imyril is enthusiastic in 2016

A belated Happy New Year to you all! Mine got off to a(n icy) blast with an extended 10-day trip to Iceland, which was every sort of awesome (including utter awe at just how strong the wind can be up there as it blew me about a beach).

I'm keeping my reading goals even simpler this year: as I'm expecting to be working more hours, I'm aiming for 60 books again, of which at least 50% will by women and at least 20% by people of colour. I have no particular ambitions around genre or non-fiction, and only the vaguest ambition to acquire fewer books. So vague, in fact, that I'm not going to track it (my 10-year Thingaversary would surely scupper any such goals anyway!)

I've signed up to a couple of challenges, but they're about tracking reading rather than setting targets, so it's mostly to see how I get on. I'm also interested in re-reading some epic fantasy favourites, which may seriously dent how many books I get through overall - The Lord of the Rings, Locke Lamora and A Song of Ice and Fire will probably all be revisited this year.

Glad you started out the year with an awesome trip. Good luck with the plans and happy new year!

Total read: 71 / 75 + 10 episodes of Tremontaine S2, which I'm totally counting as an extra book
Off the shelf: 31
Review copies: 31

Jan (6 | 0/5/1)
Last Rituals - Yrsa Sigurðardóttir* (OTS)
The Greenhouse - Audur Ava Ólafsdóttir* (OTS)
A Reaper of Stone - Mark Gelineau & Joe King* (RC)
Tattúínárdǿla Saga - Jackson Crawford
Lagoon - Nnedi Okorafor (OTS)
The Masked City - Genevieve Cogman (RC)

Feb (8 | 0/8/0)
Graft - Matt Hill (RC)
Broken Banners - Mark Gelineau & Joe King (RC)
Chameleon Moon - RoAnna Sylver* (RC)
The Fox's Tower and other tales - Yoon Ha Lee* (OTS)
Rend the Dark - Mark Gelineau & Joe King (RC)
Windswept - Adam Rakunas* (RC)
Skinshaper - Mark Gelineau & Joe King (RC)
The Tale of Yin - Joyce Chng* (OTS)

Mar (10 | 1/7/2)
Open Skies - Yolande Kleinn* (RC)
Of Books and Earth and Courtship - Aliette de Bodard (OTS)
Swordspoint - Ellen Kushner* (OTS)
Best Left in Shadows - Mark Gelineau & Joe King (RC)
The Fellowship of the Ring - J R R Tolkien
The Bone Knife - Intisar Khanani* (OTS)
Faith and Moonlight - Mark Gelineau & Joe King (RC)
Civil Blood - Mark Gelineau & Joe King (RC)
The Silmarillion - J R R Tolkien
The Passage - Justin Cronin* (OTS)

April (7 | 1/5/1)
The Terracotta Bride - Zen Cho (OTS)
The Privilege of the Sword - Ellen Kushner (OTS)
Fellside - M R Carey (RC)
Faith and Moonlight Part 2 - Mark Gelineau & Joe King (RC)
Bloodchild - Octavia Butler (OTS)
The Lies of Locke Lamora - Scott Lynch
Like A Boss - Adam Rakunas (RC)

May (5 | 2/2/1)
The Fall of the Kings - Ellen Kushner (OTS)
Between Two Thorns - Emma Newman* (OTS)
The Girl Who Tweeted Wolf - Nick Bryan* (OTS)
Red Seas under Red Skies - Scott Lynch
Ninefox Gambit - Yoon Ha Lee (RC)

June (4 | 0/3/1)
Stiletto - Daniel O'Malley (RC)
Temeraire - Naomi Novik
Any Other Name - Emma Newman (RC)
Half-off Ragnarok - Seanan McGuire (OTS)

July (4 | 0/4/0)
Throne of Jade - Naomi Novik (OTS)
All is Fair - Emma Newman (RC)
The Best of Apex Magazine - Lesley Conner / Jason Sizemore (editors) (RC)
Black Powder War - Naomi Novik (OTS)

August (4 | 1/2/1)
A Little Knowledge - Emma Newman (RC)
The Republic of Thieves - Scott Lynch
The Stars Seem So Far Away - Margret Helgadottir* (RC)
Tremontaine - Ellen Kushner et al (RC)

September (6 | 3/3/0)
Children of the Different - S C Flynn* (RC)
Certain Dark Things - Silvia Moreno-Garcia* (RC)
Translucid - Zen diPietro* (RC)
False Hearts Laura Lam* (OTS)
Empire of Ivory - Naomi Novik (OTS)
We Are All Completely Fine - Daryl Gregory* (OTS)

October (6 | 2/4/0)
Europe in Autumn - Dave Hutchinson* (OTS)
Star of the Sea - Una McCormack* (RC)
Feed - Mira Grant (OTS)
A Closed and Common Orbit - Becky Chambers (OTS)
Rawblood - Catriona Ward* (OTS)
Victory of Eagles - Naomi Novik (OTS)

November (6 | 0/5/1)
Fluency - Jennifer Foehner Wells* (OTS)
Europe at Midnight - Dave Hutchinson (OTS)
Europe in Winter - Dave Hutchinson (RC)
A Love of UIQ - Felix Guattari* (RC)
Jurassic Park - Michael Crichton
Echopraxia - Peter Watts (OTS)

December (5 | 1/3/1)
Witches of Lychford - Paul Cornell (OTS)
Winter Tales - editor Margret Helgadottir (RC)
Caraval - Stephanie Garber (RC)
A Closed and Common Orbit - Becky Chambers (yes, again ;)
The Lost Child of Lychford - Paul Cornell (OTS)

Currently reading:
Rosewater - Tade Thompson (RC)

Male / female / trans or non-binary authors: 30 / 35 / 3 (42 / 49 / 4 %) + 4 anthologies

Diversiverse: 9 (12.5% / 20%)
Books in translation: 2
Bite-sized books: 16 (8%)

*@pgmcc -inspired new-to-me authors: 26 (36%)
(I've abandoned a page count as I'm reading so many short stories online. They should count, but they're invisible)

Abandoned:
William Shakespeare's Star Wars - Ian Doescher
Radiance - Catherynne Valente (RC)
One of Us - Asne Seierstad (RC)
Savant - Nik Abnett
The Last Day of Captain Lincoln - EXO
Way Down Dark - J P Smythe

>2 majkia: Thanks - now to go through all the photos and work out a trip report :)

Following! And waiting to see the photos... :)

Welcome back! What a wonderful start to the year.

Looking forward to following your reading again (and no doubt taking some book bullets along the way!)

Welcome to 2016! Those epic fantasy rereads should be fun. I've always meant to read Lord of the Rings but have never gotten around to it.

Starred! Best wishes for many good reads this year! :) I just picked up The Drowning Eyes and hope to read it soon too!

>8 sandstone78: oooh did that come out today? Excellent - that makes my first 10th Thingaversary pick easy :)

...along with my second, which is going to have to be Windswept - SF focusing on a heroine involved in the intergalactic rum trade, trying to foil a dastardly plot to poison sugar cane.

@pgmcc I promise I'll figure the rest out promptly tomorrow :)

Glad you enjoyed your holiday! I'm looking forward to following you here and on your blog again this year.

>9 imyril: Yeah, today was the release date! I've been curious about Windswept too- it was on sale recently but the sample didn't grab me. Steal the Sky from the same publisher (Angry Robot) looks promising though, I hadn't realized that one had been released but must track down a sample.

Both of those look interesting, although I'm not generally wild about novellas. Looking forward to following your reading adventures!

Your trip sounds brilliant, it's on my list of places I'd like to go! I hope you enjoy many wonderful books this year.

lurking about on threads again. I'm sure Iceland was fantastic. I was in Norway for new year and very impressed, but Iceland is that bit further north, so I'm sure even better.

>14 reading_fox: I think the landscapes are equally stunning in different ways, but Iceland gets amazing light (i.e. very little of it, but often golden or pink sunset glow even at midday) that is very, very beautiful.

What happened to Mt. TBR?

>16 suitable1: I got some Peril-O-Sensitive sunglasses and it seems to have disappeared.

My Thingaversary is my favourite way to start my books bought : read ratio with a deficit. With a decade of LibraryThinging under my belt, this year's a big one! My celebratory picks are:

Lagoon - Nnedi Okorafor
The Drowning Eyes - Emily Taylor
Windswept - Adam Rakunas
Planetfall - Emma Newman
Of Oysters, Pearls and Magic - Joyce Chng
The Path of Kindness - Joyce Chng
The Fox's Tower and Other Tales - Yoon Ha Lee
Scruffians! Stories of Better Sodomites - Hal Duncan
Five-Twelfths of Heaven - Melissa Scott
Trouble and Her Friends - Melissa Scott

Now to choose my bonus book - I'm torn between something by Nalo Hopkinson, Ancillary Sword, City of Stairs, The Peripheral, A Stranger in Olondria and Seed to Harvest (a collection of all the Patternist novels by Octavia Butler for 4-in-1 bonus points).

*keeps an eye on the clock before she starts earning penalty points from @pgmcc*

A decade!! OMG. Wow. Congratulations. I can't speak to any of your choices, unfortunately, but I hope you love them to bits.

Mine will be this July. Incredible.

Congratulations on your Thingaversary - and double figures too!! Woo! Glad to see that you've made your selections of titles, I look forward to hearing how you get on with them.

Happy Thingaversary! You joined the day before I did. Going to sort out my selections later this morning.

Happy Thingaversary!

>18 imyril: You do us proud!

Happy Thingaversary! My ninth is tomorrow. Hard to believe!

>18 imyril: Happy Thingaversary! :D That's a mighty fine list of books there, I do hope you enjoy The Fox's Tower and the Melissa Scotts and am really interested in what you think of Planetfall, Windswept, and The Drowning Eyes too!

I would highly recommend both Ancillary Sword and Seed to Harvest from your short list, depending on whether you're interested in a realistic view of difficult social issues with hope things can change or an unflinching (but absolutely riveting) exploration of the implications of sci fi tropes and social issues that usually get ignored- Butler knows that true "grimdark" is found not in an arbitrarily high body count, but in keeping characters alive.

I will note that I believe Ancillary Sword and Ancillary Mercy are best read as one story in two books (I wish I'd reread Sword before Mercy and intend to reread them together in the future!), because Sword pauses rather than stops, and also that, together, they are somewhat different than Ancillary Justice- instead of directly continuing on and immediately escalating the conflict that presents itself at the end of the first book, they take a sidestep to a new setting to explore some new issues that are tied back in later. It worked very well for me, personally.

Eek, I just realized I forgot to celebrate my own Thingaversary at the end of December :) Officially, at least- I think I've bought a qualifying number of books already.....

Happy Thingaversary! I echo what sandstone78 said about Ancillary Sword and Ancillary Mercy as well. I think they're best experienced together as a single story. ^_^

COngratulations! And I'll echo sandstone78's recommendations. I would also have told you to got for Ancillary sword or Seed to harvest. Or both!

Wow, you are so organised, and made some great choices! I loved City of stairs, Ancillary sword and A stranger in Olondria of your bonus book options. Of course, if pgmcc has his way, you may need to buy more than one by now ...

Thanks everybody :) I almost feel like a proper old-timer, although as it took me about 8 of those years to actually get my books all uploaded and my feet in front of the fire at the Green Dragon, I'm not sure all 10 years really count ;)

I went with Seed to Harvest in the hope that a 4-in-1 would fend off any last-minute calculations by @pgmcc, but as it's my birthday next month I suspect the Ancillaries, City of Stairs and A Stranger in Olondria may not be far behind.

And time for the first 2 reviews of the year:

1) Last Rituals - Yrsa Sigurdardottir | Full review


Oh dear. Oh dear, oh dear. I really wanted to like this - Sigurdardottir is the 'queen of Icelandic crime', and I enjoy books by the king (Arnaldur Indridason) - plus it seemed doubly appropriate given I was in Iceland at the time. Unfortunately, this appears to suffer from inexperience; while Sigurdardottir had previously written children's books, this was her first foray into adult fiction and/or crime. It shows - some of the plotting is simplistic, the character development is sketchy, the pace is uneven, and some great ideas are wasted. I was left torn over the heroine - who has some fabulous feisty moments, but throws them away with some awfully teenaged behaviours (her relationship with her best mate was almost as bizarre to me as her choice of bedmate).

I liked it for the familial aspects (heroine Thora is a single mother with 2 children), but it will take an awful lot of persuasion to convince me to try later entries in the series. I'll take on faith that Sigurdardottir has improved, given the competition in the Icelandic market.

2) The Greenhouse - Audur Ava Olafsdottir | Full review


This was like sinking into a nice warm bath after the unpleasant waters of Last Rituals, and was another choice from my little collection of Icelandic / arctic fiction. The Greenhouse is a coming-of-age novel about grief, responsibility, commitment and finding yourself in unexpected places. In some ways it feels above my likes and dislikes, but I rather enjoyed it.

My only real criticism is that the ending felt rather abrupt and unsatisfying - I wanted more closure, or at least a sense of more completion on the journey; instead, it felt we left Arnljotur on the brink of a new journey, but it was unclear where it would lead or what his choices would be.

3) A Reaper of Stone - Mark Gelineau & Joe King | Full review


Elinor is the King's Reaper, duty-bound to demolish the ancient keeps of the marches to prevent them falling into hostile hands. When the Lady of Timberline dies, Elinor is sucked into the vicious politics of Resa's grasping nobility. Will she confirm the new Lord who seeks the title, or investigate the Lady's unexpected death?

A Reaper of Stone is epic fantasy on a small scale. This is the first Echo of the Ascended - a collection of novellas exploring the fantasy world of Aedaron through four different characters and four different types of fantasy. I love the idea - bite-sized fantasy! - but my frustration with A Reaper of Stone is that there isn't more of it. Elinor is a great central character and we see enough of her best friend Con to give him substance, but the other characters are little more than archetypes (sneering villain; honourable underdog) - there's too much story to tell to bring them properly to life, although there's promises in the sketches of the underdogs at least.

Nonetheless, I take my hat off to any authors who can make a world feel so solid in so few pages, and I'll certainly be exploring the other Echoes (the first round are all published; the second round kicks off next month with a sequel for Elinor).

I'll try this one. Thanks for the review : I hadn't read anything about it and the idea of a collection of novella is interesting.

>32 h-mb: my respect for it only grows now I've realised that the authors are publishing 1 novella per month and have recently released a revised version of A Reaper of Stone as they wanted to improve it having got through the first 4 and learnt a few things. So your version may be a little different to mine - I'll pick up the revised edition at some point to see what got tweaked.

Oooooh, that sounds lovely! I'll have to add that to my wishlist. I really like the idea of a collection of novellas. ^_^ I'd be curious just to see how they've handled that aspect. ^_^

So, err, I got distracted. I recently found the Incryptid short stories on Seanan McGuire's website, so have started working my way through in chronological order. It's not making me feel the books have any more depth than I did after Midnight Blue-Light Special, but it has confirmed that I've got a fairly high tolerance for them as occasional fictional popcorn.

Then I tripped across the Tattúínárdølasaga: Star Wars as Icelandic saga. I've not read my Edda or indeed any other sagas, but I'm vaguely familiar with the format - although I'll admit it's the re-working of the names (and some of the concepts) to fit Old Norse that mostly has me giggling. It's also making me wish that I read Old Norse, as the author has actually translated the whole thing too :)

Oh imyril, bullet right between the eyes! (takes longship off to search for Tattúínárdølasaga: Star Wars as Icelandic saga.)

>36 aviddiva: Heh :) I'd set sail for this secret location to find the ethereal scroll of ancient and faraway deeds.

Thank you for the link! Have you seen the medieval Irish inspired retelling of Episode IV? (If anyone is curious about it, it's here. ^_^)

>38 dovelynnwriter: I haven't. But I think I soon will have ;) but I'm absolutely getting on to Lagoon for a group read before I get distracted by William Shakespeare's Star Wars.

>35 imyril: >38 dovelynnwriter: >39 imyril: This makes me very curious to do a comparative reading of all of these historical-period-ized versions and see what the choices of translation say about each period (and, by extension, the US in the 1970s)!

4) Tattúínárdøla saga - Jackson Crawford

I'm including this as a bite-sized book, given it runs for 100 A4 pages in the PDF edition I got my hands on. I read it by accident, having re-watched The Force Awakens at the weekend, and have mostly chortled my way through it.

I particularly love that the author (a PhD in Scandinavian Studies at the time of writing) has also written an academic context for the Saga. The films apparently rely on a rather late Middle High German manuscript that is considered corrupt; the text as reproduced uses a number of older (and sometimes conflicting) manuscripts to piece together the original saga, and an older German poem as a source for the ending.

This permits the author to change all sorts of details to bring the tale more in line with the Saga traditions (i.e. bloodthirsty and male-dominated), as well as to have cheerful side-swipes at broader debate within Star Wars fandom. Jar-Jar Binks and the pod-racing scenes are dismissed as late additions to that corrupt Middle High German epic, and an older tradition is followed in the text in which Jar-Jar is summarily killed by an angry young Anakin. The text also has a few things to say about whether Hani Solosson shot first ;)

The text broadly relates Episodes I - IV in detail, skips over Episode V almost entirely and then adjusts much of Episode VI (bearing in mind Lucas's preference for a generally dismissed manuscript). It's much concerned with fathers and sons - so no change there - and the question of oathbreaking vs vengeance. The droids - especially Artú Dítússon - and the technology obvious need a great deal of adaptation, some of which is inspired.

Sadly, the women in the saga is largely played down. While Paðéma and Leia appear and retain some of their agency, they are much reduced roles and I actualy growled when Víga-Óbívan (who probably comes off worst out of this retelling - he's just not a very nice Viking ;) dismissively relinquishes baby Leia to Irish king Beilorgana because she is only a girl. For the purposes of vengeance, he is only interested in Lúkr. To @sandstone78 's comment, I think this tells us more about the Norse saga tradition than late 70s US culture, but it bears noting that it's not hard to sideline or downplay - retelling The Force Awakens would be rather more challenging (although I'm sure there's at least one Icelandic saga entirely about a woman; I may need to try and find it).

I am now absolutely up for reading the Irish retelling of Episode IV :)

I've had a quiet ten days with a trip to see family and a boyfriend with a bad case of virus (awww). A highlight was a cinema trip to see Labyrinth, which was (as always) a joy.

5) Lagoon - Nnedi Okorafor


I've also ploughed my way through Lagoon, which wasn't entirely without merit but sadly did almost nothing for me at all. There's some great ideas in there (and then a heap more ideas that must have been lying about needing a home), but there's too many characters and not enough depth to go round. I found myself wondering whether it would work better for a younger audience (unlike the rest of her work, it's not sold as YA / children's), but have been given food for thought on two fronts: firstly, I was reminded that the dialogue and violence isn't really appropriate for a younger audience; and secondly, it suggests I'm either forgiving of thin plot/character in YA or that I associate it (which may be why I tend to be dismissive of YA).

I'll take that on the chin and decide later if I'm being unfair to YA in general. In the meantime, I still didn't like Lagoon - I was disappointed by it. Full review / dissection here.

6) The Masked City - Genevieve Cogman


Thankfully, I had this stacked up on my NetGalley list pricking at my conscience. Now, I know I wasn't best impressed with the first one last year (The Invisible City) and said I wouldn't be reading the sequels, but I changed my mind after seeing some good reviews (and being offered a NetGalley copy). And I'm really glad I did, as this was an absolute blast. It's almost up on The Long Way to A Small Angry Planet levels of fun (if not in breadth and diversity of cast) - Librarian Irene, who can edit reality by precise use of language, negotiates her way through a Faerie Venice to rescue her dragon apprentice. It's slick, knowing and nicely balanced on the side of equal opportunities and smart use of tropes. Even more enthusiasm here.

The masked city seems fun. I'll try it. The idea of editing reality by precise use of language sold me!

>43 h-mb: I love that it mixes ObiWan Kenobi ('These are not the droids you're looking for') with the hazards of wishing unwisely ('You didn't specify you needed to get out of this situation with all your limbs intact'). Near-infinite power with complete paranoia.

>42 imyril: I did enjoy The invisible library, so now I'm really looking forward to The masked city! Lagoon is on Mount Tbr, but it might stay there for a bit longer after reading your review.

7) Graft - Matt Hill | Full review


I read Matt Hill's debut novel (The Folded Man) back in 2014 - it was an interesting effort at putting a disabled protagonist with some significant mental health issues into a dystopia, but pretty hard going (body horror ahoy). Still, the ideas and the prose were good enough for me to keep an eye out, and I'm happy to report his follow-up, Graft, is rather easier-going. That doesn't make it an easy read - it's still hard-boiled dystopia, so not for the squeamish.

Set some 7 years later in the same universe, it's a traditional misfits against the system narrative - not that there's much system left in 2025. The cities are burnt-out wrecks after race riots and the government pour their limited resources into law enforcement drones to try and keep on top of critical resources. It's easy for people to disappear; the human traffickers strip them down for parts or strip their memories, mod them and sell them on as little better than slaves (there's a chilling scene in which a salesman tries to convince a madam it's a business opportunity for improving her margins). Middle-aged car mechanic Sol finds a three-armed woman in the boot of a stolen car: Y can't speak, but she can take a threat apart in seconds. The story follows their attempts to find her makers.

I enjoyed this, but I still don't think Hill has quite cracked character or plot. While the overall world building remains excellent, the plot was less original than The Folded Man and I found myself less engaged in the second half. Still, I think this one will rattle around my brain for quite a while and I do like his prose. Apparently his next novel will be 'something completely different' - I'll be intrigued to see what.

8) Broken Banners - Mark Gelineau & Joe King | Full review


This is the sequel to A Reaper of Stone - another 100 page (ish) novella focusing on Elinor, formerly the King's Reaper. Disgraced, she is en route to transfer her command to old friend Aldis Janen when she discovers the slaughtered bodies of his troop. With engineers but no soldiers in her squad, she must decide which comes first: the lives of her men & women, or the life of her old friend - and confront the dirty realities of the corruption pervading the Marches.

I thought this was better than A Reaper of Stone - with the world broadly established, the authors could give the characters more room to breathe. They also side-stepped my whinge about cardboard villains by keeping the (cardboard) villain largely off-page, focusing instead on the tarnished honour of Aldis Janen. Good stuff, which leaves me wanting to read the next instalment and catch up on the other Echoes.

Booooo, sadly William Shakespeare's Star Wars is just a bit disappointing after the Tattúínárdøla saga. If you're looking for Star Wars (EpIV) in iambic pentameter and Shakespearean style (asides, chorus, etc) then this is exactly what you'll get. If you're looking for Star Wars as Shakespeare might have imagined it (I'm going out on a limb here, but for me that means it's probably not set in space and won't feature blasters) then this is not the play you're looking for.

I'm a little behind, so some catching up...

9) Chameleon Moon - RoAnna Sylver (review copy) | Full review


Chameleon Moon isn't the best-written book I've read this year in style or consistency - it has the bumps you'd expect from an ambitious debut - but it has unexpected heart that I found hard to resist. It's set in Parole, a once-typical city turned upside down by the unexpected side effects of a wonder drug (which turns out to be both addictive and essentially to awaken super-powers) and by the fact that its foundations are on fire. It's a matter of time before the crumbling streets fall into the inferno and everyone burns to death - as the government shoot anyone who tries to leave. When a reptilian hitman misses his target and has his memory stolen by a psychic kingpin, he's taken in by a flamboyant club singer and her wives. They have history with the government, which is just as well, as it means they handle finding themselves on the run with style. Soon they're all trying to get to the bottom of what's going on and seeing if they can save the city to boot. Super powers be damned, it's all about hope, commitment and love; which is why it is so upbeat for a dystopia. It has a lot to say along the way about depression, disability and gender, most of which it manages to slip in fairly subtly. Apparently the first in a series, and I'll check in to see how it evolves in due course.

10) The Fox's Tower and Other Tales - Yoon Ha Lee | Full review


I can totally blame @sandstone78 for putting me on to this one, and as it's my first 5 star read of the year, when I say 'totally blame' I mean 'send her cake and cheese to say thank you'. This is a fabulous collection of flash fiction that had me at hello (in the first line of the introduction, before I even got to the stories). Each flash introduces a new world and/or characters, and is immersive in its own right. So many of them I could stand to read more about. It's poetic, with every word working hard, and I loved practically every page. Yum. Can't wait to read Yoon Ha Lee's longform (Ninefox Gambit) out later this year.

49> I think a book bullet just hit me with The Fox's Tower and Other Tales...

>50 pwaites: One of the reasons I loved it - besides awesome use of language and imagery - is that nothing takes more than 5 minutes to read. And it's been the sort of week that really needed little shots in the arm like that.

>49 imyril: Eee, I'm so glad you liked The Fox's Tower and Other Tales! :D *gladly accepts cake and cheese*!!

>52 sandstone78: There were so many little moments of delight it's hard playing favourites. I understand the tone is rather different in Conservation of Shadows (and, I think, Ninefox Gambit) - but I don't think that will put me off.

I seem to be reading lots of books in serial format at the moment, juggling titles rather than focusing on one at a time. I'm getting used to it - the books I've read recently have handled this arrangement quite well (they've all been very different to one another for a start!) This week's round-up:

11) Rend the Dark - Mark Gelineau & Joe King | Full review


I'm slowly reading my way through all of the Echoes of the Ascended novellas and I'm starting to be properly impressed. Yes, the prose style and some of the elements remain simplistic (they're pitched as YA), but when I stop and think about the compressed page count, there's a real achievement here. It's more apparent in Rend the Dark, where we get a new take on an established world: hero Ferran grew up with Elinor (heroine of the first Echo A Reaper of Stone), but has the terrifying ability to sense shape-changing and body-snatching horrors that inhabit Aedaron. Adopted into the Order of Talan, it's his life's work to hunt such creatures down. Rend the Dark neatly introduces a new cast, new priorities and a different angle on the politics - whilst delivering a meaty adventure with skin-crawling monsters (arachnophobes beware). I've gone straight on into the sequel, because I like Ferran's companion Mireia so much.

12) Windswept - Adam Rakunas | Full review


Rakunas's debut crept up on me. It's high-octane, high-snark space opera set on a backwater planet that has the dubious honour of being dominated by the Union rather than one of the Big Three megacorps. They keep it independent and sustainable by exporting epic quantities of molasses and some rather good rum. Heroine and Union recruiter Padma Mehta is determined to keep it that way - and to buy her favourite distillery to ensure it doesn't get shut down. She's got her reasons. But when something too good to be true proves to be exactly that, she's left racing to try and stay ahead of the competition - and of the black ops team that appears to be trying to ruin her life. And her planet.

The world-building is an avalanche of colourful detail, off the cuff and breathless, and it takes a while for the plot to catch up. Once it finds its feet, it's bonkers and far too much fun. By the end, it was off the charts absurd and I was laughing too much to care. Screwball scifi noir with a fabulously grumpy leading lady (well, heroine, anyway), an endearing lawyer (who knew that was even possible) and lots and lots of hi-jinks.

54> Windswept sounds really good. I think you just hit me with another book bullet.

>54 imyril: Oh, right between the eyes with Windswept! Good shootin', Tex!

>55 pwaites: >56 Marissa_Doyle: *holds up gun, blows smoke away* I hope you enjoy :) It's at the pulpier end of the spectrum, but it has great comic timing and a nose for absurdly OTT revelations.

>54 imyril: you might want to check the touchstone as it goes to a different book, but it does sound great fun. humour's always tricky, is it more farce, or sarcastic?

>58 reading_fox: ooooops, fixed now. Most of the humour is snarky, but there's occasional touches of farce (there's no getting around the scene where she disables a corporate goon by essentially pulling his trousers down; it's practically Benny Hill, especially as he appears incapable of figuring out how to pull them back up again).

>54 imyril: You got me too with Windswept! I'm sure I heard about this somewhere else - the plot to buy the distillery sounds familiar - but whoever that was didn't make it sound as compelling as you have!

>60 Sakerfalcon: I hope you enjoy it :) Apparently the sequel will be along this summer.

Quick round up on recent reading: it's been lots of shorter fiction as I've had a number of slow-burning group reads on the go so I was looking for padding.

13) Skinshaper - Mark Gelineau & Joe King | Full review

The sequel to Rend the Dark, which I really enjoyed, was underwhelming but okay (I think partly because I didn't like the main POV character). This makes me sad, but won't stop me exploring the Echoes of the Ascended, once I've taken a break from YA novellas to get something meatier under my belt.

14) The Tale of Yin - Joyce Chng | Full review

A duology, and I found I loved the first book (which left me with lots of questions in a good way), but was disappointed in the sequel (as it left me with the wrong questions). I really like Chng's writing style (although she needs an editor), and her looping of themes to create a harmonious whole.

15) Of Books and Earth and Courtship - Aliette de Bodard | Full review

So delightful, a perfect little ray of romantic warmth on a grey morning. This is a prequel to The House of Shattered Wings, but works well read later as you get a new perspective on 2 key characters (and their world). I may now want to know everything about Emmanuelle/Indigo, although I'm likely to hear more of her story for years, if ever.

16) Open Skies - Yolande Kleinn | Full review

A disappointing ARC that I can't recommend. Nominally a story about a pair of private investigators taking on a tricky job for an unpleasant client, this has classic noir ingredients that could have been a lot of fun. Instead, the plot plodded and the world-building was sketchy; I think it was trying to foreground the protagonists' relationship, but this too ended up feeling flimsy. I ended up thinking it felt like an early draft rather than a finished novel.

I'm nearly finished Swordspoint, which has been a highlight of the year so far (I'll be going straight onto The Privilege of the Sword and Tremontaine) and I've dived into The Fellowship of the Ring, as it's been well over a decade since I last read it.

I'm also organising a group (re)read for the Locke Lamora books if anyone fancies revisiting them before (hopefully) the new instalment comes out in the summer. We'll start with The Lies of Locke Lamora in April.

17) Swordspoint - Ellen Kushner | Full review

I was wildly entertained by Swordspoint (and by the live group read, where we all read at the same time each week and passed comment / innuendo via twitter as we did so). A master swordsman from the wrong side of the river (as all good swordsmen are) is a pawn in noble intrigue; but it never does to underestimate what a man with a sharp sword and a fine sense of his own honour may do to maintain his reputation. Biting wit and a manipulative duchess gets this called fantasy Dangerous Liaisons (with bonus gay swordsmen) and it lives up to that billing. I'm looking forward to the sequel (The Privilege of the Sword), which we'll be reading in the same fashion starting next Sunday.

18) Best Left in the Shadows - Mark Gelineau & Joe King | Full review

Another new perspective on Aedaron in the monthly bite-sized epic, and I really liked new heroine Alys and her shady underworld environment. However, crime thriller is a bit tricky with a tight word count, and it shows here - it's a little too linear - but the set-up is promising for the future.

19) The Fellowship of the Ring - JRR Tolkien

I have no perspective when it comes to The Lord of the Rings. This is my first re-read since the films came out, I think, and I loved it. All the bits I love, all the bits I miss (the Old Forest, the Barrow Downs) and all the characters more firmly resolved (YAY ARAGORN). The least likely things make me cry purely from years of association - I first read this when I was about 7 - and I'll be happily enthusing about aspects of it for the rest of the month. And plunging sideways into The Silmarillion before I pick up The Two Towers.

>63 imyril: I love your blogs about The Lord of the Rings! Please keep posing links. Growing up I read the series every summer starting in the 6th grade and continued through college. I haven't reread the trilogy since the movies released and now you're making me want to :) I was never able to get into The Silmarillion though I tried several times.

I loved The Silmarillon but haven't re-read it in decades. Maybe it's time to re-visit.

I love The Hobbit, and have read it many times, but once was enough for LotR. I liked it, but have never felt the urge to revisit it. My mother used to reread it all annually, though.

>64 Narilka: Thank you :) I've got a couple of other thoughts percolating away (I'm being troubled by distances, population density and the feasibility of long distance trade - spot the archaeologist!) so there will probably be other posts in due course. I do recommend a reread - although gosh, as @karlstar would say, it's big on the Slogging Through The Mud quotient. The mud is exquisitely detailed to the detriment of the characters in places ;)

>65 Marissa_Doyle: The Silmarillion was always a favourite. I'm such a geek about world-building. It's rather stilted in the early chapters where it sets out its stall on the creation of the world and the nature of the Valar, but it's the Ages in Beleriand and Númenor I'm really here for.

>66 SylviaC: I know I failed before the Misty Mountains on my last attempt, finding the prose rather dry, but this time I'm sailing through on the wings of nostalgic affection. It was a mainstay of my teens, when I had limited access to buying books and used to reread everything repeatedly.

>64 Narilka: >65 Marissa_Doyle:
I am afraid I am with the gang that couldn't get very far with The Silmarillion. Loved LOTR and enjoyed The Hobbit. I read The Hobbit after having read LOTR which probably put it at a disadvantage.

Loving the LotR love here! :) I've enjoyed on some level all of them, Silmarillion included. A lovely place to escape to.

I too used to annually re-read LotR, although I haven't done so for quite a while. The SellaMillion I've not re-read, once was enough, although I still have a soft spot for finding out more about Ur???? Shelob's mother.

>62 imyril: - I'm very glad to hear Part4 is due in summer, although I wasn't so taken with republic of thieves

ETA - nice blog, I enjoyed that.
Did you get to see the animated film adaptation from early 90s??? they only got as far as Minas Tirith. Fun though. I too had those wonderful tapes. Still do I think, somewhere...

>71 reading_fox: the animated film adaptation from early 90s???

If it is the one I am thinking of I have some sad news for you. It was the late 70s. I remember seeing it in the cinema in 1979.

>62 imyril: & >71 reading_fox: I'll only believe that the next book from Scott Lynch is due when I actually see a copy in the shop.

>71 reading_fox: >72 pgmcc: it was indeed the late 70s :) I have seen it (possibly in the 80s) but I don't really remember anything beyond the frustration of it being incomplete. By that point I'd already listened to the radio serial, so my expectations were pretty high for any adaptation!

>73 AHS-Wolfy: I think that's the healthiest attitude to take in terms of managing expectation regards Scott Lynch. As I've not heard a sniff from him in terms of turning in a draft - let alone revisions - I'm not sure how far along the book really is, although I think he has also adopted a policy of saying as little as possible for the sake of his mental health.

>74 imyril: I had recently read and fallen in love with The Lord of the Rings and was delighted to see a film adaptation being released. I brought my girlfriend along to impress her with how great the story was and cringed the whole way through the film because it was so dreadful. Like yourself, I was stunned at how incomplete it was when it ended.

>74 imyril: I think it was originally scheduled for an Autumn 2015 release so it has already slipped almost a year. I won't hold my breath waiting for it.

>76 AHS-Wolfy: it was. And Mr Lynch is aware that I'm organising the read-along and has notably not passed comment on whether we're jumping the gun or not. I'd like to think that means he's on track, but... I don't really mind either way. I'm looking forward to visiting Camorr and re-visiting Republic of Thieves now that I don't have such high expectations of it - I suspect I'll enjoy it more second time around ;)

>77 imyril: Oh no. Is Republic of Thieves more like Red Seas Under Red Skies than The Lies of Locke Lamora? I was hoping Republic would be a return in style and quality more along the lines of the first book and not the second, which I didn't enjoy as much.

>78 Narilka: I'd say Republic of Thieves is different again than the two that precede it. Less focus on the "job" and more on the characters as we finally get to meet Sabetha. It also lays some foundations for what's still to come in the series.

>78 Narilka: >79 AHS-Wolfy: I'd agree with Wolfy - Republic of Thieves sets itself up to be a super political con thriller, and then is really all about Locke's obsession with Sabetha. I really didn't like the structure of the book first time around (one chapter in the present con, one in the past on the Bastards as children and teenagers, eventually focusing on a past con) - it worked brilliantly for me in The Lies of Locke Lamora because it helped set up the characters; but here it just felt like it damaged the pace.

None of which stopped it being fun, especially Sabetha (hooray, richer and cleverer than everybody else), but not as great as I hoped. So I'm hoping it all works better going in with lower expectations ;)

Reading round-up - it's all been novellas in between chapters of The Silmarillion, which I'm enjoying picking holes in.

20) The Bone Knife - Intisar Khanani | Full review


In a world where magic is strictly controlled (but faeries exist), Rae is determined to keep her sister's magic a secret. When a faerie comes visiting from court to buy horses, she's terrified he may sniff Nisa out.

Gosh I loved this. It reads like a fairy tale (hey, faerie) but it explores family, self-worth and the ways in which we devalue ourselves in spite of ourselves. It never drags or feels weighty, and I'm looking out for the trilogy in development featuring Rae's later adventures.

21) Faith and Moonlight - Mark Gelineau & Joe King | Full review


You need to accept this for what it is: an instalment in serial storytelling. While the other first round Echoes of the Ascended are each complete storylines in their own right, Faith and Moonlight answers the initial challenge it sets itself (can Roan and Kay win themselves a place in the Faith school for Razors), but ends on a cliffhanger.

This actually worked better for me than the other first Echoes - becoming my favourite of the first 4 and possibly of them all to date - because it accepts that it's a serial. It's unafraid of loose ends, and it sets a really good foundation for what may follow. It's also the last in the first 4 entry points, so I suspect that cliffhanger is an entirely deliberate device to get people back in for the next 4.

Faith is like Hogwarts for warriors with supernatural skills - Gelineau & King cheerfully run with the tropes of teens in an elite school, and get across a sense of imposing architecture and ritual drama. It's cinematic stuff contrasted with a very personal story (self-belief again), and I am literally on the edge of my seat to find out what happens next as I think the authors are going to break my heart. Serial publishing. I'm getting it, but it kills me.

22) Civil Blood - Mark Gelineau & Joe King | Full review


Speaking of which, I also read the 7th Echo (or the sequel to Best Left in the Shadows, depending how you look at it). This second quartet is, generally, better than the first. The authors are learning their craft and learning how much (or how little) you should try to do in a novella. Faith and Moonlight was my favourite to date right up until I read Civil Blood the next day, and discovered that not only had the authors learnt to get me on the edge of my seat, they could make me gibber too.

This is the gritty urban thread, the criminal underworld of Lowside rubbing up against the King's officers. It's sticky and dirty and backstabbing; as Alys says, there's no second chances (even for her highborn former lover, back in Lowside as the new Justicar). My criticism of Best Left in the Shadows was that heroine Alys was a bit too capable - nothing threatened her - and while she still doesn't get stretched here, exactly, it becomes much clearer what she is and what is hanging over her and poor divided Justicar Dax Ellis. The sense of threat and moral ambiguity comes together far better as a result, and yes, another cliffhanger.

There's one more instalment to go (the sequel to Faith and Moonlight) to close out this second round. I'm already signed up for the third, at which point I might take a step back and try looking at the overarching world and themes. They're coming together at this point, but each novella in the second round has raised the stakes so high that it feels foolish to jump in before I see where they go next.

Last but not least, I promised to shout as and when I did more musing on Middle-Earth. This week I've been rattling the world-building cage and reflecting that I'm a horrid, horrid reader and it's better not to pander to me. I'll still find questions to ask about the intricate world you've devised.

Asking the wrong questions (sorry Mr Tolkien).

>79 AHS-Wolfy: >80 imyril: I think I can live with it being it's own thing. This has also helped me reset my expectations. I will get to Republic of Thieves eventually, though it may end up in next year's TBR challenge instead of this year.

>82 imyril: That's so funny. I never asked those kinds of questions and just assumed the economy somehow takes care of itself and was more localized in Middle Earth. That is, Hobbiton had it's economy as did Rohan as did Rivendell and none of them were dependent on the others. Rosie was the Hobbit version of a bartender wasn't she? So they had some sort of shops and what not. Hobbiton probably traded with Bree due to proximity and the others might within their small regions as well. Otherwise things just seemed too spread out. I did kind of wonder how Bilbo was considered to be a wealthy hobbit before his adventure when there was no apparent currency and let the thought go at that. After his trip with the dwarves he came back with lots of treasure so it made sense in the end if not initially. For me, I want to understand how the world works for the characters I'm about to go on an adventure with. How the races/religions/politics/factions came to be where they are today as well as a general understanding of any magic system if there is one. If economy/trade is part of the story then it better be described. Tolkien was a lover of languages and not a fan of the industrialization of the modern world he was living in. When taken from that point of view it makes sense that he was less concerned with economics than understanding the history of Middle Earth and it's peoples.

BTW, you've sparked an interesting discussion between me and my husband about dwarves :) Neither of us has read the histories so this could possibly be answered. I read him your blog post and he was musing aloud about why the dwarves seem not to have the depth of history as elves do.

>83 Narilka: I think it also speaks to the Hobbits admirably intertwined and well-behaved society that nobody ever thought to try and steal Bilbo's treasure (just his spoons. Tch, Lobelia Sackville-Baggins!)

And you're absolutely right - Tolkien wasn't particularly interested in economics and it's not really necessary to add depth to Middle-Earth, which has a very deep deep end already ;) I just can't stop chasing random details once I start thinking about them sometimes... which is why my reread of The Silmarillion has been disrupted by worrying about what the Sindarin Elves ate before the Sun came up (mushrooms? How Hobbit-like!)

I think we just don't get to see the Dwarven perspective (unless it's covered in the Histories). They're technically older than the Elves (but they got put back to sleep as the Elves had to come first), and they have a very secretive culture. Some of the more interesting bits of The Silmarillion describe how the two races clash (and indirectly explain why Celeborn is so anti-Dwarf), but I don't think Tolkien ever wrote a Silmarillion equivalent for the Dwarves - you can sort of piece bits together from other material, but I'm not sure he ever gave us their point of view. Poor Dwarves.

23) The Silmarillion - J R R Tolkien


I can't review The Silmarillion, because I've loved it too long. Reading it this time, I found all the ways in which it no longer satisfies me (although I admire the world-building) because of Elvish attitudes, crazy levels of bias and some err minor inconsistencies, and it still made me cry.

So instead, have a rant and some questions, offered with wry affection.

24) The Passage - Justin Cronin | Full review


I've had this on the shelf for ages, and was inspired to finally tackle it (it's ENORMOUS) as there's a big read-along happening in advance of the final book being published. I'm glad I finally got to it, but I'm not convinced I'll bother reading the sequel.

This is nominally classic (post-)apocalypse - scientific and military hubris unleashes horror on the United States (it's unclear whether the rest of the world is affected) - but it spends the first third of its staggering length pre-apocalypse focusing on peripheral characters. There's an argument to be made for unlikely humanity, finding something to mourn in even the worst of people, and setting up details that will be relevant down the line - but I'm not going to make it. I think this would have been a better book if the entire first third (enough material to be a novel in its own right) had stayed on the cutting room floor, and the novel had started 100 years after the apocalypse at the Colony.

That said, I enjoyed the rest of the book. I don't think it's particularly original nor a literary masterpiece; I think it's confused about what it wants to be, and horribly under-edited. But it's fairly entertaining and I liked the principal characters.

Still, that first third bothers me. A lot. Not least because I understand many of those perspectives come back in the sequel, which makes me highly reluctant to pick it up.

I agree with your assessment imyril. I did go on to read the second book, The Twelve, but I'm not going to run out and read the third. And at this point I probably can't remember enough to keep things straight anyway. And what a body count huh? Crazy.

>86 imyril: & >87 Bookmarque: I know they are far from perfect, but I got sucked in by both of these books. And I am really looking forward to The City of Mirrors. I just hope he fills in all of the blanks and tidies up the loose ends he left along the way.

>88 clamairy: one of my great joys in bookwormery is how mileage varies :) I shall look forward to your comments on the finale with interest and decide whether to pick up the sequels should I make a lot of unexpected progress through my TBR ;)

>85 imyril:

Your links got smushed with LT.

>90 LolaWalser: oops! It appears to have been a disagreement over " vs ″ (and I don't even know how to produce the latter with my keyboard, so goodness knows how I did it :) Fixed now.

I've been burning a bit slower the last couple of weeks - partly because I'm once again engaged in some staggered read-alongs, and partly because I've been struggling to settle. I bounced off 3 books in succession (I got about a quarter of the way through Joe Abercrombie's new collection of short stories before I recognised that clenching my jaw this hard was neither enjoyable nor productive; I am apparently very much not in the mood for his hard-boiled schtick) before finally settling into Fellside, which I'm now tearing through (if not quite as fast or with as much enjoyment as The Girl with All the Gifts). In the meantime, a little round-up:

25) The Terracotta Bride | Full review
I loved Zen Cho's short story collection Spirits Abroad, and I loved this novella. Her shorts feel more even in tone and far more bittersweet than alt Regency romp Sorcerer to the Crown and I love them the more for it. Here, a dead teenager is learning to navigate the unexpected afterlife she finds herself in. The circles of Hell aren't quite what the nuns taught her to expect, and she finds herself sold off as a bride to an older gentleman (who is mostly trying to annoy his first wife).

The dead are working out their sins before reincarnation - or avoiding both - and Siew Tsin soon settles into a comfortable if unhappy life as a fixture in the household. But when her husband brings home yet another wife - this time a Terracotta Woman, an unheard of innovation and possibly an insult to the gods - the girl realises that there may be more to life and death than waiting for change. Cue a reflection on love, religion, identity, the soul, grief, and acceptance that somehow manages not to get bogged down by the weight of its themes. Highly recommended.

26) The Privilege of the Sword | Full review
The Riverside live group read has continued each Sunday, with The Privilege of the Sword offering a more complex ride in some respects to predecessor Swordspoint. Lady Katherine is young and naive, her noble family impoverished purely because her wicked uncle (the Mad Duke Tremontaine) has tied her mother's inheritance up in frivolous lawsuits. When he offers to drop them if Katherine is sent to his household for 6 months - with absolutely no contact with her family - she leaps at the chance to Do The Right Thing For Her Family.

Once on the Hill, Katherine soon realises that reality bears little resemblance to her novel-born ideas of honour, society and justice. Forced to don trousers and learn the sword to further one of the Duke's crazy schemes, she has little control over her destiny and no idea what the Duke wants. Her journey from naive country girl to confident warrior woman is a delight, and if the novel's second-half focus on the evils of a patriarchy is far from original, the execution is gripping and at times heart-breaking.

While it's possible to read as a stand-alone, it will have more emotional impact for those who have read Swordspoint. I'm really looking forward to moving on to The Fall of the Kings this Sunday.

Time for another round-up - it's been a bookish couple of weeks, punctuated by a delightful long weekend in Rome for exploring (SO MUCH WALKING) and a christening. I left most of the photography to my beloved other, but I rather liked this one (both the statue and the shot):



27) Fellside - M R Carey | Full review


I'll be blunt: I was disappointed. Obviously my expectations were sky-high after The Girl with All the Gifts and this started with a lot of promise - but the second half of the book was prison procedural with a supernatural twist, and sadly I dislike prison dramas and wanted more originality (yes, the supernatural element is original, but the stew of corrupt guards, violent lifers and drug mules is far too familiar). It's easy reading, but if you don't enjoy prison tropes, I can't recommend it.

28) Faith and Moonlight Part 2 - Mark Gelineau & Joe King | Full review


The Echoes of the Ascended are really hitting their stride now - the set-up is complete, and the authors are less wedded to too-brief stand-alone stories and have realised there's nothing wrong with building drama through serial publishing. So yes, each story has an arc, but expect cliffhangers and foreshadowing. This second instalment of Faith and Moonlight rubs off the fantasy glamour of the Razor school to look at the ambition and tiny window of opportunity that explains why every Razor we meet in the other Echoes is a villain. Can our orphan heroes stay true to themselves and one another?

29) Bloodchild - Octavia Butler | Full review


Thinky SF! Every time I read something by Butler, the ideas in it blow me away and I'm left thinking hard about them and shaking my head in awe. This is a really short story about humans incubating the young of a dying alien race, told from the perspective of a young boy who has been raised to do this - but is just realising what it actually entails. This should probably have trigger warnings for body horror - it's not explicit, but it's not pleasant once you start thinking about it.

30) The Lies of Locke Lamora - Scott Lynch | Read-along week 1, 2, 3 and 4


I can't review Locke Lamora. This has been one of my favourite books since I first read it, and I still find new things to get excited about when I reread it. It's not always an easy read, and it's not without problems (hallo Nazca), but when it hits its heist/caper stride and its competent protagonists improvise their way out of trouble, it's a joy. I also enjoy the swearing, which I know isn't for everyone.

31) Like A Boss - Adam Rakunas | Full review


Remember how much I liked Windswept? I liked Like A Boss even more. I think it's more thoughtful and more political, but it never sacrifices pace or fun on either of those altars. Instead, it's another breathless race around Santee City as Padma discovers that her old nemesis Saarien has founded a church (given his white suits, it was inevitable, right?) and is preaching a general strike. What's not clear is why. Padma needs to keep production going at Old Windswept; the Union President will offer her anything to get her help - it's a no-brainer that she'll try to figure out what he's up to and put a stop to it. And it's a given that it's far murkier than it appears. This is a shameless celebration of political idealism and faith in humanity, and after years of revelling in grimdark and dystopia it's just what I need.

>93 imyril: I love the photograph. The clouds and black&white make for a great shot.

>93 imyril: I was reading through your blog about Lock Lamora and I have no idea how I missed the "jumping the shark" joke when I read the book. I wonder what other wonderful jokes I missed lol Lynch is quite clever.

>94 pgmcc: thank you :) It was a tricky light day, so I may have swapped to black and white to help fix the exposure (and bring out the detail in the dress)! We spent much of our weekend just marvelling at the fluid lines of the sculptures around town. Mr B is used to British stonework, where fluid lines means it's been worn down by the years of (acid) rain and you've lost all definition, so Rome blew him away.

>95 Narilka: seriously, I'm paying so much more attention this time - I'd never caught that before (or Locke and Chains *snort*). Sometimes I'm pretty sure Mr Lynch just packs stuff in there for his own amusement, and I really don't care as we appear to share a sense of humour ;)

Speaking of attention - I saw a write up on Tolkien's work, the other day - and get this (I had never noticed! Nor seen it remarked) - he eliminated just about all use of words derived from Latin in LoTR - restricting the language to derived words from saxon, norse old english, etc - holy cow! That really does reflect the flavor of the prose, (closer to the Eddas) and, not only that, makes his accomplishment stunworthy - given the word choices avaiable with that sector of vocabularly cut out. Wow. Still boggled

>97 JannyWurts: My word - I had always thought of Tolkien's prose as having a certain flavour, but I'd never noticed this! Happily, I'm about to pick up The Two Towers, so I shall now watch out for it.

>97 JannyWurts: I never noticed that, but my first reads where of a French translation, which probably didn't adhere to any such restriction. Would have probably been even harder to pull.

>97 JannyWurts: belowseeing, I had picked up that he tended to use old-northern words, while (even more wonderful), avoiding most of the 19th-age newmakings of others who tried to do the same.

>97 JannyWurts: Yet another excuse to reread them! I can't even imagine the work that would take to come up with such a trilogy restricting oneself like that. Stunworthy is a good description, although "stun" seems to be from Middle English and old French, would that count? ;)

>97 JannyWurts: I never noticed that! Like imyril I've always thought of Tolkien's prose having a certain flavour, but I'd never realised or noticed quite how much. I love that. It certainly makes me want to reread them with that thought in mind. ^_^

>97 JannyWurts: George Orwell was of a similar mind in all his writing. I recommend his essays in, Why I Write.

>97 JannyWurts: That is indeed stunning. Naturally it makes me want to read them again just to see. What about Greek roots, did it say?

>97 JannyWurts: Mind blown. That's really amazing. I'll have to try a reread sometime soon-ish.

I went to Teddington for the first time in months. This is significant because it's the location of my favourite second-hand bookshop. Somebody in Teddington shares my taste in fiction, so today I found half my bookshelf and a set of books I've been dying to pick up (and have been struggling to find / justify the cost of): Signal to Noise by Silvia Moreno-Garcia; The Just City by Jo Walton; and We are all completely fine by Daryl Gregory. I suspect they've been sat there waiting for me to pop in for some time - and I'm ever so glad I did :)

*happy dance*

106> I really enjoyed We Are All Completely Fine, although it's more in the horror genre than I normally read.

>107 pwaites: I couldn't recall who I'd heard talking about it, but I was ever so excited to see it on the shelf! Thank you - it looks fascinating as a set-up.

I have been remiss in keeping my thread up to date. Bear with me while I sweep out the cobwebs and get the kettle on. And I've brought some cheese!

...it's been an odd sort of month, with work both quieter than I'd like and more aggravating than it should be (so I'm struggling to leave it at work). However, there has been plenty of reading, which is always good.

32) The Fall of the Kings - Ellen Kushner | Full review


This is definitely my least favourite Riverside book, for all it's probably the one that devotes the most attention to world-building and is consequently arguably the most complex. Unfortunately, I just didn't like any of the principal characters. That said, it's still very good; I just appreciated it rather than enjoying it.

33) The Girl Who Tweeted Wolf - Nick Bryan | Full review


I loved the daft concept - a PI with anger management issues takes on a teenage intern who makes him an overnight internet sensation - and derived entirely too much entertainment from its pastiche of social media agencies, but was ultimately left a bit cold by the investigation.

34) Between Two Thorns - Emma Newman


This is a really good take on the Fae (and I'm picky), and a refreshing urban fantasy (it's not set in London, for a start). It's also clever in unpicking internalised patriarchal expectation, and managed to provoke unexpected reactions from me and make me think - in spite of being a fairly lightweight novel. But once again I didn't warm to the central characters, and it doesn't really stand alone, which frustrated me. I am going to stick with the series and see how it develops, because I do enjoy properly capricious fairies.

35) Red Seas Under Red Skies - Scott Lynch | Read-along week 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5


As with The Lies of Locke Lamora, I'm too close to Red Seas Under Red Skies to review it, but it was lovely to revisit. It does have issues with pacing, but it also has glorious set-pieces and vibrant characters that I find irresistible.

36) Ninefox Gambit - Yoon Ha Lee | Full review


A full-blooded space opera in which a dystopian bureaucracy turns to a lateral-minded captain and a traitorous ghost to try and keep their grip on reality. This is probably the most original book I've read this year to date, and one that has stayed with me. The science may as well be magic, but I loved its appreciation of human cost and the wry humour that kept it from being too bleak.

37) Stiletto - Daniel O'Malley | Full review


This picks up where The Rook left off - snark, bureaucracy and supernatural mayhem abound as the Checquy and the Grafters try to negotiate a merger. The points of view swap to two new heroines, giving us a new perspective on Myfanwy Thomas and providing an entertaining frenmity as new threats pile on thick and fast and allegiances remain murky. Like The Rook, it is a bit baggy and makes the occasional cultural slip, but I sailed through it with glee.

In between books, I am making a point of reading short stories at the moment, as they fit well into a commute and take a bit less concentration (which has been in short supply as I'm having headache trouble again). This means my count of pages read has gone out the window, as short stories online don't have any! However, I'm keeping track with weekly reviews under my bitesize books tag.

Nice cheese!

Well the standards around here are very high, so I thought it best to bring a good spread. I also have a complete weakness in the face of the cheese counter: how can you choose between smoked, goat's, blue and smelly when they're all so very different to one another? It's only appropriate to get a little bit of as much as you can carry (and that's before I spot the mango and ginger wensleydale or the blueberry white stilton, which are all basically cake pretending to be cheese. Yummy, yummy cake).

I am pouting because I have to wait another week for Stiletto. ;)

>111 imyril: I am particularly fond of Wensleydale with cranberries. Your comparison with cake makes sense in that context.

As Wallace says, "What's wrong with Wensleydale?"

>113 pgmcc: Wallace is a wise man when it comes to cheese. Mmmmm, Wensleydale (all kinds of Wensleydale, really)

>112 Marissa_Doyle: Sorry ;)

>109 imyril: if you ever get good at leaving work at work, I want to know the secret!

>109 imyril: I suspect that your odd month was due to either some messy phase of the moon or some unscheduled realignment of the planets. It was happening in my work place as well. But glad you're still with us!

>116 jillmwo: I do wish those pesky planets would stick to a schedule :)

Wheeeeeee I finished Temeraire and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I read it years ago in Dutch, and didn't get a huge amount of it - to the extent that I remembered precisely none of the plot or the characters. I'm chalking that up to language struggles, as I tore through this reread and derived a great deal of enjoyment from the comedy of manners and the fish out of water elements.

>97 JannyWurts: That is indeed amazing. (I'm way behind on all of the journal threads.)

>118 imyril: I saw your post on Twitter. I'm so glad you enjoyed your re-read so thoroughly.

>119 clamairy: apologies for spamming timelines with the tweet-alongs - although hopefully our adoption of a hashtag means we're easy enough to mute :) I would never have guessed that group reading live would be so much like eating too much sugar.

>120 imyril: Do not apologize! There's much vicarious pleasure for me when I see those tweets!

>121 clamairy: ah, excellent :) Then you'll be pleased to know we're shamelessly continuing with Throne of Jade!

@imyril, I liked your blog post about apocalyptic fiction! It's a category I really get into, even though it doesn't match up with my usual fiction tastes. (Commenting here because I can't comment on your blog.)

>123 SylviaC: blog comments are such a pain in the neck - they all claim to let anyone post, and then they all make it far too hard for anyone to actually do so :( But I'm glad you liked it! I love apocalypse fiction to a point - I've always shied away from zombie apocalypse (except World War Z, which I put off for aaaaages) and things that sound like splatterfests; I'm far more interested in the sociopolitical consequences and human stories. One of my favourites that I didn't manage to shoehorn is in Far North, which follows a lonely 'sheriff' in what feels like Canada in a post-apocalyptic wilderness. It's very clever storytelling.

(for the rest of you - I subverted a weekly blog meme to gush about apocalypse fiction)

>124 imyril: Oh, that was an awesome blog post. I might have taken a few bullets! I agree 100% about Extinction Point. I did finish it, though. And I even tried to start the second one but bailed out quickly. I think we used to have a thread dedicated to apocalypse fiction, but now that I think about it it might have just been zombie fiction. I wonder if I should do some thread dredging and see if I can find it.

Speaking of non-US-centric apocalypse fiction, have you read On the Beach? That's set in Australia. It's a bit dated, but still a great tale.

On the Beach is the ultimate civilized apocalypse. Everyone walking around with stiff upper lips and Doing The Right Thing until the very end. I loved it. I prefer my apocalypses without too much blood and guts.

I liked World War Z too, despite not having any interest in zombies whatsoever.

I just bought Defying Doomsday, but haven't read it yet. It is a collection of short apocalyptic stories featuring protagonists with disabilities. It looks interesting.

Nice post, imyril. I added your blog to my feedly feed.

A non-US-centric book to try is The Drowned World by J.G. Ballard. It's really weird, but I like it a lot because it doesn't do the same stuff other apocolyptic books do.

I did some dredging, and the thread we had eight years ago was about which books you would take with you during an apocalypse, not books on that topic. So I am still mulling over the need for a dedicated thread. I have to have read at least a dozen of these books in the last couple of years. And I am always looking for more... And I'd really like to talk about why so many of us are so interested in them.

Oh start a thread, clam, you know you want to. lol The Green Dragon could use a bit more chatter. I don't read a ton of it, but enough to know why I like it and what turns me off.

@Bookmarque's mention of The Drowned World reminded me of A Scientific Romance by Ronald Wright, the author of A Short History of Progress (which @clamairy read recently). A Scientific Romance is pretty strange, and I didn't understand quite a bit of it, but it has really stayed with me. It involves time travel to a post-apocalyptic future.

>128 clamairy: >129 Bookmarque: A thread would be nice! There is a Post-Apocalyptic group, but it would be interesting to get more of a Green Dragon perspective. And to include the apocalyptic, not just the post. I like seeing HOW the world ends, not just the aftermath.

Yay, recommendations! On the Beach is firmly on my TBR, and *twitches in a hail of book bullets* Defying Doomsday, The Drowned World and A Scientific Romance have just joined it...

And yay to our own thread (apocalypse and aftermath)!

I can't talk about how I feel today without being political.

>134 Sakerfalcon: Me either :-(

>133 imyril: & >134 Sakerfalcon:
My sympathy is with you. If you ever want to defect to Europe I will be happy to act as your sponsor.

>135 pgmcc: considering it. Also considering joining a political party and getting more directly involved.

*sigh*

In more cheerful news, I got round to writing up my thoughts on Temeraire (mostly: wheeeeeeeeeee I love books about dragons) whilst making another 3-day hop across the Pond for meetings in the US.

I suspect it will be short stories for a while now though; my concentration is rather shot.

>133 imyril: & >134 Sakerfalcon: :o( Big hugs for both of you.

>136 imyril: That was Temeraire 1?

*cough* *embarrassed shuffle* *cleans the dust from her perch*

Sorry folks, it's been a messy few months between life and work and politics and I've been terrible at staying in touch. I hope you have all been keeping well, and I'll be making the rounds of your threads to catch up!

But I have missed the PGGBs and cheese, and your gracious company.

>139 imyril: I was wondering how you were keeping, especially as you're no longer living in Europe. :-)

Good to see you posting here.

*dusts a smudge off from previously brushed seat*

Well, it's nice to see you well and upright (so to speak). Are you in need of a cup of tea or something stronger?

>140 pgmcc: don't we know it - the food is going downhill already ;)

>141 jillmwo: is "Both!" the wrong answer?

So, a quick round-up of *gulp* 5 months of reading... luckily, the summer was spent mostly delighting in the Split Worlds books by Emma Newman (which felt like reading a car crash; I was frequently continuing to see how awful things could become. I am on tenterhooks to read the final(?) instalment next year) and the first 5 Temeraire books by Naomi Novik. I bounced off His Majesty's Dragon in the past, but this time I got completely won over by the bromance between Captain Laurence and Temeraire.

I've had more variety in my reading diet from August onwards. Highlights included:

The Stars Seem So Far Away by Margret Helgadottir | Full review
You can tell this started out as some short stories, but a pleasing narrative has been forged from the disparate bits. It's set after the climate has changed and many of the (first?) world's inhabitants have fled for the stars, but focuses on a few young people clinging on in the Arctic. I loved the evocation of the still-frozen North, and the unexpectedly low-key treatment of what is technically a post-apocalyptic tale.

Certain Dark Things by Silvia Moreno-Garcia | Full review
I like a good vampire novel, and this hits the mark - these vampires are part of the broader Mexican underworld, fighting one another and the drug cartels as immigrant vampires (driven out of Europe) upset the traditional Mexican clans. When Atl, headstrong daughter of an ancient line, seeks refuge in Mexico City, she forges a relationship with naive young garbage picker Domingo. There's lots of familiar tropes, but it's an accomplished treatment.

Translucid by Zen diPietro | Full review
A shameless space opera romp, in which the Security Chief of a space station loses her memory in an accident and must reconstruct her life - and decide whether or not it was truly an 'accident'. The character and world building up front is given time to develop before diPietro changes gear and flips the story into super spies in space territory. Buckets of fun.

False Hearts by Laura Lam | Full review
Set in a fairly dystopian near-future San Francisco, this book has every element including the kitchen sink, but I heard the author read from it at an event and was intrigued. Unexpectedly, it all works rather than being over-burdened by its own ideas; and I loved that it focuses so intently on the relationship between the formerly-conjoined twin sisters who tell the tale.

Europe in Autumn by Dave Hutchinson | Full review
I suspect this read a bit differently before Brexit. Europe has fractured into regions, city states and even sovereign neighbourhoods; travel can be awkward and the post is a nightmare. The Coureurs are a shadowy organisation who move things across borders - young Rudi, who enjoyed being a chef gets drawn in by their Le Carré mystique and has his life turned upside down. This is SF dressed up as a spy thriller - with the SFnal element unclear for most of the book - but was oddly charming even before the final act twist left me fully invested and clamouring for more.

A Closed and Common Orbit - Becky Chambers
I loved The Long Way To A Small Angry Planet and I loved this companion novel. It has a different tone, and feels more thoughtful, but the focus is arguably similar: showing off the intricacies of Chambers's universe while the protagonist explores their identity and makes a place for themself, with a rush of blood at the end (in this case a final act heist). I found this one played for fewer laughs and more feelings, and left me with a very full heart.

I was mildly disappointed by Mira Grant's Feed and Catriona Ward's Rawblood, possibly because I just didn't like many of the characters in either novel.

Hmm. Translucid sounds almost like The Rook in space...?

And yes, I'm on tenterhooks for the final Split Worlds installment as well.

Welcome back!!

I've been keeping up to date on Twitter and your blog. Nice to see you back here, too.

A Closed and Common Orbit is on my wishlist.

>143 imyril: & >144 Marissa_Doyle: Translucid does sound interesting (though your touchstones seem to be pointing to a different book). Will have to keep an eye out for it.

>144 Marissa_Doyle: I'd almost say Translucid is what happens when The Long Way To A Small Angry Planet meets Mission Impossible, with an unexpected dash of Regarding Henry along the way. There's a lovely space station setting with a real focus on the character relationships, and then there's lots of wheeeeeeeeeeeeee and a hint of future BOOM ;) It's a weird combination, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

>145 SylviaC: I love that many of us overlap in different places, but I did miss the cosy atmosphere in here.

>146 AHS-Wolfy: Touchstones fixed - thank you for catching that!

>147 imyril: I am in dire need of a shocked smiley. Your description of Translucid is... Wow!

>148 zjakkelien: it has a fabulous reptilian alien in it. This may be overinfluencing my inclusion of the Wayfarer as s point of reference :)

Welcome back! I was thinking the other day that we hadn't seen you around for a while. I'm glad you've had some good reading even if other things haven't been so great.
I saw a good review of The stars seem so far away from the Book Smugglers and wanted to read it; you've put it back on my radar. And Translucid sounds amazing! Of course, A closed and common orbit is on my wishlist; glad to hear that you loved it as much as the first book.

Welcome back! :o) I too saw your posts on Twitter (and Instagram, when I remember to check it) so I knew you were okay.

I did NOT know about the companion novel to Angry Planet! (I still haven't read it but it's closer to the top of the virtual pile on my Kindle.)

Thank you :)

*throws celebratory rice in the air*

I had every intention of clearing some backlist scifi novels from the TBR this month, but so far I've failed in favour of catching up on Dave Hutchinson's Fractured Europe (all recent acquisitions) and rereading Jurassic Park.

So obviously I, err, started rereading Polar City Nightmare last night. Hopefully I'll find the suck fairy has stayed far away, as when I reread Polar City Blues a couple of years ago (and yes, I'm mildly astonished that was over 2 years ago. I meant to get round to reading the sequel an awful lot quicker than this!)

The problem with deciding to reread a trade edition is that it's too heavy to leave the house (you get merry hell for clobbering people on the train with your book). So I'm making inroads into Echopraxia, the companion volume to Blindsight (which I was rather awed by last autumn).

So far, I'm back in a not-too-distant future where Earth awaits feedback from the ill-fated Theseus (I've read Blindsight; they'll be waiting a while). Baseline humans are fast being outnumbered by the genetically altered and otherwise enhanced - not to mention the transcended. Standard issue biologist Dan Brüks finds himself on the run with a group of mind-melded monks who Do Science after he gets caught in the middle of an ambush; before he knows it, they've launched into space - along with a vampire, and some military zombies - to track down the Theseus mission.

It all sounds very lightweight, if not absurd - SF with vampires! - but once you push aside the tinsel, this is already asking the sort of hard questions about consciousness and identity that got me hot and bothered over Blindsight. And the opening chapter makes it awfully clear that things won't end well. I'm finding it very hard to put down...

>154 imyril: That sounds really interesting. I'm going to have to go back and find your review of Blindsight.

It's been an interesting few weeks: I managed to catch a nasty virus that completely discombobulated me for 10 days, so I've got very little done; and then my beloved had to jet out to Germany for a week at very short notice in response to a client crisis. On the up side, being sat at home with very little energy or brain meant I got through my Christmas cards and am consequently probably more organised than I've ever been!

In reading: sadly, I didn't find that Echopraxia lived up to its early promise. While there's lots of intriguing moments and ideas, the choice of protagonist (and the narrative choices in what information is shared - and how) felt like it obscured more than it clarified. Our inability to truly understand what's going on is a key theme of the work, but it didn't make for satisfying reading! I like to have a handle on what was going on and why it matters, not get to the end and go okay, everybody died, and I still don't actually know what the hell the vampire was trying to achieve. On the flip side, like Blindsight, this is one of those books I could write extended essays about in trying to get my head around the detail - so I can't complain in terms of making me think stakes. But making me care is equally important. Full review.

My response was to finally pick up Witches of Lychford, which has been sat on my wishlist for a while and which *cough* fell onto my Kindle *cough* in a recent sale. I am now trying to resist picking up the sequel (I'm going to fail), because this was just delightful in every way: three interesting heroines, a story as English as tea and crumpets, and a fabulously loving snark that shows just how well Paul Cornell understands his setting (his wife is the vicar in a Cotswold country town, after all). Highly recommended as a diversion for a couple of hours.

I also read Winter Tales, a collection of short stories edited by Margret Helgadottir, who was kind enough to send me a parcel of books to review in the summer. I've saved this one for the season and found it a mixed bag topped and tailed by excellent stories from Mat Joiner, Adrian Tchaikovsky and Verity Holloway. I still need to gather my full thoughts on this one.

In other news, we went to see Rogue One last night, which was entertaining but seems - somewhat disappointingly - to have lost all the bits I liked best in the first trailer. It's still solid Star Wars fare, and the visual design is just lovely.

Oh dear. Now I'll have to move Witches of Lychford up in the pile. Thanks awfully! ;)

>158 imyril: <face=straight> I'm so sorry </face>

;)

>156 imyril: I do wish/hope he writes a complete novel with the Witches characters--they are just wonderful.

>159 Marissa_Doyle: Agreed, the only problem I had with Witches of Lychford is that it is too short...

>156 imyril:, >159 Marissa_Doyle:, >160 zjakkelien: Oh damn, I'm going to have to read this aren't I!

>156 imyril: - I certainly like Pauls other novels the London Falling is well crafted dark urban fantasy police procedural. Much darker than Harry Dresden or Rivers of London but along that sort of idea.

>161 Sakerfalcon: Yup. ;)

>161 Sakerfalcon: 'Fraid so :)

>162 reading_fox: Witches of Lychford is much lighter hearted than London Falling (which wasn't my cup of tea; I preferred the leavening of humour in Rivers of London).

I'm currently being sucked in by Caraval, a YA (or maybe NA?) fantasy in which a young woman who lives in fear of her father is stolen away before her arranged marriage to attend the annual magical immersive theatrical event known as Caraval (think The Night Circus, but where the attendees are set a challenge each year and things can get a little out of hand as they compete to win). I've not been surprised by it yet, but it's doing a good job at keeping my entertained.

Two small niggles so far: after The Hunger Games, I'm not sure an authority figure can send a YA heroine white roses and have it be anything other than vaguely threatening. President Snow killed any romance in that one. And I'd like to roll my eyes at the author for having her heroine recognise a man from down the street by a tattoo on his arm. At night.

>161 Sakerfalcon: No escaping it.

>165 imyril: Caraval sounds like it could be a fun read. ^_^ Although I'd hope the heroine turns out to have magically enhanced eyesight at night.

>167 dovelynnwriter: it lost its charm in the final act, which felt like the editor popped out for a cup of tea and forgot to send through comments on the draft. This is an ARC though, so hopefully polish will have been applied for the release. It's a shame, because I quite enjoyed this for the most part, but finished with a bit of a sour taste and no desire to follow up on any sequels after wading through clunky dialogue and exposition at the finish.

>168 imyril: Awwww, that's a shame. :( I hope it'll be polished up in the release as well!

>169 dovelynnwriter: always the risk with an early ARC :) Big plus points: the romance did not overshadow the sisterly love. I appreciated that.

Merry Cheesemas! *leaves appropriate festive cheese offerings to start the party*

(the quantity of cheese under discussion in my family is now at something like: 6 types of cheddar, 2 types of Wensleydale, a goat's Gouda, a white Stilton and a blue Stilton. Note the complete absence of anything French. This is surely the cheese equivalent of casually opening an end of year book review thread having nonchalantly commented you won't be buying anything else this year - clearly there is room for more cheese in the line up)

>171 imyril: Wot? Nothing Italian either? Where's the pecorino, gorgonzola, asiago, grana padano ... ;) (In a previous life I was blessed to be within weekend-range of Cremona's cheese factory and Italian hog heaven in Roodepoort.)

>172 hfglen: *blush* I will admit it, I have a huge bias towards Northern European cheese - even French cheese is pretty rare in our house. It's not that the French and Italian cheese aren't good, it's just that I love other cheese more.

>171 imyril: Until I noticed the Gouda I thought that was a Brexit post. :-)

>171 imyril: Mmmm. Cheese!

What goes with all that cheese? Fruit? Wine? Crackers? (Either the edible kind or the noisy popper kind). Enquiring minds want to know.

Happy Cheese-mas!

Happy Cheesemas! May you enjoy all that lovely, lovely, lovely cheese!

Great cheeses! I also stocked up on some nice cheeses, although not as many. We have a cheddar, a Cambozola, an Amish blue cheese (I'm too lazy to go look at label) and what is called Hard Jack cheese, made here in California which I think can give Parmigiano-Reggiano a run for its money. It has the crumbly bits of saltiness and everything.

Mmmmm cheese. It has been enjoyed with rhubarb gin or King's Ginger (depending on the tastes of the individual), crackers, and a startling array of chutney. There is still enough left to build a cheese igloo and/or survive the first week of a zombie apocalyse. Probably.

>179 imyril: Probably? Sounds like you need another visit to the cheese shop, just to be sure.

>180 Sakerfalcon: I have removed myself to another house, which has more cheese and also cheesecake. Just in case :)

I'll write a few more notes over the weekend looking back at 2016, but last weekend I knocked together what I thought was my top ten - until I finished The Lost Child of Lychford (which taken together with Witches of Lychford would have stolen the Apex slot, shockingly).

I've had a good reading year - lots of big rollicking adventures, many of them shared with fellow bookworms through group reads, which have brought me a great deal of joy and some new friends (both fictional and real). Reading has definitely been an escape this year rather than an education or an attempt to grapple with big issues (there's been enough of that going on off the page), and as 2017 is lined up to be dramatically busier at work, I fully intend to stick with reading for fun and joy next year too.

I'll be mulling my goals and setting up my thread shortly!

Reading has definitely been an escape this year rather than an education or an attempt to grapple with big issues

An escape or simply an immersive form of leisure entertainment? An escape (to me) implies an attempt to hide from whatever's out there.

>183 jillmwo: at times both. Without delving into politics or current affairs, they have been more divisive than I cared to imagine last January, creating rifts in friendships and family, and resulting in off the charts anxiety for a while. In some ways it's not even the depth of the differences as the dismissive and antagonistic ways they are sometimes expressed. 2016 seems to have been light on respect and empathy, two traits that mean a lot to me. I've been happy to choose to read rather than watch - or discuss - the news at times.

In previous years I've also been quick to read dark fiction and difficult non-fiction; this year I've steered to calmer reading waters as the real world has been sufficiently provoking.