Books Read 2023

[Hipolito]

Mass Effect: Invasion by Mac Walters, John Jackson Miller, and Omar Francia (paperback): This comic continues one of the plot threads from the third ME novel, Mass Effect: Retribution. The Omega space station, home to mercenaries and outlaws, is besieged by a new threat. This comic is action from beginnning to end, but it's often hard to tell what's going on in a frame; I have to read several frames ahead to figure out what had happened. The conclusion is a fairly significant development to carry over into Mass Effect 3. Other than that, the plot is mediocre. 3 out of 8 varren.

Some other Mass-Effect-related stuff I've read:

• Mass Effect: Conviction: this mini-comic introduces the character James Vega, who I assume will appear in ME3. Not really interesting, could be told in a single sentence.
• Mass Effect: Deception: this is the fourth and final ME novel to be associated with the original ME game trilogy. I was looking forward to reading it until I heard it was so bad that it's not even considered canon. So instead of reading the novel, I decided to read a fanfiction that attempts to fix it. The fan didn't rewrite the novel; instead, I think he very hastily wrote a summary of the novel, then edited the summary to make it canon-worthy. He didn't bother to fix his countless grammar and spelling mistakes. (I especially like how "threat" is misspelled as "treat.") Despite being a mess, the fanfic tells a reasonably interesting story that I think will segue well into ME3. It's a shame that the novel apparently couldn't pull this off.

[Jaddison]

The Running Man by Richard Bachman(Stephen King)

Wow, just finished listening to this and it was quite the ride. The movie loosely uses the plot of the book but the book is grittier and much much darker. Very enjoyable even though it is so dark. The reader was very good as well. Definitely not the sort of feel good action hero vibe of the movie

[Hipolito]

The Running Man by Richard Bachman(Stephen King)

Wow, just finished listening to this and it was quite the ride. The movie loosely uses the plot of the book but the book is grittier and much much darker. Very enjoyable even though it is so dark. The reader was very good as well. Definitely not the sort of feel good action hero vibe of the movie

I read The Running Man way back in my King phase, around the time the movie came out. (My paperback had Arnold on the cover to promote the movie.) The movie was a cheesy game show, but the book is more like reality TV. I wonder whether King can be said to have predicted reality TV.

You inspired me to listen to a sample of the audiobook. I agree, he's real good.

And speaking of audiobooks, here's my latest read:



The Emperor’s Soul by Brandon Sanderson (audiobook): This is my first Sanderson read outside of The Wheel of Time, and my first delve into his Cosmere universe.

This short (4 hours on audiobook) novel is about a young "forger" who has the magical ability to change the nature of an object by understanding its past. She can create a perfect replica of a painting, or turn an ordinary table into a fancy one. But can she revive a human soul? Her imperial captors demand that she figure out how, if she wants to live.

This book reminded me of Stephen King's Misery which is also about an artist placed under great duress to produce their most important work ever. It also reminded me, oddly, of William Gibson's cyberpunk fiction because of how the forger "hacks" into things, learns their true nature, and changes them. The chemistry between the forger and her chief captor is electrifying thanks to blunt dialogue, emotional intelligence, and the talent of the audiobook narrator, Angela Lin. The novel gets downright poignant and philosophical when it analyzes human nature and the nature of art.

The story became more complex from chapter to chapter, and so does the magic. The magic gets a bit too powerful, almost stealing the spotlight, but ultimately the story's themes and lessons win out. The ending left me astonished and inspired. From the Wheel of Time books, I wasn't sure Brandon Sanderson was a great writer. Now I'm sure. 8 out of 8 soul stamps.

[Isgrimnur]

The Emperor’s Soul by Brandon Sanderson (audiobook): This is my first Sanderson read outside of The Wheel of Time, and my first delve into his Cosmere universe.

I just finished that one myself on Monday.

[Hipolito]

The Emperor’s Soul by Brandon Sanderson (audiobook): This is my first Sanderson read outside of The Wheel of Time, and my first delve into his Cosmere universe.

I just finished that one myself on Monday.

We're soul sistas!

[ImLawBoy]

Finished 15 Seconds by Andrew Gross on Kindle! I must have picked this up as a Kindle First Reads (or whatever it's called) some time ago, because it was sitting way back in my Kindle queue! I should have left it sit there! 15 Seconds is a thriller about a plastic surgeon who, when he gets pulled over in Jacksonville FL where he's speaking at a Doctors Without Borders conference, sees the officer who pulled him over get executed in front of him! Naturally this gets pinned on him and he goes on the run! His daughter gets all caught up in things and the only person who can help him is a community relations worker at the Jacksonville PD! I didn't find the setup particularly plausible, even by thriller standards, and the plot played out pretty much as I expected! What made an unmemorable book particularly bad, though, was the author's excessive use of exclamation points! There were too many of them! It was very distracting! Get an editor who will tell you when to back off on the false excitement provided by punctuation!

[Jaymann]

Too bad he failed to use an exclam in the title!

[Scuzz]

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

This book owes a lot to The Martian. Both deal with survival under some pretty harsh conditions. Both involve a character who is able to adapt to those conditions and find a way to make them work for him. There is a lot of science but it is handled in a way so that even novices like me can read the story and not be overwhelmed, unlike maybe a Stephenson novel.

It is a quick and interesting book. I don't want to spoiler anything so other than to say it it kinda follows a plot like The Martian it becomes more than that.

[Rumpy]

I really liked that book. It was fun and imaginative, and even felt like the best of Arthur C Clarke at times. A lot of heart and humanity in it, and one of the best crafted aliens I've seen in fiction in some time. Felt reasonably fresh because of that.

[Jaymann]

The main character was so similar to The Martian that I imagined him as Whatley/Matt Damon.

[Rumpy]

I found him original enough.

[Jaymann]

Finished:


Did it live up to the hype (rion)? I would say a qualified yes. The series of backstories worked fine, though the one with somewhat of a "reveal" was my least favorite. One thing I did not expect was:

Spoiler:

A cliffhanger ending.

Bought the rest of the series and am ready to continue. 7/8 pilgrims.

[disarm]

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

This book owes a lot to The Martian. Both deal with survival under some pretty harsh conditions. Both involve a character who is able to adapt to those conditions and find a way to make them work for him. There is a lot of science but it is handled in a way so that even novices like me can read the story and not be overwhelmed, unlike maybe a Stephenson novel.

It is a quick and interesting book. I don't want to spoiler anything so other than to say it it kinda follows a plot like The Martian it becomes more than that.

I really liked this one...cool science and a really neat relationship between the two main characters. I'd like to say more, but I don't want to spoil anything because it really does have a cool twist.

[habibi]

Not sure if this is the right thread but there’s a store wide sale in Audible right now! 50% off for most of the mainstream titles and some can go up to 85%

P.S came to this thread to post the sale and was happy to see discussion on Hyperion and Project Hail Mary, both were my fav sci-fi reads.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[habibi]

Finished:


Did it live up to the hype (rion)? I would say a qualified yes. The series of backstories worked fine, though the one with somewhat of a "reveal" was my least favorite. One thing I did not expect was:

Spoiler:

A cliffhanger ending.

Bought the rest of the series and am ready to continue. 7/8 pilgrims.

I enjoyed this one a lot. Book 2 is good as well as it explores each individual backstory (ok, I hope I’m not confusing Book 2 with the first one). But at the end of it, I felt overly tired of the series and did not buy Book 3. It’s in my wish list and I’d like to revisit this one day but, that “silent and probably just a symbolic threat” of a Shrike and it’s tree is wearing me out.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Scuzz]

Finished:


Did it live up to the hype (rion)? I would say a qualified yes. The series of backstories worked fine, though the one with somewhat of a "reveal" was my least favorite. One thing I did not expect was:

Spoiler:

A cliffhanger ending.

Bought the rest of the series and am ready to continue. 7/8 pilgrims.

I enjoyed this one a lot. Book 2 is good as well as it explores each individual backstory (ok, I hope I’m not confusing Book 2 with the first one). But at the end of it, I felt overly tired of the series and did not buy Book 3. It’s in my wish list and I’d like to revisit this one day but, that “silent and probably just a symbolic threat” of a Shrike and it’s tree is wearing me out.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yea, you have your books confused. The second book is good, not as good as the first and done in a different style. I liked it but not enough to run out and buy the next two books.

[El Guapo]

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. LeGuin (audio book)

Part of my "sci-fi fantasy / audio" series this year. This is set in a universe of LeGuin's where there are human colonies scattered around the galaxy that were settled in the distant past, after which space travel disappeared, but now the human worlds are reconnecting and gradually forming a new galactic league. Also the original humans who settled all these worlds conducted a lot of genetic engineering and related experiments, so there are assorted differences between the humans of these various worlds. I think mostly this is all a setup for LeGuin to explore human worlds with different aspects.

In this book the new human galactic league (the Ekumen) has sent an envoy to try to recruit a new world to the league. In this one the key difference is that there's no fixed gender - basically everyone switches regularly between male and female. What's also fascinating is that this isn't really key to the story - they certainly talk about it a lot, but the core plot is following the envoy as he tries to bring the world into the Ekumen. But it also has a lot of background meditations on gender / sex / what it means to be human. Interesting, well written, and pretty philosophical in nature.

[ImLawBoy]

Finished The One and Only Bob by Katherine Applegate. This is another in my series of books I'm reading to my daughter, and it's the sequel to The One and Only Ivan. Bob the mutt is now living with Julia, daughter of George, who was the janitor at the mall where Bob hung out with silverback ape Ivan and baby elephant Ruby. George is now a head groundskeeper at a Florida zoo where Bob and Ruby live, and Julia frequently takes Bob to visit his old friends. On one such visit, a hurricane makes a sooner than expected appearance and chaos reigns at the zoo.

Bob wasn't quite as good as Ivan, but it was still an enjoyable read with my daughter. As with Ivan, the chapters in Bob are pretty short and there's enough drama and laughs to keep everything moving along briskly. It looks like we'll tackle The One and Only Ruby, the just released third book in the series, next.

[Isgrimnur]

The Well of Ascension (Book 2 of the Mistborn series) by Brandon Sanderson
The Hero of Ages (Book 3 of the Mistborn series) by Brandon Sanderson

It's amazing what you forget in a decade+

[Scuzz]

Babel by R.F. Kuang

This is an interesting book that I mostly liked. I will explain my problems with it later. The book takes place mostly in 1830's England, at Oxford University, at the Royal Institute of Translation. The school is housed in a large tower, and is known as Babel. We follow the main character as he grows up to become a student there. The book provides an interesting look at language, it's similarities and differences. How words in different languages, that seemingly mean the same thing can actually be quite different in practice. There is a "magic" system in the book that uses those words and their meanings.

I liked the historical context of the book, and overall this is a very serious book. Race and colonial imperialism are key subjects in this alternative history. The social structure and culture of white 1830's England is microscope to reveal a world built on the backs of everyone not in the upper class. The book is political in the second half and makes some very strong points about the British Empire.

As for the writing, I found the book itself to be a little uneven. The first half being very interesting while disturbing at the same time. When the plot finally kicks in, and the story grows larger, it does have some slow moments. Part of that may be the characters being so young that their teenage angst gets to be too much. But as it winds down you get an ending where you can see it coming, but while you want more you can understand the reasoning for why it ends the way it does.

I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys period pieces, who finds language studies interesting and who likes a little alternative history with their lessons on how corrupt the English colonial system really was.

[Skinypupy]

I recently finished "The Crystal Shard", the first book of The Icewind Dale trilogy by R.A. Salvatore. I'm lukewarm on his writing style (you can literally hear the dice rolling in the background), the characters he created and the world they inhabit are excellent. Starting on "Streams of Silver" next.

Also read "A Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood. That was terrifying.

[hitbyambulance]

Stanislaw Lem - Imaginary Magnitudes : in the presentation style of Borges, a book of prefaces to imaginary books (on such topics as teaching bacteria colonies to communicate with Morse code and AI-generated literature). the English translation also includes parts of another of Lem's books, _Golem XIV_, which is an AI's 'speeches' on humanity and on itself. one of the central themes is that the advanced AI (tho being 1982, it's never referred to in that term) is on a higher plane of intelligence and needs to 'dumb itself' down to communicate with humans at their level, but the creation is necessarily inferior to the creator and thus it shall ever be. there is another AI referenced who is on a yet higher plane of intelligence and doesn't even bother to communicate with the humans - this AI has progressed beyond 'I think, therefore I am' to 'I think, therefore it is' and is able to create by thinking. (the higher realm of AI-generated ('bitic') literature also is incomprehensible to humans.) rough summary but i recommend just for the depth of thought presented here. the Golem XIV speeches don't really fit with the rest of the book, being significantly more dense and time-consuming to parse at times.

[hitbyambulance]

Werner Herzog - The Twilight World : fictionalized account of Hiroo Onoda, the Japanese WWII soldier left on a Philippines island to defend it - and doing so for the next 29 years. the fascinating thing is Herzog actually met up with Onoda and got the story on what actually happened in that time. i get the feeling that Herzog probably wanted to do a documentary film version on this, but it wouldn't work out for any number of reasons and decided to write this novella instead.

[Scuzz]

I recently finished "The Crystal Shard", the first book of The Icewind Dale trilogy by R.A. Salvatore. I'm lukewarm on his writing style (you can literally hear the dice rolling in the background), the characters he created and the world they inhabit are excellent. Starting on "Streams of Silver" next.

Also read "A Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood. That was terrifying.

I felt the same way with his opening Drizzt books. Good characters but kind of a slow style.

[YellowKing]

I recently finished "The Crystal Shard", the first book of The Icewind Dale trilogy by R.A. Salvatore. I'm lukewarm on his writing style (you can literally hear the dice rolling in the background), the characters he created and the world they inhabit are excellent. Starting on "Streams of Silver" next.

On two separate occasions Humble Bundle offered a huge lot of Drizzt novels and between both instances I got the entire series (except for the ones released in the past year or two).

I'm up to around Book 8 or 9 now. They're definitely written at a pretty basic level but they're great for scratching the fantasy itch when you don't want to memorize 100 different characters and two thousands years of backstory. I usually juggle 3 or 4 books at a time, but I always have a Drizzt novel in the rotation since they're such quick easy reads.

[Blackhawk]

I recently finished "The Crystal Shard", the first book of The Icewind Dale trilogy by R.A. Salvatore. I'm lukewarm on his writing style (you can literally hear the dice rolling in the background), the characters he created and the world they inhabit are excellent. Starting on "Streams of Silver" next.

The first six books were good (Crystal, Streams, Halfling's), and the follow-up prequels (Homeland, Exile, Sojourn) were better. After that it became very hit-or-miss, and it didn't help that when D&D 4e came along, Wizards of the Coast decided to jump the timeline forward a century, leaving him to figure out what to do when he's suddenly told that his stories needed to do the same. To be clear, some of the books along the way were good - but not all.

FWIW, when WotC decided to stop publishing fiction, they kept him on as the lone exception, with a few occasional 'guest stars' (Tracy Hickman came in for some new Dragonlance novels, for instance.)

[hitbyambulance]

Drizzle Dourden is to Forgotten Realms what Snake Eyes is to G.I. Joe - never got the appeal

[ImLawBoy]

Finished The Guns of Avalon by Roger Zelazny on Kindle. Book 2 of the Amber series was again a short and easy read, despite the OCR issues with the books in Kindle. Corwin sets about to get unstoppable weapons in his quest to retake the city of Amber, meeting with old frenemies and dealing with the effects of the curse he put on his brother Eric. The book continues to offer no explanation or backstory for some of the more fantastical elements. While that does make things move more quickly than a more detailed telling, it also leaves me a bit unsatisified. I did enjoy book 2 more than book 1, and I'll continue through the series occasionally.

[Jaymann]

I think one of the things I like about Zelazny is an almost total lack of exposition. Though that can at times make things a bit obtuse, I love the trope of you figuring things out as the narrator does. I don't want to spoil anything, but I urge you to read book 3.

[Rumpy]

Just finished Holdout by Jeffery Kluger, a veteran space writer, the one whose Apollo 13 book was used as basis for the Apollo 13 movie. This is a novel mostly set on the ISS, with the other part of the story set in the Amazon. Quite a good read, and one I'd definitely recommend. The premise is about an astronaut who just won't leave the station. I can't say much more without spoiling it.

It seems like there's an increase in novels written by space professionals and astronauts. I've read Buzz Aldrin's Encounter with Tiber, Chris Hadfield's The Apollo Murders (with a new one on the horizon, and now this one. Don't know if there are any others, but I've really enjoyed what I've read.

[ImLawBoy]

Two-fer!

Finished The One and Only Ruby by Katherine Applegate. This was another bedtime book with my daughter, and is the third (and final?) book in the "One and Only" series. The One and Only Ivan was about Ivan the silverback gorilla who lived in a roadside mall circus/zoo. The One and Only Bob was about Bob the stray mutt who hung out with Ivan in his enclosure and eventually moved in with the janitor and his daughter. The One and Only Ruby is about Ruby the young elephant who was originally brought in to help "save" the roadside mall circus/zoo. By this time in the story Ivan and Ruby are living in a proper zoo and the daughter of the mall janitor, who is now a groundskeeper at the zoo, frequently brings Bob to visit. Ruby is nearing her Tuskday, which is an important day for elephants - think of it as her bat mitzvah. She's very nervous about it, and it leads to her recollecting her past when she was separated from her herd in Africa, taken in by a baby elephant orphanage, and then stolen by poachers to be sold in the US. My daughter just turned 9, and I think these books are great for that age. They're not so complicated that they couldn't be read on their own, but I'm enjoying that she still lets me read to her (her twin brother has no time for my slow ass reading).

I also finished The Passenger by Cormac McCarthy. This was my fourth McCarthy book after, in order, The Road, Blood Meridian, and No Country for Old Men, and it's nothing like the prior three. It's heavy on science and at points quite surreal. At times it felt like I was reading a Thomas Pynchon book put through a Cormac McCarthy language/style filter. I'm going to hold off on more commentary until I finish its companion book, Stella Maris.

[El Guapo]

The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick (audio book)

Continuing my sojourn through classic sci fi audio books. Pretty sure that people here are familiar with the premise of this one - alternate history where the Axis won WWII. The book tracks a handful of characters centered mainly in the Japanese-occupied Pacific States of America and the neutral buffer state Rocky Mountain States. Dick's a great writer obviously, and I really enjoyed it. One thing that surprised me is that the book doesn't really have much of an ending exactly - one of the main character meets the titular Man in the High Castle (a writer who wrote an alternate history book where the Allies won) and a couple of the characters get glimpses of alternate time lines and then...the book just sort of ends. From Google I learned that Dick intended to write a sequel to the book, but that doing so would have required him to live in the head of Nazis for too long, and Dick ultimately had no real interest in doing so.

[Scuzz]

Crusaders: The Epic History of the Wars for the Holy Lands by Dan Jones

I thought I would break things up by reading some history. I previously have read some about the period after the Crusades, and the history of Constantinople, but my knowledge of the crusades was pretty limited. Jones does a decent job of showing who the people and events were that led to the Crusades, on both sides. He quotes many texts from the day and supplies a few surprises along the way. This isn't a page turner but I did enjoy it.

Jones basically covers the period of the mid-eleventh century to 1492, when the Muslims were finally driven out of Spain. It is interesting how during this time not only were crusades declared against enemies in the Holy Lands, but also against Muslims in Spain, Pagans in the Baltic areas and against other Christians in France.

[Scuzz]

Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie

This book has some interesting ideas and the main character is pretty unique. Leckie has created a future where ships AI controls the ship itself, the ships connected to it and the soldiers attached to it. They are known as "Ancillaries". The story is told first person, with alternating chapters taking place in the past and in current time, as we learn why things are as they are. And things are not as they seem in the Radch Empire.

Overall I enjoyed the book, however it is hard to make a good connection with the protagonist because AI doesn't show emotion. I don't want to spoil anymore than that although you learn that very early on. As I said, some really interesting ideas that are for the most part carried out successfully. The book has modern, caring characters, combat and political intrigue.

There are two more books in the series but this one can be read as a stand alone. I liked it, but I am not sure if I will continue on to book 2.

[Jeff V]

100 Places to See After You Die by Ken Jennings.

Yes, that Ken Jennings. He reads the audiobook too. Terrific book, taking one on tours of various afterlife myths ranging from the absurd (Christian, Muslim, Greek, Roman) to the plausibly amusing (The Simpsons). It's not very long, but it's well researched, and covers many religions and pop culture. The pacing is great, the humor spot-on...it's just really well done.

[Jaymann]

Finally finished:


It was good, bordering on great and provided some answers, but literally took a huge step back. One thing I did not like:

Spoiler:

If the AI were so damn smart how could they not have had a backup location? Maybe they did and I will find out later.

I will continue on with the series, but not right away.

[Unagi]

100 Places to See After You Die by Ken Jennings.

Yes, that Ken Jennings. He reads the audiobook too. Terrific book, taking one on tours of various afterlife myths ranging from the absurd (Christian, Muslim, Greek, Roman) to the plausibly amusing (The Simpsons). It's not very long, but it's well researched, and covers many religions and pop culture. The pacing is great, the humor spot-on...it's just really well done.

I’ll need to add this to my list. It sounds like it would be my kind of humor.

[ImLawBoy]

I also finished The Passenger by Cormac McCarthy. This was my fourth McCarthy book after, in order, The Road, Blood Meridian, and No Country for Old Men, and it's nothing like the prior three. It's heavy on science and at points quite surreal. At times it felt like I was reading a Thomas Pynchon book put through a Cormac McCarthy language/style filter. I'm going to hold off on more commentary until I finish its companion book, Stella Maris.

And now I've finished Stella Maris.

The Passenger largely follows Bobby Western. The book opens with the suicide of his sister, Alicia, who was institutionalized at a facility called Stella Maris in Wisconsin. Each of the chapters begins with a lengthy flashback of Alicia's where she talks to The Kid, who appears to be a figment of her imagination and started appearing to her, along with a revolving cast of friends, when she started menstruating. Bobby is currently a salvage diver based out of New Orleans. He's terrified of depths. He's kind of floating through life and has been since the death of his parents, who worked on the Manhattan Project (father as a scientist, mother as a laborer dealing with uranium refinement). Bobby is trained as a physicist, but has also acted as a race car driver in Europe among other things. The "plot" of the book, and I use the term loosely, has to do with a submerged plane with a mysteriously missing passenger. After the dive, government agents of some sort start stalking Bobby. Bobby is in constant mourning for his sister. This summary is a bit all over the place, but so is the book.

Stella Maris is a series of interview transcripts between Alicia and her therapist at the Stella Maris facility, where she placed herself. At the time of the interviews Bobby is in a coma in Italy resulting from a crash during a race, and she presumes it is fatal. Alicia is fantastically brilliant and is technically still enrolled as a doctoral student in topological mathematics at the University of Chicago, where she started at the age of 14. The interviews delve deeply into mathematics and philosophy. It can be tricky to follow everything, but Alicia has such a distinctive voice that it was easy to read even as I didn't always understand the meaning of the concepts.

I stand by my "Pynchon through a McCarthy filter" comment from earlier. Specifically, it felt akin to parts of Gravity's Rainbow (another book I didn't always understand!). It was interesting to read in today's environment with the release of Oppenheimer given the discussion of the Manhattan Project in the books. On top of that, McCarthy's death while I was reading his musings on death/mortality gave it some extra weight. The ending of Stella Maris (i.e., the final interview) was powerful.

Worth reading. If you picked only one to read, I'd make it The Passenger, as I don't think Stella Maris would make much sense without the context of the former. That said, Stella Maris adds much to the experience of The Passenger, so I'd recommend reading them both.

[coopasonic]

I finished the second Mistborn series recently and it made me want to revisit the original trilogy. I am getting started on the second book now and holy hell, I know it has been a while, but I barely remembered anything from the original book.

I am honestly amazed at the ability many of you show to remember things from stuff you saw years ago. It seems like I have pretty much no recollection of details of anything outside the past year or two. I don't think this is a recent development (ie age related). I think I just play so many different games that the new material just pushes out the old. Part of it may be that I rarely replay, reread or rewatch anything so the memories don't get reinforced.

Anyway just wanted to share that it looks like I can save a lot of money by just reading books I already have and it will be just like I am reading them for the first time!

[Jaymann]

I finished the second Mistborn series recently and it made me want to revisit the original trilogy. I am getting started on the second book now and holy hell, I know it has been a while, but I barely remembered anything from the original book.

I am honestly amazed at the ability many of you show to remember things from stuff you saw years ago. It seems like I have pretty much no recollection of details of anything outside the past year or two. I don't think this is a recent development (ie age related). I think I just play so many different games that the new material just pushes out the old. Part of it may be that I rarely replay, reread or rewatch anything so the memories don't get reinforced.

I'm the same way, have even bought books I've already read. But I still don't intentionally reread or re-watch. I figure there is still too much good stuff to discover.