📚 log(book)

Quarantine

by Greg Egan · published 1992 · read 2018-03-26

This was lots of fun. The story is told in a four-star way, but it has so fucking many great concepts: Having a fuckton of software for your brain, and the implications of loyalty software, of cours. But mostly the idea that humans are unique in collapsing the wave functions of possibilities, and the implications of xenocide that come with it. Wow. And the implications of learning to suppress that reflex, and having human made quantum computing in the brain. ♥

The Great Explosion

by Eric Frank Russell · published 1962 · read 2018-01-27

★★★★★

Aww, it's scifi from the 60s! It's witty, and funny, and sarcastic (but never quite mean). Love it a lot.

The Courage to Be Disliked

by Ichiro Kishimi · published 2013 · read 2020-03-11

★★★★★

I strongly disliked many parts of this book. The writing is obnoxious, self-righteous, pseudo-Socratic without ever coming close. I fundamentally disagree with a lot of its premises, and it's in many ways /r/wowthanksimhealed material. This book is very punchable.

Song of Susannah

by Stephen King · published 2004 · read 2017-06-22

★★★★★

Dark Tower just doesn't stop wowing me.

The Gunslinger

by Stephen King · published 1982 · read 2017-05-30

★★★★★

Wow. I read King's revised version from when he had finished the series, and it's stunning. I need to read the rest. It's what Firefly is to sci-fi: the fantasy edition, and so much fun, and with wonderful characters, and … wow.

Wolves of the Calla

by Stephen King · published 2003 · read 2017-06-20

★★★★★

I can't describe what King's books do to me.

High Wizardry

by Diane Duane · published 1990 · read 2016-05-08

★★★★★

Wow. Easily my favourite book of the series so far.

The Door Into Fire

by Diane Duane · published 1979 · read 2019-11-15

★★★★★

I loved The Door Into Fire by Diane Duane a whole lot. It's incredibly character-focused fantasy, to the point of reminding me strongly of Lois McMaster Bujold for its strong characters and Ursula Le Guin for its sensitive, almost lyrical descriptions of magic and nature and the relationship between everything. It's set in a fascinating world that clearly follows a set of rules of magic and mythology (gods! Excellent gods, and all kinds of other beings), but the rules are sufficiently mysterious to feel consistent, yet not clinical. I'm writing this review more than a month after reading the book, and the characters are still very vivid in my mind, which is probably the highest praise I can pay the book.

The Brothers Lionheart

by Astrid Lindgren · published 1973 · read 2001-11-01

★★★★★

There's nothing I don't love about this book. It drew me in and swallowed me whole, back in the day. I re-read it so much that I can still tell you which page I used to skip because it was too scary for me. The illustrations are gorgeous, the story is rich and true and and wonderful like the best fairytales.

Ronia, the Robber’s Daughter

by Astrid Lindgren · published 1981 · read 2001-12-01

★★★★★

Ronja has had more of an influence on me at the time than most other books. Its effect is lesser now, but that's because it was honestly perfect for me at the time. The strong Ronja, with her wildness and her tenderness and her strength, did her part in carrying me through the less fortunate moments of my childhood. I loved the book to pieces. It taught me about strength and loyalty and self-reliance when I needed them.

Märchen

by Astrid Lindgren · published 1989 · read 2007-05-01

★★★★★

Lindgren is best known for her books for children: They are beautiful, sometimes hauntingly so. They are deep and won't seem cheap after you grow up. They are always grounded in reality, and everybody talks and acts like a real person.

Mio, My Son

by Astrid Lindgren · published 1954 · read 2001-02-01

★★★★★

Mio, my Mio. A book for children, with heart-breaking beauty. The beauty is in how it uses fairytale and lyrical resonance to spin a story that is both familiar and strange. It meant a lot to me: The unhappy boy who runs away from home, only to find out that he's the prince of a magical realm – but the realm is in trouble. There is love in every word. It's This Is How You Lose The Time War, only for children.

Kalle Blomquist

by Astrid Lindgren · published 1946 · read 1998-09-01

★★★★★

My first, own, serious book! Serious in that it was long, and the book I got for my first day at school. Despite its length – it's a collection of three individual books – I got through it within the first week of school.

The Quantum Thief

by Hannu Rajaniemi · published 2010 · last read 2022-02-18

★★★★★

Sometimes, a book is just so busy enjoying itself that I have to like it, no matter its faults. The Quantum Thief starts out in the Dilemma Prison, where the virtualised prisoners are forced to go through various versions of philosophical puzzles or game theory scenarios. If you win enough games, some poor sod in a surrounding cell gets deleted and replaced with a copy of you. If this doesn't sound hilarious or intriguing to you, then this book is safe to skip (despite the fact that the Dilemma Prison only takes up the first ten pages or so).

Anathem

by Neal Stephenson · published 2008 · read 2019-09-20

★★★★★

Anathem by Neal Stephenson kept me busy. Between a bunch of conferences, the sufficient concentration was a bit hard to come by. What's worse: Now that I have read it, I can't tell you if it is a good book or not.

The Hanging Tree

by Ben Aaronovitch · published 2016 · read 2017-12-19

★★★★★

Still more Peter Grant, with character development and BOSS FIGHT and new practitioners and cool characters and snark and ♥

The Eyre Affair

by Jasper Fforde · published 2001 · read 2007-08-01

★★★★★

Embarassing, or at least a sign of aging: This book did not stand up to a re-read for me.

Nemesis Games

by James S.A. Corey · published 2015 · read 2018-09-12

★★★★★

Wow, Nemesis Games was way better than the previous volume of the Expanse series. I enjoyed it tremendously. As a change of pace, we follow four people on their separate ways (although their stories are connected, of course), and learn more about each of them. Where at first this seems to be a calmer book to allow for more characterisation, things take off towards the middle of the book, and then they just don't stop accelerating. I'm really looking forward to how both the world and the main cast will continue after this.

Babylon’s Ashes

by James S.A. Corey · published 2016 · read 2018-11-04

★★★★★

Babylon's Ashes might have been the part of the Expanse series I've enjoyed most so far. We get to see the fallout of the previous conflicts (as with every book so far), and see how people act under the pressure of humanty's fate hanging in the balance. (I don't want to spoiler anybody, so I'll leave it at that)

Abaddon’s Gate

by James S.A. Corey · published 2013 · read 2018-07-05

★★★★★

Okay, wow, this book had me discussing and screaming at it a lot. People die. People nearly die. Some of those deaths I was not at all okay with.

Tiamat’s Wrath

by James S.A. Corey · published 2019 · read 2020-02-11

★★★★★

I don't think I could review this book without spoilers, but it wowed me, and angered me, and is generally VERY VERY good.

Leviathan Wakes

by James S.A. Corey · published 2011 · read 2017-07-06

★★★★★

Fantastic space opera, even more fun than the TV series. 4.5 stars for me, but I'm rounding up 'cause I'm feeling generous today and it was just so much immersive fun!

The Count of Monte Cristo

by Alexandre Dumas · published 1844 · read 2003-05-01

★★★★★

Revenge – exciting revenge from nearly beyond the grave! I loved this book to pieces when I discovered it, despite being confused by it a lot. I was nine at the time, and many concepts in there confused me. How did cheques work? What on earth was a rentier? (They were spelt the same in German, and the word has fallen completely out of use, because Rentier also means reindeer. You can understand my confusion.) And I didn't get the whole Bonaparte arc until I re-read it years later.

Das fliegende Klassenzimmer

by Erich Kästner · published 1933 · read 2001-07-01

★★★★★

It's the one German boarding school novel and I loved it to pieces as a kid. As all Kästner books except for Lottchen it features a transparent self-insert, but it's fine, imo. Most boarding school novels do this, to be honest.

Emil and the Detectives

by Erich Kästner · published 1928 · read 2004-12-01

★★★★★

Charming adventures in Berlin of the 1920s? Children taking on adults together? Wild chases and solidarity? All this, and more. Emil is infinitely relatable as he travels to the big city, is robbed and tries to recover the money. Emil is just a good kid in a bad situation, and seeing him grow and manage to muddle through and make friends is heart-warming.

Herr der Diebe

by Cornelia Funke · published 2000 · read 2001-07-01

★★★★★

Possibly my first good magical realism book. I loved this so much that I took the real name of one of the characters as my alter ego name in adventure stories I was writing at the time.

Max und Moritz. Eine Bubengeschichte in sieben Streichen

by Wilhelm Busch · published 1865 · read 2000-01-01

★★★★★

Max and Moritz is an extremely quotable gruesome story of two boys and their pranks. It's written in rhymed couplets, many of which have turned into common sayings because they are witty, sarcastic, or just brutal. They are in many ways an integral part of German culture, I suppose, but more importantly they were an inescapable part of my family's culture. Being able to quote Max & Moritz was a survival skill.

Das Jahrhundertkind

by Ralf Isau · published 1999 · read 2005-06-01

★★★★★

Generally, I dislike the way Isau does magic, the way he does characters, the arcs of his stories. They feel … sticky, for lack of a better world, as if he's always trying to do something to the reader, convert us? This is still true for this series, but its scale and awesomeness outweigh the drawbacks. The protagonist lives for exactly 100 years and has to fight forces of darkness, mysterious ones. His life takes him all over the planet, and he gets to see many historic people and situations first-hand while figuring out his life. It's amazing.

The Player of Games

by Iain M. Banks · published 1988 · read 2018-02-14

★★★★★

Omg yes. More, please. One of the best Culture books.

The Atrocity Archives

by Charles Stross · published 2004 · read 2015-07-02

★★★★★

Soo, the beginning of my favourite Stross series. You know: magic is advanced maths, powerful geeks and really powerful burocracy.

Tao Te Ching

by Lao Tzu · published -600 · read 2020-03-26

★★★★★

This review is for Ursula K. le Guin's rendition of the Tao Te Ching. It's not exactly a translation (she didn't know Chinese) – she compared a bunch of translations and consulted experts, but also wrote poetry and what seemed right to her. A translation with more poetic license than usual. Some chapters have end notes with her interpretation – surprisingly (to me) I did not care for those at all. The book closes with notes on her choices of phrasing and with some specific comments for individual chapters, plus a short commentary on the translations she relied on, which I enjoyed to read.

The Neverending Story

by Michael Ende · published 1979 · read 2002-03-01

★★★★★

Neverending – oh, if only! I loved this book as a kid, and there are infinite possibilities for tie-ins (though arguably the book is better off without them).

Coraline

by Neil Gaiman · published 2002 · read 2003-02-01

★★★★★

Coraline is a wonderful book. Terrifying, too. Coraline and her parents move to a new place, where there's nothing apart from the other (strange!) people living in the house. Her parents are busy all day, and she's just left to her own devices. So she wanders around and eventually finds a mirror world, where everything is duplicated, only uncanny and weird – and where she finds parents who love her and have time for her. Now if only they were human.

The Ocean at the End of the Lane

by Neil Gaiman · published 2013 · read 2015-05-01

★★★★★

The Ocean at the End of the Lane is most definitely a Neil Gaiman book. It's also like a Pratchett book - a bit less humor and a bit more beauty in its sentences.

American Gods

by Neil Gaiman · published 2001 · read 2012-02-01

★★★★★

American Gods is a polarising book, and I belong to the people enchanted by it. Gaiman does wonderfully dirty, touching things with language, and mythology, and just drew me in.

Whose Body?

by Dorothy L. Sayers · published 1923 · read 2019-09-29

★★★★★

I read and re-read a lot of Dorothy L. Sayers in German when I was a kid, around 10. I loved those books to bits, so I started wondering if they were as good as I remembered. I started my re-read in the beginning, with Whose Body?, and it turns out: yes. The books are as good as I remembered, or even better, now that I get to read them in English and have an Internet at my fingertips to look up all the more and less obscure literary allusions – which there are many of. The writing style is charming, and has a very distinctive voice of its own, and lends very realistic, nearly audible voices to each and every character on cast.

The Nine Tailors

by Dorothy L. Sayers · published 1934 · read 2005-08-01

★★★★★

I stand by my previous 5 star rating even on the re-read. Of course, this is heavily influenced by the fact that I read this book several times as a kid, but still – I think it is a good book. It's definitely by far my favourite book from Dorothy L. Sayers. Everything fits: characters, dialogue, extreme amounts of atmosphere, and even a plot worth the name. There are some side characters that I'd have loved to see more of, but that's the only criticism that comes to mind.

Busman’s Honeymoon

by Dorothy L. Sayers · published 1937 · read 2020-02-11

★★★★★

I think at this point (or earlier, but who knows) Dorothy Sayers had understood that her forte was in the characters and the dialogue, and WOW does she ever deliver. It's a honeymoon with a murder, of course, and I can't get over my love of the characters, so I won't even try.

Gaudy Night

by Dorothy L. Sayers · published 1935 · read 2020-02-08

★★★★★

Gaudy Night is the first book on my Wimsey re-read that I hadn't read before. In truth, it's about 3.5-4 stars, but it gets five for breaking my heart.

A Game of Thrones

by George R.R. Martin · published 1996 · read 2012-10-01

★★★★★

Nothing left to say, is there? I liked the change in perspective, and the world, and the writing, and that nobody was safe.

The Will to Battle

by Ada Palmer · published 2017 · read 2018-07-15

★★★★★

The Will to Battle is currently the last volume of Ada Palmer's brilliant Terra Ignota series. One volume is missing, and it's supposed to come out next year, and I bloody hope so because this one leaves me aching for more. As with the previous books, I completely get why people would not like this book, at least its style, but to me it's magical. Even three books into the series, we get an astounding amount of worldbuilding, we receive new information on the previous books (in particular their creation, it's all Very Meta), all the while the world heads straight towards the biggest and worst World War imaginable. I love these books dearly, and the world Ada Palmer shows us is filled with wonders.

Too Like the Lightning

by Ada Palmer · published 2016 · last read 2021-12-06

★★★★★

For me, this was a five star books, plain and simple, but I completely understand why it would be a 0-, 1-, 2-star book for others.

Seven Surrenders

by Ada Palmer · published 2017 · read 2018-04-17

★★★★★

The second volume is a bit less on the 18th century France presumptiousness spree (but adds in some more Greek history to make up for it). Very wow, including how Jehovah/JEDD and Bridger meet, Bridger's choice, the Major's identity and so many little things we learn about Mycroft (♥), the hives, and individuals. Also, Utopians forever.

The Dispossessed

by Ursula K. Le Guin · published 1974 · read 2018-02-12

★★★★★

Anarchist SciFi by Ursula K. Le Guin. It's a bit slow, but the content made me forget all about that.

The Name of the Rose

by Umberto Eco · published 1980 · last read 2021-08-12

★★★★★

Medieval monks? Thinly disguised opportunities to lecture the reader about history and theology? Showing off your knowledge of obscure and less obscure references? It might sound obnoxious, but Eco is obviously just a giant nerd and is having fun, and I fell for his joy more than anything. Though I do love monasteries and medieval backgrounds and libraries and clever protagonists, so that helped.

Die roten Matrosen

by Klaus Kordon · published 1994 · read 2004-05-01

★★★★★

Revolution! This book made me understand, at least a little, what happened in Germany's past. It takes place during the 1918 revolution, and the protagonist is a boy from a worker family in Berlin's Wedding district. It's specific, it's fun, it's well-sourced. It very much stands on the pro-communist side of things (who, after all, did not win the revolution), so he may be responsible for my early dislike of socialists. Regardless, it's an excellent book, and made sure that I could never forget what happened in those days, and who key players like Ebert, Scheidemann and Noske were.

The Obelisk Gate

by N.K. Jemisin · published 2016 · read 2018-10-28

★★★★★

The Obelisk Gate is the second part of N. K. Jemisin's Broken Earth trilogy, and it's brilliant. It continues the heavy character building we got in the first volume. Some characters grow, some change a lot, some change just in our eyes by virtue of being seen through different eyes, for example, our protagonist, Essun, is very different when seen by her daughter. Seeing the kid grow into her own character arc was beautifully done.

The Fifth Season

by N.K. Jemisin · published 2015 · read 2018-09-10

★★★★★

There was nothing about The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin that I didn't like. It's a bit short, but we have two more volumes to balance that.

Feeding Your Demons: Ancient Wisdom for Resolving Inner Conflict

by Tsultrim Allione · published 2008 · read 2020-05-24

★★★★★

Feeding Your Demons is woo. It introduces a meditation technique that is rooted in Buddhism and was adapted by the author (a once-Buddhist-nun, now American coach) to a Western audience. The author's voice is a bit grating and, as is required for a woo book, it includes more about the author's personal journey and all the people she has helped than I cared to know.

The Cry of the Icemark

by Stuart Hill · published 2005 · read 2009-01-01

★★★★★

One of my favourite fantasy books back in the day. Thirrin, at age 14(?) becomes the warrior queen of the Icemark, and has to find allies and prepare for war and invasion. Thirrin is far from perfect, but ferocious and amazing. Her friends and allies are amazing, both the magical ones (wizards, giant talking snow leopards) and the natural ones. It takes all of her skill to organise a big retreat and then an assault as the ice thaws.

The Knowledge Illusion: Why We Never Think Alone

by Steven Sloman · published 2017 · read 2020-01-03

★★★★★

I finally finished The Knowledge Illusion. The five stars here are given despite the writing: It annoyed me a lot, but the thoughts in the book are important enough that they changed my thinking on some issues, so five stars are appropriate.

My Real Children

by Jo Walton · published 2014 · read 2019-09-29

★★★★★

This review is biased. Of course, all my reviews are biased, what else are they there for? But this one is more biased than most. My Real Children by Jo Walton came recommended by a friend who said “if you ever feel the need to bawl your eyes out”, when I mentioned that I had planned to read something by Jo Walton.

Embassytown

by China Miéville · published 2011 · read 2019-03-12

★★★★★

Embassytown by China Miéville starts out as okay-if-weird scifi, with decent characters, plausibly weird worldbuilding, and appropriately weird aliens, so everything you'd expect from Miéville. It starts by following a good if generic feeling story arc, and continues like that for quite a while. Miéville continues to be great at writing about cities (Perdido Street Station!), so I felt comfortable, once I had spent the first ~20% of the book figuring out how the world worked.

Leisure: The Basis of Culture

by Josef Pieper · published 1948 · read 2020-05-24

★★★★★

This book is A Lot. It's a Christian philosopher arguing for the value of Tao, that is, work-transcending leisure.

Harka

by Liselotte Welskopf-Henrich · published 1962 · read 2003-07-01

★★★★★

This series … weirdly enough, I wouldn't say that it has had a huge influence on me, despite being one of my favourites at the time. And the first part was my favourite among the series (once I got to read it – my introduction was a shortened mashup of volumes 4-6, if I recall correctly). Seeing the young Harka encounter hardship and deal with it with strength and grace was enchanting.

Down Among the Sticks and Bones

by Seanan McGuire · published 2017 · read 2019-01-03

★★★★★

I loved everything about Down Among the Sticks and Bones by Seanan McGuire. I think I might like it even better than the first volume, and knowing about the future makes the book even better – I bet it works without the added layer, too, though. Seanan shows a lot of empathy for the two very different protagonists, and the language is both relateable and lyrical. The cruel, cruel fairytale world, that still fits the children better than the cruelly boring and narrow-minded reality we live in, hits very close to home.

Die dampfenden Hälse der Pferde im Turm von Babel

by Franz Fühmann · published 1978 · read 2000-03-01

★★★★★

Five stars mean a book changed my life. This book changed my life several times, and I'm not sure it's done with me yet. It's about language. It's about philosophy. It's about linguistics. It's about playing with language, and it's about heritage and tradition, and – look, it's perfect for me.

This Is How You Lose the Time War

by Amal El-Mohtar · published 2019 · read 2019-09-21

★★★★★

This Is How You Lose the Time War was written by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone. They must be magic. They can't just write like this without magic. Trust me.

Doomsday Book

by Connie Willis · published 1992 · read 2019-11-20

★★★★★

Doomsday Book by Connie Willis is the best book about time travel that I know of, with the notable exception of "This is how you lose the time war". It's started out good, and then proceeded to kick me in the feelings. Repeatedly.

Mimus

by Lilli Thal · published 2003 · last read 2021-01-21

★★★★★

Mimus is the wonderfully cruel tale of Prince Florin. In the struggle of two nations, the baddies use the age-old plot of suggesting peace-talks to come closer to their enemies. They capture the royal family and important court officials. Everybody is imprisoned, except Prince Florin, who is humiliatingly apprenticed to the court jester. That's the short setup. The book follows Florin in his reluctant apprenticeship to Mimus, through hardship, diplomacy, heartbreak and the realisation that life goes on.

Memory

by Lois McMaster Bujold · published 1996 · read 2019-08-07

★★★★★

In Memory, part of the Vorkosigan saga, Lois McMaster Bujold shows off what character development can look like. Talk about emotional payoff! Without spoiling too much, we see Miles, our somewhat-hero, change his life in many ways, and go through the dark passages, darker thoughts, and inevitable pains this change brings. My only criticism might have been that ignoring the somewhat obvious(?) solution to the whodunnit is not very Miles like, but when I thought about it, I realized that this blind spot has a perfect explanation in Miles' character, so there is that. A very impressive book, that let me keep my high opinion of the Vorkosigan series (because improving it would be close to impossible).

The Mountains of Mourning

by Lois McMaster Bujold · published 1989 · read 2018-11-23

★★★★★

The Mountains of Mourning is a very touching Vorkosigan novella by Lois McMaster Bujold. It's deeply impressive to me how very emotional and touching this novella gets in under 150 pages, while still maintaining the character and tone of the overall series. Our favourite hero, Miles, confronts a backwater village while investigating a child murder. The crippled man confronting a society where killing crippled children is more than just tolerated – and at no point Bujold goes for the easy way out. No good vs evil here, oh no, just heartbreak.

The Warrior’s Apprentice

by Lois McMaster Bujold · published 1986 · last read 2020-08-19

★★★★★

Wow! If you're new to the series, … start here. This book has all the fun, and action, and, y'know, forwards momentum.

Barrayar

by Lois McMaster Bujold · published 1991 · last read 2020-08-19

★★★★★

Update: This book is a perfect read after Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen. Sadly, Gentleman Jole is also the perfect read after Barrayar, somebody send help, please?

Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen

by Lois McMaster Bujold · published 2016 · read 2020-08-18

★★★★★

❤

The Egg

by Andy Weir · published 2009 · read 2019-01-26

★★★★★

Super-short, not exactly original, but well-done and strangely foundational: The Egg is a wonderful little, tiny, short story. I first read it some years back, but it always stayed with me, just in the back of my head. Now I came across it again, and I thought I should share the goodness with you.

The Martian

by Andy Weir · published 2012 · read 2015-08-06

★★★★★

Gods, I already knew they had chosen Matt Damon as lead role, and I can imagine him in that role so very well! Brilliant humor with hard scifi. I seriously hope they won't fuck up the movie.

Hellspark

by Janet Kagan · published 1988 · read 2020-10-07

★★★★★

Hellspark is not without faults, but faults do not remove a five-star rating given out of pure joy. This is what I want my scifi to be like, and the fact that Kagan has not published much (and died in 2008) was rough to discover in a world where it seems like every book has a sequel. Sadz.

Night Watch

by Terry Pratchett · published 2002 · read 2005-02-01

★★★★★

Easily the best Watch book, and up among my favourite Pratchett books. Vimes goes back in time, now that he has cleaned up his act (somewhat), and meats Young Vimes. There's a lot about growing up, and a lot about growing old, and some things about revolutions and principles and not killing the people who try to kill you. Something something more civilised age?

Witches Abroad

by Terry Pratchett · published 1991 · read 2006-01-01

★★★★★

By a wide margin the earliest Pratchett book that I can give five stars. It's still part of his silly phase, and it predates Night Watch by eleven years, but there's a hard core, flinty and unwavering and willing to punch you in the feelings. In particular, it punched feelings I needed punched. Compared to later Witches books, the whole "people don't always want what they need" arc is soft and fluffy, of course, and it's not what drew me. No: what's stuck in my head is the final scene in the mirror, with Granny and her sister. It's powerful and I'm happy to ignore a book full of Oz references to get there.

A Hat Full of Sky

by Terry Pratchett · published 2004 · read 2011-09-01

★★★★★

More Tiffany is good Tiffany. When it turned out that Tiffany was there to stay and not just a one-off, I was so incredibly happy.

Wintersmith

by Terry Pratchett · published 2006 · read 2010-03-01

★★★★★

Like all Tiffany book, this one lives in a special place in my heart. Tiffany is growing up, and she's doing so well. … generally. She's learning, though! And let me I note that this is the book that has an entire Steeleye Span album devoted to it!

The Wee Free Men

by Terry Pratchett · published 2003 · read 2010-07-01

★★★★★

This may well be the high point of the series, at least looking at it chronologically: Wee Free Men (introducing Tiffany) and Night Watch (hands-down the best Watch book) were released back-to-back, and mark a departure from jokes-first Pratchett to the writer who will hurt you and incidentally also make you laugh.

I Shall Wear Midnight

by Terry Pratchett · published 2010 · read 2012-03-01

★★★★★

Tiffany is growing up, very much so. I didn't care much for half of that, and I thought the general plot wasn't the best, but the writing – oh! the writing. It's good enough to make me ignore all possible objections and just be happy that we got this much of it.

The Complete Fairy Tales

by Hans Christian Andersen · published 1913 · read 2002-07-01

★★★★★

Andersen's fairy tales were the first ones I actually owned, and this alone made them special to me. They tend to be brutal and gruesome, but I was nine and loved them for it. The original Snow Queen is terrifying, the original Little Mermaid heart-breaking. Others have not changed much in public perception: The Ugly Duckling, the Princess and the Pea, the Little Match-Seller (😢).

Second Person, Present Tense

by Daryl Gregory · published 2005 · read 2020-04-24

★★★★★

Yes, wow, please. Cuts off rudely instead of being a book. I'm slightly shaken, for the better. Also, note how this is a zombie story, and not a zombie story at all. If not for the lack of a catchphrase, I might make this my new go-to reference instead of Omelas.

Krabat

by Otfried Preußler · published 1971 · read 2005-07-01

★★★★★

Krabat (English: The Satanic Mill. Yes, really) is unique and I'm having a hard time finding anything similar. The story of a poor orphan during the 30 years war, who signs up for an apprenticeship in a mill and finds himself learning the Dark Arts – it should be cheesy, or cheap, or odd. Instead it's like a deep old fairy tale, complete with violence, love, friendship, death and magic.

The Inner Game of Tennis

by W. Timothy Gallwey · published 1974 · read 2020-03-31

★★★★★

I hadn't expected a Zen book, but here we are. This book is short and to the point, and presents a couple of very good takes on not-just-tennis. It applies at the very least to every physical activity and anything that works like a competition. The insights on physical activity have been immediately helpful for me in everyday life, and the thoughts on competition will do the same once I've had time to think about them. Highly recommended.

Empire Star

by Samuel R. Delany · published 1966 · read 2018-09-29

★★★★★

Second book by Samuel Delany, second book I positively adore. Thoroughly impressive, I don't think I've highlighted this much in any book in the past year, and it's a really short book at that. Describing it wouldn't do it justice, and so soon after reading it, I can't even try.

Time Considered as a Helix of Semi-Precious Stones

by Samuel R. Delany · published 1971 · read 2019-09-29

★★★★★

I think, despite all its brilliance and cleverness, the best thing about Time Considered as a Helix of Semi-Precious Stones by Samuel R. Delany is the playfulness. It's a short story that's won both the Hugo and the Nebula Awards back in the day, and rightfully so. The story is a good example of why I seem to like every Delany book I come across: brilliant, lyrical and association heavy style. In Space. Very human and tongue-in-cheek.

Babel-17

by Samuel R. Delany · published 1966 · read 2018-08-18

★★★★★

It's been a long time (apart from Too Like The Lightning) that I've read a novel that felt so tailored to me like Babel-17. I mean, it's a queer polyamorous scifi novel where linguistics are key, even to winning space battles, which there are plenty of. I have no words. It's also been the first time in a while that a novel brought me to tears.

Alarm im Kasperletheater

by Nils Werner, Heinz Behling · published 1958 · read 1998-12-31

★★★★★

And this is how I learnt to read: Too early, to general displeasure, and by this book. It's a beautifully illustrated story with the characters of a Punch-and-Judy show. It's grandma's birthday, and Kasperle (the traditional protagonist) buys doughnuts to celebrate. But! the little devil swings by and steals them, with the wonderful reasoning of "I'm sure these are counted, so he'll know if I'm taking one. If I take one, he'll know – so I'll take them all, and he won't be able to count them to see how many are missing!" All the other characters show up – the girl, the king, the policeman, the crocodile, the robber, and unite in chasing the devil.

Das Stunden-Buch

by Rainer Maria Rilke · published 1899 · last read 2022-01-18

★★★★★

One of my favourite pieces of poetry. Probably doesn't translate well (to English, to German that isn't steeped in religion, etc).

An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth

by Chris Hadfield · published 2013 · read 2018-08-26

★★★★★

This book is just nice reading in every regard. You'll learn something about space. You'll learn about NASA and interntional space agency relations. You'll learn about Chris Hadfield's life on earth and in space. It's a peculiar mix of his life story (or rather work story), and the more fundamental approaches that he learned on the way, and that allowed him to get where he got. There are lots of calls for humility, and preparedness, and perseverance, and empathy and helping others bear their loads. And at the same time, the book is completely light-hearted, and made me smile on a regular basis. It made my day better, and it might help make me better, too.

A Canticle for Leibowitz

by Walter M. Miller Jr. · published 1959 · read 2022-03-28

★★★★★

Damn, rating this book is hard! The first part had me thinking that it was just standard (though not standart then, of course!) far-future post-fallout sci-fi where humanity lives in its own ruins. And then the second part was alright, eh. And then the last part was suddenly really fucking intense and painful in a good way. So there's that. Look, I have a tag called "Space Monks", of course I'm a fan. It goes without saying. What doesn't go without saying? The description of quasi-medieval monks holding on to knowledge and literacy in a post-fallout world (picturing the Fallout as a monster lurking in shadows of history) is drawn so well I took it for granted at first. This book is sci-fi that understands religion and treats it with both respect and humour, and I can count the books that manage both without losing integrity on one hand. There is actual Latin in there (I'm an asshole about bad Latin). There's an O Antiphon for the fallout. And that's just backdrop, of just the first part! Along with clever observations about ("pre-Deluge") English, and Dominicans fighting New Rome on questions of not even theological significance, and orders trying to wrangle a beatification or even canonisation for their own. (And the Wandering Jew, tantalising, in between all this.) I didn't remember much of the second part, with its politics and its people rediscovering electricity. It was alright, but didn't amuse me (like the first part) or punch me in the face (like the last one). The last part was great. Painful, and great. The believable modernity, with the eye for detail shown in the other two parts. The consequences. The humans with actual human feelings. I got full on shivers and a Pale Blue Dot kind of feeling from the things that happened there. … And then I wished the book had ended a bit earlier, on account of the Big Yikes. When I first read Josef Pieper's theological work, I loved it. Later on I read his autobiography, which tainted his entire work with a shadow, and I haven't been able to enjoy it fully since. The same thing happened here: When towards the end of the third part the topic of assisted dying comes up, Miller reveals parts of his soul that I cannot quite forgive, and that made me re-think the book in its entirety. (This weighs even more heavily on my mind thinking of Miller's life, and death.) (You'll notice it's still a five star read, but now it's a grudging, uncertain rating rather than a fiery, convinced one.) This book is part of the 2022 Backlog Incident.

Ancillary Justice

by Ann Leckie · published 2013 · read 2018-03-13

★★★★★

Wow wow wow.

Ancillary Sword

by Ann Leckie · published 2014 · read 2018-04-14

★★★★★

Ancillary Sword was an exceedingly worthy successor to Ancillary Justice. We get a deeper look into the culture of the Radch and (most importantly) the characters we got to know in the first book. Understanding how all of them felt, especially Breq, even while they were navigating treachery, improper (!) annexations, war, and crisis, was a treat. This exploration of characters comes at the cost of action and pace, but the slower pace is made up by the frequent and fast changes of scenery. The book is more linear than the first one, but at the same time the consistent multi-focus storytelling is a different (and great) challenge altogether.

Ancillary Mercy

by Ann Leckie · published 2015 · read 2018-07-13

★★★★★

Wow! A worthy ending to the Imperial Radch trilogy ba Ann Leckie. The actions and decisions of the previous volumes find their somewhat logical conclusion in a complicated struggle for independence in an empire that has forgotten what independence even is. This book was a truly amazing mix of fast-paced action (lots of fun and creativitiy in there, too), and deep, deep character development. This series hit my tastes in every way, balancing action, character development, humor, serious issues of personal growth, society, and politics. Wow.

The 13½ Lives of Captain Bluebear

by Walter Moers · published 1999 · read 2006-05-01

★★★★★

This is where Moers proved he was a wizard. It's not his best book, but it's absolutely outstanding nevertheless. The tour through the 13½ lives of Cpt Bluebear is amazing, astounding, sparkling with fantastic ideas as if it had been written by 13 creative geniuses instead of just one.

The City of Dreaming Books

by Walter Moers · published 2004 · read 2007-11-01

★★★★★

The year I got this book, I must have read it five times in a row. It's one of those books that appeal deliberately to any reader's affinity to books – but where stories about magical librarians or book-hopping narrators are cautious about it, Moers goes all in. This is not an appeal, it's unrepentant, happy, blatant pandering. God, I loved reading this book.

The Rook

by Daniel O'Malley · published 2012 · read 2017-05-24

★★★★☆

Wow! This book has bits of Charles Stross in it (as in: secret modern British agency dealing with the supernatural), but at the same time it's totally different. More action oriented, fast-paced, witty, and it never felt like a Laundry knockoff. I'm really interested in where the sequel is going.

The Emperor’s Soul

by Brandon Sanderson · published 2012 · read 2017-11-29

★★★★☆

Wow. It's not only the soulstamp concept that drew me in, it's the mechanics of plausibly altering the past, and the basic assumption that everything has a soul, an understanding of self, and a dream. Love it. At the same time, it's very much a one-gimmick story, so if you can't get into the gimmick, you won't like it – but at under 200 pages, you also won't have lost much time. I'd recommend giving it a shot.

List: five-stars