgy and alien environment of higher education is what I can only describe as social judo and it is genuinely funny. Having said that it needs to be noted that the social landscape of this period is by modern standards mind-blowingly antiquated and so some of the subtext/satire is lost in translation since everything seems old and out of fashion. As an example, early in the book, Jim is invited to the home of Professor Welsch for a night of madrigals and “culture”. The setup here is a satirical one as even by 1950s conventions, hosting an evening of madrigals is preposterously old-fashioned and a kind of elitist bullshit. From the perspective of a modern reader, the idea of an evening of singing/live performance of any kind in a residence is a totally alien concept so what does it matter if it's madrigals or caroling or whatever else.

This might be the only book that's a part of the English canon that is genuinely still entertaining to read. It goes to show that just because it is old doesn't mean it isn't gold.

I read this when I was still unsure about the title choice for Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Zavin. Having finished both, I can safely say that they are unrelated but this was a cool little story.

This has got that trademark Vonnegut pessimism in spades, and it's about a world where the old folks never die and there's nothing left for the next generation to do but crash at grandpas and pay into social security. Reminded me of Scythe.

I recommend reading this in Welcome to the Monkey House because for whatever reason Project Guttenberg is missing the opening dialogue between Em and Lou.

My opinion on this book may change, I get the feeling that this book might kick around the ol' noggin for a good while yet. I passed on this book when it was released, the blurb seemed to suggest that video games would be a part of the story but that at its core it was going to be about on-again-off-again nerdy lovers and that didn't really speak to me. Not the case, romance is a big part of this book but the core of it is centered around a tenuous but platonic collaborative relationship. This is yet another book where the blurb has misled me, and I am glad that my friend insisted I read this because it was so far up my alley I've been coughing it up.

Set in 90's Cambridge, MA, and later in LA this book follows Sam and Sadie from the outset of their friendship, through college, and ultimately to the establishment of their game company. The blurb does not mention that this book has a distinctive split focus, some chapters follow Sadie and some follow Sam, but every chapter is focused on their work and extraneous relationships. It also bears noting that while he does not feature prominently at the beginning, the character of Marx (Sam's roommate at Harvard), eventually becomes the third focal point of the narrative and this book is as much about him as it is about Sam and Sadie.

This book had me nostalgia-tripping for the entire first half. I love video games, and I got started on them really young so I have fond memories of almost every game mentioned. Some of the strongest moments in this book are when the characters are simply playing a game and trading controls after a life. There may as well have been a functioning time machine in this book because I was transported every time one of these passages was offered up. Nostalgia plays a big part, and these passages are expertly crafted to evoke that feeling, but there is also the philosophical exploration of the joy of gaming. I loved the reverence with which this book treats the act of play and the intimacy of having a playmate, Zevin really captures the depth of the subject, “To allow yourself to play with another person is no small risk.”

Outside of the game-focused elements, there is a lot to love. This book has a unique narrative structure. I never felt like there was ever one “main character” and as the book goes on the scope of the story expands and begins to include the perspectives and narration of the ancillary characters. This book treats all of its principal cast as equally important and uses them more as lenses by which to explore a larger narrative than it does for 1 to 1 storytelling. There is a strong focus and exploration of relationships and relationship-building, the characters grow over time and as they grow they branch out and bring minor characters into the fore. I loved this style of storytelling because it kept the focus on the games without leaving the interpersonal storylines to stagnate or progress inorganically. The lack of focus does make this book drag just a little between the 30-50% mark, but once you reach the halfway point and the focus becomes their game this book really catches its stride.

I think I would call most of the storytelling in this book organic. This story rides on its own momentum. Every development is directly related to the choices or actions of the principal cast (whichever characters happen to be “principal” in that phase of the story). Of course, this is a story that is in part about a female game designer that was published in 2022 so there are a few milestones that the story had to hit namely: issues of sexism, design credit, workplace harassment, etc. “Gamergate” isn't in the rearview, the games industry is still male-dominated and everything that concerns Sadie's story is based on reality, with most female programmers not having the luxury of being the boss. I felt that the story that was told around this framework was fantastic, unlike the hack-job focus on this issue in reality there is some serious ambiguity and nuance that's added in. Male characters that you start off hating mellow out as the story goes on, but they never truly come around and I found that to be true to life.

I only had one major complaint, and it's a matter of personal taste: This book is trying to tackle way too many social issues and by the end, I felt like I was riding the rollercoaster of evening news melodrama. I can't say anymore because of serious spoilers but there was a distinct moment where I noticed that every plot development was taking the most dramatic turn it could possibly take without breaking the story. I get that it is part of a story's job to deliver drama but I found the first 3/4th of this book to be fantastically grounded and poignant and organic only for the last act to turn into a k drama or a Spanish language soap. It seemed to me that the author was more interested in commenting on social issues than keeping the story tonally consistent. I think that if I hadn't made this observation this book would have immediately lodged itself as one of my favorites. What made it even more of an affront is that the development that I am talking about leads into what I thought was the most beautiful passage in the whole book “Pioneers”.

Overall this is a well-crafted and mature read. Sure, it's about video games at the heart of it all (it was a definitive pro for me, but your experience may vary), but it's also about much much more. I loved the cast of characters, I enjoyed the narrative structure, and I'm realizing I didn't comment on the prose but it's also quite good. There are flaws if you go looking for them, but all in all, this was a good read. Thanks to Sophia for the recommendation!

TL;DR: Two friends make a game and launch their own game studio, while they do that a lot of other shit happens.

I won't do a full review of this book, I think my review for book 1 covers this just as well. In my mind, this is just part 2 of a novel called Monk & Robot. In Part 1 we escape to the forests and have tea among the trees, this book is about the return to civilization.

All the charm and coziness of the first book is in here, but I think this entry is more about discovery or rather, re-discovery. The majority of this book is about Mosscap's interactions with the larger population of humans, the players of the first entry have traded places. Dex shepherds Mosscap across the countryside in the same way that Mosscap leads Dex through the forest. I already loved Mosscap as a character and this book is all the better because of the pointed focus on it. It's not only lovable, it's a fantastic lens through which to examine humanity. There are some amazing thoughts and observations on the everyday lives of human beings in this book; common behaviors and interactions are all parsed by Mosscap as it seeks to learn what it is that humans need.

I appreciated the balance between philosophy and narrative that Chambers strikes here, and they haven't lost the thread they were onto between books. There is a fantastic contrast struck through the setting despite the continued naturalist focus, it really crystalized for me as I read through the titular passage (and that gets an A+ from me). I expect we might see a third and possibly final installment of this series and I hope that it ties in just as well as this one did.

TL;DR: Out of the forest and into the woods. Second verse same as the first.

Book Club for November. I did not like this book, I thought it was boring and slow as molasses. This should have been a Novella.

Humanity wrecks Earth and decides to live on platforms around a moon of Jupiter (or something), we follow Mossa and her ex-girlfriend (whose name I can't remember, and she's kind of the main character) as they try to solve the mystery of a dead or disappeared scholar.

This wants to be Holmes & Watson so fucking bad but it's such a shoddy interpretation. If I don't have a chance at solving the mystery by the halfway point, you've done it wrong. Period. Not that I was even trying to solve it by then because the “sexual tension,” if you can even call it that, is basically what dominates the early portions of this book. The romance subplot was at the border between overdone or underdone; a little more and it would have been compelling, and a little less and this would have been a proper mystery book.

I vividly recall putting this down maybe 20 pages in and thinking, “I bet Mossa wears a silly hat”. Then I glanced at the cover.

The setting was novel if maybe a little blurry on purpose. It's gaslamps and mist, it's on Jupiter, but this is just Baker Street. This book is trying to be cozy, but I didn't find a cold and foggy setting super cozy. The prose was blah, I've been spoiled lately and this read as if a high school student wrote it. Actually, it read like everyone was doing their best to talk like David Attenborough and I mean that in the least flattering way.

The Audiobook wasn't Paul Giamatti that's for sure, Lindsey Dorcus tries her best but it wasn't an enjoyable listen.

TL;DR: Sherlock Holmes but female, on Jupiter, with none of the charm or the fun.