Matt

It’s been a while since I had the opportunity to sink my teeth into a new fantasy series with a ton of books. That used to be my favorite type of book but nowadays seeing a series with a book number higher than I can count on one hand is intimidating. However everything I heard about Will Wight’s Cradle series suggested it was one that I would love, so I dove in with a mix of excitement and nostalgia and I’m so glad I did. I had the pleasure of listening to this as an audiobook narrated by Travis Baldree and I think he did a fantastic job with it. He has a great way of making even the narration sections really interesting and he puts a lot of emphasis exactly where it needs to be. I also think he’s genuinely good at voicing female characters. Oftentimes when male narrators voice female characters the result is a caricature of a female voice but Baldree avoids that and makes the female characters sound like actual people. Combine that with really strong world-building and excellent fight choreography from Wight and you have a really enjoyable experience. I can’t wait to see where Wight and Baldree take me next.

There are two definitive things I can say about this book. The first is that it’s really weird. The second is that I absolutely love it. It takes a really special type of writer to do what Gunty does here. She manages to pretty effortlessly weave thick sections of social commentary with short vignettes about bizarre situations with cartoonish drawings with small slice of life stories. You could make the argument that the way the book goes back and forth in time and across multiple characters makes it disjointed but I really think it works. Every character feels impactful. Every detail feels purposeful. Every setting feels truly realized. Even the things that are ostensibly out of place aren’t. This is one of the funniest books I’ve ever read as well as one of the saddest and yet I didn’t feel any sense of tonal whiplash throughout. I really can’t help but admire what Gunty was able to do within these 396 pages. She’s a legitimate master of her craft and she deserves all the praise in the world for this book. I don’t throw out the word masterpiece too lightly but I really think this book has earned that title. Bravo Tess Gunty.

  I'm not sure how I feel about this book.  If I'm looking purely at the writing quality there are plenty of things that stand out as weak.  One of the first things a writer is told is “show, don't tell” but there is a whole ton of telling throughout this book.  Every moment of subtlety and complexity is explicitly fed to us as subtle and complex.  This is not a book that gives the reader a lot of freedom when it comes to interpretation or piecing together.  You are told how to feel at all moments.  This is not a quality I enjoy in any form of media and some of my least favorite pieces that I have ever consumed have shared this attribute with this book.
And yet... this book got me.  By the time I got to the last few chapters I found myself being emotionally invested in Evelyn's story and how it related to Monique.  I shed some legitimate tears in the last few chapters.  For a book to make me feel actual emotion is an undeniable positive and I cannot deny that Seven Husbands did have that effect on me.  For all of the flaws I find her writing to have here, Reid writes some characters that are very easy to latch on to and that is a quality that every successful writer should have as it is really easy to forgive certain issues if you like the people you are reading about.  I'm not going to rush to the bookstore to buy another one of her books, but I can't say I regret reading Seven Husbands.
 

  As you can surmise by its name, this is the second part of Mo Xiang Tong Xiu's Heaven Official's Blessing series.  Calling it a sequel isn't quite accurate as this was originally published online as one massive web novel consisting of a lot of chapters.  When it was published in paperback it was split into eight separate installments.  This means that each book does not tell one cohesive story, at least in theory.  In practice I found that Volume 2 totally made sense as one book.  It didn't feel weird jumping in and it didn't end with me feeling awkward about leaving the story at that point.  The chapters presented in this volume fit together nicely and progress the overall plot very well.  We see what happens immediately following the events of Volume 1 while also learning more details about Xie Lian's past.  When reviewing Volume 1 I said that we didn't need to linger on his backstory too much, but the chapters spent looking at him before he first ascended are quite strong and certainly have a place within the book.  Along with strong translating and really good initial writing, everything about Heaven Official's Blessing Volume 2 is a really good time and I'm quite excited to pick up more volumes.  
 

  I've read a pretty good amount of novels that were originally written in Chinese and translated into English.  Sometimes they can be awkward due to how different the languages are.  This is especially true for wuxia novels, as in the original Chinese they use poetic and elegant terms for fighting moves and names that do not translate in a smooth way.  However I do think that this book, the first in a series of eight print versions of a web novel, does not suffer from the same translation issues that a lot of wuxia novels do.  This is because the translators didn't even try to translate the names.  It's amazing how natural the book feels to read as a result of this decision.  Sometimes less is more when it comes to translation and this book shows that.  
Good translation aside, this book is a damn good time!  It tells the story of Xianle, a former prince who becomes a god before being kicked out from heaven, then repeating this process before finally sticking as a god on his third ascension.  The book mostly focuses on his adventures after ascending for the third time and I think that's a smart decision.  We don't need to linger on Xianle's past too much.  During his adventures he encounters a number of fun situations and meets some very interesting figures.  One thing that I like about the book is how everything ties together.  Minute details mentioned in one chapter often become very relevant a few chapters later.  This attribute rewards those who read carefully while also allowing for fun surprises for those who don't.  While the twist of ‘this character was actually this one in disguise' does wear out a bit by the end I still had a really fun time reading it and I look forward to reading more of the story in future installments.
 

  I've really been trying to diversify my reading, not just in terms of genre but in terms of format as well.  I've really delved into audiobooks recently and now I've read my first graphic novel.  I'm glad I did!    I think Persepolis is pretty perfect.  It tells the story of Marjane Satrapi as she grows up in war-torn Iran, studies abroad in Austria, returns to Iran before leaving her homeland once again.  Coming into this I thought graphic novels were relatively childish compared to novels but I think the format allows Satrapi to tell her story more effectively.  Even though this Persepolis is entirely in black and white, Satrapi manages to inject so much life into her illustrations and contrast each setting beautifully.  She fully takes advantage of her skill as a writer as well as her talent as an illustrator to make a comprehensive story that works on every level.  And I really mean that.  You can look at Persepolis as the story of two very different settings and cultures.  You can also look at it as one woman's coming-of-age story.  Or you can look at it as everything in between.  That's the beauty of Persepolis.  It doesn't fit into any one box.  It's funny.  It's depressing.  It's inquisitive.  It's stupid.  It's optimistic.  It's pessimistic.  It is all of these things and more and yet it never feels confused.  Satrapi deserves all the credit in the world for taking her remarkable life and putting it into a compact 330 pages (filled with pictures as well as words) without making anything feel rushed or incomplete.  Overall this is a fantastic first graphic novel for me and I look forward to trying out more. 

  I really liked this one.  There were about a million different directions Lackey could have gone in with the end of Magic's Pawn but I'm glad she chose this one in particular.  Magic's Promise doesn't pick up right after the end of its predecessor, instead it takes us 13 years into the future.  Vanyel is no longer a love-stricken teenager, he's now a 28-year old full blown Herald-Mage who has seen and done some insane shit since he was 15.  We get bits and pieces as to what he's done but we aren't directly told all of it, which is a smart decision in my opinion.  All we need to know is that Vanyel has been worn down by his duties and he is exhausted.  He still hasn't totally gotten over the loss of Tylandel and you can feel his pain every time he's mentioned.  Vanyel's mental state is the main focus of the book and he is absolutely a compelling-enough protagonist to pull it off.     As for other new things, there are quite a few of them in Promise.  The cast gets expanded, the existing cast gets developed and we see a ton of different locations, making Valdemar feel like a very real, alive place.  I know that Lackey has written a ton of books set in Valdemar and you can tell she just has such a control of this world.  The expanded cast also helps to separate this book from Pawn.  Tashir and Medren are the obvious stand-outs here as characters who exist on their own while also adding a lot to Vanyel.  But the best part about this book has to be the development of Jervis and Withen.  In Pawn they're pretty cartoonishly evil, but Lackey makes them so much more sympathetic here.  Their turnarounds aren't especially subtle but they're still quite heartwarming.    All in all this is a really strong sequel and I look forward to finishing the trilogy with Magic's Price. 

  Fantasy is my favorite genre, but I will admit that I have a blind spot to what that genre was like post-Tolkien pre-Jordan.  It seems like for most fantasy readers you can go straight from LOTR to WoT and you won't miss anything important.  For my entire life up to this point I was one of those readers, but after seeing a nice omnibus version of Mercedes Lackey's ‘The Last Herald-Mage' trilogy on the shelf of my local Barnes and Noble I decided to change that.    That was overall a good decision because this book is real good.  It's just really nicely written fantasy full of lush descriptions of fantastical places, a cool magic system and some major conflicts.  In many ways it ticks off every box that you'd expect a fantasy novel to check off but when the quality is this good it's hard to care.  Stereotypical fantasy can still be good if it's well-written and Lackey is someone who just gets how to write a story.    In many ways this book is stereotypical, but the way it isn't is what truly elevates it.  It's good that I'm reading this book in June because it is literally  gay.  Further research tells me that this is the first fantasy book ever published with a gay protagonist.  Lackey's introduction at the beginning of the omnibus says that many people have written to her about how this book and trilogy as a whole helped them come to terms with their own sexualities and I'm really happy that this book has had such a positive impact and I can totally see why.  Lackey does a wonderful job writing Vanyel's homosexuality.  She makes it very clear that the romance between Vanyel and Tylandel is totally natural and that the love they feel for one another is totally legitimate.  A message like that is important even today and I can't imagine being a closeted teenager in the 80's reading this.  Lackey downplays her own greatness in the introduction but I still think she deserves a lot of credit.    All in all this is a really strong start to what is sure to be a great trilogy. 

  It's weird.  I have nothing bad to say about this book.  In fact, I have a ton of good things to say about it.  It's a well-written story about interesting characters doing intriguing things.  McEwan is obviously a brilliant writer and his general knowledge of how to compose a tale is fully on display here.  The three main characters of Fiona, Jack and Adam all feel fleshed-out and you want to know what will happen to them throughout the book.  The basic premise is gripping and McEwan totally delivers on it.  You can write plenty of interesting papers about Fiona's journey throughout the book or debate whether Adam and his parents are in the right.     In every way a novel can be good, The Children Act is good.  But it's almost so good that it's boring?  It's like the perfect example of how to write a story.  If English professors around the world haven't picked this one for their syllabi I'd be absolutely floored.  This is not a bad thing at all, it's just... too textbook for me to really love it and feel enchanted by it. 

 I am a huge fan of R.F. Kuang's previous works (The Poppy War trilogy and Babel).  She is absolutely one of my current favorite authors and she is the first author I've encountered in a long time whose books I will buy as soon as they come out.  In her four previous books she showed an incredible ability to write compelling fantasy stories with strong real-world analogues and complex characters.  These four books had the hallmarks of excellent fantasy storytelling and showed that Kuang herself had a remarkable command of the English language.  These books were incredibly enjoyable to read despite (or in some cases because of) their dark subject matter.  Kuang just has a knack for tackling some very difficult topics with her work and making very accessible narratives out of them.  And that's exactly what she tries to do (and touches on) in Yellowface, her first step outside of the fantasy genre.    I bring all of this up before talking about Yellowface itself because I feel like Kuang's background is quite important to the book.  Yellowface follows Juniper Hayward, a struggling white author who witnesses the accidental death of her college friend and writing superstar Athena Liu.  Juniper takes a book that Athena had just finished, rewrites it and publishes it under her own name.  The rest of the book follows Juniper as she deals with the guilt and consequences of her plagiarism.  It also touches on some very sensitive topics, notably sexism and racism within the publishing industry and what it means to be a writer in the age of social media.  These are tough issues but Kuang handles them quite well as she always does.  The central narrative is quite strong and the two main characters of Juniper and Athena are very nicely explored.  I am a sucker for a book that features a dead character so prominently that they are present as much as most of the alive characters and Yellowface is very much that.    Yellowface also serves as a sort of meta-commentary on Kuang herself and her career.  There are a number of obvious comparisons between Athena and Kuang that can be made, from their educational background to their writing topics to their reputations as writing prodigies at young ages and so on.  Parts of this book feel like Kuang is struggling with her own success and place within the literary world.  I applaud her for taking that internal struggle and putting that on the page.  Because the book is far from completely laudatory towards Athena.  There were times while reading some of the criticism of Athena that I felt bad for loving Kuang's previous works as much as I did.  It takes some serious guts to essentially put yourself in a novel and make that version of yourself evidently flawed.  I don't always think that this aspect of the book is handled in the most subtle of ways but perhaps that is the point.     Yellowface is a book that forces you to think.  It is a book that wants you to be uncomfortable.  It is a book that demands you to look within yourself as a consumer who participates in this industry.  Because of that I can't say that this is the book of Kuang's that I enjoyed reading the most (it's not supposed to be), but after some reflection I do think it's her most interesting and important.  I will go back to her previous books more, but this is the one that will stick with me the most, and I think that's what Kuang was going for when she decided to tackle this project.     I'm glad Kuang wrote this book.  It feels like she needed to write it just for her own sake.  She really is an incredible talent and I can't wait to see what she does next. 

  This conclusion to R.F. Kuang's Poppy War trilogy is as brilliant as it is crushing.  As with all my reviews for final books in a series, I'll start by talking about the book itself before talking about the trilogy as a whole but I just wanted to start out by saying that.    The Burning God is a book that does not shy away from the brutality of war and its effects on people.  Everyone is a villain here.  Everyone commits horrible acts.  Nobody leaves unscathed.  I have yet to read a fantasy book quite like this where war is so agonizingly dissected.  Even the victories feel like defeats and the defeats feel soul-crushing.  It is a true testament to Kuang's writing that I, someone with exactly zero experience with anything like war, was able to feel every single emotion that Rin and co felt throughout this book.  This is done mostly through expert character-work.  Kuang takes full advantage of the two books prior to this and paints the relationships between allies, adversaries and everything in between in excruciating detail.  With the way I'm writing it may sound like I didn't like reading this book but I really did.  It is far from an easy read but the writing quality is so high that I couldn't put it down.  It's a perfectly fitting conclusion for this trilogy and definitely the best book Kuang had written up to this point.    Overall I would consider The Poppy War trilogy one of the best fantasy trilogies I've ever read.  It is just about perfect in every way.  Just about everything you could want in a fantasy series is here, from strong world-building to complex characters to fully realized magic systems etc.  Kuang combines her obvious intelligence and background with WWII China with some visceral writing to make this series explode off the page.  This is the fourth book by Kuang that I've read in the past few months and I cannot get enough of her writing.  She is an undeniable talent and this series is a masterpiece because of that.  I seriously can't say enough good things about this trilogy.  I'm in awe of it and I feel genuinely privileged that I got to read it.  

  Sometimes I don't judge books by their covers, I judge them by their titles.  When I read the name of this book I was immediately interested and wanted to pick it up.  390 pages later, I'm glad I did.    The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida (which I'll refer to as Seven Moons from this point on) is a really interesting book that fits nicely into multiple genres.  It is at times a historical fiction book about the Sri Lankan civil war that took place between 1983 and 2009.  At other times it is a love story between two men in a society that does not want to accept their love.  At other times still it is a mystery thriller with the focus being Almeida's murder.  And most of all it is speculative fiction that attempts to answer life's greatest question: what happens to us after we die?  Note how I said in the first paragraph that this book is only 390 pages and yet all the plots I just talked about get enough focus that I feel each story wraps up nicely.  This is not an easy feat.  Balancing these genres alone is the mark of a skilled writer, let alone managing them in such a way that each genre can feel fulfilled in under 400 pages.     Karunatilaka really shows himself to be an incredibly talented writer here.  Not only is his command of narrative and pacing strong, he just paints beautiful pictures with his words as his brush.  His protagonist Maali Almeida is a photographer by trade and as such this is a book that is heavy on imagery.  Karunatilaka is spectacular at painting scenes of horrific bloodshed as well as those of passionate love.  His writing is just so vivid in a way that makes me feel like I'm in each of his settings.    This is an excellent book by a really strong writer and I can't recommend it enough. 

 I am just completely infatuated by R.F. Kuang's writing at this point.  I really loved The Poppy War (this book's predecessor) as well as Babel (her standalone novel released earlier this year) so I had high expectations eading into this one.  Even then I was totally blown away by The Dragon Republic.    I've spoken before about how writing the second part of a trilogy can be tough because it lacks the excitement of a new beginning that the first part has while also missing the satisfaction of a conclusion that the third part has.  I've seen authors try to tackle this conundrum in a few ways but Kuang has done it in the simplest way possible: by writing an undeniably intriguing story.  The Dragon Republic expertly builds upon everything that was started in The Poppy War and expands it.     The characters here are excellent.  We have all of our old favorites in Rin, Kitay, the Cike etc while also adding the prominent figures behind each of Nikan's provinces.  The main one we are introduced to is Vaisra, leader of the Dragon province and Nezha's father.  He is just a blast to read here as this commanding, seductive figure.  Kuang deserves a lot of credit for writing the scenes between him and Rin with underlying sexual tension that feels so wrong and yet so desirable.  He's a big part of why this book is so good and I can't wait to see his role in the trilogy's conclusion.  I also want to shout out Nezha, who was introduced in the last book but is explored with much more complexity here.  He shines a lot in his role and elevates the book in a similar way to his dad.  If I were to say one reason why this book is so good it's these two.    I... honestly don't know what else to say at this point.  This isn't my favorite Kuang book but I do think it's her best that I've read up to now.  I'm sure she'll surpass herself with the conclusion to this trilogy. 

   Since really getting back into reading a few years ago my general reading style has stayed the same.  I can read pretty fast and I actively enjoy the process of doing so.  That's not to say that I skim, but I'm not the type of person to linger over a page or a sentence that really strikes me.  I just take a note of it and move on.  The Luminaries is the first book that I've read not only this year but this decade that has made me change that.  I read this book a lot slower than I normally do because each page and sentence is worth savoring.  For a book that's over 800 pages, that is a serious feat.    I'm not quite sure how to describe The Luminaries so this paragraph may be a bit unstructured.  It definitely has mysteries but it can't really be classified as a mystery novel.  It takes place in the past but it's not really historical fiction.  It has thrilling sections but I can't in good conscious call it a thriller.  It's just... a damn good novel.  The basic gist of it is that 12 people convene in a smoking room in a hotel during the New Zealand gold rush due to a few odd events that have happened over the past few weeks.  Over the course of the novel we learn a lot about each of these 12 as well as many others in this small mining town.  Catton explores her characters in such lush detail that I feel like I know all of them personally at this point.  As we learn more about the characters we also learn just what happened in order to set off the events of the novel.  It feels like Catton is really challenging her readers with the way she writes at points.  While many of the loose threads are explicitly tied up at various points throughout the novel, many others are finished in a more subtle way, rewarding those attentive enough to notice the tiniest of details in her writing.  One of my favorite things about reading is the feeling you get when you realize someone is truly amazing at the act of writing, and I felt that many times while reading The Luminaries.  She really makes writing seem like a beautiful art form with the way she crafts this book and the sentences within it.  I can't help but... be in awe of her talent.  If there is one criticism I have it's that I feel like the book starts out stronger than it finishes, but that is the tiniest of nits that I am picking.  I think the first 500 or so pages are a 10 out of 10 and the remaining 300 are a 9 out of 10.  Well done Eleanor Catton, your book is super fucking good.  

This is the third and final book in Naomi Novik's Scholomance trilogy, which means I'll be using this review to talk not only about The Golden Enclaves, but the series as a whole.  Let's start with the former.    I was not the biggest fan of The Last Graduate mostly because I felt it didn't expand on A Deadly Education enough.  I think Novik absolutely fixed this issue in The Golden Enclaves.  While the first two books in this trilogy took place entirely within one location, The Golden Enclaves takes its characters all around the world, allowing for a greater diversity in environments that allows the book to really breathe.  The increase in physical settings leads to an increase in stakes and information as well.  In some ways, The Golden Enclaves feels both like the second and third book in this trilogy.  That's a lot to pack into a book that's just over 400 pages, but I think Novik does a fantastic job with it.  This is a book that could feel rushed but it doesn't.  It moves from beat to beat really nicely and she makes sure to allow her characters to process each event before moving onto the next one.  The characters in this book are once again fantastic.  I'll get into some of them in a bit but real quickly I want to shout out Ophelia Lake, a truly wonderful antagonist who makes her presence felt despite little time actually being present in the story.  All in all, The Golden Enclaves serves as a very strong end to a pretty strong series.    I have mixed emotions when looking back on the trilogy as a whole.  Let's start with the good.  A Deadly Education is absolutely fantastic and will likely remain one of my favorite books I read this year.  I think it's pretty much perfect.  The Golden Enclaves is another very good book.  The series as a whole features one of the most interesting magic systems in the entire fantasy genre, a great setpiece in The Scholomance itself along with some truly spectacular characters.  Novik does a fantastic job of making her two main protagonists (El and Orion) consistently engaging throughout.  I never quite knew where their characters would end up and I just wanted to keep following them across every page.  There's a lot to like here and I certainly can't begrudge anyone who ranks this series among the best they've ever read.  But something holds it back from reaching that status for me.  It may be the fact that I feel like The Last Graduate does not do enough in terms of expanding the world, making The Golden Enclaves need to do some catch-up work.  That's the only real flaw I can definitively put into words here.  Other than that I just... didn't love the series the way I wanted to.  I still really liked it and will recommend it to others, it's just not the masterpiece I was hoping for.  The covers still kick major ass though.  No complaints about them. 

  I spent a lot of my review of A Deadly Education (this book's predecessor) talking about how good the book felt and looked.  I will start out this review by saying that everything I said there regarding the aesthetics and feel of A Deadly Education holds for The Last Graduate.  The book looks amazing and feels wonderful to read on a purely physical sense.  With that out of the way let's get into the contents of The Last Graduate.    While the physical quality of The Last Graduate matches its predecessor, the actual text does not.  It's still a good book that will treat any fans of the first, but it doesn't feel like a true groundbreaking work the way the first book did.  If I had to point out one failure in The Last Graduate, it's that it doesn't introduce enough new things to justify its existence as a standalone novel.  Sequels can sometimes be hard to write because the intrigue of exploring a new world isn't there for a sequel the way it is for the first book in a series.  Typically authors get around this issue by simply expanding upon the ideas and concepts introduced in the first book.  The Last Graduate does not use this method nearly enough to keep the book fresh.  Like A Deadly Education, The Last Graduate takes place entirely within The Scholomance.  The Scholomance remains an awesome setting for a book, but it's a lot less intriguing when you know all about it.  Part of what made A Deadly Education so fun was learning about the weird tricks of the Scholomance.  This feeling of excitement naturally doesn't exist to nearly the same degree here.     I don't mean to make it sound like The Last Graduate is totally pointless.  Many plot threads from its predecessor are picked up and furthered in satisfying ways.  The main thing I'm talking about here is the El-Orion relationship, but plenty of other relationships are further explored.  We also see some legitimate growth from El, which is very fun to see.  The final chapters are also legitimately breathtaking up until the very last sentence (which perfectly sets up the conclusion of the trilogy).  There's definitely some good stuff here.    Ultimately The Last Graduate fails to live up to the lofty expectations set by its predecessor.  It's far from a bad book, it just left me wanting for more. 

We live in a golden age of niche hobbyists getting very famous thanks to the internet.  Before, people who were extraordinarily good at a thing the vast majority of people didn't know about would only be well-known within that circle.  Nowadays though all it takes is one popular YouTube channel or influencer catching wind of a weird hobby and these people are known to millions of viewers.  It is through these avenues that I first became aware of Alex Honnold, the best in the world at climbing massive mountains without any assistance.  I remember being in awe at what he did but never looked more into his story.  After seeing this book on the shelf of my local bookstore I had to pick it up based on my previous interest.  Part of the fun of reading (at least for me) is learning about experiences that I will never have personally, and few things are as out of my theoretical wheelhouse as climbing up a massive wall in Yosemite National Park.  I eagerly dove in, looking forward to finding out more about what it takes to do something so incredible.    To the book's credit, it absolutely does what I wanted it to do.  I now know a lot more about Alex Honnold, both as a climber and as a human being.  Throughout the book Synnott does something that I really like, which is looking deep into who the climbers are as people rather than strictly what they do on the rock.  As a veteran climber himself, Synnott understands what makes climbers like Honnold tick and does his absolute best to explain why they do the things they do.  The book is at its best when Synnott tries to answer these questions.  He's a pretty perfect author for this book as he has the necessary hands-on experience doing things like what Honnold did as well as the necessary writing experience to explain it in a way that makes sense to a non-climber.     I honestly think this book is about as good as it can be, but I can't say that I totally love it.  I was racking my brain for a while to figure out why until it hit me: climbing is just not an easy thing to write about.  There's a reason that so many major climbs are filmed and why every prominent climber seems to have a film crew around them: it's really hard to convey what happens on the side of a mountain into words.  Synnott doesn't go too deep on the technical jargon, but there were points where I had a tough time visualizing exactly what he was talking about despite his best efforts for that reason.  The moves these climbers pull off as well as the features on the rock that they maneuver around are just so hard to picture if you haven't seen them for yourself.  That's why the book is better when it doesn't talk too much about the climbing itself, rather the people doing the climbing.     I'm glad I read this book.  When it's good it's really good and there's a lot to like about it.  I imagine that those who are deeper into climbing would get quite a bit more out of it.  But for me personally, it just stands as quite good, rather than amazing. 

  For the first half of Britt-Marie Was Here I was very much not impressed.  It felt like a weird story about a weird person in weird situations with minimal redeeming value.  Despite it being only 300 pages long I almost gave up on it.  After reading the second half of it I'm glad I didn't give up on it, although it is quite flawed.    Part of my issue with Britt-MarieWas Here is that it just feels awkwardly written.  I'm not sure if this is because of the translation (the book was originally written in Swedish) or not but the writing as a whole just feels clunky and weird and I can't tell if it's a purposeful stylistic choice or not.  I am tempted to give the benefit of the doubt to Backman and his translator as this is inherently a weird book and it's possible that the strangeness of the writing is supposed to add to the sense of abnormality present in the story.  Whatever the reason for it, I just don't like the style of the writing and it majorly detracts from my enjoyment of this book.    Another one of my issues with the book is Britt-Marie herself, especially in the first half of the book.  It feels like she's an alien who is just learning social norms.  Given that the book really needs you to relate to Britt-Marie in order for the emotional beats of the story to land, this is a major problem.  I simply cannot relate to a person who I just can't imagine existing.    With all of that said this book is far from irredeemable.  There are some emotional beats that in fact land hard and some of them are courtesy of Britt-Marie herself.  This is a book about identity and watching her struggle to find hers is a legitimately touching story at various points.  The supporting characters around her are also fantastic, particularly the kids.  They give the book the heart that it desperately requires.    All in all while Britt-Marie Was Here is far from the best book I've ever read, there are parts of it that will stick with me for a very long time. 

While reading the reviews on the jacket of Babel, I noticed one word kept popping up: masterpiece.  That's a pretty weighty word to throw around.  To me a masterpiece is something that not only achieves everything that it sets out to do but redefines the field that it's in while doing so.  I was fairly skeptical that the bookwould actually live up to the expectations placed on it by that word.  After all, very few pieces of media in general could be considered masterpieces.  And yet now that I have finished reading it I have to say that Babel is in fact a masterpiece.  As with most great books    As with most works of this quality, I find it hard to describe just why Babel is so good, so I'll just start by going over the basics.  Babel initially appears to be a Harry Potter-esque book about a boy rescued from a rough situation at home and whisked away to a magical school where he meets new friends and has great adventures.  But it quickly becomes far more ambitious and serious.  I will give my first of many praises to author R.F. Kuang here for escalating the scope of her story in a way that feels natural.  She allows us to get used to the existing plot before expanding our horizons again and again, taking the reader across many topics without making them feel overwhelmed.  For a book that takes on issues such as racism, sexism, colonialism, war, labor unions while also inventing a new magic system, that is a genuinely remarkable feat.  While the transitions can sometimes feel a bit clunky, this is a pretty smooth 540+ pages and I don't think many writers have the sheer narrative skill to weave these difficult topics together in a way that doesn't feel forced.  What makes this work even better is that at no point does the book stop becoming a genuine joy to read.  There are times when I have read fantasy stories like this one that I feel bored or disinterested when bigger issues come into the fray.  Not all writers can make the reader face serious societal issues while also keeping them entertained, but Kuang has done that in spades here.    Of course, all of what I said above wouldn't mean anything if the characters and setting that exist within the narrative fail.  Luckily they don't.  One really smart choice that Kuang makes is that she keeps the list of important characters pretty small.  In a story of this scope it's easy to introduce a massive cast of characters but Kuang doesn't do that, instead opting to focus more on each individual character (this reminds me of what N.K. Jemisin did with her ‘Broken Earth' trilogy).  The protagonist Robin is an obvious standout here as someone we see grow into someone truly willing to be a martyr, even if for not the greatest of reasons.  Other highlights are Ramy, Letty and Victoire (who make up Robin's group of friends), Griffin (Robin's half-brother who introduces him to work as a vigilante) and Professor Lovell (Robin's father).  This is a seriously strong group of characters and they all feel tremendously realized.  Some of them meet tragic fates, but we get so much time with them beforehand that I don't find myself missing them after they depart the narrative.  That's not to mention Oxford, which feels like a character as well.  Kuang herself has studied at Oxford, so it's no wonder that she's able to make the college so vibrant and full of life (similar to how Leigh Bardugo has made Yale such a fun fantasy setting in her ‘Alex Stern' series).  Setting is such a crucial part of a fantasy novel, whether it be partially based on real life or totally fictional, and Kuang makes Oxford an extremely enjoyable place to transport oneself into.     I'm in genuine awe that this book is as good as it is.  Going into it I wasn't sure if I was going to enjoy it but I've been completely blown away.  I can say without hesitation that it's one of the best books I've ever read, and I heavily look forward to checking out Kuang's ‘Poppy War' trilogy as a result.  She's made me a very big fan of her work. 

 On paper, Major Labels is a book about how seven different genres of music (rock, R&B, country, punk, hip-hop, dance and pop) have evolved over the past 50 years.  In practice, it's a book about how music has an ability to define those who are fans of a particular type of it, how that tribalism plays a part in the way the art is created and what it means to criticize music as a whole.  It's also an incredible book about how seven different genres of music have evolved over the past 50 years.     I'm actually at a bit of a loss for words in terms of how to describe and review this book.  So much of its quality is self-evident.  Sanneh is a seasoned pro with an extensive background in music writing that he calls on frequently as he discusses various trends.  This could be an extremely boring book, but Sanneh fills his writing with an appropriate amount of vivaciousness, allowing his anecdotes and stories to really come to life.  I find that this book is at its best when it strays away from talking about music itself but rather the cultures and identities that music creates just by existing.  Sanneh himself seems to know this, as there isn't a ton of music theory discussion throughout.  What he does instead is focuses on the people surrounding the songs and albums that are ostensibly the centerpiece of the book.  It's a smart choice and makes the book not only informative, but remarkably enjoyable as well.     I learned a lot by reading this book but the main thing I'll take away from it is the joy in the writing.  Sanneh clearly has a passion for music and writing about it, and that love elevates this book from good to truly great.  Whether he's describing how heavy metal became commercialized or how Luther Vandross couldn't quite get a #1 hit or how puns were made based off of George Strait's name or talking about his own childhood punk experiences or extolling the virtues of dumber rap or celebrating the diversity that made disco special or questioning whether criticism as a whole is dying, Sanneh seems to have a gift for finding the right words to elicit a certain level of emotion.  I'm genuinely in awe of this book and think it's a great achievement. 

  There is really nothing like reading “The Expanse”.  Fantasy has always been my favorite genre in part because good fantasy makes you feel like you're on a wonderful theme-park ride full of exhilarating moments that allow you to truly immerse yourself in the experience.  Prior to reading “The Expanse” series I had never found a sci-fi book that made me feel the same way, but this series is just so much fun.  The characters are enjoyable and complex.  The setting is well-designed and immersive.  And its big setpieces and moments are done just so well.  Last year I eagerly devoured the first three books in the series and I was very excited to read the fourth in anticipation of what would come next after Abaddon's Gate left off with a lot of interesting possibilities.  I am pleased to say that Cibola Burn manages to not only meet the expectations set by its predecessors, but exceed them.    Cibola Burn is like its predecessors in many ways.  It has a few holdovers from the previous books in Holden and his crew while introducing new characters that are relevant to the situation they find themselves in.  Things go really bad for a while before Holden is able to somehow save the day.  Along the way there is a ton of action, some really strong moments, some badass dialogue and a few moral questions are asked of the reader.  All of this is pretty simple but this series just makes these tropes WORK.  Is some of Holden's plot armor/competence/sheer luck bullshit? Absolutely, but I don't care because I want him and the crew of the Rocinante to succeed time and time again.  The book is also just super well-written.  It is a big book (almost 600 pages) and yet it paces itself in a way that allows tons of things to happen while also having these things mean something.  Some authors fall into the trap of having constant action without any moments where the story just breathes, but the authors behind “The Expanse” know how to make each moment count.  It's a genuine skill and I think it's a major reason why these books succeed the way they do.    While much of Cibola Burn's quality can be talked about in conjunction with its predecessors, it also has a number of strong attributes on its own.  The setting of New Terra is truly fantastic and feels like a new fantasy world.  It's the best ‘ground' setting in “The Expanse”.  It also features a number of strong characters that didn't exist in the first three books, namely Elvi and Murtry.  The reintroduction of Havelock was also a nice surprise.  I hope he kind of takes Miller's place now that Miller seems to be totally out of the picture.   All in all, Cibola Burn is a very worthy entry into “The Expanse” series.  Up next is Nemesis Games.  When I first started “The Expanse”, a common thing I heard was that the series didn't get really good until 4-5 books in.  Given how much I've liked the first four books, I'm sure Nemesis Games will blow my mind. 

 After reading (and really enjoying) Jeff Pearlman's book Showtime I was told to pick up Three-Ring Circus.  Three-Ring Circus functions as a pseudo-sequel to Showtime.  While Showtime chronicles the joyous 1980s Los Angeles Lakers and their 5 titles, Three-Ring Circus covers the 1996-2004 Lakers, who won 3 titles of their own but in a far less exuberant fashion.  I knew about both of these times prior to reading Pearlman's respective books, so I was interested to see what would happen when he tackled a team whose mythology is far less celebrated.    As it turns out, Three-Ring Circus is still really good, if not quite as strong as its predecessor.  A number of the qualities that made Showtime such an excellent basketball book are present here as well.  Pearlman once again clearly researched his ass off to make this book.  There is no shortage of great quotes sprinkled throughout the book from just about everyone relevant to these Lakers.  Before starting this book, I had no opinion on Rick Fox, but now I know he's super smart and very insightful.  Pearlman is great at making figures like Fox memorable, and it's what makes his books so strong, both as historical documents and enjoyable reading experiences.  While Pearlman's books are very densely packed with information, he puts in enough style and humor that they don't feel like chores to get through by any stretch of the imagination.    One thing I want to commend Pearlman on in this book specifically is the tone.  While Showtime is a mostly happy ride exploring the nooks and crannies of one of the NBA's most beloved teams, Three-Ring Circus leaves little room for joy (the covers of the books show their respective tones well, with Showtime's featuring most of its figures in states of joy, while Three-Ring Circus has Shaq, Phil Jackson and Kobe making serious faces).  Even when these Lakers are doing well, it's clear that they are only one second away from a complete meltdown.  These Lakers were absolutely brilliant on the court but off the court they were a hot mess featuring a bunch of egos that could never truly co-exist.  There are no heroes in Three-Ring Circus.  Everyone seems to have some level of regret and frustration, and showing the remaining contempt in full detail is one of the book's great accomplishments.    With all that said, the book's handling of Kobe is the one thing that brings it a level below Showtime.  Coming into this book the one thing I knew about it was that Pearlman went too hard on Kobe.  That's not my problem with it.  Yes it is true that Kobe gets a ton of shit throughout this book from pretty much every person interviewed.  If this book has a villain it is undoubtedly him.  My problem is that in his villainy, Kobe... isn't interesting and is the least fleshed-out major character in either book.  Every now and then we hear something about how Kobe was socially awkward or something along those lines to draw a bit of sympathy but it's completely drowned out by passage after passage (some seemingly written by Pearlman alone with no outside insight) about how much of a selfish douchebag he was.  What's especially weird about this decision to make Kobe some two-dimensional asshole is that the book shies away from that portrayal at the end while Kobe is dealing with his rape charge.  If there's any time to make Kobe look bad, it's during that time, and yet that is Kobe appears to be the least-hatable.  I don't have a problem with making Kobe the antagonist to Shaq's protagonist.  I don't have a problem with printing dozens of negative comments about Kobe's demeanor and playstyle.  I don't even have a problem with portraying Kobe's 2004 season in a manner that isn't totally anti-Kobe.  But there needs to be something to connect all of these sections.  As it stands, the lack of depth in Kobe's portrayal for the majority of the book makes it slightly worse than it otherwise could have been.    Despite everything I said in that last paragraph I'm still a huge fan of Three-Ring Circus and think that every basketball fan should read it.  I will absolutely check out more of Pearlman's sports books in the future. 

  After not being a huge fan of Wolf Hall I ended up being very pleasantly surprised by its sequel Bring Up The Bodies.  As a result of how much I liked Bring Up The Bodies I went into The Mirror And The Light with fairly high expectations.  Unfortunately, these expectations were not met, and I feel that this book is a lot more like Wolf Hall than its sequel.    That's not necessarily the worst thing.  Despite my personal apathy towards Wolf Hall from an emotional standpoint, I will admit that it's very well-written and is clearly the result of a lot of research into the time period.  The same good qualities are firmly present in The Mirror And The Light.  Mantel puts in just enough levity to make the book not drag (too much) and it's clear that she knows her stuff.     One thing I will give this book in comparison to Wolf Hall is its character work.  Perhaps it's because we've now spent three books with these characters, but I feel like Mantel is just better at making her characters ones that a reader can get attached to here compared to Wolf Hall.  Thomas Cromwell remains an interesting if unsympathetic protagonist and King Henry is a fascinating central figure as well.    But that's where my praises end because this book does drag a decent amount and it does so without making me care about it.  The fact that I feel so apathetic towards a 750-page book that I just finished is a bad thing.  I don't think The Mirror And The Light is an awful book or even a bad one.  But it is just... lacking something that I know Mantel could provide. 

 Leigh Bardugo is easily my favorite author that I discovered in 2022.  Before last year, I wasn't familiar with her work, but I checked out the Shadow and Bone trilogy due to a friend's recommendation.  I eagerly devoured that and the other four books in the Grishaverse before checking out Ninth House, her first book not primarily targeted at a YA audience.  Ninth House absolutely blew me away as Bardugo proved herself capable of bringing her same writing chops to a more adult and horror-based book.  After finishing Ninth House, I was eagerly looking forward to reading its sequel Hell Bent.    I am pleased to say that Bardugo continues to reward my faith in her as Hell Bent is a really strong sequel.  Generally fantasy sequels build upon their predecessors by expanding the world and raising the stakes.  Hell Bent does both, but in an unusual way.  Ninth House and Hell Bent both primarily take place at Yale University, but Hell Bent (fittingly) doesn't expand geographically, rather metaphysically as many characters literally go to Hell.  I really like what Bardugo does with Hell in this book.  She makes it more of a concept than an actual place and keeps it so that the idea of it is almost more frightening than the place itself.  Of course it still is plenty scary and Bardugo really gets to have fun with the creatures she designs here.  One thing that really stands out about Hell Bent compared to its predecessor is the imagery Bardugo uses.  Making the reader feel present is a key part of making a horror or horror-adjacent novel work and Bardugo's descriptions of the fire and corpses and other terrifying concepts really transplant the reader right next to Alex as she's experiencing everything this book throws at her.    Speaking of Alex, one thing that I really prefer in my sequels is character development and once again Hell Bent provides that.  The quartet of ‘pilgrims' in Alex, Dawes, Turner and Tripp all get a ton of really great stuff here.  Alex was already great, but she cements herself as a top-tier fantasy protagonist here.  Dawes and Turner make strong leaps to become main characters in their own right.  But the biggest pleasant surprise of this book has to be Tripp.  In Ninth House, Tripp is a doofy trust-fund kid with minimal stuff to grab on to, but Bardugo makes him a genuinely sympathetic character here.  Darlington also works really well throughout the book as someone who is always present even if not necessarily in the physical sense.  Every character here is just so good and they make Hell Bent something truly special.    I normally don't start book series before they are finished as I don't want to enter another ASOIAF situation where I am excited for a book that never comes.  I broke that rule due to how much I like Bardugo's writing and I'm glad I did because it allowed me to experience Ninth House and Hell Bent sooner.  Unfortunately it means I have to wait however long for the conclusion of the Alex Stern trilogy to come out.  Needless to say, I eagerly look forward to it.  

 At the end of my review for Wolf Hall, I said that I would read its sequels but I wasn't excited for them.  I am so glad I pushed through despite not liking the first book, as I think Bring Up The Bodies maintains the strong qualities of its predecessor while also improving on its weak points.    Like Wolf Hall, Bring Up The Bodies thrives in its attention to detail and quality of writing, but it tightens up the pacing as it focuses on a much shorter time period.  Wolf Hall takes place over the course of over 30 years while its sequel doesn't even cover one.  I find that this allows the book to breathe a lot more and makes each event matter.  Bring Up The Bodies also has a cleaner narrative that is easier to follow and is more interesting than its predecessor.  Focusing on the downfall of Anne Boleyn through Thomas Cromwell's eyes is a genuine treat as we see exactly what mistakes she makes (and doesn't make) in order to lose favor with Henry.  As all good sequels do, Bring Up The Bodies expands on its returning characters and these three in particular benefit greatly from having another book to explore their personalities.     After reading Bring Up The Bodies, my opinion of its predecessor has gone down.  Knowing that Mantel had this within her makes me wish that Wolf Hall was tighter in a similar way.  As it stands, Bring Up The Bodies is one of my new all-time favorite historical novels, and I can now say I eagerly look forward to reading the conclusion of this trilogy.