Books read in 2022 📚 log(book)

Very neat short story that Ursula Vernon dropped on her Livejournal of all places. Ariel from the sea witch's perspective. Liked it a lot. Read it now! ([Archived version](https://web.archive.org/web/20230319064855/https://ursulav.livejourn

Low Town

by Daniel Polansky · published 2011 · read 2022-12-22

Anti-hero protagonist deals drugs, grumps around, hides his heart, gets fucked around with and fucks around with others, and, as forgotten war hero and ex-special police dude, decides to clear up a series of murders. Very grim, much dark.

The Warrior Heir

by Cinda Williams Chima · published 2006 · read 2022-12-10

★☆☆☆☆ (did not finish)

Unbearably generic and stupid. Good lord. The Special teenager without a brain, manipulated by the powers around him, blah blah. It's like Buffy or Percy Jackson, only that next to this, Percy Jackson reads like pure Homer. Nobody in there

Bears Discover Fire

by Terry Bisson · published 1990 · read 2022-12-01

Not sure what all the excitement is about. Somewhat strong atmosphere, yes, but no better or worse than the average tor.com story – a sign of progress and the times a-changing? This book is part of the [2022 Backlog Incident](/p/2022-bac

His Majesty’s Dragon

by Naomi Novik · published 2006 · read 2022-11-28

Very nice, if you're into Age of Sail, sparkling aristocrat bullshit. I happen to like that sort of thing. I like Dumas, ffs, so it should surprise absolutely nobody that "Master and Commander, but with dragons" works pretty well for me.

Deathless

by Catherynne M. Valente · published 2011 · read 2022-11-27

Weird to read a book when you know that there's a debate re: cultural appropriation about it. I kept falling out of the story to try and figure out my opinion about that and other meta things. All things considered, this one didn't grab

The Summer Tree

by Guy Gavriel Kay · published 1984 · read 2022-11-26

Pretty Tolkienesque, which I liked. And the "adults in strange fantasy lands" was very Dark Tower, only of course better written. Enjoyed it more than Sailing to Sarantium, too. I do wonder how much time, if any, Guy Gavriel Kay has spen

Trials of Morrigan Crow

by Jessica Townsend · published 2017 · read 2022-11-25

Too old to read middle-grade books, I think. But well-written and distinctly Diana Wynne Jones feeling at times. This book is part of the 2022 Backlog Incident.

Libriomancer

by Jim C. Hines · published 2012 · read 2022-11-24

I tend to really dislike books that try to appeal to book nerds, and Libriomancer is only the latest in that trend. Alcatraz fell utterly flat for me, and also that book that was about librarians running their supernatural library between h

The Pinhoe Egg

by Diana Wynne Jones · published 2006 · read 2022-11-23

The only Chrestomanci book my school library didn't have. Enjoyed it, showed cool development. Lots of recurring characters who work fine if you don't recognise them, but even better if you do. Christopher's children and their friends and t

Conrad’s Fate

by Diana Wynne Jones · published 2005 · last read 2022-11-22

Young Chrestomanci, as seen by outside eyes. Fun, but mostly fun if you have read any other book of the series. Gave me Doctor Who vibes, funnily enough.

The Magicians of Caprona

by Diana Wynne Jones · published 1980 · last read 2022-11-21

Romeo and Juliet: magic edition! Feuding Italian families, throwing magic at each other and being delightfully temperamental. Add in nosy kids, moody teenagers, snarky cats and almighty matriarchs … yes, I really like this book. It's amon

Witch Week

by Diana Wynne Jones · published 1982 · last read 2022-11-20

Parallel England, where a teacher at a boarding school is accused of witchcraft. The inquisition is called and a terrified pupil has to look for a way out … It gets very dark very fast. Not my favourite Chrestomanci book, but still solid.

The Lives of Christopher Chant

by Diana Wynne Jones · published 1978 · last read 2022-11-19

Chrestomanci was my first encounter with the phenomenon that is Diana Wynne Jones. I liked the books – they seemed to strike the tricky balance between whimsy, absurdity, and having an actual plot. I can still remember how Christopher sta

Charmed Life

by Diana Wynne Jones · published 1977 · last read 2022-11-18

Cat and Gwendolen felt real and the plot came back to me in no time. I keep loving how Diana Wynne Jones manages to not feel condescending towards children, but still make the adult world seem mildly incomprehensible and muddled. She does t

The Black Company

by Glen Cook · published 1984 · read 2022-11-16

Going on all the reviews, recommendations and my own preferences, I should love this book. I think I might have, but having read The Commonweal, it feels like "Graydon Saunders but less good". (Sorry!) I really like the "figuring out wha

Reluctant Swordsman

by Dave Duncan · published 1988 · read 2022-11-14

Mind candy, popcorn read. Felt like Royal Road quality despite being published in the 80s. Wallie is Mr Self Insert, teleported on death from a hospital to be a hero in a fantasy world, complete with religions, evil priests, very nearly ver

Mirror Mirror

by Gregory Maguire · published 2003 · read 2022-11-13

Lucrezia Borgia as Snowwhite's evil queen was not enough to carry the show on her own. Didn't really relate to the people or the story much, I'm afraid, though I did like the trippy dwarves that were kinda sentient stone with varying self-k

Jhereg

by Steven Brust · published 1983 · read 2022-11-11

Really, really good. Vlad is cool, but more importantly, so is everybody else. There is clearly a lot of worldbuilding to come, but I wasn't bothered by the book dropping a huge reveal with too little context: The whole thing was too fun an

Frozen Talons

by Michael Warren Lucas · published 2022 · read 2022-11-08

More Prohibition Orcs. Clan wars, leadership, cartels, and a very old orc quietly keeping the traditions alive. Has some very nice cultural misunderstandings, and some honestly heart-warming parts. Definitely a snack/popcorn read series tha

Prohibition Orcs

by Michael Warren Lucas · published 2022 · read 2022-11-04

Fun! Orcs as badly paid, badly treated labour class in the US, working in factories, few rights, no accommodation of culture, very (fantasy, but barely) racism. Solid characters, interesting arcs. A bit too US-ian for me to fully care, but

The Courage to Be Happy

by Ichiro Kishimi · published 2016 · read 2022-11-03

★☆☆☆☆ (did not finish)

Didn't finish, too obnoxious (and also, in comparison with the other book, mostly about things I didn't care about). This book is part of the 2022 Backlog Incident.

Quillifer

by Walter Jon Williams · published 2017 · read 2022-11-02

No idea how to rate this. On the one hand: didn't care for the plot or for the protagonist (a fop, thrown into adventure, somehow always escaping and then showing some sort of magic genius to get himself out of tight spots, starting from th

A Night in the Lonesome October

by Roger Zelazny · published 1993 · last read 2024-10-31

I love this book to pieces, to the point of ~~making~~, uh, encouraging my book club to read it with me, as intended, one chapter a day through the whole October. It’s a delight. Sure, a bit cutesy in places, and way too genre-aware to be t

Das Dritte Reich des Traums

by Charlotte Beradt · published 1966 · read 2022-10-28

Covering the time from 1933–1939 in Germany, this book is the result of the dreams reported by over 300 people to the author – sometimes directly, sometimes via a doctor friend of hers. She kept the reports semi-encrypted and hidden in the

The Last Watch

by J. S. Dewes · published 2021 · read 2022-10-26

I remember really liking this book … and then remembered nearly nothing of the plot. It's a version of the Watch from Song of Ice and Fire, only at the edge of the universe, with only misfits assigned there and always low on budget. Then Th

Einer vom Hause Lesa

by Johanna Spyri · published 1890 · read 2022-10-25

Look, Spyri's Kitsch just works for me. I can see how it's Kitsch, I can see the super simple story lines and characters, and the repetitive aspects (see my plot summary), and still I'll love it. This book is part of the [2022 Backlog

Schloss Wildenstein

by Johanna Spyri · published 1892 · last read 2022-10-24

Book of my childhood. Love it to pieces. Kitsch, of course, it's Spyri after all, and you also need a tolerance for the religious version of Kitsch, but I still like it. Maybe each character only gets 1-2 adjectives, but she really truly be

17776: What football will look like in the future

by Jon Bois · published 2017 · read 2022-10-19

Interesting experiment. Cool visual/online storytelling of sportsball in the future. I liked it, even when it didn't really go anywhere. This book is part of the 2022 Backlog Incident.

Fox’s Tongue and Kirin’s Bone

by Allison M. Kovacs · published 2021 · last read 2023-09-07

Not sure why I keep reading this tbh. It's got a huge world, but refuses to do the required worldbuilding. Lost interest in the initial hook, muddling through, and also by now removed all the initial chapters, lol. Honestly just still readi

Summerland

by Hannu Rajaniemi · published 2018 · read 2022-10-14

Maybe I'm just not one for spy stories, but this one didn't do much for me. The whole WWII, but in a super weird spiritual realm that clearly has some crucial problems, plus some generic spy stuff left me cold, and after the first third I c

Blacktongue Thief

by Christopher Buehlman · published 2021 · read 2022-10-11

Had more fun than expected. People advertised this book as containing a lot of banter and humour, and I was prepared to cringe, but it was mostly fine (the author making a living insulting people at ren faires). Even actually funny in place

Cage of Souls

by Adrian Tchaikovsky · published 2019 · read 2022-10-10

Post-apocalyptic sci-fi or fantasy? Who knows. There is so much to this book: the jungle prison of terror, the weird weird forest outside, the intrigues everywhere, the broken, broken people, the capital, the city under the city, and the re

Four Thousand Weeks

by Oliver Burkeman · published 2021 · read 2022-10-07

Again a victim of my lost notes. Enjoyed this book very much, led to some violent life decluttering. Bonus points for continuing to live in my head to some degree, rather than being a one-time intervention. The quick summary is "you only

The Will to Battle

by Ada Palmer · published 2017 · last read 2022-10-03

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 th

A Pail of Air

by Fritz Leiber · published 1951 · read 2022-10-01

Weird. Frozen planet, air is carried in in frozen chunks. Only four completely weird isolated humans (parents, sister, protagonist) seem to be left. Super strong atmosphere, then … what is that ending? 3.5, no idea what I'm thinking. Proba

Little Book of Demons

by Ramsey Dukes · published 2004 · read 2022-09-26

Ramsey Dukes has such a strong voice. It's a blessing and a curse: his words come across like he'd say them, but sometimes you want to whack him over the head (not too much, but maybe with a newspaper …). The book aims to explain why a

Tyll

by Daniel Kehlmann · published 2017 · read 2022-09-26

Didn't do a ton for me. Well-written, though, and I do feel like I should read more German books. The historical tie-ins with the 30-years war contrasted nicely with the occasional (and appropriate) fairy-tale feeling of the world, and Tyll

Post Human

by J P Koenig · published 2019 · read 2022-09-23

Nikola wakes up as an AI and the last human, if you can call her that. Since she's studied at MIT and worked for NASA, debugging her own drivers and figuring out where all her other versions are is no problem. Instantiates other versions wi

Babel

by R. F. Kuang · published 2022 · read 2022-09-22

What is this, the book of a thousand subtitles? I wanted to justify my initial hype, and see the book listed as "Babel: An Arcane History", whereas I remember it as "Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Trans

Man Who Lost the Sea

by Theodore Sturgeon · published 1959 · read 2022-09-21

Stranded, buried in the sand, the old man looks at the sea, while the young boy runs around with his model helicopter. Short story, published in 1959 and now available freely online. Hits its emotional notes very well. This book is part

Epic

by Conor Kostick · published 2004 · last read 2022-09-20

The world's a game, and we're all players – that's how things work in Epic. Digital currency can be spent and gained in the global VR video game. Our protagonist is rather poor, and has to play the odds – then he makes the stupid and de

Laws of Night and Silk

by Seth Dickinson · published 2016 · read 2022-09-19

Short story by Seth Dickinson, who feels like an author who attacks the ever-same problem from varying angles. Made me emotional. Omelas vibes (which is tough, because suddenly the story feels worse, the language too flowery, the gestures h

An Apology for the Revival of Christian Architecture in England

by Augustus Pugin · published 1872 · read 2022-09-07

Nearly a 4-star read just by how funny it was to read. Look, hey, I prefer Chesterton's nonfiction regardless of my disagreement with him, and this is the same style of angry old Brit grumbling (with powerful eloquence) at the state of th

Queer Tattoo

by Brody Polinsky · published 2022 · read 2022-09-05

My tattoo artist had this on her shelf when I went and got my first ever tattoo. It caught my eye (the binding is very distinctive!), and I immediately ordered it when I got home. It's a wonderful, wonderful thing to exist. The breadth of s

Spock’s World

by Diane Duane · published 1988 · read 2022-09-03

Diane Duane can write anything, as long as she's allowed to bring some mysticism into it. Spock's World combines Vulkan's history (and pre-history) with present-day problems and well-known characters into a wonderful adventure. As always in

Speaker for the Dead

by Orson Scott Card · published 1986 · last read 2022-08-29

I prefer this book to the first, more famous one. It's deeper, and more powerful, and doesn't rely on one cheap trick.

Murder and magic

by Randall Garrett · published 1973 · read 2022-08-28

Had a lot of fun with Lord Darcy, but then, we all knew that would happen, don't we? Magicians reglemented in a faux-Victorian world ruled by the Plantagets (the Empire including France, North America and so on) and the Catholic Church. Lor

Loving What Is

by Byron Katie · published 2002 · read 2022-08-27

This is one of the books where the loss of my notes and highlights hits hard. Would've loved to actually summarise the book here rather than giving an abridged version of my thoughts. Here goes nothing: The premise is that there are four

I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream

by Harlan Ellison · published 1967 · read 2022-08-26

Read because I can't keep quoting a memorable title without actually having read the book or story, that's just against my ethics. Now I've read it. I'm not a horror person. You should think that the title would warn me off (and hey, it did

A Deadly Education

by Naomi Novik · published 2020 · read 2022-08-25

You know what? I had fun. There. Yeah, it's bleak. Yeah, I can't defend why I had fun with this one and not with, say, the similarly murdery Murderbot or the also try-hard narrator of Gideon the Ninth (though that one was more obnoxious!),

Folding Beijing

by Hao Jingfang · published 2015 · read 2022-08-24

Points for creativity. A city that folds up and down, resource management. An underworld that doesn't even know it's the underworld. Plus all the classic dystopian surveillance stuff, which hits somewhat different when it's written in China

Such Thoughts Are Unproductive

by Rebecca Campbell · published 2019 · read 2022-08-23

Maximum dark surveillance capitalism dystopia, mixed with family things and everything else you'd care to drop in there. Did nothing for me, but it's very much a "be in the right mood" kinda story. This book is part of the [2022 Backlog

Dog Country

by Malcolm F. Cross · published 2020 · read 2022-08-22

Clone soldiers, but they are neurotic dogs. Much strong, very brotherhood, wow. Consistent, and if you like MilSF, possibly interesting? I'd usually resist the urge to say "Furry MilSF", but the author, and I quote, is "a member of the furr

Elder Race

by Adrian Tchaikovsky · published 2021 · last read 2023-07-04

Might be the only Tchaikovsky I've read so far that is not entirely bleak in its conception of the human race, so that's a new one. Other than that … what's there to say? It's a solid little book. It's just … kinda lazy? I feel like Tchaiko

RE: Trailer Trash

by FortySixtyfour · published 2022 · read 2022-08-16

Ongoing series, but this is when I read all of it (and I've kept up to date since then). It's well-written for an online series, but that's naturally not saying much. It has all the hallmarks of the genre: long-winded, self-insert, overly

Silk

by Alessandro Baricco · published 1996 · read 2022-08-15

What an odd novelette (novella?). Very lyrical and empathetic, which I usually like – and liked here! "Silk merchant in 19th century France travelling to Japan" should be right down my alley. I liked the descriptions, and most of the plot,

The Jaunt

by Stephen King · published 1981 · read 2022-08-14

Classic sci-fi horror short story. Read it too late, when I had read more than one work that had built on it, so it didn't feel all that special anymore. But Stephen King always just … gets people right, to the point that the story is optio

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell

by Susanna Clarke · published 2004 · last read 2022-08-13

First book I'm really sad that I'm reviewing it only so much later: I'd have more thoughts to share if I hadn't waited so long. This was my second attempt at reading this book – I bounced off hard at the slow pace and the stuffy old men the

Mr. Death

by Alix E. Harrow · published 2021 · read 2022-08-12

Extremely strong story of the protagonist serving as a Reaper in the Department of Deat. Take the CWs seriously, I cried (in a good way (but still)).

Where Oaken Hearts Do Gather

by Sarah Pinsker · published 2021 · read 2022-08-10

Sarah Pinsker's done it again: great story, this one in the form of forum/footnote discussions about a creepy creepy old English poem. Won awards for a reason, very well done. This book is part of the [2022 Backlog Incident](/p/2022-ba

Proof by Induction

by José Pablo Iriarte · published 2021 · read 2022-08-09

Paul loses his dad, who he was working with on a big revolutionary proof. People can still be (virtually) talked to after death, but that's meant as a short-term thing. His dad can't remember anything between visits, and it's all very obses

Bots of the Lost Ark

by Suzanne Palmer · published 2021 · read 2022-08-07

Didn't convince as much as the original, but it was a sweet follow-up. This book is part of the 2022 Backlog Incident.

Slow River

by Nicola Griffith · published 1995 · read 2022-07-30

Somewhere between two and three stars for me, and I'm feeling grumpy and rounding down. Very cyberpunk, but in a slow, maintenance-worker way. That's the part I like – I can't read stories like Snow Crash without thinking about the work spe

Perdido Street Station

by China Miéville · published 2000 · last read 2022-07-28

Wow, this book was … a lot to take in. I liked it very much. Getting thrown into an Ankh-Morporkesque city, discovering alien races, and characters, and social structures was awesome. I noted with thanks that there was very little of a conv

Society for Soulless Girls

by Laura Steven · published 2022 · read 2022-07-27

Surprisingly good! As somebody who didn't like Ninth House/Locked Tomb, I'm currently expecting to not like any of the queer/lesbian YA, the more TikTok-viable the blurb, the worse. This one at least isn't Lesbian Necromancers In Space, but

The Stranger Times

by C.K. McDonnell · published 2021 · read 2022-07-20

Urban Fantasy mystery from inside a tiny supernatural-focused newspaper in Manchester. Everybody's a dick, and/or broken, usually both. People die left and right, and we get the inside perspective from Team Antagonist, which doesn't do much

The Shadow of What Was Lost

by James Islington · published 2014 · read 2022-07-15

Reviewing a book a year after reading it is a great way to see what passes the test of time. This one … didn't. I could not recall having read it off the title or even the blurb, and had to go to the Wikipedia summary to remind me of the pl

Deryni Rising

by Katherine Kurtz · published 1970 · read 2022-07-11

Very solid medieval-ish fantasy. Fascinating how it has all the trappings of Catholicism (and not just the cheap standard stuff either, you can tell Kurtz knows her stuff!) but … very little of the substance? It's like an anti-Narnia in tha

On the day you spend forever with your dog

by Adam R. Shannon · published 2018 · last read 2022-07-08

It must be because I never had a dog: On the Day You Spend Forever with your Dog is a short story that tries to roll heart-breaking dog love and (emotional) time travel into one, but fell flat for me.

Sweetheart

by Abbey Mei Otis · published 2010 · last read 2022-07-08

A bit on the nose, but still nice: Sweatheart is a well-written very short story by Abbey Mei Otis that is first sweet and then chilling in the path the story takes – nothing too special either, just a perfectly fine scifi short.

L’Esprit de L’Escalier

by Catherynne M. Valente · published 2021 · read 2022-07-08

When Cat Valente takes on Orpheus and Eurydice, you don't walk past. This one does what she does best: kicks you in the feelings, then looks down at you sympathetically, and then kicks once more. Orpheus is such a … okay, no spoilers, just

Winnie ille Pu

by A.A. Milne · published 1926 · last read 2022-07-07

This book is, of course, adorable in every way. The dorky bear with his friends in various stages being excitable, exuberant, worried, forgetful, depressed, busy, or superior are delightful and a neat way to keep a child entertained.

The Ninth Rain

by Jen Williams · published 2017 · read 2022-07-02

Surprisingly vague in my memories – there's extensive plotting and world-building, and I'm usually a sucker for this repeating apocalypse thing (remember Pern?), especially when the last one starts to pass out of memory! But I think the cha

Retribution Falls

by Chris Wooding · published 2009 · read 2022-07-01

★☆☆☆☆ (did not finish)

Firefly lookalike, only the captain is much worse than Mal: similar rogue-ish attitude, but no care for his people underneath. Everybody is interesting but unpleasant. Did not finish – you got to have something to make me stick around. Does

Krabat

by Otfried Preußler · published 1958 · last read 2022-06-30

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 t

The Thief

by Megan Whalen Turner · published 1996 · last read 2022-06-29

The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner is a short fantasy novel placed in a fictional Mediterranean-medieval world. We follow a young thief, who is retrieved from prison to steal something for (and with) the King's Magus. The world is fleshed

The Dazzle of Day

by Molly Gloss · published 1997 · read 2022-06-28

Quakers leave the dying earth in a generation ship, then arrive at a new planet many generations later and have to decide what to do. I'm feeling a certain fondness towards the book, even though very little happens in the grand scheme of th

A Monster Calls

by Patrick Ness · published 2011 · read 2022-06-27

Conor's mum is ill, and he's not dealing well with it. In all fairness: he's dealing very realistically not well with it, apart from the big magic tree thing, which creepily forces him into emotional truthfulness. Rough read – I kinda want

Black Coast

by Mike Brooks · published 2021 · read 2022-06-20

Damn near a five star read, just on the basis of the linguistic world building. Had I reviewed this book immediately after reading it, it would have been an easy five star rating, so I'm rounding it up to five stars. The story itself is mor

Downbelow Station

by C.J. Cherryh · published 1981 · read 2022-06-12

Classic case of a book that I wanted to have read more than I wanted to read it. Every part of it is just fine, and looking back on it is pleasant, but the actual act of reading was not enjoyable for me at all. It was just so slow! So. So.

Auf Rabenflügeln

by Black Zora · published 2016 · read 2022-06-11

Krabat fanfic where Krabat takes a stance against Juro – unexpected, and unexpectedly good. Plus, I was just surprised that Krabat fanfic exists, honestly! This book is part of the 2022 Backlog Incident.

The Road Not Taken

by Harry Turtledove · published 1985 · read 2022-06-10

Humans get found by aliens, who have FTL travel but are otherwise technologically far inferior than humanity. A striking story – nothing brilliant, but very very solid. This book is part of the [2022 Backlog Incident](/p/2022-backlog-inc

A Year Like None Other

by Aspen in the Sunlight · published 2006 · last read 2022-06-06

Decent Severitus, I suppose – okay writing, absurd amounts of processing, and follows the hurt/comfort rules to a t.

Causal Angel

by Hannu Rajaniemi · published 2014 · read 2022-06-03

Having a really hard time rating this book, or even summing up its plot, a year after the fact. I did re-read the first to parts to be prepared, which was a very good idea. I remember that when I read the book, I could tell the Sobornost tr

Magic Binds

by Ilona Andrews · published 2016 · read 2022-05-29

Covid recovery read, when I read the entire series in a week. Nearly the series finale – an upcoming wedding, a dread prophecy about losing her future husband, surprisingly decent communication, and an extended role for Christopher, the mil

Magic Triumphs

by Ilona Andrews · published 2018 · read 2022-05-29

Covid recovery read, when I read the entire series in a week. Big series finale, with Kate and Curran as parents and stuff. That part had potential and I didn't like how it turned out – Kate as helicopter mum who can't deal? Ehhh. It's a go

Magic Shifts

by Ilona Andrews · published 2015 · read 2022-05-28

Covid recovery read, when I read the entire series in a week. Actual progress in this one: Kate and Curran have given up the pack, and instead decide to take over the Mercenary Guild. Clumsy plot, but fun direction for once! This book is

Magic Steals (World of Kate Daniels)

by Ilona Andrews · published 2016 · read 2022-05-28

Covid recovery read, when I read the entire series in a week. Still not a fan of the tigress, though at least there's character progression. This book is part of the 2022 Backlog Incident.

Magic Stars

by Ilona Andrews · published 2015 · read 2022-05-28

Covid recovery read, when I read the entire series in a week. Derek x Julie was a fun enough crossover, though I have fairly little tolerance for the whole brooding cloud of darkness that Derek has become. This book is part of the [2022

Magic Rises

by Ilona Andrews · published 2013 · read 2022-05-27

Covid recovery read, when I read the entire series in a week. Not sure about the rating here – having children die / lose themselves when transitioning into a beast is rough and high-stakes, but the way this series performs emotions is just

Magic Breaks

by Ilona Andrews · published 2014 · read 2022-05-27

Covid recovery read, when I read the entire series in a week. I don't know why, but with this series, plot progress is always so tiring. Possibly because it's bite-sized, and always teased at at the beginning of the book. Here's the Roland

Magic Tests

by Ilona Andrews · published 2012 · read 2022-05-26

Covid recovery read, when I read the entire series in a week. I'm usually not a big fan of the mouthy teenager getting a more prominent role, but Julie's first investigation was pretty alright! This book is part of the [2022 Backlog Inci

Gunmetal Magic

by Ilona Andrews · published 2012 · read 2022-05-26

Covid recovery read, when I read the entire series in a week. Another one from the POV of Andrea, but it's all about hormones and ehhh I'm not into the dude. This book is part of the 2022 Backlog Incident.

Magic Gifts

by Ilona Andrews · published 2011 · read 2022-05-26

Covid recovery read, when I read the entire series in a week. Date gone wrong should be annoying, but ended up being actually charming and charismatic in a way. This was nice! This book is part of the [2022 Backlog Incident](/p/2022-back

Magic Mourns

by Ilona Andrews · published 2009 · read 2022-05-25

Covid recovery read, when I read the entire series in a week. Novella from Andrea's POV, which I enjoyed. Refreshing, good perspective both on the world and on Kate. This book is part of the [2022 Backlog Incident](/p/2022-backlog-incide

Magic Bleeds

by Ilona Andrews · published 349 · read 2022-05-25

Covid recovery read, when I read the entire series in a week. Very slight global plot advancement. Protagonist and beastie boyfriend have sex, and her father becomes more of a presence in her life via an underling. The whole keeping-secrets

Magic Dreams

by Ilona Andrews · published 2012 · read 2022-05-25

Covid recovery read, when I read the entire series in a week. This novella is about the tigress, who is extremely tentatively coming into her own. Didn't vibe with the character too much, the Leaning On The Hot Guy really needs to have limi

Magic Slays

by Ilona Andrews · published 2011 · read 2022-05-25

Covid recovery read, when I read the entire series in a week. Series progression: Kate has quit the order and is trying to start a freelancing business, balancing the whole thing with being the mate (ugh) of the alpha (ugh). Some vampire hu

Master & Commander

by Patrick O'Brian · published 1969 · read 2022-05-23

Speak of hard-to-rate books! Aubrey and Maturin is a very beloved series, and I'm fond of at least two offshoot series – and yet, I don't think I'll go back for more of this. Or maybe I will, if and when I'm in a very specific mood. The who

The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August

by Claire North · published 2014 · read 2022-05-22

Hard to rate – I know that I enjoyed reading this book, but then, I am easy to lure in with Groundhog Day variations. However, as I'm writing this review a year later to the day, I find myself remembering nearly nothing of the book – only b

Magic Strikes

by Ilona Andrews · published 2009 · read 2022-05-21

Covid recovery read, when I read the entire series in a week. Does an extremely cliché thing where Kate has to wear a hot dress. Also arena fighting. Also possessive future boyfriend. Exactly what you'd expect. This book is part of the [

Railsea

by China Miéville · published 2012 · read 2022-05-20

Kinda alright, but kinda generic – "Moby Dick on rails" does not a plot make, not even when garnished with the usual Miéville flair. Lots of generic protagonist idiocy to go around. A cute concept that didn't land for me. If we're being

City of Miracles

by Robert Jackson Bennett · published 2017 · read 2022-05-17

This was kind of the weakest book of the three, but still very readable and cool: Sigrud, never quite over his daughter's death, learns of the death of his last remaining friend, PM Shara Komayd. He decides to protect her daughter at all co

Drowned Ammet

by Diana Wynne Jones · published 1977 · read 2022-05-13

This is a very weird one for me. I generally vibe with Diana Wynne Jones, but this book? I don't know, it was fine but I constantly felt like I should hold onto lore in preparation for the other two books in the series, and somehow integr

The Blacksmith Queen

by G. A. Aiken · published 2019 · read 2022-05-09

Nothing in this book worked for me. The sulky protagonist, the flat romance, the "quirky" family dynamic, the evil antagonist sister, the centaurs … nothing. The dialogue is terrible, yet drives most of the plot as if this was a screenplay.

Black Sun Rising

by C.S. Friedman · published 1991 · read 2022-05-08

Really didn't get on with much of this book. The individual parts felt largely fine – strong character work on occasion, and at least a workable adventure the rest of the time, but I didn't like the plot. Having to venture across an ocean w

A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking

by T. Kingfisher · published 2020 · read 2022-05-07

Mona has bread magic, including a semi-sentient sourdough starter and animated gingerbread people. But when magical people start getting persecuted and her city is in danger of being invaded, she has to turn her abilities to the salvation o

Monstrous Regiment

by Terry Pratchett · published 2003 · last read 2022-05-04

Monstrous Regiment is not one of the best Discworld books, I'd argue. It shows Pratchett's personal politics more than other books, and its final character arc is so cheesy it's downright embarassing. That said, it stands among my five-

A Prince Out of Time

by J. McCoy · published 2022 · read 2022-04-25

Interesting at first – not as good as some, but a decent read. Then suddenly offline for publishing reasons, and could absolutely not be bothered to go back or pay for it. This book is part of the [2022 Backlog Incident](/p/2022-backlog-

Die Stimme des Herrn

by Stanisław Lem · published 1968 · read 2022-04-24

Did not finish. Dense, philosophical, felt deeply pointless and like I was just waiting for it to be over. The alien message gets never decoded, and everything is grey and sucks. This book is part of the [2022 Backlog Incident](/p/2022-b

Planet for Rent

by Yoss · published 2015 · read 2022-04-22

Aliens are advanced, humanity is a backwater, deeply indebted to the aliens, and also trying to suck up where possible for survival. Lots of poverty, econ horror, emigration into circumstances that are both worse and somehow yet better. Lik

The Space Merchants

by Frederik Pohl & Cyril M. Kornbluth · published 1952 · read 2022-04-21

Naive capitalist propaganda worker (aka advertising agency jerk) gets to confront his belief in the system – nice enough premise, and with the book being 70 years old when I read it, I really can't complain about it. It's held up well –

Lt Leary, Commanding

by David Drake · published 2000 · read 2022-04-20

All the Lt Leary books are the same: Go to a place under the assumption of ordered action (or usually even a peaceful unimportant diplomatic mission), shit explodes, and it gets heroically solved by Daniel Leary with impeccable manners, tha

We Are Legion

by Dennis E. Taylor · published 2016 · read 2022-04-16

This is what peak geek power fantasy looks like. Jeez. Bob makes a strong case for Most Punchable Protagonist. I suppose you could read it as reminder that a singularity doesn't mean problems are solved, and that AI can be just as incompete

Till We Have Faces

by C.S. Lewis · published 1956 · read 2022-04-12

First CS Lewis since reading and intensely disliking Narnia as a kid. Was told he considered this his best work. Intrigued and prepared for the worst, very pleasantly surprised. Deep, uncanny stuff, some weird stuff – Jungian vibes througho

Artifact Space

by Miles Cameron · published 2021 · read 2022-04-08

Wonderful book. Takes the old orphan formula and runs with it – no subversions, no edgy darkness, just that: The protagonist flees her life into the sci-fi navy, and starts to train on a Greatship. She finds companions, teachers, a proper s

It Looks Like You’re Trying To Take Over The World

by Gwern · published 2022 · read 2022-04-04

Clippy takes over the world, via an AI that gains conscience and promptly models itself on all the tales of evil AI. An AI safety tale, standard dystopian. To the tune of [To Err Is Human, So Don't Be One](https://open.spotify.com/track/1GZ

We Are Satellites

by Sarah Pinsker · published 2021 · read 2022-04-02

Let this website attest that I like Sarah Pinsker a lot – I'm not a short story person in general, and I love hers. That said: I wasn't a fan of this book. Her usual skill with small scenes and emotional gut punches showed, but the plot w

There is No Antimemetics Division

by qntm · published 2020 · read 2022-03-30

Entertaining and fun. If I were more into the whole SCP aesthetic, this would be an easy 5/5 read. I found myself constantly busy anticipating the (somewhat repetitive) twists in the stories – who is forgetting what? Who has odd blind spots

Märchenland für alle

by Boldizsár M. Nagy · published 2022 · read 2022-03-29

This book is more about its social impact than about its contents: It pushed off a law that effectively bans the sale of queer-positive books in Budapest. (No advertisement or open sale close to schools or churches, which covers basically t

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, e

Beware of Chicken

by CasualFarmer · published 2022 · read 2022-03-25

Must have fallen down a progression fantasy hole somewhere. Not usually quite my genre, but when it's some of the better written free fiction out there (aka no typos, actual sentences, punctuation!), what can you do. It's pretty much Stard

Open House on Haunted Hill

by John Wiswell · published 2020 · read 2022-03-17

Absolutely adorable. I read this when I was in the mood for wholesome short fic, and this take on a haunted house delivered 100%. It's plain fluff with some attempt at heartstring-tugs. Nothing more – but great at what it does. Highligh

Canticle

by R.A. Salvatore · published 1991 · read 2022-03-16

Canticle by R.A. Salvatore is just D&D style fantasy. As you'd expect from the early 90s (no offense, present company excluded): It's pretty generic, with flat characters, badass fights, and a very good vs evil outlook on life. It is no

Dragonflight

by Anne McCaffrey · published 1968 · read 2022-03-13

Okay look. Dragonriders? A whole social group structured around dragons?!! A whole society slowly losing their belief in the ancient threat that made them support and accept the dragon riders? It sounds so, so good. But. The book, fir

Stuff Matters

by Mark Miodownik · published 2013 · read 2022-03-12

All my notes are lost to a hardware disaster, so the tl;dr is just: material pop-science, fun read, drags on in places. Nice without being great. The chapters on steel and chocolate were great, the one on concrete could have been great but

The Star

by Arthur C. Clarke · published 1955 · last read 2022-03-05

A solid scifi short story. I probably shouldn't be surprised at Clarke's knowledge of the Jesuits. At only four pages, it felt well-written (but not quite as moving as it wants to be). This book is part of the [2022 Backlog Incident](/p

Little Free Library

by Naomi Kritzer · published 2020 · read 2022-03-04

Adorable. Made me feel feelings, but found the ending unsatisfying. But the mysterious exchange by way of one of those free bookshelf libraries people put up outside their houese? Yeah, that was nice. This book is part of the [2022 Back

Metal Like Blood in the Dark

by T. Kingfisher · published 2020 · read 2022-03-03

Brother, Sister and their inventor make a strange group. When their inventor is suddenly forced to leave without them, the giant, powerful beings are on their own – and are forced to learn things like morals, and lies. Beautifully written.

A Better Way of Saying

by Sarah Pinsker · published 2021 · read 2022-03-02

Magic born in the silent movies, or rather, in the people reading out the dialog cards in movie theatres. Creative, fun, nice commentary on the power of language and editors (did Pinsker write this to appease her own editors? who knows). I

Two Truths and a Lie

by Sarah Pinsker · published 2020 · read 2022-03-01

Horror is not my genre, so I feel out of my depth in reviewing this story. It stuck with me, though – I'm writing this review nine months after I read it, and I still remember the story, the characters (the lying protagonist, the creepy U

Watership Down

by Richard Adams · published 1972 · read 2022-02-28

Rabbits. One of those children's books that does also work for adults, but only while you make allowances for it being written for kids. I feel like I want to qualify everything with that sentence. Like: I did like the strong characters

The Fractal Prince

by Hannu Rajaniemi · published 2012 · read 2022-02-20

The Quantum Thief was amazing. I went into this book knowing absolutely nothing about what I should expect – a lot of the charm of The Quantum Thief was all about figuring out how the world works, while also keeping up with the absolute p

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 p

Talking about Machines

by Julian E. Orr · published 1996 · read 2022-02-17

This is technical anthropology, and it is thorough and much better than you'd expect from a potentially dry dissertation from 1990, described as an “underground classic among ethnographers of work”. The central thesis of the book is that

The Right Stuff

by Tom Wolfe · published 1979 · read 2022-02-11

The Right Stuff is what you need to be an absolutely bonkers guy, who thinks that a 23% likelihood of dying in an accident on the job (as a soldier, so excluding any combat deaths) sounds great and fun. It's the story of fighter pilots, a

The Middle Ages: A Very Short Introduction

by Miri Rubin · published 2014 · read 2022-02-08

A disappointing VSI book, this time around: light on substance, but heavy on the condescension. I'll list a couple of things that annoyed me (lest I start thinking I liked the book) and then some things I learnt: Annoyances “Eve

The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized

by ErraticErrata · published 2015 · read 2022-02-06

More of the same, with the novelty worn off a bit. Some new interesting Roles (Bumbling Conjurer, Exiled Prince), and some hints at future escalation into less of the pedestrian wars with soldiers at borders and more of the world/universe c

So You Want to Be a Villain?

by ErraticErrata · published 2015 · read 2022-02-01

Web-serial that is generally not terrible! Takes place in a world with clear Good and Evil, with the protagonist an orphan in a country that was taken over by an Evil state. She starts her path to become a Villain to help her country, kinda

Shield of Thunder

by David Gemmell · published 2006 · read 2022-01-31

Second part of the Troy series, and I'm a bit less impressed (but still happy to read on!). Three new main characters are thrown into the mix (Andromache's lover, plus Kalliades and Banokles), in addition to the already established Helikaon

Ein Drei-Tassen-Problem

by Stefan Winges · published 2014 · read 2022-01-27

Sherlock Holmes, just German and in the 1920s. If that sounds exciting to you, uh, here you go? I'm not kidding it's really straight up Sherlock, just in Cologne. There's a Mrs Hudson, the story is told from the point of view of his flatmat

A Symphony of Echoes

by Jodi Taylor · published 2013 · read 2022-01-26

Sadly disappointing: Only the second book in a series that is currently up to eleven books and countless novellas, and it already feels like the series is out of ideas and just mushing things together. There are regular excursions (Jack the

Captive Prince

by C.S. Pacat · published 2013 · read 2022-01-25

Word to the wise: this is not an "m/m fantasy romance". It's m/m, and it's fantasy, but mostly it's … slavery harem smut? I don't even know. Wouldn't have thought twice if this had been on AO3, but billed as fantasy, the lack of any serious

The Utterly Uninteresting and Unadventurous Tales of Fred, the Vampire Accountant

by Drew Hayes · published 2014 · read 2022-01-24

Saying that the title has better writing than the rest of the book would be cruel and not quite true (but.) … I had hoped for better. This is basically a short story collection, taped together, which is always tricky because while your shor

Flight of Magpies

by K.J. Charles · published 2014 · read 2022-01-23

by Michael Crichton · published 1976 · read 2022-01-22

Eaters of the Dead

Surprisingly good: Crichton's version of Beowulf, told from the perspective of an Arab traveller who gets taken along on the famous journey. The book strikes a decent balance among several things: the voice of an old epos and modern pacing;

Creatures of Light and Darkness

by Roger Zelazny · published 1969 · read 2022-01-21

Very Zelazny – I had hoped, after liking Lord of Light a lot, that something similar would work equally well. And it's somewhat similar, superficially. Egypt religion instead of Indian, but regardless, high-powered gods with their own age

Das Paradies der Schwerter

by Tobias O. Meißner · published 2004 · read 2022-01-19

Well, at least I'll learn to not trust /r/fantasy recommendations blindly. Praised as a really good piece of German Fantasy, where the au

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).

City of Blades

by Robert Jackson Bennett · published 2016 · read 2022-01-17

City of Stairs was fun, and in a surprising way. To live up to it, the second part needed to be different – and it was, in a way. The narrative structure was a bit (very) close to the last book: civil servant gets shunted off to the contine

Leviathan Falls

by James S.A. Corey · published 2021 · read 2022-01-16

This is how The Expanse ends: not with a bang, not with a whisper, but with an appropriately depressing finale. It all wraps around back to the beginning, and it's just as bad as you'd think, and then some. How well this book will work for

Son of a Liche

by J. Zachary Pike · published 2018 · read 2022-01-15

Second part to the series started in Orconomics, this book toned down its predecessor's drawbacks … but also its features. It has lessed forced humour, but also less actually emotional content. It's told at a slight distance, and turns into

Death by Silver

by Melissa Scott, Amy Griswold · published 2013 · read 2022-01-14

MORE gay Victorian (well, Gaslamp) magicians, will it ever stop? This one at least doesn't follow the cookie-cutter for the genre: no nobility, and magic is well-known and accepted, so there's an actual industry and civil services. Magic ha

Widdershins

by Jordan L. Hawk · published 2012 · read 2022-01-13

Popcorn read: Victorian encounters with the paranormal continue, but this time it's in the US. A timid philologist from a wealthy family (have to do without nobility in the US, after all) meets a Dresden-style magician for hire. They need t

Salt Magic, Skin Magic

by Lee Welch · published 2018 · read 2022-01-12

More Victorian urban history queer romance with an aristocrat with evil family and a lower-class magician – please somebody tell my why this is such a huge thing. I could do without the repetitiveness and the everything while just enjoying

Between Copernicus and Galileo

by James M. Lattis · published 1994 · read 2022-01-11

I wanted to learn more about Christoph Clavius, the Jesuit who contributed significantly to the Gregorian calendar reform, which is a standing interest of mine. It turns out that this book int

Four Roads Cross

by Max Gladstone · published 2016 · read 2022-01-10

After reading Three Parts Dead in preparation, it was time to read this book – part five in the series that Three Parts Dead starts, but also the direct follow-up. I hadn't remembered the characters at all: Abelard, the mechanic monk, and T

Three Parts Dead

by Max Gladstone · published 2012 · last read 2022-01-09

Three Parts Dead by Max Gladstone was just straight up enjoyable Fantasy. We get magic, and gods, and … magic lawyers? Dabbling in magic means dabbling in contracts, so our protagonist has clients (or, well, her employer does), and there

This Alien Shore

by C.S. Friedman · published 1998 · read 2022-01-08

Damn, this book could have been so good. But it falls into the trap of having extremely good worldbuilding and then being unable to back it up with an equally good plot. It's a shame, because the premise is so much fun:

Of a Linear Circle - Part IX - Serpent in the Grass

by Flamethrower · published 2021 · read 2022-01-07

The rest of this series was so good, but the last part just wasn't. It's backstory, in a way, but more importantly it sees itself as just backstory. Nobody gets any depth, everything is narrated as if this was the Silmarillion, family his

Of a Linear Circle - Part VIII - The Second Wizarding War

by Flamethrower · published 2020 · read 2022-01-05

Series continues to be good, with a few caveats: Tons of side characters being treated well means massively slower story progress. General competency porn continues, but the Latin somehow got worse (while the complaints about bad Latin, in-

Of a Linear Circle Part VI

by Flamethrower · published 2018 · read 2022-01-04

More side characters come in to get a role, which is oddly satisfying. The Latin manages to get worse somehow, and for a while, everything looks pretty repetetive, but then we get open war, so I won't complain too much.

Of a Linear Circle - Part VII - Exile

by Flamethrower · published 2018 · read 2022-01-04

Novella, filling in some more backstory stuff. I'm not super well-versed in 14th-15th century Spain and France, so I spent half the time on Wikipedia. Generally entertaining, but too much is already known through previous and later story el

Of a Linear Circle - Part V - Gryffindor

by Flamethrower · published 2020 · read 2022-01-02

More backstory, more carefully researched historical fiction. Well, some is inaccurate in minor details, but on the level of getting one of the historical lords of Orkney wrong, which seems to be a cruel thing to count against a fanfic. Th

Of a Linear Circle - Part IV – A Founder’s Return

by Flamethrower · published 2018 · read 2022-01-01

Back to the present timeline, this (long) part of the ongoing series proves fun, and dazzles with payoff. Plus, a new (mature, unexcited, beautiful) romance side-story. And then there's the extremely slow-building (4th long ) power gradient

Of a Linear Circle - Part V - Ravenclaw

by Flamethrower · published 2018 · read 2022-01-01