Books Read 2023

[Madmarcus]

Having broken my book silence I suppose I should post what I'm reading even though I am horrible at reviewing things.

Raven Stratagem and Revenant Gun by Yoon Ha Lee. I read Nine Fox Gambit at the end of last year. I like the world and characters but Revenant Gun was not as good as the first two. In many senses I felt that it went in directions that made sense in the world but didn't make a satisfying story.

River of Stars by Guy Gavriel Kay. I'm a sucker for Kay's big historical fantasies and a sucker for Chinese history so I loved this one. In some ways it reminds me of an early book in A Song of Ice and Fire but without the underlying feeling that any character could die at any time.

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir. I'm glad I read it but I have no desire to read any more in the series. The writing is fun and the world building is interesting. Oddly enough other descriptions of the book point out the horror elements but, as with many things, my mind focused on the logic of how the book's world worked and not one the horror aspect. Very Gothic although even that was enlivened with modern dialog. The problem is the same as many fantasy series. 90% of the book was great but at the last bit the power level ramps way up and it is clear that the sequel(s) will be at the higher level. Very much of a superhero movie type ending where all the stops are pulled out in a big magical CGI fest.

[Scuzz]

How do you guys read multiple books at the same time!

And why?

I'm really late replying but I generally have a fiction and a non-fiction book going if I'm really in a reading phase. In the past I'd also separate books by location; I'd have an audiobook that I "read" in the car and a different fiction book at home. Or, as a kid, I'd have a hardback and a paperback because it was easier to take the paperback out of the house.

When I asked that I had forgotten there were times when I took a paperback to the gym and was reading a hardcover at home. Also the audiobook thing, I get that.

[ImLawBoy]

Another twofer with a kids' book thrown in!

Finished Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney with my daughter. This extremely well known and popular book follows the diary . . . excuse me, the journal of Greg Heffley, a middle school neer-do-well trying to navigate family and life and school. I figured it would be amusing and my daughter and I would have some good laughs with it, but . . . I kind of hated it? Greg is a horrible kid with no redeeming values. He's completely selfish, is cruel to his only friend, and is just all around rotten. There's a half-hearted try at redemption near the end, but I never got the impression that Greg learned a damn thing from all of his horrible behavior. Blech.

I also finished Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel. All I knew about this going in was that it was about a pandemic and it was an HBO series. I kind of figured that it was about researchers at some science station (perhaps even Station Eleven) who were trying to fight this new plague. It was not. The book jumps back and forth in time among pre-pandemic, pandemic onset, and post-pandemic. Post pandemic sees a collapsed society following the Georgia (not that Georgia) Flu taking out about 99.999% of the population. There are threads that tie the pre, onset, and post pandemic eras together. Despite the book not being anything like I thought it would be, I really enjoyed it. There's some fairly deep contemplation of what makes society, family, and relationships. It's about more than crass survivorship - it's about art and religion and the need for others. I had some trepidation about starting a book about a pandemic in the wake of our real-world pandemic, but it's not really anything like COVID so I was able to separate things. Highly recommended.

[Scuzz]

Dust of Dreams by Steven Erikson

This is book 9 of 10 of the Malazan Book of the Fallen series. I read somewhere books 9 and 10 were originally to be one book, although how Erikson thought you could have a 2,500 page paperback I have no idea. The reason I mention that is that this is really the first book in the series that ends in a cliffhanger.

This book opens slowly but interestingly as Erikson takes some time (I know right) to bring us up to date with many of the Malazan soldiers. He also introduces another dozen characters or so and then sets everyone off on the plot. There really is so much going on in this book that you kinda feel like he is just throwing stuff at you but I have faith in him bringing everything together in the last book. It seems like book 9 was basically a set up for everything that will happen next, and the book keeps promising that something nasty is waiting right around the corner, which seems crazy after the way this book ended.

Well, I will take a short break from Malazan before going on to the final book.

[Jaymann]

I'm thinking of lining up Hyperion for my next read. I understand it is 5 separate stories, and I don't care much for that format. Can someone convince me it is not a problem.

[Scuzz]

I'm thinking of lining up Hyperion for my next read. I understand it is 5 separate stories, and I don't care much for that format. Can someone convince me it is not a problem.

I really liked Hyperion. It starts a bit slow but as the characters come together they each tell their individual stories and the book takes off. It is a take off of A Canterbury Tales, or so I’ve been told. The format really fleshes out the characters and explains why they are undertaking the task before them.

[Archinerd]

The Man You Trust by Bill Harris (paperback): Like many of you I'm sure, I’ve been a regular reader of Bill Harris’s writing since the start of his Dubious Quality blog (and even before that when he wrote the Night Call column on Gone Gold). I’m awed by how, despite his many admitted insecurities, he puts vision to action and gets things done, like his Gridiron Solitaire game on Steam and now this novel.

I started this a few days ago and I'm hooked. If I wasn't such a slow reader, I probably would have finished it by now.

[hitbyambulance]

John McWhorter - Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue: The Untold Story of English :

I wish I had instead read this summary/review (taken from Goodreads) rather than spending 200 pages reading a padded version of these points:

Seems like every book on linguistics published in the past few decades has been contractually required to include a takedown of both Sapir-Whorfianism (the idea that a language's grammar/vocabulary shapes its speakers' worldview in any compelling way) and prescriptivism (imposing arbitrary rules of "correct" usage, despite the common and widely-understood use of "incorrect" grammar). And that's fine, I didn't mind listening to McWhorter play me the hits one more time.

But this book also included some theories that were new to me, and very interesting:

1) There is convincing evidence that Old & Middle English were shaped by generations of influence from Celtic-speaking adults learning the language and "seasoning" it with their own grammar, particularly meaningless "do" ("Do you like cats?" as opposed to something like "Like you cats?") and progressive "ing" ("I am feeding the cats" rather than "I feed the cats [right now]"). Both of these are found in the Celtic dialects of Welsh and Cornish, but in no other Indo-European languages, so McWhorter surmises that their appearance in English must be due to the influence of these dialects. This is controversial because it has been widely believed that Anglo-Saxon invaders killed off nearly all the Celts in Britain in the 6th Century, long before the English language picked up these quirks. McWhorter points out several flaws in this assumption.

2) The much-vaunted influence of French-speaking Normans (who conquered England in 1066 and maintained cultural influence for centuries) is, according to McWhorter, overstated. Sure, English still includes many French-derived words as a result of this history, but they were largely for "fancy" things associated with the aristocracy (e.g. the lords ate French-derived pork; poor farmers raised English-derived swine), and there really wasn't a lot of direct linguistic mixing. The ruling Normans mostly kept to themselves, and left very little imprint on grammar.

3) The stronger influence on English grammar - particularly in simplifying it, filing off case endings and so forth - came from the 8th-Century Viking invaders, who actually integrated with the local population and learned their language - though imperfectly, as adult-learners tend to.

4) Even further back, Proto-Germanic appears to have been strongly shaped by contact with some other group of people, resulting in a similar simplification (Germanic languages are far less inflected than most other Indo-European ones) as well as a vast set new of vocabulary (often having to do with the sea, sailing, marine animals, and a few other specific topics). In all, about 1/3 of Proto-Germanic words have no cognate in other Indo-European languages. It's unclear who these people would have been, but McWhorter cites evidence for speakers of Semitic languages (e.g. Akkadian, Aramaic) as well as (shakier) evidence for Phoenician explorers & traders.

In general, the simplicity of English (and to a lesser extent, all Germanic languages) compared to the rest of the Indo-European family can be attributed to the influence - or bastardization, as McWhorter calls it - of multiple other cultures over the centuries. Non-native speakers today have a relatively easy time learning English as a result of these ancient non-native speakers ignoring or standardizing many of the language's complexities.

[Archinerd]

The Man You Trust by Bill Harris (paperback): Like many of you I'm sure, I’ve been a regular reader of Bill Harris’s writing since the start of his Dubious Quality blog (and even before that when he wrote the Night Call column on Gone Gold). I’m awed by how, despite his many admitted insecurities, he puts vision to action and gets things done, like his Gridiron Solitaire game on Steam and now this novel.

I started this a few days ago and I'm hooked. If I wasn't such a slow reader, I probably would have finished it by now.

Finished! Loved it.
Reminds me a bit of Kurt Vonnegut / Margaret Atwood.

[Hipolito]

"I am glad you had a positive experience from the book." (as Inspector Newman might say)

I agree with the Vonnegut comparison. (Never quite got into Atwood, so I don't remember her style.) I think Bill mentioned some other influences in his blog like Haruki Murakami.




Mass Effect: Evolution by Mac Walters, John Jackson Miller, and Omar Francia (paperback): This comic tells the Illusive Man's origin story, starting when he was a mercenary in humanity's First Contact War with the turians. He deals with General Williams (Ashley's grandfather), Saren, Saren's equally ambitious brother General Desolas, and a mysterious relic called the Arca Monolith. Although the story has a few plotholes and doesn't link with the game canon as strongly as I'd like, it is an intriguing examination of Arthur C. Clarke's third law: a sufficiently advanced technology is always going to look like magic. I think even people who haven't played the games could enjoy it. 6 out of 8 cloaks.

[ImLawBoy]

Three-fer!

Finished The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon. This was on our shelf from my wife's collection of books, and I was looking for something new to read. I had enjoyed The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Chabon, so I gave it a try without really knowing what it was about. Essentially, it's set in an alternate history where Israel failed and a large population of Jews were given permission to live in a parcel of land known as Sitka in Alaska. The grant is about to expire, though, and the Jews will be displaced in a few months. Our hero is Meyer Landsman, a drunken, run down Sitka police detective. He's investigating the murder of another resident of the fleabag hotel where he lives. He conducts the investigation with his partner Berko Shemets, his half Native cousin, and it's a wild ride. Chabon is a very inventive writer and just his style alone would be enough to enjoy the book, but he bolsters it with a good mystery/detective story. Plus there's a glossary of Yiddish terms at the back! Highly recommended.

Also finished The Sandman Vol. 5 - A Game of You by Neil Gaiman. This follows Barbie from earlier in the series in her post divorce from Ken stage. She's stopped dreaming her old dreams, and the characters from that dream need her and try to reach out to her. Another wildly inventive tale, as is to be expected from Gaiman.

Finally, I finished Alex Rider: Eagle Strike by Anthony Horowitz. Alex Rider is basically teenage James Bond, and the book reads like Ian Fleming without the casual racism and misoginy. While at the hospital with my son, someone from the Family Life Center brought us a few books, but this is the only one we read (they also gave us the novelization of The Phantom Menace (by Terry Brooks!) and Hardy Boys: The Missing Chums). Eagle Strike is right in the middle of the Alex Rider series of books, but I don't think we missed much by not having read the others. It's fast paced, action packed, and ludicrously implausible - perfect for the pre-teen/teenaged set. Alex is 14 years old, and his parents are long dead, but he grew up with his spy uncle (now deceased) and Alex works on and off with MI6. He goes rogue when he suspects that beloved and generous British superstar Sir Damian Cray, who seems to be some kind of amalgamation of Elton John, David Bowie, and Mick Jagger, hired an assassin to kill Alex's girlfriend's father, who is an investigative reporter. The assassin, of course, is the same killer who happened to kill Alex's uncle. As I mentioned, ludicrously implausible. Anyway, can Alex save the world? (Spoiler: Yes.)

[Scuzz]

Leviathan Falls by James S. A. Corey

This is the ninth and last book in the Expanse series. I waited until the paperback version came out to read this and for some reason it came out much much later than the hardbound and was even delayed once for 6 months. Maybe the pandemic, I don't know.

The book itself starts kind of slow and then builds to what I would say was a good but predictable ending. I say that because the last 75 pages or so sets up the plot in such a way that I was able to guess the ending, and I am usually not very good at that. But it fit the characters. It also gave the series a true ending, although a line by one of the main characters near the end really made me wonder. There is a short epilogue that makes for a good chuckle but doesn't necessarily rule out anything else happening after book 9.

As for the series itself, I enjoyed it. It probably could have been shorter and at times it seemed to wander but neither of those things is necessarily a bad thing. With the TV series out there I doubt I will take the time to ever re-read the series, but you never know. I do think the authors could have ended this series after book 6 and then returned with a new trilogy (books 7-9) to finish the story.

I do think of the many space operas I have read, while almost all have some kind of super alien presence or just an alien race as a antagonist, this book seems more human based. Sure you have the gates and the alien race behind it, but it is the actions of humans that drive everything. Good versus evil. Your basic plot.

[Hipolito]

Leviathan Falls by James S. A. Corey

As for the series itself, I enjoyed it. It probably could have been shorter and at times it seemed to wander but neither of those things is necessarily a bad thing. With the TV series out there I doubt I will take the time to ever re-read the series, but you never know. I do think the authors could have ended this series after book 6 and then returned with a new trilogy (books 7-9) to finish the story.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on The Expanse series. I want to read some space opera, and I was thinking The Expanse could be my next big series when I finish The Wheel of Time. But I'm getting the impression that The Expanse is good, but not essential reading. (Which is actually how I feel about The Wheel of Time.)

[Rumpy]

Interestingly, I bailed after the first book. I actually enjoyed Abraham's Dagger & Coin series far more, which ironically the first book was included with my copy.

[Jaymann]

I stuck it out for all 9 books and I'm glad I did. Strangely the TV series came along and created character images for me while finishing the books. My favorite characters are Amos, Miller and Peaches.

[Scuzz]

I enjoyed it but I think you could probably find a space opera in a trilogy that would scratch that itch.

I would recommend Pohl’s Gateway or Heechee saga (I forget which name he uses) or Brin’s Uplift War trilogy. The first book in that series is kinda slow but it sets up the next ones. I am not sure that qualifies as space opera though.

[TheMix]

I don't think Brin would count as a space opera. I always think of his stuff as 'harder' science fiction. But Pohl might count.

[Scuzz]

I don't think Brin would count as a space opera. I always think of his stuff as 'harder' science fiction. But Pohl might count.

Another trilogy I thought of was Ben Bova’s Asteroid Wars.

[TheMix]

I don't think Brin would count as a space opera. I always think of his stuff as 'harder' science fiction. But Pohl might count.

Another trilogy I thought of was Ben Bova’s Asteroid Wars.

I've read a bunch of Bova books. That doesn't ring a bell. But maybe I just know the actual titles. Gonna have to look that one up.

Edit: Nope. Never read those. Or heard of them. I'll have to keep an eye out.

[Hipolito]

Interestingly, I bailed after the first book. I actually enjoyed Abraham's Dagger & Coin series far more, which ironically the first book was included with my copy.

Ooh, that one's on my wish list too. The idea of a medieval fantasy financial thriller tickles me!

[Rumpy]

Interestingly, I bailed after the first book. I actually enjoyed Abraham's Dagger & Coin series far more, which ironically the first book was included with my copy.

Ooh, that one's on my wish list too. The idea of a medieval fantasy financial thriller tickles me!

Yeah, I really thought it had a unique concept to it, in that the characters don't directly go to war, but rather use their financial influence to turn the tides.

[coopasonic]

Finished Sanderson's Secret Project #2. It felt like a lot more of an experiment than #1 and shorter and shallower, but still interesting.

Spoilering the title just in case:

Spoiler:

The Frugal Wizard's Guide for Surviving Medieval England

[hitbyambulance]

John McWhorter - Woke Racism: How a New Religion Has Betrayed Black America : i kinda want to start a traditional book club just for this book; the ensuing discussion would be _actually interesting_ (and the club would probably only last for this book, as a portion of the participants probably would never want to speak to the others ever again ell oh ell). the use of 'Woke' in the title initially turned me off, but McWhorter has some very good points on why the new breed of hardline anti-racist thought not only takes on the form of inquisitorial medieval religion (and is itself a new religion, minus the Christian sense of forgiveness), but also infantilzes Black people, reducing their potential modes of existence to center around an identity of perpetual oppression (as the hardliners, by and large, don't seem to have any intent to implement real-world actions to actually improve the lives of Black people in the US). _that being said_, there's material here that could (and probably will) be easily mis-quoted in the hands of the alt-right and requires actual nuance to parse, which is another reason why we can't have nice things. read this in four days; there's a fair bit in here that's presented in borderline rant format which kinda turned me off, but makes for very quick reading.

[Scuzz]

The Coming by Joe Haldeman

This is the third Haldeman book I have read, after The Forever War and The Accidental Time Machine. I can't rank this book up there with either one of those. The book takes place in the not to distant future (it was written in 2000) and begins with an astronomer receiving a message from deep outer space that merely says "We're coming". Haldeman has written the book in a multi-character multi-POV style that while it works in some cases it doesn't in others. Only a few of the dozen or so POV's actually are important characters and some of what we get is really odd, to say the least. I believe Haldeman was trying to demonstrate thru the day to day lives of characters what the future has become but in some cases it is just disturbing. Maybe that was what he as aiming for, I don't know. Haldeman also focuses on sex quite a bit in the book, which on it's own wouldn't bother me but we are not talking your average romance stuff here.

Having said that the plot is interesting, once it gets going, and the actual finish is interesting, although it wraps up a little quickly. This almost reads like it was meant to be a TV show or movie. And while the second half of the book does have merit the first half just drags. Sadly I don't think I would recommend this to anyone, unless you have read a lot of Haldeman's other works. If you haven't, start someplace else.

[Hipolito]

The Wheel of Time, Book 13: Towers of Midnight by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson (ebook + audiobook): Sanderson’s work on book 12 excited me for what was to come. But I don’t find this book nearly as good. There’s too much filler, too much hopping around in dreamland, too many chapters about people walking and talking in their camps. You could blame Jordan for leaving Sanderson with a surplus of loose ends and uninteresting characters, but that wouldn’t be entirely fair. Sanderson should have done as good a job here as he did with book 12.

Like in book 4, there is a tale told in reverse chronology than spans multiple generations. It was wonderful in book 4, and it’s nice to have a mirroring passage here, but Sanderson doesn’t write it with as much passion and pathos as Jordan did.

There's enough good stuff to save this book from a negative rating. There's cool combat and funny moments like when a queen reads a letter from a semiliterate man. (The audiobook, unfortunately, doesn’t convey all the letter's mistakes; you have to read the book for the full effect.) One warrior comes into his own as a hero, while another gets good advice on women after messing things up with his bae. Chapter 26, “Parley,” has a reveal that’s so expertly done, it’s a highlight of the series. There’s a fun dungeon run that I bet Dungeons & Dragons players got a kick out of, and the epilogue has a revelation that made me put the book down and stare out the window. Seriously, girl, you thought THAT was a good way to deal with that problem? I can’t even.

On a deeper level, the book is a good study of effective leaders who balance idealism with pragmatism. It also shows how even in dark times, you must make time for love. For if you don’t, why fight the darkness at all? 4 out of 8 medallions.

[ImLawBoy]

Finished Nine Princes of Amber by Roger Zelazny. Outside of authors with two middle initials of RR, I'm not much of a fantasy reader. The ten(!) books of the Amber series by Zelazny were recently on sale in a single bundle for really cheap, though, so I thought I'd take the plunge. (As it turns out the books are riddled with OCR errors and I think it was even pulled from Amazon, but it's still readable.) I really didn't know what to expect here, and I'm not sure how I feel after the first book.

Our "hero" is one of the titular nine princes of Amber who awakens in modern Earth (well, modern when the book was published in 1970) with no memory of who he is or how he got into the hospital where he finds himself. We journey with him as he discovers himself and that he is locked in a long war for control of the city of Amber, which is the center of the "real" Earth. It's very different from any fantasy I've read before - it skips on details in favor of advancing the plot in almost circumstances. That makes it hard for me to get a feel for the world that Zelazny is creating. I can't help but think that what Zelazny wrote in under 200 pages would have taken George RR Martin closer to 1,000 pages. There are benefits to each style, but I don't feel the pull to keep reading the Amber books that I did to keep reading the Martin books. Still, they're bite-sized enough that I'll probably come back to them now and again to see where they're going.

[Scuzz]

My daughter has introduced me to book tube, book reviews on YouTube. Zelezny is one of the names I have learned there although I have yet to read any of his work. There are several authors of that period I need to try. But maybe not with a 10 book series.

[Isgrimnur]

[Jaymann]

Finished Nine Princes of Amber by Roger Zelazny. Outside of authors with two middle initials of RR, I'm not much of a fantasy reader. The ten(!) books of the Amber series by Zelazny were recently on sale in a single bundle for really cheap, though, so I thought I'd take the plunge. (As it turns out the books are riddled with OCR errors and I think it was even pulled from Amazon, but it's still readable.) I really didn't know what to expect here, and I'm not sure how I feel after the first book.

Our "hero" is one of the titular nine princes of Amber who awakens in modern Earth (well, modern when the book was published in 1970) with no memory of who he is or how he got into the hospital where he finds himself. We journey with him as he discovers himself and that he is locked in a long war for control of the city of Amber, which is the center of the "real" Earth. It's very different from any fantasy I've read before - it skips on details in favor of advancing the plot in almost circumstances. That makes it hard for me to get a feel for the world that Zelazny is creating. I can't help but think that what Zelazny wrote in under 200 pages would have taken George RR Martin closer to 1,000 pages. There are benefits to each style, but I don't feel the pull to keep reading the Amber books that I did to keep reading the Martin books. Still, they're bite-sized enough that I'll probably come back to them now and again to see where they're going.

Sorry about the errors, and it might not be your cuppa. But I encourage you to read at least the first 5 book. Growing up this was my favorite series of all time, and I had to wait a year or two between books. It is rare for me to re-read anything, but read the Amber series three times!

[Hipolito]

Hellmouth by Giles Kristian (audiobook): Taking place in 1370 Bohemia, this brief (just 2 hours on audiobook) fantasy horror tale is about a band of mercenaries doing the Pope’s dirty work. It’s well-written, well-narrated, and well-drenched in gore. But it doesn’t have much that will surprise fantasy fans. It’s fun while it lasts, but too short to be as emotionally impactful as it aims to be. The ending seems ambiguous, but while writing this, I think I figured it out. Pretty cool if I’m right. 4 out of 8 false arrowslits.

[Hipolito]

Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark (audiobook): What if the Ku Klux Klan were monsters in more than the figurative sense? What have they got under them thar hoods anyway? This book is about three young black women who know, and who fight them.

The first half of his book is pretty cool, setting up a great premise with fun shooting, stabbing and bombing. The audiobook narrator does a feisty job, though the geechee dialect is hard to follow and the frequency of the gospel singing is a bit much.

The second half unfortunately gets weighed down in fantasy horror isekai. It all comes together fairly well in a culmination of black anguish and grief. As a study of hate, this book offers a timeless lesson. But this is another book that was too short for me to really get into. I welcome short books because they don’t wear out their welcome, but maybe this one should have been twice as long. 4 out of 8 haints.

[El Guapo]

A few ones:

Thing Explainer, by Randall Monroe

I love Randall Monroe's stuff so I picked this up after What If? (1 and 2) and How To. This book (Thing Explainer) is neat but is really more of a coffee table book that you have around and flip through than something that you read from beginning to end. So good, but not as practical for my purposes as his other stuff.

Israel's Moment: International Support for and Opposition to Establishing the Jewish State, 1945–1949 by Jeffrey Herf

I gave up on this book. It's something that I really wanted to read about but the writing is not great and he's really writing more about what people were writing about at the time about the founding of Israel, and not as much about what the people involved (Israeli people, State Dept., etc.) were doing. Maybe it gets better, but I've lost all interest in finishing it. Thumbs down.

The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury (audio book)

Got the audio book for this, as I've decided to go through some classic Sci-Fi in audio book form. I'm not breaking any new ground here, but this book is really good. It's a series of short stories about humanity reaching Mars, interacting with Martians, and then colonizing Mars. It's a little whimsical at time and not like hard core science fiction exactly, but the writing is really good and it tells some fun and interesting stories. Definitely recommend.

[Isgrimnur]

“There Will Come Soft Rains” is the one that always stuck with me.

[hitbyambulance]

The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury (audio book)

Got the audio book for this, as I've decided to go through some classic Sci-Fi in audio book form. I'm not breaking any new ground here, but this book is really good. It's a series of short stories about humanity reaching Mars, interacting with Martians, and then colonizing Mars. It's a little whimsical at time and not like hard core science fiction exactly, but the writing is really good and it tells some fun and interesting stories. Definitely recommend.

Bradbury is definitely a fantasy writer (with some SF trappings at times). one of the greatest American short story writers, in my opinion - he manages to take full advantage of the form, and the stories are just long enough to make their point, but they don't feel skeletal/barebones or rushed.

keep in mind The Martian Chronicles is one of his short-story collections (The Illustrated Man and Dandelion Wine also come to mind) where the stories were (mostly, or all) written beforehand, and there's a new made-up framing narrative inserted to make them sorta fit together.

[ImLawBoy]

Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark (audiobook): What if the Ku Klux Klan were monsters in more than the figurative sense? What have they got under them thar hoods anyway? This book is about three young black women who know, and who fight them.

The first half of his book is pretty cool, setting up a great premise with fun shooting, stabbing and bombing. The audiobook narrator does a feisty job, though the geechee dialect is hard to follow and the frequency of the gospel singing is a bit much.

The second half unfortunately gets weighed down in fantasy horror isekai. It all comes together fairly well in a culmination of black anguish and grief. As a study of hate, this book offers a timeless lesson. But this is another book that was too short for me to really get into. I welcome short books because they don’t wear out their welcome, but maybe this one should have been twice as long. 4 out of 8 haints.

I read that last year and enjoyed it. I found its relative brevity rather refreshing.

[ImLawBoy]

Read The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate with my daughter. Ivan is a silverback gorilla who was captured in the wild as a child and has been raised in captivity in a small roadside mall in Florida ever since. He's the main attraction in a "zoo" that contains, among other animals, an ailing elephant and a stray mutt. As Stella the elephant is fading, Mack, the owner of the mall, acquires a baby elephant, Ruby, to work with her. Ivan is our narrator, and he's mostly content living in his small habitat and drawing with crayons on paper (available in the gift store for $20, $25 with frame). Eventually, though, he decides he needs to do better for Ruby so that she can live a fuller life.

This was a really good book, even if it's aimed at the younger set. The chapters tend to be very short and Ivan has an easy to read voice. The book avoids making Mack a full-on villain, even if what he's doing is ultimately cruel to his animals. I think the next book is going to be The One and Only Bob (Bob being the mutt who likes to sleep on Ivan's belly).

[Blackhawk]

I just finished Knife of Dreams (Wheel of Time, book 11) a couple of days ago. It was everything that Wheel of Time books 1-10 was, although I could see that Jordan was working toward a conclusion, because after multiple books of people getting ready to do something, and being on their way to do something, several characters actually did something. A few plots were even wrapped up, which is a very nice change of pace.

It was also oddly bittersweet. Short version of a story I've told before: I first found book 1 (Eye of the World) at a swap meet in '93 and loved it, and read them as I could afford them, and as they were released for a few years, even going back and re-reading them if it had been a while. And that was the problem. The books were so complex, with so many characters, factions, and plots that if it had been a couple of years after reading the previous entry, I couldn't hope to pick it up and follow anything at all that was going on. That was when I decided to put it down until the series was finished (and why I have, to this day, a rule that I don't start large fantasy series until they're finished - which is why I've never read ASoIaF.)

The series was finally finished about a decade ago, but it was such a huge thing to jump in to that I only got around to it recently. I started just over a year ago. 11 novels in a year sounds pretty discouraging, but I mostly only read fiction for an hour or so before bed, and 11 WoT novels is roughly the equivalent of 30 regular novels - not bad for a year.

So, as I said before I Jordaned off on a tangent, it was a little bittersweet. After 30 years with Jordan as a part of my consciousness, this was the end. It was the last book he wrote before he died, and having his voice fade out at the end (despite the story going on) was sad.

Starting book 12 (now having been taken over by Brandon Sanderson) was odd. It was like slipping into a mirror universe, or, like I read somewhere, having a different director take over your favorite TV series, even though they're working from the same scripts. But after a year it's also nice to have a change of style. Sort of like this:

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Situation: People around a table.

Average author: "Five people in black masks sat around a table."

Sanderson: "Five people in black leather masks sat around a table of dark wood."

Jordan: "Five people, three of them..." *eight pages of descriptions of the cloth, stitching, and embroidery on the clothing each of them is wearing, including what it says about their cultural and political affiliations* "...sat around a..." *two pages describing the table, the wood it was made from, the inlay, how it was imported, and the history behind how it got there.*

[Jaymann]

That's a good description of Jordan's writing, and why I only had the patience to read the first three books. I'm thinking maybe I'll read a synopsis of the first 11 books then pick it up with Sanderson.

[Scuzz]

The Crippled God by Steven Erikson

This is book 10 (and the final book) of the A Tale of the Malazan Book of the Fallen. In this book we learn where that name comes from.

To begin with, I will agree that these books are probably too long and have too many characters. There is simply a lot going on. In this book there are probably around 200 named characters belonging to 16 different groups and an others category. That is a lot of names. There are also probably a dozen characters who at times have 2 or more names. Erikson doesn't make it easy for you.

There also tend to be lull's in each book where Erikson is introducing new characters or plot lines. Early in the series these could be confusing, later they sometimes simply became tiring. But you get a pay off for most of it at the end. Things come together and while you can kind of shake your head at some of it most of works. Erikson creates a huge cast that deals with a catastrophic threat. I can't think of anything I have read like this, even the Lord of the Rings books seem small compared to this. Erikson also gives us an ending, which I won't spoil other than to say it works.

Having now finished the series I would find it hard to recommend to someone simply because of it's length and the need to truly commit to finishing it, and I am not sure how many people would get past the confusion and depth of the first books. It is not a light read, and at an average of 1,100 pages per book it is not a quick read. But I found it worth it. I don't know if I will re-read the series but I do think a second read would be much easier to do and I would probably pick up on a lot of stuff I didn't get on the first read.

[Jeff V]

In advance of our overseas trip, I bought the kids new Kindle Fires -- my daughter's old one no longer worked right, and my son's was an exercise in frustration. I had downloaded an audiobook for the kids last week, and they got to listen to it during a long car ride last weekend. My son liked it, and now has Libby (the successor to Overdrive) installed on his Kindle and linked to his library card.

My wife started offering the kids a bounty of $1 per book read. I upped the ante by offering an additional $1 if they write something about the book -- what it was about, what they liked and didn't like. My daughter can't write like that just yet, but my son has done a few (I'd prefer he wrote his reviews for all of them).