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A log of what I've read, though I have various feelings on them. Stuff I particularly like will get its own write-up at some point probably maybe or will at least feature on some specific theme/genre lists. Check out my bookwyrm to see me liveblogging.

2025

  • The Other Lands - David Anthony Durham Less interesting than the first of the trilogy, but with an interesting enough ending that I'm compelled to return to the series.
  • Exhumed - S.J. Patrick Incredibly dull prose and plot, but there were some interesting worldbuilding details regarding vampirism.
  • The Ruins - Scott Smith I've seen so many people rave about this book, so I was disappointed by what a flop it was. The characters aren't just unlikeable, they're generic enough to be difficult to tell apart, and somehow none of these clowns ever get the idea to try attacking the plant with fire, even after seeing that it's afraid of fire. Can't help but feel that my time was wasted.
  • The Sparrow - Mary Doria Russel As annoying as the evangelism sympathizing is (and the reading guide in the end describes calling missionary work colonialist 'revisionist history', which is hateful, racist bullshit) and how much it shows its age at times (holy victim blaming, batman!), I'd be lying if I said some of the religious elements didn't speak to me, even as an atheist. I enjoyed all the religious doubt and cynicism, and there were some fun bits of alien worldbuilding if you look past the racist and misogynistic bits. ...Okay, describing it like that it sounds bad, and I suppose it is, but I still cried.
  • Monstrilio - Gerardo Sámano Córdova Alright but a little underwhelming.
  • Far From the Light of Heaven - Tade Thompson I previously tried reading Rosewater and dropped it. While I finished this one, the plot and pacing were still a bit odd.

2024

The Tiger and the Wolf - Adrian Tchaikovsky

Ship of Destiny, Fool's Errand, Golden Fool, and Fool's Fate - Robin Hobb

Zero Saints - Gabino Iglesias

The Haar - David Sodergren

Reception - Kenzie Jennings

Exordia - Seth Dickinson

Night's Edge - Liz Kerin

Geek Love - Katherine Dunn

The Accidental Time Machine - Joe Haldeman

Lexicon - Max Barry

I Who Have Never Known Men - Jacqueline Harpman

After The People Lights Have Gone Off - Stephen Graham Jones

Ship of Fools - Richard Russo

Wizard of the Crow - Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o

The Book Eaters - Sunyi Dean

The Last Astronaut - David Wellington

We Who Are About To... - Joanna Russ

The Reformatory - Tananarive Due

My Soul to Keep - Tananarive Due

Interview With the Vampire, The Vampire Lestat, and Queen of the Damned - Anne Rice

Woman, Eating - Claire Kohda

Ubik - Philip K. Dick

The Forge of God - Greg Bear

Babel 17 - Samuel R. Delany

Nevada - Imogen Binnie

How High We Go in the Dark - Sequoia Nagamatsu

Lives of the Monster Dogs - Kirsten Bakis

Human Acts - Han Kang

There Is No Antimemetics Divison - qntm

Lost Ark Dreaming - Suyi Davies Okungbowa

Master Slave Husband Wife - Ilyon Woo

Version Control - Dexter Clarence Palmer

Nestlings - Nat Cassidy

The Fisherman - John Langan

Dr. No - Percival Everett

Build Your House Around My Body - Violet Kupersmith

Parable of the Sower, Parable of the Talents - Octavia Butler

Beloved - Toni Morrison

Acacia - David Anthony Durham

Out There Screaming - curated by Jordan Peele


I feel like 2024 has been kind of underwhelming book wise - partially because of the books themselves, but amusingly partially because I had too much free time away from work, and work breaks are when I do all of my reading. A lot of what I read certainly could have been interesting, they just...weren't.

When I first started the Liveship books, I was wary of leaving the POV of my beloved Fitz and Fool. As time went on, I grew more attached to the Bingtown characters, so when the time came to return to Fitz I wasn't sure how to feel. Especially with Fitz acting...well, like that. Despite being very frustrating at times, he's a good character and I was glad to be back with him. The dynamic between him and the Fool is, as always, excellent, and I especially loved the last book of this trilogy and am left once again looking dubiously at the change in cast and setting for the next set of books.

A lot of solidly middling sci-fi. Exordia was probably the best - though it didn't hit as hard as the Masquerade series for me, there was little hope of it managing to do that. Babel 17 was odd, especially that abrupt ending, but I enjoyed it well enough. I might have liked the Forge of God enough to look into the second book - I would complain about there barely any women in the book, and the ones who are just being small supporting characters for their male love interests, but reading it right after Ubik, perhaps having no women at all would be less sexist than how certain authors write women. I get why Dick is a classic, but jesus. Speaking of women in sci-fi, I liked Joanna Russ' novel for its concept and the context it was written in, but perhaps didn't quite enjoy the novel itself as much as I wish I could've.

This was my first time reading Due's work, and reading her immediately before my first time reading Rice really highlighted how absolutely batshit the latter's writing is. African Immortals is the vastly superior series in literally every way, including being an actual horror series as opposed to Interview which feels like an accidental grossout comedy at times.