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2025 Year in Books
48,546 pages read
183 books read
My Top 5 Favorite Reads of 2025
#5: Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler — [A dystopian novel about the collapse of society]In the early 90s, Butler wrote this as an eerily prescient take on how human society would break down. This story focuses on an unusual young woman growing up with her family in a protected enclave just outside of Los Angeles. One night of violence sweeps over the enclave and her family perishes, so she begins walking to survive. Tags: fantasy, scifi, dystopian, novel, series
#4: What Feasts at Night by T Kingfisher — [this novella has a retired soldier fighting a local monster]If you haven't read T Kingfisher before, she's a fantastic writer with a rapidly growing library in multiple genres, including from horror, fantasy, and romantasy. Feasts is the second novella from the Sworn Soldiers series and focuses on retired soldier Alex Easton as they delve into the history of a local breath-stealing monster. (The first should be read before this one.) Tags: horror, novella, series
#3: Archer's Goon by Diana Wynne Jones — [one of my top 3 favorite DWJ books of all time]This is one of a handful of my favorite DWJ novels. It's a standalone novel, unconnected from her other works. Absolutely hilarious. WHat happens when Howard Sykes comes from school to find that someone's sent around The Goon to collect words from his father? As the Sykes family investigates, they discover out someone's trapped a family of seven megalomanical wizard siblings in town for 26 years, and now they all want out, at any cost. This shouldn't work... but some how Jones just did it. Tags: fantasy, comedy, YA, novel
#2: Piranesi by Susanna Clarke — Piranesi is gorgeously written and very highly recommended. READ IT! Tags: fantasy, novel
#1: A Short Stay in Hell by Steven L. Peck — [My favorite read of 2025 is actually tied with Piranesi]What happens if you live your life firmly believing your religion is the right one that will get you to heaven, but when you die, you discover it was Zoroastrianism, so now you and all others are damned to hell? Yes, this short, but it is dense, and the existential horror it describes will leave you thinking for days, months, eternities after reading. My favorite read of the year. Tags: fantasy, horror, novellas
Honorable Mentions:
The Lady, or the Tiger? [and] The Discourager of Hesitancy by Frank R Stockton — [The Lady or the Tiger is an old classic for a reason]These short stories are a pair of mathematical logic puzzles in that will leave you trying to figure out the answer. I read these in high school and they've always stuck with me. Tags: fantasy, classic, short stories
Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky — [A killer robot just wants to be helpful. Not to be confused with Wall-E.]A service robot murders his human, escapes, and discovers he can find his freedom. Along the way he makes friends and has wacky adventures. Hilarious! Tags: scifi, novel
I Leave It Up to You by Jinwoo Chong — [What do you do if your life falls apart while you're in a coma for 2 years?]A young man wakes up after two years in a coma and discovers he's slept through a lot of major changes in the world. His job and career are gone, his boyfriend has moved on, his estranged family has fractured into separate lives, and he has no idea what to do next. Can he piece it all together again? Should he even try? Lovely read. Tags : literary, gay, novel
A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher — [Can a young girl and her allies stop her wicked witch of a mother?]A sorceress is up to absolutely no-good, and it falls to her fourteen year old daughter and her future sister-in-law to find allies and stop her nefarious dark plans. Tags: fantasy, horror, novel
P.S. I Spook You by S.E. Harmon — [Loved the series except for one part... and keep hoping for another entry]An FBI agent who can see ghosts winds up reconnecting with his former detective love as team up to they solve a series of murders. This is the first of 5 books which I read through this summer, and (mostly) enjoyed. Tags: fantasy, horror, mystery, novel (series)
Murder by Memory by Olivia Waite — [Lesbian detective solves murder mystery on a generation ship. Cozy!]A detective wakes up in a body not her own, aboard the generation starship travelling to a new future for those aboard. A murder has occurred and the ship's AI has requested her assistance in this short, cozy mystery novella. The sequel is slated for release spring 2026. Tags: scifi, mystery, lesbian, novella, series
Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman — I[Is this what they mean by series bloat?]'ve read the first four in the DCC series and my contrary opinion is the first is the best (so far). Aliens take over Earth, flatten all buildings and offer those who survived an opportunity to participate in a streamed, galaxy-wide reality survival series. Former Navy mechanic Carl and his ex-girlfriend's cat Princess Donut work together to make sense of life in the dungeons. Can be hilarious and inventive, but some of the books have the characters grinding endlessly which reads boring (such as book #3.....) Non-readers are nuts for the audiobooks.* Me... I'm half-sold on them. Tags: fantasy, scifi, litrpt, novel, series
We Are the Ants by Shaun David Hutchinson — [Will he push the BIG RED BUTTON?]A gay teenager who's been repeatedly abducted by aliens over the years is told by the aliens that the world will end and is offered an opportunity to stop it. Thing is, he's not sure he wants to. And he has good reasons. Tags: gay, ya, horror, scifi, novel
The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia by Ursula K. Le Guin — [Its all ambiguous but UKL really makes it work.]On a distant moon in a remote solar system, a brilliant physicist is on the verge of a mathematical breakthrough that could revolutionize communication within the galaxy. He must negotiate a balance between the Haves and Have-nots if he's going to be able to change everything for the better. This is one of UKL's best novels. The heavy political discussion might turn off casual readers. Tags: scifi, sociological, political, novel
The Teller of Small Fortunes by Julie Leong — [I was really impressed at how charming this book was]A young fortune teller on the run must find a way to protect her newfound family of friends even as her country begins preparing for war with a neighboring kingdom. This was a cozy read that went quick and was engaging. Tags: fantasy, cozy-read, novel</lj-spoiler>
3 Most Disappointing Reads (AKA I DNFed)
The Sword of Kaigen by M.L. Wang — [was waaaaay overwritten]I bailed on this after about 4 long, boring chapters. It was a highly recommended fantasy/scifi novel featuring thinly veiled Japanese/Korean cultural influences but renamed and "restylized". I do not recommend this.
Empire of Silence (The Sun Eater #1) — Christopher Ruocchio — [Shitpile]DNFed about halfway in. Essentially a rip off of the Dune books and Gladiator type movies with VERY heavy fascist and misogyntic undertones. I felt the main character was overwritten, undeveloped, and the story was uninteresting. Shortly after I DNFed this, the author admitted in interviews to deliberately inserting his catholic and transphobic beliefs into the series. (This has since been confirmed by readers of the later books.) I urge everyone stay away from this steaming shitpile.
The biggest disappointment for me:
The Teachers in Love trilogy by M.A. Wardell (#1 Teacher of the Year, #2 Mistletoe and Mishigas, #3 Napkins and Other Distractions) were pretty meh. [Big Flaws]The raves for this trilogy were endless. Centered around couples falling in love, each connected to a grade school somehow. THe first one was okay, but was melodramatic. I felt like the author just couldn't write a believable sex scene. In addition each book features a couple having sex in the school while classes are in session. Gross. NOT SEXY. No bueno.
* Yes, I encourage the belief that audiobooks count as reading, and I will always recommend them to people who say "I don't have the patience to read."
My 2024 in Books: 222 books read, 52,633 pages read
Shortest Read (4 pages): Amnesia (The Tarot Sequence #0.3) by K.D. Edwards ⭐⭐⭐⭐★
Longest book (604 pages): The Shadow of What Was Lost by James Islington - ⭐⭐★★★
Top 10 Favorite Reads of 2024 (in no particular order)
Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
After Earth is wiped out, the survivors split into two groups, one settles on a planet attempting to integrate with the galactic confederation, the other one crashes their ships on a nearby moon and train to resist. A very determined young woman and her brother are raised on that station, and slowly realize nothing is what it seems.
Legends & Lattes (Legends & Lattes, #1) by Travis Baldree - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
A lesbian orc warrior retires to a distant city with intentions to open a coffee shop and slowly becomes part of the city.
The Five Stages of Andrew Brawley by Shaun David Hutchinson - ⭐⭐⭐⭐★
A young man haunts the hospital to evade Death while drawing his graphic novel. After he meets a brutally burned and scarred young man, the apparent victim of a hate crime, the pair slowly become friends and help each other begin to heal.
The Moth and Moon (The moth and moon #1) by Glenn Quigley ⭐⭐⭐⭐★
In 1780, in where same sex partnerships are simply accepted as normal, a fisherman convinces his fellow townspeople that a major hurricane is about to land. The story follows how most of the towns dislike him for something his father did, and his decision to shelter with them means that they all have to confront their shared assumptions and past.
Cemetery Boys (Cemetery Boys, #1) by Aiden Thomas - ⭐⭐⭐⭐★
Teenage Yadriel has had a a rough year. His mother passed away suddenly earlier, and she was his biggest supporter in his decision to transition to be a boy. He has magic, but his father won't allow him to initiate into the family magic system simply because of who he is. He's already older than most initiates, but after he started transitioning, his father decided he's not ready. Told over the few days before before el Día de los Muertos, where the spirits of those family members who have gone can return. Yadriel wants nothing more than to become a brujo, and to see his mother again. Someone seems determined to stop all that... But Yadriel and his cousin decide to do own ceremony to initiate him in anyway, the same night another cousin mysteriously disappears... and another, very handsome, local boy appears.
Sea of Tranquility by Emily St John Mandel - ⭐⭐⭐⭐★
In 1912 a British exile wanders into the Vancouver woods and hears violin music, and an impossibly loud sound. In 2020, Mirella in an artist's showing where she sees footage of her best friend walking in the woods when haunting music and a loud roaring. In 2203 at the Oklahoma spaceport, an exhausted on-tour author hears music and the sound of a spaceship taking off. And in 2401, a bored detective on the Moon is hired by the Time Institute to investigate an odd bit of lore: the violin music and roaring that keeps popping up randomly. This premise sounds strange, but eventually... it really gets into you.
Mal Goes to War by Edward Ashton - ⭐⭐⭐⭐★
The humans have gone to war again, and Mal, a free artificial intelligence, decides to hijack a cyborg's system and search the battlefields for salvage... just as the internet network is cut off, leaving him stranded. Now he must help an odd young woman find safety while protecting himself long enough to get back into the internet.
Somewhere Beyond the Sea (Cerulean Chronicles, #2) by T.J. Klune - ⭐⭐⭐⭐★
This sequel brings us back to Marsyas Island and Arthur and Linus and their charges, which allows us to learn more of Arthur's background even as they fight off a threat to their newfound family... a villain who's decided modeled after that horrible twat, JK Rowling. This was really sweet to read.
A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
A young 14 year old girl, who's minor magic lies in baking bread with her familiar, her sourdough starter, finds herself charged with helping to save the city after she gets drawn into things when she finds the body of a young woman in her family's bakery. I expected this to be a novella and instead got a very meaty (and very delicious) YA fantasy novel.
All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries #1) by Martha Wells - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
This is probably the best series I've read in the past 10 years. (Four novellas, then three novels so far.) Murderbot is a self-aware SecUnit cyborg, having hacked its own governing control chip, just so it can watch its serials.
“I could have become a mass murderer after I hacked my governor module, but then I realized I could access the combined feed of entertainment channels carried on the company satellites. It had been well over 35,000 hours or so since then, with still not much murdering, but probably, I don't know, a little under 35,000 hours of movies, serials, books, plays, and music consumed. As a heartless killing machine, I was a terrible failure.”
But Murderbot also has a mission to protect it's clients whether it cares or not... and it really doesn't care, until it does begin to care for some of its clients on a remote planet, after a neighboring installation goes quiet. "I liked the imaginary people on the entertainment feed way more than I liked real ones, but you can’t have one without the other.” And so it gets drawn into becoming something it doesn't want: part of the team.
Five disappointing reads (that just didn't work):
Cubs & Campfires (Sweet & Stocky #1) by Dylan Drakes - ⭐⭐⭐⭐★ — flat characters
His Majesty's Dragon (Temeraire #1) by Naomi Novik - ⭐⭐⭐★★ — too many unrelated details
Red Rising (Red Rising Saga, #1) by Pierce Brown - ⭐⭐⭐★★ — boring Hunger Games rip off.
The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez - ⭐⭐⭐★★ — the prose, everything!
Atlas Alone (Planetfall #4) by Emma Newman - ⭐⭐⭐★★ — tense, but blew the landing
Five Crap Books (DNF = Did Not Finish)
The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport by Samit Basu — DNF at 34%
The concept of a future cyberpunkesque retelling of Aladdin interested me idea... Nothing worked. I kept thinking "what am I reading?"
Heir to Thorn and Flame (Court of Broken Bonds #1) by Ben Alderson — DNF at 16%
Surprised at how bad this was, given how many people keep recommending it.
Ringworld by Larry Niven
Look, we all know Niven is super conservative, racist, misogynist POS in real life, and that clearly shows here. But he's also a shitty writer.
How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying (Dark Lord Davi #1) by Django Wexler — DNF'ed at 54%
This reads like the author (a man) tried to write a basic Groundhoug Day meets Dungeons and Dragons spec novel, realized it was boring AF, rewrote the main character as a woman... but left everything else. No bueno.
2024's biggest disappointment for me:
The Road to Roswell by Connie Willis — ⭐⭐★★★
This was a huge disappointment for me, like her last few novels (Blackout, All Clear, Crosstalk) have been. Same premises: annoyingly contrived chaos causes confusion for shallow characters to suffer (and miscommunicate) during 400+ pages of endless dialogue (in this case, UFOs, conspiracy theories, and secrets.) Do not recommend.
How the fuck did that asshole win?
- Current Mood:
infuriated
At night, I play a little game with time. When I wake up for whatever reason, before I open my eyes, I try to guess what time it is. Like this morning, I woke up needing to pee, but I thought "It feels like 3am." It was 2:55am. Or if I wake up before my alarm, I think "I think it's about 4:15." Or "I believe it's only midnight." Oddly, I'm usually pretty close to my guesses.
Does anybody else do this?
Year 2023 reading stats: 287 books, 58980 pages.
Top 12 favorites (plus 2 alternates) in no order
Sorry, LJ cut doesn't seem to be working accurately? — <lj-cut>
They Told Me I Was Everything (The First Quarto), by Gregory Ashe
Mystery, LGBTQIA+
Auggie is a new 18 year old freshman at Wroxham College in remote Missouri. He's also a social media darling, one of the first wave of influencers in the year 2013. Over the past few months he's been grappling with the realization he's gay, which is antithesis to his very heterosexual Beaver Cleaver persona. Also, he's secretly prone to smoking, drinking, and driving a little too recklessly... until a car accident puts end to that. Meanwhile, 29 year old Theo, a grad student at Wroxham, has had a really bad year. Four months ago his family was in a car accident. His husband Ian was killed, and their daughter Lana was left with injuries she will never recover from requiring round the clock permanent care. Theo now has a bum leg that requires him to walk with the assistance of a cane.
Theo and Auggie meet most inauspiciously the night before classes begin. While is Auggie pledging to a fraternity, he gets a little drunk, and meets another guy who encourages him to get wild and steal a car. Auggie drives erratically and nearly hits Theo, who is walking in a drunk haze on the side of the highway. The other guy completely disappears... so Auggie and Theo agree to blame That Guy for driving recklessly, part ways, and forget everything. Which works great until Auggie shows up for his King Lear literature class and discovers that the hot, bearded bear teaching is Theo.
Then they are both tagged in a video claiming that That Guy was murdered. But they know he was alive after that car accident. Then people show up at Auggie's dorm and Theo's home demanding answers: where is That Guy or whatever "it" was that he had. This first volume of the series has Theo and Auggie working together to figure out what, exactly, is going on and how they're involved.
The Last Sun (Book 1 of the Tarot Sequence), by K.D. Edwards
Urban Fantasy, LGBTQIA+
This refreshingly queer series was recommended multiple times on BookTok. One reviewer kept claiming it was a queer YA fantasy (I suspect he never read the books but was pushing it for clout.) It is NOT YA but read with some caveats.
Twenty years ago the entire Sun court was mysteriously and violently wiped out as Rune went through horrifyingly vicious attack by a group of masked men. Today, with his (non-sexual) partner Brand, his magically bonded for life Companion-slash-bodyguard, Rune operates quietly as a magic user for hire, nominally employed by their former guardian, the most powerful man on the island, the Lord of Tower. Only trouble keeps finding Rune, and now he's forced to become guardian to a wayward seventeen year old, the last of another wiped out court, and he has to find the kidnapped youngest son of another court.
Start with the Last Sun if you plan to read the series. Highly recommended.
This was probably my favorite read of 2023.
Nettle & Bone, by T. Kingfisher
Fantasy
In a distant land there's a seaside city-state ruled by a King and Queen with three daughters. At age 20, Princess Damia, the eldest, is sent to the Northern Kingdom to marry the Crown Prince Vorling, and the youngest, Princess Marra, is sent to a convent. Within six months, Damia is dead and buried by her parents. Then Vorling demands the middle princess, Kania for his new replacement bride. When Marra visits Kania in the Kingdom's castle for her firstborn niece's christening, and she quickly realizes something is terribly wrong. She's determined to set things right, but doesn't know how yet.
Years later, this leads her to the dust-wife, someone who speaks with the dead and has a chicken with a demon inside of it. Marra is set three impossible tasks; weave a cloak out of nettle, bring a dog made of bones back to life, and catch the moon in a jar... Then the dust-wife will help her figure out how to kill the evil prince.
The Ten Thousand Doors of January, by Alix E. Harrow
Fantasy, LGBTQIA+
Deep in Vermont is a large mansion filled with all kinds of unique objects, curious things, and a lonely girl named January Scaller. She's unusual not just because her mother is dead or her father is traveling across the globe searching for things his employer wants, but because she's described as the red-brown color between hot coals and cinnamon, with wild frizzy hair and a serious attitude.
Her guardian, Mr Locke, arranges for her education, her clothing, even her nursemaids, but deliberately limits her access to other children or books. Naturally, January is deeply interested in the ideas of escape, and Doors that lead to otherworlds, after seeing one as a child. When her father comes home so infrequently, he rarely says anything to her. They're not close.
As she turns 18, she's told terrible news: her father has died. Mr Locke assures her, she need not worry, he will keep protecting her, if she joins his archeological group in place of her father. But January ferociously and publicly rejects him, them, and all of it. Then she runs away and begins to find out just exactly what kind of people that has her in their clutches... and how far they'll go to get her back.
The Library of the Dead (Book 1 of Edinburgh Nights), by T.L. Huchu
Urban Fantasy, LGBTQIA+
In the late 21st century, after years of worldwide climate change, political turmoil, and social unrest, life is nearly a dystopian nightmare. Belfast is gone. The government of Scotland is gone, after their failed rebellion was wiped out by the forces of the King of England. London rules with a very heavy-handed iron fist. Food and supplies are scarce, and wild animals have largely disappeared from nature. And, oh yeah, turns out that ghosts are real and have unresolved needs.
14 year old Ropa is a ghostalker, someone who can communicate with the dead and will pass on messages....for a fee of course. She has dropped out of school to earn a living to pay rent on the plot of land that her family's small caravan is parked on. Her nearly blind Gran knits for medicine money and is reknowed for her magical skill that she tries to pass on, her young sister Izwi is barely in grade school, and their parents are gone. One night, Ropa is approached by the shade of young mother Nicola, who asks for help finding her missing son. At first Ropa curtly says no, she doesn't do freebies. But then Gran convinces her to help Niola. So she sets out on a series of forays into the crumbling Edinburgh neighborhoods to investigate a series of missing children, makes new friends, stumbles upon a secret society (the titular Library,) has a few narrow escapes, and uncovers a horrible plot.
After I finished this I realized there are two more books in the series which I haven't picked up (yet.)
In The Lives of Puppets, by T.J. Klune
Fantasy, Science Fiction, LGBTQIA+
Hundreds (or thousands) of years in the future, in the remote wild woods of what used to be Oregon, a lonely cyborg Giovanni Lawson, raises a human boy. Over the years that boy, Victor, rescues, repairs, and repairs three robot friends. Rambo, a vacuum with the attention span and friendliness of a golden retriever. Nurse Rarched, a sociopathic medical bot whose sarcasm may drill you. For real. And last is Hap, an amnesiac humanoid robot who gets a replacement battery/heart that somehow calms anger and violence caused by the secrets the Hysterically Angry Puppet carries. Hap also has a shared past with Gio that surfaces as a trio of strangers from the distant Land of Electric Dreams arrive. While Hap hides with Victor, this mysterious trio set the family's home on fire before they drag Gio back to where they came from "for rehabilitation." Eerily, they resemble Hap.
In the vein of Pinochio, Wall-E, The Wizard of Oz, and other films, Victor and his friends set off to rescue Gio. But what they find may not be the answers any of them like. I had been looking forward to reading this book since last year when I read it would be almost a Disney pastiche, and it was well worth the wait. T.J. Klune has been earning well-deserved raves for his recent books, including The House in the Cerulean Sea (one of my personal favorites and getting a sequel in 2024) and Under the Whispering Door.
Translation State, by Ann Leckie
Science Fiction, LGBTQIA+
Ann Leckie returns with a stand alone story, her fifth in the Imperial Radch universe, and this features three challenging different POVs of three very different people drawn together to avert a catastrophe
Enae was a caregiver for decades to eir grandmama, only to discover e was disinherited when she passes. To get eir out of the house, the actual inheritor sets Enae up with a cushy ambassadorial job that promptly sends eir off on a wild goose chase, to find a Presger translator, gone missing 200 years ago. What nobody expects is that Enae actually follows through on the challenge.
Reet, found as an abandoned baby and growing up with a loving adoptive family, knows he doesn't fit in on a distant moon. He escapes to a nearly space station and works a series of low paying jobs that keeps him in supply of dumplings and watching soap operas. One day a local group approaches him and claims he's the descended of a long-lost fascist family/leader. Reet is naturally curious about it. What he doesn't expect is how likable he finds Enae as e arrives on er quest.
And somewhere else, Qven, growing up in a cannibalistic alien nursery, uncovers some unpleasant truths about their existence, their own personhood, and struggles to find the courage and the means to rebel against the expectations of their future Presger translator. When they meet up with Reet and Enae, suddenly they see a chance for change... but someone else wants other things.
Untethered Sky, by Fonda Lee
High Fantasy, Novella
Ester was 13 when a rogue manticore killed her young brother, her mother, and the rest of her household in front of her. Her father had nothing to say, nothing left for her except silence. Her anger and desire for revenge on all manticores leads her to the High King's Royal Mews as an apprentice ruhker, in the hopes to become paired with a giant roc, the only natural enemy of manticores.
Over the years, Ester trains with the fledgling giant roc Zahra, and slowly develops friendships with Nasmin and Darius, two older, more experienced ruhkers. When disaster strikes, it comes without warning, without omen, and changes everything.
Time Was, by Ian McDonald
Science Fiction, LGBTQIA+
Time Was is a shorter story, a bit longer than a novella. It was pretty good, but suffers from being not exactly what it is/was marketed as. It would be better to go into reading this without any foreknowledge of the plot. But... if you want:
There are really three stories going on here. The first two are the story of Tom and Ben, a pair of British WWII lovers cast adrift in time by a science experiment gone horribly wrong. They're searching for each other using coded letters hidden in copies of a mysterious book of poetry, Time Was.
The other involves Emmett, a bookseller, who stumbles one of their letters, and becomes obsessed with solving their mystery. The stories of these three men are slowly and inexorably looping together through time.
The Song of Achilles, by Madeline Miller
Fantasy, LGBTQIA+, Romance
The narrator in this is Patroclus, a minor name in Homer's Iliad. Born of a simple mother and a brutish father, he's a shy prince who is something of an embarrassment to the king. At age 10, Patroclus accidentally kills a bully, so his father happily exiles him to foster in the kingdom of Peleus, father to Achilles. Patroclus quickly develops a crush on Achilles, who nurtures their friendship and names the new arrival as his best friend. They spend almost all their time together, through schooling and training, and eventually they fall in reciprocal love.
Then they get drafted to go to fight at Troy... and their adventures begin.
A Deadly Education (Book 1 of The Scholomance), by Naomi Novik
Fantasy, Horror
Imagine a world where the mundanes don't know magic exists, where magic draws attacks from nasty beasts (particularly for teenagers), where magic users form enclaves to protect themselves from those wild roaming beasts. About a hundred years ago, a group of powerful magic users built the Scholomance, a school within a pocket universe, to teach their children their skills to survive the world. Hogwarts, it ain't. There are no adults. Food is... not good mostly. There are no days off. From the first day they arrive, the students are enrolled until graduation day, four years later. The nasties regularly invade the school to attack and eat the kids. And the seniors graduation day is a real killer.
This was a grim dark anti-Harry Potter coming of age story. Galadriel, or El, as she prefers, is an outsider in many ways. Her father gave his life to save her mother (and unknowingly, El). She grew up knowing most people didn't like her. She was rejected by her father's family, and her mother's commune wants her gone. Once enrolled in the Scholomance, El's dislike of the entitled, wealthy enclave students is very obvious, and they don't care for her either. Three weeks before the end of their junior year, Orion Lake (the Cedric Diggory of this tale) has saved her life yet again, and she's murderously resentful over it. She wants to kill him. Yet somehow, she resist that and gets drawn into a friendship, then an alliance that ultimately saves the rest of school.
This was probably my second favorite read of the year.
Starter Villain, by John Scalzi
Science Fiction, Comedy
If you've ever read John Scalzi, you know he's almost always a fun read, from last year's hysterically amusing Kaiju Preservation Society, to his very pointed Redshirts novel, or even his Old Man's War series. This year comes a new stand alone, Starter Villain. Just look at that cover. Anyway, onto my review:
Charlie's sweet but kind of a loser. He's divorced, his father passed a few years ago, his half-siblings barely talk to him, and he's not-quite-surviving on what he makes as a substitute teacher. One morning he learns from the news that his distant Uncle Jake passes. Jake was an aloof billionaire uncle he hasn't seen since he was 5. Charlie shrugs and continues to the bank to secure a loan to buy his dream, a nearby pub/restaraunt for sale. That doesn't go well. He comes home to find a very well dressed woman sitting on his porch swing. Turns out she was The Assistant to his Uncle Jake and she informs Charlie that Jake wanted him to do a favor: attend his funeral and accept the sympathies of others who attend. In exchange, the estate will arrange for his financial circumstances to improve. Seems like a no-brainer, right?
Except its not, and comes with murderous thugs who stab dead men, his home being blown up, a mad dash to a volcanic lair, sentient cats who rule and dolphins who want to unionize, and a cabal of evil businessmen that wants to ruin things for the world.
This was my third favorite read of 2023.
We Shall Sing a Song Into The Deep, by Andrew Kelly Stewart
Science Fiction, Alternate History, Dystopian, Novella,
I didn't write a review for this one (weird?) so I'm copying the blurb:
Remy is a Chorister, one of the chosen few rescued from the surface world and raised to sing the Hours in a choir of young boys. Remy lives with a devoted order of monks who control the Leviathan, an aging nuclear submarine that survives in the ocean’s depths. Their secret mission: to trigger the Second Coming when the time is right, ready to unleash its final, terrible weapon. But Remy has a secret too— she’s the only girl onboard. It is because of this secret that the sub’s dying caplain gifts her with the missile’s launch key, saying that it is her duty to keep it safe. Safety, however, is not the sub’s priority, especially when the new caplain has his own ideas about the Leviathan’s mission. Remy’s own perspective is about to shift drastically when a surface-dweller is captured during a raid, and she learns the truth about the world.
Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang, by Kate Wilheim
Science Fiction, Post-Apocalyptic
This story begins with the fall of humanity in the near-future. Plagues, famine, viral outbreaks, war, infertility, and nuclear attacks are taking their toll on the population, starting slowly but rapidly accelerating. David Sumner comes home from his studies in Biology to news from the elder generation in his family: The world is ending and he's been selected by his grandfather to help preserve what they can. The first 25% of this covers the apocalypse and through the few years after, including his own desperate race to solve the problems of cloning. Turns out while they can't reproduce sexually, they can clone for a couple generations, but after the fourth generation things go badly. Very badly. They figure they have time to fix the problems, so they continue on with their plan to save humanity. But at what cost?
The rest of the book subsequently focuses on a different character and clone (David, Molly, Barry, Mark) that draws out some of the problems the clones face- individuality, reproduction, mental health, separation anxiety, disconnection to the outer world and trying to explore it at the same time, and the increasingly severe climate changes. In fact there's a lot going on here- at times it reminded me of the damned patriarchy in Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale.
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So what were YOUR favorite reads in 2023?
I think we all have had a mild crush on Christopher Plummer at some point.
Who couldn't resist those dreamy blue eyes? I personally prefer a man with a beard. But with some time travel.... well, Plummer coulda gotten some, if you know what I mean.
Thank you sir, and good night Captain.
chasethestars