Books Read 2024

[ImLawBoy]

Finished Courts of Chaos by Roger Zelazny. This is book 5 of the Amber series, and the conclusion of the first cycle. I got all 10 books in a super cheap, poorly OCR'd bundle on Kindle some time back and have been working through them. This type of fantasy is well outside my usual wheelhouse, but they're considered classics of a sort, so I gave it a shot. In this version, many of the mysteries of the first four books come together as we finally get a showdown beteen Amber and Chaos. It was . . . OK. I never got quite used to the writing style and how much just goes unexplained in terms of the mechanics of the world. I'm not sure I'll go back and finish the next 5-book cycle, but I've got it electronically if I ever decide I need to.

[Jaymann]

Glad you stuck with it to see for yourself. Funny, I love Zelazny's writing style and even try to emulate it to some extent. Many writing gurus tell you not to write in first person, but I like it because you don't need to describe the whole world, just what the protagonist experiences.

The next 5 books are about a completely different character, and were not as well received. You might want to try the first one to see if it is your cuppa.

[Zarathud]

I’m tempted to reread my paper Amber series once I finish the Spellmonger series. Zelazny is an easy read, and the world is compelling even if not always explained. I even have the framed original ink for a page from an Amber graphic novel hanging in my office.

[Jeff V]

Uncultured by Daniella Mestyanek Young

Wow. This is a true story of someone born into a cult where Jesus was everything and the first time she had to "give it up for Jesus" was, as she could recall, at age 5. That she was able to even survive the horrors of her childhood in a cult (Children of God) was remarkable enough, but then she eventually was an officer in the US Army and parallels existed there as well. Her time in the cult was characterized through ritualistic abuse always followed by rape. And she was raised to think this was totally normal.

That she now seems to have a normal life is a real testament to human will and resiliency. You have to greatly admire someone who survived and now thrives after being raised in such a horror show.

[YellowKing]

Surely You Can't Be Serious: The True Story of Airplane! - David Zucker

This was an entertaining account told by the Kentucky Fried Theater troupe in their own words about their start, culminating in the production and release of Airplane! Learned a lot of neat trivia about the film and their unlikely rise to fame.

Jade Legacy - Fonda Lee

This was the conclusion of the Green Bone Saga, and man did I enjoy this trilogy. I've already spoken about it with the previous two books and how it mixes magic, martial arts, and Mafia with some really strong characters.

This third and final book is maybe a little divisive, as it has a lot of time jumps to wrap up the sweeping epic. I was really satisfied with the conclusion, though ultimately I think I enjoyed the first two books slightly more since they weren't making big leaps forward chronologically. Either way, I really recommend this series if you're looking for a fantasy that is grounded in a modern world not dissimilar from our own.

[Isgrimnur]

The Spy in Moscow Station: A Counterspy's Hunt for a Deadly Cold War Threat

[stessier]

Over the weekend, I finished Death's End - the last book in the Three Body Problem trilogy. I liked books 1 & 2. I don't know about book 3 - I don't feel it really stuck the landing. I've been trying to figure out how much of it felt off because of the foreign viewpoint and how much was just a failure in execution. I feel like the parts I wanted in-depth answers on were barely addressed while things that didn't seem consequential at all got 50 pages. It was worth reading but I was a bit bummed at the end. I also wish the Netflix showrunners luck - there is a lot to cram into 3 seasons and I suspect they are going to have to change the ending to make it work.

[disarm]

Over the weekend, I finished Death's End - the last book in the Three Body Problem trilogy.

Now you should read The Redemption of Time by Baoshu. It's an 'unofficial' fourth book in the series... technically a piece of fan fiction, but endorsed by the author of the original trilogy as a worthy continuation/ending of the story. The plot revolves around Yuan Tianming's frozen brain and the ultimate fate of the universe. I thought it was a surprisingly interesting read that does fit well with the original story and provides a satisfying conclusion.

[YellowKing]

Whalefall- Daniel Kraus

This one has been on my list to read ever since it came out. I interviewed Daniel Kraus a few months ago for my horror podcast because he was promoting a new horror comic he had written. Really cool guy, very down to earth. He is perhaps most famous for co-writing The Shape of Water with Guillermo del Toro, as well as finishing two unfinished novels by the late George Romero.

Whalefall is the story of a diver that gets swallowed by a sperm whale. Forget Pinocchio and the story of Jonah, this is a realistic depiction of what would be theoretically possible. Really fascinating read (and whales fascinate me anyway), so I can definitely give it a high recommend. It's a short book, a very quick read, and just came out in paperback so put it on your beach reads list for next summer.

[Scuzz]

Fool's Errand by Robin Hobb

This is technically book 11 of the Realm of the Elderlings series. It is also book 1 of the Tawny Man Trilogy. Somehow I missed this trilogy when I first read Hobb's and so I have read the final 3 books and know how things turn out, but that didn't change my enjoyment of this book and returning to these characters. In fact I can know see Hobb's foreshadowing the events of the final trilogy.

While this book is book one of a trilogy it could easily be read as a standalone. Hobb's does conclude the story within the book and does a very good job reviewing the events of the first trilogy which explains how are lead character, FitzChivalry Farseer, gets to this point in the story. This book starts up roughly 15 years after the end of the first trilogy. I have to admit I love the main characters in this book and what Hobb's does with them. The books are character driven, and while the first trilogy starts very slowly this book moves along at a pretty good pace, at least for Hobbs.

In total there are 16 books to this series, and I would recommend all the books featuring the Fool and Fitz. I have read one of the other trilogies and while the story was fine I just couldn't get into the characters. The other 4 books also involve those characters and are considered the weakest, and I have no desire to find out. The part they play in the overall 16 book story line are pretty minimal.

[Scuzz]

So not to take this thread somewhere else but I thought I would share a part of our recent trip to Portland to visit my daughter, and our trek to Powell's City of Books. This is the second time we have made this trip and now we joke that we are happy to see my daughter but that the main purpose of the trip is Powells.

So this is what I came home with and will be reading in the near future. There are a combination of new and used books, depending on what I could find and the quality of the used books.

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
Ringworld by Larry Niven
Timescape by Gregory Benford
The Reality Dysfunction, books 1 and 2, by Peter Hamilton
Consider Phlebas by Iain Banks
House of Suns by Alistar Reynolds
Aurora Rising by Alistar Reynolds

One last note about Portland itself, my daughter lives in the Nob Hill area, a wonderful area for walking and for the nightlife, although the homeless problem Portland has is very evident. Our hotel offered free trolley tickets and it ran right in front of the hotel which made trips to downtown very cheap and very easy. We rode the trolley to Powell's and to the Deschutes Public House.

[El Guapo]

A Scanner Darkly (audiobook), by Philip K. Dick

Just finished this. Been going through a lot of Philip K. Dick books on audio book lately. I do have to say that this is probably my least favorite one, largely because it's less of a sci-fi story and more of a recounting of his days living in a house of drug addicts. As I understand it Dick himself was a drug addict for awhile and so lived among them. As tends to happen to long-term drug addicts, they tended to suffer bad fates of one type or another. The characters in the book are all modeled on friends of his from that era in his life. There's a sci-fi sheen to the story wherein the characters are mainly addicted to a fictional drug called "Substance D" (and there are various allusions that indicate that it's essentially "Substance Death"). The focus of the story is on the drug house, which is also being investigated by the police, who wear cloaking suits that hide their individual identities.

There's a plot centered around the police investigation, the source of Substance D, and its effects on its users (which can cause them to develop split personalities and various other mental defects). But the core of the story is the drug users hanging out, using drugs, and shooting the shit. Which is...pretty boring TBH. Almost bailed out a couple times. One thing that kept me in was that the audiobook is read by Paul GIamatti, who I love and who does a great job. But otherwise... wouldn't really recommend unless you're looking mainly for stories about declining drug users rather than a sci-fi story.

[Jaymann]

So not to take this thread somewhere else but I thought I would share a part of our recent trip to Portland to visit my daughter, and our trek to Powell's City of Books. This is the second time we have made this trip and now we joke that we are happy to see my daughter but that the main purpose of the trip is Powells.

So this is what I came home with and will be reading in the near future. There are a combination of new and used books, depending on what I could find and the quality of the used books.

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke DNF, not my cuppa.
Ringworld by Larry Niven Good one.
Timescape by Gregory Benford Never read for some reason and I'm a sucker for time travel stories.
The Reality Dysfunction, books 1 and 2, by Peter Hamilton Read, don't remember much but Hamilton almost always delivers.
Consider Phlebas by Iain Banks Read, enjoyed.
House of Suns by Alistar Reynolds Read, excellent!
Aurora Rising by Alistar Reynolds Have not read.

I have actually read most of those. Comments above.

[Jaymann]

A Scanner Darkly (audiobook), by Philip K. Dick

Just finished this. Been going through a lot of Philip K. Dick books on audio book lately. I do have to say that this is probably my least favorite one, largely because it's less of a sci-fi story and more of a recounting of his days living in a house of drug addicts. As I understand it Dick himself was a drug addict for awhile and so lived among them. As tends to happen to long-term drug addicts, they tended to suffer bad fates of one type or another. The characters in the book are all modeled on friends of his from that era in his life. There's a sci-fi sheen to the story wherein the characters are mainly addicted to a fictional drug called "Substance D" (and there are various allusions that indicate that it's essentially "Substance Death"). The focus of the story is on the drug house, which is also being investigated by the police, who wear cloaking suits that hide their individual identities.

There's a plot centered around the police investigation, the source of Substance D, and its effects on its users (which can cause them to develop split personalities and various other mental defects). But the core of the story is the drug users hanging out, using drugs, and shooting the shit. Which is...pretty boring TBH. Almost bailed out a couple times. One thing that kept me in was that the audiobook is read by Paul GIamatti, who I love and who does a great job. But otherwise... wouldn't really recommend unless you're looking mainly for stories about declining drug users rather than a sci-fi story.

One of my favorites back in the day. But back then I had...ahem, personal experience with the subject matter.

[Isgrimnur]

We're glad that you made it out the other side.

[El Guapo]

A Scanner Darkly (audiobook), by Philip K. Dick

Just finished this. Been going through a lot of Philip K. Dick books on audio book lately. I do have to say that this is probably my least favorite one, largely because it's less of a sci-fi story and more of a recounting of his days living in a house of drug addicts. As I understand it Dick himself was a drug addict for awhile and so lived among them. As tends to happen to long-term drug addicts, they tended to suffer bad fates of one type or another. The characters in the book are all modeled on friends of his from that era in his life. There's a sci-fi sheen to the story wherein the characters are mainly addicted to a fictional drug called "Substance D" (and there are various allusions that indicate that it's essentially "Substance Death"). The focus of the story is on the drug house, which is also being investigated by the police, who wear cloaking suits that hide their individual identities.

There's a plot centered around the police investigation, the source of Substance D, and its effects on its users (which can cause them to develop split personalities and various other mental defects). But the core of the story is the drug users hanging out, using drugs, and shooting the shit. Which is...pretty boring TBH. Almost bailed out a couple times. One thing that kept me in was that the audiobook is read by Paul GIamatti, who I love and who does a great job. But otherwise... wouldn't really recommend unless you're looking mainly for stories about declining drug users rather than a sci-fi story.

One of my favorites back in the day. But back then I had...ahem, personal experience with the subject matter.

Yeah, glad you made it out ok.

And yes, I could imagine with a more personal connection that would change the impact of the story substantially. But I was looking for cyberpunk, and instead I got a personal story about drug use.

[Scuzz]

So not to take this thread somewhere else but I thought I would share a part of our recent trip to Portland to visit my daughter, and our trek to Powell's City of Books. This is the second time we have made this trip and now we joke that we are happy to see my daughter but that the main purpose of the trip is Powells.

So this is what I came home with and will be reading in the near future. There are a combination of new and used books, depending on what I could find and the quality of the used books.

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke DNF, not my cuppa.
Ringworld by Larry Niven Good one.
Timescape by Gregory Benford Never read for some reason and I'm a sucker for time travel stories.
The Reality Dysfunction, books 1 and 2, by Peter Hamilton Read, don't remember much but Hamilton almost always delivers.
Consider Phlebas by Iain Banks Read, enjoyed.
House of Suns by Alistar Reynolds Read, excellent!
Aurora Rising by Alistar Reynolds Have not read.

I have actually read most of those. Comments above.

I am kinda leery about Piranesi myself but I thought I would give it a try.

[hitbyambulance]

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

i am reading this now and am enjoying it (i also thought _Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell_ was easily one of the better books i read that year, so take this for what it's worth)

A Scanner Darkly by Philip K. Dick

this is one of my favorite PKDs and i have given it away as a gift several times (i also like his non-SF stuff, so take this for what it's worth - but this isn't exactly normality fiction either, as the whole conceit behind this story is absolutely absurd and effectively trippy)

[ImLawBoy]

Two-fer!

First up is The Curse of the Werepenguin by Allan Woodrow. This was a bedtime book with my daughter, and it follows young Bolt, an orphan who is sent to mysterious Brugaria to live with the also mysterious Baron Chordata. In Brugaria, there is always a full moon and the land is filled with penguins. It turns out that the Baron has determined that Bolt has the special birthmark that allows him to be turned into a horrifying werepenguin, just like the Baron. The Baron wants to turn Bolt so that they can together use their psychic connection with the local penguins to rule Brugaria for eternity. Yes, it's all as silly as it sounds. Lots of laughs and a good book to read with kids.

On a more adult level, I also read Dr. No by Percival Everett. I learned about Everett from the newspaper, where the book columnist suggested he may be America's greatest living novelist. I hadn't heard of him, but his newest novel James is getting a lot of buzz. It's a retelling of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from the perspective of Jim. It's been decades since I've read that, though, so I didn't want to start with something from Everett that I might not get. I picked up Dr. No instead. It's not the Dr. No of James Bond fame, but it's adjacent. Wala Kitu is a genius professor of math at Brown whose major focus is on the study of nothing. He is recruited by eccentric billionaire John Sills, who sees himself as a Bond-esque villain out to punish the US for its treatment of Black people. He needs Kitu because he knows so much about nothing. The book satirizes the conventions of the spy thriller without falling into the parody territory of Austin Powers or Derek Flint. It also provides social commentary and an odd cameo by a character from The Exorcist. It was a relatively easy read for a "high literature" type of book, too. Recommended.

[Scuzz]

Two-fer!

First up is The Curse of the Werepenguin by Allan Woodrow. This was a bedtime book with my daughter, and it follows young Bolt, an orphan who is sent to mysterious Brugaria to live with the also mysterious Baron Chordata. In Brugaria, there is always a full moon and the land is filled with penguins. It turns out that the Baron has determined that Bolt has the special birthmark that allows him to be turned into a horrifying werepenguin, just like the Baron. The Baron wants to turn Bolt so that they can together use their psychic connection with the local penguins to rule Brugaria for eternity. Yes, it's all as silly as it sounds. Lots of laughs and a good book to read with kids.

On a more adult level, I also read Dr. No by Percival Everett. I learned about Everett from the newspaper, where the book columnist suggested he may be America's greatest living novelist. I hadn't heard of him, but his newest novel James is getting a lot of buzz. It's a retelling of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from the perspective of Jim. It's been decades since I've read that, though, so I didn't want to start with something from Everett that I might not get. I picked up Dr. No instead. It's the Dr. No of James Bond fame, but it's adjacent. Wala Kitu is a genius professor of math at Brown whose major focus is on the study of nothing. He is recruited by eccentric billionaire John Sills, who sees himself as a Bond-esque villain out to punish the US for its treatment of Black people. He needs Kitu because he knows so much about nothing. The book satirizes the conventions of the spy thriller without falling into the parody territory of Austin Powers or Derek Flint. It also provides social commentary and an odd cameo by a character from The Exorcist. It was a relatively easy read for a "high literature" type of book, too. Recommended.

I always like a Derek Flint reference.

[Scuzz]

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

The hardest part about trying to write a review of this book is not spoiling anything. So if this lacks specifics that is why. The book is told in first person by the character known as Piranesi, who lives in a huge house seemingly only inhabited by himself, except for birds and creatures brought in by the ocean tides. That's right, this house has an ocean that supplies Piranesi with what he needs to survive.

The first 1/3 of the book is fairly slow, as we learn about the world thru the entries of a journal kept by Piranesi. But eventually the story breaks out into a mystery with possibly dangerous implications. The writing is crisp and imaginative, and this becomes a very quick read, also it is short at under 250 pages.

You have to be patient with the the beginning, but the last 2/3 of the book is rewarding and Clarke gives us a good finish. I would recommend this to anyone who wants something a little different. Also this is classified as fantasy, and other than one feature that is not fully explained, I am not sure this even qualifies as fantasy, but no spoilers here.

[ImLawBoy]

I loved Piranesi. I wrote it up when I first read it and had the same challenge as you did. So much of the fun is in watching the mystery unfold that you don't want to spoil it for anyone.

[coopasonic]

Let's just take this conversation to a third thread, shall we...

Just finished a 4 player game of Escape from Colditz. It was the first time I played with more than 2 and with anyone other than Isgrimnur. It took 4 hours (I was the only one that had played before, playing the security officers) but it was a pretty tense affair. The polish managed to get their second POW out through a tunnel and over a wall with support from the english and americans with 6 turns left.

Prisoners of the Castle: An Epic Story of Survival and Escape from Colditz, the Nazis' Fortress Prison $6.99

I finally read this and it was interesting. I rarely read non-fiction and I know next to nothing about WWII, despite having had two grandparents that were there - one of which was even a POW but not at Colditz, but now I know a tiny bit of something about one facet of the war.

[Hipolito]

Leech by Hiron Ennes (audiobook): A young doctor arrives at an aristocratic family's dilapidated château to replace their previous doctor who died under mysterious circumstances. The new doctor belongs to a medical hive-mind community, so they have instant access to experts, textbooks, and test subjects as they investigate the previous doctor's death. But they have to contend with a nasty parasite as well as the family, which includes the cruel old baron who is being kept alive by steampunk contraptions, a mute manservant with a tail, and two strange and mischievous twin girls. They also have to be really careful about leaving the château, not just because of the freezing cold but also because of the threat of monsters that have ravaged the world.

With all the cool concepts and themes, I thought I would love this book. But I never felt interested in the story at all. Maybe there were too many weird and disparate ideas for my brain to handle.

The audiobook narrator, Abigail Thorn of Philosophy Tube, is a good actress. Her thick voice and British accent convey the pain and resentment appropriate for the story. But sometimes she doesn't make two different characters' voices different enough, making me confused about who's saying what. She also gives some characters a heavy French accent which I found very difficult to understand. 2 out of 8 phials.

[Scuzz]

Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree

I have been curious about this book for quite a while and since my daughter owned it I finally decided to give it a read, and I am glad I did. There are no great battles, no world saving and legendary beasts, but there are interesting characters who happen to be orcs, gnomes, succubus's (sp0 and dire cats. The book is like a Hallmark movie with D&D characters, and I don't mean that as a negative. The author has put fun characters into an imaginative story with a good feel about it.

I don't think I have read anything else that qualifies as a "cozy fantasy", and I may not read another, but this book was worth the read. I also don't recall reading anything that made me want a cup of hot coffee and a cinnamon roll so badly.

[Isgrimnur]

Moving Pictures by Terry Pratchett.

The Hollywood parodies went on a bit much, enough that parts of the book were a struggle to get through, but the ending brought it up a notch.

[raydude]

Bridge to the Sun: The Secret Role of the Japanese Americans who Fought in the Pacific in WW2 by Bruce Henderson

The author focuses on the lives of several Nisei who ended up working in the US Military Intelligence Service as interpreters, translators, and interrogators in the Pacific Theater during WW2. He follows their lives from high school - which was spent in Japan, then to the pre-war years, and then signing on to MIS and serving in the Pacific. Each person is tied to a particular battle, i.e. the Battle for the Aleutian islands, Burma, Okinawa, and others. He also includes an epilogue in the back where he gives a brief summary of their lives after the war.

This was a great read and a good find; I knew about the Japanese Americans in the 442nd Regimental Combat Team and the 100th Battalion which served in the European Theater, but I often wondered whether any Japanese Americans were sent to the Pacific. This book answers that question and does so very well.

[Isgrimnur]

Sold.

[ImLawBoy]

Finished Creature Feature by various authors. This was a collection of 6 horror stories by 6 different authors - Joe Hill (The Pram), Grady Hendrix (Ankle Snatcher), Josh Mallerman (It Waits in the Woods), Paul Tremblay (In Bloom), Jason Mott (Best of Luck), and Chandler Baker (Big Bad). They are available for free for Amazon Prime subscribers and they show up as individual books, although listing them as such felt like cheating since they're so short. The worst of the stories (In Bloom by Tremblay) is still pretty OK, and the others are various shades of good to excellent. If you're looking for some creepy short stories for the Halloween season and have Prime, these are no-brainers.

[Hipolito]

Blacktop Wasteland by S. A. Cosby (audiobook): Beauregard Montage was the best street racer and getaway driver in all of Red Hill County, Virginia. (And probably a much larger geographical area, but this crime novel stays local.) He gave up the criminal life to become an auto body shop owner and loving family man. But when money gets tight, he's tempted to return to his wild old ways.

The first half of the book has some action but is mostly work and family drama. It builds the tension inside Beauregard, who doesn't want to end up like his absentee criminal father. The second half scorches with action and compounding crises, making the book hard to put down. The tension is eased a bit by hilariously awful metaphors reminiscent of detective noir. (For example, "the needle on the temperature gauge was so far in the red, it needed to file for bankruptcy.")

The audiobook narrator, Adam Lazarre-White, speaks with a slow drawl that makes the story easy to follow, and brings out the emotion of the finely crafted dialogue. 6 out of 8 Tastee-Freez milkshakes.

[hitbyambulance]

William Gibson - _Distrust That Particular Flavor_ : over the past 30+ years i've read practically everything he's ever released*, so i decided to finally finish out with this short 'essay' (magazine/newspaper articles, long-form pieces, forewords to other books, talks, etc) compilation spanning from 1986-ish to 2010. i'd only read two or three of these before elsewhere. his writing is always highly enjoyable for me, but having these all together starts to show some repetition of motif (and how often can one invoke "Borgesian labyrinths"?). all the writings end with a little commentary, and there are a number where he freely confesses that he really didn't know what he was talking about, or he did it for the money and travel junket, or he basically phoned it in...


* haven't bothered with the Alien 3 screenplay novelization by Pat Cadigan or the graphic novel version

[Jaymann]

The Forgetting Moon
Book 1 of The Five Warrior Angels
By Brian Lee Dufree



This is medieval fantasy by a lesser known (but not self published) writer. Essentially swords without much sorcery. I found him on some book review site and he convinced me to give it a shot. Rated 4.3 on Amazon and 4.0 on Goodreads.

It is a thick tome, weighing in at 775 pages. It starts off a little slow and I had to push myself to read on, and I'm glad I did. It is full of war, palace intrigue, suffering heroes, and dastardly villains. There is talk of battles, but most of that happens off camera. Instead we get characters who are fairly well fleshed out, and I cared about (most of) them by the end. Some legendary imbued items but no magic system or wizards. Will definitely continue with the series. 7/8 twisted sisters.

[Scuzz]

The Forgetting Moon
Book 1 of The Five Warrior Angels
By Brian Lee Dufree



This is medieval fantasy by a lesser known (but not self published) writer. Essentially swords without much sorcery. I found him on some book review site and he convinced me to give it a shot. Rated 4.3 on Amazon and 4.0 on Goodreads.

It is a thick tome, weighing in at 775 pages. It starts off a little slow and I had to push myself to read on, and I'm glad I did. It is full of war, palace intrigue, suffering heroes, and dastardly villains. There is talk of battles, but most of that happens off camera. Instead we get characters who are fairly well fleshed out, and I cared about (most of) them by the end. Some legendary imbued items but no magic system or wizards. Will definitely continue with the series. 7/8 twisted sisters.

He is also a book tuber and is well respected by other book tubers as an author. I think he recently had a serious health issue as he was reporting from a hospital bed.

[Scuzz]

Pushing Ice by Alistair Reynolds

In the year 2057 the spaceship Rockhopper, an ice pusher, is called on to follow for as long as it can a moon of Saturn which has suddenly left orbit and is heading out of the solar system. So starts this book. The idea itself is interesting and Reynolds is a very imaginative writer, but at least for me this book lacks characters that you can care about. This is definitely a plot driven book. In fact plot takes over so much that the characters seem to often have no rational reason for some of their actions.

This is the third book I have read by Reynolds and it is by far my least favorite. I would recommend anyone wanting to read one of his standalones try either Eversion or Century Rain.

[paulbaxter]

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

The hardest part about trying to write a review of this book is not spoiling anything. So if this lacks specifics that is why. The book is told in first person by the character known as Piranesi, who lives in a huge house seemingly only inhabited by himself, except for birds and creatures brought in by the ocean tides. That's right, this house has an ocean that supplies Piranesi with what he needs to survive.

The first 1/3 of the book is fairly slow, as we learn about the world thru the entries of a journal kept by Piranesi. But eventually the story breaks out into a mystery with possibly dangerous implications. The writing is crisp and imaginative, and this becomes a very quick read, also it is short at under 250 pages.

You have to be patient with the the beginning, but the last 2/3 of the book is rewarding and Clarke gives us a good finish. I would recommend this to anyone who wants something a little different. Also this is classified as fantasy, and other than one feature that is not fully explained, I am not sure this even qualifies as fantasy, but no spoilers here.

I read and loved Piranesi as well, love how the book provides some very obvious QUESTIONS at the beginning and only slowly provides answers. It can certainly be enjoyed on a a surface plot level, but also, the book appears to really refer to the ideas of Owen Barfield and other Brit thinkers from 100 year ago. If you were to read Barfield's book, Saving the Appearances, you'd definitely see those influences.

Good discussion of that here, if you're interested.

[ImLawBoy]

Two-fer!

First up is a book with my daughter, How to Steal a Dog by Barbara O'Connor. It's the heartwarming tale of a 12-ish year old girl, her younger brother, and her mother who have been abandoned by the husband/father and kicked out of their apartment, and are thus forced to live in their car. The girl sees signs offering a $500 reward for a lost dog, so she has an idea. She'll steal a dog, wait for someone to offer a $500 reward, and then collect the reward so she has a place to live. Simple! You'll be shocked to learn that things don't go as planned. I liked this book because I think it gives young readers a real sense of what it might be like to be disadvantaged, from washing up in a Denny's bathroom before school to having your friends fade away. It doesn't go overboard with the message, which lets it hit home.

On a more adult level, I finished The Devil Takes You Home by Gabino Iglesias. The author was touting a super low price for the book, which won a Bram Stoker award, on Bluesky, so I grabbed it without knowing anything about it. I can best describe it as a narco-horror-noir. Mario is our narrator, and he starts off with how his 4-year old daughter dies from cancer, he loses his job, and his marriage falls apart. A meth-head/dealer and former co-worker, Brian, recruits him to do some hits, and in his desperation to pay his medical debts and feel something, he agrees. Soon Brian recruits him into a "one last job" type of scheme with Juanca, who works for a Mexican cartel. The plan is to ambush a rival cartel's money delivery and get $200K each, with the rest going to their cartel boss. You'll be shocked to know that things don't go as planned.

This is more than just a crime thriller, though. The book has supernatural elements throughout, including Catholic witchcraft of a sort. There are horrific criaturas that populate the tunnels they use to cross the border, and ghosts pop up now and then to try to warn Mario. Mario and Juanca are both acutely aware of the racism they face that Brian, as a gringo, doesn't have to deal with. It's also unsparing in its depiction of graphic violence. The plot keeps you guessing until the end, and this one will stick with me for a while. Be forewarned - there's a quite a bit of Spanish dialog in the book, and it usually goes untranslated. Between my grades 7-12 Spanish classes and context I never felt lost by it, but it's possible/probable I missed some stuff here and there. If you don't have any Spanish background, this would likely be a challenge.

[YellowKing]

Mister B. Gone - Clive Barker - I'm a big Clive Barker fan, but didn't care for this one very much. It's told from the viewpoint of a demon getting cast out on earth and his various adventures. It was just a bit too whimsical and preachy for me (case in point, the demon is constantly asking the reader to burn the book). I just didn't like the huge departure in style, and found it kind of nonsensical and trite.

Star Trek: The Next Generation - Rogue Saucer - John Vornholt - I'm slowly working my way through a bunch of Star Trek novels I got on the cheap. This one I actually enjoyed quite a bit. I think because The Next Generation is the Trek I grew up with, I tend to enjoy the TNG novels a bit more than original series books as they better play out as an episode in my head.

Promise of the Witch-King - R.A. Salvatore - I liked this one more than the previous installment, but I can say I'm still not a big fan of this Sellsword trilogy. As I pointed out last book, it departs from Drizzt to tell an adventure of Jarlaxle and Entreri teaming up. I'm not a particularly big fan of either of those villains, so I haven't found this series to be particularly fun. I'm probably in the minority, as I think this is a popular series, but for me I just can't wait to get back to Drizzt.

[Isgrimnur]

The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill v1, Visions of Glory, 1874–1932

The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill v2, Alone, 1932-1940

[Scuzz]

The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill v1, Visions of Glory, 1874–1932

The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill v2, Alone, 1932-1940

I have the third book but haven’t read it.

Erik Larson wrote a good book on Churchill as well.

[ImLawBoy]

Finished You Like It Darker by Stephen King. I always enjoy King's short fiction, so this was a no-brainer for me. The selling point of this collection was a return to an old character, Vic Trenton - the patriarch of the ill fated family from Cujo. His story, "Rattlesnakes", take place on Rattlesnake Key in Florida during the early part of COVID. Interestingly, there are real supernatural elements to this story, while they were only hinted at in the original Cujo, where the real horror was nature and rabies. It also calls back to King's novel Duma Key (which wasn't one of my favorites). Overall the collection was good, with 3 or 4 stories that didn't even have supernatural elements at all. If you like King's short fiction, this is likely for you.